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CNN Saturday Morning News
President Obama Picks New FDA Chief; The Top Four Car Mechanic Scams; Obama to Meet With Brazilian President; NAACP Accusing Two Banks of Mortgage Discrimination
Aired March 14, 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: Hey there, everybody. Good to see you from Atlanta, Georgia. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, March 14th, I'm T.J. Holmes.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Susan Roesgen filling in for Betty Nguyen. Good morning, early for a lot of people including myself, 7:00 a.m. Central, Chicago, my time, 8:00 here in Atlanta, 5:00 Pacific. So hey, it's early, but what can you do? We're starting.
HOLMES: Stick with us here because we're talking about your breakfast and specifically the president is thinking about your breakfast this morning, the safety of it. He's actually picked some folks to head up the FDA. A new team is going to have to guide this $2 billion agency. We'll take a look at the new commissioner and the task and the challenges she's faced.
ROESGEN: Plus, we're talking about cars. Every time you hear a weird noise, you take it to the shop and then the noise goes away. Not only that, but you don't really know what mechanics do. Who does? So they don't tell you if they're charging too much. We have the top four scams. That's Josh Levs riding along in the car. He's going to show you how to avoid getting ripped off by the car mechanic.
HOLMES: Also, a series we have been starting here on CNN Saturday and Sunday morning. We've been hooking up, you folks out there who are looking for a job. Keep sending us your resumes at weekends@cnn.com. We've gotten a lot of them, again, weekends@cnn.com.
Send your resumes and what we've been doing over the past couple of weekends is hooking people up live here on the air with a CareerBuilder expert who will then tell you how to improve that resume, how to change some things or maybe change the field you're in, but some career advice live right here on the air. We'll continue that series this morning. So stick with us for that and keep those resumes coming. We may be calling you here shortly.
Meanwhile, though we'll turn back to President Obama. He is picking Margaret Hamburg to head the Food and Drug Administration. Of course the FDA has been in just a pickle really over the last several months talking about the peanut butter, getting people sick, also some unsafe medicines. Is this agency doing enough to protect the consumer?
Hamburg, it's her job now. She's held a number of public health positions in the past. The president says she has the skills to tighten up control of the agency. He was speaking highly of her today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A system of inspection and enforcement is spread out so widely among so many people that it's difficult for different parts of our government to share information, together and solve problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: This morning the president will be welcoming the Brazilian President Lula da Silva, his first visit from a Latin America leader. Elaine Quijano for us now live at the White House. I guess Elaine, what are they expected to talk about, but also what message does it send that the first Latin-American leader he's bringing in is from Brazil?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, it sends a message, T.J. that certainly they want a strong relationship of course with Brazil, the United States does. So they're going to be talking about a number of things. Energy issues, climate change, but also of course, the economy.
Now, this is a big deal, because Brazil is the world's tenth largest economy and analysts say that it's actually one of the few countries around the world that actually might avoid a recession this year. So Brazil is one of the countries that's seen as perhaps in a better position to help come to some kind of solution when it comes to this global economic crisis.
And beyond that though, U.S. officials say that Brazil was already emerging as a key player on the international stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS SHANNON, ASST. SECY. OF STATE: It is a recognition of Brazil's ascendancy in the world and we think that we are at a point in which this relationship which has had so much potential will be able to have that potential realized in the coming months and years and we think that this opportunity for President Obama and President Lula to meet on Saturday is going to be an important and dramatic step forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now this meeting between the two leaders will be the first since President Obama of course, took office. They have talked on the phone a few times, but analysts say that these are two leaders who are very much alike in their politics, when it comes to how they view the economy. They'll be an interesting meeting and again, the bottom line here is that this will be an important meeting to kind of set the tone for the two countries going forward.
HOLMES: Elaine, a lot of big issues to talk about, but really, a lot of people are standing by to see if the president actually brings up, is going to mention publicly, this huge custody case that's going on with an eight-year-old boy. His name is Shawn Goldman (ph). A lot of people may have heard about this, but his father here in the U.S., is locked in this custody battle with the boy's relatives in Brazil. Do we expect the president to bring this up, to talk about this?
QUIJANO: We're not sure if he's going to do that publicly and there are a couple of reason for that. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already raised this issue a few weeks ago when she met with a top Brazil official here in Washington. Secondly, there's just not a lot of daylight between President Lula and President Obama on this issue.
President Lula has said that he thinks Shawn Goldman should be with his father. So we'll wait to see. But I think it would be unlikely that you might actually hear President Obama raise this in public. Whether or not he does so privately is another matter. T.J..
HOLMES: All right, Elaine Quijano for us from the White House, thank you so much and a working weekend as we said as always for the president this morning. 10:15, gets his usual briefing in the Oval office. Then, 11:00 as we mentioned, he'll be welcoming the Brazilian President Lula da Silva to the White House. Tomorrow the president bringing in his advisers for an economic meeting so a working weekend for the president.
ROESGEN: A working weekend many people wish with unemployment so high now, President Obama's new Labor secretary isn't wasting any time getting to work. It has been less than 24 hours since Hilda Solis who you see there was sworn in as Labor secretary. She is a former California congresswoman. She's already at work and she wants to suspend some of the hiring rules from the Bush administration, rules that would have made it easier for farmers to hire foreign field workers.
Of course, the White House has a couple of vacancies, a help wanted sign or two out there. The president still has two open posts in his cabinet, Commerce secretary and secretary of Health and Human Services. There's actually more vacancies at this point in his administration than in any other recent administration.
CNN senior political producer Sasha Johnson is here with us from Washington. Sasha, he's got his nominees for the posts. Are there skeletons in the closet with these two? What's the holdup?
SASHA JOHNSON, CNN SR. POLITICAL PRODUCER: Well, I mean I think the hold up probably is when you look at the Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who is actually the president's third nominee for Commerce secretary. The problem is that the previous two nominees dropped out. We had Bill Richardson who dropped out in January, because of a Federal investigation in this state that he didn't want to cause distractions.
We had New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg who took his name out of the running after the president nominated him in February because he said he had ideological differences with the administration. So for Gary Locke at least, the issue there, the reason that he's not confirmed is that he really was just nominated. Same thing for Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas governor who's been nominated for HHS secretary, was just recently, her name was recently put forth by the president. Back in February, Tom Daschle was, we thought, going to be the HHS secretary but he had to withdraw because of tax reasons. So those are the issues there.
But more I think almost more importantly, if you look more broadly at say the Treasury Department and other departments that are really missing some other key players underneath the secretary positions, those positions are vacant. And a lot of that has to do with the strict requirements and regulations and ethics procedures and requirements that the Obama administration has put forward. Several people have had tax issues.
So it's really, it's sort of been a struggle for the Obama administration to get them these people through the vetting process, but it's a vetting process that they themselves created.
ROESGEN: I read an editorial recently that said that (INAUDIBLE) number two, number three, number four, number 60 (ph) people in the Treasury, it really stops Obama from doing a lot of the things he says he wants to do because he doesn't have the people in the key spots.
JOHNSON: Right and also really it starts with Tim Geithner. He is only one person and he's dealing with the banking crisis. He's dealing with the credit crisis. He's dealing with auto loans. He's dealing with all of these different issues and there aren't a lot of people for him to delegate to.
And that has been the complaint among people in the Treasury Department that Tim Geithner's getting a bad rap for not being clear, perhaps not being a great public advocate for the economic plan of the president but he also has nobody to delegate to and so that's been a hard problem for him.
ROESGEN: OK, Sasha Johnson with us in Washington, CNN's political producer, thank you.
JOHNSON: Thanks.
HOLMES: NAACP accusing two banks of mortgage discrimination. The organization filed class action lawsuits against HSBC and Wells Fargo accusing the banks of forcing blacks into sub-prime mortgages. Meanwhile, whites with the exact same qualifications got lower rates. HSBC issued this statement saying quote, HSBC does not comment on litigation. We stand by our lending practices. Got another one here from Wells Fargo, saying the lawsuits are unfounded and reckless. The statement goes on to say we have never tolerated and will never tolerate discrimination in any way, shape or form.
I talked with the NAACP President Benjamin Jealous yesterday here in the CNN newsroom about the lawsuit. Here's just a part of our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Are you doing this to try to get their books opened up, to get a closer examination of what they're doing or do you have enough evidence that you think already that could hold up in court to find these guilty, if you will, of what you say they've been doing?
BENJAMIN JEALOUS, NAACP PRESIDENT: We had targeted these banks because we have gone through what we can get our hands on and it seems like there's a real problem here. With that said, what we want is transparency. We want to see the books. We are not seeking damages. We just want them to fix the problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And that is our question of the day. Send us your comments at weekends@cnn.com. We'll be reading some of your comments on the air, also as always taking here on the weekend, your comments on our facebook page as well as our twitter pages. T.J. Holmes, CNN, also Betty's with her face page as well.
But here a couple of the comments. Not sure if you can make those out. But the top there, the lady you see, Renee is her name. She mentions, no, you can't blame the bank is what she's suggesting but maybe the individual that's there working at the bank who is doing the underwriting of that loan.
Also Skip Jordan, you can go down just three more spots. Skip Jordan saying, of course there is institutional racism. Good morning to you too Sophia, sending a message right now. Bad timing there, Sophia, but Skip saying, of course, there is institutional racism especially in banks in the south. It takes continuous exposure to change this. So continue to bring those comments in.
ROESGEN: Just not when I'm reading one of them.
HOLMES: Facebook pages, people sending stuff. We appreciate those comments coming in.
ROESGEN: Now something you don't really see out of the wrestling ring but in a Tampa courtroom.
HOLMES: In a courtroom. It's a little different. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAYMOND RAFOOL, LAWYER: Mr. Balea (ph), are you going to wrestle with me here? Are you going to come across the cameras? Then be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet! You had your time to talk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: T.J. would you tell Hulk Hogan to be quiet?
HOLMES: Well, Hulk was on crutches so maybe I would be emboldened.
ROESGEN: You could outrun him maybe, yeah. He'd beat you over the head with the crutches.
HOLMES: But this attorney may end up on Hulk Hogan. We'll show you why coming up.
ROESGEN: I bet this is scripted, but you can see for yourself later.
And then later, Seattle is in trouble. Look at this, a real tent city. You're going to hear from the NBA star turned Mayor Kevin Johnson about the economic crisis there and how it's forcing people to live in tents.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROESGEN: It's been a long time since we've talked about Anna Nicole Smith, not long enough for some people, but she's back in the news even beyond the grave. Her lawyer turned boyfriend, there he is Howard K. Stern has some legal troubles of his own today.
This is his mug shot. He is staring down charges of illegally providing Anna Nicole with prescription drugs. California's attorney general has even called Stern Anna Nicole's principle enabler. Two doctors have also been charged including one who prescribed all of the 11 types of drugs found in Anna Nicole's room the day she died.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY BROWN, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: ... earlier, was using false names and getting prescriptions for thousands of pills without medical necessity and making them available to Anna Nicole Smith who obviously was addicted and all of that violates the law of California.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: So prosecutors say the doctors supplied Stern and then say that he in turn gave the drugs to Anna Nicole Smith. It was two years ago that she died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE," you're going to hear from Howard K. Stern's attorney, the lawyer's lawyer on those charges and what might happen next. That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern on "LARRY KING LIVE."
HOLMES: Well, outside of a wrestling ring and not wearing those tight little shorts, maybe? Hulk Hogan not so tough. At least that's what an attorney for his wife thought. Take a look at the video here first of all. This happened outside of a courtroom. The Hulk is going through kind of a nasty divorce. You see him there on his crutches. He had some back surgery so maybe that's why this attorney was so emboldened. But the Hulk actually interrupted the attorney who was having a bit of a press conference. Take a listen to what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAFOOL: Are you going to wrestle with me here? Are you going to come across the cameras? Then be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. You had your time to talk. You're done. You're done! No. It's not a free world. It's called professionalism. It's called ethics. You know the word actor? You're acting now.
If you had morals why set up all these companies to try to ditch it? What's moral about that? Let me tell you something, you are the person that has caused this issue. You sit there. You talk about all these different things. And I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what (INAUDIBLE) Now you want to argue with me again? All right, good, see ya.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: What did he say? Give you an autograph?
HOLMES: I think he said that. You made a good point about it. Wrestling oftentimes is ...
ROESGEN: Don't say it. It's all real. Yeah, yeah I know.
HOLMES: Scripted, but that seemed like kind of one of those things you would see at a wrestling match.
ROESGEN: King of like hey, bring it on, buddy. But why, what would be the point?
HOLMES: What would be the point?
ROESGEN: I read something recently they're talking about Mickey Rourke and the movie and everything. Something I didn't know in real wrestling, they cut themselves with razors to bleed more? The guys that will do it will get paid more money and sometimes the older wrestlers, check Hulk Hogan's forehead like a map up there from all the times they -- trivia.
HOLMES: Where did you ...
ROESGEN: It's real.
HOLMES: In your "Wrestling Weekly"?
ROESGEN: Right, right, yeah, yeah! Reynolds, what's going on buddy?
ROESGEN: Is it real?
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROESGEN: So you need to get your car fixed and this isn't just women who have this trouble. A lot of guys get taken at the shop. When's the last time you got under the hood of your car. Really? Changed the oil.
HOLMES: We don't know what's going on under there. We think like we do. We'll put the hood up. We don't know.
ROESGEN: Believe me, women know this, but Josh Levs is going to tell you what you need to know to avoid some scams. You need to play along. HOLMES: Yeah. It doesn't even look right.
ROESGEN: You know everything.
HOLMES: What would I like in a suit out there?
ROESGEN: A guy in a suit.
HOLMES: A guy in a suit, All right. My producer's telling me to man up. Just move faster shall we? Will they are won't they? A lot of folks out there at airports, you're going to have some flight delays. But astronauts got the same delays going on right now. Will the space shuttle actually lift off this weekend? Go check on my truck outside. Be right back.
ROESGEN: ... pickup truck in the back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROESGEN: OK. In all seriousness, we know that T.J. is not going to go out and look under the hood of his pickup truck. There are hundreds of thousands of auto mechanics that can do that across the country. Most of them are honest and hard-working people. But with your luck you're going to get the guy or girl who rips you off. So Josh Levs is here now to tell us how to avoid getting ripped off. Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well put. It's true. There are hundreds of thousands of these people. And obviously we don't want to add to some sort of stereotype. But the fact is, there are people who get ripped off. It happens. I've got to speak with an automotive expert. He gave me some great tips on how to avoid these scams. So what we've done here, this is cool. We've boiled it down to 90 seconds for you.
Here now is all you need to know to avoid mechanic scams.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JON LINKOV, CONSUMER REPORTS: One of the things you want to look out for is the serial parts replacer. The person who's constantly replacing a belt or the person who's always saying you got to replace the battery again. Your battery's drained. If that's happening, you're constantly replacing the same part over and over again or a bunch of parts and it's still not causing the problem to go away, you want to talk to that mechanic first off or fire them and find someone new.
Another rip-off that you might see is what's called the flush. You go into the service center and they say we really think we should flush the oil out of the engine or we should flush the radiator and get all new fluid in there. They use a power machine that just basically rips everything through, sends all the fluids out, replaces it with the new fluids.
Unfortunately, that knocks the sediment out of the radiator, out of the engine or the transmission and that can cause problems down the road. One thing people have to know is that you don't have to go to the dealership to service performed. You can go to an independent mechanic to have the regularly scheduled maintenance performed.
In the car, you have your serviceman manual. It says the 12,000 service, the 30,000 service, the 45,000 service, a list of what has to be done. You can save about $200 to $300 in some cases by going to an independent rather than the dealer.
The final thing that you really should look at out for is the severe use cycle. We all really drive in a normal average use cycle, stop and go traffic on the highway in and out of the city, but a lot of times the dealer will say, no you're in a severe use. You need to have a more aggressive cycle in getting your car maintained.
So instead of having say 7,000 mile oil changes because you're using a synthetic, they want you to replace it every 3,000. Where they make money at dealerships nowadays it's in service, not up front when they're selling the car. It's in the service department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEVS: And you see the Web site we're showing you right there, cnn.com/autos, very memorable. You can't miss it. It's actually right here on the screen behind me. Check it out, pretty much everything you could want to know about the auto industry right now about looking for a car, about some of the changes that are happening.
And if you want more information on avoiding scams, you check that out right there and obviously we want to thank the folks at "Consumer Reports" who have tested all sorts of cars and have actually experienced a lot of the scams they were just telling us about, Susan.
ROESGEN: A lot of good tips. That's why I walk to work.
LEVS: Is that why?
ROESGEN: I sure do. T.J.?
HOLMES: Well, 1,232 tarmac delays. You know, got an airport report coming up. That doesn't sound good. We all get delayed out there, lots of delays and you know, astronauts they get delayed as well. They get bumped off some flights. They're going through it right now. Shuttle "Discovery's" launch been delayed until 7:43 Eastern Sunday night. NASA's trying to fix a hydrogen gas leak which sounds pretty serious if you're trying to go to space.
Even under the best of circumstances, getting the shuttle ready is a major undertaking and our John Zarrella takes us behind the scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A space shuttle comes home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Main gear touchdown. ZARRELLA: A mission ends. Within hours prepping for the next flight begins.
TERRY WHITE, ORBITER PROCESSING: Once we get it in here we completely surround the orbiter by the steel structure so that we can do all of our maintenance on it.
ZARRELLA: This is Terry White's kingdom, the orbiter processing facility, the first stop on a shuttle's way back to the launch pad. Covered in the web of steel, Atlantis. Here White and his team change tires, inspect wiring. There's 200 miles of it, check engines, inside and out, everything is eyeballed.
WHITE: This orbiter was built in the mid-80s. It has flown 29 times, so it has experienced the heat of re-entry 29 times.
ZARRELLA: Protecting it from that heat, 24,000 thermal tiles. Each tile individually numbered. Each one fits just one spot. Each one checked after every flight for gouges and cracks.
WHITE: The tile right here has not blown yet. The tile next to it has not flown yet. This tile over here has one flight on it.
ZARRELLA: On top of the wing, a piece of the shuttle skin called frizzy is being replaced. As the work on "Atlantis" moves forward at the launch pad, "Discovery" sits.
(on-camera): I'm standing on top of the launch pad here. We're up 255 feet. You look out over the Atlantic Ocean. You see only the shuttle's boosters and external tank. The rest is encased until shortly before launch, protection against the elements. We're walking down now. We're going to take a look at the white room. And this is exactly where the astronauts would be going when they get onboard the space shuttle. Travis Thompson is lead on the closeout crew. The last people to see the astronauts before the hatch is shut.
TRAVIS THOMPSON, CLOSE-OUT CREW: We always ask them how they're feeling today and what are they thinking.
ZARRELLA: You don't have to any names but did anybody ever change their mind and say, I'm not going. You say, yes, you are.
THOMPSON: Well -- I won't mention any names.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: That's our John Zarrella reporting. We'll know more about "Discovery's" launch a little later today. We expect a press conference coming up in about six hours, 3:00 Eastern time so we will be standing by to see if they will take off tomorrow.
ROESGEN: Tomorrow, maybe, Maybe. How's that for a scientific answer? Maybe. What they really do.
HOLMES: That's what they really do.
ROESGEN: They all have lucky ties and socks there.
HOLMES: Appreciate you giving that out.
ROESGEN: ... so lucky then. And they do that superstitious kind of stuff.
HOLMES: All right. We'll get more on the weather report maybe from Reynolds. He can tell us what's going on with the weather and of course that hydrogen leak, maybe they get that fixed.
But we're going to talking to next, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who's of course former NBA all-star, going to be talking to him about the economic crisis in his city, how people are being forced out of their homes and into tents on the riverbank. This is video you may have seen.
ROESGEN: Yes, it's unbelievable when you see people in tents.
Later, what happens to the rest of that road? We're going to find out in an investigative report from Drew Griffin. Your money paid for it. So where's it going?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, let's add another to the images we've seen during this whole economic downturn. We've seen job fair lines. We've seen the images of the shell shocked stockbrokers. Look at these now. Let's take this video, the tent city. Hundreds of homeless and jobless workers pitching tents along the Sacramento river front, a scene many are comparing to conditions at the height of the Depression.
Now this housing crisis is just one of many things that the mayor of Sacramento is dealing with. That mayor being Mayor Kevin Johnson. Also, you recognize the face and the name, because he's a former NBA all-star as well, but doing some different work right about now.
Mr. Mayor, appreciate you being here and appreciate you getting up early. I know it's early out there for you guys, but we do appreciate it. I will ask you to update the number. There are a lot of stuff out there about this tent city. How many are there, how many are still coming. So you tell us how many are there now? And are people still added to this tent city?
KEVIN JOHNSON, MAYOR, SACRAMENTO: We have about 150 to 200 people that are living along the river in basically a defacto tent city. It's not sanctioned.
HOLMES: Yeah.
JOHNSON: So there's campsites along the river. You unfortunately have people living in third world conditions, not acceptable, no running water, no sanitation. We as a city for far too long have ignored it and have decided to sweep it under the rug. It's come to light now. And we in the city are going to address it head on. HOLMES: And you called it a defacto there. I want to ask, are they there legally right now?
JOHNSON: You know, it's private property. So in theory, they're not there legally. But in the city of Sacramento, you cannot arrest somebody just for being homeless if they don't have a place to go.
So what we need to do is provide shelter and housing options for these people immediately, because we need have tough love in Sacramento. We need to be compassionate on one end, but we need to have a zero policy along the river, because it really is a public safety hazard and a health issue.
HOLMES: Now, who are the people that are there? I mean, it seems like some of the reports out there, you know, down economic times. People are just assuming that people are losing their homes and showing up here. But I want to ask you. Who are the people that are there? One city official actually quoted as saying these are chronically homeless folks who are in this place.
JOHNSON: The majority of the people living there are chronically homeless. However, there's a new homeless population in our city. Not so much all living in tent city, because of unemployment, because of foreclosures. You're having people that once owned a home, who are now on the streets because there's not enough shelters.
We've seen an increase fourfold in our community in terms of general systems, 30 percent increase; food stamp applications, 20 percent increase. 2.2 percent of the children in our greater Sacramento region are actually homeless as well. So we have a significant problem not just with the chronic homeless who are living in the tent cities along the river, but also the new homeless population.
HOLMES: Now and you mention there that this is a public, like a safety hazard and also that they're not -- they're technically not there legally. However, what do you do in the meantime? The immediate action? These folks, like you said, they don't have running water out there, there are no restrooms out there. But still, does the city plan in the meantime, like compassion you spoke of, to try to provide some kind of services and just help them make it through until a solution is found?
JOHNSON: We have a moral obligation. When I ran for mayor of Sacramento, been in office a little over 100 days, my campaign slogan was a city that works for everyone. And that was really with the homeless population in mind.
What we do for the least among us is how we're going to be known. So we have a moral obligation to make sure we do that. So yesterday, I created and summons an emergency meeting. And we have decided to create a mayor's task force. In the next two months, we are going to have some clear options on how we handle the homeless population.
We have an obligation to make sure no one in Sacramento is living in those type of conditions. HOLMES: Well, let me ask you. Homelessness is a problem unfortunately across this country in major cities and small cities alike. So this is not really, in a lot of ways, anything new.
But now the spotlight in many ways it's on your city. And this is highlighting the problem in such a way. So answer it -- how difficult has it been with this, really an international spotlight in a lot of ways have been on your city. How has this caused you difficulty? And how do you answer folks who are asking the question now, how can we get to a place so bad that a city could allow something like this to happen, could allow something like a tent city to be necessary?
JOHNSON: I think it's a fair question, but the first and most important thing is we as a city do not want to ignore this. We want to deal with it head on. And if you're going to solve a problem, the first thing you're going to have to do is admit that you do have a problem.
As a mayor of the city, we are going to admit that we have a problem. We are going to solve it. We are not the only city in the state of California or around the country. This is happening all over.
What I would ask you or anybody else that's covering the story, come back six months from now. Come back a year from now. Do a follow-up story. Watch how we handle this. We're going to do an amazing job in terms of dealing with our population and our homeness in our city.
HOLMES: All right, last thing here on this topic. I want to ask about what kind of problems it's causing with many of your other constituents. You did say it's a public health issue, and causing issues for the surrounding community, but I know you are getting plenty of complaints from people who live in this area about this being not just an eyesore, but a headache and a safety concern.
How do you balance, I guess, in responding to those people as well who have a right to have a community where they don't have to drive by, and don't have to worry about their kids walking past a place like this?
JOHNSON: Oh, I think they're fair. And as a mayor of the city, I've got to entertain their complaints, make sure that we're coming up with some concrete solutions.
Again, these folks have been complaining a lot longer than I've been in office...
HOLMES: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...but enough is enough. I mean, it's a public safety hazard. If a fire breaks out also the river in these defacto tent cities, the fire department can't get there because you don't have access. Number two, there's no address to go to. You don't call in and say hey, something's happening at a certain address, because there's no address.
HOLMES: Yeah.
JOHNSON: So it's a public safety issue. It's a health hazard. And the people that live in that community also have said enough's enough. And we're going to solve it together. I mean, these folks showed up just in an emergency meeting. We had 25 people, cross representation from the whole city...
HOLMES: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...who are willing to do everything they can to solve it.
HOLMES: Well, sir, a lot of people are pulling for you and your city and certainly the folks out there who are in that tent city. We appreciate you talking to us about it.
But before I let you go, I think you know that I sat down with one of your boys, Chuck. Charles Barkley, who you spent a lot of time playing with in Phoenix, Arizona, over there for the Suns, as much part of your career in the NBA. I sat down and talked to him on Thursday. I couldn't let him go without asking about you.
Now he spoke, I have to tell you first, very highly of you and how proud he was. He did fundraisers for you when you were running. How proud he was of you.
But he also mentioned a bet that you have not quite delivered on. Let me let you listen to it and get you to react to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES BARKLEY: Kevin, you know you owe me a strip joint night. Me and Kevin made a bet. Kevin said would I go to church with him. And I said if you go to a strip joint with me, I'll go to church with you. So he says, deal. So we went to a strip joint. He lasted two minutes and ran out of there like he was on fire. And he still owes me -- I owe him a church date.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right, man, sorry to do that to you, but he says you owe him. Are you in any way, shape or form going to fulfill that bet?
JOHNSON: Listen to how fuzzy his logic is. He says I need to go to a strip joint. He needs to go to a church. He admitted that I have fulfilled my obligation and still says I owe him. The truth of the matter is that man is terrified to go into church. The walls of the church would probably fall down.
HOLMES: All right. Well, you're going to get the last word on that. And I hope he's watching live out in Scottsdale this morning. Mayor Johnson, Kevin Johnson, mayor of Sacramento, also NBA all-star. Sir, good luck with you out there in your city. Appreciate you having a little fun with us there at the end. But really, good to have you this morning, sir. Thank you so much.
JOHNSON: Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. We will be hearing more from Charles Barkley. Not about strip clubs and bets and church and what not, but I did do a full interview, his first TV interview since getting out of jail serving that time for that DUI. More of that interview coming up at 10:00. But here is a quick peek.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARKLEY: The rest was 100 percent my fault. It's unacceptable for me to get a DUI. And I can't ever do that again. That's the bottom line on that. 100 percent my fault. It ain't the cops. It ain't my friends. 100 percent my fault. That can't happen again. Okay, now let's go forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes, he took 100 percent responsibility for it. But we talked to him about his time in jail. The press conference that a lot of people thought was strange as he was going in. Talked how his family reacted. And we know, Susie, famously back in the '90s playing did that commercial saying, I am not a role model.
He talks about that and how that was really taken out of context. The message he was trying to get across really wasn't received by the public. And to this day, people still take that not the way he was intended. We get into that. All that coming up -- the longer part of that interview coming up at 10:00
ROESGEN: How was he intending that?
HOLMES: Well, he was trying to get a message to parents.
ROESGEN: Okay.
HOLMES: So many would point to someone like that and say -- setting a bad example.
ROESGEN: Right, right.
HOLMES: Yes. And so he was hoping a positive message. But now he said to this day people just take it as him saying he has no responsibility to be an upstanding citizen. And that's not what he was saying. So...
ROESGEN: That was a good interview. Yeah, I want to see more of it.
HOLMES: Coming up at 10:00.
ROESGEN: OK, hard times go all the way from Wall Street to Sesame Street.
HOLMES: Not Sesame Street.
ROESGEN: Yeah, even Sesame, Oscar, the rest of them, they're in trouble. Big Bird's in trouble. He could get a pink slip.
HOLMES: Oh, not Big Bird!
ROESGEN: I know. It will depress kids.
HOLMES: Oh, it'll be OK, kids.
ROESGEN: Just (INAUDIBLE).
HOLMES: Now that's coming up.
But if that's not bad enough for you, we got March Madness, of course, but there's some March sadness as well. College basketball feeling a bit of an economic pinch?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, March Madness meets some money managers here. This year, one of sports premiere events will be played in the midst of this economic crisis, just like the rest of us, the NCAA basketball tournament feeling the financial pinch. March sadness for them.
Rick Horrow, sports business analyst, joins us from West Palm Beach.
Good morning to you, sir. Something like the NCAA tournament. I mean, this is the premiere event. Everybody loves this thing, but they're hurting as well?
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Well, they're hurting as well. This is one of the biggest selling items at final fours in a tournament every year.
HOLMES: Yeah.
HORROW: I'm not sure how many that's going to sell. At least we can palm it.
But you know, the bottom line in all of this is the tickets in the early round, 30 percent to 40 percent down. Ticketsofamerica.com tells us as far as value is concerned, the sponsorships are there, but companies like General Motors, 60 percent reduction in spending. Even though companies like Audi are still continuing their deal. Internet sales is up clearly. How about productivity, $2 billion in lost productivity. Workers have to be very careful, though, because they're jobs might be on the line. They're still sneak a peek.
HOLMES: Still sneak a peek.
HORROW: Yeah. HOLMES: You know, is this solely -- can we -- give us an idea, because you know out there. You cover this every day. But I watch -- I'm a big basketball fan. And a lot of talk about just the quality of basketball isn't, college basketball wasn't there this year. There just wasn't that marquis. Everybody could be beat. And just maybe the interest just wasn't there in college basketball. Is that contributing in any way, shape or form to maybe just the ticket sales? And maybe just people aren't as excited about it this time around?
HORROW: Maybe to some people. And you know, people whose alma maters are eliminated in the first round of a tournament might have some issues. Right? But yeah...
HOLMES: I'm not even going with the tournaments yet.
HORROW: No, no, no, not yet. I understand. Of course, you're not going to the tournament. You have nobody to watch. But the bottom line is what about the parity on the other side of it? Six overtimes, you know, Syracuse and Connecticut?
HOLMES: Oh, OK.
HORROW: So that produces good basketball, I would argue.
HOLMES: All right. Also another argument is some -- you know you can't argue with this, but a lot of these cities that are getting some of these games are going to benefit no matter what. People are coming. So what's going to be the economic boom there for a lot of these places?
HORROW: That is clearly very important. You know, the next round has eight cities in it, but the round after that, Boston and Memphis and Indianapolis, for example. The unemployment rate in Arizona, 7 percent, 8 percent, 9 percent. Then you go to Detroit, 70,000 visitors and a $50 million economic impact. So it is an important event at this time in our lives for those cities.
HOLMES: All right, they tell me I got to wrap, but I got to let you go. But you want to get your pick in for the championship? Go ahead.
HORROW: I don't know what you're talking about, man. Here are the tar heels. OK? So that's fine. I'm not predicting, but I just happen to find this hat on the street.
HOLMES: Right. Throw it back out the window on your way home.
HORROW: North Carolina.
HOLMES: All right.
HORROW: Thank you.
HOLMES: Rick, always good to see you, my man. Have a good weekend.
HORROW: See you next week.
HOLMES: And all the March Madness scoop, you can get that tomorrow from our Larry Smith. He'll join us with a look at the brackets. Always good to have him.
ROESGEN: Do you know what March Madness means?
HOLMES: What -- lost productivity at work?
ROESGEN: Yeah, time to go shopping.
HOLMES: Shopping?
ROESGEN: Yeah.
HOLMES: Oh, because the fellas are busy?
ROESGEN: Yeah, well, of course, yes.
HOLMES: We're busy working on our cars.
ROESGEN: Oh, yeah. Yeah, doing the taxes maybe, while you're watching March Madness. Yeah.
HOLMES: That's not a good way to do it when you happen to be here watching the game.
But hey, don't forget if you're looking for a job, we do have that resume advice for you. Weekends@CNN.com. We're getting those resumes there. And we hook you up with people live here on the air. So we may be calling you.
ROESGEN: And coming up at 10:00 a.m. this morning, empty classrooms. Where are all the students?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROESGEN: Well, you know, we've got hard times on Wall Street, hard times on Main Street. And can you hear it? You know that song.
HOLMES: Sesame Street.
ROESGEN: Yeah.
HOLMES: The legendary show.
ROESGEN: So much for a sunny day.
HOLMES: Yeah, had to cut dozens of jobs. And while losing a paycheck's no joke, Jeanne Moos has her own job to do here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOKIE MONSTER: C is for cookie
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Forget cookie. C is for cutbacks. And when the producers of "Sesame Street" announced them, the parodies weren't far behind.
KERMIT: Usually we have sunny days at Sesame Street, but today unfortunately is not one of those days.
MOOS: This is not the official announcement. This is the voice of viral video comedian Philip Wilburn delivering the bad news.
KERMIT: Reducing our job forces by 20 percent.
MOOS: 67 out of 355 staff positions are being cut. On Muppet blogs, sadness reigns. Wall Street is one thing, but "Sesame Street"? The world is coming to an end. Count Von Count...
COUNT VON COUNT: One, one home.
MOOS: ...seemed worried his days were numbered.
KERMIT: Yes.
VON COUNT: How many jobs are we talking? One. One job. Two, two jobs.
ROESGEN: The real producers of "Sesame Street" wouldn't specify which jobs would be cut. Repeat after me, kids. L is for layoffs. R is for recession. F is for foreclosure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bird, why aren't you in your nest on "Sesame Street?
BIG BIRD: The big bank took it when I defaulted on my adjustable rate mortgage.
MOOS: Actually, this comedy bit foreshadowed the "Sesame Street" layoffs. "Madd" TV did it months ago. U is for insured.
So when the Cookie Monster's insulin levels dropped.
COOKIE MONSTER: Cookie, no have. I don't think. Sorry. So, Cookie have to cut off all. D's for diabetes
MOOS: Despite the attempts at humorous headlines, "Oscar the Grouch Gets Canned," it's a safe bet that 20 percent of positions eliminated won't include the star characters. S is for sorry. We're sorry to be making fun when we know real people are losing their jobs, but losing our sense of humor wouldn't help. Though there are worst things to lose.
COOKIE MONSTER: I lost one of my feeties.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN: Well, I guess the kids, they're going to get the message early. Huh? HOLMES: They'll get the message. Humorous take there in some instances. But man, not "Sesame Street." I think 70 jobs all together. 20 percent of the workforce. So...
ROESGEN: None of the on-air puppets.
HOLMES: Not the familiar folks. Yes.
ROESGEN: Oh, sorry.
HOLMES: All right. Well, stay with us here, folks. What does a 50-year-old man look like when he's moonwalking?
ROESGEN: Oh, come on. That was a low...
HOLMES: No. Well, some people are willing to pay to see that.
ROESGEN: They don't think he's a 50-year-old man moonwalking. He's...
HOLMES: He's Michael. How much do you pay for those tickets? Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. He's bad and he's back. Michael Jackson is doing a series of concerts in London. And folks lined up all night to get their tickets. And here is the first person to get there.
The Jackson concert kicks off July 8th. Tickets went on sale to the general public, as I just said. And this is the first fan to get her ticket. I'm going to be parading it like that. Somebody going to snatch it!
Now how much would you pay for a Michael Jackson concert ticket? General admission here about $105, up to, for those tickets. VIP tickets going for about $1,100.
You know you're bobbing your head, wherever you are at the breakfast table, walking around the house, looking for the -- you know you're bobbing your head right now to "Billie Jean."
All right, of course, that was one of his biggest hits from "Thriller." Still the best selling album of all time. As we know, however, Michael Jackson not really in the public in recent years. And when he had has been in the public eye, it hasn't been for good reasons a lot of times.
'05, he was in court, of course, on some child molestation charges. He was acquitted, but still he was in the news for that.
ROESGEN: Why do you bring that up?
HOLMES: No, I mean, just...
ROESGEN: You know, I know... HOLMES: ...that's what people have seen of him in the recent years.
ROESGEN: Yeah, he was.
HOLMES: Strange behavior. Not about his music. So maybe we'll get back to the music. People can enjoy it.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN ANCHOR: Neverland Ranch. Yes.
HOLMES: Taken from him as well.
ROESGEN: And you see more of Janet Jackson. You know? Really.
HOLMES: Seeing more of her lately. Ten concerts there in London, supposed to have sold out so quickly. They added 40 more dates. 40. So he's going to do 50 concerts over the next year.
ROESGEN: For a 50-year-old man.
HOLMES: For a 50-year-old guy.
ROESGEN: Strange to think of that, you know.
HOLMES: Michael Jackson's 50?
ROESGEN: Yes.
HOLMES: He's 50. All right. Well, we're going it move on here to talk about some cereal. Let's go to a good cause now. This was initially a bad story. Or kind of a negative story, but it has a positive little spin here. You remember Michael Phelps? He was on the cover of the Kellogg's boxes, thousands of them. Well, they pulled him as a pitchman after that picture was taken of him smoking a marijuana bong.
ROESGEN: So what's going to happen to all that cereal?
HOLMES: Well, it's been donated now.
ROESGEN: Yes. Thousands of boxes. Two tons of cereal going to the San Francisco food bank. They needed it.
HOLMES: Something came of it. So that cereal is still good, even though you might not want it on the shelves and selling it, but still, it was good.
ROESGEN: It went in two weeks. Not just for the boxes which are keepsakes but for the cereal.
HOLMES: For the cereal itself.
ROESGEN: It works out.
HOLMES: It'll all work out.
Don't go anywhere. The next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING starts right now.
And here we are from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. It's 9:00 here in Atlanta, 6:00 a.m. for you folks just waking up on the west coast. I'm T.J. Holmes.
ROESGEN: Weren't we just here?
HOLMES: We were just here. And you will still be here until about noon.
ROESGEN: I'm Susan Roesgen filling in today for Betty Nguyen. I hope she's having a good day off and hope you're having a good start today. Yes even if it's early.
HOLMES: It is early but it's getting light. People are wanting to get up, certainly on the east coast now. You're better now?
ROESGEN: Struggling -
HOLMES: She was struggling with the 6:00 a.m.
ROESGEN: Well President Obama is getting ready today to meet with the Brazilian president. We'll be talking about that. They're going to be talking about the economy, of course, the relationship between the two countries and also that custody battle that involves an eight-year-old boy.
HOLMES: Yes. A very strange case you may have heard about. Father here in the U.S.. His son was taken over to Brazil by his wife, who later died and remarried. He was trying to get his boy back. That story is straight ahead.
And also, a series we've been having on CNN SATURDAY and SUNDAY MORNING, hooking up you with a career builder expert. Send us your resumes at weekends@cnn.com. We're having our expert review those resumes and then we're giving you c call, hooking you up live. And we will be hooking people up this morning. We may be calling you. Stand by the phone. Stick here with us.
But we will start at the White House. We were just talking about President Obama welcoming the Brazilian president Lula Da Silva. May find themselves talking about a kind of a tricky topic that really has people in Brazil, also here in the U.S. a bit fired up. Elaine Quijano at the White House for us. So, a lot of big issues to talk about. Certainly economic issues, relationships between the two countries. But it seems like that Sean Goldman, the case of this little boy is really getting a lot of attention.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And basically, the bottom line is that Shawn Goldman is basically in the middle of this really heated custody battle, between his American father and his Brazilian relatives. And so we're not sure, though, whether or not this will come up publicly during the meeting in the Oval Office today.
And there are a couple of reasons for that. First, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already raised this matter with her foreign counterpart. She did that a couple of weeks ago while foreign minister of Brazil was here in Washington. Secondly, there's just not a lot of daylight between the two countries on this issue. President Lula has indicated that he thinks that the boy should be with his father. T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Again, like you say, that topic may come up there. But also one of the topics we know are going to come out and we're going to expect these two talk about.
QUIJANO: Energy is a very big one. Climate change. But of course, the economy. Now, this is what's so interesting, T.J., Brazil is actually the world's tenth largest economy. And economists, some analysts are saying that this is a country that may actually avoid a recession. So with that being said, Brazil is being seen as perhaps one of the countries that might be in a position to be part of the solution to help get the world out of this global economic crisis.
So the economy will be a big part of the discussion today. We should tell you, of course, this is the first time that President Obama and President Lula will be meeting, since President Obama took office. They've spoken on the phone a few times. This will be their first chance to really sit down at an important meeting, because it of course is setting the tone for the relationship between the two countries going forward. T.J.
HOLMES: Elaine Quijano this morning for us from the White House. Elaine, we appreciate you, as always.
ROESGEN: And as it's a working weekend for us here, it's a working weekend for President Obama as well. At 10:15 he's going to get his usual briefing in the Oval Office. And then, as mentioned, at 11:00, he'll be welcoming the Brazilian president to the White House. Tomorrow President Obama is bringing in his advisers for an economic meeting.
HOLMES: They're calling it institutionalized racism. The NCAA - no. This is the NAACP. Different group. The NAACP suing two big banks alleging mortgage discrimination. The group says Wells Fargo and HSBC steered blacks into expensive subprime mortgages during the housing boom. Meanwhile, whites with the same credit score, same qualification got better deals. They got lower interest rates. According to the NAACP black homeowners are 3 1/2 times more likely to receive a subprime loan than white borrowers. Yesterday, I spoke here in the CNN NEWSROOM with Ben Jealous, the president of the NACCP to talk about these lawsuits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Are you doing this to try to get their books opened up? To get a closer examination of what they're doing? Or do you have enough, enough evidence that you think already that could hold up in court to find these guilty, if you will, of what you say they've been doing?
BENHAMIN TODD JEALOUS, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: We had targeted these banks because we had gone through what we can get our hands on, and it seems like there's a real problem here. With that said, what we want is transparency. You know, we want to see the books. We are not seeking damages. We just want them to fix the problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, HSBC wouldn't comment on the case but says it's standing by its lending practices. They say they don't comment on litigation, but still saying that they do stand by what they do. Also Wells Fargo says the lawsuits are unfounded, also reckless.
All right. Time for us to turn to this segment, Susan. We've been doing this it every weekend. Yes. It's been helpful, hopefully. A couple of years ago when the economy first started to stall, more women were losing their jobs than men. Now things have changed in a major way.
ROESGEN: Yes. Everybody's losing their jobs now. And when you talk about sending your resume, wish we had jobs here. That's not the case. We're talking about careerbuilder.com. The numbers just getting in now show well-educated men are being laid off in droves.
HOLMES: Yes. Here's the deal now. Millions of people are out of work. We want to help. Jason Lovelace is area vice president with careerbuilder.com. He is with us, has some advice that just may help you land a job. Sir Lovelace, sir, we appreciate you being here. We do have a couple people on the line with us. At least one, I believe, Jamie Sewell. We have her resume here in front of us but she's on the line.
And Jamie, if you can hear me, I want to go ahead and you just go ahead and ask your question of Mr. Lovelace. He's reviewed your resume. Just ask him whatever you want to ask him. Go right ahead.
JAMIE SEWELL, JOBSEEKER: OK. Hi. Yes.
JASON LOVELACE, AREA V.P., CAREERBUILDER.COM: Good morning.
SEWELL: Good morning. I've been out of work for almost, or a little bit over two years. My husband lost his job this last November as well. We both are in the housing industry, and it doesn't look like there's anything out there to help us get back into work.
LOVELACE: OK. Well, let me first say, Jamie that, you know, I did look at your resume. And there's a couple of key things that you can probably do to better highlight yourself. And the first thing I want you to think about is differentiation. You do a good job at really highlighting with colors and text for your contact information, but think a little bit about recruiters on the other end.
You want to think of pretty versus effective. Because with technology today, most recruiters are utilizing technology to view resumes and the text and the colored blocks can sometimes interfere with their technology, and it doesn't allow you to get noticed. And it's all about getting noticed. It's very competitive out there. The other thing you don't do is you go right ahead into your skills on your resume and instead of that you want to advertise yourself. You really want to let people know who you are and what you accomplished. Think of an advertisement. You want to put a headline in there. Talk a little about why you? Why should this company hire you?
The other thing is you do a great job at listing the skills, but you don't talk about your accomplishments. Can you quantify the things you've done at other businesses? This is what companies look for. They want to know the impact that you're going to make on their businesses. And then finally one of the things that I noticed on your resume is again, as I said, listing all of the different positions, a lot of times is important, but only include the relevant positions. Customize your resume to the position that you're hiring for or that you're looking for.
Unfortunately in today's society, there are a lot of people looking for jobs, and not as many positions. So when you're customizing your resume talking about the company that you're looking for, and maybe even to the hiring manager, customizing it, that will help you in the search.
SEWELL: OK.
ROESGEN: All right. Jamie, good luck to you. Jason, once again, thanks. You know, nobody wants the resume to wind up in those circular files. So, we appreciate the tips.
HOLMES: All right. And we're not doing what - just yet. Don't you go anywhere kind sir. We'll be hooking you up with other folks this morning. More tips for job seekers just ahead. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROESGEN: OK. Talking about resumes here, T.J. and I don't know the answer to this. So we hope to find out if you got good grades, as our next person did, Marla Miller who is looking for a job. Do you put your grade point average at the top of the resume? That's something we're going to find out.
HOLMES: We'll find out now. She has a master's degree, and she's having a tough time getting a job. Let's bring back in Jason Lovelace there, vice president with careerbuilder.com. And again, Marlo Miller on the line with us. First, Jason, you answer that question for us about the GPA and then Marlo, welcome and then you ask your question to Jason. So first, Jason answer that question for us, should people put their GPA on the resume?
LOVELACE: Well, I think a GPA is important, but what Marlo does here is puts the education at the top of the resume. And really that should go towards he bottom. Let's talk first about the experience in the previous positions.
HOLMES: All right. And Marlo, you go ahead and ask your question, and, Jason, I guess we hear a difference of opinions there sometimes. Sometimes people will tell you, hey, your education is impressive and put that up the top. Let people know that you got your degree, where you got from. A difference of opinions sometimes out there. But Marlo, you go ahead. Welcome. Ask your question directly to Jason.
MARLO MILLER, JOBSEEKER: Thank you, T.J.. Hi, good morning, T.J. -
HOLMES: Hi.
MILLER: I'm Susan, I'm actually a native of New Orleans. I remember you well.
ROESGEN: We'll really root for you, Marlo. Go ahead. And see what Jason can tell you.
MILLER: Jason, I am currently employed two years in a secretarial position, and truly blessed for that. Although I just finished my masters in December and I have a various field group. I've worked in several types of positions - finance, general, clerical, administrative positions but am really looking for something I can sink my teeth into as far as my MBA skills. What do you suggest? I don't know how to go about with a concentration like that.
LOVELACE: OK. You know those are good questions. First of all, congratulations on finishing your MBA. That is a big accomplishment. And you know, like I said at the start, I have reviewed your resume. And you have to ask yourself, with al the skills, you have great experience. How do you want to apply that and what's important to you?
And you have to make that decision first. After you make that decision, I, of course, can give you some recommendations on your resume. A few being once you decide, OK, I have this great MBA, I have a ton of experience, what business can I impact? And when you decide that and you search for jobs include those key words in your resume, because as I said earlier, it's not as much about the look as it is about the content.
Today with technologies, recruiters and hiring managers search hundreds of thousands of resumes, and if you don't have the words in there of the jobs that you're looking for, you're not going to come up in that search. You know, the other thing I'll tell you, Marlo, is that your resume is rather long. Now, it is important to highlight your credentials, like I said. But try to keep it to two pages. Because you won't get across the point that you're trying to get across to recruiters and you really want to make a statement. You have to really, as I said again earlier, differentiate yourself.
HOLMES: All right. Marlo, I hope that was helpful and that was helpful to other folks who are listening.
ROESGEN: And Jason, we can see perhaps why Marlo put the MBA and her grade GPA at the top, because she is working as secretary right now. How do you make that leap, even if after you have the MBA to business management? LOVELACE: Well, again, one thing I'll say is you have to go from being reactive to proactive. You can post your resume out there. But what are you doing to find opportunities? Who are you networking with? Certainly you're a secretary today but you have an MBA.
If you have the MBA credential in your resume and someone does a search for an MBA, they're going to find you. And that's what's most important. It's not really about the layout. It's more about the information that's in the resume.
ROESGEN: OK. All right. Marlo, hope you get a good job soon.
HOLMES: And good luck to you, ma'am. Thank you so much, Marlo -
LOVELACE: Good luck.
HOLMES: -- for calling in this morning. I guess we called you not you. But thank you so much. Jason, I don't think we're done with you just yet. We appreciate you this morning. We'll check in with you again.
ROESGEN: And talking about getting hired, of course, but you know time after time after time the list comes out.
HOLMES: Yes.
ROESGEN: Just about every company you can possibly think of laying off workers every day.
HOLMES: Our Josh Levs has a new look at the numbers, breaking it down industry by industry. You'll have the latest also on job fairs, all sorts of good info about where to find a job right about now. Stay right here with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROESGEN: Another week, another depressing set of job figures. More companies laying people off.
HOLMES: Yes. Josh Levs along here. But there is some good in here. Also some bad. I don't know if there's some ugly but there's some cool as well. Josh, good morning to you again, sir.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, guys. Yes, there's a little bit of cool when it comes to the interactives I'm going to show you. Let's start off with the negative stuff. We'll just take care of it. I want to show you the latest list of job cuts that we just put together, CNN Money team has compiled this list. We have a graphic for you and it's going to show you some of them the past week.
McClatchy there, 1600 jobs. Eastman, another 300 jobs. Some of the big ones there United Tech, 11,600 jobs. You guys mentioned, Sesame Workshop earlier close to 70 jobs. That's the total for this week. More than 17,000 jobs lost. It is part of the ugly picture you were just referring to, T.J.. But there are places that you can go to find where the jobs are even now.
Let's come back to the board. Because I want to show you all something. You might have seen this map before, we linked to cnn.com/jobs. I want to zoom in. Now this looks pretty bad at first. Because red refers to unemployment, and the redder, the more unemployment but there's also this. You click on jobs by industry. Check this out guys. Everywhere that it's blue or bluish means that for the last two years jobs have actually gone up.
Let's take a look there. Texas, for example. Gained a little bit of jobs in the past two years. And you see areas where this is going. Wyoming, the same thing. You see the numbers going up a little bit. And you can check on your specific industry - construction, manufacturing, retail trade. Whatever kind of job you're looking for.
Let's check out, for no particular reason, leisure and hospitality. All right, anywhere where it's bluish, jobs have been going up. That mean good place for you to look when you're looking for a job. And that might be a reason you might want to check out this map for job fairs in that area. Also, guys at CNN.com/jobs.
ROESGEN: OK. You can't move to Wyoming -
LEVS: Right.
ROESGEN: Because you live in West Virginia, but does the jobs stimulus, the stimulus package, does it say where the jobs they're going to be and how many jobs will be out there?
LEVS: That's another piece of the good, at least hopefully the good. We'll zoom back one more time and will take care of this quickly. I want you guys to see one more thing which is all about the stimulus jobs. Check this out. We've also put this together, cnnmoney.com. How many jobs are expected to come to your state through the stimulus funding?
There you go. Texas, 269,000 estimated jobs. In every state we're seeing some of these numbers. I'm going to take all these links by the way and I'm going to post them right here in my Facebook, joshlevscnn. You can play with them all today. Maybe one of them will help you in your state.
ROESGEN: OK. I hear nursing is a big one to go to.
LEVS: Yes. For the moment.
ROESGEN: Does your site tell you which kind of jobs they want? 269 workers and, in Texas?
LEVS: Yes, you can break it down a little bit. You'll find that on money.com as well. Yes.
ROESGEN: OK. Great.
HOLMES: All right. Josh, we appreciate that. All week, we're going to be taking an in-depth look at the money meltdown that's changing all of our lives. Who can lead us out of this crisis? What all those numbers really mean. Again, like what Josh just talked about where the jobs are. "Road to Rescue: the CNN survival guide" that's all this week here on CNN.
Now I have been waiting to see this video. I haven't seen this yet but I heard it's pretty -
ROESGEN: It's a horror movie.
HOLMES: Yes. Kind of sordid. Let's go ahead and look at this. What we're seeing as happening or happened in Florida. An elderly couple had all of those bees, bees. Maybe you can't make them out. But those are bees. 50,000 we're told, that were living in the walls of their house there in Florida.
Now, the couple had just been dealing with it. They've been getting stung for three months, and they couldn't afford an extermination, which could cost maybe may $500 or so. But a bee removal company came in and actually did it for them for free.
You know that our own Reynolds Wolf has some experience with bees.
ROESGEN: Oh, really.
HOLMES: He does.
ROESGEN: Are you a honey guy?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, I was actually a bee removal technician for a day.
ROESGEN: Yes, right.
WOLF: Pretty cool stuff. We have some video of that. That was actually taken a while back. And here we are, removing some bees, removing bees from a house here in urban Atlanta. And I tell you this house, some 40,000 bees that we removed. Again, we didn't exterminate, we removed them, and rebuilt the hive, and then resettled them. Because you know, a lot of these bees, a lot of them disappearing and they play such a crucial role in our environment. A really important thing to do.
ROESGEN: Did you get stung, Reynolds?
WOLF: I did.
HOLMES: Oh, yes we talked about this also last week. Directly in the buttocks.
WOLF: One great shot. You know? Those bees have good aim. Guys, we're going to switch gears a little. We're talking from bees flooding homes to flooding situations across parts of the midwest. Let's show what you we have right here on the map very quickly. The top weather story we have of the day is the flooding situation in parts of Michigan, back into Ohio, into Indiana and even in Illinois, including the Chicago area.
River levels are going to drop in many of these places. So conditions are getting better. No rainfall expected over the next five or six days or so. Speaking of the midwest and speaking of the Great Lakes and Chicago. Take a look at this live image that we have for you in Chicago. The river is not green just yet. That's going to happen in short order, getting ready for St. Patrick's Day.
Now, if you're enjoying your weekend, enjoying your holiday weekend, I guess. If you're observing the St. Patrick's Day part of it, take a look at what we have for you. Let's go from this shot to our weather computer. On the weather computer, dry conditions, as I mentioned, from much of the nation's midsection. But when you get into the southeast, scattered showers. Maybe a few embedded thunderstorms. No severe weather expected but still, damp times for you. If you make your way back to the Pacific northwest, scattered showers along the coast for northern California, also for the state of Oregon.
But in the high mountains, we're not talking about some rainfall, we're talking about snow in some locations. It could get fairly heavy. If you're headed down to, say, the Gulf Coast, maybe going to spring break, maybe South Padre Island, maybe Houston, well temperatures will be mainly in the 50s for you. Much warmer in parts of Florida. If you're planning on say not just traveling to the coast or maybe going to a, well, through the stratosphere, maybe going up in space, like the shuttle astronauts. Take a look at what they can expect.
The launch weather. Looks like it's going to be kind of dicey at first early today on Saturday but as we get into Sunday, we're expecting a few scattered showers. But as it looks like by the time we get around 7:43 in the evening, conditions will be fine. About an 80 percent chance for your launch. That is a look at your forecast. Let's send it back to you at the desk.
ROESGEN: Hey, Reynolds, that shot of Chicago at least looks like at least nice weather for the parade. They got a big Irish parade there today.
WOLF: It should be just fine. It should be just fine. We're talking about temperatures warming up into the 50s. Very nice conditions. You know, it just happened. Let's be honest that when you go out there and you celebrate, after a little while, you're not even feeling the cold. You know, let's just put it they way. You got a little bit of a painkiller so to speak.
ROESGEN: Some Irish coffee.
WOLF: Yes, exactly 12 ounce version. Exactly.
ROESGEN: You know, that river, you know, apparently the only river in the country that they've tried to dye green. Actually, something the plumbers do, and they keep it a secret. But it's actually something that starts out as orange. I know, I read this.
HOLMES: Wow. OK.
ROESGEN: And they use it to clean out the sewer system, but then it winds up and turns green in the river.
HOLMES: Well, I know you let out a bit of a sigh.
ROESGEN: There you go.
HOLMES: You live in Chicago. That's your home now. You let out a bit of a sigh when we showed this picture and miss the parade.
ROESGEN: It was a sunny day, you know.
HOLMES: It's a beautiful day.
WOLF: Contrary to popular believe, that green water does not taste good. Just throwing it out there.
ROESGEN: Well, we're just going to have the Irish coffee here. You know, kind of feel like we're at the parade. How about that?
WOLF: Exactly. Sounds great to me.
HOLMES: Reynolds, we appreciate you. We'll be right back, folks.
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