Transcripts For FOXNEWS The Live Desk 20100126

way that's comprehensive. and the white house and congress would want him to be involved in that, yeah. >> but we shouldn't specifics in tomorrow night's speech in this? >> i don't want to get too far of tomorrow night's speech. it's only tuesday. >> you don't want to get ahead of tomorrow night's speech? >> let's talk about tonight's speech. >> since we are talking about tomorrow night's speech, sources are getting ahead of the president on this, don't ask, don't tell will be part of the speech. -- >> if i stay out too much longer, we can cancel tomorrow's speech, so let's wait for tomorrow's speech. i don't think anything that the president includes tomorrow i would characterize in any way as a throwaway line. i think if something merits the attention of the president in front of an address to millions of americans, it's important to the president, as it has been for a long time. >> is he done with it yet? >> not that i'm aware of, no. >> robert, the senate has just rejected a measure to create a bipartisan task force. will the president now consider a presidential commission on that instead? >> i think that is certainly one of the things that is being talked about. i would say first and foremost, jeff, that we talked last night, and you all reported today, what the president hopes is continuing bipartisan effort to get our fiscal house in order and make progress on the decifit by freezing nonsecurity discretionary spending over the next three years. so i think that, taken together, is some of what you'll hear the president discuss later. >> following up on that particular announcement from last night to, what extent will this spending freeze affect the president's program, education, energy, other domestic policy priorities that one would think would have to suffer under a $250 billion spending freeze? >> well, jeff, the president and the economic budget team put together a budget obviously that reflects the priorities that the president sees for the future of our country, including building the new foundation of which education and clean energy jobs is a tremendous part. look today at what the american wind power association has to say about our important investments in clean energy and its impact on the increase in clean energy. wind power was, according to them, they believed, vis-a-vis 2008 levels, likely to decline by 50 percent, when in fact because of the recovery act and the filling of the space for credit that was receding, instead this tax credit came through the kobera act, we saw a 39 percent increase in the number of wind plants that will be wind power generated over the course of last year -- that we wind power generated over the course of last year. the way the president did the budget is the way millions of american families do their budget. understand what we have to invest in. that's why security spending is untouched in nominal terms in this budget. and instead of wielding an across the board axe, the president will cut programs that are done lick tiff or -- dupe lick tiff or -- duplicative or serve what he believes is no important purpose and invest, as families do, in investments for the future. again, the important thing that you mentioned is that that three-year freeze over the course of ten years will save on the order of $250 billion. >> and i understand the family analogy and the wind statistics are interesting, but i guess it's hard to get one's head around how you can plan to freeze spending and take that much money and not have some of these domestic prioritieso ceo a family would have to do. >> well, are there duplicative programs -- are there programs the president believes are duplicative and don't serve their intended purpose -- >> [inaudible question] >> it is, except for the fact, jeff, they haven't been. right? understand that this space of spending from 1995-2006 increased by 90 percent. $190 billion. so yes, our duplicative programs could be -- should be cut, that have outlived their intended use, should they be cut, absolutely, and the president is here to do it. that's why the proposal is outlined. jon: that's robert gibbs at the white house today talking about what the president will and will not do. you talked about the spreeing freeze, you heard duplicative, which means programs that are redundant that can be replaced by other programs. he's not talking about exactlyo exactly what the president will cut. what he's saying is things like national security, education, a lot of those programs will not be touched. he said earlier they will not take a hatchet across the board. molly henneberg is following this. as you look at robert gibbs, he's winding his way in and out of this conversation, molly, he's not talking specifically about what's coming out, he's saying in generic terms, these programs that are duplicative that can be replaced will have to have money cut out of them. >> and congress will come in, they'll get into the nitty gritty and city along with the president what programs might take a cut and -- cut, and robert gibbs was saying not everything is going to be cut, they're just going to try to keep all the funding at the 2010 levels through 2013, so some programs, government agencies, or department, could get an increase, others a cut, but in the aggregate, overall spending on the nondefense discretionary spending would be at 2010 levels. trace, this is only 17 percent of the budget, and i think we have a graphic to show you what is not included in this, what they won't even touch. this spending freeze would not -- they would not cut anything from the cost of wars in iraq and afghanistan, foreign aid, homeland security and veteran's administrations, and the last three, social security, medicare and medicaid, those three make up about 59 percent of all federal spending each year. they wouldn't be touched by this freeze. it's just the 17 percent of the budget that's the government agencies and programs and departments. trace: molly henneberg, live for us on the north lawn of the white house, thank you. as always, we want to hear from you, log on to foxnews.com and on the home page you'll see our you decide questions of the day. one of the them asks if you think a partial spending freeze is a good idea. click on the question and see the answer choices and click one of them to register your vote. you can also see how other people are answering by clicking the view results tab. it's all right there on foxnews.com. >> also an foxnews.com right now, if you wanted to hear the rest of that press briefing with robert gibbs, that's also an foxnews.com. meanwhile two strong aftershocks rocking port-au-prince haiti, today, our fox team on the ground tells us the tremors felt moderately strong, strong enough to give them a scare and those aftershocks came as some people who have money were rushing to crumbling bank buildings, trying to withdraw their cash. but who exactly has money, and where is there to spend it? meanwhile, actor john travolta has just left haiti after flying his own jet, loaded with relief supplies, to the capitol, the 55-year-old actor, along with his wife, kelly preston, brought 6 tons of ready to eat military rations and medicine for the survivors. amy kellogg is live in port-au-prince with the latest on these developments. hi amy. >> reporter: patty ann, all these aftershocks just add to the panic and frantic sense that people have about what may be tomorrow. according to the interim development bank, most patients do not have bank accounts but i spoke to an accountant that told me over the last ten years that has started to change as bank branches have opened in different neighborhoods. obviously all of that set back by the earthquake, many of these bank branches and some of the central banks, even, have been destroyed, money has been looted out of safes and i.d.s have been lost, so people trying to claim money are having a difficult time, and there is a shortage of local currency. a lot of people are dependent upon money transfers from abroad and there have been huge lines outside the money points. as for commerce, businesses are slowly opening back up, mostly street side vending, often at inflated prices. as you can see from the pictures there's a lot being sold on the streets, but some of the bigger established stores have not yet opened their doors and patti ann, the bottom line for people is they want guidance from the government. i spoke to a woman who said that her nephew had taken out a big loan for a business, and his business was destroyed. he owes the government money or the bank money and he doesn't know how he's going to pay it back. clearly some sort of amnesty needs to be created for these people but right now it's chaotic and there really isn't a government firmly in place to give these instruction as to how to go about with planning their financial future. patty ann? patti ann: amy kellogg, live in haiti, thank you. trace: a brand new report calling into question whether the government is doing enough to keep americans safe from terror, here's the deal, the report says sometime in the next three years a terrorist will likely use a weapon of mass destruction. the question is how prepared are we. the very same report gives the white house an f for being ready. plus, guns, tear gas and protestors in the street chanting we want freedom. more of this dramatic video, coming directly to you in three minutes. trace: a chilling bipartisan report pointing out serious flaws in the government's defense against terror attacks. a congressly appointed panel says unless the nation acts urgently a weapon of mass destruction could be used on u.s. soil in the next three years. a white house official today saying they do not agree with the report card. the panel points out the biggest threat is definitely biological, the white house says it has done a great deal to protect americans from the threat, but the panel is giving the government an f in that department. an a minus for designating a white house adviser to deal with wmd proliferation, a c when it comes to working with local governments to prepare for attacks, and a b plus for reviewing nuclear security programs. judith miller is an adjunct fellow at the manhattan institute, also a fox news contributor, and judith, an f for dealing with biological weapons? it's pretty firm, it's pretty harsh. >> i think an f was very harsh, given the fact that this is an administration which has had so many problems to deal with, a tanking economy, h1n1, tom daschle, who is going to be the point man on this issue who never got confirmed and had to withdraw, so it's just been very tough for them. and they have done a lot, but not enough, because this is such a difficult problem. trace: you got a point, h1n1, you mentioned it here and a lot of people would say that h1n1 was kind of a debacle. we knew this was coming, judith, and it took us a long time to get the vaccine, and worse, to distribute that vaccine, and if a biological attack happens, we don't have the time that we had in h1n1. >> that's it. trace: it's a very serious concern. >> and that's why the report flag that is outbreak, the h1n1, and says if you want to understand why we're not prepared, just look at what happened in that incidence, because most americans did not even have vaccines by the time that epidemic peaked. trace: you look at the md -- administration, they will say we've got things in place like the postal service, we can get these things distributed very effectively and quickly. it's a game changer. when a biological weapon hits, not just like we'll send the postman to deliver all the vaccines and stuff, it's just not realistic, some of the things that are in rebuttal. >> we've haid a lot of progress. i mean, now, for example, from our national repositories, our stockpile of drugs, we can get drugs to cities anywhere in america within 12 hours. that's huge improvement. but getting to the people, getting the actual medicine to the people, is so hard that most cities just kind of throw up their hands and say this is too hard to do, we're not going to do it. trace: the report also focuses on the redundancies, the numbers of committees on homeland security, between 80 to 108. that's the problem with what happened with the abdulmutallab thing and the fort hood shooter, there are so many different committees talking to each other that you need to boil it down to just a few. is that a fair assessment? >> absolutely. congress got a flat f for failing to do anything to reform the way it oversees this terribly important function. and congress is the least likely to change of anybody. they're not going to respond to a report card that says f. they're not -- they haven't even challenged it. so it's such a die bowlcle difficult problem. i -- diabolically problem. the administration has had a slow start but i believe, talking to people around the president, this is something the president feels strongly about and we have to look to the state of the union to see what he's doing -- going to do. i think there will be surprises in the bio area. trace: we'll look forward to that, judith miller, thank you. patti ann: you can make your voice heard as well, on the fox.com home page, click on the you decide question, is the president doing enough to prevent a wmd terror attack, yes, not sure or i don't know. and you can see how other viewers are voting. it's all there on foxnews.com. trace: that's a live look inside the white house press briefing. i've got to sit in the chair and sin around. that's robert gibbs saying president obama is considering creating a so-called decifit task force. this after the senate rejected setting up a bipartisan panel to curb federal spending. still getting questions about the president's proposed spending freeze, as news comes out of there. we'll bring it to you here on the live desk. patti ann: the democrats are dealing with more fallout in the wake of their loss in the massachusetts senate race, the vice president's own son, saying no to his chance that his father -- saying no to a chance at his father's old senate seat. why joel biden out and who has decided not to run and what the implications are. that's coming up next. patti ann: checking out the remote feeds we're following, in the top box we're waiting for a vote on ben bernanke, the senate majority leader harry reid that vote could come as early as next thursday or friday. bernanke, of course, seeking a second term as chairman of the federal reserve. he's facing tough critics in congress but he is expected to sweep by here. in the middle box, saab will live on, after all, general motors has sealed a deal to sell the swedish brand, the buyer, dutch luxury automaker spiker, they make about 50 custom sports cars a year. in the bottom box, violent clashes on the streets of indian kashmir, protests against indian rule as the country celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence. angry mobs, throwing rocks at police and soldier, cops firing back with tear gas to scatter the crowd, kashmir, a disputed region of india that has been long seeking independents. -- its independence. trace: well, one week now since the stunning republican win in massachusetts, the fallout among democrats is just mistakable, the contenders in the mid-term elections is shrinking by the day, among the democrats taking their name out of contention, vice president biden also son, beau biden who will not make a play. scott brown is giving republicans added reasons to enter races across the country. carl cameron is live in washington. what exactly happened in delaware? >> what happened was a little of what happened in massachusetts, and a lot of what's been happening all year, intensity, energy, and voter interest is gravitating away from democrats and toward republicans, and beau biden, the vice president's son, the state of delaware's current together, opted not to run and it's worth noting that that feat is currently -- seat is occupied by ted coughlin who was then senator joe biden chief of staff, coughlin was put in place essentially as a place holder by the vice president and the administration with the assumption and the participation of democrats in delaware that beau biden would run and fill the seat. vice president beau bid -- joe biden occupied it for 36 years and as a con -- consequence of beau's decision not to run it lines up republicans like a castle to win that seat, which would amount to a big republican pickup and it's symbolic in that its joe biden's former seat, one his son was supposed to take and has opted not to. the same in illinois, president obama's former senate seat is occupied by interim senator roland burris, not seeking reelection, it's now up for grabs and a very real possibility that republicans could win there. so the likelihood of picking up two very important senate seats, one formerly occupied by the president and vice president punctuates how much momentem republicans think they have. trace: and the pundits, they're coming out with the forecasts that are gloomy to say the least, some say stormy. what are they saying exactly? >> it depends on who you talk to, charlie cooke who has work for congressional quarterly, he's identified a significant number, north of 40, vulnerable democrats, 49, as a matter of fact. he has as toss-up or leaning, out of a nine seats up for grab, only ten house republicans. stu rossenberg who does a political report, a nonpartisan analyst, has as many as 70 seats up for grabs, and 59 of them from democrats. the magic number, trace, is pretty simple, republicans need to win 40 more seats in the house and ten more seats in the senate and they take back both majorities. there are enough in play in the house and senate where it's possible, a very, very steep hill to climb but they're already knocking on the door and it's barely the end of january, ten more months before election say and republicans have the wind in their sails. trace fast carl cameron, in the d.c. newsroom, across from the capitol. patti ann: let's talk with larry sabato at the center for politics. some of the rule changes enacted by democrats to help their own interests may be coming back to bite them, most, you point out in massachusetts, back in 2004 the democrats took away a governor's right to appoint a senator for two years, the idea being to deprive mitt romney of a pick, but it didn't matter, and then the democrats changed state law to allow governor patrick to appoint a democrat to replace him. that backfired, too, i guess. >> absolutely. it's the law of unintended consequences. you want to be careful with political changes. one of the classic examples in history, by the way, is the 22nd amendment, after roosevelt was elected four times, when the republicans took control of congress, they said we've got to make sure this never happens again, so they passed the 2-term rule for the presidency, and who was the first president who could have been elected easily to a third term? republican dwight eisenhower, so you have to be careful. your example of massachusetts is exactly right. if the governor had been permitted to do what prior governors had been permitted to do in massachusetts, you would have had a democrat appointed to the late senator kennedy's seat for essentially two years, and just like it was done when jfk left the senate to become president, a seat warmer, his former harvard roomate, was appointed to that seat to hold it, to keep the seat warm until ted kennedy was 30 years old and could serve in the senate. but instead, they had a long rig ma roll legislatively and got a temporary appointment that had to go to a special election, not a republican, the democrats lost their 60th seat, and as they say, the rest is history. patti ann: speaking of seat warmers, in delaware, when joe biden vacated his seat to run for vice president he arranged for ted coughlin to replace that seat, the thought being that beau would run for the seat but this didn't go according to plan, either. >> new york city and this was a really big mistake. the governor of delaware at the time, governor ruth ann minner, had a superb choice, lieutenant governor john carney, who was the popular among democrats to fill that seat. frankly, no one outside the elite in delaware even knew who ted coughlin was, but joe biden insisted on coughlin, he wanted, just like jfk did, a seat warmer so that his son could take over, and then lo and behold, the son decides not to run, coughlin is around 70, he's not going to seek the seat, and now a republican, congressman mike castle, is very likely to win the seat. patti ann: those are two examples of democratic senate appointees who are providing opportunities for the gop in the midterm election. larry sabato, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. trace: a new proposal to help trim the decifit, coming from president obama just one day ahead of the state of the union address, a partial freeze on federal spending. is it a good first step? or a drop in the bucket? we'll have analysis, next. plus anunes nent from homeland security secretary janet napolitano on the future of travel security. we'll bring you that, next. [ female announcer ] it flows across our world. all of it connected. sustaining every living thing. there's nothing more important on our planet, than water. that's why brita has partnered with the surfrider foundation. because cleaner water in our world, is just as important as cleaner water in our homes. reduce lead and other contaminants... with the advanced filtration system of brita. trace: we're back live in the newsroom, it's the bottom of the hour. we have brand new information on three big stories, and there is a political firestorm growing over the handling of the failed christmas day bomber, and it could focus on the attorney general. catherine herridge in d.c. >> congressman frank wolf and a senior republican on the senate side, lindsay graham, tell fox they plan to introduce legislation that will block the transfer to new york city by cutting the funding from congress. and after the election of scott brown to senator kennedy's seats, democrats are telling them privately they will vote with them to essentially pull the plug on the trial. trace: are voters willing to open their pockets? empty their pockets to sport bigger -- support bigger government? dan sprunger's -- springer's live for us in portland, oregon. >> the answer just might be a resounding yes. both tax measures, one on individuals making over $125,000 a year, the other on corporations are passing by narrow margins. this is a vote that's being watched closely nationally. republicans are hoping to see a no vote showing that voters are against big government and conversely democrats are hoping for a yes vote to show that taxes can be raised in big budget deficits like we have here in oregon. trace: the president has said the mayo clinic is an example of how health care should run. well, now part of the mayo clinic has stopped accepting medicare. let's get the follow-up now from william live for us in los angeles. >> well, trace, about 3,000 medicare patients have been told to find another doctor, that the mayo clinic can no longer afford to take care of them. that's because the institution says system wide they're losing about $800 million a year paying and trying to cover medicare patients. now, that is bad news, as you said, for the president who has praised the mayo clinic as a national model for reform, but also for congress because they had hoped to cut it even further to pay for health care reform. trace: what to do now? that is brand new information at the bottom of the hour. patti anne: all right, trace. and in other news, teaming up to stop terror in the skies. homeland security secretary janet napolitano is set to discuss how the u.s. and the international community are teaming up to try to secure the global airline industry. napolitano met with her european counterparts to get feedback on how to improve airport screening. of course, there's been intense focus on this issue since christmas day and that attempt to blow up a u.s. jet liner. the suspect seen here now facing charges. steve centanni, what do we expect to hear from the secretary? >> she did, as you said, just return from spain and switzerland for an international summit, so she's expected to talk about the steps that need to be taken for better coordination on security issues. secretary napolitano pushing for better information sharing and better technology, specifically more of those full-body scanners that can locate bombs under a passenger's clothing. the europeans have fiercely resisted the use of those machines, they cite concerns over radiation exposure, but also privacy. napolitano pushing for different airports to push for different security elements to make the system is less predictable for a terrorist. patti anne: meanwhile, congress is investigating the failures that led to that christmas day attack. >> the senate homeland security committee hearing witnesses here on capitol hill today, there was a call for ewe mar farouk -- umar farouk abdulmutallab to be pushed under military rather than civilian custody. here's one witness, the former head of the 9/11 commission, thomas cain. >> we got distracted a bit, i think everybody from the president on down got distracted, and we weren't paying full attention to this area, and so these things were allowed to drop and cracks were allowed to form and things got a little off track. now i think we've had a wake-up call. >> and the other witness today former congressman lee hamilton said he thinks president obama does not yet have a firm grasp on the intelligence committee. patty ann? patti anne: live from washington, thanks. trace: new reports on the cuts to the rising federal deficit. just one year after the president signed a massive spending bill into law sources inside the administration say mr. obama will seek a three-year freeze on the overall level of discretionary spending in his 2011 budget. meantime, new congressional budget office numbers pegging this year's budget deficit at $1.3 trillion. bill mcgurn is the former chief speech writer to president bush, he's also a member of "the wall street journal"'s editorial board. good to see you. >> good to see you. trace: i want to show you the sound from the president on the campaign trail, john mccain was an advocate of spending freezes, the president wasn't. listen. >> the problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. there are some programs that are very important that are currently underfunded. i want to increase early childhood education, and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this medicare subsidy i think doesn't make sense. trace: so now he comes out in favor of a spending freeze, certainly not using the hatchet like he was saying back on the campaign trail. >> well, no, a freeze is really more of a hatchet. you're not picking out individual programs as much. i saw senator mccain endorse president obama's action hoping it led to vetoes. this is the kind of thing you do before a state of the union, but this is interesting because most of the objection has come from his supporters on the left, and they fear it's going to be real, and they're really opposed to it. on the right, meanwhile, people think it's a gimmick, that it's not going to be real. so you have two sorts of people skeptical for exactly the opposite reasons. trace: and it's a fair point. we're going to talk to judd gregg next hour, and he's say, come on, this is not real, this is nothing but gimmicks, and they've been saying they need deeper cuts for the better part of a year, right? >> right. look, if you're serious about doing something about spending, that's the message they took rightly from massachusetts, you don't propose a trillion dollar new entitlements. it's driving the rate of increase, and this looks like it has all the gloss of just a political move. so what he could have in a few months is the press reporting that this really didn't do anything to stop spending. at the same time, his supporters on the left will still be angry about the different programs that have been cut. trace: but they have to know, bill, the people on the left are not going to be happy ant this, and really this is not enough. if you say it's the hatchet, fine, but it isn't enough to make a massive difference when you look at the cbo numbers that are coming out about how vast the deficit is and how much the debt is do youing. >> exactly. my view is we need, like, 50 hatchets. [laughter] when has washington ever wielded a call scalpel? you know, not very well. if you're really serious about this, you have to look at the entitlements, look at health care again in that light. the question is whether is he taking the message from massachusetts and changing the substance? we just had this huge spending binge, or is he just trying to say, we have to sell it better? we pass it and then we explain it. i mean, it looks a little political. trace: so he talks about freezes during the state of the union address, is that enough to placate joe lunch bucket? is that a good start? is this a step in the right direction, and will the state of the union address kind of lead us toward more of a middle ground? >> rhetorically i think it's good from my point of view that we start talking about spending. i don't think that it's a reality, and this is why the left is so mad. rhetorically on just the political side, forget about the substance, he's made spending an issue. this is sort of like the repentant alcoholic getting up on sunday morning saying i gotta cut down on my booze. you do, but you question the sincerity. trace: michael steele said it was the guy who won the pie-eating contest. [laughter] >> same analogy. trace: well, the president, of course, will deliver his first state of the union address tomorrow, 9 p.m. eastern time. we'll carry the address live as well as the republican response. you'll find full coverage plus fair and balanced analysis right here on the fox news channel. there's the time, there's the place. be here. bill, thank you. >> thank you. patti anne: well, imagine your child's textbook not permitted to mention the religious backgrounds of benjamin franklin or george washington. if one group has its way, most references will be removed from school books. it's a battle the size of texas rage anything the lone star state, and it could affect your child's education. that's next. there are many ifs in your family's life. if your kids can go onward and upward no matter what. if you get sidelined from work. insuring your family's ifs can be hard to figure out. so metlife removed the guesswork, combining the insurances families need most, term life and disability, in one affordable package. find out just how affordable term life and disability insurance can be at metlife.com. and start building your personal safety net. visit metlife.com today. trace: fifteen minutes until the top of the hour, breaking in the top box, home prizes rising -- prices rising for a sixth straight month in november, the index up about .2% but it's still down more than 5% from the same time in 2008. that would be good news except that home sales fell 16% in december alone. in the middle box, all eyes on the hillsides of southern california. they got more rain on the way coming there. they just got hammered last week, more is heading, and they'd worried about mudslides in the areas where the fires burned away all the brush that holds up the mud. and in the bottom box, the two fort hood heros will have some special seats for the president's state of the union address tomorrow, they'll gees of the first lady, michelle obama. the two police officers credited with stopping last year's deadly shooting rampage, they opened fire on major-and-a-half call the hassan, seriously wounding him. he's accused of killing 13 in a massacre at the military base, so they'll be on hand for the speech. patti anne: in texas a battle over textbooks could affect what your child learns in school, whether certain historic or religious references should be removed from school books. shannon bream is live in washington, what are some of the concerns parents are voicing? >> well, this all comes up from a working group by texas state law every ten years this working group has to go through curriculum, make changes, recommendations, additions, deletions, all of that eventually winds up in the textbooks used in texas state schools. let's give you a look at some of the things they recommended this time around. they wanted to eliminate mentions of holidays, independence day, veterans day, even christmas. they wanted to take the liberty bell off a list of patriotic symbols and get rid of references to important americans like daniel boone, christopher columbus and his role in discovering america, even general george patton. so as you can imagine, there was quite a backlash, patti anne. patti anne: are those who oppose these changes having success? >> it goes to the state board of education which makes the ultimate decisions about what stays and what goes. there are public hearings. they have gotten very heated as people show up and say, listen, i don't like the direction this the working group is taking this curriculum. jonathan signs is fighting some of these controversial changes, he says there is a very liberal group behind this, and they've got a specific agenda. here's what he told me. >> the reality is they just don't like our history. they don't like the fact that our founding fathers had a particular religious faith, and that had an impact on our country can. but, you know, that's no way to teach social science, that's no way to teach american history, and you don't need a ph.d. to be able to figure that out. >> and what's so important here is that national textbook publishers often look to the state of texas to build their own curriculum, so this could impact classrooms all over the country. patti anne: so those who support these textbook changes have some big backers, i understand? >> they do. the primary supporter of these changes is the texas freedom network. this group says that far-right politics are trumping sound scholarship when it comes to what texas kids are learning and what they'll learn in the future. they claim that the state board of education has been taken over by what they call religious extremists. there is now a republican majority on the board now, and they seem to have a problem with that as well. kathy miller, who is president of the texas freedom network says, quote, when partisan politicians take a wrecking ball to the work of teachers and scholars, you get a document that looks more like a party platform than a social studies curriculum. they're continuing to fight to make sure those references don't make it in. this battle is far from over. patti anne: for sure. shannon bream leave in washington, thanks. trace: meantime, violent protests in venezuela, students taking to the streets to push for their right to free speech. what sparked the riots that have now turned deadly? and what does it matter? how does it affect hugo chavez's government? that's next. finish patti anne: the violence is growing between protesters and riot police. a 15-year-old boy was killed and nine police officers injured. the demonstrators are angry over president hugo chavez's decision to pull the plug on a tv station that's critical of his office, something the protesters say is part of a pattern. our guest is otto wright, the former assistant secretary of state. thank you for joining us, ambassador. >> my pleasure. patti anne: rc-tv is often critical of chavez, and late saturday he took the channel off of the air. how do you react to that? >> that's not the only one he's taken off the air. he finally knocked six other cable stations off the air by forcing the cable providers to not give them time. two years before he had seized, confiscated all the equipment from rc-tv and denied them a license, but he's also taken several hundred stations, radio and television stations, off the air. this is a pattern on the part of chavez to dominate the flow of information. he's trying to build a dictatorship, and in order to do that, you have to control the information that people hear. patti anne: yeah. chavez's official reason was that rc-tv and these others did not air a speech that chavez gave just last week. venezuela recategorized rc-tv and other stations as national broadcasters in order to force them to comply with this law that requires such stations to air his speeches. so you say this is just a the latest attempt to turn independent channels into his propaganda outlets? >> oh, absolutely. what he's been doing for ten years is using the unprecedented high income of venezuela, almost a trillion dollars of income in the ten years, eleven years that chavez has been in power, to turn venezuela into a socialist, in his words, socialist regime. but it's really a dictatorship where he has all the political power, the economic power, the military power, the legislative, he controls every institution the of a representative democracy. it no longer is a representative democracy. patti anne: so this law also prohibits inflammatory content such as incitement to riot, but some say that can be subjective. here in the u.s. when people are passionate about their point of view, a tactic of the other side is to accuse them of being inflammatory. who decides what content is not acceptable there? >> i would much rather be ruled by the u.s. standards than certainly by the standards of an hugo chavez or the person whose examples he's following, fidel castro. you should the castro and the chavez regimes, anything you say that is contrary to what the ruler wants you to believe is considered inflammatory. and they flow you in jail or they knock you off the air as the they have with these hundreds of television stations and radio stations, and this is why the people in the street are protesting. these are young people. most of them have grown up under chavez. they, theoretically, should be the ones who are grateful to him for having had this wonderful revolution, but the fact is they know he is destroying the country. there are short annals of food, lek -- electricity, water, of practically everything the people need to live. that's why they're demonstrating. patti anne: ambassador, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. trace: chilling testimony in the murder trial of drew peterson, a suspect in the drowning death of his third wife, kathleen savio. will technology from the grave -- testimony from the grave put him away for life? 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>> reporter: well, trace, this bipartisan group is just concerned thinking the u.s. government as a whole is not prepared to respond if terrorists were to release a deadly virus or bacteria. they say if you look at the h1n1 flu outbreak the government knew the outbreak was coming and still was very slows slow in terms of getting vaccine together. we talked to the executive director of the commission and he talked about one nightmare scenario. take a listen. >> there have been some report business the department of defense that it would take decades to clean the new york city subway after an anthrax attack. can you imagine new york city with no subway? so when with looked at all those from end to end from early detection to the final cleanup and we looked at oum all of those factors there was no question in our mind to assess capability as an f. >> and you can imagine the economic impact of that kind of an attack on a place like no, sir new york or any other major city in this country trace. >> i think it's important to point out again this with is a bipartisan assessment. what's the white house's response to it? >> well, the white house says tomorrow night in the state of the union address president obama is going to announce an initiative that he wants to launch that would make responding more effectively and more efficiently to public health threats including bioterrorism so we should listen for that in tomorrow night's speech here's prorobert gibbs on where the administration feels its efforts are at this point. >> the administration is proud of the efforts we've undertake on the put our nation on a far firmer footing. >> reporter: so the white house says it has done a lot over the first year. it says more is on the way and the president will talk about it tomorrow night in the state of the union address trace. trace: mike emanuel live at the pentagon. thank you. patti ann: terrorism and war on the minds of many today as world powers prepare to meet in london to discuss the situation in afghanistan and yemen. yemen was thrust into the spotlight last month with the failed attempt to blow up detroit bound passenger jet christmas day. the accused bomber is believed to have trained in yemen with an al-qaeda splinter group based there fox's greg palkot recently traveled to yemen and is now live with us in london. what is the objective of this conference tomorrow? >> reporter: patti this session in london came together pretty fast following the christmas day bombing the government here take advantage of the folk who were already going to be in town for the afghanistan meeting including secretary of state clinton. yemen certainly deserve og after summit it ins own right and we saw it up close and personal for a couple weeks earlier this month. security we found job number one there. counterterrorism forces in yemen tangling with a newly reconstituted al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. also dealing with other internal problems. there. a lot of instability also to be taken up at this session something we saw up close again. development problems. what little oil the country has is running out. what little water it has is running dry. also dem graphics exploding you have poverty joblessness this too patti ann feeding into the instability there. patti ann: greg what specifically are the gel president gat -- delegates hoping to achieve this evening? >> speak foreign office today basically the state department equivalent in the u.k.. being very careful they say they want to concentrate minds on yemen may be coming out of a contact group. concentrating mindss would be a very good thing because people haven't been paying attention to yemen for several years and now there are problems. more aid required for the country but of course how to spend that money is important. corruption. nepotism in the government a big concern and security military aid also important. we were there on the ground. we saw in the background what the united states is doing seren thely an overt troop surge into yemen would be a bad thing. more muscle maybe a little bit under the radar. but once again very important for a growing terror threat there patti ann. patti ann: fox's greg palkot live in london, thanks. trace: here at home president obama's attorney general eric holder facing growing chorus of critic over terrorists some are trying to block the prosecution of the five 9/11 suspects national correspondent catherine herridge is live in washington. what actions are key members of the congress taking exactly? >> reporter: well, trace, in this case it all comes down to the money. a senior republican on the house side congressman frank wolf and senior republican on the senate side senator lindsey graham tell fox they plan to introduce legislation that will block the transfer of 9/11 suspects to new york city by cutting off the money from capitol hill. >> the cost of moving a handful of people and trying them and keeping them in new york city until the appeals are out could cost up to a billion and perhaps even over a billion dollars. so it would be done through the appropriations process. >> there are a lot of democrats who oppose the idea of sending them to new york city. putting them in civilian court if i have another vote i think i'll get a majority of the united states senate. >> reporter: senator graham says that is about the larger issue of criminalizeing the car and case of the alleged christmas day bomber says shows the real problems the administration created by mirandizeing the suspect and fore fitting future intelligence about the real tomb threats to the united states. trace: what other pressures are lawmakers putting on the attorney general catherine? >> reporter: just a short time ago this letter was senl to the attorney general from six senators on capitol hill three republicans two democrats and one independent and in that letter they strongly urge the attorney general not to prosecute the 9/11 suspects in criminal court in manhattan. it's not that they want to block the prosecution forever it's that they feel that the military venue is better. we strongly urge you to reconsider your decision to try khalid sheikh mohammed and the other alleged conspirators in the september 11th attacks in the united states district court for the southern district of new york and a short time ago my colleague major garrett asked at the white house briefing if there was a response from robert gibbs and he essentially sent us over to the justice department. the justice department headquarters eric holder if you will has not respond to this letter thus far. but you can see two moves on capitol hill. one to urge the attorney general to change his mind on the venue and the second essentially to cut off the money so the prosecution cannot go forward. trace: catherine herridge live for us in washington. thank you. patti ann: president obama is expected to announce a freeze in nonsecurity federal spending during his state of the union address. but will it be enough to curb the ballooning deficit? we'll talk to senator judd gregg on that and also ask him what else he wants to hear from the president during tomorrow's speech. plus the healthcare overhaul face unser town future can president obama's plan be all vajed?. -- salvaged? ust got better. even tter nutrition -- high in vitamins d, e, and b12. a good source of vitamin a and b2. plus omega 3's. and, 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. but there's one important ingredient that hasn't changed: better taste. better taste. better taste. yum! [ female announcer ] eggland's best. better taste -- and now even better nutrition -- make the better egg. patti ann: taking a look at some of the remote feeds we're following in the top box. that is rayond -- raymond clark a yale lab technician accused of killing a grad student and stuffing her body behind a wall. clark in court today pleaded not guilty to murder charges 24-year-old annie le's body was found the day was she supposed to be married. in the middle box hoyer says dem it cats will troy to preserve middle-class tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. he said democrats are committed to making sure the middle-class won't get hit with tax hike and in our bottom box nasa isive going -- is giving up efforts to free mars rover. spirit has been trapped in soft sand since pral april and now nasa is done trying to shake it least instead just going to make the best of it tilting to the north so it can get enough sunlight to survive upcoming wirnl. can still do research without actually roving. trace: well, a new proposal on how to cut the growing federal deficit coming on the eve of president obama's state of the union address. we're also learning mr. obama will strongly focus on jobs and reboost the e american economy dur his speech tomorrow night. senator ranking member on the budget committee welcome to you sir. >> thank you trace. trace: i know you're a big deficit hawk we've had you on the program a number of times you've been preaching you've got cut the deficit for a long time now. when the president proposes freezing some of these spending initiative dos you believe that's a good first step or simply window dressing? >> well, it's a step in the right direction depend on what it really is. if it's a freeze in inflation it's not a freeze if it's a freeze the that doesn't include the t.a.r.p. money it's really not a freeze. if it's a freeze it doesn't eliminate stimulus spending after 2010 because obviously we weir outside the recession then and it's not a freeze. let's look and see what the actual language is at least i give the president credit for putting forward the concept and getting us on in the right areas on the right page to talk about it. trace: it seems like senator though the president was kind of walking that fine line because we're talking to bill from the wall street your -- journal the last hour and he was saying these cuts are not big enough to placate the republicans who wanted bigger cuts and they're too big and so he's going to alienate many on his base is he walking a fine line of dangerous territory -- territory? >> obviously not big enough 1.34 trillion deficit that's 1.34 trillion. that's a big number. 25 billion is a lot of money. 25 billion but compared to the deficit it's really not very significant. so you've got to do a lot more. specifically you to address entitle ms. that's where the money is. the government over the last year has grown from 20% of gdp up to 25% of gdp. quite simply we can't afford that. it's just simply too big and we've got to get down to the business of reduceing the rate of growth of this government. backing it up and basically making it more affordable and yes, you've got the go beyond discretionary spending to do that. less than 20% of the whole budget. trace: now senator we want to pivot a little bit. pivot's the biggest word in d.c. now. you've heard it 1,000 times every show i turn on they're talking about pivot. so we're going to pivot a little bit here. are you surprised how much the administration has pivoted away from healthcare towards jobs and towards things you quite frankly talked about with us ad nauseam several months ago towards jobs. towards the economy well, yes, i'm not surprised they don't have tin ear. the president didn't get elected by having a tin ear. and the message from massachusetts was a rather resounding banking of the drum and they -- banging of the drum and they obviously heard it. the american people are interested in a government that passes on to our children a better nation than what we received from our parents and they're extraordinarily worried because of the growth of this government that's not going to be the case that we're going to pass on to our children a government so burdened with debt that our kids will not be able to have as prosperous existence and lifestyle as we've had and i think the administration heard at least part of that message from massachusetts and it's all across the country. not just massachusetts. certainly new hampshire. trace: i want to put on the screen what denny hoyer said do we have the sound bite? we have the sound bite. yeah, we have this. i want you to hear this. is that right sound bite. listen. oh, we don't have it. >> there are no ease -- easy choice but objective of accessible affordable quality healthcare remains. trace: and he said look, there are four choices no bill at all. scaled back bill. the house passing the senate bill or making some changes to accommodate everybody. make sure everybody's happy. are any of those choices good for you? >> number two. basically we should do health reform but do it in a step-by-step basis addressing those issues which we can fix and which do not massively expand the government and create a lot of pressure on companies to drop their insurance plans so people are forced on to some sort of quasi government plan and does not expend a new entitlement and does not cut medicare for purposes of expanding a new go. there's a lot of things we can do in this area. i have a bill that does a lot of those things you can reach some bipartisan consensus here if they want to step back and do it that way. we've been for that as a member of the minority the republican party for a while. >> you're going to be there tomorrow night i'm sure senator and you're listening there. i want to know what you want to hear from the president as he steps to the podium. >> well, i'd rather not hear focus group comments. i understand everybody does focus groups around here and regurgitates what they say. i'd like to hear them call for some boldness in the area of getting this government under control which will be of significant change of course if he does. i'd like to hear him say you know, there really should be a bipartisan effort here that should be real on the issues are important to americans. and we haven't seen that so far and i'd like him to point out to the american people again that we are at risk as a nation from a very serious group of people who want to do us harm which is the fundamentalist islamic movement and we have to redouble our efforts to make sure they can't do us harm. are we going to hear that? wouldn't surprise me if we did hear a lot of that but then you have to follow it up with action. that's the bottom line here. we have not seen a lot of action out of this administration. heard a lot of speeches but when it comes to actually doing something that follows up on some of these speeches that i might adrets -- agree with, been less than aggressive. >> tras you. trace: you want the physical pivot. when i was quarterback in college the pivot was you just turned around and hand off. now different meaning you want the physical pivot to follow the words up with action. senator good of you. >> we want to see some heavy lifting from the administration to get this government under control and spending under control. >> good to see you. thank you. trace: fox news will be there for president obama's state of the union address bret baier will lead our coverage tomorrow night 59 -- 9:00 p.m. eastern time on the fox news channel. we will also have the republican response to that right here fox news channel. patti ann: teen pregnancy rates recently went up for the first time in 10 years and that up tick is fueling a debate over how to get it under control. the causes and possible solutions when our fox medical aid team weighs in next. more wings ! no way he'll be in first thing tomorrow. only alka-seltzer relieves your upset stomach, heartburn, indigestion and headache... so you're good to go in the morning. you're late. alka-seltzer brings you back. trace: 21 minutes past the hour. break in the boxes in the top box the feds announceing a recall of 2 million syringes. the fda saying some needles may push bits of silicone into patient's bodies. voluntary recall by miami based medical coral corporation. most of the affected needles are used to access the injection ports. they're already in your skin. the implanted devices in the skin. the patients who require injections already have. the middle box -- look at me like that's not right he'll clarify. that's not what your talking about middle box gangbuster business for glass making giant corning profits soaring nearly tripling in 4th quarter sales urges -- surge up 41% thanks to white hot market for flat screen tv glass. also increased demand for glass used in laptop computers and other electronic devilss. in the bottom box a suicide car bomber striking near a military base in afghanistan's capital of kabul. reports say at least six people were wounded the taliban claiming responsibility for the attack. they say the target was an international military convoy. patti ann: teen pregnancy rates recently jumped for first time in 10 years raising concerns that more must be done to reduce motherhood among young girls the latest reports showing an up tick of 2% between 2005 and six. the rise is specific to girls between ages 15 and 19. dr. manny alvarez is the managing editor of fox news health.com and of course a member of our fox medical a team. thanks for joining us doc. obvious let's disturbing when kids are having kids but also disturbing because you say these pregnancies are high risk. >> ablite. -- absolute i these are high risk pregnancies when talking about 700,000 children born to teenage mothers almost 3 pblg increased -- increase. really something that wasn't happening. back in the 70s and 80s this was a huge problem. many hospitals had teenage pregnancy clinics of course. you have issue of malnutrition anong among teenagers you have issues a lot of teenagers don't go soo their doctor early when they're pregnant because they are afraid of the whole social consequences of being pregnant and second complication of diabetes and preterm delivery. when you put all of this together teen pregnancy is a real medicalish show. disappointing that has gone up. now the latest numbers fro from 2006, 3% increases i hope it is an isolated number i hope it goes down again but we have to monitor this very carefully. patti ann: you're a pediatrician why do you suppose this is happening what are you seeing in your practice? >> we don't know exactly why. i think it is multifactorial. i looked at some data published talked about issues of economics that have changed drastically in the last 2-3 years. i personally think there's a big social media aspect to it. teenagers today are using a lot of -- internet or different social outlets now that they didn't have before perhaps. the priority of aids education is not there. people have tended to forget about the aids epidemic in this country which is still real. if you add all of those things together perhaps the is why pregnancy rates are going up. patti ann: not just aids. stds in general. obviously if they're getting pregnant not using con comes not just worried about pregnancy but not worried about disease. >> if you look at so. studies we have presented not only here in the air but also on fox news health.com you know, the rate of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers is also on the rise. so this goes hand-in-hand. patti ann: great. the societal impact these teen moms and their kids, what's the impact going forward to society? >> well, look this is a big social impact because you're talking about -- if you're talking from the high risk perspective for children that are born let's say prematurely you know for sure that a lot those children may have developmental delays, learning disabilities so this is compounding the whole effect on our society. and you know, this is a perfect opportunity looking at the story for parents to have a very serious conversation with their teenagers about sex education. patti ann: yeah, in addition to the fate of these babies as they grow up with these teen moms which you just mentioned the impact of that on society there's the impact of these teen moms themselveses are dropping out of school. how are their lives changing. what does that do to the whole society? >> big issue. if you look at the rate of children that were dropping out of high school and not going to college back in the late 70s and early 80s when i was dealing with all of these teen pregnancy clinics it was astronomical. things got better. if we reversed the trend you're going to see the same thing happening all over again. >> let's hope we do reverse that trend. dr. manny alvarez thanks fox foxnews.com for more information. >> traus told him he had the right to remain silent ant a plan that could have left hundreds of people dead on christmas day. could sh man abdulmutallab be granted the constitutional rights enjoyed by you and me? some influential members of congress say no. and those law makers are aiming their anger at the white house. up next we'll talk to the man who helped put shoe-bomber richard reed behind bars. you don't want to miss what he has to say about the matter plus more aftershocks rattling haiti. two weeks to the day after the initial devastating quake we are live. back to port-au-prince with an update. 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. a different view on security. and that's almost everyone. the people who want the comfort of a company close by. the people who want the strength of a company like broadview security -- a company that protects nationwide. the people who believe security means feeling secure enough to open the door and let life come in. say hello to the people who are taking a different view on security for your home and business. a broader view. broadview security. ♪ bottom of the hour breaking news crossing the wires and the parents of 20-year-old morgan harrington. the virginia tech student who went missing in october apparently after a metallica concert have now been called out to a rural ranch where some skeletal remains have been found. tim gunn's following this. what do you know? >> kind of something we've been following all day. they discovered a body on a farm in virginia about 8:30 this morning we've been working the phones and working with local affiliate. now receiveing a report that morgan dana harrington's parents we had them on before. they were giving a lot of heartfelt press conferences when the sorry broke they've been called to the site. police will not say anything about this body they will not tell us why the parents have been called but we know they have been called there. they've scheduled a 5:00 news conference this is a story we covered a lot i've pulled up the missing persons poster that i had saved from when the story first broke. i haven't looked at it for a long time still there university of virginia police department web site. working with the police. we're going to try to get you confirmation on what is going on in this virginia rural virginia farm. you remember this girl went missing after that metallica concert in roanoke county. so don't want to speculate too much on what we don't know here yet but we're working on the phones here and we do expect to have a 5:00 news conference today. >> tim, thanks very much they were just about to search that farm area in vddhh -- in virginia. that was one of the next areas to search. no arrests yet. all right. tim gunn. thanks very much. patti ann? patti ann: in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, now over 14% a federally funded program retraining out of work and low-income residents is full to the brim and it's doing a lot of good. peter is live in benton harbormy hi. -- michigan. hey peter. >> hey patti michigan unemployment rate is 14.6%. while that's an improvement over past months it's still the highest in the country and it has been for much of the last four years. but now the economy here in michigan is changing and the state is trying to help residents keep up so that's where the no worker left behind program comes in. watch this. after losing her job at a printing company, 51-year-old suzann is going back to school for a degree in hospitality management. >> there's two thought -- schools of thought when you lose your job. you can either sit and cry about it or you can get up and do something about it and i chose to do something about it. >> suzanne's tuition is paid for by michigan's no worker left behind program. the federally and state funded initiatives helped more than 100,000 people since 2007 by sending them back to school to learn new skills in high demand industries. >> here are the criteria. you have to either be unemployed or about to become unemployed like you have a pink slip or if you're working only in that case you family -- your family income has to be $40,000 a year or less. >> those who qualify receive up to 10,000 for tuition and other academic expenses. credits the program for jumpstarting her new career as a medical assistant at this health clinic in southwestern michigan. >> people are always -- doctors pretty stable field. not something that can be out coursed -- outsourced it going to be needed forever. >> reporter: today i'm at one of lake michigan college's welding classes and patty 72% of people who grand jury qat -- graduated from perhaps like this one or the once you saw have new jobs so the no work left behind program inmy -- in michigan is help ag lot of people back to you. patti ann: all right peter live in benton harbor michigan. thanks. trace: anger mounting in washington over the obama administration handling of detroit bombing suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticizing the decision to give abdulmutallab the same constitutional rights every american citizen enjoys. reports say he once, once he learned he had the right to remain silent abdulmutallab stopped talking. as a result we may have lost out valuable intelligence. with us now is mike sullivan a former u.s. attorney for the district of massachusetts. he prosecuted shoe-bomber richard reid and mike, it's great to see you. i think that people are most upset by the fact this guy was questioned for 50 minutes and then mirandized said he had the right to remain silent and that was all he got out of him. he spoke for 15 minutes and the actionable intelligence we could have got beyond that is now lost we believe. >> well, just a glimpse of intelligence i'm sure in the 15 minutes and let's face it. experience shows that when a defendant is told he has a right to remain silent they typically do these aren't typical defendants. these are obviously terrorists who pledged their allegiance to al-qaeda and are committed to destroying our country and what we stand for. trace: i was listening to robert gibbs talk chris wallace this weekend and gibbs sad they got what they needed 15 minutes was enough they got what they need. you know you helped prosecute the shoe-bomber richard reid. how much more could we have gleaned from abdulmutallab had we sent him to the military to those who gather high-level intelligence? >> well, from an intelligence perspective, i'm confident we would have learned a lot more, if not immediately certainly over a period of time that would have shown the organize -- the organization that he was part of and also was able to determine kpkly -- exactly what plots were pending. 50 minutes is not enough time to interrogate or learn the full scope of a sophisticated attack he was participating in. so i'm confident we lost substantial intelligence as a result of him exercising what somebody has suggested are now his constitutional rights. trace: take me deeper if 50 minutes isn't enough why isn't it enough if they question him for 50 minutes and bring him somewhere else and question him for 50 hours give me an idea. does his disposition change? do his answers change? is he under more duress? what happens? >> well, not up usual to get some level of cooperation at least initially you saw that with richard reid and we understand that happened here as well during the first 50 minutes of his interview. clearly over a long period of time trained interrogators. trained intelligence officers are able to capture a wealth of information that's going to enhance our national security and protect america's interests both here and abroad. men and women in the military would learn a great deal from the intelligence that could be gathered by holding as unlawful enemy combatant as opposed to putting him in the criminal justice system and allowing him to exercise what are our constitutional rights. trace: it's a good point. now is it done? he's in the civilian system right now can we call a do over and take him from the civilian system into the military system? >> i don't think there's any prohibition. i think the president can exercise his authority the united states supreme court, the president has the authority to hold people as enemy combatants during the duration of combat against our country. he would be characterized as unlawful enemy combatant i think the president still has the authority to do so. it doesn't appear to be any value in bring terrorists into our criminal justice system. the first choice should be is unlawful enemy combatants and then determine whetherer0 not mr. that's any value in keeping them detained by the military as posed to health by civil authorities. >> former u.s. authority for the district of massachusetts the man who prosecuted the shoe-bomber richard reid. mike sullivan, thank you sir. >> he is accused in the murder of wife wife number three and due to go on trial. the drew peterson hearing taking a new twist. explosive testimony on what his fourth wife said right before she disappeared. coming up next. imagine being at thirty thousand feet with a plane full of kids. and you have a heart attack. that's what happened to me. i'm on an aspirin regimen now. my doctor told me it's the easiest preventative thing you can do. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. see your doctor. simple. patti ann: it is day five in the pretrial hearing concerning the murder of drew peterson's third wife. the ex-illinois police officer is accused of killing kathleen in 2004. this hearing is to determine whether hearsay evidence may be allowed during the trial. much of the hearsay has nothing to do with savio but rath we are the disappearance of peterson's fourth wife stacy. today the minister who counseled drew and his 4th wife is takeing the stand and let's bring in criminal defense attorney thomas glasgow right now to talk about all of this. thanks for joining us. so the minister says stacy told him that her killed his third wife kathleen but he is a minister and drew's lawyers say his testimony can't be allowed because of that religious aspect. does he have a case there? >> well, the judge did exclude marriage counseling between drew and stacy. he also excluded any conversations between drew and the minister. but allowed conversations between stacy and himself at a coffee shop. they ruled the exception to that the privilege did not apply to that particular situation. patti ann: so if this conversation where he said his husband killed kathleen happened at the coffee shop you believe that will probably be admitted at the trial? >> the judge after careful determination of the case law determined that was not a protected or privileged conversation and therefore he allowed that particular portion in. patti ann: also at this hearing a neighbor dramatically testified that stacy was convinced that drew wanted her dead. let's pull up that quote right now from what she said. she said to her neighbor, drew won't go. he won't leave. if i disappear sharon, it's not an accident. he killed me. and again, that's what we saw in port by sharon yesterday. so do you believe that that type of hearsay will be eventually admitted or excluded? >> well, the particular hearsay exception that we're dealing with here has to do with the fact that the person who ended up arranging or absenting the person who made the statement from testifying in court. i think under the law the way it is written, that statement is going to come in. the judge has already ruled this particular statute is constitutional that it's admissible if they meet the standards under the statutes. the question really is is the judge going to find that drew peterson took the steps to make the witness unavailable and is the statement reasonable and reliable for the exception under hearsay. patti ann: even if it is permitted the defense will presumably argue that the relationship with his fourth wife is not relevant to what happened with his third wife. you're saying the way around it is by saying he tried to make her unavailable as a witness but he wasn't charged in catt leave -- kathleen savio's murder until after his fourth wife disappeared. doesn't that idea of her being a witness try to be eliminated isn't that sort of tricky? >> citric i can and it becomes a circular argument you have kathleen savio's death for which he's charged and you're utilizing statements from a disappearance stacy to help prove up the case against kathleen savio that drew peterson actually killed her. there is not a great deal of physical evidence in this case. and the statements that are being used from stacy peterson are being used to then bolster that argument that kathleen savio was killed by drew peterson and repeatedly we see statements from stacy and from others that go back to drew peterson. now, the statements that are being made directly towards stacy peterson that she was going killed that she was going to end up being eliminated somehow by drew peterson may be more pred jishl than probative therefore the judge may not allow that in. putting in 60 odd witnesses during course of hearing today we heard from the minister and yesterday heard from the minister go and going to hear from them a lot more. this hearing is not going to be over, overnight. we'll hear some of which may be admitted and some may not be admitted just to make sure the reasonable and reliability of the statements is covered by the statute and its findings. >> this pretrial hearing could be as long as trial. thomas defense attorney thank you for joining us. trace: young egyptian girl reaching out to president obama she fears retribution on herself and her father because of their religious beliefs but what can the president do? her appeal to the white house is next. lawmakers asking very tough questions of the nations's top economic officials. they want to know why billions in bonuses were approved for aig executives and why they went to great lengths to keep them a secret. that is next. patti ann: a former muslim in egypt converts to kras yanty. now he and his daughter are on the run fearing for their safety and the teenage girl is now reaching out to president obama for help. dana lewis is streaming live from cairo, egypt with more on this. hi dana. >> reporter: hi patti ann. there's a lot of christians here. there are as many as 14 million christians here about 10% of the population and this man the his -- and his 15-year-old daughter converted from being muslim to christian is now on the run and they say they fear for their lives. egyptian maher el-gohary and his 15-year-old daughter dina never pray twice at a the same cher. -- church constantly under threat and always on the run. born muzz lm they became ris chances after both said they had religious visions. el-gohary says he is being hunted. >> somebody try to kill us. >> they will try to kill you? >> yes. >> reporter: several religious fat whats were issue for spilling his blood after he asked an egyptian court to legally recognize his conversion. the court ruled even in a country that claims to recognize religious free doms legal conversion to christianity would threaten public order. anywhere from 8-14 million christians in egypt. earlier this month three muzz lump men sprayed gunfire at a church in upper egypt killing 6 christians and wounding up to a dozen more. christians rioted the next day. dina has written a letter to president obama asking for help. you said the muslim minority in america are treated very well so why are we not treated here likewise. we are in prison in our own home. >> reporter: patti ann we can tell you the u.s. commission on international religious freedom has been here in cairo last couple days they met with dina and her father asked for refugee status now in the united states and the commission will examine their request but that is along road. back to you. patti ann: dana lewis live in cairo, thanks. trace? trace: the government bailout of insurance giant aig under the microscope now on capitol hill law makes want to know why bank of new york approved to give them billions of taxpayer dollars and why the administration went to great lengths to keep the names of the banks who got all of that money top secret. eric bolling is an anchor for the fox business network and he joins us now. you're looking at some of these court documents you've just gotten a hold of. what are you finding this --? >> this is testimony for tomorrow. said we can go run with it. here's the cfo of aig on 8-11 pages he said the new york fed took over for me. my hands were tied after that it's all the new york fed. you know hu is head tim geithner. page 10 he goes through how they bought back these strums. rel quick 62 billion of face value of this stuff these toxic derivatives. page 10 they paid $29 billion for these things so that was good. this was the market value of a $62 billion face instrument. right. so they paid under market values. everyone's saying 100 cents on a dollar that's a problem. it wasn't. there was about 40 cents on dollar, 45 cents the problem is right here 33 billion dollars of additional payments to these creditors to goldman sachs to jpmorgan to morgan stanley these other big banks and institutions. ubs in switzerland 33 billion dollars. trace: we know where the money went. >> we know where the money is going but for the life of me i can't figure out why we made this payment. i get this one we paid under market value frankly the stuff they were holding was worth less than face. great. this one. very, very questionable to me trace gallagher. trace: when congress looks at this and fig user out these numbers why was this $33 paid. we want the know why this payment was made and what happened. >> you do the math what's that 62 billion. right back to face value. ended up gaining 100 cents on the dollar but did it backdoor. they paid market price. everyone said market price, i get ya. but they made a $33 billion payment and for the life of me i'm going through the documents i can't find the reason for it. trace: i've got to go but if you read these documents is somebody going to take a fall for this. >> tim geithner doesn't make one more year. one year from now we'll stand here and there will be a new head there head of the treasury. >> eric bolling with the fox business network "happy hour" the show he's on good to see you 5:00 east coast time. thank you eric. patti ann? patti ann: a police officer is under arrest and there are connections to the disappearance of a multimillionaire lot lottery winner now investigators are digging for evidence near a home. the sheriff will talk with us live coming up on "studio b". @=h we are building a website by ourselves. announcer: there's an easier way. create your own business site with intuit websites. just choose a style, then customize, publish and get found. sweet. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. >> thanks for watching. i'm patti ann zon "studio b" starts now. >> the intelligence failures in the case of the under pants bomber back in the spotlight today. why at least two top experts believe attacks like this one are the new method for terrorists. one man is under arrest after a major weapons bust in his motel room. the feds down a grenade launcher, a high-powered rifle and that is just the beginning. not to mention a map of a military installation. the suspect and a possible motive in a live report. the mystery deepens in the days of a missing lotto winner. why a police officer now faces charges. >> first, president obama taking heat from both sides of the aisle today after the white house announced a spending freeze. the administration reports like american families when times get tough the government has to make difficult financial decisions. the president will lay outhe

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