tv Happening Now FOX News February 7, 2012 8:00am-10:00am PST
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the next line? >> bill: i'm good. we'll catch you tomorrow, everybody. have a terrific tuesday. martha: "happening now" starts right now. we'll see you tomorrow. jenna: you have a pretty good singing voice. maybe in the next two hours, we'll get jon scott with a little sampler. we are moving to developments in the gop white house as voters across three states head to the polls today. we're glad you're with us everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon sko*fplt we're here in the fox news room and "happening now", caucuses in colorado and phaeupbdz primary in missouri today, mitt romney fresh off his big tpwheupb nevada and florida is acting more and more like the frontrunner focusing his attacks on president obama instead of the gop rivals. >> so this president, he was
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elected at a critical time. when the nation faces real challenges, as a patriot has been quoted as having said, either lead, follow or get out of the way. this president was elected to lead. he decided to follow. now it's his time to get out of the way. jenna: so that is mitt romney and what he has to say. in the meantime, romney may be keeping an eye on rick santorum, who supporters are among social conservatives, and santorum is hammering away at romney's conservative credentials, especially when it comes to the key issue of health care. >> governor romney says well, my plan is very different than omabacare. i didn't increase medicare taxes or i didn't cut medicare. he says i didn't cut medicare as governor of massachusetts. anybody want to guess why he didn't cut medicare? because he can't cut medicare as governor of
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massachusetts. medicare is a federal program, not a state program. i mean, it's almost incredible that he even said something like that. jon: juan williams is a fox news political analyst. let's talk about this with him. juan, the governor may want to act like the presumed frontrunner, the guy who has the nomination wrapped up, but in states like minnesota, the polls show he's got a real race on his hands. >> absolutely jon. in fact, the polls indicate that rick santorum is in the lead in minnesota. and now the polls aren't great -- this is a function of who turns out tonight, who takes the time to go to a caucus and participate and that's why you see a strong element of conservative activists taking the lead, and it could be why rick santorum is not only in the lead but suddenly, he's the target of attacks coming from the romney camp, calling him a pork barrel
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spend egg during his time in the senate, saying his critique of the romney health care plan in massachusetts is off base. all of the sudden, mitt romney, who was trying to fly above the fray, finds himself in combat not just with newt gingrich but rick santorum. i don't know jon is the beneficiary of the michele bachmann vote? she's a minnesota congresswoman. if she were still in the race i presume she would be drawing support in minnesota. >> i think that's right, jon. i think it's also an indicator that there are a lot of strong social conservatives in the state of minnesota, although you and i both know that minnesota historically has been a bastion of didn'tic and liberal leaning ideals. don't forget there are conservatives there, and i think you'll also see in colorado today, james dodd kohnson came out and supported gingrich, but you're going to see conservatives in colorado. romney is favored there, but again, what we're seeing is not something that's going to derail the romney campaign but we're seeing the persistence of an antiromney sentiment and people who want to say
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they're not ready to crown the the nominee quite yet. jon: one thing he has is money and also organization. newt gingrich really took him to the mat in south carolina and that momentum went away pretty fast. >> and because of money. to just reiterate your point, money, money, money. and in nevada, gingrich spent most of his time behind closed doors not campaigning but trying to raise money, and today, again, gingrich is less of a factor in a place like minnesota because he doesn't have the ground troops, the organization that, would assure him that he can get folks in the caucuses to back him and not a santorum. so we're seeing a little bit of fighting now between people who are in the back of the pack, ron paul has some organization, he has good numbers there, but again, i think it's really a matter of who's the antiromney. and that theme just persists throughout this campaign. jon: juan williams, our fox news political analyst, thank you. if you're out there in colorado or missouri or
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minnesota today and you're eil-- eligible to vote, make your vote count. keep it here for coverage of the big presidential contest in those states. tonight we'll be on the scene in minnesota, missouri, colorado as the numbers come in. this is, after all, your election headquarters, right? >> jenna: next to washington state, where horrific new details emerge in that double murder-suicide. we're learning more about the deaths of two young boys, murdered by their own father, josh powell is his name, he was the person of interest in the disappearance of his wife susan back in 2009. now we're learning autopsy reports reveal powell attacked his two young sons before blowing up his home. i'm going to leave some of those details to dan springer who is live at the scene. dan. >> reporter: yeah jenna, the disturbing coroner's report also indicates that there was an axe used, that josh powell chopped at his boys' necks but those blows did not kill the boys. the cause of death is listed
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officially as smoke inhalation, the bodies of five-year-old bradeen and seven-year-old charles were found next to josh powell's body, the boys had just arrived for a supervised visit. the caseworker, who was locked out of the house by josh powell, was said to be gravely traumatized 679 -- traumatized. she had been supervised theo supervising court ordered visitations and never reported the boys were in any danger with their father. arson investigators say powell doused 10 gallons of gasoline throughout the house and torched it, the fire burned so hot and so fast, firefighters who arrived between three and five minutes after it started had no chance of getting inside. detectives from west valley utah were also on the scene, they had been disappearing -- investigating the disappearance of susan powell for over two years, the chief said he felt horrible about what happened to the boys but he says the blame belongs to josh powell alone. they had hoped to charge powell by now but were still building a circumstantial case against him. >> when you charge on criminal cases and
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especially if it ends up being a homicide, murder, whatever that is, without a body, it's just more difficult. and so you have to have more -- a stronger case to be able to make those arguments in court. it will be probably -- it would have been a jury issue >> >> reporter: chief neilsen says the case remains open and he will work until he can give susan powell's family some answers. with josh powell dead, the focus may be shifting to his father, steve powell, who is in jail on child porn kha*pblgs. chief nielsen said yesterday it is a high probability someone other than josh knows what happened to susan. steve powell is on suicide watch at the jail, yet there's a report that he showed almost no emotion when told what happened to his son and grandsons on sunday. police say steve powell remains uncooperative as they try to answer the questions about what happened to susan powell. jenna. jenna: dan springer, back to you. as we learn more about this case. thank you. jon: well, house and senate negotiators are meeting on capitol hill right now.
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they are trying to come up with some kind of a deal on an issue affecting everybody who earns a paycheck in this country. we're talking about the payroll tax cut extension. lawmakers have until the end of this month to figure out a way to pay for it, as well as unemployment benefits. and crucial payments to medicare providers on the table as well. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill to sort through some of this for us. already today, mike, lots of blame game going on in the struggle to come up with a full year extension of the tax cut, right? >> reporter: jon, that is right, and republicans are saying the idea of a millionaire surtax which the democrats have repeatedly thrown out there shows that the democrats are more interested in scoring political points over engaging and good faith negotiations. republicans have repeatedly called the idea of taxes millionaires more a nonstarter. here's more from republican leader mitch mcconnell, a short time ago: >> so let's allow the congress to fib their --
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finish their work, get this payroll tax cut extended for the rest of the year. that's what republicans want, that's what the president says he wants. there's no reason we shouldn't be able to get this done. >> reporter: speaker john boehner says that the senate democrats never have come to the table with a pay for, an offset of new spending, so republicans clearly expressing frustration this morning with their democratic counterparts, jon. jon: what do the democrats say about where things stand? >> reporter: well, the democrats say this they feel like this is an emergency and this does not necessarily need to be paid for. they suggest if you want to pay for it, well then why not take the money from oil subsidies or in taxing millionaires more. here's more from a key house democrat, john larson, a few moments ago: >> we're being hostage to a conference that can't even agree itself on whether it's forward or not. >> reporter: so the payroll tax extension as it stands now is due to run out
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three weeks from tomorrow. negotiations seem kind of stuck at this point, jon. jon: and it could be stuck for a long time, or so it would seem. mike emanuel, keep an eye on it, thanks. >> thanks sir. jenna: jury selection is underway in a high profile very emotional case, of a promising athlete accused of killing his ex-girlfriend. you'll recognize the two of them, the girl was a universal of virginia lacrosse player. the trial is just starting now. jon: also, facebook and twitter. millions of people just can't do without them. really can't. a new study says the pull on social media is stronger than other addictions. believe that? we'll explain. [ wind howling ]
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jenna: thanks to twitter, lots of people can't make through the day without checking them at least once, twaoeurbgs maybe more than that. according to a study by researchers at the university of chicago, social networking services are more difficult to resist than cigarettes or alcohol. joining me now, psychiatrist and fox medical a team member dr. keith ablow. this is a small study, dr. ablow, only 200 people or so. what does it mean for the millions? the millions of people that use facebook and twitter? >> well, i think that it's very concerning. you can't extrapolate to some extent from the 200 folks included in this university of chicago business school study. to the rest of us, it confirms what we suspected. people who are pulled -- polled and they polled them using blackberry
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smartphones, they would reach out and say of these vices and they include as a vice social media sites, what have you been unable to resist doing, is it smoking, drinking, when you get an impulls, what can you say no to and can't say no to, it turns out checking facebook or twitter was much harder to resist than taking a drink or smoking when you feel like doing those things. jenna: one of the reasons the researchers safe gave when they looked at their results was they said people thought there was less consequences. you check your twitter, i just did this now, so i'm guilty of this by the way -- >> there you go, you're addicted. >> jenna: let's say if i was drinking on the air, there are different consequences to that, right, or is there? what is the consequence for constantly being on twitter or facebook? >> well, listen, this is the trouble. every drug of abuse starts with folks thinking this are no consequences. freud thought cocaine was fabulous, gave it to his
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patient, used it himself, until he realized you can have a stroke, you can't get off this stuff. there are very serious consequences to facebook, i think. i think it removes you from your real life experience, i think it urges you to create a reality television version of yourself, i think it causes you to think you have thousands of friends and feeds narcissism. there are tremendous downsides to social media and you can't resist them and there's a prescription for disaster. jenna: if we want to withdraw from social media, what's a way to do that, if we want to take a step back starting today? >> what you would do is say okay i'm going to put myself on a schedule, i'm going to check only at these times, even if it's frequently, even if it's i'll check once an hour, that's pretty frequently, also holiday, a drug holiday, because this is a drug, say hey saturday, i'm not checking from #
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o'clock a.m. for 6:00 p.m., don't put it near your bed, and there are other things to do, too, because this is a threat. don't forget that people on drugs blow off their relationships, they could care less about anything else. here's the thing. invest in those things to the exclusion of this thing. the social media can take over your life. don't let it. buy a puppy. get a girlfriend or boyfriend. love your kids and hug them. this stuff is a drug t. will take your life away from you. >> that's exactly what i'm going to tell my husband. honey, i just stopped with twitter but i got this puppy! dr. ablow, i'll let you know! >> please report back. jenna: and our viewers are tweeting us right now, saying that they're addicted and that we're enablers by talking more about it. it is a growing problem. you know i have twitter open during the show and you're on the chat, so we're both guilty. jon: i'm not a tweeter, but i like -- >> jenna: not yet! >> jon: not yet.
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i want to be there when you tell the commander you brought home a puppy! >> jenna: we'll see. jon: washington is keeping up on the pressure -- or keeping up the pressure on iran, but to what end? why tehran now calls new u.s. sanctions propaganda, and evidence of, quote, a psychological war. a college athlete accused of killing his ex-girlfriend comes face to face in court with her family. up next, why potential jurors are facing some tough questions, even before his trial begins. [ male announcer ] you love the taste of 2% milk.
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the university of virginia and really so many of us across this country. there's his victim, yeardley the sister of his alleged victim, yeardley love, weeping at first awe staring intently at huguely, media crowded the courthouse as jury selection continues. the potential injure -- jurors had if we would be able to handle graphic photos, the crime scene of the victim. joining us, lis weihl, we have to be careful, lis, i slipped up there. this is his alleged victim, this is a case that's pending. so what does the prosecution have to prove here? >> they have to prove that he intended, because he's been charged with premedicated -- premeditated murder, not manslaughter, that he intended to kill her, it wasn't an accident. he's also charged with robbery, breaking in. their best piece of evidence if it comes in, and i think it should, is the videotaped confession that he gave. he waived his miranda rights before he got a lawyer,
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waived his rights, talked to the police and said yes, i banged at her door, i shook her violently, and i banged her against the wall repeatedly. if that comes n. jenna, boy, that's going to be hard to surmount, especially when he has the expert medical examiner who said she died by blunt force trauma to the head. jenna: what do you think about that, not only the video, but according to the reports, this young man had quite the history of violence and drinking. should that be all allowed in, brought in as evidence in this trial? >> no, i don't think the history that compelling. i think he had an arrest, public intoxication and quite honestly none of that would be evidence, that would be propensity evidence, just because he drink in the past or acted violently means he did it this time. >> if he takes the stand it does come in. if he takes the stand against that videotaped confession, and his lawyers will have to council him -- counsel him whether to take the stand, if he takes that stand and the proverbial
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door is open, it wasn't just applicable index indication, it was domestic abuse involving his father. >> that's not quite the case. it doesn't automatically come in. there are -- >> jenna: but jennifer let me interrupt you. should he take the stand. >> yes, he has to. jenna: how should he defend himself there? >> he has to take the stand. somebody has to explain what precipitated the events. he's going to be claiming this was a heat of passion, perhaps, that it wasn't intentionally -- or it wasn't premedicated -- premeditated and there's only one person that can explain that and that's him, because there were no other witnesses. so i suspect he absolutely will take the stand. i think his prior incidences either will not come in -- these are not big huge acts of violence that he did in the past. these are things that, you know, are quite minor, and they would have to come in -- >> jenna: minor, lis, according to who would be making that decision?
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there are differences of opinion. >> i want to bring up something else that was described in detail by the local press. that is both families being inside the courtroom. apparently he had almost two dozen family members, then you had her family members, all the women according to the description, the three of them wearing pink scarves, just as a prosecutor, is that important to have the family there, does that help or hurt the case when you're looking at the facts and obviously, this case being full of a lot of emotion? >> it's very important, because a lot of evidence the prosecution puts forward is not what you hear from the witnesses or the evidence that's actually admissible in court. it is the people. >> that's the camaraderie. the judge did issue a gag order, and said look, you can't bring memorabilia, love memorabilia. but being there, being attentive and i'm assuming they're going to be there every day, of course that has an impact. they're watching everything. jenna: your final thoughts on that. >> it has impact but it's not evidence. evidence comes from the witness stand and the judge will absolutely tell the
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jury that. they are not supposed to be influenced by prejudice or emotion. yes, in a practical reality, it does have an impact, but i think it's a far stretch to call it evidence. jenna: members of the family apparently will be taking the stand on both sides. this is going to give us a lot to talk about. only two jurors were selected yesterday, a retired grandmother and university of virginia professor who has three sons. we'll continue to watch this. thank you both for your insights. >> thank you. >> jon: a soldier's death in afghanistan, sparking a debate that has reached congress. the question is whether to arm medivac helicopters, or add to the number of fighter choppers we have there to escort medivac flights. could that help save the lives of troops wounded in battle? we'll talk to the man leading that fight. >> and an entire elmentry school shut down after days of protests, parents furious after two teachers are arrested on charges of sexually abusing little
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kids. one woman says her grandson had nightmares after one suspect threatened the kids. >> he told him be quiet, be quiet and they're like why, we're just asking questions, and he said be quiet because i'm going to kill you. oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪
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teachers. mark berndt faces 23 counts of lewd acts on children. and second grade teacher daniel springer faces two counts. he even threatened them if they speak out. >> he said, be quiet, be quiet. he said be quiet or i'm going to kill. even though there are other kids right here that would like to speak out, they can't, or they don't have the words, or they are afraid to. jon: the scandal has really rocked los angeles. we have our fox affiliate in los angeles. gigi. parents have begun arriving here at miramonte even though today is a pupil-free day as the transition gets underway.
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parents angry and divided on this decision by an l.a. school superintendent, dr. john deasy to replay the entire staff of this elementary school, 120 people, from the cafeteria to the classroom, all of them being given different duties because of these allegations. shocking allegations of sex-abuse in the classroom here. last week two teachers were taken into custody arrested on felony charges. one teacher mark berndt faces life in prison. he is accused of bizarre behavior, bondage, tying up kids in his classroom. they have about 390 pictures of this they say. another teacher has been accused by his students, two little girls say their teacher tried to fondle them inside the classroom. and we are talking about veteran teachers here. one of them had been here for 30 years, the other one over two
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decades. parents are divided. some say this is a great decision, get everybody out while this investigation is ongoing, while the parents here gathering at miramonte elementary are starting a petition. they say there are great teachers here that shouldn't have to pay the price for these perverts. that is what one parent told us earlier. the superintendent telling us this is an extreme decision because of extreme circumstances. parents had begun boycotting the school, almost 30% of the kids stayed home yesterday. that is the latest. we are live at miramonte elementary school in los angeles. back to you. jon: what a awful story. jenna: as if it isn't dangerous enough for our troops in afghanistan there are now new concerns over the effectiveness of getting wounded troops off the battlefield for life-saving medical treatment. the issue first came to light when an army specialist on patrol in kandahar stepped on a land mine.
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he survived that but died after it took an hour to pick him up off the battlefield and bring him back to the base. michael yahn first reported this story he's a former green beret. he's been embedded with the troops telling their stories. army policy requires armed escort for medivac helicopters which reportedly can cause delays. this report caught the eye of a congressman, todd aiken is a member of the armed services committee. he joins us now. there is a difference of opinion. why are we hearing about this now, ten years into this war? >> that is a very good question, and the thing that we are trying to find is have we created bureaucracy or things that are getting in the way of getting the very fastest treatment possible? and the people, to their credit, that are providing the medical services are doing a fantastic job. people who are flying the helicopters are doing fine. there are a set of rules that seem to be getting in the way,
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in this case costing us the life of one our troops. the issue centered around first of all a army helicopter with a white cross on it. the people in afghanistan consider that a good target. they don't care whether it's carrying somebody wounded. and so the question is, first of all, should those helicopters be armed so that they can defend themselves? and the second question is a larger one of the deployment of helicopters in general, and the rules that govern whether or not they can go in and pick someone up and who makes the call, and do they have the flexibility to get in and get somebody when it's safe, and should they be armed? it's a combination of a series of issues, but it really is about having the right resource at the right place. that's what we've been asking questions about. jenna: and we actually have video of that situation that happened on the ground in afghanistan, where the young man, the young soldier was -- walked over and ied, he's a triple amputee at this point in the video and then you just see
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45, 50 minutes passed before he gets picked up, where they were dropped off. there is a look at helicopter. just to review that point. medivac helicopters don't come in without apatche helicopters because they don't have guns on board. they need that protection and everybody to be safe. you just wrote a letter to the defense secretary, that was joined by 16 other lawmakers. tell us about that, and have you heard a response yet? >> first of all, no, we have not heard a response, and the things that we have heard at different times seem to be kind of conflicting stories. the helicopter that came in there was -- as i said it was called a dust off. but you have another helicopter which is the same airframe that the air force uses called a pedro, and it mounts a couple of machine guns so it can defend itself. the question is does it make sense to put the machine guns that the air force is using onto the army helicopters. the army is saying no, and we're saying, well wouldn't that have given you protection so that you
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could have got even in there half an hour earlier. jenna: if i could, just because we did get a statement from them, they say and they point out right flee so that they are very successful with bringing troops off the battlefield, the wounded in afghanistan. they said if they heard from their battlefield commander's that this was a problem they would change a policy. they did a review in 2008 and they didn't think a change was necessary. what more do you want to hear, and what more change do you want, if that's what the army's official statement is? >> well, you know, there is an army official statement, then there is a little bit of common-sense that you have to try to sort out here. the air force is obviously doing it a different way. they have helicopters that have guns on them that still can pick up patients. so the question is, when the people in afghanistan pay no attention to the white cross on the helicopter, does it not make sense to put machine guns so that you don't have to wait for the escort helicopter?
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or even if you have two dust off helicopters, if both of armed, one could go in and pick up the person that's been hurt in combat and the other one could be flying the air cover. jenna: is it defense cuts, is it perceived defense cuts, is it not the right equipment on the ground? is that part of this conversation or is that a completely separate issue. >> if that were part of the conversation i'd say, i understand, because we have just been cutting the military, in my opinion, way too much. so i would understand that answer. but that is not what we've heard. we've heard no, there is no point to put any machine guns on the helicopters, and yes they are all deployed properly. the people who are running the helicopters, the medical care people are getting is fantastic but that doesn't say that you can't tighten up the game and get helicopters in more rapidly. the fact that the air force could do it one way and the army refuses to do it that way raises
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the question. yes the army has credibility, but so does the air force. why does one work and they are refusing to take a look at that on the other side judge it's an interesting question and a story we're going to follow. i want to mention the name of the young soldier he died. he was army specialist chaz ray clark. we think about him as we talk about his story. thank you very much. we'll talk soon, sir, thank you. >> it was a pleasure joining you. jon: coming out of afghanistan keeping our eye on other major developments in iran. the foreign minister there dismissing tough new u.s. sanctions, he calls them, quote part of a psychological war meant to sew discontent among irans. they say they will do nothing to stop iran's nuclear program. iran's parliament summons ahmadinejad for questions about. a list of accusations, including mismanagement of the nation's economy. with us now former defense and
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national security reporter for the washington times, now setting out on a brand-new venture as senior editor of the just launched, the washington free beacon. bill gertz. congratulations on the launch. we'll talk about it at the end of the segment. ahmadinejad gets called on the carpet. is he in political trouble? >> any discussion of internal iranian politics requires some carefulness. we are dealing with shadows. that said it does appear that the islamist hard line factions in teheran are going off ahmadinejad basically viewing him as less is he lambist and more of a nation in a lis. that is something to watch. whether he will be ousted or not is not clear. clearly i don't think they disagree on a lot of the big issues. there is no movement on giving up their nuclear program or complying with international regulations. jon: he's the public face of iran that we know, but he's not the power. i mean the power lies with the
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mu hr-rbllahs, and particularly komeni. >> yes it's the power is all behind the islamist revolutionary guard core. they are running the show in iran. if ahmadinejad runs a foul of that you could see big problems. he is term limited. there are also allegations of corruption and favoritism. there is a lot of focus on that. but whether or not he'll be ousted or not still remains to be seen. jon: so much arguing about whether or not iran is close to a nuclear weapon. some say it could happen this year, some say the window is much longer than that, perhaps three or four years. where do you fall on that timeline? >> yeah, well we just had testimony last week from the top intelligence officials and they gave a very troubling picture. they don't have good visibility. one of the questions that came up in the senate hearing was, how will we know when iran has made a decision to build a
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nuclear device? i think that the iaea's latest report really shows that they already are on a track to develop nuclear weapons. it shows that they are building triggers for nuclear weapons devices, they are designing warheads for missiles, and also planning preparations for a test. you have to conduct a test or at least share data from a test in order to be declared a nuclear power. but the estimates are it could be one year, but i think that we really don't know, and we don't have good intelligence. they could be much further along, and of course this brings in the israeli response calculation. jon: bill gertz knows defense and those kind of issues better than just about anybody. your 12 hours into the washington free beacon, right? tell us about it real quickly. >> this is a great new start up newspaper. we're going to do a lot of in-depth, investigative reporting. we are really going after a lot of stories that aren't being covered sufficiently, and i think that we're really going to
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make our mark on washington journalism. i kind of call us the seal team 6 of washington journalism. jon: it will be interesting to see how it goes. thanks for joining us. we'll keep an eye on the free beacon. >> thank you. jenna: forget about life on mars. there could be another earth-like planet out there. mitchio joins us left with this mystery as we may not be the only game in town as jon and i like to say. could a visit of a russian envoy be the start of peace talks? we'll dig a little deeper on that coming up next. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle -- 8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time.
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like we orbit our sun. the weather may support water and even life. but we are told you shouldn't back your bags just yet. this thing will take a little while to reach. dr.~michio kaku a professor at the university of new york, he's author of physics of the future how science will shape human destiny in our daily lives by the year 2100. this planet is how far away. >> it's 22 light years away. that is a hundred trillion miles. don't pack your bags yet. it will take a few thousand years for the saturn rocket to reach this client. jon: you think sooner or later we'll come up with better propulsion systems that will get us there quicker. >> some day earth people may sunbathe on this planet, battling sea monsters. right out of star wars, this is the first one to have a liquid
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ocean on it. it's where we came from. and now we found it. this is a holy grail of planetary astronomy. a planet with a liquid ocean. jon: this thing is five times the size of earth so the gravitational forces would mean your average male would weigh almost a thousand pounds. it's not like you'll be walking around on there. >> there is always a draw back. you lose those pounds after christmas, then you're gaining weight when you visit this tropical planet. we find a new planet, every three or four days we identify a new planet with our satellites and telescopes. jon: the keffler satellite is part of the reason for this discovery. >> we believe out of 20 stars one of the stars will have an earth-like planet, one in 20. jon: wow. and they are finding new ones every day. >> that's right when you look at the night sky you will wonder whether anyone is looking back
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at you from outer space. jon: i'm going to come and take your class at nyu. >> city university. jon: city university of new york. you get so excited about all this stuff, it gets me excited. dr.~michio kaku thank you. jenna: the new planet makes you extra heavy and you have to battle sea monsters. that doesn't sound key for woman stphaoeu wonder how close that sun is. could you sunbathe there perhaps. jenna: we'll leave that for another segment. it will be a whole other segment we'll get into that. this is a major story, it's the large drug tunnel ever discovered by u.s. border agents linking san diego to tijuana mexico. drug smugglers aren't using it and you won't believe who is. rick leventhal has the story that gives a new term to real seal. >> reporter: we found a business of selling stolen goods on the internet legally because they are partners with police departments. we'll show you how you can buy stuff like a pile of bicycles
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away now. these are the world champion new york giants super bowl champions in a parade in lower manhattan, the canyon of heros they call it down there on lower broadway in that area, where they rain the confetti out of the old fashioned sky scraper windows that you can still open. the new york giants champions of the super bowl getting that parade that they promised their fans, and there it is live. we'll take you back there if anything interesting happens. jenna: in the meantime, go giants, right? jon: that's right. jenna: for our crew. jon: that's right the giants fans are all around us, except
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for rachel our control room producers. jenna: who might just bring us a commercial. jon: we might go black here any time. jenna: some of my favorite eubgs topics, jewelry, electronics and other things at 90% off. if you think it's too good to be true and it must be stolen you're actually right. it turns out you can buy it legally. rick will tell us where it comes from. >> reporter: it comes from all across the country, from police departments across the country much of it. you're probably too young to remember when the jets won the super bowl. here is a joe namath autographed football right here that was collected by somebody some where. sometimes it's the result of a burglary, maybe it was found in a stolen vehicle, bought with a stolen credit card. it sits in the police department. after 60 or 90 days nobody claims it. they have to resell it.
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police departments don't want to be in the action business and they may not be that good at it. when they have a dirt bike, motorcycle, or lawnmower now two departments across the country are giving those items to this place, property room.com. they catalogue everything, photograph it, test it, make sure it works and put it up for action starting at a dollar, and people are buying it, jenna. jenna: what happens if john is like wait a minute, that is my lawnmower. jon: i've been burglarized a couple of times. >> is that his light bar? jenna: i don't know. if you see something that is actually yours do you still have to buy it? >> well, no, that is a good question. they say they have a give back policy. if you go on their website and you see something that belongs to you you can tell them about it, and they'll give it back to you at no charge, because they want to reunite owners with their stolen property. but if it isn't claimed and nobody knows about it then they can go on the website and they can bid and some people are buying stuff, like these
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bicycles and refurbishing them and reselling them for a profit. listen. >> i bought rims and tires for cars, for trucks. i bought tools for my business. i bought a surfboard or two here and there. that is a good combination of items to buy. >> it's a pure numbers game for me. the more i purchase the better are the chances of that bike that is worth something, and that i can flip. >> reporter: and the owner of the property room says they are turning lemons into lemonade. jon: you can do it too for a buck skwraoeu wonder what you're going to walk away with today. i'll check back in with you later. we'll see. stpho: i'll give him my shopping list. president obama seems to be changing his position on super packs. he's now giving the okay to his team to help raise unlimited campaign cash for a super pack headed by two of his former aids. we'll get into that. and should airport security be
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>> >> reporter: in the fox news control raorpblg the second hour of "happening now", the stories are all new, take a look up here, major safety concerns, eggs being recalled in over 30 states. we'll tell you what you need to know to keep your family safe. also a voice mail message left by a killer, josh powell, just moments before he killed his two young sons and himself. a killer in his own words, straight ahead, we'll play it for you. and a sophisticated drug tunnel, built, connecting the united states and mexico. wait until you hear who's using it, and for what. also we've got aur eye on a ticker tape parade being held for the new york champion new york giants, that and breaking news as it
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happens. the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: working hard in that control room. you can hear him, right? >> let's go, guys. the republican race for the president rolling through minnesota, colorado and missouri. we're glad you're with us, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott, all three states holding contests today. mitt romney is the heavy favorite but some analysts say rick santorum could be getting help from evangelicals in minnesota. >> jenna: mike emanuel has the latest. what's happening there? >> reporter: of the caucus goers with whom we've been speaking, they can be divided into two camps. one believes the only thing important in this particular caucus is picking a candidate who can beat barack obama in the general election. >> it's the number one goal i think for any republican
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conservative, and so whoever can have the best chance at doing that, that's who we're going to vote for. >> reporter: the other group can repeat from memo the most prominent talking points of ron paul and they believe them with great passion. >> i'm a recent ron paul kohn vert, actually. i grew up an establishment republican guy and the message just really, his message of freedom and liberty, you know, free market economics, and counseled constitutional foreign policy resonated with me as a voter. >> ron paul has been drawing big crowds in the state that has supported independent likes ross perot and jesse ventura in the past. the analysts are keeping a close eye on rick santorum. he has been polling well and is expected to do well with the conservatives who will be motivated to brave this cold and get out to the caucus sites during the middle of the week and that
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is not to discount newt gingrich, the kind of people participating in the caucus are, again, motivated, keufr tiff. -- conservative. it's expected they will make the choice for the most conservative on the landscape, which could well be someone more conservative than myth roam roth romney. jenna: you said brave the cold. how cold is it? >> reporter error real cold, like all kinds of alaska cold. jenna: mike tobin from minnesota, mike, thank you. jon: tobin is a tough guy. he's not affected by it. president obama makes a u turn, deciding now it's okay for his team to help raise campaign cash for a superpac, attended by two of the president's former aides. let's talk about it with chris stierwalt, fox news' digital politics editor. the president has famously denounced -- denounced this famously time and time again, perhaps most famously when he used his state of the union address to tell the supreme court they were wrong to allow this kind of
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thing to take place but i guess, well, time has passed, huh chris? >> time has passed, jon. the most important thing for the president right now is winning this election. that's what he's got to do. his argument essentially is this, that he needs to do this thing and engage in this practice and support an organization that he says is part of this chronic problem that is saluting -- polluting american politics. he used it as a campaign tool in 2006 -- in 2010, accusing republicans of receive shadowy donations from foreign countries. very rough stuff. now he's got to do it because he wants to kroupbter -- counter the attack, but his promise is this, let me get reelected and then i'll fix this problem but in fact it's similar to what he said in 2008 when he didn't participate in the public financing of presidential elections, and every major candidate has done since the watergate era, when he didn't do that, he said i'm going to circumvent this
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process so i can fix it later, but in these years he really hasn't. jon: is he is asking supporters, maybe begging supporters, to contribute, but saying i'm not actually going to go out there and do the fundraising. >> he can't go -- i guess he could go fundraise. he's not allowed to coordinate with this group led by his former spokesman bill burton and has a lot of other obama heads in it, and he can't really go out and he may not by law coordinate this, but what his campaign manager, jim mckeanan did kwraed was say big donor, don't just give to us where you're limited by campaign finance laws, give unlimited sums to the folks on the outside so they can run attack ads and they can do this stuff, and it's part of how we're going to end up, jon, with what will probably be the ugliest presidential campaign possibly the ugliest presidential campaign in history because you're going to have this firefight going on between the superpacs while the campaigns themselves try to
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stay positive. the principals try to stay positive. you'll have an unlimited, unrestricted firefight going on between the superpacs. jon: and i love the description you wrote in today's power play as to how the white house justifies this, they say how can president obama get reelected and end the corrosive influence of superpacs if you don't support his superpac? >> it's complicated, yes, sir, it's complicated! >> jon well, i guess all kinds of psychological decisions that have to be -- or evaluations that could be made. anyway, chris stierwalt, thank you for bringing it to us, we appreciate it. >> you beta. jon catch chris every day, "power play live", log on to fox news.cole, do all your watching happening now, why don't you? >> jen well now this business alert. more than 40 states are reportedly ready to sign a deal with the nation's five biggest mortgage lenders, settling complaints about kpwhro foreclosures.
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the other states are still finding -- fighting for better turns and those other states are pretty important. peter barnes from the 20*bgs fox business network joins us. >> reporter: that's absolutely right, big foreclosure states like california and florida are not part of this deal yet, and sources say getting them into the deal will be important to getting the banks themselves to agree to a final deal and in getting a lot more money into the settlement for struggling homeowners. now, the attorneys general have been reviewing a deal of up to $25 billion by the nation's five top mortgage lenders and servicer, including bank of america and wells fargo, in the robo signing scandal and investigation into the bank lending and servicing practices. sources close to the negotiations say the deal would provide up to $17 billion for reducing principal and providing similar benefits for hundred of thousands of struggling homeowners facing foreclosure. another 5 billion would go to pay fines and penalties to fund state and federal debt counseling programs and
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to pay people who have already lost their homes in foreclosure, about $2000 each. now, the deal would set aside up to $3 billion for mortgage refinancials well to cut interest costs on loans. notice i said up to in these instances, because without california, one of the most litigious proconsumer states with more foreclosures than any other state, banks say they will reduce their funding for the settlement by billions, according to sources. now, through a spokesperson, california attorney general kamala harris said, quote, we are closer now than ever before but we are not there yet. jenna: we'll continue to watch. it's been weeks, months in development we'll see if and when it comes to fruition. peter, thank you. jon: let's take you overseas now, where syrian forces are renewing what looks like an all-out assault on the city of homs today. they're trying to stifle antigovernment protestors,
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activists report at least 15 more syrians were killed across the country as a top russian diplomat arrives for meetings with syria's. leland vitter is tracking the developments, live from jerusalem for us. leland. >> reporter: jon, outside this city of homs, this is a ring of syrian army tanks and heavy artillery firing into the city in all directions, the video coming to us from inside homs, grossly uploaded to youtube and the like by activists there, shows indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods, a number of field hospitals, these are homes where they're taking the wounded to, have been hit as well, killing people there. about 100-200 people a day are dying inside homs, medical supplies in that city are almost nonexistent. they've also cut off electricity to the city of homs, making it very difficult for these people to go about any sense of a normal every day life. in damascus today, the capitol of syria, the russian foreign minister showed up to receive a
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hero's welcome, but the president whose country saved president assad, he told the russian minister he was going to do his best and was committed to ending the violence. though actions speak louder than words here in the middle east. and so far, it doesn't look like there's any end to the violence. sixteen countries now, including the united states and saudi arabia, have recalled their ambassadors from syrian protest to the brutality, and to give you an idea of what's happening over the next couple of days, we talked about that ring of tanks around homs, there are -- 24e are also backed up by syrian infantry preparing for assault, street by street, into the town of homs, the syrian free army says they're going to do anything they can to stop it but are horribly outgunned in this regime which has a history of slaughtering its own citizens. back to you. jon: absolutely appalling what they are doing to their own people there. leland vitter, thank you. jenna: well, some new developments in the josh
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powell murder-suicide in washington state. police say just 20 minutes before powell blew up his home, killing himself and his two sons, he sent e-mails to his lawyer, his pastor, and other relatives. he also left this voice mail, played today on "good morning america". >> you know, i'm not able to go on anymore. i'm sorry to everyone i've hurt. goodbye. jenna: powell was a person of interest in his wife, susan's, disappearance in 2009. according to the medical examiner, the two boys, ages seven and five, also suffered hatchet wounds and axes were found near their bodies. just terrible details as they emerge. in those e-mails powell apparently sent, no mention of susan or what may have happened to her. there are still questions there. jon: with congressional approval at an all-time low, there's a shocking new report out today in the "washington post".
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one hint about its contents. well, it's not likely to help those congressional approval ratings. we have that breaking story on earmarks and where some of them go, next. plus, a new legal battle for amanda knox, why she is hoping for another victory in an italian court. also, rick folbaum, live at the web wall for us now. rick. >> reporter: we just hear leland vitter talk about what the assad regime is doing to its own people in syria. here's a way for you to let us know what you think of the news of the day. if you go to the happening now home page, scroll down today, we've got a poll about this, should the u.s. do more to stop syria's violence against its own people. you can say no, it's too dangerous, not our business, or yes, it's our duty. right now, overwhelmingly, more than 71 percent of you saying it is not our business, too dangerous. during the break, you can go on, let us know what you're thinking. we'll have more of "happening now" after a quick break. don't go away.
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jenna: welcome back, everyone. right now a look at crime stories we're keeping an eye on, including this out of tucson, a judge ordered suspected tucson gunman jared loughner to spend another four-month necessary a psychoo psychiatric hospital, accused of killing six and wounding congresswoman gab rail gifford and 12 others last year. >> a missouri teenager facing life in prison for murdering her nine-year-old murder, alyssa bustamonte wrote in her journal it was a pretty enjoyable experience, pleading guilty to murder. amanda knox is appealing her slander conviction in italy, falsely accused of being involved in a murder. now that the conviction was overturned, she is going for this one additionally. jon: a fox news alert out of capitol hill. "the washington post" is just out with the results of a shocking investigation. the paper uncovered members of congress using earmarks to spend taxpayer money on
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projects that are very close to home, in some cases, the cash goes for improvements within just miles of their personal property. you it's given to groups that employ family members and apparently all of this is legal. let's talk about it with one of the reporters who compiled this article, kimberly kinde, reporter at "the washington post", earmarks have long been controversial, every member of congress just about likes to bring home the bacon for his or her home district or home state. but your investigation gets a lot more specific. tell us about it. >> reporter: that's right. most of the earmark stories done in the past have really looked at the connection between a member of congress giving earmarks to a campaign donor. this is the first time that anyone has ever looked at 535 members of congress, every single one of them, and compared the public record to their earmarks, and what we found were 33 mess members, a multitude of
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earmarks with more than $300 million that went to projects that were right by their property. i mean, we really confined this to very tight space, almost every single one of them were within 2 miles of their property, many of the times in which somebody has just looked at, like watchdogs groups have just looked at a single member, they've taken them to task for things that are 10 miles away. this is a very tight thing and we're talking about projects that were sometimes sidewalks right in front of their home. so -- >> jon beach kpwrofpment? >> they're very close to home and some were also by their commercial property. jon: beach improvement projects that were close to their vacation homes, that kind of thing. >> that's right. jon: this is legal? >> this is absolutely legal. the way congress has decided to plicit self is they really don't have much in the way of restrictions with their legislative actions, and how it may connect with their personal finances. what they say they do is
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they have a financial disclosure system, and they put it all out there so that you can see exactly what they own and as a voter, if you've got to problem with what they do and how it intersects with their personal financial portfolios you can vote them out of office, but the problem is that unless you have several investigative reporters who can really piece together the public record and look at the earmarks, exactly where they're at, and their property, in exactly where it's at, and make those connections, you really can't know, because it isn't on a financial disclosure form. they don't include that kind of informs. when they ask for an earmark, they're not required to, nor do they say oh, and by the way, i have a home a mile away from this project. jon: right. >> it's not disclosed. jon: the so called stock act is designed to prevent, for lack of a better term, inside trading by members of congress, them being able to use their positions and their knowledge of impending regulations, that kind of thing, to make money in the
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securities market, but this kind of thing is a whole different animal. i presume the not even covered under the stock act, right? >> no, it's not. it's a whole different animal. i mean, this is clearly they're doing something that would make it much more transparent when it comes to their activities in the stock market, it would make it explicit in terms of if they're doing something on capitol hill and they have intimate knowledge about it and the public doesn't know, if they trade on it now, if this law passes, it would address that, but it doesn't really get into what we're looking at and what we're looking at in today's story and in tomorrow's story, which is going to look at earmarks that go to organizations where relatives work. it doesn't get into that at all, it doesn't cover it, it doesn't increase transparency, it incidental doesn't ban it in any way. jon: who are the biggest offenders? >> well, i think you'd have to read the story so that
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you could determine who the biggest offenders are. we really try to stay away from ranking anything, and i think it's a very level, even story. we show you where their projects are, and we show you where -- how much money they got, and we show you where their property is, and you as reader can make the determination as to whether or not you think they did it to personally benefit themselves. we tried to not make those judgments or do the range, but i think it's very telling if you just look at it. jon: we'll let the readers decide. kimberly kindy from "the washington post", we have part two coming tomorrow. we'll look forward to reading it, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: 90 feet underground this elaborate tunnel was built by mexican cartels to smuggle people and drugs. wait until you see what the feds are doing with it now. >> a recall of hard boiled eggs across the country. thirty-four states. what you need to know. dr. manny is here, next.
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jon: an elaborate tunnel linking folks san diego is getting a lot of use but not by the mexicoan drug smugglers who built the thing. rick folbaum is here to explain. >> reporter: this is a tunnel as you mentioned that links tijuana with san diego, california. law enforcement has always kept a pretty good presence above ground there, looking of course for drug traffickers, and that's why the mexican cartels like to try to work underground if they can, building these tunnels and this latest one, pretty sophisticated, it has a hydraulic floor that opens up to a bathroom, and that's not all. here's jerry cobman of the
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border patrol. >> this is the original equipment that actually ran power lines, they ran communication lines down here, ventilation, so communication, they could call each other on the phone. >> absolutely. >> the walls are around 6 feet high, 4 feet wide, they go # stories below ground, and this is the largest drug tunnel ever discovered by the u.s. government, and now instead of the drug smugglers using it, it will be used to train other border agents, and officials say this thing was discovered before it was ever put to use, and we checked with our brain room, jon, the research wing here at fox, to see how many drug tunnels have been recovered in recent years, and since the year 2004 alone, that number stands at over 100. back to you. jon: a lot of engineering put to waste there. rick, thank you. jenna: well, a massive recall of hard boiled eggs is now spreading to 34 states, and there are concerns the bacteria listeria has contaminated eggs found in a number of prepared foods that includes
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things like spinach cobb and egg salads. it's probably in things you don't realize. dr. manny alvarez, fox news health.com, a member of the medical a team, that's the thing with listeria, there are no illnesses now but it could take weeks or months. >> listeria is a big problem, especially for pregnant women, it could lead to miscarriages, people with diabetes, older folks, if you have an immune system that's compromised, listeria is not your friend. it can be 20 percent fatal. i want to make clear, this is not the eggs themselves, this is the process, boiled eggs that were processed by a big manufacturer in nebraska that sells it to other retailers, so what i tell everybody right now, any kind of processed eggs that you bought in a sandwich, salad, in any kind of thing like that, this is such a dispersed contamination, throw it out, throw it out, and you know, start anew. jenna: any signs that are distinct to listeria.
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>> it takes a long time. as you said, you could get symptoms in three days, you could get symptoms in a couple of month, malaise, fever, joint pain are typical, but of course in people that have the categories that i mentioned earlier, it could really be quite -- you could get a major, major systemic event. jenna: we remember that can the cantaloupe. a lot of you had questions about this. >> we'll have all the brands there for you and all the manufacturers. jenna: that's certainly important. let's talk about something else that came out from the cdc. we hear about salt is the enemy, sugar is the enemy, salt is the enemy. how big an enemy is it? >> salt is the enemy, i keep saying that and we have talked about this before. this is the latest report. nine out of ten adults are consuming too much salt. we like to say we keep sodiumo though is the classic question, every time i see a patient and i say cut back on salt, i get the answer i don't put salt in
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my food and what people fail to realize, is that the sodium is in the foods that we're eating, in the processed foods, in the cold cuts, in the frozen pizzas, all of those things basically contain 60 percent of sodium, so if you take even a simple bag of popcorn, i'm not going to show you the brand, but this is 400-milligrams here and the problem with sodium is, when you were young, in your 20s, your kidneys are functioning perfectly fine but when you get to be my age -- >> jenna: how old is that? >> i'm not revealing, my kidneys are not working well and i cannot eat as much salt, so i have to cut back two, 1.5 grams a day, which is not a lot of salt. jenna: how you can measure that in your head? >> if you are into the processed foods and into buying the things in the supermarket, nowadays, they're labeled. do an accountability. if you're consuming 5 grams or 6 grams, which is 6000-milligrams of sodium a day and a lot of folks are
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doing that is correct you're poisoning yourself, you're going to get sick, you're going to get high blood pressure, you're going to get heart disease, and this is a simple thing. what makes food taste good is salt. i got it. i love food! but we got to be careful. this is a very -- >> jenna: it's not -- and it's going to make you feel better probably instantly to not have 6000 grams of salt. >> this is somewhere you got to pay attention. i don't want the government to regulate it. i want you guys to regulate it. you can do it yourself. fox news health.cole, we have the story and the breakdown of all the things that have a lot of sodium, so check it out. jenna: can i keep the popcorn? >> yeah, all right. all right. jenna: jon: just a few kernel, please, just a few. thanks. there's more fallout from the decision to cut funding for planned parenthood by a noted charity. the move by the susan g. komen foundation sparked a political firestorm and a quick about-face. well, now, a top komen executive is out the door at
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[ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories. jenna: now this fox news alert, a top executive with the susan g. komen charity is calling it quits after that controversy for fund parenthood, tearen handl resigning as vice president for public policy, she cut
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the pledge to planned panthood. megyn kelly will interview karen handl around 2:00 today. this story goes into last week as well, when the susan g. komen foundation made headlines when it announced it -- announced it was excluding planned parenthood from future grants not based on politics, they said, but according to their quall physicians. it's still a big story and one we'll continue to watch. jon. jon: minnesota, colorado, missouri are weighing in on the republican race for the nomination today. it is also the first day of early voting in ohio. so where are the candidates right now? alicia acuna, keeping track of that is live from denver. newt gingrich isn't in any of the states holding the
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contests today and mitt romney is going to be watching the caucus returns in denver, but rick santorum is probably the one logging the most miles. he started in colorado springs, then it was on to minnesota anz then missouri. on the trail, candidates joined the outcry over a mandate by the president that requires employers to provide coverage for birth control, including catholic institutions. the administration calling some of this a misunderstanding. >> the catholic church has been arguing and negotiating this for a year and the administration has said oh, it's just a misunderstanding. it's just a bunch of bull. the bottom line is this administration, as you can tell from my reaction, has been hostile to people of faith, particularly christians and specifically catholics, and i'm not going to stand for it and i'm going to call them out on it. jenna: as for romney, he did not visit minnesota, with santorum being the conservative favorite there. and attempting to show his social conservative, he hit a note on religious freedom.
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>> this same administration said that churches in the institutions they run such as schools and let's say adoption agencies, hospitals, that they have to provide for their employees free of charge contraceptives, morning after pills, in other words, abortive pills, and the like at no cost. think what that does to people in faiths that did not share those views. >> reporter: newt gingrich for his part directed his comments toward the frontrunner, the former speaker gave a speech in ohio that starts early voting today for its supertuesday contest. >> the fact is governor romney insisted that catholic hospitals give out abortion pills against their lingous beliefs when he was governor. it was a very similar pattern again. over and over you get the same pattern. >> reporter: a reminder, all contests are nonbinding but could show momentum. jenna: a deal in the works
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to force lenders to reduce home loans for about 1 million households. this plan would benefit some home oerpbs and not others and be a big agreement in about 40 states and about five of the major banks in this country. some are questioning if this is fair and our next guest thinks a lot of things lately aren't fair. he documents them all in his column for the wall street journal, this is steve moore, senior economics writer for the "wall street journal". and this housing deal is one of the many that you mentioned in your piece today. >> yes. jenna: with this question about what's really fair. >> we got a tremendous response on this piece today, and it was really basically asking how are these federal polices that we're pursuing in washington over the last three years fair, and we point to exactly the one that you just mentioned about the housing policy, how is it fair for people who are paying their mortgages on lime, times taking out a second -- on a second job to have to pay that mortgage, to then pay taxes to subsidize the people who aren't paying their mortgages on time, and often times lying on the mortgage application forms. there's a lot of resentment to this, and you know what,
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when the president says this is going to give $2000 to i think over half a million homeowners, where is that $2000 going to come from? there's no free money in washington. it comes out of of pockets. jenna: the situation with housing is interesting because it deals with courts trying to decide what's fair and ultimately a judge would approve this deal or not because we've appointed judges to be the decider on that. some of the questions you bring up, you called this a fairness quiz for the president, and that's something that you seem to be touching on, this question about not only what's fair, but who decides what's fair. >> i'll just give you one example. the richest 1 percent, the bill gates and the warren buffets and the lead gagas out there, you look at that top 1 percent, i bet a lot of americans don't know that they pay 40 percent of the income tax, i bet most americans don't know. the top 1 percent pay 67 percent of the income tax and conversely i ask, is it fair that the bottom 40 percent, you know how much income tax they pay jenna? zero. on balance they pay no
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income tax. it is already a heavily skewed system. i ask the question, for example, that the president has the opportunity -- that the president has the opportunity to send his kids to private schools in washington, d.c. but he opposed a voucher plan that would allow low income kids to go to the same schools. there are all sorts of fairness issues with respect to policy. jenna: is it a topic with the president or is it a broader question about, again, who is deciding what's fair in washington and whether or not on both sides of the aisle, the right leaders, with the right courage amount of courage, are there in place to try to answer some of those questions? >> on taxes, let's take that because that's the number one issue now, the question we all have to answer as americans is do we think a tax system that depends only on the top two or 3 percent to pay the vast majority of the taxes, is that a fair tax system. i think a lot of people say wait, everybody should pay some taxes. i'm surprised so many times when i talk to groups and i say don't you think everybody who is a citizen in this country, votes and
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works should pay some income tax and people say hell yes. that's a basic american value. so this kind of quiz is embedded with those kinds of questions about what's fair and what's not fair. is it fair we give out these loans to companies like solyndra that lost a half billion dollars, while other companies that compete with them have to pay billions of dollars of taxes. so there's all sorts of unfairness in the federal tax system. jenna: is there a grading system? >> well, i want the president to take the quiz. i'd love for fox viewers to look at it and see what they think is fair. you know, as another example, we have the system of taxation in america that depends on the top 10 percent, more than any other country in the world. now, all bet on on i'll bet you didn't know that. jenna: that's interesting. >> we are more heavily dependent on the rich for tax than any other advanced country. jenna: it's a question we should take a look at, we'll try to get a link up on our home page. thank you for the work, thank you for coming on with
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us. jon: it's a great column. you should read it. you might notice changes the next time you walk through airport security. house lawmakers are thinking about privatizing some of the jobs now done by those blue-shirted tsa agents. what that could mean for your safety when you travel. also, the eastern could you go euroo cougar, spotted near the jungle? this cat is supposed to be extinct in the northeast but that may not be the case. mountain lions, on the prowl. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --
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8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! jon: werblgs new information on the eastern cougar and what it might be up to, the big account, also known as the mountain lion, the feds declared it extinct in the
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east tech aids ago but is that really the case? remember a few years back when chicago police were forced to kill a cougar they found roaming through one neighborhood there? and there have been dozens of sightings in the suburbs of connecticut and new york. one was killed on a highway in connecticut just last summer. we'll lewis alagno from the mount pleasant police department, north of new york city, joins us on the phone. there have been concerns, chief, that you might have a cougar in your town. >> yes, jon, we did receive report of a large cat last wednesday evening. jon: we have some video up, this is obviously a generic cougar. nobody has been able to take footage of the cat that may be in your neighborhood. any tracks or any indication that you actually do have a mountain lion there? >> well, we've received two phone calls, and there were a number of other people in the area that observed this large cat. so it's a confirmed sighting. the question is, was it a mountain lion, was it a
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bobcat. jon: well, we have a map that shows where the cougar used to roam in this country. basically, it is the most widely dispersed predator. well, here is mount pleasant, that's where you are. but the cougar used to be spread across the entirety of the united states, canada, down into mexico. it has been declared extinct, essentially in the eastern two-thirds of the country. and yet, that doesn't explain that one that turned up in chicago a couple of summers ago, the one in connecticut that was killed last year. these things clearly are on the move. it's not out of the question to think that you might have a mountain lion, a cougar, in your neighborhood, huh? >> that would be a possibility. as i said, the two callers that we received, both destroyed it as a mountain lion, at least initially. that was the report we received. jon: but this is also the possibility it's a bobcat? a much smaller predator? >> when we interviewed the callers, the report was the
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size of a medium-sized dog, brown, with white spots, which in my mind is indicative of a bobcat. jon: the scary thing about these cougars is, i mean, they're not particularly afraid of people, and they will hunt just about anything that moves, right? >> i believe so. i would be very concerned if there was a mountain lion in our community. jon: what are you telling your officers? >> well, our officers hopefully won't have to react to such a complaint. but if we had to, we would be prepared to protect our residents. jon: chief lewis alagno from the mount pleasant police department, 50, 60 miles north of new york city. and there may be a mountain lion sighted from. we wish you well. jenna: new developments in the disappearance of a missing 18-year-old in alaska. she disappeared on wednesday. we're going to tell you what she did last november that could help police find her. some more clues to this case. plus, big changes could soon be coming to an airport near you.
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washington is looking into who should conduct those screenings that we all know and love. the tsa, or a private company, what's best, what's legal? judge napolitano is with us, next. managing my diabetes is part of my life, between taking insulin, testing my blood sugar. is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah. and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra.
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jon: some new developments on search for a missing one-year-old in alaska. rick folbaum has the latest. >> reporter: jon, samantha's dad is speaking out about the daughter's abduction, james koenig, jr. saying his daughter recently sought a restraining order against a man but was too afraid to show up in court for the hearing. koenig said he can't elaborate on the swaying or identify who this man is. he also says he never wanted his daughter to work at the coffee stand, he says he was always concerned about her safety. surveillance footage
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allegedly shows a man in a hooded sweatshirt, jon, apparently forcing samantha out of the ann corage coffee shop this past wednesday, the police department in ann corage, though, not releasing that footage, they say investigators believe their work will be helped by keeping the video away from the public, at least for now samantha's dad is asking volunteers to go door to door with flyers and there's a $41,000 reward that's been offered, a facebook account has been set up as well, go to facebook.com/help.find. saman tha. koenig is described as 5-foot five, she weighs about 140 pounds. there's the null on the screen. if you have any information that may help the police track down this missing girl, please call the police department there. -- there's the number on the screen. >> jon: rick, thank. jenna: house homeland security subcommittee is taking a close look at who should conduct security screenings at our nation's airport.
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yesterday the tsa agreed to allow a private company to take over for its agents at one small montana airport. some want this done at more airports across the country, arguing it would create jobs, it would save taxpayers' money, and also would just be more efficient. is it the best move when it comes to safety? let's bring in our fox news senior judicial analyst, judge andrew napolitano. we wanted to talk to you about this judge because it brings up a broader conversation of what role we think the government should have with certain parts of our safety. >> let me make both arguments for you. one argument is that we need the government to monitor the airways, and the government controls where the planes fly, so they don't collide with each other, the government has the money and the wherewithal to keep bad people from getting on planes and harming us, and they've done so relatively well, and without any incidents since 2001. the other argument is the airlines are paying the government for a service that the airlines could do better, the airlines have the greater interest in
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protecting passengers, because they're the ones who will suf the most if something happens. you cannot sue the tsa if they let a bad guy on but you can sue the airline and you could certainly sue a private security firm. so which is better in terms of freedom and safety? the government doing this? or a private company doing this? >> and we have an experiments oweo experiment going on. san francisco, a very large and busy airport. >> international airport. >> right, has opted for private security screeners, they look like tsa acts, they wear tsa uniforms, but they are employed by a private vendor, they have tsa superviors but the people who touch you and communicate with you are private evener, they do not work for the government. jenna: it's hard to make the comparison but i was thinking about our highway system and if i was driving on the highway, you have the local police, or the state police that can pull you over and enforce the rules. it's not a private company. and in fact, it might be odd if it was a private company that was trying to enforce, you know, duis or speeding or something like that.
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so where is maybe the difference where it applies to airports versus what i just gave, or is there a difference? >> well, the difference is that the airlines have the most to lose in the case of a catastrophe, and therefore the most to gain from preventing a catastrophe. and would you rather go through a security check, where the person was pleasant to you, and wanted your business and treated you with respect, or the demeaning experience that we all all begrudgingly put up with with the tsa now. if the screeners work for the airlines, you would enjoy the experience. jenna: and they hypoth size, to be competitive, you would have the better screener, nicer screeners somewhere else. >> here's the competition you have, some airlines say we're going to screen you from head to toe if this is going to go through, or some would say we're not going to touch you, others say we're going to prescreen you. >> jenna: there's a lot more to this. we're going to catch your show later on today, freedom
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