good saturday morning, everyone. and welcome to cnn this morning. i m amara walker. and i m boris sanchez. all eyes on the sky this morning as a chinese spy balloon continues drifting over the united states. where it is expected to go and why the white house has not ruled out shooting it down. and a brutal blast of dangerously cold air sweeping across the northeast. in some places it will feel like 50 to 60 degrees below zero. where we re seeing the cold air and when things will start to warm up. plus new developments in the tyre nichols case, why another officer is out of a job and why some first responders are now losing their licenses. plus important new testimony in the alex murdaugh trial, twists in the case and what it could mean for murdaugh s defense, coming up on cnn this morning . hi, everyone. if you are not keeping track, it is saturday. not time to go to work for most of you. february 4. thanks for waking up with us. i m amara walker in atlanta. an
is strong. and here with me now is errol lewis from spectrum news. so the strong jobs report came as a huge shock to economists. so that puts the brakes on the recession. how does biden use it to his advantage? the president of course in his state of the union address on tuesday, he will tout all of these numbers. and really explore what they mean. if you think about it, there are 11 million available jobs at this point, almost two jobs available for every person seeking a job. that is a remarkable performance by any measure. it caught a lot of the economists off guard, it caught a lot of the wall street speculators and investors off guard, and it is good news. so we ll hear him talk about that at great link and take as much credit for it as the public will allow him to take. what more do you expect from the state of the union? as you know the parents of tyre
Last summer's record-breaking oil and gasoline prices-exceeding $140 per barrel and $4 per gallon-received plenty of attention in Washington and sparked a host of proposed responses from Congress. However, the real lessons are to be learned by studying the dramatic drop in prices since then. These lessons, if incorporated into the nation's energy policy, could help prevent prices from going back up to record levels in the future. Lesson 1: Blaming Big Oil, Wall Street Speculators, or Other Scapegoats Is a Waste of Time
so from new york to san francisco, people in long lines outside grocery, convenience and liquor stores waiting to buy mega millions tickets. wait times hit two hours outside the blue bird liquor store in hawthorne, california, near los angeles. why are people waiting there? well, it sold $20 million worth of winning tickets over the years. and st. mary s, georgia, population 17,000, bursting at the seams today thanks to people driving across the border from florida. florida s one of eight states that don t take part in the mega millions lottery. but in 42 states, it s a day for big dreams. a new house for my family and my kids and my grandparents. a lot of people would benefit. a lot of people would be happy. our mary snow tracking lotto mania in new york city. mary, what s it like there? reporter: well, john, so many dreams of early retirement and people pondering the what-ifs. there s been a steady stream inside this 7-eleven on west 42nd street here in manhattan.
because once this starts going both ways, you re dividing people on some very emotional turf of. dividing them and making them believe about a falsehood about the highest office in the land, the man who holds the office. what about gas price, the perception is the president isn t doing enough. we need to have an honest conversation with the american people as you outlined he did earlier today. there is no silver bullet for gas prices. they were $4.12 a gallon in the spring of 2008 when president bush was in office, if there was a silver bullet, certainly he would have shot it. he didn t. because there is not. crude oil as both the wall street journal and cato institute have said the price is not set by the president. it is not energy independence right away it s the wall street speculators and why can t the