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CNN Saturday Morning News

President Obama Says Economic Plan Will Take Time to Work; Unemployment Rate at Its Highest in 25 Years; Communities in Crisis; CareerBuilder Expert Gives Tips on How to Make Your Resume Stand Out

Aired March 07, 2009 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, 8:00 here in Atlanta, Georgia. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, T.J..

HOLMES: How you doing this morning Betty?

NGUYEN: I'm doing A-OK. Good morning, everybody out there. I'm Betty Nguyen. It is Saturday, March 7th. Thanks for starting your day with us.

Here's what's coming up this hour. The unemployment rate is at its highest in 25 years. There's a home in foreclosure, listen to this, every 13 seconds. And the 17th U.S. bank has failed this year. Yep, things are not looking good at all. So who is to blame for all of this?

HOLMES: Of course, as Betty just mentioned, those numbers, but we're trying to help you out there. There are a lot of you looking for jobs right now. We have a CareerBuilder expert going to be with us this morning. Send your resumes to us at weekends @cnn.com. We're going to look at them and give you a call, some of you live on the air and hooking you up with this CareerBuilder expert who will help you maybe polish up that resume just a bit and maybe find a job right about now.

Also, we've got a new theme song here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN (SINGING): Working six to noon (INAUDIBLE).

DOLLY PARTON, SINGER (SINGING): Working six to noon (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: You know the face and you know the voice, Dolly Parton. She actually changed the words to her song just for us. We are singing with Dolly.

But first, we do want to start with President Obama this morning, talking about saving jobs and telling Americans his administration is doing all that is necessary on the economy. HOLMES: Congress has passed of course that economic stimulus plan, is that going to be enough or do we need a bank rescue? A lot of questions out there, a lot of money being thrown around. Paul Steinhauser going to answer some of these questions. This is a lot of money to keep up with, again, a face you're familiar with here on CNN SATURDAY/SUNDAY MORNING, but not familiar with it being right next to us.

Good to have you here in Atlanta with us. Welcome back. You used to work out of here, so you know how it goes. So the address this morning, we'll call them web-radio address now, but talk about the economy game. What is he trying to get at this time around?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: He talked about those unemployment numbers that came out yesterday and he said listen, there are going to be more difficult days ahead and things are definitely going to be tough to get out of this. But he said he had a message this morning. He said, I'm on the job. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My administration is committed to doing all that's necessary to address this crisis and lead us to a better day. That's why we're moving forward with an economic agenda that will jump start job creation, restart lending, relieve responsible homeowners and address the long-term economic challenges of our time, the cost of health care, our dependence on oil and the state of our schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: That's part of his message T.J.. It's going to take some time, but I am on the job. That's what President Obama is saying from the stimulus package to the home foreclosure plan we saw this week, to the budget that he released just a couple days ago. He is out there working, but he's telling the American people, this is not going to come over the next couple days. This takes time.

HOLMES: And you had, I'm sure you've noticed, he hasn't made a speech about the economy since he's become president where he didn't say, we inherited this recession. You know that line is in there, always about inheriting, but how long are the American people going to give him with all these big plans, a lot of his plans now are in place. How long are they going to give him before they start saying, hey, Mr. President, this isn't working and this is your fault?

STEINHAUSER: That's a good question. Take a look at these new poll numbers from NBC and "Wall Street Journal" because that goes to the point you're asking. You can see right here, a vast majority, 84 percent say President Obama inherited the economic mess we're in right now, only 8 percent say he is responsible.

But to your question, how long will it take or how long will they give him, polls vary, but anywhere from maybe a year to two years. People understand, he inherited this mess, but when they start blaming President Obama for this mess, that is when the trouble begins for him politically.

HOLMES: All right, we will keep an eye on those numbers as you always do for us. Paul, good to have you here in Atlanta. Thanks so much sir. We're going to be talking to him plenty more over the next couple hours here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

NGUYEN: In studio with us. All right, let's check the president's schedule right now. He gets his daily briefing this morning, just about 90 minutes from now. At 10:00 Eastern, the president and first family head to Camp David for the weekend. They return to Washington tomorrow afternoon.

Now on Monday, the president talks about Federal funding for stem cell research. On Tuesday, he talks education reform at a meeting of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and on Thursday, he invites President (sic) Biden to lead a conference on the stimulus package.

HOLMES: All right, we got more layoff numbers here to show you, need to keep you updated about what's happening our there. But let's look at these figures now from the Labor Department. Now these numbers I'm going to show you here, unemployed as well as underemployed. That number is at 14.8 percent. So again, that's about 15 out of every 100 people you run across on the street is either going to be out of a job or is not making a enough at their job to pay the bills. A lot of people have part time jobs now as well.

Here's some of the larger layoffs we've been seeing and being reported right now. The banking giant, HSBC cutting about 6100 jobs. Defense contractor Northrup Grumman, 750 jobs, General Dynamics, 1200, Borders bookstores. 500 jobs, again, another rough week in the jobs market. We saw the number 650,000 cut last month.

NGUYEN: Here's another depressing number for you, another bank bites the dust. Freedom Bank of Georgia is the seventh bank in Georgia to fail this year and the 17th nationally. State regulators seized the bank after the stock market closed yesterday. Northeast Georgia bank has agreed to assume all deposits of Freedom banks. Four branches will reopen Monday under the Northeast name and we want to give you a map of the states affected by bank failures.

You can find it on cnnmoney.com. California and Georgia top the list for failed banks for 2008 and 2009. You can see that map right there. This map also shows you which states have the highest percentage of home foreclosures. As we mentioned, a foreclosure every 13 seconds in America. Log on and check it out at cnn.com.

HOLMES: All right. We need to turn now to a different set of maps, some weather maps now. Reynolds Wolf over in the weather center. Reynolds, another area, which part I guess we should ask you, which part of the country under the gun now?

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: All right, thank you Reynolds. Stick around because we have a little surprise this week, a special visitor, shall we say, to CNN. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN AND PARTON (SINGING): Working 6:00 to noon, what a way to make a living barely gets you by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: She did a T.J./Betty remix of her popular "Nine to Five" song because we're on the air from 6:00 to noon here on Saturday. But you know the name. You know the face. Dolly Parton, she stopped by. We didn't know she was going to be here, kind of surprised us, but we rushed out of our office.

NGUYEN: We jumped at the chance to talk with Dolly. She's got some really surprising information about what she likes and what she dislikes when it comes to reporter interviews. Stay tuned for that.

HOLMES: We stayed around, away from those questions she didn't want us to ask.

Also coming up this hour, we'll be talking, looking out for you job seekers out there. We've been asking for your resumes. You can send them to us at weekends@cnn.com. But what we're doing is taking your resume and sending it to CareerBuilder experts and then hooking you up live, yes, calling you at home and hooking you up live here on the air, getting those tips from that CareerBuilder expert, so send those into us. We may be giving you a call this morning, those tips no far away. Stay here with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Starting to make its way to the states, not a moment too soon for many communities in crisis. Braddock, Pennsylvania, let's take them for example. The town still waiting for its share and hoping it will be enough to pull it back from the brink it has for years (ph).

The steel town's population dwindled from about 20,000 down to 3,000. Those that remain are facing an unemployment rate of about 15 percent. Declining property values there, as well. The average house value in Braddock last year, $6,200, again folks, $6,200. Braddock has weathered tough times before, planning to do it again.

And hoping to lead them through those tough times, these two gentlemen joining me now. John Fetterman is the mayor of Braddock and also Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato. Gentlemen, I appreciate you both being here and a lot of people might recognize the mayor, Mayor Fetterman there because you have been on a campaign of sorts.

I know you apologized kind of joking there a second. Sorry you had to see me so much, but still, you are on a campaign of sorts to show people just what your town has been going through and something I read that you've said is that this is what happens when a place is allowed to fail. What do you mean by that?

MAYOR JOHN FETTERMAN, BRADDOCK, PENNSYLVANIA: I think in today's environment and you see the country facing a lot of challenges that they are, our region went through about 30 years ago, what's facing a lot of these other regions in the country. You know, you wonder what would have happened if the Federal government stepped in and offered massive billions to stabilize the steel industry and make sure there wasn't widespread job loss of the region.

And I think it now, it just speaks to what can happen when a region is kind of thrown to the free markets, whereas banking is being bailed out, some of these other industries are whereas our region I think really took one for the team back in the '70s.

HOLMES: Like you're saying there, a lot of these people having gotten to the point where your town has gotten right now. That's almost like a public service. You're showing people, hey, you need to help these towns out now. They might end up like we did.

FETTERMAN: That's true, but we're also very lucky here in Allegheny County because we've got a chief executive who's on it and has been on it for long before the economic crisis has kind of reached the rest of the country.

HOLMES: And you're talking about Dan there, sitting right there to your left, Dan Onorato, I want to bring you in here, the chief executive of Allegheny County. Sir, do you have good confidence and I guess what is your understanding of the process?

It seems like so much bureaucratic red tape to go through on how the money gets from that bill being passed and the president's signature being on that bill to getting to you so you can get it to the mayor sitting next to you. Do you have a good understanding of how that's going to work and is money coming to you, yet?

DAN ONORATO, ALLEGNEY COUNTY EXECUTIVE: There's no doubt, this is a work in process, but the money is starting to come already. We have about $250 million in highways and bridges. And one of the bridges that we are doing currently right now is at the Braddock and Rankin (ph) intersection and that's going to service a lot of these old industrial sites where we are cleaning up the environmental mess and it's going to be the next major development.

Ironically, our county is doing much better than the rest of the United States. Our unemployment is 2 percent lower than the rest of the states. Braddock's next up. We're moving all the resources of the county into Braddock and some other older mill towns to make sure that their infrastructure is brought back. But the Federal dollars started to roll in last week.

HOLMES: And Mr. Mayor, let me ask you and not everybody is crazy about the campaign you have been on, not necessarily I guess speaking so favorably about their town. But still, you are talking about the reality there. I guess what has been some of the feedback and you probably are familiar with them, the borough council President Jesse Brown not too happy with some of the things you have been saying out there and the campaign you have been on. So what is your response to those who say hey, quit bad mouthing our town? FETTERMAN: Again, Mr. Brown and I have collaborated and he's an important member of the community and president of our council and I would respond to Mr. Brown as I would anyone, is that we're not talking bad. We're just getting the word out, so to speak and just saying hey, this is a great community.

You look at the hundreds of billions of dollars that have gone to -- it's like the worse you were the more money you get. Whether you're AIG or these other investment banks and we're just talking as a region. It's like look, we've got some great shovel ready projects not only in Braddock, but in Allegheny County that Dan has developed and we're just looking for a small percentage of that and -- I'm sorry.

HOLMES: No, no, no, sorry to cut you off. But Dan, you brought up that money. Dan, how does it work? Who is making the decision about how much a town like Braddock is going to get? I know the money gets to a governor and then it gets to a mayor and then it gets -- so I guess who is going to be making the call?

ONORATO: It's coming in all different ways and many people are making the calls. For example, we have $250 million in our highways and bridges that's coming through the governor's office through our department of transportation, the state, the state's department of transportation. We also received from the county $18 million for smaller bridges that we own that came directly to the counties department of public works.

So, it is different across the board, depending on what pot of money you are talking about. So as it relates to Braddock, we'll coordinate locally with the mayor, the county, I'll be there and the state's department of transportation. We'll all be working together to do the infrastructure.

HOLMES: And finally here, mayor, I'll ask this last one to you and maybe you can make a plea and help people understand I guess the tough times we are in and why maybe we need more folks who are doing things like you are doing. You have a masters from Harvard in public policy. You're not from Braddock originally. You went there and kind of were taken by it, while you were working for a volunteer work, kind of fell in love with the town, stuck around. You're making $150 a month as the mayor of that town. You depend on help from friends and family to just make it by yourself.

So, you could be doing a whole lot of things and making a whole lot more money than you're making. What does it say and what would you say about the times we are in and I guess more than we need like you to be into public service and sacrifice to help out your fellow man.

FETTERMAN: As you pointed out, these are serious times and they require serious solutions and President Obama is leading the charge and I guess I would just say I'm disappointed with the other side of the aisle, whether it's a Rush Limbaugh or a Governor Jindal that are taking this time to make really strange points or divide the country in a position where we're really looking at an unemployment rate that's as high as it's been in the past 26 years and no sign of letting up on that. So, I really think we need to get behind the president and we have to realize how serious these issues are and take them on and not squabble and look at who is keeping score on talking points.

HOLMES: All right, well Dan Onorato, again county executive of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and the Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Sir, we appreciate both of you taking the time out and we are pulling for your community and all of our communities. But good luck to you folks there in Braddock. Thank you guys so much for being here.

ONORATO: Thanks for having us.

HOLMES: Betty, if you don't know that he's not into it, he has the zip code tattooed on his arm in Braddock. He also has five names of people tattooed on him that lived in Braddock who have passed since he has been the mayor. So this is not his town. He wasn't born and raised, but he's dedicated to it. He could be doing a lot, masters degree from Harvard. He could be doing a lot of things. We're talking about billions of dollars there, pet projects, the core (ph) people it always comes up.

So what about these pet projects? Josh Levs looking into some of them to see if they really are pork and we got a reality check.

NGUYEN: Wait until you see what some of these projects are. You may be surprised. You may be even outraged.

Also ahead, a candid conversation with one of the biggest stars of country music. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARTON: Well, they had to use my purse to support their microphone. Now he wasn't kidding about not being prepared. They just came down and just threw me in the chair, sit down in the chair.

NGUYEN: (INAUDIBLE) Dolly.

HOLMES: We have a low budget on the weekend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: She's going to charge us, she says. Hey, Dolly, give us a break, we're on a shoe string budget around here. We're going to talk to Dolly about keeping it real and what she thinks about the whole economic mess that we're in. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right, so President Obama said he will sign a massive spending bill before Congress even though it contains billions of dollars in lawmakers' pet projects.

HOLMES: Just how many billions and wasn't the president talking on the campaign trail Josh about pork should not be allowed in these spending bills.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, yeah, just like we were looking at last hour, the fact is, some people questioning if he's breaking that promise right now. And I'll tell you, we need to look at this figure because there was a figure that was floating around here. Look, this is from time.com which is hooked to CNN. The Democratic leadership was estimating about $3.8 billion in earmarks in this bill.

Well, look at this, the fine folks at politifact.com, this great reality checking Web site, they looked at that $3.8 billion figure. They said no way, check out where my finger is. They are calling it false right there. They say the real figure, $7.7 billion in earmarks in this bill. They say this group, Taxpayers for Common Sense is right when they went through this bill and figured $7.7 billion.

Also, Politifact took a look at this, which Senator John McCain told us on "American Morning."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: He said he's against earmarks and yet on the floor tomorrow and the next day of the Senate will be a bill with 9,427 pork barrel items, $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii. I mean spending has gone completely nuts here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Politifact said the figures, they were accurate guides (ph). So check this out, 9,427 different earmarks that say were shoved into this massive spending bill.

HOLMES: We hear that number about the thousands of earmarks. We hear the big numbers about the billions. There's no argument about what even a pork project is. So what are some specific examples we're talking about here on an earmark?

LEVS: Exactly and that's a good point. It's important to keep in mind one person's earmark is another person's job. But still there are some that a lot of people, even the White House is agreeing are counting as earmarks. Take a look. John McCain named some. We're going to show you some examples, $1.7 million for a honeybee factory in Texas, another $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa.

There's a $1 million dollars in there for cricket control in Utah. You have almost $1 million for sustainable energy projects in the Las Vegas area that was put in as well. We got some more here, Polynesian voyaging society in Hawaii, $238,000. The Alaska PTA gets some money in this bill if it goes through this way, $238,000 also.

Then, there's a tattoo removal violence outreach program in Los Angeles area guys, $200,000 and about another $200,000 for improved blueberry production in Georgia. So these are some of the things that they're just pointing to and saying, hey, these are earmarks. This isn't the way to get the funding.

HOLMES: I know you love those Georgia blueberries. NGUYEN: Yeah, but that's a lot of money for some blueberries.

HOLMES: We got to get to the pig odor one out of Iowa. We got to figure out what that one's about.

NGUYEN: Tattoo removing. I mean there are lots of these projects that people are just scratching their head going really?

HOLMES: Really and really where can people get -- maybe they want to look up some more of these earmarks and read more about them.

LEVS: You know, what's interesting and this is what you were saying just now about what's an earmark, what's not. There's actually this Web site. I don't know if a lot of people know about it, but check it out. I think I have it here. Yeah, the Office of Management and Budget which is part of the White House, has a whole section on earmarks here, earmarks.omb.gov.

So, they are saying that these things are earmarks. You can see it there. Also on my Facebook page over here, joshlevscnn, I've put a couple of links to what I've just shown you, politifact.com and as soon as I'm off the air guys, I'll run over to that page. I'll put a few more links. You can dig into this bill yourself, if you want to and you can decide for yourself what counts as an earmark.

NGUYEN: It's pretty plain and simple, you would think. But again as you mention, these are peoples' jobs. If you take it as face value, boy, some of these projects, how did they get through?

LEVS: The frustration a lot of people have is why does it have to work this way? If this is something everyone, the whole nation can agree on, why can't Congress just vote on it instead of one person kind of slipping it into a bill.

NGUYEN: Josh thanks for that, we do appreciate it.

LEVS: You got it, thanks.

HOLMES: All right and we've been talking about this morning, you and I were pretty excited to see Dolly Parton in the building the other day.

NGUYEN: In the flesh.

HOLMES: Yes, in the flesh. She was here talking about a host of issues, but she was officially here o promote something she's been working on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: We were upstairs and got word that Dolly Parton was in the building. We had to come down and say hello to you. Hi Dolly.

PARTON: Well hi. (INAUDIBLE)

HOLMES: We didn't plan on -- I didn't even shave today. NGUYEN: I have a sweater on.

HOLMES: We ran down.

PARTON: I think you look good and I'm happy to get a chance to talk to you. We're here doing some work with our imagination library (INAUDIBLE). So we just teamed up with the Rotary, get the Rotary to kind of sponsor that whole thing and so we have just been doing a lot of press today and came up here to do some stuff and I'm glad we got to do this.

NGUYEN: It's a wonderful project. I want to ask you about this with the economy the way it is. You have some really good insight. I mean you, singer, song writer, businesswoman, you have reinvented yourself in many ways. How do you stay successful and what advice do you have to people who have fallen on hard times?

PARTON: It's very hard right now for everybody. I think everybody is kind of scared, but there's really no -- you don't really know how to give advice. I try not to give people advice. But even like being in business with me like at Dollywood, we're always very conscience of the economy and have to kind of hold back a little bit to see how things are going.

But we're very encouraged by the fact that our season ticket sales are going good. We have to say, just keep your head up, keep your faith. You got to kind of believe that things are going to be better and I hope that they are going to be. It's just scary right now.

HOLMES: You have done so much with your career, philanthropic work, but what is it, would you say, maybe a question out there that you get a lot of that you love to answer, but maybe another question you get sick of talking about. You know there's got to be something, I'm tired of talking about this but you still answer it.

PARTON: I've had it all. I guess probably I get a little sick of people talking about the plastic surgery or have you done this or have you done that? That's all part of it. I know people are curious and you think they should know that by now. Yes, I have. You see something sagging, (INAUDIBLE).

But you get all that and you just really hope that people will ask those questions and then get on with things that you want to talk about. But I've been blessed, I've been lucky and I don't mind talking about anything. I try to do it all with a sense of humor and enjoy my own life and my own work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: If it's sagging, dragging or bagging, she's going to get nipped, tucked or sucked. I love Dolly. She is just going to tell it like it is. In fact, we asked her to do a little remix of her song "Nine to Five" that would be appropriate for our show. It's now our new theme song.

HOLMES: Six to noon, working six to noon.

NGUYEN: And she'll be singing it. We'll show a clip of that a little bit later this morning. You can't miss it, hilarious.

HOLMES: But you don't want to miss her as well. She sat down with Larry King, for the hour and you can see that replay 9:00 Eastern tonight. Dolly Parton talking to Larry King.

NGUYEN: From that to this.

HOLMES: You know that little word association game people play some times. They say one thing and the first word that pops in your mind -- Bernie Madoff. I wonder what the first thing that comes...

NGUYEN: Don't ask me.

HOLMES: Yes, but maybe anger, shock, a little outrage. It's a lot of reaction's...

NGUYEN: Depends on how much you lost with him.

HOLMES: Yes.

NGUYEN: So now there's a way to get some of that frustration out. Check it out. We'll explain what this is all about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: President Obama is ready to overturn one of the more controversial executive orders put forth by his predecessor. Administration officials say the president will sign a new order on Monday, removing the Bush administration's ban on your tax dollars being used to fund human embryonic stem cell research.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL J. FOX, ACTOR: The strict acceptable guidelines are in place. You know, but if we don't lead in this and other countries going to, and they're not -- you know, we're not going to have the ethical oversight, and it's going to happen. So, we should do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: That was actor Michael J. Fox talking about the possibilities in 2006. He has Parkinson's disease and is one of the leading voices calling for more research.

Now, advocates like Fox are hopeful the research will lead to cures for many diseases since embryonic stem cells can grow into almost anything. Now opponents object to the destruction of embryos for research, saying it ends a human life.

CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now live from the White House this morning. Elaine, I got to ask you this, with so much economic work on the table, why is the president tackling stem cell research now? ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Betty, that is a great question and one that we just don't have a clear answer to at this point. But certainly, you bring up a very interesting point that a lot of people certainly will be raising when this issue comes on Monday is with all of the nation's economic difficulties, is this really such a pressing matter at this moment?

Now it's an issue that you point out has already drawn fire from opponents. Obviously, this is a reversal of the Bush administration's policy on this issue. Tony Perkins, a member who heads up the Family Research Council rather, said that this is really going to be a "slap in the face to Americans who believe in the dignity of all human life."

So you can bet, there will be a lot of talk about this when the president, as we expect him to do, does decide to make this move on Monday, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, Elaine, this is an important issue for the president. Because if we recall correctly back in January, didn't he talk about stem cell research right before the inauguration?

QUIJANO: He did. He sat down with our John King for his show "STATE OF THE UNION." And in that interview, it was very interesting, John King asked him point-blank, you will have the power to actually do this, to lift this ban on human embryonic stem cell research. Will you do that?

Here's what the then president-elect had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we can do something legislatively, then I usually prefer a legislative process because those are the people's representatives.

And I think that on embryonic stem cell research, the fact that you have a bipartisan support around that issue, the fact that you have Republicans like Orrin Hatch, who are fierce opponents of abortion, and yet recognize that there is a moral and ethical mechanism to ensure that people with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's can actually, you know, find potentially some hope out there, you know, I think that sends a powerful message.

So, we're still examining what things we'll do through executive order, but I like the idea of the American people's representatives expressing their views on an issue like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: So given that, Betty, the big question, why the change of heart and why now -- Betty?

NGUYEN: Yeah. And we'll wait to see. OK, Elaine Quijano, thank you so much. We appreciate it. You know, a plea deal for Bernie Madoff may be in the works. The accused investment swindler waved his right to a grand jury indictment. And that might be a sign that a deal could be close.

Madoff is accused of defrauding thousands of investors of about $50 billion. His alleged victims range from regular investors to charities. He's been charged with one count of securities fraud.

HOLMES: And you know, some of his people he swindled, some would say, would love maybe to just get their hands on Bernie Madoff.

NGUYEN: You think?

HOLMES: They would love to. They know he's held up in his...

NGUYEN: What would they do, if they got their hands on him?

HOLMES: What would they do? Maybe they would hit him with a hammer, but...

NGUYEN: But you can't.

HOLMES: You can actually. Look at this thing. This is a Bernie Madoff doll. It's called a Smash Me Bernie.

NGUYEN: Can you believe it?

HOLMES: And it's being premiered at the New York Toy Fair.

NGUYEN: For $100.

HOLMES: See, that's the thing, though, if you're struggling now...

NGUYEN: If you've already lost your money to this man, why would you spend another extra $100 to smash him in the head?

HOLMES: Some might say that is money well spent.

NGUYEN: I guess getting out the frustration.

HOLMES: Or the therapy. But you see there, it's wearing kind of the red suit, got a pitch fork, you get the idea there. But it does come with its own hammer for you to knock this thing around. So I assume it's -- you won't break it if you hit it. So you can hit it repeatedly.

NGUYEN: No, I've seen another shot where they show it and it's all in pieces. It's crumbled.

HOLMES: So you just get a one time?

NGUYEN: One time shot at the guy for $1000. I don't know, you might find a better place to spend your money.

HOLMES: Yeah. (WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Thank you, Reynolds.

HOLMES: All right, well, breaking the glass ceiling in college football. We're taking a look at an NFL rule. It's called the Rooney rule. Maybe you've hard of it, but it could lead the way to changes in how colleges hire their coaches as well.

NGUYEN: Plus, the latest on the Chris Brown case. We're going to find out if a plea deal is in the works. But in the meantime, we're asking you to send us your thoughts on this entire situation. E-mail us, weekends@cnn.com or go to our facebook pages and let us know what you think. We know there are a lot of people out there that have a definite opinion on him.

HOLMES: It has been the talker for a lot of reasons. But by all means, we're getting comments already on those. Keep those coming in. We're going to be sharing them right here on the air. Stay with us.

In the meantime, send us your thoughts on the situation. Go to our facebook pages and let us know what you think. There are a lot of people out there with an opinion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, have you heard of the Rooney rule in the NFL? It's a rule that requires the teams to make sure they actually interview at least one minority candidate when filling a head coaching vacancy. Now, that's being credited with increasing the number of African-American coaches in the league, including Mike Tomlin who just led the Pittsburgh Steelers to their Super Bowl win not too long ago.

Now, a law an Oregon lawmaker thinks a statewide program there in Oregon could bring similar diversity to college teams in that state.

Rick Horrow, our sports business analyst, joins us this morning. Sir, good to see you. Is this something that colleges need and have been looking into?

RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Well, they're looking into it. And colleges need something. The specifics of this rule need to be discussed. Some public institutions versus private. How do they enforce it?

But the bottom line is since 1966, there have been 199 college openings, and 12 African-Americans coaches have been hired for it. There are only four in the current ranks. And so, when you consider the fact that 55 percent of the student athletes are minorities, clearly, a balance has to be struck.

HOLMES: Yeah, a lot of people say those numbers are just actually embarrassing, some of those statistics you just named.

But what about the administrator? Is somebody going to be fighting this? And how do administrators feel about having to do this, being told who they need to interview?

HORROW: Well, clearly, nobody wants to be told to do anything, but that's what progress is in many cases. And administrators themselves, of 120 top flight Division 1 college programs, 11 athletic directors are African-American. And only three college presidents. So there needs to be some work done at the top levels there too, don't you think?

HOLMES: Yeah, and we talked about the NFL, this Rooney rule. It hasn't been in place that long I do believe. I can't remember which year. Maybe you do know, but in the NFL, do some people certainly look at it and say it has absolutely changed the face of football and the sidelines at least?

HORROW: Oh, I know. 2003.

HOLMES: '03.

HORROW: And frankly, there were some teams like the Lions who tried to test it by not going through those procedures. They were fined $200,000 by the league. Raheem Morris, a new whiz kid, hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this year, Jim Caldwell takes over for Super bowl winning coach Tony Dunzy (ph) in Indianapolis. And obviously, Mike Tomlin, as you talked about.

The Rooney rule is working. Six African-American coaches probably not enough, but it's trending in the right direction.

HOLMES: Is it only -- what do you think as far as -- I'll ask you about the other sports here, maybe Major League baseball and the NBA and what not. But still, do you think it's only a matter of time before we see a Rooney rule take place for all of college athletics as well?

HORROW: Well, again, you know, it's hard to do that, because it's hard to enforce among what states funded and what's private.

HOLMES: Yeah.

HORROW: This bill that was talked about in Oregon, they tried to talk about introducing it. They might, but there's no teeth in this. There are no penalties. So there's a long way to work that out and other sports obviously into the impact as well.

HOLMES: Other sports be impacted as well, there it is. Rick Horrow for us again this morning. Thank you, good to see you. And like we said, you look good this morning. Look like you've had some time off, got the fresh haircut and tan going.

NGUYEN: Yeah.

HOLMES: You look good.

NGUYEN: He looks relaxed.

HORROW: Well, you know, this is the first positive compliment from Betty. Reinforcement works. I'll look even better next week.

HOLMES: All right.

NGUYEN: I can't wait.

HOLMES: Can't wait to see you.

NGUYEN: Should have started this a long time ago. All right, thank you.

HOLMES: Great, thanks, buddy.

NGUYEN: You know, it is tax time, but there are some scams that you absolutely need to be wary of. We're going to look at those coming up at 10:00 this morning.

HOLMES: Also, job seekers, we've been talking to you this morning. And we want you to talk back to us. Send us your resume. E- mail at weekends@cnn.com. We'll be hooking you up live on the air with someone giving resume tips. Might be calling you at the house. Stay by the phone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, jobs are on the minds of everybody these days. We get more and more dismal job numbers, unemployment numbers. So where are the jobs? How can you find the job? Can you find a job right now?

Gerri Willis is on the hunt for us. Gerri, hello to you. Good to see you. So people are trying, but are they finding jobs right about now?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey there, T.J. Yeah, I'm at the Yonkers Employment Center. And the people here in this room right here are all looking for jobs and they're doing the best they can to rewrite those resumes, find the jobs that are available.

I want you to meet Kara here. She's looking for a job. And she's just getting back into the work force. You have a new daughter, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes. Well, she's not quite new anymore. She's about 14 months.

WILLIS: So what's it like being in the market now, though? I would think it'd be a very tough time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like a dinosaur in a way when it comes to it, but I'm actually really confident because I've been coming here. So I've been juicing up my resume just a little bit, revising it more.

WILLIS: So you think you're going to find work pretty quickly, right? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm actually going on a big time interview on Monday. So it's really, really, really been coming fast, trying.

WILLIS: Thank you, Kara. Good luck to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

WILLIS: All right, well, as you can see here at the Yonkers Employment Center, they do have successes. These are pictures of folks who have gotten jobs. So there are people out there who get jobs.

Jelani over here is looking for a job in the building-trade sector. Tell me a little bit about how long have you been unemployed, what's it's like out there looking for a job?

JELANI ROGERS, JOB SEEKER: I've been unemployed for about eight months. It's very hard being that the way the world the way is today, like the things that we're going through.

So it's very hard because the building trade is very cold, especially in New York. So not too many people is hiring. I went to the temp agencies before I came to the Department of Labor so I wouldn't exhaust all my remedies before I came and started getting benefits.

WILLIS: All right, and so you said that essentially those temporary agencies, they're not hiring any more either?

ROGERS: No, every time you call, it's like nobody's calling them. They ask for temp agencies. So there's no more work basically. They're just on a call basis.

WILLIS: OK, Jelani, we wish you a lot of luck out there. We hope you get a job soon.

So T.J., you can see people out here, they're really working hard to find work. And they're doing everything they can to land that next job.

HOLMES: All right, they are working, they are trying. And you've been helping out as well. Our whole money team, but this weekend, coming up, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE," you're going to be talking job, what is it going to be this weekend?

WILLIS: That's right, jobs, jobs, jobs. How do you find -- how do you transition to a new career if you're finding that you can't find employment in your present career? T.J.?

HOLMES: All right, Gerri Willis, as always, we appreciate it. Thank you so much. See you soon.

WILLIS: Thank you.

HOLMES: And coming up on "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" with Gerri Willis, talking about how tough it is. Talking about the dismal state of the housing market, to record unemployment numbers.

Again, your personal finance expert, Gerri Willis, will tell you where the jobs are and how to hang on to the biggest investment of your life, probably going to be your home. All that and more 9:30 Eastern, Coming up in just a little bit, right here on CNN.

NGUYEN: Well, this story has a whole lot of people talking for various reasons.

HOLMES: Yeah.

NGUYEN: The Chris Brown/Rihanna saga. It continues. Here are some questions that we're trying to get to the bottom of today.

HOLMES: A lot of questions, including is she going to testify against him? Will he strike a plea deal? And a lot of questions, people are asking, are they back together?

NGUYEN: Yeah.

HOLMES: There's a lot of rumors and things out there. We're going to talk with E! executive editor Ken Baker all about it. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, it's a big entertainment story.

NGUYEN: Yeah.

HOLMES: A lot of these can be (INAUDIBLE), the people just interested, but this one has some very serious implications and questions and people concerned about this young lady, Rihanna. You know the story by now. Chris Brown and Rihanna and what happened with these two.

NGUYEN: Yeah, well, Brown was in court this week facing charges that he assaulted and threatened his girlfriend, that being Rihanna, on the night before the Grammys. Well, her attorney now says she will testify, if she is called to, meaning if there's a subpoena.

Joining us now to talk more about the developments in this case and the relationship is Ken Baker, executive news editor for E! Entertainment Television.

OK, Ken, first of all, let's get to this, the restraining order that's now out. Is it indeed a new one? Or does she want it taken down? I mean, what is going on? We're hearing so many different stories.

KEN BAKER, EXECUTIVE NEWS EDITOR, E! ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION: Well, basically, what's happening is that Chris Brown and Rihanna shockingly enough are still romantically involved. I mean, just within the last few days here in Los Angeles, Chris and Rihanna have been spending time together. They are in regular contact together. And in fact, at Thursday's scheduled arraignment, and I say scheduled because he was supposed to be arraigned on Thursday on two felony charges of assault and making criminal threats. But they postponed it till April 6th.

And what's going on behind the scenes is that there's a plea deal in the works between Brown's attorney Mark Geragos and the L.A. prosecutors in order to get him to plea to at least a lesser charge so he can avoid jail time.

But at that hearing that I was at, Rihanna's attorney, personal attorney was there, which is very interesting move. And he said to the judge he waived any request to have a protective order so that she could have contact with him.

Now as far as whether or not she's going to testify, the attorney did say that she will testify. But I spoke to the attorney and I said well, she's going to testify but what is she going to say? And he said well, I'm not going to reveal that.

In other words, she may testify and say well, you know, it was all a big misunderstanding. Well, that doesn't necessarily help the prosecution. And for that reason, there's a lot of speculation that the L.A. prosecutors are going to have to do a plea deal because this is in a case that they could necessarily win at trial.

NGUYEN: What is going on here, Ken? People look at this, especially when they saw that photo that was leaked to the press and they hear, you know, the new information. In fact, I think you even have some more information on exactly what happened during that attack. What is going on when it appears that they're back in a relationship and perhaps, you know, she has reconciled with him?

BAKER: Well, there's a couple things to remember. One is that Rihanna is 21-years-old. Chris Brown is just 19. So you know, essentially, these are kids. You know, barely over the legal age. And they are in love. And they did get into this fight.

The other thing to understand is that, you know, the experts that we talk to say it's not that uncommon for domestic abuse victims to get back together with their alleged attackers. This happens often. It's a sad reality to the case.

But what's interesting here is that the beating that she allegedly took at the hands of Chris Brown was very brutal. We got leaked to us a police affidavit. The detective who was on the scene that night that it happened, which is just about a month ago, he described her bleeding all over her dress, blood all over the car, bruises, cuts, and that he actually, according to this police officer threatened with the words, "I'm going to kill you."

And so, these are very serious things that happened. And thus, it gave us insight into why some serious charges, two felonies, were brought against him. But again, everyone we talk to, sources that I've spoken to say it's going to be a very difficult case for the L.A. prosecutors to actually get a conviction on. Thus, this is why they delayed his plea at a scheduled arraignment on Thursday.

And we're going to see in about a month on April 6th, he's going to have to be -- he's going to come back into court. But what I'm told is that it's an all but a certainty that Brown's attorney will have worked out a plea deal at that time.

NGUYEN: All right. It is just shocking after you hear what went on that night and then hear that they're back together. All right, Ken Baker, thanks so much. We do appreciate your insight. Some good information. But this is, you know, a story that has a lot of people outraged.

HOLMES: Yeah, and some of the details are so disturbing. Again, the young man hasn't been convicted of anything, but stuff that's come out and just on, it's just disturbing. And certainly that picture just gives you the chills.

NGUYEN: Yeah.

HOLMES: And we've been asking for comments on a number of stories this morning that we've had on. But certainly a lot of you have been commenting about the particular, the Chris Brown-Rihanna story. Weekends@CNN.com and Betty and I's Facebook pages we got several comments. We start with -

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN, ANCHOR: A lot of them. This first one on my Facebook page from Angelo Jones says "I think he should be ashamed of himself for beating Rihanna. But I think it was an irresponsible thing to continue having a relationship with him." Speaking of the fact that we're learning that the two could be back together.

HOLMES: All right. Also, to the right there, my Facebook page - this is from LeeAnne who writes "the situation is disturbing but not surprising. People need to understand the cycle of domestic violence and not be so quick to judge Rihanna because she is caught up in a cycle of abuse. The breaking point is different for every woman. Rihanna is going to get to reach that point where she never goes back on her own."

And one more I'll show you here from Michelle, who talked about - that she's actually done some work with towel(ph) therapy. She is concerned about the precedent that Rihanna-Chris Brown situation is setting but on the other hand, it presents a great opportunity for parents and educators to talk to kids about violence in relationship. She says as a woman she is disappointed in Rihanna and lost respect and it's really sad.

NGUYEN: Yes, a lot of people are describing it as sad. And Rick Jones, on my Facebook site says "it's very plainly and simply, hit a woman and go to jail. It's easy." Continue sending us what you think about the whole situation. Go to our Facebook pages or e-mail us at weekends@CNN.com.

Hello, good morning to you all, again on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. 9:00 a.m. here in the East Coast, Atlanta, Georgia, 6:00 a.m. for those of you waking up out west. Good morning to you, all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

NGUYEN: Yes, hello everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Thanks so much for starting your day with us.

HOLMES: All right. We got help for people out there. We want to help you out by finding a job this morning. Resumes have been coming in to us at weekends@CNN.com. Continue to send those to us, we have a career builder expert on hand. We will hook you up live. We'll be calling some of you. And you'll get advice here live, on the air. Well, look at them, call some of you and by all means continue to send those in for us for some free advice this hour.

NGUYEN: A first though, President Obama wants Americans to see opportunity in these tough economic times.

HOLMES: It may be tough to see some opportunities out there ending a week where the unemployment rates hit its highest level in over 25 years. The president says he's confident the country will get through this recession and emerge a lot stronger. Deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser, a friend of our show here on CNN SATURDAY MONRING, gets to be here with us.

Good to have you in studio with us here. We just talked about there into this lead up with talking about the positive. That was a criticism. Come on, Mr. President, we need to say something positive. Is he starting to take that tone more so now.

PAUL STEINHAUSE, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We saw it this morning in his radio and internet address in a two-pronged approach. He was very obvious about this tough economic times. He said it's going to get worse before it gets better. But that was his message at the end of his address. It will get better. The nation will come out of this more prosperous than when we started this recession. Take a listen also to what he said about being on the job and taking action. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: My administration is committed to doing all that's necessary to address this crisis and lead us to a better day. That's why we're moving forward with an economic agenda that will jump start job creation, restart lending, relieve responsible home owners and address the long term economic challenges of our time. The cost of health care, our dependence on oil and the state of our schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: That's a big agenda T.J. That was a lot of stuff he's working on but that was part of his message today. I'm handling this, give me time though. It's going to take time. Republicans of course have a different message that this spending is going to get out of control.

HOLMES: Are they able to make a breakthrough in terms of this is our plan is instead of saying, we don't like his plan? STEINHAUSER: Not yet. I think it's a little too early for that. I think a lot of Republicans still want to give the president some time to see if it works before they come out with their own kind of plans. But a year from now, if we're in the same situation, it's going to be a very, very different political story.

HOLMES: All right. Like we said, he's just trying to buy some time. He's still selling the package that he already won on. He got it through Congress. He signed it into law but still needs to sell it some more. Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political director in front of our show here. Paul, always good to have you. Good to have you here in studio with us.

STEINHAUSER: Great to be here. Thanks.

HOLMES: Thanks, Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. Here are some numbers. And I will tell you. It is not pretty. Check the latest job layoff figures from the Labor Department. The number of Americans either unemployed or underemployed. 14.8 percent. That means nearly 15 people out of 100. Here are just some of the larger layoffs being reported. The banking giant HSBC cutting 6,100 jobs. Defense contract Northrop Grumman 750 jobs. General Dynamics, 1,200. And Borders bookstores, 500. Another rough week on the job market. You know, all morning long, we are talking about ways to tweak your resume and get that job interview, secure that position.

HOLMES: Yes. It's tough. There are tricks you need to know and how do you stand out from everybody else? We are getting some advice from the vice president of human resources, from careerbuilders.com. Rosemary Haefner, am I saying your name right?

ROSEMARY HAEFNER, V.P., HUMAN RESOURCES CAREERBUILDERS.COM: You are absolutely right.

HOLMES: Haefner. I want to make sure this morning that I had that right at least. Well good morning to you. Thank you for being with us. First, we're going to hook you up here with somebody. Patrick Clark on the line. But tell us first, what are the common mistakes you see out there with people on their resumes?

HAEFNER: You know I think people are trying to get every accomplishment they have done in a lifetime on one piece of paper. It's impossible. You got to be really, really particular with what you put out there. So, streamlining is the key.

HOLMES: Streamlining is the key. All right. We have Paul Clark - I do believe.

NGUYEN: Patrick.

HOLMES: Excuse me, Patrick Clark on the phone.

NGUYEN: You had it right the first time. He's a management professional from Omaha, Nebraska. All right. Patrick, this is your moment to shine. What questions do you have when it comes to your resume and getting a job?

VOICE OF PATRICK CLARK, JOBSEEKER: I can't quite figure out what's wrong with my resume. I have gotten many management marketable skills, I think they are transferable, and yet I'm not getting any responses.

NGUYEN: All right. So, Rosemary, what do you think? Have you taken a look at it? We have it up right here.

HAEFNER: Yes. Absolutely, what I was just saying a couple of minutes ago. Really applies to you, Patrick. You want to streamline it. You are right. You have incredible management experience. But you need to make it easier for the recruiter to see all of those highlights.

A couple quick recommendations for you. The top third of the page, that first page, that's prime real estate. Make sure that it's very punchy. Right now, what you're doing, you're specifying job titles that you're interested in. They are going to know that from your objective or your summary statement. So take that section out. It's going to free up space.

Second recommendation for you, you don't need an objective and a summary section. Combine the two. And really make sure you're using keywords for the job postings or just the highlights of the company you are applying for. Make sure those are really clear and they pop right there in the first third of the page.

HOLMES: Well, Patrick, I hope that was helpful. I want to ask you about something else Patrick while we have you here. We had your picture up. And forgive me, you don't look like a recent college graduate, if you will. But we had a gentleman on last weekend who essentially was saying he had so much experience that people thought and once things are going well but when folks found out how old he was, that was kind of an issue. He thought he was being discriminated against. Now, I want to ask you, do you think that something you came up against and then Rosemary, I want to hear your reaction.

CLARK: Yes, I think it's a consideration. And I also think the no degree is also a consideration. I believe that, you know, screeners who are screening the resumes are looking for the degree and if it's not there, then you know it's tossed out.

HOLMES: Rosemary, what do you think?

HAEFNER: Well, it's interesting. I do hear that quite a few job seekers saying the same thing to me. And so what I say is look it's not age, you got an incredible array of experience. So it's going to be your judgment call. Do you want to put every position you have ever held on your resume or do you want to hold something back, really highlight the most current experiences you've had. That's the first thing.

As far as the education, you talk about not having a specific degree, but you do have a lot of training and a lot of development you have done. So you want to highlight that. Employers want to see that you are sort of a lifelong learning right. So a lot of training and certifications you've done through your career, highlight those. Those are as important as the degree if not a lot more.

HOLMES: All right. Patrick, sir, I hope that was helpful for you, hopefully it was helpful to a lot of other job seekers who are watching here as well. and Rosemary, don't you go anywhere. We're going to be talking to you and hooking you up with somebody else here. Patrick, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

CLARK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: And we want to let people know that there's a link on cnn.com that gives a map of the U.S. and you can click on cities near you to find out where the next job fair is going to be. In fact, for Patrick, there's going to be one in Omaha, Nebraska on August 21st. So, again go to CNN.com, a lot of good information for you jobseekers out there.

HOLMES: All right. We try to hook up these jobseekers and the professionals who can help you with those resumes. Rosemary will be back after this break with someone else on the line, getting some help with their resume. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Like what we have been doing this morning. We are trying to help you out there. A lot of people looking for jobs right now. Keep sending those resumes to us at weekends@CNN.com but also people are wondering where the jobs are specifically. Are they in your area? We got a resource at cnn.com that will help you out. Josh Levs here to show you this thing and -

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HOLMES: How it works and where those jobs are. Josh, it's a good resource.

LEVS: Yes. Great. You guys were just mentioning it before the break there. And what it does, we have a couple of different maps here. I want to show you guys a couple of things. We'll show you the job fairs. We're also going to show you depending on your industry, how you can best find where might be the best place in the country for you. Let's zoom in. You don't have to hear me talking anymore.

This is our map of the job fairs going on all over the country. And what's really cool about it that no matter where you are, you can click, take a look, say hey I might be in this area. Or you got some relatives somewhere and you're thinking really looking for a job, let's find out what's next over there. You may want to take a look at this. You can't miss it. It's so easy today. Cnn.com/jobs. This is going to be continuously updated. But that's just one of two maps that I want to show.

This one is really interesting, too. This one allows you to find out the latest in the job situation anywhere around the country. Let me use the keyboard here. I want you to see something. Look at this. you can click on any of these states and you can find out what the employment situation is in each state. But take a look at some of the extra resources up here. Job by industry. Take a look at any industry you are in. Let's say you want a job in retail, right? It will reset this map for you and you can look at the retail situation in any state, anywhere in the area. And again, you can kind of match that to the job fairs as well, depending on what you're in.

There's also some information on foreclosures. But for now, we're going to focus on this job thing. So anytime you want the latest on what the situation is in any part of the country, in your industry or in another industry, you're thinking of joining, go to cnn.com/jobs. And guys, there's one more thing I want to show everyone about that, because I think it's interesting.

(inaudible) we're doing on this show here. The main story we got up at this at CNN.com/jobs says experts ignore bad news to find a job. It tells you that the key out there is if you are going to be job seeking, you got to stay optimistic. And that brings us to this full screen. Let's just show it quickly, we have been asking you for your good news stories, for positive views. And one man who wrote us said this, John David English, he said keep in mind, "the vast majority of Americans are not in foreclosure and do have jobs." That might be the best summary of how to stay optimistic. You can join that discussion at Facebook. And guys we're going to keep an eye on this and we'll keep you updated in the coming weeks as more job fairs, more jobs, hopefully, open up.

NGUYEN: Yes. That's such an important point.

HOLMES: Yes.

NGUYEN: Because when you watch the news and women, we bring you the news and it can be so very depressing.

LEVS: I know.

NGUYEN: And you may not want to get out of the house and go search for that a job.

HOLMES: That's a good point of staying positive. I want to say thank you to Heather, we have been getting Facebook comments this morning, but that was one of the earliest ones I've got this morning. So hey, why don't you point out the 91.9 percent of the people do have jobs. You know 8.1 unemployment rate. But you know what, some people are OK. We're going to be all right.

NGUYEN: We are and there are jobs out there. And so, we're asking you this morning to send us your resumes. We are talking to people at home, we're calling you at the house. So pick up the phone if we call. Because we're going to match you with an expert who can help you tweak that resume and actually find the job that you want. So stay with us.

HOLMES: All right. This next story, do I need to be here for this one? NGUYEN: Probably not. It's all about ladies and our love affair with shoes. It can definitely perk you up. We are still vindicated and you know I love my shoes because it turns out that one area of the economy is faring rather well, thanks to shoe lovers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: welcome back, everybody. All morning long, we're talking about ways to tweak your resume and get that job interview.

HOLMES: Rosemary Haefner from careerbuilders.com who's an expert in been helping us out here and helping with folks we have on the phone. They have been sending us their resumes. Again, you keep those coming in. Again, weekends@CNN.com. Well, we have Erika Stovall on the phone now. She's in business development and she is here in Atlanta.

Erika, good morning. Thank you for being here. I'll just let you ask the question directly that you have about your resume to Rosemary here. So go right ahead.

ERIKA STOVALL, JOB SEEKER: Hi, Rosemary. Erika, how are you doing?

HAEFNER: I'm great, good morning to you.

STOVALL: Hi. I was just wondering if you could take a look at my resume and let me know if you think I'm positioning myself for positions in general finance? I have a strategic business development background and I'm curious to know if my resume looks a little too much like a mergers and accusation resume and not so much for general finance position.

HOLMES: It's a tough question.

HAEFNER: It's a great question. It's actually very significant. When I read it, I got a lot more about the M&A work in business development than what I would for a general finance position. A lot of your experience is very transferable. But one thing I can recommend is that you consider having multiple versions of your resume.

STOVALL: OK.

HAEFNER: You may still want to keep your options open. And look at business development opportunities, the current version speaks well to that. Maybe try a second version that's going to be a little bit punchier with some of those financial metrics that you could really speak to. A lot of your mergers and acquisitions work would really be applicable. So try to highlight that a bit more.

STOVALL: OK, great. And I guess the only other question I had related to, in terms of posting on job boards, I guess usually you only post one version of your resume out there, would it appropriate to have two different versions?

HAEFNER: Absolutely. Actually a lot of the online options that you have these days allow you to have five to six difference versions of your resumes. And so think recruiters are very well aware that people want to try a couple different fields. It's very common these days that you're going to be looking at a lot of different areas, whether that's industry or even geography, you might be stretching a bit. And so, having multiple versions is not a problem, at all. The only other thing Erika that I would recommend that you take a look at, streamline that summary section. You got great information but you have text and then you have six bullets underneath and I'd love to see you have a higher impact headline, right at the start of that resume. And you do that easily, if you're going to have a finance version or a business development section. You're going to have to tweak that.

STOVALL: OK. Great. So you're saying you would take out the bullet points and put more text in the summery?

HAEFNER: Well, you know, I think with the text you have right now, you already got all those bullet points represented in the text. So you could really just eliminate just the bullet points, if you want. But look, if you can't streamline that a bit. Remember, you got recruiters who are looking at many resumes at a time. So you need that quick headline, that quick elevator pitch. I'm not sure if you heard that expression before.

STOVALL: Yes.

HAEFNER: But if they have only ten seconds to look at it, what are they going to take away. So you've got a lot of great background, but you're going to have 10 to 30 seconds for them to learn about you. Make sure it's really quick and punchy.

STOVALL: OK. Great. Thank you very much.

NGUYEN: Well, thank you, Erika.

HAEFNER: You're welcome.

NGUYEN: For your questions today and sending in your resume. That was a really good point. Like you say, lots of people looking through resume after resume. They're not going to want to read paragraphs after paragraphs. You need to make the short and concise and to the point and really get your message across that you're ready for the job and like you say.

HOLMES: Rosemary, that's very good advise. And even though that was directed at Erika. A lot of people could pick up on a lot of tips that you're giving there. Thank you so much. I think we might have a few more of these.

NGUYEN: We have a lot more. We're going to put her to work.

HOLMES: Yes. You stand by. Thank you so much. We'll see you here in just a minute.

NGUYEN: And for people like Erika and those at home, if you're looking for that job out there and you want to know where the job fairs are, let's bring up the map. We have one on CNN.com. It doesn't matter where you live in the U.S. but here's a look at it. And you can click on the actual city. Erika lives in Atlanta.

So I'll go right now to it, Atlanta. You click on that link. Of course, you know, we're having technical glitches. There you go and it will bring up the date of when a job fair is coming to that city. So the next one is on April 21st. And so, that is really good information especially for those job seekers out there who don't know exactly where to go. And how do you send your resume, if you don't know where the jobs are? This is a good source for you, right on cnn.com.

HOLMES: All right. The next story here, the one a lot of people are talking about. Chris Brown and Rihanna right now. Brown was in court this week answering charges that he beat up his girlfriend, Rihanna. Police affidavit has all kinds of details and we're just learning that said that blood was splattered all over the inside of the car, --

NGUYEN: On her dress.

HOLMES: He hit her repeatedly. The car had even been filled with blood. All kinds of just horrible details. He's going to be in court again in April. Rihanna's attorney says the 21-year-old singer will testify, if she's called to do so. We have been of course, getting a lot of comments -

NGUYEN: Oh, yes.

HOLMES: From folks this morning. On both of our Facebook pages, you can continue to send those in about this story or any other story you might want to. Here is an example of some of the reaction we're getting here. We'll take you over to the screen here. And a reaction I got from someone that says her heart just breaks that this young talent with such a clear and direct path to superstardom has to come to such an act, whatever the details may be, violence or aggression against any woman is inexcusable. He is quite young, hopefully, he can be helped through this issue. But I doubt his fan base will ever be the same and rightfully so. That's just one. Again, got that from Sheryl this morning actually sending that in.

A lot of people say he talk about his career, can it recover? It's one thing. A lot of celebrities make mistakes but it's because of the type and nature of this accusation. And given who his fan base is and also her fan base, young women. This might not be something his career can recover from.

NGUYEN: And what are people going to think about Rihanna and how her career will suffer if she indeed takes him back and the relationship continues to go on after we've seen, if indeed it's true and he's charged and all that a situation of domestic violence. HOLMES: In some reports and we talked to Kim Baker earlier that they have all reports that they have already reconciled. They already are back together.

NGUYEN: Right. So.

All right. We want to turn now to weather because parts of the Midwest, they could be seeing some storms. You know every weekend, Reynolds, there's a storm somewhere out there, it seems.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. I know. It just pops up. I'm just getting a little dramatic here. But you're absolutely right, Betty. I mean, there's weird, uncanny thing that last couple of weekends. It seems every seven days or so, there happens to be something weird to talk about.

Today, it's kind of an interesting scenario where we are going to see drier weather in parts of say Texas where temperatures are going to be abnormally warm but it's going to be parts of the Midwest, the Ohio Valley and into portions of say Missouri back into Iowa where we could have some strong storms in the afternoon hour. It includes parts of Kansas City, say St. Louis, as far south as perhaps Little Rock, and then this area of rough weather will move a little bit more to the east in the Ohio Valley as we get into tomorrow's forecast, bringing heavy rain, damaging winds and some isolated tornadoes.

So we're talking about again possibly rough weather for the next couple days. We'll have more on that all day long right here on CNN. Let's send it back to you at the desk.

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Reynolds.

WOLF: Thank you.

NGUYEN: And just ahead, how shoes are actually helping the economy. So ladies go out there and buy.

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NGUYEN: Some new life for those old boots. It is a booming business in a lot of places right now that being, shoe repair. People trying to eke out a few extra months on those old shoes. Getting polished up and having some new soles hammered on, something that's making one North Carolina cobbler feeling a little guilty.

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BRENT RING, SHOE REPAIRMAN: It's where I'm making money. It's sad to say it. My business is really good now because people are hurting.

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NGUYEN: I am not ashamed to take my shoes and then get them resoled with a new heel on it.

HOLMES: Those are looking a little raggedy actually.

NGUYEN: They are not. You should see yours.

HOLMES: We'll be back here at 10:00 with our shoes on the set. We're going to have more tips coming up at the top of the hour, more job seekers, how you can build a better resume.

NGUYEN: In the meantime, "Your Bottom line" starts right now.