bill i'm here to give you ideas. march $1600 an ounce for gold? >> bill: right. martha: thank you for joining us today, i hope you have your gold christmas tree, happy banks theufg. bill: good luck on greta. march i'll see you tonight on greta for "on the record". jon: we begin with "happening now" with this fox news alert, the associated press is reporting the egyptian military is promising to turn over power to a civilian government by the first of july. there's a live look at tahrir square, 6:00 p.m. cairo time, as you might know, egyptians have been pouring into that square en masse protesting the fact that the government they thought to overturn in the spring has not been delivering on promises, and the changes that had been promised have not been

forthcoming from the military, which has been running the place. one egyptian politician is saying that the military has promised at least to him to turn over power by july 1st of next year. our white house just issued a statement saying that the esnip shan violence is deplorable and must stop. a number of people have been killed in all of the rioting there. we'll keep an eye on the situation, let you know more as it progresses. "happening now". good tuesday morning to you! in this country, there is all kinds of fallout from the debt deadlock. hello to you, i'm jon scott. jenna: hi everybody, i'm jenna lee, we're here in the fox newsroom and "happening now", we're going to go back to capitol hill, after the supercommittee failed to cut $1.2 trillion from the decifit and now the blame game is in full swing, guys. jon: imagine that, blaming

each other in washington. the president vows to keep the pressure on. he's calling on the gop to put politics aside and compromise. republicans you you might imagine see it very differently. >> despite the broad agreement that exists for such an approach there are still too many republican necessary congress who have refused to listen to the voices of reason and compromise coming from outside of washington. >> he was awol when it came to the debt ceiling fight last summer, awol regarding the supercommittee and he blames the people who are in the middle of the process. typical. this is what's gone on for 2 1/2 years, just lack of leadership. jenna: the national debt is skyrocketing past $15 trillion. the president makes it clear he will veto any effort to stop the automatic spending cuts set to go into effect because of the supercommittee's failure. chris stierwalt is the fox news digital politics editor, he also posts "power play" on fox foxnews.com. chris, in your power play today, you offer a contrarian point of view which is sort of your thing these days.

you say that both sides got what they wanted. what do you mean by that? >> well, both sides believe that they have the winning argument for the 2012 election, the obama is going to run, urging a tax increase on upper incomes to finance what they call investment with democrats. government spending, government jobs, public works, et cetera. and he thinks he can win on that. republicans conversely think they can hold the line on government spending and run whomever their presidential is, but certainly in the congressional races, they can run as the tphaert brought spending discipline to washington, so they dug n. they picked their sides, they both got what they wanted, and then it's going to be up to the voters in less than a year to decide which one of them was right. jenna: and what a year it could be ahead with all the different points of view you mentioned. this is going to sound a little naive, i think, but how do we get to the point where the blame game and strategy is more important than the policy, especially in the situation our country is in economically?

>> well, there's not much good to be said about washington by the american electorate, that's true, but to cut them this much of a break, what's going on here is a very fundamental ideological difference. this is in some ways not just a fiscal argument, that is moral argument. democrats need to be -- seem to be immoral not to raise taxes, republicans think it would be immoral to take any more money from hard working americans and give it to the government that they is this a profligate spender. the lines are divided and the differences here are not small shades about one thing versus another thing. this is a huge ideological rift that can't really be settled based on the cast of characters in washington now. jenna: when we look at changing the dynamic and you said the cast of characters there now, what are the possible scenarios as far as ideology in the vote in 2012 that we could see? what would be the best case scenario for our functioning of government chris? i'm not asking best case scenario one party over the other but more about the dynamics of the team we

could put in place. >> you get to the point where you need a winner you've had a waep of elections that had elected the most liberal president since lyndon jon and -- johnson and the most conservative house since 1920. you need a winner and americans have to pick which direction they want to go, do they want to go to the tax the rich investment strategy that the democrats have or the cutting approach that the republicans have. it's going to be laid out there, but you need a clear winner, because the danger of course is you end up with ongoing deadlock and the voters don't come up with an answer and you're left with a muddle. jenna: we'll see what happens. much to happen in the year ahead. thanks for letting me corner you down there in d.c. i appreciate it. >> we were glad to have you. thanks for coming down. jenna: you can catch cries online, power play, live at 11:30. if you're logged on, go to foxnews.com and click on the link.

jon: inside election was -- election head areas and newt gingrich is surging to the top of the feed, that according to quinn peeiak university. the former house leader taking the lead from mitt romney. our chief political correspondent carl cameron live in washington. what does this mean? we've got another debate tonight, right? >> we do, jon. this is the most recent in a long series now. gingrich has been sort of surging in polls not only nationally but the early states, iowa, new hampshire and to a lesser extent north carolina and florida. the latest quinn peeiak poll has gingrich at 26 percent, still within the margin of error with the polls. herman cain has dropped to 14 percent and no other candidate is in -- and the other candidates are in single digits. the repeal omabacare, the programs to the states, he offered private alternatives to medicare and he's let younger workers have optional private accounts

instead of social security. gingrich says he likes the scrutiny that comes with being a frontrunner. so far every candidate that's gotten 27 percent has taken a dive in the polls against myth rom tphefplt we'll see how newt does at the debate and how you deals with the scrutiny. he knows it's about schooling up and sustaining his mottum. jon: the stakes are high for him but i guess for everybody, huh? >> listen, newt gingrich in debate has been one of the strongest on the republican roster, and it answered the discussion that the general was having with chris -- that jenna was having can stierwalt, his strength comes -- newt gingrich wants to run against president obama who will be visiting new hampshire today and mitt romney took out a full page ad in the state newspapers to have an open letter to the president which slams mr. obama and says, and i quote from mitt romney to the president of the united states, i'll be blunt, the polices have failed, it's bad enough that they've

fallen short even by the standards of your own administration set for itself but things are much worse than that. far from bringing this vieo crisis to an end your polices have hindered economic recovery. that full page ad that mitt romney has put in newspapers all over new hampshire today as the president makes his first visit to the first of the nation's primary state in two years and the primary itself is seven weeks away. jon: wow, interesting stuff. carl cameron, thank you. jenna: a fox news alert. back to cairo, egypt now, where the associated press is reporting that military rulers have agreed to turn over powers to its civilian government by july of next year. we've seen multiple days of violence there, at least 36 people killed, tens of thousands of protestors stormed tahrir square, tkhaulg the second revolution. we're also learning of something else. three americans are being detained. again, according to reports, reena ninan is live in jerusalem with the latest. >> reporter: hi jenna. just a short time ago on

egyptian state tv, the military council released a statement that was read and explaining more about the july 1st date, first saying they will release all political prisoners, second that elections will take place on time on monday, and that the military will be out of daily lives of egyptians, starting on july 1st. what isn't clear is exactly how that transition will take place. for so many decades the military has been a very big force in egypt and while the protestors want nothing to do with them, they want civilian power toss take over the rule in egypt, it's unclear who would fill that vacuum exactly. there was some talk of a possible judicial council, the highest level of egypt's judicial authority to possible step in. we'll have to wait and see exactly at happens there. we are also getting more information about three americans that have been taken into custody. egyptian forces claim that she's americans -- these americans were throwing fire bombs into the crowd and

voting on the protestors against police. the identity, the guys rank 19-21 years old, they attend drexel, indiana and georgetown university. we believe they've not had community indications with their family or even an attorney. the u.s. embassy tells us in cairo they are trying to sort out the details and garner more details about this situation. meanwhile, the protestors have been waiting all day in tahrir square. they've been trying to hit the 1 million mark, and it sure looks like based on our source necessary cairo and the video we're seeing they may very well do that. we have not seen crowds in this type of numbers taking place since the revolution, and they are also expected to hear from the head of egypt's military council, but it's likely they may not address those protestors today. there was some talk that either would he step down -- it seems hard to believe at this moment where it's absolute chaos that that would happen. the military council has been trying to convince

local politicians they need some time, but the protestors say they want no later than april for all of this to take place. so we'll have to see exactly what happens in the coming days, jenna. jenna: it will be interesting to watch. we can't forget, the united states has such a strong -- had such a strong connection to the egyptian military so, whoever comes in that place is a big question, which you so rightly point out, reena. reena ninan in jerusalem today, thank you very much. jon: we've been telling you about those wildfires that have erupted all across arizona in the last two years. well, it turns out one group is linked to nearly three dozen of them. we'll tell you more about that with a live report. jenna: also the political fallout from a supersized failure to cut the debt. what it means for the 2012 election, from castle hill to the white house, an in depth look at the winners and losers and everybody in between. jon: while things look bad in our legislative branch, it's not this bad. tear gas, sprayed by one lawmaker on another in the popularment building. this whole crazy story,

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jon well, political gridlock torpedoes that decifit deal and now there are very real political ramifications, because the failure by the bipartisan so-called supercommittee triggers more than automatic cuts. the finger pointing is in full swing right now. senate majority leader harry reid lays the blame on republicans, in a usa today op-ed, he says, quote, for the good of our country, democrats were prepared to strike a grand bargain that would make painful cuts while asking millionaires to pay their fair share and we put our willingness on paper but republicans never came close to meeting us half way. house speaker john boehner sees it differently and writes in his usa today op-ed, quote, sadly, the so called supercommittee was unable to reach an agreement because president obama and washington democrats insisted on dramatic tax hikes on american job

creators which would make our economy worse. so who wins, who loses here? a.b. stoddard is associate editor of the hill. what do you think? who wins in this situation? who's taking a hit? >> reporter: well, unfortunately, the politicians have won. they had no stake in this. they didn't want it to work out and they rigged the supercommittee so it would dead look and fail. it never had a real trigger. we're not going to see the cuts they've laid out in the death trap triggers. it's not going to come to pass and the american people i think are the losers. >> jon: think back to when this whole thing was cobbled together, the president wanted that increase in the debt ceiling. he got it in exchange for this supercommittee, and now the supercommittee thing has failed. doesn't -- in some way, doesn't the white house win? >> well, again, i think the politicians who didn't want any kind of resolution and didn't want the supercommittee has won. i think partisans on both sides wanted the committee to fail. the problem is now we know

those cuts aren't going to take place and we want to make sure we see $1.2 trillion in cuts, whether they're the ones that were in the trigger or new ones, and we need to obviously see even more decifit reductions down the line. we're in a presidential year now, there's a pitch battle between the two-parties and they think the partisans on both side believe that this is going to be solved by an election, and i think that's -- you know, that is -- that remains to be seen. we have a very good chance of having president obama reelected and the republican congress or republican senate and republican house and i think the american people have to ask, what is that going to yield, how is divided government going to solve the problem and i think at this point the answer no -- the answer is no. jon: if they start cutting $600 billion additional dollars from the defense department in, what, january january 2012? >> january 2013. that's why there was never a deadline for the supercommittee, no government default, no consequence. we have a year with the

fight over the cuts oats -- cuts. you can already see the american people are worried about the cuts, just like secretary of defense pan kwraet is and they're going to join with the department to replace those cuts. i don't think we'll see those cuts. 're looking at battle in the lame duck session of congress, next december, after the next election, at the 11th hour, before those cuts were to take place, where you'll see people proposing different cuts. i'm just hoping the number is still the same and we don't get on a slippery slope where we're not reaching 1.2. the supercommittee couldn't come up with 1.2, so we're going to be looking at a partisan battle over the $1.2 trillion we know the defense cuts are not going to be as sleep as proposed. jon: you just said you expect or it's possible that president obama could win reelection, despite all of this, and despite approval ratings in the 40s. congress' approval rating as you well know are much lower than that, in the teens. so by watching the supercommittee fail, can the president now point at congress and say, throw up his hands and say see, i told you, they can't get the

job done, i'm the only grownup in washington? >> oh, i think that he will. i think for sure he'll be running against congressional republicans and say they are protecting the rich and tax cuts for the wealthiest earners, and that he is the one who's fighting for the middle class. he's going to definitely try to run against congressional republicans. as you know, soon in a few months he will have a republican nominee to run against who say they are not in congress bundling this up, that they're not dysfunctional, ready to lead and he's going to have to change his tune. the problem for president obama is he's not come to the mat on entitlement reform and budget reform. he asked the supercommittee to come up with half a billion for the jobs plan. he's not come to the table since the talks with the house speaker broke up in the summer and he's not been good on this issue, either. jon: his budget got shot to pieces by the senate. a.b. stoddard, good to talk to you, thanks. >> thank you. jenna: new developments in the mysterious death of natalie wood. questions raised about new evidence police claim to have in the star's drowning

death, three decades ago. plus a massive search underway in florida for a mother of three who vanished shortly after taping an appearance on the peoples' court with her ex-fiance. there are so many questions about this. the very latest on this developing story, next.

jon: right now tphreus london are asking the public to help them find this woman, 43-year-old michelle of three vanished last thursday, just after this episode of the peoples' court ran. in it, she appears with her ex-boyfriend, in a dispute over an engage mentoring. investigators located her suv the next day. joining us now on the phone, criminal justice reporter for the orlando sent nent,

bianca preito. there has been a search org need. any search of her? >> that's right, there have been searches organized but there's been not any sign of michelle parker. the family has been conduct the search effort, they've been coordinating the volunteers and getting them on the ground, handing out flyers but there's been no sign of michelle. jon: i read in an article you wrote that her family members think she was carjacked and that neither one of her -- neither her boyfriend nor the father of her oldest child is involved >> right. they haven't been naming any suspects. there's a missing persons investigation, it's not a criminal investigation, so the police are being hands off with the calling anybody a suspect or person of interest, that sort of thing. right now, they're just trying to find her. >> jon: it is a little odd that it was basically the tkhaeu this peoples' court episode ran that she disappeared, wasn't it? >> right. she went missing a few hours

after that episode was aired. it was filmed several months ago with her former fiance and he is actually taking their of their -- care of their three-year-old twins now, police don't believe he had anything to do with her disappearance. he's been cooperating. jon: so he has been cooperating. their relationships was -- relationship was described as turbulent and even violent at times. >> michelle sraoeuld for domestic violence injunction against him and said he had been violent in front of their twins at some saint and sought protection from him but the police see him taking care of their children and the police have not named him or identified him as a pen of interest. jon: at the same time you write in the sentinel she was a well known bartender, obviously had a fairly public job and might have attracted attention from the wrong kind of person. >> right. the police are looking into everything, any possible situation that could have happened to her. right now, they are asking people with information to

call crime line, they can remain anonymous in that way. we are awaiting for a press tkproepbs to start in a few minutes and we might get more information from the police at that point. jon: we have the number on the screen: jon: we'll let you get to that news conference. thank you for the information. bianca, thank you. jenna: those stories are always tough, right around the holidays. you can't help think about them more. from one investigation to another now, this one out in l.a., the l.a. county sheriff's department is raising some eyebrows when they reopened an investigation into natalie wood's death, now 30 years ago. some are questioning what new evidence the police really have, and then what they can do with it. fix folbaum is here with us and -- rick folbaum has latest. >> reporter: included is an unnamed member of the l.a. county d.a.'s office who calls this, quote, an exercise in few tilt, this

is according to the website tmz, natalie wood last seen alive boating offatalina island on thanksgiving in 1981. she was with her husband, the actor robert wagner and another actor, christopher wal kefplt n and the captain, dennis davern. they had reportedly been drinks, there was an argument and at some point, natalie wood went missing. now davern was saying he lied to the police at wagner 's request on the original police report. he also happens to have writn a book about that fateful night and though the sheriff was department says that wagner is not a suspect, as the last person to see natalie wood was alive, it would seem logical he's the target of this investigation, christopher walken has gotten himself a lawyer. the big issue is the time that's passed. the only crime which could be prosecuted a first degree murder, the d.a.'s office saying it could only come with a confession. all other possible charges have a statute of

limitations that expired a long time ago, so the prosecution's office in l.a., saying that this does not look like a -- >> jenna: it will be interesting to see what could happen but you think about the statute of limitations, i wonder what could happen. rick, thank you very much for that. we'll continue to watch that story. jon: right now, investors are on edge. this after the supercommittee failed to agree on a way to cut our nation's debt. a brand new government report on the economy is out. what it means for your financial future, just ahead also, a whiskey rebellion, averted. why the makers of jack daniels are raising their glasses in celebration. a live report for you, next. if you've just signed up for medicare or will soon,

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an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan could be an option to get the coverage you need at a competitive rate. so don't wait another minute. be sure to call today. call now for your free medicare guide and information kit about aarp medicare supplement insurance plans, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. jenna: hi everybody. some developing stories we're keeping an eye on in the newsroom, and from the control room as well, a backup at the university of california-davis, students are reclaiming their post hours after the campus police chief was put on administrative leave. this is, of course, as a result of this video of police pepper spraying a group of occupy protestors who were sitting on the ground there. again, an investigation is still ongoing on that. in the meantime, in south cree kwrarbgs tear gas-fired inside the parliament there. one lawmaker reportedly throw ago powder substance at the deputy speaker.

security dragged him out of the chamber, screaming. wonder what caused all that. and new information on a story we brought you yesterday. police say an argument over loud music may have led to the stabbing death of seattle mariners player tkpwr*el elman, authorities are interviewing helman's brother as a suspect. jon: so many questions about that case. it is one of the biggest travel days. year, thanksgiving, just two days away, and a big winter storm is brewing, just as lots of americans are hitting the road. meteorologist janice dean in the fox weather center for us now. j.d. >> reporter: i didn't officially get to invite you yesterday but jon you are always welcome for thanksgiving dinner at our home. jon: nice. >> reporter: as long as you bring the fixins, because i ain't cooking! jon: i'll bring the pie. >> reporter: a little pot luck. love it. yes, look at this storm system, my friends.

we also have the potential for nasty weather across the northwest, which i'll talk about in a moment. but this one, associated cold front moving across the gulf coast region and we could see the potential for severe weather and already the airport delays at newark and chicago, they would -- philadelphia, over two hour delays for you. so call ahead. it's going to be a busy one over the next 24-48 hours. we don't have a veer weather warning, however it exists throughout the noon hours and into the evening as that cold front slices across the southeast, so large hail, strong winds, isolated tornadoes and heavy rains as well, reports of over 7 inches in parts of arkansas. so even though they need the rain, a lot of rain in a short period of time is not going to do anybody any good. so travel troubles starting on tuesday, today, texas through the ohio valley as we mentioned, as the storm system moves eastward and we could have the risk of severe storms from texas to mississippi. the rain will spread into the northeast overnight tonight and into tomorrow, of course, the busiest day

for travel along the eastern seaboard. unfortunately, you are going to be affected, delays from the atlantic, southeast, with heavy rains across those regions as well, so call ahead, check your air carrier, and of course, keep an eye on the travel, the roadways as well, if you're traveling up the i95 corridor. thanksgiving day, storm moves out and things look really nice over much of the country, 48 for new york, 72 in dallas. again, the only real trouble spot for thanksgiving day on thursday is going to be the west coast, we will keep that in mind, and keep you up to date, jon scott. jon: i guess a big rain storm not a good event but it could be snow. i mean, we can count our blessings there, right? >> >> reporter: a little snow across new england but we could have a blockbuster snow stofrplt that's not going to happen. it's going to be more of a nuisance. jon: j.d., thank you, and happy thanksgiving. >> reporter: you too. jenna: silver lining. jon scott. that was good. you uplift everybody! not sure we can do much about this number, jon. a key measure over economic

growth for the third quarter is revised lower today. we get three readings on this. this is the first revision. gdp is growing at 2 percent. that's down from 2 1/2%. that was the first reading. the commerce department blames lower than expected restocking of store shelves as one of the reasons for the lack of activity or lower activity. higher unemployment, salaries not growing fast enough. tell me about it, right? it may also be a drag on the economy. the failure of the supercommittee is also not likely to help the economic outlook. when we started on the air today, jon, we weren't down this low. it moved lower as we were on the air, down nearly 100 points on the dow. jon: that's the number washington was bragging about, almost bragging about when they came out with it. jenna: which part, the gdp number. right. you want higher economic growth but the revision lower doesn't speak well for what's happening with the economy. steve more is a senior economics writer for the "wall street journal" and joins us now. i want to start backwards with the supercommittee,

based on your article in the "wall street journal" today. plain and simple, what are the real ripple effects of the failure of the supercommittee when it comes to our economy? >> you know, jen kwrarbgs i've been talking to a lot of people on wall street, the investors who move the market and they say all along we thought this was going to fail, so this wasn't a big shock to us, but you do see the readit -- credit rating agencies saying they're taking a lot closer look at the u.s. debt. as you know, jenna, remember back in august, we had the downgrade of the debt by s&p and moody's. i don't think it's going to happen eminently, but there is now a lot of talk about possible second downgrade of our debt. by the way, jenna, as you know, it's been 50 years since we had a downgrade of our aaa bond rating. we had one in august, and now we're looking at a second one later this year. that's pretty glum. jenna: that does sound glum. first i'm going to talk to you as an economist, and i'm going to talk to you as a psychologist. >> i need a pay raise, too, jenna!

jenna: so let's start with the economy. first of all, based on what the folks you talked to in our article today said, some say that they actually prefer the sequestration, these automatic cuts, to the tax increases, in that in some ways, if we're talking about silver lining, it could actually turn out to be a silver lining that the cuts are happening and not the tax hikes. >> it could be, jen kwrafplt i find myself in that camp, too, if the choice were a trillion dollars tax increase, which is what the democrats wanted, or cutting government spending, across the board, i'll take the across the board cuts. there are two problems with this, jenna. one is that there's a lot of skepticism that congress will actually allow those cuts to be made. those are pretty veer cuts, and they start in 2013 and then every year after. but the second concern by some of my friends in the national security area are saying, jenna, that those cuts could be so dramatic they could imperil national security.

you don't have to believe me on that. that's what the president's own secretary of defense, leanne panetta, has been saying, that these would be devastating to our ability to protect ourselves. jenna: and that plays into our next segment, which is the psychology segment. >> right. jenna: steve, when we hear that, if we're sitting at home, that's enough to make us nervous, and when we look at the supercommittee it seems they chose failure over compromise, and that just sends a weird message, doesn't it, overall? i mean, if we could just speak plainly about t. about what that says about where our country is and who's working for us, makes the government work. >> i think that's right, that it is a grand failure by congress and the president, by the way, who wasn't even involved in these negotiations. but you know what, jen kwrarbgs the real big failure is we have -- as you know, the debt clock, you rart dollars -- report thunderstorm last week, went over $15 trillion last week, we're on a course now to borrow another $10 trillion, and do the math, that's $25 trillion in debt in the next ten years. look, we can't maintain

ourselves as a superpower economically with all of that debt, and it speaks very poorly of washington. if they can't even cut the first trillion, jenna, that should be the low hanging fruit, right? the cuts should be progressively 45rder. if they can't take the step on the journey, you know, that speaks very, very poorly for both congress and the white house. jenna: that's tough to sum up in a segment or article or anything else. it speaks to something pweurg. thank you for watching our show and mentioning that. you were following the news! >> i watch every day. great to see you. jenna: steve more, thank you. >> have a great turkey day. jon skwrao*pbd we read the "wall street journal". the makers of jack daniels has something to cheer about, a move by county officials in tennessee to lev yeah tax on that world famous whiskey, that is derailed before it could reach the state legislature. here now, fox business network's adam shapiro. how did this come about adam? >> reporter: the council in moore county wanted to give it to the vote attorneys decide whether

they would impose up to $10 a barrel, a tax of up to $10 a barrel, so raise anywhere between two to four, $5 million a year in new revenue for the county. i spoke to the head who spear -- to the man who spear leaded -- spearheaded this, he told me the intent was from the very beginning, this the exact quote, the intent was from the beginning to allow for a referendum to be conducted whereby the voters in the county would decide whether or not to impose a tax and that tax of course would be on this, what some people call the miracle elixir, old number seven, jack daniels. last night the commission decided that was a bad idea. they were going to ask the state legislature for permission to put it on the ballot as a referendum. last night they voted to not ask the state legislature. jack daniel will pay property taxes but nothing on the miracle elixir. jenna: wait a minute. are you allowed to have that? >> jon: i think he's allowed to have it. he just can't consume it. >> who said? we're cable.

i borrowed it from bill hemmer. don't blame me. i got it down the street. this is what we're talking about, most popular brand of whiskey in the world, 16 million cases. you were shown the larger bottle. sixteen million cases of those larger bottle, 274 bottles per case. rather, not per case. that would be an incredible case. a barrel creates 274 bottles jon: i guess that the distillery is claiming they already paid their fair share of taxes. >> right. look, the total budget for moore county, tax revenue, raises $3.5 million, of which jan daniels pays $1.5 million in property taxes, plus hundreds of thousands of people go through lunchberg, tennessee, moore county to, see the distillery, which by the way, the dry county, i don't know if you can do this outside your home, but they, jack daniels, has said, and we asked the parent company, brown & foeman if they would issue a statement, they haven't spoken to us yet, but essentially they already pay we pay 1.5 million, that's

almost half of the budget, or at least of the revenue they raise there. jon: you know, we had a whiskey rebellion in this country back when george washington was president. so i guess we maybe just averted another one! jenna: historical context. jon: thank you. >> see you guys after quitting time! jenna: i want to know how adam shapiro gets the party beat. jon: i think hemmer knows where to look for his whiskey. jenna: this is an update on the heels of the largest wildfire in arizona history. there were a lot of questions about how these fires started. there is new information on a group linked to nearly three dozen fires across that state. we're live at the breaking news desk with more on that. also, trouble in toil something just in time for holiday shopping season. the children's gifts you should avoid, and why. we have that next.

jon: in the most powerful name in news, acquisitions room, we are always bringing in feeds from satellites, positioned around the globe. here's a look at what's happening right now, tkphog on remote 227, a live look at tahrir square in cairo, where protestors have just been told their military government will hand over power to a civilian government by july. whether that sits well with them, still up in the air. down to 244, the president will be appearing at this event in manchesser, new hampshire, new hampshire, perhaps, to answer some of his republican critics who have been barn storming that state. the president will hold a jobs event there momentarily. waoerl take you there live. on remote 272, that's a live look at hartsfeld airport in atlanta right now, authorities are saying if you are going to be traveling, maybe getting out of town a little early before this thanksgiving holiday, check with your airline. there is going to be some weather issues to deal with,

all around the country. that's the latest from acquisitions. jon: jon can't leave work early, he has to wait until the end of the show before he takes off for thanksgiving. >> the government accountability office out with surprising information on a series of wildfire necessary arizona over the past few years. rick, you have more on who. gao says is to blame here. >> reporter: that's right, jenna. our viewers may remember early they are year when senator john mccain got a lot of criticism from people, after he said that some of the wildfires in his state, arizona, had been set by illegal aimens. well -- aliens. well, this new report seems to back him up, the gao look at some of the 2500 fires which spread over arizona in the past five years. the fires that we're showing you, or are about to, were not included in the report, but they did help prompt this investigation. the gao studied just the fires that were caused by human activity, and what

investigators found while not 100 percent conclusive, based on the evidence, investigators blame mexican drug smugglers for at least some of those fires, which, again, seems to back up what senator mccain was saying. and here's his response to the report. i hope this report is the lesson to the activists and public officials that would prefer to engage in partisan character attacks rather than focus the discussion on the vital need to secure our southern border. the head of the u.s. forest service has also come out and is agreeing with the report. back to you. jenna: interesting development there, rick, thank you. jon: there's a dangerous new trend on the rise to tell you about. just in time for the holidays. what you need to know to protect yourself from flash mobs. if you have a small retail business, or even a large one, you'll want to hear it. also retirement, just not in his vocabulary. meet the oldest soldier currently on the front lines. a live report from afghanistan, next.

jenna: "happening now", one u.s. soldier is really proving age is just a number. don nicholas is the oldest soldier currently on the front lines in afghanistan. he's 59 years young! and the vietnam veteran reenlisted after 9/11, served tours in afghanistan and iraq. a powerful story. conor powell is live with more. hi conor. other other kunar province own of the most violent and dangerous places in all of afghanistan. so violent and dangerous we're streaming from inside our tent, so our lights don't help the taliban target this u.s. base.

despite the dangers, don nicholas is trying to disprove the old adage war is a young man's pursuit. >> another day, another patrol, sergeant don nicolas is like any soldier, except for one thing. according to the army, he is one of if not the oldest soldier serving on the front lines. but at 59 years old, he's anything but ordinary. >> why did you reenlist at your age with your experience? >> i don't know. it was the right thing to do it's as simple as that. >> back home in his native ohio, sergeant nick was a podiatrist, he joined an army psychological operations unit hoping to be sent to a war zone, and he was. first up, afghanistan, then to iraq, and now, again to afghanistan. i just didn't want everyone

out there doing things i think i should be doing. >> his enthusiasm and dedication inspires his fellow soldiers. >> he pushes me to make myself push harder because i know he's like twice my age. >> after three wars in six three-month necessary combat zones, the pentagon says sergeant nick must retire next summer when he turns 60. something he isn't looking forward to. retirement t. seems, bothers him far more than the enemy. >> you want to be out there. >> i want to be out there, yeah. as long as i'm able to do it, i'll do it. >> reporter: jen kwrarbgs because sergeant nick is a doctor back in the united states he's trying to get into the army medical corps, which has a higher retirement age, and he says he'd even like to come back to afghanistan if allowed to stay in the military, jenna. jenna: what an inspirational story, conor. we'll think of sergeant nick this thanksgiving and your family as well. conor is on the road during thanksgiving.

we'll be thinking of you guys out there and a great report. always appreciate it. jon: great stuff. where do we get these guys? jon: i don't know, but they're here! jon: it's an amazing country. there's a warning out just as the holiday shopping season is getting underway, it concerns, what else, your kids, a consumer advocates list with the most dangerous toys it finds currently on the shelves. jenna: they include toys that violate safety tp-pbdz to -- safety concerns for lead and this includes an oscar the grouch sesame street doll, the group also warned about toys too loud that could lead to hearing problems. jon: the toy industry is downplaying this, they said there was a sharp decline in recalls. we're putting a link to that on our show page, foxnews.com/happening now. and a school district gets slapped with a lawsuit because a woman claims officials looked the other way. when her daughter was relentlessly bullied.

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medicare guide and customized rate quote. >> hi, everybody, i'm rick folbaum at the assignment desk. turkey day coming up, where are you traveling to? the midwest, perhaps? behind all of this fog is cincinnati, ohio, which could cause some problems for folks who are traveling to this part of the country. the sky is clear in atlanta, this is the sight of the world's busiest airport. hartsfield international airport, easy for me to say. you should check if you're flying today or tomorrow. and this is the scene in manchester, new hampshire, where president obama is set to talk about his jobs plan coming up in just about 15 minutes. we'll show you a little bit of it, have it streaming live on foxnews.com. the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: "happening now," new concerns for a defense department that's already stretched too thin.

we're so glad you're with us, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. welcome to brand new hour of "happening now." washington's inability to cut our deficit means the pentagon could see some major cuts. just how bad is it, and can anything be done before they take effect? chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on cap until hill. mike, some key lawmakers have some thoughts. share those with us, will you? >> reporter: well, buck mckeon, chairman of the house armed services committee, put out a statement saying he was going to introduce legislation in the coming days to prevent those automatic defense cuts due to kick in january, 2013, mckeon said he would not preside over the crippling of the united states military. also concerned, the top republican on the senate armed services committee. take a listen to senator john mccain. >> military chiefs have said these cuts would be totally devastating. we live in a dangerous world as we should know, so the president

again has disregarded the strong recommendations and warnings of the secretary of defense and the leaders of the military. >> reporter: so you can bet after the thanksgiving break senator mccain, congressman mckeon and many others concerned about national security will get to work on trying to find a way around these automatic cuts which, again, don't kick in until january 2013. so there is time, but, of course, as we've seen here on capitol hill, it is difficult finding ways to cut. jon? jon: i guess congress could find some other way places, but if president is saying he isn't going to give congress an easy way out, that has to put the defense secretary in a tough position. >> reporter: it did. and leon panetta putting out a statement saying he joins the president in not allowing congress an easy way out. if congress fails to act over the next year, the department of defense will face devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts

that will tara seam in the nation's defense. panetta goes on to say the half trillion in additional cuts demanded by sequester would lead to a hollow force incapable of sustaining the missions it is assigned. so, clearly, concerned for those over at the pentagon as well if congress cannot find a way forward that avoids defense cuts, jon. jon: all right. it's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next year until those cuts are supposed to take effect. a lot of fighting in washington. mike emanuel, thanks. >> reporter: thank you, jon. jenna: let's talk about cuts here now, lots of talk about that floating around washington. interestingly enough, the sharpest proposals coming from congress. the toughest plan is actually from the white house. the president is proposing limits on medicare growth to just about a half a percent above the growth in the old economy, so we're going to need to explain more about that. jim angle is live with us to talk about those cuts. hi, jim. >> reporter: hello, jenna. democrats used a familiar refrain to condemn any

republican effort to reform medicare by competition. listen. >> the ideological budget would end medicare -- >> simply, it ends medicare as we know it. >> reporter: now, that is not the only time you hear that. mr. obama's campaign policy director accused mitt romney of ending medicare and medicaid as we know them. but as it turns out, democrats voted for it in the new health care law. >> that's the one thing i don't think anyone really understands is thathe health care law has already capped medicare spending, and president obama, the proponent of that cap. >> reporter: now, the president had already cut 500 billion from the health care law and capped spending to just 1% in the overall economy. then in an 80-page message sent to the supercommittee, he proposed another $250 billion in medicare cuts and to lower the

cap on spending in gdp plus .5%. since medicare typically grows two to three points more than that, even more interesting how the president would enforce the limits. he'd use the independent payments advisory board created by the health care law, but it had only one power; to impose price controls on providers which makes seniors' groups a bit nervous. >> there's costs that go wof the cap -- above the cap, we're going to be stopping for that year and, in essence, leads to the rationing of care. so we can't have arbitrary caps in the medicare program. >> reporter: so when doctors are simply told they'll be paid significantly less, what will they do? >> eventually, some of the providers of those services will drop out of the market and there'll be issues in terms of accessing care. >> reporter: so even though democrats balked at cutting medicare in the negotiations, the president is proposing sharp cuts that many feel will lead to

rationing of care. jenna? jenna: interesting. but something has to be done, right? because if nothing's done with medicare, it will go bankrupt eventually, right? >> reporter: it will bankrupt the u.s. already about half of medicare comes from general revenues. unlike social security, it has a call on general revenues, and it eats up more and more and more of your tax dollars as the years go on. jenna: interesting. so something has to be done. what that is, still the big question. jim, thank you. >> reporter: you bet. jon: right now police are searching for a florida mom who vanished shortly after she appeared on one of those courtroom shows. michelle parker reported missing just hours after she was featured on on the "people's court." laura ingalls has more on the disappearance. >> no signs of the missing mother of three, and with each passing day, family members are becoming more desperate to find her. now, the "people's court" episode that featured michelle

parker and her ex-fiance who is also the father of her 3-year-old twins, was reportedly humiliating for her. the two battled it out over a $5,000 engagement ring that parker allegedly lost. her ex won the case on the show. she picked up her twins from day care and dropped them off after smith's house. police say smith is not a suspect, michelle's sister talked with "fox & friends" this morning about that. >> i pray to go not. i mean, who would want to hurt the mother of their children? i don't see how in any way that he would benefit from it, so we're not looking at just one, direct thing right now. we're taking all, anything that's possible right now. so in my opinion, nobody's ruled out. >> reporter: shortly after parker dropped off her twins, her brother texted her for a ride. a message from parker's phone came right back with only a one-word answer, "waterford."

her family doesn't believe it was parker who sent the text. hundreds of volunteers have been passing out fliers, making t-shirts, doing everything they can. >> every dumpster you're like, oh, michelle, i hope you're not in here. baby, i hope you're not in here. and you get up, and you crawl on top of stuff, and you're like, okay, this one's eliminated. you're not here. >> reporter: michelle's mom says her daughter may have been car jacked. jon: strange story. thanks. jenna: western nations imposing some major new sanctions on iran drowned out by all the news on on the supercommittee. jennifer griffin is here to go through all of them for us. hi, jennifer. >> reporter: well, the sanctions have an interesting discrepancy between written and the united states. britain went further than the united states and sanctioned the central bank of iran. the u.s. stopped short, focusing more on the oil industry.

>> this will allow us to sanction the provision of goods, services and technology to the petrochemical sector. to accompany this new measure, we will launch a worldwide diplomatic campaign to encourage other countries to shift any purchases of iranian petrochemical products to other suppliers. >> no option is off the table, including the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on the bank of iran. >> reporter: u.s. treasury officials warned last week that targeting iran's central bank could have unintended consequences in terms of pushing up the price of oil x that, they say, is not a good idea given the fragile world economy. most analysts agree as well the symbolism of these sanctions are important. without russia and china onboard, the two countries that do the most business with iran, then these sanctions won't curtail iran's nuclear program. iran's foreign ministry had this reaction, quote:

>> reporter: but, again, china buys most of iran's oil, and unless china's onboard willing to stop that, these sanctions will largely not hurt iran and iran's economy. jenna? jenna: we'll see what's next. jennifer griffin at the pentagon, thanks. jon: well, democrats and republicans reaching across the aisle for the good? not really. the supercommittee goes down in flames. so whatever happened to bipartisanship? we'll explore that question. also, an s.a.t. cheating scandal gets bigger as more students turn themselves in n. and rick is at the web wall. [laughter] >> reporter: the web wall, and this is where we have some polls. every day we like you the weigh in on. we have a story straight ahead about a family that's suing

their local school system because their girl, their daughter was bullied, and they say the schools did nothing about it. so you can go to the home page at foxnews.com, scroll on down, and you can see the question here about bullying. bullying is becoming a growing problem. right now 66% of you say, yes, it is getting worse. we'll have the results and that story straight ahead. but, first, getting some pizza today, i'm going to go see if i can get a slice, and we'll have more "happening now" coming right up. don't go away. [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun.

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jenna: some new information on some crime stories we're keeping an eye on for you today. the mother of a missing 5-year-old girl arrested in arizona. she's facing child abuse charges. investigators say they don't expect to find the child alive. a news conference held on an s.a.t. cheating scandal, and we understand several more long island, new york, students have turned themselves in.

this thing just getting bigger and bigger. also new developments in the case of e syracuse basketball coach accused of molesting two boys, the prosecutor in the case getting a subpoena after police refused to hand over records. the mayor says no information will be shared until police complete their investigation. >> my message to them is simple: no. i will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. there will be no easy offramps on this one. jon: well, that was president obama after the so-called supercommittee failed to reach a deal. well, now the pentagon is one of the agencies facing deep cuts across the board unless something gets done. arizona congressman david. >> week earth is the -- schweikert is on the republican financial services committee. came in with that wave elected with tea party support. are you befuddled as to why

congress can't seem to get things done? >> um, actually, if you spend a little time there, you start to realize, um, congress brachs into camps, and the camps aren't necessarily conservative. it's those that do math and those that don't. and i'm realizing right now a lot of our brothers and sisters on the other side of the aisle don't own calculators. jon: well, i'm sure they have plenty of criticism for republicans as well. the overall criticism from the democratic side is that republicans just do not want to raise taxes or increase revenue. >> but look at our reality. look at the proposal that was actually, i guess, the only one that was actually put in writing from senator toomey that walked up and down and removed lots of tax breaks and was going to bring in revenues, but here's the problem on the political theater you and i are engaged in and walking right now is a trillion dollars in new taxes, but over the next decade we're

borrowing 12 trillion more on top of the 15 trillion we're already in at. in many ways much of what we're seeing is more about the 2012 election than saving this country. jon: you are, um, you have a degree in finance, you have an mba, you ran a small business. why is it so tough for congress to come up with something that comes close to, at least, a balanced budget? >> um, the simple honesty is the explosion in spending is in the mandatory categories, the medicares/medicaid, interest on the debt, social security and, um, veterans' benefits. how do you stand up as an elected official, as a politician -- and most politicians, what do they care about? being reelected -- and tell the american people, we haven't been telling you the truth for the last couple decades. we are becoming a country that is, basically, a health insurer with a shrinking army. the medicare is consuming us as

a people. jon: well, look, you're from arizona. you have a great, i'm sure, a large percentage of your congressional district is made up of people of retirement age. are you willing -- >> oh, absolutely. jon: what's the response? >> we do it all the time, and we've done hundreds of public get togethers, about 35 budget presentations. i will tell you, in the first dozen of them, people were angry. but we would have folks coming g and coming to these public budget town halls, and they started to get it. we can save medicare. we can save these programs, but you have to do something that puts market forces into them because what's in law today -- you have to understand, democrats change medicare as you and i know it a couple years ago when they did the health care takeover law. it is going to look very different. it's moving into a rationing model, but it still consumes every dollar of the federal government. jon: we played a --

>> it's a simple -- go ahead. jon: we played a quote from the president early in the hour in which he, essentially, blamed republicans for the stalemate in washington. what happened to bipartisanship? this spirit of bipartisanship that was supposed to pervade the supercommittee? >> very simple. how do you have a spirit of bipartisanship if you're going to have one side that won't do real math? at the end of this decade, almost all federal spending is in the mandatory category. it consumes everything we are. yet when was the last time you saw a democrat politician, someone on the left, get up in front of their own constituents and tell them the truth and tell them that? jon: all right. how about calculators for all american households or at least all members of congress, what do you think? >> we're considering a new campaign slogan. calculators, not teleprompters. jon: all right. congressman david schweikert, republican of arizona, good to talk to you, thanks.

jenna: a convenience store overwhelmed by hundreds of shoplifters all at once, stealing tons of merchandise. the whole crime is caught on tape. a live report next on what concerns some have because we're headed into the holiday season. also, a 12-year-old girl bully today the point where she dries to commit -- tries to commit suicide. her family now is suing the school claiming it didn't do enough to stop all of this bullying, but is the school to blame? our legal panel weighs in next. >> like, going to school. i just wanted to stay home every day.

jenna: a fox news alert in new hampshire, now, where the president is speaking at manchester high school central in new hampshire. so those kids have a good excuse

to be out of class today, listening to the president, who is going to be speaking momentarily about the american jobs act. curious what he's listening to. apparently, some sort of protest. jon: putting a smile on the president's face. jenna: let's listen for a second. >> that's okay. jenna: we can't -- >> okay, guys. jenna: we can't make it out. if president starts talking, i want to see -- jon: usually that's a sign, the applause is usually a sign that some kind of security force has moved in. >> hey, i'm going to be talking about a whole range of things today, and i appreciate you guys making your point. let me go ahead and make mine, all right? and then i'll listen to you, you listen to me, all right?

[cheers and applause] now, what i was saying was, i was having some coffee with some of your neighbors, and one of them was the corpris. mr. corpri is a math teacher here, and even though a visit from me tends to disrupt things a little bit, he did want me to remind all of his students that you still have homework to do. [laughter] but as chris said, he's also a colonel, recently retired after 26 years in the military. jenna: all right, so the president seems to have the floor now. we'll try to work on getting some more information about who exactly was causing that disruption, but the president is speaking at a high school there. apparently, the students still have homework. you can listen to the president streaming live now on foxnews.com at the ever-important state, by the way, of new hampshire. so we'll keep an eye on things.

jon: we have brought you stories like this one before, and it seems to be happening more and more up. so-called flash mobs assemble, they swarm in, and they steal from stores simply overwhelmed by the sheer numbers participating in the crime. rick folbaum has more on this latest one. >> reporter: this was right outside of washington, d.c., and you would think that at least one person in this mob would have been smart enough to realize that 7-eleven's have surveillance cameras that capture everybody who comes in and out of the store. well, because of the surveillance camera, police have been able to track down and question about half a dozen of these kids who were thought to have been part of this. they helped themselves to food and drinks, nobody paid for a thing. as you can see here, there is a level of sophistication just as some the teenagers leave the store, more come in and take their place. the lone cashier really just overwhelmed, couldn't do anything to stop it. this is the second time since august that an area 7-eleven has been targeted and now county

officials are proposing a curfew for all kids under 17. officials in philly have done the same thing. anyway, if you have any information, call the montgomery county, maryland, police department. there's the number on the screen, 301-565-5835. back to you, jon. jon: nice to know, wonder where their parents are right now. >> reporter: good question. jon: thanks, rick. jenna: well, a mom who says her daughter tried to commit suicide because she was constantly bullied at school is suing the school claiming the school failed to act on her complaints. joining us to work through the story, former prosecutor marla and defense attorney eric. marla, let's start with you. there's a lot of different background to this story, and we'll get to some of it, but why in your mind does this cross the line, the bullying that happened in the school, cross the line to where the school is now liable for the students' actions? >> well, in 2008 a law was passed by governor jeb bush at

the time in regards to bullying. this is a new epidemic that has come across as a national epidemic, and florida is one of the states that is trying to get a stance and a grip on it. in this case the school board is the parent or the principal of the child, and that's the daughter's mother is suing saying that that school board was negligent. jenna: okay. here's one of the reasons why the mother is saying this, eric. the parents both went to multiple sources, they went to the principal, the assistant principal, the guidance counselor, they went to the school's superintendent, the father's a police officer, he tried to see if he could file charges. they've done all of this work, and they were able to get their daughter out of the school, but the school district said to them, listen, we can't provide transportation for her, so she was stuck. she tries to commit suicide. how would you defend against that? how do you defend the school district for not doing more? >> jenna, it's plain and simple.

every lawsuit; duty, breach, causation, damages. the school board acted reasonably here. what they did was they transferred her to another school. what they did is they suspended one of the bulliers. they have a bully hotline in place. the school board did everything they could to prevent this alllying from happening -- this bullying from happening. jenna: how would you respond to that, marla? >> i would say the school did not act reasonable. the police allege in the lawsuit they went to authorities requesting the alleged bulliers get transferred, and according to the lawsuit, they said, you know, your daughter maybe needs to get thicker skin here. so did they act? did they not act? that's really the question that the judge is going to have to decide. jenna: and, eric, that was an interesting comment, wasn't it? for the principal to call home and say, listen, your daughter needs to be tougher. >> listen, marla, i don't agree with what marla's saying. that dog is not going to hunt. maybe she needs to be tougher, but the issue is did the school

board have knowledge, and if they did, what did they do to act reasonably? what did they do to prevent it? they transferred her, they suspended a student. the school board cannot watch these children 24/7. in the words of the song crosby, stills and nash, we teach our children well, but it is not the school board's policy to implement procedures they cannot control. they try today prevent the bullying, and the school board should not be liable. jenna: it'll be interesting to watch this case. again, with bullying, it's a slippery slope. what makes it anything, it's a tough case to work through. we'll see where the parents get with this case. ma la and eric -- marla and eric, thank you so much. >> thank you and happy thanksgiving. jon: a warning for one of our nation's largest banks, what it means for bank of america and especially you if you're one of its customers. and tens of thousands take to the streets of cairo. they are demanding change. they are disappointed at what has happened since the arab

spring. there's new word now that egypt's military rulers are moving up the date for transferring power. ambassador john bolton joins us to explain why that could be a major problem. [gunfire] [gunfire] ♪

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jenna: a quick update on something that happened moments ago. you see the president there speaking at a high school in new hampshire today about the american jobs act and what he's going to do ahead for the employment situation. as we introduced you to the

president today and showed you where he was standing, there were some hecklers, and we couldn't make out what they were saying. according to a local reporter from the new hampshire union, that reporter says that the president was getting heckled by occupy wall street protesters and goes on to make a mention that that's ironic. of course, the president has come out and said that he understands the frustrations of some of the protesters and, in fact, he just mentioned that in his speech here saying that a lot of folks who have been in new york and across the country in the occupy movement, there's a profound sense of frustration that the essence of the american dream, work hard, make it is slipping away, and that's not the way things are supposed to work here, not in america. so if you want to listen to the president, go ahead, foxnews.com is where we have that streaming, we'll go on to try to confirm some of these reports about who those hecklers were and what they had to say. jon: bank of america has been under a secret probation of sorts with federal regulators since 2009 giving it time to get

its fiscal house back in order. but now those federal officials are warning about enforcement action if bank does not strengthen its balance sheet and soon. elizabeth macdonald is from the fox business network. secret is not a word you hear about very often in banking, elizabeth. >> yeah. this is what's called a memorandum of understanding between the federal reserve, the office of controller of the currency and bank of america. it should be pointed out that more than a thousand banks and thrifts are operating under this so-called memorandum of understanding, jon, and what that means is bank regulators are still trying to tighten the leash on banks because they're worried about future problems in the banking sector. bank of america's asset size, jon, has it about the size of france. so, you know, it's a pretty big balance sheet. bank of america is not commenting on this "wall street journal" story. it is, essentially, moving to clean up its balance sheet. it's, basically, shed over $100 billion in assets since 2009

when it was put under this memorandum, and it's gotten rid of about $84 billion in loans. so, you know, the bank has been moving to clean up its balance sheet, but still federal regulators are worried about the bank, they're still worried about its exposures to problem mortgages and, also, overall problems in europe are high on the list of concern for federal banking regulators here in the united states. back to you, jon. jon: all right. elizabeth macdonald, fox business, thanks. >> sure. jon: as tens of thousands of protesters fill cairo's central square, new reports say egypt's military rulers are pledging to hand over power to a civilian government earlier than they had planned. they say they'll do it by july 1st. but the crowds in tahrir square are rejecting that plan saying they will not stop until the current military leader steps aside. let's talk about it with ambassador john bolton, former u.s. ambassador to the united nations. the obama administration was pretty eager to see the government of hosni mubarak go

last spring. this is the result, apparently. is it a case of being careful what you wish for? >> well, exactly. i think that we pursued a really contradictory policy during much of the arab spring, and i think you're now seeing the result. you know, what looks to be here popular demonstrations against the military, in fact, is much more complex. and the military decision to confirm a presidential election in egypt next spring followed by a handover plus the decision to go ahead, apparently, next week with parliamentary elections really benefits the group that's most organized already, most prepared to contest an election, and that's the muslim brotherhood which ought to worry a lot of people here in washington. jon: the egyptian military is the one group that seems to have the power to hold that country together. it's got discipline, it's got, you know, some order to it. if they hand over to a civilian

government too soon, what's going to be the result? >> well, if next week these elections for parliament go forward, the muslim brotherhood and even more extremist islamist groups are projected to do very, very well. and they will, of course, then have an influence not just on government policy, but on the presidential elections in the spring, the coptic christians, the secular pro-democracy forces are not nearly as well organized as the brotherhood, nor even in some cases as mubarak's old party. so the military's playing a very, from their point of view, a very careful game here looking like they're moving toward transition, but, in fact, helping to keep themselves in place until they and the muslim brotherhood, i'm afraid, work out a deal. jon: let me take a look at another story in that general part of the world that's pretty troubling. a report that a number of our cia assets apparently native-born or foreign-born assets in lebanon have been,

essentially, rolled up, their cover blown, and they have been taken out of commission by hezbollah in lebanon. what do you know about that? >> well, this sounds like very bad news. the thing that troubles me as much as the loss of the network has been that the news reports describing hezbollah's announcement and the possible consequences have been filled by quotations from anonymous american officials saying, yes, indeed, this was a u.s. intelligence network. yes, indeed, it's been rolled up. i just find that unconscionable. i think it's a firing offense at a minimum for unnamed officials to be out there passing death sentences, effectively, on our own intelligence assets. you know, people were outraged a few years ago when valerie plame's name came out as a member of the clandestine service. here we have public officials, presumably either intelligence officials, military officials, maybe white house officials

confirming that we've lost this network, and i just, i mean, it is so -- it's unprofessional is the minimal you can say about it. it's really outrageous, and i think the white house ought to do something about it. jon: and hezbollah bankrolled by iran. not good for our country. >> absolutely. and that's just part of iran's continuing effort to keep control in lebanon, to keep the assad family dictatorship in power in syria. we've got real instability all across the middle east. i'm afraid we're just not paying attention to it here in washington. jon: sounds like bad news to me. ambassador john bolton, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: well, a wild scene in south korea. just as parliament votes on a free trade deal with the united states, what sparked this incredible chaos, next. ♪

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jenna: a follow-up, now, on the road to the white house. quite literally, in fact. we told you about the i-4 corridor in florida yesterday, the stretch of highway shaping up to be the most hotly-contested political road in all of our country. a huge chunk of the state's puerto rican population calls that area home in florida, and they're now a force to be reckoned with, something that's getting a lot of attention. steve harrigan is live from the i-4 in tampa. steve? >> reporter: that hispanic demographic will really be a battleground between both sides. right now we're in antonio easy forward-making shop. an 87-year-old man still rolls by hand about 100 cigars a day. he's not sure who he's going to vote for, but it's a contest that is changing among his pan hispanics. for a long time you've had the republican-leaning hispanics in southern florida, but now they're going to have

competition from a heavily democratic, increasingly growing group of puertoricans here in the middle of the state changing the political equation in florida. ♪ muck. >> welcome to puerto rico café. >> an influx along the i-4 corridor threatens to change the nature of florida's hispanic vote. >> the puerto rican vote has been very flexible. in '08 it leaned heavily for barack obama. >> reporter: osceola county has seen its puerto rican population increase 147%. >> you could be able to walk on it. >> cardiologist roberto torres is one of the state's 800,000 puerto ricans. he came to orlando to pursue the american dream. >> the american dream is a lot of work. it means waking up at 5:00 in the morning and working 12, 13, 14 hours a day, and that's it. >> reporter: torres has one

son in the army, one son in the marines and a little fighter at home. but what the u.s. needs now, he says, is compromise, more and more of his patients these days are unemployed with no medical insurance. >> it's going to take much more than being republican or democrat or independent to solve this eshoo. issue. >> reporter: this used to be an entire factory of cuban-americans rolling cigars by hand here. antonio, at 87s is the only one left. he's been doing it since age 17, he estimates he's rolled up to two million cigars. the puerto regans -- puerto ricans have seen hedge numbers but have yet to translate that into power here in florida. jenna: what an interesting look at just one slice of america be. we really enjoy these reports, steve. thank you so much. >> reporter: thank you. jon: 70 years of cigar rolling, that's a lot of cigars. a missing 2-year-old girl

safely back home with her family now. how she may have gotten out on her own and into so much trouble. a live report straight have ahead. and more and more airline passengers caught with guns in their carry-on luggage? sometimes it's an honest mistake, but the tsa says there is a scary increase in the number of people trying to speak guns through -- sneak guns through security intentionally. we'll talk about it with an expert next.

jon: a fox news alert, and a bulletin from the associated press able the goings-on in egypt, and it is not likely to meet with much approval in washington. the military government there is offering, apparently, to name a new civilian cabinet that would be headed by a technocrat, not a politician, and to schedule

presidential elections by june. the elections that are scheduled for this coming monday, apparently, would go on as scheduled, and that is likely to meet with the approval of the muslim brotherhood which is expected to win handily in those upcoming elections. it doesn't sound exactly like what our state department was hoping for in the turnover of government there. "the new york times" is reporting that the open-ended timetable that the military had been talking about for elections there would be scrapped in favor of this presidential election no later than june. whether that meets with the, meets with the approval of the egyptian populace still to be determined, but things seem to be tumbling in the direction of a win for the muslim brotherhood over there, and that is not likely to meet with the approval of uncle sam. we'll keep you updated as best we can, "happening now." jenna: also right now an arizona family is breathing a sigh of relief after a missing

2-year-old girl is found safe and sound. so often we don't have these type of results, rick, so what happened here? >> reporter: i'll tell you, jenna, this is the kind of news we wish we could report more often when it comes to missing kids. 2 and a half year karma diaz has been found safe and sound, the little girl just returning to her home now. she was apparently found at the home of a nearby neighbor. karma's mother thinks that karma left the home on her own sometime between 11:30 and midnight last night. the girl's grandmother says that a door leading outside was left wide open at the time of the disapoorns, the fbi got involved in the search but said from the get go they did not think foul play was an issue. once again, this young girl found at a neighbor's home, and she's okay. back to you. jenna: we'll take the good news. rick, thank you. jon: guns are allowed on commercial flights if they are unloaded and in checked baggage, in the belly of the airplane. but believe it or not, the tsa

screeners say they find four or five guns in carry-on bags every single day at u.s. airports. now, some are, apparently, just left in the bags by mistake, but security screeners say they are seeing an increase in passengers who are deliberately trying to hide those guns and get them past security. let's talk about it with tom blank, the former deputy director of the transportation security administration. they are finding four to five guns a day. now, that doesn't seem like a lot, but the number, apparently, is up over just the last year, huh, tom? >> well, it's really an amazing story. it's been ten years since the federal government took over aviation security, created tsa. the agency is at front of mind for the traveling public and airline passengers, understanding the procedures and its purposes, prohibited items and preventing them from getting onboard aircraft is a key responsibility, and it's hard to

believe that people these days don't understand that you can't carry a gun aboard. it is disturbing that we do see an increase in people intentionally trying to circumvent security, and that's something that's very, very worrisome. jon: yeah. it's one thing if you're licensed to carry a weapon for whatever reason, maybe you own a small business, you've got a conceal-carry permit. and you forget sometimes that maybe that bag you carry your weapon in shouldn't be going through in, you know, the check-in luggage. but some people, apparently, are trying to deliberately carry their guns onboard, very up loaded. why? -- very often loaded. why? >> well, you could only think of two scenarios. one is that they intend to do harm to the passengers, the aircraft and the u.s. commercial aviation system. and that's a bad thing, it's why we have federal air marshals and other law enforcement officers aboard. the other is that they are intentionally being reckless by not using the approved method of

putting the loaded weapon into their checked baggage, into a lock box and following the procedures. they don't want the inconvenience, and they're willing to do something that's reckless and dangerous and put other travelers at a significant inconvenience for delays and disruption at the checkpoint, not to mentn subjecting themselves to some pretty serious fines that can range up to $11,000 if you're caught with your gun at the checkpoint. jon: tom blank is the former deputy director of the transportation security administration. some scary and sobering numbers there, tom. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, jon. jon: "happening now" will be right back. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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jon: if you're traveling for this thanksgiving week, pay attention to the weather. janice dean wants you to. jenna: follow her on twitter. jon: she will keep you up to date. thank you for joining us. jenna: "