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Tribute gala honors CNN Heroes

NEW YORK (CNN) — An Ecuadoran lawyer leading a landmark environmental lawsuit, a U.S. expatriate who encourages attendance at rural African schools and a Ugandan missionary who runs a boarding school for girls abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army were given special recognition at CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute Thursday night.

Actor Jimmy Smits, talk show host Tyra Banks and actress Kyra Sedgwick presented the honors to Fighting for Justice finalist Pablo Fajardo, Championing Children finalist Steve Peifer and Community Crusader finalist Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe.

Also honored were a Seattle, Washington, man who founded a clinic in his native Kenya, a Cuban woman who transformed a toxic dump in Cuba into an urban garden, and a teenager who developed a music system to help people with autism by linking language to sounds. Watch highlights from the show

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, actress Rosario Dawson and musician Harry Connick Jr. presented the honors to Medical Marvel finalist Peter Kithene, Defending the Planet finalist Irania Martinez Garcia and Young Wonder finalist Kayla Cornale. Read more about each of the honorees

Cuban-born environmental health advocate Alberto Jones accepted the Defending the Planet honor on behalf of his friend Garcia.

A blue ribbon panel of 15 eminent personalities selected the six honorees from three finalists in each category.

Fajardo grew up in the Amazon and started working at the age of 14 to support his younger siblings. As he labored on a plantation and in the oil fields, he attended night school to get a high school education. For six years, he woke at 3:30 a.m. to study law, and now in his first case, he is up against the oil industry.

Our work in Ecuador is an example of the good things that can happen when thousands of people most without money or power can come together in a common effort to better themselves and the planet, Fajardo said in accepting the honor. Watch Fajardo talk with presenter Jimmy Smits

Peifer and his family moved to Kenya eight years ago. A former Oracle software manager, he was struck by the chronic poverty and he believed educating local children could help change that. He devised an inexpensive way for schools to provide meals to hungry students and he also builds school computer centers. The result: Attendance is on the rise.

It’s a privilege to be in Kenya, Peifer told the CNN Heroes audience. We came to Kenya after one of our children died. Scripture says he who seeks to lose his own life will find it. When my son died, I felt like I lost my own life. Kenya gave it back to me. I’ll always be blessed that we ended up in Kenya. There’s such a need in Kenya. There’s such an opportunity right now. Watch Peifer talk about his honor

Nyirumbe reached out to young girls who had been kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army and had been forced to become soldiers and concubines. Hundreds responded and enrolled in her boarding school, where she teaches them tailoring, catering and business administration and helps rehabilitate them.

In humility and great gratitude, I accept the CNN Heroes award on behalf of those physically and psychologically traumatized young women and girls and children, and on behalf of the many people contributing like me to doing small things that [are] transforming people’s lives, Nyirumbe said. I honor the young women, the young mothers who have been forced to become mothers before they were prepared. I receive this award on their behalf, and I salute them all. CNN’s Alina Cho talks to Nyirumbe

Kithene lost his parents when he was 12 and he knew then the best thing he could do for his family was to get an education. Kithene, now pursuing a graduate degree in Health Administration, has founded an organization that brings medical care to poor rural Kenyans. Watch Kithene discuss his honor

Garcia transformed the city dump in Guantanamo into an eco-friendly garden by separating organic and inorganic materials. The organic material was used as compost for the garden and the inorganic matter was stripped down to its core and recycled or re-sold.

Cornale’s autistic cousin had a knack for remembering songs and at 16, Cornale invented a system called Sounds Into Syllables. She figured out a way to link sounds to language, to help her cousin communicate. Two years later, Cornale, 18, runs a pilot research program while attending Stanford University.

All 18 finalists will receive a $10,000 cash grant from CNN. The six CNN Heroes selected by the blue ribbon panel will each receive an additional $25,000. See photos of the event

In addition to the viewer-nominated CNN Heroes, the show also honored Pat Pedraja, the most popular CNN Hero profiled on air and online between May 1 and September 30, as chosen in a viewers’ choice poll conducted on CNN.com.

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, presented the Viewers’ Choice honor to Pedraja.

Pedraja, a 12-year-old leukemia patient from Tampa, Florida, traveled the country encouraging minorities like himself to register as bone marrow donors after he learned that minorities make up less than a third of the U.S. bone marrow registry and often die without donors. In three months, he raised more than $100,000 and helped sign up more than 5,000 people to the registry.

Over the past five months, our CNN Heroes initiative has shone a spotlight upon dozens of amazing people from around the globe, said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. All of them deserve the designation as a ‘hero,’ and these seven we honored tonight truly stood out with their accomplishments, their courage and their humility.

CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute, hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, aired live globally on CNN/U.S., CNN International and CNN en Espanol from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

CNN also honored the legacy of Christopher and Dana Reeve and their foundation with the inaugural CNN Heroes’ Hero Award.

Actress Glenn Close presented the award to the Reeves’ children, Matthew and Alexandra Reeve, and foundation board chairman Peter D. Kiernan III.

The award was created to recognize individuals who devoted their lives to helping others and whose names have become synonymous with their causes.

The Reeve foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.

The couple formed the foundation after a 1995 horse-riding accident left Christopher Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. Reeve died in 2004, and Dana Reeve died two years later after complications from lung cancer.

Festivities began at 8 p.m. on Headline News with a one-hour red-carpet show live from outside the museum as celebrity performers and presenters arrived.

The two-hour gala that followed featured performances from Grammy Award winners Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow and Norah Jones, and acclaimed performer-producer Wyclef Jean.

The show focused the spotlight on the 18 CNN Heroes finalists selected from more than 7,000 nominations submitted by viewers in 80 countries.

The finalists — three each in six categories of cause-related work — have been featured in stories airing on Anderson Cooper 360 during the past two weeks.

The CNN Heroes categories are:

Championing Children: extraordinary commitment to the welfare of young people

Community Crusader: creating solutions to a local problem or social issue

Defending the Planet: innovative efforts to preserve and protect the environment

Fighting for Justice: advancing the cause of civil or equal rights

Medical Marvel: dedication to the enhancement of human health

Young Wonder: outstanding achievement by a person under the age of 18

Everyday Superheroes — remarkable people recognized by CNN for their spontaneous acts of courage in the face of danger — also were recognized at the show.

These included Wesley Autrey, who jumped onto New York subway tracks to save the life of a student, and John Smeaton, a baggage handler who thwarted a terrorist attack at Glasgow Airport in Scotland. The show also paid tribute to the numerous heroes who saved lives during the tragic massacre at Virginia Tech. Watch John Smeaton talk about his honor

During the show, Blige — Queen of Hip-Hop Soul — gave the first live performance of a song from her forthcoming album, Growing Pains, while singer-songwriter Crow performed Shine Over Babylon.

Jean and Jones performed a duet and first live performance of a new track from Jean’s new album, Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant, being released this month.

Executive producer for Thursday night’s event was Joel Gallen, who helmed telethon events supporting victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

Gallen won a Peabody Award for America: A Tribute to Heroes and has been nominated for several Emmy awards throughout his career.

From May 1 through September 30, CNN has featured everyday heroes across its television networks, digital services and at CNN.com/Heroes, encouraging viewers to submit and nominate local heroes they deem deserving of recognition. E-mail to a friend

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‘Innocent people going about their daily lives’

(CNN) — One stopped to buy presents on his way home from a business trip. One wrapped packages at a department store for the sheer joy of it.

All eight victims of Wednesday’s shooting at an Omaha, Nebraska, mall had special gifts, their families and friends said.

These were innocent people going about their daily lives, performing their jobs and shopping for the holidays, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey said Thursday. They are men and women who did not deserve the fate that they were given.

Gary Scharf, 48, had stopped at the Westroads Mall on the way home to Lincoln, Nebraska, from a business call in Iowa.

I’m sure he got in front of other people and shielded them from bullets, Kim Scharf, Gary Scharf’s once and future wife, told The Associated Press. There’s no doubt in my mind, I promise you. That’s who he is, to a fault. Watch how panicked shoppers called for help

She said Scharf recently helped get a car started for a single mother, then gave the woman a load of blankets and groceries.

I called him my Dudley Do-right, Kim Scharf told AP. I’m not kidding. You’d never meet a more honorable and loyal man.

The divorced couple were planning to remarry.

Angie Schuster, 36, of Omaha, had worked at Von Maur department store for almost 10 years and managed the girls department, her family in Iowa said in a statement. See the faces of those who were killed

She really loved children and talked about her nieces and nephew all the time, the statement read. She was in love with her boyfriend and very happy about the life they were planning together.

Dianne Trent, 53, had worked at Von Maur for eight years.

She was a gentle, generous, soft-spoken woman who loved the Lord, her family’s attorney, Dennis P. Lee, said in a statement reported by CNN affiliate KETV. Dianne enjoyed vacationing with her family. She loved the Christmas season and shopping. She lovingly took in animals. Anyone who met her loved her.

Trent’s neighbor Errol Schlenker told AP he often chatted with Trent over tea.

A very incredibly sweet person, Schlenker said. She was a middle-of-the-road American, a dedicated worker. She was just a decent person who lived a good life here.

Beverly Flynn took time out from her real estate career to wrap gifts at Von Maur, fellow gift wrapper Janice Hopkins told KETV.

Flynn, 47, did this for Christmas because she thought it was fun and she liked the discount, Hopkins said. Didn’t do it for the money, she liked working.

The Omaha resident made a practice of planting a rose bush in the yard of every home she sold, NP Dodge real estate company spokeswoman Susan Young told AP.

That was her way to put her style on the whole transaction, Young said. She was a very warm individual.

Gary Joy’s mother, Inez Joy, told KETV her son visited her often at her retirement community. She said he loved to write stories and poetry and was pursuing a degree in literature at Bellevue University.

She said her son’s decision to donate his organs was typical of the way he always helped others.

I’ve been through tragedy before, his mother said. You hurt. There’s not a thing you can do about it.

Joy, 56, was a Von Maur employee who had homes in Omaha and in Denver, Colorado, AP reported.

Janet Jorgensen, the oldest victim at 66, had worked at Von Maur for 14 years. Watch a grandson remember Jorgensen as the epitome of true love

She loved her work, family friend Paul Huntimer told AP. She had regular customers she loved to talk about.

She was married for 50 years and lived in the same Omaha neighborhood for 40, and organized an annual block party, Huntimer said.

And she doted on her eight grandchildren.

Her grandchildren were her life, Huntimer told AP.

Maggie Webb, the youngest victim at 24, came to the Omaha Von Maur store this year from one in Chicago, according to AP.

The Moline, Illinois, native had a degree in business administration, according to AP.

One of my staff commented to me about Maggie, saying, ‘She was one of the good ones.’ They paused, and said, ‘No, one of the great ones, ‘ Moline High School Principal Bill Burrus told the Quad City Times, according to AP.

John McDonald, 65, and his wife, Kathy, of nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa, were getting Christmas gifts wrapped when the shooting broke out, AP reported. He was fatally wounded as they tried to hide behind a chair.

He was one of the greatest people anyone could hope to meet, Kathy McDonald told AP. He had a fantastic sense of humor. He was so accepting of people.

John McDonald’s brother P.J. is the chaplain for the Clive, Iowa, police and fire departments.

People enjoying their Christmas shopping on a pleasant afternoon, and then to have nine lives lost — one of them my brother. It’s a terrible thing, P.J. McDonald told CNN affiliate KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa.

My brother was a gentle soul. If there was one thing that would be a characteristic of his, it was the fact that he did not like violence.

Despite his training, McDonald said he can’t minister to himself.

I can be a chaplain for other people, but on my own behalf, I am useless. I am devastated by this horrible turn of events, he told KCCI. When I heard it, I had no response. I sat there and cried. That’s all I could do.

McDonald said he hopes the Omaha tragedy will make people everywhere stop to look at their own lives.

I again invite people observing this to take some time and think about where we are with some of our violent acts that we no longer need to entertain, and just softening of the heart.
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Kaka deserves top player accolade

(CNN) — Despite the obvious claims of younger rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, few can really argue with the 96 football journalists who voted Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite as the 2007 World Footballer of the Year.

The prestigious Ballon d’Or award is widely regarded as the most prestigious individual prize in football and Kaka’s inclusion on its coveted roll of honor is a testament to the 25-year-old Brazilian’s current standing in world football.

When AC Milan defeated Liverpool in the Champions League final in Athens, avenging their heartbreaking loss to the same team in Istanbul two years previously, it enabled Kaka to fulfill his dream of holding aloft Europe’s premier trophy — a winner’s medal he fully deserved after a sublime 90-minute performance.

Kaka’s stock for both club and country has risen steadily since his move to the San Siro from Sao Paulo for a fee of just $8.5 million in the summer of 2003.

Unlike many a Brazilian sporting genius, Kaka did not hone his skills on the beach or the streets of a favela shanty town. He was born into a comfortable middle class Brasilia family, where football was not the only hope of a bright future.

However, it soon became clear that this particular boy had a very special skill and he was signed by Sao Paulo, after his family had moved there, at just eight years of age — making his first team debut as an 18-year-old.

Kaka’s progress was soon picked up by his national team coach and Felipe Scolari named the graceful midfielder in his 23-man squad for the 2002 World Cup finals, earning him a winners’ medal despite playing only 19 minutes of the tournament in a group match against Costa Rica.

A year later, and Kaka was on his way to Milan. Within a month he had made the starting line-up and his 10 goals helped the Rossoneri lift the Scudetto and the European Super Cup.

Throughout his career, Kaka has always possessed the innate ability to score goals — his record for both club and country sees him average roughly a goal every three games.

Yet to describe Kaka merely as a goalscoring midfielder would be doing him a massive injustice. Tall, elegant and blessed with astonishing skill, Milan and Brazil utilize Kaka’s ability superbly.

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti soon recognized Kaka’s genius, changing his team’s system to a 4-4-1-1, playing the Brazilian behind a main target man.

With Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso holding the central midfield area, Kaka has a license to roam in behind the lone striker, be it Filippo Inzaghi, Ronaldo or Alberto Gilardino.

And Kaka does this with devastating effect, running at the opposition with pace and power, finding defense-splitting passes or shooting from range with deadly accuracy be it from a dead-ball situation or open play.

The fly in the ointment for Milan comes in the shape of their poor form this season. Although they have already reached the last 16 of the Champions League, the club are floundering in Serie A and face the unthinkable prospect of not qualifying for next season’s competition unless they win the trophy.

Real Madrid have coveted Kaka for the last two years — expect the world transfer record to be smashed if Milan don’t secure a place among Europe’s elite. E-mail to a friend

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Storm spares California, but mudslides still threaten

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A Pacific Northwest storm blew through Southern California early Friday without causing much damage, but officials warned that the threat of mudslides and flooding continued.

Up to three inches of rain had been expected in Orange County, which had been burned bare by wildfires earlier in the year. About 1,000 homes were evacuated on Thursday, but only about half that amount of rain fell overnight.

Still, the narrow, sandbagged streets were at risk of mudslides and flash flood watches remained in effect for burned areas through Friday afternoon.

It still could flow hours after the rain could stop, said Stuart Seto, chief weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Elsewhere, rain-slicked roads led to multiple traffic accidents. In Burbank, firefighters rescued two people whose car went off Interstate 5 shortly after 5 a.m. and overturned in 2 feet of water in the Los Angeles River.

The occupants were trapped for several minutes but they were conscious when they were rescued, said California Highway Patrol Officer Francisco Villalobos. Watch the rescue of two people trapped in an SUV in floodwaters

In neighboring Pasadena, a tractor-trailer rig overturned on the Foothill Freeway at around 3 a.m., destroying some 30 feet of freeway soundwall. Several lanes were shut for several hours.

The storm arrived late Thursday night and the heaviest rain came after midnight. About a half- to three-quarters of an inch fell in coastal and valley areas and up to 2 inches in the mountains.

The storm pushed through L.A. pretty fast, faster than we were expecting, Seto said.

By daybreak, the storm front had moved east to the San Bernardino Mountains, leaving only scattered showers that could drop only about a quarter-inch of rain through the day, Seto said.

However, high wind warnings remained through the day for 25-35 mph winds, gusting to 50 mph, in some desert, mountain and coastal areas.
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Home-run king Barry Bonds pleads not guilty

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) — Home-run king Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty in federal court Friday to charges related to accusations he used performance-enhancing drugs and lied about it to a grand jury.

Bonds’ courtroom battle is the latest blow to the career of a seven-time National League most valuable player, whose indictment accuses him of testing positive for steroids.

The media circus surrounding the event was evident by the frenzied throng of fans and photographers crushing Bonds as he entered U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Among those who traveled to see the baseball star was a 43-year-old travel agent from Sacramento who stood near the courthouse holding a broomstick with a witch costume hanging from it, according to The Associated Press. Watch Bonds wade his way through the crowd

The man carried a sign welcoming the crowd to what he called a George Mitchell witchhunt, referring to baseball’s steroids investigator.

Also nearby, according to AP, a giant marquee on a tire store said, Say it ain’t so, Barry.

If convicted, Bonds, 43, could face prison time. Although the law allows sentences of up to five years for a perjury count and up to 10 years for a count of obstruction of justice, experts say Bonds would not, in all likelihood, be given such a long sentence.

Bonds also was to have his fingerprints taken and a mug shot photo, according to AP.

During his December 2003 testimony in an investigation that focused on the Balco San Francisco-area laboratory, Bonds repeatedly denied he had knowingly taken steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds’ attorney Mike Rains has insisted his client is innocent, and accused prosecutors of biased allegations and unethical misconduct.

Rains said prosecutors leaked the November 15 indictment to every media outlet in the nation before sharing it with defense attorneys or their client.

During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances for Bonds and other professional athletes, the indictment said.

Just hours after the indictment became public, a federal judge freed Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson from prison. Anderson, who admitted distributing steroids, was jailed for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors investigating whether Bonds lied to the grand jury.

I fully expect the government to start ratcheting up the pressure on Greg, said Anderson’s attorney, Mark Geragos told AP. He will never cooperate with the government. He doesn’t trust them.

Bonds has denied taking steroids at any time in 2001 when he was pursuing the single-season home run record.

According to the indictment, During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes. Bonds is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.

Allegations of steroid use prompted congressional hearings and new efforts by Major League Baseball to stop drug use, including a probe led by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

Bonds was granted immunity for his grand jury testimony, which took place on December 4, 2003. The indictment states Bonds was promised his testimony would not be used against him except in the cases of perjury, false declaration or otherwise failing to comply with the court’s order.

This year Bonds filed for free agency and severed his tenure with the San Francisco Giants on the first possible day — after Boston swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series.

Giants owner Peter Magowan had told Bonds the club would not bring him back for a 16th season.

Bonds has hit 762 homers, breaking Hank Aaron’s record on August 7 with a shot into the right-center seats off Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik at San Francisco. But his achievements on the field have long been shadowed by the drug-use allegations.

In addition to his seven MVP awards, Bonds has been selected for 14 All-Star games and eight Gold Glove awards.
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