Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Deadly Shooting At Downtown Chicago Law Office; Man Accused Of Plotting To Set Off Explosives In Crowded Mall Friday Before Christmas; Vandal Cut Lock Sealing James Kim's Fate; Ethics Committee Found Willful Ignorance Among Some Republicans In Foley Case; Still No Power in Some Parts of Illinois; Trimming Trans Fats
Aired December 09, 2006 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a deadly shooting at a Chicago law office. Police say a gunman killed three people before he was shot and killed by a SWAT officer. We're learning more chilling details about this rampage and we do have a full report. That is coming up in two minutes.
In the meantime, no heat, no lights, no way to cook -- some people in Illinois and Missouri have been without power for more than a week. But utility officials say the numbers have dwindled from a high of about a half million to less than 2,000 last night.
We're going to go live to Decatur, Illinois in just a minute.
We'll take you to Capitol Hill now. Twelve years of Republican control are over. The House and the Senate gaveled the 109th Congress to a close overnight, while most of us were sleeping. Lawmakers passed a whole bunch of last minute bills, including sweeping legislation extending expired tax breaks.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: This morning finding some GOP lawmakers negligent in their handling of the Mark Foley case. The House Ethics Committee says no House rules were broken. We'll hear from CNN Congressional correspondent Dana Bash on the Foley fallout in a half hour.
In Iraq this morning, a suicide car bomb explodes outside a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Karbala. The blast killed at least five people and injured dozens. Karbala, which is about 50 miles south of Baghdad, is one of the holiest cities to Iraq's Shiites.
And be sure to keep it here for all your top stories. Your next check of the headlines coming up at 7:15 Eastern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was at least another 25 to 30 people on the floor and I think the Chicago police officers from the SWAT saved those people's lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: It was just a frightening scene in downtown Chicago, where a man stormed into an office building, killing three people. We're going to have much more on this story in just a moment.
But in the meantime, from the CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, December 9th.
Boy, does it feel like December out there today.
Good morning, everybody.
I'm Betty Nguyen.
HOLMES: And I'm T.J. Holmes.
Thank you all so much for being here with us this morning.
More details now about that deadly shooting at a downtown Chicago law office. Three people killed. The gunman shot dead by a SWAT officer. And police say that officer probably prevented an even bigger tragedy.
The story from Paul Meinke of our affiliate, WLS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL MEINKE, WLS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It began at 3:15. A lone gunman entered the Ogleby Transportation Center lobby and took an elevator to a law office on the 38th floor. Police say he carried with him a large manila envelope that inside contained a snub-nosed revolver, a knife and a hammer.
As soon as he entered the office, he demanded to see one of the lawyers.
SUPT. PHILIP J. CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE: The defendant then displayed a handgun-and chained the doors shut with a padlock and chain that he had brought with him. He then began shooting. He grabbed a hostage. And he was pointing the gun-alternately at the hostage's head and his own head.
MEINKE: Before grabbing the hostage, the unidentified gunman had already fatally shot three people in the office, all men, including the particular lawyer he had demanded to see. He also shot a female employee in the foot.
First District and SWAT team officers arrived on the floor, and as the gunman stood in an entryway holding his hostage and moving his gun-about, a sniper equipped SWAT officer found himself with a brief, but clear shot 25 yards down a hallway and he took it.
The gunman's wound was fatal. The hostage is OK.
While all of that was happening, office workers on the 38th and other floors were told to lock themselves in their offices. People on lower floors were evacuated and no one was allowed into the busy passenger terminal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just told us to stay in our offices. And then after that they came in and evacuated us -- the police came in and evacuated us. And we walked down just 38 floors and left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty -- pretty exciting and pretty scary, you know?
When it happens that fast, you really don't have a lot of time to think. You just do.
MEINKE: Roughly 45 minutes after it began, it was over. Police say the gunman had had previous encounters with individuals in the 38th floor law office. They would not immediately characterize what they were about.
They do say that the responding officers kept a tragic situation from becoming even worse.
CLINE: There was at least another 25 to 30 people on the floor and I think the Chicago police officers from SWAT saved those people's lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Police say the gunman may have also shot himself. They're now waiting for autopsy results.
NGUYEN: severe weather to tell you about. Powerless in Illinois -- some residents are cold, frustrated and angry. And they still don't have electricity more than a week after a big snow and ice storm just snapped trees and brought down power lines.
Jeff Flock spent much of the night with a family in Decatur, Illinois just to see what they're going through.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, does it look cold and miserable here in Decatur?
NGUYEN: Yes.
FLOCK: Well, if it doesn't look cold and miserable, it certainly should look that way. You know, we're on one of the dark blocks here in Decatur. And take a look at these brush piles. You know, you talked about the trees that have come down. Look at this one. And all frozen together. But these brush piles are growing all over town as people move stuff out.
Well, the story is, though, what about if it's your house and you don't have power?
Let's take a look inside 893 West Leafland here in Decatur. We spent, as you point out, Betty, much of the night here last night, trying to get some sense of what these folks are going through.
What do you do if you don't have power or heat, nothing to run- your computers or your televisions or video games?
Well, one thing you could do is play cards by candlelight. That's what the Rice (ph) family did, Russ and Shawna Rice (ph) and their two children, Timmy and Becky, last night, with a spirited game of Uno.
Of course, the other big factor, heat.
What do you do when you don't have heat?
Well, they could fire up a kerosene heater, and, also, they have a gas stove that is working.
And what do you do if you have one?
You turn it on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSS RICE: Right here we've got a kettle of water on that we were heating that up to kind of keep moisture in the air, plus add heat. This is one of them old, really not old-fashioned, but it's an oven that doesn't require electricity.
FLOCK: This is a gas?
RICE: This is a gas stove...
FLOCK: As opposed to a...
RICE: ... that is not an electronic start. So we can -- we can just...
FLOCK: Ah!
RICE: ... it's what they kind of consider an old cheapie, but I'm very happy to have this old cheapie right now, because I can keep the house warm with this.
FLOCK: Right. Right.
Now, you've also got your oven on, too.
RICE: Correct. Yes. We're trying to get as much heat as we can going here.
FLOCK: Because what you're going to do...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK: Now the problem is, of course, you put the oven on, you can't leave it on overnight. They couldn't even leave the kerosene heater on overnight, because of venting issues and that sort of thing. So they turned everything off, went to bed. And when they woke up this morning, it was about 45, 46 degrees in the house.
So they're firing it back up.
And, Betty, we'll be following these folks all morning here on CNN to give you some sense of how they're getting through. They hope they get it turned back on today, but a day and a week after the storm, they're still in the dark.
NGUYEN: Well, families are making do. And it's good to see them making it through the night. And hopefully that electricity will be back on today.
FLOCK: Yes.
NGUYEN: Thank you for that, Jeff.
FLOCK: Thanks, Betty.
HOLMES: All right, we're going to get a check now from Reynolds Wolf to see if, I guess, how that weather is going to be holding up for those folks. It's cold enough and they're trying their best there, Reynolds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: Well, it's not looking too good for the launch of the Shuttle Discovery later today. And you can blame it on the lousy weather over Florida's Kennedy Space Center. NASA scrubbed its first launch attempt Thursday and a NASA official now says chances of the 12-day mission to space taking off tonight only about 30 percent. Tomorrow not looking that good, either.
NGUYEN: Well, it is a scary story for all of us who shop at the mall, which most of us do, during the busy holiday season. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he began to focus on obtaining weapons, began to prepare himself, through a purification process. He began to prepare videos in the event he did not survive the attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: The suspect allegedly even picking a date for attacking a mall in Illinois. How authorities foiled a terror attack at a shopping center. That's in six minutes, right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
HOLMES: And plus, we're going Beyond The Game with Rick Horrow this morning.
The key question -- can a...
(CROSSTALK)
NGUYEN: What is he wearing?
That's the key question.
HOLMES: OK. That's great. We'll try to get that one answered, too. But, the one we're going to be focused on this morning is can this college football championship system ever be fixed? Again, Beyond The Game. That's coming up in about 10 minutes.
NGUYEN: And later, some new details about who knew what when. Congress's Ethics Committee report on the Foley scandal has just a few surprises for you.
We have this story in about 27 minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now in the news, in Iraq this morning, a suicide car bomb explodes outside a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Karbala. The blast killed at least five people and injured dozens. Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, is one of the holiest cities to Iraq's Shiites.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Secretary, how do you want history to remember you?
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: My goodness. Better than the local press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Donald Rumsfeld leaving them laughing. The outgoing secretary of defense held his last town hall meeting with Pentagon employees yesterday. On a serious note, Rumsfeld says his worst day on the job was when he learned about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
Rumsfeld's official farewell ceremony is next Friday.
More chilling details this morning about a deadly shooting in a Chicago law office. Police say the gunman chained a door shut before he opened fire, killing three people. He was shot dead by a SWAT officer. Authorities think the gunman had previous encounters with people in the law office.
NGUYEN: Frigid temperatures, no power -- some people in parts of Illinois and Missouri have been without power since last week's snow and ice storm. Utility officials say power should be back on soon for the last 1,800 customers will without electricity. At its peak, though, power was knocked out to some half million customers.
Let's take you to Moscow. Arson is suspected in a fire that killed at least 45 people. That fire at a substance abuse rehabilitation hospital. Fire officials say the hospital staff did not call them fast enough or do enough to evacuate patients.
We'll have a complete look at the headlines in 15 minutes. Stay with us for that.
HOLMES: It's a frightening scenario -- a man accused of plotting to set off explosives in a crowded mall the Friday before Christmas. A suspect is in custody in Illinois this morning.
Authorities say the charges are serious, but there's no cause for alarm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (voice-over): This mall, literally in the middle of America, was the alleged target. This man, with no prior arrests, has been charged with planning to attack it.
But how?
According to federal complaint, with hand grenades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He began to focus on obtaining weapons. He began to prepare himself, through a purification process. He began to prepare videos in the event he did not survive the attack. He fixed on a date of December 22nd, on a Friday, which he picked because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure.
At that point, we decided to effect a plan with the joint terrorism task force to introduce an undercover agent.
HOLMES: As frightening as the notion of a grenade attack on a mall during the holidays might be, federal authorities urged shoppers and others to keep calm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to, for everybody's sake, re- emphasize what Pat said earlier. He was acting alone. The only people he was acting with was either people under our control or ourselves. He's now in custody. We don't -- there are no other threats that we are aware of and I just want to kind of keep the potential hysteria at this time of the season down to a bare minimum.
HOLMES: The suspect, Derrick Shareef, had no compatriots, no weapons and no clear plan. At the only mosque in Rockford, the imam says he's never heard of Shareef.
PATRICK FITZGERALD, U.S. ATTORNEY: I believe the only thing we're aware of from the complaint is that he stated in his own video about what would happen if he would die was that he was 22 years old and an American.
HOLMES: He was arrested, agents say, while trying to trade used stereo speakers for hand grenades. What he didn't know -- he was dealing with an undercover federal agent.
The arrest follows, by a few months, the highly publicized arrest of seven Miami men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower. The men pleaded not guilty and face trial, but it's pretty clear they were far from gaining the ability to actually pull off such an attack. As one agent told CNN, this guy was three rungs below those guys.
So, another arrest in the war on terror. But even those making the arrest acknowledge there was little actual threat. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, the suspect, Derrick Shareef, is being held without bond following a brief court appearance yesterday.
Well, it's just about time for us now to go Beyond The Game.
NGUYEN: Right.
HOLMES: Competitors are selected, the office pool is getting cranked up. And if you're still left wondering what's all the fuss about, we'll explain why so many people have so much riding on every single college bowl season.
Plus, find out which of these names is not part of a Bowl game.
Is it the first one there, Papajohns.com Bowl, the Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl or the Peach Bowl?
Which one is not an actual Bowl game.
Have you got a guess yet?
NGUYEN: I do have a guess.
HOLMES: All right.
NGUYEN: I can't reveal it just yet.
HOLMES: All right.
NGUYEN: In the meantime, who knew what when?
That's the question being asked, because the House Ethics Committee report on Foley scandal is out. There's a lot of blame to go around. We have those details in 20 minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Nothing like a little L.L. Cool J. At 7:20 in the morning.
All right. The showdown is the prize. Ohio State picking on Florida for college football supremacy. That happens January 8th in Glendale, Arizona if you have not heard.
But, did the selection process slip up when they left Michigan on the side lines?
Well, we're going to go Beyond The Games here. That was a little play-off lacking BCS.
We're joined by the author of "When the Game Is On the Line," Rick Horrow -- sir, good morning.
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Hey, you got -- good morning.
HOLMES: What's going on?
HORROW: You weren't going to start singing?
Were you going to start singing?
HOLMES: No. I know you're an L.L. Cool J. fan.
HORROW: Because -- hey, because Tony was going to start singing a few months ago and he got sent to purgatory for a while before he came back. Yes, so, don't start -- don't even think about it.
HOLMES: I'm not going to start singing.
HORROW: All right.
HOLMES: But we've got to talk about this system.
Michigan got left out.
Are you happy with how it played out?
Ohio State, Florida in the national championship.
Is that the way it should be?
HORROW: Well, first of all, this was the closest BCS where do you go from the second to the third ever -- .0101 in terms of computers and in terms of rankings is the closest.
Hey, but it won't change, so it doesn't matter whether I'm happy or not. Fox is paying $20 million per Bowl game through 2009 for the privilege of this system and ABC $30 million for the Rose Bowl through 2013.
Also, the payouts are 230 some odd million dollars for all of those 64 teams in the Bowl system today. You don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Sports Management Worldwide, a sports career training service, the biggest in the world, has even a site that says hey, if you don't like the BCS, go chant, go yell, that's not going to affect it.
This system has been in place basically since 1954 with the A.P. and the UPI.
HOLMES: Yes.
HORROW: The split vote 11 times. You don't remember it. I do. Get used to it. It really, really, really is not going to change.
HOLMES: OK, your answer sounds like this is all -- this is all about money.
What about the fans? Are we getting -- are we getting left out here? HORROW: What a surprise, it's all about the money.
Well, the bottom line is there are a lot of Bowl games, by the way. There are 32.
HOLMES: Yes.
HORROW: There are 64 teams, the most ever. And the fans love it, according to Scarborough Research, the fans who watch these games are most affluent, they care more about their teams. Fifty percent of the teams in College Division One basically participate.
Yes, there's mediocrity -- 232 losses cumulatively this year. And the first 19 Bowls, there's no team in the top 15 in the country.
But, television likes it, corporate America likes it. There are 24 of those Bowls that have big time corporate names. And, most important, the regions. You know, about a $75 million economic impact for all of these regions. In the big games in Arizona, that's about $300 million.
So it's money for everybody. You're right, it is about the bucks, my friend.
HOLMES: OK, you said the TV likes it, the executives like it.
Do the players like it and the fans like it when they hear that their team is going to the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl? Or maybe the Pioneer Pure Vision Bowl? The R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl? The Papajohns.com Bowl?
Now, are fans supposed to get excited about going to these -- I'm not saying that they're bad Bowls, but...
HORROW: All right.
All right, CNN corporate, that's four sponsors that could have been on the list.
HOLMES: Look at this. Look at this.
HORROW: And they're not on your list anymore, OK?
That's the bottom line.
Hey, but, do the fans like it?
If the alternative is staying home and waiting until next year, I personally would take that six and six deal.
If Betty's Texas Longhorns...
HOLMES: Ooh.
HORROW: ... you know, you're a little upset.
HOLMES: You bet.
HORROW: If your Razorbacks were six and six, I think you wouldn't mind going to one of those Bowls, alumni recruiting. There's a real positive to all of that, even though it's not one of the biggies. They still get to go somewhere. That's the key.
HOLMES: Your prediction, we will never see a playoff in college football for a championship?
HORROW: Well, at least not until 2014 or my lifetime, whichever is later.
HOLMES: Right.
All right, man...
HORROW: Hey, we've got the trivia. We've got the trivia question, though. We've got to do that one, because that's part of this deal.
HOLMES: You want to be a part of this trivia question?
HORROW: I -- since I know the answer to this thing, you're darned straight it will be part of the trivia question.
HOLMES: OK, well, again, we'll show folks what we asked you. We asked which one of these is not a Bowl game. You see them there -- Papa John's, Credit Union Poinsettia, Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, the Peach Bowl.
All right, you give them the answer.
HORROW: Well, the answer is the Peach Bowl. It really was the Peach Bowl.
HOLMES: Yes.
HORROW: But last year, it became the Chick-Filet Bowl and it's one of those corporate categories if you're hungry. You've got the Outback Bowl. You've got the Fiesta Bowl, OK? You've got the Papa John's Bowl and -- really important -- you've got the Emerald Nuts Bowl in San Francisco, so you'd better be hungry, my friend.
HOLMES: So isn't that a little silly, though? Isn't that just -- come on.
(CROSSTALK)
HORROW: As far as that Emerald Nuts...
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: No. I love Emerald nuts.
HORROW: Hey, $2 million a year for sponsorship. That's what fuels these Bowls. So silly or not, it's all about the money which allows these Bowls to happen.
HOLMES: All right, all about the money. All about the money with you, Rick. Every week, it's all about the money with you, Rick.
HORROW: Yes, sir.
HOLMES: Good to see you...
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Go Razorbacks.
HORROW: Go Razorbacks, man.
I'll see you next week.
HOLMES: In the Capitol One Bowl.
Thank you very much.
HORROW: Yes, sir.
HOLMES: Betty, I will hand it back to you and your Longhorns.
NGUYEN: I know.
All right, let's just not think about them so much right now. Maybe next year.
In the meantime, put down that donut, would you, because we're talking trans fats this morning. By now, you've probably heard New York is banning restaurants from using trans fats in their cooking. And we're going to take a closer look at this new health trend just a little bit later this morning.
But we've got the skinny on exactly which foods that you need to avoid.
And that brings us to our e-mail question. We want to know what do you think? Are you on board with this ban or does it leave a bad taste in your mouth?
E-mail us, Weekends@CNN.com.
We'll read some of your responses on the air.
That's a little bit later in the newscast.
So, T.J. put down that donut.
HOLMES: Yes, I will put down that donut.
All right, we are going to shift gears here just a bit. We're going to be revisiting the scene of a tragedy in the Oregon wilderness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know how much fuel they had when they got here, and that certainly had to enter into their thinking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right, we've got new details and clues about James Kim, the man, the California man who died in the snow while trying to get help for his family stranded in the Oregon wilderness.
NGUYEN: That's such a sad, sad story.
HOLMES: Yes.
NGUYEN: Plus, T.J. we're going to be following this, too. Police shootings -- our reality check with Joshua Levs.
That's right after this break -- good morning, Josh.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: "Now in the News," In Iraq this morning, a suicide car bomb explodes outside a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Karbala. The blast killed at least five people and injured dozens of others. Karbala is about 50 miles south of Baghdad in one of the holiest cities to Iraq's Shiites.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, how do you want history to remember you?
RUMSFELD: Oh, my goodness! Better than the local press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Donald Rumsfeld still cracking jokes. The outgoing defense secretary had his last town hall meeting with Pentagon employees yesterday. Rumsfeld says, however, that his worst day on the job was when he learned about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Rumsfeld's official farewell ceremony is coming up next Friday.
Authorities are still piecing together details from a deadly shooting in a Chicago law office. Police say a gunman walked into the office, chained a door shut and opened fire. They say he killed three people before he was shot dead by a SWAT officer.
NGUYEN: The House Ethics Committee says Speaker Dennis Hastert knew a lot more about the Mark Foley case a lot sooner than he suggested. CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash has details on what the House Ethics Committee found, that's in about 10 minutes.
Right now I want to take you to Somalia where fighting between Islamists and pro-government soldiers is raising fears about an all- out war. This escalation comes after the U.N. secretary council this week unanimously approved sending peacekeepers, a move opposed by Islamists.
Take you to, now, to Reynolds Wolf for a quick check of the weather outside on your Saturday morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: I will be sitting here. Thank you Reynolds. And your next check of the headlines, that's coming up at the top of the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you were to get plopped down here, that road looks like that road, which looks like that ride.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Why James Kim may never have stood a chance of surviving the cold, hard Oregon wilderness. Sad story, there. We're continuing to follow developments, there. But welcome back to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Yes, good morning everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen. We want to thank you for starting your day with us.
HOLMES: And it's a new and disturbing twist in the story of the San Francisco family stranded in the snowy Oregon wilderness. Authorities say the road that James Kim and his family were on is usually blocked by a locked gate during the cold weather months, but they say a vandal cut that lock, ultimately sealing Kim's fate.
More from CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We now know just one more thing that went wrong during the Kims' fatal drive into this Rogue River wilderness area. Fifteen miles in, they came to a fork in the road to go left or right. The right was the wrong way to go. It should have been locked up tight with this type of Bureau of Land Management gate.
But now we are learning that the gate was wide open. Their path was wide open because vandals had broken the lock and left the gate open. The Kims may have thought they were traveling to safety. But, in fact, that road was leading to a dead-end deep inside the Rogue River wilderness area.
They would drive some 20 or so more miles. The road would return to dirt. It would begin snowing. Finally they came up to a spot where they just could not travel any longer. And it was here, at this spot, the Kims tried to hold out day after day, remnants of the diapers of the little baby all over the place there, bottled water. And in a corner of this wide open area are the four tires that the Kims took off their car and set ablaze, trying to find rescuers to try to find them.
It never happened. Mr. Kim eventually tried to walk out and walked to his death. A day or so later, the Kims were rescued.
Drew griffin, CNN, in the Rogue River wilderness, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And CNN goes beyond the headlines and behind the tears for an emotional look at a look at one man's heroic sacrifice to save his family. You can tune in Monday night for "Stranded: The James Kim Ordeal," that's a special "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Again, that's Monday 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
NGUYEN: You may recall last month in New York a groom-to-be was killed after his bachelor party. And in Atlanta a 92-year-old woman was killed in a drug raid, both shootings controversial. And some civil rights leaders say police are just going too far.
So, we wanted to know how many people are killed by police? Joshua Levs has been doing some research and joins us with a reality check on this.
Good morning to you. What kind of evidence have you been able to find?
JOSHUA LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's interesting, you know. The first thing I want to say here, in both Atlanta and New York authorities are now saying that they're going to investigate this, they're going to get to the truth and find out everything there is to know about what happened in both those cases.
But what's happening already folks, is that some civil rights leaders and some human rights groups are pointing to these recent events and they're saying, you know what, that kind of thing happens way too often. One big figure saying those kinds of things is Al Sharpton. He said there's a new sense of police recklessness. And he was on "LARRY KING" the other day. Let's take a look at what he said there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: Excessive force and deadly force must be looked at both nationally and locally. We cannot continue to see police in these kinds of situations and there no be -- be no resolve and no solution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And now, you know, his remarks and the remarks of some other people could leave the impression that lots of people are being killed by the police all the time. So what we wanted to do was take a look at what the numbers are. And here's what we found. Take a look at this. This is the only national compiling of the numbers of people killed by police in the United States.
And you can see the figures given there, 341 last year. But I want you to look at something closely. Look at the top there. It says justifiable homicide. This list does not include people killed by police in accidents or in situations ruled to be unjustified. No one has those numbers.
Now, let me make really clear what I'm telling you here. No federal agency at all keeps track of how many people in the United States are killed by police in accidents or in situations determined to be unjustified. That just doesn't happen at any point.
Now, we wanted to let you know, though, that I talked to an expert who says that she really feels that the number is tiny. If you look at what actually goes on around the country, the vast majority of the time when police do kill people, it is ruled to be justified. So she says that number would be included there. But she says the only way to tell would be to look at every single city in the entire country separately.
So, given the news, we wanted to look at New York and Atlanta. Check out the figures from New York, this is from the NYPD. And you can see there, they say nine people killed last year. And the NYPD sayings in every single case there's no question, it was justifiable. The police could have shot in other cases and chose not to. Those are the figures they give.
Also, I want to tell you that Mayor Bloomberg, in New York, is one of many city officials around the country who are saying, you know what, police are getting an unfair rap from the critics. Let's take a look at what he said this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: I think we all owe a great debt of gratitude to the vast bulk of the 37,000, 38,000 police officers who put their lives on the line every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And, you know, a lot of officials in other cities are saying the same thing, really similar comments. Also I want to tell you quickly about Atlanta. Atlanta says two people killed by police last year, three this year, including the one that's under investigation. Still, what I'm telling you here, nationwide there's no compiling of how many people killed in not justifiable situations.
And there's one last thing I want to show you just to help put that in context. Take a look at this. A 1999 report from the federal government says that kind of research is critically needed. And you can see the quote there, "The incidence of wrongful use of force by police is unknown. Research is critically needed" basically to find out how often that kind of thing is happening.
So, Betty, what we have here is seven years...
NGUYEN: That's a lot of unknowns if what we have here...
LEVS: Exactly, seven years later, unknown.
NGUYEN: No national compilation of the unjustified killings. So perhaps that's what lawmakers need to get on for us to understand where the numbers are. I mean, you can say, well, they're going to be small, but how do you know unless you really collect that information?
LEVS: Exactly. It's a giant unknown. And we're talking seven years after the federal government said this is critically needed, we still got nothing.
NGUYEN: That's a problem.
LEVS: Yes.
NGUYEN: We also want to talk to you a little bit later, too, about how race plays into these mistaken or unjustified killings and we'll get to that a little bit later. And if indeed it does play into that. So Josh, thank you for that.
LEVS: Great, we'll talk about that. Thanks.
HOLMES: And while most of us were sleeping, the final hours of the Republican ruled had Congress got a bit of business finished. Look now, at what they passed. Tax cuts totaling $38 billion over the next five years. Also a plan to open more than eight million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas drilling and the move to establish permanent normal trade with a former enemy, Vietnam.
NGUYEN: Well, to the matter of former Congressman Mark Foley. Who knew what when? That's the big question right now, and what was done about it when they knew. Just a few of those many that are being asked and some answered in the House Ethics Committee's report on the Foley investigation. CNN's congressional correspondent Dana Bash reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The committee found willful ignorance among Republican lawmakers and aides. It says the weight of evidence shows House Speaker Dennis Hastert was informed last Spring about inappropriate Foley e-mails, rejecting Hastert's contention that he didn't remember being told.
But House investigators concluded no one knew about sexually explicit instant messages e-mail, like this one where Foley asked a former page, "Do I make you horny?"
The incoming House speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, slammed the bipartisan report because it punishes no one saying "Members of Congress have a responsibility to protect their employees, especially young pages." In fact, the report does tell tale after tale, taken from sworn testimony of aides witnessing questionable Foley behavior with teenage pages.
"The subcommittee observed a disconcerting unwillingness to take responsibility for resolving issues regarding Representative Foley's conduct," the report said. Former House Clerk Jeff Trandell testified he warned the head of the page board last year Foley was a, "Ticking time bomb." Trandell said he'd been concerned about Foley's behavior since 1995, when the came to Congress, even confronted him some 10 times. "Here you had... a closeted gay guy who was putting himself in a situation of being one on one with young people," Trandell said.
The report is especially tough on the House speaker's top aides for not taking action despite being warned repeatedly, concluding that Hastert Chief of Staff Scott Palmer was told about Foley's conduct three or four years ago.
Former Foley Aide Kirk Fordham was a key witness who rang alarm bells.
KIRK FORDHAM, FMR. FOLEY AIDE: I'm not looking to gloat or, you know -- you know, point fingers, today. I think the report points out where the breakdowns occurred. I think there are some people that are going to look back and wish they had acted differently.
BASH: But it's not just the Republicans. The committee found that two Democratic leadership aides knew about the Foley e-mails and tried to peddle them to reporters over a year ago. And CNN is told Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who led the charge to elect Democrats, was aware of the e-mail, too.
(on camera): Despite all the controversy, this Fall, nothing has been done to better protect teenage pages. The committee did make some vague recommendations, but it's unclear whether Democrats will make changes to the program either when they take over in January.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Well, I'm sure that you've been primping the tree.
HOLMES: Yes.
NGUYEN: But let me ask you this. Can your holiday decorations top this? That's pretty good.
HOLMES: OK. I got a little work to do. This is the latest trend in Christmas light displays and we're going to tell you about it a little later in the "WaterCooler."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Here's the news "Across America" for you right now. From California, smoke and flames, they spread quickly through a Long Beach apartment complex. At least two people are dead, 18 others hurt. The fire trapping many residents on balconies, and investigators say it looks like an accidental grease fire spread through the ventilation units.
HOLMES: Yes, this pushing and shoving and fist-throwing is at a funeral in Texas for a teenage boy who allegedly killed for refusing to join a gang. This mayhem began after the boy's father and stepfather got into a fist fight. The 16-year-old boy was shot in the chest, steps away from his high school. No arrests have been made. NGUYEN: That is horrible.
And in an Orlando, Florida courtroom, though, Actor Wesley Snipes released on $1 million bond after pleading guilty -- not guilty, I should say, to fax -- to tax -- to federal tax charges -- let me get that out. Snipes is charged with fraudulently claiming refunds of nearly $12 million and of failing to file tax returns for several years. Now, if convicted, Snipes could get up to 16 years in prison and then there's this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It couldn't be the wise man because one of the wise man got stolen, so it couldn't be one of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Connecticut kindergartners reaching out in the spirit of the holiday after a thief ripped off an angel, a wise man, and the baby Jesus from a nativity scene in Waterbury. How you going to steal baby Jesus? How can you steal baby Jesus?
OK, the kids dipped into funds...
NGUYEN: You know where that person is going, right?
HOLMES: The kids had raised some money from selling cupcakes and staged a silly hat and tie day, all the money to prove that no grinch or thief can steal their Christmas even though the thief stole baby Jesus. How you going to steal baby Jesus? I can't...
NGUYEN: T.J.'s still up in arms about that. But we're going to move on. I know, it's a big deal. But in the meantime...
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: But he's gone, T.J. You saw the nativity scene. He was missing.
HOLMES: Baby Jesus. OK, I'm sorry. Baby Jesus.
CRUZ: All right. I know. Let's move on.
NGUYEN: Veronica de la Cruz joins us not to talk about baby Jesus but about what's coming...
CRUZ: The holidays. We're going to stay on the holidays. Yes, are you ready?
NGUYEN: Of course. As soon as we get baby Jesus back.
CRUZ: Right. OK. Well, we are actually talking about whom day tipping, a question which might be on the minds of many of you this holiday season. Should I tip? Who do I tip? And if so, how much do I tip? Well, we've asked some of you out there what to do at CNN.com/exchange. Here are a few of your responses.
Well, as you know, the holiday season is upon us. And many people don't know the proper etiquette when it comes to tipping their service providers. So, at CNN.com, we're suggesting tipping guidelines to help with who to tip and what to give or how much.
Tony Greco, a doorman in New York, says he counts on the tips. After receiving them a few years, he counts them as part of his salary.
Robert Buckner, a letter carrier in Tucker, Georgia, says it's a real pick me up when a lady on his route leaves out a nice cold coke in the middle of the summer and hot chocolate in the wintertime.
Paul Avedano, a driver in San Francisco, California, says it's nice to be acknowledged and to have people noticing that they're doing a good job. It really doesn't matter if people give money.
And at CNNmoney.com, an example of what to tip. For example, Betty, listen to this: Are you wondering what to give your babysitter? If so, according to the Web site, one night's pay, this is what you should tip, plus a small gift from your child.
And then that mail carrier, he said, you know, no cash, and a follow-up to that, a noncash gift valued up to $20. So, it's a little bit tricky, but there's good advice. And CNNmoney.com is where you can find that list.
NGUYEN: Well, we appreciate it, but you won't getting a tip for that, unfortunately. Not this time. Maybe next time -- the next hour.
CRUZ: I don't quite know how to take that. But OK.
NGUYEN: Tipping. Tipping.
CRUZ: A non-value cash. No cash. Noncash value $20. Some cookies. Cookies. I'll take the cookies. That's fine.
NGUYEN: All right.
HOLMES: Thank you, Veronica. I'm sorry. I'm still trying to find the baby Jesus.
CRUZ: And baby Jesus for T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Well, folks don't go anywhere. We got the "WaterCooler" coming up.
NGUYEN: It's crazy around here folks. Coming up next, what does Silly String have to do with the war in Iraq?
HOLMES: Yes, we'll explain how a toy can save soldiers' lives. That's when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. You know that sound. We're going for something a little different here. CNN SATURDAY MORNING presents the "WaterCooler."
NGUYEN: This is where we tell you with those offbeat stories you might have missed.
HOLMES: And here's one. Soldiers in Iraq have been adapting to the insurgency tactics with notable ingenuity. Take a look here. They found the novelty toy, Silly String, excellent for detecting booby traps.
NGUYEN: You know, it does make sense, by shooting a stream across the room it finds trip wires that are otherwise impossible to see. A New Jersey woman heard about it from her son in Iraq and is now organizing a Silly String drive.
HOLMES: That unusual cargo is going to be sent to Iraq early next year.
Also here, the people behind the "got milk?" campaign, well they got a bit of trouble for a new ad in San Francisco with posters that emit the odor of fresh baked cookies.
NGUYEN: Well, that doesn't seem too bad. Yes, well, you'd think that that was a good thing. But some passengers, they complained. That's when the city discovered it had not approved the clever ads and demanded that they be removed.
HOLMES: And you're looking at Betty's House here.
NGUYEN: Yes, I wish.
HOLMES: And this is the kind of holiday display that's becoming more and more common. A software program is all it takes to sync up the lights with music.
NGUYEN: This is really cool, passersby can listen by tuning it in on their car radio, of all things.
Now to Oahu, Hawaii, the beaches here prime real estate for surfers, but these giant waves have the National Weather Service on alert.
HOLMES: I love the music. A swell has been battering the northern shore this week being reinforced by another one on its heels, high surf advisory in effect for the northern shores. And I wonder when we come back if Betty's still going to be doing this little surfer motion.
NGUYEN: It makes you want to do some surf moves. Oh, no. Anyway, Reynolds -- come on, Reynolds, you can do it.
HOLMES: Oh, Reynolds!
NGUYEN: Can you do the Swim?
HOLMES: Oh, Reynolds! REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's it. That tiny little blip, that's all. No, that's enough. This little screen, I can't move too much in there. I'm stuck inside this thing.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WOLF: Back to you. Surf on!
NGUYEN: Surf on, my friend!
HOLMES: Do the thing. They got the music for you. Ooh.
WOLF: It's like the twist. You know, I'm doing Cubby Checker and it's surf music. I don't know.
NGUYEN: Yes, where can I get back with this? All right.
WOLF: That's "Hawaii 5-0." Book 'em!
NGUYEN: Thanks Reynolds.
Well, we're just getting warmed up on this edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
HOLMES: Yes, speaking of warm, thousands of people in the Midwest struggling to stay warm. We'll take you live to the scene of their power woes.
NGUYEN: Also, the Big Apple ban. Striking at the heart of fast food fans everywhere. Why are we at war with trans-fat and why is it a government's problem?
HOLMES: Yes, it's the topic of our e-mail question: Are you onboard with the ban or does it leave a bad taste in your mouth? You can e-mail us at Weekends@CNN.com. Your responses coming up in our next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: On Capitol Hill, 12 years of Republican control over. The House and Senate gaveled the 109th Congress to a close in the wee hours of the morning. And among the bills passed, one extending expired tax breaks.
NGUYEN: In Iraq, a car bomb today in Karbala killed at least five people and wounded dozens more. The U.S. military also reports a Marine died of combat injuries in Anbar province. And we are now getting word of another car bomb, this time in Mosul. At least three people are known dead.
Ignoring international pressures. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly said Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment program. That is according to an Iranian news agency.
Here's some new video coming into CNN. Iran is locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. HOLMES: In Moscow, at least 45 people died today in a fire at a substance abuse hospital. Officials say one of the exits was blocked by a metal crate. Arson is suspected.
And it's summer south of the equator. A severe drought in Australia has led some -- or led to, rather, some of the worse brushfires in more than half a century. Now smoky haze is interfering with flights at Melbourne's airport.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What if there was a formula for breeding genius?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Yes. What if? Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigate. When one doctor thinks he's got the right equation, what happens then? CNN will show you coming up at the bottom of the hour.
HOLMES: That would be awesome. Somebody could just make me a genius. Just breed a genius.
NGUYEN: You don't think it's too late? I'm just kidding.
HOLMES: I'm about to be out of town. I'm going to be out of town. I think it should have started earlier.
NGUYEN: A little earlier?
HOLMES: Well, good morning, everybody. I'm the silly one she's talking about, the stupid one here. No.
NGUYEN: No.
HOLMES: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is December 9th, 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. in the Midwest.
And again, I am T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Your mama did well, T.J.
HOLMES: She did all right.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.
We want to thank you for being with us today.
Well, it is a good-bye message from the outgoing Republican- controlled Congress. Before they left, a last-minute flurry. Here's a look at what they passed while most of us were sleeping: tax cuts totaling $38 billion over five years, a plan to open more than eight million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas drilling.
Left undone? Nine out of 11 spending bills. Those will be left to the new Congress, ruled by Democrats, to decide. The two houses did send a temporary spending measure to the president to keep government operating through the middle of February.
HOLMES: The House Ethics Committee's report on the Mark Foley's case is out. The conclusion, no current lawmakers or staff broke any House rules.
The committee released its report yesterday. In it, outgoing House speaker Dennis Hastert is accused of knowing more than he let on about Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to pages sooner than he says he did. But at the end of the day, committee members says there wasn't enough done to protect congressional pages.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DOC HASTINGS (R), ETHICS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Each of us on this investigative subcommittee recognizes that 20/20 hindsight is easy. And we recognize that doing the right thing in a sensitive situation can be very hard and difficult. But simply put, in situations such as the ones described in our report, doing the right thing is the only acceptable option.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: In a statement, Nancy Pelosi said, "Members of Congress have a responsibility to protect their employees, especially young pages who serve this institution so well."
Meanwhile, Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson has one last chance today to keep his congressional seat. The embattled lawmaker faces a runoff against state representative Karen Carter. The eight- term congressman has been in an uphill re-election battle ever since the FBI raided his Capitol Hill office last May as part of a bribery investigation.
NGUYEN: No lights, no heat. Some people in Illinois are cold and very frustrated. They still don't have power more than a week after a big snowstorm snapped trees and brought down power lines.
Jeff Flock spent much of the night with a family in Decatur, Illinois, just to see how they're coping. And he joins us now live with an update.
I see still by candlelight.
FLOCK: Well, Betty, I hope you don't think we're wimps for having come inside, but it's -- you know, it's in the teens out there. And in here, it's -- you know, it's balmy. It's almost -- you know, almost even 60.
So this is the Rice family, who perhaps you met last hour if you were here. And this is where they slept last night. Everyone has assembled here in the living room, which is the warmest room in the house. No power here.
This is -- well, I don't know, tell me Russ (ph), is this where you slept?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where my wife and I slept last night. And it did get pretty dog-gone cold last night. We had to really huddle.
FLOCK: Yes. So you've got now -- show me what you've got for heat now. Now watch out. We're all trying not to singe our eyebrows, as well as hold a microphone and all sorts of other things. What is -- what is this I'm looking at right here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's -- that's our kerosene heater that we shut off last night, because you don't really want to have one of those burning all night long.
FLOCK: Got you. And so you didn't have any heat overnight because you don't want to take a chance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. We don't want to take any kind of chances of getting fumigated by carbon monoxide.
FLOCK: I hear that.
Now, we've got some pictures that I want to show, and these are of the situation outside your house. Your power stayed on, but your line came down. So you had power running through a line on the ground. And I know your son Tim, as that was all happening, you were down there seeing it happen.
What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We just came inside when the trees were laying on the lines, and I just -- we heard a whole bunch of thumps. And I came running towards the dining room -- to the dining room from the kitchen and I saw a whole bunch of -- or the meter was arching and the power line fell down.
FLOCK: Incredible. Amazing.
Now, can you hold that for me? Because I'm trying to hold a microphone here and I'm going to singe my eyebrows or something.
Now, you're making the best of this.
Shawna has been here with the kids. And you were playing cards last night. Are you mad?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Well, frustrated. But I wish they would get the power on for everybody. We've only been out less than 24 hours.
FLOCK: Right here, because you -- initially, the power went out to a lot of people. Yours stayed on because it was coming on that line through the ground. And then now you lose it. Still, it's a week and a day after the storm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. It's -- I just think of the ones that's been in the cold a lot longer than we have been.
FLOCK: Well, that's a good thought.
At least you've got a warm dog here. Take a look at Lady.
Bruce, can you see Lady here?
There's Lady. She is -- everyone wants to have lady on their lap this morning. So there you go.
We're staying warm one way or the other here, Betty, in Decatur, Illinois, with the power coming slowly on, but still more people to be restored, as perhaps you can see.
NGUYEN: Well, the family doing the best that they can, taking it in stride. And not too frustrated just yet, but hopefully Mother Nature will bring some relief soon. And we're going to get a check of that really soon for you.
Thank you, Jeff.
Speaking of weather outside, Reynolds joins us.
HOLMES: Yes. Getting a check really soon.
Reynolds, you're up.
WOLF: Absolutely, man.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: A mall crowded with holiday shoppers, maybe an inviting target for an attack. Authorities say they have arrested a man who was planning to set off explosives in a Rockford, Illinois, mall the Friday before Christmas, but they say Derrick Shareef's alleged plot should not cause people to panic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GRANT, FBI: Mr. Shareef went to the mall on two different occasions. The first occasion was to determine whether or not the mall was an appropriate place for an attack. And he was determined after seeing the mall and seeing the concentration of people, particularly during the holiday season, that that might be an appropriate place.
His second visit to the mall was to conduct an evaluation as to his escape route and how much time it would take him to escape. All while this was being done, he was surveilled. There was no threat to the public. He had no weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Shareef had a brief court appearance yesterday. He was charged with attempting to damage or destroy a building by fire or explosion and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. NGUYEN: We are getting more details about the deadly shooting at a Chicago law firm. Police say the gunman chained the door shut before opening fire. Three people were killed. The gunman shot dead by a S.W.A.T. officer. Authorities say the man had a revolver, a knife and a mini sledgehammer, but he only used the gun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUPT. PHILIP CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE: Until the autopsies are done, it appears that all the injuries are from gunshot wounds. And again, I just want to add, the police officers from the first district and from S.W.A.T. saved the lives of many people on that floor by their actions, and I'm very proud of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Police say at one point, the gunman grabbed a hostage and held a gun to that person's head. And that's when the S.W.A.T. team officer fired. The hostage was not hurt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: What we see is a drive-by Congress, Tuesday night to Thursday morning.
HOLMES: Well, just how little did this drive-by Congress work this year? We'll run the numbers in 10 minutes. You might be surprised by what we found out.
NGUYEN: The Big Apple boots trans fats. And up next, why what happens in New York could affect fast-food restaurant all across America.
HOLMES: And then coming up in about 20 minutes, it's "HOUSE CALL." Find out what happens when the children of genius sperm bank project, what happens when they grow up?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These kinds of mothers, I think, are the kind of women who would have raised excellent and achieving children had they gone to the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank or had they gone to David's Discount Sperm Warehouse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Can you believe this? "Across America" this morning, pushing and shoving at a funeral in Texas for a teenage boy allegedly killed for refusing to join a gang. The mayhem began after the boy's father and stepfather got into a fistfight. The 16-year-old boy was shot in the chest just steps away from his high school. No arrests have been made.
In California, smoke and flames spread quickly through a Long Beach apartment complex. At least two people are dead, 18 others injured. The fire trapping many residents on balconies. Investigators say it looks like a grease fire spread through the ventilation units.
HOLMES: In Orlando, Florida, actor Wesley Snipes released on $1 million bond after pleading not guilty to federal tax charges. Snipes is charged with fraudulently claiming refunds of nearly $12 million and of failing to file tax returns for several years. He says he is not guilty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WESLEY SNIPES, ACTOR: I look forward to vindicating myself. I look forward to clearing my name, and continuing on the pursuits of establishing international exchange of the arts, and the upliftment of humanity in African people around the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And meanwhile, we are waiting an announcement this morning from NASA. Shuttle managers are watching the weather and will announce whether the shuttle can take off today. Forecasters put the chance of good weather for tonight's launch at about 30 percent.
NGUYEN: OK. You know this kind of stuff is bad for you, but sometimes you just can't help yourself. Now New York City's Board of Health is laying down the law on those unhealthy trans fats.
Their decision this week means restaurants have to stop using these artery-clogging substances. But is it up to the government to decide what we eat?
Here is CNN's Mary Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A ruling on how French fries are cooked or how cupcakes are baked may not seem like a big deal. But a vote by the New York City Board of Health to ban artificial trans fats at restaurants and other food service establishments could blaze a path for the rest of the country. The restaurant industry is not happy and says the city shouldn't have the final say on what's allowed in kitchens.
SHEILA WEISS, NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: I don't feel that a municipal a health agency should have the power to ban a product that FDA has already approved.
SNOW: While it's not a banned product, health officials say trans fats have been linked to heart disease. They are often found in things like cooking oils and shortening. One reason they're used, they help foods last longer. But nutritionist says the harm outweighs the benefits.
CATHY NONAS, DIETITIAN, NORTH GENERAL HOSPITAL: This is like lead in paint. This is like smoking in restaurants. And this trans fats are bad for your health.
SNOW: And some businesses have learned products that are bad for your health could be bad for business, big change of bracing in adapting their cooking far beyond New York. Wendy's, for example, says it's cut out cooking oil with trans fats. The company that owns Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken says it took two years to find a substitute.
JONATHAN BLUM, YUM! BRANDS, INC.: It's hard to find substitutes that taste great. And so that's the first issue. We wanted to find something that was finger-licking good for KFC. And we were able to do so with the new oil that we switched to.
SNOW (on camera): McDonald's says it's been testing alternatives for five years and will comply with New York's rules, but is not yet ready for a national rollout. By July of 2007, restaurants must stop using frying oils with trans fats. And by July of 2008, must phase out all products using them.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: So, does New York's ban on trans fats leave a bad taste in your mouth, or do you hope it spreads across the country? We want to hear from you. E-mail us, Weekends@CNN.com.
HOLMES: And all day long CNN taking a special look at the fight over trans fats and efforts to make Americans healthier.
NGUYEN: Yes. Coming up at 9:15 Eastern, our Saturday fitness guru, Jerry Anderson -- see him there. He's going to weigh in on this debate.
HOLMES: Then coming up at 10:30, find out why trans fats may be hiding in foods you never really expected.
But first...
NGUYEN: Making -- yes, making a genius. Is it a matter of nature over nurture, or is your I.Q. set before you're even born?
HOLMES: Oh man.
NGUYEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows you in today's "HOUSE CALL." That's coming your way in 10 minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a top athlete?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an NFL player in the making right here.
COSTELLO: Justin Johnson is the number one high school running back in the country, according to "Sports Illustrated."
JUSTIN JOHNSON, HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER: If you want to be the best, you have to train.
COSTELLO: Chip Smith has trained over 600 professional NFL players at Competitive Edge Sports. Most of these elite athletes spend four to six hours a day training. While studying at the Soviet Sport Institute in Moscow, he uncovered three key components that he believes are essential to athletes enhancing their sports performance.
CHIP SMITH, COMPETITIVE EDGE SPORTS: So we try with resistance in the movement, over-speed in the movement and reaction.
NATE WAYNE, NFL LINEBACKER: He has this thing he calls Chipometers (ph). You know, it's a resistance band. And you put those on and it keeps constant resistance on your muscles. And, you know, we run with them, then we take them off, and it feels like we can run a two-flat 40 -- 40-yard dash.
COSTELLO: Chip says all athletes can improve their sports performance by staying committed to training hard.
Carol Costello, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I believe, as I did whether I came here 20 years ago, that government should work for the people and not the other way around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, Republican House speaker Dennis Hastert gets a standing ovation from his colleagues as he bids farewell. Hastert ends eight years as speaker of the House. He will leave the speaker's chair when the new Democratic-controlled Congress convenes. But Hastert will, however, remain in the House, representing Illinois's 14th district.
Mark Twain once said, "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while Congress is in session."
CNN's Andrea Koppel explains why Twain would have loved the 109th Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sure, it may not look like a do-nothing Congress now, but this is what the place looks like much of the time.
PELOSI: What we see is a drive-by Congress, Tuesday night to Thursday morning.
KOPPEL: Under House Republican leadership this year, lawmakers got to town Tuesday night, and were gone by Thursday. And get this. They only worked two days in January, eight in February, six in April, and then took the months of August and October off.
A grand total of 104 days were spent on Capitol Hill, the shortest legislative calendar in almost 60 years. That means congressmen, who make over 165 grand a year, earned the equivalent of about $1,500 each day they worked in Washington.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MAJORITY LEADER-ELECT: And, in fact, we haven't gotten the people's work done.
KOPPEL (on camera): And do you think that -- what examples would you say there are of -- if you had, had more days here, and not back home, you would you have gotten more work done?
HOYER: Today.
(LAUGHTER)
KOPPEL: Is that right?
HOYER: Today. Here, we are, in the last throes, trying to get things through.
KOPPEL (voice-over): Once they're in charge, the Democrats' new majority leader promises, that will change. Come January, Congressman Steny Hoyer says, the first votes of the week will happen late Monday, and they will keep working until -- gasp, say it isn't so -- Friday.
REP. JACK KINGSTON (R), GEORGIA: Most members of Congress work six days a week. We work about 60 hours a week.
KOPPEL: For Georgia Republican Jack Kingston, he says spending time out of Washington, and back in his district, keeps him in touch with real people.
KINGSTON: When you are back home, people grab you by the collar and say, hey, you crazy SOB, what did you and your friends do on that last bill?
KOPPEL: And some lawmakers, like Kingston, live apart from their families during the week. A longer workweek means less time at home.
DON RITCHIE, SENATE HISTORIAN: When they got here, there were no paved roads.
KOPPEL: Senate historian Don Ritchie says, back before the jet age, even before the railroad, lawmakers in Washington had no choice but to stay in town, crowded into boarding houses.
But, these days, when it is possible to get across the country in a matter of just hours, Democrats say that's no longer a good excuse for the essentially two-day Republican workweek. Andrea Koppel, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: So, what happened while you slept? What did they get done? We're going to show you in just three minutes.
HOLMES: And then coming up, it's "HOUSE CALL." Find out what simple thing you can do every day to make your brain work better. Got to hear that one.
NGUYEN: Yes. I need some of that.
Then at 9:15 Eastern, if you do nothing else but eliminate those artery-clogging trans fats from your diet, will you automatically slim down? Find out in today's "Jerry's Jumpstart."
HOLMES: And then exactly 60 minutes from now, foreclosures on the rise, fraud on the rise as well. Gerri Willis and "OPEN HOUSE" explain what you need to do to get out from under that mortgage and not get taken.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
