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Summit of the Americas; Space Exploration Funding; Bank Fees
Aired April 18, 2009 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: President Hugo Chavez, known for his fiery anti-American rhetoric. President Obama greeted the leftist leader and Mr. Chavez told the president "I want to be your friend." Later he actually gave Mr. Obama a present in the form of a book about the exploitation of Latin America.
President Obama reacted to the gift. Joining us now to talk about that in CNNs Juan Carlos Lopez, is in the capital of Trinidad and Tocago and there at the port of Spain and an interesting reaction from the president of the United states who said you know what I thought he was going to give me a book that he had actually authored and I was ready to give him a book that I authored.
JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the question Fredricka is, will either president read the books they received? For now President Obama received a very popular book in Latin America. "The Open Bains of Latin America, " written in 1971 and it's a history of Latin America and the relationship with Europe and the U.S. and it goes back all the way to Christopher Columbus and it's very popular in the region. But Mr. Obama talked about the book. They were in a meeting and the cameras were about to leave. He got up and gave him the book and this is what the president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): What did you think of the book?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S: I thought it was one of Chavez's books. I was going to give him one of mine. I think we are making progress at the summit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOPEZ: Then the question is what will happen now? But the U.S. has been very cautious in saying that even though there have been hand shakes and they have been speaking, it's only been the last 24 hours. The ambassador for the White House for the summit said there is still tension in the relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY DAVIDOW, PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: The level of diplomatic contact is very much reduced. Chavez continually criticizes the U.S. government. I think what we have to do is rebuild the civil relationship. I think the fact that they are all the presidents are here at a meeting and our president is saying he wants that relationship from all the countries, that's a good first step. The shake and a smile in any relationship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOPEZ: President Chavez has said that there is a new mood that he is acting in good faith and he said after the meeting this morning that he would reconsiders sending an ambassador to the U.S. after meeting President Obama.
WHITFIELD: What's happened? It's still very soon in President Obama's administration that so many Latin American leaders who were dealing with the U.S. under the Bush administration already are saying now we want to get to know this new president and we might want to do more business with the U.S. What happened?
LOPEZ: President Obama and his administration have a different message towards the reaching out. We look back at the post presidency there was a lot of expectation at the beginning. He was a border president and the governor of Texas and knew the issues and people had high hopes. 911 came along and the foreign policy focused on the Middle East. Now President Obama has a group of advisers that have focused on the region and Latin American leaders are hearing a message that they wanted to hear and they are hearing that the U.S. is acknowledging responsibility in many issues and asking four countries to do the same. They don't want to act as peers; they don't want to tell people what to do. That is playing along very well.
WHITFIELD: Juan Lopez thanks so much. Joining us from Trinidad.
President Obama heads into a busy week as he gets back from Trinidad. He is expected to meet with his cabinets to find ways to cut government spending. The Congress reconvenes Monday after a two week recess and tackles more of the president's agenda.
On Wednesday President Obama will travel to Iowa and celebrate Earth Day. It is the summit of Americas grabbing the headlines right now. Particularly President Obama's statements on Cuba. His encounters with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Johanna Mendelson Forman is a foreign relations expert for the Center for Strategic International Studies. Let's begin with Hugo Chavez. What do you make of that exchange? Is too much being made of the hand shake, the personal encounters and the handing of the book?
JOHANNA MENDELSON FORMAN, CTR. FOR STRATEGIC INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well I think as the president himself said, we want a new beginning with the region and as I read it, the presidents approached Hugo Chavez and they both shook hands. It's an important beginning. Obviously as the ambassador said it will take a lot to develop this relationship but let's look what's at stake. Venezuela is the third largest energy supplier to the region and the behavior prior to the Obama administration vis-vis with the United States has not been a very constructively one. I think the fact that they talked and they exchanged books and they are going to begin a dialogue is promising. As President Obama himself said which I think is important, we don't want to look at the past, we want to look at the future.
WHITFIELD: Was that moment though initially kind of surprising to you or do you feel there have been signs whether it be from the Venezuelan president or others that this tone might be emerging for example this summit?
FORMAN: President Chavez said that he wanted to meet President Obama that he wanted to talk to him. What the conversation is going to be about is obviously unclear, but I think all of the leaders of the region, Chavez included see the Obama administration as a new beginning and obviously you want to get off on a good foot and it looks like they started, but we have a long way to go.
WHITFIELD: And then how do you discern or decipher what happened here and what's come of this warming of relations between certain Latin Americans leaders and the U.S? Especially when you look at the very chilly relations under the Bush administration.
FORMAN: Well I think it's a worldwide phenomenon which you are now seeing in Trinidad, the extension of an opening to the United States. I think the Obama administration is constructively in the language of partnership that it uses and is not trying to impose will, it's the talk that secretary of state Clinton gave as she left the Dominican Republic, and the acknowledging that we have shared responsibilities is very, very constructive. Now of course we will have to figure out how that works, but the message is clear and among 33 leaders of the region.
WHITFIELD: Cuba is on the table, talk of Cuba is on the table, what are you expecting from President Obama and we know that Hugo Chavez is good friends with the Castros and there have been many meetings between them. What do you expect would be promised or what might the future look like?
FOREMAN: I think it's very promising and once again we have the opening of travel for Cuban Americans, Ronald Castro said that at the end of the Alba (ph) meeting that he wanted to discuss everything including human rights, a free press, and political prisoners and I really think that's the beginning of the constructively dialogue. The United States wants that and we want an opening as does the Castro brothers. And so I think we are on the right track.
WHITFIELD: Are you giving them more credit than the climate of a new administration towards talk with Cuba?
FOREMAN: I think there is a recognition on the part of the Cubans that we need to have a constructively relationship. I think the Obama administration has made clear that we need a new relationship. So I think things are moving and these are important significant statements.
WHITFIELD: All right. Johanna Mendelson Foreman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. That's a mouthful. Appreciate your expertise. Good talking to you.
FOREMAN: Thanks.
WHITFIELD: All right. American journalists gets an eight-year prison sentence on spying charges in Iran, it is drawing immediate denuzations (ph) here in the United States. Roxanna was put on trial this week in Iran and she is an Iranian-American born in North Dakota. She free lanced for national public radio and other news organizations and she was writing a book about Iranian culture while doing her research in Tehran. Her father and her defense attorney say they will keep working for her freedom.
REZA SABERI, ROXANA SABERI'S FATHER: She was deceived; they told her that if said like this they would free her. And then they didn't free her.
ABDOLSAMAD KHORAMSHAHI, ROXANA SABERI'S LAWYER: I verified that according to the verdict presented to me and my defendant Roxana Saberi she has been sentenced to eight years in jail according to law. This verdict can be appealed within 20 days and I will definitely appeal the verdict within this period.
WHITFIELD: The U.S. calls the espionage charges baseless and demanding her release. People in Saberi's home state of North Dakota are expressing outrage over her conviction and a prison sentence. Senator Kent Conrad calls it preposterous. Conrad and our two legal experts Attorney Freeman and Richard Herman talked to me about the case earlier in THE NEWSROOM.
SEN. KENT CONRAD: I just talked to the state department moments ago and they told me they want to express their very deep concern about this manner. I hope it's clear that Iran can affect the way they are seen by the rest of the world certainly seen in this country in part by the way they conduct themselves and to have a one-way trial.
WHITFIELD: Do you see yourself as being directly involved in helping to further any kind of diplomatic talks?
CONRAD: Absolutely. They said clearly that they will work with the Swiss. If I were under the leadership, I would want to think carefully about how this affects a lot bigger things.
WHITFIELD: In your heart of hearts are you hopeful?
CONRAD: I am because I know Roxanna. She is say wonderful human being. She is a reporter. In every fiber of her being, that's what she is about, she is a professional reporter. She doesn't service.
ATTORNEY FREEMAN: The only way we are going to free Roxanna is through diplomatic efforts. The only way.
WHITFIELD: And so Richard we heard a statement from the U.S. secretary of state saying there certainly were sadness and disappointed and were hoping that by way of swift intervention that maybe some ground could be laid here. How do you see it?
RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The timing is so horrible for the Iranian government to act this way when our president is doing his very best to try to change the image of the United States throughout the world. It's just outrageous. Fred you know at this trial, she could not attend. Her lawyer could not attend and they couldn't present a defense. I don't know what the appeal will be about.
WHITFIELD: Hillary Clinton said the U.S. will vigorously raise concerns about the case with the Iranian government.
We are following a developing story out of central Maryland. Police are investigating the deaths of five people found in a house in Middletown. The bodies of the victims, new images right now believed to be a man, a woman, and three children discovered this morning. Police have not revealed if there were signs of violence in the home. They have scheduled a news conference for the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour. We will bring you more details as they become available. An entire town shocked at what has taken place.
Maxed out. Many college students are swimming in credit card debt. They are teaching a hard lesson in economics.
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WHITFIELD: It's a rite of passage for many college students. Credit cards are easy to get, but all of a sudden you racked up thousands of dollars in debt before you know it. It's a growing problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): 21-year-old Nick Philliou used to work full time as a sales representative at a gym.
NICK PHILLIOU, COLLEGE STUDENT IN DEBT: I was in sales for like two years.
QUIJANO: But last summer the sophomore lost his job and said now he is not in the best financial shape.
PHILLIOU: I got about $10,500 worth of debt.
QUIJANO: Philliou says that debt crept up slowly at first and snowballed on things like rent, food, and gas.
PHILLIOU: My cash flow was gone so I didn't want to spend all my savings and I would put things on my credit card. If I had to go shopping I would put it on there.
QUIJANO: Nationwide college students are using credit cards more and more as a financial crutch according to student lending giant Sallie Mae. A new report says students are carrying record high balances, an average of $3,173 for under grads and graduating seniors and average of more than $4,100. College financial aid that will change.
KALMAN CHANY, AUTHOR: That can be due to the rising cost of college. Students resorted to the lender of last resort and that is their credit cards to finance their college expenses of out of pocket costs.
QUIJANO: The report also says 60 percent of students were surprised at how high their balances were and 40 percent had charged items even though they knew they didn't have the money to pay the bill. As for Nick Philliou, he blames part of his predicament on the recession. But his debt also included paying for two luxury cars and he acknowledges he hasn't always made the best financial decisions.
PHILLIOU: Probably in the recession I'm a victim of lavish lifestyles, you can say.
QUIJANO: Now Philliou is working to turn things around he stopped using his two credit cards and he is attending community college to save money and he is working part-time as a personal trainer. All steps he hopes will help get him financially fit eventually.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Other ways to make ends meet. Some young women are finding success in the job hunt through make up. They are selling it. One hotline is called March Make up. It's the division of Avon. You will find it on college campuses across the nation actually, students say it is giving them a chance to make money and get experience in a tough job market.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN CARSON, UNIV. OF SOUTH CAROLINA SENIOR: I learned about marketing and sales and pr and event planning. And so not only is it flexible, but it allows me to build my resume as well.
TAYLOR WALTON: I just took that opportunity and I never ever thought how many doors it would open. I have gone from L.A. to New York to shooting a commercial in New York to just getting all these incentives and opportunities and rewards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So Taylor Walton and Kristin Carson are looking to work full time for Mark once they graduate.
News across America right now, a-day farmer's march across central California ends with a half empty reservoir. The protest draws attention to shortages that forced farmers. They want environmental rules suspended so that more of the limited water supply can be used for irrigation.
Children and parents were screaming after carnival rides fell in Puyallup, Washington. Five children and one adult were rushed to the hospital and others were treated for bumps and scrapes. A spokeswoman said it is possible that the ground under the ride was unstable because of so much recent rain.
Something is rather fishy. Police in Howard, Wisconsin are trying to solve a mystery. How did more than 700 fish end up in the street? It may have been a prank, but folks who live there are not laughing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): I raked my lawn this morning and now we have to rake a couple hundred pounds of fish out of the driveway. It's not good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: You can't tell that it's spring right now in Colorado. It's not that they have a huge dumping of fish, but snow.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's snowing like fish.
WHITFIELD: Boy it is crazy, I'm still stumped about the whole fish thing. Why is that happening? Let's talk about snow.
SCHNEIDER: Well you know people are saying that in Colorado. Why is this happening? It's already late April but we are already getting quite a bit of snow. The temperature to the north is actually warmer than to the south. We have the wrap around effect and the snow coming up from the south. Making for some poor visibility and tough conditions for those of you that are traveling in and around Denver and we also have snow now coming down in Colorado Springs. That's one of the suburbs just south of Denver.
We have an ireport. This family, this was a good thing. They like it. Kid had to go to school. But before they went to school, they made a snow dinosaur an alternative to a snowman. More snow for you in Colorado and 4-10 inches of snow. We have the winter weather warnings for that city.
We also are tracking tornadic activity in West Kansas. Tornado warnings are popping up mainly in rural counties. No tornados spotted on the ground, but we are getting reports of Doppler radar indicated tornadic activity. We also have this big watch spot here you can see stretching all the way across Kansas and this will continue into the evening hours and finally a lot of heavy rain falling in southwest Louisiana and Houston, Texas and tornado watches through the evening.
Fredricka, we have four-hour delays because of all the thunderstorms from Texas. This will be a problem into the evening.
WHITFIELD: That are say mess.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Bonnie.
Finding work amid the rising tide of unemployment. Jobless, but not hopeless. Next in THE NEWSROOM.
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(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): More good news as a result of the government bailout plan. Interest rates can continue to drop to their lowest levels in years.
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): The governments plan provides the most significant boost to help homeowners since the great depression.
(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): Lend America one of the nations leading FHA lenders announces a bomb shell, multi million dollar commitments for homeowners to refinance. Including millions of dollars to help protect it's borrows from default.
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): Lend America is making all loans available immediately to refinance up to 97 3/4 percent of the homes value. Borrowers are not subject to a minimum credit score to qualify and can close in as little as ten days. Homeowners are urged to call the hotline on the screen to reserve their share of Lend America's multi million dollar offer.
(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): Apply right over the phone to reduce monthly payments, payoff adjustable rate loans and consolidate debt into one low monthly payment or take cash out for any reason. Hundreds of mortgage specialists are standing by.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A month ago, we began a series tracking unemployed people that we met for the most part at job fairs as they looked for work. So the next hour you will actually hear some of their stories. What transpired and one of them has a surprise for you and a live mock session with an interview coach, meeting someone who is jobless to go through the ropes with our interview coach. What are they doing right and wrong? Here are valuable tips that can apply to everyone's situation.
We will have two employers who are looking to hire right now across the country. They will be joining us live with people who are looking for work and those who have the job. Your questions and stories are very much welcome. Sand man or my face book page. You will be part of the conversation.
You met the interview coach Christopher Iansiti a little bit or an hour ago. He is back and this time he is here to help Earl Fannin who is a former marketing vice president for Road Atlanta. Which is a race track here in Atlanta. One would think you are a vice president; you got this whole interview thing, job resume thing down.
EARL FANNIN, UNEMPLOYED: Not really. It's kind of scary sometimes. You are easy to help your friends, but helping yourself is the toughest thing. How do I sell my story without bragging or really, really under cutting my own accomplishments?
WHITFIELD: So Chris what have you observed? You had his resume and you had a chance to look at it. What have you observed?
CHRISTOPHER IANSITI, CAREER COACH: What I observed is Earl has a resume and a couple of coach points is, Earl I want to make sure that we are highlighting your vice president level job, but also again I can't stress enough I want to see more with your results and accomplishments up front. I don't want a recruiter to have to work at reading it to find it. The good news is resumes are being screened. They are being screened over the trash can.
Don't let a recruiter have to look at what is the top thing that Earl can do for me. Make sure every job that you are using a three formula; it is performance-based resume. You will have behaviors, you will have the results, so what did you do that gave the result and what was the impact. As I look at this, a lot of great activity. You directed, you assisted, you handled and you coordinated. But based on all that what did the company get? That is what they will be looking for you and that is what is going to make you shine out your competition in these face-to-face interviews.
WHITFIELD: So Earl whenever you are feeling that you thought if there blanks, that's where the opportunity arrives that I can fill in the blanks verbally. You think I will explain that when I get there. That's what I would think.
FANNIN: Exactly. I do a lot better job of talking about things as they come up when someone asks me a question. I remember I did this and we had a great accomplishment or tremendous ticket sales or whatever I was involved with. Putting that down on paper in a simplistic but effective way is where I failed. I'm a professional writer and it bothers me that I write better resumes for friends than I do myself.
WHITFIELD: OK. So we are going to let you guys get to know each other more. When we come back and visit with you with in this hour, we will find out that you are saying there interesting practice tools that one can use to get ready for that face-to-face interview.
And I think is really interesting, it was a surprise to me and I don't know if it surprised you. We will definitely into that further. Thanks so much. We will dip back in on the conversation.
All right. The deadly art of military snipers. We will introduce you to a man who helped train the best of the best.
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WHITFIELD: Happening right now, President Obama is forging historic new ties at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. As the day goes, he is attending meetings today with leaders of 34 nations, some of them long-time foes of the U.S.
At the opening of the summit, he called for improved relations with Cuba, a country not represented at the meeting, but nonetheless, a major focus there.
Mr. Obama also got a gift from Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves, known for the anti-American rhetoric. The book that was handed right there is actually about the exploitation of Latin America by foreign powers. President Obama later joked that he thought the leftist leader was giving him a book that he had actually penned himself. And he said was planning on reciprocating by giving Mr. Chavez one of his books.
All right, that was the second encounter between the two leaders at the summit. Reporting on their first face-to-face meeting, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shaking off the past, a handshake between the leaders of two countries that would have been unthinkable just 100 days ago. President Obama walks over to Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, and introduces himself.
According to Venezuelan officials, and not disputed by the White House, Chavez says, "With this same hand I greeted Bush eight years ago. I want to be your friend." This from the man who once called President Bush the devil.
Minutes later, the president of Nicaragua spent nearly an hour in a tirade against previous U.S. presidents' treatment of Latin America. Mr. Obama made a joke of it to lighten the mood.
BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.
MALVEAUX: President Obama is pledging change with Latin America, and so far both sides seem to be embracing it.
OBAMA: That's part of the change that has to take place.
MALVEAUX: At a summit in Trinidad with Latin American leaders, Obama also said he wants the Cold War between the U.S. and Cuba to end.
OBAMA: The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.
MALVEAUX: Mr. Obama's message was in direct response to the offer by Cuba's president, Raul Castro, to engage in unconditional talks with the U.S.
RAUL CASTRO, CUBAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We are ready when they want to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything. Everything, everything they want to discuss, but on equal terms.
MALVEAUX: But Mr. Obama also made it clear he wants to see action on those issues from Cuba, not just talk.
OBAMA: Now, let me be clear. I'm not interested in talking just for the sake of talking, but I do believe that we can move U.S./Cuban relations in a new direction.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A quiet weekend at home is an answer to prayers for the family of Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips. Phillips is back in his Vermont farmhouse after being reunited with his wife and children, yesterday. Pirates actually held him hostage off the coast of Somalia for four days before Navy SEALs actually rescued him.
It has been an unbelievable two weeks for the crew of the Maersk Alabama and their families. The rest of the crew, actually, arrived back in the U.S. on Thursday at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. They touched down on a chartered jet from Kenya hours before the USS Bainbridge, with Captain Phillips onboard, it docked in Kenya.
The Captain and crew were supposed to meet up and fly home together, but the Bainbridge was diverted to protect another U.S. ship in the Indian Ocean.
After four agonizing days of being held at gunpoint, freedom came for the Captain Phillips in a split second. Simultaneous bursts of gunfire and three of his captors were dead. U.S. Navy snipers had done their job. CNN's Gary Tuchman went to the shooting range with a man who helped train elite Navy SEALs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This man was in charge of training hundreds of elite U.S. Navy SEAL snipers for years. The identities of the snipers who killed the three pirates in the Indian Ocean are purposely not revealed. But...
(on camera): If the three snipers in the Indian Ocean trained between 2003 and 2006, they would have come across you?
BRANDON WEBB, FORMER U.S. NAVY SEAL: Yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Brandon Webb now runs a private company called Win Zero which focuses on state-of-the-art law enforcement training, including sniper skills. He takes us into the mountains east of San Diego.
WEBB: The idea is to shift your hip over.
TUCHMAN: Webb gives me an M-4 sniper rifle and a miniature version of the three-month course that a small and very talented percentage of Navy SEALs get to take. We're 100 yards from the target, somewhat farther than the vessels were from each other in the Indian Ocean drama.
WEBB: You'll have to adjust your eyes back and forth so you can pick up a clear shot in the scope. You have the target?
TUCHMAN (on camera): Yeah, I see a rock right now.
WEBB: OK.
TUCHMAN: Where is that rock?
WEBB: So, you'll have to shift around to find your target.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): I find the kill target in the scope, lining it up in the scope's crosshairs. When the shot is ready, I'm taught to say, "we're hot."
(on camera): Here we go. We're hot.
WEBB: There you go.
TUCHMAN: Did I hit it? WEBB: Yeah, you're about, what, 4:00 or 5:00 of center that you hit. That was a solid hit.
TUCHMAN: All right, here we go. We're hot. Hit.
WEBB: Make sure that fire's all the way engaged with your thumb, fully up. There you go.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Even though I'm hitting the target, it's hardly a stressful situation. I wonder what it would be like if I was dealing with someone's life. And the question on everyone's mind, how do you line up a target when you're rolling on ocean waves?
(on camera): If we're on water, what would I be doing differently?
WEBB: It's really critical that you get a stable shooting position.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): You take your eye away from the scope for a split second, you can miss the kill.
WEBB: There you go.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Got it?
WEBB: Yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Was this expert in any way surprised by the snipers' success off the Somalian coast?
WEBB: I would say I definitely expected it.
TUCHMAN: SEALs don't suffer from a lack of confidence.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, San Diego County, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: The amazing story of how one woman is feeding the hungry and rescuing the rainforest in Central America. She is this week's CNN Hero.
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WHITFIELD: All right, each year millions of acres are tropical rainforest disappear, this week's CNN Hero began a one-woman crusade to rescue the forest and feed the hungry, she's doing it with a plant that is native to the land that she's trying to save, the Maya nut.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Heroes.
ERIKA VOHMAN, CNN HERO: People throughout Central America were living in extreme poverty. They often don't have enough food, there's days when people will just have one meal if they're lucky. When I first came to Guatemala, it was just incredible, seeing where people were cutting down rain forests to plant food. It was devastating, so I decided to go back to school so I could help people produce enough food without destroying the environment.
I came across the Maya nut tree. It provided the staple food for the Maya civilization. For some reason, people have stopped eating this food, which is one of the most nutritious foods you can get and it's free. You just collect it off the ground. And they don't eat it, because they don't know.
I'm Erika Vohman and I teach people about the lost indigenous Maya nut for food and for reinforced conservation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (speaking foreign language): We didn't know what to do with it.
VOHMAN: Our workshops are just for women so they can acquire the skills and knowledge to feed their families and better their lives. It's fun.
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
Since 2001, Erika's organization has trained more than 10,000 women of five countries about the Maya nut. Eight hundred-thousand Maya nut trees have been planted for rainforest conservation and food.
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We're having an impact on the environment, we're having an economic impact, and also motivating reforestation. It's really amazing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, if you would like to help Erika Vohman or you know someone who is doing something so extraordinary that they too deserve to be a CNN Hero, tell us about them. Remember, all of our CNN Heroes are chosen from people that you actually nominate at CNN.com/heroes.
Jobless, not hopeless, we're tracking some unemployed people as they search for work. And our Josh Levs is getting a look at some of your questions and your stories, right now.
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WHITFIELD: All right, laid off workers are looking for ways to reinvent themselves and become more marketable. A couple of hours ago, I talked to the CEO of an information technology job training boot camp.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS PORTER, CEO, TRAINING CAMP: There are really two types of opportunities we are offering. One, Microsoft, actually offered a program they're calling "Elevate America." Elevate America, they're offering one million vouchers for individuals are unemployed or under employed seeking retraining. Training Camp is offering those types of services for the Microsoft Elevate America.
Secondly, we're offering unemployment surenty (ph) guarantee that simply states that if you've attended any of our programs in the past or we will continue in the future, we will offer you the opportunity should you become unemployed. You can attend one of our programs, really, free of cost, to get yourself additionally more marketable.
The nice thing about the information technology sector is that the unemployment rates are actually less than half of the national average across the board. So, there is still an IT job shortage, right now. So, an individual that it qualified has a much higher likelihood of attaining additional employment in the event of a more marketable or more current skill set demonstrated on a resume.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, so the idea here, you want to increase your skill set, you go to the job training camp and the great thing now is it's actually free if you've lost your job within the last year.
So, you want to learn more information, go to www.TrainingCamp.com to find out more of what Chris Porter was talking about, the CEO of the program.
All right, well, CNN, we are doing our part as well to help you land a job. So, just minutes from now, an interview coach has advice for handling the face-to-face interview, plus representatives of two companies actually hiring right now across the country, will join us to talk about what they are looking for in the next employee. We're also going to be joined by a number of people who have been looking very hard to land a job. It'll be a huge open discussion for an hour long. Send us your comments, your questions at weenedns@cnn.com and on FaceBook, Fredricka Whitfield CNN and we'll get your questions. IReport as well dot com.
Josh Levs has been fielding already, reaction from people who are saying help, help me find a job or maybe they even have some advice about how they landed a gig.
JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's really interesting. We get a lot of questions but this is probably the biggest topic we have, right? When it comes to jobs, a lot of questions come in. They have been flocking in, I'm going to be bringing them to you throughout the next hour.
And I want you to know, the ones we choose of these, they're often specific and very interesting, but they also draw lessons that could apply to anyone. Let's zoom in. You just saw the different ways of getting in touch with us. This is ireport.com, right here, one of the big ways.
You have Fred's FaceBook page, so this is her FaceBook page, Fredricka Whitfield CNN. So, she's been inviting questions. We have some coming in, right here. Fred, in fact, one I've already been taking a look at, we plan to get to it really early on.
My FaceBook page, right here, Josh Levs CNN, we have some that just posted for that, more coming in here. And we have a lot of e-mails coming in, as well. So, we're going through everything that we've been getting. We're grabbing your questions together, and that -- you got your e-mails, your iReports, your FaceBook responses.
We want to keep this as interactive as possible and we want to make sure to get to as many of your questions' as we possibly can. So, keep them coming, especially over the next 12 minutes, right, leading up to the hour, Fred. And then throughout that hour, really stay tuned for the whole hour. You have a bunch of really interesting guests. You've got some people who are going to tell us who they are hiring right now, and some people who will talk about the difficulties they've faced in trying to get a job. All those perspectives to help answer your questions between, folks, 4:00 and 5:00 Eastern, coming up right here.
WHITFIELD: Perfect, our primary objective, you know, Josh, is to help people. I can't tell you how many e-mails and you as well, are receiving from people who are saying what can I do to stand out? How in the world has the game changed so much that finding a job is no longer an issue of a week's process, but now it's months. And in some cases, over a year.
LEVS: And you know, we what we found is that when we do this, fortunately, there people who get a little bit of hope, they're dealing with the frustration, right now. As you said, they have been trying for months. They're writing us right now saying it's too hard, it's too hard, it's been so long. We're going to give you new information you've never tried, to give it a shot.
WHITFIELD: And you're going to hear first person from a lot of people who are right here in the studio. They're starting to fill up the chairs, here. People who are looking for work and we also have experts on hand to help them out in the interview process and, of course, in the placement of a job, as well.
All right, we'll be bringing all this information from all of our parties here, in a moment. Josh, thanks so much.
All right, travel delays, let's talk about that right now, across the country. Bonnie Schneider is in the CNN Weather Center.
What a mess already.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Some crazy stuff. All right, thanks so much, Bonnie, appreciate it.
All right, well, NASA is moving forward on the next generation of space exploration. The technology is there, and so is the vision. What's missing is a firm commitment to fund the spaces project of the future. CNN's Sean Callebs has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is how NASA sees the future: taking a four-man capsule to the moon, but not until 2020; An ambitious program called "Constellation." But the agency could be hampered by a problem space pioneers faced more than half a century ago, concerns deftly spelled out in the 1983 movie "The Right Stuff."
FRED WARD, ACTOR, AS GUS GRISSOM, NASA ASTRONAUT: That's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
CALLEBS: Work is moving forward on the successor to the space shuttle, which flies for the last time next year. But, funding for space science is always at risk. While engineers work, the Obama administration is evaluating NASA's budget against the reality of a sky-high federal deficit.
STEVE COOK, NASA: Great nations have always been explorers. If you look through history, the great nations that have always brought technological change, economic change have always been the leaders, have always been those on the cutting edge of exploration throughout history.
CALLEBS: The Gulf Coast has a lot at stake. Work is already going on in the Michoud Assembly Center, just outside New Orleans, for that planned moon mission.
The Stennis Space Center in Mississippi is testing a new booster rocket. And Huntsville, Alabama, long known as "Rocket City," is the hub of the engineering design. It's also home of former NASA scientist Homer Hickam.
HOMER HICKAM, FORMER NASA SCIENTIST: A lot of us true believers have over the years said, "Hey, we gotta get out of lower Earth orbit. We gotta go somewhere in order to energize the space program, and energize the people."
CALLEBS: You may remember Hickham as the "rocket boy" from the 1999 film "October Sky." The world has changed dramatically from those early days.
HICKAM: You got to remember, we were all terrified of the Russians back then, and it was like us against them, and we were all very competitive against the Communists and we got to beat them.
CALLEBS: NASA says it needs about $3 billion in 2009 for the Constellation moon mission program, $3.25 billion in 2010, then it spikes up to more than $6 billion in 2011.
With the space shuttle retiring next year, it will be at least five years before the U.S. ventures into space again, leaving Russia, China, India and Europe a substantial window to get ahead.
COOK: We don't want to be sitting here watching everybody else going out there, because they are going to do it. HICKAM: NASA is a can-do agency, but you have to give it a job to do and also the tools to do it, which means money. They need the money to make this happen.
CALLEBS: In simple terms: no bucks, no Buck Rogers.
Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Bank fees are on the rise, but why?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, interest rates are down and so are mortgage rates. So, why then are you having to pay higher fees in credit card rates to many of the same banks that are taking federal bailout money? Here's CNN's Mary Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brian and Shannah Boone are reminded of the bailout each time they pay their credit card bill. Despite paying on time, they say their interest rate doubled and so did their monthly bill.
SHANNAH BOONE, CREDIT CARD CUSTOMER: It's anger, fear.
BRIAN BOONE, CREDIT CARD CUSTOMER: Right. And I feel as though these financial companies who got us into this situation with all these companies getting this bailout money and everything else, why aren't they the one -- why don't they help? Instead, they're putting more of a burden on us by raising the interest rate.
S BOONE: Exactly.
SNOW: The congressional oversight panel that oversees the federal bailout is looking into that question. A spokesman says the panel may issue a report examining whether there should be restrictions on rates and fees on banks that receive taxpayer money that was intended to make it easier for people to borrow money.
The American Bankers Association responded in a statement saying: the completive market dictates fees and interest rates for banks, adding "The downward turn in the economy has increased the risks associated with all types of lending, and the secondary market is still frozen, making funding of credit cards and other loans more expensive.
Some analysts say they're observing across the board hikes.
GREG MCBRIDE, BANKRATE.COM: We are seeing more and more card issuers raising interest rates, raising fees, changing terms and that this is also something that's being applied to consumers that typically would have a little bit more immunity to consumers that have very good credit and would otherwise qualify for the best rates. SNOW (on camera): And any banking fees have also gone up. An independent economic research firm, Mogue (ph) Services, estimates that fees on overdrafts and insufficient funds will bring in about $40 billion for banks and credit unions, this year, that's up about $4 billion from a year ago.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, an update on our top stories, right now. President Obama is at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. He shook hands with a long-time U.S. foe, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The Venezuelan leader said he wants to be a friend, but he gave Mr. Obama a book that accuses the U.S. of actually exploiting Latin America.
North Korea, meantime, is still defiant over its April 5 rocket launch. In a television broadcast today, North Korea warned the outside world that any sanctions or pressure will be a declaration of war.
The power is still out at thousands of homes and businesses in Colorado after a major spring snowstorm. An 80 mile stretch of Interstate 80 has been reopened, but the road is slow and very sloppy.
