reporter: for three generations his family has worked this land trying cotton, tobacco, soybeans before finding the climate just right for sweet poet. we re blessed, unfortunately, with gnats at hot temperatures. those are things we have a supply of. that s what sweet potatoes want. it s a tropical plant that s adapted to warm temperatures and southern soils are relatively poor. reporter: and now the poor soils are making north carolina rich. right here in this field is the capital. north carolina is the capital of sweet potatoes. bar none. reporter: that s sue langdon with the sweet potatoes commission. 400 farmers will plant 60,000 acres of sweet potatoes wor $182 million to the state economy. that s a record.
tripoli today. a government official says one of the blasts hit a compound belonging to libyan leader moammar gadhafi. nato claiming responsibility, at least one of the attacks which it said struck a vehicle in a storage area. the airstrikes happened during the daylight which has been rare for nato strikes in libya. president obama arrived back in the u.s. within the last hour. he wrapped up a six-day trip to europe today in poland where he did meet with the prime minister, also met with veterans of solidarity labor movement, credited with helping end communism in poland. the president praised poland s transition to democracy and called it a model for nations across north africa and the middle east now. and in missouri, the death toll in joplin has risen again after last sunday s tornado. 140 people, 42 people, i should say, are confirmed dead from that f-5 twister. another 100 are missing. president obama is scheduled to tour this area tomorrow and meet some of the victims
restaurants downtown. some of the downtown business owners think that perhaps if we had maybe some more retail stores, specialty shops, boutiques, that kind of thing to bring people downtown other than just restaurants. we are hopeful that that may bring something in the future. i ve been looking at the numbers having to do with flint, michigan. and in the year 2000 you had about 25,000 more residents than you have right now. you have about 102,000 give or take in the latest. that s the estimate. so you have lost about 25,000 people. your unemployment rate is at 11.8%. which is above the national average of 8.8. but it s also down from march a year ago from 15.2%. i m trying to find out, are you seeing more foreclosures, less foreclosures, are people more worried about business? you have received $182 million in stimulus money. do you think it s worked?
in bringing the new restaurants downtown. some of the downtown business owners think that perhaps if we had maybe more retail stores, specialty shops, boutiques, that kind of thing to bring people downtown, other than just restaurants. we re hopeful that may bring something in the future. greta: i ve been looking at numbers. in the year 2000, you had about 25,000 more residents than you have now. you have about 102,000, give or take that s the estimate. you ve lost about 25,000 people. your unemployment rate is 11.8%, above the national average of 8.8. also down from march a year ago from 15.2. i m trying to find out, are you seeing more foreclosures, less? are people more worried about business? you ve received 182 million dollars in stimulus money. do you think it has worked?
comments, chris, on the blog about the cost of this in no-fly zone and protecting the libyans. i know you said it s over $1 million per tomahawk missile? yeah. the navy puts the number, when you take all the cost associated with it, at about $1.4 million per missile. we know there s been about 160 of them fired. some of them british but, say the u.s. has fired 130 of them. that s $182 million, just on the tomahawks alone. and then when you look when they start to decrease in use, then the jets start to pick up in use, and the cost to keep, say, an f-15 fighter in the air for an hour is about $10,000. chris, thanks for that. arwa, let s get to you. tell us about the rebel rescue. we ve been talking about this f-15 that went down, and the rebel fighters actually rescued one of the airmen. reporter: yeah, randi.