Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

No New Jobs in August; Obama's Plans to Create Jobs; Gay Military Magazine Debuts Sept. 20; New Orleans Facing Storm Warning; World Trade Center Movie Cameos

Aired September 02, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You know, Kelly, I hope Erin Burnett knows she is getting a great bartender there. People don't know, Kelly there is a mixologist. He is. He takes this seriously and he made some drinks when I was up there with you guys for a couple of weeks.

You all do your 9:00 thing. I know exactly where y'all are going there in the Time Warner Center.

Good to see you all! Thanks so much, guys.

All right. Top of the hour here now. Hello to you all. I am T.J. Holmes, in today for Kyra Phillips.

And this hour, unfortunately, we have to begin with the latest bad sign that this economy in this country is stalled. You've been hearing about it for some time now and we have more information that confirms it. Just minutes ago, we learned that there were no jobs created last month. The new jobs report came out so this means that the unemployment rate holding steady at 9.1 percent.

This is another sobering development that underscores the deepening concerns about this economy and concerns you're hearing a lot about a double dip recession.

Let me bring in Christine Romans.

Christine, we were expecting to hear that not many jobs were created. It just does something to you psychologically when you hear no jobs were created.

ROMANS: No jobs were created in the largest middle class, largest economy, largest labor market in the world. No jobs were created on balance in the month of August.

Here is the situation -- 9.1 percent unemployment. No job creation.

They had been expecting maybe 75,000 jobs would be created. That would be a disappointment anyway, T.J., but it would at least show that you had some positive job creation. It just didn't happen.

You still 14 million people out of work here at this point. Part-time workers increased 400,000.

So, what it's telling me is that employers, when they can, they may be adding part-time work. They're adding, you know, contract work and freelancers and firmalancers as they're called, people who are freelancing all the time, but they're not necessarily full-time employees with benefits.

There were some revisions as well. July 35,000 fewer jobs added than we first thought. June, 26,000 fewer jobs added this first thought. So, it's not only there was no job creation in august. The government looked over the summer and found that actually there were fewer jobs added than we had thought.

Where was job creation? In health care. That has been a consistent trend. Health care, almost every month, has been adding jobs.

Mining also a consistent trend there.

And professional and business services rose. We have been seeing some activity there as well.

But, on balance, you're not seeing job creation overall. Now there is the little anomaly of Verizon workers. They were striking Verizon workers. Without that strike, you might have seen positive jobs growth, but it still wouldn't even have gotten close to the 75,000 people had been thinking of.

Also, you had state workers from Minnesota who were going back on their roles and so, that was another little anomaly. Taken altogether, no job creation. No job creation. That is a disappointment and it underscores the presidential job plans and the president's speech next week.

Who has what it takes to get the economy rolling and getting jobs created again. Confidence is what it takes. You heard me say it a million times, we're just not confident right now.

HOLMES: Yes. This sets up a showdown next week with the president's speech. And, you know, the Republicans are going to be responding to that. Here we go into a Labor Day weekend, celebrating the country's workers, and a lot of people not working in this country right now.

Christine, we're going to talk to you again.

But I want to pivot now to exactly what she was setting up there, about the politics of it. I want to bring in our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser.

Paul, we only got these numbers about 33 minutes ago. But, still, already, we are getting reaction from some of the Republican candidates.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: T.J., it didn't take long at all. Our BlackBerrys were dancing around here with the reaction from the candidates, also some Republican organizations and Republicans in Congress.

Listen, T.J., we keep saying the unemployment report probably the most important number in politics right now. It was moments after that disappointed report came out, the Republicans were quick to attack -- the RNC, Republican National Committee, House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in the House, and Mitt Romney a presidential candidate. In fact, Romney in his statement said the jobs report was unacceptable and further proof that President Obama has failed.

Understandable. We expected the Republicans to criticize the president and, of course, they are living up to that.

And as Christine mentioned, yes, Tuesday, next Tuesday, Mitt Romney gives his big jobs plans and followed two days later by the president and, of course, next week, the Republican presidential candidates also debate and jobs will be a top issue, T.J.

And these jobs numbers can't help the president's poll numbers.

STEINHAUSER: No. And we have brand-new poll numbers that came out this morning, in advance of the release of those jobs report.

Take a look at this. We asked is the economy in a recession? Well, you know, technically, it isn't. For two years now, it's been out of recession. That's what the economists say.

But look at this number, more than eight in 10 Americans say, yes, they think the economy is in recession, only 18 percent say no.

What about what's more important? Creating jobs or lowering the deficit? You can right here by more two-to-one margin, Americans say it's more important for the Obama administration to create jobs. That's why those jobs speech next week is so important.

But there is a bit of a partisan divide. Go to the next number and you can see Democrats say creating jobs is the most important thing. Two-thirds of independents agree.

But less so for Republicans. And among those who say they are Tea Party supporters, they are divided on whether what's more important, creating jobs or reducing the federal government deficit -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Paul Steinhauser -- we appreciate you as always.

Five minutes past the hour. That means we are less than 30 minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street. We are keeping a close eye on the markets. We saw from the international markets, they were all down for the most part today. How will the investor react to these new jobless numbers? That is coming your way, again, about 25 minutes from now, the opening bell.

We do want to turn now to weather -- and three major weather events unfolding as we speak. Our Jennifer Delgado is taking a look at a tropical depression that has some people on alert in the Gulf Coast this holiday weekend. Also, our Susan Candiotti in New Jersey with the continuing problems from Hurricane Irene. And Jim Spellman keeping an eye on things for us with those wildfires in Texas that have destroyed dozens and dozens of homes.

But let's start with Jennifer Delgado, keeping an eye on that.

What are we looking at? And what can we be looking this weekend?

JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right now, we are looking at tropical depression number 13. Now, it looks like later on, it is going to become a tropical storm. As you can see on the satellite imagery, that rain working in to southern parts of Louisiana right now. And over the last several hours. We have seen a bit more convection of it.

But I can tell you this -- the winds right now sustained at 35 miles per hour. We are getting reports tropical storm-force winds on some of the oil rigs just to the west of that circulation. So, again, as I show you this, and I put this into motion for you let's give you an idea on the potential track.

Notice, it's not going to be moving that much over the next several days. And that is a problem because that means we are setting up for a big flooding threat for parts of the Gulf of Mexico as you show. It gets close to the coastline of Louisiana as we go Sunday, 2:00 a.m. And then notice, as we go Tuesday, 2:00 a.m., it is just existing off the border of Louisiana into parts of Mississippi. This whole area here is going to be under the gun for heavy rainfall and it looks like the winds are going to pick up to about 60 miles per hour.

I want to show you, to give you an idea of the rainfall we are talking about. Flooding problems is going to be great. Anywhere in white, we are talking more than 10 inches of rainfall and some locations roughly 20 inches of rainfall.

And as I show you over towards the west, the rain is not going to be making into parts of Texas areas that certainly need precipitation that have been battling fires over the last several weeks and really, T.J., over the last several months.

HOLMES: All right. Jennifer Delgado, we'll chat with you again here in a bit. Thank you so much.

Let me turn to Jim Spellman, who is in Texas for us. He's about 100 miles west of Dallas.

Jim, we're used to people saying, keep that tropical storm away from me. Texas was hoping it would come that way. It looks like it may not be a rainmaker for the state Texas. How are they reacting to that now?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, boy, the last few days everybody has been asking, is this coming this way? They're so desperate for rain here. It's set up these conditions that sparked these fires.

So far, this fire, they finally got the upper hand conditions in about an hour, to have their final assessment. They hope today is their last big push and they'll have this completely under control. They are allowing some people back in but not before this fire destroyed 40 homes. Their goal is get everything ready for the final tourist weekend of Labor Day weekend here.

But, T.J., the real problem is far from over -- 90 percent of this state under severe drought conditions. That means dry vegetation and when you match that up with high winds in the afternoons, and this over a hundred-degree heat every day here, they know that fires can still break out almost anywhere in the state. They have been battling them all across the state to keep them under control. So, far when this fire is under control, the risk for fires will remain here for weeks, probably months to come, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Jim Spellman for us there in Texas.

We want to turn to the third developing weather story and it continues. Yes, we're almost a week away from when Hurricane Irene made landfall in North Carolina, but we are still looking at the growing scope of that hurricane's destruction.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is in Cranford, New Jersey, for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, T.J. Good morning.

Here in Cranford, New Jersey, take a look at the river. It's looking more and more normal, but, boy, did it wreak havoc during hurricane Irene? It overflowed its banks big time.

Let's take a look at one neighborhood looks like and, in fact, they still don't have their electricity turned on, and many residents are telling us they would give anything for a hot shower after nearly a week without power.

This is what a lot of the neighborhoods look like. Debris all over the place. They have a lot of cleaning up to do here. They have got all kinds of furniture, personal belongings, chairs, washing machines -- all left to be picked up.

In fact, some homes even had to be condemned because either trees have fallen down on them or their foundations have washed away.

Here in Union County, they are still waiting for a declaration of disaster. The police chief tells me they hope to get it once they get the proper paper work filed with FEMA.

T.J., back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLLMES: All right. Three weather situations we are continuing to keep an eye on.

But at 10 minutes past the hour now.

I want to turn to a disturbing story -- disturbing string of deaths in hockey. Three current or former enforcers have died in the past four months. You hockey fans, you know what that means, the enforcers. These are the guys, the big guys, the intimidators. They send out there sometimes just known for going out there and knocking people around and for fighting.

Their deaths now are raising some serious questions.

Let's bring in CNN's Max Foster covering this story for us from London.

This could be -- could be -- a coincidence. But it would be a heck of a coincidence.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's extraordinary, isn't it? As you say three deaths -- non-suspicious deaths in just four months and the latest one Wade Belak, he was found in his Toronto apartment. He was 35 years old. He was a former enforcer. And everyone said he was a happy go lucky guy, so a lot of people surprised by this.

But a lot of questions are now being asked about enforcers. And former enforcers coming out as a result of this saying there is so much pressure related to this role in the team and they dread these fights. They are expected to get involved in.

And a lot of them saying they are suffering from depression. It's very interesting.

The commentators trying to take away saying these are isolated cases often and isn't about the sport. Let's have a look at the national post. It's a paper in Canada. The headline "Hockey Didn't Kill Wade Belak."

It says, "Isolated incident however tragic and said are often exactly that, they're isolated. The game did not kill Wade. I it made him who he was."

But there's a big debate there. And three in four months, as you say, T.J., is raising questions.

HOLMES: Are they looking into this now, Max? What are they going to do now with this information to check -- to see if there is something they need to look into further with these guys and protecting these enforcers?

FOSTER: That's right. Well, the debate is out there. We are talking about it and that's what's happening. The sport is going to ask some questions in terms of Wade. You know, there have not been any conclusions, the police, but they're not looking for anyone else in relation to that very tragic death.

HOLMES: All right. Max Foster, thank you, as always.

We turn back to another weather situation. You remember this a few months ago? Tornadoes ripping through the southeastern part of this country and, in particular, Alabama? Jus tore through Tuscaloosa but the University of Alabama was spared. But, now, the football team, the school is trying to rally the city.

Also ahead, a rare look inside Moammar Gadhafi's intelligence headquarters where long time secrets are now being unveiled.

It's 13 minutes past the hour. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Quarter past of the hour now. Give you a look at some of the stories cross country.

And this video will just have you shaking your head. You see this? This is a youth league football game in Sarasota, Florida. A player, I don't know if you caught that part, but a player actually -- you see that? Slow motion for you there.

That's a player tackling a referee. This was a full-out brawl. The referee was being punched and kicked under there and eventually able to get up and run off the field. The sheriff's office is investigating. Charges are expected.

But again, this is a youth league. These kids, most of them not even over the age of 14, I don't believe.

Also, let's turn now to some dramatic dash cam video. This is out of Des Moines, Iowa. Cops showed up to the scene of this bad accident. You see the vehicle on fire there on your left at about 3:00 in the morning. One of the officers just forces his way into a burning car and starts pulling people out.

Now there was -- was one fatality involved in this but, still, three other people were saves because of the actions of those officers you see.

Also to San Diego -- the beaches there seeing some of the biggest surf of the year this week. Waves so big -- get this -- all of those local surfers who know a thing or two about surfing, they are not even willing to get out there and attempt these suckers. The waves were generated in a storm, believe it, in Antarctica last week.

But you remember the tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and other parts of the southeast in April? Well, during that time, the University of Alabama campus was spared. But the community all around the university certainly was not.

Since the storm, the students and the athletes have been determined to get the school's football team back on the field. That's about to happen.

But Reynolds Wolf is in Tuscaloosa now. They take their football seriously as we know, as you well know there in Alabama. But, you know, it comes with a little something extra right now.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, it certainly does, T.J.

You know, the amazing thing about when you think about the University of Alabama, when you think about this town of Tuscaloosa, and you think abou8t what they went through back on April 27th of this year, just utter devastation and loss of life.

There are still marks around the community, especially along McFarland Boulevard where you'll see one stretch of houses that look fine and other places now just empty fields where a subdivision used to stand across one side of the McFarland Boulevard, things are empty there, too.

But they are replacing things bit by bit. You see stones, you see mortar, you see construction coming up.

But one of the key things to rebuilding the spirit of this community is going to take place this Saturday coming up. We are talking about the game between the University of Alabama and Kent State. Of course, behind me, you got Bryant Denny Stadium, which happened to be an Alabama fan, T.J. This is the epicenter of college football for you.

And we actually walked around the university yesterday and spoke with some of the students and they are ready to get everything started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

MARK FORTUNE, SENIOR, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA: It's very important. It means a lot to everybody on campus. It just shows that everything we are all coming back together. Everybody will be in one place and rooting on our team. It's important to everybody here.

LANCE LEDBETTER, JUNIOR, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA: I think it means a return to just normal and, you know? Because this whole community has been so upset over this tornado. You're kind of getting back to just plain old, just let's get back to normal, you know? Let's take our minds of rebuilding for a second and let's just get back to, you know, rooting on Alabama football.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

WOLF: You know, T.J., the game this weekend in terms of it being a real contest, it's not like Alabama is going to be playing real powerhouse and not playing another SEC rival, not playing someone from the PAC-10 or PAC-12 now, or maybe in parts of, say, someone in the Midwest.

What they are playing is they're playing Kent State. And the amazing thing about their opponent is that Kent State is actually been here to the University of Alabama, some of their players got out here and basically used some of their elbow grease and are helping to rebuild this community -- just a wonderful thing of just the human side of the sport.

I mean, when all comes down to, it's all about people. I mean, as soon as the pigskin in the air and you got the hitting on the field, sure, it's passionate. But at the end of the day, I mean, we are all Americans. We are all trying to help each other out, and it certainly a sense of brotherhood we are getting here at the game, this game here in Tuscaloosa -- T.J.

HOLMES: Great point there. That kid probably said it best. We just want to get back to some normalcy. You can't get more normal than football in the state of Alabama.

Reynolds, good to see you. Talk to you soon.

Well, 20 minutes past the hour now. Investors were bracing for bad news on this morning's jobs report and they got it. Opening bell, 10 minutes away and we are live on Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty-two minutes past the hour now. Give you some showbiz headlines.

T.I. can't seem to stay out of prison right now. The rapper was released on Wednesday, back in federal custody now after he showed up in his halfway house rolling in that, it was a tour bus. Officials are now reviewing if that violated his release agreement. T.I. just wrapped up 10 months for a parole violation stemming from his 2009 gun conviction.

Well, Aretha Franklin -- well, she's going to be an opening act probably for the president, right. She doesn't open for Barack Obama. She is opening for Barack Obama on Labor Day who is make ago a speech in downtown Detroit. The last time the queen of soul perform for the president was when he was being sworn in as president.

Also, a lot of folks in the market for a new car? Got one for you. Six hundred and twenty thousand dollars. You could own the bat mobile. It's actually a replica of the bat mobile. The one that was used in the 1989 "Batman" movie. Seller says it has a centrally mounted iPad and 365 horsepower Boeing turbo shaft engine that can actually run on jet fuel.

Now, let's get back to the business news this morning, though. No jobs created in the U.S. in the month of August. The New York Stock Exchange opens in just about six minutes from now. Futures are already down here in the U.S.

Max Foster is in London, though. We are seeing some reaction to the jobs report here in the overseas markets?

FOSTER: Yes. Absolutely. All morning, the main markets in Europe were down ahead of this data, waiting for it to come out. It came out worse than expected and they were all down quite severely moment. London shares down 2.5 percent and other indices, Germany, France, all around down about 3.5 percent, 3 down. So, a pretty grim morning here in Europe.

And everyone is looking ahead to Wall Street now. If Wall Street falls more sharply expect more falls here. The problem, of course, European market in a desperate state and the economy here in a desperate state. Big concern about that already and they're looking to America for future growth and it's not there, clearly.

HOLMES: All right. Max Foster for us, keeping an eye on overseas markets. We'll be probably checking in with you again. We're just about five minutes away from the opening of the markets here in the U.S. We'll have that for you live, and, again, get more insight to what's happening overseas, but also right here after the jobs report showing that 9.1 percent held steady in the unemployment rate and no jobs created for the month of August.

Also, coming up, here the inner sanctum of Moammar Gadhafi's secret state documents hidden for decades uncovered, and the secret of his police state now being revealed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Getting close to the bottom of the hour now. And give you a look at some of the stories making headlines.

And this will be making headlines for the next couple of days it seems. The tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico, it could turn into tropical storm Lee. Parts of the Gulf Coast could get up to two feet of rain over the next five days.

Also, some new cancer concerns for firefighters exposed to toxic dust' fumes after the Twin Towers collapsed. Researchers say firefighters who worked at Ground Zero were 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than firefighters who did not.

Also, Turkey is expelling top Israeli diplomats. The Turks want an apology for last year's deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla-bound for Gaza.

We are just about one minute away now. We got this breaking business news this morning. We got the new jobs report just under an hour ago and it was not pretty. We are not expecting things to be too pretty here in the next minute.

Ali Velshi and Christine Romans joining me now.

Guys, just how ugly could this get today? Christine, I'll start with you.

ROMANS: Well, first, no new jobs created in August. And what that means, some companies hired, some companies fired. When you take it all together in the most dynamic labor market in the world, with 300 million people in this country, no net new jobs were created. It's a huge disappointment to people who are already braced for disappointment. They thought maybe 75,000 jobs created. Not even that.

It shows you a labor market that is paralyzed, stuck in neutral at a time when we need to be creating jobs to get a recovery underway. I mean, I think it's and -- Ali, weigh in here -- I think it's pretty disappointing, even for people who are expecting worse.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the part you don't hear -- there's the bell ringing. The part that you don't often hear, we'll talk about it more today, is what has happened in the previous months. We've been revised. We look at the previous months unemployment numbers, and they've been revised lower. The number of jobs created in June and July is also lower.

So, there's been some talk about this 45,000 Verizon workers having them counted in this and that made the number worse. Even if you take them out, it still would have been worse over the last three months. Three months does start to show you a bit of a trend. Here's the Dow opening down about 70. I'm thinking we're going to be off about 175 to start maybe around there.

It's going to be a tough day because, at this point, T.J. you start to put your hands up and you say what are they supposed to do about this? What do you do? You need confidence. This isn't a mathematical solution or scientific solution. People will hire when other people buy their products. And everybody is just sitting on their hands putting their money in their pockets right now.

HOLMES: Ali, I'll stick with you here for a second. What does this set up next week for the president?

VELSHI: Wow.

HOLMES: We know it's going to be a big speech no matter what.

VELSHI: Yes.

HOLMES: But you talk about that confidence. How much confidence can he give investors and the markets right now? Can he give much?

VELSHI: I think there are four things the president has to think about as he goes into the speech. Number one, you're right. Just instilling a general sense of this is a deep, long economic problem that we're in. I don't want to call it a recession. It may well be, but it's a quagmire, and we are not out of it, and it's going to take a very long time to get out of it.

The White House has own projections that we will not return to sort of five percent unemployment week that we had before the recession in 2007 until 2017. So, 10 years to get back to that point, 10 years from when it started. Number two, what the president has to do is present whatever his ideas are and let Congress sort of say we can do this or not as opposed to the process that we're all seeing.

We're getting too involved in what can pass and what can't. What we need is ideas. Number three, the president has to come out and be very, very certain. One of the things he's done in the last two speeches he's made about the economy is he has not come out and said this is what the future is going to look like. Come with me or work against me, but this is what it's going to look like. We're going to start to see that from Republican candidates, and I welcome it from everybody who's in the political race, but put a road map out there and talk about how we're going to start to get jobs back. As for the specifics, T.J., sadly, it's going to look exactly like what the stimulus looked like and that there are going to have to be some infrastructure expenditures. You're going to have to reduce taxes on people hiring people, make it easier for small businesses to bring new people in and get loans and things like that.

There's no silver bullet here. If there were one, we will hear economists say, T.J., it would have been fired already.

HOLMES: Well, just 2 1/2 minutes into the trading day now, 173 points down just as you predicted, maybe about 175 points down at the start. Christine, let me bring you back in here. And this might be the toughest question of all to you, which is can you pluck out any good news in this report that you saw? Is it good news just that we didn't lose jobs?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And there's also health care jobs continue to grow. You saw some jobs growing in professional and business services. You saw -- I don't know, a few hundred thousand jobs created that were part-time jobs showing you that employers are tentative. They lack confidence. They're reaching out there. They're hiring part-time instead of full-time to see if they're going to need you.

It's clarity -- the clarity six months out just isn't there. And I'm going to say, Ken Rogoff, the very well regarded Harvard economist earlier today told Ali and I, he said, you know, people are nervous and justifiably so. And, the debt debacle that we recently doesn't also inspire any more confidence as the political process of actually creating jobs and deciding how the direction of this country will be in terms of jobs and taxes and spending.

No one has confidence that that's going to go smoothly, because they haven't seen anything to inspire confidence out of Washington. So, all up and down the line, there's this feeling that -- again, I'm going to say paralyzed. Paralyze is better than a recession. And I agree with, Ali. We don't know if we're in recession or not.

Sure feels like it. Our CNN/ORC polling shows eight out of 10 Americans think we are in a recession. I was asking people today, who are the two out of 10 who don't think we're in recession, and the answer I got was there CEOs or they drunk. But what this tells us is that the CEO is also think we're in recession because they're not hiring. So, what is it going to take to unlock it? We don't know.

HOLMES: Ali, one more thing to you here, before we wrap this. And again, 188 points down after this jobs report release about an hour ago. But, Ali, we talk about confidence so often and being paralyzed and we talk about investors and those who are doing the hiring, but really, doesn't it fall back to the American people as Christine was just saying, we need confidence first, and then, we'll go buy, then we'll go invest.

ROMANS: We need to pay some money and pay down debt first, too. I mean, we still have too much debt, and that's a problem still, too.

VELSHI: And individuals have debt. So, you got this country's debt that we've been talking about. It was a remarkable embarrassment to see how that process went through, but we also look at our own situations, and say, we've got debt. If I don't really know whether people are going to be hiring or whether I'm getting a raise next year or whether I'll even have a job, I'd rather save my money and pay down my credit cards, which is on an individual level, T.J.

Not a terrible thing for people to be doing, but this is what collectively happens when you don't spend and you don't get the economy going. We have to look to Japan and see what happens year after year the economy just kind of stagnates. An economy can exist without a lot of economic growth.

We're just not used to what that economy would look like, and it would change our standard of living. It would change the idea that you constantly buy a bigger house and change your car every few years. It's a different kind of society. The new reality might be very different if this kind of thing continues -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Ali, Christine, thank you both. Two hundred points down to start this trading day. It's a few minutes in. We'll keep an eye on it. Thanks, guys.

Well, here we are. Thirty-five minutes past the hour now.

And on September 20th, a gay themed military magazine goes on sale at military bases for the first time. That's a significant development and the fact that it's going on sale on September 20th is a significant day. We'll explain. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, 38 minutes past the hour now. And lucky, lucky eight minutes -- nine minutes into the trading day and the Dow down 238 points. This comes after the jobs report, a dismal jobs report, where I don't know if we can call it a jobs report. No jobs were created in this country for the month of August. Unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent. We'll keep a close eye on the markets today.

What I want to turn to now is that, for the first time ever, a gay themed military magazine will soon be sold on military bases. Outserve is the name of it. It goes on sale September 20th. That's the same day, the same day the U.S. military officially drops the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Captain Jonathan Hopkins was discharged from the army last year because of that policy. He now serves on Outserve's board.

Good morning to you, sir. You know, to have this magazine provided for gay and lesbian military members, it might just be a nice service for them, something nice for them to have, but what is the symbolic significance of this magazine being sold on military bases?

CAPT. JONATHAN HOPKINS, OUSTED FROM ARMY OVER "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL": The first part is just that there are openly welcome as part of the military. Gay military members have been serving as long as the military has been around, but right now, they can be full honest and open members of the military. And, the magazine represents a way that members of the military that are gay or lesbian can connect.

They won't feel like they're the only ones out there. And, it's a way to educate and inform others who are not gay about who's serving amongst them.

HOLMES: And I have this right. The military did have to give the OK to have this magazine sold on military bases, is that right?

HOPKINS: Well, the magazine is actually free. And, the approval process is actually through distributors that distribute at army and air force base exchanges, and they have certainly guidelines they have to follow, but actually, just went through the distributors based on guidance from that exchange service.

HOLMES: OK. I got you there now. All right. So, when it does end up on this military bases, I understand you know which army and air force bases this magazine will be available. again, it's free, not being sold. You know where it's going to be available, but you're not saying -- you're not releasing where. Why not?

HOPKINS: Well, it really is available to everyone everywhere. So, we don't want to yet -- we're sending it to some of the largest bases around, but, anyone can go get it at outservemag.com. They can read it like you read newspapers online. They can also order a copy to -- a glossy copy to be sent directly to their home at that same website.

So, really, it's actually available to everyone, everywhere. As the magazine grows, we might distribute it to more bases, but we're basically focused on getting it to everyone.

HOLMES: OK. And sir, lastly here, not about the magazine but just about you. This policy is about to go away. You were released under this policy. You missed it by about a year. You were released or discharged a year ago. Would you like to get back into the military?

HOPKINS: I love the military. I loved it while I was in. But right now, I'm going to Georgetown University, doing a graduate program right there. I know there's a lot of different ways that I can serve country. My departure from the military was truly one of the most difficult things -- it was the most difficult thing I've ever been through, because something I committed my life to and then had to change that.

So, it was kind of very abrupt. It was pretty much like a 14- month long divorce from something that I loved. So, I still care about it, but there's other ways I can serve my country.

HOLMES: All right. Sir, we appreciate you taking the time. Appreciate your service of a distinguished career of service in the military, but you're continuing to serve in other ways, and now, with this magazine. Good to see you. You enjoy your holiday weekend.

HOPKINS: Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Forty-two minutes past the hour now. There is a storm brewing, and it is headed right for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, not a hurricane, but still could do some real damage. We are taking a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, about a quarter to the top of the hour. You see there, the DOW down 221 points to start the trading day. Just 15 minutes into the trading day but we are about an hour and 15 minutes after getting the jobs report for the month of August and it was not a good one.

The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent but the issue is no jobs were created. That's what the report said. No jobs created. We'll keep a close eye on the markets here in the U.S. and around the world.

Meanwhile, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are bracing for a problem this weekend. Tropical depression 13, you see it there is in the Gulf of Mexico. It could become a tropical storm but already they have declared a state of emergency in effect in Louisiana.

Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado is here for me. Is this thing going to get a name and even if it doesn't, does that even really matters? It's going to cause a problem no matter what.

JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, it is going to cause some problem. And it is going to get the name, the name will be Lee can you believe it or not. A very weak name but right now I can tell you it is a tropical depression. And we're going to get an update from the National Hurricane Center in the next couple of minutes and of course we'll have that information at 10:00.

But as I show you right now, there is the satellite imagery becoming really a lot more active over the last several hours. The winds now 35 miles per hour, keep in mind a 39 for a tropical storm.

And again as I put this into motion for you, you're going to see the thing here; it's going to be moving very slowly and that's the problem, T.J. As it moves slow it's going to be pulling in all that moisture and it's going to be grumpy and a tremendous amount of rainfall. Some locations could pick up 20 inches of rainfall that includes southern parts of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama.

And to give you a track it enters the part of Louisiana. You can see to the south at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday and then get this. It doesn't leave out of the area until Tuesday at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. So this is going to cause widespread flooding. We're also are going to talk about the potential for a storm surge about two to four feet.

Again, this is likely to become tropical storm Met (ph) very shortly. T.J. back over to you. HOLMES: All right -- all right and it's going -- that track shows that it's going exactly where people wanted it to come.

DELGADO: Yes.

HOLMES: Texas was like, come on, give us that rain.

DELGADO: Texas needs it but right now we really shouldn't focus on the track. It's really going to be the heavy rainfall.

HOLMES: The heavy rain. All right, thank you so much, Jennifer Delgado for us, our meteorologist.

47 minutes past the hour now. As you're seeing we want to keep that up on the board for you, up on screen for you at least. The board; 227 points down. The Dow to start the day after just a dismal job reports a little earlier this morning.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, about 10 minutes off the top of the hour now and give you a look at some of the stories that will be making headlines later today.

In about an hour, a judge considers whether baseball great Roger Clemens will get a new trial on charges he lied to Congress about using steroids.

Also this afternoon in San Francisco, a status hearing is taking place on a next step in another baseball great's legal future, Barry Bonds.

And at 4:45 Eastern Time, Congressman John Boehner will discuss House Republicans' plan for American job creators. The House Speaker will be talking a little later today.

But we are following lots of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll check in with our correspondents. Let's start with you, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right, no jobs created on balance in this country in the month of August. The unemployment rate remains at 9.1 percent. I'll tell you what you can do to insulate yourself from a weak jobs market and politically what it means for the President.

That's coming up at the top of the hour.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brianna Keilar at the White House.

The dismal jobs numbers raising the stakes on the President's jobs address next week. I'll have a report at the top of the hour. ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Arwa Damon in Tripoli. Moammar Gadhafi releases more audio messages, but who exactly is listening? We'll have more on that coming up next hour.

HOLMES: All right, Christine, Brianna, Arwa, I will see you all here in just a bit.

But at nine minutes until the top of the hour, I ask you to forgive me for asking this question. "Is marriage for white people?" I'm not the one asking the question, however. It's the title of a controversial new book. And the author is asking that question as he examines the state of marriage in the African-American community. He's here to talk about that book next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, did you notice last night husbands and boyfriends were missing all over the country because college football is back.

Jeff Fischel here with me; now there's been a lot going on in the off season with all school and switching conferences and controversies.

JEFF FISCHEL, ANCHOR, HLN SPORTS: That's right.

HOLMES: Let's play football.

FISCHEL: Absolutely you know, it's really been a rough off- season. We've heard a lot about what's wrong with college football the past few months. It's time to cheer. College football is back.

And one guy, I think I could cheer for a lot of people are cheering for Wisconsin QB Russell Wilson. He took advantage of a rule that rewards players who graduate early and decided to transfer to Wisconsin for his senior year. You've got to respect the guy who gets it done in the classroom, he graduated in three years. And look at him takeoff 46-yard touchdown running against UNLV, also passed for 255 yards. Wisconsin wins big 51-17.

The best QB in college football last year now in the NFL, Cam Newton, the number one pick of the Carolina Panthers. Pre-season game last night against the Steelers and there he goes, Newton keeps it himself picking up a big chunk of yards. And then he goes to the air. Looking for Jeremy Shocky, finds him for the touchdown.

Newton will have growing pains this year. But he has all the tools. His team didn't have quite enough last night. The Steelers win 33-17.

Great play last night on one of baseball's great rivalries, Yankees/Red Sox. Jeff Lowry at plate for Boston, bloops (ph) one to center. Here comes Curtis Granderson and had a fantastic here with the bat and he makes the diving catch. The Yanks win 4-2. They're now half game back of Boston. The AL East, what a battle those two teams put on every year in September. And you might see them again in October too. Great catch by Granderson. Wild point at the U.S. Open last night. Number seed, Novak Djokovic in the far court; challenger Carlos Berlocq (ph) is righty but he hit a lefty. The joker -- yes, look at him. He pulled it off between the legs. Berlocq so surprised even (INAUDIBLE) a decision with the correct hand. Djokovic wins easily. The joker's had an incredible year. He moves on to the third round. Great shot between the legs.

HOLMES: We've seen that a number of times over the years. A lot of these guys can do it now. They practice this stuff. It's still impressive.

FISCHEL: You can see it coming. You see it when they're chasing that lob down and you go, oh, is he going to do it? Oh, yes. Yes, he's going to do it.

HOLMES: And it seems like it's always for a winner.

FISCHEL: For whatever reason, these guys are pros, but they get thrown off every time. Like, don't expect them to come back. You better expect it to come back when you have Djokovic chasing it down.

HOLMES: Jeff, thanks as always. Appreciate you.

FISCHEL: All right.

HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour and we're also getting close, as you know, to the tenth anniversary of 9/11. One filmmaker now isn't focusing on the destruction, he's focusing on the mayhem. He's put together clips of the Twin Towers the way they used to be through the magic of cinema. Here now is CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a decade of images of the Twin Towers gushing smoke, maybe it's time to see them in the rosy glow of the movies.

Inspiring awe in "Home Alone 2", cemetery back drop in "Dog Day Afternoon", something to make "Crocodile Dundee" feel like he'd arrived. Something to make you feel sad about leaving. And now a New York filmmaker has made a montage of Twin Towers movie cameos, featuring over 75 clips.

You may find yourself in a beautiful house.

MOOS: Blink and you'll miss the towers seen through the car's rear window. It took video cartoonist Dan Meth seven months working on and off to compile the montage, even using disaster movies but mostly showing the Twin Towers as a compass in the background.

DAN METH, FILMMAKER: You've seen the Twin Towers burning and falling for ten years now. But you never -- we don't get to think of it as just like 30 years they've been standing there. It's a celebration of that.

MOOS: Celebrated with a cast ranging from Superman to King Kong.

Do you miss the Twin Towers?

METH: I do miss the Twin Towers a lot.

MOOS: And amid all this missing film buffs can't resist telling Dan Meth about the clips he missed in his montage. For instance, they miss "The Simpsons" episode, the one in which Homer goes all what it to the top of one tower desperate for a bathroom. And when he finds it out of order, he goes all the way to the top of the other tower.

Didn't see "Godspell" in there either, noted someone. The cast sang atop the World Trade Center as it was nearing completion in 1973.

There's plenty of sad irony in old film clips like this one from "Trading Places".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This building is either kill or be killed.

MOOS: After 9/11, the towers were removed from the "Sopranos" open. So was a "Spider-Man" tease showing bank robbers in a chopper ensnared by Spider-Man's in a web spun from tower to tower.

But instead of staying stuck in images of destruction, Dan Meth celebrates the life of a building that even in its absence remains a huge presence.

(MUSIC)

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)