arraigned. >> a producer says strauss-kahn has entered the courtroom and a producer telling me he was escorted out. we don't know why. we do know the look on his face, pensive and tired, haggard looking as he looked throughout the courtroom, as there are dozens of reporters, international reporters, covering this story. covering one of the most powerful leaders of the world, facing court charges. and i want to show you the charges he faces now. this arraignment was scheduled for sunday night, postponed until today, so strauss-kant could submit to a for sentic medical evidence that could incriminate. these are the charges, criminal sex act, attempted rape. if found guilty he faces 20 years in prison, stemming to a maid at a hotel in times square, she says he walked into his $3000 a night suite where he had been staying, thought it was unoccui'd and strauss-kana emerged out of a bathroom, chased her into the bathroom, attempt to rape her and forced her to perform a sex act. according to the police the maid was able to fight him off and reported the incident to holt personnel who immediately called 911. when police arrived strauss-kan was gone, and he left his cell phone. when police learned he was headed to paris the plane was housed at the gate where mr. strauss-kahn was taken into custody, aphelped ten minutes before take yovment here's one of his attorneys who spoke with reporters last night while their high profile client was inside being treated like a common criminal. >> object r our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination. >> what are you saying sir? >> our client consented to an examination at the request of the government. that's being done in light of the hour, we've agreed to postpone the arraignment until tomorrow morning and we expect to be in court with him tomorrow. >> police also say they discovered evidence the the scene, so the reason why this arraignment was post poapped because they wanted to gather as much evidence as possible in order to get these charges to stick. that arraignment scheduled to happen any moment now, and as soon as it does we'll bring it to you. we are told a bail bondsman has said most likely a bail will be set in the millions of dollars. meantime he does not have diplomatic immunity. i should remind you of that. and his passport has been withdrawn. so part of the bail package will also include where he'll be staying. i'm imagining not at soffi hotel. jon: a case that is rocking frabs, that's for sure. -- france, that's for sure. julie, thanks. jenna: a case that also has impact across the globe at economy. simon constable is with us. just explain the significance of the imf and the significance of the head of this organization being arrested in new york city. >> it's particularly important right now because europe, some of the countries in europe have big fiscal problems, italy, ireland, greece, spain, notably portugal and greece are basically looking for bailouts right now. it looks like the portuguese bailout was approved and it comes with imf sort of rules, rules to get the money. the money comes from the rich countries of the world, then it goes to those that need it. the u.s. contributes a lot to this. general jen we're actually the largest contributor. >> yes. jenna: when we talk about the imf giving money or doing bailouts part of that money is our money as well. >> about 18 percent of the money in the imf comes from the united states. it's based on how big your economy is and clearly because the u.s. is the richest economy in the world, then it contributes the most. jenna: a lot of critics of the imf and certainly there have been critics as well of this man. do you think that either the tipping point for this organization, the organization that represents 180 countries across this planet? >> let's hope it's not a tipping point. part of the imf's role is to play the bad guy. when your country is in fiscal dier straights, you -- dire straits you need someone to tell you what to do, otherwise you might not be able to have the political will to get it through your parliament or your government. so in greece right now, they need someone to say you need to tighten your belt, you need fiscal austerity. it's easier to point to someone and blame the imf. jenna: who is managing the money if this guy is behind bars? >> that's the issue. they've got to get someone in on an interim basis or on a permanent basis who is strong. it's very important that everything goes well for europe, because europe is a massive, massive part of the world economy. and if the fiscal woes and getting these countries out of the fiscal woes is not managed right, then we could have big, big, big problems. jenna: we saw that last year, the european debt crisis concerns leading to a selloff in our markets as well and that was something that really rattled investors here. >> one thing we've got to know, everyone is basically saying greece is going to default in some way. that might not be called a default, but how that process is managed is very, very, very important. and you need a strong leader if this all blows away by tomorrow, you know, maybe he's back there. i doubt it, but if that happens -- otherwise you need a strong leader to go, and some point to the family fish ef in israel. jenna: interesting talking about defaults in this country, we're also talking about them here this country with the debt ceiling. thank you very much, simon. jon, over to you. >> jon: right now there are virtual ghost towns up and down louisiana's cajun country as folks move to higher ground to escape a coming deluge, this as the morganza spillway is opened for the first time in four decades. flood waters could reach 20 feet deep in some spots, swamping millions of acres, as part of an effort to try to reduce flood dangers in baton rouge and new orleans. to memphis, tennessee now, still struggling to recovery from the mighty mississippi. president obama gets a firsthand look at the areas. just minutes from now he'll meet with flood victims and some of the state's first responders. >> meantime the mississippi river still on the rise and in vicksburg, the flood waters forcing more road closures, homes in the area, getting swamped. dang springer is live at the flood gates in downtown vicksburg. how high is the water in vicksburg today, dan tion and when is it expected to crest? >> reporter: jon, it's still rising slowly here, the number is 56.7 feet here in vicksburg, expected to crest at 57.5 on thursday. now, that number may not mean much to you but it's at an all time high, the record set in 1927, but this picture will tell you the story. look at this historic railroad station, under about 6 feet of water. as we pan to the left we can show you it is all hands on deck, a team of workers right now at this flood wall downtown, they brought it in a second pump, they really can't keep up with all the water gushing through. we see workers on top of that wall, putting in plastic. i want to tell you, most of the city is on a bluff, but that wall, if it fails, several businesses down in the low lying area of the downtown will be under water. already in vicksburg, about 1200 residents and businesses have been flooded three hundred twenty-eight people, we are told, have applied for help from fema. now, the police are also working on looting cases and there's only been one thankfully in vicksburg but they are very aware that's a danger. yesterday we got on tour of a nice lake community, about 15 miles from here that has been turned into a ghost town. the homes around eagle lake are all dry, but residents were evacuated because all the roads leading to it are flooded. now, there was concern that if the levy failed, 11,000 residents would be killed, so deputies are patrolling the area to protect their property. >> we're protecting the property. we're just want to go make sure when these people do return, they have everything that they had when they left, and we have enough department tes here that we're patrolling this area 24 hours a day, seven days a week. >> we just talked to the mayor of vicksburg, and he says that he's confident all of these levees will hold, but he said katrina showed us very important lesson, that sometimes these man-made levees don't make it through the disasters, and every time that water rises, even an inch, more pressure is exerted against these walls. so they're very cautious, but confident right now, that the walls will hold. big economic impact here, jon. obviously the casinos are closed, they bring about $600,000 a month to the general fund for this city. so with those casinos down and with tax revenues town, -- down, it's going to be a financial impact for months to come. jon. jon: all right, thank you very much. a little distracted here in the newsroom. dan springer, reporting live from vicksburg. jenna: coming up a fox news alert. we just got word from the white house, a very important note with regard to what's happening in syria. the white house is blaming syria for clashes that are happening along the border with israel. you might have seen some of our reports through the morning here. there's been a lot of violent protests along the border of israel, palestinians coming in and protesting essentially the creation of the state of israel. the white house now coming out and blaming syria for inciting some of the deadly protests at this border earning the white house press secretary calling it unacceptable. this is a story we're watching closely as we're continuing to watch what happens in syria, the protests against the government there, the white house saying that syria is sending these people to protest around israel to distract everyone from what's happening inside their own country, israel one of our allies in the middle east and a story we're going to be watching closely from here on out. jon, we have the gop presidential field starting to take shape. we're going to take an in depth look at the contenders, and await a big announcement that could come on one high profile person's intentions. >> and the space shuttle endeavor plasts off on its last mission. what made this launch even more emotional. we're live with that story. and jon, i believe you're over at the board with a tease for us about some of that weather we're seeing across the country. jon: that's right. if you want more information about any of these stories we're covering -- we're covering on "happening now", check out fox news.dom. there's the story about the mivment mf official, dominic strauss-kahn, news gingrich with crnt -- with controversial remarks, and the louisiana situation. imagine if you were told to get out of your home and take everything you could with you. what would you take? it's all there for you on foxnews.com, your other news source. >> endeavor, spannedding your knowledge, expanding our lives in space. jon: a beautiful sight, space shuttle endeavor blasting off kennedy space center for the final time early they are morning, just one last shuttle mission remains. it is now slated for july. this endeavor crew headed by commander mark kelly, the astronaut husband of wounded arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords. phil keating, i know the congresswoman sent something very personal up on the endeavor. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: well, according to the staffers of congresswoman gabrielle giffords who by the way right now is adjacent to where we are, having a post- news briefing about the congresswoman's experience. she was watching mark kelly launch on endeavor's last launch ever, blasting off at 8:54 eastern time this morning, and prior to him getting on that van and coming out sometime last night, according to the staff, commander mark kelly and his wife, congresswoman giffords, exchanged their own wedding bands, and he is holding one of hers in one of his astronaut suit pockets as he is now traveling at 18,000 miles an hour on the way to the international space station and she is wearing his wedding band around a necklace, around her neck. but just the fact that she was able to leave the rehabilitation center in houston 2 1/2 weeks ago and then again yesterday, make it out here, is so encouraging for so many people across this country and especially here at kennedy space center where they say she is nasa family. >> she certainly will. you know, the last couple of days are just full of adrenaline and excitement, seeing him for the last time yesterday, saying goodbye, being here in florida, it's nice to take a break from the humdrum of the hospital rehab program, as good as it is, the folks at herman memorial have been terrific, but everybody needs a break, so she is doing really well. >> and they sthai she's also very excited just to be out of the normal routine in houston, the rehabilitation center. she does, of course, have a long road of recovery ahead of her. she is scheduled sometime perhaps this summer to have cranial reconstructive surgery. doctors in january, after she was shot in the head in that assassination attempt in tucson, arizona had to remove part of her skull to go ahead and repair her wounds. so they're going to do surgery to put a plate back on that, and then hopefully, sometime later this year, she might actually be able to be released and then undergo outpatient care. everybody of course just wishing the best. jon: and any issues showing up so far there at the cape that are any cause for concern? >> reporter: they called it basically a flawless launch. everything was looking good. the weather was an issue yesterday. they were concerned about strong winds and a low cloud ceiling. the winds didn't really materialize. if you look at file tape of the launch this morning, it was actually one of the shortest visible launches for spectators in quite some time, perhaps ever. it only lasted about ten seconds, then the space shuttle disappeared into the cloud ceiling and then went on beyond it. so those clouds were thin enough that the range requirements were not violated. so it was a green, green, green, across the board, and it was a spectacular launch. it's now traveling towards the international space station. the pay load on the 16-day mission is a $2 billion physical experiment -- physics experiment, the alpha magnetic spectrometer, it's basically going to shift comes milk rays out in the universe which get broken down once they go through the earth's atmosphere, they're immeshable on plate the earth but scientists, physicists, are hoping to basically finally define what is dark energy and dark matter because according to all of the theories, scientifically speaking, it should be out there, you just can't see it. it could be as revolutionary for physics as the hubel space scope has been for astronomy, jon. jon: what a morning. phil keating at the kennedy space center, thanks. jenna:ets crunch time for the u.s. economy. today is supposed to be the day we officially hit the debt ceiling but uncle sam's account apartments buying a little time here. a key congressman, congressman van hollen weighs in. he's here with us next. denver police, launching an all-out man hunt after a hit and run driver hits this nine-year-old boy. hard to watch. how he's doing, the latest on the search, just ahead. jon: right now, police hunt fog a hit and run driver who struck a nine-year-old boy in denver. the terrifying incident caught on video by a neighbor's security camera. incredibly, the little boy suffered only minor injuries patti an brown is at the breaking news desk with more. >> reporter: tough video to watch. this nine-year-old boy was hit by a car in southwest denver and as we already saw it was caught on tape. eric aguilar can be seen darting out in front of a parked suv right in front of his house, then he is hit and tossed to the curb. thankfully, he is okay. he just has cuts and bruises. but now police are looking for the driver who hit aguilar and drove off. it happened friday at around 8:00 p.m. on the 100 block of south jury ving street. when the driver sped off the boy's father and another driver tried to follow, but they couldn't keep up. it so happens that neighbors of the aguilars have a surveillance system and their camera caught the whole thing. you see the neighbor children playing in front of the houses, then the accident, then the car brakes for a second and then speeds away. it even runs a stop sign. the car is a dark colored sized sedan similar to a chevy malibu or dodge kneon, witnesses say it could have an honda accord. police made out three numbers on the colorado license plate, 357. one believes there may have be a -- have been a passenger in the car. because aguila r's head hits the passenger side mirror, there may be damage to the mirror. anyone with a tip can call crime stoppers: aguilar meanwhile was asked what he wants to say to the driver and he replied, i want them to apologize. jon. jon: one lucky little boy there, that's for sure. patti an brown, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: today is the day the u.s. officially hets the debt ceiling. it's not default yet but accounting tricks begin today. today, the pressurery -- treasury will begin to borrow from pensions to keep the government current. democratic congressman chris van hollen is ranking member of the budget house committee and one of the lawmakers working with the vice president on debt. no easy task there. nice to see gliew good to be with you. jenna: this federal workers pension system, there's two different sides today, one is the fact that we're borrowing from this pension system to help fund our government, but there's also these reports that there are different points of view about what federal workers should contribute to their pensions. republicans, the debt commission, even democratic think tanks say we have to have federal workers contribute more. are you open to negotiations on that, having federal workers contribute more to their pensions to help solve the debt issue? >> well, let's be clear. the republican budget proposed essentially a 5 percent pay cut for federal employees. for everybody, including the folks at the cia that just helped track down bin laden. so no, i'm definitely not in favor of that. now, if you want to look prospectively for new federal employees, we can take a look at that employment system, but when you talk about compensation, remember, there are lots of pieces to it, there are salaries and other benefits, and the bureau of labor statistics has looked the at federal salaries and said in many, many cases they're actually paid less than their private sector counterparts. so we have to be very careful when we're dealing with overall compensation. jenna: i was looking to see the last time we looked at federal workers' pensions and it was in 2000, where there was an increase in the federal pension programs by 1.5% or so, so you're saying for any of the federal workers now, you don't want to touch that, but any future employee, you'd be open to renegotiating how much they contribute to their pension? >> i think we should take a fresh look at overought federal employee compensation. there may be some areas where you actually want to increase salaries to recruit certain types of people to the federal government. you can also look at the retirement package as part of an overall look. i think that makes sense, a fresh look. what doesn't make sense is to say to folks who have been relying on a particular salary and benefits structure like the guys who got bin laden, you know, sorry, tough luck, we're going to cut your salary across the board by 5 percent. that's not fair. jenna: what about taxes? are taxes going up as part of a deal that's made as far as spending cuts go? >> every bipartisan group that's looked at the decifit situation has said you need a balanced approach. yes you need to cut but you also need to deal with the re