Morning Buzz: July 24, 2007

Hillary Clinton said she wasn’t a liberal but a ”progressive,” Bill Richardson said he’d scrap No Child Left Behind, and Barack Obama said he would meet with the leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, and Iran during the first year of his presidency. Candidates gave unvarnished answers at last night’s CNN/YouTube debate, in which Internet-savvy citizens filmed video questions to be posed to the Democratic presidential hopefuls.  “Rednecks” from Tennessee asked the candidates whether Al Gore’s running would hurt their feelings. (They laughed and said no). A snowman asked about global warming, and two women from New York asked if they could get married--“to each other.” CNN received thousands of video submissions and had to sift through them to find creative yet serious questions. The Republicans will have their CNN/YouTube debate on September 17.

One in three residents living in southern coastal regions would not evacuate for a hurricane, according to a new poll. While no American is likely to forget the tumultuous hurricane season of 2005, when Katrina  battered historic New Orleans, last year’s season was much milder. Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor and director of the survey, said last year’s timid season may have put residents back at ease. However, this total is up from last year’s, when only 1 in 4 said he’d follow evacuation orders if a storm threatened his home.

Less than a month after its debut, security researchers have hacked Apple’s new iPhone.  If an iPhone owner visits a doctored website or uses an unsecured wireless hotspot, the device could be hijacked and used to send out spam, according to the security firm Independent Security Evaluators. This company has alerted Apple and provided a security patch. Apple is currently evaluating Independent Security Evaluators’ report. U.S. News reported on the iPhone before its June 29 debut.