March 4, 2005
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: A realized dream: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly non-stop around the world, all alone. A miraculous recovery: Jeanna Giese becomes the first person to survive rabies without a vaccination. And looking on the bright side: A homeowner isn't deterred by a voracious sinkhole!
First Up: A First for Flight
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to this Friday, march fourth broadcast of CNN Student News! I'm Christina Park at the CNN Center. First up-- 24,901 miles: That's the length of the ruler you'd need, to measure the earth around the equator. Of course, if you were to take the route that Steve Fossett took over the last few days, you'd need to go slightly further than that. So there's no doubt that the first-ever, non-stop, solo flight around the world, was made without shortcuts! Rachel Lee chalks up another record for a man who's already circumnavigated the globe by balloon and by boat.
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RACHEL LEE, CNN REPORTER: After three days and a nearly 25,000 mile non-stop flight around the globe, pilot Steve Fossett is back where he started, in Salina, Kansas. An exhausted but exuberant pilot emerged from the experimental aircraft that made the trip possible.
STEVE FOSSETT, PILOT: This is the culmination of something that was fascinating, it was a bold adventure and it's a great representation of teamwork that put this together so I'm just really a fortunate guy to be at the spearhead of this.
LEE: There were tense moments when Fossett, his sponsor Richard Branson and the Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer team had doubts he could make it. Fossett considered abandoning the voyage in Hawaii after an apparent in-flight fuel leak left the plane 2,600 pounds short on fuel. But he pressed on, hoping to make up the fuel loss with tail winds in his favor, and the gamble worked.
FOSSETT: We implemented fuel conservation measures, flying slower, more carefully with the fuel and managed to put it all together and I got home with the airplane.
LEE: The 60-year-old millionaire and former markets trader is no stranger to firsts. In 2002, he successfully made the first solo nonstop trip around the world in a hot air balloon. What's next for this world adventurer? A little celebration. For CNN Student News, I'm Rachel Lee.
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Fast Facts
CARL AZUZ, CNN REPORTER: Time for some Fast Facts about some famous firsts in flight!
December 17, 1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright complete the first sustained powered flight.
May, 20th-21st, 1927: Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
New Year's Day, 1935: Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland!
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier on October 14, 1947...
And on April 12, 19-61, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to soar into space.
Week in Review
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: And it's time for us to take a journey back through the week's top stories. From sweeping political change in Lebanon to a controversial ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Deanna Morawski has it all covered in this Week-in-Review report.
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DEANNA MORAWSKI, CNN STUDENT NEWS REPORTER: Insurgents carried out the single most deadly attack in Iraq since the war began. On Monday, a suicide car bombing killed at least 125 people at a police recruiting center south of Baghdad. More than 150 others were injured. Iraqi officials say the violence will not derail the political development taking place in Iraq, including the formation of a new government.
Meantime, in Lebanon, the government called it quits. After two weeks of citizens protesting the nation's Syrian-backed government, Lebanon's prime minister resigned and took his cabinet with him prompting massive celebrations from the crowded streets of Beirut.
MAN ON THE STREET: I think that this is the beginning. I hope it never fades away because it should not ever fade away because finally we as Lebanese decide what to do with our country and our people.
MORAWSKI: Opposition groups are demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, saying there's no hope for improved relations until that happens.
The U.S. Supreme Court considered two controversial issues this week... On Tuesday, it declared the death penalty unconstitutional for people who commit crimes as a minor. The majority opinion cited juveniles' lack of maturity and underdeveloped sense of responsibility as grounds for the decision. But some psychiatrists disagree.
DR. SALLY SATEL, PSYCHIATRIST: This whole approach, you know, not guilty by reason of adolescence or less guilty by reason of adolescence is an assault on personal responsibility.
MORAWSKI: The decision ends the practice of executing juvenile offenders in 19 states.
And on Wednesday, the court heard cases from Kentucky and Texas disputing whether displays of the 10 Commandments installed on public property represent a government endorsement of religion. Such an endorsement is forbidden by the Constitution's First Amendment.
Some argue the displays infringe upon the separation of church and state; others say they simply acknowledge the role religion played in the nation's development. Decisions by the court are expected by the end of June. That's your Week in Review. For CNN Student News, I'm Deanna Morawski.
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Following Up: Martha Released and Giant Lobster
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Following up now on some stories we've told you about before on CNN Student News... Decorating maven Martha Stewart is being released from prison today. You may remember that Stewart was jailed for her conviction on charges she lied to investigators looking into her sale of stock in a biotech company. She made the sale shortly before some inside information about the company become public knowledge. Stewart will still be on parole however, and will wear an ankle bracelet and be under house arrest for five months.
And a requiem for a sea creature. Bubba the lobster, who we first told you about yesterday, has passed on to lobster heaven. It seems the 22-pound behemoth of the brine never quite recovered from the shock of being caught a week ago off the coast of Nantucket. After all, he'd avoided traps, plates and butter for decades!
Shoutout
CARL AZUZ, CNN REPORTER: Friday's Shoutout goes out to Mr. Sylvia's social studies class at Oliver W. Winch Middle School in South Glens Falls, New York!
In taxonomy, to which class do lobsters belong? If you think you know it, you know what to do! Is it: A) Animalia, B) Arthropoda, C) Crustacea or D) Decapoda You've got three seconds -- GO! C is the answer! A is a lobster's kingdom; B is its phylum; C is its class and D is its order. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout!
A Medical Miracle
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Scientists have known for decades that rabies is a virus found in the saliva of mammals. It's transmitted through scratches or bites, which is why your dog gets vaccinated as a puppy. But what wasn't known, at least until now, is that a human could survive rabies, without the vaccination. Gary Tuchman reports about what one doctor describes as a miracle.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN REPORTER: She was a healthy 15 year old. At church in her hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin when a bat started flying around, landing on the floor. Jeanna Giese asked her mother if she could pick it up.
ANN GIESE, JEANNA'S MOTHER: I never thought anything of it. I said sure, if you want to. I wouldn't do it. So she took it by the tips of the wings and took it out. And as she set it in the tree, it reached out and bit her in the finger.
TUCHMAN: The cut healed quickly, and her parents didn't worry about it until Jeanna got very sick a month later and was diagnosed with rabies. It was too late for the vaccine to do any good. And that's why what happened 72 days later was so amazing. Jeanna went home. A medical first: the world's only known survivor of rabies without a vaccination. Jeanna's damaged nerves are still reconnecting, so its not that easy for her to walk and talk.
TUCHMAN: You're a star basketball player.
JEANNA GIESE, RABIES SURVIVOR: Yeah!
TUCHMAN: Volleyball player?
JEANNA GIESE: Yeah!
TUCHMAN: What else?
JEANNA GIESE: Softball!
TUCHMAN: What position do you play?
GIESE: Second base.
TUCHMAN: How soon do you want to be at second base?
GIESE: Soon.
TUCHMAN: And that, doctors say is a realistic goal, because her improvement at rehab in Fond du Lac has been as dramatic as the experimental treatment that saved her life in Milwaukee. Doctors purposely put Jeanna into a coma, as a team of specialists led by Dr. Rodney Willoughby hoped medicine would protect her brain while her immune system would fight the rabies.
DR. RODNEY WILLOUGHBY, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF WISCONSIN: It's outside of our understanding of biology and medicine as it stood a couple of months ago, so it's miraculous. Will it work again? I sure hope so. In which case, it becomes science as well as miracle.
TUCHMAN: Jeanna is now out of danger and getting tutored at home. Ready to return to school full time later this month. She lost muscle mass, but not her intellect, or sense of humor.
TUCHMAN: Do you get tired of doing the therapy?
JEANNA GIESE: Sometimes.
TUCHMAN: Do you tell your parents, you know, I don't want to go?
JEANNA GIESE: Yep!
TUCHMAN: And what do they say to you?
JEANNA GIESE: Too bad, you're going!
TUCHMAN: Jeanna has received hundreds of letters and packages from around the world, leaving her very emotional and very grateful. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
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Before We Go
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Before we go... You can credit at least one Florida homeowner with taking lemons and making lemonade. It's not exactly the typical description of a home for sale: Two stories, nice yard... Massive, encroaching sink-hole. Then again, the seller noticed the water gathering in the unwelcome pool... And used it to her advantage, advertising her house as "waterfront property." If that doesn't widen her field of buyers, it will at least widen a few smiles!
Goodbye
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: And that fills up the week's last show! For CNN Student News, I'm Christina Park. Headline News is on the other side of the break.
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