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U.S. Military Claims Falluja Secure; Journey to Nebraska; 'Self' Rates Orange County, CA, Healthiest for Women

Aired November 16, 2004 - 11:31   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.


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We're coming up on the half hour, I'm Betty Nguyen in today for Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

President Bush is expected to promote his national security adviser to secretary of state today. Condoleezza Rice is a trusted Bush adviser and more hawkish than outgoing Secretary Colin Powell. Live coverage of that announcement on CNN in about an hour.

The lame duck Congress is back in Washington today. They are there to handle spending bills and trying to complete intelligence reform. Senate Democrats also chose their new leader to replace Tom Daschle. That will be Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.

And the first trial of one of the suspects in the Madrid train bombing is getting under way today. It's a 16-year-old boy who was charged with helping terrorists transport dynamite.

Keeping you informed, CNN is the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: A U.S. intelligence official says the speaker on a recent audio tape is likely the insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Now on the tape al-Zarqawi urges his followers to attack Americans, whom he calls weak. Zarqawi also says that he's believed to be -- we are reporting that he's believed to be operating out of Falluja, but there has been no sign of him since the U.S. offensive. The U.S. is offering a $25 million award for Zarqawi's arrest or capture.

Meantime, the U.S. military says Falluja is now secure, but that does not mean the fighting is over, at least just yet. Troops are going house to house trying to root out any holdover insurgents and munitions. CNN's Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, is embedded with the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division and she filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Shortly after dawn in Falluja, as we drive through these streets with the U.S. Army, some of the few remaining snipers make themselves known. This 1st Infantry Division task force took control of southeast Falluja days ago. After overnight air strikes and artillery, they're now going house to house to see what's left. What they find are weapons and dead bodies. They prepared for this battle, barricading themselves in bunkers and tunnels, surrounding themselves with weapons. LT. ERIC GREGORY, U.S. ARMY: Inside the house you've got a home- made rocket launcher for 16 millimeter rockets. Same over here for the smaller RPGs. We have got IED-making materials as far as blasting caps, 9-volt batteries, the tubes that fits 16 millimeter rockets, artillery shells. It looked like -- there is a couple of the artillery shells are empty, like they took all the contents out of the shells to use as material for other things, as well as land mines -- or anti-tank mines in this front room.

ARRAF: There were wires leading to improvised bombs, home-made rocket launchers and rockets found on rooftops pointed south. But they were no match for the bombs, artillery and American tanks moving in from the north, a direction they didn't anticipate. The civilians on this eastern side of the city left long ago; a mixed blessing in this battle.

LT. COL. PETE NEWELL, U.S. ARMY: Obviously you can't go into the place with heavy weapons like we do when there are civilians in the area, but at the same time, I came in here without the human intelligence that a civilian population will provide me. So a civilian population gives me much better targeting so that I don't have to go in and literally demolish building after building. Here every building has either mines around it, IEDs around it, rockets around it, fighting positions next to it. Hundreds of buildings here and we'll be here for days trying to get rid of the IEDs and the mines.

ARRAF: And the fortified bunkers on almost every block. The Army launched a Javelin missile into this one. After a week of bombarding the city, the Army has declared the insurgency here defeated. It's now trying to make sure that those who escaped have no haven to come back to.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Back here in the U.S., the focus is on the tension and turmoil of the CIA after the resignations of the two top men in the agency's clandestine service. The shakeup came as new Director Porter Goss continues his effort to overhaul the spy agency. Sources say the two CIA officials have clashed with aides to the new director.

Now Michael Scheuer, who's a former CIA agent, who wrote the book "Imperial Hubris" under the name of "Anonymous," he's coming out of the shadows to talk more about the agency's overhaul. Here's a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SCHEUER, AUTHOR, "IMPERIAL HUBRIS": People underestimate the dedication and talent resident in the Central Intelligence Agency. And I think the people doing the work on the ground will move ahead, as they have in the past.

The real danger to the CIA at the moment is just the congressional committee, the Goss-Shelby Committee and 9/11 Commission, which scapegoated, really, the agency for intelligence failures that were really nonexistent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Critics of the agency say that the resignations and movements are outward signs of some political power battles and they accuse the new CIA chief, Porter Goss, of intense partisanship. But a lot of Republicans say that simply is not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: I don't see any partisan politics being played here. What I see is that a man is making key decisions about how to best gather intelligence, which will protect Americans for generations to come. And if it means moving people around, then by gosh we've got to do it, he's got to do what he thinks is in the best interest of the intelligence gatherers around the world who are going to provide our war fighters with the kind of information they need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Senator Chambliss added that it's normal for a new CIA chief to make staff changes to pursue his own goals.

NGUYEN: Now to a story of primary colors. The symbols of America's democracy have long been cast in red, white and blue. But with the red states wielding their enormous influence in the recent presidential election, more political experts are paying attention to one of the reddest states, that being Nebraska.

Here's CNN's Bruce Burkhardt.

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Bruce Burkhardt in Lincoln, Nebraska, the reddest of the red states that along with the rest of the heartland has given some of the blue states a scare, a new kind of red scare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blueprint for world revolution. Conquer and enslave.

BURKHARDT: Consider the evidence in Nebraska, red everywhere, fire hydrant, a port-a-potty, students in red and yes, even the football team. In Nebraska where their Cornhuskers are held in higher esteem than most politicians, the color red is nothing new.

KATHLEEN RUTLEDGE, EDITOR, LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR: It's a long tradition of Republican politics in this state.

BURKHARDT: Nebraska has gone Republican in every presidential election since 1940 except for once. The strong Republican tradition may have more to do with farming and the climate than the politics. It can be a dry place, Nebraska.

JOHN JANOVY, PROF., UNIV. OF NEBRASKA: Across most of Nebraska you have got much closer to 20 inches or less of rain. That's an environment where stability makes sense; where making conservative decisions, staying with what works, not being too radical, makes sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): I'm just driving around listening to Nebraska

BURKHARDT: It is a place and culture misunderstood by many, especially among blue staters in these bitter post-election days.

PETER BLEED, PROF., UNIV. OF NEBRASKA: Yes, I think the blue state folks ought to come out and drive by. They're safe.

BURKHARDT: Biology professor John Janovy at the University of Nebraska actually voted with the blue staters in this election. So, too, did fellow faculty member, anthropology professor Peter Bleeding. But red or blue, Nebraska is their state and they wouldn't have it any other way.

JANOVY: But there's an awful lot of Nebraskans, myself included, who think this is the hassle-free good life. And that's what I think a lot of the rest of the world might misunderstand about Nebraska.

BURKHARDT: Hassle free, the good life. That's why rock star Tommy Lee is going back to school here for a reality TV series. What a concept, take an outrageous rock star, and plop him down in the middle of quaint, backward Nebraska. But they're used to that around here.

RUTLEDGE: People in the heartland are accustomed to that geographic snobbery. We've been dealing with it for decades.

BURKHARDT: Painting Nebraska with that broad, red brush tends to mask a few things. Take Richard Spellam, who we found at the keno parlor in Denton.

(on camera): Is it hard being a Democrat in Nebraska?

RICHARD SPELLAM, NEBRASKA RESIDENT: No, it ain't. Nobody give you a bad time. Now, my wife, she's Republican. I'm Democrat. But we get along.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And that was CNN's Bruce Burkhardt reporting.

KAGAN: Want to tell you about a developing story that we're getting just in from Madrid, Spain. We were telling you about the first trial in connection with the Madrid train bombings that took place in March, where 191 people lost their lives. Well, that first suspect to on trial was a 16-year-old boy. We're getting word now that he has pleaded guilty, and the judge in the case has sentenced the boy. He will serve a sentence of -- let's see -- six years in a youth detention center after he pleaded guilty to handling explosives.

Apparently, he helped some of the terrorists get their hands on the dynamite. So six years detention in a youth center for the first suspect to go on trial, a 16-year-old boy in Madrid, Spain.

NGUYEN: Well, coming up, your Daily Dose of health news. Are you literally sick of where you live?

KAGAN: "Self" magazine takes a look at the healthiest, and we're going to look at the, what they say, is the unhealthiest places for women, women in particular, to live. Your "Daily Dose" of health news is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: So are you down on your town? If you're sick in the city, "Self" magazine takes a look at healthiest places to live for women. The editors at "Self" ranked cities on factors such as smoking and cancer rates, obesity and crime stats. Sara Austin in the news director for "Self" magazine, and she joins us at the Time-Warner Center in New York this morning for a look for our daily dose.

Sara, a healthy good morning to you.

SARA AUSTIN, "SELF" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.

KAGAN: Interesting factors here that you have in coming up with what makes a healthy city, but why healthier for women, as opposed for everybody?

AUSTIN: Well, "Self" is a magazine for women, trying to help them live a healthy lifestyle. So whenever possible, we look at specifically how much women in a particular area are smoking or exercising.

KAGAN: OK, OK, I see, we're looking at what the women are doing there, not just smoking in general.

AUSTIN: Exactly.

KAGAN: Got it. I'm with you there.

All right, let's get right to it. The healthiest cities, we go to Southern California for the healthiest -- well, it's not even a city, it's a county, Orange County, California. Now I grew up up the road from there, in Los Angeles County. There's a lot of smog in that area. How did that end up being the healthiest place for women to live.

AUSTIN: Well, they've also got 258 days of sunshine.

KAGAN: Well, that's true.

AUSTIN: So people are definitely out, and exercising and enjoying it. They also have very low smoking rates. Some of the beaches there have even banned smoking on public beaches. And they're also doing a pilot program with the CDC to reduce obesity. So they got extra credit for that this year.

KAGAN: Oh, good. OK, well, kudos to Orange County.

And then Burlington, Vermont. We'll just look at the list, and give kudos to the healthy places. Burlington, Vermont, Stamford- Norwalk, Connecticut, Provo-Orem, Utah, and then Nassau-Suffolk County in New York. Let's -- anybody in particular you want to call out there and give some kudos to?

AUSTIN: Well, in Long Island, Nassau-Suffolk, 95 percent of the women have health insurance, so that's great.

And Burlington Vermont always does really well for their access to health care. They have extremely low rates of sexually transmitted diseases partly as a result.

KAGAN: Good for them.

Now let's get to the least five healthiest places. These people will not be happy to hear from you.

AUSTIN: Yes.

KAGAN: You say the most unhealthy place for a woman to live is Flint, Michigan. Why is that?

AUSTIN: Well, unfortunately, very high rates of obesity in Flint, quite high rates of crime, and rape in particular. Rates of depression are high, and also one of the worst environments on our list this year.

KAGAN: Did you give a chance for any of these cities to have a rebuttal in your magazine, or is this going to be news to them?

AUSTIN: We always try and reach out to the women in the cities, and the doctors and experts there, and ask them if the numbers sound right to them, and get, you know, their ideas for what's going on and how we can help in the community.

KAGAN: You breakdown into some other places here. You also fittest and least fit. Fittest, Seattle, Washington. I guess folks out there on not rainy days enjoying the water and being outdoors?

AUSTIN: Absolutely. Up to 8,000 people actually bike to work every day in Seattle.

KAGAN: And least fit, down the road from here, Macon, Georgia.

AUSTIN: Macon, Georgia, according to the CDC, about one in four women there is completely sedentary, not getting any exercise, even moderate exercise.

KAGAN: Because we're all sitting around eating that good Southern food, y'all.

AUSTIN: Absolutely.

KAGAN: And some of the other categories just to interesting, vainest -- West Palm Beach, Florida and Boca Raton.

AUSTIN: Yes, we decided this year, we would look at how many plastic surgeries per capita areas have, since it's kind of a hot topic, and Boca came out on top, or on the bottom, depending on how you look at it.

KAGAN: Depending what you're looking for.

AUSTIN: Exactly. The city, the placed with the least plastic surgeons per capita was Brockton, Massachusetts, so we call them the least vain.

KAGAN: Well, good for them, for just loving themselves for how they are.

Sara Austin, thank you so much. Where can folks find out more about healthy places for women to live?

AUSTIN: Well, you check out the November issue of "Self" magazine.

KAGAN: Very good. Thanks for dropping by.

AUSTIN: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: Appreciate it.

For your daily dose of health news online, just log on to our Web site to find the latest medical news, special reports and a health library. The address is CNN.com.

So don't move down the road if you're looking for a place around here.

NGUYEN: To Macon.

KAGAN: Do not commute in from Macon; we need you to stay healthy.

NGUYEN: But we should bike to work like they do in Washington.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: I'll let you start that.

KAGAN: Yes, and then they can fix our hair and everything, because it would be quite a mess when we come in.

NGUYEN: That would take a while.

Well, he may have won the majority in the election...

KAGAN: But would you believe that George W. Bush's face on a $200 bill? That's a key to why a woman who was facing serious charges is now free to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Judging by the recent election, President Bush certainly popular with a lot of people, but prominent enough to have his face on a $200 bill? Not quite. Charges have now been dropped against the Pennsylvania woman who went shopping with a bogus bill with Mr. Bush's face on it. The serial number on the back of the $200 phony cash read "w. for you 2001." The woman said she didn't know it was fake.

NGUYEN: Whatever.

KAGAN: Charges were dropped after the woman paid the store in bill currency.

There are no $200 bills out there...

NGUYEN: Yes, exactly.

KAGAN: ... this just in to CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: OK, sometimes a sandwich is a meal, and then sometimes it's much, much more. For a Miami woman, a grilled cheese served as a religious inspiration, and then a godsend. Now, though, it may test her faith in new ways.

We get the details now from reporter Marybel Rodriguez of CNN Miami affiliate WFOR.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is it. This is what she looks like.

MARYBEL RODRIGUEZ, WFOR REPORTER: To Diana Duyser, it looks like the Virgin Mary on her grilled cheese, which may seem bizarre to some, but not to her.

DIANA DUYSER, EBAY SELLER: I know a lot of people think, well, this lady must be crazy, you know, she's making this up, but it's there. I mean, you've seen it.

RODRIGUEZ: Diana says ten years ago after she cooked it, it was staring at her.

DUYSER: When I went to take that first bite, she was looking back at me.

RODRIGUEZ: And she's preserved it ever since.

DUYSER: That's why it has a mark like I bit into it. And that's the way it was.

RODRIGUEZ (on camera): OK, when you say she, the grilled cheese didn't have eyes; it was something else.

DUYSER: No, she has eyes. RODRIGUEZ: What exactly did you see? What...

DUYSER: I saw a face that looked like, to me, the Virgin Mary. So that's what I consider her to be, the Virgin Mary.

RODRIGUEZ: Is this pretty odd, though, on a grilled cheese?

DUYSER: Oh, yes, very odd, very odd.

RODRIGUEZ: Do people think you're, like, crazy when you...

DUYSER: Yes, yes.

RODRIGUEZ (voice-over): She said she's had the grilled cheese by her bedside for 10 years, and it's brought her a lot of luck. She says she will definitely miss it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And that was Marybel Rodriguez of CNN affiliate (INAUDIBLE)

Now I could see the picture, I could see the face, but how did she preserve it for 10 years?

KAGAN: That what's I want know. We got to get an investigation going on.

NGUYEN: And by her bedside? Issues.

KAGAN: That's some stinky cheese.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Thank you so much for sitting in, appreciate your company.

NGUYEN: It's been a pleasure.

KAGAN: Rick will be back tomorrow, and we'll see you this weekend.

And I'm Daryn Kagan, along with Betty Nguyen, and we will talk it out to Wolf Blitzer, who's in Washington D.C.

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 - 11:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We're coming up on the half hour, I'm Betty Nguyen in today for Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

President Bush is expected to promote his national security adviser to secretary of state today. Condoleezza Rice is a trusted Bush adviser and more hawkish than outgoing Secretary Colin Powell. Live coverage of that announcement on CNN in about an hour.

The lame duck Congress is back in Washington today. They are there to handle spending bills and trying to complete intelligence reform. Senate Democrats also chose their new leader to replace Tom Daschle. That will be Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.

And the first trial of one of the suspects in the Madrid train bombing is getting under way today. It's a 16-year-old boy who was charged with helping terrorists transport dynamite.

Keeping you informed, CNN is the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: A U.S. intelligence official says the speaker on a recent audio tape is likely the insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Now on the tape al-Zarqawi urges his followers to attack Americans, whom he calls weak. Zarqawi also says that he's believed to be -- we are reporting that he's believed to be operating out of Falluja, but there has been no sign of him since the U.S. offensive. The U.S. is offering a $25 million award for Zarqawi's arrest or capture.

Meantime, the U.S. military says Falluja is now secure, but that does not mean the fighting is over, at least just yet. Troops are going house to house trying to root out any holdover insurgents and munitions. CNN's Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, is embedded with the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division and she filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Shortly after dawn in Falluja, as we drive through these streets with the U.S. Army, some of the few remaining snipers make themselves known. This 1st Infantry Division task force took control of southeast Falluja days ago. After overnight air strikes and artillery, they're now going house to house to see what's left. What they find are weapons and dead bodies. They prepared for this battle, barricading themselves in bunkers and tunnels, surrounding themselves with weapons. LT. ERIC GREGORY, U.S. ARMY: Inside the house you've got a home- made rocket launcher for 16 millimeter rockets. Same over here for the smaller RPGs. We have got IED-making materials as far as blasting caps, 9-volt batteries, the tubes that fits 16 millimeter rockets, artillery shells. It looked like -- there is a couple of the artillery shells are empty, like they took all the contents out of the shells to use as material for other things, as well as land mines -- or anti-tank mines in this front room.

ARRAF: There were wires leading to improvised bombs, home-made rocket launchers and rockets found on rooftops pointed south. But they were no match for the bombs, artillery and American tanks moving in from the north, a direction they didn't anticipate. The civilians on this eastern side of the city left long ago; a mixed blessing in this battle.

LT. COL. PETE NEWELL, U.S. ARMY: Obviously you can't go into the place with heavy weapons like we do when there are civilians in the area, but at the same time, I came in here without the human intelligence that a civilian population will provide me. So a civilian population gives me much better targeting so that I don't have to go in and literally demolish building after building. Here every building has either mines around it, IEDs around it, rockets around it, fighting positions next to it. Hundreds of buildings here and we'll be here for days trying to get rid of the IEDs and the mines.

ARRAF: And the fortified bunkers on almost every block. The Army launched a Javelin missile into this one. After a week of bombarding the city, the Army has declared the insurgency here defeated. It's now trying to make sure that those who escaped have no haven to come back to.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Back here in the U.S., the focus is on the tension and turmoil of the CIA after the resignations of the two top men in the agency's clandestine service. The shakeup came as new Director Porter Goss continues his effort to overhaul the spy agency. Sources say the two CIA officials have clashed with aides to the new director.

Now Michael Scheuer, who's a former CIA agent, who wrote the book "Imperial Hubris" under the name of "Anonymous," he's coming out of the shadows to talk more about the agency's overhaul. Here's a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SCHEUER, AUTHOR, "IMPERIAL HUBRIS": People underestimate the dedication and talent resident in the Central Intelligence Agency. And I think the people doing the work on the ground will move ahead, as they have in the past.

The real danger to the CIA at the moment is just the congressional committee, the Goss-Shelby Committee and 9/11 Commission, which scapegoated, really, the agency for intelligence failures that were really nonexistent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Critics of the agency say that the resignations and movements are outward signs of some political power battles and they accuse the new CIA chief, Porter Goss, of intense partisanship. But a lot of Republicans say that simply is not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: I don't see any partisan politics being played here. What I see is that a man is making key decisions about how to best gather intelligence, which will protect Americans for generations to come. And if it means moving people around, then by gosh we've got to do it, he's got to do what he thinks is in the best interest of the intelligence gatherers around the world who are going to provide our war fighters with the kind of information they need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Senator Chambliss added that it's normal for a new CIA chief to make staff changes to pursue his own goals.

NGUYEN: Now to a story of primary colors. The symbols of America's democracy have long been cast in red, white and blue. But with the red states wielding their enormous influence in the recent presidential election, more political experts are paying attention to one of the reddest states, that being Nebraska.

Here's CNN's Bruce Burkhardt.

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Bruce Burkhardt in Lincoln, Nebraska, the reddest of the red states that along with the rest of the heartland has given some of the blue states a scare, a new kind of red scare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blueprint for world revolution. Conquer and enslave.

BURKHARDT: Consider the evidence in Nebraska, red everywhere, fire hydrant, a port-a-potty, students in red and yes, even the football team. In Nebraska where their Cornhuskers are held in higher esteem than most politicians, the color red is nothing new.

KATHLEEN RUTLEDGE, EDITOR, LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR: It's a long tradition of Republican politics in this state.

BURKHARDT: Nebraska has gone Republican in every presidential election since 1940 except for once. The strong Republican tradition may have more to do with farming and the climate than the politics. It can be a dry place, Nebraska.

JOHN JANOVY, PROF., UNIV. OF NEBRASKA: Across most of Nebraska you have got much closer to 20 inches or less of rain. That's an environment where stability makes sense; where making conservative decisions, staying with what works, not being too radical, makes sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): I'm just driving around listening to Nebraska

BURKHARDT: It is a place and culture misunderstood by many, especially among blue staters in these bitter post-election days.

PETER BLEED, PROF., UNIV. OF NEBRASKA: Yes, I think the blue state folks ought to come out and drive by. They're safe.

BURKHARDT: Biology professor John Janovy at the University of Nebraska actually voted with the blue staters in this election. So, too, did fellow faculty member, anthropology professor Peter Bleeding. But red or blue, Nebraska is their state and they wouldn't have it any other way.

JANOVY: But there's an awful lot of Nebraskans, myself included, who think this is the hassle-free good life. And that's what I think a lot of the rest of the world might misunderstand about Nebraska.

BURKHARDT: Hassle free, the good life. That's why rock star Tommy Lee is going back to school here for a reality TV series. What a concept, take an outrageous rock star, and plop him down in the middle of quaint, backward Nebraska. But they're used to that around here.

RUTLEDGE: People in the heartland are accustomed to that geographic snobbery. We've been dealing with it for decades.

BURKHARDT: Painting Nebraska with that broad, red brush tends to mask a few things. Take Richard Spellam, who we found at the keno parlor in Denton.

(on camera): Is it hard being a Democrat in Nebraska?

RICHARD SPELLAM, NEBRASKA RESIDENT: No, it ain't. Nobody give you a bad time. Now, my wife, she's Republican. I'm Democrat. But we get along.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And that was CNN's Bruce Burkhardt reporting.

KAGAN: Want to tell you about a developing story that we're getting just in from Madrid, Spain. We were telling you about the first trial in connection with the Madrid train bombings that took place in March, where 191 people lost their lives. Well, that first suspect to on trial was a 16-year-old boy. We're getting word now that he has pleaded guilty, and the judge in the case has sentenced the boy. He will serve a sentence of -- let's see -- six years in a youth detention center after he pleaded guilty to handling explosives.

Apparently, he helped some of the terrorists get their hands on the dynamite. So six years detention in a youth center for the first suspect to go on trial, a 16-year-old boy in Madrid, Spain.

NGUYEN: Well, coming up, your Daily Dose of health news. Are you literally sick of where you live?

KAGAN: "Self" magazine takes a look at the healthiest, and we're going to look at the, what they say, is the unhealthiest places for women, women in particular, to live. Your "Daily Dose" of health news is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: So are you down on your town? If you're sick in the city, "Self" magazine takes a look at healthiest places to live for women. The editors at "Self" ranked cities on factors such as smoking and cancer rates, obesity and crime stats. Sara Austin in the news director for "Self" magazine, and she joins us at the Time-Warner Center in New York this morning for a look for our daily dose.

Sara, a healthy good morning to you.

SARA AUSTIN, "SELF" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.

KAGAN: Interesting factors here that you have in coming up with what makes a healthy city, but why healthier for women, as opposed for everybody?

AUSTIN: Well, "Self" is a magazine for women, trying to help them live a healthy lifestyle. So whenever possible, we look at specifically how much women in a particular area are smoking or exercising.

KAGAN: OK, OK, I see, we're looking at what the women are doing there, not just smoking in general.

AUSTIN: Exactly.

KAGAN: Got it. I'm with you there.

All right, let's get right to it. The healthiest cities, we go to Southern California for the healthiest -- well, it's not even a city, it's a county, Orange County, California. Now I grew up up the road from there, in Los Angeles County. There's a lot of smog in that area. How did that end up being the healthiest place for women to live.

AUSTIN: Well, they've also got 258 days of sunshine.

KAGAN: Well, that's true.

AUSTIN: So people are definitely out, and exercising and enjoying it. They also have very low smoking rates. Some of the beaches there have even banned smoking on public beaches. And they're also doing a pilot program with the CDC to reduce obesity. So they got extra credit for that this year.

KAGAN: Oh, good. OK, well, kudos to Orange County.

And then Burlington, Vermont. We'll just look at the list, and give kudos to the healthy places. Burlington, Vermont, Stamford- Norwalk, Connecticut, Provo-Orem, Utah, and then Nassau-Suffolk County in New York. Let's -- anybody in particular you want to call out there and give some kudos to?

AUSTIN: Well, in Long Island, Nassau-Suffolk, 95 percent of the women have health insurance, so that's great.

And Burlington Vermont always does really well for their access to health care. They have extremely low rates of sexually transmitted diseases partly as a result.

KAGAN: Good for them.

Now let's get to the least five healthiest places. These people will not be happy to hear from you.

AUSTIN: Yes.

KAGAN: You say the most unhealthy place for a woman to live is Flint, Michigan. Why is that?

AUSTIN: Well, unfortunately, very high rates of obesity in Flint, quite high rates of crime, and rape in particular. Rates of depression are high, and also one of the worst environments on our list this year.

KAGAN: Did you give a chance for any of these cities to have a rebuttal in your magazine, or is this going to be news to them?

AUSTIN: We always try and reach out to the women in the cities, and the doctors and experts there, and ask them if the numbers sound right to them, and get, you know, their ideas for what's going on and how we can help in the community.

KAGAN: You breakdown into some other places here. You also fittest and least fit. Fittest, Seattle, Washington. I guess folks out there on not rainy days enjoying the water and being outdoors?

AUSTIN: Absolutely. Up to 8,000 people actually bike to work every day in Seattle.

KAGAN: And least fit, down the road from here, Macon, Georgia.

AUSTIN: Macon, Georgia, according to the CDC, about one in four women there is completely sedentary, not getting any exercise, even moderate exercise.

KAGAN: Because we're all sitting around eating that good Southern food, y'all.

AUSTIN: Absolutely.

KAGAN: And some of the other categories just to interesting, vainest -- West Palm Beach, Florida and Boca Raton.

AUSTIN: Yes, we decided this year, we would look at how many plastic surgeries per capita areas have, since it's kind of a hot topic, and Boca came out on top, or on the bottom, depending on how you look at it.

KAGAN: Depending what you're looking for.

AUSTIN: Exactly. The city, the placed with the least plastic surgeons per capita was Brockton, Massachusetts, so we call them the least vain.

KAGAN: Well, good for them, for just loving themselves for how they are.

Sara Austin, thank you so much. Where can folks find out more about healthy places for women to live?

AUSTIN: Well, you check out the November issue of "Self" magazine.

KAGAN: Very good. Thanks for dropping by.

AUSTIN: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: Appreciate it.

For your daily dose of health news online, just log on to our Web site to find the latest medical news, special reports and a health library. The address is CNN.com.

So don't move down the road if you're looking for a place around here.

NGUYEN: To Macon.

KAGAN: Do not commute in from Macon; we need you to stay healthy.

NGUYEN: But we should bike to work like they do in Washington.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: I'll let you start that.

KAGAN: Yes, and then they can fix our hair and everything, because it would be quite a mess when we come in.

NGUYEN: That would take a while.

Well, he may have won the majority in the election...

KAGAN: But would you believe that George W. Bush's face on a $200 bill? That's a key to why a woman who was facing serious charges is now free to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Judging by the recent election, President Bush certainly popular with a lot of people, but prominent enough to have his face on a $200 bill? Not quite. Charges have now been dropped against the Pennsylvania woman who went shopping with a bogus bill with Mr. Bush's face on it. The serial number on the back of the $200 phony cash read "w. for you 2001." The woman said she didn't know it was fake.

NGUYEN: Whatever.

KAGAN: Charges were dropped after the woman paid the store in bill currency.

There are no $200 bills out there...

NGUYEN: Yes, exactly.

KAGAN: ... this just in to CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: OK, sometimes a sandwich is a meal, and then sometimes it's much, much more. For a Miami woman, a grilled cheese served as a religious inspiration, and then a godsend. Now, though, it may test her faith in new ways.

We get the details now from reporter Marybel Rodriguez of CNN Miami affiliate WFOR.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is it. This is what she looks like.

MARYBEL RODRIGUEZ, WFOR REPORTER: To Diana Duyser, it looks like the Virgin Mary on her grilled cheese, which may seem bizarre to some, but not to her.

DIANA DUYSER, EBAY SELLER: I know a lot of people think, well, this lady must be crazy, you know, she's making this up, but it's there. I mean, you've seen it.

RODRIGUEZ: Diana says ten years ago after she cooked it, it was staring at her.

DUYSER: When I went to take that first bite, she was looking back at me.

RODRIGUEZ: And she's preserved it ever since.

DUYSER: That's why it has a mark like I bit into it. And that's the way it was.

RODRIGUEZ (on camera): OK, when you say she, the grilled cheese didn't have eyes; it was something else.

DUYSER: No, she has eyes. RODRIGUEZ: What exactly did you see? What...

DUYSER: I saw a face that looked like, to me, the Virgin Mary. So that's what I consider her to be, the Virgin Mary.

RODRIGUEZ: Is this pretty odd, though, on a grilled cheese?

DUYSER: Oh, yes, very odd, very odd.

RODRIGUEZ: Do people think you're, like, crazy when you...

DUYSER: Yes, yes.

RODRIGUEZ (voice-over): She said she's had the grilled cheese by her bedside for 10 years, and it's brought her a lot of luck. She says she will definitely miss it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And that was Marybel Rodriguez of CNN affiliate (INAUDIBLE)

Now I could see the picture, I could see the face, but how did she preserve it for 10 years?

KAGAN: That what's I want know. We got to get an investigation going on.

NGUYEN: And by her bedside? Issues.

KAGAN: That's some stinky cheese.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Thank you so much for sitting in, appreciate your company.

NGUYEN: It's been a pleasure.

KAGAN: Rick will be back tomorrow, and we'll see you this weekend.

And I'm Daryn Kagan, along with Betty Nguyen, and we will talk it out to Wolf Blitzer, who's in Washington D.C.

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