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dark. bill: i will take "thunder road". we have to roll out of here with a town full of winners. >> "happening now" starts right now. jon: our own thunder road brings you brand new stories and breaking news. jenna: will this continue the whole hour? jon: why not. jenna: new rules make it easier for immigrants to remain in the country. plus a newspaper already listing the names and addresses of gun owners, now, wants to expand that list. not everyone is come lying though. we'll tell you more about the story. a smash-and-grab caught on tape. it is all "happening now." jenna: new year, new congress. wish we could say we have some new headlines for you but apparently the same old trouble is brewing in the same old town down in washington. jon: deja vu all over again.

jenna: apparently. hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. the 113th congress convenes today on capitol hill amid issues brst few weeks and months. take a look. we have at footage of the 112th congress, which is in its last hours right now. the new congress to be sworn in just a couple of hours. speaker john boehner, seen there, may be in for a fight as the house votes for its next leader today. frustration among the gop is fueling concerns that the republican speaker could actually lose his post. meanwhile outrage is growing over superstorm sandy funding. the house pledging to vote on the aid bill as leaders on both sides of the aisle expressed concerns over the delay. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill for us now. so, mike, give us the assessment. is speaker boehner in trouble? >> reporter: jon, we're told 25 or 30 conservative members who have reservations about speaker

boehner continuing on as speaker of the house of representatives but i talked to a lot of folks here on capitol hill, members, people close to leadership, outside of boehner's team who suggest they do not believe that boehner will be in trouble when push comes to shove, when the house votes in about two hours on the next speaker of the house. a lot of republicans here on capitol hill both in the house and senate are essentially trying to turn the page on the 112th congress and looking forward to fighting for their principles in the new congress. >> our strongest hand are three things and that is the debt ceiling, the continuing resolution and the sequester and we need to the absolutely use those to do those things, as i mentioned, bill, to save our country. >> reporter: but as some contacts have told me today, there is always drama up here on capitol hill. so we will watch and see as the house votes on the speaker and bottom line, we do expect after perhaps a

little bit of drama, that john boehner will continue on, jon. jon: one of the things he has done to stir the pot a little bit was to delay a vote on hurricane sandy funding. big controversy over that. where does that stand right now? >> reporter: well, that's right. there are some who say the bill that was sent over from the united states senate included items that were not related to the new york metropolitan area's recovery from superstorm sandy, such as alaskan fisheries, such as repairing rooftops for washington, d.c. museums. and bottom line a lot of people are questioning whether that pork is being stripped out. take a listen to this. >> we don't do earmarks in the house. you saw the other night, i know susan is going to talk about it, you saw what effectively was a ton of earmarks coming in from the senate. and hurricane sandy, it has got $30 billion worth of earmarks in it effectively. >> reporter: what i've been told is, tomorrow we expect them to vote on some initial

emergency funding in the house and january 15th, they're going to vote on the rest of the money but the house is working to make sure that the money is going only to storm victims and to those projects and not to other other unrelated matters, jon. jon: $30 billion worth of earmarks. no wonder we have a fiscal crisis in this country. mike emanuel, thanks. >> reporter: thank you, sir. jenna: some new political fallout from the last piece of business from the 112th congress. the vote to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, well, it had a tough time in the house. it passed overwhelmingly in the senate. senator bob corker of tennessee, who also voted yes, has a message for those who didn't back it. >> you can always run from those votes and vote no. i always look at myself on these defining votes as being deciding vote myself and so the question is, are we better with this bill passing or would we have been better with what was going to be law if it didn't?

and on that basis i don't think there is any question we're better off with what passed. jenna: eight senators voted no. senator mike lee, republican from utah is one of them. he joins us now. senator lee your response to senator corker? >> well, what we did in passing this bill was preserve the vast overwhelmingly majority of a totally dysfunctional system, a system goten us $16 trillion in debt and a trillion dollars in additional debt every single year with our deficit. jenna: and so you think we're not better off having passed it? >> i think we're not better off. everything about this bill was a failure. what congress did, how congress did it and what congress didn't do. you need no look further than the fact we were giving a total of six minutes to read this bill before we had to vote on it. not one single senator who voted for it had read it. i find that unacceptable. jenna: how do you change

that? >> you insist bills go through regular order. you insist we be given an opportunity to read legislation before we're asked to cast a vote on it, whether we're going to be the deciding vote or not. we need to have the opportunity to read it. this is campaign pledge i made to my constituents when i was elected. my default on anything will be no, if they don't give me reasonable time to review it i will vote no every time and this is why. we see what happens when people vote for things they haven't read. there are always bad things in it. jenna: interesting you point that part of it out. we call get caught up getting to the end result which we knew was against this deadline and this concern about going over the fiscal cliff and this is what we got from the process. you write about this in an editorial in the "washington times" today, where you talk about a dysfunctional system in congress, a failed status quo as you call it. some of our viewers agree with you on that. the bigger question how you

change that, not only having enough time to read a bill but change larger status quo is a tough one. where do you even start as you enter into new congress, i know you're part of the same term but how do you approach that? >> jenna, you're right, it is difficult but the first step towards changing that to vote no. more times you vote yes to something like this more times you send signal to leaders in the senate it is okay to follow this process. more people willing to stand up and vote no when they try to jam a bill down our throats without the opportunity to read it we make it much less likely in the future they do this if we vote no. secondly we have to encourage our leaders to put a bill on the floor. to encourage the negotiations to move forward within the four corners of senate chamber rather than in some back-room deal that never sees the light of day. jenna: majority of lawmakers voted for the bill. do you think it is the fault. american people, for lack of

better term putting wrong people in office, people that would vote yes on a bill rather than vote no. is it our fault. >> i wouldn't say it is the fault of american people and they will blame them for mistakes by a handful of people here. jenna: who is accountable? is it lawmakers themselves? >> i think lawmakers themselves need to stand accountable to voters that put them there and voters who they will have to answer the next few years, to say look, why did did you this? now this is becoming more after problem i think there will be more accountability and i think you will see more members of both houses of congress, in both political parties voting no when faced with something like this. jenna: you're a new member to congress. couple years ago you were a regular guy if you will, like the rest of us, voting to put people in office. we know the president has another four years. we're getting some new members of congress. some new members as well to the senate. how are you in the next several years going to try to change the process in congress?

where do you start, senator, to make things different and better? >> well, i'm going to start by encouraging the leadership in the senate to put bills on the floor, not minutes or seconds before a deadline, but weeks or months before the deadline. and sure, we don't agree on everything. sure, we don't have a deal in advance but that is what the senate floor is for. that is what it is supposed be to be there to debate, discuss and amend. legislative proposal might not start out in state of perfection and might not be in state of perfection when it he is voted on but if it is in the open the american people know what they're getting by the time their elected representatives vote on it. jenna: why do you feel this deal was in a behind closed doors, now not out in the open? >> it doesn't have to be done that way and shouldn't be done that way and wouldn't be done that way if they didn't know they could get away with it. so i do encourage all people out there who are concerned about this to contact their members of congress and tell

them they expect nor and that good enough for washington simply isn't good enough for more. we have to start demanding better and a more full process, one that represents the people's interests. jenna: brings us back to the question power residing in the people. people have power to vote. we'll see what next year brings us as we go into this 11th congress. nice to have you as always. thank you for the time today. >> thank you, jenna. jon: a fox news business alert for you now. let's take a look at the dow, just one day after stocks soared more than 300 points, they are down just a smidge today, about 13 1/2 points. fox business network's nicole petallides is live at the new york stock exchange. what's going on there today, nicole? >> reporter: jon, i like how you say just a smidge. that is exactly right. we're not too far off the unchanged line is a good sign in fact yesterday we gained 308 points on the dow jones industrials and

basically we're holding onto the big danes we saw. of course we had our lawmakers averting the fiscal cliff and avoiding days sasster. we got in the weekly jobless claims numbers were a little weak and some other reports that were stronger. we're getting in mixed jobs numbers and tomorrow is the monthly jobs report. that is the key one we'll con it to watch. auto sales have been coming in. those are pretty good. gm and ford hitting new highs. we alluded to that yesterday. we're getting the facts. those are things we're watching big picture. three names higher for you. priceline, starbucks and facebook. priceline positive analyst comments out of the bank of america giving this one an upgrade. it is looking good seeing strength going forward the next three years. so that is some good news there. also starbucks rolling out a one dollar reusable plastic cup. this is something that you will bring it in, they will rinse it out with boiling hot water and get it going. they hope to serve 25% of all drinks in reusable cups

by the year 2015. facebook getting another upgrade. yesterday from jpmorgan. today from mcclairely. move news from facebook. jon: nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange. thank you. >> we talk about government dysfunction. how about this? a former congressional candidate arrested for going around town and slashing tires. jon: what? jenna: we'll tell how he is actually accused of targeting and maybe the bigger question why he is doing that? we'll try to cover that for you as he will. a newspaper caught up in controversy, publishing addresses of gun permit holders. one county is refusing to release more names even though it is public information. we're going to explain next.

jon: new details emerging how the u.s. handles foreign terror suspects. you might remember the obama administration blasted the bush white house for so-called secret detentions. that practice involves holding and interrogating suspects overseas instead of guantanamo bay all reportedly without due process. turns out that is exactly what is still going on in the obama administration. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge live in washington with that story. catherine. >> reporter: thank you, jon, good morning. three alleged members of a somali terrorist group al shabaab were arrested overseas in the country of.

>> beauty. they were held incommunicado, roughed up during tear divisions and eventually transferred to criminal court in brooklyn in november. telling folks the justice department handling the men fits the classic rendition definition of rendition. >> the appropriate venue not take somebody involved in a civil war in east africa and bring him not eastern district of new york to be prosecuted in the criminal court. under that definition we can probably round up tens of thousands of fighters and clog our courts system for the next couple of decades. >> reporter: al shabaab was designated by the state department as a terrorist organization and men in custody do not dispute the fact they are members of the group but they argue there is no evidence they have committed crimes against the u.s. or u.s. interests. during the campaign in 2007, then candidate obama disavowed many practices of bush administration including rendition which critics say the president

adopted as his own policy let's listen. >> while we're at it why don't we close guantanamo and restore the right of habeas corpus because that is how we lead, not with the might of our military, but the power of our ideals and power of our values. time to show the world we're not a country that shifts prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off country. we're not at country which runs prisons that locks people away without ever telling them why they're there or what they're charged with. >> reporter: justice department spokesman did not respond directly to claims that the administration had adopted rendition as a practice. but emphasized to fox the transfer to this u.s. court was lawful in this case and the men are accused of being members of al shabab and part of specialized cell with suicide training. jon: interesting, catherine. thank you. jenna: we're awaiting a news

conference in putnam county, new york, where a battle is heatings up by a map published by a local newspaper. you heard a little bit about this. it shows names and addresses of gun permit holders in several counties. some people feel they're called out for gun ownership, that is perfectly legal. now the paper wants to add more names to the map and one county says they're not going to do it, refusing to release the information even though it is public data. david lee miller in carmel, new york, with the latest on this. david, so who is publishing this information? >> reporter: this a newspaper called "the journal news." it is a suburban new york city newspaper. it is published by gannett. the controversy they have sparked so great, so many readers are outraged the paper has hired armed security guard in order to protect its staff. now the controversy began last month. the newspaper, under freedom of information act, requested information from three counties. they wanted names and addresses of residents with pistol permits.

two of the counties complied and the paper then went ahead and published that information using an interactive map online. one county refused to release the data. that is putnam county. that county says the information should remain private and that releasing it would put residents at risk, specifically active and retired police officers, many of whom live in the county >> a lot of our residents are first-responders. they're law enforcement individuals. they have these pistol permits. at their obvious employment. the fact that their names and their addresses are being released right now does put their families at risk. >> reporter: the county executive says that even residents who do not have a pistol permit would be at risk. she argues that criminals would know who they are if this information is published. jenna. jenna: that is what some of the local fishes are saying. what about the newspaper, david lee? >> reporter: the newspaper

is maintaining the position this is legal information. the publisher and the president of the newspaper janet hason released a statement. it said and i quote, we believe the law is clear this is information information and the residents of putnam county are entitled to see it. we're troubled that county officials apparently switched their position since we first requested this information. and the executive director of the committee on open government, that is a state agency that gives legal counsel on the freedom of information act, says that putnam county is required under the law to release the requested data. >> my job is to give what i believe to be the right answer under the law and the law is crystal clear. the names and the addresses of licensees at least for the time-being, are public. >> reporter: in just a few moments time at 12 east coast time in this room the county courthouse here, a news conference is going to get underway. one of those we expect who

will be attending is a state senator who is proposing legislation that essentially would make it ineligible for organizations like this newspaper to use the freedom of information act to get the names of pistol, permit holders, but right now that is only legislation that is being proposed. the way the law is written right now, the county must hand it over. the county argues no way. they're not going to do so. in the words of the county official here, the standoff continues. back to you. jenna: very interesting. we'll see how that standoff turns out. david lee, thank you. jon: a lurid murder trial goes into day two. a woman accused of shooting her boyfriend, stabbing him 27 times, and slitting his throat. the latest in the case some say has all the makings of a hollywood movie. a taliban leader was among 13 killed in two u.s. drone strikes in pakistan

jenna: right now a murder trial is going on in arizona for a woman who admitted, admitted to murdering her boyfriend. now she has changed her story a few times. first, she insisted she didn't do it. she would never do something like that. then she said she did kill him, and it was self-defense. rick folbaum has latest on this story, rick? >> you get a sense where this trial is going to go hearing the defense attorney's opening argument. she told the jury flat-out that jodi arias killed her former boyfriend but says arias was forced to kill him and the defense's case will explain why. travis alexander was found dead back in 2008, five days after jodi arias shot him in the face, stabbed him 27 times and slit his throat. she certainly left nothing to chance but her lawyer says she only did it because

alexander was an abusive sexual deviant. >> had joe di not been forced to defend herself, none of us would be here. in that one minute had jodi not chosen to defend herself, she would not be here. >> reporter: the prosecutor saying that she acted out of a jealous rage after learning that alexander was dating other women. >> this love, she rewarded that love for travis alexander by sticking a knife in his chest. you know he was a good man according to her. and with regard to being a good man, well, she slit his throat as reward for being a good man. >> reporter: prosecutors plan to introduce dna evidence, jenna, along with pictures from a digital camera found in arias's own washing machine which shows before-and-after pictures from the crime scene and including pictures of the body. this is a trial we'll be

following. we'll bring you the latest. back to you. jenna: wow, rick, thank you. jon: a prominent taliban leader killed in a u.s. drone strike in pakistan. pakistani officials saying this senior taliban commander was among nine killed in a strike on a house near the border of afghanistan. they say four others were killed in a separate drone strike. now there are concerns about new tensions between washington and islamabad. officials saying this taliban leader had fought american forces in afghanistan but had a truce with pakistan's military. let's talk about this with rick grenell, former spokesperson for the last four u.s. ambassadors to the u.n. very tricky stuff here. so the pakistani government tolerates some taliban. others not so much. and this was a guy they liked? >> yeah. it is important to remember waziristan is the border between pakistan and afghanistan but officially

in pakistan. pakistani government looks the other way. it is ungovernable. reporters seldom go there. pakistani officials really can't go there because it is too dangerous. they cut deals with the militant leaders to say if you don't attack us we'll look the other way. the problem with this group they're attacking u.s. military personnel inside afghanistan. so we have to defend ourselves. that is why president obama has increased drone strikes, unmanned drone strikes to just go in and kill these terrorist islamists within this region the pakistani government publicly doesn't like it. jon: kind of interesting. we heard candidate from obama in 2008 talking about, we are not a nation that puts people in prison without a trial and so forth but as commander-in-chief he has used drone strikes to kill some of those same people more than any other president? >> exactly. i mean, that speech is really remarkable when you hear him, the president philosophically say he is against rendition, he is

against drone strikes. that was 2008 candidate as you say, but he is increased some of these policies. certainly we have more drone strikes now than we have ever had and it is really a way for the president to be able to say he is dealing with the terrorists but he doesn't have any of the complications of putting boots on the ground. jon: interesting we have enough intelligence in an ungovernable area where americans are not exactly welcome to be able to get this guy? >> well, as you know we spent a very long time trying to find usama bin laden and others in the region because we don't have enough information. the pakistanis, again, it is ungovernable. they don't have enough intel to share with us. it is too dangerous for us to put too many people on the ground. so the intel is very scattered. which goes back to why again we do drone strikes and not have boots on the ground. jon: we got this guy but still can't find mullah omar apparently. >> that's right. pakistanis are not able to

tell us or they refuse to tell us. there is no question they must know, they must have some sort of intelligence but it is too risky for them to share it with us. that is where the onus comes on the united states government. the obama administration should say, look, you must share intelligence with us to get the bad guys because privately the pakistanis are telling us, better you do it than us because we'll have internal problems. we should not allow them to play that game. we should be able to just say, you have the responsibility to get them. if you don't, we will. jon: so the public protests from the pakistani government are not necessarily the same things they're saying to us in private? >> absolutely not. privately they're telling us look, this is very ungovernable area. it is difficult for us. better you do it and we'll go out publicly to pretend we're against it to calm our public. jon: rick grenell. thank you. jenna: another big story we're watching today, the obama administration gearing up to push immigration reformulater this month. it is the latest on an executive order that allows

one million illegal immigrants to stay in the united states. we'll tell you more details about this program coming up. also an emotional day for mark kirk and his family and for all of us rooting him on in the last year. the illinois republican make as triumphant return to congress, one year after suffering a serious stroke. >> i'm walking again. leading to my hope to climb the 45 steps that my staff counted from the parking lot to the senate front door to fight for the people of illinois.

jenna: welcome back, everyone. the obama administration is making it easier for about one million illegal immigrants to stay in this country while applying for permanent residency, permanent citizenship. the executive order allows them to stay with family members who are already american citizens. this is the latest move by the administration to change

immigration rules without congressional approval. of course congress hasn't been successful passing comprehensive immigration reform. molly henneberg live in washington with more on all of this. molly, tell us a little bit about the process here. >> reporter: this new rule decreases the time the illegal immigrants have to be out of the u.s. to apply for the visa. the rule says illegal immigrants who are the spouse, child, or parent of a u.s. citizen and show the normal visa procedures would cause, quote extreme hardship to their family will no longer have to leave the u.s. to apply for a permanent residency visa. they can get a hardship waiver, really. this is hardship waiver and stay until the visa is approved and go back to their native country briefly to pick it up at a u.s. embassy or consulate. department of homeland security secretary janet napolitano helps american citizens as well. she says quote it facilitates the legal immigration process and reduces the amount of time u.s. citizens are separated

from immediate relatives who are in the process of obtaining immigrant visa. possibly reducings time immigrant is out of the country from three to 10 years to maybe even a week or so. jenna? jenna: that's part of it as we mentioned, this program that the president is putting forward that doesn't need congressional approval. one of the big questions is, by many, how this fits into potentially a broader strategy on immigration by the president? what can you tell us about that? >> well, as you were saying, jenna, president obama has not been able to get congress to go along with his immigration policies because many want border security measures with any changes. this is being done by the tech sieve branch instead of legislative brand. of this program, critics from the center of immigration studies this is continuation of usurping congress's control over immigration. this waiver rule is a small piece of this broader effort to go around congress.

the president did something similar last year in 2012 when he bypassed congress and allowed young illegal immigrants brought here as children by their parents to stay here in the u.s. if they met certain qualifications. jenna. jenna: more on the story as we get it, molly. thank you. jon: lots of outrage from new york-area lawmakers pushing the house to hold a vote on aid for superstorm sandy victims bill. house speaker john boehner scheduling one vote for friday on some of the money and another later in the month for the rest of the funding. the move comes after widespread anger over his decision to cancel action onefof the last congress. it would have sent billions of dollars in aid to help with relief after superstorm sandy. let's talk about it with angela mcglowan. she is a fox news political analyst. what did the speaker do here? he incited the ire of many even within his own conference by shelving that bill until the new conference, the new congress

comes in. >> when you have 2010 election where tea parties took over congress, rather, dealing with dividing the party, they voted not to use earmarks. so on the bill on hurricane sandy you had members of congress putting things on this bill, jon, that didn't belong, poor boehner, darned in you do, darned if you don't, was trying to adhere to the party pushing the vote but instead he split the party with peter king and also with christie. you have tea partiers upset with him, dealing with the fact that he voted for obama's legislation to assist with the fiscal cliff. jon: right. i read one assessment said that is part of the reason that the speaker decided to shelf the vote because his caucus had just had to vote on the fiscal cliff deal, many of them didn't like it. they got it passed, mostly with democratic support. but he didn't feel it was appropriate to put them through another vote on $60

billion worth of basically unfunded government spending. >> but to some of the tea partiers, jon, this is too much, too little, too late. i spoke with matt kibbee, head of freedomworks. boehner started negotiating with himself since the cap and balance vote. the bottom line, the tea party is party of principle. then you have the party establishment where you cut deals, you get along to get along with the rest of the party. so there is a division in the party and this division, even if john boehner is reelected, this division is still going to stand. so obama, with the fiscal cliff negotiations, he actually neutered house leadership in the republican party. jon: well he has taken advantage of that fissure that you're talking about, the president. >> yeah, he has taken advantage of it and basically there are three losers in this negotiation fight. the american people because taxes have been raised. also your policy advisors in

the white house, really wanted to do something about the debt. policy advisors that really wanted to do something about the deficit and then john boehner because he could not keep his own party in line. traditionally the leadership of the house can actually whip votes to his side but boehner had a party divided in 2010 when more tea partiers took over the house of representatives. jon: but i'm not hearing anybody who seems to think that speaker boehner is in serious jeopardy of losing his speakership? >> well he is not in serious jeopardy of losing his speaker ship because you only have jon, 25 to 35 members of congress that could potentially vote against him. however you have had certain tea party organizations that wanted to do a secret ballot vote. they want to vote against boehner but don't want boehner to know who actually voted against him. when you have those types of signs from my standpoint,

boehner is pretty safe but the bottom line is this, is he a strong speaker? this is going to shock you. the strongest speaker that we've had is nancy pelosi. she kept her party in line. she gave obama the majority of what he wanted, but boehner has a party divided and united we stand, divided we fall. jon: interesting. angela mcglowan, thanks for your assessment of it. >> thank you, jon. jon: talk to you soon. jenna: price are searching for a team of thieves. their brazen robbery caught on tape. we'll have all the tape for you and details ahead. plus this is happening on capitol hill right now. senator kirk returning to the senate for the very first time after suffering a terrible stroke last year. coming up we'll talk to a doctor about what we need to know about strokes, maybe even potentially warning signs and way forward for senator kirk. here is his warm welcome back to the senate today.

jenna: now this fox news

alert. senator mark kirk returning to congress. in fact we do have some live pictures for you from capitol hill. it has been one year since the illinois republican suffered a major stroke suddenly. senator kirk making a remarkable recovery. he had to learn to walk all over again, and the 53-year-old is marking his return to the senate today by walking up the steps to the senate. as you can see there, a rare and true and genuine moment of bipartisanship as lawmakers lined up to see him climb those stairs. joe manchin there of course, a senator as well, who has visited senator kirk many times in illinois. joining us dr. marc siegel, associate professor, nyu langone medical center. as we witness this event, dr. siegel, cab you tell us what that journthink would be like suffering a terrible stroke some didn't even, there was question about whether or not he would survive to this moment being able to walk up the senate

stairs, what is that journey like? >> jenna, he is only 53 years old. 2/3 of strokes occur with people more of 65. this is the right side of the brain, so the wiring goes across and it affects the left side of the body. you believe 70% of the people never return to their jobs after having a stroke. what an inspiration to see him go back to work, go back to the senate, for people all over the country who have had a stroke. it is number one cause of disability in the united states. to see him return to work is really, really inspiring to stroke patients everywhere. jenna: in his journey he had three brain surgeries along the way, dr. siegel. what cause as stroke? >> well --. jenna: dr. siegel, if we could for a moment let's see if we could take this in. [applause]

sorry, dr. siegel, i thought it was worth it all for all of us to stand by while we heard the round of applause for senator kirk as he reached the top there. going back, please, what is the cause of a stroke? >> many differing causes. it can be a blood clot t could be a bleed. in his case, and this is true for most young people that have a stroke, dissection of the neck, one of the main arteries, carotid artery of the neck. he is on blood thinners, coumadin, same secretary of state hillary clinton is on. you mentioned his surgeries, jenna, what they actually did, the same with gabrielle giffords, they removed a part of his skull to allow the brain to swell and expand, that helped him going forward. they were able to put the skull back together. now with the rehabilitation he had, people younger that have strokes do better, they do much better. jenna: is there anything you can do to prevent one? >> well, there's a lot of

things you can do to prevent one. diet, exercise. not having alcohol. not shocking. for americans out there, stop smoking and be active. let the blood pressure under control and diabetes under control if you have it. in his case there really wasn't any way to prevent it but blood thinners going forward will help him from having reoccurrence the right side of the brain controls spatial, emotions judgment. you see the way he responded to this that he really has come a long way. rehabilitation medicine is doing miracles in the united states for patients like senator kirk. jenna: especially witnessing a miracle as well. jon, you had a question. jon: great to see he was escorted up the steps by two democrats, vice president joe biden and also joe manchin who you mentioned earlier, dem kra from west virginia. the senate, world's most exclusive club. despite all the rancor on capitol hill at this moment, both parties seem to get together to welcome this senator book from, well, nearly year-long and nearly

fatal problem. you said 70% of people never even return to work. so the fact he is going back to his job at u.s. senate now less than a year after this happened, doctor, that is remarkable. >> 70% never return to their jobs. we're seeing souch courage here it is inspiring. jon, i've always said health problems should cut across the aisle. it is inspiring what senator kirk has done and i'm very glad to see senators on both sides and the vice president rallying to him because this is what it is all about. this is what americans want to see. jon: he did say he hopes to inspire other stroke victims by his work. dr. marc siegel, good to have you on. thank you. >> great to see you, guys. jon: well a mystery at 30,000 feet to tell you about. investigators trying to determine why a young woman died on an international flight bound for texas. the latest coming up in a live report. hi.

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jenna: right now police in houston are searching for a team of brazen thieves all caught on tape. they backed their pickup truck into a grocery store after-hours, smashed their way inside and knocked over an atm machine bolted to the floor. they loaded it on the truck and sped off. the whole process took about 90 seconds. efficient. jon: wow! right now texas police are investigating a death on board of a flight from brazil. the federal aviation administration says the flight was bound for dallas when a passenger got sick. she was treated on board but before the plane could land she was dead. rick folbaum has more. rick? >> they're doing an autopsy on this woman today, the harris county medical examiner's office in houston was able to tell me that much. other than all we know this was a 25-year-old woman. she began showing signs of being sick on board the

flight from brazil to dallas. a doctor happened to be on the flight and did try to help her as did the flight crew. the plane was diverted to houston. when it landed the woman was officially pronounced dead. this was an american airlines flight from sao paolo to fort worth. the emergency began eight hours into the flight. the pilot decided to land in houston. the woman's name and nationalnalty will not be released until the autopsy is done which i'm told could be sometime later this afternoon. jon: we don't know anything about her. is she american or brazilian. >> not clear. we don't know her nationality. she is a 25-year-old woman and got sick and died on the flight. jon: keep us updated, rake. jenna: fears that american companies could face a flood of environmental lawsuits from. a refinery needs to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines with pollution.

dan springer live in seattle. this story might not be on our radar. what is the significance of this ruling? >> reporter: jenna, it is precedent setting. never before has u.s. reached across the board to punish a polluter under our laws. this exposes u.s. companies possibility of facing canadian justice. this resolves around tech resources a zinc and lead smelter across the u.s. border. the for centuries the company discharged toxic chemicals in columbia river t was legal in canada but carried by the river into the u.s. the indian tribe sued under u.s. superfund law. tech said they were not subject to u.s. law but a federal judge disagreed. environmentalists in canada are now eager to return the favor. >> the whole idea of applying u.s. law border to a canadian company would be precedent setting and it would also lead us to think about doing the same to american companies. >> reporter: and by some

estimates the amount of pollution that goes from the u.s. to canada is about 10 times more than what comes the other way. so you can man a lot of companies would be affected and whether they would locate their companies near the border and also about 150 coal power plants could be in the sights of all the canadian environmentalists who think their water and air has been polluted by our companies polluting near the border. jenna. jenna: very interesting. we'll see if that exchange happens, those legal cases go back and forth. dan, thank you. jon: will john boehner hold onto his job as speaker of the house? we are three minutes away from convening a new congress. they will vote on that in our next hour. we will have the latest for you live from the house floor. also, an arizona woman on trial for the brutal murder of her boyfriend. she has changed her story several times. now her lawyers say it was self-defense. what's the evidence? we have the latest on that trial going on right now.

>> reporter: in the control room a brand new and, actually, an historic hour straight ahead on "happening now." we're about to find out very, very soon if john boehner will serve another term as peeker of thous -- speaker of the house. members getting set to pick their leader. we'll have that vote live from the hill. also while lawmakers in washington are arguing over billions of dollars for this or that, the rest of us are about to get a look at our first paychecks of this new year, far fewer digits attached. what's your paycheck going to look like with all those new taxes having kicked in? and we'll have the latest on that murder trial going on right now, a young woman on trial in the savage murder of her old boyfriend. her own lawyer says that she had to do it. our legal panel weighs in on that strategy. the second hour of "happening now" starts right now.

jenna: and a big i historic hour it is. we're glad you're with us, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: and i'm jon scott. "happening now," a new year and a new congress. the vice president, joe biden, set to swear in senators in the old senate chamber before the senate holds its first session of the 113th congress and gets back to the nation's business or some might say avoiding the nation's business. jenna: big question mark there. jon: yeah. we'll see how that goes. there are 12 newly-elected senators, eight democrats, three republicans, unindependent. -- one independent. democrats increasing to 55 the number of seats they control in that 100-member body. there also will be 20 women in the senate, that is the highest number yet. bret baier is joining us for a look at what we can expect out of the 113th. bret? >> hi, jon. the 113th congress is now in session. at 12 noon, straight up, it is

now the new congress in the house. the house clerk has just, essentially, called the house to order, and the clerk, karen haas, has convened the house. you're looking there at the senate, actually, and they're saying a prayer at the beginning of the 113th congress as you look live at the senate. both sides have these -- and there's a prayer at the 113th start of the house. you know what? let's listen in to this if you don't want -- don't mind. >> significant day when once again we celebrate the peaceful transition of democratic government. though many return from the 112th congress, this people's house is a new legislative assembly. may the service of all the members here gathered give you

glory and acquit well the charge entrusted to them by their fellow citizens. give each member an abundance of wisdom, knowledge and understanding that today might know best how to proceed in the work they have to do as well as the courage to act once they have discerned where your spirit might lead them. and may all that is done in the day and all the days of the 113th congress be for your greater honor and glory. amen. >> amen. >> the representatives-elect and their guests will, please, remain standing and join in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and and to the republic for which it stands; one nation,

under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [inaudible conversations] >> as directed by law, the clerk of the house has prepared the official roll of the representatives of elect. certificates of election covering 435 seats in the 113th congress have been received by the clerk of the house, and the names of those persons whose credentials show they were regularly elected as representatives in accord with the laws of their respective states or the united states will be called. the representatives-elect will record their presence by electronic device, and their names will be reported in alphabetical order by state beginning with the state of alabama to determine whether a quorum is present. representatives-elect will have a minimum of 15 minutes to record their presence by

electronic device. representatives-elect who have not obtained their voting id cards may do so in the speaker's lobty by. >> so that is the house clerk, karen haas, and this is the process of registering all of the new members. there are 433 members in the house, there are two vacancies. former representative jesse jackson jr. from illinois, democrat, and the senate-designate, tim scott, republican from south carolina, leaving the house, of course, and that's now an open seat, congressional seat becoming south carolina's newest senator. so the breakdown in the house is 233 republicans to 200 democrats. now you're looking at the senate side and the swearing-in happens in, basically, different groups. let's listen in there. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] jon: almost hard to believe, bret, the way that this bipartisan group being sworn in to a new term gets a round of applause from everybody in the chamber after all of the rancor and the name calling we've heard over the last couple of weeks. >> that's right. and, you know, this is, you know, it's a ceremonial time, but it's also a time when both sides acknowledge this is a big moment for especially new members, to take the oath of office, to pledge that they are going to do the country's duty to the constituents that they -- that elected them, who elected them. so, and for people who have been up here, for senators and congressmen who have been up here for a long time, they

acknowledge that that's a big moment for them. so i think that's part of the feeling that you get from all of the applause as you look at them, the senators, signing in. >> the clerk -- >> there on the senate side. >> -- will call the names of the next group. jon: a couple of interesting notes, you know, this is a senate that begins without the presence of the longtime senator daniel inn way of hawaii who just passed away, but also a senate that sees the return, and we had it live just less than an hour ago, the return of mark kirk, the senator from illinois, who had pledged that he would walk himself up the 45 steps from the parking lot into the front door of the capitol, and that's what he did less than a year after suffering a debilitating or a formerly-debilitating stroke. >> you talk about something that's inspirational, that moment for senator mark kirk, to be able to walk up all those stairs after everything that he's been through, is pretty

amazing to watch, and he's talking to, you know, some local affiliate groups, affiliate television stations in chicago. we hope to get some of that on the air later on this afternoon. he's talked to the daily herald there and talked about his experience and recovery and how it was really a major effort for imto think about -- for him to think about wanting to get back to congress. and the one thing he wanted to do was to be able to without a railing walk up those stairs of the u.s. capitol. and he did it today. jenna: bret, we're taking in the senate here, but i'd like to ask you a quick question as well about the house, and maybe you can go through some of the process as well, the new members and their welcoming to the house. 12:40's going to be a big time for speaker boehner.

tell us a little bit about what you're hearing from the hill, about whether or not he will maintain his speakership. he says he has no consternation to our senior producer there on the hill, chad, about whether or not he will maintain that position. but talk us through the bigger picture as well of leadership for the republican party in the house. >> what will happen is once you get through this quorum call which is, essentially, one by one all of the states and all of the members will acknowledge that they're there, that they're in the house chamber. then you will have the nomination of speaker. the republicans will put forward speaker boehner for renomination to be speaker of the 113th congress. the democrats will put forward nancy pelosi. the republicans, there is no other person running for speaker. no one is so opposing him publicly. but there is word that some 20-25 republicans have some problems with speaker boehner

and may, actually, either vote against him or vote present. now, here's the trick. when they start taking this vote, if speaker boehner loses 17 of those republican votes, they vote for someone else -- not that they vote present, but they vote for someone else and he count, and he doesn't get an absolute majority, then it goes to a second ballot. now, that hasn't happened in a long time, since 1923. and the rules of the house say that they have to keep on voting until there's an absolute majority. and that's where it potentially gets dicey if it got to that point. i don't think, and most people up on the hill don't think, that it gets to the second ballot because there's not a public opposition. but there is angst, and there may be some people and some lawmakers who vote against speaker boehner just by what happened over the past, well, few weeks.

jenna: sure. as we've been following closely, we've been following some of the drama, if you will, as the world turns in the house of representatives, bret, i know you've been following that a lot on "special report." i wanted to ask you about some other color we got earlier today. apparently, the voting cards that are handed out to members of congress as they sign in for their next term are bordered in red ink, and apparently some are feeling a little eye iranic about that -- ironic about that. one congressman says it is in red ink which is very appropriate for the world's biggest credit card. do you think that was just a coincidence, bret? [laughter] >> oh, i don't know. you know, they're just changing it up from congress to congress. you know, lawmakers read into a lot of different things and try to make a point. clearly, these republicans stepping into this 113th congress are very concerned about deficit and debt. they feel like they were elected

to cut spending and are really going to from every indication have a battle over the next six weeks or so about this debt ceiling and really cutting spending and dealing with entitlement reform on the big picture. and that's where the concern about speaker boehner and how this fiscal cliff deal came together. and that's why we've heard speaker boehner publicly say today there will be no more one-on-one negotiations with president obama, saying that he wants to go back to regular dealing and regular house transparency where people, the will of the house, he likes to say, is moved forward. in other words, basically they move forward a bill through a regular process. that hasn't happened in a long time. jenna: you might need a "special report on -- that, business as

usual. >> right. jenna: might be a good topic of conversation. jon: you mentioned -- >> we remember hearings, we remember votes. jenna: that's right. [laughter] back in the good old days. jon: you mentioned, bret, it's pretty unusual to have the house go to a second vote for speaker. our producer, chad, who jenna mentioned earlier, pointed out that in 1856 it took 153 ballots to elect a speaker of the house, it consumed two months of the house's business. that might be a good thing these days. maybe we should just let them vote on a speaker for two months, and then they couldn't do too much damage to anything else they might consider. >> i love that chad has every specific, historical detail back to 1856. jon: yes, he does. [laughter] >> you know, it would be quite something to see those, that many votes go against speaker boehner. i think you will have some

protest votes, but i think that all of that stirring that he's s probably just a lot of buzz. we will see in the next half hour if that's the case, but everything we're hearing on capitol hill is that it's not, and you just had the majority whip, mccarthy from california, say you never know, there's always excitement on the floor who will vote against speaker boehner, but there's still confidence, and you heard he didn't have any consternation about this vote, speaker boehner himself. jon: let's take a look over at the senate side now. there is high drama on the house side, but potential drama on the senate side too, i hear, bret, the possibility that majority leader reid might make a move to try to get a 51-vote majority to authorize legislation to sort of do away with the filibuster at least temporarily? >> well, the idea about the nuclear option, about changing

the rules of the senate has been floating around there. what we're hearing now is that reid is working with mcconnell to make slight changes and that they're working together, that it is a -- at least now -- a bipartisan effort to try to fast track some efforts in the senate and not make sweeping changes that we heard of originally. if the senate truly started and it has no rules, 51 is all that's necessary, but 60 is the filibuster threshold. that's the vote that you have to get to currently is 60 votes. 51 is, of course, the simple majority. and that's to get a bill to the floor, they're trying to change how to move the process forward along faster. right now there are talks between mcconnell and reid

apparently to change some how to move the bills faster, not to change voting on the actual bills. jenna: bret, want to ask you as well about some of the new people we're going to see in the senate as we stay there for a second. you have senator, who will be senator tim scott. he's going to be the sole african-american in the chamber from south carolina. you have ted cruz, a senator from texas, new face there, tea party-backed as well. senator elizabeth warren on the opposite side of the spectrum, if you will, a progressive hero. she's been described as that. and then senate-elect tim kaine who will also be officially a senator today from virginia. these new people that are coming in, few as they are, will they change the dynamic in the senate? how will the dynamic of this senate potentially be different than the previous year? >> well, there'll be fewer republicans, and there will be a different balance. there will be, there will be more power for senator reid just

by sheer numbers, and there will be an effort, i think, and just by the outlook as you mentioned some of those republicans changed the look of the republican caucus and, obviously, senator tim scott's appointment by nikki haley down in south carolina was historic. he's the seventh african-american republican -- the first republican african-american since 1979 and the seventh in the senate. and it's, it changes the face of the republican caucus in the senate. but the votes are going to be a lot tighter. i mean, there's more of a democratic push to it, and it gives senator reid a little bit more power to roll things through. jenna: so the word or term fiscal cliff is probably still around, gridlock is probably still a e key term for the year

ahead, bret, and i'm sure you're going to be talking about this on "special report." i know you were going to stop by for about three minutes, but you ended up doing 18 with us. [laughter] >> happy to do it. jenna: we'll see you at 6 p.m. eastern time tonight. jon: we are talking about the vote in the house as well, you might have seen that banner graphic just a moment ago that the house has a smaller republican majority now and potentially that could bode some trouble for speaker boehner as he tries to maintain his speakership. we're going to have that vote or the results of it as soon as it takes place. so trust us, we're keeping an eye on that. one of the things that has put him in trouble with some in the his membership, in his caucus is the vote on the fiscal cliff and the effects of that deal are now hitting every single wage-earning american. the agreement did not prevent the payroll tax holiday from expiring meaning social security taxes go up. and soon you are going to notice a sizable chunk of change

missing from your paycheck. william la jeunesse live with more on that from los angeles. william? >> reporter: well, jon, everyone is going to get whacked, most of us in tomorrow's paycheck, and you're going to feel the pain in the line that says fica deductions. but one group is going to be more unhappy than others, the .7% club. that is how many people will pay 40% of all federal income taxes. so it's no longer the 1%, but the .7% of individuals making over 400k and couples over 450,000. the tax foundation's been crunching the numbers. out of 143 million tax returns, just 1.1 million or .7% will pay 40% of all income taxes. >> we cannot sustain b a situation where the top 1% pays 0% of the tax burden -- pays 40% of the tax burden while the bottom half roughly, on average, pay no income taxes. >> reporter: now, for everyone

else let's talk payroll taxes. after a two-year reprieve to stimulate the economy, fica taxes are going back to where they were before. so for a single person earning $38,000 a year, the irs is telling employers to withhold about $5,400 a year, it is a up $570 or $11 a week. if you earn 90 grand, you're going to pay about 20,000 in withholding, that east $2,400 more than last year. if you make 185 grand, the government will withhold about 50,000, that's up 6k, and if you're over $400,000, your payroll taxes will increase $14,000 a year. >> pretty large majority of people will see that drop in their net pay in the first paycheck, and the others maybe in their second or third during the month of january. >> reporter: so remember, your fica taxes pay for social security and medicare. this is money you're going to get back and more.

over a lifetime, jon, the average worker will pay about $345,000 in fica taxes, and according to the urban institute they'll get back $417,000. so when you look at fica, think of it as a payment into your retirement fund. jon? jon: and then there are those who believe they'll never see that money at the end of their retirement, but that's another story. william la jeunesse in los angeles, thanks. jenna: decisions about the payroll tax cut, for example, or lack thereof are made, well, in washington, d.c., and that's where we're headed back live where you see the senate and the house both going through the process that takes place as we sign in, if you will, a new session, 113th session of congress in 2013. as larry sabato said from the university of virginia on twitter just a few moments ago, lucky for all of us he's not superstatistic. but you've got some lucky numbers in the year ahead andwhn big issues to tackle. we'll take you back down to's washington, d.c. as we watch for

the vote for speaker of the house in just a few minutes and be right back with more "happening now" n. blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

jon: right now they are swearing in the new members of the u.s. senate. that's the box on the left of your screen, the newly-elected senators or reelected senators joining the world's most exclusive club. they are signing in there with the clerk of the senate. that's what's going on on the left of your screen. on the right of your screen, the house is in session, the house of representatives. a very crowded floor, there are a number of guests, even small children who have been invited to see their moms or dads or aunts or uncles being sworn in as members of congress. all of this taking place, the high drama in the house yet to come. speaker john boehner running for re-election to hold his speakership. will he retain it?

there has been some question about that. we'll certainly have that vote for you with live when it takes place. jenna: well, "happening now" as our troops begin another year of war in afghanistan, here at home plans are already being made for what happens next. the pentagon considering proposals that include keeping upwards of 20,000 troops in afghanistan after their withdrawal date of the end of 2014. now, while this war isn't in the history books, bears a reminder, of course, comparisons to the past really have been surfacing daily. some point to the soviet withdrawal from afghanistan as both a model and a warning for us. "the new york times" pointing out what's most remembered about that time is that military humiliation of the soviets and the eventual rise of the taliban. some suggest history is repeating itself. major general bob scales, a ph.d. in history, conveniently, joins us now. [laughter] so, general scales, is that fair? is that a fair question? is history repeating itself? >> well, as a historian, jenna,

i'm very skeptical of historical analogies, and i wouldn't really compare the two. the conditions are entirel different. not that the outcome won't be the same. our presence in afghanistan has left a much larger footprint than the soviets. the soviets were brutal to the afghan people, and they were uniformly hated by the afghans. and to use the old phrase when they left in 1989, they literally cut and ran. they left behind a very, very small residual force. hopefully, in the next few months the united states will come up with a decision that leaves behind a far more robust and capable residual force that could keep training and preparing and back staffing -- backstopping the afghan army once we begin this process. jenna: general scales, if i could, "the new york times" had it in their piece on this, made an interesting point. they said when the soviets decided to leave in 1989, there was actually a period where there wasn't chaos in the country, that the taliban hadn't risen to power.

>> right. jenna: and that's because they hadn't left completely. so one of the point o -- points was that should be a model for us. what do you think about that 20,000 troop number? does that seem like something we would need to do, and for how long? >> well, it's a slipping scale, jenna. it depends on where the president draws the line. at the lower end, about 6,000 will give you a special forces presence along with the ability to use drones in counterterrorist strikes. you add about 10,000, then you get the ability to assist and train and continue to grow the afghan army, add another 10,000 and the u.s. will be able to provide some of the technical services that the afghans like, things like lotics, intelligence -- logistics intelligence, transportation and so forth. so the more ro best the u.s. presence in afghanistan in 2014, the less the military risk. jenna: and what's the benefit of that? when we're looking at this ask

year and the threats that are being posed to the united states from all over the world, where does this stack up in the priority? and how do we strategize appropriately? >> well, in terms of of boots on the ground, jenna, it's number one. remember, this is where the war on terror started. the taliban is still an active force, they still have enclaves in waziristan and pakistan. right next door is iran who doesn't seek to do us any favors. so if there's any one place where the united states can get the maximum effect from the minimum footprint in today's environment, it's afghanistan. jenna: it's interesting to read articles like this. it's great talking to you, general, because you have the experience as a combat leader, but you also have the experience to of talking to historical scholars, and those are the voices that are loudest here now when the voice of our combat p troops is not quite as loud. can you just talk to us about that for a moment? because this is a full year of fighting ahead, and no one's really talking about it. >> yeah. you make a great point. remember, the enemy and the weather have a vote. the campaign season starts in

march and lasts until october, so these decisions have to be made now. i know what the commander in afghanistan wants to do is to have an active role in a couple of months to try to beat back the taliban to give the afghan army a chance to mature and grow. don't know if that's going to happen or not. so, yeah, you're exactly right. history plays a role in this. remember, you can go back 2300 years to alexander, the british had a shot at afghanistan, the soviets didn't do so well, and here we are in 2013 trying to figure it out for the future, jenna. jenna: history plays a role, but it doesn't take a bullet with, right? >> exactly. jenna: we've got to remember that. general scales, look toward -- look forward to having you back. jon: moments ago the 113th congress convened in washington. will republican john boehner remain speaker of the house? a critical vote ahead on the house floor any minute now. we'll have it for you. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here

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oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app. jon: we are waiting for a vote on the floor of the house of representatives, that's karen haas, the clerk of the house. moments ago the 113th congress officially convened. they are putting onto the floor now, putting into nomination the names of candidates for speaker of the house. former speaker, the minority leader nancy pelosi, her name has been introduced to a broad

round of applause from both sides of the aisle, apparently. speaker john boehner, current speaker john boehner, his name also to be introduced, that may be happening about now. democrats, obviously, in the minority with 200 seats, 233 republicans two, vacancies in this house of representatives. john boehner is not expected to lose his speakership, and he said he felt very good about it when he spoke to one of our producers earlier this morning. but anything could happen. these are surprising times in the washington. fox business network's peter barnes is outside the capitol building keeping an eye on all of this for us. pete? >> reporter: well, hey, jon, that's right. the two nominees, the names have been put into nomination here, john boehner of ohio running against nancy pelosi of california. and you just ran through the numbers here, 333 new -- 433 new members of which 233 are republicans, 200 the democrats,

two vacancies. this should be a slam dunk for john boehner. he has no challenger among the republicans. there has not been a second vote for the speakership since 1923. but there have been some comments from some conservative house republicans, some tea party members about boehner's handling of the fiscal cliff negotiations with the president, about his handling of in this vote on the hurricane sandy relief bill. a few republicans actually coming out and saying they might not vote for john boehner as speaker. not vote for nancy pelosi, but they might abstain. and we've heard some conservative tea party groups actually calling for john boehner to step down. so with 233 republicans, boehner can afford to lose just 17 of them on this vote, and, you know, we can tell you that there are a lot more than 17 who opposed his plan b proposal two weeks ago that would have raised taxes on millionaires. he had to pull that after 40 or 50 anti-tax conservatives

opposed that. on his way into the chamber, you're right, he was asked by our colleague chad if he had any consterration about the vote for the speakership today. he said, no. but his deputy, kevin mccarthy, the republican whip said on the way in, quote: you can always count on surprises on the floor. it's always exciting. and it is. jon? [laughter] jon: as you were speaking, we saw some video of kevin mccarthy. let's listen in for just a moment. the voting for speaker has begun. let's take a listen. >> boehner. barr. >> john boehner. >> boehner. bare -- barrow. >> [inaudible] >> lewis of georgia. [inaudible conversations] >> barton? >> boehner. >> boehner.

bass? >> nancy pelosi. >> pelosi. beatty? >> nancy pelosi. >> pelosi. becerra? >> nancy pelosi. >> pelosi. men check? >> john boehner. >> boehner. winter sole owe? >> john boehner. >> boehner. berra? >> [inaudible] >> pelosi. >> bilirakis? >> john boehner. >> boehner. >> bishop of georgia? >> pelosi. >> employees is si. >> bishop of new york? >> nancy pelosi. >> pelosi. >> bishop of utah? >> boehner. >> boehner. black? >> john boehner. >> boehner.

jon: as we understand it, they are going to be calling the names of perhaps 429 house members. that's the number that responded to the quorum call. there should be, at least by the counts of republicans and democrats in the room, there should be 433 present, but 40 -- what's the number? 419? is that what i said earlier? jenna: i believe that's what you said. i do listen. 429. [laughter] jon: 429. okay, so four of them, i don't know, for whatever reason they're just not present or at least not acknowledging -- jenna: it's a pretty interesting process. these are people you're going to work with for a couple of years, and you have to stand and be present and say who you're going to vote for or say you're not going to vote for. that could be someone tough to face in the hallway when you've got to meet them in the eye and say you didn't get my vote. jon: right. there was some talk among some republican members who were dissatisfied with the leadership of speaker boehner, they wanted to have a secret ballot for the

speaker of the house because the feeling is if you vote against the sitting speaker and you wind up losing, then you could get some revenge taken out on you in terms of your committee assignments and other things like that. jenna: transparency is a keyword in government. and this is about as transparent as you can get, maybe. let's ask stephen hayes about that, he's a fox news contributor with "the weekly standard." the results are even more important. why does whoever is speaker, why does it matter for the next session of congress? >> well, it certainly matters, because that person will do as much as anybody to set the legislative agenda, to guide the house in the direction that either party wants it to go. so i think some of the people who have been dissatisfied with john boehner as it comes time to actually cast their votes have to be thinking long and hard about what it would mean to not have john boehner in that slot given the fact that there's not another obvious republican replacement. it's not as if this is a contest just among republicans. jenna: what do you think that

says about the republican party, that there's no, you know, aggressive potential replacement? does that mean anything about leadership of the party and the tone going forward? >> i think it means there are a lot of republicans who understand john boehner doesn't have an easy job. people who might be sympathetic to what the tea party folks in the house of representatives are doing and certainly believe in a lot of the ideals that the tea party members brought to the house of representatives in 2010 nonetheless understand that john boehner's got to try to manage a large group of republicans with people of disparate views, some sort of center-right, moderate, even liberal republicans although their diminishing in number, and an increasing number of very conservative republicans. jon: yeah. it is said that this house more than any other in recent memory is going to be, you know, sort of far left on the one side and farther right on -- or far right on the other side. there aren't a lot of those,

say, conservative democrats left. they were voted out of office. >> right. jon: there aren't a lot of liberal republicans left. >> yeah. i think that's exactly right. and i would expect to see particular particularly on the republican side the people who were elected in 2010 as part of the big tea party surge to continue to vote the way that they believe that their constituents wanted them to vote when they were sent to washington. i mean, some of the reasons -- people forget this. you go back, and everybody's fond of saying elections have consequences in the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, but, of course, elections have consequences going back to 2010 as well. and these are people who were voted, sent to washington in order to, in effect, to blow things up, to do things differently. so it's not necessarily surprising that you got these conservatives in the house of representatives who are saying, you know what? i told my constituents that i would read every bill that's presented to the house of representatives. we take three days to do this. and when that doesn't happen, you can bet i'm going to raise a stink. i think that's a healthy impulse. if you look at what business as

usual has gotten us here in washington over the past couple decades, i think it's a good thing that the congress would do well to have more people whether they be conservative or liberal who want to sort of break up this established order of things. jon: yeah. jenna: some great insights from steven hayes. we'll hear from you throughout the day, i'm sure, stephen, on this. as steven pointed out, 2010 was really defined by the tea party. what will define this next congress? what will we see as we take a look, if we can as well, on the house as the votes continue. we expect the results in the next hour or so. just an interesting point of trivia for you, eric cantor, congressman eric cantor, sometimes questioned about his loyalty to speaker boehner just cast his vote, and he voted for john boehner to maintain his speakership. we'll be right back with more "happening now." against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips'.

jenna: a little bit about what's happening in the economy. we had new weekly jobs numbers

from the labor d., and the number of americans filing for first-time unemployment rising to 372,000 in the last week of 2012. one number we try to look at is 375, 350,000, below those numbers is what you'd like to see to see some longer-term job growth. it's something that we're kind of bouncing in between, so we're going to continue to watch this number. adp, a company that prints paychecks, released their monthly report suggesting it actually went up in december, so that's a good sign. again, one report or from one private company showing 215,000 private jobs added. we'll ask about whether or not that's a seasonal hiring as we take a look at the labor department's big jobs report that we get tomorrow morning. in the meantime, we have our spotlight of small businesses when we talk to entrepreneurs and wiz owners -- business owners who are managing to survive and thrive in a tough economy. joining us now, founder and ceo

of the zoom room, the only indoor dog-training franchise in the united states. i don't mean to mess that up, jamie, but we have to get to the central question about your training franchise which is that you teach dogs to find lost cell phones and bring their owner a beer. and every we have to figure out -- [laughter] how you do that and how that becomes part of your business. tell us about that. >> well, basically, we run a training program, we're the only brick and mortar dog-training franchise in the united states, and we have a variety of different classes, and one of our classes is a retrieving class where we teach dogs to go pick up things like cell phones and beers, and we also do a scent training class where we teach dogs to identify objects by their scent so that you can teach your dog to, basically, pick up your cell phone, your keys, anything that you might want in the house, we teach them to find it with their scent. jenna: you say really your job is about or your business is about training people. [laughter] as much as training dogs. is that right? >> yes. absolutely. we try and emphasize the social

bond between dogs and their owners. so we really want to make sure that the owner who lives with the dog has the skills that they need to have a great life with their dog. so we definitely focus on the owner training their own dog. jenna: now, you started in 2007, so we're on the verge of this huge fiscal crisis at that time. and throughout the recession your company has grown. how much has it grown, and why? how did you find success during such of a difficult time? >> well, i think one of the things is that people are really, um, spending close to home, and dogs have become such an integral part of the family that they are, you know, people are using services that, um, have a lot of benefit to their dog, that they enjoy. and we've seen a lot of growth because people just want to have a good time and play with their dogs and go out and train elle. we've experienced amazing growth. 43 units in development right now. jenna: 43 units. that's amazing. so the zoom room, for people who want to check it out and see if

there is a franchise or maybe potentially want to open it, jon needs some tips. he says with all of the dogs he's owned, he's never really been an effective trainer, jamie. jon: that's right. [laughter] the dogs are smarter than i am, that's the problem. jenna: so jon scott's application might be rejected for franchise ownership, but maybe you have some tips for him. [laughter] >> well, absolutely not. we train all kinds of people to become dog trainers, and our belief is that anyone can learn how to train their dog. jenna: even television news anchors, jon, so all hope is not lost. jamie, encourage our viewers to check it out. zoomroomonline.com. thank you for the time today. >> thank you. jon: great thing about america, people can do what they want, and that's a great idea. we are awaiting those final results on the o vote to be speaker of the house. there have been a couple of surprising names tossed out there on the house floor. some that elicited gasps from those in the house building

there. we'll tell you about those coming up, final results.

>> the voter on the speaker of the house and most votes to john boehner or nancy pelosi. there are a few surprises tossed out there and let's listen in. >> pelosi. boyer. (inaudibl (inaudible). >> pelosi, boehner. wolfcamp. >> you got to hear steny hoyer of maryland, the congressman part of nancy pelosi leadership team cast a vote for nancy pelosi there, but

there have been a couple of other interesting votes, including one for eric cantor, the house majority leader. he apparently shook his head when that vote came in from republican freshman from oklahoma and there was also a vote cast for allen west no longer in the house of representative. the freshman florida congressman was barely defeated. back to steven hays, a fox news contributor and a weekly standard writer. what are you watching as this vote goes on? >> well, i think we're most likely watching several members of the house republican caucus voicing their displeasure with john boehner as speaker of the house. some of these folks have had personal issues with john boehner and it they had been taken off of committees they had been serving on by boehner and caused a minor kerfuffle and some of them are objecting to that and some don't like the way he's leading the

caucus and six members voted for somebody other than john boehner and a couple of republican members who have not been asked. but on west, i think he's now up to two votes and eric cantor got a vote. colin powell got a vote, a democrat, rather than voting for nancy pelosi. >> steven hayes from the weekly standard. good to have you. >> you bet, jon. >> be right back. weekly standard, good to have you. thank you. we'll be right back. ( bell rings ) they remind me so much of my grandkids.

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