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Snow storm Misery; Dealing with Iran; Haiti and Infectious Diseases
Aired February 10, 2010 - 09:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Keeping track of illegal immigrants, after years of climbing numbers in the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security says that trend has now reversed. CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is at the security desk in Washington with more on this, this morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.
You know illegal immigration has been such a hot button issue and it will be again, undoubtedly. It makes these numbers from the Department of Homeland Security particularly interesting and relevant to the debate.
Let's take a look at what they show. In January of 2008, 11.6 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States; in January of 2009, 10.8 million. That's a reduction of 800,000, about 7 percent. And if you look back at the numbers from January of 2007, there has been a drop of about one million from the all-time high.
Now, 62 percent of these people, the Department of Homeland Security says, come from Mexico, but there are other nations contributing to the unauthorized immigrant population. Those include El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Philippines, according to these latest statistics -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And Jeanne, what's the explanation for the decrease?
MESERVE: Well, you know, there's been a lot of money invested in the border over the last couple of years. There's new technology. The border patrol has increased significantly and the Department of Homeland Security and some outside analysts believe that that's one of the factors. But the much bigger issue, people believe, is the economy, the recession.
The fact of the matter is that a lot of the industries that rely on illegal immigrants for labor, particularly the construction industry, have seen a big downturn in their business. That has made people decide apparently not to come to this country and some of them clearly have gone back. But, of course, the economy will turn around, leaving some people to believe that this trend is temporary and that it will ultimately go up again. Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much from Washington.
A look at the top stories right now.
Some Chicagoans are feeling a little unsettled this morning after a pre-dawn earthquake shook northern Illinois. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.3 quake hit just before 5:00 a.m. local time. Its epicenter at the center, rather some 50 miles northwest of Chicago. No major damage was reported.
And another Japanese automaker with a recall, this time it's Honda for its 2001 and 2002 accord, Civic, Odyssey and CRV vehicle models. The concern is over air bags deploying with too much pressure and possibly injuring passengers. The recall also applies to Acura's 2002 CL model.
And to Pakistan now, the death toll rises from a suicide bomb attack that targeted police in the nation's restive tribal region. A senior Pakistani government official says 11 of the confirmed 18 deaths are police officers. Eight more were injured. The blast happened earlier today in Pakistan's Khyber agency.
All right. No rest for the weary, no relief for the east coast in this country. A blizzard warning now blankets eight major U.S. cities and most are still digging out from the record snowfalls over the weekend. Case in point, Washington, D.C., a new storm paralyzes the city and much of the federal government. This is New York, and what could be the best driving of the day.
Howling winds are moving in and massive problems are rippling out. And how far, you ask? Well, consider this picture. It's California today. If you're flying, you might be waiting.
All right. Let's check in with our crews all over the place. Rob Marciano, Reynolds Wolf and our Jacqui Jeras. Let's begin with Reynolds Wolf in the nation's capital.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the latest we have here, Fredricka, this is very similar - I'll tell you, it seems like a hurricane. You'll have a band that will move through a given area. Well, we seem to have a band of snow that have come through, bringing with it some strong winds and at times conditions are almost whiteout in terms of visibility.
I mean it gets very raw to say the very least and it is also due to those winds, of course, the snow that we had, the reason we're not seeing any flights taking out of any of the major airports. Metro travel in terms of the trains, underground service is still there every 30 minutes. Above ground, you can forget about it. It's going to be that way possibly for some days really as they remove the snow.
And speaking of snow, this is actually a snow emergency route. This happens to be Third Street that goes right through the mall here in Washington, D.C. the Mall, this way. This way is the monument, this way to the Capital Building and everything from one side to the other all covered with snow and ice. Now, we have seen some plows that have come through here this morning, but I tell you the roads are still very rough. And if you do happen to get out, you make that choice, and this doesn't just go for Washington, D.C., this goes all across the region, you go out on any of the freeways, you happen to slip, get into an accident and end up in a snow bank, you're doing so at your peril because it may take some time for any emergency vehicles to come pull you out of the mess and of course, assist whatever injuries you might have.
So the bottom line is stay home. Most businesses are closed. Federal government completely closed down. Schools, there's no way kids are going to school on a day like today. And I tell you, one thing we keep coming back to, I hate to keep talking about the nasty stuff, when it comes to finances, you know the recession, of course, many states have budgeted certain amounts for snow removal.
For example, in Virginia, we have $79 million budgeted for snow removal. We've already spent 84. That doesn't include this particular storm and we still have that snow falling. Jacqui is going to give you the specific numbers that we're expecting and I'm sure she'll talk about the blizzard warning that we have in effect until 7:00 local time.
Again, still battling everything mother nature is dishing out. People here trying to keep a smile on their face, but I tell you the situation at present pretty grim. Let's send it back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, it's good to see very few people behind you as opposed to the weekend, you had a whole lot of folks who are out and about. Let's check in now, however, with our Jacqui Jeras. We'll get to Rob Marciano in New York momentarily. But Jacqui, give us a bigger view of this massive storm.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it really is. This is a lot hike what we dealt with last week but the difference this time around, two main things. One, the worst of the snow is further north, so not quite as bad in D.C. in terms of snowfall totals as what you're going to see up, say, in Philadelphia as well as New York City.
Second thing, our wind field with this thing is much broader and that's why we're seeing those blizzard conditions. So many more people will be impacted with just the terribleness of this storm compared to last time around. I've got some breaking information I just want to bring along to you. We've been talking a lot about the airports and delays and cancellations. We know that thousands of flights have been cancelled.
The FAA hasn't reported any delays all day long and that's probably because most of the flights have been cancelled. But just in from La Guardia, the runways remain open there as well as Kennedy and Newark. But the airlines have canceled the majority of the flights. American says they canceled most of them from D.C. to Boston. Delta says they've temporarily stopped flights out of D.C. and Baltimore as of today and temporarily cancelled them out of Philadelphia.
Continental has cancelled more than 800 flights, including all flights at Newark, a major continental hub. And also the Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority, which does Dulles and National both, they're saying that they expect that there will be no operating flights out of either of those airports today.
There you can see the snowstorm at its worst. And really into D.C. and Baltimore is where we have the heaviest of snow coming down, as much as two inches per hour. Totals here will likely reach between six inches and a foot, depending on who gets some of these heavier bands.
Further up to the north we've been seeing a couple inches already in Philadelphia as well as New York City. We're likely going to see accumulations on the range 10 to 20 inches here. A little less in Boston because we think the accumulations are going to stay heaviest down to your south. There are those warnings that we were telling you about. So to see all these big cities in the megalopolis in on the blizzard warning, it's just crippling.
You know, visibility is just going to shoot down this afternoon. Scenes like this one really troublesome. This is outside of Washington, D.C. in district heights. This is a snow plow that had its bed up and you can see the salt there. It hit the bridge, unfortunately. And our I-reporter here showing us, this is from Tom Davis along i-66 in Virginia. Look at that, the snow plows can hardly keep up.
That is going to be more common this afternoon, Fredricka, as those winds kick up 35 to 45 miles per hour.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my.
JERAS: Anything you clear off just goes right back over the top. So the worst of it is going to be kicking in this afternoon and in more of those northern cities.
WHITFIELD: Sure and a lot of those folks feel like they can't necessarily wait until the snow is to end because it would be that much more difficult to try to do the snow removal but it certainly doesn't help that you have the snow blowing that kind of undoes a lot of the work that they have just done.
JERAS: Yes. Stay off the roads. Let them do their job, most definitely. 24 hours from now, pretty much everybody going to be done with the storm other than the cleanup.
WHITFIELD: OK. That's good. All right. Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. Appreciate that.
So that brings us, of course, to today's blog question. We're asking you to fill in the blank. There is so much snow that - go to cnn.com/fredricka and post your comments. I'll read some of your comments later on in the hour.
All right. Out west too much snow to too much rain now. Parts of southern California are on a mudslide watch this morning. Light rainfall is expected, but even that could be too much in an area where a river of mud damaged dozens of homes over the weekend. Several are beyond repair. The homes are on a hillside charred by last summer's huge wildfire.
And Tehran says there's nothing sinister about it. Washington doesn't believe it. Where is this whole disagreement over uranium actually going and will those big protests we saw last year rain on the revolution parade this week?
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WHITFIELD: A warning to millions by the example of one. On the eve of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Iran's courts sentenced one person to death and eight others to prison for their alleged involvement in anti-government demonstrations late last year. Iran has already executed two suspected protesters. Ten others are appealing their death sentences. The move comes as Iran tries tamping down opposition to its government after the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Well, given the recent protests, this year's anniversary celebrations may be very different than in years past. Also looming is the on-going nuclear issue. The U.S. again warning Iran over promises to enrich more uranium. Joining us to talk about Iran is Karim Sadjapour. He is an expert on Iran from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Good to see you.
KARIM SADJAPOUR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: So Iran says it is increasing enrichment of uranium to 20 percent. What does this mean to you? What is this country doing?
SADJAPOUR: It's concerning because Iran is essentially inching its way towards a nuclear weapons capability. I think there's still plenty of time for diplomacy but this move by Iran, I think this further erodes the trust of many in the international community that Iran's nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful.
WHITFIELD: Well, Iran has said that this is really to help in the manufacture of medical isotopes. In fact this is what Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said recently about this move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI-ASGHAR SOLTANIE, IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO IAEA: We can make the fuel. We can increase to 20 percent in fuel fabrication, we can do it. But for nine months we have hesitated to do so because we wanted to give the opportunity for the others within the framework of IAEA to have some sort of international cooperation to open a new chapter of cooperation rather than confrontation. Now since we are disappointed, we have to choose another option, of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: What's your response to what the ambassador says? SADJAPOUR: A couple of things, Fred. I think first it undermines Iran's credibility when it claims its nuclear ambitions are solely for civilian use and clandestine programs are uncovered. Second, Iran has been offered low enriched uranium, even 20 percent enriched uranium from abroad which will be far more cost efficient for them to import than to enrich domestically. It's about 10 times higher price for them to insist on enriching it domestically.
WHITFIELD: Well, what's interesting too, because the U.S. has said and Jill Dougherty was reporting this earlier, the U.S. has said that, you know, we can arrange for you, Iran, to get these medical isotopes on the open market and at the same time President Obama said, that and I'm paraphrasing, we'll be working on the next several weeks on a regime of sanctions to indicate just how isolated they are.
This sending a strong message to Iran. Might sanctions make any difference, because have we seen this country respond favorably toward sanctions before?
SADJAPOUR: Historically, Fred, sanctions don't really have a positive track record in Iran. They don't have a positive track record of either altering Iran's external policies or its internal behavior.
But I think in the aftermath of the June elections, we really reached kind of unchartered waters and many Iranians I speak to, especially Democratic activists in Tehran, argue that they wouldn't mind some very targeted sanctions against the repressive security apparatus of the regime, the Revolutionary Guards. Because the Revolutionary Guards have become at the same time a mafia of sorts.
So if you can make the Revolutionary Guards an international pariah, deprive them of the ability to sign billion dollar contracts, that would be in the interests I think of many who are agitating for democratic change.
WHITFIELD: And what are your expectations on this eve of the anniversary, once the anniversary rolls around, what kind of protests might form and what kind of repercussions would come from it?
SADJAPOUR: Fred, I've always been awed with the tremendous courage and bravery of the Iranian people because the regime always creates this atmosphere of fear and terror and yet still hundreds of thousands of people have continued to take to the streets.
And Friday is going to be the eight-month anniversary after the June elections. I think on one hand I do expect a high turnout. On the other hand, I think simply counting heads can be a misleading metric of Iranian popular opinion. I have no doubts that if people were allowed to freely assemble, you could have five, six million people line up in the city of Tehran.
WHITFIELD: Karim Sadjapour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, thanks so much for your time, appreciate it.
SADJAPOUR: Thank you. WHITFIELD: Well, sometimes the only thing standing between you and your future is your past. But guess what, there's a program for that. It's called strive, and it seems to be working wonders.
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WHITFIELD: Well, it's tough enough to find a job these days, and for people with a troubled past, it's even harder, but help is out there. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow introduces us to strive.
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POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM (voice-over): On East 123rd Street in Harlem, there is hope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the first pillar? Second?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Skills.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Third?
So it's never too late. You're in the right place, you're in a good school, good staff. Take advantage of it, man, take advantage of it.
HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE) took advantage of it and turned his life around. He's one of more than 40,000 people who have benefited from STRIVE, an organization dedicated to helping hard-to-employ people find careers, despite a troubled past.
ROB CARMONA, PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER, STRIVE: I always tell people that we get brilliant right after we get arrested.
HARLOW: Rob Carmona would know. His wake-up call came after years of drugs and run-ins with the law. After almost being thrown in jail, Carmona founded STRIVE on the principle that it's not enough just to learn skills. You have to learn how to act if you want to find a job and keep it. So all STRIVE students go through a month- long course focused solely on their behavior.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... times that you're motivated because it didn't happen by accident.
SHAWN ATKINSON, STRIVE STUDENT: I come from a bad neighborhood, but that don't make me a bad person.
THEODORA REESE, STRIVE STUDENT: When I was 17, I was stupid. I stole a pack of cigarettes. I put myself in the situation, you know.
JASON PATTERSON, STRIVE STUDENT: Regardless of my background, there is still hope for me.
HARLOW: That hope is key. Derek Windsor had it when he was in jail and he's beaten the odds since he was released last year.
DEREK WINDSOR, STRIVE STUDENT: It feels good. It honestly does feel good. I made it. I'm making it. I'm on my way and there's nothing going to stop me now.
HARLOW: Today he's making steady money weatherizing homes and supporting his family, thanks to STRIVE.
WINDSOR: They taught me attitude.
HARLOW (on camera): Attitude?
WINDSOR: They told me attitude. If you don't have the right attitude, you're not going to succeed.
CARMONA: We'll tell people think about the times when you got in trouble. What was going on in your life? And they'll say almost to the man and woman, my life was in disarray when that happened. So work provides that kind of order.
HARLOW (voice-over): And having that work also decreases the ultimate cost to society.
MARIO MUSOLINO, NEW YORK STATE DEPT. OF LABOR: If you have folks that are chronically unemployed, we are going to be supporting them one way or the other in this society.
HARLOW (on camera): What's your family think right now?
WINDSOR: Proud of me. They're proud, you know. If my mother was standing here, she'd probably have a tear in her eye.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So Poppy Harlow joins us now from New York. So Poppy, what's the outlook for the next class of STRIVE graduates.
HARLOW: I think it's even brighter, Fred. I mean, this STRIVE program in the last few weeks just got $4.7 million in stimulus funding. It's part of the government's pathways out of poverty program. And what's interesting is this money is earmarked for green job training in six different cities across the country.
Something we've heard the president talked about so much. These are the graduates that just graduated a few days ago from STRIVE and they are being trained, Fred, for jobs that are needed in this economy, like those green jobs, not jobs that really aren't around anymore, which STRIVE says has been the problem. People just don't have the skills that they need or the right attitude to get those jobs.
But as I said in the piece, 40,000 people have been helped through this program in the past 25 years. Pretty nice to know there's some help out there if you can get it.
WHITFIELD: Yes, congratulations to all those graduates and all the best to those next line of folks who are in that program.
Thanks so much, Poppy. Appreciate that.
HARLOW: You got it.
WHITFIELD: All right. Too close for comfort. Haiti's homeless crowded into camps, raising fears of spreading diseases ultimately beyond Haiti's borders.
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WHITFIELD: A ticking time bomb in Haiti. All those people, hundreds of thousands of them huddled closely in camps, some with highly infectious diseases, potentially passing the sickness around. One fear is the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta visits a treatment tent.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There is something happening here in these blue tents behind me. I can tell you what's happening inside there could impact people all over the world. Think of this as a quarantine tent. People in here are being quarantined since the quake. Many of them have tuberculosis, which is why we're going to wear a mask like this.
You'll notice the door is open. If you stay about 10 feet away from someone with tuberculosis you'll be OK and sunlight kills the bacteria as well. But once you go inside, you have to wear a mask like this. Let's go meet some of the patients.
This is Cindia. She's 20 years old. We've spoken to her already. Take a look at her. She's obviously had a lot of difficulty since the quake. She lost her home. She also lost her medications, which puts her at high risk of developing drug-resistant tuberculosis.
How are you feeling?
There's a lot of things doctors pay attention to. For Cindia, she definitely has some sweating. It's hot outside but the sweating is a little bit more than that. Also the sweats often occur at night. Her lips are chapped as well, you can see just from the dehydration. It's hard to tell but she's breathing quickly, seems to have a little bit of difficulty breathing.
Tuberculosis is a disease of the lungs. What really brought her in here was s this dramatic loss of weight. I mean, just look at her arms. She's lost so much weight. Malnutrition, difficulty eating, that often happens as well. A lot of these patients including Cindia, say you know, after the earthquake they lost so many things, including her home and also her medication. So she couldn't take her medications for a period of time. What's the risk there?
DR. MEGA COFFEE, UCSF DIV. OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There's two big risks. One, of course, we worry about the most is developing multi-drug resistance. She might be taking only one med that's working for TB and she might then develop resistance to all the other med. And then she might be more infectious because the TB can grow back. And most of these patients here are living in tent cities where they're sleeping nose to nose with their families with hundreds of thousands of other people sleeping nose to nose with them. So it's a chance of just spreading it and spreading it.
GUPTA: People think of Haiti as over there, someplace else, not here. London, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, do people need to be worried about what's happening in this tent?
COFFEE: Over time this is going to grow and grow if we allow TB to grow in Haiti, people are going to travel. People are going to be infected, even workers like us here. That can really spread to Miami, New York City and eventually to San Francisco and the southeast. And we really do not wish to have multi-drug resistance. It's something that even in the U.S. we can't treat well. So it would be terrible if we had that spread.
GUPTA: Where will you go after you leave here?
CINDIA (through translator): She doesn't know. She doesn't have a house to go to.
GUPTA: What happens to someone like Cindia. I mean, from a medical standpoint is she going to be OK?
COFFEE: I hope so. If the right infrastructure is in place. She has totally treatable diseases in the U.S. and right now I know I can treat all of her diseases.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us now live from Port-au- Prince. You talk about so many people cramped in these tent cities. What other infectious diseases are people worried about?
GUPTA: Well, you know, there was a lot of infectious disease here even before the earthquake as we've talked about, Fred. But after an earthquake, lots of things happen. First of all, people living in these tent cities can spread disease back and forth, so water borne diseases could be a problem as a result of water contamination.
But also respiratory infections. What otherwise would be relatively harmless respiratory infections can be a real problem not only to an individual but thousands of people altogether because of that. But I think, you know, what Cindia really illustrates more than anything else is the acute phase, if you will, the immediate phase after the earthquake is coming to a close.
People who had dramatic injuries, either they have been treated or they have not survived. Now it's a real question of the follow- up. Being able to take care of the same people longer term, getting them medications, getting them a place to stay, getting them rehab. And if you don't do those things, it makes those life-saving therapies and treatments less meaningful.
So you have to have both in conjunction and that's what Cindia really shows us.
WHITFIELD: It's so terribly sad and we know it's impacting so many people every day, the numbers are multiplying.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much, live from Port-au-Prince.
Here in this country, jobs and the economy are also the focus. Straight talk on the agenda today as President Obama meets with African-American leaders. The president has said what's good for America is good for black America. What do others say?
And lift off is about to take place momentarily at Cape Canaveral there for the first of its kind solar observatory about to launch from Cape Canaveral there. The Atlas 5 rocket and the Solar Dynamics Observatory rolled out Tuesday to the launch pad and scheduled liftoff was 10:26 a.m., two minutes ago. We're watching the countdown to liftoff from Florida.
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***10
WHITFIELD: Right now much of the Northeast, the snow is simply coming down in buckets and the winds are picking up as well. Eight major U.S. cities are under a blizzard warning, Washington, New York, Philadelphia just to name a few. Many areas have just finished digging out from the weekend storm and now they could see new snowfall of 10 inches or more. Let's go to New York right now with our Rob Marciano in Central Park or near Central Park where it looks beautiful and maybe folks are more apt to be pedestrians there than in some of the other major cities where they're relying on rail service and cars.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Fredricka, it's a little bit easier to get around in New York City by foot or by the subway, most of which is underground at least in Manhattan. There have been a few people who have had a snow day. The mayor declaring yesterday that no school today. You know, that sounds pretty ordinary, but not necessarily in New York City. That's only happened three times in the last six years.
The city is prepared. It's amazing to watch them do what they had to do to keep the roads clear. They got a good head start on it as the snow came in last night. And so far so good. But as you can see, it's starting to blow sideways now. Blizzard conditions are beginning to feel like they're almost here. As a matter of fact, the observation out of La Guardia Airport seeing winds gusting to about 40 miles an hour, so we get those winds sustained there over a period of time, dropping the visibility, that's when we get our blizzard-like conditions.
As far as what kind of snow we've had so far, well, about three or four inches so far here in Central Park. But look at this, see how packable that is? That gives you an idea of how warm it is at least to start. So high water content. And the roads have been slushy because of that. Temperatures are going to drop so that's going to coat the roads with a bit of ice and then the rest of the snow comes. And right now we're thinking about 12 -- about a foot of snow here in New York City.
What does that cost? Well, for every inch of snow, it costs the city about a million bucks just to clear the roads. Again, that's over 300 sanders out there, they've got about 1,600 plows that are at work right now and they're just scrambling to get things done. The word of course is to stay home if you can, but not every business has shut down, so a lot of bosses are telling their employees, listen, use your judgment, which means if you're looking for a promotion, show up to work.
So there's been a lot of people who have bared the brunt of this storm and gone to work. The problem, Fredricka, is that the worst is coming this afternoon and by the time the rush hour comes, we're talking at least 10, if not 12 inches of snow and blowing and drifting of snow maybe two and three feet, higher than that. So that's the situation from here. The second big snowstorm for New York of the season and they'll double their yearly snowfall total after this one is through.
WHITFIELD: Wow, pretty brutal conditions. All right, thanks so much, Rob Marciano in New York.
So Washington too may be snowed in but the president is still working. Next hour he's meeting with African-American leaders to talk about jobs and the economy. It comes at a time when there's no good news for blacks in the latest unemployment numbers. The Labor Department announced last week while the jobless rate declined for whites and Latinos, it went up 0.3 of a percentage point to 6.5 percent for African-Americans.
So here to talk about how that may impact today's meeting is Charles Olgetree, a law professor at Harvard University joining us from Miami today and author of "All Deliberate Speed." Also joining William Jelani Cobb, chairman of history department at Spellman College here in Atlanta. He's also the author of "The Substance of Hope."
All right, a question to both of you professors. Should this president being addressing black unemployment, Hispanic unemployment differently than overall unemployment? Professor Cobb, you first.
WILLIAM JELANI COBB, SPELLMAN COLLEGE: Well, yes. The short answer is yes. We've seen double-digit unemployment in the African- American community for some time now, and it seems to be reasonable that you would direct your efforts at the most severe areas where the problem is seen. We just had a substantial economic crisis and in this, we didn't take funds and direct them to just any sector in the economy, we targeted the auto industry and banks that were having financial difficulties. And so I think the same principle should apply to African-Americans and Latinos and communities that have been disproportionately impacted by this chick turndown.
WHITFIELD: So Professor Cobb, is your answer yes too because he is a black president? COBB: Well, no, I don't think that race is particularly pertinent. I think it's a matter of what's needed and what communities are really hurting right now.
WHITFIELD: Professor Olgetree in Miami, do you agree with that?
CHARLES OLGETREE, LAW PROFESSOR: I think Professor Cobb is right on a number of points. First, the president has done a lot but not enough. And I think we all see that. I think what he's done in terms of trying to get jobs there and trying to get the stimulus package down to the community, trying to address health care is great.
But he heard the complaints in January and he's responding now. I think we really do need something like an urban marshal plan. We need a war on poverty directed at those communities that are suffering the most. And even though unemployment is sort of reducing generally, the fact that it's a disease in the black community means that more has to be done.
But it's not just the president, it's Congress. They need to put bills on his desk that he will sign. And so we've got to figure out where is the president's role as the executive? He's not creating legislation, he's signing it. So my point is that the president has to do more, but Congress has to give him what he needs. A Democratic Congress has to give him a serious jobs program to supplement what he's already doing with his executive orders and other things.
WHITFIELD: So Professor Olgetree when we hear that this meeting today involves the likes of Ben Jealous, Dr. Dorothy Height, Al Sharpton and apparently the group is asking that money that would be dedicated to bailing out banks be instead redirected, particularly to communities or programs that might better serve blacks who have been particularly hit hard in this recession, is that alongside what you're talking about?
OLGETREE: It is. And since the president has said this, that we're going to now tax those banks that received billions and bring it back into the urban agenda and I think that's what he'll do with Marc Morial and Ben Jealous and Dr. Height and Reverend Sharpton and other people like that today.
This is a priority because he's made the White House open today to talk about jobs, jobs, jobs. And I suspect -- and it's the whole day. The agenda is clear all day to talk about this. So we will out of that what I've talked about, an urban plan, a war on poverty and an idea to bring jobs back to the community as Professor Cobb has said.
And the president can't do it alone. He needs Congress' support but he's ready to sign what anyone puts on his desk to make these things happen. And I hope that by the end of this month, not longer, that we have a real serious, sustained jobs plan which President Obama has talked about throughout the campaign. And now as the president of all America, he can do something that would benefit the most seriously affected part of the community, African-Americans throughout this entire country. WHITFIELD: So Professor Cobb, how encouraged are you that this meeting is taking place when much of the federal government is closed down, most of Washington is in gridlock. However, this meeting was scheduled prior to this snowstorm and it is still going on. How encouraged are you that there will be some change or some real concrete, I guess, proof of the pudding that some efforts will be directed to the black community as this group is requesting?
COBB: Well, I'm glad to see that the meeting is taking place. I'm glad that see that it is a high enough priority to still remain on the agenda despite the weather difficulties in Washington, D.C. If I can add one quick thing to Professor Olgetree's point, I do think that the president really needs to take the bull by the horns in this.
And if we see there needs to be legislation from Congress that will address these issues, but I also think that he has a great deal of sway in terms of what he does with executive orders. What's going on with the Office of Urban Affairs, which is one of the areas, one of the things the president could use to target and address these particular issues.
I don't think that we can afford to wait to see what comes out of Congress, although I will say one quick point as well, the Congressional Black Caucus has suggested that perhaps unemployment should be tackled based on Census tracks, and that way we are looking at in a non-racial way simply the communities that are hit hardest and most -- in most need. I think that's something that should be looked at.
WHITFIELD: All right, Spellman Professor William Jelani Cobb and Harvard Professor Charles Olgetree joining us from Miami today. Hopefully it's a little sunnier for you there than it is in the rest of the country.
OLGETREE: A little bit.
WHITFIELD: That is under a lot of snow, most the entire country. All right, thanks to both of you gentlemen for joining us. Appreciate that.
All right, well, if the desired effect was to get people's attention, it actually worked. Put up a message like that on a billboard no less, and you're bound to start a conversation.
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WHITFIELD: Anti-abortion billboards raising a lot of eyebrows here in Atlanta. They're going up in mostly African-American communities. The ads say black children are an endangered species. And it has referral to a Web site which claims abortion among blacks amount to genocide. Georgia Right to Life paid for the billboards and they claim the number of black women getting abortions is out of control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CATHERINE DAVIS, GEORGIA RIGHT TO LIFE: I fear that too many of them have become accustomed to using abortion as their favored birth control method. That's my fear. We believe that black children are deliberately being targeted by the abortion industry.
(EN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Some women who say they are against abortion still say they are offended by the billboards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's degrading to me. Endangered species? Children aren't a species, they're human beings, so why would you say that? That's ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Planned Parenthood released a statement saying billboards are inaccurate and insulting and focuses on fear and shame instead of preventive health services.
All right, a look at our top stories right now. Eight areas from the nation's capital northward to New York City are right now under a blizzard warning. No pity from Mother Nature. Today's storm comes with the Mid-Atlantic states still not recovered from the weekend's historic snowfall.
And check your car. There's a global recall for more than 950,000 Honda vehicles. There are concerns about the driver's air bag inflators and the recall covers the 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V and some 2002 Acura TL vehicles. The recall also includes the Honda Pilot and Acura GL in the U.S. The announcement expands a recall from last summer.
And a successful docking this morning at the International Space Station. The shuttle "Endeavour" arrived with new hardware on board to add to the station. The two-week mission includes three space walks and there are only four shuttle missions left after "Endeavour" actually comes home.
And there's one sector or field that gets more of your stimulus money than any other by far. Do you know what it is?
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WHITFIELD: Our Josh Levs is in his new habitat, the Stimulus Desk. Josh, that's home for you for a while, I think. You're doing it so well. We've been talking about education today and you say that viewers really want to know how their money is helping schools and students more specifically.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing how many questions we got about this, Fred. I'll talk you through this. We've been opening up the lines here and at the end of this, I'm going to show you where you can send your questions. And we got one question, I'll just read it to you from Jon Eickman who said, is the education system going to be receiving any stimulus?
And you know something, the answer is yes. In fact it's getting more than any other sector. I want you to see this breakdown. Take a look at this screen here. This is showing the jobs created by the stimulus and which departments got that. Look at that, 411,000 jobs in education and the next closest thing is just 10 percent of that. Transportation got 41,000 jobs so far. Health and human services, 33,000. So there's no comparison. Education by far has gained the largest amount of money when it comes to creating jobs from that massive $862 billion stimulus pile that was opened up last year.
So what we're doing here is looking at individual projects and in some cases looking at individual states. And that's what we're going to do for you now. We're going to take a look at Michigan because as we've told you before, Michigan is the hardest-hit state in many ways. Michigan has high unemployment, Michigan is facing all sorts of problems as a result of it. And we took a look at how much education money Michigan is getting -- $2.8 billion in the state of Michigan to work on all sorts of education efforts there. It's at every single level. It starts at elementary school, goes all the way up through advanced education.
And that is just one place in which thousands of jobs are being created or saved by stimulus money as they are reporting it to recovery.gov. And we chose two more states from you based on some questions we're getting from viewers here. So we could show you here. We've got Iowa, they got $686 million and South Dakota $120 -- closer to $121 million there too. So, you have the $2.8 billion in Michigan and we just showed you a couple of other states for examples.
So Fred, this is the kind of thing we're doing here at the Stimulus Desk. We're following all of these individual projects for you, breaking them down as we go.
WHITFIELD: Oh, thank you so much. And meantime, there is an announcement, right, from the government on a correction about jobs.
LEVS: Big day, yeah. When it comes to the stimulus, the biggest thing you hear people fight about in Washington, how many jobs did it create, right? Well, the way it works so far is that these recipients report to recovery.gov. And I actually have a Web site open behind me. You can take this computer right there. I have recovery.gov open and what we'll show you there is every quarter, what's been happening so far is that they have been reporting the number of jobs. In fact I'm going to highlight it for you right here. We're going to scroll down a little bit. You can see here as of last quarter they said 599,108 jobs.
Well, guess what? Today we're getting corrected numbers. What's happening is all the agencies out there that got funding from the stimulus are going to be reporting again if they got anything wrong so we're going to hear the latest figures from that today.
And I'm going to remind everyone a job doesn't necessarily, Fred, mean permanent forever. Sometimes it's a temporary job. We're going to keep a close eye on those today. And if you want to send your questions, here's where to go. CNN.com/Josh, Facebook and Twitter, JoshLevsCNN. Fred, we are doing our best to hit everything we can in that massive pile so we can all understand what happened.
WHITFIELD: Yes, so we can count on you, Josh, appreciate that. Thank you.
All right, so what's the answer to California's swelling ranks of the unemployed? What if I told you some are looking up and going green? It's more than just tilting wind mills.
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WHITFIELD: All right, this blizzard is no joke, particularly to the folks in Washington, D.C. Jacqui Jeras in the Severe Weather Center. Jacqui?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Fredricka, they're pulling over the plows right now in the D.C. and Virginia areas because the blizzard conditions have become so bad. Winds 40 miles-per-hour right now. The spokesperson for the District Department of Transportation said they have temporarily asked them to pull over to the side of the road. It's not suspended, they just want them to stay put until conditions subside.
Right now they have on standby, everybody is on standby so this is the Washington, D.C., area as well as Virginia where this blizzard continues to ramp up right now. This thing is going up the shore. We're watching Philadelphia getting in on it and right now New York City just on the cusp of breaking blizzard conditions as well. We also have a new blizzard warning to pass along. This in the central Appalachians from this storm across western parts of North Carolina, including Asheville where they could see winds around 50 miles per hour along with four to eight inches of snow. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: Boy, that's incredible stuff. If you can afford to do it, stay inside. You simply do not want to be out in those elements.
JERAS: Yes, too dangerous.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui Jeras, appreciate it.
All right, a look at the markets real quick now. A little more than an hour into the trading day and here's how things are looking on the big board. The Dow down just slightly by 60 points, trying to rebound after a rather sluggish start.
All right, from deep red ink to cool green jobs. California hopes to escape its financial doldrums by tapping into more alternative energies. CNN's Casey Wian has more on the winds of change that are blowing off the California coast.
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CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It sounds crazy. Mark Holmes, a successful corporate attorney took a chance on a new career during the depths of the U.S. financial crisis.
(on camera): October of 2008, perfect time to start a new business, right?
MARK HOLMES, GREEN WAVE ENERGY: That's right. No better time.
WIAN: What was going on? You had to be scared?
HOLMES: We had a major financial meltdown, and everybody was in a panic. And those were really dark days. And so we figured what better time to start a company?
WIAN (voice-over): Green Wave Energy was born.
(on camera): This is Green Wave Energy's first product, a light pole that is powered by both the sun and the wind, operating completely off of the electric grid. What's unique about this is you can see the wind turbine that's turning there. It is also on a swivel so it can catch the wind from any direction. It has four solar panels that can catch the sun's power no matter where the sun is in the sky.
(voice-over): Green Wave is funded by 33 partners who invested a little cash in nearly $3 million in products and services. One partner's ship repair yard serves as a testing lab while another's SUV is a makeshift wind tunnel.
HOLMES: We have essentially an approximation of a wind tunnel without having to pay for all of that really expensive instrumentation. And essentially what we do is we drive up and down a street.
WIAN: A third partner, a struggling luxury yacht builder has found a better way to make the device using fiberglass.
(on camera): This yacht manufacturing company has gone through tough times during the recession.
HOLMES: They've had some very tough times, had a significant reduction in force. And I think with us coming here and starting up production, they're going to be able to bring back a lot more folks and hopefully several hundred folks.
WIAN (voice-over): Green Wave recently made its first light pole sale and is discussing two large contracts, one that could land its off-the-grid light in Haiti.
(on camera): Is this idea sort of creating a green technology company from scratch, if you will, and using the existing resources of sort of an old-school manufacturing company? Is this unique, Green Wave Energy, or can other companies do this?
HOLMES: No, absolutely not. I think this is the model if anything. Bringing in green technology to basically those facilities will basically bring them back to life.
WIAN: Casey Wian, CNN, Newport Beach, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Tony Harris is up next in the NEWSROOM with more on this winter blizzard sweeping the Northeast.
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