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American Morning

E. Coli Outbreak; Ford Buyouts; Detainee Showdown; Americans Attacked; Ford Buyout Plan; Protecting Travelers

Aired September 15, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Costello, in for Soledad.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Got a bag of fresh spinach in your refrigerator? Throw it out. Federal health officials say bagged spinach, fresh spinach, is linked to an e. coli outbreak in eight states now. One person has died. Dozens of others have become sick. Our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, live now from Atlanta.

You know, when we think of e. coli, Sanjay, we think of hamburger and all the stories we talked about when that outbreak occurred. I don't know about spinach.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you have to think about contaminated water as well possibly contaminating vegetables, lettuce, sprouts, and now in this case, spinach. Very large sort of recall, if you will, of this fresh bagged spinach. Although I've got to point out, Miles, I was able to buy some this morning. We were able to buy some this morning ourselves. So, obviously not everyone getting the message as of yet. It's still out there.

Saying throw it out. Do not bother cooking it, washing it. And this applies to all brands. Everywhere across the county. Fifty people now in eight states. One person has died, as you mentioned. Twenty of them in Milwaukee.

The other cases occurring around the country, in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah. You can see it there. It is difficult to pin down exactly where the contamination is occurring. It is in several places across the country. It appears to be several different products, brands of spinach as well.

They're going to narrow this down over the next several days, I am sure. But for the time being, we know it is a specific strain of E. Coli, a very problematic one. I won't bore you with all the numbers. But know this, that E. Coli typically resides in your intestines and it can be perfectly fine. But there are a few strains out there that can be really problematic and obviously, in this case, as you heard, Miles, even deadly very rarely.

O'BRIEN: What's really interesting to me that it's multiple brands and in so many disparate locations. I guess we have to sort of wait to see how that plays out. In the meantime, how would you know if somebody in your family, you or somebody in your family or children, had some symptoms of this E. Coli? GUPTA: Well, it can be difficult, in all fairness. A couple of things to point out. And this isn't the most pleasant sort of breakfast conversation. But when you think about the fact, you think of your own eating habits. If you've eaten any fresh bagged spinach lately and you have any of these symptoms, it's sort of come on suddenly, diarrhea, vomiting, anemia you wouldn't know, but someone who gets suddenly pail, for example, kidney failure as well. Those can be problems.

There's also something known as hemorrhagic syndrome where you actually start to have problems with bleeding. You may bleed excessively after shaving or after you cut yourself. Those can be problems as well.

Again, though, in your minds eye, sort of link it to the fact of whether or not you've actually eaten any fresh bagged spinach lately and are having these symptoms.

O'BRIEN: How unusual is this, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Well, you know, the scale of this is fairly unusual. Typically when we get an advisory like this, it is linked to something specific. Some specific product at some specific restaurant. There are lots of outbreaks that occur between -- over the last 20 years or so. There have been about 350 outbreaks.

Some of the ones you may remember, in '93, the Jack-In-The-Box hamburger. So a specific product. A specific meat here. In 1996, unpasteurized Odwalla apple juice. So again, a specific product. And then, most recently, 2000, the Sizzler restaurant salad bar.

Miles, you can tell those are all pretty specific. In this case, we were a little surprised at just how large scale this advisory is. You know, again, encompassing the entire country. All products of spinach and saying, you know, don't even bother cooking it or washing it. We don't know if that will help. Or they're just erring on the side of safety. Regardless, they're saying if you have any of this in your house, throw it out.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Carol.

COSTELLO: More pain for Ford and its workers in a move that kind of proves Detroit needs to downsize to survive. Ford will offer 75,000 workers early buyouts. Will they work and are the buyouts over? Andy's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Seventy-five thousand employees. That's Ford's entire hourly work force, offered these buyouts. The package worth $35,000 in cash and up to $140,000 in total. That would include benefits. This matches a plan that GM put into place earlier this year. Ford also looking at $9 billion in losses, according to published reports. These buyouts leaving workers, obviously, very, very unsettled. And so you can imagine what's going on there in Detroit right now.

COSTELLO: Well the question is, will it work and how small will Ford become?

SERWER: Yes. Well, they've got to get smaller to become more profitable. And we talked to a worker last night about the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY DANIEL, FORD EMPLOYEE: Everyone's up in arms. They're (ph) up in the air. We don't know what's really going to happen in the future. Ford's trying to get things back under control, which you've got to give them credit for that. I'm sure they're going to try and take care of everybody the best they can. And all we can do is just hope for the best and just wait it out and see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERWER: There's going to be more news coming out of Ford this morning. Interestingly here, with this announcement it means that 200,000 auto workers or three-quarters of the nation's workers on assembly lines who work for the big three have been offered buyouts this year. Three-quarters of hourly workers for Ford, Chrysler and FM.

COSTELLO: You know, I read an interesting article the other day. The state of Wyoming needs workers desperately. So it's going to Michigan to recruit, you know, workers just like these Ford workers to come to Wyoming and they're leaving Michigan in droves to go to Wyoming to work. SERWER: I think that's right. And, of course, you know, there are still -- there are more Toyota plants and Honda plants and they're still building in the United States. So there are jobs. But, of course, you know, it's easy for us to say, just pick up and move to another state. Take your family to move to Wyoming or Tennessee to get a job. Obviously that's extremely difficult to do and it's not something someone can just do at the drop of a hat.

COSTELLO: Yes, when you don't have a job, sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

SERWER: That's right.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, talk about friendly fire. President Bush on Capitol Hill yesterday trying to drum up support for his proposal on handling detainees. But instead, some key members of his own party aren't buying it. CNN's Dana Bash live now from Capitol Hill on this. Hello, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

You know, this is a rare and quite remarkable internal Republican dispute over what the president calls essential part of his policy in the war on terror. One GOP senator called it all-out war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH, (voice over): The president's rare Capitol Hill visit was part of an offensive to quiet a Republican rebellion over how to treat terror detainees.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I reminded them that the most important job of the government is to protect the homeland.

BASH: But hours later, Senate Republicans defied the president. The Armed Services Committee passed a measure supporters say better protects the rights of those in U.S. custody.

SEN. JOHN WARNER, (R) ARMED SERVICES CHAIRMAN: We have tried, those of us that have put this draft together, to provide language which in no way reflects a basis for anyone to say that the United States is still not observing the Geneva Convention.

BASH: The biggest issue of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which sets international standards for treating prisoners of war. The White House says it's too vague and must be clearly defined to allow tough interrogators of terror suspects while protecting interrogators from charges of war crimes.

But three top Republicans, Armed Services Chairman John Warner, Senator Lindsey Graham and former prisoner of war John McCain, insist the White House plan would undermine U.S. credibility around the world. All day long, a stunning public display of Republican division over national security. Adding to the drama, the president's own former secretary of state, Colin Powell, threw his support behind a Senate measure, warning in this letter, the president's plan for trying terror suspects would "put our own troops at risk. The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight of terrorism," Powell wrote.

Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fired back with her own letter, insisting the president's proposal "would add meaningful definition and clarification to vague terms in the treaties."

Back at the White House, Mr. Bush dug in, saying a program to get information from so-called high-valued terrorists could be shut down.

BUSH: And I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward legal clarity.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BASH: For their part, the senators who oppose the president's policy say that that's exactly what this is. It is simply a policy dispute. The last thing they really want is this kind of showdown with the White House over this important issue of national security. As for Democrats, Miles, seven weeks before an election where national security, of course, is atop of the agenda for both parties. They're basically just sitting back and, they say, enjoying this dispute between Republicans.

M. O'BRIEN: I should say. Got a front row seat for the show there.

All right, Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, thank you.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Iraq and what's happening there this morning. Two more Americans have been killed in insurgent attacks. An Army soldier by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and a Marine by enemy fire in the al Anbar province.

This as Iraqi police are finding more bodies. Dozens found bound and tortured. There have been almost 70 victims discovered dumped around the city in just the past 24 hours.

Today's attacks on American troops follows a huge suicide truck bomb explosion in western Baghdad. A major U.S. Army outpost attacked. As many as 25 soldiers wounded and two killed. Cal Perry now with a story you will see only on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): A mass casualty situation. Many wounded on the way. We had gone to the busiest combat hospital in Iraq with a plan to cover the U.S. military's grim milestone. We'd been at the hospital only about an hour. Bloodied and screaming U.S. soldiers stream into the combat hospital. Twenty- five in total. Many fighting for their lives.

It had been a truck bomb attack on a Fourth Infantry Division fixed position in Baghdad. The U.S. soldiers had apparently been caught off guard. Some of the wounded arrive wearing sneakers, rather than their usual combat gear. Even as the casualties were still coming, Major General James Thurmon (ph) slips in. He's the commander of the Fourth Infantry Division, here to comfort and console his men.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES THURMON, FOURTH INFANTRY DIVISION: Is he going to be OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to be fine, sir.

PERRY: In this war, it's a question, is he or she going to be OK? That has been asked nearly 23,000 times. The answers have not always been what families wanted to hear. Close to 2,700 U.S. soldiers killed, 20,000 wounded, with more than 9,000 unable to return to duty. Many of those unable to return to their units head home with devastating injuries. Without the quick medical response already in place by the U.S. military, the death toll would be far higher. This landing zone at the tenth cache in Baghdad, on any given day, is literally buzzing with activity.

All over Iraq, from Baghdad to Ramadi, Fallujah to the Triangle of Death, these three years prove the U.S. is in the grips of a bloody fight. Of the 25 casualties brought in from the attack on the Fourth Infantry Division, one later succumbed to his wounds. Another soldier died at the scene of the attack.

Through the day, a tense struggle to keep the death toll from growing higher. Many soldiers sent to surgery to get them stable enough to fly out to hospitals in Germany and then to the U.S.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PERRY: And, Carol, it's these very same doctors, medics and nurses who were able to save countless lives yesterday, ensuring that more U.S. soldiers would return home to their families than would die here in Iraq.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Cal Perry live in Baghdad this morning. Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: In Yemen this morning, a pair of thwarted terror attacks aimed at oil facilities. Officials say suicide bombers tried to blow up a refinery in a storage center during early morning shift changes. The two attackers were killed when security forces blew up their cars before they reached the target.

New video this morning of Cuban President Fidel Castro embracing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Still no word on whether he'll appear at the Nonalon (ph) Movement Summit going on right now in Havana. Castro recovering from intestinal surgery in July.

A Muslim leaders is calling on the pope to apologize after some harsh words about Islam. Earlier this week, Benedict quoted a 14th century byzantine emperor who called Mohammed's teaching evil and inhuman. The Vatican says the pope meant no offense.

Later today, Congressman Bob Ney expected to plead guilty in connection with the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal. The Ohio Republican would be the first lawmaker to do so. For months, Ney has been denying any wrongdoing.

BP would like to open up that oil field shuttered because of a rusty pipeline. The company asking the Department of Transportation to allow it to reopen some oil fields so it could test that line. No word on whether the government or when the government will approve.

Japan and the world getting its first glimpse of prince Hisahito just nine days after he was born. Hard to tell who he looks like there. He's third in line to be perhaps one day emperor of Japan.

Time for a check of the weather. Chad Myers at the Weather Center with that.

Who's he look like, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I can't tell. Cute little guy, though.

M. O'BRIEN: He looks like Suri, that's what I say.

MYERS: All right. Well, there you go. Good point (ph), with all the hair.

Good morning now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the showdown between top Senate Republicans and the president over how to handle terror detainees. How are the Senate and White House plans different. We'll take a closer look.

Plus, a new technique to pick potential terrorists out of a crowd. Why experts say the face can give away a suspect, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Ford is announcing a dramatic series of cutbacks trying to return to profitability and apparently it's going to be a long road. Andy Serwer is back with some details of that Ford announcement.

Hello, Andy.

SERWER: Hello, Miles.

Earlier this morning we told you about buyouts being offered to all 75,000 of Ford's hourly workers. New details of the plan being released. Additional cuts here. Salaried work force will be reduced by a third. The equivalent of about 14,000 positions. And those appear to be layoffs.

Also, big news here. Ford's board saying they will suspend payment of their dividend. That should save the company hundreds of millions of dollars a year but will not be good news for shareholders of the company at all.

Operating costs to be reduced by approximately $5 billion. And also, full year automotive profitability in North America not expected before 2009. So that's a ways off. So much more work to be done. And the employee situation, you know, Ford's calling this plan -- the have called it the way forward. For many employees, it's going to be the way out.

M. O'BRIEN: Unfortunately. So you get the sense that Ford is a little sicker than we first thought. SERWER: Well, you know, many people had said, Miles, that Ford was actually in tougher shape than GM. They really have no new product. You know, they have the F-150 pickup truck. But if you think about their greatest hits over the past decade, they're very long in the tooth. You're talking about the Explorer and the Taurus.

Their overseas acquisitions, like Jaguar, haven't really panned out. They need to make cars that Americans want to buy. And that is something they're not doing right now and they've got to step up to the plate very quickly there.

M. O'BRIEN: So really the outlook for GM, on that front, is probably a little better because they have some products people are interested in?

SERWER: Some people say so, although handicapping that race is probably not, you know, fruitful at this point. They both have their problems.

M. O'BRIEN: OK, Andy, thank you.

Coming up, creativity and genius. We'll meet a young author who started writing a best-selling novel. He was 15. Getting close to genius there. He's certainly gifted with the words anyhow. We'll tell you how to unlock your children's brilliance and allow you to retire early, maybe. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Inspecting cargo before it leaves for the United States. Right now customs checks containers on arrival. The Senate has just voted to add 1,000 new agents, who would be stationed at overseas ports to clear U.S.-bound freight before it's loaded.

And a new rule for packages on airplanes. Every package must now be screened after it's dropped off at an airline counter. Homeland Security making it mandatory to check for explosives. But the new rule doesn't cover the majority of cargo on airliners, which is as it comes through large commercial shippers. That cargo only gets random checks.

So just how can we make sure we're protected from terrorists when we fly? Some say banning shampoo and toothpaste just doesn't cut it. Some say it's time to do something different and more effective. CNN's Allan Chernoff tells us that a different security technique, one that may be even more important to the safety of air travel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Security officials scanning passengers for possible weapons. Some airports are going a step further. They're searching for thoughts of terrorism. Trying to determine what may be inside a person's head by observing behavior.

THOMAS KINTON, MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY: It's a tool and a very important tool in the day and age where we're in a battle against terrorism. Clearly people, what defeated us on 9/11, not weapons.

CHERNOFF: Boston's Logan Airport, the departure point for the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center, turned to this training, known as behavioral observation, after 9/11 by hiring Israeli expert Rafi Ron.

RAFI RON, SECURITY CONSULTANT: It was an extremely violent agenda. Something that affects the mental situation of the person and we're trying to look for that.

CHERNOFF: Among the indicators are micro expressions, facial movements that can be very difficult to control during a high-stress attempt at deception.

The communications science center at the University at Buffalo, funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security, uses a simulated security checkpoint to study micro expressions. Small movements among 44 different muscles in the face that can reveal fear, distress and other emotions tied to deception.

MARK FRANK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO: You get this tug of war over control of the face. And so the emotion is sending one signal, saying be afraid. And the outer part of the brain is saying, be poker faced. Don't show anything. And what happens is a function of this type of war is occasionally bits of the emotion will leak out and they happen very quickly.

CHERNOFF: Director Mark Frank began studying behavior when he was a bar bouncer during college.

No, I wouldn't do that. I'm an honest person.

He could easily see that I'm a lousy liar.

FRANK: You're seeing a little configuration of distress in the eyebrows. So they're sort of being pulled up and together a little bit in response to this question. And you're also sort of shaking your head saying, no, when you're saying, "I am an honest person."

CHERNOFF: Behavioral observation worked well enough at Logan Airport that the Transportation Security Administration is now embracing the approach at more than a dozen airports around the country and plans to expand the program by training 500 officers in the technique over the next two years. But even advocates of behavioral observation concede, it's far from fail safe.

FRANK: There is no Pinocchio response. There is no behavior in all people, in all situations, guarantees that somebody is lying.

CHERNOFF: Still, proper training might have prevented attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid from getting on to the plane he tried to blow up. A private security officer in Paris questioned him, found him suspicious and called in the police. But French police, with no behavioral observation training, let him go. Another reason, experts say, the best way to improve airport security is to combine technology with human analysis, to spot potential terrorists before they have an opportunity to act.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, Buffalo, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

O'BRIEN: A novel approach to fighting high oil prices. Coming up, a Louisiana homeowner goes to extremes to find some black gold right there in his backyard.

Plus, was rising NFL star Reggie Bush on the take in college? The answer ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to the program. I'm Miles O'Brien.

COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad.

The battle over the way America should treat terrorist suspects goes beyond election-year politics. What President Bush and his opponents are arguing about is an important part of how to fight the war on terror.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with more -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Well, you sort of have to be a lawyer to understand all this. We'll try and walk through some of it. One of the most significant differences between what the Senate passed yesterday and what the president wants involves something that is known as article three of the Geneva Conventions, and that goes to how these high-value detainees are interrogated by the U.S. government, especially by the CIA when they are captured.

Now that article talks about that there can be no outreaches on human dignity. That's what the Geneva Convention says. The law passed -- or the proposal passed by the Senate says -- they say that they want to be -- have that maintained, that that should be what is in the law. The administration wants something much more specific. But led by Senator McCain, they are saying, no, if the administration reinterprets the Geneva Convention, that could lead things open to U.S. personnel also being interrogated in less-than-acceptable manners if they are captured.

There are three other significant differences, access to classified information. The administration would allow classified information to be kept from detainees at trial. The committee says, no, generally speaking, they should be allowed to see classified information. Coercion -- the administration would completely want to control the -- prohibit the use of statements by coercion. But the committee says it should be even stronger than that, not just coercion. There can be no torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment on the rules of evidence. The administration says that it is important to not sort of muck, if you will, with the rules of evidence - Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Barbara Starr, at the Pentagon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: World leaders, many critics of the United States, will speak today in Cuba. The mystery is, will Fidel Castro be among them? Cuban is hosting the Summit of Non-Allied (Ph) Nations.

CNN's Morgan Neill is live in Havana to tell us more.

Good morning.

MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, last night, Cuban Television gave us some hint to the condition of Fidel Castro. For the first time since he was forced to hand off power in later July due to surgery, we've see him standing on his own feet. In the video reduced by official media, we see Cuban President Fidel Castro greeting his close ally and friend, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, giving him a warm greeting, even giving him a sort of playful chuck on the shoulder, looking very alert and animated. Now as far as the summit itself, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived yesterday. We've also seen a picture of him, released by state media, where he's greeting Cuban President Fidel Castro.

As for the events today, just in a few hours we're expecting to see the inaugural ceremony, in which originally the Malaysian prime minister was going to hand off the chairmanship of the movement to Cuban President Fidel Castro. We'll have to wait and see if he is actually there to receive it.

This afternoon we're going to begin to see speeches delivered by heads of state. Among those set to speak, leaders of India, South Africa, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. So obviously some very vocal critics of U.S. policies there. And we're expecting to hear some very sharp condemnations of the Bush administration and its policies.

Now, as I say, as to whether Fidel Castro will make an experience, we'll have to see, but expectations are certainly high after that new video -- Carol.

NEILL: We'll be watching. Morgan Neill live in Havana, Cuba this morning.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: The space walk No. 3 of the space shuttle mission is under way, been under way for about an hour and 40 minutes. Take a look at the International Space Station, 17,500 miles an hour, 200 miles between here and there. And there you see Heide Stefanyshyn- Piper, and she is on the P-6 truss, which was the first truss brought on back in 2000. They're trying to free a cable that got caught, and that cable is attached to a cart, which allows them to transport things all across the Erector set-style truss on the International Space Station.

In addition to that, they're going to open up some radiators today, which are still sort of in the shipping crate. Why do you need radiators? Well, first of all, as we look at that helmet-cam shot, what they were doing earlier is they did that removing of the launch constraints and restraints as they say. Take a look at the deploy yesterday of these solar arrays, which in total, tip to tip from one side to the other, is in excess of 240 feet, went off without a hitch. No less than about a million tiny little solar collectors added to the space station, doubling its electrical production. So that went well.

And then take a look at these shots which they released yesterday. I love these shots. This is a solid-rocket booster, and you're going for a ride right now. Already you're going well over 100 miles an hour. There goes the launch pad right down there. That's launch pad 39B. Oh, it's gone. And this is not for us to have fun, although it is fun. It's really for the engineers to see if there's damage to the heat shield. The heat shield has been cleared for re- entry.

Take a look now a couple minutes later, two minutes into the launch, solid-rocket booster separation, boom. And then tumbling it goes before the parachute opens. Lazy tumble. There's the sky, the darkness of space. Oh, there's the shuttle. And around you go one more time. Eventually it makes its way down to the ocean, they fish it out of the ocean, they restack it up, they fill it back up with fuel, and it flies again. Just love those shots.

COSTELLO: That's pretty cool, I must admit.

O'BRIEN: All right. Even you -- even you admit.

COSTELLO: Even I -- even I admit. Thank you, Miles.

Well, as Congress considers opening more of the Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling, one man has a home-grown solution. It's strange, but who knows? Maybe it's working.

CNN's Susan Roesgen is live in Lake Charles, Louisiana with an unusual story.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol, we're talking about black gold, Texas tea. If you're an oilman, a wild catting oilman, your solution is to put an oil rig on your own property, even in your front yard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROESGEN (voice-over): As front yards go, Steve Jordan's is pretty impressive, the landscaped lawn, the fountain, and about 100 yards from the front door, a 65-foot oil rig. A seismic study about three years ago showed there might be oil on the property. Back then the price per barrel was about $30, not enough to make digging up the yard worthwhile. But when the price shot past $40, Jordan figured his 60-acre estate had room for the rig. He's the head of his own oil company.

STEVE JORDAN, CEO JORDAN OIL COMPANY: I mean, this ain't my first rodeo. I mean, I've been involved in hundreds of wells.

ROESGEN: The catch is, the oil they hope to find wouldn't be under the rig -- it's half a mile away, in environmentally sensitive wet lands. So to get to it, Jordan is drilling down and under his house, under the living room, the kitchen and out under the patio.

(on camera): Then the pipe keeps going past the pool, down another 50 or 75 yards and under the Kalcachu (ph) River.

(voice-over): If they do find oil, Jordan thinks there might be enough to double his million-dollar investment, somewhere between 150,00 and 300,000 barrels of oil total, nowhere near the 30 million barrel barrels OPEC puts out.

JORDAN: A producer like me is just sort of like a fly in the ointment to them, just a very small producer, but 68 percent of the oil in America is produced by people just like me.

ROESGEN: The question is, will he found black gold under the river behind his house?

(on camera): What does your gut tell you? Do you have a gut in this business, Steve?

JORDAN: I think everywhere I'm going to drill I'm going to hit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROESGEN: Now, you know, carol, every time I say black gold or Texas tea, I'm reminded of "The Beverly Hillbillies," but I think you'll agree that this guy is more J.R. Ewing in "Dallas" than he is Jed Clampett.

COSTELLO: You know, I'm with him in spirit, I am, but drilling for oil under my house might make me a little nervous -- Susan.

ROESGEN: Hey, it makes his wife nervous too. But the drilling engineer out here, Richard Vickery, says it's safe. There is a lot of pressure involved when you're drilling underground. And in fact if there is any kind of problem, Steven Jordan says, don't worry, he's got blowout insurance.

COSTELLO: Oh, geez. OK. We wish him luck.

Susan Roesgen reporting live from Louisiana.

Still to come, the hidden spark of genius in your children. Meet a young author who started writing a best seller when he was just 15. The secret of his success ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All this week Dr. Sanjay Gupta's been talking about intelligence and creativity in advance of his hour-long special on Sunday. Sanjay joins us from the CNN Center in Atlanta with the final part of his series, "Genius: Quest for Extreme Brainpower." This kid's amazing.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: He really is. What if I told you I was going to introduce you to somebody who wrote a best-selling book. That book got turned into a major motion picture. And he did it all when he was just 15 years old. He's Chris Paolini. The book is "Eragon." It's a really remarkable thing, and it teaches us a lot about the links between creativity and genius.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI, AUTHOR, "ERAGON": Magic can yield unexpected results when the ancient words are combined in new ways.

GUPTA (voice-over): Christopher Paolini is a writer, 22 years old. He lives in Montana's Paradise Valley, just north of Yellowstone Park. It's some of the wildest and most beautiful country you'll ever see.

PAOLINI: All through these mountains, I hike every chance I get.

GUPTA: He grew up here, a gifted child with an intense home school education. He finished high school before he was old enough for a driver's license.

PAOLINI: When I graduated, I really didn't have a lot to do, because you look around and you can't go to the nearest mall or movie theater. I decided to do try to write a story. So "Eragon" was my practice book.

GUPTA: That "practice book" was about a 15-year-old boy and his newfound dragon doing battle against an evil empire.

PAOLINI: Before him lay Palancar (ph) Valley, exposed like an unrolled map.

GUPTA: The Paolini family spent a year promoting "Eragon" on their own, until it caught the attention of novelist Carl Hiaasen and his publisher. Within months, it was a number-one bestseller. Paolini's second book, "Eldest," also hit No. 1. And while he finishes the trilogy's final chapter, "Eragon" is headed for the big screen, in December.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: One false move, one reckless decision and everything's lost.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I'm the rider, and I say we go!

PAOLINI: It's a story that I really empathized with and related to about, you know, a young man coming of age.

GUPTA: Paolini says many children have a spark of genius inside, but they need the right environment, free to pursue their passion.

(on camera): Are you happy you studied this way?

PAOLINI: Very. I think I learned a lot doing this this way. I was able to pursue my own interests. And if I had gone to a regular school, the education may have been fine, but I never would have had the time to write a book. I think people underestimate the importance of having time to just sit, and think and daydream. I mean, because "Eragon" was my daydreams.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: That's a quite a daydream for sure, turning it into a book and a movie now.

What do parents and other children his age have to learn about his success? You can see all of that. That's what we talked about, these links between creativity and genius. A remarkable story, Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, it's just interesting that this was his practice book, because I wrote a practice book and, frankly, it stunk.

What is the most interesting thing you've learned from studying genius?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting what distinguishes a genius from a really smart person -- and Chris talks about this a lot -- but it's this whole idea of being able to have novel thinking. A lot of people are very good at memorizing lots of facts and having them at their fingertips, but who are the people who are constantly trying to sort of push the envelope and change the world by combing all these disparate thoughts. That's one of the most fascinating things. And how do you get there, how do you help your kids get there? It's all pretty interesting stuff.

COSTELLO: You make it sound like we can all be geniuses.

GUPTA: You can, Carol. And I urge you to go back and look at that practice book of your, as well.

COSTELLO: I'm going to re-read it and see if it really stunk, and I'm going to watch your special on Sunday.

GUPTA: I hope you do. I'm anxious to hear what you think.

COSTELLO: I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

Coming up next, Andy's "Minding Your Business" -- Andy.

SERWER: Carol, iPod, meet thine enemy. Microsoft rolls out the Zume. And just in time for the holidays, Nintendo rolls out the Wii. It's the one with the wand. We'll you all about that, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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