fungus. three have died. one of those deaths traced to the infection that can occur when dirt becomes lodged under the skin. do you know if your house is making you sick? we've got tips on what to watch out for in "your bottom line" that stops now. i'll be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news. is your home making your family sick? good morning, everyone. i'm christine romance. everyday items surrounding us when we eat, sleep and breathe are on their own safe, but taken together are raising danger flags. we'll tell you how to reduce your exposure to wireless radiation, dry cleaning chemicals and plastic. plus, is tweeting cheating? the rules of social media mingling and an essential guide to outsmarting the economy and growing your small business. but first, the services you use every day, the people who protect your community, and the teachers who educate your

children, all of their jobs are on the chopping block. how many jobs? state and local governments are forecast to cut 110,000 state and local jobs in the third quarter. this is the first time this number has ever ris noon the triple digits according to ihs global insight. in georgia the police force cut from 15 to 5 officers. they planned to eliminate the force entirely but did find money to keep a few officers. zanesville, ohio, cut 50 jobs from its schools, mostly through layoffs. in california the department of corrections and rehabilitation headquarters in sacramento will eliminate more than 400 positions saving the state $30 million. over the last year and a half more than 1,000 positions have been eliminated there. chris from the national league of city, represents 19,000 cities and you say this is just the beginning. >> yeah. right now, it's the times are very tough for local governments all over the country and we have another year or two to go before they find their way out of it. a lot of that has to do with the

fact that they're very reliant on property taxes to fund services and because of the housing market and the fact that we haven't seen the bottom there yet, they stril a ways to -- still have a ways to go before they're out of the woods and a lot of positions that are going to be cut and services that are cut over the next couple years. >> two or three year lag we'll see more of those public sector jobs. bill bennett, frequent guest on this program, according to moody's analystics, every one of those jobs supports 3.1 private sector jobs. bill is the co-owner of superior uniform sales in toe lowdo, ohio. he has 17 employees. they supply uniforms to police officers, firefighters, nurses and public sector employees. >> we caught the recession fourth quarter 2008. '09, like budgets were cut. this is mainly the first time that we've been affected this much because the previous

recessions never really touched policemen and firemen. but this time, you know, you see layoffs and, you know, even in the health care sector. >> bill, the leaders of your party want to keep cutting. is that going to keep hurting private sector -- >> whoa! we want to -- >> right away. >> we want to keep cutting federal spending. we're in a severe economic turn down and i think partly to do now in the last couple years to the policies of this administration if we want to do politics. let's not do politics. we're in a severe economic turn down. everybody is tightening the belt, everybody has to tighten the belt. private sector employment is way down and public sector employment is down less than private sector employment. this is what happens when an economy goes bad. on the teacher thing, we have to look closely, christine, there are 27 states where student enrollment went down and nevertheless in 15 of those states, teacher hiring went up. there are ways in which supply and demand don't apply to some

aspects of the public sector because of collective bargaining. everybody is suffering now because of this economy. >> some of those school layoffs are not teacher layoffs per se. they're laying off other -- >> yep. >> you know, pair of professionals in the schools. sarah you're the 2010 teacher of the year in iowa. these cuts might only get worse with teacher layoffs expected. we'll be hearing more in the coming weeks and months, but two years in the recovery, 180,000 local school jobs were lost. as a teacher of 10th and 12th grade english what are you hearing from your colleagues. >> it's difficult when we have to contend with this. a lot of times these teacher cuts end up putting more space between teachers and students and that's what we want to protect, is that time and effort and energy that teachers can really target towards their

students and when other facets of the school, of the school culture and school community, and nose resources are being taken away, it really places an additional burden on teachers in the classroom. >> chris and bill, i want to look at sort of life post-recession if you will. bill you talked about some of these earlier but these are state and local government jobs. two years after the 1991 recession ended, that two-year recession of '90/ '91, 430,000 jobs added, state local jobs, two years after 2001, you created about a quarter of a million new state and local jobs after that recession, but two years after the last recession technically ended in june 2009 we've lost about a half a million jobs in state and local governments including those 188,000 school teachers. you know, bill, i talked to senator jeff sessions this week about this very topic and i said, he said that the key here is we've got to cut our deficits, get our deficits u underer control and there's

confidence in the business sector. when you look at bill darea the small business owner he's not confident when you're cutting public sector jobs. sometimes i'm quite afraid that politicians aren't very good money managers. i mean what do we do here? >> right. they've proven themselves not to be, as chris was pointing out, the housing market, look what fannie mae and freddie mac did in terms of the contribution there. get out of the way, let the private sector create these jobs and that will, of course, in the end, as in bill's case, create more in the public sector. there's a great line from mowby dick, the great american novel the universal thump gets passed around. it's getting passed around now and no part of american society is insulated from it. what we've got to do is do the right things and not overspend once you get a recovery. don't go in and overextend those public sector jobs because then they're going to have to shrink again when things get worse. plan a little better. look at california. will they ever recover is the

question. >> all right. another fascinating saturday discussion. we have to leave it there. bill bennett and chris haney, thanks to all of you. have a wonderful weekend. after the show i'm heading north to new hampshire. i'll be hosting "american morning" on monday as we get set for the first big republican presidential debate. make sure to wake up bright and early 6:00 a.m. monday morning and then take a nap so you're set for the big showdown at 8:00 p.m. eastern hosted by john king. more than half of future job creation will come from small business. how to outsmart higher gas prices in an anemic economy and build your dream. that's next. [ female announcer ] you've never had

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"i better start doing something." we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. small businesses have never had to be more nimble and creative and because they create more than half of all new jobs in america, when hire commodity prices, lack of credit and skittish customers hurt them it hurts us. the founder and president of count me in, a group that advises women entrepreneurs.

70% of new businesses survive two years. only 51% survive at least five years. whether you're looking to start a business or you already have one started what are your principles for success? >> i think the most important things really quickly are know what your best debt and business best debt, focus on the niche and build that, understand the value of your time. as the ceo, founder of the business, know what you are spending your time on. that's where the money comes from. i would also be flexible. in nis market you've got to, you know, if your customers start to tell you something different, they want something a little different, go with that. and watch your cash flow. flexibility and watching your cash flow. then those five things, if you really roll with those, you can take advantage of whatever it is that people need out in the marketplace and fit that with what your best debt and you can roll with the punches. >> i want to introduce you to someone named paula, owns a garden center in mount laurel,

new jersey. her costs were rising, gas prices for deliveries were through the roof, not waiting for washington or the markets to fix it. she found a clever way to outsmart the economy herself. >> thank you. nice to meet you. >> reporter: it's busy season for family run clover garden and florists, the new jersey store has been in business four years, and paula is making every effort to keep prices in check. but it's not easy. high gas prices have led her flower suppliers to increase costs. >> they have put their freight up, as far as like it used to be $8, $10, now it's up to $13, $15. >> reporter: on top of that, paula pays $80 every time she fills up the gas tank. money that adds up for a business dependent on deliveries. when you're running a small business like this, i mean gas prices they hit you coming in are, and they hit you when you're trying to go out too. >> yes. it is a little difficult because people don't understand that it's affecting all of us. >> reporter: one solution, team up with the competition.

paula is part of a flower pool. every day she links up with 12 other florists in a central location, swap orders, take on deliveries closest to their neighborhoods, helping their profit margins by saving on gas. >> we're seeing a lot more flower shops actually going out of business. they just can't compete, just can't, you know, afford to, you know, pay the gas prices and put up with what they have to put up with to get their product delivered. >> without this pool, pooling together resources with other nurseries and floral delivery places, would you have to raise your prices, do you think? >> if i did not -- was not on the pool system, i would say yes, i probably would have to raise our prices. >> we got everything? let's get out of here. >> let's go. >> see you, buddy. >> reporter: by collaborating these small business competitors deliver the goods. starting a business is one thing, outsmarting this economy is another. nel, in the end, it's all about the numbers. she does not want to raise her prices, because customers are

skittish. this is a quote/unquote luxury item. she wants to keep her customers happy even though everyone is raising prices for her. >> the value of partnerships and collaboration, women are experts at collaboration and the fact that this is where she came to, and is helping all those other businesses, because there's plenty of business to go around. this notion of scarcity is something we got to get out of. people, 90% of the population, has jobs who are in the work force so people have money to spend. how do you get them and to her point how do you keep the prices where people are not going to go, i don't need this anymore. but her creativity and her willing to collaborate, i would say collaboration and partnership is a very important strategy for many businesses these days in terms of being able to stay afloat and actually make money. >> it shows one of those things on your list, you must be flexible. you must be flexible. >> oh, yes. nel, founder and president of count me in, thanks. from the mattress you sleep on, the dry cleaning hanging in your closet, the toy your child

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shut off your wireless internet at night, do not bring your dry cleaning into your living space, if it smells brand new air it out. david is the co-author of "the healthy home simple truths to protect your family from hidden household dangers." i have to tell you last time i heard an interview with you, caused me to go home, put a hook in my garage to hang up my dry cleaning before i put it in my closet. not an overreaction sh excellent thing to do. >> what's wrong with having my dry cleaning out of my car into my closet. >> people don't realize this

little hanger signifies chemicals are coming into your home and so you need to make sure you keep the chemicals out of your home. you're breathing that air. eight hours of your life spent in your bedroom and breathing the toxic air. dry cleaning done with perk, a chemical they put into your clothing, they don't rinse it out and they off gases during the next few days and you breathe those chemicals. >> it's a word you use a lot, off gassing meaning if you smell something f it smells new, if it smells real clean, you know, that very clean feeling, a smell from the floor after it's been washed, that smell means you're inhaling something? >> absolutely. off gassing means it's going to gash shus forms. think of water evaporating, that's off gassing in a sense. all the chemicals and cleaners, dry cleaning, new car smell, all of that is just the different materials going into gash shus form and we breathe them.

our lungs are delicate and sensitive we're breathing those chemicals into our bodies and they're going through our blood stream. we want to breathe in clean air. air doesn't smell. you can't smell air but you smell the chemicals and the warning sign you should be doing something to reduce the pollution in your air. >> i opened up a baby crib basically, a baby crib, basically. a collapsible baby crib and it smelled so new. i could smell the plastic and the fabric part of it, and i opened up all of the windows. should we be treating our new products like that? >> absolutely. we take things straight out to the patio, unwrap them and leave them out there for a couple of days and let them air out. most of the off gassing happens in the first few days as you unwrap them out of the plastics. >> some plastics, there's actual bpa in the plastics. can you talk about the concerns in the blast iks. these are baby products that children are chewing on and a lot of people are going to bpa-free now. >> there are chemicals in

plastics and they're estrogen mimics. young girls are reaching puberty younger and younger. >> it's because of the chemicals in the plastic, you think? >> it's because of that. the pair brabens in our skincard they're making girls hit puberty at a younger age. >> we just heard of the link between cell phones and cancers and gli only as. what about the internet in my home and what should i do about that kind of bombardment? >> we're energy beings. we're made of atoms that are energy. so our cells communicate. there's a lot of energies talking and if we disrupt them with unnatural, man made fields whether it's the cell phone, wi-fi or microwave or the gadgets on our nightstand, all of those energies are bombarding our cells causing damage to our cell membranes and causing miscommunication between the cells and we don't know what the

damage will be, but we say take a precautionary principle and use common sense and say these aren't natural, they're affecting our cells and let's be careful. we can't avoid them, it's impossible, but minimize, 10%, 20%, over our life it will have a huge impact. especially in our children that are in a much more technology-focused world than we were. >> the book is called "the healthy home." thanks for spending time with us this saturday morning. next, how not to ruin your career or relationship in 140 characterers on less. ♪ ♪ introducing purina one beyond a new food for your cat or dog.

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i'm going to assume you know the anthony weiner story. if you don't, please go to cnn.com, but whether you argue whether or not tweeting is cheating or sexting is crossing the well-defined line. 31% of adults between 18 and 29 years old have received sexts to find suggestively nude images sent by text messages. 13% of all adults have sent sexts. so it all makes us wonder, does an online relationship where no physical contact is involved is it acceptable or is it adultery. psychotherapist and our very own tech guru mario armstrong. okay. let's talk first, robby, is it cheating if you send or receive a picture that is, shall we say, very revealing over your telephone, over your phone, facebook or twitter? >> it's certainly a slippery slope. the question somebody needs to

ask themselves is would my partner feel okay if i'm doing this? would they be completely onboard any they knew i was sending this kind of text? if the answer is no then you're crossing a line you should not be crossing and that could certainly lead to more and more contact and a dependency on doing this kind of thing, to feel better about oneself. >> a pew study, saying men coming in at 21% and women coming in at 11% and those earning less than $30,000 are receiving sexts. do you think it's because they're younger? who's doing this? >> i think it changed. i think we used to see this as a gender age income difference and it started with young kids themselves with the whole sexting issue, but we're clearly seeing way more adults start to fall into this themselves. life study did a study in

october that showed 6% of adults are doing this type of behavior. i'm certainly not suggesting that that should condone it in any way, but that is pointing to the pink elephant in the room that social media and our culture, we have this clash that's happening and people still aren't -- for some reason recognizing that your personal behavior becomes a megaphone through social media. >> a couple of things here, there's another study that shows 53% of all companies that say they've not hired someone because they have found something provocative that they put online. >> that's right. >> kids need to know that there's a digital footprint of these shaun an gans. consumer reports reports that the 20 million minors who are openly using facebook are not supposed to be on the site anywhere. this is the stuff who were saying, and i'm trying not to use the name of the congressman because i've been saying it for so long. how do we protect the kids? >> you can use kid-friendly

browsers. another thing you can do is have a parent-child internet agreement. an agreement that says here are the dos and don'ts of today's connected society. the bottom line is we want to teach kids to become digital net sans and they need ton how to make digital decisions. >> is tweeting cheating? is it cheating if you're trading pictures back and forth? just as a cool guy? >> no. you're cheating. >> if you're married, you're cheating. >> robi, what about you? just wrap it up here, for kids especially. i think kids are absorbing the media and all of the talk about this and, you know, and i'm told that kids are doing this in high school and college. i mean -- >> also, it can lead to bullying and embarrassment. my son is about to turn 12. i had a conversation with him and i said be very, very careful what kinds of things you tweet, what pictures you send, start early. . them understand that there are consequences, wh