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American Morning
High Hopes for Jobs Report; "Radical Muslim" Confesses; Harvard Welcoming ROTC Back On Campus; BYU Player Kicked Off Team For Premarital Sex; Man Survives After 96 Minutes of CPR; Beware of Bed Bugs
Aired March 04, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Stocks starting higher and it's beginning to feel more and more like a recovery. The Dow jumping more than 190 points. The NASDAQ and S&P also rallying. Right now, all eyes now on this morning's jobs report coming out in just 30 minutes on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being for with us. It is Friday, March 4th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. It's a little bit sad because it's my last day with you today, but let's make it good.
CHETRY: Are you really sad?
VELSHI: I'm totally sad.
CHETRY: You're going back to Atlanta?
VELSHI: Nice weather, Rob. I'm excited about that.
Republican or Democrat, every American has a financial stake in what is happening in the job market. This isn't about just whether you're implied or not. It's because people who aren't employed need to be employed so they could pay taxes and our economic recovery can get going.
Half an hour away from now, we're getting the jobs report. It's going will to reveal whether or not we've turned a corner.
CHETRY: Christine Romans is watching "YOUR MONEY." So the analysts are saying it's looks like the forecast we're seeing, it looks like we turned a corner but they have said that before.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Rob was my reason for a trip to Atlanta as well. You're right, the jobs market, 190,000 is what the economists telling CNN Money. They're expecting for jobs go 190,000 that would be the best since last May. But, remember, we've been here before.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: We have been hoping for the jobs to come in and they haven't. Last month, we only have 36,000. That yellow bar right there would be --
VELSHI: That's the projection, right?
ROMANS: That's the projection. But, look, we have two months down. And then we had, OK, OK, is it going to get better? And then, January, ugh, only 36,000. A jobs unemployment rate at more than 9 percent, guys -- 9 percent doesn't feel good.
So, you're watching Wall Street rally and you're hearing people say, oh, it feels like a recovery and then we are hearing from people on Main Street, wait a second, 9 percent unemployment, it does not feel like a recovery to me, because it's --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Move up on the job, et cetera, et cetera. But 190,000 is what they're looking for there. The good news is jobless claims yesterday were at a three-year in a low. So, that's one of the reasons why the stock market rallied. Jobless claims at a three-year low means the mass layoffs appear to have ended but has the mass hiring begun? I don't know.
Retail sales starting to do better -- meaning, people are reaching into their pocket feeling a little better about things. Markets have been up; manufacturing at a seven-year high. But home prices, this is still a very ugly part of the economy, home prices. Gas prices rising, food prices rising.
So, I get it. I get it when we say that the economy is improving. The stocks are showing the economy is improving and all of you write in and say, it is not improving for real people. That's the disconnect here that's still -- that's still the story line in 2011.
VELSHI: Except that the stock market is your pension. The stock market is your IRA. The stock market is your 401(k). And the stock market is your employer in many cases.
ROMANS: That's right.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I know what Christine is going to say, though -- what's good for the company isn't always good for the worker.
ROMANS: Well, no, no. I've been watching small businesses doing the hiring. Not those big companies that are the Dow 30 and the S&P 500 companies. The small companies have been hiring and that's an interesting part of this as well.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Will the small companies start to see demand get better and feel growth? That's where a lot of action has been.
CHETRY: Well, we certainly hope we see it's better than January because there was a lot of disappointment over that.
ROMANS: There's a lot of bad weather in January. So, maybe that's behind us and so companies were able to go out and hire.
CHETRY: So, we'll see you in 28 minutes then.
ROMANS: Twenty-eight minutes, I'll tell you the answer.
CHETRY: Thanks, Christine.
Well, if the 14 AWOL Democratic senators in Wisconsin don't come back to work, Governor Scott Walker is now saying he will have to layoff 1,500 notices -- layoff 1,500 workers, send out these notices to public workers by the end of today. Those layoffs would then take effect April 1st. The senators left the state last month, as you notice, to stall a vote on the governor's budget repair bill. They're facing fines of $100 a day until they return.
VELSHI: Right. And let's be clear, even if they come back, those workers are on the chopping block anyway. So, it's not -- it's not entirely clear how effective this threat is going to be.
A judge banned protesters from sleeping inside the Wisconsin state capitol, by the way. We've been talking about this for a few days. But they've been there for a while. The order gives authorities the right to forcibly remove them if they disobey.
We understand they didn't disobey. They did leave. Protesters can continue during daytime business hours.
CHETRY: Yes. And one other interesting note about the story. They are looking into the discovery of about 41 hollow point bullet casings that they say they found outside of the capitol. They want to try to find out the owner of that ammunition and if there's any additional ammunition.
VELSHI: The casings suggest that the bullets have been shot out of them. So that is a curious, curious situation. Or somebody was reloading ammunition on the lawn of the state capitol. We'll have to figure that out.
House Republicans -- let's take over to Indiana now -- they're starting to -- they're starting to fine more than 30 boycotting Democratic senators about $250 a day. Democrats there left the state 11 days ago and are staying at a hotel in Urbana, Illinois, where the University of Illinois is, denying Republicans the two-thirds majority they need to vote on a budget bill that would restrict collective bargaining rights for state employees.
And they're going to overtime -- I'm talking about the talk between the NFL owners and players. They've been extended through today. The current collective bargaining agreement was set to expire at midnight last night. Bears fan, President Obama, weighed in yesterday, saying, leave me out of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm a big football fan, but I also think that for an industry that's making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: The owners may lock out the players and put next season in jeopardy if they can't figure out how to split up $9 billion a year.
CHETRY: Well, this morning, there are reports of clashes between rebels and pro-Gadhafi officials in Libya. Meantime, U.N. officials say that Libyan troops may be trying to prevent more people from crossing the borders. Some 200,000 have fled since the uprising began.
Moammar Gadhafi remains defiant even in a face of the strongest public comment yet from President Obama. He says Gadhafi has lost legitimacy as a leader and that it's time for him to go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Colonel Gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave. That is good for his country. It is good for his people. It's the right thing to do.
The United States has full capacity to act potentially rapidly if the situation deteriorated in such a way that you had a humanitarian crisis on our hands, or a situation in which civilians were -- defenseless civilians were finding themselves trapped and in great danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The president says he's considering a full range of military options for Libya.
VELSHI: South Korea is trying to fend off a massive cyber attack -- 40 Web sites have already been hit, many of them belonging to government agencies and big banks. South Korea's Internet security agency says hackers outside the country are using zombie computers downloaded malicious codes and directing large traffic surges to targeted Web sites. The aim is to paralyze them.
CHETRY: A brief scare aboard the International Space Station this morning. We just talked to the astronauts yesterday.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: A smoke alarm started ringing in the Russian docking compartment. It looks like a false alarm. The crew is investigating it right now. NASA saying no smells have been detected and that the crew is not in danger. Officials say dust particles in the past have caused a similar alarm.
VELSHI: That would really get under my skin, though, if I were on the space station and the smoke alarm went off.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: They really are. They train only -- I mean, they train largely for emergencies. They really are something else.
NASA launched an unmanned spacecraft this morning and, sadly, it failed. The Glory spacecraft, a Taurus rocket, got off the ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base. You're looking at that now. But it didn't get too far, a mere six minutes into the flight, the rocket failed to separate. The failed Glory mission was intended to study the sun and the affect of aerosols on the earth's climate.
CHETRY: Well, there's been another launch that you may want to keep your eye on today, the secret space plane developed by the U.S. Air Force will launch from Cape Canaveral. This is happening at 3:30 this afternoon Eastern Time. It's called the X-37B, 29 feet long. It basically looks like a miniature version of the space shuttle but what it's carrying is a complete mystery because the mission is classified.
The launch itself cost $100 million. It's all funded by the Pentagon's top secret black budget.
So, who else is watching besides the Pentagon? Of course, both the Chinese and Russian military officials have said they are highly interested. Some speculate it could be a space bomber or perhaps a satellite hunter. All Air Force officials are saying the experimental space plane will, quote, "test new technologies in outer space." This is, by the way, the second launch of the X-37B and that's pretty all we know about it.
VELSHI: That was a lot, though. I was thinking a lot about this -- you have inside connection to the Pentagon?
CHETRY: I can't say.
VELSHI: Rob Marciano in the extreme weather center.
Rob, what you got?
CHETRY: Yes, it's kind of hard for them to hide the launch of a rocket, right? But they still don't want to give up any details.
VELSHI: That was more detail than I expected.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's as much information I've ever heard from a classified project.
VELSHI: That's right, exactly. Perhaps there's a mole.
MARCIANO: It is the information age, I guess.
That Glory launch, that's a blow to not only NASA but to the all our billion and to the climate study community. That thing was going to take in good measurements for us. So, now, it's somewhere in the South Pacific.
All right. Temps right now are about where they were at the peak of yesterday's highs across the Northeast. So that means that you're a little bit warmer and you will be at least later on today. But with that it's going to some moisture that's heading through the Midwest. Chicago back to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, these are all areas that got hammered with a lot of rain earlier in the week. Flooding in some cases are still happening.
And now, this is just going to exacerbate the situation. So, next day and a half are very, very wet and there's going to be isolated flooding in some of those areas. Also, isolated areas of severe weather across the midsection of the country, Arkansas and Missouri today will be under the gun. Some mountain snow is expected through the intermountain west.
Daytime highs, a nice day in Dallas, 76. It will be 64 degrees in St. Louis with that mild air and moisture, and 43 degrees up there in New York. Guys, today -- didn't you get served a hot breakfast up there in New York City today?
VELSHI: We did, in fact. We ate breakfast together, the whole AMERICAN MORNING crew.
CHETRY: And the bacon, I have to say, was extra crispy this morning.
MARCIANO: And you like it that way, don't you? I remember that about -- you like it extra crispy.
VELSHI: She does.
MARCIANO: I didn't get anything, by the way, so glad you enjoyed that.
It is Employee Appreciation Day. I'm not sure if Jen (ph) did that for that reason but the boss showing some appreciation and glad to see that up there.
VELSHI: All right. We'll send you. There's a little left.
MARCIANO: I'm going downstairs and getting bacon and eggs for $4.99 and put it on the corporate card.
CHETRY: Nice, and that's to show that we appreciate you.
MARCIANO: Oh, thank you.
VELSHI: We do, Rob. Good to see you, my friend.
MARCIANO: You, too.
CHETRY: Just wanted to give a clarification. We were talking about the Wisconsin story.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And police are investigating an unusual situation. They want to know what's going on with this. Security found round of hollow point rifle ammunition outside of the Wisconsin capitol building and they're looking to see whether there's more of this ammunition and also who it might belong to. So, another side on the situation in Wisconsin.
VELSHI: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is at it again. He's making controversial remarks about President Obama's roots.
CHETRY: Also, you have 25 brand handy. Well, you, too, can have a custom-made pinstripe suits with the pinstripes made up -- if you look a little closer of the actual letters of your name.
VELSHI: Wow.
CHETRY: -- stop salivating.
It looks like Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak has had it. Fashionistas are now having a field day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, Florida Democrats are hoping to pick you a few house seats by selling tickets to -- you just heard her singing -- Lady Gaga's concert.
VELSHI: I'm not really involved in trying to do any more promotion for Lady Gaga. I'm trying to win a bet that she's going to fall out of favor the next four years.
CHETRY: And she sort of takes care of the promotion herself, doesn't she?
VELSHI: Yes, she does.
CHETRY: Well, it's part of their house victory 2012 campaign. Democrats are buying up tickets for Gaga's April 16th show and they'll sell them to raise money for candidates. They're also securing luxury box seats for upcoming concerts by Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks and Katy Perry to try to bolster their party's war chest.
VELSHI: How cool!
CHETRY: Yes.
VELSHI: Mike Huckabee, he's not backing down from another controversial remark that he made about President Obama. This is -- he's got a string of them this week. The former Arkansas governor is exploring a run for the presidency.
On Wednesday, he told a radio interviewer that Obama is out of step with the American people because of his upbringing.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: I have said many times publicly that I do think he has a different world view and I think it's in part molded out of a very different experience. Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. A madrassa refers to a school. And actually, in Arabic, it's just a school. I think the context in which Huckabee meant is a religious school, religious Muslim school. But I'm frankly, I'm sort of not interested continuing to be in the business of discussing what we think Mike Huckabee meant. He can explain that fairly well for himself.
CHETRY: And earlier in the week, this comes on the heels of him saying that he mistakenly said the president was raised in Kenya. He said he meant to say Indonesia.
Well, there's some new disturbing information this morning on the killings of two U.S. air force members in Germany. A radical Muslim now confessing, but authority said that he had no ties to terror groups. We also know now the names of the victims, the air force identify them as Senior Airman Nicholas Alden of Williamson, South Carolina and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback of Stanardsville, Virginia.
They were shot and killed in a bus carrying military personnel outside of the Frankfurt Germany Airport. Authorities say the shooter who worked at the airport, 21-year-old, Arid Uka, told investigators that American troops were his target. Even though he acted alone, officials say he was Facebook friends with known pro-al Qaeda extremists from a group based in Germany.
VELSHI: And Kiran and I still haven't gotten our official invitations to the royal wedding next month, although, you think you're going to go there, right?
CHETRY: I'm going to cover it, yes, absolutely.
VELSHI: But we're not on the guest list. Prince William and Kate Middleton will tie the not on April 29th in London. Obviously, a lot of planning goes into this. Security is a big nightmare, actually, for this whole thing. CNN's Dan Rivers spoke to the security expert about the sort of challenges they're facing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL GEDDES, SECURITY EXPERT: When we bear in mind how many people, A, are going to be watching this event around the world, but secondly, the number of people that will be coming into London to actually be part of the whole celebration. It makes for an incredibly complex policing operation.
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This will be lined with people. What are the risks here, for example? GEDDES: Well, the biggest risk will be firstly trying to contain the number of attendees who are coming along with a number of visitors, but it will also be ensuring that not only the royal family members but all the dignitaries that will be coming in from around the world are also safe and can move securely and quickly to a certain extent from one location to the other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Will Geddes says the royal wedding would be seen as an ideal target for a terrorist attack.
CHETRY: Well, Harvard University welcoming back the ROTC. It's been 40 years since the Ivy League school expelled Reserve Officers Training Corps or ROTC from its campus to protest the Vietnam War. And then, in recent years, the schools displeasure with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy continued to keep the ROTC out, but since that is now done, Harvard's president and the secretary of the navy will sign a formal agreement today.
VELSHI: Interesting story about a top college athlete kicked off the team for having sex. According to the, "Salt Lake Tribune," a Brigham Young University basketball star, Brandon Davies, admitted to school officials that he had sex with his girlfriend. Premarital sex is an honor code violation at the Mormon university, which requires duties to live a, quote, "chase and virtuous life."
BYU is ranked third team in the nation. It was gunning for a national title and their first game without Davies, they were beaten badly.
CHETRY: And Rodney King face-to-face with police the very week of the 20-year anniversary of the infamous beating is here. What exactly happened this time? We're going to find out more coming up.
VELSHI: Plus, Mazda recalls nearly 66,000 cars because of spiders. "Morning Talkers" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Are there spiders living in your car?
CHETRY: I hope not. I know there's a lot of cold French Fries, but I haven't checked on the spiders lately.
VELSHI: I thought it was a food thing, but it's not. Mazda is recalling about 52,000 Mazda 6 Sedan in the U.S. because it says that yellow sack spiders like to build their nest in the fuel system. The spiders may spin their webs in lines and create a blockage.
Experts say that could possibly lead to a buildup in pressure and a fire. This seems to sound like something Sanjay was telling us about veins and clots yesterday but in the fuel system. There've been 20 reported cases of spider infestations, so far. What a crazy story.
CHETRY: Yes. Wow. Well, if you purchase an iPad the past two weeks, Apple will --
VELSHI: Funny, we're talking about the iPad again.
CHETRY: Well, Apple will give you a 100 bucks because, of course, they lowered the price.
VELSHI: But you didn't purchase an iPad in the last two weeks?
CHETRY: No. I have a do not return policy, unfortunately, in effect.
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: But for many who just went out and bought the new one and then you realized, I mean, bought a new one and you realized there is a new generation, you're in luck. They say that they may charge you some extra fees, but they will either take it back, especially if it hasn't been opened.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: But even if it's used, perhaps, there's a trade-in situation going on. But bottom line, if you bought the old iPad and you want to keep it, you're getting 100 bucks back.
VELSHI: I know that it wouldn't work at CNN because we can't do this kind of thing, but if I were Apple, I'd just make sure you always had a new shiny --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: They won't even give us one, like, to borrow for a few hours to show you what the new one looks like.
All right. Dictators can be quirky characters. They like seeing giant portraits of themselves in big squares. There's really -- the little reminders they like, as well, of how awesome they are. Hosni Mubarak's suit, for example. He's the ousted Egyptian president. I got to say. I'm going to have a (INAUDIBLE).
This one is different even for me. Look at those pinstripes. Look close. They actually spell out his name over and over and over again. Jeanne Moos spoke to the owner of the company that made the suit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If you were Mr. Mubarak, how close would I have to get to know that his name was on the suit?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About this distance.
MOOS: Really? You could see it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. CHETRY (voice-over): I want to know how long it would take to actually do that.
VELSHI (voice-over): Well, I think probably with the automated sewing machine thing, they can program it in.
CHETRY: Yes, but you have to build a Hosni Mubarak sewing machine?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI (on-camera): I don't know much about sewing machines, but, I got to tell you, even as a clothes or this some thing (ph) you just don't want to say that you want to emulate, so I'm not going to go down the road of saying that that, otherwise, would have been neat except that it was Hosni Mubarak that did it.
CHETRY: Right, but your ears perked up.
VELSHI: Absolutely. Oh, I think, it's kind of interesting. If you want to see your name in pinstripes, by the way, that suit could set you back anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000.
CHETRY: Welcome to "Smallville," Diane Lane. Warner Bros. says that the actress has been cast as Martha Kenth, Superman's earth mother in the latest reboot of the franchise, "Smallville." She doesn't have a husband yet on the show, but Kevin Costner has also been rumored for the role.
VELSHI: And four new movies vying for this weekend's box office crown. The likely winner is the animated film, "Rango," with Johnny Depp voicing the lead character. Matt Damon's latest, the sci-fi thriller, "The Adjustment Bureau," should hold its own. Then, there is "Beastly," a retailing of the classic "Beauty and Beast" fairy tale starring Vanessa Hudgens. Finally, an R-rated comedy "Take Me Home Tonight." I did that well.
CHETRY: Not bad. Not bad. I would like to see "The Adjustment Bureau," by the way.
VELSHI: That's the one that looks the most interesting to me.
CHETRY: Are you still figuring out more about this next one?
VELSHI: No. I want to tell you about another story.
Still ahead, he was walking to the grocery store one minute and then he collapsed on the sidewalk with a massive heart attack. We've been sort of very, very interested in this story. I think you will be, too. We're going to speak to the man who came back to life after 96 minutes of CPR.
CHETRY: It's an incredible story, and with the help of his community and medics, he's alive today to talk about it.
Well, also, let the hiring begin, hopefully. Figures across forecasters are saying this could be the month that we see job creation and the, hopefully, hundred thousand mark and above.
VELSHI: I heard 90. We hope.
CHETRY: Hopefully. So, we're going to find out more about that because the job numbers come out in five minutes. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-eight minutes past the hour right now.
Rodney King is back in the news, pulled over by police in Arcadia, California this week for allegedly running a red light. He was then cited for driving without a license.
VELSHI: It's been 20 years since Rodney King became a household name. Back then, he was stopped for speeding. I'm sure we all recall anybody who remembers it. He was then beaten by L.A.P.D. officers. Beating was caught on tape. It drew worldwide attention and a lot of unrest around the world, around the United States.
The case became a symbol of police brutality. Don Lemon spoke to Rodney King for a CNN documentary premiering tonight, and he is in Atlanta now with it. Hey, Don.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Ali. We miss you here. Can you believe -- and Kiran, good morning as well. Can you, guys, believe it's been 20 years when they first approached me about doing this documentary, the first thing I said is why are you doing something on Rodney King? And they said, Don, it has been 20 years on March 3rd.
It will be 20 years since that beating, and then, of course, the tape came out that really changed the history of race relations in this country and what many minorities had said about police and their relationship. As you said, I spoke with Rodney King. I spent many, many hours with him for a couple of months doing this documentary, and he took me back to the scene and reenacted those moments from that tape. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): Rodney King agrees to relive those terrifying moments by taking me back to the scene.
RODNEY KING, BEST KNOWN FOR HIS INVOLVEMENT IN A POLICE BRUTALITY CASE: Coming down 210. I exit here on Paxton.
LEMON: Where did you pull over?
KING: I had seen all of those apartments over there. I thought, oh, man, stop here. If it goes down, somebody will see it. They ordered me out of the car. When I opened the door, she said take three steps back away from the car, which I did that. I took three steps back. When I took the three steps back, they said lay down. When I laid down, I laid down like this. And my face is facing this way so I can see them. They said, no, put your head down, face down. When I finally face down, bam, took the blow. Bam, a real hard blow to the temple. When he did that, I just looked and then I went like that and ran this way with my hands up to show no threat. And that is when I didn't know but my leg was broke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I have tell you it was it the oddest thing being there witnessing that, Kiran and Ali. He got out of the car as we were riding with him and just sort of reenacted the moments unscripted. Traffic as you see was going by. It was really unbelievable to sort of stand there and witness it.
I have to say this. Rodney King took over 55 blows, 50 blows with a baton. He was also hit with a taser. And the fact that he is still alive is just amazing. It amazes his surgeons and any medical professional. A doctor tells me the bones in his face were so pulverized, some of them were grains of sand.
But, again, Rodney King is not a sympathetic figure. As you can see, guys, he is still getting into trouble. And I asked him about that also during the documentary.
VELSHI: Don, look forward to seeing you, Don Lemon. Watch the entire special tonight, "Race and Rage, the Beating of Rodney King," 8:00 eastern right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Don, thanks so much.
Our top stories now. Glory was short-lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Virginia. Minutes after the launch of the unmanned spacecraft, part of the rocket failed to separate preventing it from reach to ort. NASA officials say the rocket is believed to have crashed in the southern Pacific Ocean. The failed mission was designed to monitor radiation from the sun and particles in the atmosphere.
And 14 Democratic senators are not coming back to work, despite threats. Governor Scott Walker saying 1,500 layoff notices will be sent out to public workers by this weekend and take effect April 1st because they cannot come to agreement on the budget. They also left the state last month to stall the budget repair bill that included provisions, including the union -- getting rid of the union's right to collective bargain.
And gas prices up from about four cents from yesterday. AAA says the average for a gallon of regular is now $3.47 a gallon, the prices in California where average drivers paying $3.85 a gallon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.
VELSHI: Just in to CNN, the February jobs report. Christine Romans is "Minding your Business." We have very good news. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Finally. The unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent. That is the best unemployment rate since April 2009. And in terms of jobs created in the economy in February, 192,000 jobs.
VELSHI: Wow.
ROMANS: That is the best since May, 2010. December was also revised and of 30,000 jobs in December, a couple of revisions meaning there were more jobs than we thought in recent months.
When you go back to February, 2010, so over the last year, we have now created in total 1.3 million jobs. That comes out to about 106,000 jobs a month.
Where were the jobs created? Just about everywhere -- manufacturing, construction, health care, temporary jobs, permanent jobs. You name it all in there except for state and local governments. They were cutting jobs.
You've been watching the headlines. No question budget cuts mean you're losing state workers and public workers in states. You can see that in these numbers even as the private sector is starting to pick things up a little bit.
So again, total nonfarm payroll employment, it means jobs, up 192,000.
Here is your splash of cold water. We need to be seeing numbers like this. In fact, numbers better than this for months and months and months and months to dig out. In a perfect world, you see 300,000 jobs created every month and take you another four or five years if we had that to get back to where we were before the recession.
But this is confirmation what many economists, analysts, CEOs and small business people and suppliers, people in the transportation industry have been watching shipments of things going across the country and what they have been telling us there is action in the economy and they're starting to see jobs created. So those are the headlines and keep digging in here, 8.9 percent unemployment rates.
VELSHI: Which is better than the consensus estimate and better than what they told us at Money.com. Manufacturing, you said, added 33,000 jobs added in February. All we talk about is losing manufacturing jobs. Health care, we always talk about that, 34,000 jobs created. Transportation, this is why this is important. 11,000 trucking jobs created. Why is that important? Because if people are buying stuff you got to move it. When people stop buying things 80 percent of things on our shelves are moved by a truck in this country. When you don't buy, you don't need trucks.
ROMANS: That is one area of the economy growing is trucking.
CHETRY: It is good to see the manufacturing. That was something that we had seen drop, you know, in recent years, and to see this turn around. (CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: One quick question, though. When Mark Zandi was talking from Moody's economy and others say if these states do cut and if the federal government reins it we will be seeing job losses of hundreds of thousands. When you see a good report this, could this couch what is happening? Is private sector doing enough if we do pull back?
ROMANS: 192,000 is not enough.
VELSHI: You need about 300,000.
ROMANS: You need 150,000 for people entering the work force and graduating from college. So that's immigration and growing up old enough to work, 100,000 to 150,000. So you look at 33,000 jobs in manufacturing. I mean, critics will tell you we lost 2.7 million the past few years.
These numbers are moving in the right direction but a lot more has to be done, and that is clear. You're going to hear people talk about the 99ers. One of the trends this year that a trend for this year will be people newly unemployed will have easier time getting a job. People out of work six months or longer, it's finding a place in this new economy where there is growth.
VELSHI: Christine, great news all around. As we say, it's not enough or big enough but it's all good and in the right direction. This is a solid report.
CHETRY: We had a good report in January, at least it was forecast. Then we saw it revised down. That was just the weather or what?
VELSHI: Hard to know.
ROMANS: There are 150 million people in the labor market. When you're talking about 192,000 jobs in the end.
VELSHI: That's why it's not enough.
ROMANS: These things are prone to revision. There was weather that made it difficult to peg. And economists have been grasping to figure out what is happening in the labor market. There hasn't been a clear trend. They hope this will start the clear trend.
VELSHI: The celebration two months from now we are having two more job reports and two more months of solid real growth, then we are off to the races.
CHETRY: They were spot-on this time. Interesting. Thanks, Christine.
Up next, an amazing save. Doctors and nurses performing CPR on a dying man for more than an hour and a half. They saved his life. We will speak with the emergency team and a man with a new lease on life next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: It is being called a medical miracle, but it's more like a story of sheer determination, one man's desire to live, and a team of total strangers determined to let him live, to keep him alive.
CHETRY: Howard Snitzer a man in cardiac arrest, revived after having no pulse for 96 minutes, more than an hour and a half. A medical team performed aggressive CPR on him. He is alive today and living testimony of the teamwork.
He joins us from Minnesota this morning, and with him the Mayo Clinic's paramedic Bruce Goodman who was on the scene and Dr. Roger White, a specialist in cardiovascular care who was at the Mayo Clinic but was advising Bruce as this rescue was taking place. Thanks to all for being with us this morning.
HOWARD SNITZER, SURVIVED CARDIAC ARREST AFTER 96 MINUTES OF CPR: You're welcome.
BRUCE GOODMAN, FLIGHT NURSE, MAYO ONE: Good morning.
CHETRY: Howard, as I understand it, you remember very little about all of this going on, but how are you now?
SNITZER: I'm great. Glad to be alive. Thank you.
VELSHI: What do you remember? What do you remember back to January 5th? What happened? What is the last thing you remember? And the first thing you remember after all of this?
SNITZER: I don't remember much like an hour or two up to this event. And, you know, I guess I had headed over to the store, I think, to get propane for my grill and later found out they don't even sell propane, but that's a moot point.
I crashed on the sidewalk. The next thing I remember is five days later in the ICU at St. Mary's. And the story has slowly been told to me and, you know, it was -- it's an incredible story. So I just --
CHETRY: It is incredible. Just to give people the scene people are wondering why would it take 96 minutes. You have a doctor next to you and paramedic is there. You live in a population of 900 and no traffic lights. When this happened you crashed on the ground outside of some businesses and a group of people, including these first responders who took turns performing CPR.
Bruce, explain why it took so long and what was happening in the moments when you were trying to figure out if he was going to get to the hospital?
GOODMAN: As far as the helicopter ride, we were dispatched and it took us 20 minutes to get there but the first responders, the people that were on the scene that initially witnessed Mr. Snitzer fall to the ground and immediately recognized he didn't have a pulse and he wasn't breathing and initiated CPR, called 911, got everybody else en route and then the care that they provided until the point that we got there is, for the most part, what we're looking at as the reason that he sits here today.
VELSHI: Here is what Kiran and I were so fascinated by. Movies and TV shows you can go with this a little while but people give up if the body doesn't take over again. Roger White, tell me how this is possible and why that collective group of people around him kept going when everything about popular culture and pop science tells us it didn't make sense to continue for 96 minutes.
DR. ROGER WHITE, MAYO CLINIC: First of all, we had a very committed group of skilled rescuers who performed CPR with near perfection and we had documentation of that by a measurement that we were making and observing throughout the resuscitation.
So I -- I knew that we were on track with the likelihood that we would have a survivor if we could keep at it. Our problem was how to get rid of the rhythm that has caused his cardiac arrest and that -- that was our problem. If we could stop that fatal rhythm, then we knew that Howard had a high likelihood of recovery.
CHETRY: And this is interesting, Bruce, because he's talking about, you know, the decision to give certain medications, a second dose of a certain medication. I might be pronouncing it wrong, but amiodarone (ph) and -- and some of these other life-saving decisions that were made in the face of having again a patient who had no independent pulse.
Tell us a little bit more about how you came to that decision and how it ended up working out.
BRUCE GOODMAN, MAYO CLINIC: You're correct. Excuse me. It's amiodarone (ph) and it's a medication that we had already given. And our protocol would be to give that medication. It was a second dose and a -- and a higher dose that once I had spoken with Dr. White, that he advised to go ahead and to give that dose.
It was -- it was at his direction, not something I would do on my own.
VELSHI: Well, Dr. White, thanks for the great advice you gave, and -- and Bruce, to you, and the -- the first responders and the strangers and the people who kept working on Howard. Just -- what -- you know, our best kudos go out to all of you for doing that.
Howard, we're glad you're with us.
HOWARD SNITZER, SURVIVED CARDIAC ARREST AFTER 96 MINUTES OF CPR: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
CHETRY: I -- I understand you said you have a long road ahead. You're deciding to undergo a -- a bypass surgery to really help yourself recover quicker?
SNITZER: Yes. I -- you know, I'm -- I'm doing what my cardiologist team wants me to do and I -- but I have a -- I was actually on the way to getting a hip replacement when -- not literally, but it was some time in the near future before I had this heart attack. And now that's all on hold until my heart is healthy enough, obviously. And the quick -- the shortest distance between here and a hip is -- is bypass surgery, so I'm all for that if that -- if my heart is viable enough.
So I'm waiting to find out.
VELSHI: All right. Well, thanks so all of you. We appreciate you coming here and giving us all sorts of hope about -- about how people can be saved when we think they are beyond it. Thanks to you guys.
CHETRY: And good luck. Thanks so much.
VELSHI: Well, a wet weekend ahead. Rob Marciano is following that and he'll have it for us right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's a rainy day in the Big Easy this morning but 67 degrees in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are looking at some thunderstorms a little later in the day as well but they're going up to a high of 72.
VELSHI: And Rob is in Atlanta for us covering the weather. What have you got, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I'll tell you what, this weekend and through Tuesday, it really doesn't matter where you are. It's -- it's Mardi Gras for everybody or at least the peak of it. So you know laissez les bon temps roulez (ph), right? You might have to do it with some rain.
These are the areas that have some flood watches and warnings that are posted. Actually the brighter greens are some of the larger rivers that are still in flood state. And so flood warnings are out for that and then, the darker green that's where the flood watches are posted. And that's where the -- the next day and a half as we've got more rain on top of obviously, a very saturated ground fall and some of these rivers still in flood state.
So right now, light to moderate rain beginning to intensify as it crosses the Indiana/Ohio border and heading towards Toledo and Cleveland. Chicago back through Milwaukee also some light to moderate precip. This is a kind of a gathering storm that's moving towards the northeast which was chilly yesterday and is chilly now.
But temperatures are rising and will get above freezing quite easily today I think we'll get into the 40s and in some cases the lower 50s out ahead of this moisture which will be coming your way tomorrow.
Looking at severe weather threat across parts of Arkansas and southern Missouri; fairly dry and still breezy across parts of Florida, so fire danger still very, very high there and the drought ongoing. Temperatures today: 64 degrees in St. Louis; 43 degrees in New York; 51 degrees in D.C.; it'll be 76 degrees in Dallas; and 39 degrees in Denver.
As far as tomorrow's forecast weather map, we're bringing the rainfall across the northeast. And really most folks east of the Mississippi are going to see a fairly wet weather with stormy conditions down across the Florida panhandle.
You're up-to-date weatherwise. AMERICAN MORNING is coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Beware of bedbugs. Experts say infestations could explode this summer and not just where you expect it.
CHETRY: Yes, that's why you were -- is that why you were reading your bedbug guide yesterday?
(CROSS TALK)
VELSHI: I was carrying the bedbug book as a social experiment because people were just freaking out.
CHETRY: Yes.
VELSHI: They were just getting itchy being around me. Like many other insects, they tend to come out and play in the warmer months. In New York City, the Health Department says over 400,000 people reported bedbug cases in 2009.
But even in places like Alaska, cases were up 800 percent. Creepy little things, huh?
CHETRY: Not pleasant to think about.
Well, a nation of zombies that's what we are apparently. The Centers for Disease Control says that there -- that one in three adults sleep less than seven hours a night, which is the recommended -- the gold standard of sleep I guess you could say. Sanjay always tells us that. Twenty percent of those said they have trouble remembering things and five percent admitted to actually falling asleep behind the wheel.
VELSHI: Yes a totally different issue though, a lot of people don't sleep but they don't have narcolepsy or they don't get tired. I mean, this is something you've got to judge yourself, but quite incredible. Its 55 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY STOKES, CNN HERO: Keldara (ph) are you going to help me do this other one?
In 2003, my husband and I went to Johannesburg and we adopted our son.
There you go.
HIV/AIDS has really decimated some of these communities. Seeing all of the children and so few adults to help them grow up.
When none of the adults you care about has ever lived past 35, then why would you think you can? Why would you stay in school? Why would you invest in yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me something new that happened in school this week.
STOKES: I had to find a way to bring the caring, nurturing effect of other adults for that child to invest in themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who is this?
STOKES: I'm Amy Stokes. I use the Internet to create a global village where the mentors and the kids can interact face-to-face on a regular basis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Joel, how are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is your day at school? Did you work in the garden?
STOKES: That mentor shows up every week. A relationship starts between one person here and one person there. And then that relationship expands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mentor is so good. I like him very much.
STOKES: Because they want to connect with that special someone, they are going to learn keyboard skills. The skills that they will need to have jobs and to be able to do whatever they need in the future.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok, I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, too. Bye.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jill is part of my family and also part of my life.
STOKES: It's a bite-sized opportunity to change a world. And there's no commute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Just amazing. If you know a hero, you can nominate them at CNN.com/heroes.
And that's going to do it for us. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. See you back here on Monday.
VELSHI: Glad to be with you this week.
CHETRY: You too.
VELSHI: Carol Costello takes it over with "CNN NEWSROOM" -- hey Carol.
