minutes after setting it? >> i feel great. in the middle of new york. you know, i'm crazy. >> gretchen: thanks for watching our show. see you tomorrow. miserable. good morning, everybody. fox news alert. want you to look at lower manhattan which appears to be the "occupy wall street" now gathering. it is sun-up. set for a showdown on wall street. how big or substantial we'll get we don't know. at daybreak there were 12 protesters down there and four news helicopters in the air. they have increased their numbers since then. we'll watch that throughout the morning here. another alert. how will the administration defend solyndra? they are demanding answers today from secretary steven chu of the energy department. he is on the hot seat on capitol hill. taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars.

good morning, everybody. it is busy already. i'm bill hemmer. martha: glad you didn't have to go to work on wall street. it would be tough to get to your job. good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. steven chu to face two burning questions this morning. why did he choose to approve a $530 million loan for a failing solar panel maker? bill: on back of that why was the loan restruckrd toe put the private investor ahead of the taxpayer on the payback line? james rosen has the coverage from washington. what is going to happen, james? >> reporter: good morning to you bill. with his appearance less than an hour from now, energy secretary steven chu, becomes the highest ranking obama administrator to give testimony in the burr johning -- burgeoning solyndra scandal. they have scanned over 200 e-mails of secretary chu's which they were permitted to view only in camera which

means behind closed doors without the ability to make copies of them. solyndra is now bankrupt manufacturer of solar panels that president obama personally visited 18 months ago to which the energy department granted $535 million loan guarantee. in september of this year the fbi raided the company's offices. house energy and commerce committee chairman fred upton, republican from michigan and subcommittee chair, cliff stearns, republic can from florida. they want to know why secretary chu overrode objections about solyndra from his own colleagues at doe and from the office of management and budget. mr. chu offered npr all things considered a limited preview what his line of defense will be at today's hearing. >> we asked outside people to give us second and third opinions. what was unhappied was that the market for the price of

solar modules really plummeted. >> the obama administration today is fighting back circulating documents showing that chairman upton himself sought doe's assistance on behalf after solar company in his home state of michigan, like solyndra recently announce it too is halting operations. not the best advertisement for the green energy program but a defense nonetheless. bill: questioning will be hot. we'll drop in on that. thank you, james rosen in washington. martha has more on this. martha: let's take a little trip down memory lane. all of this began back in march of 2009 for solyndra. they are approved for a half a billion dollar guaranteed loan by the energy department. at the end of last year the solar man medical maker hit the rocks financially. there were warnings. for some reason the white house seemed interested in moving forward regardless of those warnings. a shade over two months ago, solyndra officially filed for bankruptcy protection. they laid off all the employees in the process. that's when you saw the fbi

move in and pouring over the boxes. what will lawmakers want to know when they sit down today to ask questions of the energy secretary? tennessee republican mash that blackburn is a member of the house energy and commerce committee. she will be at that hearing less than an hour. first she will join us live in "america's newsroom" and tell us what she expects will go down there. bill: she is fired up about this. you will hear from her first-hand. congressman while taking swift action to make sure executives at fannie and freddie do not get more big-time pay days. the quasi-federal agencies that guarantee half the nation's mortgages already recipient of $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money. we're getting word this week 12 executives were paid $35 million in salary and bonuses this year. lawmakers voting overwhelmingly in favor of stopping those bonuses and any future ones that may come up. they also voted to reduce executive pay to standard

federal levels. the head of freddie mac saying that he understands the outrage but claims he has to pay more to get the best people and hopes of minimizing taxpayer losses for those agencies. martha: there is lot to talk about there. we will do that as we go through the show this morning. meantime congressman darrell issa, one of the lawmakers grilling fannie and freddie executives yesterday, take a look what he had to say to them. >> what year did you have first compensation to have bonus over a million dollars? >> congressman i'm not sure what year that was. >> money is not that important to you? >> no. money is important to all of us who are here today, sir. >> but you did come out of the private sector. hopefully you remember, what did you make the last year you were at putnam? >> i don't recall. >> did you make more than a million dollars. >> yes, i did. >> was your compensation tied to performance? >> yes, it was. >> i must tell, mr. alderman and mr. williams, you all come from a different wormed than the one i come from. if i had made a million dollars i sure would know

when i made it, that's for sure. >> let the record indicate --. martha: executives defending their bonuses. that was uncomfortable situation there yesterday. there is joe walsh who we had yesterday on "america's newsroom." they argued they needed to pay them that much money in order to attract the talent yet taxpayers are bailing them out now so you have to wonder how they did. bill: it is an issue on the trail too. fannie and freddie coming up with michele bachmann. she is blasting her republican rival newt gingrich over his connection to freddie mac. >> i wasn't shilling for them. i was fighting for them. that was one more real stark difference in this race. i was behind the scenes. i was fighting against president bush, treasury secretary hank paulson. bill: gingrich reportedly picked up $1.6 million from the mortgage giant for consulting work he had done in 1999 and 2003 or thereabouts. martha: how about this morning? a potential break through for the bipartisan super-committee charged with

slashing the national debt by at least 1.2 trillion. new word that top republicans may be supporting hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax revenues, i.e., increases in taxes in many cases, not all in that number. stuart varney joins me from the fox business network. stuart, are we getting a deal here? >> i'm going right out an a limb and suggesting using the word break through but i think that is the nature and the heart of this story. the republican party is having an intense internal debate and what seems to be happening is an increasing number of republicans are saying yes, it is okay if we raise more tax revenue so long as we do it by reducing tax rates and eliminating some deductions that will be a form of tax reform. now this is a breakthrough in two ways. it is a breakthrough within the republican party on taxes and a breakthrough within the super-committee because if the republicans bring more tax revenue to the table, that makes a deal a little bit more likely. that's the breakthrough.

certainly that is a shift. martha: you know it is i guess, stuart, but isn't this idea that tax reform, you know, something that has been very, had a lot of broad support in terms of eliminating the loopholes because then you're going to get more money from the corporations finding ways around the tax code that is this thick. >> yes. martha: that is seems to be idea had a lot of traction all along. it raises the question whether or not some republicans want a deal or not? >> well, look simply put there are two sides to the tax fence. one side, president obama and most democrats. they want to raise tax rates. martha: right. >> the other side of the coin, now emerging is that you lower tax rates and you eliminate some deductions. that is tax reform. that is how you get more money coming into the treasury. if that side, the republican side is increasingly accepting of that point of view, that is a breakthrough. a certainly a shift, may be a glimmer of hope for a deal within the super-committee. martha: we shall see. we're not going to start

jumping up and down quite yet. we'll watch. stuart, a breakthrough. stuart varney on it this morning. bill: meantime we have new video of this deadly weather tearing across the southeastern u.s. watch and listen to this recorded in eastern alabama here. that is a suspected tornado destroying mobile homes near the campus of auburn university. at least six people were killed, dozens were injured. twisters thought to hit in louisiana, mississippi and south carolina, all part of that same storm. at this hour we're awaiting a news conference in north carolina. reports that two people were killed in storms there. this story now from fox.

>> hey, bill, we're in silver valley right outside of an area, thomasville, north carolina, davidson county. when the sun came up we were waiting for it to come up to see what damage we're talking abouter. here it is. this building was completely flattened. this was the family fun center. a lot of folks in the area when the storm came through. you can see photographers taking pictures. look, underneath the building there are still cars out here. you can see couches. i've seen a few pictures lying around this morning. some things you just can't make out. i mean the building completely flattened. what you have next door to this place is a little mom-and-pop convenience store, a little gas station over here to my right. there was also a grill where people were eating. we heard that there was a woman inside that was six months pregnant when the storm came through and the glass just shattered everything and everybody in that grill who were eating

they just hit the floor for safety. it came through really quickly. now we have cameron jay with us. he was working in the grill at the time the storm came through. cam ron, just describe how that felt. >> it was like really, really scared. i wouldn't want to be in situation like that again. when it happened, right before it happened there was a scary noise. then everything started like flying away and the window broke. it kind of landed on my back. we all just like, hit the floor. we just laid down. after five seconds i got out. this building right here. >> just completely flatenned. >> it was -- [inaudible] all the couches were flying around. that couch in the red truck. one of my friend was in that truck and he got hit on his face. >> some incredible stories. thank you for sharing that. so what you have now are people trying to pick up the

pieces and get on with today. we'll find out just how much damage is around here as we make our way through the area, bill. bill: good luck. nicole ferguson. wghb our fox affiliate out of greensboro. two dead in north carolina. we're waiting on that. stay tuned. martha: a lot going on as well as wall street today. this is just a few of the big stories we're following for you right here on "america's newsroom" with bill and me. coming up we told you about a possible break through, folks. this is big news, this morning on the debt commission. now the tea party says hold the phone. they have their own plan and they want it on the table. huge cuts. congressman steve king joins us live. bill: the attorney general already under fire for operation "fast and furious". now the heat is on over a pricey trip to the caribbean on your dime. we have details to fill in there too, martha. martha: plus these brand new numbers just out today in the presidential nomination race. who is now in the top spot

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bill: want to show you a live look now on the hill. all eyes on steven chu. he is the energy secretary set to answer questions on why he approved a massive federal loan for a failing solar panel-maker with political ties? it is the question that critics have been shouting from the rooftops for months. tennessee republican marsha blackburn, she will be at that hearing. she is my guest now and good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: we understand secretary chu will come out fight fighting with a vigorous defense. in part he will say this on the screen. when it comes to the clean energy race, america face as

simple choice, compete or accept defeat. he will argue this industry is worth $80 billion and america can not afford to not to be in the game. what do you say? >> i say that is policy discussion if he wants to go to the energy subcommittee and have that. today, we are focused on the fact that the department of energy was not equipped manage, fa facilitate, oversight of $18 billion in stimulus fund they received. this doe loan guarantee program obviously has failed because two of the first three recipients of these loan guarantees have already filed for bankruptcy. there is a problem with the due diligence that was not done by the department of energy. so why did they choose to give some of these companies these loans and why are they picking winners and losers for this loan guarantee program? bill: the other thing he is going to say on the screen again, we appreciate the support the loan programs

have received from many members of congress including nearly 500 letters to the department. he will argue that republicans were even in on this program. what about that? >> well, and what he is going to try to do there again, move it into a policy discussion. this is not about those individuals or those programs. this is about solyndra. this is about the stimulus funds. this is about mismanagement. it is about lack of due dill against in the process -- due diligence in the vetting process that the department of treshry, omb and the white house went through. so we're going to get to the bottom of what has happened with these taxpayer dollars. we have about 45% of those stimulus fund out the door and bill, what we want to do is recoup as much of that money as we can and shut down programs like this. bill: can you? >> we'll see where we stand with that. i hope that we can make certain that --. bill: a lot of people argue that money is down the drain. here is one of the central

issues to this. i don't know how you get to the bottom of it but how do you rework a deal where the private investor gets repaid before the taxpayers? >> correct. well and there again that is one of the issues that we have. who knew what. when did they know it. when you have the taxpayers that are subordinated in this loan program in order for a private investor to go forward because they said, look, we think that you are on the verge of bankruptcy and we're not going to put anymore money in until we get our money back, until we're in first position to get our money back. so what we want to know is, what were, how involved was mr. secretary? how involved were doe employees in that process that took place in reconfiguring that loan. bill: the hearing begins in 40 minutes. we're going to watch and we will listen along with you. >> great, thank you, bill. bill: marsha blackburn, tennessee republican. 18 minutes past the hour.

martha: lawmakers are passing new legislation on gun rights that will have an effect on the entire nation. plus the scandal that shocked the nation. attorney for one of jerry sandusky's accusers is speaking out. we'll have a live report from the penn state campus. medicare. it doesn't cover everything.

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bill: there is new information this morning in those shots fired at the white house last week. the secret service finding two bull lets. they were seen inspecting a window yesterday. the suspect by the way in custody, will appear in court a bit later today. authorities saying he is obsessed with president obama. one bullet hit a window in front of the yellow oval room. that is in the middle of the family's living quarters.

the first family not at home at the time. we'll watch that later today. >> all right. it is flue legislation that will affect gun owners across the country. the house passing a bill that will make a state firearm permit valid in any state across the country. peter doocy is on the story why it is very important and how does it all work, peter? good morning, to you. >> reporter: good morning, martha. you can get a concealed carry permit anywhere but illinois and washington, d.c. republicans say if it becomes law will make carry permit like a driver's license. you get in your home state and it is recognized in other states you travel to. republican la mart smith says studies show carry concealed weapons reduce crime rates and allowing law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. this allows americans who travel in interstate commerce to bring their second amendment rights with them. the bill has support from the both sides. passed house 272-154.

seven republicans voted against it but 4 democrats voted for it, martha. martha: that is interesting. those that voted against. what is their big argument? >> it is interesting. the brady campaign to protect gun violence would allow dangerous people to get carry permits where easy to get one like florida and bring it into states like new york. they don't agree with the stats touted by republicans that violent crime and murder and robbery rates go down in right to carry states. john conyers, jr. law enforcement, policy experts and state and local government. this is because local officials know through experience putting more guns on the street will not make us safer. instead it will further endanger our communities and the lives of law enforcement officers pledged to protect them. martha, this was the first time the house debated and voted on a pro-gun bill since their colleague

gabrielle giffords was shot. martha: thank you very much. peter doocy in d.c.. bill: another fox news alert. down on wall street the opening bell is in four minutes. this is the protest planned by "occupy wall street". all these pictures just into us here at "america's newsroom." you hear the sirens in the background. the police were ready for this. they are out in force. we'll see whether or not anything comes from this. we're keeping eye on that throughout the morning here. martha: people trying to get to work to do their job today and they're runing into that. how about this? the question of insider trading. it is the kind of charge that can send you to jail if you're convicted of it. like martha stewart. think of her. there is new outrage after claims of several top lawmakers used insider trading information to make personal investments and made a lot of money to do it. there are charges it is all legal. >> well i have many investments but -- >> the house, there was a bill, very unfavorable to the credit card companies.

>> i will hold my record in terms of fighting credit card companies as a speaker of the house or as a member of congress up against anyone. we had passed the credit card holder bill of rights. i don't know what your point is.

bill: as we mentioned just before the break, this is the scene on wall street. new videotape into "america's newsroom" right at the opening bell.

[shouting]. >> shut down wall street!. bill: we'll see how far they get with that. seems like more cameras and photographers than protesters at the moment. leventhal live in zuccotti park live in downtown new york city with more. the nypd was ready for this, rick. what's happening? >> reporter: they were bill. the scene is zuccotti park very calm and quiet. maybe a dozen or two protesters at this location. as you mentioned a few blocks from here things are pretty chaotic. we'll show you down broadway where you see some of the nypd with their hats and bats, the riot gear at edges of wall street. they have sealed off the blocks around the new york stock exchange but there are, by our count thousands perhaps, protesters who have made it down to that area and they're ringing wall street. and in some cases sitting down in the street, linking arms, blocking streets and getting in clashes with

police. there have been numerous arrests. we don't know how many but they have dragged people off. you hear the chants. they're throwing flex cuffs on them and pulling them out of there. we've seen clashes with people trying to get to work. some of the demonstrators have been asking the wall street workers to join them and in one case, someone yelled at them, are you going to feed my kids? who is going to feed my kids if i don't go to work? there are not just clashes between police and protestsers but between people who are trying to go to work. bill: you were standing in front of zuccotti park, a moment ago, right? that was the birthplace of this movement two months ago. it was cleaned out two days ago. did many people spend the night down there, rick? >> reporter: they're not sleeping out here anymore. we'll show you zuccotti park also ringed with the metal barricades. there are police officers inside. people can get in there. really no one is in there right now. people are standing on edges of it.

they have moved to other locations across the city. in fact this afternoon, bill, they're planning on demonstrating at 16 different subway stations hoping to occupy the subways. then they will be occupying foley square near city hall at 5:00 this afternoon for a very large demonstration that could number by some estimates tens of thousands. and they're planning to walk across the brooklyn bridge. we'll see what happens. last time they did that, there was hundreds of arrests. bill: those darn subway workers. rick leventhal will be there throughout the entire day. 9:30 on wall street. they are trading. martha: oh, boy. bill: there we go, martha. right? martha: a republican lawmaker is firing back against a "60 minutes" piece that claims that he, along with house minority leader nancy pelosi and house speaker john boehner were just one of basically a huge trend on capitol hill that involves trading stocks based on information that they get in these closed-door hearings that is really unavailable to the public.

congressman spencer bachus blastsed book that prompts the "60 minutes" piece in a letter to the publishing company. here is what he said to them. i am ready to inform you there are several major sear us and untruths and factual errors about me in this book. the book is absolutely false and factually incorrect. both pelosi and boehner were asked about the allegations earlier this month. here is what they had to say. >> i have not made any decisions on day-to-day trading activities in my account, and haven't for years. i do not do it. haven't done it and wouldn't do it. >> do you consider that to be a conflict of interest? >> i don't know what your point is of your question. is there some point that you want to make with that? >> i guess what i'm asking us, do you think it is all right for a speaker, to accept very preferential favorable stock treatment? >> but we didn't. that isn't the case. martha: all right. joined by peter schweitzer the author of the book that

sparked a huge conversation all over the place about this. peter, welcome. >> thanks for having me. martha: good to have you here. it is called, throw them all out by the way. set the stage for everybody at home who has maybe not heard about your book yet. what do you say is going on capitol hill? >> what i'm saying members of congress and their staffs it is perfectly legal for them to trade stocks based on inside information they get through their duties. for example, in september of 18th of 2008, right before the financial crisis really hit, ben bernanke, the fed chairman, and treasury secretary hank paulson gave an apocalyptic behind the scenes closed-door briefing to a handful of senior lawmakers. they had to leave their cell phones at the door. literally the next day, a lot of the congressman in that meeting sold a lot of their stock, spencer bach us, the chairman, who does not refute this, actually bought a proshares qqq ultrashort fund. it is a highly leveraged bet

the market could go down and get double rurngs on the end. martha: he made the trades himself. >> yes. martha: that was not broker acting independently of him. >> that's exactly right. martha: he was day trading his own account? >> very definitely so. it in his statement he raises questions he went long on four or five trades instead of going short. obviously options trade documents can sometimes be confusing you. but that may be the case. but he doesn't question some other 40 trades. martha: did he make money on the trades? >> yes he did. he made money on the trades. he does not dispute he shorted market after that meeting. he did power shares qqq. on october 7th. october 20th he did it twice. on october 21st. s&p depositer options on october 6th. martha: he is claiming, i might point out, jenkins wrote a piece in "wall street journal" pretty much backing him up. >> right. martha: look everybody knew. when you look back at the 2008 period. >> right. martha: presidential period, presidential election was underway. john mccain suspended his

campaign to come back and talk about how to fix the financial mess. he says everybody news what was going on and that's why he did it. >> you know what the clearest evidence is? look what the stock market did. the dow jones industrial average in mid-september was still in 11,000 in that area. it was not until october, three or four weeks later it was down to 8,000. this was not immediate decline. there were still a lot of people were wondering how widespread the market was. in that briefing they were told by fed chairman and treasury secretary this was a massive crisis. they say the market will go down perhaps 20%. it was very specific. martha: certainly anybody's inclination or desire at least would be to walk out after meeting like that, oh, my gosh. >> yeah. martha: insider trading we know is notoriously difficult prove. >> yes. martha: but you say, to me the most mind-boggling thing, not only is it just there is no laws against them doing it? is it written into their rules they can do it with absolutely no ram if itation --

ramifications or understood nobody comes to get them. >> that is great question. senate ethics manual there are six paragraphs on improper use of senate stationary. there is not one mention of insider trading. nothing about the trading of stocks. martha: has anyone tried to prosecute this. >> no. there has never been any instance. that is part of the problem. some lawyers, a minority the existing laws are are adequate. they are not enforced. sec says the laws do not apply to congress. you have issue that sec budget and commissioner is confirmed by the senate. you have this whole question are they going to be strong enough and bold enough in enforcing existing laws? i think at minimum we ought to have simple law a lot of other people have to abide by in their job. which is if you're on the senate banking committee you should not be trading banking stocks. if you're on armed services you should not be trading defense stocks. martha: i could talk to an hour but i'm running out time. i have a question about john boehner. he specifically said i have not touched my trading account or been involved in

my trading account for a long time. >> right. martha: i imagine a lot of up standing people would make that decision because they never want to be charged with impropriety with information. does it pan out what he said. >> my point is i'm not saying john boehner made the trades. were it john boehner ceo, rather than john boehner house of representatives, the sec, if they approached them and saw a pattern of trading that was consistent with insider information --. martha: if you allow a blind investment -- >> it, yeah. martha: you don't know what they're doing. >> in boehner's case, it is not a blind trust. not designated as such. never been. same with john kerry. it is not a blind trust. there can be communication. my point if there is curious pattern of trading you have access to information if you're a private citizen and tell the sec my broker did it, the sec will not go away. they will make sure that is the truth. that is my point. there is a massive double-standard here. martha: it needs, obviously we all want to be held to the same standard whether

your job is in congress or a private company. >> exactly. martha: that's what americans should expect. thanks for sheding a lot of light. getting a lot of reaction from folks on capitol hill. peter, good to talk to you. bill: we're about 20 minutes away from secretary chu's hearing on solyndra. we'll take you there. attorney general eric holder taking heat for something that has nothing to do with "fast and furious". what is doing in the caribbean, huh? we'll tell you. martha. martha: how about this? a flight on edge after the pilot disappears and a passenger starts banging on the cockpit door. a major misunderstanding in the skies over new york that had fighter jets scrambling. >> we leave the frequency for a minute. we're going to try to contact dispatch. the captain has disappeared in the back. i have someone a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit right now. i have to deal with the situation. no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way.

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martha: have you seen this? a rough ride for the secretary of state. watch this.

[shouting] martha: boy, that is not at motorcade to be in. look at the paint on these cars. part of hillary clinton's motorcade. they were pelted with eggs and paint and paint-filled balloons i should say. protesters out in force in the philippines. we understand her car thankfully was not hit but wasn't great news for the cars that were hit. no reports of injuries in this situation. the motorcade got out of their quickly went onto the next scheduled event. all in a day's work for the secretary the state. bill: have to go to the car wash to get that stuff off the windshield. five days in the caribbean and you're paying for it. eric hold taking heat for spending a week island hopping only a week after president obama sign a new austerity program designed to save billions on spending and travel. gretchen hamel former spokeswoman for the

republican house of congress. good morning. >> good morning, bill. bill: we reached out to the department of justice. a justice says these are serious top picks in barbados and trinidad and talking about money laundering immigration. kick it off. gretchen, what do you think of this. >> i used to work at united states trade representative's office and trips are important to be made by cabinet members. intelligence and cooperation and trust with other authorities. trips like this do need to be made. however, the president did say that they would be cutting back on travel. that they would be cutting back on the little trinkets that staffers give to other members of cabinets from other countries. so, my question really is, why are we just now cutting back when we're 15 trillion dollars in debt? shouldn't we have been cutting back a long time ago? martha:. bill: that seems to be the bigger story. justice says we'll not tourist parts of the island.

barbados is 15 miles by 15 miles. all they do in barbados is tourism . what do you make of this? >> if all they did in barbados was tourism there wouldn't be drug trafficking and immigration problems with barbados. agree with gretchen, totally appropriate for the attorney general to make this trip. i think it is being blown out of proportion because republicans always need a bogey man in their campaign. last year, nancy pelosi. trying to turn eric holder, i believe very unfairly for this administration. eric holder has been completely apolitical. bill: can you do some of this by telephone, chris? >> sure. there is lot, you know that there's a lot of value to face-to-face communication and signing deals. this show as respect to the members of that country. we need to get them on board. need to get them involved and engaged in stopping the crimes that are coming from their islands. bill: well to gretchen's bigger point, and that is,

that you know, the whole idea about cutting back on spending, are you serious about that or not, gretchen? you want to save $4 trillion or 4 billion i think was the announced figure last week. where are you going to start? >> you have to start somewhere. the question that we should be asking is, yes, eric holder should be able to make trips like this but is this a priority right now? is it a priority to be working with the caribbean right now? is it a priority that he has staffers with him? how many staffers does he have with him? how many staffers does the president have with him in australia right now? he took a whole plane load of staffers with him. which need to concentrating on prioritizing. are the trips worth it? do staff need to go with them? let's talk about all dozens, if not hundreds of stevers who are on trips without a principle throughout the country and world. bill: to that point, how serious are but the austerity programs? where are you going to cut? where are you going to save? >> i'm very serious but if we're serious about being a world power and leading the

world we'll have to travel the a world a little bit. i think republicans and others criticizing this trip right now are being ridiculous. they are missing the big picture. of course we need to save money and need to cut down what we're doing and we can't do that and sacrifice our standing in the world and our own national security. bill: i understand australia and asia but barbados. >> we won't be a world power -- >> the drugs from this country come from caribbean and mexico primarily. we need to be there. we need to work with those governments to make sure our interests are --. bill: i would be on the trip, i don't know if he is going to run into charlie rangel in the dominican but, i mean, perhaps you might want to look out for the cameras around the hotel room. doj says by the way, no upscale host else and there is major crime summit where seven ags will take part from different countries in barbados. we'll see how that goes. thank you, gretchen. >> thank you. bill: thank you, chris. >> thank you, bill. bill: here's martha.

martha: maybe we should do the show from there? bill: i love that idea. best idea all day. martha: you think? i will talk to the powers that be right after this. all right. our nation's debt, speaking of that, all right, here is a downer for you, folks. $15 trillion is the big benchmark we surpassed last evening. a tea party group sass it has a plan to reduce federal spending by more than $9 trillion. how are they going to do that? bill: good luck. why did the dog cross the road. martha: i love this video. bill: the answer and the extraordinary effort. look al that guy down there, little guy, huh? ♪ .   

bill: chaos on a arizona freeway all because of a little pooch. that little yorkie making a run after his owner crashed her car. officers in hot pursuit. had a tough time chasing the little dog down. eventually one did catch him. for his trouble the yorkie snapped at him. now we can say the yorkie and owner are both okay after that. arizona. martha: car crash and the dog runs away? all right. so back to this story that we have been ever coulding for you this week which has everybody talking all across this nation. we're going to hear now from an accuser in the penn state child sex abuse case. according to his lawyer one of these men, now a man, was a boy at the time, is ready to testify is victim of severe sexual assault by former penn state football coach jerry sandusky. david lee miller live for the story as he has been throughout live on the penn state campus.

what is the latest? >> reporter: this attorney is based in harrisburg coming forward to that he represents one of the victims allegedly sexually assaulted by jerry sandusky. he now says that victim is prepared to testify. the attorney is also saying that other accusers are expected to come forward. and there is also a report this morning that two attorneys here in state college pennsylvania say that the interview that sandusky did earlier this week resulted in more victims reaching out and the possibility that others are going to join the eight that are mentioned in the grand jury report. now, we should say that the "new york times" says there as many as 10 victims have come forward. the state attorney general's office and the police can not confirm that number but fox news has been told that police are following up leads. some are more credible than others. meanwhile the attorney for jerry sandusky says he has been able to reach out and find one of the alleged victims and that the victim is going to tell a very

different story and say that nothing illegal took place. lastly now there is going to be a new judge sitting at the pretrial hearing scheduled for december of jerry sandusky. this judge we are told does not have any ties whatsoever to penn state. no ties to the charity, the second mile, founded by jerry sandusky. this new judge comes from another county and was appointed at the request of the court here in order to prevent the appearance of any impropriety. the other judge came under criticism for having ties to the second mile foundation. martha: here is where this stands. penn state former defensive coordinator jerry sandusky who was expected to get paterno's job at some point. there is the picture of him. he is charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse with children. eight boys involved with this over the course of 15 years. all of the children he allegedly met through a charity that he decided to start, okay? assistant coach mike

mcqueary, a graduate assistant back in 2002, said in his grand jury testimony he witness sandusky raping a 10-year-old in a shower. it is very graphic the way that mcqueary describes it. he says that after that he went home. he told his father. his fathered a advised him he needed to tell coach paterno, which he did the next morning. he went and decided to talk to him then. paterno spoke to the school firms but now says he wishes in probably the most potent sentence of all of this so far, he wishes he had done more. paterno has been fired by the school's board of trustees and this story goes on and really --. bill: it gets worse. martha: unfortunately some of these men, as difficult as it will be for them, will have to come forward. i think as david lee pointed out, that is what was brought up by sandusky speaking out. bill: unfortunately worse by the day. all right, a pilot locked in the bathroom. what one passenger did to spark a terror scare? brand new fox polling

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plus get this document shredder, free! but only if you act right now. call now! lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. martha: all right, let's go to a fox news alert, a live look in the boxes on capitol hill, that's where the energy set to be on the hot seat in front of members of congress, the opening statements are about to get underway, and a hearing that will finally dig into who knew what and when about this whole solyndra bankruptcy debacle that ended up costing taxpayers half a billion dollars. that's how we start "america's newsroom"! i'm martha maccallum. >> bill bill i'm bim heller. it was just yesterday when we learned the energy secretary's department tried to delay announcements after the midterm of 2010, did he

have the best interest of the taxpayers in mind or did politics prevail in these decisions. martha: that is the question, isn'tst? joined by byron york, chief political correspondent for the washington examiner. >> good morning. martha: what do you expect to happen? >> it's going to be kind of tough. there are really three separate issues that chu has to face, the first is the fact was of the solyndra case, what were the communications between seoul ind and the white house and the energy department, did the energy department try to pressure them to hold off on a layoff notice until after last year's elections. that's the first thing. the second is there's a whiff of a coverup, have they been telling the truth about the contacts, have they told congress everything, has it been accurate. the last thing is this bigger question of loan guarantee, are they really the best bang for the buck for the taxpayers. we've heard so many stories of billions of dollars of loan guarantees for clean energy companies that cost millions of jobs. that's going to be what congress is going to talk about. martha: i would imagine a couple of questions would

come up in terms of why when the bush administration decided a couple of weeks in their administration after looking it for a long time they didn't want to go forward with loan guarantee, why did it become a frontrunner issue in the department of energy. >> we've seen from the e-mails that vice president 's biden's office was excited about solyndra, they fought it -- they thought it was fact lous -- fabulous and we had talks about we need the vice president to come out or we need secretary chu to come out and visit us, that will be reported in the press and will give us more invests. it was a hand in fluive relationship with the administration and this company. martha: that's a tough spot to northbound, i imagine if you were a member of the administration that was asked to come out there and it seemed to work for both sides, knowing how rough the financial situation was with the company, and they were told that. >> and what we know now,

republicans and this committee are absolutely convinced they don't know everything, that there's a lot more to learn. we haven't seen white house communications with seoul ind remarks not sure when we're going to see that, if we are. they're convinced there's more to the story that hasn't come out. martha: steven chu referred to by obama as the nobel peace prize winning steven chu, and today, he'll be grilled by congress on all of this. byron, thank you for helping us set the stage. >> thaw martha -- thank you, martha. bill: in new york city, a fox news alert on the arrest occupying wall street protestors, now underway in lower manhattan. it has an scene already over the past hour. this is near wall street. police in riot helmets held off demonstrating, how many we don't know yet, they were sitting on the ground, refusing to get up, blocking traffic in lower manhattan, which is always so darn busy, especially at 10:00 in

the morning, during resh hour, protestors clashing with people, just trying to get to work for the day, the protestors promising tens of thousands of people today, which is a two-month anniversary of when the demonstrations began, so far, with -- we're seeing hundreds, we're told, city agencies are on notice and extra police as well. the nypd was ready for this, it appears the mayor's office was ready for this and later they're going to occupy the subways. march par great! bill: we'll see how that baby works out in lower manhattan. martha: rick leen -- rick leventhal saying are you going to feed my wife and cdz? i need to get to work. we've got housing starts numbers coming in and they are down for the month of october, the government reporting that builders broke groundond 628,000 homes last month. it's hard to believe when you think the homes on the market that haven't been sold but that breaking ground for new homes, building permits jumped 10 percent as more builders start a wave of amount

developments. interesting what that says about the economy as well. new home construction and sales are seeing some of the worst years in history despite the rock bottom housing rates. bill: people want new, if they want anything, though, and the price is right for many places. now inside america's election headquarters, brand new fox polling showing newt gingrich catapulting to the nomination, he's now in a dead heat with 34eu9 rom -- mitt romney. molly henneberg is live with this. what's happened in the last few weeks to lead to this surge for gingrich? >> reporter: for one thing, republican voters like what they see from newt gingrich in debates and there have been a couple recently and he's done well, also problems that his opponents face, we're talking about the sexual harassment allegations against herman cain and the moment in the recent debate when rick perry couldn't remember the third federal department that he would cut as president, those contributed as well. so newt gingrich is at the top of the gop heat, up

20 percent, up from 12 percent in late october. statistically gingrich is in a tie with romney. he's been in first or second place in every fox poll since july. and herman cain has fallen since late october, down to 15 percent from 24 respect, among voters surveyed in this poll. ron paul in fourth with 8 percent and perry with 7 percent. this is the first time in fox polling that perry has been in single digits. bill: molly, who do voters think has the best shot at beating president obama? in that whole list, who do they point to? >> >> reporter: in that case, gop primary voters went with mitt romney overwhelmingly. he's been holding steadny in the polls for months and 37 percent say he would have the chess chance -- best chance of beating president obama, gingrich and cain are far behind romney in this poll and at the very bottom, 3 percent of gop primary viers say none can redeet -- can defeat the president.

let's go further in head to head matchups. we asked registered voters, if the election were held today, for whom would they vote, romney edges president obama, 44-42, although it's within the margin of were, and gingrich by five points and herman cain by # points. in all three mashups, it's below 30 percent. bill: thank you molly. molly henneberg, going inside the numbers. all the polls are is not on the website at fox news.coment. thank you molly. martha: we have a developing situation in chicago. there's a s. w. a.t. team on location at a fedex plant, this area known as bed forward park, illinois. this was picked up on a police scanner. we're still nailing down the details of what's going on here. the report 1245 an armed suspect went into this facility, looking for a women in that building. there are no injuries that we know of at this point. the woman here told made it out safely.

the suspect is still inside and has not taken hostages, according to this report. all of this is still sort of coming in. and the details are a bit unconfirmed because this is coming in over a police scanner. but you can see there is a situation underway at this fedex fas nilt bed forward park illinois. if there are more developments on that we'll get it to you. bill: keep a close eye on that. newt gingrich is getting trouble for fannie mae and freddie mac and he's hiring gliew. >> first of all t. wasn't paid to me. gingrich group does a lot of things and we offered advice. bill: so more on that, and also, where is the outrage over fannie mae executives, fannie and freddie, we should say, walking away with millions of dollars in bonuses? >> martha: and police are now saying that this man's

story does not hold up. penn state assistant coach mike mec query apparently in some ways, talking two different stories. we'll talk about that. judge jeanine pirro joins us with the twists on this story that are emerging every day. yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

bill so now the discovery of a tunnel burrowed under the u.s.-mexican border lead to go a huge drug stash. mexican agents seizing 5 tons of marijuana on their side. their u.s. counterparts finding at least 9-tons of pot on the u.s. side. the tunnel stretching the length of four football fields, from tijuana, mexico, to san diego, and agents for the u.s. saying several arrests have already been made. more than 70 tunnels have been found on the border in the past three years. surpassing the number of the discoveries in the previous six years. martha: well, there is new reaction from presidential candidate newt gingrich to

the revelations about his ties to fannie mae. reports emerging that he was paid more than $1.5 million in consulting fees over several years by the mortgage giant. now, he maintains that he was paid just to give advice: >> they talked to republicans which is to say -- which is to say they were -- >> that's not true, i have never lobbied. >> what did you -- >> there were no contracts of any kind, we took with anybody, that involved lobbying. martha: so meanwhile, the claims against gingrich come as lawmakers blasted fannie mae and freddie mac executives on capitol hill for getting paid $35 million in salaries and bonuses. remember, this is a quasi government entity, and all the while, the same firm was taking $170 billion in bailout money from u.s. tax pairgs. so there are two sides to this whole way of looking at fannie mae.

crir sten powers, good morning, good to see you. >> good morning. martha: let's talk about newt gingrich first. what's your take on this? is this a big issue for him, do you think? >> this is a big issue among conservatives. i don't know if he was a the -- if he was the nominee it would be a big issue but conservatives for a long time have been very unhappy with fannie mae and freddie mac and in fact, even gingrich himself had criticized barack obama for taking money in '08 from two executives from these companies. so there's been a little bit of a boogyman to the right, so i think for him to be associated with him certainly doesn't help him. i don't think it's going to bring his campaign down, per se, but it's not helpful. martha: it goes so many -- we were talking to peter shhh wiser about the cronyism on capitol hill and one of the things that's been raised in this, and some of the fire may be coming from some republicans who may not want him to be the candidate but clearly if

he made it to the general election you'd be hearing about it from the other side as well, but when you look at at this whole situation and the mope paid to these volks, you think about the verbiage from the administration about fat cats and you look at what these folks were making, why wasn't the finger pointed a long time ago at fannie mae and freddie mac? why has the sort of bad boy been wall street and not the folks raking it in and rakeing in taxpayer known. >> i think there were people pointing fingers at them but they were largely ignored. this has been going on for a very, very long time, and the people who on the hill who raised it were ignored and the reason i think they were ignored is they had people like rahm emanuel, people like newt beginning rich, they hired these people for a reason, and while gingrich try toss say well, i wasn't lobbying them, well, he was helping the lobbyist, his main contact was the chief lobbyist, he was helping

them develop arguments to convince republicans on the hill not to dismantle fannie and freddie, martha: right. >> so i think they basically brought on these heavy hitters from the democratic party and the republican party to convince people not to come after them. march protect them. that's what it looks like. in terms of the -- he says his firm was not lobby, the reports have been put out we do not lobby, but it raises the question what is lobbying, right? >> exactly. martha: what is lobbying? >> i feel that it's a distinction without a difference, what he's describing. okay, so he technically wasn't going and sitting with a member of congress in their office and lobbying them, but the bloomberg did a long story on this and said they interviewed the chief lobbyist, oh, i spent hours with newt gingrich and he was explaining what i should be doing. come on, he's not actually lobbying them but he's working with the chief lobbyist and i don't think this is just newt gingrich. there were lots of other people who were power player necessary washington on both

sides that were helping them. and i think he has to be more honest about that. he first came out and said he was an historian and that was disputed and now it's coming out that he was offering them strategic advice on how to not have their funding cut. martha: he's saying look, he was not in government at the time, he was running for a consulting firm, he said i wasn't paid, the firm was paid so the money goes into the firm and undoubtedly a fair amount of that i would imagine flows to him as well, but i guess the real heart of this, you can criticize fannie mae and freddie mac, but then when people find out you were will to go accept fees, it raises questions, and i think this is something that people are becoming so much more aware of across the board, not just newt gingrich but all across the board. >> i think any candidate that had done this would be under scrutiny and for him to have said that they're so bad, obama has to give money back to them, the question is why not give your money back, and it's not even if

his firm was doing it and not him doing it, was him doing it, doing the bizzing -- doing the advising. martha: obviously he has risen in the polls and as we all know, he will come under greater scrutiny, as he knows, and we'll see whether or not people hold it against him. kristen, thank you very much -- kirsten, thank you very much. >> thank you. bill: we're going to get to the hill now. we've been waiting on this, steven chu, the energy secretary, his testimony is getting underway into this hearing into what happened regarding solyndra and that scandal, how it unfolded, how the taxpayer lost more than $500 million in money, fred upton is talking, cliff stearns will help lead the questions here. we will see, because we were told that steven chu is going to offer a vigorous defense of the energy program that was borne out of the stimulus plan of 2009. our colleagues at the fox business network, reporting yesterday that a sort of czar, energy czar, was

appointed to administrator some 30 billion plus dollars to be administered out of that program to clean energy and green energy in america. so all this now will come out throughout the hearing today and we'll try and figure out how this loan was granted, how the company, despite the warning signs and red flags out there, was bankrupt within a matter of months. watch that. and also, is 80 the new 65? why a growing number of americans will be punching the clock. martha: a pilot gets locked inside the planes bathroom? just moments before he's got to come out and land the plane, right? that's a problem! we'll tell you how all this ended. >> can we leave the frequency for a minute? the captain has disappeared in the back and i have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit right now and i've got to deal with this situation.

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march we've been following this s. w. a.t. team sphwhaition bedford, illinois at a fedex, a man went in there looking for a woman, according to reports we're getting, and it's not affirmed -- confirmed, the woman got out safely, no hostages as of now but they're trying to get this guy out who is apparently holed in that fedex building with a gun. we'll keep an eye anthat for you. bill: in the meantime, a comedy of errors being blamed for a terror scare in the skies above new york. it begins when the pilot accidently locks himself in the bathroom, right before landing! heather childer social security live in our newsroom. what happened here? >> reporter: you can not make this up, bill! who knew that a bathroom break could end with fighter

planes being alerted! that is exactly what happened during a flight from ashville, north carolina to new york's la guardia airport last night. the captain, he decided to head to the head, let's say, before landing, but the door jambed, he -- jammed, he couldn't get, a passenger tried to help by letting the crew know that the captain was locked in the bathroom. the first officer who was flying, clearly worried when he spoke with the control tower. >> we're at 180 naughts, can we leave the frequency for a minute? we're going to try to contact dispatch. the captain has disappeared in the back and i have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit and have i to deal with this situation. >> reporter: you can tell in his voice he was clearly concerned. bill: how did that tower react, by the way? >> the air traffic controller took the situation seriously, as he should, maintaining an open

line with the first officer of the plane. >> inaudible] >> that's affirmative, this is the f.o., the captain disappeared in the barks went to use the restroom. all indications, i'm being told, he's stuck in the lav and someone with a thick foreign acisn't is giving me a password to get into the cockpit and i'm not about to let him in. >> he pels the pilot to declare an emergency landing, meanwhile the captain manages to free himself from the bathroom, but not before fighting planes are alerted, although not scrambled. after the tension is over, the captain having escaped the bathroom manages to let the power know, all is line. >> >> [inaudible] >> just want to make sure -- any level of disturbance in the airplane. >> negative, chataugua. myself, went back to the

lavatory and the door latch broke. >> there is no issue, no threat. >> no issue, no threat. the flight landed without further incident, bill, but it was met by the fbi and port authority. no one was injured. the captain, although, may think twice before hitting the head on his next flight! >> [laughter [. >> bill: no threat but a very good lock on that door the a the back of the plane! heather, thank you. do you want that pilot on your plane or do you want to kind heo. >> martha: can't find his way out of the bathroom? >> you can sense in their voices, even though nothing is wrong, they've got to take it seriously because you never know in this crazy world we live in. this is another story of another kind, the penn state sex abuse scandal and the former witness who said he witnessed jer gentlemen sandusky r5eu7ing -- raping a child now says he did contact the police, but the police are saying he did not

judge jeanine pirro joins us on this case. bill: also, what did the tea party want to cut? they're not ready for the supercommittee to slash the nation's debt. a member of the tea party caucus is live here in a moment, with a plan to cut # trillion dollars of red ink. how would he do it? you will find out in only minutes. ok, people. show me the best way to design a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor!

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>> i am still hopeful that the republicans will see their way to bringing to us a real fresh packaging. that's what all of us are looking for in terms of fair & balanced. >> clearly we are approach the stroke of midnight but we're not changing this offer that we have on the table. i'm not going to negotiate against myself. bill: there you have it now. two members of the super committee, one democrat, one republican basically saying there are nowhere near a deal to cut spending. the thanksgiving deadline get closer. the tea party meanwhile says it has a plan of its own to tackle this. that's the 15 thrill kropb dollars deb$15 trillion debt we've racked up. i have congressman steve king a member of the tea party with

me. you're going to have a hearing today and during this hearing you're going to announce a plan to cut $9 trillion? how are you going to do that? >> we are going to roll this out at 2:00 until 4:00 this afternoon. we have members of the house and senate that will be seated there. we'll hear presentations from the tea party commission, their 12 that have been working on this now for at least two months, during the same period of time that the super committee's 12 have been meeting in secret, these meetings have been out in the open. there will be a number of things that will come out that are very strong. we want the maxim packet. you know that repealing obamacare is a big chunk of this. worth trillions over time. from my standpoint eliminate the davis act. there are services out there, amtrak is one to look at. the national endowment of the

arts. foreign aid to countries that disagree with us. that is a little bit of a picture of some of the things that will be there. it is an extensive list. some of it is painful but it is a terrible pain if we don't address this national debt. bill: you've fanned out across the country to take in input. from whom did you get that input? are they part of this committee that you formed? >> the committee is formed by tea party leaders around the country. bill: they are not members of congress, right? they are regular citizens. >> correct, they are regular citizens that have been actively engaged in this. and the people that have had input are regular citizens that came to their regular meetings and hearings around the country. kentucky, philadelphia, other locations. the 12 commissioners of the tea party will present their plan to those of us who -- members of congress, house and senate who sit on the panel among them are mike lee, and rand paul, myself, jim jordan and others.

bill: have you seen the plan before it goes public? >> i have. i've reviewed it, and looked at it from a line item standpoint. i've not taken all the piece is apart like i would like to do, but i will tell you, it's a little bit tough and it causes me to have a bit of a gut check. on the other hand so does the prospect of the united states of america becoming a one huge greece. bill: can you say now before we go the way of athens that you would endorse the plan that will be unveiled today. >> i don't think i can say i endorse every aspect of it. i endorse the concept of what we must do to get our spending under control. and i'm very grateful that i'm involved in it to this level. when i first came mere to congreshere to congress i went to the chairman of the budget committee and said, where is our balanced budget? what i got back was, you don't know anything, you're a freshman in congress, it's impossible to balance our budget. we went to war and came within

$160 billion to balancing our budget. now our debt is ten times greater. we must balance the budget very soon. this budget by this is balanced in nine years. bill: i red ten earlier today, nine, ten, given a couple months. healthcare law you'd get rid of it. obamacare, get rid of amtrak, reduce government pay on projects. do you, or what is your level of confidence that the super committee will get what it needs to get done in six days? >> i'm not very optimistic, and i have not been optimistic since the inception of the super committee. i've been through those before, where you take half democrats, after republicans and you put them in a room, they close the doors, and it shuts out the whic wisdom of the rest of the country. and even though they are smart people -- bill: and then what. >> i like and respect the super

committee. i don't expect it can pass the house. i don't expect it will pass the house and senate, whatever comes out in it. we node to talk about bigger ideas. the super committee is only addressing how we reduce our projected national debt ten years down the road from 28 trillion down to $26 trillion. the ryan budget had 23 trillion in national debt at end of ten years. this congress has given up on that. we've got to get to a balanced budget and we need to do so in a short period of time, less than a decade seems too long to me but it's very hard to get there in ten years or less. bill: steve king, thanks, the announcement 2:00 today on the hill. thank you for sharing with us now. >> thank you, bill. martha: violent weather going on, storms ripping through the southeast triggering a string of suspected tornadoes on the ground. at least six people have been killed, including a child in this devastation in north carolina. the storms leveled a building in davidson county and shredded dozens of homes. look at this video, wow, that is

a bad situation. in louisiana a powerful storm lifted an entire home right off the ground with four people and a dog inside. one survivor describing the moments before it hit. >> i had the window open and i had heard rain and hail, so i woke my boyfriend up and i said, you know, close the window, i don't want rain to get in here. right then we heard the wind and he just stopped me, he said come on, let's go. martha: scary. elizabeth is live in hamilton, georgia, that was hit hard as well. what is it like there? >> well, martha mother nature wreaking havoc across the southeast yesterday, residents here in hamilton, georgia have their work cut out for them. the damage we are seeing here, a lot of uprooted trees, damage to rooftops, a lot of downed power lines here. they don't have any power in this particular county the storm hit around 2:00pm here an hour

and a half south of atlanta. it was about a half a mile wide and three miles long as the storm made its way up through the southeast, in fact killing one man in georgia about two and a half hours north of here e. was in his suv when a pine tree fell on top of his car. but that same line of storms continued up into the carolinas where three people died in south carolina, two in north carolina and many others hurt. they began all the way in louisiana moving through mississippi where at least 15 people were injured leaving a number of homes and businesses in alabama destroyed. so people across the southeast have a lot of work to do. martha. martha: boy, unbelievable pictures. elizabeth thank you very much. in hamilton, georgia stphaoeut seemgeorgia. bill: it seems the storm came out of nowhere and rolled across

the straits. there are developments in the penn state scandal today. police are saying the assistant coach mike mcqueary is not telling the truth. this is one of sandusky's accusers. he says he is willing to testify, the accusor is. what will he say? martha: an emotional reunion for veterans in the war in afghanistan. the come pan yan come pan companians they had to leave behind, coming home. they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪

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and shattering a glass door. police arrested several demonstrators out in california. martha: back to this story now, we now know that we will be hearing from one of the accusers in the child sex-abuse case against former state -- penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky. a lawyer says that his client is ready to testify that he was one of the victims of this man. so this news comes as state college police reveal that former penn state graduate assistant mike mcqueary who continues to be a coach, he's not coaching at the moment, but he has been on the staff throughout this process, that he never reported allegations of sex-abuse against sandusky to their department. that contradicts an email that mcqueary sent to a friend that we'll take a look at in a second. jeanine pirro is the host of judge gentleman jean. welcome. so many tenticles to awful this. mcqueary is at the center of what his testimony ma will be.

we may have an accusor stepping out. we have an eyewitness who says he witnessed this happening. his story is different in the grand jury testimony than what he sent in this email. >> you're correct about the fact that mcqueary is at the epicenter of this whole case. what is important to recognize, is that the emails that we are now reading that seem to contradict what we believe he said in the grand jury do not necessarily contradict them. i have looked at those emails, and what he is saying is, i made sure it was stopped when i left. all right. does that mean in 2002? martha: i just want to pull the quote up while you're talk about it so we can take a look at it. >> the quote is very important, because if that is what he said the question is, when did he make sure it was stopped? did he make sure it was stopped? 2008 when he went into the grand jury and testified? because i have the grand jury report, martha, and it says right here the assistant was never questioned by university

police. if he is now alleging that he spoke to university police, then that is not accurate. but for all the grand jury reports that i have done as a sitting da i have never really seen a grand jury to say that the graduate assistant's testimony is extremely credible. the grand jury in this report is setting themselves up for some kind of disaster when they say he's extremely credible. they didn't have to do that. all they had to say is he testified to x, y, or z. make no mistake, when you parse out his quotes they don't necessarily contradict what we believe was in the grand jury and in the report. martha: there are two elements to the email and the discrepancy with the grand jury. one you pointed out is when he stopped it. he said i didn't physically stop it. everybody is, you know, i have some sympathy in some ways for this man. he obviously was caught up in and. everybody could look at it in hind sight and said i would walk

in here and make sure these two place are separated. you're going to wait for the police right here. >> my sympathy would be for the ten-year-old who had his hands up on the wall, not for mcqueary. martha: i know, this guy is at the center of all this. he's e-mailing a friend. does it matter legally what he says in an email to a friend. i would think legally what matters for him is what he laid down in the grand jury testimony. >> credibility is at the essence of every witness' testimony. if you can be impeached by a subsequent statement you're in hot water. martha: that's good for the defense then. >> that's very good for the defense. the way right is not so much that he contradicted himself, he's trying to backpedal and say i really stopped it, maybe later than you wanted but i did. martha: exactly. he said i made sure it stopped. and we also know from the grand jury testimony that he waited until the next morning to call. he talked to his dad, his dad said talk to paterno, he said all right i'll talk to you in the morning, went to sleep on this.

everyone is culpable in this story who had any indications as to what was going on. they may have prevented a further child and incidents going on at all. how culpable are they are there in case. >> they are very culpable. martha: in pennsylvania you don't have an obligation to report. >> in every state in the country you have an obligation to report suspected child abuse. the question is within the protocol of a university who reports? mcqueary had an obligation to report to the guy above him in the chain of command, that's why the legislature has been looking at him. martha: and they pump it up to the top and that lands with the president who is out of a job. jeanine, thank you. a tough, tough story "justice with judge jeanine" saturday nights at 9:00pm eastern. fox news takes an in-depth look at the scandal, the crisis at penn state will be hosted by john roberts and that will air saturday at 10:00pm eastern this weekend. bill: 12 minutes now before the hour. jon scott standing by for a preview of what is going now

"happening now." jon: it's going to be a very busy couple of hours today bill. there is new testimony ahead on new scandals boiling up for the obama administration. fast and furious, as well as solyndra. on solyndra there are breaking new developments on the half billion dollar loan involving that solar company. plus the tea party presents $9 trillion in cuts to congress today, and dramatic news in the penn state scandal, some new information on how the investigation expanded and word on possible new victims. we will also be joined by florida senator marco rubio on his bipartisan push for jobs. geraldo rivera joins us also. "happening now" in a few minutes. bill: how long do you expect to stay on the job? a new survey says, get used to it. that is next. ♪

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bill: new information now on the energy secretary steven chu. that is him testifying in front of that hearing on capitol hill. he has made a few things that will make headlines. i want to be clear over the course of solyndra's loan guarantee i did not make any decision politically, end quote. he said he made the final decision on the half billion dollar loan money to the california solar company that later went bankrupt. watch that hearing. we are right here at "america's newsroom." martha: take a look at what is going on downtown on wall street. occupy wall street, there are folks down there. this is new video. this came into our newsroom. about 50 people so far have been

arrested. they moved from zuccotti park where they are no longer allowed to pitch their tents. their mission was to try to prevent people going to work at the new york stock exchange, many of whom are hard-working folks like the rest of us are wanting to provide for their families. that made it a tough morning. 50 people arrested so far. similar scenes going on in california. bill: looked like the police were standing down with a net waiting for them. could 80 be the new 65. one out of four middle class americans say that they will need to work until at least 80 years old for their retirement. three quart force expect to work well into the retirement years. more than half saying that they will need to significantly cutback on spending to save for their retirement. jerry willis fox business network with me now. jerry good morning. this is a sign of the times isn't it. >> it is a sign of the times, bill. you see these numbers, people

are under saved for retirement. 53% of americans have less than $25,000 saved for retirement. we don't have enough money to retire on. but alternate the same time it's not all bad news. let me explain what i mean by that. a lot of people are not working in jobs that, you know, spend their physical abilities over their lifetimes. they are not in factories, necessarily, they are not doing heavy lifting jobs. they are at desks, they have white collar jobs, and these people may want to be active a through what is traditionally thought of as the retirement he years. it sounds bad, but at the end of the day it's not considering how people work today. bill: in that survey are you willing to accept cuts in social security and medicare? now this is quite revealing. if you're under the age of 50 euro kay with that. if you're between the ages of 60 and 75 only 19% say they are.

and there in lies the rub on things like this super committee, when politicians are trying to save on to their jobs, jerry. >> reporter: that's absolutely true. it's not surprising. the older you get the closer you are to retirement the more you want the rules to get the same, you want to get that social security money. frankly, i don't think any poll situations on the hill are talking about taking that social security and money away from people on the threshold of retirement. bill, one other piece of good news out of this. 76% of the people surveyed, they realize that retirement is not a date, retirement is about the amount of money you have in your pot of savings, right? so they are targeting the amount of savings they have, rather than some sort of date. look, most of us are dealing without having pensions, we don't have pensions, we don't have guaranteed incomes, our housing values have gone down, and down dramatically. i think people are refocusing on what they need to be doing and that is saving money. bill: you can't make any money in the bank any way.

interest rates are on the floor. we'll see automatic 5:00, the willis report on fox business network every day at 5 khrofpblgt. >> reporter: thank you. bill: thank you. martha: let's go back to wall street, shall we? there are the people poring throughout streets. this is los angeles, a very similar scene as occupy wall street, the movement moves onto universities around the country and also to wall street, and here is the scene in los angeles as they try to occupy the streets and prevent folks from getting to work this morning. it is 7:56am pacific time. we are back with more live in "america's newsroom." i love the holidays. and with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i lov'em even more. i earn 1% cash everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% ogas. automatally. nooops to jump through. that's 1% back ... [ toy robot sounds ] 2% on pumpkinie. and apple. 3% back on 4 trips to the airpo. it's as easy as 1... -2... -3... [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you.

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