planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. >> john: the crime that has crippled america's big cities now seeping into every corner of the country as communities look for leaders to fight the crime crisis, innocent victims are paying the price. >> to lose somebody like ali, not that any life is worth losing, but to lose somebody like ali really, really hurts. >> sandra: lsu student ali rice, randomly murdered. they are running out of

resources in what might be proof that nothing is safe these days, even a memorial to allison was not spared from cold hearted crooks. >> john: ali's father is going to join us to discuss his heartbreaking loss. welcome back as "america reports" rolls into a second hour. i'm john roberts in washington. >> sandra: that's a place i know well, and new orleans also dealing with out of control record high crime in that city, too. i'm sandra smith in new york. ali's father, he'll be joining us this hour, but begin with 49 days until the voters decide the balance of power in d.c. and those brand-new fox news power rankings are out showing the headline few could have predicted. first time control of the house of representatives is now in place for democrats. >> john: possibility democrats keep control of both houses of congress, something no party in the white house has managed to

do in decades, going all the way back to 2002. it's a fox news alert. >> when we talked about the midterms a few months ago, it looked like a category 4 hurricane that was going to wipe out the democratic party, majority in the house and the senate. it now looks like a category 1 stornl. >> two elections going on, one about inflation, immigration and crime, another about climate change, abortion, and racial justice. and you see that these races have tightened in the democratic favor a little bit so far. i think you have to watch the polling in the next couple weeks. >> democrats are failing the american people and they own it. they have the senate, house, and the white house and are not addressing issues that every american is waking up worried about. >> john: the battle to control congress as tight as it gets, seven weeks to go to election day. brand-new fox news power ranking show it is anyone's game. new data showing republicans are

expected to take the house, 13-seat majority, that said, though, the rankings leave the door open for democrats who may have a road to victory in the white house. first of all, the power ranking gop advantage, republicans with 231 seats, compared to the democrats with 204. but remember, this has a margin of error here of plus or minus 15 seats. so, how might that play out in a best case/worse case scenario. best case for the republicans, they would end up about 246 seats. democrats would take 189. that's if the republicans manage to turn everything that is in play. worse case scenario for the republicans, very narrow control of congress, democrats at 219, republicans getting 216. we have 49 days to see how that is going to play out, sandra. >> sandra: looking closer at the balance of power in the house, we now have 30 house races

solidly in the toss-up zone. republicans, we are right now obviously looking at 216 firmly in the red. 189 firmly in the blue. as you just noted, 218 is the magic number there, and if republicans get that best case scenario, 246, if they run the table on the 30 toss-ups, you are talking about a solid margin of victory for potentially kevin mccarthy as speaker of the house. democrat, best case to run the table 219, where they would then have a two-seat majority in the house. so, 30 solidly in the toss-up and that is what we'll be watching closely and these key races, just a couple to note here that we are watching closely, washington's eighth district, it has now moved into the lead democrat category, a couple watching into the toss-up. illinois, 17th congressional district is more competitive than ever. that's in the toss-up category

there. and now republicans have an edge in arizona's first and second congressional districts. they have moved into the lean red category. but these are some of the most closely followed races as we work our way to the midterm elections, john. >> john: let's go over to the senate now, and the balance of power, you can see there's just a handful of seats here that are toss-ups, that is now down to four, and we'll explain what happened in a little while. right now, republicans are predicted to get 49 seats, democrats 47. four of those are toss-ups. it's expected the republicans could get two of those, which would take their majority in the senate to 51, which is just the narrowest of margins. how does it look in terms of toss-ups, you saw sandra doing the house. the toss-up in the senate is reduced to 4, according to the latest rankings. arizona, georgia, nevada and

pennsylvania, the open seat, where mehmet oz is making up some ground on john fetterman. it's interesting to note here a change from the last power ranking, the new hampshire race here, maggie hassan against don bolbuc, hassan is in the lean democrat category, that was in the toss-up but has moved over now and that's where we are here in the senate. you've got some lean republicans for those two lean democrats, it's going to be a very tight race, no question about that. mitch mcconnell feeling better about it, chuck schumer believes a 60% chance that democrats will hold on to control. >> sandra: more and more exciting as we work our way to the midterm elections. and we are watching the senate race, the open seat in pennsylvania, extremely closely in these battleground races. this is pennsylvania, dr. mehmet oz has been gaining ground

against the democratic lieutenant governor, john fetterman there, and flip the screen, go to georgia now, that race is deadlocked according to the recent polls between rafael warnock and herschel walker. both states the candidate are set to debate next month. so work our way towards that, john. >> john: a lot to unpack as to what is happening, and where we go from here. kim strassel, a member of the wall street journal editorial board and fox news contributor. the power rankings, kim, in august, republicans had dropped six seats in their advantage because democrats were narrowing. they have dropped another three in our latest power rankings. it looked like this was going to be a red tsunami weeks ago, and now a very close race. what's going on? >> hi, john and sandra. look, democrats had a very good

summer. they started with that dobbs decision from the supreme court which really energized their side, democrat registrations picking up ever since then and then a big win in august, at least from a base perspective when they passed their inflation reduction act. and of course, they always are getting press coverage from most of the outlets, too. and republicans still have in their ledger seat. a big advantage of registrations going into the summer. florida senator ron desantis noticed when he was elected in 2013, democrats -- it's now 271 voter advantage in the years, and seeing that in other states too. when you get past labor day, voters start to focus and you are beginning to see that pop up in polls that inflation remains

the number one issue, a lot of people who feel the country is on the wrong track, that potentially works with republic advantages, i would watch the polls the next few weeks. >> sandra: timing is everything. seven weeks out, you could say here we go, super close to election day or say that's a long time in politics. the dow down 513 points, anticipating what the federal reserve is going to do next, and that could be a key next move that could impact all of our lives. you see so many people who are dealing with this spike in inflation, and they are getting directly hit from that. do you expect that to play in favor of the republicans all the way up to election day? >> don't forget, we are going to get another inflation report before the election, and you had the president somewhat desperately on "60 minutes" trying to say oh, it has hardly moved at all, only an inch. but tell that to the people that are trying to get by on a fixed

income and every time they go to the grocery store. that certainly suggests a disconnection, and i think you are going to see more voters turn to that as we get closer as a motivating factor. there is just a lot of anger out in the country. >> john: you know, kimberly, when you take a look at the messaging from the democrats over the summer and maybe faded now, rock solid on the dobbs decision and the issue of abortion. john fetterman in pennsylvania, for example, pretty much fighting a one-issue race, abortion at the forefront. but republicans don't have a unified message on the economy. they are a little bit all over the place and lindsey graham threw a wrench into that last week as well when he said you know what, abortion is an issue for us, what we need is a federal law, 15-week limitation on it. do republicans in these next seven weeks need to get a more unified, codified message?

>> what they need to get is a message state by state, district by district, very clear about where they stand and put it out there. but the problem with having a unified message is that this is a messy question across the country. and indeed, republicans have long argued that it needs to be sorted out at a state by state thing, and that in my mind was really senator graham's mistake. i can understand what he was trying to do, he was trying to give republicans who didn't have a message a landing spot, but it tramples over the state's right message and also it requires people to commit to his particular standard, which is not something that necessarily plays well in different states. if you are joe odai running for the senate in colorado, might be a position too extreme for his state so he does not want to go there. the other hand, on a deep red state, the ban may not go far enough. only serve to make things more confused.

>> sandra: the potential margin of victory which the republicans could pull off a victory here, say, in the house, for example, had some of the candidates looking good in the red category, whether or not they are going to support the establishment and whether or not they are going to back kevin mccarthy as house speaker, that will be a big question heading into all of this. >> yeah, and it's very interesting to me when i saw the numbers you put up, in the best case or worst case scenario, it's highly unlikely whoever comes out with the majority does not necessarily come out with a commanding one, as it were. and whether it is the next democratic speaker, a very narrow majority, or even if it is kevin mccarthy, it's a big challenge, especially in a party like the gop which has a lot of different factions and different views. so, don't expect there to be smooth sailing for one party or the other no matter who comes

out on top here. >> john: kim, great to run through the power rankings, with you. appreciate you joining us. >> sandra: thank you, kim. >> john: we did have just a little data left over, nbc news polling, which party has done a better job handling various issues. border security, republicans. crime, advantage republicans, economy, republicans, abortion, advantage democrats, those are hot button issues for americans and there is a split there, which i think is going to be reflected in the outcome of the election. >> sandra: see what happens over the next seven weeks, a lot could change. the man who terrorized people at a mcdonald's with a hatchet says he did not chop people up because he didn't want to, and don't worry, i guess he's not unhinged. and new yorkers have to take his word on that. and he is free thanks to the soft on crime bail laws.

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>> sandra: the worst pain any family can imagine after an lsu college student is senselessly gunned down in her car. one of so many heartbreaking cases as violent crime spreads across the country. we'll speak with ali rice's father about that tragic story just ahead. but first this, a man armed with a hatchet terrorizing people at a mcdonald's, right here in new

york city. then goes free on cashless bail. the shocking video here putting new york's controversial bail laws back in the spotlight. we are joined on that. lauren, what charges can the suspect get to allow him back out on the streets after doing that? >> that's a very important part of this, the suspect was arraigned on charges of criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon, but those charges aren't severe enough to warrant jail time or bail and now the governor is asking why. in the wee hours last friday morning, 31-year-old michael pelasios went on a rampage in manhattan's lower east side. he smashed table, walls and glass with hatchet in hand, the argument turned physical, no one was injured. he was arrested and arraigned in less than 24 hours. he defended his actions saying he's not unhinged or psychotic,

and the only reason no one is chopped up is because he did not want to do that. and also said he does not think he deserves jail time. governor hochul questioned why the bike messenger was not charged with something that would have kept him behind bars pending trial. >> the images are disturbing, we are asking what the thought process was and the decisions made because we have a question about it. and i think that's what we have to have the honest conversation about what's really going on here. >> well, the comments with alvin brag for the no bail reform, he is accused of being soft on crime, the streets are less safe and the surge is affecting business's bottom line. mcdonald's ceo talked about violent crime in the fast food restaurants and starbucks, too, is closing some shops and places experiencing a high volume of challenging incidents.

>> sandra: i think everybody is being shooed to hear governor hochul say we have a question about it, and new yorkers have a lot of questions about it. >> if you go to mcdonald's at 2:00 in the morning you want to know if it's going to be safe. >> john: a parents' worst nightmare a reality in baton rouge. paul rice waking up to a knock on his door and told his daughter allison was shot to death while parked at a railroad stop not far from the lsu campus. the louisiana capital has been hit hard, murders up 85% from 2019 to 2021. latest year for which data is available. organizations that give assistance to crime victims say with the violence so bad, their resources have been stretched thin, and a sign there is nothing safe from the creeping rage of the crime crisis, somebody stole a cross displaying a picture of ali that her family placed at a makeshift

memorial. we'll speak with her father in a moment. but first, jonathan has the latest on the case. are police any closer to identifying a suspect? >> well, authorities have ruled this case a homicide but yet to identify any suspects or motive. allison rice had no enemies, they don't believe she was being stalked or followed. the 21-year-old was driving home from a get-together with friends early friday morning. investigators believe she may have been waiting for a train to pass at a railroad crossing in downtown baton rouge, someone fired multiple shots in her car. she was a college senior studying marketing at lsu. she and family members worked at a local barbecue and close friends with an owner. >> bright future, internship set up, so excited the last time she was here. >> investigators are asking

anyone with information to contact either baton rouge police or capital region crime stoppers. family and friends are planning a memorial gathering at a local funeral home this evening. ali's burial/funeral service is scheduled for tomorrow morning, john. >> such a tragedy. jonathan, thank you, sandra. >> sandra: let's bring in ali's father paul rice, thank you for joining us. we are all grieving with you, a horrific tragedy. i want to ask how you and your family are doing going through what is every parents' worst nightmare. >> absolutely. it's the worst thing i've ever experienced in my lifetime. for me right now it's numbness, it's anger, it's sadness, you know, her mother is experiencing the same thing right now, her brothers, you know, we are all having a difficult time with this. we don't understand why, we

don't know why someone would do this to such a precious child that had so much going for her. >> sandra: every parent thinks they send their kid to college and that they are going to be around a college campus, there is extra security around, things are going to be ok and your daughter would eventually come home, that was not the case and this is certainly a town you know, i know well, i'm an lsu graduate myself but we have seen cities like baton rouge experience serious spikes in crime. have you been able to get any more answers from the authorities there why this happened, if there was any sort of motive, paul. >> we really have nothing at this point. i mean, every -- everything indicates at this point it's a wrong place, wrong time-time scenario. you know, no suspects right now, and as of yesterday there is really only one witness that has

been presented into this. we just have no answers. there's been no camera footage that we have been able to obtain, you know, in that general area that shows anything, most of the buildings right in that immediate vicinity didn't have cameras, you know, the police have reached out to the railroad company. there are cameras on the front of the trains but that part of the train had already passed, you know, before this incident occurred, so right now our best hope is that somebody speaks up, somebody that knows something comes out with information that is going to help us move forward on this. >> sandra: i know they are looking for absolutely any leads at all that could be out there and paul, to your point, i mean, this was off campus, to be clear, but it was in an area of town that was -- it was known for experiencing some crime. >> yes.

>> sandra: everybody is trying to figure out how this happened. but to the point about no surveillance video, it seems like we have this horrific crimes that happen and we are able to pull that from businesses, from homes, still nothing on that front? >> nothing. >> sandra: paul, how do you want people to remember your daughter? we just saw her boss there at the barbecue restaurant which she was working and he talked about the bright future she had in front of her. how do you want people to remember your sweet daughter? >> well, i know i will always remember her as my little baby girl. she was my firstborn, you know, she's been a daddy's girl. i mean, great relationship with her mother as well, just a very respectful child, very energetic, got the smile and the laugh that will just brighten the room when you walk in. but you know, i've been reading

the tributes from her friends and reaching out, the stories they share about ali are so touching, really tell the story of the type of person that she was, you know. how many times that she sat down with them when they were in a crisis or, you know, needed somebody to talk to that ali was always there for them, you know. ali would tell it like it is, you know. she's -- she was just a remarkable, remarkable child. >> sandra: paul, we are so sorry for your loss and those stories are so important for her friends to keep telling those. so that her memory stays alive. thank you so much for joining us and we'll check back in with you and hope to learn more soon. thank you, paul. >> thank you. >> sandra: and john, just absolutely brutal, that any parent has to go through this. this is the headline of the

advocate down there, the local paper in louisiana, high crime rates leave victim aid groups stretched thin. it's so frustrating. this is a problem baton rouge, new orleans, all over the country, and these local police groups are trying to figure this out, and many cases they are short on numbers of people to combat this crime and that is one of the biggest problems. >> john: as parents we send our kids to college hoping they are going to have a great experience, i sent two already and another two in the works and you just, you don't expect anything like this could ever happen. a nightmare for parents. we certainly are keeping the family in our prayers. on his heels and suffering big losses on the battlefield, vladimir putin is prepping a major escalation in ukraine, calling for a vote that could change the world map. live in kyiv with the details. >> sandra: seven weeks to go before the critical midterm

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800-630-8900. that's 800-630-8900. >> sandra: special master overseeing the documents found in the raid on mar-a-lago is holding his first hearing right now it's happening with federal prosecutors and members of former president trump's legal team. >> john: judge raymond dearie will see which documents are covered by privilege, the fbi says more than 11,000 documents were recovered at trump's florida estate of mar-a-lago. >> sandra: david spunt is outside the courthouse. any room inside the courtroom? >> david: imagine going through 11,000 documents in two months, that's what judge dearie is required to do. we are hearing the department of justice told judge dearie in the last 15 minutes or so if the

11th circuit court of appeals, sandra, does not fully get involved in this case they may have to look at other options. one could interpret the other option is the supreme court of the united states. we are in unchartered legal territories here. everything is new, no precedent dealing with a former president of the united states. but as i said, judge dearie, who is based here at the eastern district of new york in brooklyn, has his work cut out for him. of course he can hire a team, but that team will be paid for by the former president, donald trump, according to the order. he will pick up the tab here. dearie is serving as a special master, the neutral person looking at the evidence and deciding sandra and john if some should be returned to the former president as dearie does hi work examining records, merrick garland and doj officials have appealed to the 11th circuit court of appeals in atlanta over the need for a special master. the doj does not feel dearie is needed in this case.

they believe they can handle it on their own. the reason district judge aileen cannon from florida, the original judge, told federal prosecutors they may not continue looking at roughly 100 classified documents while the special master, raymond dearie does his work. doj must put aside the documents, not use them until after he's done, but that could be a few months and clearly it will be a few months if you ask judge cannon. federal prosecutors argue that time is ticking over potential national security concerns. now, moving to the 11th circuit is risky because six of the 11 judges are trump appointees, and listen to this, john and sandra, last night in a notice to dearie, trump's attorneys expressed serious concerns about his request the former president should answer questions about the nature of the seized documents, they did not want dearie to fully and exclusively

disclose merits of any subsequent indictment without being evident in the district court order. in english, hearing the word legal team indictment, it's possible the former president could be indicted and they are preparing for that if you ask his legal team. >> sandra: david, thank you. >> john: as world leaders gather in new york city for the united nations general assembly, vladimir putin is preparing a hail mary, forced to retreat from key areas, he is taking steps to make four regions of ukraine, sham referendums starting this week. >> sandra: they say the -- it could be a claim that nato is attacking russia itself. how is ukraine responding, jeff? >> john and sandra, this is right out of the russian

playbook as ukraine and its forces continue to gain ground and move to the east, russia and their supporters here on the ground in ukraine are clearly intimidated and threatened by this ongoing counter offensive, so much so a day after ukrainian officials announced they had retain a village in the luhansk region, which is in the east, separatists then announced they were holding a referendum to see if voters there wanted to break off from ukraine and join russia. also reportedly holding a similar vote in donetsk and possibly other areas to the south and east. -- point out th

organized rather quickly, very unorganized at that, and they don't believe results coming from it will be legitimate and they hope the rest of the world sees it that way as well. john, sandra. >> sandra: john. >> john: back to the midterm elections now. the latest fox news power ranking, republicans still have an edge in the house come november but the democrats are gaining ground. at this moment, republicans would win a 13-seat majority down three seats since august in

the projections. texas republican congressman michael mccaul, ranking member of the foreign affairs committee. good to see you. let me put this up, the house forecast from the power rankings. republicans projected to get 231 seats if everything goes their way, margin of error, plus or minus 15, democrats 204, plus or minus 15, give 189 on the low side, 219 on the high, means they retain control. and gop, 216 on the low. this is not the red wave that we saw coming weeks ago, looked like there was going to be a 2010 style shelacking of the democrats. what happened? >> well, i think every election tightens up at the end, but let me just say that look, i think we are going to win the majority. no serious pollster has said otherwise and i think you are going to see some excitement going into the election and potential red wave hitting it. all you have to do is look at where the money goes, right.

look at the money, follow the money. 80% of republicans' money are going on the offense, 20% of the defense, on the democrat side, just the opposite. only 20% of their money is going on the offense, 80% is going on the defense. in fact, we are playing in districts that biden won by up to 10%, which is very significant and we have outraised them by $40 million as well. and i like to look at in my home state, mayra flores, mexican born, showing there is a red wave in texas. we could win three republican female candidates would win three districts in south texas near the border for obvious reasons. we are winning on the issues. whether it's the economy, the border, crime or national security. >> john: no question that was a watershed moment, but the democrats have effectively leveraged the dobbs decision at

the end of june and narrowed the gap. the republicans don't seem to have an effective counter point to that. >> you know, i think that's really all they have. >> john: it's powerful. >> when i go home i don't hear much about that. i hear about inflation, i hear about the economy, gas prices. people are not happy. and i think the wall street journal poll showed that seven out of ten americans believe the country is on the wrong track. i'm not a pollster, but i've always been told in presidential elections and also midterms that that is the key poll number to look at. are we on the right track as a country, or the wrong track. and if you've got 70% of the american people thinking it's the wrong track, i think that's great news for republicans on election day. >> john: usually a pretty good indicator. i want to pick your brain here as your membership on the foreign affairs committee. here is what president biden told "60 minutes" on sunday

about the u.s. and what would happen if china attacked taiwan. listen here. >> but would u.s. forces defend the island? >> yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack. >> unlike ukraine, to be clear, sir, u.s. forces, u.s. men and women would defend taiwan in the event of a chinese invasion. >> yes. >> john: seems to be going anything that has been articulated thus far, i'm not sure how you walk back the fact that in a very public fashion the president just committed the united states to go to war with china if it attacks taiwan. >> i think that was another biden moment where he just spoke without thinking about it and his staff tried to walk it back. i do think what he's talking about is doctrine of strategic ambiguity, which we have had for quite some time. i do think with respect to taiwan, we need to stay strong in our support and have are month of a doctrine of certainty

when it comes to arming them as a deterrent in ukraine, we should have done it before the invasion and before any invasion occurs in taiwan, we need to properly arm them. john, i've signed off and all four military sales to taiwan and we have a three-year backlog of weapons yet to go into taiwan to defend herself and if that doesn't change, chairman xi, he's looking at this closely and when he gets re-elected as emperor of china in november watch out. even as the cia director said, it's not a question of if, but when he does so. >> john: very quickly if i could to be clear here, if china were to attack taiwan, would you support sending u.s. forces to counter that attack. >> i support protecting taiwan so we don't have to get to that point and defending them so we

don't have to go to work. systems and the warfare pieces with he would not have to do that, but the end of the day, if chairman xi wants to invade the south pacific, going back to world war ii and he has the solomon islands and putin taking on ukraine, the unholy alliance is dangerous to the united states of america. >> john: no question about that. congressman michael mccaul, thanks. sandra. >> sandra: thanks to the congressman. border officials say they are seeing a dramatic increase in the amount of fentanyl being smuggled into the u.s. we are live in nogales, arizona, site of some of the recent drug busts to see how it's all getting in. it's called the newday 100 because it lets veterans borrow up to 100% of their home's value. not just 80% like some typical loans. that extra cash can make a huge difference

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>> john: developing now on "america reports," president biden asked about the border crisis a short time ago. here's the new video from the white house. >> why is the border more overwhelmed under your watch, mr. president? >> because there's three countries that are never happy. there's fewer immigrants coming from central america and from mexico. this is a totally different circumstance. what is on my watch now is

venezuela, cuba and nicaragua. and the ability to send them back to those states is not rationale. you can send them back and have them -- we're working with mexico and other countries to stop the flow. that's the difference. >> sandra: that was a short time ago. >> john: that's something new from him as well. >> sandra: interesting explanation. we'll see how that goes over in many states that are not border states that are dealing with this influx of migrants. see how they interpret that as the president says that they continue to prioritize limiting the flow of those migrants over the border. kamala harris saying the border is secure, john. >> john: if you look at the numbers for august, 203,000. 12 are on the terror watch list. 78 people for the bulk of fiscal year 2022 on the terror watch list that were apprehended at the border. we don't know how many got through according to bill melugin, there's been 900,000 got-aways.

when you put the numbers together, sandra, between fiscal year 21 and fiscal year 22 where the trend is heading for the rest of this month and the got-aways, it's almost 5 million people have crossed that border illegally in the last two fiscal years. >> sandra: that's not to mention the fentanyl drug crisis that we're dealing with, threatening teenagers and beyond every day. the flow of migrants continues across the border uncontrolled. there's many raising the alarm on the fentanyl. >> john: it's a huge problem. william la jeunesse is in nogales, arizona. william, what role do the entry ports have? >> john, there's a good chance the drugs in new york, d.c. or chicago enter here in nogales. 99% of americans are not coming to this outpost in southern

arizona. 35,000 mexicans will cross every day to work, to shop, deliver cargo, some will hide narcotics. with officers trying to pick out the bad guys of the hundreds of vehicles they see every hour. yesterday one noticed something suspicious about this truck. inside, they found smugglers cut a hole on the top of the gas tank. inside were 20 pounds of fentanyl wrapped in plastic hoping the odor of the gas would conceal the drugs from an army of k-9s employed but homeland security. posts that all the ports of entry, they detect more than 50% of all the drugs found along the border. >> this was missed a 2 1/2-year-old german pointer. this dog is trained to sniff out narcotics. >> we're looking for contraband.

>> since august, officers here seized about four million fentanyl pills helping dispel this common miss conception that most migrants are feeding america's illegal drug habit. >> so over 85, 90% of the hard narcotics, fentanyl, coke, heroin is being intercepted by the men and women in blue at the ports of entry. >> so the take-away, john and sandra, you have this unlimited supply from mexico and china, this demand from consumers in the u.s. the first line of defense starts at ports like this in nogales. back to you. >> you're doing a great job there. a lot is getting through and getting through along parts of the border where there's not ports of entry. william la jeunesse. thank you. sandra? >> a mother in california faked

her own kidnapping going so far as to hurt herself and now she's getting 18 months behind bars. her own describes sherry as outwardly sweet but capable of indense deceit. so what did she have to say in court and what she did? >> she had a lot to say. she admitted she was guilty of lying, guilty of dishonor and ready to accept responsibility for the kidnapping hoax that captivated the nation. this was a dramatic conclusion to an over the top hoax in which the 40-year-old wife and mother of two small children said she was taken at gun point by two masked women november 2, 2016 and held for 22 days against her will in a closet, starved and branded with a hot tool used for branding cattle, she said. as her worried family reported her missing and initiated a search which reached multiple states, she showed up on a

county road in northern california three weeks later with a tall tale that turned out not to be true. investigators say she kept going with this story for years after returning home collecting more than $30,000 from the california victims compensation fund for her ordeal in addition to nearly $130,000 in social security disability benefits. in 2020, law enforcement uncovered the whole truth. that she had really been staying with her ex-boyfriend in southern california. her attorney says that she accepted a deal, plead guilty and now ready to serve her time. >> he knew her heart by the time he sentenced her, he's trusting her with what we consider to be a fair sentence even though it's longer than we wished. and we know that under the next several years of supervised release, sherry will continue to demonstrate to the court that he's making the right bet. >> so papini is expected to

begin her sentence november 8. >> sandra: what about her family and that boyfriend? >> that was the question i asked today. i spoke with her attorney in sacr sacramento. she's still married. she's still not with her ex-husband or boyfriend and is working on herself. the issue of the children that she was home schooling when this happened is being handled with the family court and their father. as for the motive, nobody can give an answer for that, not even papini. so that mystery still lingers. >> martha: what a story. wow. you'll keep following that for us. >> thank you. >> sandra: and john, a quick look at the dow on this tuesday afternoon. >> john: you had to go there. >> sandra: you know, i'm always watching it. it's down 400 points, a dow oh 30,000 is still only a 1.3% drop. it's a hefty one still. wall street is in anticipating another large rate hike by the federal reserve to try to tame inflation. and there's a lot of uncertainty

out there over how the fed will manage this inflation crisis. there are some like art laugher that joined us last week that said the fed need to rip the band aid off and get the interest rates up so you can get prices down. that could be a lot of short term pain for the american people. >> john: should co. ripping the band aid off of a lot of 401(k)s. that bottom number was close to 33,000 not long ago than it is now. what about those power rankings out today as well showing tightening race for the house? the senate tightening up a little bit as well. the republicans still at this moment are forecast to take control of the house potentially the senate as well. so over the next 48 days, since today was day 49, we'll see how this plays out. >> sandra: toss-ups in the house as the key number there is 218 for the majority. to regain power for the republicans, if democrats run it

and win 30 of those obviously puts them in a category of maintaining control. it's going to be exciting. seven weeks to go, john. what do you know? we can tie it back to what is happening in the bottom right corner of the screen. it's still about the inflation. it's still about the economy for american voters. >> john: for a lot of people, that's the number 1 issue. >> sandra: i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. the story starts with trace gallagher in for martha. >> martha: good afternoon, everybody. i'm trace gallagher in for martha maccallum. breaking right now, the white house confirmed it is coordinating closely with delaware state firms amid reports that the president's home state will become the latest to receive migrants from texas on flights facilitated by gop governors. now, this would follow a string of planes and buses transporting migrants out of texas. new york says an influx has brought the city to a quote near breaking point. in washington d.c., the mayor