after my dad. that is it for us today. we'll see you back home base in washington next fox news sunday. >> i am harris falkner with a special edition of fox report. a new line of attack. the question is simple, are you better off than you were four years ago. wildfires burning in southern california forcing thousands of people to get out of the way fast. also tonight... the u.s. military now hoping the training of some afghan forces after they turned their guns on our troops in a string of deadly attacks.

fox news journalists on the ground in kabul. the new plan to protect our american fighters. and a mighty blow. homes destroyed lively hoods lost, millions of people feeling the fallout from isaac. in moments getting the first estimates of the storm's financial toll. also he hasn't exactly been through a the desert on a horse with no name but he did complete an epic journey in the saddle across the usa. >> we begin with a state of the economy and the pivotal role it is playing in the 2012 election. 42 months that's how long the national unemployment rate has been above 8 percent and the national debt now on the verge of a symbolic and troubling milestone. $16 trillion. analysts estimating we could hit that number oddly enough on the same day the democratic national convention kicks off in charlotte. none of this good news as the

nation still struggles to add jobs and recover from the economic crisis of 2008. it is also mol cal ammuniti mu political ammunition. the president needs to explain why he didn't do what he said he was going to do. when he took office shortly after his inauguration he said if he didn't have this economy turned around in 3 years his presidency would be a one-term presidency. >> on the road in colorado the swing state president obama talking to college students at the university of colorado in boulder. he tried turning the economic tables on the campaign saying he has nothing new to turn around the economy. steve centanni is there interesting day for the obama campaign as one of the surrogates saying americans are not better off than they were

four years ago. that tipped off quite a day of back and forth with the romney campaign firing out a statement just hours ago how is the obama campaign dealing with it? >> this is a delicate possibly sdang russ question, are you better offer than you were four years ago. this helped turn the race against jimmy carter. republicans trying it again this year. the answer to the question for maryland governor martino maley didn't help democrats any. >> can you say people are better off than four years ago? >> no but that's not the question for this selection. we are not as well off as we were before george bush brought us the bush job losses the bush recession, the bush deficits, the series of desert wars charged for the fooirms the national cr -- first time the national credit card --

>> romney's spokesperson campaign said on the same day obama campaign conceded americans are not better off than four years ago the president offered no solutions to the problems facing our country. they will spur economic growth bring back jobs and turn our economy around. >> i was reading the president has been spending much of the holiday working on his speech and testing out new speech. >> he has been tinkering with a draft of the speech. overall he likes it. he worked on it on air force one. he will portray himself as standing up or the little guy and romney is not standing up for the middle class. he said in colorado while campaigning there the romney ticket is offering no new ideas. >> despite all of the challenges

we face, what they offered over those three-days was an agenda that was better suited for the last century. it was a rerun. it could have been on nick at night. we have seen it before. you might as we will have watched it on a black-and-white tv with habit ears. >> the president was campaigning in the buff today. it's a name of the restaurant since the colorado football team is the buffalos. they call it the buff and they eat in the buff. the president's campaign there in the restaurant. >> steve sent t tony thank you y much. we are told he will spend the day in new hampshire tomorrow as well preparing for the debate with president obama. >> congressman ryan in greenville north carolina tomorrow the same state

democrats are gathering to hold their national convention this week. let's go to charlotte now a. major financial center second only to new york city. home to fortune 500 companies like lowes, home improvement, duke energy, the nation's largest bank, bank of america. reality there, not good. charlotte has been hard hit in the financial crisis losing thousands of well paying industry jobs. unemployment rate stuck at 10 percent for the month of july well above the national rate 8.3 percent right now. mike emanuel charlotte north carolina. it is time for charlotte to shine. >> harris, no question about that. watching the national democratic convention we will hear a vier right variety of speakers michelle obama and distinguished speakers

cor cory booker, jimmy carter, charlie crist and white house chief of staff rahm emanuel and kathleen seb bell why yous sebe the queen city in the spotlight. they say as much as $200 million will be pumped into the economy here at a time when you need it. 7 weeks worth of work putting in high-tech screens so the convention bb streamed live over the internet. it will be translated into spanish. all those who have an interest in what the democrats have to say here in charlotte will be able to follow it live almost anyway they want. >> world will be able to see one of the great gems of the city. i know it is gearing up in another way, security.

>> that is absolutely correct. we have seen tightening up of security. we have seen police on the beat barricades going up and no parking signs as well. people have been asked to be patient recognizing that with such a high profile vip event coming into the city it will take a little longer to get around. we are guaranteed there are unseen security measures as well. we are told federal state and local law enforcement are coordinating that this high profile event by the president vice president and first lady and more will be a safe one. >> i understand the president's speech is going to be outdoors. >> that is correct in the home of the carolina panthers a 74,000 seat football stadium bank of america stadium here in charlotte. we are told there won't be any greek columns but they are expected to put on a big show. we are hearing from democratic officials they are going to try to fill the 74,000 seat stadium.

if they do that it will be showing strength, if not the empty seats will be noticed. >> mike emmanuel we always notice you. appreciate it. >> fox news is america's election headquarters and your home for the coverage of the national convention. the best political team coverage anywhere bringing you the latest developments and spot on analysis live from charlotte. don't miss it. the reverend sum young moon has died he founded the unification church and turned it into a worldwide religious movement with a doctrine loosely based on the bible. the first for holding mass weddings in the 1980s. he passed away but was born in north korea. the washington times the newspaper founded by moon first

reported his death siting unification church leaders today. a statement coming from the paper paper's president said he believed in a need for a powerful free press to convey accurate information and people of a free world. we are told he died from complications of npneumonia. sun myung moon was 72. 700 thousand acres of force at this hour in southern california. flames breaking out in the san gabriel mountains earlier. 200 firefighters aided by helicopters dropping water on the beast tried to fight it. 12,000 visitors there for the long holiday weekend. now what are they doing? getting out as fast as they in the wake of isaac power out. flood waters high and concerns

lingering over rain swollen dam. will it hold? also new reaction after high level obama after it quit amid inappropriate sexual behavior. the unofficial end to summer there is a lot

>> the gulf coast spending a hot labor day weekend cleaning up after isaac. louisiana hit especially hard with a major flooding and swollen river threatening to take over homes. it still looks like that from days ago. restoring power to people in new orleans. 700 thousand homes across the state were left without electricity after the storm hit. casey seigel live in the big easy tonight. casey, concerns over the pearl river just hours ago. what can you tell us? >> it was all over lock number 2 as it is called. we have an ariel picture of it we want to show you now that

shows perspective of what we are talking about here. pearl river diversion canal in the parish which is up north and up east from the crescent city. pressure was building behind that lock and people living around it were evacuated in case it busted. but we have an update tonight. arm mow core of engineers draining some of the water. it is said to be holding just fine. evacuation orders around the area lifted tonight. the river crests tomorrow. we will keep our eye on it. take you now to brave rates in plaquemines parish an area where we have been live an area hit hard by rhine fall. fox news going around for a boat ride in that community. look at this picture. you can see the water reaching some people's roof.

people living in that community called this their katrina. it over topped in the community on the eastern bank of the mississippi river. the water went in so quickly i heard reports this week on a local station a man grabbed his chain saw ran up to his attic with his family and had to cut a hole in his roof, climb out on top of the roof and wait to be rescued. most of that area is still under water. we are happy to report they are making progress some water has gone down roughly a foot in the last 24-hours in that particular neighborhood. bless him for getting his family out of harm's way. i know there have been controlled leasreleases. how does that work? >> you think about it as a bowl of water. sometimes you have the inundated

waterways water will over top the levees and fill into a community that is surrounded by levees. the water sits there. what a controlled release is when they go in with heavy equipment and shovels at times and they put intentional holds or do what they call cutting the levy. what that does is allows the flood waters to drain out of the community much faster than if the pumps were working by themselves. they have pumps there pumping the water out as well. when they cut the levy the flood waters recede much more quickly. that is what happened up in southeast mississippi when there was a dam there that was threatened pressure building behind a dam there. if it broke it would have sent water rushi mississippi through the state of louisiana and empties into the northern part of lake paunch

train. if 50,000 people along that river were evacuated with concerns that the river that was already swollen from the rain waters could flood even more if that dam became compromised. so that is why they are doing these controlled releases of water. >> a part of the story they will deal with since we don't know how long we are away from that date at this point because all of the water is still rising. thank you very much. start to go get figures now on how much damage hurricane isaac actually costs. total losses now estimated between 1 and a half to $2 billion. hurricane katrina racked up 41 billion in damages when it hit 7 years ago. mississippi, louisiana and alabama are the state's most affected with major flooding.

plaquemines parish in louisiana appears to have suffered the worst of the flooding. >> our troops are providing afghan forces with their own security. but it has come at the expense of american lives. now the military taking steps to quell a stream of violence by afghan forces>> caught on tape, a monster truck out of control heading straight into the crowd.

>> deadly ambushes of americans and allied forces now resulting in u.s. military halting the training of some afghan forces.

afghan police and soldiers attacking coalition forces more than 30 times this year. a spokesperson says this temporary suspension will effect 1,000 trainees and give american military some time to adjust the evaluation process for new recrui recruits. colin powell has more. >> troops have died this year at the hands of their african security partners. because of this increase of insider attacks the u.s. military announced they are temporarily halting the training and recruiting of afghan police forces. the african police force is a local militia trained and equipped by u.s. local forces. it is a program designed to give local afghans armed equipped and fighting insurgency in areas where there isn't a strong afghan security presence there are no police or military in that area. the whole idea is to have a sort of local awakening.

it is a controversial program in afghanistan. in some cases they have actually recruited former taliban fighters to be a part of this local mrishl shaw raising concern there could be more insider attacks. most have taken place in the traditional conventional army p and in the police force. but the u.s. military says right now they need to temporarily halt the training and recruiting of this militia so they can vet 13,000 members of this militia force. they want to make sure everybody is loyal to the afghan government and willing to work with the international community whether or not this change in policy is temporary halting of recruiting and training will stem the tied of insider attacks is still very much up in the air. but the u.s. military says this is an important step to try to reduce the threat of insider attacks, harris. >> connor powell reporting. growing tension between israel

and iran. benjamin netanyahu is urging the world to get tougher oon oy ran. without a clear line iran will not stop its effort. his remarks after the nuclear watch dog says iran doubled the iranian enrichment machines it has under the bunker. they are approaching the capability of making an atomic bomb and the threat must be considered. new violence rocking the capital of assyria. two bombs hitting an army post close to the offices of chief of staff. this is the bloodshed in syria hit new heights. two activist groups say 5,000 people civilians killed in august making it the deadliest month since the up rising began more than 17 months ago. of course the united nations putting the number of lives taken there at some 230

thousand. that up rising began a month and a half ago. it is a voting block that overwhelmingly supported then candidate barack obama in 2008. now four years later they are asking if it will be at all come november. call him an you are began cowboy if you would. didn't come home the same way he left. what inspired this man to take a 3500 mile journey on a horse? if you have copd like i do,

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it's nice to have the experience and commitment to go along with you. keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. >> a scuffle outside of an embassy in india. we go around the world in 80 seconds. oo india, tibetan exiles chanting and burning the chinese flag at the steps of that chinese embassy. they are angry because the chinese defense minister is in their country. beijing has long blamed the dalai lama for inciting demonstrations inside india a charge the spiritual leader denies. >> burma civilians joining more than 500 in a march through the streets of mandalay. their demonstration in support of the stance on recent violence in the western part of the country. it's the largest garthering of

buddhist monks since the revolution in 2007. australia, usually you don't want to get too close to the thing that can kill you. but at the australian reptile park north of sydney they are telling everyone to go out and catch the world's deadliest spider. they need to restock the venom sparking a nationwide spider hunt. poland, the 18th annual sausage dog parade. hundreds of onlookers lining the streets as owners strut their stuff. few astronauts and a hot dog the crowd favorite. taking the top prize. super cute. >> i am harris falkner. this is the fox report. bottom of the hour. time now for the top of the news. final preparations underway tonight for the start of the democratic national convention in charlotte.

president obama visiting colorado part of a spring state tour before giving a nomination speech on thursday. governor mitt romney in new hampshire starting his week preparing for the presidential debate the first of which is one month from tomorrow. congressman paul ryan hitting the road for a campaign event at eastern carolina university. in greenville, north carolina that is just across the state from the site of the democratic national convention. in 2008 african american voters turned out in record numbers and overwhelmingly support candidate barack obama. now four years later the question for many black americans may not be for whom to vote but whether they will vote at all. shannon explains. >> oo i think there is a danger some african americans, black people stay home. >> they made up 13 percent of the electorate sent president obama to the white house some

say it is putting him at odds with the african american community could dampen the enthusiasm this time around. owens says the decision to support same-sex marriage will cost him. >> the african american community is more conservative than whites in their belief system because of the church, because of the environment and their background. >> the white house may take comfort in a wall street journal poll showing 94 percent of african americans plan to vote for mr. obama while 0 percent say they will vote for mr. romney. >> i do not believe in that because i am not a 0. the other black people that i know that are going to vote for mitt romney they are not a zero. >> fox polling shows 3-7 percent support of romney among black voters some say republicans have only themselves to blame for the lack of connection with african american voters. >> this election it has become

clear that whatever position was made by the romney camp about obama in the community there is not an interest in getting african american votes. >> they have gotten unexpected report. >> my indocks was flooded with people who said to me they were democrats but who said they don't recognize this democratic party. >> not so supportive? 14 members of the congressional black caucus who sent a letter to davis accusing him of flip flopping and making political calculated positions. shannon greene, fox news. it has been days since hurricane isaac made land fall along the gulf coast. the storm not done yet. the remnants of the category 1 hurricane that was once hundreds of miles wide bringing much needed rain now to drought stricken areas in the midwest and southern parts of this country. it is also bringing the chance for severe weather as it marches

toward the east. we are tracking what is left of isaac now just a large area of showers and thunderstorms. still spans hundred miles wide but nowhere near where it was when it made two land falls along southeastern louisiana. just like you mentioned we are in extreme drought conditions across the midwest. states like indiana and illinois western parts of kentucky and tennessee. exactly where we are getting much of the needed rain. right now we have heavier downpours through louisiana and central parts of kentucky and southern parts of the state of tennessee and alabama. some of the storms could produce severe weather. current drought extreme drought conditions the wos category of drought across southwestern parts of indiana and kentucky

and tennessee and especially bad across the state of arkansas and missouri. most of the state is under one of the worst categories of drought. much needed rain from isaac. today severe weather risk include areas like kentucky, tennessee northern parts of alabama into mississippi cities like memphis, nashville and birmingham you are under the gun to see large hail damaging wind gusts and even tornadoes. we have tornado watches in effect from kentucky through parts of alabama and mississippi. these are in effect late night 11:00 p.m. local time. we have a severe thunderstorm watch including northwestern portions of georgia into western parts of the state of north carolina so again widespread area we are looking at for the possibility of severe weather. you can see the one line of strong storms producing heavy rain across northern alabama. we have had a number of tornado warnings issued. one across alabama that has

expired. tornado warnings issued very li. tornado could be on the ground you have to seek shelter immediately. >> when is hurricane season over? >> it won't be over until november 30th. more i want to touch upon nothing that will be impacting the u.s. but we had tropical storm curves. we have tropical storm leslie that forecast is slowly moving northward across the ocean and make land fall in bermuda as a category 1 hurricane. this is something we will keep a close watch on now. maximum sustained winds at 60 miles per hour. what does summer labor day mean for your activity in the 401 k? stock traders are watching

washington closely with all of the important national unemployment rate information for august due out this week. brenda buttner with a look at a week ahead. wall street this summer trading volumes at the lowest levels in years. they thought the bulls were at work the broad mark at s&p 500 up around 7 percent since june. there is plenty to bring back investors as we kickoff in september. will they make clear it will try to stimulate the economy with bond buying for a third time. the european central banks meets, too. traders will be watching especially since a court ruled on a rescue fund for the debt mess over there. over here the big report out on friday. a look at the jobs market for august. will the unemployment rate

stubbornly say at 8.3 percent. all this as americans face the heist gas prices for labor day weekend. september isn't usually month to remember. all size stocks often under perform. thank you very much. terrifying moment at a monster truck show. one of the big trucks racing for the finish line veers out of control and into the crowd. no one saw this coming until it was too late. i hadn't seen that vantage point of it. we will watch it again when we come back. stay close.

>> a monster struck out of control flying into a crowd at a race in oregon. the whole thing caught on tape. >> you can't blame whoever was rolling on that for putting the

camera down can you? you can see that blue pickup truck racing right across the screen here in just a second. when it suddenly veers toward the stands. that cameraman running to try to get out of the way. you can't blame him. the truck hit a barrier and entered the crowd hitting three people. they were all hospitalized. there it is. here it comes. but they are expected to survive those three people who were hit. a track official says the truck's hydraulic steering failed and there was nothing the driver could doe do. >> brand new information about a high ranking homeland security official. susan bar immigration cust some or ice resigned tuesday after being accused of sexual harassment by several employees. in her letter obtained by fox news she called the allegations unfounded but did not want to be a distraction.

>> susan bar first made news about two weeks ago for telling a colleague he was a sexy expletive. now she is making news for telling her boss she is stepping down. the now former ice chief of staff voluntarily placed herself on leave in august. now she is leaving for good because as she wrote in a letter to ice director john morton obtained by fox news in reevent weeks i have been the point of unsubstantiated foundations. bar's whole letter was 3 paragraphs long. ice's response. director morton received miss bar's resignation we wish her luck in her future defrns. rye pub can congressman peter king went into far greater

detail expressing far more concern of the situation saying the resignation of susan barr raises the most serious questions about management practices and personnel policies at the department of homeland security the committee on homeland security will continue and intensify its review of all of the facts regarding this case and dhs personnel practices across the board. susan bar says the allegations against her are without any merit. she says in time she hopes her reputation is restored. peter, thank you. tragedy stieks at -- tragedy strikes at an air show in colorado. two stops as we go across america. >> iowa a stunt plane slams into the ground in davenport. the pilot died on impact the crowd watching it all. >> i was instantly in tears because i knew more than likely he didn't survive. >> he went nose down into the

ground and burst into flames. >> the plane was making a 45 degree bank but was unable to come out of the turn before crashing into the field. >> illinois, a frait train strikes the rear of another train sending several cars into a man's backyard in chicago. at least one of the cars was carrying liquid waste. but crews say nothing hazardous leaked out. no one hurt but some 2500 people in nearby homes and businesses lost electrical power. michigan, a man back at his suburban detroit home after five months on the road on horse back. leslie vendor took two horses riding one and then the other for 3500 miles from texas to michigan. he had been taking care of his mom and when she recovered he took off for a very long ride. >> john wayne movie. it was just -- i just didn't want to do that. >> he slept in tents most nights and only packed the bare

necessity. >> four pair of under wear four pair of socks, two pairs of jeans and two shirts. >> he never doubted he could make it home but he had to call a trailer to pick up the horses with two-days to go because of saddle sores. >> leaving their home splitting up heading to separate zoos to become a part of the breeding. they are considered endangered only 10,000 of them left in the wild. that's a fox watch across america. >> first pictures of a massive hotel fire on this sunday. what we are learning about the inferno you see here. we told you about this last night. a retired navy seal was quite a dream, now we have an update on his latest mission. what this cancer survivor just achieved with a donated set of lungs.

why he makes us all proud to be american. >>

>> in oregonian inferno in a hotel outside portland. a fire broke out and it took 200 firefighters several hours to get it under control. which are fold the hotel is vacant the owner using it for storage. no reports of injuries but investigators want to know now what started it. an amazing update on fox report. retired navy seal and cancer survivor justin leg she teet ou complete a half marathon in virginia beach, virginia. he did it. he crossed the finish line two years after receiving a double

lung transplant as a last resort in his battle against leukemia. he took on that 13 mile challenge in honor of the 19-year-old donor who saved his life. i want to know more. if you do go to foxnews.com and read all about his journey. >> oo org nierzs hurry to go put the final touches on the national convention. a lot of history being made in these events. here is veteran journalist marvin cowl with a look back at some of the highlights over the years. the skconvention of the democratic party will be in order. >> reporting for duty. >> the activists in each party get together to drum up a great deal of enthusiasm and to go out and try to win an election. >> i accept the nomination of the democratic party.

>> in the old days it was very exciting. they would have 2, 3, 410 ballots before they finally agreed on a nominee. >> i ask the american people -- >> the 64 convention was extremely critical because a shorted time before john f. kennedy had beenilled lyndon johnson was well aware to win he had to look presidential. the 1984 convention walter mondale, no democrat would have won because ronald reagan was simply that popular. what he decided to do was to nominate to a point a woman as vice president. >> my name is geraldine ferraro. >> it never happened before, it didn't work. he lost. >> we are the party that believes in the american dream. >> the 88 democratic convention bill clinton was selected by

dukakis to deliver the major address. >> clinton went on and on and the delegates got restless and there was booing. but the end of the speech -- he said in closing all of the delegates ceased that moment stood up and actually cheered. the convention is part of the tapestry, the background of democracy. >> that was marvin cowl reporting. a tennis great not ready to bid a fond farewell to the game he loves. andy roddick coming through again at the u.s. hope. he said he will retire after the tournament in new york city. we will see.

>> tennis star andy roddick not retiring yet. he has a lot of tennis left. he continued with a win. in his second straight victory since announcing he would retire after the final match of the tournament. he served up 10 aces including this one in the victory column. i love his shoes. high school football you know we love it in the fox report. tonight florida. what one girl managed to do this past week is nothing but historic. erin is the first girl in florida history to play quarterback for the boy's varsity football team. she saw action for the first time on friday with two minutes left to play and completed two snaps. she wears number 13 after a tribute to dan marino. nice. her team went on to beat nova high 31 to 14.

who has more fun? do you know? try telling these red heads. thousands of people with red hair gathering for an annual festival in the city of bray day. the only requirement is, well, you have to have naturally ginger hair. it celebrates everything to do with hair color and activities including a fashion show, lectures on keeping your main fantastic and musical performances. no, i didn't see any blondes or brunettes in that crowd. >> fox fast forward now lacking ahead at some of the big stories coming up this week on monday. they will tour the area of hurricane isaac in louisiana. he is campaigning in ohio and for the romney ryan team congressman paul ryan will make a campaign stop in north carolina as well. tuesday kicks off the democratic national convention and charlotte north carolina the

debt clock is expected to show the u.s. debt crossing the $16 trillion mark. that is what analysts are projecting. big news out of washington that could give political gram ficcation. the new numbers coming out. national unemployment right now stuck above 8 percent for 42 months 8.3 percent. >> on this day in 1935 one of the strongest hurricanes to make land fall in our nation's history punished the florida keys. the category 5 storm wiping every tree and every building off and destroyed the railroad that connects the island to the mainland. killed 423 people in all including hundreds of world war i veterans living in rehabilitation camps there. many drowned after waves as high as 15 feet swept through the area. some people were sand blasted to