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Hurricane Earl Category 2; Jobs Picture Improves; Fixing Students' Habits;
Aired September 03, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN, ANCHOR: Earl is weakening but Earl is still causing some problems. It is east-northeast now of North Carolina's outer banks. It is now a category 2 storm, still continues to lose strength and break up a bit. It is headed north. Expect to be a stormy day along some parts of the East Coast, a lot of beach towns right now are holding on.
I don't know if they're going to be open for business necessarily over this Labor day weekend. We have team coverage of this for you. Our Rob Marciano is in Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. Our Brianna Keilar in Ocean City, Maryland. Allan Chernoff, the east end of Long Island in New York. Susan Candiotti, she's farther up at Cape Cod, where the storm could possibly make a direct hit. We're keeping our eye on that. Also, Reynolds Wolf, he's here with me in Atlanta.
Rob, let's start with you. You felt Earl like a lot of people there did overnight.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It wasn't a direct hit but it might as well have been when you're talking about a major storm or a category 2 storm that gets this close to this sensitive shoreline in the middle of the night. It's a doozy and it was a rough one beginning around 10:00, 11:00 last night and through the early morning hours.
Just beginning to lighten up now just in the last hour or two as the rain and wind - we're still getting some swells. The pounding surf behind me continues to punish this coastline and over washing of the roadways south of here, cut off at least temporarily the residents who live down in the southern parts of the outer banks.
But this will churn up the beach and the waters here. Through today and probably through tomorrow as well. Also some inland flooding. You know, you got the sound on the other side of the barrier islands so with the persistent north and northeast winds that we had, that's led to some inland flooding because there was some over washing of roadways there.
And a tremendous amount of rainfall that came down during the nighttime last night. So there are issues here for sure. The winds gusting to just under hurricane strength, so in some cases there's power outages but it's pretty sporadic. Minimal damage. Some minor structural damage. But this thing came any closer, we would have had a lot more damage to talk about. The residents here are certainly thankful for that. T.J.? HOLMES: All right. They were prepared there in North Carolina, but thank goodness they didn't have to put those emergency things into place and didn't have to use them. Rob, we appreciate you so much. Thank you. We turn to our Reynolds Wolf who is tracking this thing.
And Reynolds, I'm always a little nervous and a little hesitant to give people the wrong idea when we hear that yes, it is weakening, yes, it is breaking up. But still, folks, this is a dangerous storm that is going to cause some problems.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not to be crude here, not to sound like I'm being insensitive when I say this, but you can lose lives in a tropical depression, you can lose lives in tropical storm. With a hurricane at still a category 2, which is still a very dangerous system at that. One of the biggest things that caused people's issues, obviously some very rough surfs. Anyone who plans on going out maybe surfing in this, it's a very big waves but then you're going to have tremendous rip currents and there is the potential that we could have some flooding.
Now already with this storm which is a category 2 storm, still with winds of 105 and gusts of 125. We have some flooding right along the outer banks earlier. Rob was talking about this a few moments ago. In fact, the water was so high near Rodante, on the outer banks also just south of Oregon inlet the road, North Carolina 12, is the highway that runs the length of the outer banks, was cut off completely due to the floodwaters.
Now the waters are going to recede over the next several hours. And with that we're going to have some dry air that's going to filter right back into the back half of the system. You're going to have some sunshine where Rob happens to be on the outer banks in Kill Devil Hills. I can say by noon today you're going to have some sunshine.
Now, the question is what about the northeast? They're not going to be seeing sunshine. They're going to be seeing the clouds increased as the storm pulls more to the northeast, eventually going just due east of the Jersey shore, east of Long Island, and possibly coming very close to Boston and even into, say, Cape Cod, perhaps by 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning with winds of 85 miles per hour.
And for that reason as we wrap things up, we'll get a hurricane warning that remains in effect for Cape Cod through the afternoon, evening, and into early tomorrow morning. So still the storm dying, T.J., as you mentioned, it is weakening as we speak but still poses a huge threat to a lot of people.
HOLMES: Thank you. A huge threat and it could be a huge headache for some travel. The winds are going to be the problem. Is that right?
WOLF: You bet.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, we appreciate you as always, buddy. We're going to have more team coverage ahead this hour, right here on CNN. We're never going too far away from that story about the storm.
Also, just a little earlier this morning, we learned that the nation's unemployment rate ticked up a bit in August. That's just part of a critical new measure on the economy and where it's headed. Any moment, we're expecting to hear from the president. He is going to weigh in. Expecting him from the Rose Garden at the White House. He's going to be talking about these jobs numbers. When the president does come out, we will bring that to you live.
But first, going to head to Wall Street, see how investors are liking these new numbers. The unemployment rate, like I said, ticked up to 9.6 percent. Some other numbers in there that are worth examining, our Alison Kosik standing by at the New York Stock Exchange and has more on these numbers and how the street is liking them. Hello again, Alison.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you this, T.J., the numbers on Wall Street and for that employment report are definitely going in the right direction. The employment situation really seems to be improving slowly but surely. I want to take a look deeper into the numbers now.
The Labor Department is reporting that 54,000 jobs were lost in August. Sure, it's not good to lose jobs but these were mostly because of more cuts in government census positions.
Now we never want to hear about these job losses but the number is really not as bad as what was expected. Economists were actually calling for a loss of about 120,000 jobs. Now the jobless rate or the unemployment rate, as we call it, ticked up to 9.6 percent. That's as more people enter the job market, went out looking for jobs.
But Wall Street at this point seems to be looking past that number. All right. Let's pull out some of the bright spots for you. The private sector, it added 67,000 jobs last month. That is much better than what analysts were calling for. But I'll tell you what, it's still not good enough to bring down the unemployment rate.
July's job losses though were also revised lower to show a dip of just 54,000 instead of a loss of 131,000. So a big improvement there as well. And the construction sector, that had been hit really hard during the recession. It actually managed to add almost 20,000 positions and we did the calculations. What all that adds up to, T.J., is big gains right here on Wall Street.
Take a look at the Dow industrials, up about 102 points, the NASDAQ is higher by 27. Not bad.
HOLMES: Not bad. The numbers, some would say, a little more encouraging, better than some had expected. So now the next thing possibly to talk about interest rates. What does this signal for the Federal Reserve? What do they need to do now?
KOSIK: Well, you know, if you look back into what the notes were from the fed meeting, you know, the fed officials expressed concern at their last meeting about how sluggish the labor market has been. So this reading that we got today really takes the pressure off the fed, it gives them more guidance about what direction the economy is headed in, what direction recovery is headed in, and how fast we're going to get there to a real recovery.
The Central Bank said in the minutes from that meeting that the outlook for the economy would need to deteriorate appreciably is the word they used to spur fresh support from the fed and that it would pursue further moves in what they called unexpected developments derail the recovery. Now, we don't seem to be getting indications of that today and a number of analysts are saying today's numbers reduce the chance of a double dip recession and that's simply because the numbers are going in the right direction instead of, you know, taking that three steps backwards. T.J..
HOLMES: All right. Alison, keeping an eye on things for us. We appreciate you as always. Thank you so much.
We're going to continue to talk about the economy with one of the president's top economic advisers, Dr. Christina Romer is going to be joining us. She is actually the outgoing chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers. She's going to be heading back to UC Berkeley to teach. But she's going to talk to us before she packs up and go, talking about these new government numbers, these jobless numbers. She's coming your way in just a bit.
Also a reminder, the president, we're expecting him any moment from the White House to make comments about the jobless numbers and the economy.
There's a sense of relief for people living in the gulf coast region. An oil platform fire off the coast of Louisiana, turned out to be far less serious - far, far less serious than anything like the BP oil disaster. The fire broke out just 200 miles west of the oil rig explosion that led to that BP oil spill. That fire, you're seeing some of the pictures here, put out pretty quickly despite the early reports, no oil was spilled.
The platform owned by Mariner Energy, all 13 crew members aboard. They jumped into the water. They had their survival gear with them. None of them had serious injuries. No word yet. Again, you see that picture of them in the water. They were rescued. No word right now on the cause of the fire but they are looking into it.
BP meanwhile says the gulf oil disaster has cost the company nearly $8 billion so far. That includes money spent to contain the spill, to drill a relief well, and settle claims from businesses affected by that spill. Once again, we are not going too far at any point from the story that's certainly going to affect a lot of people up and down the east coast.
You see it there, Hurricane Earl, a category 2. Still a strong storm, weakening but still a strong storm and could cause all kinds of problems. We have your team coverage right here. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: Yes, it is weakening. Yes, it is breaking apart but it is still a category 2 storm, talking about Hurricane Earl. It has brushed now and getting its way past North Carolina. It did a little damage, still doing some assessment. But no deaths or injuries reported right now. A little flooding, some power outages reported but it is not done yet, still making its way north. It's going to cause some problems for new England. We'll keep a close eye.
We'll turn first to Ocean City, Maryland, a popular tourist spot especially on a Labor day weekend. Our Brianna Keilar is there. Brianna, what is vacation going to look like for folks? Should they even bother showing up there?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, we talked to some people, T.J., who had plans to come out here and they say they're still going to be coming. What city officials are really trying to tell people is this place is open for business.
I mean, I'm on the boardwalk here. Just take a look. You can see that there are people out walking and walking with small children at that. The winds right now are really not that bad. We're bracing, I guess, more for what is ahead and this is expected to be more of a wind event than a rain event, we're still bracing for those tropical storm strength winds.
Take a look out here at the ocean. You can see some really choppy surf. No swimming, obviously. I probably don't have to tell you that. But the beach is actually open and a lot of people have been walking up and down, you know, taking their strolls, and just to give you a sense of, I guess the feeling a lot of people have, it's not going to be as bad as maybe they thought it might be.
We cabled our live location in this house right here and so far we haven't had to use it. You'll see up there a lifeguard and the reason he's up there is because city officials actually took all of the lifeguard towers off of the beach and so he's monitoring things from over there.
But I just want to give you a sense, T.J., of some of the precautionary measures that they've taken here. This is the sea wall system used by the city, by Ocean City, and this is actually a sea wall gate. Yesterday, they closed all of these sea walls and people we're climbing over them, so I am now to get off the beach. It was a beautiful beach day yesterday and they've been taking away anything that will really blow away.
So the trash barrels, and the big concern now is going to be the current. You'll see rip currents telling people what to do. There was a death here last week in the wake of all of the bad water - or all of the bad rip currents from Hurricane Danielle, and so that's going to be the concern tomorrow. That was the concern yesterday.
Expect it to be 80 and sunny tomorrow. City officials are saying don't travel during the high winds today but don't cancel your plans either. T.J.. HOLMES: Don't cancel the plans. We're looking at that scene. It looks like some people probably should but they want the tourism dollars if they can get them. We appreciate you, as always. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much. I want to give you a quick look now at some of the stories making headlines including the new jobless numbers we got a short time ago.
The jobless rate ticked up to 9.6 percent last month. It's up from 9.5 percent the month before. Job losses not as pad as expected, though. Most losses from laying off those temporary census workers.
Also, it's all good now, we're told, in Miami. The airport there has reopened. It was closed for a number of hours overnight. You're seeing the scene here. Because the bomb squad had to be called out to investigate a suspicious item. It turned out to be a metal canister. No explosives but kind of fooled people. Thought it was a pipe bomb. But the all clear at least at the airport has been given.
Also, the Discovery Channel hostage taker, we're learning more about him. He was once convicted of immigrant smuggling. His name is James Lee. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for that crime. Remember, he blasted immigrants in his manifesto before he took hostages. Of course, he was shot and killed after he, again, he was upset with some of the programming at the Discovery Channel.
Also, in New York newspaper headlines screams "Miracle!" But the real credit may simply go to a soft spoken subway worker. We're going to get back to this story for you here in just a second.
But I'm seeing a picture now, a live picture, of the president coming out to talk about the new jobless numbers we saw just a short time ago for the month of August. He is surrounded by his economic team. Let's go ahead and listen to the president at the Rose Garden at the White House now.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning, everybody. As we head into Labor Day weekend, and I know many people across this country are concerned about what the future holds for themselves, for their families, and for the economy as a whole.
As I've said from the start, there's no quick fix to the worst recession we've experienced since the Great Depression. The hard truth is that it took years to create our current economic problems and it will take more time than any of us would like to repair the damage.
Millions of our neighbors are living with that painfully every day. But I want all Americans to remind themselves there are better days ahead. Even after this economic crisis, our markets remain the most dynamic in the world. Our workers are still the most productive. We remain the global leader in innovation, in discovery, and entrepreneurship.
And the month I took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. This morning new figures show the economy produced 67,000 private sector jobs in August. The eighth consecutive month of private job growth. Additionally, the numbers for July were revised upward to 107,000.
Now that's positive news. And it reflects the steps we've already taken to break the back of this recession. But it's not nearly good enough. That's why we need to take further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing including extending tax cuts for the middle class and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest.
In the weeks ahead I'll be discussing some of these ideas in more detail. But one thing we also have to do right now, the one thing we have a responsibility to do right now, is to lift up our small businesses which accounted for over 60 percent of job losses in the final months of last year.
That's why, once again, I am calling on Congress to make passing a small business jobs bill it's first order of business when it gets back into session later this month.
Now here is why this is so important. Up until this past May, we were not only waiving fees for entrepreneurs who took out small business administration loans, we were also encouraging more community banks to make loans to responsible business owners.
Now these steps are part of the reason about 70,000 new small business administration loans have been approved since I took office and I thank Karen Mills for the outstanding job she's been doing as administrator in the small business administration.
We've also been extending - fighting to extend these loan enhancements with a small jobs bill. It's a bill that will more than double the amount some small business owners can borrow to grow their companies. It'll completely eliminate capital-gains taxes on key investments so small business owners can buy new equipment and expand and it will accelerate $55 billion in tax cuts for businesses, large and small, that make job creating investments in the next 14 months.
And keep in mind, it is paid for. It will not add one dime to our deficit. So, put simply, this piece of legislation is good for workers, it's good for small business people, it's good for our economy. And yet Republicans in the Senate have blocked this bill. A needless delay that has led small business owners across this country to put off hiring, put off expanding, and put off plans that will make our economy stronger.
I've repeated since I ran for office, there is no silver bullet that is going to solve all of our economic problems overnight but there are certain steps that we know will make a meaningful difference for small business men and women who are the primary drivers of job creation. There are certain measures we know will advance our economy.
This small business jobs bill is one of them and I'm confident that if we're willing to put partisanship aside and be the leaders the American people need us to be and if we're willing to do what's next, not for the next - not what's best for the next election but for the next generation, then we are not only going to see America's hard working families and America's small businesses bounce back but we'll rebuild America's economy stronger than it's been before.
Thank you very much.
(INAUDIBLE)
OBAMA: Well, I will be addressing a broader package of ideas next week. We are confident that we're moving in the right direction but we want to keep this recovery moving stronger and accelerate the job growth that's needed so desperately all across the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President - to what degree do you regret the administration's decision to call this recovery?
OBAMA: I don't regret the notion that we are moving forward but because of the steps that we've taken. I'm going to have a press conference next week where after you guys are able to hear where we're at, we'll be able to answer some specific questions.
But the key point I'm making right now is that the economy is moving in a positive direction, jobs are being created. They're just not being created as fast as they need to given the big hole that we experienced and we're going to have to continue to work with Republicans and Democrats to come up with ideas that can further accelerate that job growth.
I'm confident that we can do that. And the evidence that we've seen during the course of this summer and over the course of the last 18 months indicate that we're moving in the right direction. We just have to speed it up. All right. Thank you very much, everybody.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: All right. (INAUDIBLE) the president often times when he makes a statements, he (INAUDIBLE) out of there but clearly he didn't mind sticking around and grabbing a question or two. One of them being if he regretted calling this recovery summer. You've heard the administration, many members of it talking about this being the summer of recovery. Certainly, for a lot of Americans out there, it doesn't feel that way. He says he doesn't regret calling it that. He said the economy is in fact moving in a positive direction.
It's just not happening fast enough. The president said he will address - he was going to be talking about a broader package of ideas for continuing to move the economy in the right direction. He certainly got on to Republicans once again. He's done this before because of the small business tax bill. The small business tax cut bill that's essentially held up in Congress right now.
Republicans have objections to it. But the president calling on them once again to help move forward. But the president repeating many of the themes we have heard him talk about before, the fact that 700,000 jobs were lost a month when he first got into office, the fact that we are now starting to gain jobs in the private sector for the past several months and the fact that we gained 67,000 in August in the private sector at least the president pointing to that as an important step. You saw his economic team surrounding him there. One of the members is Christina Romer, Dr. Christina Romer, she is the chairperson of the president's Council of Economic Advisers. She is the outgoing chair. She is giving up that post, going to be going back to teach at Berkeley. But, before she leaves, she is going to be talking to us. She is coming up here with us in about 15 or 20 minutes. She is going to be talking to us live about possibly some of her regrets in the job, why she's leaving, but also some of these numbers we are just seeing. Quick break here. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: New York, the newspaper headlines screams "Miracle!". But the real credit may simply go to a soft spoken subway worker, the name is Francis Lusk. He was at the controls when he saw a woman tumble off the platform and into the path of a speeding juggernaut. He slammed on the brakes and screeched to a halt just a few feet away. Today we recognize Francis Lusk as someone making their mark.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCIS LUSK, CONDUCTOR: She literally walked right off the edge and fell right into the bed below. I'm actually embarrassed. Because like I said, you know, I mean, it's corny but I was just doing my job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, Lusk says it was only when he finished out his shift that the significance of the incident sank in. He also says he doesn't know the woman's name but would like to find out how she's doing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're keeping an eye on this storm, Hurricane Earl, category 2. Reynolds, weakening, breaking up a bit, kind of a mess but still a problem.
WOLF: It really is still a problem. The biggest problem we're going to have is something that may last the weekend and that would be some rip currents along the coast as so many people make their way to the coastline for the big holiday weekend.
One interesting point that our producer Angela Fritz (ph) just told me moments ago is if you go right to the Maryland border, if you were to draw a line all the way across like that, you've got much cooler water just to the north of this point.
In fact, you got water that is actually one of the benefits, one of the reasons why this thing may actually weaken. So as the storm pulls its way to the north at this point, one of the contributing factors as to why this may be slowly starting to fall apart is because it will be moving into an area of cooler water. The warm water is like jet fuel to an engine. It just fires it up.
Cooler water, just the opposite effect. We're also seeing a little bit of sheer loft, maybe some dry air in the western half of the storm and that's causing it to break apart. Another great thing that we see is the frontal boundary beginning to move in from the west. That front will also push this thing away from the mainland but still one of the places that may be threatened, can't rule this out, still Cape Cod.
Still we have the hurricane warning that will be in effect and that is something that we're going to watch very carefully especially during the overnight hours and into tomorrow morning because the latest path brings it right to that area just very, very close, in fact, to Cape Cod as we get a 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, winds forecast at 85 miles per hour, gusts at 105. It is as we fast forward into Saturday, moving up through the bay of (INAUDIBLE) and then far north out of harm's way.
Still, it is a dangerous storm. It is a Cat 2. It is a hurricane, something we have to watch carefully. I'll tell you, it T.J., it's not only that storm, but it's also Fiona farther back in the Atlantic. The combination of both those entities that will give us rip currents from Florida all the way to Maine through the holiday weekend.
HOLMES: Through the weekend. And we will be here, you and I actually, through the weekend right here. Reynolds, appreciate you as always, buddy. Thanks so much.
Well, "Fixing Our Schools." CNN has a mission to document the nation's education crisis as America's schoolchildren are heading back to class. We've been talking problems and solutions all week long, and this hour we're heading into the home. We sent our education contributor on a house call to help out the Rochkowski (ph) family. The kids staying up all hours of the night, homework is going undone. Mom and Dad are worried it's too late to break bad habits, and then a knock on the door. It's Steve Perry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA RACZKOWSKI, MOTHER: Here it is five minutes before Nathan is supposed to be leaving for his class, and Nathan is still in bed. Here we have David, who is still in bed. I have to go to work, and I don't know if he's going to get up and make it on the bus today or not. So, that's really some behavior we could use some help on.
We have three marvelous children. They're all in middle school right now. The first is Nathan. He just turned 14, and he's in the eighth grade. And then our twins, David and Eva, are 12 years old.
VICTOR RACZKOWSKI, FATHER: The main help we need is that homework and keeping our kids on track in school has become a source of strife and disharmony within the family.
J. RACZKOWSKI: Victor and I made a decision this year -- I don't know how we're going to stick with it-- but why wait until the children go to college? And we're paying $40,000 a year to have them not do homework and not follow through and potentially drop out of school. And you need to get your stuff packed up a little bit. This looks like a piece of homework here. The kids are not adopting any new behavior. And so I hope that Dr. Perry will be able to give us some suggestions.
STEVE PERRY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Steve Perry. Nice to meet you.
J. RACZKOWSKI: You know what? We feel like we just won the lottery --
PERRY: Do you?
J. RACZKOWSKI: Yes, we absolutely do! We're so glad you're here.
PERRY: Why is that?
J. RACZKOWSKI: Because we, the parents, have been working a long time on this and we want some expert advice, and I'm not kidding.
PERRY: So the first thing - Mom took a deep breath.
J. RACZKOWSKI: Yes.
PERRY: Why does Mom take a deep breath?
J. RACZKOWSKI: I'm just -- is it to late? I mean, they're already in middle school? Have we already missed the wall.
PERRY: That's a great question. Is it too late? no.
J. RACZKOWSKI: We've established some very weak skills here.
PERRY: It's a great question. Is it too late because they're in middle school? The answer is absolutely not. In fact, it's at this time and in high school when it's most important for parents to engage their children.
So, the first thing we have to do is we have to rework our schedules. We really do. Because in doing an audit of your time, what I found is there's a lot of wasted time. We know they all want to go to fine colleges and do very well in those schools, and we want to make sure that they're able to compete with those other students out there all over the world who are far more disciplined in their time.
So, what's going to be different about our schedule?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I'm going to wake up earlier.
PERRY: Yes. How about that? Right?
J. RACZKOWSKI: They're not waking up. They're just - up.
PERRY: Even more. So, they don't go to bed?
J. RACZKOWSKI: Right. PERRY: It's 1:00 in the morning, and you're 14 and 12-year-olds are up.
J. RACZKOWSKI: Yes.
PERRY: OK. So, one of the concerns next, we're going to talk about studying.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, if it's going to interfere with other things --
PERRY: Like what? What else do you have to do?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I don't know.
PERRY: You're 12, right?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I'm giving a hypothetical example here.
PERRY: But you're 12.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, yes, but -
PERRY: What else do you have to do?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Sports.
PERRY: Are they more important than getting the best grades you can?
So, that's the second thing is choice. Sometimes the most well- intended parents give children choices. David, the library is not your place to study. So, really a choice needs to be revisited for you. So, now here is the big one. This is the biggest one of all, follow through.
So, we come with the best plan in the world, no matter what it is, we can come up with the big plan in the world, but it doesn't work if we don't follow through.
When do you think the best time to do homework is?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I think it's best to do homework as soon as you get home from school because then you remember what your assignments are and you can whiz through it real quick and have the rest of the night to yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: We have agendas, so we write our assignments down every night -- or we're supposed to.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: But we just -- I think the best time is right after when we get to the library, and do our work there.
PERRY: But what about what Nathan just said? You remember more information when you return from school than you will three, four, five hours later. UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, when you return from school, you've had a long day. You're hungry. You want to relax.
PERRY: You can't eat and write?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, then you get food on the paper. That looks messy.
PERRY: This is interesting from you, David. Mess concerns you. Now we're concerned about making a mess? I saw the grenade that exploded in your room. So, maybe we're not really concerned about mess. Maybe what we want to do is what we want to do.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I've been trying, kind of.
PERRY: When you make the decision that you are going to stick to your guns because you know what's best for your children, then and only then, will they fall in line. As a principal, the parents who I see who get the most out of their children are the ones who are consistent. They have a structure in place, they monitor the structure, and they follow through, and that's all this is.
J. RACZKOWSKI: That's basically right.
PERRY: In terms of schedule, what can we expect from you, Nathan?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: The thing is, I'm getting older. Less free time after school to just run around and do stuff and just crack down on homework, you know.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah, probably me, too, less time to go do other stuff. More time for homework.
J. RACZKOWSKI: Maybe we just needed somebody else to step in and actually have them say that. I thought I was the only one, and I thought all my ideas were just -- solo. So, yes, it's amazing to have it coming from them, right? Absolutely. You've been holding back.
PERRY: So this is a good thing, right? What I want you to understand is that I understand that each one of you are different, different in your own ways. Even though you're twins, even though you're all brothers and sisters, even though you're both boys, and you two -- whatever that is, you're still different. And what we're looking to do is to establish strategies to play up what makes you different and what makes you beautiful so that you can become even more successful as students.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. Our education contributor, Steve Perry, did not overstay his welcome at the house. He joins us now from Hartford, Connecticut. Steve, good to see you as always.
The thing that jumped out, you talked about choices in there. Since when did kids start having choices? I didn't.
PERRY: I thought you'd like that, T.J.
HOLMES: Yes!
PERRY: One of the biggest problems parents are faced with -- and these are parents, first of all, I want to make sure you understand these are good, really solid parents. One of the biggest mistakes parents make is they give children all the choice in the world. And that doesn't allow children to make the best choices.
What we need to do is take a lot of choices off the table and tell them, among the two choices, this is what you're going to do. So, they get a better understanding of. And these kids were making a lot of bad choices. They were making choices like kids, man.
HOLMES: How does discipline play into this? You talked about it being too late. You said it wasn't. But you start that as a young child, you get them in line, you listen to your mama -- who has the option to sleep in? "My mom is leaving, the bus is in five minutes." I would have got smacked upside the head. That's a disciplinary issue.
PERRY: Well, you know, actually that day, David, the youngest, had missed his bus. And Nathan, the oldest, had forgotten his homework assignment at home so Dad -- this is what happens. Dad was headed out of the house, gets out of the house, Nathan missed the assignment, goes back. Goes back out to school, gets to work, finds out that David has been left home. Now he has to go back.
That's the problem. Should have left his behind home. He should have let him suffer the consequences of his bad decision and then deal with him when he get home. Make sure that child understands that there are consequences, repercussions for bad decisions.
These are very nice parents. Sometimes parents spend too much time trying to be the friends of their children and not wanting to make their children unhappy, not understanding that part of their job as a parent is to say no. In the end, to be the judge and jury.
HOLMES: But how difficult is that, if not impossible, to try to turn it around now that the kids are teenagers and older, when they have been used to this type of behavior from their parents for years and years? "And what now, Mom, you want to flip it up on me?"
PERRY: No, not impossible at all. In fact, this is the best time because this is the time the children understand, and you can set very clear boundaries. It's much more difficult to set some of those hard boundaries when they're little for some parents.
Here, these parents have a better understanding. Here is what's really important, T.J., is that the kids actually know what they're supposed to do. It's just that the parents don't give them the opportunity to do it. And what I mean by that is the parents are not holding the kids' feet to the fire. The kids actually want that. Kids want the parents to hold their feet to the fire. They want adults to hold their feet to the fire and when parents and adults don't, kids become very, very agitated. That's what was happening here. In fact, many of the children there were saying that.
HOLMES: How did it go -- how do you compare the family we see today with the family, the Taylors? We saw that piece, I believe, yesterday from you, the Taylor family. And it was funny, the kid came home and he said his room just got messy on its own. Do you see similarities between two families you visited?
PERRY: Absolutely. Boys in particular, especially middle school boys, are the most unorganized human beings you're ever going to meet. In fact, they -- you have to remind them to wash their behinds. You have to check with them, did you wash? And they'll think about it, "I don't know if I washed." Maybe that's just because that's what boys do.
And what happens is some of that is just boy. But when mom is in charge, and in both cases, you had a single mom in charge, and no disrespect to the dad in this situation, but you had a mom who was in charge of the other family. Meaning when moms are in charge and the boys are second, moms tend to spend a lot of time struggling with how to discipline boys because they so -- moms love their boys to death. But they don't always know how to lay the hammer down on them when they need to.
HOLMES: All right, Steve. I don't know how people feel about you knocking on their front door, but we enjoyed watching these. I know you are trying to help these families out.
We do appreciate it. Good to see you. You enjoy your holiday weekend, all right?
PERRY: Thank you, sir.
HOLMES: All right. Good to see you, brother.
You guys have been sending in your ideas on how to fix your schools. You've been sending them all week long. We appreciate them. You can keep them coming. Be a part of that conversation, whether it's teachers, students, administrators, parents, budgets -- whatever you want. We want to hear what you're thinking.
And our guy, our digital producer, Derek Dodge, he is going through all of your comments. There he is. He's bringing you some of your ideas. He's coming up.
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HOLMES: All right. Our digital guy, Derek Dodge, been keeping up. How many of these things have we been getting here? We've been asking about your ideas how to fix the schools, and what was the response like, first of all?
DEREK DODGE, CNN DIGITAL PRODUCER: I would say pretty big. A couple thousand on CNN.com. Some of those came in through Twitter.
HOLMES: I know you bringing us some of the good ones you filtered through, but did you get silly ones, as well? Some kids, you could tell, put some in?
DODGE: Yes, I think so. "Educating children is not the sole responsibility of teachers. If parents aren't involved, (INAUDIBLE) will not receive the education they should."
HOLMES: OK. That's logical.
DODGE: Here is one. "Why do we even need to fix our schools? Who says they're broken? It's just another excuse to get more money higher taxes for everyone else." I don't know about that one.
HOLMES: Where's Ken from? Do we know who Ken is? We know anything about Ken, who sent that in? Most people say there's some issue, we need to fix something with our schools. He says nothing wrong?
DODGE: How about this one? "There is no such thing as excessive homework."
HOLMES: Who is this?
DODGE: I think some people really disagree with that one.
(LAUGHTER)
DODGE: And this is about the idea of schools being all year long. "Going to college should be automatic as elementary school to middle school to high school." And "to help reduce cost, colleges need to be more specialized."
HOLMES: There's one way to look at it.
Back to this one here, Andre. "No such thing as excessive homework." We were talking about homework at one point this week. I guess which one did you see you were getting most response about? Was it homework, the year-round schools, what did you see people wanted to chime in most?
DODGE: Definitely the year-round schools.
HOLMES: Really?
DODGE: There was the side of "kids should be kids, let them have summer breaks. That's for fun." And the other was, "Well, we all work year-round, so kids should have to go to school year-round."
HOLMES: That is a point. All right, Derek Dodge, we appreciate you siphoning through these things. He's going to continue to do so. Please, we welcome your comments, keep them coming. Derek, appreciate you as always.
And also, going to be talking about education coming up in the noon hour. Tony Harris coming along. He will be talking to the main man who's leading our education system. How does he feel about fixing schools? Yes, we're talking about the education secretary, Arne Duncan. He is coming your way with our Tony Harris coming up at noon Eastern time. You don't want to miss that.
Also, later, we'll be hearing one of the president's top economic advisers. Actually, she is coming up in just a moment. Christina Romer. She has raised some eyebrows with some of her skeptical talk of robust recovery. We'll hear what she has to say now. She is coming your way in just a few minutes. Stay here with us.
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HOLMES: Turn back to the economy now. New unemployment numbers came out just a little bit ago. The jobless rate ticked up slightly last month to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent the month before.
Other glimmers of good news in there. Employers cut fewer jobs and expected a total 54,000 in August. About the same as the month before. Good news from that is the 54,000 jobs lost in July, less than half of what was originally estimated.
Let's get some perspective from somebody in the White House, the president's inner circle. Chief economic adviser, Christina Romer. In fact, Dr. Romer -- do I have it right, is today is officially your last day?
CHRISTINA ROMER, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: It is at 5:00 today.
HOLMES: Aww, well, you know what? I won't make this too painful. But glad we could talk to you on your last day.
Let me ask you about the real business, though. As you leave on your last day, one of the questions the president got there a few minutes ago in the Rose Garden was about the term "recovery summer" and if you regretted using that. So, I'll give you an opportunity here. If it's not a recovery summer, rename it for me. What exactly did we see this summer?
ROMER: I think the important thing is where that name came from. what the vice president and president have been talking about is the fact that a lot of the projects from the Recovery Act, a lot of the roads, the bridges, the runway, came to fruition this summer. So, in terms of some of the biggest impact of the Recovery Act, it was the summer of recovery.
And I think that is something we saw in today's employment numbers with construction ticking up to 19,000. A big chunk of that was in heavy construction, where those Recovery Act jobs would show up. Obviously, with when we're adding 67,000 jobs in the private sector, that's continued growth.
It's not strong enough. That is something that the president has, of course, concerns about. Has been concerned about it from the very beginning.
HOLMES: So, you say, we're going to stick with that term. You say it applies - recovery summer. But on a personal note for you, how do you feel about going out on this note today? Of course, we'd like for things to be better, but personally to have to leave on these numbers?
ROMER: You know, it will always be sad to leave this president that I admire so greatly and this team that I have worked with so well. And, of course, the biggest regret is the unemployment rate is not where it needs to be for the American people. That is something that I know each of us feels deeply, something we want to see come down as fast as possible.
I think, as I said in the speech earlier this week, I am proud of the actions we have taken. I think they have made the difference between a second Great Depression and a genuine, if slow, recovery. And certainly, what I'm going to be looking forward to as the team goes forward is what more can we do to make this recovery faster?
HOLMES: And, ma'am, you talked about how you worked well with this team. There was a lot of speculation -- you know, what happens in the press oftentimes -- but a lot of unconfirmed reports and inside sources saying that there was some tension in that team. That sometimes you weren't always listened to. As you leave now, as you look back, do you think you had the kind of relationship you wish you'd have had, and the president always listened to you?
ROMER: Absolutely. You know, when we talk about the economics team, we are strong personalities, and there have been lots of reports there were a little fireworks at the beginning.
But the truth is, we have learned to work with each other very well. There's a lot of mutual respect, and I will very much miss Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag when he was here, my colleagues at the Council of Economic Advisers.
And so we've been a team that's worked well together. We haven't hesitated to argue in front of the president. We think that's how you get better answers, better policies, but I have complete faith in them as we go forward.
HOLMES: As you leave, ma'am, last thing, looking back possibly with disappointment of what you weren't able to get accomplished, or actually with some pride at the job you were able to do to keep things from actually being worse?
ROMER: You know, I think I feel both those things. I am proud of what we were able to do. I think it has made a tremendous difference. And I am very grateful for the actions the president and the Congress took.
And of course we all wish it were better. The American people are still suffering tremendously, and we're just going to need to stick with this and bring them through this because we know we need to and we will.
HOLMES: All right. Well, Dr. Christina Romer, ma'am, your last day of work, it looks like you have about six hours and ten minutes left on the job before you head back out to California to work there at Berkeley to start teaching again.
Ma'am, we appreciate your time. Again, thank you so much. You take care out there, all right?
ROMER: Well, it's always great to spend a few minutes with you. So, thanks a lot.
HOLMES: All right. Last day on the job and, poor thing, had to spend time here with me. All right.
Coming up here, we are, of course, talking about Earl. Earl is breaking up. Earl is weakening. But Earl is causing some problems still. Our Hurricane Headquarters, checking in with all of our reporters. Stay here with us.
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HOLMES: Let's take you cross-country now, and let's start in the Big Apple. Can you believe a car saved a man's life? He wasn't in a car accident, no. He fell some 40 stories. The man plunged, fell on top of the car. The car's owner credits a rosary inside that parked car for possibly helping out here. Witnesses say it was probably the direct hit on the back windshield and the seat. Take a listen.
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HOLMES: All right, well, actually, no sound for you there, but I can tell you the man had to have surgery on his two broken legs. He was still in critical condition but, again, survived.
Now let me tell you about a skinny-dip in a hot tub that got a man in jail. We're talking about Beaverton, Oregon. Why was he in trouble? Because police say Mark Eskelson (ph) is a homeless man who actually slipped into a fenced backyard and skinny-dipped in the Jacuzzi. Not what led to the arrest, though. It was a 911 call for help and a hug.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CALLER: I've been in this hot tub here, I don't know, at least ten hours. And I cannot get anybody to stop and let me out. I got no towels or nothing.
911 OPERATOR: So, you're sure you don't need medical help started at this point?
CALLER: Yes, sir. I'm positive. I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it would probably be pretty nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Ten hours in the hot tub, you might need some medical attention. He was arrested on trespassing charges and misusing the 911 system.
One more stop here for you; this is in Missouri. Self-proclaimed "bag monster." Look at this guy. Environmentalists and activist Andy Keller is traveling the country, asking people to stop using plastic shopping bags and is wearing the message head to toe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're wearing how many bags?
ANDY KELLER, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: Five hundred plastic bags. This is what the average American uses in one year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That's a good look.
Keller is riding from California to New York on a three-wheeled bike. His cause, though, suffered a setback a couple of days ago when California senate voted down the measure that would have banned plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores.
Tony Harris coming up next. I assure you he will be better dressed than that. Stay here.
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