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Severe Smoking Bans in Some Workplaces; Wrongfully Convicted Man Set Free After 25 Years
Aired December 09, 2005 - 13:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, have you ever wished that there was a way to defog the windows in your car without waiting for that heater? Well, scientists say they've found a way to use nanotechnology to keep that glass clear. Listen to this, they're using a coating composed of nano-particles, made of silica, the same material that glass is made from. It looks as smooth as glass, but it's really rough enough to make the tiny droplets of water run right off the window.
Well, smoking bans in offices and restaurants have been around for years. But what you're about to hear takes the issue just a step further, some would say a step too far. A boss's ban on smoking not just in public places, but in private lives.
Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His personal life mirrors his professional life. Howard Weyers likes to keep himself in shape and is quite adamant about his employees doing the same.
(on-screen): Why is that important?
HOWARD WEYERS, PRESIDENT, WEYCO, INC.: Well, they're going to be more productive.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): And he adds it lowers health insurance rates. That being said, it caused quite a stir when the 71-year-old owner of a company that administers employee benefit plans told his workers they're not allowed to use tobacco, even at home.
(on-screen): Some people might say this is lifestyle discrimination.
WEYERS: Lifestyle assistance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon, Weyco.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Howard Weyers's Weyco Company in East Lansing, Michigan, smoking has serious career consequences. Daily random Breathalyzer and urine tobacco tests leaves you suspended for a month. Fail again, you're gone forever.
WEYERS: I think it's good for people. They eliminate that habit because eventually it's going to kill them. TUCHMAN: New Weyco employees are told about the policy before they start. Workers hired before it began were given 15 months to quit smoking. Veteran employees Cara Stiffler, Anita Epolito and Angie Curvitz (ph) learned that Weyers meant business. All three lost their jobs.
(on-screen): How angry were you when you found out you were gone?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, incredibly. I felt violated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very angry.
TUCHMAN: Do you believe it happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still don't.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Did Howard Weyers do anything illegal? Not in Michigan, nor in 19 other states, where there is no law preventing an employer from firing employees who smoke, even when they're off the job. Stiffler has smoked for 20 years and wants to quit, but as much as she liked working at Weyco, she wasn't willing to quit under force.
CARA STIFFLER, FORMER WEYCO EMPLOYEE: I was called into the H.R. manager's office, and I had to sign a paper admitting that I was a smoker. I refused to be tested. I signed it, and at that time I was terminated.
TUCHMAN (on-screen): There are other companies that have similar policies, but the rules are often not enforced. Case in point, my employer, Turner Broadcasting, which years ago had a widely ignored no-smoking policy. But here at Weyco, similar ignorance comes at your professional peril.
(voice-over): Many believe such a policy is a slippery slope.
JEREMY GRUBER, LEGAL DIRECTOR, NATIONAL WORK RIGHTS INSTITUTE: I'm sure that an employer could make a very good argument, and has made a very good argument, about not hiring someone who is disabled because they may cost them money.
TUCHMAN: A Michigan state senator says the policy is ridiculous. He's drafted a bill that has so far gone nowhere which would protect employees who want to participate in any legal activity off the job.
VIRG BERNERO, MICHIGAN STATE SENATOR: I think it's a basic American right that, when you leave the workplace, when you punch out, you're on your own time.
TUCHMAN: But Howard Weyers and many other employers say they have the basic American right not to be told how to run their businesses.
WEYERS: Smokers are discriminating against the other employees because of whatever health problems it creates. We all have to pay for it.
TUCHMAN: Weyers says at least 20 employees quit smoking rather than leave his 190-employee company. One of them is Chris Boyd (ph), who had smoked for 10 years when she learned of the new policy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was very emotional when I first heard about the policy. Then after things sank in, I thought about it, my job, smoking? Not a real tough decision.
TUCHMAN (on-screen): So how did you quit?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weyco offered smoking cessation programs.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Weyco also gives money to employees who reach physical fitness goals.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready, catch the beat and go. Up, up, down, down.
TUCHMAN: A lifestyle challenge director is on staff who leads an on-site exercise program.
PAM HARB, WEYCO LIFESTYLE CHALLENGE COORDINATOR: When they go through the lifestyle challenge, they can earn up to $110 per month by testing on a six-month basis.
TUCHMAN: Howard Weyers says he won't fire users of alcohol, overweight people, or others who can potentially spend a lot of time at the doctor, but...
(on-screen): If you're worried about healthcare costs, why don't you test the spouses of your employees for tobacco?
WEYERS: We will. We will in December.
TUCHMAN: You're actually going to do that?
WEYERS: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Test the spouses of people who don't even work for you?
WEYERS: Yes.
TUCHMAN: And what happens if they smoke?
WEYERS: They can continue, but it's going to cost their spouse a thousand dollars a year.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Spoken like a man who won't accept any ifs, ands or butts.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, East Lansing, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: Well, coming up, DNA is in the news and changing lives. First, look at that smile! A wrongly convicted man freed today after 24 years thanks to DNA evidence.
And man's best friend decoded. It's a breakthrough for your health. Details ahead. LIVE FROM's got all the news you want, all day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: In Iraq, the parliamentary elections are less than a week away as the nation prepares for the landmark event. "CNN PRESENTS" takes an in-depth look at some of those stories that moved us in the past 1,000 days of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: In the heart of the Sunni Triangle we ran across one of the most heartbreaking stories that I've seen. And there have been a lot of heartbreaking stories.
(voice-over): This was a man, Latif Alo (ph), who was the electricity minister in Diyala province. He yearned for the day Saddam would be gone and Iraq would have a future and his family would have a life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the area with the floor, she dreamed that we would -- someday Iraq would become as this picture.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: When fighting with insurgents broke out on June 24th, Latif sent his wife and six of their children to Baghdad in a car. Alo's nephew, Ahmed (ph), was driving.
(on camera): He seems to take a wrong turn and he turns down the street where there are American tanks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apparently the driver may have been scared, thinking that it was insurgents firing at him.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: So he had to speed up to go to the safety of the Americans.
(voice-over): The tanks shot at the car. And as that car was burning, his wife managed to escape. His wife managed to get out of that burning car where her children were burning and run to the American soldiers and say, don't shoot us. And they shot her. We went to see the soldiers that did this. And they were so traumatized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's not a place that I will go for the rest of my life that I will not have a picture of Latif's family.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: These were extraordinary children by any standards. They played music and they read poetry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't like the news that talks about death. I ask myself, why don't the grownups think to teach me instead of fighting?
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Latif Alo, despite all this, seems to harbor almost no trace of bitterness. It's a tragedy. He believes it should not have happened, they should have been more careful. But he isn't bitter. And he actually says that the loss of his family is the price that he has been willing to pay for the future of Iraq. An absolutely extraordinary man.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And "CNN PRESENTS: 1,000 Days In Iraq," the program airs in its entirety this Sunday 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific. We hope you'll join us. We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, an innocent man spends almost 25 years in prison. Now, thanks to DNA tests, he's home for the holidays and home for good with a chance to start over. Robert Clark says that he's not bitter about the whole experience, he's just happy to be a free man.
Doug Richards of Atlanta's WAGA has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUG RICHARDS, WAGA REPORTER (voice-over): Robert Clark stepped out of a Cobb County courtroom and plainly relished the taste of freedom. In 1981, police had picked him up as a rape suspect. He spent the next 24 years in prison.
ROBERT CLARK, FALSELY CONVICTED OF RAPE: Thank God it's over with. Thank God. I'm just happy to get out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The truth is finally out.
RICHARDS: During a trial in 1982, prosecutors convinced a jury that Clark had raped a woman in Cobb County. A legal aid group called The Innocence Project researched the case after Clark and his family convinced attorneys he had been railroaded.
RODRICKUS CLARK, ROBERT CLARK'S SON: They'd been telling me that ever since I can remember. You know, he's innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free to go. Good luck, bro.
RICHARDS: That research led to a DNA test last month, which convinced prosecutors Robert Clark was innocent of the rape.
ROBERT CLARK: I just want to go home. I just want to get back to the house they took me away from 24 years ago, because I want to try to be the best father I can be for my kids and make them happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any way to make up those 25 years?
ROBERT CLARK: No. No. That's gone. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any anger at all?
ROBERT CLARK: No, no, I'm not angry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not even a little?
CLARK: No. I'm just happy to be home with my family.
RICHARDS: Robert Clark says his first order of business will be to eat. What, he didn't say. And he says to get some sleep. He says he hasn't rested well since 1981.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, Clark's lawyers say that the man implicated by the DNA evidence is currently serving prison time in an unrelated case.
In today's science news, forget wondering whether you can teach an old dog a new trick. Turns out any dog can teach us a lot about ourselves. U.S. researchers announced they've completely decoded dog DNA and found remarkable similar genetics to human DNA. The finding may help pinpoint genes that make dogs and people susceptible to certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy and even some psychiatric disorders.
It occurs to us that it leaves canine owners with doggone dilemma: did we evolve from our most faithful companion or was it intelligence design that dictated the creation of man's best friend? We're going to chew on that for a while.
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