he was in one of the most prolific song writing teams. dead at the age of 78. martha: what a contribution he made, amazing legacy in those songs. gregg: so many more. martha: thank nor being with us, everybody, we will ao*e see you right back here tomorrow. "happening now" begins right now. have a great day. jon: and brand-new information coming in right now on the track of hurricane irene, good morning to you. i'm jon scott. jenna: i'm jenna lee. hurricane irene is barreling down on the dominican republic as it heeds right towards us in the united states. the powerful storm is lifting up high waves and unleashing as you can see torrential downpours on the resort areas. jon: irene is a category 2 hurricane right now but getting stronger as it heeds for the turks and caicos as well as the bahamas. jenna: forecasters say irene

could grow to a category 3 today, meaning it would have winds as high as 130 miles an hour. that is strong enough to damage roofs, blow down shrubs and trees and cause extensive damage. jon: a category 4 storm which irene could very well become before it hits the u.s. packs winds as high as 155 miles an hour. here is an illustration of some of the kind of damage it can do. jenna: janice dean is live in the fox weather center tracking this storm. >> reporter: new advisories in hands, guys. we are still at a category 2, a hundred miles per hour sustained winds. we have new hurricane warnings for the northwest bahamas, the bahamas really going to take a lashing from thest storm as we expect it to become a category 3 within the next 12 to 24 hours, that is a major hurricane with winds of at least 110 miles per hour. 70 miles south of grand turk. the pressure has dropped, that means the storm continues to strengthen and the forecast is showing it will become a

category 3 major hurricane within the next several hours. there is the storm right now. you can see the higher, colder cloud tops in the deeper reds here. there is turks and caicos 70 miles away from them. this could be devastating for the bahamas, 700 islands make up the bahamas. as we take a look at the tropical storm models a little bit of divergence here. we will get new models within the next couple of hours. just 24, 48 hours ago we were talking about a south florida landfall. yes, we can certainly see some changes in the next several days. five days out there is usually a discrepancy of at least 200 miles on either side of the cone. so still looking at the outer banks here, there is wilmington, you're not out of the woods. you know who else is not out of the woods, the northeast and the new england coast as the storm continues to move up towards the northeast coastline. so folks need to know what your evacuation plans are in the next couple of days. we should start to see some watches coming out within the

next 12 to 24 hours across the east coast. and sea surface temperatures extraordinarily warm, certainly warm enough to support a major category 3 storm as we go further out in time. there is our official model as of 11:00. it has a little bit quicker now, west northwest at 12 miles per hour. a category 3 storm within the next 12 to 24 hours make its way dangerously close to the outer banks and continuing to brush up towards the mid-atlantic and the northeast coastline. it's been quite some time since we have seen a minimal category one hurricane across the northeast and it could happen this weekend, jon and jen a. make sure you know what your evacuation plans are. i know a lot of folks probably don't in the northeast. jenna: definitely good advice. is it still looking at a saturday-sunday landfall, is that when we're seeing it actually hit the united states? >> reporter: right, again, five days out, jenna, we have to really be careful.

these models change on a daily basis. right now this is the thinking, there is that center of that cone of uncertainty, where we think the storm is going to make landfall and right now probably overnight into sunday making a landfall again across the outer banks. but we can't rule out a landfall even closer here across the eastern carolinas and again out towards the northeast, maybe sunday, monday landfall across pourings of the northeast. we need to watch this. we'll be on 24-7 weather duty throughout the next couple of days. jenna: glad for it and certainly a developing story we are going to watch j.d. thank you so much. >> reporter: okay, jenna. jon: fox news alert for you now. heavy fighting and new reports of rebel forces storm -lg moammar qaddafi's compound in tripoli. live pictures there on the screen of thick clouds of smoke filling the tripoli sky. the sounds of gunfire and explosions rocking that capitol city. joining us now on the phone live from tripoli fox news producer

toddick. there are reports that moammar qaddafi's compound has been breached. have you had an opportunity to confirm that? >> yeah, jon, we've been speaking to a number of our news desks and watching the same pictures that you're watching and it seems like the rebels have made a dent in the compound and that they are trying to get inside and take the fight to the moammar qaddafi camp there. certainly from where we are from our vantage point, we can hear the sounds of the battle going on, loud explosion, tank fire, small arms fire. it's quiet here, so it sounds very close. we are getting even indirect fire probably from that battle landing near the hotel. certainly there is a major confrontation happening there, and it could be, you know, crucial in this struggle for control of this country, skwr*pb. jon: but nobody knows where today of requires inside that

compound, right? >> jon we don't. last night we had a surprise visit here at the hotel. it was seif al islam. they were very relaxed and they say they are in control of the area. i put my hand through the window and said the rebels said you were arrested days before, where is your father. he said, he's here, he's with us. i took that to mean he's in tripoli and part of the coordination that is going into this defense. seif al islam took reporters back and there were hundreds of people there hraoeupg up to get weapons and ammunition and going back to our kwras to fight. certainly they are in the neighborhood and we are told that a russian diplomat has been

in touch with moammar qaddafi and he said to that diplomat that he's staying, his tone was very defiant. if he's there, who knows. he's somewhere in tripoli according to his own words with. jon: a question of what is happening to all the libyan weapons. we'll get into that in just a bit. tadek markowski, thank you. fierce street battles across the capitol of tripoli. fresh violence comes a day after rebels swept into the city with relative ease claiming to have most of it under their control. meanwhile moammar qaddafi's exact location still unclear as you just heard from tadek. reports coming in that moammar qaddafi told a russian official that he is in tripoli and plans to fight to the end. as tadek just reported, his son, seif is making a surprise visit to a tripoli hotel where reporters are staying, delivering a defiant message.

>> we are here, this is our country, this our people and we live here and we die here and we are going to win. because the people are with us. that's why we are going to win. look at them. look at them in the face, in the streets, everywhere. jon: we are getting reports of libyan rebels advancing on an important oil terminal after taking control of another key coastal town. much more to come on the lightning fast goings-on in libya. jenna: new home sales down nearly 1% last month, and sales this year are on track to finish as the worst on record dating back half a century now. it's another sign of a struggling economy. in the meantime the president is reportedly about to unveil a rollback of some regulations with the hope that that may boost the economy. we are joined by gregory zuckerman, a senior writer for the "wall street journal." greg, a couple different things

to watch today. let's start off with the president, though, rolling back apparently some regulations like certain paperwork doesn't have to be done, or certain construction for railroad cars doesn't have to happen, rolling back regulation like that, will that help boost the economy. >> i think it will help marginally. i think we have much larger worries. the irony who is we dragged down the rest of the world in 2008 with our subprime crisis. this time i think europe could drag us down. we have slow growth, we could end up with no growth because of the european banking crisis. jenna: that is reflected in the stock market. >> today we are up sharply. good news coming out of asia towards manufacturing and good news out of europe as well. but our manufacturing data is weak, housing is weak. i'm personally concerned that consumers and companies after the stock market tumbled is going to reflect that. jenna: that's interesting because the associated press came out with a survey and their

economists that they looked at had the same feeling that the stock market could actually inspire more concerns for the consumers not necessarily because fundamentally the economy is that worse off than it was in 2008 but just psychologically. >> more than ever there's been academic data showing this. an impact on consumer spending, on corporate decisions by the very fact that the stock market is going down. frankly, a lot of people are excited about the fed, what can the fed do. i'm little skeptical about what can be done. jenna: they say unless the obama administration gets more involved to help ohm owners, and to help prop up this market. that would be a little political. there is no way to see a real recovery. alternate the heart of this crisis is the housing crisis. >> that is true. we have to get out of that. i'm not sure it's the government's role to do that. we've had artificial sweeters

juicing the economy the last few years, and they are wearing off and we're seeing the real growth unfortunately. you can throw money at things that happen, but long term we have to bottom out and i'm not sure what the government can do about that. jenna: i like that, splenda, the artificial sweetener. there is some question of what is going to happen on friday, that could boost the stock market and that may make us feel better. >> the fed may do more. they've done the quantitative easing, they could move and buy more bonds. frankly interest rates are already so low, mortgage rates are quite low. i'm not sure how much more the fed can do. we are in an environment where the government can't do that much due to our debt and the political situation. it's not clear how much the fed or the government can do. jenna: we'll see what the private sector can do. maybe that is a question for another time. jon more breaking news today. jon: fox news alert, jenna and dominique strauss-kahn the

former head of the international monetary fund has arrived at a courthouse you see there in lower manhattan where charges are expected to be dropped against him, charges in that sexual assault case filed by a 33-year-old maid who said that he attacked her in his luxury suite back in the middle of may. he has been under house arrest and spent sometime, a few nights in the rikers island jail. prosecutors yesterday filed papers asking that the charges are dismissed, saying that they could not ask a jury to believe the maid's story when they, the prosecutors did not find her to be a credible witness. this is a man who many thought could be the next president of france. whether he can still resuscitate his political career there is yet to be determined. but for now dominique strauss-kahn in a new york city courtroom where the charges against him are likely to be dismissed any minute now. we'll keep you updated.

rebels shelling moammar qaddafi's main compound in libya's capitol. gunfire and explosions ring out, smoke is still filling the skies over tripoli. is this the final battle for control of that country? live team fox coverage of all the late breaking developments. jenna: back at home sarah palin creating more political buzz, just ahead of her big announcement we now know a few weeks off, a new video shows her in iowa. does she have her sights on washington d.c.? the yes we're asking today, jon. jon: the book isn't even on stor shelves yet and it's already whipping up controversy. a diet book for kids, six to 12 years old. at the.com wall with this. >> reporter: people are saying, a diet book for little girls, that age, 6 years old. come on. go to our website, this is the "happening now" home page at foxnews.com. scroll down here, we have the

you decide poll here. do you think it's a good idea to have a diet book aimed at young kids? let us know your thoughts. we'll have more on the book and the poll results and more of "happening now" after a quick break. don't go away. okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole gin oats that can helpower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours?

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jenna: welcome back, everybody, fox news alert, developments inside libya or so we hear from reuters that is reporting right now that the rebels have breached the walls of the moammar qaddafi compound, that they were meeting resistance, and now that resistance is no more. the other report is that some of the rebels are actually inside the wall of the compound firing shots. again we only have one report from reuters on this. obviously it's tough to get firsthand accounts with the limitations of our ownre journalists inside the country at this time. we'll work to confirm the reports. reuters reporting now that the rebels are inside moammar qaddafi's compound. whether he's there or not is another question.

gregg: sarah palin is dropping major hints right now she might run for president anyhow. this video is causing all the buzz. she is seen interacting with voters in iowa, leaving voters with this cryptic message, see you again on september 3rd. so is alaska's former governor really considering a run or is if all fanfare. chris stirewalt is a politicse editor for fox news digital. are you making any predictions here, chris, it's awful tantalizing. >> you would go broke in politics if you tried to predict what sarah palin was going to do, jon. as you described all of the head scratching over this. there is one thing we absolutely know about sarah palin, she loves to torture the establishment political press. right now the back and forth, the will she, won't she, it's

the story everybody wants to cover and talk about and she loves keeping them guessing, so it's fascinating to watch. jon: we know she will make some kind of big announcement september 3rd, that's what the web video says. what is it going to be if not a presidential announc announcement. >> reporter: it could be a presidential announcement. it could be the endorsement of another candidate, rick perry or michelle bachmann. it could be the start of a new fundraising drive or new effort for her sarah pack to be as influential as possible in the nominating process. she is a big fund-raiser, brings clout especially in republican prime heirs he's. it could be anything. but she is obviously having fun with the mainstream press. jon: the sitting president has political challenges of his own not only in terms of job approval and so forth but also in terms of raising money. you say he is turning to the unions to try to make up some of the lost ground.

>> reporter: well, $400 million, that's what unions spent in 2008 on democrats, mostly on president obama's successful bid. he's going to need more than that this time around, because as we look at the polls and we see him basically in a dead heat with all four of the top finishers in the republican polls, mitt romney, rick perry michelle bachmann ron paul he has problems he needs to address pretty fast. we hear that the aflcio the nation's largest union is working up a super pack so they can raise and spend unlimited sums of money in an effort to help the president. he's going to go out there and rally detroit to try to get them behind hem because he sure is going to need some help. jon: chris stirewalt, author of power play. chris is going online. he will host power play 11:30 eastern time. you can find the link at foxnews.com skwraot latest on a big story we've been covering

for you now for several months. a connecticut man will face his family's alleged killer in court. why a judge is denying a request to keep william pettite out-of-court when a second suspect is tried for the horrific murder of his wife and two daughters. also let's talk about economic solutions, why the governor of montana says the only way to fix the u.s. economy is to run it like a ranch. ananannouncer ] this...is the network. a living, breathing intelligence that's helpi drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you.

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jenna: all right hrert on what

some are calling the first serious storm to thre threaten the united states in a longtime. janice dean gave us information on the path of irene. we have information from the national hurricane center in miami. we could see irene make landfall in south carolina on sunday and travel up to the chesapeake area also on that day. janice dean pointed out though we are several days out there are several different paths that could happen at this time as we watch the storm develop. one of the. patti ann: includes the storm not hitting the united states at all. something to keep in mind. we are starting to see some of the projections sunday, north carolina and all the way up to the east coast of chesapeake bay. we'll keep you updated as we hear more. jon: some developing stories we are keeping an eye on in the newsroom, dominique strauss-kahn arriving at a courthouse where

charges are expected to be dropped. this after a judge rejected a request for a special prosecutor in a case. prosecutors say rod blagojevich got a fair trial this year and his convictions should stand. he is scheduled to be sentenced in october. the death toll now rising from that stage collapse at the indiana state fair earlier this month. a cheerleading coach is dying from her injuries, making her the 7th fatality in that terrible accident. jenna: new information now in the case of a horrific home invasion and triple murder in connecticut, a story, rick we've been following so closely. now we are at the next stage here. >> reporter: we sure are jenna. defense attorneys said they did not want william petit whose entire family was killed in that crime to be inside the courtroom during an upcoming trial. they argued he had a, quote, quest for vengeance and could

influence jurors just by being in the courtroom. dr. petit will be allowed to attend the trial even on days when he ways not officially called to the witness stand. s wifend twoally killed in their connecticut home in 2007. he was beaten with a baseball bat. his wife was strangled and his daughters were tied to their beds before the house was set on fire. dr. petit escaped to a neighbor's house to call police but it was too late. this is the second person to face charges. his accomplice, steven haze was convicted last year and is currently on death row. back to you, jenna. jenna: rick, thank you. jon: well as our own federal government struggles with a big debt problem that tops $14 trillion many of the states now face budget short falls and painful cuts as well. but in a very few states things are looking mighty rosy.

montana is one of them. that state is not in the red, in fact it's projecting a budget surplus. plus, the state's unemployment level, 7.7%, much less than the national rate of 9.1%. so what is the secret to what montana is doing? well, could be running the state like a ranch. montana's governor brian switzer joins us now and he says that's how he runs his state, right? >> well, i've been governor for a little more than six years and all six of those jeers we've run the largest budget surpluses in the history of montana. we've averaged more than four and five years ago a lot of the states were awskh in wash. good times were rolling. instead of spending the money or allowing the legislature to appropriate the money we built the largest surplus in history. when the great recession arrived we just simply were drawing down

on those resources and i challenged every expense. i went after every expense in government. we stopped travel, started selling cars. we delayed purchases of computers, we renegotiated leases. we quit printing phone books. we had palladium coins that we gave to citizens of montana who had the best ideas for making government more efficient. we renegotiated the salaries with our state employees and they didn't get an increase in salary for two years. i start -d by cutting my own salary. we made it through the great recession, still have a big surplus. we didn't cut government. we didn't turn prisoners loose, layoff teachers, we didn't decrease our support for disabled children and our elderly. jon: you're saying washington needs to pay attention to the small things, needs to learn to pinch pennies the way you have been there. >> you can pinch pennies, you could renegotiate the purchase

of prescription drugs where they pay about two and a half times as much as the rest of the world. you could quit making aircraft carriers that the admirals say they don't need. you could quit taking fire jets that the air force say they don't need. you could quit using private security guards to patrol our military bases all over the world, including the united states, you could quit using private contractors to cook all the males at our military bases. there is a lot of things that you could do big and small but i think they ought to start in congress. every congressman ought to cut his own budget by 25% before they ask anybody in america to do anything. all they are in charge is a vote and yet they have teams of five, ten, or even a hundred people working for them. jon: i think our chatters are going to be with you on that one. let me ask you this. though, observers say it is less that you're running montana like a ranch than you're running it like a mine because you have a lot of minerals and oil in montana that have gone up in price and that is helping

balance your state's budget. >> well, it doesn't hurt, but those minerals are really only about 7% of our budget. 93% of our wealth comes from other folks in money tan a small businesses, large businesses. we've managed to cut more taxes during the last six years for businesses and homeowners than any time in history and still build these surpluses. sure we have a little oil and minerals but that is not the basis of montana's economy. jon: one more question for you governor, there is speculation that you'll be running for the u.s. senate. have you thought about it? >> oh, not much. i've got a dang smart border collie, he doesn't like the smell of skunks and i'm sure he's not going to like washington d.c. jon: governor brian switzer democrat from money tan a thank you. jenna: breaking news out of libya. we have reports that rebels are inside moammar qaddafi's compound. where he is is still another

question. what about his massive arsenal? how can we keep the loose republicans from falling into the wrong hands. a live report, inside information just ahead. ooh, you got snacks! 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. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive.

everybody. we have a fox news alert and just word from the associated press that hundreds of libyan rebels have stormed qaddafi's main military compound in tripoli, this after hours of fierce gun battles, again, just one report from the associated press, following a report from reuters, about

basically the same thing, the question is, where is qaddafi. another question is, what about qaddafi's weapons? u.s. officials say the embattled dictator is sitting on tens of thousands of rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, surface to air missiles and other items. what happens to this arsenal when qaddafi falls, what's happened so far? national correspondent catherine herridge is taking a closer look at this from washington today. first of all catherine why did qaddafi have so many surface to air missiles, what was he preparing for? >> reporter: thanks jenna. after his compound was hit in 1996 in retaliation for the bomb thank killed two u.s. servicemen and injured 69, qaddafi began hoarding the shoulder-fired missiles vowing it would never happen again and if necessary he would use these weapons similar to what you see here to take down an enemy boumer -- bomber and military analysts say the weapons are easy to use and take very little training. >> anyone who basically

shepherds goats could learn how to use a man pad and be effective. all you do is aim it, pull the trigger, and forget it, it goes off and seeks the aircraft on its own. >> reporter: the intelligence committee has been briefed on libya and the western issues tells fox the government doesn't know where the weapons are and how many that we're actually talking about. >> it's the one country that has the highest number of these shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles in that whole region, in the continent of africa, in the middle east. it is staggering that the -- to the length of which qaddafi went to purchase and implement these particular weapons systems and what makes us nervous is there's not a full accountability. >> reporter: without getting into classified information rogers says he's pushing the administration for aggressive action to keep these weapons safe. jenna: one of the other things we're curious about is weapons of mass destruction and whether or

not those exist inside libya. >> reporter: well, right. after the invasion of iraq in 2003, qaddafi promised to give up wents of mass destruction after the visit from the number 2ccappus who warned the u.s. would not tolerate wmd programs and while most were given up, some weapons remain. >> they gave us a lot of the chemical weapons and the outlines of their biological program, but we know they experience with serin gas, we don't have that fully accounted for and they have very high grade mustard gas that is still available and would be incredibly dangerous in the hands of al-qaeda or others, rogue elements. >> reporter: the security of these chemical weapons stockpiles is a matter of debate. some u.s. officials say it's relatively small and it's secured by the libyan military but congressman rodgers says we've had no recent assurances that is in fact the case jenna. jenna: so many questions still remain catherine,

thank you very much. >> you're welcome. jon: for more on the fast moving developments, let's bring in author and libya expert ronald bruce st. john. moammar qaddafi, quite apparently on his last legs, is he the kind of guy who would fight to the death? i mean, would he take his own life, would he give himself up to be tried? what do you think? >> it's very difficult to say, but certainly, from watching him for almost 40 years as i have, there's every reason to believe that he's not going to surrender, and he's probably not going to take his own life. so he will either try to escape somewhere or fight to the death. and probably the latter is the more likely scenario. jon: so what comes next, what kind of government do we see in libya after qaddafi? >> well, i'm cautiously optimistic, tempering that optimism with reality. i think the transitional national council has made

some good first steps in terms of laying out a broad outline for a future government which involves the consuls forming a committee which will then write a constitution, which will then be subjected to a referendum and that would be followed by a national election. so i think we see some positive developments on the part of the transitional national consul, another very positive sign has been the way local municipalities, as the rebels have taken control of them, have formed their own peoples' committee to run traffic, manage traffic, to make sure water and electricity are flowing, and so forth. we're seeing some positive signs. on the reality side of the equation, we must understand that qaddafi's system -- qaddafi systematically destroyed civil organizations and civil institutions in libya. so the libyan people have very little to build on to

start with. they're going to have to create institutions, they're going to have to gain experience in manning civil organizations, and in running a democracy. so there's going to be some lumps in the road. there's going to be some mess iness about the process. but i think there's every reason to believe that they want to work together and maintain a single country, and that they'll work their way through some of the problems we're obviously going to see. jon: it looked yesterday like his government was about to fall, then all of the sudden, his son shows up in one of the journalist hotels there and says everything is fine. what do you make of that? >> i think it's, first of alling, inexplicable exactly how the transitional national consul thought they had saif al islam qaddafi and that he's now running around free again. i can't explain that. but what i do see there is the continuation of a

delusional strain on the part of qaddafi and saif and the other sons, where they continue to talk about the tribes rising up, the people being behind them, s aeufplt f yesterday said they controlled 80 percent of tripoli and so forth. jon: let me -- >> i think that delusional aspect continues to be very obvious in terms of their statements. jon: ronald bruce sa*eupbt john, thank you very much. let me just interrupt you to say that the reports are that the rebels are inside qaddafi's home there, as we watch the smoke continue to boil in the skies over tripoli. jenna: good question -- big question about where he is now. there's certainly so much more happening in libya. we'll stay on those developments for you. in the meantime, this is the top talk of today, a children's book geared towards girls, deals with a little girl being overweight, it's causing a whole bunch of controversy. child advocates call this book dangerous. is it?

we're going to talk live to the author of "maggie goes on a diet", next.

jenna: a fox news alert, hurricane irene taking aim at the united states and according to the chief for the u.s. federal emergency department, he says basically, jon, the entire east coast of the country has to be on alert for irene. several days away now, but a big warning. jon: millions, millions of people could be in the line of this thing. wsbn's robert jordan spent a morning at a home depot store in miami. >> reporter: good morning, john jon and jenna. a lot of people are preparing for the storm and that means that home improvement stores are preparing for them, they've got the storm supplies out, things like batteries, flashlights, even sandbags in case there may be any flooding from the storm, and

then there's this, very important rope, to secure any boats on the water as many people get ready for whatever irene might bring. >> we stay prepared, 12 months out of the year. >> reporter: how do you do that? buy ahead of time? >> i got a big box out in the garage that i keep hurricane supplies in. and i got shutters and everything at the house. we're ready to go. >> got batteries in the enclosesel. -- closet. other than that, we're waiting. >> reporter: a lot of people picking up what they need and they say if they don't use it for this storm, there's always the next one. jon and jenna, back to you. jon: robert jordan reporting for us from miami. jenna: looks busy there. jon: it is. i lived there 15 years. they hadn't had a big storm for 15 years and then came hurricane andy. jenna: and this is the biggest one the united states will see they say in three years. it's strengthening as it

approaches the united states. the question is will it continue to strengthen from florida to massachusetts. all of us on the east coast could be affected. for the latest, head to foxnews.com, we'll track that for you. in the meantime, overseas in libya, we're getting word that the e.u. is preparing to potentially unleash the assets, unfreeze the assets of libya. the question is who would get the assets next, is it the rebels that we're reportedly are hearing are inside qaddafi's compound right now? a lot of questions remain. we'll keep you updated on the situation in tripoli. at this moment, a brand new toxicology report find illegal drugs did not cause the death of amy winehouse. what medical examiners says killed her and what her family says really ended the young singer's life.

jon: right now, toxicology reports are tkphog on the late grammy winning singer amy winehouse and while it looks like the troubled pop star may have been drinking, there's no indication apparently that illegal drugs played a role in her death. rick folbaum has more. >> reporter: that's right, jon, this is according to amy winehouse's family, these are not official statements from the police or coroner or anything like that but according to the wineline family, they say -- winehouse family, they say no illegal drugs were found, that she was found in her london home, the 20-year-old gramry winninger -- winner had a well publicized years-long battle with drugs and alcohol. friends have told british tabloids she had been overdoing it leading up to her death with alcohol, ecstasy, another report has quoted a friend of hers who has come forward to say that he helped her buy crack cocaine and heroin the night

before she died but again, the family saying no drugs or found in her body. alcohol was found but not the drugs. we'll keep you posted. jon: thank you very much, rick folbaum, breaking news desk. jenna: a growing controversy over a new book called "magie goes on a diet", which tells the story of a one -- 14-year-old overweight girl, she shed pounds, gained self-esteem and goes on to be a soccer story. some say it deals with the growing problem of childhood obesity and others say it's plain dangerous. we're joined by the author, paul cramer. you've written a bunch of children books, why did you decide to write one about a little girl going on a diet? >> it wasn't necessarily for a little girl, i wrote previously books on boys, and girls that were con sheenshus about weight -- conscious about weight and boys are not as concerned.

i thought it would be more effective with a girl. jenna: some say that's the issue with the book, that little girls grow up into a world where they become body-conscious early and some of the book sellers say this book is geared towards readers as young as six or maybe as young as four. >> not so. jenna: not so? >> not so. this book will be read to children, and these children might be six or seven or eight years old, but i'm not advocating, never did, that any child should go on a diet. first of all, this is a change of lifestyle. this is not meant to be to go on a diet, and the word diet, if we say what is your diet for today, or what is your daily diet, it's used in a lot of different ways. jenna: but in this book, maggie is going on a diet. >> no, maggie happened to have gone on a diet, she made that decision herself because she was fed up, she

wastiesed all the time -- teased all the time, she could hardly move, she loves to play sports, she would run and she would fall and sweat and sweat and she wanted to be better. jenna: so after she goes on a diet, and here's another criticism of the book, some say all of the sudden she becomes skinny, then she becomes popular with the guy, she has a great life, she's happy, she's full of self-esteem and some say listen, that's the wrong message of tieing weight to happiness, that there's not a direct connection there. >> well, if one is obese and one loses a bunch of weight, and one becomes fit, i think the rewards of just accomplishing that is good enough, whether they become a soccer star or not, and maggie doesn't happen to be a very beautiful girl, she's an average girl -- >> jenna: she's pretty cute, she's got pig tails! >> she's cute. jenna: we're going to have

to run. we're showing the book cover, it's not out yet but certainly a lot of buzz ahead of its release. thank you for coming in. >> may i say one thing? >> jenna: i have to run. we have breaking news, we have the the results of our poll who are tackling this topic. >> we did, jenna, and a lot of people going to the website and you can take a look, the numbers are close as far as people who thought the book was okay versus those who have a problem with it, 51.3% say yes, it's good, given the obesity rate in the country and almost 49 percent say no, kids have a tough enough time as it is with body image. thanks everybody for participating. jon, over to you. jon: we have this fox news alert, rick. the current case against dominic strauss-kahn is over, new york state supreme court justice michael obyss dismissed several sexual assault charges against dominic strauss-kahn, the former head of the international monetary fund. prosecutors said there was evidence of some kind of sexual encounter that had

taken place, those were -- these are live pictures i should say, outside the courthouse in lower manhattan, where they are awaiting his exit. some kind of sexual encounter had taken place, but prosecutors said the maid who charged him with sexual assault turned out to be an unreliable witness, they could not ask a jury to listen to her testimony when they the prosecutors didn't believe her, dominic strauss-kahn, a free man, facing no criminal charges. back with more in a moment. medicare. it doesn't cover everything.

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jenna: a fox news alert on the battle raging for libya. heavy fighting on the ground, nato jets in the air and colonel gadhafi vowing he'll fight until the bitter end. hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: and i'm jon scott. thick smoke and the sound of heavy explosions filling the air over tripoli right now, and rebel forces have been seen inside colonel gadhafi's heavily fortified compound in the center of the libyan capital after several hours of fierce resistance from his supporters.

the rebels now claim they have actually entered gadhafi's home. steve harrigan is streaming to us lye from the very -- live from the very dangerous city of tripoli right now. steve? >> reporter: jon, we're in downtown tripoli, and i can tell you there's a tremendous amount of gunfire, small arms fire going on street to street. some of that gunfire appears to be celeb rah story, but some appears to be gun battles. much of the fighting today has focused on or around colonel gadhafi's compound be. there's small arms fire right there, and that's not celebration. we've seen that compound get hit multiple times and great plumes of smoke rising from that level. we've seen rebels driving in from the southern mountains, they want to defeat him. reuters is reporting that celebratory gunfire is coming out from around gadhafi's compound, but no sign or proof

that gadhafi has been taken or killed in the fighting. pentagon officials say it is still an extremely dangerous situation while the rebels do control most of the city. i can tell you that while drive anything today, the outskirts of tripoli seem almost like a usual city. women were out and driving cars, we saw a lot of green uniforms on the ground so, obviously, a lot of gadhafi forces shedding their uniforms now, trying to blend into the population. it is an extremely tense situation on the ground. most of the checkpoints we saw were rebel checkpoints set up letting cars through, but on occasion there have been reports that gadhafi forces dressed in rebel uniforms or, perhaps, with rebel flags have stopped people and then slaughtered them. there are unverified -- somewhere small arms fire behind me -- there are unverified accounts of slaughter in the neighborhood by gadhafi forces in the neighborhood of that presidential compound. certainly, that is where the fighting has been the toughest,

and that is where the casualties will be the largest. also an appearance today by gadhafi's son, seif, earlier in the day to press the flesh and say he and his father are still fighting, but it looks like, certainly, this is the end game for colonel gadhafi. whether it's over, certainly the momentum swinging hard toward the rebels right now in tripoli. but still a dicey situation here. jon, back to you. jon: obviously, dicey. steve harrigan doing a great job there. thank you for your reporting, steve. jenna: certainly a developing situation. we're joined by former u.s. ambassador to the united nations, bill richardson. governor richardson, we talked about back in march, five days in to what was a new mission in libya, and now here we are today. what should your initial thoughts? -- what are your thinkable -- initial thoughts? >> president obama's policy worked because we let nato take

the lead, we prevented through the nato air strikes huge killings, especially in the benghazi area. we got the rebels along with nato to start working together. they were very divided, rag tag. it seems that they're coming together. and then last lay, they have -- lastly, they have, hopefully, captured the country. now, the tough stuff starts, and that is, one, it's important that the rebels not have recriminations and violence against gadhafi and his supporters. there should be an effort to bring gadhafi before the international criminal court. and i think it's important that the allies unfreeze some $30 billion in assets that gadhafi had that libya has for democratic transition. but it's not going to be easy because there's a lot of tribal and ethnic conflict in libya. 140 tribes or so that got no democratic institutions. it's not like egypt where they

have some kind of democratic institutions. so it's still going to be a tough row ahead. jenna: we were talking to ambassador boltton yesterday, and he described the difficulties of bringing this tribal nation together. he said there is a real chance of a permanent state of anarchy of some sort, of chaos. and that, as you mentioned, can be dangerous for several reasons. how involved should the coalition be? you say the coalition's been successful so far, how involved should the coalition be over the next several weeks and months? >> well, they should be really involved, and again, nato should take the lead, countries that have major stakes there like italy, like france, like britain. and i think those leaders, sarkozy, cameron, berlusconi, deserve credit for having taken the military lead there. and i think the u.s. deserves enormous credit because the sororities, the air strikes were nato, namely american war

planes. so we need to be engaged, let the europeans take the lead, get involved in creating democratic institutions, civil society, a transition government. it's going to take, again, i think ambassador bolten, one of the few times that we agree, it's going to take some time for this rag-tag group that have shown enormous resilience. they were so divided before, but they've come together to, basically, not start attacking the gadhafi supporters. talk about national unity, try to find ways to set up democratic institutions because they have none. jenna: on that, that brings up the question when you're talking about unfreezing billions of dollars, who exactly those billions of dollars are being funneled to. again, these are some of the questions we're not able to answer today. there's been a lot of talk about what the coalition should do next not only in if libya, but maybe outside of that. when we talked back in march, one of the things this you said that was so important that we do

in libya is stop gadhafi from be slawlgterring his own people. now human rights groups in syria are saying president assad has murdered 2200 of his own people, so should the precedent that was set in libya be applied to syria? >> well, to an extent, and i think president obama and the allies are having a sensible policy. we've started very strong international sanctions against the regime. we've called on the regime to step aside. we're freezing all of their assets as much as we can. we've got a coalition of european countries, there germany can play a very important role tightening the noose around assad, getting arab countries to participate. the problem, though, is assad controls the armed forces, he controls the institutions. and what the syrians don't want us to do, the syrian people, is a military intervention. this is a very important, strategic area, and we have to be very careful.

but once again i think the cautious policy of president obama that he applied in libya eventually worked. and i think the same kind of pragmatic policy of tightening the noose, being strong in terms of international sanctions, hopefully, will do the same to assad as what happened with gadhafi. jenna: you've met with president assad in the past, and i'm curious your thoughts on thousand approach a leader -- on how to approach a leader like him at this point. where, obviously, syria is located is so crucial in the middle east, and its implications are a lot different than libya. what would be your strategy besides the sanctions? is there something else that should be done at this moment? >> well, he's very hard line, assad, he is so insulated. he has a dayty complex -- deity complex. i think it's very difficult to try to negotiate with him directly either through envoys,

either through the united nations. i think you first have to show some strength, some force. that is starting to happen. and then i think he will recognize that possibly the end is near. but what we need to do is have a coalition of european countries that deal with syria. arab countries that deal with syria. get involved to pressure him, to isolate him. and those steps are being taken. and i think eventually as has been the arab spring, the tyrants of the middle east are vanishing. and i think that's what's going to happen to assad. but it's going to take quite a bit of time, i believe. jenna: it's interesting to see the timelines. again, when we talked back in march, we maybe wouldn't be able to predict that here we are now in august, here we are in libya. we are seeing some international pressure, turkey on syria. again, the question is where does the strength come from, who's the leader on that? and it's a topic we're going to talking a lot about. one of the countries that seems

to make noise when we're not as focused on them, governor, is iran. and iran just displayed some missiles today. we do have the u.n. meetings coming up in september, and i'd like your take on this other story we've been following so closely. you've been called in as a negotiator in an unofficial or official capacity in north korea, sudan and iraq. we have two american hikers that are currently being held in iran now, and the question is what should be done. have you been called on to help with that? is there any way you see that a strategy can be implemented to help get these two americans out? >> well, these are two very good americans with great families that have suffered a great injustice by the iranian regime. especially since they released one of the three, a young woman. it's a total miscarriage of justice. these are not spies. what needs to happen, and i believe the administration is doing this, through third parties, through third

countries, united arab emirates to put international pressure on the regime. clearly, the iranian regime wants something in return, either an iranian in american jails or some kind of gesture which i believe the united states should not engage in. this is a humanitarian case. i was involved early on informally, and i know the family, i be i think -- but i think it's very important that here once again international pressure. we don't have a relationship with iran. but, again, focusing the world's attention on this miscarriage of justice, these are two hikers that are being charged with being spies. it's absurd. and they should be allowed to come home. jenna: iran doesn't seem to care though, governor. iran just doesn't seem to care what other countries think about iran. so does that pressure, is that really the best strategy right now? >> well, yeah. iran has released prisoners,

iranian-americans, others in the face of a lot of international pressure. but, again, this case they seem to want to make the two hikers a big bargaining chip, especially with the united states because it's so important to us. so the only way you can continue is international pressure, some kind of negotiation. hopefully, the swiss and others are looking at some negotiation. maybe eventually it's going to take a tit for tat. but, clearly, when it's a decidedly humanitarian case, the iranians should release them on a humanitarian gesture, and they can end up, basically, if they do that looking like reasonable people which they are not. but i really feel for those families and those hikers. they've suffered enough, and they're totally innocent. jenna: we do as well, sir. as always, it seems we cover a lot of ground, you and i, when

we get together and have a conversation. we appreciate you joining us today. >> the thank you, jenna. thanks for having me. jon: a fox news alert now and major developments in the alleged sexual assault case that made international headlines moments ago. a supreme court judge for the state of new york dismissed charges against former international monetary fund chief dominique strauss-kahn. julie banner the as live at the new york city supreme court. >> reporter: once again international headlines as hundreds of different media outlets from be all around the world, spectators, protesters watching and waiting to hear the verdict from the judge skipping the prosecution -- accepting the prosecution's case to dismiss the case ruling there was not enough evidence, that they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that attempted rape and sexual assault among the seven charges placed against dominique strauss-kahn could be proved. here is the judge making that ruling, and while this judge

spoke i'm told by one of our producers in the courtroom a slight smile came to the face of dominique strauss-kahn. take a listen. >> as the court is aware from our filing of yesterday, the people are recommending dismissal of the indictment in this case. before i state for the record the basis for that recommendation, allow me first to advise the court that we did not arrive at, nor do we take the decision to recommend dismissal in this or any case lightly. it was only after careful and thorough evaluation of the evidence and our thoughtful, collective deliberation that we determined we must take the course of action that we take here today. >> reporter: the former imf chief, in fact, has said that this entire ordeal had been a complete nightmare, and just moments ago we have video of dominique strauss-kahn being escorted out of the courtroom with chants and screams of many on every side of the street, on every corner. cordoned off, protesters holding

up signs shouting that this was an injustice, that a woman who was raped will seek no justice. however, she is seeking criminal charges, rather, civil charges against him seeking undisclosed financial damages against him. we're also told he was reportedly planning on flying back to grant today, but the maid' attorney has filed an emergency appeal. now, the judge gave that appellate court about 30 days to render a decision. however, we're told that decision should come in later today, whether or not they will accept that appeal or not. so in the meantime, dominique strauss-kahn off on his black suv back downtown to his townhouse. once that appellate court makes that decision, he'll be heading to jfk on the first plane out back to france. back to you. jon: one of the most powerful man in the world now free of all criminal charges. julie, it is a stunning

development. thank you. >> reporter: yeah. jenna: this fox news alert. hurricane irene another big story for us, reports it could be a category three or four by the time it makes landfall along the east coast somewhere. we do have new reports that authorities in north carolina are already ordering mandatory evacuations that begin tomorrow morning. all visitor on one of the barrier islands must leave by 5 a.m. on wednesday. we have a view for you of the storm from outer space, it gives us some perspective to just how big it is. meteorologist janice dean was the first one to warn us about this storm traveling up the east coast, potentially up into the massachusetts area, j.d., and it seems like that's certainly creating a lot of buzz right now about where this storm is headed next. >> reporter: absolutely. people all along the east coast really from the carolinas up to maine need to be making your preparations now because it does look like we could potentially have a storm, a category three

storm, that could impact tens of millions of people. i just want to show you the east coast potential impacts, this is with the latest computer models and that latest cone of uncertainty. winds in if excess of 100 miles per hour for coastal north carolina, but looking up towards the coast, chesapeake bay area, washington, d.c., new york, we got 8-10 inches of rainfall there a nontropical rain system just a week ago, and winds in excess of 50 miles per hour. so this is going to be widespread really from coastal maine all the way down to the coastal carolinas. so we have to really pay close attention. it's going to affect a lot of folks. in the immediate future, all across the length of the bahamas, a category two, a category three storm, a major hurricane that could wreak havoc across those islands and really could be devastating. here's our cone of uncertainty as we go further out in time. thinking right now a potential landfall across the coastal

carolina area, north carolina, cape hatteras, and there's the chesapeake bay as a category one, a minimal hurricane sunday. so this is going to be an all-weekend event. now, as we go out four to five days, a little bit of discrepancy with those computer models, but really i can't stress enough folks need to pay close attention to -- and know what your evacuation plans are. they're already issuing those plans across the coastal north carolina region, and i'm expecting we'll see hurricane wamps up within the next 12-24 hours along the east coast. there's the satellite right now, category two storm, expecting a category three, a major hurricane within the next 12-24 hours, devastating effects across the bahamas, and we are going to closely monitor this and work all weekend because this could be an event, one that we haven't seen in decades, jenna. jenna: wow. a warning to be heeded. thank you so much, janice. more as we get it. jon: get the pumps ready and have a flash light at hand. in the meantime, this fox news

alert, major developments and new pictures inside gadhafi's compound in libya. we're right back with developments as the rebels there say they have breached his compound. more in just a moment. ♪ it was the best day -woohoo! -yes! ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day yeah! ♪ it was the best day ♪ because of you [echoing] we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors. we make a great pair. right, totally. uh... that's what i was thinking. covering the things that make the outdoors great. call or click today.

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jon: a fox news alert now on libya, some major developments there. the rebels say they have breached gadhafi's compound. they toe airplanes -- nato airplanes have been flying low overhead but have not been bombing that compound, or so we are told. you can hear some of the large explosions in the distance on this video just in to the fox newsroom. moammar gadhafi himself has not

been seen today. his son was seen yesterday, came out to a roomful of reporters at a hotel where many of the international reporting staff are staying and, basically, said we don't have a problem here. but to all other observers, it looks like this is the end of the tbaf my regime -- gadhafi regime after more than 41 years of often brutal rule in libya. the question is, what comes next? our steve harrigan is there, we'll have more reports as we get them and as the situation warrants. jenna: turning back closer to home now, the obama administration is peeling back some federal regulations, that's what we're hearing today, outlining some changes that will reportedly save businesses at least $10 billion over the period of about a decade. critics say, though, that is just a drop in the bucket. let's talk to chief white house correspondent ed henry who's live in martha's vineyard where the president is vacationing with his family. a busy vacation at that, ed. we expect a major announcement

about the cutting of red tape, the question is what red tape are we really talking about here? >> reporter: well, jenna, you're right. it's, basically, trying to ease some regulations for railroad companies, for example, various companies who may be able now to file forms electronically instead of actually filling them out, mailing them in. some small regulations like that. but as you say, the administration says it's going to add up to a lot of dollars. cass sunstein who is sort of the regulatory chief in charge of this had an op-ed in the "wall street journal" where he said we are taking immediate steps to sieve hundreds of millions of dollars every year in regulatory burdens. the reforms have the potential to save billions of dollars more over time while maintaining critical health and safety protections for the american people. i used that very phrase, a drop in the bucket, on a conference call just a few moments ago saying that critics at the u.s. chamber of commerce saying when you look at health care reform implementation and the dodd-frank financial regulatory

reform bill, that could really, this could end up being a small step, a drop in the bucket, if you will, compared to some of that implementation. take a look at this from the chamber of commerce, their numbers. health care reform will create 159 new agencies, commissions, panels and other bodies. the dodd-frank bill will create 447 required or suggested rulemaking, new regulations. cass sunstein basically said, look, if this new initiative is a drop in the bucket, i want a piece of ha bucket, jenna. [laughter] jenna: you rightly point out, two sides to the story. truth probably somewhere in between, and we'll wait to see more of the details, ed. thank you very much. ed henry. >> reporter: thanks. jon: well, there are some signs of trouble for the president's plans to be reelected. new polls show president obama in a near dead heat with four separate republican presidential

candidates. according to the gallup poll, president obama trails mitt romney. he's tied with rick perry who just announced and has a slight advantage over ron paul and michele bachmann. how big an issue is this? let's bring in a. b. stoddard, associate editor at "the hill" newspaper which covers all things political in washington d.c. a.b., if you are an advocate of the president f if you're one of those who wants to see him reelected, these are not good numbers for the most powerful man in the world really. >> no. and ditch with the state of the economy and the window of time that president obama has to try to improve the economy, democrats are very worried about his standing, and i think that these numbers probably take the administration by surprise. i mean, i don't think at this point, um, that those sort of untested republican contenders, they've been candidates a while but not very long, to show them in matchups with the president doing that well is not a good sign at all.

jon: yeah, i mean, ron paul has a national following from his previous campaign for president. michele bachmann, you know, has drawn a lot of attention for her tea party advocacy, but both of them are members of congress, and to have them essentially tie with the a sitting president is absolutely astounding. >> it is true, because they don't have the name id that mitt romney has who ran last time and has the national identification. as a republican, it's really a bad sign for the president, and i think, you know, the president and his team know, you know, if election were held today, it's very likely he would lose. they're hoping that there is still time to turn things around with the economy, that there's still time to win a debate about the size of government and the role of government in a distressed economy. they're hoping that they end up with a republican nominee. who will not appeal to the center and cannot make the argument that shrinking government is the answer in a time like this when people want medicare, when people want a

social safety net. and so that's what they're hoping they're going to win on even if the jobs numbers remain poor. but the anger over the debt ceiling debate, over what's happening with the markets, over 1% growth in this country is so pitched that that's why you see poll numbers like it, and that's why he knows, the president knows if election was today, he would probably lose. jon: yeah. let's take a look at a couple of other poll results. the rasmussen organization asked sizers, i'm sorry, asked voters for their approval rating of president obama. 44% approve of the job he's doing, 56% do not. considering the numbers he came into office with, that's a pretty astounding turn around. and then the same question from the gallup organization fend fairly similar numbers although even worse if you are a supporter of the president. 40% of those polled in this gallup daily tracking poll, 40% approve the job he's doing, 53 better disapprove.

now, we have 15 months until the election. that seems like a long time, but it's kind of like trying to turn around the titanic, isn't it? [laughter] >> pretty much. to compare his poll numbers, president obama's poll numbers with when he arrived in office is not probably the right thing to do. l i mean, i think he knew they were going to go down, they were unrealistically high, and i think the fact that the economy has recently worsened, i'm surprised that he's even in the 40, um, 40s at this point. he knows he has to get his numbers up to 50, and it'll be very tough. jon: he sure doesn't look worried. >> are what? jon: he sure doesn't look worried. a.b. stoddard from "the hill," we've got to say good-bye. jenna: we have some developments out of libya, a slew of different reports about what's happening inside and around gadhafi's compound. we are joined live from tripoli with our fox news producer. tadek, what can you tell us?

>> reporter: well, just about ten minutes ago we got the same small arms fire around the hotel where the international media's based here in tripoli, and we can only assume that the victory ies in nearby colonel gadhafi's compound that some of the rebels have broken off, and as we speak exchanging gunfire with the gadhafi loyalists who are being minders, so to speak, trapped here at this hotel behind lines. and it seems like if they intend to take the hotel, certainly, that has already begun. jenna: this is a little bit different than some of the reports we've been hearing that had suggested the rebels had overtaken the compound and, therefore, have seized the city. you're saying it appears -- and we can hear some of the fire now over the phone -- that there still is a battle being raged between the rebels and the

loyalists. >> reporter: the compound is just a kilometer behind where we are, so i think the rebels have that this their sights. we can hear from our sister saying station that they've taken much of the compound. there's underground tunnels and under, you know, this area that may be used as escape routes. we're not sure about that, we can't confirm that. i can tell you that all the journalists have gotten together in a room, they're saying prayers on tv, and the expectation that the gadhafi camp is fighting with rebels outside of the compound. it's a heavy government area. there's a presidential compound across the road, and there's parklands behind the hotel, so chances are the rebels are on their way here, and they may have already arrived because there's been sustained small arms fire outside the hotel now. jenna: tadek, thank you very much. more from tadek as we get it.

we're watching the situation very closely. we have the chairman of the house intelligence committee joining us, mike rogers, up next to talk about the arms stockpile that some say is inside libya that we need to be concerned about. we're going to have more of these developments and can a live interview with mike rogerse just ahead. enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. ♪ [ country ] [ man ] ♪ gone, like my last paycheck ♪ gone, gone away ♪ gone, like my landlord's smile ♪ ♪ gone, gone away ♪ my baby's gone away with dedicated claims specialists... and around-the-clock service, travelers can help make things better quicker. will your auto and home insurer... be there when you need them most?

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jenna: fox news alert here, we're continuing to follow the situation in libya. we do know, and tadek just reported to us, that there is

fighting ongoing in the streets of tripoli. the situation is still very fluid, we have new reports coming throughout the hour, one of them being, jon, that rebels have taken gadhafi's compound, but we can't confirm that at this time. jon: we also heard from our steve harrigan who is on the ground there that he sees the streets littered with the green uniforms of the libyan army. apparently, forces are kind of weighing their odds and deciding that wearing the uniform that shows loyalty to moammar gadhafi not necessarily a safe thing to do right now in the streets of tripoli. jenna: really anyone's best guess at what's going on. alex crawford spoke to some of the rebelsly before their -- rebels shortly before their advance on the compound. >> reporter: they want to take part, and they want to fire, and they want to battle. all of these people have one thing in common, they want to get rid of gadhafi. listen, how do you think things are going? he speaks a little bit of

english, tell me, mohamed, how are things going, do you reckon? >> we have justice goal, yeah. and i think -- [inaudible] [speaking in native tongue] >> reporter: three tanks on the other side of the wall? >> yeah, yeah. and now we are trying to clear the area. we have some snipers over the high building from this area close to the -- [inaudible] >> reporter: has anyone managed to get inside the compound yet? >> exactly i don't know. >> reporter: no, okay. are you taking many injuries? i've seen some injuries but not very many. >> are our side we have, i think, just two. [speaking in native tongue]

[gunfire] >> reporter: my colleague in london is asking how do you feel it's going? how do you feel in your heart about -- [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> reporter: okay. okay, thank you, guys. thanks. >> welcome, everybody! jon: wow. dominic di-natale is streaming to us live on the border of libya and tunisia. what's going on there? >> reporter: we are seeing constant flows of people trying to flee libya, thousands upon thousands of libyans making their way across the border here

just east part of libya, it's the west part of libya, the east part of tunisia. and all throughout the day we've seen people just trying trying , escape the violence, b, get supplies, medication, water, anything they can. they're heading straight back into libya, and some of them are going back to bring more people out. we've also seen ambulances flowing out throughout the day. that's injured rebels who have been in clashes and in some rocket attacks by goth forces -- by government forces just about 160 miles from where we stand from the capital, tripoli. people here not entirely sure what is going on, they're hearing about all of the confusion -- [inaudible] and people have had their confidence shaken by the rebels. however, in the past 24 hours a lot of people were saying they do believe they can ultimately overthrow the government, or rather gadhafi, but they say they had had believed -- [inaudible]

look, we're going the send him to the international criminal court, and now the sons have appeared to have escaped the rebels. whether this really is the final push and the final days of gadhafi, as -- [inaudible] just to make sure they are heading out of the country in the thousandses here on the border with tunisia. back to you. jon: it appears to be the end of gadhafi or at least his regime, but what comes next? that's the question. dominic di-natale live from libya, thank you. jenna: mike rogers is the chairman of the house intelligence committee, and we're lucky enough to have him join us now as our guest. congressman, so many different reports as jon just mentioned. it appears that the gadhafi regime has fallen, but yet we're getting conflicting reports even from our own team on the ground there that still has questions about what's happening inside of tripoli. what's the latest that you can share with us about the state of the gadhafi regime right now? >> well, as you saw, jenna, by

that sky news clip this is not a well-disciplined force that is in tripoli. so you're going to see fits and starts, and they're going to have somingprogress, they're gog to have -- the regime is going to have some progress. the fact that they breached the compound just says it's a matter of time. so the rebels are in tripoli. many of the gadhafi forces have melted away. you have the republican guard, if you will, around gadhafi that will probably fight to the death, and they're going to get smaller, they're going to lose people, and they're going to have problems with supplies. so it is a matter of time when this whole thing collapses, but it may be some time. we just don't know how much time that is. jenna: and, of course, with the uncertainty of that there's a lot of questions about the arsenal, the stockpile of weapons that gadhafi reported hi has. there's been a lot of different reports about how big that arsenal is, congressman, and how concerned we really should be about the security of that when we do not have a presence on the

ground there in libya. what are your thoughts on that, and what's the way forward to make sure that there's some security around these reported stockpiles? >> right. well, there are several weapons systems that trouble us, and this isn't speculation. i myself have seen the chemical stockpile there back in 2004, and it's thousands of pounds of very active mustard gas that concerns us. there's some serin gas that we don't believe is accounted for, a nerve agent that's very, very deadly. so we know there's a large amount of it, and we worry that, a, it's going to get legs or, b, you know, the regime in its last throes decides to do something crazy and use some of these stockpiles. so that concerns us a lot -- jenna: and if i could, i'm sorry to interrupt you, congressman, i just wanted to point out to our viewers because we have some live picture running alongside our interview here, and this is outside the gadhafi compound. we have our sister network, sky news, on the ground there.

a very chaotic situation, and the cameraman seems to be traveling with what looks like the rebel forces but, again, we can't confirm that at this time. our cameras are here at the compound, it kind of calls into question what we were just talking about, about where else we should be focusing our attention and how we can actually secure the stockpiles that you mentioned. >> absolutely. and, again, with that live footage you can see the challenges that are going to happen. you have ethnic differences, you have tribal differences, and when gadhafi's gone, the one thing that brought all these people together is gone. the one thing that is common with all of these tribes and all of these ethnic groups and political groups is they want gadhafi gone. well, once he's gone, tensions will build. and so the next 48 hours after he falls completely and the next two weeks thereafter are critically important for the united states, and we have national security interests there in securing these stockpiles of weapons. not just the chemical gas which is bad enough, but he

proliferated the acquisition of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons that we know through intelligence al-qaeda would love to get their hands on, and we know they're attempting to do that during the chaos that you see right on your screen right now. so it is a real threat, it is something we have to take very seriously, and i wouldn't spend a lot of time hand wringing about how we do it, but we need our plan engaged so that we can start securing these weapons systems for our own national security interests while the, i think, the rebels are finishing up the work on the gadhafi regime. jenna: congressman, i'd like to ask you more specifically about that. if you'll hang with me, i have to take a quick commercial break. we also have some breaking news on iran. we'll have more on both of these developments right after a quick break. [ male announcer ] it's a fact:

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megyn: hey, everyone, i'm megnd dellly. new housing numbers put the united states on the worst housing track in five decades.

steve forbes and stu varney react. plus, republicans and democrats are fighting over a tax hike again, except now the republicans want it, the democrats do not. say what? michael ray began on hell freezing over. and he was caught by one of nbc's "to catch a predator" sings, but he just got acquitted with apologies from the judge. now he's threatening to sue nbc. we'll show you why you might not be calling this guy a victim anytime soon. see you top of the hour. jenna: welcome back, everyone. congressman mike be rogers is back with us, chairman of the house intelligence committee. and, congressman, we were talking about specifically what the united states' strategy should be once the regime falls and libya starts to try to form a government. what should our strategy be to make sure that the weapon stockpiles there in libya are secure? can you be specific about that? >> well, i'll be as specific as i can, jenna, but i would use

the nato structure. we're going to have a surge of diplomacy, as we should, to help them transition through this. by the way, that shouldn't cost us a lot of money, there should not be a big footprint for the united states. but we ought to be, and we shouldn't contract this out to the french or the british or the libyans themselves a part of accounting for all of these weapons systems. we have probably the best intelligence on them, and we have the capability to deal with them and secure them in ways that would suffice to our national security interests. so i wouldn't, again, i wouldn't hand wring about footprints and all of the other things and those debates. i would say one of our first priorities has to be to secure these weapons systems, and we should be engaged in that right now as the rebels are finishing up their toppling of the gadhafi regime. jenna: congressman, again, we're watching some live pictures of the rebels inside of gadhafi's compound from sky news, our sister network. there's been several reports today with iran making some noise, firing off test missiles,

also giving access to certain diplomats to a new site of centrifuges that could be used for nuclear power or weapons, it's anyone's guess at this point. are we taking our eye off the ball here with all the happenings that are, well, happening in iran and syria? >> well, it's easy to take your eye off the ball. i don't think libya is taking the eye off the ball. we can do more than one thing at a time. the frustration is i think thede administration is very slow. remember, they wanted to have conversations with ahmadinejad in the beginning, clearly, that did not work. we were slow in the sanctions game. this is pretty serious stuff. i mean, very serious stuff, things that keep me awake at night. if iran goes nuclear, it is destabilizing to the middle east and that entire region, and this is a country that we know has used its intelligence services, its military services to even participate in a round about way

of targeting u.s. troops in iraq and other places. it really is a nation state that engages in terrorism. can you imagine if they have a nuclear weapon? this is very serious stuff. they're clearly trying to position themselves as a nuclear power. it means that the nuclear arms race triggers off in the middle east. turkey said, hey, they get 'em, we might get 'em -- jenna: sure. we're going to have to run here, congressman. >> thanks, jenna. jenna: we appreciate it very much. we'll be right back. [ rge ] psst. constated? phillips' caplet use gnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally wityour colon than stimulant xatives, for fective reli of constipation without cramps. thanks. [ professor ] good morning students. today, we're gonna...

jon: a fox news alert, and the situation getting very tense but also celebratory in libya. an associated press reporter observed hundreds of rebel fighters, the anti-gadhafi fighters, entering the compound that the libyan dictator appears

to have been holed up in the at some point in time. now, the u.s. government says it believes that gadhafi is still inside the country, whether he is in that compound or not, still an open question. jennifer griffin live for us at the pentagon right now. >> reporter: hi, jon. well, the pentagon still believes that gadhafi is in tripoli, and if he's in tripoli, he is most likely inside that compound. we're seeing live images of the rebels as they make their way through the compound. we just saw one of them holding up a gold-plaited weapon, clearly taken from, looted from the compound there. there is some looting taking place, we're understanding, of ammunition dumped within the compound. it's also important to point out that some new york senators are calling for ma gras hi, the pan am 103 bomber who was released to libya to be sent back to the united states, but we know from our own greg talcott in britain

that the scottish counsel responsible for keeping track of him lost track of him and hasn't heard from him since this weekend. he was supposed to be in telephone contact with them. they've lost track of him. the pan am 103 bomber responsible for those 189 american deaths. nato is describing the situation in tripoli as extremely fluid right now. >> the first question, where's gadhafi. if you know, let me know. we don't know. i don't have a clue. and i'm not sure, actually, that this really does matter. >> reporter: he was talking about where is gadhafi right now, that is the golden question. the question is whether there are tunnels underneath that compound be, whether he had an escape route. the last we saw of his son, seif gadhafi, he showed up at that journalists' hotel in the middle of the night with a limousine. we haven't seen him since. jon: jennifer given at the pentagon, thank you. the pictures you might have just seen of a hand crushing a u.s.

fighter jet, those pictures were taken right inside the compound, that according to our david lee miller who has been in that area. more on the developing situation in libya just ahead. [ male announcer ] this...is the network -- a living, breathing intelligence that's helping people rethink how they live. ♪ in here, video games are not confined to screens. ♪ excuse me, hi. my grandfather lived in this village. [ woman speaking italian ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, cars call mechanics before you do. ♪ [ radio chatter, siren wails ] pass me to the patient, please. [ male announcer ] in here, doctors see you before you get to the hospital. no, we didn't pass it. yeah, pull up the map. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there.

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