Casey Anthony's parents want the truth

Anthony family atty clarifies commentsvar cnnWindowParams = window.location.toString().toQueryParams();if(typeof cnnWindowParams.video != "undefined") {if(cnnWindowParams.video) {cnnLoadStoryPlayer('bestoftv/2011/06/23/exp.ac.lippman.clarify.intv.part2.cnn', 'cnnCVP1', '640x384_start_art', playerOverRide, T1);}} else {$('cnnCVP2').onclick = function() {if ($$('.box-opened').length) {$$('.box-opened').each(function(val){Element.fireEvent(val, 'click');});}cnnLoadStoryPlayer('bestoftv/2011/06/23/exp.ac.lippman.clarify.intv.part2.cnn', 'cnnCVP1', '640x384_start_art', playerOverRide, T1);};$('cnnCVP2').onmouseover = function() {$('cnnCVP2').className = 'cnn_mtt1plybttn cnn_mtt1plybttnon';};$('cnnCVP2').onmouseout = function() {$('cnnCVP2').className = 'cnn_mtt1plybttn';};}NEW: Caylee could climb pool stairs on her own, Cindy Anthony testifiesNEW: Casey Anthony's brother says stains were in cars years before she took it overCasey Anthony is charged in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter, CayleeAttorney: Parents "have not come to any conclusion about whether their daughter is guilty"Tune in to HLN's "Nancy Grace" at 8 ET for live reports from Florida with all the details of the Casey Anthony trial. And follow the action on Nancy's special Casey Anthony trial page.

Orlando, Florida (CNN) -- Two-year-old Caylee Anthony was able to climb into the family's backyard pool on her own, but she couldn't have installed the removable ladder or opened gates leading to the area, her grandmother testified Friday at the outset of an emotional day in the Casey Anthony murder trial.

Defense attorneys are trying to prove that Caylee could have accidentally drowned in the family pool on June 16, 2008. They argue Casey Anthony and her father panicked on finding the girl's body and covered up her death.

Prosecutors argue Casey Anthony used chloroform to render her daughter unconscious, put duct tape on her nose and mouth to smother her, then stored her body in the trunk of her car for a few days before disposing of the remains in a wooded field.

But Anthony's defense team has worked intently to call that theory into question in the last few days as the trial rolls towards the end of its fifth week.

On Thursday, Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, testified she was using a family computer to search for terms including chloroform and alcohol in March 2008, three months before Caylee disappeared.

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She testified Friday about how Caylee was always anxious to get into the pool and how she could climb and descend the pool steps virtually unaided as she approached her third birthday.

Then Anthony's brother, Lee Anthony, took the stand to say that stains in the back of the trunk were there when he owned the car from 2000 to 2005, and probably before. Witnesses for the prosecution have said subtle stains in the trunk of the car could have been made by fluids from the girl's decomposing body.

Later, Anthony and her brother both began to cry when defense attorney Jose Baez asked why he didn't visit his sister in the hospital after Caylee was born in 2005. He said he only had one brief conversation with his mother about his sister's pregnancy until just days before Caylee was born.

"I was very angry at my mom and at my sister," he said. "I was just angry at everyone in general that they didn't want to include me, didn't find it important enough to tell me."

Cindy Anthony opened the day's testimony, telling Baez that Caylee was able to climb the stairs of the pool on her own, with just a light touch of support to make sure she was safe. She also said the girl rarely, if ever, left the house without shoes -- a nod to the fact that no shoes were found with her body.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick, Cindy Anthony acknowledged that Caylee could not have opened the gate to the back yard or placed the pool's heavy removable ladder into position to climb it. She also acknowledged that she had previously had difficulty assigning correct dates to events.

Baez also attempted to get Cindy Anthony to discuss how often she had mentioned drowning as a possible cause of the girl's death, despite an earlier video played by prosecutors in which she mentioned such a scenario reported by media outlets as a rumor.

Judge Belvin Perry would not allow her to answer.

Lee Anthony followed his mother to the stand, telling jurors about three stains in the trunk of the Pontiac Sunfire that his sister later inherited. The stains were there for at least as long as he owned the car, he said. He may have added a few of his own before he passed the car to his sister in 2005, he testified.

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Baez then began questioning him about his sister's pregnancy.

Lee Anthony said aside from a brief conversation with his mother, he never spoke to anyone in his family about the pregnancy until just a few days before Caylee was born.

Crying, he said he was angry with family members for not including him, but when Baez pressed if there were other reasons why he would have been angry, prosecutor Jeff Ashton objected.

"I was very hurt and I don't think I wanted to believe it," he said.

The trial then broke for lunch.

The emotional testimony came a day after Cindy Anthony told jurors that she conducted the computer searches because she was trying to figure out what was making one of her Yorkie dogs "extremely tired all the time." Both the dogs ate bamboo plants in the backyard, she testified, so she started searching for chlorophyll to see if the plants were causing the dog's exhaustion.

A bacteria associated with chlorophyll production comes from different plants, she said, and some species of algae and seaweed produce natural chloroform, so the search led her from chlorophyll to chloroform.

She also was searching for other chemicals, including alcohol, she told Baez, because of a recent scare regarding hand sanitizers around small children. And she searched on some injuries, she said, because a friend of hers had recently been in a car accident and suffered head and chest injuries. She was, she said, "looking up specific terminology that someone had asked me to look up.".

It appears the computer user first searched for "chloraform" on Google and received results for "chloroform," said John Bradley, owner of the software development company that created the software used to retrieve the data. One of the search results was from Wikipedia.org, which was accessed, he testified.

Searches were also conducted on "how to make chloroform," "neck breaking" and "making weapons out of household products," Bradley testified.

Cindy Anthony testified Thursday she did not search for how to make chloroform or household weapons. She said she also did not search for neck breaking, but remembered a pop-up ad featuring a skateboarder doing a "neck-breaking stunt."

She testified that she told authorities about her search for chlorophyll earlier.

Casey Anthony, 25, is charged with seven counts in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008, including first-degree murder. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

Caylee was not reported missing to police until July 15, 2008, when Cindy Anthony tracked down her daughter and demanded answers regarding Caylee's whereabouts. Prosecution witnesses described Anthony's behavior in the month after Caylee was last seen as nonchalant, testifying how she spent time with her boyfriend, went shopping and to nightclubs.

Baez said in his opening statement that Anthony behaved as she did because years of sexual abuse by her father and had conditioned her to conceal the truth and hide her pain.

On Thursday, an attorney for Casey Anthony's parents said the couple has not come to any conclusion about whether their daughter is guilty of murdering their granddaughter, comments that came as the capital murder trial neared the conclusion of its fifth week.

After telling CNN's Gary Tuchman that Casey Anthony's parents do not believe she is innocent, attorney Mark Lippman issued a statement Thursday clarifying his remarks.

Lippman said George Anthony never molested his daughter or helped cover up his granddaughter's death, as Casey Anthony's attorneys have alleged. And, he said his clients have not come to any conclusion about whether their daughter is guilty of murder.

"They simply want to know the truth," Lippman told reporters. "They have no idea what happened. ... They just want both the state (prosecutors) and the defense to do their jobs."

CNN's Lateef Mungin and In Session's Mayra Cuevas and Michael Christian contributed to this report.

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NAACP, parents and activists at odds over Harlem charter schools

The NAACP and a New York City teachers' union are trying to stop 22 school closuresThe groups want to stop the expansion or co-location of 20 charter schools An NAACP official says the plan unfairly favors charters at the expense of regular schools But some, like activist Geoffrey Canada, say more charter schools are needed

(CNN) -- For decades, Harlem has been a hub of African-American culture and the NAACP. But this month, the issue of charter schools has turned the New York City neighborhood into a battleground between activists and the 101-year-old civil rights organization.

The strain was as clear as the signs and chants during a rally Thursday in Harlem -- "NAACP, Don't Divide Us, Unite Us!"

About 4% of New York City's roughly 1 million students currently attend charter schools -- which are paid with public funds but typically have different mandates, approaches and staffing arrangements that traditional schools. Another 50,000 students are on waiting lists.

A proposal to expand access to charter schools and allow charters to co-locate -- or be based in the same building -- as regular schools has turned some traditional allies against each other.

The rift accelerated in May, when the NAACP and the United Federation of Teachers -- a union of 200,000 New York City teachers and school staff -- filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court. Besides asking to stop 22 school closings, the lawsuit urged halting the plan to expand or co-locate 20 charter schools.

On its website, the teachers' union calls the initiative illegal and claims it would give "charter school students more access to school facilities, including libraries, auditoriums and lunchrooms, than students in the public schools that would share the buildings."

While a teachers union opposing charter schools is hardly unprecedented, leaders of the local NAACP said they decided to step in and support the lawsuit in order to best ensure a level playing field for all New York City students.

Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP's New York chapter, said the group is fighting for equal education for all -- similar to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, which mandated equal education regardless of race.

"The facilities should be in good condition on both sides," said Dukes. "There should not be a 10 o'clock lunch hour and a 12 o'clock lunch hour. There should be one 12 o'clock lunch hour."

Yet Geoffrey Canada, a nationally renowned educator who is the president and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone, thinks more charter schools in New York City are the solution -- not the problem. That's why he joined parents Thursday calling for the NAACP and teachers' union to drop the lawsuit, or at least the part pertaining to charter schools.

Aisha Moore, who attended the rally, said the NAACP's stance is counterproductive if its goal is to support the rejuvenation of New York City schools.

"The NAACP has always backed minorities and African-Americans, so it's just surprising they're moving against us now," she said. "It's like moving backwards, when we should be pushing forward."

Keona Moore, a single parent whose daughter attends a charter school, said that the trickle-down effect of closing schools and limiting options could be devastating.

"I'm not going to put her in a failing public school," Moore said.

Zakiyah Ansari said that's where the efforts should be focused: on making sure no existing public schools are failing, not to create more charter schools at the expense of traditional ones. The mother of eight insisted that those rallying in Harlem on Thursday and those behind the lawsuit -- like herself -- have more in common than they might think.

"Now we're engaged with parents and having them come out in busloads to fight against other parents fighting for the same thing -- the right for a quality education," said Ansari, an organizer with the Alliance for Quality Education. "We're not asking for more."

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Most parents vaccinate kids, trust docs' advice on shots

About 93% of parents said their children either had or were going to get all of the recommended vaccinations, and more than three-fourths said they trusted their doctor's advice on immunizations, two new surveys find.

By PhotoDisc

Even if the thought of your little one getting poked multiple times makes you feel a bit uneasy, it's important to follow the recommended vaccine schedule, doctors said.

By PhotoDisc

Even if the thought of your little one getting poked multiple times makes you feel a bit uneasy, it's important to follow the recommended vaccine schedule, doctors said.

Pediatricians and infectious disease experts say this is good news. After years of hype about a supposed autism/MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) link — a claim that has been roundly discredited — it seems parents are heeding the advice of medical experts and protecting their children from potentially devastating diseases.

"It's reassuring that so many parents place a lot of trust in their child's physician, more so than any other source," said study author Dr. Gary Freed, director of the child health evaluation and research unit at University of Michigan.

Yet, there is still cause for concern. About 24% of parents surveyed said they place some trust in what celebrities say about vaccines.

One prominent vaccine skeptic is Jenny McCarthy, the American model and actress whose son has autism. McCarthy continues to promote the autism/MMR theory, despite the British Medical Journal retraction of the study that linked the two, according to news reports.

"Celebrities have no expertise in childhood immunizations or infectious disease," Freed said. "There is a danger in the media of putting up celebrities as experts on any topic for which they have an opinion, and giving them a platform to share their opinions that is presented as equal to true experts."

In the first survey, published in the May issue of Pediatrics, researchers used data from a 2009 nationally representative sample of about 1,550 parents of children aged 17 and younger.

About 76% of parents said they trusted their child's doctor "a lot," 22% said they had "some" trust, while only 2% said they didn't trust the doctor.

Parents also trusted other health-care providers and government vaccine experts, but not as much as doctors.

Two percent of parents said they trusted celebrities "a lot," 24% said they trusted celebrities somewhat for vaccine information, and 74% said they trusted celebrities "not at all." Women and Hispanics were more likely to trust celebrities.

A second survey by researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the same journal used 2009 survey data from parents of children under the age of 6.

Nearly 75% of parents reported their youngest child had received all of the recommended vaccines; another 19% said their child would receive the vaccines.

About 79% of parents were either confident or very confident in vaccine safety, and about 80% said they thought vaccines were important for a child's health.

But parents still have their concerns. About 22% somewhat or strongly agreed that they were concerned about "too many vaccines potentially damaging a child's immune system," according to the study.

When asked how many shots parents were comfortable with their child receiving in a single doctor's visit, 42% said one to two; 34% said three to four; and 23% said "whatever the doctor recommends."

The authors suggest that pediatricians listen to parents' concerns and direct them to appropriate resources for information.

"It's encouraging that in this survey the overwhelming majority said they will get all of their immunizations. That's a wonderful thing," said Dr. David Kimberlin, a professor of pediatrics at University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. "The noise out there that seems to question vaccine safety is increasingly being discounted and being discounted in a very public way."

Even so, Kimberlin said parents still bring up concerns about vaccine safety.

Even if the thought of your little one getting poked multiple times in one appointment makes you feel a bit uneasy, it's important to follow the recommended vaccine schedule, Freed said.

"The schedule is designed to protect infants from diseases at the times they are at highest risk," Freed said. "If you delay vaccines, you delay protecting your child and put them at risk for life-threatening diseases."

The pertussis, or whooping cough, vaccine is typically given at 2, 4, 6 and 12 months, and then a booster at 4 years. There's a reason for the timing, Freed said.

In adults, whooping cough can cause a barking cough that lasts for weeks, but it's treatable with antibiotics and rarely life-threatening. But in infants, whooping cough can be deadly.

Several babies died in California last year during the worst pertussis outbreak in 50 years. Those most at risk were babies too young to be immunized.

Minnesota and Salt Lake City are experiencing a measles outbreak. Measles can cause pneumonia, brain swelling and even death.

"You don't have look any farther than the biggest pertussis outbreak in California in 50 years and the measles outbreak in Minnesota to see what it looks like when we let our guard down," Kimberlin said.

On the Web:

www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/child-schedule.htm, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more information on the recommended vaccine schedule for kids and adults.

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U.S. journalist held in Libya calls parents, says she's OK

More than two weeks after being detained by pro-government forces in Libya, American journalist Clare Gillis was heard from for the first time today, when she called her parents and told them she is in good health and being held in a civilian women's jail in Tripoli.

Gillis was reporting in Libya for The Atlantic magazine, USA TODAY and other publications.

"We are very relieved to hear Clare was able to reach her parents and now we're looking forward to her speedy release," said USA TODAY Editor John Hillkirk.

Her parents were happy to hear she is safe and pressed for her release as well.

"It's a hopeful good sign," her father, Robert Gillis, told USA TODAY. "Now we've made this contact, we really want to get things moving so she and the other journalists could be released."

Gillis, 34, was taken into custody April 5 while covering fighting between Libyan rebels and pro-government forces near Brega in eastern Libya. With her was another American, James Foley, a correspondent for Globalpost online international news agency, and Manu Brabo, a Spanish freelance photographer.

The journalists were split up earlier this week when Gillis was moved to the women's prison, The Atlantic reports. She described the prison uniforms as "pink pajamas" and said most of her fellow inmates spoke only Arabic.

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded the immediate release of U.S. citizens "unjustly detained" in Libya, including Gillis and Foley, according to the Associated Press.

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Parents of teen who committed suicide sue school, district

By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe boy's mother files a federal lawsuit against a Texas school districtShe says the staff failed to protect Asher Brown, 13Asher had told his mother and stepfather that he was taunted, they claim (CNN) -- The mother of a Texas teenager who committed suicide last year filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday, arguing the school he attended did nothing after receiving complaints he was being bullied.

Asher Brown, 13, an eighth-grader at Hamilton Middle School, shot himself to death at home last fall.

Amy Truong, Asher's mother, also names Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in the lawsuit. She argues the middle school staff witnessed some incidents of bullying, physical assaults and name-calling against her son. Despite a policy on bullying and harassment, the suit states, district personnel "had an actual practice and custom of looking the other way."

Last year, Truong and the boy's stepfather told CNN's Anderson Cooper that Asher was bullied because he was small, did not wear fashionable clothing and was a Buddhist. They also said Asher told them he was gay and had received taunts about his sexuality.

The school district had no immediate reaction Tuesday. According to the lawsuit, it has stated there was no evidence of any bullying or complaints filed on behalf of Asher. But the lawsuit says his stepfather, David Truong, went to the school district to talk about Asher being bullied.

The Truongs said they are lobbying the Texas Legislature for anti-bullying reform legislation, according to CNN affiliate KPRC.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive damages and asks that the school adopt a policy known as "Asher's Rule" in which students can confidentially report bullying and harassment.

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Parents furious over release of man they blame for daughter's death

John Burgess, shown here in 2007, admitted to drugging 19-year-old Donna Jou and dumping her body at sea. STORY HIGHLIGHTSJohn Burgess admitted drugging Donna Jou and disposing of her body after she diedHe pleaded guilty in 2009 and is now about to be released from prisonThe victim's parents say he should stay in jail and the case should be reopenedDistrict attorney's office says it would talk to the Jou family but hasn't been contactedRELATED TOPICSCalifornia Department of Corrections and RehabilitationCaliforniaCrime and LawLos Angeles (CNN) -- A sex offender who admitted drugging a 19-year-old California woman and then, after she died, dumping her body at sea is scheduled to be released Friday after less two years in prison, outraging the victim's parents.

Nili and Reza Jou are organizing a demonstration Friday in Los Angeles. Also on Friday, John Steven Burgess, 38, is to leave the California Institution for Men in Chino, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's website.

The Jous' daughter, Donna, was last seen alive in 2007. Her body has never been found.

"We have been victimized not only by Burgess, we have also been victimized by the criminal justice system," Reza Jou, the victim's father, told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell. "We are outraged."

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, noting an early release is up to the state's corrections department, said her office had believed the family's attorney initially appeared "quite pleased with the outcome" of the 2009 plea deal that landed Burgess in jail. One condition of that agreement was that Burgess sit down with Jou's relatives and answer their questions.

Spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the district attorney's office hasn't heard from the Jous or their attorneys in recent weeks, including regarding Friday's planned protest or their desire to have the case reopened.

"They have not contacted us directly," Gibbons said. If the family wants to talk with authorities Friday, "we will talk to them," she said.

According to a release from the district attorney's office detailing the case, Donna Jou -- then a San Diego State University student -- had met Burgess after posting an ad on the online site Craigslist. She was offering her services as a math tutor for other students, her parents said.

Nili Jou described her daughter as "compassionate" and "full of life." According to a tribute website by her parents, Donna Jou had a 4.4 grade-point average in high school and scored 1,570 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT test

"She was smart," Nili Jou told HLN's Vinnie Politan. "She just made a (mistake) trusting someone she didn't know."

Burgess admitted to authorities that on June 23, 2007, Donna Jou came to his Los Angeles home for a party. He said that he gave the young woman various drugs, including cocaine, heroine and alcohol, the district attorney's office said after Burgess pleaded guilty to two charges related to the case in May 2009. The morning after the party, he said, he woke up and found Jou dead.

"He said he panicked and used his sailboat to dump her body in the ocean," the district attorney's office said.

The Jous criticized the prosecution's approach, saying it relied excessively on the testimony of a person they call suspicious -- Burgess.

"This man is a big liar, a criminal," said Reza Jou.

Before Donna Jou's disappearance, Burgess had been convicted in January 2003 in Los Angeles for committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years old and was listed as a sex offender.

Related to that conviction, in late 2007 Burgess was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading no contest for failing to register as a sex offender in California.

While behind bars, Burgess was arraigned in March 2009 in connection with the Donna Jou case. Two months later, he confessed to one count each of involuntary manslaughter and one misdemeanor count count of concealing an accidental death. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped drug-related charges.

A judge subsequently sentenced Burgess to a maximum sentence of five years for the two crimes to which he had pleaded guilty. Now he is scheduled for early release.

The Jous said they don't believe that Burgess, who expressed remorse at his sentencing, has been rehabilitated.

"No way, it's impossible," Nili Jou said. "We are joking ourselves ... (He) won't change."

CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

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