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Live From...
Homes Endangered by Landslide; Runaway Bride Agrees to Plea Bargain; Prosecutor Makes Closing Statements in Michael Jackson Trial
Aired June 02, 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.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Chris Lawrence live in Laguna Beach, California, where a mudslide has wiped out 18 points. And with the soil still moving, residents are still wondering, is their home next?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's plainly offensive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL LIN, HOST: Well, he called it video excrement. We'll find out what he's talking about in this racy video -- training video for the 49ers. It is racy. In fact, the mayor -- it angers the mayor, and it embarrasses the team owners. You're going to actually see the video, and we'll talk about it.
I the meantime, the runaway bride walks into court and answers felony charges. We are live on the story.
And Hollywood legend Tony Curtis still likes it hot. Wait until you hear how he's celebrating his 80th birthday. He's going to join me live on the set for a great interview and some great memories.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin. Miles and Kyra are off today. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Well, the earth's not moving anymore. But residents of seven- figure homes in the landslide zone of Laguna Beach, California, are not moving back either. At least not yet. Seventeen homes, each worth an estimated million dollars-plus, slid off their perches in Bluebird Canyon early yesterday in a landslide possibly tied to an extremely wet winter.
Well, today, many more sit empty, seemingly intact but in varying degrees of danger.
CNN's Chris Lawrence has the very latest. He's live out there in Laguna Beach.
Chris, so folks aren't interested in going back to their homes just yet?
LAWRENCE: No, Carol, but it could be within the next few hours. A lot of people around here find out if it's OK to start crossing some of these barricades and actually get into their homes. A lot of people have been coming up to then police, asking, when can I get in? Or at least can firefighters go in and check on the pets that were trapped inside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Some homes cracked in half as the ground gave way. Others appeared to stay intact, even as they slid down the hillside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ran down the front side of the mountain. And we could hear this house collapsing behind us, sinking in. And I guess the driveway moved 200 feet as we were running down it.
LAWRENCE: And the ground could keep moving for the next few weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I certainly encourage people, one, to leave the area and, two, to stay out of the area.
LAWRENCE: Vera Martinez doesn't have a choice.
VERA MARTINEZ, HOME OWNER: My house is right above there.
LAWRENCE: Her home has been red tagged, which means it could collapse at any time. And the frightening thing is if that happens, she's got no insurance coverage.
MARTINEZ: What angers me is that there's no insurance company that will offer any kind of landslide insurance.
LAWRENCE: Insurance companies won't cover mudslides, which fall under so-called acts of God.
Laguna has been dry for the past month. But this winter dumped more than 28 inches of rain, twice what the town sees in a normal year. Geologists say that water never drained and slowly destabilized the soil.
MARTINEZ: It's about Mother Nature saying, you know, pay attention to me a little bit more. Don't build here. Don't build here.
LAWRENCE: But people have and always will. Because someone will always want to wake up to this view.
Here's what this hillside looked like before the landslide. And here is what it looks like now. Laguna Beach has some prime ocean- front property. But sometimes it comes at an incredible price.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: And even though a lot of these homes are worth upwards of $1.5 million, some of the people who live there are not necessarily millionaires. They have smaller homes that just radically increased in value because of the Southern California housing boom. But their equity is all tied up in their homes. If the home is wiped out -- and geologists say you cannot build on that land -- a lot of their money is gone. And because insurance companies will not insure against landslides, a lot of families could have a lot of very big financial problems coming up in the next few weeks and months -- Carol.
LIN: You bet. All right, thanks very much, Chris Lawrence. Keep us posted as to when those residents will be able to get back in.
In the meantime, no contest but a tearful apology from Jennifer Wilbanks, the Georgia woman who ran away from home this week -- the week that she was supposed to get married.
She appeared this morning in public for the first time since her bizarre return to Atlanta. Her purpose was a plea agreement disposing of a felony indictment stemming from her bogus claim that she'd been kidnapped.
So we get the details from CNN's David Mattingly. He's in Lawrenceville right now.
So why the deal, David?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the bottom line for the runaway bride today is that she will not see any jail time.
She came into court today, pled no contest to the felony charge of giving false statements to the police. The judge then sentenced her to two years probation, 120 hours of community service, and she is also to continue her mental health treatment.
She got a little emotional at one point when the judge asked if she want to make a statement to the court. And for the first time, we hear directly from her the words, "I'm sorry."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER WILBANKS, RUNAWAY BRIDE: Your honor, I'm truly sorry for my actions. And I -- I just want to thank the Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth for all of their efforts. That's all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Wilbanks will also have to pay $2,500 to the county sheriff, on top of the $13,000 she's already paid to local police. All that money will go to reimburse those departments for the overtime they incurred while they were looking for her when she was a missing person.
The district attorney in this case released a written statement. He said that this is a good resolution of the matter under all of the facts of the case and taking into consideration Mrs. Wilbanks prior criminal record. He's referring to the shoplifting charge in the past.
"Other than the overwhelming press scrutiny," he wrote, "this was a routine case handled in a routine manner."
Wilbanks was in court with her fiance and her parents. All of them left today, Carol, without any further statement.
LIN: Hey, David, I don't know if it was a typo in that graphic but we had her as Mrs. Wilbanks. She's not married yet. But any word on whether she is going to keep her promise and marry her fiance?
MATTINGLY: Well, we know that the question has been popped again, and we know that they're not even close to making any other plans for any other ceremony. And she was wearing the ring in court today. But again this wasn't a topic of discussion in the court. And no one had anything to say after they came out.
LIN: All right, David Mattingly, thank you very much.
Now we want to back to California where prosecutors are summarizing, prioritizing, maximizing their molestation and conspiracy case against the one time King of Pop. Closing arguments are under way some 14 weeks after Michael Jackson went to trial in Santa Maria.
And CNN's Ted Rowlands has been there from the outset.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prosecutor Ron Zonen came out swinging in the beginning of his closing arguments, telling the jury that, quote, "This is a case about exploitation and abuse of a 13- year-old cancer survivor at the hands of an international celebrity."
In front of a packed courtroom, Zonen told jurors that he would take a few hours in his closing arguments. The judge has allowed both sides a complete total of four hours. Prosecutors will have the last word in a rebuttal case.
Jackson showed no emotion in the courtroom, no visible emotion, listening to Zonen detail what he called was the exploitation of this young boy. Zonen said that Jackson called his victims and he abused not only this child but many other children. He talked about pornography at Neverland Ranch and the fact Michael Jackson, in his opinion, gave the boy in this case alcohol.
Zonen said the idea that this boy's mother was behind this entire case was preposterous, and if jurors thought about it and used common sense, they would come to the same conclusion.
The defense will have opportunity to present their closing arguments to the jury when Zonen was finished with this segment of it. We expect that to happen, as well, today.
Outside the courtroom, hundreds of fans have gathered here, recreating the circus-like atmosphere that we saw early on in the trial. They have been vocal. They, too, are packed inside the courtroom.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: In the meantime, Richmond, Virginia, police hope somebody will recognize this man, the chief suspect in a sting of killings late yesterday. He's caught here on a store security camera. But he's still at large.
Three men were shot, all shot to death, all robbed and all within 15 minutes of one another.
Now, here's the last car the suspect was seen in, a Lincoln with a white roof and temporary tags. The victims included two store clerks, one in a dry-cleaner's and one in a convenience store, both in a Southside strip mall.
Police have little more than the camera photos and some witness accounts. And they are hoping someone will spot the gunman and notify authorities.
All right. Imagine needing armored vehicles and a security convoy just to go to the airport. Well, that's the reality of war- torn Iraq. Just ahead on CNN's LIVE FROM, CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joins me to talk about life in the war zone. Also, Ingrid Formanek, one of our senior producers.
And an apology for slavery from one of the biggest banks in America.
And also ahead on LIVE FROM, is there a connection between long- term use of aspirin and the risk for breast cancer? CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the story. Straight ahead.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
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LIN: Three more suicide car bombings along with a motorcycle bombing killed at least 17 people in Iraq today, all north of the capital.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, Operation Lightning strikes again, and a key insurgent out of circulation. His alias is Amir Abu Ghraib. And the troops who captured him say he's responsible for numerous attacks and deaths.
Now, the fight for Iraq has never been a traditional military contest, but it might not even be the conflict that journalists and the Pentagon so often try to boil down to a single word.
CNN's Barbara Starr has a few words to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the death toll in Iraq has mounted for U.S. troops and Iraqis, one word has been used repeatedly to describe the violence, insurgency.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS: We're involved in an insurgency, a very violent insurgency.
STARR: But is Iraq an insurgency? Most experts agree it is a unique conflict that cannot be easily labeled. The Pentagon defines insurgency as an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through use of subversion and armed conflict.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: In Iraq, you have a small insurgency, fighting largely for the benefit of one ethnic group but aided by globally motivated and inspired jihadists.
STARR: Experts say the Iraq insurgency centers around members of the former regime who want to retake power. They number in the thousands. But the most lethal fighters are the hundreds of foreign fighters trying to incite civil war, loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
COL. THOMAS HAMMES, U.S. MARINE CORPS: What you have in Iraq is a variety of organizations that are very interested in taking power. Now, they don't agree with each other, but they do all agree that the United States has to get out.
STARR: Is Iraq the new Vietnam? Experts say no. The North Vietnamese had outside support from the Soviet and Chinese and appealed to much of the population.
Is Iraq the new El Salvador? For years, the U.S. supported the government there, fighting a left-wing insurgency.
Now in Iraq...
O'HANLON: You do not have essentially the whole society engaged in a broad ideological debate.
STARR: So can this multiheaded enemy be defeated by U.S. and Iraqi forces and by an emerging Iraqi democracy? Fighting insurgents takes manpower.
TOM DONNELLY, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Because you're not just bombing people or blowing things up or destroying enemy forces in large formations. You have to pacify and secure villages and places to allow a new government to legitimate itself, to take root.
STARR (on camera): The most senior Iraqi officers believe the Iraqi people are not supporting the attackers. But those officers also say it could take years to bring peace to the country.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: Well, however it's labeled, the Iraq conflict is deadly serious business. And bringing it to the world is the business of two of my CNN colleagues, senior international correspondent Nic Robertson and also senior international producer Ingrid Formanek. They're both in Atlanta for the CNN world conference.
But wanted to take advantage of your depth and experience to explain what the dangers are for journalists moving around. How difficult is it during this insurgency, during the war, to actually do your job?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a sense Iraq is particularly difficult. Just when you arrive at the airport, just driving into the center of the city is perhaps the most dangerous drive that you'll take. There's a road where the insurgents will use car bombs to try and target the coalition, target western workers. So that's particularly difficult.
You cannot walk around the streets. And it's strange when you drive around the streets. Iraqis are going about their daily life, shopping. Their families are out there. But for us, as a reporter, you'd want to get out and talk to them, walk the streets. And that's very difficult. You can only do that in a very controlled and carefully planned way.
LIN: And when you say careful and controlled, I mean, you actually had a reaction when Jane Arraf told some of us that she was actually able to go and grab some lunch, something that we take for granted.
What does it take to move around and how much does something like that cost?
INGRID FORMANEK, CNN INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER: Well, No. 1, it's very rare they actually do go out for lunch, because it almost seems frivolous. Because it's such an effort just to do the news.
As a producer, I spend the majority of my time with logistical and safety concerns rather than editorial concerns. That's how difficult it is to move around.
You have to worry about where you go, when you do it, what attacks have been on this particular place, who may be watching you. There's a series of things that you have to do before you ever get to the news.
And it's not only us as western journalists. It's also the Iraqis that work with us. They take just as great risks as we do, maybe even more, because they have families. They have to come and go to work every day. They're watched.
Because we're western media, we are very often seen as the enemy, rightly or wrongly, but we are seen as the enemy. And the Iraqis that work with us are seen as collaborators, which makes them much more of a target, and their families become a target. And their situation becomes even more difficult than ours. We've lost a number of people that worked with us. And it's tragic. The number of journalists that have died in Iraq are overwhelming. Reporters without Borders declared 2004 the year of mourning because more journalists around the world lost their lives than in any other year since 1955.
So it's a very tough place to work from. And editorially, it's also very, very difficult, and that's a whole set of different problems.
LIN: And in terms of, you know, what you talk about moving around. Nic, you mentioned that you could pay, what, thousands of dollars just to get a ride from the airport to, say, the center of the city in Baghdad, right?
ROBERTSON: Some security companies will charge you that much. Or you can take an armored bus to ride into the center of the city.
It's not the place perhaps, let's say, Bosnia 10 years ago, where you could go in as a freelancer and work within the city of Sarajevo or other places. It's very, very difficult for -- for sort of an aspiring journalist to go there and set up and try and work. Because the costs are very high for protecting yourself, protecting your colleagues.
LIN: Ingrid, you were talking about the locals that you depend on. There was a very dear loss to the CNN team. Tell us about this young man. You said that he was the future of Iraq.
FORMANEK: Well, he was an extraordinary human being. We actually found him towards the end of Saddam Hussein regime, just before the war started.
LIN: We have a picture of him up. His name?
FORMANEK: And -- Doure Bautispiret (ph). And he was a very untypical Iraqi who was not cowered by the regime of Saddam Hussein. He had very little fear.
It was a society that was ruled by fear. He wanted to bust out of that. He was hungry for knowledge.
And for Nic and me -- I hope I can speak for you, he represented the future of Iraq, of what this country could achieve and he embraced it. And it was a tragic loss when he got killed. And again, it was a waste of life. He died working for us. And it shows you the dangers that the Iraqis take just working for us.
LIN: When you go into a hot spot situation, though, Nic, you actually met him -- his name again, his full name.
ROBERTSON: Doure (ph).
LIN: Doure (ph). You actually met him at the beginning of the war, right?
ROBERTSON: Yes. Just before the war began.
LIN: Before the war began.
ROBERTSON: Right.
LIN: How do you know who you can trust in this environment?
ROBERTSON: When you arrive at any country as an outside reporter going in and you need a translator, how do you know if that person is giving you an honest translation? How do you know if they're not putting some political slant or their own version of events...
LIN: How do you know he's not going to take you to the insurgents, you know, and know that he's going to get thousands of dollars for your head?
ROBERTSON: You develop trust. I mean, and you have to use your gut instincts. I think both Ingrid and I have been through that a few times. You have to use your gut instincts on who you can trust at the outset.
You have to make those relationships very quickly, and you have to assess them, you know, maybe on a minute by minute, hour by hour basis. And after a couple of days you can kind of judge somebody. Maybe you have two people so you use checks and balances.
LIN: Because it's the network's reputation on the line as well as your lives. You really do trust these people to move you through the back streets to get to the interviews, to get to the story, to line you up with the key people who can -- who can verify the information.
The two of you have been with CNN for quite some time, and you have a pretty colorful history. And in fact, we want to share a picture that we found of the two of you from the early days. This was from the first Gulf War. Nic Robertson, I think you were a satellite technician at the time.
ROBERTSON: Do you like the...
LIN: And Ingrid Formanek, a sultry woman in the middle of a war zone.
ROBERTSON: Casablanca (ph).
LIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) What were those early days like here at CNN -- this was -- give me the context for this picture. This was during or before the first Gulf War?
ROBERTSON: I think...
FORMANEK: It just started...
ROBERTSON: It was the morning after...
FORMANEK: It was day three. Became clear the number of people who had to leave. We had Bernie Shaw on the air in recent days, reminiscing about the war and the certain number of people needed to get out. So there was a team that stayed and a team that needed to get out. And that was our group picture just at that moment. It was about three or four days into the war.
And then some people left and then we all reunited again after Peter Arnett staying there by himself.
But it was a very, very different time to be doing the news than it is now. Our business has changed very much in the last 10 years. That was a highlight for both of us. It was a great journalistic moment of journalistic history. And we never saw this until the end of the war.
And somebody showed us a video clip of all the networks lined up on the newsroom wall and everybody punching out CNN. It was a great, great moment in journalistic history, but our business has very much changed because of the dangers since then.
LIN: Are there any places that either of you would not go, simply because it's too dangerous?
ROBERTSON: I always think of situations often look more dangerous from the outside. And you can go close and get local knowledge and then perhaps the city that seemed dangerous there are areas of the city that are dangerous and then when you get the local knowledge it's perhaps the streets in those areas that are dangerous.
So you can -- you can make an assessment when you get closer to the problem. But I don't know about you, but I wouldn't really want to go into the middle of some heavily radioactive situation. But I think everything else, I try and judge it on a case by case basis.
FORMANEK: Nuclear war.
LIN: All right, we draw the line at nuclear war.
ROBERTSON: Big nuclear war.
LIN: Big nuclear war. Thank you so much. We appreciate all the work that you and your colleagues do out in the field to bring us the news from these dangerous hot spots. Thanks, Ingrid. Thanks, Nic. Good to see both of you.
ROBERTSON: Thank you.
LIN: And a pleasure to meet your kids, who are very proud of you.
ROBERTSON: Thank you.
LIN: In the meantime, we're going to have much more LIVE FROM after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIN (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are women in the locker room...
LIN: Flag on the play. A training video for the San Francisco 49ers featuring topless women and racial stereotypes goes out of bounds and angers city hall.
Securing the skies. What if you're told you're on the no-fly list? new way to clear your name.
And later on LIVE FROM...
MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS: Yes, real hot.
LIN: If you like it hot, you'll love our LIVE FROM interview with Hollywood legend Tony Curtis, on his career and his birthday suit appearance, to celebrate his 80th birthday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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LIN: From the medical front, results of a 10-year study focusing on over the counter pain medications and a possible link to breast cancer. The numbers are far from rock solid but interesting enough for the medical community to take notice.
More from CNN medical -- senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been known for some time that painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen not only reduce pain and prevent heart disease but may also prevent cancer.
For example, listen to this. Studies have already shown that aspirin reduces certain polyps which could be pre-cancers for colon cancer. The question was this: could these same pain relievers also reduce the risk of breast cancer?
Well, researchers at the University of Southern California decided to put that to the test. A hundred and fourteen thousand women between the ages of 22 and 85 were part of what was called the California teacher study. At the beginning of the study, they were all breast cancer free. Six years later, nearly 2,400 of these women had breast cancer.
When they asked these women about their use of pain relievers, what they found was kind of surprising. Women taking ibuprofen every day for more than five years had a 50 percent higher risk for breast cancer. And women taking aspirin daily for more than five years had an 80 percent increased risk for a certain type of breast cancer, as well.
Now, researchers are being very careful here not to say that these painkillers cause breast cancer. Just want to make it clear that this particular study really can't be explained.
In fact, the American Cancer Society points out there have been at least 20 previous studies, and none of them have ever reported such an increased risk.
So the question, really, for you at home is this: what are you going to do? If you're taking ibuprofen or aspirin for pain relief or to prevent heart disease, you should continue to do so.
But if you're taking these drugs as a means to prevent breast cancer, doctors say the verdict is still out on that one. So as always if you have any concerns, ask your doctor.
Dr. Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
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Aired June 2, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Chris Lawrence live in Laguna Beach, California, where a mudslide has wiped out 18 points. And with the soil still moving, residents are still wondering, is their home next?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's plainly offensive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL LIN, HOST: Well, he called it video excrement. We'll find out what he's talking about in this racy video -- training video for the 49ers. It is racy. In fact, the mayor -- it angers the mayor, and it embarrasses the team owners. You're going to actually see the video, and we'll talk about it.
I the meantime, the runaway bride walks into court and answers felony charges. We are live on the story.
And Hollywood legend Tony Curtis still likes it hot. Wait until you hear how he's celebrating his 80th birthday. He's going to join me live on the set for a great interview and some great memories.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin. Miles and Kyra are off today. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Well, the earth's not moving anymore. But residents of seven- figure homes in the landslide zone of Laguna Beach, California, are not moving back either. At least not yet. Seventeen homes, each worth an estimated million dollars-plus, slid off their perches in Bluebird Canyon early yesterday in a landslide possibly tied to an extremely wet winter.
Well, today, many more sit empty, seemingly intact but in varying degrees of danger.
CNN's Chris Lawrence has the very latest. He's live out there in Laguna Beach.
Chris, so folks aren't interested in going back to their homes just yet?
LAWRENCE: No, Carol, but it could be within the next few hours. A lot of people around here find out if it's OK to start crossing some of these barricades and actually get into their homes. A lot of people have been coming up to then police, asking, when can I get in? Or at least can firefighters go in and check on the pets that were trapped inside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Some homes cracked in half as the ground gave way. Others appeared to stay intact, even as they slid down the hillside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ran down the front side of the mountain. And we could hear this house collapsing behind us, sinking in. And I guess the driveway moved 200 feet as we were running down it.
LAWRENCE: And the ground could keep moving for the next few weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I certainly encourage people, one, to leave the area and, two, to stay out of the area.
LAWRENCE: Vera Martinez doesn't have a choice.
VERA MARTINEZ, HOME OWNER: My house is right above there.
LAWRENCE: Her home has been red tagged, which means it could collapse at any time. And the frightening thing is if that happens, she's got no insurance coverage.
MARTINEZ: What angers me is that there's no insurance company that will offer any kind of landslide insurance.
LAWRENCE: Insurance companies won't cover mudslides, which fall under so-called acts of God.
Laguna has been dry for the past month. But this winter dumped more than 28 inches of rain, twice what the town sees in a normal year. Geologists say that water never drained and slowly destabilized the soil.
MARTINEZ: It's about Mother Nature saying, you know, pay attention to me a little bit more. Don't build here. Don't build here.
LAWRENCE: But people have and always will. Because someone will always want to wake up to this view.
Here's what this hillside looked like before the landslide. And here is what it looks like now. Laguna Beach has some prime ocean- front property. But sometimes it comes at an incredible price.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: And even though a lot of these homes are worth upwards of $1.5 million, some of the people who live there are not necessarily millionaires. They have smaller homes that just radically increased in value because of the Southern California housing boom. But their equity is all tied up in their homes. If the home is wiped out -- and geologists say you cannot build on that land -- a lot of their money is gone. And because insurance companies will not insure against landslides, a lot of families could have a lot of very big financial problems coming up in the next few weeks and months -- Carol.
LIN: You bet. All right, thanks very much, Chris Lawrence. Keep us posted as to when those residents will be able to get back in.
In the meantime, no contest but a tearful apology from Jennifer Wilbanks, the Georgia woman who ran away from home this week -- the week that she was supposed to get married.
She appeared this morning in public for the first time since her bizarre return to Atlanta. Her purpose was a plea agreement disposing of a felony indictment stemming from her bogus claim that she'd been kidnapped.
So we get the details from CNN's David Mattingly. He's in Lawrenceville right now.
So why the deal, David?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the bottom line for the runaway bride today is that she will not see any jail time.
She came into court today, pled no contest to the felony charge of giving false statements to the police. The judge then sentenced her to two years probation, 120 hours of community service, and she is also to continue her mental health treatment.
She got a little emotional at one point when the judge asked if she want to make a statement to the court. And for the first time, we hear directly from her the words, "I'm sorry."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER WILBANKS, RUNAWAY BRIDE: Your honor, I'm truly sorry for my actions. And I -- I just want to thank the Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth for all of their efforts. That's all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Wilbanks will also have to pay $2,500 to the county sheriff, on top of the $13,000 she's already paid to local police. All that money will go to reimburse those departments for the overtime they incurred while they were looking for her when she was a missing person.
The district attorney in this case released a written statement. He said that this is a good resolution of the matter under all of the facts of the case and taking into consideration Mrs. Wilbanks prior criminal record. He's referring to the shoplifting charge in the past.
"Other than the overwhelming press scrutiny," he wrote, "this was a routine case handled in a routine manner."
Wilbanks was in court with her fiance and her parents. All of them left today, Carol, without any further statement.
LIN: Hey, David, I don't know if it was a typo in that graphic but we had her as Mrs. Wilbanks. She's not married yet. But any word on whether she is going to keep her promise and marry her fiance?
MATTINGLY: Well, we know that the question has been popped again, and we know that they're not even close to making any other plans for any other ceremony. And she was wearing the ring in court today. But again this wasn't a topic of discussion in the court. And no one had anything to say after they came out.
LIN: All right, David Mattingly, thank you very much.
Now we want to back to California where prosecutors are summarizing, prioritizing, maximizing their molestation and conspiracy case against the one time King of Pop. Closing arguments are under way some 14 weeks after Michael Jackson went to trial in Santa Maria.
And CNN's Ted Rowlands has been there from the outset.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prosecutor Ron Zonen came out swinging in the beginning of his closing arguments, telling the jury that, quote, "This is a case about exploitation and abuse of a 13- year-old cancer survivor at the hands of an international celebrity."
In front of a packed courtroom, Zonen told jurors that he would take a few hours in his closing arguments. The judge has allowed both sides a complete total of four hours. Prosecutors will have the last word in a rebuttal case.
Jackson showed no emotion in the courtroom, no visible emotion, listening to Zonen detail what he called was the exploitation of this young boy. Zonen said that Jackson called his victims and he abused not only this child but many other children. He talked about pornography at Neverland Ranch and the fact Michael Jackson, in his opinion, gave the boy in this case alcohol.
Zonen said the idea that this boy's mother was behind this entire case was preposterous, and if jurors thought about it and used common sense, they would come to the same conclusion.
The defense will have opportunity to present their closing arguments to the jury when Zonen was finished with this segment of it. We expect that to happen, as well, today.
Outside the courtroom, hundreds of fans have gathered here, recreating the circus-like atmosphere that we saw early on in the trial. They have been vocal. They, too, are packed inside the courtroom.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: In the meantime, Richmond, Virginia, police hope somebody will recognize this man, the chief suspect in a sting of killings late yesterday. He's caught here on a store security camera. But he's still at large.
Three men were shot, all shot to death, all robbed and all within 15 minutes of one another.
Now, here's the last car the suspect was seen in, a Lincoln with a white roof and temporary tags. The victims included two store clerks, one in a dry-cleaner's and one in a convenience store, both in a Southside strip mall.
Police have little more than the camera photos and some witness accounts. And they are hoping someone will spot the gunman and notify authorities.
All right. Imagine needing armored vehicles and a security convoy just to go to the airport. Well, that's the reality of war- torn Iraq. Just ahead on CNN's LIVE FROM, CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joins me to talk about life in the war zone. Also, Ingrid Formanek, one of our senior producers.
And an apology for slavery from one of the biggest banks in America.
And also ahead on LIVE FROM, is there a connection between long- term use of aspirin and the risk for breast cancer? CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the story. Straight ahead.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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LIN: Three more suicide car bombings along with a motorcycle bombing killed at least 17 people in Iraq today, all north of the capital.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, Operation Lightning strikes again, and a key insurgent out of circulation. His alias is Amir Abu Ghraib. And the troops who captured him say he's responsible for numerous attacks and deaths.
Now, the fight for Iraq has never been a traditional military contest, but it might not even be the conflict that journalists and the Pentagon so often try to boil down to a single word.
CNN's Barbara Starr has a few words to say about that.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the death toll in Iraq has mounted for U.S. troops and Iraqis, one word has been used repeatedly to describe the violence, insurgency.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS: We're involved in an insurgency, a very violent insurgency.
STARR: But is Iraq an insurgency? Most experts agree it is a unique conflict that cannot be easily labeled. The Pentagon defines insurgency as an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through use of subversion and armed conflict.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: In Iraq, you have a small insurgency, fighting largely for the benefit of one ethnic group but aided by globally motivated and inspired jihadists.
STARR: Experts say the Iraq insurgency centers around members of the former regime who want to retake power. They number in the thousands. But the most lethal fighters are the hundreds of foreign fighters trying to incite civil war, loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
COL. THOMAS HAMMES, U.S. MARINE CORPS: What you have in Iraq is a variety of organizations that are very interested in taking power. Now, they don't agree with each other, but they do all agree that the United States has to get out.
STARR: Is Iraq the new Vietnam? Experts say no. The North Vietnamese had outside support from the Soviet and Chinese and appealed to much of the population.
Is Iraq the new El Salvador? For years, the U.S. supported the government there, fighting a left-wing insurgency.
Now in Iraq...
O'HANLON: You do not have essentially the whole society engaged in a broad ideological debate.
STARR: So can this multiheaded enemy be defeated by U.S. and Iraqi forces and by an emerging Iraqi democracy? Fighting insurgents takes manpower.
TOM DONNELLY, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Because you're not just bombing people or blowing things up or destroying enemy forces in large formations. You have to pacify and secure villages and places to allow a new government to legitimate itself, to take root.
STARR (on camera): The most senior Iraqi officers believe the Iraqi people are not supporting the attackers. But those officers also say it could take years to bring peace to the country.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: Well, however it's labeled, the Iraq conflict is deadly serious business. And bringing it to the world is the business of two of my CNN colleagues, senior international correspondent Nic Robertson and also senior international producer Ingrid Formanek. They're both in Atlanta for the CNN world conference.
But wanted to take advantage of your depth and experience to explain what the dangers are for journalists moving around. How difficult is it during this insurgency, during the war, to actually do your job?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a sense Iraq is particularly difficult. Just when you arrive at the airport, just driving into the center of the city is perhaps the most dangerous drive that you'll take. There's a road where the insurgents will use car bombs to try and target the coalition, target western workers. So that's particularly difficult.
You cannot walk around the streets. And it's strange when you drive around the streets. Iraqis are going about their daily life, shopping. Their families are out there. But for us, as a reporter, you'd want to get out and talk to them, walk the streets. And that's very difficult. You can only do that in a very controlled and carefully planned way.
LIN: And when you say careful and controlled, I mean, you actually had a reaction when Jane Arraf told some of us that she was actually able to go and grab some lunch, something that we take for granted.
What does it take to move around and how much does something like that cost?
INGRID FORMANEK, CNN INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER: Well, No. 1, it's very rare they actually do go out for lunch, because it almost seems frivolous. Because it's such an effort just to do the news.
As a producer, I spend the majority of my time with logistical and safety concerns rather than editorial concerns. That's how difficult it is to move around.
You have to worry about where you go, when you do it, what attacks have been on this particular place, who may be watching you. There's a series of things that you have to do before you ever get to the news.
And it's not only us as western journalists. It's also the Iraqis that work with us. They take just as great risks as we do, maybe even more, because they have families. They have to come and go to work every day. They're watched.
Because we're western media, we are very often seen as the enemy, rightly or wrongly, but we are seen as the enemy. And the Iraqis that work with us are seen as collaborators, which makes them much more of a target, and their families become a target. And their situation becomes even more difficult than ours. We've lost a number of people that worked with us. And it's tragic. The number of journalists that have died in Iraq are overwhelming. Reporters without Borders declared 2004 the year of mourning because more journalists around the world lost their lives than in any other year since 1955.
So it's a very tough place to work from. And editorially, it's also very, very difficult, and that's a whole set of different problems.
LIN: And in terms of, you know, what you talk about moving around. Nic, you mentioned that you could pay, what, thousands of dollars just to get a ride from the airport to, say, the center of the city in Baghdad, right?
ROBERTSON: Some security companies will charge you that much. Or you can take an armored bus to ride into the center of the city.
It's not the place perhaps, let's say, Bosnia 10 years ago, where you could go in as a freelancer and work within the city of Sarajevo or other places. It's very, very difficult for -- for sort of an aspiring journalist to go there and set up and try and work. Because the costs are very high for protecting yourself, protecting your colleagues.
LIN: Ingrid, you were talking about the locals that you depend on. There was a very dear loss to the CNN team. Tell us about this young man. You said that he was the future of Iraq.
FORMANEK: Well, he was an extraordinary human being. We actually found him towards the end of Saddam Hussein regime, just before the war started.
LIN: We have a picture of him up. His name?
FORMANEK: And -- Doure Bautispiret (ph). And he was a very untypical Iraqi who was not cowered by the regime of Saddam Hussein. He had very little fear.
It was a society that was ruled by fear. He wanted to bust out of that. He was hungry for knowledge.
And for Nic and me -- I hope I can speak for you, he represented the future of Iraq, of what this country could achieve and he embraced it. And it was a tragic loss when he got killed. And again, it was a waste of life. He died working for us. And it shows you the dangers that the Iraqis take just working for us.
LIN: When you go into a hot spot situation, though, Nic, you actually met him -- his name again, his full name.
ROBERTSON: Doure (ph).
LIN: Doure (ph). You actually met him at the beginning of the war, right?
ROBERTSON: Yes. Just before the war began.
LIN: Before the war began.
ROBERTSON: Right.
LIN: How do you know who you can trust in this environment?
ROBERTSON: When you arrive at any country as an outside reporter going in and you need a translator, how do you know if that person is giving you an honest translation? How do you know if they're not putting some political slant or their own version of events...
LIN: How do you know he's not going to take you to the insurgents, you know, and know that he's going to get thousands of dollars for your head?
ROBERTSON: You develop trust. I mean, and you have to use your gut instincts. I think both Ingrid and I have been through that a few times. You have to use your gut instincts on who you can trust at the outset.
You have to make those relationships very quickly, and you have to assess them, you know, maybe on a minute by minute, hour by hour basis. And after a couple of days you can kind of judge somebody. Maybe you have two people so you use checks and balances.
LIN: Because it's the network's reputation on the line as well as your lives. You really do trust these people to move you through the back streets to get to the interviews, to get to the story, to line you up with the key people who can -- who can verify the information.
The two of you have been with CNN for quite some time, and you have a pretty colorful history. And in fact, we want to share a picture that we found of the two of you from the early days. This was from the first Gulf War. Nic Robertson, I think you were a satellite technician at the time.
ROBERTSON: Do you like the...
LIN: And Ingrid Formanek, a sultry woman in the middle of a war zone.
ROBERTSON: Casablanca (ph).
LIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) What were those early days like here at CNN -- this was -- give me the context for this picture. This was during or before the first Gulf War?
ROBERTSON: I think...
FORMANEK: It just started...
ROBERTSON: It was the morning after...
FORMANEK: It was day three. Became clear the number of people who had to leave. We had Bernie Shaw on the air in recent days, reminiscing about the war and the certain number of people needed to get out. So there was a team that stayed and a team that needed to get out. And that was our group picture just at that moment. It was about three or four days into the war.
And then some people left and then we all reunited again after Peter Arnett staying there by himself.
But it was a very, very different time to be doing the news than it is now. Our business has changed very much in the last 10 years. That was a highlight for both of us. It was a great journalistic moment of journalistic history. And we never saw this until the end of the war.
And somebody showed us a video clip of all the networks lined up on the newsroom wall and everybody punching out CNN. It was a great, great moment in journalistic history, but our business has very much changed because of the dangers since then.
LIN: Are there any places that either of you would not go, simply because it's too dangerous?
ROBERTSON: I always think of situations often look more dangerous from the outside. And you can go close and get local knowledge and then perhaps the city that seemed dangerous there are areas of the city that are dangerous and then when you get the local knowledge it's perhaps the streets in those areas that are dangerous.
So you can -- you can make an assessment when you get closer to the problem. But I don't know about you, but I wouldn't really want to go into the middle of some heavily radioactive situation. But I think everything else, I try and judge it on a case by case basis.
FORMANEK: Nuclear war.
LIN: All right, we draw the line at nuclear war.
ROBERTSON: Big nuclear war.
LIN: Big nuclear war. Thank you so much. We appreciate all the work that you and your colleagues do out in the field to bring us the news from these dangerous hot spots. Thanks, Ingrid. Thanks, Nic. Good to see both of you.
ROBERTSON: Thank you.
LIN: And a pleasure to meet your kids, who are very proud of you.
ROBERTSON: Thank you.
LIN: In the meantime, we're going to have much more LIVE FROM after this.
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LIN (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are women in the locker room...
LIN: Flag on the play. A training video for the San Francisco 49ers featuring topless women and racial stereotypes goes out of bounds and angers city hall.
Securing the skies. What if you're told you're on the no-fly list? new way to clear your name.
And later on LIVE FROM...
MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS: Yes, real hot.
LIN: If you like it hot, you'll love our LIVE FROM interview with Hollywood legend Tony Curtis, on his career and his birthday suit appearance, to celebrate his 80th birthday.
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LIN: From the medical front, results of a 10-year study focusing on over the counter pain medications and a possible link to breast cancer. The numbers are far from rock solid but interesting enough for the medical community to take notice.
More from CNN medical -- senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been known for some time that painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen not only reduce pain and prevent heart disease but may also prevent cancer.
For example, listen to this. Studies have already shown that aspirin reduces certain polyps which could be pre-cancers for colon cancer. The question was this: could these same pain relievers also reduce the risk of breast cancer?
Well, researchers at the University of Southern California decided to put that to the test. A hundred and fourteen thousand women between the ages of 22 and 85 were part of what was called the California teacher study. At the beginning of the study, they were all breast cancer free. Six years later, nearly 2,400 of these women had breast cancer.
When they asked these women about their use of pain relievers, what they found was kind of surprising. Women taking ibuprofen every day for more than five years had a 50 percent higher risk for breast cancer. And women taking aspirin daily for more than five years had an 80 percent increased risk for a certain type of breast cancer, as well.
Now, researchers are being very careful here not to say that these painkillers cause breast cancer. Just want to make it clear that this particular study really can't be explained.
In fact, the American Cancer Society points out there have been at least 20 previous studies, and none of them have ever reported such an increased risk.
So the question, really, for you at home is this: what are you going to do? If you're taking ibuprofen or aspirin for pain relief or to prevent heart disease, you should continue to do so.
But if you're taking these drugs as a means to prevent breast cancer, doctors say the verdict is still out on that one. So as always if you have any concerns, ask your doctor.
Dr. Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
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