may sustain that kind of damage soon. we ll know within a week or two. jon: but as we saw in that poll, that carl cameron brought from us iowa, newt gingrich is on top right now, at least in the state of iowa. we ll see what happens. michael barone, good to have you with us to watch all of these developments. thanks. jon: thanks michael. jenna: in the meantime new information on rising tensions between the united states and russia. the kremlin is threatening to target u.s. missile defense sites in europe, and there s a lot of background to this story. chief white house correspondent ed hen very live on north lawn. explain where this comes from. reporter: good to see you jenna. this is a story that s gone on for some time. we re talking about the fact that the u.s. wants to build a missile defense shield in europe and going back to the bush administration, u.s. officials have repeatedly told russia, look, this is a defensive move to protect our european allies against an attack from
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rick, thank you very much. jon: i think that s the reason enclosed malls jenna: right, that s a good point. jon: now to a fox news alert, and the number of americans seeking unemployment benefits grew slightly last week. the labor department reports 393,000 americans now applied for benefits, that ends two months of what had been steady declines. the future of unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts for millions of americans is in jeopardy if congress fails to act soon. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live in the washington with a look at that. first on the payroll tax, mike, what s the status? what should we expect? reporter: jon, good morning. the senate may vote as early as next week on extending the tax cut, president obama s pushing congress to do it arguing if they don t, middle class families are going to get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time. take a listen. for the average family, your taxes will go up a thousand dollars if congress does
to bring problems around the gulf, stretching towards the great lakes area. that s going to have delays if you re traveling on that date. sunday this storm pulls off to the east, and we ll see delays maybe towards the northeast and sorts of the southeast as well. get ready, as cool air moves in, maybe seeing a snow flurries. jenna: by that time it s christmastime, though. exactly, you re ready for the snow. jenna: jon: the federal reserve is keeping a close eye on the economy and congress, as it considers additional steps to try to promote economic growth in this country. fox business network correspondent peter barnes reports for us live from washington. peter. reporter: hey jon. a lot of this could be triggered by gridlock, believe it or not. some economists now saying the federal reserve may have to ride to the rescue of the fragile economy once again because of the failure of the supercommittee. some economists now worry that congress and the white
graveyard of ancient whales. they ve uncovered 80 skeletons, including 25 that are complete, each of them thought to be millions of years old. how did they wind up in the middle of the desert? and what do scientists hope they can learn. joining us now the curator at the houston museum of natural science, dr. robert bocker. this is half a mile from the nearest ocean. how did these whales end up in the desert? this happens all the time to find ocean-going critters, whales, or giant sea lizards not in the ocean set ta meant, but far away because the coastline is not fixed, it s shifted a lot over the last 5, 6, 7 billion years. jon: what kind of whales are they, do we know? the initial reports are these are very exciting, it s what i call the near past. whale history goes back 50 million years, and the smithsonian has been digging