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American Morning

Wall Street's Wild Ride; Lowering the Dome; U.S. Economy Adds Jobs in April, Yet Unemployment Rate Rises; Terrorist Citizenship Controversy; Refugees from Haiti Locked Up; Apple Acting Rotten; White Knuckles on Wall Street

Aired May 07, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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

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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Friday, May 7th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us.

Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes. It was a plunge and one not for the faint of heart. In one gut-wrenching hour the Dow drops nearly 1,000 points before it rebounded. How did it happen?

CHETRY: Also, voyage to the bottom of the sea. Fingers crossed as BP crews lowering a 100-ton containment dome, attempt to cover that blowout oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and then siphon out the oil. It's a high-stakes experiment. If it works, officials say, it could capture 85 percent of the gushing oil.

ROBERTS: And he has the right to remain silent, but the Times Square bomb suspect keeps on talking to investigators. Plus, just released surveillance video shows Faisal Shahzad buying fireworks that may have been part of the car bomb that failed detonate in the heart of New York City.

And the amFIX blog is up and running, as it is every morning. Join the live conversation going on right now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.

CHETRY: But, first, we start with what the heck happened yesterday on Wall Street. They're looking to break a three-day losing streak when it opens for business about an hour and a half from now. Futures are up right now even though the Dow took a nose-dive yesterday afternoon, plunging nearly 1,000 points in less than half an hour. The selloff, though, did ease before closing.

ROBERTS: Nonetheless, though, fear returned to Wall Street. And it all started because of the debt crisis in Greece. And this morning's job report may or may not help the situation.

Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business."

Jobs report just a little less than half an hour from now. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It should show that there was some jobs growth. Again, three out of four months of jobs growth in this country, you would think that everyone would be looking at that. But they're not. They're looking at the stock market and what happened yesterday.

And yesterday, we were looking at these pictures out of the Greece. I'm going to show you these pictures from yesterday that caused this market to start to unwind. You had rioting in the streets as Greek citizens were very concerned about austerity measures that they're going to have to live under as this country tries to get its debt crisis under control.

At the same time, you have concerns. Angela Merkel from Germany said the future of Europe is at stake for how Greece's debt problems work out.

As these pictures were playing around the world, the stock market started to decline. It was down some 500 points as traders and investors were worried about Greece and what happens to the U.S. and other European countries, quite frankly. And then, boom, off a cliff. You saw the stock market, the Dow down almost 1,000 points.

We have never seen that happen -- in six or seven minutes, you had a once-in-a-lifetime history of the stock market decline. What they're saying is there was some sort of, as the stock market official of the New York Stock Exchange show me, an aberration. Others are saying there clearly was some kind of a trade mistake or glitch that happened. But no one knows yet exactly what happened.

You had some stocks. One stock in particular that was trading for 4 cents, but at the start of the day, was trading for $41. That's obviously completely irrational. You had Procter & Gamble down 37 percent and it was trading at different prices on different regional exchanges. Obviously, something was wrong there.

So, you had a mix of things happening started by Greece, started by unease about debt crises elsewhere in the world, started by more signs that European banks were having trouble, it's getting more and more cautious about lending to each other, when banks were cautiously lending to each other, that starts to really feed the crisis. And then you have this trader error, this glitch, this mistake, computerized trading. No one knows yet, you hear a lot of rumors, but no one knows yet and then that's what happened.

ROBERTS: So, if it was an error and you are the person who committed the error and there are several theories about what might have happened, what do you say -- oops?

ROMANS: There are about 100 different theories about what happened. Quite frankly, no one knows yet. And they're investigating at the SEC, the CFTC. We do know that some of the exchanges are canceling trades that happened.

CHETRY: Right. ROMANS: NASDAQ says they didn't have any errors on their platform. But they will be canceling trades that happened from, I think, 2:40 to 3:40 or whatever.

CHETRY: So, if you thought you're going to make a big buck today of the wild ride --

ROMANS: Yes.

ROBERTS: Yes, if you bought Accenture with a penny (INAUDIBLE).

ROMANS: Yes. Do not run out and buy a Lexus today if you think that you got some miraculous great trade because they're going to be going through this and some of these are going to be canceled. I predict millions of trades are going to be cancelled.

ROBERTS: Well, if it was a mistake and it was one person who precipitated this, I wouldn't want to be that person.

ROMANS: You know, I won't -- I don't want to overplay the mistake, too, because remember, the Dow was down 500 points before this happened. And it closed down 350. That's still the worst day in more than a year. We got a lot of problems to work through here. So, a mistake made it worse, but a mistake didn't cause it.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning -- thanks.

CHETRY: I guess, if you were to ever make that mistake, yesterday was a good day.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: So, you got some cover.

ROBERTS: You got to go hidden.

CHETRY: Right.

Well, crews lowering a four-story concrete and steel containment dome over a leaking well in the Gulf early this morning. What they are trying to do is drop it over that rupture that's been spewing thousands of gallons of crude into the sea every day.

Officials from BP are hoping this dome can work as it's designed to do. And, again, this is a long shot as they've said. But it would capture and funnel the leaking oil to a waiting tanker above.

David Mattingly has been monitoring this mission from Venice, Louisiana this morning.

And it's still a long way to go before we know whether or not it's successful. But how is it going so far, David?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, so good, Kiran. But this is the hard part. It's got to go a mile down to the ocean floor -- this one of a kind device for this one of a kind disaster for this one of a kind task. They are learning as they go.

They are going to have to lower this down to precisely the spot where the largest remaining leak is on the ocean floor. They will cover that. And then, they will have to siphon that oil up to a containment vessel a mile up on the top of the water.

At that point, they will know that they are being successful. And they hope -- they hope they'll be able to collect 80 percent to 85 percent of the oil that's currently spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Remember, it's been over two weeks now that we've been seeing 5,000 barrels of oil a day going into the Gulf after that oil platform caught fire and collapsed into the water.

CHETRY: Right. Well, we should know. As you said, they should have an idea perhaps by Monday whether or not it's working?

MATTINGLY: That's the plan. They're looking at possibly two days to get it down to the bottom. And then, they are going to attach everything that they need to to that device. And, possibly, early next week, in just a couple of days, we should know if this process that they've planned out is truly going to work.

CHETRY: All right. Fingers crossed. Dave Mattingly for us this morning in the Gulf -- thank you.

ROBERTS: Well, while crews in the Gulf work against the clock to try to contain the spill with a concrete and steel dome, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is taking action, announcing all new offshore drilling permits in America are now on hold, at least through the end of May. And the moratorium will not be lifted until a federal investigation into the cause of this Gulf spill is complete.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, the Times Square bomb suspect may have had some help. Law enforcement officials are now searching for a courier, they say, helped Faisal Shahzad pay for bomb-making materials. Meantime, we're also getting a first look at surveillance video that shows Shahzad shopping for fireworks at a store in Pennsylvania two months ago.

ROBERTS: A lettuce recall affecting close to half of the country this morning. Freshway Foods out of Ohio says it's recalling romaine lettuce sold in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The move comes after an E. coli outbreak linked tainted lettuce that has sickened at least 19 people in Ohio, New York, and Michigan, including students on at least two college campuses.

CHETRY: Iceland's volcano roaring back to life, shooting a plume of ash 4 1/2 miles high. Meteorologists say that there are no signs that the eruption is ending any time soon. And it's forced airports in western Ireland to shut down again. This is the third time they've had to do that this week.

ROBERTS: Reynolds Wolf is tracking the weather forecast across the country. He's here with us now.

Reynolds, I forgot the name of the volcano. What is it again? REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Nice try. There's no way. We're not going to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Come on, Reynolds.

WOLF: It's too early, guys. I haven't had any coffee yet. Let's just call it the big one, the big volcano. Goodness gracious, guys. It's too way too early for this stuff.

Let's show you what's happening out there. We may be seeing some strong clouds today, not ash clouds but possibly some that could bear some thunderstorms, possibly even some hail-producing storms later on today.

Let's go right to the weather maps and show you what's happening. We're going to go to the radar. And you can see a wave of some showers and storms across parts of I-35 into Iowa.

But look to the north, look at Fargo and look at points to the west. We're seeing some snow come down. But the snow is going to last through mid-afternoon.

The rain and, of course, the storms may last in the Midwest for quite some time -- especially in places like Chicago and then back over to Indianapolis. The reason why is that area of low pressure you see just to the western half of the Great Lakes.

By late afternoon, guys, you could see some strong thunderstorms, maybe some hail producers and you can't rule out the possibly of an isolated tornado. We're going to stay on top of that situation for you to a good part of the day, the evening as well, as long as it takes.

But for now, we will send it back to you guys with volcano pronunciations. Back to you.

ROBERTS: Eyjafjallajokull.

WOLF: Perfect.

CHETRY: See that?

WOLF: It sounds good. It sounds wonderful.

ROBERTS: I got that from the Icelandic embassy.

WOLF: There you go. So, it's good.

ROBERTS: You know, you have to wrap your brain around it so hard that it actually creates a new neural connection.

CHETRY: Right. And you'll never forget it the rest of your life.

ROBERTS: Yes.

WOLF: Whatever it takes. Guys, goodness gracious.

CHETRY: Thanks, Reynolds.

ROBERTS: It will be the last thing I say like Orson Welles in "Rosebud." Eyjafjallajokull.

CHETRY: I hope you have something better to say than that. Hopefully, by then, you stop --

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: OK. How about Rosebud?

Focus of concern, the gulf oil slick hitting the wildlife. We'll check in with somebody from the National Wildlife Federation, coming right up, about just how bad it could potentially get.

Ten minutes after the hour.

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ROBERTS: Thirteen minutes now after the hour.

The Coast Guard is confirming what everyone has been fearing, that crude oil has begun staining the sensitive shoreline of the Gulf Coast.

Here's what the slick looks like from above. The ruptured well has dumped an estimated 4 million gallons of oil into the ocean so far.

And take a look at this -- we put a camera under the water in a slick off the coast of Mississippi off the Chandeleur Islands. And this is what we saw. All of that drifting debris is broken off particles of oil.

Meanwhile, crews are using controlled burns to get rid of some of the floating oil before it washes ashore, when the weather cooperates at least with those burns.

Larry Schweiger is the president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. He's in Venice, Louisiana, this morning and joins us.

Larry, thanks for being us. You've been down in that area for a while. You've been surveying some of the damage. What are you seeing so far?

LARRY SCHWEIGER, PRESIDENT & CEO, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: Well, John, I think what we're seeing is a grand experiment in one of America's most important waters. This is an area where our food comes from, where our seafood is produced. The boats in the distance that you hear are boats heading out to cleanup, rather than boats went out to fish.

It's a very heartbreaking thing. Last evening, I spent time with some of the fishermen here. And they are very, very worried because their future is at risk and they have reason to be. They suffered through Hurricane Katrina. And now, they are suffering through a pollution disaster that will last not just days, not just hours, but for months and months on end. And they know it.

ROBERTS: You know, when it comes to disaster, many people remember what it happened in Prince William Sound with the Exxon Valdez in 1989 and those pictures of sea otters just coated in crude oil, so many oiled birds.

We know that some oil has reached the Chandeleur and Breton islands. A big national wildlife refuge is there. We've seen some turtles in distress, dead jellyfish, a couple of oiled birds.

Is there any sign at this point, Larry, of this environmental, wildlife catastrophe that we've been expecting?

SCHWEIGER: Well, you know, most of the problem that we have here is actually like sweeping it under the rug. The dispersant has -- the dispersants have been used -- have been put under the water itself are doing -- the oil itself is now floating as your image has showed. The oil that's under the water is doing damage where we can't really see it. Some of it is coming ashore, but a lot of it is under the sea here, under the Gulf of Mexico.

This big mass of oil and dispersants is now moving around in different directions. We are not certain where it is headed. It may be headed into the Loop Channel and onto the gulfstream. We don't know. But clearly, there is an enormous amount of pollution under the water. And that pollution has enormous impact on the fish, on the reproducing fish, on the shellfish, on the crabs and oysters and all the things that people care about in this region.

ROBERTS: Obviously, we know about the toxicity of the oil. Another issue that has been raised is what about the toxicity of these dispersants. Could the dispersants themselves be responsible for some damage to fish and other wildlife? SCHWEIGER: Well, we know that dispersants can actually enhance the toxicity of oil. And one of the things that I want to point out is, if BP wants you to believe that they are beyond petroleum. But what they are really beyond is prudence. They have done a number of very, very troubling things here.

They worked to avoid the environmental rules of this country. They worked in Washington to not do an environmental impact assessment, not to have a plan, not to have a strategy, not to deal with these kinds of problems in advance. So, we are now doing all this on the fly. They are actually building devices to try to capture the oil because they haven't built those devices in the past. They are not in place.

And so, we are flying by the seat of our pants. We hope they can get this oil shut off today. But, frankly, it is time for congress to step up and to address this energy problem we have. It is not just about making platforms safer. It is about moving to a safe energy platform for America.

ROBERTS: You talked about what's going on below the surface, Larry. Let's get back up to the surface because, you know, the most visible part of these oil spills is when the oil comes ashore if and such a sensitive environmental and ecological area there with the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, the Bretton (ph) National Wildlife Refuge. We have seen some booms spread across in front of the Chandeleur Islands. Our Brooke Baldwin was out there yesterday. They seem to be doing a pretty good job of keeping that orange sludge offshore.

Do you know if those booms will be able to spare us the disaster that so many people had been anticipating?

SCHWEIGER: Well, let's start with the fact that we have booms in certain places where we have high sensitive ecosystems like these areas that you are describing. But there are many areas that are unprotected by booms, and, in fact, some of the booms that I have seen placed were not placed in the right locations.

All this should have been preplanned. We can only hope, as this oil starts finding its way to shore, that we will somehow or another find booms and get them out in place, in time to save the sensitive wetlands of this country. These wetlands system has been degraded largely by oil development and other practices. And it needs to be protected now against a large oil mass.

ROBERTS: All right. Larry Schweiger of the National Wildlife Federation, good to talk to you this morning. Good luck with the work that you are doing there trying to save the wildlife.

SCHWEIGER: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Appreciate it -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Hats off to all of them working so hard to try to make a difference in this disaster. Eighteen minutes past the hour right now. When we come back, caught on tape, a New York movie shoot turns very real when the police don't realize it's a movie set and the actors don't believe and realize that the cops are real.

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CHETRY: Which desk would you rather be at this morning?

ROBERTS: When you get off at one o' clock in the morning, happy hour starts early, earlier.

CHETRY: Welcome back, by the way, to the Most News in the Morning.

Just an hour ago. Cheers, guys. "Consumers Reports" lifted its don't buy warning for the Lexus GX 460. If we remember, Toyota recalled this luxury SUV last month after the magazine reported the vehicle failed an emergency handling test. It was prone to rollovers, especially when making turns at high speeds. "Consumers Reports" says that the GX-460 now passes the handling test with its updated software fix.

ROBERTS: That is good news for owners. We had cash for clunkers. Now, cash for caulkers is heading to the Senate. The house has approved a plan to reward homeowners for making their houses more energy efficient. If it passes, you may be in line for thousands of dollars in rebates for sealing your windows and your doors.

CHETRY: Also, country sensation Taylor Swift donating half a million dollars to the victims of Nashville's flood. She and other musicians who live and work in the country music capital were part of a telethon last night. Others are also jumping in to help stars like Brad Paisley (ph), Lady Annabelum (ph) will be performing at next Sunday's telethon on the country music cable network.

ROBERTS: Prince Harry calls training in the Apache attack helicopter, one of the biggest challenges of his life. The 25-year old was selected for a special course with the attack chopper. He hopes that it will put him back in the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. The British used the Apache to track the Taliban as well as hunt and destroy tanks.

CHETRY: An independent filmmaker should be very proud of his work this morning if he is not in trouble. His holdup scene at a local convenience store in Long Island looked so real that the cops actually came and broke it up. They mistook it for a real robbery after someone called 911 and yelled at an actor to drop the gun. The store owner, who was playing himself in the film, said that at first, he thought the cops were actually just part of the movie.

ROBERTS: They are very lucky that the police didn't come in there with guns blazing.

CHETRY: It could have gone very wrong. So, they did get lucky.

ROBERTS: Twenty-three minutes now after the hour. A brighter economic picture on the horizon. We have the jobs report coming up in just a few minutes. Of course, we will have full coverage on that for you, on the Most News in the Morning.

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ROBERTS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. Your top stories just minutes away now. But first, rescued from Haiti and airlifted to limbo. Right now, there are hundreds of Haitians living in the United States with nowhere to go here and nowhere left to call home.

CHETRY: They were saved during the height of confusion from the ruins of Port-Au-Prince. Soledad O'Brien is here with their story. What happens now?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it is interesting. It has been, can you believe, four months nearly since that devastating earthquake in Haiti. For millions of Haitians, life is still very, very difficult. Thousands were actually airlifted out of Haiti into the United States. There were several dozen, a couple dozen, who instead of going to some kind of rescue actually ended up locked up. Here is their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE DELVA, HAITIAN REFUGEE: I got my I.D.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): They are refugees from Haiti's devastating earthquake. They were among the thousands of Haitians airlifted to the United States, by American troops amidst the chaos, rescued from a country rattled by aftershocks and grief.

DELVA: After, my house was burned down. Everyone was hungry. We need some help, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in a taxi and the car crash into the wall.

O'BRIEN: When they landed in the United States, at least 30 fleeing Haitians didn't get the refuge they had hoped for. Instead, they were detained by U.S. immigration agents for entering the country illegally. James Dornveel (ph) says American doctors handed him over to uniformed American servicemen on a plane in Port-Au-Prince.

JAMES DORNVEEL, HAITIAN REFUGEE: I was on the floor. I couldn't stand. When I got out, they got me a chair.

O'BRIEN: He said he was told his back and neck injuries would be treated at a U.S. hospital but once they landed, the Haitians ended up at the Chrome Immigration Detention Center outside Miami.

DORNVEEL: I feel like crazy. It is hard. I never imagined that one day in my life with handcuffs, chains. Makes no sense.

O'BRIEN: They would stay for more than two months until a group of lawyers encountered them on a routine visit to the center and offered to represent them.

O'BRIEN (on camera): What do you think are the effects of detention and jail, frankly, on some of these clients?

CHERYL LITTLE, FLORIDA IMMIGRANT ADVOCACY CENTER: They can't sleep because they are having nightmares, because of what they experienced during the earthquake.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Immigration officials say they faced a chaotic situation trying to help thousands of evacuees and have been able to free all the criminals into the community. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, those Haitians who may have mistakenly been allowed to board U.S. bound aircraft without proper travel documents in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake were treated by ICE in accordance with the law.

Mackin Senlubris (ph) said he never intended to break the law by entering the country without a visa. O'BRIEN (on camera): Did they ask you for your papers, for your passport, for your documents?

MACKIN SENLUBRIS: Not at all.

O'BRIEN: Never once?

SENLUBRIS: No, never once.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Mike Delva and the others were eventually released to live with relatives in the United States. James still feels pain when he walks and he says he hasn't recovered from the depression that swept over him while he was in detention.

DORNVEEL (ph): Sometimes I feel like I want to kill myself. Because it's too hard. I never imagined that one day to see me in prison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Imagine the contradiction as Americans are dialing in and sending money to the country of Haiti to those very people who are then brought in and sent to detention.

These men and 27 others now face orders of deportation. The U.S. has stopped deported Haitians right now, but there is no word on when they might pick up again on deportations.

CHETRY: As you were saying, they would rather go back to Haiti.

O'BRIEN: In some cases they said send me back to Haiti. One of those gentlemen was injured. A doctor put him on the plane and sent him out of country to get medical care. He gets to this country and he is held in detention.

ROBERTS: At the time of transport, though did they know they had to have appropriate travel documents. Did anybody ask them for the travel documents?

O'BRIEN: In some cases, they were not asked for any travel documents. In some cases, when you are in pain and the doctor has bandaged you up and put you on a plane, you are not thinking about travel documents.

But there clearly was a big, massive gap in the way it was supposed to work. And now they have all been removed and released from detention. But they could be deported at any time.

And they are in this limbo because you now have to apply for work papers. They don't have any work papers, so they are sort of living with relatives and family members but can't quite work yet, but haven't been sent back home.

CHETRY: It's a tough situation. It's wonderful they are getting some help and legal representation to navigate this. O'BRIEN: It is hard to talk people into talking about this. They were so ashamed of having been in jail. They were embarrassed about being handcuffed. That was one of the hardest things to get them to talk about.

ROBERTS: Great story. Soledad, good to see you this morning.

This Saturday, 8:00 p.m., Soledad introduces us to Haiti's orphans, some of whom you saw in pictures. "Rescued" at Saturday, 8:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN.

CHETRY: Right now we're coming up on 32 minutes past the hour, and a look at our top stories this morning.

There is still no clear-cut winner in the U.K. national elections. A final tally vote suggested that David Cameron's conservatives had a majority, but it is not enough of a majority to govern. We are expecting comments from Gordon Brown, the sitting prime minister, leader of the Labour party. He wants to stay in office and former coalition with other parliamentary groups. We'll bring you the very latest

ROBERTS: A high stakes experiment a mile beneath the sea is underway this morning. Crews have begun lowering a four-story containment cylinder hoping they can cover a blown out well and capture the gushing oil spewing into the Gulf.

Officials from British Petroleum say we should know by Monday whether the device will work.

CHETRY: And coming on the heels of yesterday's near 1,000-point plunge, Dow futures are right now trading in positive territories. An obvious concern for traders right now, fears the financial crisis in Greece will spread and possibly undermine the world's economic recovery.

Just in to CNN, we have been anticipating it all morning. The government releasing its April jobs numbers. Our Christine Romans just off the phone with her sources.

ROMANS: We have an unemployment rate in the country in April of 9.9 percent. That's up from 9.7 percent.

ROBERTS: It was supposed to go down.

ROMANS: It was supposed to go down. But here's the other side of that story. We created 290,000 jobs, and there were some revisions, so we have more job creation over the past four or five months than we thought. Since December this economy has created 573,000 jobs.

Why then is the unemployment rate rising? It is rising because people coming back into the workforce. They see the grip of jobs losses has lessened and people who have been marginalized and pushed out of the workforce are now trying to get back in and so they are competing for these same jobs. You have 9.9 percent unemployment and 290,000 jobs created. The Census created 66,000 jobs. Overall, the government jobs, about 59,000, so you still have private sector companies creating the bulk of these jobs. That's something that economists want to see. They want to see companies hiring people again.

March was revised. We now had 230,000 jobs created in March, much better than what we thought. February as well now has a job increase of 39,000, so some of the revisions show a little more job activity than we thought.

But, the same story, discouraged workers, people who are long- term unemployed, out of work for 26 weeks or longer, these are record numbers still.

So you have heard us say this many, many times. You are starting to see job creation on the one hand. On the other hand it's still a very dire situation for people who have been out of work for a very long time. The economy is starting to work for some people and not working at all for others. And that trend still persists.

ROBERTS: It is good to know people are getting jobs again.

CHETRY: Yes. And just remind us again. You said eight million jobs lost since the recession?

ROMANS: It's been 8.4 million jobs lost over recession. So when you are adding 290,000 jobs, that's much better than people have been telling me. They were looking for 150,000-180,000 jobs. So more jobs created than we thought. But remember, we have literally years to go.

ROBERTS: At this rate, how many years would it take, five, six years to go?

ROMANS: It would be at least four, five years. Peter Morici makes a point if you added 150,000, 180,000 jobs every month, it would take 13.5 million jobs to get back to six percent unemployment versus 290,000 jobs. We have work to do, but the dial is moving in the right direction.

ROBERTS: Thanks for the update.

ROMANS: Sure.

CHETRY: So what is hot on the blog? There is some time to enjoy the conversation. We would love to hear from you -- CNN.com/amFIX. We will take a look in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: A lot of comments coming into our live blog this morning about a number of different topics. This is one about the oil spill. This is interesting, because it is a great idea. Miguel writes "Back when the Alaska oil spill happened, I think they used hair to remove the water. The hair was put in sacks. If everybody in the United States donated hair, it would create jobs for many people to collect that hair and make pillow sacks to sop up the oil."

Miguel, you should know a lot of hair salons have been doing exactly that. Very soon there will be 450,000 pounds of hair going to a center where it will be stuffed in sacks and put out there to absorb the oil. Apparently, it is very, very good at stopping up oil.

CHETRY: Good idea, Miguel.

A lot of people also weighing in on some of the legislation, it is being talked about whether somebody who is accused of being "citizen terrorist" if they'll lose their citizenship.

William Gwen writes, "How can Senator Lieberman or anyone suggest legislation to revoke citizenship for U.S. citizens accused of a terrorist act when we currently incarcerate mass murderers, serial killers, child molesters, and any number of other social misfits in out jails and prisons who choose to violate the laws of our society but give them full citizenship rights."

There are many saying you can't rewrite the rules as you go along regardless of what somebody does.

And then others like Eli write "Citizenship granted on the basis on false information should be deemed inherently invalid, ditto for a green card. Someone who comes in this country with malevolent intentions lies when he takes a citizenship vow. If the vow is false, so is the citizenship."

ROBERTS: Currently, there are laws on the books that if you join a foreign military fighting against the United States, you can have your citizenship revoked. They are trying to put acts of terrorism under the same umbrella so say an act of terrorism against the United States from a stateless operator much in the same way an attack from a foreign army would be. That's why Senator Lieberman wants them treated in the same fashion.

What do you think about all this? You can join the conversation right now at CNN.com/amFIX.

ROBERTS: Some dangerous weather about, and Reynolds Wolf tracking it all for us. He'll be up right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Good morning, New York City where it is going to be beautiful. Sunny and pleasant right now, 54 degrees. Later on today, mostly sunny with a high of 72. It doesn't get much better than that.

CHETRY: No, it really doesn't. Let's hope it turns out to be a great weekend, at least around here. And our Reynolds Wolf is checking things out fort rest of the country as well for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Well, still ahead, Ellen and Jon Stewart versus Apple. Backlash. Is Apple losing its cool? We'll take a look.

Forty-six minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Its 50 minutes past the hour right now. Our CNN heroes, they're everyday people changing the world. And this week we want to introduce you to a young man who is harnessing the power of the sun to lift people out of poverty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVANS WADONGO, YOUNG WONDER: I have problems with my eyesight due to prolonged exposure to smoke. I had to use fire wood to study during my childhood.

I grew up in a small village in the western part of Kenya. These families are so poor, they don't have electricity. It is only fire wood that they use for cooking. It's very, very frustrating. I couldn't compete effectively with other kids who have access to lighting. A lot of other kids just drop out of school so they remain poor for the rest of their life.

My name is Evans Wadongo. I thought I must find a way to light up rural homes. I was so overwhelmed. I knew the impact that the lantern will have in the rural communities.

The amount of money that every household uses to buy kerosene every day, if they can just save that money, they can use it to buy food. All along, I've been skipping at least two meals so that I can construct the lamps. But I want to do more. It gives me satisfaction knowing that I'm lifting people out of poverty. I just feel like it's right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: To nominate someone who is changing the world, go to CNN.com/AmFIX.

ROBERTS: Is it just sour apples or is Apple really losing its cool. It was the hip, young upstart. The rebel, well --

CHETRY: Yes, fighting against the man. Fighting against --

ROBERTS: But when your stock is above $200, it's difficult to be rebellious isn't it? You become establishment.

We'll tell you what that's all is about, eight minutes to the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Well, you know a little hair of the dog. That's what you need. Time now for "The Moost News in the Morning" and Apple has not been taking any guff lately.

CHETRY: Yes. The company's temper has been about as short as a certain iPhone's battery life. I was plugging it in because I used it, so now I have to recharge it.

ROBERTS: I made one phone call and now the battery is dead.

CHETRY: Here is Jeanne.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Ellen DeGeneres poked fun at the iPhone by poking her fingers at a finicky touch screen in a spoof commercial, it was like poking apple in the eye.

ELLEN DEGENERES, TALK SHOW HOST: You know who didn't think it was funny?

MOOS: Ellen pretended to struggle to send a message to her partner.

DEGENERES: Oh, my fingers are so much thicker than I remember.

Everybody at Apple, Steve Jobs, Mr. McIntosh, I apologize.

MOOS: Apple wouldn't comment to CNN on the brouhaha.

The question is, is Apple acting rotten? Jon Stewart seems to think so.

JON STEWART, TALK SHOW HOST: Apple, you guys were the rebels, man, the underdogs. People believed in you. Now, are you becoming the man?

MOOS: The man, because police raided a tech bloggers home after he paid $5,000 for the next model iPhone that someone who found left behind at a bar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The officers bashed into his front door while he was at dinner.

MOOS: Jon Stewart called them Appholes, even though he says he loves their products. Folks love dirty parody, using the lower case I for instant iCoffin.

When a vibrator called the iGasm was introduced a few years back, it had Apple moaning with a cease and desist letter.

Comedians can get away with making fun of iProducts.

DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: It's the iPhone nano. I understand it's a breath mint.

MOOS: And bloggers enjoyed torturing products like the iPad.

One gave it a cigarette and a blindfold then shot it. It has been water boarded, turned into a skateboard and even worse, shoved into a blender.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I will press the iBlend button.

MOOS: iPad puree. Peewee Herman used it as a tray. Letterman licked it. Yet even those who tease it profess to love it.

DEGENERES: I love my iPad. I love my iPod. I love iHop. If you have anything to do with it.

MOOS: At least Apple hasn't gone after iHop. Confusing iHop with iPad would be like comparing apples to oranges.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: There you go.

CHETRY: You can go to iHop and eat your stuffed cheesecake sandwich and click around on your iPad.

ROBERTS: Or what about iPad sandwich between two blueberry waffles.

CHETRY: Sounds delicious as well.

ROBERTS: There you go.

CHETRY: The funny thing is as we're doing this, this little wire crosses saying that Apple announced it will mass market iPad Touch- Screen portable computer. It will go on sale outside the U.S. in nine major countries, May 28th.

ROBERTS: Great. So now the entire world can rebel against Apple.

CHETRY: There you go.

ROBERTS: They were so cool, they were the upstart company. You know, remember the PC versus Mac commercials that were so good. Now, making oodles and oodles of money, you are going to get some shots taken at you.

CHETRY: Oh, yes. Well, you still can't put the iPhone down. Come on, let's be real.

ROBERTS: Well, yes. You also can't use it for very long because the battery goes down. Try to fix that, will you?

Continue the conversation on today's stories; go to our blog at CNN.com/amFIX. That's going to wrap it up for us.

Have yourself a great weekend. We'll see you back here again bright and early on Monday morning.

CHETRY: Meantime, the news continues. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.