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New Greek Prime Minister Named; Joe Paterno Fired; Alabama County Files Largest Municipal Bankruptcy; Reports Of Sluggish Blackberry Mail; Rick Perry Makes Gaffe at GOP Debate; USAA Posts Map of Best Places for Veterans to Find Employment; Where's the "Black Mark Zuckerberg"?
Aired November 10, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Game over. No smiles in Happy Valley as Joe Paterno's legendary coaching career ends in disgrace. The decision by Penn State's board of trustees to fire Paterno is not sitting well with some students.
CHIRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A debate disaster.
I'm Christine Romans.
Rick Perry's major mistake puts his entire campaign in jeopardy.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And this just in: Greece has a brand-new prime minister. What is the decision doing to your money -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
VELSHI: Good morning to you. It is Thursday, November 10th.
And we always have a lot of news. Today seems to be a little more than usual.
In fact, just in to CNN: Greece has a new prime minister -- the Greek's president office confirming the news this morning -- Lucas Papademos. You're looking at him now. The decision coming after four days of intense talks to form a coalition government. His first task is going to be getting the new government to OK the $177 billion E.U. bailout deal to save that country's economy from collapsing.
The market is liking the news. Dow futures are up over 120 points right now. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ also poised to open higher this morning.
I will caution you, though, that it's unclear with all the stuff going on in the world right now which piece of news the market likes and which they don't like, because Italy is a bigger problem and Greece right now.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: So, as Carol said, quite astutely earlier, hard to get your head around it.
COSTELLO: It is. This is going to send the stock market going crazy up where yesterday was crazy down.
VELSHI: Our problems are not solved yet.
ROMANS: Buckle up.
All right. Now, to Joe Paterno's fall from grace. The news of his immediately falling caused Penn Sate students to erupt in anger. They threw rocks and they overturned a TV news van. Police in riot gear had to use pepper spray to disperse the crowds.
COSTELLO: The legendary coach had tried to make an end run around the administration by announcing plans to finish out the season and then retire, but Penn State's board of trustees made it clear that Paterno and the university's president must go and now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN P. SURMA, VICE CHAIRMAN, PENN STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEES: The past several days have been absolutely terrible for the entire Penn State community. But the outrage that we feel is nothing compared to the physical and psychological suffering that allegedly took place. Effectively immediately, Dr. Spanier is no longer president of the university. In addition, Joe Paterno is no longer the head football coach effective immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Just after the board's decision, the man they call Joe Pa spoke to a group of reporters outside his home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE PATERNO, FMR. PENN STATE HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: Hey, look, get a good night's sleep. All right? Study. All right? We still got things to do. All right? I'm out of it maybe now. We'll from there. Thanks and pray a little bit for those victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are a legend, Joe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are Penn State.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Paterno issued a statement overnight saying, quote, "I am disappointed with the board of trustee's decision, but I have to accept it. A tragedy occurred, and we all have to have the patience to let the legal process proceed. I appreciate the outpouring of support, but I want to emphasize that everyone should remain calm, please respect the university, its property and all that we value. To all of our fans and supporters, my family and I will forever be in your debt."
ROMANS: A really dignified statement about trying to keep the kids, you know, under control as well, and urging calm.
Some Penn State students, though, took their anger too far. Others showing their support for Paterno and they're upset the coach is taking the fall here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going after the wrong guy. And the justice system needs to take its course.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're pretty much making a stand because we're in support of our school and in support of Joe Pa. We think it's absolutely ridiculous that he got fired over this sort of situation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think some people are making the mistake of putting Joe Pa in front of the actual situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tears actually the second -- I mean, I wiped them off now, but the second I heard it, tears in my eyes. He's done so much for the university.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here to get Joe Pa play his last home game. Let him play his last game, it's that simple.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
COSTELLO: Paterno's former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, of course, is at the center of this child sex abuse scandal. He is accused of molesting at least eight young boys and now police investigators have set up a tip line to field calls from more potential victims.
VELSHI: Joe Paterno's Penn State program is seemingly the gold standard for more than four decades. But this scandal has raised troubling questions of the culture of a big-time college campus.
Joining us from State College is Neil Rudel. He's managing editor for "Altoona Mirror."
Neil, good to see you this morning. Thank you very much. These really are troubling questions. We have been discussing it amongst ourselves all morning.
How much of this do you write off to the fact that it's a college campus, that it's big on football, these kids perhaps don't have the maturity to realize that there is something remarkably unsavory about toppling a media truck, blaming the media for coverage and shifting the focus away from the victims. And how much of this is something wrong with the culture at Penn State?
NEIL RUDEL, MANAGING EDITOR, THE ALTOONA MIRROR: Well, I think it is both. The fact that Joe stirs so much passion and Penn State football shows so much passion, it becomes the third biggest city in the state. It is really a small town.
You know, and students can be students. And they're looking for sometimes reasons to get together for this kind of cause and this was the perfect storm as far as to bring them out and the passion of Penn State football kind of collided.
You know, there's no question the football program here had developed into a real empire and a kingdom and I think in terms of trying to protect people and the shroud of secrecy that has gone on really for a long time, really came back to haunt them.
VELSHI: Well, it's interesting when you think of the reputation of a school like Penn State going forward. There are people who are going to come out on either side of this saying getting rid of Paterno and coming down hard on the football program is going to hurt the reputation of Penn State going forward versus others who say this scandal has hurt the reputation of Penn State.
So, there have got to be some real pressures. Are you feeling any of that this morning on campus? Are there signs? Are there people? Are there conflicts about how people feel about this?
RUDEL: Well, probably not so far because they probably just went to bed. But I do feel that this has taken on a life of its own. It's the biggest story in the lifetime of most of the people in central Pennsylvania.
And it does create a black mark that I don't know the university can ever overcome it. But it can come to repair it. I think it took steps towards it last night.
VELSHI: Let me ask you this, Joe Paterno issued a statement a little while ago where he said he was disappointed, but he wants everybody to respect the university and its property and things like that, which has been in stark contrast to his, the statements he's made when he walked outside of his house. They have been a little disjointed.
Are we going to get the full story from Joe Paterno or is that something the university or his attorneys will not let him do?
RUDEL: Well, that remains unclear. I mean, at this point, there's no scheduled news conference, even when he was still employed or under the university's umbrella. He chose not to meet the media.
He wanted to on Tuesday. It was a scheduled press conference that the university pulled the plug on. We thought maybe there might be something yesterday. He's passed on many opportunities in front of the media this week to address it.
So, I don't think it will be something. I think it will have to be independently scheduled by Paterno, his family and his handlers at this point.
VELSHI: And the only thing that we see as being scheduled, our producer is telling me, that we might hear from the interim coach Tom Bradley today. So, we'll keep an eye on it.
So, Neil, thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Tell me, again?
RUDEL: Thank you.
VELSHI: What are you saying about the --
RUDEL: That has been scheduled for 11:00 this morning.
VELSHI: Eleven o'clock this morning. OK --
RUDEL: Tom Bradley is scheduled to meet the media this morning.
VELSHI: Very good. So, we'll learn more about it then. Thanks very much, Neil. Neil Rudel is the managing editor of "The Altoona Mirror" --
RUDEL: Thank you.
VELSHI: -- joining us is from State College, Pennsylvania, this morning.
ROMANS: All right. The entire scandal surrounds Paterno's former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and Paterno himself says that he wishes he could have done more. He admits he should have done more.
That said firing him so he wouldn't be coaching Penn State this weekend was a no brainer. Here's what CNN's Jeffrey Toobin had to say about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST (via telephone): To allow this pedophile to operate with impunity year after year, abusing children in the Penn State locker rooms and, you know, with no one doing anything about it. And, you know, we are only now learning, apparently, how many victims this guy had. And the fact that Joe Paterno and other administrators had information about his pedophilia and his sexual assault and didn't report it to police is, frankly, a moral monstrosity, as far as I'm concerned.
And I think the idea that he could, again, have appeared on the sidelines for Penn State would have been appalling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joining us to talk more about this is Paul Callan, our CNN legal contributor.
You know, the university fires Joe Paterno, right? And it fires the university president. But it has not fired the athletic director, you know, Mr. Curley and he was the guy that is charged with not going to the police. So, I kind of don't get that.
PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think a lot more heads are going to roll in this scandal as time goes on. Remember, we're in the early stages of a breaking case and this thing is so staggering and so stunning that I really think you're going to see a lot of developments in the next week.
ROMANS: Should Jerry Sandusky be home on unsecured bail, $100,000 unsecured bail until this next court hearing which is now delayed until December? Usually in a case like this, is someone who accused of crimes that could result in, if convicted, life in prison, are they -- are they allowed to be free?
CALLAN: Well, you know, of course, he's presumed innocent, everybody is in the legal system. But when we look at charges of pedophilia, it's something that the system looks at very carefully and very differently because of the history that pedophiles have of repeating their offenses.
ROMANS: Well, he was banned from the facility there's and that didn't, apparently didn't stop him according to investigators.
CALLAN: He is facing life in prison on this charge and the bail is set at $100,000 which he makes immediately and he goes home.
The other two individuals who were charged with a failure to report the crime, the athletic director and a vice president at the university, the bail for them was only set at $75,000. So, I don't --
COSTELLO: And both members are still on staff at the university, which, again, I don't get.
CALLAN: Well, I get it, because the more I read on what has been going on at Penn State for years, the football program dominates and controls the entire university. It's Happy Valley. And, frankly --
ROMANS: The kingdom is what --
CALLAN: -- under Joe Paterno, the thing was turned from a tiny program into a billion dollar program and, frankly, they don't seem to be in touch with reality. Anything that would disturb the football program, they don't touch. And to think that this guy, this individual, Sandusky, was allowed to come back on campus, to use locker rooms where he allegedly raped this young man --
ROMANS: A liability for the university in that case. If they knew, if administrators knew enough to say you can't be on this property and then he continued to come as prosecutors say and commit crimes, what is the liability for the university?
CALLAN: Well, I think you're going to see a multi-million dollar civil suit against the university, which is going to say that a trap is created for these children and that university officials aided and abetted in allowing him to use the locker room and the shower room for this child to be raped.
And look at this assistant coach Mike McQueary who witnessed the actual rape of the child.
VELSHI: And reported it.
CALLAN: Well, who did he report it to? He reports it allegedly to Paterno who then reports it to higher officials.
Who called the cops?
VELSHI: Right.
CALLAN: This guy is working in a football program.
VELSHI: Witnesses a crime.
CALLAN: He sees a man raping a boy in a shower room, why didn't he pick up a baseball bat and hit the guy and break it up? Instead he goes home, tells his father about it, who then tells Paterno. What are these people doing at Penn State?
COSTELLO: The other thing about that, there's an interesting article in "New York Times" about Mike McQueary. Mike McQueary, after telling Joe Paterno this, rises up through the ranks. Now, he's, what, the wide receiver's coach and he may be on the sidelines this Saturday when Penn State plays.
VELSHI: So, that's culture. That's the culture you're talking about that he's working now within the system that he's complained about.
CALLAN: And I think a reporter should be saying to Mike McQueary, you saw a 10-year-old boy being raped in a locker room, why didn't you break it up? Why didn't you do something about it? He walked like nothing happened.
ROMANS: His father told "The New York Times" his son is anxious to tell his side of the story, but can't, because there is an investigation going on and the like. But, you're right, a lot of questions about --
CALLAN: I want to hear the complete story and, frankly, maybe we'll hear something to justify the conduct of Paterno, of McQueary, and others. But we've got to hear a lot to justify this.
Eight kids we now know had their childhoods taken away by what happened in this university.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: People are still protesting that it is the media and it's the wrong thing for the university to do.
ROMANS: And Sandusky says he's innocent. He maintains his innocence. Sandusky is home and he tells us through his lawyer, that he will defend himself. He didn't do these things.
CALLAN: Well, he's presumed innocent and he'll get his day in court. But I'll tell you, it's a very detailed, shocking indictment and there are lots of witnesses, including Mike McQueary who only reported it to Paterno and the other two university administrators.
COSTELLO: Paul Callan, thank you so much.
CALLAN: OK.
COSTELLO: Coming up next: another huge story this morning. Rick Perry melts down at the GOP debate. Oops. That's what he said.
We'll show you and talk about it after a break.
VELSHI: But, you got to hand it to him, he's not hiding this morning. The Texas governor spoke to us live an hour ago. What does he have to say about his performance and his ability to lead the country? We'll tell you.
ROMANS: Plus, boos and jeers. What question the debate moderators asked that sparked outrage from the audience. We'll let you hear it for yourself. Fifteen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Detroit is looking beautiful this morning. Sunny and 38 degrees. Later, a beautiful day headed up to 45 degrees for a high.
VELSHI: The view from Canada.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Across the river.
Texas governor, Rick Perry's, bid for the White House is on shaky ground this morning after his brain freeze last night at the Republican presidential debate. Listen to it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. RICK PERRY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I will tell you, it's three agencies of government when I get there, that are gone. Commerce, education, and the -- what's the third one there? Let's see.
(LAUGHTER)
REP. RON PAUL, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You mean five.
PERRY: Oh, five. OK. So, commerce, education, and the -- um, um --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: EPA?
PERRY: EPA, there you go. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seriously. Is EPA the one you were talking about?
PERRY: No, sir, no, sir. We were talking about the agencies of government -- the EPA needs to be rebuilt. There's no doubt about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you can't name the third one.
PERRY: The third agency of government, I would do away with education, the -- commerce, and let's see --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my.
PERRY: I can't, the third one I can't. Sorry. Oops.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: After that so painful moment, Perry is doing damage control this morning. He is making the rounds on all the networks. You have to hand it to him. He's not shying away from the cameras this morning and doing it with a smile on his face. Perry appeared last hour on AMERICAN MORNING clearly trying to get back on message while handling this meltdown with a sprinkle of humor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PERRY: Obviously, I stepped in it. But, again, I go -- I have my moment of humor with it and I press on and understand that there are a lot more serious things facing this country than whether or not I can remember the Department of Energy in an inappropriate time.
ROMANS: You're going to debate again on Saturday. What are you going to do different? I mean, if you're not -- you say you're not the best debater out there, but, you know, pretty much debater in chief is what the president of the United States is.
PERRY: Look, we've got a debater in chief right now, and you've got to ask yourself, how is that working out for America? The fact is, Americans want a great debater and don't care about substance.
ROMANS: No. But you have to debate on the global stage. No matter who the president is. I mean, and what I'm saying is that you have to be debating the Chinese, you have to be debating in the Middle East, you have to be debating what kind of - what's the way forward for Europe? I mean, the skills that you need on that stage many would say you need as president.
PERRY: I would suggest to you that we need substance more than we need style. I mean, and if what we've got today is reflective of the style that Americans are looking for, then, you know, $4 trillion of debt on America that has 14 million people out of work. We got almost half of our country that's taking some type of government benefit. I mean, that's what this campaign is really about.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: It's hard to imagine how anyone could have knocked Herman Cain from the headlines last night, but Rick Perry did manage to do that. Still, the Georgia businessman couldn't escape questions about the four women accusing him of sexual harassment and some in that debate audience, well, they didn't like the question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In recent days, we have learned that four different women have accused you of inappropriate behavior. Here, we're focusing on character and on judgment. You've been a CEO?
HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know that shareholders are reluctant to hire a CEO where there are character issues. Why should the American people hire a president if they feel there are character issues?
CAIN: The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. Well, despite those boos from the audience, the moderators did press on. They teed up another question about the sexual harassment claims against Herman Cain, only this time, they targeted former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, drawing even more cat calls from the crowd. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you keep a CEO? Are you persuaded by what Mr. Cain has said? Would you keep him on if you bought his company?
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, Look. Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions. He just did. The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessment.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: So, Romney and Newt Gingrich were widely considered the big winners last night according to a Detroit Free Press Poll taken right after the debate. Forty percent of the audience emerged saying they vote for Romney and 25 percent expressed support for the former House Speaker.
ROMANS: All right. Up next, stocks, well, maybe they're going to bounce back today after markets around the world tanked yesterday. We'll check the numbers and, of course, it doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet, but we'll let you know about that. Also ahead, lots of Blackberry delays this morning. Is it another outage? What research in motion is saying about it? Twenty- four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: 26.5 minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning. Big news crossing just in the past hour. Greece has a new prime minister. He is Lucas Papademos, a former banker and European Central Bank vice president. He takes over with the $177 billion EU bailout on the table right now. The markets are liking that news.
Dow futures are up over 120 points right now. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ also poised to open higher this morning.
Just a few minutes back here in the United States, we are expecting a new report on the number of jobless claims filed for the first time last week. Now, this is going to give us a fresh look at the employment situation in this country and the health of the labor market. We're going to bring you those numbers as soon as they're available and tell you what they mean.
Alabama's Jefferson County is now the largest local government in history to file for bankruptcy. The county which includes Birmingham plunged more than $4 billion into debt by a corruption plagued sewer project.
Research in Motion says it's investigating reports that Blackberry e-mail is slow this morning, but the company says there's no system-wide outage. Last month, tens of millions of Blackberry users lost e-mail and BBMs for days. The company stock price suffered big time as a result.
Still ahead, a major league baseball player kidnapped in Venezuela. AMERICAN MORNING is back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Effective immediately, Dr. Spanier is no longer president of the university. In addition, Joe Paterno is no longer the head football coach effective immediately.
ROMANS (voice-over): Shock, sadness as Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno, is fired over a child rape scandal involving his former assistant coach. Penn State students rioting in protests on this AMERICAN MORNING.
COSTELLO: It is 30 minutes past the hour. Good morning to you. Time for our top stories.
A Major League Baseball player reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint in his home country of Venezuela. A Venezuelan newspaper is reporting Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was approached by four armed men near his home and taken away in a car. Ramos is just 24 years old and considered a rising star on the Washington Nationals. He was playing winter baseball in Venezuela in the off season. Other major leaguers from Venezuela have had family members kidnapped in the past.
VELSHI: New rescue video from eastern Turkey. Search crews pull a man out of the rubble this morning after a 5.7 earthquake rocked the area last night. The powerful tremors collapsing two hotels and trapping dozens of people under the wreckage. At least seven people died. This is the second fatal quake to hit that area in a matter of weeks.
ROMANS: Rick Perry trying to do damage control this morning and save his presidential campaign. He suffered a brain freeze at last night's GOP debate when he was unable to name the third government agency that he himself has vowed to eliminate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK PERRY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I will tell you, it's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, education and the -- what's the third one there, let's see.
(LAUGHTER)
RON PAUL, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are five.
PERRY: Five, OK. Commerce, Education, and the --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: EPA?
PERRY: EPA, there you go.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seriously, is the EPA what you are talking about?
PERRY: No, sir. We are talking about the agencies of government -- the EPA needs to be rebuilt. There's no doubt about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you can't name the third one?
PERRY: The third agency of government I would do away with the Education, the Commerce, and let's see -- I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Perry appeared earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, and he's doing his best to get back on message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERRY: Obviously, I stepped in it. But, again, I go, I have my moment of humor with it and then I press on and understand that there are a lot more serious things facing this country than whether or not I can remember the department of energy at an inappropriate time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: And you had a good discussion with him about the department of energy. This is something that he spent a lot of time on. He comes from a state that generates a great deal of energy, so, it was an interesting one.
ROMANS: If he couldn't remember the name of the agency, how well did supporters know he would be able to close the federal department of energy, shut it down, and, you know, it's a very serious substance policy issue there.
VELSHI: But, but in fairness to him, we do know that it's a topic that he knows about.
COSTELLO: Right. He could have just -- he could have just had a brain freeze. It doesn't mean he doesn't know what the Department of Energy is.
VELSHI: We do see a lot of Rick Perry after debates, though.
ROMANS: He says he's not a good debater and he really stepped in it.
VELSHI: He always says that.
ROMANS: The question is, as the president of the United States you are on a world stage debating people who don't think the same way you do and putting the American agenda forward and arguing substance.
COSTELLO: Remember that whole discussion where Rick Perry's people said maybe he won't participate in any more debates. Maybe they were right. There's another debate on Saturday.
ROMANS: And he says he's going. Rick Perry says he is going.
COSTELLO: That's right.
Here's something new for you this morning. Check this out. The first snow of the season in the Midwest. This is in Des Moines. Oh, that's bad.
(WEATHER BREAK)
COSTELLO: All right, still ahead, swapping military boots for civilian shoes, a big change. So where is the best place for a veteran to launch his or her second career? We're going to tell you. It's 36 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right, this just in. We have weekly unemployment claims. Jobless claims is how we can gauge how many people file for unemployment benefits every week. And it dropped -- 390,000 unemployment claims were filed for the first time last week. That is the lowest in seven months. It shows you that layoffs are slowing.
Any time this number comes in below 400,000 it's a good sign for the labor market and the overall economy. We already had futures up this morning, so we will see if there is some hope that the U.S. labor market is healing a little bit.
Meantime, as Veterans Day approaches, a focus returning to retired troops who are having a hard time starting over in this economy. And the USAA has released a study of the best places for military retirees to start their second career. Joining us from San Antonio is June Walbert, a USA certified financial planner and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. Good morning.
JUNE WALBERT, USAA CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER: Good morning, Christine. Great to be here.
ROMANS: So these men and women are coming home and retiring and a real problem in this labor market, just not a lot of room for everyone. You have to be focused and groomed for what you're looking for in this economy. We know Gulf War II veterans have a more than 12 percent unemployment rate, higher than the rest of the population.
You know, give me a sense here of where the best places for people to come home and start looking for a job and where do those places have in common?
WALBERT: OK, so what we did is USAA joined forces with Military.com to pinpoint metro areas of the 379 metro areas in the United States where they have a propensity to use military skills. So the top place in the country, considering the stability of their economy, their low unemployment, and their military skilled type of jobs is Oklahoma City.
ROMANS: Really? We're looking at a map right now with the top ten. You also have Norfolk, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia. What do these towns have in common? Are they, you know, contractor towns? Are they places that are close to bases so they know military culture? Why are these the best places in general for second careers?
WALBERT: OK, well, military skill sets include aviation, engineering, medical services, protective services, emergency services and often military retirees go into department of defense jobs or work for the government. So all of those places have that in common.
What they also have in common very importantly is that they have lower than the national average unemployment rate. Oklahoma City, as an example, has a 5.2 percent unemployment rate. So very stable economies. Plus, low cost of living in each of these cases.
ROMANS: Oklahoma City, $119,000 is the medium home price. We're looking at a picture of that one. So you want to be able to buy a house, too.
WALBERT: Absolutely. And in fact, it may be the first time that many of these folks are buying a house because of the nomadic military lifestyle. So the housing prices were low. In each of these top five they're at or below $200,000. So you can get a lot of bang for your buck.
Plus there are also military installations nearby. And why that makes a difference is that these retirees have complete access to these installations just like they did when they were on active duty. That means that they -- that they can shop at the commissary and save 25 percent to 30 percent on their groceries, just as one example.
ROMANS: And that is what you looked into the quality of life, family environment, children. I think that a lot of people don't understand that military families and military retirees coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan and entering back into, you know, civilian culture, I guess, if you will here, they have a lot of different kinds of financial challenges. They may have had a lot of credit card debt, right? They were bouncing around the country. There are a lot of different issues there.
WALBERT: There really are. You know, the military is really a cross section of the United States. They have a lot of the same financial issues and challenges that the rest of the population has in large part. So, you bet.
But this is just an in and of itself transitioning and swapping your boots is a huge financial proposition. So you're leaving behind all these things that were included in the military pay package that now you have to look for, select, and pay for once you hit the civilian job market. So, things like health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, disability insurance. And the exciting part, though, they may now have a matching contribution in their 401(k), a very good thing in my book.
ROMANS: June is Walbert is a USAA certified financial planner. Thanks. We're going to post that map online so people can see it as well, and also some pretty helpful advice about how to take that military resume and transfer it into civilian life. Thanks to you. Nice to see you.
WALBERT: Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, "Morning Headlines" are next. Its 45 minutes after the hour.
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COSTELLO: Forty-seven minutes past the hour. Here are your "Morning Headlines".
390,000 unemployment claims were filed for the first time last week; that is the lowest in seven months. Any time this number comes below 400,000, it's a good sign for the labor market and the overall economy.
U.S. markets open in just about 45 minutes. The DOW, NASDAQ and S&P 500 all poise to open higher this morning. Markets also getting the boost from the news that Greece has a brand-new prime minister. He is Lucas Papademos a former banker and European Central Bank vice president.
Locked out NBA players and owners will be back at the bargaining table at noon today after they wrapped up 12 hours of talks late last night with no new deal.
After 46 years as Penn State head football coach the Joe Paterno era ends in a flash. The board of trustees fired him and the university's president effective immediately for their handling of the child sex abuse allegations against Paterno's former assistant coach.
At last night's Republican debate near Detroit, Rick Perry was asked about the three government departments he'd cut as president and he could only remember two of them. He brushed off the gaffe when he made the round on the morning talk shows today saying one mistake will not tank his campaign.
NewsCorp's James Murdoch, appearing before Parliament for a second time this morning. He accused two former News of the World executives of misleading Parliament when they said Murdoch knew about the phone hacking scandal. Murdoch claims he was unaware of the practice.
And Eddie Murphy quits the Oscars. Murphy saying he's decided to drop out as host of the Academy Awards. The decision coming a day after producer Brett Ratner is out over a gay slur he made over the weekend.
Kanye West is nowhere to be found. Taylor Swift was the big winner at last night's CMA awards in Nashville. She won Entertainer of the Year for the second time.
Service is now set for boxing legend Joe Frazier. The former champ's remains will lay in state at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center tomorrow and Saturday. The funeral will be held Monday morning, a week after Frazier died of liver cancer.
And that's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING back after a break.
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ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Columbus Circle. This is right outside our building, actually. We like to show you these pictures. Something unusual is happening there right now though. See Columbus, the cat in the middle, there's -- there's guys cleaning him.
ROMANS: Did you call Columbus a cat.
VELSHI: You know, in the affectionate way.
COSTELLO: Man, you are old school. We think about this Columbus Circle as this elephant. The statue of this elephant.
VELSHI: Right see at the bottom it's more on the right. That's not normally there.
COSTELLO: No it just suddenly appeared one day and nobody knows why.
VELSHI: Yes lots going on in Columbus Circle; you think it's just a shot for you. But this is actually our neighborhood and we're all very curious as to why they decided to clean Christopher Columbus today. And why there is an elephant?
COSTELLO: And where that elephant came from.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: All right, the world of new media is still -- it's still a place dominated by young, white men.
VELSHI: Oh that was a good segue from the elephant and Christopher Columbus.
ROMANS: It's the elephant in the room.
VELSHI: That's it.
ROMANS: Anyway, now a couple of young business leaders are giving minorities an onramp to the information super highway. Soledad O'Brien with a preview of her special "Black in America", "THE NEW PROMISED LAND: SILICON VALLEY".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this unassuming three bedroom home in Mountain View, California, Angela Benton and Wayne Sutton hope to make history.
WAYNE SUTTON, INTERNET ENTERPRENEUR: Yes, see what this thing look like.
ANGELA BENTON, INTERNET ENTERPRENEUR: One of them is supposed to be a sofa bed.
O'BRIEN: The friends connected online. Two black Internet entrepreneurs trying to succeed in an overwhelmingly white industry.
BENTON: For whatever reason, African-Americans tend to be consumers of technology and not really creators of technology.
SUTTON: Name me one black Web tech founder or start-up CEO? Where's an example of a black Mark Zuckerberg.
O'BRIEN: Last year only one percent of Internet start ups that will see funding were founded by African-Americans. So, Angela and Wayne created the New Media Accelerator, "New Me" for short. A groundbreaking program designed to speed up the development and success of minority-led start ups in Silicon Valley.
BENTON: If you're going to be an actor, you go to L.A. If you're going to be in fashion, you go to New York. And if you're going to be in technology, then you come to Silicon Valley.
O'BRIEN: Modeled after similar programs, New Me offers its dotcom founders immediate access to deep-pocketed investors, well- connected mentors and opens doors at some of the most successful Internet companies in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Facebook.
O'BRIEN: The downside --
BENTON: Everyone will be living together.
O'BRIEN: Eight people, nine weeks, one house, one goal. Changing the face of Silicon Valley.
BENTON: For it to be successful to me, founders have to get investment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for your enthusiasm for coming to Google.
O'BRIEN: The high-stakes program backed by sponsors culminates in demo day when each entrepreneur will have just six minutes to pitch their company to a room full of investors.
For in America, Soledad O'Brien, CNN, Silicon Valley.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Coming up next, it was a test. It was only a test. But it looks like they're getting an F. Did the National Emergency Alert System mistakenly play Lady Gaga? It really did. It was crazy.
So there's an emergency and there's Lady Gaga singing.
It's six minutes to the top of the hour.
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ROMANS: Good morning, Atlanta. That is Atlanta, isn't it?
VELSHI: That is Atlanta, right. I was under the impression we were going to be looking at the circle, again.
ROMANS: I was too. I was going to get --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: We are going to talk about the elements.
VELSHI: I was about to say it's Columbus Circle again. And I was thinking to myself, I lived there for a while myself, that looks entirely like Atlanta. It's 47 degrees for those of you in Atlanta; getting up to a balmy 56.
ROMANS: Yes. VELSHI: The Nationwide Emergency Alert System needs a little bit of fine-tuning. But thankfully there was no real emergency, it was, as you often hear, only a test. There were some technical glitches reported yesterday. The FCC says most of the stations received the alert, sent it out 2:00 p.m. Eastern but a lot of stations -- some stations didn't -- and the signal aired longer than the intended 30 seconds.
Very unusual complaint instead of hearing those piercing tones apparently some people heard Lady Gaga's hit "Paparazzi".
COSTELLO: It's unexplainable. No one actually knows why we were hearing Lady Gaga. I'm sure --
VELSHI: Ubiquitous.
COSTELLO: Yes, maybe so.
VELSHI: She's infiltrated the emergency alert system.
COSTELLO: They're going to work out the glitches though and hopefully have things working very soon.
Ok. The mystery of the elephants because of Chris, I know you were wondering. These giant elephant statues have suddenly appeared in Columbus Circle.
VELSHI: Right. You see one of them. There's another one there. They're quite nice.
COSTELLO: There's three of them, right. One at each entrance to the little circle, but it turns out this famous artist from Connecticut decided to kind of donate these statues for a time to the City of New York. So there are these animal circles from Columbus Circle all the way to Harlem and it's supposed to draw the city together. And people will just --
VELSHI: We don't get out enough, outside of our building. Let's go take a little walk out after the show. Let's go right now, actually
ROMANS: It's nice when it's an elephant and it has nothing to do with politics, it's just about art.
VELSHI: All right. My friends and I are going for a little walk here so, you take over the rest of the --
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Now to the elephant in the room. Kyra Phillips in Atlanta. Thank you so much. You guys are in a moment of kumbaya. I love it. Happy Friday -- or actually, sorry, happy Thursday.
ROMANS: Wish it was Friday.
PHILLIPS: Yes, tell me about it. Thanks, guys.
