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Steroid Warnings; Pastor's Wife Arraigned on Murder Charges; Supreme Court Controversy
Aired March 27, 2006 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Married for 10 years, the wife of a minister, mother of three girls, locked up again until a bail hearing Thursday. As you may have seen live here last hour, Mary Winkler faced a judge in Tennessee on charges that she murdered her husband.
Our Rusty Dornin has the latest now from the town of Selmer -- Rusty.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, behind me, you can see a gaggle of photographers that are interviewing right now one of the associates of Mary Winkler's attorney, Steve Farese.
What is going to be happening on Thursday is actually a preliminary hearing. What they decided to do is -- the judge conferred with both sides. And they decided to wait and set bail, or decide the issue of whether or not bail will be set, on Thursday, during that preliminary hearing, which, supposedly, we are going to hear at least some of the -- perhaps a motive from the DA's office, as to why Mary Winkler killed her husband, as she confessed to police over the weekend.
We think that her father was in the courtroom. He -- an older man was the only one to sit in that front row, where the family was to sit during the proceedings. He did leave out the back door, did not speak to reporters at all.
Mary Winkler was one of five adopted children. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her father so far has said that he did not want to comment on the proceedings -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So, you think, as of Thursday -- can you hear me OK, Rusty? I know you're having some problems with the IFB. Can you...
DORNIN: Yes. I'm hear...
PHILLIPS: ... hear me all right?
(CROSSTALK)
DORNIN: I can hear you now.
PHILLIPS: OK. Good.
(CROSSTALK)
DORNIN: ... having trouble... (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: I know. I saw it kind of beeping in and out.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Do you think, on Thursday, we might learn something new, part of that -- maybe possibly part of the motive, some evidence, anything?
DORNIN: We might be hearing something as to the confession. I mean, even her own attorney this morning did say that he has not seen the confession and won't see it -- sorry about that -- again until the discovery, until he sees the discovery.
And he's saying they're not going to admit to anything. We thought there was going to be a plea entered today, but she did not enter a plea or anything. Basically, they just set the preliminary hearing and said that they will talk about bail then.
PHILLIPS: All right, Rusty Dornin, thanks so much.
Well, for more than a week, they have been missing persons. Now police in Milwaukee suspect that 12-year-old Quadrevion Henning and 11-year-old Purvis Parker were kidnap victims. But they won't say why they have opened a criminal investigation.
Family, police, and volunteers have spent every waking moment looking for that pair, who vanished a week ago yesterday heading out for a game of basketball. Police have scoured the neighborhood, parks, and friends' homes -- despite numerous tips, no sign of the boys and no apparent sign of foul play. The families are trying to stay positive, insisting the boys are not runaways.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARRY HENNING, GRANDFATHER OF QUADREVION HENNING: By no stretch of the imagination. Run away where? Run away how? Run away to whom? This is their family right here. They love their family. We love them. They had a good life.
And, by the way, Dre, the fishing trip is still on.
Purvis, when you come back, you can step on all my flowers that you want to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the reward fund for anyone who helps find those boys has reached $35,000.
Back in court and back at the scene of the crime -- the man accused of a killing spree that started right down the street from here, at Fulton County courthouse in Atlanta, Brian Nichols, wants, among other things, the murder charges against him thrown out. He's also asking that his statements to police be off-limits, that sheriff's deputies not be allowed to act as bailiffs during his trial, and that prosecutors be forced to reveal certain evidence.
Let's get straight to Betty Nguyen in the newsroom with a developing story on the immigration protests across the country -- Betty.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are seeing students out in the streets once again.
Let's take a look at some tape that we shot just moments ago in Los Angeles. You see there students, some on each other's backs. They have walked out of class. And here is just an idea of how many students are participating in this. We saw it last week. We saw a huge rally in L.A. Over the weekend, with some half-a-million people participating.
Well, these are students. And so far today, we understand, at least 14,000 students from 20 Los Angeles schools are participating in this protest, as they have walked out of class and into the streets. What they're doing is talking about this illegal immigration legislation that the Senate is deciding this week.
They're going to be taking up that issue -- among the things being shopped around in some of this legislation, making it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. Another area which a lot of people have some issues with is the fact that one of the bills deals with people helping illegal alien aliens.
And, with that help, that could cause some criminal action as well -- now, again, 14,000 students in the streets, some 20 Los Angeles schools. And we understand from the spokesperson that, if there's any disciplinary action against these students for leaving class and protesting in the streets, well, that's up to the principals of each school -- 20 schools involved here, 14,000 students, Kyra, a lot of students taking this issue into the streets of Los Angeles.
PHILLIPS: All right, Betty Nyugen, thank you so much.
We will follow the protests all across the country.
NGUYEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: And the Senate is now in the hot seat, the House having laid down the law, so the speak in December, the White -- or the House version makes illegal immigration a felony. It also requires employers to verify the immigration status of any workers they hire or face hefty fines.
It envisions a series of fences along part of the Mexican border, while saying nothing about so-called guest workers envisioned by the White House. Watch from afar is a U.S. city to which the whole immigration debate is, well, alien.
CNN's Kareen Wynter reports from Maywood, California. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the face of Maywood, California, 96 percent Hispanic and recently declared a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. The city council defied federal authorities by turning the community into a safe haven for the undocumented. The action was a reaction to a federal proposal that would make 11 million undocumented immigrants guilty of a felony.
FELIPE AGUIRRE, MAYWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, COUNCILMAN: It would also force the cities, like the city of Maywood, to have to utilize its police force as immigration agents.
WYNTER: The city wasn't always so immigrant-friendly. Just last year, police were looking for immigrants without driver's licenses and impounding their cars. Council members dismantled the police department's traffic division, after an overwhelming number of alleged discrimination complaints.
(on camera): Local leaders went one step further, by making it more difficult for police to tow the vehicles of anyone caught without a driver's license, since the majority of the offenders were undocumented residents.
AGUIRRE: Many people called it driving while brown. You know, people were being pulled over because they had a soccer team bumper sticker on the back of their car.
WYNTER (voice-over): Art Alvarez was one of the people caught in the dragnet.
ART ALVAREZ, RESIDENT OF MAYWOOD, CALIFORNIA: It cost me like $1,400.
WYNTER: It's still illegal to drive without a license in Maywood, but those stopped won't have their cars seized. They can get a permit for overnight parking. Like many residents in Maywood, Alvarez is a U.S. citizen,but his wife is from Mexico and doesn't have legal documents to reside here.
ALVAREZ: I -- America was built by immigrants, since the Mayflower, and I think, so, the United States of America was built by immigrants.
WYNTER: Some argue the city's new immigrant policy goes too far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, my question is this. We are pushing the law on the limit.
WYNTER: This resident, who didn't want us to identify him, fears what will happen to his neighborhood. Maywood's population is less than 30 thousand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the city of Maywood, that we are very small. And, for the sanctuary, we are attracting a lot of immigrants to come and live in the area. That's a problem. WYNTER: The city says attracting new residents isn't the focus, but, rather, creating a fair existence for those who are already there.
Kareen Wynter, CNN, Maywood, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Will it benefit both sides of the border, or is it a free pass for illegal immigrants? President Bush first pushed for a guest-worker program two years ago.
Here is a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some key points of President Bush's controversial guest-worker plan include: Employers must make a reasonable effort to hire an American before turning to illegal immigrants now employed in the country, or workers in foreign countries who have been offered jobs here. The government would step up efforts to enforce laws against hiring foreigners illegally. Illegal immigrants would be able to gain legal status for a set amount of time to do a specific job. Once the job is done, the workers would be required to return home.
Workers involved would be required to pay a one-time fee to register for the program. They would have a chance to renew the temporary worker status. At an unspecified time in the future, only people outside the U.S. would be allowed to join the temporary-worker program.
One crucial point Mr. Bush's program does not allow is amnesty. He says those who have entered the country illegally should not be rewarded for breaking U.S. law.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Supreme Court justices rarely speak publicly about the issues facing their court. That's why the words of Justice Antonin Scalia were so surprising -- more on that coming up.
You're watching LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: We are talking about the tough work of searching and the even tougher reality of finding victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Firefighters in New Orleans found the body of a child, a girl, around 7 years old, in the debris of a house in the Lower Ninth Ward. One firefighter says the girl was still wearing her back pack when she died -- no word on the fate of the rest of that family.
Seven months after Katrina, the Red Cross is still trying to clean up its own house. You may have heard, the agency is investigating claims that supplies were lost or mishandled or pilfered, and that felons served as volunteers, contrary to Red Cross rules.
The interim head of the organization appeared on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "AMERICAN MORNING")
JACK MCGUIRE, CEO & INTERIM PRESIDENT, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Disasters bring out the very best in people, but, in some, it brings out the very worst in people. And we can't tolerate that.
We need to do the right job for the people who are affected, and we need to do the right job for the donors who had given us their time or their money. And we will rigorously pursue any of these situations that we find.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The Red Cross plans to turns the results of its probe over to authorities this week for possible prosecution.
Should Antonin Scalia sit one out? Well, tomorrow, the Supreme Court hears an appeal from a Guantanamo inmate. But Scalia, one of nine who will pass final judgment, may have made up his mind already.
CNN's Brian Todd has more now from Washington.
Brian, what's the story?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, about the case, Kyra, tomorrow's arguments and the court's eventual ruling are a huge test of whether the government can prosecute detainees in a military tribunal.
Now, a detainee named Salim Hamdan, officials say admitted to being a bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden, is challenging the legality of tribunals. Now, some detainee advocates and legal scholars are calling for Justice Scalia to recuse himself from this case, because, three weeks ago, when speaking at a law school in Switzerland, Scalia was asked what legal rights detainees should have in general.
And he said this -- quote -- "If he was captured in my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield, and they were shooting at my son. And I'm not about to give this man, who was captured in a war, a full jury trial. I mean, it's crazy."
Scalia does not refer by name to Salim Hamdan or his case. And Scalia supporters say he was, in fact, talking about a case the court decided two years ago, when it ruled detainees could challenge their detention in federal court.
Scalia dissented from that opinion, and has spoken against it ever since. His supporters say he would never make that leap to speak about an upcoming case. Now, Hamdan's attorneys are not calling for Scalia recuse. In the end, it is up to Scalia himself to decide that.
A court spokeswoman says he will not comment on that -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: But there's already a recusal on the court for this case, though, right?
TODD: That's right. Chief Justice John Roberts has recused himself from this case, because, last year, in a federal appeals court, he did rule against Salim Hamdan.
So, right now, we only have eight justices hearing the case, as it is -- no indication, as we said, whether Scalia is going to recuse. The court will have no comment. He has no comment. We may not know that until tomorrow.
PHILLIPS: Brian Todd, thanks.
TODD: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, the dangers of steroids and the reasons for taking the risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My son told me directly that one of the reasons why he took steroids was because Barry Bonds did it, and Mark McGwire did it, so, it must be OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Family tragedy leads two parents to speak out. They join me ahead to talk about their son and their message.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: He's one of the richest people in the world. (AUDIO GAP) 15-year-old car and flies economy, all to set a good example, also, probably to save a few bucks.
Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA, the world's biggest furniture retailer, in 1956. He's worth an estimated $28 billion. And, in a rare interview, he said he really doesn't mind if people call him cheap. He's just trying to show his 90,000 employees the virtue of being frugal, including writing on both sides of the paper. We're not kidding.
You may soon be able to get all the capabilities of the next- generation TVs, setup, top box, without actually buying any new hardware.
Susan Lisovicz has more from the New York Stock Exchange.
Susan, I remember shopping at IKEA decades ago.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: That was the place to shop in college.
(LAUGHTER)
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you know what? And there are a lot of people who continue to shop at IKEA, the secret to success.
And you know what, Kyra? I checked. He is the only of the top 10 billionaires to drive an old car. Porsche seems to be much more popular among the likes of Michael Dell, and Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison, and so on.
In any case, talking about DVRs, Cablevision, which provides cable service in and around New York City, is planning to introduce a new video recording service as early as this year that could replace existing DVRs.
The service would allow users to store their recorded shows and movies on hard drives that Cablevision maintains, rather than on the set-top boxes themselves. The service will operate through customers' current boxes.
And Cablevision says it could cost less than existing technology, because it would cut the costs of installing and fixing digital video recorders.
Turning to Wall Street, well, it's a snore of a day today. Frankly, investors are cautious, as Federal Reserve policy-makers have started their two-day meeting on interest rates -- a 15th consecutive rate hike widely expected when the Fed announces its decision at 2:15 tomorrow afternoon.
Let's take a look at the latest numbers -- the Dow industrial remain mired modestly in the red, down 16 points -- the Nasdaq composite, meanwhile, up modestly, up nearly five points -- volume very light. Oil isn't even moving very much.
Finally, imagine seeing one of these things next to you on the highway. There it is. DaimlerChrysler is seriously considering launching its tiny smart car in the U.S. The German-American automaker says it will build the next version of the car to meet U.S. safety and environmental standards. DaimlerChrysler is investing more than $1 billion to try and turn around the struggling unit, which has become a major drag on Daimler's usually profitable Mercedes division -- very popular in Europe, though.
That's the latest from Wall Street. Stay with us. LIVE FROM will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A rookie driver killed, a lifelong dream extinguished in a terrible crash -- one car hit the wall at the Homestead-Miami Speedway yesterday during warmup laps. Other drivers slowed down to avoid it, but Paul Dana didn't. He hit Ed Carpenter's car at almost 200 miles an hour. Carpenter wasn't hurt, but Dana, in the first season in Indy League, was pronounced dead two hours later.
Sports and steroids back in the spotlight with the new book scrutinizing San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds. For years, Bonds has denied knowingly using steroids, but not everyone has bought it, include Efrain Marrero. When his parents caught him using steroids, well, he pointed to Bonds.
He still agreed to stop. But, weeks later, at 19, Efrain killed himself.
Brenda and Frank, his parents, have since launched a campaign to warn other parents about steroids. They join me now live from San Francisco.
Good to see you both.
FRANK MARRERO, FATHER OF EFRAIN ANTHONY MARRERO: Hi, Kyra.
BRENDA MARRERO, MOTHER OF EFRAIN ANTHONY MARRERO: Thank...
F. MARRERO: Kyra.
B. MARRERO: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Frank, let's talk about your son. He was on the Internet. He was surfing something. There was an uncomfortable moment when you came in and saw him on the Internet. What happened?
F. MARRERO: Well, actually, it was my wife, Brenda, that was in there with him, and caught him on the Internet.
He covered up. And he -- but he came forward. He wanted to disclose at that time that he was using steroids. My wife called me in and to talk about it, because this was something new for our family.
This was about three-and-a-half weeks before Efrain committed suicide. He trusted his parents, his mom and dad, because he knew that he was in trouble, that, after using steroids for what he told us is six months -- we found out later that it was more -- when we talked to his friend -- that it was two years -- that this was causing some unimaginable damage, physically and psychologically, to him.
So, he came to us to tell us that, mom and dad, you know, his parents that he loved and trusted, that, "I'm in trouble," that -- you know, I could see the fear in his eyes. We had a three-hour conversation that evening. He wanted our help.
Unfortunately, at that time, we didn't know anything about it. We hadn't even spoken about steroids in our family. We tried to seek help for him, but, before we could, we lost him, three-and-a-half weeks later, to suicide.
PHILLIPS: Brenda, did he tell you why he felt he needed to use them?
B. MARRERO: Yes. Actually, he did. He -- frank asked him, "Efrain, why would you do such a thing?"
And Efrain said: "Well, dad, Barry Bonds does it. Mark McGwire does it," as if that was something that we should have known, that -- you know, these athletes out there that are doing it.
And my husband said: "Efrain, it doesn't make it right. And look at me as a role model. Look at what I have done."
And -- but our kids look beyond their parents as role models. And Efrain looked at his -- the elite athletes out there.
PHILLIPS: Frank, was this ever even an issue when you played sports growing up? Or -- and was this just a complete shock, when you found out your son was using them?
F. MARRERO: It was a complete shock.
It was never an issue when I played sports. I -- when I was in high school, I played baseball -- it was my favorite sport -- and football and wrestling. That I never saw in our -- in our teams at all.
And when our son told us, that was a complete shock to us. You know, I thought about, you know, HIV, infections, disease. I didn't think about the other psychologically and physical damage -- dangers of steroids that we later find out, when we go talk to experts about what this can cause to our young kids out there and the damage that it -- can occur.
And I can tell you that our son, he -- there was a mark -- a remarkable difference in him from the time that he used it to the two years after he used it. He was a much different person, psychologically, than he was before.
PHILLIPS: How was he so different, Brenda?
B. MARRERO: Oh, he had these -- well, Efrain was a kind, gentle young man. And, then, after he started using steroids, we would see these 'roid rages that he was having.
He would have episodes of -- just the smallest things would just make him mad. And I didn't understand it at the time. I just thought that Efrain was having -- you know, was pressured with, you know, doing well in school and sports and working.
And I never thought anything of it. But now I look back, and all the signs were there, right in front of us, that he was using steroids.
PHILLIPS: And, after you talked to him about it, it was about three-and-a-half weeks later. Did you both go into his bedroom, or was it just you, Brenda?
Frank, was it just you? And...
B. MARRERO: It was just...
PHILLIPS: It was you, Brenda.
B. MARRERO: It was just me.
PHILLIPS: And ...
B. MARRERO: I walked...
PHILLIPS: ... what happened?
B. MARRERO: Well, I walked up the stairs.
We came home from running errands. And, that day, Efrain wanted to stay home because he said he had a lot of homework to do. So, I walked in the house first. I had the baby in my hands. And I was going to take him upstairs to give him a bath.
And I walked up the stairs, and there was Efrain laying on our bedroom floor. And I screamed, and I called for my husband. And Frank ran up the stairs. And I left the bedroom. And then Frank was in there, trying to -- I really didn't know. I just put my face down to Efrain's, and my -- I put my face on to his cheek. And he was cold. And he was blue. And I just had to leave the room.
And then Frank was in there with Efrain after that.
PHILLIPS: God, Frank, did you ever realize that there was this connection, hormonally, with steroids, and that if, indeed, he got off them, that he would suffer depression and even want to commit suicide?
F. MARRERO: No, had no idea.
And that's the whole thing about this drug, is that it gives you the impression out there, especially from elite athletes, that it provides this performance out there. It gives you the Major League records, that it makes you bigger and stronger. And it does work.
But what the kids don't know about -- and I can tell you that our son did not know about -- was the powerful psychological effects that happen when you take these things. It happened to our son. He quit. Three-and-a-half weeks later, textbook -- and we talked to the expert out there -- they said that's textbook form. Severe depression, he withdrew and then committed suicide.
This stuff was so painful for him that he could not even see the love of his family, his little brother Ethan or his sister, and the great life that he had ahead of him, that the only way out for him now was to take his life. That day when I came upstairs and I heard Brenda scream -- people in the family need to understand this, that this is a terrible tragedy that happened to a very good family, that Efrain was a very good kid and that this is what happens when you go down this path and you take these drugs.
You've got to stay away from it. I tried to help my son. I could not help him. I found out later that he had died by suicide.
PHILLIPS: Well you -- both of you are doing a tremendous amount of work now to try and educate kids and families. Brenda, do you feel it's working, just the testimony you've been giving, whether it's on the Hill or on segments like this? Do you feel like you're reaching kids that were your son's age?
B. MARRERO: Yes, I do. After the presentations that we give -- and we've talked to many kids and parents that thank us for coming out and talking about our story and talking about what happened to Efrain. And they're totally unaware of it, but now that we're coming out and talking, it makes them more aware of the dangers out there.
PHILLIPS: And you can log onto the Web site, efrainmarrero.org, right?.
B. MARRERO: Yes, you can.
F. MARRERO: Yes, you can. And also, one of the things we're doing is we're also going and working with Lieutenant General Bradley and Major General Robert Dygen (ph) -- he's my boss -- to also get the information out to the Air Force families, because we were an Air Force family. And they have kids, and we have young airmen out there that may be using this stuff. So I've gone out talking to them and we're presenting this information out there to all of our Air Force reservists, airmen and their families.
PHILLIPS: Oh, wow. Oh, that's going to be the next segment then, Frank. Keep us updated on your efforts there. That's really interesting. Brenda and Frank Marrero, we sure appreciate your time today.
B. MARRERO: Thank you very much.
F. MARRERO: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: My pleasure.
Let's get straight to Kelli Arena. She's outside the courtroom there in Alexandria, Virginia.
About an hour ago, the word out of your mouth was stunning. You're coming out of the courtroom again. What else happened, Kelli?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, you know, I just wish I could just like send you the transcript and have you just read it because it would be so interesting. But basically, what the defense tried to do was salvage their case at this point.
And -- but Moussaoui did reveal in court that he rejoiced over the September 11th deaths. He said that when he passed the September 11th site of the World Trade Center, when he was flying over with U.S. marshal, his comment was, "It is smoking good." He said that he heard the tape from Flight 93, where he heard a stewardess plead for her life saying, I don't want to die. He said at that point he had absolutely no feeling at all for her. He said he assumes that every American is trying to kill him. After all, he says, I am al Qaeda. I am the enemy. He acknowledged that he didn't recognize the authority of the court. When he was asked, he said, I don't recognize anything.
But then it took a turn. And basically, his defense lawyers tried to sort of give this image that he was a legend in his own mind. And said, well, did anyone ever ask you to do surveillance flights when you were in the United States? As you know, Kyra, the hijackers ran -- they did dry runs. And he said, no. Were you supposed to meet anyone here? No. Did you know who the members of your team were? No. Did you know if Richard Reid, who you said was a member of your team, was even in the United States? Well, I had no idea.
So basically, he said he was just told to come to the United States, was given some money, was waiting to hear about what his assignment would be. And so there was a little doubt thrown into -- was he really supposed to be part of this or not? Was al Qaeda just trying to sweep him under the rug, get rid of him because he was a problem? He talked about running into some problems Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Malaysia, being reprimanded, having to go back to Afghanistan and sit down with Osama bin Laden. He said that it was because of that reprimand that he was late in getting to the United States, that he was in a rush to try to get his training.
He talked a lot about the dream that he had, about flying a plane into the White House using a 747. So the defense here trying to cast some doubt into, was this all something that was in his head and was he really supposed to be part of this? That's where we're at this point.
There were two psychiatrists in the courtroom taking copious notes, watching for his reaction, really, you know, sort of leaning over to see exactly what his body language was. So that's where we are at this point. He is done, Kyra. One of the closing thoughts was that -- he says he believes in destiny, that I just have to speak the truth, and God will take care of the rest. There you go, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Kelli Arena, thanks so much.
More LIVE FROM in just a minute, including look being at the Bionic Man. He's a very real possibility in the near future. Lee Majors look out. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A debate over immigration. Those protests growing by the minute, especially this one in Los Angeles. Right, Betty Nguyen?
NGUYEN: Yes, we've been watching this all morning long. They were trickling out of the classrooms. And as you can see by this live picture of Los Angeles here at City Hall, they have really started to gather there. They're waving Mexican flags. If you look really closely in the crowd, you can tell that a lot of these people are students. They're still wearing their backpacks from school. Some 14,000 students from 20 Los Angeles schools have simply walked out. They're walking out in protest. They're sending a message about this illegal immigration legislation that the Senate is discussing this week. On tap is a bill that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. It would also make it a crime for anyone to help an illegal immigrant.
So these are some of the issues that the students and people within L.A. are really upset with, and they're taking that to the street. If you think this is big, take a look at these pictures that we're going to show you right now from Detroit. Look at that, this wide shot. Apparently thousands have gathered there as well. People waving U.S. and Mexican flags. They're also chanting, "Yes, we can," as they march through Detroit and Grand Rapids.
What they're protesting, again, is those bills within the Senate now that they're discussing on illegal immigration. Now, the protests started on the west side of the city, home to many Latin American immigrants, then moved the downtown area. Hundreds upon thousands there in the streets waving flags, chanting. Obviously, Kyra, this is an issue that has really reached to people nationwide. We saw it last week, Chicago, we saw it in Phoenix, we saw it in Los Angeles. Over the weekend, some half million people turned out over the weekend in Los Angeles.
Today, thousands in Detroit. Little bit early, we saw Los Angeles students walking out some 14,000 students. A lot of people standing up for what they feel is wrong with this legislation. They want their voices heard, apparently.
PHILLIPS: Betty Nguyen, following all those protests for us. More than seven million illegal immigrants holding jobs in the United States. I am imagining we'll probably see a number more of those protests sparking across the United States and we'll cover them all.
Meanwhile, Tillie may be a dummy, but she doesn't come cheaply. Tillie is a mannequin costs 10 bucks to make, but a computer tutoring company bought her in an online auction for $15,000. You might remember the story of the Denver man who tried to use Tillie as a ticket to the carpool lane. As part of Greg Pringle's sentence, he had to hold a sign next to the highway saying, "HOV line not for dummies." He also agreed to donate proceeds from Tillie to a driver safety program.
All right, it's the 21st century and we don't have flying cars or pills that will cure any disease on weather on demand, but 30 years after Steve Austin became "The Six Million Dollar Man," we do have Jesse Sullivan. Power company linesman turned marvel of technology. CNN's Keith Oppenheim has his amazing story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSE SULLIVAN, AMPUTEE: I might not do everything that I once did, but I can do some of the things I once did.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jesse Sullivan is using his arms, taking out the trash, painting a flower box, raking the lawn, even clipping the hedges. At his home in Dayton, Tennessee, he can use his artificial limbs to do all kinds of things just as long as he keeps them dry.
(on camera): Why can't you work out in the rain?
SULLIVAN: That computer -- well, you can see the computer board down in there. They told me not to get this wet.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Jesse Sullivan is bionic, a real life version of what was once science fiction on a TV show called "The Six Million Dollar Man," the story of an astronaut who learns to control high-tech artificial limbs after a terrible accident.
The script for Jesse Sullivan's story is not so different. A former linesman for a power company, Jesse was seriously injured on the job in May of 2001.
SULLIVAN: For some reason I made contact with the live wire in the grain.
OPPENHEIM (on camera): How much electricity did your body take in?
SULLIVAN: Seven thousand, two hundred volts -- 7,200.
OPPENHEIM: What happened to your arms?
SULLIVAN: Cooked them.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Jesse's arms were amputated. He woke from a month-long coma to discover his limbs gone, his life changed.
SULLIVAN: That was when it really set in because I grieved over my arms like a death in the family. That's what when it really hit me that they're not coming back. This is it.
OPPENHEIM: Despite the loss, Jesse adapted.
(on camera): How do you open the hook on this arm?
SULLIVAN: Simply by shrugging my shoulders forward. Like so.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): He learned to use conventional prosthetics by moving his back and pressing tabs with his chin. But his doctors at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago believed they could rebuild him better, that instead of moving artificial arms slowly with his body, Jesse could move them faster with his mind.
DR. TODD KUIKEN, REHABILITATION INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: We haven't spent $6 million yet but we hope to.
OPPENHEIM: Dr. Todd Kuiken explained, Jesse underwent surgery and was essentially rewired. Because of the accident, live nerves that would have gone straight to his arms and hands were severed and left hanging.
Doctors redirected those nerves from his shoulder to pectoral muscles in his chest. The concept, Jesse merely thinks that he wants to move his arm or hand, and with the rewired nerve endings, his chest muscles contract.
KUIKEN: Every time you contract a muscle, it emits a little electrical signal. So we can pick up that electrical signal from the muscle and use that to go into a computer in the arm and tell arm what to do.
SULLIVAN: Up. Open. Close.
OPPENHEIM: Jesse's brain now thinks that when his pectoral muscles move, his arm, wrist and elbow are moving. And check this out, because the nerve endings are in his chest, his brain tells him that's where he can feel what is missing.
KUIKEN: So what does it feel like when I touch you right here?
SULLIVAN: You're touching me with a thumb, first two fingers and the palm of the hand.
KUIKEN: And over here?
SULLIVAN: That's the little finger, side of the hand.
KUIKEN: In Tennessee, Jesse's wife Carolyn helps him put on what doctors call his take-home arms. The left limb is a bionic arm with three motors. Because it responds to his brain, Jesse can bend his elbow, turn his wrist, and open the grip-like hand virtually at the same time. But the bionic man is striving for more. Several times a year he comes back to Chicago ...
SULLIVAN: Open, down. Back up.
OPPENHEIM: ... to test drive a sixth motor arm with even more freedom of movement. It is the first brain-controlled prosthesis to move simultaneously at the shoulder, elbow and wrist.
It was made with parts from around the globe: a hand from China, a wrist from Germany, a shoulder from Scotland, and components from Boston and Chicago. Jesse takes pride his brain is in control of everything.
SULLIVAN: All I have to do is want to do it and I can do it.
OPPENHEIM: For now, the newer arm is too fragile and too expensive to endure what Jesse might do with it in Tennessee.
KUIKEN: We told him when we first gave him his take home set to, you know, go out and use them. And he brought it back and he had ripped the shoulder off, broken 12 stainless steel bolts trying to pull start the lawn mower. So he took us quite literally. But that's fine. You know, our challenge is to make them stand up to what he wants to do with them. OPPENHEIM: For Jesse, the challenge has been to not give up. Even when his new limbs are, at this point, for research purposes only.
SULLIVAN: It is weird looking, but ...
OPPENHEIM (on camera): What it can do.
SULLIVAN: What it can do. It can -- you know, it has given me a freedom that I can be able to do this. This is a big deal.
OPPENHEIM: That's a big deal, isn't it?
SULLIVAN: To me that is a big deal.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Jesse likes to say he's no hero, that he's just taking part in the research so he will live a better life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, two, three.
OPPENHEIM: Yet it seems this man who imitates science fiction may make a real contribution to humanity. And what he learns could have an impact on other accident victims who will use bionic arms of the future.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right, the weekend's over. How is your bracket? Don't tell me you picked George Mason for the Final Four. The Patriots face Florida Saturday, and Louisiana State takes on UCLA. The championship game is a week from tonight. It's George Mason's first trip to the big dance. And I hear many of you asking, who is or who was George Mason? Well here you go. The original was one of the founding fathers. He never held national office, but he had a big part of drafting Virginia's constitution and Declaration of Rights in 1776.
It's an ancient discovery that may connect the dots for modern scientists. What does this skull have to say about our ancestors? The news keeps coming, we'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM right after this.
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PHILLIPS: Who we are and who we used to be are two very different animals, but a skull that turned up in northeast Ethiopia in two pieces may be a missing link -- make that a formerly missing link. The skull is between 250,000 and half million years old.
Scientists think it could connect modern man, homo sapiens, with an ancient extinct ancestor, homo erectus. So far there hasn't been much of a fossil record for the time between those two periods.
A little boy was among the first to see it, a ghostlike image of the Virgin Mary. His report drew more than 200 people to the bridge over the Rock River -- or over the Rock River in Moline, Illinois, on Saturday.
Kelly Hessedal of our affiliate WQAD has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish the whole city would see it. I wish the whole world would see what I see. It's unbelievable.
KELLY HESSEDAL, WQAD CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's an image that touched their hearts. Some say you can see the Virgin Mary in this pillar of the I-74 bridge across the Rock River. Five-year-old Abrahim Handel (ph) spotted it a week ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty and shiny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, mom, there's our lady that's on my T- shirt or sweatshirt. And I said, wow. You can see that? And he said, yes mom, I see her.
HESSEDAL: In the daylight, mom, Andrea, admits it's hard to believe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just don't understand how that makes her image at all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking and I can't see where even it could have been. But at night, I mean, it's just like she illuminates.
HESSEDAL: Maria Weese (ph) shot home video.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was fading in and out, and I did capture her on my camera.
HESSEDAL (on-camera): The top part of this, the rays of light and then you can see her silhouette in that.
(voice over): Hundreds showed up at the former Heralds on the Rock Restaurant to see for themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
HESSEDAL: Even if you don't believe this depicts the Virgin Mary, this image has united these people and given them a gift.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just peacefulness that in this day and age with all the stuff going on in this world that she's there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And too many things are happening in the world, and people are losing faith. And I think she -- that's why she's appearing. Because she wants people, you know, to get their faith back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That story from Kelly Hessedal of our affiliate WQAD.
Graceland has been a landmark to Elvis fans, music fans for years. But now it's official. The house in South Memphis that Elvis bought with money from his first big hit -- we're $103,000 in 1957. Well, guess what? It's now a national historic landmark. It joins a pretty ritzy neighborhood. Some of the nation's other historic landmarks include the White House, the Alamo and George Washington's home in Mount Vernon.
Perfect segue, Elvis Presley to Wolf Blitzer, both kings of their own.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Kyra, very much.
We have a lot of stuff coming up right at the top of the hour, including a self-declared al Qaeda terrorist, who now says his mission was to fly a plane into the White House on 9/11. But is he telling the truth?
Also, immigration divide protesters and political warfare. Thousands taking to the streets right now. Is the fight heating up here in Washington, as well? We are covering all sides of the story.
Plus, Hillary Clinton, helicopters and spying. A comment by her opponent and the very bizarre new twist in the New York Senate race.
And secret war memo. How far was President Bush willing to go to start a war in Iraq? Taking a closer look at some explosive new allegations. All of that, Kyra, coming right at the top of the hour here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
PHILLIPS: Won't miss it. Thanks, Wolf.
Bonnie has a check of the weather. Some serious storms about to move in tonight for many of you. The news keeps coming. We will keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Let's check in with Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange for a last look. Actually, it's time -- yes, it's time for the closing bell. Isn't it? Time flies, Susan Lisovicz.
LISOVICZ: You are hearing the applause already. It's been a blah day here. The Fed meets tomorrow to have its decision on interest rates.
But there is a lot of applause today because every person on the balcony with the exception of the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, John Thain, is a recipient of the congressional medal of honor, which as many of our viewers know is the highest award for valor in the battle field. People of Wall Street always very appreciative of our men and women in uniform.
And as the closing bell is about to ring it looks like a very typically cautious day ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow. The Dow will end down modestly. The Nasdaq will end up modestly. And it is just about time for "THE SITUATION ROOM" and Wolf Blitzer.
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