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CNN Live Today
First Trial in Madrid Terror Bombing Case Begins Today; President Bush Expected to Announce Nomination of Condoleezza Rice to Become Next Secretary of State
Aired November 16, 2004 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Congress returns from recess for the lame -duck session that will close the careers of some lawmakers, at least for now. There will be a number of major items demanding attention, including 9/11 reforms, spending bills and the selection of committee and leadership positions. The new Congress, with its newly elected members, will convene in January.
It's been a lot of progress on the Clinton Presidential Library since this video was shot more than a year ago. Dedication ceremonies are scheduled for Thursday at the facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. One alcove will focus on his impeachment.
Officials in France say they have no plans to release the medical records of Yasser Arafat, despite the formal request made by Palestinian officials. French officials say such a decision rests with Arafat's family. Arafat died last week in a Paris hospital, and there's been no official cause of death.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The first trial in the Madrid terror bombing case begins today. The March train bombings killed 191 people and have been blamed on militants linked to al Qaeda. The first person to go on trial is a Spanish teenager.
CNN's Madrid bureau chief, Al Goodman, joins us on a videophone with the latest.
Hi, Al.
AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Betty.
Well, that trial is due to start right now at this hour, 4:30 p.m. local time in Madrid, in the national courthouse, which handles cases of terrorism. It's right behind me. This is going to be held in a high-security basement courtroom with bulletproof glass. We have a CNN colleague inside the courtroom so we can get all the details.
Now on trial is the only juvenile charged in the Madrid train bombings, which were eight months ago. He's 16. He grew up poor in a broken family, according to authorities, and he lived up near this mine, where authorities say explosives used in the train bombings were stolen. According to the authorities, the boy was there on the night of February 28th, just two weeks before the bombing with three North African men. He waited outside, while they went in and stole lots of explosives that were later sent down to Madrid and used in those bombings -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Al, I want to ask you about this trial. Is it expected to be a quick one? Because as I understand it, juveniles cannot be held more than six months without going to trial.
GOODMAN: Well, indeed, he was arrested in June so they had to start this trial by December. They've done the investigation. They're starting it now. This trial is expected to last only three days. The juvenile, who has not been publicly identified by authorities, and prosecution incidentally is seeking eight years in jail for him. He will be the first up and have the first chance to testify.
Now there are many other people, dozens of people who have been charged in this case, and some of the people who are expected to testify include a man who was kind of the Spanish paymaster for this juvenile, according to authorities, the man who got this boy into all the trouble moving the explosives around. His name, Jose Emilio Suarez.
There are other people, North Africans, Moroccans, with whom this boy allegedly worked who are now dead. One of them Jamal Aminan (ph), and some others, who's pictures I think we have who went with him on just a couple weeks before the bombings and were involved in the alleged thefts of these explosives. And there are still others. There's an Egyptian man under arrest in Italy that Spanish authorities want. They think he might have been a mastermind. So there are a lot of trials yet to come. Yet the nation is clearly watching this very first one. We just talked to the president of one of the main victims' associations, and he said they definitely want justice, even if it's a 16-year-old boy -- Betty.
NGUYEN: And we'll be watching, too, Al Goodman in Madrid, Spain for us today. Thank you, Al -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Fighting goes on in Falluja today, as U.S. and Iraqi forces try to clear out remaining pockets of insurgents. While ground forces conduct block-to-block searches, U.S. bombers and gunships hit suspected insurgent positions overnight. As the fighting has wound down in some areas, distribution centers have opened to hand out food, water and medical supplies to the city's residents.
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive today against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The operation comes after insurgents attacked police stations and other government buildings last week, and early this week. The U.S. military spokesman says that sporadic fighting was going on today against pockets of insurgents on the western side of town.
And more violence in another part of the Sunni triangle in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. Five policemen and 26 guerrillas were killed in fighting on Monday. The attacks on two police stations were repelled. U.S. forces recovered weapons and weapons systems from the area where that attack was launched.
About two hours from now, President Bush is expected to announce his nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to become the next secretary of state.
Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel is here with more on this story.
Good morning to you, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Betty.
Ms. Rice, when she was first tapped to be the national security adviser, was the first woman to do so. If she's confirmed by the Congress, she'll become the first African-American woman to be secretary of state. She is, of course, a trusted and loyal confidante of President Bush's, who quit her job as the provost at Stanford University back in 1999 to become then-Governor George Bush's chief foreign policy adviser during his campaign.
Now, as to what to expect from Ms. Rice as secretary of state, what you won't have is the same degree of friction among the president's national security team the way there was with Secretary Powell, with the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Among foreign policy flashpoints that will be on Ms. Rice's agenda, of course, the Middle East roadmap, which has been reinvigorated, or at least stands the chance of being reinvigorated now that Yasser Arafat has passed from the scene. President Bush said last week he intended to use his political capital to bring about a Middle East/Palestinian state sometime in the next four years. Iraqi elections, which are slated for the end of January. The State Department, of course, is in charge now of reconstruction in Iraq.
And then you have North Korean and Iranian nuclear talks, both quite different. North Korea talks are multilateral between the United States and number of its key allies, and the North Korean government. Whereas with Iran, you have talks that have been going on between that government and several European capitals. A little bit of progress on that front.
But I should also say, on a personal note, Betty, Miss Rice is also known as an accomplished virtuoso pianist, as an accomplished figure skater, and her ultimate aspiration one days, she says, is to be the commissioner of the National Football League -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Andrea, what about Richard Armitage stepping down? What do you know about this?
KOPPEL: Well, Mr. Armitage, of course, has been Secretary Powell's No. 2. The deputy secretary of state here. Again, very loyal and trusted confidant. That was widely expected, that if Secretary Powell were to leave, that Richard Armitage would do so, and he apparently handed his resignation in on Monday -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, Andrea Koppel for us. Thank you, Andrea -- Daryn. KAGAN: Back here in the U.S. on this, his first day as governor of New Jersey, Richard Cody plans to set up a mental illness task force to fix what he calls a dysfunctional state system.
Well, a moving van was spotted outside the governor's mansion. James McGreevey spent his final day in office out of the public eye. McGreevey announced his resignation after acknowledging a gay extramarital affair. The ex-governor plans to volunteer with the National Education Foundation. He will live apart from his wife and their 2-year-old daughter.
NGUYEN: There is another medical alert this morning, this time for RU-486. We have got the latest concerns surrounding the popular abortion pill.
KAGAN: Also it's a hotspot for Viagra, but not exactly truth in advertising. We're going to tell you why the FDA is pulling the plug on this latest commercial for the drug.
NGUYEN: We've all seen that commercial. Well, New York City then and now. We'll check out an incredible photo retrospective of the Big Apple going back some 70 years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: And we have the story of a little girl making a big difference. Alexandra Scott didn't live long enough to see her dream of raising a million dollars for pediatric cancer research realized. The 8-year-old died in August. But not before bringing awareness for her cause through Alex's Lemonade Stand. That front yard stand, one stand led to grassroots nationwide fund-raising movement. And thanks to some corporate help, Alex's goal for this year has been met. Alex had set a higher goal for 2005. Her mother, Liz Scott, joining me now from Philadelphia to talk about that.
Liz, welcome back.
LIZ SCOTT, ALEXANDRA SCOTT'S MOTHER: Thanks for having me.
KAGAN: And for those of us out there who haven't had a chance to see you earlier, tell us how Alex's goal of having this original lemonade stand led to this huge dream?
SCOTT: When Alex was just 4 years old, she had already been fighting cancer for a few years and she announced to us that she was going to have a lemonade stand. And instead of keeping the money she was going to give it to her doctors to help them find a cure.
KAGAN: And this just led to kids around the country having lemonade stands and some corporate involvement. But when she passed away in August I believe the fund was about $750,000.
SCOTT: That's correct. She had set a goal of raising $1 million in 2004. And we knew it would be tough. But we also believed in Alex, just as she always believed in herself. In July we got a phone call from Volvo cars and she was at $750,000 and they said promise her for us that we will get her over $1 million, she doesn't have to worry about it. And with a lot of help from a lot of kids and people all over the country having lemonade stands, as well as other companies getting involved and with Volvo's help, of course, she did reach her goal of $1 million.
KAGAN: Well, that's just absolutely fantastic. And I think right before, when we talked with you about a month ago, Volvo was doing this promotion where if you came in to do a test drive they were going to kick in some money.
SCOTT: Right. That came out of their desire to keep their promise to Alex and to raise money for Alex's charity as well as local charities. And they did it. And it was just incredible the response we received.
KAGAN: And where's that money going to go, Liz?
SCOTT: That money goes to fund primarily pediatric cancer research. Alex herself was on experimental trials for about five years and she did extremely well on them. And she knew that there was a lot of potential for them to benefit other children. And her wish is that we continue to fund these types of grants that will really make a difference for kids like herself who need some new treatments now.
KAGAN: Which I imagine that means that her work and your work is not done?
SCOTT: Absolutely. We have a lot of work. We've been extremely busy. We've had an overwhelming response. We continue to. And Alex set a goal, once she knew she was going to reach the millions in 2005, of a gazillion dollars, and once she found out that wasn't a real number, which I'm pretty sure she already knew, she said, well, then it's going to be $5 million in 2005. So we have our work cut out for us. But we're up to it and we're going to go for it.
KAGAN: All right. Well, we'll have to have you back next year.
SCOTT: OK, great. Thank you.
KAGAN: Tell us how it's going. Liz Scott, proudly Alexandra Scott's mother. Thanks for stopping by and giving us an update.
SCOTT: Thanks a lot.
KAGAN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Now to a few medical stories making headlines this morning. Pfizer has begun pulling those "wild thing" Viagra ads, you know, you've seen them, after an order by the FDA. The FDA said the ads made unsubstantiated claims about the return of sexual desire. Here's the ad now. The government agency also said the ads failed to mention major side effects, and why some people shouldn't take the impotence drug.
Well, the FDA has issued new safety warnings for the abortion pill RU-486. The warning tells of the risk of serious bacterial infections, bleeding, and even death that may occur. While noting the risks are rare, the FDA says bacterial infection may occur without the usual signs such as fever and tenderness. The FDA also says women who have prolonged bleeding should be checked by a doctor.
Long hours in front of a computer screen may be linked to eye disease. Japanese study found those who sat in front of computers for more than eight hours a day were twice as likely to get glaucoma. The research also showed a link between computer stress and users who are near-sighted.
That's not good news. I'm in front of the computer all the time.
KAGAN: How are your eyes doing?
NGUYEN: Not very good.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: I'll help you out.
NGUYEN: OK.
KAGAN: Changing landscapes caught on film. Up next 70 years of the world's most famous city captured in black and white. Also this is what we're working on for next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: East side, west side, all around town, time passes through the eye of a camera, and a city's past blends with the present in the blink of a lens. It happens when you look at a yearbook or attend a reunion, even go back to visit your childhood home. Suddenly it hits you, things have changed. That idea dawned on photographer Douglas Levere who attempted to capture that metamorphosis on film. His book is called "New York Changing: Rephotrographing Bernice Abbot's (ph) Changing New York 1939."
And Doug Levere is joining us now to talk about all this.
Good morning to you.
DOUG LEVERE, "NEW YORK CHANGING": Good morning.
NGUYEN: First of all, what made you want to take on such a project? What was that one thing that sparked this?
LEVERE: Well, I happened to come across an image that Abbott had taken actually on the street where I lived, on Broom Street. It was titled "Broadway Near Broom Street." And it's something that I was incredibly familiar with. And seeing that, that Abbot image just drew me to this place, and made me think about how familiar I was with this place. But yet, the Abbott picture told me so much more. And I started to do research and look into other images from the project.
NGUYEN: A lot of your pictures are very telling, some of them kind of shocking how much the city has progressed and changed. But other pictures just kind of show that it's stayed the same.
We want to take a look at several of your pictures. We want to start with one that kind of depicts a barber shop. This is the 1930s photograph, and then it transforms into the photograph that you took. Tell us about this particular place.
LEVERE: Well, the Abbott images is one of Abbott's most memorable probably from this project. It's actually called "Blossom Restaurant." The barber shop is predominant with the barber standing in the foreground.
But my image is this is actually called the "Everywhere Store" today. It's on the lower east side on the bowery. And when I went there, obviously, almost nothing remained, only tiny little details from the brick side of the building.
But the Asian gentleman that happened to appear in the image, after waiting for an hour or so, and almost being complete and having no more film left, this gentleman stopped by, and I just thought that he was just a great reflection of what the neighborhood had become today.
NGUYEN: If we show that once more, because it really shows the detail that you went in to recapture these pictures, making sure people were standing in the same spots. Of course they're not the same people. But it shows how time has passed. Yet people are still in the same portions of the picture as it was originally taken. This had to have been kind of difficult for you to recapture.
LEVERE: It was. And I actually was looking for the shop owner. I had to leave my camera, my large-format camera, standing on the street in New York City, and I went in actually to look for the shop owner. He wasn't interested in being in the photograph. And so this gentleman, who actually was observing me for awhile, ended up to be the subject of the picture.
NGUYEN: All right. We have a lot of pictures to put up, so let's get to the rest of them.
LEVERE: Sure.
NGUYEN: There's one where you capture the World Trade Center site in the 1930s before it was even built, and then as we show it transforming into your picture, where the World Trade Center once stood.
LEVERE: And this picture, I was doing a commercial job, actually, in the World Financial Center, and a very wonderful person there understood what I was doing, and she helped me get access to the Office of Emergency Management. This is taken just in March of 2002, not long after the World Trade Center had been destroyed. And originally, this was not an image that I thought I would be doing in the project, because there was absolutely no reference to what had become before. You could only see the south tower of the World Trade Center with no reference to the Abbott image. And luckily, I got access to the site right before the west side highway reopened again. NGUYEN: And I just love this next picture. It's of a bakery, and it's still a bakery, but yet it's changed. Let's talk about this one that we're going to put up right now.
LEVERE: This is Abbott's -- actually called "This Bread Store." It's Zito's Bread Store, which was on Bleaker Street for roughly 82 years. Unfortunately, this year they closed in May, because of higher rent, and also they complained of the carbohydrate craze had stopped people from buying bread.
NGUYEN: We're out of time, but I do want to ask you, do you plan to do another project just like this? Maybe recapturing these pictures another 25, 30 years from now?
LEVERE: Very likely, if I -- I would love to come back and do this again in 20 years, and maybe we'll come back.
NGUYEN: We'll see how it turns out. Doug Levere, author of "New York Changing." Love those photographs. Thank you.
LEVERE: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Stay with us. We'll be back with a quick check of your morning forecast.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: We are talking about restocking the president's cabinet. Coming up in the next hour, the latest on the many holes to fill in the second Bush administration.
NGUYEN: And we are checking out some of the healthiest places to live for women. Some of the answers, they may surprise you.
Those details ahead, as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 16, 2004 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Congress returns from recess for the lame -duck session that will close the careers of some lawmakers, at least for now. There will be a number of major items demanding attention, including 9/11 reforms, spending bills and the selection of committee and leadership positions. The new Congress, with its newly elected members, will convene in January.
It's been a lot of progress on the Clinton Presidential Library since this video was shot more than a year ago. Dedication ceremonies are scheduled for Thursday at the facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. One alcove will focus on his impeachment.
Officials in France say they have no plans to release the medical records of Yasser Arafat, despite the formal request made by Palestinian officials. French officials say such a decision rests with Arafat's family. Arafat died last week in a Paris hospital, and there's been no official cause of death.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The first trial in the Madrid terror bombing case begins today. The March train bombings killed 191 people and have been blamed on militants linked to al Qaeda. The first person to go on trial is a Spanish teenager.
CNN's Madrid bureau chief, Al Goodman, joins us on a videophone with the latest.
Hi, Al.
AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Betty.
Well, that trial is due to start right now at this hour, 4:30 p.m. local time in Madrid, in the national courthouse, which handles cases of terrorism. It's right behind me. This is going to be held in a high-security basement courtroom with bulletproof glass. We have a CNN colleague inside the courtroom so we can get all the details.
Now on trial is the only juvenile charged in the Madrid train bombings, which were eight months ago. He's 16. He grew up poor in a broken family, according to authorities, and he lived up near this mine, where authorities say explosives used in the train bombings were stolen. According to the authorities, the boy was there on the night of February 28th, just two weeks before the bombing with three North African men. He waited outside, while they went in and stole lots of explosives that were later sent down to Madrid and used in those bombings -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Al, I want to ask you about this trial. Is it expected to be a quick one? Because as I understand it, juveniles cannot be held more than six months without going to trial.
GOODMAN: Well, indeed, he was arrested in June so they had to start this trial by December. They've done the investigation. They're starting it now. This trial is expected to last only three days. The juvenile, who has not been publicly identified by authorities, and prosecution incidentally is seeking eight years in jail for him. He will be the first up and have the first chance to testify.
Now there are many other people, dozens of people who have been charged in this case, and some of the people who are expected to testify include a man who was kind of the Spanish paymaster for this juvenile, according to authorities, the man who got this boy into all the trouble moving the explosives around. His name, Jose Emilio Suarez.
There are other people, North Africans, Moroccans, with whom this boy allegedly worked who are now dead. One of them Jamal Aminan (ph), and some others, who's pictures I think we have who went with him on just a couple weeks before the bombings and were involved in the alleged thefts of these explosives. And there are still others. There's an Egyptian man under arrest in Italy that Spanish authorities want. They think he might have been a mastermind. So there are a lot of trials yet to come. Yet the nation is clearly watching this very first one. We just talked to the president of one of the main victims' associations, and he said they definitely want justice, even if it's a 16-year-old boy -- Betty.
NGUYEN: And we'll be watching, too, Al Goodman in Madrid, Spain for us today. Thank you, Al -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Fighting goes on in Falluja today, as U.S. and Iraqi forces try to clear out remaining pockets of insurgents. While ground forces conduct block-to-block searches, U.S. bombers and gunships hit suspected insurgent positions overnight. As the fighting has wound down in some areas, distribution centers have opened to hand out food, water and medical supplies to the city's residents.
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive today against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The operation comes after insurgents attacked police stations and other government buildings last week, and early this week. The U.S. military spokesman says that sporadic fighting was going on today against pockets of insurgents on the western side of town.
And more violence in another part of the Sunni triangle in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. Five policemen and 26 guerrillas were killed in fighting on Monday. The attacks on two police stations were repelled. U.S. forces recovered weapons and weapons systems from the area where that attack was launched.
About two hours from now, President Bush is expected to announce his nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to become the next secretary of state.
Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel is here with more on this story.
Good morning to you, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Betty.
Ms. Rice, when she was first tapped to be the national security adviser, was the first woman to do so. If she's confirmed by the Congress, she'll become the first African-American woman to be secretary of state. She is, of course, a trusted and loyal confidante of President Bush's, who quit her job as the provost at Stanford University back in 1999 to become then-Governor George Bush's chief foreign policy adviser during his campaign.
Now, as to what to expect from Ms. Rice as secretary of state, what you won't have is the same degree of friction among the president's national security team the way there was with Secretary Powell, with the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Among foreign policy flashpoints that will be on Ms. Rice's agenda, of course, the Middle East roadmap, which has been reinvigorated, or at least stands the chance of being reinvigorated now that Yasser Arafat has passed from the scene. President Bush said last week he intended to use his political capital to bring about a Middle East/Palestinian state sometime in the next four years. Iraqi elections, which are slated for the end of January. The State Department, of course, is in charge now of reconstruction in Iraq.
And then you have North Korean and Iranian nuclear talks, both quite different. North Korea talks are multilateral between the United States and number of its key allies, and the North Korean government. Whereas with Iran, you have talks that have been going on between that government and several European capitals. A little bit of progress on that front.
But I should also say, on a personal note, Betty, Miss Rice is also known as an accomplished virtuoso pianist, as an accomplished figure skater, and her ultimate aspiration one days, she says, is to be the commissioner of the National Football League -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Andrea, what about Richard Armitage stepping down? What do you know about this?
KOPPEL: Well, Mr. Armitage, of course, has been Secretary Powell's No. 2. The deputy secretary of state here. Again, very loyal and trusted confidant. That was widely expected, that if Secretary Powell were to leave, that Richard Armitage would do so, and he apparently handed his resignation in on Monday -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, Andrea Koppel for us. Thank you, Andrea -- Daryn. KAGAN: Back here in the U.S. on this, his first day as governor of New Jersey, Richard Cody plans to set up a mental illness task force to fix what he calls a dysfunctional state system.
Well, a moving van was spotted outside the governor's mansion. James McGreevey spent his final day in office out of the public eye. McGreevey announced his resignation after acknowledging a gay extramarital affair. The ex-governor plans to volunteer with the National Education Foundation. He will live apart from his wife and their 2-year-old daughter.
NGUYEN: There is another medical alert this morning, this time for RU-486. We have got the latest concerns surrounding the popular abortion pill.
KAGAN: Also it's a hotspot for Viagra, but not exactly truth in advertising. We're going to tell you why the FDA is pulling the plug on this latest commercial for the drug.
NGUYEN: We've all seen that commercial. Well, New York City then and now. We'll check out an incredible photo retrospective of the Big Apple going back some 70 years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: And we have the story of a little girl making a big difference. Alexandra Scott didn't live long enough to see her dream of raising a million dollars for pediatric cancer research realized. The 8-year-old died in August. But not before bringing awareness for her cause through Alex's Lemonade Stand. That front yard stand, one stand led to grassroots nationwide fund-raising movement. And thanks to some corporate help, Alex's goal for this year has been met. Alex had set a higher goal for 2005. Her mother, Liz Scott, joining me now from Philadelphia to talk about that.
Liz, welcome back.
LIZ SCOTT, ALEXANDRA SCOTT'S MOTHER: Thanks for having me.
KAGAN: And for those of us out there who haven't had a chance to see you earlier, tell us how Alex's goal of having this original lemonade stand led to this huge dream?
SCOTT: When Alex was just 4 years old, she had already been fighting cancer for a few years and she announced to us that she was going to have a lemonade stand. And instead of keeping the money she was going to give it to her doctors to help them find a cure.
KAGAN: And this just led to kids around the country having lemonade stands and some corporate involvement. But when she passed away in August I believe the fund was about $750,000.
SCOTT: That's correct. She had set a goal of raising $1 million in 2004. And we knew it would be tough. But we also believed in Alex, just as she always believed in herself. In July we got a phone call from Volvo cars and she was at $750,000 and they said promise her for us that we will get her over $1 million, she doesn't have to worry about it. And with a lot of help from a lot of kids and people all over the country having lemonade stands, as well as other companies getting involved and with Volvo's help, of course, she did reach her goal of $1 million.
KAGAN: Well, that's just absolutely fantastic. And I think right before, when we talked with you about a month ago, Volvo was doing this promotion where if you came in to do a test drive they were going to kick in some money.
SCOTT: Right. That came out of their desire to keep their promise to Alex and to raise money for Alex's charity as well as local charities. And they did it. And it was just incredible the response we received.
KAGAN: And where's that money going to go, Liz?
SCOTT: That money goes to fund primarily pediatric cancer research. Alex herself was on experimental trials for about five years and she did extremely well on them. And she knew that there was a lot of potential for them to benefit other children. And her wish is that we continue to fund these types of grants that will really make a difference for kids like herself who need some new treatments now.
KAGAN: Which I imagine that means that her work and your work is not done?
SCOTT: Absolutely. We have a lot of work. We've been extremely busy. We've had an overwhelming response. We continue to. And Alex set a goal, once she knew she was going to reach the millions in 2005, of a gazillion dollars, and once she found out that wasn't a real number, which I'm pretty sure she already knew, she said, well, then it's going to be $5 million in 2005. So we have our work cut out for us. But we're up to it and we're going to go for it.
KAGAN: All right. Well, we'll have to have you back next year.
SCOTT: OK, great. Thank you.
KAGAN: Tell us how it's going. Liz Scott, proudly Alexandra Scott's mother. Thanks for stopping by and giving us an update.
SCOTT: Thanks a lot.
KAGAN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Now to a few medical stories making headlines this morning. Pfizer has begun pulling those "wild thing" Viagra ads, you know, you've seen them, after an order by the FDA. The FDA said the ads made unsubstantiated claims about the return of sexual desire. Here's the ad now. The government agency also said the ads failed to mention major side effects, and why some people shouldn't take the impotence drug.
Well, the FDA has issued new safety warnings for the abortion pill RU-486. The warning tells of the risk of serious bacterial infections, bleeding, and even death that may occur. While noting the risks are rare, the FDA says bacterial infection may occur without the usual signs such as fever and tenderness. The FDA also says women who have prolonged bleeding should be checked by a doctor.
Long hours in front of a computer screen may be linked to eye disease. Japanese study found those who sat in front of computers for more than eight hours a day were twice as likely to get glaucoma. The research also showed a link between computer stress and users who are near-sighted.
That's not good news. I'm in front of the computer all the time.
KAGAN: How are your eyes doing?
NGUYEN: Not very good.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: I'll help you out.
NGUYEN: OK.
KAGAN: Changing landscapes caught on film. Up next 70 years of the world's most famous city captured in black and white. Also this is what we're working on for next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: East side, west side, all around town, time passes through the eye of a camera, and a city's past blends with the present in the blink of a lens. It happens when you look at a yearbook or attend a reunion, even go back to visit your childhood home. Suddenly it hits you, things have changed. That idea dawned on photographer Douglas Levere who attempted to capture that metamorphosis on film. His book is called "New York Changing: Rephotrographing Bernice Abbot's (ph) Changing New York 1939."
And Doug Levere is joining us now to talk about all this.
Good morning to you.
DOUG LEVERE, "NEW YORK CHANGING": Good morning.
NGUYEN: First of all, what made you want to take on such a project? What was that one thing that sparked this?
LEVERE: Well, I happened to come across an image that Abbott had taken actually on the street where I lived, on Broom Street. It was titled "Broadway Near Broom Street." And it's something that I was incredibly familiar with. And seeing that, that Abbot image just drew me to this place, and made me think about how familiar I was with this place. But yet, the Abbott picture told me so much more. And I started to do research and look into other images from the project.
NGUYEN: A lot of your pictures are very telling, some of them kind of shocking how much the city has progressed and changed. But other pictures just kind of show that it's stayed the same.
We want to take a look at several of your pictures. We want to start with one that kind of depicts a barber shop. This is the 1930s photograph, and then it transforms into the photograph that you took. Tell us about this particular place.
LEVERE: Well, the Abbott images is one of Abbott's most memorable probably from this project. It's actually called "Blossom Restaurant." The barber shop is predominant with the barber standing in the foreground.
But my image is this is actually called the "Everywhere Store" today. It's on the lower east side on the bowery. And when I went there, obviously, almost nothing remained, only tiny little details from the brick side of the building.
But the Asian gentleman that happened to appear in the image, after waiting for an hour or so, and almost being complete and having no more film left, this gentleman stopped by, and I just thought that he was just a great reflection of what the neighborhood had become today.
NGUYEN: If we show that once more, because it really shows the detail that you went in to recapture these pictures, making sure people were standing in the same spots. Of course they're not the same people. But it shows how time has passed. Yet people are still in the same portions of the picture as it was originally taken. This had to have been kind of difficult for you to recapture.
LEVERE: It was. And I actually was looking for the shop owner. I had to leave my camera, my large-format camera, standing on the street in New York City, and I went in actually to look for the shop owner. He wasn't interested in being in the photograph. And so this gentleman, who actually was observing me for awhile, ended up to be the subject of the picture.
NGUYEN: All right. We have a lot of pictures to put up, so let's get to the rest of them.
LEVERE: Sure.
NGUYEN: There's one where you capture the World Trade Center site in the 1930s before it was even built, and then as we show it transforming into your picture, where the World Trade Center once stood.
LEVERE: And this picture, I was doing a commercial job, actually, in the World Financial Center, and a very wonderful person there understood what I was doing, and she helped me get access to the Office of Emergency Management. This is taken just in March of 2002, not long after the World Trade Center had been destroyed. And originally, this was not an image that I thought I would be doing in the project, because there was absolutely no reference to what had become before. You could only see the south tower of the World Trade Center with no reference to the Abbott image. And luckily, I got access to the site right before the west side highway reopened again. NGUYEN: And I just love this next picture. It's of a bakery, and it's still a bakery, but yet it's changed. Let's talk about this one that we're going to put up right now.
LEVERE: This is Abbott's -- actually called "This Bread Store." It's Zito's Bread Store, which was on Bleaker Street for roughly 82 years. Unfortunately, this year they closed in May, because of higher rent, and also they complained of the carbohydrate craze had stopped people from buying bread.
NGUYEN: We're out of time, but I do want to ask you, do you plan to do another project just like this? Maybe recapturing these pictures another 25, 30 years from now?
LEVERE: Very likely, if I -- I would love to come back and do this again in 20 years, and maybe we'll come back.
NGUYEN: We'll see how it turns out. Doug Levere, author of "New York Changing." Love those photographs. Thank you.
LEVERE: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Stay with us. We'll be back with a quick check of your morning forecast.
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