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tv   Happening Now  FOX News  April 8, 2010 11:00am-1:00pm EDT

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walks like that in the streets. bill: they're buddies! martha: i don't want my rats on my pets, not really! bye guys, see you tomorrow! jon: good morning to you, i'm jon scott. jane: i'm jane skinner, "happeninging now", captured by the taliban nine months ago, a new videotape has surfaced. we'll talk about it with family spokesperson. jon: a scare in the air, a passenger sneeks a smoke in the restroom and makes a joke about the shoe bomber. air marshals sprang into action, military jets are scrambled. we'll tell you thousand all turned out. jane: in the bottom, all eyes on tiger woods today, less than three hours from now he tees off the a the mars. his big comeback are not the only thing they're talking about. have you seen the ad with tiring and the voice of his
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late father? we'll show it to you. plus the "happening now" team, harris always at the breaking news desk is working the phones and the stories developing now. also at the national desk, tim gaughan is bringing in stories and video from around the country, and jenna lee with fbn has all you need to know, jenna, about your money. jon: a fox news alert from west virginia right now, rescue teams were hoping to reach four missing miners by noon, they're now evacuating the upper big branch mine. federal safety officials say the air quality underground is putting those crews in danger and they need to get out. steve centanni is live in montcoal, west virginia, what's happening there now, steve? >> reporter: right, a major setback to the rescue crews after waiting all this time. they were able to go back in, early this morning, at 5:00 a.m., and try to get to where those four remaining unaccounted for miners are located, but they just couldn't do it. they were testing the air along the way, there was
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just too much methane gas, carbon monoxide and hide hydrogen, an explosive mixture, so they had to turn around and go back out again. they didn't even reach the point where the bodies are located, which is 8000 feet back in, less than 2 miles. they had to turn around and go back. this is an unfortunate turn of events, but the bottom line remains the same, even though there's a setback and there will be a delay, the rescue crews can go back later once the air quality improves, because they're ventilating a shaft from a drill hole they dug in the mountain there, they're ventilating as fast as they k. they're putting a second hole in the same location so they can double the ventilation and get the tokic gas out of there. as for the hopes of remaining alive for the missing miners, that hasn't changed, they could be inside of a refuge chamber, an inflatable chamber that has enough air for 96 hours or more, considering there's only four guys, and food and water and other survival
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gear. so they may still be in there, this doesn't change that situation any. so there is still a shred of hope they could be alive and later on today, within a matter of hours, they hope to go in there and determine that. they had hoped to know that by now. they do not know that now, and there has been a setback, jon. jon: despite the bore holes they have completed, pulling the poisonous gases out of the mine it's still too dangerous. >> that's right. they're pulling it out as fast as they can, they're going to put a second hole down to double the ventilation, but in the meantime, when they went in, they had a safe level when they went in, then it increased. we don't know if it's from the barometric pressure with the storm front moving in here or if there's some voluminous release of gas inside the mine that just continues to put out methane, and other toxic gases. they're not sure why, but the levels went back up to a dangerous and explosive level, so they had to pull back. jon: steve centanni, montcoal, west virginia, thank you steve. jane: this morning the president is saying he's confident that the united states senate will ratify
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the new arms reduction treaty with russia. president obama and the president of russia signed that agreement in prague today. mr. obama says this new treaty sets a foundation for even more cuts to come. let's get to our senior white house correspondent major garrett, traveling with the president in prak. ny -- in prague. why is the president so confident? >> the white house has conveniently put together the votes showing 93 votes or more, but pass may not always be -- it's been an a while since they took on the arms race agreement since 1991. there was an agreement in 2002 with putin but that not require ratification and the senate is much different than it was in the early '90s and the white house has conceded this treatment will not be approved or ratified by august of this year, meaning it will have to be
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debated and voted on in the heat of the election, in november or sometime thereafter, the most optimistic phrase from the white house is sometime this year. republicans have already notified the white house they're going to scrutinize very closely how the treaty is implemented, what its verification measures are and if the president is committed to full funding of modernizing and keeping modern, the existing nucleolar stockpile in the united states which will remain and have seven years to take place after ratification. jane: the arms control experts when they look at these deals, a lot of them say the numbers aren't really that impressive. would we expect another treaty coming soon, another agreement? >> the president said today he hopes -- he will start negotiations on additional cutbacks going forward, and both sides really do concede these numbers are helpful, somewhat impressive, but not nearly as great as arms control experts thought the two sides could agree on. what complicated it? missile defense. all the experts i talked to
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said until the united states and russia get a better understanding between the two countries about what the united states intends to do in europe with missile defense and russia gets over its fears, unrealistic, the white house says that that ballistic defense issue to deal with them and not iran, this issue is going to be very hard to resolve. the most optimistic estimates i've heard is maybe there's a 51 percent chance of an arms control treaty in the obama presidency, i would consider that the most optimistic appraisal. one quick note, while here, the two sides said they are very close on the iran's sanctions issue, russia says the sanctions need to be smart, not hurt the iranian people, president obama agreed. the next big question, what will china do. we'll find out when hu jintao and president obama meet. back to you. jane: a lot of major developments, thanks, major. jon: a major air scare on a jet bound for denver, all caused by a guy trying to sneak a smoke in the bathroom. the smell drew the attention of air marshals and get this, a guy who's a diplomat
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from qatar, tells the marshals he was trying to set his shoes on fire. f-16s scrambled as the marshals took him into customer ce, the -- custody, the jet landed safely, the diplomat who said he was joking was questioned by the fbi ands arid without charges. qatar -- qatar is defending the diplomat saying it was all a mistake. new developments on the dead lie violence in kyrzygstan, that houses a key military base and a supply center for troops fighting the war in afghanistan. the situation there is growing more dire by the hour. and opposition leaders just announced that parliament had been dissolved and she will head on interim government but the president is refusing to give in, saying he does not admit defeat, also acknowledging he doesn't have any real power right now. the u.n. secretary general is expressing deep concern about the situation, just announcing he is sending a special envoy to the region. the recent unrest has left dozens of people dead, what
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could be so bad is if people have resorted to this level of violence. we'll search for answers in a live court from the kyrzygstan capitol in our next hour. the economy may be on the right track but jobs are still scarce. the latest unemployment numbers, worse than expected, the number of first-time jobless claims, up to 460,000 last week. economists were expecting that number to drop. jenna lee is with the fox business network and joins us now. why the unexpected rise, jenna? >> reporter: there could be a couple of reasons for that, that may have to do with holiday factors. why don't we start off with good news, which is the fact is that as far as unemployment claims, the people filing for new benefits, that number has been below 500,000 for the last five months and that's a very important mark that we're going to continue to look for, however -- however, what might have factored into this report is you had a good friday holiday, also a holiday in california, so what happens when there's a holiday and labor departments are
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closed, economists estimate how many filings they might have seen so they might be off of estimates here and we'll vet a -- we'll get a revision to the number as we always do next week. part of the concern, though, as jon mentioned, it is a tough labor environment out there, that means it's tough to go ahead and get a job. if you look at the amount of people on unextended -- extended benefits or emergency benefits, that number continues to drop but that's not necessarily a good sign. congress went to easter break before voting in extensions for the emergency benefits and because of that you might have people that weren't able to get another extension for some of the benefits that they're getting, so that could be a cause for concern and we'll have to wait for next week's number to see if what we're seeing is a trend or something that's going to continue. jon: you can't believe it, just when you think the economy is getting on track you see it jump up there and it's scary. >> it is a little scary. we saw on tuesday another report that said we're seeing more people apply for every open position, and it's -- you want to see the numbers come down more significantly and we're not
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seeing that at this time. jon: jenna lee, thanks. jane: are you ready for this? if you do have a job, uncle sam is taking a big bite of it april 15th. we're learning nearly half of the people in this country don't have to cough up a dime. do not pay income taxes in this country, federal taxes, at all. stuart varney is going to explain to us how that can be possible. also, imagine getting this in a mail, it's a flyer advertising an at-home abortion kit. some people did. they're not happy about it. what in the world?
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jane: "happening now", civil defense official called it instant death, a devastating mudslide in rio dejanerio, 200 people buried and feared dead at this hour, the slides have been triggered by record rains that have already killed 100 people. in the middle awaiting a
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man accused of making threatening phone calls to nancy pelosi, waiting to see him in court, he's in california, you'll be hearing the charges against him an hour from now. on the bottom, shuttle astronauts are hard at work hoisting a cargo carrier on to the international space station ahead of tomorrow's first space walk. this story developing out ofels, some may call it a sick joke but an investigation is said to be underway after a flyer was mailed out offering at-when -- at-home abortion kits for $400. the flyer encourages people to call or write for more information but the contact information actually belongs to a prolife group, the flyers were mailed to similar groups. its so-called kit claims to use chemicals and enzymes to abort a fetus. authorities contacted the fbi about the flyer, the postmark is from a chicago suburb, mailings went out to groups in a dozen states. jon: most americans work more than three-months just to pay their tax bill. but according to the tax
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policy center, a d.c. research group, about 47 percent of u.s. households won't pay any federal taxes at all for 2009. how can that be? stuart varney, anchor with the fox business network is here. i was amazed at that percentage, nearly half the country. >> this is not widely known. roughly half of all the households in america pay not a single dime in federal income tax. either their income is too low to cross that taxing threshold or they've got so many deductions it puts them below the taxes threshold. about half pay nothing. jon: i said federal taxes, you're saying federal income taxes, they may payroll taxes. >> if you work you obviously pay social security tax, that's a payroll tax, you pay it, regardless of income, you pay it, but when it comes to federal income taxes, 47 percent of households pay nothing at all. jon: so i was reading that it's possible that a family making $50,000, four people,
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nothing in federal income tax. >> that is correct. the median household income in america in 2007 was just over $50,000. it's about the same now. that family of four, given some deduction, given some circumstances, would not pay any federal income tax. jon: and the percentage of people who aren't paying taxes jumped something like 11 percent over the last year or so. >> yes. now think of it as a tipping point, jon. if you've got half your population paying no federal income tax at all, why shouldn't they vote in favor of tax increases on the other half of the population, which is paying all of the tax revenue to the treasury? there's a built-in bias towards higher taxes for that half of the population. jon: secure -- secure, because a tax increase doesn't mean anything for them because they're not paying it. >> they're getting all the benefits because the money comes to them. not a good situation. >> jon: unbelievable. april 15th is coming up, folks, have a nice day!
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stuart varney, thank you. in a moment, talking about one of the most powerful men in washington who says it's time to raise taxes, he says the country cannot continue on the path it's on without more revenue. we'll get into that next hour. jane. jane: for a family in idaho, life has been a nightmare since last june. their son was captured then by insurgents in afghanistan. he is the only known american service member held by the enemy in afghanistan. now a new video has been released with private first class b eaubergdall.. class b eaubergdall.. what does t his mean?
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jon: "happening now" in the top box, security breach at los angeles international airport delays flights and shuts down security check points for nearly two hours
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this morning. a passenger left the check point before his carry-on bag was screened, he was found a short time later and his bag checked out okay. middle box, new developments in the financial meltdown investigation as a senior adviser for citigroup says he didn't learn until late 2007 about $43 billion his bank had invested in high risk securities. >> bottom box, good news on the shopping front, the station's retailers post strong sales for the fourth consecutive month. jane: now to a new video that's been released of the only known member, american service member in captivity as of today, private first class b owe bergdahl vanished in june in eastern afghanistan, the taliban later claimed his capture. in this video that's now surfaced he says he wants to return to his family in idaho and says the war in afghanistan is not worth the number of lives that have been lost. we don't know when the video was shot or under what conditions. it's the first we've seen of him since christmas of last year. on the phone is coal knoll
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tim marsono of the idaho national guard, he's the spokesman for the family. you spoke to the family last night, what's the reaction? >> they're dealing with a difficult situation. it's been nine months this has been going on. they're coping as best they can. jane: how did they find out about this? >> they actually heard about it from a reporter, a family member heard about it, then told me and i got with that associated press reporter and things kind of snowballed from there. jane: do they believe that it's recent? >> there is indications that it's recent, but like up, there really isn't any way to nail down exactly when it was shot but i think the family is taking heart in seeing their son healthy. jane: i bet. do they believe that he's still alive? >> i think we all want to believe that he is. there's no way to tell exactly what's going on with his condition right now. like you say, that video, it's impossible to say just exactly when it was shot, so we're all hoping and praying. jane: important, too, to note as i mentioned there, we don't know under what circumstances he uttered
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these words. what about the timing of it, colonel, in your mind? >> it's really impossible to say why his captors choose to release the video when they do but every time they release the video i can tell you that it does brighten the mood around the bergdahl household to see their son at least healthy. jane: just want a release from nato, quote, the continuing use of first private class b ergdahl as a means of propaganda is a deplorable act and only fuels our efforts to find him and bring him home, the insurgents are using him as a means to cause ultimate pain to his family and friends and continues to reflect the cruel tactics designed to deceive the afghan people and the international community of their true intentions. the family is from idaho. talk to me about what the community has done, it sounds like there's been immense support for the family. >> you're right about the immense pain it has caused
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the family but they take comfort in the words and deeds of their friends, certainly family members and community at large. the community has been phenomenal in their support. you cannot walk down the street in haley, idaho without seeing remindminders left and right of bowe bergdahl. placards in businesses, you might have seen the banners put up at one of the coffee shops there. those reminders are not only seen by members coming to the valley but by the family members themselves and they take heart. jane: tim marsono is a spokesperson for the bergdahl family. thank you. jon: at least 250 people killed, their deaths linked to toyota's acceleration problems. if that doesn't outrage you enough, wait until you hear who knew what and when. some new incredible information coming out of the washington hearing. plus do you stay home
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from work when you're sick or bring your germs to the office? like it or not, playing hurt is the thing to do these days. jenna has more on why.
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jon: bottom of the hours, time for a check of the top stories, "-- happening now, dangerous gases force crew necessary west virginia to abandon the search for the four missing coal miners, the crews got within 1000 feet of the rescue chamber where they might be before they had to turn around. middle box, president obama getting ready to host a dinner with 11 central and eastern european leaders, just hours after the president and his russian counterpart signed a new arms control treaty. bottom box, antigovernment protestors in thailand plan a massive street rally tomorrow in defiance of a state of emergency there, the red shirts, as the po testers are known, have been trying to force the prime minister from office, and call new elections there.
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jane: new questions today about what toyota knew about its mechanical problems and when. our sister publication the "wall street journal" is breaking the story of internal e-mails of one that shows in no uncertain terms the company knew about some issues with its vehicles days before the massive recall was announced. brian wilson is in d.c. for us on this today. brian, these documents seem on their face anyway to be rather damming. you have them in hand? >> reporter: that's right, i have them in hand and when i have them, of course, we share them with you. we can show thaw memo written by irv, -- irv miller, take a look at this document that seems destined to show up in court cases across the country, miller wrote and i quote, i hate to break to with you but we have a tendency in mechanical failure. we are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. the time to hide on this one is over. now, this is one of some
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7000 toyota documents that's been turned over, jane, to government investigating and it seems likely that other embarrassing memos will emerge as these things are examined page by page. by law, jane, toyota was required to bring the pedal problem to the government's attention within five days of learning it. they did so in september for european dealers but they didn't make it known to the u.s. government officials about this until it was january. jane: wow brian. what does toyota have to say about it? >> well, they don't specifically respond to the document but they do say this, we have publicly acknowledged on several occasions that the company did a poor job of communicating during the period preceding our recent recall. so they are, again, admitting they have been less than forthcoming about some of this information. toyota has also been bragging in recent commercials about how well its cars are selling, but they failed to mention, jane, that to get those sales, the company has been selling cars at a huge discount, and offering major
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sales incentives such as zero prosecutors financing. i want to mention one other thing, irv miller, the man who wrote this document is no longer with toyota, he recently retired. jane: brian wilson in d.c. will bring us more as he gets it. thanks brian. >> you bet. jon: the u.s. and russia, reaching an agreement today on cutting nuclear weapons, and apparently they see eye to eye on the nuclear threat posed by iran. this agreement just today puts added pressure on rogue states like iran. president obama plans to use the agreement as a platform to build international support against nuclear proliferation, the u.s. needs russia's cooperation at the u.n. security council to try to get iran in line. any chance of that? let's ask jim walsh, international security expert with the mit security studies program. what about it, are you surprised the russians seem to be helping us lean on the iranians here 1234. >> -- here? >> the russians are fair weather friends, they've been with us on some occasions voting for sanctions, three rounds of sanctions at the u.n., and
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on other occasions slowing down, but i think the new russia-u.s. relationship is on a better track than it was before, i also think the russians were caught off guard about the revelations about that secret facility near gom he felt and there's been a meeting of the minds, so that now the country that the u.s. is focusing on when it comes to getting support for sanctions that is shifted from russia to china, trying to pull china along because they're the ones that are dragging. jon: china gets gasoline, fuel from iran. >> they do, and they have a traditional policy, when they set a policy, they stick to it and their policy is they don't want to get involved in internal affairs and don't want to go to the security council to do things because they have their own problems, but they've been increasingly persuaded and the latest word is they will support the sanctions and we'll see sanctions in the next several months. jon: what about the agreement that president obama signed with the russians, does it make us safer? it's been all kinds of controversial. >> i think it does make us safer and i think it's important to put it in context. one is the historical context.
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president nixon, the republican president, signed the first treaty of that kind, president bush the elder did, president bush the younger did, and this is a follow-on to the previous treaties. the reason why i think it makes sense is two reasons: one, as you alluded to, jon, it gives us political leverage to go to the other members of the international community and say hey, we're doing our job, you need to step up to the plate and do your job. then secondly, as henry kissinger has pointed out, in a post-cold war era, the real nuclear danger is an undeterrable terrorist with a nuclear bomb. we can blld a thousand nuclear weapons, that's not going to prevent a terrorist from committing suicide and attacking us. those balls present a danger so the idea is to shrink the amount of material and countries and bombs there are. that reduces the chances that terrorists can get their hands on one. jon: just as you were competing, amongal mcfall, a spokesman for the white house, special assistant to the president, is saying that russian president
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medvedev is, in fact, on board with sanctions, he says that medvedev made it clear he would support sanctions to be used as a tool to change iranian behavior, he says we have moved beyond saying they are necessary, we're talking about a concrete process. so just as you predicted, apparently sanctions could be on the way. >> i think they're on the way, i would definitely bet in favor of that outcome, if you're a betting man. i'm not a betting man. but i would bet on that. that leaves the question will the sanctions matter. i don't think of them as a magic wand that suddenly they're going to give in. if anything, they'll be defiant right after we pass sanctions, but it's part of a broader process of which negotiations, other things, are a part to try to put them on a different track. jon: jim walsh with mit, thank you. jane: did you feel sick but you dragged yourself into work anyway? guess what, you're not alone, a whole lot of people
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feel like they have to do that these days, whether you like it or not as a coworker. jenna is here to explain the results of a new study, why so many of us are going to work sick, and spreading our germs, jenna. >> reporter: you've got to keep that hand sanitizer, you never know who your coancore might be, got to make sure you have it on the desk. this is a survey from monster.com, 30,000 people they looked at, 15 different countries, what they found out is yes, most of us go to work even though we're not feeling well, six out of ten of us do that and the main reason is we say we have too much on our plate, we have to go, we have too much work to do, the other parties fear we're worried about our job in this economy. the rest of us say no, we don't go to work, four out of ten of us, 13 percent of us say even though we stay home, we work, anyway, so if you ask this question differently and say who of us actually worked while significance, 74 percent of us, seven out of ten, say that despite not feeling well, we're going to still keep working.
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jane: does it actually pay for do that? >> not necessarily. a good reminder at this time, to know that federal law actually does not require your employer to offer paid sick leave, so you should check that out and just know what your company's policy is. but even though they've not -- they're not paying you, it doesn't necessarily help your company when you're out because they lose money in lost productivity and offense -- often times they have to call in a temporary employee which costs more, so it definitely hurts your bottom line and definitely hurts the company's bottom line as well. jane: interesting stuff, jenna, thank you. jon. jon: the story of the death of phoebie prince has appalled so many people. a teenager, bullied and wound up dead. harris is working on some new information in connection with that. we'll get to harris in just a moment. jane: tying ser teeing off the a the masters. have you seen this ad from nike that is out today, can
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we show it? it's tiger's face with the voice of his father, who's passed away. effective, or just plain eery? we're going to play it for you. e -- e-mail us, happening now at fox news.com or go to foxnews.com, happening now and check this out, a rat, a cat and a dog! how did these 3amigos get together?
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jon: three girls in that terrible massachusetts bullying case plead not guilty. hair irs faulkner has more information from our breaking news desk. >> reporter: this has to do with the death of phoebie prince. you'll remember she hanged herself after what police and other authorities have said were three-months of intense bullying, and now three of the young women who were charged, 16-year-olds who were charged, their attorneys in court just a short time ago pleading not guilty.
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they are, as named here, ashley long, sharon valesquez and flannery mullens, they were the ones in juvenile court today, arraigned on charges of civil rights and stalking. of course the case deals with stalking, harassment, all the way to statutory rape, with a total of six kids who have been charged, but these three now stepping up in court today with their attorneys to say they had nothing to do with this, by pleading not guilty. of course, phoebie prince committed suicide, her sister found her hanging inside their nome massachusetts a couple of weeks ago. the prosecutor in this case, saying this is a first step in a very long process. the attorney is also saying that again we're taking an initial step here, the attorneys for the defense, we're taking an initial step here as we move towards some kind of closure in this case. but three young 16-year-olds, pleading not
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guilty. their attorneys on their behalf. the young girls, by the way, were not in court this morning. back to you. jon: harris, thank you. jane: exactly two hours from now, 1:42 eastern, tiger woods will be teeing off at the masters at augusta national, the first time he's hit the links since that car accident on thanksgiving night that led to these revelations of all these extramarital affairs, the focus, a lot, of course, is away from the course. in addition this morning, nike has put out an ad. you may have seen it. let's play it for you, shows tiger's solemn face in black and white, you hear the voice of his late father, earl, talking to him. take a look. >> i want to find out what your thinking was, i want to find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything. jane: what do you think? go to our website, foxnews.com/happening now, leave your thoughts on our
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blog. robert mucinich is with fox news.cole, he's the one that broke the story that tiger would make his comeback at the masters. robert, good to see you, what do you know about this ad? i assume he took part in it. was it shot recently? >> it was shot a couple of weeks ago in orlando at tiger's house on the golf course there. it's an ad that's going to be an acquired taste for a lot of people. i don't know that it hits the notes with everyone that nike wants it to hit. jane: our viewers for viewers today, did you find it eery, effective or potentially both? what would your answer be? >> i think maybe both. i think some people are going to feel it's maybe a manipulation of the narrative of the past few months with tiger and ca really encapsulate all of that in a 30-second nike ad. but i think also what tiger,
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his involvement in this, i think what he's trying to say is, you know, i have made a mistake, and if my father had been around, i think, or -- i may not have made that, he may have gently slapped me across the head and said what are you doing. jane: woops, robert -- >> or the message they're trying to get there. jane: we lost audio for a second. i guess some people might find it a bit strange because there has been a fair amount written about how his father was known as a womanizer, according to some sources. >> well, yeah, again, i mean, these are all skeletons in closets, aren't they? yes, i think that we can't deny that, i think that's a matter of record, and you know, exactly what the ad is really going to achieve, i'm not quite sure. i thought it was strange myself. i don't think really, you know, tiger woods needs any ads anymore. just play golf. jane: speaking of playing golf, it was interesting,
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phil mickelson was asked can he win and his response was can tying -- can tiger win, and his response was that's a crazy question. what are the thoughts on how he's been playing in practice? >> well, he hasn't been playing especially well. i mean, he's not playing as well as we know he can. but i mean, is that really a surprise? the guy hasn't played since nid--- mid-november, he's coming back to the grandest stage in the game and i don't know, you probably might not be able to see it behind me but the wind is starting to swirl here, they're going to get some weather in here this afternoon and that's not going to make it easier for him. jane: i want to put up, too, on the screen for the viewer, something that the club chairman billy payne had to say -- sorry, it's the interview he did with reporters. let's take a listen. >> it is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here, it is the fact that he disappointed all of us and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids.
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our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we sought for our children. jane john robert, pretty strong words. what's been the reaction? >> well, you know what, i think a lot of people were surprised by that. it was really unprecedented in terms of an assault on the character of tiger woods i wondered when i heard that, i was thinking how long have you been thinking this, billy, you know, how long has this been something that the members of augusta national have been quietly upset about with tiger. i mean, he isn't the most fan-friendly guy, but part of that is that he's very, very focused. last year, we were in miami and a little boy asked him for his autograph as he was walking down the fair way and he looked at him and said i'm working, not now. and that's always been his view. it's just he's at work, and this is what he's here to do. now, clearly, billy payne is trying to say to him your responsibilities are bigger than just playing golf, you're not just playing golf, you're the number one player in the world and people look up to you and
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you need to rehabilitate your image. jane: some reporters have said he's been smiling more and has indeed signed autographs. robert, thanks, we'll look for him on the tee, less than two hours from now, and our question is, what do you think of that new ad, is it eery, effective, is it both, as robert said it was? you can find us two ways, go to foxnews.com, happening now, we've already gotten blog posts or send us an e-mail, happening now at fox news.coal and we'll be reading some of your answers coming up. jon: who says dog, cats and rats can't get along? get a load of this, a fort worth, texas man has a trio of buddies who put on a show, performing a balancing act of sorts as they walk through the streets. gregory pike says they tour the county, he loves to take pictures and he says they all get along just fine, the dog, the cat, the rat, one happy family.
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jane: the tea party express is rolling into minnesota, they have now the formation of a national federation, some say too much organization could actually spell the end of the party. some say it could be the beginning of something much, much bigger. the president of kyrzygstan is this morning insisting he will not resign, despite this bloody uprising and the formation of an opposition government. the white house is weighing in, saying they're not sure who's in charge there. we're live on the ground in a country that is strategically important to us and our troops in afghanistan.
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jon: the tea party first gained ground as a grassroots effort without a whole lot of organization. now, various tea parties are
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starting to band together, creating a federation with some central leadership and a unified message and some folks are wondering could it actually backfire. let's talk about it with kevin madden from mitt romney's campaign, joe trippe was howard dean's campaign manager,'s a fox news contributor. welcome to both of you. kevin, what do you think, can the various tea party organizations that have sprung up around the country, can they band together and still embrace the goals that prompted them in the first place? >> right, i think there are many in the tea party movement that may get nostalgic for the disorganized nature of it all, but any republican, democrat or independent will tell you that in order to be effective in electable politics, you have to have two important things and that's organization and money. you have to have the resources to bring people together, and you have to have the resources and organization to get people out to vote and to learn about what your issues are. so i think it is, by any measure, the tea party
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movement is still in its genesis stage but now they are starting to demonstrate they can play and have an impact in important races around the country because they have shown that they can organize and shown they can bring together the resores they need to impact races. jon: joe, the resources they brought together so far have been mostly people and votes, they don't generally seem to have a lot of money. don't you need money to be effective in politics and don't you need organization, a central organization to handle money? >> well, you sure do. and each of these individuals has the capacity to spend 25, $30 in -- send 25, $30 into the candidate they support. you look at mark rubio in florida, the money raising ability he's had, he's a darling of the tea party movement. one of the things i learned from running the dean campaign, that campaign was ridiculed by the democratic party establishment, yet we had grassroots organizations all over the country, dean for america turned into an
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organization called democracy for america, howard dean actually ends up being chairman of the party, and a lot of that grassroots activity and money contributed to the big wins that we had, democrats had, in 2006, and the obama can dancy, with foundation, the same techniques we pioneered in the dean compare helped him win the presidency. so when you look at what's going on with the tea party right now, the question is does it get sort of sucked into the republican party, really into the mainstream of the republican party, the way that the dean activists were from 2004, or does it remain a separate entity, can it maintain that, and does that lead to some kind of fissure or new party at some point. that's where this is going over time, i think. jon: is there a danger, kevin -- i mean, part of the appeal of the tea party movement is, you know, i guess it's grassroots in nature, the fact that citizens are just sort of banding together and voicing their collective outrage
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over various issues. if they get too organized and too official, does it just lose some of that responsenate and some of the effectiveness? >> it may lose its charm but it will have a greater impact. look -- >> jon: so you think this is a good idea. you think it's a good idea. >> absolutely. look, enthusiasm and outrage are fantastic, especially when you're just trying to get 1000 people at a rally. but in order to effect change, in order to have an impact on elections you need organization. so grassroots is no good unless the grassroots activists are being organized and they're being strategically placed around districts and congressional districts or in states or in races where they can matter. so it has to be a grassroots, bottoms-up movement, that still has some sort of organizational capacity, so it is a good thing, but yo is right, the one thing is that we can't have it break off where it's a lineman right now -- its alignment on issues, helping republicans and bringing -- actually playing to an independent auden, if it starts to work against the republican party, it could
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be a problem. but so far, it looks like they're aligned with republican sentiments. jon: quickly, joe, does it terrify you as a democrat that this thing could get more and more organized? >> i certainly wouldn't belittle the movement. i think that's a mistake for democrats. i think, look, this is all about -- midterms is all abouting in, who's coming out, where is the energy, and right now, clearly there's a lot of energy in the tea party movement, that's going to be turn out people -- turn out to be people coming to the polls in november and it's already a bad year for democrats, just having the mid terms and the senate and the house. i would be worried about it. jon: joe trippe, kevin madden, thank you both. jane: we're getting new information from florida on a crime that is baffling, a burglary at the home of a well-known and well-liked professor. he was bound, eventually murdered. his wife and child survived after his house was set on fire. who would want this man dead? also a new warning from the fed chairman, ben
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bernanke, there are a couple of ways to deal with our mushrooming decifit, and you can be sure most people won't like either of them. what's to come in this country? and harris is working on a story developing at the breaking news desk, harris. >> reporter: awaiting a news conference, dozens of pipe bombs in mailboxes in east texas. a break in the news conference i'm watching for. got a great way to hit back. i get claritin clear... ...with non-drowsy claritin liqui-gels. it relieves my worst allergy symptoms with pure liquid power. claritin liqui-gels. the only non-drowsy liquid capsule. live claritin clear. some people like to pretend...
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jon: we begin this hour with breaking news. the white house says it doesn't know who's in charge in kyrgyzstan, a nation in central asia vitally important to our troops. anti-government protesters trying to seize power. the president has announced he will not resign. jane: thousands of protesters angered by government corruption. they've been clashing with police in some violent street battles setting fire to cars and buildings. dozens of people are dead, and now they may be in power. it's a country that is crucial to our efforts to fight the taliban in afghanistan. we'll be live on the ground from there in just moments. jon: "happening now" in the top box, at the bottom of the hour the man accused of threatening house speaker nancy pelosi is due in court. he apparently was angry about health care reform, at one point he even spoke directly to
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pelosi. in the middle box, police may have a break in this murder case. bottom box, a warning from the fed chief about the staggering deficit in this country and record government spending. why it could wind up costing you big time. jane: news the family of four missing miners didn't want to hear. we learn that rescuers who were evacuating the upper big branch coal mine had to be evacuated after they ran into dangerous levels of gas, methane and carbon monoxide prevented them from entering the mine until this morning. they got within 1,000 feet of a chamber where they hoped to find these missing men alive. steve centanni, what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, the rescue crews did have to pull out. it still is a rescue operation because they still don't know the fate of those four missing men. they're going to push forward
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but only after the air levels, the toxic levels have reduced enough so that it's safe. what they found when they went in this morning was it was of too high. it was an explosive mixture of methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. they pulled back out again. they hope to resume in a matter of a few hours. as the governor said at a news conference just a while ago, for these families nothing really has changed. hope remains alive, and here's what he said about that. >> they understand that if we have any hope of survival and they're in a rescue chamber, they're still okay. that's, i mean, that's the sliver of hope we have. it's a long shot. everyone's been up front about that because this was a horrible blast. but if they're there, they're okay. >> reporter: and we'll get another update in another couple of hours. in the meantime, we're learning president obama did call one of the families who lost three members of the same family this that mine, the davis family.
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it was timmy davis sr. and two of his nephews, the president chatting with the sr. viefing -- surviving members of that family and offering his condolences. back to you. jane: steve, thank you. want to get to our breaking news desk where a man in texas has been indicted in connection with pipe bombs found. harris, what do we know? >> 52-year-old larry eugene north. what's being reported was that north was with identified placing an explosive device in tyler, texas, into a mailbox just yesterday. so the federal bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms and explosives is saying this morning that there have now been 36 devices planted between february 5th and april 7th, and what they're trying to do is see whether or not this is the man, larry eugene north, responsible for all 36. we're awaiting a news conference coming up where we expect they
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will announce what kind of evidence they have against north. by the way, 23 different locations. so not just evidence, but do they have anything else to share about this case? back to you guys. jane: harris, thank you. harris: sure. jane: president obama at this hour is in prague at a dinner with leaders of the russian, with leaders of russia and the czech republic. he signed this morning a new arms treaty with the russian president to the lowest levels in 50 years. lamb ma's -- president obama's decision is drawing sharp criticism and raising new fears that the united states will now be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. jaims rosen, would the white house agree with the idea that our country is, under the president's leadership, adopted a more dubbish stance in a time of war? >> reporter: no, jane. the president and his advisers would argue that their policies are making america safer. they do, however, undoubtedly believe that the bush/cheney foreign policy was too
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confrontational, and in their view, not sufficiently geared toward a new era of national security threats. in his remarks after this morning's treaty sign anything prague, president obama emphasized the u.s. has not begin up on missile defense, that he and russian president dmitry medvedev are going to agree to it, and mr. obama vowed to keep the u.s. nuclear deterrent effective even as he argued it is becomingless relevant. >> more and more countries will come to recognize that the most important be factors in providing security and peace to their citizens will depend on their economic growth, will depend on the international community's capacity to resolve conflicts, it will depend on having a strong conventional
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military that can protect a nation's borders and that nuclear weapons increasingly in an interdependent world will make less and less sense as the cornerstone of security policy. >> reporter: of course, the other big announcement this week was a shift in america's nuclear posture wherein we pledge not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states except in the case of rogue states like iran and north korea, jane. jane: the argument that with the recent moves the u.s. will now actually be buying some leverage or bargaining power with countries like russia and china in our bid to rein in iran. >> reporter: well, critics contend that the russians and the chinese will simply never be swayed to extend real pressure on their ally, iran, and they also argue that north korea has not been susceptible to any combination of negotiation, conciliation or any change in policy on our side from its
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pursuit of nuclear weapons. they argue there was no real gain from removing the use of nuclear weapons effectively except in the event of nuclear attack from the united states. jane: james rosen in d.c. for us, thanks. >> reporter: thank you. jon: are you ready for a little bit of good news for once? there is some to tell you about today, and it revolves around consumer spending. fox business network's jerry willis is here with that. what's going on? >> reporter: chain store sales up 9%, the best performance since march of 1999. consumers back in the stores. wall street analysts were shocked by this, they didn't expect it. bj's up 10%, costco up 10%, i'm sure you know target up 10%, so good news there. jon: i guess i was under the impression that a lot of consumers scaled back, they had really changed their household
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budgets altogether. is this sort of a boost for the overall economy? >> reporter: well, we're going to be trying to decide whether it's a blip or not. easter came later than usual, it could be a blip. here's what one analyst told us. >> stronger numbers coming out of march will be very welcomed by investors and consumers alike because it will show that people are feeling better about the economy, it will mean that the housing market is maybe, in fact, stabilizing, it will mean that labor really is getting a little bit better. >> reporter: so, jon, really hard to keep the american consumer down. they're back in the stores at least this month. jon: it was a long, cold winter in a lot of places, wasn't it? >> reporter: that's right. jon: spend some money. jane? jane: a manhunt is on for two prisoners who have escaped. one have been convicted of kidnapping, the other of murder, and authorities tell us these guys are dangerous, they're desperate. where they believe they could be heading now. plus, pictures just into our newsroom of a devastating mud slide that is said to have
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buried more than 200 people alive. a lot of people still missing. we'll get you the latest on this search and rescue effort underway. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement 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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jon: some of our viewers in texas, big trouble to be aware of. a manhunt entering its third day for two mexican nationals who escaped from prison there. these fugitives considered very dangerous, one serving 35 years for murder, the other 20 years on an aggravated kidnapping and drug rap. harris faulkner has been looking into it for us. harris: yeah, they were at a facility about 75 miles southwest of san antonio. and for all the people who are trying to break into this country, these are two guys that authorities think are trying to break out. jose diaz, you mentioned wanted 35 years for murder, octave slow lopez wanted for kidnapping and possession of cocaine. they are thought now to be headed for the border, so that's
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where they are cox traiting the search for them. again, one of these guys wanted for murder or was in for murder in harris county. they are considered to be very dangerous, may stop at nothing to get back home away from authorities in this country who also stop at nothing to catch them. jon: how'd they get out? harris: this is interesting, jon, a perimeter fence, they cut through it. we're not talking about high-tech here. one guy looks out while the other guy cuts. that's what i was told on the phone, this is a pretty low-tech escape. nonetheless, it worked. when they did the head count on tuesday, these guys weren't in it. jon: so they have got a head start. harris: yeah. jon: thanks. jane: happening now in the top box, five would-be suicide pommers have been nabbed in afghanistan. the suspects were aiming for crowded downtown areas anded and they made it through, it would have made for disaster. in the middle box, somali pirates now warning a carrier
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not to get any closer or risk endangering the tanker's 24 crew members. on the bottom, oprah winfrey will host a nighttime show on her own syndicated channel after her daytime show ends its run in 2011. new reaction from the white house on the crisis we've been watching unfold in kyrgyzstan. anti-government protesters are saying they are now in control of the country which is home to a key american air base. [speaking in native tongue] jane: thousands of protesters are driving out the goth during violent -- government during violent clashes with security forces. they forced the president of that country to flee the capitol, but the president is refusing to step down. the white house said just a short time ago they actually don't know who's in charge. on the phone with us from the capital is a correspondent from
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the british magazine, "standpoint." update us from your vantage point. >> seized by chaos, rioting, mobs have been staking out the street, upper class districts are being pillaged, the government buildings are being fretted as looters try and take whatever they can carry with them. and in the house of the president's son people ripped away anything they could carry. over the past couple of hours night has now fallen. there has been the sounds of gunshot and crowds are said to be massing around in the center and police stations being stormed with shots being fired. this is a situation of anarchy. jane: ben, in terms of who's in charge, what are your best indications? >> reporter: the streets have been filled by men claiming to be volunteers trying to restore order. the provisional government, so temporary government, the
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people's trust it's been declared, people felt they were leaderless. and there's a lot of confusion, and people are waiting to see if be the army, which has been absent from today's events, will step in and try and restore order. in the south the president has fled to his, is said to have fled to his stronghold, and there are unconfirmed reports of thousands massing trying to move towards the north. so no one is really sure who's in control. in fact, it's a situation of anarchy where no one is really in control. jane: ben judah will update us as news warrants. jon: there's a massive search and rescue underway after a new mud slide in brazil. authorities say they don't have much hope of finding survivors. this newest slide hit wednesday night sending a mountain of mud crashing into a slum just outside rio de janeiro. officials believe it buried at least 900 people alive. -- 200
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people alive. they say in their experience it is instant death as that crush of mud hits. heavy rains this month have triggered mudslides and evacuations all around brazil. the death toll was already at 153 before this latest disaster. jane: we're about to bring you more information on the man who set off a bomb scare onboard a flight bound for denver. who he is, what he was doing in that lavatory and why he may never face any charges. plus this -- >> if you make less than $250,000 a year, your taxes will not increase one single dime. jane: remember that? well, now a stern warning from the fed cheaf that if we -- chief that if we don't stop spending, it's going to hit us all very hard in our wallets. is he right? treasure
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jane: so just who set off the bomb scare on the united flight headed for denver? we're getting our very first look. we've just gotten a picture of a 27-year-old diplomat from the qatar embassy. we've confirmed that the man involved has been questioned and released. fighter jets were called to escort the plane into denver last night after air marshals confronted him. they smelled smoke coming from the lavatory. turns out he says he was just trying to use a cigarette. iowaalicia acuna's covering the story. where is he now? >> reporter: fox news just confirmed that he is now in the air. he has left denver international airport and is on his way back to washington d.c. he has, as you mentioned, is not being charged, and he was released by federal authorities. jane: what's the embassy saying? >> reporter: well, the embassy is saying, is asking people not to rush to judgment on this, and the qatar or ri -- qatari
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ambassador released a statement earlier this morning saying in part the facts will reveal that this was a mistake, and we urge all concerned parties to avoid reckless judgments or speculation. also as part of the statement, jane, he went on to say that there was no mall intent in this incident but that they do respect the laws and the procedures with regard to safety in air travel. jane: okay, alicia, what would have happened to you if you were smoking on an airplane? this guy won't face charges? >> reporter: he's not, and if i would have been caught smoking on an airplane and it involved federal marshals and two f-16 fighter jets, i wouldn't be on a plane back home, that's for darn sure. it's a federal offense to smoke on an airplane and anything else that involves disruption of a flight. there's a former u.s. attorney actually from denver who worked to end force that law here -- enforce that law because he was fed up with people getting drunk on planes saying that was a
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danger. it did disrupt the flight, and it kept the passengers on the ground here for five to six hours before they were processed by the fbi. jane: alicia, thanks. jon: well, either tax hikes or big cuts to programs like medicare and social security. the federal, the fed chairman warning yesterday there are really only two ways to deal with the staggering national deficit, and americans will either have to pay one way or the other. >> unless we as a nation demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run we will have neither financial stability, nor economic growth. jon: let's talk about it with taylor griffin, former economic adviser to john mccain's campaign and michael linden, associate directer few tax and -- for tax and budget policy at the center for american progress. michael, do you dispute anything the fed chairman had to say? >> nope. [laughter] we do have a long-term budget problem that we are going to
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have to get ahold of over the coming years, and the president, president obama, i think, has taken some good first steps to doing that. i think it's important to distinguish as the chairman did between the short-term deficit, the one we're having this year, and the long-term deficit. in fact, the first one's not a problem at all, the second one is a big one. jon: mike, let me stick with you for just a second there. >> sure. jon: you say president obama's taken some good first steps, does that include the health care bill? >> yes, it does. it reduces the deficit of $130 billion this the first ten years, but more importantly, up to a trillion in the second ten years and hopefully, it will bring some of those health care costs more into sort of a more sustainable level. jon: taylor, i remember my economics class in college, one of the first things we learned is that human wants are unlimited, and it seems like with programs like social security and medicare we all want to feed off the public trough, but nobody wants to pay
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for it. >> that's exactly right. you know, this is a huge problem. and the fed chairman talked about arithmetic and the fact that it doesn't work here. let me give you a reason why. we're taxing about 18.5% of the economy right now -- >> no, we're not. >> and we are, and then we're spending 25% of the economy. now, your family budget, tell me, does that work or doesn't it work? michael's exactly right that the budgets are unusually large this year. the budget deficit is. but it's not much different going into the future. we have social security and medicare catching up with us, and the savings from health care once you figure in this dock fix they'll be doing, there isn't much there. i don't see how you get it through raising taxes or anything else. we have got to address cutting government spending. jon: michael, we were talking with stuart varney last hour about the fact at least one tax policy research center in d.c. says 47% of americans pay no
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federal income tax. i mean, how can you have a balanced economy when you've got a situation like that? >> well, the reason that 47% of americans pay no income tax is because 47% of americans are not doing so well right now, and i think that's the point not being made in that statistic. we're talking about people who really lost a lot in this recession, and they've been hit the hardest, and these are people who have really been left behind by president bush's economic and tax policies. so that doesn't worry me. what worries me more is that the top 400 richest people in this country have paid a lower amount of taxes, a lower tax rate than ever before, and that is a real problem. this is one of the things we're going to have to address going forward to help this big budget deficit. jon: taylor, final thought. is there the wherewithal, the will within congress to address some of these problems the fed chairman is talking about? >> doubtful. you know, this is hard to do.
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and what michael talked about, about the wealthy and how much taxes they're paying or not paying, the fact is the wealthy are paying a bigger share of taxes than they ever have before, and you're pretty much at the level where economists say if you tax people more, they're just going to find ways to shelter those. you're not going to get anymore money out of them. what paul volcker said yesterday was we've got to go after the middle class. obama's economic adviser. and he's right. if you're going to do this through taxes, the only place left where there's money left to tax, it's the middle class. jon: taylor and michael, thank you both. jane: do you know what you're eating? turns out the food and drug administration may not. there is a troubling new report just out today about what is not being checked in our food supply. and tiger woods is about to tee off at the masters, just a little over an hour from now as nike launches a very different type of tv ad with the voice of his deceased father. take a listen. >> i want to find out what your
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thinking was, i want to find out what your feelings are -- jane: what do you think of it? eerie? effective? or both? here's what some of you are saying from our blog, debny says the ad is a cheap shot using the deceased father to gain sympathy from the public. weigh in, go to foxnews.com/happening now, or e-mail us, happening now at e-mail us, happening now at foxnews.com, we'll continue to read your comments. suddenly i noticed my smile wasn't white enough. now what? [ female announcer ] introducing crest 3d white professional effects whitestrips. it's prossional-level itening for a whiter smile. start seeing results in 3 days. [ bride ] this day will stand out forever. and i've got a smile that stands out, too. [ female announcer ] new crest 3d white professional effects whitestrips. also try crest 3d white toothpaste and rinse for a 3d white smile.
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jon: he's a story about a -- here's a story about a real royal pain. we're talking about camilla parker boals. she took a tumble yesterday while hiking in scotland, slipped and hurt her leg. doctors did an x-ray and found a twisted fracture of the fibula. she's in a plaster cast now because of the broken leg, but authorities or spokesmen say she will not be missing any of her
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planned royal duties. camilla parker bowles will carry on in the best british condition with her leg in a cast. jane: "happening now" howe in your top box, new unemployment numbers now out showing the number of newly-laidoff workers in this country seeking benefit fits rose unexpectedly last week. in the middle, flight delays were way up in february because of the massive snowstorms that hampered operations at some of the busiest airports along the east coast. on the bottom, energy prices sliding across the board today. benchmark crude for may delivery falling more than 20 cents to $85 a barrel. jon: we have heard that hospitals can be a breeding ground for infections and germs. now a hospital in florida is cracking down on hand washing with a high-tech new device. it's like a breathalyzer for hand washing and actually uses some of the same technology. orlando salinas is on this story
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for us, how does it work? >> reporter: jon, this is really interesting. this device we're talking about was created by doctors at the university of florida at their medical center, and what it does is it does detect whether or not a doctor or a nurse has used enough of this hand sanitizing gel before they actually go to work and spend time with a patient at the hospital. the cdc says that every single year hospitals, when they treat patients with these hospital-borne infections, it costs up to $60 billion a year. remember, jon, medicare and medicaid announced last year they would no longer be reimbursing hospitals for those infections, so they had to come up with something. take a listen. nurses and doctors at the university of florida medical center are getting warned. if they get too close to patients without washing their hands. inside the neurointensive care unit, all staff must wear electronic badges, id that sends signals warning if they don't
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sanitize they could pass on an infection. >> it really makes you a lot more conscious of how often we don't wash our hands even though, you know, you're taught to wash all the time, the little buzz to remind you even when you're walking in. >> reporter: the high green hand hygiene system detects much like a breathalyzer detects alcohol. >> take a deep breath. i think it probably brings a level of comfort to them knowing that, you know, their health care provider has clean hands. >> reporter: okay, now. in the time that the university of florida has been using this high green sanitizer system, the doctors there tell me they have knocked down their infection rate at that one hospital, at that one unit, jon, they've knocked it down to a big fat zero. we're also going to talk about whether applications are coming on the way, the doctors tell me there's already interest coming from hospitals around the
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country as well as the restaurant industry, both sit-down restaurants and fast food restaurants who may be looking at this for their employees before they go to make you a burger or a steak, better go wash your hands. jon: coming from my co-anchor who isn't going to let me come on set. [laughter] thanks. jane: do you know if your food on the table is safe to seat? the -- eat? the fda may not necessarily know either. there's a disturbing new report out today saying the food and drug administration has significantly dropped the number of inspections allowing a majority of the food facilities in this country to go unchecked for years. jean hall ran is directer of the food safety campaign. good to see you. the officials say the situation really is because of inadequate staffing and resources, it comes down to money. is that a valid excuse? >> well, there is a lot to that. the number of inspectors has been declining year after year
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while at the same time the number of facilities has been going up. so the decline went on until, oh, maybe just the last year or two, and now it's kind of leveled out. but they're still way below the number they should be looking at. a lot of facilities never get inspected by fda for years on end. jane: this is just one statistic. between '04 and '08, the fda inspected fewer than half of the 51,000 facilities it is supposed to regulate according to the inspector general, so how do we fix this? simply ask congress to pump more money in the system? >> well, it isn't just that. actually, there's a bill before the senate that would require the fda to actually inspect every high-risk facility at least once a year which we think is a bare minimum. that bill has been backed up in the senate, behind health care,
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but we hope it's going to come to the floor soon. this is a bill that has republican support as well as democratic. it's, it's a bipartisan issue to keep our food supply safe. jane: it sounds, though, like a gargantuan job. is it possible to actually keep it, essentially, safe 100%? >> well, they can do a heck of a lot more than they are. and when we have a problem like just did last year with peanut butter, when they went to the facility and it was contaminated with sam nil la and they found the place was filthy, it turned out the fda had not been there in eight years. so if they had been there on an an yule basis, there's a good chance we would not have had the nine deaths we had from contaminated peanut butter. jane: 76 million people get sick every year with these illnesses. jean, we'll watch it. thanks. >> thank you. jon: did you send in your census
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form? the political party that is very concerned you might be ignoring it, and it could cost them on capitol hill. plus, cash-strapped states desperately looking for ways to make money from you. wait until you hear how some states are trying to get your hard-earned dough. that's next. in, nature knows just how much water vegetables need. so, to turn those vegetables into campbell's condensed soup, we don't boil it down,
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megyn: hi, everybody, i'm megyn kelly. former vice president dan quayle is here with a warning all tea partiers need to hear. plus, she shut down her son's facebook account posting a message there before she did. now she is facing criminal charges. don't parents have this right? that mother joins me live. and arrested by cops bursting into his house bearing guns because he was walking around naked. inside of his own home! kelly's court takes that one on top of the hour. jon: and "happening now" in the
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top box, the associated press reporting, now, intense gunfire breaking out in the capital of kyrgyzstan. many the middle box, new developments in the iran nuclear showdown as our ambassador to the united nations says the u.s. is working to get an iran sanctions resolution. bottom box, parole officers could have been done a better job watching john albert gardner who stands accused of murdering california teen chelsea king. jane: that's the census music. have you filled out the form? is it sitting on your kitchen counter? jon scott, have you filled it out? jon: i filled it out. jane: good for you. some americans are actually tossing theirs in the trash. republicans in particular are worried that anti-government feelings among conservatives could lower participation in the census, and that could lower the number of republican seats in congress. shannon bream is in d.c. shannon, explain the connection, if you will. >> reporter: well, absolutely,
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jane. you know, when you fill that form out, it does go to the government number crunchers who look at it and decide who's going to rep you in -- represent you in congress. there's somebody who understands this very well who is speaking out, it's a congressman from utah. he's a republican, he's a conservative. he understands the concerns, but, listen, he reminds folks back in the last census his state missed getting an additional seat in congress by 800 people. so even if you have concerns, he says you need to fill out the form. here's what he says. >> i recognize the anti-government sentiment out there. i, i'm part of that. but if we don't participant in the -- participate in the census as conservatives, then we won't be represented over the next ten years, so it's critical that republicans and conservatives and really the whole spectrum of people participate in the census or we just don't get counted and, consequently, don't get representation for the next ten years. >> reporter: and that is certainly the last thing any republican member of congress wants to see happen, jane.
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jane: shannon, what does the census bureau do with the personal information? >> reporter: they want to reassure people, listen, we're not keeping track of who you are, what your religion is, your party, that kind of thing. we went directly to directer robert groves for an explanation, here's what he told fox news. >> census bureau, as you know, is a nonpartisan statistical agency. we are independent both of the political uses of census data and the partisan politics that comes along with it and the enforcement side of the federal government. >> reporter: they don't care how you vote, who you like, they just want you to fill out the form, jane. jane: and what happens if you don't? >> reporter: this is interesting because it's something that impacts the employment numbers that we've seen coming out because there will be a boost of 600-700,000 census workers over the summer who will go door the door. it starts in may, it'll wrap up in july, but if you didn't do the form, it looked like junk mail and you tossed it, you're
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going to get the face to face interview. so you can count on that starting in may. if you're one of the people who didn't fill out the forms, you'll be putting a lot of your fellow americans to work in the meantime. jane: shannon, thanks. >> reporter: sure. jon: we're tracking your taxes, and we're not just talking federal taxes. states have a lot of growing red ink, and they are looking for some new ways to squeeze more money out of taxpayers. taxing everything from soda to your family pet. iowa knee that vogel is live in los angeles, she's been taking a look at some of these surprising taxes. what'd you find? >> reporter: yeah, jon, they are surprising. call them taxes, call them fees, cities, counties and states are imposing them all across the country. practically all these things you see in front of me, and some of them are pretty weird. they're taxing plastic bags in washington, d.c., we all have to use these. in maine they're taxing
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blueberries, in west virginia they're actually taxing noise makers. and in washington state the governor there is getting ready or is willing to sign a bill that would triple the tax on your favorite six pack of beer. that's not going to go over well with too many people. critics say they understand the need to raise money, but this is kind of ridiculous. listen. >> when we start moving away from a system that taxes everything the same, when we start saying, well, candy should be taxed but regular food shouldn't, or prepared food should be taxed but groceries should not. you introduce the requirement to start defining the differences between these things, and they can get pretty absurd. >> reporter: and, jon, talk about absurd. okay, we've got two candies here, right? 2006 and snickers. the state of illinois is taxing one of these. any thoughts on which one? jon: i'm going to guess it's the twix because it doesn't have the peanuts? >> very close. it's the twix, but it's because
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it has flour and it's considered a food -- jon: oh, brother. [laughter] well, i'll eat a twix bar and be healthier then. crazy. i guess the federal government is taking its cue. it doesn't want the states to gobble up all the money, right? they've got some new taxes coming? >> reporter: yeah, definitely. the federal government is in on the action. in the new health care bill there is a provision to tax tanning saw salons. this goes into effect july 1st. we're talking about a 10% tax that would generate $2.7 billion to help defray some of the costs of the new health care bill. if you think that sounds like a lot, it is nothing compared to a new tax being proposed here in california. there is a tax being proposed on soda. every spoonful of sugar would add an extra penny, and that would generate $1.5 billion a year, and that's a lot of cash at the end of the day. probably the golden state needs it. back to you. [laughter] jon: they sure do. all right, anita vogel, thanks.
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jane: we're waiting on a news conference at this hour on the case of a professor beloved in his community. he was found stabbed to death. the killer torched the house, left the professor's wife inside tied up. she was able to escape with their little boy. who in the world would have done this? what are police thinking? the latest coming up. 
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jane: just a few minutes from now we expect to see investigators in plantation, florida, at a news conference to talk about the murder of a popular university professor, dr. joseph morrissey, was his name, killed during a home invasion. police say the intruder tied him up, his wife up. the couple's 5-year-old child also was at home. dr. morrissey was stabbed to death and that this intruder set their house on fire. his wife and child, they were
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able to escape, but the professor was killed. vanessa medina has been covering this story for fox miami, she's standing by waiting for that news conference. vanessa, you know, so often people have been saying plantation is such a nice community, it's so odd something like this would happen. what are the thoughts on a motive here? >> reporter: well, police are not -- they're very tight-lipped in this case, i will say. now, what we are hearing right now from police is that, indeed, dr. joseph morrissey was stabbed. at first they told us he was shot, but what we do know is let me give you the facts. at 12:30 monday morning, we have dr. joseph morrissey inside his home with his wife. all of a sudden they're awakened to someone forcing their way inside their home. then, of course, we're told that dr. morrissey and his wife were then tied up, taken to an atm at gun point, forced to withdraw money in this case. but what's interesting in this case is dr. morrissey is from south florida, plantation is a very well known community and
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very well known for nothing bad happening here. we're told, also, again by police that there's now a suspect, a person of interesting someone that her looking for in this case. their 5-year-old child inside that home sleeping the entire time. now, he, he's a professor, but he's more a well-known researcher and scientist. he's world renowned, known in the international researching community. his latest research project he was working on finding a cancer cure, so he was doing cancer research. took this semester off to focus on his research, now he's found dead, stabbed to death outside on his patio. police have been at that scene, that home, plantation, for the last two days. remember, this happened on monday. they've been taking things out of that home, evidence such as chairs and all kinds of bags filled with stuff, and now we're learning that he was, indeed, stabbed, and there is a person of interest in this case. so, again, we are waiting for a
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press conference to begin in about ten minutes at the beginning of the hour at about 1:00, and we're hoping that we may find out a motive in this case. like you said, who on earth would want a very well-known, very well-renowned scientist dead? we're hoping we can answer that question here in plantation. back to you guys in new york. jane: we're told he was working on breast cancer research, not something controversial. vanessa medina, thank you, from fox miami. jon: some serious new questions being raised about the self-described web site wiki leaks, that site released classified u.s. military video it says shows u.s. soldiers or airmen attacking innocent civilians in iraq. we took a look at that tape, though, and found a few things the web site editors tried to leave out. plus, tiger woods about to tee off at augusta, at the same time nike puts on the air a new ad. we ask you what you think of it. is this new tiger woods ad eerie
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jane in less than an hour, tiger woods will be teeing off the the masters as he makes his rirn to government nike released an ad that's getting a whole lot of attention t. features the voice of tiger's father earl who died in 2006. take a look. >> i want to find out what your thinking was, i want to
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find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything. jane we've been asking your opinion of the new ad today, did you find it eery, effective, maybe both. here's what you've been saying on our blog and e-mail. lynn on the happening now blog says nike needs to fire their ad people, it's creepy, pointless and in bad taste, what a terrible idea. jackie liked t. thought it was thought provoking, maybe it will make people, not just young people, think before they act. what are your thoughts, go to our website, very easy, fox news.coment/happening now, go to the link on our blog. jon: has we wondering, where did he get the recording and what was he actually talking about, because he didn't know about the controversy. jane: cokh said the black and white was shot recently at his video in orlando near
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his home. the video had a short run, it's gone viecial on the internet. we're told, though, nike really only aired it on golf channel and espn for a day or so, but now you're going to see it everywhere. jon: they didn't want a lot of people to see t. they'd have to pay for it, now they get the free marketing. jane: what do you know. that's going to do it for us. jon: "america live" starts now. megyn: i am megyn kelly, this is "america live", president obama wants him for one of the most influential courts in the united states but the gop now says that goodwin liu did something that o'clock be overlooked, the leading republican on the senate ju dacrary committee set to make news when he joins us live. tea party groups coming together today as we have never seen before, former vice president dan quayle has a warning for them heading into the midterm elections. you'll hear it from the state today

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