hours from now, 1:00 eastern time. the "wall street journal" reporting he will end the speculation about his intentions for the 2012 race. christie is reportedly meeting with advisers and reconsidering his decision not to run for president after heavy pressure on the first-term governor from leading republicans. we've heard several reports about that. this pressure all to jump into the race for the white house. so will he, or won't he? and will we know today? we'll have much more on this in the next few minutes. jon: and this fox news alert, police in southern california on the hunt for someone who opened fire from a speeding car on an ambulance, a police car, and two other vehicles on san diego freeways. police warning the suspect is armed and dangerous, obviously. rick folbaum its following that story for us. >> reporter: if you think about who she's suspects have shot at, a police officer, an pwhr-pbs and regular motorists it really is brazen and scary.

foe car only one person has actually been hit, a guy whose car was targeted and the bullet pierced his calf. here is another driver that was not hurt when a bullet hit his car. >> i saw the person, i heard the pop i saw the gun all in one shot. i'm thinking number one i'm glad i didn't have my daughter with me. i just dropped her off at school. so i was happy about that. >> reporter: i'm sure he was. meantime the shooters or shooters terrorizing southern california still on the loose and we have a name for one of them, enrique ayon, a hispanic male with a dark complexion, a shaved head, brown eyes, 5'8", about 190 pounds. he is considered as you said, jon, arm and dangerous. he and one other man spotted in a 2006 white chevy malibu. we want to give you the license plate number and the number to call the police if you have any information. it's a california plate

5pom917. and you can reach the california highway control at the number on the screen. this same car had been involved in a hit-and-run just before the shootings began yesterday. let's hope they track these guys down before they do any more harm. back to you. jon: let's hope so. rick folbaum thank you. jon: a good tuesday morning to you. amanda knox is enjoying her first full day of freedom today. hello i'm jon scott. jenna: it must feel pretty good at this point. we can only imagine. jon: after four years. jenna: i'm jenna lee, we are here in the fox newsroom, "happening now" after those four long years behind bars, two trials and very long hours yesterday waiting for the final verdict amanda knox is heading home. shys en route to the united states leaving rome after an italian appeals court

dramatically overturned her conviction for murder in the death of her college roommate. right now as we understand it she is on a flight headed straight foresee at he will. jon: it was an emotional scene in court yesterday when the 24-year-old dissolved in tears on learning of the acquittal of the killing of her british roommate merdith kercher. people around the world followed every twist and turn this in case. knox had plenty of supporters here in the u.s. >> we want to express our profound sorrow to the family of merdith kercher for their unfathomable loss and unnoable pain. we are hopeful these results may give them some measure of relief, however temporary. we offer them our deepest sympathies and will continue to keep them in our prayers. let us not forget that this is prime air remember a sad occasion, a young woman lost her life and two innocent young people had a portion of their lives stolen from them. jenna: there is some very

important points there. prosecutors contended that this woman on your screen merdith kercher was killed in a frenzy sex attack. you had knox, her then boyfriend, and rudy guede who admitted to being in the apartment on the night of the murder. he's the only one now that is behind bars. >> we understand that he acted alone. the people released yesterday were not the guilty parties. it feels very much like we're back to square one and the search goes onto find out what truly happened. >> our lives have been disrupted. what happened to my daughter meredith is every parents' nightmare with something so

terrible happening. jenna: you have to feel for that family. greg burke is streaming live from perugia, italy with more. what is the reaction there. >> reporter: it's interesting. it's been a mixed reaction in italy. last night some of it was quite tough. you can tell a lot of people do not think a manned days innocent or her co-defendant as the verdict was read or shortly afterwards they sr-r shouting shame, and also some, assassins. a lot of other people in perugia did come around during the appeals process as well as the jury did in making the other decision. an old maxim of roman law went into effect, in the case of doubt you have too in favor of the accused. that is what happened. overall in italy it is pretty much mixed and split, jenna. jenna: it's really the story of two families, isn't it? at this point you have the knox family and amanda's first day of freedom and the merdith kercher

family sitting with the reality that their daughter was murderer. tell us about the spaoerpbess of both families today. >> reporter: clearly the knox' is total joy. you know, it's always nice to go home. i can only imagine the emotion that whaoeupls. we saw the emotion last night that was mixed it was so rough. now it's pure joy as she heeds to london and seattle. for the ke kerchers, it's a whole different story. they say they thought they had an explanation about what happened to their daughter and sister. they don't, they are back to square one. they want meredith remembered and closure which they are not getting, jenna. jenna: greg burke out of italy. thank you so much for your fantastic reporting over the past several days and obviously the last several months during this trial. before her acquittal amanda knox spent four years in an italian prison. her story could end up making

her millions of dollars. you can get more on that and check out the timeline of some of the very key moments in this dramatic case. log onto foxnews.com. jon: to another trial now and testimony about to begin in day six of the trial of michael jackson's doctor, dr.~conrad murray, focusing on an important part of the prosecution's case, the women in dr. murray's life. adam housley is live outside los angeles superior court with the latest. before they get to those witnesses, what can you tell us about the er doctors' attempts to save jackson's life. >> reporter: we heard the testimony of two er doctors. about the timeframe, for an hour and 13 minutes they tried to revive jackson. one er nurse told paramedics when they arrived at the home to pronounce him dead at that time. dr. murray said he felt a pulse, he encourage the er doctors to try to revive jackson, even

putting a balloon in the heart, even though there was no responsiveness whatsoever. then the second doctor said they had to prepare dr. murray for the final decision. take a listen. >> we'd like to prepare dr. murray mentally to accept the fact that mr. jackson could not be rescued and would allow mr. jackson to depart in peace and with dignity. >> reporter: that same doctor would also testify that dr. murray was desperate, jon and distraught over what was happening over that course of an hour and 13 minutes as they tried to revive the king of pop. jon. jon: there were some of these expected witnesses that were going to be on the stand but then the prosecution seems to have been moving away from them, why, do you know? >> reporter: yeah, they jumped around a little bit. we are still told they plan on calling almost the entire witness list, which would include some of the girlfriends talked about, potentially

michael jackson's eldest child. pharmacists, people from the coroner's office as well. in you get into the medical part of things it gets tedious. what some people are speculating, they are jumping back in forth between a medical witness and a character witness to keep the jury involved. we expect to hear from one of dr. murray's girlfriends today. cellphone technicians insured everyone in the courtroom that was doctor murray's cellphone making phone calls and receiving phone calls. they claim he was talking to this girlfriend when he should have been taking care of michael jackson. jon. jon: adam housley in l.a. jenna: back to politics now. right now in west virginia voters are heading to the polls to pick their next governor. this is a special election to replace joe mansion who resigned after winning a u.s. senate election. polls show a tight race between

democrat earl ray tomblin and businessman bill maloney. this tomblin loses it will be the third loss for democrats in three weeks. we find doug mcelway with the latest. >> reporter: this race is an absolute toss up but didn't always used to be that way. the republican candidate bill moloney has tremendous momentum. last may he was down 33% average points in this race. he managed to narrow that down by july to 25 points. then he narrowed it to 6 points by labor day the most recent poll taken yesterday has him behind by one percentage vote. we caught up with him voting at the fire department this morning outside of his hometown of morgan town. he's enlisted the support of high profile republicans, including chris christie of new

jersey, nikki haley. his opponent earl ray tombln is appealing to the democratic base which has been traditionally in this state almost insurmountable, but that is changing, and in large part it's due to the unpopularity of president obama in this state. president obama enjoys approval ratings in west virginia of only 28%. consider that is just remarkable given that democrats out number republicans two to one in the state. republican bill maloney has been driving that home with attempting to tie his opponent to president obama. his democratic opponent fighting back portraying maloney as a interloper, a carpet bagger. he moved to west virginia only after he graduated from college. >> americans are trying in court

to stop obamacare. obamacare will jack our taxes on businesses, destroy jobs, stop obama. stop tomblin from implementing obamacare. >> what does bill malone stand for. >> he sent our jobs to pennsylvania. >> he says he'll end business incentives. >> maloney will reject all federal education money which means our schools will suffer or taxes will be raised. >> reporter: there you have it. polls are open until 7:30 tonight in west virginia. the eyes of the political nation watching this race very, very closely. jenna: doug, thank you very much. jon: we are going to get some news on a potentially huge shakeup in the republican field. so will he or won't he run for president? new jersey's governor chris christie will make his intentions clear in a news conference just a short time from now. keep it here for live team coverage. jenna: maybe he just talks about something else completely.

jon: maybe he'll surprise us all jew never know. fears of the dreaded double-dip recession bringing the bears out on wall street. we have fox reporting from the new york stock exchange with the gentlemen latest next. jon: a rare flulike virus that could be very dangerous especially for children and it's becoming more common here in the u.s. what you as a parent and doctors need to know. [ male announcer ] you love the taste of 2% milk. but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromisen taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance.

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jon: new jersey governor chris christie will hold a news conference just hours from now where he is expected to announce once and for all his decision, is he running for president or not? he's been encouraged by plenty of gop donors and big supporters to get into the race. according to a new washington post poll, "washington post" abc news poll i should say, 42% of republican voters want him to jump in. joining us now michael baron

senior political analyst at the washington examiner, and a fox news contributor. michael, do you know the answer? what is he going to say. >> i know the answer, jon but i can't tell you. the general expectation is that chris christie is going to say what he has in fact said all year, which is he's not running for president. i heard him give a speech at american enterprises where he said he'd commit suicide rather than run for president. that is the expectation. we will see in two hours. that "washington post" abc poll reference showed that his impact on the presidential campaign might not be enormous. he's getting about -- if you insert him in the list of current republican candidates he picks up 10 or 11% of the vote, that is something, but he would have to grow from that to become a strong contender. jon: let's take a look at another poll that shows where the candidates stand, at least as of right now. it shows mitt romney the frontrunner at 25%. this according to that same

"washington post" abc poll. governor rick perry of texas with 16%. and amazingly tied with him herman cain. he has really shot up in the standings. is it too late you think for chris christie to make some dents in those numbers? >> well, i don't think it's too late for anything except to get delivery from godfather's pizza which is the company that herman cain used to head up. jon, i think these numbers in republican polling for the presidential nomination are about as solid as cotton candy. the fact is that voters, even those that have been paying pretty close attention don't know these candidates in-depth. they don't know very many things about them. they go into a survey like this with two or three bits of information about somebody like rick perry or herman cain. when they get bits number three, four, five or six they may change your mind. when you have a small number of

impressions and voters are learning and adding a lot more to that, that has big leverage to change opinion and in fact that's what we've seen. we were told back in june mitt romney was the frontrunner, he was out in front. rick perry enters the race, suddenly he's leaving. now we see romney ahead but cane shooting up. i don't think that is the last movement we may see in the republican presidential polls. jon: there is a curious thing going on, so many republicans have expressed dissatisfaction with the field of candidates that is out there, and yet there is another poll that says republicans generally think a republican candidate will win the white house in 2012. 55% think it's going to be a republican. why that disparity? >> well, voters are not necessarily logical, they don't have to resolve contradictions in their own thinking. they are not paid to do that, and, you know, i think you're seeing here is that republican voters are quite optimistic

about the chances of beating president obama. 83% in this post abc poll seem to think so, as i recall the number, and they've heard president obama himself describe himself as an underdog. but at the same time they have some, you know, qualms about the field. they are not as enthusiastic about this republican field of candidates as they were about the republican field four years ago. on the other hand their level of satisfaction has been rising when you watch the fox poll, or the abc "washington post" poll or anything over time you see that satisfaction is rising. so i think republicans may feel that ultimately they've got candidates in there that are like microsoft software, good enough to get the job done. jon: michael baron, a fox news contributor. michael thank you. we are about an hour and 40 minutes away from that chris

christie announcement. jenna: new details in a massive fire at a chemical plant in texas. we injuries showed this to you yesterday, breaking news on our show. what investigators are saying about the possible cause here, and all the latest from the scene just ahead. plus disturbing reports about iran's new strategy in iraq. what u.s. commander's are saying about the rogue nation's growing influence and what will happen after our troops head home.

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new information on a dramatic story that broke during this program yesterday. investigators searching for clues at this hour in texas, just south of dallas after a massive fire swept through this chemical plant. fox' dallas affiliate kdfw has

this report from the scene. >> reporter: they've been here all night long, all morning long, the fire behind me is still going. not as strong as yesterday. you can still see the black smoke. every once in a while you can see from our vantage point the flames through there. but firefighters as i mentioned are here. the epa, other investigators are expected back here later on this morning. boy, take a look at the video, thick black smoke could be seen for some 30 miles. veteran firefighters surprised that no one was seriously injured considering the size of the fire. the magazine georgia blend incorporated plant stores more than a dozen chemicals here. crews were mixing chemicals, something happened, the mixture created a steam effect and the steam got too big out of hand and then it ignited. dozens of firefighters tried to put it out but the runoff quickly consumed the plant as well and as it did the firetruck

and threatened rail cars nearby. while the plant was basically destroyed it could have been much worse. the plant has been here for 30 years. as many as a thousand people had to loaf their homes and schools as a precaution. but this morning we are told that wedge wood elementary school is back open, however, navarro college, that does remain shut down, the waxahachie. basically because of the smoke the classes have been canceled. there is still the smell of the smoke and the chemicals in the air, but the epa is telling us that they have conducted air quality tests and that the air is fine to breathe. jenna: we'll keep you updated on that, thank you some saul pace garza. jon: here in our acquisition

room we have people looking at a dozen or so satellite feeds. when the fed spoke and they didn't like what ben bernanke had to say today. down 137 points right now flirting with bare market territory. not good news for this country and around the world. they have a reporter on the floor of the new york stock exchange and has an update for us. >> reporter: we did hit bar market territory that is 20% off of the highs back in april. the s&p moved 20% lower from those levels. we crossed into bare market territory earlier today. eurozone certainly still continues to weigh on our markets at home. many of our banks for example, morgan stanley, citigroup, bank of america hit 52. we are coming up and out of our low. the dow at the lowest point because down 250 points. we are down about 131 points.

we are seeing some of the tech stocks fa r-rbs ing nicely. microsoft, intel, helping the dow jones industrial average to lift up and out. also ben bernanke did say something that gave us a little bit of hope, which was it is all temporary. he knows the market is fragile, it runs on every headline. they are saying that the fed is ready there with more stimulus. but the truth of the matter is that our third quarter as you know, jon was a terrible one, down 12% for the dow jones industrial average and as we kickoff a new trading week this has been a tough one at that. apple kicked off its new iphone 5 and today apple is trading higher. back to you. jon: i guess customers like the iphone 5, huh. >> reporter: there is some good news there, right. jon: a little bit of good news. we will take it where we can get it. jenna: drugs, fraud and medicare abuse wasting millions and millions of dollars and taxpayers are footing the bill for all of this. the effort to stop the fraud and actually

change the system. live with that story ahead. how about this? is a mailroom error costing this man his life? we have an in-depth look at this fascinating case in front of the supreme court today and that is just ahead.

>> woman: identity theft, an llio of dollars every year. what's worse, identity thieves are no longer just faceless criminals trolling the internet. now they have targeted a neighborhood, spying on houses, sometimes even showing up when

families are home. >> my identity theft story is scary. i had thieves show up at my doorstep. >> not only is your personal information accessible online, thieves may be invading your personal space, going through your mail, your trash, even looking over your shoulder when you shop. >> a team of thieves came into our community and devised a plan to steal our identities and get packages delivered and then steal the packages from our doorsteps. >> luckily for megan, she was already a lifelock member, and after lifelock's alerts, she came home to find a suspicious note on her door. >> there was a sticky note, a strange sticky note on our front door. it said "please leave packages at front door. kylie and megan" and at that point, everything clicked. i said, "oh my gosh, these people are about to come to my house and get these packages." >> thanks to lifelock, the identity theft was nipped in the bud and megan was able to avoid a possibly dangerous confrontation with thieves. >> if we hadn't have had lifelock, we wouldn't have known or been prepared for what was

going to happen. >> protecting your identity is lifelock's only mission. lifelock monitors your identity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, proactively scanning their network for threats, helping to protect you from identity theft before it happens. call the number on your screen right now. ti worked for megan and it works for me. don't wait until after you're a victim. call right now and get the peace of mind that comes with lifelock. [♪...] [typewriter clattering] [♪...] [whoosh] [click-click] jon: sort of a waiting game underway in iraq right now. u.s. commanders say they suspect iran through militia

groups that rogue nation trains and supplies is dialing back on some of the deadly attacks they have been responsible for, lying low, biding their time until u.s. troops leave iraq, scheduled at the end of the year. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. there seems to be a switch in strategy for iran, jennifer. what happened? >> reporter: that's right, jon. remember at the beginning of the year we had warnings from the chairman of the joint chiefs and defense secretary it appeared if iran and their proxy militias were trying to attack u.s. bases trying to look like they were pushing u.s. forces out of iraq. then we learned in july, on july 12th there was an incident in the province along the border with iran inside iraq at a u.s. base and iranian militias tried to fire 41 rockets. we have picktures of those rockets here that we obtained from u.s. military sources. these are 107 millimeter rockets made in iran. we know they were made in iran because 17 of those

rockets were confiscated by u.s. and iraqi forces because they weren't fired and they had writing on them that suggested they were made in iran as well as some color bands that suggest they were made there. and those rockets, the ones that did fire, missed the u.s. base and hit the iraqi base nearby and that angered, according to our sources prime minister nouriel maliki who is is right now negotiating with the u.s. ambassador how many u.s. forces if any will stay past december. he sent a communique to iranians if you keep firing on u.s. forces if you create more instability we'll have to ask those forces to stay. so items seems according to u.s. military intelligence it seems that the iranians got the message and they have asked for their militias to essentially lay low and wait out the for the u.s. troops until they leave the end of the year. jon: the fear is iran will fill the vacuum when u.s. forces leave? >> that is the fear in the

u.s. military intelligence community. essentially what they say is that they're are still shia militias are there still training camps inside iran for iraqi shia militias. trainers inside iraq still work withing those militias. there is this cleric, we have a picture of him here, who was photographed back in september at a conference, an islamic awaken conference in tehran. he is seated four rows behind mahmoud ahmadinejad the president and, the supreme leader of iran. he is an iraqi and interesting because the u.s. forces had him in custody for having killed u.s. troops in 2007. he was released as part of a prisoner swap with the iraqis in 2009. and now he is popping up in tehran at these conferences. so it just shows how closely related some of the most wanted shia leaders, militia leaders in iraq are to the tehran government. take a listen to the former

chairman. joint chiefs, admiral mike mullen, who had this warning before he left last week. >> they keep killing our troops. that will not be something we will just sit idly by and watch. >> reporter: that was a stern warning but right now military officials the iranian-backed militias are lying low until u.s. troops leave. jon: it would be so appalling if we opposed saddam and then wind up leaving that country in the clutches of iran. hope it doesn't happen that way. jennifer, thank you. jenna: now we move onto this story. the u.s. supreme court right now is taking up a really controversial death row case. in 1995 cory maples confessed to killing two people. he later was convicted of murder and he was sentenced to death. here is where we pick up the story. he appealed that ruling on the basis his first set of lawyers were bad, incompetent. he ended up getting a new legal team but then there was a paperwork mishap. the lawyers who had been

handling his case quit the law firm. maples said he was never told he was suddenly without representation. and the courts clerk never relayed that the court notices on that appeal were coming back unopened. regardless, the state and federal courts in alabama say maples is out of luck and he will be executed. now the u.s. supreme court is weighing in. i have breaking news from the associated press on that. doug burns, former federal prosecutor joining us. duane case is criminal defense attorney helping us work through this. hear is the heaine from the associated press. the supreme court appears likely to rule in favor of cory maples. do you agree with that? >> well that is interesting. first of all you have to put this case in a little bit of context, jenna. the defendant appealed his conviction and was affirmed. he appealed to the alabama supreme court and it was affirmed. he brought a separate collateral case that he lost. it was appeal with that was

the foul up with the mailroom error. the case was reviewed twice. and he was on collateral effect. he had a review in federal court that he lost that as affirmed in federal court. the notion this mailroom error prevented him from appealing in this case is wrong. having said that there is 1991 case, maybe darrell can talk about this more, in the situation the defendant is out of luck where a law firm make this is type of case. i think the supreme court took this case because they want to ad just that rule. i think that's a good thing. i think they should. jenna: duane, hear is the ruling. 1991, coleman versus thompson, this is what the supreme court brought up. this is the quote from the ruling. in a post-conviction proceeding, similar scenario to this, petitioner bears risk for all attorney errors made in the course of representation. >> right. jenna: isn't there some sort of personal responsibility here on this man to know whether or not he is being represented? >> well, how can you put

personal responsibility on for somebody for something they have absolutely no idea what is happening? you have to remember he is locked up in jail. he doesn't get to watch the news. he assumed he had these two great lawyers from this great new york law firm that were handling his case. he thought, in an interview owe thought he hit the lottery when he got these lawyers. they were great lawyers. this was more than a mailroom snafu. what happened was, these two lawyers, in the middle of his case, quit the law firm and went to work somewhere else. and not only did they go to work for somebody else, they went to work at jobs that wouldn't allow them to continue the representation. and when they did that, they didn't notify the alabama court. they didn't notify cory maples. they didn't notify anyone that this --. jenna: wait a minute pick up off this point. this man is confessed killer. it has been 15 years behind bars. no one is arguing whether or not he is a murderer. he had enough personal

responsibility to take lives of two people. maybe he is in prison. there are e-mails. there are phone calls. we know what the prison system is like. doesn't he have some sort of responsibility to know something about his lawyers? >> jenna, there is more important point which is that he had a local lawyer in alabama. there is lot of controversy about that. the ruling, where he lost the collateral attack in state court in alabama was sent to that lawyer in alabama. okay? apparently he put in an affidavit saying i assumed that the lawyers in new york city were going to take the lead but by the same token one could easily argue that he could have communicated that, dwan to the defendant. jenna: your thoughts on that. >> he absolutely could have communicated that. the problem is the local lawyer in alabama on these cases is a sham. alabama does not provide pcr counsel. like every other state in the nation provides pcr counsel. alabama doesn't. jenna: what is pcr counsel. >> post-conviction relief,

the collateral attack we're talking about. what happens is, now in order -- they rely on out-of-state, pro bono lawyers to help these people. the state doesn't fund it. and so what happens is, they have to have a local lawyer so they can appear what is called prohock, sign n. but that local lawyer does nothing in the case. all they do sign a piece of paper that the pro bono lawyers from out-of-state come and handle the case. that is all they do. and he never knew and the local lawyer never knew that the out-of-state lawyers quit. and they never --. jenna: question, let me jump in and ask you this. i gave doug the first word here. >> sure. jenna: even if he gets an appeal he has been convicted and he in multiple appeal process he, that conviction is upheld, he will be executed. even if he is able to do this and go ahead and has the appeals process again, will that even change the outcome.

>> good point. >> here's the issue. if you're going to kill people as a punishment for a crime, they should at least, at the very least get to go through the process of making sure that things were correct. now he is a confessed killer but the vote on whether or not he should be sentenced to death was 10-2. and if it had been 9-3 he wouldn't have gotten the death penalty. jenna: it is an interesting case. >> we're not talking about making him innocent. we're talking about whether or not he should be put to death. jenna: that is the issue at hand. supreme court is taking this up. 20 states are supporting alabama, saying if this goes through it will add a new complexity to a death penalty ruling and add to further delays. of course the other side as duane points out, is the system working here and that is the broader question. it is an interesting case and we appreciate your perspective very much. >> my pleasure. jon: will he or won't he run for the white house? we should know in an hour and 15 minutes. chris christie set to make a

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jon: fox news alert. and we don't want to kill the suspense but multiple sources are now saying chris christie has not changed his mind about not running. there have been reports saying he was reconsidering all that, especially after that reagan library speech in california. but in a news conference today, about an hour and 15 minutes from now he is expected to say he will not run for president. our carl cameron reported christie would not run as early as next week. we'll have much more on this developing story throughout the show and the big announcement in an hour and 15 minutes. jenna: we're just learning now that congressman jerry costello will retire. he is a moderate democrat. he was expected to face a tough re-election in the 12th district of illinois.

during his 13 years on capitol hill he chaired the aviation subcommittee. politically opposed to cap-and-trade. periodically voted against leadership. interesting to see when we look at moderates on capitol hill what that might look like on 2012 we hear about another moderate democrat retiring. jon: a rare flew-like virus is on the rise in the united states and it is something you should know about. called human enter row virus 68. the symptoms can be particularly dangerous to children and presents looking much like the flu. joining as you doctor from the university of maryland school of medicine. this is not a new virus. we've known about this for some time but it's, disturbing in that it is appearing in what greater frequency in the u.s.? >> this report from morbidity and mortality weekly from the cdc had looked at includesers in the

last two years. we've seen it sporadically since 1962 when it was first isolated and identified. but now we've seen a couple includesers here, in asia and also europe. we don't know if that is reemergence of virus or cdc says maybe we have better surveillance and detection of it. jon: it looks like the flu and how are parents and for that matter doctors supposed to know the difference? >> it is more like a cold virus. a human rino virus. similar. you get a lot of the viruses. you get fever and respiratory symptoms. some cause neurologic symptoms. this is mostly respiratory symptoms. cough, wheedsing, difficulty breathing. it might be hard to detect. but the key is, th is more of a note for doctors. if they have a lot of inexplain -- unexplained cases they need to check if it is this virus and report it to the cdc.

jon: it is a virus so antibiotics don't work, right? >> exactly. it is a virus. antibiotics won't work. there might be a bias that we saw a lot of very sick people because those are the ones going to the hospital because a lot of the enter enteroviruses don't cause symptoms or. not a reason to panic. more on doctors to look out and think about this. jon: it can be deadly so doctors need to pay attention? >> exactly. if you have breathing problems get to the hospital and emergency room right away. >> good advice. thank you. jenna: amanda knox is back to her home state of seattle after four years in an italian prison. what can she expect when she arrives home? we have a live report from seattle straight ahead. we have a two people attacked by a bear inside their own home. that is not where the bear is supposed to be, jon. jon: that is little scary. jenna: we have their story next. >> bitten by a bear.

attacked by a bear. i've been attacked by a bear. the bear came in the house.

jon: some developing stories we're keeping an eye on for you here in the newsroom and also from our control room. protests against wall street now spreading across the country. demonstrations popping up from los angeles to maine as folks try to show their anger over the shaky economy. a new contract means new jobs at ford. the american automaker saying i will wit add more than 5700 jobs and invest nearly $5 billion in its u.s. factories. all part of ford's new four-year contract deal with the united auto workers union. the u.s. is now offering a $10 million reward for information on the whereabouts of this man. you probably won't see him

on your street corner. he is the leader of al qaeda in iraq. it is believed that he is behind the attack on a baghdad mosque last summer and a major strike against iraqi police just after osama bin laden was killed back in may. jenna: say something, right? you never know. never know. unbelievable bear attack inside a home in pennsylvania. that is really the catch. attack inside the home? >> reporter: don't hear too many stories like this. this was a very close call. it started yesterday morning when richard moyer, jr., woke up to sounds of the dog barking outside the house. moyer's dad describes what happens next. >> he went out to call the dog in. yelling at the dog, and my boy was saying at the end of the patio, that is where the bear first nailed him. face was covered with blood and t-shirt was soaked. front of his pants was completely soaked with blood and his shoes were soaked with blood.

>> but the bear wasn't done. he chased the dog into the house. that is where richard moyer's wife was attacked. while she tried to beat the bear back, she was bitten several times. one of the bites came close to a major artery. so that could have been fatal. the moyers are recovering. we're told they will be okay. the dog too. the couple had a son upstairs while all of this was going on. he was not hurt. wildlife experts say this is the time of year when bears try to bulk up, put on pounds for the long winter rest. they will sometimes get a little lows closer to homes than they normally wood. i bet there are more than a few bear traps being laid in and around perry county in pennsylvania, today. jenna: not a bad idea. but they're hungry. what are you going to do? this is nature's calling. i feel like we all kind of load up on a few extra calories that time of year. >> me too. jenna: rick, thank you very much. jon: i just don't go into other peoples houses to do it. jenna: that's a good point. jon: the attorney general on the spot. why eric holder may have had

full knowledge of that botched gun-tracking program despite what he told congress way before one of those weapons was found at the murder scene of a u.s. border agent. plus, what is chris christie going to do? the announcement he will make, one hour from now. what it means to the republican field of presidential candidates. the best approach to food is tkeep it whole for better nutrition. that's what they do with great grains cereal. they steam and bake the actual whole grain while the otr guy's flake is more processed. mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal.

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own carl cameron said this was coming, some sort of announcement was coming this week, it's tuesday and here we are. an hour away, will he, won't he, will he talk about something else completely. probably unlikely. you never know what can happen. we'll bring you those comments live and bring you the breaking news on "happening now". rick: i'm rick folbaum at the asmient news desk. that's one of the stories we're following. we want to point your attention to a shot outside the seattle airport, this is the scene where they're awaiting aimland knox to return home after that jury in italy overturning her murder conviction. she is on an airplane, headed home to seattle. we will have a live report straight ahead. this is the scene outside the courthouse in los angeles, california where dr. conrad murray's trial continues, he, of course, michael jag son's personal doctor, with charges of involuntary manslaughter. a live report on that straight ahead. second hour of "happening now" starts right now.

jenna: glad you're with us, everybody, i'm jenna lee, we welcome you to that brand new hour. jon: i'm jon scott. after nearly four years in an italian prison amanda knox is on a plane headed to seattle, the flight departing from heathrow's airport about an hour and a half ago. jenna: that's probably a long flight. probably feels pretty good, though! jon: sure it does. jenna: what a dramatic 24 hours it's been for this woman, she was acquitted in the 2007 murder of her roomate. if you were watching yesterday, you saw, she nearly collapsed when she heard that news. tears streaming down her face. in the meantime a world away in washington state, family and friends, breaking out in applause, knowing she's going to come home. we go to seattle now where we find our very own dan springer. hi dan. >> reporter: jenna, it was an emotional day yesterday. we saw that here in seattle with those supporters sitting in a hotel room in seattle, and i'm expecting

more of the same today, with the home coming later in the afternoon. we do as you mentioned that they are on a flight, a direct flight from london to seattle, expected to touch down at cpac about 5:15 local time. there will be a media event. not yet sure if amanda will speak at it. we heard from a person on the flight with knox from rome to london and she said there were about ten family and friends with her and they were all jockeying for position, taking turns sitting next to her, she looked rested and happy. it was a very different amanda knox that we saw in court yesterday, reacting to the acquittal. she was overcome with emotion, her knees, buckling, and then she was taken back to the jail, two hours later, though, she was processed out and on her way home before leaving the country. she wrote a letter to the italy u.s. foundation and thanked it for, quote, sharing my pain and helping me survive on hope. after the verdict, amanda's sister, dee ana, spoke to the italian press and she basically said that the family's nightmare is over.

>> we are thankful to the courts for having the courage to look for the truth and to overturn this conviction. we now respectfully ask that you give amanda and the rest of our family our privacy that we need to recover from this horrible ordeal. >> reporter: as knox heads home, there are all kinds of speculation about what she will do next. her family's media rep has nothing has been fine lied in the way of a paid interview, a book deal or movie deal. some think she could make more than $10 million on her fame and story. there's a report that the family went deep into debt the last four years, taking out mortgages, running up credit cards and tapping retirement savings. it's believed her legal bills alone are $1 million. she will likely stay at her mother's home in west seattle and begin what she calls winning back her happiness. jenna. jenna: what anior deal for that family, dan, thank you very much. the latest from seattle, where we expect amanda knox

later on today. dan, thank you. jon: let's open up america's election headquarters now as we await a major announcement from new ners governor chris christie, less than an hour from now. the speculation is swirling after christie scheduled a surprise news conference, 1:00 p.m. eastern time today. he's been dodging questions for days on whether he'll launch a run for the white house, but in less than an hour, we should have his final answer. joining us now, fox news digital politics editor, host of "power play" on foxnews.com live, chris stierwalt. chris, the reports are out there from a number of source, including fox news, that he's going to say that he's not going to run. that would be consistent with what he has said all along. >> reporter: well, it would be. it certainly would be consistent with what he said all along and if he says anything but that, it would be the political shock moment of the year. it would be the kind of

thing that would not only turn the republican race on its head, but also, change the political landscape in new jersey very dramatically. remember jon, they have an election coming up next month in which chris christie's reform packages, his plans for the state, are basically up for a vote. there's a midterm referendum on chris christie after two years in office and if he were to announce he were running for president democrats in new jersey could certainly rejoice. >> there's a "washington post" abc news poll says he would jump into the race with instant 11 percent national support but there are still a lot of people who come from other states who don't know chris christie and what he's done. give us the microcosm of what it is that so excites so many people about his possible candidacy. >> it's the tone. really when you get down to it, what republicans like about chris christie, at a moment when they think that somebody needs to speak truth to power in the republican side and they need somebody that will stand up to barack obama, chris christie, who made --

has made business bones in new jersey by backing down very powerful and entrenched government unions is the kind of guy with the tough talking brav ado that republicans really like. it's what they want. christie has a different problem, though. he is quite the moderate. he is much more liberal than the republican base on issues related to gun patrol, and other things. social issues that are hot buttons, including immigration and so christie ultimately, they like the style but he runs the danger that the more that they would get to know him the less they'd like him. jon: and he takes away a bit of support in the theoretical matchup, he takes away a little bit of support from most of the top tier, he takes about 3 percent from mitt romney, according to one poll, takes about 2 percent from rick perry, and about 1 percent -- i'm sorry, 1 percent from rick perry, 2 percent from herman cain. >> well, that's why this 1:00 statement is must-see tv, because whatever he says, even if he says heck

no, i'm not running, how he says that and what he says matters a great deal to the rest of the republican field, because chris christie through this latest speculation has increased his national profile, has a lot of people looking at him more closely. what that means is that an eventual endorsement from chris christie probably after he has his election next month, his midterm election in new jersey next month will be very valuable, much more valuable as a result. mitt romney is very happy today if chris christie does not get in the race because ultimately he looks like a likely endorsement of romney and in time if christie were to run he would cut into a follow northeasterner, a follow moderate like rick perry. jon onand if he decides not to go this time around, in another four years or eight years, he can run for the office if he chooses to. chris stierwalt, thank you. >> you bet. jon: new jersey governor

chris christie will hold that news conference, 150 -- 1:00 p.m. eastern time. keep it here on fox news channel. you'll hear it here live. jenna: mortgage giant fannie mae was warned about foreclosure abuses, that so called robo signing back in 2003, but again, according to this report, did nothing to stop it. where does that leave us now that's a big question for you to answer today! >> it's a huge question. for those who don't remember, robo signing means the banks were so overwhelmed with bad loans when the economy began to go sour in 2007 that they began to lie, they began to say they had looked at each individual bad loan that was in the process of foreclosure, which in fact they grouped together 50, 100 of them and robo signed all of them. now it turns out that fanny and freddie knew about this back early enough so they might have been able to do something about it. back then they were

semiprivate companies. now we own fanny and freddie and fanny and freddie own about half of all mortgages in the united states, that's $5 trillion worth of housing that we essentially own as taxpayers. so if the government is encouraging people to sue the banks for robo signing, they're actually encouraging the homeowners to sue us, the taxpayers. yb jen let's take that bit by bit, because we have had homeowners on our show that say listen, i actually tracked my mortgage, found out it was ro. bo signed, it was foreclosed on, now i'm suing to get my back house -- high house back. how many mortgages are we talking about? >> we're talking about 4 1/2 million mortgages. 4 1/2 million mortgages that fit into the category of being subjected to this kind of robo signing between 2007 and 2010. so 4.5 million mortgages, that's basically on the

books accounts of the banks, so the banks have put together a fund of about $25 billion that they think it's going to cost to pay off these people so they don't sue them for everything they have. jenna: will that cover it? >> probably not. now that we know that fanny and freddie knew about this back in 2003, the u.s. taxpayer is liable, the government of the united states is liable, so people might say the heck with t. i'm not going to take the settlement, i'm going to sue the united states government because they have unlimited resources. jenna: at the heart of this crisis that we're in, the economic crisis, what -- still is the housing crisis, what is the story, tell us, about how close or far away we are from really solving the issue at hand. >> what it tells us is the government is the biggest land owner, the biggest stockholder in the housing company that we have in the whole united states. probably the biggest homeowner in the world right now is the united states government. they own so many mortgages in the united states, virtually all of the new mortgages being handed out are at least partially owned

by fanny and freddie, which means owned by us the taxpayers. as far as i'm concerned, that's the government, much too far involved in housing than it should be. jenna: it's a story we'll continue to follow. i know you are tonight on your show as well. don't miss david tonight, he's going to give you a wrapup of the biggest stories for the market, all the movers, rate them a little bit, "america's nightly scoreboard" on the fox business network. >> thank you. jon: and here's a story that fox has been covering, operation fast & furious, that gun running scandal that allowed weapons to go across the mexican border. now lamar smith, the republican chairman of the house judiciary committee is suggesting in a letter to president obama, this man, eric holder, attorney general of the united states cannot be expected to investigate himself in connection with that case and that a special counsel should be appointed. eric holder, testified in front of that committee back in may that he wasn't aware of fast & furious before

may, i should say. it turns out from some reporting that our william la jeunesse is doing that there are indications that eric holder should have known or did know well before that. is that perjury? that's what lance swift wants to know. we'll be hearing from charles grassley, who has been leading the investigative charge on the senate side in less than 20 minutes, right here on "happening now", jenna. we'll be talking to him. you'll want to stick around for that. jenna: we'll see what he says about that, that whole investigation. in the meantime an outburst in federal court for the suspected terrorist accused of trying to take down detroit by smuggling a bomb in his underwear, two years ago, what farouk abdulmutallab yelled out in court today, why it matters, straight ahead. checking out wall street, you see it's off its lows but the economy, still a major, major issue, and the stock market, struggling along. rick, a lot of people talking about the economy on the chat today.

>> reporter: it's true jenna. folks, stop paying attention to your 401(k). i have a job for you during the next commercial break, go to the chat room, america's asking, foxnews.com, happening now show page. we want you to weigh in. let us know. what do you think about the markets? what do you think about the economy? is there a quick fix, or what's the long term solution? >> brown says it would take drastic tax cuts, drastic cuts in spending and drastic reduction of regulation. that's his fix. and james ringer says government is the problem with the economy. not the solution. so again, during this break, send us your comments, steve moore from the "wall street journal" is coming up next, and we'll throw some of your comments at him. we'll have more of "happening now" after a quick commercial break.

jon: just in, new info on crime stories we're watching, a nigerian man accused of trying bring down a northwest airlines flight in detroit on christmas day, he claims radical cleric

anwar al-awlaki is still alive, umar abdulmutallab made the dment federal court during jury selection for his trial. awlaki was killed last week in a u.s. air strike. >> prosecutors in connecticut rest their case against the second of two men charged of killing a mother and two daughters in that horrific home invasion, joshua komisarjesky facing a murder conviction. >> and two girlfriends of dr. murray expected to testify at his trial. the women had calls placed to them moments before jackson stopped breathing at his home in 2009. prosecutors say the testimony can provide a timeline of what murray was doing at the time jackson died. jenna: an important story there. here's another one. we're taking a look at what's going on on wall street today. if you take a look at the dow, it's been down for the entire session. but it's up off its lows, which is the point i'm trying to make. and sort of making, steve!

right, steve moore sitting next to me. if we take a look at what's going on with the dow, one of the questions coming up today is whether or not we're actually going to slip into a bear market, which means that would be 20 percent off the highs of the market. we started the s&p 500 today in bear market territory, we've come off that, so this is what we need to talk about today, about what this means and what this is saying about the global economy. steve moore of the "wall street journal" is with us. steve, is it really telling us anything, or at this point -- or are the markets kind of moving by themselves, if you will? >> they always move by themselves, but look, i think officially this is a bear market. i mean, you saw what happened yesterday with the 200-point plus decline, the dow is down today. it's been lousy, september was one of the worst septembers we've had. jenna: historically it's always a bad month. >> but even for september it was a bad month. so look, investors are very jittery right now and most -- not most, but a lot of americans are moving out of stocks and moving into cash. jenna: you know, everyone, and i say everyone, using

wildgen -- generallyzations -- generalizations, they still stay this is the source of the angst on wall street, but we talked about greece for a year. >> i think it's broader than that. i love that question you had from one of your viewers a couple of minutes ago who said what do we do to help the economy, cut taxes, cut regulations, cut the spending. i really believe that's the silver bullet here, that washington is out of control, that this kind of antibusiness fervor of this white house is weighing down stocks, and if it would just stop, if washington would just stop the bad things that it's doing, i think -- you know, as you know, there is $2 trillion of cash sitting there in the hands of americans and in businesses, just wait to go invest, but there's this cloak of fear out there right now. jenna: do you even think there's a silver bullet that, that would change things so instantly? >> yeah. jenna: that we would see a turnaround? because basketball ben bernanke says the recovery is close to faltering. that's from the fed

chairman. >> it's interesting, if you look at when the market started to fall it was a week and a half ago when president obama said by the way if i'm reelected we're going to have a trillion and a half dollar tax increase. that's not what the economy needs and consumers, we're going to tax you with a trillion dollars tax increase. i think there's a sent sent out there among investors and business oarns and i talk to them around the country and they feel like washington is working against them right now. jenna: when it comes to words and action, people say a lot about taxes on both sides. are you saying that investors are just waiting to hear the right things, versus actually seeing the right things, is it that sensitive right now? >> part of it is rhetorical. look, what is the president focusing his campaign on now? soak the rich, go after businesses. that's just not a bullish message. jenna: do you like anybody else's message? >> it's interesting, the guy who is emerging is herman

cain. what's really attractive about herman cain, and i don't take sides, the fact that he has a business background, that he ran godfather's pizza, knows how to meet a payroll, that is something that would be refreshing to have in the white house, somebody that knows how to run a business. jenna: he'll be our guest tomorrow, we'll have questions about that tax policy. >> 999! jenna: we all knew it. i guess that's the one thing we can say for sure. steve, always nice to have you. thank you, steve moore of the "wall street journal". >> want to warn you here, never sell low! right? >> jenna: when you see the markets go down, you're saying -- >> what's the rule on the stock market? sell low -- i mean, sell high buy low. buy low, sell high. jenna: don't get suckered into stocks! we have two different opinions, pick whatever ones you want. in the meantime we have other top stories coming up in a second. we'll have more of "happening now" in just a moment after this quick break.

jenna: "happening now" a. major hearing on u.s. cyber security underway on capitol hill and one lawmaker is comparing our situation, our security to, quote, death by a thousand cuts, saying we've got to stop the bleeding before things get worse. quite an image, right? catherine herridge, so a whole lot being discussed today but the focus on china and its sponsorship of cyber espionage. can he tell us about that. >> >> reporter: thank you jenna. one of the most stunning moments was a statement by the chair of intelligence that china has launched a cyber war against american businesses and industry: >> china's economic espionage has reached an intolerable level and i believe the united states and our allies in europe and asia have an obligation to confront beijing and demand they put a stop to this piracy. >> reporter: the hearing

before house intelligence wrapped up a few minutes ago and a leader cyber security investigator testified that 90 percent of the cases, most u.s. companies don't know they've been compromised or victim of intrusion until they've notified by either the fbi or defense department. >> when we see companies that are doing business on a global scale, doing mergers and acquisitions in other regions of the world, we're seeing predominantly attacks being focused against the law firms and those companies that are purchasing companies or doing mergers, and the attacks are generally geared towards e-mail. >> reporter: one of the stunning examples today was the company rsa, the company that makes the secure tokens that many of us use for remote access to a company computer network. >> the environment of another organization was compromised, an e-mail was sent to our employees, it looked like an e-mail that they would normally receive from people that they would recognize, so it was very easy for them to click on a

file where there was a zero day malware export. >> zero day malware export. it's an example of what we've been reporting oranges the advanced threats, apts, they are put into the system and their goal is to stay under the radar to allow your network to continue operating so at the same time they can exfiltrate or pull out data from the system. jenna: amazing to hear how prolific it is. >> in china as well. that's really a first. jenna: we actually have more on it now, thank you very much, catherine. jon: there are scary threats out there, most coming from russia or china, but those are not the only center phos cyber spies. joel brenner is with us, author of a new book called "america, the vulnerable", inside the new threat matrix of digital espionage, crime and warfare. it is a very sobering examination of this issue. he has an awful lot of

credit cengsals being at the national security agency in the days after 9/11. the threats are numerous and astounding, but you say that some of these cyber spies are stealing billion dollars projects from, you know, organizations like the u.s. navy. >> i'm afraid so. the intelligence onslaught, the espionage onslaught against american international -- intellectual property is relentless, it's not exclusively coming from china, but the chinese program in this regard is extraordinary. we've never experienced anything like it. jon: and a great deal of the problem is just the way of thinking. i mean, as americans we are accustom -- accustomed to an open society, a free society. that's not necessarily the chinese mind-set. >> not necessarily to put it mildly. but the point -- one of the points here is the espionage targets have really shifted. we used to think of espionage as being directed at intelligence agencies, the department of defense

and state, but now we're seeing espionage by foreign states, directed against american and other western companies that are companies who are having to deal with state-sponsored espionage. it's new and dangerous. jon: we're also seeing not even state sponsored espionage. chinese hacking is coming from chinese companies, right? >> i'm glad you said that because it would be incorrect to think that everything coming from china is sponsored by the government. there are things done or sponsored directly by the government, attacks that are sponsored by proxies for the government, an enormous amount of what they call patriotic hacking, the technical cadres are nationalistic, unlike ours, who tend to be more anarcs. jon: and you warn that we run the danger of falling into the trap that believing that hackers are the sort of teenage slackers who may be sitting behind a computer trying to get credit card numbers, but it is very, very dangerous, the kind of thing that's going on now.

>> the capabilities of nation states, and used to be just incomparably great than the capabilities of private actors, those capabilities are con vejing now. i don't want to say that private actors can do what nation states can do, but they've become very sophisticated. it's not just state sponsored espionage we're worried about. jon: one other word of warning, iran, very involved in all of this. can't talk about it more right now, the book is "america, the vulnerable". if you run a company, work for a company, in i.t. security, even if you're not, it's worth a read. thank you very much. >> pleasure. jenna: jon, disturbing new questions about the federal gun walking scandal known as fast & furious. we've heard a lot about that on our air. house republicans want to know what attorney general eric holder knew about the operation and when. and they're not the only ones. there are folks also in the senate, wanting to know whether he told the truth in his testimony before congress. we're going to be talking to senator grassley, coming up

next about all of this. plus, news that hawaii plans to add an official sport to the high school roster. you have three guesses. this is a big hint! we'll tell you about it, next.

jon: a fox news alert for you now. house republicans say they will call for a special counsel to investigate the department of justice in relation to the fast & furious scandal. william la jeunesse has been doing a lot of reporting on this story, he's live for us from washington. william. >> reporter: jon, you're right, that's coming from our capitol hill producer. we've learned that the house judiciary chaiferman, lamar smith, is sending a letter to president obama saying, number one, that eric holder cannot investigate himself, and that he will be calling for a special counsel based on comments from holder made in may, before the house judiciary committee. there are three important points here. number one, for the first time, we see in documents addressed specifically to the attorney general that reference something that he says he didn't know about at the time. secondly, we have documents that contradict earlier assurances from the department of justice to congress, and finally you have document that is contradict the attorney general's contention that his top officials did not

know about operation fast & furious, so consider, in september of this year, holder told reporters that, quote, the notion that operation fast & furious reaches the highest levels of the justice department is not supported by the past, however, almost a year earlier in october 2010, holder's close aide loy brewer tells holder in a memo that, quote, prosecutors are ready to issue indictments in operation fast & furious. even earlier than that, in july 2010, in a memo doctor the -- from the director of the national drug intelligence unit, he tells holder that buyers of operation fast & furious are, quote, responsible for the purchase of up to 1500 firearms that were supplied to the mexican during trafficking cartels. that contradicts this statement holder made to congress almost a year later: >> when did you first know about the program officially i believe called fast & furious? >> not sure of the exact

date. i probably heard about fast & furious for the first time over the last few weeks. >> reporter: earlier today on fox-friends, congressman darrell issa says the attorney general has a problem. >> what you heard is the usual problem when somebody has probably perjured themselves. it's i didn't understand, rather than i lied. >> reporter: now, the department of justice maintains that the attorney general misunderstood issa's question, it also claims just because the memos are addressed to holder doesn't necessarily mean, jon, he read them. we have no statements from the department of justice regarding this latest announcement from house judiciary regarding a letter or special counsel possibility. back to you. jon joond the story continues to unfold. stay on it for us, william la jeunesse, thanks. jenna: a lot to this story now. iowa senator chuck grassley is ranking republican on the judiciary committee, working with congressman issa on forecasts & furious and we've spoken several times,

senator. first of all, your reaction to the news today. >> it just says how disenagain uous the people in the justice department and probably -- disingenuous the people in the justice department and probably holder are in explaining how they knew about fast & furious as opposed to gun running generally, because they're always saying they're talking about some other program other than fast & furious but the point is we've got specific statements sayg they knew these guns were crossing the border, and if they knew these guns were actually walking, why didn't they stop it? but i can be even more specific, at least partly to back up everything that's been said by your reporter, is that they just quoted holder there saying he knew about it just a few weeks. well, it was a few months. i know for sure that he knew about it, because he was in my office on january 31st of this year, and i handed him a letter about my

investigation of fast & furious, so if he read my letter, he knew on january january 31st. now, i don't dispute what the reporter said, because it backs up all the documents i have that he probably actually knew about it way back in the middle of last year or earlier. jenna: so do you think the attorney general pur jarreauo perjured himself? >> well, i'm not a lawyer so i'm not going to make a judgment on what exactly perjury is, but i can tell you this, that they're doing everything they can in a fast & furious way to cover up all the evidence or stonewalling us. but here's the issue. if he didn't perjure himself and didn't know about it, the best way they can help us, congressman issa, and me, is to just issue all the documents we ask for and those documents will prove one way or the other who's

right or who's wrong. jenna: senator grassley, we talked to the justice department directly, we asked to talk to the attorney general or spokesman, we weren't able to get them on today. we do have a statement, though, that's rather lengthy. i'm going to try to paraphrase as best i can four paragraphs given to us on "happening now" and at issue is this memo that supposedly the attorney general got in 2010. the statement from the justice department says that these weekly reports come in, 100 pages plus, there are 24 different offices and exoants and none of these reports reference the controversial tactic that allowed guns to cross the border. this goes on to say and i'm going to read from this directly, this statement says chairman issa of all people should be familiar with the difference between knowing about an investigation and being aware of questionable tactics employed in that investigation. since documents provided to his committee show he was given a briefing that included the fast & fearuse operation in -- fearous

operation in 2010, a year before the controversy emerged. what's your response to that? >> my response is to that that quite frankly, at that point, nobody knew enough about fast & furious, and except people in the justice department, and the people in the justice department had whistleblowers during that year come to them and give them information that this really wasn't a very good program, it's going to backfire, and you know, it did backfire with the murder of brian terry, and the guns were there at his murder site, and so it was only when those whistleblowers came to me in january, and then later, i went to congressman issa, that we knew the full story. well, at that point, we didn't know the full story. now we know a heck of a lot more -- that we game aware of this fast & furious, what it really detailed. back then, there wouldn't have been enough information available. jenna: what's next? >> what's next is, well, i'm

sure that the call of chairman smith today for special counsel, investigator, in this area is going to be where -- that'so be where that's going to go. it may slow up at that point our getting some information, because they may want to have a legal reason for protecting the attorney general. but we're going to continue our investigation, and whatever the special counsel does in this area isn't going to stop me from continuing to ask all the questions i'm asking. jenna: do you expect more resignation, sir? we have 30 seconds. >> well, i -- what i'm hoping here is that we're going to find out who authorized this and we're going to get them fired and secondly, that no stupid program like this is going to happen in the future. jenna: we extend our invitation once again to the justice department to come on our show as well to express what they would like to express about this story. in the meantime, senator grassley, we appreciate your time today and we'll continue to follow this story, sir, thank you.

>> thank you. jenna: we'll be right back with more' "happening now".

megyn: hey everyone i'm megyn kelly. after months of speculation we will finally hear from the new jersey governor in moments. will he or won't he run? chris christie, answers that question on camera, once and for all, today. 1:00 p.m., eastern time, right here. we'll have the news conference, reaction from the perry campaign, from congressman ron paul, who joins us live, from larry sabato and our own bret baier will also be here to put it all in perspective. this is the biggest political news story of the day. you'll see it with me in 15 minutes. jon: well, catch a wave, and earn a letterman's jacket. you just probably don't wear to wear it while house surfing, hawaii set to become the first state in the nation to make surfing an official high schools sport. rick is hanging ten at the

breaking news desk. >> reporter: i wish jon! finally, hawaii giving surfers props, but everybody expects the state board to recognize surfing, as you said, as a legitimate high school sport and making it a part of the sports programs at all 46 high schools in hawaii. when you think of hawaii, surfers and surfing is probably one of the first things you think about it, right? but the money is the reason why it's taken so long to happen. it was first proposed in 2004 but it was wiped out because of budget shortfalls. sorry about that. this aim around the planet, getting private money to help the program which will cost $150,000 a year and if it gets the okay school surfing competitions would begin in 2013 for young men and wung women, too. back to you. jon: i'd like to northbound high school again. i'd like to live in hawaii for that matter! rick, thanks. jenna: a lot of things to like about that story. well, a major announcements just 20 minutes away. have you heard this name

chris christie? bet you have. the new jersey dpn expected to tell us once and for all if he's in or out. here's a live shot at the podium. in the meantime, jon, it turns out makeup does more than just make you look better. rick will have the details. >> ♪ >> ♪ >> jenna: next.

jenna: less than ten minutes away to chris christie's final announcement, wenary a news conference as to whether or not he gets into the race in 2012. a.b. stoddard is associate editor of the hill. what do you think this is

all about? >> reporter: well, i think, as has been reported, chris christie is going to tell us that he has not changed his mind and is not going to enter the race. as you know, he's denied it, his interest in this several times and said things like i'm just not ready and i think it's hard to turn around ten days later and say wealthy donors and energized supporters have made me feel ready to go and chris christie doesn't feel ready to do it. jenna: we'll see what he has to say in less than ten minutes on "america live". your paper had an interesting story, when we look at 2012, it's not just about who's entering the race on the republican side but also seeing whether or not the democrats have a unified front. can you tell us more about that? >> reporter: well, the democrats are having a very tough time right now, they are a very divided party. now that the focus is no longer on the war in iraq or afghanistan, and focused more on the economy, there are really a lot of risks with president obama between the left portions of the coalition and the democratic party that are disappointed

he has not fought hard enough for government spend to go stimulate the economy, for infrastructure spending, et cetera. they're very concerned he has capitulated too much to the republicans. he has not gotten a primary challenger as you know but there's been a lot of frustration with him nationally with interest groups in the democratic party that also with the house members and senate democrats up on capitol hill who do not feel that he is sticking up enough for their interests and their constituents and engaging with the congress even at this point these days, as he runs off in this new populist campaign message. jenna: and therein lies common ground for the both parties, both parties say they want a fighter in 2012. we're going to have to leave it there as we get to this press conference. a. becoming, thanks as always. >> thanks. jon: beauty is supposed to be only skin deep. but what about this? according to a new study, makeup makes a woman not only appear more attractive but makes people think she is more competent.

what do you know about this rick? >> >> reporter: i've been reading about this study, jon, and if the suit makes the man, as the saying goes, then this study says that makeup can do the same for women, research shows that women wearing makeup are viewed as more comparable, likable, and attractive and even more truth worthy. stud agrees -- studies showed some wearing makeup, some were not n. one study they got to look at the pictures for a split second and there was another where the subjects got to look at pictures for however long they wanted and they had to rate the women in the different categories and they varied the amount of makeup the women were wearing, natural, professional or nam reduce and no matter how much makeup the women had on rated higher, although women with heavier makeup were viewed as less truth worthy but psychologists warn women not to change their style just because of a study, that women need to be comfortable, even if they choose to wear no makeup at

all, and as far as male news anchors who wear makeup for our jobs, the study says absolutely nothing about us. jenna: that's what i want to know about both of you! when does the study look at men who wear makeup? >> jon: do i look more competent to you? >> jenna: you always look competent. >> and truth worthy. jenna: extraordinarily truth worthy. rick, thank you. jon: don't stare too long, right? >> jenna: i mean, you know. we'll just leave that alone, right? just leave it alone. both of you! thank you. thank you rick, thank you very much! we're just minutes away from a big announcement by new jersey chris crist eerks will he, won't he run for president. what's next for him? that's a big question these days. "america live" is here with the answer and we have that straight ahead. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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jon: the whole word is waiting, let's hope he's on time. jenna: the whole word is looking at new jersey, right? not the first time. thanks for joining us, everybody, "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert on a

decision that could dramatically the race for president of the united states. in just moments new jersey governor chris christie will hold a news conference on a possible run for the white house in 2012. that's where we begin this edition of "america live." welcome, everyone, i'm megyn kelly. we have heard many times before chris christie will not run for president, but is new jersey's governor about to change his tune? after weeks of speculation, pressure, even begging by some, chris christie has everyone guessing again. let's rewind to last tuesday, one week ago, same hour, same story, breaking news right here with campaign carl cameron who reported the following on "america live." moments ago the fox news political unit learning the new jersey governor will not run. campaign carl cameron live with the breaking news now, carl. >> reporte