President-elect Obama Continues Adding Cabinet Members
COLLINS: Stocks down again this morning as the labor market takes another hit. The number of people receiving jobless benefits has soared now to a 16-year high. For those out of work, help could be on the way. Susan Lisovicz is on the floor with the New York Stock Exchange with more details on this. Hi there, Susan.</s>SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there Heidi. That's right. Applications for jobless benefits rose to close to 550,000 last week. It was a rise from the previous week. And just to put it in perspective, a lot of economists consider anything close to 400,000, a recession signal. Yes, so that is worrisome. Total number of people receiving benefits in the U.S. now tops 4 million. It shows that it's just taking longer for people to get work. And it's interesting to know when you -- less than half of the people who are estimated to be unemployed are actually receiving benefits. So, yes, it certainly weighs on the market and it certainly weighs on sentiments. And even though the Dow, the Nasdaq, S&P; 500, closed at five-year lows yesterday, we're seeing more selling today. Right now, the Dow is off 119 points. Nasdaq is down 18. And oil, oil is down $3. It actually had $50 a barrel earlier today. What a change that we have seen in the market in the last few months, Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Boy, that's for sure. There's also talk about these jobless benefits and the possibility of them being extended. We're hearing from the White House on this one actually. How big of a difference would that make?</s>LISOVICZ: It would make a huge difference. Anyone who is out of a job would certainly know that in this particular market, yes, we're talking about ranges from jobless benefits that would be increased anywhere from 7 to 13 weeks. It varies state by state. The House has already passed the bill. The Senate will vote today. And President Bush says he'll sign it. And that is a reversal for him. He had called this fiscal year responsible but there are many folks who say deficit spend is OK, just put out the fire, get what needs to be done and certainly the job market is position No. 1. No question about it -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right. CNN's Susan Lisovicz there on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Dow Jones Industrial Averages, as you see there for yourself, down about 105 points at this point. Susan, thank you. Outrage over auto executives and their private jets. When the heads of the big automakers flew to Washington to ask for taxpayer bailout money, they took their private jets. It is corporate policy. That's how the executives travel. Now, many of you have something to say about that. Our Josh Levs has been reporting this story. He's monitoring your reactions. So one day later, when they went home and they didn't get any of the money, at least so far, what are people saying?</s>JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, take a look at this. Let's zoom in on the board. I want you to see something, Heidi. This is kind of wild. This is our story that is up here, "Big Three Auto CEOs flew private jets to ask for taxpayer money." Look what happens when I scroll down. We have something called "sound off." All of this, these are all people we're hearing from. And it just keeps going and going and going. At the very end you're going to see -- you can press to hear even more. It's amazing. We're hearing from so many people. I pulled out a few quotes just to give you a sense of what we're getting. Let's go to this first one here. This is from Sandy Hallowell who says, "You know what -- no payment should be made to the CEOs if we have to bail them out. They refused to re-tool for better performing models or go green. It's time to say no to greed." Next from Mike, "Government officials occasionally fly commercial, and surely their safety considerations are as high as these gentlemen's." That is a reference to the fact that the company's say they need to fly privately for safety. He says, "This is a missed PR opportunity on their part, pure and simple." Next, John, "They just do not get it. America is fed up with the same old, same old. Change is coming." But finally I'm going to show you this. There are a few sprinkled throughout who are defending them. They say -- this is Jamal -- he says, "I can't believe this is actually an issue. CEOs of multibillion dollar corporations are expected to ride public airlines? CNN, this is absolutely ridiculous." Well no matter where you weigh in on this, let us know. Just click on sound off. It's in our story, you can't miss it -- cnn.com. Also, we're getting a lot of i-Reports about this as well. Send us your videos, your photos, your stories. Whatever you think about this we're going to keep the conversation going right there, Heidi -- cnn.com and ireport.com.</s>COLLINS: All right, Josh. Appreciate it, thank you. President-elect Barack Obama making a couple of cabinet choices. Sources tell us Arizona governor, Janet Napolitano, is the pick for Homeland Security secretary and Penny Pritzker for commerce. Both still have to be vetted of course by the transition team. Meanwhile, Janet Napolitano was first elected as Arizona's governor in 2002, re-elected in 2006. She was the first woman to served as Arizona's attorney general. Napolitano also served as U.S. attorney for Arizona. Penny Pritzker headed Barack Obama's wildly successful campaign fundraising efforts. She is also an accomplished businesswoman on the board of the Hyatt Corporation. Pritzker also runs a charitable foundation helping Chicago's public schools. Change : it's what Barack Obama promised and it could come in many forms. That's why special interest groups are lining up for a seat at Obama's table. CNN's Jim Acosta with that.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Barack Obama didn't get there all by himself. He had help from a slew of Democratic-leaning special interest groups that now want some changes of their own.</s>NARRATOR: There has been a sleeping giant in America that has been dormant for far too long.</s>ACOSTA: A group called America's Voice, which wants immigration reform, is running a web video touting Latino power. They're not losing sight of Mr. Obama's whopping 67 percent of the Hispanic vote.</s>PACO FABIAN, AMERICA'S VOICE: We've seen, you know, Latinos voting in record numbers and turning some states blue that were previously red.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): When you put out a video that says a sleeping giant is now awake. It's kind of saying, hey, guys, we expect something in return here.</s>FABIAN: Absolutely. Absolutely. As Latinos, we certainly expect policies that will be good for our families.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): A seat at the Obama table is getting harder to come by, with organizations representing big business, unions and the young, just to name a few, all squeezing in with their hands out.</s>BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: In order to fix our economic crisis and rebuild our middle class, we need to fix our health care system, too.</s>ACOSTA: A leading group seeking universal health care is running an ad featuring the president-elect himself. (on camera): Is it really politically possible? Harry Truman tried this.</s>RICHARD KIRSCH, HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW: So here's what I believe, and I tell myself this every day. If you had told me that a black guy named Barack Obama could be elected president, I would have said, no, that's not possible. I think it's possible we're going to get health care for everybody in this country, with the new president.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Mr. Obama's new chief of staff says they're listening. He just told a "Wall Street Journal" forum, "a big push on health care is in the works."</s>RAHM EMANUEL, CHIEF OF STAFF TO PRES.-ELECT OBAMA: Things that we had postponed for too long that were long term are now immediate and must be dealt with.</s>ACOSTA: But with the enormous challenges facing the next president, not every special interest will be so lucky.</s>STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don't think Senator Obama owes anything to anyone except the people who voted for him. And not everyone is going to get everything they want, certainly not right away.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): But not for a lack of trying. A number of groups pushing for a new fight on immigration reform plan to marching on the Capitol one day after Barack Obama's inaugural. Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.</s>COLLINS: Head on over to Rob Marciano now with more of the weather forecast across the country. And boy, do I even have to say it? It is cold.</s>MARCIANO: It is. Eastern third, really two-thirds of the country in a cold snap. And it's only doing to get worse here. So just be aware of that. Some travel delays, mostly because of some wind in spots. So if you are traveling today, be aware. New York, La Guardia, 45 minutes and on the increase. San Francisco, 50 minutes. And San Diego, ground stops there until 8:45. So a little bit of fog, a little bit of a marine push. And that's been good news for firefighters out West.</s>MARCIANO: Great America smoke out today. So, in celebration of that here is a little picture for you, Heidi. Smoke them if you've got them my friends.</s>COLLINS: Whoa.</s>MARCIANO: How about that? If that's not lung cancer waiting to happen. That came from our friends at Google images. So we'd like to credit that picture. And I hope that person is breathing a little bit easier today.</s>COLLINS: I hope they're not wear anything hair spray. That would make it a little worse.</s>MARCIANO: As a disclaimer, my mom smoked three packs a day when she was pregnant with me and that's probably where I get most of my problems from.</s>COLLINS: Wow.</s>MARCIANO: So, this is a case in point, not to smoke when you're pregnant.</s>COLLINS: We're going to have to get her on the line and talk about that. Do we even know if that picture is for real? Real, real, for real?</s>MARCIANO: I don't know. That's why I said it was from --</s>COLLINS: All right</s>MARCIANO: All right.</s>COLLINS: More room for airlines. Three major airports expanding this morning, opening new runways to cut down on congestion.