changing the terms of the negotiations. president karzai meeting u.s. defense secretary leon panetta today, demanding that nato forces pull back to military bases. he says he is outraged over the shooting rampage on sunday that left 1 civilians dead. the u.s. soldier accused in that attack was flown out to kuwait. karzai wants him tried in afghanistan. chief washington correspondent james rosen is live for us in washington. james? >> jon and jenna, good morning, upon landing in helmand province in south-central afghanistan aides to defense secretary president panetta were off-guard. in his session with car size, secretary panetta reaffirmed that the u.s. is conducting a full investigation of last sunday's shooting rampage and the suspected gunman now in custody will be indeed brought to justice. karzai was told to reporters accepted that. he also called for a swifter u.s. pullout. >> there is to doubt we're reaching into a critical juncture in our joint endeavor. and as far as we are concerned, we have always believed that the only sustainable way to secure afghanistan is to enable the after dance themselves. >> reporter: this further inflamed afghan sentiment following disclosure last month that copies of the koran had burned at the main nato base in country. u.s. policymakers had said critical efforts to defuse the situation that peace talks with the taliban continue quickly. that appears off the table. islamic emirate has suspended all talks taking place in qatar from thursday on warz until the americans clarify their stance on issues. until they show willingness in carrying out their promises instead of wasting time, end quote. finally the afghans outrage over the sunday shooting rampage led the fbi and department of homeland security to issue a joint bulletin to u.s. law enforcement agencies warning this incident could contribute to the growth of hves, homegrown violent extremists. meaning american citizens that carry out islamic jihad on u.s. soil. jon: james rosen. thank you. jenna: there is a lot to sort through there. let's bring in kt mcfarland. host of foxnews.com, live, defcon-3. there are a lot of different parts. start with karzai. the move by him saying forces have to withdraw from villages. what do you make of that? >> that is a really huge statement. what that means our troops will be more or less on lockdown on military bases. in america we think as military base soldiers live there. they leave, go have a pizza. go to the movies. they come back at night. that is not what it is like in afghanistan. when you've been to the bases all around afghanistan the troops stay and live on the base. they eat on the base. they exercise on the base. only time they leave the base is to go on patrol where they're going looking for bad guys or on patrol where they're doing, you know, good deeds. where they're doing agricultural projects or community projections. what karzai is saying is, you can come out and do the good deeds and agricultural projects and help us build roads but you will not come out with your guns on your belts and come into the villages and go in to patrols. that is basically telling us you're on your way out the door. jenna: should we leave? >> what are we trying to do in afghanistan? our initial goal was to defeat and destroy al qaeda in afghanistan. we did that in december of 2001. what have been doing since? frankly we have been nation-building. i look at afghanistan, jenna, a three-legged stool the one leg is the military leg and the united states military has been brilliant. they have done everything we asked of them and that leg is actually pretty strong. they have taken afghanistan back from the bad guys from the taliban and al qaeda but there are two other legs to the stool one is the karzai government which remains corrupt and incompetent and third leg is the pakistani government which has refused to eliminate the safe havens in pakistan. so u.s. military might defeat the bad guys on the field in the battlefield in afghanistan but they run across the border to pakistan, regroup and come back to fight another day. jenna: so, the question then becomes again, where do we go from here? and also what do you make of the timing? we can't forget that the secretary of defense is in afghanistan right now when this announcement is conveniently made. you also had the president and prime minister of england come out yesterday and say there is no change in our plan for afghanistan. now, if the afghans have a different idea then where does that actually leave us and how vulnerable are our troops if they just have to sit on the bases and can't go on the offense? >> well, one thing you don't want to have to happen we have to shoot our way out of afghanistan. we want some kind of an arrangement where we can turn over control we have had in certain regions, turn that over to the afghan military. the problem the afghan military hasn't been up to the job. the afghan police is not up to the job. after we seen with riots after koran burning, streets in afghanistan in some cities went wild. afghan authorities were unable to maintain peace and order on their even streets. what are we turning things over to? not clear we're turning it over to people, military or police, that are capable of handling it. why is karzai doing it? think about it from his perspective. he knows once the united states leaves there is probably going to be civil war in his country. one senior afghan leader told me a year ago, you know, if you don't stay, if you leave, if you americans leave we'll all be slaughtered. i think that has got to be in karzai's mind. he is trying to make peace with new guys he thinks will come in. jenna: take a contrarian point of view then. we have the taliban saying no peace talks. we as you mentioned could shoot our way out of the country or based on that could double down and get more aggressive and go after the guys and finish the job. >> what the problem is, what does that, that kind of position? you have got the president of afghanistan telling us in effect we don't want you to have a combat role in afghanistan anymore and then we say no, we do want a combat role? as far as the taliban, why are they giving up on negotiations. they have seen the writing on the wall. why negotiate? they know we're going to leave. they know either karzai will invite us to leave or the americans political pressure is going to require us to leave at some point, 2014, 2013. but we're not going to be there in 20 years. jenna: makes me think of that quote, isn't it, that the american have the watches but we've got got time. >> i heard that throughout every trip in afghanistan. tap their bare wrists. you have the watches, we've got the time. jenna: an interesting context for us today. as always, kt, thank you very much. >> thanks, jenna, right now new numbers on two key sectors of the u.s. economy, jobs and housing. let's begin with the unemployment picture. new jobless claims show 351,000 americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits. that is down 14,000 from the previous week. it match as four-year low reached last month. on the housing front a new report finds foreclosures dropped overall across the country but rose in some of the country's biggest metropolitan areas. now that jump might actually help pave the way to a housing recovery. here to make sense of all of that, david asman, coanchor of "after the bell" on the fox business network. catch him saturday morning on fox news channel host of "forbes on fox." how does that work, david. foreclosures go up but that could be a good sign? >> well it is one of these things. on the one hand we have this, on the other hand this. in some ways the economy does feel better, there is no doubt about it. businesses are hiring. more consumer confidence by the way is at a 12-month high right now. so things do feel a little more optimistic than they did. on the other hand gas prices keep going up. when gas prices go up, those price increases continue throughout the economy. everybody passes on higher prices down the line. things are unsettled. we know that taxes are going up on january 1st in 2013, way up for everybody unless something dramatic changes. when things are unsettled, consumers don't buy as much. they like to hoard what they have. imagine being a business in this kind of an environment. you're a pilot. kind of like flying an airplane where you have two different speed indicators, one saying you're going faster, the other saying you're going slower. if you trust one indicator over the other you may crash. that is the position businesses are in. what they are doing though, they are making a bet that things are getting better, and because of that they are hiring. they don't want to be caught shorthand if things really turned around and growth continues strongly. on the other hand if growth doesn't get stronger at end of this year they will be stuck with extra employees. there may be mayoffs and bankruptcies and more foreclosures. jon: dicey times. people are sort of rolling the dice and gambling that things will pick up? >> you have to got to hand it to the businesses. they have gumption. not the politicians. we know they don't have up about shun but businesses do. they are hiring as an act of faith right now. jon: good sign anyway. david, thank you. >> thank you, david asman. jenna: speaking of politicians right now he is the republican frontrunner in the delegate count. so if the election were held today how would mitt romney do against president obama? we have brand new fox polls telling us and what else voters might be thinking these days. jon: also, what would you do if zoning laws forced you to between your dogs and your home? is a town taking liberties with man's best friend? we report, you decide. jenna: what happened to the doghouses. gunbattle erupt at a baseball game and it is all caught on tape [gunfire] where fans and players ran for cover next. 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[gunfire] [sirens] jenna: fortunately no one inside the stadium was hurt. police chased down and killed three of those gunmen on the street. authorities say the drug cartels are particularly active in this area. jon: fox news is america's election headquarters. right now, brand new fox polls out on a hypothetical matchup between president obama and gop front-runner mitt romney. if the election were held today president obama would have a slight edge over mitt romney. there you see the numbers, 46-42 for the president. another "fox news poll" shows romney tied with the president though among a critical bloc of voters, the independents. let's talk about it with joe trippi. he is former campaign manager for howard dean and a fox news contribute. the president enjoys a slight edge over mitt romney in the first fox poll we showed, joe. given the advantages of incumbency, given the bully pulpit of the presidency, shouldn't he be doing a lot better? >> well, you would like to see if you're an incumbent in either party you want to see the numbers above 50 at this point but the dynamics have been working for him lately. you have consumer confidence up. unemployment is going down in the right direction. so a lot of these numbers, particularly among independents, republicans, romney had a bigger lead among independents against the president just a number of weeks ago. those numbers have closed now. the president has got a tie there. if that trend continues he will be in good shape by november although we still have a long way to go and we don't know who the nominee is on the republican side. jon: that's true. another poll among independents showed the president actually losing to mitt romney, 49-41. if independent voters decide elections and they do almost every circumstance, the president's got a long way to go there. >> well they, independents will have a lot to say in november but, again, even at 49-41 margin was bigger in most polls just literally a month ago. again, the trend, because i think unemployment has gone down, consumer confidence is up, people feel like the economy is turning. if that continues and you see these numbers with independents continue to close, and the republican fight, you know, go all the way to the convention, the president again, i mean could be in better standing than even is today and has a four-point lead although that is within the margin probably but it is still a road to hoe. for either party. this will be a tough election. that's what those numbers tell me. jon: the economy may be improving and the unemployment situation may be improving but with gas prices going through the roof, a lot of people's surplus income is going to get spent at the gas station. that is not going to help the president. >> jon, you put your finger on the real big unanswered question out there. gas prices are the one thing that could make those numbers with independents widen the other way, start going back towards romney and the gop. gas prices are going up. again, this is all about how people are going to feel going into that november election about the economy, about their, about their job situation. about being able to make ends meet. everything else is going in the right direction right now in the economy. the one thing going in the wrong direction is gas prices and maybe that turns this trend around and independents start slipping. jon: one other thing that could potentially be a problem for the president and i wanted to get your take on this is just the overall enthusiasm. you know people turned out, young people, democrats, turned out in record numbers for barack obama's candidacy four years ago. fox asked how interested are you in the elections this time around? 37% of democrats say they are extremely. 40% of the republicans. republicans seem to have the edge there in pretty much every category. what do you say to that, joe? >> that's true, it's been true all year long but here strangely again, that margin has gone down. republicans were much, much more interested and much more excited about the 2012 election than democrats were at the beginning of last year and through most of last year. and that's been going down. the longer this dpop gop nomination fight is going on the less excited republicans seem to be about november. hopefully that fills up if you're a republican. jon: infighting is taking a toll you're saying as a democrat? >> yes, it definitely is. jon: all right. joe trippi. thank you. >> thanks, jon. jenna: we've tried to do a lot of memorable stories in this new studio. jon: yes. jenna: we've really tried but i don't think we can beat this one, on pink slime. do you remember this? pink slime. jon: hope you have had your breakfast. jenna: the uproar over pink slime is getting new headlines. so-called, meat fillers, winding up in our children's lunches. well now schools are getting a choice, and i see, those are kids eating behind us. rick foal bum-- folbaum is up. jon: that looks like healthy lunch. watermelon and orange slices but no pink slime. a deadly shooting spree outside a texas courthouse. we told but it yesterday. the backstory coming up. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ jenna: now this fox news alert. another sign that things are getting tougher on iran today. we talked a lot about the sanctions against the oil industry coming out of iran. specifically when it comes to the e.u.. we're getting word a major banking be in the e.u., this is where all the different lines of the oil business goes through essentially cutting off business with iran making it virtually impossible to do business inside europe to deal with iranian oil. the big question with this, although it makes it much tougher for iran to keep up its economy the big question whether india, russia, china will get on board with some of the sanctions and put a stranglehold on the iranian economy. we'll have much more on the story throughout the day today. jon: a update on story we've been watching on "happening now.". outrage is growing over pink slime. the government is stepping in when it comes to school lunches. rick folbaum is on that. rick? >> reporter: last thursday we told but the pink slime, a filler reportedly used in up to 70% of ground beef we buy. also used in beef sold to schools as part of the federal government's slool lunch program. because of uproar online and through social media the department of agriculture is giving schools the chance to say no to the stuff. the meet industry maintains there is nothing wrong with it. as you might imagine they don't call it pink slime, lean, finely textured beef. it is really scraps of beef highly treated and sprayed with amonia to kill bacteria. you would never know if it was in your ground beef because the government doesn't force the industry to list it in the ingredients. mcdonald's announced recently they're not using it in their hamburgers anymore. the only way you can be sure if it is not in what you're buying, if it has a stamp usda organic. that is how you decide for your family and soon schools will that the choice too once the new option goes into effect this coming fall. jon: why did it take them so long, that's the question? rick, thank you. jenna: some new details today on that deadly shooting rampage outside a texas courthouse. the 41-year-old suspect allegedly killing one woman and wounding three others including his own daughter, who police say he also hit with his truck. angel san juan with our fox affiliate kriv, filed this report from outside the courthouse in jefferson county texas. >> reporter: the jefferson county courthouse is closed to the public today, this one day after a shooting that took place here yesterday morning. as you can see behind my, there's a deputy at the door telling folks basically they can't come in today. now this is just to the public there are employees inside who have come back to work today despite how shook up they are about what happened yesterday. and once again to recap that, the shooter has been identified as 41-year-old bartholomew granger. he drove by her yesterday morning with a rifle shooting at folks. two of the folks he was aiming at, two of those people were his ex-wife and his daughter. police believe he was targeting those two people because they were testifying against him in a trial that was taking place right here. he was on trial for aggravated sexual assault of a child. not only did he shoot both of them, he shot his daughter in the chest and then he ran over her with a pickup truck. now we're told his daughter is mentally disabled. she is listed in critical condition in the hospital. as for the shooter, she remains in the jefferson county scale. no bond has been set. he was quite deliberate or bell ledge rent he made including making threatening statements about the judge presiding over his case. reporting from beaumont, i'm angel san juan. jenna: thanks to our affiliate for. jon: that is a awful story. shoots his daughter and runs her over with a truck? unbelievable. let's