>> busy day. corn maze. we made it out. all that good stuff. we head to radio. >> without calling 911 we made it out. >> we'll make it all the way to radio without calling 911. see you back here tomorrow. jenna: welcome you in with a fox news alert. verdict watch for the man charged with the horrific murder case in connecticut. rick is here. >> the jury is expected to begin deliberating with the trial ofcomcom. joshua komisarjevsky. he is charged with killing 11-year-old michaela and 13-year-old. prosecutors say komisarjevsky and steven hayes broke into the home. they beat father and husband william petit with a bat. they tied him and rest of the family up.

they sexually assaulted the females. the house was doused with gasoline and set on fire. the only survivor, dr. petit was table to break free and run for help. the jury took several hours to convict hayes. he is on death row. komisarjevsky we may learn his fate anytime now. we'll bring you the verdict, jenna as soon as we get it. jenna: looking for justice for the family. rick, thank you very much. we have this second fox news alert. the state department issuing a worldwide travel alert for all americans. hi, everybody, year glad you're with us on this very busy day. i'm jenna lee. gregg: it is busy indeed. i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott. brand new development in the brazen terror plot busted wide open. iran's elite military unit accused of directing the plan but tehran is denying everything. that plot centering on the assassination of the saudi arabian ambassador to the u.s. the plan reportedly to blow him up inside a d.c.

restaurant packed with hundreds of diners, possibly including members of congress. also there is word the plot included bombing the saudi and israeli embassies in washington, d.c.. jenna: that is the plot. hear is the man. the feds say this man coordinated the plot here in the united states. he is naturalized american citizen living for the most part in texas. they say he arranged to pay 1 1/2 million dollars to a man he believed was a mexican cartel hilt man who turned out to be a informant. he is behind bars, held without bail. gregg: his friends are shocked at these charges. take a listen. >> nice guy. very energetic. very jokester all the time. joking kind of guy. it shocked me to hear what he was accused of and indicted on. jenna: a joking kind of guy. is house foreign affairs committee woman commented about the news. >> this is splash of cold water on our face, hey guys,

while you're looking at arab spring and this is iranian winter. these guys are coming to get us they're plotting. it continues to be the greatest threat to the united states. jenna: we're joined by former state department spokesman, p.j. crowley. do you agree with that? >> first, jenna, you have to look at this rivalry gone on in the region regarding iran and saudi arabia. together with egypt, these are three countries that fervently believe they should be leaders of that region. you see it play out in a country like syria. client state of iran. iran is throwing lifelines to bashar al-assad. saudi arabia is funding the syrian opposition. would love to see that leadership shift from a shia leadership to a sunni majority leadership. so, yes there is a definite connection in terms of the arab spring, how these transitions are playing out. it is raising the stakes for

leadership within the region. within the context you see this plot between iran and saudi arabian play out. >> you mentioned the decades. background here between all these different states including our own. why now though? why this plot now? >> i see it exactly in the context of what has happened in the region this year. you've got egypt, for example, that is distracted by its own transition but now you see potentially an indication that the gloves are coming off in, and iran is feeling some pressure and it has used syria and syria's relationship with lebanon to extend iran's influence to the west within the middle east and it is, it is fearful about the dynamic that has come, has kind of undercut iran's position in the region. so that may be an explanation here. i think one of the pivotal questions which remains unknown is, was this just a rogue operation by some guys with ties to "al-quds" or is

this really a strategic decision by iranian leadership to go after saudi arabia first and foremost and in the process go after the united states as well. jenna: let's take off from that point you rightly raised about the speculation about this plan. bob bear, former cia case officer to the middle east, a frequent guest on our show he said this to "the washington post" today. there was a sloppiness about the case that defies belief. the kuds are better than this. if they wanted to come after you would be dead already. so pj, what about that. where do you put the probability that this could be a lone wolf operating independently from the iranian regime? >> no. i mean it's entirely possible and bob baer and others are scratching their heads and rightfully so. this is sloppy operation. we've seen this in the other contexts of terrorism. guys who have aspirations but not necessarily a lot of capability. so, you know, there's a lot of internal politics going

on in iran. a lot of contests for, you know, staking out turf within the iranian government. ahmadinejad is at crossways with the ayatollah. the ayatollah has close relationship to iranian revolutionary guard. the kuds are dimension of that. it is very possible could be hatched in the bureaucracy somewhere. that is the essential question. if the leadership blessed this operation and was openly supportive this has grave ramifications for the region and for the united states. jenna: our leaders here seem to suggest that they believe, they, administration, if you will and iran was a part of this. the attorney general says he will hold iran accountable. secretary of state hillary clinton says that the united states is going to send a strong message to this country. what exactly does that mean? what are we going to do if that is the stakes that we're dealing with here? >> let me draw a parallel. for example, in pakistan it's still an open question who in the pakistani government new about the

whereabouts of bin laden? we may theorize that the leadership didn't know but somewhere in the bureaucracy clearly somebody did. this is a question we have to answer. was this something hatched from inside an organization deep inside the irgc, or is this something that was blessed from above? now from that, obviously you know, this gives the united states and saudi arabia tremendous opportunity and leverage. you know, we've had various round of sanctions in recent years. they have been quite effective but there are still loopholes as the secretary said yesterday and working with asian countries such as china, working with european countries, really have the opportunity here to put a very significant economic squeeze on iran. jenna: final thoughts on this. congresswoman started off in our conversation here that iran is the greatest threat to our country. do you agree with that? >> iran is a grave threat to the united states. we've got two or three or four out there that you worry about day in and day out but clearly the

direction iran is going in, its support of terrorism and it's ongoing. nuclear aspirations which are ongoing. this definitely poses a grave, formidable threat for the united states going forward. jenna: lots of questions we don't have the answers to today, pj. obviously as we get developments we'll relay them to our viewers. we appreciate your insight as always. thank you for joining us. >> okay, jenna, a man in virginia now accused of spying for syria. authorities say the naturalized american citizen met with the bashar al-assad personally in june. mohammed swade is his name. he is accused of sending 20 audio and videotape recordings to the syrian intelligence agency depicting protests in the united states against the syrian regime. he is accused of trying to recruit others in the united states to do the same hinge. he is expected in court sometime this afternoon. a fox news alert on a surprise guilty plea from the christmas-day underwear bomber umar farouk

abdulmutallab. changing his plea this morning on day two of his terror trail. the nigerian man admitted to all the charges involved with trying to blow up a plane headed to detroit, december 25th, 2009, by setting off explosives hidden in his underwear. mike tobin is live in detroit. mike, how much of a surprise did this come to the judge, the lawyers, everybody? >> reporter: i think to everyone involved. it is an odd case, gregg. we have a guilty plea but there is no plea deal. umar farouk abdulmutallab is representing himself in this place but he does have a standby counsel, an individual named anthony chambers about. chambers just spoke and he advised abdulmutallab against this guilty plea because he didn't get anything in return for it. he believes abdulmutallab will spend life in prison because he has pleaded guilty to eight, all eight of the charges he was facing. now abdulmutallab did use the courtroom for a platform as a jihadist, for jihadist

rant as predicted. he said the united states should be warned. if you laugh at us, we will laugh at you. he said that he brought a blessed weapon on board that aircraft in retaliation for the u.s. support of israel. he said that he had conspired with someone in yemen to build that bomb and brought it on board that aircraft as an act of jihad against the united states. now judge nancy edmunds seemed to go to some pains to make sure they went through all eight of the individual counts with some painstaking detail to be absolutely certain on the record that abdulmutallab knew what he was doing by pleading guilty to each of the individual charges. when asked, if he understood that he broke the law, he said, i broke u.s. law, indicating that he felt he did not break islamic law. the last thing abdulmutallab said as he was led out of the courtroom was, allah talk bar, got is great.

gregg: anytime you change the plea especially representing yourself the judge has to make sure it is absolutely knowing, intelligent voluntary change of plea which apparently she has done. mike tobin live outside the courthouse. mike, thank you very much. jenna: house committee announcing issuing a new subpoena to attorney general eric holder and other top officials inside the department of justice over this botched federal gun sting, "fast & furious", a name familiar to us by now. william la jeunesse is live with the breaking details. william? >> reporter: jenna, yesterday the attorney general defended himself saying his office had turned over thousands of pages regarding "fast & furious". what he did not say many of those are heavily redacted or duplicative. the house oversight committee responded with second subpoena. the first involved alcohol tobacco and firearms this one is much broader. for instance it asks all communications to and from eric holder and 16 of his top aides including his head of the criminal division,

lanny brewer. all communication between the department of justice and the executive office of the president including his communications director at the time, eric schultz, who was tapped to handle "fast & furious" scandal. they also want to know who prepped the president for a march 22nd interview with univision. why is that important? it will tell us how much the president knew when he said this. >> first of all, i did not authorize it. eric holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it. he has been very clear that our policy is to catch gun runners and put them into jail. >> reporter: the president also said on that date that eric holder has been clear that he knew nothing about this. they want to know if the president might have been splitting hairs there. they also want to know what the department of, excuse me the state department and ambassador to mexico knew. they have said that, atf has said that they didn't telmex coexactly what was going on but maybe in broad strokes they did. we'll find out. they also want to know all

the reports of investigation. that would be the day-to-day happening within it and there you see lone wolf. this is not come out yet. basically there was a break-in at the lone wolf gun store in october. there was some surveillance tapes that might be available that tell us what happened there. the owner believes it was an inside job. this it was actually the atf who broke in because none of his other security systems went off. they want to find out if there are tapes there that will show exactly who did it. and finally they also want to know the fbi lab reports from the weapons found at the hurt scene of brian terry. back to you. jenna: we'll watch for what is next along with you, william. thank you very much. gregg: here's one for you. should a simple parking ticket result to, result in a strip search while in jail? at issue is before the u.s. supreme court right now. we'll have a live report on the limits america's highest court may set. jenna: we'll look forward to that story. meantime a kidnapped israeli soldier could finally be set free after five long years. how soon this young man could be back home with his

family. we have the latest out of israel today. [shouting] gregg: and growing, wall street demonstrations. the political pros and cons for democrats and republicans. [shouting] [ horn honks ] hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. [ man ] the receivables. [ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business.

gregg: welcome back to "happening now." we're here in the acquisition room. we collect all of our remote camera shots throughout the world. look at remote camera 246. this is the courthouse in connect cult. we are awaiting a jury's verdict in that horrific home invasion trial. down here, rm 292. this is satellite image. a cat 2 hurricane jova, really slamming the main port city in mexico. the good news, it will not affect the united states. way over here, remote 218, the big board, the dow jones industrial average up about almost 120 points. lots of green arrows today.

we'll keep track of this and many more stories. now back to jenna. >> thanks, gregg. new york city mayor michael bloomberg is talking a little bit about these wall street protests. those protesters camping out in the financial district can stay as long as they obey the law, according to the mayor. yesterday we have video here of demonstrators hitting the road, taking the picket lines up town to the posh homes of new york city titans. the marry minding the protesters that those people bring money and jobs. boston are continuing demonstrations there despite arrest of 141 people so far. the group, occupy boston, saying they plan to extend protests into the winter. hope they have a coat. it gets pretty cold that time of year. meanwhile the politics of these protests is the wise to for democrats to a line themselves with wall street crowds? or republicans to dismiss the proterse as unruly mobs.

taking a look at this washington correspondent, james rosen. >> reporter: good afternoon. jenna. we saw extraordinary development three of nation's leading democrats, president, vice president and house minority leader nancy pelosi expressing their supports in varying degrees for boisterous campaign for civil disobedience known as the occupy wall street movement. the vice president equated demonstrators, said the system is not fair or on the level to the tea party's anger over the tarp bailouts. president obama was a bit more circumspect about the movement which has seen 700 people arrested. congresswoman pelosi who represents one of the country's most liberal districts was down right effusive. >> i think it expresses the frustrations that the american people feel. that we had the biggest financial crisis since the great depression. huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across main street. >> god bless them for their

spontaneity. independent people coming. it is young. it is spontaneous. it is focused and it is going to be effective. >> reporter: democratic senator sharoud brown praised them. bernie sanders applauded them to showcasing greed and illegal behavior in corporate america. the most prominent dissenting democratic voice belongs to former pennsylvania governor ed rendell in an interview with conservative radio show host laura ingraham scolded the protesters. you made your point. you got about all the publicity you're going to get. get on with your lives. if you really care about this stuff organize at the ballot box, unquote. there at the ballot box may be the true reason, jenna behind the democrats embrace of pound sign ows with polls showing independents soured on president obama at least for now. party leaders may see a fired up liberal base as their surest route to retaining the white house. jenna: pound sign ows being

twitter term. >> yes. jenna: for our nontwitterers that are watching. >> that is how hip i am. jenna: pound ows, occupy wall street. just want to make sure, we're all on the same page. that's all. james always great to have you. thank you. >> reporter: hashtag, thank you. gregg: he always likes to get in the last word. we'll have new information now on the largest test cheating case in american history. this scandal is rocking atlanta's public schools and tomorrow the accused educators will learn their fate. professional standards commission can issue a range of punishments from a warning, to revoking a teacher's license. by the way, this is separate from any criminal charges the suspects may face. we are on top of this developing story. we'll bring you the update tomorrow. jenna: new jersey governor chris christie throwing his support behind mitt romney for president. now some are speculating that christie could end up on romney's ticket for 2012. as always we want to hear from you. our question of the day. do you think governor

christie should take a vp slot on a 2012 ticket if he is offered one of course? during the break log on and give us an answer. leave us a comment on foxnews.com/happeningnow. we'll see you in three minutes.

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jenna: some new information here on a decades old case that simply shocked and horrified the country. we're now learning the sheriff's department in cook county, right south side of chicago was secretly digging up bodies. this is related to the case of serial killer john wayne gacy, convicted in the deaths of 33 people decades ago. he was executed back in 1994. now the sheriff's department said they exhumed bones of eight of his victims it last spring and they're planning on using dna testing which wasn't available back in the '70s to finally identify the young men. we're awaiting word why the

sheriff's department kept this under wraps. when we get that information we'll bring it to you. gregg: fox news is america's election headquarters. right now new speculation about new jersey governor chris christie, the popular republican, tossing his support behind mitt romney for president in 2012. and surprise endorsement coming right before a gop debate in new hampshire. in fact the governor christie was there in the audience. and now park sparking talk that christie may want to run as romney's veep. chief congressional correspondent for the washington cam pinner -- examiner joins us live from concord, new hampshire. did you see these guys yesterday? all day they were joined at the hip. they were bff. which fueled speculation that maybe christie might agree to be vice president running mate. when asked about that he

didn't flatly deny it. in fact he says that will be governor romney's choice. my only interest is helping get him elected president. sound like i might actually do it if asked. what do you think? >> neither side is denying it. i know this morning governor romney said chris christie would be on anyone's short list for vp which is true. if you looked at poll numbers before he decided he would not run for president he did pretty well. and he was a formidable potential candidate who never got into the race. he is also very politically aligned with romney. they're both governors from the northeast. they're both aligned on certain social issues as well as their fiscal policies. so it makes sense that the two would want to work together but --. gregg: and the top strategist for romney said, look, this isn't just an ordinary endorsement. christie is going to be an active surrogate. in fact we saw that beginning yesterday. there was this tele-town hall meeting with 750,000 voters from 19 states. could christie really energize the romney campaign?

>> he could and he could fill in a gap for romney. romney is, as you saw him last night at the debate. he does well in the debates, there is no question about that. when he is out campaigning he sometimes lack charisma or fire that say, president obama had when he was campaigning. you need something like that to really energize people. and christie has it. christie is really good. he is very good on the campaign stop. he has got that kind of energy. that sort of down-to-earth quality that some people say is being laing in rommey. so they could take a counterbalance each other. gregg: chris at this is popular in terms of personality the anti-romney. he is blunt. you're right, he is charismatic. he is sort of an every-man. the criticism of mitt romney is a little bit distant and almost as wooden as al for. this might in your judge manlt sort of humanize mitt romney but the question is, what about establishment

republicans and the deep pocket donors? will they now come to romney? >> there is the weakness in romney-christie ticket. the two of them like i said are aligned on a lot of issue but they don't counterbalance each other where romney is weak on the base, gun rights, gun control rights and other issues such as civil unions. these areas where the two are aligned make it difficult for them to pick up the base where you have a lot more conservative voters. because people consider romney a moderate and a lot of people consider christie a moderate as well on some issues. he may want to look for someone who can counterbalance the ticket a little bit so they hang on to voters in the south and other parts of the country where the voters are far more conservative. gregg: susan, a quick question, the u.s. senate last night rejected the president's jobs plan. he had a lot invested in this. he called a special joint session of congress to announce his big plan. went on the campaign trail to urge americans to back it. first vote, defeated. how much of a setback is

that for the president? does it make him look politically weak? >> here's why it is a set back. i don't think the president ever thought another stimulus bill was going to go through and a tax increase. i don't think anybody realistically thought that was going to happen. i believe the president was hoping he would paint the republicans as obstructionists. that argument was weakened yesterday when a bunch of democrats came to the floor and tore the bill apart for its cost and its tax increases. it wasn't going to get support it need from democrats in the end so that argument is weakened right now. gregg: you're up in concord right? looks like capitol. >> i'm in d.c.. gregg: are you in d.c.? >> i'm in d.c.. gregg: my computer says you're in concord. computers are infallable. looked like the capitol there. i was going, that doesn't look like concord. thanks, susan. by the way we asked you to weigh in on the possibility of seeing governor chris christie in the number two slot in the 2012 republican

ticket. more than 500 of you voted in our unscientific poll. 20% said yes. 80% said no. rebecca was one of the people who voted no. christie has admitted he is not ready to be president of the united states so he should not run as vice president. jenna: we'll continue to get your thoughts in just on foxnews.com/happeningnow. how about this? strip-searched in jail for unpaid parking tickets? it happened to one new jersey man. the supreme court is set to decide whether that kind of search is really reasonable. we have the report next. that is quite a lead-in for rick on the web wall. >> we don't like the folks at home to watch. we want you to participate and get involved. we have job for you. steve moore of "the wall street journal" we want you to go to america's asking tab at "happening now" homepage and send us your questions or comments on the economy. and please be specific. what do you think we can do about the country's economic circumstances? do we need more stimulus?

how do we help people get back to work? how do we encourage companies to start hiring again? now's the time during the next commercial break to go on, send us your questions and we'll have more of "happening now" and steve moore coming uplf do. mushroom smothered beef burgers. hearty chicken and noodle casserole. so easy, you just need campbell's cream of mushroom soup to make them and a hungry family to love them. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. get the app. hotels.com.

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with unitedhealthcare plans, you can access the pharmacy saver program, with prescriptions as low as $2, at thousands of pharmacies all across the country, including these. call unitedhealthcare now. tell us about your situation. we can help you choose the right plan for your needs. [ male announcer ] are you reconsidering your medicare coverage? you only have until december 7th to make sure you get the medicare coverage you need. call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. with some plans, you can enroll right over the phone. don't wait. call now. gregg: major developments in the prisoner of war case in the middle east. gilad shalif, held captive for might have fierce nowadays away from freedom. after israel agreed to swap

more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners including high security inmates and convicted terrorists for the young soldier. leland vitter is live in jerusalem. leland? >> reporter: gregg, it is pretty rare in this part of the world and israeli press and arab press agree on something. this is the big hebrew paper, coming home. a picture of gilad shalif. deal done and picture of one of the palestinian prisoners who will be released. 1,000 of them are getting out of jail. some of whom are the worst of the worst and have israeli blood on their hands. last night there were celebrations here in jerusalem. that is the scene you're seeing on left-hand side of your screen. there were also celebrations in the gaza strip where a lot of hamas operatives going home. this is huge win for hamas getting a lot of their people back and certainly justifies the fact in their minds five years ago they kidnapped gilad shalif from israeli army patrol on other side of gaza border and held

him there. he has been a cause celebre in israel. there is lot of pressure put on the israeli community to bring him home. that is when egypt who brokered the deal will send shalif back here to israel, something the israelies are really, really excited about. short-term you have all these celebrations. long-term this is huge boon for hamas. they not only get 1,000 operatives back on the street but a lot of street creddability in the palestinian territories. back to you. gregg: leland vitter. thank you very much. >> a fox news exclusive now into the mindset of small businesses in the united states. the u.s. chamber of commerce just releasing its latest small business survey. we're all getting a first look at it right now. in broad strokes the survey showing us there is real concern for this segment of our economy. the vice president of small business policy at chamber of commerce. it is no secret there is lot of concern about the economy right now from almost

everybody but what stands out most to you about the results of this third quarter survey? >> well, thank you, jenna. the results of this third quarter, small business outlook survey are stunning. it reveals that nine out of 10 small business owners feel the economy is on the wrong track and that's up from 84% just three months ago. if you drill down you see, it has had a chilling effect on their intention to create jobs and add to their payrolls. 17% say that they will not add, or they, only 17% say they intend to add jobs over the next year. and that's down from 19% from just in july. if you drill down into some of the reasons, certainly overall economic uncertainty. the uncertainty of policies coming out of washington. lack of sales. and their responsibilities under this new health care law. that was 41% cited that as an obstacle. that's up from 39% just in

july. jenna: a lot of information there. the survey points to little enthusiasm you said about the economy but over some of the policy efforts like the jobs bill for example. but what do small business owners tell the chamber of commerce about what they want to see to fix this and turn this around? what do they need to see from washington? >> well, that's a good question and we poll that in our survey. they say they want washington to get out of the way. 86% say that they need more certainty out of washington as opposed to more assistance. that polled at 7%, down from 14% in the previous survey in july. if you look at it, the health care bill has given small businesses pause. you have a dodd-frank bill that has created a stranglehold on access to cap it will for small business. you see regulations coming down as an avalanche out of

washington that really has the small business community strangled and on the sidelines. they are one of the best job creators we have unfortunately. they have been sidelined by this economy. jenna: that's the big headline there about the lack of interest in hiring going forward into the later parts of this year. nice to have you. thank you for this exclusive look at your survey and we look forward to having you back. >> thank you. gregg: and this just in. we're watching what's happening at the interior department right now. president obama speaking at the white house forum on american-latino heritage at the department of interior. if he happens to say anything, for example, about the foiled iranian terror plot or indeed these new subpoenas for his attorney general, we'll let you know about it. in the meantime if you want to watch it, it is streaming on foxnews.com. check it out. jenna: well, in the meantime we have another big story to update you on. the san francisco giants fan that was brutally beaten

months ago by rival fans at dodger stadium, he has made a major step forward in his recovery. we have the dramatic update next.

gregg: breaking news out of pennsylvania. the state capitol of harrisburg, filing for bankruptcy protection. another grim sign in this scary economy. unemployment stuck at more than 9%. there is massive housing crisis. some economists warn it could be a decade before the u.s. economy begins to turn around. america is asking and we're answering. at least our guest is. steve moore joins us. senior economics writer for "wall street journal" steve, thanks very much. i remember meredith whitney, analyst on the street, i think in december of 2010, we could see next few years hundreds of municipalities going belly-up. are we beginning to see perhaps her prediction come true? >> it is quite possible.

you look what happened in harrisburg. this is something we're seeing a lot of cities in california teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. couple years ago we saw the city of vallejo, outside of san francisco, declare bankruptcy. what shaping here you have shrinkage of their tax base. property values are falling. because of the housing crisis. you have fewer people working. that is less money coming in. at the same time they pay very high unionized salaries. they have to pay for all of these social welfare programs that are putting a real squeeze on these budgets. so i think you might see more municipalities, you know, do what businesses do when they can't pay their bills which is essentially to declare bankruptcy. one reason, by the way, that they are leading in that direction and a way to get out of some of these labor contracts and renegotiate them so they can pay their bills. gregg: right. receiver comes in. has to reorganize everything. judge can get rid of contracts. all kinds of things can happen. steve, karen sent in a question for you.

what in your view, steve, will help get the u.s. economy on the right track? >> well, that's a great question. something everybody wants to know the answer to. look, i just had a piece in the "wall street journal" a week or so ago, comparing what happened in the reagan expansion versus the obama expansion. in september of 1983, exactly this juncture over the reagan presidency. we had 1.1 million jobs in one month. we know what it takes to create prosperity and more jobs. and that is get taxes down, rates down on businesses and investors so they have incentive to spend. i just heard your interview with a spokesman from the chamber of commerce. those are scary numbers. businesses don't want to invest right now. the other thing we have to do is get regulation off the backs of businesses. i was struck by the fact that that survey showed that the new health care bill, obamacare, is something really detering businesses from hiring new workers because of uncertainty of that bill. gregg: kathy asks this. please ask steven how many

jobs would be quickly created if we opened up drilling --/digging. >> that is one of my favorite issues. i love the person who asked that question. because we have so much oil and natural gas in it country. this is the great untold story about our energy future. i did an interview with harold ham who owns a big energy field we found in north dakota. this is great statistic by the way. you know what state in the country has lowest unemployment rate today? gregg: that state, north dakota. >> north dakota, yep. they have less than 3 1/2% unemployment. in fact they can't fill all the jobs they have got because of all the oil and gas drilling going on there if we get epa and interior out of the way and stop subsidizing wind and solar which are really niche markets in energy and really invest in the oil and natural gas industries we could be potentially be the saudi arabia of natural gas and oil in this upcoming century. we could be, we could be exporting oil rather than importing it. that would create a lot of jobs. gregg: the biggest oil producer if we opened up that field and others here

in the united states. >> no question. gregg: steve moore, that's all the time we have. thanks very much. good to see you. >> great to be with you. jenna: great questions from rohr our viewers there. listen to this headline. forced to strip down. that is what happened to albert florence. or that's what he says. he was hauled off to jail for unpaid parking tickets where he was strip-searched by several prison guards. florence immediately sued and his case is up for review by the supreme court. probably a little more complicated than that. shannon bream is live in our washington bureau with the latest. >> reporter: in arguments many justice seemed perplexed where they should draw the line who should be subjected to very thorough strip search process understood james. the case centers on albert florence. in his 20s he had bunch of unpaid park being tickets. he his license was suspended and. at another violation. he served probation, paid his fines and moved on. he was years later in the

car when his pregnant wife was stopped speeding. the officer arrested him because his paperwork showed he had outstanding warrant. florence settled up and carried paperwork with him in case he was stopped. despite he was innocent and fines were paid he was arrested and sent to jail. the judges heard about the instrus sieve strip search he was forced to undergo not once but twice despite he was not considered a threat and was arrested on non-criminal matter. they will go over. that nobody comes in with contraband whether they were charged with violent crime like murder or simply a traffic violation. after arguments today, albert florence says he waited six long years for justice. happy to get his day in court. we should have an opinion in this case by june next year. meantime, jenna, pay your parking tickets if you have any. jenna: good lesson learned from that case and an interesting one of the we'll await the ruling. gregg: ever get parking tickets? jenna: of course not.

gregg: i get them all the time. i pay them all the time too. an american citizen behind bars charged in a brazen terror plot including an assassination plan allegedly backed by iran's elite military unit the state department is now issuing a worldwide travel alert. new developments in a moment. >> watch out. oh.

jenna: right now a huge milestone for a giants fan, a san francisco giants fan beaten to within an inch of his life at dodger stadium. a story we've been following closely rick. now we have an update. >> jenna, this is great news. doctors were not sure pry an stow was going to make it after that savage beating he got in dodgers stadium on opening day of baseball season in march.

the 42-year-old viciously attacked for apparently wearing a san francisco giants jersey at the dodge he is baseball stadium. he was transferred tuesday from a hospital to a rehab facility. this is major step forward in his recovery. here is one of his doctors at san francisco general hospital. >> when brian came here he was in a comatose state. he was able to speak and interact with his family. he is now beginning to eat as well and he is making dramatic progress. >> stow has two kids and still a long way to go for treatment for his brain injury. doctors are not sure how complete a recovery he will eventually have, but still very exciting news for his friend and loved once and for all of us who were appalled by that beating. by the way 29-year-old luis sanchez and 30-year-old marvin norwood have been charged. they both pleaded not guilty to a number about of charges including assault and battery. jenna: nice to hear about the progress for brian and

his family. rick, thank you. gregg: still on the subject of baseball, a very close call for a baseball fan in detroit. look at this. hit on the head by josh hamilton's flying bat. the bat slipped out of the slugger's hands during a pitch on the american league championship series while on fox. ouch. that has to hurt. the fan was okay remaining in the front row seat after the medical personnel checked him out. gregg: blocked the bat with the glove. jenna: we're glad he is okay. we're getting new information on the alleged iranian plot to assassinate saudi arabia's ambassador right here in our nation's capitol. how serious threat has iran become and what is the white house's next move on this? the jury getting the case in the horrific connecticut home invasion. it took hours for a jury to convict steven hayes for killing jennifer hawke-petit and this is the next man on

trial. joshua komisarjevsky. we're watching the courtroom and we'll bring you the breaking news next. ♪ we could have gone a more traditional route, but it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable.

i'm not a line item on a budget. and i'm definitely not a pushover. but i am a voter. so washington... before you even think about cutting my medicare and social security benefits... here's a number you should remember. 50 million. we are 50 million seniors who earned our benefits... and you will be hearing from us... today and on election day. ♪

>> reporter: hi, everybody, i'm rick folbaum, a couple stories we're watching for you now. this is outside the courthouse in new haven, connecticut, the second defendant in the connecticut home invasion case. as soon as we get any word from the courthouse, we'll tell you. over here los angeles, california, this is a cardiologist on the stand in the dr. conrad murray case, michael jackson's personal doctor. and this is a shot of the interior department in washington d.c. that podium right there is where president obama has just delivered a speech that is commemorating latin heritage week. and so couple of stories we're watching for you, but we're watching a lot more as well. the second hour of "happening now" starts right now.

gregg: iran's alleged terror plot to kill the saudi ambassador in our nation's capital sparking an international backlash. hello, everyone, glad you're with us, i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott. jenna: hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. the conspiracy is said to involve high-level members of the iranian government, and right now the u.s. is moving to unite the world and punish iran or so the message has been so far. now, federal prosecutors are charging two iranians including a naturalized u.s. citizen with trying to hire assassins from a mexican drug cartel. lots of twists and turns to this story. national correspondent katherine herridge is following them all live in washington what's the reaction from capitol hill? >> reporter: thank you. fox news confirming there will be a special briefing later today both on the house i and senate side, the members whose committees deal with the iran issues. pressure squarely on the white house to respond to the iranian

plot. >> i think this plot is, it's a very serious breach of international behavior. and i would hope that our administration would hold the iranian government and hold their feet to the fire. >> reporter: just before we came on the air, senator john mccain told reporters that he, too, is shocked like most americans but is not surprised because he says iran has taken on a more aggressive posture against the united states and its interest in the alleged plot is just another example, jenna. jenna: so that is what's happening as far as what's happening with iran. what about the single man -- we know there's two, there's one in custody right now. what else are we learning about them? >> reporter: well, 56-year-old mast sur answer si car, the

charges include conspiracy to murder, that second suspect a member of iran's quds force is a special operations unit of the revolutionary guard believed to be hiding in iran. and a short time ago senator mccain was asked about the threat iran presents to the u.s.. >> the president needs to tell the american people in the context of what the iranian behavior is, and it is a threat to, frankly, the entire world if they are, they're able to achieve nuclear weapons capability which they're in progress of doing so. >> reporter: so senator mccain is clearly referring to the totality of the picture when you look at iran. i spoke to two senior intelligence officials who said the plot didn't seem to feel quite right to them, it seemed to go against iran's pattern. one official said why didn't they enlist hezbollah's a-team, in other words, why did they outsource it and face the security risks as a result? jenna: a lot to the story, thank

you very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. gregg: we're joined by former homeland security secretary michael chertoff, mr. secretary, thanks for being here. >> good to be on, gregg. gregg: the attorney general is claiming it was the iranian government that directed and approved this planned terrorist attack on american soil that included murder and maas destruction. -- mass destruction. congressman peter king says this is an act of war. others agree. is it? >> well, no question it's a very serious breach of a whole host of domestic and international laws. now, nothing has happened yet, and nothing did happen, so i don't know that i'd go so far as to say it's an act of war. but it's clearly contemplated the kind of action that could be treated as a war like act. gregg: you know, as former secretary of homeland security, you were devoted to stopping terrorists from entering into our country from all access points. given this particular plot's

nexus, the stay -- the zeta's mexican cartel, how worried are you that terrorists can penetrate that southern border? >> well, let's separate two things out. it doesn't look as if operatives here actually made contact with the zetas, they dealt with an informant. it is interesting and troubling, though, that they would look to a mexican transnational cartel as a possible ally in carrying out a terrorist attack. that might not have been a prudent or a wise course, but it suggests that their thinking is going in a disturb direction. gregg: you know, the obama administration is reportedly planning to try the leverage these charges into a new global campaign to try to isolate iran. but, look, we have tried that in a wide variety of ways many times before. and the islamic republic has shown utter indifference to financial sanctions and penalties, so is this in a way yet another feckless exercise?

>> well, part of the problem is some of the other actors in the international arena have been very slow to join in sanctions, and i think this might be an occasion we can really put some pressure on the chinese and the russians to get onboard with, perhaps, a wider range of sanctions than we've been engaging in so far. frankly, i'd also look at the question of beginning to strike at iranian diplomats' rights to travel around the world and to attend various sessions, you know, international sessions in other countries because they haven't been very big respecters of diplomatic immunity. yeg greg you know, the president took office vowing to engage iran. in retrospect, does that seem like perhaps a naive exercise that has served to enable the leadership in tehran to not only accelerate its acts of sponsored terrorism, but to move forward aggressively with its pursuit of nuclear weapons? >> i think the leadership of

iran has demonstrated again and again that reason and efforts to be friendly are completely wasted. most recently when the leader came and spoke to the u.n. and gave a vicious speech. i think we ought to be reaching out more to the green opposition, and we ought to also contemplate, in light of this most recent plot, what it would mean if iranian actually got a nuclear weapon. i don't think we could count on the ordinary logic of deterrence as working in the case of iran in a way that we might have thought. gregg: yeah, deterrence is dependent upon a reasoned and logical opponent. iran may be anathema to that. the administration has said no option is off the table here. in your mind should we be considering moving beyond diplomatic mean? >> well, i think no option should be off the table. now, obviously, there are practical considerations about what you can do effectively, what the consequences and

fallout would be. there are probably things you'd want to do covertly that you wouldn't want to make public, and i hope and i assume the administration is looking at all of those options. remember, we've had issues with the iranians both meddling in iraq, meddling in afghanistan and, frankly, being very difficult with respect to what's going on in syria now. they're supporting the current regime. so they're involved in all kinds of mischief, it's not just this one serious plot. gregg: their tentacles spread far and wide. secretary michael chertoff, thank you for being with us. >> good to be on. jenna: well, back to some politics now. no rest for the weary when you're running for president, that's for sure. most of the gop candidates are already back on the campaign trail after last night's big debate on the economy. chief political correspondent carl cameron is live in the state capital of new hampshire, concord w the latest.

carl, what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, the candidates, a steady stream of them, really, have been addressing new hampshire's legislature, all volunteer and one of the third if not fourth largest legislative bodies in the world. herman cain talked to a crowd which he recognized was very pro-romney, and cain says he hopes they'll change his mind and support him. newt gingrich took his turn at the podium, here's a sample of what he had to say. >> i'm dedicate today the belief that no elite, no brilliant leader, no single source of genius is going to fix this. that in the end the beginning of the constitution is right: we, the people. >> reporter: starting on monday the presidential candidates will have to file for the new hampshire primary ballot. no one knows when that is actually going to occur. there's a rumor and a fear in new hampshire that it could actually take place this year, perhaps as soon as december 6th. rick santorum blamed it all on florida. here's a little of what he said.

>> i am concerned that that process is in jeopardy because of the histrionics of states like florida and nevada which i am, to be very honest, very disappointed that in monkeying around with a system that has been tried and true and worked well for both democrats and republicans in selecting nominees for president. >> reporter: all of the republican presidential candidates have said they support iowa the first in the nation caucus and new hampshire the first in the nation primary voting first. new hampshire's date has not been set, and the secretary of state has let it be known there is a very real possibility that he could be forced by state law to hold the new hampshire primary in this calendar year. he says that would not be preferable, but, yes, it is actually under consideration. jenna: wow, that is early, december 6th. you mentioned mitt romney being ahead in polls in new hampshire. what about mitt romney today, is he speaking as well? >> reporter: no, he's headed off to washington state for some

campaigning, and, of course, last night in the debate at dartmouth he was the calm and confident perceived front runner. he's doing everything he can to lay the groundwork to appear the inevitable nominee who can't be stopped. he did take a little bit of heat nor his rival -- for his rivals. for rick perry the debate was better than some preceding performances, and herman cain took a lot of heat for his 9-9-9 plan. most of his rivals ridiculed the plan, cain says that's an example of why he's a real outsider, not the kind of politician who's always saying, no, he thinks big ideas are the way to go. jenna: thank you very much, carl. gregg: and we're awaiting a vote on three key trade agreements designed to be, well, a shot in the arm for the u.s. economy and put americans back to work. congress set to approve new deals with south korea, colombia and panama. they're actually getting bipartisan support from the president and most congressional republicans. mike emanuel live on capitol hill. mike? >> reporter: hi, gregg, yes,

supporters of these three free trade deals say they will essentially create tens of thousands of american jobs and increase american exports by some $13 billion. they also argue this will help level the playing field for american exporters. texas republican congressman kevin brady says this shows bipartisanship is possible. >> for those in america who wonder if republicans and democrats can work with president obama to create real jobs here in america, the answer is a resounding, yes. today we passed free sales agreement in trading for those for trade adjustments that exactly prove that point. >> reporter: these votes come about a week after president obama sent the three free trade deals to lawmakers, the first approved by congress since one with peru about four years ago. a new york democrat says today that this, essentially, helps move the u.s. economy forward. >> we are the united states of

america. we lead. and this is saying that we're going to lead again in the world of trade, and we're going to make sure that we bring this world closer together. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner says he hopes both the house and the senate will ratify these or pass these free trade agreements later today. several leadership sources in the u.s. senate say they do belief that the -- believe that the senate will pass these three free trade deals once the house is done with them later today. gregg? gregg: it's been a long time coming. they've been sitting on the president's desk since he took office. thanks very much, mike emanuel. jenna: also seeing in washington now the president's jobs bill defeated in the senate, and several democrats even voted against it as well. now there's some talk about passing this bill in pieces, is that something republicans can support? which pieces? we're going to ask wyoming senator john barrasso just ahead. plus, where is baby lisa? a private investigate is hired to track down this missing

child. is this a good idea? we're going to talk to a former fbi agent next. >> we know she's out there, and we know where the obvious focus is. we want to extend that focus. we are here to cooperate with anyone and everyone that will help us find the guilty party and return lisa home safely. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth!

jenna: "happening now," a new day in the senate. yesterday the president's $447 billion jobs bill died in a procedural vote, but that doesn't mean it's over completely. congress may try to pass parts of the bill, so one of the questions we're asking today are there any parts of this bill that can be salvaged and that republicans will vote for? let's ask republican senator john barrasso of wyoming. senator, nice to have you back with us. >> thanks, jenna. jenna: is there parts of this land that you'd like to see get through the senate? >> absolutely.

specifically, the parts that have to do with tax credits for wounded warriors, getting them back to work. there are things that we can talk about, and i want to work together with others to get people back to work. i want to find ways to make it easier and cheaper for the private sector to create jobs in america. but, you know, the president had said, hey, take it or leave it about a month ago, and yesterday in a bipartisan vote all of the republicans in the senate as well as a number of democrats voted against this bill that the president put forward which, to me, was just a tax and spend approach. jenna: as far as the payroll tax cuts that's part of this plan, this larger plan, that's something that the president has pointed to and other democrats to say, hey, look, republicans liked this before, why don't they like it thousand? are you for these payroll tax cuts? >> absolutely. and i think that they should be done permanently. you know, what the president in his take it or leave it bill said is there would be a temporary, a temporary issue as you just raised with, coupled with a permanent, long-term

permanent increase in taxes, and that's a bad trade-off. that's a bad bet for the american people. you know, i want to look for ways to make it cheaper, doing tax reform, make it easier and cheaper to create private sector jobs. the president's take it all or not at all wasn't the way to go, and we've defeated that in a bipartisan way. jenna: if you were for this payroll tax which you say that you are, first of all, how would you pay fit and second of all, what kind of timeline do you see for something like that getting through the senate so that it can help create jobs in this country? >> overall, what you want to do is having higher tax revenue by having more people working. we have 14 million americans looking for work, four million haven't worked for over a year, jenna, and that's a big concern. i think the president ought to be paying more attention to the unemployment lines than he's paying to the campaign trail. i'm very concerned about this economy, getting people back to

work. what we do know, what doesn't work. and what doesn't work is more borrowing and spending and overregulation and threatening to raise taxes. so we shouldn't go down that road again. jenna: you brought up the timing of this all. obviously, we're getting into that campaign season already, nearly a year out from the presidential election, but the elections for many other representatives as well. what is the game plan? how realistic is that we're actually going to see congress come together, come with a coherent plan on job growth and start seeing growth? is it even possible to do that? >> well, i think you're going to see a bipartisan vote today in the senate for the free trade agreements with colombia, with south korea and with panama. that's going to be a bipartisan effort. i want to work with the president when he says he's going to get rid of these expensive regulations, but in september alone, jenna, this administration came out with $10

billion in new regulations, impact on businesses, over 300 new regulates. so i agree with a lot of the president's rhetoric, i just don't agree with the reality of what his administration is doing. jenna: senator, nice to have your perspective on this. it's a story we're going to continue to follow. we appreciate your time today. >> thanks for having me, jenna. jenna: senator barrasso brought up a lot of interesting points from the republican side. we're going to have reaction from a democratic senator, bob casey, who's the chairman of the joint economic committee. we'll see where he sees opportunity to come together and get something done for the american people. gregg: she vanished from her written in the middle of -- crib in the middle of the night, today the participants getting outside help in the search for their daughter, but experts say that may wind up hindering the investigation. >> i'm here to seek the truth, and wherever that truth takes me, that's where i'm going to go.

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gregg: prominent private eye joining the search for baby lisa, the infant vanishing from her crib in the middle of the night, no trace. while wild bill stanton, he's a former nypd officer turned private investigator, is now on the case after the family had several conflicts, apparently, with kansas city police. some experts, though, say a private investigator may not be the best idea. jeff, former retired agent with the fbi. good to see you again. let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> we know she's out there, and we know where the obvious focus is. we want to extend that focus. we are here to cooperate with anyone and everyone that help us find the guilty party and return lisa home safely. gregg: you know, jeff, when guys come in like this from the

outside, um, they certainly don't have the kind of access that the police does with warrant and subpoena power and so forth, access. so does this guy get in the way? >> right. i think so. you know, this is another strange development in this case that's now in its eighth day. listen, the police have dozens of detectives, police officers that can go down different avenues of investigation if need be. the fbi in kansas city alone has 100 fbi agents plus support people that can be called in on a moment's notice. the only thing a private investigator can do is really get in the way of an investigation and impede that investigation. gregg: you know, deborah bradley, who's the mother, has told family members that, a, police informed her she failed the polygraph and, apparently, failed it miserably, and, b, they suspect her. and she expects to be charged imminently. i'm not sure that sounds quite right. it's still early in the investigation, isn't it? >> well, right. you know, to charge somebody with a crime you need probable

cause. that's a lower threshold than beyond a reasonable doubt which is required to convict somebody, you still need probable cause and a lie detector test, the results of that do not meet that threshold alone unless the police have something else they're not saying right now. it doesn't seem that way so, no, it's not likely she's going to be arrested unless there's more to it that the police aren't talking about. gregg: they're not saying the mother is a suspect, and they're not suggesting there are any other persons of interest right now, and yet they've convened a grand jury which kind of suggests that they are looking at the mom, and the grand jury is subpoenaing raw television news footage. how's that going to go? >> well, you know, we've had these battles. i was a spokesman for the fbi in kansas city for 18 years, and we had battles from time to time about getting raw video from the television news stations. it doesn't go very well. they don't want to give it up. they'll allow you to get whatever was aired, allow you to get what was cut and not put on the air, they want to protect that. they don't want to set a

precedent by giving up that work product. gregg: so, jeff, what now? >> you know, there's really three possibilities in this case. someone who's responsible for that baby's being missing knows the family or a neighbor, someone in the family is a second possibility, and then a complete stranger. and i think those are the three possible eas, and i think -- avenues, and i think the police are just waiting on the right piece of evidence to develop and go down that route that will bring this case to its resolution. gregg: bedroom abductions of children are rare, but they do happen: polly klaas, elizabeth smart. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. jenna: jury deliberations underway in a trial that could put the man on death row, his name: joshua comar jeff sky. we have a live report from the courthouse in connecticut next. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up!

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jenna: fox news alert. this just in from secretary of state hillary clinton. just speaking out now about this iran plot. calling it a dangerous escalation of iran's use of political violence in support for terrorism. meantime the attorney general says the plot shows the global nature of the war on terror. our next guest says iran has tentacles in central and south america but here in the united sta with an award winning journalist covering the middle east for years. you say some of your sources

tell you about a network of iranians not only in central and south america also along our border. what can you tell us about that? >> for years we've known that we had former rirgc officials and agents living here in the united states. they have green cards. they're naturalized citizens. their children are attending our universities. they're eyes and ears of the region. we're reporting back. that is the question we're asking how are we letting these people in? how are we giving them ability to attend these schools? how is it average grandmother i interview in iran has trouble guests a tourist visa coming to the united states? i also spoke to one of my sources yesterday again and he confirmed there are, the wide network of iranian agents living along the border. they're very well-connected with the drug cartels and, for members of our administration who we even are surprised, surprising that they're surprised that

the iranian regime would use these drug cartels because they would do everything where their fingerprints wouldn't be on it to carry out their terror plots. jenna: what is their ult goal? -- ultimate goal? >> their ultimate goal to extend their influence and agenda which is a terrorist agenda while going on with their nuclear agenda back at home. and the way that the, our administration has handled it. we have given them plenty of time to do so. they are obviously extending their influence by sending these agents here into the united states. they have been living here for decades. again, this is not surprising at all because this is something that the regime in iran has done. they assassinate. over the last three decades they have assassinated over 250 dissident members overseas. some right here in the united states. 1980 in maryland. he was taken out because he would speak out against the regime. jenna: gregg brought up an interesting point last hour.

i would like to get your thoughts on this. he was discussing our strategy, our broader strategy against iran. and there's a strategy you have when you're dealing with a rational person versus irrational person. i'm curious if we apply that to iran. what you're saying we don't have a good sense who we're dealing with. >> right. jenna: who are we dealing with and how exactly do we deal with them iran being what it is and the obviously the networks being what they are? >> we always said in the case of iran. there are no on shuns off the table. what are the options here? we have a military option which in the case of iran will not be a good onion. first of all we don't have resources. we're all over in many wars. more importantly we don't want to alienate 70 million iranian people who are our biggest and natural ally. iran will use the opportunity if there is military attack to rally constituents around the flag has it has done before. the second option is nonmilitaristic option which is sanctions. a lot of people say

sanctions aren't working. sanctions will work if they're enforced properly. what does that mean? we'll have to target them toward banking, travel, maybe isolate the central bank. get on these other countries ducking out of this global effort to really isolate iran. we'll have to get them to really enforce sanctions as well. the third option which is the most important to really support the people of iran once again and use this natural ally to our benefit. jenna: that is the green movement we've heard about, we saw uprising in 2009. lisa, always nice to have your perspective. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. gregg: a while ago we spoke to republican senator john barosso about the president's jobs bill. it was defeated last night in the u.s. senate. and now for another viewpoint, democratic senator bob casey, chairman of the joint economic committee. senator, thank you very much for being with us. >> thanks, gregg. gregg: you were on the same page as john boehner. both of you a month ago could tell that this wasn't

going to pass and, you've called for it to be broken up for consideration. are you frustrated that the president was so strident about it, my way or the highway, you got to vote on this as is? >> no. i think it's good that the president has put a singular focus on job creation. that is what everyone needs to do right now. i think we do have an opportunity, gregg, at this moment because of the bill in total didn't pass, we have an opportunity now to concentrate on individual parts, not only of the bill but some other good ideas to create jobs. i have one, for example, to provide a tax credit when someone increases, employer increases their payroll quarter, compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year. so if they increase their payroll, they're hiring folks, they should have the incentive by way of a tax credit. i think there are a number of good ideas but they have to be bipartisan and they have to create jobs. gregg: stalk to me, you mentioned one but talk to me

about the other parts of this bill that could actually be salvaged? >> i think there's a great deal of bipartisan support for some kind of an infrastructure initiative. might not be exactly the way the president has outlined it but there are plenty good ideas. democrats and republicans know not just the job creation potential of rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and a whole range of our physical infrastructure but it also has an enduring and longer-term economic benefit some that's one. i think a payroll tax cut or credit as i said before is another. i think there are a number of things we can come together on, republicans and democrats, just as we did get much tougher with china which is another good bipartisan initiative. gregg: there are some economists, inconcluding john taylor at sanford, highly regarded, it is true infrastructure spending bills and stimulus do provide a short-term impact but in the long term the money runs out. once you resurface the

tarmac or rebuild the bridge, those guys are unemployed again. then financially, the government's in the hole. so in a meaningful way does that kind of stimulus spending really work long term for sustainable jobs? >> well, gregg, i think it is important to have a short-term jump-start or kick-start to the economy. a good example of this happened at beginning of last year. we came together, democrats and republicans, on a tax bill. neither side liked every part of it. there was real hostility to parts of it. we came together. we had a payroll tax cut. child earned income tax credit. child tax credit. you went down the list of extending tax cuts and providing that incentive. we had great private sector job growth in january and february and march. so we're on the right path. i think we can do that again. the short-term hit i think is very important but it is, i believe, a menu of strategies to get us to the point where the economy is growing like we need it to. gregg: but even a short-term impact is very limited. look, you've got 15 million

who are unemployed. you have 25 million who are underemployed. even if you pass every single part of the president's stimulus portion, the government spending infrastructure portion of the bill you're only talking about an additional 1.9 million jobs. and those might only be temporary. doesn't that fall way short of what's needed to put the u.s. economy back on track? >> well, gregg, again, i don't believe we're necessarily going to get to every part of this bill individually. i believe though there is a great deal of support for a infrastructure initiative and infrastructure bank that is already a bipartisan bill. but even if those studies are correct and there isn't a long-term benefit i think there is and some other studies would show i think it is important to kick-start job creation right now in the next couple months, the next year. all the while working on longer of term strategies like deficit and debt reduction and cutting spending. what we need both short term kick-start and long-term investment so we continue to

grow the economy in a way that will not only create jobs but in a way that will allow us to deal in a direct way with deficit and debt. we really have no choice. we've got to create jobs now and do that in a bipartisan way. we also have to focus on deficit spending and debt reduction. gregg: democrat bob casey, democrat from pennsylvania. chairman of the joint economic committee. many thanks for being with us today. >> thanks, gregg. jenna: we're awaiting a verdict in a trial of one of the most heinous crimes we really ever heard of the jurors distributing in the case begins joshua komisarjevsky. the man charged in that connecticut home invasion that left three women dead. the first man in this case already sensed to death. they are both accused of breaking into the petit home in 2007 and brutally murdering jennifer hawke-petit and her two young daughters. laura engle has been following the story from the beginning. she is live outside the courthouse in nay haven.

>> reporter: we wait a knock for a note from the jury. a knock meaning they have a verdict in the case and a note under the door means they have a question. jors have been inside the deliberation room about an hour and 15 minutes. deliberations have been halted just once so far when the defense requested a mistrial, jurors went behind the door somebody on the prosecution side yesterday rolled their eyes during defense closing arguments. the judge told jurors to disregard any facial expressions they may have seen yesterday and send they will back in and here we wait. closing arguments, two very different views of what took place inside the petit home were presented to jurors yesterday. all day long prosecutors portraying joshua komisarjevsky as a cold, calculating criminal who had multiple opportunities throughout the home invasion to change the deadly outcome, saying he never untied the petit sisters from their beds where they were left to die. he had several chances to do so say prosecutors who also

asked jurors to imagine the terror, the girls must have felt as gasoline was poured over their bodies while they were alive. then realizing flames were racing to their bedroom. all along defense attorneys tried to convince jurors that it was komisarjevsky's accomplice steven hayes, who as you mentioned has been convicted and sentenced to death for his parts in the crimes, he was one, the instigator of the violence who plotted and set the fire that took the lives of the petit sisters. petit family members broke their silence yesterday after court saying they were perturbed with the defense in the closing arguments that suggested dr. petit precipitated events inside the home when he escaped the basement, bloody and beaten to get help. >> then he went on to say hayley, had she gotten out of her room and climbed out of her window, the events wouldn't have taken place and if she had gotten out of the room and gotten into michaela's room and gotten out of the window the events wouldn't have taken place. i think that is really

stretching and really grasping. >> we learned a young woman was picked as at jury forewoman. we'll bring you latest, jury watch, day number one underway in new haven, jenna. jenna: no matter how often we hear the details of story and how often we see the images they're still difficult to take. laura, thank you for the update. we'll be back to connecticut as we get more news. we're back with more "happening now"

jenna: back to the economy now. some top economists and business leaders offering a brand new solution to get our country back on solid financial ground and it involves some spending. we'll get into that. they warn without some of these dramatic steps the u.s. could easily get stuck in a very vicious downward spiral ending up with a stagnant economy just like japan. joining us one of the authors of this report, the way forward. a founding partner of westwood capital, an investment firm. one of the things you explored in this report, this is not what you call an ordinary downturn.

in the easiest terms possible, why isn't it? what makes it different? >> it is a massive credit bubble that has blown and now we're saddled with all this excess debt that we can't pay off. all that is occurring in the background having enormous growth of supply of labor capacity and capital all around the world. the administration -- admin is of former communist countries in the capitalist labor force put 2 billion people competing with the 500 million already existed in the developed nations and quite frankly we can't absorb the supply. what you're hearing from business leaders there is inadequate demand and that's true. there is inadequate demand relative to enormous of excess supply. jenna: talk about the demand. your demand says five to seven years. you need that time frame realisticly. why is that? >> you see a lot of critively today with the action of the senate and stimulus being a kick burst and where everything goes back where it was before.

that is the history of our recovery. this stimulus so far has not been adequate to the task. the reason for that you have to, you have a long road to hoe in absorbing this excess supply in, you know, certainly china's a good example of it. you have a billion people in china who are trying to compete directly with us. they're competing on wages, right? we need a period of time to get people back to work in this country. that has to be with the goal of looking at something beyond just the mere one or two years. jenna: so part of the plan, there is multiple parts. the part is a trillion dollar plus plan that would invest back into infrastructure as one of those things. you say talking about this type of stimulus is not so much about a philosophy but it's about getting bang for our buck. it is about pricing. talk to us a little bit about that. that is something we don't hear about. >> it is an enormous thing. right now the u.s. government can borrow, people are willing to lend it endless amounts of money 3% for 30 years. if somebody says to you, jenna, you can borrow 3% 30 years build on to your house,

fix it up a little bit, yeah that makes sense. i like that. the we can borrow at very low rate. we have tons of excess labor globally and domestically. people need to get back to work. we have gone so far we need to suspend elements of davis bacon law which are laws requiring union wages for federal projects. let's get people back to work what we can get them back to work for. utilize excess labor and low cost capital and rebuild infrastructure. we have enormous deficit in infrastructure right now. the american society of civil engineers says we need to spend next five years $2.2 trillion. only money we have is about a trillion of it. we need to cover that gap. jenna: do it cheap and do it now. i have only 30 seconds. because you're in investment banking you have i have to ask you, you have scenario mapped out and scenario of reality in d.c. how are you preparing for the next decade just personally? >> one of the difficulties you need to be correlated what your investment activities are to this

theory. in if fact you're going to be in a low growth fair yo with actually deflationary forces coming towards the united states in terms of wages and prices and potentially asset values, you need to be into industry not going to be exposed to that type of danger domestically. of course you need to take advantage of the enormous opportunities in emerging nations. jenna: dan, you covered a lot of ground. we appreciate your report and your perspective. >> thank you very much. jenna: gregg? gregg: having trouble with your little blackberry today? et call home. if you are, you're not alone. we'll explain what's going on next.

>> hey, everyone i'm megyn kelly. in the wake of yesterday's news of a terror plot on u.s. soil some are asking why would iran take such a

risk? and where is president obama on this? ambassadors john bolton and dan gillerman are here. plus the department of justice now receiving a subpoena on fast and furious from top republicans in the house. the attorney general says he will comply. what are the risks of that? and big debate in new hampshire last night. our special focus group watched and boy, are they fired up today. you will see it right here. also the prosecution wrapping up its case in the trial of michael jackson's doctor for involuntary manslaughter. now it all comes down to one big question. could michael jackson have ingested this drug himself? that's in today's kelly's court. see you five minutes away. jenna: if your blackberry is not working this morning it may not be operator error. don't blame yourself, rick, right? >> well, my last e-mail came through on my work blackberry, 10:42. so more than two hours ago i've goten no e-mails on this thing. i'm not only one.

people all over the country still having problem with messaging and e-mail. problems extend to canada as well ironically where black per a's manufacturer is based. the problems are in europe, asia, latin america. people all over the place dealing with the problems which began on monday, a little glitch. a backup did not kick in like it was supposed to. now the smartphone maker, research in motion, they're dealing with a backlog of traffic. folks whose whose messages and e-mails didn't get through the first time are having the e-mails put through but very slowly. if you're a big bmmer, you're chances are you are bummed. this comes at bad time for black berry. one of their top competitors, apple is reloosing a new software program for iphones today, jenna, which features a service like the blackberry messenger. 70 million people around the world use the blackberry smartphone. that is potentially a lot of mad customers all over the place.

jenna: are you sure this is not an excuse excuse not responding to? just wonder? >> i'll come every and show you. this is real. jenna: we want evidence. 12:53. gregg: one of our producers over here intermittently getting stuff. jenna: if you're not getting stuff, go to lunch and pretend you don't get work e-mails. works out pretty good. gregg: house republicans turning up the heat on attorney general eric holder with a new subpoena for documents in the growing gun scandal including communications with the white house. what eric holder knew about "fast & furious", and when he knew it and if he didn't know, why didn't know? hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices?

sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get bk to these invoices... whh i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's

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i'm not a line item on a budget. and i'm definitely not a pushover. but i am a voter. so washington... before you even think about cutting my medicare and social security benefits... here's a number you should remember. 50 million. we are 50 million seniors who earned our benefits... and you will be hearing from us... today and on election day. ♪ for us, busy day. >> thank you for joining us. "america live" starts right now. gregg: bye bye. megyn: thanks guys, welcome everybody, new developments on the assassination and terror plot allegedly