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American Morning

Iran Expected to Ignore U.N. Nuclear Deadline; Bush Prepares Third Wave of Iraq Pep Talks; New Details on Comair Crash

Aired August 31, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Ernesto is gaining strength over the Atlantic. It's now moving closer to the Carolinas.
And there's a stronger storm out west. Hurricane John is battering some of Mexico's top tourist spots right now.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Could a fresh set of eyes have saved 49 lives in Kentucky?

New information now on the condition of the lone air traffic controller there at the time of that Comair crash.

S. O'BRIEN: And homeowners are now losing their insurance over fears of another Katrina. But these homes are far from the usual danger zones. It's part of our "Red Tape and Rubble" series. We'll explain.

M. O'BRIEN: And betrayed by your cell phone?

Hackers may now be able to access your private information. You want to listen up to this one. We have some tips for you, ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Let's start with Iran this morning, really on the edge there. It's expected to ignore a United Nations deadline today that it stop pursuing nuclear ambitions. Iran's failure to halt uranium enrichment would trigger talks at the U.N. for international sanctions.

CNN's Aneesh Raman live for us in Tehran -- hey, Aneesh, good morning.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Iran's president leaving no doubt this morning, speaking to large crowds in the northwestern part of the country, saying Iran will not meet this U.N. deadline. It will now be up to the world to respond.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

RAMAN (voice-over): The deadline has arrived. But Iran shows no sign it plans to bow to U.N. demands and stop enriching uranium. In fact, U.S. and European officials say there's evidence the country was continuing enrichment as recently as Tuesday. The U.N. has given Iran until today to halt the program or possibly face sanctions. Their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking this morning in northwestern Iran, was still refusing to back down.

In the face of Iran's defiance, the U.S. State Department says it will start talks on sanctions with European allies and Russia as early as next week.

But why defy the West?

Iranian officials believe it gives their country more influence in the Muslim world. They're already riding high from what they portray as Hezbollah's victory over Israel, Iran being a primary supporter of Hezbollah.

But Iranians themselves are divided by the prospect of sanctions. Most people feel immense pride in the nuclear program, especially among those in blue collar southern Tehran. Here it's all about making your daily wage and showing no weakness to the West.

"We are not afraid of economic sanctions," says Majeeb (ph), "because this is not the first time they want to impose them. And in the eight years of war, we fought the entire world."

But head to northern Tehran, home to the more affluent, more moderate, and confidence gives way to concern.

"Ordinary people," says 29-year-old Peshman (ph), "are very worried. In the university and homes and at workplaces people are very concerned. I can see that. They are very afraid."

But there's something even worse than sanctions that has people worried. It's the prospect of a military conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Last week, the government launched a massive military exercise -- war games to demonstrate Iran's ability to defend itself, in part against potential attacks on its nuclear sites, something that could drag this country into a broader military conflict. That remains the worst case scenario.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN: Iran has leverage, in its mind, despite not meeting this deadline. Sanctions, if they are issued, Iran has said before it might kick out inspectors that are here, pursue the program in secret.

And, Soledad, a broader global issue -- a fear that Iran could affect the world's oil supply -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman this morning for us.

He's in Tehran.

Thanks, Aneesh -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Was fatigue a factor in the crash of Comair 5191?

The sole air traffic controller in the tower on the morning of the crash was burning the candle at both ends.

CNN's David Mattingly live now from Lexington, Kentucky with more -- good morning, David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

This air traffic controller did give the correct instructions to that Comair flight, telling them the correct runway to go to. And no one is still sure why that flight took a wrong turn on the wrong runway, a runway that was too short for them to take off.

But at this point, they are looking at the possibility of fatigue in that tower. This air traffic controller had eight hours on, nine hours off and two hours of sleep before coming back for another shift. And federal investigators are asking questions, wondering if this is a sign of a bigger problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB SPOKESWOMAN: We will not just be looking at this controller. We're going to be taking a systems approach to this, looking at what happens at this facility, potentially looking at what happens at other facilities.

If we identify any issues, any safety issues, we will address them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Throughout the Lexington area, there have been a number of memorial services and we expect to see more today, as people begin to remember the 49 who lost their lives on this flight.

In the meantime, there will be some changes at the Lexington airport. This coming weekend, and all weekends following, there will not be just one air traffic controller on duty overnight anymore. There will now be two air traffic controllers -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, I guess one of the questions that will come out of this, you know, one of the things the NTSB might look at is if that turnaround time of nine hours might be legal, but maybe it's not such a good idea all the time.

MATTINGLY: And that is one of the questions that the NTSB is going to be raising. They're going to be questioning everything about this, about is this enough rest, is this enough manpower?

There have been long-running arguments between air traffic controllers and the government about this very issue. And this issue again heating up because of this accident.

M. O'BRIEN: David Mattingly in Lexington.

Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: CNN is your hurricane headquarters. And we're watching two big storms right now.

Hurricane John, a category three storm. It's churning in the Pacific, along the Mexican coast.

And on the East Coast, Tropical Storm Ernesto is now taking aim at the coast of Carolina.

We're tracking the storms with Keith Oppenheim. He's in South Carolina for us.

Harris Whitbeck is in Cabo St. Lucas in Mexico.

And severe weather expert Chad Myers is looking at everything at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

Let's begin with Keith this morning.

He's in Charleston -- good morning, Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

It's a little bit windy here at Waterfront Park. And we'll have a good view of the storm as it comes in, as we look out on the harbor.

But it's calm before the big rainstorm right now. And as we pivot around and look at the City of Charleston, rain is really what we're going to be watching today, because this is a city that floods pretty easily anyway, with a moderate rainstorm. And today's should be pretty heavy, as we get to the afternoon.

Take a look at some video we shot yesterday on Sullivan's Island, as there were some folks preparing for the rainstorm and putting up storm boards on the big house out there. While those people were being very industrious, when we talked to people in Charlotte about what they're going to do, they were kind of laid back about the storm. In fact, one office manager told us she's going to work today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Your office will keep humming through the storm?

UNIDENTIFIED CHARLESTON RESIDENT: Probably. Even though we're downtown. So, I guess if it gets too bad, we might evacuate. But...

OPPENHEIM: You're just sort of taking a wait and see?

UNIDENTIFIED CHARLESTON RESIDENT: Exactly. Wait until the last minute. That's how we do things. Nothing until the last minute.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Emergency managers are not waiting until the last minute. They are providing shelters for people on the high ground out here and saying there are voluntary evacuations, Soledad, so that people can take shelter.

No school today. The airport is probably going to be closed in about an hour.

And, interestingly, Soledad, bridges will be shut down if the wind speeds get to be more than 40 miles an hour out here -- back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Obviously a hard decision.

Keith Oppenheim for us.

Thanks, Keith.

Well, Mexico's Pacific coast, as we mentioned, is getting drenched this morning by Hurricane John. The heavy winds and the rains are -- the heavy rains and the winds is what I'm trying to say -- are lashing the tourist area really bad there. It's a category three hurricane. It could dump up to a foot of water in some of the areas, triggering landslides, they fear; maybe even flooding.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck is live for us in Cabo St. Lucas, Mexico- with more -- good morning to you, Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

As Hurricane John has churned up Mexico's Pacific coast, it has caused flooding among hundreds of communities that dot the Mexican coastline. Among those communities, the resort cities of Manzanillo.

Acapulco-has a population of about a million people, a very popular destination, particularly for Mexican tourists, and many of them could be seen wading through up to 10 inches of water as flooding caused by the hurricane affected large parts of that city.

Up in Manzanillo, which is a bit north of Acapulco, still on the Pacific coast, residents there, hotel owners and staff, were seen boarding up windows. There were very few tourists to be seen there. Many of them heeded the call to get away from the area or cancel their bookings before even arriving in Mexico.

Here, in Cabo St. Lucas, on the tip of the Baja, California peninsula, people are bracing. It is here where Hurricane John would seem to be headed for at this point. And it's such a strong storm that people here are taking precautions. The local civil protection authorities will be meeting throughout the morning today to decide what to do with the nearly 29,000 -- nearly 30,000 residents who would be affected by flooding.

The tip of the Baja Peninsula has a very low elevation, which means there could be serious flooding. And the road transportation, the roads around here could be cut off. So that's the situation here in Baja -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Harris Whitbeck for us with an update.

Thanks, Harris.

Severe weather expert Chad Myers watching it all from the CNN Hurricane Headquarters -- hey, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

We'll talk about both the storms. We'll talk about Ernesto to start with. It's going to affect a lot of people up the East Coast. We're going to have a major wind event for Hampton Roads, for Washington, D.C. Richmond, Virginia. Even if the storm is only a tropical depression, there's a big high to your north. And that's going to funnel wind right into the Chesapeake Bay.

Here's where the storm is now, gaining strength. The Hurricane Center says up to 55 miles per hour. We found higher gusts, though, in some of the aircraft that were flying through it a little bit ago.

Look at that, rain is all the way almost to Charlotte. Some heavy rain in Columbia. That right there, the Sand Hills area, also even up into Charlotte, into the Piedmont, very concerned about flooding for you there. Not a lot of wind damage, but flooding, will be the problem.

Here is the storm. There it goes on up into about the Grand Strand area. If it goes farther to the east or to the right of this track, into North Carolina, it certainly still could become a hurricane before it's done, although that is not the official forecast.

If you know, though, the cone can go one way or the other. If the cone is correct to the right, then it will be a hurricane before it hits land and make a very big wind event here and a significant flood event all along the Appalachian Mountains.

Here is the spine. The water goes up, the water comes down. And we flood some things out. A lot of the rivers there could be well in excess of their flood banks.

Here is John. Puerto Vallarta. Here's Acapulco. The storm did just barely touch the coast, or at least close enough to disturb it a little bit overnight. It's down to a category three. But it is forecast to get back to a four when it gets away from land and then a direct hit on Cabo St. Lucas -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad Myers.

You asked about the shuttle?

MYERS: Yes.

How is it?

M. O'BRIEN: A-OK. Forty-four mile an hour winds, well below what they were worried about, because, as you know, when it's on the pad, it's not just out there exposed. They have this big thing that closes over it. MYERS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: They call it the rotating service structure.

So all is well at the launch pad.

MYERS: Good.

A very good call.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: President Bush hoping a third wave of pep talks will stop a rising tide of discontent over the war in Iraq. In a few hours, he will step up to the podium at the American Legion meeting in Salt Lake City. He's slated to call a U.S. victory in Iraq a major ideological triumph.

CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry live from Salt Lake City with more -- Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Call it Bush 3.0. The president launching his third series of speeches meant to shore up the mission in Iraq, a clear sign that the White House realizes the first two versions really did not get the job done. And, as you noted, he starts today with the American Legion here in Salt Lake City, he goes right through the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with more speeches, culminating on September 19th, a major address at the United Nations.

The president said yesterday he doesn't want this to be political. And yet when he arrived at the airport here in Salt Lake City late last night, he was greeted by 2,000 screaming supporters, looking very much like a campaign rally.

And the president really sounded like someone trying to buck up his party right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iraq is the central front in this war on terror. If we leave the streets of Baghdad before the job is done, we will have to face the terrorists in our own cities. We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of 21st century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, the president insisting he does not want to politicize this. A little bit like last week, when the president insisted that he would not question the patriotism of war critics, but the president's defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, seemed to do just that on Tuesday when he basically suggested that war critics support the type of appeasement that helped spark the rise of Nazism leading up to World War II.

That's infuriated war protesters, who are planning a major rally here in Salt Lake City today, even though Utah is obviously a very conservative state.

That's the bottom line here on the president's latest series of speeches. This is a president trying to basically stop the political pressure on him, now coming not just from Democrats, but from Republicans, as well, wanting to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: We've got an election approaching. It's hard to think that you can extract politics from any discussion these days -- Ed.

HENRY: It is impossible, clearly. The president has to know that. But that's really the bottom line. He realizes -- you've seen people like Chris Shays of Connecticut, a moderate Republican in a tough race, now saying well, maybe we need to start pulling out and coming up with a timetable.

We didn't hear that kind of talk from Republicans. The White House is very concerned about that and that's why we're seeing the president trying to step up.

The question is whether he'll really come up with any new strategy or whether this is really just repackaging some of the speeches we've heard before -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry in Salt Lake.

Thank you very much.

CNN will be carrying the president's speech at the American Legion national convention there, live, of course. It is scheduled to begin at 11:20 Eastern time, so stay with us.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the U.N. deadline is today, as we've been telling you all morning, for Iran to end its nuclear program.

So what exactly happens if it doesn't comply, as expected?

We're going to take a look at that ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, red tape and rubble -- we'll meet a homeowner in Brooklyn -- yes, that Brooklyn -- who lost his insurance because of Katrina.

S. O'BRIEN: And Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live for a look at his interview with the former president, Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton has a new message about battling poverty in America. It's a story you're going to see only on CNN.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The U.N. deadline for halting uranium enrichment is today, as we've been telling you all morning.

Already, though, Iran's president is indicating they're going to defy that deadline.

In addition to the deadline, we're also expecting a report today from the U.N.'s Atomic Energy Agcy. And sources with knowledge of the report say it's going to indicate that Iran, in fact, is continuing to enrich uranium.

David Sanger is the White House correspondent for the "New York Times."

He also has been watching the rising nuclear threats around the world, Iran and elsewhere.

He's in D.C. this morning.

David, nice to see you, as always.

Thanks for talking with us.

DAVID SANGER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Good to be back with you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks.

You know, we talked about this deadline, deadline, deadline approaching, deadline today. Tomorrow if, in fact, as everyone is expecting, Iran is going to say forget it, we're not going to do what you want us to do, what, literally, does it mean?

SANGER: Well, the deadline is today and the Iranians have made it quite clear that they will not stop the enrichment of umm.

Now, the report that's coming out from the International Atomic Energy Agency later on today is expected to say that while they continue that enrichment, they've been doing this at a fairly slow pace. They have not been racing forward. And the big question is, is this because they have made a political decision not to press the Security Council too hard? Or they've run-into technical difficulties? Or the theory that some hawks in Washington have, which is that the IAEA is not being shown the real program and that there are hidden facilities?

Of course, after Iraq, that's a hard argument for the administration to make.

S. O'BRIEN: Hmmm. Yes, I would imagine.

A lot of people have been focusing on the efforts at the U.N. and Israel is basically saying, you know, we are not going to -- we're not going to tolerate this.

Could Israel act unilaterally?

I mean it has certainly in the past.

What, realistically, could they do?

SANGER: They could, but whether they could act unilaterally and effectively is another question. They are known, of course, for the attack on Iraq's single nuclear reactor at Osirak more than 20 years ago.

But the Iranians learned a lot of lessons from that, Soledad. And they have spread their nuclear facilities over many sites. Right now, the main place where it is believed that Iran plans to go produce uranium is not only underground, but it's incomplete. There aren't very many centrifuges there, the machines that actually spin the umm and enrich it.

And, as a result, it's not clear what to hit or where to hit it.

S. O'BRIEN: So that almost sounds like it would rule out any kind of targeted strike. I mean it would be virtually impossible.

SANGER: They could set the program back. But the fact of the matter is that it would take American airpower and the kind of repeated sorties to go do this, to actually be effective. And even then, no one I have spoken to seems to believe you could eliminate the program. You could set it back a number of years.

And remember, this is a threat that is still believed by American intelligence agencies, if they understand the full scope of the program, to be some years off -- five, seven years before they produce a weapon. It's not like the case of North Korea, which is believed to already have the fuel and perhaps the weapons.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about political positioning.

After the war in Lebanon, many an analyst said that actually Iran was the big winner here because of, of course, their funding and support for Hezbollah, that the U.S. was the loser here, in many ways, because of the support for Israel, to some degree.

So how does that position everybody now, when we're talking now not about the war in Lebanon, but we're talking about Iran's nukes?

SANGER: Well, it makes things a lot more complicated for the United States and for its allies on a couple of fronts.

The Iranians have, at various points, made threats -- no one knows how serious they are -- to respond to sanctions if they happen, with a series of escalating steps of their own. One of them, obviously, is they could temporarily halt the production of oil or the export of oil. That would hurt their economy, but obviously it could do immediate damage to the American economy, other economies around the world, and send gas prices up even further. The Hezbollah attack showed that they have ways of making life difficult for our allies on one side, and, of course, they could make life much more difficult in Iraq.

I asked Nick Burns, the undersecretary of state, about this yesterday and he said what he's said many times publicly, which is the United States does not plan to be intimidated by Iran.

S. O'BRIEN: I guess we just watch and wait and see.

David Sanger with the "New York Times."

It's always nice to see you, David.

Thanks.

SANGER: Good to see you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, "Red Tape and Rubble" -- why would a guy in Brooklyn lose his homeowners' insurance because of Katrina?

AMERICAN MORNING'S Ali Velshi will look into that.

Plus, we'll give you a hand, so to speak.

How healthy are your hands?

Today's "30, 40, 50" looks at the problems you may face as you grow older.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, listen up homeowners. If you live outside the places where hurricanes normally hit, you might think last year's devastating season does not have an impact on you.

Are you in good hands, though, in Brooklyn?

Fagged about it (ph).

Ali Velshi is back with "Red Tape and Rubble."

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DAVID FITZGERALD, FORMER ALLSTATE POLICYHOLDER: Allstate Insurance Company will not renew your homeowners insurance policy at the end of the current premium.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Allstate says insuring David Fitzgerald's house is just too risky. In a letter canceling his entire policy, Allstate wrote that they were anticipating major storms in his area in the coming years and that the cancellation is "part of a larger initiative to remove our catastrophic risk exposure."

David Fitzgerald lives in Brooklyn, New York.

FITZGERALD: Hurricanes and bad weather would not be something I would think about. No.

VELSHI: It's not that Brooklyn has never seen disaster. It did face the Great Hurricane of 1938, for example.

Jay Guin, who does catastrophe modeling for insurance companies, says it could happen again.

JAY GUIN, AIR WORLDWIDE: Both their scientific research and the historical record of hurricane activity in the New York region supports the estimate that there is a one in 100 chance that the region will be impacted by a very severe category three or a weak category four hurricane.

VELSHI: And Allstate, which says it's already paid out more than $3.5 billion in Katrina-related claims, doesn't want to take that risk. The company confirmed it is not writing new policies in parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

As for New York, Allstate has this to say: "We are the largest home insurer in the State of New York. A very small percentage of policyholders whose homes we insure will receive this letter, about 28,000 policies out of more than 650,000 in the state.

But Fitzgerald's not sure why his house was picked.

FITZGERALD: I don't see, you know, houses being blown away here. I don't know anybody who has had a catastrophic loss where I live.

VELSHI (on camera): Well, as improbable as it might seem, a hurricane hitting a place like New York would cause unprecedented damage. That 1938 hurricane? Guin says it if hit New York today, it would result in $35 billion in insured losses.

GUIN: When we resimulate the 1938 hurricane with a spread that has shifted about 50 miles west of where it made landfall, then those numbers go up dramatically. The insured losses can be on the order of $70 billion.

VELSHI (voice-over): As for flood insurance, the major insurance companies will sell you a policy, but they're not the insurers. The government is, through the National Flood Insurance Program. A quarter of the payouts the program makes are in low to moderate flood risk areas.

David Fitzgerald doesn't think Brooklyn has ever flooded. And like most Brooklynites, he doesn't have or plan to have flood insurance. He does need his house insured, though, and he's done that through Liberty Mutual -- the same coverage as he had with Allstate, but less money. Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Despite Katrina, major insurance companies saw record profits last year. Tomorrow, we'll look at steps you can take to make sure you're properly insured. You have to read that policy, which it -- if you have insomnia, it could be a cure.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I've got to tell you, the people there who have not gotten their insurance money...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, to this day. To this day.

S. O'BRIEN: But glad to see they're getting a big profit.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: That's good news there.

Moving on.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, if you are thinking about selling your old cell phone or trading it in, you'd best stay tuned. You could become a victim of identity theft if you don't watch.

We'll have some tips for you ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Now for another wrinkle for you in our digital age. Your old, former cell phone may be your worst enemy. It turns out trading in your old phone or selling it on eBay -- we checked this morning. There are no less than 45,000 phones out there that you can bid on. Who's buying these phones? Well, sometimes, it might get hit some pay dirt, because it's sort of tantamount if you don't do the right things to publishing your diaries online. You know, your address book, your passwords, all kinds of things. Anything you put in the phone is subject to public knowledge. That's not good.

How do you protect yourself when you're trying to dump your old phone? Rich DeMuro is senior editor for the Web site CNET.com. Rich, good to have you with us.

RICH DEMURO, SR. EDITOR, CNET.COM: Good to be here.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, you would think if you reset or erase or whatever you have to do in the instruction book, that that would take care of it. Not necessarily so?

DEMURO: Well, it is necessarily so, it's just the problem is, nobody's doing that.

M. O'BRIEN: No, they're not.

DEMURO: They're putting the phones on eBay without...

M. O'BRIEN: With their numbers in them?

DEMURO: ... taking the information off.

M. O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. They're not even...

DEMURO: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: Why would they do that?

DEMURO: Because, you know, they don't know how to take the information. They just don't think about it. They say, oh, it's just a couple of phone numbers I've dialed. But really, with some of the newer phones -- and, you know, like a PDA phone, you have all kinds of information on there. You're talking, you know, your phone numbers, your voice recordings, your calendar information.

M. O'BRIEN: People put their passwords, everything.

DEMURO: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: Your entire life is on there. You lose that thing, you will be petrified. And turning in it in -- so is it possible to try to reset it and not reset it properly? Does that does happen a lot?

DEMURO: That does happen, because there's two types of resets. There's a hard reset, which basically wipes everything clear. And then there's a soft reset. And if someone's had a phone like a Trio, ever crashed, you've done the soft reset, where it just basically restarts the phone.

M. O'BRIEN: I've had to do the hard reset, too. That hurts, too.

DEMURO: The hard reset takes everything off.

M. O'BRIEN: It does.

DEMURO: But that's what people need to remember to do. So if you're asking someone at your store or asking a friend or a tech person that knows what they're doing, make sure you hard reset your phone. That's going to wipe the information clean. Put it back to like the factory settings.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, when you go -- let's say you're just upgrading phones with the same service -- I think you just did that recently, as a matter of fact. When you do that -- of course, you hung on to your own phone. But if you were to send that in, can you give it to them with the assurance that they will take care of it for you? Or is that a bad idea?

DEMURO: That's the assurance. I spoke to Verizon yesterday, asked them that exact question. Because, you know, when you get rid of a phone -- like you said, I kept my old phone. The reason I kept it is because I'm not certain I want to put this on eBay, and that's why I don't do it. Because, you know, I don't know how much information people can get off of this. You want to make sure that, you know, you can't be too safe.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

DEMURO: But yes, I talked to Verizon yesterday. They said that every phone that comes through there, they actually will scrub, which is sort of technical jargon for wiping everything clean. So they're going to make sure that they do that for you. But if you put it on eBay, there's no one that it's going through, intermediary. It's just going...

M. O'BRIEN: No scrubbing going on there. You know, it's interesting. You make a few bucks on the phone, you might lose an awful lot. So you got to think about what you're doing there. I've ascribed to -- I'm not just -- I don't just throw the old things away. I crush them or something. Because I'm afraid somebody's going to get it in the dumpster or something. The other thing to be aware of is SIM cards. Explain that.

DEMURO: Well, the SIM card is actually the little tiny postage stamp size card.

M. O'BRIEN: That's your phone right there?

DEMURO: Right. This is all of your information for the phone number, your addresses and also your text messages many times are all stored on here. So if T-Mobile or Cingular, most of time you can pull out the card and that's going to have all your information on it. Take scissors to it, cut it up. You know, do something -- whatever you want to do.

M. O'BRIEN: But if you have a -- if you have like a palm device, there's still stuff on the internal memory there. So you have to watch it.

DEMURO: Exactly. So this one actually does have a SIM card. Even if I took the SIM card out, all of your addresses, phone numbers...

M. O'BRIEN: Still there.

DEMURO: ... are still going to be in there. So that's when you need to do the hard reset. Now, there's a good Web site that can tell you how to do some of these hard resets. It basically has information for almost every phone. It's wirelessrecycling.com.

M. O'BRIEN: All one? DEMURO: All one.

M. O'BRIEN: Wirelessrecycling.com. And you go there. Is that a profit making entity?

DEMURO: Well, it's a company that's -- it's sort of behind it, that they refurbish phones. They're in charge of kind of -- their business is recycling phones. But they also take them from donations and they'll resell them to charities, stuff like that. But they have some great information on there. You put in your make and model number of your phone, and they'll actually give you a PDF file, like a printed out instruction manual...

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, and tell you what to do.

DEMURO: Every single way to get your information off there.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, good place to go if you're thinking about doing it, getting rid of it, just making a few bucks off of it. Do it safely.

Rich DeMuro with CNET, thanks very much for coming in.

DEMURO: Thanks for having me.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a story you're going to see only on CNN. Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look at poverty in America. It's a preview of his conversation with former President Bill Clinton.

And then our health series, for people in their 30s and their 40s and their 50s. Your know your feet hurt. You know you've got an aching back. But how are you hands? We'll tell you how to keep them healthy, too.

M. O'BRIEN: And if it's Thursday, you know what that means...

S. O'BRIEN: Miles Cam!

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you. I have trained you well. Miles Cam day. You may e-mail your questions to me.

S. O'BRIEN: Cue me up.

M. O'BRIEN: Cue her up. Milescam@CNN.com. New e-mail this week. New e-mail. Milescam@cnn.com. And then -- and then. Yes, I'm really going uptown now. And then you tune in on the Pipeline product, which we highly recommend to you. CNN.com/pipeline, 10:30 Eastern.

S. O'BRIEN: And a better picture now. You're smiling. Remember before, it looked a little cheesy.

M. O'BRIEN: Slowly but surely, this is turning into be a class act. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Can poverty be abolished in the United States? The latest census data finds that 13 million children live in poverty. If you add the adults, that number nearly triples.

This weekend, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is focusing on poverty. It's a conversation with former President Bill Clinton. It's a CNN special, "The Poverty Trap," and it's story you will see only on CNN.

Sanjay joins us from Atlanta. He's got a preview.

Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad.

Some remarkable facts coming out of this special. According to the Census Bureau, for example, Detroit is the poorest city in America. Fully one third of its citizens actually living below the poverty line. Remarkable numbers there. It may sound bleak, but we found that there are efforts under way to try to improve their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): Detroit's east side, its people and neighborhoods have been hit hard by years of poverty and neglect. In 2005, the city had some 12,000 abandoned homes. Now, many are fighting back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

Two new houses being built on the side of it. Two new houses across the street. This has to go. Address right there.

GUPTA: Mike Fisher runs DCI, the Detroit Community Initiative, a nonprofit organization that gives high school students a summer job, and a chance to improve their neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just makes me feel sad looking at something like this.

GUPTA: They're using a global-positioning tracking device to mark the exact locations of destroyed and abandoned homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This one burned up the side of their house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try to work with mayor's office, Detroit City council, the department heads, other community groups to try to make it clean and safe. Picking up tires, cleaning up dumping. Rehabbing homes, building new homes, so we're bringing something to the table.

GUPTA: The city receives the information and prioritizes homes for demolition. They're replaced by low-income housing that's paid for by a federal tax credit plan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I'm actually achieving something because when I go out and I help out, I'm making an impact on the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One block at a time, one family at a time, and we can turn things around.

NADIRA WADE, DETROIT COMMUNITY INITIATIVE: Right here! Right here!

GUPTA: This is Saratoga Street, where Nadira Wade lives.

WADE: Yes! What is it granny?

GUPTA: Nadira has 14 grandchildren.

She's lived in this house for 19 years.

WADE: Look at there. You can see right up in to the roof.

GUPTA: And it needs a lot of work.

WADE: There's a crack in the kitchen here right above the stove. It leaks right here.

We're poor people. We don't have anything right now.

GUPTA: But she still has hope for her neighborhood, and that's why she is working with Mike Fisher in DCI.

WADE: I'm on board of the directors, and we're trying to rebuild the neighborhood back up from what it was to something better low- income housing, for people like myself, which I own my house now. Can't afford to fix it, but it's mine.

GUPTA: DCI plans to help Nadira replace her roof.

WADE: It's just a struggle. It's just things is too high, your gas bill, light bill, telephone bill.

GUPTA: Despite the difficulties, Nadira still believes her work with the Detroit community initiative will increase the value of her property, and improve the value of her neighborhood.

WADE: When we get through building all these 49 brand new homes, I believe that people will start having more respect and it will give them something to look forward to.

This is your neighborhood. Respect your neighborhood. You live here. These people don't have no hope. They don't have any hope, because it's like they've just given up. I'm not going to give up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: You can tell with Nadira there, I mean, she's trying to improve her neighborhood, trying to improve her life as well. Around the United States, just the United States, about 37 million people living in poverty. I find that number to be remarkable. And what does that mean for a family of four. That means living below $19,971 a year. That's not very much money, Soledad, but that's what it means to be impoverished in this country.

O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, Sanjay, and you know, you certainly spent enough time in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, you see so much poverty there, and the president said, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also said, you know, this was an opportunity to really put the focus, the spotlight on poverty. You know, who's responsibility is it to try to, you know, fix peoples' lives?

GUPTA: Yes, it's interesting, and it was so raw down there in New Orleans. You know, you saw it rawly, the difference between rich and poor.

You know, I asked the president that same question about responsibility, personal responsibility versus community versus government. It's interesting. The president right away, President Clinton right away pointed to the Welfare to Work Act, saying, look, it was a process of actually getting people who don't necessarily want to be idle, who don't want to be poor, who don't want to be unemployed, back to work, and he says it's really a personal responsibility, combined with some vehicles that the government can provide. But that changes with every administration. It's a politically divisive issue, as well, so it will probably change again in a few years, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta for us. Sanjay, thanks a lot. And again, his conversation with President Clinton can be seen on "CNN PRESENTS: The Poverty Trap" Saturday, Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Up next, Andy "Minding Your Business."

Andy, what you got?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Miles, why is GM dropping its sponsorship of the TV show "Survivor?"

And do you hate the coach of your favorite team? Now you can buy a Web site that might help him get fired. Is this a great country or what? You'll have to follow this one coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: If you're 30 or you're 40 or you're 50, I don't have to tell you, your body is starting to fall apart. Ooh, your aching back. Ow, your knees are killing you, right? What about your hands? They're aging, too. Our special series "30, 40, 50" looks at our hands.

Here's CNN Judy Fortin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY FORTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We create with them, use them to communicate, work and play. Yet, as we age, our hands begin to tire. DR. THOMAS GRAHAM, CURTIS NATIONAL HAND CTR: So any instrument that is being used with that frequency certainly has the ability or opportunity to have damage or injury.

FORTIN: In our 30s, the tendons that connect the muscles to the bones begin to wear, causing inflammation or tendinitis. That can cause significant pain in the thumb and wrist. Medication or splints can help. In severe cases, surgery is needed.

Athletes begin to feel pain in their hands as early as their 30s. Golfers like Arnold Palmer and Ernie Els were faced with early hand injuries.

GRAHAM: Probably the most frequent acute injury we see in golf is when the ground is struck forcibly, there's a small prominence in the palm of your hand called the hamate bone. And so if you strike that and you have pain in your palm that is persistent, that would be a reason to seek medical attention.

FORTIN: By the time we hit our 40s and 50s, we've put a lot of miles and stress on our hands. Carpal tunnel becomes a problem, and it's not just caused by too much work at a keyboard. It can be due to any repetitive activity we do with our hands.

Frank Glorioso was in his 40s when he began experiencing problems.

FRANK GLORIOSO, CARPAL TUNNEL PATIENT: I would wake up in the middle of the night with just severe pain. And you'd look at your hand and you could see a hand, but you couldn't feel it.

FORTIN: The cause? Frank drove the car so much for his job that placing his hands on the wheel every day caused carpal tunnel.

GRAHAM: It actually is a very specific compression of the median nerve with the wrist, causing numbness and tingling in the three fingers on the thumb side.

FORTIN: In our 50s, arthritis causes joints in the fingers to swell. It can be painful and chronic, but can be controlled with medication. There is no cure for arthritis, although doctors say exercising can help reduce pain.

Judy Fortin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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M. O'BRIEN: After a break. Stay with us.

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