watching too many episodes of swamp people, isn't that the name of it, swamp people? shannon: i don't know. i just know it's not a good idea, right. gregg: right. "happening now" begins right now, bye-bye. shannon: have a great weekend. jon: we are a gates-free zone. the president is weighing in on the comments by the democratic strategist made about ann romney. a fair & balanced debate ahead. shannon: fox polls has brand-new poll numbers on how mitt romney matches up with the president, and new job approval numbers also in. karl rove is here with his take. gregg: very dangerous weather on the way, maybe even life threatening tornadoes. we'll tell you where and when it's expected, all "happening now." jon: president obama defends the

wife of his rival. shannon: president obama sticking up or mitt romney's arrive in an interest ooh after democrat i have strat *eufs hillarstrategist hillary ro serbgs n started a firestorm by saying, she has never worked a day in her life. >> i think those of us in politics are fair game. i haven't met mrs. romney, she seems like a very nice rom supportive of her family and husband. jenna: it's go to james rosen with the latest on this. >> reporter: this controversy has taken pricing turns

overnight. before i take you there, let's bear in mind the larger context in which this fascinating exercise in gender is playing out. the two rifles are battling for the women opens vote. among her provocative comments hillary rosen had called mitt romney old fashion ned his view of women. phreut ta could he said this morning they will proceed pray the creature of the madman area. the nonsmoking, noncheating, none drinking kind. a high profile republican weighed in told fox news this episode has awakened many mama tkpweu grizzlies. >> i got a lot of messages from apolitical girlfriends, some who have chosen to stay home, some for financial reasons and some finances w*erpbt weren't a

factor in their choice to stay home. why do some on the left choose to divide by comments like that instead of just respecting women's choices and what they want to do with the gifts that god has begin them. >> reporter: hillary rosen herself says she is framing a tweet sent by shaun spicer. he took to twitter after the catholic league did not approve. the catholic league should be encouraging adoption not demeaning the parents who are blessed to raise these children, so tweeted spicer. done new tweeted back. jon and jen a this monster of a story is spin inning all kinds of directions, a note that hillary rosen is no arrangement

to this correspondent. jenna: good reminder you got a mama grizzly reference in there. way to quick off the whole show. we'll be back to you as this develops. in d.c. for us today. jon: happy friday. new polls showing republican presidential candidate mitt romney with a slight edge over president obama. a fox news patrol finds if the presidential election were held today mitt romney would get 46% of the vote to mr. obama's 44%. another fox news poll shows the president's job approval rating is now at 42%, down five points from just last month. for more on this we're joined by karl rove, he is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush, also a fox news contributor. nobody knows polls better than you do, karl, worth pointing out that essentially the president and mitt romney are tied because

of the margin of errors. when you look at those numbers for a sitting president to be in that kind of a position against a challenger who is months away from the nominating convention, this is not good news for the white house, is it? >> yeah, yeah, polls are going to go up and down, but what is amazing to me is that romney is slightly ahead or as you say statistically died with obama at the end of a very ugly primary process that has not been particularly helpful to mitt romney. if you look inside the numbers the ballots really are interesting among independent voters. independent voters break for romney by a 43-37 margin, and the deeper you go into this poll the worse it looks for president obama. jon: one of those polls includes the question about economic policies. are the president's economic policies helping or hurting american voters? here are the numbers. 37% now say they are hurting. 31% say they are helping the

country. >> well, another way of looking at it, is that 68% of the american people think that what president obama spent the last three years doing has not helped at all or has hurt. it shows big concerns about deficits. look at this. if you will. bend down here at bottom on the white board. who do you think is capable of fix being the economy? obama 39, romney 46. among independents 28% think that obama is better able to fix the economy, and 41% think it's romney. there is also a big gender gap in this ballot, if you take a look at it, among men it's 38 obama, 52 romney, a 14-point deficit. among women it's 41 obama, 41 romney and an 8 point deficit among women for romney, but 14 point deficit among men for president obama. we have two gender gaps, one

bigger -pbbig than the other. jon: i wonder if this hillary rosen flap criticizing ann romney for not having worked a day in her life she said and then apologizing for the. has that feud over? has the damage been done? >> the feud was not over with hilary rosen's apology. it was not an apology. nine sentences most of which were devoted to developing her own position. one sentence, i apologize to ann romney and anybody else offended. the next sentence was let's get rid of this faux war on stay at home homes. it was hillary rosen that started the war. this lend 4 episode. i think the damage will continue to resonate. it's going to leave the impression that the democrats have a very judgmental view about women who stay home and

are stay at home moms. jon: on this point the president in making that statement recognized that this was a fire he had to try to put out. >> yeah that he personally had to put out. they tried the night before to put it out with 140 character tweets from the campaign manager, jim messina and then from david axelrod, that was clearly unacceptable. the president had scheduled a series of local interviews, local television anchors around the countryment it was a subject he could not avoid, he wisely, i suspect not happily jumped into the fray and said, enough is enough, this was out of bounds and this is wrong and that is about as good as you can get in ending the conflict. jon: he also jumped into the fray over the supreme court hearing over his healthcare law when he addressed newspaper reporters in washington. he had pretty critical comments for the court. the fox news poll asked whether people think that the president was trying to intimidate the supreme court with his healthcare comments and overwhelmingly those responding

to this poll, 56% said, yes he was. your thoughts. >> a pretty interesting number, because, you know, one comment made by the city in the ap discussed about for a couple of days, obviously it sun sunk in. this is no not where the president wants to be. you have some democrats thinking he was trying to intimidate the supreme court. not a good thing for the president. could you imagine what would happen in his predecessor tried to intimidate the supreme court, they would have been calling for his impeachment. he is lucky to have escaped this with a dent, not a reconstruction problem. jon: always interesting to hear from you. jenna: after north korea's test of a long range rocket, despite

the rocket's failure about 80 seconds into the flight the administration is calling this a provocation, saying more international defines may lead to new sanctions on the regime. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is with us. one of the big questions we're asking today is what is next? can we expect another launch, and soon? >> reporter: well that's right, jenna, good morning. this morning a south korean defense ministry official is quoted by reuters as saying the possibility of another long range rocket launch or nuclear test is very high because of the public humiliation of this launch. 2012 was built as the year of prosperity for north korea and showcase the new leadership under kim jong un. north korea has already prepared for a third nuclear test at an underground facility, and that is the same site that was used for tests in 2006 and 2009. a former intelligence official telling fox that we should expect north korea to push ahead

with another launch and perhaps that nuclear test problem below now under a compressed timeframe, jenna. jenna: people have talked about as you men's the public humiliation for north korea. some also suggest it's an embarrassment for our policy and how we engage that country. >> reporter: we've had a gaggle, a formal white house briefing where they said the us may consider additional sanctions on north korea in the future. on february 29th north korea agreed to a deal with the u.s. that it would halt nuclear and long range missile test in return for food. in advance of the launch the secretary of state sent a stern warning. >> pyongyang has a clear choice, it can pursue peace and reap the benefits of closer ties with the international community, including the united states, or it can continue to face pressure

and isolation. >> reporter: a leading republican senator jon kyl saying in a statement once again young r-r has demonstrated its complete disregard for international sanctions and it's proclivity for worth less commitments the administration should abandon it's naive negotiatings with north korea and iran. for context these issue are interconnect, an investigator source emphasized to fox when you look at north korea you have to understand that that regime has not only helped iran with its nuclear program in terms of technology but also in terms of exer per tees. this is very interconnected, the north korea connection and the iranian connection. jenna: things we should not begin today as talks begin with iran and their nuclear program. thank you very much. jon: one more u.s. state is about to do away with the death penalty. what that means for convicts already on death row there, including two notorious killers

whose cases have recently been in the news. judge napolitano joins us to discuss. jenna: dangerous weather on the way. janice is talking it. >> reporter: classic set up for severe weather tomorrow, jenna all along tornado alleave. we'll have details and where you need to be cautious coming up next. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement 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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they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade. jon: a fox news weather alert and some potentially life threatening storms headed for the south and central and southern plains. meteorologist janice dean is tracking it all in the fox weather center. >> reporter: this is a three-day event, today, tomorrow and sunday. the worst of the weather we think is going to set up tomorrow. we've got a low pressure system coming out of the rockies, still very active across the west. no watches or warnings right now, but we're starting to see some thunderstorms, the possibility for severe weather across the upper midwest and the

central plains. again, no watches ea or warnings just yet. as we get into the afternoon, into the evening and tomorrow we will see the watches and warnings coming up. everything coming together, our low coming out of the rockies. the upper level jet stream here, warm, moisture air coming in from the gulf. you've got that winds changing direction with height, and we're going to see the potential for rotating supercells. tornadoes that could be large, very dangerous and long lags. so your severe threat today, slight risk, mainly hail, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes not out of the question for north texas in through oklahoma, missouri and kansas. but look at the set up, very rarely do you see this white shaded area but the national weather service are very clear that we could have a large tornado outbreak starting tomorrow afternoon and into the overnight into sunday. that means large hail, damaging winds, strong, long lasting

destructive potentially life threatening tornadoes. i cannot stress this enough. we think all of those ingredients are going to come together for a severe weather outbreak. if you live in the red shaded areas, certainly the yellow shaded areas, but this bull's-eye again is where we think we're going to have the long-lasting district t*eu destructive tornadoes, tomorrow afternoon into tomorrow evening. if you live in these areas you want your noaa weather radio and you want to listen to local forecasts and alerts. there will be tornado watches and warnings. we have had an above average season already, tomorrow no exception. back to you, jon. jon: people are going to be wanting to pay a lot of attention especially when they are getting ready for bed and you're not as aware of the sirens and everything. >> reporter: absolutely. jenna: good points there for the middle of the country. new video we want to show you that happened on the west coast. the national weather service issuing alerts for the san francisco area as storms rolled through last night bringing

heavy rain and strong winds, and as you can see a lot of lightning. i'm a native san franciscan, jon you get a lot of fog, you don't get a lot of this. san francisco international airport said lightning struck a plane forcing it to return to the airport. many planes had difficulty in the area. luckily that plane landed safely and no one was hurt. jon: wow. we are on the verdict watch in the case of a 14-year-old boy. he is accused of killing his father's pregnant fiance when he was only 11 years old. the breaking details on this is case in a live report next. plus, one more state, just a small step away from repealing it's death penalty. what that means for the convicts now facing execution, and the death penalty nationwide. judge andrew napolitano weighs in just ahead. all right, let's decide what to

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jon: we are expecting a judge to decide whether a 14-year-old boy will be held responsible for the shooting death of his father's pregnant fiancee. she was more than eight months pregnant as she was shot in the head as she slept in their pennsylvania home. the boy was 11 years old at the time. julie banderas is following the story. >> reporter: he was 11 years old when police say he shot his step-mother in the head. he was initially charged as an adult. if convicted he would have been sent to prison for the rest of his life. his attorney successfully petition towed have his case transferred to juvenile court. if the judge adjudicates him deliquent, that is the juvenile court's equivalent of a guilty conviction he can only be held until his 21st birthday.

he's currently 14 years old. the judge's decision will follow three days of closed door proceedings due to it being a juvenile case, in which 16 witnesses testified including a man who was trimming trees outside the family's farm house when he heard the mother, the mom, the pregnant woman, and her four-year-old daughter scream. his father testified on the stand and said he was crying and said my mom's dead. a gunshot expert who also testified said that residue found on the boy's clothes was from a turkey shoot the boy participated in days before the shooting and called the prosecution's case speculative and said there was no forensic evidence kebting the boy to the crime. they fell far short from proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the boy had killed the woman. the judge will make a decision at 2:00 as to whether he will hold the boy responsible for the death of the 26-year-old.

jon: a horrible story. jo a major shift in the legal landscape in connecticut. they have abolished the death penalty. the governor is expected to sign the bill some time next week. this will make connecticut the 17th state to ban the death penalty. lawmakers say it won't affect the eleven men currently on death row in that state, including two killers convict evidence a horrifying crime. judge andrew andrew napolitano is our legal analyst. let's talk about what happens to these men on death row. we are all familiar with the pettitt family, the home invasion that led to a killing of a mother and her two young daughters. these two men were found guilty and sentenced by a jury of their pierce to death. so what happens to them? >> look, whatever you think of the death penalty, what these two, now prisoners, now convicts

did, and were convicted of was among the more horrific crimes in the modern era, and one of the more death penalty appropriate crimes. the problem now confronting the legislature, or what will be confronting the government in connecticut is, if the governor signs this, as he says he will, and the death penalty is again the public policy and against the law in the state of connecticut, they cannot apply this death penalty to those who have already been sentenced to death. jenna: wait a minute the lawmakers say they expect that the eleven people on death row will have those sentences so -- >> if they want the eleven people on death row to be executed they will need to delay making the death penalty illegal in connecticut until after those executions, because the supreme court of the united states has made it clear that once the death penalty is either found unconstitutional, or found unlawful, or against public

policy or abolished it didn't be used retroactively, it can't selectively be use thed on those whuseused on those who are unpopular and on those whose crimes are more horrific. jenna: if they were to delay the legislation coming into effect how long would they have to delay it to get those eleven to see their final sentence? >> in connecticut a delay would probably take about five years. in california it's 20 years between conviction and execution, because they have such a large death row pop lace. population, and the courts are very thorough in reviewing the evidence to make certain it is appropriate for the death penalty. but the state of connecticut will be creating a legal conundrum, a quagmire for itself if it inch validates the death penalty but says you can use it on these people nonetheless. jenna: real quick here judge,

aned tore kral in the new york times takes on the death penalty again, we've seen this time and time again, whether or not the death penalty should be legal or not. you said yourself the supreme court has taken it up, made it illegal, made it legal. do you see the supreme court taking up the death penalty issue again any time in the future. >> no, it's a great question, jenna. the present supreme court has refused to hear many, many appeals that challenge the constitutionality of the death penalty. they will occasionally review whether or not a particular person should be executed for a particular crime, but they have pretty much washed their hands of the issue of whether the death penalty violates the federal constitution. they have declared that it doesn't, and that this is a matter for each of the individual states to decide. jenna: very interesting, judge. we'll see, we can only know what is happening right now with these justices. one has to wonder even about the future. judge andrew napolitano thank you as always. >> have a grit weekend. jon: we touched on it earlier in the hour president obama wading in the political controversy

after a democrat tiff strategist took a swoeup at mitt romney's arriv wife. what the fallout means for both sides. we have a fair & balanced debate next. cell phones, a controversial issue. one city is banning all cellphone use behind the wheel. why some people worry it will cost them much more than just a fine. [ male announcer ] introducing a powerful weapon in your fight against lawn weeds. ortho weed b gon max. with a new continuous spray wand. so you can kill invading weeds down to the root. without harming your lawn. guaranteed. ortho weed b gon max.

>> the obama administration tried to distance itself from remarks made by democratic adviser hillary rosen. she said on cnn that mitt romney's wife ann, a stay at home mother of five, survivor of ms and cancer has never worked a day in her life. [laughter] and now even vice president joe biden, he's furious. he said making stupid comments, that's my job. she has no right. [laughter] jon: well, the late night comedians have been having fun with it, but it is not a laughing matter in washington. president obama came out to comment on the political firestorm created by democratic strategist hillary rosen. rosen says -- okay, there's rosen. rosen says mrs. romney is unqualified to advise her husband on the economy because she, quote, never worked a day in her life.

now rosen has since apologized for the remark, but what does the controversy mean for the campaign on both sides? joining us now, radio talk show host monica crowley and former communications director for senator jon corzine, julie rah begin sky. both are fox news contributors. monica, to you first. a u.s. president never says anything that hasn't been sort of calculated and vetted in advance, that's usually the case. so for the president to make this statement that he thought her remarks were ill-advised, clearly it seems the campaign sees some damage control necessary. >> oh, absolutely. and, in fact, his top two campaign advise, david axlerod and jim messina, both fled into twitter almost immediately to tweet their, quote, disappointment with her comments, and later on in the day the president himself weighed in. they're in maximum damage control was they know the damage that was inflicted over similar comments made by hillary clinton back in the 1992 campaign when

she said i'm not some tammy wynette standing by my hand, and i guess i could have stayed at home and baked cookies, they saw the damage created by those comments, and they knew if they let this kind of insulting comment sit not just at stay at home moms, but dads and, frankly, parents of all stripes, that it would create enormous damage for them particularly among a core democrat constituency which is women. jon: but, julie, hillary rosen, it has been pointed out, did not work for the white house or the obama campaign, so why do her comments as, yeah, democratic strategist and pundit but not necessarily one tied to the white house, why do they hurt so much? >> because the republicans saw an opportunity to deflect the fact that earlier in the day mitt romney took three hours to get back to reporters about whether he actually believed the lily ledbetter act. and the bottom line is, of course, the republicans would take any opportunity to deflect from the real issue here which

is that their party's been waging war on women. you've got scott walker in wisconsin repealing equal work for equal pay, mitt romney saying, essentially, he doesn't want to fund women's health care at planned parenthood despite the fact it has nothing to do with abortion. jon: wait a minute -- >> you create these false narratives to deflect attention away from the fact that mitt romney is woefully behind in the women vote, women do not want to vote for mitt romney. they create this controversy. hillary rosen has the right to say whatever she wants. she's not -- jon: they create the controversy or hillary rosen created the controversy? >> well, hillary rosen said something, but she's a private citizen. she doesn't work for the campaign, the dnc, neither do i, monica doesn't work, as far as i know, for the romney campaign or the rnc, so whatever she says shouldn't be held against they, anything hillary rosen says shouldn't be held against obama's campaign. >> here's the reason why it's resonated. first of all, women are probably the biggest battleground going

into this election. democrats won women by a big margin in 2008. in 2010 republicans won women by a fairly healthy margin. so both sides know that they do have to win women. the democrats sought to get women back into the democrat fold by dropping this hhs mandate into the middle of the campaign election x they did spin it very cleverly and successfully as a war on women which is completely bogus, and now i think they're really afraid that hillary rosen's comment -- regardless of who she represents, whether it's the white house or the re-election campaign or just herself -- that they're afraid that that is going to feed into a narrative about the democrat party that they do view women and, frankly, all groups, race and class and, of course, gender just as groups rather than as individuals. that's number one. and number two, that, that the democrats really are struggling to attract women back. and i think, and that their arrogance and elitism that was reflected in this comment, that that feeds also into a narrative

about the left and the democrats. that's why they're so worried about this, and that's why you saw the white house and the president himself weigh in on it. jon: julie, you get the final thought. >> let me take ception to that because democrats are not struggling to attract women. i don't think obama's struggling, i think women rightly are concerned about the fact that the republican party has decided to make bedroom politics and decided to make choice over what women do as a core plank of this election. and so as a result, of course, romney's behind. you take a comment that hillary rosen made, she has every right to make it, but it is not reflective of what the obama campaign believes, and all of a sudden you take that and make it into a brouhaha -- jon: when you make that comment on cnn, it's pretty hard to ignore it. >> we're making these comments on fox, but we're not speaking for either side. jon: thank you, both. jenna: sarah palin was here, that term mama grizzly during

the last campaign, well, now if you take a look at twitter, the new term, and laura ingraham just put this on twitter saying that she's a mom-ney. so it's going to be mom-neys for romney in 2012. just something to think about as we continue to have the conversation. now we're going to move on to chapel hill, north carolina, the first city in the u.s. to completely ban using cell phones while driving. you have no hands-free device, no blue tooth, no speakerphone. you may remember the national transportation safety board recommended a full ban last year, but not everyone was really onboard with this. jonathan serrie is live from chapel hill likely talking to us not on his phone right now, jonathan. >> reporter: well, even if i'm talking on the phone, i'm not in the car, so i'm safe here. the law takes effect on june 1st, and if you're caught in chapel hill limits, you could in theory be fined $25. town officials say it's not the

phone itself that is causing distraction, it is the conversation. but many people are upset with the law, especially people who work out of their vehicles while using their phones. frank toker who runs a safs for homebound seniors says the time it would take him to park to answer a phone call isn't always an option for his elderly clientele. >> they may have fallen, they may be stuck in the bathtub, there may be a need to talk to the doctor right away. i need to pick those up. >> reporter: as a second violation offense, police can only ticket you for using the phone while driving if you're making some other traffic violation at the same time such as speeding or running a red light. there are also legal questions as to whether the town's cell phone ban is enforceable under state law. listen. >> so anytime you have an exercise of police power there's going to be some sort of delicate balancing between the government's regulatory

authority and people's individual freedoms. >> reporter: but town officials say they're really more interested in education, generating awareness about the dangers of using cell phones while driving instead of simply raising ticket revenue. back to you. jenna: that's an interesting point as well, jonathan. thank you very much. jon: so if police see you talking, i guess you could claim you were talking to yourself? jenna: it happens. jon: i talk to myself all the time. [laughter] newark, new jersey's major has a new title, cory booker talking today after he rushed into a neighbor's burning home to save her. julie banderas has more. >> reporter: newark, new jersey, mayor cory booker hailed as a hero, as you just mentioned. he rushed into a burning home to rescue one of his neighbors. the mayor arriving at the house, seeing the house next door on fire. he and two of his body guards rushed into the home. it was actually booker, though, that was the real hero. he rescued booker's neighbor, a

young woman trapped upstairs by carrying her through the flames. the mayor was rushed to the hospital and later tweeted thanks to all who are concerned, just suffering smoke inhalation. we got the out of the house -- the woman out of the house, i will be okay. here's the mayor at a news conference just moments ago. >> i honestly have a deeper respect than i ever had before for firefighters. you know, when i saw -- before i went through the kitchen when i saw how bad the flames were and felt that heat, i really had to hope there was another side. and we heard her voice, so it's a very, very scary situation. >> reporter: i mean, this guy is being so humble about this. he actually punched his fist through a kitchen wall, grabbed this woman, threw her over his shoulder and ran through flames. and in the process, booker suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation, that woman suffered second-degree burns on her back. booker called it, quote, his come to jesus moment. do you think he'll get reelected? jon: it will certainly not hurt.

[laughter] again, hats off to the firefighters who do this kind of thing every day. really scary. julie, thank you. >> reporter: sure. jenna: even more revelations in a scandal over wasted taxpayer money. what one federal agency spent entertaining their interns. jon: interns? jenna: that's right. jon: plus -- jenna: a failed rocket test in north korea may be just the start. why experts say the regime could bounce back with a much more threatening show of force. we're going to talk about that next. ♪ spread a little love today

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jenna: new warpings today from the white house to north korea. listen to the international community or face the consequences. as there are new fear bees over the regime's next move after this failed long-range missile test. if history's a guide, the regime may try to save face with an even more provocative act. and some experts say that test could come very soon. david albright is president of

the institute for science and international security, he's also a former weapons inspector. david, nice to have you with us today. >> good to be here. jenna: before we look forward, let's look back on the last 24 hours. when we got the headline about the north korean rocket, all it said is that it failed. but tell us how straight of a line was it between failure and success? >> well, it's hard to know without a lot more detail about the actual profession of the test. but -- progression of the test. but it's certainly from a u.s. point of view and a western point of view, it's not a bad outcome. and unfortunately, it's -- north korea's embarked on a long-range missile program, and failures are inevitable. the u.s. had many in its early days. so i think the north koreans will probably learn from this and go on. but they certainly have to be embarrassed by it and have to be worried about how it looks domestically. jenna: we saw in 2008 north

korea blew up this water tank it had near one of its nuclear sites as a show to the world, you know, we're going to back away from our nuclear program. we just mentioned in if our introduction to you, david, there's some concern that maybe another nuclear test is on the way. do you think it is? >> well, it could be. i mean, it look like they've been preparing a new tunnel at their nuclear test site for use. and, again, we don't know, but there has been a pattern historically that if there's, they do something like a missile test, there's sharp condemnation and then they do something else, and it could be a nuclear test. now, they certainly have a motivation to try to do a nuclear test. i mean, they're trying to hone their skills as kind of nuclear weaponeers, and i think they've passed the point of being able to miniaturize, let's say for a nodong time missile, but they're interested in other aspects -- jenna: sorry to interrupt, as an expert in this field how would

you grade them? is north korea a passing student when it comes to this type of technology? where do they sit as far as the global community and some of the skills that they bring militarily? >> i think they've done pretty well for their technological basis, and they certainly appear to have nuclear weapons. um, you have to -- we assess that they know how to put a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile of a nodong type, that it can reach japan, it's not going to -- certainly not going to reach the united states, but they do know how to miniaturize a nuclear weapon. they've been working on it for 20 years. where they don't know how to do things is, for example, to get the explosive yield up. their yield that was tested in 2009 was rell toughly small -- relatively small. they probably want to have a much bigger nuclear explosion. jenna: and is that what you're watching for next? >> i think so. and if they try to cross a new threshold. they've been making

announcements about fusion weapons or thermonuclear weapons, h bombs in a sense. so i don't think they're anywhere near that now, but they may use this test to try to learn about that. and often when they make these public announcements and they have been about, called fusion, it usually means they're working on it pretty seriously, and a test would provide them an opportunity to test out what they've learned and try to learn more. so i think a test is certainly something to try to prevent. and it's certainly something not to provoke. i mean, not to -- to be very careful about how this situation is handled internationally so you don't unnecessarily provoke them into doing a test. jenna: a good reminder. david, nice to have you. we look forward to having you back. >> thank you. jon: a little bit more about north korea ahead. we see a lot of military parades of tanks and troops there. what we don't see are the millions of its citizens languishing in notorious prison camps there. the incredible story of one man's escape from one such camp and his journey to freedom next.

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jon: as we talk about the failed launch of north korea's long-range missile and the possibility of the rogue nation's third nuclear test, there's another story that got our attention. one of the few people ever to escape north korea's notorious prison system now speaking out in a new book about his ultimate journey to freedom. national security correspondent jennifer griffin live for us at the pentagon with more. >> reporter: jon, to understand north korea you must understand its gulag system. 200,000 prisoners interned in modern-day concentration death camps. only three people have ever escaped.

i interviewed one of them this week. he told me the first rule was you couldn't escape. >> and the first rule was that you cannot escape, and there were other parts to that first rule such as if you attempt escape, you will be shot to death, and those that saw the attempted escape of another prisoner and failed to report, they themselves would be shot as well. >> reporter: he climbed over the back of another prisoner to escape five years ago. his friend was electrocuted on the fence. that allowed shin to climb across. he was born in the death camp, guards used starvation to control him. he described to me how he snitched on his mother and brother when he found out they were trying to escape. he said, i was. >> years old -- 14 years old when my mother and brother were publicly executed, and i felt no emotion. >> 14 years old, he was a kid. these were the rules that he had

been raised to follow, and he immediately got up and went and told a guard. and his parents, his mother and brother were arrested, taken to an underground facility in the camp, they were tortured, and then they were executed. >> reporter: author blaine harden has detailed shin's extraordinary escape and conditions in these modern-day concentration camps in a new book. north koreans don't just punish political dissidents themselves, they punish relatives three generations later. that's how they control their population through fear. jon? jon: jennifer griffin, thank you. and we will have much more on this story with the author of "escape from camp 14," lane harden, coming up in the next hour of "happening now." jenna: a new severe weather threat to take very seriously as strong storm systems are expected to explode. we're going to have the information you need to know coming up on that. plus, the latest response to aggression from north korea. the white house threatening new sanctions. will the world stand together on this? is in the type of consequences we were just talking about?

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jon: right now brand new stories and breaking news, hour two of "happening now." drew peterson one step closer to a courtroom. an appellate court today okaying testimony from the grave of two of his ex-wives. we'll explain. plus, new tactics to combat drug smuggling from mexico into the u.s., and the actress ashley judd lashes out at the media for viral coverage of what they called her puffy face. plus, the latest in if north korea's failed missile launch, what's next from that defiant regime, and breaking news on the federal spending scandal. what we're now learning about the gsa's lavish trip to las vegas. hour two of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: well, back to one of

those top stories now, north korea's long-range rocket exploding shortly after launch, and now there's concern they could follow up with a nuclear test. one of our big stories today, everybody, as we go into the weekend. we're glad you're with us, i'm jenna lee. jon: and i'm jon scott. welcome to the second hour of "happening now." an emergency meeting underway at the united nations as the white house calls north korea's rocket test provocative. jenna: the obama administration responding to that rocket launch, announcing the u.s. will cancel a plan to provide food aid to north korea and warning further provocative actions by the country will lead the u.s. to examine additional sanctions. senior correspondent eric shawn is live at the u.n. where a meeting is taking place right now. eric? >> reporter: jenna, we have a lot of work to do, those are the words of the united states ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, as she entered this behind-closed-door meeting at 10:00 eastern time this morning. they've been behind closed door it is for two hours now, that's

diplomatic speak for the security council cannot agree. and base chi we're told -- basically we're told it's china's fault. this is where we expect the diplomats and ambassadors to come out and speak when, indeed, they have anything after this meeting, but that's not expected until later on this afternoon. even though they say the missile launch is a violation of u.n. previous sanctions, there's no indication that they have any agreement on how to respond exactly to this one. the security council has slapped two resolutions on north korea in the past, in 2006 and 2009. they've conducted previous nuclear tests, and there are fears they could conduct a third one not with plutonium, but with enriched uranium, potentially. this is an embarrassment to the obama administration. just in february they hammered out a deal with by pyongyang to provide food aid in exchange for north korea not launching any

missiles, but the administration was double crossed in a similar deal in the 1990s. we could expect just a slap on the wrist. former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. john bolton told fox news, quote: >> reporter: so, indeed, there will likely be some type of statement or presidential statement, not another resolution or, certainly, not more sanctions as long as china is calling for restraint. back to you in the studio. jenna: already more on this as we get it. thank you very much. you know, one of the things we have to mention when we talk about north korea is we don't have a whole lot of information about what's happening inside the country. and so we have a treat for you a little later on this hour, we're going to talk to the author of a new book about the brutal conditions in north korea's prison-like labor force camps. he was able to interview someone

who escaped, a very rare interview, and we're going to have that for you coming up in the about 30 minutes. ♪ jon: inside america's election headquarters now, and it's game on in the presidential race. mitt romney looking like the republican nominee going up against president obama. victory could hinge on pocketbook issues with fixing the economy, shaping up as a major issue among voters. peter barnes of the fox business network takes a look at that live from washington. peter? >> reporter: well, hey, jon. the latest fox news poll shows that the president remains vulnerable on the economy. the economy remains the top issue with voters, 53% of them say it is extremely important, and the president's job approval rating is down, and his disapproval is up 51% disapproved of his performance in april up from 45% disapproval in march. our pollsters say that's likely because of the jump in gas prices, that weak jobs report

last friday, lower stock prices. now, drilling down into the specific findings in the new poll when asked if president's economic policies have helped or hurt the economy, 37% of voters say that they have hurt them, 31% say they have helped. when asked their feelings about the nation's financial future, 49% said they are not -- are concerned but not scared, 29% said they're flat out scared. critical swing independent voters who will likely decide this election in this november are slightly more scared. >> all of these economic questions like everything these days we get partisanship comes into play. so what i like to do is then look at how do independents respond to these questions, and we find about a third of independents say that they're scared about the country's future, and so that's very telling. >> reporter: the new poll shows voters think president obama is smarter, more optimistic and more trustworthy

than mitt romney, but on which man voters trust to fix the economy, romney beats the president 46% to 39%. as a result, romney tops the president for the second time in six months in this latest poll, 46% to 44% if election were held today, but that is, jon, a statistical dead heat because the results are within the poll's margin of error. jon: going to be a lot of back and forth in this race, peter. >> reporter: there is. jon: thank you. jenna: back to one of our big stories, fox news alert on the gsa spending scandal. we're now getting word the agency raised some concerns about that rice si las vegas conference -- pricey las vegas conference and how it might be portrayed in the press. jim angle, chief washington correspondent, has this for us today. >> reporter: hello, jenna. well, it's always good to worry about these things in advance even if you don't do anything about them. executives were worried about the appearance of the lavish

trips, a recognition the agency was doing something it thought was, indeed, controversial. officials worried that "the washington post," for instance, would describe the trips as gsa spending almost a million dollars at a time of high employment and a down economy. just about the way they have, indeed, been portrayed. they also worried about how all that would be seen by the public as well as what the congressional reaction would be, both well-founded concerns as it turns out. and now investigators have also found that gsa interns had a conference at the palm springs riviera resort and spa which included a catered awards ceremony, but it still paid the employees a per diem allowance for food by classifying a $75-$100 buffet as light refreshments. some also reportedly stayed in suites which the resort describes as opulent. republican congressman john mica of florida says, quote: gsa has

been spreading the taxpayers' wealth providing luxurious junkets not only for high-level executives, but for interns as well. and he noted those interns in congress work out of storage areas, even hallways, and do not, he said, get sent to resorts and spas for a week on the taxpayers' dime. another congressman argues that putting intern retreats on the taxpayers' tab demands serious action for what he calls a blatant waste of taxpayer dollars. listen. >> we certainly want to call in all of the individuals that have already been fired or on administrative leave, but we want to go much deeper. we want the new acting director to come this and explain how he's made the changes so that this will never happen again. >> reporter: now, denham says the way it now looks, the extent and misnews of taxpayer dollars by gsa appears to have no end. jenna? jenna: we could all use one of those light buffets, right?

jon: 75-100 bucks? >> reporter: i could leave at the end of the day. jenna: i'm waiting for one of you d.c. types, i asked mike emanuel if he was going to be able to get on scene, we keep seeing you in d.c -- >> reporter: well, maybe i'll be in a hot tub next time. jenna: i'll just leave it there. [laughter] jon: better be lobster buffet for $75-$100. jenna: i like that idea, jim angle relaxing. jon: yeah. hawaiian shirt, fruit drink. mexico's drug war now front and central in the classified section of newspapers. the new way that gangs are smuggling drugs across our border and how the u.s. is hoping to try to help stop it. plus, new fallout in the so-called battle, mitt romney's wife fighting back after a democratic strategist said she never worked a day in the her life. now the president is forced to weigh in on her comments. ok! who gets occasional constipation,

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jenna: well, a new tactic by the united states in the drug war south of our border, and it includes the classified, which is why it caught our attention. julie, you have more on this? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. smugglers have long advertised work as security guards, house cleaners and cashiers telling applicants they must drive company cars to the united states, but what they aren't telling those job seekers, the cars are loaded with drugs, so to counter, i.c.e. is taking out their own ads in tijuana newspapers, and it will warn readers they might be unwitting pawns. there have been 39 arrests at san diego's two border crossings tied to these ads. there has also been a spike in teenagers apparently strapping drugs to their bodies to walk across the border from tijuana into the san diego area. the war on drugs getting more tricky while you consider the

alarming number of drug-related deaths on the mexican border, consider this: every half hour one person is killed in mexico to drug-related violence. jenna: every half hour. >> reporter: yeah. jenna: by the end of our show, four people will be killed. very alarming statistically. julie meyers wood is the current president of immigration and customs solutions, nice to have you back with us, julie. >> oh, thanks for having me. jenna: we asked i.c.e., how much does this cost to put classified in the paper and warn people in the public about, you know, responding to ads that require them to drive across the border, and they said it costs them about $1800, they're going to run two mid-sized ads for 30 days. do you think it's worth the money? >> absolutely. that's less than the cost of one clown to entertain gsa employees, and it could deter even one individual from unwittingly smuggling drugs across the boarder and the u.s. having to spend our resources prosecuting this individual,

then it's worth it. jenna: it's interesting, you bring us back to one of our top stories with the gsa. some people in mexico say, listen, just by warning people that's not enough because you need to show them how they can watch out for these bad guys, they want the united states to do more as far as education. do you think we should take it a step further than just these classified ads? >> well, i think the ads really tell people, you know, buyer beware. if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. i think the mexican government also has a responsibility to do this same sort of thing. you know, people know if you're being paid a lot of money to do something that's out of the ordinary, there's probably some reason. and as long as there have been cars, there have been people smuggling drugs in their cars across the border, so this is a longstanding problem, and i think i.c.e. should be applauded for trying to prevent some of these folks when it is an innocent misunderstanding. jenna: you mentioned we've seen these cars and this technique going across the border with drugs inside them year after year again, and it feels

sometimes like a losing battle. you know, how do we, how do we, you know, stay a step ahead here? is it even possible to do that and be more, you know, instead of being reactive to what's happening, be more proactive? >> well, absolutely. the u.s. government has to focus not just on the couriers, but on how can they break down the top leadership of the cartels, make it so difficult for them to smuggle drugs into the united states and operate in the united states that they would stop. and i think the u.s. has made some good progress, but when you talk about the violence that we're seeing now, you talk about the deaths that we're seeing and you talk about the drugs that have infiltrated this country, you though it's not enough x so i think looking at the mexican cartels the way we looked at italian organized crime might be one model for u.s. law enforcement to adopt. jenna: take us a few steps into that, using that model because that gives us something to compare. you know, what should we be doing that we did, let's say, with the mafia and organized crime in a place like new york city that we should be doing in

a place like mexico city? >> well, for organized crime on the italian side, what the government did is it really got all of, all of doj involved and organized task forces that really attacked the top leadership expx they went after them aggressively year after year after year until they made significant arrests, until they really broke down a number of the italian families who are no longer as active. we need that sort of sustained attack and prosecutions and indictments on the drug cartel side. those arrests and prosecutions have got to be top priority for all the u.s. attorneys' offices around the country. they can't just be regular gated down into some narcotics unit that doesn't attract the best and the brightest prosecutors. jenna: some of those top leaders are probably not reading the classified sections in the newspaper. those are some of the smaller-level guys, you've got to go after the bigger ones as well. julie, thanks again for joining us. >> thanks for having me. jon: some new information on a missing california teenager. divers going underwater looking for 15-year-old sierra lamar.

why investigators are now focusing on a reservoir. plus, george zimmerman now charged with the murder of trayvon martin. should he take the stand in his trial? be our legal panel debates his defense strategy coming up.

jenna: right now some new information and a few stories we're keeping an eye on here in the fox news headquarters for you. the alleged gunman in a shooting of five new hampshire police officers was found dead in his home along with a female acquaintance. he's believed to be the shooter who killed the chief of police of greenland and wounded four other officers. the police were trying to arrest him for drug charges when he opened fire.

investigators in the meantime in morgan hill, california, searching for a missing 15-year-old are focusing on a reservoir after sonar images detected some suspicious object. syria lamar was last seen about four weeks ago on the way to a school bus stop. and an appeals court rules for the prosecution in the murder case against drew peterson deciding they can use previously-excluded hearsay evidence from two of his ex-wives. the former police officer is charged with murdering one of those wives and is the prime suspect in the disappearance of another. jon: some new developments in the trayvon martin shooting case. a bond hearing for george zimmerman now scjed for april 20th. zimmerman charged with second-degree murder in the death of the teenager. meanwhile, there are new questions on whether zimmerman will take the stand in his own defense if case goes to trial. jennifer bonn jean is criminal

defense attorney, jay town is assistant district attorney for madison county, alabama, and a former marine judge advocate. alabama's law is virtually identical to the florida law. you say there are some advantages to zimmerman's side in this case based on the way that law is written. can you explain? >> well, hi, jon, first, thanks for having me on. yeah, this is -- there's no such thing as a slam dunk for a prosecutor, and ms. corey, the special prosecutor in this case, if she enjoys tough cases, she better take a big whiff because this is another tough one. this is not a who dun it. this case boils down to whether or not george zimmerman acted in lawful self-defense. the stand your ground statute in alabama as it is in florida provides that george zimmerman actually does not have a duty the retreat which means that he can as was the old law, he can act in any manner that he would choose to do as long as he has a

lawful right to be where he was. the prosecutor in this case from the very get go needs to really be aggressive with the idea that george zimmerman -- not trayvon martin -- was the initial aggressor, and that will strip away george zimmerman's ability to claim self-defense. however, the immunity clause in this law, that provides george zimmerman and his defense team the opportunity prior to trial in a pretrial hearing not before a jury, just with a judge to, basically, have a probable cause hearing which is better than a coin toss is a way to describe probable cause, and he can actually prove his self-defense. the judge could agree with him, dismiss the indictment or the information in this case, and he would be immune from further criminal prosecution or any civil liability. it's an extraordinary measure in the law. jon: all right. so let's talk about the prospect of whether or not he should testify in his own defense. you know, this guy has gone from being a criminal justice student to being on the front page of

"the new york times" and really newspapers all over the country. jennifer, if you were his attorney, would you put him on the stand? >> i believe that based on the evidence that has at least come out through the media that he almost certainly will have to testify whether it's at a pretrial stand your ground type of hearing where he has the burden of proof or whether it's at trial where the state has the burden of proof. he still has to produce, and it's going to be at least to prevail on his self-defense is going to have to produce evidence that he was acting in self-defense. and based on the evidence we've heard thus far, there are no independent witnesses who can necessarily corroborate that or present that evidence. not to mention the fact that in order to establish self-defense he's going to have to demonstrate that he actually believed he was in fear for his life. and really only george zimmerman can say that because trayvon martin did not have a gun, he didn't have an inherently dangerous weapon in his hands, so we're not going to presume that he truly feared for his

life. he has to explain what was going on in his head. and the only way that he'll probably be able to do that is by taking the stand. so i would imagine whether it's at pretrial or trial when he reasserts the self-defense claim that he will have to take the stand in order to persuade this jury that he acted in self-defense. jon: all right. because so many people have heard about this case and seem to have formed an opinion about it, jay, it would seem to be tough to find jurors who haven't at least heard about it whether they've made up their mind about it or not is manager else. but -- something else. but, again, given the fact that this guy has become a public figure and in some circumstances a pariah overnight, does he need to get on the stand and maybe humanize himself? >> well, it's certainly a good tactic. it all depends, jon, on what he has already told investigators. he cannot supply from -- shy from that story one little bit. he can't say he saw a small dog one day and a puppy the next. he needs to stick to that

original story that he told police on february 26th. if he doesn't, then the special prosecutor on cross-examination will make a lot of hay out of that. a defendant has a reason to lie. there's a jury instruction that goes to the jury that talks about if they took the stand, that they can presume that his credibility is in question because he is a defendant, and he has a lot, he has a lot to lose when he's testifying whether it's truthful or not. so this prosecutor, they really need to be aggressive. it's not even with the injuries that we do know about, it's the injuries that are lacking. if george zimmerman is lacking defensive wounds, if trayvon martin does have defensive wounds, that would be consistent with george zimmerman being the initial aggressor. however, if they do have those wounds, then it is problematic for the prosecution. jon: those are all questions yet to be answered, and it's why this case has aroused so much controversy. jaytown, jennifer bonjean, thank you both. jenna: well, ashley judd is

taxing on the media -- taking on the media for focusing way too much on women and their bodies. she's turning some nasty comments about her and the way she looks into a new national conversation. we're going to talk more about that. plus, the political fallout from some negative comments about ann romney. will the latest apology be enough to prevent a backlash among women on election day? careful, pringles are bursting with more flavor. [ crunches ] mmm. ♪ [ male announcer ] pringles... bursting with more flavor. [ crunch! ]

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jenna: president obama is pushing hard for the buffet rule calling for a higher tax rate on capital gains for the wealthy. he said a look at the record shows democrats on capitol hill have done their fair share to also want to lower rates on capital gains. will william la jeunesse is live in los angeles with more on this. >> reporter: the president says everyone should get a fair shot, do their fair share and play by the same rules. the tax code doesn't treat everyone the same. rich peel pay next to nothing. and the top 5% pay as much as the much as the bottom 95%. >> we need some of the republican politicians in washington to get on board with where the country is. >> reporter: while press blames republicans for a tax code he calls unfair, he doesn't mention the role played by democrats in writing it. in 1979 president jimmy carter

and a democratic house and senate reduced the capital gains tax rate from 40 to 28%. later ronald reagan reduced it further to 20% before increasing it. in 1997 bill clinton lowered the rate again to 21%, followed by president bush in 2003 to 16%. thanks to democratic support in the house and senate. president obama now proposes a return to 20% for some, and 30% for millionaires. >> while many millionaires do pay their fair share, some take advantages of loopholes and shelters that let them get away with paying no income taxes whatsoever. >> reporter: while true the number is tiny and the loopholes legal, put there by congress where ironically almost 50% are millionaires. seven of the top 10 richest are democrats including dianne feinstein, j. rockefeller and john kerry. he paid a lower tax rate 13% when he ran for president than

mitt romney pays now. george bush paid 28% but democrats didn't make an issue of tax fairness in that race. >> there is also this sort of hypocrisy going on and it's really nothing new, but this is the hot issue today, and this is what people are focusing on and the white house is going to drive this issue all the way until november. >> reporter: so the president says the rich don't pay their fair share. here are the numbers. the rich pay about a tax rate of about 24%, those in the middle about 14%, and the bottom half of all taxpayers pay a raeuft about 2%. the president released his return today, he paid about 20.5%. romney's last tax return 14.5%. jenna: r-r reconsidering a career in accounting, william? are all your taxes done yet? we are up against the deadline. >> reporter: i got ours in. but i -- i had to give you the numbers. i apologize. jenna: a great job as a professional that's why i had to ask. thank you very much. a word to the wise we all better

get our taxes in. jon: please don't talk about that. jenna: i'm sorry it's the news. jon: a public battle involving gender politics backfiring and getting a lot of media in the process. a democratic strategist attacking ann romney for being a stay at home mom saying she shouldn't advise her husband because she never worked a day in her live. let's talk about this. we have two fox news contributors, you wrote a piece thapiece, i am woman. >> i think that hillary rosen, this issue isn't about as much attacking ann romney, she got middle in the mommy wars. this goes back and forth between stay at home moms and working

mothers pointing their fingers at each other and she sort of came down on the side in this case of saying that it's not real work. you know, you're not being paid. also, since then the head of now has come out and said essentially that, that this is not paid work so therefore she really doesn't understand average americans, which is strange because feminists have long ard tha argued that women's work is under valued and it's unpaid work and it should be valued the same way we value work that you get paid for outside the home. jon: right, and so much of what woman have been fighting for is choices, right? >> yeah. jon: all right, judith, weigh in on that for us. >> i have to agree with kirsten on this. i think poor hillary rosen got in the way of the gender wars, talk about stealing, snatching defeat from the sraus of

victory. here obama is 18 points ahead when it comes to women of romney, because romney is perceived ace being antiwoman and all of a sudden someone who is perceived as close to him attacks mrs. romney for, quote, not working, when she's got five children, when she's been battling ms, when she's had breast cancer, when she's there at his side on a campaign. this was really a misstep, a tremendous misstep as obama quickly pointed out, and as miss rosen had to retreat. jon: rich lowry has an interesting piece on national review.com. he joins us on these panels from time to time. he points out that barack obama is down among 8 points among men in the latest polls and nobody is questioning why the president has lost his mojo with men. >> the thing is men tend to vote more republicans, so it doesn't really mean anything. women tend to vote for democratic. women also vote more than men

do. so i think that they are considered a more sort of important demographic that obviously people are really battling for. jon: why did we ever give women the right to vote? >> because we out live you, we live longer than you, so we not only vote more often but longer. jenna: good for you, judy. jon: jenna is going to take over this conversation. ashley judd was attacking the media about comments about her appearance. her appearance has been slammed online by some critics, said she was puffy, a bunch of other things. it has sparked a national dialogue. what do you think about her remarks? judy, let's start with you. >> miss judd is both an actor and she is an activist. she is someone who is used to being out there on the front line, and if people are going to talk about her, in terms of her chubby cheeks, i think she can

handle that. i think she's used it to kind of call attention to herself and to her various causes, all of which i applaud. look, jon, i'm worried about people being slaughtered in syria, and the north korean missile test. how people are talking about ashley judd is just not very high on my agenda. i think she just has got to get on with her activism and her life and get over it. jon: she has said, kirsten that she tries not to read what is written about her because the good stuff, as well as the bad stuff she says shouldn't matter to her, but she did decide to take on this issue because she thinks it applies to things directed against women in lots of quarters. >> i agree with judd de's point that it's not the worst issue going on in the world. there is a real problem in our society, the way women are just scrutinized to such a ridiculous degree and are expected to -- if you're on tv, or if you're in

hollywood, all these women are expected to do botox and get plastic surgery, in a way that men are not. women are just held up to a standard that men do not get held up to. and there -- she wrote this for the daily beast. there was another one written by leslie bennett along the same line. leslie was saying when i was young i was always called hot and dumb. now when i'm older, and i say some, now i'm an old fat hag. it's like it doesn't matter, whether you're young and attractive or older and people think you're unattractive it's used to undermine what you're saying. and i think what ashley judd was trying to get at. jon: interesting discussion. thank you both. we will have more from the fox news watch panel tomorrow. join us 2:30 p.m. eastern time to hear their take on the big stories of the week and how they were covered. jenna: you better waufrps, you're goinwatch yourself. you're going to get yourself in

trouble, jon scott. we're going to take you inside of one of north korea's most notorious labor camps, home to 200,000 prisoners. an amazing story with the only person to have been born and raised in one of those camps and to have escaped to the west. that story next. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement 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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jenna: more on north korea now after an attempt to send a satellite into orbit ends up a total failure. the attention on this nuclear country causing all of us to take a second look about what is happening, what is really happening inside its borders. for some context the price of this rocket could feed 19 million north koreans for a year, many of them starving in forced labor camps, living in harsh conditions and fighting for scraps of food.

escaped from familia from camp 14 is a story of a machine's remarkable journey from north korea to freedom in the west. blaine is the writer of that book. how did you come to the story. >> he was living in seoul? 2008, i had lunch with him. he was running out of money. and he thought he would have to live in a train station in seoul. i wrote a piece about him and it got an enormous reaction. i asked him to go deep wer me deeper with me in a book. after nine months he agreed. jenna: we are seeing mr. chin on the screen there. you've taken a great deal of time to sit with him and interview him. what is the one thing you think our viewers should know about what is really happening inside north korea when it comes to these camps.

>> they should know that there are five big concentration camps in north korea. they've existed for half a century. 150,000 people living in the most extraordinary conditions of forced labor, malnutrition, periodic executions, women are often raped and killed if they become pregnant. it is an extraordinary situation that is hiding in plain sight. chin agreed to go through the misery of talking to me for two years about his life, because he wants americans to become aware of this. and i've been promoting the book in the past couple of weeks, and it's pretty clear that most americans don't know that the camps exist, what goes on inside them, or what their purpose is. and it's important to understand their purpose. their purpose is to scare the hell out of everybody else in north korea, so that they tow the party line, do what they are told. and they've been pretty

effective in that job. jenna: why do you think it hasn't received more attention? >> i think because u.s. policy has focused on the exsatisfactorthreats posed by north korea, nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, as we found out and followed in the past couple of days. the human rights issue will never go away, because north korea depends on represion to survive. to understands the camps you have to know about the government. jenna: there is always a question about what the government should do next as far as sanctions. i'm curious on your thoughts on that as you know someone who had to live underneath this regime. do you know how they are fact hing the average north korean.

>> north corey ace heavil korea is heavily sanctioned and has been sometim sometime. just as china, they ignore the sanctions an and have. it's north korea's chief supplier of food and other goods. the ability of sanctions to do anything is limited. however, financial sanctions on the government's ability to use the international banking system is probably the most powerful leverage that the u.s. and the international community would have, and there is some thinking that human rights should be an issue. if north corey ace unwilling to improve the human rights situation, to use that leverage of the international banking system which is not being used here. jenna: do you ever have any doubts of the accounts? he's one person. do you doubt his story at all? >> well i don't, because he is

one of about 60 people who have told very similar stories. his body is covered with scars that are a road map to the story he tells. and virtually everyone who has talked to him, who has been in the camps and who has talked to everybody else who has come out of the camps finds his story to be credible and consistent with what else is known. jenna: blaine, what an interesting insight into this world that they few know about it. blaine harden is the author of escape from camp 14, one man's remarkable odyssey to freedom in the west. jon: there is a breakthrough in study of intense pain. researchers finding how much you you can take might be a matter of your genes. a closer look into that next. people with a machine.

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can handle pain so much better than men. right, jon? jon: i have seen lake arrest number oseen labor a number of times and i would agree with you. jenna: a major new study is telling us about a really interesting discovery about how we handle pain. it doesn't come down to gender at all, in fact it comes down to genes. according to this story. dr. london is with us. you can weigh in about the women versus men. what does the study really tell us. >> reporter: us. >> i believe it was kennedy who said, if men had to deliver babies, abortion would be a sacrament. absolutely women handle pain better this. study -- actually look we know that pain is very, very complicated, we've got your local area, gee my arm hurts right when it's getting injured to what happens on a spinal level to interpretation of pain in the brain. and all of these together go to

both how we treat pain and how people feel pain. for treatments the main thins things that we use are analgesics. why do some people respond better to medication than others. jenna: let's stop on that one point. if anyone has had pain medication prescribed to them, you have some that say hey this worked great for me and some say that didn't work for me at all, i'm still in a lot of pain. does that study give us insight into why that may be happening. >> this study not so much. it was looking more at the actual pain receptor. most of our analjesics work on the interpretation of pain in your brain. this is looking at what else can we develop? there are some people who in the pain receptor, this p 2x 7, are missing a part of the receptor, a pore in the receptor and those

people don't have the same amount of chronic pain and inflammation. they've seen that in arthritis. this took mice and knocked that portion of the receptor out, indeed the mice had less pain. they further went and were able to block this pore with a drug, and the same thing, these mice had less pain. so this is hopeful in the development of new drugs that target just this section of the receptor, can we give people pain relief without side effects which would be great. jenna: i only have about 30 more seconds here. did you think this is on the path towards more designer drugs. >> absolutely. jenna: drugs really developed for someone's genetics. >> absolutely. that we can look and see, gee, you've got this pattern we can give you this medication and it's going to work better for you. which would be amazing. it's hopefully the future of medicine. jenna: very interesting innovation there. so far only in mice, this is a very limited study but one we thought was worth talking about. dr. london nice to see you again. >> very nice to see you too,

thanks for having me. jenna: thank you for joining us. we'll be right back with more "happening now." you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years.

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zeneca may be able to help. jon: the footage you're about to see looks like the work of a hollywood stuntman but it's a traffic police officer risking his life over a ticket. the cop ends up on a wild ride desperately hanging on to the windshield wipers of a moving bus but the -- because the bus driver wanted to avoid a ticket, this happened in hanoi, vietnam, the officer ordered the bus to pull over but the driver reportedly didn't want to show his paperwork, so he just drove off! the officer then jumps on to the front of the bus and off they go, zooming in the streets for half a mile before the bus driver finally pulled over. the officer we're told is doing just fine. jenna: what kind of ticket do you think you get for that! jon: i think you get life! something like that. that's crazy. wow! flush thank you for joining us today. jenna: thanks everybody, "america live" starts right now. megy f