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CNN Saturday Morning News
Obama's Economic-Recovery Plan on Track in Senate; Biden To Outline U.S. Foreign Policy at German Summit
Aired February 07, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hey there, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. 6:00 a.m. here...
MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: It's early.
HOLMES: ...in the East. Yes. Thanks for being here. We forgot to tell you the little detail about we start earlier now.
LONG: You start -- yes, about a month ago, you started early.
HOLMES: We started this, so really, thank you for being here.
It is 3:00 out west right now. It's noon in Munich, Germany, where the vice president today right now, he's set to give a major foreign-policy speech. That's coming up in about 20 minutes. We will take you there live.
Meantime, hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
LONG: And I'm in today for Betty. My name's Melissa Long. Thanks for starting your Saturday with us.
It is very early this morning, and they were up late. They're going to be up pretty early today.
HOLMES: Yes.
LONG: They've been burning the midnight oil with one goal in mind. We're talking about senators. And they're focusing on ways to jump-start this faltering economy. Congress is working through the weekend trying to reach a compromise, trying to get...
HOLMES: Trying.
LONG: ...to some sort of a vote, possibly on Tuesday. We'll take a look now at what's in the deal, and perhaps most importantly to you, how will you be affected? How will your taxes be affected? How will the stimulus possibly save jobs, create even more jobs?
HOLMES: That's supposed to be the whole focus...
LONG: Of course, going forward.
HOLMES: ...is to create jobs. And speaking of jobs, really, this is the worst we've seen, this job market, in a long, long time. The number is 11.6 million people without a job right now. So a lot of people worried about their families and their futures.
So where can you find a job right now? There are people out there hiring, actually. We'll show you where they are. And if you get laid off, we'll also teach you how you can negotiate your severance and medical packages.
LONG: Important.
Also, it has grown into one of the nation's largest-ever recalls: peanut butter found in schools around the U.S. So far, eight people dead, hundreds now sick. Coming up this hour, an exclusive interview. We're going to trace the peanut butter right back to a plant in Georgia that health officials tried to shut down, but nothing happened? Now what's in place to stop shipping contaminated foods?
Those stories coming up this hour. Let's get you up to date on the big story. Again, the economic stimulus package. Senators resuming debate a little later this morning after meeting late into the night on Friday. A coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reaching a compromise earlier on Friday. They trimmed billions of dollars from the package. Debate expected to go into Monday. A Senate vote, again, on the plan could come on Tuesday.
Joe Biden on his first foreign trip as vice president. He is leading a U.S. delegation to a summit on international security. It's taking place today in Munich, Germany. Many of America's closest allies will also be there. The vice president is expected to ask them for help in places like Afghanistan.
And from California, a man is dead after his SUV careened off a bridge and landed on top of this home in Hawthorne. No word on whether anyone was inside that home, was injured. Police are investigating whether last night's rainstorm maybe played a role.
HOLMES: OK, so they've reached a deal. But slow down, it's not a done deal yet in the Senate. It is, however, a promising development, and it impacts just about every single one of us.
Democrats and some Republicans -- about two or three -- have reached a compromise on a tentative stimulus package. The Senate convenes again at 11:00 Eastern for four more hours of debate. The plan is to debate for another four hours then tomorrow, hopefully wrap all that debate up on Monday. A vote most likely to come on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY PLAN: Obama plan, he acknowledged himself it wasn't perfect. And I have to be very candid with everyone here: I've learned a lot the last few days by people coming in good faith, saying what is in here should not be in here. And on a few occasions, in listening to what was propounded by those who have come up with his bipartisan agreement, we had to swallow real hard.
But it was all done in good faith.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Waiting in the House is another omnibus appropriations bill of $400 billion. We just spent $750 billion -- or are in the process of another $750 in the form of TARP 1 and 2. My goodness.
What -- what -- it -- it's -- it's -- it's a moment in history of spending, the likes of which this nation has never seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And President Obama was hoping to see bipartisan support for his plan in the Senate. But he may not get what he was hoping for, as our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a day of intense and painstaking negotiations, but it looks like Barack Obama's top priority, passing an economic-stimulus bill, has cleared another very critical hurdle, and that is the United States Senate. There is a tentative deal to spend about $780 billion in spending and also in tax cuts with the goal of jump-starting the economy.
Now this was not an easy thing to achieve for Democratic leaders and the White House, along with just a few moderate Republicans. Most Republicans are probably going to end up voting against this, because for the most part they say it is too much spending and not enough directed on things that really will jump-start the economy, will really create jobs.
But the people who negotiated this, senators who were in rooms, in meetings all day long, and really for the past several days, they believe that they're -- have the right mix of spending on infrastructure, what they call "shovel ready" projects. Spending on education, things like high-speed rail and also tax cuts -- tax cuts for the middle class, and also some help who are in the middle of the housing crisis.
Now this was -- they were hoping in the Senate to pass this before the weekend, to do it by Friday night. But it looks like it won't happen until the weekend. But the most important thing, from the perspective of Barack Obama and the perspective of Democratic leaders is that they do believe that they have the 60 votes needed to clear a filibuster and pass this, and they will probably only do it with the help of two or three Republicans. Not the big bipartisan vote that President Obama had hoped for and promised, but he's going to get the number of votes that he needs to move this critical priority for him along in Congress.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And again, Dana Bash, who filed that report for us late last night, but it looks like the vote in the Senate is going to come maybe on Monday or Tuesday of next week and not this weekend.
The president, he says he likes the direction things are going on the Hill right now. I'm quoting now from his White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs: "On the day when we learned 3.6 million people have lost their jobs since the recession began, we are pleased the process is moving forward and we are closer to getting Americans a plan to create millions of jobs and get people back to work."
And a reminder for you here: You can hear the president's radio address during our next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
LONG: Just a few minutes from now, Vice President Joe Biden will be addressing world leaders and U.S. allies at a security conference that's going on in Munich, Germany. This is his first trip overseas since the inauguration.
Let's go live now to CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. He's been following the developments of the vice president's trip, however he's in Berlin.
Frederick, what are we expecting the vice president to say today?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Melissa, we're expecting the vice president to really outline the U.S.'s new foreign and defense policy for the first time in front of world leaders and also experts on defense and foreign policy. And we'll also see how much that new foreign and defense policy is going to be differing from what the Bush administration had been doing in the past eight years.
So what we're looking for from this speech is not very much in the form of specifics. But this will certainly set the tone for relations between the U.S. and its international allies around the world.
So we're looking more for things that will set the tone. We're not looking for Biden to say something like, 'We need so and so many more troops in Afghanistan.' What we're going to hear a lot, is we're going to hear him say, 'This is a new administration that's willing to listen. This is an administration that wants to cooperate with its allies, that wants its allies' opinion, but also that this is an administration that expects more responsibility from the allies that it has, especially here in Europe.' And of course, that pertains to things like Afghanistan, like relations with Russia.
And speaking of Russia, Russia is going to be a very, very important point for Joe Biden in this speech and also throughout the security conference. The U.S. administration, of course, looking for better relations with Russia based on mutual respect. Missile defense is a very, very big issue. There's been a lot of movement here ahead of the security conference. But what we're seeing from the -- certainly from the international point of view is that there is a lot of good will toward the U.S. administration. A lot of people expect the relations between the U.S. and Europe and Russia and also other countries to be substantially better than they were in the past couple of years.
So certainly, this is a very, very important speech for the international community that Joe Biden is going to be holding today, Melissa.
LONG: When then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was in Berlin, was in Germany last summer, there was a rock-star following. So many people turned out to hear him.
What type of following will the vice president have during his trip to Munich?
PLEITGEN: Well, certainly, he -- he does seem to be very popular about -- among the all the delegates there in Munich. We've heard a lot of very positive speeches toward the U.S. administration, towards the new administration.
The German foreign minister said yesterday that he expects a new time to -- the dawn of a new era almost now in international relations with this new administration coming into power.
However, of course, there are -- is somewhat fear also, especially among the European allies, that this new administration is going to be asking for more commitment in Afghanistan, which is really going to be very hard for a lot of European governments, not the least of which is Germany, to get through their own parliaments and -- and to -- and to -- to -- to say among their own people that they are going to have to be more robust in Afghanistan, perhaps put more troops into Afghanistan, which obviously could lead to more deaths in that country.
So certainly, there is some fear among European allies, but also a lot of hope that relations could be substantially better in the coming years, Melissa.
LONG: Frederik Pleitgen, live for us from Berlin.
And Fred, I want to remind our viewers that we're waiting for Vice President Biden to speak at that security conference. He's expecting to speak about 10, 15 minutes from now. We'll monitor it for you, of course, and bring you all the highlights from Munich.
HOLMES: Well, he's a pilot who says the sky is not the limit.
Ah, you know these guys. Know them well. The Blue Angels. We'll introduce you to a man who was a part of the Blue Angels who made some history. He was a first in the cockpit. We'll introduce you to him in just a bit.
Stay tuned for that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this was a mistake. I think I screwed up. And, you know, I take responsibility for it, and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Hey, your first two weeks on your new job, I'm sure you probably screwed up, too. But what exactly was the president talking about there?
More of his interview with Anderson Cooper. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Good morning once again. Today is National Black HIV AIDS Awareness Day. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 64 percent of women living with HIV are African-American.
And today is an annual community day aimed at pushing HIV testing in the African-American community. It is a day of education and a day of empowerment all across the U.S.
For events happening in your city and your community, go online to blackaidsday.org.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, you know, you've seen this team: the Blue Angels. Everybody knows them. Sometimes it seems like they could just do about anything up in the air.
But did you know it took them about four decades before the Blue Angels got their first black man in the cockpit?
We sat down with him -- caught up with him here in Atlanta not too long ago to hear his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (voice-over): They roll, they dive, they spin upside down. The Blue Angels are a special U.S. Navy and Marine Corps flight- demonstration team that have taken performance flying to new heights.
The elite team had been flying for almost 40 years before it inducted its first African-American member.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's run 'em up (ph).
DONNIE COCHRAN, FMR. BLUE ANGELS FLIGHT LEADER: I realized when I applied for -- for the Blues, that if I was fortunate enough to be selected, I would be the first African-American to be a -- a Blue Angel pilot.
But that was really not -- not my goal. And when I realized that I would potentially be selected, then I started feeling, you might say, the perceived pressure of that awesome responsibility.
HOLMES: Donnie Cochran grew up on a farm near Pelham, Georgia, with his 11 brothers and sisters.
COCHRAN: Well, it started with my parents. They instilled values in all of their children that allowed us to pursue a variety of -- of different career fields.
HOLMES: Just eight years after becoming a Blue Angel, Cochran again made history by becoming the first African-American to command the team.
COCHRAN: I feel very blessed is the way I feel. I've been exposed in some -- some very unique opportunities, and I think the value that I can bring to our community, to our country, is to give back.
And I would fly upside down in formation...
HOLMES: And giving back is exactly what Cochran is doing. After retiring in 2000, he now looks to inspire young people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He told us that we can, like, do whatever we want, as long as we put our heart to it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very determined. I want to keep on working and working until I get to be some kind of aviator.
HOLMES: He hopes to teach kids that the sky isn't the limit.
COCHRAN: The bottom line to getting what you want out of life is you have to do it like you really want it. Not enough just to get by, but sincerely do it to be the very best you can be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. We were just talking. Those guys -- you know...
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Unbelievable.
HOLMES: ...no matter how many times you have seen them, the stuff is unbelievable what they do.
WOLF: It really is amazing. I mean, a job -- getting paid to do something that makes...
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: ...that would make a lot of people sick...
HOLMES: Yes (INAUDIBLE)
WOLF: Seriously, flying upside down....
HOLMES: You're right. WOLF: ...(INAUDIBLE) 9 g's, that kind of thing. Not like being a network weather guy.
HOLMES: No?
WOLF: Yes.
HOLMES: You feeling a little woozy right now?
WOLF: (INAUDIBLE)
HOLMES: You OK?
WOLF: Absolutely.
HOLMES: But you did that other thing. What was that plane called? The -- that the teacher went up with? The...
WOLF: Also fondly referred to as "the vomit comet."
HOLMES: The vomit comet, yes.
WOLF: In the weightless -- the weightless times, yes. Yes.
And -- and I'll tell you, we're -- we're feeling plenty of weight right now. People in parts of Kentucky and across portions of the Midwest getting a -- a weight off their shoulders...
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: ...as temperatures finally above freezing.
HOLMES: Not talking about ice this weekend.
WOLF: No.
HOLMES: You're OK.
WOLF: No. No, thankfully.
But, you know, unless you've got a really bad memory -- thankfully, we've got Brett Mack to kind of remind you in parts of Kentucky. We've got some I-Reports for you.
And yes, there you go -- how about it, T.J.? Instantly, the I- Reports pop up, and you see Brett Mack's contribution right there. You see the trees, you see the ice all over the place. Some places, that ice got up to -- well, about an inch thick in a few spots.
Let's go from that shot to another one. You see the next shot, and the next shot shows you, again, more of those icy conditions. Hey, that may be our only picture, but it tells the story. And that's OK.
All right. Let's go right back to the weather computer. And as we do go to the weather computer, right now in Louisville, we do have a live image for you. And in Louisville, temperatures are right around 50 degrees or so. Keep in mind, the freezing point's right at 32. Refer to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So anything above that, that ice is going to be going, going, gone. So that's going to be the situation for you.
Currently, current temperatures -- that's what you see up here, current temperatures. You're currently 56 degrees in St. Louis; in Salt Lake City, we've got 32; in Los Angeles, 52 degrees; and San Francisco, currently 52 degrees.
Now in terms of your daytime highs, you're going to see a big improvement in many locations, temperatures going up to, in Nashville, 66; Atlanta, 66; Las Vegas, check it out, 51 degrees. Vegas baby! You're money and you don't even know it.
Check out Denver, currently 55 degrees; 44 up in Billings. Very warm up there. Keep in mind, Billings not too long ago had temperatures around 20 below zero. So a big change for them. A nice day in Billings.
Also high pressure going to be the dominating feature over much of the nation's midsection. Looking for a mix of sunshine and clouds and also some scattered showers possible through parts of the Great Lakes.
But when you get up to parts of the arrowhead of Minnesota and northern Wisconsin and even the UP of Michigan, a lot of that rain is going to be switching over to snow because you got that cold-air invection coming in, that shallow layer with the overrunning moisture is going to give you the snow.
And something we're really going to touch on later on this morning will be the possibility of heavy snowfall out side the LA Basin, up in the San Gabriel Mountains. You could see anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snowfall. Sounds like a crazy thing, but it's great news for California. They're desperate for the water, desperate for the rain. They're going to get both. Certainly some great news.
We've got a shot for you, I believe. It is Louisville popping up. And you see it' s a great morning there. Certainly a tremendous difference from what you had, say, a week ago. Plenty of lights out there, something that we weren't seeing, guys, about one week ago, with widespread power outages. Near a million people without power at that time. Certainly a different story, and that is certainly a good thing.
Let's send it back to you guys at the news desk.
LONG: Nice to have the lights back on, and they -- and the -- the chill out of the air.
WOLF: Makes it easier to see, definitely.
HOLMES: Thank you. That's why we have him around.
LONG: Thank you so much.
HOLMES: Oh, he is good. All right. Thanks, Renny.
(CROSSTALK)
LONG: Well, we know you are a snappy dressy. We know...
HOLMES: Well, thank you.
LONG: ...Reynolds looks very handsome as well.
HOLMES: Of course. Always.
LONG: But you might want to make some changes.
HOLMES: What don't you like?
LONG: Well, no. It's all about staying power in the workplace.
HOLMES: OK.
LONG: It's not about necessarily the way you've chosen to dress. It's -- it's the -- the -- the gender.
HOLMES: I'm sorry?
LONG: Coming up...
(LAUGHTER)
LONG: ...we're going to talk about the fact that apparently, with the latest unemployment rate, one gender has more staying power than another.
HOLMES: So I guess you're hinting that women have a better staying power than...
LONG: According to the research.
HOLMES: OK.
LONG: According to the research.
HOLMES: No skirts in the closet just yet. But you're telling I might need to change my wardrobe.
LONG: I'm not, actually. It's our producing team here.
HOLMES: OK. They're telling. All right.
LONG: They're encouraging you.
HOLMES: Well, we'll get into this here in just a second.
Also, a young lab goes chasing after some geese, finds himself in a tough spot. We'll show you the effort to save the little guy.
LONG: He looks scared. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, today, is National Black HIV and AIDS Awareness Day. Some facts we'll be bringing throughout the morning. Here's another: Did you know that 41 percent of men living with HIV are black men?
A lot more details for you, you can go to blackaidsday.org.
LONG: It's been a rough week, fair to say, for President Obama. It's far from over.
One setback: his pick for Health and Human Services secretary, former Senator Tom Daschle, withdrawing his nomination this week because of tax troubles.
In an Oval Office interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Mr. Obama admitted he made a mistake with the Daschle pick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards, one for power people and one for ordinary folks who are working everyday and paying their taxes.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you feel you've -- you've lost some of that moral high ground, which you set for yourself on -- on Day One, with the ethics reform?
OBAMA: Well, you know, I think this was a mistake. I think I screwed up. And, you know, I take responsibility for it, and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: Even before the dismal January employment numbers were announced, the president told CNN he is deeply worried about the U.S. economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: What is alarming right now is how fast the economy has been deteriorating. I think even two or three months ago, most economists would not have predicted us being in as bad of a situation as we are in right now.
COOPER: It -- it keeps a lot of Americans right now up at night.
Does it keep you up at night?
OBAMA: It keeps me up at night, and it gets me up...
COOPER: Really?
OBAMA: Literally, because -- because we've got a range of different problems, and there's no silver bullet. We're just going to have to work our way through the problem.
So, number one, we've got to have a recovery package that puts people back to work and ensures that states that are dealing with rising unemployment can deal with unemployment insurance, can provide health care for people who have lost their jobs. So that's one set of problems.
And then you've got a banking system that has undergone close to a meltdown. And we've got to figure out, how do we intelligently get credit flowing again so that small businesses and large businesses can hire people and keep their doors open and sell their products?
And, you know, part of the problem, unfortunately, is that the first round of TARP, I think, drew a lot of scorn. You know, we learned -- you know, we've now learned that, you know, people are still getting huge bonuses despite the fact that they're getting taxpayer money, which I think infuriates the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: Mr. Obama will be holding his first primetime news conference Monday night. We're going to bring it to you live here on CNN TV. And if you can't be near your television, you can also watch it online. Go to CNN.com/live. That's at 8 p.m. Eastern.
HOLMES: Well, in a few hours, at noon, we're expecting the senators to be back at work on this Saturday for a Saturday session to talk about this stimulus plan. Of course, last night, a deal was reached with Democrats and a few Republicans in the Senate. When I say few, I -- quite literally that, one, two, three, possibly, at the most, that are going to support this.
So they'll be back having discussions today, also tomorrow, and possibly voting on Monday or Tuesday on that plan.
Of course, a big part of is to -- is to create jobs. And we did see the jobless rate hit -- hit record highs just -- just yesterday. So with the rate up so high, where should you be looking for work? There are some jobs out there that are actually increasing in numbers. We'll tell you where they are.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Good morning, good morning, it is early. I'm Melissa Long in today for Betty on this Saturday. How early? 6:30 Eastern, 3:30 Pacific, if maybe you're just coming in after a long night?
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: Out on the West Coast.
LONG: Is that you or something?
HOLMES: No, it's not me. But out on the West Coast, I'm sure a lot of those folks are just getting in, or still out. LONG: I'm always curious when driving in to work at this early hour and everybody is coming home. What were they doing all that time?
HOLMES: Well, I have some clues what they were doing, but I don't know.
LONG: That's true, but I'd really like to know. I'd like to knock on some of the windows. Hey, good morning.
HOLMES: Don't do that. Please don't do that.
This is Melissa Long sitting in today for Betty Nguyen. Thank you for being here. And you have pointed out, in the first half hour, it's early.
LONG: It's early.
HOLMES: We start at 6:00 here. Hello to you all, I'm T.J. Holmes. I'm glad you all could start your day or maybe wrap up your night here with us.
The Senate wrapped up late last night. They'll be back at it again today with more debate this morning on the massive economic stimulus package. They worked pretty late into the night. It was 11:30, midnight is when they wrapped up. They'll be back at it at noon today; a coalition of Democrats and just a few Republicans.
Now it's a compromise that trims the Senate version of the package down to a mere $800 billion.
Meantime, the president and his family head to the presidential retreat at Camp David today.
LONG: This afternoon, the Reverend Al Sharpton is expected to protest outside the home of Bernard Madoff, who is currently under house arrest for while he is awaiting trial for running an alleged Ponzi scheme, a $50-billion Ponzi scheme. Sharpton says Madoff's case illustrates the disparity in the criminal justice system. He says he's protesting the fact that minorities and the poor are jailed more frequently, without bail, often for lesser crimes.
HOLMES: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg planning her return to the Supreme Court from a hospital bed. Ginsburg is recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery she had in New York. Court is back in session in a little more than two weeks, and the 75-year-old justice says she will be there.
We just got this a few minutes ago. In his radio address President Obama responded to the news that the Senate Democrats and a few Republicans had reached a compromise on the economic stimulus package. He is now asking Congress to pass it quickly and help get Americans back to work.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
OBAMA: From the beginning, this recovery plan has had at its core a simple idea: Let's put Americans to work, doing the work America needs done. It will save or create more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, all across the country. Sixteen thousand in Maine, nearly 80,000 in Indiana; almost all of them in the private sector, and all of them jobs that help us recover today and prosper tomorrow.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HOLMES: And next hour, the Republican National Committee chairman, the new chairman, Michael Steele, will deliver his radio address, it will be a counter to what you just heard. He'll be talking about the stimulus package as well. We'll have that for you, when we get it.
So what exactly is in this tentative deal? There's a lot of stuff in there, we'll give you a few things that are in there; $87 billion for state Medicaid program, more than $76 billion for education. As well about $43 billion for roads and bridges, more than $6 billion for water and sewer systems, another $35 billion for public housing. And not shown up here, but more than $3 billion also going for new job training.
LONG: Nearly 600,000 jobs lost in the last month alone. So, just who is looking for work? And then of those looking, where can they actually find it?
Josh Levs now takes a look at the numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, so you've heard the big picture. I want to give you some key statistics that the government just released. Start off with this, the number of unemployed people in America now, 11.6 million. That's when you include the number of people who are not collecting unemployment benefits. And the figure is up 4.1 million just over the past year. It's a huge jump.
Now I want to show you the difference between men and women on the list. It is an interesting breakdown, look, for men, 7.6 percent unemployment. But for women, it's at 6.2 percent. And in fact, one thing you might not have heard it, there's actually a couple of fields that gained jobs in January, health care and also private education. Now those are two sectors in which there are a lot of jobs for women. One of the worst-hit sectors is one that favors men. And that's construction.
And one more thing I want to show you here that's very interesting on the government's latest report. And that is a breakdown by race. And you'll see some maybe surprising statistics here. Whites, 6.9 percent unemployment, but for blacks, 1.6 percent, Hispanics in America, unemployment, 9.7 percent, Asians, 6.2 percent.
And you can get a lot more information about all of this right here on CNNMoney.com. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LONG: What steps can you take to insure you receive the best severance package if you find yourself losing your job? Coming up in about 30 minutes from now, we'll talk with a writer from "Money" magazine on how to get the best severance when you're being laid off.
Mayors across the country are begging for help in the economy and one actually got downright angry on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR VIRG BERNEO, LANSING, MICHIGAN: Hyundai does not have to pay the legacy costs, the insurance costs that our industry does. They don't have the health care costs, because their government pays for health care. If you don't think that's an unfair advantage, you're kidding yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: That was the mayor of Lansing, Michigan, we'll hear more of that heated interview coming up.
And also new information on one of the country's largest recalls. When did a peanut plant know about the possibility of salmonella? And did health officials move too slowly in shutting it down?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Mayors and governors across the country are pushing Congress to pass the economic stimulus package. And they want them to pass one yesterday. Economists and others sometimes disagree on how we got into this whole mess, but one mayor pretty clear.
On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" the mayor of Lansing, Michigan, blamed bad trade policies that have shipped jobs out of this country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERNERO: We have sold out manufacturing. We've sold out the working people and outsourced our standard of living with these trade policies. I think it's admirable that people are going line by line through this bill. They ought to go line by line through the trade agreements and look for fairness for the American worker.
There's a reason why the textile industry, the steel industry, the auto industry, industry after industry is being decimated. Furniture-making -- all of it going overseas. It's these trade agreements. And we need fair trade for the American worker. Because this is a picture of the rest of America.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Mayor?
BERNERO: We need to invest in American industry. We better decide if we want any advanced manufacturing in this country. We need a new strategic partnership.
VELSHI: Hey, Mayor?
BERNERO: These other countries invest in their industries, they invest in R&D. Look at where they build new batteries --
VELSHI: Mayor, hang on a second. Mayor, it's Ali Velshi here. Good to have you here this morning.
Ultimately, it's not necessarily trade agreements that lost those jobs, it's the fact that things are made more cheaply in other parts of the world. Which has in a lot of other cases, helped many other Americans in their standard of living. They've been able to buy cheaper goods. Ultimately, is that going to be the solution, solving trade agreements? What do you think right now ...
BERNERO: Let me make it clear I disagree. I disagree vehemently.
VELSHI: I know, I got that.
BERNERO: It is the trade agreements.
VELSHI: I got the fact that you disagree.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Mayor, let's have a conversation about it.
BERNERO: It is the trade agreement that put the American worker at a disadvantage. We are victims of currency manipulation.
VELSHI: You're verging on an infomercial, Mayor.
BERNERO: And the fact that they have health care policy. I'm glad to hear that the Obama administration is going to address health care. Because, look, I've been to Korea, I've seen the Hyundai plant. Those workers are not working any harder. They are wonderful people, the Koreans, but they are not working any harder, any better, than American workers.
VELSHI: They're working cheaper, sir.
BERNERO: But they have the advantages on their side. Hyundai does not have to pay the legacy costs, the insurance costs that our industry does. They don't have the health care costs. Because their government pays for health care. You don't think that's an unfair advantage, you're kidding yourself.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The thing we know is it's incredibly complicated. There are trade policies. There are also issues, I mean, other countries don't have the same labor and environmental standards that we do.
BERNERO: Exactly.
ROMANS: We know that's a big problem. That's something that people like to talk about when they want to talk about how to do trade agreements going forward. But there's also the other camp that is worried about protectionism at a time when a global economy is also at -
BERNERO: Yeah, you know what -- protectionism -- please, we have bad trade agreements, badly enforced. And the American worker is suffering for it. I've heard from workers all over the country, furniture making, textile, steel, you name it. The American worker has been left behind and it's the trade agreements that did it. Because we - Wall Street and Washington got away with it. It's an unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street.
ROMANS: Mayor, are you hearing from ...
BERNERO: The American worker has been left behind and that is why they have Washington and that's why they have questions about this stimulus package. It's about time we put the American worker first.
ROMANS: Mayor, are you hearing what you want out of the discussion in Washington? That they're talking about trade agreements and talking about the playing field for workers around the world?
BERNERO: No.
ROMANS: Or do you think that is a conversation that's not happening?
BERNERO: No, I'm hearing a lot of partisan bull crap, is what I'm hearing.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNERO: I'm hearing a lot of bipartisan bickering.
VELSHI: On what you are hearing, Mayor,
BERNERO: It's about time ...
VELSHI: Mayor. Mayor ...
BERNERO: ... we had some bipartisan leadership that puts the American people ...
VELSHI: Mayor, excuse me for a second, of what you're hearing, of what you're hearing, the idea of the debate of the debate between stimulus through spending or stimulus through tax cuts, what of those two choices would help Lansing more?
BERNERO: We need both. We need both. We need tax cuts delivered directly to the American worker. We need reeducation and retraining. I want to hear more about education and retraining, because these workers need it. And we need stimulus right now. We need -- look, I had to borrow $3 million, and Lansing is not alone. We had to borrow $3 million to make our roads just barely passable. We need major infrastructure investment in roads and bridges. But we also need investment in the technology of the future. But then we need fair trade agreements, so that our wonderful, productive workers can be effective and efficient, and productive. I'm tired of hearing the American worker beat up upon. And people told you need to be competitive.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Mayor.
BERNERO: You need to be competitive. What they're really talking about is, cut your wages, cut your benefits, work for nothing. Like some peasant somewhere else in the world. Well, I'm sorry. I'm tired of seeing the American standard of living brought down to the lowest common denominator. We need fair trade agreements, fairly enforced.
CHETRY: What about the fact that people just simply aren't buying your cars. You have Chrysler down 55 percent , General Motors sales tumbling 50 percent, Ford, 42 percent. I'm not saying it's much better, right now, out there. But people can't afford to buy new cars. So where does that leave Lansing?
BERNERO: Well, there's a credit crunch. Part of that is Wall Street is killing us. They brought this credit crunch. I've talked to car dealers. Believe me, I'm on this subject. And the credit crunch is killing the auto industry. Most people buy cars on credit. Think about it. Most people don't go in with cash. They can't get the credit. That's killing the auto industry.
We're making better cars than ever before. The "Motor Trend" Car of the Year, in 2008, was the Cadillac CTS, made right here in Lansing, Michigan. Don't tell me we're not making cars that people want. And these industries were transitioning into the greener cars of the future, when they were dealt this walloping blow by Wall Street. And it needs to be fixed.
I'm telling you. We better make a decision. It's not just about cars. We better make a decision if we want to have any advanced manufacturing in this country. And when you give up advanced manufacturing, you are giving up a lot. I think you're mortgaging your future. You're giving it away. We need a new strategic alliance ...
ROMANS: You know what, Mr. Mayor ...
BERNERO: ...between the federal government and manufacturing concerns in this country if we're going to have any manufacturing progress left.
ROMANS: You'll hear from a lot of decision-makers, though, that manufacturing is very 20th century and this is a service economy and that we have to innovate and we have to come up with the next thing that's going to move the economy forward. How does that square with -- with Michigan and its labor base?
BERNERO: With all due respect to you, that what you've just said, I've heard it before. I'm not saying this about you, that is absolute bull. That has been perpetrated by Wall Street. The idea that we could be a service economy it is absolute nonsense. What are you servicing? How can you service? What are we going to serve each other hamburgers? That's total utter nonsense that Wall Street has been spewing for years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well later this morning, you'll hear from other mayors who want Washington to push for the stimulus package. I hope they don't yell at me. Atlanta's mayor, Shirley Franklin, plus the mayors of Providence, Rhode Island and Akron, Ohio, scheduled to join us at 8:30.
Again, you heard the mayor there, of Lansing, Michigan. But they all have a case to make. A lot of them in their cities and their people are hurting right now and they're passionate about it. We'll hear what was on their wish lists for the president and the stimulus package.
LONG: No one is going to yell at you. You're too lovable.
HOLMES: No, I don't get that a lot. You're first for that.
LONG: No? You get that a lot?
HOLMES: But thank you.
LONG: You're welcome.
HOLMES: Appreciate that.
LONG: Just trying to get you so you don't feel that you need to fear them.
HOLMES: No, we'll have Mayor Franklin. She's always fiery and always good to talk to. So good to have her, and we have the other two. So, all of these mayors, they have a reason to be fired up right now.
LONG: Absolutely. Yes, fired up in Washington. We'll hear more about what they had to say. We're going to hear more about what they had to say this past week in Washington.
Now, a big story that a lot of people are talking about. Did the Georgia peanut plant knowingly ship salmonella-laced products across the country? Eight people now dead, hundreds sick. That is really the million-dollar question this morning. We'll travel to the plant for a CNN exclusive investigation you will not want to miss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Good morning, once again. It is early Saturday morning, coming up on 10 minutes of 7:00.
Peanut products sent to children's schools in three states may have been contaminated with salmonella. The Agriculture Department says between 2007 -- the beginning of 2007, and the end of June 2008, some schools in California received potentially tainted peanut butter and roasted peanuts. In Idaho and Minnesota, it was only roasted peanuts. The department says any recalled products still in the schools will be removed, tested and destroyed.
A federal report says a peanut plant in Georgia knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products as far back as 2007. But the recall didn't start until last month. The plant has been linked to a salmonella outbreak blamed for at least eight deaths and 600 illnesses. It has now grown to one of the nation's largest-ever recalls.
The Food and Drug Administration again finds itself at the center of this investigation. Abbie Boudreau from CNN's "SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT" reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): More than four months passed from the time the first case of salmonella was reported last fall, to when Minnesota health officials named peanut butter as the culprit in early January.
The FDA is now urging that every product made in this Blakely, Georgia peanut plant, dated back to January of 2007, be thrown away. The salmonella outbreak even prompted a remark from President Obama in a recent interview.
OBAMA: At bare minimum, we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter.
BOUDREAU: It's not only kids at risk.
JEFF ALMER, SON OF SHIRLEY ALMER: How do you say good-bye to someone, you know?
BOUDREAU: Jeff Almer didn't think he needed to worry about his 72-year-old mom eating a piece of peanut butter toast.
ALMER: So, no one is going to be home tomorrow for Christmas. It just didn't seem real.
BOUDREAU: Shirley Almer's death is now one of eight now linked to the outbreak nationwide. Only after she died did Minnesota health officials start piecing together the puzzle.
ALMER: They said that your mother had a stool sample that tested positive for salmonella. We were just like, what? How? How could that have happened?
BOUDREAU: National food safety experts tell CNN it happened because the system in place to protect the public from bad food is seriously broken. Experts say in this case, the government failed to regulate the safe production of peanut products from this Blakely, Georgia plant and also failed to rapidly detect the source of the outbreak. So far, more than 500 people have become sick.
WILLIAM HUBBARD, FORMER FDA ASSOC. COMMISSIONER: It's an embarrassment that in the United States, in the 21st century, we have 76 million people getting sick from food-borne contamination each year; 325,000 of them will be hospitalized, and 5,000 will die. We are losing the equivalent of the World Trade Center attacks every eight months, to food-borne illness.
BOUDREAU: Food safety expert William Hubbard, who testified before the U.S. Senate, says outbreaks like this one highlight the first basic problem. There's virtually nothing in place to stop companies from shipping contaminated food.
HUBBARD: American food processors are able essentially to make anything they want, in any way they want, and the burden is on the FDA to find the problem and correct it. It should be the other way around. In which a food processor is told you need to prevent contamination of the food before you enter it into the food supply.
BOUDREAU: The second basic problem? Not enough federal inspections. According to the FDA, the last time they inspected the Blakely plant was back in 2001. Instead, the FDA relied on the state of Georgia for inspections in 2006, 2007 and 2008, inspections that showed unsanitary practices, which the FDA said were somewhat resolved.
The company says it paid for private inspections in 2008 that gave the plant, quote, "superior and excellent ratings". According to the FDA, federal officials depend on manufacturers themselves to safeguard the food they make.
DR. STEPHEN SUNDLOF, FDA SPOKESMAN: More should have been done by this company. Obviously their sanitary measures were inadequate to prevent salmonella from entering their product. And it is the responsibility of the food industry to produce safe food.
BOUDREAU: In this case, food industry critics say, the FDA stepped in too late, only after hundreds got sick, and people were dying. When federal officials obtained the peanut company's records, the FDA discovered that 12 times in the past two years the company knowingly shipped products that initial tests showed were contaminated with salmonella.
The company denies it shipped out dangerous products, saying follow-up tests showed the products were salmonella-free. The company says, "Our top priority has been and will continue to be to insure the public safety."
The company says it's continuing to work day and night with the FDA, and other officials, to determine the source of the problem and insure that it never happens again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LONG: Now, there are of course, several questions. What did health officials say happened when they first warned the FDA that peanut butter was the likely source for the outbreak? And why, they say, more should have been done sooner. And what the FDA and the CDC are now doing so this won't happen again. More of this CNN exclusive investigation, when we return. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Coming up at the top of the hour, the spread of the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter is proof the nation's regulators are failing to protect us from dangerous foods. But once an outbreak is identified, another critical problem faces federal regulators and the American consumers, of course, the recall. Critics say the system for recalling food is seriously flawed.
Abbie Boudreau now back with this exclusive story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU (voice over): The recall of peanut butter products that started in mid-January has now grown to one of the nation's largest. Every day, new potentially contaminated products are being added to the long list. You might think the FDA has the power to demand these recalls. But you'd be wrong. It's actually up to the companies involved.
HUBBARD: The FDA does not have the authority to force a manufacturer who is producing contaminated food to recall it. They can beg them to, but they cannot order them to. And that's a flaw in the system.
BOUDREAU: Health officials in Minnesota , who helped solve this case, say a recall should have happened much sooner. One reason it didn't, they say, is because state and federal government agencies involved couldn't agree.
STEPHANIE MEYER, MDH EPIDEMIOLOGIST: It's pretty frustrating when you have cases starting with onsets in September and October, and you don't get a recall until January.
BOUDREAU: Health officials here say they told the FDA they suspected peanut butter from the Blakely plant and they asked for the FDA's help.
(On camera): When you contacted the FDA, what did happen?
MEYER: At that point, nothing from their end.
BOUDREAU (voice over): Meyer says the FDA wanted better evidence. She, and other health officials in Minnesota, say if the FDA had investigated the Blakely plant sooner, the recalls could have started sooner. FDA official says they moved as fast as they could, given the evidence they had.
But the problems extend beyond the FDA. Health officials in several states tell CNN the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to recognize the source of the outbreak fast enough. Dr. Michael Osterholm (ph) is a former state of Minnesota head epidemiologist.
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, FMR. MINNESOTA EPIDEMIOLOGIST: The CDC, literally, 11 days after Minnesota made the peanut butter announcement, were still on conference calls with states talking about potential chicken. I mean, you know what, that is irresponsible.
BOUDREAU: The CDC first noticed salmonella clusters in November. But because there are no federal standards, or mandatory guidelines that states must follow to detect food-borne illnesses, many states had trouble figuring out why people were getting sick.
CDC spokesperson, Doctor Robert Tauxe, agrees the system is overly complicated, prone to delays and underfunded.
DR. ROBERT TAUXE, CDC SPOKESMAN: The reality is that we have 50 different states, each with their own authorities, and each with their own processes, and each with their own budgets.
BOUDREAU: And the system failed at one more critical point -- that today, still bothers Jeff Almer about his mom's death.
ALMER: I even mentioned to my wife, Rebecca, that that's got to be my mom. And she's like -- oh, no. And I'm like -- it's got to be her. They said she had salmonella. But I don't know why we were not told if it is her.
BOUDREAU: No one in Minnesota told him that his mother was among the first deaths linked to the peanut butter outbreak. He read about it in the newspaper.
ALMER: We really feel cheated, we really do. And there's nothing to bring her back.
BOUDREAU: Abbie Boudreau, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, from the CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 4:00 o'clock out west. Hello to you all, I'm T.J. Holmes.
LONG: Good morning. I'm Melissa Long, in today for Betty. Hopefully, you are starting your Saturday on a good note, positive note.
HOLMES: If you're starting ...
LONG: It's warming up.
HOLMES: Yes, that's good thing. And you can start to hear ...
LONG: Great news.
HOLMES: ... above freezing for a change.
LONG: Absolutely.
HOLMES: We'll be talking about weather, of course, this morning.
LONG: Yes. And also talking about Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, who finds himself, of course, in some hot water after these photos surfaced of him smoking from a bong. But he's looking at the brighter side of things. We're going to share what he tells one TV station.
HOLMES: Also, 14.
LONG: Fourteen, staggering.
HOLMES: Fourteen kids. Yes.
LONG: How do you push a stroller with 14 children?
HOLMES: I don't think they make that stroller. All are supposed to fit into this one house that you're looking at. In California, the woman who recently delivered octuplets -- now, she's talking to the media and she'll explain how she plans to take care of 14 children under the age of seven.
LONG: And thousands of layoffs, cutbacks across the U.S. What happens to your health insurance when you get laid off? Do you know how to negotiate for medical coverage when you're handed that pink slip? We're going to give you a list of things you need to talk to your employers about when you are sadly shown the door.
Here are the top stories making news of this Saturday morning. The economic stimulus package in the Senate -- senators resume debate at noon Eastern, after meeting late into the night on Friday. A coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise earlier yesterday. They trimmed billions of dollars from the package. Debate is expected to go into Monday now. A vote on the plan could come Tuesday in the Senate.
HOLMES: And a protest in Oakland erupts again after a former Bay Area Transit officer charged with murder is released on bond. The officer or former officer's name is Johannes Mehserle. He posted $3 million in bond yesterday.
Now, he is charged with shooting and killing a man who wasn't armed. Now, this is video you may remember or at least the shooting got so much attention because the camera phone video was taken that shows the officer shooting a man in the back as he laid on the ground. Again, this happened on New Year's Day.
LONG: Federal investigators continue sifting through clues to determine if an Arkansas doctor was deliberately targeted after his car blew up outside of his home. The doctor, Trent Pierce, remains in critical condition this morning. Investigators say they're examining more than 100 leads in that case.
HOLMES: Well, the debate continues after a compromise was reached last night. You know, that economic stimulus package -- it's going to be debated today in the Senate, but it's still going to take a few days before there is a vote on it.
A live, beautiful picture as light begins to shine on the Capitol dome there. The Senate convenes at noon Eastern, four hours of debate is expected today -- two hours for the Democrats, two hours for the Republicans. The plan is for the debate to continue again tomorrow for another four hours, and then maybe wrap it all up on Monday, possibly a vote on Tuesday. A coalition of Democratic and some Republican senators -- about three -- worked to craft the revised stimulus package.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BEN NELSON, (D) NEBRASKA: The recovery bill we support today fuels two powerful engines -- major tax cuts for the middle- class, and to create jobs and targeted investments in America's infrastructure and job growth. Our bipartisan group worked long and hard, going line by line, dollar by dollar, to reduce spending from the original bill. We trimmed the fat, fried the bacon and milked the sacred cows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, all right. It makes you hungry this morning, doesn't it?
The economic stimulus package will need at least 60 nods to get out of the Senate. Then, it's going to have to go into a negotiating committee with House members and then they'll have to come together on one bill that both houses of Congress do agree on -- not necessarily an easy feat with so many Republican senators vowing to vote no. In fact, passing the new bill could be used as a measure of how much clout the new president has on Capitol Hill.
Here now -- our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The tentative deal in the United States Senate moves forward President Obama's economic recovery plan, the breakthrough came after more pressure from the president, for the third straight day. He used the word "catastrophe," saying that the financial crisis can become a catastrophe if the U.S. Congress does not move forward on his plan.
But the White House is trying to be very cautious about this breakthrough. They realize it's unclear, still, whether there will be enough votes to actually pass it over the weekend. So, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, put out a statement saying, quote, "On the day when we learned 3.6 million people have lost their jobs since this recession began, we are pleased the process is moving forward, and we are closer to getting Americans a plan to create millions of jobs and get people back to work."
That is the key -- that statement from Robert Gibbs noting that the president has promised to create or save 3 million to 4 million jobs in the U.S. over the first two years of his young administration. This is obviously issue number one for the president. And while there have been a lot of changes to the bill, he was originally proposing, the core of it still has President Obama's fingerprints all over it. For example, it has a tax cut for any household earning under $200,000 a year in the U.S., specifically, a $500 tax credit for individuals, $1,000 for families.
There's also a lot of money on energy initiatives, so-called green jobs that the president has been talking about, renewable energy projects, $11 billion for a new electric grid in the United States, $6.5 billion for updated power lines. So, some of these key initiatives are still in there. And this is at least a partial victory.
Because the president has been using a lot of political capital to get this through what is a Democratic Congress, it passed initially in the House with no Republican votes. Some Democrats jumping ship as well. Now in the Senate, it's going to be very closely watched, exactly how many Republicans he can pull in. The president has been making great promises about making this a bipartisan effort.
This is going to be the first real test of how much clout he has on Capitol Hill. But more importantly, moving forward, this is going to be the first big test about whether or not he can help the American people in the middle of a crisis. And the president realizes that even if this gets through the Senate this weekend, it still has to get through more hurdles in the U.S. House. And that's why he's going to be hitting the road next week, for his first real domestic trips as U.S. president.
On Monday, he's going to be going in the state of Indiana for a town hall meeting. Then Tuesday, the critical battleground state of Florida as well for a town hall meeting. Both of those states have been really hard-hit by job losses. And so the president sort of launching these campaign-style events to try to bring back some of the energy, some of the intensity of the U.S. presidential campaign to this effort to sell his stimulus plan.
Ed Henry, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LONG: And we're hearing from the president this morning, in his weekly radio address. The president pointed to the latest unemployment figures as clear evidence that Congress must act. The president says the stimulus package will help American's middle-class.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: It includes immediate tax relief for our struggling middle-class in places like Ohio, where 4.5 million workers will receive a tax cut of up to $1,000. It protects health insurance and provides unemployment insurance for those who have lost their jobs. And it helps our states and communities avoid painful tax hikes, or layoffs for our teachers, nurses and first responders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: Mr. Obama and his family traveling this weekend, heading to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland a little later this morning. And now that was the president's radio address. We have the GOP response, Michael Steele giving his first radio address as the new chairman of the Republican National Committee. Steele says the stimulus plan is just a spending spree for the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL STEELE, RNC CHAIRMAN: Democrats in Congress want a $1 trillion spending bill. You've heard about the pork barrel programs they want to fund. $45 million for ATV trails, and removal of fish passage barriers is one that caught my eye. Exactly what is a fish passage barrier and why does it cost $45 million to stimulate the economy with it? That's why Republicans in the House voted against uncontrolled spending.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: That's the new RNC chairman. Mr. Steele says Republicans can't just vote no on the bill. They do have to push their own plan.
HOLMES: Well, the woman who received the nation's first facial transplant has left the hospital. Her doctors say she's eating solid food and breathing on her own for the first time since her disfiguring injury several years ago. The woman's identity has not been revealed. A dead donor provided the skin and bone necessary for the 22-hour surgery.
Well, most women who have children don't have to defend why they have children. But not the case for a California mother, who is having to defend herself for having octuplets. Well, she is defending herself because she already had six kids at home. Her name is Nadya Suleman.
She still lives with her parents at this home that you're looking at. And with their help, she has to raise a total now of 14 children all under the age of seven. Suleman said she always wanted a big family and promises to find time for them all.
Here's what she had to say to NBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANN CURRY, NBC NEWS: People feel, you know, this woman is being completely irresponsible and selfish to bring these children in the world ...
NADYA SULEMAN, MOTHER OF OCTUPLETS: All I have to say ...
CURRY: ... without a clear source of income and enough help to raise them.
SULEMAN: I know how I'll be able to afford them when I'm done with my schooling. If I were just sitting down, watching TV and not be as determined as I am to succeed and have a better -- provide a better future for my children, I believe that would be considered to a certain degree, selfish. CURRY: So, the world outside is saying, "What are you doing?"
SULEMAN: I'm providing myself to my children. I'm loving them unconditionally; accepting them unconditionally. Everything I do, I'll stop my life for them and be present for them and hold them and be with them. And how many parents do that? I'm sure there are many that do, but many don't. And that's unfortunate, and that's selfish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Suleman says all 14 of her children were conceived by in vitro fertilization, from sperm donated by a friend.
LONG: The jobless rate increasing again -- what to do when you do get laid off? We have a guide to getting what's coming to you. And Michael Phelps is now facing suspension and trouble with a major sponsor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT GREVERS, PHELPS' OLYMPIC TEAMMATE: I think he got little overwhelmed. He hasn't done any of the normal social life to do that feel like what college kids do. And now, he's half a year off to experience that lifestyle and I think he got carried away and made a poor choice. I think he regrets that choice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand it was a poor decision but I still look up to him as a swimmer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've lost a little respect for him but I'm sure he can get back up there and do his best.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Some of the opinions are coming again there about Michael Phelps. That was one of his teammates who were there talking about that now-infamous pot photo, you know, with the bong, the picture you've seen a lot over the past week. In the wake of the incident, Phelps now is questioning whether he'll join his teammates for the 2012 Summer Games in London. We shall see.
Well, as of right now, he doesn't need to worry about competing for quite sometime. Phelps has been suspended for three months after that picture surfaced of him with that bong. USA Swimming says that, "He disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids, who look up to him as a role model and hero."
Meanwhile, Phelps, he is speaking about the incident. One station caught up with him outside his training facility in Baltimore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Michael Phelps, what were you thinking?
MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC SWIMMING CHAMPION: Obviously, not much. And you know -- I mean, like I said, it's a bad judgment. And you know, I can learn from it and try to make my life better than it has been in the past. Like I said, I've made mistakes, and I have to live with every mistake that I've learned.
I think it's hard to really, you know, to be ready for any of this. You know, to understand anything that's going to happen, I think it's impossible for anybody to really know that the definite answer. But, you know, I've actually -- I've been able to talk to a lot of people. And, you know, a lot of people that have been in my shoes in other sports and I've been able to get their perspective and just talk to them a little bit. And I think that's been helpful over the last few days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Has this made you rethink Rome this summer and maybe London in 2012?
PHELPS: I'm -- you know, like I said, swimming makes me happy. It's part of -- been my life for so many years now. And, you know, I just feel good to be -- it's good to get back in the water. I'm not going to make any decisions yet. But, you know, we'll see what happens.
I'm going to do everything I can, you know, in the pool. And I'm already back in the water, training, still deciding a lot of things. But you know, I'm happy to be back in the water. And that's a place where I feel at home and feel comfortable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, Phelps has lost his first sponsor, Kellogg's, letting his advertising contract expire at end of the month. Kellogg's, however, also let its sponsorship deal with USA Swimming expire in December.
LONG: So much bad economic news, the economy in a tailspin. The latest evidence in these new numbers, the nation's unemployment rate has surged to 7.6 percent. Just last month, nearly 600,000 jobs gone -- the biggest one-month loss since 1974. But this may be the most disturbing figure -- analysts predicting as many as 3 million jobs will vanish this year.
With companies slashing jobs, left and right, millions of Americans now out of work. How can you make sure you don't walk away empty-handed? Amanda Gengler is a finance expert and writer/reporter for "Money" magazine. She joins us live this morning to tell us what you need to know.
Good morning, Amanda. Thanks for joining us so early in this Saturday morning.
AMANDA GENGLER, WRITER, MONEY MAGAZINE: Good morning.
Unfortunately, you're right. Many more people are going to be handed pink slips in the coming year. You know, economists are saying that we still haven't gone through the worst. But we have tips to make sure you can sort of make the best, make sure you get the most from a bad situation.
LONG: OK. Well, let me ask you about that, though. You're saying your tips, which we're looking forward to, of course. But do you have any sort of power -- any sort of negotiating power, when you are essentially shown the door?
GENGLER: There is no guarantee, unfortunately, that you are going to be given anything more than the standard package. That's if your company even gives you a package. That's not required by federal law. But you never want to leave with at least, or without asking. I mean, nothing -- the worst they can say is no.
LONG: OK. So, what are we supposed to be asking, even if they do say no?
GENGLER: You hear that the general rule of thumb is sort of, you can get two weeks' pay for every year that you've been on the job. But some other career coaches that I have been talking to are actually saying, they're seeing even less paid out during this downturn.
So, what do you want to do? You have to make a very specific, concrete argument of why what you are getting is not fair. So how do you do that? You write down exactly how you have performed in the past year.
Maybe you saved the company you know, $5 million or you stopped the client -- sort of stepped in at the last minute and stopped a client from taking his business elsewhere. That brought in an extra $10 million. Or maybe you found a way to save the company money. You need to put that in writing in your appeal.
LONG: OK. So brag, essentially, at this point -- even though you're losing your job, highlight why you've been a stellar employee up until to this point.
You also mentioned some of the standards such as health care. How do you make sure you're getting the most when it comes to health care?
GENGLER: Health care should be one of your biggest concerns if you are laid off and particularly if you have a family member who is ill or you are sick yourself. You can absolutely ask for the company to continue to continue to pay your COBRA payments, let's say over, you know, while you're getting severance or over some other time period -- because, you know, COBRA payments, you're going to end up paying 100 percent of your cost of health care, plus a small administrative fee, and that can be $1,000 a month. So, that can definitely help out.
LONG: Amanda, who are you talking to at this point? You're talking to your boss. You're talking to H.R. You're talking to both simultaneously. And how do you navigate got of those conversations? GENGLER: I think you are talking to both of them sort of simultaneously, but don't be afraid to go to your boss. Once H.R. has told you what sort of package that you're going to be given, go to your boss and just say, "I don't think this is fair, given my performance over the past year." You know, your boss might not be the person that you want to see at this point, you might be feeling angry or hurt. I mean, this is a demoralizing experience.
But you want to remember, it's your boss who can then go and vouch for you, and H.R. and say -- you know, this person has been an exceptional performer over the past year. I really don't think what we are giving her is fair. And you need that back-up.
LONG: And remind people that you have been performing and, of course, a stellar employee up until that point -- as you mentioned -- and really, ask questions. They can say no, but ask for whatever you think you're entitled to.
Amanda Gengler of "Money" magazine, thanks so much. Great advice.
GENGLER: Thanks so much.
HOLMES: Well, children in danger, desperately-needed medicine may not be what it seems. The drugs are replaced with household chemicals?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF: I'm meteorologist Reynolds Wolf for CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And I'm here to tell you about weather, you're here to listen. Well, I'll show you what's happening around the country right now.
Currently, 42 degrees in Detroit, well above freezing, same story in Cincinnati with 48 degrees. In Washington, D.C., currently 30, about two degrees below the freezing point.
And we have a live image for you in Washington, D.C. -- showing the Capitol, a little of the lawn there. It's going to be kind of a hazy day there for the most part. Temperatures are not warming up all that much. But in the coming days, you can expect temperatures to become a little more unseasonably normal.
Take a look at the other temperatures expected today. In D.C., 58 degrees the expected high; in Kansas City, 68; 56 in Denver; 45 degrees in Salt Lake City the expected high.
Scattered showers and storms are possible across parts of the Midwest and into the Ohio Valley. Same story for much of the Great Lakes. However, in parts of the upper peninsula of Michigan into the arrowhead of Minnesota, right off Lake Superior, you could get some fairly heavy snowfall and possibly, one to two feet of snow along parts of I-5 and the Grapevine outside the L.A. Basin.
We're going to talk more about that coming up this morning. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Don't go anywhere -- really. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Children in need of medicine is a story we're focusing on coming up next hour.
HOLMES: Instead of the getting those desperately-needed treatments, they are getting things you'd most likely find on the floor of your garage. That's coming up.
But coming up first, CNN "HOUSE CALL" with Doctor Sanjay Gupta starts right now.
