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Pumping Up the Economy; Pennsylvania's Heated Races; Little Rock Nine Member Jefferson Thomas Dies; 2,000 More Troops to Afghanistan; Craigslist Blocks "Adult" Services

Aired September 06, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And hello again, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Top of the hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, where anything can happen.

At this hour, President Obama heading to a swing state to talk about his election season plans to pump up the economy. We will outline his proposals. Just don't call them a stimulus.

The cost of a liberal arts degree can cost as much as an average American home. One college is giving thousands of students the dream of a lifetime -- a free education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like for me, this is an opportunity that I have to take and I have to do well with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK.

And you're online right now. We are, too. Ines Ferre is back following "What's Hot."

Ines.

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, you remember Captain Kirk from "Star Trek." Well, this is trending on Yahoo! right now. William Shatner saying that he never thought that "Star Trek" would be such a huge hit when it started.

Also, this may have been over this weekend, Dragon Con, but the pictures online are still hot and trending.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes. We had some fun with that.

All right, Ines.

Let's get started with our lead story.

Labor Day, a chance to take a break, maybe to relax a bit. But this Labor Day, a lot of you are worried, and too worried, really, to relax. And it is all because of the economy. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, only 18 percent of you think economic conditions are good. A whopping 81 percent say conditions are poor. And businesses are concerned, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD MCCRACKEN, PRESIDENT, NSBA: It's pretty grim out there. A lot of small businesses do see some opportunities, but most of them are in kind of a stagnant or even a downward growth piece right now.

The thing we need, we think, the most is access to credit and capital for small companies, because that's what's going to enable them to take advantage of opportunities when they do happen, and hire that next employee and really begin to grow. Unfortunately, there are some proposals on Capitol Hill right now that would really help with that, and they have been stuck in the mud. And we really hope we can move forward on some of those things in the next few weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Access to capital. That's a biggie.

President Obama heads to Milwaukee this hour on his latest push to jump-start the struggling economy.

Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry joining us now with details.

And Ed, first of all, good to see you.

The president is going to unveil an infrastructure plan today?

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Today it's going to be about infrastructure. In the short term, $50 billion up front, try to rebuild roads, bridges, railways, et cetera. That's all about trying to create jobs.

But when you have to read the fine print -- I mean, administration officials just had a conference call with reporters where they were basically acknowledging this is not going to create -- even if it were to pass on Capitol Hill in the short term, which is not a done deal, it would not create any jobs in 2010. It would at least be 2011. So you have to remember, this is not really going to help people in the short term.

Secondly, on Wednesday, the president is going to be in Cleveland talking about a tax cut for businesses, basically on their research and development, a $100 billion tax cut, big picture. And what that does is tries to get these businesses to invest more in their companies, buy more equipment, get the economy going that way, hire more people, deal with the jobs issue.

But again, you know, the Senate is not even working right now. They come back next week. They have had a pretty long August vacation.

Then when they come back, they're going to spend probably a week or so on a separate small business bill the president has been pushing for. And then after three, four weeks, they're going to be heading to the campaign trail full time.

So we have to remember and do sort of a reality check. These are proposals the president is putting out there, but it's unlikely that Congress is going to deal with it before the election. So these may be things he's putting out there to show, look, folks, I'm on top of this, I'm trying different things, but it's unclear it's ever going to help people in the short term.

HARRIS: Well, Ed, how frustrated is this administration over what maybe they consider the slow pace of things? My goodness, we have been talking about this small business proposal for -- it seems months now.

HENRY: Well, sure. And they point to Republican delays in the Senate, and there has been some of that. But Democrats themselves have pulled that bill off the floor to move on to other business.

So, I mean, you know, the bottom line is the process is the process. It's moved too slowly for this administration. They are deeply frustrated with that.

I think they also have to be frustrated with our latest poll. When you look inside the numbers of the CNN/Research Corporation poll about how people feel about the economy, for example, now, compared to two years ago, there is a high number of people who think it's gotten worse, and that is may still get worse than it is right now.

Well, what's happened in the last two years? What big event in terms of the economy? The president's stimulus plan, which was supposed to jump-start things not just in the short-term, but over the long-term. They're going to spend this money out over two years.

And yet here we are, almost two years later, and a lot of people feel like it's had a huge impact. That's part of the reason why this week he has got this renewed focus on the economy. But on this conference call with reporters, one of the president's aides was just asked, "Is it too little, too late?" They insist no, but with just two months to go before the midterms, a lot of pressure on this president -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, look, I'm supposed to wrap with you, but I've got another question, so I'm going to ask the next question.

I mean, we're talking about $50 billion in spending on infrastructure here that the president is going to propose. You know, there was a time when we would have called it what it is, or at least what it appears to be, and that's stimulus spending.

Why can't we call it what it is? What is wrong with the word? It is what it is, Ed.

HENRY: You're right. But it's become a little bit of a political dirty word now for the administration because the original stimulus, we should point out, in fairness, there have been government reports, but also private economists who have done reports saying it's probably saved or created about three million jobs. It's had some positive impact, but the point is they called this "Recovery Summer," and people are not feeling like it's recovery, so stimulus has become a dirty word.

I think, secondly, the expectations were so high with the first stimulus being $787 billion, you talk about infrastructure, $50 billion, this tax cut, $100 billion, it's nowhere near the kind of stimulus we saw last year. It's sort of is pennies compared to that. And so that might be another reason why it's not going to be called a second stimulus, because we're so deep in debt right now, they don't have $800 billion to justify pour into this right now -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, but if small businesses aren't spending and big corporations aren't spending, if consumers aren't spending, someone has to spend. And the spender of last resort is the government. But that's a whole other conversation we could have.

Ed, great to see you, sir. And good Labor Day to you.

HENRY: Good to see you in that three-piece suit, by the way.

HARRIS: Well, thank you, Doctor.

HENRY: You're spending, as well.

HARRIS: Well, I am a little bit. Thank you, sir.

HARRIS: Let's get more on the president's $15 billion plan for spending on the infrastructure of the country.

Ines Ferre is joining me with a breakdown -- Ines.

FERRE: Yes, Tony.

Well, it's rebuilding thousands of miles of roads and also railways and airport runways, so you've got 150,000 miles of roads, more -- some 4,000 miles of railways, enough to go from coast to coast. And also, they also plan to modernize the air traffic control system to cut down on travel time and delays. Now, this investment, as you guys have been saying, will be at least $50 billion.

Now, this Wednesday, President Obama is also expected to announce another part of this economic plan, and that is to extend permanently a research and development tax credit for businesses. And basically what this would do is reward companies that develop technologies in the U.S. and keep jobs here. He also wants to increase a credit option from 14 to 17 percent.

Now, this is all expected to cost about $100 billion. And how do they plan to pay for this? Well, one of the proposals is to be paid by closing some corporate loopholes for multinational and energy companies -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. OK, Ines. Appreciate it. Thank you.

So, will a new wave of spending on infrastructure and transportation make a dent in the unemployment rate?

Let's talk about this with Stephanie Elam. She's joining us from New York.

And Stephanie, this is the real $50 billion here, isn't it? Will it work?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That is the question. And I'm fresh out of a crystal ball, so I can say it's pretty much too early for us to know. But here's the things that we do know about.

First of all, we won't know what this "it" is until it actually gets through Congress. It's still a big debate over whether the individual stimulus plan has helped, as you were just talking about with Ed there. And the Obama administration estimates stimulus have actually saved or created about three million jobs.

That's all good and great. However, more than eight million jobs have been lost in the recession.

HARRIS: That's right.

ELAM: Still, the administration is saying, the officials there are saying that the unemployment picture would be even worse if the stimulus did not happen. So that's their argument for this one.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes the White House made was saying that the jobless rate would fall below eight percent this year. At the time, unemployment was at 8.2 percent, as you can see on this graph we're showing you. Today it's at 9.6 percent.

Now, granted, it's still below its peak and it's not where they said it would be, though, so that's part of the problem there. So without the White House's old prediction and the public record, if we didn't have that in our minds, maybe we would think that the current stimulus was working and actually did keep the recession from turning into a depression. And that's what they would still tell you coming out of the administration.

But as far as many people are concerned, especially if you are unemployed, the jobs recovery has been really, really slow. And jobs created by this new proposal may be even harder to measure and track than the original stimulus plan which was really difficult. So this is making it harder, as well, and these are long-term projects that will take time to plan and take time to implement.

So, again, it's just too soon for us to say, but we need to see what this "it" turns out to be.

HARRIS: And good of you to use the S-word, "stimulus." It is what it is.

All right, Stephanie. Good to see you.

ELAM: It is what it is, yes.

HARRIS: It is.

The CNN Election Express is on the road, and our T.J. Holmes is on it. Just ahead, a trip to Pennsylvania to look into some heated House races.

First though, our "Random Moment" in 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Oh, yes. What of football's most exciting plans becomes our "Random Moment of the Day."

East Carolina University pulled off a perfect -- and I mean perfect -- "Hail Mary" during college football's opening weekend. Take a look.

Trailing Tulsa, five seconds left, right? Watch this. Tulsa had scored on each of its last five possessions to take the lead.

Yeah! In the end, East Carolina wins, 51-49.

There it is, your Monday "Random Moment of the Day." Come on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So let's see here. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll of registered voters shows Republicans' chances of taking control of Congress rising right now.

When asked whether they would vote Republican or Democrat in November, without mentioning specific candidates' names, 52 percent say Republican, 45 percent say Democrat. One in five questioned say they don't like either party. Of that number, 63 percent say they will vote Republican, 25 percent Democrat.

As you can see, the gap between those percentages has grown pretty significantly since April, in favor of the GOP.

So, campaign season kicking into high gear today with the arrival of Labor Day. Journalists from the best political team on television are riding the CNN Election Express this week.

T.J. Holmes now in Pittsburgh.

And T.J., I've got to tell you, based on what I'm hearing and you're reporting here, it sounds like folks are saying to you, a pox, my friend, on both houses.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On both houses. It's not anti- Democrat, it's not anti-Republican. They don't like anybody in Washington. And how can you blame them, given not just the state of things, the state of the economy, but just the tone people talk about?

Why do you behave that way in Washington? The yelling back and forth at each other and nothing really getting done when we have real problems.

And the real problems, yes, are about the economy. And this is a state here, Tony, that it sounds pretty good. When you say Pennsylvania has been able to stay below the national average in unemployment for the past year, that sounds like they're doing OK. The problem, however, is that this state has gone up a full percentage point in the past year in its unemployment rate, while the national rate has been coming down or been flat, pretty much, every single month. So it seems that they're going the wrong direction.

So what are people going to do about it? Well, they get to go to the polls. Elections they know certainly do matter.

And you talked about some of those numbers just there a second ago about how Republicans seem to be doing a little bit better than Democrats in the polling. That sounds pretty bad for Democrats, especially maybe for a Democrat who is a freshman Democrat trying to hold on to a seat in a Republican district, and that is District 3.

Listen to these two candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KATHY DAHLKEMPER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: We have been hurt for a long time. And my office and myself, we have been working diligently for the last 20 months to kind of have a long-term vision for this region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE KELLY (R), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I keep hearing about how things are getting better, and I'm saying, please tell me where that is, because I want to go there and see what a better situation looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You hear that, Tony, and no disrespect to either of those candidates or any other candidate out there, but quite frankly, we've heard that all about before.

HARRIS: Oh yes.

HOLMES: The voters have heard all of that before. It's the same back and forth.

And I told you, one of the most disheartening things I have heard so far out here is a guy tell us that, in fact, he just always votes against the incumbent. Why? He wants to be fair and let somebody else get in there and get their chance at being corrupt and stealing money.

HARRIS: Wow.

HOLMES: That type of attitude is disheartening, it's scary, but that's the tone right now, at least here in western Pennsylvania.

And we can imagine, as we just heard someone driving by -- I don't know if you heard that -- you know, that's the tone. He's just coming by screaming, "It's lies! It's all lies!" Well, you know what? A lot of people believe --

HARRIS: Feel that way.

HOLMES: -- exactly what he is believing as he's driving by and screaming out of his car. That's the perfect example, perfect timing, but I hope he doesn't come back.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: Yes. Very good.

All right, T.J.. We will check back in with you again next hour.

Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, a popular Web site bows to pressure. Craigslist censors itself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: This just in to CNN. Jefferson Thomas, one of the Little Rock Nine members, has passed away, we're just learning. And you remember the Little Rock Nine, nine black high school students who really are heroes of the civil rights movement, who braved segregationist mobs to integrate an all-white high school, Little Rock Central High.

I believe we have someone on the phone with us.

Millie (sic) is on the phone with us?

MINNEJEAN BROWN TRICKEY, ONE OF "LITTLE ROCK NINE": It's Minniejean.

HARRIS: Minnie, it's good to talk to you.

TRICKEY: Thank you.

HARRIS: What are your thoughts today on the passing of Jefferson Thomas?

TRICKEY: Well, the nine, we're very sad. We were friends before the Little Rock Central crisis, and we have been very close over the years. So it's a great tragedy for us.

HARRIS: Yes. And Minnie, if you would -- and good to talk to you, first of all.

Can you take us back to those days? Can you remind us what it was like in those early days? You know, what the Little Rock Nine members did and what it was like integrating Little Rock Central High School, 1957?

TRICKEY: Well, of course, we volunteered to go to Central, not anticipating the opposition that we would face. And on our first day, September 3rd, I think, we were met with a mob of screaming segregationists. That was our first shock, and the youth of Arkansas National Guard to stop us from going in the school. And over a three-week period, with negotiations with President Eisenhower and Orville Sabas (ph), the governor, we were to go again, I think on the 24th of September, and we were pulled out because the mob had grown so big. And then President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,200 federal troops to escort us into school.

HARRIS: Yes.

TRICKEY: So that's the story, short and sweet.

HARRIS: Yes.

Minnie, did you stay in touch? I mean, as a group, you're so linked together in history. Have you stayed in touch over the years, and with all of the -- is everyone aware of the situation with Jefferson? And maybe you can talk about how you stayed in contact and in touch over the years.

TRICKEY: Well, we stay in contact because we have that experience.

HARRIS: Yes.

TRICKEY: And we grew up together in Little Rock. So it's a long-term experience that's solidified by our experience at Central High School.

But our feelings have been that we cared so much about each other, and felt that that common experience bonded us in an amazing way. But we, as the Little Rock Nine Foundation, give scholarships, we meet with the students who receive our scholarships and we meet as -- we met as often as we could. And we met for photographic essays or awards.

So we have really kept in touch. And we had a wonderful relationship.

HARRIS: I am so sorry about your loss. But Minnie, thanks for talking to us.

TRICKEY: Well, thank you.

HARRIS: It's my pleasure.

Let's take a break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: More American men and women will be putting their lives on the line in the fight against terrorism, headed to Afghanistan.

That story next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: CNN has learned as many as 2,000 additional troops may be headed to Afghanistan. Let's learn a bit more about this. Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, joining us live from Washington. And Barbara, good to see you. What are the details on this?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony. Well, here's what it's all about. An additional 2,000 troops essentially are needed in Afghanistan for two reasons. One is to be trainers for Afghan security forces. They need more trainers on the ground. Some that they've had there have come home, but there is a need for even more. Second, they need more forces to be able to deal with IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices, those roadside bombs that are still the number one threat t both troops on the ground and Afghan civilians.

So, what's happening is first, NATO is sitting down and looking at its own troop levels and trying to see if any of the NATO member countries will contribute more troops to the war. But I have to tell you, NATO officials privately say that that is very doubtful, and their working assumption at this time is at least a good majority of those troops may come from the United States -- Tony.

HARRIS: And Barbara, what would benefit if it comes to pass that's the way it works out with most of these troops coming from American forces? Would that impact the July 2011 deadline for beginning the withdrawal of troops?

STARR: Well, that's what everybody is waiting to see, because what it really means, of course, is there's a long way to go across much of Afghanistan before security is good enough that you can actually transfer it to the Afghans. What commanders are privately saying on the ground is that even if they transfer their areas to local Afghan security, those U.S. troops might not come home right away.

They might just simply be sent to other areas of Afghanistan to undertake security detail there and come home at some future date. All very uncertain -- Tony.

HARRIS: Gotcha. OK. Barbara Starr in the Pentagon for us. Barbara, good to see you. Thank you.

I got to tell you, many veterans are having a difficult time finding work once they return home. It's a story we've been following. Josh Levs now takes a look at the numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been talking a lot about veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars, having a lot of trouble getting jobs, even more than the national average which is why I was stunned by this yesterday. I think we have a chart that lays it out for you, but the basic idea here is the unemployment among people who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been up near 15 percent earlier this year. It's been in the 12s and 13s, then this comes out yesterday.

It's a little over 9 percent now. This thing is at 9.4 percent. Now, that is a big drop in unemployment for our nation's veterans, those who are the most recent veterans, those who have been serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, a little bit of good news right there. Now, that said, unemployment is still way too high for everyone, including for veterans. It's a sign of the times that I'm seeing 9.4 percent for any group as being a good thing.

I will also tell you that we can't read too much into those latest numbers. We would like to believe it means that more members of our military who are home now are managing to get jobs. It could mean that, but because of the way they calculate these things, it could also mean that more people have given up looking for work or as the navy times point out, it could be a statistical anomaly.

What we need to do is watch out in the coming months and see if indeed more and more of these recent veterans are managing to get jobs, and that would be very good news. Now, there are a few things you should know about that I got on my screen behind me here, and that's what's going on in Congress to try to help people who have been serving for a home now looking for jobs. I'm going to tell you these three things that are going on right now.

One is a work opportunity tax credit, business folks out there pay attention to this. If you get $2,400 for hiring veterans, $4,800 for hiring disabled veterans, some lawmakers now pushing to extend this. It would expire at the end of this year. And two things in the pipeline that have not passed yet, one's a veterans employment act to provide job training and placement services and another one is an educational assistance act that would help members of our military who have been serving who are now home trying to figure out how to take the skills they have, translate them into practicable skills that will work for all sorts of jobs.

And that act could potentially help. So, we'll see how well that does in Congress. Last thing to tell you, if you are one of these people and you are a member of the military who's home now, a veteran, looking for work, there's a handful of web sites that can help you a lot, and I've posted them at Facebook and Twitter.

So, here are my addresses as JoshLevsCNN. I have the links all set up for you if you got a loved one who's a member of the military who's home now, who's a veteran, and looking for work, a series of web sites designed especially for that group. Hopefully, it will help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: High school students in one city can stay there for college and not pay a dime towards tuition. Sounds really good, almost too good to be true. We'll find out more about it in just a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A major change, apparently, for Craigslist. Users looking for dull encounters on the web site are instead encountering the word censored in its place. Craigslist isn't explaining the move just yet but says it will release a statement later. Craigslist has been under pressure to make the change. There have been allegations the web site promotes prostitution and child sex trafficking. Attorneys general in 17 states challenged Craigslist to act. One of them commended the move but warned other web sites need to take action as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, CONNECTICUT ATTORNEY GENERAL: There've been series of assaults, even more serious crime, evidence of human trafficking, tragedies resulting directly from these prostitution ads on Craigslist. Craigslist is simply the biggest, by far, in scale and scope, and others should follow its example. We will monitor them. We will pursue them if they fail to follow this lead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Once again, Craigslist's representatives have said they will issue a statement, but we haven't seen anything just yet.

Checking top stories now. The human rights group, Amnesty International, is accusing Iranian authorities of forcing a woman sentenced to death to give an interview on state-run television. In the interview, Mohammad Ashtiani, who could be stoned to death for allegedly committing adultery denounced the lawyer representing her. People campaigning on her behalf claim she's already been lashed 99 times.

Bravery caught on a police dash cam video. You are looking at some deputies in Georgia. Let's take this full. Risking their lives to save a man from a burning car. The car caught fire after a crashing on Georgia's Interstate 75. The man was airlifted to a hospital in Tennessee.

And tropical storm Hermine on radar. Weather authorities say it has gained a little momentum with sustained winds clocking at 50 miles an hour. It is expected to make landfall near the Texas/Mexico border tonight or tomorrow.

What does tuition cost these days for college? One small college offers certain high school graduate scholarships worth $180,000. We'll explain in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, I got to tell you, paying for college is always difficult, right? But in this economy, it's even tougher. T.J. Holmes tells us about one college that is helping some students get a first-class education for free.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a time when economic hardship is taking a toll on families everywhere, putting money aside for college almost seems like an American dream itself.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

HOLMES: Universities and colleges are also feeling the financial strain. Many schools are raising tuition and cutting back on scholarships and school programs to trim costs. But that's not the case with Oberlin College, a liberal art school in Oberlin, Ohio just outside the Cleveland. In the past academic year, Oberlin has awarded more than $48 million in scholarships, which come from endowments, gifts and other sources.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have to wait to see the great things that will come out of this class. In truth, we already are doing big things.

HOLMES: In 2001, Oberlin College developed a special scholarship just for students at the local high school. So, any Oberlin high school graduating senior who's accepted gets to go for free.

Tell me, how much money are you saving by going to school right here in your hometown?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With federal financial aid, it comes out to about $45,000 a year, so -- yes.

HOLMES: That's what you're saving?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uhhmm.

HOLMES: So, over four years, do the math.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $180,000. Yes.

HOLMES: That you will not have to deal with when you graduate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HOLMES: For some families, this once in a lifetime opportunity means their children receive a college education that they otherwise couldn't afford, especially for families like the Gilfethers (ph) who have two sons attending Oberlin college.

CASEY GILFETHER, SONS ATTEND OBERLIN COLLEGE: I've been a successful home builder, developer, and the home building crisis devastated my business, and I went bankrupt. So, they couldn't have come at a better time for our family.

SUZANNE MELLETTE-GEORGE, STUDENT'S MOTHER: She couldn't get that anywhere else. So we're grateful for the scholarship. At least I am.

MELISSA GEORGE, OBERLIN COLLEGE STUDENT: Me too. Because I'm pretty sure I would have had to pay a lot of loans.

LEMON: During the past academic year, Oberlin College has awarded more than $3 million to qualifying Oberlin High School students. Recipients of the scholarship think it's a life-changing opportunity.

KEVIN GILFEATHER, OBERLIN COLLEGE STUDENT: The financial component isn't necessarily there. My parents don't make a tremendous amount of money and things like that. I feel like, for me, this is an opportunity that I have to take and I have to do well with, because I don't have a mulligan. I can't do it over.

LEMON: With a great free opportunity right in their own backyard, why are some Oberlin High School students opting to pay for college elsewhere?

NIGEL MCMILLION, OBERLIN COLLEGE STUDENT: You know that it's going to be difficult. You know that you're not going to be far away from home. And I'd say, yes, that's true, but you're going to be maybe $100,000 in debt at the end of this and I'll only have whatever room and board costs there were.

DEBRA CHERMONTE, OBERLIN COLLEGE DEAN OF ADMISSIONS: I think like any student, the concern of coming to college in your neighborhood is the familiarity. And you may think that there's something better out there.

LEMON: Oberlin College hopes to continue finding ways for students and families to attain the American dream of a college education without the financial burden.

MARVIN KRISLOV, PRESIDENT, OBERLIN COLLEGE: Tremendous effects in terms of helping improve the public schools, in terms of sending a message to the kids, it's important to go to school, stay in school. And if you excel, you have this opportunity for a free ride to one of the best colleges in America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Oberlin is not only rich in resources, but history, as well. The city and school have ties dating back to the underground railroad. And just last month, "U.S. News and World Report" listed the school as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation.

Parts of downtown Atlanta transformed into this crazy fantasy wonderland. Sights and sounds from Dragon*Con 2010. And the worst audition ever. Ines Ferre with trending stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's see here. We've got 10 minutes before we get to Ali Velshi at the top of the hour. I think we do have some time for "What's Hot" online.

Ines.

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony. Well, this --

HARRIS: What are you working with here?

FERRE: Yes. OK. Well, this is from the "X Factor" U.K. And it's two friends that went on the "X Factor." They didn't make a great impression on the crowd, on the judges.

HARRIS: Yes.

FERRE: And I just want to show you the short exchange that followed after they sang. Take a listen.

HARRIS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically, at the end of day, we don't care what you guys say. We just came up here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the end of day, yes, obviously we care what you think, but she's just being a bit over the top.

SIMON COWELL, "X FACTOR": Can I be honest with you two? You have the worst attitude of any contestants I have ever met on any of these shows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow! And the audience seemed to agree.

FERRE: Wow! Yes. And then listen to --

HARRIS: There's more?

FERRE: Listen to what happened afterwards. Yes, from the judges.

HARRIS: Oh. Oh.

FERRE: Yes.

HARRIS: Oh, no.

FERRE: And oh it's -- yes, it's --

HARRIS: Flip the bird a little bit, is that --

FERRE: And one of them punched other one. Oh, it was pretty --

HARRIS: So it turned into Springer. It turned into Jerry Springer time. OK. All right.

FERRE: You could say that.

HARRIS: It's not supposed to go that way.

FERRE: OK. And this is Dragon*Con.

HARRIS: Wow!

FERRE: This went on this weekend in Georgia. (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: It feels like it's still going on. You know we've got Dragon*Con folks in -- I mean terrific people in studio right now, right? FERRE: Yes.

HARRIS: Can we get a Jim (ph) shot and I'll let you do your thing. I'm sorry.

FERRE: No, it's fine. And they've got --

HARRIS: So just the pictures from the event?

FERRE: All these kind of outfits on that iReporters have put together.

HARRIS: That one was wearing very little clothing.

FERRE: Yes, it was Wonder Woman. It was Wonder Woman.

HARRIS: Is that what -- OK. All right.

FERRE: Yes. My favorite was, you know, these guys, who you going to call?

HARRIS: Yes, yes, the Ghostbusters.

FERRE: Ghostbusters.

HARRIS: That doesn't hurt that they're handsome guys, either, right?

FERRE: Oh.

HARRIS: All right, are we good.

FERRE: Jealous?

HARRIS: Yes.

All right, thank you.

Let's take a break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Very quickly. We're getting some new information just in to CNN of a small plane going down in the Las Vegas area. Actually in Las Vegas. One of the neighborhoods there. In a residential neighborhood. Take a look at the pictures from KTNV. The plane is called a Lance (ph). Probably a description of the plane there, the type of aircraft we're talking about. This, as you can see, is in a residential neighborhood.

Let me take a quick look here. That looks like it went down right in an intersection. Perhaps a really good job of piloting that plane to the ground in a real emergency. We understand that the plane may have hit a couple of cars on the way down. There were four people inside of the plane. And we understand they have been transported to an area hospital. Their conditions are unknown right now.

So we'll continue to follow this, get the latest pictures on the air to you, for you, as soon as we can.

Time now for your CNN equals politics update. Here is Peter Hamby, part of the best political team on television.

Peter, good to see you.

You're getting word of a last-minute write-in challenger in the South Carolina Senate race. What do you have on this?

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Right. You know this race, it's a crazy race, Alvin Greene, the unknown candidate, came out of nowhere.

HARRIS: Oh, yes.

HAMBY: He faces obscenity charges. He, you know, pretty much has no chance of beating Republican Jim DeMint in November. I just got off the phone with Greg Snowed, who is a social studies high school teacher from Greenville, South Carolina, who says he's launching a write-in campaign. It's going to be conducted mostly by social networking websites. And he says it's mostly a symbolic campaign. He says he's dissatisfied with the political discourse in the race.

HARRIS: Right.

HAMBY: And, you know, he's -- it's almost a protest vote. But he's out there and he's going to use Facebook and Twitter to try to make a dent in this race.

HARRIS: Yes, everyone's upset with the discourse in all of these races around the country. Joe Donnelly's campaign. Let's take it to Indiana now, is feeling a little bit of heat I understand from the National Republican Congressional Committee thanks to a new ad. Is that correct?

HAMBY: Right, Joe Donnelly, a Democrat from Indiana's second congressional district, has a tough re-election campaign. He has been running ads distancing himself from President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. He has a TV ad in which he calls them the Washington crowd, kind of derisively. And the National Republican Congressional Committee is saying, wait a minute, you're a Democrat. You voted for TARP. You voted for health care. You voted for the stimulus. And they just launched their first TV ad of this cycle today attacking Joe Donnelly and reminding them of those votes. You know the Republican in the district is State Representative Jackie Walorski and they felt confident about that race.

HARRIS: Yes. I got one more for you. If you would, take a moment here and break down for everyone the importance of the president's trip to Wisconsin. And what is he doing and how are Republicans responding?

HAMBY: Right. So he's going to Wisconsin today to try to outline $50 billion in government spending, infrastructure spending, to kind of spur short-term job creation. You know, it's all about jobs in this midterm election. Obviously this has a political bent to it for Republicans. The Republican National Committee organized a conference call for reporters this morning. The Wisconsin GOP chairman said the state should reject all of that money. He said infrastructure funds in the stimulus last year didn't work. And Republicans are also pointing out that Senator Russ Feingold, who has an unexpectedly difficult election battle this year is not going to be with President Obama. He's going to be at a Labor Day event in his hometown. So politics all around us right now.

HARRIS: Got to ask you for your take on this whole idea. It's $50 billion and no one wants to call it the "s" word, stimulus. What's your take on how toxic that word is right now?

HAMBY: I think it's pretty toxic. I mean the term stimulus is radioactive. But what the Democrats are trying to do, this midterm cycle, is really explain what this money means. And President Obama is going to say, you know, when he goes out there, what -- that this will help create jobs. Just translate the word stimulus into the word jobs. That's what Democrats are trying to do right now.

HARRIS: And then we're also getting a look at all of the generic polling. But what's your take on the extent to which this is put sort of the generics aside and the extent to which this comes down to individual races as you're highlighting for us in individual districts across the country.

HAMBY: Right. Our new poll today shows Republicans have a seven-point edge on that generic ballot. Independents are breaking towards Republicans on that generic ballot. That's very bad news for Democrats. But if you look at the competitive, special elections going back over the last year, Democrats have done pretty well for themselves. Maybe the best example is in Pennsylvania, 12, Mark Crits, a Democrat, won that district, which was won by John McCain in 2008. It was a very competitive race, but it came down to local issues.

HARRIS: Right. Peter, good to see you. Thank you.

HAMBY: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Looking forward to your reports and updates.

For the latest political news, you can go to cnnpolitics.com.

It is time to rock and roll. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.