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American Morning
Petraeus Reports for Duty; Clinton Vs. Obama; When Elephants Attack; Up In Smoke; Luring LeBron; Helping High School Kids in Chicago Feel Safe on Way to School; Unemployment Rate for June at 9.5 Percent; Serving A Message: Famous Chef to Promote and Serve Gulf Fish
Aired July 02, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Friday, it's July 2nd. We're coming up on the big holiday weekend, July Fourth.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And we are here to grease the skids as you head into your holiday weekend.
Lots to talk about this morning -- let's get right to it.
Taking charge: President Obama's top man in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, right now, is on his way to the war zone. In just a moment, we're going to take you live from the Pentagon to illuminate the challenges facing Petraeus.
CHETRY: There's been some reports of tensions between the Obama administration and Bill Clinton after the former president sort of went off-script, I guess, you can say with his endorsement in a Colorado Senate race. Candy Crowley joins us with details and other political hot topics -- just ahead.
ROBERTS: And a top chef makes an executive decision. He is pledging to serve Gulf seafood in his restaurants despite the unappetizing pictures of the oil spill. Find out why Tom Collichio is taking a stance and if he is worried about contamination.
CHETRY: Also, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation by heading to CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: But, first, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan is preparing to take charge on the ground. In just a few hours, General David Petraeus will arrive in the war zone.
CHETRY: His orders: churn the tide after the deadliest month in the nine-year war.
Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon this morning.
And, of course, he's heading into a myriad of challenges with Afghanistan. What is the prevailing wisdom of what he might do as he begins this mission? BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran and John, you know, it's hard to know where General Petraeus will turn first. There are so many things now on his plate. Coming up, first, perhaps is getting that offensive into Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban's stronghold, getting that moving.
But everywhere he looks now, violence on the rise. In eastern Afghanistan, for example, the top commander there has just put restrictions on the use of those Humvee armored vehicles because of the growth in the large number of roadside bomb attacks, IEDs. Humvees, something we had seen in the war zone for years, now restricted because of the rise in violence.
How bad is the violence that General Petraeus is flying into? Well, as you have said, June was the deadliest month of the war for the coalition. More than 100 coalition troops lost their lives last month, 58 of them U.S.
And when you look at the numbers compared to the same month last year, you see the rise in the violence. More troops, of course, on the ground. But the rise is more than double perhaps, 38 coalition forces killed in the month of June last year, 25 were U.S. IEDs, roadside bomb attacks, let's just say it flat-out. There were more than 1,100 IED attacks in May of 2010, more than double what there was the same month one year ago. That's the challenge straight up.
ROBERTS: Barbara, in terms of the overall strategy, how many changes can General Petraeus actually make?
STARR: Well, you know, that's really what people are focusing on. He's going in there supposedly to turn the war around in the wake of General McChrystal's resignation, trying to keep the war moving. But what can he really do that McChrystal wasn't already doing? Not much.
Senior Pentagon officials say that they absolutely believe President Obama, the strategy, the big picture strategy, will be the same. At best, what General Petraeus may be able to do, they say, is change some of the tactics on the ground, how the troops carry out their jobs.
We know there's a lot of concern and they want more leeway in air strike capabilities, in conducting raids, in going on missions, because of this issue of civilian casualties. But even General Petraeus says he may not make big changes on that. So, we will have to see -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning -- Barbara, thanks.
President Obama renewing his push for immigration reform in a speech yesterday. He says the system is broken and needs to be fixed, and that Democrats cannot do it alone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without Republican votes. That is the political and mathematical reality. I believe that we can put politics aside and finally have an immigration system that's accountable. I believe that we can appeal not to people's fears, but to their hopes, to their highest ideals, because that's who we are as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The president says the country is ready for reform. But can he win that political fight this year with midterm elections ahead?
Joining us now from Washington, Candy Crowley, host of CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
Thanks for being with us this morning, Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure.
CHETRY: And as John pointed out when he was speaking -- when he was doing an interview on this in the last hour, lot of people saying they are worried more about getting re-elected in the walls of Congress than they are about being statesmen and looking forward to the next generation.
I mean, how likely is it in an election year to get something as politically charged as immigration reform passed?
CROWLEY: Well, not likely. But I think it's not just that it's an election year -- just to go back to what the president said. I have talked to Democrats, particularly on the House side, who don't want this subject to come up. They are in districts where it is a very hot issue. They would prefer not to go to it on -- you know, particularly in an election year.
So, it is not just Republicans he needs to get onboard. It is Democrats he needs to get onboard. And he -- this sort of idea of comprehensive legislation, look how long it took to get health care.
Overwhelmingly, people across the country wanted health care reform. But it took more than a year to get it. Why? Because once you start looking at the parts, they all become moving parts. It's the same thing with immigration. And there are some very tough ones, some very tough choices, in there.
So, yes, it's an election year. Yes, people don't want to get into that. Lawmakers don't want to get into that, particularly because the Hispanic vote is becoming more and more powerful. But the idea here is -- and it should be noted -- that many of the things the president said, in fact, all of the things the president said, he brought up during the election.
Why bring it up now? First of all, because his Hispanic constituency has been upset that he hasn't made a major push before. And second of all, because it is an election year. But to blame it all on Republicans standing in the way, I think goes a little far.
ROBERTS: Candy, there was a very interesting column yesterday in "The Daily Beast" written by Mark McKinnon, who was President Bush's media strategist, that Bill Clinton has got more mojo than President Obama does and this -- this is I guess what a lot of people were worried about that, you know, OK, so we make Hillary Clinton secretary of state and then Bill Clinton starts making all of this noise. You know, he's backing a different candidate than the White House is backing in the Colorado Senate race. He's more popular than the president is right now.
Is Bill Clinton turning into a little bit of an issue for the White House?
CROWLEY: Listen, I think if Bill Clinton can get some Democrats elected in November, they'll probably be really happy about it at the White House. I don't think it's surprising that a former president is more popular than a sitting president who is taking on a lot of different issues. And we know that President Obama's coattails have been nonexistent in the elections we've seen so far -- in New jersey, in Virginia, in Massachusetts, the president -- that President Obama's backed candidates all loss.
So, we know that his coattails are short. We know that he's going through a rough patch in terms of his overall approval rating now about half the country. We also know that Bill Clinton, who is out doing a lot of popular uncontroversial things, is quite popular.
It's a Democratic primary race. I think that all is forgiven when it comes to the general election. And, again, I think if Bill Clinton can be out there and be a good rouser of Democrats to go out and get into those voting booths, the White House is going to thank him.
The president -- and this is always true of presidents in midterms -- the president's main asset as far as Democrats are concerned is that he can raise a heck of a lot of money. And that's where I think you will see him spending most of his time.
ROBERTS: Some of the pictures that we were showing there, Candy, were very ironic. You see President Obama and there's President Clinton just over his shoulder there.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Well, you know --
CROWLEY: It's an interesting dynamic, no doubt about it.
CHETRY: I'm sure though -- you are right. Is there any way that the president can use that to his advantage instead of it be, you know, a rivalry? Whether that's ginned up or not. I mean, look, the former president was clutch in getting -- in helping Blanche Lincoln, senator out of Arkansas, squeak by.
CROWLEY: Exactly. And that was President Obama's candidate. And there was some talk that President Obama did not go into Arkansas in the last moments simply because they looked at Blanche Lincoln and thought, uh-oh, she is going down. And yet, \president -- former President Bill Clinton was down there, cutting commercials for her, doing rallies for her. And he pulled her through.
Now, there are some questions as to whether it was that close of a race to begin with. Some questions about the polling. But, nonetheless, President Clinton doesn't have a lot to prove at this point.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CROWLEY: He can go into these places where he may lose and no one is going to say, oh, boy, has he lost his mojo. They're going to say, well, he tried. It's not the same not for President Obama.
ROBERTS: Yes. He's only got mojo gain, which is a good position to be in.
What do you got coming up on Sunday?
CROWLEY: Well, we're going to talk a little Afghanistan with the new general over. I took three of the four congressmen that have spent time in the military, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, to talk to them about both countries. They all served in Iraq.
And as you know, we're planning on taking out all of the combat troops from Iraq by the end of next month. So, I wanted to talk about was it worth it? Do you think it's really stable enough? And also, to look at Afghanistan and do some comparisons.
Also, having the Afghan -- Afghanistan envoy from there to the U.S., the ambassador, to talk to him a little bit about Hamid Karzai and some of the U.S. fears about whether Afghanistan is ready to step up for itself.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it, Candy. We'll see you then. Thanks so much. Good to sue this morning.
And you be sure to catch Candy Crowley on "STATE OF THE UNION" on Sunday morning, 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
CHETRY: July Fourth edition.
And flash flood warnings are in effect right now. The remnants of Alex are moving through Kansas.
Bonnie Schneider is in our hurricane headquarters this morning.
Hey, Bonnie.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran and John.
We're still seeing a lot of rain swooping through Houston and San Antonio. And because of that, we do have advisory posted straight through the afternoon hours. You can see the heavy rain also working its way across Florida. Tampa has been seeing quite a bit of moisture rolling through.
So, from Beaumont down to Corpus Christi, we have flash flood advisories. These will go into the afternoon for the rivers and streams in the area.
Those of you heading to a Fourth of July getaway, some delays are anticipated with flights due to Alex -- Houston and Dallas, thunderstorms, Miami, and also Atlanta.
And finally, the heat is coming in straight to the northeast. That's a 95 for the Fourth of July New York City, 97 in Philly and in Washington.
So, get ready. It might be nice out there today, John and Kiran, but it's going to really heat up for the Fourth.
ROBERTS: Get some extra ice for the cooler. Thanks so much, Bonnie. We really appreciate it.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
ROBERTS: Well, first of all, the problem was the engines were going too fast. Now, the problem is, they're not going at all. More troubles for Toyota, this time over some of its Lexus cars.
CHETRY: Also, it's a full quarter press to lure LeBron James, King James, to this city, as well as others around the country. Everybody wants to get in on that game. And Max Kellerman is coming up with more on where King James may land.
Twelve minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning -- 15 minutes after the hour.
New this morning: some scary moments for an elephant handler at the Toledo zoo. Officials say Don Redfox was attacked yesterday by a 7-year-old elephant named Louie. He had been caring for elephant since his birth. The 53-year-old zookeeper had to be hospitalized. But officials say that his injuries, thankfully, are not life- threatening.
CHETRY: Well, Toyota says it will begin recalling 270,000 vehicles worldwide Monday to fix an engine problem. The recall includes some Lexus models. The automaker says the problem involves faulty valve springs that could cause the cars to stall on the road.
ROBERTS: And hardball politics in California. A wage war unfolding there. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordering state employees be paid minimum wage. That is $7.25 an hour. Unless lawmakers agree on a new state budget. The state's comptroller says he has no intention of carrying out that hick up.
CHETRY: And the price of cigarettes going up even more if you live in New York, the average price for cigarettes in New York City is now almost $11. About six bucks of that is state and local taxes. That's not for a pack. That is for a pack, not a carton. State lawmakers just to put an additional a dollar 60 tax on the smokes cigarettes prices in New York City are already the highest the country.
ROBERTS: He is the hottest property in the NBA. Full-court press to lure king James. Will he end up in New York, Miami, Chicago, or will he stay in Cleveland? Our sports guy, Max Kellerman, coming up with his thoughts.
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CHETRY: We are back, it's 19 minutes past the hour. Sorry, baseball fans. But no one is talking about the Mets and Yankees lately. Everyone is talking about the newest summer pastime, and that's trying to figure out whether or not LeBron James is actually going to come to New York. He is the most sought after free agent now.
ROBERTS: Yes along with the Knicks and the Nets, New York Mayor Bloomberg made his plea. While talking last night to our John King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: LeBron.
JOHN KING, HOST: What can the mayor do to get LeBron in New York?
BLOOMBERG: Well I don't know that I can do a lot. He's not called me and asked me. I can't tell him to fix his jump shot. What I can tell him is New York's a great place to live and to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well let's bring in our CNN sports contributor Max Kellerman. Who has got to be happy, not talking about soccer this morning.
MAX KELLERMAN, CNN SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR : What's the mayor doing?
CHETRY: Trash talking LeBron James.
KELLERMAN: He's taking a shot at LeBron's jump shot? What's he doing?
CHETRY: Very strange.
ROBERTS: I think he was taking a shot at his own ability to jump. But where do you think --
KELLERMAN: If he doesn't stay in Cleveland I think he's heading to New York. I know people have talked Miami and there are a lot of good reasons to go to Miami. Including Dwyane Wade and maybe another superstar if they can get one there. No taxes and -- staying in Cleveland, obviously, there's the appeal of staying where he grew up in the hometown team.
CHETRY: They changed coaches, too right.
KELLERMAN: They did. But -- when you really look at what LeBron is trying to accomplish, he is trying to be the biggest star in the world. Bigger than Kobe Bryant in the NBA, bigger than any other athlete. It is not going to happen in Cleveland. Chicago, it is also likely not to happen because he will always be playing in Michael Jordan's shadow and it is a football town. And if you really look at Miami, Dwyane Wade, who is as good as LeBron or Kobe, he's right on that level, every -- right there, has already won a championship in Miami. And it is as though it never happened. He did it with Shaquille O'Neal and as though -- does anyone talk Dwyane Wade compared to Kobe and LeBron? It's almost like an existential quest. If you win a championship in Miami, have you really won it? Does anyone -- if you do --
CHETRY: We have to be opposing viewpoint. Lot of people there say it is a no-brainer. He has to go there. This is where you get more stars and where you -- better chance to win.
KELLERMAN: Miami is an awesome place.
CHETRY: I want to hear what you say.
STEPHEN A. SMITH, SPORTS JOURNALIST: Dwyane Wade has Pat Riley and he has South Beach which I am here to inform you is a very, very big deal. They literally have enough room for three maximum contract players. So you are talking not just about LeBron with D Wade, but potentially with Amar'e Stoudemire or Carlos Boozer. No other team can do that.
CHETRY: Well the argument here is if his sole goal now is to get a ring. Put a ring on it. Miami may be his best shot.
KELLERMAN: Well, not exactly. Because New York also has enough carries to -- salary caps for two maximum contracts. LeBron plus another superstar. Then Eddy Curry, their overpaid center comes off the books. And there is your third guy next year. And LeBron, by himself is a playoff trip. LeBron plus another superstar is title contention. And any kind of diesel team around him. But again, who is Dwyane Wade? Why isn't Dwyane Wade mentioned with Kobe and LeBron. Although he has won a championship already in Miami. Think of the celebration for the New York Yankees. Two million plus down the canyon of heroes. It is a completely different animal. The -- media capital of the world, you have New York, Chicago, and L.A.. L.A. is already Kobe's territory and it has been done by Magic Johnson, et cetera. Chicago with Michael Jordan and the Bears. New York's wide open.
ROBERTS: But you think that LeBron's ultimate destination may be Brooklyn? KELLERMAN: It has got to be. Forget about the fact he's boy was Jay-Z, right, who is now the face of that team.
CHETRY: You are talking about the New Jersey Nets.
KELLERMAN: The New Jersey Nets. Yes. In two years, supposedly, they are going to be in Brooklyn. I -- anticipate whatever kind of contract LeBron James signs with whomever will be opt-outs in the contract after years two, three, four, five. I mean the teams will make huge commitments to him. His commitment, I think will be, will be different to those teams. So that we can go through this again in a couple of years when the Nets get there. But I don't see him playing in New York.
ROBERTS: But why Brooklyn?
KELLERMAN: Well Brooklyn has been without a major league franchise when so to speak since 1957 when Walter O'Malley took them to Los Angeles. And so much sports literature -- forget about the journalism in the media. But there are all these -- real literature about sports, that has come out of this area. Lamenting the fact O'Malley took the team. A friend of mine, the late great Jack Newfield, journalist and author, used to say the three biggest antichrists of the 20th century were Stalin, Hitler, O'Malley. It is a sexy location around the country. People hear my accent, are you from Brooklyn? I'm not. That's the borough they associate with New York. And it would be an incredibly hot ticket where Jay-Z and the Nets to be in Brooklyn with LeBron James as a center piece.
CHETRY: Well we will find out for sure, what, on the fifth of July.
KELLERMAN: Fifth of July.
CHETRY: That's when he is making his call.
KELLERMAN: Supposedly, that's what he says.
CHETRY: So your money is on the Knicks.
KELLERMAN: If he doesn't stay in Cleveland, I think he's going with the Knicks, yes.
ROBERTS: Max, great to see you this morning, thanks.
KELLERMAN: As always.
CHETRY: Happy fourth, still ahead, we are talking about the jobs report. It is being closely watched. It is coming out in about seven minutes from now. And Christine Romans is looking at it with us as well as Lakshman Achuthan. What is the economic outlook right now in the face of so much bad news?
ROBERTS: And the "Top Chef" judge and owner of Kraft restaurants, Tom Colicchio, is saying eat Louisiana seafood. In fact that is what he is serving on his menu now. We'll be talking to Tom coming up in just a few minutes about his promotion of Gulf seafoods. Stay with us it is 24 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Three minutes away from your top stories, first though, an "A.M. Original," something you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING. A lot of headlines over the past week about the Supreme Court's ruling ending Chicago's 28-year ban on handgun.
ROBERTS: But if you haven't walked the streets, greatest neighborhoods, hard to really understand why this is such a contentious issue there. So for part three of our series, "Walk In My Shoes," T.J. Holmes did that. He took the dangerous walk to school with two Chicago teens. He joins us live with their story this morning. You just can't wrap your head around it really. The dangerous walk to school?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, that's a good way to put it. You can't wrap your head around it because John, Kiran, you all remember high school. You remember being 15, 16, 17 years old. What were you most worried about? You know. Whether your clothes were cool enough. Maybe making the basketball team. Whether some girl or boy at school likes you. That's what we were worried about back then. We cannot get our heads around it as you say there John. These kids being the number one concern every day worried about getting to school without getting jacked, without getting beat up, without getting shot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: This takes you where?
ERIC NIMELY, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: This takes me to the hill (ph).
HOLMES (voice-over): It's not yet 7:00 a.m. And 17-year-old Eric Nimely is facing his first test of the day. Getting safely to school on Chicago's South Side.
NIMELY: Everybody get on the bus and sometimes coming home they're fighting, you know, stuff like that on the bus. Things like that, so --
HOLMES (on camera): You actually switched routes to school because they got so bad?
NIMELY: Yes.
HOLMES (voice-over): To walk in Eric's shoes is to get a glimpse into a world where getting to school is all about survival.
(on camera): How would you describe the neighborhood for somebody who doesn't, you know, that doesn't know it?
NIMELY: It's rough.
HOLMES: Rough? NIMELY: Rough, yes.
HOLMES (voice-over): Like 95 percent of the city's public school students, Eric is responsible for getting to school on his own. He says he tries to travel with friends to avoid trouble.
NIMELY: If you don't have any friends, you're going to get -- I'm not saying you're going to get picked on, but it's like a group of guys standing on the corner and you're walking. If nobody know who you are, I mean, like, they're going to say something to you.
CHARLES ANDERSON, ASST. PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGELWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: We definitely want to try to protect them from violence.
HOLMES: Charles Anderson, assistant principal at Eric's TEAM Engelwood High School, said it's not uncommon for kids to get jumped, robbed or worse, in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago. Forty-nine students were killed during the school year ending June of 2009.
(on camera): So you're almost securing a perimeter around, a few blocks around this school.
ANDERSON: Yes, we are. But you know, it's worth it if we can get a kid to feel comfortable to come to school and then we can help them focus on their education.
HOLMES (voice-over): Principal Peggy Morellis-Byrd says it's hard for her teachers to break through that tough exterior kids have to keep up.
PEGGY MORELLIS-BYRD, PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGELWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: It's very hard to sort of drop that wall and maybe not be so tough or on guard in school. So we have to break down a lot of that.
HOLMES: But as difficult as mornings can be, students say the afternoon journey home is even worse.
AMBER WARD, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: But even walking the street, you have people hiding in cars, jumping out of cars. That's what the clowns do.
HOLMES: It's 6:00 at night when 16-year-old Amber Ward heads home from Manley High School on Chicago's west side.
WARD: I'd be scared because I ignore people. When they try to talk to me, I just keep walking and that makes people so mad these days, people would do anything. I feel like they're going to pull out a gun and shoot me from the back. So when I keep walking, I always do like this, you know, keep looking back.
HOLMES: For Amber, it's a three and a half block walk to the bus stop where we wait 15 minutes.
WARD: I like sitting in the back so I can see everything ahead of me. HOLMES: And along with sitting in the back of the bus so she can spot danger better, once off the bus, she tries to keep an eye out for who might be hiding in the dark on the side streets.
(on camera): We just passed a dark alley.
WARD: Yes.
HOLMES: And here we are now coming up on a corner. There's a couple guys just standing there doing who knows what. What do you think when you walk past a group like that and you're walking down the street by yourself, it's dark. There aren't a lot of street lights out here, you know.
WARD: I'm so used to seeing it. I mean, I'm used to guys standing on the corner. See that. That's what I'm talking about. This is crazy.
HOLMES: You're just used to it, huh?
WARD: I'm used to it.
HOLMES (voice-over): Along the way, Amber points out a drug house.
(on camera): What's going on at that house now?
WARD: It's abandoned so a lot of people will just be out there selling drugs, playing dice and doing what they do.
HOLMES: Doing what they do.
(voice-over): And Amber's final rule of the road, walk fast.
WARD: If I was by myself, I guarantee you I would have been at Jackson. I guarantee you.
HOLMES: It's only when Amber catches sight of her house, 45 minutes after she left school, she knows she's back in safe territory.
(on camera): That's a successful day, right? You made it.
WARD: Yes, I made it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Isn't that something? The success for the day is not that I got an "A" on the test. It is that I got home safely. We talk about the numbers of kids who have been killed over the past couple of years, 31 during this past school year that just wrapped up last week. Less school year, it was some 49 that were killed.
And keep in mind that these aren't because of fights and shootings at actual schools. Where does this happen? It happens when these kids are on their way to school or on their way home in the evenings and in the afternoons, guys. So John, it is an interesting look at just what these kids go through, which many of us just can't relate to.
ROBERTS: Yes, a real eye opener, T.J., a real eye opener. Great series. Thanks so much for bringing it to us.
HOLMES: You got it.
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour. Checking our top stories, with NASA counting down to the end of the space shuttle era you can add a little time back on the clock. A payload delay is pushing back the program's last two flights. Discovery was slated to launch in September. That has been pushed back to first of November. The very last shuttle mission by Endeavour will launch February 26th.
Even though there has been more time put on the clock there are still only two flights left.
General David Petraeus reporting for duty. Later today he arrives in Afghanistan later today nine days after his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was relieved of duty. It has already been a bloody day in Afghanistan. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack on a USAID agency compound that killed at least four people.
And President Obama renewing push for comprehensive immigration reform, taking direct aim at Arizona's new law requiring police to check people for citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It is not just that the law Arizona passed is divisive, although it has fanned the flames of an already contentious debate. Laws like Arizona's put huge pressures on the local law enforcement to enforce rules that ultimately are unenforceable.
Today we have more boots on the ground near the southwest border than at any time in our history. Let me repeat that -- we have more boots on the ground on the southwest border than at any time in our history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The critics of immigration reform saying you have to secure the border first before do you anything else. The president says tighter border security is only part of the answer to the immigration problem.
CHETRY: It's 24 minutes past the hour. Just in to CNN, new job number force the month of June. Joining me now to break them down our own Christina Romans as well as Lakshman Achuthan, analyst for the economic cycle research institute. Thanks to both of you for being with us.
Christine, 9.5 percent for June. What's behind those numbers.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's the unemployment rate, the best unemployment rate since July, 2009. But more than 650,000 people simply dropped out of the labor market. They didn't get a new job. They just stopped looking. So that might be a play there.
Overall we lost 125,000 jobs this. So this is the month when we haven't had net jobs creation in the economy. Most of that is because of the census jobs -- 225,000 people who were census workers a month ago lost their census job and they dropped off.
What we have been talking about a lot is private sector job creation. The private sector created 83,000 jobs. That is a little better than people have thought. At this point of a recovery, you need to be seeing more than that. But it is still a private sector creating jobs every month so far this year.
CHETRY: We're talking now two-and-a-half years since the recession officially began in December, 2007. We lost 8 million jobs throughout that, roughly. If we are adding 83,000 for the month of June, that doesn't seem very good.
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, MANAGING EDITOR, ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FORECASTS: It is going to take too long. To put this in context, the recovery begins last year, about a year ago. And very remarkably, the unemployment rate peaked out in October at 10.1 percent and has been edging down in fits and starts.
And it is very important we have seen six months of private sector jobs growth. We got scared by last month where it was 40,000 or so. So now that's picking back up. That's a good thing.
It is nothing to sneeze at, this jobs growth, but it is hardly something you want to write home about. You can't say yea, we are recovered, because this recession was so severe, at this rate it will take eight, nine years of growth to repair the damage.
ROMANS: It doesn't even absorb the new entrants into the work force, the regular college grads, people coming here, people, you know, just a natural growth of American population doesn't even begin to dent that.
ACHUTHAN: Absolutely.
CHETRY: The numbers are sort of misleading. You take away from the headline of 9.5 percent, we have seen it tick down two-tenths of a percent since last month. As Christine said, 650,000 people just gave up looking.
ACHUTHAN: Right. And you have the household survey which is showing jobs, decent job gains this year as well since the beginning of the year, which is the other side of who dropped off.
There's a lot -- these statistics, let's not give them a false sense of precision. There is a lot of statistical mess, seasonal factors where they actually depress the numbers, you know, fabricate it in the census. Let's not look at the actual literal number, 83 minus 125. Let's look at the trends. And what we see is the unemployment rate, even the U-6, the very broad unemployment rate, which captures part time people -- workers and things of this nature, these are all trending down.
So we are having a recovery. That is real. That's not in debate, even though I think people will debate it. What's worrisome is it will take six, seven, eight years to repair what happened with the jobs, and we don't have that much time.
CHETRY: And Christine, adding to that, we have a couple of other numbers. We had a 30 percent drop in pending home sales. We have seen the Dow at its lowest since October 30th of last year. There are also some like Paul Krugman who say if we pull become on stimulus and spending right now, austerity measures that aren't necessarily working in Europe, we're going to be in more trouble.
ROMANS: And 9.5 percent is an improvement, and it is horrible. It's horrible. You don't want 9.5 percent unemployment.
One thing I found in this report that find interesting, the people working part time for economic reasons, this means people who are working part time but would prefer to be working longer, that number is actually getting smaller, which means the companies may not be adding jobs in the private sector but they may be getting more hours or putting people back on full time as opposed to putting them on three-quarters time.
ACHUTHAN: Which is a precursor to hiring them eventually. And this also goes to the huge productivity gain numbers. People were working so much harder to keep their job. So you saw huge productivity gains which holds down hiring because if you are more productive, I don't need to hire someone else.
So there's all these things at play here. But forward looking indicators, everything we saw today is mostly coincident and tells us about something about now or last month. The forward looking indicators have been getting weaker in their growth since the beginning of the year.
So they have been pointing to slower growth going forward, which touches on housing and starring to get soft.
CHETRY: Is it a double dip or just a slow recovery? Double dip or slow recovery?
ACHUTHAN: Well, the -- the big, the important question is the direction. The directional call is in. The strongest and best moves is actually right around now. It is right around here. So it is going to ease off from here.
We are all going to get very anxious about worrying about a new recession. I can't say there is one ahead of us now definitively. Our discipline of looking at a lot of indicators and indexes doesn't say that objectively.
However, we are probably not going to have enough time before the next recession to heal what's going on in jobs. That's the cold, hard truth.
CHETRY: All right. Not the news we wanted to hear, but it's reality right now, unfortunately. Christine Romans, Lakshman Achuthan, Thanks so much. John?
ROBERTS: Top chef and owner of Craft restaurant Tom Colicchio recently went down to the Gulf of Mexico to take a look at the situation with fishing down there. And he's come back with an attitude he's going to promote Louisiana seafood. Tom is joining us coming up next. It's 40 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Gulf seafood -- you see the images and you have to wonder if any of it is safe to eat. One of the most famous chefs in the world decided to check it out himself. We watched how the testing fish and oysters in the Gulf, and he came away with this advice -- eat it. In fact, he is bringing it to all of his restaurants.
Chef Tom Colicchio, head judge on "Top Chef" joins us now. Tom, great to see you.
TOM COLICCHIO, CHEF/OWNER, CRAFT RESTAURANTS: How are you doing?
ROBERTS: Good. Thanks so much for stopping by. You actually canceled a planned fishing trip in Massachusetts to go to the Gulf.
COLICCHIO: I did. My buddy and I were going to Massachusetts to fish. I fish pretty much whenever I can here in New York. I have a boat here.
I had an opportunity to get down there and mingle with the fishermen and talk to the people in Grand Isle. It was really eye opening.
There's two stories going on down there. It's an absolute disaster. It is a mess. We see the fishers every night on the news. But there's hope. You know, there's plenty of fish now. Only 30 percent of the gulf is closed. So there's 70 percent of the area that's open. Water are pristine and not affected by the spill. And fishermen are fishing.
And the seafood is safe. What's interesting is seafood typically is not tested. It goes from the fishermen to a distributor and gets to restaurants or supermarkets, whatever. There's no USDA inspections. But the fish coming out of the Gulf now, every bit is being inspected. Since May 5th, I think there has been over 330 samples taken from 11,000 different fish, all of it 100 percent clean.
ROBERTS: You are a fan of north Atlantic seafood. I have eaten in a couple of your restaurants in New York and Atlanta, and the food is fantastic. But you decided to put Louisiana fish on the menu. Why did you decide to do that? COLICCHIO: You look at the spill and you have to feel sorry for what's going on down there with the wildlife and people, the livelihoods. You ask yourself, how can we support them? This is one way to support them.
You know, I talked to people from Louisiana Fish and Game, from NOAA, from the FDA, and they are saying it is clean. And so my feeling is that will he people know it is safe and -- I can't just say it is safe. I want to put it in my restaurants and actually sell it, stand behind it.
ROBERTS: Now, in your restaurants are you promoting the idea it is seafood from Louisiana?
COLICCHIO: Right now we are working through our sources to get a good consistent source. I have a gentleman I met recently trying to sell me on it. I'm not sure I want to do that just yet. After going down so and talking to the fishermen, I will start serving it, right now trying to deal with my sources. Once we do that, yes, we will promote and it let people know we are selling it.
ROBERTS: You said during your trip, what you can be here is "a mouthpiece." What does the mouthpiece want people across the country to know?
COLICCHIO: That fish coming out of the Gulf is safe. Fish, you know, again that spill, there is a huge buffer zone around that spill where you can't fish. The questions I asked were what are the penalties for fishing? Fishing in closed off areas, you lose your license to fish in international waters. And I know you're actually in Federal waters. So that's three miles off the beach, to start. You lose your license to fish, you're done.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COLICCHIO: So that in effect the fishermen will know that if they can simply manage to get out to the public, it is over for them.
ROBERTS: Yes that would be troubling, that would be terrible and not just for this year, but for years to come.
COLICCHIO: That's exactly right.
ROBERTS: So -- so --
COLICCHIO: But the important thing is the entire seafood industry will get behind this because people are walking into my restaurants now and I've talked to the other chefs saying they don't want to eat seafood at all.
Even though it's coming from Alaska or from New England or what have you. And so I think this is something the entire seafood industry needs --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: So what are you bringing in from the Gulf shore? Because oysters are a big problem, all right.
COLICCHIO: Well --
ROBERTS: With P&J oysters, one of the biggest distributors in New Orleans they are not really doing right --
COLICCHIO: No they are not and a lot of the oyster beds -- and recently I think some of them have been opened up. And in fact the other night I think Anderson Cooper was eating oysters right out of the Gulf on a boat.
So some of the oyster beds are opening up but the shrimps, grouper, snapper. Most of the tuna -- or a good percentage of the tuna that is on -- on -- in restaurants in New York comes from the Gulf.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COLICCHIO: So the crawfish. That stuff is all safe. Crawfish.
ROBERTS: Crawfish is fresh water.
COLICCHIO: Exactly. People still think that --
ROBERTS: Yes.
COLICCHIO: And there is a perception that that oil is washing up on the beaches in New Orleans. Well, it's 100 miles from the spill.
ROBERTS: So we're going to see a good crawfish (INAUDIBLE) on your menu?
COLICCHIO: We'll have, we actually had a crawfish dish on a little while ago. And it's going to go back on, not -- not so much an (INAUDIBLE), but a crawfish dish.
ROBERTS: Right.
COLICCHIO: You know the other thing, I think, a lot of people are maybe are gun shy about going down to New Orleans because one of the major attractions, I think you know is to go down there and seafood is safe.
ROBERTS: You know the time that I spent in New Orleans, we were going about in the race, we are working so much and all these fabulous restaurants in New Orleans, we were eating beef jerky from the 7- Eleven.
Tom it's great to see you. Thanks so much for dropping by. I really appreciate it.
COLICCHIO: Thanks for having me.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, thanks guys. Well, competitive eating, the secret of winning. Joey Chestnut who has won for the past three years, the ultimate eating competition in Nathan's hot dog eating contest joined us.
And we put our A.M. producer to the test. But is the A.M. Hot dog vacuum cleaner running on empty? We're going to find out how Rick did. Coming up.
Forty-seven minutes past the hour.
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SCHNEIDER: Good morning everyone. I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with a check of your forecast.
We're looking at more heavy rains, the remnants of Alex don't want to leave us so looking at all the showers and thunderstorms hitting Texas at this hour. San Antonio, Houston, it will be a stormy day and not just there. All along the Gulf Coast, we are seeing some showers and thunderstorms pop up, in New Orleans.
Also along the panhandle of Florida and down through central Florida we're seeing some storms fire up through areas of Tampa.
The flood advisories you see here will persist through the afternoon hours and maybe they will extend into the evening for the rivers and creeks and streams particularly towards coastal southeast Texas.
Again, as Alex really taps into that moisture, even though the storm has now been definitely downgraded. It's just the remnants. So the heavy rain rides along the front, but stationary, right along the Gulf Coast. And then you can see high pressure building into the Great Lakes.
Beautiful weather, a really nice conditions, Minneapolis, Chicago. You are looking at a fantastic day. And the temperatures are going to be going up though, as we look at the highs, you can see we have a high of 83 in Chicago. High temperatures are a little bit more cool towards the northeast.
But that will be a thing of the past as we go towards the fourth of July. Lots of fire works out there and the heat will build in the northeast. We are talking about unseasonably high temperatures in the upper 90s for cities like Philadelphia.
Well, stay tuned. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after this.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
As injured soldiers return home from Iraq and Afghanistan they're often leaving one fight only to encounter another. But one grateful American is helping to rebuild their lives. He is this week's CNN Hero, Dan Wallrath.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGD. ALEXANDER REYES, ARMY: Baghdad ended up being a hell of a ride. I sustained a very severe blast injury. My life just came to a complete halt.
DAN WALLRATH, CNN HERO: How are you doing? How is everything, you look sharp today.
REYES: Thank you.
WALLRATH: I have been doing custom homes for 30 years. One of the most important things for a family is a home. I want you to read the sign for me.
REYES: Future home of Sergeant Alexander Reyes, United States Army.
WALLRATH: Congratulations.
Giving these folks a new home that means the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. That's all I can say.
WALLRATH: My name is Dan Wallrath. Five years ago I had a friend of mine call me, friend of his. His son had been injured in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the day after he graduated from boot camp.
WALLRATH: He showed me pictures. His victim was a big strapping Marine. He showed me the picture of Steven in the hospital. It just broke my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stephen was wheelchair-bound. We were going to have to remodel.
I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. Dan just said, we are going to take care of it.
WALLRATH: We remodeled that home. I realized this is not an isolated case. Went back to my builder buddies and said we have to do something.
We build homes for returning heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan. The houses are mortgage-free. It changes the whole families --
Welcome home.
This is just a new start so that they can move forward. These young men and women are doing this for you and me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: To be live in concert, Def Leppard, huh? The original (INAUDIBLE)
ROBERTS: It sounds live. It's got that ambient sound to it.
CHETRY: We are two minutes until the top of the hour. We are heading into the July 4th weekend. We have some expert advice on how to make the most of a good barbecue.
ROBERTS: Pour some sugar on it; might be the thing to do. Three-time Nathan's hotdog-eating champion, Joey Chesta (ph) is going to defend his title on Sunday. But first, he stopped by to give our senior writer, Rick Selleby (ph) some gust-busting tips.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE CHESTA, NATHAN'S HOTDOG-EATING CHAMPION: He should be ready to move both of his hands at one time doing different things. One has to be eating the meat, the other one should be dunking the bun on water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dunk the bun in water where he is.
CHETRY: Ok, there you go.
CHESTA: Slam it against your mouth. Not a pretty eating contest. Jump up and down a little bit.
CHETRY: What's that do?
CHESTA: Makes the food settle to the bottom of your stomach.
ROBERTS: What's the matter, Rick?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Rick came into that with such high hopes saying six hot dogs in one minute, not a problem. I can do that.
CHETRY: He had two of the (INAUDIBLE) had him doing it in one. I had a meal at 2:30. He didn't make it. He finished all six though.
Just so you know, he is not a competitive eating loser. Check it out. This is the Landsky's (ph) Deli in New York City. That was a sandwich; this was on his birthday. A bunch of people here on the show took him out. That's called the jackpot sandwich. And yes, he did finish it. Look at that thing.
ROBERTS: We have to get him on "Man versus Food". And see if he can eat some of the stuff they have on that show; hamburgers this big.
CHETRY: He claims he could eat ten more of Nathan's dogs. You ate one and you were tired.
ROBERTS: Yes. I went into a dog coma for some reason. I'm not quite sure why.
Continue the conversation on today's stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amFIX. That is going to wrap it up for us today. Have a great 4th of July weekend and we'll see you back here again next week.
CHETRY: All right. Take care, everybody.
Meanwhile, the news continues, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.
