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California Woman Sprung from Mexican Jail; Google Adds Libraries to Database
Aired December 14, 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 to the CNN center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new his hour.
A California woman goes free after a year-and-a-half in a Mexican prison. She said that the ordeal was not worth the money she was trying to save on prescription drugs.
O'BRIEN: And your local library could soon be a click away. A major online search engine - that would be Google - gets ready to hit the books, but first here's what's happening "Now in the News."
PHILLIPS: Facing justice, Iraq's interim prime minister says war crimes trials will begin next week for former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. The former Iraqi leader and 11 of his aides are awaiting trial, and it's not clear who's among them Allawi was referring to.
A high-level arrest in Afghanistan, a security chief for Taliban leader Mullah Omar and another senior Taliban military commander were arrested in Kandahar City. Mullah Omar is still at large. He vanished in 2001 as his government fell to U.S. forces.
President Bush salutes three Americans who were central to his policies in Iraq. He awarded presidential Medals of Freedom to former Iraqi administrator, Paul Bremer, retired General Tommy Franks and former CIA chief, George Tenet. The president says that he played "pivotal roles in great events."
O'BRIEN: And red hot search engine Google, flushed with cash after that IPO, is about to raid a bunch of libraries, so to speak, and actually, perhaps, make those libraries, in some sense, a thing of the past. Google is working on a deal to make a bunch of libraries accessible via the search engine. And our tech guru himself, Daniel Sieberg, is here to tell us about this exciting news.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Miles, do you remember the Dewey Decimal System?
O'BRIEN: Yes. As a matter of fact, we have the Dewey Decimal System...
SIEBERG: We were watching nostalgic over this earlier. O'BRIEN: Yes. We have actually a shot we wanted to share with you. If you put up the other computer, SB102, we have a shot - we found this on eBay. Do you remember these? SB102, can you guys put that up?
PHILLIPS: Here it is.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we're working on it right now.
SIEBERG: I have no control over this.
O'BRIEN: There it is. On eBay for $219.99, you can get an old card catalog.
SIEBERG: A card catalog, right.
O'BRIEN: Now, imagine a billion of these linked together by silicon and you have the idea.
SIEBERG: Right. And then they'll sort through it rather than you having to do that.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Explain it.
SIEBERG: All right. Well, given that Google has already indexed more than 8 billion web pages, it's hard to imagine there's anything left out there. And now that Google has gone public, they're certainly trying to stay ahead of other search engines, like Yahoo!, MSN and others, so how about adding libraries?
Today's announcement means that, one day, you'll be able to search through five major libraries, Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library, without ever leaving your computer. Each institution, as you can see there, is contributing a different level of material, some waiting to see how this whole pilot project goes.
It's certainly not going to happen overnight. The process involves turning books into digital files by scanning every single page. Now, that would likely involve a machine like this one from Curtis (ph), using a vacuum arm to gently turn the pages. But Google is using its own in-house scanner and wouldn't elaborate on it. The information is scanned in at a high resolution and saved for later.
This video here is some we shot at Emory University in Atlanta. Their digitizing books using a more traditional scanner, one you might use for photos and that kind of thing. They also have a rather high optical scanner, you can see here, using a camera over top of the books. They're putting it in a position there, and it works in much the same way.
Emory sees it as a great way - and other universities, too, see it as a great way for scholars around the world to view the material online, in Emory's case, without having to travel to Atlanta.
And with millions of books, don't turn in your library card just yet. Here's a quick illustration of how long it might take for Google's people, using Michigan as an example. About 7 million volumes, 132 miles of books and an average of 1,000, 1,200 pages per hour - yes, they're thinking about six years for this project, just for Michigan. So you can see it's at least a few years away from completion.
O'BRIEN: But a very exciting prospect. And, just quickly - we don't have much time.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Copyrights, are we going to be able to protect them somehow?
SIEBERG: Google says they can protect the copyright because information that is copyrighted in books will only be available on a limited basis, say a snippet of the information. Then they'll ask you to pay for the book or to buy it later. If the copyright has expired, then they will put the entire work up there. So that's how they're going to protect the copyright.
O'BRIEN: Dan Sieberg, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
SIEBERG: All right, you bet.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: The jury recommendation of death for Scott Peterson comes at a time when the use of the death penalty in the U.S. is declining. Gallup Poll editor-in-chief, Frank Newport, is with us from Princeton, New Jersey.
Is the jury's recommendation of the death penalty for Scott Peterson a sentence Americans are comfortable with, Frank?
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE GALLUP POLL: I think so, Kyra. A majority generally support the death penalty. Although I'm going to show you now some context here, it depends on what's going on with the particular situation.
Here's the question on top that we've been asking at Gallup since The Depression, just basically, do you favor or oppose the death penalty in cases of murder. Our latest update, just a month or two ago, 64 percent of Americans say yes.
However, here's the question that a lot of death penalty opponents like to point to. That is explicitly saying death penalty or guaranteed life in prison with no chance of parole, and then support drops to 50 percent, and almost as many support life without chance of parole.
But, on the other hand, if there's a particularly heinous crime - I went back to 2001, Kyra, and found the Timothy McVeigh case, the Oklahoma City Bomber, 78 percent of Americans, including some that ordinarily didn't favor the death penalty, favored it in that situation. So you can see it does vary somewhat, but generally, a majority of Americans, still to this day, favor its use.
PHILLIPS: All right, turning to the economy, the Fed is raising interest rates. Retailers are anxious about holiday spending. Any signs of new consumer confidence?
NEWPORT: Well, a glimmer of hope here. Basically, when we basically say, is the U.S. economy in general getting better, getting worse, not a lot of change there. Look on the right-hand side for month to month; 47 percent on the right say it's getting better; 42 percent say it's getting worse, not much change from last month, not great numbers.
But here's the key. We asked people, how much are you going to spend on Christmas gifts? I think we reported here on CNN last month in November that the number was 730, which was kind of blah. Now we've re-asked it, and Americans upped the anti. They're now saying they're going to spend $862, and that's a bigger increase than we usually see as Christmas gets near. So at least it suggests the potential, Kyra, that it may be a little more robust retail season than a lot of observers are anticipating.
PHILLIPS: Now, Frank, yesterday, the Electoral College made President Bush's reelection official. How is he standing with the public?
NEWPORT: Fifty-three percent, that's Bush's job approval rating now, our last early December poll here at Gallup. How does that stack up against other presidents who've been reelected in December, just after they got reelected? Well, it's not as good.
Clinton, in '96, had a 58. Both Reagan and Nixon, in '84 and '72, respectively, had 59s. Johnson, when he was reelected in '64, even higher, and Ike, back in 1956, even higher still, so that 53, a little above average, the 50 percent mark, but not a great number for Bush at this point.
PHILLIPS: All right, Senator John McCain is still getting headlines for his threat to take actions if baseball players and owners can't come up with a tougher steroid testing plan. Do you think the public will go along with that?
NEWPORT: Well, I think the baseball fans would; 86 percent say baseball should clean up its own act and do a tougher drug policy. That's what we've listed on top here.
But look below. If players and the managers and the owners don't agree to a tougher policy, 59 percent of fans say they would support new laws, like Senator McCain has advocated, to test more stringently for steroids. So there's really some pressure from fans to do something - Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Frank Newport, thank you so much.
Well, a California woman is enjoying her freedom after a nightmarish arrest landed her in a Mexican prison. Eighteen months came and went until her boyfriend and a Congressman were able to secure her freedom. The woman was freed Friday and is now telling her harrowing story.
Here's reporter Aimee Fuller from CNN affiliate KUSI.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAWN MARIE WILSON, U.S. CITIZEN HELD IN MEXICAN PRISON: Just smelling a flower is fantastic, and we went and smelled the ocean last night.
AIMEE FULLER, KUSI REPORTER (voice-over): It was a day that was a long time coming. Dawn Marie Wilson home at last, telling her story.
WILSON: It was really nasty. It was lots of drugs, lots of prostitution, no sanitation, no flush toilets, no showers, no running water, cockroaches.
TERRY KENNEDY, WILSON'S FIANCE: Imagine somebody you care about being kidnapped. I thought I was a pretty tough guy.
FULLER: It's a story that began in April of 2003, Dawn Marie Wilson and her fiance, Terry, spending time on their houseboat off Baja, Wilson running errands in Ensenada. She heard a whistle, but thought it was just cat calls.
WILSON: I didn't think anything of it, but before I knew it, I was surrounded by police, and they had taken my purse and my backpack, because I had spent the night with some friends, and they - that's when the nightmare started.
FULLER: The excuse for arresting her, not having a prescription for anti-seizure medication. So began the worst days of Wilson's life, spent in a Mexican prison with no medication for those seizures.
(on camera): But then fiance Terry struck up a relationship with Congressman Bob Filner. They mounted a relentless campaign to get the U.S. government involved, let the media know what was going on, and even mounted a FreeDawn Web site.
(voice-over): But finally, Terry learned there was such a thing as a prisoner exchange program.
REP. BOB FILNER (D) CALIFORNIA: There is this meeting between U.S. and Mexico that allows for a prisoner exchange, and they were vital in making sure she got on this and then getting her quick release, because she had served more time than the American law would have required.
FULLER: Dawn was transferred then to an Oklahoma federal prison and stayed for three months because of red tape. That's until last Friday, when she and Terry were reunited at last. She found out she was getting out...
WILSON: Twenty minutes before they let me out the door.
FULLER: Now, Wilson wants to make sure you know something like this could happen to anyone. WILSON: It's not worth the price that you save to buy medication in foreign countries.
FULLER: And Congressman Filner has said shakedowns from Mexican police are becoming more common. But for Dawn, the nightmare is over.
Aimee Fuller, KUSI News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, some veterans coming home is even harder than their service in Iraq. Fifty veterans from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" are now homeless, at least that we know. Why? Well, we'll talk with the investigative reporter who broke the story and one of the vets he met when LIVE FROM continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Luis Arellano has been a gunner's mate in the U.S. Navy for 16 years. He has a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, a master's degree in human resources. He speaks three languages, and he served his country in three wars. But there's one thing that just doesn't make sense in this petty officer's life and career: 34-year- old Luis Arellano is homeless. So how did this happen?
UPI investigative reporter Mark Benjamin has been looking into the numbers of homeless veterans, most recently Iraq, and that's how he met Luis. Mark is in Washington, D.C. Luis joins us from our L.A. bureau.
Gentlemen, it's great to have you both here.
MARK BENJAMIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, UPI: Thank you for having me.
LUIS ARELLANO, U.S. NAVY RESERVIST: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Luis, let's start with you. You're living in a shelter on March Air Force Base, which I find is very interesting. I know you are actively looking for a job. You were in Iraq. You got injured. You got shrapnel in your left hand. You had to come home. Tell me what happened from there, how you ended up in this situation.
ARELLANO: Well, upon coming back from Iraq, I had to seek medical attention. It was a brief segment that they had us coming in and seeing doctors. At that point, we had to sign a waiver saying that the medical facilities were going to be given to us at a later time at the V.A. hospital, and at that time, we had to follow up to seek that medical attention.
PHILLIPS: So, Mark, tell me about the numbers. Out of all the homeless shelters, how many individuals are homeless vets, and how many are from "Operation Iraqi Freedom?"
BENJAMIN: We don't know for sure, Kyra. There's no census for homeless veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs told me they found 50 veterans from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" that are homeless. I found almost 10 in homeless shelters.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So, Luis, your family - I think a lot of people would ask, what about your wife, what about your mom, what about your dad? Wasn't there anyone for you to come home to? And did you have anything to come home to before you left to Iraq?
ARELLANO: Well, at that point, I would say that I came back - I went through a divorce, and it was hard for me to work those issues out, due to the fact that I was just coming back from Iraq.
From a different angle, trying to go back and ask family was even harder because you know, they - they're dealing with a situation, more or less, of me being divorced and then now coming back and dealing with other issues from a medical standpoint. You feel that you've grown up all this time to take care of your own, and you don't want to give these people their problems, and I'm trying to seek out for my own resolution, trying to fix it. And to this point, I'm still trying to do that.
PHILLIPS: Well, I want to talk to you both about this, and that's post traumatic stress. A lot of vets come back and suffer with a lot of mental trauma, and I want to ask you about that, Luis. But, Mark, what did you find into your investigation? Do most of these guys that come back, sometimes it's too much to handle?
BENJAMIN: Yes, and what we've found is this is one of the big, big concerns among homeless veterans advocates. There is a link between mental trauma from war or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and becoming homeless. In fact, 75 percent of all the homeless veterans on the streets today, from any war, suffer some kind of mental problem.
We also know that the rate of mental trauma among soldiers returning from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is very, very high.
PHILLIPS: Now, Luis, you and I have talked a lot. I know you're a smart guy. I even know the admiral that you served under. I know you're working hard to get another job. Tell me, mentally, are you doing OK? Are you having a hard time? Do you think this plays a part in just trying to get your life together and figure out what to do?
ARELLANO: Well, yes. I've - coming from war and what not and trying to get back myself back on my own feet, it's been hard. I've been applying for different positions, and usually I get something back to the fact that, you know, this person with this type of caliber won't last here. He'll go somewhere else. Or I just don't qualify because of the background that I have.
Right now, the only means of me to get by is I'm still in the Reserves, and I take whatever they can give me, as far as Reserve schools, any type of other training. I use that to benefit me in order to support myself.
PHILLIPS: Well, I've got to ask you, Mark, I mean as an investigative reporter, who's responsible here? People like Luis who are trying to get a job, who are educated, who served their country more than once, shouldn't be in this situation. BENJAMIN: Well, one of the things that probably should happen, with respect to soldiers coming back from war, is that the Pentagon should work harder to address some of the mental issues that these soldiers are struggling with, and it certainly would be great if the Department of Veterans Affairs would as well.
Among the soldiers that the Department of Veterans Affairs is seeing from "Operation Iraqi Freedom," one in five is diagnosed with serious mental trauma from war. So we certainly have a trend here that is very troubling.
PHILLIPS: Luis, your roommate in the shelter is a 57-year-old Vietnam vet. What does he say to you? Do you guys talk about this?
ARELLANO: Oh, yes. We share a lot of conversations, and he - we talk I guess is the best way to do - we can vent. But he's been through this before. He's also homeless, but a very well educated man. He's been around.
So what his best advice he can do is just to keep on trucking, and hopefully I can land something really hard and get my life back together again.
PHILLIPS: Is there anybody - is there any entity, any person, any part of the military that you wish you just would have received something more? Are you blaming anybody?
ARELLANO: Well, actually, I love the Navy. I'm Joe Navy, and the Reserve Center has been the most - Sacramento and the Reserve Center at Port Hueneme have been the most supportive Reserve Centers that I've come across. And, you know, if I could do it all over again, I wish I would have stayed a little bit longer to see if I could get some help or assistance, to see if there was that depression, to see if there was a - if my divorce could have been a little bit more smoothing, as far as exiting out from a military perspective into a civilian side.
So, you know, sometimes the active side doesn't take care of their own, but the Reserve Center, they're there to catch those who need help, and they're caught in the middle. And I just wish the active side could support the Reserve Centers a little bit more. I mean they call us when it comes to war, and we go out there and do our jobs, but when we come back out, they just say thank you and that's it.
And the Reserve Center says, well, if you need us, we're there to support you, but there's so many of us, and they don't have the capacity to take care of everybody's needs. And you've just got to be persistent like I have, and, like I said, the Reserve Center there from Sacramento and especially Port Hueneme have been outstanding, have been excellent to me.
PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to be following your progress. Luis Arellano, we sure thank you for what you've gone for our country, and you're a strong man. We admire that.
ARELLANO: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: UPI investigative reporter Mark Benjamin, a great piece that you did, Mark. I'm glad that you did the story, and we'll catch up with both of you. Thank you.
BENJAMIN: thank you.
ARELLANO: Thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: The Fed has spoken, interest rates on the rise, so is the market. We'll give you a full update on that. And are you looking for a job? We're going to tell you just where to find one. Stay with us for more LIVE FROM, from CNN Center B Control in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, just a few - you want to go.
PHILLIPS: No, that's OK. Go ahead.
O'BRIEN: Just a few moments ago, the Fed hiked interest rates for the fifth time this year.
PHILLIPS: Rhonda Schaffler is standing by at the New York Stock Exchange from - for the market reaction.
Hi, Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra and Miles.
O'BRIEN: It's your turn now, OK? Miles to Kyra to Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: That's very nice. You know, as far as this Fed move goes, this took nobody by surprise. And because of that, you're not seeing any great reaction on Wall Street. Stocks just bumping up a bit after that Fed decision to raise key short-term interest rate by another quarter point. Dow industrials are up 27 points, Nasdaq almost half a percent higher.
The Fed statement accompanying the decision virtually identical to last month's statement, and that means we should look for the Fed to continue hiking rates gradually through the early part of next year - Kyra, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, a new survey shows an upbeat hiring outlook for the year.
PHILLIPS: What's it looking like, Rhonda?
SCHAFFLER: That's right. If you're in the market for a new job, are you in luck. Employers are bringing in the new year with some optimism. According to staffing firm Manpower, about a quarter of surveyed companies expect to have more openings in the first three months of 2005, and that is decidedly more upbeat than they were at the beginning of this year. The survey says employers are gradually regaining confidence and slowly and steadily adding to their workforces. By sector, the construction businesses should see a notable pickup in first quarter hiring, along with finance, which also includes insurance and real estate. And by region, the South should have the best hiring climate, while job prospects in the Northeast still lag behind a bit. That's it from Wall Street now.
Kyra, Miles, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rhonda. More CNN LIVE FROM still ahead. We may learn an important Homeland Security lesson from Japan. We're going to have that story.
O'BRIEN: NASA's outgoing chief - first interview, where is it going to be? Right here on LIVE FROM, this correspondent. We'll talk about NASA's future, as well as his own, when LIVE FROM continues.
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 December 14, 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 to the CNN center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new his hour.
A California woman goes free after a year-and-a-half in a Mexican prison. She said that the ordeal was not worth the money she was trying to save on prescription drugs.
O'BRIEN: And your local library could soon be a click away. A major online search engine - that would be Google - gets ready to hit the books, but first here's what's happening "Now in the News."
PHILLIPS: Facing justice, Iraq's interim prime minister says war crimes trials will begin next week for former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. The former Iraqi leader and 11 of his aides are awaiting trial, and it's not clear who's among them Allawi was referring to.
A high-level arrest in Afghanistan, a security chief for Taliban leader Mullah Omar and another senior Taliban military commander were arrested in Kandahar City. Mullah Omar is still at large. He vanished in 2001 as his government fell to U.S. forces.
President Bush salutes three Americans who were central to his policies in Iraq. He awarded presidential Medals of Freedom to former Iraqi administrator, Paul Bremer, retired General Tommy Franks and former CIA chief, George Tenet. The president says that he played "pivotal roles in great events."
O'BRIEN: And red hot search engine Google, flushed with cash after that IPO, is about to raid a bunch of libraries, so to speak, and actually, perhaps, make those libraries, in some sense, a thing of the past. Google is working on a deal to make a bunch of libraries accessible via the search engine. And our tech guru himself, Daniel Sieberg, is here to tell us about this exciting news.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Miles, do you remember the Dewey Decimal System?
O'BRIEN: Yes. As a matter of fact, we have the Dewey Decimal System...
SIEBERG: We were watching nostalgic over this earlier. O'BRIEN: Yes. We have actually a shot we wanted to share with you. If you put up the other computer, SB102, we have a shot - we found this on eBay. Do you remember these? SB102, can you guys put that up?
PHILLIPS: Here it is.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we're working on it right now.
SIEBERG: I have no control over this.
O'BRIEN: There it is. On eBay for $219.99, you can get an old card catalog.
SIEBERG: A card catalog, right.
O'BRIEN: Now, imagine a billion of these linked together by silicon and you have the idea.
SIEBERG: Right. And then they'll sort through it rather than you having to do that.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Explain it.
SIEBERG: All right. Well, given that Google has already indexed more than 8 billion web pages, it's hard to imagine there's anything left out there. And now that Google has gone public, they're certainly trying to stay ahead of other search engines, like Yahoo!, MSN and others, so how about adding libraries?
Today's announcement means that, one day, you'll be able to search through five major libraries, Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library, without ever leaving your computer. Each institution, as you can see there, is contributing a different level of material, some waiting to see how this whole pilot project goes.
It's certainly not going to happen overnight. The process involves turning books into digital files by scanning every single page. Now, that would likely involve a machine like this one from Curtis (ph), using a vacuum arm to gently turn the pages. But Google is using its own in-house scanner and wouldn't elaborate on it. The information is scanned in at a high resolution and saved for later.
This video here is some we shot at Emory University in Atlanta. Their digitizing books using a more traditional scanner, one you might use for photos and that kind of thing. They also have a rather high optical scanner, you can see here, using a camera over top of the books. They're putting it in a position there, and it works in much the same way.
Emory sees it as a great way - and other universities, too, see it as a great way for scholars around the world to view the material online, in Emory's case, without having to travel to Atlanta.
And with millions of books, don't turn in your library card just yet. Here's a quick illustration of how long it might take for Google's people, using Michigan as an example. About 7 million volumes, 132 miles of books and an average of 1,000, 1,200 pages per hour - yes, they're thinking about six years for this project, just for Michigan. So you can see it's at least a few years away from completion.
O'BRIEN: But a very exciting prospect. And, just quickly - we don't have much time.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Copyrights, are we going to be able to protect them somehow?
SIEBERG: Google says they can protect the copyright because information that is copyrighted in books will only be available on a limited basis, say a snippet of the information. Then they'll ask you to pay for the book or to buy it later. If the copyright has expired, then they will put the entire work up there. So that's how they're going to protect the copyright.
O'BRIEN: Dan Sieberg, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
SIEBERG: All right, you bet.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: The jury recommendation of death for Scott Peterson comes at a time when the use of the death penalty in the U.S. is declining. Gallup Poll editor-in-chief, Frank Newport, is with us from Princeton, New Jersey.
Is the jury's recommendation of the death penalty for Scott Peterson a sentence Americans are comfortable with, Frank?
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE GALLUP POLL: I think so, Kyra. A majority generally support the death penalty. Although I'm going to show you now some context here, it depends on what's going on with the particular situation.
Here's the question on top that we've been asking at Gallup since The Depression, just basically, do you favor or oppose the death penalty in cases of murder. Our latest update, just a month or two ago, 64 percent of Americans say yes.
However, here's the question that a lot of death penalty opponents like to point to. That is explicitly saying death penalty or guaranteed life in prison with no chance of parole, and then support drops to 50 percent, and almost as many support life without chance of parole.
But, on the other hand, if there's a particularly heinous crime - I went back to 2001, Kyra, and found the Timothy McVeigh case, the Oklahoma City Bomber, 78 percent of Americans, including some that ordinarily didn't favor the death penalty, favored it in that situation. So you can see it does vary somewhat, but generally, a majority of Americans, still to this day, favor its use.
PHILLIPS: All right, turning to the economy, the Fed is raising interest rates. Retailers are anxious about holiday spending. Any signs of new consumer confidence?
NEWPORT: Well, a glimmer of hope here. Basically, when we basically say, is the U.S. economy in general getting better, getting worse, not a lot of change there. Look on the right-hand side for month to month; 47 percent on the right say it's getting better; 42 percent say it's getting worse, not much change from last month, not great numbers.
But here's the key. We asked people, how much are you going to spend on Christmas gifts? I think we reported here on CNN last month in November that the number was 730, which was kind of blah. Now we've re-asked it, and Americans upped the anti. They're now saying they're going to spend $862, and that's a bigger increase than we usually see as Christmas gets near. So at least it suggests the potential, Kyra, that it may be a little more robust retail season than a lot of observers are anticipating.
PHILLIPS: Now, Frank, yesterday, the Electoral College made President Bush's reelection official. How is he standing with the public?
NEWPORT: Fifty-three percent, that's Bush's job approval rating now, our last early December poll here at Gallup. How does that stack up against other presidents who've been reelected in December, just after they got reelected? Well, it's not as good.
Clinton, in '96, had a 58. Both Reagan and Nixon, in '84 and '72, respectively, had 59s. Johnson, when he was reelected in '64, even higher, and Ike, back in 1956, even higher still, so that 53, a little above average, the 50 percent mark, but not a great number for Bush at this point.
PHILLIPS: All right, Senator John McCain is still getting headlines for his threat to take actions if baseball players and owners can't come up with a tougher steroid testing plan. Do you think the public will go along with that?
NEWPORT: Well, I think the baseball fans would; 86 percent say baseball should clean up its own act and do a tougher drug policy. That's what we've listed on top here.
But look below. If players and the managers and the owners don't agree to a tougher policy, 59 percent of fans say they would support new laws, like Senator McCain has advocated, to test more stringently for steroids. So there's really some pressure from fans to do something - Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Frank Newport, thank you so much.
Well, a California woman is enjoying her freedom after a nightmarish arrest landed her in a Mexican prison. Eighteen months came and went until her boyfriend and a Congressman were able to secure her freedom. The woman was freed Friday and is now telling her harrowing story.
Here's reporter Aimee Fuller from CNN affiliate KUSI.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAWN MARIE WILSON, U.S. CITIZEN HELD IN MEXICAN PRISON: Just smelling a flower is fantastic, and we went and smelled the ocean last night.
AIMEE FULLER, KUSI REPORTER (voice-over): It was a day that was a long time coming. Dawn Marie Wilson home at last, telling her story.
WILSON: It was really nasty. It was lots of drugs, lots of prostitution, no sanitation, no flush toilets, no showers, no running water, cockroaches.
TERRY KENNEDY, WILSON'S FIANCE: Imagine somebody you care about being kidnapped. I thought I was a pretty tough guy.
FULLER: It's a story that began in April of 2003, Dawn Marie Wilson and her fiance, Terry, spending time on their houseboat off Baja, Wilson running errands in Ensenada. She heard a whistle, but thought it was just cat calls.
WILSON: I didn't think anything of it, but before I knew it, I was surrounded by police, and they had taken my purse and my backpack, because I had spent the night with some friends, and they - that's when the nightmare started.
FULLER: The excuse for arresting her, not having a prescription for anti-seizure medication. So began the worst days of Wilson's life, spent in a Mexican prison with no medication for those seizures.
(on camera): But then fiance Terry struck up a relationship with Congressman Bob Filner. They mounted a relentless campaign to get the U.S. government involved, let the media know what was going on, and even mounted a FreeDawn Web site.
(voice-over): But finally, Terry learned there was such a thing as a prisoner exchange program.
REP. BOB FILNER (D) CALIFORNIA: There is this meeting between U.S. and Mexico that allows for a prisoner exchange, and they were vital in making sure she got on this and then getting her quick release, because she had served more time than the American law would have required.
FULLER: Dawn was transferred then to an Oklahoma federal prison and stayed for three months because of red tape. That's until last Friday, when she and Terry were reunited at last. She found out she was getting out...
WILSON: Twenty minutes before they let me out the door.
FULLER: Now, Wilson wants to make sure you know something like this could happen to anyone. WILSON: It's not worth the price that you save to buy medication in foreign countries.
FULLER: And Congressman Filner has said shakedowns from Mexican police are becoming more common. But for Dawn, the nightmare is over.
Aimee Fuller, KUSI News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, some veterans coming home is even harder than their service in Iraq. Fifty veterans from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" are now homeless, at least that we know. Why? Well, we'll talk with the investigative reporter who broke the story and one of the vets he met when LIVE FROM continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Luis Arellano has been a gunner's mate in the U.S. Navy for 16 years. He has a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, a master's degree in human resources. He speaks three languages, and he served his country in three wars. But there's one thing that just doesn't make sense in this petty officer's life and career: 34-year- old Luis Arellano is homeless. So how did this happen?
UPI investigative reporter Mark Benjamin has been looking into the numbers of homeless veterans, most recently Iraq, and that's how he met Luis. Mark is in Washington, D.C. Luis joins us from our L.A. bureau.
Gentlemen, it's great to have you both here.
MARK BENJAMIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, UPI: Thank you for having me.
LUIS ARELLANO, U.S. NAVY RESERVIST: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Luis, let's start with you. You're living in a shelter on March Air Force Base, which I find is very interesting. I know you are actively looking for a job. You were in Iraq. You got injured. You got shrapnel in your left hand. You had to come home. Tell me what happened from there, how you ended up in this situation.
ARELLANO: Well, upon coming back from Iraq, I had to seek medical attention. It was a brief segment that they had us coming in and seeing doctors. At that point, we had to sign a waiver saying that the medical facilities were going to be given to us at a later time at the V.A. hospital, and at that time, we had to follow up to seek that medical attention.
PHILLIPS: So, Mark, tell me about the numbers. Out of all the homeless shelters, how many individuals are homeless vets, and how many are from "Operation Iraqi Freedom?"
BENJAMIN: We don't know for sure, Kyra. There's no census for homeless veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs told me they found 50 veterans from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" that are homeless. I found almost 10 in homeless shelters.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So, Luis, your family - I think a lot of people would ask, what about your wife, what about your mom, what about your dad? Wasn't there anyone for you to come home to? And did you have anything to come home to before you left to Iraq?
ARELLANO: Well, at that point, I would say that I came back - I went through a divorce, and it was hard for me to work those issues out, due to the fact that I was just coming back from Iraq.
From a different angle, trying to go back and ask family was even harder because you know, they - they're dealing with a situation, more or less, of me being divorced and then now coming back and dealing with other issues from a medical standpoint. You feel that you've grown up all this time to take care of your own, and you don't want to give these people their problems, and I'm trying to seek out for my own resolution, trying to fix it. And to this point, I'm still trying to do that.
PHILLIPS: Well, I want to talk to you both about this, and that's post traumatic stress. A lot of vets come back and suffer with a lot of mental trauma, and I want to ask you about that, Luis. But, Mark, what did you find into your investigation? Do most of these guys that come back, sometimes it's too much to handle?
BENJAMIN: Yes, and what we've found is this is one of the big, big concerns among homeless veterans advocates. There is a link between mental trauma from war or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and becoming homeless. In fact, 75 percent of all the homeless veterans on the streets today, from any war, suffer some kind of mental problem.
We also know that the rate of mental trauma among soldiers returning from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is very, very high.
PHILLIPS: Now, Luis, you and I have talked a lot. I know you're a smart guy. I even know the admiral that you served under. I know you're working hard to get another job. Tell me, mentally, are you doing OK? Are you having a hard time? Do you think this plays a part in just trying to get your life together and figure out what to do?
ARELLANO: Well, yes. I've - coming from war and what not and trying to get back myself back on my own feet, it's been hard. I've been applying for different positions, and usually I get something back to the fact that, you know, this person with this type of caliber won't last here. He'll go somewhere else. Or I just don't qualify because of the background that I have.
Right now, the only means of me to get by is I'm still in the Reserves, and I take whatever they can give me, as far as Reserve schools, any type of other training. I use that to benefit me in order to support myself.
PHILLIPS: Well, I've got to ask you, Mark, I mean as an investigative reporter, who's responsible here? People like Luis who are trying to get a job, who are educated, who served their country more than once, shouldn't be in this situation. BENJAMIN: Well, one of the things that probably should happen, with respect to soldiers coming back from war, is that the Pentagon should work harder to address some of the mental issues that these soldiers are struggling with, and it certainly would be great if the Department of Veterans Affairs would as well.
Among the soldiers that the Department of Veterans Affairs is seeing from "Operation Iraqi Freedom," one in five is diagnosed with serious mental trauma from war. So we certainly have a trend here that is very troubling.
PHILLIPS: Luis, your roommate in the shelter is a 57-year-old Vietnam vet. What does he say to you? Do you guys talk about this?
ARELLANO: Oh, yes. We share a lot of conversations, and he - we talk I guess is the best way to do - we can vent. But he's been through this before. He's also homeless, but a very well educated man. He's been around.
So what his best advice he can do is just to keep on trucking, and hopefully I can land something really hard and get my life back together again.
PHILLIPS: Is there anybody - is there any entity, any person, any part of the military that you wish you just would have received something more? Are you blaming anybody?
ARELLANO: Well, actually, I love the Navy. I'm Joe Navy, and the Reserve Center has been the most - Sacramento and the Reserve Center at Port Hueneme have been the most supportive Reserve Centers that I've come across. And, you know, if I could do it all over again, I wish I would have stayed a little bit longer to see if I could get some help or assistance, to see if there was that depression, to see if there was a - if my divorce could have been a little bit more smoothing, as far as exiting out from a military perspective into a civilian side.
So, you know, sometimes the active side doesn't take care of their own, but the Reserve Center, they're there to catch those who need help, and they're caught in the middle. And I just wish the active side could support the Reserve Centers a little bit more. I mean they call us when it comes to war, and we go out there and do our jobs, but when we come back out, they just say thank you and that's it.
And the Reserve Center says, well, if you need us, we're there to support you, but there's so many of us, and they don't have the capacity to take care of everybody's needs. And you've just got to be persistent like I have, and, like I said, the Reserve Center there from Sacramento and especially Port Hueneme have been outstanding, have been excellent to me.
PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to be following your progress. Luis Arellano, we sure thank you for what you've gone for our country, and you're a strong man. We admire that.
ARELLANO: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: UPI investigative reporter Mark Benjamin, a great piece that you did, Mark. I'm glad that you did the story, and we'll catch up with both of you. Thank you.
BENJAMIN: thank you.
ARELLANO: Thank you very much.
O'BRIEN: The Fed has spoken, interest rates on the rise, so is the market. We'll give you a full update on that. And are you looking for a job? We're going to tell you just where to find one. Stay with us for more LIVE FROM, from CNN Center B Control in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, just a few - you want to go.
PHILLIPS: No, that's OK. Go ahead.
O'BRIEN: Just a few moments ago, the Fed hiked interest rates for the fifth time this year.
PHILLIPS: Rhonda Schaffler is standing by at the New York Stock Exchange from - for the market reaction.
Hi, Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra and Miles.
O'BRIEN: It's your turn now, OK? Miles to Kyra to Rhonda.
SCHAFFLER: That's very nice. You know, as far as this Fed move goes, this took nobody by surprise. And because of that, you're not seeing any great reaction on Wall Street. Stocks just bumping up a bit after that Fed decision to raise key short-term interest rate by another quarter point. Dow industrials are up 27 points, Nasdaq almost half a percent higher.
The Fed statement accompanying the decision virtually identical to last month's statement, and that means we should look for the Fed to continue hiking rates gradually through the early part of next year - Kyra, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, a new survey shows an upbeat hiring outlook for the year.
PHILLIPS: What's it looking like, Rhonda?
SCHAFFLER: That's right. If you're in the market for a new job, are you in luck. Employers are bringing in the new year with some optimism. According to staffing firm Manpower, about a quarter of surveyed companies expect to have more openings in the first three months of 2005, and that is decidedly more upbeat than they were at the beginning of this year. The survey says employers are gradually regaining confidence and slowly and steadily adding to their workforces. By sector, the construction businesses should see a notable pickup in first quarter hiring, along with finance, which also includes insurance and real estate. And by region, the South should have the best hiring climate, while job prospects in the Northeast still lag behind a bit. That's it from Wall Street now.
Kyra, Miles, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rhonda. More CNN LIVE FROM still ahead. We may learn an important Homeland Security lesson from Japan. We're going to have that story.
O'BRIEN: NASA's outgoing chief - first interview, where is it going to be? Right here on LIVE FROM, this correspondent. We'll talk about NASA's future, as well as his own, when LIVE FROM continues.
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