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America's Jobs Crisis; U.S./Israeli Leaders Discuss Settlements; A Better Credit Score
Aired March 24, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, March 24th. Top stories for you right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
America's jobs crisis. The unemployment rate for African- American workers almost twice that of whites.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This stage and point, you know, you're not above doing anything to generate some income coming in.
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HARRIS: Yes. Yes. With health care done, black leaders call on President Obama to focus on a strong jobs bill.
Plus this --
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No matter how nice the neighborhood is or how light the sky is or how many children are out in the streets, if these narco traffickers are targeting you, or they mace take you for someone they want to target, you're almost as good as dead.
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HARRIS: Wow. A city under siege. Drug cartels have Juarez, Mexico, in their grip and its people in a constant state of fear.
And safety when you fly. The man the president wants to put in charge of aviation security says the Israeli model is a good blueprint.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, as you know, health care reform has dominated the headlines lately, but now that the bill has been passed and signed, what's next?
President Obama answered that question while celebrating the health care legislation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's still work to do to rebuild this economy. There's still work to do to spur on hiring.
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HARRIS: Jobs and the economy. Over the next two hours, we refocus attention on those issues of top concern to the administration and, of course, to you.
Here's where things stand.
The country's overall unemployment rate is at 9.7 percent, but it's much higher for African-Americans. And the National Urban League is calling for urgent action to put black America and the country back to work.
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MARC MORIAL, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: What's important now is for the nation to embrace the idea why closing those gaps is not only good for African-Americans, but also good for the nation at large. When we have unemployed people, we also have people who could be contributing to the overall economy. That's why we strongly support a robust jobs initiative by the president and the Congress.
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HARRIS: And so that's where we begin this hour, with the Urban League's call for creating jobs in its annual report on the state of black America.
Stephanie Elam of our CNN Money team live from New York.
Stephanie, good morning. Good to see you.
So what does the state of black America report? Tell us.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it tells us a few things, Tony. And good to see you as well.
It talks about a slight improvement based on their Equality Index for 2010. And the Equality Index, it basically measures how equal blacks are to whites when you take a look at economics, health, education and social justice.
So when you put these all together, they're saying this is the first one-year uptick in the last four years, mainly drawn by an increase in civic engagement. That's because so many black people turned out to vote in the 2008 presidential election.
And then add to that their new Hispanic Equality Index. This is the first time that they've done this. This is a new one, and they're saying that they're just looking at minorities here and how they've been affected. And what they found is that social justice and economics, those were the two areas where blacks and Hispanics were lagging behind whites. They had the highest inequality there. And they also said that blacks and Hispanics were more than three times as likely as whites to live below the poverty level. And also, less than half of black and Hispanic families own homes, compared to three-quarters of white families in this country.
And also, if you take a look at the unemployment, you mentioned it there for a second, that these recessionary levels of unemployment, it's a really big deal. It's something we talk about a lot, obviously, in the money team, but the unemployment rates in this country -- see the national average as of February is 9.7 percent. For blacks, almost 16 percent. For Hispanics, over 12 percent.
And you see for whites, it's just -- not just, but it's at 8.8 percent. So definitely a much smaller number there.
And the thing is, is that blacks and Hispanics tend to live with recessionary levels of unemployment throughout most of the year, whether we're in a recession or not. So, just to put that into perspective on why that is so important -- and if you take a look at the reason why the numbers look a little bit better here as far as the overall economics, it's because unemployment rates went up for both blacks and whites during this recession that we've been in, Tony, and that's why you see a change there in that number.
HARRIS: All right, Stephanie. Let's leave it there for now. We'll talk more about this, of course, over the next couple of hours.
We will have much more ahead on jobs and the economy for African- Americans, for whites and Hispanics, for everyone in the country. Later this hour, we will hear from an older American who says he will do just about anything to get a job.
We're also looking at younger workers and those summer jobs. Look now, not later.
And next hour we put together a pretty dynamic panel to look at the issues facing black America and some possible solutions. That's where we like to focus our attention here.
Other big stories we are following on this day after President Obama signed the health care bill.
Republicans are on the attack again, right now in the Senate. They're fighting Democrats over a package of fixes from House Democrats.
Some prominent conservatives, including columnist David Frum, weighing in on the bruising battle it's the possible impact on the GOP.
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DAVID FRUM, FRUMFORUM.COM: What I would worry about is not that Republicans are too angry against Democrats. I worry about what is happening between Republicans and the Republican leadership, and the way that the Republican leaders are trapped and constrained and are unable to do things that are in the long-term interests of the Republican Party as an institution and conservative values by the intense emotionalism of the Republican membership. That's our problem.
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HARRIS: Later today, President Obama will sign an executive order reaffirming the ban on federal money for abortions as part of a deal Mr. Obama struck to get anti-abortion House Democrats to vote for the reform health bill.
It took a woman-to-woman talk to keep a defamation suit against Oprah Winfrey from going to trial. The former head of Winfrey's South African girls school sued the talk show, claiming she was defamed over an abuse scandal at the school, but lawyers from both sides said the two women met and settled the case. The trial had been set to begin five days from now.
There's been a dramatic improvement in Michael Brewer's condition. Now, back in October, he was burned over two-thirds of his body.
Police say three classmates doused him with alcohol and set him on fire. They've been charged with attempted murder.
Take a look at the new pictures of Michael Brewer at a family picnic. He's well enough to play a game of catch. And CNN is working to get an update on his physical therapy and whether he has to have any more surgeries.
It is an emotional flash point. We're talking about the city of Jerusalem.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're building for Jews and Arabs alike. Now, if some people claim that we should stop building only for Jews, that's illegal throughout the world.
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HARRIS: Jerusalem's mayor defends new settlements, even as the city approves yet another housing project.
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HARRIS: You know, they talked, and today aides to the American and Israeli leaders plan to keep on talking. They'll hash out ideas raised last night when President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down. Both locked in a standoff over new Israeli homes on disputed land.
Details on the meeting from Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty at the White House and Senior Editor for Mideast Affairs Octavia Nasr, helping us understand how the Arab-Israeli relationship got off -- well, why it's so rocky, so stress-filled right now.
And Jill, let me start with you.
Another announcement on Israeli settlements was made just this morning. Put that into some context for us.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, the latest announcement is the municipality of Jerusalem is giving approval for the construction housing project in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and this is another 20 houses that would be constructed. Interestingly, a project by an American millionaire.
Now, why this is significant is because this announcement is coming right after that meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And flash back to just about two weeks ago --
HARRIS: That's right.
DOUGHERTY: -- when another announcement of other settlements came out just as Vice President Biden was making a big trip to Jerusalem.
So, the symmetry is pretty bad and raises all sorts of questions, again, of where they're going on this issue.
HARRIS: Well, Jill, what's going on here? What's going on with these announcements, first when the vice president is in country, and now this announcement when the prime minister is meeting with President Obama?
What is going on here?
DOUGHERTY: You know, Tony, there are a lot of layers to this, because if you look at it simply in terms of the U.S./Israeli relationship, that's not the whole story. There's a big domestic component.
And Prime Minister Netanyahu is in a coalition, and he's in a coalition with a number of very conservative people who believe that, as he has said, that Israel has the right to its capital, Jerusalem, whole and unique. And so, it's the third rail of politics in Israel, and if it goes against that, it's very bad for him and it could weaken his position and his coalition could fall apart.
HARRIS: Yes.
And Octavia Nasr, but I've got to tell you, I'm hearing rumblings and strong statements against Israel from quarters of the international community. I can't remember hearing this kind of tone being taken toward Israel from so many different quarters in a very long time. OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. EDITOR FOR MIDEAST AFFAIRS: Right. And just think that yesterday, the British foreign secretary expelled the head of intelligence from the Israeli Embassy. And basically, the British government is telling its citizens that their passports can be compromised if they travel to Israel.
This is after the British government found that Israel is responsible for forging passports. All this involved in the killing, the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai. So that put Israel in a very interesting position, where the British government is accusing it of being behind this, and then other countries joined in.
Now France is involved. Australia is involved. All these countries are allies of Israel, and they're coming out and saying they're investigating. They're looking into action.
HARRIS: Sure. But Octavia, just to move it along, it's also the United Nations here. The secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, was in Gaza on Sunday saying, look, the closure here -- and we've got the quote -- but the closure here is just unsustainable.
NASR: Right. And what's interesting in all this -- and here you're looking at his statement. He did basically hail the Gazans.
He said that the people of Gaza are heroes for what they're sustaining. He was very, very vocal about this.
But what's interesting in all this, Tony, is Israel's position. Israel is not changing any of its positions. It's staying very hard line on issues, as you heard earlier from Jill.
Israel is basically making these announcements at very key times. When Vice President Biden was in Israel, they announced the settlements. As the president is meeting with the Israeli prime minister, right after that meeting we hear that the Jerusalem municipality gave its final signature for the building of these homes.
Now, it's very important to say these homes will be built on land that has right now a historic hotel built by Palestinians and owned by Palestinians. So these homes are going to be built in a Palestinian area, a Palestinian neighborhood, and it will dictate the tearing down of a historic building that is owned by Palestinians.
You can only imagine the reaction that this is going to create, but at the same time, you look at Israel, it's not wavering in its position. It's not changing anything --
HARRIS: No, that's clear.
NASR: -- despite all the -- all which you mentioned. You know, all those criticisms.
HARRIS: And Jill, one last one to you here. These two sides, they need one another. The United States and Israel, they need one another, particularly with what seems to be some looming threat here with Iran and its ambitions. DOUGHERTY: Well, they do. I mean, that's an overriding issue. And if you listen to Mr. Netanyahu, that's a lot of what he talks about all the time, reminding people about Iran.
But what is equally as important, Tony, is this peace process. And the peace process right now is not going anywhere.
In fact, right before all of this blew up, the two sides, Israel and the Palestinians, had agreed to at least indirect talks. And Mitchell, George Mitchell, the special envoy, would be going back and forth between them.
Now even that is in jeopardy. And so what Secretary Clinton has been saying is, when you have things like this settlement flap, it undermines all of that, and it undermines the ultimate objective, which is to get both sides together, talking directly, and getting the peace process back on track.
HARRIS: Yes.
Boy, really want to know what's going on here at the heart of all of this.
Jill Dougherty, appreciate it.
Octavia, great to see you, as always.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, if you want to buy a car or a house, you need a good credit score. We have some top tips to help you improve yours.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: If you've tried to get a loan for something, anything, you know the better your credit score, the better your chances, right?
Ines Ferre is here with "Top Tips" today with how you can give your credit score a real shot in the arm.
What do we need to do here, Ines? First of all, good to see you.
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Tony.
OK. Well, experts say that these days, you need a FICO credit score of 720 or higher to get better terms on mortgage rates, credit cards and auto loans. So it's really important to know what can kill your score.
So, what can that be? Well, that includes not paying bills on time or defaulting on loans. Even minor late payments like 30-day delinquencies can be a negative. You can redeem yourself if you keep make payments on time though.
Closing old accounts can drop your score. If you shut down a credit card account, the total amount of your available credit is lower and your balances look much larger in comparison. Now, unless you have a massive annual fee on a card, you may just want to keep your accounts open.
Also, every time you open a new account, your score drops five to 15 points. That's because you look riskier to the credit bureaus. As long as you manage your bills wisely, this will only impact your score for a short time, usually a couple of months.
Also, beware of retail store credit cards. You know, those credit cards where you get 10 percent off on the sale? Well, every time you open one of these, you're giving the retail lender the ability to pull your credit score, and that can lower your credit score, too.
Now, for a complete list of credit score killers, go to CNNMoney.com.
HARRIS: I'm not going to let you go before I ask you a quick follow here.
So, how long does, really, sort of derogatory, negative information stay on your FICO score?
FERRE: OK. Most negative credit information remains on your credit report for a maximum of seven years.
If you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it's 10 years. For Chapter 13 bankruptcy, your negative credit information is there for seven years if you pay everything off. And if you consistently pay your credit card bills on time, you'll see positive credit information indefinitely.
Remember, it's really important to get a copy of your credit report from all of the three credit bureaus once a year, and the Web site to go to is annualcreditreport.com -- Tony.
HARRIS: Good tips, as always, Ines. Appreciate it. See you in just a couple of minutes.
FERRE: Thank you. OK.
HARRIS: You have the skills, you have the experience. All you need is a paycheck. Our focus, out of work in America.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given the opportunity, I proved my worth over and over again, and all I'm just looking for is the chance to show you what I can offer your company or organization.
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HARRIS: OK. Top stories for you now.
President Obama signs an executive order dealing with abortion this afternoon. It bars federal money for abortions under health care reform beyond what current law already allows. It is part of a deal with anti-abortion House Democrats.
We're getting your phone calls, as you know, about new health care legislation.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to thank the president very much for what he did. At least he had the courage, and so did the Democrats. And this is a start. I'm just sorry it's going to take six months.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe they ought to kill the bill. It's not for everybody. That's taking the freedom of speech from the American people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're telling us it's our fundamental right to have health insurance, and I think that's right. But it's also our fundamental right to vote. Are they going to tell us how to do that, too? They should be going after the insurance companies, finding out why they're making millions.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
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(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: The bloodbath in Mexico. CNN goes to ground zero in the drug war.
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HARRIS: A high-level American delegation is back in Washington today after a one-day trip to Mexico. More on that in a moment.
First, the reason for the trip, the drug war and the escalating body count. Ground zero for the cartels, the city of Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. More than 2,600 people were killed there last year. Tens of thousands of residents have abandoned the city.
CNN's Gary Tuchman paid a visit.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This man has just watched gunmen ambush his brother and murder him. In one of the most frightening cities in the world, Juarez, Mexico, a place where 16 young people can get killed at a party by narco traffickers, who apparently made a mistake, targeting the wrong house and few are stunned by it.
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TUCHMAN (voice-over): This man has just watched gunmen ambush his brother and murder him in one of the most frightening cities in the world, Juarez, Mexico, a place where 16 young people can get killed at a party by narco-traffickers who apparently made a mistake, targeting the wrong house, and few are stunned by it.
Drug cartels are at war in this city of 1.5 million, law-abiding citizens be damned. This past weekend we went to the funeral of an American woman who worked at the U.S. consulate in Juarez. She was shot and killed, along with her American husband and her unborn child. It happened right in front of the Juarez mayor's office, a stone's throw away from El Paso, Texas.
Over the next few hours, we saw firsthand what has led to Juarez having the highest murder rate in the world.
(on camera): There is no such thing as a quiet weekend day here in Ciudad Juarez. About one hour ago, police got a call that in this murky river there was a body. When they got to the scene, they indeed found the body with a bullet hole right in the forehead. Behind me members of the military with guns, police, these guys will probably be at another murder later today.
(voice-over): We didn't realize how quickly we'd see them again.
(on camera): Only 10 minutes after we left that river, a five- minute drive away, this was the scene. Two men in that gold pickup. Six gunmen came up to them. The driver ran out, was shot. And now he's under that tarp.
(voice-over): Why was he targeted? We may never know. This is the brother of the victim, who was also in the pickup. The gunmen left him unharmed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We were just going to the tire shop to pick up a tire, and nothing more.
TUCHMAN: Thirty minutes later, another execution-style killing. A worker in an electrical store shot multiple times at close range. Neighbors are afraid to talk about what they know, and fear the murderers will come after them.
I asked this man if he heard anything.
(on camera): Nada? Nada, todo?
As an observer, it is very disturbing how this all starts feeling very routine. We're seeing the same police officers, the same members of the military. No matter how nice the neighborhood is or how light the sky is or how many children are out on the streets, if these narco traffickers are targeting you or they mistake you for someone they want to target, you're almost as good as dead.
(voice-over): We're told that something horrible happened in the middle of the desert outside of Juarez. We drive on a gravel road into near total isolation to see what police discovered from an anonymous tip. (on camera): What the authorities found here was a mass grave; this hole right here had five decomposed bodies, one of them without a head.
(voice-over): It had been less than four hours since we arrived in Juarez when we saw this scene. The body of a man shot more than a dozen times at close range in the back seat of a car. Outside the police line, a woman who didn't want to talk sobs.
This woman was one house down from where the execution took place.
(on camera): So did you hear gunshots?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
TUCHMAN: You're right next door to where they happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, yes, but no, we didn't hear anything.
TUCHMAN: Would you be afraid to tell me if you did hear something?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): So many people are afraid here in Juarez. After a sunny Saturday afternoon here, you see why.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Juarez, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: We will dig deeper on Mexico's violence with our very own Nick Valencia and Ines Ferre.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: OK. Now the drug war summit in Mexico. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led a team of heavyweights from the Obama administration. What was accomplished in the one-day meeting?
For that, let's bring in CNN's Ines Ferre and CNN's editor Nick Valencia.
Ines, let's start with you. It was more than just Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. If you would, who were some of the other U.S. Representatives on hand?
INES FERRE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well, the key players were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as you mentioned, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Neapolitan; Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff; and Director of Intelligence Dennis Blair. Clinton met with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa and later with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
The idea behind these meetings was to really expand and improve programs under what's called the Merida Initiative. It's a $1.4 billion multi-year aid program to fight drug crime. Now this includes also modernizing border crossings, better inspection of vehicles and people crossing the border. But one of the really main strategy expansions here is to do more on the social economic front, helping poor communities where instability is so bad that young people have fallen into crime.
So when you talk about security it's not just the obvious security presence, but also the social and economic security that many Mexicans have been lacking. And, Tony, one of the cities that's been a reference point as far as the Mexican drug violence is concerned is Juarez with more than 400 drug-related deaths there since January.
HARRIS: OK. Let's do this. Ines, if you would, stay with us. We're going to talk to Nick, and I know you have questions for him as well.
Nick, let's take this on a micro-level to begin with here, and what is it like for the people of Juarez? You mentioned, what? A million, a million four?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: It's about 1.4 million, 1.3 million people. What you have to first understand about Juarez, Tony, other than the fact that it's complicated, it's a very complicating case.
Having said that, it's not so black and white like people would like to think it is. There's not good guys necessarily and bad guys on the simplest of levels. It's a very gray area where you have a cartel, La Linea, the Juarez cartel, which has operated in Juarez for about 15 years now.
Now, you have to understand that a lot of these guys, a lot of these narcos, these narcotraficantes, have been friends with people in the police force. They went to high school --
HARRIS: Went to school together.
VALENCIA: -- went to school together and the and drank in the same bars. And up until recently, around 2008 when we saw the Sinaloa Cartel move into the Juarez area and we saw the Mexican military, about 10,000 troops, enter Juarez, that's when the violence really started picking up a lot, since 2008, in the last two years.
HARRIS: And what is the fight? You mentioned two cartels here, repeat those names again, and what is the fight over? Clearly, the spoils of the drug trade, but it's also for territory and a strip of land in particular.
VALENCIA: That strip of land is called the Juarez Plaza. It's a strip of drug trafficking corridor that goes directly into the United States. There's two cartels battling for that along with some of the proxies, local gangs, street-level gangs that they use to outsource their violence.
One of the cartels is La Linea, the Juarez cartel which I mentioned. It's much like Hamas and the Mahdi Army in Baghdad. There's a lot of sympathizers there, they fund social projects, civic projects, they fund churches. They're the ones in these rural areas where the military has no presence and the narcos reign like kings. They're the ones that, in a lot of ways, the residents trust them more than the officials fighting for them.
Now the other cartel that you have is the Sinaloa Cartel. They operate in western Mexico along the coast, they're also known as the Pacific cartel. They moved into Juarez in 2005 from Nueva Laredo. Nuevo Laredo used to be the hot spot for Mexican drug cartel violence. What's happen now is you saw those two cartels that were fighting there, the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, if you're staying with me, they came to an agreement, came to a truce, so to speak. Realized that they were spending more time killing each other than they were making money. So they came to an agreement essentially the Sinaloa Cartel was taxed to use that corridor.
And they saw and they took advantage in 2005 the La Linea, the forest cartel, was sort of weakened. A lot of leadership had dissolved, people had fled and defected to the Sinaloa Cartel, the main rival to La Linea. So having said that, what they did is they started attacking the Juarez Plaza, the Sinaloa Cartel.
HARRIS: They're acting like crazy multinationals in making deals with one another, and this is insane.
Ines, jump in here. I know you have got a question for Nick.
FERRE: Yes.
Well, the strategy hasn't been working. So, Nick, the question is is Calderon sent out thousands of military to fight this drug war. So why hasn't this been working? Why has the military not been able to do this?
VALENCIA: Well, what we're hearing from Mexican authorities in a lot of ways is that it's alleged corruption, first of all, on the local level. The municipal police department, it's just rampant corruption is what we're seeing.
The municipal police department used to be under the de facto control of La Linea, of the Juarez cartel. Now what the mayor did is he gutted that police force. He fired and everybody, put them through lie detector tests, put them through drug tests. A lot of them failed, a lot of them just plain left.
So now what you have is you have the municipal police force under the control of the Mexican military, and the Mexican military often implicated in a lot of human rights abuses. These guys can, if you're looking at in black and white, often be seen as bad guys themselves.
HARRIS: Well, let me do that. Let's see if we can do that to some extent, good guys and bad guys. The mayor of Juarez, who you mentioned, is he a good guy? Is he someone that Mexican officials, that Mexican people, that American citizens should rally around? Is he a good guy and tell us a bit about him.
VALENCIA: When you look at the history of Juarez and you look at the history of the mayoral elections, in the last 25 years, candidates who have won have come in by less than 2 percent margin. When he was elected into office, democratically elected, he won by a 17 percent majority.
HARRIS: Yes.
VALENCIA: Hugh numbers.
HARRIS: Tell us who he is again.
VALENCIA: He is Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz. He's a graduate of Notre Dame University 1998 graduate, got his masters there. He's a law professor by trade. He could practice in California and he could practice in Mexico. And he was sought after to be the mayor of Juarez. This is not a job he signed up for, it was a job that he was recruited for. And now he's taken the responsibility to be the good guy and act as the face against the narcotraficantes and this has --
HARRIS: Really putting his life on the line.
VALENCIA: Well, today is -- I'm glad you mentioned that, Tony. Today is the two-week deadline given by cartels. They left a note, a decapitated pig's head was found in the city two weeks ago today with the note next to it saying in part to the mayor, you have two weeks left to live. Today is the deadline.
HARRIS: I need one more note here. Tell me who the top drug guy is in Mexico now. I'm sorry to do this, but we need to see names and faces. We need to recognize who the top guy, the problem is here. Who is he?
VALENCIA: Absolutely. It's one guy and everybody knows who he is and he's synonymous with the drug war. It's Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. He's the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, as we mentioned in this reporting, he's also the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, which is the main rival to the Juarez Cartel.
HARRIS: All right, Nick, let's leave it there.
Ines, thank you. Where are you?
FERRE: Thank you.
HARRIS: And see you next hour.
Nick, thank you.
VALENCIA: Thank you.
HARRIS: Mexico's bloodbath, a continuing focus tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" 10:00 and 7:00 on the West Coast only here on CNN.
Let's do this, let's get you caught up on top stories now.
Another Irish bishop steps down in the wake of the catholic sex abuse scandal. Bishop John Magee says he is sorry for what happened in his diocese. Four other Irish bishops have offered to resign in recent months, but the church has only accepted one other offer.
Republican politician Sarah Palin is about to get real. A number of reports say she is close to a deal for a reality show on Discovery Channel. It is a travel series called "Sarah Palin's Alaska." She reportedly earned $1 million an episode. Wow!
A remarkable improvement for a 15-year-old Florida boy set on fire back in October. Here are new pictures of Michael Brewer playing a game of catch. That's a burn suit he is wearing under his clothes to protect him from infections. The classmates police say attacked Brewer are awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder.
African-Americans almost twice as likely as whites to be out of work. We will talk to a panel about the new report on the state of Black America.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Now that health care reform has passed, getting Americans back to work is top priority for a lot of people including the National Urban League. It 's annual State of Black America report released last hour shows African-Americans are almost twice as likely to be unemployed than whites. The group's calling for the government to create $160 billion to create 3 million jobs and help people like Judi Redman who talked about her struggle to find work with CNN's John Roberts this morning.
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JUDI REDMAN, LOOKING FOR FULLTIME EMPLOYMENT: Basically, I think it's because I'm overeducated, which is a very sad thing. I -- my parents worked hard to get me the best education possible. I got it and now, they don't want to pay me for what I deserve to be paid, even though I'm willing to work for much less --
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.
REDMAN: -- just to have a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And then there is Roosevelt Pargo who used to help people find jobs, now he's looking for work. Are all-platform journalist Chris Welch has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROOSEVELT PARGO, UNEMPLOYED: This is a copy of my resume currently. CHRIS WELCH, CNN ALL-PLATFORM JOURNALIST: What did you do as part of your job?
PARGO: Well, we assisted folks in finding employment, developing resumes, producing cover letters, learning job search techniques.
WELCH: So now you're in the same position that the people you were trying to help were.
PARGO: Yes. I'm in the process of trying to find a job and it's a real challenge now. And at this stage in point you're not above doing anything to generate some income coming in, you know? So --
WELCH: How old are you again?
PARGO: I'm 51. So my age has something to do with the current market also. You know, I'm not one of the young people just graduating from college where you can take an entry-level job at $18,000 to $20,000 a year and be satisfied, you know? With the house, a wife and a mortgage, there's a little bit more demanding than that, you know?
WELCH: Does having to do that you used to teach put it into new perspective for you?
PARGO: Yes, because when I used to talk to my classes doing my orientation and my work shops, I used to tell them the only thing that separates us is two paychecks. And the reality is, once you go a month without a solid paycheck you fall into the category of everyone else out there looking for a job.
WELCH: How would you sell yourself right now if you could tell someone why they should hire you.
PARGO: Given the opportunity, I've prove my worth over and over again, and all I'm looking for is the chance to show you what I can offer your company or organization.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And next hour, the issues facing Black America and some possible solutions. We'd like to focus on the solutions here. We've put together a really smart panel to hash it all out.
Improving airport security by giving officers more face time with travelers. It is working in Israel, is it coming to the United States?
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HARRIS: I needed to reach out to the program, I need you to talk to me directly. A couple of ways for you to do that. First of all, CNN.com/Tony takes you directly to this -- bam -- our blog page. If you'd like to send us your thoughts on Facebook, here's what you do, TonyHarrisCNN. Here's my Twitter address, TonyHarrisCNN. Call us, pick up the phone, 1-877-724-5760. Let's have more of your thought on the program. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris.
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HARRIS: Improving security at the nation's airports. President Obama's choice to head the TSA tells Congress we can learn a thing or two from Israelis.
Our Kate Bolduan is in the nation's capital manning our Security Desk. And, Kate, the answer is pretty obvious here, but tell us why we are looking to Israel.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What it comes down to really, Tony, is passenger engagement, as they call it.
Let me ask you this, would you feel comfortable almost every time you travel being asked questions like why you're traveling, where you're traveling, the purpose really of your travel, where you live, and other background questions like that?
HARRIS: Of course, yes. Yes, yes, if it would help overall security, of course.
BOLDUAN: Well, you might be right in line with the president's nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration. In a hearing, he said that may be the direction, the strategy for security in U.S. airports that he wants to go.
This is retired Army Major General Robert Harding. He really wants to beef up U.S. security. And in doing so, he's saying in these confirmation hearings that he may want to move in the direction of some airport security models overseas.
Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. ROBERT HARDING (RET.), U.S. ARMY, TSA NOMINEE: I agree with you that we should move even closer to an Israeli model where there's more engagement with passengers. I think that increases the layers and pushes the layers out. I think that's a very important aspect of providing security, is engaging the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Now, Harding did say he wants to move in this direction, but just how far, he did not say in these hearings.
Now, Tony, you probably are aware of this, but many people may not. The Israeli airport security is really marked by some aggressive questioning of passengers. Interviewing every passenger from between one minute to ten minutes, up to the extreme cases of even an hour. And in some cases even asking passengers to produce documentation to support some of the information they're giving. Say you're going for a business conference, maybe to find something that can support that kind of information. So it can be very intense in some cases.
HARRIS: I've actually traveled through Ben-Gurion Airport, and that security apparatus, it is no joke.
But here's the thing, Kate, Israel and United States are very different places. Could this model, given the amount of the volume of traffic in the United States, work here in the country?
BOLDUAN: You really hit the nail on the head. The Israeli model is really praised by experts for making the Israeli airport system some of the most secure in the world, but it's also criticized by privacy and civil rights advocates for including passenger profiling. So it does raise a lot of questions.
And I actually spoke, you mentioned Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, I actually spoke with a former head of security at Tel Aviv airport, and he said even in his view the Israeli system is not a perfect match of the U.S. because of certain privacy concerns and as you mentioned, the sheer volume of passengers. The U.S. airports have a lot more passengers traveling through it than the Israeli model. But more human interaction, he says, would be a benefit to the U.S. system.
HARRIS: It's worth exploring and investigating.
Kate, appreciate it. Thank you. See you next hour.
BOLDUAN: Of course, Tony.
HARRIS: Here's what we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
The state of Black America still lagging behind despite some process. We will talk with a panel about the issues including jobs, education and health care.
And miles to go, but then what? A frequent flier grounded by the recession. He lost his job and his home, now he is living on those airline points.
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HARRIS: So it's about time, time for many people to start thinking about finding a summer job. But here's a question, are companies hiring young people right now? Felicia Taylor is in New York with details.
Felicia, good to see you. What is the outlook here for summer jobs?
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Not so great, Tony. The good news, though, is the outlook is about the same as last year. But that, of course, is really the bad news.
The new survey from snagajob.com says 47 percent of hiring managers don't plan to hire any seasonal workers this summer. As for the pay, that's also about the same. The average summer job will pay about $10 an hour. That's especially tough news, obviously for teenagers and college kids because they make up the bulk of those that are looking for seasonal work over the summer. So it's really not a great news story, Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. So if half of managers aren't hiring, does that mean the rest are hiring?
TAYLOR: Very good question. Snagajob.com does have summer jobs posted, but get on it. They're all over the country. Places like Hershey Park, AMF Bowling, Marriott Vacation Club. They've got restaurants posted like Steak 'N' Shake and Dairy Queen. Retailers like Toys 'R' Us, Michael's, Sears amongst others.
But you've got to get moving on this, I'm not kidding. Experts say that you should start applying right now. And if you're still in school, offer to even work maybe nights and weekends. If you wait until May or June, there really won't be that much left. So get out there and look for that job right now. It's not too soon.
Let's take a check on Wall Street. Stocks retreating after yesterday's more than 100-point rise. A surprise drop in new home sales is what's dragging down sentiment, sales fell to a record low in February. Right now, the Dow off 29 points. That's off of its earlier lows, though. The Nasdaq Composite is off about a half of 1 percent.
HARRIS: All right, Felicia, appreciate it. Thank you.
