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Michael Jackson's Ex-Wife to Testify for Prosecution; House Clearing Way for DeLay Investigation; Airbus A-380 Performs Well in Test
Aired April 27, 2005 - 13:00 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.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ted Rowlands in Santa Maria, California, where Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson's ex-wife, is expected to take the stand for the prosecution. We'll have the very latest coming up.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: We'll also take a closer look at Debbie Rowe and what her testimony today might mean for the future of her children with the superstar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you look at one of these horrific pictures of abuse, unless you put your thumb over it, you just can't even concentrate on anything that might be in the background.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Detectives get creative as they race the clock to save a young girl from a life of molestation and pornography, but will breaking their own rules solve the case faster?
O'BRIEN: New plans to meet America's energy needs. Front and center today, making us wonder, to hybrid or not to hybrid. We'll lay out the pros and the cons. All that and more on future of the Airbus, as well.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. It's Wednesday, April 27. CNN's LIVE FROM starts from right now.
Ex-wife, state's witness, another strange and potentially revealing episode in a trial that's seen one strange and revealing episode after another. Preparing to take the stand for the prosecution in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial is Debbie Rowe, Jackson's spouse of three years and mother of at least two of his children.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is at the courthouse in Santa Maria.
ROWLANDS: We are still awaiting Debbie Rowe to take the stand here. Jackson personal photographer is still on the stand, subject to cross examination. We do expect that Debbie Rowe will be on the stand at some point today for the prosecution. The prosecution is wrapping up their case. And Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson's ex-wife, is considered to be a very key witness for them as they try to prove this conspiracy theory that Michael Jackson was somehow involved in shepherding the alleged accuser's family out of the country and, also, keeping them against their will at Neverland Ranch.
Debbie Rowe, because she is Michael Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of two of his three children, should have instant credibility with this jury. She is expected to say that Jackson himself called her and told her that she needed to take part in this pro Michael Jackson video. This was a response to Martin Bashir's documentary, which aired in the United States.
Rowe is expected to say that Jackson was involved in this plan to rehabilitate his character and that she was told if she took part in this, said nice things about Michael Jackson, she would get visitation rights with her two children. She's currently involved in a dispute with Michael Jackson over the two children in separate litigation.
What she's not expected to detail is life at Neverland Ranch or Michael Jackson's life behind closed doors. The judge in this case ruled last week yes, Debbie Rowe could come in but, no, she can not talk about just anything. And she is expected to be limited considerably when she does take the stand.
On the stand right now, Hamid Moslehi is a Jackson videographer who worked with Michael Jackson. After the conclusion of his testimony, we do expect that Debbie Rowe will take the stand.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Ted Rowlands.
Whirlwind romance isn't the first term that pops to mind. Nevertheless, Debbie Rowe's fleeting association with the one-time King of Pop was a whirlwind of intrigue and innuendo, one that seemed to have ended as quickly as it began.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin takes us back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST (voice-over): It wasn't what you'd call an obvious match, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, and Debbie Rowe, his dermatologist's nurse.
J. Randy Taraborrelli has written about Michael Jackson for more than 10 years.
J. RANDY TARABORRELLI, AUTHOR: Michael just thought that she was one of the most entertaining women that he's ever known.
TOOBIN: They married in Sydney while Jackson was on the Australian leg of his 1996 tour. The ceremony took place 10 days after they announced Rowe was pregnant with Michael's child.
TARABORRELLI: No one knew who she was. All a sudden, there is this mystery woman in Michael Jackson's life who is carrying his baby.
TOOBIN: What kind of marriage was this? One London tabloid quoted Rowe's father as saying she was artificially inseminated. Others reported she was paid to carry the child.
TARABORRELLI: I think that their marriage was really for the purposes of public relations and image making but not for the purposes of, you know, love and romance.
TOOBIN: By the time the couple divorced in 1999, Rowe had given birth to two children, Prince Michael and Paris.
TARABORRELLI: Their relationship has been very strange. She never lived at Neverland. When they were husband and wife, they never lived together. Yet she was having these children for Michael Jackson and giving them to him to raise.
TOOBIN: In 2001, Debbie gave up her parental rights to both kids, saying at the time Michael was, quote, "a brilliant father and it was in the children's best interest to be with him."
According to court papers, Rowe signed a confidentiality agreement when she and Jackson split. It barred her from discussing paternity, Michael's mental or physical condition, purported drug use, sexual behavior or the lifestyle of her children. In return, she received a multimillion-dollar settlement.
In 2003, after Martin Bashir's now infamous documentary on Michael Jackson, Debbie appeared in Michael's taped rebuttal, defending her ex-husband.
DEBBIE ROWE, MICHAEL JACKSON'S EX-WIFE: He would never hurt a child, never. It's not in him. It's -- no way.
TOOBIN: But Jackson's arrest on molestation charges opened a new chapter in the strange relationship. Debbie initiated legal proceedings to regain custody of her children. And later that year, when Debbie appeared on an entertainment show, Michael stopped paying her, saying she had broken their confidentiality agreement.
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Dennis Hastert says he's willing to step back, but it's likely that many Democrats see that as a big step forward. In fact, the vote expected possibly today would put the House Ethics Committee pretty much where it was before Republicans pushed through some procedural changes that prompted Democrats to shut the panel down.
We get the details now from CNN's Ed Henry on Capitol Hill. What's new, Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Kyra. That's right, a dramatic development, indeed. Dennis Hastert back-tracking a bit on House ethics rules. The bottom line here is this will probably open up a full-blown investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
In previous years if allegations about members of Congress went forward to the House Ethics Committee and they deadlocked on partisan grounds, an investigation would move forward anyway, to err on the side of making sure they got to the bottom of it.
In January, Speaker Hastert pushed through new rules that said if there was a partisan deadlock on the ethics committee, no investigation would move forward. Democrats have spent the last few months charging that this was an effort to shield Tom DeLay from an investigation. Republicans have mostly stayed in Tom DeLay's corner. And Speaker Hastert has been very firm in saying that he would not backpedal at all.
That -- that's why it was so dramatic today when the speaker came forward to the television cameras.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm not sure if our -- our friends on the other side of the aisle think that that was the issue, is the substance, is an issue or not. They took issue with process. Well, I'm willing to step back. We had a long discussion about that. I think we need to move forward in the ethics process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Why did Hastert backpedal? A lot of Republicans are saying that they believe they just want to get this Tom DeLay issue behind them and the best way to do that is to have an investigation and in their words, clear his name.
But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is saying today that she believes Speaker Hastert was feeling the political heat, and she's saying she'll keep the heat on him. She's not necessarily signing off on this rules reversal.
Instead, she's saying she wants to see the detail and she wants to make sure that the Republicans also reverse themselves on something else they did in January, which is when they fired the nonpartisan staff of the House Ethics Committee and, instead, put in Republican staffers.
Here's Pelosi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: What I'm hearing them say is they may want to return to the old rules. That's like taking two steps forward, in terms of undermining the ethics process, and one step back, if they don't also change the staffing changes that they have made there. So what -- we have heard nothing from them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, the bottom line is that the political heat is also now turning on Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. As CNN first reported yesterday, an internal review by Nancy Pelosi's office has found that some 12 trips taken by Pelosi staffers had some problems, were not properly reported.
Now as well, Pelosi's deputy, the House Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, is reviewing his own trips. There are four trips in dispute. As to whether or not he properly reported those, as well.
The bottom line here is that because of this whole Tom DeLay controversy, a lot of lawmakers and both parties are now being drawn into the controversy. And while this latest development will push forward a DeLay investigation, it could spark investigations of many other members of Congress -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's interesting to see how big this could get. Ed Henry, thank you so much.
And in just about an hour, President Bush will flip the switch on some new ideas aimed at pumping up U.S. energy supplies. In a speech that we will bring you live here on CNN, Mr. Bush will tout his so- called "risk insurance plan," aimed at making nuclear power plants more attractive investments.
He's also proposing building oil refineries on military bases that have been shut down. And giving the federal government the final say over locations for natural gas depots.
He'll propose expanding green vehicle tax credits beyond hybrids and fuel cells to so-called clean diesel vehicles, and he'll call for broader international cooperation in developing new technology.
Now, the White House acknowledges none of this, even if passed by Congress verbatim, will bring down oil or gasoline prices anytime soon.
O'BRIEN: We mentioned hybrids. Those combination gas and electric cars and SUVs are hot, especially with gas at $2 a gallon or $2.50, or $2.75, getting close to $3, but while they may make a dent in their owners' monthly fuel bills, they're still a relative rarity on American roads.
CNN's Chris Huntington joins us to kick a few tires, so to speak. Hello, Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, hi.
If the president's proposal, which would be to switch what is now a tax deduction of about $2,000 for hybrid buyers up to a $4,000 tax credit, if that goes through and sticks, then that could do an awful lot to boost the manufacturers' incentives to put more hybrids out there in the marketplace. Because really, the problem right now is there just aren't enough to buy. They're going, frankly, for a premium on sites like eBay, especially out in California.
We visited some -- some typical American drivers. One who's got a hybrid, and another family has got a couple of SUVs. And I think as we pretty much know from driving around, there are very, very few hybrids out there, and they're not making a difference in terms of overall gas consumption in this country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTINGTON (voice-over): Rick Nosek is sitting pretty in his Toyota Prius hybrid.
RICK NOSEK, TOYOTA PRIUS OWNER: In the old days when I drove a van and it would cost me $90 a week to gas up -- now I'm gassing up every two weeks, and it's costing me about $16.
HUNTINGTON: Nosek says he gets 40 to 50 miles per gallon. That's 10 less than the stated mileage for his model. But he enjoys the attention he receives for driving on the cutting edge. The gasoline engine for the highway and an electric motor that kicks in for stop and go traffic.
NOSEK: A lot of people notice the car. I'll get a thumbs up or I'll get a wave.
HUNTINGTON: But Nosek is far from the average American car owner. Hybrid vehicles account for less than one-fifth of on percent of the cars currently on the American roads.
And while demand for them has spiked with gas prices, even the most optimistic projections put hybrids at only about two percent of all American passenger cars by 2010. That's because size still matters.
Delane Clemens (ph) and her husband, Gerald, own two SUVs, and they are in the mainstream. Living in Atlanta, they don't need four wheel drive, but they like feeling safe and say it's worth the higher fuel bill.
Delane (ph) is a real estate broker and uses her Toyota Sequoia as an office on wheels.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before I bought this SUV, I drove a small Mazda. It was midsized. And when I had clients in the car a lot of times we were shoulder to shoulder. So it was a little bit too cozy.
HUNTINGTON: And she is philosophical about gas prices.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need gas in my car. I need my car to make a living. And there's nothing that I can really do to influence the price of gas either way.
HUNTINGTON: Walter McManus studies American driving and car buying habits. He drives an SUV.
WALTER MCMANUS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The gas price probably has to be in the neighborhood of $5, which is kind of what it is in Europe, before you see significant changes in the kinds of vehicles people buy.
HUNTINGTON: McManus stresses that fuel efficiency is just one of many factors, from size and horsepower, to cup holders, that Americans consider when buying a car.
Delane Clemens (ph) knows what she wants.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even though I might consider a hybrid in the future, I do have more of a sense of security with a larger vehicle.
HUNTINGTON: Rick Nosek swears he'll never go back and has only one complaint about his hybrid.
NOSEK: I wish I had about one more inch of leg room in the driver's side.
HUNTINGTON: But he says the mileage he gets and the example he sets make up for that.
NOSEK: It makes me feel like I'm actually pulling one over on the oil companies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTINGTON: Now, we ran the numbers, fuel efficiency numbers on what Rick Nosek gets in his Prius versus what Delane Clemens (ph) gets in her Toyota Sequoia. And over the course of an entire year, based on $2.30 for gasoline and driving 12,000 miles for the whole year, Delane Clemens (ph) can expect to pay more than $1,300 additional gas money than Rick Nosek will for his car.
O'BRIEN: All right, but Rick would pay probably more than $1,300 more for that vehicle. So it's a tough tradeoff, isn't it?
HUNTINGTON: It is a tradeoff, Miles, indeed. And the -- the fact is that most of the people who are buying the hybrids right now are essentially people who have made up their mind that they want to be on the -- on the leading edge of the environmental movement. They're not necessarily making a pure economic decision.
O'BRIEN: Right, early adopters, making a point. All right. Chris Huntington, thank you very much.
All of this info, just priming the pump for you. We're less than an hour away from the president's big pitch for his new energy plan. Of course, we're taking it live right here, 2:05 p.m. Eastern Time.
And speaking of the thirst for fossil fuels, the world's largest passenger jet took flight today, burning tens of thousands of gallons of jet "A" fuel. It is an important volley in the high-octane dog fight between Airbus and Boeing. Richard Quest and I will talk about that and much more, coming up in just a few moments.
PHILLIPS: Well, our security watch begins with a formula for securing America's chemical plants from terrorist attack. The Senate's homeland security committee is hearing expert testimony. And we'll hear more from one of those witnesses later on LIVE FROM. Richard Falkenrath of the Brookings Institution will join us at 3:15 Eastern, 12:15 Pacific.
Now, the House Homeland Security Panel takes a fairly dim view of that terrorist color chart. Members may well green light a measure that would make the chart optional sometime next year. The homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, says that he wouldn't agree to scrap it outright.
Now standing pat on the Patriot Act, today, our attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, and FBI chief Robert Mueller, they're imploring the Senate Intelligence Committee to renew those provisions of the controversial law that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The measure's surveillance and intelligence provisions have sparked civil rights concerns from the outset, but officials say the benefits outweigh the supposedly hypothetical risks.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
O'BRIEN: A frantic 911 call from the trunk of a speeding car. Or just a prank? Well, either way, you probably should check it out, right? Apparently not. The tragic consequences of that decision, next.
Also ahead, the biggest homes, the nicest streets, the fattest wallets. Find out who's got them. We'll unveil America's richest zip codes.
And they're here. Times five. A surrogate mom delivers joy and then some. A LIVE FROM follow-up is next.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: News across America now.
Baby boys, bouncing all over the place, a whole basketball team's worth. Saw a little brief view there of our chief writer, Jim Guthrie.
In Phoenix yesterday, surrogate mom Teresa Anderson delivered quintuplets. Pretty small. All weigh less than four pounds. One needs surgery, but doctors give them good all prospects. Jim can relate to this. Diaper fest 2005 begins right now.
Syndicated radio talker Laura Ingraham recovering today from breast cancer surgery. A fill-in host told her radio audience that the surgery was a success. Ingraham's talk show is heard on 250 stations.
And the search for Jonathan Leber called off now. The 20-year- old private pilot ran out of fuel over Lake Michigan late Monday night. He ditched his single engine piper and then made a frantic distress call using his cell phone, apparently having trouble communicating to the operator. At the time he was actually in the water.
(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you flying or are you on the ground?
JONATHAN LEBER, PILOT: I'm on -- I'm in Michigan, Lake Michigan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're in Michigan?
LEBER: Yes, my plane ran out of fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, and you're in the air or on the ground?
LEBER: No, I'm on -- in the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, do you know where in Michigan?
LEBER: About 5 miles east of Timmerman -- uh, not Timmerman, Milwaukee Airport.
(END AUDIOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That's amazing. Well, a 911 call and the 911 system in general are also at the center of a Chicago area investigation. They're trying to determine if police acted properly in the case of a kidnapped teenager who dispatchers initially thought was pulling a prank. Well, he wasn't.
CNN's Chris Lawrence has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This suburban Chicago teenager spent his last moments on a cell phone, begging police to save his life.
DAVID STEEVES, KIDNAPPING VICTIM: Please help me, please help me. Oh, my god, please help me!
LAWRENCE: David Steeves is dead. And police in Elgin, Illinois, are conducting an internal investigation to see if more could have been done to save him.
Police say these two men robbed Steeves and stuffed him in the trunk of his mother's car. That's when he pulled out his cell phone and called 911.
STEEVES: My name is David Steeves. Please find me; I'm in trouble right now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your name?
STEEVES: David Steeves. I'm on -- we're going fast, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay on the phone with us.
STEEVES: I'm in a trunk right now. I don't know where I'm at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, stay on the phone, man.
STEEVES: Oh my God. You guys, please help me, please help me. Oh, my God, please help me.
LAWRENCE: The call was disconnected and the operator thought it could be a prank.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time the Call Taker tries to call the subject back, he hangs up. He won't give his name the way we can understand what he's saying. All he says is he's moving fast and traveling South Street in the trunk of a green Toyota Corolla. And then he hangs up.
Call Taker thinks it could be a prank, but isn't definite on it.
LAWRENCE (on camera): For the next 15 minutes, police talk to some local teenagers nearby to see if one of them made the call. When an officer determined they didn't, he told operators to clear what he called this prank call.
(voice-over) Police kept looking for that car, and six days later, they found it with Steeves still in the trunk, shot to death. These two men have been charged with his murder.
Steeves' family has supported the police, calling their efforts tireless and diligent. But investigators still want to find out if everyone involved acted appropriately.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next, on LIVE FROM, the plus-size pleasure plane takes flight and our favorite international male is on the scene. Richard Quest waxes poetic about the wonders of the biggest thing to hit air travel since the Spruce Goose.
Later, who is behind disturbing images of the molestation of a young girl? Meet the detective trying to save her and solve a shocking crime.
Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, a heartbreaking mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can't fathom that 10-year-old boy getting a shotgun, putting a pillow to his mom's head, shooting her, put a note under her pillow, then reload the shotgun and then shoot himself. I just cannot fathom that.
PHILLIPS: Is this the face of a killer? A closer look at the boy police say did the unthinkable and the family that says "no way."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: There's the new aviation behemoth in the air, as of today. The colossal Airbus A-380 could corral more than 800 passengers into its double deck seats.
It took flight for the first time from France earlier today. After the four-hour aerial shakedown, Airbus chief test pilot Jacques Rosay said the world's largest passenger jet handled just like a bicycle.
It's the latest volley in a tempestuous transoceanic battle between the European airplane maker and U.S.-based Boeing.
Joining us with more proof that size can matter is our Richard Quest, who made le trek to Toulouse.
Hello, Richard. How big is it?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This plane is absolutely huge. I'll put it in perspective for you. Its wingspan, at 261 feet, is twice the distance, more than twice the distance, than the Wright brothers flew in 1903. They only flew basically 120 feet.
So it's a huge plane that way. It is a huge plane that way. And it is also a very heavy plane. Today's maiden flight, Miles, just over 421 tons, by no means the heaviest for the 380, but was a world record. So already this plane has gone into the record books.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about this as a business decision for Airbus. Lots of passengers, double decks, a plane that doesn't really work at a lot of airports because it is so big.
Meanwhile, Boeing, on the other side of the Atlantic, is going in an entirely different direction, coming up with the 787, which is more fuel efficient, more designed for point to point transportation, fewer numbers of passengers.
Who's going to win this battle? It is a bit of an apple and orange battle, but who's going to win?
QUEST: You see, the point is that most major international airlines will turn around and say, "Well, it's not an either and an or, it's a both. We need," they will say, "the A-380 for those highly-traveled, high-dense routes where the airports like Kennedy or Heathrow in London are slot restricted and capacity is limited." So Frankfurt to Los Angeles, London to New York, Singapore to London, those sort of routes. But you also need that medium-sized plane like the Dreamliner, the 787. And what Boeing says is, and I think there's a certain validity to its argument -- Boeing says yes, Airbus will sell planes, they just won't sell very many of them. We're going to sell many more of the 787s. They are cheaper to buy, they don't carry as many passengers. Airlines will prefer that for point to point travel. So what you end up with is this wonderful scenario that, to use that old cliche, time will tell.
O'BRIEN: Ah, time will tell. Well, one other thing we should point out, though, Airbus is coming out with "me, too" jet to answer the 787, a fuel-efficient jet. Is it possible that Airbus, which has already surpassed Boeing as the leading manufacturer of airliners in the world, that Airbus is on such a roll that Boeing is in deep trouble?
QUEST: No, not on this particular point. The A-350, the plane you're talking about, is a remake, a tired retread if you like, of the A-330 that it currently makes. What Airbus is doing is a spoiler campaign against the 787. Airbus -- Boeing tried something very similar against the 380 when they tried to redo the 747. They're still talking about redoing the 747.
The truth is, the airlines will go to that plane that is offering the newest technology, the most fuel-efficient forums. In that case, for the largest plane, it has to be the A-380. At the moment, for the medium plane, it's probably the Dreamliner. Let's not be side- tracked, if you like, by these foibles of the aviation manufacturers.
O'BRIEN: All right. We never are side-tracked when we speak with you. Richard Quest, always appreciate your time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 27, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ted Rowlands in Santa Maria, California, where Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson's ex-wife, is expected to take the stand for the prosecution. We'll have the very latest coming up.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: We'll also take a closer look at Debbie Rowe and what her testimony today might mean for the future of her children with the superstar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you look at one of these horrific pictures of abuse, unless you put your thumb over it, you just can't even concentrate on anything that might be in the background.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Detectives get creative as they race the clock to save a young girl from a life of molestation and pornography, but will breaking their own rules solve the case faster?
O'BRIEN: New plans to meet America's energy needs. Front and center today, making us wonder, to hybrid or not to hybrid. We'll lay out the pros and the cons. All that and more on future of the Airbus, as well.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. It's Wednesday, April 27. CNN's LIVE FROM starts from right now.
Ex-wife, state's witness, another strange and potentially revealing episode in a trial that's seen one strange and revealing episode after another. Preparing to take the stand for the prosecution in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial is Debbie Rowe, Jackson's spouse of three years and mother of at least two of his children.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is at the courthouse in Santa Maria.
ROWLANDS: We are still awaiting Debbie Rowe to take the stand here. Jackson personal photographer is still on the stand, subject to cross examination. We do expect that Debbie Rowe will be on the stand at some point today for the prosecution. The prosecution is wrapping up their case. And Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson's ex-wife, is considered to be a very key witness for them as they try to prove this conspiracy theory that Michael Jackson was somehow involved in shepherding the alleged accuser's family out of the country and, also, keeping them against their will at Neverland Ranch.
Debbie Rowe, because she is Michael Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of two of his three children, should have instant credibility with this jury. She is expected to say that Jackson himself called her and told her that she needed to take part in this pro Michael Jackson video. This was a response to Martin Bashir's documentary, which aired in the United States.
Rowe is expected to say that Jackson was involved in this plan to rehabilitate his character and that she was told if she took part in this, said nice things about Michael Jackson, she would get visitation rights with her two children. She's currently involved in a dispute with Michael Jackson over the two children in separate litigation.
What she's not expected to detail is life at Neverland Ranch or Michael Jackson's life behind closed doors. The judge in this case ruled last week yes, Debbie Rowe could come in but, no, she can not talk about just anything. And she is expected to be limited considerably when she does take the stand.
On the stand right now, Hamid Moslehi is a Jackson videographer who worked with Michael Jackson. After the conclusion of his testimony, we do expect that Debbie Rowe will take the stand.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Ted Rowlands.
Whirlwind romance isn't the first term that pops to mind. Nevertheless, Debbie Rowe's fleeting association with the one-time King of Pop was a whirlwind of intrigue and innuendo, one that seemed to have ended as quickly as it began.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin takes us back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST (voice-over): It wasn't what you'd call an obvious match, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, and Debbie Rowe, his dermatologist's nurse.
J. Randy Taraborrelli has written about Michael Jackson for more than 10 years.
J. RANDY TARABORRELLI, AUTHOR: Michael just thought that she was one of the most entertaining women that he's ever known.
TOOBIN: They married in Sydney while Jackson was on the Australian leg of his 1996 tour. The ceremony took place 10 days after they announced Rowe was pregnant with Michael's child.
TARABORRELLI: No one knew who she was. All a sudden, there is this mystery woman in Michael Jackson's life who is carrying his baby.
TOOBIN: What kind of marriage was this? One London tabloid quoted Rowe's father as saying she was artificially inseminated. Others reported she was paid to carry the child.
TARABORRELLI: I think that their marriage was really for the purposes of public relations and image making but not for the purposes of, you know, love and romance.
TOOBIN: By the time the couple divorced in 1999, Rowe had given birth to two children, Prince Michael and Paris.
TARABORRELLI: Their relationship has been very strange. She never lived at Neverland. When they were husband and wife, they never lived together. Yet she was having these children for Michael Jackson and giving them to him to raise.
TOOBIN: In 2001, Debbie gave up her parental rights to both kids, saying at the time Michael was, quote, "a brilliant father and it was in the children's best interest to be with him."
According to court papers, Rowe signed a confidentiality agreement when she and Jackson split. It barred her from discussing paternity, Michael's mental or physical condition, purported drug use, sexual behavior or the lifestyle of her children. In return, she received a multimillion-dollar settlement.
In 2003, after Martin Bashir's now infamous documentary on Michael Jackson, Debbie appeared in Michael's taped rebuttal, defending her ex-husband.
DEBBIE ROWE, MICHAEL JACKSON'S EX-WIFE: He would never hurt a child, never. It's not in him. It's -- no way.
TOOBIN: But Jackson's arrest on molestation charges opened a new chapter in the strange relationship. Debbie initiated legal proceedings to regain custody of her children. And later that year, when Debbie appeared on an entertainment show, Michael stopped paying her, saying she had broken their confidentiality agreement.
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Dennis Hastert says he's willing to step back, but it's likely that many Democrats see that as a big step forward. In fact, the vote expected possibly today would put the House Ethics Committee pretty much where it was before Republicans pushed through some procedural changes that prompted Democrats to shut the panel down.
We get the details now from CNN's Ed Henry on Capitol Hill. What's new, Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Kyra. That's right, a dramatic development, indeed. Dennis Hastert back-tracking a bit on House ethics rules. The bottom line here is this will probably open up a full-blown investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
In previous years if allegations about members of Congress went forward to the House Ethics Committee and they deadlocked on partisan grounds, an investigation would move forward anyway, to err on the side of making sure they got to the bottom of it.
In January, Speaker Hastert pushed through new rules that said if there was a partisan deadlock on the ethics committee, no investigation would move forward. Democrats have spent the last few months charging that this was an effort to shield Tom DeLay from an investigation. Republicans have mostly stayed in Tom DeLay's corner. And Speaker Hastert has been very firm in saying that he would not backpedal at all.
That -- that's why it was so dramatic today when the speaker came forward to the television cameras.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm not sure if our -- our friends on the other side of the aisle think that that was the issue, is the substance, is an issue or not. They took issue with process. Well, I'm willing to step back. We had a long discussion about that. I think we need to move forward in the ethics process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Why did Hastert backpedal? A lot of Republicans are saying that they believe they just want to get this Tom DeLay issue behind them and the best way to do that is to have an investigation and in their words, clear his name.
But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is saying today that she believes Speaker Hastert was feeling the political heat, and she's saying she'll keep the heat on him. She's not necessarily signing off on this rules reversal.
Instead, she's saying she wants to see the detail and she wants to make sure that the Republicans also reverse themselves on something else they did in January, which is when they fired the nonpartisan staff of the House Ethics Committee and, instead, put in Republican staffers.
Here's Pelosi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: What I'm hearing them say is they may want to return to the old rules. That's like taking two steps forward, in terms of undermining the ethics process, and one step back, if they don't also change the staffing changes that they have made there. So what -- we have heard nothing from them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, the bottom line is that the political heat is also now turning on Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. As CNN first reported yesterday, an internal review by Nancy Pelosi's office has found that some 12 trips taken by Pelosi staffers had some problems, were not properly reported.
Now as well, Pelosi's deputy, the House Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, is reviewing his own trips. There are four trips in dispute. As to whether or not he properly reported those, as well.
The bottom line here is that because of this whole Tom DeLay controversy, a lot of lawmakers and both parties are now being drawn into the controversy. And while this latest development will push forward a DeLay investigation, it could spark investigations of many other members of Congress -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's interesting to see how big this could get. Ed Henry, thank you so much.
And in just about an hour, President Bush will flip the switch on some new ideas aimed at pumping up U.S. energy supplies. In a speech that we will bring you live here on CNN, Mr. Bush will tout his so- called "risk insurance plan," aimed at making nuclear power plants more attractive investments.
He's also proposing building oil refineries on military bases that have been shut down. And giving the federal government the final say over locations for natural gas depots.
He'll propose expanding green vehicle tax credits beyond hybrids and fuel cells to so-called clean diesel vehicles, and he'll call for broader international cooperation in developing new technology.
Now, the White House acknowledges none of this, even if passed by Congress verbatim, will bring down oil or gasoline prices anytime soon.
O'BRIEN: We mentioned hybrids. Those combination gas and electric cars and SUVs are hot, especially with gas at $2 a gallon or $2.50, or $2.75, getting close to $3, but while they may make a dent in their owners' monthly fuel bills, they're still a relative rarity on American roads.
CNN's Chris Huntington joins us to kick a few tires, so to speak. Hello, Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, hi.
If the president's proposal, which would be to switch what is now a tax deduction of about $2,000 for hybrid buyers up to a $4,000 tax credit, if that goes through and sticks, then that could do an awful lot to boost the manufacturers' incentives to put more hybrids out there in the marketplace. Because really, the problem right now is there just aren't enough to buy. They're going, frankly, for a premium on sites like eBay, especially out in California.
We visited some -- some typical American drivers. One who's got a hybrid, and another family has got a couple of SUVs. And I think as we pretty much know from driving around, there are very, very few hybrids out there, and they're not making a difference in terms of overall gas consumption in this country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTINGTON (voice-over): Rick Nosek is sitting pretty in his Toyota Prius hybrid.
RICK NOSEK, TOYOTA PRIUS OWNER: In the old days when I drove a van and it would cost me $90 a week to gas up -- now I'm gassing up every two weeks, and it's costing me about $16.
HUNTINGTON: Nosek says he gets 40 to 50 miles per gallon. That's 10 less than the stated mileage for his model. But he enjoys the attention he receives for driving on the cutting edge. The gasoline engine for the highway and an electric motor that kicks in for stop and go traffic.
NOSEK: A lot of people notice the car. I'll get a thumbs up or I'll get a wave.
HUNTINGTON: But Nosek is far from the average American car owner. Hybrid vehicles account for less than one-fifth of on percent of the cars currently on the American roads.
And while demand for them has spiked with gas prices, even the most optimistic projections put hybrids at only about two percent of all American passenger cars by 2010. That's because size still matters.
Delane Clemens (ph) and her husband, Gerald, own two SUVs, and they are in the mainstream. Living in Atlanta, they don't need four wheel drive, but they like feeling safe and say it's worth the higher fuel bill.
Delane (ph) is a real estate broker and uses her Toyota Sequoia as an office on wheels.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before I bought this SUV, I drove a small Mazda. It was midsized. And when I had clients in the car a lot of times we were shoulder to shoulder. So it was a little bit too cozy.
HUNTINGTON: And she is philosophical about gas prices.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need gas in my car. I need my car to make a living. And there's nothing that I can really do to influence the price of gas either way.
HUNTINGTON: Walter McManus studies American driving and car buying habits. He drives an SUV.
WALTER MCMANUS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The gas price probably has to be in the neighborhood of $5, which is kind of what it is in Europe, before you see significant changes in the kinds of vehicles people buy.
HUNTINGTON: McManus stresses that fuel efficiency is just one of many factors, from size and horsepower, to cup holders, that Americans consider when buying a car.
Delane Clemens (ph) knows what she wants.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even though I might consider a hybrid in the future, I do have more of a sense of security with a larger vehicle.
HUNTINGTON: Rick Nosek swears he'll never go back and has only one complaint about his hybrid.
NOSEK: I wish I had about one more inch of leg room in the driver's side.
HUNTINGTON: But he says the mileage he gets and the example he sets make up for that.
NOSEK: It makes me feel like I'm actually pulling one over on the oil companies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTINGTON: Now, we ran the numbers, fuel efficiency numbers on what Rick Nosek gets in his Prius versus what Delane Clemens (ph) gets in her Toyota Sequoia. And over the course of an entire year, based on $2.30 for gasoline and driving 12,000 miles for the whole year, Delane Clemens (ph) can expect to pay more than $1,300 additional gas money than Rick Nosek will for his car.
O'BRIEN: All right, but Rick would pay probably more than $1,300 more for that vehicle. So it's a tough tradeoff, isn't it?
HUNTINGTON: It is a tradeoff, Miles, indeed. And the -- the fact is that most of the people who are buying the hybrids right now are essentially people who have made up their mind that they want to be on the -- on the leading edge of the environmental movement. They're not necessarily making a pure economic decision.
O'BRIEN: Right, early adopters, making a point. All right. Chris Huntington, thank you very much.
All of this info, just priming the pump for you. We're less than an hour away from the president's big pitch for his new energy plan. Of course, we're taking it live right here, 2:05 p.m. Eastern Time.
And speaking of the thirst for fossil fuels, the world's largest passenger jet took flight today, burning tens of thousands of gallons of jet "A" fuel. It is an important volley in the high-octane dog fight between Airbus and Boeing. Richard Quest and I will talk about that and much more, coming up in just a few moments.
PHILLIPS: Well, our security watch begins with a formula for securing America's chemical plants from terrorist attack. The Senate's homeland security committee is hearing expert testimony. And we'll hear more from one of those witnesses later on LIVE FROM. Richard Falkenrath of the Brookings Institution will join us at 3:15 Eastern, 12:15 Pacific.
Now, the House Homeland Security Panel takes a fairly dim view of that terrorist color chart. Members may well green light a measure that would make the chart optional sometime next year. The homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, says that he wouldn't agree to scrap it outright.
Now standing pat on the Patriot Act, today, our attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, and FBI chief Robert Mueller, they're imploring the Senate Intelligence Committee to renew those provisions of the controversial law that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The measure's surveillance and intelligence provisions have sparked civil rights concerns from the outset, but officials say the benefits outweigh the supposedly hypothetical risks.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
O'BRIEN: A frantic 911 call from the trunk of a speeding car. Or just a prank? Well, either way, you probably should check it out, right? Apparently not. The tragic consequences of that decision, next.
Also ahead, the biggest homes, the nicest streets, the fattest wallets. Find out who's got them. We'll unveil America's richest zip codes.
And they're here. Times five. A surrogate mom delivers joy and then some. A LIVE FROM follow-up is next.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: News across America now.
Baby boys, bouncing all over the place, a whole basketball team's worth. Saw a little brief view there of our chief writer, Jim Guthrie.
In Phoenix yesterday, surrogate mom Teresa Anderson delivered quintuplets. Pretty small. All weigh less than four pounds. One needs surgery, but doctors give them good all prospects. Jim can relate to this. Diaper fest 2005 begins right now.
Syndicated radio talker Laura Ingraham recovering today from breast cancer surgery. A fill-in host told her radio audience that the surgery was a success. Ingraham's talk show is heard on 250 stations.
And the search for Jonathan Leber called off now. The 20-year- old private pilot ran out of fuel over Lake Michigan late Monday night. He ditched his single engine piper and then made a frantic distress call using his cell phone, apparently having trouble communicating to the operator. At the time he was actually in the water.
(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you flying or are you on the ground?
JONATHAN LEBER, PILOT: I'm on -- I'm in Michigan, Lake Michigan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're in Michigan?
LEBER: Yes, my plane ran out of fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, and you're in the air or on the ground?
LEBER: No, I'm on -- in the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, do you know where in Michigan?
LEBER: About 5 miles east of Timmerman -- uh, not Timmerman, Milwaukee Airport.
(END AUDIOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That's amazing. Well, a 911 call and the 911 system in general are also at the center of a Chicago area investigation. They're trying to determine if police acted properly in the case of a kidnapped teenager who dispatchers initially thought was pulling a prank. Well, he wasn't.
CNN's Chris Lawrence has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This suburban Chicago teenager spent his last moments on a cell phone, begging police to save his life.
DAVID STEEVES, KIDNAPPING VICTIM: Please help me, please help me. Oh, my god, please help me!
LAWRENCE: David Steeves is dead. And police in Elgin, Illinois, are conducting an internal investigation to see if more could have been done to save him.
Police say these two men robbed Steeves and stuffed him in the trunk of his mother's car. That's when he pulled out his cell phone and called 911.
STEEVES: My name is David Steeves. Please find me; I'm in trouble right now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your name?
STEEVES: David Steeves. I'm on -- we're going fast, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay on the phone with us.
STEEVES: I'm in a trunk right now. I don't know where I'm at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, stay on the phone, man.
STEEVES: Oh my God. You guys, please help me, please help me. Oh, my God, please help me.
LAWRENCE: The call was disconnected and the operator thought it could be a prank.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time the Call Taker tries to call the subject back, he hangs up. He won't give his name the way we can understand what he's saying. All he says is he's moving fast and traveling South Street in the trunk of a green Toyota Corolla. And then he hangs up.
Call Taker thinks it could be a prank, but isn't definite on it.
LAWRENCE (on camera): For the next 15 minutes, police talk to some local teenagers nearby to see if one of them made the call. When an officer determined they didn't, he told operators to clear what he called this prank call.
(voice-over) Police kept looking for that car, and six days later, they found it with Steeves still in the trunk, shot to death. These two men have been charged with his murder.
Steeves' family has supported the police, calling their efforts tireless and diligent. But investigators still want to find out if everyone involved acted appropriately.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next, on LIVE FROM, the plus-size pleasure plane takes flight and our favorite international male is on the scene. Richard Quest waxes poetic about the wonders of the biggest thing to hit air travel since the Spruce Goose.
Later, who is behind disturbing images of the molestation of a young girl? Meet the detective trying to save her and solve a shocking crime.
Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, a heartbreaking mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can't fathom that 10-year-old boy getting a shotgun, putting a pillow to his mom's head, shooting her, put a note under her pillow, then reload the shotgun and then shoot himself. I just cannot fathom that.
PHILLIPS: Is this the face of a killer? A closer look at the boy police say did the unthinkable and the family that says "no way."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: There's the new aviation behemoth in the air, as of today. The colossal Airbus A-380 could corral more than 800 passengers into its double deck seats.
It took flight for the first time from France earlier today. After the four-hour aerial shakedown, Airbus chief test pilot Jacques Rosay said the world's largest passenger jet handled just like a bicycle.
It's the latest volley in a tempestuous transoceanic battle between the European airplane maker and U.S.-based Boeing.
Joining us with more proof that size can matter is our Richard Quest, who made le trek to Toulouse.
Hello, Richard. How big is it?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This plane is absolutely huge. I'll put it in perspective for you. Its wingspan, at 261 feet, is twice the distance, more than twice the distance, than the Wright brothers flew in 1903. They only flew basically 120 feet.
So it's a huge plane that way. It is a huge plane that way. And it is also a very heavy plane. Today's maiden flight, Miles, just over 421 tons, by no means the heaviest for the 380, but was a world record. So already this plane has gone into the record books.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about this as a business decision for Airbus. Lots of passengers, double decks, a plane that doesn't really work at a lot of airports because it is so big.
Meanwhile, Boeing, on the other side of the Atlantic, is going in an entirely different direction, coming up with the 787, which is more fuel efficient, more designed for point to point transportation, fewer numbers of passengers.
Who's going to win this battle? It is a bit of an apple and orange battle, but who's going to win?
QUEST: You see, the point is that most major international airlines will turn around and say, "Well, it's not an either and an or, it's a both. We need," they will say, "the A-380 for those highly-traveled, high-dense routes where the airports like Kennedy or Heathrow in London are slot restricted and capacity is limited." So Frankfurt to Los Angeles, London to New York, Singapore to London, those sort of routes. But you also need that medium-sized plane like the Dreamliner, the 787. And what Boeing says is, and I think there's a certain validity to its argument -- Boeing says yes, Airbus will sell planes, they just won't sell very many of them. We're going to sell many more of the 787s. They are cheaper to buy, they don't carry as many passengers. Airlines will prefer that for point to point travel. So what you end up with is this wonderful scenario that, to use that old cliche, time will tell.
O'BRIEN: Ah, time will tell. Well, one other thing we should point out, though, Airbus is coming out with "me, too" jet to answer the 787, a fuel-efficient jet. Is it possible that Airbus, which has already surpassed Boeing as the leading manufacturer of airliners in the world, that Airbus is on such a roll that Boeing is in deep trouble?
QUEST: No, not on this particular point. The A-350, the plane you're talking about, is a remake, a tired retread if you like, of the A-330 that it currently makes. What Airbus is doing is a spoiler campaign against the 787. Airbus -- Boeing tried something very similar against the 380 when they tried to redo the 747. They're still talking about redoing the 747.
The truth is, the airlines will go to that plane that is offering the newest technology, the most fuel-efficient forums. In that case, for the largest plane, it has to be the A-380. At the moment, for the medium plane, it's probably the Dreamliner. Let's not be side- tracked, if you like, by these foibles of the aviation manufacturers.
O'BRIEN: All right. We never are side-tracked when we speak with you. Richard Quest, always appreciate your time.
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