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American Morning
The Gift of Rest; Interview with Joe Lieberman; Sugarland's Memorial For Fans; Back To School In Joplin; Over a Dozen People Die a Year at Yosemite; Rebels Making Progress on Tripoli; Author Discusses U.S. Educational System
Aired August 17, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Rick Perry shooting from the lip.
I'm Christine Romans.
The Texas governor not backing down from his verbal assault on the president, and some heated comments about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is back to school this morning and tornado ravaged Joplin, Missouri.
Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello.
For some students heading back to class, it means heading to the mall.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Ali Velshi.
Ready for that big job interview? There could be something on your resume that will get you shot down. How to increase your odds of getting hired on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
ROMANS: And good morning, everyone. It is Wednesday, August 17th.
A lot of job talk, a lot of politics.
VELSHI: I'm looking forward to hearing about the jobs, because things have changed.
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
VELSHI: Your grandparents or your parents' advice about resumes isn't the same any more.
But I'm talking -- we are talking to Senator Joe Lieberman in a few minutes, we have politics in there. But he's written a book about the Sabbath and why everybody should try it -- why everybody should just unplug, chill out and think about something else. So, I'm going to talk to him about that in just a few minutes.
COSTELLO: That's cool. VELSHI: Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry is stumping in New Hampshire this weekend. He is guest speaker at the politics and eggs breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire. These are live pictures from the event which got under way.
Since Perry launched his campaign less than a week ago, there has been no let up in his attacks on President Obama. Perry isn't backing down either from his controversial remarks about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Here is what he said the other day in Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we'd -- we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. I mean, printing more money to play politics at this particular time in America is almost treasonous in my opinion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: It sounded like he was starting to say treacherous which would actually been different. I mean, there are a lot of people, including Ron Paul, who don't like the idea that the Fed might print more money. I don't -- there is really no grounding in the idea that it's treasonous. I haven't heard that before.
The White House fired back saying threatening the Fed chairman is not a good idea.
Former Bush advisor Karl Rove is also criticizing Perry, saying the remarks were not presidential.
COSTELLO: President Obama says right now he is focused on fixing the economy, not on the Republican candidates who want his job. He addressed the criticism he is getting from Rick Perry in an exclusive interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Mr. Obama says he'll give the GOP newcomer a pass for now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Perry just got in the presidential race and I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn't like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress, and you have to be a little more careful about what you say. But I'll cut him some slack. He has only been at it for a few days now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. New this morning, the president will deliver what the White House is calling a major job speech next month. A senior administration official says that the president will also separately present a plan to the congressional budget supercommittee. In his interview with Wolf Blitzer, President Obama acknowledged he is ultimately responsible for the nation's economy but he blasted Republicans for political gamesmanship that he claims is preventing an economic fix.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We have made steady progress on these fronts, but we're not making progress fast enough. And what I continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. I'm going to be accountable. I think people understand that a lot of these problems were decades in the making. People understand that this financial crisis was the worst since the Great Depression. But, ultimately, they say, look, he's the president, we think he has good intentions, but we're impatient and we want to see things move faster.
And I understand that, I'm sympathetic to it, and we're going to just keep on putting forward ideas that are going to be good for the country. We're going to need a partner from Congress, and we're going to need folks to move off some of these rigid positions they have been taking in order to solve these problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: As we approach a land mark 9/11 anniversary, wolf asked the president what concerns him the most regarding potential threats towards our national security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I have covered the Middle East for a long time. I have covered terrorism for a long time. And I have to tell you, I'm worried, that on the 10th anniversary, approaching the 10th anniversary of 9/11, al Qaeda, or what's left of al Qaeda or their supporters, will try to do something to seek revenge for your killing bin Laden.
How worried should we be about that? How worried are you about that?
OBAMA: Well, look, we are vigilant and constantly monitoring potential risks of terrorist attacks. And I think that the men and women in our intelligence agencies, as well as the FBI, have done a terrific job, and Department of Homeland Security.
But the risk is always there. And, obviously, on a seminal event like the 10th anniversary of 9/11, that makes us more concerned. It means we've got heightened awareness.
The biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation, although that risk is always there. The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide- scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: This was a wide ranging interview with Wolf Blitzer and there some lighter moments in that interview. The president also talked about one of the side benefits of a presidential parent of getting four more years in the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The last time you were elected, you got Sasha and Malia a cute little puppy.
OBAMA: Yes.
BLITZER: Bo.
OBAMA: Yes.
BLITZER: What are you going to get them the next time, if you're reelected?
OBAMA: When I'm reelected, what I will be getting them is a continuation of Secret Service so that when boys want to start dating them, they are going to be surrounded by men with guns. That's their gift.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Wow! I love that, dad!
VELSHI: Wow. Yes.
ROMANS: Gee. Another four years in the White House -- thanks, dad.
VELSHI: Do you think his daughters will campaign against him with that comment?
ROMANS: Today, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann takes a break from his bus tour through South Carolina. This morning, she is in neighboring North Carolina for a fund-raising breakfast in Charlotte.
And fresh off her victory of the Iowa straw poll, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani offered up his ability about Bachmann to maintain this momentum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT: Is it conceivable you think a Tea Party candidate like Michele Bachmann could end up being the nominee?
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NYC MAYOR: Sure is. Sure is conceivable.
You know, it's hard to tell what the impact of the worsening economy is on the American people. And the reality is, I think, the president doesn't realize how bad the economy really is, otherwise, he wouldn't be playing this political game with it, he would be stepping up more and acting like a leader and taking a risk on whatever plan he believes in, but this economy is devastating to many, many people and that can have a very big impact. It can be a real benefit to a populist candidate. And, you know, that's -- if you look at Michele Bachmann, that's what she really is, she's a populist candidate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bachmann returns to South Carolina tomorrow with rallies in Columbia and Florence.
VELSHI: All right. It's a concept that sounds impossible to many of us. A day with no phone, no e-mail, most BlackBerry, just a simple day of rest spent reflecting with family, thinking about life. You might think you can't afford to unplug like that.
Our next guest has a pretty important job and he says you can't afford not to.
Senator Joe Lieberman is an observant Jew. He writes about his observance of the Sabbath in his new book which is called, "The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath."
Senator, good to see you. Thank you for coming in.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: Thanks, Ali. Good to be with you.
VELSHI: You know, we're going to have a little bit of politics because people expect that of you.
LIEBERMAN: Of course.
VELSHI: But I was reading this book in restaurant and a woman came up to me and said, "What is it about?" And I told her. She said, was he able to fill an entire book on observations about the Sabbath? I said he really was.
Give us the gist of the book, what the Sabbath has meant to you.
LIEBERMAN: Sometimes people say to me, how could you be a United States senator and take one of every seven days off? And I say, I don't know how I could be a United States senator and not observe the Sabbath, because it gives -- I work harder the other six days. It gives me a break, time, space, to be with my family, be with friends, be with my spirituality with God.
And when I come back to the six days of the week, I think I'm charged up -- not only physically with some rest, but really with a better perspective. Now, my religion tells me that I got responsibilities that are -- occur on the Sabbath through which I can help people --
VELSHI: Right.
LIEBERMAN: -- I got to do that. I got to break the Sabbath. For instance, I have to go and vote.
VELSHI: Yes. And you've done that at least three times, I know that you had to come back -- the stimulus bill --
LIEBERMAN: Right.
VELSHI: -- health care reform, President Clinton's impeachment vote.
LIEBERMAN: Yes.
VELSHI: You fully broke it for that.
LIEBERMAN: Yes. I mean, when I can -- you know, this gets a little arcane. We're not -- the rabbis over the centuries have put up fences around the Sabbath to protect it.
VELSHI: Right.
LIEBERMAN: Going from the biblical injunction, not to use fire, on not to turning on the car, but to protect the Sabbath as a day of rest. So, when I can walk, I walk a few times the call to service was just urgent and unexpected, and so, I get in a car and do what I have to do.
VELSHI: Well, in a number of times, I think, in the book you said 40 times you've had to stay late on a Friday night and, hence, you had to walk home.
LIEBERMAN: Yes.
VELSHI: The Capitol police escorts you. But you are walking. And sometimes they walk with you. And some days, it's been crazy rain and you wondered to God whether this was intended.
LIEBERMAN: Well, I think -- I don't want to break into, you know, the song "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof. But is this a part of tradition has protected the Sabbath on a day of rest and meant so much to me.
In this book, I bring the reader through a typically Sabbath according to traditional Jewish observance. But I'm really making a larger appeal to people of all faiths, come back to whatever your faiths observations are, or if you don't have a particular faith, think about the importance one day a week -- this is the hard part -- turning off your electronics.
VELSHI: Yes.
LIEBERMANN: When God gave the Fourth Commandment about the Sabbath to Moses on Mt. Sinai, I don't think he had an iPad or a BlackBerry in his mind, in his divine mind.
But today, I will tell you, as we approach sundown on Friday, hardest thing for me? Turn the BlackBerry off, put it away. But once the sun sets -- oh, I feel liberated and I got a lot of time and space to do other things that are really important to me.
VELSHI: Including thinking about who you're going to support for the president of the United States. LIEBERMAN: Every Sabbath, I think about that!
VELSHI: I know you caucus with Democrats.
LIEBERMAN: Yes.
VELSHI: Will you be supporting President Obama?
LIEBERMAN: I'm an independent now. You know, I got reelected as an independent. I do caucus with the Democrats.
So, I'm going to approach this as an independent and I think most independents haven't made up their mind yet. They may be tilting one way or the other.
One of the reasons I haven't made up my mind is that I don't know who the Republican candidate will be. So I'm going to watch it. It's a very important election and I hope to be involved.
VELSHI: A lot of conservative Jews are observing what they think President Obama's position on Israel not being strongly defensive as they would like him to be.
Is that troubling to you?
LIEBERMAN: Well, I've said two things about that. One is, you know, I've gotten to know the president pretty well and no doubt in my mind that he is supportive of Israel security and safety and the U.S./Israel relationship. He's done some things that I disagree with. I think he's made some public demands on Israel that really don't help because they don't give the Israelis the confidence to go into the peace process feeling that the United States is behind them.
VELSHI: Although, strangely, Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have come around to some of those, talking about pre-1967 borders.
LIEBERMAN: Yes. I think they maybe talking about slightly different understandings of that.
VELSHI: Right.
LIEBERMAN: The most important, hopefully, is to get the Israelis and Palestinians talking again. Israel is a really great ally of ours and they depend on us. And we have common enemies in the world. So, it's important we stick together.
VELSHI: Senator, quick last one. It's the issue on everybody's minds. How do get this economy going again and the creation of jobs -- that is going to fall back into your laps as a U.S. senator over the course of the next few months. What's your best idea right now?
LIEBERMAN: Well, my best idea is that if we adopt a strong, tough, reduce the debt and deficit plan by the end of this year, we will give businesses and the markets the confidence and sense of predictability to go out and invest and create jobs. In other words, we did a stimulus. I think it helped. But, still, we got 9.1 percent unemployment.
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates. It helped, but still we have the problems.
There is only -- we can't spend a lot more money on stimulating jobs.
To me, these two issues come together. Deal with the debt, do it in a courageous way, take on some sacred cows, entitlement reform, tax reform. And if we do that I think the private sector which ultimately is where the jobs come from will respond.
VELSHI: Senator, good to see you. I enjoyed the book. Thanks very much for writing it.
LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Ali.
VELSHI: And, hopefully, we can all take some lesson from it and chill out a little bit.
LIEBERMAN: May all of your Sabbaths be peaceful.
VELSHI: Thank you, sir.
Senator Joe Lieberman, the book is called "The Gift of Rest."
You can read and hear more from the senator on CNN's believe blog at CNN.com/belief -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Sort of a fitting way to lead into today's Talk Back, because now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question this morning: is heckling good for our political discourse?
Let's face it, Election 2012 is shaping up to be the Year of the Political Flash Mob. Liberal hecklers scored when the challenged Republican Mitt Romney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Corporations are people, my friend. We can raise taxes --
HECKLER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ROMNEY: Of course, they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, did it work? The Democratic National Committee turned it into an ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: Corporations are people, my friend. We can raise taxes on --
HECKLER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). ROMNEY: Of course, they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.
(SARCASTIC LAUGHTER)
ROMNEY: Where do you think it goes?
HECKLER: In your pockets!
ROMNEY: Whose pockets? People's pockets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Not to be outdone, Iowa Tea Party chairman, Ryan Rhodes, confronted President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN RHODES, IOWA TEA PARTY CHAIRMAN: We're talking about civility. How is your vice president calling us terrorists?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sir, sir, look.
RHODES: I would like to understand that.
OBAMA: OK, OK. I will explain it right now. He did not call you guys terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: They didn't exactly come to a meeting of the minds, and it does make you wonder as University of Virginia Politico, Larry Sabato, told me we're moving into a confrontational society. We don't want to listen to C-Span. It's too boring! Instead, we make our decisions based on political slash mobs. Maybe, he added, politicians are now judged on how well they respond to hecklers not how well they explain their policies.
Sabato says, we could end up with baseball style brawls at campaign rallies. How will that end in a political dog pile with everyone jumping on top of one another? Something to think about. So, the talkback question today, is heckling good for our political discourse? Facebook.com/americanmorning. Facebook.com/americanmorning. Read your comments later this hour.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: So, if you assume that people can just heckle and not -- that it doesn't escalate into violence, it's a different assumption. If the worst it gets is heckling, I guess, the issue is, are we escalating into a world where people are just frustrated and not conveying it effectively?
COSTELLO: That was an intimating it would get buy on.
VELSHI: Right.
COSTELLO: It's sort of you heckle for a purpose. VELSHI: Right.
COSTELLO: And it's not really to get a straight answer from a politician, it's to get a gotcha moment that turns up on YouTube to prove your point further out there in the world of the political discourse. Is that really the best way we have to get what we want from politicians?
VELSHI: Interesting.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A great question.
All right. Still ahead, looking for a job? No matter how qualified or how talented you may be, chances are, you got a big red flag on your resume. Listen up, we're checking through the common mistakes, the biggest red flags so you can polish the resume today.
VELSHI: Also ahead, new video of the moment right before that deadly weekend stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair. What was said on stage and did the weather really look like it was going to take that stage down? We'll let you see it and listen to it next.
COSTELLO: And, it's back to school time this morning for tornado- streaking Joplin, Missouri. Mixed emotions inside the new Joplin high school. How teachers are helping students cope with the tornado trauma. It's 17 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Country group, Sugarland, will hold a private memorial for the five people who were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair over the weekend. The duo was just about to take the stage when this happened. The scaffolding fell during a storm on Saturday. Investigators say the accident happened just minutes after authorities warned the crowd to seek shelter.
COSTELLO: Speaking about that warning, there's new sound of what they said before that weather moved in. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you can see to the west, there are some clouds. We are hoping for the best that the weather is going to bypass us, but there's a very good chance that it won't. Once the storm passes and everything's safe, we're going to try our best to come back and resume the show which we have every belief that that's going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A New York engineering firm has been hired to investigate the stage collapse. Five people were killed. State fair officials say they'll make the findings public of the investigation as soon as they have them.
Also this morning, back to school for thousands of students in Joplin, Missouri. Their first day comes just 12 weeks after a tornado tore through that city killing more than 130 people. Our Shannon Travis is in Joplin and has more on what officials are doing to help students learn in what is still a disaster zone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYDIA MCALLISTER, SENIOR, JOPLIN HIGH SCHOOL: Every time I drive by, it's still really sad. Just all the memories and all the friends that I made in these hallways.
YAINER OVIEDO, SENIOR, JOPLIN HIGH SCHOOL: Sad knowing that you won't be able to spend your last year of high school here.
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School surveillance video shows that tornado reducing two schools to virtually nothing in minutes. Ten school buildings were damaged or destroyed, including Joplin's only high school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That next morning, we came to the realization we had 54 percent of our kids who had no place to go, about 4,200 out of 7,747.
TRAVIS: This new school year, high school students will split up. Ninth and ten graders will go to an existing middle school. The upper classmen will attend classes at this mall. Yes, it's a mall. 95,000 square feet, a cost of $5.5 million to convert an old retail store. Officials say it was the only place big enough. Rising seniors, Yainer Oviedo and Lydia McAllister accompanied me to their new 21st century school. It has open spaces, walls that move.
OVIEDO: The entire space can be opened up.
TRAVIS: A fitness center and a coffee shop run by the students. Every one of these kids will get laptops. But how will students focus on learning? Dr. Syed Husain is a professor at the University of Missouri. A child psychologist, he's been to over 80 disaster zones. He helps children learn even when death and disaster surround them.
DR. SYED HUSAIN, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI: When that kid or person is saying, I don't want to hear about it any more, what is going on there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would be avoidance.
HUSAIN: Avoidance.
And we are training teachers as therapists.
TRAVIS: Husain says children learning in any disaster zone can suffer declining grades, depression, flashbacks and nightmares.
OVIEDO: I don't know how someone my age goes like this, but I'm having problems.
TRAVIS: And yet, this entire community wants the children to be children again. TRAVIS (on-camera): So, this is it. This is the moment right here that a lot of these children have been waiting for. This is the freshmen kickoff. A lot of these kids are right here. You will hear them kind of rallying right now. They're excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm actually kind of excited about that. It will be a little comfort, I guess, to go back to school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome, class of 2015!
(APPLAUSE)
TRAVIS (voice-over): For education overtime, I'm Shannon Travis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
VELSHI: Breaking news. Just in to CNN. New information about President Obama's plan to grow the economy and create jobs. According to our White House correspondent, Brianna Keilar, the White House has been actively consulting with experts including corporate CEOs. The president will speak more about his plan in an address to the nation just after Labor Day.
U.S. Stock futures are trading only slightly higher ahead of today's open with a little more than an hour to go. In the meantime, markets in Asia closed with moderate losses overall while European markets are mostly lower right now.
More corporate earnings coming out this week. Staples, the auto- supply company, saw its earnings climb 36 percent in the second quarter while John Deere, the biggest farm equipment manufacturer saw its profits rise 15 percent in the same period. Verizon is putting its 45,000 striking workers on notice. Get back to work by the end of the week or risk losing your health insurance and medical benefits. Union workers walked out the job 10 days ago to protest cuts to their benefits.
Still ahead, how to get rid of those red flags on your resume, and 16 people have died at Yosemite National Park in California, so far, this year. What's going on there? We'll take you inside the park. AMERICAN MORNING back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Good morning, New York City. Sunny, 72 degrees. Later today, mostly sunny and 88.
OK, speaking of sun, how about red flags? Politicians fighting who has a credible jobs plan, but still 14 million of you are looking for a job at 9.1 percent unemployment. You need to know the red flags that turn off a potential employer. We have compiled some for you. Careercast.com has some new ones that are coming out today. We put them all together. Number one, do not have a stupid e-mail address. You'll be surprised how many do. Do not have a stupid e-mail address. The best advice from career coaches is grab a free e-mail account for your e-mail has your real name and use that on all of your resumes and in your interviewing.
Be professional. Always use formalities, Mr. and Mrs. When address ago potential employer. The courtesy will help you stand out. Don't forget you should keep a professional everywhere, including e-mail address, phone calls, even your voice mail.
And also on social media. Guess what? You will get Googled the minute a hiring manager is interested in you. What will they see if they Googled you?
And this is something you also hear a lot about, over-qualified applicants. Remember this too, on the Internet, you know, they are going to find it so be careful about posting pictures and blog posting. Employers are worried about how long you're going to stay in a position. The best thing to do is be clear on why you want a job, let the employer know why this particular job fits into your career goals and let them know you're going to stick around.
There's also gaps on the resume. Something we hear a lot about because many of you have been out of work for six months. If you're unemployed for six months or longer you might need to write a brief explanation in your cover letter, keeping it very positive and fill the gap with consulting work, volunteer work, and professional organizations.
And you might have had a lot of job hopping. Maybe you've only had short-term stints. Explain it. Employers want to know you're reliable and that you're committed. Clarify why you've switched jobs so many times.
Careercast.com pulled all of this altogether, you guys. A lot of this is also conventional wisdom. Career counselors, you would be surprised, Ali and Carol, career counselors tell me they cannot believe the crazy e-mail addresses, a simple Google search what it finds out about somebody. You have to show you're serious and fill the gap on the resume.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: That is great advice. People are always asking for that detail. Thanks so you and career cast.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Awesome, Christine.
New video just in to CNN to show you. Vice President Joe Biden arriving earlier this morning in China. It is his first stop on his week-long trip to Asia. One of Biden's main priorities during this trip is to reassure the largest foreign holder of American debt that America is still a good investment.
New developments to tell you about in Libya. Rebel fighters taking control in the northwest in the regions of Misrata and El Brega. They're working their way toward the capital Tripoli in an effort to topple Moammar Gadhafi's regime. NATO is calling it the most significant territory gain in months.
VELSHI: Well, firecrackers discovered on a Southwest Airlines flight. Now officials want to know how they got there. The plane was ready to leave Las Vegas for Kansas City, Missouri. A flight attendant found the bag of firecrackers stashed under the seat. The plane was declared safe after a search and it took off to Kansas City.
I have to say, I don't know how it got there but at least somebody was following the rules and putting it under the seat.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Because if you get turbulence, it would be a problem.
VELSHI: Right. You don't want firecrackers flying over the plane.
ROMANS: Oh, my. A close call for staffers and guests at Orlando's Sea World. Lightning hit the ground at discovery coffee yesterday in Sea World. Five employees and three guests were reportedly hurt, five people in all taken to the hospital. But they are expected to be OK.
COSTELLO: It's been a deadly summer at Yosemite national park. The number of fatalities there is a lot higher than normal. And what tourists don't realize the biggest danger they face is themselves. More from Casey Wian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A record number of people came to Yosemite Park last month. Unfortunately, too many of those visitors are unaware of the hidden dangers amongst all that beauty. Yosemite National park is known for its spectacular beauty, waterfalls, El Capitan and half-dome, the might Merced River. It's a place you can get as close to a bear as you dare. But the real problem is elsewhere arriving daily by car and busload.
KARI COBB, PARK RANGER: Those people who are living in those cities don't necessarily experience nature on a daily basis and don't quite understand the power of what nature can bring.
WIAN: So far this year, 16 people have died in Yosemite, about twice as many as normal.
SCOTT GEDIMAN, PARK RANGER: This is the most popular trail in Yosemite National Park. We have up to 2,000 a day going on this trial.
WIAN (on camera): This is known as the miss trail. Just 10 days ago, a 17-year-old hiker slipped and fell on these granite steps and died four days later at a hospital. A little bit further up the trail is the Vernal Fall. Just last month three people were swept over that massive waterfall to their death.
GEDIMAN: When literally 20 feet from the precipice, the group was up here. One of the males in the group basically lost his footing in the river and started to go down. One of the females in the group went to grab him. She lost her footing too. The third one went in after them. All three of them went over here and went right over Vernal Fall.
WIAN: Imagine the terror that the hikers felt and the people who were standing here watching them slide down this river and drop 317 feet straight down Vernal Fall.
(voice-over) A month later, search and rescue teams are still looking for two of the bodies. While five visitors have died this year from natural causes, the others were accidental and often entirely preventable. Rangers say visitors who hike slippery steep trails in flip-flops, climb over safety rails to get better pictures, or swim in water above a waterfall are a constant problem.
BILL OTT, HIKER: We saw a number of people just waiting there, and they're probably steps away from going into the faster water, and it's crazy.
TIM TIMMERMAN: We aren't worried because we think if you stay where you're supposed to stay, you're safe. It's exciting. It will be exciting for them and a little scary for them but because it's steep, but it's not dangerous if you do it what you're supposed to do.
WIAN: Too many people don't and ignore safety briefing from rangers and warning signs all over the park.
COBB: We can't and we don't station a ranger at every possible dangerous location that's out there. People just have to come here and realize what they are getting into and realize that Yosemite is nature and it is a very wild place.
WIAN (on camera): Perhaps the biggest surprise then is that four million people visit here every year, and all but a very few of them go home very much alive.
Casey Wian, CNN, Yosemite National Park, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Wow. What an interesting piece and so beautiful, that place. It's just amazing.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: All right, up next, school time. We want to know are today's high school grads ready for college? Students themselves say no. What are we going to do about? We are going into the fight to fix America's schools next.
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ROMANS: Kids across the country packing up and heading to college. But are they actually ready for class? Many aren't based on this year' ACT results. According to the "Washington Post" only 25 percent met all of the test's benchmarks for college readiness. High schools seniors are specifically struggling in math and science. Only 30 percent met the science benchmark, only 45 percent showed they were prepared for college level math.
Discouraging news, makes you wonder what is happening in our schools and are we making any progress in fixing it? Steven Brill looked at that in his new book "Class Warfare -- Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools."
Welcome to the program. You make a good point it's the largest single profession in the country, teaching.
STEVEN BRILL, AUTHOR, "CLASS WARFARE - INSIDE THE FIGHT TO FIX AMERICA'S SCHOOLS": There are 3.2 million.
ROMANS: American teachers. And yet we are still trying to struggling to figure out how to figure out the effectiveness of those teachers and what they are teaching to make sure that college readiness is there.
BRILL: That is right.
ROMANS: How do you fix it?
BRILL: The numbers you just gave there, that's the crisis I'm writing about. And it formed, you know, a political crisis within the Democratic Party because there is now a president who actually thinks that the 3.2 million teachers ought to be measured on their performance, not simply on how long they have been holding their jobs.
This is the only occupation in America and the largest occupation in America where nobody is paid or promoted or trained based on how they are performing. And as those numbers you indicate suggest, it's not working. This is a national security crisis, a national economic crisis, and we have to start to do something about it.
And the book is really the tale over the last two years of the fight, both within the Democratic Party and in local school districts all over the country, to try to do something about this.
ROMANS: Because reform movement has sort of been maturing and it's been moving forward, and we still have scores like we were just talking about from ACT. So what is going to work? Do you work with the union? You say don't dismantle the unions but work with them, raise teacher pay in some cases, and -- but have accountability?
BRILL: Right. You have to substitute the concept of performance for protection. You can't have a civil service mentality.
ROMANS: And that is the last --
BRILL: Yes, last in, first out. It's -- the whole basis of the union contract is we have to protect everybody. The only people they are not protecting are the children in those classrooms and those are the numbers you just recited. ROMANS: Yet, you have people like Matt Damon recently who got -- really rallied teachers by saying this has been a horrible ten years for teachers. Teachers under assault, the teaching profession under assault. Is that true?
BRILL: Sure, but don't mix teachers with teachers unions. Most teachers and especially the high-performing teachers want to be recognized for their performance. They want to be promoted based on their performance, not simply based on how long they have been on the job.
Again, you know, unlike this newsroom, this is the only workplace in America where if you're young and you're ambitious and you really want to do something, you're told, well, over the next 15 or 20 or 25 years you're just going to be paid based on how long you've been breathing. You can't be promoted if you're really good. You can't be re-trained if you're not performing. And, unfortunately, for the children, you can't be ushered out if you're really doing a bad job.
ROMANS: We know that an incredible decider of a child's education, a child's fate, a child's trajectory in life is how -- the quality of the teacher in the classroom.
BRILL: Exactly.
ROMANS: So how -- and there are a lot of other variables. Let's be quite honest, I mean sometimes teachers get angry with me and they say --
(CROSSTALK)
BRILL: Sure.
ROMANS: -- why aren't you talking about what's happening at home? Do you have any idea what that teacher in front of that classroom is facing? The fact that there are more kids in the classroom and the fact that there are -- are budget cuts, the fact that we feel as though, the industry is under -- or the profession is under assault.
All that being said, how do you fix it?
BRILL: Well, the book takes us into the lives of those teachers and what you find out is that everything you said is right. They have a tremendous responsibility. A really hard job and especially hard job if the children are from broken homes or you know, from disadvantaged neighborhoods.
But that means that you have to figure out a way to train them, to reward them, to promote them and to incent (ph) new and better people to come into the profession, which means you have to pay them more but you could pay them more if you took some of the current features of the union contract and changed them.
Why pay teachers for doing nothing while they are going through two or three years of a disciplinary hearing? Why do that?
ROMANS: What about all this testing? We've seen the cheating scandals among teachers -- not students.
BRILL: Sure.
ROMANS: Teaching scandals among teachers and administrators, frankly, spreading around the country. Is that a direct response to this idea that we have to measure a performance in a classroom so that we can find out how effective our teachers are? Isn't that the unintended consequence of that?
BRILL: It is an unintended consequence but any sane education reformer, the ones I interviewed and who are the major characters in this book will tell you that testing -- testing the progress that a student makes, you know, from -- from September to June is only one element. The best element is classroom observation.
ROMANS: Right.
BRILL: In New York City, for example, the teachers' union contract says that there can only be one classroom observation by a principal that counts during a school year. That's insane.
ROMANS: Wow. Steven Brill, it's a great read.
BRILL: Thank you.
ROMANS: You've pored over a thousands and thousands of pages of -- raised the top applications and standardized test scores and so you really -- more than 200 interviews, so it's a very thorough book.
Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
BRILL: Thank you.
ROMANS: Our morning headlines coming up right after the break. It's 48 minutes after the hour.
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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: 49 minutes past the hour. Here are your morning headlines.
New information about President Obama's plan to grow the economy and create jobs, sources telling CNN the White House has been actively consulting with experts, including corporate CEOs. And while the package has not been finalized, it's likely to include some tax cuts, infrastructure ideas, and measures to help the long-term unemployed.
The President will speak more about his plan in an address to the nation just after Labor Day.
The number of children living in poverty is becoming a problem in Michigan. A new study finds 36 percent of children in that state do not have a working parent. That's up five percentage points from last year.
Markets open in just about 45 minutes. And right now, U.S. stock futures are mixed after the Labor Department reported that companies paid slightly more for raw materials and wholesale goods last month.
And Texas Governor Rick Perry on the stump in New Hampshire. Live pictures now from the traditional politics and eggs breakfast in the Granite State this morning. Perry refuses to back down from his comments on Ben Bernanke saying it would be treasonous for the Fed chair to print more money.
Two Democratic State Senators in Wisconsin defeated Republican challengers in a recall election. The vote was in response to the bitter fight over new Wisconsin laws that crack down on unions and their right to collectively bargain.
And that is the news -- that is the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING is back after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: talking about waste. A new hotel in Las Vegas might be torn down before anybody's steps put inside. It's the 26-storey Harmon Hotel. It's look like any other building on the Strip. But it hasn't opened yet.
But city officials say already it has slew of structural problems. They're worrying that it might collapse during an earthquake. The owner, MGM Resorts International is now considering hiring a demolition crew to knock the whole thing down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON ABSHER, MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL SPOKESMAN: The most valuable thing to us would have been to have Harmon built properly, opened as a thriving, attractive part of city center right at the gate way to city center. What we have right now is 26 floors of glass, steel, and concrete that has been deemed a potential threat to public safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Officials say it would take 18 months just to assess the repairs and that means if construction resumed it could take years to finish it. Wow.
ROMANS: Abercrombie Fitch is telling the "Jersey Shore" cast hey, stop wearing our clothes. The company going so far is to offer to pay them to stop. But, you know, exactly how much hasn't been disclosed. All this pre-publicity also has been free. The company brass, says it doesn't want people to associate the clothing line with the TV show. They say it could cost significant damage to the Abercrombie image.
You know haven't been --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Right, I'm not sure how different that is from the Abercrombie image. They got a whole a lot of people with very few clothes on. COSTELLO: I think they advertise to -- for lack of a better word, to the elite teen, you know? The beautiful teen. They play that loud music and perfume to keep old people out.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: At the stores, you mean?
COSTELLO: They do, so "The Situation" doesn't fit into their thing.
VELSHI: You got it.
ROMANS: It's too dark in there. Maybe I'm an old lady but it's very dark in there.
VELSHI: I -- I can't -- I'm sorry I can't --
COSTELLO: See their strategy is working.
VELSHI: They've got lights in here, yes.
COSTELLO: Coming up next the suspect is question morning, is heckling good for our political discourse? We've got your response. So we will read some of them right after a break.
Its 54 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right, good morning, Washington. It's sunny.
VELSHI: A little Bob Marley. I love it.
ROMANS: Sunny, 79, a high of 91 later today in the nation's capital.
COSTELLO: Ok we asked you to talkback this morning -- boy did you ever -- the question this morning was, "Is heckling good for the political discourse".
And have some responses right here hot off the presses.
This from Bob, "If politicians don't have a backbone they need to find another line of work. They have to represent all the people in their districts and have justify unpopular positions. It's a good sign that people are getting involved."
This from Iris, "Hecklers have a personal agenda and perpetuate this generation's attitude of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility. Demanding without listening or understanding does nothing. Power is in voting not bullying.
And this from Michelle, "I find heckling to be one of the lowest forms of discussion and discourse. In an already splintered society, heckling puts Republicans in the right corner, Democrats in the left and a bunch of black eyes and bruises in the middle." VELSHI: Don't we think when we -- I don't know why I continue to come out on the side of thinking this is not as bad. One of the things we enjoy is when we watched British parliament recently. It's much more spirited than Congress
COSTELLO: Yes.
VELSHI: And part of that -- is that heckling when somebody's speaking and the opposition is calling out? (INAUDIBLE) -- effective my point.
COSTELLO: Maybe. I guess my only point is hecklers these days they just want to hear their own opinion echoed back. They don't really want an answer, do they?
ROMANS: I don't know. And some of the heckling now are very well organized people trying to make their position on the right and the left. We've got --
VELSHI: Right. It's not random people. They tend to be people grouping themselves.
ROMANS: Yes. And we've seen -- I feel as though we've seen more of it in the last maybe four or five years than we had before.
COSTELLO: Well, it started in the summer of rage, remember? Back before 2008.
ROMANS: That's right.
COSTELLO: But you could argue that it worked because the Tea Party became popular and they have pushed their agenda successful, so who knows?
VELSHI: But there were a lot of people who weren't hecklers. They went out to protest. They would go out to meetings. They would write, they would support candidates.
That sort of different than just yelling in crowd.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm just talking about getting in your face. Just yelling and yelling and not allowing the person to answer you but continuing to say, you know, say whatever your line of thought may be.
ROMANS: I would say the hecklings to the President this past week, it wasn't yelling in his face. It was more like very aggressive questioning, right?
COSTELLO: Yes.
ROMANS: Anyway, I guess it's all in your definition of heckling.
COSTELLO: We will leave that to Kyra Phillips.
VELSHI: I'm going to heckle a little, while she does her show. Kyra and "NEWSROOM" start right now. Go Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Ladies, you heckle Ali every single morning. He is the only one that deserves to be heckled!
VELSHI: That's true.
PHILLIPS: Have a great rest of your morning.
