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American Morning
Wildfires Burn Down Hundreds of Homes in Texas; President Prepares Jobs Speech; Mitt Romney Comes out With 59 Point Jobs Plan; Man Goes on Shooting Rampage in Carson City, Nevada; White House Moves to Save Post Office; Governor Perry: "Monstrous Storm of Smoke and Fire"; Four Killed in Nevada Ihop Shooting; Sources: Obama's Jobs Plan to Cost $300B; Job Creators on Obama's Plan; National Infrastructure Bank; Aruba Suspect Appeal Hearing; Amanda Knox Could Walk; 9/11 1st Responders Still Getting Sick
Aired September 07, 2011 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Fast and furious. Wildfires growing by the second in Texas, running over hundreds of homes. Firefighters now calling for help and getting it from as far away as Oregon.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): President Obama's new plan to jump start jobs. We now know how much it cost, hundreds of billions of dollars, but will it boom the economy?
VELSHI: An American woman still missing in Aruba. The man who claims she was swept out to sea could walk today. A key hearing in this case this morning.
CHO: And Yahoo! search. The company looking for a new CEO after firing the big boss by phone on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Good morning, everybody. It's Wednesday, September 7th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Alina Cho. Christine and Carol have the morning off.
VELSHI: And I'm Ali Velshi. A lot going on this morning. Let's get right to it.
We begin with those raging wildfires sweeping across Texas right now. Governor Rick Perry describing the disaster as a monstrous storm of smoke and fire. The flames have now killed four people and sent thousands running for their lives. The Texas Forest Service Says more than 700 homes have burned in the past two days.
This is what's left of a ranch In Austin, Texas, a pile of twisted metal and ash. The flames so intense, they could melt -- they've melted glass and bottles, some windshields. The largest fire in Bastrop County is up to 30,000 acres and only a fraction of it is contained.
Our Jim Spellman is there right now. Jim, what's the situation?
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they took advantage here yesterday, fire crews did, of better conditions, lower winds, cooler temperatures. Today the temperatures are going to be back up in the mid-90s, but the winds will stay low. That's so essential for fighting these fires. That means that the fire will spread less and they're able to get and create these fire lines with less fear that embers will pick up, blow in the wind, and start a new fire on the other side of the fire lines. So they're going to do their best to do that.
As you mentioned, two people dead in this fire here so far. As the possibility of more injury or death is out there now, Governor Perry deployed a search and rescue team. They'll go out there today to try to get into this fire into the damage to see if anybody in there needs help, anybody needs rescue, might be trapped ion any of these structures.
These fires have just been breaking out all over. Yesterday on the other side of Austin a fire got under control. Residents able to go back in and see what the damage was. CNN's David Mattingly caught up with one of the woman as she went back to her home. Take a look.
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NICHELLE BIELINSKI, FIRE VICTIM: My heart is pounding. It's pounding so hard right now because I don't know how I'm going to react when I actually see it and stand in front of it. Katie and Brian's house. And that's my house. That's my house.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right here?
BIELINSKI: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Oh, I'm sorry.
BIELINSKI: The oak trees are still there.
MATTINGLY: Are you all right? You're shaking.
BIELINSKI: I'm OK. I am the luckiest person in the world. My family is safe. Now I need to check on my neighbors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SPELLMAN: It's just heartbreaking, Ali. Even though the forecast is for better conditions here for fighting the fire, what's not in the forecast is any kind of meaningful rain to stop these epic drought conditions that have been going on here. Ali, they've been fighting fires for 295 consecutive days in Texas. It's unbelievable.
VELSHI: It's a long drought, and for all those storms that have been going on, they're just not getting the benefit of the rain. They're just getting the bad part, the winds. All right, Jim, we'll keep checking in with you. Hopefully they get this under control soon. Jim Spellman in Texas. CHO: Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center with a look at what's ahead. And are firefighters going to get help with the winds today, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, winds are going to be about the same as yesterday, maybe a little bit stronger, but it will remain relatively cool compared to what we have seen in the past few days.
I want to show you a video shot two days ago when the winds were much worse. It highlights just how quickly these fires can move across the ground. Now this video is not sped up at all. It is shot just outside the Bastrop state park there. And these flames just reaching on the ground and reaching for the grass, burning it, getting into the shrubbery and then getting to those dried pines, which are just going to explode.
And you can understand how frantic the escape must have been for those folks evacuating their homes. This was shot on Monday. Conditions were worse on Sunday. It's scary stuff.
All right, this picture taken northwest of the city skyline of Austin. You can see the smoke just 20, 30 miles to the south and east of where that fire is. Thankfully for Austin, winds are blowing away from the city. But anywhere downwind of not only this fire but the Magnolia fire just north of Houston will be dealing with some serious air quality issues.
And 95 is the expected high temperature today. That's a little bit warmer than yesterday, but still cool compared to what they've been dealing with, and 89 degrees in Dallas. Rain moving up across the northeast, some remnants of Lee there. We're also watching another disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico. That one probably not bringing rainfall to Texas. So no rain in the forecast for Texas until further notice.
VELSHI: Rob, those pictures of those pines getting devoured, it's truly remarkable. When you haven't been around firefighters -- fire, you know, those types of forest fires and you see something like that, I mean those trees just looked as you said like they're exploding. They catch that fire and then they're gone. It doesn't look like it burns through the tree.
MARCIANO: And it does spare some trees. Some of the hard woods will, you know, be spared, but these pine trees, they've got a little more oil in them and they literally explode.
Now, this is flat terrain. Keep in mind when we see fires out west in rugged terrain, when you incorporate climbing uphill which is easy to do, these fires move two, three, four times faster than that.
CHO: You know, what's also remarkable, and Rob, you may know this. I don't know if you heard this, but on "AC 360" last night they were talking about -- Anderson was talking to the Forest Service woman, and she said that a lot of the fires, most of them, are actually manmade. And you know how they start is that there will be these chains, long chains at the ends of mobile homes they'll drag, they'll break off, and they're hot enough they get, you know -- they fly on to the grass and they just spark a fire. It's unbelievable.
VELSHI: When it's that scorched I guess anything can, Rob?
MARCIANO: Yes. And the record-breaking drought obviously ongoing has been the main player.
VELSHI: All right, Rob, good to see you. Thanks, buddy. We'll check in a little later.
CHO: We're learning new details this morning of President Obama's jobs plan. He'll lay it out tomorrow night. And Democratic sources tell our chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin it will include $300 billion in tax breaks and spending. Our Joe Johns is live in Washington for us. So Joe, what more are you learning about the president's plan?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alina. We're talking about $300 billion in new spending, $300 billion in tax cuts. I think we have a graphic that shows some of the other stuff. It's revenue neutral. Payroll tax cuts, extension of unemployment benefits. We've heard about money for laid off teachers and first responders.
Frankly, there is just not a lot that is new here that we haven't heard before. And while Republicans, apparently, see no benefit in doing a formal Congressional response to the president's speech, we do expect this stuff to be attacked as political positioning on the part of the president as part of his reelection campaign.
The bottom line is a lot of this stuff smacks of another round of economic stimulus. Many Republicans in Congress have said previously they're opposed to a second round of stimulus spending.
A couple things that do sound promising, at least on the face, the payroll tax cuts -- that's something Republicans have pretty much been on board for before. Nonetheless you're going to hear people saying it doesn't go far enough. And the president has also talked just a bit about rolling back regulation especially as it relates to the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans are encouraging that because they see regulations that the administration has put in as burdensome and a drag on the economy.
So some of this, some of that, probably a lot of it a nonstarter because it's going to be seen as political positioning on the part of the president.
CHO: Well, I think we know two things, Joe. One is that this is probably a first draft, and second is that there's going to be a tough fight ahead in congress. Joe Johns, live for us in Washington, thank you.
The president addresses Congress and the nation with his jobs plan Thursday night, 7:00 p.m. eastern. Our special coverage begins at 6:00. And, of course, you can watch it all here live on CNN. VELSHI: When it comes to creating jobs and turning the economy around, Mitt Romney insists that he is the man for the job. The former Massachusetts governor unveiled his own 59-point plan that he claims will create 11 million jobs in the first four years of a Romney White House. And he couldn't resist taking a shot at President Obama when he unveiled it yesterday.
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MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even the president, by the way, he's not a bad guy. He just doesn't know how the economy works. He never worked in the economy. I think to create jobs it helps to have had a job, and I have. And I have. And so I'm looking forward to him coming back into the real economy.
(APPLAUSE)
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VELSHI: CNN political editor Mark Preston joins us live from Washington this morning. Mark, Mitt Romney has put out a very, very, very detailed jobs plan.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: It's 59 points, 59 points, Ali. So many points, in fact, it has its own book and you can download it off the Internet if you want to get into every detail he laid out yesterday.
But let's look at three of the top details that he talked about yesterday. First of all he said he would waive the Obama health care reform law. This is a very big talking point amongst Republicans running for president. He would also cut the corporate tax rate and boost domestic energy production. These are all very big talking points for Republicans nowadays.
You know, when Mitt Romney unveiled his plan yesterday, Ali, it wasn't just the Obama campaign that criticized him, saying that he's using recycled old ideas. It was also his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. In Rick Perry, the Texas governor who is dealing with the wildfires right now criticized him, as did Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor.
They both said when Mitt Romney was the governor of Massachusetts, he never supported these type of economic ideals. So we're starting to see this fighting for the Republican presidential nomination come out in terms of policy, and tonight perhaps we'll see that in California when three of them will take stage with five others to talk about their future, their ideas.
VELSHI: The Republicans are not offering a formal response to the president's speech on Thursday night, as Dan was just telling us, but it's pretty clear these candidates, at least the front running ones, will offer some response to it.
PRESTON: Yes, there's no question. And the fact of the matter is we saw Mitt Romney trying to preempt that by putting out his 59- point plan already, and we saw Jon Huntsman try do the same thing. What they're trying to do is present their plans out to be the main speaker for the Republican Party right now because there is a big void right now, Ali. There is no real leader of the Republican Party of Mitch McConnell in the Senate, John Boehner in the House. But really the leader of the Republican party is going to be whoever wins this nomination, Ali.
VELSHI: Mark, good to see you this morning. Mark Preston in Washington.
CHO: We are following new developments this morning in a massacre at an IHOP restaurant. It happened in Carson City, Nevada. A gunman opened fire killing three members of Nevada's National Guard and a civilian. Seven others were wounded.
VELSHI: The suspected shooter is 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion. He killed himself. His motive may never be known. But there is speculation this morning he was targeting the military. Reporter Nick Monacelli with CNN affiliate KXTV has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK MONACELLI, KXTV CORRESPONDENT: There are moments in time when strangers come together for a united cause. In Carson City no one really knows that cause.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's happened today has brought us here tonight.
MONACELLI: But they knew they wanted to be together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little boy got pulled from a classroom today to find out his dad was killed.
MONACELLI: The reason they are here is because of an unreasonable act. Around 9:00, Eduardo Sencion went on a shooting rampage starting outside of IHOP and then moving inside where he found a group of uniformed National Guard members and started shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sounded like fire crackers.
MONACELLI: Then the shooting moved outside. Ralph Swagler owns the restaurant next door.
RALPH SWAGLER, WITNESS, NEARBY STORE OWNER: My son went to lock the front door and that's when he noticed us and started shooting up my restaurant. We had bullets whizzing all around us.
MONACELLI: Fortunately no one in his restaurant was hurt, but 11 were, and four of them are dead. Of those, three are Guard members. The FBI does not think this is linked to terrorism, but the county says the coincidence is high.
SHERIFF KENNY FURLONG, CARSON CITY, NEVADA: Obviously when five out of 11 of the victims are uniformed National Guard members, that's taking a priority interest. There has been some suggestion by his family members that there is some mental health issues.
MONACELLI: But those details are secondary to the pain this community is feeling. Gathered in front of the Veterans Memorial Wall, they realized new veterans were made on their own soil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you imagine going through all that crap and you come home, you're having breakfast, and somebody -- it's insane.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: According to KXTV, authorities plan to release the names of the shooting victims later this morning.
CHO: Here's what else is happening this morning, a deadly attack on India's high court. At least nine people were killed, dozens more injured when a bomb exploded outside the Delhi high court complex. Authorities say the bomb was hidden in a briefcase near a crowd of people waiting to get inside. There's been no claim yet of responsibility.
VELSHI: We're telling you about this earlier. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the government is doing what it can to make flying less of a hassle. She says travelers will eventually be able to go through airport security without taking off their shoes. It will take much longer, though, for restrictions on carry-ons, those liquids to be relaxed.
CHO: Best news I've heard all day.
VELSHI: Yes, that's pretty good.
CHO: And this is the most interesting story I've heard in a while. The search on for a new CEO at Yahoo! That's because Carol Bartz was fired after the board grew impatient with the company's growth. In a letter to the entire company, Bartz wrote "I am very sad to tell you I have just been fired over the phone by Yahoo! chairman of the board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward." You got to give her credit.
VELSHI: It's better than that whole I'm taking time to spend with my family kind of thing. She laid it out there.
CHO: You got to give her credit for her honesty. Good for her.
VELSHI: The stock is up in after hours trading as a result of that. So who knows? Tough world out there. You make it to the top and then that's what happens.
All right, still to come this morning, the White House working on a plan to save the post office. Is it enough to save that cash strapped agency? I'm going to talk to the postmaster general about it.
CHO: And rising from the ashes ten years after the fall of the twin towers, a look at the incredible progress being made on construction of the new World Trade Center tower. I was just there yesterday. We'll have more on that next.
VELSHI: And some footprints on the moon. NASA is releasing some new high-def photos, and they actually show you where man left his mark. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. It's 15 minutes after the hour.
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VELSHI: And some footprints on the moon. NASA is releasing some new high-def photos and they actually show you where man left his mark.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. It's 15 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
The White House may deliver the Post Office some welcome news. The administration right now working on plans to save -- to save the cash strapped agency from defaulting on its massive $5.5 billion pension payment by giving it an extra three months to pay up. But even with that reprieve, the agency warns it's still likely to run out of money.
Joining me now is the Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe. Mr. Donahoe, thank you for being with us.
PATRICK DONAHOE, U.S. POSTMASTER GENERAL: Good morning, Ali.
VELSHI: Let's talk a little bit about this. This shortfall, explain it to me. This isn't just an operating shortfall. This is pension liabilities that you have that you don't have the money to pay.
DONAHOE: That's right.
Two things are happening. First of all, people are paying bills online, our volume has gone down. The second thing is, that we are required by law to prepay retiree health benefits to the tune of $5.5 billion a year. Both of those together have really created a very tough financial situation for us.
VELSHI: What's the thinking about prepaying these benefits? I would say the -- I would think the obvious thinking is that in most companies we have unfunded liabilities. You've got all these obligations and no likelihood of ever meeting them. The Post Office has the opposite situation.
DONAHOE: Well, that's exactly right. The idea behind the pre- funding is this. The fact that our volume will go down over time, there has been concern we wouldn't be able to pay these benefits later on, so we've been required by law to prepay them.
What we're trying to do is change the process. We're proposing that we take over our own health care system and pull the cost downs and in effect eliminate the need to prefund going forward.
VELSHI: All right. If you -- if you got that way, how much money might you be able to get out of the system? How much money that has already been banked would you be able to take out?
DONAHOE: There's a thing. The liability is $90 billion. We've already paid $44 billion into it. We think that we would be able to offset the additional $46 billion.
VELSHI: OK. What does that do for you on an operating basis? How much money does the Post Office lose just for being the post office?
DONAHOE: Well, right now, our operating loss is about $2 billion. We've got a plan in place that -- we're requesting help from Congress to eliminate the six- to five-day delivery. That will save us $3 billion. We're also making some internal changes in our networks that will save us about $5 billion.
And our goal is to get profitable over the next three years, pay down our debt, and get our finances stabilized going forward.
VELSHI: Who's on the hook when you're not profitable?
DONAHOE: Well, we are to a large extent. We've got a debt ceiling that goes up to $15 billion. One option is to increase that which we don't want to do. We need to just go ahead and make these changes.
America's mailing habits have changed. We still do a great job with advertising mail. People use us for that. They use us for packages. That's where we'll be focusing going forward.
VELSHI: How do you -- how do you bridge this -- this gap between feeling and looking to some people like a government agency, like a civil service organization, and needing to compete as a real business? What has to change for the Post Office to really compete against your -- your major competitors?
DONAHOE: Well, the key thing is, is we need radical change in the way that our business model is constructed. Too many constraints. I mean, as you -- as I mentioned to you, I've got to ask for permission to go from six days to five days from Congress. No other business would do that.
We also have the ability to choose our own health care process, so that we can get away from a $5.5 billion payment every year. Those are the kind of things that we need the freedom to act on right now.
VELSHI: So you're talking about things you want to be profitable in the next two to three years, but you're talking about running out of money this fiscal year. What -- is there a plan that is being worked out right now by the White House that you think is going to be reasonably allow the Post Office to stay liquid?
DONAHOE: Yes. The White House let us know yesterday that the $5.5 billion payment they're going to propose it be pushed back for 90 days. That gives Congress the opportunity to work through legislative process in order to get us some of the things that we've been asking for.
VELSHI: I want to ask you about this -- this proposal that's been floated that would involve over a period of a few years, laying off in excess of 100,000 people. I think 120,000 people. First of all, you don't -- you're not at the moment -- you don't have the authority to do that.
DONAHOE: Well, we don't have the authority to what we call put into place a reduction of force. We have no layoff clauses within some of our contracts. We're working with the unions to try to figure out the best way to get it to that point.
What's happened over the past 10 years is this. We've reduced the head count in this organization by 250,000 people. So our people have done a great job, very productive. The problem is as that volume goes down we have to reduce the head count even faster.
VELSHI: All right. Patrick Donahoe, thanks for joining us to shed some light on this. It's going to be a discussion that affects all of us either workers or people who use the Postal Service. So good to have this conversation with you.
DONAHOE: Thank you.
CHO: I can't imagine the Post Office shutting down, I'll have to say.
VELSHI: No, but --
CHO: And I know it's tough times.
VELSHI: You can't imagine post delivery going to five days.
CHO: Yes. That will --
(CROSSTALK)
CHO: And quite frankly I'm surprised it hasn't yet.
VELSHI: Right.
CHO: And obviously there's been a holdup.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHO: All right. Still to come this morning, President Obama preparing to deliver his big jobs speech tomorrow. But what do small business owners want to hear from the president? We'll talk to two of them next.
Plus, want to know where to grab the best hamburger? Ali, you don't eat burgers these days.
VELSHI: No.
CHO: Never.
VELSHI: Not before 7:00 A.M.
CHO: But we're going to tell you where you can get the best burger, the best fries, the best fast food joints and we're going to tell you which one was ranked number one. It may surprise you.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. It's 24 minutes after the hour.
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VELSHI: Twenty-seven minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. "Minding Your Business."
U.S. markets down for the third straight day. And since the beginning of the year, the Dow is down nearly four percent, the NASDAQ about seven percent, the S&P 500, which you may have mutual funds that look like it, are down about 7.5 percent so far this year.
Hey, Italy's at the center stage today in the European debt crisis. Its parliament will vote on a new budget this afternoon as thousands of workers protested yesterday new austerity measures that are part of the budget proposal.
Right now, U.S. stock futures for the Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500 all trading higher ahead of the opening bill -- opening bell. I'm sorry. Lots of volatility in the markets as we've been seeing for the past few weeks.
Struggling automaker Saab is filing for bankruptcy protection today in Sweden. The goal is to reorganize the company while it waits for additional funding. This was expected as part of the company's restructuring plan.
And if you're looking for the best place to grab a quick bite this morning, you may want to check out Wendy's. It's the number one major fast food giant according to Zagat's 2011 Fast Food Survey. You just want the best burger, you'll have to go to Five Guys. It nabbed the number one spot. And for those golden fries, it was the Golden Arches. McDonald's earned the bragging rights for the best French fries.
Don't forget, for the very latest news about your money, check out the all new CNNMoney.com.
AMERICAN MORNING back right after the break.
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CHO: The plan to get America working again. President Obama unveils it tomorrow. But what do small business owners want to hear today? We find out on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning, everybody. It's 30 minutes after the hour on this Wednesday, September 7th. You are looking live --
VELSHI: It's not still raining, is it?
CHO: Yes. You're looking live at Columbus Circle right outside our studios here by Central Park. Yes, apparently, it is still raining and it will be rainy most of the afternoon. I hope you brought your umbrella.
VELSHI: I did.
CHO: Here's the good news though, Ali, the highs are in the 70s.
VELSHI: There's --
CHO: Right after Labor Day, just like fall.
VELSHI: This is the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. In fact, some parts of the northeast, where we've just dried up from Irene, there's renewed flooding. In the Philly area, the Schuylkill River, there are more concerns about this, so wet up here, dry down south. Here are your top stories.
There are a lot going on, really dry, in fact in Texas, raging wildfires are scorching Texas right now. Governor Rick Perry is calling them a monstrous storm of smoke and fire. The flames have now killed four people, hundreds of firefighters still on the front lines. Texas Forest Service says more than 700 homes have burned in the past two days.
A massacre in Carson City, Nevada. A gunman opened fire on uniformed National Guardsmen as they were eating breakfast in a local Ihop yesterday. Three Guards men were killed along with a civilian before the gunman killed himself. He has been identified as 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion. His motive remains unclear.
Democratic sources telling CNN President Obama's jobs plan will include $300 billion in tax breaks, incentives and other spending. The costs will be offset by an equal amount of budget cuts. The president unveils his plan tomorrow night 7:00 p.m. Eastern, full coverage right here on CNN.
CHO: If President Obama wants to create jobs, he'll definitely need the help of my next two guests, small business owners. According to the U.S. Treasury, they create 60 percent of the jobs right here in the United States, employing about half the work force. So do they like what they're hearing about this new plan that the president will unveil tomorrow?
Joining me, Patty Briguglio, she is the president of MMI Public Relations, a PR firm. She joins us from Raleigh, North Carolina. Hi, there, Patty. And Christopher Zane, the founder of Zane's Cycles, a big bike shop in Branford, Connecticut, near New Haven.
And Chris is right here in the studio. Chris, I want to ask you, you know, we're told that a key component of the president's jobs plan is an extension of the payroll tax break for employees. Is this music to your ears? You say the president needs to listen to Main Street. Is he?
CHRISTOPHER J. ZANE, ZANE'S CYCLES FOUNDER: He's really not because when you look at the payroll tax breaks, they're minimal. If I'm going to hire a new employee, it's going to cost me $40,000 or $50,000. A thousand dollar tax credit doesn't make me want to hire a lot of people because it doesn't add up to a whole lot.
So unfortunately we don't have the -- there's not enough behind it to be able to justify the pain that can be created by hiring people if you don't necessarily need them.
CHO: Patty, I know you were hoping to hear something else from the president. You say it's the same old, same old. We should point out you did not vote for President Obama. What do you want to hear from the president?
PATTY BRIGUGLIO, PRESIDENT OF MMI PUBLIC RELATIONS: You know, I don't know where to start. The thing I want to hear most is that President Obama understands that government doesn't create jobs. What the government does is create an environment that allows small business to create jobs.
And that what he will do is, he will work, he will lead from the front, not from behind, and that he will work to create that environment, which gives us access to credit, which gives us predictability and certainty so we can plan.
That's what I want to hear. I want some leadership that gives me an environment where I can plan for the future.
CHO: Chris, interesting. I want to talk a little -- listen, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that we're in tough economic times.
ZANE: Absolutely.
CHO: Unemployment is still at 9.1 percent. You know, I would think that in this environment, people are thinking to themselves, I don't really need that new bike. And I know you say that when there's a 500-point drop in the market your store is empty the next day. How has your store fared? And what do you see as the biggest problem for small business owners?
ZANE: I've been in business 30 years. I've been through lots of presidents and lots of bad economies and great economies and that doesn't really upset the part. We can continue and move forward regardless of what the economy is doing. It's the uncertainty in the economy that immediately affects our business.
CHO: In fact, you say, let the market go down, just let it keep going down.
ZANE: Right. Let it stabilize, figure out what -- figure out the trend and then we know what to do. You know, I agree with the credit capacity. One of the biggest problems of small businesses is they don't have access to credit.
If you can't make payroll because you can't get a credit line, you're not going to hire new people because you're not going to take on the risk. I've made payroll 1,500 weeks 100 percent of the time, a lot of weeks to be able to make payroll.
And without access to credit, without the ability to get money to help make, you know, the -- cover the dips and the peaks, that's what's really going to create jobs in the future.
CHO: Well, I want to talk to you, Patty, about this as well because I would think, again, in this environment that companies are saying to themselves, you know what, I can cut that PR budget. I know you just recently moved into a new building that's got to be tough for you?
BRIGUGLIO: Actually, we're doing OK. We're very tightly focused on what we do, and I'm sort of different in the sense that I saw the downturn as an opportunity to grow and I had been hoarding cash during the good times.
I was doing the opposite of what everybody else was doing. What the government could do right now is cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world and it would be better for us to get 25 percent of something than 35 percent of nothing.
CHO: Patty --
BRIGUGLIO: -- that alone --
CHO: OK, and Chris, you know, she brings up the corporate tax rate. You know, Mitt Romney unveiled his own plan yesterday, 59 points.
ZANE: Right.
CHO: One of them being cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent. Would that help you?
ZANE: Well, it will help us, but I don't know it's the thing that's going to make the change.
CHO: So what do you want to hear?
ZANE: I want to hear, one, that this is a political speech to get re-elected, that he really has something that's going to give us some opportunity, and again, that they're going to look to Main Street to help grow jobs.
Big businesses don't necessarily create jobs for small business, but small business creates jobs for big business. If I buy a building or I buy some equipment that trickles up to the big businesses.
CHO: You said something interesting to me in the break, which was this, basically you said, what the president needs to do, what the government needs to do, is just get out of our way?
ZANE: Absolutely. Small business, we know what we need to do to be successful and fortunately like Patty, we've done what needs to be done to be able to weather the storm.
Now just let us do it and stop, you know, making things uncomfortable and try to figure out how to flash trading and all the things that make everything so turbulent. If we could diminish the turbulence, small business is going be just fine.
CHO: All right, Patty Briguglio and Christopher Zane, we thank you for joining us today. Great discussion.
ZANE: Thank you.
CHO: Good luck.
VELSHI: Indeed. An excellent, excellent discussion.
One of the things that President Obama is expected to announce is the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank during his jobs speech on Thursday. Want to tell you a little bit about what it would do.
The National Infrastructure Bank would fund the repair of infrastructure projects, bridges, rail, waterways, roads, through public seed money and private investors. It's actually estimated that we need to spend more than $2 trillion just to improve existing infrastructure in the United States to standard.
This isn't new things, because we want newer, fancier infrastructure. This is keeping things going the way they should be. Now here's the way it works. The infrastructure bank will serve as a central source of low interest funding, but they will combine with private investors. When I say private investors, think about pension funds and things like that providing half the investment so half the investment comes from here, half from private investors.
The idea it would go to where these projects would employ a lot of people. The projects would only be approved after a thorough cost analysis and obviously if you got private investors in there, they want to be making money.
The infrastructure bank would operate independently from Congress. It would need an initial seed investment of $5 billion to $30 billion, but the point of it would be to be profitable. And this suggestion actually has the support of the AFL-CIO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, obviously everybody would do it a little differently, but it has broad support.
The intention is that it would create thousands of construction jobs. Obviously, the criticism here is that while we talk about shovel ready jobs, it wouldn't get up and running fasts enough to affect the jobs situation we've got right now.
But we'll be talking a lot about infrastructure banks. You'll be hearing more about that and of course, CNN will have live coverage of President Obama's jobs speech, 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
We're going to take a quick break. AMERICAN MORNING will be back. I'll be talking to the CEO of Starbucks.
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CHO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. A hearing for the suspect in the death of an American woman in Aruba is expected to take place later this morning. Gary Giordano is asking to be set free due to a lack of evidence.
His traveling companion, Robyn Gardner, went missing on August 2nd, but despite an exhaustive search, she has not been found. Martin Savidge is live in Aruba for us. Martin, good morning to you.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes. This is going to be a big day for Gary Giordano because he's going before an appellate court, really. Three judges that are going to determine if last week's detainment extension where he was extended for another 60 days on the island can be overturned.
In other words, the three judges are going to listen to his defense attorneys say, look, there is no evidence to say that this is anything beyond what Gary Giordano said it was, Robyn Gardner vanished in a snorkelling accident. The prosecution, of course, is going to tell it a little differently than that they're still continuing their investigation.
They believe it is a serious event that's happened here, but the problem is no one can really say is it a crime, which is why the defense team is going to say he should be out today. And that could happen.
Let me remind you of what happened. August 2nd, when Robyn Gardner and Gary Giordano both came down here, traveling companions on a trip to Aruba. But the last time they were seen was 4:30 in the afternoon.
Supposedly they went snorkelling, according to Gary Giordano, behind a restaurant where they had their lunch. He goes in the water, she goes in the water. They get out. He decides maybe it's time to turn back. He gets out of the water looks back and she is not there. Calls authorities and then a massive search is begun.
The mystery is compounded by the fact that just a couple of days before their journey, Gary Giordano took out a $1.5 million life insurance policy on Robyn Gardner and he was the beneficiary.
That's what the prosecution is going to point to today, remind the judges here there's a lot of money at stake and a lot of potential motivation. We should know before the day is out whether Gary Giordano goes home or stays.
VELSHI: The story continues to be very compelling. All right, Martin, we'll check in with you as soon as you have news on that, let us know. Martin Savidge in Aruba. There are also major developments in the Amanda Knox trial, a retrial as the case is. The judge is rejecting the prosecution's call for a new DNA assessment.
CHO: CNN's Zain Verjee following developments from London. Zain, good morning. What's the latest?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning to you guys. Well, this is very dramatic. I mean, this is a pivotal week. It's now been adjourned until the 23rd of September, but the focus has been on the bloodied bra of the victim, Meredith Kercher, as well as a knife in question.
And the prosecution and the defense are making very strong arguments on both sides. But two critical things have just happened that have turned the balance in favor of the defense most analysts would say.
First of all, one of Italy's best known forensics experts came on the stand and gave a very technical explanation as to why the DNA on the knife itself, he says that it is enough to be conclusive to suggest that it is actually Meredith Kercher's blood. And that is a key point because the prosecution put her away based partly on suggesting that that was the case. And secondly, the prosecution said, look, we want to call in another witness, we want more DNA assessments going on here. And the judge, just a short while ago, said, no, he's not going to allow that. Amanda Knox's father told our Matthew Chance this, "Clearly Amanda no longer has a case to answer." So they're keeping their fingers crossed that she could walk.
VELSHI: All right.
CHO: Well, you're Ali Velshi.
(LAUGHTER)
CHO: Zain Verjee, thank you for that update from London.
VELSHI: Still to come, a plea from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, why he wants everyone to stop using the words "Ground Zero."
CHO: "Terror in the Dust," our Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates why first responders are still getting sick 10 years after the twin towers fell.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. It's 46 minutes after the hour.
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CHO: A lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
Fire crews in Texas fighting an uphill battle against scores of wildfires. 181 separate fires have erupted in just the past week. Four people have died, more than 700 homes destroyed in just the past two days.
As President Obama puts the finishing touches on his jobs speech to Congress tomorrow night, we're learning that his plan to put America back to work includes $300 billion in tax breaks and spending cuts.
The family of Yale graduate student, Annie Le, who was killed in a research lab two years ago, is now filing a wrongful death suit. The suit claims the university failed to adequately protect women on campus. Her body was found stuffed inside a wall. School officials say the lawsuit has no merit.
NASA is releasing new high-definition photos that apparently show tracks on the moon from several Apollo missions. They came from NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter, which was launched back in 2009.
And we knew Regis Philbin was leaving his show "Live with Regis and Kelly." Guess what? Now we know when. Regis announced that Friday, November 18th, will be his last day on the program.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back in two minutes.
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VELSHI: 51 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
It was created nearly 10 years ago, after the 9/11 attacks, and the Department of Homeland Security has yet to reach its full potential. The Government Accountability Office is releasing a 221- page report at a Senate hearing later today. While it says the department is making strides in protecting the nation, the grade it gets is incomplete.
CHO: That's right. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would like everyone to stop calling the World Trade Center site "Ground Zero." The city is just days away from opening the new September 11th Memorial. The mayor would like everyone to start calling the area the World Trade Center and the National September 11th Memorial and Museum. That's a mouthful. He will be updating construction progress at the site later today. The new tower already stands 80 stories tall.
VELSHI: It looks pretty impressive in lower Manhattan.
CHO: It does.
VELSHI: All right, take a look at the official news September 11th Memorial flag. It was unveiled yesterday by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. It has already been raised at the state capital and it will be flown at the entrance of the new 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site. The 40 yellow stars honoring the memory of the 40 men and women who died when flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. CHO: When the twin towers crumbled, nearly 3,000 people died. A lot of New Yorkers believe that number needs to be adjusted higher.
VELSHI: That's because of what they call the "Terror in the Dust," toxins which many believe are still killing first responders a decade after the disaster.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been investigating this and joins us in New York.
Sanjay, you're here and you've got this dust with you in a bottle.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is one of the few reminders now thankfully, in some ways, of what happened 10 years ago. But this is dust. Researchers have been studying this for some time.
And you can hold it. It's all sealed.
But this is a very controversial substance, as you know. What exactly does this cause in terms of health effects? A new study came out, I heard you talking about this morning with Deb Feyerick as well. A good study. A 19 percent increase in the likelihood of cancer among first responders who worked for the fire department in New York. That is significant. This study came out. They have been studying this obviously over the last 10 years. It was a seven-year-long study. But already you're starting to see some bits of controversy.
Dr. Persange (ph), who wrote the study, I asked him, I said, so for a fire department first responder who is watching this --
VELSHI: Yes.
GUPTA: -- and developed cancer after 9/11, what should they take away? He said there is a very good chance that their cancer came about as a result of the dust. Again, pretty significant.
CHO: What exactly is in the dust that is carcinogenic?
GUPTA: It's a wholly unique substance. It's this amalgamation of various chemicals that came together, sort of thrust together, benzene, mercury titanium, lead. One of the responders, during this documentary, he held it up and said, I'm convinced I'm holding up the most dangerous substance I've ever held --
CHO: Wow.
GUPTA: -- because of all the stuff that's in there.
And keep in mind -- Ali and I have talked about this before -- but there were volatile compounds released at the time that simply evaporated into the air.
VELSHI: Right.
GUPTA: They could not be captured. They could not be analyzed. They could not be studied.
VELSHI: The fuel from the plane.
GUPTA: That's right.
VELSHI: The fumes that come off of metals as they melt.
GUPTA: That's right. All that sort of stuff.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: And the thing is, now these studies are coming out, but the first responders have known this for some time, or at least felt it for some time. One of the things that really struck me when we were filming this, there are cancer clubs here in New York. I don't know if you're familiar with that. They get together weekly to talk about their cancers, the New York City firemen. you're looking at one of them there. They get together -- these are young, in this indication, members of the New York Police Department.
CHO: They all have cancer.
GUPTA: They all have cancer.
VELSHI: Wow.
GUPTA: They were all first responders. And there are clubs like that around the city. There is Ernie Alabona (ph), again, who developed cancer afterwards and didn't have any history of it in his family.
CHO: And you were with them. What do they talk about?
GUPTA: They talk -- they are absolutely convinced that this -- their cancers, they illnesses -- they were healthy guys and now they are dying as a result of what they believe is the dust. They are also upset about something that is been ongoing for some time and that is this compensation bill, the Zadroga bill --
VELSHI: The Zadroga bill, yes.
GUPTA: -- and whether or not it's going to cover some of their health expenses and some of their compensation.
VELSHI: And it's not. They decided -- the Zadroga bill came out with research saying that said that this dust doesn't cause some things that some people have been claiming they have been getting.
GUPTA: That's right.
VELSHI: And they are not going to re-evaluate that until next year.
GUPTA: That's what they say. They say, in July of 2012, they are going to look at the studies, including this big study that just came out and say, OK, should we put cancer on the table as well, something that's compensated. Right now, they say no, but I guarantee you, over the next few days --
CHO: In the meantime, people are dying.
GUPTA: People are dying. And they are going to let their voices be heard. I think some of that is even happening today where they are going to stay, look, look at the study. Why do we have to wait another six, eight, 10 months?
CHO: Right. Yes.
VELSHI: And the administrator, we heard from her, saying they kind of believe it's probably true, but the study didn't bear it out. Their studies didn't bear it out.
GUPTA: There are so many different studies on it.
VELSHI: Yes.
GUPTA: And even the -- Dr. Persange (ph), who wrote this study, says, look, I'm not going to say this will change it.
VELSHI: Right.
GUPTA: But there is a study of 10,000 firefighters. We were following them long before 9/11, and we will continue to follow them, and here is what we found.
VELSHI: All right, Sanjay, good to see you.
GUPTA: You, too. Good to be here.
VELSHI: You can see the full investigation of the health fallout of 9/11, plus rare never-before-footage of the aftermath of the disaster in Dr. Sanjay Gupta's documentary. It's called "Terror in the Dust." It airs tonight, 11:00 eastern, right here on CNN.
AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
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