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CNN STUDENT NEWS For July 11, 2002
Aired July 11, 2002 - 04:00 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.
MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Time to take a check of our Thursday rundown. We begin with reaction to President Bush's speech on "Corporate Responsibility."
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Plus, we examine the state of special education in the U.S.
MCMANUS: And hear from young journalists from around the globe.
WALCOTT: And later, we check in on the dissection debates.
It's Thursday, July 11, and this is CNN STUDENT NEWS -- welcome. I'm Shelley Walcott.
MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.
President Bush's call for corporate America to tow the line draws mixed reaction.
WALCOTT: Mr. Bush wants to double prison terms and create a new task force to investigate and prosecute corporate fraud. On Wall Street Tuesday, he told business leaders that there's no capitalism without conscience. The message speaks volumes, but can it rebuild investor confidence? Stocks right now are hovering at multi-year lows.
CNN's Rusty Dornin will gauge investor reaction to Mr. Bush's speech following this report by Kitty Pilgrim on the corporate world's response.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The audience was packed with them, and, afterwards, the air waves were dominated by them. Corporate leaders giving their assessment of just how the president did. They took it personally.
JOHN SNOW, CHMN. & CEO, CSX CORP.: Personal responsibility that is absolutely essential to making the system work. We need more rules, we need more enforcement, but, ultimately, the system is only as effective as the people who set the moral tone for it.
PILGRIM: Corporate associations saying Bush`s speech makes CEOs now bear the burden of proof of honesty.
CAROLYN BRANCATO, DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, THE CONFERENCE BOARD: Corporate America is feeling that it has to prove that it`s honest, instead of, in prior periods of time, it was assumed to be honest unless proven otherwise.
PILGRIM: The Business Roundtable, an association of top CEOs, has been aggressively getting in front of the issue with large-scale newspaper ads promising reform.
JOHN CASTELLANI, THE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE: Some of them will take time, as you have to change the boards of directors to make sure that they are by a majority independent. That will take time. You have to go through the election process.
PILGRIM: Meanwhile, investors are watching.
JACK BRENNAN, CEO, THE VANGUARD GROUP: I think the investor is very savvy, and I don`t think they react to speeches and say, "OK. Everything`s fine now. A speech has been given or a new regulation has been written or a new piece of legislation has been implemented."
PILGRIM: As to the issue whether there are just a few bad apples or an orchard gone bad...
RICH WHITE, TECHNET: I suspect there`s a little more out there. I mean I don`t think that we`re going to have widespread problems of the magnitude of WorldCom.
Kitty Pilgrim, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since 1849, Tadich Grill has served the financial district crowd in downtown San Francisco. For some business people here, President Bush's speech to Wall Street may not dish out enough confidence to change the bottom line.
BRUCE COLLIN, INSURANCE EXECUTIVE: Will he stabilize the marketplace? Probably not. Did it need to be said? Yes, it did. Has -- will it restore confidence in the American public? Probably not at this point in time. It'll take time.
DORNIN: Restaurant owner John Buich says he's one of those wait and see investors. Now he's waiting to see what happens after the speech.
(on camera): So you're not investing actively now?
JOHN BUICH, TADICH GRILL: Not actively right now, no. DORNIN: Will you think about doing it again after the speech?
BUICH: Well definitely. And I think most of America is trying to figure out what to do with their money right now because there's no good investments out there except real estate.
DORNIN: Do you think it will make people feel safer about investing in the markets?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That, or I think it might make the people who are the CEOs or you know, startup companies or what -- you know make them be more honest maybe, you know. I think it's a -- I think it's somewhere to start.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Delicious sun cress (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes.
DORNIN (voice-over): To shoppers down the street at the farmer's market the president's speech just seemed like a lot of words.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lip service without a lot of substance. You know it comes late on the heels of Enron.
DORNIN: A project manager for Charles Schwab, Gene Buckerfield says investors want to know that this time Washington means business.
GENE BUCKERFIELD, CHARLES SCHWAB: What will really bolster the confidence is he needs to or the government needs to hold these people personally responsible and recover the money that they've stolen. Until that happens, I don't think the individual investor will have confidence in the market.
DORNIN: And until then, some say, it's buyer beware.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Nevada officials say they'll put up a fight to keep Yucca Mountain from becoming the nation's nuclear dumping ground. Tuesday, the Senate gave President Bush a green light to build a permanent storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste. That site, Yucca Mountain, is about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn had vetoed a plan by the Energy Department to build an underground nuclear storage facility there. But Senators overrode that veto by a vote of 60 to 39. That means the storage facility projected to cost about $58 billion could begin receiving nuclear waste from across the country by 2010.
MCMANUS: Also in the headlines, the AIDS crisis. A new study reveals that within 20 years AIDS will shorten life expectancy in at least 51 countries. At least seven African countries already have life expectancies under the age of 40 because of AIDS. Now the disease also continues to drive up the numbers of orphans worldwide. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports now from the International AIDS Conference in Spain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is likely the most shocking report yet from the International AIDS Conference. By 2010, the number of children who will lose one or both parents due to AIDS will jump from 14 million to nearly 25 million.
PETER PIOT, UNAIDS: Because this is unprecedented except in times of war, where we've had this before. But then it is usually the men who disappear.
GUPTA: They are called AIDS orphans. And by 2010, in Africa, one out of every five children will be one. Some of the most heart- wrenching stories of those of young orphans suddenly thrust into adulthood and becoming the heads of households.
PIOT: When I saw that children are now taking up the roles of adults in many societies and communities that are affected by HIV, because there's just a whole generation that has disappeared because of AIDS. And, therefore, they can't go through normal development.
GUPTA (on camera): Experts say that caring for orphans within their community is essential. Extended family care is far and away the best environment for a child, not to mention that building enough orphanages for just the current orphans would mean building a 100-bed orphanage every day for 20 years.
(voice-over): While, in many situations, the HIV virus itself was not transmitted to the child, but the social stigma of AIDS was.
PIOT: If your father died in the war, he was a hero. If he died from AIDS, there's shame over the whole family.
GUPTA: And like the disease driving them, these numbers show no signs of being contained.
CAROL BELLAMY, UNICEF: Even if today, the AIDS -- the pandemic started to level out, the growth in orphans would continue for another 10 years.
GUPTA: Experts say there are several top priorities: supporting the communities who care for orphans; treating parents with medicine to keep them alive; and keeping children in school.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Barcelona, Spain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: More now on the health and welfare of children as we look at education, a topic of crucial importance for all young people. Now in the U.S., many legislators have begun focusing on the nation's special education system. Services for children with disabilities cost the nation more than $78 billion a year.
CNN's Kathy Slobogin looks at a program that's helping schools stick with their budgets while giving all students the opportunities they deserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks like fun, but this is actually a form of diagnosis. These kindergartners are learning reading skills, and their teachers are learning who needs help. It's part of a plan the Greenwich, Connecticut, school district put in place to catch reading problems before they develop into a need for special education, special education that had nearly bankrupted the system.
ROGER LULOW, GREENWICH SUPERINTENDENT: The number of kids in special ed, where we were up almost to 20 percent of our student body being identified as handicapped.
SLOBOGIN: Superintendent Roger Lulow says the cost of educating those students was swallowing his budget, forcing the school district to borrow money from the town three years in a row.
The landmark 1975 Special Education Law opened school doors to millions of children with disabilities who were once shut out. But it has also grown beyond all expectations, now serving more than 6 million children. With that growth has come bureaucracy, litigation and controversy over how to pay for it.
Today, Congress heard from a presidential commission on reforming the sprawling program. One of the central recommendations: early intervention.
LYON: Early intervention is the key; it's paramount.
SLOBOGIN: Reid Lyon, a member of the commission and an adviser to President Bush, says many children end up in special education not because they really have disabilities, but because they have not been taught well.
LYON: When we look at those children, we find that quite a few of them would not have needed special education at all had we gotten to them earlier.
SLOBOGIN: Lyon says nearly half the children in special ed are there because they can't read. But a growing body of research shows that with the right methods, that can be changed.
LYON: If we can get the kids very early with the right stuff, we know that we can reduce the kids with academic failure by upwards to 70 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We took out the letter O. That's right.
SLOBOGIN: Greenwich schools catch problem readers in kindergarten and give them special instruction in first grade. Those that still struggle get even more intervention in second grade. Now, special ed is down from 20 percent of the student body to only 13 percent. Costs are under control too.
LULOW: In fact, we've returned money to the town each year out of our budget for the last three years.
SLOBOGIN: Training teachers in intervention methods will take time and money. But reformers believe the investment would pay for itself in reduced special ed costs, which are roughly double the cost of a regular education.
(on camera): Even more than saving dollars, reformers say early intervention will save children from years of unnecessary frustration and failure.
Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Well on a lighter note now, we turn to a popular summer ritual, the family vacation. This year many people are hitting the roads rather than hopping on planes to get to their destination. Surveys after September 11 show 40 percent of nervous travelers and 25 percent of confident travelers have changed their transportation plans for upcoming vacation.
Elina Fuhrman looks at some of the gadgets helping them while away the hours on the highway.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
DAWN BROOKS, MOTHER: OK, we'll watch "Harry Potter."
ELINA FUHRMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No, this is not a family outing to a movie theater, it is simply a ride in a car. It used to be that driving to a cinema was an adventure. Nowadays, it's the drive itself that's the adventure. This Ford sports utility vehicle is so well equipped it feels like a home theater on wheels.
BROOKS: Well all the kids want to ride with me now.
FUHRMAN: On the way home from the baseball practice, Jason (ph) and Justin (ph) can also watch their favorite TV shows, listen to music or play video games while mom chats on the phone.
BROOKS: Hey.
FUHRMAN (on camera): So what was it like driving the car pre-TV days?
BROOKS: Pre-TV day, oh a lot of fighting and shoving and fighting over dirt bike magazines. You know they each wanted to look at the same one, you know. Just older -- smaller kids fight over toys, they fight over... FUHRMAN (voice-over): Today it's adults who want all the toys. Car gadgets are so popular it is hard to pick out a car of your dreams and be able to drive it off the lot. Car dealers can't keep the cars in stock.
ZAK REITZFELD, BMW SALES CONSULTANT: We've had about 35 exit our doors in the last couple months.
FUHRMAN: This is BMW's latest sedan and it is filled with toys, some 700 features that can be controlled by buttons, switches and voice commands.
REITZFELD: North is communication, south is entertainment, navigation is to your east, the climate is to your left and to your west. This is the most technologically advanced vehicle in the world in its class.
FUHRMAN: So advanced that sales people say it takes up to three hours, and in some cases an entire day, to explain all the features to their customers.
(on camera): Is there such a thing as too much?
REITZFELD: I agree with that concept, but I don't think we're at that point yet. Everything here is what the customers wanted.
FUHRMAN: Industry watchers say some 80 percent of all cars in the next five years will be filled with gadgets, because the more time people spend on the road, the more they want to make it productive. But there is a concern if Americans are really ready for multitasking on the road. Ready or not, the carmakers are seeing high profits in the high-tech toys.
Elina Fuhrman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
MCMANUS: All this week we've been telling you about the Special Session on Children held recently at the U.N. We've learned about the participants, but now let's take a look at those who covered the event. Young journalists from all over the world came to exchange ideas and to write articles based on the ideals of a free press.
Our Kathy Nellis reports on the reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY NELLIS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The eyes of the world have been focused on New York for a landmark conference of the UN General Assembly, the first Special Session on Children.
KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: Distinguished heads of state and government, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. This is not just a Special Session on Children, it is a gathering about the future of humanity.
NELLIS: Journalists from around the world converged to record the news-making event. Among them, young journalists reporting themselves and looking for ways to make a difference.
ATSUSHI OKATA, AGE 17, JAPAN: Well I belong to a newspaper. And we had a talk and debate what was good, what was bad, what we can do and we made an article. I asked Mr. Annan, Kofi Annan's wife, she said a donation is the best thing that I can do to the UNICEF so that many kids can have medicine and those kind of things.
NELLIS: But kids can also speak up and speak out. They can work on their school papers or school broadcasts. They can go online and exchange opinions.
Several young delegates are keeping online diaries, reporting on their experiences at the Children's Forum and the UN Special Session on Children. What will they be talking about?
ABIGAIL FABRIGAS, AGE 16, PHILIPPINES: About the people I meet. That's the greatest thing I've been looking forward to, meeting different kinds of people from different kinds of cultures, having different kinds of languages. And also, of course, the issues that we'll be back of on how -- on how to improve the lives of every child in every part of the globe.
NELLIS: The young journalists are outspoken on the issues and emphatic about the need for a free press.
LINE LARSEN: Well it gives people the opportunity to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas and not just to hear just one certain person's ideas and thoughts and things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what makes the world interesting because when you have different point of views you can get into conversations and then explain your point of view to another person and this other person explains yours and you both change your minds after all. Maybe you even switch point of views.
KIBUCHI BANFIELD, AGE 15, UNITED STATES: People have to know everything you know then they can't find out firsthand and that's why there is press. Press is there to give out all the information. And that's why certain times press are -- press are -- press people are looked at as evil or people that aren't good is because they have to tell the dirty work -- the dirty truth about things and that's what the press is there for. So free press is really good and it's useful.
NELLIS (on camera): These young people have a vision and concerns to voice. They want to take that message to the world.
(voice-over): They had a chance to tour the U.N..
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the press section. So if any of you covered a meeting or maybe in the future one day you'd sit right here. NELLIS: And they learned about the U.N.'s role in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You remember, the United Nations consists of how many main bodies?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Six.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six main bodies, right. One of them is the Security Council. It is -- has the primary responsibility to maintain world peace.
BANFIELD: Well the major role that the U.N. can play in the lives of children is of course giving them a voice.
GINDRAS: Children are the future of the entire earth. I mean if we -- if we do not protect children and you give them rights and make sure these rights are applicated through all children throughout the world, I mean children -- the earth will not have a future and it's really important to invest in the kids.
LARSEN: Well I think they have different opinions and they look at things differently than adults. Maybe sometimes a bit more dreamy and not -- I think adults might be -- have a bit more concrete answers and a little more realistic. But again, I think dreaming is good because it gives you bigger ideas and you can height to succeed even bigger things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You look beautiful.
NELLIS: Their succeeding with pretty big things already. By raising their voices at the U.N., they're reaching the world.
Kathy Nellis, CNN, The United Nations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: A fish with big teeth can survive out of water. It may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but officials in Maryland are having a very real problem dealing with this type of creature. Now the creature in question is the northern snakehead, which can grow up to 40 inches long and weigh up to 15 pounds. Officials call the fish an alien because it's not native to Maryland's waters. They worry that other animals won't know how to defend themselves against it and say the fish must be captured or killed.
Now since we're on the topic of science, here's a story many of you will relate to. Animal dissection was introduced into classrooms in the 1920s. And for many students, it's still a dreaded project.
James Hattori reports on one girl who took a stand against dissection.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Are you surprised at all the attention? LAURIE WOLFF, STUDENT: Yeah. A lot.
HATTORI (voice-over): 14-year-old Laurie Wolf earned celebrity extra credit when she challenged the Clark County school district's policy on classroom dissection.
WOLFF: They dissect a worm first and then after that they go to dissect a frog.
HATTORI: It was a lesson that seemed to contradict the values she had learned before.
WOLFF: We teach them to be kind to animals, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, let's cut up the frog and let's cut up the worm. And it's gross.
HATTORI: Though her science teacher now disputes it, Laurie says she was sent out of the room and given a bad assignment grade two years ago after she declined to dissect a worm. That's when she decided to fight.
LAURA SOMMERFELD, LAURIE'S MOTHER: I found out about it the day she brought home the petition that she had all her friends sign that they didn't want to have to dissect.
WOLFF: They make us dissect cats.
HATTORI: It was a battle that went all the way to the school board, covered in newspapers and on local TV. Laurie telling members the policy was insensitive and outdated.
AUGUSTIN ORCI, CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT: She came to the school board and stated her beliefs and the fact that other school districts in the country allowed this. She did her homework, and the board listened.
HATTORI: Some students have no problem and even enjoy dissections. High schools here also obtain cat corpses and use them in labs for science majors.
JULIE ALLENBECK, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: It shows you the anatomy and the muscles and everything about the human body that you need to learn.
MARK TONDRICK, TEACHER: Certain students are, you know, hands-on learners. The best way they can do that, obviously, is to get in here and get their hands a little dirty.
HATTORI: A number of large school districts and even major medical schools have eliminated animal dissections, favoring interactive computer software instead.
Finally, this April, Clark County went along, the board deciding labs are no longer mandatory and students' grades won't suffer if they sit out.
As for Laurie...
WOLFF: And so I know now that I can encourage other students, you know. If something is wrong in your district or something, you can change it, too.
HATTORI: She skipped dissection, but learned all about slicing red tape.
James Hattori, CNN, Las Vegas, Nevada.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: We turn now from one girl fighting the school board to kids fighting to go to school. Around the world, too many children are kept out of the classroom because they're working. Child labor problems are nothing new to the country of Lebanon, a nation rebuilding itself after a devastating civil war.
Our CNN Student Bureau profiles a program backed by UNICEF which offers working children valuable education and training.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
URSULA FADUL, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: Some children complain about having to go to school while many others dream of only having the chance. In Lebanon, a recent government survey of local minors showed that over 35,000 potential students are forced to go to work instead of school. A remnant of the once raging civil war, child labor has intensified in recent years. Fueled by the stagnant economy, this phenomenon is still on the rise in Lebanon and robbing children of education and their futures.
UNICEF reports that one-third of all Lebanese working children are illiterate. The Lebanese Ministry of Labor says the lack of education in this portion of the child population is a crippling crisis to society and to the future of children who will grow up largely under-skilled and uneducated.
ALI KANSO, LEBANESE MINISTER OF LABOR (through translator): This is why you want a child to receive free and compulsory education until the age of 13 and not to enter the workplace at the expense of his learning and his physical health.
FADUL: In Lebanon, it's not illegal for children under 18 years to work. But to address the problem the country's experiencing with uneducated working children, the Lebanese government and UNICEF created a program in 1997 under which working children were given vocational training. More than eight institutions, such as Ali Elockmore (ph) Academy, are opening their doors for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) children as young as 13 who want to broaden their education and work experience.
Yan (ph) is a student under the program. At 16, he works in a garage from 8:00 to 1:00 and then takes afternoon technical courses at the academy as well as social sessions in subjects like Arabic and math. ASSAAD DIAB LEBANESE MINISTER OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS (through translator): It is an ongoing training program at the end of which the student receives a certificate from the Department of Vocational and Technical Training.
FADUL: Armed with this diploma, working children are able to have more confidence in society and great opportunities for higher wages.
TALAL HARFOUCHE (ph), WAREL'S (ph) FATHER (through translator): What matters is that my son learn a profession to secure his future.
FADUL: The problem with this program is that it does not accept minors under age 13 for training.
DIAB (through translator): In 1996, the law raised the legal minimum age to work to 13 years old.
FADUL: However, the Ministry of Labor estimates the number of working children below 13 to be 6,000, many of whom do not get paid.
Since they are under 13, these kids can't receive valuable training. Education is not completely free in Lebanon, and due to their poverty, they can't even pay the basic fees for attending school. There is little hope for them.
DIAB (through translator): There is a law regarding free and compulsory education, but it requires sufficient financial capabilities and (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
FADUL: Until that plan materializes, advocates against child labor say much more has to be done to alleviate the plight of these children or else we'll be heading towards a Lebanon where a child's answer to this question, do you have a dream?
YAN: No
FADUL: No.
Ursula Fadul, CNN Student Bureau, Beirut, Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: The issue of child labor includes the U.S. as well. New studies out by the U.S. Labor Department show a teenager dies on the job on average once every five days. Many jobs are risky, but according to the National Consumer League, the three worst jobs in regard to safety are cooking with exposure to hot oil, grease, hot water and steam, working alone and especially at night in businesses where cash is exchanged. And topping the list, driving and delivery, including operating or repairing motorized equipment.
If you have a job, there are things you can do to stay safe. Some tips: trust your instincts, don't flirt with danger and ask plenty of questions.
For a complete list of dangerous jobs and safety tips, click on NCLNET.ORG.
"Where in the World" natural hazards: dust storms and windstorms, 70 percent of population is Muslim and about 30 percent is Christian, currency: pound? Can you name this country? Lebanon.
WALCOTT: That wraps up today's show. We'll catch you back here tomorrow.
MCMANUS: Be good, we'll see you tomorrow.
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