CNN news 2014-06-09 加文本

cnn news 2014-06-09

AZUZ: Welcome to the "Roll Call." Look up in the sky, it`s a bird, it`s a plane. It`s Golden Eagles, the Ferndale High School Golden Eagles are watching. They are parched in Washington State. Over in Belle Plaine, Minnesota we see some tigers on the prow. Hello to Belle Plaine Junior High. And in the peach state, in the city of Griffin, Georgia, it`s the mustangs of Rehoboth Road Middle School rounding up today`s roll.

It`s happened before, a hail storm struck the woodhouse auto family, a car dealership outside of Omaha, Nebraska and people from all over called up looking for discounts. The hail that hit this week was the size of baseballs. It dropped on 4300 vehicles. Company officials estimate the damage it caused at $162 million. Police say 20 people in the area were taken to the hospital with injuries. The line of severe storms that hit the nation`s heartland brought at least 12 reports of possible tornadoes. Trees are down, powers knocked out, and flooding stranded some folks in Nebraska. Severe weather was headed east last night, storms are expected in the Mid-Atlantic States today.

It`s been five years since the great recession officially ended. This was the economic downturn that hit between 2007 and 2009, but it`s still having effects on people. cnn Money says the recovery of U.S. jobs has been the slowest ever. More Americans are using food stamps than ever. Wages are rising, but barely. Is this all taking a toll on the American dream?

ALISON KOSIK, cnn CORRESPONDENT: The American dream is this national ideal, the goal of prosperity and success. But in cnn Money`s American dream poll, 59 percent of people say regardless of how you define it, it`s not achievable. Young adults are the most pessimistic, they`ve had a hard time finding good jobs as the country recovers from the recession, and there are already concerns about the next generation, too. 63 percent of Americans say that most children in the U.S. will not be better off than their parents. The problem is that while most people are managing to tread water, that`s not translating into solid financial security. But not everybody is onboard with these findings. The Brooking Center says the American dream isn`t dead and that this negative perceptions are necessarily supported by facts since two major studies early this year show that the ability to climb the economic ladder hasn`t changed significantly over time. I`m Alison Kosik in New York.