CNN 2012-05-08

 Thanks to Mr. Baltus's students for helping 1 us kick off Teacher Appreciation 2 Week. Over the next several days, we are going to share some of the iReport videos that you sent in and you'll have more on Teacher Appreciation Week in a few minutes. Right now though, let's get to the headlines.

 
First up, we are looking at the latest national unemployment numbers from the US government. In April, the unemployment rate went down from 8.2 percent to 8.1. It's not because that many people get hired. It's because hundreds of Americans dropped out of the labor 3 force. If you stop looking for a job, you are not counted in the unemployment rate and your * looks how this could impact this year's presidential race.
 
Employment figures are crucial in the election year, and the numbers have not been the president's favor. The economy add * 115,000 jobs in April. That's down from 154,000 in March. The unemployment rate drops slightly to 8.1 percent. That's only because the number of adults actively 4 looking for work has fallen to the lowest level since 1981. Mitt 5 Romney says the economy should be adding closer to 500,000 jobs a month. This is a sad time in America when people who want work can't find jobs...
 
The Economic Policy Institute says 300,000-400,000 jobs should be added each month with the economy to recover. Our president Obama says the recovery is still alive. After the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, our businesses have now created more than 4.2 million new jobs ove the last 26 months.
 
Employment growth began to slow in large after three strong months winter weather. Some economists 6 believe the slow down is a seasonal 7 adjustment, suggesting warm weather earlier in the year gave the economy artificail boost. President Obama says next week he will urge Congress to come together to take steps to accelerate job growth. With too much at stake for us not to all be * in the same garage. If the unemployment figure don't stay afloat, the president will be handling against a strong current ahead of the * election. I'm * reporting.
 
The first several months of this year have been focused on the Republican side in that election. Two primaries and *, we now konw that governor Romney is that Party's presumptive nominee 8. Now his democratic opponent has officially lauched his campaign. President Obama running for re-election, kicked off his campaign with Romney's in Virginia and Ohio over the weekend. Those are expected to be big battle grounds in November's presidential election. 
 
At the event, the President talked about some of his accomplishments 9 since he took office. He pledged to (quote) finish what we started. Governor Romney is getting to be in Ohio today where they will gather and support that battle ground *. His campaign also talked about president Obama's time in office, describing it as time of (quote) broken promises and ineffective leadership.
 
In Greece, voters * yesterday, * members of the nation's parliament. Exit polls show that the political parties in the coalition 10 that has been in power will probably be going to lose a lot of seats in parliament. The polls indicated that many voters were angry with the government's efforts to cut spending, that's been happening in its tries to get mass debt crisis under control.
 
And France is going to have a new president. The man who has just won that exciting voting * is Francois Hollande.And the results from yesterday run-off election indicate that he beat out Nicolas Sarkozy who has been in power sine 2007. Hollande will be France's first left-wing president. He is a socialist 11. That means he is the first politically liberal leader since 1995.