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Jobless Numbers; Taking the Economy's Temperature; Grading the President; Edwards Campaign Investigation; Town Hall Meetings: Genuine Outrage or Coordinated Disruption?; Hurricane Felicia Heading toward Hawaii; China's Three-Dollar Health Care Experiment; Twitter on the Fritz; Combating Trachoma in Ethiopia; Dollar Store Delight

Aired August 06, 2009 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is Thursday, the 6th of August, and here are the top stories right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

What if the mail carrier didn't show up on Saturdays? The postal service looks for ways to stop bleeding billions of dollars.

Democracy at work, or is it mob rule? Angry protesters disrupt health care town halls, but the RNC chairman says don't blame Republicans, the protests are genuine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL STEELE, RNC CHAIRMAN: Stop using the bogeyman. The policies that this administration is putting out is what's scaring America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also, impact your world. Heading off an easily preventable eye disease. It ultimately leads to blindness for millions of people.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.

Tony Harris is off.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin this hour with issue number one, of course, and it is your money. Lately, there have been signs that the economy is stabilizing. Home sales are rising, manufacturing is picking up, and some analysts expect the economy to grow this quarter. But today, we have new jobless numbers that show just how fragile the situation is.

Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange with the details on that, on the jobless numbers.

Hi, Felicia.

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. That's right. Once again, we have this kind of mixed number in the jobless claims.

Today we saw that new jobless claims actually fell to 550,000. That's still a high number. However, it's down from 40,000 the week before. So that's not so bad.

The pace of layoffs may beginning to slow down. That's what we're hoping to see. However, we also saw the number of those filing for first-time benefits for a week or more increase to 6.3 million, so that's not so good because it means that people are really having a tough time finding work. So, that's the good news/bad news in that.

And, of course, the big mother of labor reports comes tomorrow, and that is the monthly report from the Labor Department. We're expecting to see that the number will go down to 330,000 job cuts. That will be down from the month of June, so that will hopefully be some good news there.

But, of course, it's the same story. If we don't see things really begin to slow down, the pace of job cuts slow down -- we've got fewer jobs. That means no paychecks, and nobody's spending at the retail outlets and stores across the country. We're already seeing that today.

Costco says its sales fell seven percent in July thanks to lower gas prices and a stronger dollar, and that stock has been trading pretty much to the downside so far today, as have the overall markets.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: Thank you very much.

Felicia Taylor from the New York Stock Exchange.

Neither rain nor sleet can stop the U.S. Postal Service. You've heard that before. But what about the Internet or the recession? These are two big reasons why the service is losing billions of dollars in revenue. One drastic cost-cutting solution being quoted, shutting down hundreds of post offices all across the country.

Postmaster General John Potter addressed the situation earlier this morning on Capitol Hill. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN POTTER, U.S. POSTMASTER GENERAL: ... restructuring of the legislative and regulatory framework, but postal service is required. At stake is the future of what has been, since this nation's founding, the right of every American to send and receive mail. The postal service exists as a governmental entity whose mission is universal service to all. That mission is a direct reflection of the values on which this country was founded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the service expects to lose $7 billion for the fiscal year ending in September.

Do you use the postal service? We want to hear from you. Would you mind if deliveries were cut to just five days a week? Leave us a comment, CNN.com/newsroom, and we'll try to get some of your responses on the air.

As President Obama nears the 200th day mark in office, the economy continues to be one of the major issues shaping his presidency, and it may be that way for quite some time to come. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 58 percent of respondents expect economic conditions to be good a year from now, but 40 percent say conditions will be poor.

Christine Romans of our CNN Money team, she joins us now live from New York.

Always good to see you, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.

The president took over in the middle of a severe crisis. He's been saying that, we know that. There has been some progress, though. And where have we seen the improvements?

ROMANS: Well, this is where the progress has been. I mean, look, the free-fall, by all estimations here, the free-fall part of this is over. The financial system is at least stabilized here.

You've got two of the three American automakers who have been navigated through the bankruptcy process and have emerged from bankruptcy. Think about it, a year ago that would have been considered impossible. And you have stimulus starting to work in some places like the Cash for Clunkers. So, these are the things that the administration can rightly point to are the things that have happened under their watch.

But remember, all of this began under the Bush administration, the financial stabilization and all that. And just as the president says he has inherited this mess, he also inherited the beginning of the process of trying to stop the financial system from completely falling apart. And now, six, seven, eight months later, we are seeing the fruits of that. Indeed, the financial system -- the financial system is at least stable here. So, those are things, when you step back and look at it, those are the places where progress has been made, progress that it is -- Don.

LEMON: What are the sticking points? What have been his major headaches and major problems that are really not budging here?

ROMANS: Well, here are a couple things that are problem for this administration, and they're the two things that we can feel most, our job and our house. And these are the things where there have been some concerns, and we've been trying to figure out how to get this fixed. And in some cases, it might just take more time.

6.3 million people are continuing to get unemployment benefits. I mean, today, there was this jobless claims number that you guys were just talking about. You know, 550,000 people filed for the first time for unemployment benefits. When that is an improvement, you know you're in a really weak economy. That's a lot of people lining up for the first time for unemployment benefits. And a private survey shows that 31 percent, there was a jump in job cuts in July.

I mean, people are still laying people off. And small businesses, frankly, are starting to lay a lot of people off now simply because they have been waiting and waiting for a turnaround, and for the small businesses, they just don't have any more time that they can wait.

And then you look at the other part of this, the housing part of it, Don. There's an analysis by Deutsche Bank that finds that 48 percent of homeowners, Don, will be under water by the first quarter of 2011. Think of that. That's almost half of American homeowners will owe more on their home than it's worth by the time this thing is all said and done.

And house prices, according to Case-Shiller, the reason why you're under water on your loan, is because house prices are down 33 percent from the peak. That is the value of your largest asset.

So, where you live, the thing you're living in, the biggest thing you're ever going to buy, your house, and your job, the thing that helps you feed your family, these are the two sticking points in this economy that have been intractable, and that is what is the concern, I think, for the Obama administration going forward.

LEMON: And that used to be Americans' biggest investment, was their home.

ROMANS: That's right.

LEMON: And yes, their biggest asset.

ROMANS: And now it's their biggest pain and it's their biggest liability, quite frankly.

LEMON: Thank you very much for that.

ROMANS: Sure.

LEMON: Christine Romans in New York, part of our money team.

President Obama's economic team making the argument that the $787 billion stimulus plan is working. The director of the White House Council on Economic Advisers gave her assessment this morning. Christina Romer says the program is helping to slow the decline of the economy, and she says it's well managed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA ROMER, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Well, the first thing to say is that the money is absolutely going out the door quickly. As of the end of June, more than $100 billion has been spent. Those numbers are rising each week, and we are on track to have spent 70 percent of the total by the end of next fiscal year.

And I know that some believe that the government can never do things well, but the program really is a model of efficiency and transparency. The Recovery.gov Web site provides an honest and thorough accounting of what's getting done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Here's what Romer also says. She also rejects the criticism that rising unemployment is proof the stimulus is not working.

President Obama's approval rating is down seven points during his second 100 days in office. In that new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 56 percent of those questioned approved of the president's job performance. That is a drop of seven points since April. Forty percent disapprove of his performance.

White House Correspondent Dan Lothian joins us now as the president hits the 200-day mark tomorrow.

It looks like we're going to keep marking these, you know, 100, 200, 300, until it's done, right?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. But the administration, you know, they downplay the first 100 days. They're virtually ignoring the second 100 days. But there are a lot of polls out there that are kind of giving a grade for the past six months, and one of them I want to point to is the issue of the president juggling so many, sort of this ambitious agenda -- the two wars going on overseas; you have health care; you have the stimulus plan; you have education.

And so, one of the questions that President Obama has been asked from early in his administration is whether he is doing too much. And in the most recent polling, the CNN/Opinion Research poll, when Americans were asked if he was taking on more issues than he should have, overwhelmingly, 65 percent said yes, 30 percent say no. And you compare that to just back in March, it was 55 percent saying yes, 43 percent saying no.

If you ask this administration as to these numbers, I mean, they typically would tell you, we're not following the polls. But in terms of doing too much, both the president and his spokesman always say that they didn't inherit or they didn't choose -- they can't sit back and choose what it is that they want to deal with or not. These are all pressing issues that need to be addressed right now.

The president saying that you can't delay any longer on health care, so he as the to deal with health care. He had to deal with Iraq. So, that's the way the president looks at this, that he needs to juggle all of these issues because it's very important.

One other interesting thing coming out of the polling that we saw, Don, is that Americans seem to be separating what the president is doing as president and then what they feel about him as a person.

In terms of his favorability rating, it still remains relatively high. In the latest poll, favorability at 64 percent favorable, Americans view him. Unfavorable, 34 percent.

Now, it's not quite as high as when he -- right before he came into office in January, where it was 78 percent favorable and 17 percent unfavorable, but, still, showing a little drop there, but still quite favorable as a president. People still like him as a person, but, you know, his approval rating, as you pointed out, still slipping.

LEMON: All right.

Dan Lothian at the White House.

Dan, appreciate it.

LOTHIAN: OK.

LEMON: And you have a chance to grade the president on his second 100 days. Go to CNN.com/reportcard and then you can get the results tonight. Watch CNN's "National Report Card" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

A federal grand jury is investigating John Edwards' campaign finances. This morning, his former mistress and her baby showed up to testify.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: John Edwards -- his former mistress is apparently testifying today before a federal grand jury. FBI agents escorted Rielle Hunter and her baby girl into the courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, this morning. Edwards acknowledges his 2008 presidential campaign finances are under investigation.

CNN producer Mike Ahlers is at the courthouse in Raleigh with the very latest.

What's going on, Mike?

MIKE AHLERS, CNN PRODUCER: Don, Rielle Hunter was seen entering the federal courthouse in Raleigh about 8:30 this morning, and she's still inside. Hunter, as you said, is the woman at the center of this investigation into former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards and his possible misuse of campaign funds.

Edwards has acknowledged that he's under investigation and denied that he's done anything wrong. He's also admitted having an affair with Hunter, but denies fathering Hunter's child.

Interestingly, Hunter arrived at the courthouse with her baby this morning. She and her entourage arrived in a black SUV, they went into a side-gated entrance to the courthouse complex. When they got out of the car, she was with several people, two or three of whom appeared to be federal agents. Her attorney was with her and a woman carrying a diaper bag was with her.

When reporters shouted questions at her, she didn't acknowledge us. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office here would not say whether Hunter's in the building, citing the secrecy of grand jury meetings.

But as I said, Don, we saw her enter the building. We haven't seen her leave. And we have every reason to believe that she's testifying right now in the John Edwards matter -- Don.

LEMON: And when you have a federal grand jury like that, no one is allowed in except for all the participatory parties.

So, our Mike Ahlers, our producer, is there following the very latest. As soon as he gets more information, he will bring it to us.

Appreciate that reporting, Mike. Thank you.

AHLERS: Thank you.

LEMON: Crime and corruption undermining a democracy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has direct comments for one African nation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, the Cash for Clunkers program has been running on empty, with the Obama administration warning that the program could go broke by tomorrow. But the Senate may get a vote together in time to save the program.

Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange with details.

Hi, Felicia.

No Felicia?

All right. We're going to check in a little bit with Felicia Taylor at the New York Stock Exchange in just a minute.

Let's move on now and talk about the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. She is holding court at a town hall meeting at the University of Nairobi this morning. Her message to Kenya? The same one President Obama had to Ghana last month -- the United States has a stake in Africa's future, but many of its leaders need to step up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The fact is that Kenya has not fulfilled its economic promise, and I believe in part because it hasn't yet realized fully what it means to have a functioning, dynamic democracy, and a free press, and an independent judiciary, and a sense of future gains from present day sacrifice among the people who have run the country. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's go now to CNN correspondent David McKenzie. He joins us now from Nairobi.

Tough words first from the president, now from the secretary of state, David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Don.

The way Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, put it, it was tough work (AUDIO GAP) but given with love. In fact, Barack Obama's -- she said that those same statements he made hold true today, that the reforms that need to be made in Kenya, the pushing through to end corruption, it just hasn't happened, according to the U.S. government.

So, very strong words and a very vibrant discussion here in Kenya, where certainly people getting into the swing of things. And a lot of people pretty happy with those strong words coming from the secretary of state -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Thank you.

David McKenzie in Nairobi. We apologize there for that little satellite hit. David's far away and we had a bit of a problem there.

Thanks, David.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria interviewed the secretary of state about her trip to Africa, and you can watch it this Sunday afternoon, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS," at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Loud, boisterous, out of control. People disrupting town hall meetings. Who are they and why are they doing it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Why don't we talk about Cash for Clunkers, shall we? That program has been running on empty, with the Obama administration warning that the program could be broke by tomorrow. But the Senate may get a vote together in time to save the program.

Our Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange with details on that.

So, you know, I know it's a cliche, but how much gas is left in the Cash for Clunkers program? I have been hearing every single reporter say that.

TAYLOR: Well, Don, actually, the Senate is expected to vote today, and there could be some good news. It would add about $2 billion to extend the program through Labor Day.

South Dakota Republican John Thune expects it to pass, and then it would go to President Obama for his signature. And that would ensure that there would be no break in the program. So far, it has been a pretty successful program -- 184,000 clunkers have been turned in already. So, clearly, the incentives that are out there are working -- Don.

LEMON: Eighty-four thousand? That's a lot of cars, Felicia.

TAYLOR: A hundred and eighty-four thousand.

LEMON: A hundred and eighty-four thousand? That's even more cars!

TAYLOR: Yes. I know.

LEMON: So, what are people buying? Do you know?

TAYLOR: Well, this is really interesting, too. There's been a big shift, not just to the more fuel efficient, but also to smaller cars.

I mean, let's face it, people in America have pretty much enjoyed the bigger, full-size pickup trucks, which they're now turning in for compact cars. Go figure; right?

Critics feared some would actually use the money to buy another truck, but that's not what's happening. The top sellers so far: Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus, Honda Civic. There's only one SUV on the top 10 list, and that's the Ford Escape.

As far as trade-ins, the top ones to be traded in so far now are the Ford Explorer, the Ford F-150 pickup, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee. That's a personal favorite of mine.

New vehicles averaging 25 miles a gallon, and that compares to 15 miles a gallon for the trade-in. So that's a huge difference there on that one as well.

I don't know, do you drive a car?

LEMON: Yes, I do.

TAYLOR: Do you want to tell us what it is?

LEMON: No.

TAYLOR: OK.

LEMON: I do have a 1984 Sedan Deville Fleetwood Brome. No kidding.

TAYLOR: Really?

LEMON: Yes. It gets about a half a mile to the gallon.

TAYLOR: Wow. I want to know the back-story on that one.

LEMON: Yes. I'll tell you off camera. It's a cool car. TAYLOR: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: It's like, you know...

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

LEMON: ... when you're driving, it's like a boat.

TAYLOR: But that's what you sort of leave parked in the parking lot. Just for show.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: Felicia Taylor, thank you so much.

President Barack Obama is sitting down with six key senators in the Oval Office about now, and they are the central players behind a bipartisan health care bill that is emerging from the Senate Finance Committee. Analysts say the best hope for a bipartisan bill is in the hands of these senators -- three Democrats, three Republicans. President Obama's meeting today appears to telegraph his support for a compromise bill, but the president suggests if no compromise materializes in September, he and Democrats will go it alone on health care.

Critics of health care reform stir up a ruckus at a Little Rock town hall meeting. It was hosted by two Arkansas congressmen, both of them Democrats, one Mike Ross. He leads a fiscally conservative group known as the Blue Dog Democrats.

At one point, Ross sat with his head in his hands while protesters shouted at him. It seems like that had played out time and time again in recent days. Democrats blame Republicans; Republicans say, hey, it's spontaneous. Now hard evidence that somebody is in deep organizing noisy protests at health care town halls.

And here's CNN's Joe Johns to tell us about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Just say no! Just say no! Just say no!

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The YouTube videos keep coming -- town hall meetings on health care held by congressional Democrats dissolving into rowdy shouting sessions.

And now this: a memo from an organizer to activists in Connecticut spelling out instructions on " "rocking the town halls" with noisy opposition.

It's not rocket science. The memo says protesters should pack the hall with as many fellow activists as possible to challenge the member of Congress. And they're sure doing that.

At this Green Bay, Wisconsin, event held by Congressman Steve Kagen this week, people who couldn't squeeze in were demanding it be moved outside to the parking lot.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Move it outside! Move it outside!

JOHNS: The memo also says the team should spread out inside the hall, but should try to get seats in the front half, so they will get called on to speak.

Protesters should watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the representatives' statements early. But, it says: "Don't carry on and make a scene, just short, intermittent shout-outs. The purpose is to make him uneasy early on."

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius felt the heat in Pennsylvania.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: And I was trying to think some questions, so that we can have a number of you participate. You know, or we can just keep shouting at one another.

JOHNS: The memo also says, "The team should spread out inside the hall but should try to get seats in the front half" so they'll get called on to speak.

Protesters should "watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the representative's statements early." But it says, "Don't carry on and make a scene, just short intermittent shoutouts. The purpose is to make him uneasy early on." Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius felt the heat in Pennsylvania.

KATHLEEN SEBLIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I'm going to try and take some questions if we can have enough of you participate and not, you know, just keep shouting at one another.

JOHNS: The memo is all in favor of question time, though. The prepared questions, it says, should put the representative on the defensive and demand a specific answer.

QUESTION: So, my question to you is that when Congress can scoff at the notion of reading legislation because they aren't qualified or they aren't competent to understand it, how can we be confident that those congressmen are competent to re-engineer the entire health care system?

SEBELIUS: I am not a member of Congress, have never been one.

JOHNS: You get the picture, but the Democratic National Committee is complaining that what looks like outrage is canned political theater manufactured by special interests to kill health care reform.

HARI SEVUGAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: This is angry mobs organized and incited by Republicans and their K Street allies here in Washington, D.C. to derail the president.

JOHNS: CNN was not able to confirm or refute the charge that special interests were paying for the protests. But we did get a response from an organizer with one conservative group accused of fueling the protests.

BRENDAN STEINHAUSER, GRASSROOTS DIRECTOR, FREEDOMWORKS: Clearly, these people are doing it on their own. They're not being paid to do this by anybody.

JOHNS (on camera): The group says protesters pay their own way and says it never even saw the memo until it showed up on a liberal Web site. Something nefarious? Some say it's just politics in America.

Joe Johns, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Joe. Well, RNC Chairman Michael Steele says the Republican Party is not behind the town hall rowdiness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL STEELE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I don't know Robert McGuffrey (ph). I don't know that he is, in fact, a Republican. He doesn't work for me. He's not a member of the RNC. He's not part of any coordinated strategy that we have here. You have citizens, Republican, independent and otherwise who are concerned here. And I find it the height of arrogance and hubris to sit there and think because people want to be smart and coordinated in their strike, because they want to speak out, because they have something to say here that they're being demonized and demagogued as being extremists.

You know, when we get to a point in this country where dissent is extremism, we've turned, I think, a very dark page in our history, and I don't want us to go there. I encourage Americans right now to go to these town hall meetings, to talk to your congressmen, the people that you elected, empowered to come to Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It is a make or break month for health care. Is your representative holding a town hall meeting? Are you going? What would you tell your elected officials? Share it with us by blogging, or logging, I should say -- you can do that, too, if you want, logging on to CNN.com/newsroom.

In a country where many people make less than $1,000 a year, getting good health care can be very difficult. Now China is experimenting with a plan that charges $3 a year to cover 30 basic illnesses with 74 common medications. Here's CNN's John Vause.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jo Eu Juing (ph) is bedridden, broke and dying. "To get treatment, we need money. I don't have money for hospital," he says.

A year ago he was healthy. Then his kidneys began failing. Within a month, hospital bills wiped out the family's life savings, almost 7,000 U.S. dollars, so he borrowed from his parents. When their money ran out, Joe says the hospital sent him home. His wife, Gin (ph), works double shifts at a Beijing juice factory. Her wages barely cover the costs of joe's medication.

"This is for his kidneys, this is a diuretic, this is a hormone," and on and on she goes. Total 150 U.S. dollars each month.

"We just eat noodles or bones," she says. "Eating well and eating to fill our stomachs is the same thing."

Jo's (ph) story is common in a country where hundreds of millions can't afford even basic health care. But not here in the small village of Shinshwei (ph) in northwest China. Under a trial program, Dr. Na Jing (ph) charges patients just 1 yuan. That's 15 U.S. cents. Villagers like Lee Fung (ph), whose son has a fever, pay an annual insurance premium about 3 U.S. dollars, and the government covers the rest.

For treatment of 30 mild illnesses like colds and coughs, prescriptions are limited to 74 types of medication.

"Here if you have a small problem, we'll treat it first, and hopefully it will improve and not become serious," the doctor says.

Most families in China earn less than 1,000 U.S. dollars a year. So, for Lee, 15 cents is affordable health care. But she still worries.

"We can't afford to treat major illnesses," she says. "We're afraid if it's serious, we'll have to spend a lot of money."

(on camera): But health care reform is also important to this economy. The Chinese have an incredibly high personal saving rate. Partly that's to hedge against high medical bills should they fall sick. The government is hoping a better public health care system will mean they save less and spend more, and that will be good for economic growth.

(voice-over): To do that, the Communist Party has promised universal health coverage by 2020, welcome news for most Chinese, but too late, though, to help Jo Eu Juing (ph) and so many others just like him.

John Vause, CNN, Shinshwei (ph), China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, health care in China -- in Cuba is universal, but critics charge that conditions in its hospitals are appalling. In the next hour, we'll examine how the system works in Cuba. That's coming up in the next hour.

Boy, hurricane season. Hurricane Felicia on the move. People in Hawaii are stocking up on supplies before the storm arrives. Forecasters say Felicia is gathering steam as it barrels across the Pacific, but they expect it to weaken to a tropical storm before reaching the island. Still, people out there not taking any chances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have batteries and a weatherband radio, some masking tape and some backup flashlights, and emergency booklets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Felicia could reach Hawaii by late Sunday or Monday. Hurricane season runs until the end of November. And here to tell us all about Felicia and the rest of the weather are Rob Marciano.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Don.

LEMON: We don't want to scare people, right? It's still got -- it's probably going to weaken a little bit?

MARCIANO: Yes. It looks pretty bad on the satellite picture, as well, but you've got to look at -- when you look at the Pacific Ocean, you're really looking at a wide expanse of water. A lot of real estate to go from there to there. To get to Honolulu, you're looking at 1,700 miles, and to get to the big island, I don't know 1,300 or 1,400 miles. So, that's the situation here.

But, I mean, this thing, my goodness, it is really something. Look at the eye on that. This is a Category 4 storm. It strengthened overnight. What's interesting that's going on here is you've got this thing, which is Hurricane Felicia, and this is tropical storm Enrique. That's weakening, but it's kind of getting wrapped up in this thing a little bit. They're real close, only about 400 miles apart.

This typically happens in the east -- or western Pacific, where they'll get two combining at some times, and they call it the fancy name. It's called a Fujiwara effect. But that's not happening here. But it's pretty darn close. Either way, that's interesting.

Here's the forecast track and the strength of it -- 140-mile-an- hour winds with gusts to 165. So, that certainly is impressive. Northwesterly movement at about 10 miles an hour, and there are your coordinates again, about 1,500 miles or so from the islands. Forecast track brings it towards the islands, but decreases it in intensity from Category 1 to a tropical storm. And then by Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center has a forecast getting to the islands, but as the strength of a tropical depression. So, not even tropical storm strength.

And worse-case scenario at this point would be tropical storm strength, and that wouldn't be too bad. But, you know, intensity forecast, it can often be erroneous. So, that woman stocking up on supplies, always a smart thing to do.

And as luck would have it today, the National Hurricane Center or NOAA at least has decreased their forecast for the Atlantic basin, which as you know, Don, we haven't had a tropical storm named yet. That's pretty late in the season for that to happen. So, very quiet, but it only takes one on the Atlantic side, for sure. So, we still want to be prepared on the East Coast of the U.S., too.

LEMON: You are absolutely right. Hey, are you on Twitter or Facebook or any of that stuff?

MARCIANO: Oh, heck yes, man. Tweet me.

LEMON: Tweet you. Did you try to get on this morning? Really, there's an issue with it, Rob. So, we want to let our viewers know that.

So, this is just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. A lot of people have had trouble logging on to Twitter, and Twitter has released a statement saying, here's what's going on. Again, this is just in. It says that it was brought down by a denial of service attack on Thursday with the popular microblogging's site's cofounder said, "We are currently the target of a denial of service attack" -- that is Vistone (ph) and he said in a written statement and, again, he is the co-founder.

He says that they are defending against this attack now and will continue to update on their service blog and defend against -- they said, defend and later investigate. As we will defend, they will later investigate. Here's what a denial-of-service attack is. It's when hackers attempt to overwhelm a Web site by repeatedly accessing it, tying up its servers so that no one can get on.

So, again, I've been trying to log on now. Let's see if I can do it here. Twitter -- yes, there we go. Safari, can't open this page. I've been doing that all morning. Little bit of an issue this morning. I don't know if it was overwhelmed and so people were trying to get onto Facebook as well. And that was a little bit slow.

Bring the computer back up. I just want to show viewers where you can go since you cannot get on to Twitter, you can see us on Facebook and also go right there CNN.com/newsroom and you can click on either Tony, here's Tony Harris' page or me or the rest of my colleagues there in the CNN NEWSROOM. There's Fredricka's page and Betty and everyone. We're all there. And you'll get your information there. Since you can't get on Twitter, go to CNN.com/newsroom and you can chat there. Send us your comments.

We're all trying to save a few extra bucks and some of you do it better than others, believe me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: "Impacting Your World." By raising awareness on the dangers of trachoma (ph). Millions of people across the globe go blind from the disease, even though it is completely curable. CNN's Colleen McEdwards tells us how some doctors are opening eyes in Ethiopia by educating people about the disease.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS (voice-over): It's called trachoma. It affects 40 million people across the globe. It's cost 10 million people their eyesight, and it is absolutely preventable. Paul Emerson combats this fly borne eye disease on his trips to Ethiopia.

PAUL EMERSON, CARTER CENTER: It's clearly a debilitating and miserable condition. Now, the eye will be inflamed, the lashes will be pressing against the eye and the cause of the other infections is almost always pussy discharge, whiteness, flies attracted and the people are miserable and in constant pain and clearly in trouble.

MCEDWARDS: The Pfizer drug company, the Carter Center and Ethiopia's ministry of health are on a mission to wipe out trachoma by 2020. Pfizer is donating the antibiotic to treat trachoma in Ethiopia. Health officials and volunteers continue to distribute medicine and information about hand washing and latrine digging to keep flies away.

EMERSON: People get daunted by the scale. People get daunted of their idea of reaching a whole population. But the tools are there. We're not waiting for anything, we're not waiting for anything new to be developed. Public health, basic hygiene, sanitation, it's inexpensive and nobody needs to live like that anymore.

MCEDWARDS: Still, advanced trachoma requires more than antibiotics and education. Once the lashes began to scratch against the eye, a victim will usually go blind within 18 months. But there is a simple operation that corrects the disease's most damaging effects.

This nurse performed 360 of the surgeries last year alone, and the benefits are clear.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (via translator): (INAUDIBLE)...and she says "I'm very happy."

MCEDWARDS: For CNN International and "Impact Your World," I'm Colleen McEdwards.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: You can learn more about trachoma and its devastating effects and find out what you can do to help. Go to cnn.com/impact.

Just how bad is California's state budget crisis? It could put convicted criminals back on the streets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. I want to update our viewers on something just in to CNN news. A lot of people have been asking us, e-mailing us, what's going on with twitter and the social networking site. We just got a statement from twitter's co-founder.

And here's what he is saying. He said they are experiencing what is called a denial-of-service attack, and that is when he says hackers attempt to overwhelm a Web site by repeatedly accessing it, tying up its servers so no one can get on. So, they are trying to work through that. And as soon as they have some information on that, they are going to let us know. Again, this is right here on the Macbook Pro that I have here. Let's see, Twitter.com. Let me make the -- twitter.com. Can't open. And then also same thing on the PC. Roger, you have the PC back there? You show the PC for Twitter doing the exact same thing. Can't get in. So, again, they're trying to figure it out.

But, if you can't get on there, you can see us on Facebook. You can also go to our blog. There's CNN.com/newsroom. Our blogs. There's Heidi. There's Kyra, T.J., Tony. You can click on all of our names and faces, and you can get right on and leave information and you can leave comments and we can read them the same as we do with Twitter. So, thank you very much. As soon as we get some information on that, we'll bring it right to you here on CNN.

Convicted former Congressman William Jefferson could learn today how much money he may have to forfeit. Jurors convicted the former Louisiana congressman yesterday of bribery and racketeering and other charges yesterday. Today, it is are considering whether he must forfeit $450,000 in alleged bribe money. Jefferson served seven terms in Congress but lost his re-election bid last year. He will be sentenced on October 30th.

A panel of federal judges has ordered California to cut its inmate population by 40,000 inmates. That's created a big problem for California. And Nathan Bach (ph) of our affiliate KESQ has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATHAN BACH, KESQ-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): California's prison system is broken, according to a panel of three federal judges. Prisons packed at twice their capacity. There's little rehabilitation to speak of, leading to a revolving door of criminals coming right back in after they serve their time.

The judges say the state's failure to give proper medical care leads to one inmate death a month and can be called cruel and unusual punishment, so they are ordering the inmate numbers to be decreased by 40,000 within three years. That has a local state senator John Benoit upset.

JOHN BENOIT, CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE: The mortality rate for prisoners in California is below the national average, so there's a strong argument that does not exist a problem on the scale that the judges based their decision on to begin with.

BACH: 44,000 inmates simply won't be walking out the prison gates at once. The judges say they could change sentencing guidelines or parole prisoners earlier.

EMAD MICHAEL, PAROLE PROGRAMS ADVOCATE: We'll have to provide a program for these guys, so once they're released from behind the bars, they need to have the capability to have second chance in their life.

CHARLES IBBOTSON, ADDITIONAL PRISONS ADVOCATE: I think you have lots of property out here in the desert. You could build another prison miles out. What should really help with the population problem.

BACH: Benoit says the state assembly came up with a quick fix, but the bill pressing for additional cells to be built on existing prison grounds is stalled.

BENOIT: We're getting fighting from the -- from the environmental side that says, wait a minute, we need complete, new, environmental impact report. That takes five years. Go ahead and get started before we can build that additional prison facility inside that existing prison.

But we need to take every step possible to avoid having to release people of this nature back into the population. And we should not lie down and take a federal court's decision.

BACH: So, it's stalemate. California's broke and can barely afford to build new prisons, and our police officers cannot afford to release inmates they helped put in prison in the first place.

Nathan Bach of News Channel 3 HD, Palm Desert.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Looking ahead to the next hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. The recession's toll on the postal service. I'll ask the service's chief financial officer about taking some ugly steps to plug the problem.

Plus, I'll share some of your thoughts from our blog. We're asking, can you deal with fewer deliveries?

And the tough issue of health care reform. President Barack Obama, meeting right now with a key group of Senate Democrats and Republicans at the heart of the negotiations. We'll get a live look from the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Recession-weary Americans are learning to stretch their dollars. And CNN's Maggie Lake found there's no better place than to do it than at a dollar store.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dino and Jessica Scotto (ph) are searching for bargains at their neighborhood dollar store in New Jersey. They say they are constantly surprised by how far their dollar goes each and every visit.

JESSICA SCOTTO, DOLLAR STORE SHOPPER: The appeal is you get 20 things for $20 as opposed to going to the other store and getting two or three things for $20.

LAKE: Shoppers across the nation are taking notice. In a year of dismal news in the retail industry, dollar stores are thriving. Family Dollar Thy recently reported a 36 percent jump in quarterly profits. Sales at Dollar General stores open more than a year soared 13 percent. Business is so strong that major dollar retailers plan to open hundreds of new locations this year, even as scores of other chains close stores.

(on camera): We're here at a Dollar Tree stores, one of the chains that's benefiting as Americans try to stretch the paychecks. And we decided to come and see what $20 is going to get us.

Oh, toothpaste.

(voice-over): First things first, the essentials.

(off camera): Paper plates definitely.

(on camera): Bargain hunting is nothing new for American consumers. But these deep discounters are taking it to a whole other level. Household, especially things like cleaning products, these are the same things, same brands, that are sold in other stores, but they're only $1 here.

(voice-over): Other must-halves, aluminum foil, $1. Kleenex, $1. Drain cleaner, one dollar.

(on camera): Wolfgang Puck Organic Soups.

(voice-over): Even designer-label soups and USB computer cables, $1. Some products are sold in smaller sizes than you'd see in the supermarket. Even so, savings are substantial, and $20 really does go a long way.

DENISE LOWE, DOLLAR STORE SHOPPER: You may find bargains on different things that you may have spent a lot of money for in different places, but I always shop here first before I go to a regular department store.

LAKE (on camera): Right, to see if they have it...

LOWE: Bargains, exactly.

LAKE (voice-over): Retail watchers say it's exactly that kind of behavior that is worrying the competition.

WENDY LIEBMAN, WSL STRATEGIC RETAIL: Dollar stores take a bite out of Wal-Mart especially if you're in a community where they both live together. Kind of their entry price point, I go to the dollar store first and then I fill out when go to Wal-Mart.

LAKE: It's estimated that nearly half of all U.S. households shop at dollar stores each month. Even shoppers that can afford to buy elsewhere, and a lot of them are leaving the store satisfied.

SCOTTO: Very good. We got everything we needed at a great price.

LAKE: Maggie Lake, CNN, Haslett, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)