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Mourning the Slain Oakland Police Officers; Bracing for Historic Flooding; Heading to Florida for Spring Break
Aired March 22, 2009 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Police and loved ones mourning their own on the single deadliest day in the history of the Oakland Police Department.
Bracing for historic flooding, the rivers are on the rise in North Dakota. Tonight, a million sandbags are being filled. But will it be enough?
Desperate to feed every mouth in the family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your pets are like your kids, and you don't want to see them shipped off to jail, which is in essence what, you know, you're going to do with your animals if you have to get rid of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: No soup or sandwich served at this soup kitchen.
Plus ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: Let's hear it for vegetables. Yay!
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The first lady breaking new ground and she's digging.
The news starts right now.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.
Our developing story this hour: Up to $1 trillion in taxpayer money -- your money -- are on the line. And tomorrow, the Obama administration will reveal its plan to take bad loans off the books at the nation's banks. And we don't know the details quite yet, but you can better believe it will be expensive, it will be complex, and, most likely, controversial.
CNN's Kate Bolduan is standing by in Washington with the very latest.
Good evening, Kate. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Don.
Well, the Obama administration is calling this a crucial step in stabilizing the financial markets and turning the economy around, but it may be a tough sell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN (voice-over): The Obama administration hasn't even unveiled its long-awaited banking plan, and it's already out managing expectations.
CHRISTINA ROMER, CHAIRWOMAN, COUNCIL OF ECON. ADVISERS: I don't think Wall Street is expecting, you know, the silver bullet. This is one more piece. It's a crucial piece to get those toxic assets off, but it is -- it is just part of it, and there will be more to come.
BOLDUAN: The plan to be announced Monday is aimed at unloading bad assets from bank balance sheets in order to get financial institutions lending again. How? By the government teaming up with private investment firms to buy the assets with the government putting up most of the money. Obama advisers insist bringing in private funds will lessen the burden on taxpayers already reeling from bailout fatigue.
AUSTEN GOOLSBEE, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: One of the reasons you want to have the partnership is precisely so that, "A," the government doesn't massively overpay for these troubled assets that are on the balance sheets, and, "B," so that everybody's got skin in the game.
BOLDUAN: The idea leaving some Democratic allies uneasy.
REP. CHARLES RANGEL, (D) WAYS & MEANS CHAIRMAN: And I'm really surprised that we have to go to people that come from the fiscal families that caused this problem to try to help us to get out of it.
BOLDUAN: And just as the White House starts promoting the latest element of its economic agenda, the president is facing a battle over another big priority: his budget.
SEN. JUDD GREGG, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: If we maintain the proposals which are in this budget over the 10-year period that our -- that this budget covers, this country will go bankrupt.
BOLDUAN: Even some key Democrats don't like it, citing a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office projecting a more than $9 trillion deficit over the next decade.
SEN. KENT CONRAD, (D) BUDGET CMTE. CHAIRMAN: I'm especially concerned about the long-term. I believe these new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office tell us that we are going to have to do much more to get this country's fiscal future back on track.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: As Congress is set to take up the budget, a big question is: how will Wall Street receive the banking plan next -- this coming week? The last time that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner offered a broad outline of the plan, the Dow plunged more than 4 percent that same day, Don.
LEMON: All right, Kate, thank you very much for that.
And make sure you stay with CNN. We'll have extensive coverage on Secretary Geithner's announcement as it happens. It will happen right here on CNN.
And also, this is a quick reminder for you. President Barack Obama continues his lobbying efforts Tuesday night with a prime time news conference. CNN's special coverage begins at 7:45 Eastern with the best political team on television.
The president is selling his budget and banking plans as public anger rages over the AIG bonus fiasco. Congress, as you know, has been preoccupied with the bonuses for days, but a check of the Sunday morning talk shows finds a growing mix of opinion about the attempt to slap a 90 percent tax on those bonuses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONRAD: I've got my doubts whether that's the best way to do this. I think there are certain constitutional questions about the imposition of a tax on a limited group of people.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R) MAINE: As angry as I am, I agree with my colleague that we need to be careful. And the problem with the Senate bill is it's so wide in its scope that it would apply to tens of thousands of employees all across this country who had nothing to do with getting us into this mess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Here's another sign that passions may be cooling just a bit on the AIG bonuses. President Barack Obama is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the proposed 90 percent tax. And a top adviser to Vice President Joe Biden is openly questioning the whole idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED BERNSTEIN, V.P. BIDEN'S ECONOMIC ADVISER: I think the president would be concerned that this bill may have some problems in going too far -- the House bill may go too far in terms of some legal issues, constitutional validity, using the tax code to surgically punish a small group. That may be a dangerous way to go. That said, let's see what comes out of the Senate. He has not said he won't sign this bill. Let's see what comes out of the Senate. Let's see what gets to his desk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And one more note for you about the president's plans to revive the economy, his economic team, to be exact. He's speaking out once again in support of his treasury secretary. Timothy Geithner is facing increasing criticism given his short tenure in office, but on tonight's "60 Minutes," Mr. Obama says Geithner is the right man for the job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: Tim Geithner is as sharp and as skilled a public servant as we have, who has on his plate an unprecedented set of problems and is under enormous scrutiny and pressure and has been able to handle that scrutiny with grace and good humor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Timothy Geithner has found himself on the defensive for his handling of the AIG bonuses mess. Tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Ali Velshi and the CNN Money team search for the truth inside the AIG scandal and beyond that. See what they find out "AIG: Facts & Fury," tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
In Oakland, California, a fourth police officer has died from a shootout yesterday. For the latest, here is CNN's Kara Finnstrom.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAYOR RON DELLUMS, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: It's in these moments that words are extraordinarily inadequate. We come together in shock, in grief, in sadness and sorrow at a set of tragic incidences that have caused the death of several of our police officers.
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oakland's mayor and community are now mourning the deaths of four of their officers: 41- year-old John Hege, 40-year-old Sergeant Mark Dunakin, 43-year-old Sergeant Ervin Romans, and 35-year-old Sergeant Daniel Sakai. Police say the suspected gunman was also killed, 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon.
Investigators say it all started with what appears to have been a routine traffic stop. Sergeant Dunakin and Sergeant Hege were on motorcycles and tried to pull over a car. Immediately afterward, dispatchers received reports of officers down. Other officers then began an intense search for the suspected gunman. Police chief, Howard Jordan, says they tracked him to an apartment where he barricaded himself in.
ACTING CHIEF HOWARD JORDAN, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA POLICE: When officers gained entry into the apartment, they were immediately fired upon by the suspect with an assault weapon.
FINNSTROM: Two more officers were killed. Chief Jordan says officers then returned fire in self-defense killing the suspect.
Mixon was wanted on a warrant for violating parole on a conviction of assault with a deadly weapon and police say he had an extensive criminal history. Many questions remain for a devastated police force and a community in grief.
BILL FELLS, WITNESS: When I arrived on the scene, I noticed two officers went out there and they were crying, a lot of these backups came crying and everything. And this was just devastating. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FINNSTROM: And more grief in Oakland tonight as that community comes to terms with the loss of that fourth officer who had been fighting for his life since yesterday. Don, we're told that the police chief has been meeting privately with the families of those four officers today.
LEMON: Kara, can you tell us more about the community where this happened? I mean, it seems like such a brutal crime.
FINNSTROM: Yes, it really is -- a shocking crime for this community. This is a community though that has struggled with crime over the years, with high crime rates with a lot of gun violence. But, just last month, law enforcement officials there had been touting that crime rates were going down and they credit that to having more police officers and some other changes. They had been really working hard to try and turn around their city's negative image.
LEMON: Kara Finnstrom, we appreciate it.
A massive manhunt right now for a kitchen worker suspected of killing two co-workers last night at a luxury hotel in Virginia. Police in Hot Springs are warning people to keep their doors locked and turn on all their outside lights. Fifty-nine-year-old Beacher Hackney is suspected of shooting two supervisors about 8:00 p.m. in the kitchen of the Homestead Hotel. Guests were eating in the dining room at the time it happened. No one else was hurt. Police are using dogs, helicopters, and road blocks in their search for Hackney. No word on a motive here.
Rivers are rising across North Dakota, where people are frantically filling sandbags and bracing for record floods.
Jacqui Jeras joins us now.
Jacqui, this is going to be huge.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this is going to be a big situation here across North Dakota. In fact, the entire state here is under a flood warning at this hour. So, it's really widespread. But the area we're most concerned about is the Red River valley which runs right up here between North Dakota and Minnesota, and goes all the way up towards Lake Winnipeg.
Let's go ahead and show you some of the pictures.
Fargo, North Dakota, is one of the areas we're most concerned about, where the river is already nearly four feet out of its banks. We have a new updated crest for you, by the way. Since earlier today, it's now looking that the crest will likely happen on Friday instead of the weekend, and likely at the 40-foot mark, which is right near that record flood and just on the cusp of, you know, breaching the dike and getting maybe 4,000 to 6,000 homes swallowed by this water. Hopefully, that won't happen.
We'll continue to get updates on that forecast and keep you up to date.
In the meantime, there you see the sandbags. The effort is really racing. They have been working through the night, round the clock, trying to fill up 1.5 million sandbags in the city of Fargo.
Fargo is not alone in this, by the way. We're looking at other cities, too, like Wahpeton, Harwood, Grafton, and Valley City in North Dakota and then also, Breckenridge and Moorhead in Minnesota are doing temporary dikes like that as well. There you can see some roads which are already being closed in the Fargo area. We expect many, many more. Remember that phrase: turn around, don't drown. You never know how deep that water is.
Rain in the forecast here, unfortunately. It's already starting to move in and look at this heavy stuff right into southeastern parts of North Dakota. It's still west of the Red River, but we're starting to see the light rain falling in that area. We could see anywhere between one to two inches of rain.
And when this ground is so saturated, Don, everything just runs right off and that tries to get into those rivers and streams. So, depending on how much rain we get, really, will have a huge impact on ultimately how high the river will go.
LEMON: And, Jacqui, that is good advice. Don't ever try to drive through it.
JERAS: Yes.
LEMON: It's always a bad idea.
Thank you, Jacqui. We'll be following that.
JERAS: Sure.
LEMON: A growing number of people say President Barack Obama is taking on too much. Does he need to scale-back and focus? We'll try to find that out.
And spring breakers not wanted. Tourism is down, but one Florida city is telling college kids to stay away.
And we want you to be on our show tonight, and here's how you do it. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iReport.com -- and tell us what you're thinking. You can be on the air.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT)
SAL STEELS, IREPORTER: Enough Congress, enough with the AIG thing. We were the ones who were upset about it, the taxpayers. And now, you guys are pretending like you had no idea what was going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: Well, that's how our iReporters are speaking out about this and so are you. Here is what Dwjauthor says, "Feels like the president is still campaigning. He won the election and now it's time to fix the country." JayresC says, "I'd like to know when we are going to see some real changes that help the average American people like me. AIG equals old news."
Slavs06 says, "Will the president choose to be substantive and answer questions and not spew talking points?" Bubbyone09 says, "Why can't we pay the AIG execs the bonuses after they get out of this mess? Wouldn't that be a better retention plan?"
We like your comments. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or iReport.com is how you can be part of our show. Be part of our community here.
You know, it looks like everyone is angry, most people will agree on that, but not everyone is sure what to do about those millions of dollars in bonuses paid out to AIG executives. We're already starting to hear second thoughts about a House plan that hits the execs with a 90 percent tax.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDD: People are disgusted and outraged, as they should be. But let's not overreact in a way that basically has the Congress grabbing its pitchforks and charging up the Hill and abusing what is a core authority of a government -- which is the authority to tax its people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. So, what is the real story here?
Let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.
Bill, you know, the Congress -- you know, he said, let's not overreact here -- but did Congress go overboard really with all of this outrage? Was this more about their constituents than about making a difference with this crisis that we're in?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, the constituents are the ones who are pushing Congress. They are the ones who are pulling the chain, and Congress is responding to some very real public pressure, just as you heard in those iReports. Taxpayers are angry. They want something done.
Judd Gregg thinks Congress overreacted. This tax bill is unwise. A number of Democrats and others who voted for it said they're not even sure it's constitutional. But they want to make sure that people know they're on the people's side.
Taxpayers do not understand credit default swaps. They understand bailouts and bonuses. And they're angry.
LEMON: All right. Let's just say this, AIG tax clears the Senate. Will the president sign it or will he veto it? Because we didn't really hear much on the talk shows to say, this morning, the Sunday shows, to say either way. It appears they may be even backing away from it.
SCHNEIDER: Well, some of the people in the administration are saying it's dangerous, it could get, persuade some banks not to accept bailout money. Well, shock-horror! I don't think the voters -- the voters would be too angry about that.
The administration is a little worried. What they're saying is the president doesn't expect to have a bill to sign in the next couple of weeks that looks like the House bill, that he expects the Senate to cool off a little bit. The Senate is usually less populist than the House, and that by the time the Senate acts and they reconcile the two versions, they will present the president with something he'll be able to sign.
LEMON: OK. So we've been talking a lot about constituents and their real outrage. There's also another perception out there by some that the president may be doing too much. He's so ambitious or spreading himself too thin. What is -- what's happening in Washington with that thought today?
SCHNEIDER: Well, that thought is expressed by the majority of Americans. We asked people: Do you think the president is trying to handle more issues than he should have? And you can see a majority, 55 percent, say yes. Now, the odd thing is -- most voters approve of just about everybody he's trying to do.
I count about 10 major initiatives: the stimulus, financial rescue, the auto bailout plan, the mortgage assistance plan, energy, health care, the deficit -- he says he's going to cut it in half -- Afghanistan. Those things do get the majority support from voters one after another. Add them up, it's a lot of ambitious programs.
Well, you remember Bill Clinton said about 12 years ago, "The era of big government is over"? Well, that's over.
LEMON: Yes, well, he's got a lot of work to do; this president now has a lot on his plate.
Bill Schneider, we appreciate it. Thank you.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
LEMON: We'll be hearing a lot from the president over the next week. On Monday, he returns from Camp David for budget talks. And on Tuesday, he meets with Australia's prime minister. That night he'll hold a news conference. CNN will have complete coverage of that for you.
And then Wednesday, the president meets with Senate Democrats over -- you guessed it -- the budget. And that evening, he attends a fund- raiser for the Democratic National Committee.
Well, you've heard of job fairs for all sorts of jobs. How about a stripper job fair? Better bring your own tassels.
Plus this ... (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I found myself in a position where I couldn't take care of the animals myself, provide for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, you know what? People aren't the only ones struggling to get by right now. We'll take to you a doggy soup kitchen. It's a sign of the times.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Boy, what a beautiful shot that is next to me.
Astronauts have a redo on their schedule there. During yesterday's spacewalk, a pin was inserted upside down causing an equipment jam outside the International Space Station. NASA is now working out how to best fix that problem. Today, astronauts aboard the space station are testing out the new water purification system. That critical piece of equipment converts urine to drinking water.
Back here on earth, spring has officially entered, but winter not ready to leave yet. Jacqui has been telling us about the flooding -- but there is a big storm brewing out on the plains, Jacqui.
JERAS: Yes. We've got the tail of two seasons really what's going to be taking place here, Don. We're going to have some severe weather and blizzard-like conditions for parts of the upper Midwest. The storm system way back here still and it's going to be moving through the Rockies. So, what you're seeing now across the plains is just a little moisture, kind of leading up to things before the real show begins out later on tomorrow.
Our low pressure storm system is very intense and all of the elements are coming into play. So, we think we'll have a very significant severe weather outbreak, particularly tomorrow afternoon in the southern plain states. So, places like Oklahoma City, up towards Tulsa and Wichita, have a moderate risk. And we could even see severe weather all the way up to near where some of the flooding is into the Dakotas. But we think winds will be a greater threat there.
Now, some very cold air on the backside of this storm is bringing heavy snow into the Rockies for tomorrow and into Tuesday. And this dark blue area you can see here, that's where we have blizzard warnings. We're going to have as much as 30 inches of snow, but the snow amount is not quite so important as the winds. It's going to create really just a kind of a crippling effect for travel here.
We want to see how the weather is impacting you. Please send us your pictures of any severe weather damage, any blizzard reports or flooding at iReport.com and we'll tell us your story. We want to get it on the air -- Don?
LEMON: All right, Jacqui. Yes, we certainly do. Thank you very much for that. JERAS: Yes.
LEMON: Family and friends have said a final good-bye to actress Natasha Richardson. A private funeral service took place this afternoon in Millbrook, New York. It's the same Hudson River town where Richardson married actor Liam Neeson and raised their two sons. The Tony Award winning actress died last Wednesday from a head injury she suffered while skiing in Canada. Natasha Richardson was 45 years old.
Well, it's calm now, but earlier today, things got wild at an airport in Sydney, Australia. Travelers watched in horror as warring biker gangs brawled across the main terminal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was two people fighting at first, and then all of a sudden, a whole rush of bikers came through the crowd, picked up the poles and just started smacking this guy, hit him in the head with the poles.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, this guy was just walking and they were like, hey, hey, and just punching him like really hard, just (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Police say one suspected gang member was beaten to death with metal poles. They also say 15 men were involved in the melee, four were arrested, but the others escaped.
Pope Benedict held mass today in Angola for about 1 million people. He lamented that decades -- that decades of ethnic wars, poverty and ethnic hatreds have been clouds of evil over the continent. Angola was the final stop on the Pope's first and possibly only visit to Africa. Before today's mass, the Pope expressed condolences for the deaths of two women killed in a stampede yesterdays at a papal youth rally. Pope Benedict returns to Rome tomorrow.
Spring break is here -- which means the college kids are coming. But some Florida towns are saying, "Thanks but no thanks." We'll tell you why.
Also this ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: Let's hear it for vegetables. Yay!
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You certainly don't see that a lot, kids cheering for veggies, but, you know, if the first lady asks to you do it, you would cheer. It is the first lady. She's setting up a victory garden and we're playing in the dirt on the south lawn.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Here's what's happening right now.
The city of Oakland confirms a fourth police officer has died after a shootout last night with a paroled convict. Police say the gunfire began after a routine traffic stop went bad. The suspect died in a later gun battle with SWAT officers.
And a manhunt is under way in Bath County, Virginia. Police say they're looking for a man suspected of killing two of his supervisors last night at an upscale Homestead Resort in Hot Springs. State and local authorities say kitchen worker Beacher Hackney fled after shooting both of his victims with a semi-automatic handgun.
Tomorrow, we will hear Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan to help bail out the nation's troubled banks by getting those so-called toxic assets off their books. We heard a lot about them, but what exactly are they?
CNN's Josh Levs is here to break it down for us.
And it -- doesn't it sound just like what it is? Maybe a bad asset, but there's a little bit more to it than that -- it's a little more complicated.
JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Glad I could help. See you later.
(LAUGHTER)
Here is the idea, what we do is start off with your credit card or your mortgage, because a lot of people don't see there's a direct connection between the two. This is how it works. When you get a mortgage, you get it from a lender. What happens is, the bank comes along and buys it up and the banks will bundle a whole of people's mortgages and then they'll bundle them together into a security. This term you keep hearing all the time, security, is this bundle of people's mortgages or your credit card loans. You might have a bank come along, buy up a bunch of those, and create a security that's backed by people's credit card debt. That's good for them when it's a good economy because people are paying interest. It's good to own them. They let investors get a piece of that.
LEMON: In this climate, they know probably they're never going to get this money back and that's a concern.
LEVS: That's where we get to toxic. You have these bundles that are mortgage-backed securities or credit card-backed securities, and all of a sudden, you have the bad economy. People are not paying their credit. They're not paying their mortgages. They're foreclosing. These securities can become worthless. The banks that bought them are stuck with them and they're toxic. They can't move them.
LEMON: What happens when they buy them off? How does that help? LEVS: What needs to happen is now -- this is what we're talking about -- that as long as the banks have these on the books, it's harder for banks to operate at all, harder to give loans to anybody out there who wants a mortgage, harder for banks to do business with each other, because they have toxic assets on their books that they can't sell to anyone and they can't move.
The economy is fluid. It needs to move at all times. The economy is only working if money can move. As long as they have the toxic assets on their books right now, that no one wants to go near, it hurts their credit rating. It hurts them in so many ways. They can't move that money around. They're stuck with it.
LEMON: Their credit rating is just as important as ours, so get it off the books, so they can keep moving and doing it business.
LEVS: That's why it's toxic. As long as they can't move this off their books, they're stuck with it and they can't participate in the economy.
LEMON: Josh Levs, appreciate it.
LEVS: You got it.
LEMON: Thank you.
Of course, we will cover Secretary Geithner's announcement as it happens right here on CNN.
Also another programming note we have for you. CNN is your place to see and hear the president's news conference set for Tuesday night. The best political team on television will be covering all the angles beginning at 7:45 eastern Tuesday night.
College kids heading to Florida despite tough economic times. This year many beach communities are not happy to see those spring breakers, and CNN's John Zarrella went along.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Robert Ketcherson (ph) rides on Daytona Beach.
ROBERT KETCHERSON (ph), BEACH RIDES OWNER: Welcome to Daytona.
ZARRELLA: ATVs and golf carts.
KETCHERSON (ph): Recession special, $40 an hour.
ZARRELLA: These days, Ketcherson (ph) is in a pretty good mood. The college crowd has arrived, just in time.
Local promoters say winter tourism is down about 12 percent. So merchants were hoping for a high octane spring break.
KETCHERSON (ph): It has. It has already. We hoped it would, and it has.
ZARRELLA: Some of it from kids who, this year, crossed Mexico off their list.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cancun with the violence and stuff, we didn't want to go there.
ZARRELLA: Tourism officials say it's too early to tell how many and too early to say how much of a boost, if any, they will see from the spring breakers because...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop breathing. You're breaking the sand.
ZARRELLA: They don't break the bank. The sun, sand, and surf are free.
(on camera): Are you spending any money? You helping the economy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're trying to spend as little as possible.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): With tourism, Florida's number one industry, struggling, you would think the kids will be embraced everywhere.
In Ft. Lauderdale, the Visitor's Bureau says tourism revenue is down $1 billion this winter alone. Budget shortfalls even forced the closing of the beachside park on Tuesdays, leaving the county beach empty.
NICKI GROSSMAN, FT. LAUDERDALE CONV. & VISITORS BUREAU: This is the clearest visual message that the economy sucks right now.
ZARRELLA: Still, Nicki Grossman and the Convention and Visitors Bureau she heads doesn't want the kids, even putting out a press release, quote, "Bad economy or not, Greater Ft. Lauderdale steadfastly says no thanks to spring break."
GROSSMAN: Even in this downturn, we're not turning back and heading back where we've been there, done that.
ZARRELLA: At its height in the 1980s, this was the spring break mecca. Nearly 400,000 kids came here every year. Drank a lot, didn't spend much and left a mess. 15,000 are expected this year and tourism officials say that's just fine.
Not for everyone. Pro Dive International, which this year advised on spring break web sites, has seen its business go up 200 percent.
KELLY LEVENDORF, PRO DIVE INTERNATIONAL: I think right now, absolutely 100 percent attributable to the spring break crowd. .
ZARRELLA (on camera): So they're good for you?
LEVENDORF: They're great for us.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): But they won't be welcome here as long as bronze, not green, is the college color. John Zarrella, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Here is what you are saying about the stories we're covering.
DJSamari37, "The spring break culture, underage drinking, loud partying, et cetera, is an understandable reason why spring breakers aren't welcome."
Caryirobin2 says, "Bailout, a necessary evil. But for the future, let me choose where I put my money, not my employer. Then the market will fix it."
Brothergrimace says, "The president isn't trying to do too much. People have just gotten comfortable with doing too little themselves."
As jamesv says, "On my mind, Chris Dodd should be impeached and Geithner should resign. Obama is limiting himself by his hiring requirements."
We want you to be on our show. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iReport.com, that's how you become part of our community.
You have heard of job fairs for all kinds of jobs I'm sure, but this one is a new one I think -- a stripper job fair. What do you wear? Your own tassels? Do you bring them? What do you do? We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I've got a disturbing new statistic for you. One of the groups hardest hit by unemployment are U.S. military veterans, especially those who served recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, 170,000 vets who served since 9/11 were out of work last month. That's an unemployment rate of 11.2 percent, nearly three points higher than the national rate.
At CNN, we're committed to taking you behind the numbers to meet the real people. And I want to show you what Dave Grunebaum of News 12, New Jersey, found out about these vets who are struggling to find jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE GRUNEBAUM, NEWS 12 REPORTER (voice-over): This is what life is all about for Joe Pace, home with his wife and 2-year-old daughter.
JOE PACE: Oh, OK.
GRUNEBAUM: It's a world away from his three tours in Iraq as a Marine. He was a sergeant in a combat unit.
PACE: You have to know how to work under pressure.
GRUNEBAUM: but since coming home to Somerset five months ago, he's been unable to land a job. His wife's job covers the rent, but their plan to buy a home has been delayed.
PACE: I've been trying to look for work since October, since I got home. It's been pretty rough.
GRUNEBAUM (on camera): You will hear similar stories from veterans across New Jersey. The overall unemployment rate in this state is 7.3 percent. But for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, it's more than 8 percent.
(voice-over): It's not easy to find a job when you're fighting abroad, so the G.I. Go Fund, a private nonprofit that helps veterans, organized a job fair in Newark. About 150 veterans showed up, including Joe Pace.
PACE: What kind of position are you hiring for?
GRUNEBAUM: Here he talked to a PSE&G, which is looking to fill jobs that pay almost $60,000 a year.
ED TRUPPO. PSE&G: I think the veterans are the best candidates for a job only because we're in a technical field. And they show that they have the leadership, the regimental qualities that we're looking for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're going to do is you're going to make an application.
GRUNEBAUM: It's a day of introductions to potential employees for this Iraq war veteran, who is now fighting for a better life for his family.
PACE: Show daddy how you shoot the soccer ball.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: We're working here at CNN to get more information on this story that one of our affiliates is reporting.
KRTV is reporting that in Butte, Montana, that a plane has crashed killing 17 people on board. Again, that's according to our affiliate KRTV. A plane has crashed. They say an FAA spokesman is where they're getting the information from. Butte, Montana.
This is really just coming across the desk here so I want to make sure I get all of it. It says emergency crews are at the scene of the plane crash in Butte. Supposedly, happened around 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon, their time there. The twin engine plane went down in the Holy Cross Cemetery near Burt-Moony Airport. They say that there are fatalities. As we said, seven people. Too early to tell exactly how many, but so far seven people died in this. The news station says, on the scene, that they are working -- there's still some smoke and whatever on the screen and they're working to try to get us more information.
But again, that is just coming in here. Pardon me, just coming over the wire. We just got it as that story was on the air that preceded this. We'll continue to track that and work on it for you. Meantime, if you can't put food in your fridge, how can you possibly put food in your pet's bowl? It's a sad sign of the times. Our four- legged family members, well, they are going without. We'll take you to a doggy soup kitchen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We have several developing stories here in the CNN "NEWSROOM," really breaking news. Here is what CNN has confirmed. I told you about the plane crash in Butte, Montana, according to our affiliate KRTV. Here is what CNN has confirmed. We are being told a plane traveling from California to Bozeman, Montana, has gone down in Butte. Here's what our affiliate KRTV is reporting. They're saying that emergency crews were called out about 3:00 p.m., their time to get to the scene of this crash. It was a twin-engine. Again, according to them, the plane went down in the Holy Cross Cemetery near Bert-Mooney Airport. There are fatalities. They are reporting at least seven people have died in this crash. Early now, really early for estimates. They say there were people still on the scene and it was an active scene there.
Also another developing story, breaking news story as it concerns airplanes. This is coming from Tokyo. We're told a cargo plane and that it was a FedEx cargo plane -- and CNN has confirmed this -- burst into flames after crashing at Tokyo's Narita Airport. A FedEx cargo plane bursting into flames and crashing at Tokyo's Narita Airport. Two airplane crashes, one in Butte, Montana, the other in Tokyo. We're working to get details on both of these for you. And we'll bring it to you in this broadcast just as soon as we get them.
Meantime, we want to move on now and talk about a sign of the times, about dogs. Of course, a lot of people are animal lovers. People love their animals like their family. Cats and other pets too for that matter. But what happens when there's no money to buy food for them? Really not a lot of money to buy food for yourself? But pay attention because one man found a solution that anyone can copy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Construction worker Tom Wargo and his miniature pincher Daffy have been together for eight years. They met on the job.
TOM WARGO, OWNER & FOUNDER, "DAFFY'S": I found Daffy at a job I was doing construction-wise. And he was abused when he was a little puppy.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Being the animal lover he is, Tom took Daffy in not knowing the little guy was diabetic.
WARGO: He's on prescription food. He has to have two shots of insulin a day. I mean, he has a lot of care, expensive food.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: But Wargo was used to labors of love. Through his church, he had already been delivering pet food to the elderly and disabled. WARGO: People that had pets needed assistance, and so we'd help them out with food that way. And we did that for about 11 year.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Little did he know seven years after rescuing Daffy, the dog would, in part, become inspiration for a new charity.
The other inspiration, the economy and people losing their jobs, like Rich Smith.
RICH SMITH, LOST JOB: I found myself in the position where I couldn't take care of the animals myself, provide for them.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's how Daffy's pet soup kitchen came about, handing out 8,000 to 12,000 pounds of food per month to needy pet owners in Georgia.
SMITH: It was a great answer to my prayers to be able to take care of and keep my animals as opposed to having to give them up.
BARBARA DENTON, VOLUNTEER: It gets harder and harder to make ends meet. This is a great help to me.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: But there are rules. Clients have to fix and vaccinate their pets. The most important rule here though is pay it forward.
WARGO: And then they have to volunteer five hours in their community or here or church, a dog rescue, anything.
SMITH: If I was in need of a service at the time, I wasn't employed. What better way to give something back than to help out here.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're hoping for corporate sponsorships to come through. But for now volunteers and donations from kind strangers keep the doors open and families together.
WARGO: Your pets are like your kids. You don't want to see them shipped off to jail, which is in essence what you're going to do with your animals if you have to get rid of them.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daffy the dog that stole one man's heart now keeping hundreds of others from breaking.
((END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: He is a cutie. Very nice what they're doing there.
This is a sight you don't see very often.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's hear it for vegetables. Yeah!
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: What is this? Kids are cheering for vegetables? I guess it's the first lady. And she's setting up a Victory Garden. We're playing in the dirt in the South Lawn with them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. When you see this next story, you just have to think this way -- hey, it's a job. The Foxy Lady strip club in Providence, Rhode Island, is hiring. Yes, a job fair for exotic dancers and other critical club staff. There are somewhere around 30 positions to fill, including strippers, waitresses and bouncers. It's the owner's way of stimulating the economy. He expects to take in up to 150 resumes. By the way, business attire is optional here. Boy!
OK. We're going to take a quick break from the road to the financial rescue here and take you to an artist who took the road less traveled. Tonight's "Edge of Discovery."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You might have seen these best selling books.
RUPERT BUTLER CEDAR, ARTIST: Yeah, that one looks good.
TUCHMAN: They bring pictures to life when you flip the page. The man behind the book has been creating eye catching item for 20 years. Rupert Butler Cedar called them life tiles, murals that move when you walk by.
CEDAR: What I'm after is trying to create an experience which totally takes you by surprise.
TUCHMAN: How do they work?
CEDAR: The short answer is it's magic. The slightly longer answer is it's like a flip book. I've taken all of the pages from a flip book and I've scrambled them together and put them up on the wall and made them animated.
TUCHMAN: Life tiles don't use any moving parks, electricity or lighting, just hours of pain-staking work done at Cedar's Boston studio.
CEDAR: We put four to five hours into each tile we make.
TUCHMAN: The glass for each tile is cast by hand, then sandblasted, painted, and eventually assembled to work in harmony with the other tiles that make up each mural.
CEDAR: Anywhere from six months to a year is what it takes to produce these.
TUCHMAN: Cedar says the hard work pays off and his audience pays attention. CEDAR: I love to watch people react to the work. They don't expect a wall to move. They will be walking down the hall of a museum or in a zoo and suddenly they start to realize these dolphins are starting to move. How is that possible?
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. We're getting new information, just coming across my desk on these two plane crashes that we've been telling you about. I'm going to read right what's off the wire here. This is coming from KRTV concerning a plane crash in Butte, Montana.
Here is what they are saying. The plane went down. Emergency crews were called at 3:00 p.m. to the airport there in Butte, Montana. Really down near the Holy Cross Cemetery near Bert Mooney Airport. And there are fatalities. Some are reporting up to seven fatalities, according to our affiliate there.
Here is what we know. We know that there was an airplane that was going from California to Bozeman, Montana, and it went down in Butte. That's what we know.
OK. CNN is also confirming another plane incident here. This one happening in Tokyo. We're told that a plane that was on its way to the airport or trying to land at that airport crashed -- crashed and burst into flames. And this is apparently a FedEx plane, a cargo airplane, crash landed in strong winds Monday morning. It would be Monday morning there at Narita International Airport. It burst into flames at the airport. More on that extensive coverage at the top of the hour in a few minutes on CNN.
The first lady is breaking new ground literally. CNN's Randi Kaye shows you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: You can lift up the grass with a pitchfork. Go. Go. Go.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Armed with a pitchfork and a shovel, First Lady Michelle Obama digs in to her next project, am 1100 square foot vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House.
OBAMA: I want to make sure our family as well as the staff and all the people that come to the White House and eat our food get access to really fresh vegetables and fruits. Because what I found with my girls, who are 10 and seven, is they like vegetables more if they taste good.
KAYE: Everything grown here will either be cooked in the White House kitchen or sent to a local soup kitchen. (on camera): Judging from this map of the new garden, there will be plenty to go around -- spinach Kale, fennel, rhubarb, collard greens, even mint. And there will also be a couple of beehives and homemade honey.
M. OBAMA: We need a wheelbarrow.
(voice-over): The first family, White House staff and more than two dozen students from D.C.'s Bancroft Elementary will tend the garden year-round. These kids have a garden of their own at school.
M. OBAMA: Let's hear it for vegetables.
CHILDREN: Yeah.
M. OBAMA: Let's hear it for fruits.
CHILDREN: Yeah!
M. OBAMA: What? Did I hear a boo?
KAYE: The first lady hopes this will encourage parents to talk with their kids about healthy choices.
M. OBAMA: I've been able to have my kids eat so many things they would have never touched if we had bought it at a store because they either met a farmer that grew it or saw how it was grown.
KAYE: Renowned California Chef, Alice Waters, a long time proponent of locally grown and organic food, has envisioned a vegetable garden at the White House for two decades. She tried convincing Hillary Clinton. No luck. She sent this letter to the Obamas, and it worked.
ALICE WATERS, CHEF, AUTHOR, ACTIVIST: I call it the Victory Garden because it certainly harks back to a time when people cared enough to work together to make gardens as part of that war effort. And we can band together now and help each other. The Victory Garden represents that.
KAYE: During World War II, Victory Gardens, as they were called, helped feed troops and their family. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had one. That was the last time there was a Victory Garden here. Since then, just herbs and limited container gardening on the White House roof.
But Michelle Obama has a real interest in promoting healthy families.
OBAMA: Are we done yet?
CHILDREN: No.
KAYE: And she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty getting the word out.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
