CNN Student News Transcript: March 28, 2008

(CNN Student News) -- March 28, 2008

Quick Guide

Political Family Trees - Root around in the family trees of some presidential candidates.

The Business of DNA - Learn how DNA might offer a glimpse of future health concerns.

Protest at the Olympics - Discover how politics have had an impact on past Olympic Games.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome! Glad you're rounding out your week with CNN Student News. I'm Carl Azuz, and away we go.

First Up: Political Family Trees

AZUZ: First up, we're gonna root around in the family trees of some of this year's presidential candidates. You probably know that our current leader isn't the first Bush to occupy the oval office. His dad was elected in 1988. The Adamses, John and John Quincy, were another pair of father-son presidents. Well, it turns out the current crop of White House hopefuls has some interesting and surprising relatives. Kate Bolduan tells us about the connections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We got some big problems that are going to be left behind by this Bush administration.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN REPORTER: Barack Obama is so critical of George Bush, you wouldn't guess they were cousins. But they are; tenth cousins once removed, a new genealogy study shows, with a common ancestor in Massachusetts in 1662. Some other unexpected connections: John McCain and Laura Bush are sixth cousins. Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie are ninth cousins twice removed. And Barack Obama and Brad Pitt are ninth cousins.

OBAMA: You know, when they do these genealogical surveys, you're hoping that you're related to somebody cool.

BOLDUAN: Sen. Obama already learned one of the names on his list a few months ago, and didn't sound too pleased.

OBAMA: Paul Revere is somebody. But Dick Cheney, that's a let down.

BOLDUAN: Turns out Obama is also distantly related to five former presidents: Bush, Ford, Johnson, Truman and Madison. But that's not unusual, says one of the researchers.

CHRIS CHILD, NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY: If we can trace them back say 400 years, it's not particularly surprising to find these interesting connections. People come into our library all the time, and we do find, say, a half dozen presidential connections.

BOLDUAN: Sen. Clinton is distantly related to Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton tells CNN, "You'd think with all that singing talent in the family, she'd be able to carry a tune. But now it makes much more sense how she snagged a Grammy." Will these discoveries have an impact on the campaign?

CHILD: Well, these connections are 400 years ago, so I don't think they should necessarily have an impact on voting.

BOLDUAN: Researchers say they had less luck tracing John McCain's lineage. But they did find that Hillary Clinton is linked to Camilla Parker Bowles, and Barack Obama to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Word to the Wise

MICHELLE WRIGHT, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise...

DNA (noun): It stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, which determines the genetic makeup of all living things

source: www.dictionary.com

The Business of DNA

AZUZ: If you could find out what health issues you might face later in life, would you want to? Some companies are giving people that opportunity. They map the person's genome, their genetic material, to see what diseases they could be at risk for. But critics say it's not an exact science. Jim Boulden has more on the DNA debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN REPORTER: Sign up, scrape and wait about a month. Then you can go online and delve into your genetic makeup. The results reveal someone's predisposition to a host of ailments. About a dozen companies now offer this service, starting at around $1,000. One of the companies, 23 and Me, is backed by the wife of a Google founder, while deCODEme, from Iceland, is backed by a pharmaceutical company, Decode Genetics.

KÁRI STEFÁNSSON, CEO, DECODE GENETICS: We have, over the past two years, isolated a lot of genes with the variants that affect diseases like heart attack, like prostate cancer, like type 2 diabetes, like breast cancer.

BOULDEN: I took the test, and a few weeks later simply logged in to see my genome decoded. Here's my first look at my gene profile to see what diseases I am susceptible to. It compared me to other white males of European ancestry, but of course, it cannot predict if I will get any of the diseases. It says that 47 out of every 10,000 people with my European ancestry develop type 1 diabetes. So, a .4 percent chance of actually getting type 1 diabetes.

Less good: I have a nearly 42 percent chance of becoming obese. DeCODEme adds a new test nearly every week; lactose intolerance one of the newest. But critics say these tests are far from proven. The information is vague and confusing, and people should consult a doctor or counselor to help digest the findings. Dr. Kenneth Offit offers genetics services in New York.

DR. KENNETH OFFIT, MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER: There is no question that in the next decade, this type of genomic testing will be offered at very high quality and at a low cost to every patient coming into their physician's office. The question right now is whether the premature marketing of this research testing runs a risk; a risk of false reassurance for some, and a risk for needlessly worrying the already worried well.

BOULDEN: For that reason, many of these home kits don't identify the risk of contracting incurable and progressive diseases like Huntington's. Then, there are the privacy issues with such new Web services.

SIMON DAVIES, PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL: When you join these sites, and I don't care whether it's a genetic site or whether it's a social networking site, you've got to understand that your information may be there permanently for the rest of your life.

BOULDEN: DeCODEme says...

STEFÁNSSON: We promise you that we will do our best to protect the privacy, but we do not promise to do anything better than that.

BOULDEN: Genome decoding is an industry in its infancy. But its pioneers say it can help us change our lifestyle to lessen chances of getting a given disease, since we can't change our genes. Jim Boulden, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Word to the Wise Extra Credit

WRIGHT: Here's a Word to the Wise Extra Credit...

boycott (noun): a refusal to deal with a group or organization because of its policies

source: www.dictionary.com

Protest at the Olympics

AZUZ: Earlier this week, we told you about a group of protesters who want to boycott this year's Olympics in China because of some of the country's political policies. Citius, Altius, Fortius. That's the Olympic motto, and it means faster, higher, stronger; nothing about politics in there. But as Paula Hancocks tells us, politics have been part of the Games for a long time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN REPORTER: In 1936, Adolf Hitler used the Berlin Olympics to glorify his Nazi party. It was an early glimpse of politics borrowing the Olympic platform, and the idea caught on. 1968, Mexico City: Two medal winners gave the black power salute during the national anthem as a protest against racism in the United States. Politics turned deadly at the 1972 Games in Munich. Palestinian militants broke into the Olympic Village, killing two Israeli athletes and taking nine more hostage. All of the hostages were killed in a failed rescue attempt, as well as five of the kidnappers and a policeman. Eight years later, more than sixty nations boycotted the Moscow Games in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Colin Moynihan, of the British rowing team, said he was under pressure from his government to put his dream to one side to make a political statement.

COLIN MOYNIHAN, OLYMPIC MEDALIST, CHAIRMAN, BRITISH OLYMPIC ASSOCIATION: It was wrong to ask the sportsmen alone to make the sacrifice of their careers when trade continued, when diplomatic relations continued, when cultural exchanges were underway, and when you could walk down Piccadilly and buy a ticket on Aeroflot and go and have a holiday in Leningrad.

HANCOCKS: The USSR responded by boycotting the next Olympics in Los Angeles. More than a dozen other nations followed suit.

RICHARD DORFMAN, SPORTS MEDIA ANALYST: I think they are inherently political, regardless of the greatness and the absolute magic of the competition, because it is what it is.

HANCOCKS: The Olympic ideal is to put aside political differences and compete on an equal footing. But that's tricky with a global event.

DAVID WALLECHINSKY, OLYMPIC HISTORIAN: The Olympics is the biggest world stage. You have all the countries of the world coming together, 200 different countries. Everybody's interested in one sport or another, so everybody's watching.

HANCOCKS: With the intense media spotlight on the Olympics inevitably comes a unique opportunity for anyone or any country to make a point. Paula Hancocks, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Before We Go

AZUZ: Hundreds of singers facing a panel of judges; each hoping to perform for a crowd of thousands. This... ain't American Idol! And I'm not Ryan Seacrest. But this is an audition for a stadium show. These vocal virtuosos are belting out their best for the chance to sing the national anthem at a New York Mets game. Some showed up as early as 3 a.m., waiting for their turn to dazzle the judges with everything from opera to show tunes to pop music. But for some reason, no one sang the national anthem.

Goodbye

AZUZ: Guess they're saving that for the next audition. That sounds the final note in today's show. Have a great weekend. I'm Carl Azuz. E-mail to a friend