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American Morning

Preacher Shot Dead; Public Protests

Aired March 31, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Beautiful day here in New York. Welcome back, everybody.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Kind of makes you happy thinking about it, doesn't it?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Sure does, doesn't it.

MILES O'BRIEN: Now when you were at Cambridge at that -- what is it? At . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Harvard College?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, that . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, that one.

MILES O'BRIEN: That diesel mechanic school there in Cambridge. Did they have a happy class?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A class on happiness?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No. No, they did not.

MILES O'BRIEN: You just made your own happiness?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But now for . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: As an elective.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: For $43,000, that's what the tuition is. Over $43,000.

MILES O'BRIEN: Caching (ph), baby.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They've got a new offering at Harvard College for undergrads and that is a course about happiness. $43,000. Did you not hear me people?

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. I'm an outraged parent.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh my God. MILES O'BRIEN: If my kid told me he was taking a happy class for 43k . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Apparently it's . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: He would be at DeVry very quickly.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Apparently it's to give you practical applications on how to be happy.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Why take Ec 10 (ph) when you can take happy, happy, joy, joy, or whatever the class is called. We're going to talk about that ahead this morning.

First, though, our very own resident, happy woman, reading the news for us this morning.

Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was just thinking maybe I should take that class because I'm not exactly seeing the half full glass kind of person.

But anyway, good morning to all of you.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States is ready to offer humanitarian aid to Iran. The western region of Iran rocked by three earthquakes. The worst of which killed more than 50 people. At least 800 others were injured. No word if Iran will accept U.S. aid. Secretary Rice is now speaking at a news conference in Berlin. We're going to continue to monitor that for any new developments.

A new twist in the running battle over body armor. From now on, soldiers will only be allowed to wear protective gear provided by the military, not by friends or family. The order was prompted by concerns that soldiers or their families were buying substandard equipment from private companies.

The family of rapper notorious B.I.G. getting more than a million dollars from the Los Angeles Police Department. The money is to pay legal costs in the wrongful death case against the city and the police department. The rapper was killed in 1997. A federal judge had sanctioned the city after it came to light that a detective withheld information about the killing. A retrial is expected later this year.

Super model Naomi Campbell must have a great mug shot. She's accused of hitting her housekeeper with a cell phone. Did some serious damage to the housekeeper's head, apparently. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment, but the housekeeper, as I said, it did damage to her head. She has the stitches to prove it. It's not the first time Campbell's been in court for her temper. She faces seven years of prison if she is convict.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Wow.

COSTELLO: You know she's been in . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: That's pretty -- you know, we've been making light of it, but it is very serious, isn't it?

COSTELLO: Yes. I think she had to have five or six stitches in her head, the housekeeper.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right.

COSTELLO: So she -- apparently, allegedly, Naomi Campbell took the cell phone and went whack in the back of the head.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, she says it was all -- it's cut from whole cloth and an extortion plot and all that stuff. So we'll just watch this one unfold and -- anyway let's move on.

We're going to talk about Selmer, Tennessee, now. That little town that is still -- people there are just scratching their head, trying to figure out why the wife of a well-known preacher there could be accused of killing her husband. Mary Winkler waived her right to a hearing yesterday and that one hearing might have provided us an answer. We get more now on the story from CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Her own lawyers call Mary Carol Winkler an emotional wreck. The minister's wife who police say confessed to shooting her husband in the back tried to avoid the eyes staring at her in a packed courtroom. As Winkler kept her head down, a defense lawyer took her by the hand to help her sit down. Moments before the hearing began Winkler's father stepped up, leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Then it was time for her to speak. Briefly.

JUDGE: Is it your desire at this point to waive your right to a preliminary hearing?

MARY WINKLER: Yes, sir.

CANDIOTTI: Winkler's lawyers waived a right to ask for bail. Unlikely anyway since Winkler skipped the state in a hurry with her children after allegedly taking her husband's life. The defense move prevented prosecutors from reading her alleged confession into the record.

STEVE FARESE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We feel it does no one any good to hear bad things said about the mother of children. We don't feel that it does anyone any good to hear gruesome things about their late father.

CANDIOTTI: But her lawyers' concern about keeping disturbing details under wraps for now is not the prosecutor's main worry.

Aren't you concerned about the victim's family, though, and their feelings?

ELIZABETH RICE, PROSECUTOR: I'm concerned about a successful prosecution of the case.

CANDIOTTI: Why Winkler might have pulled the trigger is still a mystery. Police and prosecutors won't say. And after getting their first look at Winkler's alleged confession to police, the defense will only tell CNN it confirms the couple had problems.

LESLIE BARRIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She is sad. She is bewildered. She is lost.

CANDIOTTI: The couple's conservative church community says it's baffled. To most people, the young minister and his quiet wife were picture perfect.

BILLY SMITH, FAMILY FRIEND: I don't know a couple who from the very start of their relationship loved each other more and after 10 years of marriage loved each other more, more excited about their life, more excited about their future.

CANDIOTTI: But Winkler's three young children remain in the care of their paternal grandparents, a family rooted in three generations of ministers. Winkler's in-laws met with her in jail.

SMITH: And they loved her. They hugged her. She hugged them. She was so remorseful and sorrow sorrowful of what she had done and they assured her that she was forgiven.

CANDIOTTI: Winkler is not under a suicide watch, but her lawyers say they are worried about her and psychologists will evaluate her. The defense says when more is known, the premeditated murder charges might be reduced.

BARRIN: Is this a planned killing? Just because there is a gunshot wound to the back doesn't mean first-degree murder.

CANDIOTTI: For now, Winkler's lawyers say even they cannot get a clear picture of what happened between the seemingly loving couple. When they try to get details from Winkler, in their words, they can't get her to focus.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Selmer, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti's piece first aired on "Anderson Cooper 360," which you can catch every week nights at 10:00 Eastern Time right here on CNN.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The current battle over immigration is setting off some of the biggest demonstrations the U.S. has seen in decades. Are those demonstrations, though, going to have any impact on what Congress does? Here with a look when demonstrations have worked and when they haven't is Jeff Greenfield.

Good morning.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

There is no doubt, Soledad, that the rallies we saw were big. Much bigger than even the organizers had hoped. But if we've learned anything from history, it's that when it comes to the impact of organized protests, size isn't everything.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD, (voice over): Sometimes it's what happens to protesters that galvanizes public opinion. In the summer of 1932, the height of the depression, veterans of World War I marched on Washington to demand back pay for their services. The Army, lead by General Douglas MacArthur, burned down the shanty town the protesters were using as their headquarters. That fueled anger at the Hoover administration.

When billy clubs were turned on civil rights demonstrators, on the summit to Montgomery March in 1965, is crystalized public opinion and led to President Johnson's famous promise to pass a voting rights bill.

The victory for civil rights legislation was the culmination of a fight that had gained major impetus from another demonstration. The 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech. That march was focused on a specific objective, the passage of a major civil rights bill.

By contrast, the Million Man March in October 1995 drew far more participants than Dr. King's march, but it was not aimed at any specific piece of legislation or policy. That, and its sponsorship by the controversial Minister Louis Farrakhan, helped dissipate its impact.

And even the biggest demonstrations haven't had much impact when the battle lines are already clearly drawn. Both sides of the abortion debate have turned out large numbers in Washington over the years to no apparent impact.

But it's also true that small crowds don't necessarily measure popular sentiment. The protests that marked the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq earlier this month drew relatively tiny crowds, but that in no way suggested that the majority of the public supported the policy. In fact, the bad news from Iraq over the last three years has led to a steady, significant drop in support to the president's policies.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: So did these latest immigration rallies strengthen the argument for accommodation or did the specter of large crowds carrying Mexican flags, many of whom may have been illegal aliens, actually produce a kind of a back lash. I know that's the right question, Soledad, I just don't know the answer.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh. Well, thanks for posing the question. Here's another one for you. Do you think the debate, in and of itself, is going to derail efforts and strides that Republicans have made in courting Hispanic voters?

GREENFIELD: It very much depends, first of all, on how that debate is framed and what the answer is. If President Bush and Senator McCain and some others get their way and have a guest worker program and a path to citizenship, that could actually enhance the Republican base. If you're talking about people like Congressman Tom Tancredo, who has called illegal immigration a scourge on the country. If the whole argument is, let's build a fence and let's keep them out, let's throw them out, we saw in California after 1994 a very strong anti-immigration message that helped re-elect Republican Governor Wilson but did push some Hispanics in California away from the Republican Party. So the devil here is in the details. It all depends on how this argument is framed and, in fact, how it comes out, I think.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: In other words, wait and see.

GREENFIELD: Only time will tell, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Jeff Greenfield, always, thanks. Appreciate it.

Time to check the weather. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center with the latest update for us.

Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let's talk business news. What do you have coming up?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, you know they say, don't trust any computer company over 30. A big business birthday coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SERWER: Putting a biscuit in the basket, isn't he?

MILES O'BRIEN: I love, I love Gordie Howe.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Wow.

SERWER: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: I went to the Gordie Howe hockey school when I was young.

SERWER: You did?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. And I'll never forget the day we're shooting . . .

SERWER: Was he there?

MILES O'BRIEN: And he -- yes, he pops his head in. I'm, you know, like everybody's jaw just dropped on to the locker room there. There was Gordie.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That was cool.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hey, boys. Want to go play?

SERWER: How come you're not a hockey player?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, I was then.

SERWER: Oh, OK.

MILES O'BRIEN: But I grew out of it.

SERWER: Right. Gotcha.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK.

SERWER: Speaking of birthdays. A big birthday in the world of business on Saturday, April Fool's Day. Apple Computer turns 30 years old. Hard to believe the company was founded in 1976. On April Fool's Day. Oh, there we go. We got it.

MILES O'BRIEN: And for their birthday, they get a lawsuit.

SERWER: Yes, I know, they've got a couple lawsuits, a couple of top executives quit. But, boy, they're doing pretty well.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, they are.

SERWER: Steve Jobs, of course, found the company, along with his partner Steve Wozniak. The Woz as they used to call him. Build it yourself computer kit was the first product, then the Apple 2, then the Macs.

And, interesting, the company's doing a lot better now than it was say 10 years ago. Of course, they've recovered. The iPods come out. And interesting, also, do you know that Microsoft is 31 years old? So they're both around the same age. Arch rivals. But Microsoft seems a lot older to me because, you know, they haven't come out with these new products the way Apple has.

MILES O'BRIEN: A little more stuffed shirt, yes.

SERWER: So interesting stuff there.

MILES O'BRIEN: Isn't it interesting that just one of the founders remains, you snow?

SERWER: At both of those companies?

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, Jobs and Wozniak each dropped one . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That doesn't surprise me.

SERWER: Yes. Besides, he got one . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I've got to say, that's a typical business story.

SERWER: I thin that's right.

MILES O'BRIEN: You think?

SERWER: Because, you know, there's really only room for one big guy at the top, right?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, you know, one great, you know.

MILES O'BRIEN: Somebody's (INAUDIBLE).

SERWER: Not in the news business, though.

MILES O'BRIEN: There's room for all of us.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kum Ba Yah. Kum Ba Yah. Here we are.

MILES O'BRIEN: Room for all of us.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Anyway, ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, a pretty amazing story. We're going to meet two women, best friends since they were in middle school and, boy, do they have a story to tell. One friend helps another have a baby. Bottom line, four kids on their way. We'll explain just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

SERWER: Whoa.

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm not getting it, but I want to watch it.

SERWER: Right.

MILES O'BRIEN: Sure. Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's a long, confusing story.

Also . . .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM SINER, STUDENT: It's not a bad thing to try to do what makes us happy because ultimately it will benefit ourselves and it will benefit everyone around us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They're paying $43,000 a year for tuition at Harvard and now one of the course they're taking, a course on how to be happy.

MILES O'BRIEN: What are you majoring in, son? Happy, dad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Happiness.

SERWER: At 43k a pop.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, happy this.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A look at that's ahead this morning. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A new class at Harvard is teaching students how to be happy. A Harvard tuition, we should remain you, is just the low, low cost of $43,000 a year. So at that price tag, what exactly are the students learning? AMERICAN MORNING's Dan Lothian has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It's the class Harvard students can't seem to get enough of.

TAL BEN-SHACHAR, HARVARD PROFESSOR: We can learn gratitude as a way of life.

LOTHIAN: It's not a course on philosophy, or law, or engineering.

BEN-SHACHAR: It's a class that focuses on making people happier. And we all want to be happier.

LOTHIAN: Tal Ben-Shachar is part professor, part motivational speaker, delivering spirited lectures in a course called positive psychology. A mix of serious research, pop culture and pop songs.

Every class starts with a tune. Today's theme, change.

BEN-SHACHAR: Do it. Just do it. You can't make a change in theory.

JESSICA GLAZER, TEACHING ASSISTANT: We take our happiness for granted and that's why it's so important that we study it. So I think it just works to help them to apply the class outside of the classroom.

LOTHIAN: Eight hundred and fifty six students pack into this theater twice a week to learn and laugh. With so many pressures in life to achieve, better grades, better jobs, bigger raises, sometimes happiness gets lost in the rat race.

BEN-SHACHAR: What is actually important for sustained happiness is the internal, our perception of the world. For instance, how do we look at failure? Do we see it as a stumbling block or do we see it as a stepping stone?

LOTHIAN: Sam Siner and Tifanny Niver are exploring those very questions.

SAM SINER, STUDENT: He's telling us that it's not a bad thing to try to do what makes us happy because ultimately it will benefit ourselves and everyone around us.

LOTHIAN: Students are encouraged to keep a gratitude journal, to chronicle the positive things in their lives.

TIFANNY NIVER, STUDENT: You come out of this class, I think, with a little bit more idea of how you can apply it every day. Whereas, when I'm learning intermediate macro and economic theory, I don't see directly at this point in my life how I can apply that every day.

LOTHIAN: Some call it self-help. Others call it life changing. Harvard grad Liz Peterson was headed for a career in law until the class opened her eyes with three simple questions.

LIZ PETERSON, STUDENT: What do you find meaning in? What are you good at? And what do you find pleasure in?

LOTHIAN: The answers sent her in a different direction.

PETERSON: Psychology and trying to help people be happier about their lives.

LOTHIAN: Perhaps a sign of the times that students have to be taught happiness in a classroom?

NIVER: I don't think college campuses as environments are less happy. I think it's because we can study something that makes us happy, as well as has huge impacts.

LOTHIAN: After all, where else can you find a course where something other than a good grade makes you really happy?

Dan Lothian, CNN, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You'll be happy when you pay off those giant student loans.

Anyway, here's some news that will make you happy to attend Harvard. Starting this September, eligible students whose parents make 60 grand or less will be able to attend Harvard for free. If your parents make less than $80,000, tuition will be reduced. Harvard's president says he doesn't want schools to feel that the schools, like Harvard, are out of reach financially.

MILES O'BRIEN: When I was in school, all it took was a toga party to make me happy. Times have changed.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's a lot of time.

MILES O'BRIEN: Times have . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yakety yak about happy as opposed to just, you know . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, the best, the brightest at Harvard and they're not happy? I don't know.

All right, in a moment, top stories, including the latest on Jill Carroll's homecoming.

President Bush wraps up immigration talks with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.

A ferry boat capsizes off the coast of Bahrain killing dozens.

Storms trigger tornadoes and prairie fires across the Midwest.

And I wouldn't exactly call it "model behavior." Super model Naomi Campbell accused of assaulting her housekeeper with a cell phone. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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