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CNN STUDENT NEWS for June 7th, 2002
Aired June 07, 2002 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: The end of the week finds us with all the news you can use. First on our agenda, big changes involving Homeland Security.
MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Moving on, our compass points to New Orleans for food, fun and floods. We'll tell you about the potential disaster facing the crepon (ph) city.
WALCOTT: Then, already know about the birds and the bees? Well what about the birds and robot? We've got them all in "Perspectives."
MCMANUS: Finally for this Friday, STUDENT BUREAU gets it going with rap's Junior Varsity Crew.
WALCOTT: Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Shelley Walcott.
MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.
U.S. President Bush proposes a change in government to confront ongoing terrorist threats.
WALCOTT: Despite earlier reservations, President Bush wants to elevate Homeland Security to Cabinet status. The office run by former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge was created after the September 11 terrorist attacks to improve domestic security. The task has been a pretty comprehensive one, so much so that President Bush wants to ensure that Homeland Security has the tools and mandate it needs.
Now if approved by Congress, the new department would encompass Customs, Immigration and numerous other agencies. Mr. Bush unveiled the proposal last night in a televised address to the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tonight, I propose a permanent Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security to unite essential agencies that must work more closely together, among them, the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, the Customs Service, Immigration officials, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Employees of this new agency will come to work every morning knowing their most important job is to protect their fellow citizens.
The Department of Homeland Security will be charged with four primary tasks. This new agency will control our borders and prevent terrorists and explosives from entering our country. It will work with state and local authorities to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies. It will bring together our best scientists to develop technologies that detect biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and to discover the drugs and treatments to best protect our citizens.
And this new department will review intelligence and law enforcement information from all agencies of government and produce a single daily picture of threats against our homeland. Analysts will be responsible for imagining the worst and planing to counter it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALCOTT: The White House refers to the proposal as the biggest change to hit the executive branch of the U.S. government since the critical years following the end of World War II.
CNN's political analyst Bill Schneider reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): 1947 marked the beginning of the Cold War. On March 12, President Harry Truman went before Congress to ask for $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey, which were in danger of falling under Soviet domination.
HARRY TRUMAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm here today to report to you on the critical nature of the situation in Europe.
SCHNEIDER: Truman's speech had a larger implication, the United States would assume the burden of leading the free world in a global confrontation with communism. The problem was the U.S. military establishment was not organized for a Cold War. The Army and Navy were separate, often competitive forces. Intelligence gathering was widely disbursed. Day-to-day coordination of national security policy was carried out informally by White House aides like Clark Clifford in the Truman White House, the Tom Ridge of his day, who was dismayed by the bureaucratic mess. Lines of responsibility had to be established. Someone had to connect the dots.
The result was the National Security Act of 1947, a monumental piece of legislation that created the major institutions that guided the U.S. through the Cold War. A Defense Department where three military services, the Army, Navy and Air Force, would work as a team under civilian control. A Central Intelligence Agency to gather and analyze information about external threats. A National Security Council to advise the president. The result, the Soviet Union collapsed. The U.S. won the Cold War.
President Bush evoked the Cold War in his speech last Saturday at West Point. BUSH: Because the war on terror require resolve and patience, it will also require firm moral purpose. In this way our struggle is similar to the Cold War.
SCHNEIDER: Like the Cold War, the war on terror is a long-term commitment and a fundamental departure from past policy. Intelligence gathering will be crucial.
BUSH: Our security will require the best intelligence to reveal threats hidden in caves and growing in laboratories.
SCHNEIDER (on camera): Just like in 1947, lines of responsibility have to be established. Someone has to connect the dots. Government has to be reorganized.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: As you've heard, the president's proposed changes will be history making. Well for more history, take a look at our Web site, CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com, for explainers and biographies as well as this interactive look at the FBI. You can also find our e-mail address at the bottom of the Web page, so give us a shout. And don't you even think of going anywhere for the Queen requests the honor of your presence to watch our "Week in Review." Stick around.
WALCOTT: The native people of the Caribbean once called the hurricane Hurricon, the god of evil, and for good reason. These deadly storms can destroy anything in their paths. How? Well high winds, of course. But an even larger concern is flooding. Of the biggest cities in the coastal southeastern United States, one in particular could be completely wiped out by floodwaters.
Here's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Orleans is home to some of the best music, best food, and best parties in the country. But it is one of the worst places in the country to be if the big one hits.
WALTER MAESTRI, JEFFERSON PARISH EMERGENCY MANAGER: We pray it doesn't happen. You know we're the one government agency in the world that gets to pray a lot.
ZARRELLA: New Orleans is at risk because it is below sea level; a bowl with water all around. In a major hurricane, the storm surge could be higher than the levees and floodwalls that surround the city.
(on camera): This quiet, tree-lined neighborhood sits on the lowest ground in New Orleans, some 10 feet below sea level. Emergency managers say the storm surge from a big hurricane would submerge all the one-story houses, and quite possibly all the two-story homes as well. (voice-over): They imagine a city without clean water, a working sewer system, electricity, alligators from the bayous blown into the streets as well as nutria: 20-pound rodents. Worst of all 20,000 to 30,000 people would die.
MAESTRI: A guy says well, I'll go into my attic if the water starts to rise. And so he gets to the attic and he can't get out. I mean if the storm comes in the middle of the night, many people who chose not to leave are going to simply drown in their beds. If the storm comes on weekends, very possible in that scenario that the French Quarter becomes one massive tomb.
ZARRELLA: The best defense is mass evacuation. But many people cannot or will not leave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I got a boat in the backyard. I'd have -- I'd float it, and have it tied and then (ph) -- you know on top of my roof as high as I could.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. Go somewhere and get in the basement, I guess.
ZARRELLA (on camera): A basement of a house?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Some experts propose a giant floodwall to seal off one-third of the city, to save people who do not evacuate. But there's a controversy. The Army Corps of Engineers typically pays the lion's share of flood control projects based on how much property and commerce they protect. It does not count loss of life.
AL NAOMI, CORPS OF ENGINEERS: That's because no one has effectively given me a cost or a value of a human life. And until somebody can do that, it's very hard to say -- I mean one human life lost is too many I think.
MAESTRI: Lives have to matter. And to talk about economic benefit and not including lives -- individual's lives is ridiculous, because whose economic benefit are we talking about?
ZARRELLA: Any solution is year's away and New Orleans worries its luck would run out.
John Zarrella, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha Durrett from Bakersfield, California asks: "Why can't earthquakes be predicted?
LIND GEE, (ph) LABORATORY: Because molecule (ph) is a very young science. We've only had seismometers for slightly more than a hundred years. And although we've learned a lot about earthquakes in the last hundred years, we still don't understand the details of how an earthquake starts. We understand the principles and the processes, but we really haven't been able to get down inside the earth and see what happens when an earthquake starts. Because of that, we don't really know what to look for.
What we are able to do is make long-term forecasts. Kind of like the three-day weather forecasts because conservatively (ph) what's happening. But we can estimate probabilities for earthquakes over long time spans for particular faults.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: OK music fans, listen up. Want to know where to go to get the lowdown on what has Shakira flying high, what keeps Michelle Branch's feet firmly planted, not to mention a number of other tidbits on today's young singing sensations? Well it's all in the cover issue of "Teen People" magazine, a special edition featuring young musicians.
Kathy Nellis has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What's your favorite music genre? Whether it's rap, rock, R&B or pop, you'll find it this month in "Teen People's" music special. There's plenty of diversity and some common ground, young voices.
(voice-over): Stars like John Mayor (ph), Sunny Candibal (ph), and Shakira, the 25-year-old singing sensation from Colombia. Whether she sings in Spanish or English, a recent (ph) transition, she communicates on a global level with her fans.
SHAKIRA, AGE 25: The highlight of this year has been I would say probably the fact that I've been singing my music in established in all the new territories (ph) in Europe and in Asia. So after 11 years of a career (ph) that's a big deal.
NELLIS: While success is a big deal, these young stars say you have to keep things in perspective. This advice from 18-year-old Michelle Ranch, a new artist whose debut album "Spirit Room" went gold.
MICHELLE BRANCH: Really you just kind of have to take every day as it comes. You wake up and you go what am I doing today and then as it's going on and stuff is happening, you just --kind of just say OK it's cool, keep working hard, keep doing that. And I have -- I have really great friends and family around me. I have -- I have a great band, too, you know. They'll say, Michelle, you're acting like a brat today, just calm down and stuff (ph). And I'm like, you're right. Or you know it's just to have people around you who are honest and who just love music as much as I do and are just as excited as I am is nice. We all just kind of chill out.
(SINGING) NELLIS: Other featured artists include Ashanti, the princess of hip-hop soul, who's only 21 but who's already scored a record-breaking debut.
(SINGING)
NELLIS: And hip-hop superstar Ludacris, who expresses himself in his music and his clothes.
LUDACRIS: This is a Ludicrous tailor-made outfit. Of course I've got to stay comfortable and cool. I got on my T-shirt, my all white Air Force Ones, the Nikes, this right here. I can't give it away. It's just too fly. You look at it, you know what it is, it's ridiculous. There you have it. It's a suede thing, it's just cool.
NELLIS: The coolest stars in a hot music special from your favorites to ones to watch. Catch them on the way up or already famous.
JAY-Z: Well they come in the game to be famous. You know I really -- my whole thing coming into this game was to have a life, you know what I'm saying, like to have a job and to have a, you know, a way to feed my family, things like that. So I didn't come here on a famous mission. So I'm not -- I'm never going to look at myself as being famous.
NELLIS (on camera): Despite the disclaimers, the entertainers are on the fast track to fame. Record makers becoming record breakers.
Kathy Nellis, CNN STUDENT NEWS.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: And there are even more young music makers making it big these days, right, Mike?
MCMANUS: Oh boy, you got that right, Shelley. And a lot of them are rapping their way all the way to the top. Now what's so appealing about rapping young guns? Get the scoop in "Student Bureau Report." I'll see you back here in a few.
WALCOTT: Well sports fans are a lot like music fans, you can find them practically everywhere. Take, for instance, India. Now all week we've told you about the conflict between that nation and neighboring Pakistan, but not all of India's citizens are worried about bombs because a great many of them have their eye on the ball.
Gordon Robertson runs it down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GORDON ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two of the football world's greatest rivals, Brazil and Argentina, supporters decking the streets with murals, banners and posters. The streets of Rio, Buenos Aries, perhaps World Cup co-host South Korea and Japan, no, this is Calcutta.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Ninety-five percent of the people are supporting Brazil this time for the simple reason that the country has been world champion twice.
ROBERTSON: Actually, Brazil has won the World Cup four times.
On Calcutta's streets, those who aren't backing Brazil are cheering for Argentina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Argentina's team is very strong this time. Never before has their team been so strong in any World Cup. They have the best reserve players so that there are not merely 11 but 22 players on (ph) the team.
ROBERTSON: If Calcutta is perhaps a bit over the top, it is hardly alone in catching Cup fever. In Mumbai, a city that usually pays a lot more attention to cricket, this club owner redecorated in honor of the tournament.
KANIKA JOSHI, DINER KARMA (ph) CLUB: We decided (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the place. And you know we've done all the decorate flags (ph) and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And the response to this went absolutely over well (ph).
ROBERTSON: India is not exactly a football powerhouse. Its team is ranked 118 in the world and did not come close to qualifying for this year's Cup. That has done nothing to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) enthusiasm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) team (UNINTELLIGIBLE). If you don't like soccer, you will like (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love soccer. It is (ph) very exciting, 90 minutes and then there's (ph) so many moments (ph) where your heart stops and you don't know what has happened around you.
ROBERTSON: The rest of June should give these fans plenty to cheer about.
Gordon Robertson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
MCMANUS: Nice guys finish last, that's among bowerbirds anyway. Researchers at the University of Maryland used a robotic bird to study the winged animal's (ph) courtship behavior and what it took to attract a female. It appears a little aggression paired with sensitivity go (ph) a long way.
CNN's Ann Kellan brings us an inside look at this study published in the journal "Nature."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is this the way to pick up a date?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Not at all.
KELLAN: Perhaps he could learn from this robotic bird, created to study the mating rituals of bowerbirds. Found only in Australia and New Guinea, the male puts on quite a song and dance to attract the female. That's no surprise.
GAIL PATRICELLI, BIOLOGIST: We know that the male that gives the most intense, aggressive display is the most successful in attracting female.
KELLAN: But does it take more to entice the female to mate? University of Maryland biologist Gail Patricelli created the female robot, and can make it do what female bowerbirds do in nature, crouching down and fluffing up their feathers as a signal they're interested.
PATRICELLI: So we want to know how the female's behavior impacts what the male's doing. So the best way to do that is to manipulate the female behavior and see how the male responds.
KELLAN: Turns out, unlike with peacocks, where looks matter most, female bowerbirds look for mates with colorful attractive bower bachelor pads, decorated with feathers and leaves. That's where she sits during the courtship dance. And they prefer macho yet sensitive males.
There was one stud...
PATRICELLI: For three years in our study, we had one male who was extremely sexy and he made it with -- during the seven-week mating season, he would mate with 25 or 26 different females. And he basically did everything right. He had a very nice bower, very well built, with lots of decorations that he collected, and he was very good at courtship, at dancing and responding to the females.
KELLAN: Most males were unsuccessful blockheads, couldn't get a fluff out of her feathers.
PATRICELLI: So there's two kinds of blockheads, actually. There are two kinds of unsuccessful males. There's the males that never give intense displays. So they just kind of don't have it. And then there are the males that are too intense too soon before the female's ready.
So, we're all familiar with the male that comes on too strong too soon and scare the female away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not going to chase after him now, I hope he comes back.
KELLAN: Maybe we can all learn something from watching bowerbirds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just not that easy, it's not as easy as it seems.
KELLAN: It takes more than just good looks and macho behavior to turn a girl's head.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(INTERRUPTED FOR BREAKING NEWS)
(CONTINUES IN PROGRESS)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ... those things. To do so would jeopardize her support among the British people. But she is more than a figurehead, she fills a crucial, if somewhat intangible, role. Perhaps Prime Minister Tony Blair put it best this week.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: To be a unified force whilst around you there has been immense constitutional and cultural change. So I repeat to adapt, to remain soulful (ph), above all to unify these -- this nation in these 50 years and be loved for doing it is indeed remarkable.
HOCHMUTH: While prime ministers come and go, Queen Elizabeth endures. She's already outlasted nine. Blair's the 10th, and he wasn't even born when she became queen.
Technically they serve her, not vice versa. Past prime ministers have been relatively quiet about what they discuss in their weekly meetings or audiences. But Winston Churchill, who was prime minister when Elizabeth was officially crowned queen in 1953, was impressed by her knowledge and wit. When Harold Wilson retired he remarked, I shall certainly advise my successor to do his homework before his audience. Suffice to say, in general, prime ministers have welcomed her as a sounding board, someone who can see the long view when the going gets tough.
But is she worth the $50 million British taxpayers reportedly spend each year to keep the monarchy going? Apparently Britons think so. Polls show 70 percent prefer the monarchy over a republic, a figure that hasn't changed much in 70 years.
Over the years Queen Elizabeth has worked overtime to make sure the throne still has purpose and meaning. She's the most traveled monarch on earth, undertaking more than 250 official overseas visits to nearly 130 countries. And she's met with both popes and presidents.
The crowds this week seem to indicate her efforts to preserve the monarchy have paid off. Whether she's restored any of its real power is another question.
Joel Hochmuth, CNN STUDENT NEWS.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: And as you saw in our "Chronicle" report, there are a lot of young people on the music scene, and hip-hop is no exception. Since its birth, teens and rap have gone hand in hand. But today a lot of youthful music lovers are becoming successful music makers.
Student Bureau's Brittany Stevenson fills us in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRITTANY STEVENSON, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): In recent years the music industry has pumped even the youngest of performers into mega stars. Artists like Usher, Britney Spears and Destiny's Child all started as teenagers.
Now kids as young as 12-year-old Lil Romeo are turning big profits for record companies. Romeo actually started making music long ago.
LIL ROMEO: My first song is like an ABC song. Me and my cousin Willie D made it. I was like -- probably like 6 years old when I wrote it.
STEVENSON: So far the little rapper says the music business has been a fun ride.
ROMEO: I came into the business of giving music to everybody, the kids, the grownups, the teens, so I made positive (UNINTELLIGIBLE) music to dance off everything (UNINTELLIGIBLE). That's why I came into this business, great (ph) music, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
STEVENSON: The first successful young rappers to win crossover appeal were Kriss Kross in the early '90s. They captivated audiences with their oversized pants and energized raps.
(SINGING)
STEVENSON: Today, there's hip-hop's Cool D (UNINTELLIGIBLE). There's also the Little Tykes, Atlanta's Little Corey and Lil' Bow Wow.
Little Romeo is currently leading a 25-city tour with other little rappers. He says migrating into music at such a young age was natural for him. His father is a self-made millionaire rapper Master P of No Limit (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ROMEO: Always see my dad and uncles and stuff rapping in the studio, because I always had a studio in my house. So I always see them and that just inspired me a little bit. I'd go sneak in the studio and try to make something just like them so.
STEVENSON: Master P is the executive producer of his son's records. But Little Romeo says he maintains a lot of the control. ROMEO: Yes, me, I always write my own music. Me and my dad go over it. And like I write my music and my dad go over it, so I got beat in my music. I write it, yes.
STEVENSON: This straight A student said he even has a movie coming out with his dad.
ROMEO: Oh yes, I have a movie, it's called "Shorty." I'll be shooting it this summer. It's like a modern day E.T. type of thing. It's a real funny sport of families, everybody, so you all get ready to go see that. It'll be coming in theaters real soon, so it's real hot.
STEVENSON: But when it comes straight down to it, Romeo and the other little rappers are just normal kids.
ROMEO: Well me, I like to play basketball. That's my No. 1 hobby. I've been doing that since day one, having a lot of fun with dad. My favorite subject in school is math, always be math. And each week we play video games.
STEVENSON: Brittany Stevenson, CNN Student Bureau, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" one of the busiest international ports in the U.S., Creole culture dominated the tone of city life until the late 1800's, host to the annual Mardi Gras festival? Can you name this city? New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.
WALCOTT: OK all you early rising soccer fans, the next U.S. World Cup game kicks off on Monday when the U.S. takes on the host country South Korea.
MCMANUS: For the full schedule of the games and a link to FIFA's official site, surf on over to our place on the Web, CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com. And while you're there, check out the other news you can use, plus your favorite weekly brainteaser, "The News Quiz." Your favorite, Shelley, right?
WALCOTT: That's right. And that should keep you busy until Monday, which is when we'll be back.
MCMANUS: It sure is. See you then.
WALCOTT: Bye-bye.
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