Illinois Lawmakers Begin Impeachment Process; Obama Signs Orders aimed at Environmental Concerns; Outlook for Jobs?
BETTY NGUYEN, HOST (voice-over): Out of state but not out of mind. Rod Blagojevich opts for the media glare in New York over the glare of Illinois lawmakers at his impeachment trail, but we are live with the opening session in Springfield.</s>ANDREW CATTON, TOURIST: Whenever someone raised their head or sat up, they would -- they'd strike them with a whip.</s>NGUYEN: A CNN exclusive: turned away in Thailand. Refugees from Myanmar who survived a perilous sail face a brutal reception on shore, and they don't stay on shore for long.</s>NGUYEN: Hello, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. All right. We have lots of ground to cover for you today. The governor of Illinois media hopping to sell his case. We're also making time for a basketball coach fired for a big win. Maybe a little too big, like 100-to-nothing big. And a wild story in Chicago that has nothing to do with the governor. A cop reports for duty and goes out with a partner for several hours. The trouble is, he's no cop. In fact, he's not even old enough to drive. But first, the impeachment trial of Rod Blagojevich is getting underway in the Illinois capitol, but the scandal-ridden governor is putting his face in the court of public opinion. He's in New York with a full day of talk show appearances on his schedule, and one key message on his agenda. He claims, and we quote here, "the fix is in." Blagojevich may be boycotting events in Springfield, but our Susan Roesgen is watching lawmakers' every move. She joins us now live. Hey, Susan. So set the scene for us there.</s>SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the state senators, Betty, have just had their prayer, probably praying for this national embarrassment to end for them here in Illinois. A Pledge of Allegiance, as well, and now they're getting down to business. The state house has already impeached the governor. Now it's up to the state senate to decide whether or not he should be kicked out of office. And pretty much, we're expecting them to do just that, and probably pretty quickly, as well. Because the governor, as you mentioned, Betty, has decided to ignore this state senate trial. He's not here. He calms it a sham. As you said, he says the fix is in. He says that he can't get a fair shake here. And so, instead, he's decided to make the rounds of the television talk shows. He will be on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" later tonight. But today Barbara Walters on "The View" asked him the one question that everybody wants a straight answer to, and that is simply, did you try to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat.</s>GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D), ILLINOIS: If you hear the whole story and you hear all the different tapes, you'll hear a combination of discussions in an effort to try to do the right thing and make the right decision. Let me unequivocally state right here before you and the whole country, under no circumstances was I trying to sell a Senate seat. Under no circumstances did I break any laws.</s>BLAGOJEVICH: Now, again, Betty, this is not a criminal trial. It's called a trial, a senate trial. The senators are sort of like jurors, and they will hear witnesses, but it's not a criminal trial. And what the governor has said here is that he doesn't believe it's going to be fair for him because he says he can't call witnesses. The truth is he can call any witness he wants as long as it's not someone who might be called in the actual criminal trial, which hasn't even come close yet, which hasn't even started, and that criminal trial would include that charge that he tried to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: All right. So let me ask you this. I mean, what sense does it make not to show up? I mean, is he just conceding that the fact that if, in his mind, there's no way of winning this, so just forget about it?</s>ROESGEN: Yes, that seems to be it. And yet at the same time he's not slinking away in some hole. He's come out swinging here. In fact, we understand that's the reason that his main lawyer, a very well-respected, tough lawyer, Ed Genson, quit on Friday, because he didn't want the governor to make these rounds on the talk shows and to come out and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. And you can be sure that the state senators don't want to hear him talk either. They're -- if he doesn't want to come here, they don't want to have him going all around the country, saying that it's not fair, that the process isn't fair. Again, they believe it's completely fair, that the rules are fair to everybody, but he doesn't want to participate. And I guess, after trying to drum up some public sympathy, then he'll have to prepare for his criminal trial. And the outcome of that will be much more serious, Betty. Yes, they can kick him out of office. Yes, they can even do what they call a political death penalty, which means they can vote to say that he can never run for public office. But far worse than either of those is the fact that he could spend years in prison if he's convicted in an upcoming criminal trial.</s>NGUYEN: All right. A lot to be seen still ahead. All right, Susan. Thanks so much for joining us. Susan Roesgen live for us. In the meantime, don't forget, the Blagojevich media tour takes him this evening to "LARRY KING LIVE." That's at 9 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Well, in Minnesota, a new round opens in the U.S. Senate rate that refuses to end. Republican incumbent Norm Coleman has been claiming for weeks that a statewide recount was flawed, and now his attorneys have to prove it. The trial starts this afternoon on Coleman's bid to overturn the recount, which gave a slim 225-vote victory to Democrat Al Franken. That trial, well, it could last weeks. And the mess in Minnesota raises this question. Why didn't officials simply call for a runoff between Coleman and Franken? All right. Well, the simple answer is this. There is no state provision for a runoff. But there is one for recounts. They're triggered when the winning margin is less than half of one percent, which was the case in the Coleman/Franken race. That may change. The state lawmakers say they'll push for legislation providing for a runoff in place of a recount when the top vote getters are separated by half a percentage point or less. The energy agenda emerges on day seven of the Obama administration, declaring America's peril must be turned to progress. The president today signed orders aimed at conservation, fuel economy and curbing greenhouse gases. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux brings us up to speed. She joins us now live. All right. So Suzanne, at least one of these measures represents what appears to be another slap at the Bush administration.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's really interesting, because President Obama is putting his stamp on his environmental policy, reversing some key initiative by President Bush. One of the things, increasing fuel efficiency standards, you know, that Congress initially passed some legislation going from -- we get about 27.5 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon, and they want that completed by 2020. Well, President Obama says, "I want that done faster, by 2011." That's just one thing. The other thing that President Obama did is that he said, "Let's consider here allowing the states of California and some 13 others who are calling for stricter auto emissions standards, beyond what is required by federal law, to allow them to do that." Now, what that would require, simply, is a waiver by the Environmental Protection Agency. When Governor Schwarzenegger went to President Bush, he denied him that waiver. Well, President Obama says, "Let's reconsider that. Perhaps they should be allowed to actually implement those stricter, tougher standards." Take a listen.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts; we will be guided by them. We cannot afford to pass the buck or push the burden on to the states. And that's why I'm directing the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately review the denial of the California waiver request and determine the best way forward.</s>MALVEAUX: Betty, not everyone agrees that that really is the best way forward. It's rather controversial. There are several senators that have spoken out today, saying they don't think that this is the way to go. Senator James Inhofe earlier today saying he thought perhaps these automakers will ask for more bailout money, taxpayer dollars. We also heard from Senator Voinovich of Ohio. He's saying this, that "I'm fearful that today's actions will begin the process of setting the American auto industry back even further." So clearly, there's some folks who don't believe this is the right idea, but Barack Obama, the president, saying that this is connected to jobs, creating jobs. And he used this occasion earlier today to push once again for that $825 billion economic stimulus package, saying, "Look at all of these announcements, all of these thousands of jobs that are going to be lost in the next couple of months," that they've got to push for that package and that it is related to creating those green jobs -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux joining us live from the White House. Thank you, Suzanne. The daily White House media briefing is at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, and you will see it live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Meanwhile, though, President Obama's cabinet is set to get another member. The Senate is expected to confirm Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, despite a dustup over some of his past tax returns. The full Senate vote is expected around 6 p.m. Eastern. Now, as you recall, during his confirmation hearing, Geithner revealed that he failed to pay $34,000 in back taxes earlier in the decade. He paid all the delinquent taxes shortly before his nomination. Geithner is currently president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. All right. Let's talk about it now. Home Depot, Caterpillar, Sprint/Nextel, General Motors, another batch of household names announcing huge new layoffs. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar was planning to cut 15,000 jobs in 2009. Well, today, that figure became 20,000. Telecom giant Sprint/Nextel is cutting 8,000 workers and suspending its 401(K) match for the year. Home Depot will cut 7,000 jobs, largely by closing all 34 of its expo design centers. And beleaguered GM plans to cut another 2,000 factory jobs in Michigan and Ohio. You don't have to be an economist to know times are tough. But a survey by the National Association for Business Economics finds the worst business climate since at least 1982, with no improvement expected anytime soon. Well, you know, it just seems like the economic floodgates have opened, and the layoffs just keep gushing out. There are a couple of things that we want to know. OK. Yes, we are in a recession, but is this barrage of bad news normal? Also, with the market filling up with job seekers, are there any places where they should be looking? In other words, is anyone out there hiring? All right. So to help us answer some of these questions, we turn to Susan Lisovicz, who's at the New York Stock Exchange. All right, Susan. Let's start off with those layoffs. We've got a lot of questions for you. First up, are cuts like this typical in a recession?</s>SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're certainly not what we saw in the last recession, which was in 2001. But then again, we all know, Betty, this is a much deeper recession. Why is that? If you remember, that was the dot com bust. That was led by business. Right? Everybody was getting into this new so-called paradigm. And it was just inflated, and it went away. And the recession lasted only eight months, and we're already well beyond that with this recession. This is a consumer-led recession. It started in the housing market, extended to the credit crisis, and it is a global recession. The UK, big industrialized countries in Europe. Japan, the second biggest economy in the world. So it's much deeper. And that's what you're seeing. Big multinational companies like Caterpillar today. Caterpillar was surviving the housing recession. It was doing fine because there was demand overseas. It was the fourth quarter where things went downhill and downhill fast, and that's why CAT says it's got to lay off 20,000 people. But, yes, it is an opportunity, as well. You are seeing hiring. And we saw it in December, Betty, just with the government's monthly jobs report, and we have said it time and time again. Education, health care. These are two areas where we saw -- and for all of 2008, health care added 372,000 jobs. What else? Well, Suzanne was just talking about what President Obama was saying about alternatives to oil, for instance. Green jobs. They've been going up. Postings for green jobs have gone up, and you know, the short term these are more niche-oriented jobs, more management. But as they become more mainstream, it will become more rank and file, as well. You want a specific company?</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>LISOVICZ: McDonald's.</s>NGUYEN: Really?</s>LISOVICZ: McDonald's. First of all, McDonald's says it's opening 1,000 restaurants this year. It reported its quarterly earnings. A lot of them are abysmal for a lot of the companies we've been talking about. That's why they're laying off.</s>NGUYEN: Is it, then, also a sign of the economic times: people can't go to the fancy restaurants anymore, so that's driving business to places like McDonald's?</s>LISOVICZ: Very -- very good question. Yes. We have seen folks trading down on eating out, but also Mickey D's has gotten its act together. You remember it got into fancy coffee, less expensive than Starbucks? It says that its southern style chicken biscuit -- I don't know, maybe that is something real popular down in Atlanta.</s>NGUYEN: I've had a few of those in my time. They're not too bad.</s>LISOVICZ: Drive-through service is better. And its spending more than $2 billion this year, not only on new restaurants but, you know, upgrading its existing ones. So those are jobs. Those are jobs. And for investors, not a bad stock to hold. Over the past year, McDonald's shares are up 9.5 percent from a year ago.</s>NGUYEN: Really?</s>LISOVICZ: So, yes, there are opportunities. It is tough out there. Eventually, the economy will come back. But you've got to sort of look forward, as well. Because you're going to see, with the stimulus plan, there should be job creation, as well.</s>NGUYEN: Yes. So strategically we're looking at education, health care, green jobs, and Mickey D's. I like it.</s>LISOVICZ: Exactly.</s>NGUYEN: Thank you, Susan.</s>LISOVICZ: You're welcome.</s>NGUYEN: So if you think the economy could not get any worse, well, it can, and you know what? It probably will. That is the word from a survey of private sector economists. Nearly 40 percent say their companies will lay off employees within the next six months, and 47 percent said overall industry demand is falling. Consumer demand, profit margins and capital expenditures have all hit their lowest level since the survey started some 27 years ago. Well, it is a nightmare unfolding on the white sand beaches in Thailand.</s>DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They look like logs, but these are people. Dozens of Burmese refugees detained on a Thai beach.</s>NGUYEN: Scores of refugees fleeing the repressive government of Myanmar are seeking safe haven in Thailand. Our exclusive report uncovers their fate at the hands of Thai authorities. And brace yourself, because another round of wicked weather is coming your way. We'll explain.