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Obama and Biden Campaign Together; Disappointing August Jobs Report; Children Raised on Hate; 400 Trees Cut For Shuttle Move; Innovation Needed To Produce More Food; Disappointing August Jobs Report; U.S. Designates Haqqani As Terror Group

Aired September 07, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Suzanne, thank you so much.

Hello to all of you. Happy Friday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

OK, forget the conventions because now all eyes suddenly turn to the economy. Take a look at the numbers here as we are two hours away from that closing bell. We learned today even though the unemployment rate did tick down just a little bit last month, the number of jobs added way short of what many predicted. We're going to get to what that means for you, what that means for the economy, in just a moment.

But first, Mitt Romney -- Mitt Romney, you remember him, Republican nominee for president, back to campaigning today. He stayed pretty quiet this past week during the Democrat's convention in Charlotte. Yes, not so anymore. Here he is departing New England for the heartland of Iowa. And take a listen to this. Mitt Romney seizing on today's disappointing job numbers. We're going to give him some time. So, here he goes. Mitt Romney on arrival in Sioux City, Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: After the party last night, the hangover today, the jobs numbers were very disappointing. For almost every net new job created, approximately four people dropped out of the workforce. Seeing that kind of report is obviously disheartening to the American people who need work and are having a hard time finding work. Real incomes, real wages are also not rising. This is a tough time for the middle class in America.

There's almost nothing the president's done in the last three and a half, four years that gives the American people confidence. He knows what he's doing when it comes to jobs and the economy. And there's certainly nothing that he said last night that gives the American people confidence that he knows what he would do to create jobs or build a stronger economy.

And all he said last night was the same as what he said four years ago, which, by the way, he made a lot of promises four years ago. Can you think of any of those promises that was met? I mean he was going to create job. We haven't. Lower unemployment. He hasn't. Rising take home pay. It's gone down. Cut the cost of health insurance by $2,500. It's gone up by $2,500. Create new businesses. We're at a 30-year low. Cut the deficit in half. The deficit is double what it was.

The president has been unable to deliver on virtually any of the promises he made when he ran for office four years ago. The idea that the American people are going to accept the same promises again would be one that I think would be flying in the face of America's ability to understand what's in their best interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Again, Mitt Romney in Sioux City, Iowa.

So, the conventions are over. Really the game is on. We're going to hear again from Mitt Romney in just a moment. But, hey, the other team's off and running again today. Barack Obama. Also, Joe Biden. They bade farewell this morning to Charlotte. They have now moved on to New Hampshire. And tonight it is Iowa as well.

Chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin, already in Iowa City awaiting the president's arrival.

So, Jessica, first to you. What is the president specifically saying today about the jobs report, the rate of unemployment we know now dropping from 8.3 to 8.1. But, really, the big takeaway being the number of jobs create, way below expectations.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Brooke.

The president saying that the jobs created, that there were private sector jobs created, that the economy is growing, but just not at a pace fast enough. And that he effectively is not satisfied with the rate of economic expansion.

It's a message we've heard for him through -- for many months now. And it's, you know, disappointing for Democrats that they've come off their convention and gotten smacked in the face with some disappointing jobs numbers. Definitely unwelcome news the day after the convention. But the president saying -- pointing out the positive, which is the economy did create some jobs. Of course we all know, though, not as many as some had had expected.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, I think the conservative guess would be, you know, creating 120 and now we're stuck at 96,000. I did catch part of the president's speech, Jessica, just a short time ago when he was in New Hampshire. And a lot of the same themes from his acceptance speech in Charlotte last night. So let me just play this. Here he is. His vision. Romney's vision. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two fundamentally different visions for how we move forward. See, ours is a fight for that basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known. The promise that hard work will pay off, that responsibilities will be rewarded, that everyone gets a fair shot, everybody's doing their fair share, everybody's playing by the same rules from Wall Street to main street to Washington, D.C. That basic bargain is why I ran for president and that's why I'm running again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Jessica, you acknowledge the White House is saying, look, the numbers are disappointing. Is the Obama campaign expecting much of a bump from the convention? Are they happy with how it went?

YELLIN: Well, I'll just point out, Brooke, they're not saying that it's disappointing. They're saying that their -- the growth -- there is growth in the economy. But we are acknowledging that we should recognize it is disappointing.

The -- they are happy with the convention, but they're not projecting the total -- a bump yet. I think they're trying to down play it. If I had to guesstimate what's going on, they're trying to downplay expectations and wait and see. And if there is a bump, then everyone will be surprised.

I do know from talking to Democrats that they were very pleased with the sort of tone that both President Clinton and Mrs. Obama hit. And then the president's speech, also, they felt hit a tone that was what they expected sort of establishing him as sort of synonymous with the Oval Office, so that you cannot separate the man and the Oval and cannot imagine another person in that position. And you heard the president talk about Osama bin Laden, emphasizing foreign policy themes last night and today. I think you'll hear him punch that in the weeks to come too.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Jessica Yellin for us in Iowa.

Jessica, thank you.

And now we told you we would get back to Mitt Romney. We haven't heard much from Romney this week. He is back on the trail and he is back on air with a major ad buy. Here is just a sample of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president can ask us to be patient. This president can tell us it was someone else's fault. But this president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Here in Florida, we're not better off under President Obama. Home values collapsed. Home construction jobs, lost.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Here in Colorado, we're not better off under President Obama. His defense cuts will weaken national security. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Here in Virginia, we're not better off under President Obama. His war on coal, gas and oil is crushing energy and manufacturing jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, these different Romney ads, and those were just the snippets, they're tailored to these eight different swing states, right? So we're highlighting them. And believe me, you're going to be hearing those three words a lot -- eight swing states. So, you have these 95 electoral votes in these eight swing states. These are the ones that are highlighted in yellow, which obviously all adding up to the number 95. All eight are virtually toss-ups. So if you live in one of these states, especially in Ohio, maybe Florida, Virginia, you can expect to see a lot of these guys over the course of the next two months leading up to that November 6th election.

And with that said, we're going to move back to politics, but we have a lot more for you on this Friday. Roll it.

As children become targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Doctors telling us the children's hospital has been closed by the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There is a dark world inside Syria in which many kids are taught to hate.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

As Chicago deals with crime scenes in just three days --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Support the CTU (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It's massive school system could shut down.

Plus, 400 trees being chopped down to make room for a legend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For them to cut down the trees for a spaceship, it's not necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And, buckle up. One state just okayed the highest speed limit in America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, there's not exactly a whole lot to feel great about the jobs numbers that were released this morning. And just here's why. This is the number we're talking about today, 96,000. That's the number of new jobs created in the month of August. That number falls far short of what was expected. People who watch these numbers very, very closely looking for the trends were expecting at least -- let me say that again, at least 120,000 new jobs. That didn't happen.

Also, though, the unemployment rate, it did fall last month. So it fell just a smidge from 8.3 to 8.1 percent. That's some good news. But that's also mainly because people are just simply no longer looking for work.

I want to bring in CNN's chief business correspondent, Mr. Ali Velshi.

And, Ali, you have been -- I feel like I see you've lost even more hair --

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes.

BALDWIN: You know, thinking -- thinking clearly about these numbers.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: But seriously, I mean, I had somebody just tweet me saying, how did the number fall so much shorter? But wasn't that number, 120,000, that was a conservative guess, too, wasn't it?

VELSHI: Yes. Oh, yes. I mean I certainly have seen absolute economist estimates that said 140,000, 150,000.

BALDWIN: Wow.

VELSHI: And there were looser guesses around from people saying that, you know, earlier in the week we had had some good indicators. We saw that layoffs were at a 20 month low. We saw that first time unemployment benefits had dropped a little bit. We saw that the private sector seemed to have employed a lot of people in August. So people were saying, maybe it's going to be 175,000, maybe even 200,000. So coming in at 96,000 was very disappointing.

I've been getting a lot of tweets from people saying, why are you -- why are you looking at this like a glass half empty?

BALDWIN: Yes.

VELSHI: It's 96,000 more people with work. But it's important to understand, this is a very dynamic economy, every month people die, people retire, people leave the work force and then new people come in. Kids who have, you know, gotten to the age that they can work, immigrants. You need to create about 150,000 jobs a month in the United States just to stay level. Just to keep things moving along. You need extra jobs for the gravy to cut into the deficit that we've got.

BALDWIN: OK.

VELSHI: So 96,000 is by no account a good number.

BALDWIN: Thank you for the context, because I just wanted to set it up with that.

VELSHI: Yes. Yes.

BALDWIN: Now that we know, 96,000, that was added. The unemployment down slightly, as I mentioned, down to 8.1 percent. Can we -- let's push -- you know, just push this further and look a little closer.

VELSHI: Yes, that's interesting. OK. So here's the thing you need to know. The jobs added and subtracted is an absolute number, right? It's done by a survey. We can tell you what it is. The unemployment rate -- and I have for 10 years said to people, we should concentrate less on this. And the reason is, it is a measure of the number of people who are actively working or looking for work. So that absolute number changes.

And in August, 368,000 people dropped out of the workforce. Now, you drop out of the workforce for various reasons. You're going to school, you're retiring or you are losing hope. You're becoming despondent. You, you know, you live in a place where the unemployment rate is 15 percent but you can't sell your house so you just stop looking.

The labor force participation rate, it's a mouthful, but it's the number -- the percentage of all of those people available to work, who are the right age and able bodied, who are working. And that's at 63.5 percent. That's the lowest since 1981. And one of the problematic parts of this jobs report is that we lost manufacturing jobs. That's actually something that we've been --

BALDWIN: Fifteen thousand. Yes.

VELSHI: Fifteen thousand. That's a big deal. We'd been gaining manufacturing jobs. I mean, look, after losing them for decades, we started to gain them back again and we thought we had leveled out. So that's -- that's a -- there are a bunch of things in here that are problematic.

BALDWIN: Beyond the manufacturing, I just wanted to ask you, you know, obviously it's an election year. We were putting this big number on the screen yesterday, 316,000, right?

VELSHI: Right.

BALDWIN: So that was the number that the president, or I should say the U.S. economy, needed to grow before the Election Day.

VELSHI: Correct.

BALDWIN: So now we have 316,000, what would that be, minus 96,000 equals the number.

VELSHI: So it's -- actually, it's 261,000, because they revised a couple of previous months.

BALDWIN: There you go.

VELSHI: So the new number is 261,000. And that number is the number of jobs that if -- if -- we have two more jobs reports. If we, in the next two jobs reports, create more than 261,000 job, I can guarantee you you'll see Democratic ads saying that every job lost under President Obama's watch as president has been recovered. So it's sort of like a magic number for the president. It doesn't mean success or failure. It's just a number. He's going to be able to say every job that was loss since the day I took office is back. So he needs two reports, two more unemployment reports, 130,000 apiece. It's entirely doable. If he gets close to it, he will say that I inherited the worse economy since the Depression --

BALDWIN: And we have lost zero.

VELSHI: And I got most of it back.

Now I'll tell you, Brooke, just so you know, because you'll be reporting on this, the quality of jobs is not the same. The wage, the hours and things like that. But job for job, that's the number he's looking at.

BALDWIN: I'm glad you brought that up. Ali Velshi, thank you, as always.

VELSHI: Always a pleasure to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

If you are a regular viewer of this show, and we hope you are, we have been talking a lot about Syria. We've been very committed to telling this story, telling the atrocities, the deaths, the children. And so this week we have had pretty intense reporting from our correspondent there, Nick Paton Walsh, on the toll the fighting is taking on families and especially these children. My next guest will talk about how hatred is being passed down from generation to generation, but what her group is doing to change that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If you watch this show regularly, you know I spend a lot of time on the war in Syria. And I'm particularly concerned about the plight of these children just caught in this conflict. Day after day after day we get pictures like these showing the faces of this war's youngest victims.

And this. Images like this make you want to turn away. But we don't want you to. This child's body, wrapped in blanket, being pulled from rubble. But this is only part of this brutal story because in these refugee camps across this region, Syrian children may be removed from the fighting, but not the hate that fuels it. Saba al-Mobaslat is the director of Jordan's Save the Children organization. She joins me from Amman, Jordan.

And, Saba, thank you for being with me because this is so important to talk about these innocent, the children. You're in these camps almost every day. First, just tell me, how much do these children understand as far as what's happening back home? What kinds of stories do they tell you?

SABA AL-MOBASLAT, DIRECTOR, JORDAN'S "SAVE THE CHILDREN": Children tell Save the Children staff too many stories. They tell you stories about their classmates who got killed, their houses being bombed, their fathers, older brothers being killed or kidnapped or, you know, taken to prison. They talk about the ruins. (INAUDIBLE) and schools, playgrounds that are destroyed. And sometimes they retell the stories they heard from others. But Save the Children has specially trained staff to deal with that. To help children cope and get over the story and live today.

BALDWIN: Before we talk about the coping, though, I have to ask just, do they understand why? Why this is happening?

AL-MOBASLAT: I don't think they do. I think one thing that they keep on expressing is that we have -- we have rights. We are children. Why are we here? Why are we far away from home? They ask about, you know, their relatives that are not around. The most heartbreaking that Save the Children work with are the unaccompanied minors. You'd have a child who's 11 or 12-year-old taking care of his sister or brother who are a year younger. And that, by itself, is a concern for Save the Children.

BALDWIN: You can't help but just feel for these kids who we see in these stories day after day. At the same time, though, we know the story of Syria. This deeply divided. It is sectarian conflict. The Alawites. The Sunnis. I read articles. You know, kids as young as six, seven and eight have this hate for the other sect and even a desire to kill. And I know that's not what your group is talking about, but it's the reality. How is Save the Children then helping teach these you people acceptance?

AL-MOBASLAT: Syrian children are responding to the crisis like all other children would do. I mean even grow-ups cannot really process or understand what's happening to them. You know, in our child family spaces that we prepare for this purpose, Save the Children is quite focused on helping children go back to normal life. Even if in a camp, even if in a tent, it's our job to re-inject some normalcy into their lives. We focus on supporting these children to develop resiliency, coping mechanisms and help them get over the stress experience they lived.

BALDWIN: Forgive me, but what is normal for these kids right now?

AL-MOBASLAT: It's not much. I think what is normal is something that the world with the help defining. We cannot promise them what we cannot give them. As humanitarian people, I think it's our job (INAUDIBLE) to make sure that they have access to what's basic and what's their right. Sufficient to (ph) water, shelter, access to quality education. These are basic rights even if in a camp should be guaranteed to these children.

BALDWIN: Saba, I know that your group, Save the Children, works, you know, we should point out, not just Syria, but with children all around the world. And I'm just curious, just from based upon your experience working in situations like these, 10, 20 years down the road, how will what's happening now in Syria affect these children?

AL-MOBASLAT: Unless we manage to deal with it now, and unless we have the right programs in place to help these children get over what they're experiencing and what they have experienced, then we will be in a tougher position 10 years down the road. It is our job to help them, as we said, what's normal, but go back to what can be considered normal in such circumstances so that they can build the -- you know, be the future and rebuild Syria.

BALDWIN: Just finally, we've been showing these pieces through the week and right now we're showing videos of, you know, kids alive in these refugee camps, but we've seen all too many images of children dead, covered in blankets. It infuriates me, I know it infuriates our viewers. What is the message that you want to get across to the U.S. right now?

AL-MOBASLAT: It is -- it's a joint responsibility. A lot is needed. Everybody is needed. Save the Children and all other organizations are massively scaling up (ph) their efforts to meet the needs of children. These children need everything. Last Sunday, school -- the school year started here in Jordan and, you know, kids in the camp did not go to school. We are denying them their rights to education. Save the Children and all others have to provide them with their rights. They have the right to go to school.

BALDWIN: We thank you for what you're doing each and every day. Saba al-Mobaslat with Save the Children. Appreciate it. From Jordan.

AL-MOBASLAT: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: As the crisis in Syria rages on, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh gives you an inside look at the horrors of what life was like in Aleppo. It is a CNN special report. We're calling it "Crisis in Syria." Please tune in tomorrow night at 7:30 Eastern Time.

And now to something we talked about actually earlier in the week. Four hundred trees being chopped down to make way for a massive space shuttle. Many are furious. We will take you live to Los Angeles for the next chapter of this story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You have to wonder what dismissal will be like this afternoon in Chicago where 400,000 kids go to public schools there. They know the odds are come Monday they won't be in class and their teachers will be on the picket line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: (INAUDIBLE) support the CTU. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The CTU. That stands for the Chicago Teachers Union. Is set to go on strike Monday. This is the first time this has happened in Chicago. Could happen in Chicago, I should say, in 25 years. That includes 29,000 teachers at 675 schools. Some points of contention. Higher teacher pay, especially since teachers agreed to a longer school day. And the district want to put in a new way to evaluate teachers. But one issue that they do agree on, no one actually wants a strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN-CLAUDE BRIZARD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Negotiation is all about movement on both sides. All about coming to compromise. And both sides, I think, are willing to make that happen. So my hope is that, you know, they stay, they keep talking to each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, the district has made contingency plans, setting up 144 sites for kids to go for a half day if there is a stroke. More than 80 percent of the kids in Chicago Public Schools qualify for some type of meal assistance.

And I want you to stay with me, because at the top of the next hour, we will take you live to Chicago. I'll talk to an education activist who says what is happening in Chicago is worthy of everyone's attention.

And now we told you about this story a little earlier in the week. Controversy still growing about plans to move that space shuttle through the streets of Los Angeles because moving an 85-ton space shuttle means cutting down a lot of things in its path, like the trees. About 400 trees were removed from two Los Angeles neighborhoods so space shuttle "Endevour" can make that final journey next month from the L.A. Airport to its new home at the California Science Center.

Some folks, they are furious about cutting these big majestic trees that provided them shade. The science center says it will replant the trees, but it will take years for them to grow tall.

Casey Wian has the story from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The space shuttle "Endeavour" will begin the final leg of its final journey here at Los Angeles International Airport. It will then take a 12-mile trip along city streets to the California Science Center.

But even before the trip starts it's already causing a lot of controversy. The main reason, all of these trees you see here and hundreds of others throughout the city are being taken out to make room for the space shuttle.

Along the route "Endeavour" will pass, famous L.A. landmarks like Randy's Donuts and it will pass over the infamous 405 Freeway. It can't go on the freeway because it's too big to fit under overpasses.

It's first stop will be in the city of Inglewood where more than 130 trees already have been cut down. The mayor says it's a good thing for the city.

MAYOR JAMES BUTTS, INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA: One of the things that you noticed that Manchester Boulevard was resurfaced that happened about two and a half years ago. One of the reasons that it needed to be resurfaces because these trees roots were invasive horizontally, it may buckled the pavement.

So we'll get an opportunity to not only replace these trees that in five to 10 years will undo all this work that was done, but replace them two for one that trees in our forestry master plan. We get to participate in history by having the "Endevour" to come through the city.

ANTOINE, INGLEWOOD RESIDENT: I feel the trees shouldn't be cut down if necessary. For them to cut them down for a spaceship is not necessary.

WIAN: It's not just trees that are being removed. They are also having to temporarily take out stoplights and raise power lines and install brand new pains.

As the shuttle makes a right turn it will enter the historic neighborhood of Leimert Park. As you can see, the street is lined with scores of beautiful trees.

Many of the residents are upset that many of them will be shut down for the shuttle. What will the loss of some of these trees mean?

LARK GALLOWAY-GILLIAM, LEIMERT PARK RESIDENT: Not only does it strip us of our beauty, but it also in terms of the health of community, we start finding that the environmental protections are lost. Trees actually enhance the economic value of our homes.

WIAN: We're approaching "Endevour's" final destination, the California Science Center, which is paying the move the shuttle through the streets of Los Angeles.

The science center says it will leave a frail trail of improvements including two new trees planted for every one cut down. The ultimate benefit will be here, a tourist attraction that's been out of this world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: The obvious question is why can't they take the shuttle apart to move it, but I know NASA is saying no way. WIAN: Well, NASA, Brooke, says it's a national treasure and they want to keep it intact, if at all possible. It would involve taking the wings off to allow it to go through some of these streets easier would be disassembling the thermal protection system, which involves a blanket and tiles getting into the aluminum core of the orbiter.

It's never been done before. Putting it all back together is a difficult proposition and NASA says it would be very expensive, very time consuming and not even sure how successful it would be. I don't want to leave viewers with the impression they are just being mowed down indiscriminately in a lot of these neighborhoods.

Over here in front of me, we can see one of the trees that has been cut down. Obviously, this tree was causing issues. You can see the walk next to it was completely buckled. City says that's going to be fixed.

Local residents said it should have been fixed all along. You can see there's a pine tree. It's not been cut down. That will be saved. Not all of the trees are being removed.

Also what they will be doing when taking the shuttle down streets like this is will avoid some of the trees and the power lines that are existing. You can see that new pole that has been put in to bring a new power line high enough so the shuttle can fit under it.

BALDWIN: What a picture that will be. I'm remembering off the top of my head, I think it's October 12th when we'll see the space shuttle traversing the streets of Los Angeles. We'll look for you then. Casey Wian for us in Inglewood. Casey, appreciate it.

In recent years, we have reported too often on people losing their jobs, losing their homes. During the financial crisis, many pet owners have had to abandon their furry friends. That's where "CNN Hero," Marla Manning steps in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good boy. Charlie means everything to us. He was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago. We went with the amputation and he's been doing great. A couple of days ago he had this other growth on his chest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Given the fact that he had an aggressive type tumor, I think things like this should come off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I recently got laid off and we were expecting our first baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we will be able to help you out. I know how much you love your dog.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy being what it is, people are faced with the choice of having to give up their dogs because they can't afford them anymore. They are doing their best to get back on track and then a crisis happens with their dog. It's just one more thing.

MARLO MANNING, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: I'm Marlo managing and I lost a puppy named Lady Bag. Now I provide temporary aid to dog ordinary reason and prudence, keeping them healthy out of shelters and with loving families.

Dogs live in the moment. They bring you to their place of happiness mo matter where you are in your life. If we can help with food, medical visits or even surgery to keep this family together they're able to take that burden away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, sweetie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to put our maximum amount on Charlie, which is $800.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's such a blessing. We'll be forever grateful that Charlie gets a second chance.

MANNING: What we do is a attribute to lady bug. If I had to get the degree to find this path then we were meant to lose her so we can be inspired to help others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Marla along has helped nearly 400 dogs in Massachusetts. We want you to visit cnnheroes.com to learn a lot more about Marlo and so many other stories. In just two weeks we'll be announcing the top ten heroes of the year. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Folks gathered outside a grocery store hoping to shake the hand of or listen to their representative in Congress. Then a man walks up, armed to the teeth and opens fire.

Six people lost their lives including a 9-year-old girl who wanted one day to serve her country. Last night, one of the people who did survive survived a bullet to the brain, no less, appeared in the spotlight on a national stage.

The appearance alone was probably enough but she provided a moment that Americans left, right, center, can all be proud of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, FORMER ARIZONA CONGRESSWOMAN: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Our ability to produce food around the world is in danger. We are already seeing shortages. Our global supply is at its limits. It has experts quite worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the next 50 years, we need more food produced in the last 10,000 years combined. It's staggering to think where is it all going to come from?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Where is it all going to come from Sanjay Gupta? You went to the deep blue sea to get answers. Finding these innovative leaders including Ryan O' Hanlon.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's been this idea out there for some time that look, fish is a very good protein source so when you think about audacious goals such as trying to provide good quality food to the hungry all over the world, fish is something it comes to mind.

But as a result of that thing a lot of the fisheries that we think of typically close to shores are already being depleted. It's very hard to grow fish in large numbers.

So Bryan who is a young guy and always amazing by this show, he decides to create this open ocean fish farm. That's what you're looking at right there. It's several miles out in the middle of the ocean.

BALDWIN: Out of Panama.

GUPTA: So this is a country of Panama. This is on the Caribbean side. Panama is a little isthmus, if you will. So you have Caribbean on one side. You got the Pacific on the other, which was the Caribbean side. We're inside a tent that they created where they grow these fish into a size they think can help address this problem.

BALDWIN: This is aqua fishing, which is --

GUPTA: Yes, it's open water. One of the big advantages besides the fact that you have, you know, lots of space that you see there is, if you think about these fisheries that are close to shore, you're getting a lot of same water bouncing in.

And out of that fish farms doing it open like this is very, very attractive. In fact, I asked Bryan O'Hanlon specifically about that. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN O'HANLON, FOUNDER OF OPEN BLUE: Our whole goal is to provide more natural healthier environment for the fish. Our farm is 12 kilometers off the coast or 8 miles off the coast out in clear blue water. It's 220 feet deep. Fish never see the same water twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GUPTA: You know, and they also can tell you everything about the fish's life cycle. This is sort of something in between. They are ready to be taken out of those farms they know exactly what they are eating and what kind of water they are being exposed to. You saw how big the fish get.

BALDWIN: Yes, and you accidentally went swimming with a whale shark. We're out of time, but hopefully that's part of the show.

GUPTA: There's a video.

BALDWIN: Sanjay, thank you. Here it is. Watch Sanjay. The show is called "THE NEXT LIST." You can watch it Sunday at 2:00 Eastern. Sanjay, thank you very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We'll see you this weekend. My next guest is the perfect guy to speak with on the day we get the job's report. He is a economist. He is a former Republican presidential adviser and he recently said Mitt Romney is a quote, "losing candidate." We're going to ask him about that. Ben Stein standing by. He'll explain next.

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BALDWIN: No doubt. Today's jobs numbers could put a dent in President Obama's convention moment. I mean, here's why. Last month, U.S. employers added 96,000 jobs. While any job is cause for celebration, economists were looking for at least an extra 120,000 jobs created.

And in times like this, we like to chat with economist, Ben Stein, who's joining us live from Los Angeles. Ben Stein, good to see you, sir.

You know, you saw the number 96,000 that's what we added way less than what was predicted by many. The unemployment rate did fall just a smidge. It's a little bit here for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Tell me who you think benefits the most.

BEN STEIN, ECONOMIST AND ACTOR: Well, I don't see how Mr. Obama benefits from it at all except in this interesting way. The reason the unemployment rate fell was because the number of people in the labor force fell because so many people are discouraged and they stop looking for jobs.

That would normally be a very big negative for the president. Because a lot of those people are African-American, according to the data I've been seeing, they will vote for the president any way so he's not really losing any votes among them.

But I think where people are concerned of the general state of the economy there's very little to cheer. The problem for Mr. Romney is he is just not putting out a better solution.

If he had some great solution out there, I think he would benefit enormously. Every time sometimes statistics like this came out, but he doesn't have an idea that will benefit the economy any way. So I don't see where either side has an idea that will benefit the economy.

BALDWIN: Let me jump on that because, you know, I was down in Tampa and I know you said after Tampa you were quoted saying Mitt Romney is, quote/unquote, "a losing candidate."

I think part of that, and you tell me if I'm wrong, had to do with the fact he hasn't explained what he would do to fix it. I'm asking you here, as a former presidential speechwriter both for Nixon and Ford, if you were writing a speech for Romney what would you have him say to help fix it?

STEIN: I would say we're going to try everything until we find something that works. We're going to work peacefully together with the Democrats. We're not going to have this attitude of blood sport. It's way too much of what's going on in Congress.

I think we are also going to have to say we cannot cut the deficit and lower taxes at the same time. We're going to lower taxes a bit on middle class people and raise them on very rich people and we're not going to lower them.

That's a myth that affects job growth. We're not going to promise you we can lower taxes and lower the deficit. We're going to keep doing what Mr. Obama is going to do but we're going to also lower regulation. There is I think it's pretty clear from the data I see from various think tanks in Washington that excess regulation is costing us jobs.

BALDWIN: What about manufacturing sector? Ben, we talked about this before and when you look, really --

STEIN: This is an endless --

BALDWIN: It's difficult because you saw the number 15,000, 15,000 fewer manufacturing jobs. We hear from the president and the vice president touting the turn around with the American auto industry.

I can't even count how many times, you know, he's been to Ohio here. I mean, this vote in the middle of country is key. Many of them would like to have these manufacturing jobs. How does he turn that around?

STEIN: I don't think that it can easily be turned around by either one of them. The reason that Mr. Obama is able to tout this is he takes a starting point with manufacturing jobs in a very steep decline.

If he had taken this as a starting point 10 years ago, he would not have been able to produce the same kind of gains. Manufacturing was in a total disarray. We've been able to raise manufacturing employment in large measure by lowering wages.

The manufacturing wages have taken a terrific hit as less and less of that sector is unionized. We have more of an effort to compete with Chinese in labor cost. We're getting closer to it. We will have bad -- we have a bad manufacturing number this month.

But over time manufacturing employment has grown, but at the cost of lower and lower wages. I don't see how we can change that. It's very hard to compete with the Chinese whose manufacturing are still very, very low.

BALDWIN: Ben Stein, thank you.

STEIN: It's a bleak situation.

BALDWIN: OK, Ben Stein.

STEIN: Economics is a dismal science. I'm sorry.

BALDWIN: We're glad you're helping us walk through it. Ben, thank you very much. Have a great weekend.

STEIN: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: A group of extremists who own car dealerships, construction companies now officially deemed terrorists. Why the Haqqani Network would be a bigger threat than al Qaeda, next.

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BALDWIN: The Haqqani Network may have surpassed al-Qaeda's growing threat. In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told congress she is designated the Pakistan-base group as a terror organization.

So what is the Haqqani Network? It's aligned with the Taliban, aligned with al-Qaeda and blamed for high profile attacks in Afghanistan including last year's attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

The Haqqani Network is based in the tribal area of Pakistan. It is a family-run network that's been around for 30 years. Last year, the "New York Times" called the network the quote/unquote "The Sopranos of the Afghan War."

Here is the leader (inaudible). A U.S. general called him a brutal murderer. The U.S. has offered $5 million more information leading to his capture.

I want to talk to Gretchen Peters. She's an author and former journalist. You've covered Afghanistan and Pakistan. She's also now written a book about Afghanistan's drug trade, currently consults for Sitcom.

So Gretchen, welcome to you. In reading and talking about the story today, really my question is Haqqani Network responsible for some of the deadliest attacks on our troops in Afghanistan? Why are they just now being labeled terrorists? GRETCHEN PETERS, AUTHOR, "SEEDS OF TERROR": Well, there has been debate within the Obama administration for some time now over whether it's a good idea to designate or be more effective to try and reconcile with them and the other factions of the Taliban.

Those of us who have studied the Haqqanis and other branches of the Taliban for some time were pretty skeptical about the possibilities that that would ever succeed.

I think what we have today from the State Department and from the Obama administration is an acknowledgement that the Haqqanis really are bad news and deserved to be taken out rather than reconciled with.

BALDWIN: I know the designation helps squeeze some of the assets, et cetera, money a huge part of this. The Haqqani Network owns car dealerships, money exchanges, constructions companies, some Haqqani members profit from kidnapping.

What are the consequences of this designation as it relates to him and others and the tenuous relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan?

PETERS: Well, I think that it's helpful of think of a designation as like an arrest warrant.

It doesn't really make a difference until there is action taken by the U.S. government to exploit the authorities that the designation brings.

I think the best way forward will be some sort of task force or group to do a much more in-depth study than what I have done on the Haqqani's financial architecture, on the illicit businesses that support their operations, on the suppliers they work with in order to supply their war effort.

That's going to really put the squeeze on the Haqqani Network. They have been somewhat resilient to the tactical campaign against them, although there have been some successes. Just last month, Badruddin Haqqani, the group's operations manager, was killed in an airstrike in North Waziristan.

However, the network has been very resilient to repeated attacks by the U.S. military and coalition forces and that's in part because they have this enormous elicit business infrastructure that supports them throughout Pakistan and back into the UAE with business partnerships extending as far away as South Africa.

BALDWIN: Right. I think just putting it in a designation like an arrest warrant, that just puts it in perspective to all of us.

Gretchen Peters, thank you so much from Washington.

PETERS: Thank you.