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American Morning
New 9/11 Terror Threat; Power Back In San Diego; Economists Like Obama's Jobs Plan; Political Analyst Assesses President's Jobs Package; Building at World Trade Center Site Continues; The 9/11 Fund: Putting a Price on Life
Aired September 09, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Al Qaeda may have its sights on 9/11 again. I'm Carol Costello. People in New York and in Washington, D.C., being told to stay alert. The feds watching a possible terror threat 10 years to this day after the attacks.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans.
Traffic gridlock, new plants offline, a massive power outage hits California. But the lights are slowly coming back on -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: And good morning to you. It is Friday. Happy Friday. It's September 9th. Ali Velshi has the day off.
ROMANS: Up first, a security watch for you this morning. New information that al Qaeda may want to mark 9/11 with another new terrorist attack. The Feds alerting local authorities about a, quote, "specific and credible, but unconfirmed threat."
COSTELLO: New York and Washington are already on high alert this morning.
But here is what we know right now: a senior administration official saying New York and Washington are the possible targets and they are looking for at least three people, at least one of those people believed to be an American citizen. The plot may involve a car or truck bomb. The threat believed to be linked to al Qaeda or its affiliates who express the desire to strike on an iconic day, the tenth year anniversary of 9/11.
ROMANS: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the best way to fight terrorism is to refuse to be intimidated by it. New Yorkers are being asked to be cautious and to be aware of this weekend.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we spoke to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Look at your world through the prism of September 11th. Everyone's life changed somewhat as a result of that horrific event. So look at your situation. See if there is anything different. See if there is anything of a suspicious nature and give us a call. There's no dumb calls. We want to know what people see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Authorities in New York City already on high alert with the National 9/11 Memorial set to open on Sunday.
Susan Candiotti is here.
You've been working your sources. So do we know anything more about these three men?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. We don't yet, but certainly that what they are actively trying to track down. Certainly, they want to know names and one thing we are hearing is that they might have names that are so common that that might make it harder to track them down.
COSTELLO: So, one is supposedly an American and then the other two Pakistani, is that right?
CANDIOTTI: Well, the thought is some of this information may be traced to the tribal border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. And so, therefore, they might be coming from that area. But as we have seen in previous plots sometimes, if there is a U.S. citizen that is proven to be involved, sometimes people go there for training.
All of this really, they are looking into trying to nail this down. So for now, the main idea, as you go about your business in New York and in Washington, you may see more random searches. You might see more bags being inspected; more security around public transportation hubs, including train stations and subways, this kind of thing; looking into more backpacks; and certainly more security at famous landmarks around town.
This is the kind of thing they say there are measures that may be taken that you may see and you might not see on the other hand. And so, it's one thing, for example, when you look at New York City, it was just a little over a year ago that was there an attempted car bombing in Times Square. Remember, that plot was thwarted because someone saw something and said something.
Certainly, always around 9/11 anniversaries, there is chatter. And this year, no exception. But this information, very, very fresh. It came into the hands of U.S. authorities about noon time on Wednesday. And so, that's why it's so fresh, it's so new, and they are actively working on it so hard.
ROMANS: The interesting thing about unconfirmed, so specific, credible, you know, that is nerve-wracking and then unconfirmed. So, they are talking to sources around the world, according to Fran Townsend, our national security contributor -- expert, right? Looking around the world to try to see, so what more do we know about this and what have our friends around the world heard about this?
CANDIOTTI: You have to look at it many different angles and bring in the help you can from different sources. And so, sure, when you have something like this, you can't take it, you know, you can't dismiss it. And, certainly, there are concerned about this to call a last-minute news conference on Thursday night to publicly discuss this and to issue a law enforcement bulletin to agencies around the country to say, look out for this, look for anything suspicious in your communities too, because you just don't know.
ROMANS: Right. All right. Susan Candiotti -- thank you, Susan.
COSTELLO: As we approach 10 years since 9/11, Pakistan is shooing foreign journalists from Osama bin Laden's compound.
Our Nick Paton Walsh saw that first hand as he was catching a glimpse of the home. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's early quiet, though. We catch a glimpse of the house. Bushes growing thick around it, almost like they are trying to swallow the secret again. But out of nowhere, we are stopped by a soldier.
(on camera): We have been pretty quickly stopped by the police here, asked for our passports and told to leave. In fact, we have been asked to stay with them a little while. All surprising given a few months ago this place was teaming with journalists and quite open. Things have, obviously, definitely changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: They have.
People in the area say many of bin Laden's former neighbors have been accused of being spies for the CIA.
ROMANS: I'm sure his neighbors are really tired of all the people trekking through there as well perhaps.
It's something most of us will never forget. But a new poll shows 9/11, it may be fading from some of our thoughts. Fewer people think about 9/11 every day than they did just one year after the attacks.
Five percent today compared to 30 percent back in 2002. Only 12 percent now think about it every week. Many more people say they think about it at least once a month or hardly ever. Two percent say they never think about the attacks. That's the same as it was about nine years ago.
COSTELLO: And that brings us to our A.M. talkback. The question for you this morning: how has 9/11 changed you? Even now, a decade later, it's hard to put into words what exactly 9/11 means to us, that day, both the pain and glory of humanity were on display unfiltered and in real-time.
A warning: you have not seen some of these images in a very long time and they might upset you. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This just in. You are looking at, obviously, a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apparently, a plane or helicopter hit part of the Pentagon itself as you take a look at the pictures there. I must say every time we hear a plane coming up overhead, it gets a little -- a little nervous where we are.
We have a report now that a large plane crashed this morning north of the Somerset County airport, which is in western Pennsylvania.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just told him have a good day at work and I haven't heard from him since.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been very hard. Very grieving. It's been insurmountable type of pain.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Either you're with us or you are with the terrorists.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist is responsible for the deaths of innocent men, women, and children.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
COSTELLO: So, looking back, we'd like to know for our talkback question today, how has 9/11 changed you? Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. Facebook.com/AmericanMorning.
We'll read some of your responses later on in the hour.
ROMANS: But, you know, after 9/11, no one knew exactly when it was OK to move forward with, a, quote/unquote, normal day and nobody knew what it was like to laugh again including the late night comedians.
Here is a look back how they handled their return to the air waves in the days after the attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: A lot of folks have asked me what are you going to do when you get back? What are you going to say? I mean, geez, what a terrible thing to have to do. And I don't see it as a burden at all. I -- I see it as a privilege and -- ah. I just see it as a privilege and everyone here does see it that way.
CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: All I can say is that tonight we are going to start and we are going to try to make this little show, which has always been silly and unprofessional and largely inconsequential in the larger world. We're going to try to do one of these tonight and then we're going to try tomorrow and then so on and so on.
DAVID LETTERMAN, COMEDIAN: The reason that I am doing a show and the reason I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani. Very early on, after the attack, and how strange does it sound to invoke that phrase, after the attack, Mayor Giuliani encouraged us and here lately, implored us to go back to our lives, go on living, continue trying to make New York City the place that it should be and because of him, I'm here tonight.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NYC MAYOR: Live from New York, it's Saturday night!
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
COSTELLO: Wow! It does bring you back to those days you really clearly don't want to remember. I just remember how afraid I felt, for the first time in my life, because I grew up in a time where, you know, I didn't experience war. So I just remember being afraid and I talked to my dad who was in his late 70s then because I was afraid to fly. And he said I'm getting on a plane to go to Vegas because --
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: What are you talking about? If you're afraid, you let them win. And after I talked to my dad about that, you know, he lived through Pearl Harbor, right?
ROMANS: Right.
COSTELLO: I said, come on, I'm American, like, I'm courageous. I can fight back. I remember that very clearly, that conversation.
ROMANS: It's 10 years of putting one foot in front of the other and living, you know, 24-hour day for 10 years. It feels like yesterday when you see Giuliani opening "Saturday Night Live." It feels like yesterday to me, but you think how much has happened in 10 years. I mean, I got married and had three kids, you know? I mean, a lot has happened, but it does still feel raw to me. It really does.
COSTELLO: Yes.
Life goes on. Tonight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern, "TIME" and HBO present, "Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience."
And then this Sunday, CNN will bring you special live coverage of the remembrance events throughout the day, "9/11: 10 Years Later," beginning 8:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
ROMANS: Still ahead: a major power failure leaves millions in the dark in southern California. The city of San Diego brought to a near standstill. We are live as power comes back on this morning.
COSTELLO: And relentless rains spark the worst flooding in 40 years for the communities in the Northeast. We're live as thousands make a run for it.
ROMANS: And Hurricane Katia is just one of a trio of storms keeping our CNN forecasters very busy this morning. Katia, Maria, Nate. Welcome to the weekend. Reynolds Wolf has new developments overnight from the CNN hurricane headquarters
It's 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning, Los Angeles. Or good night, whatever the case might be. It's clear right now, 64 degrees. Later today, it will be sunny and 81 degrees and -- wow. My Californian friends, I hope your power is back on by the time you get up.
ROMANS: I know. Me, too. Because it is in San Diego, folks. The lights just coming back on, it's just in, after a partial blackout left more than 5 million without power.
The outage struck -- it's a remarkable to see these streets just empty, flashing red lights.
COSTELLO: I know, and cars backed up. We had earlier pictures of that, too. Officials are blaming a tripped up power line that stretches across California and Arizona for the problem. The blackouts even spread to Northern Mexico. Now, the race is to get the power back on to everybody.
Casey Wian is live in San Diego. So, why is it taking them so long?
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, believe it or not, Carol and Christine, there's actually good news. It's not taking them so long. They've got power restored to all customers of San Diego Gas and Electric just a little more than 12 hours after this massive blackout caused business disruptions, massive traffic jams, and a lot of frayed nerves.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GEIER, VICE PRESIDENT OF ELECTRIC OPERATION, SDG&E: And I'm happy to report, after a very long 12 hours, we have restored power to all 1.4 million customers in San Diego. As we've been talking about all day, this was the most widespread power outage ever in our service territory. The restoration process was a very difficult process.
We had to build our transmission system back piece-by-piece. Once we got the transmission system in place, we worked with all of the local generators in San Diego and got them back and, finally, as we were doing that, we also brought our customers back in service.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, when you think about the job that they've had to accomplish over the last 12 hours, they had to get a hundred different substations back online, a thousand different distribution points. They've been literally working around the clock. Now, two things that are going to be happening now. As power has been restored to everyone, they are urging customers in this area to go easy turning their appliances back on.
They say the grid still remains very fragile, and they don't want any surges of demand that could cause problems again. They're also investigating how this happened. San Diego area is in sort of an unusual situation. Power comes to this area. It's connected to the grid from the east in Arizona where this problem originated.
Normally, that wouldn't be a problem if there is was a power disruption. There might be some rolling brownouts, but what happened, this disruption was so massive it spread to the other source of power which is from the north, involves the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant. That went on automatic shutdown to prevent any further problems. So, they will be investigating how this spread so widely and how they can possibly prevent this from happening in the future.
COSTELLO: I know we keep hearing a tripped up wire caused this massive power outage. So, how exactly could it do that?
WIAN: That's the key question. It's a little bit more than a tripped up wire. What they do know, Arizona power officials say there was an employee who was working on a substation near Yuma, Arizona. Something happened there. They lost power locally. Other employees tried to bring power back into that area. Something else happened and that caused the more widespread disruption.
They're not clear how this all unfolded. There's going to be investigating over the next several weeks. One thing we do know, dating back to 10 years ago when you may remember the state of California had these rolling blackouts and brownouts. The electricity Distribution System here needs an update. It has been modified. It has been improved, but it is very fragile. We've seen the blackouts in the northeast that happened a few years ago affecting some 50 million customers.
This is only one tenth the size of that, but that's one of the infrastructure needs that remains critical in this country these distribution systems of electricity that when something goes wrong, it affects an awful lot of people.
COSTELLO: And it just affected that one wire which brings in, you know, California's imported electricity. Casey Wian, many thanks to you.
Near record flooding in the northeast. At least five people are now dead. Thousands forced to leave their homes.
ROMANS: Officials say the Susquehanna River has started to crest in parts of New York and Pennsylvania. Mary Snow is in hard hit Wyoming, Pennsylvania. Mary, show us what it looks like right now.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Christine, everywhere you go, communities are inundated with water. This is the Eighth Street Bridge connecting with the town of Jenkins where homes are almost completely under water. You take a look at this river and the current, how swiftly it's moving. Consider this. The mayor was telling us that on some days, on a usual day, you could actually walk across this river. That would only be about 12 inches high.
Right now, this is 16 feet above flood stage, and although, the river crested last night, you could see this debris just slamming into this bridge, and this water is not expected to recede until about Sunday. So, while it appears the worse is over, there's still a lot of concern about 65,000 people in Lucerne County were told to evacuate yesterday. It's unclear when they'll be able to return to their homes.
The county commissioner is saying there's no formal assessment on the damage, but she said, potentially, thousands of homes could be damaged. We saw some of those aerial shots from our affiliate, WNET, and then it just shows the absolute devastation and so many of these communities, but officials are also saying, at this point, they have no reports of serious injuries or fatalities.
ROMANS: All right. Mary Snow, and for that, we're definitely thankful when you look at just the broad scope of that devastation. Thanks, Mary.
COSTELLO: Yes. And hopefully, the rains have stopped, but I don't really think they have in all parts of the areas where they've had problems with flooding, but Reynolds Wolf knows -- well, he knows the weather a little bit better than I do so take it away, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You guys are doing just fine. I'll tell you, things really could be worse. And if you're wondering how could they possibly be worse? Well, I'll tell you. Katia, the hurricane, go off the shore. If this thing were a little bit closer to part of the northeast, you'd be having even heavier rainfall in some locations and possibly an additional foot of rain, that will not be the case today.
In fact, maybe some scattered showers, but for the most part, the heavy, heavy rain event is going to be over. We do see some scattered showers now pulling north of Washington, but certainly, not in comparison to the magnitude of rainfall they've had over last 48 pours. Some places from Binghamton, southwards of Wilkes-Barre all the way through Harrisburg and Washington have had anywhere from, say, six to even 10 inches of rainfall, a few locations even more.
So as each minute, each hour passes, we're going to begin to slowly see those rivers drop. That's the good news, but it's not going to happen instantaneously. It will take a bit of time. Flood warnings and watches in effect for much of the northeast. One of the storms we've been watching, again, this area of low pressure moving to the east that's going to bring some rainfall to parts of the Eastern Great Lakes, perhaps, some light showers to Pennsylvania. But, certainly, not the heavy rainfall we could have had with Hurricane Katia that we do expect is going to pull farther to the north and deeper into the Atlantic, and then, will become part of history and out of harm's way. That's the good news. However, we're watching another system which will provide high surf which can be expected for parts of the northeast with Katia.
As we wrap things up, the next one we're watching is going to be, of course, tropical storm Lee (ph) with winds of 40. And you'll notice as we wrap things up, it is going to make its way near the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas. Too early at this point to say if it's going to affect the United States other than bring in some heavy surf. We're going to watch for it carefully. Winds of 80 miles per hour, Category 1 by Wednesday. Let's pitch back to you in the studio.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks so much.
WOLF: You bet, guys.
ROMANS: All right. Up next, some extra bucks for the airlines. Who's hiking the prices? We're watching your money. Twenty-two minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back. It's 25 minutes after the hour. Watching your money this morning. It's all about jobs. Economists are now, this morning, predicting the president's $447 billion jobs plan will add jobs if it is enacted in full. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics estimates it would boost economic growth by two percentage points next year, add 1.9 million jobs, and cut the unemployment rate by a full percentage point.
It could be another down day, though, on Wall Street. Dow futures lower this morning by about 20 points. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ trending lower, too. Investors are uncertain how much of the president's jobs plan would actually be enacted into law and what kind of fighting there could be to get it done.
A sure sign of tough economic times. Wal-Mart bringing back its lay-away program for the upcoming holiday season. It'll be available to customers buying electronics or toys between October 17th and December 16th.
Google just bought restaurant raters Zagat. Executives say they'll use Zagat content to enhance the Google search in Google maps. Terms of that deal were not made public.
Flying? Oh, no! It's getting even more expensive. US Airways raising fares on last minute ticket by up to $10 each way. United, Continental, and Delta all confirming they've matched that price hike. We'll see if it sticks.
Up next, jobs, jobs, jobs. President Obama's big speech to Congress, what comes next, how many jobs will it create, and can the president get it done? AMERICAN MORNING is back after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's just about half past the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Time for your top stories.
New York and Washington on alert right now for a possible attack 10 years to the day after 9/11. A senior administration official saying they are looking for three people, at least one of them an American citizen, and the plot may involve car or truck bombs.
The lights are starting to come back in parts of the southern U.S., but many millions in the dark after power outages hit parts of southern California and Arizona. The blackout is being blamed on a tripped up power line that stretches across both states.
COSTELLO: An emergency declared in New York and Pennsylvania over deadly flooding. President Obama authorizing federal funds to help with relief efforts. Heavy rain has put parts of the northeast under water. Thousands have evacuated as the Susquehanna River rose above the flood stage. At least five people have been killed.
ROMANS: All right, to the president's jobs plan now. A lot of talk this morning about the demeanor of the president during his big speech last night. He called on Congress 17 times to push the measure through quickly. And some people took the next comment as a veiled threat against Republicans if they play politics with this plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Regardless of the arguments we have had in the past, regardless of the arguments we will have in the future, this plan is the right thing to do right now. You should pass it, and I intend to take that message to every corner of this country.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president began his speech by calling on Congress to end the political circus that is paralyzing Washington.
COSTELLO: A lot of observers remarking this morning about how passionate the president appeared to be last night using words, like "fiery" and "emotional." Republicans announcing before the speech they would not be commenting on the jobs bill after it was presented. But earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, the House majority leader Eric Cantor said the two parties might be able to find common ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC CANTOR, (R-VA), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: There is, I think, a lot of room for us to work together. I hope that the president is willing to do what the vice president has said this morning, and that is to work with us in terms of choosing the things that we can agree on together and get them done quickly. Let's set aside the things in the Bill that maybe we can't agree on. So, again, it's in that spirit of working together and building consensus that I hope the president can join us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Cantor objects to the president's demand that Congress accept his entire jobs plan. He calls that the wrong approach. But he believes there are parts of the plan that Republicans would be willing to consider.
ROMANS: So millions of Americans who are out of work or are underemployed have one pressing question this morning -- what happens next? And will we start creating jobs in this country? Here to talk about the president's plan and how it was delivered, where we go from here, CNN political analyst David Gergen live for us from Chicago. Good morning.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning. How are you?
ROMANS: Great, after staying up a little late to go over the plan and trying to figure out how will it create jobs.
GERGEN: I know.
ROMANS: Let me tell you about the analysis of this from Mark Zandi from MoodysEconomy.com. He says it would add two percentage points to GDP next year to economic growth. It would add 1.9 million jobs overall and cut the unemployment rate by one percentage point. So this is his morning after analysis. And, quite frankly, Gene Sperling pointed me to this analysis when I asked him how many jobs would this plan create. That is, of course, if they can pass all of it, David.
GERGEN: Well, Gene Sperling is a smart fellow and realizes those are very good numbers for him and they want to predict as they did for stimulus one that the unemployment rate is going below eight percent, and it never got there.
But it's interesting. We asked CNN this morning to calculate, OK, 1.9 million jobs, $450 billion dollars, how much does that cost per job? I think the calculations came back around $225,000 per job. Folks are going to think that is worth it, especially since it gives you infrastructure to boot. Other folks are going to say too much.
I think what we are going to see is that there will be action by Republicans to go along with the president in some areas. Especially on cutting taxes and trade and helping small business. I think they are going to be very resistant to a lot more spending.
Overall in this package, as I understand it, there is about roughly $250 billion the president has proposed in tax cuts and about $200 billion in spending increases. He has got a much better chance of getting that first portion, that $250 billion, than he does of the second $200 billion. ROMANS: Eric Cantor just telling us on this program here is what he would support. He would support payroll tax reductions and reducing regulation for small business and ratifying trade agreements. That got a round of applause. He wasn't thrilled about the infrastructure bank however. You know, is this -- are we in the situation we are picking and choosing where we can find compromise?
GERGEN: Sure. I think, well, look. It's good news for the country that there are some areas where they both already agree. And what they need to do beyond those areas, say, in the infrastructure job bank and other issues on which the Republicans right now have opposition, they need to sit down and the president needs to negotiate. The Republicans have got some things that they want to do that he doesn't want to do that they think will produce jobs, especially in regulatory area. And they need to look at that.
I think it's also important to point out that, just as we learned in the deficit fight that there are deep philosophical differences between the parties, we are now going to see on the question of how to grow an economy and create jobs, there are, again, deep philosophical differences.
The president had a terrific performance last night. What he wanted to do is target spending to create jobs in areas like construction. Republicans say, no, no, no. Those are just short-term fixes. What the government ought to do is create an environment of taxes, tax reform and regulatory reform in which businesses invest, in which businesses spend, in which businesses create the jobs. Those are fundamentally different ways to go about creating growth.
And naturally there is going to be some give and take on that. I do think that the -- from a president's political point of view he was fired up last night and he fired up Democrats. I think his best moment politically since the night he announced bin Laden death. But he has got a long way to go and nobody should mistake this as an instant jolt for the economy.
ROMANS: Don't call it a stimulus, David, don't call it a stimulus!
(LAUGHTER)
GERGEN: Well, OK. If it's not going to be a jolt either. We have got a long, hard road out of this, as you well know. And let's watch the market's reaction today. The markets are down a little bit. It is not exactly throwing their hats in the air.
So this is complex. I think the president made an important start in terms -- what he wanted to do was hit the reset button and change the narrative and change the conversation. He did that. But around the corner we still have to deal with the deficits. And this package, important as it is, is going to put more pressure on the deficits. How are we going to get out of that? We still got to hear from him about the hard stuff, how do you get this done and who is going to pay and where the money is going to come from.
ROMANS: And how he's going to pay for it. We don't know yet. David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst, thanks so much.
GERGEN: Thank you.
ROMANS: "The New York Times" said this isn't the jolt but it is an insurance policy against a second recession.
COSTELLO: At least it's a plan written on paper, right? That is what Republicans wanted. And they seemed willing to work, if you believe what Eric Cantor said, and the president was fiery and I think a lot of Democrats wanted to see some passion in the president's words, and he did deliver that.
ROMANS: The line that I think connected with the people on both sides of the aisle was we have an election 14 months away, but people don't have 14 months for Washington to figure it out. They need right now.
COSTELLO: Yes. I think most every American probably agrees with that one. Figure it out.
Still ahead, New York's World Trade Center has been sorely missed since the 9/11 attacks. What does that area look like now? The amazing changes over the last decade is coming your way next.
Also, how do you put a price on life? Hand out money for grief? Up next we're talking to Kenneth Feinberg, the man who oversaw the compensation fund for September 11th victims. It's 38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Good morning, New York City. There's a live picture of ground zero, where's partly cloudy and 70 degrees. The high later today will be 83.
A lot of activity happening where you're seeing right now. Over 0 years, a lot of deconstruction and rebuilding happening at ground zero and some, quite frankly, have complained it hasn't happened quickly enough, because it's still a large construction site.
TheWallStreetJournal.com put together this graphic sort of to show the progress of what has been happening in lower Manhattan. This is what ground zero looks like today. You can see two towers and two over here. This is the one world trade center site, and 80 of 104 stories have been built. This has a big tenant. Conde Nast has agreed to lease more than a million square feet of this new headquarters. But this building right here, Seven World Trade destroyed, the other seven World Trade Center was destroyed in the terrorist attacks.
This one has been up since 2006. Couple of more over here. This will be two World Trade Center. It's not even up to ground level yet. This location three World Trade Center, same story, in the middle a transportation hub. It's completed height will be 150 feet when it is done. Over here you can see this is the memorial and the museum. We know the museum will be ready sometime next year, but the memorial will be unveiled today. Here is a closer look at that memorial. These in the footprints of the World Trade Center towers there will be these beautiful fountains surrounding by trees in the park. These footprints of these towers were where so many people died will always be here as a remembrance. They will never be rebuilding there.
I want to back up a little bit and show you the difference of what this looks like compared with -- let me double click on that one and I can't get it. There it is. I want to show you this again from the WallStreetJournal.com. This is September, 2001. You can see the world financial here and the piles of girders and rubble there and all of the buildings around that were destroyed, not just the two World Trade Center sites but a lot more as well.
This is where we are today. You can see here are the footprints of those buildings. Here is the park that is being implemented around here. Here is the transit hub and museum around here, a couple of these other buildings and these two buildings coming up from the bottom. It just shows you over ten years how this scarred part of New York sky line is being rejuvenated. Carol?
COSTELLO: It's a great place to visit even now. Christine, thanks.
One of the toughest jobs after 9/11 went to our next guest who was appointed as special master of the September 11th victims compensation fund. And 11 days after the attacks, Congress great the $7 billion fund to compensate over 5,000 family members of the fallen, widows and widowers, children and parents. Not all of them were paid equally.
Joining us now from Washington is the former administrator of the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund, Kenneth Feinberg. Thank you for joining us this morning.
KENNETH FEINBERG, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR, SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIMS COMPENSATION FUND: I'm glad to be here.
COSTELLO: So when September 11th, 2011 finally arrives in just a couple of days, how will you feel?
FEINBERG: Well, it feels like yesterday. It will forever be part of my memory, I'll tell you that. And -- and the 33 months that I spent meeting with individual families and physically injured victims was an incredible undertaking and a challenge.
COSTELLO: You met with so many of them to decide what kind of compensation they would be awarded. Which person stands out most in your mind?
FEINBERG: Well, the lady that came to see me sobbing and said that she had lost her husband who was a fireman at the World Trade Center. He was Mr. Mom. And he left her with their three children, 6, 4, and 2. And the only reason, she said, that she was alive and wanted to go forward without her husband was the fact that she had these three children to take care of and Mr. Mom would never be replaced.
The next day, I found out she didn't know that Mr. Mom had two other children by his girlfriend in Queens, 5 and 3. And I had to deal at 3:00 a.m., I'm thinking about whether I tell her about these -- this other family that her husband had.
COSTELLO: So what did you do?
FEINBERG: Well, I -- I didn't tell her. I'm sure she knows. It's ten years later, but stories like that -- no one is prepared to deal with stories like that, I must say.
COSTELLO: That is like -- I didn't expect that. That shocked and surprised me.
In dealing with so many people who were grieving and you had to decide how much compensation they would be awarded, like how did you do that? Did a mother with three or four children get more money than -- than a woman who just lost her husband?
FEINBERG: Well, Congress helped me in that regard because Congress laid out the formula. Congress said I should act like a judge and jury would act in New York or any village or hamlet in the country and look at what the -- how old was the victim, how much was she or he making at the time of death, statistically, how long would they likely work at that job; just what juries do every day, economic loss. Then we added pain and suffering and deducted other sources of income and came up with rough numbers. It wasn't easy but we had a methodology.
COSTELLO: Was part of your job to convince the family members of the victims to take these compensation packages? Because I know a couple of families did not take any award from the government.
FEINBERG: Ninety seven percent of the families, almost 3,000 families of the dead took the fund, voluntarily took the money; 94 families decided, no, we'd rather sue, we have that right under the statute. They did sue; 93 of those 94 settled later on. There is one family, one, scheduled to go to trial before Judge Hellerstein (ph) in federal court in Manhattan in November.
COSTELLO: And -- and what do you suppose might happen?
FEINBERG: I have no -- I wouldn't begin to hazard a guess as to what a judge and jury will do. But I think the great majority of the families recognized that what Congress was trying to do here was to demonstrate the solidarity and support of the American people for these families suffering such traumatic loss and come to their aid quickly so they could move on as best they could.
COSTELLO: Kenneth Feinberg, tough job. Thank you so much for sharing your stories with us this morning. We appreciate it.
FEINBERG: Thank you. ROMANS: All right, morning headlines are next, including the threat of another al Qaeda terror attack on 9/11.
It's 49 minutes after the hour.
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ROMANS: It's 51 minutes after the hour. Here are your morning's top headlines.
U.S. intelligence chasing a credible new al Qaeda threat, terrorist possibly trying to strike ten years to the day on 9/11. New York and Washington on alert again. A senior administration official says, "The plot may involve car or truck bombs."
The power is back on in San Diego after a massive outage hit parts of southern California and Arizona. The outage is being blamed on a tripped up power line that stretches across both states.
At least five people have died in massive floods in the northeast. President Obama declaring an emergency in Pennsylvania and New York. He's authorized federal aid to help with the relief effort. Thousands have evacuated as the Susquehanna River rose above flood stage.
President Obama unveils his $447 billion jobs plan. It features tax cuts for working Americans and small businesses and spending initiatives for transportation and infrastructure like building for schools but the cost, the White House says, offset by spending cuts.
Mark Zandi of MoodysAnalytics.com says it would create, if passed in full, about 1.9 million jobs.
The U.S. market's set to open in about 40 minutes. And it could be another down day on Wall Street. Dow futures and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ all trading lower right now.
Scrubbed again: NASA is delaying the launch of two space labs that will eventually study the moon. It's now expected to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida tomorrow.
And the Green Bay Packers is picking up where they left off at the Super Bowl. They made a goal line stand on the final play of the game to beat the Saints 42-34 last night in the first game of the NFL season.
That's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING is back after this quick break.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: September 11th was a very tough time for the fire department. I've lost some friends, guys I went to the academy with. A day afterwards, people came from everywhere to help us out. It was incredible. You knew you weren't alone.
JEFF PARNESE: For a New Yorker to see that outpouring of kindness and generosity was more powerful than the terror that happened. That really changed me.
I'm Jeff Parnese and I just want to show the world that New Yorkers will never forget what people did for us following 9/11. Every year on the 9/11 anniversary, we take volunteers from New York and send them to some part of the country where they had a disaster and helped folks rebuild.
Nice to meet you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You pull into town and the tallest thing there is the grain silo. It's definitely a little culture shock.
PARNESE: Rebuilding homes or barns or churches is our way to say thank you. Now more than half of our volunteers are not from New York. People from all the small towns that we've helped, they keep showing up to help the next community. They're from Louisiana and California, Indiana and Illinois. Every year you keep seeing more T- shirts from more locations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to pitch in as much as we can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After Katrina, we jumped on his band wagon. This whole paying it forward thing is just contagious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like this big dysfunctional family reunion of all these disaster survivors that get together that's been doing barn-raising.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're banging nails and building something but it's the relationships that help you heal.
PARNESE: It's about using the 9/11 anniversary to celebrate in that volunteer spirit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will see you all next year.
PARNESE: People say thank you for doing this and you say you want to thank me? Show up on the next one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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ROMANS: There it is lower Manhattan. And you can see the two -- the two ponds, the pools that will be these memorial sites and the footprint of the Trade Center. That's the south tower footprint right there in New York City.
A lot of people are down there this morning. Ray Kelly was down there. A lot of people are getting ready for the big events this weekend, the commemoration of what happened here ten years ago.
COSTELLO: Yes and of course CNN will be covering it all. So be sure to join us tomorrow.
Now it's time for our "Talk Back" question of the day. The question we asked you this morning, "How has 9/11 changed you?"
This from Chris; he says, "September 11th made me more of a citizen activist. Always watching out for suspicious behavior by people not just Middle Eastern people. It also made me more cynical and that it showed me the true colors of those around me. So many people use 9/11 as a platform to push their own views of religion, bigotry and social conformity onto others."
This from Vinyana (ph), "As a brown person I feel distance between myself and others -- and other races created just because of my skin color. Sometimes people look at me with suspicion just because I am brown. I do not like it when people judge me by the color of my skin, the accent I have or the beliefs I follow. I think 9/11 has messed things up for brown people like me."
And this from Gil, "It has changed every one of us whether we admit it or not. It's impossible to remember what life was like before 9/11 but I know we went about our days without the nagging feeling that something could go horribly wrong any second. No matter how hard we tried to push that feeling to the back of our minds."
Thanks for sharing this morning. If you want to continue the conversation, Facebook.com/Americanmorning.
ROMANS: Let's throw it over to the "CNN NEWSROOM" right now with Kyra Phillips in Atlanta. It starts right now. Hi Kyra.
