Transcripts For FOXNEWS Happening Now 20110815

people trapped. >> i think we need to say to ourselves and to america, indiana is a special place. it's not everywhere that we would have seen that response and that reaction. >> reporter: it took just 20 minutes for onlookers to jump in and save all the people trapped under the stage covering. meanwhile we are learning more about the victims, ages 23 to 51. three women and two men killed, including a 23-year-old manchester college graduate who wanted to be a high school teacher, according to her profile page. all the victims were from indiana except for one who was from chicago. four of them were killed instantly at the scene of the collapse, while the 51-year-old died saturday night at the hospital. 45 others suffered minor to severe injuries. more than 150 were treated at a makeshift triage unit at the fairgrounds. eyewitnesses described it as terrifying when the massive rigging above that stage, bearing light and sound equipment, even one crew member was up there came crashing down on the crowd. fair officials had debated whether to evacuate the crowd of 12,000 people. instead they decided the show would go on. they warned concertgoers that a storm was coming and the show could be stopped to seek shelter. officials didn't cancel the show due to weather, and today questions remains about the stage itself. the company that owns the stage is sending up a team to investigate. late saturday the band, sugarland that was performing that evening delivered a message. we are praying for our fans and the people of indianapolis. we hope you'll join us, they need your strength. jenna: we will be talking with an eyewitness coming up in a bit. disturbing video to watch but a story we'll continue to watch for you. back to politics now. fallout from the big shakeup in the gop race for the white house. we are go glad you are with us this monday morning. i'm jenna lee. rick: i'm rick folbaum in for jon scott. eye on iowa after michelle bachmann scores a big victory and tim pawlenty drops out. jenna: another one in the race is rick perry. rick: how much has the republican landscape changed so dramatically since friday. >> reporter: well one major candidate is in, another major candidate is out, this after a very confrontational contentious debate on fox last week. leading to the straw poll, the tea party candidate michelle bachmann had nearly 29% of the vote, congressman ron paul finishing second nearly 28%. governor tim pawlenty put a lot of time and money into the state of iowa. a third place finish for him. rick perry finishing with more than 4% of the vote, he wa wasn't on the ballot. and many say finishing above mitt romney who spent more time in new hampshire than iowa. perry says he's here at iowa state fair where a couple of events take place and he's here at iowa city where he continues the campaign. rick: everybody says the election will be about the economy. with governor perry in the race how does that change the dynamic and debate on jobs in the economy? >> reporter: well it focuses on the texas economy here. we're already going to talk about the national u.s. economy, that was the key to the 2008 election, it will be the key to the 2012 election. the federal reserve has confirmed we can basically expect stag tph-pbt or lack luster growth for the next couple of years in this country. now the focus on the texas economy where rick perry is droughting 40% of all new jobs created since 2009 the was created in his state. he said he can beat president obama, and he can beat him on jobs. >> i hope i'm president obama's worst nightmare. he's the real problem here. it's his problems, it's his epa administrator. it's people he put in place that is strangling america with the regulations and their debt. americans have had enough. you see a favorable rating below 40% now and it's because he's hurting american families. >> reporter: that was the governor's interview with our own carl cameron a short while ago. what democrats are 0 focusing on, texas has a high unemployment rate. they also say that a large bulk of the jobs that were created in texas over the last couple of years have been minimum wage jobs, back to you. rick: rich edson, thanks. jenna: another big story over the weekend, of course the weather, heavy rains and dangerous winds cause damage in several key states. the weekend's wicked weather wreak havoc in the baltimore area. that's a car right there. fire departments had to rescue stranded drivers from the roofs of their cars after rising waters quickly over took busy roads. things got so bad at one point, rick that the baltimore police turned to social media to twitter to tell drivers to turn around if they saw any water covering the road. rick: very interesting. it wasn't just the rain but wind that took toll on one family in utah. a microburst as they call it ripped the roof off of this home in the town of orum, dropping it on the front yard. the family was inside of the house at the time. it felt like an earthquake. thankfully nobody was hurt. it lasted for seconds. chairs on a nearby deck didn't move an inch. jenna: it makes you wonder how you get to be that lucky house. another story we are watching, tropical storm girt. 60 miles per hour with stronger gusts. bermuda bracing for one to three inches of rain and dangerous waves as the tropical storm gets close to the island. it won't directly hit as the storm begins to turn east. there is good news, bad news if you're vacationing in bermuda. rick: after girt comes harvey. maria row lean a told me that yesterday. our meteorologist is tracking the new storm along with all of the rain in the northeast. >> reporter: next is harvey. good news for bermuda, the national hurricane center has discontinued the tropical storm warning in effect over the weekend and early this morning for the island. we do not think any more that we will really see the tropical storm conditions that were possible. basically what's happened here with tropical storm girt it's a compact storm, remaining east enough of the islands where we don't think we'll see the tropical storm conditions. the worst of the storm is east to the center. bermuda off to the west, looking good for you guys. the storm system will turn in a northeast ward direction and is expected to strengthen some more reaching up to 70 miles per hour, but of course not impacting any land, and it will then eventually weaken before it loses its tropical characteristics. the storm in the northeast, that is the same storm system that did produce thunderstorms in indiana that kaeuld five people at the independent state fair. it produced extremely heavy rain across the northeast. jfk airport reported in one day, 7.9 inches of rain, that is the all time record for the greatest amount of rainfall in one day for that location. otheotherwise parts of long island reporting ten inches of rain. we are still not done. the storm system very chloe. you can see the heavy rain coming onshore, in vermont. new jersey, portions of long island. we will continue to see the rainfall amounts increasing here for today and as we head into tomorrow. we still have two more days to go here with the same storm system, today and tomorrow. take a look at some of the expected totals. more than four inches of rain possible over a big chunk of new england, massachusetts, up into main. there are a number of flash flood watches in effect including the tristate area. you've seen the incredible images across the region. we had power outages, just a mess, two more days to go, guys. rick: thank you very much. it was a wild weekend for the republican presidential contenders out in iowa, michelle bachmann is hoping to build on the momentum from her big straw poll win, but it comes as rick perry throws his hat into the ring. karl rove is here. jenna: the victims of the deadly stage collapse. it comes as two investigations begins into how exactly this happened. we'll speak live to someone who was there and saw the whole thing. >> it was raining, and the wind, and, you know, the stage just came down. >> i was in the sugar pit, me and my wife. i don't even know where my wife is right now. i pushed her out of the way and i crawled back under there. >> we saw a big gust of wind come and the center stage collapsed down on everybody. >> they was scared, i know they was, everybody start running. >> she was probably about three, four years old i would say, laceration on her arm, you could see the bone. i took my shirt off, we made a tourp tournequette. another fellow had a laceration on his head that we had to get all bandaged up. ♪ with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced. i don't always have time to eat like i should. and the more i focus on everything else, the less time i have to take care of me. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes, which can help ler a1c. glucerna products help me keep everything balanced. [ golf ubs clanking ] [ husband ] i'm good! well, almost everything. [ male announcer ] glucerna. delicious shakes and bars. helping people with diabetes find balance. >> for all those who grieve this morning, and all those who have lost in one way or another so much from the events of the other day, our hearts are with you in a way that hoosiers are known for. rick: that's indiana governor mitch daniels paying tribute to the victims of this weekend's deadly stage collapse. it was part of a memorial held this morning as the state fairy opened for the first time since saturday's tragedy. a fast-moving storm packing winds almost 70 miles per hour caused the stage rig inks to fail. we are now learning from indiana state police fair organizers called the national weather service four times before the collapse. it all happened in front of a crowd of about 12,000 people who were waiting to hear the country band sugarland. >> it was just utter chaos. you just say to yourself, i can't believe that happened. it's so surreal. >> it started to twist, i knew it wasn't going to be able to sustain with that wind, and i told her, we've got to go now. and the weight was unbelievable, and people were trapped right before your eyes. it was just unbelievable. rick: four people died at the scene, a fifth died later on at the hospital. one of the victims 29-year-old christina santiago rorbgd as a chicagworked at a chicago health clinic. her friends and family are reflecting on her loss. >> it's a true loss to our community and she will be thought about every day when a woman comes through the door of the health center. >> every person she's ever met she has inspired. >> i knew her heart was much bigger than her body could hold. >> jason works as a vendor at the indiana state fair, he witnessed the stage collapse and joins us on the telephone this morning. thanks for joining us. i'm sorry it's under these circumstances, jason. take us back to saturday night, what was the first sign that some major weather was coming through? >> well, we noticed the clouds started to build in the background. you saw lots of lightning. the wind was pretty steady. there wasn't a significant sign that we were in major trouble right away. in a matter of minutes the skies became very dark. rick: there was an announcement, wasn't there? >> there was an announcement about four minutes before the stage collapsed. >> what did they tell you. >> they informed us there was a storm coming in from the west, and if they would need to pause the show that we would need to exit in an orderly fashion. they told us if the storm had paused the show that they would resume it afterwards. rick: what was the reaction when this announcement was made? did people believe that this could actually happen? i can imagine being at the concert and thinking, oh, well, this isn't going to happen. >> most of us was tracking it on our phones. just about everybody nowadays has an iphone. we saw the form was coming. we new it was going to be bad. after they made the announcement we were reassured a little bit that it was not going to be as bad as they were predicting. we knew if it got bad we would be evacuated out. rick: because of the smart phones and people able to capture it, what was it like for you to be there and witness it firsthand? >> when i first saw that first wing nut pop up it's kind of a weird feeling because you thought there is a whole bunch of stuff flying toward us, should we run? should we hide? it same by and there wasn't a big damage from the big wind gust. the second wind gust was much, much more severe. we noticed the entire sky went cloudy with dust, and you heard the thunder rolling and the lightning was flashing and all of a sudden the stage started to twist and then it eventually collapsed on the audience. rick: jason i know you were there at the fairground today for the memorial service. we saw a little bit of that. what was it like to be there today? >> i think the fair officials did a really nice job. i was very impressed with the amount of time they took to prepare the event. i feel of thisee been acting very well through the situation. the response time that we had, the police were there before we even got out of the grandstands, they were already there. the response time has been perfect from the organizers. rick: a reminder of how precious life is. jason scofield who was at the fair saturday night on the telephone today. thank you so much for sharing your insight with us, jason. >> thank you, i do appreciate it. jenna: what an incredible description by jason. we'll continue to watch any developments out of indiana. we'll turn over seas here. more than 60 people dead, 2 wounded after a series of explosions in iraq. the coordinated attacks raising new questions over the way forward for that nation. the president setting out on a bus tour across three states hitting the road to talk about the economy one day after a new poll shows his approval rating at an all time low. the republican race to take the president's job, if we're going to talk about jobs here hitting full throttle. karl rove is here with his take next. at exxon and mobil, we engineer smart gasoline that works at the molecular level to help your engine run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. rick: happening right now president obama hitting the road talking to people in three different states about how long the progress america has made since 2008. as the president hits the road a new gallop poll shows his approval rating is hit agnew low. lens 40% of people asked say they approve of the way he's handling things. after a headline grabbing weekend for republican rivals the commander and chief is hoping to turn the tide a bit and win back some support. ed henry is live in cannon falls minnesota with more. hi,ed. this is a bus tour that the president has embarked upon, right? >> yes, they are calling it an official event. as you'll hear behind me, once you start hearing bruce springsteen, u2. i heard the song, signed, sealed and delivered, from 2008, that is the unmistakable sound that the campaign is on. we are seeing it on the republican side. we are seeing it now on the incumbent side with the president as well. we were driving in here to cannon falls. i saw corn fields, a lot more pickup trucks and you realize you're no longer in washington any more. that is the point for this trip for the president, get out of washington. he'll be here in minnesota for the town hall meeting. later on tonight he'll be in iowa for another town hall event. and tomorrow for an economic summit. and wednesday in illinois, his home state to try and layout and connect with voters out here on that important issue of the economy and jobs. as you say with that gallop poll showing his approval under 40% at 39% he's obviously struggling right now. a run of bad news over the last couple of weeks. i was quickly talking to a 28-year-old who is a polisci major said he's a big fan of the president but he wants to ask the president about jobs. he has a job he's working in a group home, not the kind of job he originally wanted. a lot of people out here are struggling. rick: the republican contenders are certainly not shying away from being critical of president obama, but do we expect him to name any names to talk about say michelle bachmann's win in iowa? does he go after them at all during these stops? >> we are not expecting the direct hand-to-hand combat if you will. this is the home state of michelle bachmann. he'll northbound iowa next, and that's obviously where we just saw the big fox debate as well as the straw poll in ames. jay karen me insists all of this is not connected and that the president is just picking some states randomly if you will, but make no mistake about it, this is where the republicans, this part of the country is where the republicans have been out there beating up on the president. he certainly wants to respond. i don't expect him to go hand-to-hand with mitt romney, michelle bachmann rick perry, but more broadly he will take on the republicans. he had a tough message for republicans last week. let's face it, these are states that the president won, minimum otah, iowa and illinois in 2008. so he's playing a little defense east kicks this off. he's not going to states that republicans won last time where he's trying to expand the playing field, he's playing a little defense right now. because with that gallop rating he's clearly on the defense. rick:ed henry is in cannon falls. enjoy the springsteen and stevie wonder. >> reporter: beautiful weather too. jenna: we are america's election headquarters. ed henry was telling us a little bit about the president's bus tour and all the changes in the republican field. michelle bachmann coming off her win in the weekend straw poll. texas governor rick perry entering the race. here to make sense of the gop field so far, talk a little strategy with us karl rove, he's a fox news contributor and former senior adviser to president george w. bush. is the gop field 100% set? we going to hear about palin and christie and maybe somebody else. >> i think we will continue to hear about candidates. palin, christie and paul raoeurpbgs i won't be surprised if we didn't see discussions and vibrations about all three of them in the next couple of days. palin has an extensive post labor day tour. you know when the deadline is? the first deadline for the candidate to get on a primary ballot or caucus ballot. jenna: when is it. >> november 22nd. jenna: a long way away. >> a long way away. jenna: you're saying there may be some opportunity for someone new to come in. if you were out in the market to be hired, karl, to see who you could advise, who do you think you'd align yourself with right now? who looks to be the frontrunner. >> i'm not going to align myself with anybody. i think conventional wisdom is right. mitt romney is the frontrunner though not by much. we're at a place where you have mitt romney and his candace dance see and you have two contenders for the not mitt romney label, bachmann and perry. it will be interesting to see how each one of them tries to become the alternative to romney. bachmann went on all five talk shows sunday morning. she's got a bunch of momentum from the straw poll win and we'll see if she is able to turn it into sort of the next level. perry is introducing himself, made his announcement in south carolina on friday, excuse me saturday. he faces a big decision, does he play in iowa? he's made a last minute stop in iowa last night. is he going to play in the caucuses or wait until south carolina to sort of try and make his first win, three contests in, or is he going to try to begin in iowa and contest romney in new hampshire where everybody seems to suggest romney has the upper hand. now is the point where people are making decisions about how september and october, how during that timeframe do they take the next step in their campaigns? romney, for example, has announced that he's going to make a series of policy speeches during september and october in order to take on president obama more directly, it will be interesting to see in the next couple of weeks. jenna: is that smart. >> i think so. i understand what perry is doing. they said we are going to come out of here, run aggressively, demonstrate what a good campaigner he is. he got one up on bachmann in water lieu, iowa by shaking hands at every table, posing for pictures and giving a speech. she waited in the bus outside until she was introduced, and mid a speech and stood behind a table signing t-shirts. he had a much morey tail hands on approach which was useful to him and up staged her in her own birthplace. she was born in water lieu, iowa. romney is doing a smart thing by keeping his focus on obama and adding substance and weight to what his message is. that will require bachmann and perry to follow suit in some ways. perry has announced that he's going to raise a bunch of money and demonstrate some strength. "the new york times" reported his people were saying they are going to raise $10 million in the next several weeks. we'll see if that happens or not. i wouldn't be surprised if we don't have a very activity-filled september as bachmann and perry vie to be the not rom necessity and as romney attempts to distance himself further from the pack by moving up in the polls. jenna: i need to get your take on this in 30 seconds. some said what we are going to see the republican candidates do is a race to the right, to get more and more conservative to appeal to the vote and then have to race towards the center as they get closer to the general election. is that a pattern that you see developing especially between perry and bachmann? >> well i hope not, because richard nixon -- that was his theory, go to the right to win the primary and come back to wherever you really are for the election. that assumes people are not paying attention. you better have a message in the primary. you can't move so far to the left or right, howard dean moved to the left during the democratic primary. you don't want these candidates moving so right in the republican primary that it becomes impossible for them to win the general election, it will be a selfdefeating message in the primary. people want to win. they don't want somebody who goes so far to the extremes of either party that they lack a chance to carry a victory off in november. jenna: it's stages, we have to get to the november filing deadline and then of course the november after that. it's going to be a lot to watch, karl. thank you for watching with us. rick: america is losing its tip he will a rating, that is sparking chaos on wall street. could it be the sign that the u.s. is losing its super power status, and what that means in the future. we'll go in-depth. a hackers group going after bay area rapid transit after bart cut off phone service to stop a planned protest. we are live in the story, stick around. jenna: "happening now" the president arriving at the st. paul international airport. he'll be going to a town hall in minnesota, and talk about jobs and the economy. what is next for the administration? we'll keep you posted as the president moves through minnesota. rick: new information on a hacker's group taking action against the bay area rapid transit, this after bart cut off cellphone service at several stations last week. julie is watching breaking news for us. what is the latest. >> reporter: a lot of people angry about this. and they are fighting back, they are anonymous hackers acting in protest. not only did they break into bart's web site but they have actually posted contact information, personal contact information for more than 2,000 subscribers. they are angry at officials for shutting off these subterranean cell ooh lar data network that disabled riders from making calls, surfing the web or dialing 911. it was criticized by many as heavy-handed and raised questions of whether the move violated free speech. bart said it cut the phone services out of safety concerns. on thursday cellphone service was cut off for a new hours at several stations as protestors tried to use social networking to organize a demonstration over a fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man. a bart police officer was convicted of killing the unarmed man last year. bart initially claimed thatt had asked carriers to cut service. a few hours later it changed its statement saying it had cut services itself. the hacker group known as anonymous responded sunday by posting the names, phone numbers and street and email addresses of bart's website subscribers. they say the hackers got the information from a database of 55,000 subscribers who receive alerts and other information from the transit agencies my bart.org but adds that no personal financial information such as bank account for credit card information was listed. that is the good news in all this. the bay area officials said they were attempting to shut down the hackers website. they have notified the f.b.i., the department of homeland security, but the hackers warn they are not done, they have more troubling surprises planned for later today. we'll keep an eye on this one for you, rick. rick: and it's rush-hour in san francisco right now. julie, thanks. jenna: a new editorial got our attention this morning, it's head lined america as less than number one. our next guest argues recent signs point to an empire in decline. he points to the decline of a super power. he is the editorial page director of the "wall street journal." we had a great cartoon that was run in the "wall street journal." it's uncle sam kind of slumped against the ropes in a boxing match. we'll pull that up for you as soon as we've got it. there it is. it seems to illustrate your point. what about your opinion is about a shrinking souper power. >> i'm not saying we are a shrinking power, jenna, i was suggesting that all of those events last week gave us a taste of what it would be like if we become an empire in decline. it wasn't just the stock market gyrating, it was the s&p downgrade from a aaa to double a, we are now below france in our credit rating. s&p was giving us a wake up call, which is that, look, we are talking about things and most people don't think about it very much, which is growth rates. the united states coming out of this recession has not been able to grow above 2%. over a hundred years we've grown at 3% year after year which means the united states has been an upward moving economy. the issue now is whether we're going flat. if we're going to go flat now because we have all of these entitlement commit -lts and spending commitments which standard & poors highlighted. we have to make a choice whether we want to do what needs to be done to maintain our upward moving growth rate or simply go flat like western europe. and, you know, united kingdom, britain was an empire for a hundred years and they finally gave up that number one status. that i think is the issue in front of us right now. jenna: in your article you said you're looking for signs of american solutions to what are american problems, and often we are looking like places like england, for example on how they flat lined and what they are doing now. do you see any real american solutions, how you would define that out there right now? >> i think this raises a political issue. the two parties are obviously very far apart. i think the democratic idea for at least the last 20 years or so is that the united states should move towards more mixed economy solution, like western germany or denmark in which you are able to pay for your entitlements, perhaps pull back on your nation security and overseas commitments. defense secretary gates went over to brussels about two months ago and gave them a blistering speech saying that the western european nations, once great powers were simply no longer carrying their weight in the international security community, and the reason is is because they do not have the money to spend on defense. so i think the issue that gets raised here is whether the united states will be able to maintain its national security commitments, it's role as a protector of overseas commitments. make no mistake, if you see the united states going flat, as i'm suggesting. people in the capitols of china, moscow, and even iran will be looking at that uncle sam figure to see whether he's got anything left in him. jenna: i have to run here. you're bringing up issues of identity. we've played that role, we've played the role of the protector, we've done that. so what is america if we don't do that any more? that is something that we're searching for. >> i think so, i think we are searching for the sort of inch eight flexibility that has always pushed america higher and looking for kind of the freedom to allow the private sector to grow, to allow the states to grow, and i want to make one point here, jenna, the states like michigan, ohio, wisconsin, new jersey, north carolina, virginia are showing that they are able to step up and address these fiscal problems, get their houses in order and start growing again. the question now is whether washington will be able to do the same thing. jenna: a very di dynamic relationship always been between the states and federal government. always nice to have you. we appreciate your insights. rick over to you. rick: it's so poisonness a tiny drop can kill. its called ricin. new reports say al-qaida is trying to taourpb it into its newest weapon. we'll talk to a counter terror expert about the threat. an amazing discovery under our border with mexico, a tunnel longer than several football fields meant to sneak drugs into this country. we'll show you the elaborate set up and how the smugglers tried to fool the police when we come right back. [ male announcer ] imagine all of your missed opportunities in one place. the winning horse you could have picked. ♪ that "old flame" you should have called. ♪ that leap of faith you never took. but there's one opportunity that's too good to miss. the lexus golden opportunity sales event, with exceptional values on the lexus is. but only until september 6th. see your lexus dealer. rick: disturbing new information this morning that al-qaida may be working on building toxic bombs. "the new york times" citing classified intelligence documents that say that the al-qaida branch in yemen is trying to find a way to use the deadly nerve agent ricin. it's been used as a terror weapon in the past. you may remember 40 capitol hill employees had to be briefly quarantined back in 2004 after ricin was found in an envelope that was mailed to then senate majority leader bill frist's office. ricin is so dangerous that inhaling only a few grains can it be deadly to an adult. its use can be undetectable. once in the bloodstream the impact is immediate. it is twice as deadly as venom from a cobra. we have the head of the cia's osama bin laden unit an joins us now. what did you first think when you read the reports? >> they've been playing with ricin, trying to develop it as a weapon since the early 1990s. that is really not the news. i suspect what they've done is that the government found out that they found a way to weapo weaponize it. producing it is easy. a high school or college student can produce it. it has to be inhaled, it doesn't go in the skin easily like a creme or powder. if you put p it i into an air circulation system or attach it to a bomb that detonates and doesn't destroy the ricin, the ricin would be in the air for the first responders and whoever was in the area. i think the problem here is not that we didn't know they were doing it, i think what we're seeing, probably is someone is at the stage of being able to weaponize it. rick: i imagine that post bin lad din al-qaida might be looking for some kind of attention-grabbing attack of some sort. is that part of the equation here, that there is some concern that al-qaida might be trying to show that it's still relevant, even without osama bin laden? >> i think probably there is a desire to attack, revenge for bin lad din's killing surely is on tap. maybe some kind of attack around the 10th anniversary. the important thing to keep in mind is al-qaida is an old established firm. killing its leader is important but not a fatal blow to them. they've had a nuclear program, acquisition program you underway since 1981. chemical weapons since the late 80s, early 90s. this is an old established firm, and the fact that they are getting to the point where they can find a way to use these is troubling. i also have to say that killing osama bin laden will indeed unleash within al-qaida people that are much less measured in their approach to attacking things. much more willing to kill civilians. much more willing to stage smaller attacks within the united states. osama bin laden's son said the americans will be very sorry that they didn't kill my father in 1988, 1999 because the next generation is much more vicious. rick: thank you, sir. we appreciate your time. jenna: the president launching a midwest road trip and they are calling the trip a debt and bust tour. we will talk to the chairman of the rnc moments from now. court action today in the case of a u.s. tourist who disappeared in aruba from the very same resort town as natalee holloway. what the judge could do with the suspect now detained. we are live with that story. [ drew ] give me volume. not clumps or gaps. the answer... it's all in the wrap. new covergirl lashperfection mascara perfectly wraps each lash for up to 3x more volume. new lashperfection. wrap it up. easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. gop race for the white house as michelle bachmann pulls out a victory in the iowa straw poll this weekend. then tim pawlenty calls it quits. but texas governor rick perry officially joins the race this weekend. all this as president obama launched a midwest road trip, one that the republican national committee has dubbed the debt and bust tour. joining us now is the chairman of the rnc. i understand you're having your own bus tour. were you feeling little bit left out ryan? >> we are going to come out swreupbging. we are no swinging. we are not going to sit around and let this bus tour be paid for by the taxpayers, debt is out of control, and the president who is really the campaigner and chief here of america, all he's doing is campaigning, that's what this bus tour is, it's a campaign trip, it's paid for by taxpayers and we are not going to sit around and let it continue without at least responding. rick: you have to feel good coming out of iowa, all the press the gop candidates have got even over the last several days. rick perry in the race. how do you like the field that is emerging? >> i think it's great. i'm a big believe this big primary fields, getting everyone talking and debating the issues. all the earned media that all the candidates are generating, the buzz in america to change direction, make barack obama a one-term president, that's what it's all about, and that's what we are doing here today in minnesota today. rick: beyond the gop prescription that we hear a lot of, as far as lower taxes, fewer regulations, what is the republican plan to get people back to work? >> well, i mean for one thing it would be nice if we had a president who actually fulfilled the promises that he made. remember, he's the one that said he was going to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. what did he do? the biggest structural deficit in the history of america. the debt, you've heard people say it's one of the bigot security threats to our entire country is mountains of debt. that means we are spending too much money, we are not serious about the fact that the government is making promises that it can't keep. we need people of their word to run for office, say what they are going to do and go to the white house and go do it. unfortunately that is not what this president is all about, and we're going to call him on it every step of the way from here to 2012. rick: how are things at the rnc in you didn't inherit a well oiled machine there. no secret what kinds of things were going on there under your predecessor. do you feel you're in a good position money wise to compete in 2012, not just for the white house but all the races. >> yes, up and down the ticket there is no doubt about it. we've had a bigger net take than we've had in many, many years. we are doing well, functional, operational, it's a matter of getting ourselves on the launch pad so we can take on barack obama, win the senate and take the how. we are excited about it. there is an energy, a movement in the field that we will capture here in 2012. the movement is with taking back america and making barack obama a one-term president. rick: the chairman of the republican national committee. kind of you to join us today. nice to talk to you. looking forward to doing it again soon. >> happy to be back in the midwest. jenna: a top secret stealth helicopter crashed during the osama bin laden raid. now its technology may not be so secret any more. new reports on who pakistan may have shared access to the helicopter with and why that matters. plus, the bank robbing siblings known as the doughtery gang set to appear in court minutes from now. we have the latest from out west next. 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. the possibilities are endless. interesting... save up to 50% this tuesday and wednesday only. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. jenna: a fox news alert, just moments away from high noon on the east coast, right now the infamous siblings known as the dockerty gang, suspected of armed bank robbery and attempted murder are behind closed doors in a colorado courtroom now. alicia acuna has details in denver. >> reporter: hi jenna. the three dockerty siblings are scheduled to be before a judge in pueblo county, right now, dylan, ryan and grace lee will not be specifically in the courtroom but appear via video link from the jail of pueblo since the -- since the arrest, in that county they are each charged with attempted first degree murder and assault on police officers, the three could face charges in werefurno county as well. the man hunt ended with a 20-mile car chase that resulted a brief shootout with law enforcement and the cars the dockertys were driving, crashing. that chase traveled through two jurisdictions so while the siblings were being taken to the jail where the chase began, she shot -- they shot at another officer from the other county, according to authorities. that's all in colorado. the trio still has to go before a judge in georgia where they face armed robbery charges and in florida, where law enforcement officers say one of their own was shot at by the dockerty gang when this whole mess began. there was a meeting on friday with federal, state, local law enforcement to try to sort out the charges, all the jurisdictions and figure out where each charge will come from. jenna. jenna: behind bars until then. alicia, thank you very much. >> some are calling it a new phase in the republican race for the white house. i'm jenna lee. rick: i'm rick folbaum, the shakeout begins. jenna: that's where we are, one candidate winning a test vote, one dropping out, one joining the fray. carl cameron is live in demoines and last time we talked, carl, you had a red bull slushy that got you going but now you just got the news, right? >> reporter: no, actually, i didn't bring it with me but i had a boiled egg on a stick in the -- on a stick from the iowa state farmers, that's an addition to the poll to the iowa state caulks and landscape. we're going to show you where in that moment the stage will be filled with a new entrant, texas governor rick perry and there's a throng garthered and he's not expected to speak for several more minutes. it's just an indication of how popular and interested iowa caucus goers are in the texas governor's politics and his now-presence in the race. we had an opportunity to talk to him this morning, and i asked him specifically about the national front runner in this contest, former massachusetts governor mitt romney and governor perry was quick to contrast his record as the governor of the state's largest state, the nation's second largest state, and his record of having created more than 40 percent of the jobs, or texas' record of having created more than 40 percent of the jobs last year as it compares to mitt romney. listen to this: >> listen to the record of massachusetts while he was the governor there, and look at the record of texas while i've been the governor there. we created more jobs than any other state in the nation, from june 2009 until the present, 40 percent of all the jobs in america, nobody in this race can say that. we have done it. i mean, it's easy to get up and talk, accolades, i'm going to do this or i'm going to do that, but we've done it in the state of texas. >> reporter: and mr. perry makes a point of sort of considering himself, casting himself as what's been referred to as the full spectrum conservative, a fiscal, economic and jobs conservative, as well as a social conservative, and here he finds himself now in the iowa state fairgrounds, campaigning around, shaking lots of hands. we're told he's going to spend most of the day here, give a number of speech, et cetera. lis entrance intoo he his entrance in the race shakes it up, some saying it's going to be a two person race against mitt romney but you can never overlook michelle bach thawn who has a lot of wind in their sails now. jenna: a new spectrum conserve tirvetion a new title for the kid on the block, getting a lot of attention. so perry is capturing a lot of the media, but what about the rest of the world, where is everybody else? >> michele bachmann is continuing to campaign very aggressively. you know, she shared the stage last night with both mr. perry and former pennsylvania senator rick santorum, bachmann truly believes what she's done with this straw poll is more than just an organizational achievement which is often what the straw poll is sort of dismissed as because it represents the kind of buzz you can gather anywhere in the country, not just here in iowa, and you can't forget that with perry now joining the race, there was an open seat because yesterday morning, in record setting time the former minnesota governor tim pawlenty dropped out of the race. he was a distant third in the contest and has pulled the plug, abandoned his candidacy and to have done it less than 28 hours after the straw poll came in is something quite extraordinary, the straw poll and iowa caucuses have decades of history. no one has bailed out as fast as tim pawlenty and almost that vacuum if there ever was one is filled by perry an romney and bachmann. there's been in the past this last week at the state fair occasionally hecklers who have come to what they call the soap box. it will be interesting to see if they come and how the long, tall texas yang dealing with it. jenna: waiting in washington as well, thank you very much, carl, carl cameron at the iowa state fair. rick: for more on how the republican contest is shaping up, bob cusack is managing editor of the hill. good to talk to you. the pundits i've talked to and even the people in the chat room on the website, when they talk about romney, they say that he is a weak frontrunner. why is that? >> well, he's got the health care problem. that was the law he signed in massachusetts that really wasn't an issue in 2008, but since the passage of health care reform in 2009, it has become an impediment to him, but i think that romney over the last several months has actually picked up some momentum. if he were to be the nominee, he'd probably have to be a -- pick a tea party running mate. he focuses on new hampshire, different than in 2008 but will he play in the south and that's where perry could have an advantage. others say this battle between bachmann and perry for iowa, romney is not really focusing on, is actually going to help romney because he can focus on new hampshire and then follow up in south carolina, where usually, that's where you decide the republican nominee. >> rick: speaking of perry, now that he's officially in, before, when he was just thinking about a run, everyone had such glowing things to say about him, now he's actually a candidate. so what's in store for him? we've already seen some conservative groups who are coming -- coming out against him. >> well, i mean, he is a tea party favorite. senator kay bailey hutchison, tried to be governor, challenged him in the primary, perry at the time wasn't looking very strong but he rallied and ran against hutchison as a washington insider, so he's going to have an antiwashington theme and i think he has a decent shot. the spotlight is on him now. very interesting with his interview with carl cameron about how he went off mitt romney and jobs, talking about jobs a lot, but this is the key week, will he rise to the occasion, will he go up in the polls, will he have a gaff here or there, this is where it will be decided i think in the early weeks of his candidacy, whether he is one -- if he's going to be a formidable force in this race. rick: all this comes, of course, bob, as we get new poll numbers from gallup that show that the president's approval rating is as low as it's ever been, we'll put it on the screen, 39 percent approval rating. i guess if you're an obama fan, the silver lining is it's not a year from now. >> that's right. the republican base is very excited, michele bachmann mentioned it over the weekend that republicans really believe that they can beat president obama, they can make him a one-term president. the issue for her is electibility, can she beat obama, is she appeal to independents. that's going to be a major obstacle to get the nomination, as well as ron paul, can he beat president obama. a lot of people think that romney can actually -- he might have an easier time in a general election than in the republican primary and of course it's an open question about rick perry, where will he play in this, how will he go after romney, how will he go after bachmann because the social conservatives are probably going to split around perry and bachmann. rick: sorry for that tone, i know it's in my ear here. i want to ask you quickly about incumbents in general, when there is a growing field on the other side of the opposition party like we're seeing now with republicans where they have no choice but to sort of attack each other in a way, either in debates or on the campaign trail, how do incumbents fare, watching this opposition go after each other while there isn't anybody at least not now within the democratic party vokely going after president obama's record? >> that's right. one thing that president obama wants to avoid is a primary challenge because many on the left are not happy with president obama, whether it be what he signed into law late last year on tax cuts, on this debt deet, guantanamo, afghanistan, that's what they've got to guard against, not to necessarily beat president obama, but to weaken him. but the democratic national committee has really been going after mitt romney, they clearly think that he is going to be nominee and have been going after others as well but mostly romney. i think that's very telling. if you're an incumbent, you're very difficult to beat, and i think that president obama is a going to be a tough guy to beat in november 2012, but with the economy, those poll numbers, i mean, we haven't seen him go below 40 percent. that is making republicans think they can win this, and that this race is going to be very, very close. rick: good stuff, bob, bob cusack, managing editor of the hill, thank you very much, good to talk to. >> thanks rick. jenna: right now we're awaiting the president, he's going to arrive in canon falls, minnesota, the first stop on the bus tour, meeting voters in three states to get a sense of their mood and shore up report. international correspondent john roberts is live in canon falls with more. john. >> reporter: good afternoon to you jenna. a lot of excitement in canon falls, i think the entire town has turned out to see if the president will drive by on his way to the town hall meeting. this is a republican district but there's a lot of democrats as well and many of them, take a look at these pictures, began lining up outside the city council hall at 4:00 yesterday morning for a very small number of tickets that were available, there were only 500 tickets, some 1500 people lined up, and only about 115 people -- 110 came to get tickets, only to be declared the tickets were gone and they had to come home. a lot of people were in pretty good spishts. when we talk about the economy in canon falls, it's a bit' an anomaly from what we've seen in small town america, particularly in rural areas, because the economy is pretty good, unemployment rate in minnesota is about 6.7%, there's only one storefront here that is vacant at the moment and that is a store that was a framing store. there are people that want to open up a new business, they say part of the reason is because it hasn't -- the city council is friendly towards businesses opening. one is the canon falls winery, it's a going concern, it started a few years ago by john and maureen maloney but voashes they have their concerns, trying to run a small business. i talked to maureen, what she says she wants to know about is how to get health care to permanent employees, she's worried about the debt, she wants to know what this president will do to sort of grease the wheels to help small businesses flourish. i asked what her question would be and here's what she told me. >> i would ask what he can do to help a small business owner like us. we employ probably 20 part-time people, four full-time people, and every day is a struggle, it's a tough business to run, and i would just want to know what he can do to help us out in the future. >> reporter: maureen and john said it's a full-time job and more operate thank winery but for the moment things are going pretty well. down the street in an old bank building is the fourth and main fabric shop run by karen leppingwell, she and her husband are from saint paul. this is a going concern, it's a tourist destination for people from some four states, people who want to get into quilts and sewing their own clothing. she says the beauty is they're used to operating on a lean budget and they make the decisions necessary to keep the budget under control and she believes that washington could learn something from the way they do business here. here's what she told me: >> i think that's part of what a small town is. when there's no money left, every expenditure is scrutnized, and i think that allows us to be very frugal. washington probably has a little too much disposable income, and if they ran on a budget as tight as the city of canon falls, they'd be making much tougher decisions. >> reporter: i'll tell you, the whole debate over raising the debt limit left a big impact here, a lot of people want to see congress get together and solve that problem. carol is a self-declared republican but says she's willing to give president obama a break. he's got a lot of fights on his hands and rather than seeing that fighting back and forth she'd like to see people work together. jenna: very interesting to hear the local voices give it context. we'll wait to see what the president has to say. john, thank you very much. rick -- rick: coming up at the bottom of the hour, breaking news is straight ahead, an elaborate drug tunnel from mexico to the u.s., more than three football fields long. also, the man held in aruba over the disappearance of an american woman is due in court. what his lawyer is saying today. and we know a lot of you have all kinds of questions about the economy, you've been sending them in, you keep them coming. economist mark zandi will be here to give you some answers. that's straight ahead. log on to foxnews.com/happening now, click on the america's asking tab in the upper righthand corner, send us your questions. we'll be right back. rick: right now mexican army officials say they've uncovered an incomplete drug tunnel that starts from a major border city. julie banderas has the details. >> incomplete, that's the good news, they hadn't finished the job but the mexican during cartel up to no good again, this time caught in their tacks quite literally, in fact. the mexican army says it has uncovered an incomplete drug tunnel stretching from tijuana, 10 yards into the united states. now, the tunnel is complete with lights and ventilation, about 300 meters long, about 6 feet in height. its entrance, hidden in a house under construction. the exit had not yet been dug. the house also included an alter, to a skeletal icon aaccording by mexican drug traffickers. mexican officials say nine men and one woman have been arrested, accused of construction of the tunnel. last year, authorities in tijuana found between 25 and 30 tons of marijuana in another tunnel. this one was caught before it was put into use. rick: thank you, julie. jenna: for the man questioning the disappearance the -- for a man questioned in the disappearance of an american in ayiewba, gary giordanoo is the only person held and being questioned by police. he's due in court for a detention hearing. his attorney says he should be set free. phil keating is following this story. today's detention hearing we hear could go either way. tell us about that. >> reporter: jerry giordanoo either walks away from jail finally a free man this afternoon or an aruban judge orders him detained for an additional eight days, the detention hearing is a form at built within the dutch legal system which aruba uses. robin gardner's getaway companion, jerry giordanoo, as been locked up for the past ten days as a suspect in her disappearance and possible murder. today's hearing is closed to the public. just a judge, a prosecutor, jerry gore ano's aruban attorney and himself, he will be in the hearing room, and he will be speaking, answering questions by the judge. his attorney released a long and poignant statement criticize the the prosecutor's release of the mug shot which he calls extraordinary in aruba. robin gardner disappeared two weeks ago tomorrow, it was the third night of her aruba trip, the case is strikingly similar that of natalee holloway whose body has never been found, she also, an attractive american blond, reportedly last seen on aruban beach. giordanoo says he and gardner went snorkeling and when they got back to the beach she was nowhere to be found, apparently swept out to sea but authorities say it's full of holes, here in the suts, the fbi is executing a search warrant friday night at giordanoo's maryland home and business. what they went there to find and seize, no comment. gar dano's defense attorney in aruba releasing a statement yesterday, quote, today, nine days later, four voluntary interviews, two site vives, more than 30 statements coming from different sources including witnesses and professionals, we cannot deduce that there is hard proof to sustain a demand by the public prosecutor against our client. the whole drowning explanation here, aruban police simply aren't buying it, they say two weeks ago the waters were calm, minimal if no current whatsoever, crystal clearwaters and repetitive searches by air, sea and land have failed to find her body and they say had she actually drowned, her body would have been spotted by now. over the weekend, they also did search a mine not too far from baby beach where they allegedly went snorkeling, nothing there, no evidence found related to robin gardner and the passport of ms. gardner is in custody of aruban police, so they say if she was alive, there's no way she could have left the island. jenna: so many questions remain. a story we'll continue to watch. thank you. >> all right. rick: remember that military chopper that went down during the bin laden mission in pakistan? well, this are new reports out today that pakistan may have given some valuable u.s. secrets over to the chinese regarding that helicopter. more on that. plus, a violent attack leaves six people dead on a tiny island. we'll have the details on that. don't go away. jenna: right now, new information on international stories we're keeping an eye on for you. first of all, going to egypt where former leader hosni mubarek returns to court today, he enters the courtroom on a stretcher. today the judge locked any live tv broadcast of the future procedures, the trial against the ousted dictator will resume next month, in the meantime he's in the hospital. also in iraq, a wave of bomb blasts ripping through more than a dozen iraqi cities, reports of at least 60 people killed there. the blasts include a combination of roadside bombs and homicide bomber ramming his car into a police station. and brutal knife attack living six people dead on the british island of jersey. police say they still don't know the motive for the attack but they have made an arrest. all six victims are from two different families, and the suspect is a member of one of those families. rick: new reports now regarding that chopper that crashed during the bin laden mission in pakistan. and now we're hearing the u.s. ally, you can call it an ally, may have given up u.s. secrets. dominic d-natale originally broke this story and is streaming live from islamabad in pakistan. dominic, what have you learned now? what's the latest? >> reporter: rick, american sky agencies are now saying that it is most likely, they concluded, that, indeed, the pakistani intelligence agency, or the head of so called isi, did allow chinese engineers to look at that served tail of the black hawk up close, take samples from it back to china, also take photos. very worrying because chinese have reverse-engineered drone technology, it's believed that drones are down here in pakistan, handed over to the chinese and in fact the chinese have made their own drones and are selling them back to the pakistanis. are they going to do that with the technology they've gathered and intel they've gathered from the downed plane? well, a variety of agencies are telling media outlets over the weekend, that indeed appears to be their major concern. the pakistanis are hotly denying they've shown it to any foreign government, but nonetheless, washington is saying that it believes it has evidence to prove that indeed that could be the case, apparently intercepted phone calls from shortly after usama bin laden being killed, suggesting that in fact the pakistanis were considering taking chinese engineers up to abot bod -- abbottabad to have a look, and it was brought to a base where the chinese were literally able to get up fellow, take a neck of that point off of it and take it to beijing, that would mean that classified u.s. technology would be in the hands of what is going to be america's biggest military rival in the future, china. very worrying developments there, rick. rick: dominik di-natale, live for us in pakistan, thanks. jenna: peter brooks is former cia officer, also senior fellow for national security affairs at the hurt annual foundation. let's start off with the basics first, peter. how much information can really be taken from samples of this helicopter, how much is really at risk? >> well, basically, we've talked about the tail section, so it's not the entire helicopter. it wouldn't have its navigational systems, may not have its communications, may not have any weapons systems, so it's only the tail section but the tail section may be unique, and as your reporter mentioned there may be coatings on that that would be of interest to the chinese. i mean, they're going to exploit anything they can and it may help them improve their air mobility and helicopter capabilities. jenna: there are really several stories wrapped into one here. so you have the one story about pakistan, whether or not they're really an ally if they do this and what's the way forward, do we continue to provide aid to them. that's one side of the story. then you have the story about china and whether or not as dominic said, this is another sign of their growing military strength and that really is a threat we should be watching. what do you think deserves our priority, our focus now? >> i think both. i'm afraid to say. and it is a major challenge for policymakers and intelligence people. i mean, china last week just launched their first aircraft carrier, they have others built in the yards, they're a major military power in the pacific, they're involved in an unprecedented military buildup, but at the same time, we have a hot war going on in south asia, in afghanistan, and in the tribal areas of pakistan, as we pursue the taliban and al-qaeda. so you can't ignore them. unfortunately, these are the cards we've been dealt and it puts a lot of pressure, like i said, on our policymakers on capitol hill and in the white house and of course, on our warriors, our service members, our brave service members, and our intelligence folks who you have to remember once again that intelligence is our first line of defense, so there's a lot of hot issues out there and of course, it is limited -- it isn't limited to china or pakistan as you well know. jenna: i don't know if this is an appropriate question because it seems like there's a lot of inches board -- chess board playing happening here. what should our retaliation be if pakistan has given up secrets like this to someone we don't consider, well, an ally ourselves, being china? >> china wants to replace the united states as the predominant military power in the pacific, so by handing other this -- over this technology is certainly not helpful. i think we have to be very cautious about pakistan, jenna. i wouldn't call them an ally, i wouldn't call them an enemy. they're somewhere in between. we have a transactional relationship with pakistan that's based on that the threat that we both face in terms of terrorism and islamist groups that threaten both of us. so i think we have to be very careful, we have to be very sober, we have to be cautious about what sort of information we do share with them, what else might they have shared with the chinese. there were reports of the drone, there are reports of how we may train special force, may train pakistani forces. so we have to be very, very cautious. but unfortunately, we really don't have any other options at the moment for dealing with the al-qaeda and the taliban and being successful in afghanistan. so it's a very difficult line to walk. jenna: as far as policy, that follows something like this, you mentioned that this puts a lot of pressure on lawmakers, but if we're living in the gray and we don't have to call either country on enemy or ally, what pressure is it really? i mean, is there something that policymakers really have to do now or is this just another -- in the notebook about how to move forward internationally with our international policy that really doesn't provoke any sort of real effect? >> that's a good point. we have to be very cautious, we have to be proactive, we have to be concerned about our secrets, we have to be concerned about our taxpayer dollars that may be going to pakistan, that may be working in some cases against us, we may need to partition our aid. it's you cannot put aside. as you talked about, you never know what's around the corner in terms of the future, you need to be prepared for all sorts of contingencies, all sorts of security threats because one of our biggest enemies is complacency so policymakers and others need to be on top of these issues now. jenna: an important point, complacency. thank you. we'll be back with economist mark zandi, next. rick: a fox news alert, a night of terror for family in north branford, connecticut, armed intruders, breaking into their home and tieing them up. julie banderas is at the breaking news desk with the details. >> reporter: police right now are looking for five suspects who reportedly tied up a family at gunpoint during a brazen home invasion last night. police say the intruders stormed into their home in the north section of town about 10:30 at night, police say the masked robbers then tied up the mother and daughter in the basement, threatening their lives, then they ransacked the home, leaving a three-year-old sleeping child alone, thank goodness, who woke up at one point and later returned to bed. the daughter had been in the shower at the time when they stormed the house, then the father arrived them and when he did, he too was tied up, hog-tied by their captors. the suspects got away with a shotgun, jewelry, television, liquor, wine, tomato sauce. no word on why they had to get the tomato sauce. but they did manage to pour bleach around the house in an effort to destroy the evidence. after they left, the family did manage to free themselves, they left the house, they called # 11 from a neighboring home at about 3:00 in the morning. thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. the family's stolen pickup truck was found abandoned later across town. police say all the gunmen were described as black and wearing bandanas, two were about 6 feet tall, one weighed about 230 piewnsd had facial hair, a second had a thin build and weighed about 180 pounds, and police are asking anyone with information to call the number on your screen, this is the number for north branford police department: >> we'll let you know if they get any hints or tips. rick: glad to know everybody is okay. julie, thanks. jenna: right now the president is kicking off a three-day midwest bus tour, aimed at ways to jump start the economy. his first stop is canon falls, minnesota, the unemployment rate there is 6.7%, below the national average of 9.1%. there is a look at -- well, airs force -- air force one arriving in minneapolis, minnesota. we're going to bring you to the town hall when it starts. one of the big questions is what's next, not only for the president but for all lawmakers, how and when do we see new job growth. mark zandi is chief economist at moody's analytics and is with us today to talk about this. mark, nice to see you. >> thank you. jenna: let's talk generally here about lawmakers in general, regardless of any party. a lot has been insinuated about policymakers being out of ammunition, not able to do anything at this point to help a flailing economy, an economy where we're not seeing aggressive job growth. do you agree or disagree about that? >> there are more things they could do. for example, we have a payroll tax holiday this year, that's set to expire unless there's a piece of legislation. given what happened to the economy, given what's happened to consumer and business confidence, i think it would make sense to extend that. but that's an example. there are other things policymakers can do. both congress, administration and the federal reserve board. jenna: what would be your number one recommendation to the president? >> well, i think he has to -- suggest -- he has suggested and i concur, to extend the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits also expire at the end of the year and as we all know there are millions of people that are out of work, very difficult to find a job, and i would suggest that we extend that, also, for another year. those two things would make a big difference in 2012. if we don't do those things, those will be very significant drags on the already weak economy. jenna: extending unemployment benefits and extending the payroll tax breaks, will that actually create jobs? or does that just keep things from getting worse? >> the latter. from getting worse. if we don't do those things, then of course, that is less money out into the economy, into consumers' pockets. of course, unemployed workers without any resources will pull back quite significantly in their spending, and that will cost jobs. so i think this is a reasonable way to try to maintain at least the status quo. now, of course, policymakers also have to do much more than that, they need to focus on longer term policy like corporate tax reform, tax reform of the individual, income tax code, and they must follow through on fiscal austerity, they've got a lot of work there to do. so they've got a very tough job. they've got to do more than one thing at once. jenna: i'm glad you brought up the tax code. it was interesting to read warren buffet's op-ed piece in the "new york times" today, the title, stop cod ling the superrich and what he says is that we should leave the tax code alone for 99.7% of taxpayers. i should say the tax rate. leave those unchanged for most of us. but on those americans, about 240,000 americans making more than a million dollars, we need to raise taxes. what do you think about that? >> well, i think -- i sympathize with that perspective, we need to raise tax revenue. i think a better way to do it, however, is to address some of the tax deductions, the credits and loopholes in the tax code and there are many and higher income tax house -- households benefit from the loopholes. if we can scale them back, we don't have to eliminate them but scale them back over the next decade, i think we'll hit our tax revenue targets and achieve the goals that mr. buffet would like to achieve and also decifit reduction which is something obviously we all agree is quite critical. jenna: it is complicated, that is one thing we can say about our economy. mark, we have viewer questions, we showed you thetown hall that's about to begin but we have a town hall with mark zandi, answering your questions about the economy. get them into us, foxnews.com/happening now, after the break, mark is going to be here to answer your questions. we'll be right back. megyn: i'm megyn khel yevment rick perry is officially in the race. president obama's approval rating falls below 40 percent for the first time with gallup. lou dobbs react toss that. >> michelle malke nevment says the administration was dealt an embarrassing blow last week on its attempt to curtail oil and gas exploration. we'll have a fair and balanced debate on that claim. a 16-year-old goes swiming in a lake and winds up dead, thanks to a brain eating ameba. dr. michael baden joins us live to tell us how that happens. see you top of the 1:00. jenna: america's asking about the economy and back with us, we now have economist mark zandi, chief of moody's analytics. mark, we certainly have a lot of questions, first to the extension of the payroll tax credit and also the extension of unemployment. a lot of our viewers have the question about where we get the money to do that if we're also in a time where we're cutting so many programs. is the money actually available to do that? >> yeah, that's a great question. we'll have to borrow the money, so that would add to the decifit in the near term. but i think we could and should pay for it in the longer run. so what we would do is marry those cuts, an increase in the e.i. benefits, with future cuts in government spending and or tax increases. so i think we should pay for it but pay for it over a longer period of time, over the next decade. but it's a very good point. jenna: as you mentioned to us, you feel like it's worth it at this time to keep the economy from sliding further backwards, instead of forwards. you also were talking a little about our tax structure earlier, and susan had a question, and this comes up a lot when we talk about tax reform, her question is about a flat tax, simplifying the tax code, also lowering it in some cases, what do you think about that? >> well, that goes to the point i was making earlier about eliminating or at least scaling back some of the tax deductions and credits and other loopholes in the tax code. and there are many. just to give you a sense of that, if you add up all of the costs of all of those loophole, it's a little over a trillion dollars a year, so it's a lot of money, and if we can eliminate or scale those barks then you make the tax base broader and more flat, fairer, less complex, and you raise a lot of revenue, so much revenue, you could probably even lower marginal rates on businesses to try to help our global competitiveness or even ensure that we don't have to raise tax rates on individuals. so i agree with the thrust of that question. i think we should move towards a flatter tax base. jenna: do you think we have the resources, and resources in the people that are in power right now, to really get that done? do they have -- and speaking frankly, the smarts? and the guidance to do that? >> yeah, you know, i think they -- here's the most important point. i think almost everyone understands that this is a good idea. from an economic perspective, on both sides of the aisle. of course, there's a lot of constituencies, each tax credit, each tax deduction, has someone who really likes it and wants it and will fight for it, so politically, it's difficult, but i do think when we get to the end of next year and the tax cut, the bush tax cuts are set to expire, that's a poignant time when i think the politics might marry nicely with the economics, and we could get some substantive tax reform and move to something that i think everyone would agree is from an economic perspective the root thing. jenna: this is a final question, donna wants to know, and maybe this is the $17 trillion question, depending upon our debt, mark. in what we're do you really expect to see the economy turn around? >> well, you know, it is already turning around. it's certainly a lot better than we were a year or two ago. but i think it's probably going to be this time next year, maybe even two years from now, when people will actually feel that way, when they really feel like things have turned the corner, their financial situation is improved, unemployment is moving definitively, so we've got a good year, perhaps two, before we'll keep comfortable about the way things are going. jenna: and so many people that way. that gut check, so important for so many reasons. thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you jenna. rick: good questions from the folks in the chat room. appreciate that as well. when we come back, a battle to keep a lid on teenagers causing havoc in philadelphia, what the city is doing and will it be enough, straight ahead. jenna: new information coming in on a beef recall over contaminated meat sold at three major grocery store chains. julie, what do we know about this? >> reporter: well, if you like meat and live in the southeast, listen here, certain packages of ground beef are being recalled at three major grocery store chains in the atlanta, georgia metro area due to the possibility of e coli contamination. the beef is being recalled at winn dixie stores incorporated, p. -- publix incorporated and kroger. the contamination problem was apparently found at the national beef packaging company of dodge city, kansas, which distributes to the southeast. national beef has had to recall more than 60,000 pounds of beef, according to the u.s. department of agriculture, after the ohio department of agriculture found the potentially deadly bacteria in its products. so far, stores on alert for the contaminated ground beef are located mainly in alabama, florida, georgia, louisiana, mississippi, south carolina, and tennessee, but they warn the meat could have been distributed nationwide. symptoms of e coli include severe stomach cramps, tenderness, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, the good news, the agriculture department saying there haven't been reports of illness so far but national beef saying it is conducting a thorough investigation. jenna. jenna: good information for our viewer, julie. thank you. rick: a controversial curfew in one of america's biggest cities, because of flash mobs like this one. this is all happening in philadelphia. over the weekend, the mayor issued a 9:00 p.m. curfew for parts of the city for anyone under the age of 18. there were no flash mobs, but there were dozens of arrests. david lee miller is in our newsroom with more on that. david. >> reporter: that's right, there were 70 arrests this weekend for violating philadelphia's curfew, including an 18-year-old who stabbed a 16-year-old in the arm after leaving a city organized bowling party, but overall, officials say the first weekend of this curfew is a success. most importantly, there were none of those flash mobs that have plagued the city for the past two years. the mobs organized on social media sites have attacked people as well as property, rampaging through stores and wreaking havoc, last month the violence escalated with one victim hospitalized with a frequented skull, the mayor lashed out not only at teens but parents, saying they do more to control their own kids. speaking this weekend, the mayor offered a stern warning, as well as some advice: >> if your child is out after curfew, tall, short, nice, not so nice, the curfew is the curfew is the curfew. buy a watch. >> reporter: not only can teens be fined for violating the curfew but so can parents. critics say the curfew is collective punishment, unfairly targeting inner city blacks, the local chapter of the naacp supports the mayor's curfew, saying what he did took courage. other cities have been plagued by flash riots and the teen curfew in philadelphia, it might be tried elsewhere, for instance, kansas city, missouri is now considering the same type of law. for now, rick, it looks like all eyes are on philadelphia, waiting to see if this program continues to be a success. rick. rick: david lee miller in the newsroom, thanks. jenna: we're waiting for the president, his town hall meeting to get underway in canon falls, minnesota. there's a live look. he's on a three-day bus tour, giving him a chance to talk about jobs and hear about the economy directly from every day americans. we're going to have more coverage of the president,we use coming upd next. 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. jenna: we heard that the president began speaking in cannon falls minnesota he's having a town hall about the economy. we will continue to follow that for you. rick: he says he's happy to be out of washington and in minimum so the that. thanks for watching, everybody, "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert, economists issuing a new and dark outlook for america's economy, just as president obama rolls into the midwest in an effort to renew his focus on jobs. welcome to "america live" on a monday, everybody, i'm megyn kelly. we will have more on that in just a moment, but the president has just begun his remarks on jobs. we want to go to him for that right now. [applause] >> around the world people still understand the extraordinary power, but also the extraordinary hope that america represents. so, there is

Related Keywords

Louisiana ,United States ,Alabama ,Vermont ,Beijing ,China ,Minnesota ,Saint Paul ,Sugarland ,Texas ,Kansas City ,Kansas ,Washington ,District Of Columbia ,San Francisco ,California ,Mexico ,Iowa City ,Iowa ,Netherlands ,Egypt ,South Carolina ,Aruba ,Massachusetts ,Abbottabad ,North West Frontier ,Pakistan ,Manchester College ,Indiana ,Jersey ,Chicago ,Illinois ,New York ,Moscow ,Moskva ,Russia ,New Hampshire ,North Carolina ,Afghanistan ,Iran ,Islamabad ,Philadelphia ,Pennsylvania ,Florida ,Virginia ,Pueblo County ,Colorado ,Wisconsin ,Georgia ,Michigan ,Brussels ,Bruxelles Capitale ,Belgium ,Denver ,Mississippi ,United Kingdom ,Tennessee ,Iraq ,Denmark ,New Jersey ,Tijuana ,Baja California ,Maryland ,Ohio ,Yemen ,Capitol Hill ,France ,Utah ,Town Hall ,Bermuda ,Americans ,America ,Mexican ,Pakistani ,Iraqi ,British ,American ,Chinese ,Dutch ,Pakistanis ,Alicia Acuna ,Michael Baden ,Phil Keating ,Ron Paul ,Jenna Lee ,Jon Scott ,Rick Santorum Bachmann ,Jason Scofield ,Michelle Bach ,Bruce Springsteen ,Brick ,Rick Perry ,Megyn Kelly ,Michele Bachmann ,Michelle Bachmann ,Robin Gardner ,Carl Cameron ,Tim Pawlenty ,Dylan Ryan ,Jerry Gore ,Michelle Bachmann Rick Perry ,David Lee Miller ,Kay Bailey Hutchison ,Maureen Maloney ,John Roberts ,Jay Karen ,Mitch Daniels ,Lou Dobbs ,Julie Banderas ,Barack Obama ,Bob Cusack ,George W Bush ,Richard Nixon ,Megyn Khel ,