bill: here you go. this is grand finale. martha: there you go. bill: this is where with you do not want to be in a hurricane. catch you tomorrow, right? martha: hi, everybody. see you tomorrow. jon: a fox news alert. police right now holding a news conference on the search for a gunman who shot up an alabama bar early this morning. investigators say this man caught on surveillance camera, shot into the coppertop bar right near the university of alabama tuscaloosa. he took aim as terrified patrons ran out of the building. 17 were rushed to the hospital. two are in critical condition. we're monitoring this press conference. we'll keep you updated on the search as we get more details. jenna: we are america's election headquarters.

right now the president and governor romney both hitting the trail today. some are calling this campaign a nasty schoolyard brawl and asking if either man will really be able to govern once the dust has settled. karl rove is here to weigh in. jon: more than half the country in a full-blown drought, the worst we've seen since the 1950's. and it is going to hit you in your wallets. we'll tell you what to look out for. jenna: jon, you board your flight. you settle in and take your seat and then you take a bite out of your sandwich. wait until you hear what passengers on now delta flights found in their meals. not the most appetizing thing. it is all "happening now.". jon: and good morning to you. the u.s. flexes its military muscle in the middle east. i'm jon scott. jenna: what does that really mean? we'll get into that today.

hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. amid rising tensions with iran the pentagon is beefing up our military in the persian gulf. a construction of a so-called secret site in qatar. fox confirming that the pentagon is organizing massive minesweeping exercises in the gulf as well. this comes off the deadly shooting in the gulf of due buy we first told you about yesterday. the uss navy ship firing on a small boat after it approached the ship at high speed and ignored some repeated warnings to move away. national correspondent steve centanni is in washington with more. steve, let's talk a little bit more about specifically what we mean when we say we're beefing up our defenses in the gulf. >> reporter: well, jeanne that the "wall street journal" is reporting that there are secret negotiations underway to place a superpowerful x-band radar in qatar. word of this coming one day after that latest security threat in the gulf.

a pleasure craft with indians and emiraties on board coming close to a u.s. navy operating vessel carrying oil. the security team own board the ship, firing at the boat, killing one and critically injured three others. the boat went back to port. the navy ship also arrived at its scheduled port where authorities are investigating. all this as tensions mount in the gulf with intelligence agencies saying iran could have missiles capable of reaching the u.s. by 2015. that powerful new radar would be able to pinpoint a missile in flight. jenna? jenna: let's talk about this minesweeping exercises in the gulf? >> reporter: right. jenna: when we say exercises, what does that mean? >> reporter: fox news confirming there will be multination, multilateral exercises, war games, essentially that could be announced as early today. they are will be the first such multilateral drills in the region involving 20 different nations including

japan. pentagon is sending an aircraft carrier, the john stennis, to the middle east several months earlier to make sure two carriers are in the region. one of the ships was scheduled to be there before the replacement arrived but it will have the replacement first. iran working on longer range missiles threatened to close down the important shipping lanes through the strait of hormuz and that's caused concern not only in the u.s. but among many of its allies. back to you. jenna: some suggest those moves could be seen as provocation by iran. >> reporter: absolutely. jenna: we'll talk about that with a panel coming up, steve. thanks so much for kicking us off today. >> reporter: you bet. jon: get you to the campaign trail now and charges by many political insiders that the 2012 race is the nasty evident one ever with governor romney campaigning in the key battleground state of pennsylvania today and president obama heading to texas on a fund-raising swing the both sides engaging in what many are called, calling a bare-knuckle, take no prisoners brawl.

case in point governor romney accusing the president of cronyism siting federal gants to alternative energy companies run by obama campaign donors. meanwhile the president is keeping up persistent attacks of governor romney's tenure at bain capital. both sides wage an almost daily war of words on twitter. so is this already the nastiest presidential campaign in u.s. history? what impact will the constant attacks have on american voters? with us now, former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush karl rove. he is also a fox news contributor. karl, it strikes me that at a time when iran is in, you know, reach of a nuclear weapon perhaps, you've got syria blowing up, you've got all kind of attacks on u.s. forces in afghanistan and the problems that could be attendant with that the presidential candidates are talking about things like offshore bank accounts.

is this the kind of campaign that we want to be running? are they talking about the major issues out there? >> reporter:. >> well you talked about foreign policy think about issues at home. we had a bad jobs report. jon: right. >> dropping consumer confidence. yesterday retail sales declined, the biggest decline i think in three years. we have a lot of issues. growing debt, $4 billion a day added to the national debt. you're right, this campaign is at at point where we've got a series of charges about governor romney that are, that have already been undermined by the media itself. we've got the romney campaign trying to change the subject by attacking president obama's policy of granting green energy projects to companies that interestingly enough had a lot of connections to his donors. but you asked an interesting question. is this the worst, ugliest presidential campaign in history? is answer is no. my personal favorite what was said in the 1800 election between john adams

and thomas jefferson where they each employed the most vicious rhetoric in the communications media at the time, little newspapers, local newspapers. or the 1860 presidential election which democrats made outrage just charges about abraham lincoln. the question after a tough election can the candidates, can the winning candidate find a way to govern? the answer in our system we generally find a way to govern and govern effectively to one degree or another. jon: here is a quote from stuart rothenberg, a noted political observer. he writes today in his, in "roll call", he writes, the nature of the attacks coming from the obama re-election campaign seems quite different from attacks coming from their opponent. while romney's campaign blasts the president's performance, agenda and decisions, obama's team has largely attacked romney personally, trying to demonize him and discredit his experience. do you agree? >> i think stuart put his finger on it. each campaign attacked each

other. the romney campaign is attacking obama on the issue of policy where with the obama campaign is attacking romney on the basis of personality and background. here's the trouble. each, this represents potential difficulties for each. president obama has undermining the image that he created in 2008 of being a different kind of a politician and runs the risk of generating a backlash because every argument in politics generates a counter argument. the counter argument could be more powerful than the argument. swing voters could be looking at president's arguments calling his opponent a felon and vampire capitalist and say he is over the top and unworthy of the man who occupies the top office. jon: rothenberg echoeses your point. the nature the legislation campaign is troubling given the obama's rhetoric four years ago about changing the.of politics and giving hope obama would be a different kind of politician. the sitting president of the united states who started

off as an inspirational of something better, something different, is running a typical nasty attack campaign. the question is, karl, are the romney folks responding in a way that is you think is appropriate? >> well first of all let's look at the impact on a couple of key groups that president obama depended upon. among young people he is running 11 points behind where he was four years ago against john mccain and level of enthusiasm among young voters is way down. that is problematic for the president. independents, which he carried by eight points, two recent surveys show him losing independents to mitt romney by 7 points and five points. it is already having an effect. you're right at some point the romney campaign has to effectively respond to these. thus far it hasn't had an impact. before the attacks on bain capital began on may 15th, at which point the gallup daily tracking poll was 45-45. as of last friday, the most recent gallup tracking poll, raise after two months of pounding away by the obama

campaign on mitt romney was 46-46. that doesn't mean he is out of the woods, that romney is out of the woods. his campaign needs to assuage the tactical concern of republicans, many of whom are ink wering their hands and turning into summer sunshine patriots, worried about whether or not romney can take a punch. jon: karl rove, fox news contributor. karl, lots of other questions to ask you but we're out of time for today. thank you. >> you bet. jenna: right now we're tracking one of the worst weather emergencies to hit our country in decades. take a look at this map. more than half of the country is now suffering from moderate to extreme drought. that is it according to the government. now only in the 1930s and the 1950s has a drought covered more land. so far, we can tell you that there's little risk of a dust bowl type of catastrophe but crop losses are a serious problem and it could get much worse if things don't change soon. which could mean a big hit on our grocery bills.

>> is this drought going to affect food prices in the grocery store and restaurants? >> absolutely. the longer it lingers and the more severe it becomes the greater the impact will be. >> farms two weeks ago due to the heat lost 200 chickens. they took a big hit. so their prices have to raise. >> people cut back and really shop around and see, you know, try to manage their money and really price shop. jenna: fox business network's sandra smith on the floor of the chicago mercantile exchange which gives us a good indication of prices of some of our items. sandra, do we know how soon some of the prices in the grocery store will be affected by this drought? >> jenna, the trading happening here in chicago, these are the meat pits where the prices are determining what you will pay at the grocery store. we're looking at green pits here in chicago where prices are skyrocketing. we're looking at corn pits, wheat pits, soybean pits. jenna, what a lot of people don't necessarily realize,

75% of the food you buy in your grocery store have corn in them. take a look at these surging grain prices we've seen just over the past month. corn prices up hurt 5%. soybean prices up 18%. wheat prices have rallied 45%. a lot of the big analysts out there looking at these food prices say that consumers at grocery store will pay more for your bread, cereal, yogurt, milk, salad dressing. the ingredients go into most of what we buy at the grocery store. jenna, we're seeing prices rising now. if this weather continues we'll likely continue to see the prices go up at the grocery. jenna: when you see the information you wonder what big analysts do when they go to the grocery store and what they stock up on and put in their pantry. are they saying buy something now it might be a good idea? >> hey, jenna, really interesting, we're hearing that cattle feed lots where obviously might want to stock up on things like pork and your beef, things that go into your dinner every night. cattle feed lots are losing

as much as $200 an animal. remember all the grains where we pointed to the higher prices are used to feed those animals. sanderson farms, one of the largest chicken producers in the united states said for every 10 cent increase in the price of corn, their costs go up $2.2 million. jenna, there has been a lot of 10 cent increases you're likely to see meat prices rise. stock up and fill the freezer. jenna: need to buy another one. sandra, thank you at the chicago merc. >> thank you. jon: feel for the farmers suffering under the drought. jenna: must be feeling of lack of control. you can't change the weather. jon: you can not. all you can do is pray and hope things get better. some extreme weather is hitting one major u.s. city. high winds, dangerous lightning, leaving thousands of people in the dark. we'll show you more of this video. we'll tell you where it is hitting people. jenna: a top democratic strategist suggesting governor mitt romney, is quote, losing the street

fight against the president. is that really the case? we're going to have a fair and balanced debate on that just ahead. jon: fear in the night in a college town after a gunman opens fire at a crowded bar, shooting people as they try to run away. the latest details on the search for this gman in a live report, next the medicare debate continues in washington...

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introducing freshpet vital recipes so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido jon: fox news alert. new information on a bloodbath near the university of alabama in tuscaloosa. police are searching for a gunman who opened fire at a crowded bar early this morning. garrett teney streaming live for us from tuscaloosa. >> reporter: jon, we got done with a conference with the police department in tuscalossa. they have new details what happened last night. around 12:30 a gunman went to the coppertop bar.

it was crowded. they believe he was targeting one individual. he went to the bar. standing outside a few minutes, opened fire. 17 people were shot or injured in that incident. police are saying at this time one individual is in very critical condition. three others are in critical condition. they are still looking for this gunman. they described him as a white male, stocky build, about 5'7" tall. other than that they are releasing, we have surveillance video and pictures of the suspect outside. they're trying to get any help and clues who this individual is. they're asking the public for that help. they also have found the weapon that this gunman used. it was a military-style weapon. they say he walked up to the bar. afterwards he walked right away on foot. they are looking for him still. no further details at this time. but those in the bar, they say it was a very scary experience. we talked to some of those individuals. here is what one of them had to say. >> all you soon was sparks and people ducking and glass

busting. we never saw the guy shooting. anyway, like i felt something hit me. we all took off and sort of hid. >> reporter: so the mayor is saying all law enforcement officials are working on this case to find who is responsible for this. we hope to have further details later on this afternoon but we'll keep you updated, jon. >> please do. keep us up-to-date. garrett tenney in tuscaloosa. thank you. jenna: dangerous weather in arizona to tell you about where a massive lightning storm blew through the tucson area. look at the video we have. you can see giant bolts of lightning crackling across the sky. numerous lightning strikes were reported across the area along with a ton of rain as well. a day earlier knocked out power to more than 13,000 customers. most are back online but quite a site yesterday in tucson. jon: the u.s. is beefing up our forces in the persian gulf ahead of a possible flare-up with iran.

and in depth look what the navy and the pentagon are up to there. jenna: we're looking forward to that. flames racing through a 42-story building, forcing hundreds of folks from their homes. what sparked this massive fire? we have it for you next. trick question. i love everything about this country! including prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're one of those people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day, block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

jon: we're getting new information on a massive fire in turkey. hundreds forced from their homes and offices as flames pour out of this 42-story building. incredibly nobody was seriously hurt. but smoke filled the sky. the mayor there says the fire extinguishing system activated quickly. the governor says a mechanical problem with the air-conditioning system may have been the cause of this fire. jenna: right now, major military moves in the persian gulf. with the pentagon reportedly building a missile radar

station at a, so-called, secret site in qatar. fox news has yet to confirm that. but we have confirmed the navy will conduct some massive minesweeping exercises in the region in just a few short months from now. all of this coming one day after a deadly altercation in the waters off dubai. a u.s. ship opening fire on a small boat racing towards it after that boat ignored repeated warnings to turn back. joining us joe sestak, retired vice admiral from the u.s. navy. he spent quite a long time in the persian gulf and spent two terms in congress. nice to have you both with us today. >> thank you. jenna: cap nan -- captain nash, those exercises are sometimes called war games. what exactly are we aiming to do? >> well the fifth fleet has had a contingency plan for decades to keep the

straights of hormuz open. one of the critical things the iranians could do to close the straits, hold it hostage if you will by surface-to-surface missiles fired from the shoreline, and/or, seed naval mines into the waters of the persian gulf and the straits of straits of hormuz. any part of a contingency plan the u.s. navy has to have the ability to sweep those waters clear of those mines. that's why the navy exercised that capability, funded that capability and and beefed up that capabilities recently. jenna: congressman, you were most recently in the persian gulf in early 2000s as you were die employed in that area. did you do this as well? >> yes. we conducted operations there with the gulf cooperative council states in order to make sure we were prepared to address this issue. this is a type of asim met i can trick warfare. jenna: what is asymmetric warfare? >> it means they buy very cheap stuff that can do great damage and take us a lot of time, if we don't want that damage to be done,

to clear them. so they have over 2,000 pretty sophisticated but relatively inexpensive mines to put into transit lanes only a couple miles wide there in the straits of hormuz. it would take us months in order to clear them, if we don't destroy the fishing vessels that drop them off, chief fish vessels first. second, they have several hundred missiles that could land into saudi arabia, israel and southern turkey. that is why you said at beginning of interview we're putting out there some better missile-acquiring radar. why this second carrier battle group that is going to come into the gulf will have additional guided missile destroysers that can shoot down the missiles they come across. basically a missile against a missile that is pretty tough. so you can precure cheaper stuff hard to defend against. can we do it? you bet. what will it take? long in time. heavy in assets. this is a very difficult

environment. jenna: let me ask captain nash about this. obviously according to the congressman's description of this, captain nash, we're take the iranians very seriously. there is concern that they are putting mines in the straits of hormuz. do you think they are taking us pretty seriously? >> i think they are but at the same time the west has let iran skate if you will for decades and it's been u.s. administration after u.s. administration. it always seems that the iranians do something belligerent. we get real mad at them. strong statement in the united nations. sanctions and all of sudden there are 20 exceptions to the sanction rules. so the iranians have been like a very bad kid growing up in the neighborhood where the people in the neighborhood look at this kid and go, you know, we don't like what we're seeing here. now all of a sudden that kid has been acting out more and more over the decades, now is a teenager and has really

serious weaponry. now the neighborhood is really scared. so we, in the west, and those in the neighborhood have sort of brought this on themselves. jenna: interesting. congressman, this dysfunctional child as captain nash could put it, is putting it now, could potentially have a nuclear weapon which is, changes the stakes of these things. >> yes. jenna: continuing that analagy, if you will, if there is no threat of something to come when a child is misbehavings then they're never going to change. we could send 20 aircraft carriers to this area. if they don't really believe we'll use them will we ever change this pattern of behavior? >> no, you're absolutely right. the use of our military has to, when it is used, be done in the correct manner and be successful to have credibility. but the overarching issue which chuck brings up is, should we over administrations been putting crippling economic, diplomatic, financial, travel sanctions on iran much earlier? yes. this occurred over this past year. as you well know the value

of the currency in iran has dropped like a rock. inflation is out of sight. unemployment is going overboard. it can't even export its oil on its own ships right now because we have gotten lloyds of london to say they're not safe to go into foreign ports. so finally, to chuck's points we're trying to do what's right. put devastating economic, financial sanctions because i believe the military option should never be off the table but should be on the back of the table. i wish as he does we had done this with the support of e.u., china, others much earlier. i want to make sure before we put men and women into harm's way however we first try to resolve this diplomaticly. can't say it will work but that's why we're being prudent to build up our military to make sure if we have to do it we do it well. jenna: congressman, very interesting you bring up the oil tankers and whether or not we're crippling iran. we have investigative journalist that she has proof that the iranians are

disguising their ships and getting oil out of the country and continues to do business. >> you're absolutely right on that point. they have 39 oil tankers. because they can't go into foreign ports and nobody will carry iranian oil and we won't give them insurance they are finding blacklisted tankers to ship that n we have to cut that down also. jenna: more about it and hopefully here and talk less about it on the national stage. congressman sestak, thank you so much. captain nash, nice to have you as well. >> thank you, jenna, we'll talk domestic policy in a bit. critics blasting the obama administration for seeking to bypass limits from many states on taxpayer funding for planned parenthood. a live report on that just ahead. plus is governor romney losing a street fight to president obama? that is what one top democratic strategist is saying. we have a fair and balanced debate next.

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[♪...] jenna: welcome back, everyone. "happening now", a number of states are taking steps to limit or even ban taxpayer funding for planned parenthood. but the obama administration has found ways to go around the states and funnel money to the organization. this as the planned parenthood action fund releases attack ads against governor mitt romney. shannon bream is live from washington with more, shannon? >> reporter: no question planned parenthood has an ally in the white house but there are questions how close that connection is

this year. they say romney will take actions to limit women's access to cancer screening and birth control. because they pledged to block funding for planned parenthood. a number of states did recently only to find the obama administration is directly granting money to planned parenthood operations in many of those states. pro-life skeptics say the relationship between planned paint hood and white house should be getting more scrutiny. >> the idea that primary care for woman is their priority is a falsehood and a charade. the relationship between the executives in the president's administration and his campaign and the executives in planned parenthood deserves scrutiny. if this were the oil business, that scrutiny would have occurred years ago. >> reporter: but supporters of planned parenthood say it only make sense the organization would be supportive of the white house and vice versa because of their common goals when it comes to women's reproductive health. >> political action funds are there to support the

issues for around which they're organized. so to point out planned parenthood's political action fund and criticize that is sort of, i don't even understand the argument. because that's how politics is done. so i'm really not clear on what their argument is. >> reporter: pro-life advocates acknowledge neither the political spending by planned parenthood's action fund is doing or direct federal grants awarded to group they're not illegal any way but the critics are calling it quote, morally suspect. jenna: interesting conversation, shannon. thank you. jon: so let's consider the fight for the oval office as president obama and governor romney battle it out on the campaign trail. james carville, the former political strategist who helped bill clinton win the white house, is suggesting that republicans are angry with governor romney for not standing up to the president's attacks effectively. >> i think that what's happened in the republican party is this. i think the republicans are

mad and you know why they're mad? because a harvard-educated community organizer is beating them in a street fight. and they're mad about it because they're used to winning these fights. and obama people are outflanking, and outmaneuvering and beating the romney people and everybody knows it and people watching this network know it. you should be mad because that campaign is not, and romney is not standing up for you. jon: is he right? let's get a fair and balanced debate underway. former white house political director under george w. bush, matt schlap is with us. vice president of cofounder of third way, jim kessler is here. former legislative and policy director for senator chuck schumer. matt, are you one of those mad republicans that jim carville is talking about? >> i think we need james carville on our side. i know his wife will keep working on him. one day we'll get him. jon: mary matalin. >> he is out there selling

books. here are the facts. republicans are not mad at the candidate and mad at the candidate's campaign. they're scared, they're scared of a second obama term. they see what he has tried to do to this economy and the country in the first term. whether obamacare, attack on first amendment rights. large tax increases proposed left and right. cap-and-trade. they're saying, if there is a second act to come, what could possibly be good in that? jon: all right. jim, what about it? republicans might be angry but are they effectively channeling their anger? >> well, first i'm going to say james carville, stay on our side. so look, i don't think they're mad. i think they're panicked because, you can't win a campaign in july but you can lose one in july and romney seems to be pinned down in a cul-de-sac. the obama people have waged very, i think effective attacks on him. they go to character and values and those attacks

often leave scars and, you know, romney doesn't have a strong answer to get out of it because strong answers, answering these attacks on bain and on the cayman islands and that sort of thing probably bring up more inaccuracies that prolong the story. so they're having some trouble over there. is pinned down and, it may leave a mark. jon: here's what charlie cook writes in today's "national journal". charlie cook, a noted political observer. he says this ought to be a steep uphill fight for obama. voters seem perfectly open to the option of firing the president but the obama camp has given voters specifically in swing states where wall-to-wall advertising is running reason to hesitate about hiring romney. so i guess in other words, he is saying that the president is tearing down romney's character. >> that's right. jon: and the romney campaign hasn't figured out a way to respond effectively. matt, would you agree? >> yeah, i that is right. hope and change is turned

into flash and burn. there is only one avenue for president obama to receive a second term. that is to destroy the character of mitt romney. i think mitt romney is decent man who is little bit stunned how personal this campaign has turned and i think that in order to win this race, he is going to have to keep it on the economy because when it comes to the questions around the economy, the american people i believe have made up their mind and their mind is not that president obama is a bad man. it is just that he is not up to the challenges the nation faces during this economic crisis. jon: yeah, jim, why isn't the president out there talking about why unemployment is at 8.2%, that kind of thing. >> let me say first i don't think any of the attacks obama made has crossed any sort of line. this ain't bean bag out there. this is a presidential campaign. i've seen a lot more vicious attacks. i think the swift boat attacks on john kerry were to me, crossed the line you about others might disagree. >> they were accurate. >> i also think that charlie

cook is a little bit wrong on this, which is, this is a complicated election for a lot of folks because they're not completely satisfied with the economy of course but they also know that it began under the previous president. so, on the economy i think it's a draw. so obama, you know, seems to be laying out a plan what he wants to do in the future and romney is kind of in a wednesday sieve crouch right now. you can't win in a defensive crouch. jon: jim kessler, matt schlapp, we have to leave it there. we'll continue watch the election for 112 more days, is it jenna? thank you both. jenna: counting them one by one. jon: yes indeed. jenna: this is big story the last couple days. hundreds of volunteers are turning out to try to find these two young girls as tracking dogs join the search for these two missing cousins. they have been missing since friday. we'll have the latest from iowa next.

airline food just got down right dangerous. passengers discover something dizzy sar -- bizarre in their turkey sandwiches not on one but two delta flights. >> i was biting down on the not on the sharp side but the flat side. it could have been a bad injury orally. had i taken a big swallow, swallow that down, i would have a needle inside. that would be very concerning to me. stay in the moment sanya.

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jon: you know a lot of us don't much like airline food but right now the fbi is investigating who was tampering with some of it in a very dangerous way. passengers on four different delta flights find sewing needles in their turkey sandwiches. julie banderas has details from new york. julie? >> reporter: that's right. the fbi confirms to fox that it has launched a criminal investigation how needles got into business class

meals on board four different flights, delta flights, traveling from amsterdam to the u.s. now the airline says what happened to be six sewing needles were found in six turkey sandwiches on sunday. two passengers on a flight, bound for minneapolis found the needles when they bit into their sandwiches. one man says the inch-long needle poked the top of his mouth. he has put on antiretroviral drugs used for the treatment of hiv the second passenger was not punctured by the needle. after all discovery of the needles all flights were quickly warned. they found deed nels in two other sandwiches for flights bound to atlanta and seattle. all the sandwiches were prepared in amsterdam. delta air lines launch i had own investigation saying delta has taken immediate action with our in-flight caterer at amsterdam to ensure the safety and quality of the food we provide on board our aircraft.

the meals were prepared by this company. it is catering company called gaitgore may. a spokesman said it never experienced any similar accidents like this one and is investigating and working closely with our customers to heighten our safety and security procedures. once the needles were found delta did stop serving those turkey sandwiches and served pizza instead. it says it will use more prepackaged food while the investigation continues of the meantime the transportation security administration says this is not a matter of national security. jon? jon: julie, thank you. julie banderas. >> reporter: sure. jenna: i mean, really? jon: that would not be, not be a good thing. jenna: is that their way of making us bring our own food onto the airlines? jon: ouch. jenna: i'm sorry, you need to look between the stories to take it all in. back to politics now. senator patty murray and her democratic colleagues say republican haves to agree to

raise taxes on wealthy or else. they're giving the gop an ultimatum. but they say they will not back down. who will blink first? a.b. stoddard joins us next hour. a major court ruling rocking one state. how a decision to overturn one convict's death sentence could affect other inmates on death row including scott peterson. we have that next. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more pcessed flakes look nothing like natural grains.

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jenna: "happening now", a truly interesting case out of california. california's supreme court tossing out the death sense of a man convicted of

murdering two women nearly 30 years ago. the court says the judge presiding over the trial of john ricardi, improperly dismiss ad prospective juror because of her conflicting responses about the death penalty. one of her victims was the mother of rock guitarist dave navarro. who became a member of the red hot chili peppers and other bands. this could affect other death row inmates, specifically scott peterson who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son in 2002. there are murmurs his lawyer is attempting to do the same thing here. lis wiehl joins us now, fox news analyst. not even jurors that sat there, prospective jurors. >> i have to tell you there is a 1994 decision, '84 decision, supreme court said that allic reversal of prospective, not someone who is actually there, jenna,

perspective juror, i'm not sure what i think about that death penaltiwise. here's the thing. shouldn't that lawyer who is representing that defendant, before the jury starts say, okay, then you're out of there? you're out. jenna: this case in particular happened 30 years ago. >> i know. jenna: so the lawyers had 30 years to look at what the judge said about a prospective juror? >> these are new lawyers. you have lawyers for the trial. when they lose, then you have appellate lawyers. completely different set of lawyers. part of the job of the appellate lawyers is to say, hey, trial lawyers, you screwed up. you did not do a good job. that sin with of the things that you did not do right. jenna: what is the power of the judge, the person ultimately makes the decision who sits on that case. >> says something for the judge. the judge has to be aware of the decision. i'm sure he or she is and say, if you're in that mindset, if you don't know whether you agree or disagree with the death

penalty, you're out. that's it. jenna: it's hard to look at these convicted felons. >> right. convicted, exactly. jenna: convicted criminals, some murderers. if that was a family member of ours we would want due process. so is this an example of the court's working or justice working or in your opinion is it an example of something else? >> well it's due process i guess in the sense that the person is still going to be convicted. the conviction will not be overturned. it will now just not be a death penalty case. jenna: they will be live in prison. >> life in prison. who will pay for that, jenna? you will pay for it. i will pay for it. jenna: real quick. scott peterson, his lawyers have been challenging the case since the ruling came down. >> there were prospective jurors kicked out of the jury pool because of that. i covered the case from the beginning to end there. it may work for scott peterson. i hate to say it may work for scott peterson. jenna: according to the law it may be the law. >> thank you very much.

jenna: we'll continue to watch the case when it comes to the peterson case. jon, over to you. jon: jenna, iran may have found a way around those tough international oil sanctions meant to force the rogue nation to give up its nuclear program. those sneaky things tehran is doing right now. we'll two in depth on that. plus new dangers from fatty foods. how researchers now linked a bad diet to some of the deadliest diseases out there.

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big decision. that's why i want to send you this free dvd about reverse mortgages. it'll walk you through the process, from qualification to counseling to closing and also, answer some important questions. what are the costs and how do they compare to a traditional mortgage? how is the government involved? and what is your responsibility after you get your reverse mortgage? the answers are all in this free dvd. a reverse mortgage could be a smart, safe and secure option that could help you pay off your original mortgage, manage your health care costs or just cover your day-to-day expenses. so call this toll-free number and let me send you your free video right now. [♪...] >> reporter: hi, everybody, rick folbaum in the "happening now" control room. some brand new stories we're working on just for you,

including this one. top gop lawmakers responding to that tax threat from the democrats, accusing them of holding the economy hostage in order to punish small business owners. who might blink first in that war down in d.c. also, the latest in the search for two young cousins missing since last friday. what police are saying saying ae they're searching right now. and some brand new medical news on some of the most deadly diseases, what you can do to avoid them. all of that and breaking news as the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: some big questions this hour. what will they cut, how will today cut it? republicans are demanding answers as democrats say they're holding their ground when it comes to taxes. it's all threatening to trigger hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic defense cuts, and we're coming up against that deadline. we're glad you're with us, everybody, i'm jenna lee.

jon: i'm jon scott. there is growing concern about the looming cuts not just on capitol hill. all across the country, communities that rely heavily on defense spending are realizing how seriously these cuts could hurt them. house republicans are looking forward to meeting with former vice president and defense secretary dick cheney as they try to map out a strategy to head off the automatic cuts. mike emanuel is live on capitol hill for us. >> reporter: i'm told the former vice president plans to discuss with republican lawmakers what he sees as the major dangers to our national security if these automatic defense cuts are allowed to happen. mr. cheney's scheduled to have a series of interviews with republican lawmakers in both the house and the senate. he will talk to house republican leadership, committee chairmen, also will attend the senate gop policy launch. his message is the automatic defense cuts will do deep and

long-lasting damage to the security of the country. i'm told mr. cheney will draw on his experiences as vice president but probably even more on his experiences over the years as defense secretary. at the pentagon these looming cuts are making it difficult to plan. defense secretary leon panetta has warned the cuts threaten programs critical to our national security. here's the pentagon spokesman on the threat of a half trillion dollars in cuts. >> one thing we definitely can't choose to do as a nation or as a government is sacrifice our national security by triggering this rather absurd mechanism that was instituted to avoid absurdity. >> reporter: the other side of this deal of the defense cuts was also major cuts to domestic spending, something leading democrats like senator patty murray is worried about. >> here in d.c. the defense cuts

get most of the attention. but across america all the automatic cuts would be deeply damaging to our families and our communities. >> reporter: so bottom line, democrats like murray want to talk about how to avert those domestic cuts, republicans want to talk about how to avoid those devastating national security defense-spending cuts, so we will see if they can work out a way to get back to the table, but here on capitol hill republicans are saying, the leadership is saying they expect the appearance of the former vice president to really fire up the troops. jon? jon: mike emanuel on capitol hill, thank you. we're going to be talking with phoenix mayor greg stanton who will talk to us about the potential impact the defense cuts would have on his community and how really they could ripple across the entire economy. that's ahead. jenna: well, to the campaign trail now. governor mitt romney set to hold a rally in the pittsburgh area today where he's expected to

accuse the president of awarding fat government contracts to well-connected democratic donors. chief political correspondent carl cameron is live from irwin, pennsylvania, with more. hey, carl. >> reporter: hi, jenna. it's not a new criticism from mitt romney, but it comes 16 weeks to the day before the election, and the impact of it and the purpose is particularly important. romney's here in irwin, pennsylvania, western part of the state, a key part of the state where, obviously, he needs a strong conservative vote in order to take this swing state from barack obama on election day. and he has been counterattacking very aggressively now against the obama administration's attacks on his past history as the ceo of bain capital. questions about when he left the job, whether it was a day-to-day leave of absence, whether he was still around in 2002 after some of the alleged outsourcing that the obama campaign has said the bain company actually undertook. all of these questions will be rebutted as they have been in recent days by mr. romney who says that the obama campaign, frankly, doesn't understand the private sector economy.

and today again he's expected to cite something that the president himself said last friday when he suggested that private sector job growth and job growth in general is in some way creditbl or to the good and the respondent of it should be given to the government. republicans really reacting aggressively against that, including rob portman. listen to how he put it this morning on "fox & friends." >> for a president of the united states to say if you've got a business, you didn't build it -- [laughter] it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the american economy. this is the strength of our economy. >> reporter: portman is not alone in that. conservatives and republicans across the spectrum now really beginning to bear down on this as another example of the president's own words suggesting that he doesn't understand how the american private sector economy particularly actually works. watch today as romney here in western pennsylvania goes after mr. obama yet again for what he calls crony capitalism, citing as an example of that one of the

green energy obama bundlers, a big donor to the democratic campaign who has said he has been a supporter of the obama organization and white house and appreciates the fact that he's been able to access federal money as a consequence. the romney campaign says that is a clear example of crony capitalism. donate to the obama campaign and win government contracts and the access to federal money. taxpayer money, jenna be, something that mr. romney will definitely suggest shows mr. obama doesn't get how the private sector really works. ta-and-a-half carl cameron from the very important state of pennsylvania today, up for grabs in this election. we're going to move from pennsylvania to texas now. air force one is set to touch down there. texas not so much up for grabs this campaign season or really any in the recent years. president obama will collect campaign cash, though, at events in san antonio and austin. texas has voted for a democrat in a presidential election since 1976, but obviously the president sees some opportunity

there, especially to do some fundraising. the lone star state ranks among the states with the largest concentration of wealth and largest number of latino voters. jon: a political showdown over a massive tax hike is beginning to look like a trillion dollar game of chicken. democrats threaten to throw the nation over a fiscal cliff unless republicans agree to raise taxes. many republicans say they are ready to call their bluff. yesterday a top senate democrat practically dared the gop to ignore democrat demands. >> i will absolutely continue this debate into 2013 rather than lock in a long-term deal this year that throws middle class families under the bus. >> what the democrats are proposing today an entirely avoidable, high-stakes game of chicken. jon: so what are they talking about? let's get into it with ab stoddard, associate editor of "the hill." the bush tax cuts set to expire on january 1st, everybody in

washington seems to think there ought to be some kind of extension. the question is, how much? and democrats have said, okay, if you don't -- if you republicans don't allow the taxes on the wealthy to rise, we're going to just let the tax cuts expire for everybody, and everybody's taxes are going to go up. don't i have that right? >> you do, but it's not that simple because we're talking about these defense cuts and other domestic spending cuts that are set to kick in at the same time. we're also going to see the end of unemployment insurance, the medicare doc fix, the estate tax cut will expire, we're going to see unemployment insurance, all sorts of things are going to be on the table for this $8 trillion fiscal cliff. and so that will change the contours of the compromise that's ultimately reached. both sides are scaring the voters right now with this campaign rhetoric. no one knows what their leverage will be on the morning of november 3th when this -- november 7th when the real work

on this will begin. so the republicans are as guilty as the democrats who are threatening to take the economy hostage. republicans are saying -- and dick cheney will come up and repeat this to them this week -- that these pentagon cuts are not only a threat to our security, they're a threat to the economy. military planners are planning right now vast layoffs to prepare for these cuts that take place in january. but they're not going to come up with a deal that's going to pass the congress to save them. and they voted for them, by the way, before november 6th. jon: yeah. >> so none of this is happening before november 6th. this fiscal cliff will be dealt with on november 7th. jon: the sequestration cuts that we've been talking about, the cuts to the pentagon, were designed to be absurd. they were designed to be so onerous and so crazy that no member of congress, nobody in the administration was going to let them happen, and yet here we are, what, five months away or so. and people are talking about the real possibility that they could happen.

>> it's not very real though, jon. the thing is when the debt deal was reached on august 2nd of 2011, um, this was a real hoax they played on the american people. both parties decided to punt this to a supercommittee. they knew the supercommittee would not come up with this grand bargain that is so elusive that no one will agree to. indeed, the triggered cuts known as sequestration were going to take place. all along, though, when they wrote this into the law, they knew these could be undone between november 7th and christmas eve morning of 2012. so they still have time to stop them. it's getting later, it's getting more onerous and more damaging to the defense department and to our economy to make this deal later, but they know they have a few weeks to make this deal before january of '13 comes. and so that's why they agreed to it in the first place and both parties voted for it.

jon: but this is a town where bipartisanship doesn't work. simpson-bowles, the supercommittee, how are they going to make it work in that relatively short window of time between november 7th and january 1? >> well, that is the big question, and it's really -- it's already hindering economic growth. there's no reason for american companies to hire right now before the election. we can't see this economy changing because no one knows their taxation rates. both parties are hoping, jon, they come up with more leverage than they think they have now. and i don't see it. we still have a chance of having an election that leaves us where we are now, maybe democrats make gains while romney wins or president obama's reelected while republicans make gains, so we could really be in a situation where neither party has a mandate. and then they're going to have to make serious concessions. and i don't know if either party is prepared for that, but we'll see on november 7th. jon: yeah. nobody much likes to make concessions in the washington, it seems.

ab stoddard from "the hill," thank you. jenna: money laundering for drug cartels, helping iran evade sanctions, one of the allegations against hsbc. it's the subject of a major hearing today on capitol hill. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is live in washington with more. >> reporter: well, jenna, thank you. a short time ago a senior executive of hsbc testifying under oath before the senate subcommittee on investigations, one executive based in london resigning and apologizing for bad practices that exposed the u.s. financial system. >> i have said before and i will say again, despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, hsbc has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators. >> reporter: the hearing now entering its third hour, pressing witnesses on a scathing report alleging hsbc exposed the u.s. financial system to money laundering by mexican cartels to

helping a saudi bank with terrorist links to one of al-qaeda's original bankers and also helping iran circumvent international sanctions. a senior treasury department official among those testifying this morning. >> this is dirty money that you're trying to portray as clean funds being able to run it through the u.s. financial system helps you, helps you achieve that objective. >> reporter: at the heart of the investigation are dozens of e-mails that are alleged to show a pattern of aiding iran by stripping out any language that would show the tehran connection. between 2001 and 2007, those transactions were worth $19 billion. before the hearing today, chairman levin laying out the findings against hsbc. >> links to iran were concealed in many 85% -- in 85% of those transactions. >> reporter: and within the last hour the committee hearing testimony that 41% of the hsbcback accounts -- bank

accounts in the cayman islands had no client information attached to them, and 15% didn't even have a file. hsbc just announcing that they are in the process of closing those accounts, jenna. jenna: in the process, huh? not closed yet? >> reporter: yeah, not yet. jenna: a fascinating report, catherine. thank you very much for that. talking about the financing for iran and that report, we're going to talk a little bit more coming up this hour on the way that iran is finding its own way around international sanctions when it comes to what's happening with their oil business. we're going to talk with a journalist with years of experience covering these rogue regimes, and she's an interesting perspective for us today. jon: be fascinating to hear what she has to say. the very special greeting in space. the newest american orbit arrives at the international space station. what's so significant about her arrival? that's coming up. jenna: and the price of your next coca-cola may be going up. we're going to tell you why next. jon: also, the desperate and very sad search for two missing

cousins. they just simply vanished. we'll get you the very latest. >> my stomach's just in knots over it, and i can imagine, you know, everybody else feels that way too. so, you know, we would really like to bring some resolve to it. >> everybody's so optimistic. we're still always going to hope for the best. get them home. with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pil. hydraulics. afternoon's overhaul starts the evening brin more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

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jon: some business developments we are following, stocks up on wall street after federal reserve chair ben bernanke says the fed is prepared to take steps to boost a weakening economy. the remarks part of the fed chair's twice-yearly reports to congress. the european commission is investigating microsoft. it wants to see if the software giant is honoring a commitment to allow access to a different internet browser other than microsoft's internet explorer. e.u. investigators saying some 28 million customers haven't been given the choice they were promised. and coca-cola's profit

slipped, saying rising costs for ingredients offsetting it successful expansion overseas. all that could mean higher prices for you and me at the vending machine along with all those other higher prices jenna was talking about earlier. jenna: nothing like a good coke. jon: on a hot day, yep. jenna: all cola equally, right? jon: that's right. jenna: not biased. well, police in iowa resuming their search for two missing girls. 8-year-old elizabeth collins and her 10-year-old cousin lyric cook-morrissey were last seen on friday. over a weekend of searching, searchers are now draining a lake near where the two girls were, apparently where their bicycles were found. steve brown is live in los angeles -- live in chicago with more on this. steve? >> reporter: yeah, jenna. police say more than anything else just to be 100% sure that there is not anything, or god forbid anyone, at the bottom of this lake. they are draining meyers lake in

evansdale, iowa. normally it takes about three days to get through the emptying of this particular lake, and the reason why is very simple. the last thing the girls were seen which, their bicycles, were found at the southeast corner of meyers lake and, therefore, they're checking. the lake has been extensively searched over the weekend and through the early portion of this week, not turning up anymore new clues. we do have fuller descriptions, also, of what the girls were wearing. for lyric cook-morrissey, she was described as wearing a light green shirt, shorts and flip-flops. she's about five foot tall and age 10. elizabeth collins is about a foot shorter, last seen wearing a white shirt, black shorts and sneakers. checkpoints within the village community of evansdale where police seemed to be randomly stopping vehicles and in some cases asking people to open up

trunks. police are not disclosing any information at this time. a local television station reports during a community vigil last night, the father of one of the girls, drew collins, noted that fbi dogs had apparently found a portion of a scent of the two girls and followed it for a time. we have confirmation from the fbi that, indeed, fbi dogs flown in from virginia have been working this case over the course of the last couple days and that they were going to follow up on this development today. jenna? jenna: hopefully they find something out, steve. thank you. jon: well, what you eat and how it impacts your health. our medical panel on the link between some of america's deadliest diseases and your diet. plus, what a voice. saying good-bye to the first female country superstar. ♪ your cheating heart will pine someday. ♪ and the love you threw away

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♪ ♪ jon: fans today remember kitty wells, the queen of country music. she died yesterday at the age of 92. rick folbaum live from our newsroom with more. rick? >> reporter: well, jon, that was her breakout hit we just heard a little bit of, "it wasn't god who made honky tonk angels," pretty standard fare today but back in 1952 the subject was so controversial she wasn't allowed to sing that song at the grand ole opry.

still, it became kitty wells' signature song, and its popularity opened the door for other female singers, country singers who at that time had been ignored by the music labels. wells became a trailblazer for singers like dolly parton and loretta lynn who tweeted: kitty wells will always be the greatest female country singer of all times. she was my hero. if i had never heard of kitty wells, i don't think i would have been a singer myself, that from loretta lynn. and wells' influence is still felt. taylor swift telling her fans on twitter that the first female country superstar had died. and as you said, jon, she was called the queen of country music, and if she wasn't on your radar screen, take a minute today and listen to some of her hits. you'll hear what all the fuss was about. back to you. jon: wow. kitty wells, something else. rick, thank you. jenna: right now a potential medical breakthrough on some of our most deadly diseases.

what do alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes and cancer have in common? a new study says they all share a condition called chronic inflammation, it's brought on by a host of things, including what we eat. here for a more revealing news on the study is dr. richard fur sine, director of the fur shine center for comprehensive medicine, i'm sorry, he's the author of the vitamin prescription for life,, we have dr. christopher cannon, his book is "the complete idiot's guide to the antiinflammation diet," apropos for this segment. >> thank you. >> thank you. jenna: first, tell us a little bit about what we're learning from these studies. >> well, we're learning now that the foods we eat have a very serious impact on the amount of inflammation that's in our bodies. there are tests we can do in doctors' offices that actually measure the amount of inflammation that circulates.

and what we've learned is that conditions such as asthma, diabetes, hyperlip deem ya, a host of problems that are some of the most common problems we deal with as individuals are caused by foods that we eat, specifically foods that promote inflammation. jenna: dr. cannon, when something's inflamed, say your knee, it's kind of puffy, if you scratch yourself, you can see the skin is inflamed, what does it look like when our insides are inflamed? >> this is the key understanding that the inside lining of the blood vessels in the heart, in our brains can get irritated and roughed up so that cholesterol can then get inside and also weaken any plaques that are there so they can break open, block up that artery and cause a heart attack or a stroke. and so it's really a unifying understanding of how heart attacks and strokes can happen. jenna: but you say it could also

be link today a lot of different things like cancer, for example. dr. cannon, on that why do they think so many things are attached to the fact that we could have an inflammation inside? >> well, it's a natural response in the body to attack. so if you get an infection in the skin, the body attacks that, breaks down the, in that case, bacteria, kills it and then heals it over. but when that goes in overdrive, then it can create too much swelling, inflammation, pain in your knees would be or anywhere in arthritis would be the swelling in a joint that makes it not function as well and be painful. jenna: all right, we're going to talk a little bit about how to potentially solve this issue with you in just a moment, dr. cannon. can you actually look at someone and be like, you know what? inflammation is a problem for them. >> well, what we're learning is a problem that is faced by more and more americans. 30% of americans are obese, 60%

are overweight. what we're learning is that the specific marker, particularly the amount of abdominal fat that people have which is a very good predicter of whether or not that person's going to have inflammation. when we've actually reduced the amount of weight particularly around the abdomen, we found there was a significant reduction of this marker. so it appears that actually just physically losing weight can have a profound effect on your health. jenna: interesting. 60 minutes was looking at whether sugar inflames, maybe sugar is the cause of cancer in all these things. right now all theories, dr. cannon, but since you are the co-author of the complete idiot's guide to the inflammation diet, you're going to need to give out some pointers. if something's inflamed in real life, we put ice on it. are there some other tricks that maybe we could use? >> well, having just had a dunkin doag nuts colatta, i kind

of did that myself. [laughter] one of them is decreasing the amount of pro-inflammatory foods that we would eat, so saturated fats, trans fats. a report out new york city just reduced the number of trans fats. also avoiding the saturated cholesterol and, you know, generally calories. the second part is to increase the amount of good anti-inflammatory contents of the diet, and so mega 3, fatty acids are one, whole grain complex, you know, sugars and carbohydrates also having antiox cant vegetables and fruits are a balance that helps be anti-inflammatory in both ways. jenna: interesting, you didn't mention the colad da. but it's good to know that a doctor has one every now and then as well. doctors, nice to have you today. thank you very much. >> thank you. jon: shocking new reports emerging from syria on the assad

regime and its possible use of chemical weapons on its own people. what we're learning from key former loyalists to bashar assad. also, the african-american vote. it could be even more important to president obama than it was back in 2008. why? we'll explain coming up. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's four course seafood feast,

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election headquarters. president obama received overwhelming support from the black community in 2008, but even a slight change in voter turn out could make a huge difference in several key battleground states this time around. james rosen has more on several fac factors that could alter the outcome. >> reporter: political scientists have observed that in cities where an african politician has been elected mayor for the first time turn out by black voters when the mayor is seeking re-election tends to fall off. the national urban league warns in a report issued today that a drop in african-american turn out of 5% could cause president obama the oval office. the top policy and research officer notes that the record participation rates among blacks is 64.7% back in 2008 placed african-americans for the first time within two points of white

turn out levels. those states where mr. obama is most endangered is north carolina when he prevailed over senator mccain by less half a percentage point. ohio, where he won by four points, and virginia where he enjoyed a margin of greater than six points. new state voting laws, exceedingly high unemployment among black communities could contribute to the drop off that the league warnings about. the obama campaign told fox news it takes no vote or community for granted. addressing the naacp in texas last week vice president biden stressed the importance of black american participation. >> i want to remind everybody of one thing. remember, remember, what this at its core was all about, why this organization at its core was all about. it was about the franchise.

it was about the right to vote. because when you have the right to vote you have the right to change things. >> reporter: the republican presidential candidate who captured the largest share of the african-american vote in modern times was richard nixon who won 32% back in 1960. jon: wow, james rosen an expert on nixon and history and all kinds of things. >> reporter: you're kind. jon: all right. jenna: overseas now the deadly violence in syria maybe taking a turn for the worst. we know you've heard that a lot. listen to these reports today. president assad may be preparing to use a nation's stockpile of chemical weapons on his own people. just reports right now. one top defector says that may have already happened. leland vittert is live with more on this. a few mixed reports here. is there any proof so far, any proof out there that assad r-r hahas used these weapons?

>> reporter: none coming from this defector so far although he says essentially i think that president assad has used chemical weapons on his own people in the town of homs he says he's sure president assad will use them in the future. this is a defector. keep in mind, a defector making these kinds of statements gives himself a very large soapbox. the former ambassador gave an interview and his credibility was called into question. the one thing not in question is that the violence is increasing especially in the syrian capitol of damascus. according to the defector president assad is feeling like a quote, wounded wolf after seeing these kind of clashes, just so close to his own presidential palace, in fact the clashes closed the road to the airport from damascus. he feels as the noose tightens

president assad will resort to chemical weapons on his own people. another thing we are seeing is while the fighting is increasing it appears the rebels are becoming more and more organized. that is significant, we haven't seen that before yet in terms of their fighting tactics and weapons and in terms of their ammunition. this ambassador made other outlandish claims including that al-qaida is now conspiring with the syrian government against the rebels. that seems unlikely considering how long the syrian government and al-qaida have been at odds. the big question going forward is whether these accusations, especially the ones about chemical weapons, true or not will they change the united states' position and certainly will they change russia's position going forward in terms of protecting president assad. jenna: good questions for us today. claudia rosette joins us now. she has been covering regimes for decades now.

claudia nice to have you. that was a good question that leland ended there on about the weapons of mass destruction. if they are used, and we have proof of that, do you think it will change anything as far as our policy when it comes to syria? >> proof of that i think would sparky norm mus spark enormous international outrage. there is already reason for enormous international outrage. chemical weapons are of huge concern whether the assad regime is using them for not. jenna: what should we do about that? >> that is a good question. there is no risk free answer or solution. this is a reminder of why bites a very bad ideit's a very bad idea to let things develop where you have a regime like syria in bed with iran building an arsenal of weapons of mass

destruction. the first thing that will not fix this is standing back and hoping it solves itself, it's very unlikely to. the second is going to the united nations and thinking that relying on the u.n. will help. we've been doing that for six years with iran, they are still pursuing nuclear weapons. we've been debating syria at the u.n. and you may recall there was supposed to be an investigation into syria's assassination of the former prime minister of lebanon seven years ago. that is still wegt it wetting its way through u.n. process. jenna: it's interesting it ties into a theme of an article you wrote for the "wall street journal" where you talked about iran and the oil tankers are getting around the sanctions because they are disguising themselves. one of the points we are making is everyone is buying time. iran is buying time while

negotiations are underway with the u.n. the syrians are buying time, no one has really stepped in here. day after day we have what seems like very similar reports, claudia. what stops the clock? if they keep buying the time what stops that? >> what stops the clock is active, decisiveness and will, or several acts in the west, probably necessarily led by the united states, which is still the super power if we choose to wield that power. buying time benefits the bad guys in this case. it's to the benefit of iran, it's a chance for assad to regroup in syria. it sets the stage for much worst things ahe. north korea is watching the precedence here. this is all important. i'll give you an example of a decisive act that spared us grief at the moment. in 2007 when syria was collaborating with north korea on building a nuclear reactor,

the israeli air force took out that reactor which was ready to go live. thanks to that we are not now contending as well with a blu plutonium factor on the river in syria. that was a risky thing to do and something that was not going to get applause from the world community, the israelis did it, we need to thank them for it. we now need to look to washington and ask, what is the administration there prepared to do that will now choose best among the risky alternatives and actually do something to head off the real danger that syrian chemical weapons, possibly even biological weapons will end up in hands where they could be used to strike not only israel, but the united states. jenna: gives us something to think about. how different as well the situation would have been if the israelis, and again they don't confirm that didn't take that action in syria. claudia, we look forward to having you back.

thank you so much for the time. >> thank you. jon: an american astronaut arrives at the international space station, thanks to a little help from the russians. we'll have more on this latest mission. it still grates me we have to use the russians to get our astronauts up in space. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. ♪ ♪

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visit a local office, or go to libertymutual.com today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? jenna: a headline from outer space today, a russian spacecraft carrying an american astronaut arriving at the international space station. nasa astronaut denita williams is on board the soyz capsule, including a japanese astronaut. we are dependent on russia to fly our astronauts to the space station. this is 37 years to the day of the first international docking back in 1975. jon: meantime back here on earth in the wikileaks case hearings

underway for an army private charged in the biggest leak of classified information in u.s. history. rick folbaum is live from our newsroom. >> reporter: these are pretrial hearings in the bradley manning case. his lawyers are trying to convince a judge in maryland to drop two of the 22 charges the army private faces. manning accused of giving thousands of classified documents to the website wikileaks, which then published them online. these were diplomatic documents, videos, war logs about u.s. military operations in the war on terror. as you mentioned this case involves the biggest leak of classified information in the history of the country. manning, who is 24 years old, could face life in prison if convicted on all of the counts. prosecutors say in leaking the materials to wikileaks he was aiding the enemy, knowing full well that al-qaida has access to the internet, and therefore the information once it was published by wikileaks. the defense says that there was no intent to help al-qaida. there is another round of pretrial hearings next month,

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jon: right now a $500 billion sword is hanging over the pentagon, automatic cuts in defense spending, cuts to the pentagon budget scheduled to take place unless democrats and republicans agree to do something else. getting the two parties to agree on anything in capitol hill these days not so easy. the impact of the cuts would extend far beyond the pentagon. a recent study found a million people are likely to lose their jobs in this country if the cuts

go through as planned. those include 400,000 factory workers, up to 50,000 jobs in health and education at risk. in pennsylvania a key battleground state, 78,000 workers could be out of a job next year if those cuts actually go through. joining us now in washington someone who has studied this issue probably more than he would like, the mayor of phoenix, greg stanton. mayor stanton, you've got a fair amount of especially aeronautical defense industry in your city, right? >> correct, defense and aerospace is a tremendous employer in our region. it's a high wage employer, not only a high number of jobs but the right kind of jobs that you want to build an question. a sequestration takes effect in washington can't get together, republicans and democrats can't get together it will have a devastating impact on our local economy and national economy. we may go back into recession. that is exactly the wrong step for our country to take right now.

jon: a lot of people, maybe a lot of politicians think that, oh, the pentagon has plenty of money. all you have to do is drop a few weapons systems, you can maybe cut a brigade or two from the army and poof you've got $500 billion in cuts. you think it's not that simple. >> it's absolutely not that simple. in fact, sequestration affects the defense department and all of their contractors, including the aerospace industry, but it also impacts the federal government across the board. the cuts that will be taken will be felt by human service providers, felt in transportation. it will be felt in border patrol workers, et cetera, yes, the defense industry has kind of got even their message out a little aeu haoeftd other areas w ahead of the others, but this will affect all of us. the federal government has to decrease the size of the federal budget, but this was never meant to be public policy, it was meant to motivate congress to get together and reach

compromise. unfortunately it hasn't worked and we are up against the clock. these cuts will go into effect on january 3rd, and so defense and aerospace would take a million jobs but the other areas would also take a million jobs. the total impact on our national economy would be 2 million jobs. it would uptick the unemployment rate by 1.5%, send this economy back into a recession. again, i represent a city that got hammered during the recent recession. we are coming out of it. we're going strong, we are building a stronger economy, adding jobs to our economy, our city budget is doing better, sequestration would be the wrong step and that's why mayor across the country are telling our friends in congress, get to the bargaining table, don't wait until after this election. i don't care if you're a republican or a democrat, get to the bargaining table, reach resolution, reach compromise, do the right thing for the american people. jon: we heard from amy stoddard at the top of the hour that she doesn't believe that there is going to be any resolution to this mess until after the election. maybe the morning after they'll start talking about it, but

mr. mayor we hope that they come to some agreement because those kinds of numbers are pretty scary, a million, maybe 2 million people potentially unemployed. thank you. >> these are people's jobs and their families. thank you so much. jon: thank you mr. mayor. we'll be right back.

jon: it is the end of an era here at fox news channel and happening now. one of the originals, oscar ing going to california. our studio cameraman back there. oscar, the pride of cleveland, moving to the ca. jenna: he's going to keep the camera position just right here even when he's on camera. we are going to miss you. >> i'm going to miss you guys too. jenna: for real? >> really, i see you every morning. jon: if we're not in focus tomorrow, we know yeah.