Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Iran 101; Sextuplets Scam; Ethics Questions for Congressman Conyers
Aired April 13, 2006 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are watching a couple of key courthouses at this hour. First of all, the U.S. Supreme Court, we are watching this. Word of smoke and the building being evacuated. The high court is not in session today, so it does not necessarily involve all the justices, but there were some people in the building. They are being asked to leave. They are checking out what the deal is with the smoke is at the Supreme Court.
Also we're keeping a close eye on the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, this hour. Confessed terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui could take the stand at any minute as the defense begins making the case to save his life. We were just showing you live pictures of the courthouse. Our reporters are inside watching the proceedings. They will come out and join us live with any breaking news. This follows, of course, days of very emotional testimony about the September 11th attacks. Should Moussaoui be executed for those attacks is the issue.
So, do you hear that, as we move on to other news of the day, more saber rattling from Iran today. The country's hard-line president says he will not hold talks about his country's nuclear program. He says the world already has been on edge must now treat Iran as a nuclear power.
Clearly, Iran will be in the news for a while, so here's Randi Kaye with a bit of a refresher. We're calling it Iran 101.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Iran, known as Persia until 1935, is part of the Middle East, sandwiched between Iraq and Pakistan. It is roughly the size of Alaska with just under 70 million people. The official language is Persian and most residents are Muslim.
In 1979, Iran became a hard line Islamic republic after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and the shah was forced into exile. Today it is a theocracy run by a supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini.
So how did Iran earn a reputation as a radical nation looking to wipe out the west? Dr. Jim Walsh, who studies Iran, says it started with President Jimmy Carter's decision to allow the shah to get medical treatment in the United States.
JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT: That tripped of those riots into Iran that eventually led to the hostages being taken and then, you know, we were off to the races.
KAYE: It's frosty relations with the United States came to a head during the 1979 hostage crisis. Iran held 52 Americans for 444 days. President Carter retaliated by ordering a complete embargo of Iranian oil. What followed was a series of bloody terrorist attacks on U.S. targets overseas.
In 1983, Iranian-backed Hezbollah operatives rammed a pickup truck full of explosives into the U.S. embassy in Beirut. Seventeen Americans died. Months later, another truck exploded at the U.S. Marine barracks there, killing 241 Marines.
WALSH: They're out to throw out the western devil, the great Satan, and this is really the period of time when Iran was engaged in more terrorism than at any other point in its history.
KAYE: In 1985, the two countries negotiated a secret arms for hostages deal, known to history as the Iran-Contra Affair, and carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. It was the biggest crisis in Ronald Reagan's presidency.
In July 1988, things got ugly again. An American Navy shape mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger jet killing 290 people. Iran called this a deliberate attack. It is a complicated relationship that still causes outrage today.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world.
KAYE: Despite the violence and growing hostility, experts say the majority of Iranians have a great affection for American people, just not for American policy. Iran and the U.S. are two extremes that go beyond oil, which Iran has plenty of. Many of the freedoms we enjoy here are not available here. Freedom of the press, free speech and freedom of religion are virtually nonexistent in Iran.
The voice of Iran is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second in command and well known for his provocative statements about Israel.
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, (through translator): A new wave of Palestinian attacks would destroy the Jewish state.
KAYE: And boasting about his country's nuclear capabilities. Walsh doesn't blame the long list of Iranian leaders for vilifying the United States and flexing some muscle.
WALSH: They're surrounded, as they say today, on all sides by either American troops or countries friendly with the U.S. And I think that -- when you have a young country that's gone through a revolution, that feels it's surrounded and that it's different from everyone else, then that carries with it a certain attitude.
KAYE: Attitude that one day again could turn into conflict.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Tucking at heart strings and yanking their chains. A former teacher in New Bedford, Massachusetts, admits she faked her stomach cancer. She bilked her friends and neighbors out of $30,000. Heather Faria pleaded guilty to larceny and will be sentenced next month.
They say they're sorry, but some say their scam is too outrage for quick forgiveness. A Missouri couple claimed their sextuples were critically ill. They pleaded for the public's help and they got it. Now they say they're going to get much more.
CNN's Ed Lavandera explains this story. It first was seen on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Sarah and Kris Everson are bold. Well, make that very bold. When they moved to Grain Valley, Missouri, a few months ago, they started asking for help to care for six newborn babes. And they weren't shy about what they wanted. Gary Bradley was one of the many people trying to organize help for the couple.
GARY BRADLEY, GRAIN VALLEY CITY ADMINISTRATION: They need new transportation because they have a truck. They needed a new house. They needed a washer and drier to handle the clothes for six kids. Cribs. All of those types of things.
LAVANDERA: The Eversons said they needed all those supplies and money to help care for the sextuplets who would soon be coming home from the hospital. But after weeks and weeks of baby talk, the babies themselves were no where to be seen.
CHIEF AARON AMBROSE, GRAIN VALLEY MISSOURI POLICE: That was the big question, why are they holding back the babies? You know, why hasn't anybody seen these babies? Well, apparently some people said they had seen them. I find that very interesting. I don't know what babies they were looking at.
LAVANDERA: Gary Bradley says they had an excuse for that.
BRADLEY: They indicated that there was a gag order in place by a judge to protect the lives of the children and that they had a relative who threatened to kill the children. And I just found that part very hard to believe.
LAVANDERA: Then Sarah and Kris posed for this picture in the local newspaper holding six tiny sweaters. Again, the babies were not available for pictures. Even the town newspaper had fallen for the story.
When the Eversons' picture and story hit the front page of the local newspaper, they became the talk of the town, but it also resurrected a shady past. It turns out, according to police and some local residents, that Sarah Everson has a history of faking pregnancies.
REV. BOB SPRADLING, MAYWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH: When I heard about it I thought, well, she's up to it again.
LAVANDERA: Pastor Bob Spradling wasn't surprised to see Sarah Everson in this situation. Five years ago Everson told him a similar story. Church members helped with food and other donations but the babies never came. The pastor says she claimed to have miscarried but he says she was never actually pregnant.
SPRADLING: It is odd and I think that's why people help because it is so out of the norm you think, well it's got to be true because who could make this up.
LAVANDERA: Grain Valley Police say the Eversons have admitted they made up the story and could face felony charges of stealing by deceit. The couple issued an apology.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to ask to be absolutely clear, there were no babies.
KRIS EVERSON: No.
LAVANDERA: Kris and Sarah Everson left the police station in a truck big enough to hold this family of two. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Grain Valley, Missouri.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Be sure to join Paula Zahn weeknights 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
Now on to a developing story this morning out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Six bodies have been found in a single home. They were discovered yesterday in the small town of Leola, which is an Amish country. Authorities say at least four bodies were found in the basement and some were wrapped in sheets and blankets. Police say they have spoken with a person of interest in the case.
The dangerous games that kids play. What is underneath this minivan? It turns out precious cargo. We'll talk about this dangerous game of hide and seek just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: And let's say good morning to our friends that are joining us on the west coast. Chad Myers just might have some clear and good news for you.
Chad, good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: A death to tell you about at Disney World that may be linked to a popular new ride at the theme park. This time a 49-year- old woman became ill and died after riding Mission Space. The journey to Mars adventure closed overnight for inspection and it just reopened this morning. A four-year-old boy died last June after passing out on that same ride.
Ready or not, here I come. Every kid plays it. Hide and seek. The fun almost ended in tragedy for one Utah boy. You're not going to believe where he decided to hide. Yes, under the car. Here's reporter Dine Wimmer (ph) from our Salt Lake City affiliate KSL.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone was out looking, calling his name. We walked up ask down anywhere we could think of.
DINE WIMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Neighbors tried not to panic when four-year-old Taylor Harris disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I looked in my car. I looked in the back of my car. I looked everywhere that I thought I could at my house.
RACHEL HARRIS, TAYLOR'S MOTHER: Well, as a parent, sometimes when you have something bad happen, automatically you go to the worst- case scenario and I just couldn't allow myself to go to that point yet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought we'll I'm going to take -- I've got to do something. I've got to get in the car and go. Just said a little prayer. Please help me find him and let him be OK. I thought it was crazy, but I could hear him crying.
WIMMER: She wasn't crazy. He had crawled underneath her car and was holding on for dear life to the shaft between the wheels near the spare tire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I looked down and I just pulled him out as fast as I could and held him out and made sure, you know, he was all together.
HARRIS: There's not a scratch on him. He wasn't hurt. We all just stood in absolute shock. I still can't believe that he held on that tight. But, bless his heart, he made it and he -- we believe that it was a miracle from the Heavenly Father that helped him to hold on and that there must have been angels around him to help him hold on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: There's little Taylor. Doing OK today. Thanks to KSL for that story. Experts say to follow the walk around rule. If you or your neighbors have small kids, always walk around your car before driving away.
Let's update you now on the situation at the U.S. Supreme Court. Turns out they've given an all clear. There had been an evacuation a few minutes ago when there was some smoke that was detected. Turns out it was an electrical situation. Everyone's OK and the all clear at the U.S. Supreme Court. Not all clear for some people who are still working on their taxes. But don't fear, Gerri's here.
Hey, Ger.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I love that. Hi, Daryn. How are you?
KAGAN: Good.
WILLIS: Hey, we're going to be talking about taxes. What you need to know. The deadlines coming up. "Five Tips" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: The markets have been open 50 minutes. Not a lot of movement. The Dow is up 12 points. The Nasdaq has just moved a few points as well but it is in positive territory. It is up about 5 points.
Well, if you haven't filed your taxes yet, you want to grab a pencil. Today's "Top Five Tips" will help you meet Monday's deadline. Our Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis joins us now. She's in New York with details.
Gerri, good morning.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Daryn. Good to see you.
You know, the one big danger this year that everybody has AMT. That's the alternative minimum tax. And let me tell you, you don't pay it unless it's more than what you would typically owe under IRS rules. This year AMT hits about 3.6 million taxpayers. And remember, under AMT, your taxable income is larger because you cannot take tax deductions for state and local taxes or property taxes. Now if you want to know what your AMT tab would be, go to irs.gov/app/amt.
KAGAN: Another place where you could go just to do your taxes in general, you can crunch online, can't you?
WILLIS: You can crunch online. I've got to tell you, if you do that, you spend about a quarter of the time that you would if you prepared your taxes by hand. The good news here, IRS has free software on their Web site. And you know how this is, Daryn. This is a bad time of year to try to find an accountant.
KAGAN: Yes.
WILLIS: It's really too late. You're going to have to do it online with software. And let me give you just a little word of warning here. If you are filing online, do not wait till the last minute because sometimes there's an Internet logjam with everybody trying to file at the same time. Now you'll know that you've successfully filed your taxes online if you get a confirmation e-mail from the IRS stating they've received your return. And that's what you're looking for.
KAGAN: Good tip.
Any help for hurricane victims?
WILLIS: You bet. You know, if you are a Hurricane Katrina victim, you live in the disaster zone, automatically, without even asking for it, you have until August 28th to file. Now if you don't have your old tax records, which is completely understandable here, file form 4506 to get copies of previous tax records and they're not even going charge you for them.
KAGAN: What if you need an extension and you're not a hurricane victim?
WILLIS: Well, everybody does this at one time or another, right, Daryn? You want form 4868 to get one six-month extension. And remember, this is an extension of time to file, not extra time to pay how much you owe Uncle Sam. So you have to estimate how much you owe. Good rule of thumb, send them what you paid last year. And then, as you make your new filing, you can figure out if you're overpaid or underpaid and make up the difference.
KAGAN: And all is not equal in terms of the deadline. Some people in different parts of the country getting extra time.
WILLIS: Yes. If you live in the northeast, you're getting a little break. Obviously the 15th falls on a Saturday, so everybody's getting a break till Monday. But if you live in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, you have until the 18th to file their tax return. That's because the IRS has a processing center in Massachusetts which recognizes April 17th as Patriot's Day. It's a state holiday. So everybody gets a little extra help there.
KAGAN: Good for them.
What's coming up on "Open House" this weekend.
WILLIS: Saturday morning, 9:30 a.m. Eastern on "Open House" we'll be talking about beating the tax crunch, but also about sneaky broker bonuses. Something you may not know, may have never heard about. We're going to tell you all about the bonuses brokers get that they don't tell you about.
Plus, how to do your spring cleaning in 15 minutes, 30 minute, half a day, you choose. We've got some great tips on how to get that house in shape for the spring.
KAGAN: Gerri, have you seen the Jesus egg?
WILLIS: The Jesus egg?
KAGAN: The Jesus Easter egg. Have you seen it?
WILLIS: I have not. Tell me about that. KAGAN: You're going to want to stay tuned because actually we teased that we were going to see Jesus in an egg yesterday and somehow we didn't get around to it. But today we are committed.
WILLIS: I look forward to it.
KAGAN: OK. We'll see if you can see Jesus on the Easter egg.
WILLIS: OK. I'll be looking. Thank you, Daryn.
KAGAN: Thank you, Ger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe I see Jesus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: What do you see? We're going to take a closer look when CNN LIVE TODAY comes back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: It really is a nightmare scenario. What do you do if your boss tells you he wants you to babysit his kids tonight or that he's going away for a couple of weeks and you're supposed to take care of his children? Well, apparently that's what former employees of one very powerful man say happened to them.
Our investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has the startling allegations in a story that first aired on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sydney Rooks says she had no idea , when she signed up as legal counsel for her boss, she would also be baby-sitting her boss' children, a lawyer required to baby-sit.
SYDNEY ROOKS, FORMER LEGAL ADVISER TO CONGRESSMAN JOHN CONYERS: Several times, he just brought them into my office and said: "Rooks, they're your responsibility for right now. I will be back later."
GRIFFIN (on camera): And how long was later?
ROOKS: Later could be a few minutes. Later could be hours. Later could be frantically calling around, trying to find him, because it was now 8:00 or 9:00, or later in the evening, and not knowing what to do with the children.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): For Deanna Maher, later turned out to be weeks. She says she was actually told to move into her boss' house, this house in Detroit, and be the live-in nanny while he was gone and his wife was away at school.
DEANNA MAHER, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR CONGRESSMAN JOHN CONYERS: He handed me the keys to his car and his house and said, "Take care of my child, Carl (ph), and everything" -- make sure, in other words, I had to stay at the house and take care of him. And that was for several weeks.
GRIFFIN: She says he left her, never telling her when he would be back, certainly, not that the baby-sitting gig would last six weeks.
(on camera): And this was not just, can you do this for this one time?
ROOKS: No. It was -- it was common. It was ubiquitous. And it wasn't just me. OK? I was the tutor, primarily, but I wasn't the only person who got stuck with the kids for the day. I wasn't the only person who had to take the boys to the bathroom, change a diaper, or anything like that.
We would also take them to doctors' appointments, other things, too. If they had to go, they had to go. Somebody had to take them. And there was no reimbursement for gasoline or anything like that.
GRIFFIN: Did you feel like a servant, like a house servant?
ROOKS: Many times, I frankly did, yes.
GRIFFIN: Why didn't they just complain to the company, report that their boss was making them do things that they thought were unethical, maybe even illegal? Well, they did complain to the company. Take a look at the company.
(voice-over): And who was the boss? This was the boss, 21-term liberal Democratic Congressman John Conyers Jr. of Detroit, the second most senior member of Congress and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, and who was in no mood last week to talk with us about ethics, his children, and who baby-sits them.
(on camera): Congressman Conyers, Drew Griffin with CNN.
REP. JOHN CONYERS (D), MICHIGAN: Hi, Drew. How are you?
GRIFFIN: I have been trying to meet you for several weeks now to discuss these allegations by your former staff members. Ethics violations.
CONYERS: Oh, just a minute, sir. I've been told not to discuss them because we haven't examined them, and I have an attorney.
GRIFFIN: Well, can I just ask you...
CONYERS: No.
GRIFFIN (voice over): As shocking as the allegations of using his congressional staff as servants is the fact that the allegations have been around for years, that a lot of people on Capitol Hill know all about it. In fact, members of John Conyers' staff filed several complaints with the House Ethics Committee. And CNN learned there was even an investigation launched in 2004 into staff complaints, but that investigation was abruptly stopped.
Melanie Sloan, who once worked for Congressman John Conyers on his Capitol Hill staff, thinks she knows why. She now heads the liberal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that mostly criticizes Republicans, but in the case of ethics, she says, neither conservatives nor liberals on Capitol Hill are held accountable.
MELANIE SLOAN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY: That's right. That's because there is an ethics truce. Both parties will deny this, by the way, but there is, in fact, a truce that's been in existence since 1998. And under the terms of that truce, nobody will file a complaint against a member of the other party.
GRIFFIN: The truce, among Democrats and Republicans, Sloan says, is a gentleman's agreement. I won't report you, if you don't report me. Still, according to Sydney Rooks, who was John Conyers' legal adviser after all, the rules as written are very clear, a congressman can't treat his staff as personal servants nor should taxpayers be paying for a congressman's chauffeurs, personal babysitters and errand runners.
When it came to Conyers, staff members said doing errands and babysitters were only the half of it. Conyers, they told CNN, regularly used his congressional staff to work on other politicians' campaigns. Chief among them, the campaign of his very own wife, Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, a charge Monica Conyers' spokesman says is just a lie.
SAM RIDDLE, SPOKESMAN FOR MONICA CONYERS: City Council President Pro-Tem Monica Conyers certainly denies that any of the congressman's staff helped her with her campaign. It simply didn't happen. These are disgruntled employees who couldn't cut it in the workplace.
GRIFFIN: Rooks says it not only happened, she complained directly to the congressman about it.
ROOKS: I was so opposed to the use of staff time for campaigning, I actually wrote the Congressman a memo, which I don't have anymore, but I also had a conversation with him. And I told him I thought this was wrong.
GRIFFIN (on-camera): When you complained, when you brought up these issues, you were told this is part of your job.
ROOKS: Well, I was told that doing whatever he wanted to have done was part of my job.
GRIFFIN (voice over): And, she says, she received regular raises, was assigned sensitive projects and, like others now filing complaints, was told she was doing a good job for the congressman.
After several weeks of phoning, faxing and mailing requests for an interview, including to his attorney, and being told by Conyers' staff that the congressman wasn't available, we decided to look for him ourselves and found him right outside a Capitol Hill committee room.
GRIFFIN (on-camera): You have required your staff members to babysit your children?
CONYERS: No, no, look. Did I...
GRIFFIN: Does that mean you have not?
GRIFFIN: May I say, I told you I could not discuss it. Now, this is not fair.
GRIFFIN: I just asked a yes or no question. Have you required your staff to babysit your children and at one point, babysit your children for six weeks?
CONYERS: Oh, come on.
GRIFFINS: That's what the allegation is in the ethics files, sir.
CONYERS: Can you do me a favor, sir? I thought you were going to...
GRIFFIN: I've been trying to talk to you through your staff for two weeks, sir.
(voice-over): Though rare, the House Ethics Committee does have the power to vote on starting an ethics investigation against members of Congress. In the case of John Conyers, that has not yet happened.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And so far our repeated attempts to reach Congressman Conyers' current lawyer have been unsuccessful. Be sure to join Paula Zahn weeknights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific, right here on CNN.
Asleep at the wheel. A cabby's cat nap is caught on tape. We're going to show you more dash cam tales when LIVE TODAY continues.
And you're looking for something a little different for your Easter basket? Well, check this out. It's worth a bundle. Find out why, straight ahead on LIVE TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Well, his bell bottoms are gone, and frankly, so is much of his hair, but at least he has his motorcycle back. Phillip McKeen lost his beloved Yamaha back in 1971. You see, it was stolen outside his Southern California apartment. He filed a police report and, well, you know, he moved on. That's what you do. Well, fast forward, McKeen gets a call. Police found his old friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIP MCKEEN, MOTORCYCLE OWNER: It was a little depressing for your primary mode of transportation to disappear. I was basically on tennis shoes then. I was fairly young, so it was a little depressing. And, you know, you have to figure out what to do after that. So it left me a little high and dry.
QUESTION: I think I read in here where you said it's like seeing an old friend you hadn't seen in 30 years that hadn't aged a bit.
MCKEEN: No, it hasn't, really. It was a little better condition, but it's mostly just superficial. So quite impressed. Like I said, there must be a story here somewhere. For 35 years, it hasn't done much.
QUESTION: Does it still run? Does it have gas in it? Can you take it for a spin?
MCKEEN: I rode it a while ago. Yes, I'll take it out for a little bit.
QUESTION: Let's see!
MCKEEN: That's what this is for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: OK, let's fill in some of the holes here. The bike still has fewer than 10,000 miles. It was discovered as it was about to be shipped overseas. A man in Finland had bought it on eBay. Police say neither party knew that the bike was stolen. Two friends back together again.
OK, this next Easter egg not your run of the mill Easter egg. Take a look. What do you see? A bunch of colors? Or do you see the face of Jesus? Well, that's what a woman in Colorado says.
Jeannette Hynes of our affiliate KKTV reports from Pueblo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNETTE HYNES, KKTV REPORTER (voice-over): This Easter egg may have been tossed eight years ago, if Linda Bargas wasn't late for the Easter vigil mask.
LINDA BARGAS, EGG OWNER: I took the egg and I blew on it. And when I blew on it, I seen the image. So I just, like -- oh my gosh, you kids, look what happened!
HYNES: She says oily dye transformed into the face of what looks like Jesus.
BARGAS: Everybody sees it immediately.
HYNES: We shared a picture of it with people on the river walk to see what they saw.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I picture a face. I see, like a face and an eye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe I see Jesus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like he might appear in different ways, and we all need to have something to believe in. So that's kind of neat.
HYNES: Most people see the Jesus image. Some see...
HYNES: ... let's just say other things, including the grim reaper.
BARGAS: In any collage of colors, you're going see different things.
HYNES: Linda doesn't consider this Easter egg a miracle.
BARGAS: I think it just happened, and it's something beautiful to look at.
HYNES: What might be a miracle is that after eight years this egg is still hard boiled and it is still intact, without the hint of any odor.
BARGAS: It's lasted in my house for eight years. Will I miss it? Probably a little bit, but it's time for it to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: OK, from Jesus egg to another egg, this is one you that might want to salivate over this Easter. Besides the dark chocolate, and the nuts and little chocolate surprises inside, this egg, not that egg, but this egg is covered with diamonds, a hundred of them, to be exact. Each diamond is a half karat. The egg is on sale in London for a mere $80,000 or so. So go ahead. You buy it, and you eat it. Well, you might want to save it.
(MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: We'll take a break, and we're back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: President Bush is speaking to a small business conference. He's doing that in Washington D.C. And after that, President Bush and Mrs. Bush heading to Camp David for the Easter weekend. We will monitor the president's results and renew what's necessary, as it's needed.
(NEWSBREAK)
On to our video of the day. OK, granted, it's a hole in the road, but it's a really big one, but still it's just a hole, 30 feet deep, 25 feet wide. So big the hole has now become a tourist draw on this lonely stretch of road in Idaho. people are driving miles just to look on the big hole, stand on the edge of it or just walk around it. Road crews still aren't sure what caused the piece of Idaho to sink in, but they have a lot of rain in the West, and Chad has been talking about that.
It's as easy to buy as a pack of gum, but it might be as deadly as a loaded firearm. It's called Salvia. It is a powerful hallucinogen that is increasingly popular. It is perfectly legal in most states, but now lawmakers are scrambling to change that.
Gary Tuchman has the story that you might have seen on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kathy and Dennis Chidester had one child. His name, Brett.
KATHY CHIDESTER: And there he wanted to go to San Francisco, and he says, "I got to see the Rice-A-Roni treat." And there was the cable car with Rice-A-Roni on the back.
TUCHMAN: Memories are all they're left with. Earlier this year, Dennis found his 17-year-old son in the garage of his Delaware home.
DENNIS CHIDESTER, FATHER: He was laying in the fetal position on his jacket. And right away, I felt his body was cold. And so I called 911 and said, "My son's committed suicide."
KATHY CHIDESTER: I thought I would wake up, and it would be a mistake. There was no way that he would ever do anything like that. Not the son that I knew. Not the boy that we raised.
TUCHMAN: At first, the Chidesters had no idea why Brett, the straight A student, killed himself with carbon monoxide. But they remembered, he had experimented with a drug they had never heard of before, an herb called salvia divinorum, the world's most potent natural hallucinogen. A drug that is not against the law in most of the U.S.
KATHY CHIDESTER: He said, "Mom, it's legal. You know, there's nothing wrong with it. I can get it, and there's no problem with it."
TUCHMAN: Kathy says her son did agree to stop using salvia. But after reading his suicide note, she doesn't think he stopped.
KATHY CHIDESTER: He wrote, "How could I go on living after I knew the secret of life. It's taken me 17 years, but I figured it out. I can't tell it to you here, of course."
TUCHMAN: The Chidesters believe salvia contributed to their son's death. And the Delaware state legislature took notice.
KAREN PETERSON, (D) DELAWARE STATE SENATOR: You have kids think they can fly and start jumping out windows, that's a public safety concern to me.
TUCHMAN: State Senator Karen Peterson introduced legislation to have Delaware follow in the footsteps of Louisiana and Missouri and criminalize salvia distribution and possession. In every other state, it's legal.
PETERSON: The bill by the way is named after Brett, it's called Brett's Law.
TUCHMAN: In the states where salvia is legal, it is very easy to buy. We walked into this smoke shop here in Georgia and $20 later, we bought a package of salvia. And the courteous salesman inside gave us this informational sheet talking about salvia. It says that when used in small doses, the user feels a relaxing state of mind, uncontrolled fits of laughing. When used in larger amounts, it continues, intense laughter and meditational epiphanies can occur.
Salvia is smoked and chewed and has been used by indigenous people in Mexico for perhaps hundreds of years, but there's limited scientific knowledge about it. The number of users in the U.S. is small but growing. The co-director of the University of Delaware Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies, says many in law enforcement and law-making have also not heard of salvia, despite the fact that it's readily available on the Internet.
PROF. STEVEN MARTIN, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: It's been particularly found that heavy doses of salvia can lead to depression, particularly after use of the drug that it leads to a sort of an aftereffect of depression.
TUCHMAN: Many who advocate salvia use believe it should be regulated but not criminalized. Daniel Siebert is a California botanist who studies medicinal plants and sells salvia on a Web site. He believes it's a meditative tool that can actually help depression.
DANIEL SIEBERT, BOTANIST: To me, I see it as a gift from nature. And to legislate some little piece of nature as being out of bounds for human beings just seems illogical to me.
TUCHMAN: Early this month, Brett's Law came to the Delaware senate floor. What was the vote in the state senate to make it illegal?
PETERSON: It was 21-0.
TUCHMAN: The state house is expected to soon follow suit. The law would allow salvia to be medically researched. These are things you never forget.
KATHY CHIDESTER: No.
TUCHMAN: The Chidesters look at Brett's Law as their son's legacy, even as they look at Brett's videotapes and wonder what they could have or should have done differently.
KATHY CHIDESTER: We both lost our dads. And we thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen. But, you know, you expect to lose your parents. You don't ever expect to bury a 17-year-old son and your only child. TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: You can join "ANDERSON COOPER 360" weeknights at 10:p.m. Eastern.
Three feet might not sound like a lot to you, but in New Orleans, it could decide who stays and who goes for good. Details ahead in the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
