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more followed. >> 3, 2, 1... and lift off of space shuttle "discovery." >> 2, 1... boost ignition and lift off of the space shuttle discovery... >> 2, 1, ignition and lift off, lift off of atlantis. >> the shuttle atlantis... shepard: now for the final time, four brave astronauts will put their lives on the line to fly a shuttle into the heavens on behalf of all humanity. we'll get perspective from the space shuttle veteran tom jones, plus, jonathan hunt on what you might not know about the shuttle program's history. and, look at the training today's astronauts did to get set for a mighty big flight. >> two stager... command in the center. shepard: all as we prepare for sts 135, the final mission. shepard: and good morning again from kennedy space center, along the space coast in florida, and, right now we're waiting for the grand finale of the american space shuttle odyssey. we have just gotten word from forecasters at nasa the last few minutes they are cautiously optimistic that the weather may hold, and there was just a 30% chance of acceptable weather and we're told we're on target for an 11:26 lift off for the international space station. now there's a lot of cloud but the ceiling is high and the worry was there would be spotty showers here and there and the shuttle cannot take that. the rain could damage heat shields and would be difficult to return should it go into the atmosphere, an estimated 750,000 people have come here to watch this happen and a live look at the space shuttle and the four american astronauts preparing for this historic mission. a 12-day voyage, set to end when atlantis returns to earth on the 20th of july, 42 years to the day after man first landed on the moon. the clock you'll see at the bottom of the screen is on hold, until 17 minutes past 11:00 a.m. on the space coast, when the final countdown begins and if atlantis goes up here's what we can expect to see happen. t-6.6 seconds, nasa will start the main engine and a count down to solid rocket booster ignition and then, lift off. a little more than 8 minutes into the flight, that external fuel tank will separate, as we have seen so many times. essentially a gas tank and, the only component of the shuttle that is not reused. we're told most of it disintegrates in the atmosphere and the rest lands in the ocean and eventually the crew will dock at the international space station, a delicate maneuver 200 miles in space and first, on earth, preparations are underway to cap off three decades of shuttle flights with one final voyage. towards the stars, and what an exciting day here along the space coast. steve harrigan joins us live at the space center, and what is nasa saying? the sun is out? it is astounding. >> reporter: it is, the last few minute, nasa officials have said things are trending better and more positive and likely for a launch. they haven't changed the odds. they stand at 70% no-go and the past 24 hours we have seen rough weather here, lightning strikes near the launch pad and heavy rainstorms but, the sun is beginning to peek through and the real concern continues to be those clouds, heavy cloud cover but if they were to go now officials say it would be a go. if it is struck today we'll see a possible window saturday or sunday morning. sunday more likely. that would give the staff here time to get home and back because traffic around the area now, simply horrendous, shepard. shepard: steve harrigan, steve, thank you, back to shuttle coverage in a moment. as promised the president is going to speak on the economy and the new jobs numbers. let's listen. >> president barack obama: the debate here in washington is dominated by issues of debt limit. but what matters most to americans and what matters most to me as president in the wake of the worst downturn in our life times, is getting our economy on a sounder footing more broadly, so the american people can have the security they deserve. and that means getting back to a place where businesses consistently grow and are hiring, where new jobs and opportunity are within reach, where middle class families once again know the security and peace of mind they felt slipping away for years now. today's job report confirms what most americans already know. we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to give people the security and opportunity they deserve. we have added more than 2 million new private sector jobs over the past 16 months. but the recession cost us more than $8 million and that means that we system have a big hole to fill. each new job created last month is good news for the people who are back at work. and for the families they take care of. and for the communities that they are part of. but our economy as a whole just is not producing nearly enough jobs for everybody who is looking. we have always known we'd have ups and downs on our way back from the recession and over the past few months the economy experienced tough head winds. from natural disasters to spikes in gas prices, to state and local budget cuts that cost tens of thousands of cops and firefighters and teachers their jobs. the problems in greece and in europe along with uncertainty over whether the debt limit here in the u.s. will be raised have also made businesses hesitant to invest more aggressively. the economic challenges that we face weren't created overnight and will not be solved overnight but the american people expect us to act on every, single good idea that is out there. i read letter after letter from folks hit hard by the economy and none of them ask for much. some of them pour their guts out in these letters, and, they want me to know that what they are looking for is that we have done everything we can to make sure that they are rewarded when they are living up to the responsibilities, when they are doing right by their communities, and when they are playing by the rules. and that is what they are looking for and they feel like the rules have changed. they feel leaders on wall street and in washington and believe me, no party is exempt, have let them down and wonder if their efforts will ever be reciprocated by their leaders. they also make sure to point out how much pride and faith they have in the country, that as hard as things might be today, they are positive things can get better. and i believe that we can make things better. how we respond is up to us. there are few things we can and should do, right now, to redouble our efforts on behalf of the american people. let me give you some examples. right now, there are over a million construction workers out of work after the housing boom went bust. just as a lot of america needs rebuilding. we connect the two by investing in rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our railways, and our infrastructure. and we could put back to work, right now, some of those construction workers that lost their jobs when the housing market went bust. right now, we can give our entrepreneurs the chance to let their job creating ideas move to market faster by streamlining our patent process. that is pending before congress, right now. that should pass. today, congress can advance trade agreements that will help businesses sell more american-made goods and services to asia and south america. supporting thousands of jobs here at home. that could be done right now. right now, there are a lot of middle class families who sure could use the security of knowing the tax cut i signed in december to help boost the economy and put a thousand dollars in the pockets of american families, that that still will be around next year. that is a change we could make, right now and there are bills and trade agreements before congress, right now, that could get all these ideas moving. all of them have bipartisan support, all of them could passed pas passed pas passed pass and i urge congress not to wait. also to put our economy on a stronger and sounder footing for the future, we have got to rein in our deficits and get the government to live within its means, while making the investments that help put people to work, right now and make us more competitive in the future. and, as i said, we have had some good meetings, we had a good meeting here yesterday with leaders of both parties inness could, and, while real differences remain we agreed to work through the weekend and meet back here on sunday. the sooner we get this don the sooner that the markets know the debt limit ceiling will have been raised, and, that we have a serious plan to deal with our debt and deficits, and, the sooner that we give our businesses the certainty that they will need in order to make additional investments to grow and hire and, will provide more confidence to the rest of the world as well, so that they are committed to investing in america. and the american people sent us here to do the right thing, not for party but for country. so, we're going to work together, to get things done on their behalf. that is the least they should expect of us. not the most they should expect of us. i am ready to roll up my sleeves over the e next several weeks and months and i know people in both parties are ready to do that as well and we will keep you updated on the progress we are making on these debt limit talks over the next several days. thank you. shepard: the president speaking at the white house on the jobs numbers today. unemployment is now up to 9.2%. they were expected somewhere between 95,000 and 125,000 new jobs to be created in the month of june and turned out to be 18,000, and very bad news today on the jobs front with the unemployment rate up to 9.2%, but we have good news here. and it is that the launch is still a go for the shuttle. the final launch, we're just moments away from that. the weather is still a bit of an issue and we're waiting to hear definitively from nasa. they have not decided yet an janice dean is watching that and j.d. they are worried about rain showers within a 20 mile radius of the kennedy space center. >> right. it will be last-minute, shepard, temperature 84° with the humidity, dewpoint, 75. so a lot of juicy, moist air out there. looking at the radar here, that is not hitting the ground. and it looks like these clouds are thin enough that they might be able to launch this thing, 26 minutes past the hour. what we are waiting for and you can see, we have a line of showers and thunderstorms just west of the region, and at this point it is really up to mother nature and of course, the nasa weather department which is the best in our country, so, we will keep tabs on that, but, a quick look at the criteria when we look at the shuttle launch, no precipitation or thick cloud layer capable of producing lightning on the launch pad or in the flight path and no lightning within a ten nautical mile radius of the flight path. 30 minutes prior to launch. so again it is really touch and go at this point but we are crossing or fingers in the fox weather department. shepard: janice dean in the fox extreme weather center in new york. thank you. former astronaut, tom jones is live with us. a veteran of four space flights himself. he has flown on the shuttle endeavour, columbia and atlantis, logging 52 days in space and retired in 2001 and now a fox news contributor, former nasa astronaut, tom jones is with us and they are talking about the weather. let's listen to nasa tv, quickly. >> american icon, the final time, 30... good luck, god's peace. >> thanks to you and your team, mike and... shepard: it is a go. >> you made it look easy... >> it will always be a reflection of what a great nation can do and we're not ending the jordan. heather: we're completing a chapter or journey that will never end and, you and thousands of men and women who they've their hearts and souls and -- gave their hearts and souls and lives to the exploration of space, and, one more time we'll witness the great nation at its best, atlantis is ready for launch. >> thank you, sir, we'll get you going here in a couple of minutes. shepard: man, tom, what is going through their minds? >> hair standing up on the back of your neck. shepard: we got the word from nasa, we're a go. the weather is okay, no rain within 20 miles, no lightning for the past 30 minutes. i miracle. >> things clearedamazingly, it is moisture all over the place, a humid day and i thought it would build to thunderstorms but we have gotten a nice, smooth stable path the last ten or 15 minutes. bill: when the sun comes out with this much humidity it makes the water at ground level rise and turns around and dumps on you, which it probably will, 2:00 or 3:00 this afternoon. >> florida weather, right. bill: tom, i'm excited. >> so am i. it remind me of all the times i sat on the launch pad, and my heart is there with those four crewmembers and friends of mine. and they are focused on producing a perfect mission, to cap the shuttle's 30-year car r career. shepard: i was lucky and got a chance to train with the crew and i rode in a similarity with them in hewn, the same simulator they used. >> astronaut training, the four astronauts practiced ascending into space and i'm in the back seat, strapped in with a camera and imperfect stomach, as the shuttle simulator starts to rumble. >> the motion you are feeling, right now, you see the shuttle minutes before it launches, the engine builds, and there is a pre-programmed sequence and they gimble it and, the stop of the shuttle shakes as a result. shepard: violently and inside you can feel it. and it is like the real thing, today on the training mission, there is an emergency. >> throttle is back. two stager. >> command in the center... >> looks like it might be hydraulics. shepard: and it is getting worse. >> we were tracking a leak on high system 2. shepard: two of three high transcanada systems are leaking. >> right now, you see it... >> down to 36. it will happen fast. shepard: hydraulic system 1 is failing. and, 2... >> looks like the hydraulic system, system 2 is going to last another minute, as you can expect to lose it. shepard: and since they are practicing for worst-case. >> looks lake ike we have a lea high system 3, now. shepard: houston, we simulate aid problem and this shuttle must come home, immediately. >> if you never flew backwards at a rocket in mach-5, this is your one opportunity. >> reporter: the commander and his team are veterans of the space program. what is happening today never happened for real. shepard: it felt like it was falling apart. >> 12 years of training, that is what you are looking at, year 2 or 3, we'd be looking the same way, but we do it day in and day out. shepard: and for years, for these men and women, more than ten years each. and you are ready for whatever comes. >> friendly in sight. shepard: even today's simulated return to earth, backwards. >> how did it feel like it went. >> it went well, we have huge experience on mission control and we're starting ahead of the curve, because we have flown before. shepard: from earth to hydraulic failure. back to earth. shepard: 28 minutes. >> 28 minutes. our guests wouldn't have left the kfc, launch and landing in 28 minutes. shepard: now the final launch and landing of the space shuttle is upon us. >> a sad thing to see. a lot of people's livelihoods, are around the space shuttle. shepard: are you sad. >> a little. it is a spectacular vehicle and will be a long time before we see a space vehicle as versatile as the shuttle, what it has done, assembly at the station, and science, and retrieval and, repair. a remarkable vehicle. >> when the wheels finally stop you might have to drag me off of the flight deck of shuttle atlantis, and i think only then and there will we really understand, the enormity and i'll be happy with our position that we were fortunate enough to have, being the last ones to say, houston... >> i don't think we'll grasp and understand how amazing this vehicle and system and the people that made this amazing journey possible, until we are past it and looking back at it and then people will actually see and realize, wow, this was special. serving it certainly was, a special day in houston, and our thanks to all of the good folks at the johnson space center and the astronauts who are now t-6 minutes and 20 or so seconds from the final launch of the shuttle and keep in mind, if something goes wrong for at lan li tis, no shuttle is waiting on the launch pad and so they have an emergency plan with russia to bring it back to earth on a soyuz spacecraft and would return one by one over the course of several months. tom jones again with us. and, we are watching now, as folks all over the space coast are waiting and watching, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them and the clock ticks, what is going on? >> they came to the right place for a thunderous send off today. i think the last flight will really represent i think the best the country can produce in terms of technological know how and determination and dedication and the perseverance, to put safety first is remarkable. shepard: we have one shot come from nasa tv now, a wide shot over merritt island, which is where canada space center is and where the launch pad is. look at the crowd around the big clock. it was unthinkable as the sun had not come up when we came to work this morning, that it would be possible. i don't think you thought it would happen, either? >> no, i have been out at the launch pad, and, been scrubbed for much less gloomy weather but you have the hope you didn't strap in, in vain and these guys get the pay off. shepard: they've terminated the liquid oxygen replenish at t-minus 4:55. >> they've kept the tank topped off by dribbling amounts of oxygen and hydrogen into the tank and now they've shut off the flow and sealed it and pressurized it for flight. shepard: and they've tested the engines. you watch the warble at the bottom like at a drag race. >> a way to referee up the engine, and this is the chance to check the hydraulic and, activate the body flaps an rutter to make sure they are functioning properly. shepard: during the process it is hot, very hot in that orb orbiter. >> from the mental pressure you sweat. it is cool, 72° but the heavy orange pressure suit insulates you and makes you heat up inside and there's a water cooling jacket in your long underwear that tries to keep you cool. shepard: during the process it goes to training, and they started the orbiter, aero test now. >> and moving the engine belts through a complete cycle to make sure the three hydraulics are ready for launch. shepard: let's listen to nasa tv as they talk through this. >> now the main engines are in their start position. >> starting the retraction of the gaseous oxygen arm. >> no unexpected errors... >> and the cap comes off. >> the beenie cap also off the top of the tank. sucking away the vapors that might prove to be an explosive mixture near the rocket and once it is swung out of the way they've sealed the external tankers and no vapors coming out of it. shepard: i want to tell you, you need to stay with this, because, we're not going to see the shuttle for very long, it will hit the cloud cover in what, 9, 10, 11 seconds. >> 15 seconds, will be gone. shepard: and then we'll watch the live cameras from the shuttle itself, as it goes beyond the cloud, and this is a historic moment and let's listen to the professionals at nasa who brought us 30 years of shuttle flights as they send it to the heavens. >> t-minus... >> pressure water system is being armed. >> t-minus one minute. oxygen and liquid hydrogen drain bells are closed. t-minus 40 seconds. handing off to atlantis's computers at t-minus 31. minus 35. 33... >> t-minus 31 seconds. >> and we have had a failure. sequencer... >> retract. >> go ahead. >> we need to go through the verification for the lcc, please. >> all right, we need to verify using a camera and we are positioning camera 62, right now. >> let us know as soon as 62 is swung over and you can verify lcc. shepard: they are checking a camera, they had a failure. they are checking a camera, putting it into position to see what that is, right, top jones. >> swinging on the launch pad to see what the problem might be. i don't know what is wrong right now, though. shepard: it could be a sensor? any number of things but there is time, they can restart it. let's listen to nasa. >> okay, you can verify that is fully retracted per instructions we are -- correct. >> that's correct. >> all right, and, stv concurs... it is a go. >> copy. >> i heard all that, concur. >> all right, very good. concurrence, to clear... shepard: what happened was, the be beanie, wanted a visual that it cleared the ship. >> electronic indication was it may not be fully retracted and wanted to confirm it was and now they are getting ready to pick up the countdown. shepard: let's listen in, our hope is we begin at 31 seconds and 9 minutes here. >> 3 or 4 minutes left. bill: in the window. let's listen: >> three minutes and 16 seconds. >> we're ready to go. >> all right, very good. we'll go ahead with it. >> yes, sir, please do. >> we are going to pick up the clock momentarily. >> copy that. >> count down resumed, on my mark. 3, 2, 1... mark. >> t-minus... >> sequence start. >> and off to atlantis's computers, has occurred. rocket booster nozzle steering check in work... >> 20... >> firing chain is armed. >> 15... >> go for main engine start. t-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5... >> all three engines, up and burning. >> 2, 1... zero, and lift off the final lift off of atlantis on the shoulders of the space shuttle, america will continue the dream. >> roger, atlantis. >> houston now controlling the flat of atlantis, the space shuttle spreads its wings one final time for the sentimental journey into history. 24 seconds into the flight. roll program complete, atlantis heads down, wings level on the proper alignment for the 8-and-a-half minute ride to orbit, 4.5 million hardware and humans, taking aim on the international space station. 40 seconds into the flight, three throttling back to 72% of performance reducing pressure on the shutting as its goes transsonic for the final time. engines revving up standing by for the throttle call. >> atlantis, go at throttle up, no action dp, dt. >> throttle up, no action on dp, dt. >> tha call from barry willmore, instrumentation only, no action required. >> atlantis now 15 miles in altitude, already 16 miles down range from the kennedy space center 1:40 into the flight. atlantis flexing its muscles one final time. atlantis traveling almost 2600 miles an hour, 21 miles in altitude, 24 miles down range. standing by for solid rocket booster separation. booster rockets are confirmed staging, a good solid rocket booster separation. guidance now converging. the main engine steering the shuttle on a pinpoint path to its preliminary orbit. atlantis already traveling 3500 miles an hour, 50 miles down range. the propulsion officer reports the orbit alma moverring system engines have ignited, kicking off afterburners for 1:23 for the final phase of powered flight. >> atlantis, two engine towel. [no audio] [no audio] >> and an absolutely perfect launch from the kennedy space center in florida. the weather could not hold it back. the sun has peeked out from behind the clouds, and atlantis has made it way. and you can see the picture, the live picture of the curvature of the or earth, and atlantis is already so far away from kennedy space center. tom jones, former astronaut, is with us live here. what a sight. >> you look out the back windows of the shuttle on the launch pad and watch that flame and smoke and steam burt out from under you, you realize what power is contain inside that ship. and i think that rush of excision, might be a few years before we feel another one. but that next generation of explorers is going to follow on the shuttle's legacy, and i'm looking forward to that. shepard: right now up there, this is one of those mornings when they didn't know what was going to happen, but i guess you have to be ready. >> you have to be ready, and i admire the professionalism of the team that got ready to go whether the weather cooperated or not. they made sure everything technically was done, and when their window opened up, they took it. shepard: continuing coverage of the final launch of the space shuttle as this special edition of fox news continues in just a moment. i'm shepard smith at kennedy space center in florida. it's great to have you with us for a day of history. >> zero, and liftoff! the final liftoff of atlantis on the shoulders of the space shuttle, america will continue the dream. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement 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. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. 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[ gnome ] it's go time. shepard: that from just ten minutes ago, and atlantis is just reaching orbit. let's listen to nasa-tv now. >> followed by separation a few minutes later of the external fuel tank. booster officer confirms main engine cutsoff. cutoff. for the last time the space shuttle's main engines have fallen silent as the shuttle slips into the final chapter of a storied 30-year adventure. now standing by for final end ration. atlantis off the tank. commander chris duringson will be maneuvering atlantis into an orientation to enable still imagery of the external fuel tank as it drifts away. >> ohms one is not required. your preliminary ohms two take, 37 minutes. >> 37 minutes, no ohms one required. thanks. shepard: tom jones watching along with us. that's a big moment. >> picture perfect ascent to orbit. not a hiccup along the way. shepard: the final mission in the space shuttle program and today encapsulating 30 years of american spirit and ingenuity and termination. right now the future of man's space exploration remains, frankly, unclear. but at this moment we do celebrate and remember the workhorses of nasa. jonathan hunt takes a look back. hey, jonathan. >> reporter: you know, it was the crowning achievement of america's dominance of the space race during the latter part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st. and all of us here in this nation and around the world watched every moment; the triumphing and the tragedies. -- triumphs and the tragedies. >> five, four, we've gone for main engine start, we have main engine start. and we have liftoff. liftoff of america's first space shuttle. [cheers and applause] and the shuttle has cleared the tower. >> reporter: it captured the imagination of a generation. from the moment columbia first soared into space, the shuttle has been at the center of u.s. space exploration. >> everything looks real good. >> the first test flight, a two-day mission circling the earth 36 times before landing at edwards air force base in california. >> touchdown. >> roll three is ready. >> eighteen months later, columbia's first operational mission deploys two commercial satellites into space. in 1983 a second shuttle join nasa's fleet. >> lit i haveoff of the orr litter challenger and the six t flight of the space shuttle. >> challenger's maiden voyage marking the first shot. >> got a good shot of mother earth behind you. >> challenger later carries the first woman into orbit and the first african-american. in the mid '80s the shuttle program continues to grow. >> the first flight of the discovery. >> with the addition of the shuttles discovery and atlantis. >> and liftoff of the space shuttle atlantis on a mission that will herald a new day of international cooperation in space. >> atlantis later pioneers the shuttle mir missions docking a total of seven times with the russian space station. then on january 28th, 1986, tragedy. >> challenger, go at throttle up. >> throttle up. >> just 73 seconds after liftoff, challenger is ripped apart by an explosion. all seven crew members onboard are killed. >> americans return to space as discovery clears the tower. >> in 1988 after two and a half years and more than 200 safety imimprovements, the launch of discovery restarts the shuttle program. the next year atlantis deploys the magellan probe for venus, and the galileo probe heading for jupiter. when discovery releases the hubble space telescope, a new window onto the universe opens. 1991, a final shuttle arrives. school children name endeavor as part of a national competition. it replaces the lost challenger. >> you are go for approach and docking. >> reporter: in may 1999 discovery becomes the first shuttle to dock with the new international space station. >> live from discovery -- >> reporter: the orbiting research laboratory becomes a frequent destination for the shuttle program. research aboard the iss continues as part of nasa's preparations for a future without the shuttle. a major milestone is reached in 2000 with the 100th flight of the shuttle era. but only three years later, tragedy strikes again. columbia disintegrates over texas upon reentry killing all seven crew members. once again, two and a half years pass before a shuttle returns to space. again, discovery is called. during the return to flight, the crew guides discovery through a back flip maneuver allowing mission control to check the orbiter's thermal protection system, the system that failed on columbia and caused the shuttle to disintegrate on reentry. earlier this year nasa retires discovery. >> the end of a historic journey, and to the ship that has led the way time and time again, we say farewell, discovery. >> reporter: after a total of 365 days in space, discovery touches down for the final time on march 9th. then in may endeavour headed home, and now we wait for one final shuttle landing. that will truly mark the end of a glorious era, and hopefully, the beginning of a new one as we all wait to see, shep, what is next for america in space. shep? shepard: jonathan hunt live in new york city for us, thank you very much. so shuttle atlantis now rocketing toward the international space station. one final flight into orbit as our nation's shuttle program gets set to give a final nod. but a new space race has already begun with private companies leading the charge. >> liftoff! ♪ >> liftoff of the celtic 9. shepard: that's a look at what we're working -- or they're working on with the help of some former astronauts. we'll speak live here at ksc with one of them as our coverage continues on fox news channel. >> gravity check. shepard: once nasa ends its 30-year shuttle program, the agency plans to shift its focus to deep space exploration; asteroids and mars and beyond. for now travel to the international space station will depend on the russians, but private companies are making big moves. they'll shape the future of america's space program. the company space x already has a contract with nasa to fly cargo to the international space station using this rocket, the so-called falcon 9. space x is also working on the falcon heavy which it bills as the world's large rocket. and several former astronauts have joined the company. among them, garrett reeseman who is here with me. he's flown on two shuttle missions, logged more than three months in space and now is a senior engineer for space x. great to see you. >> great to be here, shepard. shepard: well, you know, it's a sad day for a lot of people in the vav, the vehicle assembly building and beyond, but an exciting day for those who would to this in a private way. tell us what's up. >> i think it's going to be an exciting day for everybody. transitions like this are hard, but coming up we have a lot of innovationing being unleash inse the private sector. we have fixed press contracts with the government, so we're protecting taxpayer money, and what all that is doing is enabling this new infrastructure in america with high-tech jobs and good opportunities for everyone. and in the future you'll see a whole space line industry kind of like what happened in the airline industry. shepard: tell us what you're able to accomplish and have been able to accomplish so far. because i know there are a lot of space geeks out there like me who want to hear about it. [laughter] >> yeah, it's been going on. at space x we've built the falcon 9 rocket, and we've built the dragon spacecraft. went around the earth two times, splashed down into the pacific ocean, and we became the first company to bring something back from earth orbit, something done only by a few countries in the past. and so it's been a few months. we're going to be taking the next dragon all the way up to the international space station, dropping off some cargo and bringing some stuff home. shepard: incredible. what is a falcon heavy? i know about a 747 heavy. >> yeah. it's basically the same concept. three cores stacked side by side. we're talking about lifting really big stuff, and that gets exciting because we can go really far with that rocket. shepard: so it's not over. we're just getting started. >> oh, no. the golden age of space is really dawning, and you see all these different company trying something different, innovating and converging on a solution. it's kind of like the golden age of aviation where you had all kinds of wacky ideas before we figured out what worked, and that innovation is going to cause a lot of progress, and it's going to be exciting. shepard: don't doubt the private sector. space x. good luck, man. we'll be watching. >> thank you. shepard: the end of the space shuttle program is bad news for many here on florida's space coast. the area is bracing for thousands of job cuts. florida senator bill nelson spent a little bit of time in space himself, and now his new mission is to try to prevent a brain dane of talented workers from this state and this coast. so how are we going to do that? we'll ask him when he joins us live here next from kennedy space center. [ p.a. announcer ] announcing america's favorite cereal is now honey nut cheerios! yup, america's favorite. so we're celebrating the honey sweetness, crunchy oats and... hey! don't forget me!! honey nut cheerios. make it your favorite too! a complete four course seafood feast for $15. start with soup then have salad and biscuits followed by 1 of 7 delicious entrees and finish with something sweet all for just $15. right now at red lobster. i could use a smartphone with social apps to stay up on what my friends are doing. and 's global, so i'll know what they're doing while they're doing it, even wn i travel. i'll have to act surprised when they tell me stuff. i don't have a good surprised face. maybe i can look up videos of surprised people on my new phone for reference. yep, i really want that phone. upgrade to the new droid incredible 2 by htc with global capabilities for only $149.99. now on america's largest, most reliable high-speed network. verizon. >> zero, and liftoff! the final liftoff of atlantis on the shoulders of the space shuttle, america will continue the dream. shepard: and without a hitch it went, a brief pause at 31 seconds just to take a look and make sure that everything was working on top as a beanie came off. they wanted to make sure it had cleared properly, i guess a sensor was wrong. so down for just a few seconds, and up atlantis went. in this orbit right now. the last launch of a space shut federal the kennedy space center. incredible. joining us now is senator bill nelson of florida. he spent time in space, he served as a payload specialist aboard challenger during its seventh mission. that was in january of 1986. i was a junior in college. >> 25 years ago. it was actually columbia, and it was the challenger that was ten days after us, shep -- shepard: oh, that's right. >> -- that then exploded. shepard: wow. senator, you have lived this space program, you have presided over it in many ways as a legislator and a senator. what are your thoughts today? is. >> well, as the previous astronaut just told you, garrett reeseman, that we now have a whole new chapter of nasa. we are developing two lines of rockets, one that will go to and from the space station, and garrett's company is going to launch one version of that this fall. they're going to carry cargo up to the space station. and rendezvous and dock. and the other line is the big rocket on the goal to go to mars. now, we have to develop the technologies to sustain life for a mission to mars, but that will start and has already started. nasa awarded the capsule contract, and any day now we'll hear about the architecture of the big rocket. shepard: ten or 11,000 jobs connected to this in or around brevard county. how many of those are you losing, and when do you expect some of them might come back? >> at the kennedy space center, we were at 15,000. we're going to about 8,500, and those are terrible losses for individuals. but as the new rockets start ramping up, we will raise that back up to over 10,000 employed here plus another 10,000 that are employed right across the river over there at the cape canaveral air force station. shepard: for people who have never visited this coast, it's all struck me in my days 20 years ago work anything the o land doe market -- orlando market what a step back in time it is. it's quite a spot. >> and the pioneers are the ones who really made it possible back when there were rattlesnakes and alligators and mosquitoes. you remember the mosquitoes. shepard: oh, my goodness. >> and they forged out of this florida wilderness a space port that has taken us to extraordinary heights and is now going to take us to mars. shepard: your state has been through a lot. your economic troubles have been well documented. how's florida? >> florida is tough compared to the rest of the country because we had so much housing that when the bubble burst, our recovery is a lot slower than the rest of the country. but it's coming. and you can feel it. and you can feel a little bit, and you can see little bits of the economic recovery. shepard: well, i tell you it was incredible to feel that rumble yet again today. haven't felt that since the sort of rebirth of the shuttle program years ago. senator nelson, good luck to you and all my friends in the sunshine state. >> thanks, shepard. you're the best. shepard: thank you, senate. appreciate it. and what a morning. who ever thought it would actually happen, when the clouds covering the coast with sort of tropical weather engulfing us, with the air as thick as the water coming out of your faucet, and many fears this would not happen today. but, indeed, it did. atlantis is in the heavens, and we're glad you're with us on fox news. i'm shepard smith. for all of us on the ground here, thank you. and god bless the usa. >> america will continue the dream. >> roger. roll, atlantis. >> houston now controlling theee flighttw of atlantis. possibili. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more amecans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... f greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. aren't getting enough whole grain. but actual, it's never been easier to get the whole grain you want from your favorite big g cereals. from cheerios to lucky charms, there's whole grain in every box. make sure to look for the white check. jon: high noon here on the east coast on this historic friday. hello to you, i'm jon scott. thisthis is "happening now." patti ann: and i'm patti ann brown. happening now, tragedy at the texas rangers ballpark. a fan falls to his death trying to catch a foul ball tossed from the outfield. jon: it happened right in front of thousands of horrified onlookers including the man's young son. chris gutierrez live from dallas. what happened, chris? >> reporter: jon, you know, you've been to baseball games, you know how common it is for baseball players to pick up a ball and just toss it into the stands. well, that's what happened last night in the second inning of the texas rangers baseball game. josh hamilton, an outfielding for the texas rangers, scooped up a foul ball and tossed it to the fans, but that fan overstretched his bounds. he lost his balance, and he plunged head first some 20 feet below, jon. in fact, i'm told that when he landed, the paramedics say initially he was responsive, but he died on his way to the hospital, and texas rangers' gm and the ceo of the texas rangers, nolan ryan, said this last night. listen here. >> i think as any of us would be josh is very distraught over this. as the entire team is. >> reporter: now been identified as shannon stone, he's a 17-year veteran with the brownwood fire department, that's south of fort worth. and as you mentioned, jon, he was at the ball game with his young son who we're told was somewhere between 6 and 8 years old. jon: that is so sad, and i guess it's not the first time something like this has happened there, huh? >> reporter: yeah. tragically, almost a year ago to the date another fan fell some 30 feet from an upper deck, and that person landed on some fans down below. but then back in 1994, it was actually a home-opening game against the milwaukee brewers, a fan fell some 35 feet from the upper deck. that fan survived as well. but after that 1994 fall they decided to raise the railing around the ballpark from two feet up to four feet, and they also posted some warning signs, jon. jon: chris gutierrez live for us from dallas. chris, thank you. patti ann: a fox news alert, new jobs numbers are out, and they are not good. the labor department reporting this morning the unemployment rate jumped to 9.2% last month. the economy adding just 18,000 jobs. that's the fewest in the last nine months. the president just a short time ago acknowledged there is work to be done. >> each new job that was created last month is good news for the people who are back at work. and for the families that they take care of. and for the communities that they're a part of. but our economy as a whole just isn't producing nearly enough jobs for everybody who's looking. jon: just a few minutes before the president spoke, i spoke with his top economic adviser, austan goolsbee, and asked him, where are the jobs? >> well, look, what this jobs report reiterates what we knew from last month, and that is that at the beginning of this year through a series of headwinds the growth rate slowed down, and you're not going to create very many jobs when the growth rate is not fast enough. now, previous to the last two months we added 2.2 million jobs in the private sector. so i think we've got to look at this number as a call to action, i think, that let's take bipartisan actions to help get the private sector stood up and doing more like what it was the previous 15 months, and that is growing, hiring and expanding their investment. jon: well, i guess the question then is how do you do that? i mean, the republican argument is you're not going to do it with tax increases. >> well, i'd say we've got at least four major things on the table right now that are bipartisan that we should stop arguing about and just do them. the first is we should extend the payroll tax cut, the second is we should sign a bipartisan and balanced deficit reduction plan that takes away the uncertainty that's now hanging over the marketplace and the private sector that maybe the u.s. government would actually declare that it's not going to pay its bills and that brings us into long-run fiscally healthy trajectory. the third, we should pass the free trade agreements to expand exports in the country. we've got three of them teed up that aren't moving. and the fourth is we should create the infrastructure bank and start putting a million construction workers that are unemployed back to work. e mean, those are all four things that are bipartisan, we could do them right now, and i think we should view these numbers as a call to action. let's do those. jon: what about reducing the corporate tax rate? is i mean, if corporations were paying less in taxes, wouldn't they have more money to hire? >> well, the president has said let's reduce the corporate tax rate. now, the issue is that has proved far more complicated. as you know, we have the highest rate in the world on the books, but the amount that options are actually paying is substantially less than that and some of the lowest in the advanced world. so we would have to broaden the base and lower the rate and any kind of tax reform is taking a little time, but the president absolutely advocates let's find a way to broaden the base and get the corporate rate down. jon: well, the next 72 hours could be crucial for striking a deal on raising the nation's debt limit. the nation now owes more than $14 trillion. the white house acknowledges the fix will be painful but necessary as both parties stand their ground on some key issues like tax hikes and entitlement reform. house speaker john boehner says they are nowhere close to a deal. >> there is no agreement in private or in public. and as the president said yesterday, we are this far apart. it's not like there's some imminent deal about to happen. there are serious disagreements about how to deal with this very serious problem. jon: alabama senator jeff sessions is ranking member of the budget committee. he joins us live from capitol hill. senator sessions, there have been indications from the white house and from capitol hill that a deal could be in the works, that we could be getting closer to some kind of agreement. how would you assess it? >> well, it's an anxious time, and speaker boehner is right in the middle of a very, very difficult position. i wish we'd had a full public debate all year so the american people could be in on the deal. we've had too much private, secret negotiations, in my opinion, leaving us very uneasy as we go into this serious time that the nation faces. jon: yeah. the negotiations that the vice president was leading seemed to go nowhere, right? >> they did, and other negotiations have failed. we should have been producing real hearings, real analysis, expert witnesses and testimony, beginning to craft legislation over a period of weeks and months, not at the last minute here. and let me mention one thing about mr. goolsby's comment that growth is the problem for job creation. what we have to understand is that the debt levels we are now at have caused our economy not to grow. the rogoff reinhart study shows that, almost 1% of growth is lost. so we had, what, 2% in the first quarter growth? we would have had three. 1% of growth means a million dollars -- million jobs a year, 80,000-plus a month being lost because we are carrying this debt. so we can't just keep borrowing money to spend today to stimulate the economy when it's the debt itself that is dragging down our growth and our job creation. jon: well, talking about job creation, you got a bad report out this morning, only 18,000 jobs created in this country. the unemployment rate up to 9.2%. it's been the longest, extended unemployment rate in this country's history at these levels. you know, how do you fix that? >> jon, yeah. we've got -- there are no more gimmicks to play. we've got to return to the tried and true. we've got to begin to reduce our deficits. and the damage that those deficits cause cannot justify new spending programs, new stimulus programs. they haven't worked, and they won't work in the future. we return to the tried and true, we try to keep our taxes low on job creators in our country. and this economy will come back. our businesses are lean, they're productive. if we just create some opportunity for them to expand their sales and their markets, i think we'd see this economy bounce back. jon: businesses are sitting on trillions of dollars in cash. it seems like there's money there ready to be spent on, you know, new infrastructure, new machinery, new jobs even. if there was some confidence that it would be money well spent. is that the problem? >> i do believe that's a huge part of it. the businesses need to know what their taxes are going to be. they need to know that we're going to do something about the debt. we're not going to continue on this unsustainable path that every expert tells us we're on. we know that we cannot continue, so making that change, i think, will have a positive effect. it may not be overnight, but it will begin to put us on a sound path, not this unsustainable, dangerous path to debt crisis that we're on today. jon: senator jeff sessions is a republican of alabama and the ranking member of the budget committee in the senate. senator, thank you. >> thank you. patti ann: the casey anthony verdict sparking new efforts to close a legal loophole. many states considering new laws named after caylee anthony. making it a felony if a parent fails to report the death or disappearance of a child. that story ahead. jon: president obama says he wants to get america's economy back on track as it seems to be slipping in reverse. rick is tracking our live chat along with your questions for our economic panel coming up. rick? >> reporter: where are the jobs, that's what people want to know, and we're inviting you to go to our home page at foxnews.com, go to the "happening now" page and click on america's asking right up there. you can log into the chat using either twitter or facebook and then post your questions which we will then pose to our money panel. that's coming up. these are the experts. they've got the answers, they'll answer your questions when "happening now" returns coming right up. g a payout from a legal settlement 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. patti ann: leaders from both parties are digging in their heels ahead of sunday's white house meeting to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. president obama wants everyone to lay out their bottom lines and begin some l hard bargaining. but both sides on capitol hill remain far apart, and one of the biggest sticking points is taxes. vermont congressman peter welch is chief deputy whip for house democrats. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. patti ann: so is there any movement at all on the tax issue? >> not that i can see. i mean, there's glimmers. bottom line, my view if we're going to make a substantial debt in the deficit, we've got to have balanced cuts. democrats have to be willing to move in that direction, and we've got to have revenues. revenues have to be part of the solution. and if you listen to mitch mcconnell, the republican position is revenues are off the table. patti ann: right. well, because they say it would just stifle the economic growth. what's your response to that argument? >> well, i don't think there's any evidence to that. right now, you know, our corporations are sitting on about $2 trillion in cash reserves. their profits are up. why are they not investing? it's not because they're not getting a tax cut that would provide additional money on top of that two trillion, it's really because we have high unemployment and because there's an apprehension that if they make more goods, we won't have consumers to buy them. so there needs to be some aggregate consumer demand here, and obviously, we've got to try to get people back to work. but if we want to have long-term fiscal stability when we have a gap between how much we're collecting in revenues, about 16% of the gross domestic product, and we're spending about 24%, then, obviously, you've got to bring that spending down and bring those revenues up. patti ann: what is your stand at this point on entitlement programs like social security and medicare? >> well, in the long run we have to make them secure and solvent so that they are there for the benefit of older americans. they should be dealt with on their own terms, you know? president reagan and speaker o'neill had the last grand bargain on social security, but it was about social security. adjustments were made, and we extended the solvency. so those of us who are strong support beers of medicare and social security should be all in on making adjustments and improvements so that it is sustainable. what we don't want to do and would reject is raiding social security or medicare to, essentially, prop up the general fund. patti ann: so how much pressure are the democrats feeling from the progressive side to not make any concessions to republicans? >> um, well, that just won't work. i mean, there's -- both sides have folks who think that we can continue along the same road without any adjustments, and that just suspect going to work. i think -- isn't going to work. i think where the concern among the democrats now is the injection of social security into these discussions, and we don't know exactly what the president has in mind. if what he's talking about is something specific to social security and for social security, then that is something everybody should pay some attention to. but if it's about, basically, raiding social security so that you can maintain, say, some of these tax cuts for the high end, that's really off the table as far as democrats are concerned. patti ann: right. president obama says republicans shouldn't hold a gun to the heads of the american people, and you're saying that the democrats are getting pressure to hold their ground too. both sides pretty much standing firm. is it fair to say that one side is holding the other side hostage here? >> well, bottom line i do think that we've got to pay our bills. and i was one of the folks who voted in favor of a kleenex tension of the debt ceiling because i see that as a separate obligation. we pay our bills. and that includes, incidentally, bills that occurred for things i was a posed to, like the iraq war and medicare part d. but we also have this long-term problem, and what's going on is there's a leverage moment. so both sides are trying to leverage the situation to get their advantage. but this is a moment where i think restraint is required because we have two problems; short term we have to pay our bills and not default. that would do enormous damage. that's clash 160 -- $160 billion additional burden on the taxpayers. long term we've got to get to football stability, and -- financial stability, and i'd like to see both sides put down their rhetorical arguments and just make a practical resolution to the situation. patti ann: path all right. congressman peter welch, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. jon: a lot of people angry over the result of that big florida trial this week. across the country states are proposing what's called caylee's law. we'll tell you what it calls for. rick folbaum, also, now with our three hot stories. rick? >> reporter: that's right. this is you did, we report. which one do you like best? is go to the home page for "happening now" at foxnews.com. here are your options today. we've got the unearthing of an old eighth century relic. what is that from? we'll tell you. also a police officer is safe today because of a good samaritan who saved his life. we'll tell you that story after this fiery crash there. the cop is okay. also the other option, the final one, football season. high school football season hasn't even begun, but it's already getting ugly. we'll tell you about a little fight that broke out on the gridiron if you decide that's what you want to hear about. go to the home page and vote. we'll have the results and the story coming up later on in the hour, and we'll have more "happening now" after a quick break. don't go away. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein! really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? 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[ major nutrition ] new ensure hh protein. ensure! nutrition in charge! jon: so many people so dissatisfied with the verdict in the casey anthony trial, and now there's new fallout. anger over her acquittal is spark ago push for what's called caylee's law that would make it a felony for parents not to report the death or disappearance of a child within a certain period of time. 24 hours or less in most cases. joining us now to talk about it, anita kay, a criminal defense attorney, phillip ray is a former prosecutor. phillip, what would be the idea behind this law, and would it have in some way saved caylee? >> well, yes, i think that this is a good law. i think what they're trying to do is determine what happened in this circumstance so they can try and prevent what happened to this child. and i don't believe that given a law that says if you don't report, that the child would have been saved, i don't think that's true. i think the law could have come into effect after she started telling all of her lies, and certainly in that moment when she took the detectives to orlando and was walking through the universal studios trying to tell her this is where i used to work and they discovered that lie, they could have charged her with this law they're attempting to create which would be she did not report the child's disappearance for 31 days. jon: if a parent doesn't care about his or her child or a caregiver for that matter, if they don't care about the child, what good is it going to do to have a law that says you've got to report it if -- >> well, i think the law is going to be designed to punish those people who don't. jon: go ahead, anita. >> the difference is everyone is outraged about the verdict, and they're looking at she was convicted of four misdemeanors for lying to police. if caylee's law were in effect, she would be charged with felonies, not just these misdemeanors. so there is repercussions, there is punishment. will it necessarily be a deterrent? not necessarily. but then the punishment is there on the other end for parents who don't. and it might prompt other family members who know things about a missing child to inform police and law enforcement. so it may work that way. and this is the type of thing that should come from this. you know everybody's upset, the jury has spoken. but positives can come from this such as new legislation. jon: what about then in she received, phillip? the judge gave her four years. a lot of people were surprised that he gave her that much given the outcome of this trial. >> i think that's an unrealistic expectation to be surprised the judge gave her a maximum verdict. you're looking at the possibility of a woman who, as said, lied to law enforcement. how do you judge what the punishment should be? how severe was the lie? the lie to law enforcement created a huge amount of search for this child, and every little lie she told created more work for these people to try and find the child, and they were never able to do so under the information she was begin. so i can't imagine a circumstance where you would have a lie to law enforcement that had greater consequences than couldn't find a missing and, at this time, dead child. a maximum verdict is absolutely accessible. jon: anita, a lot of people are talking about the csi effect, that this jury may have wanted, you know, clear, convincing dna evidence or whatever they wanted, fingerprints on the duct tape. is that what happened? >> it can be one of the things that happened, jon. unfortunately, as technology moves forward when you talk about dna 15 years ago, that was considered, perhaps, little voodoo science, nobody really knew about dna. but, unfortunately, people do watch shows like csi, and they think it is that simple, that you are always going to find a fingerprint, that you're always going to have dna. and the reality is the majority of cases don't have that. and that's, you know, is it reasonable doubt because there wasn't dna? what are the chances that there would actually be dna or fingerprints? so there is a total csi effect in all cases across the country. people expect it's going to be that easy. jon: phillip, you're a former prosecutor. i heard from a buddy of mine who says that the prosecution in this case didn't wear the white hat well enough. they were smirking, they were laughing at times in court, and they just didn't look the part. and this guy, this friend of mine, thinks that that hurt them. would you agree? >> you know, i'm not going to second guess what the prosecution did with their demeanor in the courtroom. i think what's more important is to understand what happened with this jury, and i actually agree with my colleague. i've prosecuted a thousand felony cases and we maybe had fingerprints in 20 or 30 of them, and yet every single jury that we went to trial with would want fingerprints, so we'd have to explain to them why it's difficult to see when fingerprints overlay. so you have this expectation that juries look for because of the proliferation of crime dramas that make people believe forensic evidence is easy to the find. and it's not. forforensics has not caught up h csi. it just hasn't. to try and blame how the prosecution act inside a case or didn't act in a case sitting in the courtroom and say somehow that's what influenced the jury, it might have influenced it to a certain extent, but what the jury has already spoken -- in fact, i think it was juror number three -- was they felt sick to death to find this woman not guilty. and i think that tells you everything you need to know about how they felt about the case. whether or not the evidence was inconclusive was the jury's inability to make a decision based on what was and wasn't placed into evidence. jon: anita kay, phillip ray, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you, jon. patti ann: a fox news alert, we have new details on that deadly airplane crash. a plane carrying more than 100 passengers, and rick folbaum is at the breaking news desk with more. >> reporter: it's a frantic rescue operation that we believe continues to be underway right now after that plane crash in the central african nation of the democratic republic of congo. forty people, we're told, were pulled from are the wreckage of the boeing 727, that's according to local government officials. the plane crashed as it was, apparently, trying to land at a local airport. 112 people onboard, and we've just gotten confirmation that they say 53 people have been killed, but those numbers are all likely to change because, frankly, they don't add up to 112 which was the total number of passengers we understand were onboard. according to an airline spokesman, the pilot never touched the runway on approach. this is an airline that, apparently, is on a list in europe of banned airlines because of security concerns. again, confirmed 53 dead so far and 40 rescues after a plane crash in the democratic republic of congo. we'll be right back after this on "happening now." 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[ major nutrition ] new ensure hh protein. ensure! nutrition in charge! jon: a set back on the road to recovery, you might call it another one of those unfortunate bumps in the road. the unemployment rate headed in the wrong direction now up to 9.2%. many americans are asking, where are the jobs? let's ask steve moore, a senior economics writer with our sister publication the "wall street journal." jeffery frankel was a member of economic advisers under president clinton. jeffrey did the numbers surprise you this morning. >> it's a bad number, a bad report, quite discouraging, over 18,000 jobs created overall which is not even enough to keep up with the population growth. jon: steve, all right, so, your take on why we got a number like that? >> well, you know, maybe the most discouraging number is that when you look at people who can't find a full time job and you've got an unemployment rate closer to 16%, or one out of six americans. i agree with professor frakel it was allows see report. i think the stimulus plan simply didn't work, you have the kind of overhang now, the after effects of the stimulus where we're not putting money into the economy any longer. you're starting to see the unemployment rate -- at this stage of a normal recovery we shoulding getting about 250,000 jobs a month. 18,000 is pretty pitiful. jon: we have asked our viewers for questions for you guys. here is one for you, jeffery, because it involves the clinton administration, and you can address this point. rose powelson wants to know why has known addressed the issue of nafta. that's when we started losing our jobs. >> i don't actually think that that's right. in the 1990s we had very strong job growth, even at the same time that we were opening up the economy and nafta in other ways. although we had high imports we had rapid growth of exports. it was a record expansion in terms of employment and by any other measure, so i don't think that is the problem. >> i agree entirely with that. jon: all right. what about the tarp money? joys b. wants to know isn't there tarp money left? where is that going? jeff? >> well, i mean there is this larger issue of where i do disagree with steve moore on the nature of a fiscal policy. i think that the tarp was not fiscal stimulus, the tarp was to rescue the banks, and there is a lot to be said about that. relative to where we were two and a half years ago we came out pretty well on the banks. relative to where we were two and a half years ago when the economy was in free fall we are doing pretty well. we are averaging 800,000 jobs per month two and a half years ago. the current job situation, well, you know, bad, it's nowhere near as bad as then. steve said about a normal recovery, this is the third recovery in a row where the job market has lagged behind. the job market isn't lagging behind any worse this time than the previous two times. it's a really bad recession. >> i agree with a lot of what you said. if you look at this recession compared to every post world war ii recession we are way behind in job growth where we should be. we haven't had the kind of real stimulus policies. i'm hoping one of the thins that comes out of this debt deal is maybe an agreement to bring tax rates down on small businesses and corporations, i think that would be a real jump start to the economy. jon: unemployment has never been this high for this long in this country, as i understand it. steve, if the $2 trillion in cash that businesses were sitting on if they would spend some of that money wouldn't at least some of this problem come to an end? >> first of all the unemployment rate has been this high, of course that was during the great depression when the unemployment rate was consistently above 10%, hit a high of 25% during the height of the depression. but, look, i mean i think that the problem has been we haven't concentrated on giving employers an incentive to go out there and hire workers. you have things like obamacare, that is a big drag, it's going to be a big cost to workers. you've got all the talk of raising the tax rates at the end of 2012 on small businesses. i think that is something that is forcing these businesses to hold onto their capital because they are just so intern and fearful about what washington will do next. jon: jeffery, what about the trade deficit with china? some economists say that is the biggest problem that we have, the dollars go overseas to china and they just don't come back. >> i don't agree with that at all. i think that china should allow its currency to appreciate. looking at bilateral trade balances is very misleading and i'm sure my fellow panel lis would agree with me. where we disagree is on the fiscal stimulus. and if you look at this report we're losing jobs in government, and the idea that you can create jobs by laying off state and local workers, i don't understand. jon: all right. well, there are a lot of state workers. >> the problem is we are not getting the private sector job growth that we would necessarily see at this stage. you're right, state and local governments are having to layoff workers because the economy isn't producing enough tax revenues to pay their bills. jon: we'll have to leave the discussion there. thank you both. >> great to be with you. jaime: treasury secretary timothy geithner warned lawmakers yesterday at the white house if they don't come up with a plan to raise the debt ceiling there is a plan b to avoid default. behind the scenes there is talk geithner does have his teamworking on a back up plan to prevent a financial meltdown. and paul gigot is here with us now, editorial paged tore of the "wall street journal." thank you for being here. >> great to be here. jaime: let's talk about the so-called nuclear option. the president could invoke section 46 the 14th amendment, explain that? >> that was a post civil war amendment that basically was passed to try to tell the europeans and the worlds who had length us a lot of money in the civil war that we will honor those debts in the north. they wanted to reassure the world they would be paid. people look at that and say, that applies to current debts too. there is a serious debate going on among legal scholars about whether or not that would apply in the current moment. jaime: even if technically it would apply, and would be constitutional how political risky would it be for obama to go this route. >> very risky. it would look like it's a unilateral action taken to overrule a congressional statute. that is always risky as we're seeing with the war powers debate over libya. there is a resolution called the war powers resolution which is supposed to restrict the use of war powers after 90 days without congressional approval. the president is taking heat on that. this would be a much bigger political issue because it relates to the domestic well-being of the economy. jaime: no matter how ugly the political process is the fact is these congressional lawmakers represent the public and if you cut them out you're cutting the public out. >> it would be a big, big brawl. jaime: i know you were listening to the debate about whether the stimulus had anything to do with the job numbers. they say both countries unemployment rates moved similarly until the stimulus. both were 6.1% in august of 2008. they rose in lock step through february 09. after the stimulus u.s. unemployment shot up to 10.1 remained above 9.5%. canadian unemployment peaked at 8.7, it's tpoulg and it's now 7.4%. >> who would think we would be looking at canada for an economic model. there is a strong case on the stimulus. certainly you can't make the argument that it has helped all that much if it's helped at all. i would argue it's hurt to the extent at which it implies taking all this debt, adding to the deficit, to the extent that it implies that we have to raise taxes in the future, it's a disincentive for businesses to invest. they don't know what their actual costs are going to be. jaime: president obama did respond to that, you know, saying that it's working, not working as quickly as we'd like but working nonetheless. >> it's over now. the stimulus is essentially pete erring out now. to the extent it's going to work we would have seen it. jaime: yeah. and steve moore pointed out the under employment situation even worse. the real unemployment as they call it much more dramatic. >> no question, that is very disconcerting, the number of americans who are out of work for six months or more continues to increase and that is disconcerting because the longer you're out of the workforce the more you lose skills, the more you lose contacts. the harder it is to get back in the game. jaime: we've got to leave it there, paul gigot thank you even much. paul will host the journal editorial report, tune in for that tomorrow at 2:00pm eastern. and jon scott hosts news watch after that at 2:30. jon: fox news alert, an update on the casey anthony situation. of course you know she's going to remain in jail for about another nine days to be released in mid july, after that four-year sentence on lying to investigators. we are told by our reporter who is -- has been in the courtroom throughout this trial that her mother requested a 7pm video meeting with her in the jailhouse. casey anthony said, no, mom, don't want to talk to you, at least not now. we'll be back with more coverage on "happening now" in just a bit. jaime: a school cheating scandal in georgia is drawing national attention. atlanta teachers and principals accused of changing answers to improve standardized test scores. cheating was so widespread it involves nearly half of the city's 100 schools. george frankie from our fox affiliate reports. >> reporter: the 800-page report prepared by a team of investigators and released by the governor's office outlines evidence against teachers, principals and administrators. the year-long probe confirmed cheating did occur during the 2009crct criteria reference competency he testing. the report was released after the governor went public with the results. >> targets being reached became more important than actual learning on the part of children. >> reporter: there was a culture of fear, determination and retaliation spread throughout the district the report says. and virtually every teacher who confessed to cheating spoke of inordinate stress the district placed on meeting targets and the dire consequences of failure. >> it is a difficult day, but it is a day we will get through. >> reporter: interim superintendent davis replaced former superintendent dr. beverly hall who according to the report failed in her leadership and was responsible for falsifying, misrepresenting or erroneously reporting the evaluation of students to the state. jaime: that was george franco reporting from our fox affiliate waga in atlanta. we have bob shaffer a spokesman for the national center for fair and open test testing and caroline haksby a senior fellow at the hoover institution. thank you for joining us. atlanta may be the worst but similar scandals are being uncovered in at least a dozen other school districts. how wide is this. >> we have been seeing reports of cheating scandals several times a week now. this week alone there have been reports of cheat nothing washington d.c. that is being investigated by the federal government. baltimore, maryland. new york city. indianapolis, orlando and scores of smaller communities around the country. it looks like an epidemic caused by the over use and misuse of standardized tests. jaime: what what about that, caroline, do you blame standardized tests? >> no, in fact what happened in atlanta and other places is outrageous and reprehensible, it's not the standardized testing in and of itself that is the problem. it's very easy to prevent cheating. there are two key methods that we can use to prevent cheating, they are both inexpensive, neither one of them would raise per student costs in the united states by more than one 50th of one percent of student spending. they are not difficult to implement and they are being done with millions of tests each year around the world. the first one of these is having externally probg terd tests, an expersonal organization comes in, they actually deliver the test to the students, they sit there during the test to make sure cheating doesn't occur while the students are taking the test, and then they remove the test immediately afterwards. and simply having proctored exams would have prevented the sort of cheating that has happened in basically ever place that it's happened in the united states including atlanta.jaime:o >> they use computer adapting testing. it's impossible for the teacher to teach to the test. every student as he or she. jaime: let me give him the last word, bob, we're running out of time. jaime: the professor is dealing with the symptoms not the cause. the georgia investigators, who are law enforcement officials knotted indication tphal a poll gists says the cause was the over use of standardized tests and the heavy pressure placed on them. when teachers have to boost stores by any means possible those are the -- jaime: we're going to take a hard break. we'll go right back to you afterward. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] this is larry... whose long day starts with arthritis pain... and a choice. take tylenol arthritis and maybe up to s in a day... or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. happy chopping. there's anotheway to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. our premium litters now work harder to help neutralize odors in multiple cat homes. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. with olay challenge that. regenerist day and night duo. the uv lotion helps protect skin and firms during the day. the eam hydrat to firat night. gravity doesn't stand a chance. regenerist, from olay. jaime: more now on teachers fixing standardized tests. back to our panel. bob, ultimately some are blaming the federal law no child left behind. it provides monetary incentives for good test scores and on the other side teachers can have salaries cut or get fired if scores don't meet standards. shouldn't teachers be held accountable? >> sure they should be held actable. but the independent investigators said the problem here is that politicians create unrealistic increased expectations and set educators up for failure. jaime: what is the solution. >> they are between a rock and hard place. jaime: what is the solution? >> they are asked to raise scores by hook or by crook. the solution is a different evaluation system that begins in the classroom and grades stew on what they can do just not how well they fill in b, bbles on standardized tests. we need to change assessment in america. jaime: thank you once again for joining us. a lot more we could say about this topic but out of time. thanks. >> thank you. 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. new ensure high protein... fifty percent of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ major nutrition ] new ensure hh protein. ensure! nutrition in charge! took some crazy risks as a kid. but i was still over the edge with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more, and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol...stop. 80% of people who have had heart attacks have high cholesterol. lipitor is a cholesterol lowering medication, fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. great ride down. if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. a living, breathing intelligence that's helpi drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪ jon: high in hollywood. that doesn't happen, does it? [laughter] we're kicking off our series today on celebrity addictions. entertainment reporter courtney friel is live in our newsroom. she has part one for us. >> reporter: yeah. and this week we're talking about destructive dieting and the lengths stars go to to stay dangerously skinny. some have died fairly young and fought well publicized battles with weight. you know, the pressure to be thin in hollywood is only getting worse. we talked with several doctors who told us how models and actresses they've treated are cutting corners to lose the lbs faster. anorexia, bulimia, even hard drugs like cocaine and crystal methamphetamine work temporarily but lead to horrific medical problems and is with can make you psychotic. prescription meds are up in demand, people are faking add because drugs used to treat that condition have also been shown to burn fat. one pill that was popular a few years back, guess what its original use was? to treat horses' asthma. another new prescription drug has been studied for weight loss, but it is not yet approve inside the u.s. celebrities are already finding ways to get it. read more about this problem on fox 411 tom, and stay tuned as

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