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Jobless Report Disappoints Again; New Jobs Report Shadows 2012 Race; Republicans Pounce on Jobs Report; Arrests Followed Discovery in Car; New Terror Arrests in U.K.; Zimmerman's New Bond Costs $1 Million; Stocks Tumble at Open; Most Destructive Wildfire 90 Percent Contained; $400K San Diego Fireworks Ends in 20 Seconds
Aired July 06, 2012 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It looks like fun, Soledad. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Enjoy New Orleans, you and everyone there at the table.
Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, jobs, jobs, jobs. New jobs numbers are out. They just came out, and it's not good for you, it's not good for the president. The stakes couldn't be higher with only four more jobs reports to go before the election. Experts say America's undecided voters are starting to make up their minds now.
We're on jail watch today as well. George Zimmerman, will he post bond and be a free man until his trial? In the NEWSROOM this morning, Benjamin Crump, attorney for Trayvon Martin's parents.
Breaking news out of London to tell you about. Terror arrests. The second major bust in just two days. New concerns and new questions this morning. Are the Olympics being targeted?
Plus this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really funny that Pepco is actually trying to save face now. About five to six trucks came with about anywhere from six to eight different people. The whole process took 38 minutes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Power problem solved. A family in Maryland desperate for help finally becomes a priority for the power company. This morning, their lights are on and the danger is gone.
And the NEWSROOM begins right now.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Carol is off today. And we're going to this hour with a new measure of the economy and new ammunition thrown into the presidential race. Just minutes ago, we learned unemployment is still bogged down at a dismal 8.2 percent, 80,000 jobs were created. That's less than expected. It's one of the last monthly reports we should tell you before the November election. And this morning, both the Obama and Romney campaigns will put their own spin on this.
We're going to cut through all of that for you. Poppy Harlow will give us the bottom line on the new numbers. Alison Kosik shows us the ripples on Wall Street. Dan Lothian looks ahead at the president's remarks on the economy next hour. And Dana Bash has the view from the Romney campaign.
Want to go first now to Poppy Harlow in New York. Give us the breakdown. This is not good news.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Don, I'm losing you on my IFB. So while they fix that, I'm just going to give you -- you gave the headline number. I'm just going to talk to people about the real issue here, and that is that this economy frankly needs to be creating 300,000 to 400,000 jobs every single month for a few consecutive months to bring that unemployment number down. That is not happening. This is a worse than expected number.
And what I think is also critical to look at is how many million people are looking for work, want work out there, that have just given up and said, you know, I can't find a job. They are not counted in this unemployment rate.
Let's tack a look at that number, 2.5 million Americans would like to be working, would like a job. They have given up looking because they feel the economy is so bad, they are not counted in this rate. If you count them in this unemployment rate, you're actually closer to 15 percent. So that's a little reality check, Don, for you, on this pretty disappointing report, frankly.
LEMON: All right. Poppy Harlow in New York. Poppy, thank you very much.
I want to go Wall Street now to see how investors view this latest disappointing jobs report. Will your retirement savings, well, will it take a beating today? That is the question. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.
Alison, how are they reacting to this news?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Don, good morning. The bell is going to ring. The Opening Bell is ringing about half an hour from now. We're watching Dow futures drop at least 80 points. The S&P 500, which our portfolio mostly tracks, that's down 3/4 of 1 percent. The way Wall Street sees it is the bar was already low. Meaning the forecast for this report, 95,000 jobs, that was the expectation.
And look at this. The 80,000 number, it couldn't even live up to that. And then you look at April through June. All of these numbers, only job additions in the double digits. Turns out -- it turned out to be that the weakest job quarter in two years. So it's been three months in a row below 100,000 jobs added to this economy. And many say, you know what, at this point, you can officially --you can call it a trend. So clearly it's not good enough. So once again, Dow Industrials look like they're going to open at least 80 points lower.
And now the question for investors, Don, is it bad enough for the Fed to do something? Meaning, is this number scary enough where it could encourage the Federal Reserve to pump even more stimulus into the system? And guess what? An analyst I talked to says, you know what, it's not bad enough. It's not bad enough for the Fed to step in just yet. So investors are disappointed and they're showing their disappointment in futures once again, which are lower -- Don.
LEMON: All right. Alison Kosik, we'll be checking with you, that's for sure, throughout the day. Thank you.
The economy has become the issue in the presidential race. And with good reason, of course. The CNN/ORC poll shows that registered voters are split between choosing who would better handle the nation's sluggish economy. Forty-eight percent say Mitt Romney, 47 percent, well, they choose President Obama. And when asked what issues are important to voters, more than half say the economy, of course. That overshadows health care, the national deficit and education.
The president is trying to blunt the criticism of the weak economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From now until November, the other side is going to spend more money than we've ever seen before, and they will be raining ads down on your head, and they'll tell you it's all my fault. I can't fix it because I think government is the answer to everything or because I haven't made a lot of money in the private sector. I think everything is doing just fine.
That's what all the scary voices in the ads will tell you. That's what Mitt Romney will say. That's what Republicans in Congress will say. And, you know, that's their plan for winning an election, but it's not a plan to create jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That was Thursday before this dismal jobs report. There you see him. Dan Lothian traveling with the Obama bus tour. He joins us now from northeast Ohio. He's on that bus.
How are they reacting? Have you heard anything about the reaction from the Obama campaign to this jobs report -- Dan?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Don, we are on one of the two press buses going along with the president on this tour. I'm told by a senior campaign official that the president will be giving some sort of reaction to the latest job numbers at this event.
We are in Poland, Ohio, at an elementary school. As I said, we just pulled in here. So later in the hour, perhaps a little later than that, because the president has been making some side trips, we'll hear from the president reacting to those numbers. No doubt what we will hear is the president talking about the progress that's being made, but also pointing out that this recovery will take time.
That this is not something that will be fixed overnight. But this is already something that Republicans are jumping on, attacking the president, saying that this high unemployment is chronically high. And that it just shows that the president's economic policies have failed.
A little scene setter here, the president before arriving to this event here in Poland, Ohio, made a stop this morning at a -- in Akron, Ohio, at a restaurant where he ordered some eggs, wheat toast, and some bacon, then sat down with three workers at a tire company, at a Goodyear company, obviously talking about the economy, finding out what's important in their lives.
And then the president stopping off as we speak at a manufacturing plant. It's a food manufacturing plant that we're told by the White House is expanding and adding jobs. So the theme on this two-day bus tour has been job creation, how his economic policies have worked, at least according to the president, and what he hopes to continue doing to create more jobs not only in this region that's been hit hard by a loss in manufacturing jobs, but also in Pennsylvania as well, where we'll be headed later today -- Don.
LEMON: Dan Lothian traveling with the Obama campaign bus. It will interesting to hear what he has to say a little later on.
Thank you, Dan.
Within minutes of the new jobs report, of course, Republicans were quick to pounce on the tepid numbers. CNN's Dana Bash is in Boston with the reaction.
Dana, just got an email, I'm not going to steal all of your thunder here, from Reince Priebus. He is saying that the Obama economy is defined by chronically high unemployment, and that's just the beginning of his response.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. We haven't heard from the Romney campaign per se yet, but we are going to hear probably pretty much precisely what we heard from the Republican National Committee chair and the House speaker, who were very, very quick to release their statements. And it is, as you say. I'll read part of it.
"The Obama economy is defined by chronically high unemployment. Our country is coming out of the worst quarter of job creation in two years. Obamacare and President Obama's other policies simply are not working and disappointed Americans are ready for new direction."
That is something that they probably could have and maybe did cut and paste from the last month's jobs report and the jobs report before that. Look, it is no secret now that we are at Friday, the end of this week, that the Romney campaign in particular didn't have the best week when it came to trying to define their message about health care, and about the Supreme Court decision and whether or not the mandate is a tax or a penalty and so forth.
However, talk to senior Romney officials as I have being up here in New England and they say that by far they still believe that it is jobs and the economy that are going to drive the electorate, and that is why for them this is a critically important jobs report.
LEMON: All right. Going to be a busy day for you, Dana Bash. Stand by as well.
This morning we will also hear from two possible running mates of Mitt Romney. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty are aboard the Romney campaign bus. They're shadowing the Obama tour in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Pawlenty and Jindal are due to speak at the top of the hour in Pittsburgh, and we're going to carry their remarks live for you here on CNN.
We're learning of more terror arrests for the second day in a row in UK. And we're going to take you live to London for the very latest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Check your headlines right now. World leaders are putting more pressure on the Syrian regime to step down. And the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the people deserve a democratically elected government, but she says getting rid of President Bashir al-Assad won't be easy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a regime with a massive war machine. I'm sure many of you followed the back and forth I had with the Russian government over sending the attack helicopters they were refurbishing back to Syria. And I thank the United Kingdom and other European countries for very clearly expressing their refusal to allow that ship to go forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The opposition says that at least 80 more people have been killed across Syria since yesterday.
This morning, crews in east Tennessee are looking for other possible victims after severe storms with 70-mile-an-hour winds hit overnight. At least two people were killed in the great Smokey Mountains National Park. Police say a woman was hit by a falling tree, and a man wrecked his motorcycle. The storms also knocked out power to thousands and damaged several homes. Starting Monday, you and 60,000 other Americans could lose Internet access if your PC is infected with a virus. That virus redirects you to Web sites that will try to steal your personal information. The FBI arrested the malware authors last -- authors last year, and has been asking people to check their computers. You can go to this Web site. Do that by going to dcwg.org. Dcwg.org.
Drivers in Dallas got no warning before a smash-up. Look at this. The driver of a transit authority van never touches his brakes as he crushes a line of cars stopped at an exit ramp. Look at it. There it is. Boom, right in there. Incredibly, only two people were injured. No passengers were in that van. The driver of the van now on administrative leave.
Heightened security right now in the UK with the Olympic Games just three weeks away. And just a few hours ago, police announced the arrest of seven people on terror charges a day after six other terror suspects were detained.
CNN's Matthew Chance is in London for us.
Matthew, good morning.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, thanks so much. Well, it is just three weeks. So July 27th is when the Olympic Games gets underway here in the British capital. And we're seeing an upsurge in sort of security related activities. Today those seven men arrested in anti-terror raids by the police across the country.
It took place in the west midlands part of England, in the midlands, in the north of the country. It actually comes from the fact a car was stopped on a main road on suspicion of not having proper insurance. But when they searched the car, they found weapons of some description. Not been disclosed exactly what. But the items recovered from the vehicle according to the police are undergoing forensic analysis and searches are being carried out of the people who were arrested.
It comes just a day, though, after six other people were arrested here in London. Some of them near the Olympic center, the Olympic stadium where the games are going to kick off. And it's understood that their arrest related to a plot involving Islamist extremists with potential U.K. targets. Although the police are very quick to say that neither of these incidents, neither of these arrests, the ones today in the midlands nor the ones yesterday in London, are directly related to any plot to attack during the Olympic Games, Don.
LEMON: All right. Matthew Chance in London. Thank you very much for that.
Here in the U.S., George Zimmerman gets another chance to leave jail even as a Florida judge says he thinks Zimmerman could be a flight risk. We'll talk about what's next in the Trayvon Martin case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We want to get you now live to -- there it is, Sanford, Florida, from the Florida jail there. And again that's live pictures where any minute George Zimmerman could, he could walk out after posting part of a $1 million bond.
David Mattingly is here.
And when that came in, $1 million yesterday, everyone said, oh, my goodness. The judge did place some restrictions on George Zimmerman this time. What are they?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he had a lot of restrictions on him before. He has to wear the ankle bracelet, the GPS device. He has to check in. He has to refrain from using alcohol. All the usual things.
But this time, the judge says we're not going to let you leave the county. That's because the judge believed he was a flight risk, saying it in the order yesterday that he believed that George Zimmerman was planning to leave to avoid prosecution. But those plans were thwarted. He didn't give any details about what the plans were or how they were ended.
LEMON: Really?
MATTINGLY: But he clearly believed that George Zimmerman was a flight risk.
LEMON: All right. So, it's $1 million. He has to do 10 percent, right?
MATTINGLY: Right.
LEMON: So does that play into whether -- does the bondsman take into account what the judge thinks about possible flight risk? Meaning, is he going to make this bond?
MATTINGLY: Well, it's a negotiation process. George Zimmerman's parents don't own enough property to make up for the difference, the other $900,000. So the attorney for Zimmerman is negotiating with the bondsman to see what sort of risk they are all willing to take. If Zimmerman leaves, then the bondsman may be on the hook for whatever is left over, if they decide to post the bond for him.
So it is negotiation process. But, again, Zimmerman is going to have a GPS device on. He's not allowed to leave the county. And it's possible his parents may be on the hook by having their own property in the mix here. But we don't know the details of the negotiations.
LEMON: Very interesting. There seems to be twists and turns to this case almost every week.
MATTINGLY: Right.
LEMON: It's going to be interesting to watch.
MATTINGLY: And the big twist here, not only is George Zimmerman's reputation with the court severely damaged, but his attorney is now also actively involved in fundraising, with the statement that came out yesterday. He was telling people if you support George Zimmerman, now is the time to contribute. And we hadn't seen that before.
LEMON: David Mattingly, thank you.
We showed you that live shot of the Sanford, Florida, jail. In our next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm going to speak to a man who has been at the center of this controversial case. There he is. Benjamin Crump, attorney for the Trayvon Martin family. He will join me live at 10:25 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
And our thanks again to David Mattingly.
Many people in the greater D.C. area are still dealing with power outages from last week's storms. Emergency officials say they received an onslaught of calls. So why did one fire crew take time out to do of all things fill a homeowner's swimming pool?
CNN's Lisa Sylvester checked it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trees down, dangling electrical wires and medical emergencies in the aftermath of the storm. As a result, the fire department had tripled the number of normal calls.
But in the middle of it all, what was this D.C. engine fire crew tasked with? Filling this private small above-ground pool in someone's yard.
Neighbor Freda Brooks watched it all happened.
FREDA BROOKS, NEIGHBOR: I was more in shock. I couldn't believe it. Because I didn't know they could come and do that. So yes.
SYLVESTER (on camera): They're not actually supposed to do that.
BROOKS: I kind of figured that.
SYLVESTER (voice-over): This fire hydrant had to be open to help fill up the pool with a total of about a thousand gallons of water. It took firefighters about an hour to get the job done.
We knocked on the homeowner's door, but there was no answer.
(on camera): So while the fire department was filling up this one person's private pool, the neighbors here say they were suffering in the heat. They didn't have electricity for four days.
(voice-over): The firefighters local union president says even the Engine 30 fire crews thought the request was unusual. The fire department doesn't go around filling up private pools.
ED SMITH, D.C. FIREFIGHTER: I did talk to some of the firefighters that were involved, and they had concerns. They thought that, you know, they could have been out doing all the work, especially given the storm.
SYLVESTER: But these firefighters had their orders, and they're trained to follow them. So how could this have happened?
The homeowner made the request on Thursday. Friday, the storm hit. And the job was done on Saturday.
I asked the D.C. fire chief what in the world his people were thinking. He says the request to fill the pool was immediately denied.
CHIEF KENNETH ELLERBE, D.C. FIRE CHIEF: They ran it up the flag pole and they were told not to do it. But, unfortunately, that information was not communicated down to the company level. We found out where the breakdown is, and we're going to have to take appropriate action.
SYLVESTER: A battalion chief is now being reprimanded, and the fire chief is now saying to D.C. residents: sorry.
(on camera): Is this ever going to happen again where you're going to fill a private pool?
ELLERBE: No.
SYLVESTER: The fire chief insists there is no personal connection between the homeowner and anyone at the fire department, but it is amazing it got past the initial homeowner's phone call because the fire department doesn't serve as a pool company. By the way, when we went by the home, the pool has since been emptied.
Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Lisa, thank you very much.
This is just in to CNN. You just saw those jobs numbers came out, the dismal jobs numbers, and I'm just getting it here from my computer. And I'm hearing now that Mitt Romney is going to respond to the June unemployment report. He is at the family lake house near Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He's going to do that at the top of the hour here on CNN.
Of course, the news of the day, those dismal jobs number. Only 80,000 jobs created in June.
We'll hear from the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney at the top of the hour, 10:00 a.m. Eastern here on CNN.
To talk more about that, we'll go to New Orleans where the Essence Music Festival is underway. And there is more to talk about than just music. We'll talk about jobs numbers continuing a troubling trend, especially for African-Americans hit hardest by this economy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Here are the stories we're watching for you right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We are expecting President Obama to comment on the bleak jobs report in about an hour. The president will return to the White House this afternoon and sign a $105 billion transportation and student loan bill. The combine legislation funds highway and legislation projects for two years and extends a 4.2 percent have rate on certain federal student loans. We'll have that for you.
More tense moments in London. Police in the U.K. announcing they just arrested seven more terror suspects. The men were detained after police found firearms and other weapons hidden in a car. Police arrested six other people yesterday on terror charges. The arrests come amid heightened security ahead of the Olympic Games.
A stunning blow to Syrian President Bashir al-Assad today. A general in his elite republican guards has defected. That's according to a Western diplomat.
He is possibly the most senior Sunni in the power structure and considered one of Assad's confidants. He became disenchanted with the regime over the slaughter of civilians, especially Sunnis.
Now let's get to what we've been talking about, the breakdown of that jobs report. It's a disappointing jobs report along racial lines. As well, the picture, it is even more troubling. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate for African-Americans in June climbed to 14.4 percent, nearly double the jobless rate for white Americans and at 7.4 percent.
We want to go to our Soledad O'Brien at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, where they are empowering -- empowerment sessions are going on, as well as big jam sessions.
I can see you standing out there on the corner, Soledad. Listen, what are people at this festival saying about jobs in general? Do African-Americans --
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting.
LEMON: I'm not sure if you have spoken with them. Do they think the president has done enough to help the economy? Sorry about that the delay.
O'BRIEN: We have here, and the people we have spoken to have said, yeah, they feel like here there are enough jobs, and that they feel -- the ones we've spoken to -- they feel good about the economy.
But I think when you look at sort of the macro picture of it -- the issue is going to be a focus on African-American women, which is sort of apropos of course because the Essence Festival is about empowering women, black women. And the reason you look at, the people who are the fastest-growing group of small business owners are African-American women. And with the housing crisis that can kill that for a couple of reasons.
Number one, the way you get a loan obviously is you can secure it through your home. At the same time, we have seen credit tightening. So that growing group of small business owners, African- American women, now they are not growing quite so fast, puts a real strain on them. And that's where I think you're seeing a struggle for black women specifically.
Where this comes back to be problematic for President Barack Obama is that that same group, black women, African-American women, is the group that turned out the largest numbers for him. That group was the most enthusiastic about voting for him in the 2008 election. So you can see where the conundrum comes with these new and as you point out pretty dire numbers, specifically and especially for African- Americans.
So when we were talking this morning with expert economists saying that the growth is even more slow and more meager than projected, the number projected was 95,000 jobs created, it turned out to be 80,000 jobs created.
You can see where this would pose a big dilemma for President Obama, especially among his core constituents, because they are the ones who are being hit in both the lack of opportunities in the small business growth and also high unemployment numbers as well -- Don.
LEMON: Again, pardon, sorry about the delay, Soledad. As we were sitting here in the NEWSROOM, and, you know, it's an hour earlier there, and the report came across and everyone said, oh, my gosh, whoa.
You were in a hall with people this morning. Was there a reaction? Has there been a visceral reaction to these jobs numbers, or it hasn't really trickled down yet to the folks there?
O'BRIEN: No. I don't think it trickles down exactly in that way. I think the people who say whoa are the people who are the economists, who are then going to crunch those numbers. I think for most -- you know, we like to call regular folks walking around, and we have had a chance to talk to right here at the Ruby Slipper Cafe where we spent a lot of our morning, those folks talk about how they feel. You know, what they feel about the economy, instead of what the statistics and some job numbers show over the last month.
And I think people are feeling badly. They are hurting because they know somebody -- if they themselves are not struggling with a job loss, they certainly know somebody, a family member, who is struggling with job loss. I think that that is the big problem because, of course, how you feel is often translated into how you vote.
And that's going to be the real challenge for President Obama.
If Mitt Romney doesn't come forward with a better plan, many economists we spoke to this morning would say, well, the president is not to blame. That anybody in the same position would have the same challenging numbers is really going to be incumbent on the Republicans to say, well, here's what we would do better, and provide a convincing argument if they expect to take the White House.
LEMON: Yes. It's interesting to hear the spin on both sides. People are really hurting, and I think you're right, it poses an interesting dilemma as well for the president.
Soledad O'Brien at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. I appreciate it, Soledad. Thank you very much.
Now, we're going to go to the impact on Wall Street. The opening bell, ringing right now. And the market is already down 113 points. Investors are getting their first chance to react to the weaker than expected June jobs report.
Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.
Alison, market is down at the opening bell.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Market not happy about this report, even though it was kind of expected in some ways. Yet it did fall short of expectations at the same time. You look at employers. They added only 80,000 jobs.
So economists surveyed by CNN Money were expecting 95,000. So even though the bar was set pretty low, and the number couldn't even meet that low bar. And that is why you are seeing that triple digit selloff went minutes of the opening bell.
You know, I talked with one analyst from the black bay group, and he says this is an economic recovery that really seems to be stuck in quick sand. It's kind of like feeling like deja vu of last summer. You remember that slowdown last year that eventually picked up in the fall.
At least one economist tells us that's what we're seeing again. You know, think about last year. We had rising gas prices. Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. the European debt crisis. And this year, the worry, yes, is still all about Europe.
But the slowdown and these economic figures right here at home are also weighing down the economy as well. And what it's also doing is it's raising calls. It's making those calls even louder for the Federal Reserve to step in with more stimulus to get the wheels turning again, because, Don, almost 13 million Americans are out of a job right now. They don't have any work. And about 40 percent of them have been that way for six months or more. So it's really, really bad out there, Don.
LEMON: Oh, yes, it is. Boy, do we know and boy, do the American people know it.
Thank you, Alison Kosik. We appreciate it. We'll be checking with you again.
Again, the market just opened. The opening bell just rang down 120 points as I speak right now.
Moving on, a Maryland couple spent days trying to get the power company to fix a dangerous and potentially deadly problem at their home after last week's violent storms. We brought you their story yesterday. There is an update today that you really don't want to miss.
And don't forget if you're heading outdoors and you want to take us with you, you can watch us anytime on your mobile or your computer. Just head to CNN.com/TV.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: New video in to CNN. We have been telling you the president is on a bus tour. He is in the Rust Belt today, specifically Akron, Ohio. This is him heading into Ann's Place and ordering.
And we're told by our folks on the ground that the president sat down with three men to eat. Workers at the Akron Goodyear plant there, and talked about obviously issues. And they just sort of chewed the fat and chatted. Just as color, the president ordered two eggs over medium, bacon, wheat toast. He was also offered some grits, and he said, you know, do you have grits, too? And he ordered that as well.
Also joking with patrons calling them trouble makers, and there were some loud outbursts of laughter. So the president in Akron, Ohio. As soon as the president talks about the dismal jobs report, we'll bring that to you.
Also, Mitt Romney in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the site of his family's lake home. He's going to speak at the top of the hour, 10:00 a.m. Eastern. He's going to react to the jobs report as well.
We'll carry both them for you in the U.S.
In the meantime, 56 percent of the continental U.S. is in some stage of drought right now and some fear another dust bowl could happen. This is the most extensive drought in the 12 years since the U.S. began monitoring them. And don't forget about that blistering heat and the power outages.
Well, today's temperatures are expected to hover around and above 100 degrees in Chicago and St. Louis, Indianapolis, Baltimore, and several spots in between. More than 500,000 customers in 11 states and D.C. are still without electricity a week after powerful storms hit.
You know, Arosemenas in Silver Spring, Maryland, the issue wasn't a lack of power but a live power line on their roof. And yesterday, the couple told us they were having trouble getting the attention of Pepco, their utility company. They say the utility restored the power to their neighborhood on Sunday, but did nothing about the downed live power line on their house.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONI AROSEMENA, PEPCOI POWER CUSTOMER: They keep saying, oh, your electric isn't on. And I'm like, no, that's not the issue. It's live power lines. They said, oh, we'll open another ticket, but there's no ticket.
And it's frustrating. I mean, I had one of their people laugh at me. One of them hung up on me. And yesterday, I had someone call me and say, well, they were just going to come out and cut the power lines and then we could find a tree crew.
And this was at 7:00 on the Fourth of July. And I'm thinking, where am I going to find a tree crew at 7:00 on Fourth of July?
JAARED AROSEMENA, PEPCO POWER CUSTOMER: It's even more than that. It's the whole thing with the service to the people. You know, the problem is if this situation would have happened, if there would have been a downed line or limbs in the driveway of, say, for instance a McDonald's up the street here, I'm sure that within 24 hours that they would have made sure that those lines were up to where that business that pays them, you know, thousands and thousands of, you know, in the upwards of millions of dollars a year -- you know, I'm sure that they would have that cleared off within 24 hours. And they did have that cleared off within 24 hours from this past storm.
But my question is, to Pepco, when does a McDonald's cheeseburger take precedence over human lives?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And I told the Arosemenas yesterday, I'm sure they would hear from Pepco after their appearance on CNN. And within a few hours, action, success and satisfaction.
Jaared Arosemena sent us this video update shortly after our interview aired.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAARED AROSEMENA, PEPCO POWER CUSTOMER: When the linemen arrived here, right after the CNN interview and also the WUSA TV9 interview, about five to six trucks came with anywhere from six to eight different people from Pepco, you know, from the linemen to repair the problem.
We went outside and specifically asked them, is this line charged or isn't it? And they said, oh, yes, definitely. It's live. We have to shut down your power before we do anything.
So they shut down the power, sawed the limbs to get them untangled from the wires. They temporarily hooked it back up to the side of our house. The whole process took 38 minutes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I want to tell you that the couple says that Pepco even called them twice to make sure they were satisfied.
Fighting a wildfire from the air can make all the difference. So why did -- several planes sit -- why did they sit on the tarmac? We'll go in-depth to get that answer for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Time to check your top stories here on CNN.
The nation's job market continues to grow, but not at a fast enough pace to cut the unemployment rate. Only 80,000 jobs were created last month, missing expectations of 95,000 new jobs. And the unemployment rate held steady at 8.2 percent.
I want to tell you, at the top of the hour, we're going to go to Mitt Romney live. He's going to be in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, responding to that dismal jobs report.
And then 45 minutes after that, Poland, Ohio, President Barack Obama will be doing the same, responding to that report as well. That's him in Akron, going into a diner, having breakfast with the folks there on his bus tour. His campaign bus tour throughout the Rust Belt.
OK. How about this? Soda security. Air travelers in Grand Junction, Colorado, say TSA agents are screening their sodas, their juices, and waters, the water drinks, I should say, they bought after going through security. Some passengers are worried their drinks may not be safe. TSA won't say why they are testing but reminds all passengers, security screenings can pop up even at the airport gates and also in waiting areas.
I want you to check out these amazing pictures from Mexico. Look at this. This is where photographer -- photographer Andy Merch captured this rare whale a breach on camera. Isn't beautiful. Merch said the creature, known as the "Bride's Whale", had been shadowing his boat shortly before breaking the surface -- beautiful pictures.
You know, in war, air power can certainly turn the tide. But fire crews waging war against the most destructive wildfires in Colorado's history, well they didn't have nearly enough air power. The fire is more than 90 percent contained right now, but firefighting planes that sat on the tarmac would have made the job a little easier and maybe saved some of the 346 homes that were incinerated by flames.
So why weren't they used?
Rob Marciano goes in depth to answer that question for us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stopping big wildfires before they reach big cities like Colorado Springs is getting increasingly difficult. While the bulk of the fire-fighting effort is made on the ground, attacking the flames from the air is crucial to getting the fire under control.
First, over the fire are often heavy tankers. Modified warplanes that can drop thousands of gallons of water or retardant on and ahead of an advancing fire line. The U.S. Forest Service Chief says air tankers are key to fighting the big battles.
TOM TIDWELL, U.S. FOREST SERVICE CHIEF: We need large air tankers that can carry a minimum of 3,000 gallons to be able to actually penetrate the canopy, to get that retardant down on the ground where it can actually slow down the fire.
MARCIANO: But the number of tankers has shrunk in the last decade from 44 in 2002 to just nine today. Tankers contracted by the Forest Service now have to meet higher safety standards, a more rigid proactive maintenance schedule than both the FAA and Navy require.
The result is parked planes. These P3 tankers, former Navy Subhunters, owned by a company called Aero Union have met FAA standards, but sit idle because they don't comply with new Forest Service requirements. Fully compliant, ready to fly, but also parked is the biggest of all tankers, and they call it "The Big Kahuna".
(on camera): If you're a passenger on a 747, this is where you'd be sitting. Instead, on this plane, they have got 10 tanks carrying 20,000 gallons of fire retardant and/or foam. 90 tons of fire fighting artillery.
(voice-over): But the U.S. Forest Service says it's too big, and too expensive to keep continually ready on a standby basis. The service says it gets more use out of smaller tankers. But big tankers are especially effective when trying to stop a fire on a ridge line, which is what didn't happen the night the Waldo Canyon fire ran down the mountains into Colorado Springs, ultimately burning 346 homes.
RICH HARVEY, WALDO FIRE INCIDENT COMMANDER: That was a good place to use big planes. And we were using big planes.
MARCIANO: Rich Harvey is the fires incident commander. So I ask him if he could have used an even bigger plane.
(on camera): It would have been nice to have the jumbo jet dropping 20,000 gallons?
HARVEY: We had what we had, and we did what we could do with it.
MARCIANO: Well you're really toeing the company line here. In an ideal world, you know a 747 comes along over that ridge with 20,000 of gallons to dump on that fire before it hits the ridge, you know just between me and you.
HARVEY: Yes. Me and you and the camera and you know, I like -- we use what we've got. We try to do the best things we can with the tools we have in the tool chest.
MARCIANO (voice-over): The Air Force Reserve has helped the cause by supplying eight modified C-130s, tragically losing one plane and its crew in a crash earlier this week. Military-owned planes don't have to comply with Forest Service safety standards.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, but it highlights an undeniable fact. Aerial fire-fighting is dangerous business that doesn't always guarantee success.
TIDWELL: I know it's hard for folks to understand, and I know it can be frustrating. But we can have all the resources that are available, all the retardant planes, all the helicopters, but when you get the right set of fuel conditions, the right weather, and you get strong winds like we had there, you're going to get a fire that's going to move like that, no matter how many resources that we've had.
MARCIANO: As our cities spread into the forest, Mother Nature may ultimately have the upper hand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: So that is the Forest Service line, and I certainly can appreciate the power of Mother Nature. But when you're up in a war like this, you want every weapon really at your disposal.
But you know, there's convoluted regulations, there's -- there's money and there's politics that get in the way.
LEMON: I wanted to ask you about the money. Because I --- I remember, I think the Obama administration proposing a lot of money, millions for these types of planes, right?
MARCIANO: Yes, yes $24 million in the budget for next year. And hopefully that gets approved and that's to -- you know to get more planes onboard, but even if that happens, that's not going to happen for several months, so. Again, politics involved there, but they'll take any money they can get and not to -- not to diminish what the guys do on the ground, because in the end it's the foot soldiers that are -- are doing the brunt of the work of putting out the fire.
LEMON: Yes. And they've got a tough job and they do a great job with what they have.
MARCIANO: Yes, they do.
LEMON: Thank you very much, Rob Marciano.
MARCIANO: You got it.
LEMON: San Diego's spectacular fireworks show was over almost as soon as it began. Now the company behind that failure has apologized, and it's going to give the city a special gift. We'll tell you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: All you disappointed fireworks fans in San Diego, you're getting an apology and a free show next July 4th. You'll have to wait, from the same company that put on this year's $400,000 spectacular disappointment.
Here's CNN Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're looking at fireworks where the fire worked, just not the timing.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: It really rocked San Diego.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
MOOS: All of the fireworks intended for an entire 20-minute show went off at the same time. It was over in under 30 seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. This has been this year's --
MOOS: You know it's always hard to tell when a fireworks display is over. You're also asking was that the finale, was that it? Same here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe that was everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they just set them all off at once.
MOOS: You bet you.
Garden State Fireworks, a company famous for its shows, says the snafu may have been caused by a corrupted file resulting in a computer glitch that launched every single fire work. Garden State's co-owner August Santori.
AUGUST SANTORI, GARDEN STATES: God I wish I could un-ring the bell but I can't.
MOOS: At least un-ring the car alarms. The short but intense show was a disappointment to some but not all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was not expecting that. That was awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was a good start.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't often see the grand finale at the beginning.
MOOS: On the Internet they call this an epic fail. Too bad it happened too late to be included in this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, oh, oh.
MOOS: The ultimate fireworks fail compilation set to music.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: at least no one was hurt in the San Diego blowout. The Coast guard had a technical term for the fireworks fiasco.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A, quote, "premature ignition".
MOOS: Leading one poster to quip "I swear to you this has never happened to me before." Even after the fireworks were spent the music played on.
In the land of the free, feel free to cheer premature ignition.
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS: New York.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: America. All right. Speaking of America, what about American jobs? Mitt Romney on vacation this week, but that jobs report, well, certainly springing him into action.
At the top of the hour in just a few minutes he's expected to make remarks in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire about the job report. We'll carry that for you live.
And then at 10:45, 45 minutes later in Poland, Ohio President Barack Obama will make remarks as well. You'll see both the President and Mitt Romney live here on CNN.
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LEMON: Oh, that's right. It's tame now for the "Big Play". A marquee match going on at Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic facing Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Federer leads 2-1.
Serena Williams has already punched her ticket to the women's final. She dominated Victoria Azarenka in yesterday's semis, served 24 aces, that's a tournament record, no double fault. Serena takes the match 6-3, 7-6 and advances to her seventh Wimbledon final. She will take on Agnieszka Radwanska.
Could Jeremy Lin be taking his talents to Texas? The Houston Rockets have offered Lin a four-year contract worth more than $28 million, but because Lin's a restricted free agents the New York Knicks can match the Rockets offer sheet and keep Lin-sanity, as we say in Madison Square Garden. So stay tuned for that.
Tiger Woods had a tough day on the green in Green Briar. He needed 31 putts to finish the first round. Tiger admitted he had a reading problem but promised to get it fixed before teeing off this afternoon. Tiger did have four birdies but they were overshadowed by three bogies and a double bogie --
