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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hard Times Hit Las Vegas; GOP Presidential Candidates Prepare for Nevada Debate; Zappos Reinvigorating Life and Employment Around the Vegas Strip; Jobs and Justice

Aired October 15, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN, ANCHOR: Good morning to you all. A special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING, a split edition coming to you from Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm T.J. Holmes on assignment on the Strip. Go figure.

But I'm here for good reason. Here for Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate and my good friend, Alina Cho, is back in studio, holding things out for me.

Good morning to you, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: For once, T.J., you're there for work. Good morning. It's good to see you.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho live from the CNN Center and this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's 9:00 a.m. in Atlanta, a very early 6:00 a.m. in Las Vegas.

T.J., Nevada's economic problems are among the worse. The foreclosure rates, the unemployment rates and these issues going to be huge in the presidential election and this upcoming debate.

HOLMES: It absolutely will. You know, it's odd sometimes, not what people think when they think about Las Vegas. People think about Las Vegas, they think, of course, the fabulous Las Vegas. They think about what happens here stays here. They think this is an adult playground, but like I said, even an iconic Vegas sign when you come in, it says "Welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas."

Let me tell you the reality of Las Vegas -- 13.4 percent, the unemployment rate in Nevada. The highest in the country. Unemployment rate in Las Vegas in particular 14.2 percent. That is the highest in the country in metro areas of at least a million people or more.

Foreclosure rates right here in this area, highest in the country and it's been that way for the past four-plus years. That is the reality of what's happening in Las Vegas.

Now, people oftentimes think -- and we have seen the numbers here in the Las Vegas Strip. The number of people visiting, the money that's being spent here, those numbers have come down and come down dramatically in some cases over the past several years since the recession hit but to come back it might not be the Strip that brings the area back. Maybe it's downtown Las Vegas. Have you taken a trip there? It's just up the Strip and there's one company, one that you are familiar that is about to make a huge footprint that can help this area come back in a major way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZACH WARE, ZAPPOS.COM: The thing that we've lacked in Las Vegas is the place that feels like our hub. Our home. That's ours to control and not really designed to necessarily just make money.

I think there's a disconnect between the sense of community, the Strip is designed to bring you in and in a lot of ways just sort of make money and entertain you. The rest of the Las Vegas Valley is home to nearly 1.6 million people who crave connecting with other people.

So this is Fremont Street, which is the original Strip. We have a vision for creating a very vibrant, connected community. Downtown Las Vegas.

HOLMES: What's in it for you all? From that standpoint?

WARE: So I think we had an opportunity when we're thinking about where we're going to move our company. We needed more space. And we had an opportunity to create an insular, closed in campus that had coffee shops, restaurants and maybe a studio, a gym. All the things we would want to offer our employees. We also had an opportunity to move in to a community and help invest in the same things but managed by people who are passionate about things like yoga.

Frankly, Zappos runs a yoga studio. It's probably not going to be as good as someone that likes yoga, knows yoga, et cetera. I think that the most important thing we can do as a community a really focus on creating the elements in downtown Las Vegas that serve the community and not sort of fall in to the trap that the sort of Strip has fallen in to for all the right reasons which is we need to serve the tourist community.

We need to make sure it works for them first and then the locals second. But for us, the community and the locals are first. And if we happen to create something that's really, really cool as a community and they want to come visit, that is awesome. We'd love that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And I am joined now by the mayor of Las Vegas, Mayor Carolyn Goodman. Thank you so much for being here. Did we get it right for the area to come back, many people may think it lies in the success of the Strip but downtown, Las Vegas, how key is that?

MAYOR CAROLYN GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: You know, it's an amazing thing. I think we are in a position right now. We are having a renaissance already. It's been absolutely a phenomenal gain for us. We got the 61 acres downtown in the heart of the city which was a Brownfield and any great city needs to have great medical care, great medical research, great culture and art and of course, sports. And that's the formula and we knew that 12 years ago when my husband was mayor and we started to develop and right now we are the only place that's having construction. We're opening our city hall right after the first of the year, a symphony park, a performing arts center. We have the Cleveland Clinic. A (INAUDIBLE) brain institute for degenerative disease research and clinical work.

HOLMES: Now, you've got a lot of good stuff going on there.

GOODMAN: I have so much to go and tell you.

HOLMES: So much. But a lot of people think, but still, how key is it to get visitors coming back here? The economy improving so they can come here? Because people can afford to take a trip already. They certainly can't afford to take one and on top of that come blow money at a casino. How (INAUDIBLE) of a sell is your city right now? The Strip right now?

GOODMAN: Well, you know, I think the Strip is very, very healthy. We just had a bike ride of -- you saw that 1,500 going by. This is a 24- hour day place where you can get a carton of milk, go out in the middle of the night and get a breakfast if you like. It is the entertainment capital of the world. And that is coming back. We have had 17 months of increased tourism and, in fact, this past month it was up 4.3 percent.

HOLMES: Are they spending money?

GOODMAN: They are spending money because the tax that we get on the hotel rooms is how we operate most of the entities that we do, whatever it is. It makes us very, very healthy. But downtown, this whole cultural area and arts district is coming through and knowing that you toured with Tony Shea and the Zappos team yesterday, that's going to be a tremendous infusion of 1,200 people.

HOLMES: Do you think your city's a tough sell, Las Vegas is a tough sell right now in this economy?

GOODMAN: Well, you know, I have the arms around the city. There's so much energy, so much excitement. We do have, unfortunately, the foreclosure issues. The unemployment. But the horizons look so bright. The best thing we have is this wonderful weather year around. A little hot in the summer but I will tell you it's a Mecca for retirees and it's just been so grand for us.

HOLMES: A little hot in the summer. You are selling your city here. All right. Mayor Goodman, everybody, if you don't remember her husband, Oscar Goodman, a long-time mayor here in Las Vegas and only in Vegas can the mayor, Alina, have a casino chip with her likeness on it so I'm told I can't cash this but it will not keep us from trying here in a little while. Mayor Goodman, thank you so much.

GOODMAN: That's my calling card. Anybody wants to come by, come to city hall. This is a great place to live. I'm a transplant from New York.

HOLMES: Thank you so much.

GOODMAN: Thank you for having me.

HOLMES: And thank you for hosting us here in your city.

GOODMAN: Thank you. Have a good time.

HOLMES: Alina, I'll talk to you here again in just a second. We are just getting ramped up here on "CNN Saturday Morning" special edition from the Vegas Strip.

CHO: They should put your face on a commemorative chip, T.J., don't you think?

HOLMES: Come on, Alina. Stop.

CHO: Be sure to join CNN for the western Republican presidential debate from Las Vegas Tuesday night at 8:00 Eastern time and our T.J. Holmes is there.

Later this morning, civil rights activist Al Sharpton leads his march for jobs and justice in the nation's capital. The Reverend Al Sharpton right there on the National Mall after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: And a good morning. A special good morning on a special live edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING coming to you from the Venetian Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

We are here because next week CNN will be hosting a presidential debate, Republican debate right here at this complex and certainly a big part of that debate will be about the economy.

You know the numbers by now and the numbers are ugly. Over nine percent of the country out of work right now. More African-Americans, over 16 percent unemployed in America than every other group except for teenagers. Well, today they're trying to do something about it in Washington, D.C., in particular.

Reverend Al Sharpton, he is leading a march for jobs and justice in Washington and he joins me this morning from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial site there.

Reverend Sharpton, always good to talk to you. And is this march to talk about jobs? And is it specifically to support the president's jobs ill?

REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: It's about jobs. The president's bill is the only bill that has been presented that would give 1.9 million jobs but we are coming by the thousands from around the country on this weekend that we're dedicating Martin Luther King's monument to say you can't make a memorial to Dr. King and not deal with what Dr. King stood for.

With 9.1 percent unemployment, over 16 percent in the black community, no one is talking about the urgency of jobs. This march is for thousands of us to say, the people must enter the conversation so we're here by the thousands and we are going to march today from this area which is near Lincoln Memorial to the King Monument to say we want jobs and justice (INAUDIBLE) action network with civil rights allies and labor unions, we have a 12-year-old young lady here who brought 10 buses in from Atlanta. A whole new generation of activist that are determined to put jobs and justice on the agenda.

HOLMES: And just to remind people, when Martin Luther King made that "I have a dream" speech, it was a march for jobs and freedom. This is a march for jobs and justice. But the question, Reverend Sharpton, do marches still work? Can they be effective today?

SHARPTON: Well, they absolutely can because marching as in the time of Dr. King and the generation ahead of me, marching was never designed to solve the problems. They were designed to expose the problems. If no one exposes the problems they will never be solved. You have not had a major march like this around jobs particularly in the African- American community until today. And we got nothing done.

Maybe if we dramatize it, maybe if we do like occupation Wall Street people will see that the masses of people want to see some solutions, some legislations passed like the president's bill. Being quiet has got us nothing but rising unemployment data.

HOLMES: And Reverend Sharpton, last thing to you here. I have had several civil rights era leaders say you have had to give the president power to pass the civil rights act. Do you feel that people need to be in the streets to give President Obama the power to get something done?

SHARPTON: the only way the president can do in this time for jobs what President Kennedy and Johnson did for civil rights and voting rights is if the people are there. It was Dr. King and Reverend Shuttlesworth and others of that era that put the wind to their back. We are starting today to put the wind to this president's back so that we can bring jobs into our communities and in to every community. He's been facing a head wind. Today we start the back wind in the name of Martin Luther King to bring relief to those in real pain.

HOLMES: All right. Well, Reverend Sharpton, thank you for taking some time on this important morning for you and I'll take this opportunity, you are working for another network, you have joined the ranks of broadcasters now and first time to talk to you on the air and I tell you congratulations. Glad to have you in our ranks. I'll talk to you again soon. Good luck to you today.

SHARPTON: Thank you, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. We are just getting started here. I'm going to hand it back over to Alina. We'll continue our coverage in a moment and talk about, Alina, the big dust-up that's going on here in Nevada right now. The controversy over when they'll have their presidential caucus. We'll talk about that plenty this morning.

CHO: That's right. All right. T.J., looking forward to that. Meanwhile, we have this programming note for you. The dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the Washington Mall is tomorrow. Tonight our T.J. Holmes has an exclusive and emotional interview with six members of Dr. King's inner circle. One of them, congressman John Lewis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: you know when Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he spoke about -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cry for joy. We don't cry for pain. When the cup runs over, we cry.

He talked about the world house. They will all live in the same house. It's one house. It's not just the American house. But the world house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: That's "FREEDOM'S FOOT SOLDIERS," a conversation with T.J. Holmes tonight 7:30 Eastern right here on CNN. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty minutes past the hour on a special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING coming to you from the Vegas Strip, joined by my good friend and colleague, political director Paul Steinhauser.

We're here, of course, for the big GOP debates, we are hosting next week on Tuesday, but there is a huge dust-up right now. And some of these candidates, one, they said he's going to boycott our debate but several others are going to boycott the Nevada caucus. Explain.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. It's all because of timing, T.J. Let's talk about the five doing that.

We got five candidates by alphabetical order. Michele Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota; Herman Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO; Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker; Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor; and Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania.

T.J., they all said they will not partake in the caucuses out here unless Nevada moves the date back because if not New Hampshire may have to go to December and as you mentioned Jon Huntsman going one step further. He's not even going to our debate on Tuesday night. But for Huntsman, we know where he's concentrating on, New Hampshire.

HOLMES: All right. Let's explain this. Go ahead now (INAUDIBLE) and we could put up this map. Not the map but actually the calendar. What's happening here? Nevada has moved their caucus to the 14th. All right, folks. You see that. Iowa is on the 3rd. Well, New Hampshire, Paul, could go on the 10th but why is that problematic for them?

STEINHAUSER: They have a state law out there in New Hampshire that says they have to be seven days before any other contest that is similar and listen. They protect the status as the first in the nation primary. So (INAUDIBLE) if Nevada's on the 14th, they really can't go a week before because they've got Nevada right there at the 3rd, right in the middle. So they're asking Nevada, "Hey, move back a couple of days, otherwise, we may have to go to December. A fight is a-brewing.

HOLMES: A fight is a-brewing. We cannot be voting before Christmas. A lot of people are saying "No way." How's the race stacking up? Last 20-some seconds we have here. How's the race actually with one more debate here and another chance for them to shine, how's everybody looking in the race?

STEINHAUSER: Take a look at our poll of polls, T.J. This average is the latest survey. And this race has been changing so much. Look at it right now. Mitt Romney, the front-runner but look at who's on his heels there, Herman Cain, 20 percent basically dead even. Rick Perry as we see has been fading.

HOLMES: All right. Paul Steinhauser, we'll be here. A number of our colleagues here as we cover the GOP debates and all the issues in Nevada. Thank you. I'll see you again this morning. And to our viewers, we are not done here. We are talking to a local Republican leader coming up next, asking why it's so important to hold on to that date of the 14th.

Stay with me on this special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING from the Vegas Strip.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Good morning once again. A special live split edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING coming to you live from the Vegas Strip.

Of course, Alina, we have been talking about the issues here. You asked people around the country, Alina, what's the first thing you think about Las Vegas? What answer do you think you're going to get?

CHO: Well, the Vegas Strip, naturally. But we both know that Las Vegas and Nevada as a whole experienced some tough times in this tough economy. And not the least of which the foreclosure rates and unemployment rates. I mean, what are people saying to you out there?

HOLMES: See, that's the reality. You come here and we're going to be talking -- you'll hear from these folks throughout the morning this morning, but so many of them say, I don't need to see the numbers. I can just look at the Strip and it is not as big busy as it should be or it's been over the past several years.

They asked the people that come into town, how long have you been planning this trip. Actually, it was last minute and I found a motel no problem. Things like that. It lets -- allows the industry know, the cab drivers here know, people working in the food service and the casinos, they know how it used to be and how it is and that is the reality of Las Vegas.

I mean, Alina, it's tough enough for anybody to take a vacation right now. That costs money. But a vacation where you have to spend money to get there and be in the hotel and you want me to blow money on the crap table? That's just not a vacation anybody can take right now.

CHO: And they're not willing to risk it. I mean, are you finding that the -- I mean, I know you go there frequently just on your leisure time but are you finding that the hotels are a little more empty, restaurants a little more empty while you have been out there?

HOLMES: Well, first, don't put all my business out there. I'm not out here that often, am I? But no. Really you talk to them and it's so telling that people are able to get these last-minute deals. I get them in my e-mail. You might. People around the country. Last minute, come to Vegas this weekend, $100 for a room. You know, things like that didn't used to happen.

We are here at the beautiful Venetian and yes, there are some availability and many of these hotels down here and the rooms do not cost what they used to cost. It's so telling that they're trying to get people back in there. So that's a big part of the story here in Vegas that's going to be leading up to our debate next Tuesday, of course.

CHO: I thought it's really interesting that you spoke to a cab driver too and I think it's true, you want to take the pulse of the community, talk to a cab driver, right?

HOLMES: Yes. They know better than anybody.

CHO: All right. T.J., thank you so much. Well, we'll catch you on the other side there.

Coming up in our next hour, T.J. is going to talk to the head of Nevada's Republican Party about what she'd like to see from the presidential candidates on Tuesday night.

I'm Alina Cho along with T.J. Holmes from Las Vegas. Both of us will be back with more news at the top of the hour. But first, every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school. We're going to find out what former secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife are doing to try to turn that around.

"YOUR BOTTOM LINE" right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)