American Morning
A small town's big bridge called a stimulus waste
Editor's Note: All week, CNN examines the stimulus and looks at one of the greatest areas of concern for Americans: the economy. Today, our Christine Romans finds out why a bridge that was built to make residents safe is now being called a waste of their money. Friday on American Morning, our Gerri Willis has the story of one man in Ohio who says the stimulus saved his family from losing everything and is giving them hope for the future.
By Christine Romans and Julian Cummings, CNN
Thedford, Nebraska (CNN) – Sixty to eighty trains rumble through this ranching town in the Nebraska sand hills every day. The roar of the coal cars and the scream of the whistle and the wait at the crossing for the train to pass are a way of life.
An almost $7 million coal bridge will change that. Instead of waiting for 30 seconds to 3 minutes for a train to pass, cars will now pass over the railroad tracks on a massive bridge. Since this is a town of just 168 people, the bridge is the largest per-capita stimulus project in the state.
So how does Thedford feel about its stimulus money?
"We haven’t seen any money. Not yet," says Judy Taylor, Thomas County treasurer and Thedford town chairman.
Some long-time residents openly scoff at the title of biggest per-capita recipients of stimulus dollars in the state.
Marv Blauvelt was born and raised in this town. He says the bridge is a waste.
"Well, really in all honesty we don't know what the point is, except some design engineer in Lincoln decided that this is what needed to be done and they said it would take ten to fifteen years to make it happen. Well it happened a lot quicker than that because of the stimulus," said Blauvelt.
The project was indeed "shovel ready," sitting on the books just waiting for funding. When the stimulus was passed, the process moved quickly and construction began last summer on Thedford's new bridge.
Learn more about Thedford's history 
Nebraska Department of Roads Director Monty Fredrickson says the crossing was a traffic and safety issue.
"The conflict between the rail and the highway is an important feature both from a safety aspect, continuity, mobility and especially emergency services," said Frederickson.
And he defended the project, saying it would indeed stimulate the economy.
Obama delivers first State of the Union
Washington (CNN) - Citing a "deficit of trust" in government by the American people, President Obama's first State of the Union address urged Congress to erode the influence of special interests and work together to confront the nation's most pressing problems.
In the nationally televised speech Wednesday night to a joint session of Congress, Obama sought to reassure Americans angry and nervous about the pace of economic recovery that his government understood the challenges and would act boldly to meet them.
The president offered populist proposals that some say could reconnect his administration with middle-class Americans, and he offered a plea to end the partisan stalemate in Washington and work for the common good. FULL STORY
Full coverage | Speech transcript | GOP response
Full video: Part one | Part two | GOP responds to Obama speech
iReport: Share your state of the union
What did you think of President Obama's State of the Union address? Sound off below.
We Listen – Your comments 1/27/10
Editor's Note: With the president’s first State of the Union speech slated for this evening, Wednesday’s American Morning audience debated the results of Mr. Obama’s first year in office.
- Marilyn: The American people, like those in Youngstown and Pittsburgh that you referenced this morning, keep waiting for manufacturing jobs to return to our country because they recognize that those industries provide jobs that have made our country strong and vibrant. When our so-called leaders provide American based companies with tax breaks and other incentives to move their manufacturing to other countries it was the beginning of the end. President Obama addressed this issue during his campaign and promised to change this situation. That hasn't happened, as we well know. I consider what these American based businesses have done as treasonous. That their executives benefit financially from gross profits made at our expense is also treasonous and until Obama addresses this issue, which is at the root of our employment problem, I can only classify anything he says as lip service.
- Donald: Where is the change, Pelosi and Reid are still "dealing". Congress voted itself an increase and no veto. Seniors on SSA were "froze" and all we got was excuses. Where are the vetoes?
- Henry: The president may as well figure losing more seats. First of all Pelosi and Reid need to go; they are a disgrace to our country. […] It's not good to have one party rule the whole thing. The President said he gets the message; we’ll see. […] I'm tired of giving our work to other countries; what about us. […]. There is absolutely no excuse to pay these people [ politicians] and get treated like this. […]
- RP: OMG! Saying "Obama...and...fiscal responsibility" in the same sentence?.....That's got too make you choke on every syllable? Hey you tell Obama if he wants to impress me and the Nation try "Entitlement cuts" and start with that smug sense of "entitlement" all federal employees seem to possess....freeze their wages, benefits, COLA entitlements, travel, private use of military jets........In other words.....I'm sick of all the appearances and lip-service! Show Me Your Teeth...sissy!
- Dear CNN, Do you really believe that the general public has forgotten how we got here?? To listen to your political spin, (not news), one would think that Obama's election lost all the jobs, and is responsible for the present state of our economy. Wrong. What we are now experiencing is a "domino effect", an "aftershock" of 8 long miserable years of incompetence and mismanagement. The fact that no mere mortal (the president) could possibly reverse ALL these problems, and fix health care in one year is not important to those now busily engaged in "framing" the Democratic agenda. As far as the "waste", and voter "anger" that you tout daily....there is no mention of all the billions of our precious dollars that went missing, down a "black hole" in Iraq. No mention of the fact that Bush/Cheney handed Obama the worst economy since the stone age, and "wasted" the surplus they inherited from 8 years under a Democratic president. Start telling it like it is, not like your corporate bosses would like it to seem. Perhaps we can begin to respect journalism again.
How do you feel about the president’s first year? What do you want to hear from the president in his first State of the Union address tonight?
Haiti's future doctors face tough choices
It has become painfully clear in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake just how desperate the country is for doctors.
For every physician in Haiti there are more than 4,500 potential patients. And to make matters worse, many medical schools have been destroyed.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked with two Haitian medical students who are facing tough choices and an uncertain future.
Trapped violinist finds music amid quake ruins
By Chuck Johnston, CNN
(CNN) - Blind violinist Romel Joseph laid in what he called his "grave" for 18 hours.
The concrete support beams of his music school in Haiti pinned his legs and feet. Buried in the rubble of the five-story building, Romel realized he was trapped and would not be able to get out on his own.
He was overwhelmed by the hot air. He began to have a conversation with God.
"I said, 'I would like to know if you are here. I'm really hot ... and don't have much time to live so if you are here, I'm really hot and I need some cool air.' And believe it or not, the next thing I know, there's cool air that got in."
He began to pray every hour, for 20 minutes or so, and then came his music.
First he pictured himself playing a Tchaikovsky concerto. And then every hour another concerto.
"I know I picked the Brahms, the Franz, the Sibelius. I picked several," Romel remembers. "I know a lot of concertos for violins. And I picked the longer ones."
Resort town's stimulus boon
Editor's Note: All week, CNN examines the stimulus and looks at one of the greatest areas of concern for Americans: the economy. Today, can a $5.5 million resort town restoration project be a good use of stimulus aid? Our Christine Romans finds out why one woman is grateful for the stimulus. And tomorrow on American Morning, we find out why a bridge that was built to make residents safe is now being called a waste of their money.
By Christine Romans and Sara Lane, CNN
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (CNN) – It's the dead of winter and Rehoboth Beach is hopping...with construction workers rebuilding a mile of old boardwalk with $5.5 million stimulus dollars.
City Commissioner Stan Mills shows off the project to CNN, thrilled that the boardwalk will be finished for the start of the season. It's frigid here now, but more than a dozen workers are dumping sand, laying boards, and maneuvering heavy equipment. All thanks to the massive federal stimulus.
"There would be no workers here. There would be no workers potentially getting paychecks," Mills says, saying that parts of the boardwalk were crumbling and more than 50 years old.
But stimulus for a resort town? The project landed on a Republican list of wasteful stimulus projects. Even a local Democrat, Angel Clark,staged a small protest against it. She's worried America is spending money it doesn't have on projects it doesn't need.
"Five and a half million dollars is an extremely large amount of money," Clark says. "It doesn't make sense to me the concept of using money to build this boardwalk when it was already functional."
But don't tell Stan Mills it's waste and not stimulus. Anything that attracts tourists, he says, helps the restaurants, shops and hotels, who in turn hire workers.
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