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American Morning
Frank Assessment From U.S. Official in Iraq; Questions About Air Quality at Scene of Steam Pipe Explosion in Manhattan; San Francisco Quake
Aired July 20, 2007 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): China strikes back. A crackdown on companies behind toxic toothpaste and pet food.
But here at home...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's almost impossible.
ROBERTS: ... try shopping for food not made in China.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's interesting. You know the source of your tennis shoes, but you don't know the source of your packaged foods.
ROBERTS: The new move to protect you on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And good morning and welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks very much for joining us.
It's Friday, the 20th of July.
I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
The September deadline for assessing progress on the troop buildup in Iraq is now getting actually now a little bit closer.
ROBERTS: It is. But U.S. officials in Iraq did not sound very confident when they testified before a Senate committee via video conference.
Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN CROCKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: If there is one word that I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq on the street, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods, and at the national level, that word would be "fear".
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: CNN's Michael Ware is in Baghdad and joins us now live.
Michael, is that an accurate assessment from Ryan Crocker there, that the prevailing emotion in Baghdad right now and across the country, for that matter, is one of fear?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's so refreshing, John, to hear an American ambassador actually tell it like it is, because what Ambassador Crocker is saying is true. And it's good to see that the American people and the American Congress are being given the unvarnished truth from an authority they can respect, because that's what it is.
If you haven't had enough money to flee this country and you're still stuck here, then you are basically battened down. You could die just going to the corner store, or a government death squad in police uniforms can show up and drag you away at night and torture you horribly to death, or al Qaeda could just flatten, you know, your home or the street that you're in. Your kids can't go to school for fear of crossing sectarian lines.
It's a wonderful thing that Ambassador Crocker is being so frank.
ROBERTS: General Ray Odierno yesterday, Michael, in that same teleconference, also made a little piece of news when he said that they're looking forward to the assessment from Petraeus on September the 15th, but then he said that it would take further time, until November, to really get a sense of what's going on there, to really analyze the results of that.
Are they trying to shift the goal posts again?
WARE: No. I really don't think so.
Now, I understand that the military is saying and that General Odierno is saying he accidentally misspoke. Even if he didn't, what he is saying actually fits the reality here on the ground, and it certainly reflects more accurately the kind of thinking within the military that I'm hearing about.
Look, people want ready-made, pre-prepared, nicely-packaged answers right now. The American public and Congress wants a free ticket to go home. They're yearning for it so badly, but I'm sorry, it's not coming.
And to assess the true impact of an operation of the magnitude of the one that is currently under way, only second to the invasion itself, does not happen in a hurry. It's really only been under way for a matter of weeks, barely a month, and these effects take a long time to sink in and then show themselves.
So, honestly, even if he isn't misspeaking, it does reflect the real timeline here on the ground as opposed to the artificial domestic political timelines -- John.
ROBERTS: Right. And you know those timelines now getting harden and harder in Congress. Yesterday, member of Congress articulating to Odierno and Ryan Crocker, look, time is running out, you've got to get this done quickly.
Michael Ware for us in Baghdad today.
Michael, thanks.
(NEWSBREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
ROBERTS: Questions about air quality near the scene of that big steam pipe explosion in Manhattan.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho covering that for us now.
What are they, Alina, saying about this?
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're worried about proper protection for first responders, John. You know, air samples in the air tested negative for asbestos, but some of that dust and debris actually tested positive. So one of the biggest questions now is, why weren't first responders and cleanup crews required to wear respirators?
Well, we were there yesterday and saw for ourselves that there is simply no protocol. Some police officers had respirators, others did not. Same for the firefighters. Fewer first responders had them.
Now, CNN reached out to six different state, federal and local agencies. Some did not get back to us, but the ones that did said the use of protective gear is determined on a case-by-case basis.
Now, you'll recall just after 9/11 the EPA said the air was safe. Well, it turns out that was not the case, and now thousands of rescue workers are sick. But the city's health commissioner, who spoke earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, says you simply cannot compare Wednesday's explosion to 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: There's a world of difference between 9/11 and this in terms of the amount of dust, in terms of what was in the dust. On 9/11, it was pulverized concrete and building materials. Here it was mostly steam which was clean, as well as some asbestos, which is concerning, but a very different level of risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Now, the biggest challenge going forward is to carefully remove that asbestos-ladened debris without sending it back into the air. And as we talked about earlier, John, weather will play a big role in that. We're going to have to keep our fingers crossed for calm winds -- John.
ROBERTS: Alina Cho for us this morning.
Alina, thanks very much.
A rude wakeup call in San Francisco today. A little bit of rocking and rolling going on. Our Chad Myers is taking a look at that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Well, we're going to talk more about the effects of this earthquake, whether or not people are feeling it.
Captain Al Casciato with the San Francisco Police Department joins me on the phone this morning.
Thanks for being with us, Captain.
CAPT. AL CASCIATO, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE: Good morning.
CHETRY: You've had several panicked people calling in wondering what's going on, but have there been any reports of damage or injury?
CASCIATO: No. We've had quite a spike in calls, mostly calls of inquiry. None of any injury, none of any damage that was reported.
The earthquake was in the east bay, across the bay from us. It centered between Piedmont and Oakland, and -- which is south near the Warren Freeway, the 13. But we do not have -- other than inquiries and people being woken up and asking what's going on -- but it was fairly mild at 4.2.
CHETRY: Right. And you've probably been around for ones that have been a lot higher magnitude.
CASCIATO: Correct.
CHETRY: And what did they feel like compared to this one.
CASCIATO: It feels like a jet flying over you. That's what the '89 felt like to me. It felt like a jet had just flown over my head.
CHETRY: So this one, 4.2. It's being called relatively mild at this point, but can it do damage, theoretically, a 4.2?
CASCIATO: Yes, any earthquake can do damage. It depends basically what the foundation of the land -- whether you're on rock or fill. And we generally check the areas that were filled, and those are the most dangerous areas because of (INAUDIBLE) that might occur. And that's where -- that's where the problems occurred in the marina and other areas that were filled in during the 1989 earthquake, and also the 1906.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, you guys have certainly done your share of retrofit work. I lived in the area for a while. I know that they want to be prepared if anything higher should strike. But again, a 4.2 magnitude. You guys are getting a lost calls but no reports of damage or injuries right now.
Captain Al Casciato...
CASCIATO: Correct.
CHETRY: ... thanks for being with us.
CASCIATO: OK. Thank you.
ROBERTS: A tuberculosis patient is in a Denver hospital this morning after spending a year locked up in Arizona. We'll talk to the man who put him in that isolation coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Arizona tuberculosis patient Robert Daniels says it was torture being isolated in a Phoenix jail hospital ward for nearly a year. It was a lawsuit by the ACLU that finally got him transferred to a hospital in Denver yesterday. And my next guest is the man who ordered him locked up.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio joins me from Arizona this morning.
Sheriff, thanks for being with us.
SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: Good -- I didn't order him. I extended -- the courts put him in my jail. But that's OK.
CHETRY: He wasn't facing any criminal charges, though, right?
ARPAIO: Yes, that's right. That's a catch-22, but he was in our jail. And he had a private suite, air-conditioned, eating not jail food but the hospital food. So I think he was treated fairly.
CHETRY: What do you think about the ACLU saying that he was deprived of the basic human necessities of life, been treated worse than many prisoners in a state correctional institution, and worse, he was not committed -- charged with any crime?
ARPAIO: Well, as far as not being charged, I do have a problem with that. But I do run the jails, and he was treated, as I said, in a good manner.
He was a problem child at times, but, you know, it cost the taxpayers over $500,000 to keep this guy. He is getting free medical service. So I don't know why his big complaint continues.
CHETRY: Well, you know, in fairness, this was somebody who was repeatedly warned. He admits this as well, that he was contagious and should wear a mask and he didn't listen to orders, correct?
ARPAIO: Yes, but I'm conducting an investigation on him. I launched an investigation four months ago.
CHETRY: Right. For what?
ARPAIO: Well, for endangerment. He was out in the public without his surgical mask. He was ordered not to do that. That is why they confined him in a jail.
CHETRY: Right.
ARPAIO: So I'm not done with this guy yet. I'm just waiting for some medical records from the court and I'll continue this investigation.
CHETRY: Well, here is the thing. Why didn't -- why couldn't he just go to that national medical center or somewhere else in the country that specialized in treating TB? I mean, why just -- for everybody's sake, for the taxpayers, for you guys having to deal with him every day, and for him, why didn't you just get him to a place where they specialize in treating that type of TB?
ARPAIO: Well, that wasn't my call. That's the medical people. I just run the jails there. But I do have a responsibility to protect the public, too. And that's why I am investigating this guy's conduct.
CHETRY: When you say the medical people, who are you referring to?
ARPAIO: Well, that's the county medical experts that went to court, and the judge ordered Daniels to be place in the jail environment.
CHETRY: Are you guys set up to handle using jails in your county as quarantine wards?
ARPAIO: We have 10,000 people in the jail, but we do have a jail within the hospital. And we do have a room there with the property air and that type of situation. That's why they put the guy in my jail.
CHETRY: All right. Well, his quote is saying he's happy that he is being treated like a human being and he's glad he got away from the gulag.
ARPAIO: OK. He may come back if we charge him.
CHETRY: So if he recovers from this TB, you're hoping to still get your hands on him and get him back in jail?
ARPAIO: Well, he -- as far as I'm concerned, we're investigating his conduct, putting the public at risk, and I'm going to pursue it, very simple.
CHETRY: All right.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County, Arizona.
People should think twice before they do anything wrong in that county.
Thanks.
ARPAIO: Thank you.
ROBERTS: With all the recent contaminated products from China, many shoppers are being more cautious about the "Made in China" label, but try shopping for food that doesn't have some connection to China.
The new move to protect you next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, this morning, China says it's cracking down on exporters tried to toxic foods in toothpaste, but is that good enough for consumers here in the United States?
A couple of weeks ago we introduced you to a mom who spent an entire year with her family trying not to buy anything that was made in China. That was hard enough. But imagine shopping for food and trying to avoid "Made in China".
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen takes us shopping this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For one year, Sara Bongiorni tried to avoid everything made in China.
(on camera): You didn't buy shoes made in China.
BONGIORNI: Right.
COHEN: You didn't buy ties made in China.
BONGIORNI: Right.
COHEN: But when it came to food, different story?
BONGIORNI: Well, I also tried to avoid it, but I had no idea because the labels don't tell you much at all -- as much label reading as I did. There was no way I could know whether or not I was buying something with ingredients from China.
COHEN (voice over): Even with all the safety concerns about foods from China, most of the time is there no way of knowing if a product contains Chinese ingredients. For the most part, food companies aren't required to label where their ingredients come from, so they don't. This was evident as we shopped with Bongiorni.
BONGIORNI: This one told me it was a product of China right there.
COHEN (on camera): But this was really -- to see "Made in China" on the label was the exception? BONGIORNI: Absolutely. That's right.
COHEN (voice over): Consumer groups are outraged that shoppers have no way of knowing where their food comes from.
CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL, CENTER FRIST: SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: It's almost impossible to completely avoid foods made in China, because they become ingredients in so many other products.
COHEN: Like what? Here's a small sampling and some you might not expect: apple juice, freeze dried berries like the ones in this cereal, and instant coffee. Other examples, tea and pine nuts.
Another big concern, although it is labeled, seafood like tilapia and shrimp. Safety concerns prompted the FDA this month to ban the import of Chinese seafood until it's proven to be safe.
But one part of the supermarket Sara feels confidence about is the produce section.
BONGIORNI: Very often on the little sticker it will say "Product of Guatemala," or "Product of Chile". So you can -- you can be pretty safe there, I think.
COHEN: Sara's year-long experiment is over. Her lesson learned? You can avoid many Chinese products, but when it comes to food, most of the time you have no idea where it comes from.
BONGIORNI: It's interesting you know the source of your tennis shoes, but you don't know the source of your packaged foods.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: And it's a fairly cloudy morning there, in Denver this morning. Our thanks to our folks at KUSA for this shot of the sun coming up over the Mile High City. Hopefully folks will see a little bit of sunshine there for today and go into a nice weekend.
It's Friday, the 20th of July. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry.
We start off in Pakistan in this half hour. An already volatile situation in that country has just gotten a bit more unstable. The country's supreme court had made a ruling now that reverses a decision by President Pervez Musharraf. We get the latest on this from CNN's Nic Robertson. He is in London right now.
Nic, explain how this factors into all the other things we've been hearing from Pakistan. Not only the offer of military support, from the United States, to that country to fight Al Qaeda but also some of the increasing violence we've seen in that nation.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: The ruling by the supreme court today to reinstate the chief justice is really a put- down for President Musharraf. President Musharraf called the chief justice to his house back in March this year, and used strong-arm tactics to force him to resign. The chief justice stood up to that. It's been a big cause for the middle class.
People have died in demonstrations over this issue. There have been calls by the judiciary that they will boycott the courts. That they will bring the country's legal system to a standstill. They've called for President Musharraf step down. Now they see their case justified. They have said that this is a test for democracy in the country. The lawyers are now saying that this is evidence that the democratic process is working, that the right of judiciary, over the politicians, is upheld for the first time in the country. They're celebrating, but it is a put-down for President Musharraf.
However, in the long-term, or the medium term, it may help him because of the rise in radical Islamist violence, he doesn't now have to contend with an angry backlash from the middle classes as will, if the case had gone against the chief justice -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Nic Robertson, live for us, in London. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Just a short time ago a 4.2 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area, east of Oakland. A 4.2 is considered fairly minor but there are reports of sporadic power outages in the Bay Area right now. So far, though, no reports of injuries or major damage.
Hawaii is on extreme weather watch this morning, bracing for a tropical depression. Here is the latest radar image. Heavy rains, winds and waves as high as eight feet are expected. There is a flash flood watch in effect for many of the islands through tomorrow afternoon.
Western wildfires multiplying today stretching resources to the max. Dozens of new fires started including a rapidly growing blaze on the grounds of the Idaho National Library. At least 12 states have been put on its highest fire alert level. Dry windy weather with triple digit temperatures is forecast for next week.
CHETRY: Another death in the wrestling word world. Former tag team champion John Kronus, pictured there, found dead in his New Hampshire home. Kronus, whose real name is George Caiazo, retired from wrestling back in 2002. He had a very successful career in the ECW, the Extreme Championship Wrestling. He was part of one of the most dominant and well-known ECW tag teams. The now-defunct organization was bought by the WWE. The cause of death is unknown right now, for him.
Former CIA operative Valerie Plame says she will appeal a federal judge's ruling dismissing her lawsuit against Dick Cheney and other top Bush administration officials for leaking her CIA identity. Plame was outed in 2003 after her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, challenged the case for invading Iraq. The judge said that the suit raises some important questions about the administration's actions, but that it does not belong in federal court.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick will not be on the field next week when the Falcons open up training camp. Instead, he is going to be in a courtroom scheduled to face dog fighting charges.
Animal rights groups are pushing the NFL to suspend Vick immediately under the league's new conduct policy. The team's owner says he's saddened and distressed by Vick's indictment. Vick is accused of training pit bulls for fighting on his Virginia property. He could get up to six years in prison if convicted.
Meantime, those allegations of dog fighting drew a very emotional response in the Senate yesterday from the West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd. Byrd said he wasn't specifically commenting on Vick's case, but said, quote, "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those involved in such activities."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Barbaric! Let that word resound from hill-to-hill, and from mountain-to-mountain, from valley- to-valley, across this broad land! Barbaric!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Senator Byrd is an animal lover. He addressed Congress about animal cruelty a number of times.
ROBERTS: We've heard this morning that China is shutting down companies linked to recent tainted toothpaste and dog food. Back home President Bush has launched his own effort trying to find a better way to stop tainted products before they make it into stores. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt is leading that effort. He joins us now from Washington.
Secretary Leavitt, something a lot of Americans are wondering right now is, can we trust anything that's coming from China? What do you say?
MICHAEL LEAVITT, SECRETARY, HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Well, people have an expectation that the products they receive from any country will be safe. It's difficult to inspect everything and so we have to make sure that the quality -- that the safety is built in when it's manufactured. We're working with many countries, China among them, so assure that their practices are what we would expect as American consumers.
ROBERTS: Right. China has taken some steps in the past couple of days to try to address the situation. Pulling the licenses of companies that, let's say, were responsible for the toothpaste contamination. Is that enough? Are they making progress? Is that just a PR move? How do you see that? LEAVITT: I think it's clear to China that the Made in China brand is very much something they need to protect. And in my conversations with the ministers of the various parts of their government, they're taking this very seriously, and they should.
ROBERTS: So, the FDA, at present, is inspecting as little as 1 percent of the food that's imported into this country. And there are cuts going on at the FDA in the food safety area. Is that the right thing to be doing at the same time that our concerns about imports from China are on the rise?
LEAVITT: That is precisely the kind of question the president wants us to look at across the government. Inspection is a very important check on our processes. We can't inspect everything. And, therefore, we have to focus on making certain that we're building quality in, that we're using good manufacturing processes, not just here in the United States, but now across the world.
The world has changed a great deal. We're in a much more global economy. And, consequently, to have safety, we have to have continuous improvement in the way we go about this. And that is the reason the president has asked that across the government, we concentrate, focus and reassess what we're doing to make certain we're doing everything we can to have safety among consumer imports.
ROBERTS: The president has given you 60 days to come up with some kind of a plan to address the situation here. Do you have any early ideas of what you need to do?
LEAVITT: You know, I think it's important that in the next 60 days, what we'll come up with an agenda that will need to be carried forward. There are great numbers of things happening in every department across this government right now, and have been for sometime. The next 60 days the president has asked us to come back with a series of recommendations and we will do that. The entire government will be focusing on this the next 60 days.
ROBERTS: So, until such time, until such time as you come back with these recommendations, what should consumers do? Should they try to avoid products that are imported from China? Is that possible to do?
LEAVITT: I think it's important to remember that we have, in the United States, the safest food supply in the world. Is it perfect? No. Can we improve it? Yes.
Obviously, there are many who are concerned within our food chain, those who are grocers, and those who create products here that use China ingredients, all of them have to be vigilant. I don't think there is a reason at this moment for us to make an assumption about one origin or another.
What we need to do is concentrate on making certain that all across our food development that we're using the best practices and the best ingredients. And we'll have to continually improve, not just the next 60 days, but continually find ways of improving that. ROBERTS: Secretary Leavitt, good luck in doing that. There are a lot of people who are counting on you for it.
LEAVITT: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Appreciate you being in.
LEAVITT: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Your "Quick Hits" now. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says he romanced a local television newswoman, but did it at no cost to taxpayers. He claims that he didn't use a penny of the city's money to finance his affair. Authorities, though, aren't saying if his security detail accompanied the mayor on trips to the woman's home.
The divorce between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills has reportedly been ironed out, and it's the biggest in British legal history. Mills will get the equivalent of U.S. $140 million for four years of marriage. The divorce agreement is contingent on neither side talking about what led to the breakup.
Despite the security measures taken to keep the seventh and final "Harry Potter" installment under wraps, some fans managed to get their copes early. What the book's publisher is doing to make sure these kids don't blab the ending. You'll hear from one young reader coming up, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Video games are often blamed for the couch potatoing of America's youth, but a new trend in video gaming will have parents jumping for joysticks. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more in this "Fit Nation" report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Fourteen-year-old Caroline Davenport is in indoors, playing a video game, but not slumped on the couch. She is rocking to the beat as she competes in her neighborhood Dance, Dance Revolution Tournament.
CAROLINE DAVENPORT, TOURNAMENT PLAYER: It's active. It's something to do on the long hours of the summer where you have nothing else to do.
GUPTA: It's the latest craze in video gaming. Video active games that require kids to get up and get moving. Tournament organizers say they're helping kids stay fit.
CHRISTOPHER BORAWSKI, WHEATON, MD. LIBRARY: It helps them and keeps them moving. They have to move very fast. It gives them quite a workout.
GUPTA: Dancing is, obviously, better exercise than playing a stationary video game on a sofa, but we wanted to know how much better. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota are finding that kids playing these type of active video games burn twice, sometimes three times the amount of calories kids playing traditional games.
LORRAINE LANNINGHAM-FOSTER, MAYO CLINIC: When we did allow a few children to play the game at higher settings, they could actually burn maybe five or six times the number of calories they would while they were playing the traditional hand-held game systems.
GUPTA: The study uses Sony I-Toy and Xbox's Dance, Dance Revolution and researchers planning further studies on the newest in the video craze. Like Nintendo's Wii, popular with children, and their parents.
As for Caroline, she has lost 10 pounds since she started playing in tournaments and she is having fun as well. It's a perfect combination, experts say, for successfully fighting childhood obesity. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: It's 45 minutes now after the hour. Chad Myers in our Weather Center down there in Atlanta today monitoring weather and earthquakes as well.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Time now to see what CNN "Newsroom" is working on for the top of the hour. For that we head over to Tony Harris in Atlanta.
Hi, Tony.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: What are you doing outside there, Kiran?
CHETRY: We are getting ready for our big YouTube Debate countdown preview. We have our intrepid interns; they've been asking questions of people all around New York City and Tom Foreman will join you to brake it down as well.
HARRIS: Beautiful.
CHETRY: So now, I'm teasing the show I'm in, and you're supposed to be teasing your show.
HARRIS: That's right. Well, all wind swept. It looks great out there.
All right. The war on the "Newsroom" rundown for you this morning. November, a top general says it will be at least then before he can judge the president's troop buildup strategy. Congress expecting answers in September.
Congress also ripping into FEMA. Lawmakers say the agency didn't move fast on safety reports, found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers.
And she's got nerves of steel. A jewelry shop owner stands up to a pair of gun-toting robbers.
All of the morning's breaking news as well. "Newsroom" top of the hour right here on CNN.
Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: All right, Tony. Thanks so much.
You know, everyone is counting down until 12:01 tonight. That is when the new "Harry Potter" and the seventh -- and as they are saying, final book in the whole series comes out. In fact, as we were walking down to come out here we passed by the Barnes & Noble. They're setting up big purple curtains everywhere. I guess just to add to the mystique.
But you know, not everybody has to wait until midnight tonight. Earlier, in fact, on AMERICAN MORNING, I spoke to one girl and her mom. She ordered the book online and it ended up coming early. So she has one of the copies of the book. She is nice enough to say, though, she is not going to reveal the ending. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIELLE SANK, GOT HARRY POTTER BOOK EARLY: I ordered it from online, DeepDiscount.com, and it just said it was supposed to come in next week. And it came in on Tuesday. And I was really excited, just tore open the box, and here I am reading it already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. Well, there she was. Again, they are going to be sending her a $50 gift certificate and T-shirt for not revealing the ending.
Speaking of T-shirts. These are my two interns -- or, ours, I have to share them -- Kelly and Cairo.
You guys have been very, very busy on the streets of Manhattan asking people questions about what matters to them in this presidential election. Coming up we're going to talk to them about how it went. We're also going to be talking to Tom Foreman. The YouTube Debate countdown preview, when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN. A shot from our tower cam, high up in the Time Warner Center, at Central Park, and the reason for that is because we're out here in Central Park.
The reason we're out here is that all week we have sent our AMERICAN MORNING interns, Kelly and Cairo, out here to the park to talk to people to find out what is on their mind when it comes to politics. What kind of questions would they like to ask the field of candidates in the '08 elections? CHETRY: A lot of that is leading up to our big CNN/YouTube debate, which is taking place on Monday night. The first time ever that people actually submitted questions via the camera that they then uplinked onto their computers. And these are going to be actually answered by the candidates. Tom Foreman has been following all of this as well.
I know you're excited about it. How do you love your new interns?
(CROSS TALK)
CHETRY: Because you get to keep them after this.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. It's like the consolation prize. They come up from Washington, and I get the interns back.
ROBERTS: They get a T-shirt, you get the interns.
FOREMAN: They help out.
You guys are like famous now, all over the park, meeting folks.
KELLY KOOPMANS, INTERN, AMERICAN MORNING: Yes. We've been talking to a lot of people. It's been a lot of fun.
FOREMAN: What have you been struck by, as you've talked to people out here? Most of all? You've spent all week talking to voters. What have you been struck by as we head toward our big debate?
CAIRO PERSON, INTERN, AMERICAN MORNING: Just the fact a lot of people are informed about what is going on. Issues that they're really concerned about, and they want to ask the upcoming candidates. It's just -- it's very interesting.
FOREMAN: Do you think that every time people want to get young people to vote? People like you. You guys are totally involved. What would get your pals involved in this process?
KOOPMANS: I think that things like this help, having questions from the average person. Questions that people will be answering. So things that maybe relate more to us, when it comes to education.
I guess just general knowledge of what goes on in debates and things like that is good. The more informed people are, the better it is.
FOREMAN: So your biggest surprise really was just how much people know about this, this time around?
PERSON: Yes. That is the biggest surprise. When we asked a variety of questions and people came up with different answers, and it was great.
FOREMAN: We've asked you before, and we'll ask you again. After a whole week here, if you could ask one question in the YouTube debate, if you could do it, what would yours be?
PERSON: Mine would be education. I'm college. And so I want to know what is going to be done with education, with funding, and stuff like that.
FOREMAN: The cost keeps going up and that sort of thing?
PERSON: Yes! It does! It does!
(LAUGHTER)
FOREMAN: Mom and dad know that better.
And you, what about you. What big question would you want answered most?
KOOPMANS: I would like the candidates to show what the difference is between each of them are. It is like some of them are kind of starting to blend together, it seems, at times. For each candidate to say why they are different from the other ones is something I would like to know more about.
ROBERTS: You know what's interesting, Tom, is what Cairo said was what we find reflective, when we look at the questions overall. Typically when you poll people across the country Iraq is the number one issue, terrorism not far behind, but among people who are using YouTube, education is far and away the number one issue. Iraq is way down there, like, number four or number five.
FOREMAN: Huge response on that. You're right. Iraq, actually, in a lot of the polls lately has been coming in a little bit below the top. I think --
ROBERTS: So why is that, from a young person's perspective, why is that?
KOOPMANS: I don't know. I was also struck at the difference. It's like the number of questions that people were -- topics people were interested in as opposed to Iraq. We got a lot of health care issues that people were interested in. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but it's very interesting.
CHETRY: You know, one of the things we also talked about is people wanted to make sure their question sort of stood out from the rest. So, they avoided some of the issues that they've heard politicians talking about a lot. Iraq, of course, has been dominating the news lately. So, maybe they wanted to ask about some things that they were hoping maybe would get on the radar, that aren't. So that's another interesting element.
We want to thank you guys, though, because you did you a great job.
PERSON: Thank you.
KOOPMANS: Thank you. CHETRY: On-the-job training for future -- someday -- Tom Foreman will pass the mic to you and retire in Florida.
(CROSS TALK)
FOREMAN: Wheel me off to retirement home, everything will be great.
ROBERTS: Another great way to noticed, too, is do a Viking hat when you do your video. We've seen that video.
We're going to be showing you a lot more. Tonight, Kiran and I will be hosting another YouTube debate preview that comes on tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. And we will be talking about the different questions that people are asking. The type of questions that the candidates want to get, what they don't want to get. How they are preparing. It will be an interesting inside look at everything coming up on Monday night.
CHETRY: Yes, we look forward to it, tonight. So we hope you join us at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
In the meantime, the news continues now with the NEWSROOM. Tony Harris and Heidi Collins in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS (voice over): See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM.
A top general says it will take until at least November to judge the Iraq troop buildup.
Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
NIKE holding up release of the new Michael Vick shoe, the NFL quarterback facing criminal charges.
Harry Potter fans eagerly awaiting the midnight arrival of the "Deathly Hallows". NEWSROOM just minutes away at the top of the hour on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right, and a beautiful shot of Columbus Circle, right here at 63rd Street, and Central Park West, right where the Time Warner Studios are on this Friday morning.
What a great way to end the week.
ROBERTS: I'll tell you there's not a much better way to start your weekend. And you just walk over here to Central Park -- but we're not going to be starting any kind of weekend now. We've got a lot of work to do. We're going to be doing this primetime special tonight.
You have a favorite YouTube question asked so far? CHETRY: You know, I really like the Viking guy. I like the one who wrote a song asking a couple of questions.
ROBERTS: Yeah, the guy with the guitar, is good, the tax guy.
CHETRY: The creative ones. But a lot of great questions to choose from. We don't know which ones are actually going to make it on the debate, but we're going to show many more tonight.
ROBERTS: More than 1600 of them submitted so far. Watch it tonight 8:00 p.m., we'll bring you a lot of them and put it all in context for you, as well.
That does it for us for AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for joining us this week.
CHETRY: Right now, we're going to send it over to Tony Harris and Heidi Collins in the CNN NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: I'm Heidi Collins. Hi, everybody. Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on Friday. It is July 20th. Here's what's on the run down this morning.
The president's troop build up in Iraq. We have been hearing wait until September before judging, but could it be even longer?
HARRIS: A question of justice. A young man sent to prison for teen sex, gets a hearing before the Georgia supreme court.
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