>> steve: won that girl the oscar. >> gretchen: log on for our after the show show. who knows what we'll be discussing. >> steve: peter johnson, jr., thank you very much. he'll be back tomorrow and so will we. see you then. bill: it is all about the economy. we're about to find out what it has in store for us this morning. the fed speaks and stocks soar. grab dramamine! monday, 634-point nose dive, the dow, another volatile day on tuesday, closing up 430 points in the final two hours of trading this, after the fed announced it will keep interest rates at record lows for the next two years. stock market rallying overnight in asia. will it do the same on wall street? thirty minutes from now, we're waiting for that, as is the rest of america. good morning to you! i'm bill hemmer. buckle up! welcome to "america's

newsroom". alisyn: i'm doing well, don't blame you for feeling dizzy. i'm alisyn camarota in for marthat th, this is the latest gallup poll, it shows consumer confidence plunged to negative 53 this week. that's the lowest point since march 2009. now some politicians are actually blaming washington: >> people have a right to be angry, disappointed, skeptical about the political process in washington, because over the last eight weeks, we have lurched from one catastrophe to another and these are politically manufactured crises, these are self-inflicted wounds. bill: we'll see in time whether or not they can heal those wounds. cheryl casone, where are they this morning? >> we are in for another bumpy ride. we are looking at another rough day for the markets. we've had incredible

volatility and volume over the last 48 hours. we're going to have it again, the futures now telling us the dow is going to open to the downside about 200 points or so, s&p, nasdaq as well. asia, as you mentioned, bill, had a great night, they had a great session. europe is the problem. many analysts tell me europe is a true time problem from a fiscal perspective because there are concerns with italy being the third largest economy they cannot be bailed out, they are too big to be bailed out, and that is a big concern for these markets despite what the fed told us yesterday. bill: that's going to take time to unwind in europe. with regard to the fed, has it ever announced what it plans to do with interest rates? for the next two years? >> no. bill remarkable. why did it act this way? >> the fed is trying whatever it can, and i believe this is under the leadership of chairman bernanke, they want to do anything they can to soothe the market, and they knew that the markets were looking for something out of that statement yesterday. they didn't say anything about more stimulus, which i believe was a good thing,

but they did say over the next two years they would have a low interest rate environment. that could be good for a lot of consumers, great if you want to buy a home right now, folks, mortgage apps jumped 20 percent last week, but will the economy grow. that doesn't really tell us anything. bill: to put a fine point on this, because the business community has said it needs direction in order to move forward, and it says washington was not giving that direction. that was the fed now providing that path forward that politicians have lacked? >> no, he is not and that is not his job. that is not bernanke's job. his concern is monetary policy. his concern is, believe it or not, the employment picture. but washington is the ones that are going to have to come toargs and i'll talking about congress and the administration, they're going to have to come together and give businesses a sense of what the regulatory environment is going to be through the next at least two years, minimum, and what the tax code is going to look like. it's going to have to be congress and the president, coming together, finding

consensus and not putting in, again, more regulation that many ceos are very nervous about how. bill: it's going to be a long slog and slow going through. cheryl, thank you, cheryl is from the fox business network. check her out later today. alisyn. alisyn: european markets are hoping they can see a second day of positive gains. europe is still reeling from a debt crisis that threatens to engulf even more countries whose economies were once thought to be rock solid. fox's agreeing burke is streaming live from rome. what's happening today, greg? >> reporter: alisyn, there's sort of a collective sigh of relief, however it's not a very big sigh because they know they're not out of the woods yet but a bit of an uptick following new york's lead yesterday. stocks are up but they are still nervous after the beating they took on monday and they know it's not over, but any green arrows pointing upwards, germany up a little 1 percent now, are certainly a huge relief after the hammering they

took early they are week. of course here you've got nothing like the rally you saw in new york yesterday but at least investors are happy to see that there are some things going up in most cases, just a very little bit. now, things are so serious here, and cheryl was pointing that out, french president nicolas sarkozy cut short his vacation to go back to paris to meet with his budget and finance minister, the french are worried about the french banks being exposed with the debt crisis having too much of that debt they're -- greek debt they're holding. if greece were to default it means problems for france and all of europe. finally, alisyn, it is interesting, they do need structural changes in europe. the problems are extremely serious. nobody really should be going on vacation right now. not only if you're running a country or even if you just have a lot of money in the market. when this whole euro experiment started they thought it was going to be one big happy family. now it looks like a family with a lot of debt that's never going to be very happy. alisyn: we know that basically europe shuts down

in august. we shall see what happens this month there. greg burke, thank you for the update. bill: terrifying moments on board an american airlines plane, passengers and pilots forced to make an emergency landing, turbulence violently shaking 152 passengers and six crew members. they eventually landed safely in charles shon, south carolina, the chaos, though, apparently injuring passengers and a flight attendant on board. >> it would be premature for me to speak about that. i know that two people were transported. i don't know the extent of the injuries or how serious they are. bill: passengers eventually made it on other flights, the airplane is being checked out for damage in charles shon. three refugees under arrest after one of them tried making it through airport security with what it looked like a bomb, albeit a fake bomb, a woman arrested in phoenix after security discovered a jar in the carry-on bag with a a

cell phone attached to the side, the woman claims a man from her home country gave her the jar containing sesame paste. at some point the cell phone was taped to the side but not by her. investigators still unsure why she was carrying it. >> general john allen, replacement for general david petraeus as u.s. commander in afghanistan, he's giving his first briefing of the department of defense and is expected to get questions about what went wrong in the single deadliest loss of american lives in the ten-year-old war in a r afghanistan. saturday's helicopter crash in afghanistan killing 30 troops, 22 of them the elite navy seals, reported to be enroute to capture a taliban leader. coalition commanders initially said that insurgents fired on the chopper as it was landing during a firefight in the rugged mountains of afghanistan's wardak province, but the exact cause of the crash has yet to be determined.

bill: we woke up this morning with a defiant british prime minister vowing to go on offense against fear gripping the u.k., these violent rioters back at it again, raging now for the fourth straight night. now, they've moved out of london to the northern part of england, looting and torching property in cities countrywide. the death toll rising to four, citizens defending their neighborhoods by themselves. >> we're here, we're making a stand today. we're making a stand, all right? we aren't going to have all these people coming up here and ruining our place, burning our town down, right? we're going to make a stand. bill: there's a lot more from the prime minister, david cameron, about that very important, saying police will use whatever measures necessary to keep the peace and restore order, from london now, amy kellogg, is the rioting still happening? hello to you. >> reporter: hi bill. london was under control last night, but as you mentioned, other parts of the united kingdom were rocked by further looting,

rioting. now, bill, the search is on. i'm going to show you the front page of the sun, it says shop a moron. these are some of the pictures of people looting across the united kingdom, the police asking for help this finding these guys. the pictures are grainy, many are hooded or masked, but the belief is that some in the community know who they are and prime minister cameron said if you're old enough to get out and do this kind of thing, you're old enough to pay the price. also, the death toll rising, one man, who was trying to help firefighters, and was beaten up subsequently by crowds is fighting for his life this morning. then three men, mowed down in a car in the middle of the night, they had come from their mosque, they had gone to sort of protect their local community and businesses and they were run over. an investigation now underway there. we are seeing people getting

together to look at their own neighborhoods, because police have clearly not been able to keep up with all of this. we're outside of a temple in london right now, and people were out in front of this temple in the hundreds last night, protecting the place. they said that they would do anything to protect their place of worship. they also said, interestingly enough, that they joined with other members of the community to protect this temple and other places of worship, and important points in the community. careful not to look like a them against us situation or an us against them situation, one religious group sort of standing firm against interlopers. it was really communities coming together and in and around other parts of london, we saw people kind of marching through town. now, there is a fine line between a show of force and vigilanteism. we haven't seen members of the general public wailing on any of these

demonstrators yet. that is the fear that could happen and further inflame the situation but everyone now is trying to work with the police and sort of beef up a protective presence around these communities. bill: it is no small task as we move towards night number five. amy kellogg, live in london, thank you. alisyn: the chaos in london, the craziness in the stock market, those are a few of the many stories we're following in "america's newsroom". coming up, violence escalates in syria, and washington prepares to take action. what, if anything, can washington do now? >> bill: also, another american woman, missing on the island of aruba. she was last seen eight days ago on a snorkeling trip with a male companion. he is now in custody. we'll talk to an investigator who worked on the natalee holloway case for clues there alisyn. alisyn: that family of fugitive, still on the run, but word today of a possible sighting. where are these brothers and sister? >> it's very concerning to all local and federal and state law enforcement that

these folks will engage law enforcement with weapons and then, of course, the public, the risk to the public who might be unarmed and unaware they're near these individuals and they might try to take action against the public or law enforcement if they're approached.

bill: republican senator rand paul firing back at democrats who claim that the tea party follows part of -- part of that tea party is responsible for the chaos in the economy. listen here:

>> blaming the tea party is sort of like blaming the fireman when it -- when he comes to put out the fire. a lot of us were elected to go to washington to put out the fire, to handle the debt, to do something about the debt. that's why we went to washington. it's why we ran for office. bill: that last night from hannity. illinois congressman joe walsh is house member, member of the tea party caucus and also on the small business committee and sir, good morning to you. just picking up on something out of washington, politico is reporting that the democratic congressional campaign committee will target several house republicans and blame them for the downgrade from s&p. now, are you one of the house republicans on the target list? >> oh gosh, i hope so, bill. i don't know. i mean, this is just -- it's just pathetic. i've never known of a president who refuses to accept any responsibility for anything. i think senator paul was right on. you know, to me, the president has always reminded me of this and we're all familiar with this

story, we grew up with it, the president is like a teenage boy who had a big party and trashed his house while his parents were gone, and then he gets really upset when his parents come back home and make him clean up the mess. these house republicans, bill, these troublesome house republicans were sent to washington to help this president clean up his mess and all they want to do is fingerpoint and assign blame. i think the american people see right through it. bill: well, what did you think of the label, tea party downgrade, that emerged two days ago? >> it's offensive, it's outrageous, but it's almost comical, because their talking points are so obvious. it's almost -- it's almost too political. but again, this goes to the fact that you've got an administration that i believe is in over their heads, and they truly don't know what they're doing, and all they're left with is to

finger point and to assign blame to other people. bill: what they're saying is that folks like you hell them back from a bigger deal and you're the one who's to blame for that. that they could have gone $4 trillion, had folks like joe walsh not gotten in the way. to that, you say what? >> well, my response, bill, is thank god for folks like me. i mean, just imagine, if these troublesome republicans hadn't taken over congress. we probably would have raised the debt ceiling months ago by how many trillion, we'd be spending billions every single week, and probably each of the credit agencies would have downgraded us. we were sent to washington, the american people sent us to washington, to do something about this problem, this problem the president created, and we're not going to stop no matter how much name calling they throw our way. bill: what is your best hope for the supercommittee, what emerges from it, do you

think? >> my best hope is that these are serious people who will understand that we are bankrupting future generations and the economy out there is dying. so what the economy needs is tax and regulatory relief, and we need real spending reform like a balanced budget amendment. bill: i mean, are you optimistic that the committee reaches a majority and you get a chance to vote up or down on what it recommend? >> i'm not terribly optimistic. the situation, the crisis was so serious that i don't know how much faith i have in a 12-person committee. i think congress has got to do this job. it's difficult, because, again, we've got a president that's not serious, but let's wait and see who's on the committee and let's see how serious they are. bill: some of those names are emerging. we're going to debate this in about 30 minutes with a terrific panel. joe, thank you for your time out of washington today. alisyn. alisyn: there are new tips on those fugitive siblings from florida.

why investigators say the terrorizing trio may be headed for the woods, after a possible sighting in colorado. bill: police in london getting help with riot control as fed up citizens band together to fight back. >> we're here for one reason, to stick up for our families. my girlfriend and my children, they're staying at home, i'm here to protect them and i'll protect them. they are not english.

alisyn: there are new leads this morning on that man hunt for those three fugitive siblings, the fbi now says the trio was likely spotted in colorado, just north of downtown colorado springs. police say the doherty

family has been on a nearly 1800-mile cross-country crime spree since last week, after allegedly shooting at a police officer in florida, then robbing a bank in georgia. police say they are now zeroing in on their target. fox's alicia acuna is live in denver. what are police saying today? >> reporter: they are saying they're working off of very credible information at this point in the investigation. tips went in to the colorado police department yesterday that a car matching the description that the three siblings were last seen and were sighted near interstate 25 on the north end of colorado springs at around 1:30 in the afternoon at an implamp tu press conference last night, the fbi said this of the fugitives: >> extremely dangerous and it's very concerning to all local and federal and state law enforcement that these folks will engage law enforcement with weapons and then, of course, the public, the risk to the public who might be unarmed and unaware they're near these individuals and they might

try to take action against the public or against law enforcement if they are approached. >> reporter: investigators are now working with rei, that's an outdoor recreation store, because three people matching the description of the car that were inside that car purchased camping supplies with cash. alisyn. alisyn: do we know if these three siblings have any connection to colorado? >> reporter: yeah, the fbi was asked that last night. they said they don't know specifically at this point if there is a reason that they came here, however, bureau spokesperson dave jolly did say if you think about the purchases that these three made, that dylan, ryan, and lee grace doherty, may be attempting to hide out in the mountains here. we have a lot of camping areas in the area, park rangers have been notified, and are being alerted to look for these three and that white 2006 subaru impreza that they were in. i can tell you having worked

for 14 users in colorado, this sort of thing has happened before as with the doherty gang, fugitives often will head to the mountains and camping areas and try to disappear into that area, law enforcement emphasizing, however, that these three, they know, are dangerous and violent. back to you. alisyn: it's incredible they haven't been captured yet. we're going to have a detective coming up to talk about the latest in the investigation. bill: especially when you consider the pictures out there. alisyn: and that they're still together. sometimes people have to split up to not get captured but they're together, apparently. bill: we have breaking news out of afghanistan, a followup to the tragedy over the weekend. we're now being told from top military brass out of kabul that the taliban insurgents responsible for shooting down that u.s. helicopter in afghanistan have been killed. u.s. general john allen, commander of u.s. international forces in afghanistan, holding a briefing only moments ago. he also says it was likely an rpg fired by the taliban in that shark valley that

took out that helicopter, that chinook, and he calls this crash a singular event. regardless, the faces on your screen now, and the emotions that we've picked up on from the family members who have lost loved ones, uncles, fathers, brothers, sons, it is a tragedy, something that they have to live with, unfortunately, for the rest of their lives, and our hearts and prayers go out to each and every one of them as they go through a downright terrible experience. >> we're about to see another whiplash on wall street. oh my, isn't this fun? only minutes away from the opening bell and we're going to drop. that's the forecast. oh yeah. alisyn: if you say so. we'll see what our experts have to say. england, seeing its worst rioting in a generation. who are the thugs behind this, and could this happen here? >> we're going to riot outside, we are going to smash you up!

we'll riot you. this is our area, not your area.

alisyn: all right. we are awaiting the opening bell on wall street, and there it is. they're off to the races. let the wild time begin. local stocks on the rise but u.s. stock futures falling in the wake of the market's best day yesterday since 2009. let's bring in our business panel to help us make sense of this, matt mccall is president of the penn financial group and sandra smith is a reporter on the fox business network. welcome to both of you. sandra, what are we to make of this rally, yesterday, up 429 points and then what futures are saying today? >> you might as well wave goodbye to that rally we saw yesterday, in fact, that over 400-point rally, alisyn, was the tenth biggest point gain we've sneen history, but all indications this morning on the opening bell, alisyn, is we're going to give back most of those gains. in fact stock index futures give us a pretty good idea

of how far we're going to drop on the open here and as of just seconds before the opening bell, we were at the lows of the overnight session, down 255 points. fair value. that means we could see over a 200-point drop on the open. alisyn: it's down 137 points as you speak. sandra, matt, what happened yesterday? was this all a result of the fed coming out and saying they were going to keep the key interest rate where it is? >> two things, obviously, one is the fed, we saw after the fed announcement at 2:15 the market took a wild ride, it was down 200 points, rallies -- rallies 600 points off the low. you have to consider that monday was the 12 -- 12th day ever for the s&p over the last 100 years so people were looking for bargains at the same time, the combination of bargain hunting and the fact of what the fed said, i think we're down this morning, though, because you think about this, the fed basically said they're going to keep interest rates at historic lows for two more years. if they thought the economy was getting better, would

they have said that? i think people realize, sleeping on it, wow, the fed thinks things aren't getting better, why should i own stocks and sell going the rally. >> you don't need the fed to tell thank you economic situation has gotten weark. what's changed fundamentally? globe when you look at the sovereign debt crisis, that hasn't gone away. you look at our problems in the united states, our growth is extremely weak here. just because the fed makes an announcement they're going to keep interest rates low for the next two years, we rally on a dime but that's not necessarily going to indicate a long term rally for the stock market. >> no, i agree, long term is a few hours in the market these days. but what happened yesterday, also, a lot of people keep expecting the government or the fed to step in every time the market takes a hit like we did the last two weeks. the fed didn't come out and say they're going to do qe3, quantitative easing, slug the market with money to prop up the market. they didn't say that yesterday so i think this rally will be short-lived. look at what's going on in

europe, the french banks, italian banks hitting multi-year lows. this problem is not only here but overseas so it makes people skittish and why would you buy? >> alisyn: looking to your point, the number now, down 212 points. so what can the government or the fed, treasury department, do today, if anything? is there talk of another stimulus? >> at this point, you know, the honest answer out of my mouth would be to just stay out of it. we need the free markets to work here, and to think that the president or congress or the federal reserve or anybody can step into this picture and try to fix it, that's just false. we've seen and tried to do many things in the past that may be temporarily fixing things but longer term puts us in more trouble. so at this point we need to let the free markets work, we need to stop trying to stimulate our economy. what we need is organic growth. we need businesses. we need less regulation. we need businesses to be able to grow on their own, because alisyn, at the end of the day, they're the job creators, and they are the

ones that are eventually going to fix this problem. >> the problem with that, if you take that route which i completely agree w. you're going to have a really rough stock market for the next couple of months because the government has trained americans that we're going to step in any time something is bad so suddenly, they don't step in, this market is going to get hit pretty darn bad and election is not far away, so i agree, the fed will step in with the ammunition they have left and do quantitative easing and that will eventually profit the market until the end of the year. alisyn: thank you very much, matt, sandra, for your insights on this. bill: meanwhile, they're bracing for more trouble in england, four days of mob violence across that country, kicked off by the shooting of a 29-year-old father over the weekend. it's the worst unrest there since the 1980s. and britain's prime minister saying police are now authorized for a harsh crackdown. >> we will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets.

let me be clear. at cobra this morning, we agreed, full contingency planning is going ahead. whatever resources the police need, they will get. whatever tactics the police feel they need to employ, they will have legal back to go do so. bill: k.t. mcfarland is a fox news national security analyst and my guest in the studio. good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: they're going to unleash the water canons tonight, that's the threat from the prime minister. yesterday, the threat was rubber bullets in the streets of london and other cities where they're seeing trouble. what is happening here? >> it's a couple of things happening at once. first of all, it's out of control kids. these kids are high school age, they're grade school age, they're as young as ten years old and they're a mob that's called a flash morks they communicate by twitter, cell phones, they come from a lot of different places, meet up in a store, there's so many of them, they overwhelm whatever store surety is there, they steal

tvs, sneakers and are gone before the police are there. bill: they take the sneakers, electronics, leather goods. why are they burning everything down? >> that's the next step in this. it's getting out of control. there's no social order that's being established in these communities and it's spreading. why is it spedding? >> because there's no consequence. a lot of kids haven't even covered their faces. they don't think they're going to be in trouble. some of the older ones have but the younger ones have not and the question i have, if your 12-year-old kid comes home with a flat screen tv, don't you say where did you get that? there doesn't seem to be a consequence and the problem is it's spreading because it's so easy to do with twitter, with social media. bill: initially, this appeared to be divided among racial lines and we're getting the word last night that these were -- it was not necessarily that way, because it's spreading in a way where you find opportunity and chai o. and that's what they have found. the austerity measures have

been pushed by this government, the cuts in tuition price, did that have any -- >> that's totally different. bill: not related? >> the cuts in tuition prices are kids in their 20s who think their economic opportunities are going to be changed because of these career cuts for them, you know, no opportunity. these are kids. these are little kids who aren't being punished for what they're doing, and there's no sort of restraint on them. they want to get a flat screen tv, there doesn't seem to be any penalty to their doing it, and the budget cutback, i don't buy that, because nobody has cut back their ability to buy flat screen tvs. the budgets weren't giving them these things anyway. it's consumerism, it's out of control kids, it's no punishment, it's the ability of social media to pull them all together. bill: your point about no consequences or further action may be changing now, when you have 6000 police officers in these cities and more coming in. >> that's the other prork the cutback, if you want to say the cutbacks have something to do with it,

they were to reduce the london police force by 25 percent for the next six years, so to a certain extent, there's not enough police, there's not enough monitoring of neighborhoods and they're importing police from scotland to northern england to where the problems are. bill: it is remarkable to watch and see it unfold, night five goes down a little later, mid-day in london now, about 3:00 in the afternoon. we'll see what happens. >> it happened in philadelphia. bill: with the curtain place there. that's what we're going to talk about a bit later, too. nice to see you. k.t. mcfarland. alisyn: all eyes are on iowa this week. gop candidates, getting ready to face off in a debate, and then a critical straw poll. a few days later, president obama will visit the state. what's the president's 2012 game plan for iowa? steve brown is live with insight. you are in the epicenter of the action this week. what are we expecting, steve? >> we are expecting to see the president after all of

the republican activity has gone. this is a state that was solidly blue in 2008. it is purple today. let's take a look down memory lane in 2008, obama wins the iowa caucuses, wins iowa in the general election, the state of iowa has 110,000 more registered democratic voters than it has republicans. skip forward two years, that advantage is down to 35,000, and for the first time since 1962, an incumbent democratic governor, an incumbent governor in the state of iowa, is voted out of office. the mood here has changed. also the amount of attention that president obama will be able to pay specifically to iowa, it will be a lot less attention. >> i think what -- i think what you're going to see in iowa in 2012 is the core democrat supporters being very active, very supportive. what iowans have to remember, and they're not good about remembering, is that he has to run in 49 other states. iowa was spoiled in 2007, leading up to the caucuses,

that they basically had all obama, all the time. >> reporter: now, the president and the white house will tell you the bus tour going on next week, three days through the midwest, is not politically connected but almost certainly, there's some political advantage for the president, he needs to win the state of iowa in order to get the lectorual vote he needs, it's almost certainly why he's coming here to remind iowans he's there for them. alisyn: it's going to be an interesting next few days. thank you for the preview. we want to let the viewers know, fox news will have the presidential debate,it at 9:00 p.m. eastern time, tomorrow night. set your dvr, bill. i know you go to sleep before that. bill: we'll stay up and watch it, certainly! i've got good news, alisyn. actually, not good news at all. big board, down more than 300 points, after an absolute whipsaw yesterday afternoon. i looked at the dow around

2:00, 2:15, we were down i think it was about 50, 60 points at that moment, i cam back at 4:00, i saw the jump of 420-430 points. absolute whiplash. alisyn: it's like a super bowl, bouncing around. bill: a superball! >> alisyn: a superball. bill: i thought you said a super bowl. it's not the super bowl we want. it's happened again, an american tourist missing in aruba. this time police are pointing the finger at her male companion. are there similarities with the natalee holloway case? we'll investigate that. alisyn: the supercommit he is taking shape, three of the lawmakers chosen to tackle america's debt. bill: a terrific debate about that, too. and who can say this is going to extreme? he had 48 of his closest friends go along with it. what did she say? >> alisyn: so romantic.

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bill: better grab one now, because the seats on the supercommittee are starting to feed up. patty murray, max baucus, john kerry, chose been by harry reid, tasked with slashing a trillion dollars from the budget by thanksgiving. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell yet to make his three republican picks, then six more to be named by house leaders. what about all this? gretchen hammel, executive director of public notice and former spokeswoman for the house republican conference, that sounds important, gretchen! good morning to you. and in phoenix, allen coomes, good morning to you as well. >> how you doing, bill. bill: gretchen, what's your expectation, are they going to solve all the world's problems with this committee? >> kind of like the dow, my expectations went down

yesterday. basically, because we just thought that business was going to be politics as usual and they're going to be putting the political jobs ahead of the economic jobs. patty murray is head of the democrat senatorial committee and is going to be in charge of making sure 21 senators get their jobs back next year, so i think it's going to be all politics. bill: alan are you more hopeful? >> not necessarily hopeful but i'm shocked that preabus and gretchen are criticizing the committee. i know democrats will be thrilled with every republican that gets picked! bill i think its ryan preabus. i'm shocked that there's criticism here of the people on the committee. i mean, patty murray, she raises money? unlike every other member of the senate or congress. i'm shocked about that. bill: gretchen, republicans are saying max baucus is the key, he's a moderate guy

over the years, he's worked with republicans. is the vote you sway to come to the republican side to get a simple majority? by the way, we should let our viewers know, this is what they need to decide, the deadline for the plan is november 25th, right before thanksgiving, also the goal, to reduce the decifit by $1.5 trillion, in this committee, if the majority passes the plan, there will be an up or down vote in congress by christmas day. without a majority, automatic cuts go to defense and medicare spending. what about that gretchen? >> well, i think these cuts need to be made, and i think, you know, while of course we are disappointed by the democrats, it's because of their record. he could have appointed people from the gang of six who actually have a record of working together, but no, he actually appointed people who don't always have a record of working together and who have actually voted against capping spending on nondiscretionary items and other such things. and actually has killed past reforms. this is something that we have to take up.

we have to take up the drivers of our debt and those are some of the entitlement that is do need to be reform. bill: even on monday nancy pelosi said her caucus would protect medicare and medicaid and social security, alan. >> good, and they should. look, you have to fight for what you believe in. that's why i'm not particularly hopeful that this committee is going to come to some kind of agreement, because you are going to have democrats that clearly want to protect certain of the things that we want to protect, the social contact with -- compact with america and republicans who aren't going to want to do any revenue raising. i'm not sure the committee is going to be able to do anything better than boehner and the president did in negotiating. bill: if they don't, there are going to be cuts across the board. mark warner, democrat from virginia, said a week ago i want to be on this committee but they won't select me because i'm talking about it publicly. john kerry talked about a tea party downgrade three days ago and you wonder how the politics feeds into this. gretchen, last word from phoenix.

democrats and republicans created this problem and we can only hope that democrats and republicans will join together, find a little bit of compromise to put some solutions forward for this nation. they have to. bill: we'll see. gretchen, thank you, alan, bon jour! see you soon. alisyn: there is a desperate search underway after a maryland woman vanishes in aruba. why robin gardner's disappearance is drawing parallels to the other high profile missing person. bin laden bin laden and from of a, the taliban insurgents who shot down that american helicopter are dead. details on when and how, moments away. ñwkó

alisyn: a disturbing case of

dejavu, a maryland woman vanishes in the exact same town where natalee holloway disappeared in aruba, robin gardner who you see her told her boyfriend she was going on family trip but days later she was reported missing at sea in aruba by a man who she apparently sneaked away with. now that man has been arrested as searches begin for this missing 35-year-old woman. joining us now is investigator les levine who worked on the natalee holloway case. this must seem like dejavu all over again, with the similarities in the case. >> only the fact that it's aruba and basically the same town. alisyn: not necessarily. they're both obviously attractive blond women, they look similar. we have a side by side shot of them, they're both american, this happened in the same town in aruba where they went for a vehicle vay -- quick vacation and the men they were last seen with both have dubious stories about what happened to them. >> in that case, yes, i guess those are the similarities but it's not so

strange for somebody's story not to be exactly the same, each time they tell it, and to draw a similarity between this gentleman and joran van der sloot at the same period of time is probably an unfair analogy. alisyn: let's talk about this guy, gary giordano, he said he and robin went snarkel -- snorkeling and he was swept out to sea. this is so dubious on so many levels. it of the evening time, you can't see fish when you're snorkeling in the evening, and it was considered one of the calmest, most serene beaches. what do you make of this story? >> well, i'm not going to do what they did in natalee holloway's case and rush to judgment. i think the aruban authorities have to be extraordinarily careful in a case like this, that they don't focus on one individual at the possible exclusion of everybody else. alisyn: that's fine, but let's admit that his story sounds very fishy.

>> i think his story, based upon the facts that we know, sounds sketchy. i think the aruban authorities did the right thing under their law by detaining him so that he didn't leave the island, and i'm not even suggesting that what he's saying is, in fact, true. i'm only saying that don't rush to judgment, and focus all your energies on one individual. alisyn: you know of course that the aruban authorities took a lot of heat in the investigation of natalee holloway because it seemed as though they weren't moving fast enough, they weren't sort of getting their ducks in order quickly enough. do you think they've learned something that this time will be different? >> well, i would hope so. again, i must repeat myself and forgive me, but the aruban authorities in the holloway case put all their energies on joran van der sloot. >> because he was the last person to see her and had a dubious story that he was on the beach with her and he left her on the beach. >> well, it's only dubious if you choose to make it dubious. that's what he claims happened, and i've been to some of those beach bars at 3:00 in the morning, and i

have to tell you, i can take care of myself, and i was scared there. if she was, in fact, on the beach at 3:00 in the morning, god knows who could have happened to the little girl. alisyn: let's get back to the robin story because now we know that gary giordano has a violent past with other women, he was accused of violence and there were restraining orders out on him. those are not good signs. >> no, but let's not forget that in almost any met monial -- >> not of abuse. >> sure, it's not an uncommon complaint in a mountain ri monial and again, i'm for the defending him and i'm not telling him that he's not guilty, but i'm only saying let's not forget that there are other, perhaps, persons in this case and don't focus on him only. alisyn: we shall see what happens, les, thank you for coming in. you know a lot about these investigations and we appreciate it. bill: in a moment, a high

stakes election in wisconsin. who won? does this give us a glimpse of how we'll vote in 2012?

bill: here we goarks fox news alert now, awaiting action from the white house on this economic slump. markets reacting now to the announcement from federal reserve from yesterday, and that's where we are. down 317, holding interest rates, the fed is, at next to nothing for at least two years. that's 2013. the president is going to meet with the treasury secretary, tim geithner. what will they talk about? that, brand new hour, i'm bill hemmer. good morning. alisyn: remember you and i made a wager about what would happen to the markets and were wildly wrong? that's happening again today! good morning, i'm alisyn camarota, in for martha maccallum. americans are looking for a boost from the oval office for the recovery. bill: and republicans already criticizing the white house for this: >> it means the president will have to go before the voters. >> the president is the president. he's responsible.

i'm not evading responsibility. i'm also saying congress has not acted well, but the fact is, the president leads, the president is responsible, and we never got a specific plan from the president of the united states. that's not an opinion. that's just facts. bill: more now from ed henry, ed, good morning to you. how is this latest financial crisis playing out now there? >> good morning, bill. they obviously realize the urgency of the situation, the fed action that you mentioned certainly lifted the markets yesterday because they needed to add certainty that interest rates would stay low for the next two years. the flipside, until 2012 at least, the fed believes there's going to be slow growth, a weak recovery, much like we've seen in recent months. that's bad news for the president. you add that to the gallup poll that said 51 percent of americans believe he does not deserve reelection, only 47 percent believe that he does deserve a second term. i spoke to independent political analyst stu

rothenberg who basically said you put all of this together and it's going to be a rough year or so for the president. take a listen: >> it means the president will have to go before the voters to seek a second term in an economic environment that is probably unappealing to most voter, let alone politicians, and in an environment where people will be clamoring for growth, clamoring for jobs, and often the president pays the price for that. >> reporter: well, in fairness, the white house pushback is look, this president has reached out to republican leaders time and time again on jobs, on the decifit, on various issues, and they believe that republicans are not meeting them half way. if you look beneath the top line number on that usa today gallup poll, only 24 percent of americans believe that most members of congress should be reelected. so the point there is that for house republicans and senate democrats, their numbers are even worse than this president's numbers. bill: so what is the message from the white house today?

>> well, look, they've been saying day after day here, since this debt deal was cut, that they want to see congress when they come back in september to extend the payroll tax cuts, that would put about a thousand bucks in the pocket of the average person in this country, they want to see trade deals pushed through, patent reform, but the bottom line, no one of those issues, even if congress got it magically done is going to put a big dent in unemployment and that's a huge, huge problem for this president. bill: as we're talking the dow is dropping, down 337. thanks, henry. we are sailing through unchartered waters, the federal funds interest rate influences the short term and long term interest rate. now, the federal open market committee, a division of the federal reserve has kept that rate at a record low of zero to .25 of 1 percent since december 2008. before then, it was never below 1 percent. in perspective, now, that rate was 19-20 percent back

in the early 1980s, and that was a tough, tough time, too, alisyn. alisyn: we have brand new poll numbers coming out on the economy and they don't look good. a rasmussen reports poll shows 37 percent of americans think the economy is getting worse, that's up 30 points from the beginning of the year. consumer confidence is also plummeting, it's down 16 points from just three-monthing ago. bill got a fox news alert now, breaking news, a followup to that tragedy over the weekend that u.s. helicopter downed in afghanistan, we have more now from jennifer griffin live from the pentagon. there is breaking news on this. jennifer, what have you learned? >> reporter: what we've learned from general john allen, the main commander out in afghanistan, is that special operations forces on monday took out and killed the shooter of the chinook helicopter that caused 38 members to be killed on friday. they basically had local

intelligence tips, they followed a local mullah, a taliban commander, and the purported shooter of the chinook, they located them in a forest, they called in an f-16 air strike and they dropped a bomb on them. listen to general allen: >> we trapped them, as we would in the aftermath of any operation, and we dealt with them with a kinetic strike, and in the aftermath of that, we have achieved certainty that they, in fact, were killed in that strike. >> reporter: it's important to point out that the original operation on friday, the taliban leader that they were going after, they did not kill that taliban leader. they are still pursuing him. also, general allen said they would condition to continue to use should noeticking -- chinooks for these operations and it is usual for them to use them, and they will continue to do so. there were several other special operations missions, very similar to the one on friday, that caused that loss of life that took

place, that takes place every night and they will continue to do so. bill: what did he say, general allen, about the mission of the seal unit? and why they were sent in? because you've raised several legitimate questions for the past several days. >> >> reporter: that's right. he pointed out that they were part of what is called in military parlance the original package. they were part of the plan. and they were brought in at that moment, not because army rangers were under fire, not because people were pinned down, but because taliban insurgents were escaping the battlefield. he describes how this seal unit was being brought in to essentially contain those who were escaping. take a listen to general allen: >> elements that were escaping, and in the course of their attempt to depart the objective, we committed a force to contain that element from getting out. and of course, in the process of that, the aircraft was struck by an rpg and crashed. >> reporter: brigadier

general jeffrey colt of fort campbell, kentucky will conduct the investigation into the crash. he has a lot of experience with special operations and the 160th special operations aviation wing out of fort campbell, kentucky. bill: what a tragedy it is. jennifer griffin at the pentagon, breaking news on that. alisyn: let's talk politics, all eyes turning to iowa, where gop white house hopefuls, former governor tim pawlenty and representative michelle bachmann are taking jabs at president obama. >> doesn't smell good, got no focus and no direction. >> if you add to the debt, you're going to have more debt. what is it that standard &

poor's didn't want to see any more of? debt. alisyn: meanwhile, ron paul, who of course has a history of finishing very strong in straw polls looks like he could be the frontrunner in ahead of this week's events in ames. carl cameron is live in mason city, iowa. so carl, the first big debate in iowa is tomorrow. tell us what's at stake. >> reporter: well, it's really going to set the statement for that straw poll and the debate itself comes at an absolutely critical time with the dow down some 300 points, the debt crisis growing, the debt downgrade continuing to perplex the country and the world for the united states. it really is particularly significant, and there's a tremendous amount of riding -- amount riding on it. ron paul is favored to do well in the straw poll. he's actually campaigning with his son, rand paul, the kentucky senator who many think is positioning himself for a future run himself, but ron paul's presence in the straw poll versus

michelle bachmann's role in this are profoundly different and they are compete fog top position. michelle bachmann, there's a tremendous amount at stake. she has been incessantly criticized despite strong performances in the last debate and tremendous buzz on the ground here in iowa, home of the lead-off caucus. the ron paul-michelle bachmann battle at the top of the ticket is followed closely by tim pawlenty. tim pawlenty in minnesota has been struggling for traction in national polls but in this state more than any other candidate he spent a tremendous amount of time retail politicing, hand to hand, grip and grin politicing in small villages, in small diners with small crowds and that's ult -- ultimately how the straw poll and caucus have been won. so for pawlenty, this is the opportunity to make the three top. the cliche is there's three tickets out of the caucus state, on to new hampshire and north carolina and the

rest of the nomination battle. it's important for pawlenty to make it into the top three. there's a big question about rick santorum, the pennsylvania senator, and whether or not he can make number four in the upcoming straw poll and what he will be doing in the debate as well, the debate tomorrow, coming as it does, really becomes crucial. it will be the third debate in the process thursday far, the first one in which john huntsman, former utah governor, will be participating, so much, much to june followed. alisyn: it's going to be an interesting night, thank you very much for previewing it. fox news is the only place you can see the republican presidential debate, live from ames, iowa, cosponsored by the washingtonor examiner and iowa republican party. it's at 9:00 p.m. eastern time, tomorrow night. make sure you're there. bill: taking notes, right camarota? >> alisyn: absolutely. we must talk about it on friday. bill: we're going to have a lot on friday. a lot happening there. the federal reserve, meanwhile, says it will not raise interest rates for another two years. others argue that it cannot

keep. liz claman separates the facts from fiction in a moment here. alisyn: and voters had a chance to hand control to state democrats after a collective bargaining powers. who won yesterday and how does it affect the race for 2012? >> bill: good question. he was dragged under water and held there for up to 20 minutes. look at that picture. today a glimmer of hope for that young boy who nearly drowned beneath the pacific ocean. >> they never expected him to live. they expected him to be a vegetable. never walk. never talk. never say a word.

alisyn: all right, fox news alert for you now, do you the dow is down more than 400 points at this hour, 407, as i speak. that's not good. it's not going in the right direction. but obviously, we're a long way to the closing bell, and there was that crazy rally yesterday afternoon, so anything is possible. but at the moment, it's down, hovering around 400. bill: you are optimistic! that pretty much wipes out the gains from yesterday. alisyn: okay, with you there -- but there are many hours before the closing bell and with this super fall, it can bounce around throughout the day. bill: down 2000 points from the high from two weeks ago, 10,800 is where we are now. >> we should all be proud that in the midst of that

controversy, when this state could have gone in any number of directions, the people who care about this state engaged in a civil, legal, lawful, constitution ally provided process to resolve that controversy. bill: that is fred clark, he lost his bid, republicans beating back four democratic challengers in the recall vote yesterday. what you're watching is the fallout in the capitol city of madison and now we're wondering about the political fallout and how it affects 2012. matt kibbe is with us, from the wisconsin reporter. matt, good morning and thank you for your time. >> maybe it's on the local level, the national level, what does yesterday's outcome tell us, matt? >> well, america was watching yesterday. this is a series, an

unprecedented zeroes of -- series of elections of what is next for the political scene. but to read too much into this is difficult at this point. if people were expecting a seed change, they did get the status quo last night. that is to say, a continue ation, slight majority for the republicans, and as majority leader scott fitzgerald said, a continuation of the polices that were at the center of this controversy. bill: there was $30 million spent on this from both sides. you had money pouring in from every corner of america how is the political establishment gauging this outcome, matt? >> well, i think the republicans see this as a validation of some of the programs and the progress they've made in wisconsin on the economic front, certainly. certainly, with some of the changes that had occurred through collective bargaining, the budget reform bill that took a

$3 billion-plus decifit and turned it back into a balanced budget, the democrats see this as a push. they did pick up two seats. they narrowed that majority so far in the senate. but their big target, i believe, still, is the governor of the state of wisconsin. bill: scott walker. and that's an interesting point to examine next, now. now, he still now has the majority in the statehouse to continue to implement the programs that he thinks is right to dig wisconsin out of its debt problems. you know, what does this do for scott walker? and as i ask you that question, i remember some years ago in indiana, when the governor ditch daniels did a similar thing where he tried to correct the budget and get it back in the black as opposed to red. his numbers tanked, and now they're soaring, well above 60 percent. what's the future for walker, do you believe, matt? >> well, success breeds success. you have a lot of people who came out. remember, everybody was

supposed to be extremely angry, ready to turn out the republicans in this recall. that did not happen. now, it happened in a couple of districts, certainly in the 32nd, which was heavily democratic, voted for obama in 2008, then changed in 2010. wisconsin is a bellwether state if there ever was one, but i think that last night 's verdict by the voters gives walker and the republicans some confidence to move forward with their programs. bill: matt, thank you for your time, appreciate it. matt kittle, reporter on the ground there in wisconsin. alisyn: we are gearing up for the presidential debate in iowa, eight candidates will take the stage live on fox news channel, two appear to have the post to gain and the most to lose. bill: they are accused of a crime spree spanning two states. are police closing in on these fugitive siblings?

more than 1000 miles from home. >> we don't know why they come to our state and we don't know where they might be headed or what head they're headed in. this poses a major threat to the community we serve and law enforcement all over the state, local, federal states, or tribal.

bill: lrkts 22 minutes past the hour now, mandatory sex e devment classes are now back in new york city applicable schools for the first time in 20 years. the word mandatory is not entirely accurate. parents have the option to opt their children out. checking the big board right now, more damage on wall street, down more than 400 points in trading. that has only been 52 minutes into today's day. new evidence of china's growing military strength, the country's first aircraft

carrier, now being tested at sea today. twenty-three minutes now past the hour. alisyn. alisyn: following what's being called a credible lead in the hunt for those three siblings on the lam, police are trying to corner the doherty -- doherty clan in colorado, that is more than 1000 miles away from the scene of the alleged crime spree from florida and georgia. they're accused of opening fire on police with high powered weapons after refusing to pull over. now reports say they were spotted at an outdoor store, possible headed for a campsite. >> we have credible information on individuals that were sighted in the colorado springs area, about 1:30 this afternoon, near i25 and woodman road. these individuals are considered armed, dangerous, and we believe they pose a very imminent threat to the community that we serve and to law enforcement in general. alisyn: rod wheeler is a former homicide detective

and is making a rare appearance in the studio. obviously, when people are fugitives, hundreds and hundreds of leads pour in to police. what makes this so cred snibl. >> the thing that makes this case so interesting and credible, with this particular lead, is that the individuals that called this lead in to police gave specific informs. they actually said the color of the vehicle, as well as the license late. the license plate was the exact plate that they called in. so police know at this point this was a very credible lead. they actually went to one of these stores, rei, where they sell outdoor equipment and they actually verified. the police haven't said if they got videotape of the individuals in the store but i do suspect they probably do have videotape of them shopping in the store. alisyn: that sounds like it's for real. so they were at an outdoor store, shopping for goods. what does that tell you? >> let me tell you what they bought. they bought a tent and other types of equipment, the type of equipment that you would use if you're going to be

out in the wilderness for a period of time. that tells us in law enforcement these people plan on hiding out, but it also tells us they are not willing to come on their own, which means we have to go find them and unfortunately the police believe when we do find these individuals there's going to be some type of battle, they're not going to come pleasantly, we know that. alisyn: i've reported on fugitives long enough to know that many claim i'm going to go down in a hail of gunfire. with these three, it seems actually believable since they had a shootout with a police officer. >> not only did they have a shootout, and i don't know if the viewers actually saw the photos of the bank robbery, the first thing that came to my mind when i saw that woman with that ak47 in that bank robbery, notice how she had her finger on the trigger which is interesting. us in law enforcement, when we see that, we know we're dealing with the real thing, as a matter of fact, the fbi dhawls the real deal with these three individuals. so any time you see pictures like that, these people have their faces covered up and the type of weaponry we have, we know it's not going to be a fun party when we do

find these people. alisyn: that is really great insight, they had the finger on the trigger and willing to shoot at a police officer. that's beyond the pale. >> they shot 20 rounds at a uniformed police officer, they shot 20 rounds, they missed the officer, thank god, they got away, but i can tell you, the fbi, the department of justice, the u.s. marshal service, they are closing in on these individuals. they're somewhere in colorado. colorado springs area, which is about 20-40 miles south of denver. alisyn: of course it's not easy to find fugitives, we've seen this in the past, when they hide in the woods. how are investigators going to zero in on that. >> excellent question. there's a lot of techniques we have now, as well as a lot of new technology, where we can actually find individuals hiding in the woods based on temperatures, like that, body temperature, infrared, laser technology. there's a lot of technology. if these individuals are watching this show right now, the best thing for them to do is to turn themselves in. now, apparently, they don't want to come to justice, so it seems like the police may have to take justice to

them. alisyn: let's pray this can happen before any more violence ensues. here's the tipline. if anyone knows anything about the whereabouts of these siblings, you're asked to call 404-679-9000. rod wheeler, thank you very much for your expertise. bill: going to take some time to get them, right? >> the fed is promising to keep interest rates steady for two years. what does that mean for the economy? what does that mean for your bottom line at home? and she was riding her bike in front of her house and disappeared. we will talk to her father, who is desperate for his daughter to come home. >> people make mistakes, and i don't care where you drop her off, just make sure somebody can get ahold of her and bring her home. i love that my daughter's part fish.

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wish we had better news. hires the retirement, america. there is your 401k, now a 201k, we were down 400, now 376, this coming one day after the federal reserve said it will keep interest rates at record lows for the next two years. 2013 is the first time eyes ever donit's ever done anything similar to that. how much is that promise truly worth? here is an economist that says not very much. >> if the fed can't tell us specifically what it's going to do, it doesn't no exactly what is going to happen. the more promises made, the more liable the fed will have to come back later and change it because it has promised something it can't deliver on. bill: let's talk about this. liz clammer is with us. why did the fed do what it did for the first time ever. >> for the first time ever the

fed did that because the fed is almost, not quite, throwing its hands up we tried big asset purchases to float this market up. you probably have heard of qe2. bill: you print money with qe t. alisyn: in essence. some would disagree with it. you're inflating something to have people take more in the stock phabgt. today we have the problem that is of course not only the issue of getting the don't tree downgrading and the fed looking and saying what else are we going to do. can we really ask the country to deal with more printing of money, but also europe is a huge headline problem here, bill. if you're looking at the markets and all the gains yesterday it's actually not our fault today. the markets rallied on what the feds announced yesterday. bill: i thought the issue was in italy, now it's not italy it's france? >> franceess banks have exposure to italy and expose you are to

greece. stocks are down 20% at the moment in europe. lots of worries. bill: come back to the feds' move from yesterday. this is what i was trying to figure out. the business community has told us for three years that it needs direction from washington in order to go forward, and it has argued that it has not got even that direction. is this the fed's way of telling businesses in america this is your path for the next 24 hours. >> the fed made a strong statement saying guess what if you want to borrow money to grow your business, it's going to be free. we are very low on interest rates. they said, hey, don't worry about it until 2013. businesses don't have an appetite to grow because the demand for a lot of their products are not there. 75% of the s&p countries. mcdonald's, apples, intel, their

earnings look pretty well. bill: one final question here, if it were not a political statement yesterday from the fed it is clearly an economic statement and that is this. we are in for a slow, slog for at least two years. >> a hundred percent. what does that mean to you the viewer, and you with your 401k, your 529s, your pensions that are shrinking at the moment. live not just within your means, live slightly beneath your means. you've got to scale back a little bit. the government can't quite come up with solutions right now. the feds trying. we are at a very difficult point. bill: thank you. 3:00 every day monday through friday countdown to closing bell, only on the fox business network. check her out. thanks, liz. >> you're welcome. alisyn: growing concerns over the rise of special interest groups in politics. many now pushing their causes directly to voters, bypassing state legislatures, and using

ballot initiatives to pass new laws. dan stringer is live in seattle. tell us how these special groups are operating. >> reporter: they are taking some of the money that they used to put into lobbying state lawmakers and putting it into campaigns to get their laws passed directly by the voters. their first job is to kwaul my for the ballot. to do that they are paying people to gather signatures. it costs a lot of money to get on the ballot these days. take for instance three ballots that qualified all spent big money. a big real estate developer paid over a million dollars to qualify for a highway toll reduction. costco shelled out over $2 million on a come paeurpb to privatize liquor sells which benefits costco. this is being dominated by those with the deepest pockets. >> it's kind of turned out the opposition, rather than a

voluntary grass roots thing it's special interests getting themselves on the ballot and getting these things passed. amazon.com as qualified for the ballot with an initiative which would undo a state law which would require them and other e retailers to collect state tax. alisyn: there is any initiative to scale back this process. >> reporter: there is the initiative strategy center which pushes bills in all 24 states which allowed these initiatives and they are basically aimed at making it more difficult for these initiatives to qualify for the ballot. making signature gatherers register or prevent them from being paid. many are cautious about tweaking a system that has become a sacred cow among voters. >> a real good check and balance is the voters themselves.

making your case to the voters there has to be some limit on the government's ability to take more of our money. >> reporter: tim iman is a perfect example of how the sis people has changed over the years. he's made a career out of running campaigns, getting initiatives to the ballot. he is paid by big money donors to pay other people to gather signatures. special interests at work. alisyn: interesting how it works. dan springer, thanks so much. bill: note to self, don't drive a dump truck with the bed in the up right position. alisyn: good to know. bill: house houston, texas, that's what you got there, ali, a freeway shut down after a big rig ran into a highway sign during rush-hour. crews are worried the sign may have to take down. no one was injured. the tkrubg driver is okay. but look at that. it looks like a play truck you have at home. alisyn: yeah my 4-year-old plays with that very thing. listen to this incredible story. he spent about 20 minutes underwater. he nearly drowned in the pacific social and today there is a

small sign of progress for a young boy who was rescued just in the nick of time. bill: remarkable. counting down to the republican debate in iowa, about 36-some-odd hours away. a pivotal moment for at least through. do tim pawlenty and sant rick santorum have the most at stake. >> i've led and every issue. it's not just check being the boxes, it's having the courage to lead. yeah. 24 bucks later. that hurts. it's not like i really had a choice. snack on this. progressive's "name your price" tool showed me a range of coverages and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds. wow, that's dinner and a movie. [ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. t mostly savings.

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and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. alisyn: america is set to get tougher on syrian president sa bashar al-assad. the white house will ask him to step down as they prepare sanctions against the syrian government. at least 1700 people have been killed in that brutal crackdown on protestors since march. the new, tough stance will

accomplish remains to be seen. if you recall the u.s. used similar talk and sanctions against libyan leader gadhafi before taking part in the offensive against the regime. gadhafi remains in power and the fight with the rebels appears to have reached a stalemate. >> as i travel america it means too many of our fellow americans feel that america's best days are behind us. let me tell you, they are not. i grew up in a working class family, i led my state in a conservative common-sense direction. we can restore america's promise, i know that, because i've lived it, and i've lived the american dream. bill: that is the former minnesota governor tim pawlenty who has spent an awful lot of time in iowa over the last year. that was him in the last fox news debate in north carolina. as republicans gear up for the first debate prime-time, tim

pawlenty has a lot riding on this. and a lot of people are talking about rick santorum in the same breath. we have the chief correspondent. i want to start with pawlenty, he comes from a border state in minnesota. he spent an awful lot of time. it looks like he's treading water in some of these places. he is inning single digits in terms of approval. what is holding him back, susan? >> i think one of the things that is holding him back right now is michelle bachmann. there is a certain audience that the two of them are competing for and she is winning their support. it's conservative, christian conservative voters, and they are looking at the two of them and deciding that michelle bachmann captures more of what they want in a candidate.

it's also sort of his style. he's a low-key campaigner. he doesn't throw a lot of punches, and he's lied low on the campaign trail. i talked to a lot of voters to say pawlenty really appeals to them but they are not sure they know enough about him, and bachmann is more attractive and charismatic. bill: sometimes the low key approach works in iowa, you're going into people's homes and community centers and meeting with them in very small groups. for rick santorum why are people writing about him in the sense that he has to perform very well or it could turn a campaign south? why is that? >> well, like pawlenty, rick santorum is really at the bottom of the polls, and he is also competing for these same christian conservative voters. these are his very, you know, voters who should be supporting him. if he can't win here. now his chances in new hampshire are very slim.

he's really got to make a showing here. he stayed at the bottom of the pack, he hasn't shown any momentum at all, he's just sputtering out. if he wants to win campaign do donation or any support at all it's now or never for him basically. bill: what is practical, what is expected to move forward. you have to do well in the debate tomorrow night. what do you think top five finish in the straw poll start? >> well it's different for each candidate. for rick santorum most certainly top five. otherwise the question is why is he in this thing? pawlenty is polling about fifth. he really needs to do top three. he's a former minnesota governor, this is his contest. he needs to do well here or people are really going to question whether his candidacy can survive. bill: what's your expectation tomorrow night? what do you want to know, susan? >> i think i've talked to a lot of voters here throughout iowa and i think everyone's question

is about, you know, what these candidates plans are for helping turn the economy around and helping, you know, stop the downward spiral we've been seeing lately. that is what a lot of voters are worried about. they are worried about the debt and deficit. they are wondering when they will get a job, and some other big issues, foreign policy and other things. there are a lot of great questions that we're going to be asking the candidates and hopefully we'll get some great answers too. bill: we'll look forward to it. it's must-see television. susan in iowa. we are the only place you will see that debate. cosponsored by the washington examiner and the iowa republican party, 9:00 prime-time eastern time tomorrow night only on the fox news channel. alisyn: looking forward to it. let's check in with jon scott for what is coming up on "happening now." jon: how you doing on this wednesday? much more on the steep drop in the markets. what does all of this up and down mean for the economy?

and the all important jobs question. we are also keeping a close eye on england where riots have been raging in several british cities. they seem to be getting worse. an update on a story we have been following close lease, fugitive siblings on a run after an alleged crime spree involving high-powered weapons. where they could be now. go to foxnews.com/"happening now" for all kinds of good stuff, the chats, new instant polls and our "happening now" blog. we will see you on "happening now" just a few minutes away. alisyn: we'll be watching. thanks so much. all right. she has apparently vanished without a trace. there are new developments in the search for a missing 3-year-old, brianne rodriguez. her father will join us live next. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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doorstep. watch this amazing image. that's a 12-year-old boy rescued from the pacific ocean after being immersed for as long as 20 minutes. the man who saved him says he feared the worst, but after a couple of days dale ostrander has now opened his eyes and said a few words to his grateful parents, listen here. >> sobbing and crying and saying together there will be tomorrow. >> we were trying to get him to cough. he coughed once. you need to do it again, do more. i don't need to is what he said. he spoke, a full sentence, it was amazing. bill: doctors caution he might have brain damage but his parents are holding out hope and calling his story a miracle. they are right on about that, a miracle. alisyn: it is a miracle. the idea that he was underwater for so long we need to follow this and find out what happens with him. let's hope he keeps talking

there is a massive search effort underway in southeast missouri for a missing 3-year-old girl. little breeann rodriguez vanished over the weekend while riding her bike in front of her home. authorities are offering a $45,000 reward hoping it will help bring breeann home. her dad edgar rodriguez joins us now by phone. good morning mr. rodriguez. >> good morning. alisyn: we can only imagine the hell that you and your wife and your family are going through this morning and we're going to do whatever we can to help you right now. so, if you could just tell us the last time that you or your wife saw breeann and what the situation was. >> well, i woke up that morning, i went to work. i came back around 11:45, and i seen my wife walking down the road, and when i bumped into her she asked me in breeann was with

me, and i said, no, so she got in, we looked for her. she kind of explained to me what was going on, that breeann was playing outside with austin, my son, and that austin came in, and the lunch was ready, and she told him to get breeann, and austin, he's kind of forgetful when he goes out, so my wife already knows that, so when austin walked outside, my wife walked outside right behind him, and my wife had just seen breeann through the window not five minutes prior to that, and when they walked outside they couldn't find her, and she spent about 20 minutes looking for her before she tried to go get me. and when i got here i spent another 25 to 30 minutes looki looking, and then we dialed 911. alisyn: it's so scary.

we know that breeann was riding her bike with training wheels outside. has the bike been found? >> no, the first day we was looking for her we got excited, we seen a bike over by my aunt's house, the same exact bike she had, but she was still a little bit too small for the bike that we bought her, so i had to take one of the reflective lenses, right under the seat, i had taken that off to lower the seat about an inch more, but i seen that that one still had that, and the reflective lens on the front on my daughter's bike was kind of wiggly because i couldn't get it tight enough, and that one over there was tight. no bike has been found yet. alisyn: the bike is missing too. i know you just talked to police this morning. what new leads are they pursuing? >> they told me they got a

couple leads overnight, they are pursuing every lead and they are looking for a white van that was seen in the area. the first day somebody did mention something about a white van and an individual, and they apprehended him and questioned him and looked through the truck and they took the drawing the dogs through it, nothing came of it. now they are talking about a cargo van, no windows in the van, an older model van, an equal line or something like that. they say it has a ladder on the back for roof access. alisyn: a white cargo van with lettering on the back. we want to put up the tip line right now. it's (573)888-2424. as we also say if you don't have a pen just call 911 if you have any information on breeann, if you've seen anything that can help the rodriguez family.

sir, we are praying for you and we sure hope breeann will come home soon. >> we know she will. we know my daughter is just fine. our faith is still there, and we are praying and the whole community is praying for her. alisyn: edgar rodriguez, thank you so much. bill: you can hear the fear in his voice. bring her home safely and soon. take a look at this. look at the dow sinking like a ship. issues with europe today, some questions about france, i guess france has made loans to italy and france has made loans to greece. now there are questions of whether or not france can pay back its money. this after a whip saw yesterday with the fed late in the day. 10,842. alisyn: anything is possible. we have many, many pours to go before the closing bell, okay. bill: half full. alisyn: it's a good buying opportunity, bill. that's how i'm going to view this. bill: we'll be back after this.

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