bill: so would you get a hot dog from that place? megyn: i am all for having felons do nice things when they get out of jail. maybe not so much for the hot dog. "happeningç now" start now. [captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- jane: president obama is taking his plan to the people again today. they are holding another town hall meeting. will this work to his advantage before lawmakers head home? gregg: big spending reductions. they are just about everywhere these days, and now prisons could be cutting corners pe.

jane: trying to get some color in a tanning bed? what if we told you it was like drinking poison or being attacked by chemical weapons. right now president obama is on his way to north carolina where he will be holding the first of two town hall meetings today. the first will be in virginia. both happen to be homes of blue dog democrats. that is where his health care reform bill is seeing opposition. on the senate side, there were some reports of progress. what are you hearing from top negotiators? >> there is something called the gang of six,ç three democrats d republicans, who sit on the senate finance committee, where they are working on their version of the health care bill. and a leader is the democrat from montana max baucus.

last night he indicated that they were close to a deal. this morning newspapers reflected that, butç just this morning, as he was entering capital, we obtained a memo from the chief aide to senator baucus. it was sent to some other members of the senate finance committee. it reads, while progress had been made, neither an accord or announcement is imminent. in fact, a significant policy issues remain to be discussed among members, and any one of these issues could preclude bipartisan agreement. this memo indicating that we are still not out of the woods yet in getting a compromise. jane: i know there are also new poll numbers that you have been looking at today. >> that is right, gallup poll has some new numbers indicating

how americans think the reform will play out for the country, and for them personally. in terms of how it will affect the country, will health care get better, stay the same, or get worse? 44% believe it will get better. ç26% believe it would improve their personal health care. once again, the majority here, 63%, personally believe it will stay the same or get worse. not the kind of numbers the white house wants to see. çjane, we have seen a concerted effort from the administration to reach out to older citizens as well. >> that is right. we saw that in speaking to aarp.

they also released a memo explaining why seniors will not suffer under his plan. some advocacy groups remain somewhat suspicious. they want to make sure that the uninsured are covered, to reduce costs, as well as to identify places where we can save money. many believe that medicare will bear the brunt of the cost- saving measures, and the white house is trying to maintain that is not the case. jane: thank you. çpresident obama is on his wayo north carolina now. you can watch both of these town hall meetings on foxnews.com. gregg: new fears about a possible change in strategy of terrorism.

çapparently, american citizens are being recruited as jihadists and launching plots overseas. denver griffin is at the pentagon with more. what can you tell us? >> what is interesting is it is a new strategy. in the last few weeks there have been three americans indicted for trying to start a terrorist cell to carry out jihad overseas. you have this case of daniel boyd. on tuesday, you had a minnesota man who was indicted, pled guilty, to trying to carry out jihad in somalia. there is a group of minnesota people missing right now in somalia. you have an american who has made a video in somalia. he is countingç americans from

somalia. then you have a third tape where the government revealed that a long island man had trained in pakistan and has pled guilty in court to wanting to attend to blow up trains in europe. it is a newç strategy where the american cells want to carry out jihadist overseas. gregg: what can you tell us about the plot in north carolina? all we know is they were planning to carry out attacks overseas. >> what is interesting is i discovered that he went to high school in alexandria, va., my local high-school one year behind me. he ended up in the late 1980's and 1990's in pakistan. he originally had been fighting against the soviets with one islamic group. their group was supported by the

u.s. government. he fought and was arrested in 1981 in pakistan with his brother. he was going to have his right hand and left foot amputated but hand andhen given a reprieve.but then he set up again in north carolina and was caught going into the gaza strip in 2006. israelis have blocked him from coming into israel. he has been on a watch list for some time, and the reason the fed's move in was that there was concern that he was going to be moving his family to jordan. gregg:ç apparently he attempted it once before but it did not happen. clapton know that you did not hang out with him in high school. coming up, much more on the home grown terror rings boston in north carolina. and we will have an in-depth

look at this hunt for the eighth suspect. jane: not to indonesia where a hotel hit by homicide bombers has just reopened, but now with tighter security. the suicide bombers killed themselves and southern -- seven other people, as well as some damage to the outside of the building. repairs were just about finished when they reopened today. gregg: we have new numbers of some of these big ticket items, durable goods. not looking so good on that report, and maybe that is being reflected in the markets. jenna lee is reporting from the fox business network. durableç goods, what are they? >> exactly, and that you mentioned like refrigerators,

computers, your car. items that usual in the last more than three years. durable-goods orders look at what corporations are thinking about what they can sell. they are important because a corporation will not order big- ticket items if they do not have the money to pay for it, or are not expecting too. this number is down about 2.5%. what is weighing in down our orders for transportation items, like airplanes and cars and trucks. in june, we saw general motors and chrysler go through bankruptcy, so that may be weighing down on the numbers. if there is a silver lining in this reading, there was not a very huge drop in some of the other items. manufacturers who make these other items could be -- we are just speculating -- delaying

laying off people. we will have to see a few more months of numbers. but this is something that is definitely not a positive for the market today. gregg: thank you very much. jane: swine flu has hit capitol hill. we are told 6 said it pages are believed to have come down with the illness. is holding a hearing on swine flu today, and a question they're trying to answer is if we are ready to handle the widespread pandemic. the virus is expected to return in the fall. how do we know about how some of these people may or may not be? >> apparently they are not in very bad shape. çfour have been isolated from e others. two who live away from the hill have been told to stay home. they have flu-like symptoms, and officials say is probably the

h1n1 virus, but they will not be tested because the best treatment that they can pursue right now would be similar to if they had the common flu. jane: how worried is congress about this? how worried should we be? >> because this is the time of year when you are not supposed to have the flu, they are concerned that it is held there, and that it could come back carter in the fall. if you are pregnant and you start to get flu-like symptoms, you should go to the doctor without delay. officials at the cdc are concerned about young people. >> the new h1n1 influenza virus has been disproportionately affecting younger people. we are not seeing much disease in the elderly, and that is different from the seasonal flu.

with this new h1n1, we are seeing it in a younger population. >> the adviceç is to keep an ee on your real ones. jane: anything we can do to protect ourselves? >> you might want to get ready to take two shots in the fall, one for the common flu, and one for swine flu. the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to wash her hands often. jane: -- your hands often. gregg: i probably washed my hands 30 times a day. maybe i am frocompulsive. especially after i shake your hand. we are getting new details about the eight suspects the officials are looking for in that homegrown terror ring busted in north carolina.

why this case could scarcely test how well we are working with one of our allies in the war on terror. (voice 1) we've detected an anomaly... (voice 2) how bad is it? (voice 1) traffic's off the chart... (voice 2) they're pinging more targets...

(voice 3) isolate... prevent damage... (voice 2) got 'em. (voice 3) great exercise guys. let's run it again.

jane: there is a surge in massachusetts for a baby that was apparently cut from its mother's womb. this happened in worcester, massachusetts. the landlord of the apartment buildingç found the body of the mother. she had been eight months pregnant.

it looks like she had been dead for several days. doctors say the baby could survive, but it need immediate medical care. gregg: the fed's now searching for the eighth suspect linked to a homegrown terrorists and in north carolina. that group's stand accused of planning by len jihad overseas. seven have alreadyç been arrested. by the way, the ringleader is american and had extensive training in terror camp in afghanistan. there's one other person named in the indictment at large. it is what we know. he was also an american citizen and in north carolina resident who recently traveled to pakistan. that is where authorities believe he is now located. joining me now is peter brooks, former cia officer. i'd look at the figures this morning. in the past eight years, america has given more than $10 billion

to pakistan, $320 million this month alone. i should think a little bit of gratitude might prompt them to help us to find him. >> this will certainly be a test case under the obama administration of how well cooperation is working between pakistan and the u.s. obviously, we want them fighting the taliban because what happened there can affect us. if they can work with us on this, and they have the best eyes and ears on the ground, and they can locate this individual, and return him to the u.s., that would be great. gregg: some of them were nationalized citizens. some are u.s.-bornç. talk about the home grown terror threat that still exists. >> this still worries people. the fbi says that their greatest

concern is the lone wolf terrorist. someone who is among themselves and may try to undertake a terrorist attack in the u.s. the issue about this cell is they are talking about terrorism abroad, but what about terrorism in t@e united states? i thought it was interesting that we did not hear anything about planned attacks in the u.s. at least they're not telling us. there is a tremendous concern about people who do not need passports, to get through security at the airport or anywhere else, and are already here in the country. gregg: i tried to be optimistic, but what i see in all of this -- we have busted three plots in the past few weeks. we must be getting pretty good

at detecting these plots. are we? >> i think we are. the problem in that respect is, are we seeing the tip of the iceberg for the iceberg? hopefully it is the whole iceberg. what is important is we do not become complacent about the threat. terrorism and complacency or major threats toç us as we go into the eighth year after 9/11. gregg: peter brooks, thank you. jane: we are going to take a look at raleigh, north carolina air force base. the president is on the way to another townç hall meeting to sell health reform again. back on capitol hill, lawmakers are trying to agree when they can go home for their august break. they will be your running home to voters who are not happy about health care reform. what would you like to tell your

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gregg: states may soon be required to ban texting on driving, or face a loss of federal highway funds. a handful of democrats senatorsç unveiling in brand new bill calling for states to forbid texting and the mailing while operating a moving vehicle, or they will lose 25% of their annual highway federal funding. a new study has found the risk of collision increase is 23 times when you are texting while driving. jane: a couple of pictures for you. the president on the ground in north carolina.

he is pushing health care reform in the first of two town hall meetings today, the first in raleigh, n.c., the second in virginia. on capitol hill, lawmakers are hammering away on health care. it does not look like they're going to meet the august deadline. a new rest is in poll released this morning find at least half of all americans, 49%, believe the country's debt -- best days are behind us. with me now is the former director of the democratic caucus. we have the chairman of gopac as well. you look at those numbers, and i want you to be specific in terms of strategy, how you would advise the white house to do with this electorate? how about these congressional members that are going to go home and hear about it? >> we areç becoming more

optimistic. that is 49% who says that we are past our best days. we are in the worst recession now -- jane: let me add something, the 49%, that has gone up five. . go ahead and finish. >> we are in the midst of a recession right now, that for the middle class, has been the worst thing since the great depression. çwe have to get this economy bk on track and health care reform is one of the most important parts of it. what members of congress will hear when they are talking to their constituents is, get it right. republicans are wrong thinking that america side with the insurance industry and once the status quo to stay the same. we have a situation of extreme

right now. on the right, no health care reform. on the extreme left, a huge government expansion of health care. the center of gravity in congress and politically in the country is in the middle and we are headed to a compromising solution and a terrific bill will pass in september. jane, i want to put up a quotation from a conservative writer. has the white house miscalculated how we feel? >> i think so. president obama was elected to fix the economy, not to turn us into france. the fact of the matter is, his policy is making us worse, not better. when you pass a carbon tax, when you threatened to cancel a tax cut of the bush administration

and when you threaten a huge tax increase for so-called not things that make the economy better. they make them worse. president reagan and president roosevelt faced a difficult economic circumstances as well where the public was disconsolate, but in each case, that advocated growth policies and advocated strong rhetoric to build our spirits. unfortunately, we have not heard that from president obama. jane: that is from the head of gopac. steve murphy is the head of the democratic caucus. we willç hear more about health care reform, coming up. thank you both. gregg: in the meantime, there are a bunch of states that are forced to make drastic cuts to balance the budget. some of them are at your state

prisons. what are they doing to save money? are they letting them go? the easy answer is, yes. jane: some states are raising taxes to try to solve their budget problems. in south dakota, rumors of a tax and a national memorial?

jane: if you want to escape the summer heat, you may want to go to the positive nw, -- you may want to go to the pacific northwpáubut you could be in for a surprise. your wife told me to do that to you. are you listening? domenica davis is here to tell us that they do not have good weather. >> it is very hot there. not only are we looking at record highs -- [no audio]

downtown made it to 100 degrees. you can see plenty of places above the 100 degree mark. yesterday was not the first day. this has been going on for the past few days. today is no exception. high pressure pacific northwest which means that we will continue to see these record highs. he'd warnings for the next few days, so take them seriously. on the flip side, look at what the heat is doing here in this divide where we have the northern plains. rapid city will struggle to reach 70 degrees. where we see yellow, that is where they are running 20 degrees below normal. a bit of a different story. it certainly does not feel like

july in that part of the country. we are monitoring some storms coming from the south moving up to the northeast. we could get some nasty thunderstorms pushingç through the mid-atlantic, up to new england. it may hit all of the major cities from washington to boston. also, -- [no audio] jane: that sounds like a thunderstorm. gregg: i think she lost her microphone. jane: wouldn't you like to know. çwe will get back to her. gregg: now i am paying attention. states are trying to balance their budget. they are putting their presence in the cross hairs, and that's causing deep concern among many of you. many states and looking at cutting staff of prison guards, closing prisons, eliminating

drug or education programs for inmates. here is a list of states. you will notice one of them in kentucky. inmates not considered dangerous are being considered to early release. is the sound policy or a serious safety concern? joining me to talk about it is the president-elect of the american association's -- prison association. i mentioned kentucky in particular. the reason i did is because they let out early some 2700 inmates and actually, it turned out there was a loophole and they let out about 150 violent felons and two dozen sex offenders. am i wrong in thinking this is dangerous policy?

>> i do not know all the details of that situation, but we need to keep our head on when we go through programs such as early release. any time we are doing that beyond the fact, letting people goç back into the community, se of them may have been on the track to rehabilitation that would have really helped them, and all of a sudden we put them on the streets. regardless of whether or not they're timeless do, we often spend money preparing someone for release. if they are not ready to go, we should not beç putting them out there. gregg: let me look at michigan. they are letting out what they regard as a low-risk offenders. but they are still a risk. low-risk offenders sometimes become high risk. >> to me, the word corrections,

i really believe it implies that you are going to correct the problem. letting people go early does not give you the opportunity to allow that person who went to jail to improve themselves. that is the important part of this story. we should not be releasing people who are not ready. gregg: volume worried about prison guards themselves. i have enormous respect for them and they put their lives on alive -- on line for us. in illinois, they are proposing cutting thousands of security guard positions and some of them could then be forced to work double shifts. you know what could happen then. >> this is a significant part. this is like taking officers off the street. it is an increased danger for the staff there, and also for

the inmate population which we are responsible for, we do not want these places to become dangerous for the folks that work there, and for those who are in charge. it is a dangerous slope to go down. reducing people who are supervisingç multiple, dangeros offenders in these institutions is a bad precedent. i hope we do not go down that path. i am in a community now where we are hiring more police officers because we are concerned about crime, all the while trying to reduce the number of people supervising them. gregg, california could be the worst. governor schwarzenegger wants to cut the budget so that they trimmed the prison population by 27,000 inmates. invariably, someone is going to get hurt or killed. they have to find another solution. çthank you for your insight.

jane: prison, but not the only thing being applied to balance state budgets. some interesting ideas. taxing pot and strippers? >> let us start with the numbers. if you look at the budget of 2010, there is a budget shortfall of $120 billion across all the states. this is according to statistics from the national conference of state legislators, a nonpartisan research group looking at the numbers. in california, the first time we want to discuss is this tax on marijuana. in the city of oakland, the first attacks on medicinal marijuana. an assembly person in the city of san francisco wants to make it legal and tax it. how much money could then bring the state?

some estimates say is $1 billion. others say that it could be the biggest crop for california, which is already a big agriculture state. georgia was considering a poll tax, stripper polls. texas already has this tax. if you are in texas, there is still a fine dollar tax if you enter a gentlemen's club. this goes to supporting groups that deal with sexual assault that comes. it is something to keep in mind. ç-- victims. looking at different projects and services that would be cut if these states could not find the revenue, states are also looking at gambling. it is being considered in states like kentucky, illinois, and alabama. not exactly casinos, but slot

machine, and easy way to create revenue. none of those states have passed the measure, but isç something they are considering. finally, there are more mainstream ways to get extra fees. in maine they are raising the fee for hunting and fishing licenses. you should look at your tea for your driver's license. also, a tourist taxes are going up. in south dakota, there was a measure to increase the tourist tax half a percent, but every little accounts. of course, that is where mount rushmore is. just a couple of different ways that states are looking to get more revenue. not all of these measures have been passed, but they have been considered. if things get more difficult in the economy, they may consider it. jane, thank you.

gregg: i thought strippers and pot smokers were a protected class in america? airline safety, the focus of a brand new bill on capitol hill, in response to a horrific commuter plane crash in buffalo, new york. the cause of the crash suspected to be pilot error. molly henneberg has more. what is the committee going to propose in this legislation? >> several things dealing with pilot fatigue and training. legislation was put together by the house transportation committee, including the main sponsor jerry costello of illinois, and john mica of florida. some proposals include implementing training requirements to makeç sure pils know how to handle things like made air stalls. the faa would also have to come up with a stated pilot fatigue rules best -- based on the most recent research.

they would also look at the t risk-management plans to prevent tired pilots from flying. gregg: i understand all of this is in response to the cold and air crash in february? -- colgan airç crash in februa? >> that is right. you will remember that it was flying as a continental connection and killed 52 people. the ntsb has suggested that the pilot may not have had enough recent training to handle a stall and air, and one of them may have been fatigued. gregg: on the face, they sound like good ideas, but the airlines are against them? why? >> maybe not against them, but perhaps overlapping work that they already do.

the air transport can't -- association tells us -- he also says there are fully engaged with preventing crashes and they do not want the government stepping in without getting a voice at the table. gregg: surely they need to do something about new fatigue rules for pilots. thank you. jane: we have all heard the expression, there are plenty of fish in the sea. now divers are trying to find out just how many there are. çhow and why are they doing th? gregg: a drug suspect acting a bit strange, getting down on all

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tests later indicate that what he was licking was actually methamphetamines. he is now facing 16 years in prison for tampering with evidence. gregg: i saw jon do that with some kentucky bourbon he spilled the other day. [laughter] i guess you could call this a high seas senses as diverse and scuba divers around the world are working together to count and document the kinds of fish swimming near coral reefs. çphil keating has more from florida. how exactly are these citizens scientists counting fish? >> with their eyes and waterproof technology. balance of individuals covering the coast of the u.s., hawaii, central america, are going under

water with their equipment, and one fish of this particular species, a few, up to 100, or we seeing an abundant amount? all of this data will be compiled for scientists as well as the commercial and tourist industries. >> they have been doing this for about 15 years over the month of july. in florida, and they recently discovered a new species of flounder. in puget sound, the c. comer -- sea cucumber. usually it is found in abundance, but this year they have not seen very many.

jane: here is a reunion that may bring a tear toç your eye. this is the official dodd of texas. she disappeared when hurricane ike tore through the area. their owner did everything to find him. 10 months later, she was spotted, skittish, ran away from the people trying to grab her, but she called herç name and te dog came running back into her arms. a happy ending for that pooch. gregg: would you drink a glass of arsenic? if you happen to live in a tanning bed, you may as well. you have questions. who can give you the financial advice you need?

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jane: would you knowingly and drink a drink of arsenik? of course not, how about lying in a tanning bed? the study released today says that it can be just as deadly as drinking arsenic. with me now is the founder of the new york -- dermatology group. we knew it was bad, but just how bad? >> it is important for people to understandç that late in maintaining good can give you about five times the amount of sun as normall when you are in sunlight. jane: i have heard about skin cancer, but eye cancer? >> that is right, the rate that the sun produces can cause something called melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

jane: the study says skin cancer jumped 65% when people start using the tanning beds before 30. i will admit we had punched cards when i was younger to get a discount after 10 sessions. what about if you did it in the past, but not anymore? >> going to a tanning bed is sort of like smoking. it is time to quit. they have been linked to cancers in younger people. that includes the three different main types of cancers in the skin. jane: we should point out, the studyç puts you the raise in te category of tobacco, hepatitis b, chimney sweeping, thing that are known to be cantor-causing.

çis there such thing as irresponsible use of tanning beds? >> i do not think so. i think that would mean no use of any tanning bed. more than 30 states have regulations prohibiting minors to go to a tanning booth without consent from their parents. jane: do you expect some sort of regulation to come about who can use it, and when? should we be using self tenors? >> maybe we need to think that we should not be tan. regulations from different states and federal regulation will take place. all adults would need to know that their risk goes up much higher by going into a tanning bed. jane: self tanners, sprays, are they safe? >> they are safe, will change your skin color temporarily, but will not protect you against the

sun. you will still need to wear a sun block. jane: thank you. gregg: you did a bunch? çjane: all the time, maybe thre times a week. we did it through high school, probably through college. what can i do now? gregg: in the state of indiana is dealing with one of the largest baath populations in the u.s. now company recently got rid of 150 batsç in one house alone. the owner of the home woke up with one on his face. the bat tested positive for rabies, of course, a potentially deadly disease. folks are being reminded never to touch them with their hands

and go to the emergency room if there has been any contact. jane: not a problem. president obama is getting ready today for what some are calling beer diplomacy. they are going to sit down and have a beer at the white house. we are about to hear from the woman who called police. that news conference with her is about to get underway. sfx: coin drop, can shaking

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[captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- jane: president obama will be holding a town hall meeting in north carolina, keeping up his full court press on health care reform. the chairman of the senate finance committee just left a meeting saying they have good news. does that mean they are close to an agreement on the senate side? gregg: even bernie madoff was surprised it took theç fed's so long to capture him. he is breaking his silence behind bars. jane: a woman in chicago is being sued for $50,000 after she complained about her former landlord on her twitter page. can you be sued for something as simple as that? her 911 call triggered a controversy that has reached to the white house.

now we are putting a face to the voice. we are waiting for a news conference for the sealucille w. she was the woman who made the 911 call reporting this activity happening at professor gates his home. charges were dropped but this arrest has sparked a national debate about racial profiling. president obama has led to -- has weighed in, and that is leading up to this idea of beer diplomacy. we understand that this woman wanted to remain anonymous, but her lawyer said that she was a private person, so why has she decided to go public? >> she wants to set the record straight. her attorney wendy murphy has said that she wants to make it

clear that she never said black, african-american, when she made that phone call. those words were printed in the police report that james crowley had. he said he spoke to the professor in person, and that is what she was referring to. jane, 911 call, she did not say that she thought it was two black men. ç>> that is right. she also says that she is not sure what is happening. she never says black, never says african-american. she never talks about race until prompted by the dispatcher. >> it will be interesting to see

what she has to add to that. jane: one last question, what is on tap to more for the beer summit? [laughter] >> very clever. the president is scheduled to and officer crowley outside the oval office, expected to have a beer and work out this issue like old friends. jane: do we know what kind of beer they are serving? i literally meant, what is on tap? looks blue moon, a professor likes beck's. jane: probably would ever the president likes. i am hearing that the press conference is about to begin.

again, on the right is wendy murphy, the lawyer. she is going to do and introduction to her client. >> thank you for being here. i specifically want to thank cambridge city officials who made this happen. they were very good about organizing and making it easy for you to be here. my name is wendy murphy, an attorney and spokesperson for lucille whalen. you will hear from lucia in a moment. she will take a few questions after her statement. then she will have to go. please, she is doing this because she knows you want to hear from her. please after this, leave her alone. she has had a lot of folks at her house. it has been hard for her. she is doing this primarily

because it had been it emotionally difficult to handle the media at her home. please come after this, i respect her privacy. she will not be doing any one- on-one interviews. we have talked a lot about and debated the overreaction of three men. professor gates, sgt crowley, and even president obama. all three have special training on this controversy. çi am here today to introduce u to the one person who did not overreact, a woman with no special training, who nevertheless, did everything right. she made a measured, awful, and objective call 2911 to report suspicious activity. any one of us would be lucky to have such a person living in our neighborhood. çsomeone who cares enough to gt involved but as conscientious enough not to overreact, or

worse, the aft in the wrong way to the wrong information. the three highly trained people who reacted bad they are getting tomorrow -- together tomorrow for a beer at the white house. that is a good thing. the one person's actions who have been exemplary will be here at work in cambridge. maybe it is a guy thing. i do know that if she is the type of person that lives and works here in cambridge, then contrary to the criticism earlier on, as race relations ago, a cambridge is doing really well. as you have heard, the city of cambridge is convening a panel of experts to come up with ideas and best practices in cases like this. i would like to suggest someone who could have a seat at the head of the table. ladies and gentlemen, lucia whalen.

>> thank you for being here and giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. i was not planning to make a public statement that after the media managed to reach my mother, i thought i should speak for myself. the criticism at first was so painful for me, and difficult, i was afraid to say anything. people called me racist and said i caused all the turmoil that followed. some even said threatening thing that made me fear for my safety. çi knew the truth. but i did not speak up right away. i did not want to add to the controversy. after the tapes came out, there was so much public support, i felt better about the idea of

speaking publicly. when my mother made her comments, i figured it was time for me to say a few words. first, i would like to thank my wk"erful husband for his support and love throughout this ordeal. i would like to thank my parents as people around the country were saying and thinking the worst of me, my family knew the truth, and their support made all the difference. i am proud to have been raised by two loving parents who instilled in me values including a love one another, the kind to

strangers, and do not judge people based on race, ethnicity, or any other feature, other than their character. i am also proud to be a member of the cambridge community. while i do not live there, i have worked -- more than 15 years -- andç cambridge is a wonderful place. when i was called racist, and i was a targeto scorn and ridicule because of the things that i never said, the criticism hurt me as a person.

but it also hurt the community of cambridge. now that the tapes areç out, i hope people can see that i tried to be careful and honest with my words. it never occurred to me that the way i reported what i saw the analyzed by an entire nation, but so many people have responded with words of support. i hope now the truth of the tape will help heal the cambridge community as much as it has helped to restore my reputation

and integrity. i also want to say, i respect the cambridge police, as well as professor gates. i hope my decision to speak out does not add any controversy to what has been a difficult situationç. a special thanks to my entire family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers for their support. çit really helped me a lot. jane: lucia whalen, the woman

who plays that 911 call reporting professor gates. she's had a lot of people called her a racist after this. she feared for her own safety. interestingly, she did not even identify the two people she saw. she did not even describe them as black men as reported. the dispatcher asked for their race. she said one of them could be hispanic. she even expressed that maybe it was someone who forgot their key. this comes one day before what they are calling the beer summit. now the three of them will be sitting down, trying to hash this thing through. gregg: in the meantime, president obama is in north

carolina pushing for health care. this is his latest effort to support -- to increase support for his plan. çmike emanuel is live in raleigh, north carolina. we have seen a lot of the president talking about health care in the recent weeks. what is the pitch today? >> president obama will be telling his audience and another in bristol, va., that reform will mean more coverage and security for the people. he will also be laying out a consumer protections he insists will be part of any final bill that he willç sign, including f you have a pre-existing condition, you will not be dropped from your insurance. if you develop a serious illness, you will not be dropped. no gender discrimination. those are a few of the outline

that he will be describing. gregg: thank you. jane: he could not believe he got away with it for years. that is what bernie madoff is saying. your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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jane: a stunning admission from bernie madoff. when you hear it, you may wonder how relaxed our government watchdogs candy. a lawyer says he held a prison çinterview, and madoff told him that securities investigators questioned him a few times over the years but did nothing. adam shapiro is with us. i understand you just spoke to the lawyer? >> yes, he is intent to discover presenting two people who have lost a total of about $6 million. first, it was reported that mr.

marriot said he does not care about his sons. that is not true. çthat did not take place during the meeting. there is actually a blunt statement in one of the report that he does not care about his sons. jane: why would he decide to talk now to this lawyer? >> the lawyer is threatening to sue everyone and his family and it is already filing a complaint in the court here against ruth madoff, peter madoff, as well as the suns. everyone is under the impression that now that he has spoken to the lawyer, some of the lawsuits will be dropped. jane: the question has always been who else is involved. did he get a sense that's he will -- that he will rat out

other players? >> according to him, he will. jane: the rest of the family, are they in the clear? >> it depends. criminally, ruth madoff seems to be in the clear. everyone in the family will face lawsuits, civil lawsuits. if you can call that being in the clear, then probably. jane: thank you. gregg: i know him. he is one of the premier plaintiff attorneys in the country. could a message to send on the social networking sites like facebook did you in serious trouble? wait until you hear about a tweet that could end up costing 11 and $50,000. the thing is, people do this every day on social work and that -- networking websites.

right --

i love this channel. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click today. jane: janet napolitano has just outlined the obama administration's domestic approach to preventing terror attacks. she said the u.s. has not done everything it can to educate and engage all of us in the public to prevent terrorism. in the middle, president obama is in north carolina pushing his health care reform ids. will he get what he wants? we are also watching the dow. it is down 41 points. gregg: it is becoming one of the most popular ways to communicate in the high-tech age -- twitter.

you better be careful. one chicago woman is finding out the hard way, who sent a message complaining about her boss. here is what it said. for that one complaint, the building manager has given her a $50,000 lawsuit. the company claims for state and hurts the company. joining me now is an attorney. with me also is a former prosecutor. let's start with definitions. çthis is the definition of a defamation. there are two defenses.

if you tell the truth, there is no problem. also, if you are just offering an opinion, not that the nation. so what is the difference between opinion and asserting a fact? we willç put that on the scree. john, is this opinion or fact? >> i think it is probably the fact. there are tests that can tell you if there was the presence of the small at the time she made the statement. it is approvable issue. gregg: what she said is she believes that she thinks the company is doing this and that.

isn't that protected speech under opinion? >> absolutely. it is preposterous to say that this was a public statement defaming the company. if anything, they went above and beyond handed it to themselves. my understanding is she had 20 followers at the time. heard 20 friends -- it was broadcast only 2 per 20 friends. gregg: what if she can prove the truth of the matter, that there was mauled, she put the real to company on notice but they did nothing about it? is she not proving fact? >> that is right. let me tell you the most boneheaded part of this. a spokesperson for the company, when asked about trying to resolve this without lawsuits said that we sue first and ask questions later. talk about hurting your reputation.

what tenet is going to rent an apartment from the building managers who say that they like to sue people? gregg: jennifer, you need a good reputation to begin with, in order to be damaged. what if the defendant can pror @ even likes them, they have a bad reputation, no damages, right? >> not only in that situation, but what has the company down to move this along? now the backlash on them is ridiculous. if they would have thought this through -- theyç were flippant in that comment. to have an attitude like that is coming back to bite them now. gregg: i would consider this an insult, and generally, they are

not considered defamatory in most cases. thank you. jane: three teenagers on a 20- foot boat. the amount of illicit cargo on the boat that you see there are leading agents wondering how it was floating in the first place. also, we are taking your questions and responses. our question of the day, what do you want to tell your representatives about health care reform? they will be coming back home for the august break. ♪ music up and under.

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jane: the plan to prevent terror attacks on american soil. it homeland to carry secretary has outlinedç that plan today. it is change coming? gregg: franks and felons.

some local folks are steamed about this. jane: william la jeunesse is in california for us. >> there are thousands of wild horses like this in the country. congress is getting involved trying to get them a home. gregg: he looks pretty good in that cowboy hat. president obama trying to kickstart this stalled health care reform. he is in north carolina right now for one of his two town hall meetings to drum up support. but the pressure on congress is growing more intense. the details of what reform, but like are still far from settled. there is a lot of talk about addiction one of the most controversial parts of reform, public option, and replacing them with nonprofit cooperative that can compete with private companies and drive down cost. with me now is texas senator

john corn andine. -- cornine. as we understand, max baucus, the head of the committee has said that he has good news. apparently he will be revealing it? new you know what it is? >> -- do you know what it is? >> i do not know what he is talking about. everyone had been working pretty hard and i congratulate him on there has to be a better way to do this. the house bill would impose a huge surtax on small businesses. but we are going to keep working. our message has been to get this right, rather than getting in done fast and making serious mistakes. gregg: you are on recordç -- i read your comments -- and you

said a government-run public option is not fiscally sustainable. an alternative, no, is emerging in your committee, a nonprofit insurance cooperative that would essentially arrange collective coverage. the theory goes, they would provide competition with private insurers while avoiding a government monopoly. do you favor that? >> it sounds like we are moving in the right direction but we already have health insurance companies writing policies. i do not know why we won another bureaucracy to make it more expensive and harder. we need competition. we need transparency. we need people to see what they are getting in terms of the value and cost. ultimately, we need to start from the bottom up and focus on the contract -- on the consumer.

focus on what empower the consumer to make good choices, not looking to see how washington can take over another important sector of the economy, causing people to lose but theyç have now, even if thy like it. gregg: instead of taxing employers were workers, your committee is considering a tax on insurance companies, but only on those most expensive policies, for example, above $25,000. what do you think of that? >> i am not for raising taxes. right now 17% of ourç gross domestic product is spent on health care. there is a lot of waste and inefficiency. roughly $900 billion in medicaid alone. that could be redirected to health care. there is a lot of misaligned incentives for more procedures

to get paid rather than focusing on how to deliver the most value in keeping the cost low. we have seen the mayo clinic and a number of other places where they have done that successfully. it is the wrong place to start to talk about raising taxes. we know it will not just the insurance companies paying the taxes, but that will be passed onto the consumer. that is the wrong direction to go. gregg: thank you for being with us. jane: some money may have the chance to talk to your representatives when they come home for the summer break, so our question of the day, what would you like to ask or tell them?

you can join our conversation by going toç foxnews.com /happeningnow. gregg: looking at wall street, the dow jones is down 30 points -- 38 points. two of the biggest names in technology, microsoft and yahoo!, teaming up to take on google. thatç means the online search r is on. jenna lee is with us. there is a long and acrimonious relationship here, but is that being put aside? >> some are describing in as a long courtship, back to 2008. that is when microsoft offered

$45 billion for the move. since then, deals have come together, broken apart, and what we have right now is not a merger or buyout, but an agreement between the two over the next 10 years to share ad revenue and also swapped services. microsoft has a new search engine called bing, and that is meant to compete with google. what you will eventually see on yahoo! is bing as the predominant search engine. it is a way for both companies to make money off of the ad revenue. in fact, you may not see too much of this in the next few years, although we have heard that the deal is getting worked out now. year. we will not see this for another two years, and it's still need to cross antitrust legislation

and needs to be approved by the government. google and yahoo! tried to team up last year but it was not allowed because of qn,%qiumì(lc+ competitive laws that makes sure that that competition remains equal. the big take away for all of us is more competition leads to more innovation. more innovation leads to better consumers. -- us, the consumers. gregg: you can bet the department of justice will be looking seriously at this antitrust issue. we will wait and see. thank you. jane: we are waiting for an update from the shuttle endeavor after astronauts inspected the shuttle this morning. it was a routine check to make sure that it was ready for the

friday landing. they will spend the next day packing for their return flight. in the meantime, a russian vessel carrying supplies has now docked with the space station. gregg: if your appetite takes your stomach hostage, take a look at this. çit is called a felony francs. we are live at a chicago hot dog joint, but it is raising eyebrows. we are live to find out why. oa! honey honey honey honey honey!

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martha: we will be talking about health care in stimulus.

some of them have been controversial inç the country. are we turn to see some ripple affects been gubernatorial race is happening around the country? and we will show you some interesting poll numbers about how this could be playing out across the country. >> and a word or two that could save your child's life. a young girl forced to call her parents from an atm with the attacker behind her getting their pin number. an expert will tell us about a secret code that she could have used to tell her parents that she was in trouble. jane: three american teenagers are in a pot of trouble after they were boston with more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana off the coast of san diego. customs and borders agent found a marijuana under the deck. two 18 year-old man and a 19-

rolled old -- 19-year-old woman. it had a street valueç of $640,000. gregg: what do you bet the dogs tipped them off? a city home to gangsters at one. now housing peopleç who had one been in the joint. felony france has been backed out like a prison. some locals think that this is glorifying crime. carina sonn is reporting from felony franks. how many job application did the owner jack? >> if you can believe it, 600 applications for five positions. all these people behind me are ex-convict. the owner owns a paper company,

and hired ex-con to as a favor to a nearby church, and discover that they are some of his best ideas. that is how he got this idea. we want to show you what they have on the menu. misdemeanor weiner, chain gn ang chili dog, and if you like fresh, the fraudulent fish sandwich. gregg: so what are the neighbors saying? >> most support. one worker told me that he waited three years for this job. he found out the owner was hiring folks who had been in prison and said he waited three years just to get aç spot. critics say this is a location that has struggled with crime, with bars on the front and bulletproof glass. all this was in place before the

owner purchased it, so not in the bestç neighborhood. gregg: they did their time, so why not give them a second chance. are there plans for other restaurants like this? >> the owner says he has received calls from about 35 different people wondering about franchising because it has only been open for a couple of weeks. he says he is not there yet, but is interested in the process of making this a franchise. he wants to know the percentage of people working here having been in prison. he wants about 50, 75%, the others can be whoever else. gregg: how is the food? >> it is very good, actually. it is a lot of competition with about 1800 other hot dog stands. jane: misdemeanor weiner.

the white house today is beginning to lay out its domestac security plan for homeland security. this is the first we are hearing about how the administration plan to keep us safe. how does it compare to the bush administration? wwww if you're taking 8 extra-strength tylenol... a day on the days that you have arthritis pain, you could end up taking 4 times the number...

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gregg: to capitol hill and health care. we have learned the blue dog democrats, 52 of them who have been an obstacle for their own çparty, say they have reached a health care deal. we do not have the details, but they are forthcoming. as soon as we get them, we will let you know. jane: homeland security secretary janet napolitano has

released their strategy for protecting the country. before visiting ground zero, she said we need to look beyond places like new york city. >> arrests have been made in places like minneapolis, north carolina, so i think better education about the birth of the threat and how it can be carried out is important. even as we educate, we prepare. jane: even the candidate obama criticized the bush administration, president obama does not seem to be doing away with that approach. with me now is a former adviser for don edwards. -- john edwards. we are not talking about wholesale change at all, are we? >> on the one hand, we have the recognition that dhs -- it was

started just a few years ago and it is an enormous agency. to change it fundamentally would administration to take on right now. what the secretary signaled today was a very sophisticated move to the ball homeland security past the first administration. they had a harsh -- it was more of a blood and then a scalpel. if you look atç how they approached civil liberties, the need to ask citizens to be aware. this was thiman to move them toward, past the bush administration. jane: we may see things a balding, but when you listen to

what she said, you cannot deny some degree of admission that what the bush administration was doing was keeping us safe. >> that is right. a lot of folks spend allot of time beating up the bush approach, and there is quite a lot to beat up in the way that the global war on terror framework was used, did a lot of harm across the world and here at home. we needed to move beyond that. there were damaged civil liberties, a whole host of issues here, but it does not make sense to obsess about george bush. luckily, we do not have to kick around anymore. i think we can move into a new generation of homeland security -- jane: i do not mean to interrupt

you but we have breaking news on health care. house signed between blue dog democrats. it is so much a deal that they will move to mark up the bill within the next few hours. after the break, we will check with our capitol hill producer for the details. . (male announcer) if you've had a heart attack caused by a completely blocked artery, other heart attack could be rking, waiting to strike. a heart attack caused by a clot, one that could be fatal.

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deal on health care. >> they have forced to distill, a tentative agreement with the seven blue dogs on the energy commerce committee, which were the key votes to move this out of the panel. two other committees have written a health-care bill three of the moderate democrats were concerned about the cost. we have learned to they are cutting the cost by $100 billion. it would exempt small businesses with annual payroll. and the public option. the public health care would be optional. it would not be forced on anyone. this was very important to the rural blue dogs, that there was savings for hospitals. we are looking at a march up this afternoon. we're also hearing that they could possibly complete the marked up by the end of the week. they might not vote on the floor by the end of the week, which

was the original goal. they will allow members of congress to go home over the august recess and talk with their constituents about this and maybe vote on this in september. gregg: i got the sense that the house was waiting to see what the senate finance committee was going to come up with. >> you have these two tornadoes moving around each other in the house and senate. there were some who said, yes, we would like to have a couple of days and see what the senate will do. they were not necessarily a contingent upon one another to there was a movement over there where there was no deal in the senate. these two bodies have them looking at each other, but their action is not necessarily contingent upon one another. some people thought the senate would be the tougher lefift.

gregg: ended kidded that the public option would be optional. what if an employer on its own decides it is more cost- effective for me to forget the private insurance i have been providing. let's just take the proposed 8% payroll tax and it will be easier and cheaper. would that not essentially be forced on them? >> that is a good point. we will have to see where the march k up goes. we do not know what that means. i think that is the tough thing. gregg: is there a health care tax on this? >> not that i see in this. we are just 30 to get the basic details. i do not see anything. --