but it's a horrible crime and it's not a game to play. >> it's ridiculous. we talked about it a lot at the meeting as well and i'm glad you got it on the air. 75 degrees and sunny in atlanta. you have a great day. >> see you later. hit the golf ball for me. >> i'll try. >> good morning, everyone. the stories worry this wednesday the 31st of march. remember this? but here's the question. is president obama going rogue? embracing a republican stand, a few minutes from now he will announce plans for oil rigs in the atlantic. ♪ ♪ okay, the tea party express is moving across the country and we are with supporters this hour in colorado. plus floods. >> my neighbors down the street had u-haul trucks yesterday. the big rain tapering off in the northeast, but the damage is done to be sure. rivers in rhode island are cresting at historic highs right now. good morning, everyone. i'm tony harris. those stories and your comments and all of the day's news right here right now in the cnn "newsroom." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the rallying cry for many on the right was drill, baby, drill. now it's president obama who wants to open up new areas of the coastal u.s. to oil and natural gas drilling. the president will unveil the plan just minutes from now at andrews air force base. we will bring that to you live. the president hopes to win republican support for climate legislation, but he runs the risk of angering environmental groups and lawmakers from coastal areas, and if you look at this new poll, many people think the environment should be a big agenda item for the administration. once again, we will bring you the president's remarks live. you know, they haven't seen anything like this since before world war ii. we're talking about record rains leaving parts of new england under water. major roads closed, homes flooded and residents evacuated. a state of emergency in rhode island. our reynolds wolf is on the banks of the river in cranston. reynolds, look, we're expecting this river to crest pretty soon here, aren't we? >> reporter: absolutely. tony, originally the river was forecast to get to 20.2 feet and it surpassed that at 20.2 and it could still get higher. if you wonder why this happens the answer is simple. we had 15 inches of rainfall in the month of march in this area, an all-time record. when you go to tuesday, we had 7.9 inches of rainfall that fell in a 24-hour span and when you have all of that come together, here's the result. you've got the river that's been coming up right over there. see the trees off in the distance? that's right at the border of the river and itself it has come up here and it's invaded a lot of these houses right up here. one thing we've been seeing over here is the back of this truck. if you happen to look at mud flaps, you can see the water has just lapped that area. we've been keeping a sharp eye on that and you can see where it's been going. a lot of cars haven't been going any place especially on these roads. tony, they have had parts of i-95 close down due to rising floodwaters and the back streets like this are no surprise. they'll be closed off also. a couple of other big issues we're having, two waste water plants and one in west warwick has been closed down and people are advised not to do any laundry until the waters begin to subside. we're hoping that things should continue to get better as we make our way closer to the weekend. we're expecting the dry conditions to come in and the waters should begin to drop and then the real cleanup begins, but for the latest in the forecast we'll get the latest from chad myers throughout the afternoon and jacqui jeras this morning. >> jacqui, the river has in fact crested? >> yeah, it crested at 20.79. it's now dropped to 20.78. it's on the way down. >> unbelievable. good to know. good news to hear. >> breaking news right here in the newsroom. all right, reynold and jackie, appreciate it. a dog leo caught in the rising river. bonnie click says her house has been standing since the 1800s, but the danger today is very real for her. her backyard is just a few feet, you can see it here from the river's edge. if the water is rising she's looking at thousands of dollars in property damage. other big stories we're following for you in the "newsroom." more students have been removed from south hadley high school. prosecutors say she hanged herself following months of bullying. parents and community leaders are furious after learning school officials knew what was going on but did not react forcefully. >> there's incidents where these kids have gone and reported it to the school administration and they're frustrated. they're frustrated that they're not getting resolution. they're frustrated that this is just continuing on, but i also would like to say that the task force that the south hadley school system has now for anti-bullying is definitely leading them in a positive direction. >> okay. that parent told cnn his daughter was bullied at south hadley high for three years. a bicycle bomb killed at least 13 people at a bazaar in afghanistan today. the attack happened in helmand province where a u.s. push against the taliban is under way. the explosion targeted farmers who had lined up for wheat seed and fertilizer, the nato program is designed as you know to get farmers to stop growing poppies, the source of the opium trade. whoa! experts did not see this coming. payroll processor adp says companies cut 23,000 jobs in march. analysts were expecting firms to add 40,000 jobs. the disappointing survey is denting optimism. friday's unemployment report will show a substantial increase for jobs for march. once again, we are standing by for remarks from president obama. he is announcing plans to open up new coastal areas to off-shore oil and natural gas drilling. live coverage from the president's remarks from andrews air force base straight ahead for you in the cnn "newsroom." boss: y'know, geico opened its doors back in 1936 and now we're insuring over 18 million drivers. gecko: quite impressive, yeah. boss: come a long way, that's for sure. and so have you since you started working here way back when. gecko: ah, i still have nightmares. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. president obama unveiling plans to open up large off-shore areas to oil and natural gas drill. live pictures there from andrews air force base where the president will make his announcement shortly. white house correspondent, suzanne malveaux has a preview. good to see you. what specific areas is the president targeting with this announcement today? >> reporter: tony, you might recall the drill, baby, drill, slogan, that mantra. that came from the republicans, mccain and palin during the campaign. so this is a very controversial thing that is happening that the president is unveiling. some areas that will be affected to open up to off-shore drilling include the east coast from delaware to central florida as well as northern coasts of alaska. there are some places that are off limits because of environmental concerns. those would be from new jersey northward to canada as well as the entire pacific coast from mexico to canada, including alaska's bristol bay. tony, that is not going to quiet the environmentalists who started speaking out against this and the senators from the coastal states who are also quite concerned about what this means from delaware, new jersey, maryland, florida, you name it. the reason the president is doing this here is because he's trying to push forward climate control legislation, energy reform. he wants to get this done before the midterm elections. he feels strong and confident, momentum from this last week that he had with the health care reform success and russia's summit and nuclear summit and afghanistan, all of that, but nevertheless, this is going to be a difficult sell here. he's trying to win over the moderate democrats and republicans to help him push this thing through. it's a big carrot for the oil companies. he will try to get this thing done. he hinted at it, tony, in the state of the union that this was something that was down the line. take a listen. >> but to create more of these clean energy jobs we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. it means making tough decisions about opening new off-shore areas for oil and gas development and, yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in america. >> reporter: tony, the remarks, he'll be delivering them very shortly, in ten minutes or so he'll be standing in front of an f-18 fighter jet to talk about the importance of biofuels and energy efficiency, but make no mistake here, tony, this is all about trying to use his momentum and his political capital that he feels confident to push forward those republicans and moderate democrats to fight and win this energy reform legislation that he wants to see go before congress before the midterm elections. >> i've got to tell you, suzanne, you talked about the representatives who were lining up, voicing concerns along in those coastal states. we will talk to senator ben cardon from maryland in just a couple of minutes following the president's remarks. suzanne malveaux at the white house. they claim they're free, but more often than not there are strings attached. credit reports and what the president is doing about them. that's next in the "newsroom." interior secretary salazar is moments away now from introducing the president. when we get to the president's remarks we will take you to andrews air force base live. let's do this before the president makes his remarks. let's talk about credit card changes. most went into effect last month. another goes into effect tomorrow and it focuses on companies that market free credit reports. you know those jingle, the commercials which really aren't free ines ferre is here to break it down for us. does this mean the end of those commercials that free credit -- you know the ones i'm talking about. >> where the guys have the -- not so fast. the new disclosure rules for television and radio advertisements won't go into effect until september, but what starts tomorrow is a rule that requires prominent online disclosures on websites that advertise free credit reports and then require you to sign up for monthly credit monitoring subscriptions or other services in exchange for the report. folks often get confused between these free offers with springs attached and the government's annual credit report.com where you can get free reports with no strings attached. >> so what exactly does this disclosure have to say. >> under the new rule, any website advertising free credit reports has to include a disclosure across the top of each page that mentions the free report saying the notice is required by law, that you can read more about it at ftc.gov and that you have a right to a free credit report from annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228. >> this seems like a good time to check on your credit score. how can i, i guess is a good question here, better manage my credit. can you help me there? >> we spoke to our friends at credit.com who offered these tips. for the best credit, only charge 10%, use online banking tools to keep a close eye on your account. a lot of credit issuers and banks have other types of alerts to help you keep track of these things. >> right. >> and also take the time to open every single piece of mail you receive from your credit card company, tony and focus on the fine print where those pesky little details are usually hidden and lastly, remember, your credit impacts every part of your life including your ability to get affordable loans and insurance, so it's something that you want to stay on top of year round and by law you're entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three credit reporting bureaus at annual credit report.com. should i say it with the song? >> no, don't do that. i've heard your singing voice. >> oh, come on! >> annualcreditreport.com. see you next hour with what's hot on the internet. we are standing by for remarks from president obama. he is set to open up new coastal areas to offshore oil and natural gas drilling. live remarks from andrews base right here on the cnn "newsroom." so the president moments from now will announce plans for off-shore oil drilling and for not just oil, but natural gas as well. the remarks taking place at andrews air force base. we will bring you the president, and secretary salazar right now. we will get to the president's remarks shortly in the "newsroom," but first let's get to jacqui jeras. >> the pawtuxet has peaked now. we've seen that crest very slowly going down now. it's only gone down a tenth of a foot so it's not a whole heck of a lot. we'll stay at that stage through the rest of the day today and the river will stay in flood, which means it will still be out of its banks into next week. so you still have to use a lot of caution in this area. it takes a long time for the water to run off. the best thing besides the crest now is that the additional rainfall, pretty much done. so our low pressure area, trying to pull out of here. still some rain into northern new england, but that's about it. the additional accumulations are well under an inch and this is for the next 48 hours and we'll have a nice spell of much dryer weather. take a look, though, at some of the i-reports that have been coming in. this is out of rhode island. a rescue taking place along the wood river here. let me put that into play for you and see if we can get that going. there it goes. there you can see the high waters into the area. the rescue, i think, there it is, right after that. so a big thank you to the i-reporters who have been sending us this pictures. it was a special needs patient that needed to get out of there and we're being told that all of the roads in this area are basically blocked off. so folks are really stuck there and can't get around and there you can see the force of that water and just a good reminder, don't drive through it, guys. it's not worth it and you'll be dealing with this through the weekend. even though the rain isity on, we do have low clouds across the northeast. we still have delays at the airports. you're under an hour in laguardia and teterboro, something to keep in mind. high is good, remember, high and dry. so this is also going to create a warming trend because it will sit here and those temperatures are going to be increasing. take a look at the highs that we're expecting here for today. look at that, 70 degrees in washington, d.c., in atlanta, minneapolis, 72. minneapolis. i know. >> you had to report on home, did you? >> i always try to sneak that in. the northeast is cool because of today and we'll watch for the warming trend and it's a big reversal of the patterns, tony. it's been lousy in the east and the west now is seeing the cool weather and snow in the mountains. >> terrific stuff. boy, it is great looking out the window and seeing the sunshine. >> i'm out of here in 35 minutes. >> have a good time, have a good day, jacqui. let's get to the president now at andrews air force base. >> stephen chu, our secretary of energy. martha johnson, the administrator of the gsa, nancy sutley, the ceq chair. we've got carol browner, the white house energy and climate change director. please give them a big round of applause. they put in a lot of work. >> good afternoonor martin o'malley is here, the governor of maryland. ray mavis, secretary of the navy is here. admiral gary roughead, chief of naval operations is here and we appreciate his outstanding service. thank you, gary. i want to thank stephen shepro, the base commander here at andrews and the leadership present from the air force, the marine corps and the coast guard. ken and i were colleagues in the senate, and i appointed him because i knew that he would be a faithful and pragmatic steward of our natural resources, and as secretary he is changing the way that the interior department does business so that we're responsibly developing traditional sources of energy and renewable sources of energy, from the wind on the high plains to the suns in the desert to the waves off our coast, and so i'm very grateful to the work that he's done and culminating in one of the announcements we're making today. it's also great to see so many members of the armed forces today. andrews is the home of air force one, and i appreciate everything that you do for me and my family. i should point out that you've got a 100% on-time departure record. you don't charge for luggage. so it's a pretty good deal, and i want to thank you, not only for the support that you provide me, but also for the service that you perform to keep our country safe each and every day, so i'm very grateful to all of you. we're here to talk about america's energy security. an issue that's been a priority for my administration since the day i took office. already we've made the largest investment in clean energy in our nation's history. it's an investment that's expected to create or save more than 700,000 jobs across america, jobs manufacturing advanced batteries for more efficient vehicles, upgrading the power grid so that it's smarter and it's stronger. doubling our nation's capacity to generate renewable electricity from sources like the wind and the sun. in just a few months after taking office, i also gathered the leaders of the world's largest automakers, the heads of labor unions, environmental advocates and public officials from california and across the country to reach a historic agreement to raise economy standards in cars and trucks and tomorrow, after decades of which we've done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be finalized which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump. so my administration is upholding its end of the deal, and we expect all parties to do the same. and i would also point out this rule that we're going to be announcing about increased mileage standards will save $1.8 -- 1.8 billion barrels of oil overall. 1.8 billion barrels of oil, and that's like taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year. today we're also going to go one step further. in order to save energy and taxpayer dollars, my administration led by secretary chu at energy as well as administrator johnson at gsa is doubling the number of hybrid vehicles in the federal fleet, even as we seek to reduce the numbers of cars and trucks used by the government overall. so we're going to lead by example and practice what we preach, cutting waste, saving energy and reducing our reliance on foreign oil, but we have to do more. we need to make continued investments in clean coal technologies and advanced biofuels. a few weeks ago i announced loan guarantees to break ground on america's first new nuclear facility in three decades, a project that will create thousands of jobs, and in the short term as we transition to cleaner energy sources we still have to make some tough decisions about opening new off-shore areas for oil and gas development in ways that protect communities and protect coastlines. this is not a decision that i've made lightly. it's one that ken and i as well as carol browner, my energy adviser and others in my administration looked at closely for more than a year, but the bottom line is this, given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable homegrown energy. so today we're announcing the expansion of off-shore oil and gas exploration, but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect america's natural resources. . under the leadership of secretary salazar, we'll employ new technologies that reduce the impact of oil exploration, we'll protect areas that are vital to tourism, the environment and our national security and we'll be guided, not by political ideology, but by scientific evidence. that's why my administration will consider potential areas of development for the mid and south atlantic and the gulf of mexico while studying and protecting sensitive areas in the arctic. that's why i will continue to support development of leased areas off the north slope of alaska while protecting alaska's bristol bay. there will be those who strongly disagree with this decision including those who say we should not open any new areas to drilling, but what i want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy, and the only way this transition will succeed is if it strengthens our economy in the short term and the long run, to fail to recognize this reality would be a mistake. on the other side, there will be some who argue that we don't go nearly far enough, who suggest we should open all our waters to energy exploration without any restriction or regard for the broader environmental or economic impact, and to those folks i've got to say this, we have less than 2% of the world's oil reserves. we consume more than 20% of the world's oil and what that means is that drilling alone can't come close to meeting our long-term energy needs and for the sake of our planet and our energy independence we need to begin the transition to cleaner fuels now. so the answer is not drilling anywhere all of the time, but the answer is not also for us to ignore the fact that we are going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security. ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates of the left and the right, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling as a cure-all and those who claim it has no place because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again. for decades, we've talked about how our dependence on foreign oil threatens our economy, yet our will to act rises and falls with the price of a barrel of oil, when gas gets expensive at the pump, suddenly everyone is an energy expert and when it goes back down, everybody's back to their old habits. for decades we've talked about the threat to future generations posed by our current system of energy, even as we can see the mounting evidence of climate change from the arctic circle to the gulf coast and this is particularly relevant to all of you who are serving in uniform. for decades we've talked about the risks to our security created by dependence on foreign oil, but that dependence has actually grown year after year after year, and while our politics has remained entrenched along these worn divides, the ground has shifted beneath our feet. around the world, countries are seeking an edge in the global marketplace by investing in new ways of producing and saving energy. from china to germany, these nations recognize that the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the global economy. meanwhile here at home as politicians in washington debate endlessly about whether to act, our own military's determined that we can no longer afford not to. some of the press may beyo won r wondering why we are announcing off-shore drilling in a hangar at andrews air force base. well, if there's any doubt about the leadership that our military is showing, you just need to look at this f-18 fighter and the light armored vehicle behind me. the army and marine corps have been testing this vehicle on a mixture of biofuels and this navy fighter jet, appropriately called the green hornet, will be flown for the first time in just a few days on earth day. if tests go as planned, it will be the first plane ever to fly faster than the speed of sound on a fuel mix that is half biomass. the air force is also testing jet engines using biofuels and had the first successful biofuel-powered test flight just last week. i don't want to drum up any kind of rivalry here, but -- the pentagon isn't seeking these alternative fuels just to protect our environment. they're pursuing these homegrown energy sources to protect our national security. our military leaders recognize the security imperative on securing the use of alternative fuels, decreasing energy use, reducing our reliance on imported oil and making ourselves more energy efficient, and that's why the navy led by secretary mavis who is here today, has set a goal of using 50% alternative fuels in all planes, vehicles and ships in the next ten years. that's yet defense department has invested $2.7 billion this year alone to improve energy efficiency. so moving towards clean energy is about our security. it is also about our economy and it's about the future of our planet, and what i hope is that the policies that we've laid out from hybrid fleets to off-shore drilling, from nuclear energy to wind energy, underscores the seriousness with which my administration takes this challenge. it's a challenge that requires us to break out of the old ways of thinking. to think and act anew and it requires each of us, regardless of whether we're in the private sector or the public sector, whether we're in the military or in the civilian side of government, to think about how could we be doing things better? how could we be doing things smarter so that we are no longer tethered to the whims of what happens somewhere in the middle east or with other major oil-producing nations. so i'm open to proposals from my democratic friends and my republican friends. i think that we can break out of the broken politics of the past when it comes to our energy policy. i than we can come together to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that's going to foster new industries, create millions of new jobs, protect our planet and help us become more energy independent. that's what we can do, that is what we must do, and i am confident that is what we will do. so thank you very much. and thanks again to all of you who are serving in our armed services. you are making an enormous contribution and this is just one example of leadership that you are showing. thank you very much. >> okay. there you have it. the president announcing plans to open up new areas to off-shore oil and natural gas drilling. some law makers, democratic lawmakers have real concerns about this proposal. senator ben cardin from maryland, the land of pleasant living s one of those lawmakers with real concerns. he is up next right here in the cnn "newsroom." president obama's plan to expand off-shore oil and gas drilling is certainly cause fire from environmentalists and one democrat who has real concerns about the plan is senator benjamin cardin of maryland, my former congressman when i was living in baltimore county, maryland. good to see you. >> it's good to be with you. >> senator, you are one of ten senators who signed on to a letter sent to your colleagues. in that letter you raise several concerns about the environmental impact if off-shore drilling moves forward to legislation. voice some of those concerns for us here. where do you stand on this? >> first, we do need a comprehensive approach to energy and the president laid out a comprehensive approach. it includes renewables. it includes nuclear. it includes drilling. what i object to is expanding the off-shore drilling. to me that's extremely dangerous. we already have tense of millions of acres available for exploration of oil that the industry can do, but when you expand it to off-shore drilling there's always a risk of spills. we know that. spills can be devastating to the seafood, to the fishermen. it can be devastating to the property owners. the chesapeake bay is critical to our region, and i'm very concerned about the impact it could have on the chesapeake bay. >> so you clearly have done the risk/reward analysis here. certainly there is risk if the harvesting and the oil of the gas is done in a haphazard way. jobs in this sector would be nice with a 9.7% unemployment rate, wouldn't you agree? >> i can tell you the number of jobs associated with our fishing industry and the seafood industry. the number of jobs with tourists that come into our region. ocean city, maryland, if that oil spill what it could mean to maryland's economy. this is a double-edged sword, and i think we need to understand that. >> can you have both? can you do off-shore oil drilling responsibly and protect the fishing industry? can you do both? >> there are areas that you can do off-shore drilling. we do it today. there are areas that are acceptable. i think it's too high of a risk when you talk about the impact it could have on the beaches of maryland and on the chesapeake bay. now the president indicated that there will be environmental studies. i'll take a look at the risk that i'm talking about, and i think if you do, then we know spills happen with off-shore drilling. it happens. even the most responsible drilling. that risk is high for maryland. too tough an issue to take on for democrats after health care. energy policy, we need to get a comprehensive energy policy for our security and for our economy and for the international responsibilities we have on global climate change. i strongly support that. i think we can have a comprehensive bill that protects our shores from off-shore drilling. to make the drill down, sorry, on that point here. it really makes sense right now and i'll have you expand on it to have a comprehensive energy strategy look. with china and india, gobbling up contracts all over the world right now for oil and we're still years away from transitioning further away from oil, it really makes sense to do more off-shore drilling, doesn't it? >> i think the president said it himself. we have less than 2% or 2% of the world's reserves. we used more than 20% of the world's oil. we can't drill our way out of this. we need to use less energy and we need to develop alternative and renewable services, and i believe nuclear is part of the equation for independence and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. i don't think we can drill our way out of this problem. >> senator cardin, good to see you. thanks for your time. there are six a mri cants looking for every available job. when is the jobs picture continuing to improve? our panel weighs in right here next on the cnn "newsroom." 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(announcer) for a free trial offer call 1-800-4-boniva or visit boniva.com you know, at this point you're certainly familiar with these numbers. the u.s. has lost more than 8 million jobs since the recession began. economists predict labor departments due on friday will show 190,000 jobs added this month. that will be the first increase since november of last year. contrast that to this, a new report out this morning from adp says private sector employers cut 23,000 jobs this month. so what is the reality of the job market? joining me to dig deep or that subject, paul lamonica, editor-at-large from cnn.com, and lakshman achuthan, managing director of the economic cycle institute. good to see you. so what is the truth, based on your analysis of where we are with this labor market? so the private sector is still shedding jobs. the private sector is adding jobs, what's going on here? >> well, look, we're recovering from a recession and actually, truth be told, we're recovering faster than we've recovered from recent recessions. the problem is, as you were saying into the lead-in, that we have such a big hole. we lost well over 8 million jobs. so recovering is a great thing, but it doesn't mean you're recovered. it's going to take years and years of a growing economy in order to create the jobs, the new jobs that we lost in the last couple of years, and that's why one of the reasons why even though we'll get some positive jobs growth, a lot of people will say, so what? i still hurt a lot. and they another reason which is that you have a whole hunk of people, big hunk. 40% of the unemployed people are long term unemployed, the skills they have, construction or manufacturing or things of this nature aren't easy fits with cheat right now. >> yeah. yeah. paul, let me have you weigh in. they're hiring again, we understand the public sector hiring is filling some of the gaps here, but what gets the private sector hiring again? a real existing sector, a new bubble without the negative implications of that and what are your thoughts about how long it will take to get millions back to work again? >> unfortunately, i think it will take several years and millions of jobs coming back. what needs to happen is a continuation of what's slowly starting to happen. the economy seems to be gradually getting better and not so strong that people will feel great about it, but if consumer spending can increase then companies will have more confidence to look at their payrolls and say, okay, we're producing more goods now. we need people to produce them and the problem is i speak to a lot of people who think this could be a sling shot expansion jobs as the expansion gets better. >> what does that mean? >> what that basically means is all we need is to get a couple of good month of consumer spending before companies realize hey, the economy's getting better. we need to hire back. you might have companies that have gotten used to doing more with less get greedy and say let's work the existing employees to the bone. what are they going to do? get another job? good luck with that. >> isn't that the truth. we've gone from 100 million private sector jobs to now 109 million ten years ago. is it the truth that many of those lost private sector job, many of them in manufacturing just won't come back. we've just become more efficient and more productive? >> well, you think about it, just roughly with the numbers we have had here, we've lost roughly 8 million jobs and the economy is growing at 5%. we're putting out more with 8 million less people so productivity is up, but what we're seeing, the real rub here and the displaced people who are saying what recovery are you talking about? because i hear from them. we see gdp growing. we see some sectors of the economy adding jobs, but there's a huge hunk being left behind. there are construction workers because the housing bubble is gone and it's not coming back. the commercial real estate side is very weak and not coming back. so if you had ten workers there two years ago now you might need one or two at best and the manufacturing, as you pointed out ten years ago, we had 18 million factory workers in this country and now we had 10 million or so and what you see is that when we have a recovery, when we finish a recession and start a new recovery, basically we start losing manufacturing jobs, but we never regain them and the really, really big problem here, there's a huge problem that needs to be put out there that both paul and i said that it will take a number of years, many years to regain what we lost. the problem is the odds of a long expansion like we had in the '90s or even in the 2000s and in the '80s, the expansion has been going down. we'll have a three, four, five -- >> why, why, why, why, why, why? >> one thing obvious to everybody is the boom and bust cycle is back, right? you get the big recessions and big boom, up and down, a lot of volatility. that's one reason why you have more recessions. the other reason is this pace of growth, how fast we're able to grow during each expansion has been getting weaker and weaker for decades and that's happening to a lot of mature economies, not only the u.s., but it's very evident in the u.s. so much so that the last expansion from 2001 to 2007 it was the weakest growth rate for the u.s. economy on average since world war ii. so that's a long-standing trend, too. >> let me get paul in, what are we looking at. before the recession we were looking at full employment of 5%. what are we looking at the new standard of full employment. is it 5.5%, 6%? >> it might be higher than 6%, unfortunately. you keep in mind after the 2001 recession, the peak of unemployment has been 6.2 or 6.3% from 2002 and 2003. we are at a much higher rate and that may or may not be the peak and then you throw in all of the underemployed people and there are a lot of people out there who have given up work and don't get counted in the unemployment numbers and people who would prefer to work full time that don't get counted as well. so the number of people that are without a real well-paying job that can get them and their families by is much higher than the headline number. >> gentlemen, that's good stuff. lakshman, appreciate it. come to back. gentlemen, good discussion. >> still ahead in the "newsroom." almost every time the president speaks this group has something to say. we check in with tea partiers ready to rally in colorado. we're back in a moment. cost to you. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. in fact, if we qualify you for medicare reimbursement and medicare denies your claim, we'll give you your new power chair or scooter free. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. this just in. we expected this news today, so it is. former first lady barbara bush was released from methodist hospital in houston after undergoing a series of tests. the doctors believe mrs. bush, who is 84 years old, may have had a mild relapse of her grave's disease, a thyroid condition. she was first treated for the condition in 1989. we're told she is alert, talkative and appeared to be getting stronger as she was preparing to return home. good news for the former first lady, the bush family. barbara bush, out of the hospital and feeling better. the tea partiers are quite vocal about what they see as government interference. gathering right now in grand junction, colorado. ed lavandera is there. ed, good to see you. you know, offshore oil drilling is the topic of the morning. now, that seems like a position the tea party folks could actually support the president on. what about it? >> reporter: it's interesting that actually this announcement comes on this day here in grand junc junction, kolle can, whecolorada prominent industry. this is a good place to take the pulse. the rally will start in a few minutes this morning. before i get started we kind of try to get the pulse a little bit of the people that -- a few people here this morning as that announcement was being made to get their thoughts. we'll play a little bit of that for you to get a sense of what they're saying. >> okay. >> he has given us an administration of radicals that have an agenda and they want nothing but big government and, no, there is nothing he can do. he's already proven his stripes. >> reporter: and, tony that seems to be the theme that we hear over and over. we kind of did a similar thing yesterday as the president obama had made kind of overtures. tea party group, saying there was some people he could win over in support and focusing on the deficit group hear that same theme over on this particular issue as well. in their view, such a deep level of mistrust that they just don't think that the president would follow through on exactly what he's saying. i think that kind of speaks to the levels and the degrees of mistrust that tea partiers have with this president. >> it runs deep. all right. ed lavandera for us. ed, great to see you. thank you. we're back in a moment. need to reach out to the program, talk to me direct by. first of all, cnn.com/tony takes you directly to this, bam, our blog page. if you would like to send us your thoughts on facebook, here's what you do. tonyharriscnn. twitter address, tonyharriscnn. call us. pick up the phone. 1-87 -742-5760. let's have more of your thoughts on the program. -d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dd here's what we're working on the next hour of "cnn newsroom." was she bullied to death? we're learning new details in the hanging death of 15-year-old phoebe prince. a friend tells us why and how she was targeted by her classmates. we're looking at the fallout of the health care vote the brianna keilar is getting reaction to his yes vote. let's get going. time for your top of the hour reset. i'm tony harris. experts see momentum for a jobs recovery but a new survey today seems to dent that enthusiasm. it is noon in massachusetts where more students are implicated in bullying that ended with a girl's suicide. it is 10:00 in grand junction, colorado, where tea party activists rally against incumbents. this hour, let's do it. disappointing news on the job market. just two days before the government releases the unemployment report for the month of march. stephanie elam is at the new york stock exchange with details. stephanie, we seem to be trending in such a good direction here and then we get this report from adp. where do we stand right now? >> i know. it's kind of messed up everyone's momentum here. this is not what we were expecting. the adp report says the economy lost 23,000 private sector jobs in march. that's the smallest decline in two years. wall street expected a gain of 40,000. >> right. >> so this is why we're sort of like, oh, no, what happened here? the service sector did add about 30,000 jobs. and that was offset though by big losses in manufacturing and construction. despite the slip, adp says corporate america is on the, what they call the cups of recovery but this report show that they're hesitant to increase their payrolls at this time. tony? >> well, to heck with that cusp language, we're ready for jobs here, growth. this report today, does it seem to indicate that the recovery is slowing down a bit? >> definitely. you definitely say it slowed down. lost 23,000 jobs in march after losing 24,000 in february. slightly better picture out there for the month. compare that to last year when we saw big improvements month to month. last year, march to april, job losses went from 750,000 down to 550,000. that's one month. we had big drops. we're not seeing that now. even with the slowdown, a loss of 23,000, it's much better than where we were last year. and remember, tony, we say this a lot but a recovery rarery charts a very smooth course just back up into the numbers we would like to see. >> yeah, yeah yeah. we do say that an awful lot. the report usually gives us a clue as to what to expect from the government's big jobs report. what is wall street expecting friday? >> that's true. normally these two reports chart closer together than what we're expecting. it looks different this time. in contrast to the adp report analysts expect a job gain of 190,000. that's huge. that would be a really, really large number. especially since we've seen a gain just once since two years ago and to see a gain that level you would have to go back three years since march 2007. we may not see that kind of number when it comes to april. friday's report will be boosted by two things. the adp report does not take into account. first you've got the census hiring. if government has been doing the hiring of thousands of people to handle the 2010 census. those jobs are only going to last until the summer. the february blizzards that took out a good chunk of the country. they kept employers from hiring. so in march those employers may have to make up for that. one economist says if you take those two things out, factor those away the adjusted gain may be just about 25,000. that's not as rosy as the 190,000 number. still a move in the right direction. the main thing here is don't get too excited when we see this report on friday. and keep in mind that april may not have the same sort of direction. >> look, jobs, gains for a month. i'm going to get excited. i'm warning you now, i'm going to get excited. there won't be streamers but i'm going to get excited. >> keep in mind that the unemployment rate is expected to stay steady at 9.7%. still a lot of people out there without jobs. >> you are correct on that. thank you. now that case of bullying that ended in suicide in massachusetts. officials at south hadley high say several more students have been removed from the school. nine others face criminal charges following the death of phoebe prince. here's alina cho in south hadley. >> reporter: by all accounts 15-year-old phoebe prince was fun, approachable and popular. a pretty 15-year-old transplant from ireland with a nice smile. why on earth would people want to bully her? >> jealousy probably. i would imagine they were all jealous of her because she got a lot of attention from people, positive attention. >> reporter: nick was prince's close friend and pallbearer at her funeral. he says the cryptic explanation the d.a. gave about why she was allegedly bullied -- >> appears to have been motivate bid the group's displeasure with phoebe's brief dating relationship with a male student. >> reporter: -- to friends is clear. >> it was just a whole secret thing. i don't know. >> reporter: they were dating in secret? >> yeah. >> reporter: he says prince, a freshman, caught the eye of a senior, football player sean mulveyhil mulveyhill. the two started dating. but mulveyhill already had a girlfriend, kayla narey. if they look familiar, that's because mulveyhill and narey are two of the nine students facing charges in prince's death. when you saw this on the front page of the "boston herald" today, what did you think this. >> true. that's been the fight since the beginning. >> reporter: darby o'brien is a spokesman for prince's family. >> the word bullying is probably not even accurate. when you look at what happened with her, it's persecution. this thing was a hate crime. >> reporter: prosecutors say verbal and physical abuse so severe every day and over several months that on january 14th, prince took her own life. in addition to the taunts she allegedly endured in the hallways and school library, in plain view of faculty, more details are emerging about her final walk home. she walked home. >> car went by and threw -- one of the girls threw an energy drink at her. and they yelled out of the car, you irish slut, you irish whore and supposedly said, why don't you kill yourself. >> reporter: so when the 15-year-old arrived home. >> walked into her house, took a scarf her sister had given her for christmas and hung herself. >> reporter: an act that not only ended her life but shattered the community. people like her mother susan smith. >> i could not imagine it, honestly. it's unmanageable. and to happen in your own town a mile from your house, it's unimaginable. >> reporter: how could this happen? shena says because prince was able to hide behind her smile. >> it was just like a sense of shock and disbelief. just that something like that could happen to a close friend. >> reporter: what also is becoming clear is that bullying appears to be part of the culture. the attitude, not my town, not my kids. but that attitude appears to be shifting. parents are outraged, and they're calling for the principal and the superintendent to resign. alina cho, cnn, south hadley, massachusetts. >> what is going on in that town? let's bring in cnn student news anchor. what are the students in your audience having to say to your, to your program about bullying? >> first and foremost that most of them have seen it. we asked them in a poll on our blog have you witnessed bullying in some form. we tried to make it clear we're not talking about kids just making fun of each other or insul insults. we're talking about repeated harassment, the kind of thing that does damage. 84% of them at my last check right before i sat down here with you today had said they had felt it and or seen it. and anecdotally i spoke with a group of students last weeks, 450 middle school kids packed in a gym. raise your hand if you had seen bullying or have been bullied, easily more than half the hands were raised. >> students, audience, do they have solutions? >> they do have some. the first thing i want to talk about is why this sort of thing happens. we have a comment from kyle. he's talking about how that many students who have been bullied they don't or won't say anything because they're afraid when the bully finds out, the kid or person tells is going to get hurt. there are a lot of kids like don't rat him out. that sort of culture in our audience. another comment we have from a student named jason, he is saying on his bus he had seen forms of bullying. physical activity, aggressive language. a lot of rules in the school handbook had been broken and no one had done a thing about it. the next step for us was to ask them what sort of solutions do you have, how can this sort of thing be stopped? mostly students were saying tell somebody. and this seems to be the sort of resounding theme, what they've been told to do is let a school official know, let a teacher know and hopefully that can start them on the path to correcting the problem. >> we certainly hope these students trust that when they do share this information, that it will be treated well and that it won't cause more problems for them. i got to tell you, we've been over here to grady high school and we had a discussion about this. and i will tell you this. there isn't a lot of trust of administrators to do the right thing with that information. and oftentimes they just keep it inside because they're afraid of the consequences of telling an administrator and it getting back to the bully and there you go, you have more problems. >> it's so cycle. >> thanks, carl. >> thank you. we started hearing from the this a year ago. since then the tea party movement has grown. we go into the crowds to find out who is involved. but first, though, a random but first, though, a random moment in 90 seconds. you know you got your chess club, your glee club, your spirit club. but this school is a club, really. it's our "random moment of the day." it's a charter school in philadelphia that leads a mysterious double life. it revealed the school turns the kcafeteria into the nightclub after the final bell. the superintendent is visiting it today to see for helms. officials say it's outrageous that a school would run a nightclub after hours. and the boozing must relocate. well, we are moving on after that "random moment of the day." okay. you have seen them and heard them for better than a year now. the tea partiers out in force about the goings on in washington. they're rallies right now in grand junction, colorado. ed lavandera is there sizing up the crowd. ♪ >> reporter: hip-hop rhymes with a tea party flare. ♪ lloyd marcus fires up the crowd. >> i am not an african-american. i am lloyd marcus, american! >> reporter: subtle efforts to make the tea party appear diverse. but whatever the tea party goes, lloyd marcus will be one of the few minorities in the crowd. that doesn't bother him. he feels at home with his tea party brothers. >> i don't think there's a lot of black folks here basically because they haven't seen the light yet. they are still they. >> reporter: critics argue there's an anti. minority undertone to these rallies. one lashed out at a campaigning candidate about the issue. >> other than the people that are covering the story here, the only people i see are retired white people. >> reporter: at the tea party express kickoff rally one woman carried a sign with a stuffed monkey that read "send obama back to kenya." tea party activist signs rail against immigration form with a tone that could offend latinos. tea party activists say it f portrays them as racists is a biased, unfair attack. >> don't believe the crock you're reading in media about racism. >> i don't see the lack of diversity at all. >> reporter: tea party chairman mark williams argues the movement is incredibly diverse and says there are no specific efforts to reach out to minor anitie anities. >> reporter: there's no sense to go out and target black people, hispanic people, to bring them into the fold? >> all they need to do is read the constitution and they'll find us. ♪ >> all right. let's bring in our ed lavandera. ed, we've been having problems with his shot. did it go down again? there he is. i think he is there. ed, if you would, we've got you. >> reporter: windy day here, tony. >> size up the crowd for us there. >> here in grand junction it's the first stop in colorado. this event is about to kick -- >> and there you go. it froze again. all right. we'll try to get back to ed a little bit later. let's talk about the massive flooding across the northeast toen now seen through the lenses of cnn i-reporters. the this is beau o'brien. mystic, connecticut. gushing everywhere. pretty crazy stuff, huh? people had to be pulled from their cars. many of those cars destroyed. beau says a road gave out and let the water through. got another one here. this one is from kendall moore in rohode island. rescues. that's scary. damaged cars as well. we're talking about a state with a real sinking feeling. rhode island hasn't seen this kind of massive flooding since they started keeping records way back in 1939. it is so bad, in fact, a state of emergency has been declar declared. even though the rains have stopped the rivers are only now cresting. where is reynolds wolf? he is in cranston getting an island. >> reporter: i see street signs. the corner at third. for viewers tuning in across america, go back in time with me, have that time warp in your mind and imagine dry conditions because that's what we had here about 24 hours ago. obviously you fast forward and the situation has changed considerably. we've got the water, the river that has come right on through. and in some places it is just amazing how quickly this came on through. all due to the record rainfall that we had not only during the month of march where we had well over 15 inches of rainfall but also on tuesday alone, tuesday we had 7.9 inches of rainfall. all that rain coming together turns this part of the ocean state truly, well, very similar to an ocean. and the problems that it's causing are easy to see. roadways are in awful shape. they are just impassable. on i-95 there are a few spots where it goes in to just one lane that can pass because of all the water that's been rising in many places. in terms of evacuations, the homes over here behind me on this side have been evacuated. hundreds of those, hundreds of businesses also not out of commission for the time being. not only that, two waste water plants. one in west warwick and the other in warwick have both closed down due to the rising flood waters. people are urged not to wash dirkes. urged at the same time not to flush toilets. nasty situation, to say the very least. the good thing is it does appears, tony, the weather is going to be improving. chad myers is standing by. chad, i think there is a glimmer of sunshine in the forecast, is there not? >> absolutely. more than a glimmer. we're talking five solid days. that doesn't help the people other than it's easy to get your stuff when it's wet out of the house to get it to dry if there's sunshine or, tony, if you can get hair going through the house. i know a dehumidifiers are great but so is mother nature when that can rip the humidity out of the plaster walls. the numbers are phenomenal at the amount of rainfall up here. people have been laughing, hey, can you stop the rain. no, i can't. and, in fact, it has just been so deep in some areas. look at central park. look what central park got for the month of march. 10 1/2 inches of rain. bridgeport -- there are numbers that, you know, in smaller communities that probably a lot of you have never heard of. 18 and 20-inch rainfall totals in one month. you're just absolutely going to get flooding with that kind of stuff. i would like you, though, if you would like to do this, go to cnn.com, wherever it went, slash i-report and put in your i-report. the big deal is to get pictures on tv. we're a television station, not a radio station. we would love to show your pictures and let people know what you're dealing with. >> if you want to narrate those, even better. even better. >> absolutely. it's cool. >> chad, appreciate it. you know if you voted yes on health care reform but a freshman congressman hears a lot freshman congressman hears a lot of, oh, no, you didn't. key lime pie, pineapple upside down cake, in mapakistan today, the dc, they accused to wage jihad in that country. they face life in prison if convicted. a u.s. navy plane has gone down. crew members rescued what was left. the crew reported mechanical problems. an ohio congressman who voteford health care reform faces a backlash back home. freshman representative is fighting to avoid becoming a one-term congressman. he is getting some support, but he hopes his yes vote won't end his political career. congressional correspondent brianna keilar reports from ohio. >> reporter: we're on the west side of cincinnati. >> flower shop here is owned by my cousin. >> reporter: following democratic congressman steve dreehouse through the neighborhood where he lives one week where he voted for health care reform. talk to some of his constituents at the local chili joint and it doesn't feel so sweet to be home. what do you think about his vote on health care? >> pretty upsetting. i trusted steve. i voted for steve. and he didn't do what he said he would when he ran for congress. >> reporter: what do you feel like he didn't deliver on? >> abortion. >> reporter: ken stinson went to catholic school with him. but like many constituents in this conservative, heavily catholic part of town, he's angry because of this. he joined a handful of anti-abortion democrats to deliver the needed votes to pass health care. a move that could cost him his job in november. have you come to grips with the fact that, considering the environment, this could be it for you? >> every election i run in is a tough election. if you're looking for job security, politics is not the place to be. and so i think it's absolutely the right vote. i'm going to run on it and i'm going to help people understand why it's the right thing to do for the country. >> reporter: starting with local business leaders. >> but look, i understand the fear, but the fear doesn't align with the reality of the legislation. >> reporter: and some of health care reform's staunchest critic seniors. but if health care reform is a tough sell in driehaus' neighborhood, he does have some supporters. jason and erin live on his street. >> i just think with the economy and everything that's going on, i think it's a good change for people that have had issues being able to get covered in health care and be able to to afford health care. >> we have to do something. we need change. and this is a good step. but again, he may have performed career suicide. >> reporter: supporters like the humphreys say they hope driehaus' vote works to his advantage. his issue is this, though, in 2008 his election was bouyed very much from back and urban voters, voters energized by president obama being on the ticket. there are no coattails this time around, but druihaus tells me he hopes mt. obama will come here, campaign with him and rev up that democratic base. brianna keilar, cnn, cincinnati, ohio. how about this? more oil rigs in the atlantic and gulf of mexico? president obama has a plan sure to upset environmental groups. what's the reason for this risky move? cnnmoney.com. we love to promote our friends there. of course, cnn is your source for the latest money news, financial news. cnnmoney.com, you know i want to figure out what the lead story is. jody, can you read that? what is it? oh, yeah. strap cities and budget shakedown. you know, it's just tough all over the place. let's get you to the new york stock exchange. cities and states, budgets strapped. we're having a down day so far. down 12 points. i'm not sure what's driving this at this point. the nasdaq is up three. a mixed day. following the numbers right here in the "cnn newsroom." to drill or not to drill. president obama says drill. last hour the president announced plans to open new areas to offshore oil and gas exploration. the president says it is part of a larger plan to increase america's energy independence and he is hoping to win gop support for broader climate legislation. but the plan is likely to i think area environmental groups. >> there will be those who strongly disagree with this decision, including those who say we should not open any new areas to drilling. what i want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy. and the only way this transition will succeed is if it strengthens our economy in the short-term and the long run. to fail to recognize this reality would be a mistake. >> white house correspondent suzanne malveaux is joining us live. tell us a bit more about the president's plan. >> reporter: something that president bush was trying to do, we heard this drill, baby drill, mantra from the republican side, palin as well as mccain campaign. this is what president obama is doing, controversial. opening up offshore drilling from the east coast to dell care, central florida as well as the northern coast of alaska. what he says is off limits, however, because of environmental concerns, two major areas from new jersey northward to canada, and then as well as the entire pacific coast, from mexico to canada, includes alaska's bay. this is very controversial. there are environmentalists who are already throwing up their hands saying this is not the right approach here when it comes to energy efficiency. there are members of congress who are already starting to speak out. and essentially he is trying to push through this climate control change, this bill, to reform energy, make fuel-efficient energy with cars and electricity. all of this type of thing. and he believes if he pushes and gives this little carrot here for the oil companies he's going to get moderate democrats as well as republicans. >> as you know, health care was really tough for this president. for democratic lawmakers, why is the president taking this on now? >> reporter: well, he feels like he's got momentum here. i mean, obviously the democratic base, they are happy with this president. he just got the health care reform bill passed. he went to afghanistan. he got a nuclear summit deal with russia. he feels emboldened. if he's going to anger some people, he's going to take that on. he feels like he actually can take that on because he's got the political kamt tall capital. he's going to try to get it through before the mid-term elections. >> suzanne malveaux at the white house for us. the investigation into the church of scientology continues. beatings carried out by the church's leaders and what the church has to say about it, including ex-wives of several of the accusers to come forward to flat out call them liars. this week we've been taking a close look at scientology, the mysterious religion that boasts celebrity members such as tom cruise and john travolta. we're focusing on what we don't see. take, for example, the insider accounts from marty rathbun, highest ranking member of the church of scientology, left in 2005 but says while he was there the head of the church, david misc miscavige routinely beat them. he said not only did miscavige kick, choke and punch them, the sea organization, and if particular, the former spokesman, rathbun also says miscavige said other managers were expected to get physical. rathbum admits he himself did this but was done in the ken couragement of miscavige himself. they claim asserting rathbun is a bald-faced liar. as we continue our investigation you will hear from other high-ranking scientologists saying that david miscavige was the one behind the violence although the church emphatically denies it. here's cnn's anderson cooper. >> miscavige was always, threats, bullying, haranging people, physical abuse, verbal abuse. >> reporter: jeff hawkins was a scientologist for 35 years. a marketing director for the church, he was a member of the sea organization, the group that runs church operations worldwide. he had dedicated his life to scientolo scientology, a true believer he earned just $50 a week and liftd in church-provided communal housing with other sea org members in california. you've worked with marty rathbun and mark. the church told us they were the ones leading the ring of terror, he was responsible for these beatings. >> absolutely not true. absolutely not true. david miscavige was the one leading this whole physical violence kick. and it was him who was beating people up. >> reporter: hawkins who left in 2005 says miscavige attacked him several times, including once during a marketing meeting. >> he jumped up on the conference room table, like with his feet right on the table, launched himself across the table at me. i was standing. battered my face, and then shoved me down on the floor. >> reporter: tom was a construction manager for the church. he was only 12 years old when he joined. he left in 2005 because he says he could no longer accept miscavige's violence. >> they would ask me a question and i couldn't tell you what the question is today, i don't remember it, but the next thing i knew, i'm being smacked in the face, knocked down on the ground in front of all of these people. this is the pope, you know, knocking me down on the ground. >> reporter: amy, a scientologist for 27 years, helped run the celebrity center in los angeles, designed to cater to the needs of famous members like tom cruise and john travolta. she also left in 2005 but distinctly remembers watching david miscavige choke the church spokesman at the time. >> he grabbed mike around the neck, swings around, and is choking him. he's holding his neck. and mike is grabbing the side of his chair and struggling like not knowing what was going on. and his face is turning red, and the veins are popping in his neck. and i'm going, what in the hell is going on. >> reporter: steve hall was a writer for the church who left in 2004. he says he saw miscavige attack mike render again in november of 2003. >> he grabs mike, mike's head, with both his hands. throws mike off his feet because he's strong and he put his whole body into this. he smashed mike's head against this cherry wood wall. >> reporter: church of scientology spokesman tommy davis insisting all these former scientologists are liars, bitter former sea organization members who were demoted from their positions by david miscavige. he says mike render was asked about rumors of abuse two years ago by the bbc when he was still spokesman for the church. >> he had been asked the same allegations and one of his responses was, i'll tell you what, if you come up with that again and show up with another one of those crap allegations, i'm going to file a complaint. >> reporter: he's talking about this bbc interview in 2007, recorded by scientologists and posted on youtube just before mike render left the church. >> absolutely no. that's absolutely rubbish. rubbish, rubbish. not true. rubbish. >> reporter: but now that mike render is no longer working for david miscavige, he says he was lying during that interview. he wouldn't appear on camera but he told us that he was physically assaulted by david miscavige some 50 times. he lied to the bbc, he says, because he didn't want to lose his career and his church. that doesn't surprise jeff hawkins who says when he was in the church, he would have never spoken against miscavige. >> if you want to stay in the church you have to do what he says? >> that's right. that's right. he literally holds -- if you're a scientologist and you believe in scientology, and you believe the only way to your spiritual salvation is through the levels of scientology, then he literally holds the power of life and death over every scientologist because he can say, you're out of here. you will get no more scientology services. you're done. >> reporter: the church says hawkins is out to destroy scientology, adding that he supports a movement called anonymous that actively protests the church. >> these individuals are proving they are lying but will get other people to lie. it's not a stretch for them to get together, corroborate their stories, find other people who left years ago to try and cooperate even more and then come to the news media and attack the very person who removed them. >> reporter: the church provided us with dozens of affidavits, former scientologists and even ex. wives. all of them swear david miscavige never hurt anyone. >> i slept with him for almost 20 years. i knew every inch of him. i never saw one scratch, one bruise, one black eye, nothing. nor did he complain about anything personally. >> reporter: that's tom's ex-wive. she agreed this week to be interviewed. mike render's ex-wive says he was never assaulted by david miscavige. >> i know every square i imagine of mike render's body. i know everything that's ever happened to him, every accident, every time he broke his wrist. i've been with him, we've been together all our looives. it's utterly ridiculous. >> and you were married to marty rathbun? >> 15 years. you've got to understand, marty rathbun is a liar. he never mentioned it. >> he says he did mention it to you. >> no, he did not. that's a lie. >> reporter: catherine, your ex-us, jeff hawkins, said that you have a heart of gold and you stuck with him through trying times of scientology. >> whoa, he didn't have any trying times of scientology. it was the best time of his life. >> reporter: she says jeff hawkins never said a thing to her about being hit. did you tell anyone about this? did you complain about it? >> no. you don't do that when you're inside the base, you don't do that. >> reporter: why? >> well, if you go against miscav vin miscavige, if you say anything or you do anything or you report on miscavige, you're instantly off the base. >> reporter: what does that mean to be off the base? >> rehabilitation project force or sent to a remote location or sent to africa or australia. you're just gotten rid of. >> reporter: marty rathbun said he did tell his wife but never complained to anyone else about miscavige. >> he had the power so say you're ex-communicated and you will never see scientology again, your wife again or scientology again. you devoted 27 to it and he can plug the plug like that and say you can never have it again. >> over the past month cnn has spoken at length with former sicientology mike render. he said he wouldn't interview with us because he promised his first interview to be seen. once that interview is aired he said he will welcome the opportunity to come on cnn and share his story. anderson cooper's investigation continues tonight "scientology, a history of violence," tonight, 10:00 eastern on "ac 360." let's get you caught up on top store is are. the northeast under water. president obama declared a state of emergency for rhode island. we've got new video in now from warrick, rhode island at cransto crested this morning. they will receive but will remain above flood stage in next week. army sergeant held hostage by farc rebels is freed today. he was handed over to the red cross yesterday. the rebels say he will be the last hostage released without trade for one of their own. >> i need to reach out to the program, talk to me directly. a couple of ways you can do that. first of all, cnn.com/tony takes you directly to this, bam, our blog page. if you would like to send us your thoughts on facebook, here's what you do. tonyharriscnn. twitter address, tonyharriscnn. call us. pick up the phone. 1-877-742-5760. let's have more of your thoughts on the program. okay. time to look at the stories and then a little buzz on the internet. ines ferre is back. >> jesse james says that he's in rehab. rep tells "people" magazine that he checked into a treatment facility to deal with personal issues and to help save his marriage to sandra bullock. the news of a cheating scandal linked him to at least four women. that's one of the hot up with on cnn.com today. >> so-called sex clinics, is it? sex addiction clinic? >> the rep wouldn't specify. >> gotcha. we can speculate. okay. clearly he's got his work cut out for him. what is this video you're telling me i need to see? >> this is going to make your day. >> okay. i need it. yeah. >> you do know that reference when dirty harry meets shaft in kenya, this becomes a country's first viral sensation from kenya. here's cnn's david mckenzie. ♪ >> reporter: he's a cool cat, part shaft, part superman, all kenyan. meet makmende, kenya's first viral internet sensation. it's a brain child of 20 somethings blinky bill, jim choo choo and daniel moody. they formed the group jut a band. and they put their latest video on youtube as a tease campaign. it's had tens of thousands of hits and counting. >> then we start getting calls like what have you guys done? do you know what you guys have done? then we went on twitter and it's like things were just -- for like three days we were just dazed. >> 50 makmende mentions per second on twitter. >> reporter: and it's not just the videos. there is the cleverly fake "gq," "esqui "esquire" and "time" magazine. and the joke, makmende doesn't cheat death, he is fair and square. kenya is more wired than you might think. the state-of-the-art fiber optic link just arrived. the internet cafe is always packed. the makmende craze is old school. early '90s term used to describe a kid who is acting like a super hero. it's actually even more old school, starting with 1993's "dirty harry" when clint east wad delivered the famous lines -- >> go ahead, make my day. >> reporter: make my day because makmende in kenya's slang. tough guy hero was born. the hero that was revived by a creative group of guys who write all their songs, shoot and edit all of their videos, use the internet to bring people together. >> wherever people are, it's like we all share the same memories from like a few years ago, like that everybody is kind of linked by these common experiences that we all had. >> reporter: doug mckenzie, cnn, nairobi, kenya. okay. you know nearly ten months after general motors filed for bankruptcy the automaker is moving forward with its plan to launch the gas electric chevy volt. is it a smart business move for a company that needed a bailout from u.s. taxpayers? cnnmoney.com poppy harlow is in new york with more. >> you know the big question is, is this the volt, this part electric car, is this the future of general motors? it goes 40 miles just an the battery charge and then kicks over to gasoline for 250 more miles. they're going to be mass produced across the country and around the world in 2012. but we took a spin in one in new york that just came off the assembly line in michigan. take a look at what we found. ♪ so, no key. >> a little bit here and get some acceleration. this is all new technology. this is something that nobody has ever done before, and that many of our competitors said wouldn't be -- wouldn't be possible. and gm will never do it. >> reporter: will all of the volts this year be assembled in michigan? >> every volt for the foreseeable future will be built in michigan. >> reporter: why do that? it costs you more than assembling them in mexico or elsewhere? >> no, now with the weak dollar and with the wage concessions we got from the uaw, the united states is becoming a very good place to build automobiles. >> reporter: i want to talk about the price point because we are still in the midst of a recession. americans are still very cautious about what they're spending. how much is this going to cost? >> it's going to be in the ballpark of $40,000, which is a lot of money for most people. we're not going to make a lot of money on this car, if any at all. it's a learning -- >> reporter: why do it? this company is still billions of dollars in the hole to u.s. taxpayers. >> happily we're making a lot of money on our other vehicles. i think financially we're going to be all right. so that's the battery. there's the fuel tank back there. >> reporter: what price does gasoline have to be at for this to make sense? >> i would say, unfortunately i think this is going to happen at some point in the united states, but at $4 and $5 a gallon, there's going to be a heavy natural demand for a car like this. oh, look, we were running 963 miles per gallon on that run. >> of course, the price of gas weighs in to all of this. the more expensive gas is, the more economic sense a car like this makes. but then you've got a lot of competition. nissan just announcing the pricing on t