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CNN Saturday Morning News
Former Hostage Norman Kember Arrives In England; Opponents Of Illegal Immigration Crackdown Protest; Restaurant Owner Bets All On French Quarter Revival; Debra Lafave Double Standard
Aired March 25, 2006 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We have a surprise for Betty this morning.
NGUYEN: You have been dangling this that in front of me all morning long. And, frankly, I'm little afraid.
HARRIS: You ought to be. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, thank you for starting your day with us.
Our top story in just a moment, first a look at what else is happening right now in the news.
NGUYEN: A hostage's homecoming, a man held in Iraq for four months is back home in Britain. Norman Kember arrived at Heathrow Airport just a short time ago. Kember was one of four members of the Christian Peace Keeping teams abducted in November.
Now in a new "Time" Magazine poll nearly half of Americans say they disapprove of the way Congress is working. The job approval rate for Congress is just 39 percent.
A U.S. soldier is killed and another was wounded today in Afghanistan. The military says the soldiers were in battle with about 20 Taliban fighters. An Afghan national army soldier was wounded.
HARRIS: Russia is denying that tipped off Iraq about U.S. troop movements following the 2003 invasion. The new Pentagon reports say that Russians may have given Saddam Hussein information about U.S.
The wife of a minister shot and killed this week returns to Tennessee today to face first-degree murder charges. Police say Mary Winkler confessed to the crime after they tracked her down in Alabama.
We are still waiting for word on the motive, a plea from anyone with information about two missing Milwaukee boys, come forward. Police say they think someone is withholding information about Quadrevion Henning and Purvis Parker. Both were seen last Sunday. If you have any information, call the number here on your screen. You might be eligible for a reward of about $25,000.
NGUYEN: Marches, walkouts, work stoppages, you see it all there on the screen, opponents of a crackdown on illegal immigration in the U.S. take to the streets in protest. Another huge demonstration is expected today in Los Angeles. Now, the immigration battle reaches from coast to coast and from Capitol Hill to the White House. It is shaping up to be a tough fight for President Bush. CNN Kathleen Koch joins us now with more on this. It is a heated issue, Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Betty, certainly as the president is posed for quite a face off with Senators on Capital Hill next week. President Bush has left the White House about an hour ago for Camp David where he will be spending the weekend.
This morning in his radio address, he'll talk about the emotional debate over immigration reform. The president wants Congress to pass his guest worker' program, and that would give foreigners legal status for a limited period of time to do jobs that employers can't find U.S. citizens to do. But many in President Bush's own party feel that that is simply a nonstarter, that it would compromise security, and that once inside the U.S., those workers would never leave, they would eventually become U.S. citizens.
Now two measures come up in the Senate next week, one that does includes the guest worker program and one that doesn't. That second measure would be very similar to a house bill that passed in December that would add more guards and more fencing along the U.S. Mexican border. It would also make it a crime to hire or assist in any way illegal immigrants.
Immigration reform is expected to be a central focus when President Bush meets later on in the week in Cancun, Mexico with Mexican President Vicente Fox. The Fox administration has been campaigning very hard for President Bush's immigration reform plan. They even spent nearly $400,000 taking out ads in U.S. papers campaigning for it. But again it's an uphill battle.
Back to you.
NGUYEN: It sure is. We'll be watching all of it. There's a lot to be said about this. In fact Kathleen, in our 10:00 hour, we're going to be speaking with people on both sides of this issue in a debate over this very issue on immigration legislation. Thanks Kathleen.
KOCH: You bet.
HARRIS: And a look now with stories making news across America. Actor Randy Quaid, who starred in "Brokeback Mountain," reportedly is suing Focus Features, a division of Universal Pictures, $10 million. Quaid claims he's the victim of a movie-laundering scheme.
In the lawsuit, he accuses the filmmakers of getting him to cut his seven-figure asking price; he claims they portrayed the flick as a low budget art house movie with no prospect of making money. So far, "Brokeback Mountain" has taken in about $150 million.
Several high school film students in Florida learned the hard way always get a permit when making a movie. The group got permission from a local postmaster to film after hours at a post office but didn't inform authorities. Some one called police, they showed up and ordered the teens on the ground face down. The whole thing got straightened out and were told they wouldn't be charged with anything.
The search is on for a 54-year-old man said to be a person of interest. Five homemade explosive devices were placed at structures yesterday in Grand Junction, Colorado. Two went off, police detonated three others. No one was injured.
NGUYEN: You know Tony this may be hard to fascism, but almost seven months after Katrina ripped across the Gulf shore they are still uncovering bodies. The latest the body of a child was found under piles of debris in New Orleans lower Ninth Ward. At least 12 bodies have been recovered since Cadaver dogs got back to their grim work this month.
HARRIS: Many people in New Orleans are trying to move forward, they are trying to get past all the destruction and rebuild. CNN's Sean Callebs reports on a restaurant owner who is betting all he has on a French Quarter revival.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the recipe for rebuilding. You would never know it by the controlled chaos, but this is Stella, less than a week before the restaurant's grand reopening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's scary, but we're going to make it up. 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. While this restaurant in the French Quarter did not flood, it was a chance to make it better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The city is in the chaos of rebuilding and construction, so it's difficult to get people to come to the work sites.
CALLEBS: The evidence, the bar, all the subtleties. According to owners Scott Boswell add up to $1 million in renovations, changes aided by a $350,000 small business loan. Before that, he had to borrow money to meet payroll.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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.
I want it to have a personality. This is New Orleans. The food is incredible, different.
CALLEBS: About 200 thousand people have returned to live in New Orleans. But tourism is still anemic. There is no guarantee Stella will fly, and the million-dollar investment will pay off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm scared. I'm scared to death. CALLEBS: Tonight, the apprehension is all about the grand opening. An elaborate menu, one of the iron chefs from the popular TV show and the first look at new Stella.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been one of the craziest challenging journeys 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. In fact, the only trouble is popping the cork in celebration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I knew if I pulled this off it was going to be one of the 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)
NGUYEN: Here's a very interesting question. Was she just too pretty to go to prison? Is there a double standard at play in our legal system when it comes to good-looking defendants?
What about a gender gap in court? We are going to debate that live.
HARRIS: Wow. Too pretty -- wow, OK. Good questions. Reynolds Wolf upstairs in the CNN Weather Center. Reynolds. Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well it's not her usual M.O. The pop rebel Pink challenging young girls to succeed in life by using their brains, not their bodies, a message preteens often ignore when it comes from their parents, well tomorrow morning CNN rounds up young fans to talk about the pop star's attempts to get them to think. Is it working? Find out tomorrow on "CNN Sunday Morning" 9:00 am Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: She's helping me out with your surprise.
NGUYEN: Would you stop already.
HARRIS: No, the whole center is helping me out with a surprise.
NGUYEN: Reynolds, you know about this and you haven't tipped me off. I'm really disappointed in you.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: Well, incredible charges in one Florida County are dropped against one beautiful teacher who admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old student. But if those tables were turned would a man have gotten the same treatment? That's the question.
HARRIS: Our legal ladies have stepped into the ring to battle this issue, and that's next. Good morning, ladies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.
HARRIS: Thousands protest proposed legislation, cracking down on illegal immigration in the United States. Stick with us. We'll take you right into the middle of that controversy with a live debate, 10:30 Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: This is going to be good. Topping our "Legal Briefs" this morning, a former Florida teacher who had sex with a 14-year-old student Debra Lafave pleaded guilty to some of the charges against her last fall, but other charges were dropped this week after the judge rejected a plea deal. In the end, the victim's family didn't want him to have to suffer through testifying in a highly publicized trial.
Now critics are asking if this case would have ended differently if the defendant was not a woman and if she was -- well, she looks OK, are we talking double standard? Lets go to Civil Liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, and former federal prosecutor Pamela Bethel. Both join us live this morning.
I'm going to try not to be piggish about this morning, ladies. Help me, guide me here. Lida was the DA wrong to drop these charges?
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL LIBERTIES ATTORNEY: Absolutely. Tony, let me help you out here. First of all, the D.A. offers a sweet heart of a plea that basically means that Lafave does no time in prison, not even one day and she could have done 30 years.
This prosecutor offers her a sweetheart of a deal where it is the same deal that she had already plead to in another county, so the sentences would have run concurrently. Meaning that there would not have been any additional time. And he's shocked because the judge rejects this plea and said to him, go to trial?
HARRIS: Well Pamela, let me just say ...
PAMELA BETHEL, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: You just gave the reason why he would not be shocked. Another judge had already accepted it. Listen; when you're making these kinds of decisions, you have to weigh the crime and her need to be punished, and goodness knows, she should be punished. You have to weigh that upon causing any more harm to the child or the victim in this case.
And the parents of the victim were adamant, whether this had been a male or that she committed this crime, they were adamant about not having their child further traumatized. You have to make the best ... HARRIS: Oh Pamela it feels ...
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Pamela you're a prosecutor.
BETHEL: No, I am not kidding.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You're a prosecutor. You know very well that prosecutors force people to go to trial all the time and testify.
BETHEL: Not when you're talking about a child victim.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Oh, yes, you do, and you know it.
BETHEL: His parents would have been upset and you, the civil libertarian would have been the first one stepping up ...
HARRIS: Ladies wait a minute. Let me play just a little bit here. Pamela no time, here is the equation, no time equals double standards.
BETHEL: Well, you say that. I don't know the facts of this case. You can't take the results and determine the facts. I agree, it sounds like it was a light sentence, but I don't know why they got there. I think it was because nobody wanted this child to testify. And if you don't have the victim testifying, you don't have a case.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Oh, Pamela, that's totally --
BETHEL: She would have had to register as a sex offender and her life as a teacher, I think, is finished.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Oh, Pamela, she's a child molester.
BETHEL: She is a child molester. I'm not saying she isn't.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thank you. So why didn't she go to prison like every other child molester who is ugly and male?
HARRIS: Real quickly, before I move on to Dan Brown and "Da Vinci Code," didn't the defense do a good job here in ...
BETHEL: Absolutely. . They did a fabulous job, because somehow they determined that the case could only be made on the testimony of the child victim and they stood adamant. I don't know what else the prosecutor could have done, but they stood adamant. And if the cards are in your hand, you have to play the hand that you were dealt and they were dealt a pretty strong hand.
HARRIS: Lida can I move on, Lida?
RODRIGUEZ- TASEFF: Well, Tony, if I can say what the prosecutor could have done? The prosecutor could have subpoenaed the boy, force him to testify and convicted this child molester to prison.
BETHEL: And then you traumatize the child for the rest of his life. That's a great thing for the state to have done. HARRIS: OK. Let me do this, very quickly the "Da Vinci Code," Dan Brown, the trial, here's the deal. He's accused of plagiarism. Here's the question. Can history be copyrighted? Can facts be copyrighted, Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely not. I do copyright work all the time and you can't copyright an idea, you can't copyright history. If this was a nonfiction book, then how can they say that the facts were stolen? If what they stole was a thought and an idea and an invention, well, they should have called it a fictional work. They didn't call it a fictional work.
HARRIS: Pamela, what do you think about this?
BETHEL: Absolutely. On this, I can totally agree.
HARRIS: Really?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: That's scary, Pamela.
BETHEL: I know. Now you're probably going to change. No, look, it's history. They're going on a unique theory. Typically plagiarism is when they can quote from one text and quote from another text and show you the similarities. Here, they're talking about the copyright of a concept. Well, this concept has been around since the depths of Christ, so I don't understand their position.
HARRIS: Here's the real question. Will any of this litigation impact the opening of the film, which everybody in the free world is waiting for?
BETHEL: Absolutely, because nobody wants to pay out royalties in connection with the film and realize they've paid it out to the wrong party.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: That's true. It absolutely impacted that way, but it will also impact it because the publicity has been huge with regard to the litigation. That's publicity for the movie.
HARRIS: All right ladies that's it. I'm out of time. I'm already in trouble. Pamela good to see you.
BETHEL: Take care Tony.
HARRIS: Lida, good to see you. See you next week.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: OK.
NGUYEN: They actually agreed on something. That never happened.
All morning long, we've been asking you your thoughts on our e- mail question, do you think tougher immigration laws are needed in the U.S.? We've gotten a lot of responses.
Kent says, "It's not so much as to whether the United States should increase their scrutiny towards illegal immigrants, but rather, there should be equality with regards to treatment of all immigrants. One group should not be allowed free passage while others are arrested and deported."
HARRIS: Are you ready for this from Melissa, "Yes, we need immigration laws and strict ones at that. These immigrants come into our country, refuse to speak the language, use up welfare and healthcare and we pay for it. I'm tired of being taxed to take care of people who don't want to work and suck up the system."
NGUYEN: We know you have a thought on this. Keep them coming. Here's the question one more time. Do you think tougher immigration laws are needed in the U.S.? E-mail us, WEEKENDS@CNN.com. We're going to have more on this in the 10:00 hour as we debate the issue with people on both sides.
HARRIS: That's for sure. Straight ahead, "Open House" with stunning numbers on the housing market. Find out why existing homes sales are on a tier and newer homes are sitting in the market.
NGUYEN: That is true. And next hour people take to the streets by the thousands and this has to do with our email question to protest a proposed immigration reform bill. But what are the sticking points? What's setting people off? Coming up at 10:30 Eastern and 7:00 Pacific we debate that hot button issue.
HARRIS: But first, a new type of travel that may be hazardous to your health.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Imagine taking a vacation to Thailand, Argentina or South Africa. Not just for touring though, but for some contouring. It is a trend that noted medical tourism and its popularity is rising.
KIMBERLY BASIL, SURGERY & SAFARI PATIENT: So may people all over the world want surgery done. I think the fact that you can combine it with a vacation, it is a great package.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Plus the costs of surgical procedures performed abroad are considerably lower. But before heading over seas for a nip, tuck and a vacation here is some advice.
DR. ANTHONY GRIFFIN, CERTIFIED PLASTIC SURGEON: If someone is going outside the country to get plastic surgery, or surgery in general. Be sure that your insurance carrier will cover you abroad. Number two; you want to check the credentials of the physician that's treating you in the institution that you're being treated at.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the vacation part of the trip?
GRIFFIN: If it's any extensive surgery, you're not going to be able to go golfing with the rest of the family or diving or swimming. You're going to be recovering.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There can also be postoperative problems once you get home.
GRIFFIN: Now they can't go back and get the complications addressed, and then I have to try to deal with a surgical procedure that I'm not -- may not be familiar with.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So before planning for some sun, fun and the cosmetic surgery, you may want to ...
GRIFFIN: Get the nip and tuck here and go tour later.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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