American Morning
Commentary: Maine's lobstermen are not making enough money to survive
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/27/maine.lobster.art.jpg
caption="Some of the 32,000 lbs of Maine lobster served during the Port Of Los Angeles Lobster Festival sits October 05, 2001 in San Pedro, CA."]
After spending three days in Maine with lobster fishermen Mike Davis, Ryan Sheehan and Chris Andrews one thing is clear; these guys love their job. Awaking at 4:00am to meet them down on the docks in torrential rain, we pulled up and were greeted with smiling faces excited to get on the water. We all boarded the boat and huddled in the main cabin trying desperately to stay dry in the horrible conditions. As we motored our way out of Portland harbor, Mike was telling us about how he can’t imagine doing anything else, “Today might be a little different story, but when you wake up and it’s a beautiful, calm, sunny morning I can’t imagine not going out and hauling traps.”
As we approached the first buoys I ventured out onto the back deck where Ryan was prepping to haul up the traps. Standing next to the bait, which were huge drums of dead fish, Ryan could not tell me enough about how much he loved hauling traps. This is his first season back fishing; he was a plumber for 3 years until he got laid off last fall. He now views losing his plumbing job as a blessing in disguise as he told me he was miserable as a plumber.
Despite passion for their work, the lobstermen say they are just not making enough money to survive. Chris Andrews told me they need to be getting about 3 dollars a pound for their catch in order to turn a profit. The day we were on the boat, the price was approximately $2.60 a pound for lobster. When I asked Chris how they pay their bills he told me they either have to dip into their savings or use credit cards. As a result, some lobstermen have resorted to selling lobsters directly to customers on the side of the road or out of their houses in order to make ends meet. Lobster fishermen traditionally have sold to lobster dealers for a boat price who then distribute the lobsters for a higher price to consumers. When lobstermen sell directly to customers they are able to get more for their lobsters than if they sold to dealers.
Henry Louis Gates' 911 caller "didn't act on race, she acted on behavior."
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/27/am.intv.wendy.murphy.gates.art.jpg caption="The 911 caller's attorney, says Lucia Whalen is devastated she is being characterized as a racist."]
As the president tries to cool temperatures between the Cambridge police department and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, the woman who called the police and said there might be a robbery at the professor's home is now speaking out. Her name is Lucia Whalen and her lawyer says she never mentioned race when she called 911. So what exactly did she see and what did she tell police?
Lucia Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy spoke with CNN’s Alina Cho Monday.
Alina Cho: Lucia Whalen is said to be a 40-year-old woman of Portuguese descent and said to be personally devastated about this. What did she tell you about what she said in that 911 call?
Wendy Murphy: The thing that we're really emphasizing this morning is what she didn't say. There's no question she never reported seeing quote, unquote “two black men.” And the reason we're clarifying that is number one, it's been widely reported but number two, to falsely characterize Ms. Whalen as a racist, and she is really devastated by that characterization, she never said they were black, indeed, she couldn't tell their race at all.
Cho: But who in your estimation is classifying her as a racist?
Murphy: Well, if you read almost any mainstream news, you'll see some implication that this incident would never have happened, indeed the police never would have been called if the men had been white. That's an implication that the woman who called 911 was acting because she saw quote “two black men." But also if you look at many of the online reporting sites and some of the columnists, they're basically saying had she not been racist and acted in a racist manner in calling 911, had she not been a white woman fearful of the black men in the neighborhood, she wouldn't have thought they were committing a crime and so she is the racist spark that started this mess, and the absolute opposite is true. She didn't see their race, she didn't report their race, she didn't act on race. She acted on behavior. She works nearby, she doesn't live in the area, she was concerned because she knew there were recent break-ins in the area.
Cho: That is initially why she made the call, right, because she was aware of other recent robberies in the area, right?
Murphy: That's exactly right.
Cho: And am I correct in saying that she says she never saw two black men but what she saw were the backs of two men with backpacks. Can you confirm that?
Murphy: No, no, she did not report seeing two men with backpacks.
Cho: What did she say on that call?
Commentary: Expensive gas will "change our lives for the better"
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/27/am.intv.steiner.art.jpg caption="Steiner says today's cheap fill ups aren't going to last."]
Last summer, people parked their cars and decided to get rid of their SUVs. They walked, they biked and they car-pooled because gas soared to four bucks a gallon nationwide. A lot of people are wondering how high it will go. Now AAA says the national average is $2.50 today.
Christopher Steiner is a senior staff reporter at Forbes and wrote the book ‘$20 per gallon’ about the inevitable rise in gas and how it’s going to change our lives for the better. He spoke with CNN’s Kiran Chetry Monday.
Kiran Chetry: How do you convince people to worry about the price of gasoline when it's relatively low? It was $4 last year and now on average it’s $2.50 a gallon
Christopher Steiner: Well some people you can't convince to worry. As economies recover across the world and we get these 2 billion people that are going enter the global middle class for the next 30 years, right now there’s only a billion around the globe. The price of oil will go up, it's inevitable.
Chetry: You talk about the growing middle class in China and India. How are they going to affect the world as we know it in terms of gasoline usage?
Steiner: Those people want to live the same types of lives we already have. China just passed the United States as the largest car market in the world during the first half of 2009. That's an amazing thing. If someone had told you that was going to happen ten years ago, you would have thought they were nuts.
Chetry: Another interesting thing that you wrote about in your book, when we talk about how gas is a natural resource, it’s not an infinite resource. For every six gallons of gas we use we only take one out of the ground.
Steiner: For every six barrels we use we only find one. So we're using at a much greater rate than we're finding because we found most of the good oil.
Chetry: Also the process it takes for us to get gasoline now is much harder. So how does it translate to the person at home who’s driving an SUV, who wants to be able to drive what they want and is paying $2.50 a gallon right now?
Steiner: It's hard to force people to change when life is so easy at $2.50. What you're going to see is people aren't going to change their lives until they have a reason to and that reason is the price of gas. When people think about tomorrow, if they got up and the price of gas was three times as much, would they drive as far to go to work? Would they be willing to drive their kids as far? Would they be willing to live in the same town as they live in now? The answer for a lot of people is no.
Chetry: You talk about the psychological tipping point at $6 a gallon. When do you think that we will see $6 a gallon?
Palin steps down as Alaska governor
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/27/palin.stuff.jpg caption="Sarah Palin told a crowd in Fairbanks that she accomplished what she had promised as governor."]
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (CNN) - Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin gave her final speech as Alaska's governor Sunday before stepping down from her post, telling a Fairbanks crowd that she is resigning "to chart a new course to advance the state."
"Now people who know me, they know how much I love this state ... I feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics-as-usual, lame-duck session in one's last year in office," Palin said, just moments before Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell was sworn in as governor.
"With this decision, now I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right and for the truth," Palin continued. "And I have never felt you need a title to do that."
Palin - interrupted briefly by a heckler - devoted much of her last address to a rundown of her accomplishments as governor, including winning legislative approval for a massive natural gas pipeline and governing "with fiscal restraint."
"What I promised, we accomplished," she told the mostly supportive crowd.
Palin has been a polarizing figure in the Republican Party since August, when then-presidential candidate John McCain made her his pick for vice president. At the time, little was known about the first-term governor. Within days, Palin's face and strong personality was splashed across newspapers, magazines and tabloids.
St. Cloud Mayor Stormy over stimulus
Four months ago, Vice President Joe Biden took a stimulus road trip to St. Cloud, Minnesota to tout the prospects of recovery program jobs. Now the Mayor of St. Cloud, Dave Kleis, is one of the nation's most outspoken stimulus critics.
At the event, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said cities like St. Cloud should expect to see stimulus jobs as early as last spring.
Kleis says he's still waiting for those jobs as he hasn't heard back from the Obama administration to approve nearly a dozen stimulus requests for his town.
But we did a little digging and found some stimulus jobs are coming to St. Cloud. The local sign-making company, Geyer Signal, has hired 25 workers. They make the Recovery Act highway signs that are popping up on interstates around the country.
And the St. Cloud Airport has received funding for a new jet bridge, even though the facility sees only three commercial flights a day.
St. Cloud has weathered the recession well. Thanks to state road construction projects, already underway downtown, the city has an unemployment rate of 7.7 percent. That's far below the national average.
Not good enough for Mayor Kleis who says his city hasn't gotten its fair share of the stimulus.
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