New Orleans Showing Strength; Government Offers Easier Terms for Student Loans; Alec Baldwin entertains Senate run against Joe Lieberman; Businesses Get Creative in Economic Downturn.
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Four years ago this week, New Orleans was decimated by Hurricane Katrina. Many believe the city would never recover. We're going to have reports from the Big Easy all this week. Our Sean Callebs is live there this morning. And, Sean, I was in New Orleans just a couple of weeks ago. Some of the parts of the city you'd never know that it got by a hurricane, but other parts of the city you'd never know that four years have gone by. It still looks the same.</s>SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really is a tale of two cities, John. And I was listening to Christine give us some pretty sobering economic news in that last segment. And, you know, the sun is shining in this city on this day literally and figuratively. While the punishing recession continues to drag on -- to a degree, New Orleans is one city that is bucking that national trend.</s>CALLEBS (voice-over): New Orleans has been shielded in the aftermath of Katrina -- not by levees, it has been an economic buffer. Federal and private money as the city rebuilds. Jazz great Irvin Mayfield recently opened a club in the French Quarter. But he wants to talk about his job as commissioner of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority.</s>IRVIN MAYFIELD, NEW ORLEANS REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: Redevelopment is just another word of self-investment to citizens. And I think that passion has always been important to New Orleans. We're now trying to figure out how to transform that passion for music and food into different areas of redevelopment in our neighborhood.</s>CALLEBS: After Katrina, close to 80,000 homes had to be rebuilt, attracting legions of construction workers. It's helped keep New Orleans' unemployment rate at about 7.2 percent, while the national average is closer to 9 percent. (on camera): With its hotels and night life, New Orleans has a share of service jobs, for entrepreneurs who are also investing here, finding there are benefits to being in this city. Nic Perkins is CEO of the Receivables Exchange. He could have started his business anywhere.</s>NIC PERKINS, CEO, THE RECEIVABLES EXCHANGE: Donny from Pennsylvania, Darrell from England, John from Boston.</s>CALLEBS: New residents know about the problems: crime, a poor education system, the slow pace of rebuilding. But they are convinced the positive outweighs lingering, deep-rooted problems.</s>PERKINS: We have an operation like this, would be literally five or six or seven times more for us in New York or San Francisco. The quality of life that we have here -- you can live in New Orleans exceptionally well under a start up salary.</s>CALLEBS: Home prices are up about 1.1 percent from 2008 to 2009. Nationally, they plunged about 10 percent over that same period. New Orleans is a long way from being whole. Entire neighborhoods remain in ruin, and thousands are still displaced.</s>MAYFIELD: I think a lot of people who see this may say, "Look, you guys have been at this for four years, why isn't this done already?" And I think people need to really understand the volume of things that we have done and we're doing.</s>CALLEBS: And in many ways, the city has something it couldn't claim four years ago: optimism.</s>CALLEBS: Well, one of the great things about this city, listening to people, like Irvin Mayfield, not only on stage but also out doing what he can to try to redevelop the city. But, John, I really don't want to paint a picture of over-optimism because, like we've talked about, so many areas of the city, Gentilly, St. Bernard Parish, Lakeview, New Orleans East, it goes on and on and on -- those areas are still in dire need of revitalization and redevelopment.</s>ROBERTS: Absolutely. Sean Callebs for us this morning from the Big Easy -- Sean, thanks so much. Tomorrow morning, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reports on a tiny clinic in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. It's operated by two nurses, offers free care, and used to be the home of one of the nurses who now runs it.</s>CHETRY: Ninety-nine minutes past the hour. Right now, we check our top stories. The reality TV contestant wanted for the murder of his "Playboy" model ex-wife is found dead. Police say Ryan Jenkins' body was found hanging in a hotel east of Vancouver, Canada. He was the prime suspect in the murder of Jasmine Fiore. Police say Fiore's body was found stuffed inside of a suitcase in Anaheim, California.</s>ROBERTS: Bill proving to be deadly in the U.S. -- even though it was way offshore, the storm made landfall early this morning as a category one hurricane in Newfoundland, Canada. It's now been downgraded, but it's still packing 70-mile-an-hour winds. Officials say a 7-year-old girl died after being swept away by the waves yesterday in Maine and a swimmer in Florida died on Saturday.</s>CHETRY: More fallout over Scotland's decision to show a mass killer mercy. The Scottish Parliament is holding an emergency debate questioning the government and First Minister Alex Salmond after the Lockerbie bomber was sent home. Abdelbasset al Megrahi was released because he's terminally ill with prostate cancer. As you see from the pictures, he came home to a heroes welcome in Libya which is outrage to many in the international community. The Libyan was the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. It killed 270 people, most of them Americans. Well, as we know in these tough times, college students are struggling more than ever to pay for their college education. Tuition at the average public university has more than quadruple over the past two decades. When you add in dorms, books, and other costs, you're looking at more than $18,000 a year, and we're talking about state schools here. Kim Clark is senior education writer for "U.S. News and World Report," and she joins us from Washington with some advice on how to navigate the system. Kim, thanks for being with us this morning.</s>KIM CLARK, SENIOR EDUCATION WRITER, "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT": It's my pleasure.</s>CHETRY: As we always know, financial decisions, of course, are one of the big factors when choosing a university for your child and when you're a college student yourself deciding where to go. But as we've seen in these tougher times, it's harder to get a loan now, it's harder to get credit. What are some of the biggest challenges facing students as the cost is going up and their ability to borrow money isn't?</s>CLARK: Right, two things. You're absolutely right. Private banks are very leery of making loans, not only to students, but to businesses and homeowners. But this is one area that the federal government has really stepped up. Every student can get a student loan -- it's called a Stafford loan -- of anywhere between $5,500 to $12,500. And if they stick with the federal loans, they won't go broke paying them back, because there's a brand new program called income- based repayment. Once you graduate, you can cap your payments below 15 percent of your income. So you can take out these federal loans, and you won't go broke paying them back.</s>CHETRY: That's great. You talk about these changes. Are they coming too late for people who are perhaps getting ready within the next week or so to drive to college? Can you still benefit from some of these programs if you're already about to attend your school?</s>CLARK: Well, that's another great thing about the federal program. They realize that a lot of people put things off to the last moment, and even a little beyond the last moment. Believe it or not, you can still apply for aid, if you haven't filled out the free application for federal student aid, it's not too late to apply, and they can award the aid retroactively if you don't get your act together until September or October. So it's not too late to apply. And if you have applied and are not happy with the amount of aid that you received from your college, it's not too late to write an appeal letter. And you write the appeal letter explaining why you think you need more money -- let's say you lost your job or you had to take a pay cut or you had unusual medical expenses or maybe you need child care expenses to go to college -- they can account for all these things and retroactively award the aid even now, even in September.</s>CHETRY: That's great to know. And also the other thing people are running up against is that the financial aid packages, a lot of time they're determined by the income, the proof of income you show from the year before. But a lot of people's situation has changed. We see in Maryland and in some cases in Virginia and the District of Columbia, unemployment has doubled since last year. So what if things have changed in your household from a year ago?</s>CLARK: Well, that's exactly right. That's a great reason to write an appeal. The federal government actually sent a letter to every single college financial aid officer saying, you know you've got to take into account the fact that maybe people's situations have changed and maybe be a little more generous. So if you have lost your job, if you had to take a pay cut, if you've had some other unusual situation. If you're getting divorced, maybe you'd had some legal bills, absolutely write that letter. The federal government has told colleges to be more generous. And I've talked to a lot of financial aid officers, they are definitely being more generous.</s>CHETRY: And this is interesting. There are some people who may be wondering should I just drop out? Maybe I'll come back and take those last few credits when I'm in a better financial situation. What is the best advice that people have told you, the experts, about whether or not dropping out, try to find a job, bank some money until you can actually afford it?</s>CLARK: It's a very difficult situation, because frankly, as you just mentioned, the unemployment rate is 9 percent or in some cases 10 percent. If you drop out, you're not necessarily going to get a job, right? So it's not such a great idea to drop out without a job in hand, right? One thing you can do is ask your college if you can go on a payment plan. So if you can't scare up the money in August or September, for about a $50 fee, usually colleges will let you string out the payments over the years. That's one way you can delay repayment a little bit.</s>CHETRY: That's a good idea, as well. All of these are great options. People should look into them before throwing in the towel. And what we're going to do, Kim, is we're going to link on our Web site a lot of your information, because you've got great stuff out there in the magazine this week. Kim Clark, senior education writer with "U.S. News and World Report," thanks so much. And again, people can also find out this information by heading to CNN.com/amfix.</s>ROBERTS: Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and actor Alec Baldwin are sparring in the press these days, and they could be squaring off at the polls in 2012. Baldwin recently told "Playboy" magazine he's considering moving to Connecticut so he could mount a challenge for Lieberman's Senate seat in three years time. The actor told "Playboy," quote, "I have no use for him." Lieberman responded this weekend on CNN's "State of the Union" John King channeling "Dirty Harry."</s>JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": In the latest issue of "Playboy" magazine, Alec Baldwin is quoted as saying "Maybe I'd move to Connecticut. I'd love to run against Joe Lieberman. I have no use for him." You're not up for three years. Do you want to go against Alec Baldwin? You had a good one last time.</s>SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN, (I) CONNECTICUT: First, let me say, when you started with the "Playboy" reference, I'm glad you ended with Alec Baldwin and not with one of the centerfolds. Second, you know, make my day.</s>ROBERTS: Lieberman has a track record of surviving tough election battles. He lost the Democratic Senate primary in his state in 2006 only to run as an independent and win. In the health care debate we're talking about a public option, what does it mean? And will it even survive? New pressure on the public option. We'll tell you all about that, coming up.