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Debt Impasse Deepens; Public Favors Compromise on Debt Issue; Glenn Beck Calls Norway Camp Disturbing; Debt Crisis Impacts Loans; New Boarding Rules; Suspect Says He Had Help; Obama Calls for Debt Compromise; Jaywalking Mom Could Face Prison; Men Hardest Hit by Job Losses; "Talladega Night" Inspires Prayer
Aired July 26, 2011 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm thinking to myself, it's true. Every single day we're trying to figure out, OK, how do we show Americans why, you know, we need to care about this every single minute?
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": Yes.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, guys. We're trying to get more and more creative as we hit 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out West.
But we're going to begin with some breaking news in the CNN NEWSROOM right now. A plane crash in southern Morocco. Seventy-eight people reported killed. The military's cargo jet crashed into a mountainous area. Bad weather may be to blame.
And the debt crisis, here you go. The deepening stalemate. President Obama reaches out to a new player and the game -- you.
And in Norway, Anders Breivik's father says he wishes his son would have killed himself rather than slaughter dozens of people.
And oil giant BP scores a big turnaround in last summer's environmental disaster. Get this, the company rakes in more than $22 billion in profits for the quarter.
All right, but you know where we're going to begin. The debt, minute by minute the nation inches closer to the brink of default. The countdown less than seven full days before the federal government could run out of money and be unable to pay its bills.
But in Washington a stark message is delivered in the dueling speeches by the president and the speaker of the House. Their parties are desperately divided and you and I are about to pay the price.
We're covering all the angles from Wall Street to the White House. Ali Velshi getting really creative and looking at the cost Americans could face even before time officially runs out. And of course, Dan Lothian with the politics and the posturing.
Ali, let's start with you. The markets open this hour, OK? How is the debt issue going to impact things today and the rest of the week?
I know yesterday, you kept saying give me a little more time, give me a little more time, I'll let you know when to worry.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
PHILLIPS: But how many times can we --
VELSHI: We're now -- we're not worried yet. We are watching. And you know, Kyra, you know how I am. I'm watching this every minute. When Asian markets open I watch it all around. Basically, stock markets are betting that Washington will come to its senses and there will be a deal.
Now that means if we get a deal you'll probably -- you might see some run off in your 401(k), your IRA. Generally speaking, not likely. What you're going to see if we don't get a deal is a sharp reaction in stock markets which will affect your 401(k), your stock investments. What it will do is it will -- it will affect those companies that need to borrow money.
I want you to think back to 2008 during the credit crisis. The companies affected the most were those who had to borrow money when credit -- when lending shut down internationally. And you know what happens when companies don't -- can't borrow money? They do the first thing that they can think of. They do the most effective way of cutting costs and that is to cut jobs.
So the danger here is a few-fold. One is it will cost you in your stocks, two, it's interest rates could go up. Interest rates going up could bring home prices down so it's an opportunity if you're a buyer, but if you're a seller, that's bad. But most importantly above all of that if companies start to pay more to borrow money you know they're already not hiring even though they've got money.
If it costs them more, they could start laying off again. We could, could -- there's a danger that the failure to increase this debt ceiling, Kyra, could push us back a little bit from this recovery that we're in right now.
PHILLIPS: All right. Dan Lothian, you're over there at the White House. You know, as for the president, what is he going to do today?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, first of all, nothing on the president's schedule at this point having to do with debt and deficit. He does his typical meetings with senior advisers and a whole host of other issues. But I can tell you that a senior administration official tells me that they've been having conversations with Congress. Those continue.
And that mirrors what we've been hearing from Democratic and Republican sources that the talks are still on the way to hopefully find some area of compromise. Clearly, both sides have said, you know, they don't like each other's plans. And so maybe there's something that can be found in the middle. The White House has been optimistic all along and that optimism continues. One senior administration official telling me a short time ago that they hope that, quote, "Sanity will prevail." So that's sort of the mood here at the White House this morning as we get closer to that deadline.
PHILLIPS: I don't know. You got a lot of people saying this is insane and they're saying it all across the world.
Ali, Dan, thanks.
Now CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser also weighing in on this, the debt limit.
Paul, what are presidential candidates saying?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Kyra, they're all Republicans, right? So I guess you can imagine they are critical of the president, not of John Boehner.
Well, the first one in my inbox last night was from Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor. Here's what he said. "President Obama is lecturing the country instead of leading it." Yes, pretty critical.
Let's go on to Michele Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota who's also running for the White House. "Shame on President Obama for casting the American people aside as collateral damage as he continues his political gamemanship with the national debt crisis."
Just a little taste there of what the candidates are saying. Obviously they're critical of this president. You know where they stand. They are Republicans.
But we -- we heard the president last night, we heard John Boehner last night, but what do the American people want.
And Kyra, you look at just about any national poll conducted over the last couple of weeks American people want compromise.
Take a look at this. This is from our most recent poll, CNN/ORC. And you can see right here. When dealing with the GOP, the president should -- and look at that. Two-thirds say compromise rather than stand up for his beliefs.
Go to the next number when it comes to the GOP in dealing with the president, what should they do? And look at it. Nearly 7 in 10, same thing. Compromise. Compromise instead of standing with your beliefs.
That's what the American people want. I don't know if we're getting that right here in Washington -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, then you got the owner of the New England Patriots saying hey, Congress should learn a thing or two from the NFL. I mean hey, we worked out a deal, we're going to get our football. A lot of people are saying, come on. I mean what's more important? We're talking about, you know, the debt ceiling.
STEINHAUSER: I got to tell you, though. I bumped into a lot of people this morning who are pretty happy about having the NFL back.
Look, yes, let's take a listen. It's a quick sound bite from yesterday when they came to that agreement. This is from Robert Kraft, the head of the New England Patriots. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT KRAFT, OWNER, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: I hope we gave a little lesson to the people in Washington because the debt crisis is a lot easier to fix than this deal was.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: A lot easier. I don't know.
STEINHAUSER: I'm glad he was joking there.
(CROSSTALK)
STEINHAUSER: Yes, a lot easier. Well, with the NFL we're talking about $9 to $10 billion of revenues every year. I think this is a little bigger with the debt ceiling, don't you, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Yes. A lot more.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Paul, thanks.
All right. We're going to have your next political update in just about an hour. And a reminder, for all the latest political news, just go to our Web site CNNPoliticscom.
The Norway attack suspect is a little bit surprised that he was able to pull it off and wasn't killed doing it. That's according to Anders Behring Breivik's lawyer. His client still has to undergo psychiatric testing but the lawyer says everything about the case, quote, "indicates that he's insane."
Breivik's father also thinks his son is mentally ill and has pretty much disowned him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS DAVID BREIVIK, ANDERS BEHRING BREIVIK'S FATHER (Through Translator): No, I'll never have more contact with him. In my darkest moments I think that rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Those are strong words from a father.
BREIVIK (through translator): They are, but thinking about what has happened, I get so upset and I still don't understand that something like this could happen. No normal human being would do something like that.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Meantime, Glenn Beck is weighing in on the Norway tragedy, criticizing the culprit and the camp he attacked.
Zain joins us now live from London. Zain, let's talk about what he's saying.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: His comments are creating quite the firestorm, Kyra.
What he's basically said is to compare the Youth Political Labor Camp on Utoya Island in Norway to the Hitler youth in Germany. Listen to exactly how he puts it on his radio show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: As the thing started to unfold and then there was a shooting at a political camp which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth or whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: That's a weird comment to make, Kyra, because there are politically oriented camps in different states in the United States. And actually, Glenn Beck is the founder of the 9/12 Project who does that. He founded it back in 2009.
There's a lot of reaction on CNN.com. One person says this in response to Glenn Beck's comments about the Hitler youth comparison. "He's a disgusting guy who lies constantly. He calls himself a conservative. That's not conservatives, that's not what conservatives stand for."
Another person says this. "What an utter, heartless creepy thing to say," -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And Zain, this isn't the first time that Glenn Beck has caused this kind of controversy, not the first time he's referenced Hitler or the holocaust either.
VERJEE: No, Kyra. He does it a lot. He has, in fact, in the past. I was just actually looking at an article in the "Washington Post" that says this. "In the first 18 months that Glenn Beck was on FOX he and his guests invoked Hitler 147 times. They also used the word Nazis an additional 202 times." Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Zain Verjee out of London. Zain, thanks.
The debt crisis and your wallet. You could soon be paying a lot more for a home loan as well. We're going to talk with a financial expert coming up right after the break.
When a bear attacks some teens on a survival course in the Alaska wilderness, guess what one of them did? Well, just punched the bear in the nose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did it stand up?
VICTOR MARTIN, BEAR ATTACK SURVIVOR: Once. After I finished one person, it stood up and looked for somebody else. Got him. Right in the middle. Square. Right in the middle of the face.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And he saved his buddy's life. We'll hear more as we go "Cross Country" after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking stories "Cross Country."
We're hearing from one of the teens mauled by the bear in the Alaska wilderness. It happened during a 30-day survival course. The instructors had left the teens in the wilderness by themselves and Victor Martin says that the bear ran off appear he just punched it in the face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN: Right in the middle. Square. Right in the middle of the face. It was terrifying but prayer helps.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And in Florida, a group of fishermen caught a massive 650-pound shark. Reeling it in was no easy task, though. It took them more than two hours to land the 13-footer.
Soldier from Missouri being called a hero. He pulled passengers from a burning bus after it crashed into a tractor-trailer truck in upstate New York. Sergeant Jacob Perkins was on leave and driving home when he spotted the two vehicles on fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. JACOB PERKINS, U.S. ARMY: My natural reaction was just to go straight under the bus and make sure everybody was off. I'm just glad that the military had me trained and prepared for the situation.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The driver the tractor-trailer was killed. More than 30 people on that bus were injured.
All right. Deal or no deal. Even if Congress gets its act together on raising the debt limit, the damage may have already been done. Two credit agencies are threatening to downgrade the nation's AAA credit rating. Bottom line when it comes to borrowing money it's going to cost us all more. Joining me is Greg McBride, VP and senior financial expert with Bankrate.com.
You know, Greg, let's start with somebody who's trying to say get a home loan right now. Should they be worried?
GREG MCBRIDE, FINANCIAL ANALYST: I don't know that you necessarily were worried by it. You certainly want to be paying attention to this. If you have the opportunity to lock in your rate, you may want to do that now so that you're not at the whim of whatever may or may not happen out of Washington and the subsequent impact that could have on interest rates.
PHILLIPS: All right. So you do say lock in now. Because we were kind of looking at the possible numbers here. Let's say you wanted $200,000 loan, interest rates go up, I don't, half a percent. All right, you're going to pay 61 bucks more per month. If rates go up, 1 percent. All right, we're talking about $124 more a month.
So as you say definitely lock in now. What if we already have a 30-year fixed mortgage? That can't change. I mean it's just -- if we wanted to refi or if we've got an adjustable rate like I do, right?
MCBRIDE: Yes, that's exactly right, Kyra. If you're in market for a loan, you want to lock now. If you have a fixed rate mortgage then, you know, you're insulated from higher interest rates. If you have an adjustable rate loan, then yes, that you are subject there to potential move to higher interest rates things like credit cards, student loans particularly on the adjustable rate side.
PHILLIPS: Student loans, a concern as well?
MCBRIDE: Yes. Mainly they were talking about private student loans. I mean the federal student loans, those rates tend to only adjust once per year in July ironically.
PHILLIPS: Right.
MCBRIDE: So you'd be insulated from that for like 11 months or so but on the private student loans yes, we could see those rates marching higher if market interest rates are moving up.
PHILLIPS: OK. Interesting point. All right. Now, if credit freezes altogether?
MCBRIDE: Well, then we got real problems. And, you know, the precedent for this is 2008 when the financial system was really on the brink, what caused that? It was when lending froze. Nobody wanted to lend to anybody.
If Uncle Sam defaults, nobody is going to want to lend to anybody. That's when we have problems. It's not the price of credit, it's the access to credit that becomes a problems. Jobs are cut.
We could then find ourselves in another recession. And very clearly, our retirement accounts would be suffering because you'd have a sharp sell-off in financial markets.
PHILLIPS: How likely is it that that would really happen?
MCBRIDE: Well, you know, let's hope it's unlikely. And financial markets are behaving as if it's still unlikely. You know, a little bit of whistling past the graveyard here.
You know, stock markets still hanging in there pretty well. Treasury yields are still really low. Everybody is acting as if the deal is going to get done.
But, hey, this is the last week of July. We are running out of time. If things don't start to move and move quick, I think financial markets are going to get really nervous this week.
PHILLIPS: McBride.com, Greg McBride -- Greg, thanks so much for weighing in.
MCBRIDE: Thanks, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
Well, everyone is watching to see how the debt standoff will play out. We're going to get reaction from overseas as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get some entertainment headlines for you.
A small funeral for Amy Winehouse today, with just a few friends and family. An autopsy failed to pin down the singer's cause of death so we are waiting for the toxicology reports to come back.
In the meantime, fans are snapping up her music. Sales of her album "Back in Black" were up 37 fold in the hours after her death.
After a month of online silence, Arnold Schwarzenegger is tweeting again. He actually posted a message thanking people for their support as his son Christopher recovers from a bad surfing accident. The boy is doing much better, he says, and will be back at full speed soon.
And despite their shared love of ink, Jesse James and Kat Von D couldn't make it work. The biker and the tattoo artist have split up just ahead of their planned summer wedding.
All right. Allan Chernoff is at the New York Stock Exchange.
A new boarding policy at American Airlines, Allan, we understand. So, how is it going to work?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That's right. No longer the back-to-front boarding at American Airlines. If you got an economy ticket, you'll be boarding randomly. But there are a few tricks of how this all works.
If you want to insure that you're one of the first people on the plane, well, "The Wall Street Journal" has some advice -- they say check in as soon as you can because it basically is first come/first served, unless you're willing to pay more. Yes, the airline is more than willing to accept money from you to be in that first boarding group.
So, Kyra, yet another way that an airline is tacking on a fee, raising its revenues. These guys are doing whatever they can to maximize those revenues.
PHILLIPS: They want to get their money. And, you know, Allan, we fly all the time. You know how certain people will do anything to board that plane first. For some reason, they just think they are going to get there faster if they are the first ones to be seated!
CHERNOFF: That's right. And what they're also trying to do these days, you know, so many people are lugging these huge suitcases, those roller suitcases that just fit into the overhead bin. What's been happening is that with the traditional system, you've got four people trying to shove those monsters into the overhead bin at the same time.
So, the idea here is that, okay maybe spread it out throughout the plane. American did a two-year study and found it actually is a few minutes faster. A few minutes can be important in getting a plane away from gate as rapidly as possible.
PHILLIPS: Hey, we'll see how this works out. I don't know, Allan. I think it could get a little crazy.
Meanwhile, everyone is watching the markets today wondering what's going to happen in light of everything that's happening with the debt ceiling negotiations.
CHERNOFF: That's right. Indeed, growing anxiety on Wall Street. No panic just yet, but certainly in the back of traders' minds, and I've spoken to a few this morning, they are saying they are going to do a deal, right? They are going to get this done.
The real threat, Kyra, is not just that they don't raise the debt ceiling, but that the credit rating agencies are dissatisfied with any last-minute plan that goes through Washington, because there will still remain the threat that the credit rating agencies lower the credit rating for the U.S. of A.
If we lose our AAA status, that's going to cost all of us, all of the taxpayers will have to pay more because the U.S. government will have to pay more to borrow money. It's a really big issue. It's going to become much more prominent as the week progresses if this is not all resolved.
PHILLIPS: Yes. And there's a lot of people weighing in even overseas.
Allan Chernoff, thanks so much.
And, Zain Verjee, we were talking about this yesterday. I think the British financial secretary yesterday calling us nutters. I've never heard that word before, but basically, you know, we are losing a lot of street cred when it comes to our politics because of this -- you know, the bickering back-and-forth.
VERJEE: Right. Nutter, otherwise also pronounced nutters meaning this is crazy.
Get straight to the headlines here. This is what "The Independents" in the U.K. says. It's headline, "Raising the debt ceiling may not be enough to prevent financial disaster." It says, "With all the drama of an episode of "MacGyver," the '80s action series, President Barack Obama is sweating to diffuse the ticking time bomb primed to rip through financial markets one week from now."
Then check out "The Wall Street" Journal, its headline, "The Debt Ceiling and the Pursuit of the Happiness." It says structural change will only succeed if it's a company by a moral argument -- an unabashed cultural defense of the free enterprise system that helps Americans remember why they love their country and its exceptional culture."
Just one thing I want to point out, too, Kyra. You know, you got countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have been running surpluses. So, what they have been doing is to buy U.S. treasury bonds because of that AAA rating. So, that is something that we need to keep our eye on to see what the credit rating agencies actually do, because these countries are going to end up wanting to find another home for their money and they are really worried. They do not want the U.S. to default because it will hurt them because they hold so much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: A lot of people that are concerned about that.
Zain, thanks so much.
Well, first, a suspect in the Norway massacre said that he did it alone. Now, he's saying he had help. What's going on? And were there other terror cells involved in this attack? We'll talk about that after the break.
And locks are coming off and the football players are headed to the practice field today. A player's perspective from one of their own in 12 minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now:
President Obama making a primetime address to the nation last night. He called on Americans to pressure politicians to make a deal on raising the debt ceiling.
Oregon Congressman David Wu says he won't be seeking re- election. There have been mounting calls for his resignation after a series of incidents, most recently, allegations of inappropriate encounter with a teenage girl.
And it's back to work for the NFL players today. They are expected to report to training camp after a new contract with league owners ended a four-month lockout.
In Norway today, police are saying that won't be announcing the names of the victims of last week's bombing and mass shooting for now. But they will be announcing how and when those names will eventually be published.
Anders Breivik, the suspect in that attack, has apparently said two terror cells helped him carry out the attacks but it isn't clear if he was in contact with them. His attorney also says that Breivik used some kind of drug before the attacks on Friday.
CNN's Michael Holmes is in Oslo.
So, Michael, what exactly has he been saying to his lawyer about how he pulled this attack off?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, this was a really fascinating insight into the mind of Anders Breivik, you know, what his lawyer was saying. He said that Breivik was sorry that he had to do what he did, but he said it was necessary to stop what he called a revolution in Europe. He said that he's in a war, a war that will go on for 60 years and it won't be until then that people will understand what he is doing.
I mean, just remarkable sort of look at the mind of this guy.
And speaking of his mind, when asked if he was insane, the lawyer (INAUDIBLE), he said the whole case has indicated he is insane. However, he did not say whether he's made any decision about whether instant would be used as some sort of defense when this eventually gets to trial.
He says he has shown no remorse for victims. He believes he's in a war. He believes his actions are necessary. That's partly why he's pled not guilty after having admitted to these attacks. He's pled not guilty because he didn't think he did anything wrong.
The other theory on pleading not guilty gives him a platform for which to continue to talk about his sort of twisted take on reality. Of course, he's claiming that Europe, Western Europe and this country is being colonized by Islamic immigrants -- Kyra.
Meanwhile, Michael, just the scene behind you -- wow. Look at all of the flowers and the people that are lined up. Tell me what's happening right now this minute behind you.
HOLMES: Yes, this is extraordinary. We were here last night. And there was a massive march, people who marched down from the city center down here to the Oslo Cathedral. The police put it up to 200,000 people and everyone had a flower. It was a remarkable tribute, not even so much a mourning thing. (INAUDIBLE) to pan around.
What you got here is a carpet of flowers, thousands and thousands of them. Norwegian flags and handwritten messages, candles that are being lit to mark this spot. It's a very emotional scene, a very somber mood here. We have been here all day.
And, you know, you've had people coming in the dozens just sort of filtering through, silently, placing flowers and little comments and lighting candles. Very, very moving scene -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: No doubt. Michael Holmes, appreciate it.
Well, President Obama urges Americans to call their lawmakers and demand that a deal gets done. So many people answered that challenge actually last night, the number of congressional Web sites were overwhelmed. So, among the lawmakers affected -- two prominent Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner and Representative Michele Bachmann.
But make no mistake, on the surface, two parties seem as bitterly divided as ever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people may have voted for a divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional golf.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago and he wants a blank check today. This is just not going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The plans of course, have huge differences, but also some similarities that inspire a bit of optimism. Christine Romans breaks it down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let's begin with Senator Reid's blueprint. It cuts $2.7 trillion over the next decade. Now, a big piece of that is what Senator Reid calls the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That will save a trillion dollars.
Now, Republicans have called that a gimmick, a savings from wars that are winding down, even though, by the way, the same savings were counted in some Republican budgets.
Now, Reid's plan would not reform or cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. There'd also be no changes to taxes.
It would raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion dollars. That would be enough to fund the government through next year's election.
Now, the Boehner plan is considered more short term. It would raise the debt ceiling in two different steps. The first step would happen immediately, raising that ceiling by about $1 trillion. That would be accompanied by spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
Now, that would get us to next year, right, where we need a second vote to raise the debt ceiling again by another $1.6 trillion. Now, that second increase would be contingent on more cuts, another $1.8 trillion in spending cuts. That would have to be agreed to by a bipartisan committee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right. So far, the debt stalemate has somewhat of a drag on the stock markets, but not nearly as bad as some of the experts predicted. But only five trading days left before the August 2nd deadline that issue is likely to have more of an impact.
All right. The deal is done. And football is back!
But are the players ready? Well, let's hope so because, apparently, a number of them are heading to the practice field today. We are going to talk to Coy Wire about that, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the NFL lockout is over. You're actually going to get your football. And, right now, players are stuffing their duffel bags, heading to practice this morning.
And we got lucky before Atlanta Falcons linebacker Coy Wire hits the field, well, he's talking to you.
And I got to tell you, a lot of guys this morning are saying, I don't want to spend all Sunday with my wife now. And I thought, oh, that's terrible! Isn't that awful?
COY WIRE, ATLANTA FALCONS: I haven't heard of that and don't agree with it all.
PHILLIPS: There you go.
WIRE: That the worst parse of prison camp -- I mean, training camp.
PHILLIPS: Oh! The truth comes forward.
WIRE: Right.
PHILLIPS: Did you hear the laughter in the background? They like that. All the women are getting a kick out of that.
Let's get serious here.
WIRE: OK.
PHILLIPS: You right there in the middle of it all. Did you think for a moment, oh, my gosh, we may not have a season? Or did you know something was going to happen and you were going to strike a deal?
WIRE: I'm a glass half-full type guy, very optimistic and positive. And I knew this was going to happen. There was no way we could let such a wonderful opportunity to keep America's greatest game moving and going towards a positive direction for the fans and for the future of our game.
So I knew we'd get it done. It was just a matter of time. It went down to the last minute but we did it.
PHILLIPS: OK. You sounded like a politician right now. I feel like I should be voting for you, you know, for president.
I mean, did you have other players that were calling you up saying, Coy, come on, you know, make something happen, man, you're killing us, we are not going to get the money and do what we want to do, what we love? Or was everybody kind of hanging back, and letting you just do your thing? I mean, you had to be getting pressure somewhere, some of teammates or fellow players.
WIRE: There was a broad scope of issues. And the economic aspect was just one part of it. And I think people focused on that, talking about players make a lot of money and why are they arguing over the dollars of the game.
That was really a small part of it. There were a lot of issues like workers' compensation and benefits, health benefits, players' safety and that sort of thing.
PHILLIPS: Well, you have a good point because if you think about an NFL player's life span, right, doesn't always last
WIRE: Three and a half years.
PHILLIPS: Yes, three and a half years, you get a lot of injuries, we talk a lot about head injuries and the controversy about the helmets. So, you come out winning with regard to life after football on this deal, right?
WIRE: Absolutely. A lot of steps were taken in the right direction for players' safety, health and wellness of the players. It's not the concussions, the big hits that you see on TV where guys get knocked unconscious that cause the problem. They do cause a problem.
But more specifically, it's the repetitive hits, the tiny little hits every day, day after day, that a player takes over the course of a career. And a lot of guys have been playing since they were 7 years old like myself, so you have to think about all of those repetitive hits to the brain that controls the entire human body and causes you us to be able to speak and act and thinking, you know, in a rational manner and that's the damage this has caused and our brain is precious. We only get one of them, so we need to take care of it.
They did a lot of great things. The NFL owners did a lot of things about hearing our concerns and acting according to correct anything that could be corrected to make progress for health and safety for the players.
PHILLIPS: It's kind of like our business. I mean, you never know how long it's going to last. You have to value every single moment while you can and enjoy the ride while you have it
Final question today, you're heading out to practice, right? Are you ready? Do you feel behind? Have you guys been keeping up with practice and keeping in shape?
WIRE: We have done the best we could. We had a group of guys who got together this offseason right here in Atlanta. We train with the guy Jim Lanner (ph), who is here in Atlanta, and we tried to mimic as much as we could the off-season program that our Atlanta Falcons organization would have us do, Jeff Fish and his training program, they do a great job of preparing us. So, we tried to mimic that as much as possible.
And our whole goal was to be able to be ready and be prepared to have a good foundation so that when we go back, we can get together again with our coaches and our staff, they are going to have a good foundation. They are going to have a good product to work with. We hope we didn't disappoint them or let them down. We're going to be ready to roll for ourselves and for the city of Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what? The fans are standing by waiting to see. Good luck this season.
WIRE: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Coy.
All right. Straight ahead, unbelievable story about a Georgia mom whose son was killed by a drunk driver as they crossed the street. Well, now, she faces up to three years in prison for jaywalking. We are taking you live to the courthouse after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's check stories "Cross Country."
Governor Jerry Brown has signed off on California's DREAM Act. The law makes it easier for undocumented students to get private financial aid. It's aimed at helping kids who are brought here illegally by their parents and had no say in the matter.
He just called to say I love you. Oh, and I do. A California couple gets married over the phone. The groom is combat medic in Afghanistan and his fiancee back home just couldn't wait to tie the knot, so they did it by proxy with his mom standing right thereby as a witness.
And five Detroit companies offering employees 3,500 bucks toward rent or $20,000 toward a mortgage. All they got to do, well, move downtown. It's part of a program meant to beef up the city's dwindling population.
A Georgia mom faces up to three years in prison for jaywalking. Here's what happened. Back in October, she was crossing a street with her three children when her son was hit by a drunk driver and killed. Now, she could spend more time in jail than the drunk driver.
CNN's David Mattingly is live at the courthouse in Marietta, Georgia, where her sentencing hearing is about to begin.
So, David, a lot of people are just wondering -- how the heck this is even possible?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Raquel Nelson is described as a young mother, a working mother and a student. She had gone to the grocery that night last year with her three small children. They had taken a city bus. They don't have a lot on income. They were relying on public transportation.
But they were on their way home, they got off the bus and were attempting to cross a busy four-lane road to get to their home. As they were crossing Nelson and two of her three children were hit by a hit and run driver. Well, she was injured along with a daughter but her 4-year-old son was killed.
Police quickly caught up to the driver of that van that hit them. He was sent to jail on a five-year sentence. He served six months and is now out on probation.
And a lot of people believe that that should have been the end now of that sad and tragic story. But it wasn't. Nelson, herself, was prosecuted and found guilty of second-degree vehicular homicide, reckless conduct and of not using a crosswalk -- jaywalking.
Well, this case has generated a great deal of outrage. This woman Raquel Nelson has gone on national television pleading with the judge not to separate her now from her surviving children. She has a lot of supporters claiming to have generated 125,000 signatures on a petition asking the judge to set her free. She is going to be sentenced today. She faces a potential maximum of three years in jail.
So we're going to see very shortly if this Cobb County, Georgia, judge follows through with that, or if he decides to give her freedom back.
But Kyra, this is a case where this woman who has already lost so much could now potentially lose her freedom and contact with her children. So a lot of people watching this case to see what this judge decides to do -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And we should know something in less than 45 minutes, David. Let us know as soon as you hear something. Thanks.
Well, men have been hardest hit in the current recession. We're going to talk about the factors behind what some people are calling the man session, right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. So here is something interesting about the recession. Men have been hardest hit by the job losses and the longer they are out of work, the harder time they are having get back in the game.
CNN Money's Poppy Harlow is joining us live from New York with -- I guess the new word now is "Man Session".
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Right.
And that's -- that's a good way to put it. It's a really troubling statistic actually that just came out in a McKenzie study. It said that 20 percent of American men are not working today; that it's up from seven percent back in 1970. This isn't just because of a lack of jobs. This is also counting those on disability, those that are incarcerated, those that rely on their spouse's income.
But it is a troubling statistic, right? When we look at the unemployed right now, we have 14.1 million Americans out of work. But in the recession, I want you to take a look at this chart. Because this shows you what happened. Men lost 5.4 million jobs in the recession. That is that steep drop off on the blue line. Women, on the other hand, lost 2.1 million.
Why is that? In large part, it was because we saw such a decline in construction and manufacturing jobs that are really male-dominated.
But we also talked to the CEO of Manpower. They're a huge employment firm that works with companies around the world. And here is his take. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF JOERRES, PRESIDENT AND CEO, MANPOWERGROUP: Well, we have an issue. There is no doubt about it. And the longer we have these long-term unemployed, even for what we be considered the entry-level skilled position, the shop floor is not going to be the same shop floor for that that person left two and a half years later. New technology is put in place, how you have to read a CAD drawing or a -- or a 3D dimensional (INAUDIBLE) drawing.
So -- so we are still going to have this kind of skilled mismatch of what companies are looking at to get the highest skills and what is really out in the marketplace. And the U.S. is not alone in that. It's just exacerbated because of the low demand that we're seeing in the U.S.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So what he's saying, Kyra, is the problem now in this so-called recovery is that we have a skills mismatch. And I think this is really exemplified in a company like Google. They said earlier this year they're going to have their biggest hiring year ever. They've got somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 open jobs around the world. But they told us on the phone yesterday there's a huge lack of engineers in the United States, simply not enough people with the right skills to fill those jobs and that the talent pool in this country is pretty small for what they're looking for. That is a very, very troubling thing when you look at -- at this recovery and how many jobs we need to see added -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, that's the number one priority on everybody's mind, jobs right now. Poppy, thanks.
Well, checking stories making news later today. The Postal Service releases a list of post offices for possible closure this year. That's in just minutes at 10:00 Eastern.
And then groups advocating for protecting the poor in those deficit budget talks hold a prayer vigil in Washington. That starts at 12:30 Eastern.
And Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, addresses military service members and their families at the USO Home Front Concert. That's at 7:00 Eastern in Louisville, Kentucky.
All right. We're following lots of developments in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's go and check in with our Dan Lothian first. Hey, Dan.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Well, even though it appears that both sides are very far apart, the White House remains optimistic that common ground can be found before that August 2nd deadline. I'll have more details at the top of the hour.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ted Rowlands in Columbia, Missouri. Going on behind me is the U.S. Cyber Challenge, students from around the country are coming to compete see who is the best at defending against hackers. We are going in-depth this week on cyber security. We'll have a live report coming up next hour.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Zain Verjee in London. Glenn Beck has made some comments about the terror attacks in Norway and it is causing a real firestorm. I'll tell you what he had to say in just a few minutes.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks guys.
Also in the next hour, a congressman from Oregon accused of an inappropriate encounter with a teenage girl. Now he says he's not going to run in the next election. But that may not be enough as House leaders say they want an ethics probe.
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PHILLIPS: The Texas Rangers and their smoking hot bats. The Rangers put up at least three runs in each of the first three innings last night against the Minnesota Twins. Added is five more in the fourth, and four more on the fifth before tacking on two more in the later innings, 27 hits in all. The final score, 20-6. And talk about on fire, check out Don Kelly of the Detroit Tigers. Believe me, he doesn't run fast enough for his shoes to catch fire like this. The hot high game (ph) reportedly courtesy of the pitcher there and came between innings in Sunday's Tigers-Twins game. No harm, no foul, plenty of laughs.
Well, it's not often that a prayer causes a lot of laughter and controversy but that's exactly what happened at a NASCAR race the other night.
CNN's Jeanne Moos, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was the best of prayers, it was the worst of prayers.
JOE NELMS, PASTOR, FAMILY BAPTIST CHURCH: Lord, I want to thank you for my smoking hot wife tonight.
MOOS: It was a prayer unlike any other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lord in heaven --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hail Mary full of grace.
MOOS: This prayer was full of cars, NASCAR.
NELMS: So we want to thank you tonight for these mighty machines that you brought before us.
MOOS: Baptist Pastor Joe Nelms was in Nashville giving the pre- race invocation. Some are calling it the first sponsored prayer brought to you by --
NELMS: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for the Dodges and the Toyota, thank you for the Fords, thank you for Sunoco Racing Fuel and Goodyear tires.
MOOS: As one critic posted on YouTube, I am certainly not a religious man, but I'm pretty sure product placement in a prayer equals a straight ticket to hell. But Pastor Nelms isn't bothered.
NELMS: I can ensure you there were no endorsement deals, but I am not against them. Any of them that want to send some money to our church, I'll be happy to use it.
MOOS: And wait until you hear how he ended the prayer.
NELMS: In Jesus's man, boogity, boogity, boogity, amen.
MOOS: What does boogity mean?
NELMS: It means "go get after it boys". It's southern for "get to it".
Moos: It's the catch phrase used by a well known Nascar announcer to start a race. But the prayer started critics' engines. "It's making a mockery of prayer. He's just being a clown. He's being sacrilegious. Pastor Nelms said he just wanted to get folks who don't go to church thinking.
NELMS: Maybe not all Christians are stick in the mud.
MOOS: Admirers called it the best prayer ever. "This is awesome". "Putting the fun back in fundamentalism."
NELMS: Lord, I want to thank you for my smoking hot wife tonight, Lisa.
MOOS: That "smoking hot wife" part sure rings a bell. Will Ferrell playing racecar driver, Ricky Bobby --
WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: Dear Lord Baby Jesus --
MOOS: Thanking the Lord in "Talladega Nights".
FERRELL: And of course, my red shot smoking wife, Carly, who is a stone-cold fox.
MOOS: Pastor Nelms confesses he recently saw "Talladega Nights" on TV and got the idea to use it. As for his wife, she said this to someone who called to complain about the prayer --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm the smoking hot wife and I don't care how many times he says it to a big crowd or a small crowd, I'm enjoying it.
MOOS: This pastor has no issues with the separation between church and track.
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
NELMS: In Jesus's name, boogity, boogity, boogity, amen.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
