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American Morning
March Jobs Report in; Michael Jackson Case
Aired April 02, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli police say troops have stormed a disputed holy site in Jerusalem. The soldiers used stun grenades to pacify Palestinian, throwing rocks at the al Asqa mosque. Meanwhile, Palestinian sources say, Israeli helicopters and tanks have stormed a refugee camp in Gaza. No injuries have been reported.
Police in Wisconsin say they are continuing to search for Audrey Seiler's abductor. The University of Wisconsin student says she was taken at knife point this past weekend, and was also found alive on Wednesday in a marshy area two miles from campus. Police -- or some people that is are questioning whether the abduction happened, but police say, so far, they have no reason to doubt the incident.
And in California, one McDonald's is now offering fine dining. The upscale McAdees is introducing the Mac Panini, as well as Happy Meals for the kids and a salad wrap for mom and dad. Other nice touches, real silverware and real plates. The owner says business is booming.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Real silverware, real plates. High-end stuff.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: And now, the big business news of the morning, the eagerly awaited March jobs report just in. Andy Serwer with the numbers.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I like the suspense, Heidi. Thank you very much.
Actually some terrific news on the jobs front. Just crossing the tape, the jobs report for March, 308,000 jobs created last month, much better than anticipated. We were looking for only 120,000. This is the best number we've had since April of 2000, revising February also up from about 20,000 jobs to over 40,000 jobs. That's great stuff for the economy, and the White House will like that as well, of course.
Now the unemployment rate ticked up a bit, and that always confuses people. I am going to show you how this works here, how the jobless rate is calculated. Say what you get is the total number of people looking for work. Let's call that 5 million people and then you've got a job force of 100 million people. That would give you an unemployment rate of 5 percent. How is my telestrator doing? Is it OK?
COLLINS: It's very high tech. SERWER: OK, yes, apologies to Tim Russert here.
OK, so you can see here that what would happen is that actually the numbers of people looking for jumps would tick up slightly, but you'd be adding here as well. More people looking for work than found jobs. So in other words, the people who are looking for work increased a little bit more than that 308,000 jobs that we talked about that were created last month, Heidi.
I don't know how my telestrator worked, but in any event, the bottom line here is good news on the job front, we've created over 300,000 jobs last month.
COLLINS: All right, thanks for the math lesson, too. Appreciate it very much.
All right, Andy, thanks so much.
HEMMER: See how Wall Street digests that -- opening bell about an hour away.
Meanwhile in California, Michael Jackson given a humanitarian award last night in one part of the country, while the grand jury is set to hear more testimony again possibly from a 14-year-old accuser again today. Miguel Marquez live in Santa Maria, California with more on this.
Miguel, what are we learning about secret grand jury proceedings?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are about an hour north of where those grand injury proceedings are occurring. We are in Santa Maria, where his criminal proceeding is getting under way, the next step in his criminal proceeding. And given that the grand jury is hearing information down south of here, it's clear what today's hearing will actually mean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Michael Jackson in Washington D.C., accepting an award for his charitable award in Africa. This as his legal problems advance on two fronts back home.
Though Jackson won't be in court, his lawyer Mark Geragos says he wants the court to loosen the gag order. Geragos says he wants to respond more regularly to persistent leaks.
Geragos also says he and his co-counsel Benjamin Brafman want to discuss the evidence from Jackson's 1993 molestation case, and find out what evidence the judge will allow at this trial. Back then, a jury never heard the charges, due to a multimillion-dollar civil settlement.
Also expected to be set, a preliminary hearing date, typically one of the last stops before a trial. But that preliminary hearing may be pointless if the grand jury, now hearing molestation evidence on Jackson indicts the King of Pop. CNN has confirmed that grand jurors have heard testimony from Jackson's accuser, who appeared with the pop star in an ABC documentary last year. The cancer patient was 12 when the alleged incidents occurred. He's now 14. The grand jurors have also heard from Stan Katz, the boy's psychologist, Larry Feldman, the lawyer who represented Jackson's 1993 accuser and who counseled the current accuser's mother. Grand jurors have also heard from Jamie Mosada (ph), owner of The Laugh Factory, who initially brought Jackson and his current accuser together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Now the grand jury had a fairly short day yesterday. About two hours they worked, and then they were carted away in vans, and they are expected to resume hearing testimony today. The hearing here expected to get under way in a couple of hours, and then it will probably take an hour and a half to two hours to get that over with -- Bill.
HEMMER: Miguel, thanks. Miguel Marquez there in California.
Twenty-four minutes before the hour on a Friday, time for "Gimme a Minute" today.
Here for the lightning around, CNN political contributor, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
Ready to take some shots aren't you, Donna?
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN. POL. CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, yes.
MARQUEZ: Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online.
Nice to see you, Jonah. Happy Friday to you.
JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good to see you. Thank you.
HEMMER: And Andy Borowitz, from "The New Yorker" is here as well.
How are you, Dru? Good morning to you.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Bring it on.
HEMMER: All right, buddy.
Listen, testimony is set for Thursday of next week. Donna, Condoleezza Rice will testify perhaps 90 minutes, maybe a bit longer. What does she need to say to satisfy critics?
BRAZILE: Well, I think she needs to just go ahead and spill everything she has inside, and tell us the truth, set the record straight, and you know what, go out and have the biggest seafood dinner in the world.
HEMMER: Seafood dinner, huh, that's your recommendation?
Can she win the hearts and minds of Democrats, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: I don't know. I doubt it, certainly not the professional ones on the Hill, who are going to find blame no matter what, but I do think this is probably going to be her Oliver North moment, and all this pressure has been put on her. She's going to get the limelight, and she's probably going to knock it out of the park.
HEMMER: We shall see.
You're in public, Andy, and I remind you, you are under oath.
BOROWITZ: Well, Condi is probably going to tell us what she thinks of Richard Clarke, so I really hope they will put her on a five-second delay.
HEMMER: Hey, Jonah, let's go to you on this one. Apparently, an aide for the Defense Department was in a Starbucks, left his notes behind, no big deal, right. Well, the notes contained a White House response to the allegations of Richard Clarke, and the Democrats put in on line. Fair game, or wrong move, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: Well, actually the people that put it online was this thinktank in Washington, the Center for American Progress, which claims to be an actual objective policy organization, and they basically showed themselves to be a bunch of partisan hacks, which I think, which I think was a mistake for them. I feel bad for the guy from Starbucks, because would you want Don Rumsfeld mad at you for leaving your notes around?
HEMMER: All is fair in politics in D.C. -- Donna, do you think so or not?
BRAZILE: Oh, I think we should go ahead and invite every Republican we know to Starbucks, and maybe we can get more information about the Energy Task Force and all the other -- who leaked Valerie Palm's name. I think we should just go ahead and spread Starbucks all over the work and get more information out of...
HEMMER: Free skim latte and a vanilla biscotti to go.
Andy, how about you?
BOROWITZ: You know the worst part of this story? After all that, Starbucks still got his order wrong.
HEMMER: Donna, new topic now, get away from politics. CBS is planning a new reality TV program. They want to find the next Martha Stewart. Are you signing up for this?
BRAZILE: Well, you know, I am a diva, not a domestic diva, but a political diva, but there is only one Martha Stewart, and I don't believe they should limit it to just women this time. There are a lot of guys who I believe can cut a rug in the kitchen.
HEMMER: All right, Jonah, better than "The Apprentice" or not?
GOLDBERG: Yes, well, speaking of guys who can cut a rug in the kitchen, I thought we already had our new domestic diva. It's a five- way split for The "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." I would much rather see a reality show still with Martha from prison about how to keep that cell nice and clean.
HEMMER: Wow, you may get your wish -- Andy.
BOROWITZ: Tell you what, I wouldn't want to be the new Martha Stewart when the old one gets out of prison. That's going to be ugly.
HEMMER: It's all about that Granny Smith Green, isn't it, that persimmon plumb?
Listen, let's go to under the radar -- Jonah, what did we miss this past week?
GOLDBERG: Back to politics actually, Pat Tumi (ph), who is a Republican, the conservative challenger for Arlen Specter in the primaries, is actually surging in the polls and actually can do some damage to the worst Republican senator in the Senate.
HEMMER: We'll see about that -- Donna.
BRAZILE: Arlen Specter is a good, liberal Republican, and thank God he's around.
But my story is, in north Texas this week, a woman tried to get one of her prescriptions filled for birth control and the CVS pharmacist refused. CVS is standing behind that pharmacist, but you know what, they're still dispensing Viagra. Something is wrong with that picture.
HEMMER: Andy?
BOROWTIZ: Well, in the same week that John Kerry had shoulder surgery, Condoleezza Rice was briefly hospitalized with a twisted arm.
HEMMER: Is that the note you're going to leave us on, Andy?
Thank you, Andy. Have a great weekend.
Jonah, Donna, thanks to you as well. Next Thursday the big day. Appreciate it.
COLLINS: Still to come, the military vows to hunt down the killers in Fallujah, Iraq, as more violence breaks down in the country. We will have the very latest on the situation there.
HEMMER: Also a way to chill out in the classroom. More on that when we continue here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: You don't have to be a child of the '60s to practice transcendental meditation. As Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us, the relaxation technique is being used today as a stress buster in schools.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These teenagers don't particularly look concerned about the things that worry most teenagers, school, dating and peer pressure. Instead, they are busy acing a new class.
KAMALI PENDERGRASS, STUDENT PRACTICING TM: Meditation makes me feel more calm and relaxed, and more able to take stress.
ERIN ROBERTS, STUDENT PRACTICING TM: It's a chance to escape from the world that's going on around you. It's a chance to actually get to know yourself without going somewhere.
GUPTA: Kamal and Erin both practice TM by following the transcendental meditation program at their school in inner-city Detroit. TM gained popularity back in the '70s and is the topic of new research.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slowly open your eyes.
GUPTA: Mantras in the morning, then again later in the day helps quiet a busy adolescent mind.
JANE PITT, NATAKI TALIBAH SCHOOLHOUSE OF DETROIT: When the mind becomes quiet, the body, right along with it, becomes quiet, and thereby gaining a very deep state of rest.
GUPTA: And that restful state may be good not only for the mind, but the body as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's sit comfortably, and let's close our eyes.
Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia found teenagers who had higher than normal blood pressure and practiced TM every day for four months, significantly decreased their blood pressure even after the study was over.
DR. MICHAEL ARTMAN, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: The surprise really was that this worked, that just 15 minutes of transcendental meditation twice a day had such an important effect on blood pressure on these children.
GUPTA: Add to that, other studies showed higher self esteem, more positive well being and less stress and aggression in youngsters who practice TM.
Dr. Gary Kaplan, a doctor and advocate of TM as part of a school curriculum also points out their are few, if any, side effects.
DR. GARY KAPLAN, NYU SCHOOL MEDICINE: As a physician, I am prescribing a lot of medications that are powerful. And unfortunately, usually the more powerful the medication, the more powerful the side effects. This is something that you can do on your own.
GUPTA: These students learn for free, but the transcendental meditation program they followed does cost a one-time fee of $2,500, and requires no specific spiritual belief.
JOSH MACKENSON, STUDENT PRACTICING TM: It's pretty a way to relax your mind that really doesn't take much time. I find it's pretty much better than sleep.
GUPTA: Better rest than sleep? We could all use that.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Isn't that the truth. Transcendental meditation is practiced in schools in Michigan and in Iowa.
HEMMER: About 15 minutes, you got the new news numbers on the -- business news, the jobs report, rather good and promising, too. We will talk to Andy in a moment about an economic rebound, what it says in between the numbers there. Back with that in a moment, also Jack, too, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Alrighty, he looks and feels like a million bucks. He's Jack Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Job creation hits a four-year high. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." These are numbers that would be cause for celebration I think at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: You best believe it. I mean, first of all, this is, as you said, a four-year high. And you have to go back then to the Clinton White House to get numbers like these.
And I will tell you a little stories, kind of behind the scenes, our crack graphics people were struggling with this, because it was literally off the charts. There charts for this thing, it's about 100,000. You can see they had to remake this chart, Jack, because our charts were really only going up to 100,000. We didn't anticipate we would go up to 300,000. You can see that giant number there.
Anyway, the bottom line is this, 308,000 jobs created in March, over 200,000, or about 200,000 more than anticipated. The unemployment rate ticks up a little bit, but that's because more people were in looking for work than that 300,000. That's not the important number. The number is job creation.
Here's another interesting thing. For the first time in 43 months, Jack, manufacturing didn't decline in this country. They didn't gain any jobs, they've held steady, but for the first time in almost four years, we didn't lose jobs in, you know, that sector. CAFFERTY: Stock futures much higher, but the bond market is getting killed.
SERWER: Well, that's right, and the reason that is, is because with this pickup in the job market, anticipation is hot and heavy that the economy may pick up steam and that the Fed will have to raise rates. So we probably will see a bounce today in the stock market. Bonds might get hurt, and that might hurt a stock rally going over in the next couple of days.
CAFFERTY: What about this Google story, is that an April Fool's joke?
SERWER: Well, it was an April Fool's joke. It's very interesting. Yesterday, they came out with this thing, this "g-mail," right, this new e-mail to compete against Yahoo! and Microsoft. But they had a little April Fool's joke saying they were going to have jobs on the moon, or some much. That made people think the whole thing was a joke. Not really a great way to roll out a new product line.
CAFFERTY: What were they thinking.
SERWER: Well, the name of the company is Google, so.
CAFFERTY: I guess that's a hint.
Thanks, Andy.
The newest reality TV show is going to star Richard Branson, the British billionaire, and it will be on Fox, and it will follow the CEO of the Virgin Group and some contestants on a six-week tour of the world, and ever week they will eliminate one contestant by literally leaving them on the airport tarmac. The rest of them will get on the plane and take off. I kind of like that part. This comes, of course, after the huge success that, oh, what's his name has over there on NBC with "The Apprentice," the guy with the funny hair.
SERWER: Who?
CAFFERTY: So the question is, who should and who shouldn't host a reality show. Don in Roanoke, Virginia: "Tony Soprano should not have a reality show, because whacking the losers would be tasteless."
Paul in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, "A sure-fire success reality show called 'The Race for Insanity.' Contestant would enter the workplace, driven daily by their hopes and dreams. At the end of each workday, the contestant who has the most disillusioned, broken down and totally devoid of any future ambition would win."
And Bill in North Bay, Ontario, "Former counter-terrorism czar Dick Clarke. It would be called 'American Grandstand.' He would chair a commission of inquiry to see which politicians could dance around their questions the longest without getting caught in a lie. The winner would get to be John Kerry's runningmate." The Cafferty File on Friday, moving the clocks ahead one hour for daylight savings time means we could fall behind at work on Monday. Losing an hour of sleep cuts worker productivity by 30 percent, according to researchers. In order to fight sleeplessness, the National Sleep Foundation recommends getting extra sleep over the weekend. But here's the key element of this, the firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas recommends that employers should let people go home an hour early on Monday. So I think maybe the show ends at 9:00 and let them worry about it in Atlanta. What do you think?
HEMMER: Best idea you've had in a while actually.
CAFFERTY: The Chinese are coming up with a way to try to keep their politicians honest. The city of Shenzen (ph) working on a plan to reward officials for good service and no corruption, with big, really big bonuses. The bonuses could reach $250,000, which is the equivalent of about 25 years of their salary. Corruption in the Chinese government believed to cost billions of dollars a year, unlike here in the United States, where it doesn't cost us anything.
A diamond may not be forever, or may be forever, but not so divorce. Even though a quarter of Americans have been divorced, many of them end up remarrying, according to a Gallup poll; 27 percent of adults have been divorced, but only 10 percent are currently divorced. That means more than half of all divorcees have remarried.
SERWER: Were they remarried to people they were married too before?
CAFFERTY: My dad actually did that. This is a true story, my father was married eight times, and he married one of them twice.
SERWER: What, one and eight, or one in seven, or two in six?
CAFFERTY: I don't remember. It's all a blur. Dad had a few parts on order that didn't come in.
SERWER: I have heard stories about your dad actually we're not going to tell here.
CAFFERTY: Yes, we can't tell here. But that's a true story., he actually married one of them twice.
HEMMER: How are you feeling?
CAFFERTY: You don't care.
HEMMER: I do.
CAFFERTY: I have a cold, I feel terrible. If you really cared, you would offer to host "In the Money" this weekend, so I could go home and get some bedrest.
HEMMER: Fat chance.
CAFFERTY: See, that's what I said. HEMMER: Ain't going to happen.
Thank you, Jack.
We are going to watch it, for sure, must see TV, in between the Final Four of course.
CAFFERTY: Tidy little program.
HEMMER: Still to come here, the prices at the pump have the attention of both candidates. Running for the White House in November and a lot of others too in D.C., one lawmaker, a senator from the state, hit very hard by these high prices at the pump. Her solution in a moment, when we continue here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Still to come this morning, the U.S. plots a response to the killings of those four security contractors, what we know about the plans coming up. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 2, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli police say troops have stormed a disputed holy site in Jerusalem. The soldiers used stun grenades to pacify Palestinian, throwing rocks at the al Asqa mosque. Meanwhile, Palestinian sources say, Israeli helicopters and tanks have stormed a refugee camp in Gaza. No injuries have been reported.
Police in Wisconsin say they are continuing to search for Audrey Seiler's abductor. The University of Wisconsin student says she was taken at knife point this past weekend, and was also found alive on Wednesday in a marshy area two miles from campus. Police -- or some people that is are questioning whether the abduction happened, but police say, so far, they have no reason to doubt the incident.
And in California, one McDonald's is now offering fine dining. The upscale McAdees is introducing the Mac Panini, as well as Happy Meals for the kids and a salad wrap for mom and dad. Other nice touches, real silverware and real plates. The owner says business is booming.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Real silverware, real plates. High-end stuff.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: And now, the big business news of the morning, the eagerly awaited March jobs report just in. Andy Serwer with the numbers.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I like the suspense, Heidi. Thank you very much.
Actually some terrific news on the jobs front. Just crossing the tape, the jobs report for March, 308,000 jobs created last month, much better than anticipated. We were looking for only 120,000. This is the best number we've had since April of 2000, revising February also up from about 20,000 jobs to over 40,000 jobs. That's great stuff for the economy, and the White House will like that as well, of course.
Now the unemployment rate ticked up a bit, and that always confuses people. I am going to show you how this works here, how the jobless rate is calculated. Say what you get is the total number of people looking for work. Let's call that 5 million people and then you've got a job force of 100 million people. That would give you an unemployment rate of 5 percent. How is my telestrator doing? Is it OK?
COLLINS: It's very high tech. SERWER: OK, yes, apologies to Tim Russert here.
OK, so you can see here that what would happen is that actually the numbers of people looking for jumps would tick up slightly, but you'd be adding here as well. More people looking for work than found jobs. So in other words, the people who are looking for work increased a little bit more than that 308,000 jobs that we talked about that were created last month, Heidi.
I don't know how my telestrator worked, but in any event, the bottom line here is good news on the job front, we've created over 300,000 jobs last month.
COLLINS: All right, thanks for the math lesson, too. Appreciate it very much.
All right, Andy, thanks so much.
HEMMER: See how Wall Street digests that -- opening bell about an hour away.
Meanwhile in California, Michael Jackson given a humanitarian award last night in one part of the country, while the grand jury is set to hear more testimony again possibly from a 14-year-old accuser again today. Miguel Marquez live in Santa Maria, California with more on this.
Miguel, what are we learning about secret grand jury proceedings?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are about an hour north of where those grand injury proceedings are occurring. We are in Santa Maria, where his criminal proceeding is getting under way, the next step in his criminal proceeding. And given that the grand jury is hearing information down south of here, it's clear what today's hearing will actually mean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Michael Jackson in Washington D.C., accepting an award for his charitable award in Africa. This as his legal problems advance on two fronts back home.
Though Jackson won't be in court, his lawyer Mark Geragos says he wants the court to loosen the gag order. Geragos says he wants to respond more regularly to persistent leaks.
Geragos also says he and his co-counsel Benjamin Brafman want to discuss the evidence from Jackson's 1993 molestation case, and find out what evidence the judge will allow at this trial. Back then, a jury never heard the charges, due to a multimillion-dollar civil settlement.
Also expected to be set, a preliminary hearing date, typically one of the last stops before a trial. But that preliminary hearing may be pointless if the grand jury, now hearing molestation evidence on Jackson indicts the King of Pop. CNN has confirmed that grand jurors have heard testimony from Jackson's accuser, who appeared with the pop star in an ABC documentary last year. The cancer patient was 12 when the alleged incidents occurred. He's now 14. The grand jurors have also heard from Stan Katz, the boy's psychologist, Larry Feldman, the lawyer who represented Jackson's 1993 accuser and who counseled the current accuser's mother. Grand jurors have also heard from Jamie Mosada (ph), owner of The Laugh Factory, who initially brought Jackson and his current accuser together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Now the grand jury had a fairly short day yesterday. About two hours they worked, and then they were carted away in vans, and they are expected to resume hearing testimony today. The hearing here expected to get under way in a couple of hours, and then it will probably take an hour and a half to two hours to get that over with -- Bill.
HEMMER: Miguel, thanks. Miguel Marquez there in California.
Twenty-four minutes before the hour on a Friday, time for "Gimme a Minute" today.
Here for the lightning around, CNN political contributor, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
Ready to take some shots aren't you, Donna?
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN. POL. CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, yes.
MARQUEZ: Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online.
Nice to see you, Jonah. Happy Friday to you.
JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good to see you. Thank you.
HEMMER: And Andy Borowitz, from "The New Yorker" is here as well.
How are you, Dru? Good morning to you.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Bring it on.
HEMMER: All right, buddy.
Listen, testimony is set for Thursday of next week. Donna, Condoleezza Rice will testify perhaps 90 minutes, maybe a bit longer. What does she need to say to satisfy critics?
BRAZILE: Well, I think she needs to just go ahead and spill everything she has inside, and tell us the truth, set the record straight, and you know what, go out and have the biggest seafood dinner in the world.
HEMMER: Seafood dinner, huh, that's your recommendation?
Can she win the hearts and minds of Democrats, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: I don't know. I doubt it, certainly not the professional ones on the Hill, who are going to find blame no matter what, but I do think this is probably going to be her Oliver North moment, and all this pressure has been put on her. She's going to get the limelight, and she's probably going to knock it out of the park.
HEMMER: We shall see.
You're in public, Andy, and I remind you, you are under oath.
BOROWITZ: Well, Condi is probably going to tell us what she thinks of Richard Clarke, so I really hope they will put her on a five-second delay.
HEMMER: Hey, Jonah, let's go to you on this one. Apparently, an aide for the Defense Department was in a Starbucks, left his notes behind, no big deal, right. Well, the notes contained a White House response to the allegations of Richard Clarke, and the Democrats put in on line. Fair game, or wrong move, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: Well, actually the people that put it online was this thinktank in Washington, the Center for American Progress, which claims to be an actual objective policy organization, and they basically showed themselves to be a bunch of partisan hacks, which I think, which I think was a mistake for them. I feel bad for the guy from Starbucks, because would you want Don Rumsfeld mad at you for leaving your notes around?
HEMMER: All is fair in politics in D.C. -- Donna, do you think so or not?
BRAZILE: Oh, I think we should go ahead and invite every Republican we know to Starbucks, and maybe we can get more information about the Energy Task Force and all the other -- who leaked Valerie Palm's name. I think we should just go ahead and spread Starbucks all over the work and get more information out of...
HEMMER: Free skim latte and a vanilla biscotti to go.
Andy, how about you?
BOROWITZ: You know the worst part of this story? After all that, Starbucks still got his order wrong.
HEMMER: Donna, new topic now, get away from politics. CBS is planning a new reality TV program. They want to find the next Martha Stewart. Are you signing up for this?
BRAZILE: Well, you know, I am a diva, not a domestic diva, but a political diva, but there is only one Martha Stewart, and I don't believe they should limit it to just women this time. There are a lot of guys who I believe can cut a rug in the kitchen.
HEMMER: All right, Jonah, better than "The Apprentice" or not?
GOLDBERG: Yes, well, speaking of guys who can cut a rug in the kitchen, I thought we already had our new domestic diva. It's a five- way split for The "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." I would much rather see a reality show still with Martha from prison about how to keep that cell nice and clean.
HEMMER: Wow, you may get your wish -- Andy.
BOROWITZ: Tell you what, I wouldn't want to be the new Martha Stewart when the old one gets out of prison. That's going to be ugly.
HEMMER: It's all about that Granny Smith Green, isn't it, that persimmon plumb?
Listen, let's go to under the radar -- Jonah, what did we miss this past week?
GOLDBERG: Back to politics actually, Pat Tumi (ph), who is a Republican, the conservative challenger for Arlen Specter in the primaries, is actually surging in the polls and actually can do some damage to the worst Republican senator in the Senate.
HEMMER: We'll see about that -- Donna.
BRAZILE: Arlen Specter is a good, liberal Republican, and thank God he's around.
But my story is, in north Texas this week, a woman tried to get one of her prescriptions filled for birth control and the CVS pharmacist refused. CVS is standing behind that pharmacist, but you know what, they're still dispensing Viagra. Something is wrong with that picture.
HEMMER: Andy?
BOROWTIZ: Well, in the same week that John Kerry had shoulder surgery, Condoleezza Rice was briefly hospitalized with a twisted arm.
HEMMER: Is that the note you're going to leave us on, Andy?
Thank you, Andy. Have a great weekend.
Jonah, Donna, thanks to you as well. Next Thursday the big day. Appreciate it.
COLLINS: Still to come, the military vows to hunt down the killers in Fallujah, Iraq, as more violence breaks down in the country. We will have the very latest on the situation there.
HEMMER: Also a way to chill out in the classroom. More on that when we continue here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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COLLINS: You don't have to be a child of the '60s to practice transcendental meditation. As Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us, the relaxation technique is being used today as a stress buster in schools.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These teenagers don't particularly look concerned about the things that worry most teenagers, school, dating and peer pressure. Instead, they are busy acing a new class.
KAMALI PENDERGRASS, STUDENT PRACTICING TM: Meditation makes me feel more calm and relaxed, and more able to take stress.
ERIN ROBERTS, STUDENT PRACTICING TM: It's a chance to escape from the world that's going on around you. It's a chance to actually get to know yourself without going somewhere.
GUPTA: Kamal and Erin both practice TM by following the transcendental meditation program at their school in inner-city Detroit. TM gained popularity back in the '70s and is the topic of new research.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slowly open your eyes.
GUPTA: Mantras in the morning, then again later in the day helps quiet a busy adolescent mind.
JANE PITT, NATAKI TALIBAH SCHOOLHOUSE OF DETROIT: When the mind becomes quiet, the body, right along with it, becomes quiet, and thereby gaining a very deep state of rest.
GUPTA: And that restful state may be good not only for the mind, but the body as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's sit comfortably, and let's close our eyes.
Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia found teenagers who had higher than normal blood pressure and practiced TM every day for four months, significantly decreased their blood pressure even after the study was over.
DR. MICHAEL ARTMAN, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: The surprise really was that this worked, that just 15 minutes of transcendental meditation twice a day had such an important effect on blood pressure on these children.
GUPTA: Add to that, other studies showed higher self esteem, more positive well being and less stress and aggression in youngsters who practice TM.
Dr. Gary Kaplan, a doctor and advocate of TM as part of a school curriculum also points out their are few, if any, side effects.
DR. GARY KAPLAN, NYU SCHOOL MEDICINE: As a physician, I am prescribing a lot of medications that are powerful. And unfortunately, usually the more powerful the medication, the more powerful the side effects. This is something that you can do on your own.
GUPTA: These students learn for free, but the transcendental meditation program they followed does cost a one-time fee of $2,500, and requires no specific spiritual belief.
JOSH MACKENSON, STUDENT PRACTICING TM: It's pretty a way to relax your mind that really doesn't take much time. I find it's pretty much better than sleep.
GUPTA: Better rest than sleep? We could all use that.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Isn't that the truth. Transcendental meditation is practiced in schools in Michigan and in Iowa.
HEMMER: About 15 minutes, you got the new news numbers on the -- business news, the jobs report, rather good and promising, too. We will talk to Andy in a moment about an economic rebound, what it says in between the numbers there. Back with that in a moment, also Jack, too, right after this.
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HEMMER: Alrighty, he looks and feels like a million bucks. He's Jack Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Job creation hits a four-year high. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." These are numbers that would be cause for celebration I think at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: You best believe it. I mean, first of all, this is, as you said, a four-year high. And you have to go back then to the Clinton White House to get numbers like these.
And I will tell you a little stories, kind of behind the scenes, our crack graphics people were struggling with this, because it was literally off the charts. There charts for this thing, it's about 100,000. You can see they had to remake this chart, Jack, because our charts were really only going up to 100,000. We didn't anticipate we would go up to 300,000. You can see that giant number there.
Anyway, the bottom line is this, 308,000 jobs created in March, over 200,000, or about 200,000 more than anticipated. The unemployment rate ticks up a little bit, but that's because more people were in looking for work than that 300,000. That's not the important number. The number is job creation.
Here's another interesting thing. For the first time in 43 months, Jack, manufacturing didn't decline in this country. They didn't gain any jobs, they've held steady, but for the first time in almost four years, we didn't lose jobs in, you know, that sector. CAFFERTY: Stock futures much higher, but the bond market is getting killed.
SERWER: Well, that's right, and the reason that is, is because with this pickup in the job market, anticipation is hot and heavy that the economy may pick up steam and that the Fed will have to raise rates. So we probably will see a bounce today in the stock market. Bonds might get hurt, and that might hurt a stock rally going over in the next couple of days.
CAFFERTY: What about this Google story, is that an April Fool's joke?
SERWER: Well, it was an April Fool's joke. It's very interesting. Yesterday, they came out with this thing, this "g-mail," right, this new e-mail to compete against Yahoo! and Microsoft. But they had a little April Fool's joke saying they were going to have jobs on the moon, or some much. That made people think the whole thing was a joke. Not really a great way to roll out a new product line.
CAFFERTY: What were they thinking.
SERWER: Well, the name of the company is Google, so.
CAFFERTY: I guess that's a hint.
Thanks, Andy.
The newest reality TV show is going to star Richard Branson, the British billionaire, and it will be on Fox, and it will follow the CEO of the Virgin Group and some contestants on a six-week tour of the world, and ever week they will eliminate one contestant by literally leaving them on the airport tarmac. The rest of them will get on the plane and take off. I kind of like that part. This comes, of course, after the huge success that, oh, what's his name has over there on NBC with "The Apprentice," the guy with the funny hair.
SERWER: Who?
CAFFERTY: So the question is, who should and who shouldn't host a reality show. Don in Roanoke, Virginia: "Tony Soprano should not have a reality show, because whacking the losers would be tasteless."
Paul in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, "A sure-fire success reality show called 'The Race for Insanity.' Contestant would enter the workplace, driven daily by their hopes and dreams. At the end of each workday, the contestant who has the most disillusioned, broken down and totally devoid of any future ambition would win."
And Bill in North Bay, Ontario, "Former counter-terrorism czar Dick Clarke. It would be called 'American Grandstand.' He would chair a commission of inquiry to see which politicians could dance around their questions the longest without getting caught in a lie. The winner would get to be John Kerry's runningmate." The Cafferty File on Friday, moving the clocks ahead one hour for daylight savings time means we could fall behind at work on Monday. Losing an hour of sleep cuts worker productivity by 30 percent, according to researchers. In order to fight sleeplessness, the National Sleep Foundation recommends getting extra sleep over the weekend. But here's the key element of this, the firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas recommends that employers should let people go home an hour early on Monday. So I think maybe the show ends at 9:00 and let them worry about it in Atlanta. What do you think?
HEMMER: Best idea you've had in a while actually.
CAFFERTY: The Chinese are coming up with a way to try to keep their politicians honest. The city of Shenzen (ph) working on a plan to reward officials for good service and no corruption, with big, really big bonuses. The bonuses could reach $250,000, which is the equivalent of about 25 years of their salary. Corruption in the Chinese government believed to cost billions of dollars a year, unlike here in the United States, where it doesn't cost us anything.
A diamond may not be forever, or may be forever, but not so divorce. Even though a quarter of Americans have been divorced, many of them end up remarrying, according to a Gallup poll; 27 percent of adults have been divorced, but only 10 percent are currently divorced. That means more than half of all divorcees have remarried.
SERWER: Were they remarried to people they were married too before?
CAFFERTY: My dad actually did that. This is a true story, my father was married eight times, and he married one of them twice.
SERWER: What, one and eight, or one in seven, or two in six?
CAFFERTY: I don't remember. It's all a blur. Dad had a few parts on order that didn't come in.
SERWER: I have heard stories about your dad actually we're not going to tell here.
CAFFERTY: Yes, we can't tell here. But that's a true story., he actually married one of them twice.
HEMMER: How are you feeling?
CAFFERTY: You don't care.
HEMMER: I do.
CAFFERTY: I have a cold, I feel terrible. If you really cared, you would offer to host "In the Money" this weekend, so I could go home and get some bedrest.
HEMMER: Fat chance.
CAFFERTY: See, that's what I said. HEMMER: Ain't going to happen.
Thank you, Jack.
We are going to watch it, for sure, must see TV, in between the Final Four of course.
CAFFERTY: Tidy little program.
HEMMER: Still to come here, the prices at the pump have the attention of both candidates. Running for the White House in November and a lot of others too in D.C., one lawmaker, a senator from the state, hit very hard by these high prices at the pump. Her solution in a moment, when we continue here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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COLLINS: Still to come this morning, the U.S. plots a response to the killings of those four security contractors, what we know about the plans coming up. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
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