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CNN Saturday Morning News
Timothy Geithner to Unveil Plan Monday to Get Rid of Some Toxic Assets; Obama Wants Supporters to Canvas Their Neighborhoods; Government and AIG Pointing the Finger At Each Other Over Bonuses
Aired March 21, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. From the CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is March 21st. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there. I'm T.J. Holmes. It's 8:00 here in Atlanta, Georgia, 5:00 a.m. out in Los Angeles, wherever you are. Good morning, thanks for being here with us. Stay with us here. There have been a lot of plans, all these plans, stimulus plans, park plans.
NGUYEN: Money here, money there.
HOLMES: Got another plan coming. Sorry. It's coming up on Monday. This is a big deal. Let me tell you why. This is the plan to get some of those toxic assets off the bank books.
NGUYEN: That's important.
HOLMES: That is going to be very important, but Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, set to unveil a plan on Monday. We'll preview it today.
NGUYEN: We also have help for those of you looking for a job. We have a CareerBuilder expert on hand this morning, so send your resume to us at weekends@cnn.com. We're going to look at them, give you a call, live right here on the air and provide you with some expert advice.
HOLMES: And this next story, you brought this to my attention. We're going to be ...
NGUYEN: I love this story.
HOLMES: You brought this to my attention in an e-mail yesterday, a seeing eye, people know dogs, seeing eye dogs. Well, this is a whole new spin on this. I want you to see a pony trotting through the grocery store.
NGUYEN: And of course, it happened in Texas. Right?
HOLMES: A new seeing eye animal. We'll explain that story coming up this morning as well.
NGUYEN: So as you're waking up this morning someone may be knocking on your door today. President Obama is asking the 13 million people on his e-mail list to canvas neighborhoods across the country. It's another first for the sitting president.
CNN political editor Mark Preston is following it all. He joins us now. So what's the purpose of this? Is this an informal kind of knocking on the door? Here's what it's all about or are we going to see something more?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: You know Betty, this really is the never-ending campaign. As you said, President Obama has reached out to 13 million people who supported him in the presidential campaign and he asked them to go out this Saturday, knock on the door, ring peoples' doorbells and really try drum up support for his budget.
We saw in his radio address today how he was going to lay out the principles of his budget in the coming week. We also saw Republicans push back in their response. So today, what he's trying to do is get this grassroots organization really fired up and try to get people behind his budget.
NGUYEN: And this is a president who's decided to do a lot of things that we haven't seen before with a sitting president. You know, I guess it goes along with his change, but we saw him on Leno just this past week. Now that got a lot of conversation as well and on our Facebook pages, I'll tell you, when you put that out there, people responded in full force. But a lot of people Mark are saying, you know what? He didn't mean it but he apologized nonetheless.
PRESTON: He did. A lot of controversy about the president going on Jay Leno's show and talking about whatever his ideals are. Of course, it all got marred by that special Olympics controversy, the fact that when he was talking about his bowling, it really was a bad choice of words. He has apologized and of course, I'm sure if he could take it back he would. There's no question about that.
NGUYEN: Well, you know, Sarah Palin is getting in on the action as well. She issued a statement pretty much condemning what was said.
PRESTON: She did and of course she's a political figure, but she's also a mother of a mentally handicapped child. So, like she understands that as well and she could have been doing that because she is a mother. She could have been doing that for political reasons as well.
NGUYEN: Before we let you go, we got to tell you about this plan, yet another one possibly unveiled on Monday. What do you know about it?
PRESTON: You know, there's been a lot of talk, been a lot of work, you know, a lot of progress in the work about how they're going to restructure the whole banking industry as we know it. We don't have all the details right now, but we do know given all the controversy that has surrounded Treasury Secretary Geithner. It is going to be looked at and it's going to be picked over with a fine tooth and comb, no question.
NGUYEN: All right. You'll be watching it all. As always, Mark Preston, we do appreciate your time with us in the mornings. Thank you.
PRESTON: Thanks, Betty.
HOLMES: Congressional auditors say President Obama's budget will create $9.3 trillion. trillion dollars in deficits over the next decade. Despite the figures, the president, he's not backing away from his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of this term. He gave his weekly radio address today as always, released about two hours ago and the president says his plan lays the groundwork for America's economic comeback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With the magnitude of the challenges we face, I don't just view this budget as numbers on a page or a laundry list of programs. It's an economic blueprint for our future, a vision of America where growth is not based on real estate bubbles or over-leveraged banks, but on a firm foundation of investments in energy, education and health care that will lead to a real and lasting prosperity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So if the projections from the Congressional Budget Office turn out to be right, the deficit over the next decade will be four times the size it was during President Bush's time in office, for Republicans they say that's proof spending is out of control under this administration. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour broke it down this way in the Republican weekly address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R) MISSISSIPPI: The new administration's budget for next years alone calls for a $1.2 trillion deficit, nearly triple any past Federal deficit. While families are cutting back, President Obama's proposed a massive government spending spree. It reminds me how one of our old senators used to joke about the Federal budget. He said it was like a new born baby, insatiable appetite at one end and total irresponsibility at the other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The president gets his daily briefing this morning. Then he's going to head out to Camp David. He's going to have a busy week ahead. He's going to be returning on Monday, will discuss -- actually going to hold an event to talk about his budget plans including, of course, the deficit, as we've been mentioning here.
Then on Tuesday, he meets with Australia's prime minister. Then that night, he'll hold a news conference in the East Room. Wednesday, he's talking budget again with some Senate Democrats and then that evening, he attends a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.
NGUYEN: Let's get to what everyone is sounding off about today, AIG and of course those bonuses. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he didn't know the full scale of those retention bonuses until last Tuesday. He goes on to add that no one was trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. CNN first reported in December on the company's plans for the bonuses and during a congressional hearing in early March, Geithner answered a question mentioning the bonuses.
But that's not enough for a lot of people. Take a look at this map, 20 states, the ones in blue, are where state prosecutors are opening investigations into the $165 million in bonuses. Connecticut's attorney general has issued subpoenas to AIG's CEO Edward Liddy and 11 other company execs.
HOLMES: Don't know where the ball was, but whoever had it, it got dropped on these bonuses. Both sides are blaming each other for this thing and everyone's coming out a little dirty.
Dana Bash, spread some of the blame around for us here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats are under intense pressure to get beyond the outrage and actually do something about AIG bonuses.
REP. CHARLES RANGEL, (D) WAYS AND MEANS CHAIRMAN: Do these people deserve a tax base expense to receive these type of bonuses?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just want to recover the taxpayers' money for them.
BASH: So House Democrats rushed to pass a bill imposing a 90 percent tax on bonuses for employees with family incomes above $250,000. It applies not just to AIG but all companies that got at least $5 billion taxpayer dollars. Some Democrats admit that punishing employs by taxing bonuses after the fact may be legally questionable, but because of public outcry, worth the risk.
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: I realize that this may be subjected to constitutional challenge and/or the court, but you know what? I'm prepared to battle in the courts.
BASH: Keeping them honest, the question is, why didn't Congress wage this all-out battle before to prevent the bonuses? Let's start with Republicans. They now say ...
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), MINORITY LEADER: The AIG situation underscores the fact that Washington isn't doing anything to help our economy.
BASH: But the reality is, many GOP lawmakers voted against multiple attempts to ban bonuses calling it meddling in the marketplace. As for Democrats who run Congress, they did pass strict anti-bonus bills but they also allowed the Bush White House and the Obama administration to prevent those from becoming law.
In fact, the Obama team's role came to light when CNN reporting forced Senator Chris Dodd to reverse himself and admit under pressure from the Obama Treasury Department he inserted a loophole allowing AIG executives to keep their bonuses.
SEN. CHRIS DODD (D), BANKING CHAIRMAN: And the administration had expressed reservations about the amendment. They came to us and asked for modifications.
BASH: And now, another Senate Democrat tells CNN the Obama administration blocked his attempt to stop the bonuses.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: I can tell you specifically is I talked to virtually the entire administration economic team and wasn't able to convince them to go along and I think that's unfortunate.
BASH: Although we're now hearing anger from the White House over AIG's bonuses, Senator Wyden and other Democratic sources say just last month Obama officials made clear they thought banning bonuses was a bad idea because it risked driving talent away from Wall Street.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Tonight, our guy, Ali Velshi and the CNN money team search for truth inside the AIG scandal. See what they found in "AIG Facts and Fury." That's tonight at 8:00 Eastern.
NGUYEN: All right. So who do you think is to blame for the whole AIG mess? And does that really get you anywhere once you point a finger somewhere? We want to the know what you think about the whole thing. E-mail us, weekends@cnn.com, or you can search for us on Facebook or even send us a tweet on twitter. We're at twitter.com/bettynguyencnn or twitter.com/T.J.holmescnn and we got lots of great responses so far. Keep them coming and we'll read them on the air.
Meantime though, President Obama says foreclosure help is on the way. We're going to take a look at the president's plan to save your home and how we ended up in this whole mess.
HOLMES: And then a little later, another mess to tell you about. We talked about this last weekend right here, tent city. That crisis out there, folks out there living in tents in Sacramento. Now they will be moved into shelters. Tent city is shutting down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right. In one of this first economic recovery initiatives, President Obama told frightened and desperate homeowners that help was on the way. Now on March 5th he unveiled his plans to stem the tide of foreclosures and protect the property values of millions of Americans.
Let's see how it's doing so far. Clyde Anderson is housing and financial expert and author of "What Had Happened Was," my favorite title of any book out there and he joins us now live. Good morning Clyde. Good to see you again.
CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL EXPERT: Good morning, Betty. Great to be here.
NGUYEN: In a run up to March 5th, we talked about what was going to be on the table when this was unveiled. Now that it's on the table, let's take a look at it. First thing I want you to look at this map that we have for you. It really puts it in perspective. We're going to show you a map right now of the foreclosures around the nation and it's really going give you an idea of how many people are affected by this throughout the nation.
Can we get that map up? All right. In the meantime, let me just ask you this. The president launched his game plan for struggling homeowners. There is the map right there. Explain how this works.
ANDERSON: All right. There's two different components really, for this. It's affordable home program, home affordable or making home affordable. There's a modification portion and there's a refinance portion. This is to help people that may be close to foreclosure or just knowing that they're having some sort of change in income, family situation, maybe they've experienced some major travesty (sic) or something in their life that changed their own situation. This is perfect for them or they can experience some sort of adjustable or adjustable rate mortgage that's getting ready to change.
NGUYEN: That is how it's supposed to work. It's only, what, the 21st? Hasn't been in effect for very long, but is it working?
ANDERSON: So far, I think it's really early to see. People are beginning to go through it. They really put out a lot of the guidelines and really kind of explained the program. From what I can see right now the program is great. It has some really good components in it. I think it will help a lot of people and I'm really happy to see that something is happening or first step is happening to make a change from what's happened so far.
NGUYEN: People need to know how to get in on the action and I want to show our viewers another list of information right here so you know if you qualify for this. So here's what you need to know or at least ask yourself -- is your home your primary residence? That's an easy one.
ANDERSON: Correct.
NGUYEN: Do you have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan? And are you current on your mortgage payments? Now, those are the guidelines.
ANDERSON: Right.
NGUYEN: In order to get in on this, but even looking at that, what are the biggest concerns that you're hearing because I know that you've got an e-mail question out on your financial guidance Web site and at of people weighing in. Even with this and they can answer this either yes or no to see if they qualify, what are the biggest obstacles?
ANDERSON: I think the biggest obstacle, it's the refinance portion, you can't be so far behind on the mortgage. And people want to know, how far behind can I be? Really to refinance, they want to see that you're pretty much current on the mortgage but you're getting ready to experience that adjustment in your adjustable rate or something is going to happen as far as the value. One of the things I think is key is that now you can refinance up to 105 percent of what the value of the home is.
So, in a lot of cases in the past you to be 80 percent loan to value, meaning having a lot of equity still in the home and with houses depreciating, a lot of that equity is not there anymore. So in this case you can refinance and even if you have a second mortgage, you may be higher than 105 percent, but they'll still allow you to refinance and keep that second mortgage in place where it is.
NGUYEN: Gotcha. Now for those who don't qualify, is there any help out there?
ANDERSON: The modification portion is great. This is a situation where maybe you've been late in the past. You've had a couple lates. You need to modify your loan. And what they'll do is help you get down to 31 percent loan to value and I think that's great, because what they'll do in that case, is they can take your interest rate as low as 2 percent in some cases.
So, you can go down to 2 percent on the interest rate for five years, if you qualify for this option. After five years they'll gradually take you up 1 percent a year to that market rate. Whatever that rate was when you began or started the modification. So that will help you save money as well as they're going to give you $1,000 a month for -- I mean $1,000 a year for five years as an incentive to help reduce the principal amount of the mortgage.
NGUYEN: Gotcha.
ANDERSON: So it's a lot of things that I think will help. If you can't do the refinance, you can look at the modification portion.
NGUYEN: Let's look at the domino effect because it's one thing not to be able to afford your mortgage and you get behind and you need to see if you qualify for this. But it's another thing when you're just trying to make the bills. You've got that credit card bill out there and you're making the minimum payments, whatnot and now there are new rules.
I want to show our viewer what the new rules are, at least the changes are. There are reduced limits. There are hidden fees, new fees, increased interest rate, no grace period. If you've been hit with one of these or more, one or more of these, do you have any recourse?
ANDERSON: Not really. That's why you've really got to read the small print.
NGUYEN: You just got to suck it up an take it?
ANDERSON: They're doing business. You got to know the credit game. You got to really know what's out there, know what you're getting into, turn that statement over on the back. Get the magnifying glass out, read the small print and truly understand what you're getting into, because right now ...
NGUYEN: Because in the past you could call them up and say, look, I need you to lower that rate or I'm going to cancel or this and that and whatnot. Now, they're not even ...
ANDERSON: They're really not saying that right now. I've had several cases where people have been two days late on a credit card and they'll jack the interest rate up to 29 percent.
NGUYEN: My goodness.
ANDERSON: So you really have to be careful and they're not going back. Even if you're late on one card, the other card can jack the rate up, too. So they're looking at the whole picture. So you've got to be careful of that.
I've seen some cases where people wanted to pay down on a credit card, where they want to kind of get a lower interest rate. They're not negotiating anything like that and sometimes they won't give you help until you're behind on that credit card and when you're close to defaulting on it. So it's a "Catch 22" situation if you're looking at it from that standpoint. So you've really got to be careful.
NGUYEN: Clyde, good information as always. We do appreciate it. Thank you.
ANDERSON: My pleasure. Thank you.
NGUYEN: And remember, you can find more information about homeowner financial assistant as hud.gov, makinghomeaffordable.gov, fanniemae.com and freddiemac.com, all of those sites and for all of your financial news, be sure to check out cnn.com. T.J.?
HOLMES: Thank you Betty and we love Clyde Anderson, a friend of our show here on the weekends. We love having him putting this down, breaking it down in ways that our viewers can understand. We really just have him on because we love to say the title of his book.
NGUYEN: "What Had Happened Was" ...
HOLMES: We don't get to say that a lot. That's really why we have you, Clyde. We appreciate you though.
Last weekend, if you were here with us on "NEWSROOM" or here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING I should say, we talked to the mayor of Sacramento. Kevin Johnson, also the former NBA star, you'll certainly recognize. Talked to him last weekend about a growing problem in his city, the problem of homelessness. At least 150 people and some even more than that by some estimates have been living in tents near a river in California's capital city. Those people will be offered space in shelters or other emergency housing alternatives.
The mayor says it's a humane approach to a problem that is not isolated in Sacramento. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KEVIN JOHNSON, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: We want to deal with it head-on. It you're going to solve a problem, the first thing you've got to do is admit that do you have a problem. As the 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 and around the country. This is happening all over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And the mayor is expected, Mayor Johnson expected to present his plan to the city council on Tuesday but does have a plan now. He wants to shut down tent city. He's going to do this over several weeks. Not just going to in, like you said, Betty and sweep people out of there, not going to do that. You can't do that. That's not humane, but finding places for them so over the next few weeks, get them places in houses and apartments and shelters and things like that. So it's coming down.
NGUYEN: A lot of people will be thankful for that, to be able to get out of those tents and to get into a real place that they can call home at least temporarily.
Let's talk about the weather outside today, flooding could be a problem in the Dakotas in the coming days?
HOLMES: Yeah, Reynolds Wolf keeping an eye on all things outdoors as always, Reynolds, what's going on in the plains?
(WEATHER REPORT)
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Do you feel like you need a break, maybe a weekend getaway? Well guess what, we've got some ideas for you that won't blow your budget. We got some tips. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF (voice-over): New York's Hudson River valley is a true getaway, just two hours from the big apple.
STIRLING KELSO, TRAVEL & LEISURE: The places to stay there aren't very expensive. There are a lot of wonderful restaurants that have affordable options and of course, there's a big focus on the great outdoors.
WOLF: Visitors can find a lot to do for less.
JOE CICILEO, CO-OWNER, HOTEL: People Come here to hike and bike because we have a lot of trails.
WOLF: And some want to do even less.
CICILEO: People just come to relax. It's sort of a quiet town. They don't come here to necessarily do anything but chill out.
WOLF: There's window shopping in places like Beacon (ph).
KELSO: On Main street alone, there are 10 independent galleries.
WOLF: Bard College offers a bigger taste of the arts.
MARK PRIMOFF, DIR. OF COMMUNICATIONS, BARD COLLEGE: You can see opera, see a dance production. You can see an orchestra concert and then you can take in the surrounding area, stay at a bed breakfast. It's really an extraordinary destination.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. We'll check in with Reynolds here in a little while again on some weather. We got some good news. Always feel goods to tell some good news. Stories of people helping their neighbors and communities and themselves. We'll show you how to impact your world on the road to economic recovery.
NGUYEN: We need more of that definitely. You've heard about seeing eye dogs. I want you to take a look at this. It is a seeing eye horse. We have the story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're here every day about people struggling in this economy, many others doing just fine and they want to offer some help.
NGUYEN: That's the good news. People sharing a little bit of what they have with others who don't have much these days. Our Josh Levs is here to tell us how you can do that as well.
Hey there, Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey guys. There's some really interesting new features set up on impact here including some specifically for the recession. I want you to check it out. Let's zoom in. This is first of all, the main page right here, cnn.com/impact. At all times this talks to you about how you can help people. But this is what we have going in connection with our road to rescue, really focusing on the economy, a long list of charities you can hook up with.
And I'm going to highlight one right here that's particularly interesting, modestneeds.org. Now what they do is they list specific modest needs, just like it sounds, that people have. This is someone posting a need of prosthetic or orthotic (ph) shoes. I need a bed for my daughter and what this place does is they check them out.
Check this out. They look at the application and then they post, the Web site itself posts. You know what, we looked into this. We're happy to report the documentation we have on file demonstrates this applicant's situation is exactly as described. They make sure these requests of legit.
Another great thing about impact is you're learning peoples' stories how they're helping and how even in some cases it might inspire you. Take a look at one example right here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLEY MULFINGER, FIRST GRADE TEACHER: With the economy the way that it is, I look around and I see my peers either losing their jobs or scared for their jobs and it's really made me reflect on my last two years and how much I've enjoyed the ability to make an impact every single day. My communications class, using presentation skills, planning, working with groups, all that that I learned in business school, I've definitely been able to use in the classroom.
When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and the second one keeps its big mouth shut!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: That class! One more thing I'm going to show you before I toss it back to you guys. It's been the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. A lot of people thinking about veterans right now and about situations in which families have lost loved ones. There's a special section on the main page there, cnn.com, help veterans and families of troops.
Any one of these will hook you up with a great place to do it and there's a lot of sites to follow. As soon as I'm off, I'm going to post everything right here. My Facebook page, joshlevs.cnn. You should be able to click on any of those and hook up and do whatever you want to do through dotcom/impact and gets updated all the time, so lots of good stuff you can do there, guys.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. It's a great resource. Thank you, Josh.
I want you to look at this story. Boy, this is one that we have really -- it has warmed our hearts. We talk about seeing eye dogs before, but this is a seeing eye horse. You probably never have seen before, especially not when you're grocery shopping. But this actually is Trixie. The lady on the horse, that's the owner. Oh, no, actually, Trixie's the horse name.
HOLMES: Trixie's the horse. Tabitha is the lady on it.
NGUYEN: Yeah.
HOLMES: We want to make sure we get that straight.
NGUYEN: Exactly.
HOLMES: Yeah.
NGUYEN: So Trixie helps her get around town. The owner, as you obviously know, is legally blind, but the horse, listen to this, takes her on a regular six mile route around town that goes through a drive through in fact, and even inside some stores like the one that we just saw earlier, which was a Target store. And currently, the law does not restrict any type of service animal, but the federal government is considering limiting that law just to dogs as it was intended. But so far, so good. Trixie is doing her job and helping that lady out, and even taking her through the drive through.
HOLMES: And what to do? There is a serious debate going on about what...
NGUYEN: What animals qualify.
HOLMES: To all animals.
NGUYEN: Yeah.
HOLMES: So there will be some conversations about that. And maybe the law will get changed. But for now, do your thing, Trixie.
NGUYEN: But how neat is that to be shopping and all of a sudden, you see Trixie show up.
HOLMES: What was that?
NGUYEN: Right. All right, well, we're talking with mayors across the country.
HOLMES: Yes.
NGUYEN: You've been doing that for several weeks.
HOLMES: Several weeks now. You know, they got a lot to say right about now. They've been visiting the White House, talking to the president and the administration about those stimulus dollars and how they're going to get to them and their cities. What are their biggest concerns about that stimulus package? Well, we're going to be talking to a couple of more mayors coming up right here.
NGUYEN: Plus we also have some help for folks looking for a job. We have a CareerBuilder expert on hand this morning. So here's what you need to do. Send us your resumes. Send them to weekends@cnn.com. We're going to look them over, maybe even give you a call live on the air so that you can have some expert advice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, two mayors in two very different cities. They both grew up in towns that are now losing people. Thus, they're losing dollars from - mounting faster than the solutions, but they are trying to come up with them like so many others around the country.
Let's welcome in now Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. She's the mayor of Galveston, Texas. Also, David Cicilline, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. We've had them both, well, we've had them anxiously on a couple weeks ago. Mayor Thomas, welcome to you. And I appreciate you being here. Beautiful back drop you have there in Galveston.
MAYOR LYDA ANN THOMAS, GALVESTON, TEXAS: Thank you.
HOLMES: I want to ask you both to start off with, there were so many questions about that big stimulus bill and how the money was actually going to be doled out and trickled down and finally get to you and your cities, a lot of these mayors. So Mayor Thomas, have you see stimulus money get to you yet that you've been able to use?
THOMAS: No, it's not even in Texas yet. And I don't think there's - I don't think the process has been clarified as far as I know in Washington. So I really don't have any specifics that I can address regarding the stimulus money right now.
HOLMES: So follow up on that, Mayor Thomas. Are you saying, are you just in a wait and see? And you really have no idea when you might get some of that stimulus money?
THOMAS: Well, we just don't know. We certainly want some of it. And we will be going to Washington and asking for it. Right now, we're more concentrated on FEMA recovery money. That's going to - that's closer to us, I think, than stimulus package money at this point.
HOLMES: All right, and I want to get back to that point there, the FEMA money and certainly what you all went through with Hurricane Ike there. But I want to go to you now, Mayor Cicilline and ask you are in the same boat in that you really don't know when stimulus money might be getting to you?
MAYOR DAVID CICILLINE, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: No, we've actually -- I've actually put together a 22 member team in my administration that is going through every portion of the recovery bill to determine what money will be coming to Providence under what formula, how will we distribute it. And the Providence Housing Authority, for example, we've already identified that a little over $5 million will come here by formula. We've approved those projects. They're ready to go. It'll create about 122 jobs and all kinds of renovation work.
HOLMES: Do you know when on that money, though?
CICILLENE: We're expecting that very soon. HUD has done the allocations for the community on block grant. They've identified the amount of money that will be coming to the city. We're awaiting the regulations.
But we're all doing our due diligence to be sure that the projects are ready to go, that they're eligible, that they create jobs, that their investments in education and technology, renewable energy, housing. But you know, I think we're all doing our due diligence. We have to be sure that everything is ready to go and crossed all the T's, dotted all the I's, have all the compliance requirements met. Is he at work? But we can already see the jobs that are going to be created.
HOLMES: That'll be created. Well, Mayor Thomas, you have a very different situation there, given what you all went through with Hurricane Ike. It's difficult anytime to recover from a natural disaster like that. But you're trying to recover from a natural disaster in the midst of an economic disaster. How much more difficult and almost impossible of a job do you all have on your hands here?
THOMAS: Well, it's been -- it has been tough. I must say that Galveston's recovery efforts have been strong and are certainly ongoing. We do have a long way to go as far as rebuilding our infrastructure and our water plants and sewer plants.
On the positive side, however, it is spring break here. We've got about 350,000 spring breakers on the island for the next two or three weeks. But getting recovery money from the federal government from FEMA is what we're focused on right now. We certainly do have plans to get the stimulus money. But as I said, it's FEMA money that we need right now in order to speed up our recovery.
HOLMES: All right, well, it's certainly good to hear that spring breakers are coming down there. It's certainly -- tourism is such a big industry down there for you all. That will help.
We're going to take a quick break here. But when we come back, Mayor Cicillene, I'm going to be asking you about the foxy lady. Mayor Cicillene and the foxy lady. You certainly want to stick around and understand what we're talking about here. We will explain. But a job fair happening in his city maybe just a sign of the times. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, we're going to have to rejoin our conversation with Mayor of Galveston, Texas and also the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. And again, Lyda Thomas, you see that on the top, the mayor of Galveston. Also, Dave Cicillene, the mayor of Providence.
And mayor, I told you, since you're up there in the brink, kind of a strange way. But let me explain to folks what I'm talking about here. Kind of a sign that of the times of what's going on. There is job fair happening in your city today. The job fair is at a strip club. We know that Rhode Island has a high unemployment at about 10.5 percent I do believe.
And I believe your city may be even higher. You might want to correct me on that, but give me the updated number. But still, just a sign of the times in that a place like this thinks they're going to be attracting a lot more applicants because, like I said, so many people are looking for work.
So let me get your thoughts on the unemployment rate there in your town, and just again, just a sign of the times that something like this we're seeing now.
CICILLENE: There's no question that Rhode Island is suffering from one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. And what's very saying about the economic plan is we'll be able to demonstrate real job growth, particularly in green technology jobs, in the building trades and the infrastructure work, and in some important technology investments. But you're right. The Foxy Lady announced that they are looking for bartenders and bouncers and dancers and the whole range of positions and are going to have a job fair because they feel like there's a lot of people who might be working for work.
But we certainly want everyone who's looking for a job to find work in our state and certainly in my city.
HOLMES: Yeah.
CICILLENE: The economic recovery plan has lots of ability to do that, but I think there are industries that are growing even in these bad economic times.
HOLMES: Hey, a job is a job right about now. And we...
CICILLENE: A job is a job.
HOLMES: ...hear there Friday, legs and eggs brunch is a hit there.
But let me go back to you.
CICILLENE: Come down to Providence. I'll take you there.
HOLMES: Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me get back to Mayor Thomas quickly here. Mayor Thomas, you tell me what you think, and I'm curious about what a lot of mayors think when they hear governors say that they're going to reject some stimulus money. Governor Perry there in Texas is one who says he's going to reject a portion of it. The unemployment part of it. We've heard other mayors say this because they might not be able to pay for it when the money runs out down the road.
Just does that sit right with you, mayor, who is struggling, who can probably use any cash anybody would be willing to give you, but what is -- does this sit well with you to hear your governor or any other governor around the country say they're going to reject some of the stimulus money?
THOMAS: Well, I always think it's a mistake to reject money, no matter where it comes from. And I'm hoping that Governor Perry will rethink his position because we need every cent we can get, not only in the state, but certainly here in Galveston and in the Galveston, Houston area. So hopefully, he'll change his mind about this stimulus money.
HOLMES: And my last question for you here, Mayor Thomas, is does your city need to come back? Would you like to see it come back the way it was before the storm? Or do you think your city, which has lost a lot of residence since the storm, needs to reinvent itself in a way, and come back as a, maybe a place that still uses and has and depends on tourism, but needs to reinvent itself in any way to sustain itself long term in the future?
THOMAS: Storms like Ike present -- always present challenges. And then they also present options for change. We will come back. We'll be a little different. But basically, I think Galveston will still be the beautiful historic city that it's always been.
HOLMES: All right. And my last question for you, Mayor Cicillene. A lot of people, a lot of speculation was that you would be running for governor of the great state of Rhode Island. You have announced that you will not do that. I want to ask you why, and does it have anything to do with, you know what, you got your own problems there. And a lot of governors dealing with much bigger budget issues in these economic times. So why did you decide not to go that route when a lot of people thought you would?
CICILLENE: I've decided to run for a third term as mayor of the great city of Providence. We have a lot of exciting stuff that I'm in the middle of, both a transit system that we're developing, redevelopment of a new neighborhood in the city, as a result of some new land that's being developed because we're moving a highway. We have some great stuff happening in our public schools.
So I really want to see this stuff finished. And also, this economic recovery plan has been a real opportunity to work with the new president and his administration to be sure that we're doing this in a really effective way.
And my job as mayor of the city is not yet. It's a job I love. I hope I'll have the opportunity to do it for four more years. And there's a lot of exciting stuff happening that I want to finish.
But can I just mention one other thing that you mentioned about the governors and -- we're having a problem in Rhode Island on the education issue, where our governor is actually proposing to supplant...
HOLMES: Yeah.
CICILLENE: ...some of the federal education money. And I've been fighting with the governor about and wrote to Secretary Dunkin and asked him not to grant a waiver for that to happen as well. So yeah, that's a similar issue here in Rhode Island.
HOLMES: You sure you're not running for governor? That sounds like you were getting going there, that governor's race.
CICILLENE: No, but it's just, you know, that money was intended to be vested in...
HOLMES: Yeah.
CICILLLENE: ...education. It should be. And just supplant it and not put it towards the children of Rhode Island I think is a big mistake.
HOLMES: Well, yeah, as we know, a lot of debate out there about how that money's being used and how the governors will use that money.
Mayor Thomas of Galveston, we really want to check in with you again and continue along with Galveston's recovery. So thank you for being here. Mayor Cicillene, we'll have eggs when I come to town. Good to see you both.
CICILLENE: Great.
HOLMES: You all take care, all right?
CICILLENE: Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Oh, my.
HOLMES: He said it.
NGUYEN: He did extend the invitation.
HOLMES: Yes.
NGUYEN: What is it called again? Legs and eggs?
HOLMES: Legs and eggs brunch.
NGUYEN: Yeah, you may just want to go...
HOLMES: On Fridays.
NGUYEN: ...to the local IHOP.
HOLMES: Yes.
NGUYEN: OK, so March Madness, let's talk about this. There's a reason they call it that. Upset after upset.
HOLMES: Yes. So we finally saw that last night. We have a Cinderella, yes, and we'll break down the brackets with our Rick Horrow. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, the success of the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" has put the spotlight on India. And some celebrities are adding Indian style to their look, thanks to an American company that's both small and global.
Richard Lui has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD LUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The vibrance and style of India inspired Rosina Sammi to create her own jewelry company.
ROSENA SAMMI, ROSENA SAMMI JEWELRY: In a former life, I was a lawyer. And I always had a passion for jewelry.
LUI: So she designed a business plan and some Southasian bling.
SAMMI: Wonderful thing about designing jewelry is it allows me a creative outlet that the law didn't allow. And so, it's an opportunity to also to reconnect to my culture.
LUI: And Sammi's culture is delightfully complicated .
SAMMI: I'm a Sri Lankan Tamil origin, was born and raised in New Zealand. I moved to the U.S. to pursue a Master's in Law degree.
LUI: Jewelry is designed by Sammi, made by artists in India and sold in boutiques around the world.
SAMMI: I have workshops in different regions of India that assist me creating these amazing designs. So often, I'll go to a particular region when I'm after a particular style of work.
LUI: The style that's popular from Japan and Australia and Europe and Hollywood.
SAMMI: I've had some amazing good luck with celebrities responding to my jewelry. Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Debra Messing. So I'm very much east meets west. And just having some fun with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right, well, a sad story we saw this week, the death of actress Natasha Richardson raised a lot of questions about sports related head injuries now.
NGUYEN: And especially for parents with children active in sports. So what are the signs that it's a lot more serious than just a bump on the head? Well, coming up at 10:00, we're going to talk with a neurosurgeon at Cedar Sinai Hospital about when you need to be concerned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right, so it's March Madness.
HOLMES: Of course, it is.
NGUYEN: Even the president getting in on the action.
HOLMES: Yeah. That was kind of cool.
NGUYEN: Yeah, and has his picks out there, a few of them, similar to mine. He's got why Louisville, Memphis, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh.
HOLMES: That's who we have.
NGUYEN: Yeah.
HOLMES: Is that your Final Four as well?
NGUYEN: I have Texas, North Carolina, Louisville, and Connecticut.
HOLMES: Why do you have Texas?
NGUYEN: Well, because...
HOLMES: There's that.
NGUYEN: My Longhorns.
HOLMES: Oh, yes.
NGUYEN: Here go.
HOLMES: There's Betty's Final Four. So she's still in pretty good shape right now. Everybody's kind of in good shape right now. My Final Four still intact for the most part. I had a little surprise in my Final Four.
NGUYEN: And what was that surprise?
HOLMES: Oh, Arkansas...
NGUYEN: That they won?
HOLMES: Well, it was a huge surprise because we would crash the party-we're not even in the tournament, but hey, always got to throw them in there. But the president meanwhile, 19 of the first 32 games he got right. That's OK, but you know, you feel them out on espn.com. And they let you know all, I mean, millions of people fill them out.
NGUYEN: Right.
HOLMES: He's in the bottom four percent right now.
NGUYEN: Are you serious?
HOLMES: Yeah.
NGUYEN: With 19 correct? Don't -- you would think that's a pretty big number.
HOLMES: It sounds good, but it's really not that good. But this is what's causing the problems. Let's show you some of the video from the tournament. This is a big thing. We have a Cinderella. 13 seed Cleveland State knocked off of four seed, Wake Forest. Wake Forest is the number one team in the country at some points during the year, gone, done, out of the tournament.
Also, Arizona. Now there's was a little different here.
NGUYEN: The Wildcats, right?
HOLMES: The Wildcats of Arizona. You know, a lot -- they were the last team. You know, a lot of people said they shouldn't even be in the tournament, but this is a very competitive team. I don't know if you call this an upset. NGUYEN: Yeah, but don't the Wildcats have some bruised up, banged up players on their team?
HOLMES: They had that, OK.
NGUYEN: Play and hurt and...
HOLMES: And it (INAUDIBLE) hurt. And -- but they are playing with a chip on their shoulder because a lot of people thought they shouldn't be in the tournament in the first place. That's bring in Rick Horrow. I don't know how his bracket's doing right about now, but our sports business analyst Rick Horrow.
Rick, first of all, and quickly if you can, how is your bracket?
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: My bracket is the same as the president's Final Four, by the way.
HOLMES: So not good.
HORROW: And so, we're in good shape. He picked North Carolina to win. John McCain picked North Carolina to win. And I picked North Carolina to win. I don't know what that means.
I've looked at the brackets on the basketball here.
HOLMES: Right.
HORROW: And Cleveland State, by the way, you're right. 13 seed. It's the biggest upset Friday in the NCAA in the last 10 years. They're 10,000 to 1 odds makers say to win the tournament, Cleveland State. So a bet on them is probably not a good bet.
HOLMES: Is not a good bet, but people are betting. What are they betting on? How much are they betting? Is this a big bet time for this country?
HORROW: Good segue. $3 billion in office pools. That is almost the gross domestic budget of Delaware they say. And by the way, the bigger deal is $300 billion that legally or illegally on all aspects of gambling in sports now, obviously, some is not reported. And so, half the Americans are playing office pools. 15 percent less spending on those than last year. People say yeah, but they're really doing it, and this is the big week to do it, of course.
HOLMES: Betty, are you in an office pool?
NGUYEN: I usually am. I didn't get in on one this year.
HOLMES: OK. You don't have...
NGUYEN: I never win, though. So...
HOLMES: OK. Well, we don't -- I don't think we have an office pool here. Let's just get that out first of all, because they are illegal. I do believe. But Rick... NGUYEN: Thanks for setting me up on that one.
HOLMES: Yeah. But Rick...
NGUYEN: There's no money exchanged, let me clarify that.
HOLMES: No money exchanged here, but is any money still going towards, Rick, the networks? Are -- is this one thing that they can depend on? Is this tournament recession proof?
HORROW: Yeah, this tournament is basically recession proof, like Super bowls, like the PCS championship. By the way, $6 billion in rights fees over an 11 year deal. About a half a billion a year in rights fees, but they're making it back in advertising, about $600 billion. And advertising is up 15 or 20 percent, which is incredible in this economy.
So people like premium events, regardless of where their particular Final Fours and brackets are whether they're exchanging money or not.
HOLMES: All right. No money being exchanged here. Rick, you enjoy the rest of your weekend. You're going to be watching basketball, I assume?
HORROW: Yeah, absolutely. So you're talking about a club in Providence. Now you're talking about betting on basketball. We're in real trouble, pal. What's going on with you?
HOLMES: It's a Saturday. I wouldn't do this on a Sunday show, OK?
HORROW: Oh.
HOLMES: All right, Rick...
HORROW: We'll talk our brackets next week, by the way. We'll go all the way through this.
HOLMES: All right, my man. Always good to see you. Appreciate you, Rick.
HORROW: All right.
HOLMES: Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING for this March 21st. I believe the second day of spring. And I am T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Some places are actually feeling it, some places not so much.
HOLMES: Will we today?
NGUYEN: A little bit. Good morning, everyone. I'm Betty Nguyen. It is 9:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 8:00 a.m. in Chicago, 6:00 a.m. in Sacramento. Thanks to everyone for starting your day with us. But first we do want to give you this.
Some late breaking news that is coming in. A hazmat spill, a hazardous materials spill in Pennsylvania. What happened, an overturned tractor trailer carrying 33,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid, a massive evacuation for at least three towns in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Those towns are Wind gap borough, Plainfield Township and Bush Hill Tonwship. They are being evacuated and we understand that that includes about 5,000 people within a one-mile radius of the crash scene that are being evacuated just as a precaution.
Now, we have not been told of any injuries or any people transported to the hospital at this time. But an overturned tractor trailer carrying some hazardous materials has caused the evacuation of some 5,000 people in Pennsylvania. We'll stay on top of this story for you.
HOLMES: Also another thing we're keeping an eye on. It's been called a campaign-style move by the president. Your doorbell might ring, and it could be somebody from the president's camp. He's getting his supporters, millions of them, he's got them in his Rolodex and he is fanning them out to drum up support for his budget. More details about that this morning.
NGUYEN: And we have help for those of you who are looking for a job. We have a career builder expert on hand this morning. So send us your resume and here's how you do it. You send it to weekends@CNN.com. We're going to take a look at it and we may even give you a call, live right here on the air with expert advise on how to tweak that resume and hopefully get that job.
Well, President Obama's pick for a stimulus top cop. Earl Devaney has a reputation as a straight shooter. Now he told Congress this week that he will tell his new boss that, the vice president, what he needs to know, not what he knows that maybe some folks want to the hear, specially when it comes to the stimulus funding.
Our Kate Bolduan has so much more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They said last night don't mess with Joe. This is the guy you don't mess with.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But the watchdog early Devaney is having a hard time getting started without a real office.
EARL DEVANEY, CHMN, ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD: I'd like to guess an address. I'd like to get some phones and computers and start taking control of this.
BOLDUAN: Devaney's in charge of making sure the $787 billion of stimulus money doesn't get wasted or misused. Experts say seven percent could be lost to fraud.
DEVANEY: The first time I took a pencil and figured that out I was horrified to see it was $55 billion. So obviously the challenge is to try to minimize those losses.
BOLDUAN: He helped uncover the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and is now chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. The chairman of the House oversight committee is demanding swift action.
REP. ED TOWNS (D), NEW YORK: Mr. Devaney who has a tremendous reputation and hope he would be able to pull together a team to make certain that the money goes to where it's supposed to go, do what it's supposed to do. We want to stimulate the economy, not stimulate some pockets.
BOLDUAN: Devaney's goal, fraud prevention rather than rooting it out after the fact. However, he hasn't yet taken control of the board's key tool. The recovery.gov Web site, where taxpayers are supposed to be able to track spending and report potential misuse. Meanwhile, money is already out the door and projects are under way.
DEVANEY: So I arrived at the train station and found that the train had already left.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And Kate joins us now. Kate, that recovery.gov Web site, are people actually going there and getting the information that they need?
BOLDUAN: It seems they sure are -- I mean, Devaney says their key asset in tracking and rooting out fraud. And what he said at the hearing is that recovery.gov is getting almost 4,000 hits per second right now. Clearly Americans want to know where their money is going, and it also seems that Mr. Devaney knows that is going to be a huge job on his part.
NGUYEN: Yes. Devaney has a lot in store for him. OK. Kate Bolduan, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it.
HOLMES: I want to go back to the story of just getting in here. We just told you about a moment ago. This hazmat spill, this hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, the split that's happening in Pennsylvania. 33,000 pounds of this stuff. We want to bring in John Conklin now. John Conklin who is with the public affairs with Northampton County.
Sir, we got you on the line with me. Give us the update. Again, this information just coming to us. How much of this stuff do you have spilled and how much of a threat is it posing?
VOICE OF JOHN CONKLIN, PIO, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: Hi. good morning. Yes, we have this, to confirm the 33,000 pound of hydroeuphoric acid, UN1052. It is a corrosive poison. The tanker truck was fully loaded, and as it overturned, with any type of pressurized vehicle there, you have an amount of liquid there, and since it's on its side it has been off gassing, and that's the major concern, because of the population base around where this has gone has approximately 5,000 people.
We did a precautionary one-mile evacuation. And did some emergency alert notifications to get the residents to evacuate out to a local high school, out of the danger zone.
HOLMES: And is this a mandatory -- do you feel pretty good you have gotten all those people out? Are those efforts continuing to get folks out? Is this a pretty much mandatory evacuation, are you telling these folks you got to get out of there?
CONKLIN: We did an original announcement on evacuation at around 7:30, then another follow-up throughout 8:45. Of course, this time of the hour, not everyone has their television or the radio on. Therefore, the best we can hope for is they would shelter in place, which would be to turn off their outside vents and things like that. We do have hazmat teams on the scene, and at this time they're attempting to cap that vent, and then get the crews there, upright that tanker truck so we can get that off the stop.
HOLMES: I have it right at the time, we don't know of any injuries associated with this crash and the spill, is that correct?
CONKLIN: During the original accident the tractor trailer driver was entrapped in his cab. My understanding is that he had been transported to a local hospital and has since been released.
HOLMES: Any idea of the cause of this crash? Why this happened in the first place?
CONKLIN: Nothing yet. Pennsylvania state police will be handling that.
HOLMES: OK. All right. John Conklin, again, public affairs there for Northampton County. Sir, I appreciate you taking the time out and giving us an update. I know you're all busy there. Thank you so much and good luck with the spill. Hope everybody is all right. Thank you, sir.
NGUYEN: And we know a lot of you are busy trying to find that job especially in this tough economy. Well, we have some help for you. In fact, we're going to help you tweak those resumes with an expert on hand. So don't miss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: We're going to show you some pictures of people standing in line with millions of others in vying for that same job. Look at all of these folks. You know, there's one thing in common. They all need jobs and are looking for one desperately in this economy.
HOLMES: We've seen this scene in several cities around the country. This one happened to take place in Atlanta. This was a job fair. Everybody hoping to make an impression, hoping to stand out. The first step is doing what everybody has to do. You've got to get a good resume.
Jason Ferrara knows all about good resumes. He is a senior career adviser with career builder.com. Good morning to you, sir. We appreciate you being here. And as always we're going to put you on the line here with somebody who is looking for some help with their resume and I believe it's Maria.
NGUYEN: Maria Rodriguez. Maria, are you there?
VOICE OF MARIA RODRIGUEZ, JOB SEEKER: Yes, I'm here.
NGUYEN: All right. I understand that you were actually laid off just this week?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes. I was.
NGUYEN: And you are a bilingual program coordinator. Now that we have Jason on the line with you, this is your time to tweak that resume. So ask whatever you need.
RODRIGUEZ: Hi.
JASON FERRARA, SENIOR CAREER ADVISER, CAREERBUILDER.COM: Hi, Maria.
RODRIGUEZ: Hi, good morning.
FERRARA: Good morning.
RODRIGUEZ: So I ...
FERRARA: Do you have ...
RODRIGUEZ: I have got my resume and I have been putting out some job applications, and I know that I have some experience coordinating programs, and I obviously have an advantage being bilingual, but I really haven't had a whole lot of luck getting a first interview even. So I wanted to see if you had any advice on my resume, and what I should be highlighting, or what sort of -- some, maybe ...
HOLMES: All right. Jason, we know -- go right ahead.
FERRARA: Sure. I guess, Maria, the first thing I would say is that it's going to take a little bit longer in this economy to find a job. So don't get discouraged that you've been sending out applications for a week. You know, you want to make sure you consistently do that and keep that up over the coming weeks.
As far as your resume goes, one of the things I looked at just from a format perspective is you know, you're really pushing the outer edges of that piece of paper and trying to get everything on one page. You don't need to do that. You can edit and tweak the format. So if you go on to a second page, that's just fine. You want to give your resume enough room to tell the story.
The second place I would tell you is with the objectives. So it is very important that you are bilingual. You have good skill summary at the bottom of the page. You want to try to tweak that objective so it's more a summary of your experience. If you think about this piece of paper as a real at-a-glance look at you, you want to be able to summarize exactly what it is you can bring to an organization.
While an objective tells someone what you want, you want to tell them what you can do for them. And then carry that over, also, into the experience section so that you can give as much measurable actionable thing. So as a project coordinator, you really want to talk about the number of projects you're able to coordinate at once. The things that you were doing that actually were measurable, the types of people you were speaking with.
You've got a lot of the duties on there, which is good, but try to get as many of the measurable actions that you took on there as well. So a real at-a-glance look at those things will help out a lot, I think.
RODRIGUEZ: Jason ...
NGUYEN: Go ahead, Maria. Go ahead.
RODRIGUEZ: Sorry. I have a quick question. Do you think that I should keep that bullet format or should I switch to a paragraph-style format?
FERRARA: I would say keep the bullet format. Again, it's about an at-a-glance look at you and a recruiter who is looking at it could be hundreds of resumes a day, has a pretty short attention span for paragraphs. So you want to keep bullets, short, concise. You know, short and sweet is really what you want on the resume.
NGUYEN: All right. Well, Maria, thank you so much for your time and good luck to you out there. And Jason, just one real quick question on that end. You say keep it short and sweet, to the point. At the same time you told her, her resume's on one page, she may want to think about putting it on two. It seems to contradict itself there?
FERRARA: Well, I think what I'm trying to communicate is, pushing everything on to one page makes the page look cluttered and it's difficult for a recruiter to focus on things that are really important. So taking a resume to two pages is perfectly fine in this day and age. It doesn't all have to be crammed on to one page. And this resume has the feel of I've got to get everything on just one page, and that's just not true.
NGUYEN: All right. Jason Ferrara, you're going to be back with us throughout this hour and the next helping other people just like Maria who are trying to tweak those resumes.
HOLMES: All right. Jason, we appreciate you. Don't go anywhere. We'll talk to you here shortly.
NGUYEN: OK. So it seems like the recession is affecting so many facets of our lives. Some people find themselves having to give up even the family pet. HOLMES: Yes. Why man's best friend is out in the cold and what some people are doing to actually help out. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're going to get back to that advice from our job seekers out there, giving you help with your resume as well.
NGUYEN: Yes, Jason Ferrara is senior career adviser at careerbuilder.com joins us. And we have for you Jason, Wes Bailey on the phone. And in fact, West, you've been looking for a job since April of last year. Get right to it, if you would, and then ask the questions that you need, because Jason is here to answer them.
WES BAILEY, JOB SEEKER: Well, I'm really looking for that added little punch to my resume. I have all of my strengths right there on the front page of my resume. I'm really looking to see what can I add to my resume that will really give it be that stand-out approach in the job market.
FERRARA: All right. Yes. I think we can -- definitely, Wes, we can give you some good information here. The first thing I would say, and I'll probably focus more on format on your particular resume. The resume that I have is a text document right now, which makes everything look the same. And so you do have good experience on the front page, but it's difficult to understand what's more important than something else, because it's all the same type face, it's all the same size.
So I would highly recommend rather than have a text document, get this in a word processing program, like Word, and give titles and subheads, that sort of thing to organize. So again, when a recruiter's looking a at a resume, they're looking at hundreds a day, you want to make sure that yours is very easy to read. And this one is from a text standpoint, pretty monotonous.
The second thing I would recommend you do, you got some great education on here. And that's critically important. I would move, however, that education to the second page, and bring up some of that real nice work experience. The words are good. The work experience is good. You want to make sure that that's highlighted more, because that's really what a place is hiring you for, your skills, your experience. That transferable experience there.
And then on the last page, you have a group of references. That's fine to have those references there, but they don't need to necessarily be in the same document as your resume. Drop those off and you can get what is a three-page resume now down to two pages. Two is a great length for a recruiter these days. So if you format it differently, get some of that experience up top and give me two pages instead of three. I think you're going get in front of recruiters more often and your resume will be at the top more often.
HOLMES: All right. Wes, we certainly hope that helped out and hope it helped out a lot of folks who are listening as well. Not just specific to your particular resume. But I'm sure a lot of people looking at the same issues you're having. So Wes, man, good luck to you. I won't hold it against you went to LSU, though. We did see that on your resume. I'm a razorback. Put that out there.
Wes, good luck out there. We appreciate you calling in and we appreciate you as well Jason, we're not done with you as yet. We appreciate you and we're hooking up with the resume and the resume expert. Say stay with us.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. You know in the meantime, we hear a whole a lot of sad stories in this economy, but is also bringing out some of the best in people.
HOLMES: Yes, stories we're seeing right now about people reaching out to help their neighbors and in some different kind of ways, including ways that help people stay with their pets, or with the pets, and we see a pet, and ...
NGUYEN: That's coming up.
LEVS: Yes, we got a list coming up in a little bit. A visitor we have.
NGUYEN: How cute!
LEVS: You guys get to see that in just a sec. Here's the reason we're telling you about. One of our producers actually got us this. Jennifer Greg. Can you guys hear the squeaking? All right. She brought us this video. Let's go to the video. It's a soup kitchen for pets, not far from us, Lawrenceville, Georgia.
People go there and pick up free food for animals. It's called Daffy's Pet Soup Kitchen. It was named after the dog that we're going to show you right here who is diabetic and the owner explains that in this economy people are giving up on pets with special medical needs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM WARGO, DAFFY'S PET SOUP KITCHEN: The high-maintenance pets, they're not going to make it. You know what I mean? They're not going to keep him long. And no one's going to adopt an animal that has a lot of medical problems or medical issues. So that's why we try helping out with food and with discount vet care, we can try people to keep them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: In fact, there are some reports nationwide, more and more animals are ending up in shelters. We got a couple of interesting statistics for you from petfinder.com. 74 percent of shelters and rescue group reporting an increase in pets there. Also 60 percent of shelters and rescue groups specifically foreclosure is the primary reason, and now it's time for our special visitor. Check it out.
We have a visitor right here from the Atlantic Humane Society. I'm not the visitor. From Atlanta Humane Society. This is the boy. Right, this is Tuba. From the Atlantic Humane Society. This is Twobuck. And Violin. And Voila. And came to visit us today from the Atlanta Humane Society.
NGUYEN: Look at this precious little thing.
LEVS: So cute.
NGUYEN: How will you give this up?
LEVS: And I was just told that they like being held. I mean, you guys you know a little more about cats than I do. But they like being held like this, apparently. Just like the moms hold it.
HOLMES: I have pets. So I know about that.
LEVS: So cute. This is just one of the many that can be adopted through petfinder.com. Atlanta Humane Society has got them. I think she wants to play, or he wants to play. And so, what they're saying is we're seeing more and more of these adorable little cats, dogs, every kind of pet.
HOLMES: Somebody might want this particular cat.
NGUYEN: This particular one. Exactly.
HOLMES: What do they need to do?
LEVS: If they want this particular one. Atlantichumanesociety.org. This one can't be adopted for about two more weeks. So it's in foster care for two weeks, and then it's adoptable.
HOLMES: Because it has an attitude? Does it have anything to do with it?
NGUYEN: And it does have some claws on it.
LEVS: Yes. Can't be declawed yet. It's still too young for that, apparently, but he's having a field day up here.
And we're told the table is safe.
NGUYEN: Got nine lives, we're good. Right?
HOLMES: Right. We're going to keep this little guy around, maybe find more animals. Don't go anywhere, folks. We're going to be right back after a quick break.
LEVS: Maybe he's going to type our upcoming scripts.
NGUYEN: Look at him. So cute!
In the meantime though, we want to tell you about this. The death of Natasha Richardson left many stunned and really wondering how did this happen? Well, we're going to speak with a doctor in the next hour on brain injuries, head injury, and what you need to know if you hit the slopes. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Reynolds Wolf has been monitoring some of the weather outside, in parts of the country, pretty severe.
HOLMES: Yes. it's always the case with you over there on the weekends. Reynolds, what have you got quickly this weekend?
WOLF: Watching the river levels in places like North Dakota. We're in, if you happen to make your way over to Fargo, the Red River expected to go to about 37 to 40 feet. That's 22 feet above normal. So that certainly is a tremendous concern.
And you'll notice that concern is not just for Fargo. It's farther to the north along parts of (INAUDIBLE) into Grafton, back into Grand Forks, even out to the west in Minot, even in Bismarck. So a big concern. Another big concern is going to be that warm-up we're going to see across much of the nations. I mean, it sure feels great, that's certainly a great deal for you in Dallas where 72 degrees is going to be high. Phoenix one degree shy of 90. 72 in Denver, and 80 in Houston.
But that warm air surging its way into the center plains is going to react with a funnel boundary. As you get into Monday and Tuesday, there's going to be a chance, we're going to have a widespread outbreak of severe weather. We're talking about the potential of strong thunderstorms, damaging winds, large hail and maybe even some tornadoes into both Monday and then into Tuesday going from the central plains, the southern plains back into portions of the mid- Mississippi Valley as we make our way into the workweek. So could be some rough and stormy times ahead.
But still for the most part, think of the good aspects, warm temperatures going up into the 70s for a good part of the nation. That is a quick look at your forecast, guys. Let's send it right back to you at the news desk.
NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Reynolds.
WOLF: You bet.
NGUYEN: And coming up at 10:00, we will have more tips for you job seekers out there from careerbuilder.com.
HOLMES: All right. So Betty and I will be back at the top of the hour. But in the meantime, Gerri Willis in "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right now.
