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Obama's Major Health Care Speech; Man Allegedly Slaps Crying Toddler; Dropout Crisis Among Latinas

Aired September 03, 2009 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to help yourself (INAUDIBLE). That's why you got all these people out here just doing what they're doing. You know, a lot of crime because the economy is so bad, man. I mean, people who's like didn't hungry? You know I mean -- speaking for me, you know, I'm not afraid to tell you that I experienced the lifestyle before but like you can always come that, lifestyle. But it's hard to come out when you can't find no job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So, we're asking people what they think and it turns out plenty of Americans are not confident the economy has turned the corner. More than a third of those responding to a new CNN poll believe we're still in a serious recession. Only 23 percent, we're out of it.

The feeling on main street not shared by a number of economics who feel the recession has bottomed out.

CNN's Christine Romans joins us now from New York with some perspective on all this. Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka. Well, something we've been talking about for a while, right, that the economists are to say they feel as if the worst is over. The dust has settled and they could look forward in the months ahead and see an economy that's starting to expand again.

But when you talk to people about how they feel about their own condition, they feel like they're still in a recession and that's because the job situation and the housing situation is still on a very personal level still very troublesome for people.

So this poll also asked people how are things going in the country today. And this is what it found. 30 percent of people said things are going well. But 69 percents thinks are going badly. It shows a pessimism about the economy. But I wanted to put that in perspective with the same question in recent months.

Today, 69 percent of people say that the economy in the country is going badly. In April that was 77 percent. In February it was 79 percent. In November it was 83 percent. What this tells us is as these months have passed, people still feel very negative about what's happening to their money, to their financial future, to their personal circumstances, but you can see that just the grip of that unease is starting to slip just a little bit. I don't want to sugarcoat it. But I want to be pretty clear here that those numbers are not as bad as they were last fall.

Now, let's talk about why is it that so many people, nine out of 10, still think that the economy is in recession. Because on a very personal basis, if you're told that the economy may be nearing the end of a recession, it doesn't make a difference if you're still looking for a job. It doesn't make a difference if you're one of those first- time filers for unemployment and we got that number this morning. 570,000 people in the most recent week filed for the very first time for unemployment benefits.

That's a slight improvement. That's slightly fewer than the week before. And that week was slightly fewer than the week before. But keep in mind, 570,000 people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time continuing claims more than 6.2 million people have been continuing to get unemployment benefits and we know that in this country there are millions -- record number of people who are long- term unemployed, people who have been unemployed for six months or longer and the most recent labor statistics show that for every job opening, there are almost six people who are seeking a job for every one job that's open. That's why it can still feel tough in an economy even if some of the economic statistics at least are not showing the free fall that we saw a year ago. Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Christine Romans, appreciate that.

ROMANS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Vice president Joe Biden delivering a stimulus report card in remarks ahead of his speech. You're looking at live pictures right now even though he's not shown up at the Brookings Institute. Well, he said that the program has been more effective than the administration had hoped. As an example, Biden said over the past 100 days the program paid for 135,000 education jobs and the hiring or retaining of many police officers.

All right. Taking charge of the debate, President Obama will try to do just that with a major speech on health care reform next Wednesday and behind the scenes talk of a compromise.

CNN's Jill Dougherty is following developments at the White House on that. So what about the speech, Jill? Any specifics as yet?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Fred, that really is the question. Would there be specifics. Because after all, the president essentially right from the beginning stood back and did not get very specific except for some general principles and said let the Congress work it out. But when he went on to (INAUDIBLE) and try to explain to the American people how would this work and how it would affect their daily lives and the health care that they actually have, he was incapable of being really, really specific.

So that's one thing. How specific will he be? And he also needs to unite those democrats behind him. Now, on that other subject, the kind of behind the scenes negotiations. He's trying to get an important moderate republican behind him or at least working with him and that is Olympia Snow, a senator who is a moderate. And they are taking a page from her book.

The White House, we're told by two sources who are familiar with these negotiations, saying that her plan, which is essentially a trigger plan, is what they're talking about. How would it work? Well, there would be reform that insurance companies would have to introduce. There would be a certain time in which they would have to introduce it and if they didn't after that deadline is over, there would be a trigger that would introduce the public option.

In other words, the public option would be put off and put on hold as something that could be used but not right now. Fred.

WHITFIELD: And that would be the compromise. All right. Thanks so much. Jill Dougherty, appreciate that.

All right. Progress is being made right now in the fight against a devastating wildfire near Los Angeles. The so-called station fire is now 38 percent contained. That's a big jump since yesterday. Fire officials say there's still a long fight ahead. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the command center and he said the state is doing what it can to help those who lost their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Although we're still battling the fires, I just want to make sure that you know that we're already thinking about helping those victims rebuild their lives. I signed an executive order to boost the recovery effort. We will waive replacement fees for very important documents such as driver's license, birth certificates, and other important documents. I asked the Franchise Tax Board and the Board of Equalization to assist victims with the tax extensions and the relief from late fees. We have declared the state of emergency in various different counties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Sixty-four homes have been destroyed in the fire as well as dozens of other structures. We'll have a live report on the fires coming up in about 30 minutes from now.

All right. Let's talk about other activity taking place in the form of hurricanes. Jacqui Jeras is in the severe weather center -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right. Ready for this, Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Yes. Bring it on.

JERAS: We got some interesting stuff for you here. I know, the thing about Erika, OK. So a weak tropical system, barely a tropical storm in terms of classification because of its organization and by that I mean like the symmetry of the storm and where the center of the circulation is and whether or not it has potential to strengthen.

So intensity has been a big thing with this storm. It's just very, very weak. A lot of that has to do with wind shear that it's been encountering nor the strong winds that help blow down the storm. So that's the latest in terms of the intensity and what the hurricane center is saying right now. Here's the latest in the forecast track. Weakening a storm moving it northwesterly. Tropical storm watches in effect for Puerto Rico as well as the U.S. and British Virgin Islands here which means that conditions for tropical storm strength, wind gusts and the rains coming in within 36 hours.

Now intensity is the big question mark here. And it's always a lot more difficult to forecast the intensity of a storm as opposed to the track of it. The track forecast have been very, very accurate. Intensity not so much. Now, this is what the National Hurricane Center is saying here with this storm. Check out what the latest computer model run has been doing. Now, I'm going to help you understand this as non-meteorologists at home. And basically the line right about here is what we would call hurricane strength.

Every one of these lines happens to be different computer model all coming up with a result of this is what we think Erika is going to do and notice that there are several now up here that are bringing the intensity higher. Despite that the hurricane center says hey this is going to be a tropical storm maybe a tropical depression. So we got a man versus computer thing going on here, Fredricka.

We'll have to wait and see how it all shakes out. But the big question mark then happens to do with what happens with the track because if we do go a little bit further up into the north up into this area, there's going to be some less wind shear in this area. So there will be more potential for development. So stay tuned with Erika. There's a still a little bit of...

WHITFIELD: Erika has some potential fight in her.

JERAS: We'll see what happens. We'll keep you posted here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, appreciate that. Thank you.

JERAS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: OK. Three hours from now, we'll hear the first details about the reunion of Jaycee Dugard with her family. Dugard was kept captive for 18 years until just last week. The accused abductor not only facing charges of kidnapping and imprisonment but of rape, fathering two children with Dugard. Dugard's aunt who will be speaking to the media has spent the last five days with Dugard, her two daughters and Dugard's mother.

A Georgia man arrested after reporting his family had been killed has been released on a $20,000 bond. Guy Heinze was arrested Saturday hours after police found the bodies of seven people inside the family's mobile home. He was charged with evidence tampering, lying to police and drug possession. An eighth person later died at a hospital. Police are not calling Heinze a suspect but they have not ruled him out either.

A two-year-old crying in Wal-Mart allegedly gets slapped by a man who doesn't even know her. What's a mother to do?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK, moms and dads out there. You may want to cover your ears for this next story. Take a look. This 61-year-old man from Georgia is facing felony charges for allegedly slapping a crying toddler that he didn't even know. The two-year-old girl and her mother were shopping at a Wal-Mart just outside Atlanta when the toddler began to cry. Well, police say Roger Stevens slapped the little girl several times actually after warning her mother to keep the child quiet. Another shopper reportedly stopped Stevens until security arrived.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's horrible. That is absolutely deplorable. I think he needed to be arrested.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that's ridiculous. If anybody touched my kid, I would probably smack them. I don't know. I think it's insane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Police say the baby's face was slightly reddened but the child's aunt says her niece is doing just fine. Pretty frightening stuff. And very unnerving.

So, here to talk about this incident and the woes of motherhood and parenthood as a whole. Kristen Chase. She is the mother of three children, ages five and under. And she actually blogs about parenting, and that site is motherhooduncensored.net. And already, this is, of course, elicited a huge response.

KRISTEN CHASE, MOMMY BLOGGER: Oh, absolutely.

WHITFIELD: People have been talking, Kristen. What are they saying?

CHASE: Oh, the general consensus is surprise and it's more surprised that the mom didn't give the guy a taste of his own medicine. You know, how did he get out of that store walking?

WHITFIELD: And a lot of people can relate if you have a toddler. You're in a public place. And the child has a meltdown.

CHASE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: And a lot of times a parent feels, you know, a little anguished over what do I do? And you certainly see people around maybe grimace but...

CHASE: Right. WHITFIELD: In terms of on your blog, what are people saying, you know, this mom should have done? I mean, everyone agrees that the guy was out of control.

CHASE: Sure, sure.

WHITFIELD: But what is a parent to do in a situation like this?

CHASE: Well, you do the best you can. You are embarrassed and mortified. And so, you know, you incent them with a lollipop. You try to leave if you can. But honestly, it's a lot easier for the other person to go to another aisle than it is for you if you ever dealt with a two-year-old, you know, to try to get them to stop crying.

WHITFIELD: Right. And is there advice that's kind of being exchanged on your blog or other places about, you know, how parents kind of navigate this but at the same time shouldn't there be some kind of public etiquette when you're the on-looker, you're seeing this transpiring, what do you do? What do you not do? Every one knows you're not going to get into someone's personal (INAUDIBLE)

CHASE: I think a lot of parents, to be honest with you, breathe a sigh of relief that it's not their kid for one. You know, and then we go with this parenting Murphy's law and - or the golden rule. And that is, you know, don't intervene because chances are the next time it's going to be you, and it's going to be your kid, and it's going to be bigger and it's going to be a lot worse. So you know, walk away. Keep your fingers crossed that poor mom gets a break sometimes.

WHITFIELD: Have there been conversations about just kind of the tension that builds, you know, in these tough times? A lot of folks are kind of losing it,, kind of quicker than usual and this may be an example of wrong place, wrong time, something was going on with this man who is allegedly involved in this?

CHASE: Yes, I think we need empathy. We're not excusing the slapping certainly. And it is a tough time. And parents get stressed. People around - I mean, when I'm around my own kids when they're screaming and it's stressful. And you know, really we just have to try to take the higher road and be more empathic and you know, if you're going to say anything, maybe offer them a hand.

WHITFIELD: You've got three kids under five.

CHASE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: What happens when one of your kids has a meltdown and you're by yourself with them? Do you find that even a stranger will come in and try to offer help as opposed to admonishing your and your kids?

CHASE: Well, you know, what, I've never actually had someone come up to me. I think if it's in a smaller place like a restaurant or something, I'm more inclined to try to get out of there. You know, for their enjoyment and for my own enjoyment. It's not like I'm having a great time. You're in a big store. And I think a lot of times it's very difficult to leave, which is usually what parents want to do. So you know, you just do the best you can and hope that it doesn't happen the next time.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I remember - you know, when I heard about this story I remember a moment where I was traveling alone with my, you know, my toddler and he had a meltdown moment. And the nice thing that happened to me is a guy who was behind me who I thought was about to say something instead he helped grabbed some of the bags and he actually gave me a helping hand and that helped me out when I had a kid with a meltdown moment.

CHASE: Yes, if you see someone like that, it does help.

I've been alone with my three kids. I had someone bring a cart over to me. Just little things like...

WHITFIELD: It helps.

CHASE: It definitely helps.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kristen Chase, thanks so much. And it is motherhooduncensored.net. If folks want to get a little bit more advice on how to handle moments...

CHASE: Yes and share their opinion.

WHITFIELD: Exactly. All right. Thanks so much, Kristen.

CHASE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.

OK. We want to hear from you as well. So when you met up with a screaming child in a public place, what do you do? Do you pitch in to help out or do you make the matter even worse? Go to our blog cnn.com/fredricka and post your thoughts, we'll get them on the air.

So a baby is born with his heart outside his chest. Surgeons allow cameras in the operating room for the risky surgery to try to repair it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Twenty minutes now after the hour. And the answer is no for a Manson follower Susan Atkins. She has been denied parole yet again likely for the last time. Atkins, now 61, suffers from brain cancer. She admitted stabbing actress Sharon Tate 40 years ago.

And in less than 12 hours, Michael Jackson will finally be laid to rest. Only family and close friends are scheduled to be there. Jackson will be interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery near Los Angeles, 10 weeks after his death. The great mausoleum close today for the service will reopen to the public tomorrow. And a special tribute to the victims of Flight 93. That's the jetliner that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. Some of their relatives are leaving today on a cross-country motorcycle ride. They will retrace the flight's intended path from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco. They hoped to raise money along the way for a national Flight 93 Memorial.

Senator Ted Kennedy says his actions at Chappaquiddick were inexcusable, and he carried the guilt for the rest of his life. That's one of the revelations in his upcoming memoir, "True Compass." Kennedy died last week at the age of 77. In the book obtained by "New York Times," Kennedy also talks about his battle with brain cancer and alcohol abuse.

It looks like the CDC is not immune to the swine flu virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been a few cases of H1N1 among the roughly 7,000 employees at its Atlanta headquarters. CDC employees were sent an e-mail yesterday advising sick workers to simply stay at home. If they have to sneeze, to use a tissue or their sleeve and not cover up with their hands.

All right. Surgeons rush in to save a baby born with his heart sticking straight out of his chest. It's a rare birth defect. Earlier today surgeons allowed a camera in the operating room.

CNN's Sara Sidner reports from New Delhi, India. We warn you these pictures may be pretty hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He hasn't even been named yet, but doctors say he's a medical miracle. This tiny baby boy was born with his heart sticking straight out of his chest. What you are seeing is video of doctors putting a synthetic membrane over the exposed hard to protect it. This rare birth defect appears in roughly eight out of every one million live births.

DR. AKSHAY KUMAR BISOI, CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEON, AIIMS NEW DELHI: Most of them are still born or they die immediately after. Without any procedure, the length of life is hardly 36 hours.

SIDNER: This baby had survived more than a week. What is even more amazing is that he made it despite the difficult trip to the hospital. His destitute parents live hundreds of miles away in the border of Nepal in a small Indian village. The day after he was born, his father and grandfather wrapped the boy in a towel, brought him to a train station and sat in the cheapest seats available. This is what those compartment often looked like. Stuffed with no air conditioning.

CHANDLER MAJHI, FATHER (through translator): Reaching New Delhi was tough. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it but I made up my mind that I had to go, his young father says.

SIDNER: A very rough journey for the baby with this condition.

BISOI: His completely exposed heart, hot and humid traveling in the general compartment, crowded.

SIDNER: Doctors at government-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi are trying to save him. They may have to remove part of his ribs to make room for his heart. The doctor Akshay Bisoi says the hospital has had two similar cases in the past and both babies died.

BISOI: (INAUDIBLE) that makes the man. But that also has a defect. And you are daring to correct it. You are daring to correct the defect of mother nature. That itself is quite adventurous.

SIDNER: But the delicate surgical adventure was successful. The boy is alive and recovering after three and a half hours of surgery.

Sara Sidner, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Research shows almost 100 percent of Latino girls say they want to graduate high school yet the dropout rate is extremely high. We'll look at why that's happening and what's being done about it. It's our "Snapshot across America."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: As schools around the country are reopening, a new report reveals a serious dropout crisis in the Latino community in this country. It shows 41 percent of Latino female students do not graduate on time with a standard high school diploma. It's the focus of our snapshot across America.

So joining me from Las Vegas, Lucy Flores, a law student and former high school dropout. Good to see you. From Houston, Macarena Hernandez, she is a former high school teacher and journalist. Good to see you as well and is currently the director of Latino initiatives at the University of Houston Victoria and in Chicago, Tanya Cabrera, a college and career coach.

Good to see all of you. OK. So Lucy, let me begin with you. You dropped out at the age of 17, right? And you have a pretty big family? You're the youngest of 13 kids. Your mom left early on in the equation. Your dad was left to raise all the children. What happened that you said you simply had given up and you decided to drop out of school and you felt at the time that was the best thing for you. Why?

LUCY FLORES, LAW STUDENT, FORMER HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT: Well, I mean, there was a different -- there was a lot of different factors involved. You know, obviously I had an unstable home environment. I was raised in poverty. There was just really a lack of support both in the home and in the schools. I got involved with gangs early on.

It was just kind of a lot of different factors that, you know, eventually made it extremely challenging for me to even consider thinking of finishing high school. It just wasn't something that was on the radar for me. It wasn't anything that was expected of me. It just wasn't something that really happens for a lot of people in my community.

WHITFIELD: And before I get to what happened and what the turning point was for you, Macarena, as a school teacher, you have seen this, heard this from a lot of students, right? How real is this sentiment and what a teacher to do when they hear this coming out of the mouth of a student?

MACARENA HERNANDEZ, FORMER HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER/JOURNALIST: Well, I think that the message about college and graduating from high school has to start at the elementary school level. When I was a high school teacher, teaching 15-year-olds along the Texas/Mexico border it's really heartbreaking to see that a lot of these kids have already given up and then you couple that with the fact that they're attending overcrowded schools, under performing schools, where teachers don't really have the time to dedicate and mend those achievement gaps.

And so a kid gets to sophomore English class and they're already behind and they feel the hurdle is just too much to climb. And so I think it's imperative that the message starts at the elementary school level because sometimes, by the time they're high school age it's a little too late.

WHITFIELD: At elementary school level, that would be great, but sadly in too many cases -- Tanya, you can identify with this -- that a lot of these young people are not hearing about this. There is no intervention until the high school level. When you are trying to counsel kids on higher education -- of college, on careers, do you feel like the young people, particularly young Latina girls that you are confronting once they're in high school, that they really have defied the odds if they're already thinking about college and thinking about a career path?

TANYA CABRERA, COLLEGE AND CAREER COACH: The majority of students within my department were actually doing some great initiatives, doing early outreach at the elementary school level. We have gear-up coaches and college and career coaches that take data- driven information to drive initiatives to allow access to resources to get them ready. Not only the student but the parent in regards to pursuing a post-secondary path, whether it be a career, a two-year or four-year institution.

When working with some of the women in the school, they come with -- each student is different. They have an array of issues at the home level. Assuming the position as the adult, taking care of their younger siblings and handling their courseloads. So, it gets really difficult, but I think the one thing that helps the most is to intervene early on and get these students on track. That's the most important thing we're trying to tackle at this point.

WHITFIELD: So, let's talk now about the things that need to take place on a much bigger scale. For you, Lucy, there was some intervention. Someone kind of came to your rescue or got your attention. Who was that, and was that the answer for you?

FLORES: Well, you know, like I said, I got involved in gang activity early on, and by the time I was 15 years old, I actually was on juvenile parole. And my parole officer actually was one of the first people that really intervened and treated me as a child with issues as opposed to just another criminal that was going through the justice system.

And so she really was that first person that began to guide me and to really encourage me and allowed me to believe that I was capable of something different, that I was capable of one day being a professional. Obviously, it didn't happen overnight. And I did end up, much to her dismay, dropping out of high school, but that really was that first person that sent me on the right track...

WHITFIELD: And now a law student you are. Congratulations on that. So, Macarena, hopefully there's some intervention before a child gets to the level of being exposed to a parole officer, having a parole officer. What's your advice? What are you hoping in a much bigger way can take place in terms of who do you want to intervene for a lot of these young girls particularly, Latina girls at the elementary school level as you mentioned?

HERNANDEZ: I think there's a lot of things we can do. One thing is to bring the parents along on the journey. My own parents had elementary school educations. They didn't speak the language. It's important to explain to parents the process because for someone who went up to fifth grade, they won't be able to help their own children navigate the world, the college world. So, it's important to really educate the parents, and I think people would be surprised how many parents are willing to go along for the ride if they just had more information.

The other thing, too, is to make sure that Latinas especially that are professionals volunteer their time at local schools. I think it's very important for young Latinas who don't have role models, who never met a Latina doctor or a Latina journalist or a Latina, you know, lawyer, for them to see that and these people like Lucy. I mean, her story is so inspiring. I'm sure that any student that hears her story will be inspired to continue on.

WHITFIELD: Tanya, what do you see that's happening that you want to see more of in the way of intervention?

CABRERA: I have to agree in regards to more parent outreach. There are parents who want to know more information, who are willing to come to school and come to your house and get more information. Definitely more parent outreach.

And I know it's difficult. A lot of parents work two to three jobs and difficult but more parent involvement. And also at the elementary school level, just reaching out, collaborating with local feeder schools, and I have to agree with her again in regards to more Latinos doing outreach, serving as mentors, serving as examples.

I wish I had someone to look up to other than my family members in regards to pursuing a career or going on to college. That truly makes a difference in providing a hope and a resource for these students in the community. WHITIFIELD: Tanya Cabrera, Macarena Hernadez, and Lucy Flores, thanks to all of you ladies for joining us. Appreciate it.

CABRERA: Thank you.

HERNANDEZ: Thank you.

FLORES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Next month only on CNN, "LATINO IN AMERICA." A comprehensive look at how Latinos are changing America and reshaping politics, business, school, churches and neighborhoods. "LATINO IN AMERICA," see it here on CNN.

The FAA is ordering two airlines to change out air speed sensors on their Airbus planes. A sensor failure is suspected in the crash of air France flight in June that killed 228 people. U.S. Airways and Northwest Airlines are the only U.S. airlines that use the A-330 aircraft. They have 43 of the planes. The European counterpart to the FAA made a similar order on Monday.

Stunning new images from NASA. It shows what's been happening at the earth's poles. We have the time lapse images for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Checking our "Top Stories" now. Tropical Storm Jimena is pounding Mexico's Baja Peninsula with rain, but it came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane and it hit one town hard. CNN's Betty Nguyen is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Constitution, Mexico, they have received a lot of damage due to Hurricane Jimena. You can see the streets are flooded. The electricity is out. Crews are on the scene, trying to restore it as best possible.

Many people here just rode out the storm. This is a town of 67,000 people. As you can see by these boards right here, they were trying to protect what property they could, but take a look down this street right here. You will see debris is everywhere. Many of these store fronts have been pretty much pummeled in this hurricane. Windows are blown out. Debris on the sidewalk.

The good news, though, is that there have not been any reports of death or injuries because of Hurricane Jimena. This was a Category 2 that came ashore overnight around 3:00 a.m. local time, and it lasted for hours, so the people here really endured a lot. Be careful, Stuart, because there's a lot of debris in the streets here on the sidewalks.

It's going to take a long time to clean this up. But according to the mayor here, he says in order to get those basic services restored, that might take about a week. They're working feverishly right now, but at this moment, all the folks living here can do is try to clean up and do the best they can to restore what little that they still have.

Betty Nguyen, CNN, Constitution, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And firefighters seem to be gaining ground on the station fire near Los Angeles. The fire is now 38 percent contained. Most of the residents evacuated are now back home. But early this morning, 15 more families were told to get out when a hot spot flared up. A total of 64 homes have been destroyed. Investigators are now trying to determine if it was deliberately set.

The rate of violent crimes is holding steady at its lowest level since 1973. The department of Justice says 19.3 of every thousand people over the age of 12 were victims of violent crimes last year. That's the same as the year before. That equates to 4.9 million violent crimes committed in the U.S. in the last year.

And this disturbing story in Georgia. This 61-year-old man facing felony charges for allegedly slapping a crying toddler that he didn't even know. The two-year-old girl and her mother were shopping at a Wal-Mart just outside of Atlanta when the toddler began to cry. Police say Roger Stevens slapped the little girl several times after warning her mother to keep her quiet.

We're talking about this story on our blog. We've been asking you about your thoughts about this incident where you are. Well, surprisingly, many folks have weighed in and not everyone is saying what you would expect.

John -- this kind of disturbs me a bit - John says, "He should have slapped the mother as well. When are we going to let kids stop running the country? Everything is about the kids. Enough is enough."

And Tony says, "This guy should be slapped and put into a mental institution for the rest of his life. If someone would ever lay a finger on my child, I would make sure he would not be able to use his fingers ever again."

And Angela says, "I'm happy to say I had an experience at a Wal- Mart that was the opposite end of the spectrum. My screaming child was disturbing everyone in the checkout line. Another mother was shopping with a friend, and she came over and took my groceries to the car for me so that I could attend to my son. If more people would take the time to help in a situation instead of make it worse, the world would be a better place. One good deed at a time."

All right. Thank you so much for your comments on that.

And now these astonishing new images of Earth. They show how the weather in one part of the world impacts all the rest of us. Our Josh Levs is here to explain exactly what they show. Pretty nice.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, I'll tell you, NASA is calling this the coolest and most illustrated video of its kind ever. WHITFIELD: Their words. The coolest.

LEVS: They are -- yes. They actually used the word coolest. Probably because they have seen the way I like to talk...

WHITFIELD: Very hip.

LEVS: Yes. They didn't call it awesome. But maybe they will right now, because someone from NASA is joining us. Tom Wagner is on the phone with us. Tom, you there?

TOM WAGNER, NASA (via telephone): I'm there. Hey, Josh, how are you?

LEVS: Hey there, Tom. He's a NASA scientist. We'll start the video at the beginning. Tom, I want you to tell us what it is we're looking at. What are we seeing here?

WAGNER: I'm waiting for it to roll.

LEVS: It's going. We got the video going from the beginning now. Can you see it?

WAGNER: Oh, yes! This is an image of Antarctica. What you will see right away is a land-sat (ph) data compilation that takes all the land-sat (ph) imagery and makes a neat map of Antarctica. We're zooming in on Ross ice shelf where iceberg B-15, which is the size of Rhode Island, broke off a couple years ago. This iceberg was so big it actually blocked off McMurdo (ph), the main U.S. base.

LEVS: Now, talk to me about how this was taken. I know that you have satellite images, but there is also some animation in here, right? How was this done?

WAGNER: This was taking satellite imagery from a bunch of different satellites, and a lot of scientists and graphics artists at Goddard (ph) spent some time putting it together to make this kind of seamless video. You are looking at five or 10 different satellite images here that are put -- all streamed together.

And also what you're coming up to now is the Larson ice shelf, which is an area the size of Rhode Island that collapsed catastrophically a few years ago; it literally tumbled away like Dominos. This ice shelf had been stable for about 10,000 years before this.

LEVS: Let's skip up to the next section now. I want to see what we have in this next section because we're seeing the poles, right? We're seeing what happened with Antarctica and both poles there. But what you are also telling me is that you can tell from this the way weather in one little corner of the world impacts the rest of the world. How do we see that?

WAGNER: Right. And that's one of the neat things about this video, showing how things are connected up. What you see here is the sea ice cover around Antarctica, but if you talk about it on the northern ice cap of the world -- and what we do is we use images like this to connect how the icy regions of the world are changing with regards to changes happening in our climate overall.

LEVS: In fact, let's skip to the third section of video we have here as you talk about this. Look at what you guys show about Denver right there. Tell me what we're seeing with the Denver change.

WAGNER: Yes. What you're seeing is this. One of the things with snow falling in the winter becomes a reservoir of water for the summer. What happens is in a year where you have a lot of snowfall, you have a really green summer. A year where you don't have too much snow is when you end up with a dry summer.

What you see here are the affects of that. You can see two different years. This is important for us because as our planet changes and particularly as the Arctic sea ice retreats, we may wind up with more drought in North America. That's why a lot of scientist are studying images like this and trying to develop better predictive models.

LEVS: All right. We'll skip to the last section of the video I'm going to show you now. And I know you just were saying look, this has never been done before. We have never seen this kind detail from NASA satellite images ever, right?

WAGNER: No. This is the first time's it's put together. And you can watch this video in two ways. This video gets our latest satellite results and tells you about the scientific questions we're working on. It's really well narrated. But also, too, it's just fantastic imagery and you can just sit back and enjoy it.

LEVS: All right. Look, it's fantastic. I want to tell everyone you can see more at nasa.gov. Also, I'm going to post a link directly to this at our blog. CNN.com/josh. I'm putting it on Facebook and Twitter. You can see this and lots of other images.

Tom, thank you so much for your time today.

WAGNER: Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: And, Fred, I'll tell you. You know I love stuff like this. When we get a big picture of Earth, it kind of pulls us out of our individual news stories and reminds us where we are.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It really is amazing to see these big sheets of ice just crumble and disappear and dissipate.

LEVS: And the concerns as well about that.

WHITFIELD: I like the word cool at the top. Those are definitely cool shots. Thanks, NASA. All right, Josh.

Counting on a big loan? One Alabama county is feeling the financial pinch. Now hoping a quick infusion of cash can help get 1,000 workers back on the job.

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WHITFIELD: Today, there's word of a new trend toward some role reversal for women in this tight job market. "USA Today" is reporting that for the first time, women are close to outnumbering men in the workforce. The newspaper quotes U.S. Labor Department statistics as showing women held nearly 50 percent of the nation's 132 million jobs in June. The report says women are also landing the most jobs in growing sectors of the economa -- economy.

All right. Officials in Jefferson County, Alabama, are trying to get about 1,000 of their employees back to work. But it will take a hefty loan to do the job. Alan Collins of affiliate WBRC has the story from Birmingham.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAN COLLINS, WBRC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Without county workers, Jefferson County taxpayers are being forced to wait in long lines. Lines that stretch outside of the courthouse. Commission president Betty Collins says there may be relief in sight.

BETTY COLLINS, PRESIDENT, JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSION: I think it's very good news for the county. We will proceed with work to bring it about. I'm quite pleased with the Regions Bank stepping up to the plate to try to help us.

A. COLLINS: Collins says talks are underway with Regions Banks for a bridge loan, possibly up to $25 million. This will help bring back workers and give them money until the new job tax goes into effect. Financial analyst Stewart Welch say the Regions Bank would not do this deal unless it was guaranteed the loan would be repaid.

STEWART WELCH, FINANCIAL ANALYST: There's no chance that they're taking on, say, a $21 million uncollateralized loan from a bankrupt county. That's just not going to happen.

A. COLLINS: Welch suspects Jefferson County will pledge part of its new occupational tax to pay off the loan, but not all county commissioners agree.

JIM CARNS, JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSION: I think we need to live within our budget until we really see clearly where we're going in the future, and borrowing more money to me is not a good step in that direction.

A. COLLINS (on camera): Jefferson County employees have been on administrative leave without pay. They hope to be back on the job by September 14th, but Collins says even with that loan, that may not happen.

B. COLLINS: As much as we have tried, we are unable to have the funds to bring them back by September 14th.

A. COLLINS: Commissioners are looking to send a letter to employees on leave telling them to consider an extension until October 10. BOBBY HUMPHREYS, JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSION: We've got people, you know, that their families are suffering. Employees are suffering. As I said the other day, some are worried about -- I had one guy tell me yesterday that he had $10 between him and bankruptcy. \

A. COLLINS: In Birmingham, Alan Collins, Fox 6 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The Cash for Clunkers program gave the auto industry a huge lift. Now big government rebates could do the same thing for renewable energy. Stephanie Elam has our "Energy Fix" from New York. Hello to you, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. The money is coming back to wind, solar and other renewable energy projects after a six-month lull.

A new government incentive is a big reason why, thanks to the stimulus bill. Companies can now get 30 percent of the cost of a project in cash instead of getting the tax credits over the life of the project. And these cash rebates, they really can be hefty. One wind farm in rural south Texas is getting more than $100 million alone. The upfront capital has big banks more willing to underwrite these projects. MorganStanley and Citibank both invested $100 million in separate wind farms last month, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. And how much rebate money has been given out so far?

ELAM: Well, right now, we know more than $500 million have been awarded to 12 clean energy projects in eight states. And the program has only been up and running for a month. The Obama administration says the first round of funding alone will create 2,000 jobs in construction and manufacturing, and it predicts that grants will be awarded to 5,000 renewable projects costing the government an estimated $3 billion.

But, you know, keep this in mind. That $3 billion price tag? It's just an estimate. The administration says all eligible projects will get money. There's no cap as long as applications are in by October of 2011. That's why some lawmakers are concerned this program could be overwhelmed, just like Cash for Clunkers. And the requests are flooding in. The Energy Department says it's getting $125 million worth of applications a week. Obviously, we'll be keeping our eyes on that one. That's a lot of money.

WHITFIELD: Yes, sure is! Big numbers. Thank you so much, Stephanie Elam. Appreciate it.

All right. So, it's been ten weeks since pop superstar Michael Jackson died. Tonight, his family says one final good-bye.

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WHITFIELD: Hard to believe 70 days after he died, Michael Jackson is being laid to rest. His family and friends, the only ones attending. Here's CNN's Randi Kaye with a preview.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael Jackson is finally going to be laid to rest tonight in a private burial service tonight at 10:00 Eastern at the great mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial Park. Very few details coming out, but I can tell you that Gladys Knight will be performing during that service.

The media won't be allowed inside. We'll actually be outside the main gate, which I'm told is the largest wrought iron gate in the world.

A production crew will be inside taking video of arrivals. We'll have some of that for you. We won't have any aerials because it's a no-fly zone overhead. Regarding the mausoleum, it has 20-foot archways, lots of marble. It's 11 levels, plenty of mazes inside as well.

Jackson's crypt is supposedly directly to be under a massive stained glass window called the Last Supper window. There are pictures of it on Forest Lawn's Web site. And the Last Supper window is actually a recreation of Leonard da Vinci's masterpiece. It's really something to see. And it's interesting because Michael Jackson had actually reportedly commissioned his own Last Supper painting which he hung over his bed at Neverland Ranch.

Now, most of the mausoleum requires a pass key to get around. There's very tight security there. Visitors can see the Last Supper short film, but that's about as far as they can go. We interviewed a man who had been inside the mausoleum, and he told me there are guards everywhere. Gatekeepers, he actually called them "crypt keepers." He said that those are the folks who keep people who shouldn't be going inside from going inside. He said there's plenty of security cameras around as well.

Now, overall just a few facts here. Forest Lawn is 300 acres. A quarter of a million people are buried there, including many celebrities including Michael Jackson's very good friend, Sammy Davis Jr. Along with him, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Walt Disney, George Burns, Gracie Allen, just to name a few.

But if you go there, don't expect to find the celebrities graves because the Forest Lawn does not provide a map of celebrity graves because they don't want to encourage starstruck visitors. They probably won't be able to avoid them now that Michael Jackson will be buried there because a lot of his fans are probably not ready to let him rest in peace.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: I'm Fredricka Whitfield. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.