>> the crowd like that. americans seem to like what he's selling because this morning, rick perry's stock is soaring. >> all right. is president obama too republican for re-election? his recent right turn, so to speak, giving democrats cond thoughts according to some. so will they give hillary a second chance, perhaps? the white house will answer that question. and more. "fox and friends" starts, steve, do you have the time? >> it starts right now! >> who needs the stinking digital clock? i got a wrist watch right here. it's time to start! >> get your sundial out. >> i feel like -- exactly like the pilgrims when they came over in the nina, pinta and the santa maria because we don't have electricity. back to the old days.

i'm making my own butter. >> you're still without electricity. >> this morning, i did this. i traveled with this little thing all the time. shaving. >> i go to bed with a minors cap and i hit a button and i just start shaving. >> you guys around alone. there are millions of people without electricity. >> we feel for you, folks, although you're not watching us right now unless you're lucky enough to have a general rarlt. >> if nothing matches, don't blame us. we're getting dressed literally in the dark. >> let me take a look. >> that shirt is lavender. >> not many people have color tv. >> meanwhile, we'll give you the follow-up on irene. we want to get right to your headlines this morning and the very latest on the hurricane's aftermath. she may be gone. new video out of vermont paints a vivid picture of the devastation that irene left behind. fema director craig fugate heading there today where a dozen towns have been cut off from the outside world because bridges are knocked down and

roads are cut off. homeland security secretary janet napolitano heads to north carolina and virginia where, as you can see, homes were lifted right after their foundation. and new video out of manville, new jersey, where basements are underwater. at least 41 people across the 11 states have been killed. nearly five million people, plus steve and brian, are without power. and flyers finally get up in the air and to their destinations this morning. even though the major airports have reopened, travelers experienced 1600 flight cancellations yesterday. airlines warning it could take several days before the one million stranded passengers by irene get to where they need to go. dominique strauss-khan applauded as he returns to the headquarters of the international monetary fund in washington. he went back to his old office with his wife five days after he was cleared of sexual assault charges. strauss-khan apologized to the entire imf staff. not sure for what. he's expected to move back to

france later this week. a great american story. a little league team gets a welcome home that they will never forget. >> the 2011 little league champions! >> family, friends and fans in huntington beach, california, went wild for the boys' big win. they defeated japan 2-1 in the little league world series and the city plans to honor them next weekend with an official parade. those are your headlines. >> wait a minute, were you just doing the sports? >> you're right. >> unbelievable. get some revenge for the women's world cup team. that's what was on the little boys' minds, i'm sure. u.s. this time beats japan. rick perry has got to be happy today. he made his decision to change his schedule speaking to the vfw. number one, some recent polls are coming out more in his favor than i imagine he even thought would happen this early. >> that's right. there's a brand new cnn poll that shows -- look at that, rick perry near double mitt romney.

you're absolutely right. for the fourth time in two weeks, perry has had a double digit lead over mitt romney. interestingly enough, of the four polls that have come out where perry has bested mitt romney by double digits, the worst perry does is 25%. yet, the best that mitt romney does is 18%. >> it's interesting. we're getting also a window into rick perry's ideas for foreign policy. he was speaking at the vfw convention yesterday in san antonio, texas, and he started to talk in vague terms or i should say broad terms about how he sees america's role around the world. let's listen to what he had to say. >> i do not believe that america should fall subject to a foreign policy of military adventurism. we should only risk shedding american blood and spending american treasure when our vital interests are threatened. and when our interests are

threatened, american soldiers should be led by american commanders. >> all right. so there he is. he did focus on the service of the military men and women in attendance there at the vfw. he didn't mention barack obama by name, however, he did get in some campaign points because he announced as governor of the great state of texas, down in san antonio that they would be starting, the state of texas, a program called housing for texas heroes which would help find houses for people returning from war. >> yeah, he also, too, is very comfortedable in front of the military audience. military base in texas plus he served in the military by choice. in the air force. at 5 minutes after the hour, there was one person who was not there. two years ago, he was. last year, it was vice president biden but this time, the white house did not provide the president or vice president for the vfw and they are extremely upset because when they provided it, they said we don't have the two big guns but some others.

veterans of foreign affairs, very insulted and they passed. >> apparently, one of the names the white house said, ok, the president is busy. vice president biden is bubusy. how about susan rice? you want her? they said no. apparently, they will hear later today from the deputy white house press secretary josh earnest, he's going to be giving an official speech there but the vfw is insulted. here's what they say. >> yeah, this is from the commander. they say it is an insult of the highest magnitude that for the first time in the history of the vfw, the white house has apparently decided that this great and iconic organization of combat veterans and all of its members are not worthy of its notice by not at least offering a first tiered speaker from the administration. so as steve said, susan rice was offered up as was the air force secretary. as was the chief of staff of the air force as was the national guard director but none of those, akorpccording to the vfw

commander are up to the caliber of previous visitors and speakers that have been the president and the vice president and that's the sort of high tier level position they were looking for. >> be different if the president was scheduled and irene happens and he says listen, i have to go to the site but he was never on the docket. >> the president is going to be going to the american legion convention apparently later on today but nonetheless, it's an election year. there's rick perry. he was there yesterday. mitt romney is going to be there today. you would think they would do something to get the president in some shape or manner there in san antonio but it's not going to happen. >> kiki friedman did not become governor of texas and this just in, i'm looking for a second source on that, but he did run to become governor of texas to the outstanding and unique personality. believe it or not, even though he lost, he still has tremendous respect for the man that beat him, governor rick perry. he was on with bill o'reilly last night and talked about it.

>> i'm finding good in a former foe. there's a lot of good in rick perry. he's a nuts and bolts guy with the economy. if you're going to give obama credit for killing bin laden, you have to give rick perry credit for the texas economy. obama has done for the economy what pantyhose has done for foreplay. >> that's quite an analogy. we leave it to you whether that's good or bad, quite frankly. >> i don't know. what's that guy's first name? >> kinky? >> no wonder. fantastic. >> we told but this recent cnn poll, there's more information in this cnn poll and that's bad for the president. apparently, democrats now a higher number than ever are not happy with the president's performance and 1 out of 4 of them want to see someone run against him in 2012. so yesterday, at the press briefing, press secretary jay carney was asked about the possibility of hillary clinton

running against the president. >> uh-oh! >> vermont's senator bernie sanders said and this is a quote, one of the reasons the president has moved so far to the right is there is no primary opposition to him. and my question, why is the president certain that hillary won't run against him? >> you win the award for originality today. the president is not focused on any election. he's focused right now on doing his job, grow the economy, create jobs and ensure that americans who are in the path of this hurricane are taken care of. >> i understand. but you're running away from this question. are you sure that hillary is not going to run? >> you'll have to ask her.

we're fairly confident that we need to focus on the task at hand. >> spin, spin. >> but it does seem to be far fetched that hillary clinton would run against president obama. >> the sitting secretary of state. >> yes, but i'm curious to hear what our viewers have to think. if you think a democrat would challenge him in 2012. >> he never did answer the guy's question and instead he said the president right now is focused on doing his job. he's not focused on his re-election. i don't know. thinking about that. look at all the fundraisers. >> well, most -- the most likely foe to rise up and maybe give him a run will be russ feingold who said i'm not doing it. it's tough to find someone who will give him a run. ford-reagan duel. >> i think you're right. the chances of a primary challenge for the president of the united states, zero. >> 10 minutes after the hour. still to come, states want to ban styrofoam. they say it's too light. they also say private business should pay to save the planet.

but the government -- but the government, it gets a pass. >> what's going to happen to all of our fast food? >> at the table. >> then the numbers don't lie. obamanomics vs. reaganomics. what created a better economy? stuart varney puts both to the test. ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> president obama has a lot in common with president reagan. yes, that's true. both inherited painful recessions. >> that's what i heard.

>> and both used expensive programs to get the country back on track. >> but whose policies actually worked, we asked, and stuart varney is joining us live. good morning to you. so i guess it is reaganomics. >> yes, it is. absolute opposite result of their policies. 30 months in on president obama's policy, we had near 7% growth for the economy and we have unemployment coming down and inflation coming down and it was morning in america. generally a positive environment. 30 months into president obama's presidency, after a trillion dollars worth of government spending, we have 1% growth, unemployment stuck above 9% and most people would agree that the general mood is it's twilight in america, it's not morning in america. >> twilight zone. >> let's not carried away. but it's an exact opposite in policy approach to a major

recession and there's an exact opposite in the results of those policies. >> although president obama did keep the tax rates against his first inclination at what the bush tax cuts were. >> he wants to jack them up. >> sure. but the tax rates are still -- when president reagan cut the tax rates, what did it go to? >> it went way lower than it is today. it went to 70% which had is the top rate but all kinds of deductions thrown in. he dropped it down to 28% and got rid of a lot of the loopholes. that's what a lot of people are planning for him to do this time around in the big plan next week. cut tax rates but eliminate the loopholes and the deductions. that would be simplification and it would, i think, i'll pass the judgment that that will be a winning issue. he's not going to do it. >> we know one thing is for sure, the president has got some jobs to fill. almost everyone in his economic team has left. one was filled yesterday, alnan

krueger, a professor in college. what do we expect from alan krueger? >> look, he's a princeton guy as you point out. he's another academic. if you look at his past work and what he studied, look, i'll pass the opinion that it's not promising for the future. this man has written very much in favor of a value added tax, a consumption tax, ok? the tax. the guys like taxes. he's written very much in favor, he was part of the team that wrote cash for clunkers. with that success, how did that really work? that was another example of government spending. so you've got taxes, spending and very much -- and he very much favors the minimum wage. he doesn't think that destroys jobs. >> you say he's an academic and he is like the guy that came before him. would you like to see somebody from, i don't know, the world of business that's actually created jobs? >> yes. look, what we want in america surely is to stimulate the private sector. get private enterprise going! that's how you expand the economy. give me somebody who knows how

private enterprise works. not somebody who studied it from an ivory tower who thinks he knows the theory. >> fun guest coming up on your show. >> academic guest, don't you? >> i have a professor daniel hammermesh from the university of texas at austin, of course. he wants an affirmative action program for ugly people and he's serious. >> you mean if you're ugly, you should get special compensation? >> no, he wants job quotas, essentially for the bottom 1% to 2% of the good lookers in this world. the worst looking 1% or 2% of the population should be protected in the marketplace in the work force. he wants an affirmative action program. >> somewhere the elephant man is smiling. >> that was a good one. >> that's true. >> thanks, stu. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. >> all right, meanwhile, lawmakers want to ban styrofoam to save the planet. one problem, though, they're sending private businesses the

bills while the government gets a pass. is that fair? >> what am i going to do with last night's cajun chicken? would you rat out these dummies for money? is this a winning idea? reporting the people cursing and fighting next to you for loot. [ male announcer ] 95% of all americans

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>> some quick headlines in this tuesday morning. an autopsy shows grizzly bear is indeed responsible for the death of a man at yellowstone national

park over the weekend. now park rangers are hoping that collected d.n.a. samples can help them identify the bears. they set traps and will euthanize the grizzly when and if it's caught. and the hunt for muammar qaddafi rages on as members of his own family apparently have gotten out of town and now they're in algeria. that country's foreign ministry confirming that his wife, daughter and two sons are there. the obama administration says it has no indication that qaddafi has left libya at this point. ali? >> controversy in the golden state. a new state bill aims to make california the first and only state to outright ban styrofoam food containers but the law would only apply to private businesses. government gets an exemption. the co-owner of a mexican restaurant in california and is up bright and early to join us. thanks so much for being here. explain the problem with banning styrofoam. on its face, the state makes a

good argument. styrofoam is not biodegradable, why not do something more environmentally friendly? >> well, alisyn, what they're not telling you is that styrofoam or as polystyrene as it should be called are recyclable and there are items that are being recycled. so recycled polystyrene is having package ed peanuts, we s it as egg cartons and crown moulding. there's toys and office products. we need to focus on the efforts to recycle the product rather than ban the product. this is a de facto ban if 60% of polystyrene isn't recycled. the government tried to carve itself out last week. it's going for a vote later today so we're working really hard to defeat this and say this is the effect it's going to have on small business. i've been in my family's business for 70 years and after 70 years, we are only making about 5 cents on the dollar and

that's very typical of restaurants in california because of bans that come down the pipeline. >> so you're saying -- sorry to interrupt, is that all the regulations are really cutting into your business. what will happen to your family business if you had to switch to, say, cardboard? >> well, cardboard would be more expensive. but what they want to see is biodegradable products and the problem that we have is that mexican food products, sauces, chiles, anything to do with cheese that's melted cannot be packaged in the biodegradable, it will leak. it will soak through. and the integrity of the product for travel, for packaging, is lost. >> so that would obviously jeopardize your family business to a great degree. i want to get back to what you said that the government is exempting itself. the way it's doing that is it's allowing some state and city programs like public schools to continue using styrofoam so what did you think when you heard that they gave themselves this little loophole?

>> well, it didn't surprise me because that's just how we do business in california is we go to the backs of small business and we say what can we do and then we exempt the government. it's somehow our problem. littering is the problem. but we're not the litterers and i think again, we need to go back to, say, are we then going to ban other types of packaging? are we going to ban glass? are we going to ban aluminum foil? are we going to ban chinese paper, plastic coated. the cups that are all plastic coated that we get at the major coffee chain, those take a lot more energy to produce and also a lot more energy to break down. >> very quickly, sorry, i just want to get to the bottom of this. if this law goes through and styrofoam is banned, does your business -- do you have to go out of business? >> what it's going to cost to my bottom line, alisyn, is going to be about $78,000 because the alternative product is going to

cost 2 to 3 times more. and again, for all businesses in california, and they vary by their profits throughout the state and the type of businesses that they are, fine dining to mom and pop, that's going to have a significant impact. and we're talking about job retention right now. >> sure. keeping jobs, right. >> in the state of california. >> even the styrofoam companies employ something like 600 people, one company in california. so lorraine, thanks so much for helping us to understand the situation in california. good luck. you're, of course, you run sal's mexican restaurant and i'm sure it's a great place. we'd love to come and eat there. >> we'd love to have you. thank you. >> thanks so much. see you soon. meanwhile, shake up on "dancing with the stars." there's a new list of contestants and a bad girl makes the list and politico pushing an article asking if rick perry is dumb. have they ever asked that about a democrat? we'll take a look at it. these nasal allergies are spoiling our picnic.

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>> pretty cool. last night at the vma's beyonce revealed that she and jay-z are expecting a baby, you guys! i love those guys. that kid is going to have everything. except a last name. >> what is jay-z's last name? >> it's not z? >> what is beyonce's last name? i do know beyonce. >> beyonce. >> knowles. >> thank you very much. >> one time was known as that. >> you came up in the rap industry. what is jay-z's full name? >> carter. >> shawn carter. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> there you go. >> we ask the questions here. >> meanwhile, we'll answer this question at least we'll try to. what was politico that leftie blog politico blog doing when they asked on the headlines yesterday, is rick perry dumb? you know, as soon as the primary

season heats up on the republican side when it comes to presidential candidates, it seems like mainstream media tries to describe republicans in one of three different terms. somebody's weird. that's what they've tried to affix to mitt romney. somebody is scary. that's what they've tried to tag michelle bachmann with and now somebody is dumb and that goes to, thanks to politico, rick perry. >> yeah, they're obviously trying to be provocative here. their premise which they don't offer that much evidence of is that there are whisperers in republican circles that he is not a heavyweight. that he may be an intellectual lightweight and they compare him to george bush. they say there's a joke that goes around that he's like bush only without the brain. and so they pose this and, of course, the question is would they ever frame an argument like this about a democrat? >> or have they? no, i mean -- >> we couldn't find that headline about, you know, is joe biden dumb?

is barack obama dumb? is any democrat dumb? we couldn't find a headline like that. >> well, joe biden but not moony, perhaps. but it just -- it's kind of interesting yesterday. rick perry had to be complimented yet wondering what's going on. politico is asking if he's dumb. "the new york times" asking if he's too conservative. they had to articles on him and politico questioning his intellect but his poll numbers continue to rise. >> they do. i was driving around in the car yesterday looking for batteries because we're still out of electricity and i was listening to rush limbaugh and rush limbaugh was asking incredulously, that's what politico is asking is rick perry dumb? the president of the united states, it took him two teleprompters yesterday to make a three minute announcement about a member of his new economic team. rush asked. >> he's the longest serving governor of texas. they could be dealing with other issues rather than making up the headlines. >> if you were driving around a little earlier, you were

listening to my show and then switch over to rush. >> cover. >> to the rest of your -- steve wants me to get to headlines as soon as possible right now, he still isn't comfortable. new overnight, a former nba player under arrest accused of killing a mother of four. they busted javaris crittendon at john wayne airport near los angeles. authorities say he intended to hit someone else but he missed hitting julian jones. when he was on the washington wizards, he pulled a gun on teammates. >> warren jeffs, the convicted child rapist and polygamist sect leader in a coma and may not survive. he was refusing to eat and became so weak. doctors put him in a medically induced coma. jeffs is serving a life sentence for raping two girls, one 12 and one 15. he's scheduled for a second trial on bigamy charges. >> meanwhile, a bus driver from cleveland says her brush with actor matthew fox was like a scene out of "lost."

ok, that's the tv show, "lost." she got into a real fist fight with fox just hours after he posed for these photos with fans. she says the actor was drunk and tried to board her party bus. well, it was a party bus. when she told him to get off because he wasn't invited, she says he "lost it." >> is that her? >> he started waling on me so i started swinging back. >> did you hit him? >> i did. i hit him in the mouth. >> mr. fox was questioned by cops and released but the bus driver is threatening to press charges. >> got to get jobs. what are they fighting bus drivers in a middle of a monday? >> the wait is over, the new "dancing with the stars" cast has been revealed. several big names will be competing for the mirror ball. getting the biggest headlines today, tv host nancy grace. >> what? >> and david arquette and chaz bono and joining them, ricki

lake, nba player ron artest and ex-george clooney flame elisabetta canallis, really? suddenly i'm interested. and reality show's rob kardashian, crispen cavaileri, chyna phillips and karson cressly. >> how many headline writers will say will the cast be graceful with nancy grace? just watch. >> giving you some ideas, i'm afraid. >> maybe. the wrath of hurricane irene leaving vermont with more water than it can handle. the governor there calling it the worst flooding in a century. it's absolutely awful there. adam housley up early, already in vermont with the very latest. good morning to you, adam. >> good morning, steve, brian and alisyn. we're down the river just a bit and we're in an area outside of

springfield, massachusetts, where the connecticut river which also runs through there is rising. in fact, it's right at the edge of flood stage. the same water that ravaged vermont in the last couple of days is now coming down through massachusetts eventually will go into connecticut and into the long island sound. these communities watching this water extremely closely as you look behind, in fact, the sun is coming up right now so you can't see the glare off the water, you won't be able to see through our camera until the sun gets a little higher but the logs coming down the river are absolutely massive. that's part of the problem as they come down and go over bridges and roadways. in fact, the latest numbers are 263 bridges and roads are destroyed or seriously damaged depending on what part of vermont, massachusetts, and upstate new york you're talking about. four of those iconic covered bridges have been destroyed. the latest death toll is 41. we've been told by authorities in parts of vermont and also upstate new york as well as massachusetts, they expect that number to go up some as they get into some of these towns that were ravaged by the floodwaters

that came through, flash flood type waters. different than the situation is right now with the waters coming down the connecticut river and some of the other rivers is that the communities there can prepare more. officials can watch these waters and use the dams and try to fluctuate the water much different than what we saw with the flash floods that withdrew from irene. now the latest numbers also this morning we're told are $13 billion in damage, guys. president obama is going to visit vermont, also north carolina and virginia today to see some of this damage. back to you guys. >> all right. adam housley there in vermont near springfield. thank you very much for the very latest. >> wow, the situation up there. >> true. let's talk sports. ugly sports. i went to a game a short time ago about two years ago and i had the worst seats possible. actually had to be three years ago because it was the old giants stadium. i thought it was kind of cool to go upstairs. i bought my son who was impressionable at that time and it was nonstop cursing, beer throwing and there was a fight between a man and a woman.

and we weren't even watching the game after a while. we were ducking. >> i had the same problem at yankee stadium every time i sit up in the high seats with my kids, same thing. >> so what's the solution? california thinks that it has a solution. that is to pass a law basically, you know, cracking down more on violence at sports games and offering rewards of up to $50,000 -- i think the fine would be $50,000 if there's any sort of fight. >> this is a donation that the franchise would have to pay to a reward kitty. >> to get people like you and your son to tell on who you saw fighting. >> because if you saw the san francisco-raider game and you saw, look at this brawl. this is as vicious as it gets. you would expect to find this in a middle of a gang fight without weapons, fortunately, they don't have weapons there. they go through a metal detector, i believe. but this went on and on and on. you would think cameras would pick this up but a very frustrated california lawmaker has come forward and says essentially we're better than this. this guy's name is assembly mike gotto and he said let's offer a

reward. have all these teams put $850,000 in a kitty and that money goes to people who turn around and go, that guy from the crips sat next to me, he started the brawl and you give people cash to turn them in. >> you would think people would do the right thing and tell the authorities what they know. of course, very famously. there was a guy out in the parking lot, he was -- bryan stow, he was wearing the opposing team's jersey, he was jumped. he is still in the hospital. he had brain injuries. it's a terrible situation and they have arrested a couple of guys in connection with that. >> it took a long time. >> it took a long time to arrest those guys. >> first guy was found innocent. >> so maybe if this reward existed, they would have been able to catch somebody sooner, critics of this law say it would go a lot further if they would just lower alcohol sales. >> but they make a lot of money, 10 bucks a pop. >> and they're also talking about telling tailgaters, they can't sit in a car or sit by their van while the game is on.

that's totally wrong. you're paying an exorbitant amount of money for tickets, for parking to sit in the parking lot. now you have to make people dw watch the game. >> let us know what you think would be the solution to cracking down on violence in the stands. find us at foxnews.com. >> all right. 14 jobs at the cost of $20 million. that's just the beginning of the so-called success of the government's green jobs program. a closer look at how your money is being spent next. >> $20 million, 14 jobs? some colleges ban illegal immigrants but don't, there's now an even sweeter deal on the table. how they're getting an american education really cheap. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables

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>> 45 minutes past the hour.

time for some quick headlines. the running of the bulls coming to arizona? the town says their event will be safer than the one in spain because it will be held in an arena and they'll use rodeo bulls. but the mayor won't let it happen until the organizers get more insurance. and good news for chocoholics, a university of cambridge study says eating a lot of chocolate can reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. people who ate more than two chocolate bars a week cut their risk of heart disease by a third. that is very good news this morning. >> wow! >> hear that, willy wonka? >> georgia state law bans illegals from the five best universities but the group of professors at the university of georgia are defying that law. they've created a course especially for undocumented students and they call it freedom university. how are they getting away with that? let's talk to fox news contributor and daily caller founder tucker carlson. so tucker, we got these five

state employees helping illegals avert a state law. >> that's exactly right. you have people who work for the state of georgia openly working to subvert a law in georgia. and by the way, this law does not prevent illegal aliens from getting educateed in the state of georgia. it nearly says when the top five universities in the state turn down academically qualified citizens, they can't accept illegal aliens. there are other schools that can, just these top five can't. these professors, by the way, have spent zero time donating their energies to helping legal immigrants, there are a lot of legal immigrants in georgia colleges, people who stood in line in asia and africa, worthy people, they're not getting any help. it's people who are here illegally and simply because they're here illegally, they're getting help from these college investors that apparently have a lot of free time, by the way. >> no kidding. here's what one of these guys on the program with this freedom university as they call it says. what we're hoping is that people

in decision making positions will reconsider the policy. it goes counter to our aims. we have invested enormous resources in these young people. it makes sense to give them a chance at an education. they certainly should have a chance at an education but then again, they should certainly be following the rules, shouldn't they? >> yeah, and i don't think that the university of georgia professors ought to be making state policy. that's the job of legislators. that's what they're elected for. this is what happens when you give people tenure which is to say when you give them a very light workload and promise them they can never be fired for any reason short of capital murder. they -- they have no incentive to do their jobs! and in this case, they're not. shouldn't surprise anyone. >> right, and the thing is, so this new law came out where the georgia state law closed the doors to five schools to illegals. and then for these guys to come out and say, ok, they can come up with that but we're going to -- we're going to avert the law. we're going to do this. for them to do it in such a public manner, just -- that is annoying a lot of people down in

georgia. >> but keep in mind, the one key thing about this law, it is triggered by the refusal to admit qualified citizens. so in other words, these are -- these are university that have already said to american citizens who can make it academically, no, we don't have room for you. for them at that point to take illegal aliens in is illegal and it's an important distinction. >> all right. tucker carlson is going to be the first one in the office over at the daily caller there in washington, d.c. >> no! we're fully staffed even now. >> no kidding. around the clock. >> around the clock. >> tucker, have a great week. thank you. >> thanks, steve. >> all right, straight ahead, the government's green program goes bust! in just one state, we set aside $20 million and guess how many jobs we created. 14. what happened to the money? that's straight ahead. then conservatives can't rsvp to this parade, the local union says republicans are not welcome.

one of those shunned congressmen shawn duffy will be here live. ay on weight watchers. i don't see why anyone would want to do anything else. pointsplus has got my back no matter what. it's a part of who i am now. ♪ yes it is i never saw myself here, i didn't, but with weight watchers, i can't see myself anywhere else. ♪ i'm feeling good you can be here too. go on join for free. [ female announcer ] and, if you join by september 17th you can get a month free. weight watchers pointsplus. because it works. 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

>> going green was supposed to kick start the economy but after the federal government allocated millions for green jobs across the country, the program has struggled to create many of those jobs as you see here. struggled to put it mildly. in seattle, $20 million given to weatherize homes have created 14 jobs. only a few homes have been winterized. by the way, it's summer. where's the money? let's ask fox news contributor, at large editor of the national review on line, jonah goldberg. jonah, green jobs have failed. it would be nice if it worked but it hasn't. the numbers are staggering. when do you think the

administration will realize this is a no win? >> i think they probably realize it already, i think they're trying to figure out how to deal with it politically. i mean, we're just purely in political silly season now and these guys -- look, remember, they already messed up and already had to admit there was no such thing as shovel ready jobs and now they're stuck with the fact that there's no such thing as green jobs. basically, the core argument for their entire stimulus has gone up in smoke. the core argument for the entire sort of new green revolution that the stimulus was based on that obama and biden, you know, touted for the first two years of their -- of the presidency, it's all a laughingstock now. >> right. so if he wants to -- if the president wants to talk about or the next candidate wants to talk about energy independence, nice term, we could get more of our oil from canada and mexico. we could deal with that. and maybe drill our own and that would be the answer to not having to deal with the turmoil in the middle east. >> yeah. i mean, that's the thing. whenever people talk about green energy, they keep shifting the argument whenever you confront them on their own terms. so they say oh, we need to have

all those green energy stuff, wind mills and what not to be independent from foreign oil. first of all, we don't get electricity from foreign oil or domestic oil or from oil in america. so, you know, we could build windmills from coast to coast and we would still need oil from the middle east and elsewhere. that's what we put in cars. but more importantly, if we believe in energy independence, we would be drilling for more oil and natural gas in this country. this is a funny quirk of physics. you can't drill for american oil in china. >> right. >> you have to drill for it here. >> i was never good at physics and i can't figure out that formula either and finally, the president when he was a candidate pointed to spain and says we're losing in green technology, we're losing the race to corner the market on it. thankfully, we're losing the race. in spain, it's been a disaster! >> it was a disaster when they proposed this stuff. you know, they've done studies now that show that the spanish government destroyed 2.2 jobs. destroyed. 2.2 jobs for everyone they

created with these green -- with these green job programs and these green job programs sometimes cost up to a million euros a piece. >> and 21% unemployment, that would be a formula i want no part of. jonah goldberg, great to talk to you, thanks so much. let me read this energy independent statement. let's roll this back for a second. while communities are advancing their programs at different rates, we are pleased with the progress in implementing the better buildings neighborhood program. that's a whole lot of nothing. all right. >> that won the argument. >> thank you. >> jonah, good job. >> thank you. >> all right, coming up straight ahead, a government agency in the red. $9 billion in the red. maybe it's because they're paying workers millions of dollars to do nothing. and we are not kidding. and rush limbaugh says president obama was hoping hurricane irene was even a bigger disaster. he reports, you decide. [ male announcer ] heard this one?

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introducing the lightning-fast, 10-inch samsung galaxy tab. stay up to date, entertain yourself, and enrich your knowledge like you've never imagined. only at verizon. built so you can rule the air. >> good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, august 30th. i'm alisyn camerota in for gretchen this morning. the wrath of irene is getting worst possibly. dozens of towns in vermont cut off and underwater. the new video we have for you this morning is unbelievable. >> brian? >> all right, rush limbaugh says the president was hoping hurricane irene would be worse. >> i'll guarantee you obama was hoping this was going to be a disaster as another excuse for his failing economy. >> wow! he reports, you decide.

>> all right. meanwhile, a government agency in the red to the tune of $9 billion. maybe it's because they're spending millions of dollars on employees who just sit in the cafeteria and do nothing all day. not making that up. we'll tell you what agency as "fox and friends" rolls on for this tuesday. auto >> good morning, this is fabio, you're watching "fox and friends." >> hi, fabio, come back and dance with me sometime. >> he danced with you? >> you don't remember? >> brian has a different memory of fabio. >> we'll explain all that in the after the show, show. if you tune in after the show on line. >> we broke into shirtless models together in the early 1970's. >> how did that work out for you? >> he had all the breaks and he knew everybody. >> he got the fake butter job. >> i can't believe it's not butter.

>> i can't either. >> we need to update you on tropical storm irene. it is for some worst than hurricane irene particularly for people in vermont. take a look at this new video that we have. this car, this car just one of the things that was dragged along by these raging floodwaters. no one, we're happy to report, was inside that car. the director of fema, craig fugate is heading to vermont today and homeland security secretary janet napolitano will travel to north carolina and virginia where, as you can see, homes were lifted right off their foundation and in little falls, new jersey, this truck stuck in record flooding. my goodness. at least 41 people across these 11 states have been killed and many nearly five million people are without power this morning including steve and brian. and flyers hope they get up in

the air today to their destination even though the major airports have reopened, travelers faced more than 16700 flight cancellations yesterday adding to the more than 12,000 people grounded this weekend. airlines warning that it could take several days before the one million stranded passengers by irene get to where they need to go. is wikileaks looking for attention? the document dumping organization run by julian assange has published almost 134,000 diplomatic cables in the past few days. even more interesting than newly published cables include the names of american diplomatic sources whose identities were supposed to remain secret. the more reckless document leaks seen as a tantrum by assange because media attention of wikileaks has died down and the tsa releasing photos of animals people have tried to smuggle through u.s. airports. the latest incident, two birds wrapped in socks taped to the

chest of a woman who tried to sneak them on a flight from los angeles to china. >> a magician? >> you'd think. in miami, a guy got busted with seven snakes in his pants. >> ok. >> ok. along with three small turtles, those reptiles all wrapped in women's stockings. there's a lot going on here in this man's pants. and discovered by a body scanner. well, i'm happy the tsa is discovering these things, ok? i think that's silver lining. >> because you'd hate to have snakes on a plane. >> right. or snakes in your pants. >> right. listen to this, there's nothing to hate about rick perry's candidacy if you're a rick perry supporter. so far, he's gotten off to a rolling start. he'll be in new york, by the way, for a fundraiser. first thing is first. look at the cnn poll that just came out and rick perry on top with a substantial lead, 27% to 14% over mitt romney, also at 9%. rudy giuliani is a big supporter of perry but he hasn't even gotten in yet followed by newt. >> and according to this

particular ussu survey, perry's biggest supporters come from those who identify themselves as supporters of the tea party with 37% of their vote and yet, he beats mitt romney by a couple of percentage points as well with republicans who do not call themselves supporters of the tea party. >> ok, so one of the interesting things is that many people in the tea party believe that the u.s. should not be engaged in so many foreign conflicts so yesterday, rick perry went to the dfw convention in san antonio and he laid out for the first time not specifically but in broad brush strokes his philosophy on foreign policy. let's listen and then talk about it. >> i do not believe that america should fall subject to a foreign policy of military adventurism. we should only risk shedding american blood and spending american treasure when our vital interests are threatened. and when our interests are threatened, american soldiers

should be led by american commanders. >> is that a little shot at barack obama with what's going on in libya where american soldiers are being led by nato officially even though there are american commanders at the top. the president of the united states was not mentioned in his speech yesterday and the president of the united states while invited to the vfw will not be in attendance. he was there in 2009, 2010 they sent joe biden. but this morning, members of the vfw are really angry that the white house did not send the president or the vice president or what they call a first tier speaker. here's what the commander of the vfw says. it's an insult to the highest magnitude that for the first time in the history of the vfw, the white house has apparently decided that this great and iconic organization of combat veterans and all of its members are not worthy of its notice by not at least offering a first tier speaker from the administration. >> yeah, they offered susan rice.

they offered the secretary -- the air force secretary as well as the chief of staff. they offered the national guard director but that does not add up to the president, all great people, i'm sure. but doesn't add to the prestige of the president or vice president. >> right. they say it's unprecedented that the president didn't accept, president obama went last year, joe biden went so now the vfw feels very snubed about why they're offering all of these lower tier, as we call them, people in the white house says look, we can't fulfill every single invitation. >> right, but the white house is sending somebody. it's not the president. standing in for the president, apparently today is deputy white house press secretary josh earnest. we should also point out that the president is speaking to the american legion, i believe, later on today. >> right. let's talk about rush limbaugh who was watching the president and watching how he was handling the disaster. that was the theme of his speech on saturday when he talks every

saturday -- now he does it on line. he used to do it on radio. it was clearly a distraction. no doubt about it in the news cycle. we weren't talking about the economy, we were talking about irene. we know that first hand. we were talking about irene for four or five straight days which made rush limbaugh conclude this. >> over that 17 months, we added 2 1/2 million jobs. now, at the beginning of this year, we get earthquakes, tsunamis, revolutions. >> they couldn't wait for this storm! obama, i'll guarantee you this, i'll guarantee you obama was hoping this was going to be a disaster as another excuse for his failing economy. i mean, if he's out there blaming tsunamis. if he's blaming earthquakes and whatever other national natural disasters there are, i mean, this wouldn't have made the order. but it just didn't measure up. >> there you go.

we played a little of austin goolsby who is no longer with the white house as one of the economic gurus there talking about the slowdown in the economy and blaming the washington, d.c. earthquake and then you heard rush say, wait a minute, the president wanted it bigg bigger. think about it, if it were bigger, the theory would go there would be more of a gigantic federal response, more money pumped into the economy. at the same time, you have to remember what did rahm emanuel say about never letting a good crisis go to waste? >> the other thing, i don't think rush is saying the president wanted people's lives destroyed or lives lost, he's saying a distraction might work best for the president as he gets ready for his economic speech. >> i mean, he also said that he thinks president obama wanted to seize on performing better than president obama did so this would be a nice contrast. if he gave up his vacation and rushed back to washington, that it would be better than how

president bush had handled katrina and so that's what the president was trying to do. that was rush's theory. meanwhile, let's talk about the postal service, u.s. postal service. as you know, it's hemorrhaging money. $9 billion this year. and one of the problems is that because of labor contracts, the post office has to pay people whose jobs may have become somewhat obsolete if -- because mail volume is down, there are not as many people needed in post offices to sort through the mail. yet, they can't be fired or reassigned. so they go to these sitting rooms. they sit in a break room for hours at a time, and collect their full salary. >> right. >> and piece of equipment breaks down and they didn't know what to do with them. now that you sit there and watch the piece of equipment be fixed or go in the break room and get reports of how the equipment is going. >> if your starter is broken or truck doesn't work, it's not like you don't call them in. you go in and sit in a cafeteria. it's called standby time and

according to federal audit, during the first six months of this year, standby time used by employees for 170,666 hours costing the federal government something like $4.3 million. as extraordinary as that is, look at screen right there. in 2009, 1.2 million hours were wasted in break rooms to the tune of 3$30.9 million. >> watch me. i'm on standby time. i'm just going to sit here. >> you're really good at it. >> ok, fine. we'll call you when we need you. fine, you're still being paid. >> your foot is on the computer. >> is that a problem? >> i think somebody in the i.t. department. >> it may be broken but i'm watching it. i'm looking at it. >> just tweeted back that crazy guy from north dakota. >> with a picture of my foot, oh, no! >> conservatives in wisconsin kicked out of the labor day

parade. the local union says they're no longer welcome. one of those shunned congressmen, shawn duffy here next. >> off break time, congressman and you can add life saver to brad pitt's long list of accomplishments. this time he wasn't acting. why a complete stranger is calling brad pitt his hero! >> he's perfect. the stronger the rapids, the more we loved it.

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>> welcome back. fury over wisconsin's collective bargaining bill now making its way into a local labor day parade. union organizers running the event are banning three republican lawmakers from attending claiming they do not represent the rights of workers. >> joining us now is one of those republican lawmakers, wisconsin congressman shawn duffy. good morning, congressman. >> good morning, how are you guys doing? >> we're doing well! so you're not allowed to be in

the labor day parade. what have you been told? >> well, we participated in the parade last year and when we reached out to participate this year, they told us that we weren't welcome. and, you know, they have every right to do that. labor council sets the parade up but also, the city is a co-sponsor and the city has come out and said listen, we don't approve of making this a political event so now they propose that the labor council actually pay for the city's involvement with the parade. >> good. and meanwhile, so you feel shunned, here's what their explanation is, the president says this. the president of the labor labor council says this. it should come as no surprise should the organizers choose not to invite the elected officials to openly attack workers' rights who stood idly by while the party stripped workers of their rights to publicly bargain. your answer? >> listen, we all want jobs and

opportunity in wisconsin. if we're going to have that happen, we're all going to work together. what i find interesting here, as many of you viewers know, it's been a little contentious in wisconsin but we all went through a whole recall election and the folks are sick of partisanship. they want to see all the bickering set aside. though the labor council is doing this, folks don't approve of what's going on. not only that, i've had union members reach out to me and say listen, this is the leadership. we don't agree with it either so, you know, they have every right to do it. i'll respect their wishes that we won't show up. hopefully they'll reconsider for next year and i'll be able to come to their parade. make no mistake, we'll continue to work for them. we think it's important that we represent everybody and i know labor is a little mad right now, we're going to continue to build that relationship with them. >> as long as they stay in town. >> yeah. >> right. >> when they're out of state, it's tougher.

>> they can march in another state. where's the aclu of wisconsin? you think they would be up in arms, the inequality inviting only democrats and not republicans to this event. >> well, i'm not holding my breath for the aclu to get involved in this one, all right? >> you know, we always have to laugh at it, you know. i think we -- i think people say this is somewhat petty. but we understand their feelings are hurt. so we -- >> we respect them. >> congressman, your point was this is family friendly fun for one day on a holiday on the weekend, we can put aside partisanship and we can all be together in a parade. is there a chance that they'll change their mind before this weekend? >> well, to your point, i mean, this is not just union members who go to this parade and not just democrats. this is a community event where everyone comes out to participate. you know, i don't think they're going to change their mind this year at least, hopefully next year they'll reconsider but i

mean, make no mistake when issues come up, they have no problem reaching out to me and asking for help and asking me to consider their position and i do, but, you know, i think in wisconsin, it has become so divisive, we have to start working to bridge that divide. this doesn't go to that end. >> take lemons, make lemonade. party at the duffys, you don't have a parade to be in. barbecue party. >> more dogs at the duffys? >> i have six kids. we're going to have a ball here. >> fantastic. >> you can have your own parade with a family that big. sean duffy, thank you very much for joining us today from ashland, wisconsin. >> back in the 1970's, it cost taxpayers $5,000 to put an american kid through school. today, try $12,000. but are your kids getting a better education from a d.c. schools chancellor? the legend herself up next. >> make sure you keep your facebook invites private or this might happen. >> wait a minute, is that the duffys' place this weekend?

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>> hi, everybody. time for your news by the numbers so let's get started. let's start with six and go up here. yes, that's the number of prime ministers japan has had the last five years and that's the guy. you're looking at him. he seems nice. he is now in charge. let's come down here. michael vick is practicing now and he's doing that because he's got $100 million contract to fulfill. $40 million is guaranteed. that will make michael vick, his new contract with the philadelphia eagles one of the richest in sports. and let's go back up top now finally, 17%. that's how many americans have a positive view of the federal government. that's the lowest out of all 25 business sectors surveyed.

and zero. that's how many stories i have yet to read. let's go back inside. >> there is a battle going on right now for your child's education. traditionalists including the teachers unions don't want things to change. they want more resources for the public schools. but here are some of the results. >> grown from $4300 to more than $9,000 for students. that's adjusted for inflation so we've doubled what we spent on each child. but double the money is worth it if we're producing better results. unfortunately, we're not. since 1971, reading scores have flat lined. and math is no better. >> it's not pretty. so our education reforms making any headway into improving the education of our children? former d.c. chancellor michelle rhee is the founder of children first. how are you? >> i'm fine, how are you?

>> i want to you comment on this new book, he sets up the battle royale very well between the education reformers which you are one who would like to see more charter schools, more choice for parents, and the traditionalists who want to see more resources put into the existing public schools. which side is winning today? >> well, unfortunately, i don't think anybody is winning today. and in particular what i'm concerned about is the children. and if you look at the data, it is very clear that we continue to have significant problems with our public education system in america. we are 25th out of 34 developed nations across the globe in mathematics. we have a situation where there is an achievement gap between our white children, our children of color that is very substantial and very persistent. in fact, we haven't made much progress in closing that gap at all in the last 20 years. and like you said, we are -- we're spending double the amount

of money now that we were two decades ago. and the results really aren't that much better so for children in the american public education system, things really haven't gotten very much better for them. >> and can you put your finger on why we are spending double the money but we're not getting double the results? what's the problem? >> you know, i think the problem comes down to accountability. we are spending lots of money on things that actually aren't producing results for kids. and there's no accountability around that. we actually have to look at every single bucket that we're spending money on and we have to make sure that we're seeing results accordingly so, for example, when i was in washington, d.c., when i inherited the district in 2007, we had a central office of about 1,000 people. we were spending a tremendous amount of money on that central office. we cut the central office in about half so by the time i left, there were less than 500 people working in the central office and i think anybody would say that it was operating much,

much smoother than it ever had been before. we spend billions of dollars a year in this country on paying for master's degrees for teachers and the research is very clear that having a master's degree doesn't actually mean that you have better outcomes for your kids. so wouldn't we put that kind of money into performance pay for teachers? why wouldn't we recognize and reward the teachers who are seeing two or three years of academic growth for kids in one year? those are the types of expenditures that we need to see instead of pouring money into the same broken system. >> and very quickly, i just want to get you to address, you know, the people opposed to charter schools say that they would just bleed money from public schools and we should just focus on making public schools better. can you address that quickly? >> absolutely. i'll address that by saying that charter schools are public schools. this is something that people have an absolute misperception around. charter schools are public schools that accept kids who live in the state, any child,

and we have to remember that they are also accountable for seeing results. and i think the notion that somehow by introducing competition whether through charter schools or for vouchers, for low income kids that somehow that is going to be a debttrime to the system. i think the exact opposite is true. in washington, d.c., we had a very robust charter sector and we have the opportunity scholarships program, a voucher program for low income kids and i actually think that that helped the school district to get better. >> sure. competition often helps. michelle rhee, thanks so much for coming in with your expertise. as always, great to talk to you. >> thank you. >> all right. meanwhile, where in the libya is libya's ousted leader muammar qaddafi? we have breaking news for you next. and brad pitt is being called a hero for saving a woman's life and this time, he wasn't acting. and tennis legend tracy austin hitting balls out on our plaza. here to call this year's

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you'll be glad you did. summertime is now a happy time when we can eat what weant and sleep soundly through the night. prevacid®24hr prevents the acid that causes frequent heartburn all day, all night. happiness is a day without heartburn™. getting an amazing discount on a hotel with travelocity's top secret hotels. [ gnome ] ahhh... [ male announcer ] the easy way to get unpublished discounts of up to 55% off top hotels. [ gnome ] your fingers are quite magical. >> all right. time for our shot of the morning. she is best known for her thrilling 1979 win over four time u.s. open champ chris evert at the age of 16. look at that little girl right there.

she made her the youngest u.s. open champion ever but this could be one of her strangest tests yet. two time u.s. open champion tracy austin joins us live here on the plaza. good morning to you. >> great to see you. >> irene kind of messed up the open, didn't it? >> actually, it was ok. arthur ashe kids day was canceled on saturday. it didn't come through as badly on the u.s. open as thought so everything went as scheduled yesterday. >> so the women's final will be sunday. the guys on monday. who do you like in the women? >> the women's, i like serena williams. she's a clear favorite right now even though she's only been back on tour a couple of months and on the men's side, novak jokovich. unbelievable. >> he has been a machine. >> he is a machine. it's so exciting to watch because for about three years, you know, he was number three in the world, right behind roger federer and he couldn't break through and now this year he's had a spectacular year. >> so you like serena and him so if i'm going to put some money in vegas, those are the two.

>> yes, go for it! go for it! yes. >> time to go for it. which side of the court are you going to be on? >> i'm going to go on this side and we'll play with these balls that are a little more squishy. >> that's good. >> a little softer and these are for the kids that are 10 and under but they're good for you, steve. to get sfartd. >> is that right? >> so it's a lot easier to rally. and keep the ball back in play. >> now -- and this is something that -- what you're doing is you're encouraging kids to learn on the slow balls, kind of a nerf ball. >> what happens is right away, they're successful, you know, and kids like to be successful. we all do. and so, therefore, they keep playing tennis whereas the balls that are -- the regular tennis balls are much more difficult to keep the rally going. you are good. oh, no. just as i gave you a compliment. , but you got to come out to the u.s. open. it's great. on tennis channel, we have it on every single weekday from 11:00 to 7:00 and at night, it's on from 7:00 to 11:00 on the weekends for the third year.

>> so you got to come out to the open. here we go! he's getting serious now. >> all right. >> that's it. >> i notice in the background, it says fox business and the tennis channel. >> yes. we have a great -- now he's getting serious. great reciprocal agreement the last three years so every day during the u.s. open, fox has a wrap-up -- here he comes. the wrap-up of the day of tennis and then on the tennis channel, we have a wrap-up of the business day. now, i'm heavy breathing out here now. come forward. come on! bring it on! bring it on! >> hit me right in the gut. all right. tracy, thank you very much. >> good thing it was soft. that was fun. >> very nice. brian and ali, back to yinto yo. >> good playing. very impressive. >> i'm exhausted. >> brian, we played last year. i see that you didn't want to come back. >> right. you know why? i wanted to give steve a shot at you because my dominance was so

overwhelming. >> yeah. >> go hit the showers. >> ok. >> we want to bring you your news headlines right now, we do have a fox news alert for you. breaking news. new information on the possible location of libyan leader muammar el-qaddafi. a correspondent for skye news, our sister network spoke to a bodyguard that works for muammar el-qaddafi's son, that bodyguard claiming he saw the libyan leader in tripoli on saturday before heading south with his daughter. remember his daughter is in algeria, libya's neighbor to the west. is her father still with her? that we don't know. at this hour, we'll bring you the developments. >> wow. new overnight, a former nba player under arrest accused of killing a mother of four in atlanta. the f.b.i. busted him at john wayne airport near los angeles. authorities say he wanted to shoot someone else but he missed hitting julian jones when he was on the washington wizards, he had a gun problem. he pulled a gun on a teammate and was suspended. and five mexican gang members

under arrest for an arson attack at a casino that left 52 people dead. surveillance footage shows the suspects filling gas cans before they went to the casino and torched it. another video making news in mexico shows monterey police parked outside of the casino. hard to make out. you can see as the casino burned, the officers did nothing. >> half of muslim-americans say muslim leaders in the united states have not done enough to speak out against islamic extremists. according to the pugh research center, only about a third say that muslim leaders have done enough to control extremism. and 68% say that muslim-americans are cooperating as much as they should with law enforcement. >> brad pitt plays a hero in the movies and now he's playing one in real life, too. while filming a scene for his new movie "world war z" in scotland, the actor rescued an extra who was nearly trampled. they were in the middle of a battle scene with over 700 people when he swooped in and saved her. the woman walked away with a grazed knee and a story she'll

never forget. >> oh, brad! >> hurricane irene will be maybe long gone before -- but people are still bracing for flooding from the rapidly rising connecticut river. adam housley is there by a river in massachusetts right alongside what we believe is a body of water that continues to go higher. >> that's right, brian. in fact, it's expected to crest here today, the connecticut river is. right now, it's about a foot or two from flood stage. this area that we're flooding in, they've already had some evacuatio evacuations. there's been warnings downstream into connecticut, the river runs from vermont straight through to massachusetts where we are into connecticut eventually into the ocean so there's really warnings all the way down the connecticut river as the water from the flash flood that came through from irene that caused so much devastation to our north, that water now moves south. in fact, the -- we watched this water as it goes by with all sorts of debris, massive logs and a bunch of other junk out there that's floating by coming from that flash flood situation

to our north from a couple of days ago. right now, we've been told 263 bridges or roadways have either been damaged or destroyed from eye arena including four of those iconic covered bridges. the video that keeps coming in is just unbelievable. seems like there's new video coming in every hour from some of these flash floods that really ravaged so many areas in so many small towns in upstate new york and vermont and in massachusetts as well as down even through parts of connecticut and, of course, new jersey we've seen. there are people here, though, good news for them at least, is they have some sort of warning, situation with the flood warnings here is they see it coming and they have a chance to prepare and potentially evacuate which is what has happened here. brian? >> all right, adam, thank you very much. beautiful sunny day. hard to imagine so much destruction is around. meanwhile, this. >> al-qaida's number two is now dead. does that mean america is any safer or more dangerous to have radicals lacking leadership? we have a former director of the

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yesterday doesn't win. big doesn't win. titles corner offices don't win. what wins? original wins. fresh wins. smart wins. the world's most dynamic companies know what wins in business today. maybe that's why so many choose to work with us. we're grant thornton. audit. tax. advisory. >> 43 minutes past the hour. let's do some quick headlines. new requirements that force local governments to replace old traffic markers and stop signs by 28 teams are being scrapped. towns complain and say the deadline would cost too much cash. the federal highway administration now says the signs can be replaced when they wear out. and this is what you get when you mix 4,000 students from

colorado state university, a huge pool and massive quantities of alcohol. the out of control pool party advertised on facebook ended with four students arrested for fighting and 10 others hospitalized for drinking too much booze. someone who knows a lot about that, brian kilmeade. >> thank you very much, reportedly. the united states has dealt another massive blow to al-qaida. al-qaida's second in command has reportedly been killed by u.s. drone strikes back on august 22nd. and while many security experts say the death is a major hit to al-qaida, will it be significant enough to further our dismantling of that terror network? general michael hayden is a former director of both the c.i.a., both the c.i.a. and the national security agency joining us right now from washington. general, how significant a kill? >> brian, this is a big deal. i'm looking back on last week, this is probably the second best thing that could possibly have happened to us going against

al-qaida, and not a distant second either. obviously, killing al-zarqawi would have been the very best but he is a very important target. his removal from the battlefield will have effects that will be felt for a long time over a great distance in the organization. >> they say that he was the link between al-zarqawi and his lack of people skills and the rest of al-qaida, he would have been the p.r. front and helped with plotting and planning. without that, he has to feel extremely isolated, do you agree? >> i agree, absolutely and your description is quite right. he has a personality quite different from al-zarqawi who was prickly at best on a good day. he was a bit of a modest man and established a lot of contacts. he was the bridge and the fixture in the organization and if anyone needed a fixture, it would be a personality like al-zarqawi. >> we got him in that man's land of pakistan and we did not ask pakistan for permission.

that's causing friction but certainly worth the prize. in the big picture, if i put you back in the c.i.a. or your other post, are you happier today that he's gone but also more wary that they seem to be disembodied in north africa, iraq and yemen. >> yeah, one has to understand, brian, this is a learning ining active enemy that we have here. we've reduced our capacity to do the preferred kind of attack, the mass casualty attack against the iconic target. as you suggest, they're not working with franchises. the franchises are becoming more prominent. the death is important because he was a bridge to the franchises. so he'll slow as well. his death will slow their development. but the new threat, i think, is now not coming at us from the tribal region of pakistan, but from the affiliates and particularly the affiliates in the arabian peninsula.

>> i'm just astounded, too, by al-qaida asserting itself again in iraq. for example, there was a selling point. bin laden was on a high. and if you want to be a terrorist, that's where to go. but al-qaida doesn't have a great poster or bumper sticker anymore. what is the attraction? >> well, it was never at a zero there. there were always residual al-qaida elements. a lot of u.s. combat power has been removed. we're in a process of transferring an awful lot of responsibility to the iraqis. so there may be just a question of competence involved in here as well as we go through the transition and then finally, brian, to the degree that that sunni shiite split accelerates and becomes more pronounced in iraq, to that degree, you begin to empower the fringe of the sunni community and that's al-qaida. we're probably seeing that. >>aut>> aut >> ironically, he was saying easy on killing the shiite. we don't want to deal with that.

fascinating to talk to you about this big news. appreciate it. >> thanks, brian. >> coming up, more companies posting help wanted signs this week. break down the top five with alisyn in a minute. on this day in history, houston, texas was founded. good idea. in 1967, thurgood marshall was confirmed as the first black supreme court justice. a better idea. and in 1972, looking glass had the number one song, brandy was the artist and she always has good ideas. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables

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>> are you looking for work? well, look no further than right here on "fox and friends." we have good news for you today and cheryl casone from the fox business network is here with five companies that are hiring this week. that is great news, cheryl. so let's start with ernst & young. >> the accounting business is big right now. all the activity that's happening out in the country right now, all the compliance, for instance, these companies have to go through and they have to find accountants. thau there's a couple of things about this one. they do a lot of corporate audits but they're very much about work balance and a lot of the accounting firms are like that. salary range anywhere from $70,000 to $115,000. >> there's a name we all know, sears, what are they looking for? >> they've been around for 100 years. they need associates. they're hiring in california, they're hiring in texas.

and most of my companies are hiring in california which is a good thing. unemployment is at 12% out there, by the way, again, people say they get stability where they feel like they have a good stable job at sears and they like who they work with. they like their co-workers. don't always like your co-workers, you're ok and everything. no. but they really do like -- people really do talk about sears and they like the culture. i think that's important. >> very valuable. what do they do? >> they're very popular right now and they're hiring because a lot of companies don't want to commit, unfortunately, to a full-time worker but they'll go for temps. a lot of times these temp jobs do become full time. adecco is looking for people, i had the ceo on site with me at the u.s. open yesterday. here's what he told me about what you need to do and how you need to refocus yourself. take a listen. >> look at the professional skills, i.t., finance and accounting, engineering, these are not 9.1% unemployment job skills. and, you know, we're looking at depending on where you live, 3%,

4% unemployment in skilled categories. >> we've been talking about this a lot. i.t., finance, health care, we were talking about health care yesterday. those are areas and nurses, if you ever thought you had any interest in being a nurse, please go back to school. now is the time and the next one is chrysler mopar and that is a new word to attach to chrysler but they merged with fiat a couple of years ago, it is what they're calling all their chrysler brands and this is the parts supplier. they're looking for people who specialize in automotive, technicians, installation and all that. but they -- the italians, the fiat executives are coming in now and kind of changing things up around. they make the kit that takes a jeep and turns it into a pickup truck. remember when i was 16, i asked my parents for a jeep and the answer was no. no, you're not getting a jeep. but you can take -- but they actually make a kit that turns it into a truck. maybe that's a little safer. >> that inclination, chrysler and apply to them.

aflac, what are they looking for? >> you know the duck who by the way, has a spot on the madison avenue walk of fame, who knew that one. they are hiring. here's what the sales associates say, they say it's an easy sell because of the duck, believe it or not, who has been around for 10 years and is very famous because they're the first company in history to come out and do cluster selling where they would go to companies, go to specific areas of the country and address 100 people, 300 people, group insurance. they came up with that back in the early 1960's, been around a long time. three brothers came up with this company. and really, the name itself, they say, helps sell it. even in the event you may not want a sales job, think about aflac because the employees say they don't have a big problem with the brand name because of the duck. >> right. that has been a great advertising campaign. everybody remembers, aflac! >> yeah. so the range is good as well and again, like some of these jobs are commission but again, four out of the five companies i brought you today, in california.

a lot of jobs in texas and a lot of jobs in new york state. >> we love your segments. they are so helpful! they're making a real difference. thanks so much for coming on. and you can check out cheryl at noon on the fox business network. we'll be watching. >> all right. thanks, alisyn. >> ok. so here's something interesting. there's proof that ugly people earn less money than beautiful people. >> huh? >> should they get special protection from the government? this is a real story that we will bring you momentarily. and hillary clinton in 2012? cue the president's press secretary. >> run away from this question. can you guarantee and are you sure that hillary isn't going to run? >> laura ingraham will weigh in on that at the top of the hour. almost tastes like one of jack's als.

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>> alisyn: good morning, everyone. today is tuesday, august 30. i'm alisyn camerota no for gretchen. this morning irene strikes again, believe it or not. the storm's heavy rain is headed downstream. it's wiping out entire neighborhoods and it has taken more lives. the worst is not yet over. >> steve: meanwhile, politico, that lefty web site pushing an article asking if rick perry is dumb. that's the headline from right there. have they ever said that about a democrat? we're going to take a look at some past headlines, see if we can dig one up. >> brian: and this story, please hold on to something or somebody. mom took away their toys, so her children tried to sue. are these kids making a joke of our judicial system or is this the crux of what makes america great? freedom! "fox & friends" starts right now.

>> it's "fox & friends." >> steve: that was a very dramatic -- stewart like impression. >> alisyn: wait until you hear this lawsuit about what the kids were upset about. >> brian: we got headlines and you want to lead with this. >> alisyn: we have the very latest on hurricane irene's aftermath. she may be gone, but new video out of vermont paints a very vivid picture of the devastation that irene left behind. fema director fugate is heading there where towns have bridges and roads washed out. napolitano heads to north carolina and virginia where, as you can see, homes have been lifted right off their foundations. incredible video out of manville, new jersey. members of the national guard driving completely under water.

look at this. in an attempt to save stranded residents. at least 41 people across 11 states have been killed. flyers hope they'll finally get up in the air and to their destination, even though the major airports have reopened, travelers faced more than 1600 flight cancellations yesterday, adding to the nearly 12,000 planes grounded this weekend. airlines warning that it could take several days before the one million stranded passengers by irene get where they need to go. new information just in to fox news on the possible location of libyan leader moammar gadhafi. a correspondent for sky news spoke to a body guard who worked for moammar gadhafi's son. well, that bodyguard claims he saw the libyan leader in tripoli on friday. before then heading south with his daughter. that daughter is now in algeria with gadhafi's wife and two of his sons and it's not known if

gadhafi is with them at this point. and a great american story, a little league team gets a welcome home they will never forget. brian, it is a sports story, but i'll try to get through it. family, fans and friends went wild for the boys' big win. they defeated japan 2-1 in the little league world series. the city plans to honor them this weekend with an official parade. >> brian: those kids don't have to go to school because they're all going to be pros. >> steve: at age 12. >> brian: yeah. i can tell you right now, signing agents go right to the majors. >> steve: president obama getting closer to unveiling his jobs plan. what's in the plan? we're still not sure. kelly wright is at the white house to tell us what we know so far. good morning to you. >> good morning. here is what some of the president -- what is on the agenda. traveling to minneapolis where he'll address the american

legion's 93rd national convention, that's the largest gathering of veterans and their families. this economy is never far from the president's mind. on monday he gave us a preview, if you will, of his plan to try and improve it. >> next week i will be laying out a series of steps that congress can take immediately, put more money in the pockets of working families and middle class families to make it easier for small businesses to hire people. >> the specifics of what the president will propose are not known, but white house press secretary jay carney says president obama will introduce initiatives that he claims will have a direct impact on economic growth and job creation. >> they will be measures that should have bipartisan support and he expects will have bipartisan support because everyone's focus in washington,

whether you're a member of congress or a member of this administration, ought to be on getting this economy moving. >> the president will likely find bipartisan support on the clean-up and rebuilding from hurricane irene. the recovery from that storm will create some jobs, but the bigger picture requires an initiative that will create jobs for future growth. many democrats would like the president to call for more stimulus spending and middle class tax cuts. republicans, on the other hand, are not confident that the president will present a plan they can agree with. >> i think the administration has sort of already demonstrated that it is not interested in focusing on private sector growth. the record has been thus far in this administration of continued expansion of government. >> again, white house press secretary jay carney says the president's plan will have components that he believes everyone in the congress can get along with and get some

bipartisan support. we'll find out exactly what happens when the president unveils his plan next week. steve? >> steve: we'll be tube side. thank you very much. >> alisyn: thanks. let's bring in laura ingraham to do some talking with us about news of the day. great to see you. >> hey, good to see you. >> alisyn: you are the author of "of thee i zig." >> alisyn, i'm going to zing you now. she'll have to be in part 2 now. >> alisyn: i left out the prepare position, i'm sorry. >> steve: the president is getting zinged by democrats. a new poll out this morning says 27% of democrats or independents who lean toward the democratic candidate, 27% would like another candidate than barak obama, which could mean, what, hillary? >> well, interesting question. i think we should unpack some of that video you played on the show and it kind of tells us what's going on here. they think it's so important to

change the approach in this campaign, steve, that jay carney had to change his eye glass frame and has anyone told rachel madow that her glasses are miss ing? but they have to retool the whole approach because it's not hope and change anymore. it's be patient. change is coming. it couldn't happen overnight. kind of lower expectations so people don't get really frustrated. but the point is people are frustrated. and they know at this point that the pace of this recovery, if you can call it a recovery, is anemic and something has to be done. we'll see what the president says next week. some of it, i'm sure, will be these little initiatives that some republicans mate agree to. but it's certainly not the type of reform or plan that's going to jump start a long-term period of growth for the united states. >> brian: or jump start a long-term intermural fight. >> this is fun for us to talk about --

>> steve: carney was asked about it yesterday and here he is responding to the hillary question with those new glasses on. >> for months senator bernie sanders said -- this is a quote -- one of the reasons the president has moved so far to the right is there is no primary opposition to him. my question: why is the president certain that hillary won't run against him? >> you win the aword for originality today. the president's focus is not on any election. he's focused right now on creating job, grow the economy, insure that americans who are in the path of this hurricane are taken care of. >> i understand you're running away from this question. can you guarantee -- are you sure that hillary is not going

to run? >> you would have to ask her. we're fairly confident -- >> that she won't? >> that we need to focus on the task at hand. >> alisyn: so jay carney was amused there. >> steve: never answered it. >> that's a man who i met in college in the '80s. he's been in the white house briefing room for a long time. he always requests these questions that are colorful and gets a lot of attention. >> alisyn: we want to ask you about this headline on politico, which says is rick perry dumb? now, something very interesting about this article, laura, if you read it, is that they cite as one of the examples of him being an intellectual lightweight, your interview with rick perry which you asked him about china and he gave you a half baked anticipate. what do you make of this article in the press? >> look, i think all these candidates have to be asked

difficult questions, i think in the fox debate, these questions were pretty good. i think we need to ask more in-depth questions about these -- tough questions like china and i don't think we should let any of these candidates get away with broad generalities or things about well, china, we need to change. has this been good to us? what happens if dominant power? how does that affect american families? i think they have to have real answers to that. i think he's in the process of forming his approach to china. i think he has to get a better answer than he had on my show, but then again he -- i thought, interesting points on other issues. i don't think that president obama has ever answered a question about china in a very specific and scintillating manner either, other than saying they have great high speed rail. i'm not sure what else he said. >> brian: governor huntsman is doing to be asked about china. i know this, penguins are an

endangered species. when i was growing up, the preying mantis. now, i understand, it's time to protect the ugly? >> the ugly people, the smelly people, the obese people, i'm trying to think of -- first of all, i thought smart people were the stereotype was that they were kind of dumb. right? so shouldn't they be protected? here is what we need to protect ourselves from, we need a protected class of stupid people who come up with idiotic classifications of people who should be protected. who wants to be labeled ugly, by the way, so you get these benefits? does anyone want to step forward and say yes, this is who i am, i'm ugly. >> brian: i get free dental. >> it's lunacy! we try to teach our children manners and it's what's on the inside and life is unfair, but this isn't going anywhere. this is like some thursday night seminar at some ivy league university or something ridiculous like the old gray lady.

>> steve: there you go. the young blond lady from washington -- >> you guys would never qualify. alisyn, never qualify. lucy, maybe. -- doocy, maybe. >> steve: her big best seller, check it out, laura ingraham, have a fantastic week. >> thank you. >> alisyn: next, what works better, obamanomics or reaganomics. we'll break them down next. >> brian: and a story that's almost impossible to believe. two kids suing their mom because she didn't buy them toys. it's legal, but does it make it right? we're going to come up with a solution. ♪

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>> steve: president obama has a lot in common with president reagan. both presidents faced economic recessions as they came to office. both faced high unemployment, and both used extensive programs to get the country back on track. supposedly. but their policies to fixing the economy could not be more different. joining us now is former economic advisor to president reagan and founder of laffer associates, art laffer. good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. how are you? >> steve: i'm doing fine, thank you very much. as you look at both administrations, reagan and also obama, 30 months out, one employed reaganomics, the other what some call obamanomics. so far it looks like reagan wins. >> reagan is going to win huge, by the way. after the first two years, reagan made a real mistake,

steve. he phased in the tax cuts. if you know they're going to cut tax rates next year, what do you do this year? you defer all the income you can. but once the tax cuts took effect on january 1, 1983, the economy took off like a rabbit. i think in 1983, it grew at 8%. 1984, it grew at 6 1/2%. just a boom. obama has done just the reverse. he has raised taxes on people who work. and he has paid people who don't work. i know you had a segment before on who is dumb and who is not dumb, but to get a professor to say you can raise taxes on workers and increase the amount of paw to nonworkers and you'll get more workers, that doesn't sound real bright to me. >> steve: by the way, that headline you're talking about is rick perry dumb in politico, when was the last time politico, which is a lefty blog, ever wrote is so and so dumb? is joe biden dumb? when is the last time they did that with a democrat? we cooperate find a single example of it -- couldn't find a

single example of it. >> it ain't rocket surgery how to get this country going. if you want people to work, make it rewarding to work. if you want people to be nonworkers, pay them not to work. >> steve: you look at the figures, 30 months into reagan's administration, the gdp was growing at 5%. and then on track to 6 and 7 and i think 8%. now 30 months in to the obama administration, we just got the revised number, it's 1%. >> even less than 1%. the reagan numbers were higher than you said. it was huge. the first quarter of '83 and the second quarter of '83 were 5.3 and 9.1% under reagan. they're .4 and 1% under obama, and it's not going to get any better. if you look at the july numbers, they aren't looking good either. obama has a real problem. a huge problem. and unfortunately, we're the ones who bear the cost. >> steve: we need some jobs.

art laffer, who is in nashville, that's why he's quoting larry gatlin, thank you very much for joining us live. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> steve: straight ahead, a big announcement on the new "dancing with the stars." a kardashian makes the cut, along with a very well-known news anchor who gets very passionate on television. and a mother forgot to send the birthday card and guess what the kid did? they sued her. it's true. but is it right? are we letting people make a mockery of our justice system? the debate straight ahead on "fox & friends." the "mystery spot". not a mammal in this household isilling to lay claim to its origin. but now is not the time for blame. now is the time for action. ♪call 1-800-steemer.

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>> alisyn: 22 minutes after the hour. dominique strauss-kahn applauded as he returns to the headquarters of the international monetary fund in washington. >> steve: are you kidding? >> alisyn: no, he was there to say good-bye, just cleared of sexual assault charges. he apologized to the imf staff for whatever trouble he caused them. he's expected to move back to france this week. and the running of the bulls coming to arizona? the town of cave creek said their event will be safer than the one in spain because it will be held in an arena and they will use rodeo bulls. but it won't happen until the organizers get more insurance. >> brian: parents, you better think twice before you give your kid a bad gift. you could get sued. that's exactly what happened to a mother in illinois who was sued by her two adult children nor not getting toys or cards that were appropriate with money for their big day. joining us right now for i hope

a fair and balanced debate is defense attorney arthur, and family law attorney, kelly. first off, kelly, these two kids suing their mom for bad mothering. this was a case for four years. make a case for the kids. >> the bottom line is if they're mistreated, in this case, it's the conduct was so extreme and outrageous that they couldn't tolerate it, no reasonable person would have been able to tolerate it, the case would have upheld scrutiny. here it didn't. it was bounced because the conduct wasn't egregious enough, but the law has changed. there used to be an immunity against suing your parents and there is not now. that's what our judicial system is founded upon. >> brian: arthur, they weren't left on the side of the road. this is something that -- run through some of this case. >> here is the abuse: the abuse was of the justice system. the abuse was of our court system 'cause here is what happens as a fine print as doocy likes to call it. what the fine print was mommy

and daddy get divorced. daddy is a lawyer. he says kids, i'll represent you. let's go sue mommy because she didn't give you a birthday present! are you kidding me? my father used to hit me with a belt when i did stupid things! >> brian: arthur, i would like to represent you because your dad has it coming. >> it would never happen! >> brian: let's look at this card together and be appalled. this is what it said. son, i got you this birthday card because it's just like you. different from all the rest. have a great day. love and hug, mom. how do you expect a kid to shake that off? >> because there wasn't a corvette attached to the card. >> that was one example they used and the court did throw it out. i disagree with arthur because if you think you've been wronged, that's your remedy, you file a lawsuit. >> come on, kelly. you know the cases you handled, there are substantive issues, there were people who were really hurt. yes, there are horrible parents

who are pouring boiling water on their kids' hands, but the wrong birthday card? because it says in suit, she didn't put a check or cash in the card. they live in a $1.5 million house! >> there were three lawyers that signed off on this. not just their father. his statement is he tried to dissuade the kids, that he wasn't the puppet. >> of course. >> you're bound by what you say. >> brian: one time it was seven years old, steven was told that they were going to call the police if he didn't put his seatbelt on. >> what mom said was she was going to drive him to the police station. but supposedly she was a bad mom, allegedly what she said -- he said a 7-year-old son, i don't want any contact with you and she stopped giving contact with the seven-year-old because he made that statement. i'm not saying they were right. >> brian, she called her daughter at midnight one time after the homecoming and said, i want you home now.

>> brian: oh, my goodness! how much is a kid expected to endure! on july 29, 2011, after two years, this case was dismissed. litigated wonderfully. >> why did it take two years? a judge should have read this and used it, took it right to the bathroom and used it for what it was. >> brian: arthur, the judge can't hear you. please stop now. >> i apologize. >> the judge is very well respected in cook county. she probably made the right decision and the appellate court affirmed it. >> brian: my decision right now is to adjourn court and go to break. you did a wonderful job, both of you. thank you. sorry it had to come to that. one state wants to ban styrofoam. they say private businesses should plan to protect the planet. then melissa leo braved some of the hardest hit areas of hurricane irene to join us on the curvy couch.

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took some wild risks when i was young. but i was still taking a risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more, and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol, stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol to 60 percent.

lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patits who have heart diase or risk factors for heart disease. [ female annncer ] lipitor is not for evyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if y are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. lets go... haha. if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk a about lipitor. >> steve: it must be sweets because look at our shot of the morning. cute kittens that survived hurricane irene in goshen, massachusetts. a six-year-old girl found the kittens floating in a puddle. somehow they got into a cardboard box after the storm. she handed them over to the fire department and they were able to keep five of the original eight alive.

they are now hoping to find them a loving home. if you're interested in one of those cute little guys, head over to the fire department in goshen. >> alisyn: oh, my gosh, that's the cutest thing i ever saw. i'm going to adopt all of them. >> steve: 29 before the top of the hour. >> alisyn: she won best supporting actress as control be mother and manager of mickey and nicky ward. here is melissa leo in "the fighter." >> some girl works in a bar. >> i know they're going to vegas and getting paid to train year round. sounds a hell of a lot better than what you got him doing here. >> you going to let her talk like that to your mother? >> steve: that's one family with a heck of a -- joined by melissa leo. good morning to you. >> good morning. i must say, it's mickey ward and

dick eckland. >> alisyn: thank you. >> steve: a lot of people think the people we see in the movies, they live in new york or hollywood. you live in new york state, up in an area really impacted by hurricane irene. >> yeah. i live sort of at the base of the cat skills if they were younger mountains, they would be the foot hills of the catskills and 200 years ago, villages were built down in the valley by the rivers. town after town that i heard about where friends live and neighboring communities, i'm up on a road called peak road at the top there. my house is fine. a lot of trees down the road. but the water up there, the rising rivers has been catastrophic. i also have family up in vermont and that is a hard hit area. >> alisyn: it sure is. we've been seeing pictures of vermont and that's crazy because that's not a coastal community, yet they've been ravaged by the overflowing rivers and you had a hard time getting into the city from where you are. >> i had appointments yesterday

and i had to jog this way and that way. it was a time getting down burks burks -- but i kept calm. >> brian: a week from this sunday will be 9-11, ten years since the attacks and how appropriate the space between comes out. tell me about the space between. >> it's a beautiful film, i just happened to fall into the film maker, travis, and i were on a television show many years ago called "the young riders". travis and i were put back in touch with each other and i shot the film, a beautiful young boy and myself as the leads in the film. >> brian: you're a flight attendant on 9-11 and you're grounded? >> and i'm grounded and i end up with an unaccompanied minor who happens to be a little muslim boy in my nasty and aserbic company. he's a very pleasant fellow. as the film goes on, you understand the reason why she is so nasty and aserbic and why she

refuses to take in any information about this catastrophe happening. whatever, i just got to get this kid back and not paying attention to the news reports and all of rest of it and the tale between them ensues. really beautiful film that usa will show on the 11th. >> steve: that's great. let's talk a little now about "seven days in utopia." finding god through golf? >> i'm interested to talk with david cook this afternoon as we do the press. he's the man who wrote the book originally. "seven days on the links of utopia." it's utopia, texas, it's very aptly named. i don't think i've ever been in a town that this sun hits so directly. the water, you can't even see it really on the film. the water is a caribbean blue as it runs through these little streams. it had a magical --

>> alisyn: we're seeing pictures there of robert duval. tell us what it was like to work with him. >> brian: did you have to carry him? >> no, no, no. i just did quietly and watched a master at work. it was amazing. we were shooting a scene on easter sunday and mr. duval looks around as we get ready and gathered to block the scene and he said, where are the easter bonnets. he was disturbed it was easter sunday and the women didn't have bonnets on. to put himself into easter sunday, as we do when we work, i caught him at the corner of the graveyard behind the church humming easter parade. god love an actor. >> steve: here is a snippet from your new movie. >> definitely puts the game first. >> reminds me of someone else i used to know. >> that he does. hopefully finds his way quicker than me. >> there you go. there you are by a kerosene lamp, like brian and i who still

don't have electricity at home. >> alisyn: great to have you here. thanks for telling us about both movies. they both sound wonderful. good luck getting home, back to your place through the flood waters. >> brian: also if there is a sequel to "the fighter," are you interested? >> i haven't heard anything about it, so they might not be interested in me. >> brian: how could that be? >> alisyn: producers, call her today. >> steve: thank you very much. >> alisyn: melissa was telling us about the hurricane effects in the catskills and there is flooding. adam housley is live along the river in agawam, massachusetts. what is it like there? >> the river continues to rise right now. it's within a foot or so of flood stage. the difference being with the flooding that happened in vermont, new york, and massachusetts from a couple days ago, those are flash floods, so people here have a bit of a warning. there has been some evacuations at the apartment complex we're in right now.

everybody watching this river. we've been told at least the numbers this morning, 263 roads and bridges were either damaged or destroyed from irene, including four of those iconic covered bridges that new england is so well-known for. the video keeps coming in from those flash floods that ran through here a couple of days ago. as you talk to people that were from those areas, they'll tell that you they were really caught off guard. they knew a lot of rain was coming down, but the serene creeks and rivers that run through their towns had never seen, at least in their lifetime, had never seen the kind of water that came down in such a short time. the governor will say it was the most extreme flooding they've seen in a century. back to you in new york. >> steve: adam, we thank you very much. those are awful pictures. >> brian: hurricane irene still leaving, but there is much more going on. this ugly story in sports. a former nba player under arrest, accused of killing a mother of four. the f.b.i. busted him at the john wayne airport in los

angeles. authorities say he intended to shoot one else. he missed hitting julian jones on the washington wizards. he's the same guy who pulled a gun out on a teammate. >> alisyn: warren jeffs, the convicted child rapist and polygamist sect leader is in a coma. he may not survive reportedly. jeffs was refusing to eat, becoming so weak, the prison doctors put him in a medically induced coma. he's reportedly in critical condition. he's serving a life sentence for raping two girls, 12 and 15. he is scheduled for a second trial on bigamy charges. >> steve: a bus driver from cleveland says her brush with actor matthew fox was like this scene from "lost". >> steve: heather borman says she got into a real life fast fight with him. she says the actor was drunk, tried to get on board her party bus. when she told him to get off because he wasn't invited, she

says he lost it. >> started whaling on me. so i started swinging back. >> did you hit him? >> i did. i hit him in the mouth with my hand. >> steve: mr. fox was questioned by the cops and later released. but the bus driver is threatening to press charges. stay tuned for news. >> brian: the wait is over. grab on to somebody or something. the cast of "dancing with the stars" has been announced. nancy grace in. david arquette in. chaz bono, ron arttest. elizabeth canalis. she's in. rob kardashian will be dancing, kristen cavallari. china phillips, hope solo and

carson kressly. it's trending number two. >> steve: after what? >> brian: mubarak. >> steve: let's talk about this. any time you get some take out food from a lot of restaurants, it winds up being in styrofoam because -- >> brian: it used to be a bag. >> steve: he's easy to microwave. >> steve: the thing with that is it drips. now we have styrofoam or other things, extraordinarily enough, it sounds like california wants to get rid of it completely. they have to put things in cardboard, right? >> alisyn: miracle products of which you refer are not biodegradable. >> steve: but they are recyclable. >> alisyn: they are. so that could be one solution. but the state of california wants to ban them outright and do something that is biodegradable, more environmentally green, possibly cardboard, but these leak. >> steve: so earlier on in our

program, ali had a guest, lorraine salazar, who criticized the double standard that california is talking about here. watch. >> well, it didn't surprise me because that's just how we do business in california. we go to the backs of small business and we say, what can we do and then we exempt the government. somehow our problem. littering is the problem, but we're not the litterers. and i think again we need to go back to, say, are we then going to ban other types of packaging? >> alisyn: what she was talking about in terms of a double standard is in california, they have exempted some state and city institutions from banning styrofoam such as city school lunches, public schools. so it's okay for the city or the state to still use it. >> steve: what's good for the goose is not good for the gander? >> alisyn: basically. >> brian: straight ahead, the details of a stunning investigation, taxpayers wind up paying sex offenders to

baby-sit. lawmakers thought the honor system would work. >> alisyn: what comes first, the economy or the environment? the president is making a huge decision and we'll break that down next. at usaa, we believe honor is not

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>> alisyn: time for a quick check of headlines. new video shows firefighters rescue ago family trapped inside their new jersey home. this is patterson, one of the hardest hit by hurricane irene's floods. right now conditions are so bad there, there is only one bridge open that leads into the city. and tsa is releasing photos of animals that people tried to smuggle through u.s. airports. the latest incident, two birds wrapped in socks, taped to a woman who tried to sneak them on

a flight from los angeles. then in miami, a guy got busted with seven snakes in his pants, along with three turtles. all wrapped in women's stockings. he's an animal lover. >> steve: meanwhile, are they cutting emissions or just killing jobs? critics claim new regulations from the epa won't just cost the u.s. economy billions, but could hamper economic growth. so is this the job's plan the president has promised? >> brian: the fox news contributor, project 21, regulations are really the key to unleashing this economy in many respects and they are coming fast and furious. >> absolutely right. these regulations coming from the environmental protection agency is a clear and present danger on our economy and on our jobs situation. any time these regulations are implemented, you're going to risk jobs because these companies are going to try to

come into compliance with these and can't do so. you already have several companies that are announcing closures. american electric power, duke energy, southern company. so they're already announcing they have to close or scale back their operations. >> steve: this is just a gigantic story that a lot of people are not familiar with because of these new epa regulations, something like 8% of the power produced in this country right now is going to be shut off to comply with these epa new rules. >> right. 81 giga watts, 8%, coming off line. but you got to -- >> steve: we're going to put the rules up as you describe what's going on. >> brian: you got one called the ozone rule. it sets ambient air quality standards. >> we're looking at a cost of $90 billion annually for just that one rule. >> brian: wow. the coal ash rule saves the environment at a cost of $20.3 billion. >> here is the thing, our air is much cleaner. over the last 30 years, our air is over 60% cleaner.

their input to these rules is not looking at the consequences on the cost side and how it will harm jobs and raise energy prices. >> steve: let's look at the next three real quick. utility, cost $10 billion. boiler mac rule cost 9.5 billion. the cross state air pollution rule cost $1.4 billion. the thing is, the president could suspend these crazy rules that are going to cost so many jobs with just a signature on a piece of paper. >> through an executive order. i think this is a political play because what he's going to do is blame the house republicans and the tea party for this if this does not work out to help the economy grow. people need to be outraged because this means jobs -- >> brian: the people in those industries got to stand up. they got to let it be known. >> absolutely right. and until we get people more educated to understand and realize what the consequences are of these regulations, we

need to be more vocal. >> steve: thank you for bringing this to our attention. >> brian: 11 minutes before the top of the hour. the details of a stunning investigation, sex offenders paid to baby-sit and taxpayers got stuck with the bill. all because lawmakers thought the honor system would work. >> steve: meanwhile, let's find what is going to be on the channel in 11 minutes with martha mccal millennium. >> controversial memos that have come out from the white house on how the 9-11 anniversary should be framed include this, we will honor americans killed, but also victims of terror, including those terrorized around the globe. all this raising questions. we'll talk about that when bill and i join you at the top of the hour. we'll see you then. ♪ to come into my life [ female announcer ] lean cuisine has snacks!

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>> alisyn: here is one of the most shocking stories we've heard in a long time. sex offenders being paid by the state of illinois to baby-sit children. a new investigation by the chicago tribune reveals the state of illinois actually subsidized a $750 million a year child care assistance program that let violent felons take care of kids for low income families. how could this happen? joining us now is illinois state senator matt murphy. senator, thank you for joining us this morning. this is the most jaw dropping story. the chicago tribune led this investigation that revealed that convicted rapists, child molesters, have been paid to baby-sit children, all this has been paid by taxpayers. how could this happen? >> it's a horrifying discovery, obviously. i was made aware of the problem in this regard back in 2008

because we didn't extend the full background check under illinois law at that time. unlicensed daycare providers, we had it for the licensed daycare providers, so i got legislation passed in 2009 to license more broadly so that we could avoid this very problem. the administration frankly was a little slow to implement that. they are doing it now, which is good. what the tribune unearthed was a related problem, so to speak, of who is living with the people we're paying. and are they reporting people who aren't supposed to be near these kids to the state? and most importantly, what's the state doing to make sure that there is no one who shouldn't be around kids with those kids? it was a shocking revelation and there is more work to be done. the good news is, the administration reached out to me and assured me that the computer issues and the technology problems they have of getting communication from one agency to another are going to finally be

made a top priority so we can make sure we're cross checking the department of corrections information and our sex offender registry and we're not sending checks to the same place where a sex offender lives for baby-sitting. it's outrageous. >> alisyn: that sounds important. you would think for a $750 million a year program that the computer could do some background checks. is that going to happen now? >> again, the administration reached out to me and said they're going to make this a priority. i tell you, i'm glad that this has come to life through an investigation by a newspaper rather than by a tragedy. we've been extremely fortunate to avoid tragedy so far. let's hope the administration gets their arms around this and actually starts doing the cross checking necessary before we have a real tragedy. >> alisyn: let's hope we're bringing this to everyone's attention this morning. senator, matt murphy, thanks for coming on to talk about it. >> my pleasure. >> alisyn: more "fox & friends" in two minutes.

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