world. >> they're keeping a good perspective. this season is not about the gifts. >> patti ann. of course it is. >> i happen to think it will be an excuse for a lot of people who didn't go out and get the gifts. i'm a cynic. >> thanks for being with us today. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> hello and good morning to you. it is thursday, the 26th of december, 2013. i'm anna kooiman in for elisabeth this morning. on-line shoppers calling it the worst christmas ever after mistakes at u.p.s. and fedex left many presents missing from under the tree. the latest on the disaster. >> you've heard the story for weeks. target accidentally exposing millions of americans credit card information. this morning we may know who's behind that hack and actual stack of your credit cards and what they might do next. >> what better way to bring

in the new year than with new taxes. how obamacare is going to cost you in 2014. "fox & friends" starts now. >> hi, this is jordan daniels. you're watching "fox & friends" and we send a special greetings to our troops. >> right now we need to get to our news headlines. a u.s. government contractor kidnapped by al qaeda militants releasing a recorded message calling out the obama administration for not doing enough to get him released. >> you are now in your second term as president of the united states. and that means that you can take hard decisions without worrying about reelection. >> 72-year-old warren weinstein was kidnapped in pakistan in 2011. later that year al qaeda said weinstein would be freed if the united states released all the imprisoned members of al qaeda and the

taliban. >> a security breach at a busy airport. a trespasser hops a fence and crosses two runways at newark international going unnoticed by surveillance cameras. he was caught by a united airlines work when he tried entering the terminal at 4:00 yesterday. to make it more bizarre, he was wearing women's clothing. target denying reports its data breach included stolen pin numbers. cyber security experts say swipe machines at registers were compromised. the security blogger who broke the news about the target security breach believes he has identified a ukrainian man who is behind one of the black market sites selling the debit and credit card information. former president george h.w. bush may be 89 years old but he can still spread christmas cheer with the best of them. the former leader of the

free world hung out with three houston texas cheerleaders before their game against the denver broncos last sunday. having a good time there. bush also spotted wearing red and green reindeer socks, known for those wild socks he always wears. >> who's spreading the cheers? >> the girls? >> maybe a little bit of both. we're going to talk about something else you've all been dealing with. it's called obamacare. still plagued with glitches nearly three months after the website rollout, and the confusion over this continues as a last-minute rush of enrollees causes a flood for insurers and leaves many unsure if they will ever be covered. elizabeth is live in d.c. with more details. >> reporter: merry post christmas. as the deadline passed this week the dim did tell customers -- the administration did tell

customers they have more time to sign up. if they have technical glitches, they can sign up, call hot line today. many victims may be surprised they may see a number of deadlines in the future. many health insurers are giving the date of january 10. >> obviously been a very painful process. i think it's been much more painful than it needed to be. i'm afraid there's probably going to be more pain down the road. >> president obama is vacationing in hawaii where he greeted hundreds of troops and their families yesterday. while he seems to be staying away from politics on this trip, officials previously said they remain steadfast that the affordable care act is what's been for the nation and the surge of traffic on monday and tuesday is an indication that this is what people want. >> we've made tremendous technical improvements to the website. when the website was first

rolled out it was crashing regularly, it was not reliable. it now is reliable and while taking on significant traffic. more than a million people today use that website. >> one of the biggest challenges that lies ahead is the health care system needs more young and healthy people to buy in in order to offset the cost of accepting some of the older and sicker patients. back to you guys in new york. >> thank you. >> did everybody at home have a good merry happy christmas? some people are heading back to work today unfortunately but we would love for you to share photos from yesterday. everybody have a good day? >> yeah. did you take pictures of your day? >> i took a couple. i slept most of the day away. when i woke up i took baxter for a nice walk around the neighborhood with a little bandana around him and a hat on myself. then i had dinner. i crashed one of my girlfriend's family dinners and she cooks healthy,

lovely, beautiful, amazing food. i enjoyed eating and didn't have to feel guilty about what's inside of it. >> i ate too much and slept most of the day but i did walk through times square along with some of my family members and people in times square, look at the crush of people that were there. i felt like i was walking arm in arm with people i did not know but everyone was smiling, have a great time. this time of the season in new york city is incomparable. right there in times square, a sea of people. >> i you know what i always wonder is i think people would go to new york city for christmas ahead of time but then go home by christmastime. so i was surprised on christmas eve when i thought why aren't you guys home by now? >> in the tourist areas they are but in my neighborhood i'm the only one who stayed in the city. >> there's my son morgan, the little rock star i call him because he used to be a

recording artist. he's opening up a gift from dad and he has a lot of holiday cheer because dad gave him some money. >> always a good gift. >> spend it wisely. you only get it once. >> how did you spend yours? >> i did not cook at all. i'm going on a big vacation today to northern canada so i packed all day. a friend of mine cooked so i went over for dinner. this is a picture. >> oh my goodness. >> i got that in my gut still. prime rib and it was absolutely amazing. i love prime rib. but i've never been to somebody's house where they cooked it. i've had it at a restaurant but never somebody's house. >> can i break tradition for a moment because i see someone there in the corner. >> hi. >> can you give me a hug and a kiss? >> yes. >> come on over. >> come on over. i have not seen juliet in years. how, sweetheart, how are

you? >> look at his haircut. it is so beautiful. >> what did you get for christmas? >> i got nothing really. no. i got a wonderful fiancee. that's what i got for christmas. >> bling, bling. >> yes. merry christmas, you guys. i didn't mean to bust in. >> totally my fault but i had to say hi to you. we're asking people to send in your pictures of christmas so you have to send in yours too. all of you watching us right now, how was your christmas? did you get good gifts or bad gifts? >> juliet with got a good one. >> it was an early christmas present. i'll leave you guys. a strange and awkward entrance. >> the other thing is maybe some people didn't even their gifts.

this is a big problem. yesterday we reported that u.p.s. had been delayed on some of their packages. now we're finding out also that fedex was late on some of their packages. there's a lot of people out there who maybe you didn't get gifts. >> some of this comes from the winter storm fallout but it happens almost every year. it seems like they would plan for that a little bit. the other thing, they said their system was overloaded. you know what? it's christmastime so you would think they would try to get on the ball ahead of time. >> had this been the postal service, the postal service would be reamed about this. and a lot of people are still upset about u.p.s. and fedex not delivering their job but the postal service always gets blamed for never delivering the mail on time. yet they were probably on time this year. >> when we first talked about this yesterday, i assumed these are from people who mailed their gifts at the last moment, even if you mailed it for the next day, possibly that's the case. but a lot of people who did

not get their packages are people who mailed their packages on december 11 and december 13. you would think 12 days before christmas ought to be plenty of time and that's not the case. >> we've got tweets from some of you already. julie tweeted earlier saying i will never ever use u.p.s. again. >> that's pretty strong. a tweet from jennifer says anxiously awaiting a package promised to be delivered today at amazon at u.p.s. tracking says it is in another state. hash tag where's my stuff >> thanks for taking my money and ruining my son's christmas. never again. >> angry consumers sounding off this morning. take a listen. >> we came up on saturday. i've been calling them since wednesday of last week trying to get the status on it. >> 99% of the things arrived in two days but there was one item for

myself that didn't arrive yet. >> how do you tell a six-year-old she's not going to get her presents for christmas? >> that is the crux of everything. how do you tell your six-year-old. social media, the day of social media, you can't get away from this stuff, companies can't. social media was in an uproar over this and rightly so. >> u.p.s. issued a statement to this terrible situation they're in right now and the statement read the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network as demand was much greater than forecasted. as a result, a small percentage of package was delayed. is that really? >> to their point, christmas fell a little bit closer to thanksgiving this year than it normally does because thanksgiving was later, only 26 days, so people were shopping a little bit later this year. also things like on-line shopping grows in popularity every single

year. you are rewarded and procrastinators rejoice because you are rewarded for shopping later. >> that's all forecasting the companies need to do. we want to know did you not get your christmas gift in the mail? are you still waiting for santa to show up or for maybe your mom or dad's gift coming to you? e-mail that to us today. coming up, what better way to ring in the new year than with new taxes? charles payne here to explain how new taxes from obamacare will trickle down to you. >> the tax man. then millions of americans regular order to return their unwanted gift today but what if you don't have a receipt? everything you need to know to avoid today's post to avoid today's post christmas chaos ahead. wisest kid, am i forgetting something? no holiday's complete without campbell's green bean casserole.

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a quarter past the hour. as many of you get ready to ring in the new year, you may want to brace yourself because there is one big bad thing 2014 will bring. >> a slew of new obamacare related taxes that will surely trickle down to you and charles payne for fox business network is here with what we can expect. >> there's already been a slew of taxes already that have been coming in but we get two biggies in 2014. the individual mandate which we hear so much about. businesses got a mandate too but they got pushed off for a year. and also taxes on medical companies. $65 billion over seniors, the other $60 billion. it's really been a serious bone of contention for a lot of people particularly the individual mandate because people are saying even if you tried to sign up it's been pretty tkeufl

and in this -- pretty difficult and in this economic climate to penalize people. making someone buy something they wouldn't buy normally or didn't want to buy and then penalizing them, taxing them. >> that individual mandate is small. you're going to think where did that tax come from? but it goes up dramatically. >> 2015 and 2016. first year $95 or whatever is greater. the next year $300 or whatever is greater. the next year over $600 or 2.5% whichever is greater. you may feel like particularly younger people, i'll pay the $95 fine but prohibitively it becomes extraordinarily expensive over time. >> some of these taxes aren't being broadcast. a lot of insurers are trying to do this in the fine print so consumers don't realize what is going on and then they are lobbying lawmakers for a

tax break? >> insurers, no one ever comes out with the pom poms for insurance companies. however, they are getting something of the run around too with all the different changes, the deadlines. six million policies are canceled, let's give them catastrophic care. you told us not to make that available so we got rid of it. it is a big brouhaha. they face their own tax issues as well. there are so many taxes associated with this that don't hit you right in the face but they do indirectly impact your wallet. >> it is that rolling creeping up on you kind of taxation. give me an average of what families might be expected -- >> kaiser is saying a premium is going to go up for a single $270 over the course of the next year. that is just on the insurance alone. what you start to add is in is medical device tax, if device makers are going to be taxed on this, they got to pass it on. >> you're on today?

>> i am on varney and company. the market is at an all-time high. we've got a lot of stuff to talk about. >> thank you, charles. >> you've got to make some money if you're going to pay for obamacare. >> up next, the reverend jesse jackson throwing himself into the "duck dynasty" debate and wait until you hear what historical controversy he compares it to. >> chances are you're still feeling a bit full from christmas. what to eat to beat the what to eat to beat the bloat coming up. when i grow up, i want to sleep in a big bouncy castle.

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good morning. hope you're doing well. quick headlines for you. the accused lax airport shooter will be arraigned today in california. the 23-year-old facing 11 felony counts including murder and attempted murder. he is accused of killing a t.s.a. agent and wounding two other people last month. he could face the death penalty. egypt's interim government officially labeling the muslim brotherhood a terrorist organization. this comes following the murder of 16 people in a bombing on tuesday. the muslim brotherhood claims they will continue opposing the government will daily protests. rick over to you. >> no matter what you call holiday weight gain, the fact is many of you are still feeling the bloat from thanksgiving and many stuffed your faces on christmas. so what now? joining me with the foods to beat the bloat is dr. nina radcliffe. this is a big deal for us right now because i guarantee you i'm not the

only one feeling a little bit gross after the last four weeks. >> we enter the holiday season thinking 'tis the season to become jolly but in reality it is 'tis the season to become jiggly. the number one new year's resolution is weight loss. number one, let's get rid of fad diets. by the time february comes around they are usually gone from our list. i want to talk about something important. fiber. people are calling it the miracle food. there are some really good things about it. when it is in your intestines it soaks up and absorbs the fat, the cholesterol as well as carbohydrates and flushes it out of your system. fiber helps you feel full longer so you consume less calories. >> when i think about bloat, sometimes i eat a lot of vegetables and i feel really full and gross. am i eating too much

vegetables or is that what it is supposed to do to keep me from eating that burger on top of it? >> it makes you feel feel, makes you feel satiated. that is why you need water. our body is made of 60% of water. it is important not just for digestion, and also for fat burning. >> sometimes i hear studies that say there is no need to drink water. but is it true we need that much water? >> absolutely. it is important tpo so many processes. 60% of our body is made of water. we need it. eight glasses eight ounces every single day and sometimes more. >> eight eight-ounce glasses. i have smaller glasses. >> then do double that. >> you say the mediterranean diet is great? >> yes. you do not need to live in italy, spain or greece in order to eat like the mediterraneans. if you do eat like the

mediterraneans, you may find yourself living longer, and have weight loss. >> of all the diets is the mediterranean the healthiest? >> in 2013 it got a lot of press talking about the benefits to the heart but it helps our waistline. they don't eat very much processed food or red meat. >> all great tips. thank you very much. there might be some leftovers in your christmas dinner today. we can start this tomorrow. do you know somebody who got sick right before christmas? the latest on a nationwide virus scare that is about to get worse. straight ahead. millions of americans heading to return their unwanted gift today but what if you don't want to wait in line or don't have a receipt. what you need to know to avoid the post christmas chaos coming up.

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from the families of aig, happy holidays. how cute is that? it's your shot of the morning and your daily dose of adorable -- can you say

adorable? yes, you can. this video of puppies opening presents is making the round on the internet again because we can't get enough of the cuteness; right? >> they're cute when they're ripping into presents but at that age they get into everything. >> you would know. >> yes. there are so many rugs. oh my gosh. >> lots of puppies under the tree yesterday. i had a friend of mine send me a video he took of his kids getting the puppy and the kids going crazy, the puppy going crazy. and then mom going i'm going to be the one to take care of it. walk it, feed it. >> and clean up after it. >> i know. experts say about one-third of americans will return at least one present after the holidays. with the official gift returning frenzy kicking off today, we're live at the cherry hill mall in new jersey. how is it looking there, dawn? >> reporter: well, this macy's here at the cherry hill mall opened at 6:00

this morning. we're starting to see a steady stream of people going through the doors. it's the thought that counts, right? so a lot of people feel like there is no problem returning those unwanted gifts, and the retailers are obviously ready, opening up extra early. the mall here opening at 7:00. you can see some young girls headed in, also people trying to sphafp up the bar -- snatch up the bargains. but according to better business bureau retailers are expecting $3.5 billion in returns this holiday season. if you want to make sure they're happy returns, you should be prepared because a lot of retailers have actually tightened their return policy. if you're going to be among the crowds and crowds of people heading back into the stores this morning, be prepared for tighter return policies. the time periods have shortened. best buy's 30 day period has been shortened by 9

days. j.c. penneys shortened it. toys 'r' us has a deadline to return electronics. go on-line, check your receipts because the last thing you want to do is wait in a long, long line and then get to the register and find out that you can't return or exchange that item that you don't want. you may want to keep that in mind. also there is always regifting if things don't work out. >> are you regifting something? >> no, no, no. you can sell it on ebay too. trying to give you some idea there. >> all right. merry christmas. everybody stick around. in a few minutes we're going to be telling you everything you need to know about holiday gift returns so you can avoid post

christmas chaos. >> some people are heading back to the office today like us right here. a lot of people are bugged by that office jargon speech out there and there's a lot of common expressions that might drive you nuts. >> here's a few of them. the most hated office expression. pushing the envelope. let's run this thing up the flagpole. let's touch base on this one. >> the one i don't like is bring it to the table. thinking outside the box. >> thinking outside the box drives me crazy. i can't stand it. >> none of these bother me. at the end of the day that's water under the bridge. the bottom line is -- >> they're all expressions. but there are specific work things that i think are ways people who are not that good at their job adopt a certain language and it looks like they are these great office people. >> instead of saying thinking outside of the box why not say innovative? i'm trying to be creative.

>> go to synonym.com -- >> they started in the 90's, in a culture they started coming up. thinking outside the box was one. i had a great boss but she would do this we're going to get together and think outside the boss. >> it was this language that permeated the entire culture. >> it's a buzzword that gets overused. >> i do like the commercial that one of these fast food companies came up with. thinking outside the bun. >> the one i hate is ping. or let me ping her and see what's going on. >> why would you do that? >> a line so many people told me basically saying i've been here for a long time is hey, trust me, i know where the body are buried. i never heard that before. >> e-mail us or tweet us what your most hated office

expressions are. >> other stories making news headlines today and a disturbing story to tell you about. at least five people expected dead from the swine flu. the texas department of health asking doctors to prescribe antiviral treatments for patients with flu like symptoms even if initial tests come back negative. the flu shot can save your life and it is not too late to get one says experts. help on the way for cruise ship passengers stuck in antarctica. the cruise ship got lodged in the ice and three ships were sent to help the ship break free. the first one is expected to arrive late tomorrow. there are 74 people on board and no injuries have been reported. the reverend jesse jackson is jumping into the tk-bg dynasty debate and he's -- into the duck dynasty debate and he's comparing phil robertson to the driver who made rosa parks move to the back of the bus. he says robertson's

statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law within content of what he seemed to believe was, quote, white privilege. jackson and the civil rights group are demanding a meeting with the a & e network which airs duckñi dynasty.tx

cold is still there. you're 13 in minneapolis, below zero towards international falls and minus eight in caribou, maine. in the northeast this is warmer than yesterday but you still haven't been above zero where you were without power five days in. now there is more snow moving into the area. we're stkpw-g to see -- going to see rain showers across parts of the southeast. maybe three to four inches of snow across vermont, new

hampshire and into maine where you are without power and parts of michigan getting lake-effect snow. that snow problem is the only real problem we're dealing with as far as travel. a lot of people traveling back today. people without power still struggling unfortunately. >> a look at sports. serena williams made the associated press female athlete of the year. williams compiled a 34 match winning streak and raised her grand slam championship to 17. this year she earned $12 million in prize money, a record for women's tennis, the third a.p. award for williams. you talk about a fashion faux pas, even going into the nba, if you watched any nba games yesterday you probably noticed those hideous sleeved jerseys worn by players foregoing the traditional tank top

style jerseys the nba wanted to switch it up for christmas however. players and fans took to twitter to express displeasure. nowitsky tweeted call me old school but these jerseys are aufrl. aufrl. -- are awful. >> if you ever sat bench side at a game it is exhilarating but you might hear something from the players. kevin garnett disagreed with the call and had a few choice word for the referee. kevin, young people are listening. and you're setting an example. >> those jerseys were really bad. i'm surprised the players would stand for it because so many of them are superstitious about the way their sleeves are. >> maybe they should have consulted with a fashion

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quick headlines. drive too fast and get a lottery ticket. that's how the cops in florida issue tickets to speedy drivers on christmas day. the message was to spread holiday cheer while warning drivers to slow down. is denzel washington gearing up to battle the man of steel? the actor is rumored he's stepping into the luther

role in the upcoming sequel batman versus superman. >> i want to talk about something serious going on, the latest attack on christians happened yesterday on christmas day in baghdad. 37 people were killed and 60 people injured when three bombs went off near a church in christian village. the question is why are these attacks againsristians onn the middle east and is there anything our government can do to stop them? here to weigh in on this matter is our fox news contributor. lisa, when i was in iraq i saw some of these attacks take place and got to meet some of the christians there who were facing persecution all the time, and that was in 2004. so our government knew about it then. our military knew about it then and they were able to tamp down those kinds of attack. now without the u.s. military presence there, what's happening? >> the only thing that's happening is that that

christian community dwindled significantly. we went from over 3 million or 4 million down to about half a million. this is across the region. we can talk about the attacks yesterday obviously being a symbolic attack on christmas day. three different bombs that obviously went off something that was, again, planned and premeditated against this community in iraq. we have to also look across the region. there's two types of this animosity against christians. in iraq you actually have our native christians, they can be a syrian or from different background that are born into the religion. but you also have christian converts and that is a bigger threat -- >> even worse? >> much worse. in some countries such as iran the islamic republic is punishable by death. they look at it as someone who has turned their back on islam and turned to christianity. that's been a big risk for their community. >> we're talking about iraq

because of what took place there but in syria it's happening every day, in that syrian conflict so many people who have converted to the christian faith or grew up in the christian faith are becoming subjected to a kind of hostility we've never seen in our lifetime. >> they are major targets throughout the middle east and north africa, in syria, in iran. in egypt we had a huge crackdown. a young girl ten years old was gunned down on her way home from bible study. this is something that what can we do? the bottom line, what can the u.s. do? for as long as you and i can talk and make this a big issue, politics and the economy will always come first. what our administration has to focus on is not giving a pass on these human rights violations particularly those against innocent groups such as christians. you have to look at other minority groups also.

>> how effective should our foreign policy be in not only talking against these kinds of heinous attacks on people because of their faith, but what must we do to try to level the playing field and say wait a minute, hands off this kind of practice? >> the most important question to ask. the real -- the only leverage that we would have here is to connect human rights with politics. for example, we want to sit down with the new egyptian government, we're going to make sure the muslim brotherhood is not involved. we're going to speak out against it. if we're going to make negotiations with the iranian government, why don't we first talk about human rights? why don't we ask for our three americans that are being held in iran? why don't we connect human rights with the political agenda that we have? if we don't, what are we saying? what's the message here? >> -- it leaves [inaudible] because of standing for their faith. your comments are very

salient and good talking points for all to consider. by the way, merry christmas to you. >> to you as well. >> they put their lives on the line for our freedom, but now our government dealing with our nation's veterans. yet another pay cut they're facing. we'll get reaction from one of the air force's most decorated pilots next. no gift, no problem. details on how to handle the post-christmas chaos at the mall today as you make those holiday returns. ♪ ♪ ♪ ho ho ho ♪

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good morning to you, a 2 minutes after the hour. we hope sap that brought you everything you wanted this christmas. in case he didn't, our next guest as you covered. here with tips on how to get the most out of your holiday returns. shop smart spokesperson value lynn -- valentine. 20% say they regift it. 90% say they stow it out of sight. 8% just toss it in the trash can. what do you make of these numbers? >> one in five respond dents to our holiday poll last year says they received a really lousy holiday gift. i thought it was shocking 8% threw it in the trash. regifting popular and 15% took the time to go back to the store and exchange it or return it for something that they wanted. >> the day after christmas has always been a big day for returning things but

it's also become such a crazy day for shopping that the crowds are just bigger and bigger and bigger because of the deep discounts. if you want to return something, is today the day to do it? >> if you are brave enough to go out and brave the crowds and long lines and want to get a higher price for something that you may not have the receipt for, i say go ahead and do it. but if you do have a gift receipt or return label, you can absolutely wait. if you are looking for a bargain, if that's your priority, the sales, the after holiday sales are going to be extended through the weekend. but, again, if you don't have a receipt, you are only going to get the lowest sale price on that item. so, get into that store rather -- sooner rather than later. >> what are some of the ways that we ought to approach taking something back when you don't have the receipt. >> when you don't have the receipt, find out where that gift came from. become familiar with the retailer's return policy. really prepare yourself ahead of time what you are going to expect when you get into that store. you are unlikely going to

get cash back. probably a store credit and again you will only get for the lowest sale price of that item. >> what if you got a gift card for somebody and it's just a store that you will never shop in or restaurant you would never eat in, there are actually web sites where you can swap them? >> let's say you get a gift card to maybe home depot and that's not really your thing, there are lots of web sites, gift card swapping.com, card poll.com and many others that allow you to either exchange them, sell them, or, you know, simply swap them for something else that someone else has. >> some people would love to go to home depot. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> real life grinch stealing not only christmas presents but puppy, too. this christmas tragedy turned around. you will meet that family and generous strangers who stepped in to help. making the most of those christmas gift cards which stores are offering, even deeper discounts today, and

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thursday, the 26th of december, 2013. i'm anna kooiman in for elisabeth hasselbeck. you have heard the stories for weeks now. target accidently exposing millions of americans' credit card information this morning. we may know who is behind the attack and what they might do next. >> eick rick reichmuth in for brian kilmeade. what better way to ring in the new year than with new taxes how obamacare is going to cost you in 2014. >> plus, in santa forgot a few things on your wish list, don't be too disappointed. you can stock in today. your guide to the post christmas deals and steals coming up. it's all happening right now because "fox & friends" starts right now. >> this is victoria jackson, you are watching "fox & friends," happy holidays to all of our troops serving overseas, we love you, you are our heros. >> she sounds like a child. >> that voice you can recognize anywhere. >> she is insane. totally insane. >> how was your christmas? was it good you guys? did you have a nice christmas. >> honestly i slept the day

away after the gentleman watched baxter and got to hang out with a friend for dinner. that's nice. >> that's not boring, you got some rest. you got your beauty sleep. >> did you do the same thing too. >> i did the same thing you did except i didn't walk baxter. i overate and overslept. >> you overslept? >> yeah, but i got here in time. >> i didn't notice at all. >> you have been here the last hour. as far as working you were on time. >> as far as pictures, there is my oldest son michael. michael actually got a gift and he is really excited about that. you guys recognize who that is? >> a fu fighters. he opened that up. we got him a portrait of that because dave is posing there as one of either as a knight or he explained it to me like a three musketeers or something and he loves the fu fighters. and there is morgan, my

youngest son, getting his new ray band sunglasses for christmas. of course, he had to strike a pose, which he did. so happy birthday -- merry christmas to both of you. >> happy birthday to jesus. >> good to be a wright kid. kid who is totally right. >> what about you? >> i packed yesterday because i'm going on a big trip today. it's going to be like minus 38. i was pretty much packing. a friend of mine cooked dinner, prime rib. i have had it at restaurants all the time. never actually been any place where somebody cooked it in the house. that was a before and after of that prime rib and it was amazing. i had a tiny little piece though because i had to get up and try to sleep. you can't sleep with that prime rib in your gut. >> it looks delicious. >> asking everybody this morning for the craziest worst gifts that they have gotten. i remember when i was a kid. one of my grandmothers -- i hope she is not awake right now. used to give us dickie

turtle necks. not a full shirt. she would give them to us every year. she lived in florida and we were in north carolina. it was really cold in north carolina compared to florida. she would give us the dickies. >> i didn't like the name. had too many implications. >> we want photos of your bad christmas gifts? what are bad ones that you have gotten. >> fruit cake. not a fan of fruit cake. especially fruit cake that you know has been regifted. >> put some ice scream on -- ice cream on it. it will be good. other stories we need to u.s. contractor kidnapped by militants. message calling out the obama administration for not doing enough to get him released. >> you are now in your second term as president of the united states, and that means that you can take hard decisions about worrying about re-elections. >> 72-year-old warren weinstein was kidnapped in

pakistan in 2011. later that year al qaeda said weinstein would be freed if the united states released all imprisoned members of al qaeda and the taliban. also this morning, a major airport security breach at one of the nation's busiest airports. the managed to cross a fence and going across two runways. uflt matily caught by united worker when he tried entering the terminal around 4:00 a.m. yesterday. he is now facing criminal trespassing charges to. make it even more bizarre, he was wearing women's clothing. and target now denying reports it's recent data breach included pins from 30 million debit. swipe machines at store registers compromised allowing hackers to steal the security number as well. the blogger who broke the news may now be zeroing in on the hackers. he traced that black market site selling stolen credit and debit card information

to a cyber criminal ring based in ukraine. iconic american taksim bolt now going under cover. this computer rendering shows what the u.s. capitol building will look like for the next two years as it undergoes a 60-million-dollar renovation to repair more than 1,000 cracks and broken cast iron pieces. renovations will begin in the spring. the last major one was in 1960. so it's been a while. >> the scaffolding always goes up. it takes forever to come down once that goes up. two years. >> a lot of work underway. but nearly three months now after bad rollout, iraqi -- a rocky rollout. insurers are flooded as last minute enrollees are actually rushing to sign up hoovment here is what is happening. it's leaving many americans unsure if they are even covered for. this elizabeth prann is live in d.c., washington to explain more. elizabeth. >> good morning. you are right. with another deadline passed

the administration did tell commerce customers who failed online, when to pay. many health insurers are giving people until january 10th. many states have their other exchanges deadlines for first payment and some have more than one. >> makes already kind of chaotic situation even more chaotic. >> it's great that i think people do need more time to sign up, but the problem is it would be better if there was just one deadline rather than having everybody perhaps thinking that they have more time that they don't have. >> president obama is vacationing in hawaii where just yesterday he greeted hundreds of troops and their families. while he seems to be staying away from politics on this trip, officials have earlier said this week that they remain stead fast on the affordable care act. they say it's what's best for the nation. they also say the surge in traffic on monday and tuesday is a really good indication that this is what people want. >> we have made tremendous

technical improvements to the web site. when the web site was first rolled out in october. it was crashing regularly. it was not reliable. it now is reliable. and it now is reliable even while it is taking on significant traffic. more than a million people today use that web site. >> now, as you know, people have did have glitches can sign up today. really we don't know how many and how it's going to last. as we know the healthcare system does need millions more young people, the young and the healthy to buy insurance. of course they need to offset the cost of some of the older and perhaps sicker patients. >> that's definitely coming from the talking points of the obama administration so we thank you for that report. because, what she is talking about, is the fact that if they don't have these millions of young people signing up for obamacare it, doesn't work. they need that because the insurance companies need it. otherwise, we may be going to a place head on into what charles krauthammer used to talk about, the plan b of this plan, which is to bail out the insurers because they won't have enough in their base. >> it's not a financially

viable project if you don't have enough young people. >> no. >> i think it's an interesting thing for people who maybe have signed up or you have gotten partway through. enrolling for college or things that become really confusing. on january 1st. show up at the doctors thinking you have health insurance and then maybe you don't. >> yeah. it's something not just the doctors office. you go and try to get a prescription filled prescription that you need find out you can't get it or if you can get it you will have to pay a pretty penny for it other thing is there are different deadlines all over the country there are deadlines from the january 1st to the january 15th. and, you know, if you have one date wrong, you could be in some a mess, too. >> personally, i have a friend who was actually trying to enroll and really couldn't get on. so, basically, this person is now languishing wondering what to do and just hoping that the insurance that this person currently has will continue to cover all of the expenses.

>> is it a problem though with the deadlines? is it a problem with the web sight or is it a problem with the actual product? >> part of the thing, the president certainly for the last say three to four weeks, now that the web site has been working marginally better has been trying to say things are fine and trying to sell this as if things are going to be going okay for. this but the poll numbers are starting to show some weaknesses there even amongst democrats the latest poll numbers are changing and seeing a shift on it. >> first democrats are saying this is not going to be affecting us in 2014. you know, this is a great achievement. but, now take a look at these new numbers that are starting to come out. this is going on behind closed doors is obamacare the president's biggest achievement? 39% say yes failure at 25%. that's from the democrats. >> from the democrats, 25% saying that. >> and then the overall numbers showing that this is the president's biggest achievement that is it 22%. and 36% of the population saying that that will be shown as his greatest

failure. >> check this out. with obamacare comes something else that americans really don't want to face and that's new taxes. taxes that will be on our tax bill because we were talking to charles payne about this earlier this hour in our first hour of the show. he wanted to tell us about 2014 to bring in new tax fees. 2% tax on every health plan. 2.3% on medical device tax. 3.5% fee on insurers for plans sold on healthcare.gov. >> isn't that amazing? we have got to go to the web sight to get our insurance. and by doing so then, there is is a 3. a% fee for using the web site, that ends up getting passed on to us eventually. >> what this really hurts, as charles talked about earlier, it research and development from our medical companies to perhaps find cures for things or to treat people better. >> that is one of the big complaints about the affordable care act obamacare in general. if this all gets watered down and everybody is in

that pool. that there is not enough money for research and development. that's one of the big concerns about obamacare in general. >> remember, we were supposed to be saving about $2,500 per family year and you are seeing these premium that was are multiple times what you're normally paying in a year and then you are finding out about these taxes it doesn't stop just at those high premiums. >> bottom lining, everybody would agree that something has to be done about healthcare in this country, however, they would probably like to take a better approach than what we are seeing right now. senator joe manchin, one of the leading democrats from virginia has put together a bipartisan bill to try to address this issue to come up with a better plan of iment plementing good healthcare that people can feel good about that's the master idea. they have put their lives on the line for our freedom. dealing with another pay

cut. one of the world's most decorated pilots is here next. >> shoppers calling it the worst christmas ever? why? it's after mistakes that u.p.s. and fedex left many presents missing from under the tree. the latest on the delivery disaster and why the solution may be days away. ♪

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>> welcome back to "fox & friends." the president signing an executive order giving a 1% pay raise to our military personnel and executive works. it's kind of a pay cut. >> in the past they were receiving 1.8% pay raise each year and with so many veterans struggling to pay their bills, is the latest raise enough? joining us now is one of the most decorated pilots in air force history lt. colonel dan hampton, dan, thanks for being with us this morning. civilian workers in the past haven't been getting a raise now they get a 1% raise that comes on the back of oour veterans? >> yeah. here i was thinking that barack hussein and congress couldn't do anything to further undermine the credibility of the government, you know, in the eyes of america and the world, and they have gone and done it. and this is a betrayal pure and simple.

these are people that have put their lives on the line for america, for americans, they have done it for at least 200 years. these are not people that have joined up, done their time and gotten out. these are people that have made a career out of it, and, yet, their pensions are now an easy mark for people like what was it nancy pelosi, you know, she -- i'm not surprised by her actions she is nothing more than a sock puppet, really. i am surprised by paul ryan. he said something last week about 40 years of compensation being a little too generous for 20 years of service. after i picked my coffee up off the ground, i was reminded that, you know, a meivel of congress only has to serve and i use that term very loosely serve for five years before they qualify for their pension plan. and, yet, they are not under the gun for any of this. neither is the other $900 billion in federal pensions. so, it really is a betrayal. >> from your comments, can i tell you are very outraged by this and one would arguably understand that when you look at the whole

scheme of things and what a man or woman has to sacrifice in terms of their military career to protect and defend our freedom here in this country, what do you think should be the right pay raise going forward? >> well, i think they ought to at least maintain the status quo. i will tell you that i volunteered, you know, i was a fighter pilot, i signed on the line. i took my chances. all of that is fine. nobody expects to get rich even as a military officer and i was a colonel, okay. but there are people that come in that get paid a lot less and really count on this to make ends meet and they are, you know, they are taking it away. and one of the reasons there is such a hole in the department of defense right now, is they lost $8.5 trillion over the last 10 to 15 years. that's a lot. >> sequestration even more. >> absolutely. $8.5 trillion that they have mismanaged and lost. there is no accounting for the dodd. and yet they think they are

going to make up for this hacking away at veterans' pensions. it's an absurd premise. >> you know, there is a law in place that all governmental departments or department of defense is supposed to be audited every year that was put in place back in 1996, that is not happening. that's where you are saying there is that $8 trillion that hasn't really been held accountable for that we don't know where that money has been spent; is that right? >> absolutely. and there is, you know, the money that you are talking about, that hagel was jumping up and down over is about 20 billion. that's a lot of money. but it's really a drop in the budget bucket if you will. and there are other places to get the money. okay. there is a $400 billion welfare slils of the budget. even in this bill that they signed yesterday, they cut the veterans' pensions but they left $4.2 billion for illegal alien tax credits? i mean, how does that make sense? foreign aid, $50 billion the country like afghanistan,

egypt, pakistan, you know, that's money that could be switched to different pots and paid this bill if they are really serious about balancing the budget. not veterans' pensions. >> yeah, dan, that's all great points. our veterans getting a pay cut this year and then still all of those other expenses continuing to be spent. thank you very much. dan, for your time this morning. >> it's my pleasure, thanks for having me back. >> again, can you understand his concern. >> of course. >> why he is irate about that. because, look, it's deplorable that some of our members serving in the military are on food stamps. that's deplorable. anyway, online shoppers calling it the worst christmas ever after mistakes at u.p.s. and fedex left many presents missing from under the tree. the latest on the delivery disaster and why the dissolution may not come today. >> then, a real life grinch stealing not only a family's christmas present but their puppy, too. this christmas tragedy quickly turned around, you will meet the family and the generous strangers who stepped in to help next.

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when the pope's itinerary include a trip to the u.s. considering a visit. vatican officials are concerned about safety. officials tell the "new york post" that the pope is a man of a people and wouldn't be behind bullet proof glass which could make u.s. more challenging. baby prince george and queen elizabeth's annual christmas broadcast. she has showed some behind the scenes footage of the family photo shoot after the christening. queen called it a happy occasion bringing together four generations.

generosity could overcome the worst christmas grinch. tampa police department dispatchers heard that a local woman and two children had their presents stolen from right under their tree the day before christmas eve. the department raised money, did some shopping and marched right into the russells' home to replace the gifts. joining us are marissa and marcus as well as the dispatcher who helped save christmas. good morning, everybody. merry christmas. >> good morning. >> and, mellowed, did you have a merry christmas thanks to the dispatchers? >> we did. it made a big difference with the kids. and how the day went because ever the help they gave us. >> well, i mean, how do you feel about the people who did this to your home? they ransacked your home and steal 20 parents that are going to be giving to your adorable children here. even your new shih tzu puppy

dog. they steal honey. what kind of people would do this? >> i really don't know, out of desperation maybe or just straight have no compassion for anybody. if you look in the house there is nothing but children's pictures all around. walk in and see the kid's pictures and the tree and be so cold to just take everything, what's really disturbing. >> and, when you hear this phone call coming in, what is it that made take action for this case in particular? >> i actually did not take this phone call. a message was sent with the event number on it and i looked up the call and i, too, have two children, a buy and a girl it kind of hit home for me. and i immediately got on the phone with the corporal, which the corporal judy diaz. we discussed getting some presents and see what we can do to help the family have a

better christmas. >> and they -- wrapping the presents on their lunch breaks and building a bit of camaraderie within their own group as well. marcus, i know you are still missing honey because honey was too small to be microchipped so can't be located. but did you get something good for christmas? what did you find under the tree that you enjoyed? >> he couldn't hear you. she said what did you find under the tree that you enjoy? >> i don't know. >> how about marissa? what did marissa get? >> can you can answer? >> presents. a blanket. >> mom, what did they get? >> her favorite was her hello kitty blanket that they bought her. marcus had fun with his nerf gun. he cocked it and loaded it and said the next time

someone came in the house he was going to shoot them in the eye. >> he didn't want anyone coming after the tv and laptop stealing christmas like these grinches did. they were grinches but you did have some people come in and save christmas. what was it like, mellowed, to have people come in and do this for you, complete strangers? >> it was very overwhelming to just see the love of the community and just out of nowhere for us to receive the gifts that the kids did, it was unexpected, and for it to just keep continuing through the tampa police department and the dispatchers. even today just still searching for honey. they stopped by the house yesterday to show the kids still looking for her overwhelming to see the love in the situation. >> happy holidays to you and your family. >> do you know somebody who got sick right before christmas? latest on nationwide virus scare that's about to get

even worse straight ahead. making the worse of those christmas gift cards, which stores are offering even diaper discounts today. your guide to the post christmas deals and steals coming up. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ [ male announcer ] nothing melts away the cold like a hot delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow

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♪ we go together. >> shot of the morning. taylor swift getting into the spirit with plaid oncey. brother austin. >> that's my favorite thing about taylor swift is her sense of humor. it goes a long way. she can be self-deprecating and all of that you wouldn't recognize her there. >> so many people love her. she was on our show when she first came out with that album. tim mcgraw show on our show at 16. i thought who is this little flash in the pan that's here. she will never become anything. >> she is huge now. >> >> laughing all the way to the bank. clearly i got it wrong. >> come on down. we would love to have you. even if you want to wear your hoody footy, whatever that was. >> we have other stories making news headlines this morning we need to get to. one of the health concerns this winter is the the flu. centers for disease control is confirming that it is widespread in four southern states, texas, louisiana, mississippi and alabama. in some cases, it has turned

deadly. at least five people in texas have died from the swine flu. health officials say the flu shot can save your life and it is not too late to get one. >> help is on the way for a cruise ship and passengers stuck. the russian cruise liner got lodged in the ice following a blizzard. three ships were dispatched to help the ship break free. the first one expected to arrive late tomorrow. there are 74 people on board. and no injuries have been reported. and one new york couple getting a special christmas delivery. an expectant mom goes in labor on a shopping trip home from babies are us. the new father was waiting at the father pulled up not knowing his newborn daughter was already inside. both mother and baby we're told are doing just fine. happy to report. babies are us, too. >> the jesus toaster has hot

commodity on amazon this christmas season or was. despite its popularity. the toaster company pulled themselves off of amazon claiming amazon has refused to pay what they are owed for the sale of them. the company adds amazon gets $8 for each toaster sold so from now on they will just sell it on their own site instead. and those are your news headlines take out the middle man. >> i wonder if they use the jesus toast for communion? >> not a bad idea. >> could work. >> all right. well they had been in the dark for days now across parts of the north. they might not get their power restored until the weekend. utility crews from michigan to maine are working nonstop to restore power to tens of thousands that have been left in the dark by last week's ice storm. it's been five days. heavy ice remains an issue and the snowfall could hamper the line crews that are trying to get to those remote spots. take a look at weather maps. can you see the cold air still in place. not seeing any of that ice melt at all. especially across places

from michigan all through upstate new york and vermont, new hampshire and maine. that's where the majority of the power outages have been. now there is a clipper system moving through bringing snow. we will see three to four inches kind of widespread. isolated areas might see up to 8 inches, maybe along the plateau. and those out oar roads that are harder to get to now having snow on top of it. so not great news for the people who have been without power for so long. out west things clear. temperatures today though looking better for at least almost everybody. warming up to 25 degrees in minneapolis. 30 in chicago. and 31 in cleveland. not bad. people trying to get home from your holiday trip, things are looking good today. friday, and saturday. sunday, the bottom drops out, the temperatures across the northern plains and eventually heads towards everybody. >> all those people without power yesterday, we hope that you are back with power. and celebrating a wonderful christmas. we know it was pretty cold for you out there. things are getting better as rick just talked about. by the way, if you are opening up your gifts right

now, did you get a lousy gift this year? your best and worst christmas presents. that's what we are talking about right now. what kind of gifts did you get? what do you do with the lousy gift? >> well, 21% of people say they donated it to charity. 20% say they regift it 19% stow it out of sight. 15% return or exchange it 8% throw it in the garbage can. >> i have done that. >> i worry about those stow it out of sight. do they become hoarders? >> putting fund the bed when family comes next year take tout and act like it was sitting on the table all year long. >> not a bad idea. we asked you to get some pictures of your either bad or really good gifts. and chuck sent this in. he got concert tickets for his daughter. i wonder what concert it is? >> i don't know. four of them though. and joyce received a santa hand carved by her husband.

>> wow, that's really special. >> that homemade gift thing i think is the best. my dad made these bottle toppers for wine bottles or oil or something like that. hand made this year. i will treasure it forever. >> and pass it down. >> something else that happened out there. the greenwich actually came by quite a few places. the grinch has company this year. delivery disasters as u.p.s., fedex, missed christmas day deadlines, sparking outrage from customers online and in person because a lot of you were thinking well in advance hey, i will get this done now, i will do my shopping online, i won't have to deal with the maddening crowds, the gift will get there on time. guess what? it didn't. john is outraged about this. oh no he is not actually, he is taking their side. people need to lay off of u.p.s. they have families but are out trying their best to deliver to the late shoppers. >> u.p.s. doesn't deliver on christmas day. they don't bother you. they let those employees have off. they did have people

background in their shops working to sort out those things they went into panic mode. hopefully drivers were out with their families. i appreciate the email looking out for everyone and certainly understand that people are angry because they didn't get their gifts when they worked so hard to make sure their gifts would get on time. as you said earlier, weather kind of hampered what the u.p.s. >> weather happens every year. that's always a thing. take a listen to what some of the statements were from people, social media went crazy yesterday on u.p.s. and fedex but also just take a look at what some the people said. >> this is what u.p.s. saying right now. >> on them since wednesday of last week trying to get a status of it. >> 99% of the things arrived in two days but there was one item for myself that didn't arrive yet. >> how do you tell a 6-year-old she is not going to get her present for christmas? >> that's tough. the u.p.s. says the volume of air packages in our

system exceeded capacity of the network as demand was much greater than first alert forecast.all percentage os were delayed. they didn't say what percentages of packages were delayed. goes back to first alert forecasting. there were some things that were kind of unique to this year that thanksgiving did fall a little bit later so some people were doing their holiday shopping a little bit later. only 26 shopping days and there are usually a few more. and then the other thing, the popularity of online shopping, right? a lot of people doing that more and more every year. and you're rewarded until waiting for the last minute because of the deeper discounts. >> planning, planning, planning on all levels. >> coming up, president obama promised the most transparent administration of all time, so why is the white house blocking a law that would expose the flaws in healthcare.gov? >> and are you heading out to spend your christmas gift cards? your guide to today's best deals and the coupon code that you need to cash in coming up. heart healthy, huh?!

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good morning, some quick headlines for you now. former president george h.w. bush may be 89 years old but he can still spread christmas cheer with the best of them. former leader of the free world hung out with three houston texas cheerleaders before their game against the denver broncos last sunday. there you go. egypt's interim government officially labeling the muslim brotherhood a terrorist organization now. this comes following the murder of 16 people in a bombing on tuesday. the muslim brotherhood claims they will continue opposing the government with daily protests. >> you know, we have heard

the word transparency many times from president obama. listen. >> we have been certified by independent groups as the most transparent white house in history. there are checks and balances but there is sufficient oversight. sufficient transparency. >> we have major huge swaths of your government more fixture and more transparent and more accountable than ever before. >> transparency. very important to have that in any kind of government. but if the white house is all about transparency, why did it reject a law that exposes the hacks into healthcare.gov? joining us is national review columnist john fund. and, john, why don't we know about hackers in the healthcare.gov? >> it's bizarre. target, which had a big security breach last week had to inform all of its 40 million customers. >> right. >> some of the state healthcare exchanges have to inform their customers like minnesota. but the federal government doesn't. it declared itself exempt, even though it was begged by security experts please,

alert people if there is a security breach. >> all for good reasons. because people were putting their personal information on the line by enrolling through healthcare.gov. so, is the government turning a blind eye to this? >> well, they are turning a blind eye to a lot. last week we learned from the house oversight committee that theresa fryer, who is the chief information officer at the centers for medicaid and medicare, they are the people who run the web site, she refused to sign off on the security of the web site. and her boss refused to sign off on it. they said instead they launched on october 1st anyway. the only political appointees at the centers for medicaid and medicare is the one who had to sign the authorization to launch it. >> president obama also went online as well. not the president himself he is the president of the free world. >> he can't put his personal information on there. but what i'm hearing from so many people is that those in government are not so secure

in the security of healthcare.gov. so what's proximate cause done about it to address it? >> well, there is is a bill by congresswoman diane black from tennessee that would address it, force the government to stop this ridiculous posture. one law for me, one law for meme. that's not what a democracy is supposed to be about. we don't know right now except for if we believe the government that there are any security breaches. because legally they can say well it wasn't really a security breach. it was something else. we need clear guidelines. and not because we don't trust the people in government, but because we want complete transparency. just like target had to tell its customers what happened, so, too, should the government. >> and target, of course, affected 40 million plus people. so we don't know how many people are being affected through healthcare.gov. >> some of that information from target is already on the black market being sold. >> exactly. >> we don't know if there has been a security breach and certainly, given the fact that these government officials wouldn't sign off on it, this web site,

healthcare.gov is extremely vulnerable. >> we do know this has been a problem anyway especially when you have the navigators of healthcare.gov not having their own background checks. >> two things that can happen inadvertently. one is minnesota, they found out that 2500 people social security numbers and other information were released accidently. he had to report that to people and it's been rectified. but the navigators, these hundreds of thousands of people that are paid to go out. >> exactly. >> and, you know, help you navigate the system, well, they have access to something called the federal data hub. the federal data hub is a conglomeration that brings all of your personal information in one place. the navigators can access it. these navigators do not have to go through a federal background check for criminal behavior. census workers three years ago did not the navigators although they have access to far more important information. >> john, thank you for bringing insight and progressive -- perspective on this. john fund, thanks for joining us. up next, incredible post

christmas deals you won't want to miss today. then, grab them before they are gotten for good. we're talking about dozens of tax breaks about to be eliminated but there is still time for you to cash in. what does that first spoonful taste like? ok. honey bunches of oats. ching! mmmm! mmmm! mmmm! wow! it's the oats. honey. yeah. honey bunches of oats. this is a great cereal.

if santa forgot a you few things under the tree yesterday, don't sweat just yet. help you get everything left

on your wish lift. saving expert brad wilson, founder of brad deals. good morning, how are you? >> good morning, i'm doing well, how are you doing? >> where are the best deals? where do we need to go? welcome to my favorite week to shop. there is really a ton of stuff floating around right now that are at the lowest price of the year. few examples at the store level. banana republic.com is doing literally an extra 50% off due code br extra 50. br.com extra 20% off. shoes.com is doing the same. sefora is doing an extra 20% off theirs. and brooks brothers 20% off. and today extra 15% off of that. you are seeing this theme of very significant markdowns on products that are already 30, 40, 50% off.

so, you know, it's really a good time to pick up things that you might not have gotten for christmas. >> brarksd you mentioned coupon codes. codes that you enter in when you are buying something. it seems like those are very difficult to track. is there an easy way to find coupon codes out there for different web sites? >> yeah. on a daily basis, 365 days a year at brad's deals, we have 10 or 15,000 active coupon codes at any given time. that span 3 or 5,000 different stores. we literally have a page for each store. one of the big challenges is finding the best code for a store a lot of times there is 5 or 10 or 20 of them on a day. not so much if there is 50, for example. >> if you are looking for the coupon codes that we just showed. we have them on foxandfriends.com. what kind of trends are you noticing? you mentioned a lot of clothing and makeup and

shoes and things like that. what about person ricial items perishable products? >> never better time to buy perishable items. godiva chocolate and things like that probably 50% than they were a week ago. tech side is interesting. a lot of new tech products get launched in january. the retailers get paranoid that they are essentially carrying obsolete inventory. so you can see a the love really good deals on electronics and technology products this week. it's not on everything. very important thing about this week overall as well is that what you find a good deal is probably the lowest price that you have seen not necessarily broad every specific model in every precise side. more inventory driven. the deals that are out there

are hard to beat. >> brad, target, the security breach that happened this season has a lot of people afraid. is there anything anybody can know about how to keep themselves extra protected right now after we are seeing like that? >> yeah, a couple things to keep in mind about the target thing. you know, one is that this is -- this was only in stores. if you shopped online you were okay. i think that this probably closes the door forever on, you know, online shopping being less safe than offline as we can see when it's in stores. they can and in this case they actually read the magnetic strip of your card. and they can get your name and your security code and a lot of things like that. it's less safe than online. >> thank you, brad so much we have to leave it there. >> thanks for having me on. >> merry christmas and happy new year. >> if you want more information on him it's brad deals. 7:56 now. when we come back a shocking security breach at one of america's biggest airports.

wait until you hear how one man broke in. >> her life changed forever the day the boston bombing happened. something also incredible happened in time for christmas. this woman and fiancee bothre' survivors will join us live. 300 days? 3,000 days? the answer is... 3,000 days. because of gasoline's high energy density, your car doesn't have to carry as much fuel compared to other energy sources. take the energy quiz. energy lives here.

what does that first spoonful taste likok. honey bunches of oats.

ching! mmmm! mmmm! mmmm! wow! it's the oats. honey. yeah. honey bunches of oats. this is a great cereal. good morning, it's thursday, december 26th, 2013. i'm in for elisabeth hasselbeck. what the companies are saying this morning and when your packages may be delivered. >> well, you have heard the story for weeks now. target accidently exposing millions of americans' credit card information. this morning, we may know who is behind the hack and what they might do next. >> then, her life changed forever the day of the boston bombing. the explosion went off and she almost lost both of her legs. now she is getting the

greatest christmas gift of all time. and she is here sharing her story live this hour. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> hi, this is joe theseman, i want to send my best out to outline our troops tore a happy holiday. >> he didn't say according to my watch, float the animation or pictures. kilmeade always says. i'm in for elizabeth rick is in for brian and kelly is in tore steve. >> super bowl with my favorite washington red since. >> there you go. in he is in for the announcing duties this morning. >> we do have some news headlines we need to get to today. a u.s. government contractor kidnapped by al qaeda militants now releasing a reported message calling out the obama administration for not doing enough to get him released. >> you are now in your second term as president of the united states. and that means that you can take hard decisions without worrying about re-election. >> well, 72-year-old warren

weinstein was kidnapped in pakistan in 2011. later that year, al qaeda said weinstein would be freed if the united states released all imprisoned members of al qaeda and the taliban. a major airport security breach at one of the nation's busiest airports. a manager manages to hop a fence and cross two runways going unnoticed by surveillance cameras. he was ultimately caught by united airlines worker when he tried entering the terminal around 4:00 a.m. yesterday and now faces criminal trespassing charges. to make it even more bizarre, he was wearing women's clothing morning after christmas and some people haven't opened their gifts that's because they haven't arrived yet. u.p.s. and fedex scrambling after a number of gifts missed the christmas eve deadline. u.p.s. won't say how many packages are late, but in a statement, explained this: the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network as demand was much greater than first alert forecast. resulting in some shipments being delayed.

both companies claimed demand was greater than expected. online shopping. coming up later in our report, we will have somebody live from u.p.s. with an update on when gifts are expected to arrive. that's going to be an important one coming up. and parishioners in miami beach get quite the christmas surprise when singer andrea bocelli performed during that ♪ members of saint patrick catholic church took out their smart phones and tablets to record the once in a lifetime experience. >> for christmas, i want absolutely to have -- and for this occasion, if they ask me to sing, i sing. i'm happy. >> italian mass held for the famous italian tenor. >> he is such a great singer. >> he has nothing on r.

kelly, right? >> yes, he does. he is phenomenal. i love his music. especially when he has a song he called the prayer that he did with see loan dion. >> maybe he has a little bit on you but not that much. >> okay. all right. >> plus celine dion. >> post merry christmas to you. many of you have unwrapped your parents -- >> you have unraveled your parents and unwrapped your gift unwrapped your parents and some so great excited, sometimes you are going this morning asking for best and worst pictures from this year and year's past. >> we got this picture from laura from christmas morning. looks like a little motorcycle kind of a little plastic motorcycle. >> some kind of a boy toy. >> boy toy. i'm sure is he in love with that. >> caroline got a surprise trip to the george w. bush presidential library from her brother. >> wow.

>> that's a nice visit. >> one of those last minute gifts you can write, too. hand write a note and say i'm giving you this trip. >> you see that. this is a coupon for a background. >> elizabeth prann sent us a picture. how adorable. good morning, elizabeth. you actually have a report for us this morning. >> i do, yeah. those are my two pups. and my husband there. we -- i know dressing up your dogs is torture but we are really good at it. >> nicely done. >> elizabeth taking a nice break before he gets back into the grind, right? >> yes. he leaves for spring training in february. so i'm trying to keep him home as long as i can. and this year he is he actually going to two daughters have a hit with me in february a little distraught. >> oh my gosh. >> wow. elizabeth, it's been three months since the rollout of obamacare. the rocky rollout of the web site. still facing glichesz, insurers are flooded with the last minute enrollees and a lot of people not even

really sure if they are covered? >> no, you are right. and what they have to could we hear a lot of customers that are going back and checking with their insurance companies to make sure they do have coverage. but that's just one of the issues that we are juggling here. yet another deadline has passed. the administration told customers who fell victim to online glitches that they could still buy coverage. in fact, a lot of them are calling a hotline today. we have no idea how many people will be calling. how long that will be taking place. then comes another set of deadlines. when do these folks need to pay? many big health insurers are giving people until january 10th. but many states running their own exchanges have their own deadlines for first payments and some even have more than one date. >> very painful process. and i think it's, you know, been much more painful than needed to be. and i'm afraid that there is probably going to be more pain down the road. >> president obama is vacationing in hawaii where he greeted hundreds of troops and their families just yesterday. while he seems to be staying away from politics on this

trip, officials, previously said that they remain stead fast, the affordable care act is what is best for the nation. they say the surge in traffic on monday and tuesday is an indication that this is what people want. >> they will know that their family will not have to go bankrupt just because somebody in their family gets stick sick. they will know if somebody in their family gets sick they will be able to go see a doctor and have access to quality healthcare coverage that is available in the greatest country in the world. >> the healthcare system needs millions of young people, the young and healthy tone roll. they want to offset some of the cost of the country when they offset the cost of older and sicker patients. there is a lot unforeseen a lot of people can sign up if they meet that criteria. we certainly will be talking about. this anna, rick and kelly back to you guys. >> thank you, elizabeth. >> it's something because people have been talking about. this been talking about it since october 1st when the rollout did not go so well it was bungled. as a result of that, many people in the president's

base were still standing by him saying this is going to work. it's going to really help a lot of people. we just heard josh earnest saying the same thing. but the question is, we don't even know if these enrollments have been activated when they do go get the healthcare, will it be sufficient enough when you consider the fact that there have been cancellations, deductibles are rising and now some of those people who have been in the president's corner, his democratic base are beginning to say well, let's become up and look at this again. >> i think that's part of the concern. you just heard kirsten powers, that sound bite saying this might be a problem felt down the road. she is insinuating the 2014 elections. now we are getting poll numbers out saying the democrats may be starting to leave obama's side on this thing that he thought he could hold everybody. in a lot of democrats are saying that obama care will be his massive failure, 25% are saying that this will be known as a complete failure. and that's of democrats saying that. >> yeah. that's according to gallup.

and then we have another full screen we can show you of what people overall are saying achievement. 22% a failure 36%. 36%. that's a pretty big number. especially when this is the president's signature piece of legislation bearing his name obamacare. you know. for a while, he wanted it to be called obamacare, and then he wanted it to be called aca and then it was back to obamacare and it was back and forth. do you wonder what 2014 is going to be like. you have seen people become even more outspoken on this on the sunday shows last week we heard from robert gibs you remember his former press secretary saying this has been the worst year of his presidency. but it seems like there is really no denying it. >> a lot of this is due to the affordable care act, better known as obamacare. as a result of that the president himself said the messaging hasn't been right. touting very viable. this past sunday sending out email getting people to sign up. people sign up and it still isn't ready what does this mean for us? it's merry christmas now,

happy new year. now, here we are, facing a new year where the obamacare taxes are set to hit, guess whose tax bill? yours. >> a lot of this by design, are fees and taxes come down the road from us. not during obama's presidency. these are things that are going to be coming down later. and they add on each year. there are new fees and taxes that are coming up in 2014. get ready. one of them is a 2% tax on every health plan. >> all right. there is a 2.3% medical device tax. as well. a three.5% fee on insurers for plans sold on healthcare.gov. and a lot of these insurance companies are not broadcasting all of this with big flashing lights. instead, they are discreetly trying to do it and lobbying lawmakers for a tax break. >> blue cross, blue shield that actually put it on the statement that said this is the affordable care act fees and taxes on there. suddenly people saying these are actual fees and taxes

just because of this. >> which these insurers will pass on to consumers. that would be those who sign up for the plan, get enrolled in the plan, and another reason why your costs could go up. these are the things that are being factored in. we talk about the democrat base getting a little bit upset about it senator joe man chib a democrat from west virginia. the former governor of that state initiating a bipartisan bill with the republican. and basically the senator saying let's back up a little bit and slow up the individual mandate. he would like to see it delayed. and why not? because you have the small businessman date that's been delayed, the employer mandated has been delayed. back up and do the thing right. >> that's what they are trying to say. >> we would love to hear from you on this one. us up on facebook or twitter or email us at foxnews.com. 11 minutes after the hour. come and get your tax breaks because they are about to be gone for good. up next, the discounts set to disappear in 2014, what you need to know to cash in. >> the reverend jesse jackson throwing himself into the duck "duck dynasty" debate.

he not too happy about what has been said. wait until you hear which historical controversy he compares it all to. to be fair

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visit befair.org to learn more new year is only a few days away, when we say goodbye to 2013, we will be saying goodbye to really popular tax breaks. here to tell us which tax deductions you should take advantage of before they retire gene marks. taxes are so confusing for people. but every year you do want to do your best to be able to take advantage of get a little bit of money back. explain this first one that's expiring. it's the state sales tax

deduction. look at it this way. right now we can deduct money on your tax rushes for sales tax. for paying sales tax individually in our state we can deduct it. 57 million americans take advantage of that deduction. why? because they live in states like texas and florida where there is no state income tax to deduct. so they deducted sales tax instead. that goes away at the end of this year. so the really maximize that state sales tax deduction you want to be accumulating all of your receipts go, through your credit card bills. purchases you made inon your state and where you paid state sales tax. >> any purchase you should make before the end of the year. >> when you think about things like cars and any big ticket items. particularly with these after christmas sales going on right now, perfect time to get out there and buy that stuff now. get the state sales tax paid in and take a deduction for it. it goes away in just floor week or so. >> that makes sense. the education expense deduction. >> so my wife is one of them there are 4 million teachers around the country they take

advantage of a little bit of a tax deduction, $250 if you are an educator for unreimbursed school supplies. a lot of teachers do that not only for themselves to help out their kids. that $250 deduction also goes away at the end of this year. you want' to accumulate all of those receipts that you did during the year, particularly for teachers, again, they have got budgets, too. they want to maximize what they are deducting. and if you are a school teacher. >> school funding has been so low. >> correct. >> energy efficiency deduction. >> again, before the end of thier, you and i can get a 10% tax credit on certain energy efficient things like insulation or heaters or roofing materials. there is a qualified list of energy efficient things. so if you buy that kind of stuff, you have got to get a tax credit for it it remember, a credit you can apply to your taxes either this year or carry it back or carry it forward. very important. >> right. again, something you might want to do quickly to get that. >> correct. >> what about mortgaged damage deductions is that changing. >> insurance. a the love times people get

mortgages out and can't makes the full down payment for their house. you have to get mortgage insurance. up until the end of this year you could deduct that mortgage insurance, now you can't. there is billions of those deductions taken back over the last few years. at love taxpayers this year you want to make sure you are getting that deduction in this year because it's going to go away in 2014. >> that's a big one. what about ira distribution to charities? >> when you and i hopefully hit the age of 7 and a half years old. money put away ira or 401(k). we are going to be required to start taking money out of those aunts do. when we take money out of those accounts, it gets taxed. if you give money away to a charity, up to $100,000 you don't have pay money on the taxes you are taking out. that deduction goes away. >> which puts you into a different tax bracket. >> it does. not only do you pay more taxes but charities aren't getting the money. less motivation to give the money to charity it hits people hard on both ends. >> gene, complicated matters and you made things make

sense. thank you very much. all right. her life changed forever the day of the boston marathon bombing. the explosion went off and she nearly lost both of her legs. now she is getting the greatest christmas gift of all time. this sur shares her story next. and how a speeding ticket can actually make you money? you have got to hear this. ♪ ♪ heart healthy, huh?!

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some quick headlines, the accused lax airport shooter will be arraigned today in california. 23-year-old paul since i can't facing 11 felony counts including murder and were felony murder charges. he could face the death penalty. drive too fast and get a lottery ticket. that's how cops in florida issued particulars to speedy drivers on christmas day. the message was to spread holiday cheer while warning drivers to slow down. anna? >> all right, rick. thanks. it's been a tumultuous year for our next guest. rebecca gregory and boyfriend both standing only 10 feet away from the first boston marathon bomb. both severely injured. and by some miracle, rebecca's body shielded her 6-year-old son know a from this blast.

the bomb did do significant damage, however, to rebecca's feet and legs. she spent 56 days in the hospital, undergoing 15 surgeries to repair the damage. but now rebecca says she has received the greatest gift of all, the strength to stand on her own two feet. >> we're joined now by rebecca gregory and her now fiance. good morning, merry christmas, and congratulations. >> good morning, thank you. >> i imagine your bond became even stronger through all the turmoil that you went through. rebecca, how does it feel to be on your own two feet again? >> it's the most amazing feeling in the world. the doctor told me on monday that i had a three week trial to kind of see how much function i would actually be able to have in my leg and so he said go ahead and try to bear some weight. i was like really? i can't believe. this it was just amazing. >> we are so happy and delighted one about your

being able to stand on your own two feet. if you can, take us back to that day when you were standing there and this blast goes off as you are standing near the finish line. >> we were less than 10 feet away from the first bomb that went off and we were watching my fiance's mom run the race. and so my son noah was actually sitting on my feet because he was getting bored watching all the runners, the next thing i know everything kind of went gray almost and it was chaos. and i was thrown back and i couldn't see my legs at that time. my bones were laying next to me on the sidewalk and i really thought i was going to die that day. >> pete, what did you do? >> i had 90% achilles tendon tear and some second degree burns and shrapnel wounds and stuff like that. not knowing i had a 90% achilles tear, i got up and

walked back to rebecca because i was blown a little bit away from her, noah and my sisters. >> and going to see if she was okay, i imagine. what about your son, rebecca, that you were able to somehow shield and possibly save his life, how is he doing? >> yeah. he is doing great. you would never know that this had happened except when we go to a store or something and i'm riding around in a wheelchair, i attract a little bit of a continuation. people will ask what happened to you we were in the boston bombing, no big deal. he had a cut to his bone that they were able to stitch up on his right leg. and some shrapnel in the become of his head and some g.i. bleeding. but within five days he was out of the hospital and running around like normal now, i couldn't be happier. >> let's talk about the entire rehab. you went through months of treatment, 15 surgeries and both of you had to be able to support each other as

well as noah. so how difficult was that to actually get through the rehabilitative process of this? because you are not only healing physically but i would imagine he emotionally as well. >> it's tough. you know, you have -- we have the decision every day to wake up and either feel sorry for ourselves and let the pain get the best of us or, you know, we just go and try to do as much as we can and progress and see the beauty in that day because if this experience has taught us anything, it's that every single day is absolutely beautiful. it's just so amazing that i can still wake up and spend time with the people that i love. so, regardless of the surgeries and the rehab, i mean, that's what matters to me. >> well, somehow, this is all having a happy ending. we're looking right here at the proposal that happened in october. pete, tell us how you did it i understand you drove all

the way from new york to houston to surprise her? >> yeah. it was right around the 1700-mile drive. i didn't tell her what i was doing. i kind of would be, you know, a little aloof with apes when she asked me what i was doing today. i was like just driving around, stuff like that. and i, you know, i got down on one knee and i was shaking uncontrollably, and luckily she said yes. >> that's great. you guys have been through a traumatic year, but this christmas, are you most thankful for as you look back and see yourselves today? >> just thankful for a new day that we still get to spend time with the people that we love and that we're not finished yet. you know, there is a reason that we're still here, and i'm anxious and excited to see what that is. >> rebecca and pete, we wish you happy and healthy 2014

and noah as well. and you know what? send us some pictures from the wedding. we would love to update the story. >> absolutely. >> anna will come sing for you. >> there you go. >> thank you both so much. god bless you and thank you for being such an inspiration to each and every one. >> thank you. >> what a great story. very inspiring. meantime, did you know somebody who got sick right before christmas? it's a terrible feeling, a terrible time. the latest on the nationwide virus scare that could be getting worse. >> and do you think outside the box at work? up next, the top office expressions that drive you nuts. your emails and tweets when we come back. >> that's one outside the box. >> the bottom line is [ woman 1 ] why do i cook?

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we are back with a fox business alert. the labor department just releasing brand new weekly jobless numbers. 338,000 first time unemployment claims were filed last week. that's less than the experts expected. >> some positive news there at the end of the year. other news headlines we he need to get to on this day after christmas. target now denying reports that recent data breach included pins 40 million

stolen credit and debit cards. swipe machines at store registers were compromised allowing hacker tots steal the pin numbers as well. the may be zeroing in on one of the hackers are on the hacker. he traced black market site to it a cyber criminal ring based in the ukraine. one. biggest health concerns this winter is the flu. centers for disease control now confirming it is widespread in four southern states. texas, louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. in some cases, it's even turned deadly. at least five people in texas have died from the swine flu. health officials say the flu shot can save your life and it's not too late to get one. the reverend jesse jackson into the "duck dynasty" debate comparing phil robertson to the driver who made rosa parks move to the back of the bus. saying quote at least the bus driver was following state law. robertson's statements were uttered freely and openly

without cover of the law within a context of what he seems to believe was white privilege. jackson and his civil rights group are now demanding a meeting with the a&e network which airs "duck dynasty." those are your headlines. >> all right. well, you know they have been dark for days now. it's been five days since this big ice storm across parts of the north. especially hard hit was michigan and maine. now it might be a little bit longer until the power is restored. probably this weekend they are saying. utility crews in michigan to maine are working nonstop to restore power to tens of thousands of people still left in the dark by this ice storm. making matters worse, 8 people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning from generators. this while the heavy ice remains an issue and snowfall is moving on into that direction. i will tell you what, people who you don't have the power so you light your generators or start the generators up and then carbon monoxide poisoning becomes a big danger. here is your temps as you are waking up this morning. it's a little bit warmer across that northern tier of new england than it was

yesterday. still temps below zero. so none of that ice is melting at all. so there now there is snow moving through the area. a little bit of alberta clipper system, moving through it's going to brink bring a few inches of snow back roads making it harder for those crews to get in there to get power restored. out across the west you are looking fine. plenty of sunshine, temps forming up a little bit. 71 today in phoenix. beautiful. minneapolis, you are at 25 today. enjoy that because your temps by sunday again are going to be back to below zero. the cold air comes back. >> okay. let's look at sports right now because it's a big weekend alleges you know coming up in sports. before we talk about that, let's talk about. this you would think we were talking about football. first and foremost is tennis player serena williams named the associated press' female athlete of the year. williams, compiled a 34-match winning streak and also raised her grand slam championship to 17. this year alone, she earned $12 million in prize money, a record for women's tennis. and it's the third a.p.

award for williams following wins in 2002 and 2009. congratulation tosser reena williams. talk about a fashion faux pas. if you watched any nba games yesterday. you probably noticed those hideous jerseys. oh my with sleeves worn by players foregoing the traditional tank top jerseys the nba wanted to switch it up for christmas. right? they didn't check with the fashion police. they did not go over very well. players and fans took to twitter to express their glesh with the look. all star dierks called call me old school but these jerseys with sleeves are all. that's coming from dirk who plays for dallas. sitting court side can be fun and exsilver rating and you can also hear colorful language coming from the players as well as the coaches. one little fan in brooklyn covered up his brother's ears saying you can't hear this. he covered his ears with ear

muffs and here is why. kevin garnet disagreed with a call and had a few choice words for the referee. kevin, can't do that it's a violation. >> can't do that with rick because he can't hear all the terrible things that kelly says. [ buzzer ] lawsuit. >> never heard you say a negative thing about anybody or anything. >> the player so passion sure the child had to have his ears covered he might tweet out something. >> we read everybody's lips on those games anyway. you can see what's going on. >> nfl you can hear what they are saying. the delay doesn't always work. >> that's true. a lot of fojs heading back to the office today. unfortunately if you are waking up with us right now. you may be doing that very thing. common office expreparations may be driving your co-workers nuts. >> there is a list of these kind of common vernacular taking place in the common culture now that people are really kind of revolting against. what are yours? here is some of them that people are listing.

pushing the envelope. do you want to push the envelope? does it move it down the line to see if you can wait. >> push the envelope is like pushing it to the max and then some. >> gotcha. >> let's run this thing up the flag pole. let's see what the higher management thinks? >> or let's touch base. what base am i touching? >> or bring it to the table. >> and think outside the box. >> none of these things actually really bother me. they don't really bother me at all. >> you are very kind. they drive me crazy. i feel like it's a big that people start to use that language when they really aren't very good at their job. when they can speak the language of their job maybe people think they are good at it. >> buzz words from a while ago. think outside the box wasn't annoying when it first came out. >> when my boss first said that she is doing something really innovative. >> viewers from grace in georgia who said one of my most hated office expression

was shoot me an email. yeah, i agree with you on that one. >> p.b. says, this off the chart, off the hook, spot on. >> what about off the chain? >> and celina in georgia says absolutely hate didn't you get that memo or must have missed that memo when in fact no memo was sent. that's the passive aggressive. oh i must have missed that memo. >> how about stephan in new york who says the office catch phrase i hate the most is it is what it is. i want to bite my monitor when i hear this. >> what's another one? the bottom line or at the end of the day, those are things that you seem to hear a lot. one saying i get tired of hearing. >> i will pong you. >> sales tactic gone wrong? tvs by the front door an offer too good to refuse for this guy. >> and lawrence live at the

new york city where wall street has a lot of reasons to celebrate. lauren, how are you? >> i'm very good. merry christmas to all of you. wall street does have a lot of reasons to celebrate the good cheer continuing today. i will bring you the latest from the street after this break. i'm nathan and i quit smoking with chantix. when my son was born, i remember, you know, picking him up and holding him against me. it wasn't just about me anymore. i had to quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven o help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. chantix didn't have nicotine in it, and that was important to me. [ male aouncer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal tughts or action while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems,

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where's tommy? i thought he was with you. no. jack! (playing twinkle, twinkle, little star.) don't stop! keep playing! here we go. here's the fun part! welcome back to "fox & friends." we thought we would share this with you. some of your quick headlines begin with super star singer beyonce making a dream come true for one ill teen. ♪ ♪ i'm a survivor ♪ >> not on was beyonce rocking the house but the young girl she saw there

suffers from inoperable brain cancer had one last request to sing and does with beyonce who was all too happy to grant the wish. thank you for doing that beyonce. a thief in russia is caught on camera taking advantage of some christmas shopping discounts. the five finger discount watch as he walks in and takes a look around. anybody looking? anybody looking? he spots the tvs right by the door and just helps himself before walking right out the door. >> five finger discount. >> all right. now to a fox news business alert. the labor department just releasing brand new weekly jobless numbers. 338,000 first-time unemployment claims were filed last week. that is less than experts expected. lauren sem menti joins us from the new york stock exchange. good news when numbers come in like that. >> you want the number going down. you want the decrease. lowest number in about a

month. two weeks ago we told you that 379,000 people applied for those first time claims and that was a nine month high. now we're back and moving in the right direction. these things change because of the holidays volume volatile. smooths out the volatility that rose a little bit. and that is how you spin this. the job market is getting better but very, very slowly. >> what about the markets? are they on pace to be the best years since 1997 i'm hearing? >> absolutely. future are up this morning. if you are keeping track, and we are here at fox business, the dow is up five days in a row. today would be day number six. not just up in record territory. day after day after day. 49 record closes for the dow this year. the most since the year 1995. but that's just the dow. that's just 30 stocks that we like to track. if you look at the s&p 500, those are the 500 stocks that most of us own, right? in some way, shape, and form. apple facebook, widely held

index. that's having best year since 1997, up 28. a% this year. best performance in 16 years. it's really unbelievable. i know you are probably figuring why is the stock market doing so well? well, mostly because of the fed, but also companies have become very lean and mean, they are able to boost their profits by cutting back on overhead. >> lauren, with all this going on right now, the company is becoming lean and mean and people are always looking at the unemployment factor. is there still a degree of uncertainty out there that might effect that? >> absolutely. a lot of people say there are two economies, right? there is the wall street economy where the rich people invest in the stock market are doing well. and then there is the main street economy that's still struggling because unemployment is still at 7%. that is the best level in five months but it -- in five years, rather. it is still very high. there is this dichotomy in the economy. but the fed has basically boosted the stock market and hopefully if you are invested through your 401(k) or ira you are realizing

some of these really nice gains this year. if you put $100,000 in the stock market. right now you have about $129,000. that's how much the stock market has gone up in 2013. >> lauren, last week, the fed decided that they were going to ease a little bit or step off of the gas pedal a little bit how much they were investing into the economy. i think i thought that might possibly make the stock market go down. but it didn't. it continues to go up. >> that is an excellent question. it's called the taper, right in the death taper happening in december as we like to coin it. here on wall street. we were expecting it for quite some time. the fact that it actually did happen and it was a very small taper of 10 billion a month starting in about a week from now, starting in january, investors said, you know what? we were ready for it. we have been ready for it in a while. taking it in strides. the other thing to point out really quickly right now is the fact that volume is so light. and that means when things are up, they are looking better than they're and if stocks were down they would look a little bit worse because there is not much

participation. >> lauren, new york stock exchange, thank you so much. >> we got a really close up of lauren there. tells you how pretty she is close up too not just far away. >> that's a good way of looking at it live tv folks. >> most emailed story of the day. a major messup. u.p.s. and fedex missed the deadline to deliver your christmas gifts. so when will they come? we have got a live report coming up at some point. but, first, we are going to check in, okay, and we're going to be back on "fox & friends" in just two minutes. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant martin luther king jr.: we hold these truths

to be self-evident -- that all men are created equal. john f. kennedy: the torch has been passed to a new generation of americans. barbara jordan: the american dream need not forever be deferred. lyndon johnson: this is the richest and the most powerful country...

delivers half of all packages across the country.

they are blaming the surge in prechristmas online sales that they jumped almost 40% from last year, fedex was also affected. now, amazon says it will refund any extra shipping charges as well as give an extra $20 gift cards. adding a $25 gift card, a lot of people are taking food, going on social media complaining about. this they are even creating their own hash tag calling it hash tag u.p.s. fails. hash tag fedex fail. right now we don't know how widespread this delay is. and a lot of people are asking, you know, well, this is what a person gets for trying to ship something just a few days before christmas. a few people actually tweeted me telling me that they were -- they ordered their packages weeks ago and one person told me that their package was due on december 14th and they still haven't received it that's the latest here at the u.p.s. facility on facility. i'm lidia, back to the studio. >> thanks very much. people have been loud too. john says he is taking their

side i think u.p.s. is getting a bad rap. people are notorious for late shopping. >> we just heard from lidia how people were planning weeks in advance. >> paul says i own a bring and mortar store. this could have all been avoided, shop local, shop small. >> okay. camilla in texas, writes. our gift did not come either. and grandson ordered brisket from about one and a half hours from our house, whether could not be their excuse. >> at least that's what the grandson says. [ laughter ] >> it's in the mail. >> tweeted this. all right. well has anyone thought about u.p.s. and fedex being away from their families to deliver for you? hash tag greed, hash tag selfish. >> tweet from dreams of a runner says i paid for expressed shipping to ensure it was here on time i want my pony back. >> if you paid extra for it to be there at that time versus the regular snail u.p.s. mail. >> i also received this from

one of our emailers saying the u.p.s. driver in our neighborhood was running to and from, the trump making deliveries. kudos to our driver after dark still making drops. >> work hard. >> some of the nicest people too walking around in my neighborhood. can i tip my hat to them for that at least. other thing in their defense. some of the last minute shoppers some of them out there that are part of the group that didn't receive their. shopping days between thanksgiving and christmas. so there were more last. stores have extra merchandise. there is a lot of inventory there? >> deep discounts today. >> we have got more "fox & friends" just moments away. wisest kid, am i forgetting something? no holiday's complete without campbell's green bean casserole. wish you were here.

♪ [ doorbell ] [ gasps ] ♪ [ gong ] [ wisest kid ] m'm! m'm! good!

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and top celebrity countdowns of 20113. don't want to miss that. you are off to vacation. >> i am to canada this afternoon i will be here. kelly and your service. more "fox & friends" for the after the show show, have a great day. gregg: confusion or obamacare could be about to enter new territory. americans who rushed to sign up in the last few days could find out they are not covered at all as they go to the doctor in the new year. jamie: you know you are not covered unless you first pay your insurer and they have to accept your payment. the deadline to pay like the one we saw signing up has become a moving target. gregg: many of the