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Peaceful Demonstration in Tahrir Square; Shrimp Swimming in the Desert; An Astronaut's Struggle; "Day of Departure" Rally in Egypt; African-American Unemployment

Aired February 04, 2011 - 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: Live pictures now from Egypt. More people in Tahrir Square -- that's on the top left of your screen -- more than ever. Protesters calling this the "Day of Departure" in the hopes to pressure President Mubarak to resign. It's almost the end of Friday, though, and he hasn't gone anywhere.

Bottom of your screen, that is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, up a little bit. Strangely, because we didn't gain as many jobs as we expected in January. The unemployment report came out today. The unemployment rate for the country fell to 9 percent, the lowest level since April of 2009.

Look at the top right of your screen. That is Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport. Hundreds of flights in and out of that city cancelled because of the snowstorm. Thousands of people trying to get into town for the Super Bowl on Sunday. We're told the weather is going to be better in time for that.

It is 9:00 p.m. right now in Cairo. The "Day of the Departure," so-called, by anti-government demonstrators is winding down.

Egypt's president of the past 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, has gone nowhere. What we have now -- and you're looking at live pictures of Tahrir Square -- what we have seen is the dramatic departure from the bloodshed of the past two days. It almost looks like no one is moving there. As anti-Mubarak masses swelled the square, pro-Mubarak protesters who appeared with a vengeance on Wednesday seemed to fade away.

The military stepped up its profile, but not its use of force. Here you see the minister of defense wading into the sea of regime opponents entirely uneventfully.

At times today, the vast crowd seemed jubilant. Look at this. They're going around in a circle, they're dancing, they're clapping. Not clear exactly why, but similar scenes played out in the cities of Alexandria and Suez.

Late in the day, in certain Cairo neighborhoods, violence did break out between pro-and-anti-government protesters. And the campaign to attack and intimidate journalists isn't over either. But now it seems focused on Al Jazeera, which is where it started, as well as the news site of the banned (ph) Muslim Brotherhood. CNN's Ben Wedeman has been in the midst of this upheaval for days, since the very, very beginning. He joins me now for "Two at the Top."

What's going on, Ben? What's happening there?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the demonstration in Tahrir Square is ongoing. It's been quite a large demonstration, but a pretty peaceful one.

There was some rock-throwing on the edges of it between pro- democracy people and people who still favor the continued rule of President Hosni Mubarak. But, by and large, the significant development today, Ali, was that the army finally took a stand and made sure that there was no real major confrontations between these two opposing forces. And what we saw was they were checking very carefully things like IDs, frisking people, checking bags and purses to make sure that no weapons or anything that could harm anybody was brought inside the square.

So it was a pretty festive atmosphere. The demonstrators continuing to call for the immediate dismissal of President Hosni Mubarak. But all indications are that that's not about to happen any time soon -- Ali.

VELSHI: Ben, you were at the beginning of this thing. You were covering what happened in Tunis -- or in Tunisia. You were talking about how this could spread to Egypt. You have seen this thing unfold from a vantage that many other people in the world didn't have because they didn't see it coming as much as you did.

So tell me now what happens next. There's a standoff. The want -- the "Day of Departure" -- they want Mubarak out. He's not leaving.

What happens next?

WEDEMAN: Well, the pressure will continue to mount on President Hosni Mubarak not only from the street, but also, as we've seen from the U.S. administration and others in the international community who are very concerned about the stability of Egypt. Certainly it's been quite a shock, all the events that have happened since the 25th of January, when these protests began.

There's a lot of concern about the economic stability of Egypt. The economy has actually just come to a crashing halt. Tourism has utterly disappeared. The only people staying in hotels at the moment are journalists or Egyptians trying to find a safe place to stay.

The stock market has not been opened all week. It's expected to open early next week. But, by and large, the real concern is that this country's economy, upon which obviously so many people depend, is crashing. And that could have serious consequences for the political situation as well -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Ben, thanks very much for your great coverage of this, and your continuing coverage. We'll stay on top of this story, all of our viewers here in the United States and around the world, with you.

Ben Wedeman in Cairo.

It appears astronaut Mark Kelly will command the upcoming Endeavour space mission. It had been up in the air, whether he would make the trip, since his wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is still recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. But in a statement released today, Kelly says he's looking forward to rejoining his fellow crewmembers and finishing their training.

Liftoff set for April 19th. NASA plans to hold a news conference in about an hour to discuss it. We'll bring it to you live.

And coming up in 15 minutes, we're going to talk to a former astronaut, a remarkable man, about balancing family and work in space.

A disappointing jobs report out today. The economy added just 36,000 jobs in January. You can see that at the far end of your screen. We've shown you sort of the last several months. That is far fewer than the 149,000 jobs that economists had anticipated.

At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 9 percent, down from 9.4 percent a month earlier. The weather played a role, many businesses closing, some folks staying at home instead of looking for a job.

Many New Orleans residents who left after Hurricane Katrina have not returned home. A new Census report shows the Crescent City has lost nearly a third of its population. That is according to a report in "USA Today."

Census workers counted just under 344,000 people. That's down from 485,000 in the year 2000. New Orleans, however, remains Louisiana's most populous city.

And CNN is learning that 16 sailors have been kicked out of the Navy for using or dealing a marijuana mimicking drug known as spice, or K2. While the synthetic drug is not considered illegal in the U.S., the Defense Department and the Navy in particular have banned it.

It's often sold in tobacco shops and over the Internet. The dismissed sailors were all assigned to the Norfolk, Virginia, base USS Bataan. The Navy launched an eight-week investigation after finding an empty package of K2 on the ship during a routine patrol in November.

Well, our "Sound Effect" today is from a new friend of Nadin Khoury. We told you about Nadin. He's the 13-year-old Liberian immigrant who was brutally attacked by older, bigger kids at his suburban Philadelphia high school.

One of the kids captured the whole sickening event on cell phone video, which helped get the kids in trouble. Nadin was kicked, he was dragged through the snow, he was hung by his jacket from a wrought iron fence. Got away. This week, seven alleged tormenters were arrested.

Yesterday, while telling his story on "The View," Nadin got a surprise from Pro Bowl wide receiver DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESEAN JACKSON, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: First and foremost, man, I want to say you're brave, because this happens every day, and people are not brave enough to stand up and take this on. You know, man, bro, really, you're doing it, man. And I just want to say, man, I appreciate you doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Jackson gave Nadin his jersey, made him an unofficial teammate of the Eagles. It's been a rough week for that kid, but certainly things are improving.

After nasty weather hit the North this week, now it's the South's turn. It could affect one of the biggest sporting events of the year. You know which one I'm talking about?

We'll go there for a live report right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Earlier this week, is it was the North and the Midwest of the country being slammed by winter weather. Now it's the South's turn, threatening to be one of the biggest -- well, it is threatening one of the biggest sports events of the year.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Why go deep sea fishing when you can catch tons of fresh shrimp in the middle of a desert? I'm not kidding you, by the way. I'll show you today's "Building up America" report after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: If you like shrimp, you're going to love this story. Believe it or not, the newest hot spot for seafood lovers just might be the Nevada desert.

That's where we find Tom Foreman with today's "Building up America" report -- Tom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Las Vegas, tourists love big spectacles and little shrimp, eating 22 million pounds a year. The problem is, in this landlocked state, shrimp are often frozen, and from far away. But this year, that could change.

FRANK DELUCA, GANIX BIO TECHNOLOGIES INC.: The size of this building is a 36,000 square foot fabricated structure. FOREMAN: A half-hour north, Blue Oasis is building a plant to grow shrimp in the desert and take on the foreign companies which dominate the American market. Scott McManus is the CEO.

SCOTT MCMANUS, GANIX BIO TECHNOLOGIES INC.: I mean, its 1.4 billion pounds is brought into the U.S. last year, approximately. And 90 percent of that comes from overseas.

FOREMAN: Each of these tanks can hold 100,000 shrimp and they hope to harvest 500,000 pounds a year.

(on camera): Why hasn't this been done before?

MCMANUS: Well, the big issue is how do you deal with the affluent within the system?

FOREMAN: The waste?

MCMANUS: The waste, exactly.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Here, each tank is an ecosystem unto itself. Waste water is naturally recycled in what they say is a chemical-free process and never dumped into the environment but they won't say much more about how the system works. That's their secret developed at a remote lab in North Dakota over the past eight years.

(on camera): So where are we now?

MCMANUS: Right now, we're in what we call our sort and ship facility.

FOREMAN (voice-over): They will say they hope to take the idea far beyond Vegas, putting these fresh shrimp farms and new jobs near every major city.

(on camera): You think that will sell?

MCMANUS: Absolutely.

FOREMAN: You're counting on it?

MCMANUS: Exactly. I'm counting on it big-time.

FOREMAN: Tom Foreman, CNN, Apex, Nevada.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. It is 17 minutes aft hour. Let me bring you up to speed on some of the top stories we're following.

(NEWSBREAK)

VELSHI: Astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, will announce this afternoon that he will command the upcoming flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour which leaves in April. That came under question when his wife was shot in the head last month in Arizona.

A lot of people have strong feelings about whether he should leave his wife during this time. And a lot of you, when I posted it on Twitter and Facebook, said that it's nobody's business but theirs.

Let's bring in someone who knows what it's like to leave family and go to space, Dr. Bernard Harris, the first African-American to walk in space, a friend of our show. He's the author of the book "Dream Walker: A Journey of Achievement and Inspiration."

Bernard, good to see you again.

Do you know Mark Kelly?

DR. BERNARD HARRIS, FMR. ASTRONAUT: You know, he came into the program in 2000 -- I guess it was 1996, and that was the year that I left. So I know him, but we haven't had close conversations.

VELSHI: What are you people like? Is there some similarity?

I mean, I know we have images of astronauts from TV and from the movies. Do you share some sort of similarity in your ability to go out there, know that this could be something you don't come back from, and that that has really happened to people, and knowing that you're leaving a family behind?

HARRIS: Well, I think the main thing that binds us together is our need to explore. And I think in general, you consider us to be risk-takers of a sort. I don't think that any "normal person" would strap themselves on a rocket and be blasted off into space. But I think it's that desire to do something that had never been done before.

VELSHI: All right. In your book -- I want to just read a passage from there -- it says, "I've always believed that going for what you want in life is worth the risk. More important, I'd rather die attempting to fulfill a dream than sitting on the sidelines in fear."

Obviously, this is a conversation every astronaut has with themselves, their friends, and their family about this. How do those conversations -- in your experience, how do they go?

HARRIS: Well, I think the people who are around me know that I've wanted to be an astronaut since I was probably about 13 years old. And so my whole drive through education and -- has to -- was to lead me to that opportunity to blast off into space. And I think that's probably true of all astronauts.

The family, as I said before, I could not do this without the support of the family. So they buy into that.

VELSHI: And do they get some preparation? I imagine you get some counseling or some -- NASA does something formal to have you guys prepare for the reality and what you have to prepare for. What does the family do? Do they get that? Or is that up to the astronaut, to talk to the family?

HARRIS: Well, it's two-part. NASA does provide psychological support for both us and also for the family, because, as I mentioned before, this is a stressful time for the family. But we also do that.

I think communication is so key, talking and letting the family know how you feel about this, what you're going to be doing on the mission. We also have the opportunity when we're in space to talk with family. So we can do that via the Internet, or have one-on-one conversations. So that all helps out.

VELSHI: Let's -- I want to just ask you -- I'm not asking for your comment on Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords. I'm asking for your comment on what I ask people. I put it out there on Twitter and Facebook, because we have conversations like this. This is what we should be having in the news.

And some people thought it was OK that he goes, good that he goes, and that he probably has the support of the family. Some people thought he shouldn't. And a whole lot of people thought, is this anybody's business?.

HARRIS: Yes. I have to tell you that it is a tough decision, and I think it's between he and his family.

I know that -- I say how difficult it ask to tell your family you're getting ready to blast off into space. Imagine what it's like for them. And I think we should just let them make that decision and support them in that.

VELSHI: Bernard, one of the things that's neat, you have an experience that very few people have ever had in life, and you are trying to use that to stimulate greater education for young kids to get into science, technology, engineering and math.

Tell me a little bit about how you achieve that.

HARRIS: Yes. So we have a family foundation called The Harris Foundation. And we support K-12 education programs all across this country.

We have a summer science camp for middle school kids and 25 universities. In Houston this weekend, we have the camp directors coming in for their spring training.

And we also have a program called A Dream Tour that we go around trying to advocate math and science education. And we have been lucky to have support of ExxonMobil in this, and other agencies like NASA, who are part of this initiative because they see what the country has to do in order to maintain our competitiveness.

VELSHI: Dr. Bernard Harris, always a pleasure talking to you.

Dr. Bernard Harris is a former NASA astronaut.

Thanks for being with us. HARRIS: Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: Hey, if you think life is tough when a professional athlete suffers a spinal cord injury, imagine the difficulties of a high school athlete. Coming up, a program that is designed to make sure athletes injured in high school are not forgotten.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Millions of football fans counting down to kickoff when the Steelers meet the Packers on Super Bowl Sunday. Eddie Canales will be one of those fans. You see, two moments changed his life, and both of them occurred on the football field.

Meet this week's CNN Hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CANALES, SUFFERED FOOTBALL INJURY: Growing up in Texas, football is very important. It's like a religion. You get the adrenaline going. You want to win.

EDDIE CANALES, CNN HERO: It was senior night. Chris was having the game of his life.

C. CANALES: It was the fourth quarter. I made a touchdown- saving tackle. I could hear my teammates saying, "Chris, come on, let's go." And I can't move.

E. CANALES: You don't want to even think that your son may never walk again. That was a hard pill to swallow.

C. CANALES: Around my one-year anniversary, I was going through a lot of depression.

E. CANALES: I said, "Let's go to a football game."

C. CANALES: We ended up watching another young man suffer a spinal cord injury.

E. CANALES: Chris, he turns to me and said, "Dad, we've got to go help him."

I'm Eddie Canales. My goal is to be there for young men that have suffered spinal cord injuries playing high school football.

C. CANALES: When we hear about an injury, we go to the families as soon as we can.

E. CANALES: Since we've started, we've worked with 19 families just in the state Texas.

We help them with ramps in their homes, wheelchair-accessible vehicles. It's a very expensive injury. Someone injured on the professional level is going to be taken care of. But on a high school level, it's a totally different story.

We wanted to make sure that these kids are not forgotten.

C. CANALES: We're a band of brothers. Our biggest bond is football.

E. CANALES: They were on the gridiron, but they never quit. They've never given up. That's what keeps me pushing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: A great story.

Remember, every one of this year's CNN Heroes is chosen from people you tell us about. To nominate someone you know who's making a big difference in your community, go to CNNHeroes.com.

Coming up next, up-to-the-minute developments in Egypt, some other big news that you may have missed this hour, right on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. A senior administration official says dialogue between the Egyptian government and opposition forces has not yet begun, but the U.S. is stepping up pressure on the two sides to meet.

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have flooded Cairo's Tahrir Square for a rally they call "day of departure." That message no doubt intended for President Mubarak who hasn't gone anywhere. Pro-Mubarak's supporters staged a rally dubbed "day of loyalty." Today's demonstrations have been relatively peaceful in contrast to the widespread violence that we've seen in the past few days.

Disappointing unemployment numbers for January, just 36,000 new jobs were added for the month. That's well short ever of the number that economists predict. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 9 percent, down from 9.4 percent in December. January's snowstorms affected the numbers as many businesses closed and some people stayed home instead of heading out to look for work.

Astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, expected to announce shortly that he will pilot the upcoming and final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour in April. Kelly was originally scheduled to command the flight. But that came into question when his wife was shot at a political rally in January.

And after 16 seasons in the Major Leagues, 13 of which were with the Yankee, pitcher Andy Pettitte calling it quits. In a press conference held today, Pettitte says it wasn't anything physical that let him to the decision, it was that his heart wasn't in the right place. While he was a star the field, holding the Major League record for most post-season wins, his career wasn't without controversy. In 2007, he was included in a Senate report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. He later admitted to using human growth hormones in 2002 and 2004.

Well, fans making their way to Dallas for this year's Super Bowl are finding something else to deal with besides high ticket prices, snow, ice and extremely cold temperatures. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has cancelled more than 300 departing flights and American Airlines report 630 flight cancellations into Dallas today alone.

For those people who are already there, it's no easy task getting around. Ice has brought traffic to a standstill, causing some to spin out and looking for another way around.

And for the first time, a massive pro-democracy rally in Cairo, the first time in 10 days, 11 days without major outbreaks of violence. We're going to talk to you a little bit more about that on the other side of this break.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. For the first time in days, a massive pro- democracy rally in Cairo today without any major outbreaks of violence. Tens of thousands packed Tahrir Square, they vow to remain there until President Mubarak leaves office.

Joining me now, my good friend, CNN International anchor and correspondent, Michael Holmes.

Michael, it's Friday. It is -- it's the end of the week. It's been a tumultuous week. It almost seems anticlimactic end of the week.

What's supposed to happen? These guys had some success. Mubarak pushed back a little bit. Where are we now?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, right now, we have a day of surprisingly peaceful protests because Friday, after prayers -- in many parts of the Middle East, if there's a protest to be had, it will happen on Friday and it will be quite loud.

What we've seen today is a fairly calm protest in Tahrir Square. Outside Tahrir Square, it's not fair to say that there have been any clashes.

VELSHI: Right.

HOLMES: There have been. And Ivan Watson tweeting about that. But it's going of fairly peacefully. Still very noisy.

VELSHI: All right. It looked like the U.S., you were with me right here when we had heard the U.S. had put pressure on Mubarak to announce that he was leaving. It did that. It looked like a bit of success story for U.S. diplomacy.

HOLMES: Yes.

VELSHI: What's happening now?

HOLMES: The U.S. -- to be honest, the U.S. influence in the region has been on the decline for years --

VELSHI: Right.

HOLMES: -- as it has been in other parts of the world as well. And the U.S. walking that fine line we always talk about not looking to be too involved because its stocks are so low in the Middle East in terms of credibility being seen as hypocrite -- supporting Mubarak and pushing democracy on others.

And what you've seen also in recent years, a lot of countries say no to the United States.

VELSHI: Right.

HOLMES: Hamid Karzai doesn't mind saying no. The Iraqi government doesn't mind saying no. Israel says no.

VELSHI: Right.

HOLMES: So, it's a different ball game for the U.S.

VELSHI: Some places -- some people gain notoriety and popularity by saying no to the U.S.

Hey, here's something interesting. The one thing -- group you're not hearing about all that much is the military in Egypt. People don't like the police, but the military has been standing there. They have not fired on crowds. They have not beaten crowds. You've talked to some people in the Egyptian military.

HOLMES: Yes. They're saying that their job is not to fire on people and they're not going to. They are one with the people. Their job they say is they're trying to keep the pros and antis apart. They've had limited success of that, of course, so far.

But that's their role. They're not going to get involved in the protest itself.

The military officials I spoke to said that, however, while they are continuing to support Mubarak, it may not always be that way. If the protests continue, if violence continues. But they make the point stability is actually important now. If Mubarak steps down tomorrow, what then? There are arguments about the constitution.

VELSHI: Sure.

HOLMES: The speaker of the parliament constitutionally should take over. Who then would step in? When would the elections be? Technically, they should be in 60 days. Is that a good idea at the moment? A lot of people think it's not. And the idea of Mubarak sticking around for a few months actually just to, you know, oversee this transition is not such a bad idea.

VELSHI: Let's talk about the other countries. We were talking about this domino effect. Jordan was one of those places we had seen protests. We were expecting more protests. They seem to be much smaller than we thought it would be.

HOLMES: A lot of people thought because it was raining there as well.

VELSHI: Right. It's possible.

HOLMES: Yes, it was a few hundred turned out in Jordan. The king there, King Abdullah, has done, of course, is what a lot of people call a preemptive strike. He fired the prime minister, replaced him.

VELSHI: For the record, that's happened about 40 times since Jordan has been a country.

HOLMES: Seventy since the --

VELSHI: Seventy, OK. All right.

HOLMES: -- early 1920s, yes. And one of the things that does anger protesters, most of these guys, by the way, were members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But what angers people in Jordan is that the prime minister -- that the king does appoint the prime minister.

VELSHI: Right.

HOLMES: They say, well, look, if we're going to have reforms, we need to have elections.

VELSHI: Changing the guy you appoint isn't altogether the solution.

HOLMES: That's exactly right. The Hashemite kingdom, the royal family there, they do everything. They appoint the cabinets. They approve legislation. They can dissolve the parliament when they want. People want a choice.

VELSHI: All right, Michael, you and your team are following the story. We'll follow it along with you. Thanks a lot.

HOLMES: Good to see you.

VELSHI: Michael Holmes from CNN International.

Coming up: we're going to dig deeper into the sometimes mysterious seeming Egyptian army that Michael was just talking about. We'll take a look at the power it wields and what part it could play in ending the turmoil in Egypt now.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. We're trying out this new segment of the show called "You Choose." I'm going to give you three news stories and then I want you to go to my blog, CNN.com/Ali and vote on the story you'd most like to hear.

Your first option is a restaurant that wants mandatory tips for foreign language diners. Your second story, George W. Bush is concerned nativism may be creeping back into America's immigration policy. And, finally, a sumo fixing scandal -- a sumo -- a fixing scandal in sumo wrestling rocks Japan.

Once again, head to my blog, CNN.com/Ali, to vote. We'll bring you the story in about 10 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Unemployment in this country down to 9 percent from 9.4 percent, but we created a paltry 36,000 jobs in January. This is the last year.

Many economists were caught off-guard by the new jobs report. Those 36,000 jobs fell way short of expectations that if you break down the numbers, the general population has a 9 percent unemployment rate, whites have an 8 percent unemployment rate, African-Americans have a 15.7 percent level of unemployment.

I know what you're going to say, and, in fact, you've already tweeted it to me. So, let me read it to you. Say it, it's OK. You say whatever you want.

"At what point does black unemployment stop being a separate problem from all unemployment? Solutions to unemployment can help all."

That is exactly the point of having this conversation. Black unemployment is always higher than white unemployment. So, if you can solve that, you can solve the whole problem. In fact, whenever President Obama is asked about African-American unemployment, he always answers that he's trying to provide jobs for everyone, that a rising tide will lift all ships.

I agree with that, but think about it this way, if we can somehow figure out how to help this particular demographic, one that traditionally lags in unemployment numbers, maybe it gives us clues as to how to improve those numbers across the board.

So my question today, very specifically, how do we lower the disproportionately high level of black unemployment in this country? For this, I turn to my esteemed stream (ph) team, starting with Ryan Mack, he's a financial adviser and he's the author of "Living In A Village." He joins me from New York.

Ryan, start with you. How do we solve this problem? RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Well, the bottom line is, we have to understand that we have to increase our trying to find a job, we have to broaden that to finding and creating jobs.

We've helped a lot of individuals in inner city communities to finding and creating jobs, many individuals who are formerly incarcerated, many individuals are victims of substance abuse or have -- do not have high school education.

And how we've done that, again, is additional education and exposure. People act according to what they know. So if they're learning about how to find resources, which they can find and create jobs by walking to various nonprofit companies in your communities that are providing resources. We've assisted individuals to start construction companies by just simply giving them exposure to, this is how you start a construction business.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: And you, by the way, Ryan, you write about that very specifically in your new book, very real ways that people can create opportunities for themselves and jobs.

Let's go to Bill Rodgers, he's the former chief economist with Department of Labor, he's now with Rutgers University.

Bill, you're the former chief economist for the Department of Labor, tell me what the solution to this thing is.

WILLIAM RODGERS, FMR, CHIEF ECONOMIST, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: Well, there's no silver bullet. But to pick up on what Ryan said, I was advising a former New Jersey governor about these very issues, and what got it on his agenda was the rising cost of incarceration.

But also, more importantly, this is no longer a black problem, many whites -- it was fascinating in that room of policymakers or advisers, I was not one who could say I have relatives who have had these issues. It was many of my white colleagues who have friends and relatives.

But I think -- so we got to do those targeted investments which the National Urban League is talking about. But we also -- I agree with the president, we've got to just create broad-based macroeconomic growth until we're back to 250,000, 300,000 job creation per month and that will go a long way, but not all the way, for addressing this issue.

VELSHI: So high unemployment has always been an African-American problem in the United States. Now high unemployment is everybody's problem. It permeates all and erases color boundaries.

Let's go to my friend Alfred Edmond Jr., editor-at-large at "Black Enterprise," a good friend of ours.

Alfred, we've got an economist here, we got a financial expert here. You bridge a lot of these groups because you have to actually write about this for an audience that reads "Black Enterprise," and you constantly tackle issues that while targeted at a black audience are relative to everybody.

Tell me your answer. You've heard it all. How we solve this problem?

ALFRED EDMOND, JR. EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "BLACK ENTERPRISE": Well, let me congratulate you for going to that esteemed institution, Rutgers, of which I'm alum, to get the smart person on to talk about this topic.

(LAUGHTER)

EDMOND: But a couple things that we should note. First of all --

VELSHI: I think we got -- Alfred's Skype got stuck. Let's get him back in just a second. We're going to work on that.

I go back to you for a second, Ryan. Your book, which you've just written, you're not really talking about high-level concepts about creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. You're really -- you really feel that African-Americans or anybody needs to take -- need to take the opportunities that they have, use locally provided resources such as retraining into relevant jobs and go do it.

By the way, you're from Detroit, you're from the city, and you're from one of the most heavily -- badly decimated cities in America.

MACK: You know, bottom line is, I mean, let's just be real candid. The elephant in the room is a lot of the most effective mentors in many African-American communities are those individuals on the corner selling drugs, those individuals who want to get individuals into that crime-related game. We know that leads to either death or prison.

So we have to be more effective mentors within our communities by making sure that we can educate our people in our communities more effectively, the lawyers and the doctors, and pushing individuals to those resources in our area.

Again, we can talk about -- I mean, the president just recently announced he's going to try to make small business cuts permanent, but you know what? We can't legislate innovation, and as much as it's going to come from the top, it has to come from the bottom.

And what we have to start understanding and what we can do, is really that bottom-up approach in saying, as much as billions of dollars have been pumped into these community colleges, it's only as effective as our ability to walk down to the local community colleges and sign up for a course.

VELSHI: You just touched -- OK, so you're saying people have got to sit there and say there are things out there. In fact, in your book, you talk about mentorship. But you say not just that people should be mentors, people should go and look for their own mentors.

Let me ask you this, Bill, the reality is that what Ryan is talking about is not just policy decisions but that particularly in the African-American community or other communities there can be a closer to the ground solution that can help alleviate the high rates of unemployment.

RODGERS: Oh, without a doubt. In the National Urban League on which I sit on their council of economic advisers, Marc Morial, through his leadership, they've put together a 12-point urban jobs agenda or urban development agenda, and a large part of the role will be tapping into the various local networks, the various local community nonprofit agencies that are involved in job training, that are involved in issues around drug abuse.

But it's all about investing in the urban agenda. It's about investing in individuals, young people especially. But it's also about making sure that the next economic expansion, which is largely probably going to be IT driven, that that growth also gets roots within urban areas.

VELSHI: But wouldn't it help, Bill, when we talk about STEM jobs -- science, technology, engineering and math -- something in which African-Americans are underrepresented, to sit there and say, all right, if we're going to aggressively get African-Americans to get better access to training and education, why not have them leapfrog a little bit and be disproportionately highly trained in those areas?

RODGERS: Well, that's correct. Part of the Urban League's 12- point agenda is about making sure that you can target resources, that you can target incentives towards urban communities, towards urban schools, and that can then help you, as you said, leapfrog and we move to a disproportionate representation.

VELSHI: Guys, thanks very much. We lost Alfred. I guess the internet doesn't allow two guys from Rutgers to be using it at the same time.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Bill, great to see you, as always. Bill Rodgers from Rutgers, former chief economist of the Department of Labor.

And Ryan Mack, my good friend, financial adviser and author of "Living In A Village," a book that he let me write a few paragraphs in it as well. I really would read it, it's a life-clanging book.

Thank to both of you guys, we'll get back here again with Alfred.

Alfred, if you're out there, sorry. We'll talk to you again soon. It's always great to hear from you.

Time now for a Political Update from CNN. It seems Sarah Palin is trying to protect her brand. Joining me now from Washington, our chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.

Hi, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: How are you, Ali?

As I understand what's happening here, if you wanted to open a store named Sarah Palin Cupcakes, you won't be able to do that because she has filed for a patent and trademark on Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin.

So I checked with my lawyer friends and also a couple of people sitting around the newsroom, and they no, it appears to mean you cannot use those names to raise money. So scratch the plans, whatever plans you may have had.

Something really interesting here by our Dana Bash on the Ticker. And that is for the first time in 10 years lobbying, the cost of lobbying, in Washington went down. Meaning the -- sorry.

VELSHI: The amount of money spent on it.

CROWLEY: The amount of money spent on lobbying went down. But before we, you know, make too much of it, they still spent $3.47 billion. That's corporations, unions, et cetera. So it's not exactly a paucity of dollars running around Washington at this point.

A finally a story I really like by our Shannon Travis, it's again on our Ticker, is that in his second year, President Obama was the most polarizing president in recent history. That is, the difference between his approval rating between Democrats and Republicans was the largest of any president in his second year in history.

And the last one that polarizing was Eisenhower. So I understand Obama in a certain sense because I think these are more polarizing times, Bush faced it, obviously our pollster says, look, this may be more about the American people than the presidents. But I think Eisenhower was the post-World War II, we won a big war now let's all build.

VELSHI: We were all together in that, weren't we?

CROWLEY: Yes, yes. But apparently not.

VELSHI: That's very interesting. Well, very interesting point. I love that.

Candy, thanks very much for sharing a little bit trivia with us that we wouldn't have otherwise garnered.

Candy Crowley, part of "The Best Political Team on Television." And your next update is just one hour away.

All right, time now for the big breakdown. Today, we're looking at the one institution that might be able to prevent a breakdown of civil society in Egypt, the military.

Egyptian generals overthrew the monarchy in 1952, ostensibly to set up a less-corrupt, more-responsive government. And they've been at the heart of Egyptian power, culture and identity ever since then. All of Egypt's presidents to date have been military men, they've ruled with emergency powers that parliament routinely renews. All of Egyptian men have to serve. The officer corps enjoys decent pay and serious prestige in a relatively impoverished country.

Let me show you how this force measures up. China has almost 2.3 million troops on active duty, more than any other country by far. Look at the top five, the United States, they all have more than a million troops, not counting reserves or paramilitaries -- the U.S., India, North Korea, Russia. And then look at Egypt. Egypt is actually tenth in the world, just under half a million active-duty fighters.

Its force is well equipped. It's got modern planes and tanks, and for that you have me to thank. Last year Egypt got $1.6 billion in U.S. military and economic aid, most of it military aid. You can see there the largest recipient is Afghanistan. The aid was used to buy big-ticket weapons from U.S. defense contractors.

Over the years the U.S. Has funded Egypt faithfully. Generally Congress gives Egypt $2 for every $3 that it gives Israel. Now the reason for that goes back to 1979 when Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David Peace Accords. Through it all, the U.S. and Egyptian militaries have maintained very close ties, and that hasn't changed to this day.

All right, today's bleak jobs numbers are especially bad news for one particular group, the 99'ers, the forgotten 99'ers. My "XYZ" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Now back to our "You Choose" segment where we ask you to vote on the news. Here's the winner.

A Waikiki restaurant is causing a stir with the fine print on its menu, which reads, quote, "A 15 percent gratuity will be added to your check for parties of six or more and for non-English speaking guests." The restaurant said it's merely trying to help its wait staff because its customer base includes international travelers who by custom do not tip.

For the stories we didn't choose, go to my blog, CNN.com/Ali, and you can debate it out. You can read the ones we didn't give you.

All right, time for "The XYZ of It." You've heard by now, the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January even though only 36,000 jobs were created. It's a drop in the bucket. Fourteen million Americans remain unemployed, almost half of them out of work for more than six months. That doesn't number doesn't include almost 3 million who have given up looking for work.

And let me throw another number at you -- 5 million, an estimate of the number of Americans called 99'ers out there, jobless for more than two years and who have exhausted the maximum 99-week limit on unemployment benefits.

An almost forgotten people, almost I say because California Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Virginia Congressman Robert Scott are expected to reintroduce a bill to add 14 weeks of unemployment benefits that would be available to 99'ers retroactively.

It's not a complete solution, but these two aren't forgetting the 99'ers. Thanks for that and stay tuned for more on this story.

That's it for me. Brooke Baldwin takes it over from here -- Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Ali Velshi, have a fantastic weekend .