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Notebook: Dressing Up
Only On The Web: Katie Couric points out that we rarely dress up any more. Every day is like casual Friday, with people wearing jeans and flip flops wherever they go.

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Katie Couric's Notebook: Dressing Down

Posted by Katie Couric

Hi, everyone.

Do you remember dressing up? Buying a nice dress or new suit for a special event?

Are those days gone?

I can remember that even when my grandmother would get on a plane, she was dressed to the nines. But you rarely see people really dressed up anymore. Visit a restaurant, the theater, or even church, and you would swear that every day was Casual Friday. Jeans, flip-flops and sweats have replaced a coat and tie. Baseball caps are ubiquitous.

Maybe we're missing something these days -- a sense of "occasion," the idea that some things are WORTH getting dressed up for.

I mean, it's good that we're all feeling more comfortable.

But how we dress says something about how we see ourselves -- and how we want OTHERS to see us.

I tell my daughters not to judge a book by its cover.

But all the same: no one wants to look shabby, dog-eared...and ready for the remainder bin.

That's a page from my notebook.

5:43 PM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | Katie's Notebook posts

February 9, 2007

First Look: Anna And Obama

Posted by Greg Kandra

Katie and senior producer Bill Owens have today's First Look at tonight's CBS Evening News -- including the latest on the sudden death of Anna Nicole Smith and an exclusive interview on "60 Minutes" with Sen. Barack Obama.

Just click the monitor to watch.

4:51 PM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | First Look posts

February 9, 2007

10 Questions: Chuck Hagel And The Surge

Posted by Katie Couric

(AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) has caused a small firestorm because of his vocal opposition to President Bush’s proposed troop surge in Iraq. No less a figure than Vice President Dick Cheney has criticized Hagel, saying: "Let's say I believe firmly in Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican," Cheney said. "But it's very hard sometimes to adhere to that where Chuck Hagel is involved."

For his part, Hagel has made no secret of his disenchantment with the GOP. Not long ago, he told Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation”: "The party that I first voted for on top of a tank in Mekong Delta 1968 is not the party I see today."

Who wouldn’t want to ask 10 Questions of that kind of a firebrand?

We decided to lob some questions at him about the war and his presidential ambitions. Here’s what he lobbed back.

1.Senator Hagel, we all know that you're opposed to the President's policy which is to surge troops in Iraq. Is there anything you're for that could lead to success or is it about managing failure?

I am for many things, starting with the fact that we have to recognize the realities of the current situation in Iraq and the Middle East. And I don't believe that continuing a significant military escalation in Iraq is the wise course of action to take because I don't think that, ultimately, will change the future for Iraq.

In fact, I think it will have just the opposite effect. We cannot just pull out. The resolution that I co-authored is not cut and run. It is not withdrawal. It is not cut off funds. We talk in that resolution about a redeployment of troops--American troops where we think we can more effectively use our troops--putting them out on the border areas where we can help assure the territorial integrity of Iraq.

I think it is absolutely wrong tactically, militarily, strategically, and morally to put American troops in the middle of a sectarian—-an intrasectarian war--in Baghdad. That is a waste of our troops. It's a waste of our treasure. We should be focused on new diplomatic and strategic initiatives just as the Baker-Hamilton commission report suggested.

That is, engaging Syria and Iran. We had the Secretary of State before the committee [Thursday] morning talking about the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding. Already two million Iraqis have left the country. A third of their doctors have left the country. It's gonna get far worse.

And that means we're gonna have to engage, if for no other reason, for example, Syria and Iran. But the outcome in Iraq is going to be determined by the Iraqis, not the Americans. The Iraqis are the ones who are gonna have to come together with a political resolution based on some political accommodation and agreements. That is the only future way out for Iraq. And that's where we should be focusing our attention...
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4:27 PM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | 10 Questions posts

February 9, 2007

Unexpected Lessons From Teachers

Posted by Jonathan LaPook

Yesterday, the CDC reported that more children have autism than we thought. While covering the story for last night’s CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, I visited The McCarton School in New York City. The school helps educate children with autistic spectrum disorders. The teachers took my breath away. (You can see more in the monitor below.)

My eyes welled up as I watched them, not because I was sad but because I found their dedication and expertise to be so moving. They were so patient, so caring, so loving. As one point, I focused on a teacher standing behind a 6 year old boy during a reading class. She was in perpetual, subtle motion: taking a tiny, distracting toy from his hand; steering his attention to the reader; placing a gentle, reassuring arm on his shoulder; helping him pronounce a word mid-sentence but then letting him finish the sentence on his own. Over two minutes, she must have made ten different, thoughtful mid-course corrections to the boy’s behavior. Imagine what that comes out to over the course of a day, a year, a career.

Teachers like these are true heroes.

4:15 PM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | Field Notes posts

February 9, 2007

Vote Early And Often

Posted by Steve Hartman

(CBS)

As the correspondent for Assignment America, I've always felt it was wrong for me to vote for the stories I'm going to cover. So I never have. My parents vote. My camerman votes. But I don't.

That's not to say I'm not secretly rooting for one story over another. I usually do have a story choice I like better than the others. Or sometimes there's just one I DON'T want to win. Such was the case this week. I thought the story about adaptive skiing was old news. Kids with physical and mental challenges have been skiing for years. I thought -- what could I do with the story that hasn't already been done a million times?

So guess what story won? Adaptive skiing.

Thank goodness America knows a good idea when they see it (even if I don't always). The story, which we shot at the Holimont Ski resort near Buffalo, turned out to be one of my favorites in a long time. I had no idea adaptive skiing was one of the fastest growing segments of the ski industry. I had no idea how much skiing could help these kids. And I certainly didn't expect to fall in love with them the way I did.

The piece airs tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. After the story, we'll be offering three new choices for you to pick from for next week's Assignment America. Needless to say, I won't be voting (but you really should...)

3:28 PM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | Field Notes posts

February 9, 2007

Model Behavior? Not Exactly

Posted by Andrew Cohen

(AP Photo/"Entertainment Tonight")

Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News, and CBSNews.com.

Apart from leaving a sorry legacy of conflict, ridicule, scorn, lust and misery, Anna Nicole Smith leaves to posterity one other thing: a Byzantine set of legal conflicts that will probably take years to untangle. In fact, if judges and lawyers ever get together to write a book about how not to handle probate, estate and child custody issues, they will probably use the Anna Nicole Smith story as the backbone for the story.

There are so many unresolved legal issues it is hard to know where to begin, or to end, and besides, by the time you read this some of those issues already may be resolved. So instead of focusing upon the things that Smith and Company did wrong, or upon the hundred or so possible scenarios that could play out over the next few years, I thought I would humbly offer a few suggestions on what other families, other couples, can try to do right when it comes to maneuvering through the shoals of family law...
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1:02 PM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | Field Notes posts

February 9, 2007

E-mail: Remembering General Casey

Posted by Greg Kandra

Yesterday, producer Mary Walsh blogged about the OTHER General Casey -- the father of the new Army Chief of Staff. She got a note today from one of the men who worked with the General's father:

Thank you for including my tribute; but my words come up short describing the man - George W Casey. I served with him in Vietnam as his Assistant Chief of Staff, when he was a colonel and Chief of Staff of the 1st Cavalary Division. He once insisted I come to a staff meeting, at the end of which he stood up and announced the birth of my son. He then had the Division Adjutant General read promotion orders promoting me to major, pointing out that we need to take care of our soldiers, who have new responsibilities. As it turned out, it was the same day orders were cut in Washington, D.C. promoting me - I was on the promotion list. There are many more stories which all of us could tell, all of which would not only reflect on his leadership, but also his humanity. I, myself, could fill up several pages of incidents reflecting his love of his troops, his compassion, his leadership, and his humor. Even now, 30 years later, each day I say a prayer for him, hoping that the Good Lord has taken him into His bosom. By the way, he bet me $10 that the Red Sox would win the 1967 World Series, played after he rotated back to the states. Two weeks after the end of the world series, the colonel, yet to be promoted, sent me the $10.

Again thank you for letting me be part of the tribute to a wonderful man and great leader. He was felt by many to eventually hold the same position for which his son has been nominated. How fitting, though I am sure that General Casey, Jr is most deserving on his own.

Yes, he commands a lifelong love of the man.

Joseph G. Ward, II LTC, Ret, U.S. Army

11:43 AM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | E-Mailbag posts

February 9, 2007

Wall-To-Wall Anna

Posted by Mark Knoller

(AP Graphics Bank)

I still don’t get it. Why the frenzied, breathless, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it news coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith?

Two days after I questioned the inexplicable, disproportionate magnitude of coverage of the arrested astronaut, came the overblown wall-to-wall treatment of Anna Nicole’s death.

Did she cure cancer when I wasn’t looking?

Had she negotiated peace in the Middle East?

Tell me what about her death warranted the coverage given her on the so-called all-news cable channels?

Did the death of Mother Teresa get this treatment? I don’t think so.

I say I don’t get it, but of course, I do. It’s show biz. It’s pandering for an audience.

But it has less to do with journalism than with drawing a crowd. And that’s a decision made by the executives who run those news channels. They scrubbed all other stories, cancelled commercial breaks, and ordered non-stop coverage of Anna Nicole.

I’ll stipulate that she was a celebrity – of sorts. And her life has been a soap opera on high heels. And her death is news – of sorts. And part of the news audience would be interested to learn about it. And it should be reported.

But the level of coverage accorded her death was – to say the least – over-the-top.

Of course I understand what’s going on. But I know I’m not alone in deeming it an embarassment and in stating it does not reflect the reasons many of us got into the news business.

9:21 AM : February 9, 2007
| Permalink | News History posts

February 8, 2007

Katie Couric's Notebook: Lisa Nowak

Posted by Katie Couric

Hi, everyone.

Most of this week, the bizarre story of astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak has contributed to a lot of late night punchlines.

Headline writers have had a field day describing her as an "astro-nut," or "space oddity." There have been jokes about diapers and "Tang."

But there is clearly more to this - a broken marriage, a stressful job, unnamed troubles that were causing Lisa Nowak personal turmoil. Here was a woman who had literally soared to amazing heights, only to return to earth with a crash. But why? What caused it? Could it have been prevented?

Not to be a softy, but while everyone jokes, let's remember that this is a humiliating fall from grace for one woman -- and three children are involved.

As the director of the Johnson Space Center told the New York Times yesterday: "Like everyone, astronauts are human."

That humanity is what makes them so heroic.

And, in Lisa Nowak's case...so tragic.

That's a page from my notebook.
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5:49 PM : February 8, 2007
| Permalink | Notebook posts

February 8, 2007

You Are There: Inside The Libby Trial

Posted by Jennifer Hoar

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

For as much as the Scooter Libby trial is a showcase of divisiveness and "he said-she said" banter, there is a surprising sense of collegiality, even equity, in the courtroom where it all takes place.

When the judge announces a 10-minute break or lunch recess, everyone recesses together. So, you get up from your seat, perhaps headed for the water fountain around the corner, and end up walking out alongside of Libby's wife, Harriet, or even Libby himself.

On the first day I attended the trial, I was trying to find my way around during the lunch break. In my tentative search for an appropriate exit, I stopped in the middle of the hallway, only to get in the path of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, laden with documents and binders on his way to lunch. (After he politely excused himself to get by, I turned to a colleague and said, "wow, I literally just obstructed justice.")

The convergence of characters is also evident in the courthouse cafeteria (what is this, 7th grade?), where you might bump into the latest witness or counsel on the prowl for a turkey sandwich. Matt Cooper, former Time Magazine reporter, was on line next to me one day last week. It was unnerving. I wanted to say something, like "brutal cross-exam, huh?" or "did you really still reek of chlorine while you were talking to Libby on the phone?" But I let him ring up his meal (shiny apple included, natch) and dine in peace.

This trial is a unique environment in which the news media are in close proximity to the news makers, all as news is made. It's like watching animals in their natural habitat, except you're in there with them.

5:15 PM : February 8, 2007
| Permalink | Field Notes posts

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