HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I SAID THAT WALMART SUCKS!

Wal-Mart exec's five-finger discount

Despite $1 million salary, he admits taking liquor, trips, cash

FORT SMITH, Arkansas (AP) -- A former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman who was a protege of founder Sam Walton pleaded guilty to fraud and tax charges Tuesday, admitting that he stole money, gift cards and merchandise from the world's largest retailer.

Tom Coughlin, 57, faces a maximum of 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He also could be fined $1.35 million. Wal-Mart lawyers referred Coughlin to federal prosecutors after discovering Coughlin had embezzled money from the company and used expense vouchers to buy products as varied as snakeskin boots, hunting trips and Bloody Mary mix. They estimated losses at up to $500,000.

'Mistakes in judgment'

In federal court, Coughlin spoke only when he was asked questions by U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson. Afterward, defense lawyers issued a statement in which Coughlin accepted responsibility for "serious personal mistakes in judgment.""This was not an easy decision. I regret the embarrassment this matter has caused my family and friends and I thank them for their support, love and friendship."

In documents filed with the court, Coughlin specifically admitted defrauding the company to pay for the care of his hunting dogs, lease a private hunting area, upgrade his pickup truck, buy liquor and a cooler, and receive $3,100 in cash.

As the company vice chairman, Coughlin received a base salary of $1.03 million in his final year with the company. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last April said Coughlin also received $3.09 million in bonuses and other income in fiscal 2005. Coughlin held about $20 million in Wal-Mart stock, according to an SEC filing last February.

The former executive said his guilty plea was in the best interest of his family, friends and community. He remained a Wal-Mart cheerleader, asking associates "to pull together in fulfilling Sam Walton's dream of creating the world's greatest retailer." Prosecutors recommended a sentence but Dawson sealed the plea agreement. The judge said he was concerned that he read many of the plea deal's details in newspapers before any documents were filed with his court. Nothing was mentioned in court about restitution.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said the ordeal has been "embarrassing and painful.""Someone we expected to operate with the highest integrity let us down in a very public way. Wal-Mart has high ethical standards and the way we handled this matter makes it clear that every associate will be held to these standards with no exception," Williams said.

Coughlin retired as Wal-Mart vice chairman last year and gave up his spot on the company board in March after the company referred him to prosecutors. The matter was taken up by a grand jury in Fort Smith. In November, former Coughlin subordinate Robert E. Hey Jr. agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and testify for the government in return for parole instead of prison time. Besides giving the case to federal prosecutors, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart filed suit last year to end Coughlin's multimillion-dollar retirement agreement and to recover money. However, that lawsuit was dismissed by an Arkansas judge who said both sides had signed a pledge as part of Coughlin's retirement deal not to pursue any claims against each other for any reasons. Wal-Mart has said it will appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

According to filing of information that was filed with the plea, Coughlin specifically admitted:

• Falsifying a travel expense voucher to pay $700 allegedly for travel and meeting expenses, but which was actually for the care of Coughlin's hunting dogs.

• Using a false invoice for $6,500 to pay for a private hunting lease.

• Using a false expense statement to cover $2,695 for upgrades to his 1999 Ford truck, which he claimed as reimbursement for meeting expenses.

• Using fraudulently obtained gift cards to pay for a cooler, two cases of Smirnoff, two cases of Miller Light beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a carton of tequila, and other items from a Sam's club in Joplin, Missouri.

• Using a false invoice to receive a check for $3,100 that was cashed for his personal use.

• Filing a false tax return.

No mention was made in court of Coughlin's claim that he used money obtained from Wal-Mart to pay for anti-union activism.

GUN TOTING GRANNY KILLS FATHER

Don't piss off Grandma!

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) — A man picking up his young son for a supervised court visit was shot twice at point-blank range by the boy's 81-year-old great-grandmother and died of his injuries, police said.

Alex Reyes, 26, was shot Saturday while picking up his 18-month-old son, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Witnesses reported that Reyes appeared to be having a casual conversation with his ex-wife and her grandmother, Jeane Ellen Allen, on the front porch of their home, when Allen allegedly pulled out a gun and fired, said Amormino. "There was no argument," he said. "She just pulled the gun out and started firing."

Reyes was shot in the hip and the head and died at a hospital, said sheriff's department Lt. Ted Boyne. Allen was arrested for investigation of attempted murder and was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail. She likely will be charged with murder, Boyne said.

"SLIPPED THROUGH THE SYSTEM"--WHO IS AT FAULT?

Sex Offender Lost in Paperwork

Inconsistent record-keeping may have made it possible for the suspect in a weekend sexual assault to live unnoticed in Bonita Springs for years despite being a registered sex offender from another state.

Edward Ziesmer, 61, was arrested Saturday afternoon after sheriff's officials say he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a young girl under the age of 12 — off the street and took her into nearby woods. Deputies found the pair in the woods, shortly after they say Ziesmer sexually assaulted her.

Records show this is his second arrest on charges of sexual battery on a child. While living in Baraboo, Wis., in November 1988, Ziesmer was arrested for sexual assault of a child. According to the Circuit Clerk of Sauk County, Wis., he forced a 7-year-old girl to touch and rub his genitals on several occasions. Ziesmer was convicted of the crime in 1989 and spent five years in prison before being released as a sexual offender in 1994.

According to records from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Ziesmer was required to register as a sex offender for life, but Wisconsin DOC records list him as not compliant with all the restrictions that were part of his release. Department of Corrections officials could not be reached for comment Monday on specifically why he was considered not compliant.

Ziesmer has lived in Bonita Springs, Florida since at least 2003, said LCSO spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi. He was unemployed, according to sheriff's reports. Though he was required to do so by law, Ziesmer had not registered as a sex offender in Florida. He appears to have slipped though the system, said Detective Lorrie Reaves, of the Sheriff Office's sexual predator and offender unit. Florida statutes require sex offenders to register if they will be visiting, living or going to school in a city for more than four days,

Different states have different laws and procedures when it comes to tracking sex offenders. If a state or arresting agency does not place an offender on a national watch list, the offender may not be immediately detected when contact is made by police. "Some states are not up to date, and some states are not as stringent as Florida," Reaves said. "It's very possible to get through." Reaves said she is unsure if police had made contact with Ziesmer since he moved to Florida.

Since January 2002, Lee County deputies have been called 88 times to the complex where Ziesmer lived. LiMarzi said she is unsure if any of those visits were for Ziesmer. Though the trailer where he lived is just yards from the Living Waters Academy day care, teachers there have never had any problems with Ziesmer, said Karyn Williams, assistant director of the center. The 100 or so children at the center range from 3 months to 4 years old. They are under constant surveillance by teachers, Williams said. There is only one door leading to the day care, and the playground, which borders both Iowa Street and Bonita Beach Road, is protected by a wrought-iron fence.

Williams said she can recall only one instance where children were harassed. (ONLY one??? You stupid idiot!) About three weeks ago a man stood near the shed on the corner Living Waters Academy's property line and attempted to speak to children on the other side of the fence. The kids were immediately taken inside, she added. Even after news of Saturday's attack was made public, no parents expressed concern about children's safety at the day care center, Williams said. (Who are these parents!!! I'd be pretty damn concerned!)

Saturday's abduction and assault was the second in nine days along Bonita Beach Road. On Jan. 19, a woman on her morning jog on Bonita Beach Road, near Imperial Shores Boulevard, was abducted and raped in a nearby car. East Naples resident Jeremy Hall Ware, 30, was arrested and charged with that rape just days later.

MORE DEEP WATER FOR ROYAL CARIBBEAN

Legend of the Seas--Royal Carribean Cruise Ship

Cruise Ship Worker Arrested for Attempted RAPE

TAMPA - A Royal Caribbean cruise line employee tried to rape a 22-year-old passenger on a ship originating from the Port of Tampa, an arrest report shows.

Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies on Saturday charged Henry Maceto Forbes, 34, with false imprisonment and sexual battery in the Tuesday incident aboard the Legend of the Seas. Forbes remained in Orient Road Jail on Sunday night, and his bail hadn't been set. He won't be disciplined by the cruise line until a police investigation is complete, Royal Caribbean spokesman Michael Sheehan said Sunday.

The incident, according to the report, began about 3:30 a.m. in a bar area on the ship, where Forbes works. He offered to take the passenger on a tour and led her to a dark room, where he pulled her inside by her hand, according to the report. Forbes, a Colombian citizen, attempted to rape her, the report shows. He held the door closed until she yelled, and she was able to flee.

The Legend of the Seas was in international waters during a weeklong cruise. It was heading from the Bahamas to Belize, and the trip continued after the incident. Forbes stayed in the brig until the ship returned to the Port of Tampa, where he was arrested.

From fiscal year 2000 through June, the FBI opened 305 cases of crime on cruise ships. About 45 percent of those cases involved sexual assaults, FBI figures show.

PREGNANT WITH #15 AND ARRESTED FOR CHILD ABUSE

Where was the FATHER(S) in all this? Everyone always seems to forget that fathers are responsible for this as well. After having six of her children removed, how did her abuse fly under the radar? Where were these children's teachers or neighbors? Was EVERYONE blind to this abuse?

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- A pregnant woman has been taken into custody after three of her 14 children, showing signs of abuse, were found taking refuge in an abandoned house, police said Friday.

"The kids told us that the suspect regularly punches them with her fists and hits them with a broomstick and belt," police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said.

Two 9-year-old twin boys and a 6-year-old boy were found Thursday night with scars and bruising to their backs and faces, she said. The abandoned house did not have heat, water or electricity, and the floor was littered with feces and garbage, Schwartz said. "It's apparent the children have been going there for a while," she said.

Schwartz said the woman, 35, is pregnant and has 14 children, ages 3 to 20. The six oldest children had previously been removed from her custody by child welfare officials, and the remaining children were removed Thursday, authorities said.

GLAD TO BE ALIVE--CRUISE SHIP SURVIVOR

Jan. 26, 2006 — Tim Sears, 31, and Mike, his best friend, checked in to Carnival's "Celebration" cruise ship for five days of sun and partying in the Gulf of Mexico — an escape from another dreary winter in their home state of Michigan. They boarded the ship in Texas, looking forward to stops in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. After spending the day drinking beer in the sun, the two bachelors split up that night. Mike hit the casino while Sears went dancing. New friends were being made and the drinks flowing.

"Last thing I remember is looking for my friend in the casino," he said. After that, Sears' memory went blank. And that's when his vacation took a very unexpected turn.

'How Did I End Up Here?'

Unbelievably, Sears awoke in the middle of the ocean. "I'm coming to in the middle of the water and there's no ship around and it's total, total darkness," he said. "At first it wasn't … It didn't even seem real. And then it didn't take very long to realize that it was real."

There are very few people like Sears, who go missing on a cruise ship and live to tell about it. Sears had apparently fallen off the ship — perhaps as far as 10 stories, he says — in the middle of the night. His first thought when he regained consciousness, he said, was: "How in the hell did I get here? I mean, to be honest with you, that was my very first thought. … How in the world did I end up here in the middle of the water with no ship at all?" Sears said he was immersed in near total darkness, seeing only a few lights way off in the distance. But he knew he had to figure a way out of his predicament. "Fairly quickly, I realized I didn't have any pants, any shoes. All I had on was boxers and a sweatshirt and a T-shirt," he said.

Party Continues on the Ship

Back on board the ship, the party continued. No one knew Sears was missing. He was alone staring at a sea that seemed to be alive as blue-green algae called phosphorescence shimmered around him. All through the night, for seven hours, Sears swam, worried about sharks and barracudas — all the while growing more tired and dehydrated.

The former Army paratrooper toughed it out in the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately for him, the relatively warm temperature of the waters there worked in his favor. "Part of it, I think [was] just the will to live. Part of it, I was in the military, which I think that, that focus and drive really helped me," Sears said. But the sun soon became his enemy, and he grew so thirsty, he started to drink the salt water. "The sun was so bright and I was so dehydrated that I would take some in my mouth and just swish it around and spit it back out. But within a half hour, I started getting ill from that," he said. Worst of all, he kept seeing ships on the horizon, but they could not see him.

His mental toughness started to give way to the reality of his dire situation. "I knew there was no way I could continue swimming through another night because I was really cold. The water temperature was like 60, my body temperature dropped hugely," Sears said.

Almost Giving Up

After about 14 hours with no food or water, Tim had not seen a passing ship in hours. He faced a moment that most of us dread ever having to face. "I was tired, and so I made peace with God and closed my eyes and started going down in the water, taking water into my nose, into my lungs. And no thoughts went through my head. I was ready for it to be over." Tim says he started to sink in the darkness, but then, something happened — he felt a renewed determination and realized he wasn't ready to give up yet. "And my eyes just opened and I swam back to the top, spit the water out and decided that I was, I was going to keep swimming," he said.

Tim struggled on for three more hours — his head badly sunburned, his legs raw from hours of kicking in the salty sea. Despite all his determination, he was still 50 miles from shore. "There was no way I was reaching land whatsoever," he said. Then he saw something on the horizon. "I saw a ship in the distance and watched it travel on the same path for quite a while and just decided that that was … going to be my last chance," Sears said. With everything he had left, Sears swam toward the ship, coming within 200 yards of it. "I had lost my glasses, of course, I couldn't see," he said. "And I had a bright yellow T-shirt on underneath that I had taken off and ripped to try to make it larger, to wave them down." He thought he saw someone on the deck, but the ship kept moving. Sears screamed at the top of his lungs, until he was breathless. It paid off. "What I later found out is that they actually heard me before they saw me," he said.

The foreign cargo ship heading for Texas — named "Eny" — plucked Sears from the water, ending his ordeal at the last possible hour. "It actually brought me to tears when I was sitting there," he recalled. "I was asking God to send me any ship and here 'Eny' ship had rescued me and it just did, it brought me to tears."

For all Sears learned about himself trapped in the water, he still knows very little about how he got there. Sears concedes it's possible he may have gotten way too drunk and somehow fallen overboard, though he says that in the past when he's drank too much, he's remained "aware of what's going on." He believes that one of two things happened to him that night. "Either I was looking over the railing and fell, or somebody put something in my drink," he said. But Sears is different from the families searching for loved ones after cruises — he'd like to know more about what happened to him, but he's very happy about what he already knows. "I'm just glad to be alive," he said.

TEEN BLOGGING DANGERS

I'm not old...only 32, and I don't "think" old...but I just don't understand the new generation of putting your personal private thoughts and information out there for everyone to see. Especially with all the sex offenders and predators out there. You don't know who you are dealing with out there in cyberworld. You would think these kids would know this??? What ever happened to a good old-fashioned DIARY???

Schools Alarmed Over Teens' Bold Blogs

By Tara Bahrampour, Lori Aratani, and The Washington Post


No one under 18 would be surprised to hear that teenagers like to post their intimate thoughts and photographs online — they've done it for years. But school administrators have begun to take notice, and some are warning students that their online activities may affect not only their safety, but also their academic and professional lives.

In recent weeks, several Washington-area schools have taken action against the use of blog sites, in particular Facebook.com but also the sites MySpace.com and Xanga.com, which allow teenagers — and sometimes younger children — to post details of their lives for all to see.

Meredyth Cole, assistant head of school at the private Madeira school in McLean, Va., said officials there were “shocked and amazed” to see how many students use Facebook, a widely used networking site which began for college students in 2004 and was expanded late last year to include high school students. Besides the most obvious danger — adult stalkers enticing teenagers into face-to-face meetings — Cole warned that personal information posted online can also be read by college admissions officers and future employers. “We are trying to figure out how do our school rules relate to this type of behavior,” Cole said.

Some colleges have expelled teenagers for violating codes of conduct after discovering photos of underage students posing in front of kegs or writing about drinking binges, and employers often look up job candidates on the sites, said Internet lawyer Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org.

Personal information can also be used for commercial purposes. One local private school last month warned students and parents that Facebook can sell information about students to marketers and can use and display their contributions, including photos. These days, teenagers' lockable journals and triple-underlined threats of “PRIVATE, KEEP OUT!” have given way to instant messaging, reality shows and a cyberculture that many adults find naive at best and exhibitionist and dangerous at worst.

Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that the sites pose new quandaries for educators, including cyberabuse. He cited a recent case in which three middle-school students in the Chicago area were suspended after posting obscene and threatening remarks about a teacher on a Web log. The school community was split over the action. “It's an open question, because students have been writing these sorts of things for years but have been doing it in their notebooks, where nobody would have ever stumbled across it,” he said. “With blogs, it's a sign of things to come — we're sort of testing the notions regarding free speech.”

Many schools forbid the use of school computers for anything not school-related, but it's much harder to regulate what students do on home computers. Schools are scrambling to come up with policies on the issue. A Catholic school in New Jersey banned use of the sites even at home, although experts question the legality of such bans. Use of Facebook is easier for schools to regulate because it requires users to sign in using a school-issued e-mail address. But anyone can start an account on such sites as MySpace, and it is easy to find teenagers' blogs through those sites even without starting an account. Xanga, for example, groups blogs by high school or middle school, making it easy to find one for any teenager who has signed in to his or her school's “blogring.”

Ironically, many teenagers are outraged or embarrassed when parents or other adults go to their sites. “I think they see it as a violation of their personal space,” said Madeira's Cole. “They feel as if their diaries are being read.” But adults do read the sites. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 1,224 incidents last year of “online enticement” of children by adults and estimates that one in five children gets sexual solicitations online. Yet to many teenagers, the sites are irresistible. Aftab said that even teenagers who work with her to warn others about the sites have their own sites. “Why in God's name would you have a Xanga site?” she asked one, and the answer was poignant. “I'm in seventh grade,” the girl said. “It's really hard to be in seventh grade these days. It's really hard if you're shy and you're not a cheerleader or extraordinarily popular. I travel, I take pictures, I write poetry. I'm a nice kid, and if I can write a profile that will make people notice me, why shouldn't I?”

To Aftab, “it's a very sad testimonial these days that a kid has to post something on a site where potentially 700 million people can see it in order to attract the attention of a kid two seats down.” Aftab acknowledges that the sites have their good points: Kids get to show off an expertise or be creative. “A kid with a boring life can go on to MySpace and become a punk rocker in two minutes.” But it can also be isolating. “They do less face-to-face talking, less phone talking, less playing outside than any other generation, and because of that, the Internet is real to them, but the risks aren't,” Aftab said. Neither are some of the worlds they create. Experts, and teenagers themselves, say that much of what is on the sites is made up.

Teenagers often act online in ways they wouldn't off-line — bullying each other, posing in underwear, using foul language or sporting guns and Ku Klux Klan hoods. Increasingly, many teenagers feel pressured to show themselves doing more risque things, even if they are not actually doing them. Aftab cited an example of girls who had blogged about weekends of drinking and debauchery, while in reality they were coloring with their younger siblings or watching old movies with Grandma. “Even if you weren't out drunk and partying on the weekend, you have to pretend you were,” Aftab said. “Maybe parents should be relieved.”

IF DRUG SMUGGLERS USE TUNNEL, SO CAN ILLEGALS

Officials Find Drug Tunnel With Surprising Amenities

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 26 — Drug smugglers have dug one of the longest, most sophisticated tunnels discovered in recent years along the Mexican border, and the American and Mexican authorities have hauled nearly two tons of marijuana out of it since they entered it on Wednesday, officials said.

The tunnel is 60 feet below ground at some points, five feet high, and nearly half a mile long, extending from a warehouse near the international airport in Tijuana, Mexico, to a vacant industrial building in Otay Mesa, Calif., about 20 miles southeast of downtown San Diego.

The sophistication of the tunnel surprised officials, who found it outfitted with a concrete floor, electricity, lights and ventilation and groundwater pumping systems. The authorities said a tip led to the discovery. "The tunnel is absolutely amazing," said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's San Diego office. "It is probably the biggest tunnel on the southern border so far."

On the American side, agents found about 200 pounds of marijuana in the building in Otay Mesa, which had several bays for tractor-trailers. On the Mexican side, drug agents found a pulley system at the entrance to the shaft and several thousand pounds of marijuana and hauled it out for several hours Wednesday. Mexican authorities also found seven cellphones, two trucks, a van and various documents in the warehouse, according to a statement from the Mexican attorney general's office.

The customs enforcement agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Border Patrol are sending a forensics team from Los Angeles to determine how long the tunnel has been in use. The tunnel is one of the latest to be found along the border. Most are attributed to Mexican drug cartels searching for ways to move contraband into the United States, but some appear to be the work of smugglers of illegal immigrants.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, when border security was tightened, agents have uncovered 21 tunnels of varying degrees of length and sophistication, from "gopher holes" to engineered marvels like Wednesday's discovery, Mr. Unzueta said. The builders, he said, "had to have access to money and somebody with a strong construction and engineering background."

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THE PHOENIX FAMILY CURSE? OR DOES JOAQUIN HAVE 9 LIVES?

This guy has an angel or someone UP THERE (maybe his brother, River) looking out for him...that's for sure! River almost won an Oscar in 1988 for his role in "Running on Empty". He lost. Maybe Joaquin is destined to win?

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Joaquin Phoenix's car overturned on a canyon road and collided with another vehicle after his brakes went out, but there were no reports of injury, police said.

Phoenix, the 31-year-old star of the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line," was driving eastbound above Sunset Strip about 2:50 p.m. when he realized his brakes were not working, said Officer Jason Lee, a police spokesman. Phoenix lost control of his car, which overturned and hit another vehicle also headed eastbound, Lee said.

His publicist, Susan Patricola, said in a statement that Phoenix was wearing his seat belt and walked away from the scene after being helped out of his vehicle by a passer-by. Earlier this month, Phoenix won a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy for portraying country legend Cash. Phoenix is nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, which will be handed out Sunday. Patricola told Us Weekly magazine that he will be at the awards ceremony despite the car accident.

HOW MUCH MORE CAN THIS FAMILY TAKE?

Grandfather dies of heart attack after hearing his 7 grandchildren were killed

LAKE BUTLER, Florida (CNN) -- News of a crash in which seven children perished so upset their grandfather that he had a massive heart attack and died, the children's adoptive mother said."I lost my daddy tonight," Barbara Mann said Wednesday. "My dad died of a massive heart attack tonight over all this. He lost all seven of his grandkids ... I can't deal with this."


Alvin Wilkerson, 32, has been identified as the driver of the tractor-trailer which plowed into the children's car near Gainesville, Florida, Wednesday. The impact caused the car to slam into the rear of a school bus that had stopped to let children off. The car burst into flames, killing all the children inside, Lt. Mike Burroughs of the Florida Highway Patrol said.


They have been identified as: Cynthia Nicole Mann and Elizabeth Mann, both 15; Ashley Keen and Johnny Mann, both 13; Miranda Finn, 9; Heaven Mann, 3; and Anthony Lamb, 20 months. All were adopted foster children, except for Anthony, who was in the process of being adopted, Burroughs said. Ashley and Miranda were also cousins.

At the wheel was Cynthia Mann, who had a learner's permit. Under Florida law, it is illegal for a 15-year-old to drive without an adult. Cynthia Mann's aunt said the girl had just dropped off another child and was taking the rest of the children home "to get ready to go to church." "It's my understanding she did not cause the accident," Tina Mann said of her niece. "The same thing would have happened had there been an adult in the car with her. We'd just have one more death in the family."

The accident occurred shortly after 3 p.m. four miles south of Lake Butler. At the time, all three vehicles -- the tractor-trailer, the car and the bus -- were heading north, said Lt. Bill Leeper of the Florida Highway Patrol."Basically he just wasn't paying attention, couldn't slow down in time and just ran into the back of the other vehicle," Leeper said.

The tractor-trailer left no skid marks, police told CNN Thursday. But there were marks on the road indicating the driver veered away after the initial impact, police added. Wilkerson has been hospitalized and is medicated, police said. No charges have been filed, and the accident was under investigation.

Wilkerson was cited in 2000 and 2001 for operating a vehicle in unsafe conditions and also for driving on a suspended or revoked license in 2000.

The fact that the 15-year-old Cynthia Mann was driving the car was not relevant "to the actual crash," Leeper said. "There are some questions we're going to need answered ... but those are questions we'll look at later," Leeper said. "Right now everything has to do with the truck."

Three of the nine children aboard the bus were seriously injured and transported by helicopter to hospitals. None of the students' injuries were life-threatening, Leeper said. A spokeswoman for Shands Hospital in Gainesville said eight patients were transported, ages 5 to 16.

Two were in critical condition; three in serious condition, Betsy Miller said.The driver of the bus was also injured, but her condition wasn't immediately known.

MAN HIGH ON METH SUFFOCATES TWIN DAUGHTERS

How can someone high on meth be sleeping?

LOMPOC, Calif. (AP) — A man high on methamphetamine rolled over in his sleep and suffocated his 1-month-old twin daughters, police said. The man and the girls' mother were sharing their bed with the babies, who died Monday.

Jason Moises Gomez, 31, was ordered held without bail on suspicion of child endangerment causing death, being under the influence of a controlled substance and violating probation, police said.

The babies' mother, Christa Perry, 35, was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance but was released.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says 515 babies died in the United States while sleeping in beds with adults from 1990 through 1997. Of those infants, 121 died after an adult rolled onto or against them.

DUNCAN: MURDERER AND SEX OFFENDER BLOGGING FROM JAIL?

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Registered sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III is apparently blogging again, this time from a jail cell. Messages that Duncan allegedly wrote in longhand and mailed to another person are being posted on the Internet.

The messages are mostly religious in nature, and do not address the charges that Duncan killed three people outside Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, last year so he could kidnap two small children for sex.

The blogs were revealed this week on a web site called "The Cellar" that is exhaustively dedicated to Duncan. Jules Hammer, an East Coast blogger who operates The Cellar, refused to identify who is helping Duncan post the messages, saying that person wanted to remain anonymous. She said that person had been helping Duncan since November in hopes that Duncan's writing would provide incriminating evidence.

An FBI agent, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the agency cannot confirm conclusively that the writings are Duncan's. But agents have been monitoring the new blog and assuming it was Duncan's work. "There is a real dearth of information about him, anyway," the agent said. "We are certainly going to look at any of his writings, to see if they have any investigative value." "I want him to write as much as he can," the agent added. The FBI would have no way to prevent Duncan from mailing letters, the agent said.

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KIDS LOCKED IN BATHROOM FOR 5 YEARS SURVIVE

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong says he's amazed by the survival of two emaciated children who say they were locked in an apartment bathroom and starved for the past five years.

When the siblings were found Thursday, the 16-year-old girl weighed about 40 pounds, and her 11-year-old brother weighed about 30 pounds. The pair were in stable condition Sunday at a hospital, while their grandmother, mother and the mother's boyfriend were in jail.

"The little girl appeared to be a Holocaust victim," Furlong told The Associated Press. "There's no meat or muscle whatsoever. We're talking absolute starvation. It was the same thing for the little boy."

Deputies were led to the home after someone reported seeing an 8-year-old girl pushing a shopping cart full of food within a block of the sheriff's office. It turned out to be the 16-year-old girl, who told deputies she was running away because she had been locked in a bathroom at night or when adults left the apartment.

"Right now, there doesn't seem to be anything that conflicts with anything the girl has said," Furlong said, adding the bathroom door appeared damaged as if someone had broken out. Detectives now plan to focus on the suspects' background after combing the apartment for clues.

Their grandmother, Esther Rios, 56; mother, Regina Rios, 33; and the mother's boyfriend, Tomas Granados, 33, were jailed on suspicion of child abuse or neglect and false imprisonment in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Investigators said the girl had not attended school since her family moved to Carson City from Los Angeles about 2000. It was uncertain whether her brother attended school, but he had not been enrolled recently.

Three other children in the home, ages 9 to 17, attended school in Carson City. They were placed in the custody of social services workers and appeared to be healthy. Furlong said it's one of the worst cases he's seen in nearly 30 years of law enforcement. "I don't know how the girl or her brother survived," he said.

DAYCARE SHOOTING

GERMANTOWN, Maryland (AP) -- A gun brought to a day care center by an 8-year-old boy accidentally went off Tuesday, wounding a 7-year-old girl in the arm, police said.

The boy had the gun in the backpack and was playing with it when it went off at the For Kids We Care center, Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles said. The girl was taken to Children's Hospital in Washington, he said. Her injury was not considered life-threatening.

There were six children in the center at the time of the shooting, which happened around 7 a.m. No one else was hurt. Police said they do not know where the child got the gun. Names of the children, both from Germantown, a suburb of Washington, were not released.

Police spokeswoman Nancy Nickerson visited the scene shortly after the shooting and said the children were watching television. "The day care provider there did an excellent job of keeping the children safe and secure and calm," she said. For Kids We Care Inc. operates two medium-size daycare centers in Germantown, according to its Web site.

They certainly didn't do an 'excellent' job of watching the children if the boy was playing with the gun out in the open. A responsible care giver would have noticed that!

SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE NEEDS MONEY!

An Interesting TV Reunion--the Infamous Amy Fisher (a/k/a "The Long Island Lolita") and the Buttafuoco's

NEW YORK - More than a decade after 16-year-old Amy Fisher had a sexual relationship with a much-older car mechanic and shot his wife in the face, the one-time "Long Island Lolita" and Joey and Mary Jo Buttafuoco have agreed to appear together in a televised reunion.

All three have signed on for the appearance, which has yet to be sold to a network, television producer David Krieff told the New York Post for Monday editions.

"It's time to just put it behind us," Fisher, now 31, told the newspaper. "We played this all out in a public eye. It'd be interesting to let the public see the healing process at the end. They saw everything else — why not let them see the final product?"

Fisher spent seven years in prison. Joey Buttafuoco, who was jailed for statutory rape following the 1992 shooting, said he planned to ask Fisher to explain her actions.

"I've been asked about a million times by Mary Jo, `Why did Amy shoot me?' I was never able to get that answer," said Buttafuoco, now 49.

"There's going to be a lot of shocking revelations, and that's why I'm excited to sit down to do this," he said.

The Buttafuocos moved to California and divorced in 2003. Mary Jo, who remains partially paralyzed from the shooting, is engaged.

Joey Buttafuoco, who has remarried, was sentenced in March 2004 to a year in jail and five years' probation after pleading guilty to felony insurance fraud. In August, he pleaded not guilty to charges that he violated probation by possessing ammunition.

TEEN BLOGGER KILLS MOTHER

A Real professional attorney, nice earing

CRAIG, Alaska — What 16-year-old Rachelle Waterman seemed to want most in this tiny island village was a bad reputation. She wore a black leather dog collar and fishnet stockings to classes at Craig High School. She bragged about practicing Wicca and told people she planned to get a Pentagram seared into her rear end.

She dated older guys and danced suggestively with girls at school dances. She titled her blog "My Crappy Life: The Inside Look of an Insane Person," and spiked it with swear words, sexual innuendos, and smirking accounts of being an outcast. "Oh yeah, I also got voted Biggest Freak for my class — that makes me happy," she once wrote.

But among the 1,100 close-knit residents of Craig, few were buying Waterman as a true bad girl. To them, the teen was the prized daughter of the school board president and his equally civic-minded wife.

Like her parents, Waterman appeared to be the ultimate go-getter, singing in honor choir, suiting up for the volleyball team, and competing in Academic Decathlon. If she wasn't teaching younger kids about the dangers of drugs as a DARE volunteer, she was playing in pep band or working stage crew in community theater.

She could wear all the black clothes she wanted and talk tough to her friends and on her blog. To those in Craig, Rachelle Waterman was still a decent kid. But on a cold Sunday morning last winter, a gruesome discovery deep in the forest that covers Prince of Wales Island called that assessment into question.

A hunter stumbled across the charred body of Waterman's mother, Lauri. Within days, the teenager was implicated, and people in Craig began asking themselves how much of the honor student's tough-girl act actually had been real.

"We all just thought of her as an extension of her mother, just somebody who is always doing something for somebody," said Scott Willburn, whose son Jon attended school with Rachelle Waterman. "People were shocked and stunned."

Dreadful homecoming

The second weekend of November 2004 was an exceptionally busy one for the Waterman family.

Sixty-year-old Carl "Doc" Waterman, a real estate agent, went to Juneau on a business trip. Rachelle traveled to Anchorage for the regional volleyball playoffs. Lauri Waterman, 48, stayed behind to help at a Chamber of Commerce dinner. (The Watermans' son, Geoffrey, 20, was at college in Washington state.)

On Sunday afternoon, Rachelle Waterman and her father arrived back at the family home. The teenager put down her bags and booted up her computer to update her blog on LiveJournal, a popular online diary site.

"Well back from anchorage and it was an okay trip. I got kinda sick but oh well(.) Did shopping, played v-ball (got 5th, bah), and that's about it. Not much to tell, well I got these incredibly awesome boots that go up to my knees. I absolutely love them. will post pic later," she wrote.

Elsewhere in the house, her father was getting worried. He had been surprised when his wife didn't greet them at home. Now it was late and there was no sign of her or her minivan. "Doc" Waterman was convinced something was wrong. He reported her missing to the Craig police department.

The officer who took the call knew almost immediately that Lauri Waterman wasn't missing, but dead. At noon that day, a hunter trekking down a remote logging road had seen black smoke billowing over the evergreens. He summoned state troopers who found a minivan on fire and a charred body inside it. The body and the van were on the way to the lab for positive identification, but after "Doc" Waterman's call, there was no doubt about the victim's identity.

Lauri Waterman worked as a teacher's aide for special education students and spent her free time volunteering. She made biscotti for baked sales, chaperoned her daughter's trips, and scored every volleyball game played in the high school. She was a quiet woman who loathed the spotlight. People asked: Who would want to hurt Lauri Waterman?

Trooper Robert Claus was one of the first on the scene of burned-out van, but his suspicions were rooted not in the crime scene, but in his knowledge of the Waterman family.

His wife taught at the high school. His daughter went to school with Rachelle Waterman and had dated Geoffrey Waterman. The man Claus suspected was 24-year-old Jason Arrant, a school custodian. Rachelle Waterman had dated him the previous summer until Lauri Waterman found out and insisted they break up because of Arrant's age.

"Trooper Claus speculated that Arrant may have resented this and may have been involved in her death."

The trooper suspected Arrant, shy and aloof, might have had help from his close friend, Brian Radel, also 24. Radel was a 6-foot-4, 270-pound man with an interest in guns and the military. He had run a computer business where Rachelle Waterman once worked.

Based on Claus' information, investigators shared their suspicions with Rachelle Waterman. They asked if she would be willing to wear a wire in an attempt to get the men to discuss the crime.

She told them that "she was reluctant and believed it was sneaky, but she would think about it," Perhaps because of her hesitance to assist, investigators pressed her about her relationship with the men. At first, she denied having physical relationships with either man, but later she acknowledged she had sex with Radel the previous spring and had been intimate with Arrant when they were dating.

The troopers asked Rachelle Waterman if anything she had ever told the men might have led them to harm her mother. Waterman said she once told Arrant that her mother physically abused her, threatening her with a knife, beating her with a baseball bat and trying to push her down steps. She said Arrant became upset.

"Arrant tried to get her to go to the police, but she did not want to. She was depressed and suicidal about this abuse so he and Radel might have wanted to do something about it although she doubted they would commit murder."

The next day, troopers questioned Arrant and Radel. Both men eventually confessed and fingered Waterman as the leader of the plot. They said she asked them to kill her mother to stop what she claimed was horrible physical abuse.

Murder plots

Arrant said their first plan was to cement Lauri Waterman in a bathtub and use Radel's boat to dump her at sea. That plan fizzled when they could not think of a way to lure her to the boat.

The second plan was to gun her down in her car after she dropped off her daughter for volleyball practice. That plot, which they code-named "the hunting trip," was called off at the last minute.

According to Arrant, Rachelle Waterman had alerted him that both she and her father would be out of town. "She and Arrant agreed that it would be a good time to carry out their plan, because Lauri Waterman would be home alone," Claus wrote in a report.

Arrant told detectives that Rachelle gave him detailed instructions about how to enter the home and abduct her mother and that he passed the information on to Radel.

Radel admitted that he broke into the home, roused Lauri Waterman from bed, shoved her into her minivan, and drove outside town. The plan the three allegedly had devised was to make her mother's death look like a drunk-driving accident, and Radel apparently forced Lauri Waterman to drink a bottle of wine.

At some point Radel abandoned the drunk-driving scenario, bludgeoned her with a flashlight and suffocated her. He and Arrant then drove her to the logging road and set the van ablaze.

The allegations of extreme physical abuse by Lauri Waterman were implausible. The Watermans were kind, well-respected people who were protective of their daughter. No one in the community had heard anything about abuse, and neighbors described Lauri Waterman as a wonderful, caring parent.

Rachelle's blog provided no information about physical abuse by the woman she called "the female parental unit." The teen described only occasional arguments, including one when her mother nagged her about her weight.

She "wants to send me to fat camp this summer. I think it's rather hallarious. I mean, I agree I'm chunky, but if she sends me off I'll be the skinny girl and get sat apon," the 5-foot-4 125-pound teenager wrote. In other postings, she hinted at a positive relationship. She described them making Christmas cookies together and recorded other incidents that indicated they had a close bond.

"My parental unit asked me if I was depressed. I said 'yes' and apparently she might get me an appointment with dr so I can get some happy pills. Yey for me," she wrote.

The day the men confessed, the police seized her computer to look for evidence. Before they unplugged it, however, Rachelle made a final post.

"Just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered. I won't have computer acess [sic] until the weekend or so because they police took my computer to go through the hard drive. I thank everyone for their thoughts and e-mails. I hope to talk to you when I get my computer back," she wrote.

Details of a murder

The next day, they brought Rachelle into the Craig police station and told her that the men had accused her of being the driving force behind her mother's murder.

At first, the teenager insisted that she had no idea what Arrant and Radel were planning. The troopers continued, telling her "They've given you up." At one point, Sgt. Randy McPherron tried to persuade Rachelle to talk by detailing the painful way in which her mother died.

"[Radel] abducted your mother out of her bed. Forced her to drink a bottle of wine. Tied her up. Drove her out to the middle of nowhere on a wet, rainy night. Made her get down on her knees in the dirt, and he tried to snap her neck, because it looks good on TV. But you know what? It doesn't really work. Well, that didn't work, so he laid her down on the ground and he took a flashlight and he slammed it against her throat about 10 times."

"Why are you telling me this," the teenager asked. "Because I want you to understand what happened here. All right?

"That didn't work so he got on top of her and he pinched her nose off and held his hand over her mouth until she died. Then Jason and Brian went up to the end of that road and dumped five gallons of gas on your mother's body and set it on fire. Now, that's what happened and you knew it was going to happen and you didn't do anything to try to stop it," McPherron told her.

Eventually, Rachelle acknowledged that she had asked the men during the summer to kill her mother. She said she had told them lies about the abuse, exaggerating incidents and making up the stories of beatings. She said that she had called off the murder plan, "but they would not listen."

When she left for the volleyball tournament, she admitted, she was aware they might kill her mother that weekend. At first she told them that she had phoned Arrant to call off the hit, but later she acknowledged she had never placed the call. Still, she said, "I told them not to do it."

Seeking a fair trial

Just before the trial was to start in Craig last week, Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins granted a defense motion for a change of venue to Juneau.

According to a defense survey, 94 percent of potential jurors on Prince of Wales Island had heard about the case and 66 percent of those believed Rachelle Waterman was guilty. The judge concluded that Waterman could not get a fair trial on the insular island.

Her father has stood by her since her arrest, monitoring the hearings in Juneau by telephone and visiting her in jail. Asked this week whether he believes she was involved, he said that he and his daughter have not had a chance to really talk since her arrest.

"Talking through glass or in a room full of inmates is not really conducive to an in-depth conversation," he said, adding, "I'm sure her involvement is less than the troopers are alleging."

Her lawyer, Steven Wells, is tightlipped about the defense case. He may suggest that the teenager could not have anticipated what effect her tough talk, exaggeration and outright lies could have on Radel and Arrant.

Before her arrest, Rachelle Waterman often posted photos of herself on her blog looking fearless in her leather collar or seductive in a tight tee shirt. At her arraignment last year, she was dressed in a bulky orange jail jumpsuit.

Finally, it seemed, people believed Rachelle Waterman was tough. And she looked terrified.

CARLIE BRUCIA'S MOTHER ARRESTED FOR PROSTITUTION AND DRUGS

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- The mother of Carlie Brucia, the 11-year-old girl whose abduction was captured by a car wash security camera two years ago, has been charged with drug possession and facilitation of prostitution, authorities said.

Susan Schorpen was arrested Thursday by an undercover police officer and charged with possessing crack cocaine and violating the city's prostitution ordinance, police said. She posted $5,000 bail Friday. Relatives and friends say Schorpen has long battled drug abuse. "Nobody knows what she's going to do next," said her brother, Paul Schorpen.

Earlier this month, she was accused of stealing thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry from her father. Schorpen's daughter was grabbed while she was walking home in February 2004.

Joseph Smith was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Carlie.
The jury recommended he be executed.

JERRY! JERRY! JERRY! I WANT MY JERRY BEADS! WHOOO!

Woman jailed for leaving kids to go see Springer

WHEATON, Illinois (AP) -- A woman got a 30-day jail sentence for leaving her three young children home alone for several hours, while she and her boyfriend attended a videotaping of "The Jerry Springer Show."

Shannon Cook, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this week to misdemeanor child endangerment. She also was placed on probation for a year. "It was an appropriate sentence, given what she did," said DuPage County Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Ruggiero.

The two girls and one boy, all under the age of 4, have been placed in foster homes by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Police said Cook left the children alone at a suburban home October 19, while she and her boyfriend went to Chicago for the taping. About five hours later the two oldest knocked on the door of a neighbor, who called police.

Cook was arrested when she returned home after midnight. According to a police report, she said: "I didn't think I'd be gone that long."

At least she got her "Jerry Beads" for showing her boobs...

COLLEGES DON'T PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE REAL WORLD

Study: College students lack literacy for complex tasks

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than half of students at four-year colleges -- and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges -- lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study found.

The literacy study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the first to target the skills of graduating students, finds that students fail to lock in key skills -- no matter their field of study. The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips.

Without "proficient" skills, or those needed to perform more complex tasks, students fall behind. They cannot interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

"It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization.

Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills. That means they can do moderately challenging tasks, such as identifying a location on a map.

There was brighter news. Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education. Also, compared with all adults with similar levels of education, college students had superior skills in searching and using information from texts and documents. "But do they do well enough for a highly educated population? For a knowledge-based economy? The answer is no," said Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent and nonpartisan group. "This sends a message that we should be monitoring this as a nation, and we don't do it," Finney said. "States have no idea about the knowledge and skills of their college graduates."

The survey examined college students nearing the end of their degree programs. The students did the worst on matters involving math, according to the study. Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station.

About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills. Baldi and Finney said the survey should be used as a tool. They hope state leaders, educators and university trustees will examine the rigor of courses required of all students. The college survey used the same test as the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the government's examination of English literacy among adults.

The results of that study were released in December, showing about one in 20 adults is not literate in English. On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

MISSING CRUISE PASSENGER GEORGE SMITH

COSBY: In the case of missing honeymooner George Smith, it's attracted national headlines, especially the mystery into his disappearance deepens. Story has even captivated the likes of Oprah Winfrey, who today devoted her entire show to the case. She was speaking to George's new bride, Jennifer, about why she can't remember what she was doing when her husband went missing.

OPRAH WINFREY: Is it a fact that you had to be carried in a wheelchair because you were so—

JENNIFER HAGEL SMITH, WIFE OF GEORGE SMITH: Yes, out of it.

WINFREY: Out of it. And you were out of it from drinking, not because

SMITH: We have no idea—I—well, we were definitely drinking, but not to the extent that something this wild happens.

WINFREY: That you wouldn't remember.

SMITH: Both of us, on the same night. I have no recollection of that evening on the same night my husband is killed or—

COSBY: And joining us now talk more about the mystery is private investigator Vito Colucci. Vito, what do you make of the fact she says she can't remember what happened that night?

VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Well, one of the questions, even before that Rita, she was asked what she was drinking. She did answer that she doesn't remember. I find that a little bit confusing. I think you're going to remember for a good part of the night, until you get into an intoxicated state, what you started off with. And especially the way the night ended up. I think you'll remember that all of your life.

COSBY: That's a great point. Vito, what about the fact that she's been so composed during all of these interviews. She did an interview with Joe Scarborough, did this one with Oprah. A lot of people find it maybe a little too composed?

COLUCCI: It could be, Rita. Don't forget, this is a woman that didn't speak for several months. A lot of time has gone by. We don't know. We can only speculate on that part, Rita.

SMITH: Speculate—people are going to slam me either way. If I say, you know, oh, maybe I was drinking too much. I'll get slammed, I'm the drunk bride. If I say, well maybe I was drugged. They'll say, oh, she's just making excuses for herself.

COSBY: Vito, what do you think? Is it possible she may have been drugged? Maybe she wasn't drinking at much at a certain point, and then someone slipped something in her drink and that's what changed everything for her?

COLUCCI: It could be a possibility as remote as it is, Rita. If somebody wanted to or eyeballed George, and wanted to get her out of the picture. That could be a possibility. Do I believe it? Maybe about 10 percent really.

COSBY: It's interesting, as you pointed out, she doesn't remember what she was drinking earlier in the night. Everyone says they were drinking quite a bit. Jennifer also talked about today the question she was asked in the polygraph. Obviously, standard procedure, FBI questions the wife, and everybody involved in the case.

SMITH: They asked me if I was in the room. Had I seen him go over board. Did I get into a fight with him. Did I have doubts about my marrying George? Did I have second thoughts? Everything you could possibly imagine. And the answer was, no. No. No. No.

COSBY: Vito, do we know if the FBI also did a polygraph to the Russian guys. Also the student, who was last seen with George?

COLUCCI: I would think, knowing the FBI, especially the Connecticut office of it, that they had done that have done that—if they've agreed to take one. That's another thing, too. If they're lawyered up and they say they're not going to take one. It is a lot more difficult. And people don't realize with a polygraph, it is not a whole slew of questions. It is only a certain amount of questions that they are asked.

COSBY: You know, Vito, today we heard for the first time, somewhat an apology from Royal Caribbean. I want to play that and then get your response because you've talked to the family quite a bit.

ADAM GOLDSTEIN, ROYAL CARIBBEAN PRESIDENT: I am sorry. I say that on behalf of 40,000 people at Royal Caribbean. That we were not able to render you as much assistance and comfort as you would like to have had on that terrible day. I'm sorry about that.

COSBY: Vito, what do you make of it? Instead of saying, I'm sorry you feel bad as opposed to I'm sorry I did anything wrong.

COLUCCI: You picked right up on that, Rita. They never apologize. They always say I'm sorry that you don't feel this way or I'm sorry we couldn't satisfy you. They never say, I'm sorry that we didn't supply the security officers that we promised you or things of that nature. It's never an apology. Maybe they're worried about the civil suit or whatever. They never give an out and out apology.

COSBY: It's interesting they are very careful the way they phrase things. Vito, stick with us. Because we want to move on and get you on in a second.

One of the best forensic experts in the country will travel to the crime scene on Monday to see for himself what clues are still left on board that ship. Dr. Henry Lee was brought into the case by Jennifer Hagel and her attorney.

Tonight, we're going to take you inside his lab at the University of New Haven in Connecticut to get an exclusive preview of what he hopes to find out that might crack this case.

DR. HENRY LEE, FORENSICS EXPERT: This goes to consider as a cold case now, because six months now. Still have no direct answer. The crime scene is no longer there. A cold case, we usually follow five or six different ways to investigate. We as scientists we only go back to the crime scene, try to find out what happened, how it happened, what the sequence of events.

So basically, we're going to look at the room. Even though the carpet is gone, the room is still the same room. So, we are going to look at any trace evidence that remains on the ceiling, on the wall. We can use chemical tests, or we can use instrumental analysis to see any blood stains or biological material.

If no carpet or carpet being shampooed or washed, the stains become very diluted, however, with the light source of chemical that we can spray on the surface the chemical will react with the component of the hemoglobin and form a color. So based on that information, we can reconstruct what did happen in that room.

With an ordinary light source, you probably wouldn't see it. With a forensic light source, you can see clearly. There are some stains washed in this location. There are some blood stains in that location.

Generally, we can see biological stains on the surface. We plan to bring in mannequins. We will let the mannequin fall. We put weight inside the mannequin. We want to estimate about the same weight. If someone sits on the railing, all right? If they fall off the railing, then we want to see where more likely it landed. What would cause indentations on the canopy?

If someone picks up the dummy, and throws the dummy, what more likely the location is the dummy going to land? The canopy, of course, we'll have to measure the width and the length, to understand how big the canopy is. If someone threw a person out, how far will they go? If someone falls off the railing how far we expect to see them falling? They give me two hours limit. If everything works smoothly, we should be able to conduct some basic analysis or measurement.

I was moved by the story. The family has been on hold for six months now. The family needs the answer. As forensic scientists, we have a professional obligation to help the family and find out the scientific fact what did happen. What did happen to George Smith? If Jennifer Smith is she involved in that? Is this really an accident or some foul play? The family needs some answers. That's how I got involved.

COSBY: That some interesting stuff. Let's bring back in private investigator Vito Colucci. Vito, it's fascinating. He'll put weights in that dummy to mock the weight that George Smith was. What's the first thing would you do? Would you test that? Would you go to the room? What area would you focus on?

COLUCCI: Yes, I think that's a great idea, what he's doing. With the exact weight—

COSBY: I do, too. That's incredible. I think it's neat.

COLUCCI: Yes, the exact weight of George. Now, just remember Royal Caribbean still has to OK him doing that, OK? The dummy part of it. They've only given him two hours. So, hopefully they'll let him do that testing done. What I'd love to see Dr. Lee is going to be able to determine if the canopy was painted over. I think that's going to be very big. He said he'd be able to determine that.

COSBY: That would be a bombshell if he can prove it. Because they came on our show and said it was just washed over. You know, Vito, real quick. You hit it on the head; two hours. You know, as an investigator, why are they only getting two hours access? Why, you know, why Henry Lee and others, can they do a thorough investigation and are you stunned that they are not getting unlimited access?

COLUCCI: Yes, I am, but the information I got today is that the boat is just coming in. They only have a couple of hours, still I guess it goes back out again. But you know, a man like Henry Lee, only Henry Lee could work with a two-hour time frame. No one else can. I'm sure he'd want a lot more time than that I've been on cases with him, and I've been on cases against him, and he's the best.

We invited Royal Caribbean to come on our program tonight. Instead, they just offered us the following statement, we just got in a little while ago. It says:

“Royal Caribbean has released all of the relevant facts within its direct knowledge regarding George Smith's disappearance with the exception of certain information the FBI has asked the company not to disclose.”

It further says, “We at Royal Caribbean continue to extend our deepest sympathy to the families, and will continue to cooperate with the FBI in its investigation.”

Again, a statement just coming in from Royal Caribbean. They're also encouraging people to log onto their web site to read their account of what happened. You can see the web site there, royalcaribbean.com.