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Economy Loses Thousands of Jobs; Tension in South America Over Colombian Raid; Women's Sports College in Baghdad Provides Hope; Congress Questions CEOs about Pay Packages

Aired March 07, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Fewer jobs, and that means higher anxiety from voting figures for the U.S. Labor Department. The economy lost some -- get this -- 63,000 jobs last month alone, the most -- the most in five years.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to ease the credit crunch. The Federal Reserve is pumping another $100 billion into the system for banks to lend out.

I'm Brianna Keilar, in today for Kyra Phillips, at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And of course, we're covering all the angles when it comes to your money. Ali Velshi is crunching the numbers from the bleak -- the bleak employment report. And Stephanie Elam is live on Wall Street, watching the impact on stocks.

And we begin with senior business correspondent, Mr. Ali Velshi. He joins us from New York -- Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Don, bleak is right. This is what a lot of us had been expecting. And it's the one thing that affects the economy almost more than everything else. High mortgage rates, low home prices, energy prices. The economy sometimes can absorb that but now we've got job losses.

This is two months in a row of job losses. In February the unemployment rate in the United States -- here's the clincher -- it actually fell from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent. The argument here is that people have actually just walked away from the work force in careers that are not working out.

The number of jobs lost, 63,000 in February. That is the biggest in five years. And many economists who are looking out for a recession say that, when you start to see job losses, that's what accelerates things, because that's what really forces Americans who are relentless consumers to keep their money in their pockets.

Now, we heard from one economist this morning who was saying that this is amongst the worst he's seen in 40 years. At this point, we also heard from President Bush, one of his aides, who said that it's entirely possible that in this quarter, this three-month period, the first of 2008, that the economy has gone into negative growth.

You know that some people use the definition of two quarters of negative growth being a recession. That's a little bit outdated. But the fact is, we may be in negative growth right now, Don.

So all around, bad news. We're also tracking the price of oil topping $106 a barrel for the first time.

LEMON: Goodness. OK, Ali Velshi, thank you.

KEILAR: And it, of course, doesn't take much to spook investors anymore.

So are they spooked today? Let's go to Stephanie Elam for an answer to that question. Hi, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna.

Definitely, the markets here are seeing red. Right off the bat when the markets opened this morning, we saw the Dow slip into triple- digit losses there, dropping about 100 points, and then we came back and we the markets go into green. But I can tell you, we're once again in the red.

Let me give you the numbers. The Dow on the downside by 99 points -- 11,940 there. So we are back below 12,000, first time since January 22nd that that's happening. And the NASDAQ on the downside by four points, 2,216. So we are definitely not at our lows of the day but still definitely in the red, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Thanks, Stephanie.

President Bush also is going to be talking about the economy an hour from now. He's scheduled to speak at 2:10. That's Eastern Time. We're going to be bringing it to you live right here on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

With worsening prospects on the job front, what's the best career advice you can give your college students? CNN's T.J. Holmes talking with students about to venture into an unstable market. We'll have that for you.

Plus, we'll find out how to successfully transition from an old job to a new one.

LEMON: Two North Carolina firefighters are dead and three others are hurt after a huge blaze at a wood millworks. As you can see, they were against choking smoke and towering flames.

The fire broke out this morning in Salisbury, about 30 miles northeast of Charlotte. Right now there's no word on the cause of that blaze. It's still burning hours after it started.

KEILAR: Keep your eye on the circle. It follows a hooded bicyclist seen just before yesterday's explosion at a military recruiting station in New York Times Square. A senior government official tells us he doubts any connection with an incident last month on New York's Canadian border. Suspicious material and photos of Times Square were found in a car there.

Authorities also downplay any link to letters received yesterday by some members of Congress. Those included photos of a man standing in front of the recruiting center there in Times Square. You see the explosion there to your right. And that statement in these letters, on this photo, said, "We did it."

LEMON: The family of Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk has set up a fund to help catch her killer. They're also asking for privacy a police in Alabama track down leads.

Burk, just 18-years-old, was shot and left to die on a roadside in Auburn. Police found her car on fire a few miles away in a parking lot an campus. Students are scared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's worried about it. I've even had a friend ask me to drop them off at the baseball game so they don't have to walk there at night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The school is telling students there's no reason to believe the campus is unsafe. A complete update when we're live from Auburn next hour, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Meantime, police in two states -- two states away -- have another college student killing to solve. The victim, Eve Carson, 22-years- old and the student body president at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She was shot and killed before dawn on Wednesday in a neighbor -- neighborhood near campus. Police have no suspects yet.

An estimated 5,000 fellow students gathered last night on campus to share their shock and their disbelief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUDDY SIMS, EVE CARSON'S TEACHER: There's not that many good human beings around anymore. She was really one of them. And just a person who was going to do good things for other people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Carson's SUV was found yesterday about a mile from where she was killed -- Brianna.

KEILAR: The head of Southwest Airlines says accusations that his airline flew unsafe airplanes are based on what he calls a gap in documentation. On today's "AMERICAN MORNING," Gary Kelly said a $10- million fine proposed by the FAA based on the alleged safety violations is, "unfair." Congress is getting involved, too, here. Here's the chairman of the House Transportation Committee just a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES OBERSTAR (D-MN), CHAIRMAN, TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE: What I found, as our staff and I progressed through the investigative reports, was the most serious lapse in safety I have observed at FAA in 23 years. We're talking about before an accident, before fatalities. And that's the way it should be. Not after a tragedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We'll have much more on this story next hour. CNN's special investigations unit correspondent Drew Griffin will join us right here in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Time now to talk politics. The nation's least populous state gets a rare chance to shine in the political spotlight. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are battling over 12 delegates at stake tomorrow in Wyoming's Democratic caucuses.

After campaigning in Mississippi this morning, Clinton is headed to Wyoming for town-hall meetings in Cheyenne and Casper. Obama holds a town-hall meeting in Casper and a rally in Laramie.

Just three days separate Wyoming's caucuses from the next contest. Mississippi holds its primary on Tuesday. Next month Republican caucuses take place in the Virgin Islands. That happens on April 5. And then another big battleground, the Pennsylvania primary, on April 22.

Leading our political ticker today, the still unfinished vote count from Tuesday's Democratic caucuses in Texas. With 41 percent of the precincts reporting, Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 56 percent to 44 percent. Sixty-seven delegates are at stake here.

Clinton won the Texas Democratic primary with 126 delegates at stake. We may not hear -- we may not hear much more about the caucus count until count conventions take place, and that happens later this month.

Hillary Clinton still wants delegates from Florida and Michigan to take their places at the Democratic convention. But speaking to reporters in Washington, she appeared to suggest she's open to holding do-overs in both states.

The party stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates for moving up their primaries. With the Democratic race so close the two states could be key in deciding the nomination.

The Clinton-Obama battle is shattering fundraising records. Clinton's Web site shows her campaign has raised more than $5.5 million online since Tuesday's primaries. That's a lot of money. And for Obama, a monumental February. His campaign says it set a record -- record raising -- fundraising record, $55 million. That's $20 million more than the Clinton camp raised.

And a bit of a shift of our Democratic delegate count since yesterday. In our latest CNN estimate, Barack Obama's total is up four delegates to 1,524. Hillary Clinton is up eight delegates to 1,432. To clinch the nomination, one of them has to get to 2,024 delegates.

If you are a political junkie, CNNpolitics.com is the place for you. Check out our new interactive delegate counter game, where you can play real-time what-if scenarios with delegates and super delegates. That and much, much more at CNNpolitics.com.

Sort of like being John King. Right?

LEMON: Yes, with the board.

KEILAR: All right. Well, it was planned long ago as a routine meeting of South American leaders, but a bubbling crisis in the Andes has taken over the Rio Group gathering in the Dominican Republic.

That's where we find CNN's Rick Sanchez. He is joining us by phone.

Rick, what can you tell us?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been a long time. I've been covering Latin America for many years. And it's a long time since I have seen the type of antipathy, the type of rancor that was on display today here by actual presidents of different nations that have gathered for this Rios summit.

Let me take you back and just try to explain what set this whole -- whole thing up. Several days ago the president of Colombia decided that he would have an incursion into Ecuador because he was going after the FARC, those guerrillas and narcotraffickers that have been the bane of his existence there for so long.

Well, in doing so, he actually -- in Ecuador with his military, as a result, most of the countries in Latin America, at least that part of Latin America, are now criticizing him, saying, "Look, you can't go into another person's country without permission, no matter what you're doing."

So now this is all-out ugly, with the Ecuadorians putting their troops at the border; Chavez, of course, in Venezuela is doing the same thing. He, too, has a border with Colombia. And finally, it came to a head here.

A while ago Uribe spoke. He started declaring that Ecuador is a communist country. The leader of Ecuador, Correa, then started saying that Uribe was a liar. And he said it to his face in ways that I've never seen before. I mean, this was no sign of diplomacy. This is all-out accusations from leaders of country.

And what we have now, Brianna -- this is really quite interesting -- is almost a consortium, a coalition forming in this part of the world. You have left-leaning governments like Chavez, like Correa in Ecuador, like Ortega in Nicaragua, like Lula Da Silva in Brazil, and you have these guys ganging up on Colombia and saying that Colombia is nothing but a puppet of the United States. True or not, they are ugly words, and it's been quite a while since we've seen this kind of reaction in this part of the world.

Obviously, as we watch it, we know that there also could be other repercussions, including a lot of our gasoline that we use comes out of this region. And if it continues to destabilize, it could be real serious problems ahead for all of us as Americans.

KEILAR: Yes, obviously, a fear there of escalation.

Rick Sanchez for us there from the Dominican Republic. We're going to be having Rick back with more coming up in the 3:00 p.m. Eastern hour.

LEMON: It is not their mother's Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SINAN HISHAM, TENNIS COACH, BAGHDAD UNIVERSITY: I want them to put a goal and fight for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Some Iraqi women take on bold new roles as their country shapes its future. Our Kyra Phillips will take us on a tour of a women's sports college in Baghdad.

KEILAR: And, will a Georgia case finally end the debate over vaccines and autism? We'll be asking our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: CNN is told the man who shot up a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem yesterday belonged to a group with ties to Hezbollah, the militant group in Lebanon. That's according to sources in Gaza.

At the same time Hamas militants are reportedly retracting their claim of responsibility. The gunman killed eight students before an off-duty soldier shot him dead. It was the worst attack inside Israel in almost two years.

KEILAR: A second straight day of bombings in Iraq. Today's attacks were in the northern city of Mosul. The deadliest, a suicide bombing at a police station. In all, at least six people are dead, more than 30 wounded in three bombings.

Iraq's prime minister has ordered security tightened in Baghdad, back-to-back bombings there ripping through a commercial district yesterday, killing 69 people.

And amid all of the violence in Iraq, signs of change, most notably, for women. Our Kyra Phillips is on special assignment in the war zone. And Kyra, you know only too well the risks that Iraqis there are taking every day.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I won't fool you. I'm listening to these bombings that you talk about. I had to report on them yesterday and this morning. And the violence is here.

We're in the most dangerous place to live in the world right now. But Iraqis understand that. They expect it. And they keep trying to go forward living a normal life as much as they can.

And we went over to Baghdad University's college for women sports. And I remember being in the gym.

And one of the teachers, one of the coaches said, "Wow, I look at these girls playing on the basketball court and I think to myself, if I would have grown up in the United States and I had this type of love for sports, what would my future be like now?"

All these girls want is opportunity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: What do you love so much about tennis?

HISHAM: The self-confidence. The speed, strength, flexibility, endurance. And I love it because the whole people's watching me, and I love it.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): And Sinan Hisham can be forgiven if she hams it up a little. Once the star of Iraq's national tennis team, she taught me a few things on the court.

(on-camera) Oh, you know I can't get lobs!

(voice-over) And about life in a war zone.

HISHAM: The war, at first we get happy and we are free, free, free! But then the -- you know, the things get bad and bad. So now it's -- nothing happen.

PHILLIPS: So now, Sinan has come back to where she started, but this time to coach.

HISHAM: I want them to put a goal and fight for it.

PHILLIPS: This is the Sports College for Women at Baghdad University. These women are breaking out of traditional roles, aspiring to jobs and professions that could take them anywhere now. And to do this, they, and their teachers, risk their lives every day just to get here.

"If I don't put myself in danger," anatomy professor Maitham Mahdi tells me, "and these girls don't put themselves in danger, and other Iraqis don't do so, our whole nation will stand still and never improve." And don't let the makeup and hijabs fool you. These women got game.

(on-camera) A lot of Americans think that women are wearing their scarves and they don't play sports, and they do what the men tell them to do.

"You're embarrassing us," Nora Samir (ph) says. "This is wrong and the wrong perception of women in Iraq."

Each one of these girls has a dream: coaching, teaching, maybe even going pro.

"Being here elevates our ambitions," Nubras Nibras (ph) tells me. "It makes things better. Our society is a closed one now, but we still have hopes and aspirations. Sports is our outlet."

For these athletes, stepping into the gym doesn't just lead to a college degree. It's an escape from war.

"We're used to these conditions. We leave it up to God. We walk with the explosions behind us as if they don't even exist. We just want to get here, live our lives. Like nothing is going on outside."

Any thoughts of winning a war are sidelined here, as these young women concentrate solely on winning the game.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And Brianna, even though they have more freedom now, they're up against another battle: sexism. As the Democratic government starts to form, that means more groups are given a voice here. And they feel like they're up against this mentality of conservative Muslims that women just shouldn't play sports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: I spent time with a smuggler. I talked to him about how he smuggles the oil, how he hides it in his ship. He showed me the holes. He showed me where he takes it. How do you stop these smugglers? What are you doing to put a stop to these guys?

HUSAYN AL-SHAHRASTANI, IRAQI OIL MINISTER: I've always said been telling the defense minister, "If you can sink a couple of those boats, this would be the best message."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Sorry about that, Brianna. That's actually the tease to what's coming up next Monday, an investigation into oil smuggling.

You know, here in Iraq, $5 billion a month -- that's the revenue from oil here. So where's all that money going? Well, smuggling is a big problem here, obviously. So I sat down with the minister of oil and asked him directly about the smuggling and the corruption. Coming up Monday, I'll go along with the smuggler. He'll show me how he does it. He'll show me his ship. He'll also explain how his No. 1 customer is Iran.

KEILAR: You know, and Kyra, you've been bringing us amazing stories, really behind the scenes. We're looking forward to that one.

Kyra Phillips -- CNN NEWSROOM's own Kyra Phillips there for us in Baghdad. We appreciate that.

And tomorrow in the CNN NEWSROOM, an update on the Iraqi boy who touched the hearts of people around the world. You remember Youssif, the 5-year-old who was attacked and set fire, as it were. A terrible story.

Well, now take a look at this new exclusive video of Youssif smiling, running, as he enters school. Such a contrast from the images that we first showed you. And thanks to your donations he is getting the medical help that he needs.

We'll be speaking to his doctor, Peter Grossman, and also to our own Arwa Damon, who first brought us Youssif's story. That is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

LEMON: All right. We've been telling about this story. Very sad story. The student body president, 22-year-old Eve Carson, she's a student body president at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

We're getting some new information in from the Associated Press. The Associated Press is reporting that the student was killed by a shot from a handgun to her right temple. A shot from a handgun to her right temple. That is the latest information.

It appears to be, in a sad way, sort of an execution-type shooting, shot that close to the right temple, with a shot with a handgun. We're going to try to get more information on this. Again, this information is according to the "Associated Press."

But again, the 22-year-old student, finding out more information on how she was actually killed. Very sad story that we're going to update you on.

KEILAR: Graduate college, get a great job, and years later retire comfortably. That's been the plan for generations of college students. Well, we're going to go live to a college campus to see the challenges today's students are facing in a feeble economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Still calling for accountability. As the mortgage crisis gets worse, two former Wall Street chief executives and the head of the nation's largest mortgage lender are on Capitol Hill today, and they're facing very some tough questions about their pay packages. Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange with all the details on that. It has been said that CEOs make way too much money. So we'll see what comes out of that.

ELAM: Don, a lot of people have been saying that. And a House committee is questioning first Angelo Mozilo. He's the CEO of Countrywide Financial, a company you may not have heard of a lot before this crisis. Now you know who he is.

There's also Stan O'Neal. He's the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. And Charles Prince, the former head of Citigroup. Lawmakers have a lot of ammunition, clearly. Mozilo, he collected more than $100 million last year. Well, Countrywide agreed to a takeover, and its stock plunged nearly 80 percent.

As for Prince, he stepped down after Citigroup posted a 57 percent drop in quarterly earnings, but he left with nearly $70 million. While Stanley O'Neal also gave up his title, but not before Merrill Lynch took an $8 million mortgage-related write-down in the third quarter. Now, O'Neal, he took home more than $160 million, Don.

LEMON: So those are some really big numbers, Stephanie. What are the executives? Are they responding to any of this?

ELAM: Of course. And they're defending their pay packages, saying that they were approved by their company boards. Charles Prince also points out to the fact that he had some really strong accomplishments during his tenure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES PRINCE, FORMER CEO, CITIGROUP: When I started, the company had about 60,000 employees, made about $20 million a year in profit. In 2006, my last full year as CEO, we had about 325,000 employees, and we made about $20 billion in profit. The first six months of 2007 were the best six months in the company's 200-year history. I'm proud of what I accomplished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: OK. Now here's the other thing about these CEOs. The way they see it, they've put their necks out on the line. That's what he's saying. Hey, we've made a lot of money for these companies by doing so much. Therefore, we deserve those compensations, and it was approved by the board.

And I should also point out, too, that Mozilo and O'Neal say reports of their pay packages are actually exaggerated.

(STOCK REPORT)

LEMON: Thank you for the rosy picture. That's sarcasm.

ELAM: I'll smile.

LEMON: Yes.

ELAM: That's all I got to give right now.

LEMON: Yes, it's awful. Thank you very much.

KEILAR: The emotional debate surrounding childhood vaccines and autism. We'll be hearing from the family who won their case over whether their daughter's vaccinations induced symptoms of autism.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: It's about 32 after the hour. Here are three of the stories that we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Two North Carolina firefighters have been killed in a five-alarm blaze in the Salisbury mills works. Three other firefighters were injured in this fire which has been burning since about 7:00 this morning.

A Las Vegas judge hears arguments today that charges against O.J. Simpson should be dropped. Simpson's trial on kidnapping and armed robbery charges is supposed to begin next month. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have filed more than a dozen motions in the case.

President Bush's top economic advisor says there could be negative economic growth in the current quarter. President Bush is expected to make comments on the economy here in about an hour. That's at 2:10 Eastern time and when he speaks, we'll bring it to you live.

LEMON: We look forward to that because it is worsening in light of the nation's worsening employment market. What jobs are college students going after? What jobs are they going after and what should they expect in the years to come?

CNN's T.J. Holmes has been asking around at the University of Georgia in Athens and he joins us. It may not feel like when we were in college. You expect to get a good job and prosper.

In this market, who knows T.J.?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who knows. And they know that. Some realize, we got some great advice actually from a student earlier, one we talked to. You have to temper those expectations. You have to bring them down a little bit. You come in here all bright- eyed and bushy-tailed as a freshman thinking about that big job you're going to get when you graduate.

But you know what, now it is graduation time and you can't be as excited as maybe you would have liked to have been because of the job market. We know it's tough enough for people already out there in the job market, losing jobs, worrying about maybe catering their skill set to maybe find a new job.

That's one thing, that's tough. But to imagine you got people now these graduates trying to enter that same job market that's so tough for other folks. It really has been a wakeup call to listen to some of these young folks talk about what their expectations are coming up at graduation. Take a listen to a couple kids we talked to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't be idealizing what you think the market will be. And you have your ideal job of what you'd like to do, but the reality is that that might not be there as soon as you graduate so you kind of have to temper that and just go into whatever's available and then hopefully use that to better where you're at, make yourself better and then use that to springboard into what you want to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My biggest concern right now is that, the reason I got into journalism and advertising is because it is what I want to do. It's what I know I'm good at, what I'm passionate about and I recognize now, looking at the entry level jobs, anything that's available right now is not going to be making the type of money that I would hope one day that I could make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: She says she's going into journalism there, should have talked to me before she took that route. I'm here with a few other gentlemen, a few more seniors here, here talking about the job market. I'll start with you -- Darren here.

We talked about entering the job market. But still it is tough enough, in school you need to have a job as well. That's been a struggle for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have about two or three jobs right now and each getting paid like barely minimum wage. It is really stressful. I don't have as much time as I'd like to be looking for a job and I'm probably going to have to move back to Atlanta or Duluth just to find one because there is not a really big job market here.

HOLMES: J.D., something we've heard a lot about from students I've heard is that, you know what? A lot of them are staying in school a lot longer. You are a triple major and I know you plan on doing that. But I guess that ease kind of the pain -- and you don't have to worry about a job right now because so many students say, hey, there's nothing is out there, I might as well stay in school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm planning on going to law school as well but I'm going to take a couple years off because I know the economy is right now in a slump. So I am planning on taking an internship overseas because my ultimate career goal is to become an ambassador to the United States. So I want to go to law school and then after that, I want to go to diplomacy school.

HOLMES: This man is going to be in school a lot longer. That's plenty of time for the economy to turn around actually. Now a gentleman here who is maybe the envy of the campus. This is senior Devlin, who has a job lined up. You have a job now.

He said it was kind of dumb luck that you fell into it. But still, the area, the field you were going into, finance, you knew before you got this job, you were up against it in the field in the major you had.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With a lot of the jobs being cut in the financial markets, it was very tough to find a job. You sort of have to look at it from different perspective and go along other avenues rather than just looking at your school's Web site, which is kind of the way I went, I started looking at companies, just on my own. Then as well, looking at jobs that would put me in a position to get my MBA and come out more successful after college.

HOLMES: You get some of the feedback from your fellow students. They are envious of you because you are maybe certainly one of the few I've talked to today that has a job lined up after school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. A lot of my friends, fraternity brothers, are looking hard. It is a tough search for everybody. I kind of just fell upon it. But it was not that I wasn't searching hard enough. I think everybody is searching really hard. It is just tough to find good jobs.

HOLMES: Devlin, good luck to you, J.D., good luck future ambassador and Darren as well trying to hang on here, But that's the word out on campus.

It is really, again Don, it's one thing, people already out in that market but how scary can you imagine it is trying to get into that job market that already isn't so good for the people who are already in it? It is spring break, a lot of kids, spring break next week. A lot of them got a break but a lot of them can't take a break. They got to get busy next week and take advantage of the time and try to find a job.

LEMON: They're young. At least they're not at the end and their retirement is going for naught. I can't believe they let you out on campus. What is that thing on the front of your car that say armadillo or something.

HOLMES: What? What was that? I can't hear what he was saying.

LEMON: Arkansas Razorback. I'm just joking around with you. T.J., we appreciate you doing that for us. Thank you sir.

President Bush will talk about the economy in about an hour. He's scheduled to speak at 2:10 Eastern and we'll bring it to you live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

KEILAR: As many as 166,000 California children could be considered truant. And their parents could face prosecution. This is a real concern in light of a state appeals court ruling that parents need teaching credentials if they plan to home school their kids.

Credentials require a bachelor's degree at least and lot of exams. California's home school rules were fairly strict already. Parents can't just do it on a whim. The loser in the appellate ruing says he will appeal to the state supreme court.

A six-figure teaching job in a public school. Well, is there really such a thing? There could be. In New York City, the principal of a new charter school in Washington Heights is promising to pay experienced teachers $125,000 a year.

That is almost twice what the average New York teacher makes right now. The principal wants to see whether well-paid teachers are really the key to better schools and this new school opens next year.

LEMON: The government's decision to compensate a family who says a childhood vaccine led to their daughter's autism has re-ignited a long and emotional debate, but almost certainly won't end it.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, follows up on this.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A Federal injury court will compensate the family of Hannah Poling. They talk specifically about the fact that vaccines may have contributed to symptoms of autism. That is their specific (INAUDIBLE) leaves a lot of parents wondering what to do about this. Dr. Poling, Hannah's father is a neurologist, her mother is a nurse.

They talked to Larry King last night. This is what they said specifically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON POLING, FATHER OF AUTISTIC: I'm certainly not anti-vaccine. I think vaccines are one of the most important medical developments within the past century-plus. What we're trying to say and the theory of what we felt happened to our daughter Hannah is that she has a susceptibility to injury from stress of vaccination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Again, they point out that they are not anti-vaccines. They actually credit vaccines obviously for saves thousands of lives as do most doctors. The concern with Hannah was, did she have a mitochondrial disorder that already existed and the vaccine sort of pushed her over the edge.

Was she born with some sort of predisposition to autism and the vaccines made that worse, leaves a lot of people wondering of course again what to do. There is an official position on that from the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: We've got to set aside this very isolated, unusual situation. The court apparently made the decision that it was fair to say that the vaccines may have been one of the precipitants of symptoms in this child with a genetic disorder but that's nothing so to say about the thousands and thousands and thousands of children that need immunizations day after day after day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GUPTA: There are really three main concerns about the vaccines in children. One is Thimerosol (ph), which we've been talking about, that's the mercury preservative. For the most part, that's been gone from vaccines really since 2002. It may be present in trace amounts still and it is still present in the flu vaccine, specifically but it has become less of an issue.

Also, the measles vaccine specifically. This is a live virus as opposed to some of the attenuated or dead viruses used in other vaccines. Some pediatricians will say wait until after the age of three when a baby's or a toddler's immune system is more fully developed.

They also say you could possibly space out the vaccine shots if you are concerned about that. Obviously these are conversations you need to have with your doctor. At this time, there is no science that recommending changing the existing recommendations. Back to you for now.

LEMON: Thank you very much for that, Sanjay.

The CNN networks will focus our worldwide resources on autism for the first world autism day, that's April 2nd. We'll have the latest research and controversies, along with insight, information and treatment options. That's April 2nd on CNN and CNN.com.

KEILAR: American workers. More and more of them are finding themselves in transition from one job to another. We'll tell you what's working for them in the NEWSROOM.

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LEMON: Tornado warnings across the deep south and possible snow to follow, a stormy end to the week, Chad Myers.

What's going on in Florida right now?

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KEILAR: New economic worries today. The latest report from the U.S. Labor Department shows 63,000 jobs were cut last month. That is the steepest drop in payrolls in five years and the second straight monthly decline has a number of economists saying it is more evidence the nation is in or at least near, a recession.

Construction, manufacturing, retail and not surprisingly, financial services, those are the industries showing the biggest job cuts. How does one transition to a new job in career after being downsized?

That's what we're asking of Penelope Trunk. She is the author of the book "Brazen Careerist, the New Rules for Success." She joins us from Madison, Wisconsin.

Thanks for being with us, Penelope.

PENELOPE TRUNK, CEO, BRAZENCAREER.COM: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: You have said actually that there isn't -- you've seen certain areas where there really is not a job crunch or there isn't a job crunch not across the board.

TRUNK: I mean demographically speaking, the baby boomers are retiring and generation "X" isn't big enough to replace them. On top of that, the baby boomers work really long hours and generation "X" doesn't. Generation "Y" is much more entrepreneurial than people expected so there is a huge gap between the number of jobs available and the number of people who can take them.

That gap is not going to be affected by a recession, in most sectors. For example, accounting, there is such an enormous shortage of workers that people are predicting that there would have to be a recession for five years before the workers would feel it in accounting.

KEILAR: Of course there are folks in many sectors who are really feeling the job cuts here, folks in manufacturing, construction, retail. Let's talk about some of your tips for these folks. You said, one, actually stop looking for a job, to start focusing on how you can make yourself more valuable in your workplace. Tell us about how they can do this.

TRUNK: If you do get laid off, you really need to show that are you a star performer where you were. You can be a star right now. Look around for a project that you can have quantifiable impact on right away and then you can put that on your resume. So if you get laid off, you're in a good position. So instead of worrying you're kind of taking pro-active.

KEILAR: Networking is always key in any situation but the new tool of networking is really blogging. How can people take advantage of that?

TRUNK: Blogging is really easy to do. It is not technical and it is a great way to get in with people who are in a position to hire you. Most companies have very high-level people blogging. You can have conversations with them on their blogs and then approach them for a job. You'll be in much better shape than approaching them cold.

KEILAR: And Penelope, when we are fearful that maybe we are maybe going to lose our job, the first instinct may be to keep some money in your pocket. One of your tips is to not save that money and instead to change your lifestyle if you are looking at a new job. Explain that.

TRUNK: Everyone says you should have three months saved up, but that's a joke. Right? No one has that. Only the people who are rolling in money have three months saved up.

For the normal person, instead of being upset that you didn't save up three months, just cut back your lifestyle for a little so that you can take a wider range of jobs. It is not that bad to take a lower salary and then you'll get a higher salary later. It's not that big a deal.

KEILAR: That's right. Don't do it for the money. That's what Don and I we were just talking about a second ago. You got to do something you are passionate about and certainly downsizing your lifestyle a little bit can help you do that, I guess. Penelope Trunk, thanks so much for being with us, career advice blogger and author of "Brazen Career." We appreciate your time.

LEMON: Colombian left wing rebels on the run in South America. What can they possibly have in common with a Russian tycoon under arrest in Thailand? Allegedly, a lot. We'll explain.

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LEMON: And now a story of a big-time gun running rebel fighter and one army's incursion into a neighbor's land. It spans three parts of the globe and it's all coming together now. Six days ago the Colombian army's four-decade fight against FARC rebels took a new turn. The army raided a FARC camp in neighboring Ecuador. That triggered an angry response not just from Ecuador's president, but from Nicaragua's, Venezuela's too.

Those leaders are meeting in the Dominican Republic today as we just heard from CNN's Rick Sanchez. Our Dan Rivers is in Bangkok with the related story. It involves a notorious global arms dealer and weapons that Colombia's FARC rebels now will never see.

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DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The so-called lord of war looked distinctly un-aristocratic as he was paraded for the press in Thailand. But Viktor Bout remained silent, possibly the most prolific arms smuggler in the world is out of action and he didn't look happy about it. American law enforcers weren't mincing their words when they summed him up.

THOMAS PASQUARELLO, U.S. DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: Good morning. Mr. Boot is referred to as the merchant of death and man of war.

RIVERS: The Thai police say he may face trial in Bangkok first. The U.S. is hoping he'll be extradited to a court in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's up to the two governments to work that out, between the legal systems.

RIVERS: Viktor Bout is thought to have supplied weapons for wars across the world from Africa to Asia. The DEA think his AK-47s ended up almost everywhere. He used contacts in the former Soviet Union and is thought to have made tens of millions of dollars.

But the deal that ended it all was with the FARC rebels in Colombia. The DEA set up a complex sting, bugging him as he agreed to sell the fighters surface to air missiles which he'd parachute into the jungle for $5 million. No one knows for sure how many weapons Viktor Bout sold or how much money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Pardon the interruption. We want to get to the president now speaking about the economy.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Losing a job is painful. I know Americans are concerned about our economy. So am I. It is clear our economy has slowed, but the good news is we anticipated this and took decisive action to bolster the economy by passing a growth package that will put money into the hands of American workers and businesses. I signed this growth package into law just three weeks ago and its provisions are just starting to kick in.

First a growth package includes incentives for businesses to make investments in new equipment this year. These incentives are now in place and they are starting to have an impact. My advisors tell me that investment in new equipment remains solid thus far in the first quarter.

As more businesses take advantage of these new incentives as well as lower interest rates, we expect investment will continue to grow and that businesses will begin creating new jobs in the months ahead. Secondly, the growth package will provide tax rebates to more than 130 million American households.

These rebates will begin reaching American families in May. And when the money reaches the American people, we expect they will use it to boost consumer spending and that will spur job creation as well. We believe that the steps we have taken, together with the actions taken by the Federal Reserve, will have a positive effect on our economy.

My message to the American people is this. I know this is a difficult time for our economy, but we recognized the problem early and provided the economy with a booster shot. We will begin to see the impact over the coming months and in the long run, we can have confidence that so long as we pursue pro growth, low tax policies that put faith in the American people, our economy will prosper.

Thank you.

LEMON: OK, President Bush speaking there about the economy. He is talking about that growth package that he signed into law just a couple weeks ago.

Really two things he said. He said one is incentives to businesses. That's what that will do and hopefully that will provide some jobs, extra jobs for businesses. Also tax rebates to 100 million-plus American households where he said he hoped it will help out there by providing the economy with what he is calling a so-called booster shot. He came right out of the gate saying it is clear that the economy has slowed.

Our senior business correspondent Ali Velshi following all of this for us. As soon as we get him up, we're going to get him to talk to us about what the president said and what we can expect from this growth package.

KEILAR: Safety violations, safety violations or a gap paperwork? The FAA is proposing a $10 million fine against Southwest Airlines. The company is calling that unfair. We'll be taking a look in the NEWSROOM.

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