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President Obama on Economic Recovery; The Young and the Jobless; Mike Huckabee Takes Heat for Inmate's Rampage

Aired December 03, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also though have to face the fact that our resources are limited.

When we walked in, there was an enormous fiscal gap between the money that is going out and the money coming in. The recession has made that worse because of fewer tax receipts and more demands made on government for things like unemployment insurance. So we can't make any ill-considered decisions right now, even with the best of intentions.

We're going have to be surgical and we're going to have to be creative. We're going to have to be smart and strategic. And we'll need to look beyond the old standbys and fallbacks and come up with the best ideas that give us the biggest bang for the buck. So I need everybody here to bring their A game here today.

I'm going to be asking some tough questions. I will be listening for some good answers. And I don't want to just brainstorm up at 30,000 feet. I want details in our discussion today. I'm looking for specific recommendations that can be implemented that will spur on job growth as quickly as possible.

Now, I want to be clear. We won't overcome our unemployment challenge in just a few hours this afternoon, I assure you there is extraordinary skepticism that any discussions like this could actually produce results. I'm well aware of that.

I don't mind skepticism. If I listened to the skeptics, I wouldn't be here. But I am confident that we'll make progress.

I am confident that people like you, who built thriving businesses or revolutionized industries or brought cities and communities together and changed the way we look at the world, and innovated and creative new products, that you can come up with some additional good ideas on how to create jobs. And I'm confident that the spirit of bold, persistent experimentation that FDR talked about, and that's gotten this country through some of our darkest hours, remains alive and well, not just in this room, but all across the country.

We still have the best universities in the world. We've got some of the finest science and technology in the world. We've got the most entrepreneurial spirit in the world. We've got some of the most productive workers in the world. And if we get serious, then the 21st century is going to be the American century, just like the 20th century was. But we're going to have to approach this with a sense of seriousness and try to set the politics and the chatter aside for a while and actually get to work.

So, welcome. Thank you for participating.

We are going to maximize the productivity of this effort over the next several hours. And I will be returning back with you so that I can get a report on what kinds of ideas seem to make the most sense.

Thank you very much, everybody.

(APPLAUSE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as you could hear, President Obama's word of the day, "jobs," and how to make them and hopefully keep them.

He's playing host, as you can see, to a jobs summit right now. Economic bigwigs, economic experts all sounding off in the face of double-digit jobless numbers that we have been talking about all morning.

Well, she doesn't look like a typical recruitment officer, but Secretary of State Clinton pushing to get more allied boots on the ground in Afghanistan. She's headed to NATO headquarters in Brussels where she wants a commitment of 5,000 to 7,000 extra international troops. She says the war is a common fight against a common enemy.

Should Ben Bernanke keep his job as Fed chairman? He's facing reconfirmation hearings right now, but after the big Wall Street bailout, a lot of angry senators are asking if this guy deserves more time on the job.

Well, that 10 percent -- or that 10.2 percent, rather -- unemployment figure is pretty painful. But for younger workers, the job market hurts twice as badly. They want change, and they want it now.

Our Josh Levs joins us with more on that -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really rough figures, Kyra. And I'll tell you, this morning, I heard from a young man who's taking part in that summit today at the White House. He was talking about how difficult it is, because he's with this organization right here -- I'll show you -- called the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, and they're pushing for jobs.

And let me show you. Actually, we have some graphics here. Let's go straight to these figures. I want you to see how bad the job market is for young people in America.

Nineteen percent of workers aged 16 to 24 are unemployed, and that, as you know, is nearly double the national average, which is down at 10 percent. And it's increasing. It's getting up near 20 now.

Look at the next one. Young African-American employment, 29 percent. Young Latinos are at 21 percent.

This is huge number of young people, including a lot of college graduates, who are trying and cannot get jobs. And they're saddled with debt.

Look at this -- $27,000 is the average undergraduate debt. Then on top of that, you have a lot of them carrying credit cards. Average there, $2,000 average credit card for a young person under age 24.

And finally, one more thing to keep in mind. So many of them are uninsured. The Kaiser Foundation has pointed out that 30 percent of young people being uninsured.

So, what is to be done? What do you do about this?

Well, I mentioned I heard from a young man. He is with this organization, and he's also with this one, called 80MillionStrong.org. They are actively pushing Congress and the White House for change.

I asked him what should be done. Here's one of his answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW SEGAL, 80MILLIONSTRONG.ORG: A, freeing the flow of credit for young entrepreneurs, providing tax breaks and lower interest rates on the loans they take out to start young companies. I mean, ultimately, if we're going to pull ourselves out of this recession, we need to invest in young companies and young ideas, and we need to have a legislative environment that's receptive to freeing credit and giving young people some incentive to innovate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: I'll tell you, I do encourage you to check out this Web site: CNN.com/jobs. When there are jobs, this Web site does a pretty good job of helping you find what is popping up out there in different industries.

And we'd love to hear your stories. We've got a graphic going here. It's up at the blog, CNN.com/Josh. Also, Facebook and Twitter, at JoshLevsCNN.

If you're one of these young Americans looking for work, struggling, or managing to find it, let us know. And let us know about solutions, what should be done.

Kyra, a really important thing for us to keep an eye on, because, keep in mind, these young people are the ones coming up, often cases with things that make tons of money -- Facebook, Twitter, Google. Some of these massive companies that are built through technology benefit our whole economy. So obviously we all have a stake in young Americans having support for entrepreneurship there.

PHILLIPS: Yes. And things that we wish we would have invested in as they were creating them.

LEVS: Good point. Exactly. If we only realized what we had coming.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

All right, Josh. Thanks.

And we're trying to do our part here. Not one, but two "30 Second Pitches." A twofer.

Jay and Barry, let's get you hired and get you paid, and make those layoffs a memory.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, sure, hindsight's 20/20, but prosecutors in Arkansas say their former governor should have had 20/20 foresight in the case of Maurice Clemmons. He's the man believed to have killed four police officers earlier this week in Washington State. He was killed a couple days later. Those prosecutors say then-Governor Mike Huckabee had all the info he needed to know this guy belonged in a cell and was a time bomb if he ever got out.

He got out. The time bomb went off. And the finger-pointing has begun.

Here's Drew Griffin from CNN Special Investigations Unit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): County prosecutors in Little Rock say they were never notified Governor Mike Huckabee was even considering commuting the sentence of Maurice Clemmons. And if there were, they most certainly would have been on record opposing it.

Former chief deputy prosecutor Warren McCormick says no way, after just 11 years behind bars, should Maurice Clemmons had his sentence commuted, had his sentence reduced, or have ever been released on parole. And he told that in writing, on the record to the parole board, every time they asked.

(on camera): Here's what you wrote: " Objection. Clemmons is a violent, habitual offender. This is apparent from his new 2001 conviction."

This is in November of '01.

WARREN MCCORMICK, FMR. CHIEF DEPUTY PROSECUTOR: Yes, sir.

GRIFFIN: They let him out.

MCCORMICK: That's correct.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): By 1990, Maurice Clemmons, at just 18 years old, already had three felonies to his name. A violent teenager.

Records show just before his fourth trial, Clemmons threatened a judge, injured his own mother by throwing a lock that hit her. He tried to grab a guard's pistol and even took a metal hinge off a door, hid it inside his sock, intending to use it as a weapon. He was considered so dangerous, the trial judge had him shackled to his chair.

(on camera): He needed to be shackled.

MCCORMICK: That's the one word that came to my mind, or remembered about him, is that he was mean, is that he was shackled in court. And deputies placed behind him while he was tried because he was such a security risk.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The jury found him guilty of burglary and theft. And along with sentences for his three previous felonies, Maurice Clemmons was sent to prison to serve more than 100 years. He was just 18 years old. But young as he was, he was plenty tough.

(on camera): Even behind these prison fences, Maurice Clemmons continued to lash out violently. His prison record is filled with violations, aggravated battery, assault, theft, drug possession, even at one time, concealing a weapon.

LARRY JEGLEY, PULASKI COUNTY, ARK., PROSECUTOR: Over and over again, failure to obey; engaging in sexual activity; failure to obey; possession or introduction of drugs; firearm, somehow or another. I'm not sure...

GRIFFIN (on camera): Firearm?

JEGLEY: Yes.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The records don't show what that firearm was.

Larry Jegley is Little Rock's prosecutor, and he says the man his office put away for life should have never, ever gotten out, and anyone who bothered to read Maurice Clemmons record, his criminal record in court, his violent record in prison, would have never allowed this man to set foot outside of prison.

So, who does he blame? After all, it is a parole board that recommended Maurice Clemmons be released, but Jegley says he doesn't blame the board, he blames one man.

JEGLEY: Those are Mike Huckabee clemencies from 1996 through the middle of 2004.

GRIFFIN: Jegley says mistakes were made with Clemmons -- warrants missed. Even in Washington State, bail granted. But none of it would have happened without the governor's signature.

JEGLEY: He needs to bear responsibility for that.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Nobody else?

JEGLEY: No. No. We did everything that we could do with him and got him sentenced to 108 years. Mike Huckabee, with the stroke of a pen, undid that and left us to our devices to try to deal with him.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Governor, hi.

(voice-over): We spent days looking for the governor trying to get his side of this story. We finally tracked him down at a college in Jacksonville, Florida, where the governor was giving a speech.

We asked him, did he know how violent Clemmons was before he cut his sentence short? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FMR. ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: I read the entire file.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Was it just this few pieces of paper?

HUCKABEE: No, no, no. It was a file this thick.

GRIFFIN: Did it tell you the violations he had in prison, the assault...

HUCKABEE: Every bit of his record.

GRIFFIN: ... firearm possession, the fact that he tried to slip a piece of metal into court?

HUCKABEE: I looked at the file, every bit of it. And here was a case where a guy had been given 108 years.

Now, if you think that 108-year sentence is an appropriate sentence for a 16-year old for the crimes he committed, then you should run for governor of Arkansas. You're looking at this nine years later and trying to make something as if I could look into the future.

I wish I could have. Good lord, I wish I had that power. I wish I could have done that...

GRIFFIN: I guess I'm wondering...

HUCKABEE: ... but I don't know how anyone can do it.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Drew Griffin, CNN, Jacksonville, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: President Obama deployed his point people to Capitol Hill for a second day to defend his plan to deploy 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chair Mike Mullen were in the hot seat as critics focused on the threat in Pakistan. They say the president's blueprints ignore insurgents in the nuclear-armed nation.

Secretary Clinton promised to garner more ground support from allies during her trip to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Well, right now President Obama and business leaders are trying to cure America's double-digit headache -- unemployment. Well, right here, on the CNN NEWSROOM, we have our own jobs summit every Thursday, and today we're giving you a two-for-one "30 Second Pitch."

Laid-off marketing man and former Marine Jay Joseph joins me from Philadelphia, and laid-off technician and father of four, Barry Jabbar Sykes, is with me here in Atlanta.

Jay, let's go ahead and start with you.

How did your business go dry?

JAY JOSEPH, JOB SEEKER: Well, Kyra, the economy's bad. My business, working in the entertainment field, not many people have the money now to spend on creating an event and providing themselves profits and protecting their profits, especially paying for loss prevention. And I suffered from it.

PHILLIPS: Now, you call yourself a pit bull, though. All right, Marine, explain that to me.

JOSEPH: I am a little unorthodox and aggressive with what I do. I like -- because I'm a Marine, there is a goal, and I like to reach the goal. If there is a business plan, anything superiors would give me goal-wise to achieve, I go for it and I typically get it done.

PHILLIPS: All right. Are you ready for your "30 Second Pitch?"

JOSEPH: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: OK. Jay Joseph, take it away.

JOSEPH: My name is Jay Joseph, and I'm a creative marketing and loss prevention specialist, two professions that are often overlooked in the business world. I am highly skilled at providing a comprehensive plan to a large or small business to increase their bottom line.

I'm seeking an employer who will allow me the freedom to put my talents to excellent use, whether it be marketing, loss prevention, or both. My organizational and problem-solving strengths will absolutely benefit any company who seeks to achieve the goal they started their business for in the first place -- success.

PHILLIPS: Look at that, four seconds to go.

One more adjective to explain you?

JOSEPH: Personality -- no, aggressive. I'm just aggressive and I love success.

PHILLIPS: There you go, bottom line. All right.

JOSEPH: Thank you. PHILLIPS: Stay with me, because we've got a twofer "30 Second Pitch" today, Jay. Stay with me.

Jabbar, you know, I actually read about you in the paper. Five hundred resumes that you have sent out and not a bite. You've got four kids. This is a hard time.

What's going on? What's the reality check?

BARRY JABBAR SYKES, JOB SEEKER: The reality check of it is I'm at a point where I'm not looking for excuses. I'm really just looking for employment.

When I was -- my middle name is "Jabbar," and I grew up with that, so I said, well, let me just go ahead and take that off my resume just to make sure, just to hedge my bets that that's not it. So, right now, I go by "Barry," which is my first name.

So I'm still putting them out there, and I'm still looking for something to take care of my family and to be able to give them those things that I know that they need.

PHILLIPS: That's interesting. People are doing so much to try and be different. They're doing plastic surgery, they're changing their names, they're changing the way they dress. No, really, it's wild, like, the stories that I hear.

SYKES: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Now, four kids. What has been the hardest part of -- I mean, is it the kids and trying to tell them it's going to be OK? Or is it trying to please the wife? Or is it trying to feel good about, OK, I can do this?

I mean, I can't even imagine.

SYKES: Well the biggest thing is keeping the faith that we know it's going to get better. Trying to keep a marriage, trying to keep kids when you go from a house to even a hotel, as the situation has come to, it has been kind of rough.

We have the support system of my parents, her mother, and we -- it's a faith thing. We just have to know that we're coming out. We have to know that the times, the rough times, they can't keep going. The trouble doesn't last always is what they say.

And so keeping my wife, you know, encouraging her, keeping the kids focused. But the thing is, my kids are doing well in school. One just won a spelling bee. The other one is looking towards college. And my son, he loves school. And my little one, she's trying to be in school, and she's only 2.

So the biggest thing that I think has been a blessing is that even during this rough time, how hard it is, my family has come together. It's six of us. We have been everywhere from a house to an apartment. PHILLIPS: You know what? You bring up a very good point. I mean, that is so crucial in a time like this, when someone is working so hard to support the family, the family should be pitching in. I feel you on that, so much.

All right. I want you to look at that camera right there, camera one, and give us your "30 Second Pitch."

Take it away, Jabbar.

SYKES: Hello. How are you doing?

My name is Barry Jabbar Sykes, and the first thing I want to tell you is that I'm a problem solver. My mission is to be an answer to a question, a solution to a problem.

When I was working as a technician, my first thing was to find out what was going on with the machine and go in and find it, fix it as quickly as possible. All of my clients were mostly financial institutions, so they couldn't have downtime.

In my present situation, I can be in the technical field or any field. Just give me a chance and the opportunity to show you what I can do.

PHILLIPS: Look at that, bingo, right on 30 seconds.

Jay Joseph and Barry Jabbar Sykes.

Gentlemen, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. And keep us posted. OK?

SYKES: Love you Angela (ph). Love you kids. Love you mom, dad, Brent (ph).

PHILLIPS: OK.

U.S. Marine's family -- Jay, you got to give us a shout-out.

JOSEPH: Thank you very much, CNN. And hi to my boys. Papa's on the road.

PHILLIPS: There you go.

All right, guys.

Well, both Barry and Jay's e-mail addresses will be posted on our blog.

And, of course, you can reach out to us as well. Just mail us your resume to 30SecondPitch@CNN.com. We would love to try and help you as well.

They once saluted him. Now they have turned on him. Crewmembers of the cargo ship hijacked by pirates in April taking their captain to court. Mutiny on the Maersk? And he signed his first record contract at the age of 12. He won 25 Grammys and we always know his music. However, here is something that you may not know about Steve Wonder.

He's a tireless humanitarian who fights for the disabled, abused, hungry and the homeless. Now the U.N. is singing his praises and naming him a messenger of peace on a mission to help disabled people across the globe.

Stevie talked to me live just last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVIE WONDER, U.N. MESSENGER OF PEACE: I think love has no time or space. It is what it is. And I have a love for human kind.

And to know that I'm one of those -- one of those -- talk about 10 percent of the people in the world with disability -- with a disability, I challenge the other 90 percent of the people of the world to do something about it. There should not be anywhere in the world where a person who is either paraplegic or quadriplegic cannot be able to walk, or a person who is deaf should not have the technology to help him or her through his or her life. A person who was blind in no part of the world should it be that there is not an opportunity for them to have accessibility to any means by where they can live a closer to normal life.

And so I challenge the 90 percent of the people of the world to make a difference to the 10 percent of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now.

Not guilty by reason of insanity. That plea from the Cleveland sex offender accused of killing 11 women and leaving their bodies in and around his home. Anthony Sowell entered his plea in a video hookup from jail. He's charged with murder, rape, kidnapping, assault and corpse abuse, 85 counts in all.

Bloodshed in Somalia's capital. A suicide bomber attacked a medical school's graduation ceremony, killing at least 16 people. Among those killed, three government ministers. The bomber was a man dressed in women's clothing. An Islamist group is blamed for that attack.

It's not exactly a mutiny, but bad enough for the captain of the Maersk Alabama. Richard Phillips is being slapped with a lawsuit by four of his crewmembers. The ship was hijacked by Somali pirates last April and Phillips was held captive for five days. The suit claims that he ignored warnings to keep the ship at least 600 miles off the African coast.

It's one simple things that just might change the planet -- a new product from Google.

CNN's Dan Simon logs on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Google changed how we get information. Now it wants to change how we use energy.

This is how it started on Google's home page.

DAN REICHER, DIRECTOR, CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY INITIATIVES, GOOGLE: Those instantaneous searches that everyone has come to rely on, they actually require some energy. So, we've said to ourselves we want to get more efficient and greener in our own electricity use. So that was sort of a starting point.

SIMON: Dan Reicher heads up Google's climate change and energy initiatives. His team has come with a simple thing that it hopes will save you money and along the way save the planet.

It is called Google PowerMeter. Every time you flip on a light or run the toaster, it shows a spike. You can watch it on your computer or smartphone.

REICHER: We get a bill in the mail once a month, and we learn almost nothing from it other than how much do I owe and where do I send the check?

SIMON: But with PowerMeter, users can log on from anywhere and see their energy consumption that day, that week or month. The theory, if you recognize what causes an increase you can make changes to lower your bill.

(on camera): Were you surprised to see what this thing was spitting out?

REICHER: I actually was. I knew we had an old refrigerator, but I didn't quite realize how much electricity it actually using.

SIMON (voice-over): To see how it works in real time, watch what happens when Dan's 14-year-old daughter Haley (ph) turns on the hair dryer.

This LCD readout shows the Reicher household using four cents an hour worth of energy, or nearly 300 watts to more than 2,000 watts. That's not to say Haley (ph) should use a towel instead. It just helps everyone become more aware of their energy use.

REICHER: It just begins to give you a sense about what it takes to run a house. And the great thing is it's pretty painless.

SIMON: And the Google service is free. It's the company's way of giving back some of those billions and making a positive global impact.

To make it work though does require some hardware, a smart meter which more and more utility companies are installing. Google has partnered with 10 of them. It also works with a $200 device that comes complete with the iPod-like handheld.

(on camera): The device is now deep inside Dan's breaker box inside his garage. If you end up getting one, you'll probably want to have an electrician install it.

REICHER: It's a great, inexpensive down payment on dealing with global warming.

SIMON (voice-over): Because here's the thing -- according to Reicher, if half of American households decreased their energy consumption by just 10 percent, that's the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road. As they say, information is power, an old expression with some new meaning.

Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the TSA still doesn't have a head, so is national security threatened? How about your security? We're going to hear from the guy who's holding up the president's nomination. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, all this talk of national security, we have heard it for years now, so why is a key security job still unfilled nearly a year after President Obama took office? Who's to blame and is national security and your security being compromised?

Here's CNN homeland security correspondent Jean Meserve.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, despite all the talk about the urgency of national security, there is one high-profile federal security job that is empty. A member of the Senate is holding up the confirmation man nominated to take the helm at the Transportation Security Administration because of a heated debate over unions, security and politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Fifty thousand transportation security officers screen, inspect, question and observe at the nation's airports to keep dangerous people and items off planes. Senator Jim DeMint believes giving them collective bargaining rights would hurt security.

SEN. JIM DEMINT (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Collective bargaining would standardize things across the country, make it much less flexible, much harder for the agency to adapt to changing threats around the world.

MESERVE: Harder for instance to react to something like the 2006 plot to blow up airplanes with liquid explosives. Within hours the TSA ramped up security and changed policy to ban carry-on liquids. The union, representing 12,000 TSO, say DeMint's argument is rubbish pointing out that employees of the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Protective Service, and others all have full union representation.

JOHN GAGE, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: No one talked about union membership when the cops and the firefighters went up the stairs at 9/11 at the World Trade Towers. No one talks about our two officers, two union members, who took down the shooter at Fort Hood. There was nothing in their union membership that stopped them from doing their duties.

MESERVE: During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama wrote the union that giving TSOs collective bargaining rights would be a priority. Unions gave him valuable support in the election.

DEMINT: It's all about politics. It's payback to the unions.

MESERVE: DeMint pushed the issue at a hearing on Wednesday.

DEMINT: How can unionization and collective bargaining enhance security in our airports?

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, Senator, the answer is collective bargaining and security are not mutually exclusive concepts.

MESERVE: DeMint is holding up the confirmation of Errol Southers to head the TSA to make his point, though Southers has been noncommittal on the union issue telling DeMint he wouldn't recommend anything that would "potentially compromise the safety and security of the flying public."

JAMES SHERK, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I think that the nominee is -- understands the confirmation process and that he doesn't want to say anything controversial. But ultimately, once he's confirmed it's not going to be his choice. It's going to be the choice of the secretary and ultimately the choice of the president. And the president has made it clear where he stands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Meanwhile, the union is accusing DeMint of jeopardizing security by holding up the confirmation of Southers to fill a critical aviation security position.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: So what our military's going to do in Afghanistan is of international interest. For a South Carolina woman, though, it's a total -- a complete family matter. Her husband and two sons have just deployed over there and another son is on standby. The fourth son's home recovering from wounds that he suffered, yep, in Afghanistan.

This military wife and mom says it totally feels like a revolving door, but she's got mixed feelings about a schedule to bring everybody home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONNIE HOAGLAND, MILITARY WIFE & MOTHER: I don't think there should be a time limit until we're completely sure that America is safe. Just believe in what we're there for. That's the main thing is we try to just keep the faith and support what they do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: She also says that the 30,000 extra troops President Obama is sending over aren't enough.

Jobs back in focus at the White House now, remember issue one? Well, President Obama just a little while ago talking about being surgical with decisions. So how did he use a scalpel to cut out an ugly jobless figure anyway?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Major tumble from the top of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium landed two maintenance workers in the hospital. They weren't wearing a safety harness when they slipped some 75 feet, finally plunging into a rain gutter. Emergency crews say one worker lost consciousness hitting his head and breaking a leg. The long-term work on the retractable is slated to continue through the new year.

The number two man at the Justice Department is out. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden is stepping down ten months after he took the job. Ogden oversaw the day-to-day operations including the criminal, civil and national security divisions. He says he always planned to go back to private law once the department was headed in what he calls the right direction.

For Ben Bernanke, the heat is on. He's facing some tough grilling today at his confirmation hearing for a second term as Fed chief. Some senators are irked by the Federal Reserve's bailout of Wall Street and they fear that the Fed's power has become too broad.

With nearly 16 million Americans out of work, there's no question the jobs picture is grim. Let's talk more about that and the White House summit that's underway. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow is in New York following it.

So, Poppy, Americans want to see a lot more action, not just talk, that's for sure.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, you've got it, Kyra. I mean, all the folks at this summit, the 130 business leaders and economists, they've got jobs. But what about the Americans that don't? The president talking about it just a short time ago. About what the administration is going to do working with business leaders. Saying, listen, we're open to new ideas, but resources are limited. That's the reality given the state of the economy.

Here's what President Obama had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So we can't make any ill-considered decisions right now, even with the best of intentions. We're going to have to be surgical and we're going to have to be creative. We're going to have to be smart and strategic. We'll need to look beyond the old standbys and fallbacks, and come up with the best ideas that give us the biggest bang for the buck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, obviously spelling out some urgency there. Tomorrow, this is why we're going to get, Kyra, that all-important monthly jobs report for November. The expectation -- pretty grim. Expected another 114,000 Americans will have lost their job last month. The unemployment rate expected to remain at a 26-year high, Kyra, of 10.2 percent -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What about the stimulus plan? We're hearing more and more critics saying that it's just not creating or saving enough jobs?

HARLOW: Correct. It's exactly right. They're raising lots of questions and saying this is over $700 billion, is it working? All of it hasn't been spent yet, but earlier this week, the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, came out with a number, a broad number saying between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs have been saved or created from stimulus spending. Obviously a huge range, underscoring how difficult it is to get an accurate count of job creation or jobs being saved.

Big question, and this is what matters, not that government number, but are real Americans, every day Americans that are trying to get work seeing any improvement? We asked folks here in New York City. We went to an employment office in Harlem, here's what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm having trouble finding a job. I've been looking - I've been to like 23 to 25 places. And whatever Obama and the administration is saying is not showing up here in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've sent so many resumes and applications out. I'm not getting a single call. Not a single response.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hear jobs, yes. But there are so many people applying for the same positions that very few get selected.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm seeing people get jobs. I mean, they're here. They've been looking for work for one or two months and then all of a sudden I don't see them anymore. They're gone because they got the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: All right, and the harsh really of it, Kyra, is when you look at the numbers, there are now six American workers looking for every vacant job in this country. We're following the jobs summit at the White House right now, we'll be updating it right here on CNNMoney -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Sounds good. Thanks, Poppy.

An American exchange student gets her last chance to plead her case. The charge against Amanda Knox? Murder. But will the jury believe her when she says she's no assassin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An American exchange student on trial for murder for two years for murder. Today, she pleaded her case to an Italian jury. Amanda Knox says she's no assassin, but will the jury believe her.

CNN's Paula Newton recaps a case that has people around the world talking and speculating.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who killed 21- year-old British student Meredith Kercher? Two years ago, she was found in her rented house in the Italian town of Perugia, sexually assaulted with her throat slashed. The mystery of her brutal murder has consumed this beautiful, medieval town and the world's media ever since.

Perugia's roots may be medieval, but this crime is all about modern forensic science, a real-life "CSI," starting with Kercher's American roommate Amanda Knox, a 22-year-old native of Seattle. She's now on trial for murder, along with her former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito. Another man, Rudy Guede, a drifter, has already been convicted of the murder and is serving a 30-year sentence.

Prosecutors say Knox was the mastermind of the murder. They say she hated Kercher and intentionally started an argument that escalated into a fight and became a gruesome murder. They say Knox slit Kercher's throat as Sollecito held her down and Guede sexually assaulted her.

But that's not the way Knox's defense sees it; nor her parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas.

CURT KNOX, DEFENDANT'S FATHER: We have to try to do our best to put on a face that it is going to work out.

EDDA MELLAS, DEFENDANT'S MOTHER: And we keep telling her that. That it's taking way longer than we ever expected, but she will get out of there. And she's innocent and they are not going to put an innocent 20-year-old in jail for 30 years. It's just not going to happen, especially with no evidence.

NEWTON (on camera): What has been so baffling about the evidence in this case is that there has been no physical evidence to tie either Amanda Knox or her former boyfriend to the murder scene, the house where Meredith Kercher was murdered.

(voice-over): Prosecutors claim they do have the murder weapon, found at Sollecito's home. A kitchen knife that they say had traces of Kercher's DNA on the tip and, crucially, Knox's DNA on the handle.

Defense claims the knife doesn't match any of Kercher's knife wounds and the DNA count is so low it's inconclusive. It's says much of the DNA evidence has been tainted by sloppy work at the crime scene.

While the jury will decide the strength of the DNA evidence, the media has turned the case into something of a circus picking up on Amanda's nickname, Foxie Knoxie.

KNOX: The "Foxie Knoxie" was totally associated so soccer.

MELLAS: It was just kind of this obscure thing from when she was really young that she put out there that turned into this huge negative, twisted thing.

NEWTON: After an 11-month trial, a verdict is expected as soon as next week. Knox's parents say they hope their daughter will be home for Christmas.

KNOX: We have purchased Amanda ticket.

MELLAS: And she can come back. I'm sorry.

NEWTON: Paula Newton, CNN, Perugia, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: As always, Team Sanchez back there working hard on the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

What you got going, Rick?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hard indeed, Kyra Phillips.

PHILLIPS: What you got, Rick?

SANCHEZ: I'll tell you, there is in unbelievable story that's coming out of Philadelphia. I mean, obviously the biggest story coming out of Philadelphia today is the fact that Comcast is buying NBC Universal. But there's another story.

There's a guy named Joaquin Riviera (ph) and he goes to an emergency room where you go when you're having an emergency. He has chest pains. He's hoping that someone there will take care of him. More than an hour later, he's dead. Nobody's treated him, nobody's taken care of him.

People loved this guy. He worked with inner city kids, he was a wonderful man. And it gets worse. Turns out, while he was dead, he got mugged. They robbed him. All this is happening and we have got the videotape and it's amazing to watch, and maybe it says something about the times we live in.

PHILLIPS: Well this was our "What the..." story of the day yesterday. And as of yesterday they were still looking for one of these jerks.

SANCHEZ: They got one, apparently there's two others out there. Now we got the video.

PHILLIPS: It says a lot about our society and it's sad. Glad you're on the story, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well, with customers like this, who needs enemies? Check out the security video from a Wal-Mart near Pittsburgh. Look at the highlighted circle right there, be glad you can't see it up close. A greeter, 72 years old, decked. The bones on one side of his face broken. His false teeth broken and knocked out of his mouth. The alleged puncher on the lam for all of 15 seconds. A cop busted him right there.

Now why would anyone do such a thing? The suspect says, hey, the greeter bumped me. Uh-huh, right. Another theory, the greeter had dared to ask the cold cocker to show a receipt just a few days ago. Either way, the wannabe Mike Tyson is a jerk.

Shrimping used to be a huge industry along the Gulf Coast. Now it's losing out to competition. So what does slave labor got to do with it? A trip to your local grocery store might tell you.

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PHILLIPS: The shrimping industry used to put food on the table for families all along the Gulf Coast. Now American shrimpers are facing a foe that threatens to wipe them out -- foreign competition. U.S. shrimpers say they're foreign counterparts are using dirty tactics, even slave labor to get the job done.

Here's CNN's Sean Callebs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the kind of night just outside New Orleans that used to be a bonanza for shrimpers like Paul Willis.

PAUL WILLIS, SHRIMPER: This pass, on an evening like this, ten years ago, would have had 300 vessels right now ready to shrimp. You're going the see eight tonight, that's what's happened to this industry.

CALLEBS: Fuel cost and Mother Nature may be an never-ending battle, but Willis says his biggest foe is cheap shrimp pouring in from Asia. WILLIS: Whole on countries are using cheap labor, slave labor, call it whatever you want, we can't compete. We just cannot compete.

CALLEBS: In fact, Willis says, he's now forced to sell shrimp at the same price he did 15 years ago, and that's still not as cheap as the cut-rate Asian shrimp selling at $3 a pound. A price at which Willis says he wouldn't even break even.

(on camera): Consumers know when they're buying some seafood, like tuna, that it's dolphin-safe, but human rights critics complain, if you're buying something like shrimp, there's no label that it came "slave free."

LUIS CDEBACA, U.S. AMBASSADOR ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING: One of the oldest crimes in the world is alive and well in slavery.

CALLEBS: Luis CdeBaca, the U.S. Ambassador on human trafficking, says the shrimp industry in Asia is one of the worst offenders. A three-year investigation by the AFL-CIO Affiliated Solidarity Center and backed by the U.S. State Department found several leading U.S. retailers receive shrimp from plants in Thailand and Bangladesh where workers as young as eight are subject to sweatshop conditions.

CDEBACA: Men's bodies wash up routinely on the shores of Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, where they have just been tossed overboard. And usually, it's for asking for a fair wage, talking back to the boss, asking to be taken back to shore.

CALLEBS: However, not all critics agree with the report. The Aquaculture Certification Council, an American agency that runs global certification of food safety, says the report is exaggerated, and says since it came out, the industry has made a lot of improvements.

It's not only shrimp that may have links to a criminal past, but an inexpensive cotton shirt, coffee that's too inexpensive to be believed and the chocolate in cookies.

For Willis, the impact is all too real and he wants American consumers to ask the tough questions.

WILLIS: They've heard tales about, well, why can they sell this shirt for $5 when if it's made in the U.S.A. it would cost $16. How can that be done?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, so you mentioned, coffee, chocolate -- I'm looking, oh, there's chocolate in the muffin. Right? You don't think.

CALLEBS: Yes, you really don't think about how many times during the day you could actually come across items that could be tainted by slave labor, by human trafficking -- chocolate chips in this muffin, inexpensive coffee.

And we also did speak just a moment ago with the National Fishery Institute and they say they are putting signs on their shrimp that's it's certified shrimp, and there's also an organization, Not For Sale, trying to work with consumers and companies trying to do away with this.

PHILLIPS: Cause we want to know.

CALLEBS: Yes, we do.

PHILLIPS: Especially since you brought it to our attention.

Sean, thanks so much.

PHILLIPS: That does it for us. We'll be back here tomorrow, 1:00 Eastern time. Rick Sanchez picks it up from here.