it's a good time for us and a great event. >> and a mayor with rhythm. he'll be line dancing. >> we'll be together out there. >> i can't wait to see that. >> everybody have a great weekend. we'll see you back for "starting point" starting on monday morning at 7:00 a.m. i want to send you right now to cnn newsroom with don lemon. looks like fun. have a great weekend. enjoy new orleans, you and everyone there at the table. happening right now in the newsroom, jobs, jobs, jobs. new jobs numbers are out. they just came out, and it's not good for you or for the president. the stakes couldn't be higher with only four more jobs reports to go. before the election. experts say america's undecided voters are starting to make up their minds now. we're on jail watch today as well. george zimmerman, will he post bond and be a free man until his trial? in the newsroom this morning, benjamin crump, attorney for trayvon martin's parents. breaking news out of london

to tell you about. terror arrests. the second major bust in just two days. new concerns and new questions this morning. are the olympics being targeted? plus this. >> it's really funny that pepco is actually trying to save face now. about five to six trucks came with anywhere from six to eight different people. the whole process took 38 minutes. >> power problem solved. a family in maryland desperate for help finally becomes a priority for the power company. this morning, their lights are on and the danger is gone. and the newsroom begins right now. good morning, everyone. i'm don lemon. carol is off today. we'll begin this hour with a new measure of the economy and new ammunition thrown into the presidential race. just minutes ago, we learned unemployment is still bogged down at a dismal 8.2%. 80,000 jobs were created. that's less than expected. it's one of the last monthly reports we should tell you

before the november election. and this morning, both the obama and romney campaigns will put their own spin on this. we're going to cut through all of that for you. poppy harlow will give us the bottom line on the new numbers. alison kosik shows us the ripples on wall street. dan lothian will look ahead at the president's remarks on the economy next hour. and dana bash has the view from the romney campaign. we'll go first to poppy harlow in new york. give us the breakdown. this is not good news. >> don, i'm losing you on my ifb. while they fix that, i'm just going to give you -- you gave the headline number. i'm going to talk to people about the real issue here, and that is that this economy frankly needs to be creating 300,000 to 400,000 jobs every single month for a few consecutive months to bring that unemployment number down. that is not happening. this is a critical number. and also how many millions of people are looking for people, want work out there, that have just given up and said, you know, i can't find a job. they are not counted in this

unemployment rate. let's tack a look at that number. 2.5 million americans would like to be working, would like a job. they have given up working because they feel the economy is so bad, so they are not counted in that rate. if you count them in that unemployment rate, it's actually closer to 15%. that's a reality check for you, don, on this pretty disappointing report, frankly. >> poppy harlow in new york. poppy, thank you very much. now to wall street to see how investors view this latest disappointing jobs report. will your retirement savings take a beating today? that is the question. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. how are they reacting to the news? >> good morning. the opening bell is ringing about half an hour from now. we are watching dow futures drop at least 80 points. the s&p 500, which our portfolio mostly tracks, that's down 3/4 of 1%. the way wall street sees it is, the bar was already low. 95,000 jobs was the expectation. and look at this.

the 80,000 number, it couldn't even live up to that. and then you look at april through june. all of these numbers, only job additions in the double digits. turns out to be that the weakest job quarter in two years. so it's been three months in a row below 100,000 jobs added to this economy. and many say, you know, at this point, you can officially call it a trend. so clearlit's not good enough. so once again, dow industrials look like they are going to open at least 80 points lower. now the question for investors, don, is it bad enough for the fed to do something? meaning, is this number scary enough where it could encourage the federal reserve to pump even more stimulus into the system? and guess what. an analyst i talked to says, you know, it's not bad enough. it's not bad enough for the fed to step in just yet. so investors are disappointed and showing their disappointment in futures once again, which are lower. don? >> alison, we'll be checking with you throughout the day. thank you. the economy has become the issue in the presidential race. and with good reason, of course.

the cnn/orc poll shows that registered voters are split between choodsing who would better handle the nation's sluggish economy. 48% choose romney, 47% choose obama. when of courasked what issue is important to voters, over half say the economy, of course. the president is trying to blunt the criticism of the weak economy. >> from now until november, the other side is going to spend more money than we have seen before, and they will be raining ads down on your head, and they'll tell you it's all my fault. i can't fix it because i think government is the answer to everything or because i haven't made a lot of money in the private sector. i think everything is doing just fine. that's what all of the scary voices in the ads will tell you. that's what mitt romney will say. that's what republicans in congress will say. and, you know, that's their plan

for winning an election, but it's not a plan to create jobs. >> that was thursday before this dismal jobs report. there you see him. dan lothian traveling with the obama bus tour. he is joining us now from northeast ohio. he's on that bus. how are they reacting? have you heard anything about the reaction from the obama campaign to this jobs report, dan? >> reporter: well, you know, don, we are on one of the two press buses going along with the president on this tour. i'm told by a senior campaign official that the president will be giving some sort of reaction to the latest job numbers at this event. we are in poland, ohio, at an elementary school. as i said, we just pulled in here. so later in the hour, perhaps a little later than that, because the president has been making some side trips, we'll hear from the president reacting to those numbers. no doubt we will hear the president talk about the progress being made, but also pointing out that this recovery will take time. that this is not something that will be fixed overnight.

but this is already something that republicans are jumping on, attacking the president, saying that this high unemployment is chronically high. and that it just shows that the president's economic policies have failed. a little scene setter here, the president before arriving to this event here in poland, ohio, made a stop this morning at a -- in akron, ohio, at a restaurant where he ordered some eggs, wheat toast, and some bacon, and then sat down with three workers at a tire company, from a goodyear company, obviously talking about the economy, finding out what's important in their lives. and then the president stopping off as we speak at a manufacturing plant. it's a food manufacturing plant that we're told by the white house is expanding and adding jobs. so the theme on this two-day bus tour has been job creation, how his economic policies have worked, at least according to the president, and what he hopes

to continue doing to create more jobs not only in this region that's been hit hard by a loss in manufacturing jobs, but also in pennsylvania as well, where he'll be headed later today. don? >> dan lothian traveling with the obama campaign bus. it will interesting to hear what he has to say. within minutes of the new jobs report, of course, republicans were quick to pounce on the tepid numbers. dana bash is in boston with the reaction. just got an email saying that the obama economy is defined by high unemployment, and that's just the beginning of the response. >> that's exactly right. we haven't heard from the romney campaign her say yet, but we are going to hear probably pretty much precisely what we heard from the republican national committee chair and the house speaker, who were very, very quick to release their statements. and as you say, and i'll read part of it, the obama economy is defined by chronically high unemployment. our country is coming out of the

worst quarter of job creation in two years. obamacare and president obama's other policies are simply not working and disappointed americans are ready for new direction. that is something that they probably could have and maybe did cut and paste from last month's jobs report and the jobs report before that. look, it is no secret now that we are at friday the end of this week that the romney campaign in particular didn't have the best week when it came to trying to define their message about health care. and about the supreme court decision and whether or not the mandate is a tax or a penalty and so forth. however, talk to senior romney officials as i have being up here in new england and they say that by far they still believe that it is jobs and the economy that are going to drive the electorate, and that is why for them this is a critically important jobs report. >> busy day for you, dana bash. stand by as well. this morning we will also hear from two possible running mates of mitt romney. louisiana governor bobby jindal and former minnesota governor

tim pawlenty are aboard the romney campaign bus. they are shadowing the obama tour in ohio and pennsylvania. pawlenty and jindal are due to speak at the top of the hour in pittsburgh, and we'll carry their remarks live for you here on cnn. we are learning of more terror arrests for the second day in a row in uk. and we'll take you live to london for the very latest.

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introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. check your headlines right now. world leaders are putting more pressure on the syrian regime to step down. and the secretary of state hillary clinton says the people deserve a democratically elected government, but she says getting rid of bashir al assad won't be easy. >> this is a regime with a massive war machine.

i'm sure many of you followed the back and forth i had with the russian government over sending the attack helicopters they were refurbishing back to syria. and i thank the united kingdom and other european countries for very clearly expressing their refusal to allow that ship to go forward. >> the opposition says that at least 80 more people have been killed across syria since yesterday. this morning, crews in east tennessee are looking for other possible victims after severe storms with 70 mile an hour winds hit overnight. at least two people were killed in the great smokey mountains national park. and police say a woman was hit by a falling tree, and a man wrecked his motorcycle. the storms also knocked out power to thousands and damaged several homes. starting monday, you and 60,000 other americans could lose internet access if your pc is infected with a virus. that virus redirects you to websites that will try to steal your personal information.

the fbi arrested the malware authors last year, and has been asking people to check their computers. you can go to this website. do that by going to dcwg.org. dcwg.org. drivers in dallas got no warning before a smash-up. look at this. the driver of a transit authority van never touches his brakes as he crushes a line of cars stopped at an exit ramp. there it is. boom, right in there. incredibly, only two people were injured. no passengers were in that van. the driver of the van now on administrative leave. tightened security right now in the uk with the olympic games just three weeks away. just a few hours ago, police announced the arrest of seven people on terror charges a day after six other terror suspects were detained. matthew chance is in london for us. good morning. >> well, it is just three weeks. july 27 is when the olympic games gets underway here in the

british capital. and we are seeing an upsurge in security related activity. today those seven men arrested in anti-terror raids by the police across the country. it took place in the west midlands part of england, north of the country. it actually comes from the fact a car was stopped on a main road on suspicion of not having proper insurance. but when they searched the car, they found weapons of some description. not been disclosed exactly what. but the items recovered from the vehicle according to the police are undergoing forensic analysis and searches are being carried out of the people who were arrested. it comes just a day, though, after six other people were arrested here in london. some of them near the olympic center. the olympic stadium where the games are going to kick off. and it's understood that their arrest related to a plot involving islamist extremists with potential uk targets. although the police are very quick to say that neither of these incidents, neither of these arrests, the ones today in the midlands nor the ones yesterday in london, are

directly related to any plot to attack during the olympic games, don. >> all right. matthew chance in london. thank you very much for that. here in the u.s., george zimmerman gets another chance to leave jail even as a florida judge says he thinks gzimmerman could be a flight risk. we'll talk about what's next in the trayvon martin case.

we want to get you now live to -- there it is, sanford, florida, from the florida jail there. and again that's live pictures where any minute george zimmerman could, he could walk out after posting part of a $1 million bond. david mattingly is here. and when that came in, $1

million yesterday, everyone said, oh, my goodness. the judge did place some restrictions on george zimmerman this time. what are they? >> well, he had a lot of restrictions on him before. he has to wear the ankle bracelet, the gps device. he has to check in. he has to refrain from using alcohol. all the usual things. but this time, the judge says we're not going to let you leave the county. that's because the judge believed he was a flight risk, saying it in the order yesterday that he believed that george zimmerman was planning to leave to avoid prosecution. about you those plans were thwarted. he didn't give any details about what the plans were or how they were ended. >> really? >> but he clearly believed that george zimmerman was a flight risk. >> so it's $1 million. he has to do 10%, right? >> right. >> so does that play into whether -- does the bondsman take into account what the judge thinks about possible flight risk? meaning, is he going to make this bond? >> well, it's a negotiation process.

george zimmerman's parents don't own enough property to make up for the difference, the other $900,000. so the attorney for zimmerman is negotiating with the bondsman to see what sort of risk they are all willing to take. if zimmerman leaves, then the bondsman may be on the hook for whatever is left over, if they decide to post the bond for him. so it say negotiation process. but, again, zimmerman will have a gps device on. he's not allowed to leave the county. and it's possible his parents may be on the hook by having their own property in the mix here. but we don't know the details of the negotiations. >> very interesting. there seems to be twists and turns to this case almost every week. >> right. >> it's going to be interesting to watch. >> and the big twist here, not only is george zimmerman's reputation with the court severely damaged, but his attorney is now also actively involved in fund raising, with the statement that came out yesterday. he was telling people if you support george zimmerman, now is

the time to contribute. and we hadn't seen that before. >> david mattingly, thank you. we showed you that live shot of the sanford, florida, jail. in our next hour, we'll speak to a man who has been at the center of this controversial case. there he is. benjamin crump, attorney for the trayvon martin family. he will join me live at 10:25 a.m. eastern right here on cnn. and our thanks again to david mattingly. many people in the greater d.c. area are still dealing with power outages from the storms. officials say they received an onslaught of calls. so why did one fire crew take time out to do of all things fill a homeowner's swimming pool? lisa sylvester checked it out. >> reporter: trees down, tangling electrical wires and medical emergencies in the aftermath of the storm. as a result, the fire department had triple the number of normal calls. but in the middle of it all, what was this d.c. engine fire crew tasked with? filling this private small above

ground pool in someone's yard. neighbor frida brooks watched it all happen. >> i was more in shock. i couldn't believe it. because i didn't know they could come and do that. >> they are not actually supposed to do that. >> i kind of figured that. >> reporter: this fire hydrant had to be opened to help fill up the pool with a total of about 1,000 gallons of water. it took firefighters about an hour to get the job done. we knocked on the homeowner's door, but there was no answer. so while the fire department was filling up this one person's private pool, the neighbors here say they were suffering in the heat. they didn't have electricity for four days. the firefighters local union president says even the engine 30 fire crews thought the request was unusual. the fire department doesn't go around filling up private pools. >> i did talk to some of the firefighters that were involved, and they had concerns. they thought that, you know, they could have been out doing other work, especially during the storm. >> but the firefighters had

their are torders and they are trained to follow them. the request was made on thursday. friday, the storm hit. the job was done on saturday. i asked the d.c. fire chief what in the world his people were thinking. he says the request to fill the pool was immediately denied. >> they ran it up the flagpole and they were told not to do it. but unfortunately, that information was not communicated down to the company level. we found out where the breakdown is, and we'll have to take appropriate action. >> reporter: a battalion chief is now being reprimanded, and the fire chief is now saying to d.c. residents, sorry. is this ever going to happen again, where you're going to fill a private pool? >> no. >> the fire chief insists there is no personal connection between the homeowner and anyone at the fire department, but it is amazing it got past the initial homeowner's phone call because the fire department doesn't serve as a pool company. by the way, when we went by the home, the pool has since been emptied. lisa sillylvestesylvester, cnn.

you just saw those dismal jobs numbers that came out. and i'm hearing now that mitt romney is going to respond to the june unemployment report. he is at the family lakehouse near wolfesboro, new hampshire. the news of the day, only 80,000 jobs created in june. we'll hear from the presumptive republican nominee mitt romney at the top of the hour, 10:00 a.m. eastern here on cnn. to talk more about that, we'll go to new orleans where the essence music festival is underway. and there is more to talk about than just music. we'll talk about jobs numbers continuing a troubling trend, especially for african-americans hit hardest by this economy. yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate.

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here are the stories we're watching for you right now in the "cnn newsroom." we are watching president obama to comment on the bleak jobs report in about an hour. the president will return to the white house this afternoon and sign a $105 billion transportation and student loan bill to. it funds highway and legislation projects for two years and extends a 4.2% have rate on certain federal student loans. more tense moments in london. police in the uk just announcing they arrested seven more terror suspects. the men were detained after police found firearms and other weapons hidden in a car. police arrested six other people yesterday on terror charges. the arrests come amid heightened security ahead of the olympic games. a stunning blow to syrian president bashir al assad today. a general and his elite republican guards has defected. that's according to a western diplomat.

he is possibly the most senior sunni in the power structure and considered one of assad's confida confidants. he became disenchanted with the regime over the slaughter of civilians, especially sunnis. now let's get to what we've been talking about, the breakdown of that jobs report. it's a disappointing jobs report alg raci lines. as well, the picture, it is even more troubling. the labor department says the unemployment rate for african-americans in june climbed to 14.4%, nearly double the jobless rate for white americans and at 7.4%. we want to go to our soledad o'brien at the essence music festival in new orleans, where they are empowering -- empowerment sessions are going on as well as big jam sessions. i can see you standing out there on the corner, soledad. what are people at this festival saying about jobs in general? do african-americans -- >> it's interesting. >> i'm not sure if you have spoken with them. do they think the president has

done enough to help the economy? sorry about that the delay. >> we have here, and the people we have spoken to have said, yeah, they feel like here there are enough jobs, and that they feel good about the economy. but when you look at sort of the macro picture of it, the issue is going to be a focus on african-american women, which is sort of appropriate because the essence festival is about empowering women. and the fastest-growing group of small business owners are african-american women. and with the housing crisis that can kill that for a couple of reasons. number one, the way you get a loan obviously is you can secure it through your home. at the same time, we have seen credit tightening. so that growing group of small business owners, african-american women, now they are not growing quite so fast. puts a real strain on them. and that's where i think you're seeing a struggle for black women specifically. where this comes back to be problematic for president barack obama is that that same group, black women, african-american women, is the group that churned

out the largest numbers for him. that was the most enthusiastic group about voting for him in the 2008 election. so you can see where the conundrum comes with these new and as you point out pretty dire numbers specifically and especially for african-americans. so when we were talking this morning with expert economists saying that the growth is even more slow and more meagre than projected, the number projected was 95,000 jobs created, it turned out to be 80,000 jobs created. you can see where this would pose a big dilemma for president obama, especially among his core constituents, because they are the ones who are being hit in both the lack of opportunities in the small business growth and also high unemployment numbers as well. don? >> again, pardon, sorry about the delay, soledad. as we were sitting here in the newsroom, and, you know, it's an hour earlier there, and the report came across and everyone said, oh, my gosh, whoa. you were in a hall with people

this morning. was there a reaction? has there been a visceral reaction to these jobs numbers, or it hasn't really trickled down yet to the folks there? >> no. i don't think it trickles down exactly in that way. i think the people who say whoa are the economists who are then going to crunch those numbers. i think for most -- you know, we like to call regular folks walking around, and we have had a chance to talk to right here at the ruby slipper cafe where we spent a lot of our morning, those folks talk about how they feel. you know, what they feel about the economy, instead of what the statistics and some job numbers show over the last month. and i think people are feeling badly. they are hurting because they know somebody, if they themselves are not struggling with a job loss, they certainly know somebody, a family member, who is struggling with job loss. i think that that is the big problem, because of course how you feel is often translated into how you vote. and that's going to be the real challenge for president obama, if mitt romney doesn't come forward with a better plan. many economists we spoke to this morning would say, well, the president is not to blame.

that anybody in the same position would have the same challenging numbers is really going to be incumbent on the republicans to say, well, here's what we would do better, and provide a convincing argument if they expect to take the white house. >> yeah. it's interesting to hear the spin on both sides. people are really hurting, and i think it poses an interesting dilemma as well for the president. soledad o'brien at the essence music festival in new orleans. thank you very much. now to the impact on wall street. the opening bell. ringing right now. and the market is already down 113 points. investors are getting their first chance to react to the weaker than expected june jobs report. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. alison, market is down at the opening bell. >> yeah. market not happy about this report. even though it was kind of expected in some ways. yet it did fall short of expectations at the same time. you look at employers. they added only 80,000 jobs. so economists surveyed by cnn money were expecting 95,000.

so even though the bar was set pretty low, and the number couldn't even meet that low bar. and that is why you are seeing that triple digit selloff went minutes of the opening bell. i talked with one analyst from the black bay group, and he says this is an economic recovery that really seems to be stuck in quick sand. it's kind of like feeling like deja vu of last summer. you remember that slowdown last year that eventually picked up in the fall. at least one economist tells us that's what we're seeing again. think about last year. we had rising gas prices. standard & poor's downgraded the u.s. the european debt crisis. and this year, the worry, yes, is still all about europe. but the slowdown and these economic figures right here at homer also weighing down the economy as well. and it's also raising calls. making the calls even louder for the federal reserve to step in with more stimulus to get the wheels turning again, because, don, almost 13 million americans are out of a job right now. they don't have any work.

and about 40% of them have been that way for six months or more. so it's really, really bad out there, don. >> oh, yes, it is. boy, do we know and boy, do the american people know it. thank you, alison kosik. we'll check with you again. the market just opened. the opening bell just rang down 120 points as i speak right now. moving on, a maryland couple spent days trying to get the power company to fix a dangerous and potentially deadly problem at their home after last week's deadly storms. we brought you their story yesterday. there is an update today that you don't want to miss. and don't forget if you're heading outdoors and you want to take us with you, you can watch us anytime on your mobile or computer. just head to cnn.com/tv.

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new video in to cnn. we have been telling you the president is on a bus tour. he is in the rust belt today, specifically akron, ohio. this is him heading into ann's place and ordering. and the president sat down with three men to eat. workers at the akron goodyear plant there. and talked about obviously issues. and they just sort of chewed the fat and chatted. as color, the president ordered two eggs over medium, bacon, wheat toast. he was also offered some grits, and he ordered that as well. also joking with patrons calling them trouble makers, and there

were some loud outbursts of laughter. so the president in akron, ohio. as soon as the president talks about the dismal jobs report, we'll bring that to you. also, mitt romney in wolfeboro, new hampshire, the site of his family's lake home. he'll speak at the top of the hour, 10:00 a.m. eastern, and react to the jobs report as well. we'll carry both them for for you in the u.s. some fear another dust bowl could happen. this is the most extensive drought in the 12 years since the u.s. began monitoring them. and don't forget about that blistering heat and the power outages. today's temperatures are expected to hover around and above 100 degrees in chicago and st. louis, indianapolis, baltimore, and several spots in between. more than 500,000 customers in 11 states and d.c. are still without electricity a week after powerful storms hit. in silver spring, maryland,

the issue wasn't a lack of power but a live power line on their roof. and yesterday, the couple told us they were having trouble getting the attention of pepco, their utility company. they say the utility restored the power to their neighborhood on sunday, but did nothing about the downed live power line on their house. >> they keep saying, oh, your electric isn't on. and i'm like, no, that's not the issue. it's live power lines. they said we'll open another ticket, but there's no ticket. it's frustrating. i had one of their people laugh at me. one of them hung up on me. and yesterday, i had someone call me and say, well, they were just going to come out and cut the power lines and then we could find a tree crew. and this was at 7:00 on the fourth of july. and i'm thinking, where am i going to find a tree crew at 7:00 on fourth of july? >> it's even more than that. it's the whole thing with the service to the people. you know, the problem is if this

situation would have happened, if there would have been a downed line or limbs in the driveway of, say, for instance a mcdonald's up the street here, i'm sure that within 24 hours that they would have made sure that those lines were up to where that business that pays them, you know, thousands and thousands of, you know, in the upwards of millions of dollars a year, you know, i'm sure that they would have that cleared off within 24 hours. and they did have that cleared off within 24 hours from this past storm. but my question is, to pepco, when does a mcdonald's cheeseburger take precedence over human lives? >> i talked to them yesterday. i told them i was sure they would hear from pepco. and within hours, satisfaction. he sent us this video update shortly after our interview aired. >> when the linemen arrived here, right after the cnn interview and also the wusa tv 9 interview, about five to six

trucks came with anywhere from six to eight different people. from pepco, you know, from the linemen to repair the problem. we went outside and specifically asked them, is this line charged or isn't it? and they said, oh, yes, definitely. it's live. we have to shut down your power before we do anything. so they shut down the power. sawed the limbs to get them untangled from the wires. they temporarily hooked it back up to the side of our house. the whole process took 38 minutes. >> the couple says that pepco even called them twice to make sure they were satisfied. fighting a wildfire from the air makes all the difference. so why did several planes sit on the tarmac? we'll go indt depth to get that answer for you. with an agility control sport-tuned suspension. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears.

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time to check your top stories here on cnn. the nation's job market continues to grow, but not at a fast enough pace to cut the unemployment rate. only 80,000 jobs were created last month. missing expectations of 95,000 new jobs. and the unemployment rate held steady at 8.2%. at the top of the hour, we're going to go to mitt romney live. he'll be in wolfeboro, new hampshire. responding to that dismal jobs report. and then 45 minutes after that, poland, ohio, president barack obama will be doing the same, responding to that report as well. that's him in akron, going into

a diner, having breakfast with the folks there on his bus tour. his campaign bus tour throughout the rust belt. ok. how about this? soda security. air travellers in grand junction, colorado, say tsa agents are screening their sodas, juices, and waters, the drinks, i should say, they bought after going through security. some passengers are worried their drinks may not be safe. tsa won't say why they are testing but reminds all passengers that security screenings can pop up even at the airport gates and waiting areas. these amazing pictures from mexico. look at this. this is where photographer andy merch captured this rare whale breech on camera. the creature, known as the bride's whale, had been shadowing his boat shortly before breaking the surface. beautiful pictures. you know, in war, air power can certainly turn the tide.

but fire crews waging war against the most destructive wildfires in colorado's history didn't have nearly enough air power. the fire is more than 90% contained right now, but firefighting planes that sat on the tarmac would have made the job a little easier and maybe saved some of the 346 homes that were incinerated by flames. so why weren't they used? rob marciano goes in depth to answer that question for you. >> reporter: stopping big wildfires before they reach big cities like colorado springs is getting increasingly difficult. while the bulk of the firefighting effort is made on the ground, attacking the flames from the air is crucial to getting the fire under control. first, over the fire are often heavy tankers. modified warplanes that can drop thousands of gallons of water or retardant on and ahead of an advancing fire line. air tankers are key to fighting the big battles. >> we need large air tankers that can carry a minimum of 3,000 gallons to be able to

actually penetrate the canopy, to get the retardant on the ground to slow down the fire. >> reporter: but the number of tankers has shrunk in the last decade from 44 in 2002 to just nine today. tankers contracted by the forest service now have to meet higher safety standards, a more rigid proactive maintenance schedule than both the faa and navy require. the result is parked planes. these p3 tankers, former navy subhunters, have met faa standards, but sit idle because they don't comply with new forest service requirements. fully compliant, ready to fly, but also parked is the biggest of all tankers, and they call it the big kahuna. if you were a passenger on a 747, this is where you'd be sitting. instead, on this plane, they have got 10 tanks carrying 20,000 gallons of fire retardant and/or foam. 90 tons of firefighting artillery. but the u.s. forest service says it's too big, and too expensive

to keep continually ready on a standby basis. the service says it gets more use out of smaller tankers. but big tankers are especially effective when trying to stop a fire on a ridge line, which is what didn't happen the night the waldo canyon fire ran down the mountains into colorado springs, ultimately burning 346 homes. >> that was a good place to use big planes. and we were using big planes. >> reporter: rich harvey is the incident commander. so i ask him if he could have used an even bigger plane. it would have been nice to have the jumbo jet dropping 90,000 gallons? >> we had what we had, and we did what we could do with it. >> reporter: you're really toe ing the company line here. you know, just between me and you. >> yeah. me and you and the camera. you know, i like -- we use what we've got. we try to do the best things we can with the tools we have in the tool chest.

>> reporter: the air force reserve has helped the cause by supplying eight modified c-130s, tragically losing one plane and its crew in a crash earlier this week. military owned planes don't have to comply with forest service safety standards. the cause of the crash is under investigation, but it highlights an undeniable fact. aerial firefighting is dangerous business that doesn't always guarantee success. >> i know it's hard for folks to understand, and i know it can be frustrating. but we can have all the resources that are available, all the retardant planes, all the helicopters, but when you get the right set of fuel conditions, the right weather, and you get strong winds like we had there, you're going to get a fire that's going to move like that, no matter how many resources that we've had. >> reporter: as our cities spread into the forest, mother nature may ultimately have the upper hand. >> so that the forest service line, and i certainly can appreciate the power of mother

nature. but when you're up in a war like this, you want every weapon really at your disposal. but, you know, there's convuted regulations and money that gets in the way. >> i want to ask you about the money. i think the obama administration proposed these types of planes, right? >> yeah, 24 million in the budget for next year. hopefully that gets approved and that's to get more planes onboard, but even if that happens, that's not going to happen for several months, so, again, politics involved there, but they will take any money they can get, and not to diminish what the guys do on the ground, because in the end it's the food soldiers that are doing the brunt of the work of putting out the fire. >> yeah. and they have got a tough job and do a great job with what they have. >> yes, they do. >> thanks very much, rob marciano. san diego's spectacular fireworks show was over almost as soon as it began. now the company behind that failure has apologized, and it's going to give the city a special gift. we'll tell you. matters. pioneers in outsourcing us jobs supports tax breaks overseas. insourcing. industry and favors bring jobs home. it matters.

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all you disappointed fireworks fans in san diego, you're getting an apology and a free show next july 4th. you'll have to wait, from the same company that put on this year's $400,000 spectacular disappointment. here's cnn jeanne moos. >> reporter: you're looking at fireworks where the fire worked, just not the timing. ♪ we will, we will rock you >> reporter: it really rocked san diego. >> oh, my god!

>> reporter: all of the fireworks intended for an entire 20-minute show went off at the same time. it was over in under 30 seconds. >> thank you. this has been this year's show. >> reporter: it's always hard to tell when a fireworks display is over. you're also asking was that the finale, was that it? same here. >> that was it. >> maybe that was everything. >> that wasn't supposed to happen, was it? >> no way. >> did they just set them all off at once. >> reporter: you betcha. garden state fireworks, a company famous for its shows, says the snafu may have been caused by a corrupted file resulting in a computer glitch that launched every single fishing, garden state's co-worker august santori >> i wish i could unring the bell but i can't. >> reporter: at least unring the car alarms. the short but intense show was a

disappointment to some but not all. >> i was not expecting that. that was awesome. >> that was a good start. >> you don't often see the grand finale at the beginning. >> reporter: on the internet they call this an epic fail. too bad it happened too late to be included in this. >> oh, oh, oh! >> reporter: somewhere over the rainbow ♪ the ultimate fireworks fail compilation set to music. ♪ i wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me ♪ >> reporter: at least no one was hurt in the san diego blowout. the coast guard had a technical term for the fireworks fiasco. >> a premature ignition. >> reporter: leading one poster to quip i swear to you this has never happened to me before. even after the fireworks were spent the music played on. ♪ what so proudly we hailed >> reporter: in the land of the free, feel free to cheer

premature ignition. jeanne moos, jeanne moos. >> yeah! >> reporter: new york. >> america! >> america. all right. speaking of america, what about american jobs? mitt romney on vacation this week, but that jobs report, well, certainly springing him into action. at the top of the hour in just a few minutes he's expected to make remarks in wolfeboro, new hampshire about the jobs report. we'll carry that for you live, and then at 10:45, 45 minutes later in ohio president obama will make remarks as well. you'll see both the president and mitt romney live here on cnn. choose control.

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oh, that's right. it's tame now for the big play. a marquee match going on at wimbledon. novak djokovic facing roger federer in the semifinals. federer leads 2-1. serena williams has already punched her ticket to the women's final. she dominated victoria sazarenk in yesterday's semis, served 24 aces, a tournament record. she advances to her seventh wimbledon final. she will take on on agnieszka radwans radwanska. >> could jeremy lin be taking his talents to texas. he's been offered a four-year

contract worth more than $28 million, but because he's a restricted free agents the new york knicks can match the rockets offer sheet and keep linsanity, as we say in madison square garden, so stay tuned for that. tiger woods had a tough day on the greens in green briar. needed 31 putts to finish the first round. tiger admitted he had a reading prlem but promised to get it fixed before teeing off this afternoon. tiger did have four birdies, but they were overshadowed by three bogeys and a double bogey. he's one over par, eight strokes behind the leader, vijay singh, and that's a look at sports. the next hour of cnn "newsroom" begins right now. good morning, everyone. i'm don lemon. carol is off today. we begin with breaking news here on cnn. both presidential candidates are reacting to the dismal jobs report this hour. this is a live picture from wolfeboro, new hampshire that you're going to see in just a moment. republican mitt romney is scheduled to speak at any moment.

we'll get that up for you. he is react tock today's reports, of course. as soon as he steps in front of the cameras at the podium, we'll bring it to you, and then i want to tell you later this hour president barack obama is going to respond to the report. that's him in okay ran, ohio. he'll respond from poland, ohio in 45 minutes. we'll have bet events live here on cnn. so let's get right to the numbers for you. unemployment, still bogged down at a dismal 8.2%. 80,000 jobs were created. that's fewer than expected. it's one of the last monthly reports before the november election and both the president and romney campaigns are putting their spin on it, as we speak. this hour, we're going to cut through all of that for you though. poppy harlow is here to give us the bottom line on the new numbers, so break it down for us, poppy. >> i think, don, the bottom line is this is disappointing. this shows us three months in a row of really anemic jobs growth for the u.s. economy. we need to be creating 300,000 to 400,000 jobs a month

consistently to bring unemployment down. that's not happening, but what stands out to me, don, and what i think often doesn't get enough attention is how this is affecting minorities. so let me show you what i'm talking about here, all right? we have an average unemployment rate of 8.2% in this country. that is not shared evenly across minority groups, okay. blacks have 14.4% unemployment. right now that went up from may. it went up from 13.6%. whites have 7.4%, so it's almost double that. hispanics have 11%. that's a big problem overall. >> hey, poppy. hate to cut you off but we need to get to mitt romney now. he is speaking. let's listen. >> it's consistent with what i've heard as i've gone across the country and met with families in their homes, in cafes and restaurants and in bra break rooms. american families are struggling. there's a lot of misery in america today, and these numbers understate what people are feeling and the amount of pain which is occurring in middle

class america. not only is the 8.2% number unacceptably high and one that's been in place now for over 41 months, but in addition if you look at the broader analysis of people who are out of work or have dropped out of the work force or that are underemployed in part-time jobs needing full-time work, it's almost 15% of the american public. and then there are those that are working but are working in jobs well beneath their skill level, are working in multiple part-time jobs, kids that are coming out of college not being able to find work, veterans coming home not being able to do anything but stand on an unemployment line. these are very difficult times for the american people. there are other numbers that are troubling. the manufacturing reports of the last several weeks indicate that manufacturing is not growing either domestically or in our exports as we would have expected at this stage and, of course, that's a long-term trend that's very disturbing and

troubling. the president's policies have clearly not been successful in reigniting this economy, in putting people back to work, in opening up manufacturing plants across the country. the heartland industries where manufacturing occurs are struggling by virtue of policies on the part of the president that have not worked. the highest corporate tax rates in the world do not create jobs. highest regulatory burdens in our nation's history. those do not create jobs. trade policies that have not opened up new markets for american goods, particularly in latin america, those don't create new jobs. failing to effectively crack down on china for cheating and stealing american jobs, that has not helped. the president's policies have not gotten america working again, and the president's going to have to stand up and take responsibility for it. i know he's been planning on going across the country and celebrating what he calls forward. well forward doesn't look a lot

like forward to the millions and millions of families that are struggling to today in this great country. it doesn't have to be this way. the president doesn't have a plan. he hasn't proposed any new ideas to get the economy going. just the same old ideas of the past that have failed. i have a plan. my plan calls for action that will get america working again and create good jobs, both near term and long term. it includes finally taking advantage of our energy resources, building the keystone pipeline, making sure we create energy jobs and we convince manufacturers that energy will be available and low cost in america. it means opening up new markets for american trade, particularly in latin america where the opportunities are extraordinary. it means cracking down on china when they cheat, making sure they don't steal our jobs unfairly. it means bringing our tax rates down, our marginal tax rates down and cutting out the exemptions and deductions and loopholes that run fair in many

cases. in other cases, we're going to limit those deductions and exemptions so that we maintain our revenue through growth and through limiting of these special deals but bring our tax rates down so they are competitive and attractive for jobs to come back to america. it means having a government that sees its role as encouraging enterprise rather than crushing it with the burden of new and unnecessary regulation and with outmoded regulations that haven't been cleaned up in years and years. and finally it means having a health care plan that focuses on bringing down the cost of health care for american families, not just adding new expenses and new taxes to the american people. this is a time for america to choose whether they want more of the same, whether unemployment above 8% month after month after month is satisfactory or not. it doesn't have to be this way. america can do better, and this kick in the gut has got to end. happy to take a couple of questions.

>> governor, what do you say to critics who say you're not being specific enough and your campaign is playing too safe and they want to hear more specific policies? >> i don't say much to critics. i put out 59 steps for how i'd get the xhp going, and i don't think i've seen any from the president to show what he's planning on doing. i've laid out my 59 steps and take a look at them. i think you'll find them very specific. again, going through them one by one, taking advantage of our energy resources, opening up federal lands for drilling, doubling the number of permits and licenses to take advantage of oil, natural gas, coal. stopping these extraordinary regulations in energy that are making those in the manufacturing sector fear they can't rely on low-cost american energy. number two, opening up new markets in latin america. the president hasn't done there. in three and a half years no new trade agreements. at the same time cracking down seriously on china, not just at the edges but finally going after them aggressively and saying, look, guys, you just

can't continue to steal our jobs. how do you go across pennsylvania and ohio and not talk about being serious about creating jobs through manufacturing policies that make america more attractive for -- for investment and growth? tax policies, i want to bring down the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 and the individual marginal tax rate, 20% across the board. those kinds of specifics i'd like to see coming from the president. >> governor -- >> that's mitt romney in wolfeboro, new hampshire responding to that jobs report that came out not long ago just this morning, and we have team coverage for you on this story. we go to poppy harlow following the numbers for us in new york. we also have alison kosik, of course, at the new york stock exchange to see how the numbers are reacting, and we have our dana bash who has been following the romney campaign. dana, romney was on vacation, of course the fourth of july weekend, came off of vacation to respond to this. he said, you know what, he's been criticized for not really having a plan and he said i laid out 59 steps to get the economy

going, haven't heard from the president, kenstone pipeline, bringing down the marginal tax rate and making the tax code fair, on and on. what do you make of what he said here? >> well, clearly he's trying to make the point that he has a plan, but big picture whether or not he has a plan or not what the romney campaign is really banking on politically is the fact that people are just not happy with what they have right now meaning the current president, president obama, and the fact is that in talking to romney officials, what they are saying is that it's not so much are you better off than you were four years ago, it is this man, this -- this president obama, he promised very, very different things, and has he delivered? are things the way he said they will be, and you sort of saw the governor try to get at some of that by talking about the fact that this is a punch in the gut. that was a very interesting and illustrative way to put, it especially since if you look back four years ago, talking to

the romney campaign, people did not expect to be punched in the gut heading into the next re-election cycle. >> yeah. dana, we want to get back to mitt romney speaking more about the economy. let's listen in. >> you've criticized president obama for taking vacations, golfing. i'm wondering if you see it as somewhat of a contradiction taking a vacatn right now. >> you know, i'm delighted to be able to take a vacation with my family. i think all americans appreciate the memories that they have with their children and their grandchildren. i hope that more americans are able to take vacations, and if i'm president of the united states, i'm going to work very hard to make sure we have good jobs for all americans who want good jobs, and as part of a good job the capacity to take a vacation now and then with their loved ones. >> thank you, everybody. >> responding to the job report in massachusetts, someone was asking about a jobs report in massachusetts, you said there were a number of factors that were outside of your control as a way of explaining why the number is low. why is that not the case of

president obama, that there are factors out of his control? >> you know what, any jobs figures there are going to be factors that come and go that you can't control, but the things you can control you want to get right, and in the case of president obama this is not a monthly statistic or even a half yearly statistic. we've looked at now almost four years of policies that have not gotten america working again. we've seen that his tax policies have not encouraged investment in america. we've seen that obamacare has made it less likely for small businesses to hire. we've seen his financial regulatory burden make it less likely for small banks to make loans to businesses that need those small bank loans to get started and to grow. his policies have not worked, and that's just not a short period of time. that's over a four-year period of time, almost, and the american people have now had a chance to see whether his policies will help america and help them and help people looking for jobs or whether instead those policies are counterproductive when it comes to jobs. and i think the -- the evidence

is in again and again and again. remember, the president at the beginning of his term predicted that if he was able to put in place the stimulus and his other policies they would be able to keep unemployment below 8%. 41 months above 8% pretty much defines lack of success. it has been a failed series of policies. their prediction was unemployment would be at 5.6% now. instead, it's 8.2%. millions and millions of families are struggling and suffering because the president's policies have not worked for them, and i represent a very different course. i'd live a better path, one that has been demonstrated time and again over our history to encourage job growth in this country, and that's a very simple strategy. keep the burdens down from government, encourage the dreamers to come to america, to invest in america. we do that again, you'll see

america working again. thanks so much. >> again. that is mitt romney wolfeboro, new hampshire really giving a press conference. i want to bring in our players here. team coverage, we have dana bash. dana bash has been covering the romney campaign. poppy harlow in new york looking at the numbers for us and, of course, at the new york stock exchange as she is every day alison kosik. dana, i want to get back to you because you were in the middle afterthought here because i think it's interesting to see romney in this light. it looked very presidential looking press conference, right? we don't usually -- he doesn't take questions a lot, but it is his job -- >> no, he doesn't. >> -- to do in this particular instance to downplay everything, to make it obviously as bad as he can, but i think the job numbers really do speak for themselves. of course, there are other things around it, but it really does, and it paints a really bleak picture of the economy. >> there's no question i think politically that bad -- and this is unfortunate, but it's just the cole hard reality.

bad jobs news for the country is good political news for republicans. you know, i got an e-mail from john mccain's former economic adviser, and he put it this way, and i think this is probably a very concise way to say it. the bottom line. the april jobs report was awful. may was weak and june is a disappointment. none of that is good, and you can bet that mitt romney, his campaign knowing full well what we have been reporting, that polls show that the public is focused on this issue more than anything else, that they are going to come out and remind people that -- that this is not what they thought was going to happen when they elected president obama four years ago. yes, the president is arguing and, you know, he certainly has valid points about the fact that the economy was very, very bad when he took office, but the question for voters out there, particularly those independent swing voters who actually at this point see romney as more important and more of a leader on the economy than obama, the

romney campaign needs to keep that out there and has to keep those independent voters on their side of the ledger which is why he did break away from his vacation, didn't miss a beat. >> right. >> this was clearly planned for him to come out there with that kind of very carefully set backdrop, no question. >> this is one of the last jobs reports before -- before the election. thank you very much, dana bash. stand by. we may be getting back to you, but, again, we're following breaking news here on cnn. both the romney campaign, the obama campaign responding. president obama responding to this dismal jobs report. poppy harlow joins us now from new york. i want to go back to a couple things, poppy, because you've been breaking these numbers down that mitt romney talked about. he said if you look at the people who have stopped looking for work. >> yes. >> he says the actual unemployment number is about 15% for americans, and he also said 41 months above 8%. >> yeah. >> that unemployment has been. break that down for us. tell us about that. is he correct with that 15%

number? >> he is correct with that 15% number. just looking at the report from the labor department, it's actually 14.9%, and he said nearly 15%. the reason is there are two and a half million americans, don, that can work, they are able to work, but those two and a half million americans are not looking for work. either they are discouraged or they have given up for some reason, and i think this is almost the most important number in this report because this shows us that the true unemployment rate is not 8.2%. it is closer -- it is higher than that, and -- and when you count in those people, you see the situation that mitt romney was addressing and that the president will address later today. also important in this is that 14.9% of people that are working right now are underemployed, meaning they are working part-time, just a little bit here and there, not enough for them to feel like they can adequately get by. mitt romney said 41 months where we haven't had the 8% or below

unemployment that the president promised. what i can tell you is that it hasn't been since just right after the inauguration, when the president was inaugurated, unemployment in this country was 7.8%. in february it ticked up to 8.3%. it has not been below 8% really since right after the president was inaugurated, and that's what mitt romney is talking about. these are just the hard numbers. you can't dispute the numbers. i will say though those factors that are not under the president's control, not under anyone's control, don, is what's happening in europe right now, and europe is at a tipping point and name packets our economy because europe is the biggest consumer, the number one consumer of our goods in this country. when they are not buying as much for us, not as many people are working in this country >> thank you poppy harlow. thank you, dana bash and, of course, alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. we'll check in with alison to see how the markets are reacting. our news, we'll also tell you that the president will speak at 10:45 here on cnn. you'll see it live. $1 million, that's the new bond set for george zimmerman by a florida judge.

so will zimmerman be released from jail today? we are watching that, and i'll get reaction from the attorney for the family of trayvon martin. n and games here at the hutchison household. but one dark stormy evening... there were two things i could tell: she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her what our other cats love, purina cat chow complete. it's the best because it has something for all of our cats! and after a couple of weeks she was healthy, happy, and definitely part of the family. we're so lucky that lucy picked us. [ female announcer ] purina cat chow complete. always there for you.

fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. each week seems to bring a new twist in the trayvon martin case. george zimmerman could be released from jail as soon as today, and if he posts enough money towards a $1 million job, a florida judge grant that had bond but issued new restrictions on zimmerman's release. the judge believes zimmerman, who is accused in the murder of trayvon martin, could be a flight risk. zimmerman's initial bond was revoked after he and his wife failed to disclose more than $150,000 in public donations to his defense fund. joining me now is benjamin

crump, the attorney for central artery be's family. he is in new orleans. mr. crump, i want to say this, too. the trayvon martin's parents will be featured in a special panel during this weekend's essence festival. we saw that on soledad o'brien earlier. tell us what the family is saying about this development, and then i'll talk to you about that press conference and what they are saying. what do they think about this development? >> well, don, they have said all along that they would rather the killer of their unarmed child remain in jail until trial. however, they respect the ruling of the court and especially the very strong message that the judge sent. that w that being said, it is an emotional roller coaster for them because no matter what happens trayvon is dead, and he's not coming back. >> emotional roller coaster. i imagine, you know, obviously there are ups and there are downs and you have spent almost every moment with this family.

that -- what do you mean by emotional roller coaster? what are the emotions? what happens to this family? what kind of issues is it causing? >> well, you know, every time something happens, and i think they have come to the understanding that it's not a sprint to justice, but it's going to be a long journey to justice that they are going to have to bear on behalf of their son trayvon, and it's one of those things you can imagine that as a parent you lose your child in this manner, and you have people saying terrible things, and you say but all my son was doing was walking home that night. he had every right to walk home and now he's dead, and -- and there's a big question whether his killer is going to be held accountable. >> yeah. >> if that was your child, it would just mess you up inside. >> i have to ask you this, mr. crump, because many have said that this case has been tried in public and that george zimmerman has already been found

guilty in the public and also as well as in -- in the media, and the -- the family's watching this, you have been watching this. you say they are respectful but not happy about him being granted bond but respect the justice system. what do you make that have? >> let me respond to what you said being tried in the media and public. remember, don, how this thing unfolded. the grass root community and the people, the killer of their child never would have been arrested. he never would have been brought to justice to have a trial, and so it is because the media and the public that we're even at this point, because they were ready to sweep his death under the rug, and that's the tragedy of this whole thing that to them it was as if their child had no value. the system was just ready to sweep him under the rug, and if it was reversed and trayvon shot george zimmerman, everyone knows

trayvon would have been arrested that night. we can't forget, that and also, don, history and statistics are on george zimmerman's side. normally when a caucasian kills a minority, they are not held accountable to the same level that minorities are if they kill a caucasian, and that's just statistics. >> yeah. listen, i'm running out of time here, and i want to be respectful. press conference at 1:30 today eastern time with trayvon martin's family? what's that all about? >> yes. everybody has been trying to have their reaction to the bond amount, don, and we think it's easier on them to just do it all at one time and not have them have to relive it over and over through every interview. >> and they are going to do that in norms. all right, 12:30 central, 1:30 eastern time. benjamin crump, thank you very much. >> thank you, don. >> we'll be right back.

january, welcome back, everyone. it's a very busy friday. president obama will address a new jobs report from ohio when he speaks at any minute. expected any moment now, between now and 10:45, but it may be tough to put a positive spin on those numbers. here they are. the labor department says the june jobless rate was unchanged at 8.2%. employers added 80,000 jobs for the month, fewer than expected. the president will speak in

about ten minutes, in about ten minutes here, and we'll bring it to you live right here on cnn. the man who wants to replace president obama in the white house, mitt romney wasting no time in giving his thoughts on the latest jobs report. >> we have seen the jobs report this morning, and it is another kick in the gut to middle class family. it's consistent with what i've heard as i've gone across the country and met with families in their homes, in cafes and restaurants and in break rooms. american families are struggling. there's a lot of misery in america today, and these numbers understate what people are feeling and the amount of pain which is owe cuing in middle class america. >> here's what mitt romney went on to say. he went on to say that it is time for americans to, quote, choose if they want more of the same when it comes to the president's policies on the economy. i want to get to wall street now to see how investors view this latest disappointing jobs

report. will your retirement savings take a beating today? alison kosik at the new york stock exchange with reaction what. are you hearing? what do you have for us, al season? >> investors are running for the exits. you see the down down triple digits, 137 points. look, even before getting the june jobs report, the expectation for this report was already low. the expectation would be that there would be an additional 95,000 jocks added so the 80,000 number, that couldn't even live up to the lower expectation so the big worry here this looks like it's turning into more of a trend than a blip. you look at the jobs picture from april through june, don. it's turned out to be the weakest job quarter in two years, so for three months in a row now these job additions to the u.s. economy are below 100,000. it's just not good enough to bring down the unemployment rate which you really need to see are anywhere from 300,000 to 400,000 jobs added month after month after month to help the economy dig out of the hole, dig out of the recession that we were in. you know, one analyst puts it this way saying the economic recovery is clearly stuck in

quicksand. don? >> alison, thank you very much. you know, later today president obama will return to the white house to sign a new bill into law. it focuses on transportation and student loans and carries a price tag of $105 billion. it will fund highway and transit projects for two years, and it extends a 3.4% interest rate on several student loans and many students will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief and one of those students joins me now, a senior at st. cloud university in minnesota. amanda, welcome. you've been active in lobbying for increases in student funding at college. >> this is an exciting day for students. this is something myself personally have been lobbying for along with students across minnesota and the country. it's exciting that congress was able to find the solution and find the money for it and that the president will sign it into law today. >> so, you know, amanda, this

bill will keep the low rates in place for one year, and that year can go by quickly. is that good enough, and what will it take to reach a long-term solution, do you think? >> it's certainly not good enough, but i think that there needs to be a really intense conversation about higher education in our country and that our legislators and our politicians need to really make a sound investment in education if they want the economy and jobs to get better, and i think that we see this in the history of our country. we see this in other countries that a strong education for some really does help with those things and students are really excited to engage in those conversations. we've shown last year that we're ready and at the table so we just need them to be at the table as well. >> when you're in school, especially getting close to getting out, you're worried about your studies, about your gpa and sending out resumes and also the job market. what advice do you have for students who may be worried about how they will pay for college, with or without the extension and whether or not there's even going to be jobs.

you heard the jobs report as well. >> certainly did. there are a couple of things that i would recommend to students and families. first is as they are entering college really make sure that you're filling out the fafsa and you look at all of your federal loans first. about 75% of students who are taking out private loans which usually have a higher interest rate are actually not using all of their federal loan options which means that they are more apt to predatory lending and those higher interest rates like i said. the second part for students who are already in college, really be simard about what you're spending in college. 90% of the students in my university are at least working a part-time job so students are doing everything they can, but then for graduating students like myself really make sure that you're looking at those jobs, that you're making your resume stand out and that you're getting involved while you're in college so can you show employers what you have to offer when you enter the job market. >> amanda, thank you very much. we appreciate you joining us here on cnn. >> thank you. >> and we have a reminder. the president will speak in ten minutes in poland, ohio.

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all right. it's the issue that could very well decide this year's presidential election. i'm talking about jobs. weak hiring by the nation's employers is posing a big challenge for president obama who is using his first bus tour of the campaign to -- to tell ohio voters how one of his key initiatives, the bailout of the auto industry, helped some americans keep their jobs. >> so when folks said let's go ahead and let the auto industry go bankrupt, we said no let's bet on american workers. let's bet on american industries, and now gm is back on top and chrysler is moving

and ford is going strong >> and ohio marks the final stop on the rustbelt road trip, a state with historical significance on the race to the white house. no presidential candidate has won the white house without the buckeye state and while their unemployment rate is below the national average and seemingly a good sign for our president's re-election hope he found support among some auto workers there has taken a hit. >> reporter: day four on our drive across the rustbelt. what i'm learning in these factory towns is that there are many different stories, many different perspectives. how is the economy doing here in warren, ohio? >> i'm trying to think of different ways to say horrible. >> the economy is doing fine here in god's country. >> reporter: you voted for president obama in 2008. what about this year? >> there's not a chance. >> reporter: warren, ohio and

lordstown, ohio, two towns 15 minutes apart with two very different stories. does this town really revolve around the gm plant? >> yes. >> reporter: no question? >> no question. >> reporter: we met sherry gaunt in lordstown, longtime gm and vice president of the local united autoworkers. >> look where gm is right now. if the government didn't step in, might not be working or have a job. >> reporter: here at gm's lordstown, ohio plant they are cranking out the chevy cruze. the plant has gone from one shift of 2,200 workers in 2009 to three shifts with 4,500 workers today, but like most autoworkers these days sherry's felt the pain of layoffs. how much does the auto bailout play to you in this year's election? >> it means everything. >> reporter: everything? >> the future, we're doing real well right now. >> reporter: her co-workers told us a similar story. who are you supporting for president?

>> obama. >> reporter: why? >> because he's for the working class, and he helped with the bailout. >> yeah, it speaks a lot about his character. it speaks about his concern for us. >> reporter: but in warren, ohio some former autoworkers was angry. >> i was one of the innovators. >> reporter: bruce gump worked at auto parts supplier delphi for 34 years, a senior engineer, non-union. what did the auto bailout mean to you? >> the auto bailout, the effect on mow and high family is a loss of all of my health care insurance, a loss of all of my life insurance, a reduction of my pension by 30% for the rest of my life. >> reporter: he and his fellow delphi retirees think they have been thrown under the bus by the obama administration. >> he certainly didn't protect my pension. i was just road kill, and to be kicked to the curb and out of the way. >> reporter: bruce gump says he and thousands of salaried delphi retirees saw their pensions slashed and lost their health and insurance benefits as part

of the deal so delphi could emerge from bankruptsy in 2009. general motors needed its biggest supplier, delphi, to be healthy. what are you fighting for right now? what do you want to see? >>the full restoration of our pensions. >> reporter: he's fighting here and in washington. >> simply put, our decades of effort for the company were considered to be valueless to this administration. >> reporter: the retirees have sued to get their pensions back, but the case is moving slowly. i'm poppy, i'm from cnn. when they heard we were coming to town, a group of retirees and their families showed up. raise your hand if you supported president obama in the last election. raise your hand if you're supporting president obama this year. >> we're not sure. >> he didn't bail us out. he left us behind. >> i've lost 40% of my pension, all of my health care and all my life insurance. for the first time in my life my husband and i this past spring asked for the republican party ticket. >> reporter: president obama will be a hard sell for these

folks in ohio, a state he's visited more times than any other, a state he's fighting hard to win again. and as don said at the beginning of this, ohio is critical. a president has not made it to the white house, a candidate has not made it to the white house since 1964 without winning ohio. what fascinated me, don, about being there and talking to these different groups is that they were so close, 15-minute drive apart, but their personal realities, their personal economies were so vastly different. one group telling me things are great here. another saying it's horrible, and it all comes to whether the policies of this administration have helped you or if they have not, and that's what this whole election is about, your personal economy and how voters feel, do they have a job, are they making enough to really get by, or do they really want to see a change, and that's the big question. ohio, the most fascinating stop for me on this road trip. >> great to get out of the confines of the studio and talk to the american peel. really enjoying your rustbelt series and speaking of the

midwest and rustbelt, live pictures now, latest stop in the obama bus tour. he's in poland, ohio, heading there to poland from akron where in just a few minutes he'll be commenting about the economy and the latest disappointing jobs newspaper and the numbers in unemployment. so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible.

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or visit one of our local offices today, and we'll provide the coverage you need at the right price. liberty mutual auto insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? waiting for the president to speak live. want to catch you up on some of the top stories. world leaders are putting more pressure on the syrian regime to

step down. secretary of state hillary clinton says the people deserve a democratically elected government, but she says getting rid of bashar al assad won't be easy. >> this is a regime with a massive war machine. i'm sure many of you followed the back and forth i had with the russian government over sending the attack helicopters they were refurbishing back to syria, and i thank the united kingdom and other european countries for very clearly expressing their refusal to allow that ship to go forward. >> the opposition says at least 50 more people have been killed across syria today. this morning crews in east tennessee are looking for other possible victims after severe storms with 70-mile-an-hour winds hit overnight. at least two people were killed in the great smokey mountains national park. police say a woman was hit by a falling tree and a man wrecked his motorcycle. at least eight other people are injured.

storms knocked out power to thousands and damaged several homes. soda security. tsa agents are screening their sodas, juices and their water drinks that they bought after going through security. some passengers are worried their drinks may not be safe. tsa won't say why they are testing but screenings can pop up at airport gates and waiting areas. president barack obama will likely address a new jobs report when he speaks in ohio at any moment. we are standing by, but, you know, it may be tough to put a positive spin on those numbers. here they are. the labor department says the june jobless rate was unchanged at 8.2%. employers added 80,000 jobs for the month. fewer than expected. the economy has become the issue in the presidential politics, and for good reason. in a tight election it could single-handedly decide this race. a cnn orc poll shows that more than half of independent voters, more than half of independent

voters think romney would better handle the nation's sluggish economy. 52% choose him compared to 41% for president obama. again, at any moment we're waiting to hear from the president. dan lothian standing by, poland, ohio. dan, what do we expect to hear from the president? >> well, first of all, don, as we're speaking here, the president just pulled in, so we should be hearing from him shortly, but we expect the president to echo the words put out in a statement by the chairman of his economic advisers alan kruger who says there's no quick fix, a problem developing over the last decade so that it will take time to turn this economy around, but expect the president also to highlight what he has been doing every time these disappointing numbers come out over the last several months, and that is that private sector job growth continues for the 28th straight month. that is something, again, that the president has been highlighting. now, as if to offset some of the disappointing news today, the president stopped at a nearby

manufacturing plant. it's a food manufacturing plant that the white house says has been expanding. they have added some jobs recently and are looking to add additional employees down the road, so he's trying to show that there is some progress being made but that it will take some time to turn this ailing economy around, don. >> mm-hmm. going to try to put a -- at least as positive a spin on these numbers as he can. you heard mitt romney earlier, of course, saying, you know, that the jobs numbers are kiss mal and saying it reflects the president's policies and that his policies have failed on this. i'm sure the president, he has been addressing those issues before. i'm sure he's going to address it in this speech when we hear from him in just a couple of moments. >> reporter: that's right, and we heard that yesterday during the first full day of his bus tour here in ohio. by the way, he heads from here to pennsylvania, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, to be exact, and the president has been talking about all the negative attacks, as he put it from republicans, not only in speeches and events but also on the airwaves, in

their commercials, their political ads, so we expect the president to talk about this as well. certainly this jobs report does give republicans a lot of ammunition, as you've been putting out, in the only the rnc but also mitt romney, the republican presumptive nominee who has been going after the president saying unemployment at 8.2%, above 8% now for so long is a major problem for this president. it just shows that his economic policies are not working and that it's time for a change, it's time for mitt romney to try and fix this economy, but the president will point out that republicans have been throwing out a lot of in his words bad ideas and they have nothing new here to actually turn the economy around. >> yeah. you know, mitt romney in his speech, he, of course, dan, he spoke out at the top of the hour here on cnn in wolfeboro, new hampshire where he was vacationing at the site of his family's lakehouse there. he talked about what he called the real job numbers because many people have just dropped out of and stopped looking for

work. he said it's around 15%, also saying it's going to be tough to prove to the american people that he deserves to be re-elected when for 41 straight months the job numbers have been -- the unemployment number has been above 8%, and, of course, we know, history shows, that when -- when unemployment is above 7%, it's hard for an incumbent to be re-elected here so he's got a tough road to hoe, as they say. >> reporter: he does, but i'll tell you what. the president in these two battleground states here in ohio and then in pennsylvania is able to do this. he can point to the unemployment numbers in both of these states. here in ohio 7.3% and in pennsylvania 7.4%. that is below the national average of 8.2%, and what the president says is that his policies are working here, expanding manufacturing and specifically he's been playing up what his administration has done to rescue the auto industry. that plays well here in some of the towns that we've been going to and visiting over the last 24

hours. many of the folks there have been employed by the auto industry, either directly or some of the side businesses that supply these auto manufacturers, and now they are seeing expansion. new jobs coming to the region, and so the president can tout that, that things are turning around here, but, you know, republicans are hitting him back. they are on there, romney has his surrogates here who are sending out the message that really the unemployment situation just shows that the president's policies are not working. manufacturing is not as strong as the president is saying and that the middle class is hurting under the president's policies, and they say that the president is just on this bus tour to try and cover all of this up. >> not to sugar coat. the numbers are terrible, but, you know, i've been hearing from people, and we read there have been a number of months of positive jobs growth. they will say at least, at least there is growth, and we aren't losing any jobs. they had expected more sneaks

actly. >> go ahead. >> reporter: and -- and i think that's the important thing, and that's what the president and others on the campaign and the administration will point to is that they are not losing jobs, that the situation is much different than when the president first took office when the economy was bleeding jobs, so it's -- economists will say -- yes. >> listen. i'll let you finish that thought on the other side of the break. we want to get a break in because we're waiting for the president. we'll get back to you, dan, don't worry about it. the crowd there. you saw people holding up their fingers in the crowd there in ohio, and they were chanting four more years. we're waiting for the president to speak at any moment on cnn. you won't miss it. we're back after a quick break. ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. ask

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school in poland, ohio. this gentleman will be introducing the president of the united states where he's expected to talk about the jobs report coming out today. only 80,000 jobs added in the month of june. unemployment still at 8.2%. our dan lothian is there. dan, before the break you were making a point there. finish your statement, please. >> reporter: yeah. the point i was making, don is that, you know, economists have pointed out, yes what, you're seeing here are small numbers of jobs being created, but it's not enough to really fuel a recovery. you need to be creating many more jobs to push a recovery, so on the one hand the president is able to say, look, we're not losing any jobs here. we are creating some jobs, certainly below even expectations, but it's not enough to really push this economic recovery. >> so, dan, the president is speaking at this school, and he's obviously on his bus tour. we call it bus force one part of his tour in the midwest and then heading back to washington

today. why this particular school? does this hold any significance? >> this school itself no significance, but what the president has been doing on this tour is going through some of the small towns that are heavily pop lated, but the small towns here in ohio that went for the president and supported the president in 2008 and was key to his win in this state, also in the state of pennsylvania, and so the president is reaching out in a very personal way. we saw him in morning sitting down for breakfast with three workers at a goodyear tire plant meeting them face to face. a lot of these folks are what we would call the blue collar workers and voters, and so the president reaching out to them in a personal way trying to hold on to these voters in 2012. >> dan lothian, the president has stepped up to the podium. let's listen in. the president of the united states, everyone.

>> how's it going, poland? well, it is good to be here. everybody, everybody have a seat. it is good to be here in poland. a couple people i just want to acknowledge. give dan a big round of applause. he was outstanding. your congressman, tim ryan, is in the house, doing outstanding work. one of my favorite people, former congressman john bacheri is here, give him a round of applause and youngstown mayor is here. where's chuck? there he is right there. and all of you are here.

and i'm excited about that. hey. so i hope everybody had a good fourth of july. >> how about you? >> i had a great fourth of july. we had some folks over to the house, had a little, you know, grilling going on in the backyard, a few fireworks. it gave us a chance to say thank you to the incredible men and women in uniform. we invited a whole bunch of military families over. they do such a great job preserving our freedom. it was malia's birthday on the fourth of july, and she's now

14. and, you know, it used to be i could get away with telling her the fireworks were all for her, but she's a little old for that now. she doesn't believe me. but she says hi. michelle says hi. sasha, bo, everybody says hi. i think malia -- malia's got some friends over, and michelle decided unsupervised 14-year-olds was not a good idea. but -- now, as you may have heard, we're -- we're on the bus here in ohio. we've been traveling through. we went to parma and sandusky and now we're here, oak harbor, akron, and -- and i've been

eating a lot, and people have been commenting i need to gain some weight, so -- so -- >> yeah. >> who said that, yes. well, you'll be happy to know that i've been eating, and in between the eating we've been talking a little bit about politics. now, you know, you guys are getting bombarded with all kinds of nonsense on tv, so i know that sometimes politics can be discouraging and especially washington politics can be discouraging, and it seem small and it can seem petty, but the choice in this election could not be bigger, and the stakes could not be higher. this year is going to be about more than just two candidates or even two