respect. time to go to the control room. i know you guys aren't going to come on that but look who we have in the control room, a special group of connecticut kids from greenwich academy. it's career day. seniors are going off to do great things. here's shep. a potentially major setback in the month long search for the missing malaysia airlines jet. three days later, the trail has gone completely silent. we'll look at what that could be for the search and get one theory of why crews have not found a single piece of debris anywhere. plus an american locked up in cuba on charges he tried to help topple the cuban regime. his lawyer says the u.s. government is putting his client's life in even greater dange danger. let's get to it.

good afternoon to you and yours from the fox news desk. first this afternoon, searchers who are looking for that missing jet say they cannot hear anymore underwater signals nowhere. they say it's a setback that could mean the black box batteries are dead. search teams picked up the sound over the weekend and officials said it was consistent with pulses from a black box. this is right where the analysts say that the jet probably crashed. searchers need to narrow down the search area. it's way to big to get anything accomplished. black box batteries are said to last only 30 days. maybe give or take a few, but the deadline has now passed. >> everyone is anxious about the life of the batteries on the black box flight recorders. sometimes they go on for many, many weeks longer than they're mandated to operate for. we hope that that will be the case in this instance.

clearly there is an aura of urgency. >> an aura of urgency. families are entering their second month without answers. some relatives held a vigil at a hotel in beijing where they've been staying. one month cried as she blew out candles on a birthday cake to mark what would have been her son's 21st. let's get to the other side of the news desk. christine is an ocean explorer who plans underwater exhibitions. what are the searchers saying today? >> they say it has been another disappointing day for them as they were unable to detect the ping that gave them so much hope over the weekend. we'll put up a map here of the search area in yellow. this is back in the area where they heard the pings over the weekend. the areas in gray are areas that have already been searched. 14 planes and ships were looking on the surface and under water.

now that it's been more than the 30 days of those emergency locator transponder batteries were expected to last, the head of the search says it's really important that they detect another signal. >> without wreckage we can't confirm that this is where the aircraft is. we haven't been able to hold the transmissions constantly, so there's still a little bit of doubt there. but i am a lot more optimistic than i was one week ago. >> now, i said that another issue that searchers are dealing with is all the false leads. for example, some of the pings that they've heard have actually been coming from the ships that are involved in the search themselves. >> have they put a cost on this yet? >> according to reuters this is on its way to becoming the most expensive search in aviation history. right now they're saying already at $44 million for the military ships and aircraft from australia, china, the u.s. and

vietnam. the u.s. has spent nearly $7 million with assets including military planes and ships as well as the cost of the toed pinger locator and submarine. more than two dozen countries have been contributing but as for the country that lost the airplane, malaysia has not said how much money they've spent so far. >> let's turn to an analyst and explorer with mad dog expeditions who has a crazy history and portfolio. it's amazing the things that you have been through. you can't really effectively search underwater in this large an area, can you? >> not really. this is a very vast area that they still actually have been able to make much smaller but we're not there yet. we really need to tighten this up and give them a pattern that they can actually, when they deploy the tp l25 that it can pick up sound in a much smaller area. >> and you can't do that unless you hear this pinger again. one sighting wasn't enough.

you have to triangulate. >> they're triangulating. you also have the chinese ship farther south so they're trying to figure out if the wresage would be between these two ships potentially or if it's farther south. it's a little bit of a mess at the moment for them but i'm positive, i think, that they're doing the best that they can through the grids that they're working on and the calculations. i don't think we're privy to all of the information that they have. >> hope not. >> christine, i was just wondering, once these batteries are no longer useful and the pingers, they're saying they're going to move over sonar. but isn't that dependent on environmentals in the ocean and how will it play into the search? >> it's futile to launch the 20 and 21 which is why they're working with the tp l25. that's going to pick up the first sound. then the blue fin would be deployed if they have a smaller search area and they can map a certain area within that search area that would allow them to

actually say we're closing in on not just the pinger but the wreckage. >> from what i understand, the ocean floor itself can make this a difficult search as well. can you explain that? >> well, this area is 15,000 feet, about 4500 meters. that's actually the limitations that the blue fin 21 has. they're hoping that this is going to be within this range so they can map the bottom using auv. we have's got mountain ouster rain, we'll have bridges, valleys, gullies and we don't know where this would be in this radius. >> it doesn't sound like unless the pingers have lasted longer than they're supposed to last which is possible, it doesn't sound like there's much to work with. we are led to believe that this plane probably intentionally averted radar and went around, but after it goes around and there's no more radar, we really don't know anything, do we? >> we don't know that they're

within even thousands of miles where they're searching. >> we don't. once again, i go back to the belief that they do. they are working with some oith satellite images. >> that we don't know about from some military that doesn't want to give up its secrets. >> i think so. they are trying to bring some closure to these families. without some debris, a debris field or the pingers, i think these poor families have absolutely no peace so they're trying. >> and if we don't get down there, we may never know what happened here and that may prevent us from being able to prevent it from happening again, whatever it is. >> that's true. if we can't get to those black boxes we're never going to have the clues that are going to give us that information and help us make better decisions in the future about tracking airplanes and what may have happened in this actual case. >> we need to know why. i mean, investigators need to know why and if i'm a family member, i got to know why, i have to if possible. >> i believe it is an international effort and

unfortunately there were some issues that th were searching, two weeks ago searching 1,000 miles farther south based on satellite imageries. again, i'm not sure that we are getting the whole story on this and maybe it will come out, or it will just -- luckily welcome to a point where we can find the pingers or find debris and move on and the families can have closure. >> it's not a strategy but we're left with hope and let's hope they come up with something. leah, christine, nice to see you both. the blade runner, oscar pistorius testified in court about the moment he shot and killed his girlfriend, nothing like you see in testimony in an american courtroom. he included a detailed description of what went down after he grabbed his gun. listen. >> before i knew it i had fired four shots at the door. my ears were ringing. i couldn't hear anything. so i kept on shouting for reeva to phone the police. >> before he knew it, he had

fired five shots. we'll break down the defense's case with his new testimony. that's coming right up. i ys say be thman with the plan

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moment that he reallied, as he puts it, that he killed his girlfriend. his sobs were so uncontrollable that the judge stopped. >> i opened the door and i sat over reeva and i cried. i don't know how long -- i don't know how long -- she wasn't breathing. >> let's take an adjournment. >> the courtroom video shows reeva steenkamp's family sitting there almost emotionless it appeared. he maintained his original story this he thought there was an intruder in his home and that he was trying to protect his

girlfriend who he presumably thought was still in the bed next to him. we're led to believe that he didn't look. he added that before he knew it, he had unloaded four bullets into the locked bathroom door. then he broke down the door and found his girlfriend dead on the floor. as you heard he said he stood over her and cried there, doesn't know how long. he still says it was all a mistake but prosecutors insist oscar pistorius, the olympian, shot his girlfriend during an argument last year on valentine's day. the neighbors heard the screaming, the text messages indicate they had been arguing. if the court convicts him he could place 25 years to life. he's going through these little items through the tears which may not sound like anything but emotion to casual listeners but that's not what this is. >> it's not what it is, but he put forward his defense today. he said, look, at 10:00 we were in the bedroom. there was no loud fighting as

the prosecution has maintained. we went to bed, nothing. it was a simple valentine's day where there was love and tenderness. in fact, we even exchanged gifts. so he's saying there was no premeditated murder. he had no motive, no intent. remember, she had spent the night before. that's what he testified to. now, the issue here is he's putting forth the reasonableness of his actions. he stated in his testimony that he was a victim of past burglaries, a victim of violence, and that he's received death threats. all of that played into his state of mind at the time, and that's why he sleeps nightly with a gun next to him and with a cricket bat by his bedroom door. so this is something that the judge is going to have to decide when she looks at what's called culpable i'd in south africa. remember he's charged with premeditated murder and culpable

homicide which is the equivalent of manslaughter. he's trying to use the reasonable person's standard of him being disabled and because he didn't have his prosthetics on when he was shot, remember, there was the issue of did he have an opportunity to scream. he was in a vulnerable position because he didn't have the prosthetics on. >> what he's going to have to get around and he seems to be setting himself up for this and correct me if i'm wrong. neighbors heard screams, there were text messages that they were in a fight and he didn't check where his girlfriend was before he fired the shots and she locked the door when she went to use the bathroom at 3:00 in the morning presumably. >> he said after he heard the shots he heard the ringing and was hypnotized by it and thought, oh, my, where could reeva be. it doesn't make a lot of sense

but in his situation he has the law. in south africa there are no jury trials. he has a judge to convince and two assessors which are experts. >> he's playing down this lov lover's quarrel and saying it wasn't a fight. >> yes, i was having feelings of being insecure, of being possessive, of being jealous but it was fleeting. my state of mind at that time was not any intent to kill reeva. i wasn't angry at her. we had a lovely valentine's day together. we celebrated our relationship and our love and those are the facts. that's his argument. >> cross is going to come. it's going to be long and drawn out. we'll see how he holds up. for all of us watching this, maybe the take away lesson is, if you are married or you have a boyfriend or girlfriend next to you at night and you think somebody is in the bathroom, check to make sure it's not the

boyfriend or girlfriend before unloading the pistol into the door. just something to remember in the future. >> perfect. >> then someone who you love won't be dead. >> common sense. >> thank you. >> thank you. a cop who survived getting shot seven times is reportedly in good spirits only hours after the shooting. it happened last night in los angeles. officials there say a man walked into a police station with a complaint but eventually started shooting. one officer took seven bullets. police say he was not wearing a bulletproof vest but still managed to survive and fire back at the shooter. the police chief says the officer is in the hospital in good condition and the shooter is critical. police tell fox news that they found another gun and more ammunition inside the suspect's car. an american trapped in a cuban prison is on a hunger strike. he says his own government here in the united states made his situation much worse. plus putting suvs to the test. we'll tell you which popular models scored the best and the

worst when it comes to keeping you and your family safe on the road. suvs, how often are you or your children or your grandchildren in them? which ones are good, which ones suck. we'll have it coming up. [ dennis ] it's always the same dilemma -- who gets the allstate safe driving bonus check. rock beats scissors! [ chuckles ] wife beats rock. and with two checks a year, everyone wins. [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-906-8500 now. [ dennis ] zach really loves his new camera. problem is...this isn't zach. it's a friend of a friend who was at zach's party and stole his camera. but zach'sot it covered... with allstate renters insurance. [ female announcer ] protect your valuables for as low as $4 a month when you add renters insurance to your allstate auto policy. call 866-906-8500 now. what are you doing? we're switching car insurance. why? because these guys are the cheapest. why? good question. because a cut-rate price could mean cut-rate protection.

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spent more than four years behind bars in cuba is now on a hunger strike. that's according to his lawyer who says the u.s. government put his client in further danger. his name is allen gross. back in -- in 2009 authorities in cuba locked him up for trying to give folks their internet access. for that horrible crime he's serving 15 years. gross had been working for a state department agency which also ran a twitter kind of website in cuba. the white house says gross was not involved in that program,

but his lawyer says it clearly made things worse for his client. we reported on this last week. the associated press reports the site was meant to undermine the communist regime, as if. the white house denies that and says the program was not a covert operation and that congress approved it. at a hearing today one senator ripped into the current head of the agency for the, quote, dumb idea. >> the legislation doesn't say anything about setting up a dock amamie idea in cuba with twitter accounts and all on something that the cubans would be so easy to discover. >> that administrator again denied most of the ap report and said the program was meant to improve communication. officials are still working hard to get that contractor out of jail. it's been four years. phil keating with more in our south florida newsroom. phil, what else is this contractor saying? >> reporter: he's absolutely outraged and at the end of his rope. last week when he learned about

this revelation of the u.s.-funded cuba twitter program, that was the trigger which then led him to begin starving himself and that's what he's been doing now for five days. no food, just drinking water and according to his attorney, he has already lost ten pounds. that's on top of the 110 pounds he already lost while in prison. for four-plus years gross and his legal team have been begging the u.s. to sit down and negotiate with cube which his attorney says has yet to happen and is jeopardized. he said this, quote, i am fasting to object to miss truths, deceptions and interactions not only for my arbitrary detention but because of the lack of reasonable or val lid effort to resolve this shameful ordeal. no word from the cuban authorities on whether they're even considering beginning a force feeding program for gross

or if they will do that. >> i keep reading from people who are suggesting that what he's serving amounts to a death sentence. >> reporter: he's 64 years old and if he serves his out full sentence he will be 75. his wife, kids, legal team do not think he can make it that long. that's the urgency of their position. if his hunger strike happens to hasten his demise, as morbid as that sounds, his attorney says at this point, so be it. >> allen will die in prison in cuba if there is not a association to obtain his release. i think from allen's perspective, whether that occurs sooner or later may be simply a function of timing. >> the cuban government initially offered a trade with the u.s. releasing gross back to the u.s. and in exchange for the u.s. releasing five convicted

cuban spies. now cuba reportedly is willing to sit down and negotiate unconditionally. meanwhile gross begins day six of his hunger strike tomorrow. >> phil keating in florida, thank you. heads up if you are looking to buy an suv. we have the results from a crash test and a series of tests really that they say shows only two of nine major mid size suvs got top ratings. most of the vehicles scored marginal and some of them poor. so we looked into the details and we put chris on it who's over here at station five. so, what did we learn, chris? >> so the insurance institute for highway safety conducts six crash tests. one of them him micks when a car hits a utility pole. the government has a similar test, 35 miles per hour and full

frontal head on. the institute is 40 miles per hour and only covers about 25% of the vehicle's front end. when we get to results, the 2014 chevy equinox and terrain both got goodratings. the toyota highlander came in second. this is acceptable. the 2014 grand cherokee, the toyota 4runner and the ford explorer each got marginal and the poorest performing was the 2014 kia core entoe and the mazda cx-9 and the 2014 honda pilot. >> i hope my brother is watching this. i'm not going to say which one he owns but it's not one in the first section there. nice graphics, chris. >> thank you. still no debris from the missing jet. we'll talk to a pilot who says he has a possible explanation. no debris? he has a reason. plus president obama says he's taking action on his own to

make sure women earn as much as men for doing the same jobs. some republican leaders are claiming he's focusing on the wrong problems and playing politics. we'll go live to the white house where, as it turns out, ed henry has gotten into a bit of a twitter war if you will. you see, they got a pay gap there at the white house, it now appears, and the white house and ed henry are tweeting back at each other. look it up if you want. i'll talk to ed about it in a minute.

> two people are confirmed dead after severe thunderstorms hit the southeast. crews found the body of a 9-year-old in mississippi after flood waters swept her away. a man died after he drove his car into a creek.

iran could be two months away from being able to produce a nuclear bomb. that's what secretary of state john kerry told the senate panel. he said if iran moves forward with a nuclear weapon, the united states will, quote, respond immediately. cops are still trying to figure out who did this, flipping over at least four smart cars around san francisco. witnesses say they're not sure if it's just a prank or some kind of statement about how neighborhoods are getting wealthier. anyway, one of those cars' owners admits he thought it was kind of funny. all right. starting at just $12.99. enjoy dinner tonight and take home a second entrée for later. choose from a variety of amazing entrees, like new creamy citrus chicken. then choose a second favorite to take home, get dinner tonight and take home a second entrée, free. buy one, take one, starting at just $12.99. get it before it's gone. at olive garden, "we're all family here." discover our entirely new pronto lunch menu starting at $6.99.

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♪ honestly, i want to see you be brave ♪ at any minute... ...you could be a victim of fraud. most people don't even know it. fraud could mean lower credit scores, higher mortgage rates... ...and not getting the home you really want. it's a problem waiting to happen. check your credit score, check your credit report, at experian.com. america's number one provider of online credit reports and scores. don't take chances. go to experian.com. search teams are looking for that missing malaysian airlines jet and trying to confirm those signals that they reported in the indian ocean. analysts called them consistent with the plane's black boxes. in other words, they think they found it out there somewhere. crews have yet to find a single piece of debris from the jet. analysts say if the jet did crash into the ocean, the way it

hit the water could make a huge difference to investigators. our next guest says there's a scenario under which the plane would not have left much debris at all. malaysia's defense ministers have not ruled out the possibility that there are survivors. he says he told passengers' families that miracles do happen. that's helpful. chinese authorities have already told the families that they believe nobody survived. daniel rose is a licensed sea plane pilot and has conducted searches like this in the past and is with us now to hash it out. no debris. how do you have a plane crash into the water with no debris floating ashore? >> that's a tough one. the probably only real explanation is a successful ditching and a subsequent sinking of the aircraft so that it remains intact. >> a sully sullivan kind of thing? >> yeah, sully sullivan.

>> sullen berg i meant. >> yeah. and then the aircraft eventually has to get sucked down into the water. >> that would be a hard thing to accomplish in a rocky ocean in the middle of the night as compared to the hudson river in the daytime when it's smooth. >> that's for sure but if they were flying seven hours you're getting closer to day break. you could have in that part of the world significant distances between the swells so it's not undoable. i do think it's unlikely and any other scenario really is going to leave wreckage. >> under that scenario, nothing washes ashore and the plane eventually sinks. >> right. >> presumably the people on board that plane at the time are alive. >> well, you don't know -- >> potentially. >> potentially, sure. but you don't know what happened before that. we're still kind of in the dark as to what altitude the plane through, was there an emergency on board the plane, was there hypoxia. there are a myriad of options

because we don't have solid facts. >> there's a matter of storms. one was what amounted to a category four hurricane by our terminology here. >> right. you got the storms going through that area, you have these things that rotate in a huge part of the indian ocean. so even if you have wreckage on the surface, the storm could certainly displace it. they could eventually sink down to the ocean so that there's only a few parts left on the surface and it's really random luck if you are able to find those. >> one thing that makes it easier to figure things out, no matter what they are in life, is what the person who commit them motive is. in that we can't come up with a motive is endlessly frustrating. >> for the families but in terms of figuring out what happened in this investigation, unless they're holding something back, we really haven't seen a motive. if it's suicide there are a lot easier ways to do it if you are a pilot than flying around for

seven hours. if there's a terrorist motive, there's been no chatter about it. even if it was a hijacking that went bad you would expect to hear something from somebody. >> daniel, nice to see you, thanks. the white house continued its push against pay inequality or push for pay equality, one or the other. president obama signed the executive orders, both aimed at strengthening equal pay laws. one prohibits federal contractors from retaliating who talk about their pay or publish wage data about gender or race. gop leaders argue that the president should focus on creating more jobs for everybody. they also say democrats are trying to rally their base ahead of the mid terms. president obama says equal pay is an important issue for every american. >> i don't whether you're democrat or republican.

if you are a voter, if you've got a daughter, a sister, a mom -- i know you got a mom, it's something you should care about. >> there was a dispute today over how big the pay gap is between men and women and the pay gap at the white house which brings us to the twitter war i was mentioning and ed henry is live at the white house. the briefing got a little heated in there, eddy. >> remember, the president got in hot water over if you like your plan you can keep your plan. he had to sort of adjust of the language. myself and other reporters pressing jay carney today on the fact that there are some economists saying the president's statistics he keeps citing that women basically make on average 77 cents for every dollar a man earns is not exactly right. the labor department itself, the president's own labor department says it's 81 cents. others say it's 91 cents. so i pressed jay carney. listen. >> why does he cite that figure

when even you're saying, well, it's not quite that. >> i didn't say that. >> you said your first answer -- >> i said the data of 77 cents is based on sense sus data. you can argue with them. i can give you their number. two, i did say there are a lot of factors that go into the gap and i would not contest that. nobody here has contested that. >> reporter: those other factors that sometimes woman on their own might decide to work less and be paid less. there are other factors that suggest it's not just discrimination. nonetheless jay carney said the white house wants to debate these numbers because they think putting on the radar the fact that there is a pay gap is important and they're highlighting that. >> i'm going to get to the twitter thing in a minute but republicans are saying this is all politics. >> reporter: that's right. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was saying as you suggested a moment ago, why not focus on creating jobs or men and women and he pressed and

basically said on the senate floor that this is all just the president trying to appease the left before the mid-term. >> the percentage of americans in the work force is at an almost four decade low and democrats chose to ignore serious job creation ideas so they could blow a few kisses to their powerful pals on the left. >> reporter: there's a senate vote tomorrow on this pay equity issue. democrat senator chuck schumer today said if republicans block that they're going to be in a straight jacket come november. while the white house keeps saying this is about policy and maybe it is, it's also clearly about politics in november because democrats are putting republicans on defense with female voters. >> you're getting into something every day over there, ed. the director of communications sent out a tweet. tell our viewers about it. >> reporter: she said she found it ironic that news organizations sent men to ask

jay carney about gender pay and equity. i responded at the top there, the white house sent man to podium, right? what i was trying to point out is if i'm going to be attacked that i can't ask fair questions about pay equity because i'm a man, i'm surprised that the white house thinks they can have a man on the other side of the podium explaining this to us. men and women realize there's an issue here. how the president and the congress is going to fix it is another thing and whether or not what the president signed today, the executive orders will get at discrimination. another issue but i don't think we should be attacking each other. >> i think all men should take the rest of the month off. >> that sounds fair and equitable to me. >> are you guys doing that? >> reporter: are you doing this? are you going to talk to the executives about it? >> i was going to tell them you said it was okay. >> reporter: thanks. i appreciate it. and i like jenn pal marry, too. >> you all love each other, it's clear every day. see you later, pal.

tensions are running higher and higher in ukraine as russia warnings of a possible all-out civil war in the region. the white house today weighed in and an all out brawl broke out in ukraine. would you look at this. look at that. that's real. headlines and details ahead from the fox news desk. before larry instantly transferred money from his bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. if you have a buness idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you.

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the crises in we have a number of important brand new updates today. first, officials say that there is an unnamed radical group that has taken 60 hostages inside a government building in the east of ukraine. as you can see on this map, the activity is right along the border of ukraine and russia. there's no word yet on the identities of the hostages, but the ukrainian government claims armed pro-russian demonstrators

seized the building. john kerry testified russia is using paid operatives to illegally stabilize ukraine. he says it is clear it came after russia was warned that any force in ukraine's eastern region could result in a civil war. >> it's clear that russian forces and agents have been the catalysts in the last 24 hours. no one should be fooled and is fooled by what could be a contrived pretext for military intervention as we saw in crimea. and did you see this? a fist fight in ukraine's parliament. he claimed pro western national lists set a precedent. russia's foreign minister says the blame for the crises falls on the west which is, quote,

needlessly whipping up tension. that's the pot speaking. ambassador nicholas burns joins us, he's a former state profession of political affairs. there's no truth to that, is there? >> the russians, shep, it's obvious what's happening, putin is using his crimea playbook for eastern ukraine. i find the charges to be highly credible. it's putin's way of trying to whip up unrest in those big, ethnic russian cities in ukraine. that would give a pretext to the russians to take further measures perhaps we'll see across the border. it's a very dangerous situation, very unstable and, shep, the united states and europe left with very few tools here to push back and deter putin -- further putin aggression on eastern ukraine. >> he was using his media to tell people untruths constantly when i was over there reporting on this. he had been for years and

continues to do so. and you said that the bigger goal, going back to georgia four years ago or whatever, is to create buffer states around russia. explain that. >> well, putin thinks -- he lives in the 20th century in his mind. he thinks that if you win, he loses. so he's trying to create a band of buffer states around russia, countries that will be truly neutral, won't be part -- in terms of e.u. and n.a.t.o. so those countries by intimidation of russia and georgia and belarus and ukraine. ukraine is the most important. it's the largest population. it's the most important economically and historically for the russians. ukraine was about to sign an association agreement and putin invaded crimea under that pretext. he's using intelligence operatives and special forces to basically bring instability to

those countries so he can say it's his job to protect the ethnic russians. very transparent goals by a very cynical but strategic leader. >> it's working -- people read it over here, we know better. that's not the case in russia. i don't believe it's the case in crimea and now it appears it's not necessarily the case in eastern ukraine. >> well, what you have in eastern ukraine is a situation that's not exactly as it was in crimea. you have many ethnic russians but you don't have as high a percentage in eastern ukraine as you did in crimea. you have a lot of ukrainian nationalists living there. we would rather get his way without intervening militarily but he may be having so much instability that he ends up doing that and the united states has to do a couple of things here. we have to threaten major economic sanctions and europe does, too. that's the only tool we have to

convince this very brutal but also irrational leader that he shouldn't go that far because we've taken the military response out of the equation as we should have. europe and the united states right now are not united on that. the united states, i think, is much tougher on economic sanctions. the europeans because they're hooked on russian natural gas not quite as tough and putin is ex employeding that. >> nicholas burns, nice to see you. for the last few weeks the feds have been touting a study that childhood obesity level has significantly dropped. now a new study is calling the whole thing into question and claims the obesity epidemic is actually getting worse. so what's true? that's next. the basics, you kno. i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired.

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a recent federal study showing obesity among children is on the decline may not be telling the whole story. that's according to another story from the university of north carolina medical school. researchers say they found that obesity rates in our kids have actually increased over the past 14 years, not gone down. those researchers say 2 out of 10 children are considered obese while 1 in 10 is severely obese. the centers for disease control and prevention published their own study back in february. the cdc found that preschool obesity rates fell more than 43% over the past decade. so which is it? john roberts is in atlanta, home of the cdc, john, what else does this new research show? >> it is all in the numbers, shep. they show that the numbers may have been cherry picked to put a spin on the white house initiative because unc researchers say what they just told us doesn't square with

reality. children between the ages of 2 to 19 in a government study found that between 1999 and 2012 the obesity rate rose from 14.5% to 17.3%. very troubling is that the most significant increase was among children who were severely obese. and almost doubling of the rate among some groups. >> this is a trend that if it were to continue, it's disturbing. we do know that obesity, especially as it becomes very severe, can be costly. and it does not bode well for these kids as they become adults. >> you'll remember first lady michelle obama made a big deal about the cdc numbers in her let's move program, but the good news that the white house was touting just doesn't appear to exist. >> so what's behind the contradiction between what the government said and what the new research shows? >> let's take a look. because both of the studies did examine children between the ages of 2 to 5. the cdc found that 43% declined in obesity rates, but they

looked it it from 2003 to 2012. whereas the unc researchers started back in 1999 find nothing decline. if you start there as the cdc did, there's a downward trend. but if you move that back to 1999, that trend disappears. we asked the cdc about this and here's what they said. they stand behind its data that shows over the past ten years the scales are tipping in the right direction when it comes to 2-5 year olds, but a lot of researchers say that is not the square facts. top of the news just minutes away. then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagin how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 3years or mor so maybe we need to approach things dferently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

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(agent) i understand. (dad) we've never sold a house before. (agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. (dad) so if we sell, do you think we can swing it? (agent) i have the numbers right here and based on the comps that i've found, the timing is perfect. ...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited. and on this day in 1969, canada made its major league baseball debut when the montreal expos opened their inaugural season against the new york mets right here in tiny town to. to mark the milestone the montreal mayor threw out the first pitch. the team had quite the opener at

shea beating the mets on their home turf. a month later, they played the first major league game north of the u.s. border. they won that to beat the cardinals out of st. louis. of course, the expos original relocated to washington as the washington nationals. but baseball hit america's past time 45 years ago today. when news breaks out, we'll break in. i got bad news yesterday coming from the file of the hugs the one you love and don't wait until tomorrow. jim reef died yesterday. he was riding his bike, hit a pothole, crashed, head injuries, gone. jim reef worked in that ft. myers market for 35 years for three big stations and spent 20 years at wink. he was known for a pioneer awareness program at the national hurricane center. and i tell you, he probably saved lives. he was a chief meteorologist

around town. his family asked to remember him and keep them in his prayers. his fiance is left behind. to our friends, we extend our thoughts and our prayers. jim reif, a great guy, was 61. ted cruz cracking down. john mccain fired up. both here ready to rip. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. get ready to get hit again and let the figures sink in today. $1.5 trillion is how much democrats want to hike taxes over the next ten years, and they already started to plan how they be spend the dough. more for education, for more infrastructure, morales, a lot more for spending. >> budgets reflect the choices we make for our country. they show what we care about, they also show what we care less about. >> and apparently reigning in that spending is what they care