American Morning
FDA considers salt regulation
(CNN) – Government regulators are now keeping a watchful eye on your salt intake. Americans eat more than twice the sodium they need, increasing the risk of serious illness.
Don't think you overdo it on sodium? Think again! Most of it doesn't come from your salt shaker. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta went to the store to expose some of the hidden dangers.
Arizona bill: Profiling or common sense?
(CNN) – Latino members of Congress are calling on Arizona's governor to kill a state bill targeting immigration.
The law would make it a crime to be in the country illegally, requiring police to question anyone if there's reason to suspect they're in the U.S. illegally. It would prohibit slowing or blocking traffic when searching for day laborers, make it a crime to give a ride to someone you know to be an illegal immigrant and would fine towns and cities that don't enforce immigration laws.
The controversial bill has already passed Arizona's senate and house, but Gov. Jan Brewer hasn't said if she'll sign it. We were joined on Wednesday's American Morning by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who supports the bill; and Arizona state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who voted against it.
Building Up America: Kansas town rebuilds after tornado
(CNN) – Next month marks the third anniversary of a tornado that nearly wiped the small town of Greensburg, Kansas off the map. The town has come back and in the process become "ground-zero" for green energy. Our Tom Foreman has a first-hand look in this "Building Up America" report.
School gives kids cell phones as a teaching tool
By CNN correspondent Deborah Feyerick with senior producer Dana Garrett
(CNN) – When seventh grader Cayleb Coyne wants to send a text in class, he slips his cell phone into his backpack and pretends to be looking for a piece of paper. Texting between classes has an added benefit. "It's harder to get caught in the hallways then it is in the class," says the soft spoken boy.
Coyne, who says he sends about 300 texts a day, has had his cell phone confiscated six times in six months. He's not the only one despite constant reminders from his principal at Haverstraw Middle School, Avis Collier Shelby. "Your cell phones are supposed to be where? Yes, in your locker. Not in class!" she announces over the schools public address system.
And yet class is exactly where they end up. According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, even in schools that ban cell phone use nearly 60% of all students admit texting-during-class – a growing problem facing schools across the country.
What to do? Michael Rich, a media expert and pediatrician who calls himself a "mediatrician" and counsels parents about teens and technology on his blog askthemediatriacian.com says, "I don't think we're going to stop the tsunami," he says. "Pandora's Box is open here. The technologies are here. What we need to do is to take control of them instead of letting them control us" – which is exactly what educators at the Haverstraw Middle School are attempting.
"You can't put the genie back in the bottle," says Principal Shelby, who is overseeing a pilot program that has distributed 75 cell phones to students in the fifth grade. Texting and calling has been disabled and Internet sites are filtered. The phones are used for things like note taking and research.
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