way. join elisabeth hasslebeck and me. we start 10:00 p.m. -- 11:00 p.m. eastern time. i'm looking for mccallum appearance despite the weather. martha: call you on the cell phone. good-bye everybody. see you tomorrow. jenna: "happening now," a new poll shows president obama with the lowest approval rating of his presidency. hi, everybody, i hope you have a great day so far. i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. last year at this time the president's job approval rating stood at 54%. it has dropped 11 points to 43%. the disapproval number, rising to 55%. also when it comes to who do you trust more, while congress remains hoaxer it is starting to close a gap with the president that began last year. you can see the numbers there. joining us now to analyze,

ellison barber, a writer for the washington free beacon. are you surprised as some of approval ratings the president is seeing? >> i'm not surprised because we've seen problem after problem with the affordable care act so it is sort of expected. if you look at in the context of the disapproval rating 55% are disapproving of his job rating. job approval under burke the ii it was 53%. under clinton, 36% of the job disapproval he was doing. i do think that is significant. jon: he railed, when he, when he came in about, you know, the republican administration ahead of him and so forth, the iraq war was unpopular, the afghan war was unpopular. somehow president obama found a way to get lower numbers than bush 43 or president clinton. >> bush 43, that year, 2005, would have been the fifth year.

obviously with a controversy about the memos if there were weapons of mass destruction, and still 2% more unapproved bit public than bush was. it is significant. he really had a lot of things going in his favor to have higher approval rating. i think it's a testament the kind of strain the affordable care act has been on him. with the recent poll with millenials. 56 disapprove the affordable care act. 57% when it is called obamacare. he has a lot of problems when it is tied to the signature legislation with his name on it. jon: it seems to be about obamacare because when asked if you support or opposed federal law making changes to the health care system, these are the numbers. 46% support. 49% oppose. and then when asked, do you think the federal government website for health insurance is working as it should or not? 23% say it is working. 64% say it's not working. and finally, this is a big one, do you think these problems are serious enough that the government should delay the

requirement that all individuals have health insurance or should this requirement proceed on schedule? 60% say delay the individual mandate, health insurance mandate. >> that's significant because up until now the administration was adamant they won't be delaying it. it will be interesting to see the gap between 23rd of december and 1st of january, how many people who lost their insurance were able to successfully reenroll in the exchanges to get their coverage back. if not i think you will see a strong urge to delay. jon: they had their insurance canceled under requirements of obamacare. if they had their insurance canceled and can't sign up on the website or whatever, they wind up without health insurance, where do they go? do they sue the federal bought? what do they do? >> their only tangible option is hope there will be a delay. they are counting on republicans say where our constituents are calling on us to delay aspects

of the law and make changes for them because they see it is hurting their constituents. jon: the president and white house is scrambling basically begging health care companies, health insurance companies to go ahead and cover these people even if theyget si? you know they're say, pay the money now and we'll figure it out later. >> yeah 69 it is very messy situation. i think this again goes back to why those approval ratings are so low. no matter how they spin it, people recognize it is more than one problem and consistent problem particularly throughout the last year. it is 11% drop from last time to now with the public's approval. this actually puts the republicans in a good position legislatively, particularly if the spending deals passes which it looks like it will, their next focus will be on the budget deal. they're in much better position to work on negotiations to get spending cuts and leverage their position because the president has low approval rating in early 2014. jon: let's look at the coming elections. typically the party that holds

the white house loses seats in congress during a midterm election. when the president's approval rating is below 50%, the number gets even bigger. the number of seats lost. so you have a president now with a 41% approval rating. can he bring that back up in time for the 2014 elections. is this cake already baked? >> it is possible. i would suggest to you the problems with the affordable care act now and problems you see coming particular i with the issue of people not being able to keep their doctors, people won't really realize that until that coverage starts and really enrolling towards the end of the exchange enrollment period in march. once you see more people realizing oh, we can't keep our doctors, if the harvard poll is any indication you will not have a lot of millenials signing up for exchanges that will be another problem for the affordable care act where they have younger invincibles paying for the sick people. you will see skyrocketing premium. jon: you think we're seeing the

tip of the iceberg in terms of the problems and that will really be impacting people's opinions of the president and his signature act real think throughout the coming year? >> absolutely. i think the heart of why his approval ratings have had this drop because of affordable care act and continuing problems, what will plague them throughout 2014. jon: you can read ellison at the washington free beacon. thanks for coming in. >> you bet. jon: jenna. jenna: new information on the nsa spying program. a federal court finds that the program is likely inconstitutional. peter doocey is in washington now. what is the main reason the judge ruled against the nsa? >> reporter: jenna, he said that the government didn't really do anything to prove they ever stop ad terror plot and save american lives like they said in the past through mass collection of american's phone records. richard leon was appointed by president george w. bush. he writes, given the limited record at this point in the

litigation, most notably the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching nsa database was faster than other investigative tactics i have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata program in means of conducting time sensitive investigations into cases involving imminent threats of terrorism. the plaintiff, larry claman, says he next he wants to bring a class-action suit on behalf of all americans. >> what we have here is the biggest violation of constitutional rights in american history. it was richard nixon who broke into watergate office complex, one building, who had to resign from office. we have a president, president obama, and his enablers on capitol hill, democrat and republican, who have broken into nearly 300 million homes. this is the worst violation of law that we've ever seen. >> reporter: judge leon stayed his ruling, basically put it on

hold. now the government does have time for an appeal, jenna. jenna: and, peter what has the reaction been from the justice department? >> reporter: jenna, they say this is one ruling from one judge but that in fisa court, 35 rulings from 15 judges have said these data collection programs are okay. the justice department officially says we've seen the opinion and are studying it. we believe the program is constitutional as previous judges have found. we have no further comment at this time. the nsa leaker, edward snowden, is out with comments. he says, those secret court, those secret fisa court rulings don't matter so much anymore because after one look in an open court, the nsa lost. jenna? >> interesting story. we'll continue to follow it, peter. thank you. jon: some breaking details now on the man charged in a deadly auto rampage on the venice beach boardwalk. that killed a newlywed and injured 16 other people. nathan campbell back in court later today as a judge decides whether he will stand trial for

murder. our william la jeunesse is covering this. he is live in los angeles. what are we expecting today, william? >> reporter: well, jon, campbell pled not guilty though police say he already confessed to the crime and witnesses say that the 38-year-old homeless man intentionally manueverred around barriers and targeted vendors and tourists strolling on the venice boardwalk in august at the height of tourist season. >> i saw him. he was looking for blood. >> then he started going straight down the boardwalk at 60 miles an hour. >> who are risk. there were people ply flying everywhere. it looked like something out after movie. >> reporter: this is the scene caught on restaurant security cameras hours later. santa monica police campbell walked into the station and said, quote, i'm the one you're looking for and i hit all those people. today a judge decides whether campbell will stand counts on one count of murder, 16 counts of assault, 17 counts of

hit-and-run. he faces life in prison if convicted. jon: you hold us he is homeless. what else do we know about campbell? >> reporter: he is a transsy from colorado with a history of petty crime. no indication of alcohol or drugs being involved. no history of mental illness at time of the accident. campbell had no job, no address, no drivers' license. he was evicted from a apartment in denver and he was living out of his car in southern california, where he allegedly went into the crowd killing a a 32-year-old newlywed. witnesses are coming from around the world to testify. we don't know why campbell's attorney says this was all an accident. back to you. jon: william la jeunesse reporting from los angeles. covering this story. so many questions about this. that video, horrific to watch. we have much more on the developing story with our legal panel just ahead. jenna: we're following several other big stories this hour. a manhunt continues for the cold-blooded carjackers who shot a young man dead right in front of his wife.

why that victim is now being called a hero today. plus, what british police are now saying about claims that princess diana was murdered. julie banderas is here with the fox 411. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job and i don't have time for unreliable companies. angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today.

jenna: two suspects in a deadly carjacking remain on the loose today. the victim, dustin friedland was fatally shot outside of a upscale new jersey mall thursday night. new report was that he refused to give them the keys to protect his wife who was inside. she was not hurt. a new jersey who spent two decades in jail for a murdered that he said he did not convict. gerard richardson was convicted of a murdering a 19-year-old woman largely on a bite mark but he was cleared by dna evidence. former mafia crime boss,

james whitty bolger ordered to pay six million dollars of family of one of his victims. the victim was shot outside of his country club therefore 1991. it is unclear if wheeler's family will ever see the money. bulger is in prison for killing wheeler and 10 others. jon: there is now a new claim that princess diana was murdered. they looked into accusation that british special force was involved in the deaths of princess. the diana along with her boyfriend, dodi alfy idea, with their driver died in a car crash in paris in 1997. julie banderas with a look at that. >> people are not willing to let that go. conspiracy theorist ha one less teary to stand on in the death of princess diana. many who believe she was actually murdered have been proved wrong by scotland yard. since the tragic 1997 car crash in paris that killed the princess of wales her friend dodi fayed and their driver,

including his father, claim diana and his son were victims of a murder plot directed by prince phillip and carried out by british secret agents. british plussage began investigating another theory three months ago after someone called soldier n, members or former members of the army special forces were involved in the crash. but after reviewing findings the assistant commissioner of london metropolitan police department concluded following in a statement and i am reading as quote. i am satisfied there is no evidential basis upon which therefore to reopen any criminal homicide investigation or refer the matter back to the core rower. in 2008 a british jury ruled the crash was caused by their chauffeur henry paul's reckless speed and drinking and reckless pursuit of paparazzi chasing them. they were charged with manslaughter in france and charges were thrown out in 2002. in 2006, three of the photographers were convicted of invasion of privacy for taking

pictures of the couple. a lawyer for dodi al-fayed's father, tells the associated press that he is disappointed by the police's decision not to reopen the criminal investigation, jon. jon: he seems relentless wanting somebody charged in that case. >> he wants justice and believes it is not just solely the driver's fault. jon: julie banderas, thank you. >> sure. jenna: another big case that made a lot of headlines. amanda knox is in the news. coming up the elf mail she sent the italian court trying her for murder yet again. plus new research on adhd. doctors are releasing new findings how long symptoms can last amid growing controversy what is driving the rising numbers of diagnosis for the condition. we'll take a closer look.

jenna: "happening now," a

stunning medical announcement from researchers that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or adhd as you might know it, may be a lifelong condition. according to the centers for disease control, 11% of children in the united states are diagnosed with adhd. almost 30% of them will continue to show symptoms beyond childhood. and another 30% will continue to have symptoms or some sort of impairment. all this comes amid new controversy how many people are being diagnosed with the condition and why and the medications they're given for their kid and maybe for the rest of their lives. dr. charles williams is a trained adolescent psycho therapist. great to have you back on the program, chuck. >> jenna, thanks for having me back again. jenna: let me start with the basics of adhd. what is the science behind isn't when you see a child with maybe some challenges how do you diagnose him or her with this condition? >> we, you know, first of all, let me say that is an excellent

question because although i happen to believe that we overdiagnose childhood psychiatric disorders, adhd being the leading overdiagnosed disorder among them, there is a science behind it. for example, when we do brain scans for those who have been diagnosed appropiately with adhd, and in the frontal lobe, which is the largest area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for things like language, decision-making as it relates to this conversation, attention, we see different neurochemical activity. so we can prove scientifically the adhd brain so to speak is the different from the non-adhd brain. that is one of the ways you can diagnose it. the other way we diagnose it is reports from caregivers and teachers. when they're young kids themselves. jenna: it is interesting, one of the doctors that really advocated for the diagnosis of adhd is now calling the

overdiagnosis he says in this country, a national disaster of dangerous proportions. why we wanted to bring that into this other story about whether or not adhd last year -- lasts your entire life, is the question about medications because if you're overdiagnose diagnosing and giving children medication what does that mean for them for the rest of their lives? what is your thought in general, your thought process in general on the medications and whether or not this is a condition that will last them their entire life? >> this is a very important conversation who of. here's why. we used to think back in the day that brain development was static. essentially that meant by five or six years of age, we thought that the brain was pretty much done developing. we then did some research beyond that, and we discovered that the brain continues to develop all the way through adulthood through a theory known as neuroplasticity. as it implies the brain is somewhat plastic and malleable and shaped and still forming.

medication can impede that or could have a negative impact on how the brain develops and how those neural connections are made. we don't want that to happen. i always say that we want to hold off for as long as we can from prescribing medication to six, seven, eight, nine, and 10-year-olds. why can't we teach them through things like behavior shaping and modification? in fact the research, jenna, shows cognitive behaviorial therapy can be quite effective in addressing adhd in children and adults but we live this pill-popping culture where people are walking around like zombies because they're taking all the medication. now we're pushing that same kind of thinking down on to our children when in a lot of instances all they need believe it or not is parenting. parents need to learn how to say no and sit down and they have to mean it. jenna: it is interesting to note that one of seven children diagnosed with adhd get that diagnosis before the age of 18.

obviously if they're children that is when they would get the diagnosis. >> right. jenna: what do we know about the side-effects of the drugs? do we have any real studies about the side-effects of a child taking a drug for 10 years and going off it? or taking drugs like adderall, for example, for the rest of theirs lives? do we even know the side-effects? >> there are a couple of major challenges. the first which is kind of hivedden, we know young kids, especially in middle school and high school are trying to access these drugs and they're using them in order to do well academically. if they have a high-stakes test like an s.a.t. coming up they will buy these drugs off of a kid who has been diagnosed or misdiagnosed like ritalin and adderall and take these drugs. imagine what is doing for the kids that you have to cheat through medication in order to do well. the second problem is encouraging kids to use and become addicted to medication as a way to shape and modify their own behavior. believe it or not we have the

natural ability in most instances to be able, you know, focus more, to be more attentive. we have to teach the things to our kids at a young age. the other issue they grow up and adults and start to use and abuse medication. >> before i leave the conversation here, believe me we could go on a lot longer on topic and it is a big one. >> right. jenna: told by teacher going into winter break. this is scenario. you have a little boy in school. i would test him for adhd he is very hyperactive. bouncing off the walls in the classroom. it is christmastime. a lot of get kids get excited. what should a parent to do? what is the right step to take? >> i would tell parents, kids are supposed to be hyper. a five, six, seven-year-old is not supposed to sit down for many hours. i can't and neither can you. kids will be rambunctious. they need outlets for the energy. we can't keep them sort of caged in. in a lot of instances we do it in the home and school much make sure it's a real diagnosis.

the other thing i would tell the parents, look for holistic remedies. change in nutrition. change in diet. get them working out and involved in sports. the third thing sometimes kids look like they have adhd symptoms because they don't like school because school can be rote and boring. that could cause them to act out. we need more effective medication to address this sort of fake adhd scare. jenna: if you look at some states and so many different statistics. if you're in the state of north carolina you're twice as likely to be diagnosed with adhd as california. a lot of theories to consider for the national audience. dr. chuck, great to see you as always. look forward to having you back. >> thanks, jenna. jon: there will be a hearing continuing for the man accused of crashing into pedestrians on the venice beach boardwalk. surveillance cameras caught people running for their lives in that deadly rampage. now a judge is to decide whether the driver will stand trial for murder. plus senator bob casey joins

us live on today's big budget vote in the senate. what he has to say about all of the latest battles on capitol hill.

jenna: right now a quick look what is still to come this hour of "happening now." closing arguments underway in the a mapped today knocks murder retrial. our legal panel looks at the case. one lucky hardware store owner getting a new drive-through the hard way unintentionally. what caused the carmichael to

drop in that way. christmas could come early for one lucky winner, it could be year. largest megamillions jackpot ever. a live report coming up. jon: later today the man accused of running down pedestrians on a california boardwalk will be in court for a hearing to determine whether el stand trial. surveillance cameras captured the horrifying scene this summer. an italian tourist here for her honeymoon was killed. 16 other people were injured. attorneys for nathan campbell say it was an accident. on our legal panel, lis wiehl, fox news analyst, and doug burns a criminal defense attorney. so, doug, is there anything this that video that would give you as a defense attorney a leg to stand on to say this was somehow accidental? >> i would certainly not go down the road of calling it an accident because that just doesn't scare up with the facts. what i would do, jon, play the only card available, get into and raise some type of mental

defect issue because honestly there is no way you can say that's an accident. >> that is not enough. if you say it is a mental defect and the fact he is driving like a maniac as we're seeing in the video surveillance, that is not to excuse him from any kind of criminal liability or culpability here. >> yes. jon: his public defender, doug, said he is profoundly depressed or was profoundly depressed after the accident, as though the accident made him somehow sad or mentally, you know, less than perfect. >> yes. jon: if that's the case, i mean why was the guy even behind the wheel? >> you're raising a great distinction, jon, which is obviously, look, he is depressed after the accident. that is completely irrelevant to criminal law in terms of the offense itself. he has to be suffering from some type of a disease or defect leading up to it. so you're right. but the fact of the matter is, i mean this is going to be extremely, extremely hard case to defend. lis, only last point you use the

same logic on its ted. what sane, rational person would drive a car? that is law school example for depraved indifference that they use. >> i would make your case right against you, look, if he is depressed after the quote, unquote, accident, that means he knew right from wrong. in other words why would he be depressed if nothing he had done was wrong? that is the mental culpability of a insanity defense. you don't have it here, doug, because he was depressed because he knew what he did was wrong. jon: this is a preliminary hearing as you know to try to figure out exactly what charges he will face when he does go to trial. murder is apparently a possibility here, doug but it's pretty rare that people get first-degree murder charges coming out of an automobile incident, right. >> no, it is rare and i agree with you but i want to draw a quick legal distinction which i'm sure lis will agree with, at the preliminary hearing phrase,

it is whether to bind him over and enough probable cause. >> which there is. >> which there is. whether there is legal defense, that is for trial. i don't see it as murder case but some subcategory. >> if i was prosecuting, bring it's a furs degree murder case, whether he was depressed or not, premeditated. if i had to i would bar gape it down and bring strongest charge up front and lesser included in. jon: let's turn our attention to what is going on in italy, the american student, amanda knox, sent an email to the italian appeals court hearing this this case and in that she wrote, i'm sorry, i didn't kill, i didn't rape, i didn't rob, i didn't plot, i didn't didn't instigate. i didn't kill meredith. that is the e-mail that she sent to the judge. the judge expressed some skepticism over whether that email is even legitimate. i mean he said, you know,

whoever wants to speak at trial is supposed to come to the trial. >> right. jon: what do you think about her sending an email from her home in washington state, lis. >> she can't have her cake and eat it too. she can't say i don't want to be there. i totally understand why i wouldn't want to be there, when italian-american treaties won't allow her to be extradited. i totally understand. why have the e-mail saying you're innocent? she is testifying at a trial she is not attending. jon: it was a highly unusual move. the judge said so, sending this email. doug, what do you think about that. >> it was a terrible move. you could even cobble together your worst nightmare scenario. no lawyer on the planet in my view, jon, would say to put in that email because then you're participating in the case. and the nightmare scenario i'm talking about is that that somehow amounts to a waiver of extra decision. i doubt that is the case. >> that won't happen. >> that is very, very ill-advised move. >> it won't happen though. doug's right but it won't happen

because of the italian-u.s. treaty says once you're acquitted of something can not be extradited again. she knows that, her lawyers note that. jon: why send it at all? >> it is like when o.j. simpson stood up said, 100% not guilty. it is like a cheap trick to get in your exculpatory version but again it makes no sense and the judge, actually back to our observation, jon, should completely disregard it. she is not present in the proceedings. >> they didn't disregard it, that is the point. the fact it is there in front of the jury, will they be looking at this? absolutely. i think that is wrong. jon: we learned through this case the italian judicial system is very different from ours and has a lot of quirks in this country we're certainly not used to. she said she was afraid she might be convicted. that's why she didn't go back. there are a lot of people, even in this country who think she had some level of guilt here and probably deserved some kind of a conviction. >> don't forget that the italian police really messed up the investigation from the very

beginning. that is why the original conviction was reversed. >> and, jon, the big problem legally is two things. number one, double jeopardy. if you're acquitted in this country, that's it. number two on appeal they actually retry the case. we don't do that here. >> right. jon: we'll continue to watch it. they have not reached their verdict obviously in that appellate court in italy. we'll bring it to the viewers as soon as it comes in. lis wiehl, doug burns. thank you. >> my pleasure, jon. jenna: the senate is preparing to vote on a bipartisan budget deal. the bill passing a procedural vote this morning, 67-33. several republican senators criticized the bill which increases spending and reduces military retiree benefits. that is some of the issues they have wit. the plan passed in the house. it is waiting for a final vote in the senate. joining to us discuss where we're at, bob casey a democrat from pennsylvania and who serves on the finance committee. great to have you back on the program. >> thanks, jenna. jenna: you called this bill a

uniquely bipartisan moment of the now that you have seen who has voted against it in cloture, like minority leader mcconnell, do you still believe that? >> well, no, i voted for it. i voted for it. jenna: i was saying now that you see who has voted against it, like senate minority leader mcconnell, do you still believe it is a uniquely bipartisan moment or do you have some doubts now about it? >> oh, no, i think it is very much bipartisan. obviously there is opposition. when you can get 67 votes in the senate on anything these days, as you know it has been a difficult time, i think that speaks to the bipartisan nature of it. i think one of the reasons why it is bipartisan is because it gives us two years of budget certainty, something we haven't had in a while, number one. and number two, it begins to deal with, not completely, but, deals with the problem of sequestration which is, i would argue, bad across the board. to be able to take out

$63 billion of sequestration cuts over the next two years, i think makes a lot of sense. we can do cutting in a more strategic and rational way. jenna: how do you think it sets up for the year ahead? if we expect the bill to pass and go into law, how does it set you up for the year ahead? what will be next on the list? tax reform. how do you setac kelling financial issues moving ahead? >> well i would hope in 2014, the early part of 2014 we could get a consensus on tax reform. we're not there yet. it is not for lack of a determined effort, really by both parties. members of the finance committee, meeting on a regular basis with options on tax reform. that would be pos to that. i think the main thing that has been missing from the conversation frankly of both parties is a focus on job creation strategies to bring about more job creation and growth. that is the main topic we should get back to. jenna: do you think you're in a different place now this time, this year versus last year at the same time? do you feel like there's a

change of tone where you can really reach agreement on other big issues, or do you feel like come january it is back to politics as usual? >> i would like to be able to say we're in a much better position at the end of '13 'than we were at end of '12. some consensus on immigration. some consensus on the budget. that's positive. there is unfortunately a lot of acrimony and lack of bipartisanship. i would hope on job creation and growth, that might be a place where both parties can land to move the ball forward. jenna: speaking of acrimony we've seen that a lot over the health care law and i would like to talk to you a little bit about that. let me play for you an exchange between ed henry, our white house correspondent and jay carney yesterday on a particular part of the rollout and then i well get your reaction. >> run by a critic of administration, darrell issa is having a field hearing in texas today where they're alleging

health care navigators that tried to help people sign up for the new law have in some cases they allege, had committed fraud. told people, lie about your income so you get better subsidies and there is not proper background checks of some of these people to see they're actually be trusted to guide people. what is the reaction here. >> this is one more data point in the republican obsession with sabotaging obamacare. all navigators must complete about 20 hours of training including training on privacy issues. this train something not a one-time only process. navigators have regular refresher opportunities where they can share updates, receive information and address issues as they are in the process of helping people in their communities. jenna: jay carney went on to continue to say the republicans are trying to sabotage the law. that one of the lines he used over and over again. just curious, senator, how much responsibility are you putting on the white house for the botched rollout of obamacare? >> well, look there is no question that when the congress

enacts the affordable care act is the implementation of this administration either this administration or any administration. they have to be held accountable for that. we have to push them as we have, people in both parties have, to try to dramatically improve the implementation. my problem with a lot of republicans in the senate, i will leave the house out because i don't know those folks as well, but my problem with a lot of republican senators seemed determine to sop the implementation of affordable care act, they don't seem to be concerned about health care as fiscal priority which it is. you can't do debt reduction without health care reform of some type. they don't seem to have a much appetite moving forward with any kind of an idea that would allow us to finally, finally get to the point where we're controlling health care costs and guaranteeing that you still have 17 million kid with preexisting conditions who are going to be covered no matter

what, no matter what the insurance companies say, no matter what the lobbyists say. doesn't seem like we have enough republican senators willing to make that commitment to reducing health care costs and also protecting children with preexisting conditions as well as others. >> i hope to invite a republican senator on and pose that question to him or her in the next few days and weeks ahead. senator casey, great to see you as always. thank you very much. >> thanks, jenna. jon: well some in the federal government are getting themselves all lathered up over anti-bacterial soaps. why they're saying the active ingredients in these popular items could actually pose a health risk. important details for you just ahead.

jenna: well the fda is seeking tougher rules on anti-bacterial soaps, something they have been looking at for decade now. regulators are saying they have no evidence that the products are any better than just soap and water and may even pose a public health threat, pointing

to research, suggesting that chemicals in the products may interfere with your hormone levels and possibly spur the growth of drug resistant bacteria. we have dr. steven garner, head of radiology at new york methodist hospital. wait a minute. when you read the label anti-bacterial, is not anti-bacterial. >> it has chemicals that are also pesticides. you're putting on toothbrushes and pacifiers and liquid soap. we're told makes bacteria go away quicker and thoroughly. jenna: you automatically think it is cleaner. intuitively see something anti-bacterial is the stuff i want. no study has shown it is effective to do that than plane ivory soap. >> use plain ivory soap in your daily life? are you avoiding anti-bacterial products? >> right. unless it is shown to help why would you use something? jenna: marketing because it says anti-bacterial. >> what happened since 1970 when

the fda evaluating this? is made a preliminary rueing in the late '70s, nothing until now. it was sued by a consumer group to say what the findings were. we're beginning to see they don't see any studies to show it is helpful. jenna: it is anti-bacterial because of chemicals but number two doesn't mean you're cleaner? >> no. which want to use this in hospitals when surgeons wash hands before a study but not not general population where you exposed so much it messes up hormones. there is no proof that it works. jenna: we heard of this name of that chemical that has been -- >> pesticide. jenna: fda has been looking at this for 40 years? >> come on what is going on? they argue they don't have the money to do these things. fine almostly they had to be taken to court to make the ruling the companies have to show it is safe and effective, otherwise it will be taken off the market. jenna: that is the end of effectiveness or moving towards this? unless these companies can prove you're actually more clean --

>> correct. jenna: than plain ivory soap they will have to remove the labeling? >> but companies have gotten smart. by 2016 they're taking products out of their products. it will not be part of sony more. jenna: what do you think of all this? for 40 years we could be using things dangerous to us and our families. >> who knows how many people with diabetes, thyroid disease related to the soap. jenna: plain soap and water. >> something important. jenna: what do you have in your hand. >> i have ivory soap. jenna: you're not -- i'm not sponsoring ivory. i have no connection to ivory. marilyn chambers was spokesman. key is ivory soap. if you don't wash properly no matter the soap. you squirt a little bit out there. then you wash for how long? you sing happy birthday one time. happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, dry thoroughly. hot water or cold water. jenna: i would say hot? >> doesn't make a difference. whatever feels comfortable to you. most people recommend tepid water. jenna: good advice. i'm glad your hands are clean.

i was going to ask you before you started the seg mane. dr. garner, thanks very much. great tips for us today. we'll have to leave it there. fascinating story we'll continue to watch and we'll be back with more "happening now."

♪ jon: yeah, you're anti-bacterial soap can't wash this illness away. we are talking about megamillions fever. and it's sweeping the nation. the jackpot for tonight's drawing soaring to more than $586 million. last minute ticket sales, will probably push that number even higher. jonathan serrie live for us in

at tant -- atlanta. start with the bad news. what are the odds of winning this jackpot, jonathan? >> reporter: the odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 259 million and still those odds are not keeping people away from this machine. all morning we've been seeing people piling into this quick trip convenience store. and employees expect even more to show up as people get in from work. back in october the multi-state lottery added more choices to its matrix. what that did was increase your chances of winning some of the smaller prizes where you have a 1 in 15 chance but decreased your chances of winning the jackpot. but because the jackpot keeps rolling over and getting larger when ever someone doesn't win the drawing, we're seeing people coming into this atlanta store who shea they have haven't played the lottery in years but decided to come in today because the jackpot has gotten so big, jon. jon: i know you've been talking to some of the people there about what they would do with, you know, $586 million, minus

taxes of course. what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, a lot of people say that they're going to quit their job, hands down. at love people say they will buy a new house, a new car. we even met one woman in the store who said she would share the money with strangers. listen. >> i would give away $100 bills, right and left, left and right. all kind of things. then go on a world tour. >> reporter: now if you win the jackpot you have two options. you can either receive the full $586 million in annual installments over 29 years or you can opt for a single cash payout of approximately $317 million. but on, jon, as you pointed out, both of those figures are pretax. while we can't predict who will eventually win the megamillions lottery we can predict they will be sharing more than a third of their winnings with uncle sam. jon? jon: nothing is certain but

death and taxes. jonathan serrie, thanks. jenna: more news straight ahead in the next hour. a raging wildfire near the california coastline has already destroyed homes. the latest next. ine express deal to book this fabulous tel. wellou can see if a hotel is pet-friendly before y book it and i got great deal without bidding. and where's yoururry friend? i don't ha a cat. save up to 5 during priceline's holidahotel sale. use promo code"holiday" for amazing savings on express deal hotels. now this sale won't last forever so dash on over to priceline.com. express deals. priceline savings without the bidding.

jenna: big developments and breaking ns this hour. jon: the president today meeting with heads of america's biggest technology firms, they all want answers about the problems with the obamacare web site. six u.s. soldiers killed today in afghanistan, one of the biggest single losses of american lives there in months. we'll have a live report there the middle east. and you know obesity is unhealthy unless you happen to be a bear. seems like they can gain huge amounts of weight before hibernation and show no ill effects. could grizzlies help humans fight fat? we'll talk with a doctor researching just that, and it's all "happening now." ♪ ♪

jon: that's not a problem you've ever had, but -- jenna: we'd all like to eat whatever we want and sleep for months on end and not gain weight. jon: that does sound good. a really interesting study later on. a big meeting about obamacare is just wrapping up, i'm jon scott. jenna: hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee, and we're live at the white house where the president and vice president just sat down with ceos from technology companies like google and twitter and facebook and apple as they discussed the progress and problems with the healthcare.gov web site. the tech ceos also raising concerns about the national security agency's controversial surveillance program. a lot of big topics there. our chief white house correspondent, ed henry, is live with the story. here we are two weeks away really from the end of the year, now they're just meeting with some of these big tech ceos? what are they doing today? >> reporter: well, jenna, you're right. probably some folks here wondering why they didn't think of bringing in some of these gurus back in the summer, maybe

even back in the spring, well before that october 1st deadline where even the president has said his team botched the rollout. they're trying to fix the web site now, obvious, they're also now trying to deal with, as you say, a new deadline of january 1st to not just have the web site up and running more efficiently, but make sure that the people who have been on the site already who think they've enrolled will actually have insurance on january 1st. here's jay carney. >> we are working overtime to make sure that everyone who wants insurance by january 1st, coverage by the 1st is able to get it. those who have either they enrolled early in the period -- in the process in the post-october 1st period and experienced some problems with their enrollment, perhaps some accuracy issues on the back end. we've taken steps to address that to make sure all the information that's necessary has been accurately conveyed to insurance companies.

>> reporter: a lot of questions, though, about on the so-called back end of, you know, the payment processing and what not, whether or not it's all going to add up and people who have enrolled got the paperwork in, if they say they've gotten the check in with their first premium, will they have insurance on january 1st? they are preparing for that because that's another big deadline, jenna. jenna: there are charges from both sides about playing politics with this law, ed. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: well, sure, jay carney yesterday when he saw this field hearing from republican darrell issa charging there's been problems of potential fraud with the so-called-and-a-half daters helping people -- navigators helping people enroll in the went site, he said this was another example of republicans rooting for failure, you've hat republicans -- had republicans fire back that the white house held back regulations on the health care law last year because they thought it would be bad politically for them, so after the president got

reelected, then they put the bad news out. and when you listen to republicans like john barrasso, they say this is a pattern. take a listen. >> i think this has been one of the most politically-manipulative administrations in history. they delayed so many of these rules because they knew they were going to be very liberal and opposed by the american people, and as a result, they said let's wait til after the election. >> reporter: bottom line is we're also just getting some news this hour, what's interesting is the quarterback of the web site in order to try to get it up and running is stepping down. we expected he would do this at some point, he's going to come to the white house to serve in an economic post at the beginning of february, but curtis dell bane of microsoft, a respected executive in the industry, we're told, is going to come in and now sort of be the quarterback at healthcare.gov. important for them, obviously, to make sure that jeffrey, who's gotten high marks for fixing the bungled rollout and improving the site, but there's still, as we were talking about, a long

way to go. jay carney says every day they know they've got a lot more work to get this thing fully up and is running. they're now shifting to a microsoft executive, obviously, the thinking being you bring in somebody in the industry who knows how to figure this out. again, it raises the question why they didn't turn to some of these other companies months ago. jenna: interesting questions, ed. thank you. >> reporter: good to see you. jon: and there could be new political time bombs brewing for obamacare set to go off right before next year's midterm elections. this all concerns rate hikes small businesses face because of the new rules governing their health care plans. joining us now to talk about it and perhaps explain, a.b. stoddard, an associate editor and columnist at "the hill," ed o'keefe is a congressional reporter at "the washington post." thank you both for being heemplet so the issue is because small businesses have had to change their insurance coverage so that, for instance, people who have pre-existing conditions can no longer be declared

ineligible, some companies are going to see major spikes in their premiums and, obviously, that's going to affect the premiums they pay right before the election. tell us about it, ed. >> that's right. it looks like this will especially affect companies with younger workers, 20-somethings, early 30s because they're healthier, of course, and the way the law's designed, older folks aren't necessarily supposed to be penalized, if you will, or charged more because they are potentially unhealthier. so you could see costs rise overall for tech start-ups or other small businesses, you know, retailers, for example. so there's concern that as open enrollment begins next year in the fall right before the elections, this could all start to rear its head and cause significant problems for especially democrats who are running in several states in tough re-election battles. the seven or so democratic senators in southern states, in alaska and the midwest and, of course, house democrats who are running in close races across the country. jon: yeah, and it's curious,

a.b., nobody seems to know how many people are going to be affected. one estimate says 50-80 million people will be affected in some way, some of those might be policies that cost less, but the large majority of them, from what i understand, are either going to be policies that are canceled or cost more, and the white house isn't talking a great deal about this right now. they've got other fish to fry, you might say. >> right. they have other hurdles with the fact that you can possibly at best today enroll on the web site, and as jay carney said, there's some accuracy issues at the back end. that actually means you're not insured. it means you're an enrollee, but it doesn't mean the insurance company's received payment from you or the government or a combination of the two to actually begin ensuring you, and some people are going to find out what they thought was insurance policy was actually just enrollee status. so there's lots of surprises down the road, and i would argue, actually, that there won't really be an october surprise for small businesses with this development, because

small businesses have been so anxious for so long about in this law making clear to the people whose hours they are cutting, people whose jobs they are cutting, even new hires that everything is changing for them in the way that they pay wages and in the way that they cover their health -- their employees under health care plans that meet, um, the certifications and requirements of the aca. so i think the question really is how long can democrats in this tough year with all this rolling, continuing tough news about the program continue to hang with the program and defend it and back the president? do they have time to wait til march 31 til we find out whether or not there are enough young and healthy people to balance risk in the system, do they have time to see if there's a stampede that breaks that is system up and have doctors providing medicaid, do they have time to really keep backing this when they're running for re-election next fall. that's the burning question.

jon: ed, one health insurance executive who didn't want to be identified said this is going to be like joe the plumber times a thousand, that there are going to be all kinds of small business owners around this country who get hammered by these increased costs. and if, for instance, you use the example small tech start-ups, you know, younger people, they are going to be the ones who are really going to be paying a lot more if they've got a young work force. that is exactly the opposite of what the president and the democrats would want to see. >> yeah. and i agree with a.b. that this might actually not be an october surprise in that it's being talked about right now. there's still plenty of time, potentially, for congress to come up for a way to avoid these big increases, especially on younger people, and it's one of the things that these democrats who are in tough re-elections next year have said they want to address somehow, price controls, other concerns with medicare and medicaid. and i think you'll see a lot of them actively take on some kind of an effort to change these things so they can at least demonstrate to people back home i tried. even if it doesn't ultimately

succeed, they'll be with able to say i did everything i could to fix this, i know there are problems with it, ultimately, it may or may not work, but at least i tried. that's why i think the fact that it's being exposed now might give congress an opening to do something with it. jon: it is the law. ed o'keefe, a.b. stoddard, thank you both. >> great to be with you. jenna: now we tush to a fox -- turn to a fox news alert, six u.s. troops killed in a helicopter crash in southern afghanistan. conor powell has the latest from our mideast bureau. >> reporter: the pentagon isn't saying much, only that this crash is under investigation. but defense officials say six americans were killed. the associated press is reporting at least one person survived this crash, although we don't have confirmation of that just yet. it appears this aircraft went down in southern afghanistan. now, initial reports say that there was no enemy fire in the area, most likely this was either weather-related or a

mechanical malfunction as most crashes in afghanistan are, but there's always a chance it was attacked or shot down by the taliban, a claim they are making. but defense officials say right now there was no enemy fire in the area. now, this is the single largest loss of life for u.s. and international troops in afghanistan for months. there are still roughly 50,000 or so american service members in afghanistan, most are in support roles, training and mentoring the afghans with the afghans really doing the majority of the fighting. but so far this year 119 americans have died in afghanistan, and and that's way down from the peak in 2010 where 499 were killed. that just shows it's still a very dangerous place for american and international troops no matter who's doing the fighting, jenna. jenna: conor powell, thank you. jon: well, right now the controversial, bipartisan budget deal passing a major test in the u.s. senate. the bill, which would prevent a government shutdown and partially reverse some of the

sequester cuts, cleared a test vote, 67-33. that sets the stage for final passage. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. he's watching all of this with great interest. mike? >> reporter: well, jon, good afternoon to you. twelve republicans joined with the 55 who vote with democrats to pass in this critical vote on this bipartisan budget compromise. senator patty murray, who negotiated this deal with republican paul ryan from the house, here she is making her final pitch. >> this deal is a compromise. it doesn't tackle every one of the challenges we face as a nation, but that was never our goal. this bipartisan bill takes the first steps towards rebuilding our broken budget process and, hopefully, towards rebuilding our broken congress. >> reporter: senate republican leader mitch mcconnell can voted no against moving forward with the bill today. mcconnell says he opposes

adjusting the spending caps of the budget control act and said lawmakers should not go back on that commitment. another aspect that fired up critics was adjusting the cost of living allowance for military retirees which new hampshire republican kelly ayotte says is absolutely wrong. >> it's $6 billion over ten years within this budget agreement. i certainly appreciate the hard work that went into this agreement, but it is absolutely wrong to take from our military retirees, those who have sacrificed the most, to take it from their backs to pay for this budget be agreement. >> reporter: now, that won't get changed in this bill. this is on the glide path to passage to become law, but senator carl levin, the chair of the senate armed services committee, says he's going to look into this impact on military retirees and passing this critical procedural vote, now we expect that this bill will be passed into law with a

simple majority. jon? jon: mike emanuel on capitol hill, mike, thank you. >> reporter: thank you. jenna: well, a wildfire raging out of control destroying more than a dozen homes including the fire chief's house, all this amid new effort toss tame the fast-moving flames. we'll tell you where it is. also, a deadly explosion rocked an apartment complex. a brand new detail about a search for the victims in all of in this. plus, as the u.s. pushes for [ male announcer ] this is george. the day building a play set begins with a surprisewinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪

and our giant idaho potato truck is still missing. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what?

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♪ ...to wash any size load. it dissolves in any temperature, even cold. tideod pop in. stand out. jon: new video just this to fox of a tedly explosion that rocked an apartment complex in birmingham, alabama. firefighters sifting through the wreckage for hours searching for survivors. one woman, who'd been missing, was finally found, but she died before crews could pull her out.

the crews did manage to free a man from the rubble. eight other people were hurt when the apartment complex exploded and then collapsed. amazingly, none of those other injuries said to be life threatening. jenna: well, out to california now. right now hundreds of firefighters are battling a major wildfire there. more than a dozen homes already destroyed near the scenic california coastline and 100 people forced out while emergency crews try to get the flames under control. claudia cowan is streaming live from big sur, california, right near the fire. claudia? >> reporter: and, jenna, 400 firefighters are battling flames that have score. ed about 550 acres. that may not sound like a lot, but take a look at this smoke here behind me. the fire's burning just beyond this ridge in a valley that contains some of the most pristine wilderness and valuable real estate in the country. more than 200 homes are threatened, many of them million dollar estates with ocean-front

views. one hundred residents have been evacuated, but many are making a stand, and firefighters are now helping those people protect their homes. some have described hearing propane tanks explode and watching flames 30 feet high jump from tree to tree, rooftop to rooftop. fifteen structures have been lost including the home of the big sur fire brigade chief who watched helplessly as flames consumed everything she owned. because no one expected a fire here in december, many key resources were nod readily available, and the fire just exploded after it broke out late sunday night near a popular hiking trail. now the critical help is here including two air tankers and eight helicopters essential to any fire fight in this kind of steep, rugged terrain. shifting winds also a concern and a primary objective today is to keep the fire east of highway 1. that is the lifeline artery for big sur's 1300 residents and the millions of tourists who visit this area year round. dozens of campgrounds, high-end

resorts and, of course, big sur's world famous parks, all those folks counting on fire crews to keep highway 1 open and to get a line around this fire fast. jenna, right now it is just 5% contained, and the cause of this fire is under investigation. back to you. jenna: we'll continue to watch it. big story out there in california, claudia, thank you. jon: have you heard about this? russia ups the ante, why moscow is deploying nuclear-capable missiles near several nato countries. how this could affect rising tensions between russia and the west. also, right now shipping companies are in overdrive rushing around on one of their busiest days of the year. a look inside the heart of the operation, coming up. ♪ ♪

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jon: it is peak week for ups, and toy the package be delivery giant is set to break a one-day shipping record sending some 29 million packages all over the world. that comes to about 300 packages each second. the heart of this massive operation is ups' world port in louisville, kentucky. adam shapiro with the fox business network is there. he's got the packages and the story the. adam? >> reporter: jon, it's pretty incredible when you think just one of these packages is one of the 29 million that will be delivered today, 34 million shipped yesterday. and every year ups hires extra people to do this massive job, make your christmas a happy one. 55,000 people every year. i want you to meet one of them. her name is anna, she's working

right here. anna, take a second. going to give you a break from work. anna hall is a high school student. she's on a work study program. she goes to class in the morning and comes here in the afternoon. when you graduate, you'll work the overnight shift here, and they will pay your college tuition. a lot of people don't know ups does that. why did you decide to take advantage? >> i think it's a great opportunity, and i don't know why everyone else is doing it. >> reporter: so you want to be an engineer, you want to get a job at ups. >> yes, i do. >> reporter: so what's it like? you've got 29 million packages to get out today. >> um, it's definitely longer days. i don't think it's bad though. nothing that we can't handle. >> reporter: nothing someone your age can't handle. it's peak week, you have the capacity the handle 400,000 packages an hour. what is that hike? all of this machinery, did you ever think you'd be part of it? >> no, it's nothing like i imagined before i worked here.

>> reporter: i don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but a lot of these are going to upstate new york. what do you think when you see the packages going by and people -- >> i don't know. i don't even know. >> reporter: it's a lot of fun, right? >> it's a lot of fun. >> reporter: good luck in the next four years, graduate high school, get into college, and congratulations on ups payback, just one of the programs ups offers here. jon, when you think about it, world port, when it first launched in the early '80s, 2,000 packages in an hour, and they thought that was pretty good. 400,000 packages now they process in an hour. again, 29 million today, and these packages go all over the world. their peak at world port, by the way, won't be until december 23rd, 7.7 million packages. at the end of the day, it's a $54 billion revenue operation, 45 billion of which just packages. ups really the world's leader when it comes to this kind of thing. and the five million square feet

under one roof, think about that, jon. it's almost as big as jenna lee's dressing room. back to you. jon: yeah. and, adam, she saw one of those zappos boxes in that container next to you, the big online shoe retailer, you can just bring it back to new york and save ups the trouble. >> reporter: i'm keeping all secrets. i know where these things are going. my lips are sealed. jon: adam shapiro -- jenna: it was just about the right size, so i thought that was probably headed for my apartment. hmm, one could hope. well, former vice president dick cheney no stranger to medical breakthroughs including procedures that saved his life following multiple heart attacks. and now he's warning about obamacare's impact on health care in america. and talk about getting into the christmas spirit, besides the shopping, how about this giant gingerbread house? so big be you can actually walk through it. just don't go taking a bite out of any of those lode-bearing walls. we'll explain. casey steigel is there, coming

up. ♪ ♪ before using her new bank of america credit card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 tord her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard better balce rewards credit car which fitsicely with everything else in life she has to balance. that's the benef of responsibility. apply online or visit a bank of america near you.

♪ ♪ jon: turning our attentions now to rising tensions in eastern europe after new reports that russia is deploying missiles to a small piece of territory on the baltic sea. that area borders two nato countries, poland and lithuania. the missiles reportedly being

moved there is the 23-foot short-range missile that can be moved around and launched on a truck. it's designed to destroy both stationary and moving targets. the missile also war-ready for use in theater-level combat situations. there are two variants with a range of up to 250 miles. all this as tensions continue between the west and russia over the troubling ukraine. weeks of protests after ukraine's president scrapped a promise to forge closer ties with europe and instead is aligning that country more and more with russia. in fact, russian president vladimir putin is meeting with victor jack slip today and agreeing to a slew of new measures designed to help ukraine's struggling economy and cutting natural gas prices by nearly half. all of this another salvo in russia's increasing aggression toward the west. elon burman is vice president of the american foreign policy

council and author of the new book, "implosion: the end of russia and what it means for america." well, russia is still there at least in the near time. poland and lithuania are said to be nervous over the discovery of these russian missiles right on their doorstep. should they be? >> oh, they absolutely should be. and i think you framed it exactly right. this is very much part of a larger conversation, in fact, a larger contest that's taking place between the russian federation on the one side and the west on the other side. ukraine is really the bellwether for everything that's happening. the historical background for everything that you're seeing in ukraine is the fact that ukraine was on track until late november to sign an association agreement with the european union which is a very important, symbolic step that would align ukraine's economy with that of the e.u. and not with russia. russia's pushing back, they're trying to bring ukraine back into their economic and ideological orbit, and what they're doing through this

deployment -- which by all accounts happened several months ago but is only becoming public now -- is warning the west to stay back and not interfere in the post-soviet space. jon: right. the only over the weekend that it was revealed that satellite imagery showed these missiles there. now, you know, remembering the cuban missile crisis, those were huge, intercontinental ballistic missiles that had to be moved in on ships. these are very small, mobile missiles that can be trucked around the country. essentially, the russians were able to sneak them into this particular area. because it happened several months ago, do you think it was related to the ukraine situation? was it sort of a warning? >> well, i think the pressure on the baltic enclave which the russians, which iser the tomorrowly russian but is landlocked, has been an area of some dispute for some time. but, certainly, what russia does there is indicative of russia's larger posture towards europe. and as these things come to a

head, russia is making very clear that it is willing to put pressure on europe, it is willing to, essentially, up the ante strategically in terms of how it interacts with the european union, and it's doing so not only through economics, but also through the threat of force which is exactly what you're seeing today. jon: in march of this year, chuck hagel, thefense secretary, announced that long-range missile interceptors that were supposed to be based in poland, those are going to be canceled, the plans are being abandoned. does this development in any way suggest that the u.s. might rethink that kind of thing? >> i think it remains to be seen, certainly. the move on the part of the obama administration to table what was known as the fourth phase of the phase adaptive approach, this was the phase of the european missile defense plan that would have stationed missile defenses in allied countries in europe was taken by the russians, it wasn't seen as

a concession, but it was seen as sort of the new order in europe. the russians are acting accordingly. and what you're seeing now, particularly when you see building blocks in russia's sort of effort to reconstitute an el p l pyre like ukraine -- empire like ukraine being up for grabs, the russians are trying to move as many pieces on the chessboard as they can and demonstrate to the west that they will not go quietly. jon: but with countries like toland now joining in nato -- poland now joining in nato, if the russians where were to launh those missiles, that brings on huge retaliation by other nato members, right? >> absolutely. and the russians, i think, are very cog the any santa of the fact that nato, at least until the last several years, has been steadily expanding eastward into the area that russia sees as its own geopolitical backyard. the russians have been trying over the last several years to do things like, for example, military intervention in

georgia, that suggest to nato that perhaps this isn't a good idea. this deployment is part of that process. jon: elon burman keeping an eye on that, as will we. thanks for sharing your expertise. >> my pleasure. ♪ ♪ jenna: former vice president dick cheney knows the american health care system from the inside out as someone who's been battling coronary disease for decades. he knows firsthand about cutting edge technology and innovative medical procedures that have saved his own life many, many times. he sat down with our medical a-teamer, dr. marc siegel, to share his story, and he joins us now, hey there, doc. >> hi, jenna. heart disease is the number one killer in the united states, but what is the secret of surviving? former vice president dick cheney's personal story of overcoming heart disease is a story of hope. as told in his new book, "heart: an american medical odyssey," it is a tale of courage mixed with

the latest scientific discoveries. many heart attack victims from the 1970s are dead. >> uh-huh. >> how come you're alive? >> combination of things. obviously, a donor, tremendous advances in medical technology, prayers of a lot of people all over the country, my family, and i was, as my doctor explained it, i had that first heart attack in '78. most of the things that saved my life hadn't even been invented yet. it's as though you get up in the morning to go to work, you're late, you jump in the car and head for the office, and every stoplight was red, but he said, cheney, when you got to them, they all turned green. >> the vice president beat the odds again and again undergoing procedures from a heart pump to a heart transplant. cheney would be the first to tell you, jenna, that a lot of the credit goes to his doctors. dr. jonathan reiner, cheney's longtime cardiologist, talk abouts about cheney never seeing himself as sick.

>> my father used to have a saying that it's one thing to have a disease, it's another thing to let t8=zlz disease have you. and heart disease never really had the vice president. >> spent a lot of time worrying about did the heart come from a republican or a democrat or a red sox fan or a yankee fan. i'm just grateful for the heart and all that it represents. it's the gift of life itself. >> jenna, imagine if there's a liberal's heart in there. for cheney, life after a heart transplant includes the exercise bike, a careful diet. he looks, to me, great. and he says he feels great. jenna? jenna: good news. dr. geeing el, thank you. jon: a new look at ape comment burials -- ancient burials. what researchers are saying about me ander that woulds and what they did with the dead. plus, a new study on beastie looks at one of the fiercest

creatures on earth. wh]+-gb researchers are hoping o learn from these giant grizzlies. ♪ ♪

ma that researchers turning to an unlikely source to learn more about obesity. i'll give you three guss, what source. well, i guess we showed you. jon: there it is, looks like me at breakfast time. [laughter] jenna: scientists studying businessly bears who consume up to 58,000 calories in a day gaining up to 100 pounds in short order, but their weight, their blood pressure, their

cholesterol isn't affected by that weight gain, interestingly enough. and they seem to have no trouble losing weight. so researchers are trying to figure out how bears can be both healthy and obese for a little while and whether there's anything humans can learn from them. joining us now, dr. kevin corbett, a principal scientist at the biotech company amgen incorporated and bonnie is a registered nutritionist and the author of "read it before you eat it." so, dr. kevin; i have to start with you because you are doing this study, you've been looking at this for two years. what inspired this? >> well, um, i think just the fact that there's about 1 .5 billion people worldwide who are clinically considered obese, arguably one of the largest patient[útñ populations in the world, and there are only two marketed drugs for obesity, and those have kind of marginal effects. it's not that biotechnology and

pharma companies aren't working on obesity, so what is going wrong? why don't we have more drugs? one of the things that i think i put my finger on was that generally what is done is laboratory rats are manipulated in such a way to try to mimic human obesity. i wanted to know are there things out in nature that do all the bad things that we modern day humans do but don't get sick, and obviously one of the first things i thought about were or bears. jenna: i heard you -- >> very impressive -- jenna: you also thought about yogi bear, a famous bear? how did that come into play? [laughter] >> you know, you think about the old bugs bunny cartoons with the big bears, and if you have got a bear coming after you, you're supposed to lie down and play dead, and then yogi trying to steal all the picnic baskets, so it's probably just my weaning on tv -- jenna: i love that, though, that's where brilliant ideas come from.

and it's really interesting what you're -- as you were explaining it, it makes a lot of sense. look at bears instead of bears or rats. just one more quick question more you, what have you found so far? >> well, we've found several interesting things. typically, when humans become obese, a lot of things come along with that that probably your viewers have heard of, things like diabetes and heart disease. well, bears don't get that. one of the interesting things we found is that bears tune kind of like a dimmer switch on light the way they respond to a hormone called insulin, and insulin is the hormone that gets released by your body when you eat. so bears seem to live their whole lives with very low levels of insulin. they just tune how sensitive they are to that. the other thing that's very impressive about bears even though they put on all of this weight, they seem to selectively store all this weight in their fat tissue. now the human body is a very

wise investor. you could say it likes to diversify its portfolio, it likes to store its fuel in fat tissue, muscle tissue and liver tissue. the problem is that some of those banks, if you want to call them back, deliver in the skeletal muscle. if your fat goes there, that tends to make you sick. the bears have gone with the safe investment, and they've figured out somehow how to store all of that fuel in their fat tissue which i think collectively makes them very healthy even though they are massively obese. jenna: let me ask bonnie about this, a nutritionist, what do you think is the translation to humans, eat more fish maybe? >> humans are kind of anti-hiker nay to haves. we like to lay down in our dens like bears, especially during the winter months, but where the bears are not eating or drinking for months, we have a tendency to be surrounded by snacks. so the important takeaway message from the bears is that when they actually are filling up with food, they're filling up on nuts and berries and fruit

and vegetation. we have a tendency not to do that when they're filling up. and also when they sleep, they don't wake up in the middle of their hibernation and have a snack. we have a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night, walk down to the kitchen and see what's around. so we have to take a message from the bears and kind of live a little bit the way they do because they also could walk 100 miles to go get food. we have a tendency to not exercise enough. so even though the hibernation thing sounds like it could be interesting and in terms of drugs we're always looking for a magic bullet, there is none. jenna: that's a great question, dr. kevin. is this what you're aiming to do, to maybe bottle what you're learning from the bears so that we can take it and then eat all we want and sleep all we want and not get the bad effects of obesity? [laughter] >> yeah, i think thezaade bearst they're doing is they're teaching me a new way to think about obesity biology. and one of the things i thinkb1z that's worth going after, of course, are human therapies. and the way that they turn on

and off the way they respond to insulin, the way that they'd be able to turn on and off their massive appetites and the way that they can selectively store their fat storers in fat tissue, all of that makes it for a healthy obesity. and what i'm beginning to wonder, actually, is obesity itself inherently bad? if you think about it from an evolutionary standpoint be, you would think being able to store fat would provide a survival advantage. jenna: you know -- >> i think the bears are -- jenna: i'm sorry. >> please, jenna. jenna: we're going to get cut off, but that's a debate on our program a few times, can you be obese and still be healthy. dr. kevin, love to have you back and, bonnie, you're welcome back anytime as well. >> thank you so much. jon: i just like seeing the pictures of bears. this video sparked outrage a few years back, part of a multimillion dollar study to see if sick shrimp had the same

endurance on a treadmill as healthier ones. it was paid for by your hard-earned tax dollars. now today a new report on wasteful government spending, what did you pay for this time around? we're live with that story. plus, a very big sweet treat just in time for the holidays. casey steegal live in bryant, texas, with that for us. >> reporter: jon, 1,800 pounds of butter, just some of the ingredients it took to build the world, yes, the world's largest gingerbread house. we'll tell you about how they built this and where the idea came from, coming up next. >> a couple minutes away, we'll see you on hq. what's coming up? >> okay, why are people in one state being asked to sign confidentiality agreements about obamacare? >> also, the government waste report is out, you will not believe some of the things on this. we'll see you with that at the top of the hour, right? >> yes. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]

[ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® ... ... ... ... ... this is for you. ♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor

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jon: well, hansel and great el would be overwhelmed by this q&l gingerbd house at a whopping 39,000 cubic feet, so big you can actually go inside and take a look around. it's located in, where else, texas. bryan to be specific. casey steegal is there live. >> reporter: yeah, everything's bigger in texas, so why should christmas decorations be different? that translate into about 3,000 square feet, and the chefs and the nutritionist say it's about 36 million calories or so. everything that you see out here on on the outside edible from the lollipops, the canty canes on the windows to, of course, the gingerbread and icing. you probably see all of the

bees, there are a lot of them because there is ab5q'ñ lot of , as you can imagine, to munch on. but we want to take you inside because this is the real secret. look up here, it's all wood on the inside. it's just like a normal house, wooden framing and what not. the requirement by the folks of the guinness book of world records was that the exterior had to be entirely edible, and that it is. bill horton is with me with the a&m traditions club, and while we're talking, we want to show you some time-lapse video. this took weeks to build, right? >> well, we actually started on november 1st with a raw piece of land, and then we put in the footing, framework, trusses, started building the actual gingerbread -- actually cooking the gingerbread at three different locations on november 15th. >> reporter: people were putting gingerbread in their ovens and doing a all over bryan college station. this has been open to the public. you guys have been raising a lot of money for a good cause. >> all in all, probably close to

25,000 people came through, and we're trying to raise money for st. joseph trauma center. originally, we started off with a vision that we did want to build the world's largest gingerbread house, but it's become to raise as much money as we can for the trauma center. >> reporter: guinness world record holder, again, just absolutely incredible. and then, jon, once all of this is taken apart once the season is over, then the lumber and material is going to be donated to habitat for humanity, so yet another organization that will prosper from this pretty exciting holiday treat. jon: put some varnish on it or something to keep the rain from melting it. >> reporter: i know. jon: casey, thank you. we'll be right back. farmer: hello, i'm an idaho potato farmer.

and our giant idaho potato truck is still missing. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back,

so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what? life could be hectic. as a working mom of two young boys angie's list saves me a lot of time. after reading all the reviews i know i'm making the right choice. online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time. with honest reviews on over 720 local services. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job, and i don't have time for unreliable companies. angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. because you can't beat zero heartburn. woo hoo! [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. [ female announcer ] at 100 calories, not all food choices add up.

some are giant. some not so giant. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. winston adopted me and i played in the snow. i put a funny hat on and it inspired me to see if other people put pets in the costume. >> what did you find out?

>> that is stela on the right. >> and josey and owned by tracey, our make- up artist they are nice out fits. >> winston would not put on the outfit but sported the hat. >> tweet them to us oh, happening right now. >> bill and ally are next. thanks, guys, a controversial budget deal clears a hurdle in the senate. welcome to hq, i am alisyn camerota. >> and i am bill hemmer. it faces one more vote before it goes to the president's desk. mike emmanuel is live watching. that where are we right now? >> reporter: bill, it cleared the 60 vote threshold with a curbian thanks to 12 republicans joining with the democrats to pass the deal.