sr-pb ha haven't had rain in forever. jenna: we can ship them some of our rain. gregg: "america live" begins right now. bye-bye. martha: fox ne alert the eastern se seaboard reeling from irene's furry claiming 28 lives, leaving 7.4 million homes in the dark and billions of dollars worth of damage. welcome to "america live," i'm megyn kelly. we've got even our hands right here on "america live" from incredible new video from jamaica, vermont. you have not seen this on fnc today. the main bridge is now in pieces. we are told a few homes have been washed away after this killer hurricane sparked a flooding catastrophe in vermont.

here is a scenic spot that draws tourists from around the country. in kentucky massive waves crashing down at least 25 homes completely destroyed and in some areas people are predicted to be without power for up to a week. irene severely soaking new jersey, making firefighters unable to battle this fire. thousands going back to many homes that are in sa shambles. amy is joining us from wxxk. describe the damage in your ca area. >> in one word, extensive. we've been covering all throughout both states of vermont and new hampshire throughout the morning and just devastation everywhere from businesses washing down the river to historical bridges

themselves vanishing before your very eyes. martha: they are saying now that two major vermont rivers are both at the highest levels ever recorded. this his essentially the worst flooding vermont has ever had. locals there were caught by surprise. >> absolutely. what we are seeing in our own backyard are probably what your listeners and viewers are thinking themselves. this only happens on tv, it never happens at home. this is one thing from living in the area that we do, it's so calm and quiet most of the time. megyn: what are people doing? are they milling about? we are talking about dozens of homes lost. >> my first mission when i got into work this morning was to reunite a husband and wife

team. she left just to go to the store and pick up a few things and her home was flooded just in the amount of time she was gone. her husband is terminally ill. i just received a phone call about an hour ago saying they were indeed reunited. it's many stories like that. waking up you finally have daylight. it's assessing the damages, waiting for the water to retrieve, and getting the plea out for anyone who can volunteer to get the cleanup started. megyn: there was so much focus on the carolinas, and long island in particular and parts of new york city, and then even when the storm was hitting not so much focus on vermont. it wasn't the story. today it is. do you feel like people sort of heaved a premature sigh of relief when this thing didn't hit parts of the east coast as hard as expected?

>> i think we even in this area breathed a slight sigh of relief because it didn't seem to be as heavy as predicted. every kept their eyes and ears peeled to the news and the radios for their updates. and i was out and about during the storm yesterday, and it totally caught me by surprise. the crew that i was with, we were getting reports right after we left the town that roads had been shut down, trees, lines, power lines, telephones are out, power is gone just as we were leaving. so indeed it was even underestimated by us who live right here in the area. megyn: at this moment a search is underway for two vermont men who disappeared while they were checking the inlet of the city of rut land's water system. they work for the government is minding and have not yet been

found. this is video out of that area. we are trying to find the latest on them. amy, thank you very much for your account. we'll be covering what is happening in vermont over the next couple of hours. not just vermont, you can see from the pictures just how hard what you are friends there were hit. we want to make sure we get them the help they need and get the word out about what they are experiencing again. including what is happening in jamaica. i want to show you this incredible video that we just got our hands on. it looks like an earthquake hit. it's the route to the popular vermont strao vermont ski reports. hundreds of people drive these roads each year. raging water sweeping the main bridge away. a couple of houses swept away. the president saying a hurricane of this magnitude will length

then the time of recovery. >> the affects are still being felt across much of the country including new england and states like vermont where there's been an enormous amount of flooding. megyn: 7.4 million people are without power. that is nearly double the amount of outages from the last hurricane that made landfall here in the united states, -p .4 million people, many of whom are dealing with it at this moment. eight states right now are considered to be in severe stages. take a look at the map. the dark red seems significant flooding is already occurring. orange indicating it is still likely to happen, and yellow which we don't see much of suggesting that the flooding could occur without certainly. meteorologist janice dean is live in the fox extreme weather center. janice there's been a lot of talk by some folks about the media haoeup hyping this hurricane, and when you see the pictures out of vermont it's

tough to take those claims seriously. >> reporter: our job as forecasters is to do our best to make sure people are warned and heeding those warnings. if one person took the advice to evacuate, then my job is done. i can't really listen to all the folks, the naysayers out there who are saying that because the statue of liberty didn't fall down, you know, it was overhyped. this is a big storm, it affects 65 million people along the eastern seaboard, in this world of twitter and facebook you're going to hear people who are going to be complaining about the coverage, but tell that to folks across vermont and new jersey, and people who are coming home and their basements are flooded, or there is a hundred-year-old tree in their backyard that has taken out their roof. i think that they might beg to differ. so here is the radar over the last several days of irene finally lifting up into canada, but as you mentioned, millions of people affected, power outages all across the board and the flooding really will be the

legacy of storm unfortunately. we warned people that we could see over a foot of rain and it did come. so the forecast wasn't wrong. taking a look over a foot in north carolina, parts of maryland, new york, new jersey, this was widespread. and the wind gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour across north carolina and virginia and maryland as well as massachusetts. again, this was a formidable hurricane, one that will go down in the history books and we'll be watching the tropics as we have another storm we're going to be perhaps hyping up over the next few days. martha days. megyn: let me ask you about vermont. do we know why vermont is having flooding where other states didn't have it as bad. >> reporter: a lot of record snow melt. we had epic snow storms this summer, so the ground was all resaturated and parts of vermont are very hilly and lots of trees, and with the trees you

tend to get more moisture pushed out of the clouds, called orographic lift. you tend to get more moisture squeezed out like a sponge against the trees. because the storm moved a little bit more inland they really got the worst of the flooding, and of course lots of streams and rivers are just about to crest, or perhaps in the next day or so, so we could see even more flooding unfortunately for little towns in and around the new england areas. megyn: these are folks who know how to deal with weather, this is snow, usually it's something else. thank you so much. incredible new images documenting the extent of iren irene's wrath. route 12 in north carolina nearly unrecognizable. rushing water from a nearby beach chewed through the highway stranding thousands of people. as berry park, new jersey

streets completely underwater. in downtown new brunswick, entire homes, again, new jersey, completely submerged. the muddy water flowing in from a nearby river. as in so many other places a motorboat in washingtonville new york becomes a way to and a half sraeut through the flooded streets. millions are still left without power from the carolinas to new england. folks talking about power lines and flooding, obviously in the a good combination. for the latest on hurricane irene damage you can head to foxnews.com/weather and we'll have all the extreme weather updates for you right there. another breaking news story we're covering for you this afternoon, this one from tampa, florida. we are getting word of an evacuation at the post office near tampa international airport after two employees were exposed to an unknown substance. what it is still unclear. emergency crews say a few people showed signs of dizziness, we'll

keep you posted on any developments as we get them right here. another alert for you now, new housing numbers just out show a grim trend in housing markets. it's almost not news any more. it's going to be news when it shows a positive trend. sales fell in july for the first time in three months. some buyers leaving the deals at the last minute after learning that their homes that they were trying to buy were worth less than th the agreed upon price. experts worried about how a lagging housing market could affect an already shakey economy. joining me now jerry willis, host of the willis report on the fox news network. we talk about new home sales and existing home sales, thinks an index of sales agreements. why is that number information? >> reporter: well it's important because it's the only number we look at in the housing market that we will i looks into the future. most of them are looking in the

rear view mirror. this is one index that does that the numbers not good. a healthy level for the index 100, we are at 89 point 7. not good news. it affects other indexes that we track. existing home sales post.edu the lowest levels for the year. new home sales are on track for their worst performance in 50 years, half a century. megyn: it seems like the news is always bad on the housing front over the past year or so. what could possibly kick start the housing market? >> reporter: well one easy solution is jobs. you don't buy a loss unless you have an income, you have to prove income when you buy a home that would be a clear solution to these problems but it ain't happening, not yet, megyn. megyn: and the lenders are reluctant to lend and the loan requirements are exorbitant now. you have to show all sorts of things to get a mortgage.

it's a tough situation. jerry, thank you. >> reporter: my pleasure. megyn: you can catch jerry willis we can nights at 5:00 over on the fox network. breaking news from the international space station. trace gallagher joins us in three minutes on why they may have to evacuate. the lockerbie bomber back on his death bed, the man convicted of bombing pan am plight 103. find out what his brother had to say to a team of reporters. the price tag for hurricane irene expected to be in the billions. in three minutes what that means for the u.s. economy. >> it was still dark, i was downstairs and i heard the tremendous crash and my first thought was for my wife who was just maybe 15 feet away from where the tree came down. [ male announcer ] at e-trade, investing means taking action

with professional-grade research. and some of the most powerful, yet easy to use trading tools on the planet. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction. e-trade. investing unleashed.

megyn: fox news alert new information on the fate of the interest national space

station. nasa announcing astronauts may need to evacuate the space outpost in the next few weeks. trace gallagher following the latest developments live from the breaking news desk. >> reporter: imagine for the first time ever the international space station could be unmanned. there could be nobody there up to run the thing. we don't have a way to shuttle astronauts back and forth any more because the shuttle program is over. we have to rely solely on the russian and the soyuz rocket. last week, it launched, failed, and fell out of the sky. we have pictures of the launch. this thing by the way is exactly what they used to send astronauts up. they were supposed to send astronauts up next month, they are not about to put human beings aboard that rocket until they figure out exactly what went wrong. next month's launch could be delayed into november. there are currently six astronauts on board the space

station. two from japan, two from the united states, two from russia. they want to bring three of them home before the end of september. that leaves three more. they may have to come back by november not because of shortage of food and water but because they want to land in kazakhstan before the dead of winter. listen to nasa trying to allay some fears. >> don't get hung up on the dates. the important port there is we'lpart there is we'll have unmanned flights before we nut humans on board a souyz. our russian counter parts have a lot to do to sort this all out but that is the thought process that is going on today. >> reporter: there are soyuz docked at the international space space, that's how they get back to earth. they can run the space station

without humans aboard but they don't want to do that. megyn: fox news alert we are getting a sense of how much damage irene really did. early estimates put the total in the tense of bills of dollars without the economic toll of a lost weekend on the east coast. not everyone thinks that irene will put a big dent in our economy. some experts are suggesting the disaster could create jobs? steve moore is a senior economic writer for the "wall street journal." some are calling this an irene stimulus package saying look at all the construction workers and other folks who are going to have to go out there and do the cleanup, valid? >> megyn i'm not one of those economists that thinks that a serious hurricane and flooding sometime later the economy. this is the old method gee of broken windows, you break the windows and have somebody to fix them and that sometime later the economy. the fact that people have flooded basements and i saw the pictures you've been showing all

days on fox news that is not a stimulus to the economy. it's going to reduce the wealth of american households. the only question, megyn is by how much. i've seen statistics as you have, tense of billions. i think that is a little high, ten to 20 billions. katrina was 125 billion. not nearly the magnitude of that but still very troubling. megyn: on the grand scale of the u.s. economy that seems like a blib in terms of financial costs, am i wrong? >> it is. if you look at the resort towns where this past weekend was one of the biggest weekends of the year it's going to hurt a lot of those businesses. they got really clobbered with the evacuation of those areas. there is some talk whether the towns will be ready for labor day weekend. megyn: when you go town by down you'll have a big number. how much of this is going to take a toll on the federal government and the state governments in terms of tree cleanup and street cleanup and the public works efforts that

have to go into that. >> well put, megyn that is exactly right. the state and local governments are going to have to expend millions of dollars in the cleanup effort. the economy bear low has a pulse right now. i saw your little report on the housing numbers, which were lousy again. this just isn't a very good time to have this hit the economy when we are growing at less than 1% and now we have to expend all these resources on a cleanup effort. it may reduce our gep number by .1 or .2 at a time when we need every job we can get. megyn: they say the losses from some of these catastrophes could seek insurers to seek rain the creases or stop writing policies for some of these folks. they are talking about a lot of insurance claims filed, steve's, homer homeowners items, people committing claims for

refrigerated food. i thought that was interesting. >> let's say it's $20 billion in the costs we have a $13 trillion gdp. megyn: a new poll shows key voters who helped elect the president may be losing faith in him. a deadly attack in mexico has people taking to the streets. could it be a badly needed turning point in that country's violent war on drugs? that's next. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein!

really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. new ensure high protein... fifty percent of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ major nutrition ] new ensure hh protein. ensure! nutrition in charge!

megyn: horrific crime linked to mexico's drug war sparking a level of international outrage rarely seen. people are up in arms over an attack at a monterrey casino.

drug gangs set the casino on fire with dozens of people inside. president obama issued a statement on this friday. trace gallagher has more on this. it's sad to say, there is so much violence in mexico right now when something causes this much stir and gets this much attention you know it must be truly extraordinary. >> 40,000 murders over the past five years in mexico and during that time you see the mexican citizens laying low, staying inside trying to stay safe. now you look at these pictures, they are out, they are publicly protesting. they are angry and vocal, they are protesting against the government, against the carve tells, i mean it really is we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more moment. this really was a horrifying crime, though. take a look at the surveillance video we got. this is from the casino royale. you'll see cars stopped. see the men get out of the cars,

these are believed to be zeta cartel members. they went into the hotel. they sprayed gasoline all over, they told people to get out. they set the thing on fire. because the emergency exits were sealed shut they were trapped inside. look at the smoke coming out of here. the reason this was targeted is they aeu partisan here were not paying their extortion money to the zeta cartel, they torched the place, the government never had any of the exits checked. here is the mexican president felipe calderon. >> it is an act of terror a barbaric act that we repudiate and our people do not deserve the suffering. >> he also blames the united states for our hunger for

drugs. they are now going to all the other casinos in the state and investigating them to see if they have ties to the cartels. the reason this caused outrage is these were housewives, mother, mostly heuld middle aged women that were caught and trapped in that awful fire. megyn: trace, awful, thank you. what a horrific story. given what is going on down there it's something that a story would make headlines and you can see why this one did. here is a shift of gears for you. is texas governor rick perry stupid? apparently the mainstream media thinks you are sitting at home waiting for an answer to that question. michelle malkin is here with and answer of own and 18-year-old is found dead in her dorm. while travel delays are still growing even with major many

airports now open for business. >> i thought we were going home. not today. >> come to las vegas had a great time, hurricane irene done us wrong. >> am i going to have a who he fell to sleep in tonight or am i going to have to sleep here at the airport, and nobody is telling you anything, so you're just kind of on stand by. [ male announcer ] look down.

it's high time to make our floor look better and feel softer. ♪ how 'bout we start th the guaranteed low price on the carpet... the pad, and installation. let's get peace of mind for a lifetime. it all adds up to the lowest total price on our carpet project. guaranteed. and a room that looks better than we ever imagined. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get 12 months special financing on carpet purchases

♪ hallelujah [ baby crying, dog barking ] [ female announcer ] it doesn't have to be thanksgiving to have the perfect thanksgiving sandwich. carving board turkey -- only from oscar mayer. uh-huh. jeff! honey, i can't walk any faster. [ female announcer ] oscar mayer deli fresh turkey comes in a clear pack... [ cellphone beeps ] [ jeff ] ooh. thanks hun! [ female announcer ] ...so the freshness you see is what you taste. ♪ it doesn't get better than this ♪ megyn: welcome back, 1:342 in the east.

a few new headlines coming in. emergency crews in new york calling irene an extraordinary event. families near rivers and dams forced to leave their homes with water levels only expected to rise. and this is a long way from the coast. hundreds of thousands in philadelphia are still without power. parts of the city remain subject merged well into this afternoon. and while many airports have now reopened many travelers are still stuck on the ground. the ripple affect of thousands of weekend cancellations still backing up flights around the globe. david lee miller joins with us that part of the story. david leave it's like the airports have a bit of a hangover. >> reporter: indeed they do and it's a hangover that won't go away any time soon. yes, irene is gone but the mess she left behind is not. nearly 1500 flights are canceled today alone as the airlines try and restore normal service, although all three new york city area airports and major airports in philadelphia, boston and d.c. are operating, hundreds of

thousands of people do remain stranded and will likely face days before they can get home or reach their destination. delta, u.s. airways, united, american and jetblue are the hardest hit. the airlines in anticipation of the storm repositioned aircraft out of harm's way and now they must get that equipment back where it is needed. the consolations caused by the storm as you mentioned have rippled through the entire system affecting travelers literally from coast to coast. at chicago's o'hare thousands of juan a be travelers are making the airport a temporary home. flight monitors, there you see them list flight after flight as canceled. making it harder to find a seat is the end of the summer rush and the upcoming labor day holiday. a solution for some vacationing new yorkers trapped in florida is to hit the road. >> my family is driving, the biggest minivan we could find and they are just heading for it. because the next flight available was, they were telling

us the next monday, we'd have to wait another ten days in florida. >> reporter: train travel is also disrupted. express service and regional trains between boston and philadelphia are among the cancellations today. amtrak says if your train is canceled you can get a full refund. air passengers can get their money back if the flight is canceled but don't expect to receive a free hotel room. they only have to provide a room if there was a cancellation from a mechanical faile failure or something that could have been prevented. if you are bumped the compensation of 1800 has been raised to 1300. at least if you have to sit in the airport you'll have a little extra money. megyn: a few truly stunning images stand out. look at this. this is a picture from the soldier from the old

guard on-duty at the tomb of the unknown soldier in arlington national cemetery. the old guard is the nickname for the infantry regiment that gets this duty. the old guard has watched over this symbol i shall resting place for every second of every day since april 6th 1948. even hurricane irene could not break that kind of devotion. troubling news for the president today. brand-new ap polling shows him losing ground with some of the key voters who helped put him in the white house to begin with. president obama's support slipping with women and college educated white men to name just a few. could this mean serious changes in his re-election strategy? joining me now brad blakeman former deputy assistant to president bush. and dick harpootlian, former

democratic party chair. we have president obama losing support of white voters. independents, three in ten white independents say he should get a second term, only three in ten. even liberals and young voters, and he's had a significant erosion of his support by women. to that you say what, dick? >> so what. these numbers are very similar to what bill clinton and ronald reagan faced at this point during their presidencies, a, b, this president is not governing by polling, what he's governing by is doing what he thinks is best to grow the economy. the last thing is this. have you to ask somebody to beat somebody, rick perry? mitt romney? when they match up with the president come october, november of next year a year from now he will beat them to death. megyn: they are beating him in the polling right now, dick.

>> the polling right now, no one has laid a glove on mitt romney or rick perry. perry who advocated acession just a year ago, and mitt romney, who invented obamacare before obamacare. this president has decreased unemployment. not at the rate that my friend brad blakeman wants. >> are you kidding me, come on dick. >> brad you weren't a part of that. >> blame bush again. there is no bush to blame any more. >> let me say this to you. this hurricane comes, katrina comes, nobody expects for the next day for it to be cleaned up. when you have an unnatural disaster like the one with george bush it's going to take a while to clean it up. >> bad news for obama is bad news for america. your most artkapbt supporters

are leaving the president in droves. that has to be troubling to you even this far out from an election. independents are leaving. whites are leaving. even the african-americans who supported this president the most, who are double in unemployment that's why you saw maxine waters take off when he was doing that tpopbee bus tour he was on. >> now you're agreeing with maxine waters? >> occasion alley they are right. megyn: let me ask you this. it's surprising to me, liberals who say obama is very well described as a strong leader went from 53% to 29% and young voters are starting to abandon him according to this ap poll. realistic are going to vote for a republican? it's more the independents i'd

be working on, don't you think dick. >> the president will show a dissteupbgt contrast between him and the tea party republicans that are running now. megyn: he's going to do that, but he's been doing that. the voters have heard that line, and yet these numbers are what they are. go ahead. >> these numbers reflect what people feel about the economy right now. i believe this president is going to grow the economy improve the economy over the next 14 months and i know broad differs with me. i don't think giving huge tax cuts to the rich is the way to go, that's the republican's thing. this president will have a proposal next week, and if the. >> where has his proposal been? he's been our president, he has no plan. >> if the republicans will allow him to go forward with it then you can judge this president. megyn: he made an interesting point, brad. the president has a lot on his agenda, he has the jobs speech, the continuing resolution that is going to expire.

now they are saying 38% and so on plus the erosion in his core base, how powerful does that leave him? >> this president is weak. he's not able to lead as we've seen on raising the debt ceiling or the budget. when he controlled congress he was unable to pass his own budget last year. republicans will stick to principle. we've been down this road before. we are going to force congress to spend within our means. reduce that which we are spending today and reducing the deficit for tomorrow. if the democrats don't like it that's just tough. we are not going along with plans that are bad deals for america and americans will have to sort this out in 2012. megyn: and they will. thank you both former astronauts warned that this might happen when the shuttle program went away. nasa talking about having to abandon the international space station. former astronaut tom jones top of the hour about the possible rescue mission to come.

plus, florida's governor signed a law requiring welfare resip kwrepblts t recipients to take drug tests before they can get welfare in florida. how is that working out? the governor may have a legal challenge on his hands now. up next how parts of this downtown just disappeared. [ male announcer ] this is lara. her morng begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon to begins with more pain and more pills. thevening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

for red lobster we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry into cbfest for 3 crab entrees under $20 likour crab and seafood bake... orur snow crab and crabutter shrimp. offer ends soon. my name's jon forsythe and i sea food differently.

but afraid you can't afford it? well, look how much insurance many people can get through selectquote for less than a dollar a day. selectquote found, rich, 37, a $500,000 policy for under $18 a month. even though dave, 43, takes meds to control his blood pressure, selectquote got him a $500,000 policy for under $28 a month. ellen, 47, got a $250,000 policy for under $20 a month.

all it takes is a phone call. your personal selectquote agent will answer all your questions ... and impartially shop the highly rated term life companies selectquote represents for your best rates. give your family the security it needs at a price you can afford. call this number or go to selectquote dot com. selectquote. we shop. you save. megyn: the death toll from hurricane irene is climbing to 31 people: two folks reported missing in vermont, one is still missing, the other sadly was found dead. we were told it was a father and son team checking on the waterways. it was a vermont state lawmaker that shot this incredible new video just into america live from the jamaica area, part of the southern part of vermont.

the main road through town literally broken into pieces. if you watch the video you will see where he pointed out a couple of homes that had disappeared. he sort of put a graphic on there. keep your eyes peeled. a couple of houses gone. a relief effort is underway. joining me by phone is patricia, billinger. boy do you have your hands full today in vermont. tell us a bit of what you've seen. >> i am standing by, it's actually called a brooke, it's become a river. i'm standing by a little arts warehouse business that an entire side of the building has washed away into this. what you say is a brooke is now a river. people say hurricane irene was over blown. i'm looking at the devastation and saying, maybe the winds didn't do the damage but the floods have done extensive damage. the red cross will be busy for

months. megyn: our expecting damage of this size in vermont? >> i just drove into vermont this morning from manhattan. manhattan was spared the brunt of the force of it. and vermont has a lot of damage as do other parts up and down the coast of the u.s. we were expecting this. a lot of folks focus on the winds from the hurricane, we knew the inland flooding as a result of this would affect millions of people. and we are here to help. we have thousands of trained volunteers all up and down the coast. we have hundreds of emergency response vehicles all up and down the coast and we are distributing those. megyn: what, patricia are people doing when you see homes and roads that are gone and homes that look like rivers, where are the homeowners? are there shelters there? are people still coming in? >> we've hadle thousand people stay in red cross shelters last night. that's for the whole east

coast. a lot of people are turning to their neighbors. that is a really important part of community is taking care of each other and also being prepared, knowing where you're going to go if you have to evacuate. it looks like people got that message. fortunately the media, the local government the red cross got out the message to be careful and be prepared for irene. in terms of how people are reacting, the people i was talking to in this small town were shocked. they are very tight knit but they will work together to recover. megyn: the water and flooding is a danger. i understand caked mud is also a big problem there. tell us. >> sorry, i've got an emergency chipping trees down behind me, the question? megyn: i understand that caked mud is something you're dealing with out there. >> there are all kinds of hazards. downed power lines.

fires are a big danger. people need to have situational awareness and practice their personal safety and watch out for one another, and never drive into a flooded area. turn around, find a different route. it could be frustrating but it would save your life. our emergency responders need to be focused on responding to to true life emergencies rather than pulling people out of flooded areas. please don't drive in flooded areas. megyn: patricia, thank you so much for all the good work you do and the red cross does in situations like this in particular and thanks for spending some time with us today. wow, unbelievable. big questions in florida today after a college freshman is found dead in her dorm. why investigators are now look at a fraternity and moments ago another twist in this case. and mainstream media asking whether text ago governor rick perry is dumb. michelle malkin is here with an answer to that. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein!

really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. new ensure high protein... fifty percent of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ major nutrition ] new ensure hh protein. ensure! nutrition in charge! 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. i don't always have time to eat like i should. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes, which can help lower a1c. [ ma announcer ] glucerna.

helping people with diabetes find balance.

megyn: florida police are pointing the finger at a college fraternity following the death of an 18-year-old freshman girl. ann hefernon was found dead days after starting school at the university of central florida. police want to know what happened at a fraternity party she attended before she died. an autopsy apparently proved inconclusive, with the medical examiner saying more tests are needed. fox news alert, days after libya's rebel leaders defy calls to hand over the only man ever convicted in connection with the 1988 lockerbie bombing of pan am

flight 103, that man's brother now says that abdel baset al-megrahi cannot leave libya because he's in a coma and near death. you may remember abdel baset al-megrahi received a hero's welcome home in libya after his, quote, compassionate release from a scottish prison where he claimed that he was near death from cancer. that was two years ago this month. dominic dnatali live with us. >> reporter: before we talk about abdel baset al-megrahi we're going to talk about toda gadhafi's family. his family and wife have passed into algeria. that news has been confirmed. no further details from that. there has been reaction immediately from the national transitional council that if

gadhafi family has fled there they want them returned straight away and they want justice. algeria does not recognize the council here and agrees with the gadhafi regime. reporters besieged his house in the center of the city today and yesterday. some of them were able to get inside and see him. reporters have come back and said abdel baset al-megrahi what's mays kwraeuted, thinwas what's mac emaciaited. he was comatose, unlike moammar qaddafi they have no intention of returning libyan citizens to the west.

others say ph*eg r-r even if he is in his dying day has to stand and get justice. megyn: tom jones former astronaut joins us live next. requiring welfare recipients to take drug tests first in florida. how is that working out? the governor may be having one heck of a legal challenge on his hands now.

megyn: president obama keeping an eye on hurricane relief from but there could be bigger storms in the president's future. brand-new hour of "america live." i'm megyn kelly.

there is a massive cleanup in the wake of hurricane irene. but the president is also preparing for a pivot all announcement on plans to create jobs while managing the fragile situationn in libya plus the looming debt and budget crises. he is expected to make his major unemployment speech next week, september 16, the week after the all-important congressional super committee meets for the first time to find ways to cut spend and balance the budget and go after the i.s. debt. the budget plan expires september 30. meaning congress will have to pass a stop-gap measure. this as the president's approval rating is at an all-time low. just 33%. against that backdrop of what the president hopes to accomplish over the next coming weeks, he gets this news from

gallup about a 33% approval rating, then the news from the a.p. talking about the erosion of support from wise, independents, liberals and young people, not to mention women. the white house has quite a bit of work to do. >> in what has been a difficult period for the administration. the next several months promise to be the hardest time yet. add to all the things you mentioned, the super committee on deficit, joblessness, the federal gasoline tax is set to expire september 30. if congress doesn't renew that we run out of money to fix and repair the nation's interstate system. so you have all these crucial battles for the president. amid all that he has to convince the american people that he has taken the laser-like folk to us

jobs. to do it all with a 38% job approval rating might prove impossible. megyn: the president has got to shore up those numbers if he wants to win reelection. i think a lot of democrats will say if he focused on the job situation those numbers will get improved. the more jobs we have the better people will like president obama. but how is he going to balance this? it's hard enough to be the president and run for reelection. but when you talk about the things you have got to do this month alone, and the eroding support he has among this constituents, how can he do it all? >> you put the whole thing into context when you talk about the independents, the folks to elected president obama in 2008, a lot of them then switched and voted for the most conservative congress since the 1920s. they are not sure of where they want to be. they are up in the air, but they are turning away from the president. so he has a choice.

will he please the democratic base that wants to see him come back to washington and go to war with republicans? they want war because they feel like the house republicans have gotten the upper hand. they call them terrorists and things like that. what independents want to see is progress, they want to see things start to happen for the country after a difficult period. balancing those two is the ultimate political task of this man's career. president obama has to figure out a way to keep his base happy but not push the independents who are turning away from him all the way away. megyn: it seems like such a herculean task. according to the hill publication this is a quote from a democratic strategist. if the election were held next tuesday he would lose. overstate the case? >> certainly not. if the election were held us date president would be a bad, bad way. the republicans will get a nominee and the administration

and the obama campaign will work to show this person is too radical. megyn: chris stirewalt, thank you, sir. fears that an evacuation may soon be necessary on the international space station. nasa saying it may need its astronauts to temporarily abandon the space outpost after a russian rocket carrying supplies blew up last week. tom jones is a former nasa astronaut. tom, thanks for being here. what is the danger right now to our astronauts? >> it's at the end after string of dominoes. last week's failure of the russian rocket is the same rocket that carries astronauts and cosmonauts up to the stays station. you have the third stage that

failed, iting the same stage that would launch cosmonauts. so russia is ground. we have no way to get to the space station. because of that we can't leave those crews up there indefinitely. their soius return capsule. megyn: is there a danger of doing that to the space station? if something big goes wrong when a major coolant pump failed the space station could lose control and leave the $100 billion investment crippled or worse. we could lose the entire complex. megyn: i assume we are left in this quandary because we also don't have a way of getting our astronauts up there, give up that we are reef lying on the russians. >> we used to have two ways to

get astronauts to the shuttle. now we have no u.s. leg of that support for the station. not you russians -- their only link to the station -- have lost their ability to launch and we have no backup plan. megyn: are the astronauts in danger? >> if they linger too long on the space station, for example the last segment of three crew members could say until december-january. the short days in russia and the bitter winter conditions might make their landinglands. so november, big could make their -- could make their landing ha hazardous. we'll engage with them to see if

their proposed fix is safe. i don't think the russians will cut corners but it will be difficult to get this up and running in a few weeks. we might be running into a deadline. megyn: thank you, sir. very well explained. we have a fox news weather alert out of vermont. parts of the state seeing the worst flooding in a century thanks to hurricane irene. police just recovering a body believed to be one of two men who disappeared during the storm. irene we just updated 20 minutes ago claimed 32 lives in 10 states. there is no end in sight caused by the travel nightmare. trains under water with some sustained serious damage. airlines cancelling 20,000 flights because of the storm and

the delays are rippling across the country. >> in some families still have big problems. you can see there are so many houses that look just like this. islands in the middle of the floodwaters. that's why you still have rescues continuing today. if you look at video, the boats are going around with the fire crews and rescue crews. they are plucking people out of the upper floors of those homes bringing them to dry ground. the people are frustrated. they have been flooded five times this year. necessity blame the authorities. they blame a dam system that was recently constructed. >> we bought this house, we worked 25 years my husband and i to buy a home in a nice community, nice schools to raise our children. it's gone. this is what we have. this shouldn't happen. >> reporter: there is one house still burning at this

hour. the house that blew up with the natural gas leak overnight. the reason it's still burning is they can't get the heavy equipment back there to douse the flames. he thought he could ride out the storm. at at one point a wall inside of his house fell over. he decided to get his wife and two dogs out of there. it's a good thing he did because the natural gas was leaking and that house ultimately blew up. the good news is the floodwaters are going down. the bad news is they are all training into the passaic river. it's one of those rivers the authorities think will get worse as all the floodwaters drain into them. megyn: we know a lot of you are taking video or pictures of hurricane irene's aftermath. we would love to see what you are thinking. foxnews.com/ureport and we may put your shots on the air today. make sure you stay safe.

warren jeffs, the leader of a polygamist sect who was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month what is reportedly in a coma. he was found guilty of child sexual assault. he has been fasting in a cell at a prison down in texas. he has reportedly become so weak he was put into the hospital and doctors induced a coma. she has been missing for two years. today a bizarre new twist in the search for susan powell. why her father-in-law is now under the microscope. plus critics on both sides of the aisle claiming texas governor rick perry may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. michelle malkin on why democrats and republicans are attacking his intelligence.

america's unsustainable debt. frank luntz on which party has the winning strategy for balancing uncle sam's books. >> the road ahead darkens. as he drives into the horizon, angry skies greet us. this man is boik *. welcome to his taxpayer funded dead-end tour. c. [ ma announcer ] glucerna. helping people with diabetes find balance. ♪ anything, yes i'd do anything ♪ ♪ anything for you ♪

host: could switching to geico ♪ anything for you reon car insurance? or more host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things? man 1: send, that is the weekend. app grapgic: yeah dawg! man 2: allow me to crack...the bubbly! man 1: don't mind if i doozy.

man 3: is a gentleman with a brostache invited over to this party? man 1: only if he's ready to rock! ♪ sfx: guitar and trumpet jam vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

megyn: questioning the intelligence of a leading presidential candidate and governor of texas. texas governor rick perry being criticized by enemies reportedly on both sides of the aisle including some leading republicans. portrayed as a right place, right time politician who looks the part but isn't so deep. one former republican governor is saying he's quote like bush without the brains. really? michelle malkin is a conservative columnist and fox news contributor. there is a big piece in politico

that talks about -- is rick perry dumb? the whispers of the same with george w. bush, lightweight, incurious. governor good hair. then using that quote from an unnamed former republican governor, he's like bush only without the brains. what do you make of it? >> my eyes are rolling so high up there i think they are going to get stuck. this one of those standard issue cut and paste attack on republicans that you get in late august or every type the election season rolls around. we have seen it with reagan and george w. bush, sarah palin and michele bachmann. now it's rick perry's turn because he's the front runner. the more pertinent question and you won't get this from the elites, compared to what? i have got plenty of minted ivy league scholars in the obama

administration among their economic viso advise -- economic advisors. and for all their smarts they have run this country into the ground? which would you prefer? i don't care where rick perry went to school. i think it's more telling there is a huge amount of double standards with regard to the liberal media's curiosity about the college transcript of republicans versus democrats like the one in the white house right now. megyn: it's interesting you mention the transcripts. the "huffington post" had a report that said a source in texas had passed perry's transcript from his years at texas a&m and recited he got mostly cs. veterinary anatomy a d. and he got two as.

so now we know he was a very good student at fox a ann m. what does d texas a&m. what does this tell us? >> we haven't gotten any is obama dumb from politico. this is a man who cannot pronounce corman, who travels insaysively with his teleprompter. who says there are 57 states, couldn't remember what year it was when he was in england. my friend ed morrissey has been chronicling these barak obamaisms for years now. i think there is a question of not whether rick perry is dumb. the guy has plenty of political savvy to have gotten elected for

as many years as he did given the serious doubts grassroots conservatives and lib tearans ask about whether he's the real deal. never mind what politico is chewing or chin strapping about. is rick perry the real deal? megyn: i know you have got some issues with him you recounts on your blog. should it matter? yes there have been partisan attacks. they talk about how michele bachmann, how her being on the house intelligence committee is a contradiction in terms. is it unfair just because it's coming from some in the mainstream media? there were questions about the number of colleges sarah palin attended. does it make it illegitimate

just because of whose asking it? >> i think it does in a way. it brings with it a set of assumptions that are incorrect i believe when we're evaluating these candidates. i think that there is an elitist bigotry about the republican party. there has been for decades and decades. we can't allow the left side of the aisle and those who pose as objective neutral journalists to frame the intellectual capacity of our candidates. i don't care how much they paid to go to some ivy league minted school. you can have the smartest ivy league professors around. but it doesn't mean anything if they don't have principles and a commitment to the constitution

they teach and warp to their liberal students. and if they don't have a sense of integrity, and bedrock principles, i think that for grassroots conservatives judging these gop primarily candidates, with it's far more important than what grades they got or whether some washington journalists think they are smart enough. this is the funny thing about journalism and who qualifies as smart as rough kansas. the on republicans these liberal media people think are smart are the ones trashing conservatives and getting their pictures taken in vogue magazine. megyn: florida governor rick scott took a lot of heat when he signed a bill requiring drug tests for welfare recipients. opponents say sit' not work out well for him.

disturbing new twists in the case of missing utah mom susan powell. she disappeared two years ago and police have raided the home of her husband and wait until you hear what's going on in the father-in-law now. >> susan is a very flirtatious person. and she is also a very sexual person. she likes to talk about sex. she likes to validate her ownself-esteem.

megyn: fox news alert. want to get you over to the fema director who joined the white house press briefing. he said the updated numbers as we know them are 32 people dead

in the wake of irene. >> a lot of power outages, roads that were heavily damaged by storm surge in the carolinas and degree in the northern part of the state. the numbers on the power outages have come down. the department of energy is working with us as they track those numbers. the numbers continue to come down. but some areas will have some time to get all the power back up. probably the real story was irene as you exiting and many people were focused along the coast, we did get coastal storm surge, but not to the degree we were concerned about. but heavy rain did occur along its path. we have seen record flooding in vermont and new york. we have rivers that have yet to crest. the river forecast center for northeast was reporting some of

these rivers may not crest for two to three days. so the extended impacts we still won't know. many of these areas have been dealing with dangerous flooding. to give an idea of how fast this occurred. rivers in the flooding were so intense the vermont emergency operation center had to evacuate last night and relocate. we had been working disasters in vermont so we had a joint field office they had to relocate to. they did experience damages and they are working to get their center back up. but from a storm that i think from a lot of folks on the coastal areas, also showed inland the heavy rains produced quite a bit of damage and are continuing to produce damages. so we are working with the governors as they begin the assessment. the question i have been getting is how much damage? we still don't know. we are still assessing. a lot of states are just

beginning their response assessments. in vermont and new york they are engaged in response operations as well as massachusetts and new jersey. as well as new hampshire and maine. with that i'm open for questions. >> do you have any figures to attach to the damage? any idea how much the storm will cost? >> i don't like to give estimates because one of the things you are looking at is a lot of outages. you see a lot of damages that won't be covered by federal dollars. we don't cover insurance losses. some of the numbers you will get from insurance industry projections are what their exposure will be, those won't translate into what the federal cost will be. we do formal damage assessments with the states. we look at responsibilities of state and local government. we look at the uninsured losses. so until we get out there and do the damage assessments we won't have numbers. but that's not the total dollar

figures. you will get loss of impacts. you will have significant agricultural impacts so the usda will be working with the state commissioners as they compile those costs. the total dollar figure is from different sources. what we'll report is the damage that would be eligible if there was a presidential disaster declaration for reimbursement assistance. >> what is the total number without power? >> it's fluctuating. it's coming down. but the department of energy at our 12:30 conference call was reporting a little over 5 million. that had come down from a number over 6 million. but the department of energy is tracking that and putting that number together as it changes. we knew they were in the area of heavy rainfall. this is one thing the director bill read was trying to get people not to focus just on the center of circulation or the

coast. the heavy rainfall, this storm had a lot of rain ahead of it moving ashore. the concern was where we would get steady rainfall. if you want back to the prediction center they were putting out forecasts of these types of measures we could see as far as rainfall. but the read as the is most this occurred very quickly. many of these rivers in vermont, they have already gone back down. it was a quick response from the rain, now we are looking at the damages. megyn: those damages are considerable as you heard the fema director discuss. that was an interesting anecdote talking about how the emergency operations center in vermont itself had to be evacuated as the water rushed in. 5 million are estimated to be without power. he says it's down from 6 million

and our numbers when we began the broadcasts are 7.4 million so we are going in the trite direction. you can catch more on our web site. we are streaming his remarks live. coming up, the federal debt may be turning into the most important issue in the upcoming election. so which party has the winning strategy for dealing with it and messaging on it? frank luntz is up next. >> in till now 125,000 jobs lost since he took office. 9.2%. it's time to change course. [ male announcer ] it's a fact:

your nutritional needs can go up when you're on the road to recovery. proper nutrition can help you get back on your feet. three out of four doctors recommend the ensure brand for extra nutrition. ensure clinical strength has revigor and thirteen grams of protein

to protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. and immune balance to help support your immune system. ensure clinical strength... helping you to bounce back. ensure! nutrition in charge!

megyn: we have some incredible new video from hurricane irene. this is from nanville, new jersey. it shows a national guard truck trying pass through a newly formed river. there is more than one. look at this. the soldiers quickly disembarked the trucks and climbed on top of them. this comes as we hear the director of the federal emergency management agency said it may be a while before we know the full cost of this disaster.

those estimates may climb as the flooding gets worse. adam shapiro joins us from the fox business network. >> we are talking about property lost, not the 30 people who have lost their lives. but from a financial standpoint the estimates from the insurance industry and companies out of maryland which have models that track this. they are saying total loss will be roughly $7 billion, possibly $8 billion because of the flooding. so possibly $8 billion. insurance will cover roughly 40% of that. but this storm according to the analysis as far as property loss will not rank in the top 10. it will be much smaller from a financial standpoint. but from a human to it many growing to points where i don't think anyone will forget this

storm for a long time. megyn: these are disturbing images out of new jersey and vermont. we saw some earlier out of virginia. the federal debt is shaping up to be one of the most important issues in the 2012 elections. democrats and republicans are starting to shape their messages on it trying to appeal to you the american people. so who has the winning strategy so far. pollster frank luntz joins me. you have been looking into this issue. this will be one of the top three things discussed. >> over the next five months it will be the top issue. there are two ads on the air, and one of them is doing pretty well and one of them isn't. there are two rules much thumbs.

statistics and specific. you have got to provide real numbers to build credibility, and they have to be specific. this first ad comes from the republican national committee. it's a minute long about it stalks in specifics. it works well among republicans and democrats. >> there was a man who promised us sunny skies. he said we could spend our way out of it. tax our way out. we could pay our fair share. the road ahead darkens. as he drives into the horizon, angry skies greet us. this man is barack obama. welcome to his taxpayer funded debt tour. minnesota, 19,000 manufacturing and 19,000 construction jobs have been lost since the so-called stimulus. in iowa, 11,000 manufacturing, 6 thundershower --6 thousand cons.

it's time to change scores towards clear skies. text unite to 91919 to change direction. >> i would have changed the voice because it is too ominous. megyn: it reminds me of a movive. >> 20th century fox presents the poseidon adventure. that's too much. a female voice is more credible than a male's because the public believes it will be more honest and compassionate. that negativity. i don't know how to call it, it detracts from an ad that is otherwise perfect because you go state by state, number by number.

in the beginning of the ad the democrat line is way down. then in minnesota and so on, even the democrat line started to go up. it's surprising to see the democrat line go way up when you are taking a direct hit on the president. >> five words. how can you argue with statistics. they believe in numbers. the next ad goes after the majority leader eric cantor. this one the republicans don't move, the democrats just get to 50 because it's everything that's wrong about political advertising. >> if congress doesn't act by tuesday america won't be able to pay all of its bills. social security checks, veterans benefits and military pay could be at risk because congressman eric cantor and congressional republicans wants to protect tax breaks for million airs, oil companies and corporate jets. so if the check you and your

company depend on doesn't arrive thank congressman cantor. megyn: what's wrong with that? >> once again you have got voice that's ominous. this time you have got the piano music trying to make you angrier or afraid of what's going on it it's all general attacks. these are the lines we have been hearing week after week. tell us something new, tell us something believable or give us a fact or statistic. the ad does none of these three. megyn: my stage director john giggled and says it's always the corporate jets. they always go to the corporate jets as the line of whose getting protected by the one party. >> i will say this, if anyone out there has a corporate jet i would be happy to ride on it at any time. megyn: we don't want to protect you or lower your taxes, so there. >> there you go. megyn: frank, thank you.

i don't know whether we do or don't. you tell me. do we want to protect the corporate jet own officers maybe we do. maybe they are our bosses. the governor of florida signing a controversial new law requiring welfare recipients to pass a drug test before they can get welfare. but is that a violation of the constitution? >> we want to help families who have substance abuse problems. for those who test positive we work with them and make sure the families get what they need. a g intelligence that's helping people rethink how they live. in he, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broaand experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. ♪ we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites...

for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's a network of connections and ideas... open and collaborative... extending far beyond the mobi phone. connecting you to a world of intelligent new devices and technologies. from today's best innovators... and tomorrow's. ♪ it's the at&t network... a network of possibilities... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. ♪

it's high time to make our floor look better and feel softer. ♪ how 'bout we start th the guaranteed low price on the carpet... the pad, and installation. let's get peace of mind for a lifetime. it all adds up to the lowest total price on our carpet project. guaranteed. and a room that looks better than we ever imagined. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get 12 months special financing on carpet purchases

megyn: "kelly's court" is back in session. on the docket drug testing welfare recipient. governor cot signing legislation for welfare recipients to submit samples for screening before they can get benefits.

the problem is so far only 2% of those would-be welfare recipients have tested positive. that could save the state $100,000, but they say the costs estimated with this program have been projected to be $178 million. critics like the aclu say they are planning to sue, charging that the policy is unconstitutional. do they have a point? let's ask our panel, defense attorneyattorney. they say they are discriminating and violates their 4th amendment ride to be free from unreasonable searches. are they right? >> they are right. putting aside for a second those who think it's a good idea. you don't get past the legal

scrutiny. if you look at chandler versus miller, you have got a supreme court case, what you are doing is you are doing a test of someone's tune without suspicion. that's a guarded class. man this particular case, what the court found was you can't just randomly search the urine of those who want to run for state office because again there is no suspicion. these aren't people in sensitive positions or high-risk jobs. it's a random group of people. we are only 2% fail the drug tests. megyn: the legal theory is there has to be a special need. they okayed the testing of high school athletes because there is a special need to protect children on the football field from other children on drugs. is there a special need if testing welfare recipients? >> who are giving the money and providing the monies for the

welfare. the case -- megyn: businessmen get state contracts. farmers get subsidies. there is a huge difference between a farmer who is out there working tilling the fields and a guy who has a business and he gets a state contract than someone saying i'm down on my luck. megyn: it's state money that require everybody who gets state money is drug free. >> you want to make sure the people receiving welfare is not being used on drugs. megyn: fair enough, but mark, i ask you do the statistics show poor people are any more addicted than rich people? >> not with the latest statistics we have gotten here. 96% are passing this. now florida -- my taxpayer dollars have to pay back the tests each person took.

$30. 1,500 people were month are taking and passing the test. we are now giving back to those. megyn: governor scott says people on welfare use drugs at a higher rate. apparently there is no significant difference in the rate of illegal drug ruse by welfare applicants and other people. do the latest statistics not suggest that's right? only 2% are testing positive and the florida taxpayers are going to have to reimburse for all these costs. >> let's say it's only 2% an was wrong in his premise, it still has to do -- the welfare recipients don't have a job so they are using the state money to buy the drugs. that's the difference. that's the disconnect between a state agency being -- a work

being awarded a contract. megyn: how far do you take that. do you say anybody who gets unemployment benefits needs to drug test? that's proposed by one ohio state senator. >> what is wrong the common sensical aspect of that type of law? i'll make it simple. megyn: should people be able to get their state-funded pensions? >> that's different. they worked for those pensions. welfare is a handout. and it's a privilege. it's not a right. the same way when a cop stops you from driving and you refuse to blow, you lose your license. refuse to give your urine, you lose your money. >> in theory it sounds wonderful. the program costs $178 million. they are expected to save maybe $40,000 to $80,000. you do the math. megyn: that speaks to whether it's a good idea.

but legally is that relevant? >> governor scott says the purpose of the program is to save money. megyn: he doesn't want the taxpayers to be fundersing somebody's drug habit. >> in theory that makes sense. 2% failed it sow it doesn't save money. you start adding up the costs of attorney's fees to fight this case. >> you can't make decisions on policy based on what the aclu's lawsuit will cost to fight when it comes down to a fundamental thing. i need help, i need a handout. if you want the money, that's fine, then you have got to do what we require to you do. we have to make sure you are not using it on drugs. megyn: if you fail the test you are denied welfare for a year. so you are disadvantaged. if they are on drugs anyway, guys, good debates.

the law requires that us significanceless drug testing -- requires that suspicionless testing have a special need. studies show they do not use drugs more than the wealthy. the results in florida seem to confirm that. my prediction is if the aclu sues over this law it will win on this one. with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced. i don't always have time to eat like i should. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes, which can help lower a1c. [ ma announcer ] glucerna. helping people with diabetes find balance. [ ma announcer ] glucerna. have i got a surprise for you! yeah, it's new [ barks beneful healthy fiesta. gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! you okay?

try this. bayer aspirin? it's not a heart attack. new bayer advanced aspirin's for pain. it has microparticles and enters the bloodstream faster. works twice as fast as before. did you invent this or something? dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. [ male announcer ] new bayer advanced aspirin. wow. wait a second... with olay challenge that. new regenerist wrinkle revolution... relaxes the look of wrinkles instantly, and the look of deep wrinkles in 14 days. ready, set, smooth... regenerist. from olay.

megyn: a strange new twist in the hunt for a missing mother from utah. susan powell disappeared in utah two years ago. now disturbing claims from her father-in-law that there was something between him and this

woman. the wife of his son. trace gallagher live in the west coast newsroom with more. >> reporter: the story is getting so twisted investigators went back out to the house he shares with his daughter to look for new evidence. they pulled out personal evidence like journals. he claims in december of '09 he took his two young sons camping at midnight in sub-freezing temperatures and when he came back his wife was gone. now he says his wife was very sexual and she may have left him for another man. the father-in-law says he had a sexual relationship with susan and he loved her and he believes she felt the same way about him. >> the fact that they have the journals they can confirm she initiated the relationship that we had. that it was very sexually

charged. >> reporter: it gets weirder. because steven powell is a musician and goes by the name steve chantray. he apparently wrote songs about susan. today reese you refer where♪ >> reporter: susan's father chuck cox -- by the way, they had it each other, they have been told by a judge to stay 500 feet from each other. he thinks josh powell is behind his daughter's disappearance. he was asked about the songs. >> i don't know. i have not listened to them. i'm aware of the web site. frankly it turns my stomach to think about it. >> reporter: still no sign of susan powell. police do believe she was the victim of foul play. megyn: my head is spinning.

>> reporter: mine, too. megyn: vermont is in crisis at this hour in the wake of hurricane irene. dozens of towns cut off. roads and bridges washed away. we have more details next.