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Tensions Between Houston Residents And Hurricane Katrina Evacuees Escalating As Crime Increases; President Bush Faces the Media; Hamas Sweeps to Landslide Win in Palestinian Elections; Former Hostage Speaks Out; At Least Six Killed in Texas Car Accident; Sen. John Kerry Calling for Filibuster of Alito
Aired January 26, 2006 - 14:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush defiant, tough, giving no ground in his first White House news conference of the new year. He called spying not only legal, but necessary, to protect Americans. Regarding Iraq, he vowed to protect American troops with the equipment they need for victory.
He had a warning for the militant Islamic group Hamas, big winners in yesterday's Palestinian elections: Don't expect a relationship with Washington if you advocate Israel's destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform.
And I know you can't be a partner in peace if you have a -- if your party has got an armed wing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Mr. Bush was also quizzed about photos of him with disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
His response -- quote -- "I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy."
He pledged to work with the feds investigating Abramoff and his influence-peddling activities.
Hamas wins by a landslide. The group so often associated with violence -- many call it terror -- well, now has huge political clout, with its stunning upset in Palestinian parliamentary elections. So, now what?
CNN's Ben Wedeman looks at the challenges ahead and the hopes of the Palestinian people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Hamas is once more the center of attention. The group's Gaza leader, Ismail Haniyeh, basks in the glory of electoral triumph. Supporters of Hamas were quick to celebrate the upset victory, which has catapulted to the pinnacle of Palestinian power a group whose campaign of suicide attacks killed hundreds of Israelis, leaving Israel, the United States and the European Union to brand it a terrorist organization.
(on camera): Hamas came to prominence through what it called its armed struggle against Israel. But, now, faced with the realities of power, it may have a far more difficult struggle on its hands: how to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians.
(voice-over): In Gaza's Shati refugee camp, Hamas voters say they have a long to-do list for their new leaders, notably absent from which is violence.
"A Hamas government should, first of all, put an end to unemployment," says municipal worker Imad (ph), "and then do something about the high prices of food and fuel."
I asked housewife Mabruca (ph) whether Hamas should concentrate on the armed struggle or listen to people's concerns.
"They should focus on the people's problems," she answers, "cut unemployment, start new projects, build new roads."
Hamas is no stranger to meeting people's needs. Part of its popularity stems from its network of charitable and social activities, from handing out to food to the poor, to running kindergartens and other educational facilities, and even organizing mass weddings for poor couples unable to afford expensive ceremonies.
But running the Palestinian Authority, a government in all but name, Hamas will have to deal with Israel. And, so far, they aren't saying how they will do that.
The U.S. and Europe have threatened to cut off aid to the Authority if Hamas takes over, threats Hamas rejects.
"The American administration must respect the will of the Palestinian people and must respect the vote," Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh tells reporters.
But if Hamas can't get things done, they will have to answer to the people who voted them in.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Gaza.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Former President Jimmy Carter led an international team to observe the Palestinian elections. He tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the overwhelming support for Hamas speaks to the deep desire for change any kind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were discouraged at the lack of performance of the old-line Fatah leaders, under Arafat and under Abbas. They looked upon them as ineffective and also as corrupt. And some of those allegations are certainly true.
The second thing was that Fatah has not delivered. And you have to remember that there have been no peace talks at all between Israelis and the Palestinians for the last three-and-a-half years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Carter had much more to say on the Palestinian election, the results and his view of the future in the Middle East. His entire conversation with Wolf Blitzer, this Sunday, it will be on "LATE EDITION."
President Bush's State of the Union speech is five days away, but Democrats can't wait to criticize it. Did I say criticize? Last hour in Washington, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dick Durbin blasted the Bush agenda, everything from health care to national security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: But, today, nearly five months after the Katrina catastrophe, more than 1,000 days after the invasion of Iraq, and one week after another taped threat from Osama bin Laden, Americans are asking a basic question: Are we as secure at home and abroad as we need to be, as we deserve to be? Looking at the record, I'm afraid the answer, unfortunately, in many aspects, is no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Durbin and Pelosi unveiled what they called the Democrats' innovation agenda, with education and health care at or near the top.
In the U.S. Senate, it looks like the handwriting's on the wall. It says Samuel Alito. A short time ago, Democratic Whip Dick Durbin all but ruled out a filibuster, and another Democrat joined the ranks of Alito supporters for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here's West Virginia's Robert Byrd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: I'm a senator who takes this Constitution seriously. I refuse, simply, to toe the party line when it comes to Supreme Court justices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: With 51 Republicans and three Democrats already in Alito's corner, confirmation is all but guaranteed. A final vote is expected before Tuesday's State of the Union address. Well, this story moved us so much, we wanted to show it to you again. It was the empty look in this little girl's eyes. That is what made a Georgia woman feel something was wrong. And no one would listen to her at first. But, when they did, a shocking case of suspected child abuse came to light.
Tony Thomas of CNN affiliate WAGA has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRACIE DEAN, REPORTED CHILD TO POLICE: Every morning, I woke up. Every night, I went to bed. It's all I could think about.
TONY THOMAS, WAGA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For days, Tracie Dean says all she could think about was the 3-year-old girl she met in this Evergreen, Alabama, convenience store. She says the girl, shown here in the store surveillance video, had an emptiness in her eyes and simply acted like something was very wrong.
DEAN: I was thinking of her as like a little butterfly fluttering around the store with that little red cowboy hat. She was really cute. But it was just the fact she kept coming back around me.
THOMAS: Tracy says she called 911 but was told everything was fine. She continued to drive back to Atlanta, her mind still on the little girl. Over the following days, she kept calling local and state authorities. She searched missing person's web sites, hoping to find a picture of the girl.
Eventually, she went back down to South Alabama and looked at the surveillance tape herself. She finally convinced a local sheriff's deputy to look for the child.
(on camera): Did you have any idea what she'd actually stumbled upon?
DEAN: Well, I thought I was crazy.
THOMAS (voice-over): Conecuh County, Alabama, authorities have arrested Jack Lee Wiley, the man the child was with in the store, and a woman believed to be his wife, Glenna Faye Marshall. They face charges of raping the 3-year-old and sodomizing a 17-year-old boy also found in their home. But it apparently didn't stop there.
TOMMY CHAPMAN, CONECUH COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: She did say they picked some up, had sex with them and would simply -- by what she said -- drop them off at hotels or truck stops and simply leave them.
DEAN: It's scary to think what might be uncovered here, but, I mean, you know, what's scarier is to think that it took me, you know, four days and for me to actually do it myself, before anything got done. And I don't understand that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: It was a brave move. That was our Tony Thomas of our affiliate WAGA here in Atlanta.
Today would have been cause for celebration for Terry and Barbara Mann. They were due to finalize the adoption of their 20-month-old foster son, Anthony. But now they and other family members are planning Anthony's funeral and many more.
Seven children were killed when their car was pancaked between a stopped school bus and a tractor trailer that may have been going as fast as 65 miles per hour when it hit. We have now learned that five of the children who died in the accident belonged to the Manns. Two others were their nieces. All the children were 15 years old or younger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA MANN, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: They're just happy children. I just love my babies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, compounding the family's overwhelming grief, Barbara Mann's 62-year-old father suffered a fatal heart attack after learning he had lost all of his grandchildren in that crash.
A pack of smokes ends a 10-hour standoff in central California. Jess Martinez is accused of pulling a gun on eight people inside a Bank of America branch in Exeter, just north of Bakersfield, at closing time.
Sheriff department's negotiators kept him talking. And, gradually, he let people go. When he let the last hostage step outside to get a pack of cigarettes left by police, well, a SWAT team grabbed her. Another team went inside for Martinez, who gave up without a struggle. He is due to be arraigned on Monday.
Life as a hostage -- Roy Hallums was beaten, starved, and kept in a hole in the ground in Baghdad. He will share the fear and uncertainty of his ordeal and share his advice for the family of Jill Carroll.
LIVE FROM has all news you need this afternoon. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A lot of questions, a lot of emotions, a lot of apprehension accompany the victory of Hamas in Palestinian elections.
Here to help us sort it through, Edward Walker, former U.S. ambassador, current head of the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington.
Mr. Ambassador, nice to have you with us.
AMBASSADOR EDWARD WALKER, PRESIDENT, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Thank you. Good to be here. PHILLIPS: It's interesting. I -- I read that you said I think people were sick of seeing a Mercedes drive by and they didn't even have a nickel themselves, when you were asked about why do people go crazy for Hamas?
WALKER: Well, yes.
I mean, the Fatah had a reputation for corruption. It had a reputation for taking care of its own. And, certainly, senior Fatah officials had a very nice lifestyle. I think people who have to scrape to even feed their children began to get really sick of this. And Hamas played a very sophisticated political game in playing on those issues.
Hamas, also, in the areas that they had governmental authority, were able to relieve the situation for many residents. And when people get right down to it, it counts as to who's -- whether you get your water hooked up or not, things like that. So, this was a local election, in many respects.
PHILLIPS: Now, they're -- well, you bring up an interesting point. Is there another side to Hamas that we don't talk enough about? Of course, the U.S. calls it a terrorist organization. It already has come forward and said its passion is the destruction of Israel.
What is it that we're missing here? What is it Hamas does for the people that has allowed them to -- to journey this far?
WALKER: Well, Hamas has -- has had the opportunity -- has an opportunity to provide medical services, to provide additional educational facilities for people, to provide for stipends for people who are in real trouble.
They have been able to do this because they have been in a position where they can build on what the government is already doing. So, they get credit. The government doesn't. Now they got a problem. And I think probably Hamas is the most surprised of all about this win.
I'm not sure they wanted it. Now they have got the problem of being able to provide for the Palestinian people and -- and make some of the promises they have made come true. And they're in a dime in the coffers of the Palestinian Authority.
PHILLIPS: You know, we have talked about Fatah. We know Mahmoud Abbas. We have seen him. We have talked to him. But we really haven't put a -- a main face and name to Hamas.
There are three leaders I have been reading about. Maybe we can touch on each one of them quickly. But Mahmoud al-Zahar, he lives in Gaza. Is this the man that is running Hamas?
WALKER: Well, not really.
Mahmoud Zahar is the ideologue. He was one of the founders of Hamas, along with Yassin, before Yassin was killed. And so he is the -- he is the -- the religious component of Hamas movement.
Another more central leader is Khaled Mashaal, who is resident in Damascus. Now, he is the -- he is the radical of the group. He's the one that preaches fire and brimstone and has stressed the -- the need to take over all of Israel and Palestine.
Then, you have the guy who actually ran as the leader of the list, the Palestinian -- the Hamas list in the parliamentary elections, Ismail Haniyeh. And he's more of a moderate. So, we are probably going to see them playing off against each other and dividing the responsibilities, the tough line coming out of Damascus, the religious purity coming from Gaza, and Haniyeh representing the needs of government.
PHILLIPS: So, really, the question will be, who will have the most influence and power? Obviously, best-case scenario would be moderate, and that would be Ismail Haniyeh.
WALKER: Yes, that's true.
And, of course, to -- to survive, they have got to have some moderation. I mean, are we going to give any money to Palestinian Authority? Probably not, with Hamas in charge. But what about the Europeans? Are they going to give money, when -- and they're one of the primary donor -- if Hamas doesn't renounce its terrorist activities?
I'm not sure that Europeans want to be seen as supporting a terrorist organization, one they have defined as terrorists. And where are the Saudis going to be? They have been a principal supporter of Hamas in the past -- or not the Saudi government, because they haven't, but Saudi individuals have.
And, finally, the question is, what about Iran? Iran wants to get its fingers into this pie. Can they use this as a wedge to open up a channel into the Gaza Strip and that problem?
PHILLIPS: Interesting. Should we be talking more about Iran?
WALKER: Oh, I think so.
This -- even though they are different sects, and you have the Iranian Shiites and the -- the Sunni Hamas, if Hamas is really struggling for money, I think you're going to see that linkage between Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, and the money flowing in between them.
PHILLIPS: Now, a lot of people coming forward and talking about, this is a -- a complete blow to the peace process. Do you believe that? Or are you sort of sitting back, saying, not quite sure yet?
WALKER: Well, I don't -- I don't think there was a peace process.
And there certainly wasn't going to be a peace process until the Palestinians worked out their own -- their own political problems. And this is just one step in that process. Now, if it leads to a Palestinian Authority that renounces terrorism, that is willing to concentrate on development of the Palestinian people's well being, then, after a period of time, and so on, who knows what will be possible?
But as long as we had this -- this break, this -- this fundamental divide within the Palestinian community, we weren't going to go anywhere with the peace process anyway.
PHILLIPS: Back to the issue of terrorism -- have any one of these leaders, these three leaders within Hamas that all seem to be taking different views, have any one of these men ever come forward and said suicide bombings, terrorist acts, are not the way to get what we want?
WALKER: No.
PHILLIPS: OK.
WALKER: None of them...
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Have they all supported suicide bombings and acts of terrorism as a way to get what they want?
WALKER: Yes, they have. And they feel that, although they haven't used it for the past year, they have talked of it as being a quiet time or a temporary truce. They have never renounced the possible use of terrorism to achieve their objectives.
PHILLIPS: Ambassador Ed Walker, thank you so much. I know we will be talking a lot more in the next couple weeks.
WALKER: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Thank you, sir.
Straight ahead, kidnapped in Baghdad almost three weeks ago, what has happened to American journalist Jill Carroll? An update straight ahead.
The news keep coming. We will keep bringing it to you -- more LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CYNDI LAUPER, MUSICIAN (singing): But I see your true colors shining through. I see your true colors.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Otis (ph) picked that song because, of course, he's a huge Steelers fan. Look for the Pittsburgh Steelers to buck tradition at the Super Bowl. The team known as the black and gold won't be wearing their black home jersey at Super Bowl XL, even though they're the home team. The Steelers won all their playoff games on the road in their white jerseys, so they will stick with the lucky look. The Seattle Seahawks, designated the visitors, will wear their home colors.
Well, it's just what Las Vegas needs, yet another flashy resort. But this one offers a twist on the old casino theme.
Susan Lisovicz has the scoop from the New York Stock Exchange.
When are we going, Susan?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're talking big and we're talking sports in the desert, Kyra.
A California developer says he wants to build the $4 billion sports-themed resort on a plot in the desert eight miles off the Vegas strip. The resort will include, of course, lots of big things, a 26,000-seat arena, a 5,000-seat aquatic center, and an air-conditioned golf driving range, for your comfort, Kyra.
The complex would also include a 150,000-square-foot casino, for those who want to gamble, 5,500 hotel rooms, and 10 nightclubs. Getting the money to build the oasis could be an issue. The developer says he's still talking to banks and other investors about finding -- about funding the project, rather, but hopes to break ground in six months. The resort could potentially open in 2009.
Talking about numbers, let's look at the markets. We have had a terrific rally today, the first of the week, thanks to strong results from blue-chip companies like Caterpillar, Verizon and AT&T. Yes, we're back to triple-digit gains for the Dow industrials, up 103 points, 10813 -- the Nasdaq adding 1 percent.
In consumer news, eight U.S. companies, including chemical giant DuPont, have agreed to virtually eliminate a harmful chemical used to make Teflon from all consumer products. PFOA, which is a key processing agent in making non-stick and stain-resistant materials, has been linked to cancer and birth defects in animals.
And that's the latest from Wall Street. I will be back at the end of the hour with the closing bell and a complete wrap-up of the trading day -- more LIVE FROM after this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: If you're in your late 20s to early 40s, pay attention. CNNMoney.com has outlined "Fortune" magazine's top 100 picks when it comes to companies you want to work for and what you are looking for in a job.
If your birthday falls between the years 1964 and 1977, it's not just about paychecks and benefits. The top three things Generation- X'ers want in a job are positive relationships with colleagues, interesting work, and continuous opportunities for learning. Forget about loyalty to one company. On average, many in their late 20s have already switched jobs five to six times. And companies are adjusting. Chemical maker W.L. Gore has a lattice approach to its workers -- no bosses. Instead, they have a rotating team of leaders. Whole Foods and Starbucks also let employees make many of the decisions.
And software maker Autodesk gives employees paid time every month for volunteer work. You can find it all online at CNNMoney.com/bestcompanies.
For the dot-com desk, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Agonizing silence, mounting anxiety -- what has happened to kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll? Not a murmur from her captors in more than a week. Carroll was taken off a Baghdad street almost three weeks ago by a group that has threatened to kill her, unless the U.S. frees its women Iraqi detainees.
Today, the U.S. did release five Iraqi women, but insists it has nothing to do with Carroll. Four Iraqi women are said to remain in U.S. custody. Muslim and non-Muslim groups across the world are appealing for Carroll's release.
Imagine what it's like to be held hostage in Iraq, to be kept God knows where by God knows whom, as the pawn in a political dispute or a prize in a kidnapping for cash. Roy Hallums doesn't have to imagine. He lived it for almost a year. Today, he lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where he spoke with CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Roy Hallums, it may remain a mystery forever. He may never learn all the secrets, who kidnapped him, held him for 10 months, and why. This is how most of us learned about Hallums' role in the horrible story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY HALLUMS, HOSTAGE: My name is Roy Hallums. I'm an American national. Please help me in this situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: It was two years ago, three weeks before Thanksgiving. Hallums, at his computer, working as a contractor in Iraq, was snatched and grabbed. Four masked gunmen burst in, heavily armed. Any resistance, they said, they would kill him.
(on camera): Were you scared?
HALLUMS: Oh, yes, certainly, because, I mean, I had seen the videos before of other people who had been kidnapped and what had happened to them. And I thought, you know, am I going to live the rest of the day or is this it?
KAYE (voice-over): They blindfolded Hallums, drove him to a dark, filthy underground cell. We now know it was in one of the most dangerous areas of Baghdad, known as the Triangle of Death.
And, for three months, it was as if Roy Hallums had simply vanished. For those who love him, it was unimaginably painful. Where was he? What had happened? But there was nothing. His captors remained silent, until this last January.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HALLUMS: I'm please asking for help, because my life is in danger, because it has been proved that I work for American forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HALLUMS: They said that they wanted me to be emotional and look upset in the video. And, so, they said, to make me look that way and to help me, they were going to beat me before the video.
KAYE (on camera): And did they?
HALLUMS: And they did, you know? So, yes, it -- you know, it wasn't a good experience to do that, you know?
KAYE (voice-over): Now, precisely one year after he was forced to make that videotape, Roy Hallums is home in Memphis, Tennessee. He invited us here to share the secrets of months as a hostage, and the amazing story of his rescue, the fear, the isolation, the abuse, beatings and torture Hallums can't barely bring himself to talk about today. Hallums passed the time underground by planning travel adventures in his mind.
HALLUMS: It would take me one day or two days to plan a trip. And then I would start another one, because, when you stop, then you start having all these negative thoughts.
KAYE: He slept on a concrete slab, always blindfolded and bound with this plastic handcuff. Hallums spent much of his time laying down in the four-foot deep hole. They give him small amounts of cheese and goat meat. Whatever hope he had came from the fact they hadn't killed him yet.
(on camera): What did you go through, not knowing what they might do to you or what might happen to you?
HALLUMS: The first month was the most difficult, because everything, every movement, you don't know what might happen. And you're still thinking that, well, you know, they could do away with me any time.
You sort of become numb after awhile. You know, you worry about your life every second of every day and it just, you know, starts to wear you out.
KAYE (voice-over): The hostage-takers only watched cartoons on their satellite TV. He heard no news, no word of his family, no way to know they were working so hard to find him, that they had set up a Web site and had made public pleas on both Al-Jazeera Network and CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When he mentioned that, you know, about his life, them ending his life, I don't know. We're just all devastated. Please, President Bush, he needs your help.
KAYE: Hallums kept track of the days in his head. He knew weeks had turned into months. He listened as his captors poured fresh concrete over his hole to seal it. Hallums thought for sure he would die here.
HALLUMS: After six months, I was starting to question, you know, how long is this going to go on? You know, are they going to keep me a year or two years? There was no way to know. I just know, OK, I have been here six months. There's no end in sight.
KAYE: Then, by pure luck, coalition forces interviewing an Iraqi prisoner were told where Hallums was being held. He will never forget the pounding at the door. Freedom was not far away.
HALLUMS: I thought, well, maybe somebody's here to rescue me, but, you know, it's been 311 days. That would be too good to be true. That can't possibly be what it is. But they kept pounding on the door.
And, finally, the door fell down. And a soldier comes in. He's got his fatigues on and everything. And he says, are you Roy? And I said, yes. And he said, come on, we're getting out of here.
KAYE (on camera): Did you hug him?
HALLUMS: Yes. Definitely. Definitely.
KAYE (voice-over): By the time he was rescued, September of last year, Hallums had lost 38 pounds. He has gained much of the weight back, but, more importantly, he has gained his freedom.
Still today, never too far away, this patch given to Hallums by the soldier, then a stranger, today a friend who pulled him out of the darkness, the hole that had become his private hell, which, of course, is why Roy Hallums is telling his story now.
He is home and wants to somehow provide comfort to American hostage Jill Carroll's family.
KAYE (on camera): From the hostage perspective, what do you wish that you could have told your family that you know that Jill Carroll is wishing she could tell her family right now?
HALLUMS: Oh, well, I was just always hoping that I could talk to my family and tell them all I loved them and cared for them and, you know, would do whatever I could for them, so they would know that one last time.
KAYE (voice-over): Hallums believes, right now, Carroll is wondering what her captors have planned for her and, like him, how much longer she will be alive, now that Carroll has been featured in her own kidnap tape.
HALLUMS: To me, it's -- the video is a good sign, because the video is, number one, proof that she's alive and she's looked well.
KAYE (on camera): What do you think about the fact that, since that videotape aired and the threat of the deadline, 72 hours was made, no word?
HALLUMS: I think the 72 hours, you have to be concerned about it if you're the family, but not overly concerned, because it could easily go longer than that.
KAYE (voice-over): Long enough for the kidnappers to get what they want or, perhaps, as Roy Hallums knows, for their victim to get lucky.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Memphis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, have Katrina victims worn out their welcomes in Houston? The crime rate is up and so are the tensions, and many people believe evacuees are to blame. It's a CNN investigation you'll see straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Laura Bush, to Katrina evacuees, it's time to come home. Mrs. Bush is touring schools along the Gulf Coast today, predicting families will want to return as more schools begin to reopen. And to the rest of the country, the first lady says don't forget the Gulf.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I want people around the country to realize how big the devastation is, how important it is for people around the country to continue to volunteer, to continue to send money to the Katrina Fund or other funds of their favorite charities that are working down here, because it's really important for everybody in the United States to stand with the people on the Gulf Coast as they rebuild.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Mrs. Bush acknowledges that many don't see it, but she says a lot of progress has been made in a relatively short time.
The Red Cross tries to help after disasters, but many consider its post-Katrina effort a disaster in itself -- not enough trained people or debit cards or satellite phones, not enough anything. The group's president resigned amid the controversy.
Her replacement is considering a fund raising drive to make the Red Cross better prepared in the future. He says the group tried to spend money it raised after 9/11 to improve its own technology but was stopped by public outrage.
In the days after Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of evacuees found temporary homes in Houston. Many live there still. Lately though, a crime wave has swept away much of the goodwill that greeted the newcomers, leaving anger and accusations in its wake. CNN's Ed Lavandera investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sergeant Jason Lau is on night patrol in Houston's crime plagued Fondren (ph) division.
SGT. JASON LAU, HOUSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: Person with a weapon, possibly a Katrina evacuee.
LAVANDERA: Sergeant Lau says the crime rate on his beat is up. He also happens to work an area where the highest concentration of Houston's Katrina evacuees ended up.
LAU: They're not the only ones committing, they're also being the victims of the crimes. So in one way or another, they're involved and it's more work for us.
LAVANDERA: Fondren is a stretch of large apartment complexes, so when 150,000 evacuees needed a place to live, many ended up here. But this neighborhood is hardly a melting pot and more like a boiling one right now. Just ask Byron Givens.
BYRON GIVENS, RESIDENT: This right here is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
LAVANDERA: That graffiti is painted on the wall near his apartment. Givens and his wife say they never expected this kind of reception in Houston and they're not accustomed to the sounds of gunshot and fighting that they now hear nightly.
GIVENS: I don't even let my kids come outside. That's not right. Kids should be able to play wherever they are.
LAVANDERA: The tension has been slowly escalating here. Fights have broken out in schools between New Orleans evacuees and Houston students, and now Houston police say Katrina evacuees have been the victims or suspects in about 20 percent of the city's homicides. More than double their percentage in the population. The Givens family wonders it is evacuees have worn out their welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hatred, just because you're from Louisiana, you got so much hatred. It's not even about color no more, it's about the state. LAVANDERA (on camera): The Houston Police Department has just asked FEMA for help. The department wants almost $10 million to help pay for officer's overtime, to increase police presence in these neighborhoods were evacuees and locals are struggling to get along.
(voice-over): City officials also say another 400 police officers are needed to help patrol the streets. But every city official stops short of blaming evacuees for a recent rise in the crime rate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether people come from Louisiana or anywhere, when you move in additional 150,000 people, you're gonna have some people with undesirable traits and behavior involved in that group.
LAVANDERA: Back on the streets of Fondren, Sergeant Lau and his officers hope that by walking the streets, they're helping diffuse the anger.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Houston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: The news keeps coming, we'll keep bringing it you. More LIVE FROM next.
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PHILLIPS: You can't judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes, right? Norah Vincent walked that mile and hundreds more for a year and a half. As a self-made man, she learned men and women really do live different lives and she told our Paula Zahn all about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Men and women. We live together, work together, interacting on a daily basis. But how much do we really know about how the other half lives, thinks and feels?
Journalist Norah Vincent decided to find out. She put on a disguise, becoming Ned, infiltrating a world totally unknown to most women. In the process, Vincent's assumptions about men and women are turned on their head. She writes about her experience in her book "Self-Made Man."
(on camera): What was the most surprising thing you learned about men by being a man for 18 months?
NORAH VINCENT, AUTHOR, "SELF-MADE MAN": That there is a secret life going on there that is -- I -- I talk about it, it's as if I was hearing sounds that only dogs can hear, you know? It was like I switched the channel and, suddenly, there was this entirely other world going on that you couldn't tune into or you didn't understand the language as a woman. And they wouldn't let you understand it. But, once you were a man, suddenly, you were privy to it. ZAHN (voice-over): Vincent knew, in order to pull this off, Ned would have to be believable. To make herself appear more masculine, she got expert advice.
VINCENT: I went to Juilliard, and I had a voice coach talk to me about how to use the lower portions of my register and to stay there, to project an attitude of maleness, and the way I walked, to really kind of work on that, and just the -- the pose of a man.
ZAHN: She went to the gym to bulk up her body and created a beard by attaching pieces of crepe hair to her face. It took her up to two hours in the morning just to get dressed.
(on camera): How long did it take you to nail Ned?
VINCENT: I would say it took me a couple of months. The first few months, I -- I made a lot of mistakes. I had to learn to just stop reacting as spontaneously as I might as a woman to what might be going on around me, because my voice would rise in excitement.
And guys have sort of had that bred out of them. And so what you -- what you see is that there is a lot of silence. There are many fewer words. And, yet, there is so much being said in those silences.
ZAHN: You talk about how empowering it was to simply wear a square-shouldered suit.
VINCENT: It really -- a signifier of maleness. And, interestingly, people in restaurants and so on, they treat you more differentially when you're wearing a suit as a man.
You'll say things that, you know, coming from a woman would sound really impolite, to say the least. You know, you just say, "yes, give me that," you know, when you're ordering something. "Yes, I'll have the steak. Thanks. You know, not even say thanks.
It is just expected. That's how guys talk, whereas, as a woman, I would say, "I'm really sorry. Would you mind getting us some water when you have a chance?" You know, something like that.
ZAHN: Vincent as Ned worked as a door-to-door salesman, went to strip clubs, spent time with monks at a monastery and for eight months played on an all-male bowling team where she got a lesson in male bonding.
VINCENT: They didn't know me from Adam. I walked in the door , and they welcomed me like an old friend.
ZAHN (on-camera): Why were you so successful at being part of their gang?
VINCENT: One of them had a son who was about I think 12 at the time. And I remember thinking that I was learning things at about the same pace that he was. Manhood is something you emulate by watching. I learned what was acceptable to say and do, and I just started to mimic them. ZAHN: You actually developed some pretty nice friendships with a couple of men. And one man in particular, whose wife had suffered from cancer.
VINCENT: These guys talked about it. He said a few words, OK, you know, I had to go to the hospital, she's not doing well, I'm feeling pretty bad. And that was it. And there wasn't much that we could really do. That wasn't acceptable for us to jump in. I wanted to, of course, as a woman. I wanted to put my arms around him and so on.
It is not OK to reach over. And sometimes men, what I learned is, they don't want that. It is smothering to them.
ZAHN (voice over): Ned's next stop was more provocative.
(on-camera): You spent some time in strip clubs with men.
VINCENT: In my opinion, I don't think it is pleasurable. You know, there is a lot of bluster about well, you know, I can get a woman or I want to see a woman for her parts and disembody her. And I don't think that deep down it feels very good.
I saw a lot of pain in those places. And I didn't expect that. I thought that they would be sort of, you know, a lot of jeering going on or a lot of laughing. I didn't see very much laughing. I saw a lot of pain.
ZAHN (voice over): Surprising to Vincent, some of her most revealing insights about men she gained when Ned went on dates with women.
VINCENT: I just felt as if they always assumed that I was a cad until I, you know, proved otherwise.
ZAHN (on-camera): And you describe one woman in particular as being bitter and being angry, and that you actually felt like you were being attacked. How surreal was that for you?
VINCENT: Well, in a way it was funny because some of the things she said, I just thought, you know, if you only knew who you were talking to. She was giving this sort of feminist rant, and I thought, you know, honey, I've been there. You know, I'm passed that.
ZAHN (voice over): Even more surprising to Vincent is what happened when she eventually revealed her true identity to some of these women.
VINCENT: I had a rule that there were three dates and that I would tell them, but interestingly, several of the women wanted to keep seeing me even romantically even after they knew I was a woman. And these were heterosexual women. Whereas, you know, if you did it the other way around, you can imagine you would have gotten beaten up if you had been a man in a woman's disguise and then told a guy that you were actually a guy, forget it.
ZAHN (on-camera): What is it you think that women don't get about men?
VINCENT: I think women don't understand maybe how much power we have over them. I mean, they need us not just sexually, but just they need our esteem. Their definition of their manhood is part of being admired by women.
ZAHN: Norah, in the book you're very candid about the fact that you're a lesbian. Do you come out of this process with less respect for women?
VINCENT: Yes, oddly enough in a way I do...
ZAHN: Is that troubling to you?
VINCENT: No. Because I think I went into it prejudicially thinking -- expecting more of women. I had that sort of we're more evolved kind of prejudice.
ZAHN (voice over): As much as Vincent learned about men by being Ned, eventually the deception took its toll. She had a nervous breakdown.
VINCENT: It was extremely hard. It was a very heavy burden. I'm just not a very good liar, and I felt extremely guilty about the continued deception.
ZAHN: Vincent recovered. Most of the men she encountered eventually learned Ned was in fact a woman and were accepting of her.
(on-camera): Norah, how much of Ned has rubbed off on you?
VINCENT: The best part, which I think is the part that is thinking makes it so, that if I'm afraid of something, I just buck myself up and I say do it, believe it, do it now. And then it just -- it is an amazingly powerful thing that projection of confidence, the denial of fear, I'm going to do it and you do miraculously do it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Fredricka Whitfield in the newsroom working a story for us. Fred?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well Kyra now we have pictures that are coming in of that terrible accident I described to you a while ago in south Texas. You're looking at the result of a pickup truck crashing into a car carrier, a car carrier that had eight vehicles on board.
And this accident was a deadly accident. Six people were killed and eight others were injured. We heard from one of the -- Texas Department of Public Safety officials earlier who said they believe what happened is the pickup truck ran through a stop sign before crashing into that car carrier.
And now we're seeing a videotape now of that horrible sight there. As far as we understand from that official from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the driver of the car carrier is doing fine and is among those eight people who were injured. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, we'll continue to follow the story via our affiliate there KSAT there in Texas. Fred, thank you.
All right, I've been told now we'll going to go to Ed Henry up on the Hill. Are you looped in there, Ed?
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, how are you, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: OK, good, I know this is all kind of happening at the last minute. What's going on, what do you have for us?
HENRY: That's right. CNN has just learned that Democratic Senator John Kerry has decided he strongly supports a filibuster of the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. This coming despite the fact that a lot of Democratic leaders had been very cagey about this and have basically said that it's a done deal, he's going to be confirmed early next week.
Democratic sources say that yesterday in the Capitol, at a meeting of Democratic senators, Kerry came out in favor of filibuster, urged his colleague to join him. There are rumbling that Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy will join him as well.
It's going to be very interesting to see the reaction. I can tell you, Kerry allies think this is going to be a smart move politically. A lot of Democrats concerned about this nomination, thinking this is going to pull the courts to the right. But other senior Democrats saying this is a bad idea, this is a done deal, and this may backfire on Kerry and on Democrats, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Ed, thanks for bringing it to us there, just getting that news. And of course, we'll talk more about it on THE SITUATION ROOM with Wolf Blitzer, that's coming up at the top of the hour. The news keeps coming, we'll keep bringing it to you. We're going to take a quick break, more LIVE FROM next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACIE DEAN, REPORTED CHILD TO POLICE: I suspected was, the little girl does not belong with that man. He should not have that little girl. No mother in her right mind would let that man take that child 3,000 miles away in this beat-up old truck and not even watch her in the gas station in a remote little gas station, hole in the wall. So he did not belong -- they didn't belong together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: What made a Georgia woman push to learn the story of a little girl she only saw for a moment? Well, her determination turned out to be the key to catching a pair of suspected child molesters. Rick Sanchez just returned from getting her story. Here to tell us about it. I mean, she just went on a hunch? RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Have you ever had something just eating at you, it's in your head and you're convinced there's something there, you can't let it go? Five days later -- that's how long it took for this woman, from Decatur, Georgia, until she finally said, "You know what, I'm going to get in my car, I'm going to go back to the place where I saw this, and I'm going to get to the bottom of this." And she did. And it turns out these two people that she had a hunch about have now been charged.
PHILLIPS: Where's the little girl's parents? Are these two possibly a parent?
SANCHEZ: Well let's take the viewers back if we possibly can. She walks into this convenience store, she sees this little girl, but something looks funny. The little girl is clinging to her, almost as if saying, "I want to leave with you."
So she's wondering what could this possibly be? Then she sees the man, but it stays with her. Turns out the man may be related to the child. We don't know. Turn out the woman that the man was with may be the mother's child's, they're doing DNA testing, but this we know. Both have already been charged with two counts of first-degree rape, one count of sodomy. She's being charged as well, the woman who was with the little girl, with child abuse as well. Bail $2 million, $3 million.
PHILLIPS: Your full interview tomorrow morning on "AMERICAN MORNING," we're looking forward to it.
SANCHEZ: And tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER" as well as "PAULA ZAHN."
PHILLIPS: Catch it tonight -- oh boy, all night and tomorrow morning. All right, we'll talk again tomorrow. That does it for this edition of LIVE FROM. Susan Lisovicz has the closing bell live from the New York Stock Exchange. Take it away, Susan.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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