A Plan to Create Jobs; New Orleans Facing Storm Warning
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. New Orleans bracing for a bruising weekend. A tropical storm depression is forming in the Gulf. Twenty inches of rain could fall on that city the next few days, that could trigger catastrophic flooding exactly six years after Katrina.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A slower burn in Texas. I'm Carol Costello. Firefighters getting the upper happened on a major wildfire near Dallas that's now destroyed dozens of homes.</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And who is hiring? I'm Ali Velshi. We are just 30 minutes away from the monthly jobs report. One of the most closely watched and most important indicators that we have. What it means for America's recovery on this AMERICAN MORNING.</s>COSTELLO: Good morning, everyone! It's Friday! So happy it's Friday! It's September 2nd, 2011. Welcome to</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROMANS: OK. It's Friday. But that means we got to talk about jobs. It's the single biggest thing driving the economy. As Ali just mentioned, in less than 30 minutes, we're going to get the August jobs report, the numbers for job creation in this economy in August. It's expected to show 75,000 jobs were created. We have 300 and some million people in this country. That's far less than the 200,000 jobs many say we need to even make a dent in the unemployment rate. It's why the president is gearing up to deliver a major speech on jobs next week.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will come forward with specific proposals that by any objective measure would add to growth and job creation in the short term.</s>ROMANS: Joining me now is our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser. Paul, good morning. And when Jay Carney was asked, you know, do you think -- does the president think his plan is going to create jobs? I mean, Jay Carney said, yes, it will create jobs -- by any measure, it will create jobs. They gave us a measure before during stimulus. They said, if we pass the stimulus, we have unemployment rate at 8 percent. That didn't happen.</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: That didn't happen. Now, they're going to be in the spotlight next Thursday night when the president goes before congress. Christine, you know, economists say the country is out of recession over two years now, but Americans don't feel that way. Check this out, brand-new numbers, CNN/ORC. We just put them out this morning. Look at that. Eighty-two percent say, yes, the economy is in a recession. Only 18 percent say no. so, Americans I guess, don't agree with the economists. Jobs by far the most important economic number. Want more proof? Look at this number right here from our same poll. We asked Americans what's more important for the Obama administration to do -- create jobs or reduce the deficit? Look at that, by more than two-to-one margin 68 percent say create jobs, only three in 10 say reduce the deficit -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: And, Paul, the presidential candidates are out with their own job plans and trying to look presidential and on par with the president. Mitt Romney, he may give hints later this morning about his own plan. What do you know about it?</s>STEINHAUSER: He's going to give a sneak peek this morning. He's going to speak to a Hispanic group in Florida and he's giving a sneak peek of what he will say Tuesday in Nevada when he lays out his plan. Among the things he will call for, making business taxes competitive with other nations, and eliminate what he calls burdensome regulations and bureaucracy. So, a little sneak peek this morning for next Tuesday's speech by Mitt Romney. And also, Christine, Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor, another Republican presidential candidate, he didn't wait until next week. He spelled out his plan on Wednesday in New Hampshire. And "The Wall Street Journal" loves it, it seems. They are praising him this morning and his plan. And, of course, "the Wall Street Journal" is very influential among fiscal conservatives -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: You are right. All right. Thanks so much. You know, again, President Obama will speak about his jobs plan before a joint session of Congress, as Paul said, on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. You will be able to see that speech live right here on</s>CNN. VELSHI: OK. Right now, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast bracing for big trouble this weekend. Tropical storm depression 13 is in the Gulf of Mexico. It could become tropical storm Lee. It could drop up to 20 inches of rain in the area. State of emergency is already in effect in Louisiana. Flooding the biggest concern right now.</s>MAYOR MITCH LANDRIEU, NEW ORLEANS: What I want to tell folks here, though, is what we do know, is that there is high wind, there is a lot of rain and it's going slow. That's not a good prescription for the city of New Orleans.</s>VELSHI: Oil giants, including Exxon, have already evacuated their workers, sending choppers out to their rigs, to bring everyone home until this is all done. Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado is tracking the storm in the severe weather center. Good morning, Jennifer. This is unusual in that normally we have a few lines that show where this thing is going. This is a little bit more uncertain.</s>JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's just all over the place, Ali. And that's why everybody really needs some focus to focus on the track of the system. They need to realize that this is going to be a big rain-maker and we're also going to be talking about a storm surge and, of course, this is going to lead to a flooding threat. As I show you the updated information, I can tell you, the maximum winds right now sustained at 35 miles per hour, with lots of gust. So, hopefully, we will get that later on. But I want to point out to you the movement to the north. We talk so much about the forward speed of a storm system and this basically doesn't have one. It's been virtually just standing still over the last several hours. You can still see a bit more convection coming out of that -- the rain working in through southern parts of Louisiana. Now to give you an idea of the track, and, again, don't just focus on the track. I want you to really focus on how it's going to be moving so slowly and pointing out to you as we go through Sunday morning or I should say Sunday morning right around 2:00 a.m., it is approaching looks like that coastline of Louisiana and then by Tuesday, we are still talking 2:00 a.m., just finally starting to exit out of Louisiana. So, what is this going to mean? As I said, incredible rain amounts are going to be coming down. Right now, you can see the storms moving in, some of those bands working in through Louisiana. Can't forget about Mississippi and Alabama, they're also going to be dealing with the heavier rainfall. But as I put this into motion for you and take it all the way out through next week, look at the totals there -- anywhere in white, we're talking more than 10 inches. We are talking 10 to 15 inches, some localized areas could pick up about 20 inches of rainfall. So, this is going to be really bad news in the sense flooding and, of course, we always worry about Louisiana, of course, with the levee system across region. Now, I also want to update you on the travel forecast for today. Of course, we have tropical depression 13 and if it develops into a tropical storm later on it will be Lee. But I also want to point out to you, we'll have a chance for severe storms in the upper Midwest. Still very hot, we'll be dealing with the fire threat still for areas including the south and over towards the Rockies. And then for the Northeast, it looks like we are going to be dealing with temperatures starting to warm up. We're also going to be increasing the humidity as we go through the upcoming weekend. Now, Ali, I also want to point out to you, September 10th is the statistical peak for hurricane season for the Atlanta and we are just days away from that. It's hard to believe it's already September the 2nd.</s>VELSHI: You and your team are going to be busy for the next several days.</s>DELGADO: Yes, we will.</s>VELSHI: Jennifer, keep us posted. Thanks so much -- Jennifer Delgado in our extreme weather center.</s>COSTELLO: Now, a little bit more about Texas, where a little water would go a long way for this drought-stricken Lone Star State. Right now, crews are battling a major wildfire not far from Dallas and they're actually making good progress this morning. CNN's Jim Spellman live at the resort area of Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas. And, things are looking up?</s>JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, Carol. The sun just come up here so the crews will be able to get out and assess how much progress they made overnight. Conditions are really good for them overnight here. It's nice and cool. No wind at all and what they need to try to get ahead of this fire and get this put out. You know they can't take any chances because of the severe drought conditions here. Ninety percent of the whole state of Texas under severe drought conditions. High heat, high winds pick up in the afternoon and all it takes a spark and an ember to fly behind the fire lines and this can take off again. So even though they've got 50 percent containment now, they're not taking it lightly. They're hitting on all fronts from the air and with ground crews start to get this thing out once and for all here today, because they know they can't risk the slightest spark to start a new round of fires here -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: I know that's a popular tourist spot. How is it impacting tourism where you are?</s>SPELLMAN: Yes, well, the economy here relies on tourism and it's already tough enough, you know, in these economic times. So, losing the final week of summer is big here so their real goal is to get everything reopened for tomorrow for Labor Day weekend. They feel pretty good about it. Parts of the lake are already reopened and want to get everything done here today so that people can come for this final week. A lot of small businesses here, the cafes, the gas stations -- they're re relying on that last round of income here before things taper down in the fall. So they are optimistic about it. It's really important for them to get it open because, you know, on top of the fire damage, the economic hit is just something they don't need here, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Jim Spellman, many thanks.</s>VELSHI: One of the early settlers in that area was the fur business and some of his best possums came from around there. And that's how they got</s>ROMANS: That's the legend of Possum Kingdom Lake.</s>COSTELLO: Did you Google?</s>VELSHI: I did. Maybe I got snookered, but that's what it said in the Google.</s>ROMANS: Well, if I look at you, it must be true.</s>VELSHI: Right. We're following some breaking news, by the way, from Alaska. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocking the Aleutian Islands this morning. Look where they are. The area is home to major commercial fishing enterprises. For those who follow the "Deadliest Catch," the Dutch Harbor is where that starts.</s>ROMANS: Dutch Harbor, right.</s>VELSHI: Our meteorologist Jennifer Delgado says a tsunami warning was issued and lifted a short time ago.</s>COSTELLO: Firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center when the towers collapsed 10 years ago face an increased risk for cancer. That's a finding of a new study headed up by the chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department. The study's conclusion: firefighters exposed to toxic dust at Ground Zero face 19 percent greater risk of cancer than firefighters who were not there.</s>ROMANS: Casey Anthony may be back in court this morning. She's fighting against paying a stack of fines totaling more than $350,000. These fines represent the cost of the investigation into Caylee Anthony's disappearance and death. Caylee Anthony is her 2-year-old doubt. Prosecutors filed a motion to stick Casey with the tab. Her attorneys will plead her case in front of a judge later today. And, of course, authorities said that she had lied so many times during the investigation that it led to all kinds of time and manpower spent on fruitless efforts to find this little girl.</s>COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of the stories of the day. The question for you this morning: is the criticism against Chaz Bono and ABC fair? Even if you're not a fan of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," I'm sure you've heard. Hundreds of viewers are not so happy about Chaz Bono's invite.</s>CHAZ BONO: I hope that, you know, fair, open-minded people take the opportunity to get to know me week-by-week and realize that, you know, nothing scary about me. And transgender people are, you know, just people like everybody else.</s>COSTELLO: But hopes of acceptance are not apparent yet on ABC's message board. There were hundreds of angry comments like this one and I'll quote it. "I am sick and tired of the homosexual agenda being shoved in my face. What's next? Will Carson be dancing in a dress? I will not be watching and will also be boycotting 'Dancing with the Stars' sponsors." This is not the first time a TV show has been accused of pushing agenda. In 1992, vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle blasted the values of single and pregnant "Murphy Brown."</s>DAN QUAYLE, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT: It doesn't help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly-paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.</s>COSTELLO: Today, there are more than 11 million single mothers in America. Can you even imagine an outcry about Murphy Brown today? Now, granted, transgender depicted on television are more controversial, but "Dancing with the Stars" executive producer Conrad Green told the "Hollywood Reporter," "We don't have an agenda of any sorts. I think of the 120 celebrities we have put on the show we have had now, I think, three transgender or gay contestants. If that's a homosexual agenda, we're not doing very well at it." So, the talk back question this morning: is the criticism against Chaz Bono and ABC fair? Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. I read you comments later this hour.</s>ROMANS: But I thought it was just the dancing -- I didn't know.</s>ROMANS: "Dancing with the Stars" and politics, who knew? All right. Still to come this morning, a river runs through it. We're talking about a New Jersey man's living room. You may not believe how he escaped the raging floodwaters and survived.</s>VELSHI: Plus, today's tough job market, who has got it easier -- a college grad or a grandmother? We're going to talk to both to find out.</s>COSTELLO: And Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have some tips on how to heart attack proof your diet. You are watching AMERICAN MORNING. It's 13 minutes past the hour.