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CNN Live Today

Escapees Captured; Mayor Ray Nagin Speaking His Mind

Aired January 17, 2006 - 10:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and take a look at what else is happening "Now in the News."
To the West Coast. Oregon's assisted suicide law withstands a big legal challenge. Just a short time ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the one-of-a-kind law in a 6-3 decision. The ruling deals a blow to the Bush administration's attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die. We'll have a closer look at what this means just ahead.

A major manhunt along the border between Georgia and Alabama has ended. Police say they've captured two murder suspects who escaped three days ago from a county jail in Phenix City, Alabama. They were captured at a motel in Columbus, Georgia. That's just a mile away.

We'll have a live report just ahead.

And in the south Georgia town of Statesboro, a hostage drama has drawn to a close. Authorities say a couple surrendered a short time ago after holding a lawyer hostage for about 24 hours. The suspects, Robert and Connie Brower, are charged with kidnapping. No injuries were reported in the incident.

The White House is hitting back at Al Gore over his criticism of a wiretapping program used in the war on terror. Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the vice president's comments showed hypocrisy. Yesterday, Gore accused the administration of breaking the law with the warrantless wiretaps. McClellan defended the administration, saying that the action was legal and aimed at detecting and preventing attacks.

A third suspect in the homeless beating case in south Florida is scheduled to make his first court appearance tomorrow. Authorities say 18-year-old William Ammons was arrested yesterday, and they charged him with aggravated battery in one of the beatings. Police arrested two other suspects earlier and charged them in connection to all three beatings. They face murder and aggravated battery charges.

Former president Gerald Ford is said to be doing well as he undergoes treatment for pneumonia. Ford is 92. He was admitted to a hospital Saturday near his home in Rancho Mirage, California.

His chief of staff says the former president has been receiving intravenous antibiotics and that he is resting comfortably. She says he could be released from the hospital as early as tomorrow.

Good morning and welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY. Let's check some of the time around the world.

Just after 11:00 a.m. at Cape Canaveral, Florida; just after 10:00 a.m. in New Orleans.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

We're going to begin this hour with a critically important ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Just in the last hour, the justices upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law. It was a 6-3 ruling.

The court said the federal government's authority does not trump the state when it comes to the regulation of doctors. Under -- we will get back to that story in just a minute.

First of all, we want to get to the other breaking story we've been following out of Phenix City, Alabama. Two escaped inmates have been caught. They just made it about a mile or two away in Columbus, Georgia.

Our Rusty Dornin is on the phone right now with the latest on that story -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hopefully you are getting these pictures, Daryn, of the police. The sheriff here in Russell County and Muskogee County bringing in these two suspects who were apprehended just about an hour ago at a motel across the river.

We're in Phenix City, Alabama. Across the river is Columbus, Georgia, across the Chattahoochee River.

The two were apprehended in a motel. There's not too many details of what exactly happened when they were arrested, but we do know there was some kind of tip-off.

Now, it appears at this point that some -- they were getting help from someone in order to be able to get that motel room to be able to stay there. And investigators also thought they would not be together. That surprised them that the two of them did stay together after this escape.

Also, a top law enforcement official in Russell County did tell CNN that right after the three inmates escaped on Saturday, early Saturday morning, they apparently came upon a homeless encampment where there was clothing strewn all around. The inmates apparently put that clothing on, took off their prison garb.

Sheriff's deputies ended up finding a homeless man who put on the coveralls, the white coveralls from the jail. They found him later.

So it's not clear whether he was forced to take off his other clothes or whether they just found them lying around. But they do know that they were able to change their clothes.

You can see the sheriff's deputies standing around the car right now at the jail waiting to take Lamar Benton, 19-year-old Lamar Benton, who was accused of killing a 39-year-old mother of three. And the other man, the other suspect is Johnny Earl Jones. He's accused of killing a 2-year-old that he was baby-sitting.

Both of these men have been in jail, in Russell County Jail in Phenix City, Alabama, awaiting trial for these murder charges. So the folks here are very happy this came to this kind of conclusion.

There was, of course, concern. Both of these men were considered very dangerous. They had stabbed a guard on the way out in their escape early Saturday morning. And that guard was stabbed 15 times. Apparently, he is at home recovering right now. But they also overcame a female guard on their way out and then escaped.

As far as concern about putting these men back in the same facility, the sheriff told me a little earlier they are not concerned. They feel this is a good jail. They're of course going to evaluate what went on and why these two men were able to escape, able to fashion this device. But they feel that the security here is good enough, and they are assuring the community that they feel that these men can be placed back down here.

So once again, they're just waiting to take these men out of the cars right now to put them into custody -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, as -- and we're watching these live pictures, Rusty. Why -- why are men with such serious charges -- are they being held in county jail?

DORNIN: That often happens until they are sent to prison. I mean, they -- or, excuse me. These men have not been convicted of anything.

KAGAN: OK. So they're awaiting trial.

DORNIN: Yes, they're awaiting trial.

KAGAN: All right.

DORNIN: They are just suspects. So this is a place that they would commonly be held in a situation like this.

KAGAN: OK. It looks like we have Lamar Benton that they're bringing in.

DORNIN: You have me at a disadvantage there, because I can't quite see the pictures you're seeing. But Lamar Benton is the older person. Johnny Earl Jones is the younger, 17-year-old accused of -- Lamar Benton was the one accused of...

KAGAN: Hard to tell, because the man they just brought in has hair. And in the picture, Lamar Benton has a shaved head.

DORNIN: Right. Right.

KAGAN: But they did bring the sheriff's car in and they closed the gate down below. Yes, and then that would be Johnny Jones that they're bringing in now. And he's wearing pants and no shirt. So...

DORNIN: The other thing...

KAGAN: Go ahead.

DORNIN: The other thing that's interesting, Daryn, is when we had talked to investigators earlier and the sheriff, they did not think these two men would stay together. They just were convinced that their two different -- their backgrounds were too different.

You know, maybe they made friends in jail and they made friends long enough to make their escape, but they did not think that they'd stay together. They figured they would both go their own way.

So they were very surprised. I talked to another investigator, very surprised to find these two men together.

Now, who was it that helped them get that motel room? Of course we don't know. And those are the kinds of leads that the investigators are going to be following up on.

KAGAN: Yes, because since the motel that they found them in was only about a mile away from where they -- from the city from where they escaped in the first place, you would figure that everybody around there would be on alert and would have a good eye for two people that would be suspicious like that.

DORNIN: Exactly. And they did get some tip-offs of people who claimed to have seen them within a convenience store. Some people said they saw them on the street.

We're not sure of the exact leads that did lead them to the motel in Columbus, Georgia, but they came here very fast. And they were arrested in a different state, but because of the agreements between the two states, and apparently the two men just waived their right for extradition. So they were brought over here, really, within about an hour, hour and a half.

KAGAN: Yes. And, you know, when you're talking about different states, it seems far away, but I had a chance to go on Mapquest and put in Phenix City, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia. The distance, 1.46 miles.

DORNIN: Exactly. And the way the sheriff described it is, they feel like one city.

KAGAN: Right.

DORNIN: People go back and forth all the time. They initially had heard that these suspects had gone in to Columbus, Georgia, then they felt like perhaps they had been going back and forth. They weren't really sure.

KAGAN: Well, they certainly didn't get far. Thank you for those live pictures.

And once again, captured, the two escaped inmates from Phenix City, Alabama, now back in custody. As we move on, the mayor of New Orleans is speaking his mind again. The latest comments by Mayor Ray Nagin have some people raising their eyebrows, others kind of scratching their heads. What was he talking about?

The mayor says the remarks reflect his call to rebuild New Orleans as a racially diverse city. You listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying uptown or wherever they are, this city will be chocolate at the end of the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well, in the last hour we asked you for your e-mail about your thoughts about the mayor's comments. Here's what some of you had to say.

M. E. in California writes: "If the mayor of New Orleans would have said he wanted a vanilla city, the Africa-American community would have been in an uproar. I, as a Caucasian, find his remarks very racist and divisive. There's no need to make the city a certain color, but a melting pot of different races and cultures."

You know, not everyone disagrees with the mayor.

Buck in Michigan says, "There are white people all over the U.S. who will take the mayor's remarks as a threat to their concept of racial stability in New Orleans, but he's absolutely right. He wants to bring the city back to a point above and beyond its previous condition and make it a better place for both races blended into one community. I hope he succeeds."

So let's find out how the mayor's comments are playing down in New Orleans. Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen joins us live from there.

Susan, I bet if nothing else, they're getting some attention.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Daryn, a lot of attention. It's all over talk radio, it's all over the local television news. Some people say, why couldn't the mayor have said this will be a Neapolitan city, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate? Then we wouldn't be talking to each other this morning, Daryn.

At its most charitable, the reaction has been, well, this guy has been under a lot of stress since the hurricane, he's a little bit unglued, and he stuck his foot in his mouth. At the least charitable, the reaction has been the guy was a straight-up racist, these are very divisive remarks at a time, Daryn, when this city needs to put a united front forward not only here in New Orleans, but to the country and to the rest of the world. KAGAN: But, you know, it wasn't just the racial comment, Susan, he made. He also talked about Katrina happened because he said god told him that America was being punished. And he brought in the war on Iraq as well.

ROESGEN: But, you know, Daryn, that's not what people here in New Orleans are keying in on. That didn't really bother folks here that much at all. It seemed to go right over them. They are really keying in on the chocolate business.

The mayor, to give you some perspective, Daryn, has had a strained relationship with the African-American community even before the hurricane. He was elected by white voters, not black voters.

Black voters voted for his rival, Richard Pennington, former police chief here in New Orleans who went on to be the police chief there in Atlanta. And so the mayor has had to try to reach out to African-American constituents even before the hurricane and now after it.

He's been accused by some in the African-American community of being too cozy with uptown whites and indifferent, or at least unresponsive to the needs of low-income blacks. So this is a guy who's had to tow this delicate political line, especially since the hurricane, when so many African-Americans feel disenfranchised here, they feel that they won't be able to come back to the city.

And yet, at the same time, the mayor has tried to shore up his base with white voters. So here's a guy who said something that I assume he regrets today, although the mayor's spokespeople are saying, oh, he really didn't mean anything divisive by it, he didn't mean anything racist by it. He meant we're all going to come together and rebuild.

That's not the way people here in New Orleans see his comments today.

KAGAN: All right. Susan Roesgen, live from New Orleans.

Thank you.

Let's go back now to Phenix City, Alabama. We've been following this story of these two escaped inmates. They caught them just a couple of miles away in Columbus, Georgia.

Officials very surprised that the two men were still together. And just a few minutes ago, we watched live pictures as they were brought back to the very facility that they escaped from.

Our Rusty Dornin now is with the sheriff to bring us more -- Rusty.

DORNIN: It was just over an hour ago that Sheriff Tommy Boswell did tell us that these two men were arrested.

Can you just give us a brief description of how it did happen? SHERIFF TOMMY BOSWELL, RUSSELL COUNTY, ALABAMA: The task force received a tip this morning that the individuals could possibly be in a motel in Columbus. They detailed one of the teens over there.

When they got to the motel, they found them in the motel room, arrested them, really without incident. They were transported to Muskogee County Jail because they were in Georgia, where they waived extradition. And then they've just recently been transported back here.

DORNIN: Very fast, though. It happened, what -- they were arrested an hour and 10 minutes ago.

BOSWELL: That's correct. They were arrested about two minutes after 10:00, and at 10 minutes after 11:00 they were back in our jail.

DORNIN: Now Sheriff, you're taking these two men, very dangerous men that you've been searching for, that escaped from this jail, and you're putting them back in that same facility. What would you say to the community regarding that? What are you -- is there something you're going to change right away?

BOSWELL: I have total confidence in that facility and the employees that work in there. We will be investigating what happened and how it happened and making any steps that are necessary. But I have total confidence in that facility and the people that work there.

DORNIN: No problems of putting them back in there, feeling that they're not going to get out again?

BOSWELL: Absolutely not.

DORNIN: How are people here in the jail handling this whole thing?

BOSWELL: It's been a traumatic experience for them, but they'll be all right.

DORNIN: OK. And these men will be facing additional charges. When will they be appearing in court again?

BOSWELL: Well, they'll have to be arraigned within 48 hours. Probably sometime tomorrow.

DORNIN: OK. And can you -- do you know anything else about the tip-off, how you found them at the motel?

BOSWELL: No, I don't.

DORNIN: OK. All right, great. Thank you very much.

Sheriff Tommy Boswell of Russell County, Alabama.

As we told you before, we did learn from another top law enforcement official here in the county that they did come across a homeless encampment. They were able to find some clothing when they first escaped Saturday morning, which is one of the reasons, perhaps, they weren't apprehended quite as quickly, because they had different clothing on than the prison garb here.

They did find a homeless man later who had one of the prison coveralls on. So they did know indeed that they had done that and they had been able to change their clothes.

So a good resolution to this story. And as the sheriff says, they're going to be evaluating this facility and what did happen before they announce any changes, but they feel confident that these two men are here for good now -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Rusty, thank you.

Rusty Dornin, live from Phenix City, Alabama.

Getting to financial matters ahead, wouldn't you just love to know how much your company awarded your boss last year?

And you're going to want to hear about a vote that's taking place in Washington today.

Also ahead on LIVE TODAY, mission to Pluto. One scientist says what we know about Pluto would fit on the back of a postage stamp. That's, well, about to change... in 10 years.

Astronomer Jack Horkheimer joins us for a space age conversation.

And we're going to check on the progress of our "New You" participants.

That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Wouldn't you love to know how much money your boss makes? A new push is under way to require U.S. companies to disclose more details about pay and perks for their top executives.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to vote on that plan today. Among other things, it would require companies to report total yearly compensation for their top executives, including stock options, and the total for perks which must be reported would be reduced from $50,000 to $10,000.

On that note, let's check in with our Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of folks say that proposal is long overdue. And also, those details would have to be put in plain English, Daryn.

KAGAN: Oh, so you'd have to be able to understand them.

LISOVICZ: Right. No financial gobbledygook from them or from me.

I'll just tell you in plain English that stocks are lower today because oil is higher, now trading above $65 a barrel. That's about $5.50 from the all-time high.

Right now the Dow industrials down about 48 points. The Nasdaq is down 12 points or half a percent.

Alcoa shares are bucking the down trend, gaining one percent. The aluminum giant the latest big profitable company to move away from traditional pension plans to curb retiree benefit costs. Employees hired after March 1 will instead receive a beefed-up 401k retirement plan in which employees as well as employers contribute.

While 401ks give workers more control over their retirement funds, critics say they shift the financial risk from the company to its employees. Alcoa following in the footsteps of IBM, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard, which have frozen their pension plans to cut costs.

That's a quick check on Wall Street, Daryn. Now back to you.

KAGAN: All right, Susan.

We're talking about Pluto just ahead. And we want to test your knowledge this morning.

Do you know who discovered Pluto? We'll have the answer for you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, there she is. Take a look right there. It's what it's going to look like in space after NASA launches the New Horizons probe later today on a mission to learn more about Pluto.

Before the break, we asked you some planetary trivia, who discovered Pluto? Easy one. You knew this.

Back in 1930, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. We'll try to make them a little bit harder in the future.

Jack Horkheimer, he's laughing. We're going to talk all things Pluto with Jack Horkheimer.

He's joining us from Miami as executive director of Miami's Planetarium, and also host of PBS' long-running series "Star Gazer."

Good morning.

JACK HORKHEIMER, MIAMI'S PLANETARIUM: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: OK. Be honest, did you know the answer or did you cheat?

HORKHEIMER: Not only did I know the answer, actually a few years ago before Clyde died, he sent me a note saying, "Thank heavens I remembered to keep looking up." KAGAN: Ah.

HORKHEIMER: It's one of my personal treasures.

KAGAN: Oh, that's neat.

Pluto, why so cool? Why do we want to learn about it?

HORKHEIMER: Well, because it is part of the primordial stuff out of which our solar system is made. And we've never seen a planet like Pluto.

You see, the first four planets closest to the sun are considered to be rocky planets. The next four planets are considered to be gas giants. And then everything beyond that, Pluto, and a lot of hundreds and hundreds of other objects are called dwarf ice planets or planetoids.

We've never seen it. And this is a world we really need to look at. It's actually a double planet. Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system, only 1,400 miles wide.

KAGAN: Well, some people say it's not even a planet. Some people say it's not really a planet.

HORKHEIMER: Well, they're still arguing about that. You know, the planet definition is not settled. And until the international astronomical community decides, we're still calling it a planet, although an ice dwarf planet.

It is a double planet, however, because it has a 700-mile-wide moon that's only 12,000 miles away from it, which makes it a double- double planet.

KAGAN: Oh.

HORKHEIMER: It's way beyond Pluto -- excuse me, it's way beyond Saturn and it's way beyond Uranus and Neptune. It's the last planet.

It takes four hours for radio transmissions traveling 186,000 miles per thousand miles per second to reach it. It's enormously far away.

KAGAN: Let's talk about -- I want to talk about how far away in a second. Let's talk about the controversy here.

HORKHEIMER: OK, Daryn.

KAGAN: Because of how to get there, they're using plutonium...

HORKHEIMER: That's right.

KAGAN: ... the most toxic substance known to man. That is what is loaded on board this craft. Some people say they don't like the odds of this happening safely. HORKHEIMER: Well, you know, this happened with the Cassini spacecraft probe the Saturn a few years ago. And it's going to happen every time you load stuff like this on a spacecraft.

The chances of anything going wrong are really about one in 620, but a really serious action is like one in a million to two million. And people just weigh whether the risk is worth it or not. And you're always going to have yays and nays. And so it's going.

KAGAN: It is going. And it's supposed to go I think like at 1:30 Eastern.

HORKHEIMER: Around 1:24. You know, this is the fastest spacecraft that's ever going to leave our Earth -- 36,000 miles an hour it will be traveling when it leaves -- when it is launched, when it leaves our Earth's atmosphere and it will pass the moon by 10:30 in the night. That's only nine hours away.

That is really clipping along. It will be at Jupiter by next February. And in nine years...

KAGAN: But it doesn't get to Pluto for nine or 10 years.

HORKHEIMER: Yes, right. Actually, nine years.

It's really an incredible mission, because just 10 years ago most Pluto missions were considered to be about 30 years long. So I intend to be back here on this show with you, Daryn...

KAGAN: OK.

HORKHEIMER: ... in February of 2015 talking about the retrieval.

KAGAN: Fifteen, all right. It's a date. We'll look forward to it. And I'll try to get tougher trivia for you next time.

HORKHEIMER: I will get some real good trivia for you, too.

KAGAN: We like to be a challenge. Oh, OK. Thank you, Jack.

HORKHEIMER: Keep looking up.

KAGAN: Jack Horkheimer, looking at Pluto with us this morning.

Still to come, our "Daily Dose" of medical news could affect your bedroom behavior.

And an amazing rescue on tape when a little boy gets caught in a big way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: So you think you're feeling a little cranky this morning? How about Ben Franklin? He would have turned the big 300 today. And in honor of the founding father's 300th birthday, celebrations are taking place, happening all over the country. Franklin was, of course, known for many things, as a scientist, an inventor, a printer and a publisher.

And Jacqui, he also was known as one of America's great thinkers. And he did think of a lot of great things. But did you know that he had suggested as the national bird not to be the eagle but the turkey? And because this is such a big budget show, we have the turkey sound that we can queue when talking about Ben Franklin.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Very nice. Did you know that he invented the lightning rod?

KAGAN: Oh, yes.

JERAS: Yes.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

JERAS: The big kite experiment. Of course everybody knows about that.

KAGAN: Yes, with the key.

JERAS: And Daylight Savings Time was his original idea.

KAGAN: That's true. And the public library.

JERAS: There you go.

KAGAN: Yes.

JERAS: Lots of things. In fact, there's a Web site where we found out all of this information if we didn't know it already, right?

KAGAN: No, because you did so well in high school history. That's why.

JERAS: That's right.

KAGAN: What do you know about the weather this morning?

(WEATHER REPORT)

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