jon: charles krauthamer, a very smart guy. jenna: absolutely. jon: time for the remarkable story for world two veteran, once olympian thought to be killed in action only to survive the japanese prison cams. his tale of survival is subject after best-seller. james rosen joins us from the washington bureau. it is an amazing story. reporter: it sure is, jon. it is to marvel at man s cruelty to fellow man and capacity of the human spirit to overcome just about anything. american athletes arrived in berlin for the 1936 olympics presided over by adolf hitler. that year s sensation was track star jesse owens who shattered records and nazi claims of racial supremacy. also competing that summer was louie zapborini of torrence, california who finished the 5,000 meter
president obama may be doing what some are calling symbolic reading? one of the books on his vacation reading list is a biography of ronald reagan. mr. obama is flipping through the pages just as the chapters on some of his white house staff may be coming to an end. some are speculating. will the president start off a new year with a new role model and a new white house steam. let s talk to chris stirewalt. fox news poll ticks editor. chris, what can you tell us about the book. the book is the third in luke cannon s trilogy of ronald reagan biographies. he covered ronald reagan for 40 years from california to washington, wrote these books and it is not a very flattering portrait of president reagan. it is kindly, cannon certainly has after fake shun for reagan but basically portrays him as a amiable dunce, a guy controlled by the people around him and sort of manipulated. a guy who was stage managed through the presidency.
this trip. jenna: you re looking good. you re are up rubbing it in a little bit with our suit jackets and cold weather coats. looks like beautiful weather, if you re following the president far from home you deserve it? if i didn t want to scare the audience i would show my legs which are exposed on this trip but it s earlier here so we ll take it easy. jon: merry christmas. jenna: we ll look forward to that next time, won t we, jon. jon: you can. i won t. mike emanuel have a great working vacation with the president in hawaii. thanks, mike. reporter: thanks very much. jenna: on the clock but in hawaii, so hopefully, hopefully that evens out a little bit. if you breathed a sigh of relief when congress renewed the bush era income tax cuts, your property taxes may be on the rise in fact, molly henneberg is live in washington with more. a little bid colder there than in hawaii. reporter: i know. lucky mike emanuel. we re in business suits here as well. i hope they re having a good t
dollars in business with iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism. doug is live in washington with this story. reporter: good morning to you, jenna. good to see you. the companies that were granted waivers by treasury to import or export goods from terrorist states almost reads like a who s who of fortune 500 companies. there are scores of them. beginning alphabetically now, take a look at a few. alcoa, archer daniels, bell helicopter, and that is only through the letter b. for the most part these were fairly benign transactions involving the sale of humanitarian aid to places like iran, north korea and cuba. jolly time popcorn sold to iran along with wrigley s chewing gum, louisiana hot sauce and body building supplements. who helped to range them? it raises troubling questions. one company was granted a waiver
leaders say the federal government hasn t done a good job managing social security for example, and they don t want uncle sam getting more involved with state and local pension plans. representative nunez and others want to begin regulating state and local government pensions. you know, my response is good grief. we don t need help like that. the answer to these problems is to in 50 state capitols and cities that sponsor these pension plans. reporter: congressman nunez counters that the federal government needs to get involved now because so many localities are teetering on bankruptcy and eventually may come to washington for a bailout. jenna? jenna: a big story for the year ahead, as well, molly. thank you very much. merry christmas. reporter: merry christmas to you, and to jon. jon: thanks, molly. we ve been telling you about a controversy in king, north carolina, over flying a christian flag at a public war memorial. the town took some heat for that. so it decided to hold a