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Foreclosures and Repossessions Hit Record Levels; Jobless Claims Rise; Nasty Senate Race in Nevada; Yearly Mammograms May Not be Enough; iPad Coming to Verizon Wireless in Two Weeks; Ahmadinejad's Fierce Message to Israel; An App to Carry Your Tune

Aired October 14, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. For the next two hours today and every day I'll be a guide through the maze of information coming your way. Well, I want to do this camera because what kind of guide am I if I'm looking the wrong direction. I'm going to tell you what's going on around the world and at home. You'll get access to the folks who can best explain what it means today and the impact it will have beyond today. We're going to showcase the best in innovation, in philanthropy, in public education.

My mission is to help you figure what is going on around you and how it fits into your life.

Let's get started right now. Here's what I've got on the rundown.

It is an international mystery that's taken a horrifying and gruesome turn. It started with a missing American tourist in Mexico. Now, the lead investigator has been beheaded. We'll tell you what we know so far.

Plus, he stayed sober for 30 days and then he smoked marijuana every day for the next 30 days. What is he thinking? I'm going to have a serious chat with a star of "Super High Me."

And I don't have perfect pitch, I can barely carry a tune. But now I'm told that a simple app can turn even me into a good singer. I want proof of this, so I'll find out this hour.

Now, it's not a record that anybody wanted to reach. In September, 102,000 homes were repossessed, taken back by the banks. And those aren't just numbers, those are people who've lost their homes. This is the first time ever that repossessions have topped 100,000 in a single month. And it isn't going to get much better.

Foreclosure auctions also hit a record in the third quarter, the third three months of 2010.

Let me bring you to some to the worst states in the country. California, Florida, Michigan -- they're all up there, but Nevada stands out as the highest. It's got the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

By the way, it's been that way for at least three years. It's so bad that one in every 29 homes in the state of Nevada received a foreclosure filing, and that was just, again, during the third quarter of this year -- the third three months of this year.

But the number probably won't keep growing at least in the short-term, and that's because of the story we've been telling you about for days, three of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders have frozen proceedings.

Plus, you've got the attorney generals of all 50 states lead by Ohio's Tom Miller investigating improper foreclosure proceedings and what's called robo-signing by the enders. That is going to slow the proceedings down, but ultimately, it is not going to stop the tide of people losing their homes.

One last big number for you: there are currently 6 million loans -- I'm sorry, 5 million loans, that are either delinquent, seriously delinquent or in the initial stages of foreclosure right now.

So, a lot of numbers. I want to talk about the impact, why does this matter to you? If you're in the process of foreclosure, if you're looking to sell a home, if you're looking to buy home.

Christine Romans has been following this very closely. She's here to break it down. She's my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." She's the author of the new book called "Smart is the New Rich."

Christine, let's just bring this down by category. For people who are being foreclosed upon, how does this affect them?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, YOUR $$$$$: Look, it buys you a little bit of time if you're at the beginning of the foreclosure process and, in fact, one counselor, housing counselor, told us earlier today that anecdotally, he's hearing that banks are reaching out to people before they're officially in default, or they're officially on to foreclosure process, trying to work things out with them at the beginning of -- the beginning stage of all of this.

But, look, if you are later on in the process, you're probably still going to lose the house. It bought you a little bit of time, but you're probably still going to lose the house if for months and months, you have not been paying your bills. And, in fact, if you're living in that house, it may indeed just be a technicality before the banks are going to foreclosure on that, get the paperwork squared away and move along itself.

VELSHI: Yes. It will get squared away and there's a lot of discussion about what should happen to the banks and I fall into the camp of the fact that they really ought to be punished for this. But it will get squared away. Nobody who was legitimately being foreclosed upon is not going to be foreclosed upon.

Now, there are a whole lot of people with money, with credit, and they are taking advantage of these cheap houses on the market, the foreclosed homes. What if you're a buyer?

ROMANS: If you're a buyer, you are not buying a foreclosed home today, tomorrow and the next day. And may not into the beginning of the year because we're heading into the holidays, Ali, and all of these banks have to figure out how to fix this here. So, yes, you've got some really cheap homes on the market, but they could sit there for a while, while you have this freeze in foreclosure sales. And that means if you're sitting in your house and the neighbor house has been foreclosed upon, you're still going to be looking at that boarded up house for the near term if it's empty.

VELSHI: OK. What if you are a seller or a potential seller right now, nothing to do with foreclosure but you're trying to sell your house?

ROMANS: Look, there are some people who say that now you have a lot of bad inventory, that sort of frozen off the market, and so, maybe that's a good thing for prices. There are people who say no. This means that you've just delayed the inevitable.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: That you're going to have a bunch of bad houses that are coming back on the market and they're going to drive prices down. We know, Ali, that about a quarter of all home sales right now are foreclosed, distressed properties. So, you're going to see home sales probably fall, right, because you're not going to have as many home sales because the houses are stuck now in this limbo --

VELSHI: And we've just seen that market sort of just start to recover a smidgeon.

ROMANS: Yes.

VELSHI: National home prices, you know, were a little higher than they were last year.

ROMANS: Yes.

VELSHI: I agree with you. I think it slows things down. And then there's this thing called shadow inventory, which is not real homes for sale. It's everybody who thinks they'd like to sell their home but isn't putting it on the market, in this market.

ROMANS: And there could be at least 1 million. I've seen the number, 1.2 million shadow homes for sale. People looking around, as soon as things start to loosen up at their own neighborhood, they are going to put their homes on the market.

I think that uncertainty is bad for the housing market and I think foreclosure fiasco makes more uncertainty.

And your point about the banks is well taken, Ali. The very beginning of the process, there was some shoddy, shoddy paperwork.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: And at the very end of the process, shoddy, shoddy paperwork. It's just been ugly from start to finish.

VELSHI: Yes. And it's unacceptable. I understand the banks were on a lot of strain. They didn't expect to be processing this number of foreclosures. I get all of that.

When it comes down to fraud and allegations of fraud and people making up things, I think we have to draw a line somewhere. Some things are just absolutely wrong and some things are just bad.

Christine, great to see you as always. Christine and I see each other every single day and you can see us on weekends on "YOUR $$$$$," Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. And pick up Christine's new book, "Smart is the New Rich," because it really is.

All right. She came out swinging. The upstart of the Delaware Senate candidate -- Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell locks horns with opponent Chris Coons. We're going to give you a sample of their feisty debate when I come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Now, by all accounts, there's no knockout punch. Sparks did light up the stage at the University of Delaware during last night's debate between Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell and her Democratic opponent Chris Coons. Going into it, Coons had a 19-point lead in the latest polls.

Now, the big question for many: would O'Donnell fall on her face? Why? Well, this is the same O'Donnell who began her recent campaign ad by stating, "I'm not a witch." She's also gone on record as saying evolution is a myth.

But last night, no major gaffes by either candidate and both managed a laugh or two. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: They jokingly called me a bearded Marxist. If you take five minutes and read the article, it's clear on the face that it was a joke. Despite that, my opponent and lots of folks in the right wing media have endlessly spun this. I am not now, nor have I ever been anything but a clean-shaven capitalist.

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL (R), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, I would stand to disagree because, first of all, if you're saying what I said on the comedy show is relevant to this election, then absolutely, you writing an article. Forget the bearded Marxist comment, you writing an article saying that you learned your beliefs from an articulate and intelligent Marxist professor, and that's what made you become a Democrat, that should send chills up the spine of every Delaware voter because then if you compare --

COONS: If it were accurate, if it were true, I'd agree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: By the way, the seat that Coons and O'Donnell are fighting over is the one that was formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden.

OK, it isn't a blockbuster number, but weekly jobless claims are going in the wrong direction. It's a number that we watch because of the trend. And they are going up again. I'll explain to you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. Christine Romans is back with me from New York. She's my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." She's the author of "Smart is the New Rich."

We've got new weekly initial jobless claims. They come out every week. It's not a major number, not as big as the unemployment number that comes out once a month, but this is a number that's been stuck in a range or a rut for a better part of the year now, topping 460,000. That means last week, more than 460,000 people for the first time claimed unemployment benefits.

Christine, give us some sense of what this means.

ROMANS: That's not -- that doesn't happen in a growing economy or certainly not in a growing market. And so, that is still a concern for economists and people who watch the labor market. It means too many people, Ali, are still filing for unemployment benefits for the very first time.

And in this country, we still have a very big safety net that gets wider by the day as taxpayers have to support people who are -- who are out of work. You know, we're creating unemployment benefits, not creating as many jobs.

Now, keep in mind, you pay into those benefits, states take over for the first, I think, 26 weeks after that. There are -- it is federal dollars that go to unemployment benefits, Ali.

VELSHI: Now, Christine, anybody who knows that we are good friends and we love spending time together is 100 percent right. What I think anybody doesn't know is there some things we don't always see eye to eye on. And this week, Tom Brokaw came out swinging on my side of this.

Let me just read a quote from something he said. He said, it was talking about graduates and he said, "I would not be looking just within our borders for opportunities. I'd be looking to see what the chances are of getting a job in the Middle East, for example, or in India, or in China."

This is a guy who is about as pro-American as you get, saying our center of gravity has shifted to other parts of the world and our kids would be smarter to be looking -- to understand those languages, speak them, and go and work in some other countries.

ROMANS: He said that -- he was asked specifically in this interview, Ali, the man who wrote the book on the greatest generation, asked what this generation should do -- he said you should look in another country for a job, become a middle manager in China if you can't find a job here. He was asked specifically about mediocre student graduates and kids who maybe were looking for direction and he said that when he talks to senior American executives, they say they really need people to go be middle managers in China, where they are moving their factories.

I say --

VELSHI: I can just see from your expression that you don't necessarily agree with that.

ROMANS: What about the opportunity in this country? What about the opportunity in this country? I mean, we need to do something for generation Y and for generation X for that matter and for baby boomers who are looking for job.

Have we given up? Have we given up on being able to create those opportunities here? Plus, what company in China is going to want a middle manager, the kid who just graduated from college and hasn't even put his foot in the door yet?

VELSHI: So, I think the bigger argument is that maybe this is a message that translates regardless of where you think this economy is going, or whether we should be giving up or not, maybe your kids should be learning Mandarin. Maybe your kids should be learning Hindi.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: I will say, one thing I do -- I do agree with Tom Brokaw, is he said that if he were to go back and start over, he would spend more time on economics and basic sciences. There's a number to show that up. That's a good point for everyone. But I lost the point, other country's immigration laws are not that favorable about giving Americans jobs, that they would like their own middle class to do as well.

VELSHI: I spoke to the CEO of one of the biggest executive placement firms, you and I talked about this probably a year ago, and I said to him, if there's a kid watching this in high school or college, wants to earn $250,000 at some point in their career, or maybe more, what's your single, best piece of advice for them? And he said, a year aboard, a foreign internship, the first placement you can get, work for a company that has placements in places like China, or India, or Russia, or Brazil.

All I'm saying is that it may not be bad to equip yourself for the changing winds. It would be great if those winds didn't change so much, that Americans had to go offshore for jobs. But Indians have done it for years. Chinese have done it for years.

ROMANS: Yes. I just think that -- this has been a middle class that has been so powerful and given so opportunities, and it makes me sad to my core to think that those opportunities aren't here, they are someplace else. What are we doing to provide those opportunities here? The education system here so that we have -- we're turning out kids who are innovating here and starting companies here and not literally telling people to move to another country, leave your family.

VELSHI: Right. But we're not. You and I agreed on this point. I would love nothing more if we weren't 27th in math education and 21st in engineering or whatever those numbers are. I might be getting them a little bit wrong. But I would love if that weren't the case. I would love if we had an environment which really did promote innovation and really did create those jobs here.

But if we don't, or until we do, why not have a back-up plan?

ROMANS: Well, is that back-up plan -- Ali I mean, that -- I think it works down the margin. I think it works on the margin for people who are upper middle class and have kids who are coming out of good schools, who can go and take two years and move abroad. But that's not the reality for a lot of people.

I mean, a lot of people are getting out of high school, are going to college, have worked their fingers to the bone, their parents have worked so hard to put them to school, and now we tell them, go move to India? I mean, they want to build the American Dream for themselves. That's what we promised them they could do.

VELSHI: I suppose I should stop telling your little boys that they should be signing up for Mandarin classes.

Christine, always glad to see you. What a treat to have you on twice in a few minutes.

Christine Romans, my great friend, my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$," which you can watch on Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00, and the author of a fantastic, new book that really is relevant, easy to get through, and can help you make a difference, "Smart is the New Rich." It's on bookshelves right now.

OK. Let me bring you up to speed on some of the other top stories we're following here on CNN.

Foreclosure filings and bank repossessions skyrocketed to record highs these last three months. Overall filings were up 4 percent from the previous quarter. The previous three months. One home in every 139 homeowners affected. The numbers are expected to drop in the near term though because of this issue we've been telling you about with major banks halting foreclosures to see whether documents have been processed properly.

And it has been a really tough week for coalition troops in Afghanistan. Just today, eight NATO personnel were killed in attacks around the country. That's on the heels of six NATO deaths yesterday. Information about the troops' nationalities hasn't been released yet.

And safely above ground. Those rescued Chilean miners are filling in the blanks, sharing details about their 10 weeks in confinement. It turns out that now, the now infamous note they sent to the surface saying they'd all survive was just one of the messages they'd written up. In the end, they decided to quote, "only send what we had to send."

All right. So, which do you think ranks higher with the government on the list of dangerous drugs? Marijuana or cocaine? Think about that. I'll tell you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We are 19 days from Election Day and with marijuana legalization on the ballot in four states, we're focusing on this always hot button issue. Today, let's talk research, because you can't make a decision about whether something should be legal without looking into it.

Now, this is the problem when it comes to marijuana. Researchers have trouble getting their hands on it in order to explore whether it should be used for medicine purposes or not. According to American Medical Association, which supports more research on medical marijuana, fewer than 20 small trials involving only 300 patients in total have been conducted on marijuana smoking in this country over the last 35 years.

Why? Here, this is why. Pot has schedule 1 classification, schedule 1.

This is from DEA Web site: "Schedule 1 drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse. No currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."

You can agree with that or you cannot agree with it. But let's compare it to cocaine and crack. Here's another quote from the DEA: "Cocaine is a schedule 2 drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, meaning that it is a high potential for abuse, but can be administered by a doctor for legitimate medical uses such as local anesthesia for some eye, ear and throat surgeries."

OK. Marijuana is a schedule drug one -- a schedule 1 drug. Cocaine is a schedule 2 drug. Marijuana is more highly and strictly regulated than cocaine. You can get cocaine for certain medical access. You can get it for studying. You can't for marijuana unless you're the government.

So, basically, it is harder for researchers to get their hands on marijuana than it is to get their hands on cocaine and crack.

OK. Two guys set up their own study in a documentary called "Super High Me." The idea came from the movie "Super Size Me," where the filmmaker ate fast food everyday to see the effects on his health.

In "Super High Me," comedian Doug Benson had to stay sober for 30 days, then smoked marijuana for 30 days. The whole time, doctors kept track of his health.

And here to tell us what they found, comedian and star of the documentary, Doug Benson, along with the director, Michael Blieden.

Well, there's only one. Whom am I looking at? All right.

DOUG BENSON, COMEDIAN: Michael Blieden's not there?

VELSHI: I can't --

MICHAEL BLIEDEN, DIRECTOR, "SUPER HIGH ME": I'm here.

VELSHI: There we go. OK. I see two of you. There we go. Now, I got everybody.

OK. Good to see you guys.

OK, Doug, what was this about?

BLIEDEN: Hey, Doug.

BENSON: Hey, Michael. We were -- I was doing a joke in my stand-up comedy act about how if "Super Size Me" was a real movie that people would go out and see where a guy ate McDonald's for 30 days, why couldn't I, you know, smoke pot for 30 days and then call it "Super High Me."

VELSHI: Right.

BENSON: And it was just sort of a joke, but I mentioned to it my friend Michael, who's a filmmaker. And I said, do you think there's anything in making -- actually making that movie? And what did you say, Michael?

BLIEDEN: I really liked the idea. I remember us talking to you about being a little nervous about making it. A, who would pay for someone to make that movie? I think that was one thing that we were a little nervous about. But --

VELSHI: Well, Michael, what's -- what thesis did you go into it? Because most movies have some kind of an idea or a thesis. Was this just to watch what happened after 30 days or did you have some idea going into it, what viewers would take away from it?

BLIEDEN: I mean, I -- I can tell you that definitely, our thesis was we wanted to make a funny movie because Doug is a comedian.

VELSHI: Right.

BLIEDEN: And we knew each other from the comedy world. So -- like I wouldn't necessarily classify our movie as a study. Doug, would you agree with that?

BENSON: Well, yes, it's not an official experiment because there's only one subject, but if people sit down and watch this movie, they will see that for the 30 days that I don't smoke, after being a regular smoker for many years, I have little trouble with -- you know, I don't get the shakes. I don't have any kind of physical problems because I stop and I'm not dying to have it again, it's just something I like and want to have again --

VELSHI: Right.

BENSON: -- like many things that are legal.

And then during the 30 days of smoking constantly, I thought, wow, at the end of this, I may be sick of pot and never want to smoke it again. But the 30 days was not that difficult.

You know, as long as you're not someone who's performing brain surgery, there are plenty of jobs in this world that people can just quietly do while medicating on marijuana and basically not hurt anything.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: I mean, I know enough about comedians know that while it always comes across as funny, the fact is, sometimes, there's a point you're trying to make in there. The fact is, you know, because we all know, there are studies out there that say smoking marijuana continuously, recreationally, eats your brain cells.

BENSON: Yes, I'm waiting for that to happen. Maybe my old age, I'll regret this, but at this point, I have friends that have never smoked pot that have worse memory than I have.

VELSHI: Michael?

BLIEDEN: Well, we also -- we did ask like -- we did have some study like elements to the movie in that, like you said, we compared his -- Doug's mental aptitude, weight gain, sperm count, when he was not on pot and then we had a battery of tests done again when he was on pot.

VELSHI: What did you find?

BLIEDEN: So if you've seen the movie, there are results, like sperm count went up.

BENSON: It's crazy, like every test I did better.

VELSHI: While you were --

BLIEDEN: That was an unexpected finding.

VELSHI: You were -- in the month when you were smoking pot every day, some of these health results were better than when you weren't.

BENSON: Yes. And there wasn't any signs that my health was deteriorating. And then when I took the SATs again, I got a higher score in math when I was high than I did when I wasn't high.

VELSHI: Interesting. OK. I guess you're right. We won't call it a study, but it is nonetheless interesting.

Michael and Doug, thanks very much for joining us. Good to talk to you, guys.

BENSON: Thank you.

BLIEDEN: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right. Listen, personal tax on the campaign trail in Nevada. I want to tell you about that, the emphasis has moved from last night's concentration on Delaware over to Nevada. The race is at a full boil with 19 days left until the election. Tonight, the candidates face up. We'll take you right to Las Vegas when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Nineteen days until the election. Highly charged race in Nevada. Senator Harry Reid and his challenger, the Tea Party- backed Sharron Angle. CNN's national political correspondent Jessica Yellin in Las Vegas for us.

Jessica, what's it looking like there?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is an incredibly close race here, Ali. And, as you can imagine, all eyes are on Nevada because this is where the Senate Majority Leader, the man who leads the Democrats in the Senate, is facing off and could lose his seat. This race is tied in all major national polls.

And Ali, it is one of the nastiest races you can imagine. He has accused his opponent Sharron Angle, essentially the campaign says she's crazy, basically, not fit to be a senator. Their adds accuse her of things like not supporting mammograms, not believing in autism, wanting to privatize Social Security.

On the other hand, she's going just as angry accusing Harry Reid, saying that her supporters are motivated by hatred of Harry Reid, saying that he wants Viagra for sex offenders. And watching TV here is like continuous political ad interrupted by occasional TV programming, Ali.

VELSHI: Tell me a little bit about how -- what can happen in this race in the next two and a half weeks that could have a major impact?

YELLIN: Well, first of all, tonight is a big day. They will have their one and only debate. Of course, this is the Senate Majority Leader, who is very skilled at speaking publicly. He's an unusual fellow but he does know to speak publicly. He makes occasional gaffes. And has been making very frequent gaffes on the trail. So it will be interesting to see what happens tonight. She rarely speaks to the press.

I happened to get a rare interview with her yesterday and one of the big fights back and forth between them, that Harry Reid says she's irresponsible, that she would try, as I say, to privatize Social Security or once supported that. She says that's mischaracterizing her position.

Here's a little taste of what we can expect between the two of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I also think it's important for the people of Nevada to understand long standing positions of my opponent. Phasing out Social Security. Killing Social Security. She believes that Medicare is unconstitutional. Remember, it was passed in 1964.

SHARRON ANGLE (R), NEVADA SENATE CANDIDATE: I didn't change my position. What I have had is more information on that position. I used to think that Social Security and retirement privatization was the only way that we could have personalized accounts. But, as you know, Harry Reid and many of his staff and government employees have what we call a "thrift savings plan," which is a personalized retirement account. So it occurs both in the public and private sector.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So, some moving positions. They will debate the specifics. And Ali, early voting here begins Saturday. So tonight's debate could really tip things one way or the other.

VELSHI: All right. Jessica, we will be watching closely. Good to see you again, as always. Thanks for being on the show with us.

Jessica Yellin, our national political correspondent.

OK. An American shot and killed while jet-skiing. The lead investigator beheaded. Are they victims of a Mexican drug war? We'll tell you the latest in Globe Trekking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for Globe Trekking. First stop, Falcon Lake. A vast reservoir that straddles the Texas/Mexico border. Still no sign of the body of American David Hartley. His wife Tiffany says he was shot and killed while the two were jet-skiing on Falcon Lake last month. It happened on the Mexican side of the lake.

Just a blip in the media for a country struggling with a deadly drug war. American officials say they're doing all they can to find Hartley's body and bring in the apparent killers. But the fact is, there's little they can actually do because of jurisdiction issues.

Now, a stunning twist to the story. Mexico's lead investigator, killed. His severed head delivered in a suitcase to a local army post Tuesday. The sheriff in Zapata, Texas, a town on the lake, suspects drug cartels. He says the killing of the Mexican government investigator was a message to all concerned to back offer the case. Mexico says its searching for the killers and those responsible for Hartley's death. Tiffany Hartley says all she wants is for her husband's body to be returned to her. Give us that, she says, and we will go away.

OK, now to Chile and the extraordinary rescue of those 33 miners who were trapped underground for more than two months. Here you can see them with Chile's president. All of Chile and the rest of the world rejoiced yesterday when the last miner was hoisted to the surface. Miner 33 was foreman, Luis Urzua. He spoke face-to-face with Chile's president urging him to make sure this type of accident never happens again in any Chilean mine.

Well, they were faithfully getting mammograms every year, but still got surprised by breast cancer. Find out why the test's value as a screening tool can vary. Empowered Patient with Elizabeth Cohen is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Women all over the country get yearly mammograms but for some people, they're not enough. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from New York.

Elizabeth, what are we talking about here? Why is the yearly mammogram not enough for some people?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ali, a lot of women just hang their hat on that annual mammogram. You should do it, but for some women it may not be enough.

So, take a look at these tips I have in this week's Empowered Patient. First of all, doctors tell me that all women should be asking for digital mammograms. A third are still done on film and they don't detect cancer nearly as well radiologists tell me. Also, consider getting an MRI or an ultrasound if you have a family history of breast cancer or if you have dense breasts. Now, by dense I don't mean, not very intelligent. By dense I mean If the tissue is very thick. A doctor told me it's like looking at the sky on a foggy day. There could be a cancer there and your doctor would have a hard time seeing it on a mammogram, Ali.

VELSHI: Women who are in these situations, what are they supposed to do?

COHEN: They're supposed to go to their doctors and say, look, can I please see my mammogram report? You don't just want that letter from the doctor saying everything's fine. You want to see the report. If the report mentions that you have dense breasts, you want to talk to your doctor about getting an ultrasound or an MRI.

VELSHI: All right. Where can people get more information on this?

COHEN: All right. Go to CNNHealth.com and you'll see this week's Empowered Patient column. It's got all the links, all the tips you need. A lot of women need more than a mammogram. Find out if you're one of them.

VELSHI: Elizabeth, great to see you. Thanks so much.

Elizabeth Cohen and her new book "Empowered Patient" is worth a good read.

All right. Checking some of our top stories.

Grim news on the economic front. The Labor Department says there were 462,000 Americans filing for first time unemployment benefits last week. That's up 13,000 from the previous week.

In Lebanon, a fiery speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a Hezbollah stronghold. Amping up his usually rhetoric against Israel, Ahmadinejad said, quote, "The world must know the Zionists are to be gone," end quote. An Israeli government spokesman criticized what he calls Iran's domination of Lebanon through its proxy, Hezbollah.

And their iPhone dreams still haven't come true but Verizon Wireless customers will be getting the Apple's iPad. They'll start showing up in Verizon stores two weeks from today and that will end AT&T's exclusive hold on the tablet.

Well, speaking of Smartphones, a simple Smartphone app that can turn your out of tune screeches into actual songs. I'm going to prove it to you. Our "Big I" after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, "Big I" We do this every day, the "I" stands for idea. We're talking about ideas that could change the way we're used to doing things, and today we're talking music. We don't often talk music on this show. We like music cause everybody likes music.

Since the first music was made, we have been on the hunt to master it, to do it better. We've searched for new instruments. We've looked for new ways to string words and rhythms together and it seems to be ever evolving. But some of us just are not blessed with the gift of doing it well, particularly singing it, and that normally keeps us - -well, singing it, playing it, whatever it is, it keeps guys like me from trying it at all. And that also apparently keeps music technology researchers up at night. They want to make it easier for every last one of us to actually be able to create music.

Joining me now in the studio is Georgia Tech researcher and Assistant Professor Parag Chordia, he's got a possible solution to this. This is interesting, I love you folks at Georgia Tech for the fact that you come up with answers to problems I didn't even know existed.

So, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not musically inclined and I can't sing, and I would have just thought I could go through life happily knowing that and focus on other strengths. You're saying otherwise. PARAG CHORDIA, HEAD OF MUSIC INTELLIGENCE GROUP, GEORGIA TECH CENTER FOR MUSIC TECHNOLOGY: Yes, so what we're saying is that music is fundamental. We have never found a culture in the history of humanity that is without music and dance. It's something that's intrinsic to us and it's really only recently that we've started to think of music as something that other people do, musicians do, that professional musicians do. We used to do it all the time, we did it in the field, we did it around the around the campfire. You name it, music was a part of the fabric of everyday life, something we did every day.

And what we're trying to do is say, hey, in the 21st century, how can we use technology to bring music back so that musical self- expression is as natural and easy as, you know, posting something on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube? How can we make it that easy?

VELSHI: And what have you guys done? I know you often bring things from Georgia Tech that work on an iPhone, that's the platform you're developing apps for, and we have connected this so our audience can hear what's going on, but normally you wouldn't need this.

What is this app that you have designed?

CHORDIA: So this is -- this is something that came out of a lab. So I work at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, I direct the Music Intelligence Lab. So we're trying to get computers to listen to music, to understand music, to generate music and the whole idea is so that it can be a creative partner.

And so, what we did is we created this iPhone app called LaDiDa. It's part of a company called Kush that develops intelligent music applications. And so what we're doing with LaDiDa is it's really that simple. All you have to do, you sing -- you don't even have to sing well, I'm going to show you that in a second -- you sing anything you want, whatever comes to mind, and it's going to generate the music automatically. So it uses artificial intelligence to analyze what you're singing, what key your singing in, what notes you're singing.

VELSHI: And it makes you better.

CHORDIA: It makes you sound better.

VELSHI: It improves things.

CHORDIA: Absolutely. It improves the vocal quality.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Before you turn any of my viewers off, because if you've got anything like my voice, we're not going to be here. I want to begin Dee (ph) in. I see Dee over here. Dee is one of our fabulous -- come over here, come over on this side with me. Dee didn't know she was going to be here, by the way. Dee is one of our fabulous makeup artists here at CNN. She makes me -- cause without this, I look like a completely different guy.

Dee is a singer. She really is a singer. So I want to try this with somebody who has really got a great voice, and then one of us.

CHORDIA: OK. OK. Maybe what I can do is show her how to use it. I'll do the demo first.

VELSHI: Do that.

DEE: OK.

CHORDIA: And then you can follow. So it's really simple. I'm going to sing something. You'll see -- you don't have to be a singer to do this.

(singing): Here I am, singing very badly on TV. There is a point to this horrible singing. You will know at the end why I subjected you to this. For now, it's almost over

(LAUGHTER)

DEE: OK.

VELSHI: That may be the worst singing I've ever heard in my entire life.

CHORDIA: Exactly.

VELSHI: But we have everybody's attention. I can guarantee you that.

CHORDIA: That's bad.

VELSHI: A bunch of people have this on low volume and they're like, what is going on on CNN.

CHORDIA: Let's see what it did.

RECORDING: Here I am singing very badly on TV

DEE: Wow.

VELSHI: Wow.

RECORDING: There is a point to this horrible singing

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: That is excellent! that is excellent.

CHORDIA: That's the idea. You don't need to sing. It's a -- creativity is a part of it.

VELSHI: So this makes your creativity come out in a way that your vocal chords can't express. Now what happened to somebody like Dee who really can. Give her a go at this.

CHORDIA: Let's give her a shot.

VELSHI: Where is she recording into?

CHORDIA: All you've got to do is once you press record, it will give you a count-in -- one, two, one, two, three, four -- and then you just sing whatever you want for however long you want.

VELSHI: Let's do it.

CHORDIA: OK. Here we go.

DEE (singing): Sometimes I feel like you and I weren't meant to be and that really hurts me deep down inside. And there are times when I feel if we go our separate ways this life that we leave behind us could take us to a better place. All of this pain we can erase.

CHORDIA: Great. So all we've got to do is --

VELSHI: Improving on that's going to be tough. Wow.

DEE: Let's see.

CHORDIA: Let's see what it does.

DEE: OK. Let's see.

CHORDIA: OK, so here we go.

VELSHI: This is instant.

CHORDIA: Instant.

RECORDING: Sometimes I feel like you and I weren't meant to be and that really hurts me deep down inside.

VELSHI: We're about to get a record contract here.

RECORDING: And there are times when I feel if we go our separate ways this life that we leave behind us could take us to a better place. All of this pain we can erase.

VELSHI: I'm going to use this actually -- keep this music up here.

You want to know about this, I want to know more about this, read up on the research going on at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology and to check out the LaDiDa app -- that's what it's called -- head to my blog, CNN.com/Ali.

Parag, Dee, thank you very much. That really is really a great "Big I." That is a life-changer.

DEE: Thank you. That's awesome.

VELSHI: Thank you for bringing us that beautiful stuff. You, your horrible voice was an fantastic.

DEE: Thank you. VELSHI: Thank you to both of you.

VELSHI: All right, it's countdown to election day. We've got new numbers just out on the hottest races. Your CNN political update is up next, stay right with us.

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VELSHI: There are just 19 days until election day for this critical midterm election. We want to get you updated on the hot topics from the campaign trail. So just to be a little different, our CNN senior political editor Mark Preston and Paul Steinhauser, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," are going to sing their Political Ticker update.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: OK. No, we're not singing it.

I'm not touching that, Ali.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about Donald Trump. He talked about running for president. He says he has interest in doing it. Well Donald Trump is going to be holding a fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee on October 25th. He's going to be with Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, raising money for Republican senators.

Now, is he doing it out of the goodness of his heart? Is he doing it for business reasons? Or is he trying to get chits perhaps for 2012? We don't know, but he has expressed interest in running, Ali.

Paul, what do you got?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Ali, let's talk about the battle for the Senate. The Republicans need to win back ten democratically held Senate seats if they're going to take back the chamber. That's a tall order. Possible, but a tall order.

Take a look at this, brand new CNN/"Time" magazine Opinion Research Opinion Corporation polls. Let's start in West Virginia. This is a seat that the late Senator Robert Byrd had in democratic hands since well before any of us were born, Ali. But look at those poll numbers brand new -- 44 percent for Joe Manchin, he is the governor there, the Democrat who is running for that seat, 44 percent as well for John Raese, the businessman who is the Republican nominee. That one is definitely up for grabs, dead even.

Move on to Wisconsin. Russ Feingold there, is the democratic incumbent, the senator there, he is in trouble. Our poll indicates that the Republican challenger, Johnson, is up 52 percent to 44 percent over Feingold. Troubling, troubling poll there for Russ Feingold.

That's what I got. Mark, back to you, man. PRESTON: You know, some good news. Paul just offered some very bad news for Democrats and it seems that's all we're talking about, Ali. Potentially, some good news for Democrats up in Massachusetts.

Governor Deval Patrick in a new Suffolk University/7 News survey shows that he is up seven points on his closest opponent, Charlie Baker, who is a Republican nominee. The Independent, Tim Cahill, who we thought was going to make a bit of a strong run has seemed to fade to the back.

So Deval Patrick, someone who is very close to President Obama. President Obama will be in Massachusetts on Saturday campaigning on behalf of Deval Patrick. Of course, you can see that here on CNN.

And also sitting right next to me here, Steve Rusk (ph) is putting together our coverage plans for the big rally out in California. As we speak right now, Sarah Palin, Michael Steele for the RNC. So again, another programming note, Saturday, Ali, Sarah Palin on CNN.

VELSHI: It's nice to see the top third of Steve's head on TV. He's a good friend of mine.

Let me ask you this. With the president being out, Bill Clinton has been out for a few days, Michelle Obama was out, is this making a difference in any of the polling? I know you two track this very well.

Paul, are you seeing anything?

STEINHAUSER: Well, you know, as you said, it's happening right now. So let's look at the polls next week. But you're right. These guys, Bill Clinton all week, you'll see more of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama over the next two weeks as well. We're going to take a look at the numbers. We'll get back to you next week to see if there's been any change in these states, Ali.

VELSHI: Guys, good to see you. Thanks very much, as always.

Our tag team of political perfection, Paul Steinhauser and Mark Preston.

Stay with CNN for complete coverage of the races and the issues heading into the critical midterm elections. We'll bring you another CNN political update in just an hour.