newsroom, breaking news is coming in from across the country and around the world right now. our domestic desk, covers the u.s., our foreign desk, watching events around the globe, and our media desk, bringing in all the video and live pictures for you, 24 hours a day. jenna: as we speak the president is holding back-to-back meetings with his economic team and then secretary of state hillary clinton. all this as the president is preparing to roll out a new business investment tax break. this is just the latest effort to jump start the economy and create new jobs. the republicans are saying it's just a little too late. wendell goler, live at the white house, with more on this. wendell, what can you tell us about the latest economic proposal? >> jenna, it's a tax break that would let businesses write off the entire cost of new capital investments, that's land, pw-g and machineries, through the end of next year. now, the idea is to get businesses to make some of these big ticket purchases that may have -- they may have been putting off and that may mean more business for manufacturers, for construction workers, and give a boost to real estate values as well. it's one of several proposals the president is laying out this week in a couple of campaign-style appearances. yesterday it was milwaukee, tomorrow, it's ohio. the proposals amount to a scaled down version of the second stimulus package, though only republicans are calling it that. yesterday, it was a $50 billion plan to rebuild roads, railways, and airports. tomorrow, $100 billion extension of the research and development tax credit. all of this aimed at stimulating job growth after a summer of recovery. what the white house hoped would be a summer of recovery that was rather disappointing. jenna: busy week for the president, as you were mentioning. what's the republicans' reaction to the latest proposal and as you mentioned, to this idea of, quote unquote, more stimulus? >> arizona republican senator john mccain says the white house and congressional democrats are, quote, flailing around. house minority leader john boehner says they're missing the big picture. boehner told the "wall street journal" that this latest proposal is not necessarily bad, but he told us, quote, none of his plans address the two big problems hurting our economy, excessive government spending and the uncertainty that the massive tax hike is creating for small business. bain ser talking about the decision to let the bush administration tax cuts expire for families making more than $250,000 a year, the white house says that will only affect about 2 percent of the american people, but republicans say it will hurt small businesses. jenna. jenna: wendell goler on the always developing story on the economy. wendell, thank you very much bill: -- jenna: -- jon: a fast moving wildfire destroyed dozens of homes, triggering evacuations near boulder, colorado. the fire started yesterday, powerful winds quickly spread across 5 1/2 square miles. a news conference happening now. we are monitoring it closely. meanwhile, alicia acun is live outside boulder. what are we expect to go hear alicia? >> reporter: jon, we're expecting to get a clearer picture of exactly what sort of damage we're talking about with regard to the past 24 hours and this quick spreading wildfire. at last report it was about 5 1/2 square miles near the city of boulder. so far, we have been told that the city of boulder itself and the city limits are not being affected by the flames and the damage. however, the air quality here is definitely being impacted. so we're also expected to hear the number of homes that have been destroyed, we've heard about two dozen, however, they haven't been able to give us a concrete number. that's expected to be given at the news conference. and exactly how they plan to fight the fire for the rest of the day, when you consider the changing wind conditions that are expected later on this afternoon. jon: i know this thing was a beast to fight yesterday. how are they planning to attack it today? >> today, they're planning to utilize all of their air support that they weren't allowed to use yesterday, because the winds were blowing at 4-5 miles per hour yesterday. that grounded a lot of those flurry air bombers they were trying to use, they were hoping to get those up this morning, however, a red flag warning is anticipated for noon mountain time today and to run until 8:00 p.m. tonight. that means that they're talking about 35-mile per hour winds and wind gusts. that's going to make things much worse, because the fire yesterday and overnight was moving in two different directions at once. that makes it almost impossible to battle at times. hopefully, it won't be as bad today, however, we're talking about temperatures today of 10 miles hotter -- rather, 10 degrees hotter than it was yesterday as well. not a great situation here. very dry, humid, no rain expected today, and we've had a pine needle infestation on a lot of the trees here, which means there's a lot of timber out there that's waiting to burn up rather quickly. jon: you don't want a red flag warning when you've already got a fire to fight, that's for sure. alicia, thanks. >> thanks. jon: as me mentioned, authorities in boulder are hold thank news conference on the wildfire. as you can see, we're monitoring it. we'll talk with the colder from the boulder sheriff's office and get the very latest. jenna: jon, now to texas, tropical storm hermine, pounding the southern part of that state. we have live pictures out of houston. the storm is dumping heavy rain as it pushing north, raising fears of flooding, also knocking out power to as many as 30,000 homes. sounds like a tough one. meet oregon janice dean is in the fox extreme weather center with more on this. >> reporter: we're worried about tornadoes as well, we have a tornado warning west of the houston area. want to show you the tropical satellite, a new advisory in and it is still a tropical storm, 40 miles per hour, northwest at 17 miles per hour, but the big threat will be heavy rain and risk of weak tornadoes. you can see that moisture streaming northward, austin, dallas, san antonio, locally, you could receive 4-8 inches, some areas, a foot of rain. tornado watch in effect until 1:00 p.m. local time. let's zoom into where that tornado warning is issues for waller county and northeastern washington county. doppler radar indicate ago severe thunderstorm capable of produce ago tornado near hempsted, moving at 35 miles per hour. again, that tornado watch meaning that conditions are favorable, the warning meaning that doppler has indicated a tornado or weather watcher has spotted one. flood advisories, again, 4-8 inches easy for a -- easily for a loft these areas, isolated amounts of 12 inches and there's a flash flood warning southwest of the houston area where they've received a lot of rain in a very short period of time. future radar, going ahead in time and again, central texas, north texas, even towards oklahoma, you're going to get the bulk of this tropical moisture. there's the pathogen over the next 24-40 hours, still a low pressure system, but again, the legacy of the storm is going to be heavy rain. you can see the precipitation over the next 48 hours, extremely heavy rain, moving in. the good news is they need the rain, the bad news is they don't need it so quickly in a short period of time, where we're going to see those flash flood watches and warnings. we'll bring you the very latest. if we see any more tornado warnings, we'll make sure you know the latest from the fox weather center. jenna: definitely one to watch. i guess summer is over, j.d., that's a sign. the rain. the rain is here. janice, thank you very much. >> okay. jon: president obama is touting health care reform as an important legislative accomplishment. but some democrats, even some of those who helped pass the thing, are now running head on against it, as they campaign for this november's elections. jim angle is live for us in washington. so how are democrats handling the health care bill as they go out and campaign, jim? >> reporter: well, jon, as you said, even though the president touted -- touts it every chance he gets, many democrats are running away from it, running as fast as they k. in fact, some even running against the president himself and democratic leaders, saying they're thinking about their families and their constituents. listen: >> before i voted against the bailouts and the trillion dollars health care plan, it wasn't right for south dakota, zachary or any kid's future. >> he voted against health care and -- >> i like jason alt myer, he's not afraid to stand up to the president. >> and nancy pelosi. >> then he took on congress, staging up against a congressional pay raise, voted against the health care bill, because it cost too much. >> bobby voted against the bill, the stimulus spending, against the massive government health care. >> reporter: so as you can see, jon, many democrats obviously think they can't get reelected without reminding their voters in ads that they opposed the health care bill, jon. jon: and obviously all of these ads get poll-tested, right? the candidates are reacting to the views of their constituents. >> yeah, there might be something in an occasional town hall meeting but obviously they're looking at the polls and it's been clear in one poll after another, the latest is a rasmussen reports, a national telephone survey, released monday t. found that 56 percent of likely u.s. voters favored the repeal of the bill with 45 percent who strongly favor repeal, 38 percent oppose it, including 30 percent who are strongly opposed. now, president obama has to know that the health care law is a huge burden for many democrats but he keeps touting it as he did again yesterday. >> that's why we passed health insurance reform, to make coverage affordable. reform that ends the indignity of insurance companies jacking up your premiums at will, denying you coverage just because you get sick. reform that gives you control. >> reporter: now, the debate rages on, obviously, jon but many democrats are clear, telling constituents don't blame me, i voted against it. jon: and interesting, the president refers to it there as health insurance reform, as though it's only a paperwork matter here. >> exactly, because who doesn't hate insurance companies? that's for sure. jon: i don't like mine! jim angle, thank you very much. the countdown to the november election social security on fox, it's your news source on all platforms. check out politics.foxnews.com, click on 56 days to decide, for all you need to know leading up to these pivotal electricals come november. jenna: it's a great resource as the battle for the midterms kick necessary. the very latest polls, though, not great news for the dems. we have expert analysis next on that. plus move over siderman, a daredevil climber scales another skyscraper. the death defying details and the legal trouble he's in now. we have that story up ahead. jon: republicans gaining ground on democrats with just eight weeks to go before the midterm elections. according to brand new "washington post"-abc news poll, 40 percent of voters say they trust democrats to handle the nation's biggest problems, 38 percent trust republicans. that's a 12-point jump for the gop in just the last three months and that is not the only sobering news here for democrats. joining us now, managing editor for the hill newspaper, bob cusack. republicans seem to have made real strides, in some cases unprecedented, when you look at these polls, huh bob? >> yeah, i mean, it's been a dramatic turnaround for democrats. if you look at the polls in 2006 and 2008, just the two last cycles, democrats would have won on republicans' turf on tax cuts, fight o'clock treufplg and now you see republicans moving in on democratic strong holds on the economy, health care, and it is a major problem. august was a very bad month forand they're hope to go make a fall comeback but part of the problem is also the decifit and independents. independents have supported president obama in 2008 and are now moving towards the gop and this is a major problem for democrats because the republican base is already fired up and if the independent vote for republican, democrats are in trouble in the fall. jon: we had that report from jim angle in which a lot of candidates, even, who are democrats are not pushing the health care thing, they're running miles away from it, because they sense that the voters don't really like that. >> that's right. we polled a lot of democratic candidates running for congress and asked them would you vote for the health care bill, do you support it and we get a lot of calls that were not answered. so democrats also in firing up the base, health care reform, the agenda that democrats pass, a lot of which they accomplished this year, is just not firing up the left, and in the midterm election, you need to fire up your base and the republicans' base is fired up, democrats are a bit deflated now. so there's a bit of panic for democrats setting in right now, unless the start to turn this ship around. jon: and we're about 3 1/2 months or so away from the big issue, i think, to be decided yet between now and the end of the year and that is what happens to the bush tax cuts. so what is that issue going to do for or against democrats? >> this is a trouble spot for democrats. they're divided, they have waited, really, until the last second to deal with this. we're busy passing health care reform. they knew that these bush tax cuts were expiring, and a lot of democrats say it's not the time to extend the bush tax cuts, or to rescind the tax cuts and even obama's former budget director this morning, in an op-ed in the "new york times", is saying -- is breaking with the president on tax cuts. so democrats are divided on this, republicans feel like they've got the momentum, and democrats possibly could come up with some new type of tax cut policy, whether it's saying okay, let's end the tax cuts for million aeurbgs but right now obama's policy is $250,000 or more, your tax cuts will go up. but the votes aren't there to do that. jon: -- op jon well and the president came out and says he wants another stimulus. the first one didn't seem to do much. >> that's the problem, is that democrats overpromised on the first stimulus and the decifit is a major problem, it's on the minds of voters, and last year, obama said he lost sleep, he was losing sleep over the decifit, but when he has proposed decifit cutting measures, democrats in congress have not embraced them and the white house has not pushed very hard on it. so that's where they've lost trust of the american voters on this. jon: bob cusack from the hill news' they're, thanks. >> thanks. jenna: this comes to -- comingtous, a refinally explosion in northern mexico has apparently killed several people. the details are light but we have heard of a refinery explosion, northern mexico, and this refinery is owned by pemex, a state-owned monopoly of this refinery and of this industry, so we'll keep you updated but again, according to local media reports there, several people are dead and we'll keep you updated as we hear more on that. in the meantime, back to news state side, he's not spider-man, he's skyscraper man i guess you can call him, his real name is dan goodwin, a well-known stuntman, you can see him, american flag and all, he's scaling san francisco's millennium tower, one of california's tallest skyscrapers. jon: it looks like he has suction cups. jengen he obviously made it. he made it to the top in three hours time. cops promptly arrested him and cited him with trespassing and causing a public nuisance, but as we said, at least he's patriot ic. it looks like he got the flag up there before anything else. jon: whatever notes your boat. there's an alarming new report out on iran. wait until you hear what the world nuke watchdog is saying now about just how closed iran -- close iran may be to develop ago nuclear weapon. also, strikes are shutting down two of the biggest cities in europe now. people railing against government plans to trim budgets. the worst of it in paris. we are there live, next. jenna: some new information out of pakistan for you now, a huge explosion ripping through a northern city there, killing three people and injuring 25 others. this happened in the city, the northwestern city of peshaue -- peshawar and apparently the police compound had a lot of different areas to it, there was a commercial area, a residential area and this explosion happened mainly in the residential area. at this time, this is a developing story, because as we understand it, there's no power to the area. it's in the evening, and rescuers are having to search through the rubble in the dark. so as we get more information, we'll bring that to you, this breaking story out of pakistan. jon: now to pakistan's neighbors, the subject of a troubling new report from the united nations. it's about iran, and its growing nuclear program. reports out today suggest tehran is now stockpiling nuclear materials and denying international inspectors' access to its facility, all of this, three months after those tough new sanctions went into effect. so what can the rest of the world do to try to stop iran from building a nuclear weapon? joining us now, heritage foundation senior fellow and former cia officer peter brooks. i was astounded, peter, to learn that iran kicked out a couple of these united nations inspectors, right after the new round of sanctions went in and said hey, we only are allowing in people that we trust and we didn't trust these guys. how can they get away with that? >> they are, jon, and it's been going on quite some time. most people forget that we've been negotiating with iran about its nuclear program since 2003, seven years, an we've made no progress. right now, the white house is even saying, you know -- not publicly but privately that iran may have a nuclear weapon within a year. it's down from two years to maybe one year. some of their senior officials have been saying that it may be as short as that. so this is more the latest example of iran thumbing its nose at the international community, and not only kicked out inspectors, they're also not allowing them, the ones that are in the country, access to a heavy water facility or another facility that they're building that may be involved in enriching uranium. jon: the obama administration also says that the sanctions passed three months ago are starting to bite. is there any truth to that? can we verify that? >> well, that's hard to say. the question is will iran change its course on its nuclear program. so far, the evidence is that it's not. so the question is yes, of course the sanctions may start to bite. the real question is the -- the bottom line is will it make iran change course on its nuclear program and so far there's no evidence of that. there are no easy answers to this, in fairness to the administration. there's going to be a lot of tough choices. but 20 months into it, we've seen no change in iran's nuclear behavior so far. jon: no easy answers, obviously, but this is a president who famously said during the campaign that he would sit down with iran, even without preconditions. has his sort of open hand policy, open door policy, has it produced any result? >> well, the door has been closed and the hand has been slapped away. it has not. you have to remember, even if president obama is willing to sit down with mahmoud ahmadinejad or some other major official, they have to be willing to sit down with him. now, keeping the united states as an enemy, it gives it an option to repress its people, it gives it reason for its international behavior, but once again the iranians have