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Historical Original Copy Of 13th Amendment Auctioned Today; Moussaoui Takes Stand In Terrorism Trial, Despite Defense Attorney's Protests; Rallies In Support Of Immigrants; Red Cross Deals With Fraud Allegations; New Orleans' Restaurant Braves A Grand Reopening With Federal Business Loan; Indy Driver Killed in Practice

Aired March 27, 2006 - 11:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: And this morning , the first laps of the final practice section, turn two, and...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And in this moment a dream ends. Rookie racecar driver Paul Dana was killed during a warm-up session in Miami. This is the accident as it unfolds.

The car spins to a stop, and the other cars are able to negotiate around that stalled vehicle. But Dana failed to slow down and slammed into the stopped car at close to 200 miles an hour.

A 30 year old, a great story. He was a sports journalist who switched careers to live his dream. And to talk more about that, we've invited Will Selva of CNN Sports who you see every morning on HEADLINE NEWS up here to talk with us.

Good morning.

WILL SELVA, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's talk about Paul Dana's life, because he did something that a lot of people don't have the courage to do and he went after his dream...

SELVA: Right.

KAGAN: ... of being an IndyCar driver.

SELVA: Right. Right. It's such a -- he got his sports journalism degree -- or journalism degree, rather, from Northwest University. Than from there he ended up getting gigs at "Sports Illustrated, "AutoWeek."

So he became a journalist there. And none of his colleagues really knew how much he wanted to race. They new he liked it, but they didn't know how much that he really loved it, that he would actually go behind the wheel to do something like this.

KAGAN: And paid his dues to get the opportunity. SELVA: Exactly. I mean, he ended up rising through the ranks. He had modest success along the way but then once he signed with Rahall-Letterman. Rahall-Letterman, of course, is co-ended by David Letterman, at that point in time that was a big deal, because Rahall- Letterman also has Danica Patrick and also has former Indy 500 driver Buddy Rice. So, he definitely was in terrific company.

You're right, this ended up being a big dream for him it was realized. Unfortunately this had a very tragic ending.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE TODAY: Today, but he knew how dangerous this was, because he had had a previous crash in the 2003- 2004 season, as well.

SELVA: Yes, that's right. As a matter of fact, it was three races in. He was at the practice of the Indy 500, and he ended up crashing, suffering a severe back injury and his season was over, essentially.

KAGAN: But he came back.

SELVA: But he ended up coming back this year, ended up being his rookie season again. So now the debate rages on whether his inexperience might have led to this. At this point in time, no one knows. Because his spotter did talk to him, in his ear, and told him, hey, there's something up ahead, you need to be careful about. Also there were yellow lights there on the course.

KAGAN: Which is kind of a new thing for this kind of racing.

Let's step back and first say that there are some people who say, you take an Indy car and you're going 200 miles in an oval, it's a bad combination, it's too dangerous. The circuit trying to come up with safety precautions, including this yellow warning light system, which was on. But when you look at what happened, either he didn't hear what happened or he didn't see the light, because he just goes full force, full speed, into this other stalled car.

SELVA: Yeah. That's what the big debate is now. Why didn't he hear it? Because he knew what the risk was involved, obviously. He was warned there was a crash there, and obviously with the yellow lights. So those were two indications, but perhaps those were just rookie mistakes and he just didn't hear it. Who knows what could have happened in the end there.

You know, such an inherent risk when these guys get on the course because they know there's always a chance they can get hurt.

KAGAN: It is a dangerous thing, indeed. This took place in the warm-up lap. Non-race fans might not understand this, but the race did go on. '

SELVA: It did go on.

KAGAN: That's the culture? SELVA: Exactly. That is the culture. Keep in mind they had a driver's meeting after that crash and they decided that they were going to race. Some of the drivers had some reservations about actually driving, but they did go forward because again, they know the risks involved here. They said, hey, this is who we are and what we do. There's nothing that we can do to avoid this.

KAGAN: His teammates didn't race.

SELVA: Yes, his teammates decided not to race, Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick decided to withdraw, but everybody else decided to race.

KAGAN: It's a sad day in the race car world. Will Selva, thank you. We can see you ever morning on "Headline News" with Robin & Company.

SELVA: Well, yes.

KAGAN: Thank you.

Coming up, disturbing allegations about the Red Cross and Hurricane Katrina aid. We'll explain when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: History for sale. One of the most important pieces of papers from our nation's past is on the auction block this week. It is an original version of the 13th Amendment, one of 13 signed by Abraham Lincoln. Do you remember what the 13th did, from your high school history class? It abolished slavery. Ryan Raynor joins me this morning. He his in Raleigh, North Carolina. His family owned business is handling the sale.

Ryan, good morning.

RYAN RAYNOR, RAYNOR'S HISTORIC AUCTIONS: Good morning, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing great. OK, quick history lesson for all of us. We're thinking about the end of slavery. What about the Emancipation Proclamation? I thought that did it?

RAYNOR: The Emancipation Proclamation was a military order placed by Lincoln in the hope to start slave insurrections. So, Lincoln had the Emancipation Proclamation, which effective January 1, 1863. The 13th Amendment actually abolished slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was only directed towards slaves of the states of rebellion.

KAGAN: So 42 words that freed 4 million people, so incredibly powerful. There are 13 originals, like this. The story of this particular original?

RAYNOR: This one is, again, one of 13. The first of those 13 is the one that resides in the National Archives. So there are 12 others that were done to commemorate the 13th amendment. The first time the country had changed amendment in 60 years -- excuse me, changed the Constitution with an amendment in 60 years. It was the first time it actually changed what was inside the Constitution.

KAGAN: Ryan, let me interrupt you for one second. Because I want to let you know about breaking news we're watching out of Alexandria, Virginia. The sentencing part of the trial for Zacarias Moussaoui.

We're getting word now that he has taken the stand in his own defense. The jury there deciding if he will get the death penalty or life in prison. He has had some interesting acts in the courtroom up to this point. We'll see what he has to say for himself. We have people in the courtroom. We'll hear from them as soon as Moussaoui's testimonies over.

Back to you, talking about the 13th Amendment and one of these copies that is now up for auction. Ryan, who owns this copy? Who is selling it?

RAYNOR: This particular copy is owned by a private individual out of Pennsylvania in his late 70s, and getting his estate together. He also is a chairman of a nonprofit. He wants to use the proceeds from the sale to provide to his nonprofit and therefore provide to his community.

KAGAN: How's this auction going to work?

RAYNOR: Basically, we're an absentee auction. So, we take bids by phone, by e-mail, and through our website which is HCAauctions.com.

KAGAN: Tell us that again? HCA ...

RAYNOR: HCAautions.com.

KAGAN: How much do you think it's going to go for?

RAYNOR: Expected to sell for more than $1 million.

KAGAN: Really?

RAYNOR: It's a wonderful piece of history. We know there's going to be many interested individuals out there. There was one that sold last year, privately, for approximately $1 million. And that's how we have our estimate set up around that.

KAGAN: Have you had any bids so far?

RAYNOR: We have. We have had what's called an opening bid, which opens up the lot at $375,000. And it's buy by gentleman very interested in it. We expect as competition heats up, the value will continue to grow.

KAGAN: Well, good luck with that. It is a fascinating piece of American history, the 13th Amendment. Ryan Raynor, thank you for your time today. RAYNOR: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Some startling allegations, did Red Cross volunteers act improperly, even criminally, in the early days after Hurricane Katrina? Our Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen reports from New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American Red Cross serving hot meals in the neighborhood.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the New Orleans area the Red Cross says it is still delivering 8,000 meals a day. Volunteer Elaine Mann from Wolverine, Michigan loves serving people in need.

In all, the Red Cross says it took in more than $2 billion in Hurricane Katrina donations and helped more than 3 million people. But some Red Cross volunteers say the organization has done a lousy job of keeping track of where exactly that help went. This is the 300-page whistleblower report.

The Red Cross says volunteers complained to an internal hot line that distribution centers lost track of donated items. And that managers didn't bother to find out if people who applied for free meals or money were actual hurricane victims.

The interim head of the Red Cross, Jack McGuire says the organization is investigating all of the allegations. And he says that $2 million in misspent donations has been recovered and put back into the relief effort.

JACK MCGUIRE, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Donors have given us a lot of money to help people. If the money's going to things other than helping people, then we need to do something about it.

ROESGEN: McGuire says the Red Cross will turn over any evidence of criminal activity to law enforcement in the meantime, Elaine Mann says every meal these serves is accounted for.

ELAINE MANN, RED CROSS VOLUNTEER: When a pass a meal out this window, I give people a meal. I give them one little snack pack, and if there's children, of course, I give them extra stuff. But other than that -- how other vans do it, I don't know. I only know how we feel, that's the right way to get it done.

ROESGEN (on camera): Not only is the Red Cross investigating, so is Congress. Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax-exempt organizations, says when the president asks Americans to donate to the Red Cross, the Red Cross better spend that money wisely. Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: A scarlet red mark or constitutional red flag? A California lawmakers wants to create these bright red license plate adorned with the letters DUI. Assembly man Ray Haynes (ph) wants them mandated for anyone convicted of drunk driving at least twice. Under his proposal the plates would stay on the cars for two years. Legislation would undoubtedly face legal challenges.

Tilly, once a mere shotgun seat dummy is now worth $15,000. The mannequin Tilly was riding with Greg Pringle (ph) in a Colorado HOV lane when -- well, he was busted. Pringle was ordered to auction Tilly after spending days on the highway carrying a sign that read, "The HOV lane is not for dummies." The high bidder on eBay paid $15,000 for Tilly with proceeds going to safe driving classes for Colorado teens.

Once again, we're standing by we're listening in Alexandria, Virginia, Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person here in the U.S. to be charged with 9/11-related crime in the penalty phase at this trial, he has decided to take the stand in his own defense.

He is facing either life in prison or the death penalty. He has had a number of behavior problems in the courtroom. In fact, almost was banned from this phase of the trial, but once again has taken the stand in his own defense.

Let's go to the phones now. Paul Callon a former New York prosecutor talking about this move.

Paul, some people said that this would not be a good move for Zacarias Moussaoui.

PAUL CALLON, FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: This is an absolutely horrible move for him from a defense standpoint, because the prosecution has had a lot of problems putting their case together. Many legal experts think that they have little chance of getting the death penalty. Here Moussaoui now takes the stand and subjects himself to cross-examination. Subjects himself to really being a figure that the jury can despise, depending on what his testimony is.

KAGAN: What do you do as a defense attorney if your client insists he want dozen this? Do you have a choice?

CALLON: You're in a terrible situation. You know as a matter of law, the one tactical decision that is always reserved for the client, in a criminal case, is whether or not to take the witness stand. All a lawyer can do is give the strongest possible advice, but ultimately it's Moussaoui's decision to testify or not testify. And, obviously, I think he's looking at a situation where he knows he's probably going to prison for the rest of his life. This is his last chance to make a political statement on worldwide television. So he's probably willing to risk the death penalty to do that.

KAGAN: We should say it won't be on television since it's in federal court. We have to wait to hear from those who are inside the courtroom to hear what he has to say. Any time limit on how long they can keep him up there?

CALLON: Not really. Federal judges have right to limit testimony. But they very rarely will limit the testimony of a defendant in a death penalty case. So I would imagine that Moussaoui will remain on the stand for quite a while.

Now, what you may see the federal judge do is Moussaoui starts making political statements that are utterly and completely unrelated to the charges against him, the judge may cut him off. But I would imagine the judge is going to leave wide latitude to him and testify.

KAGAN: We will be listening to it. Thank you, Paul Callon, attorney from New York City.

You can call it the recipe for rebuilding New Orleans, a taste of things to come about when CNN LIVE TODAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A lot of people in New Orleans trying to move forward. They are trying to revive New Orleans. One restaurant owner hopes he has just the right recipe for success. Sean Callebs takes a look at what's cooking as one French Quarter's top restaurant gets back in the mix.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can put the carpet up against that.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It is the recipe for rebuilding. You'd never know it by the controlled chaos, but this is Stella, less than a week before the restaurant's grand reopening.

CHEF SCOTT BOSWELL, RESTAURANT OWNER: It's scary. But we're going to make it. For the first time probably in the last five and a half months I actually believe we're going to make it.

CALLEBS: Only about half of the restaurants in New Orleans have reopened. And while this restaurant in the French Quarter did not flood, it was a chance to make it better.

BOSWELL: The city's still in chaos of rebuilding and construction. So there's so much work, and getting people to come to the different work sites.

CALLEBS: The ovens, the bar, all of the subtleties. According to the owner Scott Boswell add up to $1 million in renovations, changes aided by $350,000 small business loan. Before that, he had to borrow money to meet payroll.

BOSWELL: Before the storm, I liked New Orleans. After the storm, I realized how much this is my city, and how important it is for me to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want it to have the personality that's New Orleans. It's fun. It's the food is incredible, it's different.

CALLEBS: About 200,000 people have returned to live in New Orleans. But tourism is still anemic. There is no guarantee Stella! will fly. And $1 million investment will pay off.

BOSSWELL: I'm scared -- I'm scared to death.

CALLEBS: Tonight, the apprehension is all about the grand opening. And elaborate menu, one of the Iron Chefs from the popular TV show and the first look at new Stella!

BOSWELL: It's been the craziest, challenging journey of my life. I didn't think we were going to make it.

CALLEBS: But, of course, they do. Serenity, candles, and a host of composed, eager servers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We waited a long time for this.

CALLEBS: In fact, the only trouble, popping the cork in celebration.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Push, push, push!

(POP)

CROWD: Yeah!

BOSWELL: I knew if I pulled this off this would be one of greatest things for all of us.

CALLEBS: An investment for the city that he only hopes can fuel a renaissance. Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Once again to Alexandria, Virginia, Zacarias Moussaoui taking the stand in his own defense in the penalty phase of his trial. Here's Bob Franken from Virginia.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN LIVE TODAY: Of course, nothing about this trial from the very beginning has been anything but bizarre, including what just occurred before Zacarias Moussaoui took the stand.

His own defense attorneys, the ones that he refuses to acknowledge, objected to his testifying. Darryl Zerkin (ph) said that he is not competent to take the stand. Not because of any mental health issues, but because, quote, "As a trained Al Qaeda member he has been trained to lie.

The Leonie Brinkeman overruled that objection saying that Moussaoui has an "absolute right to testify" -- and that is a quote. So then Moussaoui came to the witness stand, carrying his legal pad, the judge asked him for a promise that he would tell -- would he tell the truth? And he said, Yes, absolutely.

So, the testimony has begun. Moussaoui, of course, trying to participate in the trial in which the penalty would be possibly a death penalty. He has already pleaded guilty to having, in fact, been a member of Al Qaeda. He's pleaded guilty in a trial where the government is trying to prove when arrested in August he had a responsibility to tell the truth about plans that resulted in the September 11th attack.

This of course has had more twists and turns right before he testified, there was an FBI agent on the stand and some FBI and CIA documents that brought into question whether the government would have been competent even with the information to have prevented the attacks on September 11, 2001, a month after Moussaoui had been arrested on some immigration violations.

But he is currently on the stand, speaking on his own behalf. Of course the stakes, Daryn, are very, very high.

KAGAN: Doesn't get much higher than life. Thank you, Bob.

And the immigration debate continues across America today. People speaking out on their views on immigration. These are live pictures from Los Angeles, where half a million people showed up there, over the weekend. Looks like a smaller crowd, and yet the statement goes on. More than that just ahead. Right now a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Immigration reform continues to be a hot topic, on Capitol Hill they are dealing with it this week. Across the nation, different people continue to speak out. These are live pictures, which explains the herky-jerky camera. This protest is in Detroit, Michigan, today as people joined that protest. Also one taking place, again today, in Los Angeles. Let's go to our LA bureau, Peter Viles standing by for that.

Peter, the protests we're seeing today, very small compared to what we saw over the weekend there in Los Angeles.

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN LIVE TODAY: Well, Daryn, what you're seeing in Los Angeles is a second day of walkouts by high school students at scattered schools around the city. There were about 2,000, 3,000 high school kids walked out of school on Friday. Apparently, we're seeing the same thing today as classes open for the week on a Monday morning.

These, I believe, are high school students walking out of high schools this morning in a planned march or an absentism, call it what you will, to protest the immigration bill that drew a huge protest, 500,000 people, believed to be the biggest protest in the city of Los Angeles.

This is the Sensenbrenner bill in the House that has angered immigration activists that would make it a criminal felony to be in the country illegally. Now, whether these kids fully understand what the bill is and what the options are being debated in the Senate, I'm not sure, as we look at some kids there. I don't know what they're doing.

KAGAN: Might be getting a ride from one of their friends.

VILES: Yes, I see a Mexican flag being flown there. Some of the kid have been interviewed on local television. It is clear they don't fully understand what's being debated in Congress, other than they are sticking up for the rights of recent immigrants.

The key thing here in Los Angeles today, for the police and for the schools, is that whenever you have hundreds of kids walking out of schools whatever the issue is, there's a possibility of violence. Because you have kids unsupervised, not necessarily going right home. Not being supervised by school or police officials. The concern here would be to make sure that this is peaceful -- and so far, it is.

But last spring we had a number of essentially race riots in the Los Angeles schools having nothing to do with immigration issues, but they did pit Latino students against black students. The concern here in Los Angeles is keeping the peace today.

Friday's walkouts were peaceful and the rallies over the weekend, that one with half a million people -- that was peaceful. This morning this has been a peaceful demonstration.

KAGAN: Saturday's peaceful, yet so much big than anyone anticipated including police, perhaps?

VILES: Well, you know, the organizers of the rally said they would have hundreds of thousands of people. What you're prepared for in the media is organizers to say, yes we had hundreds of thousands. And then the police will say well, actually it was much smaller.

In this case, police agreed, they took aerial photos to try to estimate the size of the crowd. And police put the crowd in Los Angeles this within at half a million people, which is bigger than any protest in LA history. Bigger than any protest against the Vietnam war.

But it was peaceful. And there had been a lot of -- in advance in the crowd building process -- there had been a lot of encouragement of people to be peaceful, to wear white shirts symbolizing peace, and to fly the American flag. When people fly the Mexican flag at these rallies it really angers people on the other side of the debate, saying they don't even want to be Americans, they don't want to fly our flag.

But it was encouragement to fly the American flag at this rally. But you still did see the flags of Mexico and a lot of other Central American countries being flown in Los Angeles.

KAGAN: Peter Viles, from LA. Peter, thank you.

Also another rally taking place right now on the steps of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. This is immigration advocates and clergy, they're protesting one of the provisions in one of the bills that's currently being considered on Capitol Hill, that would criminalize clergy and social service providers who give aid to undocumented immigrants. That would be considered a felony if that bill passes.

KAGAN: We're at five minutes to the top of the hour. Let's check in with Susan Lisovicz on Wall Street -- Susan. SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. Well the focus today is really about what's going to happen tomorrow. Stocks, in the meantime, mostly lower ahead of tomorrow's decision on interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Investors seem cautious, despite the fact that the markets basically priced in an expected quarter point rate hike. It would be the 15th consecutive rate hike.

Let's take a look at the numbers. Dow industrial's off 34 points, about a third of a percent. The Nasdaq is up 1 point. Shares of DaimlerChrysler losing 1 percent here in New York Stock Exchange. For the second time in the last year the German-American automaker will spend more than $1 billion to try and fix its struggling smart car unit.

Smart losses have become a major drag on Daimler's usually profitable Mercedes division. And shareholders have been calling for the company to sell or discontinue the brand. Instead, Daimler will build the next generation of its signature two-seat model to meet U.S. safety and environmental standards and is considering introducing the fuel-efficient, but tiny cars here in the States.

Daimler also said it will stop producing the even slower-selling four-seater. That's the latest from Wall Street. Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Saw those driving around Europe, when I was there last summer. It's funny, it's like a bug.

LISOVICZ: They're tiny. Like they're sawed off in half.

KAGAN: Where's the engine? Thank you. Thank you, Susan.

I'm Daryn Kagan, international news is up next. Stay tuned for "Your World Today". I'll be back with the latest headlines from here U.S. in about 20 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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