allergan wants to lower those bmi cutoffs to 35 and 30. looks like they re going to be successful. a panel recently voted to lower the bmi cutoffs. a final decision from the fda is pending. if it follows the panel s advice, 27 million more people could qualify for the surgery. that s a huge number. but here s what has some people crying foul. the study that the panel based its decision on, guess who they were sponsored by? the study was conducted by allergan, the same company that stands to benefit from the ruling. what s more, the chairman of the company actually owns stock in allergan, the fda told us she was given a waiver to sit on the panel and didn t actually cast a vote. but four panelists who did vote reportedly have financial ties to allergan. a fda spokesperson was unable to immediately confirm those reported ties and said she d get back to us, and we re still waiting to hear from her. i want to make this very clear. this story is complex because for some severely obese patie
or want to know who contributes to him or want to know who contributes to him. guilty on that count, and no decision and hung jury on 23 other counts, including charges, serious charges, racketeering, wire fraud, attempted extortion, bribery, attempted extortion and conspiracy and all of the other charges that the jurors could not reach a decision on. let s bring in our political analysts roland martin and mary matalin. and roland, how surprised were you by this since you live in chicago and you have been watching this trial very closely? well, it has been startling because this trial has gone on for only about 30 i days. typically, if you look at the trial of former governor george ryan who was convicted of taking money from one of his campaign donors and that trial went on for months, so this thing was on speed dial, if you will. then all of the sudden, when we saw the jury, you know, day
has been at the center of the republican attacks. seems like he has a big political target on his back. eric holder will have his first appearance since he became attorney general. these are the key issues right now. the handling of the shahzad case, obviously the times square bombing case. other questions about dealing with terror suspects like sheikh mohammed, who she haven t made a decision on, and won t make a decision until after midterm elections. we had george pataki on earlier this week just going after the obama administration, and eric older, rudy giuliani continues to do it, other republicans continue to do it. again, eric holder seems to represent what republicans like least about the obama administration s terror approach. and it s interesting. i mean, to hear leader boehner say there s no comprehensive terror strategy is simply not objectively true. number one, there s more continuity between the bush and
the dominant issues today, some people he argues will have to be detained indefinitely. because they were made a threat to the remain a threat to the u.s. but there is not sufficient evidence to prosecute them and this is something the administration has not made a decision on, and, it has created great heartburn to say the least, for some of the supporters on the left including the aclu. martha: no doubt we ll hear the question, what would you do if you got your hands on alaki and we ll look forward to hearing that, catherine herridge, as always, thank you very much. reporter: you re welcome. bill: and we are also waiting. in the meantime. bill: we are awaiting sarah palin and the tea party express, set to speak later this hour, tea party activists rallying against growing government and the in the city that in period the movement s name, boston, massachusetts and that i believe is a live look, from the helicopters above. a live look, expecting 10,000, we ll see how close they g