Morning Buzz: What happens to those who leave the Church?
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Tonight we continue our series, ‘Scientology: A history of violence.’ We report on allegations made by a number of former high-ranking members of the Church of Scientology. The allegations are about physical abuse they say took place within the Sea Organization, the international management branch of the Church.
The Church strongly denies the allegations. Last night we asked current and former members of the Church why the alleged abuse was never reported to authorities or investigated. Tonight we look into what happens to members who decide to leave the Church of Scientology and speak out against it.
We’re also reporting more on the prevalence of bullying across America’s schools. Last night, Alina Cho interviewed the principal of a high school in Massachusetts where bullying allegedly led to a student’s suicide. It’s just one of a disturbing number of suicides and attempted suicides that have occurred as a result of bullying at school. What’s being done to prevent this harassment and what can parents do if their children are victims of bullying? We’ll have more tonight.
Morning Buzz: Allegations of abuse within the Church of Scientology
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Tonight we continue our report on allegations made by a number of former high-ranking members of the Church of Scientology. The allegations are about physical abuse they say took place within the Sea Organization, the international management branch of the Church.
Last night, we heard from former high-ranking officials within the Church who say they either witnessed or were physically assaulted by the Church’s leader, David Miscavige. The Church strongly denies these allegations. What was done to those who may have been involved in the beatings? Were authorities ever called in? Don’t miss the third part of our series tonight.
The United Nations will host a high-level donor’s conference on Haiti today at the UN headquarters in New York. The purpose of the meeting is to secure the financial resources necessary for Haiti’s recovery. More than 100 donor nations will attend today’s fundraising session. Haitian President René Préval is expected to outline a recovery plan. According to an assessment by the Haitian government, the country will need about $11.5 billion. About $4 billion of that will be needed for recovery efforts over the next 18 months and will be administered by an interim reconstruction commission.
Morning Buzz: Scientology: A history of violence – part two
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Tonight we continue our report on allegations made by a number of former high-ranking members of the Church of Scientology. The allegations are about physical abuse they say took place within the Sea Organization, the international management branch of the Church.
Last night we told you about Marty Rathbun, who was a member of the Church of Scientology for 27 years before leaving in 2004. Rathbun says he was the Inspector General and answered only to Church leader David Miscavige, the same man who he says would use physical abuse against other members of the Church’s elite management team. But Rathbun’s ex-wife says he’s lying and other current Sea Organization members agree. They say Rathbun was the attacker, not Miscavige.
Tonight we hear from other former high-ranking officials within the Church who say they either witnessed or were physically assaulted by Miscavige. Again, the Church strongly denies these allegations. Decide for yourself tonight.
Morning Buzz: Colombian Drug Queen?
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Tonight, Karl Penhaul reports on a story about an alleged Colombian drug queen. A lingerie model’s bid to allegedly become the drug-running 'Queenpin' of South America seems doomed now that an international warrant has been issued for her arrest. Angie Sanselmente Valencia is a 30-year-old who authorities say set out to establish herself as the leader of a cartel that would use models and beauty queens to run drugs from South America to Europe. But it turns out she may have been a little too confident in her looks and that hubris might lead to the dismantling of her fledgling cartel. The Argentine police say they’re hot on her tracks. Don’t miss Karl’s report tonight.
The House of Representatives passed a slightly altered health care "fixes" bill last night, completing legislative action on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The so-called "fixes" bill, approved by a 220-207 vote, now goes to Obama to be signed into law. It makes changes in the broader health care reform measure that Obama enacted Tuesday. President Obama hit the road selling the law to the public yesterday and dared Republicans to run in the midterm elections on a promise of a rescinding the new law. What kind of reaction will lawmakers face when they go back to their districts?
Morning Buzz: Back to the House for another vote?
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
The wrangling over the health care law continues. In a session that lasted into the early morning hours, Senate Republicans found violations in two provisions of the health care bill, forcing it back to the House for another vote. The session finally adjourned at 2:45 a.m. this morning and the Senate plans to reconvene this morning to consider other amendments. Still, Democrats are ‘confident’ the package will pass.
The question is whether or not these GOP amendments will succeed in forcing Dems to cast unpopular votes – which may not sit well in the run-up to November’s mid-term elections. We’ll have the latest developments tonight.
Meanwhile, President Obama hits the road today to sell the health care law to the public. He will be in Iowa City to discuss how health insurance reform will lower costs for small businesses and how it will given American families more control over their health care.
We continue our series on childhood obesity. If you’ve been watching our reports all week you know that childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The prevalence of obesity among children ages 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5 percent in 1980, to 19.6 percent in 2008. And obesity among adolescents has also increased dramatically. Are we making our kids fat?
Morning Buzz: A difficult murder to solve
Anderson talks to one man whose son was killed in a drive-by shooting.
Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
This week we’re reporting on gang violence in the Hollenbeck community of Los Angeles. We were there five years ago and we witnessed the corrosive effects of gang violence on the people in the neighborhood. We decided to go back to follow up on what kind of progress has been made in the area. We talk to cops and crusaders who are working to put an end to the cycle of violence in their community.
Tonight we look into the murder of Gabriel Ayala, a gang member killed inside his gated yard. But while investigating the case, Hollenbeck Detective Dewaine Fields noticed something he considered out of the ordinary. Fields says he thinks that the person who shot Ayala must have known him. Five years after we first reported on his death, we follow up on the mystery that makes his case one of the most difficult murders to solve in Hollenbeck.
President Obama will meet with Haitian President Rene Preval in the Oval Office this morning, before he heads to Missouri to deliver another speech on health care reform. Meanwhile the hospital ship USNS Comfort leaves Haiti today after delivering humanitarian relief in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation. Tonight we follow up on the progress of the relief and aid in the country. Sarah Sidner will report from Haiti tonight.
Morning Buzz: Unsolved mysteries in Hollenbeck
One man in Hollenbeck looks outside his bedroom window toward the drive way where his son was shot and killed.
Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Five years ago we reported on gangs in Hollenbeck, one of the most violent neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Through the eyes of cops, criminals and crusaders, we witnessed the corrosive effects of gang violence. This week we’re back in the community, looking into how things have changed over the past five years.
Tonight, we talk to a woman who mourns the death of two of her sons, both victims of gang violence. They were killed seven years ago, both gunned down in the same year, in front of the house in which they grew up. One was a U.S. Marine with no ties to gangs, and the other was a member of a gang called State Street. Their mother believes solving the crime is only one step to reaching closure. Detectives in Hollenbeck solve seven out of every ten homicides in the area, and although they have some leads on the cases, both killings remain unsolved.
Before he was a convicted serial killer, Rodney Alcala was a winning bachelor on "The Dating Game." Found guilty in February of murdering four women and a child, Alcala, 66, is acting as his own attorney in the penalty phase of the trial. He is hoping to persuade the jury in Santa Ana, California, to spare his life. The crimes Alcala committed date to the late 1970s. Nobody at the time knew the man with the wavy long hair and toothy grin was an apparent psychopath - an unstable, antisocial personality. Tonight we talk to Jed Mills, the game-show contestant who sat next to Alcala on “The Dating Game” in 1978, “Oh yeah, I remember it quite clearly,” said Mills. “He was creepy. Definitely creeply.”
Morning Buzz: Homicide in Hollenbeck
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Dewaine Fields is a 30-year veteran with the LAPD detective who supervises the gang unit in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. He has seen gang crime go up and down over the years in this predominantly Latino community. While gang-related murder in Los Angeles is down nearly 60 percent since we reported here five years ago, Fields was not surprised when five people were murdered in a single week last summer. He says witness intimidation, the code of silence and vigilante justice in the form of retaliation are common threads that prevent his team from solving many crimes.
Five years ago Anderson reported on the gang violence in this neighborhood. This week – all week – he goes back to talk to people in the community, law enforcement officers and a former gang leader who is now leading a movement to curb the violence, about the influence of gangs in this area of LA.
Tonight, Anderson reports on a murder caught on surveillance camera. It shows a gang-related drive-by shooting that killed a 20-year-old as his father stood nearby. For detectives, the tape appears to be the smoking gun but will it be enough to find the killer? We’ll take you inside the investigation of a homicide in Hollenbeck as it unfolds in a community where 30 percent of all homicides remain unsolved.
Morning Buzz: An about face for the Obama Administration?
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
White House advisers are considering recommending alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be tried in a military court, not a civilian one in New York, a senior administration official confirmed today. This is a 180-degree move for the Obama administration, which has consistently insisted that trying Mohammed in a civilian court would be a powerful symbol of U.S. rule of law. So why they change?
And if you watched our report last night you know that there was a shooting at the Pentagon yesterday evening. The gunman who wounded two Pentagon police officers has now died. John Patrick Bedell, a 36-year-old from Hollister, Calif., coolly and calmly approached the screening area outside the Pentagon Thursday evening and opened fire, grazing two Pentagon police officers before they returned fire. We’re learning new details about Bedell today. He apparently had a blog and a website. So what was his motive?
We’re also looking at new unemployment numbers released today. Although the unemployment rate held steady in February, the U.S. economy is still shedding jobs, according to a government report released today. The Labor Department said the economy lost 36,000 jobs in the month, fewer than the 68,000 jobs economists were expecting. How are things in your neighborhood? Are people still losing jobs or have you noticed any kind of improvement?
Morning Buzz: A politician hits the cot?
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Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
Do you have to be rich to get into politics? In our series this week looking at the cost of entry, we’re reporting on whether or not you have to be rich to make an entrée into politics. It’s common for many lawmakers to have multiple homes, numerous cars and deep pockets. But tonight, Randi Kaye reports on one person in Congress who challenges that assumption. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz spent $45 on a cot for his office and that’s where he sleeps. He said he promised to vote like a fiscal conservative and he plans to live like one too. He says he saves his family $1500 a month by sleeping on the cot and he uses a shower two flights below him. So how is his frugal lifestyle playing out at the Capitol? Randi Kaye has more tonight.
Tonight we’re reporting on Dr. Bruce Ivins, the scientist who advised the federal government during the deadly anthrax case of 2001. But officials within the government believe Ivins may have actually been the man responsible for the attacks. Ivins committed suicide before he could be indicted. His former counselor talks exclusively to Joe Johns about Ivin’s deeply disturbed mental condition, giving shocking new insight into how dangerous he was and the dramatic decline that led to his death.
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