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Fabulous '09 for Fortune 500; Future of Space Exploration; Deadly Afghanistan Explosion

Aired April 15, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: The nation may still be in a recession. We're probably out of it, but it's still in a recovery. Unemployment almost 10 percent. Millions of people continue to lose their jobs, but for the companies that make up the latest Fortune 500, 2009 was a very good year, indeed. These guys made what the magazine calls a nearly unprecedented comeback. Nice for them.

Joining me from New York with all the details is Leigh Gallagher, senior editor at "Fortune." Leigh, good to see you.

LEIGH GALLAGHER, SENIOR EDITOR, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good to be here, Ali.

VELSHI: As business journalists, we're pleased it's happening, because the logical follow-through from a great year is that people who have 401(k)s do well, these companies hire people, they invest, you know, great things happen.

But for a lot of people it smacks of a disconnect. How was 2009 such a good year for the Fortune 500 companies?

GALLAGHER: Well, one reason, basically, they slashed so many jobs that their profits soared. The profits that we saw on the list this year, if you take all of the Fortune 500 and average out their profits, they were up 330 percent. That's staggering. Because they were down a lot last year, obviously.

So, it's just -- you know, it's an amazing figure. It's the second biggest profit gain that we've seen since we've been doing this list. And the reason why it happened is because they cut costs so much, because if you actually look at the revenue figure -- in other words, the sales that they're pulling in by selling stuff -- it went down.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

GALLAGHER: So that is the figure that usually pulls profits in one direction or the other. So to have the revenues drop so dramatically, and yet the profits be up so dramatically, the answer is, as you said, they slashed so many jobs, that they actually -- you know, saw benefits from that.

VELSHI: So real success in the business world is when revenues are up and profits are up together. You have to have that revenue going up. Now, interestingly enough, the number one spot, not ExxonMobil now, Wal-Mart. Does that have something to do with the economy?

GALLAGHER: It does. I mean, Wal-Mart tends to do well in a recessionary environment. Their low prices, you know, that's why people shop there. And so more people shop there in a climate like what we've seen.

And at the same time, Exxon, which was number one last year, and is now number two, lives and dies by oil prices. And oil prices dropped a lot this year. So, that sort of explains the reversal there, which wasn't so surprising.

Those two companies have kind of been -- they almost have, like, a reciprocity agreement. They've been floating back and forth for number one and two for the past couple of years. But Wal-Mart's an interesting story. I mean, they did inch their revenues up just a little bit this year, even in this climate, and their profits were up about 7 percent. So it's a great story there.

VELSHI: There are all sort of little things. You can parse this, and that's what you guys do. It's great. You can parse it for different trends.

Here's one that I thought was interesting. Fifteen of the companies on this year's list are run by female CEOs. You've got Xerox, PepsiCo, Avon, Yahoo, are just a few of them. But is that a trend you're seeing more of?

GALLAGHER: Well, it's funny. I mean, that's about what it was last year, but it's up from 7 percent in 2009. So we've definitely seen an increase.

But, you know, it sort of stayed the same, roughly the same about -- from what it was last year. I mean, maybe that's due to the economy. Who knows? But, you know, I would say big picture, in terms of the history of this list, it's still on the upswing and we'll see more in years to come.

VELSHI: All right. We saw some new companies on the Fortune 100 this year getting bigger -- Amazon, Delta, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Again, something a lot of people probably don't want to hear now that we own a piece of these companies.

Where are they from, these Fortune 500 companies? Fifty-seven of the companies are from California, 56 in New York, 24 in Pennsylvania. Twenty-one of the Fortune 500 companies in Minnesota.

GALLAGHER: Yes. No, it's interesting.

They come from everywhere, but as you say, California and Texas have the biggest representation. Interestingly enough -- well, maybe not surprising, Ohio and Michigan kind of lost in -- the number of Fortune 500 companies from those states declined, and you can guess why that is. They're feeling the pain from the manufacturing sector. And then states like Virginia and Maryland actually gained. And, you know, that may have something to do with so much activity being focused around D.C.

VELSHI: Yes.

GALLAGHER: We also saw some interesting newcomers. Allergan, the company that makes BOTOX, was on the list for the first time. So that's kind of interesting.

VELSHI: It's definitely worth a read. And if you go on the Web site, you actually can see -- I mean, there's great ways to sort of -- you guys have set up those lists. So, it's good reading.

Leigh, thanks for being with us, as always.

Leigh Gallagher, senior editor at "Fortune" magazine, joining me from New York on the Fortune 500.

Hey, listen, it's just past 2:00 on the East Coast. Here's what I've got "On the Rundown."

Stunning proof today that a volcano can cause as much trouble on the air as on the ground. A volcano erupted in Iceland. We saw some staggering pictures of that. It's now disrupting air travel all across Europe. Major airports closed all across Europe.

We'll have the details.

Plus, the Tea Party. No doubt it's growing, no doubt it's a force to be reckoned with. But does it have a clear plan to achieve its goals? There are some questions about that. I'll talk to one of the Tea Party's leaders.

And space exploration is the final frontier, but should it also be a privately-funded frontier? President Obama thinks so. We're going to hear from him live this hour.

Now, the future of the space program is one of our big stories today. President Obama is at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and we are less than an hour away from his remarks to workers about his five- year plan for space exploration.

Here are some of the basics.

The new budget takes the space shuttle program out of the mix. It replaces it with more money for deep space exploration.

The president is slated to speak around 2:45 Eastern. You'll see him right here live. He might get there a little early. We already saw his plane land at the Kennedy Space Center.

Let me tell you a bit about the plan.

Under the president's plan, there seems to be much more focus on science and technological advances, less focus on transporting astronauts into space. The champions for pushing forward in those fields are people like astronaut Mae Jemison, Dr. Mae Jemison, a true pioneer in space travel. She joins us live now from the Kennedy Space Center.

Dr. Jemison, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

DR. MAE JEMISON, FMR. ASTRONAUT: Good afternoon.

VELSHI: Listen, what the president is going to propose is a shift in thinking for NASA and one that some people think is great. We're going to concentrate NASA on deeper space exploration, put more money into it and do other things.

Others say it's a bad idea. We're getting out of the business of shuttling astronauts into space, and somehow that is going to be bad for NASA.

What are your thoughts?

JEMISON: Let's look at it this way -- when we look at what goes on with space exploration, with NASA, NASA's on the cutting edge. What we tried to do is to do the things that other folks can't.

The government has to do things where you build heavy launch vehicles that other people can't commit to, where you push the technology design. Those are the pieces that NASA needs to do, deep space research NASA should do. The basic sciences are important.

So, when we look at taking astronauts back and forth from low- earth orbit, it's something that perhaps other public or commercial entities can do. It doesn't mean that there isn't a commitment to human space flight.

VELSHI: Right.

JEMISON: It just means that we're moving forward.

VELSHI: OK. So you're saying it's that part of things, the ability to get astronauts into low-earth orbit, is how we refer to it. It's mature enough that we've got some sense of it. The private sector can take that over and the expense of doing it, and the profits of doing it, and NASA takes its budget, which is increasing under the 2011 federal budget, and concentrates on things that are not viable for the private industry to get involved in.

JEMISON: Well, I think that they're not saying that NASA will never be able to take people to low-earth orbit anymore. It's just right now, how do we make the best of what was a set agenda before President Obama came in?

We have to remember that the shuttle was set to retire a number of years ago. And it just happens that 2010 is when it's being enacted. So, that was something that was a given.

VELSHI: Right.

JEMISON: Now what we're looking at is, how do we move forward to do more exciting things? So, the cancellation of the Constellation vehicle has caused a lot of consternation. What Constellation was never going to do was never get us into low-earth orbit in time to not have to rely on some other kinds of carriers. That's one of the really important things. And the other piece --

VELSHI: Are you concerned --

JEMISON: Go ahead.

VELSHI: One of the things I've read is not that it may be a bad idea, what the president is proposing, but that it lacks a vision around which everybody can rally. When you think you're going to Mars, or you think you're building a new orbiter, it's a mission around people, what people can rally. I guess it's just early yet. We don't have that mission yet from the president, so it's hard to rally around it.

JEMISON: Well, we're going to hear more about that this afternoon. But I think -- I believe that there is a mission. There is something we're rallying around.

It's saying -- the president's program says we're going to take the humans further and further away from the Earth. We're going to go beyond low-earth orbit to Lagrange points, flying to asteroids, so that we will be getting to Mars. So the point of this is going to Mars. It's that we're going to do it staged, and we're going to say we're going to have the right technologies to get there.

I think there's some other pieces --

VELSHI: Dr. Mae Jemison -- sorry. Yes, I'm out of time. But good to talk to you. We're looking forward to hearing the president's speech. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Mae Jemison joining us from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Thanks for being with us.

JEMISON: You're very welcome.

VELSHI: All right. We're going to talk a little bit about the tax code. It's thousands of pages. Does it actually need to be fixed? Is it working? Is it too long, or is it actually the right thing?

I'm going to take a good, hard look at the numbers when we come back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Trying hard today to explode a lot of myths about taxes. One thing that's certain, is that you're going to have to pay taxes. And people don't like them. And there are lots of myths about them.

I mentioned the guy in Connecticut who says he doesn't mind paying taxes at all. He wrote an article about it, an opinion piece. But if you're among the much, much bigger group of Americans who thinks that the IRS is a four-letter word, consider this -- we are getting a federal income tax. You and I are getting a federal income tax this year in the range of $173 billion. That comes from the Recovery Act, or what you may know as the Stimulus Act. That's not because people aren't working.

That's not going to last. That's goes to go away. So enjoy having it.

On the other side, you may be paying more taxes because state governments have to balance their budgets. They can't run these deficits, so they've had to raise all sorts of taxes. It doesn't (ph) actually amount to about $30 billion this year, so the offset from the federal cuts are bigger than the state increases, but they're there.

Let me show you a chart you may have seen before, America's place in the world in terms of federal tax. But before I show you this chart a third time, we're going to have to fix this so that the bar all starts at the right place.

But generally, what you're going to see is that the United States, Canada, Great Britain seem to have similar levels of taxation. Japan is much lower. Mexico is much lower. A lot of European countries are much higher. But basically, we're on par with a lot of other developed countries.

This much is undisputed -- the U.S. tax code is a monster. You kind of need a post-graduate degree to get through it, and there really are simpler ways to fund a government.

You've probably heard about the flat tax, for instance. There are lots of pitches about that.

There are efforts to try and make income taxes simple, simple enough to file on a postcard, or there are efforts to try and make the tax code fairer. But it's hard to be simple and fair. The efforts to do so have stumped even those geniuses who understand the mess that we now have.

Well, coming up, more people in the world could mean less food for each of us. We'll tell you how one man has hooked a solution to the problem when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The world's population keeps increasing, and that means more mouths to feed. One thing people are hungry for is fish, but more fish on the menu means less fish in the sea.

CNN's Tom Foreman shares one simple thing that could make that little plate of fish a bit more sustainable.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Blue Ridge Restaurant in D.C., Chef Barton Seaver is always busy cooking on one simple thing: how to make the menu more sustainable, especially when it comes to seafood.

BARTON SEAVER, CHEF: The oceans are in a very dilapidated and on a very dangerous precipice right now. And we've simply eaten too many fish out of the ocean. And make no mistake, we've eaten them. They haven't just disappeared.

FOREMAN: He's right. International studies show startling declines in sea life in at least much of the ocean, especially among keystone species like giant tuna, swordfish, and salmon. Despite the increased in farm fishing, some scientists predict that at this rate, the world's wild fisheries will be largely depleted in 50 years.

So, what to do about it? For Barton, that's easy.

(on camera): So, it really begins with your choice of ingredients.

SEAVER: Absolutely.

FOREMAN (voice-over): He's on the cutting edge of the movement to focus on more vegetables and smaller, plentiful seafood species.

SEAVER: I like this dish because it is allows me to use anchovies. Anchovies are one of my very favorite fish.

FOREMAN (on camera): Anchovies?

SEAVER: Anchovies.

FOREMAN: Little, tiny anchovies?

SEAVER: Yes, these little filets of oil-packed anchovies. They're fantastic and they're relatively cheap.

FOREMAN: And there are a lot of anchovies in the world.

SEAVER: Yes.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Anchovies, sardines, mackerels, clams, catfish, oysters. These are the seafood he likes.

(on camera): OK, so what is this?

SEAVER: We've got some farm-raised mussels.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And his customers seem to like them, too. Good thing, because he believes the traditional way of eating those keystone species is sinking fast.

(on camera): You flat-out believe that if we keep going the way we are, that we will use up these resources.

SEAVER: Absolutely. We are on that path. FOREMAN (voice-over): So, back at the restaurant, diners can pick up an easy pocket guide to sustainable fishes, and the menu is filled with such choices. And simply by providing tasty alternatives, no one complains.

SEAVER: The problem with our oceans is not a matter of the environment. It's a matter of our behavior. And if we shift our behavior, if we change what we eat, then we've got a shot.

FOREMAN (on camera): And this is all doable?

SEAVER: This is all beyond doable. It's all delicious.

FOREMAN (voice-over): One simple idea, one bite at a time.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Let's have a look at the top stories this hour.

Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks died today at the age of 85. The Baptist minister led the NAACP for 15 years. In 2007, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the nation's highest civilian honor.

And in southern Afghanistan, a car bomb exploded. There are reports of casualties, but the numbers haven't been nailed down yet. The blast went off in Kandahar, where NATO plans to launch an offensive this summer. The area is known as an insurgent hotbed.

And Kyrgyzstan's deposed president has left his country for Kazakhstan. He officially resigned today. His exit marks hope for many of his people that the conflict in their nation will soon end. Eighty-three people died last week in protests that quickly erupted into gunfire.

Parts of the Midwest took part in a big shower last night -- a meteor shower, that is -- from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Howard County, Iowa. We go "Off the Radar" with Chad in a minute to show you the light show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Hey, listen, 4:00 p.m. is normally tea time if you're British, but it's tea time all over the country right now. Tea Party activists out on the streets of America protesting, in this case, taxes.

We're going to break it down and talk about the what the Tea Party would like to see happen with your taxes as soon as we come back.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Earlier today, an explosion in Kandahar in Afghanistan. Our Michael Holmes heard it -- felt it, actually. He's on the ground in Afghanistan. There he is now.

Michael, good to see that you're safe.

You were close enough to feel this. Tell us what happened.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It was a huge explosion, Ali.

We were actually standing just near here when there was a big flash in the sky. And then a couple of seconds later, an enormous boom, and you knew straight away this was a large explosion. We are about 4.5 kilometers from where this explosion took place, so to see the flash and to hear the boom, it just shows you how big this bomb was.

Now, what we know so far is that we're hearing more information minute by minute from military officials here at the air base we're at now. It was a suicide car bomb attack.

Now, this happened about two blocks from the battalion headquarters of the Afghan National Army, which itself would be a very significant target. But it happened a couple of blocks away from there. So now people are trying to work out what the exact target was. There's a lot of speculation that it was very close to that, a very significant potential target. Sixteen casualties is what we're hearing so far.

Now, what we're hearing from military officials here is that mixed nationals, there are westerners among the injured. Several of them have been brought here actually for treatment, initial treatment, and then taken on to the Kandahar Air Force Base, which is a few kilometers away here where there's a major trauma center. Some of the injuries have been very serious and have been taken straight there via helicopter. Others have been brought here for preliminary stabilization and then moved on. So, mixed nationals, 16 casualties.

Now, the Kandahar government spokesman has told CNN that -- that they were -- that the target was a group called the Afghan Stabilization Initiative, not sure exactly who this group is. So, we're checking in to that as well.

So, a major explosion, which I got to tell you, Ali, was the second one in a couple of hours. There was another car bomb that went off a couple hours before this one and that wounded several civilians, a couple of them seriously and an Afghan soldier. The apparent target there was an Afghan patrol that was going by when this car was detonated.

But this other explosion, I got to tell you, it was a big one, this is a major event. A U.S. commander has gone to the scene to coordinate U.S. and coalition NATO efforts, if you like. The Afghan National Army, the Afghan police on site and running things as well. But a significant event here, Ali.

VELSHI: Michael, tell me this, put this into context for us. We've seen this offensive that has taken place over the last several months in Marjah. Kandahar, the spiritual home of -- of -- of the Taliban, this is the site of the next planned major western offensive in an effort to take control. Is that what this is part of? Are we going to see a lot more activity in Kandahar as a result of this?

HOLMES: Yes. And in the last few weeks, too, Ali, there's been a number of other attacks that have happened in the city. This is Afghanistan's second largest city, nearly a million people within the city confines -- confines.

Now, the operation, if you like, that's taking place here is much more of a softly, softly approach as far as ISAF international forces are concerned. It's not like Marjah where you had the Marines going in, you know, guns at the ready. This is more of a political war, if you like. But that doesn't mean there's not going to be what the military calls kinetic activity as well, actual clashes.

Most of that was meant to take place outside of Kandahar. There's going to be many operations in areas that the Taliban does have a strong foothold in, but these sort of attacks sort of indicate that the Taliban is really saying, yes, we're still here in the city and we can still carry out attacks.

I'm hearing a Blackhawk go overhead right now, could well be one of the Medevac choppers, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Michael, and you said 16 casualties, mixed nationals. Are these likely civilians or military or do we not know?

HOLMES: Yes, well, we were told here there was an erroneous report that came out from a government official earlier saying that some of the casualties were actually U.S. military. That is not true, we're told, absolutely not true. That some of these casualties could well be Afghan military, checking into that. But the majority, it would appear, are civilians, that's what we're hearing so far -- Ali.

VELSHI: You'll keep us posted. Stay safe.

Michael Holmes joining us from Kandahar. Thanks, Michael.

OK, we're taking a break and we'll continue our coverage of the news, including President Obama expected to speaking very, very shortly at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral about the future of America's space missions.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Tax Day is sort of like an anti-holiday for many Americans and you can bet tea partiers had it circled on their calendars for awhile. Hundreds of tax party -- Tax Day protests are going on nationwide. The Tea Party Patriots lists about 600 protests on their website.

Here are the major cities that the demonstrations are taking place in. One of the cities is Memphis, Tennessee, where we find Mark Skoda. Once again, he's the founder of the Memphis Tea Party, he's often a spokesman for the movement, is a guest on our show to help us understand the movement.

What are we calling it now? I know it gets confusing because it's a Tea Party and I know that there's some -- you know, there's a play on words there, but you're not a political party, but you want to field candidates.

MARK SKODA, FOUNDER, MEMPHIS TEA PARTY: Well, actually, I think the Tea Party movement is really a bunch of activists folks here for the first time taking advantage of their right as citizens. Ninety- seven percent of the people that have been participating in these rallies have never been to rallies before in the past year.

And I think what you're seeing even on a local level is people are, in fact, fielding candidates. Here in Memphis, Tennessee, we're working with five different county commission seats. We've actually recruited Charlotte Bergman to run for Congress in District Nine against Steve Cohen. We're working with Angela McGowan in District One in Mississippi.

So, the tea parties are actually aggregating both the folks that are activists, getting them out to vote, and getting them to know the candidates in a very responsible way.

VELSHI: But the Tea Party candidates or the candidates you're talking about are not ones that will run under a Tea Party banner, right? You're mostly supporting republican candidates and targeting democratic candidates.

SKODA: At this time, absolutely right. These people are all republicans.

I don't think there's really any interest in a third party. Certainly, there's an occasional pop-up that you see in the national news in Florida, you see some of these folks in Nevada. But the truth of the matter is, look, that is the way to lose elections and I think the responsible Tea Party leadership are focused on conservatives.

And ultimately, we will kind the conservatives even in the Democrat Party even at some future date, but it's clear by the action in the Congress to date, those folks don't exist. Bart Stupak amended his own personal convictions being pro-life for a quarter million dollar airport improvement and a vote for health care.

So I think largely you're seeing that the candidates support the kind of turn-out of conservative candidates is primarily around the Republican Party, which I believe is the right way to go at this time.

VELSHI: Hey, you're a radio guy. A lot of radio hosts have been talking about the 45 percent or 47 percent of people that don't pay income taxes. I was talking to Jared Bernstein from the White House earlier and I was talking to our own reporters. Look, some of those people don't pay income tax because they don't earn money and some of them who do earn money pay other taxes not income taxes, so it might still come off of a payroll tax or something like that.

Are we getting caught up in semantics on the 47 percent?

SKODA: No, I don't think so. I think, look, the number -- the problem of the tax code is it's become social engineering. So you got tax credits for children, credit for adoptions, credits for green cars, credits for buying windows and doors in your home, credits for college education. The average number right now, the average salary is $51,000 a year --

VELSHI: Right.

SKODA: -- that pay no taxes. And I think the problem is that tax code has not become a tax code, it's become a tool of social engineering just using the IRS to do that.

VELSHI: So, would you rather just have a straight, simple tax, flat tax, fair tax, whatever you want to call it?

SKODA: You know, my view is that a flat tax makes a lot of sense. Laugher has written extensively about this, this is a book about renewing America and I think indeed that is an approach that needs to me looked at.

The complexity of the tax code and the lack of, frankly, clarity in the tax code is problematic, and most Tea Party people and most Americans who pay their taxes believe that everyone should contribute at some level. The federal income tax, while, yes, they pay Social Security, Medicare, et cetera, these other taxes, the truth of the matter is that everyone should participate at the federal level if we are indeed going to solve the economic problems that are facing us with the debt and operating the government.

VELSHI: We should have a good, long conversation on the tax code, how you make it fair and simple at the same time. I think everybody agrees it's complicated, but how you do that.

Mark, you'll come back and you'll be part of the conversation, I hope.

SKODA: Ali, thanks very much. I appreciate that.

VELSHI: Good to have you.

Mark Skoda is the founder of the Memphis Tea Party, spokesman for the Tea Party movement.

When we come back, Ed Henry standing by. We're going to be talking about astronauts going out into space. And we're going to be talking about the fact that you need to tweet me, you need to follow me on Twitter -- @AliVelshi -- but you got to be careful what you say, because these tweets are going to be stored by the Library of Congress. We'll talk about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I think he should be CNN's first astronaut. He's our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry. You see him all over the place, but you get a little different flavor from him right here. First of all, in a minute, we'll tell you why you need to follow us both on Twitter -- @AliVelshi, @EdHenryCNN -- but why you have to watch what you say cause it's going to be there for all of posterity.

But the president is about to speak, Ed, at Cape Canaveral. He's speaking to -- I'm sorry, at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

VELSHI: He's going to be speaking about the future of NASA. And you had a chance to talk to Buzz Aldrin, I understand.

HENRY: Yes, it was pretty funny. I talked to Buzz Aldrin earlier today, and what was interesting was the White House had him fly down on Air Force One with President Obama. Why did they do that?

Well, as one of the Apollo astronauts he is somebody who supports the president's sort of new vision for NASA, which is going to be real drastic change that he's going to try to lay out what is his vision. And a lot of the other Apollo astronauts, we heard yesterday Neil Armstrong, for example, really believe this will devastate NASA and will really take it in the wrong direction. It will mean that the U.S. is no longer the leader in space.

Buzz Aldrin, a real interesting character. He's known for being a little bit interesting, eccentric, if you will. And we had a chance to chat this morning and he was saying he thinks the president's vision of privatizing some of these operations will actually push this forward better into the future and will wind up saving taxpayers money.

But the one, you know, sort of thing underneath the headlines that's really interesting is White House officials keep telling us that the president as part of this mission is committed to making a much bigger decision on the future of rockets and what not in 2015.

Well, first of all, 2015's a long way away, so that sort of kicks the can down the road a little bit. But also, we're not even guaranteed that President Obama will be president in 2015 to make such a decision. He first would have to get re-elected in 2012. If he is re-elected, this would be deep into his second term.

So it gives you an idea I think -- there's been some ferocious opposition out there to the president's plan and in part because people just have this fascination with space and the U.S. being the leader in space, and any drastic change for that sort of kicks up some of this criticism. VELSHI: And that's largely the criticism, that this directional shift could endanger the U.S. being the leader in space. That's -- that's the -- that's the pushback that the president's getting.

HENRY: It is. And I was talking to Buzz Aldrin and when you talk to the White House officials, again, he's supportive of the president, is what they're saying is look at how NASA has been for the last few years, last decade or so, long after John Glenn and all the glorious moments that we all know about. In recent years, it's been marked by cost overruns, you know, promises of missions down the road that kept getting delayed, delayed, other missions being mothballed.

And so they believe the U.S. has already been struggling to sort of maintain that mantle of the leader in space and that it needs a shaking up. So we'll see about this vision. The president's going to lay it out in just a few moments down in Florida.

VELSHI: Let's talk about this -- we're both active tweeters and you should follow us. For some strange reason Ed has got more followers on Twitter than I do. You can change that right now by following me @AliVelshi on Twitter.

But, Ed, what is going to change? Why is the Library of Congress interested in archiving tweets? Are they going to archive everything that we tweet and is everything we've tweeted so far going to be archived? Tell me about this.

HENRY: They say they're archiving, you know, sort of the big picture messages, they're not doing like direct messages to people. So the things we send back and forth to each other off the air, don't worry that's safe, it's not going to be archived.

But I noticed, Ali, that I think it was earlier today, just a few hours ago, you decided to take a little shot at me on Twitter, so I'm going to call you out here. You said, quote, "Now that Library of Congress will be archive tweets, mine will all be noteworthy. No more 'just had yummy burger now sleepy @EdHenryCNN.'"

So I think you're poking fun. So I decided to go back into the archives and give our viewers a little look at some of your greatest hits, if you will. For example, just a couple weeks ago, on a Tuesday night, "Just met Sarah Duchess of York at benefit. Met Dikembe Matumbo," Mutombo, I think, is spelled wrong, "earlier. Above average, Tuesday night." Kind of interesting from Ali.

Also, you have this other one real quick, which was, "I don't mind being called biased, but ugly suits," because you were retweeting a woman who had said you wear ugly suits and you are biased. That was on February 26th. And I have to say that the biased thing doesn't really affect you, the ugly suit thing.

VELSHI: Right. I totally agree. If somebody wants to call me biased, I will take a deep, hard look at whether or not I'm biased, but that's not my jobs. But, you know, the suits? That was -- that was harsh. I kind of hope that one gets archived. HENRY: I also notice you seem to get a pretty good vacation plan as an anchor. I'm starting to think, you know, as a correspondent you were always kind of around, morning, noon, night. It seems like a pretty good gig. I'm going to look into it.

VELSHI: Well, we'll have to look into it.

Hey, listen, you're going to be monitoring this -- the president's speech?

HENRY: That's right. He's going to be speaking in just a moment, about 2:45 Eastern time. And as you noted, this is a real important moment for the president because the nation does still have that connection to the space program, maybe not what it was decades ago of course, but this is his chance to sort of go down to Florida where many people who are going to be affected by this and could be potentially laid off by these changes and that's why he's going down there.

VELSHI: Or not. I mean, every state gets money from either a NASA procurement, as suppliers or contractors. There's actually more money in the 2011 budget for NASA than there was in the 2010 budget. The issue is the end of the program, the Constellation, the Shuttle program, so it will be interesting to see where they redeploy that money.

We'll be following it closely because we both wanted to be astronauts.

Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent, on "The Ed Henry Segment" every day here on the show.

And the bottom corner of your screen -- let's bring that up full, you can take a look at that -- the president is going to be speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida momentarily. We've got our cameras on it. This is where he is going to lay out his vision for the future of America's space program. Lots, as Ed Henry said, lots at stake -- jobs, money, our reputation as a leader in space hangs in the balance.

We'll keep you posted.

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VELSHI: Moments from now you are going to see the president walking up to that podium that this gentleman is walking up to, that's the Kennedy Space Center, and you are going to hear about the future of the space program from the president. He is making an announcement coinciding with the fact that the budget for NASA has been increased, but a number of the programs that we associate with the space program are being discontinued, including the Shuttle program, the Constellation program to the -- to the -- to the moon.

That's Senator Bill Nelson who is speaking right now. We will expect very shortly -- I believe that's the NASA administrator behind him. In a moment, we'll be seeing the president coming up there and having a discussion about the future of the space program. We'll keep an eye on that and we'll bring it to you live as soon as it happens.

Bring you up to speed on the few top stories that we're working on right now.

First, though, in Kansas City, Missouri, every principal and vice principal in the school district will have to reapply for their jobs, that's according to "The Kansas City Star." The district has serious budget problems and is closing about half of its schools. More than 700 people are expected to lose their jobs including 285 teachers.

In northwestern China, rescuers are airlifting hundreds of injured people out of the earthquake zone. More than 300 people are still missing after yesterday's 6.9-magnitude quake. Searchers are still combing through the rubble, state media says the death toll is approaching 800.

And in Washington, President Obama has ordered a review of mines that have bad safety records. This comes after 29 men died in an explosion last week at a West Virginia coal mine. The president says failures by the mine company and loopholes in regulations both played a part in that tragedy.

And one story we've been following is volcanic ash, which has been floating into European airspace and has closed many airports across northern Europe. Chad Myers is watching this northern and western Europe, he's there right now.

Chad, again, for people that don't know this, this was a volcano that has erupted in Iceland, massive, massive cloud of ash and it's closing airports.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The plume has gone tens thousands of feet into the sky, now into the jet stream and into places where planes fly. And let me show you the problem that we've had.

Typically, Iceland way up here, the jet stream goes across, it blows it off into somewhere else. It just kind of goes around. The jet stream is not acting that way, and it's not directing that way. Now it's coming down here, blowing across the British Isles, all across the UK, across parts of northern France as well. Then this cloud will travel into the ocean and turn back around and travel over Spain and into the Mediterranean.

So, I know we were having disruptions today, but there are many, many more days of that to come, because right now we've got Heathrow and Gatwick closed, Paris Charles de Gaulle closed, all of UK airspace is closed, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark --

VELSHI: And it's worth noting because of the people who are deciding that they are flying -- a lot of people who are flying across that way are going to those places, don't bother trying to reroute because all of the airports in northern France is closed, all of the airports in the UK are closed.

MYERS: Correct. This is not precautionary. This is a mandatory do-not-fly zone literally, because this is what a particle blown up many thousands of times looks like in the sky. You don't want that going through your car's engine, let alone a jet engine. Then this, because it's ash, melts back down into lava and then like glass -- like you said earlier, like obsidian -- and then it goes back and it deposits itself on the back of the jet and literally the jet engine on the plane can choke itself.

VELSHI: Yep.

MYERS: Look what's going to happen here. You hit these particles, I know they're small, but you hit them with the plane, it scours the plane, you can't even see out of the windows at all and it can also just scour all the paint off and actually put dents in it if it hits it hard enough.

So, you can -- there are literally there are mandatory reasons why you don't fly in volcanic ash.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: And this is the time.

VELSHI: We'll stay on that. We'll be back with you in a minute. There have been instances where planes have had all of their engines shut down because of it. We'll talk to you about that in a second. Stay with us, more on the ash when we come back.

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