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American Morning

Dow Has Biggest Point Gain in Five Years; McCain Campaign Financial Woes; Pressure to Pull Out of Iraq

Aired July 13, 2007 - 07:59   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, and thanks for joining us.
It is Friday, the 13th of July.

I'm John Roberts, along with Kiran Chetry. ' KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you.

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Well, Friday, the 13th starts out lucky for some investors. The Dow with its biggest point gain in nearly five years.

And our Ali Velshi is following the numbers for us this morning.

Hi, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.

An hour and a half before markets open, the biggest point gain in nearly four years, biggest percentage gain in nearly -- biggest point gain in nearly five years, biggest percentage gain in nearly four years. The 50th record close on the Dow since October.

We are now less than 200 points away from 14,000 on the Dow. It wasn't even at 11,000 this time this year.

What you need to do is you need to look at your portfolio. More than half of all Americans own stocks, but they don't necessarily own them as individual stocks. Those are the returns that the market has provided from the beginning of 2007 until now. The Dow and the Nasdaq have given more than 11 percent back to you. The Nasdaq -- the S&P almost 10 percent.

Well, you'll want to look at your portfolio. And while it may not match these exactly, you want to make sure that you are getting some of these gains. And if you have been getting some of them, you might want to rebalance and buy some things that aren't doing so well.

You want to take this opportunity to rebalance your portfolio. Look at it and make some decisions, because there's a healthy market out there. And while you're probably paying more for gas and your mortgage, you might as well make it where you can -- Kiran. CHETRY: Ali, we'll check in with you a little later. Thank you.

VELSHI: OK.

CHETRY: The crackdown in China this morning. The government urging food and drug companies to put safety first.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is doing a series of special reports from inside of China starting Monday. And today, of course, we started off with the undercover video of cardboard being used in dumplings.

It's unbelievable.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is unbelievable. I'm going to go out to China. I'm really excited about this trip. We're going to be looking at some of those stories, some other stories as well.

Pollution is a huge issue in China. A lot of people know that. There's some concrete examples of what pollution can do to our bodies.

There are these actual cancer villages in China that we're going to be looking at where cancer rates are extraordinarily high. How does it happen, why is it happening? What are environmental groups trying to do to prevent that from happening?

Also, sort of the mix of traditional Western medicine and traditional Eastern medicine. We're going to look at what Eastern medicine -- some of the specific science, the history and some of the cultural beliefs are, and what we can learn from those for our own bodies and own welfare. I think it's going to be a very fascinating series of reports -- Kiran.

CHETRY: You better check in with John Vause about where to eat, though, in Beijing.

GUPTA: He told me not to eat in Beijing at all. So maybe I'll come back a little skinnier. We'll see.

CHETRY: All right. Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

ROBERTS: And for the latest on the race for the White House, we go now to our Candy Crowley.

She is live in Concord, New Hampshire, for us this morning.

Good morning, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

ROBERTS: And I guess the news of the day is that John McCain looks like he is just about out of cash. He had $2 million remaining in the bank, but he's got liabilities of $1,750,000, which leaves him with about $250,000.

How is that for a guy who's trying to win the nomination?

CROWLEY: Very, very tough to win the nomination with that sort of money, John. I imagine he will keep that $2 million cash on hand rather than pay down those debts at this point. But, you know, the problem is, that if donors out there are looking at this campaign and seeing this sort of chaos that has been going on with the top two people leaving, other loyalists sort of following him out the door, this is a campaign that's clearly struggling to get back up on its feet.

If you're a donor, you're looking at that thinking, do I really want to give $2,300 to that campaign?

John.

ROBERTS: And then there is also this news that his Florida campaign co-chairman, Bob Allen, was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer. Now, Giuliani's campaign has had a couple of -- I don't want to say exactly the same, but certainly similar episodes. I mean, that's the sort of thing that you can perhaps come back from if you're strong, but all of these little things just kind of chip away at confidence, do they not?

CROWLEY: They absolutely do. And as far as we can tell, not the confidence of the candidate, who has already spoken to at least the disruptions in his campaign and said, look, you know, we're moving forward.

Nonetheless, this is one more thing that takes John McCain off his topic, which is to get back on message and to talk about reform and that sort of thing. The kind of things that he talked about in 2000.

ROBERTS: Hey, you're up there in New Hampshire. And the latest polls show that on the Republican side, Mitt Romney continues to lead 26 percent to Rudy Giuliani's 17 and Fred Thompson, 17 percent. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll. But, of course, people -- you know, it's very close to Massachusetts, and people remember him back in 2002 running for the governorship there, and there's this whole idea that Romney will say anything to get elected.

There's a new video out on YouTube that the Massachusetts Democratic Party put out. Take a quick listen to some of this and let me get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: It's always a burden for someone to run with "R" for "Republican" after their name.

Surely I have many friends who are Republicans and Republican voters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So take it from this liberal Democrat, if you want an amazing leader, vote for Mitt Romney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So, this video is out there suggesting that Romney will say anything to get elected. And that is one of the hits on him, isn't it?

CROWLEY: Well, that's the problem, that every time you add on to an already perception that's there, it just deepens that. We've had changes obviously with Romney on abortion and other things related to the pro-life movement. So this is something that kind of adds to that. Nonetheless, it was Massachusetts.

I also wonder if this is not continuous, how much six months out this kind of thing actually hurts other than if they keep building upon this idea that he's a flip-flopper. Then clearly it hurts him.

Having said that, you just read the polls. A lot of those things have already come out, and conservatives still tend to support Mitt Romney.

ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, I guess for the most part people in New Hampshire know exactly who he is.

Candy Crowley for us in Concord this morning.

CROWLEY: Yes.

ROBERTS: Candy, thanks.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: A new effort by lawmakers to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq could face the same old problems. The House voted yesterday to have most troops home by April of 2008. The Senate is debating attaching a similar measure to a budget bill, but the president is promising to again veto any legislation that includes a timetable.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joins me this morning from Capitol Hill.

Senator McConnell, good to see you. Let me ask you about this issue.

First of all, what kind of legislation could you sign on to? Because you're under a tremendous amount of not just political, but personal pressure as well from constituents to do something about this Iraq war.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: Actually, my constituents are overwhelmingly on the side of General Petraeus and the effort. We are the home of the 101st Airborne. We also have Fort Knox.

We've been on the point on the war on terror, and my constituents are overwhelmingly proud of the fact that we haven't been attacked here again since 9/11, and they believe correctly that it's because we've been on offense. So it's not a question of constituent pressure.

It's a question of giving General Petraeus time to execute the surge. And as we all know, there is going to be a big report in September from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. And I think the vast majority of the members of my conference here in the Senate are willing to wait until that report comes out rather than make some premature judgment about the outcome of the effort.

ROBERTS: Right, but you're certainly being targeted. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has just come out with a series of ads targeting a number of Republicans. You're first and foremost among them. I just want to play a little bit of that video and ask you about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four times this year McConnell voted to continue George Bush's open-ended commitment in Iraq and against bringing our troops home. Now he has another chance. Call McConnell. Tell him it's time to do the right thing. It's time to start bringing our troops home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So, Senator McConnell, how much longer can Republican support hold out before President Bush starts to lose it?

MCCONNELL: Could I just say, you know, the Democratic Senatorial Committee running ads on this issue proves my point. This is all a political exercise for them.

For Republicans, it's about protecting American. We went on offense in order to protect the homeland. That's been 100 percent success. We're sorry that the effort in Iraq has been as difficult as it has, but giving up and inviting the terrorists to come back to this country is not a great plan.

ROBERTS: Right. You have said in the past, though, Senator, that it looks like there is a change coming in the fall. And I'm wondering what kind of legislation could you sign on to?

MCCONNELL: Well, I think if change comes in the fall it will be led by the president. The president has indicated he is waiting for General Petraeus' report in September. That will give us a sense of how the surge is going, where things stand at that particular time. The president himself has indicated some movement in the fall, and we're anxious to hear what he has to say.

ROBERTS: Right. Let me just switch gears for a second, if I could. Where has Senator Vitter been all week?

MCCONNELL: Well, you'd have to address -- he's not been here this week. You'd have to address that question to him.

ROBERTS: Are you comfortable with him staying in the Republican Caucus?

MCCONNELL: Senator Vitter has addressed the issue that you're referring to, and I'll let him speak to that.

ROBERTS: Right. Is this something that you think he can recover from? I mean, does the Republican Party, the Republicans in Congress take a hit because of this?

MCCONNELL: Well, you'll have to ask Senator Vitter about what he had to say about the episode that I think you're referring to. He would be the one to address that.

ROBERTS: Right. And let me just come back to Iraq, if I could, for a second.

Senator Warner said, "The government is simply not providing leadership worthy of the considerable sacrifice of our forces, and this has to change immediately."

Do you see any reason to continue to back the Iraqi government?

MCCONNELL: Well, it was duly elected. We don't get to pick their government. They won the election.

I share Senator Warner's -- and I've said publicly on frequent occasions the Iraqi government has been a big disappointment. They haven't passed the oil law, they haven't done the debaathification. They haven't had the local elections.

I don't think there's any debate much in the Senate about disappointment with the Iraqi government. It's pretty uniform.

ROBERTS: Right. So how much do you continue to throw the might of the U.S. military behind them? How many longer?

MCCONNELL: Well, this is about al Qaeda. Most of the -- most of the incidences in Iraq are caused by al Qaeda.

We don't want to let Iraq be a safe haven for al Qaeda like Afghanistan used to be. I mean, you have to confront these people, John. They're the ones who came here, tried to kill us in the early '90s, blew up our embassies in the mid-90s, blew a hole out of the USS Cole in 2000 and attacked us on 9/11.

You know, they don't hate us because of anything we did. They hated us well before we were in Iraq.

ROBERTS: All right.

Senator Mitch McConnell, minority leader. Thanks very much for being with us. Good to see you, sir.

MCCONNELL: Thank you.

CHETRY: Well, is the real estate market a ticking time bomb? There are some predictions that millions of Americans will lose their homes. So what is going on with the foreclosure rate? And is your home at risk?

We're going to talk about it with Gerri Willis next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Realtors and homeowners are bracing for a time bomb that's set to go off, and soon, they're saying. It's more than a million adjustable rate mortgages are about to adjust. And guess which way it's going? Up, and it's making those homes unaffordable for people already in financial jeopardy.

ROBERTS: CNN's money saver, Gerri Willis, with us now.

How many more foreclosures are there as a result of this?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: I've got to tell you, it's getting ugly out there, John.

Some $50 billion in adjustable rate mortgages will reset in October. So we're expecting a spike in foreclosures in that month. In fact, some people are saying as many as 2.5 million people could lose their homes in the next two years, the end of this year and 2008. So that's a lot of people.

Let me show you some numbers, because you think, an interest rate reset, how bad could that be? Well, it could be very bad.

Let's say you had a loan for $200,000 three years ago at 4.25 percent. Initial payment, $708. But guess what? The mortgage rate resets and your mortgage payment doubles.

CHETRY: You know, that is disturbing. So lenders are giving loans out when homeowners can't necessarily afford them. I mean, do they have to give you a window in which how high this adjustable rate could go?

WILLIS: Well, you know, there are all kinds of information on your mortgage documents, but nobody reads their mortgage documents.

You know, over the last three years, lenders became very lax with their lending standards. They started giving money to people that normally wouldn't have qualified. So now that interest rates are rising, prices are coming down, people are getting in trouble.

You know, we talked about subprime loans out there. Those are loans to people who didn't qualify for regular mortgages. Eighty percent of the people who got those in 2006 got adjustable rate mortgages, which is, you know, what we're talking about here. ROBERTS: I've always stuck with fixed mortgages because I want to be sure what I'm paying, but for somebody who has one of these ARMs, who's looking at an adjustment, other than going out and selling the car and getting a second job or whatever, what can you do?

WILLIS: Well, there's lots of things you can do. You know, bankers qualified people on that initial rate. So if you were paying 4 percent, 3 percent, 1 percent, it was easy to qualify for that loan.

CHETRY: Right.

WILLIS: So now you may want to think about going in and getting a new loan. The problem, though, John, you know, prices are coming down. Interest rates are going up. You may not be able to refinance.

ROBERTS: As Ali Velshi was telling us, mortgage rates are on their way back up again. So is there a chance if try to get a fixed rate that that would actually be at a higher one than your ARM is going to?

WILLIS: Absolutely. That's exactly what we're talking about. And you could owe more than the house is worth with your current loan.

Here's some things you can do.

Call your lender if you're having problems making your payments right now. Contact that lender's loss mitigation department. Not the fellow who underwrote the loan in the first place. He's a sales person.

Call them. They can actually make changes in your loan. They can change your monthly payments, they can extend the terms of the loan. They can reduce your payments for a period of time.

There's lots of things you can do, including something called a short sale. That's where you find your own buyer. And even if they can't pay the total amount you owe the bank, the bank may be willing to go along.

CHETRY: Oh, it's a scary mess though...

WILLIS: Yes.

CHETRY: ... for a lot of people having to deal with this type of stuff.

Gerri, thank you.

Also, don't forget to watch Gerri this week on "OPEN HOUSE". It's on the weekend.

Buying a home at auction? How about keeping your kids safe at the pool? Gerri tests out some of those infomercial products as well.

I've always wondered about the Perfect Pancake, Gerri. Does that thing work? She'll find out for us.

WILLIS: Perfect Pancake...

CHETRY: It's tomorrow morning, 9:30 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Thanks, Gerri.

WILLIS: Thank you.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank goodness, it's a dry heat, because it's going to be 106 degrees in Phoenix; sun coming up on Arizona this morning. Our thanks to our folks at KNXV-TV for providing us with that. It's only 89 degrees right now, so get out there and do whatever you have to do before it gets hot.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank goodness for AC, as well.

ROBERTS: It's Friday the 13th. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING, and thanks for joining us. I'm John Roberts along with Kiran Chetry.

CHETRY: Some stories on our radar this morning: A mom and her little boy booted off of an airplane. Why? Well, because the boy was talking too much. Some are calling it outrageous. There are others, though, who say it's a courtesy for passengers who don't want to be annoyed by kids on the plane.

So what do the flight attendants have to say about it? Well, coming up in just a couple of minutes, we are going to be speaking with the spokesperson of the Association of Flight Attendants about what happened in this case, and, you know, what you should do when you're traveling with kids.

ROBERTS: I take the 4:30 shuttle back up from Washington every Sunday, and I nicknamed it the screaming baby shuttles.

David and Victoria Beckham waking up in California this morning. The power couple arrived in L.A. last night to an army of palazzo. We will learn more about the impact that he and she are going to have on America -- coming up on this half-hour of AMERICAN MORNING.

New this morning, the Democratically controlled House has voted to withdraw U.S. combat troops by next spring, the president saying Congress should stick to funding the war, not managing it. The bill passed last night in the House would require troops to begin withdrawing within four months and be completed by April 1 of 2008. The House's bill is unlikely to survive a Republican filibuster in the Senate. And even if it does, President Bush has promised a veto.

And big news out of Iraq just coming in this morning, the military says it has detained an Iraqi police officer suspected of working with Iran to launch attacks on U.S. troops. Barbara Starr is looking into this one. She is at the Pentagon this morning.

What have you got for us, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is becoming a very disturbing incident, according to U.S. military officials. U.S. forces were on a pre-dawn raid in Baghdad to capture this man, suspected of working with the Iranian al-Quds Force inside of Iraq. He was also an Iraqi police lieutenant. They captured him as they were leaving the area.

They, the U.S. troops, came under a barrage of gunfire from nearby rooftops, from a church, and, John, also under fire from a nearby Iraqi police checkpoint. Very heavy exchange of gunfire between the U.S. troops and this Iraqi police checkpoint, to the point that the U.S. had to call in air cover and lay down some fire from above so that they could get out of the area. When it was all over, seven Iraqis killed, 12 wounded, most of them in these Iraqi police uniforms. John, the key question: Were they Iraqi police attacking U.S. troops, or perhaps were they insurgents in stolen Iraqi police uniforms? An investigation is underway.

And, John, in another piece of information, just coming to CNN, we have confirmed that just yesterday, 35 mortars hit the international zone -- the Green Zone in Baghdad, one of the most secure areas in Baghdad. So a lot of growing concern, again, about the stepped-up insurgent activity and what it really all means, John.

ROBERTS: Right. Secure on the inside, but not necessarily from attack on the outside. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon this morning - Barbara, thanks.

CHETRY: A follow-up for you now on that diverted flight, a passenger pulled off. Homeland Security now says, the passenger posed no threat. A flight attendant thought that he might have bypassed security by riding an employee bus to the plane. But security footage from LAX showed that he did, indeed, pass through all of the required checkpoints.

And then there is this story: a mother and toddler tossed from a flight because the baby was too chatty. There he is, 19-month-old Garren Penland and his mom Kate. They were on a plane. They were heading from Houston to Oklahoma, when Kate says that a flight attendant objected to Garren saying "bye-bye plane" over and over again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE PENLAND, AIRLINE PASSENGER: She leaned over to the gentleman beside me and said, "It's not funny anymore, you need to shut your baby up." She then said, you know, "It's called baby Benadryl, and did the little, you know?" And I said, "Well, I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, the mom says she later learned that the flight attendant told the pilot that she had threatened her, which Kate says is not true.

So how do these situations get handled? Joining us is Sara Nelson. She is a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants in Chicago this morning.

Hi, Sarah.

SARA NELSON, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Hi, Kiran.

CHETRY: So you heard about this case. What did you think? A lot of people were shocked to think that you could get thrown off a flight because your baby wouldn't stop talking. Is that the case?

NELSON: Well, it's a little bit impossible to comment on the specific issue, since I don't know the exact facts that were involved. But I do look at this story maybe a little bit different than the average member of the public might. And I should remind your viewers, first and foremost, that flight attendants are the biggest advocate for passenger rights.

But we are also keenly aware, on these crowded airplanes that we are the last line of defense for the security of the flight, and no one should have to make a serious decision based on a gut feeling alone. So we've been fighting for adequate security training since the day after September 11th. And to this date, the Bush administration and airline management continue to deny us that right.

CHETRY: All right, but can we just get back to this case for a second? You said you don't know all the fact, but we do know some, which is that she was, indeed, kicked off this flight. There were other passengers apparently who were trying to convince the flight attendant not to boot her off the flight. But they, indeed, went back to the gate, and she got thrown off the flight. So are there rules, or are there some guidelines with how passengers are rejected and for what reasons?

NELSON: Well, look, we have to err on the side of caution. So with the limited security training that we do receive, we are taught that the first objective is to keep any potential problem off the airplane. So that is -- that is what we're taking into consideration when we have to make very quick decisions. We're also taught that some of these things, even medical emergencies, can be distractions for a more serious plot against the safety of the flight.

CHETRY: I mean, the situation here, though, is the baby was repeatedly saying over and over again. She says that the flight attendant said to her, "It's called baby Benadryl." I mean, is that an appropriate thing to say to a mother that, perhaps, you should try to make your child sleepy?

NELSON: Well, that's probably not appropriate, but I'm going to give the flight attendant the benefit of the doubt since we haven't been able to hear her side of the story.

But back to how we might deal with a situation like this. The flight attendants are charged with the safe passage of the passengers in their care. We have to think about the total safety of the entire flight. Part of that comes into play when we are giving direction to passengers. We are doing that because we are following certain federal regulations. And it's actually a federal regulation that passengers follow through with the direction that we're giving them.

CHETRY: I understand...

NELSON: Now, we understand that a little toddler can't always do that. And we always have to balance our regulations with the fact that we're dealing with humans and human needs and unplanned events. So we would be looking at how the mother is responding or how the parent is responding to any direction that we might be giving.

CHETRY: You did mention something, though, that caught my ear. You said you've received limited security training. What do you mean by that?

NELSON: Well, we have fought very hard to have adequate security training. Flight attendants were the first to die on September 11th, and we've been the last to be trained. And we need appropriate training in order to deal with the security issues that we face every single day.

There are 140,000 fewer airline workers serving the same number of passengers as there were in 2001. We've taken pay cuts; we're working longer and paying more for our medical; we don't have pensions. We have all of these stresses, and we don't have the tools in order to deal with the stresses that we encounter today. I think that's what can create situations like this...

CHETRY: So are you saying that if a flight attendant is overworked, stressed out, and if your kid cries and won't shut up, you're getting booted off the plane because they're stressed?

NELSON: That is not necessarily the case. But I think that all of these issues can contribute to greater conflicts on the plane. And flight attendants who are doing their job should be erring on the side of caution and making sure that we are keeping problems on the ground and not in the air where we...

CHETRY: All right, all right.

NELSON: ... have other things to do then.

CHETRY: Well, Sara Nelson, thanks for giving your side of it - spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants.

NELSON: Thanks, Kiran.

ROBERTS: The world's biggest soccer celebrity is now in the United States. David Beckham's new team, the L.A. Galaxy, formally introduces him later on today. But Los Angeles is already rushing to meet Becks (ph) and his wife Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice. Becky Anderson is live in Carson, California, now with more.

And just how big a deal is this, Becky? BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The air of anticipation and curial city, I'd say, is palpable here. I mean, certainly, the L.A. Galaxy -- this is their stadium -- and hope they can bank it with Beckham.

They are hoping that the $250 million, reputed over five years, that he is worth to them some $32.5 million to play soccer. But a whole lot of endorsements around that is going to mean that the game in the U.S. becomes bigger and better. And they are banking on David Beckham in order to encourage that.

Certainly, the interest was there at the airport when they landed about 8:20, local time, on Thursday night. He arrived with his family to a throng of media. So if there is any sense that there was not enough interest, well, it was there certainly at the airport.

We were out with the paparazzi yesterday, and even the organization we were with were sending some six or seven snappers down. So, yes, there was an awful lot of people at the airport last night. David Beckham and his coming through - Posh Spice, as you refer to her; Victoria Beckham, as we know her in the U.K. -- she came through in a black strapless dress. He dressed in a black jacket and blue jeans. They are a very chic, very, very cool couple, let me tell you. They have got three kids, kids who were whisked through the back. They want to keep them out of the limelight to a certain extent.

But, yes, they came on in. The anticipation was there. As I say, a slight curiosity, but it should be a big one - John.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. All right, we will see you later on today. Becky Anderson for us this morning in California, covering David Beckham and Victoria Beckham's arrival there. It will be a very big day for soccer in this country.

CHETRY: That's right. And when in doubt, wear black. Everyone will call you chic.

Well, more and more parents are getting their kids off the couch, and on to the streets and the treadmills. But is running right for children? Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, we're all aware of the problem with childhood obesity. It's the reason why a lot of parents want their children to stay active. And there is a new fitness craze for kids that's actually not so new. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details in this morning's "Fit Nation" report.

Hi, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Yes, running. I mean, people have been doing - have been running for a long time. It really took off in the '70s in this country. But the trend has been towards younger and younger people starting to get into this sport. The question is, how young is too young? Could it potentially be dangerous?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL KEELEY, DIR., FREEHOLD N.J. RUNNING CLUB: If you're running...

GUPTA (voice-over): It's family run night at the Freehold New Jersey Running Club, where kids, two and older, are racing with their parents.

KEELEY: Running is fun; running is for a lifetime; running is healthy.

GUPTA: As childhood obesity rates rise, parents are looking for ways to keep their little ones active, like running, a sport that used to be reserved for teens and older. But as the number of young runners grow, so do the injuries.

Jenny Westerhoff began running in her early 'tweens, eventually joining her high school cross-country team. And that is when the pain started.

JENNY WESTERHOFF, RUNNER: After a while, I could feel it, like, in my kneecap, and I would always want to stop.

GUPTA: The American College of Sports Medicine finds, young female cross-country runners have the highest rate of injuries, even over high school football players. That's because teenagers are still growing, and they're prone to injury.

DR. WIEMI DOUOGUIH, SPORTS MEDICINE, WASHINGTON HOSPITAL: Young girls that are in their pubertal phase that are starting to develop hips, have anatomic changes which can predispose them to having knee pain.

GUPTA: The same applies to little kids. Doctors warn that starting a child runner too early can create shin splints, muscle pulls, tendinitis. They recommend no child run a race until they are in kindergarten.

DOUOGUIH: There is a lot of activities that involve running that are not just running that may be more fun for the kids.

GUPTA: Like soccer or basketball.

Best way to avoid injury: Make sure your child has the proper pair of shoes and consider getting a coach. Proper form is essential for keeping young runners injury-free.

(END VIDEOTAPE) Officials say that the parents are actually bringing some kids to these races, putting running shoes on them just after they've started walking. So, you know, clearly, that's too early. But this is becoming more and more of a trend, Kiran.

CHETRY: So doctors are recommending then that kids not start running until at least in kindergarten?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, and it's interesting. I think that's a bit arbitrary. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is that they may not really have a very steady gait up until that time. Even in the piece, you may have noticed some very young people trying to run. Their gait is still off and may make them more prone to injury. They are still growing, too. The growth plates are still fusing, so that could be a problem, as well.

CHETRY: You mentioned the female cross-country - is it anything to do with gender about whether or not we get injured more in our knees?

GUPTA: There does seem to be something with that in terms of not only running but also jumping. Women -- girls and boys, I should say -- tend to land a little bit differently, so the girls may be a little bit more prone to injury. And that is why those shoes and technique really, really are very important.

CHETRY: Very interesting.

Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

ROBERTS: "CNN NEWSROOM" is just minutes away now. Heidi Collins at the CNN Center with a look of what lies ahead.

Good morning to you, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

That's right, a suspected serial killer on the "NEWSROOM" rundown. That yellow big rig - police call it a crime scene now -- a trucker suspected of killing six women in travels across four different states.

And sex and the student. New findings today: A survey says high-schoolers are having less sex.

And this. Soccer royalty: David Beckham kick-starts a new multimillion dollar career in America. He will play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Can't wait!

All of the morning's breaking news, too. "NEWSROOM" at the top of the hour, right here on CNN.

ROBERTS: We'll see you then, Heidi; looking forward to it. Inside the mind of a serial killer. Should they end up behind bars or in psychiatric facilities? CNN Special Correspondent Soledad O'Brien will join us after the break for a preview of her new "SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS" report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: 51 minutes after the hour.

Monstrous killers like Jeffrey Dahmer often end up behind bars instead of inside of psychiatric facilities where they can get help. This weekend, CNN's Soledad O'Brien has got a special report on the criminally insane. She joins us now with a look at what treatment is and is not available to the criminally insane.

Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.

You know, in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, it really made us curious about killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, like Ted Kaczynski, and the red flags that were there or weren't there in some cases. It also made us think, in the course of our investigation, about this prison floor we discovered in Miami, where there are people who are prisoners, but they're also psychiatric patients. And what we saw was incredibly disturbing.

Take a look:

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): It's called "the forgotten floor." At the Miami- Dade County pre-detention facility, the entire ninth floor houses prisoners with the most serious mental illnesses. They are warehoused here before being taken to court or, in rare cases, before being sent to a state hospital or other mental health facility.

JUDGE STEVEN LEIFMAN, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY COURT: This is the largest psychiatric facility in Florida. There's five times more people here with mental illness than any state hospital.

O'BRIEN (on camera): But this is a jail; this is not a psychiatric facility.

LEIFMAN: It's not. Unfortunately, it's become one.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Miami-Dade County Court Judge Steven Leifman has made the forgotten floor and its mentally ill residents his personal crusade, providing me with a tour of its deplorable conditions.

LEIFMAN: Sometimes, when it gets overcrowded in here, you may see two people kind of spooning in this metal shelf, and one or two on the ground, and one waiting their turn to sleep. It's very difficult. O'BRIEN (on camera): This is how inmates on the ninth floor of the jail live, a small space. Sometimes there is two, three, four inmates sharing this cell, lights on 24 hours a day. This wrap (ph) is the only clothing they would wear. And you notice, there is no mattress on the bed -- both of those things to keep mentally ill inmates from harming themselves.

(voice-over): Most of the inmates are brought in for drug possession, assaulting an officer, or resisting arrest. But they can remain here for an average of six to nine months, sometimes up to a year or even longer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

What we often see is that they cycle through again and again and again. The point is to try to get them stable, so that they can actually go to trial. But they will fall apart sometimes in those conditions: lights on 24 hours a day; the noise; the people screaming. We had one man in a cell, not far from the one where you saw me standing, who insisted his father was the president, and he wanted to get him on the phone -- shrieking the entire time we were there. It is horrifying.

ROBERTS: So how is it there is not better care available for these people? And if it is so important to try to get them stable so that they can face justice, how can they leave them like animals in these cages?

O'BRIEN: A numbers game. One of the things they are trying to do is actually approach it from the beginning of the system, where there is this confrontation between law enforcement and people who are mentally ill. One of the things we have seen, now in 33 states, there's some programs where when law enforcement, police officers are called to a scene where there is a disturbance, they are now told that the person is mentally ill.

So you don't have these avoidable felonies, like resisting arrest or slugging a police officer that can get some of the people who are mentally ill in the system in the first place. So one step is to avoid getting them into the system, where they end up in jail. It's a numbers game. You can't -- where else are you going to put them is the problem.

ROBERTS: I can see why the judge took you for a tour of that facility. It's just deplorable. It needs to be brought to people's attention.

O'BRIEN: Yes, he's been pushing and changing the system where he is now helping create this hospital of quality and take the load off some of those patients.

ROBERTS: It looks like a fascinating special coming up.

Soledad, good to see you again.

O'BRIEN: Likewise. ROBERTS: "CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT" on the criminally insane, Saturday and Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't change that channel! Because it's time for "The Corny Collins Show!" Brought to you by Ultra Flex (ph) Hairspray...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: It's "The Corny Collins Show!" The nicest kids in town are dancing their way onto the silver screen, yet again, as "Hairspray" hits the big screen. Seems these days, everything old is new again.

ROBERTS: Always, because everything is recycled, because there are no new ideas.

But our Lola Ogunnaike is here this morning to tell us if all of the stories really have been told - good morning to you.

LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Most of the stories have been told, and they decided that if it's work in the past it may work again in the present. "Hairspray" is back again. Original film in 1998 - I'm sorry, 1988; on Broadway, 2002. Eight Tony Awards then, so they decided, hey, it worked on Broadway, it may work in film.

CHETRY: It was pretty cute. My one problem is - well, that is the old one with Harvey Fierstein.

OGUNNAIKE: Who was great.

CHETRY: But John Travolta, he was dressed in drag. He had a woman's body. Why did he have a man's voice?

OGUNNAIKE: And a man's face, for that matter, a man's face with a lot of latex around it. I found it incredibly distracting, but I have to tell you, Kiran, he's still got the moves, even with those pounds and pounds and pounds of latex. He was able to work it.

CHETRY: Light on his feet, I'll give him that. But he had no woman's voice.

OGUNNAIKE: Not at all. Defying gravity, definitely; could still do a shuffle but....

ROBERTS: So who is this movie going to appeal to?

OGUNNAIKE: Going to appeal to...

ROBERTS: Because I'm thinking here thinking, is this a movie I want to see?

OGUNNAIKE: Well, I don't think so, John.

CHETRY: It's a chick flick? Isn't it a chick flick?

OGUNNAIKE: It's a chick flick. And it's for other males, quite unlike John, but I have to tell you...

ROBERTS: Not that there is anything wrong with that.

OGUNNAIKE: Not at all. The audience was so into it. I'm telling you, there was a woman who was sitting behind me, I wanted to smack her with my popcorn bag, because she kept singing every song. It's not about you, honey! It's about Tracy Turnblad, not about you.

But people are into it; it's got a built in audience. And I think that is why these films work, because built in audience, loyalty. Also, if it bombs, doesn't really matter in the past. We looked at "Xanadu," a colossal flop, but people out there still loved it, and it is really doing well on Broadway.

ROBERTS: People really loved the Broadway show.

OGUNNAIKE: It's doing really well.

ROBERTS: They really did.

CHETRY: I know one reason why John would like this movie: Michelle Pfeiffer was so drop dead gorgeous in it.

ROBERTS: Well, there you go.

CHETRY: You can go just for that.

ROBERTS: I'm on my way.

Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. And good to have Lola here, as well.

We hope you have a good weekend. We will see you again on Monday.

CHETRY: Meantime, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins begins right now.

COLLINS: You are in the "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today.

Watch events come in to the "NEWSROOM" live all morning. It is Friday the 13th.

Here's what's on the rundown: A truck driver, now a suspected serial killer. Police believe this man killed six women across four states.

John McCain's bad week: Top staffers quit; one gets arrested; and now, cash flow problems.

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