>> jon thanks for joining us today. jenna: "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert. we are now awaiting a press conference with the beverly hills police department on whitney houston's death. welcome to "america live" everyone, i'm megyn kelly, the legendary pop star was found in a hotel room bathtub this weekend, today the l.a. coroner's office said it's too early to determine whether a lethal mix of prescription meds and alcohol killed her. investigators are withholding the cause of death until the toxicology reports are released and that they say may take weeks we are going to learn more next hour, where we'll have this live press conference with the l.a. authorities. that is now 16 minutes away.

welcome, everyone, i'm megyn kelly. casey steagall is live outside the coroner's office with an update. >> reporter: megyn, there are reports the funeral services for white houston will be held in newark, new jersey later this week. of course that a whitney houston's home town. at this hour, we can tell you that the body is still here, at the los angeles county coroner's office. an autopsy has been completed. that happened yesterday, and because foul play has been ruled out, her body is able to be released to the family. assistant chief ed winters telling us that a few prescription pill bottles were recovered at the scene, inside houston's hotel room, but he went on to say that it was not an unusual amount, in fact, he kind of joked and said he probably had more in his own home medicine cabinet. and even though the pop icon was found in the bathtub he wanted to squash any rumors this had been ruled a drowning. they still do not yet know. >> i had a conversation with

the family at the hotel, and in no time did -- at no time did i discuss the prescription meds or the drowning issue. i don't know if the detectives discussed that with the family, but no, we have not released any information like that. >> reporter: the 48-year-old last public appearance was at a hoal wood nightclub on thursday where she got up on stage and did an impromptu performance of yes, jesus loves me. some people said she seemed out of it and then still pictures were taken of whitney leaving hours later with what appeared to be scratches and blood on her leg. witnesses say that she was behaving erratically and did not look too well. it can take up to eight weeks, by the way, for those toxicology reports to come in and the coroner's office, stressing today they will not make an official determination on what killed her until that time.

megyn. megyn: casey, thank you. y learning new details about a medical scare involving houston's daughter, bobbi cristina, the 18-year-old rushed to the hospital twice over the weekend, after learning of her mother's death. a source close to the family says bobbi cristina was treated for stress and anxiety and has now been released. she's the only child of houston and ex-husband bobby brown. i want to point out, there's a discrepancy about whether the first time bobbi cristina was rushed to the hospital was before or after she learned about her mother's passing. again, a lot more questions than answers this hour regarding white houston's death. later we will speak to tmz directly, they are following every angle of this story and we should learn more about the investigation from one of their top news men and get new reaction from hollywood. upcoming, right here. we're also tracking breaking news on rising tensions between israel and iran. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying

iran and terror group hezbollah targeted israeli diplomats in a pair of near simultaneous bomb incidents in india, and in the country of georgia. four people were wounded in the new delhi attack, georgians were able to diffuse the threat there before it went off. the violence follows recent reports that israel may be preparing an imminent strike on iranian nuclear facilities. iran denies responsibility for these attacks. and speaking of iran's nuclear program, that country's president is saying that iran will soon reveal new nuclear achievements. mahmoud ahmadinejad making the remarks at a rally marking the islamic revolution. he did not say what the achievements would be but in comments sure to trouble the west and israel, ahmadinejad sin sisto insists his country will never abandon the uranium enrichment program. another alert this time

on new reaction coming into the budget's president plan. president obama unveiling a $3.8 trillion plan that the white house insists will reduce our ballooning decifit. republicans argue it runs against president about him's own promise made at the beginning of his presidency. >> that's why today i'm pledging to cut the decifit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. now, this will not be easy. it will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. but i refuse to leave our children with a debt they cannot repay, and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control. megyn: joining me now, fox business network's lou dobbs, host of "lou dobbs tonight". lou, already the president's critics are coming out and saying this is a political document, it is not an actual budgetary proposal. what say you? >> well, i say they are

following the lead of senator harry reid, senate majority leader, who has promised there will be no action on this budget proposal, so the leader of his own party in the united states senate tells us that the president's budget proposal is effectively a nonentity in his view and the leadership of the democrats on capitol hill. so i don't see any reason to dispute harry reid since he's the man with the authority to defy the fate of the budget -- decide the fate of the budget. megyn: why is harry reid doing that? the last time the president had a budget proposal it had no swroats from democrats, never mind republicans, in the senate, either. >> 97-nothing, megyn. and it's been over 1000 days since the senate has passed the budget of any kind. it will be three years in april since the senate last passed a budget. this budget purports to be a political document. but as such, it lacks even the credibility that one would expect of such a

document, even in these trying times, because the estimates that have been put forward by this administration year after year after year have -- well, they've been wide of the mark, and secondly, now we're looking at four consecutive years of trillion dollars-plus decifits. and what happened to all of the money as a result of the cessation of hostilities for our forces in iraq? we're talking $150 billion a year in iraq and afghanistan, and there is no mention whatsoever of any -- even a single dollar of that money going to reduce our $15 trillion national debt. it's a political document. it's even willfully short of the mark. megyn: now, the president in this budget doesn't tackle significant entitlement reform in the coming year in any meaningful way, really, in any way, according to most of the writeups about this. his budget director came out over the weekend defending that, saying look, now is not the time for austerity, that would hurt the

country's growth even more, but at the same time, lou, it does seem to say this budget that the bush tax cuts will expire as they are scheduled to do at the end of this year, and that families making more than $250,000 a year are going to have their taxes hiked. those two positions are somewhat at odds with one another. >> they're at odds with one another, the document itself is at odds internally. it's contradictory. and jack lew, the president's now chief of staff, who was omb directorrum a few months ago, and who was omb director under president clinton, as you know, the man saying that the reason the democrats can't move forward with a budget is because they need 60 votes in the senate. he said it not once, he said it twice, he got four pinocchios for doing so in the "washington post". pinocchio sounds pretty benign, megyn, but those are four big wholer -- whopper and that's not the way the president i'm sure wanted to start. megyn: lou dobbs, thank you. >> thank you. megyn: and now to the growing calls to honor

america's iraq and afghanistan veterans with a national level ticker tape parade, many calling for the same welcome home for veterans returning from world war ii, right here in new york, back in 1945. but that idea is getting tough resistance from a surprising place. trace gallagher has more from the breaking news desk. trace. >> reporter: megyn, we lost 4400 service members during the iraq war, more than 32,000 were wounded and over those years, there were hundreds and hundreds of protests. but we have had one home coming parade, it was held in st. louis, organized by two nonmilitary members who actually organize dollars the whole thing on facebook. yes, tens of thousands did show up from all over the country and because of that parade, organizers now are in 20 cities all wanting to do their own parade but of course, the granddaddy of all the home comings would be in new york city, right down the canyon of heros where, of course, the new york giants held their

parade last week, and they have been honoring heros for the past hundred-plus years. mayor michael bloomberg says he is not holding a parade because the pentagon has asked him not to. the pentagon saying, and i'm quoting here, we simply don't think a national-level parade is appropriate while we continue to have america's sons and daughters in harm's way. but the men who put on the st. louis parade say we should stop looking to cancel parades and start looking for reasons to have them. listen: >> it's not about politics, it's about people. the whos and whats and the wheres, they're irrelevant. the people went, they served, they're back, this is about them. it has nothing to do with the politics. >> reporter: by the way, the white house is also hosting a welcome home dinner for iraq veterans. they will have members from every rank, every service, from every state in the country. megyn: trace, thank you. what do you folks think? should we be having a ticker

tape parade to welcome home iraq and afghanistan? let me know. twitter, follow me, megyn kelly. we're taking your thoughts on it right now. wall street is throwing some serious money at this election season, but it's choosing to spend its cash in a very different way and behind a very different candidate than back in 2008. wait until you see how big this is, and what it could mean for campaign 2012. plus, the pain at the pump getting worse. wait until you see how much gas is up from the last time, this time last year, and where it is likely to go. and since when did preparing for the end of the world become a growing trend? a new show is out, highlighting americans doing just that. why our guests working up -- coming up warn you, get ready or else. >> we've come to the point where we deal with the end of the world. you want to make sure you're on the lion's team in the

jungle and not running with the gazelles. >> it will die slowly and painfully.

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megyn: president obama is facing a new reelection challenge as wall street turns its back on campaign contributions toward the democrats. the democrats in the last election cycle, check out the numbers coming from the financial district these days. wall street spent $42 million on then-senator barack obama. compare that to gop candidate john mccain's more than $31 million. so they outspent about $10 million on democrats there. today mr. obama has so far received about $5 million from wall street, compare that with gop primary candidate mitt romney who has collected more than double the president's donations so far, over

$12 million for romney, before he's even the nominee. we don't know whether he will be the nominee. joining me now to put perspective on t. matt mccall, president of penn financial and chris stierwalt, fox news digital politics editor. matt, let's start with you as a wall street guy. i think a lot of people think wall street is republican because they make all sorts of money and republicans are supposed to be for the rich but in fact they were prodemocrat, they've been proobama. why the change? >> the change is wall street, we're going to be either on the left or right, depending upon who we o'clock is good to -- going to win and the best for our business. going back to '\on/zero #, the odds were that obama was really the top in a 2-man race so people bet on obama hoping he would be probusiness going forward that, bet failed, because as we can see, president obama has been anything but probusiness and it's not surprising, when you think about how antiwall street he's been in his speeches and campaigns around the country, just vilifying wall street. that money is going to move

away from him and back romney who basically is an ex-wall streeter himself. megyn: chris, you say the reason the obama white house needs to worry about this is wall street donations are all about one thing. access. what do you mean? >> well, i mean exactly to matt's point, this is not an idea logically-driven sector, this is not like you would see among doctors or other professional groups that they have an ideological viewpoint, they have an access viewpoint. they want to have entree to the commander in chief, the guy who picks treasury secretaries, the guy who picks federal reserve chairman. that's what they're interested in. they don't care about the ideology. in fact obama could be calling them anything he wanted, they could be denouncing them in whatever terms that he wanted to, if they thought that he was going to win this election, you would see money flowing into him from wall street, because they'll still pay for access to the guy, even if they disagree with him. megyn: your point is they don't believe he's going to be the winner, that if they're the biggest odd makers, they're saying don't

bet on barack obama this time around. >> that's it and he's got to to look at it from their perspective, for these guys, they're usually right, they are the smart money and are making a calculation. megyn: do you think chris is right, that they don't care about -- you know, you can call them whatever he wants to call them, as long as they think he's going to win. i've told the story before but i'll tell it again. i know a guy very big on wall street, i won't mention who he is but he's very big, and he said that he was a big barack obama donator and got called from the campaign for his coffers and the guy said look, i like him but it feels like there's a witch hunt going on in this administration on wall street and i'm the witch, i'm not feeling so good about cutting you a check this time around. >> i think chris hit it on the head. when you think about wall street, you could be voting on your social issues, and whatever it may be, but when it comes down to wall street, these guys and gals, they like money, that's why they're on wall street. for them to make money they need the administration on

their side. they're fighting an uphill battle agast the populist sentiment in the nays against wall street and then when you have the administration against you as well, it's very difficult to do business. think about all the regulations that have come in place over the last three years, against wall street, attempting to make them hold down the quote unquote rich. so in my mind, i truly believe that me voting and a lot of my cohorts are going to be voting with our wallets this time around, hope to go grow our business, and we employ people too by doing that. megyn: chris, the white house seems to be concerned about the president's own messaging about the so-called wall street fat cats because they sent the campaign manager jim messina to meet with a bunch of wall street folks and according to politico today, they say messina promised at the meeting that the k35eu7b will -- that the campaign will not keep bashing wall street and specifically will not bash the private equity industry. i don't know whether newt gingrich is going to make

that same promise either. he's the most vocal about that. but they seem to be concerned about the messaging so far. >> well, they're concerned about the messaging and it goes two ways. one, the president does like to hold himself up as a class warrior, a warrior for the middle class and likes to say he's with the nine # percent, not the 2 percent, and he does like to talk about those things and this goes to that point, there's no question. but at the same time, the campaign that he has proposed to run is a very expensive campaign, it's predicated on basically paying for infrastructure to replace the enthusiasm that he had in 2008, and then absolutely blistering whomever the republicans nominate, and so he needs money, he needs a lot of money to do that. and so he's sort of bee twix dollars and between there, he wants their dough, doesn't want to be associated with them and wants to be able to attack mitt romney or whomever the republicans nominate. megyn: how much does this equate to nancy pelosi coming out and saying god bless them and president

obama did not denounce them and gave them credence when given the chance to do so. how much of this backlash on wall street relates to that. >> it's huge. can you imagine going to work every day, people throwing signs, yelling mention at you to try to make money for your family? it's huge. there's an -- there's a fee thank -- the money, and occupy wall street, i'll take it. megyn: guys, thank you both so much. i think all the candidates running for office would take the mope. that's probably a true statement. thank you guys. there's an explosive report out today saying that a liberal group that's rather controversial is working hand in hand with the white house to shape the headlines as -- at some of the country's biggest media outlets. we will speak to the reporter who broke the story. gas prices soaring and we are months away from the busy summer season when that usually happens. the surge behind the story in three minute. sue: when his 15-year-old daughter complained about

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megyn: fox news alert, and a quick reminder about our alert from the top of the hour. we are now awaiting a press conference with the beverly hills police department on white houston's death. there have been many questions since her body was found this weekend in a hotel room bathtub, and we earlier heard that the autopsy is done. the autopsy, concluding what killed her, is completed. again, the police news conference takes place top of the hour, right here. some scary economic

numbers out now. gas prices in america are rising. and fast. now an average, 3.51 a gallon, about 43 cents higher than this same time last year. that's according to the closely watched lundberg survey. a lot of folks are asking why? why now? fox business network's cheryl casone is here. it always happens later in the season, closer to memorial day in the summer. here we are in february. i filled up my car over the weekend, it was $72! seventy-two bucks, that's a lot. >> reporter: megyn, on long island, it's 3.82 a glorntion l.a. it's 3.81. the choopest gas i could find, denver, 3.01. but there's a few things going on here. yes, this is actually a big shock for the market, this time of year, megyn. you hit it right there. we normally never see prices like this. gas demand, believe it or not, is down. that's the real rub. gasoline demand right now is lower by 5 percent from last year, as mu he thinks dollars, 43 cents higher than last year.

that's the price we're paying at the pump. a couple of things going on. first off, there's been a lot of refinery closures in the united states and the virgin islands, also refineries, there's a slowdown or closed over in europe. one of the things that's different about this year versus last year, you have oil traders in the market watching not just the u.s. texas crude, wti, but the brent contracts from europe. they've had a huge cold spell over there, they've had a lot of deaths in europe, that is affecting the european price, so those are kind of going in lock12e7. -- locksteps, also worries about sudan and the iran situation continues, then traders i'm talking to say ing they don't feel better about the situation with iran, so basically yes, we are seeing gasoline heading hire and it's probably going to continue. 53 percent of analysts this week said they believe crude is going to go higher to the end of the week, to the 17th of february. what does that mean? you are going to see gas prices for the next couple of weeks tick up. now, that could change. it could change. but at

this point, pegin, i got to tell you, i've been watching these prices for years, i don't think it's going to. we're getting close to spring and the gasoline blends, the price changes, prices go up. i think we're going to have to get used to. megyn: the summer blends. you make it sound like a latte at starbucks! cheryl, thank you. >> you bet. megyn: by the way, i was at starbucks the other way, now they have the flavor of blond. i was like that's sweet, they made one for us! no, it's a lighter blend. we are tracking a developing story overseas, as israel accuses iran of being behind an attempt of trying to kill two israeli ambassador necessary separate attacks. are the two nations one step closer to war? we are live in jerusalem. and, the administration now pressuring fannie mae and freddie mac to write down the loan amounts on some underwater home mortgages. the question, as always, who gets the break? who doesn't? and will the taxpayers have to pick up the dime for those who do?

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megyn: new developments now on one of our top stories today. israel blaming iran for the teamed murder of israeli diplomats in both india and the country of georgia. both diplomats sur vised by

the -- but attack in india did manage to wound four people. today's violence follows recent reports that israel may be preparing an imminent military strike on iranian nuclear facilities. legalland vitter has more live from jerusalem. leland. >> reporter: megyn, this certainly could have been much worse, especially when you look at video of the car of the wife of the israeli military. she was on her way to pick up her kids from school when at least according to local eyewitnesses a guy on a motorcycle drove up alongside the car and attached a bomb to it. irancle cents -- ironically that's the same way a number of nuclear scientists have been killed in iran. right nowow they are denying responsibility. israel for its part says iran and its proxy, hezbollah, is behind it. this is the fourth anniversary of the assassination of rahm add military anilla, a hezbollah lead, behind a number of bombs that killed westerners and israelis and on hiss death said this would --

there would be revenge and if this is indeed a revenge killing by hezbollah which all signs point to right now there's a reasonable chance both sides will say it is a score that's now been settled, but certainly with iran and israel, tensions at an all-time high, wars start in this part of the world over things just like this. back to you. megyn: leland vitter, thank you. the obama administration is now stepping up pressure on fannie mae and freddie mac, calling on the mortgage giants to write down the loan amounts on some underwater home oarns. so who would get the break? and who would have to foot the bill? joining me now, brad blakeman, former department ste assistant to george w. bush and dick harpootlan, democratic chair. this is important to me because last week we saw they reached a deal with five major banks but if you were including fannie mae and freddie mac you weren't included in that deal. now there are targets on fanny and freddie saying you

need to reduce the actual mortgages held by a lot of these underwater homeowners, if you owe more on your home than it's worth. brad, is it a good idea or or not? >> it is not a good idea because the american people don't know what their obligations are going to be. fanny and freddie are pawmped up time and time again by the american taxpayer and again democrats are giving a blank check, instead of fixing the systemic problems at fanny and freddie and dismantling it and returning it to the private sector, what is it doing, bailing them out again, and they made the investment of $25 million, it's a spit in the ocean compared to what they've done to the mortgage market. they're easy to pick -- on the private sector and let them off the hook but the ultimate problem with fannie and freddy as with dodd electronic iso frank is to exempt them from the rules they require the private sector to adhere to. this is again the american people bailing out an

industry instead of fixing the problem. megyn: this guy, edar demarco, direct, of an independent agency in charge ofover seeing fanny and freddie says this is a bad idea, i don't want to do this because i think it's going to cost the taxpayers money and now a growing group of democrats is calling for that guy to step down, they see him and this independent group as an impediment to the writedown of the mortgage, what say new. >> fanny and freddie have been complicit in creating the problem, i know that brad and myth roamny would rather 10 million people go into foreclosure and lose their homes than this administration stepping forward as they've done -- >> come on, dick. we want people to be responsible. >> we want people to be responsible. be responsible, yes. >> that's like saying if you saw kids wandering down the street and didn't have shoes on, they need to be responsible. these folks didn't get into this mess because of themselves. they got it because we had an ov -- avorititious group

of people that -- >> megyn: i the reason i'm laughing -- >> president obama -- >> mig mig the reason i'm laughing, i told the viewers, i'm one of the underwater homeowners, and nobody made me do it, the mortgage broker said this is a weird little mortgage, this is how it's working and i said i'll take the risk, i'm buying peak of the market, they had worked out some deal that lets me pay less anmonthly payment, if the market crashes i'm stuck holding the bag and i am. now, the question is, brad, if there's a moral what's arksd if the government bails me out, but not somebody else, and so on, and should they be in the position of deciding who gets the writedown on the mortgage and who doesn't? >> well, this whole administration, megyn, whether it's in health care, granting 3000 waivers to people, and there's no such thing as equal protection anymore under the law, under the obama white house, because if you're friends with them like solyndra, you get a pass, $500 billion f. you're a friend on health care, you get a pass, a

waiver. so they're picking winners and losers constantly. is it fair to the american people? absolutely not. but this is their modus oprandi -- operandi. your best interest not necessarily my best interest. >> what are we going to do? more than four in -- one in four homeowners are under water. if you bought a house in 2006, 2007, you're probably under water on your mortgage and there's no end in sight. how long are the americans going to stay under water without no outcome, no bright outlook? >> primarily what's supposed to happen is folks that -- folks have the 6 percent, 7 percent, 8 percent mortgages would get them written down to something like 4 percent, which everybody else is paying. while the $25 billion settlement provides for a principal reduction, they're not talking about principal reduction. they're talking about letting folks get their interest rates and get their payment in line, even if they are under water. megyn: but the fannie and

freddie thing is a principal reduction. >> well, they're talking about -- if you read it, what they're talking about is some modification, financed by admittedly the federal government, but it's based on a need -- you wouldn't get it, megyn, i suspect fox pays you enough to where you wouldn't qualify, brad wouldn't get t. i wouldn't get it but there are people on the verge of losing their homes that are taxpayers that have a job, that would be out on the street and the administration takes the position and i agree with them that we should prevent a meltdown. milt mitt romney says let it go forward, let the meltdown happen, we'll sort it out afterwards. megyn: he's right, i don't need the government to bail me out but there are people that need the government to help or they'll lose their homes. >> brad doesn't need it because brad bought a house he can afford in good times and bad times and he wasn't suckered into a deal by those who sought to make money immediately, brokers and otherwise, and greedy banks, because they knew the

government was backing them up. so freddie and fanny should not be in the business of picking winners and losers, they shouldn't be reducing principal that you can't get in the marketplace and it's only because government is going to pass the cost along to the taxpayer that this is even thought of. the deal they gave to the private sector is not the deal to the public sector. we all get screwed. megyn: this guy, demarco, says this is not going to be the least cost approach for the taxpayer, which is a problem for the politicos trying to push this through. guys, thank you both so much. >> thank you. megyn: just ahead, we've got a bombshell report, claims that a controversial media group is working hand in hand with the white house to manipulate some of america's biggest media outlets. and allegations that those media outlets are compliant. we'll speaker with one of the reporters behind the investigation. greece just passed new budget cuts that should save that country big money.

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when i'm on the night shift. when they have more energy than i do. when i don't feel like working out. when there isn't enough of me to go around. ♪ when i have school. and work. every morning. it's faster and easier than coffee. every afternoon when that 2:30 feeling hits. -every day. -every day. every day is a 5-hour energy day. [ male announcer ] 5-hour energy. every day. megyn: a quick reminder about our breaking news at the top of the hours, we're awaiting a press conference with the beverly hills police department on white houston's death. lots of questions since her body was found this weekend in a hotel room bathtub. we'll also be joined by a host from tmz in a few minutes which has broken a lot of news on this investigation, including today. again, the police investigation, the news conference is now ten minutes away.

well, you may have your car, lawnmowerrer -- mother, the family junk stuck in your garage but for one arizona man it is the staging area for dooms day and he's not the only one, the supplies and tools he needs to survive the apocalypse, whichever way it may come. >> it's a passion. >> put it together. come on. good job. >> we probably spent anywhere from 20-30,000 on all the trappings in this lodge that we have. >> we've got to get this stuff loaded up. >> anyone that doesn't take their own self-preservation to heart are doomed for failure, and i refuse to be a victim. my major concern is an electromagnetic plt. l -- pulse. an emp attack can happen without knowing or feeling it. >> an emp is a surge of electrical energy that has the power to wipe out every electrical appliance in a second. >> it's a new -- if a nuclear bomb was detonated high in the atmosphere in

the central united states it would likely cause a nationwide emp. >> russia, china, north korea yarks they all have the technology for an emp. our society is based on electricity. and if an emp goes off, we have no more electricity. mig that's ken ralston, one of those featured on the dooms day preparers and he's my guest now. i confess, you got us freaked out watching your own predictions. there's a piece that talks about this as a-- apocoly apocolypticism, a disorder that you suffer from. >> i would say that's a sensationalize dollars word but i think preparer is calmed down in terms of survivalist. it's average americans taking their own survival in their own hands. it's kind of taking what f.e.m.a. is preaching to us that we have to have, 3-7

days worth of resources to protect our family from whatever crisis is out there, whether it's an emp or a natural disaster. it's the preparing movement has really grown, and people are just trying to empower themselves, i think. megyn: what do you make of the vast majority of americans, millions and millions, who are not doing anything to prepare for dooms day? >> it's really irresponsible. i'm a father of three kids and the last thing i can imagine is looking in their eyes if a disaster happened, whether it be something like katrina that everyone can kind of wrap their arms around because that's happened, you know, people tend to have a normalcy bias where they think it will never happen to me and if it does it won't than bad, but if your kids are there, depending upon you as the guy who makes the decisions in the family and you are not there to help them out, i just -- i think that's just really -- just really gir responsible. i think it's up to the parents to step up. megyn: at first it sounded

like some of the stuff was a good idea, having canned goods and water and then they told me that the crevelli that you invented, it's rated as a number bawn zombie cirl and that's where you lost me. are you off in looney land, worrying zombies coming to kill us? >> you and my wife are in the same boat. she doesn't get the zombie movement. neither do i but it sells crevilles. i designed it for the calves, it allows you to combine tools, so if you have to carry your stuff to go camping it lightens your load. i really made it, another reason, too, is i have to listen to, you know, everyone say we're losing jobs, so i started a tool company that makes the creville now, we employ 400 workers that this is made in america, i tried to bring some jobs back to the united states. and it's my little way of helping out. mig not only do you have the creville, thank you for the

pronunciation, but you involve your boys in it. you mentioned your children. and i understand when you were filming the national geo episode, did you shoot your thumb off? >> actually, it's not off. it's a mijt digit now! i had a tremendous malfunction with a new -- with a brand new weapon. >> mig let's see. >> can you see it? it's tiny now. >> mig it is a mijt bingeit -- mijt dinlit! >> but it's okay. that's a preparer's mind-set is being able to look past those things and you know, be able to keep moving forward and survive. it's that will to survive. but yeah, it was a bad accident. i'm just glad it happened to me and not my kid, but it's murphy's law, you never know what's going to happen, but you're prepared for it. megyn: in addition to the creville, what in addition do you have? you say it's not for any disaster, it's -- >> it's for a power outage.

we have our website that basically has everything from, you know, solar power generators to wall street filtration systems, just about everything you would need. you cover the basics of life, food, water, shelt every, protection. if you can cover those bases, no matter how big or small, i mean, the preparer show tends to get the people that are taking it to the very edge, but i think every american should take it even a little bit. they got to take a little bit of action to look after their own. megyn: i got to go. quickly, how long could you survive without food, water and so on, how much do you have to get by on? >> you know, i'm preparing for at least a year to two years, if i had to. but that's the worst, and i'm hoping for the best. megyn: tim, thank you, hope you feel better. thank you my friend. >> thanks. i'm good, thanks. megyn: after two weeks of controversy, the president offering a compromise friday, to calm what critics are calling his war on religion but today the catholic church is saying it's not enough. we're see whag that means

for the white house just ahead. >> why would a father open fire on his teenage daughter's lap toll? -- laptop? we'll show new three minutes. [ female announcer ] feeling that flu all over your body? immerse yourself in all over relief with alka seltzer plus. it's specially formulated to speed relief to every inch of you. liquidate your flu symptoms with alka seltzer plus. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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megyn: it's the video burning up the intrrnghts an angry dad from north carolina so fed up with his daughter's facebook post he decides to teach her a lesson by shooting her laptop and the punishment did not stop there. trace gallagher has the story. t.g. >> reporter: it's a good hint for all the daughters from awfully us dads, i hope my girls are watching, that we're not really as dumb as you think we are. this 15-year-old daughter thought that she was tired of her parents hassling her and making her do all those chores so she went on

facebook, posted her message and thought she could hide it by using her privacy settings. what she didn't realize is her dad, he's in i.t., as in information technology for an internet company, and oh yeah, he got the message all right. and because daughter tried to hide it, he decided to make it public. listen: >> i'm tired of picking up after you. you tell me once a day i need tate a -- to get a job. i love this part. you could just pay me for all the -- i do around the race. seriously, are you kidding me? >> >> reporter: i love this part, the dad finally decided to exact his own revenge, pointing out he put the laptop down, said this is your laptop, this is my gun, then did this. watch: >> one, two, three, 4-rbgs five, six and oh yeah, after that comment you made about your mom, your mom told me to be sure i put one there for her, so that is for her.

and if i got one lefto i got two left. now i'm out. >> reporter: now he's out, right? and the video was titled facebook, for a troubled teen. that's what daughters get for messing with daddy. megyn: that's the and of her online occurior, she will not grow up to go a blogger. >> reporter: she will not. megyn: just pay me for all the work i do around the house! never mind making me get a job! thanks trace. he got the last word on that one. well, there is a new and explosive investigation posted today on the daily caller website, suggesting that a very controversial group is working hand in hand with the white house to shape the headlines of some of the nation's biggest media outlets. we'll speak to the reporter who broke this story, coming up right here. and we have live pictures coming back from the beverly hills police department, where we are going to hear some questions answered, we believe, on the

death of white houston. back in three minutes with that. [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes.

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megyn: fox news alert, we are seconds away from an update on the death of music legend whitney houston. brand new hour of "america live," welcome, everyone, i'm megyn kelly. the beverly hills police department set to hold a news conference any moment now. early today, the coroner's office said it could be a while before we know exactly what killed the megastar singer. as they await the results of the toxicology tests, we are joined now by a producer for tmz.com, they've done a lot of original reporting on this. welcome, and i understand your reporting today speaks to the cause of death. what do we know? >> he's the thing, so the coroner has not officially released the information on what they believe is the cause of death, but we do know the coroner has talk talked to the family, and it looks like it was

a combination of prescription medication and alcohol which actually ended up killing her. yes, she was in the bathtub and must have gone underwater, and that's why there was water in her lungs, but it doesn't look like drowning that caused the death. megyn: xanax but there was a report that no alcohol was found in a preliminary sweep of her room. >> i do know there is some more information we're going to be posting very soon about that, however i can't talk about it on the air, but if you keep check anything with tmz, that will be posted very soon. there was a bunch of pill bottles in the room but not a lot of actual pills. we know there were prescription bottles for the xanax, the amock sill lin, there was midol, ibuprofen and a couple other things. so there was definitely quite a bit of pill bottles, just not a lot of pills themselves. megyn: any suggestion from any of your sources as to whether, you know, the intake of those

medications in whatever volumes she took them was intentional? in other words, was this an accidental suicide? is there any evidence it was an intentional suicide? >> not going to know that, honestly, until we get toxicology. however, it does sound like she liked taking xanax before going in front of a big audience, and i guess it was routine for her to take those pills to calm down her nerves so she'd be able to get up and perform to her ability. megyn: want to listen to the coroner who spoke earlier. let's take a listen to him. one second. >> i had a conversation with the family at the hotel, and can at no time did i discuss prescription meds or the drowning issue. i don't know if detectives discussed that with the family, but, no, we have not released any information like that.

the case is still pending. no matter what medications they're taking, until we run a tox and see the level and what's in the system, we're not going to speculate. she was in the bathtub when she was found. >> was it full? >> i don't know, because she was removed from the bathtub by a family member, a bodyguard and fire department, when they got there, she was out to have bathtub. >> she was seen within an hour by the family at the hotel, and then she was discovered. it's toxicology. they'll test the blood and urine, but it's the routine tox that we do. megyn: so it's going to take a while for those results to come back, dax. but in the meantime, there are reports that whitney houston was seen behaving erratically earlier in the week. what can you tell us about that? >> well, we had a couple videos of her coming out of nightclubs, a couple days prior to her passing away. and she was coming out looking

very disheveled, very sweaty, looking like she had quite an interesting time inside. there were photos of her where her legs were bloody, so, you know, raised a lot of questions at the time. you see her and go, all right, well, whitney houston is known to be a little strange at times and so we didn't think anything of it at that moment. but now looking back we're going, okay, was this some kind of telltale sign that something was going on inside and the other interesting fact was we've had many videos of her coming out of these medical offices in beverly hills over the last couple days as well. it was very eerie to the michael jackson, we got him coming out of these same medical offices time after time before he passed away. megyn: what can you tell us about her daughter, there were reports that she'd been rush today the hospital, and there was a suggestion one of those times she'd been rushed this prior to whitney's death and she had also been found in a bathtub near unconscious? is that true? what do we know about that?

>> yes. there was an eerie situation the bobby christina was in her hotel room, same floor, checked under whitney's name x she was in the bathtub sleeping, and they were having a hard time getting her to wake up and come to it. and so they rushed her to the hospital. then the day after, or the same away, she was also rushed into the hospital once again. i think that was because of exhaustion, she was inconsolable, obviously, completely understandable, she had found out that her mom had passed away. megyn: what a nightmare. dax, thank you very much. tmz,.com, has been doing a great job of posting the latest and nurse to do so -- first to do so. we appreciate theirinput on a very important story to a lot of people. even if you didn't follow her career in later years, remember her peak. so beautiful inside and out, it seemed, but obviously very troubled in a number of ways. as we watch this press

conference set up, we are awaiting, again, a press conference from the beverly hills police department. originally, we were told this would happen at 2 p.m. eastern time, now we're told that it may be a few minutes after 2 p.m. eastern time. it's 2:06 now, so we'll wait for it, and we'll bring it to you when it starts. you won't miss it because there is such high viewer interest in what happened to somebody who wo was america's sweetheart for a long time. last night we saw a swarm around the man many people are talking about in the wake of whitney houston's downfall. bobby brown arriving at the airport in l.a. last night, her ex-husband, of course. he was mobbed by the pap paparai and a mass massive group of fans. he was performing in mississippi on saturday when he learned about his wife's death. notorious for his own legal troubles and substance abuse. whitney houston divorced him back in 2007, and we are told that he did, he missed the first number, but then he did go out and perform on saturday night after acknowledging whitney houston's death.

the news conference, again, we're now hearing it's going to happen within the next ten minutes. right here, beverly hills police department going to update us on the death of whitney houston. we'll go live when it happens. well, a scene of utter chaos unfolding as the greek parliament votes on the latest plan to avoid economic default. riots rained molotov cocktails onto police and dozens of buildings were set on fire. many are wondering if greece is a losing, basically, losing itself in this war. ashley webster of the fox business network live in athens now. ashley? >> reporter: yeah, hi, megyn. well, the good news is it's so much quieter tonight than it was just 24 hours ago, and a crowd of well in excess of 100,000 turned extremely angry and embattled police throughout the evening. as you say, throwing those petrol woman bombs, setting fire

to buildings. the damage could be seen in daylight. close to 50 buildings, in fact, were set on fire including an historic cinema in central athens, a building from the 19th century. 150 stores, it's estimated, were smashed and looted. and we also had a number of injuries including 70 police officers. the people upset, they're saying that it's their government that's at fault. they're already having to we've with steep austerity measures, and now they face even more severe conditions. many greeks worry about their future. >> in six months many millions will be unemployed. we have already thousands of homeless people, people who are losing their houses, their jobs, eating from the dirt food. it's a terrible thing, terrible. we can't serve that measures

anymore, we need for everybody taxes equally. >> reporter: and, megyn, the latest round of bailout money not guaranteed at all. the e.u. still has to sign off on it so, again, this country, this hard-up country remains in limbo. back to you. megyn: ashley, thank you. well, a new report claims a controversial media group is working hand in hand with the white house to manipulate some of america's largest news outlets. we'll speak with one of the reporters making the charge. plus, they live free or die in new hampshire, except when it comes to perfume. the smell police, just ahead. and president obama called it a compromise on the controversial issue of contraception and insurance coverage. but some religious groups don't agree. >> the result will be that religious organizations won't is have to pay for those -- won't have to way for these services,

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megyn: well, there is quite an information out today done by a team of reporters at the daily caller web site. it claims that a controversial media group by the name of media matters for america is working hand in hand with the white house to manipulate some of america's largest news outlets and doing so successfully. here from the daily caller to tell us what he found, vince. he is the senior online editor and worked on this investigation. vince, thank you very much for being here. first of all, what led you to do this? media matters is, obviously, a left group that has been very critical of many organizations including fox news and, you know, a lot of people believe, look, if you, you know, are on that kind, that side of the aisle, you believe stuff like this, and if you're not, you don't. so why get involved in it? >> well, we wanted to pull back

the veil. obviously, media matters has been out there for a while, they were founded in 2004, and we felt like media matters deserves some scrutiny. they spent a lot of time going after reporters, we've heard stories of reporters who felt intimidated by the way that media matters behaved towards them, even insiders claimed that they were intimidating reporters, they would receive thousands of e-mails after a media matters hit on them. so we felt it was reasonable for us to investigate them. as a news organization, we wanted to expose what media matters is. megyn: are these current employees that you spoke with or former? >> it's a mix of both, and we also spoke with progressive leaders, democratic leaders who are familiar with the organization and how it operates. we felt like we wanted to get a pretty comprehensive assessment for the way the organization behaves, and we feel like we did that. we had a lot of really interesting comments from people who said that media matters has a little bit gone off the rails, progressives who weren't too happy with the organization and some, my colleague, tucker

carlson, who i shared -- really my boss, who i shared this story with, we worked together, and he's made some discoveries that some of these guys spent too much time focusing on fox, so we decided we wanted to go after them. megyn: by the way, i had a media matters employee pull me aside once and tell me that he and a bunch of his colleagues really loved kelly's court, for what it's worth. [laughter] what interested me most about this piece is what you say a coordination at the highest levels almost. you allege that media matters employees were meeting with valerie jarrett who is arguably the president's closest advisers, one of them at least, among others at the white house. >> that's right. and it's not an allegation. anybody can go look at this. this is actually sitting out there publicly. if you check the white house visitors' logs, you can see the head of media matters, david brock, actually had a meeting in the white house with valerie jarrett who is, essentially, the highest adviser to the president of the united states. thisthis has definitely happene,

it's certainly occurred. megyn: and what do we think the outcome of that is? what does that tell us? >> what we found out is that since the beginning of the obama administration that media matters has been in regular contact with the white house. media matters insiders tell us they actually share a weekly phone call with the center for american progress and the white house. and also a weekly meeting between a lot of progressive groups that the white house attends and media matters attends. and in these meetings they actually work on coordinating messaging to an extent. now, as to what direction that flows l the white house is instructing these progress i organizations -- progressive organizations to do something or vice versa is still something we're trying to figure out. remember back to 2009, anita dunn goes after fox news, it was a big deal, obviously, you were part of covering that. that was a message that was the same exact message that media matters shared just weeks prior. the white house was pulling from the media matters playbook. now, employees swear there was no coordination at that time, at

least to their knowledge. but as it stands, they chose the same line of attack going after fox news at that time. megyn: and you talk about how the media matters, you know, pushing its message which is very far left, that they have a lot of willing recipients in the press. now, there's been some pushback today. your article came out, and there's already been some pushback, in particular from ben smith saying you don't have your facts right on that. can you speak to that? >> absolutely, we have immediate matters -- media matters insiders with these claims, they said, hey, look, we can rely on ben smith to be able to publish the things that we had, and we could rely on greg sargent of "the washington post." and one of the, one of the sources that we had actually said, yeah, greg sargent's always game if there's nowhere else to place us it. so they had allies in the media -- megyn: you're not just talking about left-leaning, you talk

about the huffington post, i don't think that would shock our viewers, but you're talking about mainstream, you know, media organizations like, you know, the washington post taking talking points from media matters? what evidence is there of that other than just these claims from media matters folks? >> well, greg sargent is a liberal blogger, he definitely has been available to their mailing lists and producing their stuff from time to time. that's not exceptional. but the fact is that media matters knows it has places they can get it, and when they get it to greg sargent, they can widely tout, hey, we got this from "the washington post." they're able to tell their donors, hey, we got this in "the washington post." they went so far as to claim that nbc news' operation was writing their entire prime time lineup based on media -- megyn: msnbc. >> that's right. megyn: not nbc. >> excuse me, yes, msnbc. megyn: you speak a lot about

david brock, he's the guy who essentially runs the show other there. >> that's right. megyn: and he merges as an interesting figure. >> he does. you know, we open the story by talking about an anecdote of david brock at the end of 2010 was standing on the roof of media matters smoking a cigarette when his personal body guards, he had as much protection as a third world dictator one of our sources told us, his personal bodyguards whisk up to the roof telling him there's snipers. he supposedly leads a very erratic newsroom -- megyn: and you mean actual assassins with guns. >> that's right. no, absolutely. and he's hired personal security detail. this detail stands post at his home. this is pretty exceptional for somebody who considers himself a movement leader. megyn: having looked at this group, is it, you know, is there -- i don't know, is there something that you think needs to be done as a result of all this about media matters? are they, in terms of tax

dollars, in terms of, you know, just public awareness, or is it just a group that has an outlook like a lot of groups have an outlook and is entitled to that point of view? >> we believe they deserve scrutiny. we believe of that media matters deserves to be shown the light of day. they are a tax-exempt organization, 501c3. their proximities to the white house, and really their efforts to try and destroy fox news and by the way, that's not just throwing out a term, they really do want to destroy this network, you know, really does raise questions. can an organization that claims tax-exempt status go after a media organization, a journalistic organization like fox news and try and destroy its business? they try today destroy ford motor company's business and their efforts to the take down lou dobbs on cnn. it deserves scrutiny. megyn: yeah. i mean, as far as the effort to take down fox news, how's that going for you? >>, you know,. megyn: all right, vince, thank you.

well, new evidence in the trial of a college athlete charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend. we'll update you on that. and you've got see it to believe it. a 5-year-old girl survives of after an avalanche flattens her home. we've got the details. and something stinks in new hampshire. a over fragrances making it to the house of representatives. live free or die, right? just make sure you don't smell. ♪

megyn: well, the new hampshire motto is live free or die, but

if a new be law passes, you'd better make sure you don't smell. we're talking stink! fight over state employees' fragrances making it all the way to the house of representatives there. experts say the scents could be making people sick. trace gallagher live in l.a. trace? >> reporter: other states have tried these o tiff rouse bans before, megyn, but nothing ever got out of the gates. the best we could find was that detroit has some bans in certain city buildings on heavy perfumes -- megyn: any scented fragrances, i think n. detroit you've got an issue if you have stinky hair spray. >> reporter: in some public buildings. they couldn't get them in all, but you're right. this case, this is any state employee that comes in contact with the public cannot wear any fragrances and cannot even wear scented products which is deodorant, that kind of stuff, or heavy shampoos. they're kind of acting on the advice of doctors saying they can trigger asthma or sneezing

attacks, and perfume can change the lung function during asthma. here's what some people in the granite state think about it. listen. >> it seems a little extreme, but at the same time if it's affecting people's health, then i think it's something to consider. >> i wouldn't want anybody sneezing around me or having an allergic reaction. >> it's their right to be able to wear perfume in a way. but i could understand both sides. >> a vote on the bill will happen wednesday, megyn. if it passes, 60 days after that it becomes law. but there's really no language on how they plan to enforce this law exactly. megyn? megyn: like this. [laughter] listen, this is where the people who abuse it ruin it for everybody. like, you could have deodorant, right? and nobody would bother you. but it's the people who stink up the place. you ever get in a taxi, and some people have those air fresheners on, and you're sticking your head out the window like a golden retriever on the way

home. >> reporter: yeah. i hate perfume, but i get your point. [laughter] megyn: i see both sides. trace, thanks. >> reporter: okay. megyn: we hope we are just moments away now from this press conference that we promised you. they are saying that this will bring us new details on the death of whitney houston out in l.a. when it happens, we will go there live. again, it was supposed to start, well, about 20 minutes ago. it has not yet begun. plus, the catholic church has now rejected a white house compromise on contraception. what does this mean for the church and catholic voters in 2012? that's next.

megyn: fox news alert, we are now getting that update from the beverly hills police department on the death of whitney houston. listen here to lieutenant mark rosen. >> so here's what i can tell you. on saturday, the 11th, at approximately 3:30 p.m., ms. houston was, apparently, discovered in her bathtub by a member of her personal staff. this was information that was relayed to the first responders that came on to the scene. prior to the fire department personnel and security team arriving on scene, ms. houston's body was pulled from the bathtub, and when first responders arrived on scene, she was unconscious and unresponsive. first aid and cpr measures were performed in an attempt to revive her, they were

unsuccessful, and at approximately 3:55 p.m. on saturday, whitney houston was pronounced dead at the beverly hilton hotel. as of right now, there's an active investigation by the beverly hills police department. it's not prompted by her celebrity or notoriety, we would do in the case of any unattended or unexpected death of somebody of her age. as of right now, it's not a criminal investigation. um, we have concluded our portion of the investigation at the hotel. we have a team of investigators that are specifically assigned to this case, but as of right now and this date, a coroner's case. >> lieutenant, can you squelch the rumors? somebody somewhere said a family member was informed and that the information came from the police department, beverly hills to be exact, that drugs, prescription drugs were involved. >> let me finish, i'm at the tail end of my prepares statement, and then i'll answer any questions. >> i'm sorry. >> at this time, we're not going

to comment on specifics about ms. houston, the condition of her body, the condition of the room or anything that we may or may not have found in the course as i stated, right now it's a coroner's case. there will not be any more information coming from the beverly hills police department until the coroner has completed their investigation and the toxicology results have been completed. at that time we, like you, are waiting for the determination from the coroner's office as to the cause of the death. cause of her death. and right now we're not going to speculate on what the cause of that death might have been or what may have contributed to her untimely passing. and with that, i will answer your questions. >> getting back to my point, i didn't mean to hammer the point, but could you at least say yes or no that xanax or any other prescription medicine, that information came from somebody. >> your department to the family or can you even talk about that? >> i have no information on where that information came from at all. >> is it true? >> i don't believe it came from any official source in the

police department -- >> you don't know if it's true? >> right now our entire investigation is sealed, that's standard protocol for the beverly hills police department. following the conclusion of our investigation and depending on where that investigation leads us, the specifics of the case will be released, and the 911 tapes, i expect, will be eventually released to the media. but as of right now our investigation is sealed because it is pending, and we need to preserve the integrity of our investigation. >> the body of whitney houston has been released from the coroner's office? >> that i don't know, you'd have to ask the coroner's office about that. >> lieutenant, it's reported that some of your officers found prescription drugs dispensed by a pharmacy which was reportedly under investigation for giving drugs to celebrities, specifically michael jackson. can you confirm that? >> i don't have specific information on what was found in the hotel room. and i don't know where that information's coming from so, no, i cannot confirm that. i can't deny it. >> have your officers been told

any cause of death? >> no. we don't know the cause of death. we would not have relayed that information to anybody. we're waiting for the coroner's office to tell us the cause of death. >> i'm sorry, as far as the investigation, do detectives expect to serve warrants at any pharmacies? >> i don't know what the detectives intend to do with it. >> has there been any warrants served apart from the hotel room? >> i don't have any specifics about the investigation. >> so at this point you can absolutely say with certainty this is not a homicide investigation at all? >>er not conducting a homicide investigation at this time. and we need to be very clear about that. we do not know the cause of death, we don't know the circumstances leading up to her death, and as of right now it -- i don't want to use the word routine investigation, it's a normal investigation for somebody of her age that would have die inside this manner, and we'll have more information after the coroner gets back to us. >> and again, you're not at liberty at all to talk about whether or not there's the possibility that prescription medication or some other drugs may have played some factor in

her death? you just, it's all quiet? >> it's not quiet, it's our investigation sealed. the integrity in the investigation requires us to keep confidential about anything that we're investigating, and i can't comment, honestly, i don't know. i don't have the specifics on the investigation. it's standard protocol by the beverly hills police department for any death investigation, and we'll follow the evidence wherever that evidence leads us, and at that time we'll make a determination. >> her daughter -- when she showed up -- is it true she couldn't -- [inaudible] her daughter? >> i don't know whether or not she was able to see her mother at all. i don't have information. any other questions -- megyn: and there you heard a brief update from the beverly hills police department. trace gallagher's been monitoring the news live. trace? >> reporter: we got very little information except we have a better timeline of exactly what happened. at 3:30 p.m., one of whitney houston's staff entered that hotel room and did find her in

the bathtub submerged. she was unconscious. that staffer apparently took her out of the bathtub, placed her on a bed, and by the time authorities got there about 15 minutes later or, she was pronounced dead because she was unresponse i have. as to all these reports, and there have been numerous reports that drugs were found, in fact, many drugs found around the hotel room, the beverly hills police department is not comments that at all, not even as far as to say there was xanax actually this at the hotel room. those reports, again, not confirmed, but they're not knocking those reports down. we should also note the associated press has now got a comment from the coroner, the body, whitney houston's body has now left the morgue, and we're told later today will be flown back to new jersey, megyn, where the funeral will take place sometime later this week. so the beverly hills police department concluding the whole thing by saying this is not, he repeats, not a homicide investigation, and they will not comment again on this until the toxicology reports come back

from the coroner, and they expect that could take at least two with, maybe as long as eight weeks to get back. megyn? megyn: yeah. that's the official word. trace, thank you, from the beverly hills police department. you heard tmz reporting at the top of our 2:00 hour about their reports after speaking with family members saying that they were told, reportedly, she died from prescription drugs. not alcohol and not drowning. the reports had been that they had found water in her lungs, and she was found in the bathtub. the police confirming that, but that she had died from the prescription drugs including xanax and some other medications that were believed to have been found in her hotel room. right now that's just a report, not confirmed by the beverly hills pd. listen, coming up right after this break, the catholic church has now rejected a white house compromise on contraception. what does this mean for the church and for catholic voters? a key voting bloc in 2012. we'll look at that in a few

minutes. >> today we've reached a decision on how to move forward. under the rule women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services, no matter where they work. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaids, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes.

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can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties ha sixty calories oless per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. megyn: after two weeks of pressure, the president offering what he called a compromise last friday saying that he was backing off of an insurance mandate that's part of his health care law that forced some catholic organizations and other faith groups to pay for contra sent contraceptives and procedures like sterilization. of course, that would fly in the face of their beliefs. instead, the president said those costs will now be shifted to the insurance companies. >> the results will be that religious organizations won't have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. let me repeat, these employers will not have to pay for or

provide contraceptive services. megyn: already there's been pushback. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell yesterday saying this fight is far from over. >> this is about the free exercise of religion, and under our constitution you don't take a poll to find out how people feel about a constitutional freedom. in fact, the bill of rights are designed to protect minority views. so what the overall view on the issue of contraception is has nothing to do with an issue about religious freedom. meg joining me now, peter johnson jr., and bill donahue, president of the catholic league. so you two gentlemen have been on the program before all of this and both had some issues with this plan. so we wanted to have you back on and ask you whether you are satisfied with the resolution as outlined by the president on friday. peter? >> you know, in a legal sense it is not an exemption, it is not a compromise. the federal government's decide hog's catholic and who's catholic enough. and deciding, well, listen,

we're going make it easier for you, the cardinals and priests and bishops and nuns of america. you don't have to hand out drugs that induce abortions. we will have the insurance companies do that for you so you can keep your consciouses clean. that doesn't protect faith in america. that doesn't honor congress. conscious. that doesn't honor the internal workings of the church or any church which are protected by the constitution and by laws and by case law. you're not supposed to reach into the internal workings of a hierarchical organization like the catholic church and tell them what to do. and the priests and muchs and -- and nuns and bishops and lay catholics around the country are saying, listen, we need to honor our deeply-held beliefs. do not violate the constitution. megyn: but the president is saying he has struck a balance between women's need for contraception coverage and 98% even of catholic women have used

it, and the religious liberties that we've been talking about. does he state the facts correctly that now religious institutions will not have to pay, at least, for the contraception coverage? >> no. the president of the united states is factually wrong, and i'm going prove it right no. i run the catholic league. our insurance carrier is called christian brothers. it's a catholic institution. in the health care plan that we have for our employees of the catholic league, the catholic league pays 80% of the bill, 20% is picked up by the employee. in the case of a family policy, it's 50/50. so when the president says catholic individuals and employees are not paying for it -- megyn: he's saying the insurance companies are now paying for it. >> where did they get the money except from the individual employee as well as the catholic league itself? there's no such thing as a free anything. he knows that. it obviously has to come from catholic individuals. if issue were guns, if we thought that guns in the right

hands were to lead to a decline in violence, can you imagine what people could would say if you say, well, you're not individually paying for it, it's just your insurance company's going to buy the guns. we know what's going on here. this is just a back door way of trying to stick it to catholics one more time. megyn: is that all of it, peter? is that all that the catholics remain upset with? because i've heard today that they're also just upset about the mandate, that they feel this exposes a problem with the president's health care law that they have been trying to voice concerns about for a while? >> well, i think it's probably three issues. it's a cultural-religious issue, number one, which wens well. it's -- understand well. it's a legal issue, a constitutional issue, but as another part of it, it's obamacare. because obamacare causes the conditions by which the government decides it's going to order people to do x, y and z. we heard jack lew, the president's chief of staff,

yesterday talking about the question, well, can the president really do it. and he flippantly, oh, yeah, the president can do that. can he order the insurance companies to do this and provide this type of coverage? yeah, he can do that. so that's what the objection a lot of americans have to obamacare is this kind of incredibly overbroad mandate for every part of american -- megyn: so your response to that is, he's right, he can technically under the letter of the health care law, he can do it. >> that'll be challenged too. >> right. >> but the issue here is should there be a conscious exemption, and what the president's chief of staff is saying under the rulemaking power of the federal government in implementing obamacare, that they can basically do what they want. meg yeah. >> and they intend to do that to the catholic church. megyn: because they said they can require insurance companiesd they're saying this is preventive care. i want to ask you, bill, i think the white house believes and some of its supporters that this is the end of the controversy, that they've struck -- [laughter] what they see as a compromise position and now people like you

will either be quiet or not listened to. >> listen, i'm getting phone calls from catholic small businessmen. i own a restaurant. who elected obama to tell me what kind of a health care policy i have to have for my employees? so this has to be resolved at that level as well. these people have insurance policy. i think to some extent that obama played a devious role. they began to peel off some of those liberal catholics who were joined with us in a tenuous coalition. so now you have the likes of sister carol key hand of the catholic health association, father jenkins from notre dame and father larry snyder, all of whom love obama and said, well, we had some real problems with this obamacare legislation, they came along with us, and now the so-called accommodation which is nothing more than a joke, it's a transparent smoke screen, they've gone back into the fold. in other words, they've caught their secular step once again. so, look, the practicing catholics in this country four years ago voted for mccain by 1%.

if you lose even 5 or 6% of those people this time, because they're really angry, you're in trouble. from my pulpit yesterday they read a letter from bishop murphy, a letter in new york city from archbishop dolan. i've never remembered that within a couple of weeks you have pastors telling people this is what's going on, the obama administration is going after our rights, and they are going after our rights. and people keep saying to me, what do you want? i want to be left alone, that's all. just leave it the way it was. megyn: the point was raised by some pundit that this is what the president has chosen to do when he's facing re-election. and does it show you then what is really in his heart in terms of where he'll strike the balance when it comes to women's rights or contraception coverage, however you want to put it, and respect for religious liberty? >> in my view, there's no respect for religious liberty. in my view it's a blatantly, boldly political decision

designed to curry favor with some americans. it's designed to say i'm the president that brought you free abortion-producing drugs, i'm the president that brought you free, no-cost sterilization. i'm the guy. we're reverting to the worst of political machine politics of the 19th century, of the early 20th century here in america where we have a government giving away. the problem is we're giving it away at a cost to religious -- megyn: so it's not, this conversation we're having is not about you saying no one should have contraception and no one should get it paid for, it's about -- >> religious objections and moral objections and content objections, obviously. but in terms of talking about the constitution, this is an absolute violation. it should not be about the white house and president obama determining what is a catholic organization. if vatican, if catholic hierarchy determines that a catholic organization is a catholic organization, that's good enough, and they should

have the conscious exemption. he deprive them of that opportunity. big time. megyn: you raise a good point about how some catholic institutions will still have to pay. we'll see whether that keeps the debate alive. gentlemen, thank you so much. we will be right back.hen don't go away. f? try bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles so it enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin.

megyn: new cries for intervention to stop the massacre of civilians in syria. the arab league urging urging te united nations security council to form a joint peace keeping force for syria. more than 5,000 people have reportedly been killed in government attacks, the latest numbers listed over 5400. dominic di-natale live with the late forest beirut. >> reporter: meg, some uglier and crueler tactics, snipers are apparently targeting innocent,

unarmed civilians, deliberately shooting them in the back and legs to paralyze them. sky news from the u.k. has been there and heard and visited families of victims who have suffered or been hit in this way, particularly one 17-year-old boy who'd been shot through the head. he'd been out with his sister trying to find medicine for her. she, too, also suffered similar wounds. we've met people who suffered a similar fate, they were protesters which are a direct target of assad forces. it's getting uglier and grimmer -- [audio difficulty] assault on that city trying to round out opposition positions there, and conditions getting more desperate by the day as little electricity, water and rations and basic supplies are running out on top of that. u.s. officials, meanwhile, are saying they're very concerned that al-qaeda might have sent agents into syria to stir up more violence. that's going to complicate the situation just as there are

fresh international efforts to bring an end to the violence. although russia get anything the way yet again, this time saying there needs to be peace before peace keepers can come in. the air iraq league is trying to make that -- the arab league is trying to make that happen. the syrian government won't give up bombardments on the likes of homs and, of course, russia is arming the syrian government. it sells weapons to the government, and until it stops doing that, neither side is going to put up the fight. back to you. megyn: incredible situation. dominic, thank you very much. well, we are learning more today about the death of music legend whitney houston. a news conference wrapping up moments ago in beverly hills, you saw it here, with police fielding questions about the circumstances surrounding the singer's sudden death on saturday. coming up, the latest on this investigation.

>>megyn: vacationers at a resort in new mexico taking part in an unusual annual competition, riding slow