PBS NewsHour - 2009-03-06
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (YouTube automatic captions)
[0:10] Good evening. I'm Jim Lara. On the
[0:12] NewsHour this Friday, the lead story,
[0:14] yet another rise in unemployment. The
[0:17] economic and other news of the day,
[0:20] including the congressional stalemate on
[0:22] a federal spending bill. A Paul Salmon
[0:25] report on hard times and job losses in
[0:28] Elkcart, Indiana. The analysis of Mark
[0:31] Shields and David Brooks. And another
[0:34] story from our Arab Arts Festival
[0:36] series. Tonight, a jazz musician from
[0:39] Cairo.
[0:42] Major funding for the NewsHour with Jim
[0:44] Ler is provided by
[0:48] >> The world is changing and how we use
[0:51] energy today cannot be how we'll use it
[0:54] tomorrow. There is no one solution. It's
[0:58] not simply more oil, more renewables or
[1:00] being more efficient.
[1:02] It's all of it. Our way of life depends
[1:05] on developing all forms of energy and to
[1:09] use less of it. It's time to put our
[1:11] differences aside. Will you be part of
[1:14] the solution? Chevron, human energy,
[1:18] >> Grant Thornton,
[1:21] >> the William and Flora Hullet Foundation,
[1:23] working to solve social and
[1:25] environmental problems at home and
[1:27] around the world.
[1:30] and with the ongoing support of these
[1:32] institutions and foundations.
[1:38] And this program was made possible by
[1:41] the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
[1:44] and by contributions to your PBS station
[1:47] from viewers like you. Thank you.
[1:53] The national unemployment rate climbed
[1:56] half a percent today. Another sign of a
[1:58] deepening recession. The Labor
[2:01] Department reported it jumped to 8.1%
[2:04] for February, the highest jobless rate
[2:06] since 1983.
[2:08] Ray Suarez has our lead story report.
[2:12] It's the largest percentage of Americans
[2:14] out of work in 25 years, the biggest
[2:18] slump in employment in the postw World
[2:20] War II period. And it was the first
[2:22] thing President Obama addressed during a
[2:25] visit to Columbus, Ohio today. Just this
[2:27] morning, we learned that we lost another
[2:29] 651,000
[2:32] jobs throughout the country in the month
[2:34] of February alone, which brings the
[2:37] total number of jobs lost in this
[2:39] recession to an astounding 4.4 million.
[2:45] 4.4 million jobs.
[2:48] I don't need to tell the people of this
[2:50] state what statistics like this mean.
[2:53] Uh, it's typical.
[2:54] >> Back in Washington, government officials
[2:56] said they didn't expect the jobs picture
[2:58] to improve anytime soon. Keith Hall is
[3:01] the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor
[3:03] Statistics. A year ago, the unemployment
[3:06] rate stood at 4.8%.
[3:08] >> We've never had four straight months of
[3:10] job loss in excess of 600,000.
[3:13] >> He testified before the Joint Economic
[3:15] Committee.
[3:16] >> We're already very close to historical
[3:18] levels in in job losses. Um, and as as
[3:22] long as we as long as we don't get
[3:24] economic growth, we're we're we're
[3:25] probably not going to get job loss, uh,
[3:27] job gains, sorry.
[3:28] >> Shortly after the jobs numbers were
[3:30] released, the president left the White
[3:32] House for a quick three-hour trip to
[3:34] Ohio. Once there, he conceded the job
[3:36] losses had been heavy, but the main
[3:39] point of the trip was to emphasize the
[3:41] three and a half million jobs he says
[3:43] will be saved or created by the Economic
[3:46] Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Mr. Obama
[3:49] credited the stimulus bill and the
[3:51] millions of dollars sent to Columbus
[3:53] with saving the jobs of these 25 new
[3:56] police officers. Before the bill passed,
[3:59] they were all laid off.
[4:00] >> I don't need to tell this graduating
[4:02] class what it's like to know that your
[4:05] job might be next. Because up until a
[4:08] few weeks ago, that is precisely the
[4:10] future that this class faced. A future
[4:12] that millions of Americans still face
[4:15] right now.
[4:17] Well, that is not a future I accept for
[4:19] the United States of America. For those
[4:21] who still doubt the wisdom of our
[4:25] recovery plan, I ask them to talk to the
[4:28] teachers who are still able to teach our
[4:32] children because we passed this plan. I
[4:34] ask them to come to Ohio and meet the 25
[4:37] men and women who will soon be
[4:40] protecting the streets of Columbus
[4:42] because we passed this plan.
[4:46] Nearly 2 million jobs have been lost in
[4:49] the last three months alone. This week's
[4:52] grim economic news added up to big price
[4:55] swings on Wall Street today. In the end,
[4:57] the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained
[5:00] 32 points to close at nearly 6627.
[5:03] The Nasdaq fell five points to close at
[5:06] 1293. And for the week, the Dow and
[5:09] Nasdaq both lost more than 6%. It was
[5:12] the fourth consecutive week of declines.
[5:15] You've already got your your
[5:16] unemployment for this week.
[5:18] >> For those out there looking for work,
[5:20] the prospects are slim.
[5:22] >> Arlington, Virginia's unemployment rate
[5:24] is about half the national average. But
[5:26] at this employment center, job seekers
[5:28] find themselves in the same frustrating
[5:31] position as 12 a.5 million unemployed or
[5:34] undermployed people across the country.
[5:36] Devon Brown has been looking for a job
[5:38] for 5 months.
[5:40] >> I'm just not getting any responses back
[5:42] or anything, you know. Damn. Yeah.
[5:45] I really need a job. I need a job real
[5:48] bad. Got a got mouths to feed. Got
[5:50] children out there
[5:52] >> that need me. Kira Wooten spent 30 years
[5:56] working as a legal secretary and has
[5:58] interviewed for 11 jobs since January
[6:01] and none have panned out.
[6:02] >> Right now I'm at the point where I take
[6:04] a job at borders or anything
[6:07] and just then keep looking within
[6:10] uh my career.
[6:12] I just really need a job and um that's
[6:15] what it's coming down to.
[6:17] >> Attendance is also up at job fairs
[6:19] across the country like this one in a
[6:21] New York City hotel yesterday. The lines
[6:24] snaked around multiple levels. Nearly
[6:27] 4,000 applicants for 1,000 jobs. Three
[6:31] states, California, Michigan, and Rhode
[6:33] Island have jumped into unemployment
[6:35] rates above 10%. Two others, Oregon and
[6:39] Nevada, are inching closer.
[6:42] and to Judy Woodruff.
[6:44] >> To help us understand more about these
[6:46] job losses and some of the larger trends
[6:48] in this unemployment picture, we are
[6:50] joined again by David Leenhard, an
[6:52] economics columnist for the New York
[6:54] Times. David, good to have you with us
[6:56] again.
[6:56] >> Nice to be back.
[6:57] >> First of all, how do how do these job
[6:59] losses compare with jobs picture
[7:01] previous?
[7:03] >> They're clearly much worse than any of
[7:04] the job losses we had in the last two
[7:06] recessions, which was were in 2001 and
[7:08] in 1990, 1991. They're now on about the
[7:11] same scale of the kind of job loss we
[7:13] saw in the early 80s recession, the the
[7:15] 1981 1982 recession.
[7:17] >> And you were just telling me, David,
[7:19] that if you if you add in the people who
[7:21] are working part-time but would like to
[7:23] have full-time job, and if you add in
[7:25] those people who've given up looking,
[7:27] Yeah. the job picture looks much worse.
[7:29] >> That's right. The official unemployment
[7:30] rate is 8.1%. But the official
[7:32] unemployment rate has a number of
[7:34] technical reasons why it tends to
[7:35] understate actual unemployment. So, if
[7:38] we were to throw in people who are no
[7:39] longer actively looking for a job, but
[7:41] would very much like one if they could
[7:43] find one, the unemployment rate probably
[7:45] goes to something like 10%. And then if
[7:47] we were to include people who are
[7:48] part-time workers, but would like to be
[7:50] working full-time. And I think it's fair
[7:51] to have a debate about whether they
[7:52] should be considered unemployed or
[7:54] employed, but they're not working as
[7:55] much as they would like, that takes the
[7:57] rate to 14.8% according to a labor
[8:00] department measure. And that didn't
[8:01] exist back in the early 80s, that
[8:03] measure. But I think if it had based on
[8:05] some other things, it probably would
[8:06] have been about 17% in 1982. So this is
[8:09] not yet as bad as the early 80s
[8:11] recession, but it's quickly moving in
[8:13] that direction.
[8:14] >> So give us a sense of how these job
[8:16] losses break down, which sectors of the
[8:19] economy, which types of jobs are being
[8:21] lost.
[8:21] >> Yeah, the worst job losses are in
[8:23] construction, which just isn't
[8:24] surprising at all given the housing bust
[8:26] that we're having. We also see really
[8:27] bad job losses in manufacturing, auto
[8:29] companies, and other things. Um, but we
[8:32] see losses in in hotels, we see losses
[8:34] in retail. I mean, we're really now
[8:35] seeing losses across the board. The
[8:37] worst losses are hitting men. They are
[8:40] hitting less educated workers and they
[8:42] are hitting people in both manufacturing
[8:44] centers and in places that had a housing
[8:46] bubble like California, um, like Nevada,
[8:50] like Florida.
[8:51] >> So, geographically, there is some
[8:53] pattern here.
[8:54] >> There is some pattern. Um, there's a
[8:56] band in the middle of the country, the
[8:57] Dakotas, Nebraska, that's doing a little
[8:59] bit better, but I don't want to
[9:00] overstate that because those places are
[9:02] also beginning to suffer as well. Some
[9:04] of their relative health was a result of
[9:06] high oil and commodity prices and that's
[9:08] gone away. This is very much a
[9:11] nationwide recession. This isn't
[9:12] something like the early 80s where we
[9:14] have a rust belt that is doing much much
[9:16] worse than in other places. Really, it's
[9:18] a nationwide recession. You just
[9:20] mentioned that men are being hit by this
[9:23] uh unemployment uh spreading
[9:25] unemployment worse than women. Why is
[9:26] that?
[9:27] >> It it seems to have mostly to do with a
[9:29] shift in industries. So that if we think
[9:31] about things like construction and
[9:33] manufacturing that have been hit
[9:34] hardest, those are pretty heavily male
[9:36] industries. And if we then think about
[9:38] things that are expanding, I mean
[9:39] healthcare has continued to expand
[9:41] through throughout this recession. Um
[9:44] those are much more female than the
[9:45] things like construction and
[9:46] manufacturing. And so we are in the
[9:48] midst of this long-term shift that's
[9:50] even affecting cultural things. I
[9:52] actually think it's become more
[9:53] acceptable for men not to work than it
[9:55] used to be. I think in the past men who
[9:57] lost their jobs in the 1950s and60s
[9:59] would have taken another job almost no
[10:00] matter what. And now I think often their
[10:03] wives are working and so they will stay
[10:04] out of the labor force for longer trying
[10:06] to find a job that might pay as well as
[10:08] their last one. And and and that affects
[10:10] things as as well as the as the economic
[10:13] trends. And you also mentioned that
[10:14] there's a difference uh in what we're
[10:16] seeing what you're seeing in white
[10:18] collar jobs uh among workers who are
[10:20] more educated versus blue collar jobs,
[10:22] workers who might not have a college
[10:24] degree.
[10:25] >> This is really tricky because it's it's
[10:26] these two opposing thoughts that it's
[10:28] important to keep both of them in mind.
[10:30] So this is a nationwide recession. It is
[10:33] hitting white collar workers. It is
[10:34] hitting college graduates, but it's
[10:36] hitting blue collar workers and people
[10:37] who didn't graduate from college harder
[10:39] than it's hitting white collar workers.
[10:41] And so while it's true that a college
[10:42] degree doesn't make you immune from this
[10:44] recession, it's also true that the
[10:47] return, the relative return on education
[10:49] has never been higher. So everyone is
[10:52] suffering. And yet the gap between the
[10:54] pay of college graduates and everyone
[10:55] else recently hit a record high. And so
[10:58] one of the absolute worst things that
[11:00] could come out of this is if somehow
[11:01] young people took the message, well the
[11:03] economy is so bad it's not even worth it
[11:05] to stay in school and get a degree. The
[11:07] fact is compared to the alternative the
[11:09] payoff for an education has never been
[11:11] higher than it is right now.
[11:13] >> So they may be discouraged but they need
[11:14] to step back and look at the look at the
[11:17] bigger picture here.
[11:17] >> Yeah. And there is precedence for this
[11:19] which is in the depression there was a
[11:20] huge surge of people going to school.
[11:22] >> Any bright spots at all? Looking across
[11:24] these the all these numbers
[11:26] >> you really have to squint pretty hard to
[11:28] find a bright spot. But I'll mention
[11:30] two. One um job loss although it was
[11:33] worse in the last few months than we
[11:34] previously know it is not accelerating.
[11:36] So, the economy has basically lost
[11:37] 650,000 jobs essentially each of the
[11:40] last three months. So, we can hope that
[11:42] that this is the worst that it gets. We
[11:44] don't know, but we can hope. The second
[11:46] thing is people who still have jobs,
[11:47] amazingly enough, continue to get small
[11:50] raises, 2% a year. And because inflation
[11:53] is roughly zero now, that means the
[11:55] buying power of people who keep their
[11:57] jobs is actually going up, which given
[11:59] what's happening to their retirement
[12:01] accounts and given how many people are
[12:03] losing jobs is one very small but worth
[12:06] mentioning piece of good news.
[12:08] >> So if you can hang on to your job, you
[12:11] have some chance, you're saying
[12:13] >> for the time being. And again, for now,
[12:15] and again, I fully recognize that those
[12:17] same people who are getting 2% raises
[12:18] after inflation also have seen the value
[12:20] of their 401k drop in half. So, I don't
[12:22] want to overstate the importance of
[12:24] that.
[12:24] >> Different ways of measuring David
[12:26] Leanhart, the New York Times. Thank you
[12:27] again.
[12:28] >> Thank you.
[12:28] >> Appreciate it. Even with all this bad
[12:29] news
[12:31] today, Congress rushed through a bill to
[12:33] keep the government running for another
[12:35] five days. That was after a $410 billion
[12:39] budget bill for this fiscal year failed
[12:41] to pass the Senate last night.
[12:44] Republicans criticized it for being
[12:46] overloaded with expensive earmarks for
[12:48] special projects. The debate was pushed
[12:51] into next week. There were signs money
[12:54] manager Bernard Maidolf may be close to
[12:56] reaching a plea deal. He's been accused
[12:59] of being involved in a $50 billion fraud
[13:02] case. Federal prosecutors in New York
[13:04] filed court papers showing Maid Off
[13:07] agreed to wave an indictment. That's a
[13:09] necessary step before a defendant enters
[13:12] a guilty plea. Maid off's arraignment is
[13:15] scheduled for next Thursday. The US
[13:18] Supreme Court dismissed a challenge from
[13:20] an enemy combatant over his indefinite
[13:23] imprisonment. Ali Amari is a suspected
[13:26] al-Qaeda sleeper agent. Last week,
[13:29] President Obama ordered him transferred
[13:31] from military to civilian custody to
[13:34] face new federal conspiracy and terror
[13:37] charges. He had been held without charge
[13:40] in a South Carolina Navy brig for more
[13:42] than 5 years. Almari will stand trial in
[13:46] a civilian court in Illinois. US
[13:49] Secretary of State Clinton pledged a
[13:51] fresh start to relations with Russia.
[13:53] She met with her Russian counterpart,
[13:56] Foreign Minister Sergey Lavough in
[13:58] Geneva, Switzerland for their first
[14:00] formal talks. Clinton predicted the two
[14:03] countries could reach agreement on a new
[14:06] strategic arms reduction treaty by the
[14:08] end of the year, but she also
[14:10] acknowledged rebuilding the relationship
[14:13] will take work.
[14:15] I am uh uh pleased uh by the opportunity
[14:20] that we had to begin a discussion on
[14:24] resetting US-Russian relations, a
[14:27] process that we know will take time. We
[14:30] had frank exchanges about areas where we
[14:32] still disagree. Uh we need more trust uh
[14:37] predictability and progress that only
[14:39] comes from working together. President
[14:42] Obama is scheduled to meet with Russian
[14:44] President Medvadef at an international
[14:47] economic summit next month. The wife of
[14:50] Zimbabwe's Prime Minister was killed in
[14:52] a car crash. Party officials confirmed
[14:55] the death of Susan Changraai. They said
[14:58] Prime Minister Morgan Shangarai was
[15:00] injured and remains hospitalized. The
[15:03] crash happened south of the capital when
[15:05] a truck veered out of its lane and
[15:07] slammed into the prime minister's car.
[15:10] Shangarai reached a power sharing deal
[15:12] with President Robert Mugabi in
[15:15] February. Commercial airlines rrooted
[15:18] their flights away from North Korean
[15:20] airspace today. North Korean state media
[15:23] had reported the government cannot
[15:25] guarantee the safety of civilian
[15:28] flights. South Korea's two major
[15:30] airlines detourred flights through
[15:32] Japanese airspace at a cost of $2,500
[15:36] per flight. North Korea has announced
[15:38] plans for an upcoming satellite launch,
[15:41] but that was widely interpreted as a
[15:44] missile test.
[15:52] Now, a report on the job losses in
[15:55] Elcart, Indiana. It's part of NewsHour
[15:58] economics correspondent Paul Salman's
[16:00] series on making sense of financial
[16:03] news. Paul was in Elcart earlier this
[16:06] week.
[16:08] >> It is good to be back in Elcart.
[16:13] >> President Obama may be one of the few at
[16:15] the moment who can make this statement.
[16:18] Last month's trip to Elcart, Indiana was
[16:20] to sell job creation by way of his
[16:22] stimulus package against a backdrop of
[16:25] despair. When we say that this area has
[16:28] lost jobs faster than anywhere else in
[16:32] the United States of an America with an
[16:35] unemployment rate of over 15% when it
[16:38] was 4.7% just last year. We're not just
[16:42] talking numbers. We're talking about Ed.
[16:44] >> Ed Newfeld, who voted for John McCain,
[16:47] was laid off in the fall.
[16:49] >> Two of my daughters and two of my
[16:50] son-in-laws are also unemployed.
[16:54] I know that Elkcart County has the
[16:56] highest unemployment rate in the
[16:58] country, but I know we don't want to be
[16:59] there. We want to work.
[17:03] >> Newfeld's daughters Brandy and Lisa and
[17:05] their mates home with the kids. Daughter
[17:08] Lori and her husband Josh got Josh's mom
[17:11] Lucinda and dad Don have all lost their
[17:15] jobs.
[17:15] >> So, I've been out of work for a little
[17:17] over a year
[17:18] >> or are woefully undermployed. When it
[17:21] gets bad, I'm maybe down to five hours a
[17:24] week. So, I got lucky and got a
[17:25] part-time job working with Lewis Bakery
[17:28] stocking bread. That's a good thing. At
[17:30] least people still need to buy bread.
[17:31] So, I went through a stretch where um
[17:34] from Thanksgiving to February, I didn't
[17:36] work at all. And uh and looks now that
[17:39] we'll probably be getting more more time
[17:42] off in the future.
[17:44] >> Lucinda Got had a job when we arranged
[17:46] this interview, but by the time we set
[17:48] up our camera, she'd lost it. And
[17:50] Thursday was my last day.
[17:52] >> On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is
[17:54] terrified and one is everything's okay,
[17:57] where are you?
[18:02] >> Probably terrified. I don't know.
[18:04] >> And perhaps laughing to keep from
[18:06] crying. Her husband says his faith keeps
[18:09] him going, though he lost his job in
[18:11] April.
[18:12] >> Looking?
[18:13] >> Yeah.
[18:14] >> Finding anything?
[18:15] >> No, there's nothing around here. There's
[18:17] no jobs.
[18:18] >> They got a dollar store. Right. right
[18:19] down the road here, pay 650 an hour.
[18:23] They're not even hiring. So, there's
[18:24] nothing out there at all.
[18:26] >> These folks all used to make
[18:28] recreational vehicles, the main industry
[18:30] in Elcart, which still boasts the RVMH
[18:33] Hall of Fame, where the upbeat tour
[18:36] guide urges you to follow the Black
[18:38] Rubber Road.
[18:39] >> This unit on our left is the oldest
[18:42] existing RV. And that's a Model T Ford.
[18:45] >> It is a 1913 Model T Ford. The industry
[18:48] took off in the 30s.
[18:50] >> This is a 1931 Chevrolet house car that
[18:55] was built by Paramont Studios to give to
[18:59] May West the movie star as part of the
[19:02] enticement to get her to leave the
[19:05] vaudeville stage and make movies for
[19:07] Paramont.
[19:09] >> But from the get-go through the Great
[19:10] Depression, the RV was a luxury good.
[19:13] Peel me a grape.
[19:15] >> Modern models include what the
[19:16] wisecracking Ms. West might have called
[19:18] a movie trailer or perhaps a mobile
[19:21] mcmanion. But with every income group
[19:24] drooping in the current swoon, who's
[19:26] buying? The industry that made Elcart
[19:28] famous is making it infamous right now.
[19:31] >> 32 years at Monaco Corporation and uh
[19:35] they had like a big meeting about what
[19:36] they were going to do and we thought it
[19:38] was just going to be a big layoff.
[19:41] And when my foreman came out with tears
[19:43] in his eyes, I knew it was more than
[19:45] that. We were all shocked when they
[19:47] closed down cuz we were one of the
[19:49] bigger corporations. I thought we would
[19:52] be one of the last to be around, but uh
[19:56] we weren't.
[19:56] >> Monday, hours before this interview,
[19:59] Monaco said it may shut down not just
[20:00] the local plant, but the whole company.
[20:03] From mobile home makers to downwardly
[20:06] mobile home owners with crashing home
[20:08] prices in a crashing economy. Lisa
[20:11] Newfeld heard about one new listing
[20:13] recently.
[20:13] >> It's got like four bedrooms upstairs and
[20:17] I think eight total rooms, a basement,
[20:20] um a pool and a hot tub. Uh a ba four
[20:24] bathrooms for 59,000.
[20:26] >> I said we can all go in together and buy
[20:28] that and all together. I don't even want
[20:31] to entertain a thought at this point,
[20:34] >> but if you had to, you had to.
[20:35] >> If I had to, I it'd be better than being
[20:38] homeless, right?
[20:39] >> Yeah.
[20:39] >> Everybody heard how President Obama came
[20:41] here to Elkcart. He came here because
[20:43] this county has the highest unemployment
[20:45] rate in the nation, and that's largely
[20:47] driven by what's been going on in the RV
[20:49] industry.
[20:50] >> Economist Lane David from nearby South
[20:52] Bend and an RV consumer.
[20:55] >> I have a trailer very similar to this
[20:57] one. In fact, my wife would like to get
[20:58] what's known as a motor home, which is
[21:00] actually a motorized unit.
[21:01] >> Are you seriously considering it?
[21:03] >> With the way the economy is right now,
[21:06] I'm not too excited about buying
[21:08] anything that I can't pay cash for.
[21:10] >> But then you're part of the problem,
[21:11] aren't you? Because I mean, if you and
[21:13] others were buying vehicles like this,
[21:15] then Elcart workers would still be on
[21:17] the line.
[21:18] >> Yes. And I think you've hit on one of
[21:20] the key features of the economic
[21:22] situation today, which is people's
[21:24] expectations. And people's expectations
[21:28] are very, very important to the
[21:30] functioning of the economy. It could get
[21:32] worse just because people believe that
[21:34] it's going to get worse.
[21:35] >> So David won't buy a new RV because he's
[21:38] afraid things will get worse. And so
[21:40] things get worse because people like him
[21:42] are afraid to buy and because banks are
[21:45] afraid to lend, says the CEO of this RV
[21:48] firm.
[21:49] >> The banks will simply not lend the
[21:51] money. Even if you put up 20%. Uh even
[21:55] more. We've had consumers that have very
[21:57] high FICO scores, 700. We've even heard
[22:00] of people that have an 800 FICO score
[22:02] and still not being able to get that uh
[22:04] that purchase financed.
[22:06] >> Mark Horita has no love for the bankers,
[22:09] but says President Obama has to shore up
[22:11] the financial system to spur new
[22:13] lending. The mayor of Elcart says the
[22:16] president has to deliver the stimulus
[22:17] money to spur new spending.
[22:20] >> And what's your pitch? I mean, besides
[22:21] Elcart, highest unemployment rate in the
[22:23] country. So, please help us out.
[22:25] >> Well, that is the pitch. Jobs, jobs,
[22:27] jobs. If you go out here on the street
[22:28] and talk to the people, nine out of 10
[22:30] of them are going to tell you the most
[22:31] important thing in Elcart, Indiana, is
[22:33] to create jobs.
[22:34] >> Visions creating with a $17 million
[22:36] renovation of this theater, which began
[22:38] as a VA house. Though it's not clear May
[22:41] West ever played Elcart. It's hobbling
[22:44] along at the moment, but Mayor Moore has
[22:46] big plans. We'll put on local
[22:48] productions, bring in productions from
[22:50] around the world, cultural exchange,
[22:52] relaxation, entertainment.
[22:54] >> The theater is one of 17 projects Mayor
[22:56] Moore hopes to stimulate. All over the
[22:59] country, local officials are dusting off
[23:01] dormant projects like this one, or this
[23:04] $25 million upgrade of the Elkcart
[23:07] sewage treatment system, already
[23:09] mandated by federal law and good for
[23:11] another 400 or so jobs.
[23:14] an overpass for a railroad crossing that
[23:16] handles 120 trains a day. The mayor is
[23:20] scrambling to get it ready for a
[23:21] stimulus check.
[23:22] >> This project is not quite shovel ready,
[23:24] but we think we were closer than what we
[23:26] first believed.
[23:27] >> Best case, going to bid in 4 months,
[23:30] construction next year. But Elcart needs
[23:33] jobs now. With one in six people out of
[23:36] work, unemployment is the fastest
[23:38] growing industry in town. While more and
[23:41] more former factories are idled,
[23:44] >> we need someone to come in and figure
[23:46] out what the a way to open up that plant
[23:50] again and get 14,500 people back to
[23:52] work.
[23:53] >> So to any of you, what should they do
[23:55] with that factory?
[23:57] >> I don't know. Maybe we can make
[23:58] something to do with solar or
[24:00] >> It doesn't matter what they put in.
[24:02] People just want jobs and the building's
[24:04] here. The people are here. So all you
[24:06] private investors out there, come to the
[24:09] Elcart area. We're willing to work.
[24:12] >> Well, but the private investors aren't
[24:13] coming, are they?
[24:14] >> No. The government's going to have to
[24:16] step step up to the plate and it has to
[24:18] hit here locally.
[24:20] >> But not everyone's a believer in
[24:21] government.
[24:22] >> Government spending is a source of
[24:25] contention among economists. But if
[24:27] there are all these idle resources in
[24:29] the RV industry, the people, the
[24:31] factories, doesn't it make sense for the
[24:33] government to start spending money to
[24:35] put all those resources to good use?
[24:37] >> Uh we want to use our resources in the
[24:39] most efficient manner, which means that
[24:41] we want to produce goods that the market
[24:44] desires. And if the market desires
[24:47] certain goods, why aren't they being
[24:48] produced already?
[24:50] Back at the pizza parlor, this is just
[24:52] what the new felts and gods, lifelong
[24:54] Republicans, believed. Do they still
[24:57] >> I think I'm slowly
[25:01] sinking into the from the middle class
[25:03] to the poor class. So, it's m it's
[25:05] making me think a little bit different
[25:07] about people that don't have that much.
[25:09] I mean, the hardworking American
[25:14] family that's that's trying to make it
[25:17] and through no fault of their own,
[25:18] they're not making it.
[25:20] >> And that's changing your attitude
[25:22] towards economics in general.
[25:24] >> Yes. Yes, I think it is.
[25:26] >> Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the
[25:28] city of Elcart, Indiana, population
[25:31] 53,000,
[25:33] has now risen to 18%.
[25:38] Still to come on the NewsHour Tonight,
[25:40] Shields and Brooks and a jazz musician
[25:43] from Cairo. But first, this is Pledge
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[30:12] and to the analysis of Shields and
[30:14] Brooks syndicated columnist Mark
[30:16] Shields, New York Times columnist David
[30:18] Brooks. Mark, how well is the president
[30:20] doing reassuring the public about this
[30:23] relentless decline in jobs? uh about as
[30:27] well as anybody could, Jim, as the as
[30:30] the floodwaters rise. I mean, he as soon
[30:33] as the election was over, as soon as he
[30:35] was inaugurated, it continued every day
[30:38] that he said things were bad and they
[30:40] were going to get worse. Um I mean, he
[30:42] was been consistent in his message. Uh I
[30:44] think a couple of things. One, I I don't
[30:46] think uh people believed uh that things
[30:50] were really that bad and and probably
[30:52] doubtful that he did as well. And I
[30:54] think it becomes doubly difficult when
[30:56] you get sort of the icons the the
[30:59] cornerstones of what have been American
[31:01] corporate leadership uh companies like
[31:03] General Motors and General Electric
[31:05] where so many Americans 55 million
[31:07] American households now have stock
[31:10] portfolios which is double what it was
[31:12] 20 years ago and that's because of 401ks
[31:16] and IAS and which have taken the place
[31:19] of retirement programs. So, uh, he's the
[31:23] president's confronted with a a whole
[31:24] set of realities. I think quite
[31:26] honestly, to be fair, he did, uh,
[31:29] misstep and and he lost his shore
[31:32] footedness when talking about the
[31:34] market, which of course everybody
[31:35] watches because it goes up and down.
[31:37] Nobody understands it, but the numbers
[31:39] are there. We do it. It's there in the
[31:40] morning. It's very,
[31:41] >> we report it every night.
[31:42] >> Exactly. Um, and and he said, "Look,
[31:45] it's like a tracking pole in a
[31:46] campaign." And that that was a that was
[31:49] a misstep because the president has to
[31:51] be commander-in-chief, but he also has
[31:52] to be empathizer and chief. And I think
[31:54] that was making light of what is
[31:56] understandable anxiety on people's
[31:57] parts.
[31:58] >> Do you agree that was a mistake?
[31:59] >> Yeah, because the president should only
[32:01] talk about what he knows about and the
[32:02] president doesn't really know when the
[32:03] market's going to bottom out. I mean, he
[32:05] has no clue. We don't know what moves
[32:06] the market. Uh so I I think that was a
[32:09] mistake. But I think the one thing I
[32:11] would say is that my sense as we all are
[32:12] our perceptions based on our
[32:14] conversations is that in the past week
[32:16] >> there was already a lot of economic
[32:18] anxiety but I think we fail another
[32:19] level.
[32:20] >> I I I just hear up here. Yeah. I just
[32:23] hear more gee is there going to be a
[32:25] depression? I just hear a a greater
[32:27] sense that gee maybe this is something
[32:29] really serious. And so the one thing
[32:32] that I think the president has to react
[32:34] and saying listen I care about
[32:35] education. I care about healthcare. I
[32:37] care about energy, but because of the
[32:40] sudden increase in panic, there's a lot
[32:41] more focus on the right now. I mean, a
[32:44] health care plan or an education plan
[32:45] that will yield results in 2015, that
[32:47] would be great, but right now,
[32:50] >> and to me, there is still a black hole
[32:52] in the administration policy concerning
[32:55] the banking response and the financial
[32:57] world. And if I were him, I'd focus a
[33:00] lot more attention on that to give
[33:01] people some sense of confidence the
[33:03] financial sector is going to be
[33:04] basically taken care of and that we've
[33:06] got a plan at least
[33:08] >> and that will in
[33:09] >> well that would but that would be the
[33:10] first order of business and I'm afraid
[33:12] he's he's spreading his you know he's
[33:14] got the healthcare summit this week.
[33:15] Next week there's a little education
[33:16] going on. If I were him, I'd just focus
[33:19] on this because if if he goes down in
[33:21] history badly, it will be because he
[33:24] didn't focus like a laser, as Bill
[33:25] Clinton would say, on the immediate
[33:27] crisis at hand.
[33:28] >> Do you agree he's trying to do too much,
[33:29] Mark?
[33:29] >> Uh, I don't. I mean, I think I think
[33:31] Jim, every president, uh, whoever that
[33:34] president is, when presented with a
[33:36] crisis, uh, seizes upon the crisis to
[33:40] advance his values, his goals, his
[33:42] agenda. Uh I mean many of the same
[33:44] people are critical of the president
[33:46] doing too much right now or overreaching
[33:48] or I mean there's nothing he's
[33:49] advocating right now that he did not
[33:51] advocate during the campaign. I mean for
[33:53] for better than a year and a half
[33:54] anybody listened to his speeches he
[33:56] didn't pull some program out of left
[33:58] field like healthcare reform education
[34:00] always that's always been the ritual the
[34:02] mantra and I I think I guess what I'd
[34:05] add to that is I mean we had a crisis in
[34:07] this country in 2001 after 9/11 and and
[34:11] President George W. Bush used that
[34:13] crisis to advance his own agenda. Uh
[34:16] which it turned out to be a
[34:18] consolidation, vast expansion of
[34:20] executive power, uh a uh a war against a
[34:23] country that had never attacked us and
[34:25] in no way threatened us. Uh I mean so
[34:27] there there is there is a a natural
[34:30] inclination and impulse. I think the
[34:32] president has made the case that it's an
[34:34] organic hole. The healthc care is part
[34:36] of the economy and it's an important
[34:38] part of the economy. Uh and I I think we
[34:40] saw that yesterday at the at the White
[34:42] House conference that there's a
[34:43] recognition that the United States is
[34:45] less competitive. Uh our economy is less
[34:48] vital and and viable because of the
[34:50] health care costs.
[34:51] >> But do you think Yeah. Go ahead.
[34:52] >> Well, first Barack Obama attacked George
[34:54] Bush for taking his eye off the ball
[34:56] because of going to war in Iraq after
[34:58] 911. That was the exact argument he
[35:00] made. And I think there's some of the
[35:01] he's doing making some of the same
[35:03] mistakes. Now that doesn't mean I don't
[35:04] sympathize with healthcare and
[35:05] education, all that other stuff. I
[35:07] absolutely do. But as long as you got
[35:09] your this black hole in the financial
[35:11] sector, none of that stuff is going to
[35:12] matter. The second thing to be said is
[35:15] that if we don't take care of the
[35:17] immediate crisis, there just will be no
[35:19] money to pay for any of this stuff. In
[35:21] the president's budget, he expects
[35:22] deficits of 500 billion, which I think
[35:24] is wildly optimistic. In the healthcare,
[35:27] say he's, to his credit, raised in
[35:30] theory at least $640 billion as a down
[35:32] payment on healthcare reform. Well,
[35:34] where's he going to get the other 600
[35:35] billion? where is he going to get it if
[35:37] the economy continues to decline? And so
[35:40] to me, he's just trying to do too much
[35:42] and try to spend. First, there's the
[35:44] issue of the overload of the staff,
[35:46] which is tremendous, but second, the
[35:48] overload of the resources. And I think
[35:51] realistically, even with his budget,
[35:53] which has some very good things in it,
[35:55] we're looking at at at deficits of a
[35:57] trillion dollars, as far as the I can
[35:58] see, a trillion dollars a year. And
[36:00] we've talked about this before, but
[36:01] David Mark, uh, is there also this kind
[36:04] of feeling that, well, there's the
[36:06] financial plan, there's the stimulus
[36:08] plan, there's a this plan, then this
[36:09] plan, but still there was another 600
[36:11] and some thousand jobs lost and and
[36:15] nothing seems to be working. It it isn't
[36:18] so much that there's a deep hole is that
[36:20] the everybody has a plan, but none of
[36:22] them have begun to work yet.
[36:23] >> Well, I would give him a little break on
[36:24] that because the plans are not going to
[36:26] take into effect for a while. Even the
[36:27] stimulus plan I would I wish the
[36:29] stimulus had been more front-loaded.
[36:31] Sure.
[36:31] >> But even that will take months. So they
[36:34] will be in this for the year. But I I
[36:36] just think well a number of things.
[36:38] First of all, he uh they are just it's
[36:40] Larry Summers and Tim Gitener. It's
[36:43] those two guys trying to do a million
[36:44] things all at once without any staff.
[36:46] Tim Gner just lost the woman who was
[36:48] going to be his deputy. They got no
[36:50] staff. And executing this stuff is going
[36:52] to be phenomenally hard. There was some
[36:53] talk of hiring another 100,000 or
[36:55] 300,000 new federal workers. Well,
[36:57] hiring that alone is a is a headache,
[36:59] let alone getting those people in place
[37:01] to oversee something you're going to try
[37:02] to enact in in a you know, in a year.
[37:06] >> So, what's happening? What's going on,
[37:07] Mark?
[37:07] >> Well, I mean, Jim, I mean, first of all,
[37:10] the man has been president of the United
[37:11] States for less than seven weeks. Uh, in
[37:14] in 1981, Ronald Reagan came in having
[37:16] carried 44 states. He got his economic
[37:18] plan passed in July. Bill Clinton in
[37:21] 1993 got his in August. George W. Bush
[37:24] in 2001 with nothing but really a tax
[37:27] cut which and quite appealing got it
[37:30] passed in the end of May. Uh so I mean
[37:32] by the by the middle of February he's
[37:34] passed an economic stimulus that we we
[37:37] understood when it was passed that it
[37:38] wasn't going to be a week or two weeks.
[37:40] I mean I don't know this is like get rid
[37:42] of belly fat in 15 minutes or something.
[37:44] You know the hot fudge Sunday diet. It's
[37:47] it doesn't work that way. But wasn't
[37:48] there the expectation, right or wrong,
[37:51] Mark, that hey, we're he's he's got all
[37:54] these things going to work and
[37:55] everybody's going to have their
[37:56] confidence lifted and
[37:58] >> his his consistent message has been
[38:01] things are bad and they're going to be
[38:02] worse and we're going through hard
[38:03] times. Now I
[38:05] >> No, I'm not saying he didn't say that.
[38:06] >> No, he has said that. But I mean, if the
[38:08] expectation were there, I mean, there is
[38:10] something about instant gratification
[38:12] and that is is a is a remains a problem.
[38:15] Meanwhile, he did have a healthc care
[38:18] summit, David, to to good purpose.
[38:21] >> Well, I'm not sure how much the summits
[38:23] I'm not sure how much these summits are
[38:24] achieving. And maybe that's too much to
[38:26] expect in one day. I guess I I think two
[38:30] things. First, I think in the Senate,
[38:32] there is a growing consensus around a
[38:34] series of things which Max Balkas seems
[38:36] to be at the center of,
[38:38] >> chairman of the Senate. And so I I would
[38:39] say first it's much more likely that
[38:41] we'll get healthcare reform this year
[38:43] than we did when Bill Clinton tried to
[38:45] do it. I'd say somewhere if I had to
[38:47] guess
[38:47] >> because or in spite of the financial
[38:50] crisis.
[38:50] >> Well, in spite of it, I I think it's
[38:52] because you have a group of people
[38:54] cohering around more of a consensus than
[38:56] you had back then.
[38:58] >> What do you think?
[38:58] >> I I think I think that
[39:00] >> we heard what we said on our program
[39:01] last night,
[39:03] >> excuse me, there were three people who
[39:04] were at the summit who said there's more
[39:06] cohesion of believe that hey we got
[39:09] there may not be on what to do but there
[39:11] there certainly is on do something
[39:13] >> first of all big difference from 1993
[39:16] >> it's on C-SPAN okay all the meetings in
[39:19] 1993 were closed uh everybody was
[39:22] invited I mean the insurance companies
[39:24] the doctors the congress uh they were
[39:26] not part of the 1993 experience so I
[39:29] think in that sense there was an
[39:30] inclusiveness and I think there's no
[39:32] question there's a recognition I mean in
[39:34] the self-interest is a is a compelling
[39:36] motive and American American corporate
[39:39] interests know that health care has
[39:41] become an enormous burden for them to
[39:43] compete internationally and that they're
[39:46] now back when Bill Gratison who was the
[39:49] former congressman from Cincinnati and
[39:51] the head of the American health
[39:53] insurance association in 1993 came up
[39:56] with the Harry and Louise ads says you
[39:58] know I really feel that this thing is
[40:00] moving in the right direction. I I I
[40:02] think I think there is I mean I think
[40:04] there's a a sense of movement and I
[40:05] think they've done well in in shephering
[40:07] it. Last night, what they said, as you
[40:09] know, was that the the the consensus is
[40:12] that it's the cost that is the problem.
[40:15] It isn't the delivery system. We can
[40:17] deal with all of that, but if we don't
[40:19] get the cost down, forget reforming
[40:22] healthcare. Jim, we spend more on
[40:24] healthare, twice as much on healthare as
[40:27] the gross national product of India. I
[40:30] mean, you want to think, I mean, India
[40:31] is a pretty much of an economic success
[40:33] story. And you want to know the human
[40:34] cost?
[40:36] 120 Americans every hour declare
[40:39] personal bankruptcy because because of
[40:41] healthare costs.
[40:42] >> But there is bring down the cost. That's
[40:44] how you do it. There's still an
[40:46] argument. And I think the White House
[40:48] their right instincts are this
[40:49] comparative effectiveness that in some
[40:51] parts of the country they're paying half
[40:53] of what they pay elsewhere and using
[40:56] getting a sort of Federal Reserve Board
[40:57] of Healthcare or something like that uh
[40:59] to really study what works and what
[41:01] doesn't. There's no consensus around
[41:03] that, so we shouldn't get ahead of
[41:04] ourselves. But I think there's a little
[41:06] more agreement than there was 15
[41:08] whatever years ago.
[41:09] >> Speaking of Go ahead.
[41:10] >> Just just one one quick thing that kind
[41:12] of has to over this week in the Wall
[41:16] Street Journal NBC poll, Barack Obama is
[41:18] at 68% favorable. He's more popular in
[41:21] his policies. He's risen in popularity.
[41:23] There is Americans feel better about
[41:26] direction of the country than they did.
[41:28] I mean it's it's a rather remarkable
[41:30] achievement that he's been able to boy
[41:31] the spirits of the country uh and in a
[41:34] sense of even limited optimism at a time
[41:38] of such empirically just overwhelmingly
[41:40] bad news. So I I just say that because
[41:43] Ronald Reagan I I compare him to Ronald
[41:46] Reagan in the sense that he came to
[41:48] office just as Ronald Reagan did with a
[41:51] big victory at a time when people wanted
[41:53] government to do more just as Reagan
[41:54] came when people wanted government to do
[41:56] less. We have 25.3 seconds left and I'd
[41:59] be derelct in my duties if I didn't ask
[42:01] the two of you to say in the struggle
[42:04] between Rush Limbbo and the Democrats
[42:07] over who speaks for the Republican
[42:09] party, who's winning, David,
[42:11] >> tactically the Democrats are winning. No
[42:14] one the Republicans either have to diss
[42:16] Rush Libo or or sign on to him. Both of
[42:19] them are bad choices from their point of
[42:20] view.
[42:21] David is right, but the White House
[42:23] should not be involved in this in any
[42:26] way. I mean, this is a time we've just
[42:28] gone through the litany of horrors what
[42:30] Americans are facing. The pain of 8.1%
[42:33] of Americans without a job to go through
[42:35] Monday morning and there you get the
[42:37] White House talking about Rush Limbaugh
[42:40] and the chief of staff of the White
[42:41] House.
[42:41] >> I completely agree with that. I
[42:42] underlined that.
[42:43] >> We have 8.1 seconds and we just used it.
[42:46] Thank you both very much.
[42:47] >> Thank you.
[42:54] And finally tonight, the last of our
[42:56] stories about the Arabesque Festival of
[42:59] Arts at the Washington DC's Kennedy
[43:02] Center. Jeffrey Brown reports from Egypt
[43:04] on a musician's story.
[43:10] On a recent Friday night at the Cairo
[43:12] Jazz Club, pianist, composer, and
[43:15] producer Fati Salma held forth with an
[43:18] electric version of his blurring of
[43:20] musical boundaries east and west,
[43:28] mixing the Arabic music he grew up on
[43:30] with the western jazz heard one day on
[43:33] the radio at home in Cairo. I used to
[43:36] listen to uh Voice of America and uh
[43:40] used to listen to this kind of music I
[43:42] was really in love with. I didn't even
[43:44] know then that it was called jazz.
[43:47] >> As a young adult, he pursued that love,
[43:50] including a period of study in New York
[43:52] with several jazz masters.
[43:58] Back home after a successful stint as a
[44:00] record producer in the pop music world,
[44:03] he devoted himself to creating a whole
[44:05] new sound.
[44:08] In 1989, he formed a band called
[44:11] Shakiette, meaning from the east. I
[44:14] wanted to make uh my own version of my
[44:19] own roots Arabic music because also I
[44:23] always believed and I still believe that
[44:26] uh Arabic music has a lot to do uh or
[44:29] lots of similarity with jazz because
[44:32] jazz is all about improvisation finally.
[44:35] same in Arabic music.
[44:37] >> That a place like the jazz club and a
[44:40] musician like Fati Salma exist and
[44:42] thrive at all might be a bit of a
[44:44] revelation to many Americans.
[44:48] A vibrant, crowded city of some 18
[44:50] million. Cairo has long been a major
[44:53] capital of popular culture within the
[44:55] Arab world. Film, television, and music.
[44:59] to make a video clip, you know, or to be
[45:03] famous, they come to Cairo.
[45:04] >> To be famous, you come to Cairo.
[45:06] >> Yeah. Yeah. Normally,
[45:09] >> in recent years, there's been a growing
[45:10] influence of conservative Islam in
[45:13] Egyptian life. We were struck by the
[45:15] number of veiled women on the streets.
[45:17] Salma agrees that's happened, but
[45:20] characteristically perhaps, he sees a
[45:22] mixed picture. a a very uh normal thing
[45:26] you would see every day here. A girl
[45:28] wearing a veil but wearing very tight
[45:31] jeans. This is exactly how people think
[45:34] like there uh they have this duality
[45:37] somehow like in between otherwise
[45:40] wouldn't be a club like this like where
[45:42] we're sitting. It's not many clubs like
[45:44] this also I should say. The day after
[45:48] performing at the club, Salma invited us
[45:51] to his home and studio in a suburb of
[45:53] Cairo.
[45:54] >> It starts with a melody like this.
[46:00] >> I asked for a demonstration of just how
[46:02] he puts together Arabic music and jazz.
[46:05] >> But what I did, I I put chords, so I put
[46:09] harmony. So I put like F minor 9th
[46:20] Definitely. We don't have this in
[46:21] Arabic.
[46:22] >> You don't have that.
[46:22] >> No, we don't have that. Sounds like that
[46:24] sounds like a jazz chord.
[46:26] >> Yeah, exactly. And this
[46:29] >> this also we don't have. You know,
[46:35] >> this is known even in the states and
[46:37] everywhere. This is a Herby Hanok
[46:40] voicing.
[46:42] It's very known, you know. That's Herby
[46:44] Hancock over in Arabic.
[46:47] >> So that's what I'm saying. That's what
[46:49] I'm trying to achieve somehow.
[46:56] >> In recent years, Salma has also been
[46:58] working to connect Arabic music with
[47:00] traditions from other parts of the
[47:02] globe. At this recent concert in Cairo,
[47:05] his band played with a Cuban salsa
[47:07] group.
[47:11] In 2005, Smma won a Grammy award for his
[47:15] collaboration with world music superstar
[47:18] Yu Enur from Sagal. Their album called
[47:21] Egypt featured music from the Islamic
[47:24] Sufi tradition.
[47:30] >> We are mixes. All of us on earth.
[47:33] >> Mixers.
[47:34] >> Mixers. Yes. Anyways, I mean nobody can
[47:37] claim that you're pure this or pure
[47:40] that. Everybody was mixed some time and
[47:44] came from here went there. And uh for me
[47:48] I think uh my message is to show this
[47:56] we're all share music. So somehow
[48:00] sharing this kind of peace that music
[48:03] brings.
[48:05] >> Fati Salma and his band will perform in
[48:07] Washington at the Kennedy Center's
[48:09] Arabesque festival on March 8th.
[48:17] Much more on the series and the
[48:19] Arabesque festival is available online.
[48:22] Look for the ArtBeat page on our
[48:24] website.
[48:33] And again, the major developments of
[48:35] this day. The national unemployment rate
[48:37] climbed a half a percent to 8.1%.
[48:41] It's the highest jobless rate since
[48:42] 1983.
[48:44] And Secretary of State Clinton pledged a
[48:46] fresh start to relations with Russia at
[48:49] a meeting with the Russian foreign
[48:50] minister in Switzerland.
[48:59] And once again to our honor role of
[49:01] American service personnel killed in the
[49:04] Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. We add
[49:07] them as their deaths are made official
[49:10] and photographs become available. Here
[49:12] in silence are 10 more.
[50:13] Washington Week can be seen later this
[50:15] evening on most PBS stations. We'll see
[50:17] you online and again here Monday
[50:19] evening. Have a nice weekend. I'm Jim
[50:22] Lara. Thank you and good night.
[50:30] Major funding for the NewsHour with Jim
[50:32] Lara is provided by
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[51:44] We are PBS.
[51:49] Jim Ler has said he has the best job in
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[53:55] For a democracy to survive, citizens
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[54:01] one of us. With so many commercial
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[54:11] programs available to everyone,
[54:13] regardless of their ability to pay for
[54:15] cable or other news sources. Your
[54:18] contribution right now is not just for
[54:20] yourself. Say horns started honking as
[54:22] an SUV sat through six green lights at
[54:25] one intersection. Police arrived to
[54:27] investigate. Said the SUV seemed to be
[54:29] parked in the intersection. And they
[54:31] found the driver
[54:32] >> asleep
[54:33] >> at the wheel with his foot on the brake
[54:36] and a beer in the console. Dope.
[54:37] >> Sounds like a country song, doesn't it?
[54:39] Yes, it does.
[54:39] >> Yeah.
[54:41] >> Officers yelled to wake up the guy. His
[54:43] foot came off the brake. He started
[54:44] drifting into traffic. Several people
[54:45] were able to stop the car. The driver is
[54:48] charged with driving under the
[54:49] influence.
[54:49] >> Why don't you put that to a little tune
[54:50] for us as we say good night on this
[54:52] Friday?
[54:52] >> I'm sorry, James. We're out of time.
[54:54] >> That would really good.
[54:55] >> Have a great weekend.
[54:58] Fisher Communications.
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