Transcripts For FOXNEWS Americas Newsroom 20101228

new york city's three airports closing for more than 12 hours yesterday, and across the u.s. travelers are trying to get rebooked to their final destinations. in some cases folks won't get home until tomorrow, and the news not sitting well with some people who have been stranded at the airport since sunday. >> i took vacation from both jobs to try to, you know, go. the delay and pushing everything back, it's kind of frustrated. >> my second flight gets canceled, and we had to do another trf, and our absolute ticket for this afternoon's fight is double booked. rick: david lee miller at laguardia, what's the scene there? >> reporter: firstly, rick, all three airports are open, as you mentioned. we just got word a few moments ago that jfk is experiencing delays caused by weather-related problems such as ice. but all three airports are open, and joining us now is thomas bosco, the general manager of the airport. what is the situation here? how soon will things return to norm? >> >> good morning. first of all, our port authority crews have been working nonstop since sunday morning to make it safe for air travel, and we have both runways here at laguardia open and operational. we've had a trickle of arrivals coming in, and we expect between with 100 and 110 arrivals and e departures by noon today. >> reporter: i know you had some overnight guests, people sleeping upstairs using cots provided by the port authority. do you expect to have more overnight guests tonight, and when do you think all the cancellations are going to be compensated for and service back to normal? >> we had about 450 people that were stranded in the terminal for the past two nights, and we expect probably a similar number, about 100, 150 tonight. it's no sleep to sleep in a -- fun to sleep in an airport, but here at laguardia we try to give the best accommodations we can. we handed out cots, pillows, blankets, water, food, and so we're trying to take as good care of our passengers as we can. >> reporter: by the end of the week, will things get back to normal? >> typically it's going to take a day or two, maybe even three. you're going to have disruptions, numerous cancellations and delays today, so my best advice is to call ahead to your airline, find out about your specific flight. >> reporter: thomas bosco, thank you so much. very quickly, there are also problems with the rails today. amtrak is trying to restore service, but there are still cancellations and delays. back to you in the studio. rick: folks looking forward to checking out of the hotel laguardia very soon, i'm sure. david lee miller, thanks. >> indeed. in the meantime, there is no snow in the sunshine state, but hundreds of passengers were still stranded in florida. nearly 25% of flights were canceled there due to weather conditions and passengers, well, they took the news in stride. >> it's a little frustrating, but it comes with the territory when you travel at the holidays. they told you to come here -- they said it was 30 minutes late this morning. when i called, they didn't say the airport was closed although newark and laguardia was. >> delays are starting to fill out, but some folks won't be leaving until thursday. all right, is there any end in sight to all of this? let's check in with janice dean. there she is. >> reporter: how about warmer temperatures for the eastern half of the country? that would be good news. 50s as we head towards new year's day. it's going to melt some of that snow pack as people try to clean up. it's going to take some time. but let's go back 48 hours and show you where the height of the storm was as we get closer towards the northeast corridor. philadelphia, new york, new jersey up towards boston, some incredible snowfall totals. the storm is offshore, but we're still dealing with wind gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour across the northeast, so that could cause more delays in the air. and, of course, this is a ripple effect, so the northeast one of the busiest hubs. that's going to cause delays across the rest of the country as well. there are some of the snow totals, elizabeth, new jersey, that's the bull's eye, close to 30 inches. and central park, 20 inches. that is the sixth highest snowfall total ever. all right, let's take a look at our satellite radar over the last 24 hours. as i mentioned, this storm is offshore, but we are dealing with cold temperatures and the winds. this is our next system though. why are we watching this? because this is going to make its way across the central u.s. and, eventually, the northeast for our new year's day. so prescription -- precipitation, of course, parts of california dealing with mudslides, rockslides, flooding from this last system. we have another system bringing in, and that's going to bring snowfall totals and the risk for flooding, unfortunately. let's go to our radar and i'll show you where this system is going to go. let's take a look. as we go further out in time, there's thursday. ering starts -- everything starts to get wet and/or icy across the midwest. mainly rain across the south, and eventually this is going to make its way o to the northeast. we won't do dealing with a snowstorm, it will be mainly rain. >> all right. janice dean, thank you very much. >> reporter: okay. rick: back to the snow for a minute because there's been a one-two punch in the big apple. two days after the blizzard, check out new york city. a lot of streets, mainly in the outer boroughs, still unplowed. several trains stalled at elevated platforms, passengers stuck for hours. new yorkers want to know when they'll get public transportation. diana rock coa is in brooklyn. >> reporter: hi, rick. frustration really is a good way to put things. a lot of people unhappy with what they're seeing as they wake up this morning and try to get to work. there's still delays on the subways, the bus lines have been delayed. something that has disappointed new yorkers, and i have two unhappy commuters today. what are you i names? >> jeff gross. >> reporter: thanks for joining us this morning. give us an idea what it's been like to get around the city the last couple days. >> the last couple days have been brutal. i went upstate new york, i am in downtown brooklyn, i still haven't gotten home to my apartment. last night i was able to get in to downtown week lin on sunday night around 10:00 and driving to one train and not getting anywhere. every train went down. luckily, at 2 in the morning the security in my office building set up a cot for me. i slept there the night before and last night in a motel. >> reporter: have you ever seen it this bad before? >> no, i feel like last year we had worse snow than this, and it's still -- this is ridiculous. there are streets that aren't even touched at all. >> reporter: and what are you thinking about what you've seen this morning? >> i live in pennsylvania near philadelphia, and last year we had 3 foot of snow, and it seemed like the city was able to combat it. seems like a bigger city like new york, brooklyn, it's not doing such a good job. it's kind of hard to understand how the streets are still unplowed, people are still walking, trains are still not running. i have a bunch of guys from my team, long island still suspended. >> reporter: thank you both for joining us, we wish you safe travels, hope you eventually get home. thank you. so there's a lot more going on here. if you want to take a look over my shoulder, you can see what streets look like here. the sidewalks are not plowed,p and we've got people walking in the streets which is slowing the bus service. a lot of people's cars are either plowed in, or the streets are unplowed, so it's hard for them to get to their cars which means they're trying to take public transportation this morning. i'm hearing one-two hour delays and i'm also hearing a lot of very, very unhappy commuters. we're live in brooklyn this morning. rick, back to you. rick: diana rocco, thanks so much. >> and, rick, if that's not enough for new yorkers to deal with with, talk about adding insult to injury, well, after the new york giants got spanked in a must-win game, the giants can't seem to get out of wisconsin. yikes. the team was stuck for a second today after the state was socked with more than 2 feet of snow. now, a team spokesperson says the giants will finally head home this morning. the team's playoff hopes now hinging on next sunday's game against the redskins. rick: and two other teams, my philadelphia eagles and the minnesota vikings, gearing up for the nfl's first tuesday night game since 1946. their game sunday night in philly postponed until tonight because of all the snow in philadelphia. the eagles citing public safety as the main concern. people getting to and from the stadium in the middle of the storm. and we want to know what folks are thinking. you can go to foxnews.com/"america's newsroom" and be take our poll. how have you been affected by the christmas blizzard of 2010? is it as bad as it's been, that you've seen in years? is it only winter and not such a big deal? tell us about it, let us know your thoughts, and we'll read them later on. >> thanks, america, but please, go home. that's the word apparently from iraqi prime minister nourial mall al-maliki. the iraqi leader saying american troops must leave his country next year as planned. steve centanni live in washington with more. here's the question, though, isn't it possible that the agreement to get u.s. troops out of iraq could still be extended? >> reporter: yeah, it could be, and everybody in the pentagon or many people at least were assuming that it would be extended, that we would go beyond next year. but the prime minister who finally formed a coalition government after months of uncertainty in iraq told "the wall street journal" this is a hard and fast deadline. when asked about that agreement to remove all u.s. troops from iraq by the end of 2011, the prime minister said, quote: >> reporter: well, of course, it is sealed for now, but if two parties do agree to reopen negotiations and amend it, it could still possibly be changed. >> he seems steadfast on that. what about the influence of iran on the newly-formed iraqi government? would that be a greater threat? >> reporter: yeah, that's always an ongoing threat, a big concern of the u.s. the u.s. has said iran helped the iraqi insurgents in a number of ways, but al-maliki insists he wants a completely independent iraq without any outside influence, and here's another part of the interview with "the wall street journal." he said, for iraq to be dragged into an axis or orbit, that's impossible, and we reject it whether this comes from iran, turkey or the arabs. and as for the shiite militia, maliki says they've been drawn into the political process and are no longer a danger. >> thank you very much. rick: quick break. when we come back, newcomers in congress are promising to tackle what they call our nation's bad spending habilitates. we'll find out what they plan to do. >> and our nation's jobless rate prompting changes in how we measure long-term unemployment. the changes coming on the heels of this statement from the president. >> and i think we are past the crisis point in the economy, but we now have to pivot and focus on jobs and growth. >> and we'll take a closer look at the job situation and and how it may affect you. rick: also, a new england coastal town hit hard by the blizzard. we'll show the aftermath of a flood and fire that devastated homes. >> pakistani intelligence reporting three suspected u.s. drone strikes near the afghan border killing 17 people. now, the strikes in final days of the year that's seen a ramped-up campaign to take out al-qaeda and taliban fighters seeking sanctuary in pakistan. around 115 missile strikes have been launched this year, more than double last year's total, almost all landing in north waziristan, a region that hosts a number of coalition troops fighting in afghanistan. rick: january 5th, the 112th congress will convene, and some newcomers to the house and senate are already promising to rein in the money train. tea party-backed senator-elect rand paul of kentucky said, quote, i think that every piece of major legislation that goes forward from now on these to have attached to it spending cuts. that's one thing that i will do when i'm there is introduce it at every opportunity, and we will have votes on it. congressman tom price of georgia is a member of the house financial services committee, he is the incoming chair of the house republican policy committee, and we're so glad to talk to you, sir. thank you so much for your time. >> hi, rick. rick: is it a good idea? well, i think the american people are excited about these kind of ideas that focus on spending cuts instead of spending more. in the house we put forward over the past six to eight months a you cut program which every week we brought to the author a specific piece of legislation that would be cut, decreased and decreasing the size of the federal government. so we're very excited about the 87 new republicans who are coming to washington in the house and senators who are going to focus on spending cuts. rick: we need meaningful cuts. not just some cuts here and cuts there, and let's try to trim there. we need major cuts because of our federal deficit. where is that money going to come from? >> well, there are all sorts of ways, as you well know. the incoming speaker has said he's going to cut the legislative budget by 5% across the board which is a wonderful beginning. we put forward you cut programs each week, and there are very specific pieces of legislation that will decrease spending, decrease incentives for the states, for example, to provide incentives for people not to work. amazingly, we continue to provide incentives for people not to work. those kinds of billions of dollars that tack on, add up over a period of time make a real difference. but you mentioned the real spending cuts is the reforming of the entitlement programs, social security, medicare and be medicaid. we need to have that conversation with the american people and make certain that we move forward in a positive way that decreases the spending at the federal level and puts us on a path to a balanced budget. rick: i read a story in "the new york times" that talked about something that i, honestly, had not been familiar with, a process called letter marking. it's another way for lawmakers to direct money to their home districts. we've talked about earmarks, do we need to talk about letter marks? is there some hypocrisy going on where some lawmakers are talking about cuts and at the same time they're still using this process to get money back home? >> well, i think getting money back home is one thing, but the real issue is greasing the skids of spending more money in washington. and that's why earmarks are a problem. what they do is they commit an individual member or congress or the united states senate to vote for a much larger piece of legislation because they get their little program in the bill itself. and that's what has to stop. that's why we immediate the fundamental reforms to the -- need the fundamental reforms to the system of accountability and transparency but also making sure we truly decrease the spending at the federal level. rick: the president says we can't afford to keep extending these tax cuts. why is he wrong? >> well, he's absolutely misguided in that as you well know and as your listeners know. when you decrease taxes for the american people, you increase revenue to the federal government. we've got to get this economy back working, we've got to create jobs across this great nation, and it's clear that the programs that the president has put in place will not do that which is what the american people were saying on november 2nd. we can't wait to get to work on january 5th. rick: congressman tom price of georgia, wishes for a happy and healthy new year, sir. >> thank you. >> all right. well, the east coast storm taking an especially harsh toll on one town. snow and wind turning to flooding and fire. a live update straight ahead. rick: also a husband suspects his wife is cheating, so he takes a peek at her e-mail. his suspicions are confirmed, and now he's facing years in the jail. our legal panel debates that straight ahead. >> physically, emotionally, it's rough. i mean, i've been utterly destroyed by this in so many ways. 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[ female announcer ] grab a box of multigrain cheerios. get a code to... ...a 7 day plan to get going on that new years weight loss. get the box. get the code. get started! >> problems from the east coast storm going far beyond snow for one town in massachusetts. the coastal community is now in a state of emergency after heavy flooding and fires forced about a dozen families from their homes. the people had to be taken out by boat. a local lawmaker says it is the worst flooding he has seen in the 11 years he's lived in that town. what's the situation there now? >> reporter: well, neighbors are just now starting to come in here and take a look at how much damage they got. this neighborhood was just ravaged yesterday by so many weather elements. first, it was the floods, then with the wind, then fire. all right, here's what happened. sunday night the storm surge came in, the seawall is right here behind me, flooded this area immediately. well, people were getting evacuated right then by the national guard and firefighters. to make things worse, a fire started in one of the homes at 7 a.m. it was an electrical fire in the basement, and because it was so windy, it quickly spread to another home, and the worst part? firefighters had to sit and watch this whole thing because they were trapped by the flood waters. they had to wait for the power to be shut off, and then they got into the ice cold waters in these dive suits. they passed the hose to each other to get the fire out. they finally got it out and fortunately for be everybody, nobody got hurt in this whole thing, but several people had to be rescued from their homes because of the flood and the fire. eventually, everybody got out, and now this morning it's sort of the calm after the storm. it's sunny out here, it's not snowing anymore, but now residents are just coming back, finding out how much damage there actually is. and we're waiting for officials to give us the confirmed, really, assessment of what went on out here. like i said, no one got hurt, and that's the good news here today. >> that is good news. sorry for the loss of the property and everything but, boy, that's a time when you really salute the firefighters. thank you very much. rick: thank goodness nobody was hurt at the same time. >> exactly. rick: all right. when we come back, so many americans have been out of work and they have been for so long that the government, get this, they're actually changing how they define the term long-term unemployment. we'll tell you how it may affect you straight ahead. >> and president obama making some surprising comments about nfl star michael vick. wait until you hear what the president said about his dog fighting conviction and the decision to let him back on the field. arthel: developing right mow in "america's newsroom," president obama is expected to announce his choice for top economic adviser after he returns from his vacation in hawaii next week. the key adviser will fill the shoes of outgoing directer larry summers. and iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad says hostile policies from western countries may harm further talks over the country's nuclear program. the u.n. secretary security council and germany agreed to another round of talks with iran. and india stepping up security in major cities after receiving information that a pakistani-based militant group is planning an attack over new year's weekend. rick: all right. listen to this one. uncle sam says there's been an unprecedented rise in long-term unemployment, and according to reports starting this week the federal bureau of labor statistics is tackling this major problem, how? by with raising the cap on how long someone can be listed as jobless from two years to five years. right now under the current two-year system there are more than six million listed as long-term unemployed, that is 42% of all the unemployed. eric bolling is the host of "follow the money" on fox business network. eric, this is like saying, you know, that there are so many people who are overweight, let's just sort of change what constitutes being fat. i mean, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. >> reporter: okay, i think this does make sense and here's why, rick. when mr. obama was elected, the average -- you had 26 potential weeks to stay on unemployment. and that number has gone to 99 weeks. this is important, remember that. because when he was elected, the average amount of time, the mean what's called the duration, amount of time people stayed on unemployment was 19 weeks. it went up to rick: third quarter of this year corporate profits at record highs. where's the trickle down? why aren't those profits translating into jobs? >> reporter: because the companies are hoarding cash. there's over $2 trillion sitting in corporate bank accounts right now. rick: what are they waiting for? >> reporter: they're waiting for more clarity on taxes. we have a two-year window, remember. when you're a company, when you want to hire someone, when you want to buy equipment, when you want to open a plant, a factory, you don't look two years down the road, you look five and ten years down the road. they're looking for more clarity going forward for taxes. by the way, the economy's starting to turn around right now, so you're going to see some of those pursestrings loosened, and that will be good for the job market. but that's probably a three-six month window away. rick: also we heard about this holiday spend being season being the best on record. i mean, it seems like things are heading in the right direction. can americans spend their way to a better job market? >> reporter: yes. americans are the economy. 70% of the spending that the product that we produce in the country is consumer spending in one way, shape or form. so when consumers start to spend again, then the economy turns around. it's a dog chasing its tail though. people don't want to spend because they're worried about their jobs, they're worried about their jobs, so they don't spend. eventually, things get better. the one overhang, the one thing that's overhanging right now is the housing market. we just saw some prices consumer -- i'm sorry, the case shiller home price index turned back down, year-over-year eight-tenths of a percent lower. that really needs to get stronger for a consumer to go buy an ipod, ipad or, you know, a flat screen tv. rick: yeah, that's a real problem because so many people have so much of their wealth and their savings tied up in their real estate, they need -- >> reporter: they need to see those home prices firming up for them to get the confidence to start to spend again. rick: so what will it take? i mean, we've got still the foreclosure rates are still at record highs. >> right. rick: people still dealing with these problems. what helps to turn that around? >> reporter: i think it's time, rick. honestly, i think first quarter of 2011 we're going to see massive foreclosures, and after that most of those arms that were done have made their way through the system. after the first quarter oaf '11 maybe you start to see some prices firm up. when homes fore close, it goes back on the market into inventory. big inventory overhang in homes means prices can't go up. when they start working those foreclosed homes through the system, home prices can start to move up. rick: one more question on jobs, eric. a lot of people's concern is a lot of these companies that had all of these major layoffs a couple years ago and have been functioning at those employment levels for the last two years, where is the incentive to start hiring again? these companies have been able to stay in business with a lot lower costs. >> reporter: great point, rick. it's called the new normal, what's the new normal unemployment. it used to be 5%, that was always the goal. 5% unemployment felt like or was an economy that was fully employed. i think the new normal is probably going to be somewhere around 8%. that's many, many millions. that'll probably come in around eight or nine million people out of work, but that's what we're looking at going forward. companies will realize we're going to do more with fewer people, and that's the reality we're stuck with probably for a long time, at least a 10-15 year outlook. rick: wow. are you hiring? >> i have an idea. i have an idea. forget -- you talk about the wussy bowl in philadelphia? forget that. i have a better show for you to watch tonight at 8:00, "the o'reilly factor." i'm sitting in for bill. rick: nice! we'll tune in tonight, 8:00 on fnc to watch eric bolling and his show on fox business network, "follow the money," at 9 p.m. >> reporter: back to back, believe it or not. rick: that's a lot of bolling, i tell you. looking forward to it. i'm just going to plop down on the couch and take it all in. thank you very much. good to see you. conventional wisdom says you should have three months of savings in reserve. do you have enough? take our online survey and tell us what kind of nest egg you might have. we want to know. arthel: president obama praising the owner of the philadelphia eagles for getting michael vick back on the field. in an interview with "sports illustrated", philadelphia eagles' owner jeffrey lurie says the commander in chief called him personally to congratulate him for giving vick a second chance. vick, a former atlanta falcon star quarterback, as you know, served prison time for a dog fighting conviction and was reinstated after his release. all right. let's talk about this. kirsten powers from "the new york post" and fox news contributor s.e. cupp, author of "losing our religion" and senior writer for the daily caller. s.e., what do you make of the president's comments? >> well, it was pretty off key. we'll remember he also defended tiger woods a while back, so maybe he has a soft spot for morally bankrupt millionaire athletes, i don't know. but on its face there really wasn't anything wrong with what he said. it is hard for ex-cons to get jobs out of prison, and some people do deserve second chances. the problem with this, the reason it's off key is that what michael vick did was so reprehensible and disgusting, and he didn't just get a job sweeping floors at mcdonald's. he got a job in the nfl, a multimillion dollar contract. arthel: but, kirsten, that was his job prior, so is that fair that that's what he went back to? he went back to work. >> yeah. i mean, we've seen other people who get in trouble and lose their jobs, and they end up, you know, getting other jobs in sort of like, similar if not the same industries. so i think that that's a reasonable thing to expect. look, i found what michael vick did to be just beyond disgusting and just horrific, you know? and i'm not going to down play that at all. but i do, i do believe in second chances for people, and, you know, he was punished and if he's contrite about it, then i think there's nothing wrong with the president, you know, feeling that he should have a second chance. arthel: by the way, want to point out that the president did call the owner to talk about installing alternative energy technology at lincoln financial field. so but getting back to you, s.e., is this much ado about nothing? are we making a big deal out of nothing? >> well, i mean, when most people talk about liking a comeback story, i don't know that this is exactly what they have in mind. [laughter] this isn't really a feel-good story. and it's a little weird. i mean, obama seems to be treating the eagles and jeff lurie as if they were some sort of benevolent ex-con outreach program. really, the eagles are a business and, look, the dude can play football. and i think they wanted to make some money off of him, you know? and that's fine, that's for the eagles to decide. but to treat this as some sort of, you know, thank you for giving this guy a second chance and it's so hard for prisoners, i mean, it's a little bizarre and maybe even a little naive. arthel: kirsten, what do you think, is it fair for jeff lurie to publicly comment on a private conversation he had with the president? >> no. i think -- well, i mean, it's just classless. it's not, you know, i don't think it's -- i think there's an expectation when you're talking to people that it's not, you know, supposed to be public. but at the same time the president has to know that when he speaks to people that the chances of things getting out are pretty high. so i don't think he said it expecting it to be kept a secret. but, you know, i do think that -- i don't know. i have a lot of trouble with the sort of judgment that everyone sits in judgment of everybody else. it's like, look, you know what michael vick did he was punished for. now he's supposed to for the rest of his life never be able to have any kind of, you know, career in his field ever again? i don't really, i don't really follow that, you know? so i, i think that, i think that forgiveness is a beautiful thing and that, you know, i believe in redemption, and i think the president does too. even though i think what he did was despicable. >> i believe in forgiveness as well, and i forgive him. i don't believe in rewarding someone who has been so, i mean, absolutely unforgivable, unfathomable what he did to those animals. it's fine that we've released him back into the wild. i don't think we need to put him on any kind of pedestal and treat him as if he's some kind of bad guy gone good. i don't know if he is. arthel: well, that's going to be the last word. s.e., kirsten, by the way, it's rick folbaum's philadelphia eagles, and it's arthel nevilles new orleans saints who beat the falcons. thanks, guys. [laughter] rick: good game last night. all right. fox cameras getting an up close and personal look at israel's elite red team. this is a unit, and it's the israeli version of our top gun school here in this country training air force pilots how to fight in the skies over the middle east. leland p is in jerusalem with the story. leland? >> reporter: rick, these guys are incredible. we'vhad to protect the identities of these pilots because of how secret their mission is. i can tell you, though, they have arabic call signs, they wear arab patches on their uniforms to simulate what it'll be like for the rest of the israeli air force in war. these iranian anti-aircraft missiles would greet israeli pilots if it attacks, and israel's red team studies it to build light training missions for it air force. >> we try to surprise them the same way we think the other side would surprise us. >> reporter: meet the deputy squadron commander. >> seeing the person you're training against as your enemy rather than somebody you're training against. and we do it by wearing the patches, having call signs in arabic, mimicking arab voices on the coms, and it adds a piece to the training process. >> reporter: the red team flies almost every day against other pilots in the israeli air force training in everything including surprise attacks. >> what we're doing came from a real-life war experience and not from something simulated that we've never seen before. >> reporter: this major and his hammer squadron fly the f-15 strike eagle against the red team to test how good they really are. when these guys take off to fly against the red squadron, it's treated as though they're going into war, and if they're shot down by the opposing force up in the air, it is treated very differently than any other training exercise, and there are severe consequences. >> they actually kick you out. they really kick you out. you're not allowed to stay here anymore, and you go home all alone and sad. and that's something that just leaves a mark. >> sometimes when these pilots are shot down by the red team, they're forced to do a 20-mile hike through the mar -- hike true the desert to simulate what it would be like if they were shot down, and a number of these guys are actually heading to the united states in the coming months to teach american fliers what they've learned about flying against these other arab air forces. rick: great story. leland, thanks. arthel: all right. more than a week after a major anti-terror raid in the u.k., we're now learning the u.s. embassy was on the top of a suspected hit list. coming up, we're going to talk to a former cia officer and find out how the u.s. should handle the latest terror threat. rick: and all they want is home sweet home. thousands of airline passengers still stranded at airports all over the country because of the big northeast blizzard. coming up we'll find out if those folks are any closer to getting into a real bed. straight ahead. >> they told us there are no earlier flights, and today i was actually one of the lucky ones to have made it on today. flight. ant to try lifting one of these. ant a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x rick: fox news alert, still a lot of people stranded at new york city area airports. 1500 flights canceled total as a result of the blizzard sunday night. all three airports are starting slowly to get back up and running. there are still major delays. planes need to be able to land at these airports in order for people to get where they need to go, and that is beginning to happen including one flight that had our own bill hemmer on it. he is now on the ground at laguardia airport, not here in the studio which is why i get to join you all today, but bill will join us to tell us about his experience getting back from christmas after spending some time with his holiday. we'll talk with bill coming up in a little bit. arthel: sounds good to me. the popular electronic reading device kindle hitting a milestone. amazon claims the e-reader is now the best selling product in the company's history. as for just how many have been sold, amazon's not saying. the company did issue a statement thanking all of its kindle customers. rick: we're learning new details from last week's big terror raid in the u.k. the state department now confirming that the u.s. embassy in london was on a list of intended targets along with the london stock exchange and some shopping areas in the capital city of great britain. the raid, the largest in two years, resulting in the arrests of 12 isn't t. mike baker, former cia covert operations officer, president now of diligence llc, joining us live. thanks very much. i don't want to minimize this, but should we be surprised that the u.s. embassy in london would be on the list of some terrorists as an intended target? >> reporter: well, no. we shouldn't be surprised. any embassy overseas should be considered a potential target and, you know, our personnel who work overseas, they understand that and assume that risk. certainly, embassies in major cities like london are further up the al-qaeda hit parade than orrs. but -- others. so to answer your question, this really shouldn't with a surprise. rick: so what is the big takeaway from this story then? >> the big takeaway is there's several points here. they made the arrests, 12 individuals back on just before christmas, december 21st. they've decided to detain nine of those individuals, to hold on to them, and they've hit them with terrorism-related crimes. the u.k. has very, very stringent regulations on, a, on how you can arrest people and be, b, how you can continue to detain them. so the fact they have held on to nine of them should be taken as an indication of how serious this potential plot was. rick: is there good news here on the counterprofessorrism front -- counterterrorism front, the fact that these guys were brought into custody kind of early on? they really, you know, in the grand scheme of things they hadn't gotten very far in this plot, in this alleged plot. >> well, it looks as if they'd been planning this since the fall, probably since october. so they'd been monitoring this for some time and, obviously, from an operational standpoint to the degree that you can, that's what you want to do. you want to continue to watch the various suspects and expand your understanding of who is involved both there in the local environment and also overseas. what sort of resources do they have to call on, what sort of communications are they engaged in and financing? but i think taking away from this fact that they were able to sweep these individuals up, they're holding on to them, that we've had the arrests in the netherlands of several somali individuals, you know, we're seeing a level of activity certainly over the past several months that indicates that it's a good and bad, right? it's good that we're getting ahead of this and we're staying on top of these various plots and plans, but it's also an indication that al-qaeda continues to be very aggressive in trying to recruit people from various muslim communities both here in the u.s. and overseas. rick: thank you, mike. always good to talk to you. mike baker, diligence llc. happy new year to you and your family. >> likewise. arthel: well, you may have found a kindle under the christmas tree, but did you have a new heating system or energy-saving ac on your wish list? when the clock will run out on some big tax credits for buying them. rick: and did you know baby boomers start turning 65 on new year's day? time flies. so with many baby peoplers' retirement savings in 401(k)s, john fund will join us on the bumpy road ahead for some seniors. don't go away. ♪ rick: arthel, i am your coanchor. darth vadar is on the move, and today a distinguished honor for one of america's iconic films. the library of congress selecting the empire strikes back for preservation this year. also getting the nod, saturday night fever, airplane. two great choices. each year the library adds 25 movies to the national film registry. there are now a total of 550 films in the registry which was started back in 1989, and i guess they guarantee the quality of the actual prints don't deteriorate so people can enjoy these movies for generations to come. arthel: really good stuff. we're moving to this now, we're seeing a mad dash of holiday shoppers not for post-christmas bargains, but for new heating and air-conditioning systems. elizabeth pran live from atlanta, explain to us why these particular systems are flying off the shelves and what's the rush? >> reporter: yeah. well, the rush is for friday at midnight -- it sort of sounds like a cinderella story, but it's not quite as glamorous. there's a number of tax credits that are going to be expired or reduced on friday, the 31st. if you're off this week, you have time to retrofit parts of of your home. the first one is a heating and air-conditioning unit. obviously, this is just a cooling unit, but if you get the heating unit with it, usually they run anywhere from $6-$7,000. let's say you don't need a heating and air-conditioning unit, you can also get a rebate on some insulated doors, and if you want, you can get some tax credit-eligible insulated windows. let's say it's cold at your house, we've seen that snowstorm pass through the entire country. a lot of people are feeling the cold this week. let's say you don't need new windows and you're still feeling the cold. insulation is also something you can get a tax credit on this week and and also water heaters. there's a couple of things you need to know. they need to be energy efficient. you see this little energystar? talk to your contractor or here at home depot, another thing you also need to remember is that you can't get everything. you can't outfit your entire home. there is a $1500 limit when you file in 2011 and also that filing part you can't, you have to remember that you have to mention it in your 2011 tax forms. you're not going to get a mail-in credit if you just purchase these items. arthel: exactly. are there other tax credits that homeowners can get if their purchase these energy-saving items? >> reporter: there are. i'm glad you asked because you can also get state credits. now, it depends on where you i live. go to energy saver.gov. it depends on what items you purchased, but you can also get a credit through your state and also your utility company depending on where you live. you can get a rebate from them as well. so you can get a federal, state and utility rebate, just make sure to get it done by friday as far as the federal rebate is concerned. arthel: that's good stuff. thank you very much. rick: all right. coming up, a husband busts his cheating wife by reading her e-mail. facing possible jail time for his snooping ways, our legal panel will debate that straight ahead. arthel: and stranded passengers calling airport terminals home for a third straight day in many cases. the latest on when air travel will return to normal, that's all coming up next. rick: well, big problems at the nation's airports all over. here's a live look, laguardia airport in this new york city on the right. thousands of flights canceled in this area, the ripple effect stretching all over the country. lots of people spending multiple nights at the airport as they wait for a ride home. planes are now, finally, coming in the at new york area airports, and that's good news. our own bill hemmer just made it back to town, landing at laguardia a couple of minutes ago. bill, hope you had a great trip home for the holiday. tell us about your time getting back. >> i tell you, there's nothing better than getting an extra night with your mom and dad at one of your favorite new restaurants, rick. how are ya? happy new year. rick: same to you. >> landed at laguardia just about 15 minutes ago, and i'm going to need a couple of days to get this mess worked out. there are planes on the ground, probably not as many as they would like. between delta -- delta actually has the most here on the ground. usair i would say is second and american seems to have one or two aircraft, and that's about it. the priority's been to get the thousands of people here in the new york city airports out. i just talked to a couple who's trying to fly out to atlanta, they spent the night here in cots. they've got a 1:30, that's what it says on the board, rick. but i think it's difficult for most folks to believe much right now at this point. rick: don't believe the board. if you're at the airport. so what are folks doing? we've seen pictures on the news, bill, of people sort of stretched out, they're handing out blankets and pillows, but a lot of terminals at that airport and others where there's really no food, there's no water there for people to drink, it's really been a mess. what are you seeing in the terminals as you take a look at the passengers? >> today it's up and running. there's plenty of electricity, and i haven't seen a cot. i've heard the stories. i haven't seen it myself. and it looks like this place is, you know, struggling to get back on its feet again. i mean, as i look at the board here, you have got canceled flights to asheville, charleston, cincinnati at 1:00 canceled, st. louis canceled. these are just sporadic flights. most of the board seems to be operating. i mean, it's getting worked out. it's going to take longer than people want, but that's what you get with 20 inches of snow in one day and temperatures of 8 degrees, wind chills at 50 miles an hour. this was a serious, fast-moving storm. i was in ohio in cincinnati, i got delayed about a day. i think i got off easy, rick. rick: my goodness, you get a little bit more home cooking. bill, did you go to the airport in cincinnati expecting to get on a flight, or were you smart enough to call ahead and know there wasn't going to be a flight for you? >> yeah. i was working the phones pretty much yesterday, and the flight kept getting pushed back further and further. finally, they shut everything down coming to the east coast. we made a drive last night by 10:00 just to poke around and see what was available today. they booked me on a flight for friday, new year's eve, the 31st. i just, as you know, rick, that's just not acceptable, right? rick: you've got a big show you're doing. [laughter] i've got a big show on fox news channel with megyn kelly, you've got to get me back before that. >> right. so they put me on a standby flight for 7:30 this morning, and i got to the airport about 6 a.m., and i was able to get a seat on the flight. rick: everybody misses you here, bill, but we're holding down the fort, and we're ready for your return, and we're glad you got back safe and sound. good luck getting into manhattan. >> yeah, i will need that. my pain was minimal. a lot of these people have been stranded since saturday. let's hope with a lot of fin beers crossed today that they can get moving yet again because today looks like the best shot so far. rick: here here. bill hemmer, safe travels feting into town. glad you got back into the new york area. >> yeah. happy new year, rick. rick: you too. arthel: and hemmer says it wasn't too bad for him, but there's outrage across the board after what a lot of folks are calling a botched response to the blizzard of 2010. brand new images from brooklyn, new york. take a look at this, two days later many roads still untouched by a plow. agencies and officials seem to have just one reply to critics saying the response was unacceptable. a brand new hour of "america's newsroom." hello, erin, i'm arthel neville. rick: and i'm in for bill hemmer who just landed at laguardia. people grinding out their daily routines as the region crawls back to life, and surprisingly, it seems like airline travelers actually have the highest spirits. >> i was told to come here from my hotel in the new york, which i did. and then i'm told the flight's been canceled. it's my first trip to new york. i came for christmas. i had a thoroughly good time until now. >> it is what it is, and it's the holidays, and we've had fun, and we're going to get home somehow. arthel: you'll get home somehow. hey, if you come to new york, you've got to go to central park. look who's there right now, heather childers is there with all the snow behind you, but there's a lot of snow and problems as a result, right, heather? >> reporter: absolutely. you know, arthel, new york city is, in fact, dealing with the sixth worst snowstorm in the past 100 years. so it may look pretty bad, but it's not the worst we've ever seen. central park, as you mentioned, it is beautiful. 20 feet of snow measured here. but aside from the park we all can't just hang out in the park, the streets. it's wreaking havoc on the streets. snow-covered cars. these, luckily, are on the side of the road. problem is when these cars are in the middle of the street. staten island, some areas in the boroughs you mentioned, 29 inches of snow recorded there. portions of new jersey over 30 inches. crews have been trying to clear the streets, the bridges, the highways, the rail lines using anything they can, snowblowers and snow throwers. limited commuter train and subway service, though, is in effect for new york, the metropolitan area while the clean-up continues. a rundown for you. long island railroad, limited service. metro north railroad, staten island railroad, limited service. amtrak, limited and delayed. and the new york city subway system, it is considered the heartbeat, it's the artery that keeps the city running. well, it is, has taken quite a beating as well. service is back up, though, but, of course, delays there. and that is in most places. so be aware of that. and bus service, bus services as well severely limited. 400 buses were either stuck or just simply abandoned yesterday. but we did see a couple go by today so, you know, just be prepared for a lot of delays, arthel. arthel: yeah. hey, heather, thanks. speaking of those delays, some serious ones to tell you about right now. a new york city nightmare on the tracks. hundreds of passengers left stranded on several subways after the big blizzard shorted out the train's power. stuck for almost nine hours no heat, no food and no water. some were able to pry the doors open just a little bit to speak to reporters. >> no heat -- >> how long? >> nine hours. no the heat, no nothing. we're not going anywhere. not one damn train with no heat. >> has this truck been stuck -- >> a few trains have been stuck for five hours. >> and no bathroom either. the passengers were forced to huddle together to keep warm. hours later a rescue train towed them to a nearby station. rick: and there were some kids onboard that train. that is just unacceptable, and the mayor catching some heat -- speaking of heat -- over that situation. and some folks living on plum island -- that's in massachusetts -- they are worried now. high tides could wash away their homes. the east coast storm causing large waves to damage the deck of this ocean front home. homeowners are hoping that the stilts will stay this place. >> last night the wind was really gusting, maybe 50, 60 miles an hour at the high tide. so we are pretty optimistic that they'll be fine. rick: national guard has already evacuated more than a dozen homes affected by coastal flooding. arthel: the price at the pump edging up over the $3 mark, the national average for a gallon is now $3.05. this is the first time it's been over $3 since reaching record highs in october of '08. well, you i ain't seen nothing yet, that's according to a former oil executive. the former president of shell says americans could be paying $5 in two years. he's also predicting a 1970s-style energy shortage by 2020 saying by then supply and demand will be so out of whack, gas stations will simply start running out. rick: well, as you shiver outside, oil is hovering above $91 a barrel which means that heating your house has just gotten more expensive. sandra smith from the fox business network is live once again today in chicago with more on that. sandra? >> reporter: hey, rick. well, yeah, if you heat your home in the northeastern united states, you're likely to be paying more for your heating bill this winter. we're not just looking at oil prices that are now hovering at two-year highs above that $91 a barrel mark, we have a whole other concern for consumers, and that's rising heating bill costs. heating oil is up 26% just over the past year which means that you're paying definitely more this year over last year to heat your home in the northeast. and in the month of december alone, rick, because it's so chilly outside and we're seeing such a big pickup in demand for heating oil, we're seeing prices in the month of december up about 9%. there's a little good news here for heating your home, and that's if you're one of the 52% of americans that uses natural gas to heat your homes. natural gas prices are down more than 20% over the past year because it's a supply/demand story. there's ample supplies, so that's kept prices low. nonetheless, if you live in the northeast using heating oil to heat your home, you're going to definitely see that pick up in price this winter. so you've got the higher gas prices at the pump, you're paying more to heat your home, rick. so if prices for energy are definitely going higher and with most big banks calling for oil to be their top pick in 2011, we're likely to see prices continue to rise all the way into the spring. rick: i'm not really liking this report, sandra. no offense. [laughter] sandra smith live for us. it's nice to see you. >> reporter: baa humbug! rick: sandra in chicago, thanks. arthel: a brand new financial armageddon could be three days away. it starts happening on january 1st and won't stop for 19 years and could be devastating for millions and millions of americans. rick: also the collapse of the housing market blame withed for sparking the economic meltdown, but things could be a lot different next year. what the next congress will debate after the holiday break. arthel: and he snooped on his wife's e-mails. now he's facing five years in prison. the case that could set an incredible precedent. we'll talk about it just ahead. >> financially, physically, emotionally, it's rough. i mean, i've been utterly destroyed by this in so many ways. join the jaguar platinum celebration ! come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x rick: overseas now. hundreds of protesters in south korea in front of the u.s. embassy. take a listen. these people are upset, they are rallying against provocative talk from the north korea communist regime. north korea says that the u.s. and its ally are, quote, inviting a nuclear war by conducting military drills there last week. the north repeatedly claiming these military maneuvers are grounds for a full-scale attack. south korea has also promised retaliation. around arkansas well, a whole generation of americans speeding toward a financial brick wall. baby boomers, we're talking about, start turning 65 on new year's day, 10,000 of them every day for the next 19 years. and after a decade of dismal stock and 401(k) performance, it could be a bumpy ride. john fund, he's from the wall street journal and, john, let's just get right to it. we just mentioned we're talking about pensions, stocks, home sales declining. typically reliable, not in the current climate, where do you go from here? >> well, the savings rate is the big problem americans facing retirement have. in the '70s and '80s, people saved nearly 10 president of their -- 10% of their income. but then we got used to frills and indulgences, and by 2007 the savings rate was -1%. and when the recession hit and took a lot of 401(k)s and people were left flat-footed, so a lot of people are looking at a much more grinch-like retirement than expected. arthel: any way they can somehow salvage this and have a better retirement? >> well, luckily, the savings rate has come back to around 5%. i also think that americans recognize that economic growth is the key to getting our economy back on track and improving their 401(k)s. so i think that's one of the reasons we have the tax deal. people wanted those tax cuts to remain in place because they them that that would lead to economic growth. the other thing, though, is i think we have to downsize our expectations. people are going to have to work longer. aarp had a poll the other day, nearly 40% of baby boomers expect to work well past 65. that's awful if you're in bad physical shape, but if you're in good shape, working after the normal retirement year is a good thing. my father retired at age 59. he regretted that for a long time, and i think that being actively employed actually can make your retirement years better. arthel: i agree with that. it's the old adage if you don't use it, you lose it. but let's talk about that. i mean, your mind, that is. there is this facing these baby boomers, we're talking about the high unemployment rate -- almost 10% that they have to deal with -- and trying to perhaps stay in the work force or get back into the work force could be a problem. you've got as we talked about declining retirement benefits and health care expenses. if you don't have a job and you have to figure out how to pay for health care, you know that's close to impossible for a lot of people. so, again, talk about is there a takeaway for future generations? >> well, one takeaway is this: i think a lot of people make a critical mistake as they approach retirement. nearly three out of four americans take social security benefits as soon as they're eligible, age 62. that means they get a much smaller check than if they waited until 65 or even later. i think that's one thing people are going to have to reevaluate. they're also going to have to reevaluate medicare. people still have enormous out-of-pocket expenses and, frankly, obamacare has made things more complicated for seniors. i think we have to go back and look at, perhaps, more health savings accounts, repairing some of the damage that was done to them in the obamacare bill. because health savings accounts allow people to save tax-free for out-of-pocket medical expenses. arthel: and that's the takeaway for future generations, but those who are currently facing the retirement we started talking about, you're right, they have to figure out a way to somehow augment whatever medicaid aid that they do have. >> absolutely. arthel: all right. well, john fund, thank you very much. rick: coming up, 2010, of course, drawing to an end. we're in the final days here, folks. and the housing crash still hurting american familiesal over the country. so what is the government's plan to fix the problem? peter barnes with the business network has a closer look coming up next. arthel: and a calf stranded in an icy pond in oklahoma. he's so sweet. wait until you hear who helped safe the day. there's good news. rick: he's okay? arthel: yeah, he's okay. >> when i saw the little calf out there, it reminded me of the story when you guys saved the little deer. so i just took a chance and called you guys. everyone has someone to go heart healthy for. who's your someone? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. arthel: an oklahoma news pilot comes to the rescue when a calf is spotted fighting for its life in an icy pond. there he is. the animal struggling to get to the shoreline. poor thing. now, when the pilot swooped in to help, yep, mason dunn says the wash from the helicopter rotors helped scoop the calf right out of the water. look at there. >> when i arrived, it was set up perfectly for me. everything has to come into play, and it was set up perfectly. there were no trees, no wires, it was a huge pond. the calf was out in the middle of the pond. it was an easy decision, we just went right down there and, like i said, it took me about 30 seconds to blow it over to the shore. arthel: very good. we're told the animal is safe and doing fine. dunn, by the way, is the same pilot who helped save a deer stuck on the ice a few years back. rick: and he's in the ice capades now. sign him up. glad he's okay. well, the housing market remains at the center of the nation's economic troubles, and the battle to fix it is just beginning. congress will debate what to do with mortgage giants fannie and freddie. but all sides want to see a major overhaul in the government's role in housing. peter barnes live in washington with more on this. hi, peter. >> reporter: hey, rick. what else to do to stabilize the housing market is a big question for policymakers in 2011, as you mentioned. the treasury department is pushing a proposal to help homeowners who are underwater, whose mortgages are bigger than the value of their homes. more than one in five homeowners is underwater right now, and they are at risk for foreclosure without some help. now, the treasury wants mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac to modify underwater loans they hold by lowering the principal on the loans and rolling them over into a new program at the federal housing administration, the fha, to give these homeowners lower monthly payments. but fannie and freddie themselves are worried the idea could generate more losses for them. the treasury, as you know, has already pumped $150 billion into fannie and freddie. but treasury thinks that the plan could help stabilize the broader housing market which it says could save taxpayers money across all government mortgage programs over the long term. now, republicans in the congress are also worried about the possible costs of this plan. republicans in the house financial services committee sending a letter to the regulator of fannie and freddie. the members note homeowners who missed their mortgage payments cannot qualify for this fha program, and they write: since the program targets performing loans, it raises the question why it would be in the best interests of the u.s. taxpayer for fannie and freddie to write down principal on these types of loans. this battle to continue in the new congress next year. rick? rick: we'll see what the lawmakers do when they get back to work in a couple weeks. thanks very much, peter. arthel: well, it could be the first fight for the new congress. many republicans threatening to throttle president obama's health care law come 2011. there have been victories along the way, but why or what has to go down to repeal it? plus, a noisy husband -- nosey, that is, he checks his wife's e-mails finding out that she's cheating, and then -- rick: then he was noisy. then he got noisy. arthel: and now he's facing jail time. okay rick could this guy do time for reading his wife's e-mails? we'll have a feisty debate on that when we come right back. >> just used the password, got into her e-mails and immediately saw that that was actually happening. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about 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city airports, are up and running, all receiving inbound flights, almost 1500 flights were cancelled at those three airports, and, according to the mall of america's spokesman, people are still in a holiday buying mood. he says people are there, doing a lot of shopping and more shopping than returning. and so far, sales look like they best since 2007. and, president obama is expected to announce his choice for his top economic advisor, once he gets back from his hawaiian vacation next week and the key advisor will fill the shoes of the out going council director, larry summers. arthel: the new year could bring a long legal battle over the president's health care overhaul which suffered the first major legal set back when a federal judge declared the heart of the legislation unconstitutional and the decision is giving republican critics ammunition to repeal it next year, joining us now is aaron billings, roll call deputy editor, good morning, erin, how are you. >> good morning. arthel: do you think republicans will kill the president's health care or will the g.o.p. try and defund it and then you have to talk about the political ramifications involved. >> i think the next two years, at least until 2012, until we have this next election, republicans are going to try to make the political argument and try and build the case, that the health care law is flawed and they will try to attack it from all sides and you mention the court and that is one area and there will be new oversight to have hearings, and, you know, call some of these administration officials, in and have them defend pieces of the law and will try to obviously vote on a repeal and the senate will not respond in kind and obama will not repeal his own law, and that will be a political rather than a substantive attempt by the house republicans. but, look, i mean, all of this is going to be a big political thing, because, in 2012 we have the white house up for grabs and the senate is really up for grabs and republicans know that and if they can build a case, hopefully, from their perspective, they can use that, to elect more republicans and, perhaps, win the white house and they can get rid of it. arthel: but, erin they cannot talk about it too long, that is the problem, so much time was spent on it and americans didn't understand it and still don't and it is still in place and they are hoping the benefits will out weigh the criticism of it and again the republicans cannot afford to spend much time on this thing. >> well, i don't know if that is true. i mean, this is not going to clog the pipeline. you know, look, they will not be able to get much done in the senate like i said and if they bring up a repeal here and there and vote on it on the house floor it will not take up too much time and having hearings in committee while they are doing other things on the floor, certainly, they can walk and chew gum at the same time. so, i don't think that this is going to be the only issue that republicans talk about, over the next two years. arthel: can they walk and stop spending at the same time is the question? you are looking at a national debt nearly $14 trillion. you know, what congress has been doing in the recent years, raising the limit to give the government an opportunity to spend more money and basically who will stop this? and, again, who has the right answer, is the question. >> i don't know, the right answer seems to be eluding congress, right now. but, look, i mean, even john boehner, the incoming speaker of the house said they will be -- have to be adults here and have the vote on raising the debt ceiling and obama said, we don't want the full faith and credit of the country to collapse. we have to be realistic about what is at stake and the stakes are high and most republicans acknowledge that and there will be conservatives who will come in and newly elected members who rode on the anti-tax and spend platform, will say, no chance, no way. i think they'll try to find a compromise and at least raise the debt ceiling but look for spending cuts elsewhere and... arthel: do you believe it will be because -- will it be easy to find. >> they never are, when you get to the details you have the disagreements and the president has his ideas about where spending can be cut and certainly, republicans have theirs and congressional democrats have theirs. that is going to be the real fight. and, it will come very quickly. i mean, in february, the president is going to present his budget recommendations to congress, congress will respond, and they will come up with their own budget recommendations, and none of the process is really a pretty process even in the best of times. so, it's certainly not going to be a pretty process in difficult economic times. arthel: let's hope the bleeding stops soon, erin billings, thank you very much. >> thank you, happy new year. rick: this got -- this man got into his wife's e-mail account and found out she was cheating on him and now is facing 5 years in prison, he's charged with felony computer misuse, used tor protecting trade secrets and identity theft and walker snooped around and discovered that his wife was having an affair with her second husband. so he ratted her out, to her first husband, father of her children and walker claims he was trying to protect the kids from a violent second husband and there's a violent history here and he's now in ray world of trouble and it could set a legal precedent, tamara holder is a criminal defense attorney and fox news contributor and, tamara usually your spouse cheats on you and they are the ones who are in trouble. what is going on here? >> yeah, well, you know, here's a guy who caught his wife cheating on him and now, he's looking at going to prison for five years. this makes no sense, whatsoever. the prosecutors are overreaching here. they are using a statute to try to send the guy to prison, for using a passport to gain access to his wife's e-mails and this is the statute that is for anti-hacking or for hackers. so, basically they are saying a guy who, for example, breaks into somebody's house, but doesn't steal anything, is possibly guilty of a burglary. that is what they are trying to do here and it makes no sense whatsoever, maybe he invaded her privacy, and maybe he trespassed electronically, but, he did not commit a crime with the anti-hacking statute. rick: tom, is it prosecutorial overreach? what do you think? >> no. i don't think so. let's be clear, rick. the michigan statute prohibits unauthorized access to computers and he's innocent until proven guilty and he'll have a trial and so forth but the allegations are, he accessed his wife's e-mail by unauthorized use of her password. that meets the elements of the michigan statute. if the michigan legislature wished to exclude spouses, are, they could have written it into the statute and i would submit, that rfar from being excluded from the statute, it is a case where one spouse is trespassing, cyber-stalking the other and if you are willing to hack into your wife's e-mail or somebody you are having an intimate relationship's e-mail with, you are exhibit the classic signs of jealousy, insecurity and controlling behavior and that is a classic cocktail for domestic violence. >> he wasn't cyber stalking. this isn't a cyber stalking case. >> look at the cases we've had -- >> it's not a cyber stalking case. we are talking about an anti-hacking case, that is used to protect people from, you know, identity theft. and, i -- >> tamara, you are arguing semantics, though. the statute -- >> no, no, no, but -- >> prohibits unauthorized access to a computer. >> right, unauthorized access to a computer. he had access to a computer, tom. he had access to a computer, it was a shared computer. >> not to her password and her e-mail account -- rick: one second. i want to ask you, what are the terms you lawyers like to use, mitigating factors? the fact that there are children involved here, and he was concerned not only about whether his wife was being faithful to him but about the kids, because, the guy that she was now shacking up with, again was someone who had a violent history, and evidently had beaten her, the kids were present at the time and let's listen, so we have more of mr. walker talk about this. >> to get her phone records, it seemed like they were close and spoke and communicated a lot and i was concerned that she was not just moving back in in that situation but was bringing our daughter into it, so i wanted to confirm that. rick: does that make a difference, there are kids involved? >> first of all, who is the guy's attorneys? whee is he talking to the press and doing interviews before trial? that is stupid! you know, it is a good mitigating factor but at the end of the day the elements of the crime and the acts must match up. if they match up he's guilty. period. rick: tom, privacy, talking about a shared computer. i mean, i know maybe he shouldn't have used her password but it was a computer that belonged to both of them, what kind of rights to privacy should someone expect to have? who had access to the computer and so forth. that is going to be a took chul issue at trial and the wife has a different account of whether it was a shared computer and also, what doesn't seem to be in dispute is the fact it was a password-protected e-mail account and there are a lot of privileges incumbent with obtaining a marriage license. you also surrender certain rights and you don't surrender your right to privacy. you don't surrender your right to live your own private life despite the fact that you may be married and, like i said earlier, what makes -- the factor is that this guy was saying, he's worried about his kids and so forth and those aren't mitigating factors, those are aggravating factors because he's exhibiting indicia of being prone to domestic violence and that is what it is designed to protect. rick: we'll follow the story and have you both back on, tamara holder and tom kenniff, thanks for coming in. arthel: you know him as the president's right-hand man and there's a side of white house senior advisor david axelrod you probably have not seen, a look inside his struggles on the home front after the break. years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott. >> i'm patti ann browne, the major storm that walloped the u.s. has victims in its wake and we'll talk to someone who has been fighting to get home since sunday. gregg: pork-barrel spending, lawmakers are vowing to put an end to the notorious earmarks, will they use other creative ways to fund their pet projects? all on the sly? patti ann: and social networking a sign of the times, seems like everyone is plugged in. is it a fun way to stay connected or are our brains hard wired. gregg: at the top of the hour, on "happening now." rick: "fox news alert," a situation taking place at an airport in the midwest, st. louis, lambert airport, two u.s. air flights clipping each other during a deicing process. no wish was hurt and it did not take place on the tarmac or -- but where the planes are before they are released to go, the planes were being deiced and a flight was headed to charlotte and one to philly, and again, we'll keep an eye on this, apparently not a lot of damage and nobody was injured but the situation taking place on the ground in st. louis. arthel: now something we don't often bring you on a busy morning news program, breaking news in "america's newsroom," a story showing another side of a man you said heard a lot about here on fox news. david axelrod. he's the president's senior political advisor and is called wouldn't of the shrewdest campaign strategists in modern political history but what is not widely known is one of the toughest battles is fought at home. he and his wife, susan, guided the medical and educational strategy for their daughter, lauren who suffers from epilepsy and it is a story that any parent or anyone who loves a child, can relate to. and here's martha maccallum. >> i get excited when i try new paintings. >> reporter: this is lauren axelrod. she's the daughter of david axelrod. president obama's closest advisor, and the architect behind the president's historic 2008 campaign. far away from his political success in the world of washington, d.c., is a family life, that has been filled with challenges. >> look at you. what are you painting? nice. >> beautiful. >> reporter: david and his wife, susan struggled to help their now 29-year-old daughter live a normal life. >> i was thinking a flower one. >> you don't like this? okay. back in the bag. i lost. >> reporter: seeing her healthy is a dream come true for them, in the wake of a very long nightmare. lauren has a severe case of epilepsy. she's had it since the day she came down with a bad cold when she was just 7 months old. her pediatrician prescribed a small dose of cold medicine and today susan wonders if it caused the onset of her daughter's disease. >> at that time they didn't make pediatric formulas and i gave her a quarter of an adult dose and she seemed to sleep through the night and i thought it was unusual but she had been up several nights in a row and i went into her bedroom, looked into her crib and she was just blue and listless. >> tiny little baby, you know, and her eyes were rolled back... it was frightening. >> and she was salivating at the mouth and making a gutter al sound and i was then in shock. >> reporter: what was the first thing you did. >> i called my mom and said, do babies do this? and she said, no. she said i think you need to get her to the emergency room. they identified it as a seizure and we didn't know what was happening. >> they weren't alarmed as we were alarmed and they said it is probably a febrile seizure. >> reporter: it can happen with a high fever. >> right. only... >> she didn't have a high fever. >> reporter: lauren was admitted but the seizures didn't stop. they kept coming. sometimes 5 times a day. and, the doctors couldn't figure out how to stop them. >> a month later, they released us from the hospital and they said, we've done what we can and told us, at that time, well, don't worry, these seizures will not damage your child, and of course sadly we learned after, the fact, that it wasn't the case and these seizures were doing tremendous damage to her. >> especially when seizures with that severity and that quantity, when they happen in the brain, the developing brain under age 2, it can really wreak havoc with development. >> what are you doing? that class is not over yet. >> reporter: months later, lauren was diagnosed with epilepsy. >> how do you go from the wonderful feeling of seeing a young couple, having your first baby, and -- it's not what we thought. >> it is a very lonely feeling, no one could give us ansdz and we didn't know anybody else, at that time, who was going through it. >> we held out hope because the one thing we kept hearing was, she may outgrow this by age five, even as serious as her condition is, and so each birthday, each event, we sort of held our breath and thought, okay. you know? >> reporter: a couple good days and you think, is it ending? >> exactly. exactly. >> reporter: instead the aaction intensified, coming in clusters, the only treatment, large doses of medicine that sometimes put her into a coma-like state. >> she would grab susan's hand in between and she'd shriek, mom, make them stop and she'd go back into the seizures and you know... >> reporter: horrid, for everybody... >> oh, yeah. sit there and cry. because there was nothing we could do for her, you know? >> when she was about ten, there was a particularly intense -- they were particularly intense then and she started dropping the "s" in every word when she read to me and i thought we were dealing with a bizarre learning disability and she finally said, seizure starts with "s" and if i don't say that maybe they will not happen. >> reporter: the attacks held her back from school and she didn't go to birthday parties or other activities and her two younger brothers, michael and ethan, suffered in a different way. >> family vacations would be scrapped and sometimes family vacations would be ruined. and, if you are a young child, you know, you cannot help but resent that. but, then on the other hand, you ask any sibling of someone with a chronic illness and say it must have been hard and, they say, but, it is a lot harder on my sister but the truth is, it is hard on everybody. >> i feel... tired. >> reporter: by the time she turned 15 she had been on 20 different kinds of drugs. various experimental therapies and special diets, but, the seizures, they kept coming. now, up to 25 times a day. that was when they decided to try surgery. >> they had to drill holes into her skull and implant electrodes in through the holes on the surface of the brain and put grids of eegs in there and bring own the seizures. >> after the surgery she was so bloated it was unrecognizable. it was a miserable thing. >> reporter: and worst of all, it didn't work. david and susan decided to look for their own answers. >> this year we received 108... >> reporter: susan along with other parents, found aid ned a nonprofit, called "the cure." >> our focus has really been, let's try and truly, once and for all, start to understand the disease and approach it more rationally, and not just think about the seizures. >> reporter: they've given out more than 100 research grants, worldwide. >> the money you have raised, do you see progress? >> the initial impact we have, is to really change the conversation, the focus from looking at just stopping seizures to looking at what is the disease process here? why do they start? why do 2/3 of them have no idea why they start? why are fully 40% uncontrollable? why do they sometimes go into remission and return? her doctor... >> this is a preposterous idea. you cannot start a national research foundation. what i learned is what i should have realized from the beginning which is that there is nothing like the power of moms, who are heart broken and hell bent on making a difference. >> and then, in 2000 a breakthrough, lauren had another severe seizure attack and her doctor told her about a new anti-c anti-convulsant drug, and, in a few days, the seizures stopped. >> how is has it been since she has been on the drug. >> amazing. the further away she gets from the seizures the more you see who she is and her capacity improved. >> see? you're a genius! martha: you see the drug is working for her and months go by, you are overjoyed. >> but, still, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. ten years later, a call in the middle of the night? martha: david and susan had something else to worry about. >> all of a sudden we were staring at our own mortality and realized that if she lived with us, for the rest of our lives, thsh could be 40, 45 years old and all of a sudden... >> alone. >> and we didn't want to -- didn't want her to have to cope with that and so we started looking for, you know, a better answer. arthel: we wanted to thank the family for sharing the story and martha, what a great story you brought to us. go to our home page at foxnews.com and that is where the entire story will be posted, along with the link on how you can help -- the web site is cureepilepsy.org. and david axelrod was referring to another really inspiring part of the story and we'll show you that later. and we'll be back, after the break. join the jaguar platinum celebration ! come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x rick: you'll like this story, the last american soldier will leave iraq at the end of 2011, those are the words from iraq's prime minister, during an interview, al-maliki ruling out the presence of u.s. troops after the planned withdraw date and he says the government there is fully capable of handling any other threat to iraq's surt. -- security. arthel: and stepped up security across india after words of plans for a terror attack, the government receiving information a militant group based in pakistan is plotting an ambush that could target people on new year's weekend and police are now flooding the streets of mumbai, the same city where armed gunmen stormed two luxury hotels in '08, killing more than 160 people. rick: back home, serious crop concerns, in the sunshine state after forecasters issued a hard freeze warning for parts of florida. temperatures could fall as low as 21° in some areas and that has orange farmers a little worried. >> we're not ready for this, certainly, last week, we were enjoying very nice weather, now they get bombarded with freeze or below temperatures, and that is a concern. rick: last. >> florida produced the second smallest crop in 20 years after a cold spell damaged farms. arthel: in florida police are saying carbon monoxide may be the blame for the death of five people, the men all under 30, found dead in a miami motel room, believed fumes from a car in the garage below drifted up the stairwell. the firefighter on the scene says there doesn't appear to be much vented relation in the room and cops think one of the men may have left the car running, went upstairs and fell asleep. rick: wow, a real tragedy. in miami. coming up, he's one of the most wanted men in the world, anwar al-awlaki, the radical cleric linked to terror attempts on u.s. soil and now prosecutors are trying him -- tying him, rather, to another massive plot. we'll tell you which one. . >> listen up carnivore. the caveman diet, it may have included veggies. cave men did not just eat meat. neanderthals eight grains and meat. cooking them over the fire the same way they cooked protein. most theories suggest they eventually became engs tinge to their heavy reliance on meat but researchers found that plant matter on the teeth unearthed in europe, yeah, including types of wild grass, roots and potatoes. rick: corn-on-the-cob evidently according to our videotape. have you got any new year's plans yet? make sure to keep it here on fox news for our annual new year's eve special with those two. bill and megyn. they will be live from a snowy times square

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