martha: tune in for friends of brian kill me. "happening now" starts right now. go red! jon: he had to get that in, didn't he? jenna: had to sneak it in there. jon: hello i'm jon scott. jenna: hi everybody, i'm jenna lee, in the fox news room, let's take to you capitol hill where the balance of power in up for grabs 27 days from now and we have brand new polls about key races around the country, which party has the edge. might surprise you. i don't know jon the tea party of political force across the country in political election, carl paladino in the face of it in the state of new york. we'll talk to him live about the race as governor as power of the tea party as a whole. jenna: remember that deadly pipeline blast in san bruno, how can you forget these pictures, dozens of homes burned to the ground. why your home could also be at risk and you may not even know it.

a stunning report on why you can't see the crisis -- what you can't see and the crisis plan if disaster strikes. jon: a new report out about secret high level meetings that have begun between the government of afghan president hamid karzai and the afghan taliban. according to a "washington post" the two are talking about an end to the war which has raged for nine years. jennifer griffin live at the pentagon, what do we make of the story? >> reporter: according to my sources, military and dittic -- diplomatic sources, "the washington post" story is verging on being wrong, it's overstating the case to a large degree, suggesting that mullah omar, the former head of the taliban government, would be reconciled and brought into the government in any way or that the taliban sitting in quetta were considered reconcileiable, but what we do know, we know this from

interviews we've done for the last several months, there is a move by the karzai government to try and engage lower level and mid-level taliban to see those who are reconcilable, if they can come into the process, and this will be one leg of the stool but it does not suggest that they're going to negotiate with the taliban and not still have to fight. sores that i've talked to in the military say the fight against the taliban is continuing, but certainly, as we saw in iraq, a very key part of any counterinsurgency is trying to negotiate with locals and those that are considered reconcilable. jon: but this isn't all that much different from what general petraeus told you in august, right? >> absolutely. us unclear why this story is coming out right now, because general petraeus, you'll remember at that time, did suggest that the americans were aware of some contacts the saudi government had hosted some low level meetings, there had been a meeting in dubai with some lower level taliban officials with the karzai government.

but he did not suggest that there was much more going on. he said the americans were aware, and even facilitated in some cases, but did not suggest this was at a high level. listen to what he said. >> president karzai has been very clear about the red lines for reconciliation, as accepted in the constitution, laid down eps weapons and cut the ties with al-qaeda and essentially become productive or at least participating members of society in that regard. >> reporter: and you'll remember, jon, of course, in iraq, that was a key part of the sunni awakening and the efforts in anbar province that made the surge so effective. so it's certainly something general petraeus is in favor of in terms of getting the reconcilables in from the taliban, but i think to suggest that the high level taliban members, that they're negotiate a complete end to the warning that's overstating the case. jon: would be nice if it could work, jennifer griffin, thanks. jenna: for more on this, we're joined by the author

of operation dark heart, lieutenant colonel tony schafer, who served two tours of duty in afghanistan and worked closely with general petraeus. here's the man to ask this question to, can the regionor partially ruled by the government, the taliban, or can the taliban be part of the government and be a -- be not a threat to the snuns. >> they're a pashtun element. jenna: the taliban. >> that's right. they are part of the landscape, they have been for 10,000 years. i think with the right incentives, and that's rt process, a process of in state, where they have something, i don't believe it's a bad idea for them to assume governance because frankly if they assume governance, they are responsible, accountable and if they don't pull their weight they could be targeted with operations. >> aren't they our ensne. >> everything is relative in afghanistan. it's been one of the things we've noticed over the years. they are a tapestry, they are tribes condition the --

within the context of being an insurgency. they are based out of pakistan, as we've talked b. and they've talked about before, but the idea is that they are radicalized because of the fact that they've been on this path for years. don't forget, a lot of these folks were freedom fighters back to the muj what dean and this is a carry over. one of the leaders of the hi g has been doing this for years and he shelled kabul after they slept so you have tribal rivalries which go back thousands of years which we're dealing with and frankly we need to let that process kind of go its own way. >> how do you know who's the good taliban and take ownership of the government and be part of the peace process and who the bad taliban is? >> you don't. that's why it's good news but not great news, because you have so many groups you have to deal with. if you're dealing with the largest that's helpful by the fact that you're dealing with the one run by mullah omar. the problem is not every group will see benefit from the process. this is why we need to look

at the northernie lawn peace process as a venue going forward. jenna: in what way, how are there parallel? >> within the northern eye -- ireland peace process you have different factions and there is almost a generational hand me down of attitude, you know, almost a pathology. that path on had to be broken, you had to get them out of it and they did that through a combination of incentives and violence. this is one of the reasons, and general petraeus said the northern ireland pea process is something he'd like to see happen. northern ireland peace process were violent, they had to kill their down to pull people to the table, the extremist s. jenna: how does the fact that we telegraph whd we're starting to draw down troops, how does that affect this process taking place, because we're saying as being part of that fight we're going to start moving out. >> i think the initial announcement of the withdrawal was bad policy, with that said, they've now

talked about being conditions-based. one of the conditions has to be that there's something in place that will see a path to the end of the insurgency, and i believe a peace process needs to be part of that process from ending the conflict there. if they don't have that, the violence will continue. jenna: good nighing needs to be part of it. >> you have to have the hammer along with the carrot. can't have one without both. jenna: thank you for joining us in the studio today, a rare pleasure, appreciate it. >> good to see you. jon: some shocking new figures regarding the state of play for democrats as they head into the midterm elections. according to a new associated press gfk poll, 58 percent of whites without a four-year college degree favor gop hopefuls, citing a lack of jobs in the tough economy, 36 percent favor democrats. that is a 22-point gap. just to put this in context, 11 percent of working class whites favored republicans back in 2008. that's the year that barack obama won the presidency.

the sour voter sentiment could mean big problems for democrats in the house, potentially shifting the balance of power on the hill after the downcoming elections. currently democrats hold 25 seats in the u.s. house, republican, 178, but that could soon change. case in point, georgia's second congressional district, jonathan serrie is in atlanta, live, with more. why is this race so tight, jonathan, and -- in what was considered a safe district for democrats? >> indeed, jon, it was considered a safe democratic district but things have changed. both campaigns have had their controversy. just this week a strategist for republican challenger mike cowen was indicted in a federal probe into alleged vote buying for gambling in alabama and incumbent sanford bishop got bad press for stealing congressional black caucus foundation money to family members, but the real wedge issue in this campaign appears to be

health care reform. congressman bishop supported it, and challenger cowen promises to fight it. he says he's not embarrassed by the go pment's moniker of being the party of no. listen: >> hey, man, sometimes it needs to be no, and if you don't understand t. sometimes it needs to be -- we need to say it louder, and with more emphasis. >> white voters in the district tend to oppose health care reform while black voters over wellingly support t. so this is really split the strong bi-racial coalition that congressman bishop has built in this district over his nine terms in office and -- and the ethnic breakdown of the district is a mere 50-50 split between black and white voters, so he was getting support from both but now it appears health care is a wedge that has broken up this coalition, jon. jon: we just mentioned the strong shift toward republican dan caints -- candidates in working class whites. in that race who has the

advantage come november? >> sanford bishop has the advantage ofen couple bansy but experts say he no longer enjoys the comfortable lead he once had. listen: >> at this time he's going up against a candidate who is relatively well-funded, especially for that district, bishop has not faced opposition for a long time because he's held the seat for maybe 20 years, but this is going to be a real test. >> one advantage for koewn is republicans and tea party -- tea party supporters are fired up in when election cycle at a time when the democratic base may be more complacent and less likely to go to the polls. we were scheduled to interview congressman bishop yesterday but his campaign backed out at the last minute saying the congressman was feeling ill. jon. jon: jonathan serrie in atlanta, thanks jonathan. fox news is your election headquarters across all platforms. you can get breaking

political news, 24/7, just log on to our website, fox news.com/aehq, america's election headquarters. check out our great blog, a front row seat to politics, or correspondents and producers are always posting the very latest information you need, right there on foxnews.com. jenna: in the economy, arguably the biggest issue in the upcoming midterm elections, have you heard a lot about it, though, have we lot a had of biz talk? that's going to be our hot topic for hot seat segment, fbn's charlie gasparino is going to take a seat in that toasty chair to answer the questions about how the tough times are going to play into politics this year. send your questions to us, anything about the economy, how it relates to politics, anything for charlie today, e-mail us, happening now, fox news.com or possess them on our blog, foxnews.com/happening now. >> jon: some breaking news out of florida, an officer-involved shooting. harris has the story. she's at the breaking news

desk for us. >> reporter: jon this, scene is huge down in florida. there are many municipalities, police officers, law enforcement there and they've brought out the huge miami-i.d. winnebago investigation van which means this is a big deevment they do have one person in custody but here is what we're dealing with. we've just seen with this live video coming in via our fox affiliate out of miami a police officer, lowed on to a chopper, another police officer, riding along, acrowing -- accompanying that officer who is badly injured, so we're told. that's the report being airlifted to a nearby hospital. we're not sure how this started but here's what's being reported that we're trying to confirm. there was some kind of a road rage incident that police responded to and when they arrived, they saw that red van that's in the center of your screen off to right there at the center of it all, and when they responded, shots were fired. one of the police officers, who we're told is with the department of environmental protection, the department of environmental protection

officer was shot, another person injured. that officer who was shot was taken by chopper, which we saw here enroute to a nearby hospital, florida highway patrol is working the scene and as i mentioned, there are a number of law enforcement municipalities who are involved in this. i'm going to keep a close watch on this and as i learn more, i'll update you. jon: they have one of the best trauma rooms in the country, so let's hope that officer is going to be okay. thank you very much, we'll check in with you later, harris faulkner. jenna: from one developing story to another we've been watching closely on "happening now", an american enjoying his vacation when he was allegedly shot by mexican drug gangs. now the victim's family is calling on the president and the mexican government for help. >> they're not looking. they're not looking for him. and that's what's frustrating, because we can't go over there and look for him. we need them to do it. we need them to allow the u.s. to go over.

jon: a woman says her husband was shot and killed in mexican waters and david hartley's father now accuses mexican authorities of corruption and of not doing enough to find his son's body. hartley's wife, tiffany, says she and her husband were attacked while jet skiing on falcon lake which straddles the u.s.-mexican border. kris gutierrez is checking out this story. >> reporter: last night david's family held a memorial service in mccallum, texas to honor david, who this still is morning still -- who is still missing and presumed dead based solely on statements by his wife tiffany. hundreds gather in that town as suspicions mount. some question whether this cud. no one on the mexican side of the lake saw or heard

anything. the police commander there said, and i'm quoting, since everything is so calm over there, they could hear any noise, but they say they didn't hear any gun shots or anything, and they didn't even hear a jet ski. yesterday, tiffany had this to say to those who may be skeptics. listen: >> i can't imagine that. because i loved him so much. he was my rock. he was everything to me. and i -- and i loved him, and there's no way i would do anything like that. i can understand if they say they can't find the body, but they're not looking. they're not looking for him. >> reporter: governor rick perry down here in texas believe tiffany's account of what happened, he points out there have been several incidents on the lake this year, plus there was one witness who allegedly saw a boat chase ago jet ski. here's what he had to say this morning on fox & friends. >> there is nothing there, we've asked all the right questions, anyone who is

trying to deflect off of what this actually is ought to be ashamed of themselves. >> reporter: authorities down in zapato county, on the texas side of the border, say they are taking this very seriously, they're investigating, but they can't venture out into the mexican waters legally but the sheriff in swrment apato county say the mexican authorities say they're going to cooperate, they're going to put divers in the water today and perhaps even search from the air. jon: a weird one. thanks, kris gutierrez. >> you bet. jenna: a fox news weather alert for you, a line of severe thunderstorms developing right now across parts of arizona. we have brand new video for you to check out. powerful storms uprooting and splitting trees earlier today and folks in arizona are really bracing for more severe weather. meteorologist janice dean is following this storm live from our fox weather center. tough stuff, j.d. >> reporter: look at the size of those treerks jenna. parts of phoenix yesterday got incredible flooding, as well as hail.

they don't typically see large hail in the phoenix metro area but the biggest story this morning is the tornadoes that ripped through belmont. right now, it looks like reports are confirming two tornadoes through the belmont area, this was earlier this morning, 9:22 eastern time, 6:22 local time, just west of flagstaff, damaged homes and rv sales lot, interstate 40 closed right now. so we are getting reports, we have reporters on the scene, and we will have video throughout the day today, but still, a tornado watch in effect for the flagstaff area, an active tornado warning. we'll bring you the latest from the fox weather center. jenna: janice, thank you very much. jon: the video went viral, new york's tea party-backed governor getting into it with a reporter over personal issues about him and his opponent. carl paladino wants you to know that's not what this election is all about. >> this campaign is not about my family. it's not about divorces or

affairs. it's about who has a plan to restore prosperity and economic growth to new york state. i'm a builder. i know we can rebuild new york. jon: paladino is here live to talk about his race for governor and the power of the tea party.

jon: the national tea party movement and the power of the tea party, froontd center in a race in one of the bluest states there is, new york state. relative political unknown carl paladino beat out long time republican former congressman rick lazio, a guy who has run for statewide office before in the primary last month, now paladino faces this man, andrew cuomo in the

governor's race. carl paladino joins us now. carl, a lot of people were surprised when you knocked out rick lazio in that race, he is, as i said, a guy who has statewide recognition t. he has run before, but according to the latest ciena poll, you are not doing so well against andrew cuomo, the democratic nominee, 56 percent for him, according to this poll, 32 pours for you, do you believe those numbers? >> well, you figure it out. the three days before the primary, they had me down one point and i won by 26 points, so tell me if ciena is credible at all. i don't think so. they've had the -- the polls have had me anywhere from 30 points down to six points down, so i just don't trust my of them. sort of getting to be a joke. jon: you say you are not a poll tirks you're a builder. do you think that's an advantage this time around, the fact that you haven't run for office before? >> i don't know if it's an advantage as much as i'm just a regular guy.

i go around the state of new york and i talk to the people, and the people are disturbed. they're disturbed, over the reckless spending, taxing, corruption in albany, the medicaid totally out of control. people want jobs. they want their government focused on jobs, and they're not seeing that, and that's the sadness here. this campaign must address the issues, and we've challenged andrew cuomo to a debate from day one on primary night when we won, we're willing to debate every day from now until election day. the man is frightened to death to come out and address the issues, because he can't. he can't address obamacare, he can't address medicaid, wild spending, because he hasn't prosecuted. he hasn't prosecuted any of the medicaid fraud and abuse and it's costing taxpayers a bundle of money. jon: you say people want jobs but people also want leaders who are actually

going to lead and this next part of the poll suggest there are questions about you in that regard, 61 percent of those responding say they would characterize you as more of a loose canon, that, again, according to this ciena research institute poll. your response. >> well, that's the way these people that are in power in albany are trying to portray me or define me now. i'm not going to be politically correct. yes, i am bring ago whole different view of things to the people and the people are standing with me on that. they want somebody that's going to confront these demons, and i'm the type of person that will confront them. i'm not going to let them get away with this stuff anymore. jon: you have the support of the tea party in new york state. do you think nationwide the tea party is going to dynamic and props propel more candidates like yourself into office, more than people are expecting? >> i'm the -- i'm supported by the tea party, i'm supported by the republican party, and i'm supported by the conservative party. and the people in the

democratic party, our message is hitting everybody, and it's hitting them well, and people who never voted before are going to be coming out this november, because they're disgusted with their government, they want change, and those in denial right now, they can throw any rocks at me that they want, and i'm willing to just feel them and throw them right back, because i'm there for the people this year. i'm only running for four years. i don't need money, i don't need power, i don't need any kind of pat on the back and i certainly have no ego to fulfill. i'm doing this for the people, and we're going to take our government back, and we're going to make our government responsive to the needs of the people, only. jon: carl paladino, republican governor -- candidate for governor in new york state, thank you, and i want to mention also we also reached out repeatedly to andrew cuomo, the democratic nominee. he has not gotten back to us with our request for an interview.

jenna. jenna: just n. jon, you have to see this, brand new video, the results of a bear attack, but harris, we should warn our audience, it's pretty graphic stuff, right? >> reporter: yeah, and this is a man's face, okay? he has to look at this image every day after a bear attacked him in the driveway of his home outside of seattle. this is john chiminiac, a councilman for the bellevue city council in washington statement he's now facing the media for the very first time. he was attacked on september 17th. and as you might imagine, he has gone through a lot. he just detailed, this is live -- or rather was live a few moments ago, he detailed what it was like to hear the breath of a giant black bear at the end of the driveway and what happened next. listen: >> i felt that if i went down on the ground and i got turned over on -- over on my back and she had a chance to go for either a neck or abdomen that i was probably dead. >> at one point

mr. chelminiak described the bear chomping on his head and the dogs trying to get away from this female bear who was very, very angry. you know, what he said was it was just moments away from death. somehow or another, she stopped attacking him, he had just enough time to drive -- or run up the driveway and was screaming, call 911. his wife is still up, live on the satellite now, talking about fact that she heard the 911 scream, called, they were there within minutes, but the injuries were severe. he has lost an eye, as you can plainly see, this councilman talking to the media for the first time. jenna: how scary. but lucky he did survive. >> reporter: amazing story. jenna: wow, harris, thank you. we're going to move back to politics now, the supreme court taking on a controversial freedom of speech case today, one you've heard about. james rosen is on this story. james. >> reporter: jenna, the father of a fallen marine sues the parishioners of a church who protoasted --

protested at his son's funeral. i was there for all arguments and coming up i'll tell you what the justices had to say, after this.

jenna: new today a. grim prediction from investment giant goldman sachs, saying the economy will be fairly bad or very bad over the next 6-9 months, the economy, specifically jobs, could be the single biggest issue in the midterm elections and we've got jobs figures this morning, disappointing numbers that might foresheado friday. friday is when we get the last monthly jobs report before the mid terms. very important. wendell goler is covering this for us from the white house. >> reporter: the automatic data process -- processing, adp, says private sector employment fell 39,000 last month. it has its supporters and detractors because of an adjustment it uses to try and reflect businesses that started and failed during the month without any hard figures but supporters like

adp because its figures only include private sector employment, they don't count government jobs. meanwhile as you point out, goldman sachs says it has two scenarios for the next 6-9 months, fairly bad and very bad, both adp and goldman sachs see slow growth for the foreseeable future and jobless rates near 10 percent, though goldman says it is possible we could slip back into a recession. administration officials don't think that will happen, the federal reserve will probably take action intended to make sure it doesn't happen when it meets a month from now. the problem is the fed has made money so cheap to borrow that businesses are borrowing money and just sitting on it, instead of actually using it to expand and create jobs. meanwhile, the international monetary fund has revised this prediction for u.s. economic growth, now only calling for about two chirdz -- two-thirds of the growth it was predicting as early as july and says growth may slow even more next year.

treasury secretary tim geithner at a speech at the brookings institute didn't confirm the figures but did make clear that growth in developed countries will probably be disappointing for some time to come. here's a bit of what he had to say: >> the pace of recovery has been slower with economic growth now running at a pace that is close to potential, not rapid enough to repair quickly the substantial remaining economic damage from the crisis. >> reporter: the imf says developed countries like the united states need to increase their -- or need to reduce their trade decifit which is, of course, a part of the president's agenda. the problem is, convincing countries like china, which have a trade surplus, to reduce that. jenna. jenna: lots going on, lots of predictions. we'll see what the numbers show us on friday, wendell, with that big jobs report. wendell goler for us at the white house. if you have any questions about the economy, e-mail us, happening now, fox news.com, charlie gasparino is in the hot seat, fox business' own, to

answer your questions about the business world. jon. jon: the supreme court, jenna, just wrapped up hearing arguments in an emotionally charged case, it was brought by the father of a fallen marine. we've been telling you about it for some time, albert schneider suing the west borough baptist church after its members picketed at his son's funeral. they held a protest to make a point that u.s. deaths in iraq and afghanistan are punishment for america's tolerance of gays and abortion rights. that is what the church says it believes. he says he's got a first amendment right to make that point but a judge disagreed and award the father millions of dollars before an appeals court threw out that award. well, now the nation's highest court is taking up this case. james rosen live at the supreme court with an update for us. james. >> reporter: jon, good afternoon. i've just emerged from the oral argument necessary this case, all nine justices of the supreme court were on hand, however as usually happen, only eight participated in the oral arguments, justice clarence

thomas as has been his custom declined to say anything on the bench. we heard a lot of talk about the concepts of what institute fighting words, what constitutes outrageous speech, justice kagan made her debut in oral arguments opposingo posing her first question to one of the lawyers 22 minutes into the case and read verbatim from a previous supreme court opinion, hustler versus falwell which we heard about in today's proceedings. as you just mentioned, jon, the facts are as follows: the father of lance corporal matthew schneider, killed in iraq in march 2006, mr. albert schneider brought suit against the westborough baptist church because parishioners traveled from topeka, kansas to protest at the funeral. the protestors held signs saying things like you're going to hell and, quote, god hates fags, even though matthew schneider was not gay. as --as mentioned they are

protesting the government and its support of homosexual. justice briar asked the attorney for mr. schneider under what circumstances can a group of people broadcast something that's, quote, very obnoxious, chief justice john roberts said you'd have no objection if the sign said get out of iraq, they replied correct and judge ruth baider ginsburg said they followed maryland and said can you give us an example of the case where it was permitted by the police and yet there was still a damage award and the attorney could not do so. then when testify the turn of the west borough baptist church to present its case it was argued by the pastor's daughter, manageie phelps, judge alito asked her if a grandmother of a fallen marine provided informs to a local newspaper for hit obituary, would that make her a public figure, and she made reference to other clients as a little

church, servants of god and judge alito asked if someone could approach an african-american with racial epithets, would that be protected speech, judge anthony kennedy pointed out we have a pluralistic society, it doesn't make them a target for this conduct. one thing i've got to mention to you, i've never seen this before at the supreme court, after the arguments we have the usual stakeout with news media, crews, the attorney, margie fleple -- phelps and other media came out and addressed the media, whereupon they sang a hymn to the tune of ozzie osbourne was crazy train. it's a first. jon: sounds like stunning arguments all the way around. >> indeed. jon: james rosen, thank you. we'll wait to see what the court decides. jenna: we have brand new film from this family involved here. let's take a listen from the schneider family: >> our son, a hero, dead, only to be compounded by the families being targeted and

subject to personal attacks, by hate and injustice at matt's funeral. jenna: our next guest says he sees similarities from the west borough case and the emotionally charged debate over the mosque at ground zero. a first amendment scholar, also the president of fuhrman university in greenville, south carolina. rodney, what are the similarities you see here? >> jenna, i think the first thing to emphasize is that in my view, the issue in the supreme court today is not whether this west borough group has the right to express its highly offensive message. it clearly does have that right. the real issue is whether they have the right to do it in a manner that intrudes on the privacy and dignity of this family who are laying to rest one of their sons or daughters, in this case, a young marine, who was not a public figure, not a famous military leader, not a

politician or a person who has entered the public arena, but as an ordinary american who in this case gave his life in the service of his country. and i think the issue for the court will be whether there's a buffer zone that surrounds funerals and memorial services and the other rights in which we say goodbye to the people that we love with dignity and honor, in which the message of this church is simply not allowed to intrude. i don't think that anyone is arguing that this group must be silenced. the question is whether they can be forced to remain a respectful distance from this family in its moment of grief. it will be interesting to see. jenna: let me jump in there. we were talking about that sacred space and you talk about that buffer zone and that's why some have made comparisons to ground zero, the site of the terrorist attacks, the site of many innocent lives being lost. so do you think the ruling on this case, then, could be ruled for other cases that could be brought to the supreme court, with that same sort of scenario.

>> i think the emotional currents are the same but i think the legal results could well be different. it would be very difficult to draw a buffer zone around ground zero, even though that is hallowed ground, i don't think our constitutional principles will allow us to say there is a zone surrounding ground zero in which members of some religious faiths will be allowed to have their services and others not, as both president bush and president obama said, the nation is not at war with islam, which is essentially a religion of peace, it is at war with terrorists, so even though i think many people will see parallels, i don't think as a legal matter the kind of buffer zone i think that we ought to draw around the burying of those who have given their lives in the service of their country and a place like ground zero will be the same. jenna: interesting. very interesting and insightful thoughts on this case, roddy. we hope to talk to you again about it as we watch it develop in the supreme court again, rodney is the parent

-- is the president of fuhrman university. thank you very much. >> thank you. jon: a man gets amazing cell phone video as a natural gas pipeline explodes and burns in california. # people dead, 37 homes burned to the ground. so what if you wanted to find out in your home -- if your home sits near a pipeline like this, where is that pipeline, how would is it? you don't have access to the -- how old is it? you don't have access to the plans. why not? after this.

jenna: the u.s. economy is on the road to recovery, so what's actually working now? restaurants, harnessing the power of the internet. at this time, people are tightening their belts and one of the things to go first is eating out. restaurants are finding new ways to connect with customers. claudia cowen is live on this story in san francisco. hi claudia. >> reporter: jenna, ordering food online is nothing new but today, some restaurants are finding the best way to a hungry customer's heart is through an active website and we found one cyber kitchen cooking up brisk business. with software they wrote

themselves, specialties cafe and bakery based in san francisco lets customers create their wildest combos of salads and sandwiches and send their choice toss food preparers at one of dozens of their locations. in 15 minutes, lunch is ready to grab and go. >> it's smoothed out operations, it increased accuracy, it's just made the growth potential much greater for this business. >> customers can add or delete according to calories, save favorites and pay without actually having to talk to anyone. in turn, specialties can target specific patrons, e-mailing vegetarians, for instance, about new vegan dishes. while hundreds of restaurants have closed in recent years, specialties has seen a virtual boom. >> 50 percent of our revenue is online. we have stores that do as much as 80 percent of their revenue online. >> restaurant consultants say next generation online ordering can help eateries anticipate and profit from trends in customer preferences. >> this is a way they can easily build revenue and cut

down waste, because everything is ordered in advance, they know exactly what people are going to want. >> and of course, what everyone wants is more time to enjoy their food, either at their desk or with friends who also ordered ahead, thanks to special software serving up convenience, jenna. jenna: have you tried it, claudia? >> it's great. it's great. i have tried it, i created my own wonderful salad that i saved in favorites and now i hit click and send and it's ready in 15 minutes. jenna: that sounds cool. that's a great story, claudia cowen, live for us from san francisco, thank you very much. even in these tough economic times, companies across the country are surviving and prospering. we don't want to forget that. go to fox news.com to check out full coverage by clicking on the link right by the home page. jon: the battle for the house is in high gear. how freshman democrats in key races are faring against republicanning and what it could mean on the balance of power, on capitol hill.

jenna: one of the questions we're going to be tackling this midterm season is what does this election say about the white house and how americans really feel about this president. freshman democrats are struggling to keep up with their gop challengers, according to a new poll from the hill, freshman democrats are behind in 11 out of 12 key races nationwide and joining us is managing editor of the hill, bob cusack. talk us through again why it's important to look at these freshmen democrats voted in at the same time the president was elected. >> jenna, these are the democrats that came in in the year of obama and when democrats bolstered their majority in the house they picked up 24 seats and now republicans if they're going to control the house next year, they need to take out some of these freshmen and probably a lot of them, if they're going to get the 39 seats they need to win the

house. what the poll found was significant as far as health care reform, some of the yes votes on health care reform look to be hurting a lot of the freshman democrats and three of the 12 democrats in the poll voted no on health care reform, and those three democrats are trailing. but only trailing by single digits, where other democrats who voted yes are down by double digits. so health care reform has been a drag on the democratic ticket as far as how democrats are concerned. jenna: it's interesting, we're looking at a cloudy picture of d.c. right now and one of the questions that comes up about these polls is does this have to do with local issues, maybe a local matchup between candidates, or is this a referendum on the president and what's actually happening in the white house today? >> in recent months, democrats have been talking more about local issues, because quite honestly, the national issues are hurting them, just like the national issues hurt republicans in 20 06 and 2008 and now democrats want to talk about local issues, but our poll found two out of three

voters when they go to the polls november 2nd they're going to be thinking about president obama. some like president obama, but most of them are going to be basically voting against the white house, to send a message that they have not liked how the white house and president obama have operated over the last couple of years, and then it's going to be up to president obama to see how he shifts in his governing. but right now the republican base is very fired up, the poll found, and the democratic base, not as much. jenna: bob, let's talk about the republicans, since you brought that up here. how far ahead are they? you say the base is rallied up. when we look at the poll, are they in sizeable leads or not? >> in some, they are. there are some democrats on life support, kathy delcamper in pennsylvania, illinois, they are in doubleiminities, they look like they're going to have a tough time on november 2nd, but there are others that are within the margin of error. you can look at it both ways, say well republicans are up in that but hey, we've got a lot of time between now and election day and maybe democrats, if they could see some momentum

between now and election day, maybe these guys could survive. but the problem is that the national issues that everyone is talking about, whether it be health care reform, whether it be the decifit, those are issues that are favoring republicans right now. jenna: very interesting. we'll see who actually shows up and who's going to do some of the voting as well, bob. thank you very much for bringing us this poll and the insight. bob cusack is managing editor of the hill, thanks. >> thanks jenna. jon: an accused al-qaeda bomber set for trial, and why the first civilian trial of a gitmo detainee is suddenly on hold. we're live outside the courthouse, next. this is the aarp...

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jenna: hi, everybody, thank you for joining us i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. "happening now" a major glitch in the first civilian terror trial for a gitmo detainee. ahmed khalfan ghailani is charged in the 1998 bombings of two u.s. embassies in africa. opening arguments were supposed to get underway today right here in new york, but the judge blocks a key witness. why? rick leventhal is reporting live at the federal court in lower manhattan, rick. >> reporter: a dramatic ruling by this federal judge potentially devastating to the prosecution of ahmed khalfan ghailani, the alleged member of al-qaida and the first gitmo detainee to be tried in civilian court. the judge, louis cap lan ruling

this morning that a key witness in this case cannot testify at this trial. that witness says he sold dynamite to ahmed khalfan ghailani that was allegedly used in the bombings in east africa back in 1998 that killed 224 people including a dozen americans. ahmed khalfan ghailani scouted locations apparently, and brought one of the suicide bombers to the area before escaping to pakistan and eventually working directly for osama bin laden as a cook and later a bodyguard. ahmed khalfan ghailani was caught in 2004 and held by cia operatives at secret camps overseas where he was subjected to enhancement interrogation techniques before being moved to guantanamo bay. they learned of the ke witness who apparently sold ahmed khalfan ghailani the dynamite. his attorney said because he was tortured that the evidence should be tossed out.

the court said they are aware of the perilous world we live in. the cost taougs is the rock upon which our nation rests. we must follow it, to not only when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon. to do less would tkpeupb i shall us and undermine the foundation upon which we stand. >> this case will be tried upon lawful evidence, not torture or collusion. for our system of justice to work the fifth amendment must apply to ahmed khalfan ghailani as much as to any other defendant before the bar of justice. >> reporter: this trial is now delayed until next tuesday while prosecutors decide whether or not to appeal the judge's ruling, and, jon, you can bet that lawyers for other gitmo detainees are watching this case very closely. jon: what a wild one, rick

leventhal, thanks. jenna: we have new information coming into the fox newsroom. right now some of the top names in the u.s. intelligence community are huddled together, the focus how their agencies can better work together to prevent attacks against the u.s. against us, planned overseas or planned right here on our home turf. molly henneberg picks up the story live from washington. we heard earlier from the director of national intelligence and he said he's concerned about a, quote, hemorrhage of intelligent leaks. that doesn't sound very good. tell us a little bit about that. >> reporter: he's not just concerned, he's really upset about it. his office was created to help share intelligence and connect the dots between numerous agencies in town but this has caused a problem with intelligence officials, quote, blabbing to the media. he talked about the online release over the summer of #- 0,000 secret documents pertaining to the war to afghanistan on the whistle-blower website wikilea

wikileaks. >> the wikileaks episode represents what i would consider a big, yellow flag. i think it's going to have a very chilling effect on this -- on the need to share. we've done a lot, but as i indicated challenges still remain. >> reporter: clapper said need to know versus need to share is a classic dilemma. because of the quote, hemorrhage of leaks, he says the compartment ta sayings -- compartment ta louisianaization is the right thing to do. jenna: he had a meeting with president obama yesterday what can he tell you about that. >> reporter: he said he was ashamed, the president talked about the irony of people in the intelligence community and turn around and talk to people about what they know.

clapper suggested he wants to limit in some way information sharing in the wake of various leaks. jenna: sounds like a good idea. molly henneberg, live for us in d.c., thanks, molly. jon: fox news is your front row seat for politics. right now the midterms are just 27 days away. today though folks in many parts of the country have already begun voting sending in their early ballots affecting strategies of candidates all across the country. a huge percentage of colorado voters have mail-in ballot requests. how does this change the way the campaigns spend their money? >> reporter: it affects them direct leave. we spoke with ken buck, the u.s. senate candidate in colorado. he told fox news that mail-in balloting says he has to peak with the voters and stay peaked

all the way until election day. there is a direct impact between the campaign cash and the mai mail-in balloting. they told us it makes the home stretch longer and tougher for candidates to pin down theee electric right. in colorado 60% of registered voters will cast their ballot by mail and when doing it this way they can vote right away and send it in or they can wait all the way up until election day november 2nd and tkrof it off. colorado's secretary of state tells us that this can lessen the blow of bad news hitting a campaign in the last new days of the election. if it's your opponent getting the bad news that's bad for you, if it's are if it's your camp people have already voted and it's not so bad. jon: 60%, more than half of the voters in colorado voted this way, early voting?

>> reporter: yes, 60% of the voters in colorado have requested mail-in ballots, and it's looking like it's going to maintain that interest in colorado as well as around the rest of the country. right now 32 states offer some sort of mail-in balloting, early voting for theee electorate to participate in h. and some campaigns are not too hot on the method because it makes strategy tough. we've been told there is no real playbook to go by, but chances are it's not going away soon. >> i think we'll make it as convenient as possible to vote hence having higher turn out. it makes the race more expensive and it means the candidates have to start their advertising a lot earlier. >> reporter: in the states of washington and oregon, they are 100 percent mail in balloting, and colorado is in third with 60%. jon: all right thanks very much.

from politics to colorado mail-in ballots go to foxnews.com/aehg, we have your front row to politics. jenna: a business alert for you right now, a major banking scandal involving home foreclosures threatening to make the housing crisis even worse if you can believe it. some of the country's biggest lenders apparently bending the rules while trying to repossess homes. now state attorney generals and also lawmakers on capitol hill are trying to get involved. peter barnes reporting for the fox business network. this is a big story, peter, a lot of these lenders got taxpayer money -frpblgt that's right, jenna, house speaker nancy pelosi and other lawmakers calling for a federal investigation of all this by the department of justice, which says today it is reviewing her letter. the aflcio calling for a nationwide moratorium on all foreclosures until the robo signing controversy is decided

in the court. three banks have frozen foreclosures in 23 states and all of this has got some analysts worried about the housing market recovery. the analysts a grow that to fix the housing market, to get a real recovery in the housing market going, to get back to normal, foreclosed homes must be sold. but now with all of this legal uncertainty over robo signed documents and possibly forged documents experts say buyers are going to sit back and wait this out. and they say that if buyers do step back the housing recovery faces long delays. >> we have to get these properties off the books, out of the process so that we can start seeing normal a appreciation in home sales, get people back so they are 0 not so underwater or get them back to even steven and help us get to the next level which is normal activity in the housing economy. >> reporter: now this could be a

huge problem. right now there are 2 million foreclosed homes, homes that have been taken over by the banks or are in the foreclosure process. in the second quarter home buyers purchased nearly a quarter million foreclosed properties about a quarter of all the homes sold in that period. jenna: that is a lot of families affected. you look at the numbers it's actually people that are affected by that. peter thank you so much following the story for us in d.c., peter barnes. jon: right now investigators are trying to figure out details of what happened at a horrendous crime scene. a mother and her twin teenage daughters found dead in their colorado home. police say they are not ruling out anybody as potential suspects in this one. plus a terrorist attack near the u.s. emcee in yemen, a diplomatic convoy takes rocket fire but that was not the only

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jon: right now police are investigating a gruesome crime skaepb -- cream shall crime scene. a husband came home to find his wife dead. it wasn't long before they found the childrens' body in the colorado home. harris faulkner is at the news desk with the latest. >> reporter: two new details emerged from the story. the husband has been spoken to, interviewed by police, that coming out of a news conference. they say that he's cooperating with them fully again, jon. you mentioned that he found the bodies. a lot of times that person is the first one that they want to talk to, the police. they feel like they got cooperation with him. his wife 38 years old and two children, chase and olivia the twins were found dead in the home. what i'm being told is there was

significant obvious trauma. no more details emerging. they are looking at every aspect, every possibility in their deaths from a murder suicide to some kind of foul play. everything is on the table according to police in colorado springs, colorado. back to you. jon: thanks. jenna: new information on a daring attack near the u.s. embassy in yemen. terrorists firing on a convoy there carrying a high profile british diplomat. this happened as a gunman opened fire on another western target in that country. a lot going on there. greg palkot is following the events from there. >> reporter: mortar or today, yemen in the capitol, sana, two individuals dangerous members of al-qaida in yemen, apparently they were along the side of a road, they pulled out an antitank rocket launcher and

fired at the u.s. diplomatic convoy. luckily the shot was a little off. one inside was injured, no one killed in that attack and it happened near the u.s. embassy. the u.s. embassy two years ago was the target of another attack, a double suicide car bomb attack. we talked to the embassy today, they are concerned about this latest attack, they've issued a warning to u.s. citizens, and they have said that they have been told to be careful about the potential for an attack and have stepped up their security. and yet another incident as you noted, jenna, a yemen guard at an oil company office shot and killed a french man and also injured a britain, an al-qaida link with that attack not absolutely made but it has all the hallmarks as well. this is william burns, he's the undersecretary of state for political affairs was just in

yemen yesterday, he was saying that the al-qaida threat in yemen is a real challenge. mostly, in fact, the u.s. interested in this al-qaida chapter because of a fellow by the name of anwar al-awlaki, the u.s.-born radical yemen cleric. he's been linked to several militant terror attacks on u.s. soil including an individual, shahzad sentenced to prison because of a car bomb attack last year. back to you. jenna: an area of the world we are really watching. thank you for bringing us the story, greg palkot in london. jon: a pretty sobering development related to the deadly pipeline blast that destroyed a neighborhood in san bruno last month. companies operating gas lines are required to file emergency p- plans in case of disaster

like this one. the plans are offer limits to you. neither states or federal agencies keep copies in their offices. a whole lot of folks live near the gas lines, they snake all across the country. there are 2 1/2 of fuel pipelines, enough to circle the earth one hundred times. carl weimer is here. carl, if i want to find out how long that pipe has been there, how old it might be, where do i go to find that information? >> reporter: well, a lot of that information is really hard to find. you can go onto the national pipeline mapping system and get a sense of at least where the pipelines are in a community, but a lot of the information like the age or when it was last inspected really is kept from the public. jon: why can't i just go to have federal agency and download the information off the internet. >> reporter: we're working on that. they've got better about

incident data and enforcement data but they still haven't put up these tph-pblg plans. one of the concerning things we hear after every disaster like san bruno is that even firefighters were surprised to find out they had pipelines like this in their communities. jon: what about states? the states don't have this information either. >> reporter: state regulators and federal regulators look at the plans when they do their annual inspections or audits but i guess they don't keep copies which is somewhat concerning. i don't know how they can audit the plans if they haven't studied them before they walk into an office. jon: it's one thing to have an emergency plan for say something like an airport where everything is fairly localized but a pipeline snakes through so many neighborhoods, for instance, witness what happened in san bruno, how can you put together an emergency response plan that takes into account every eventuality? >> reporter: well it's difficult with pipelines, because like you said they do go all over. the plan at least needs to address clearly that they have

an effective means of educating local emergency response people, because they are the ones that have to respond to these. it appears from what we hear after every disaster that lots of times the emergency responders are somewhat surprised. jon: carl weimer from the pipeline safety trust, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: a desperate battle underway as a flood, wait until you see this of toxic waste spreads across hungary. who would have done this to a toddler? take a look at this. wait until you hear the details of what went down here. you're not going to believe it and that's just ahead. w

jenna: let's tell you what is "happening now" around the world today. first off to afghanistan, high level meet insurance have reportedly begun between the government of and began president karzai and the taliban. they are negotiating a possible end to the nine year war. that talk is said to be at a secretive location. heck in out in hungary. authorities are opening an investigation into toxic sludge that killed at least four people there. the red mud contains heavy metal one hundred miles southwest of the capitol of budapest. militants torching two dozen trucks, it's the 6th attacks on convoys taking supplies to afghanistan since pakistan closed a keyboarder crossing almost a week ago. jon: take a look at this, shocking photos just released of a little toddler taped to a wall

by his mother, and her boyfriend. it happened last new year's eve in nebraska. police say the two adults were high on drugs. they thought it was funny, and as you can see they even took pictures. a friend saw the pictures and turned the pair into police. joining us now, randal whittenauer the attorney who handle this case. what were they charged with? >> reporter: both of them at first were charged with felony child abuse which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. jon: so they taped this little boy to the wall just for fun? >> right they were high that night. it was new year's eve. they thought it was a prank, obviously we didn't think so. jon: well there are also other pictures of what they did to him. they also wrapped his hands, i guess pulled him away from the wall, wrapped his hands in duct tape so that he had absolutely

no use of his fingers, made little clubs out of them basically. it progressed to take being the hands, they took pictures of that. then they taped the child's arms to the wall, almost in crust fix -- cruxifiction style. we were told it took 45 minutes, we don't know how long it took. jon: he has been removed from his mother's custody, is that correct. >> that's correct. the child was removed right after the institution of the cases against the mother and boyfriend and a juvenile case was also insurance taoused to care for the best interest of that child. so a guardian ad litem has been provided along with health and

human services custody. my office at one time had -- jon: originally there were reports, local media reports that this little boy had been given back to his mother's custody, that is part of what aroused our outrage, frankly and our interest in this story. but you say those reports are not correct. >> right, any time you institute a juvenile proceeding like this the original intent of that proceeding after you remove the child is reunification, and that is the track that they are moving along, in fact i believe there is a hearing tomorrow having to do with that. i don't know that the child is going to be sent back at that time. our office was under the impression that the reunification had already happened. i was informed this morning that that was not the case. jon: the gauge county attorney in nebraska, randal, thank you for sharing the story with us. we'll keep an eye on this case and tell our viewers what happened to these young parents.

jenna: president obama trying to rally support for democrats whose names are on the ballot in the midterm elections. could his strategy be doing more harm than good for the candidates he's actually trying to help. we'll tackle that question. spying on the taliban taken to new levels. a high-tech weapon using a low tech way of covering lots of ground. we have that story great ahead. (announcer) energy security. climate protection. challenges as vast as the space race a generation ago. and tal to global security.

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>> reporter: i'm janice dean, we are watching severe weather across arizona. flooding pictures as well as damage across north central arizona. it's courtesy of the upper level low that will not bulge across portions of the southwest. we have a tornado watch as well as a severe thunderstorm watch in effect for the afternoon for parts of arizona, and active tornado warning west of flagstaff for south central coconino, and west central arizona. this cell moving north at 14 miles an our. north of sedona, a beautiful area of arizona. a lot of damage just west of flagstaff in the area of belmont. this was the cell that we saw earlier this morning at around 6:22 local time, tornado reports, and now confirmed tornadoes for the city of bellmont with quite a bit of damage reported. we'll bring you the latest video and watches and warnings from the fox news weather center i'm

janice dean. jon: as you might know president obama has spending a lot of time on the campaign trail reminding everyone about his record but democrats in races coast to coast with trying to keep their distance from the president's policy, chief washington correspondent jim angle is in d.c. reporting for us. i guess president obama is out campaigning, trying to stir up enthusiasm, right? is it helping jim? >> reporter: that's a key question, jon. because while it may light a fire under voters it puts the focus on the president and his polices which some democrats worry will hurt them because so many voters don't like those polices. listen: >> democrats are trying to localize races across the country, they say this is not about health care reform or barack obama and nancy pelosi. this is the two candidates run, incumbent versus the republican challenger. >> reporter: so many

democratic candidates run ads boasting they've voted against the health care law or against cap and trade and arguing they are independent of the administration and its polices. >> in essence in a lot of states and districts the democratic nominees are saying we understand you're unhappy with president obama, we understand you're unhappy about the economy, if only you had a good republican to vote for, but you don't. your republican is corrupt, your republican is involved in scandal, in bankruptcies, hand paid his taxes. >> reporter: arguing in effect, jon, that yeah, we know you're not happy about the obama administration's polices but trying to convince voters it would be worse if they voted to the republican challenger, jon. jon: how well can that work i guess is the question. >> in some cases democrats really have no choice. new fox news opinion dynamics poll shows in west virginia, for instance, 55 percent of likely voters say obama administration actions have hurt the

state's economy and 60 percent say their vote for the senate seat will be to express opposition to those polity -- polices. it is natural for people to look at even midterm elections to some extent as a referendum on the party in power, especially when one controls the white house and both houses of congress. if so, it's smart for democrats to try to location lies the race, it's just hard to do under these circumstances, especially when you have independent voters who are going to see this election as a vote for or against obama polices and the people who support them. in many, jon, that will make it did you have on democrat -- tough on democratics. jon: it's going to be interesting to watch, thanks jenna: and for more perspective of what's going on now, let's turn to chris stierwalt, digital politics editor and author of power play. chris, jim angle was talking about democrats trying to distance themselves from the president. we hear a lot about that

going into the midterm elections but in your note today, you say this, democrats may be more liberal after elections. what do you mean by that? >> it's a function of where these troubled democrats are, where these seats that may go to the republicans are. and as we spread out across the country and look at these districts you see they are in red states and swing states, in places like ohio, indiana, texas, tennessee, west virginia, places where you get more moderate democrats who are more often prolife, who are opposed to the president's health care bill, opposed to his cap and trade plan for global warming. so the net effect is if republicans do very, very well, you could be looking at a wipeout for democrats in regions like the south and midwest, then the question is this: who comes back to washington next in the democratic caucus and it's probably going to be these people who are more like nancy pell and less like the blue dogs in jeopardy now. jenna: we talk about moderate democrats, some of

the southern states you mentioned, are these moderate democrats going to vote at all, i mean, will they come and vote for a republican or are they sort of uninspired and not looking to vote this year? >> you can take a great example down in louisiana, where you have in the third district, which is the charlie mellasau runs against david vitter, that's 2-1 democratic registration down there but the republican candidate looks like he's going to walk away with that election, so it's certainly not a problem for democrats in these states to vote for a republican. they do it all the time. as a matter of fact, we have a new a.p. poll that says among white voters who don't have college degrees, democrats are trailing two -- 22 points, that's an historic margin so the heartland voters are turning against democrats and that's going to have consequences when it gets down to making up the caucus. jen as you were writing in your note, a veteran of presidential campaigns, the

south is gone. do you think that we're comfortable with such a declarative statement saying the south is gone, it's going to go republican this far away from voting day? >> democrats right now are having, as they say, good days and bad days, and some days they say hey, we're going to be okay, we're closing the enthusiasm gap but then they spread out the math and look at places like the midwest and south and say oh my goodness we've got a real structural problem and are not going to pull this off, we're not going to narrow the gap the way that jim was talking about in the previous seeing men. so i think the strategists i talk to are people from the heartland, people from the south, who believe that democrats need to get back to the clinton model and court a lot of independents and from their way of looking at things on the ground, not here in washington, they say they have a big, big problem. jenna: how do you keep track of these districts, chris, do you have flash cards on your desk, you go through the faces and names? is that how you do it? >> no, i tell you exactly how i did it, i try to remember or good things that

i know about each of the districts and it helps it stick in my mind. jenna: we may have to quiz you at a later date! chris stierwalt, keeping track for it in d.c. you can get politically powered up with the fox news power play, go to foxnews.com to get the app download details. it's all a shortcut to american politics. you can see just like chris, remember all those names and districts. jon: right now, eyes in the skies are part of america's america's arsenal in afghanistan and the u.s. wants more. we're not talking about, say, unmanned aerial drones, we're talking about balloons. not just any balloons, though, these mini blimps are fitted with high-powered cameras to scout out and hunt down the enemy and they can't build these things fast enough. with us now, former department of defense official daniel geurre, vice president. lexington institute. i was really amazed to learn that blimps are a huge part of our war effort in afghanistan right now.

>> it's really something amazing, it's the future of airborne surveillance, may be hot air in the form of blimps and the future high altitude air ships. jon: what's the deal? they tether these things by a very, very long cable, send them how high up in the sky? >> between 102,500 feet, which gives them a zone of up to 200 miles, when you take the slant range that you can observe vehicles and groups of men. jon: all right, so they don't need the kind of fuel that, say, a predator drone would need, they can stay aloft virtually forever. what other advantages do they offer? >> well, they also don't require the kind of landing field that a large unmanned aerial vehicle like a predator global hawk requires, so you can put them with small bases as long as you have the power supply, the helium to reinflate the balloon, and the ground station, you can just put them all over the place, which is exactly what they're doing in afghanistan. jon: but why don't the

insurgents just take out a sniper rifle and shoot them down? >> that's one of the beauties of these things, it's not that easy to do at 1000, 2000 feet above the ground, but more importantly, put a hole in it. it's not like a circus balloon where you put in it and it pops, you put a hole in it, you get a small leak. enough holes, you patch it with sticky tape, reinflate it, send it up, so these things can go up sometimes for weeks on end, but what they go up now for, four, five days a week, patch them up, send them up again. jon: i suppose, having been to afghanistan, the country is so remote you can -- remote you can launch one from a mountaintop and it would be very hard to see the at the tether and everything else that's keeping it tied up. >> that's right, it's like trying to shoot it is nearly impossible. it's sometimes ches around, that would not be the case, and it's good for afghanistan because unlike the other systems which would power on the ground, this can get high enough to look over the mountaintop so

that you can see, for example, a mortar crew or rocket crew that might be setting up to go shoot at the u.s. base. jon: great idea for helping to keep our troops safe. daniel, thank you. >> you're welcome. jenna: he's one of wall wall street's best investigative reporters, he's put plenty of people on the hot seat, and now it's his turn, charlie gasparino of the fox business network sits in on our hot seat, taking your questions, just ahead.

megyn: hey everybody i'm megyn candidate, alaska senator against lisa murkowski, this news comes as a fight between joe

miller and the paleins who endorsed him. firefighters watch as a man's home burned to ashes all because he hadn't paid his $75 in kelly's court. >> tiffany hartley says her husband was killed by outlaws across the border, now the sheriff joins us live, and you may be surprised by what he says. plus, guess who now gets to weigh in on arizona's immigration law? mexico, brazil, chile, el salvador and on it goes. yeah. the ninth circuit, why it's not constitutional. monica cay has thoughts on that. see you at 1:00 p.m. jon: "happening now", finance 101 for high school students, new jersey teens learning about personal finance, credit cards and saving, in addition to the three rs. julie banderas has more. >> when we were kids we didn't have cell phones, most didn't have our own credit cards, nowadays teens

are armed with both and in a slumping economy it only makes sense to teach financial responsibility to a future generation so they don't make the same mistakes their parents made. one of eight schools is pilot ago program to teach kids to budgeting money, from credit card debt, saving and investing, starting in this class, who is required to take one semester of financial literacy in order to graduate. >> the economic crisis and what we've been going through has sparked it. i think the state department of education has realized that people who are young adults need to know how to handle their futures a little bit better. >> reporter: according to the council for economic education, new jersey is one of only 13 states with any financial finance -- with any personal finance requirements. financial education should start in grade school. >> you don't expect them to start doing calculus in 12th

grade without having learned to count in kindergarten so the best possible thing for your students is to start early. >> reporter: most of the students we spoke to didn't know much about finances, they admit before the school year, but they're eager to learn. >> i wanted to feel more secure when i get out in the real world, and this is the perfect class to actually do that financially. >> it teaches you how to save money and prepare yourself for the future. >> you use all this stuff every day, rather than like a squared or b squared. >> sallie mae shows 44 percent of college undergraduates have an average of four credit cards, with an average balance of over $3000, and a mere 17 percent say they paid off the cards regularly each month. bad habit jon: that doesn't sound good. julie, thank you. >> see you. jenna: the hot seat got a --

getting a lot of action, and we're getting answers from the names of big names around the world. today's guest in the hot seat, charlie gasparino taking time out from the fox bit network. he has a brand new book that came out, bought and paid for, the unholy alliance between obama and wall street. let's talk to charlie about this as we go into the midterm elections. charlie, you have the inside knowledge of what's going on on wall street. are wall streeters backing democrats or is it backing the' republicans? >> they are clearly hedging bets and backing republicans right now but i would say it's a head fake. one of the things i show in this book is this book a kind of is love story between -- >> jenna: i had no idea you were so romantic. >> or wall street guys, between the president and wall street. the wall street put him into office, giving him unprecedented amounts of money in 2007, 2008. right now they're a little mad about being called fat cats and are hedging a bit by giving money to republicans and i go through all that, why that occurs,

in the book, but when it comes down to it and this is another point i show in the book, obamanomics has helped wall street. wall street got the guarantees, low rates, you name it, goldman sachs made $12 billion the year after the bailout. what did main street get? the still lous package, the wonderful stimulus package, $800 billion, loads up taxpayers with debt and 9 1/2% unemployment and that's what this book is really about. now, will they support him in 2012? i think awe the writing is on the wall that they will. they're hedging their bets now. they will, because they make a lot of mope out of big government and obama is if anything a big, but also, they're just like him, they're progressives. go down the list on who runs the firms. jenna: i bet that surprises viewers. some viewers sent in great questions, we'll get to it after the break. one question that is a tough one, is there anything you can point to that would mean things would be different

with republicans in charge. that's the question that charlie faces next on the hot seat.

jenna: we're back with charie gasparino taking your questions in the hot seat on "happening now". allan smith from charlotte, north carolina has this to ask, is there anything that you can point to that would lead you to believe things would be different if republicans were in charge. >> that's a great question. as i show in my book, cap tammism existed under republicans, and in democrats. i don't endorse parties, i'm an economic free market guy. i would say vote for the candidate, not the party. what candidate is against the bank bailouts, what candidate believes that we should have lower taxes or at least let markets run the show, not government run the show. and candidates, republicans,

both -- -- jenna: the republicans out there, over the last decade, would they have set us up differently so we wouldn't have been in this mess? >> who knows. by the way the mess we're in right now may not be the last decade, it of the last two decades. there were things in the clinton administration that led to the expansion of fanny and freddie, that in the clinton administration, the hud secretary and andrew cuomo, who gay be -- who may be the governor of new york, i think you go by the polices -- by the individual policy of the candidate, not the party. jen one -- one of the stories that's related to the last decade is the bush tax cuts, we're getting a lot of questions on that. jack olson in oak creek, wisconsin had this to say, there's an argument to extend the bush tax cuts to all americans not just the middle class, he wants to know is it worth it to

extend it, will it be better for the economy? >> i think it's -- listen, it's obviously in the short run going to add to the decifit. in the long run, tax cuts often pay for themselves, right? you have increased economic activity. this is what they're doing, they want to raise taxes, the president does, and some democrats are moving to extend them for everybody. he wants to raise taxes on the most productive people, the people that have small businesses, because small businesses, when they file tax returns, they only hit that upper rate, on people that make a lot of money, spend a lot of money. my dad was a bartender, he liked rich people. work class people need rich people to keep them employed. that's the way it works. the alternative is cuba, by the way, which isn't such a great alternative. stimulating the economy right now -- de stimulating the economy, which that is what that is, is dumb. we need the economy to at least stay where it is right now, which isn't good, because if it gets worse, let me tell you -- tell you something, this economy gets worse, we could have another

banking crisis. jenna: that's tough to think about. charlie, thank you very much for joining us in the hot seat, the new book, bought and paid for, the unholy alliance between obama and wall street. he calls it a love story, jon, that's what he says. jon: and he'll get you an autographed copy, any time! thanks. a new law making it legal to vote naked. and there's video. we'll tell you about the campaign, calling for voters to cast their ballots in the box, straight ahead. @=h [ j. weissman ] it was 1975.

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