bill: ut know! >> martha: we did this because we can! martha: "happen position now "starts right now, bye guys. jon: fox news alert, just breaking this morning, general james jones will resign as national security adviser to the president, general jones reportedly to be replaced by tom donlan, deputy national security adviser. molly line is at the white house. >> reporter: the president will make this announcement about the personnel change at 1:00 this afternoon in the rose garden, both men will attend the events, the outgoing security adviser james jones and tom donlan, who be taking the position. officials say jones had intended to leave around the two-year mark, he started in january 2009 when the obama took over the whourbgs previously jones spent 40 years in the marine corps, a

general, a commandant in the marine corps, he also has been the commander of u.s. and nato forces in europe, he will be replaced by career political adviser and lawyer tom donlan who worked for the state department during the clinton and in this administration he's been the deputy national security adviser, now he'll step into the top job. donlon is close with the biddence, he was senior adviser to joe biden when running for president in 2008, his brother is a legal counselor to the vp and donlon's vive is -- wife is chief of staff to dr. jill biden. this is the second high-profile departure in as many weeks from the obama administration. last week chief of staff rahm emanuel left to run for mayor of chicago. jon: lots of changes at the white house. molly henneberg, thanks. jenna: another fox news alert, down to richmond, virginia, where there is a major tea party convention taking place.

today might be one of the biggest ones we've seen in the country so far. several thousand people expected to attend, along with the main players in the state's government, including governor bash mcdonald who is going to be our guest later in the show. jon: -- >> a very busy friday, thank you very much for joining us, we have knot fox news alert as well, a steep drop in jobs this morning. hi everybody, i'm jenna lear. jon: i'm jon scott, "happening now", a wave of layoffs, the economy losing 95,000 jobs just last month, the unemployment rate remains at 9.6%, although private companies added 64,000 jobs. jenna: that's way short of the number needed to actually bring unemployment down. the jobless rate does not give the full picture because it doesn't include those who are not actively looking for work. these are the so-called discouraged workers hitting an all-time high of more than 1.2 million americans. the september jobs report is the last one we're going to

see before the mid-term elections and it's very important. where concerns about the economy are a major issue for voters in the midterm, we're going to discuss the jobs report with elaine chao, former treasury secretary under george w. bush, later in the show. on this very busy news day these are the other big stories we're following as well. we're live at the white house awaiting the president's comments on the new unemployment numbers and the resignation of his national security adviser that molly was telling us about. jon: also a live look at capitol hill, everyone there wondering who will control congress after november's elections. we'll take a look at two close races. jenna: an american astronaut shot into space on a russia rocket. does this mean that russia is winning the space race? jon: there is frustration mounting in a border lake mystery as drug gangs threaten to retaliate against searchers look for david hartley. hartley's wife says she were

gunned down on the mexican side of falcon lake as they straddled the border, this following a witness that corroborates details in the harrowing account of that day. his voice, disguised to help protect his identity. we warn you, some of the details are disturbing: >> so i see this jet ski headed towards me, there was this boat behind it, her husband had gotten shot was what she blurted out, screaming, crying, sobbing. she could see him like a head, gunshot wound to the head where his brains were falling out with blood, and he was gurg link like he was not breathing. jon: kris gutierrez is live from falcon lake in zapata, texas. are they still searching that lake this morning, kris? >> they are jon on the u.s. side. we've already seen game wardens and the u.s. coast guard combing the waters,

look for hart will's body. officials hope that mexican authorities will do the same but despite that witness we heard from, mexican authorities question the validity of tiffany heart r* hartley's accounts of what exactly happened. in fact u.s. lawmakers in the state of texas yesterday had some questions, too. listen here: >> if you had a vest y. is the body not floating with this vest? we asked the coast guard, if you have the jet ski, would that jet ski be floating somewhere around. and mexican friends have said they've been searching around, and theygen used the helicopter, and if you have a general idea where that is, why is the body not floating, why is there not a jet ski? >> despite those questions, jon, congressman quare, who we just heard from there, stands behind tiffany hartley's story and so does governor rick perry, they are taking this seriously. jon: and you are out on the

lake where this all happened? >> where this allegedly took place. it's a five minute boat ride where from i'm standing now. we went out with the sheriff in zapata county and we didn't see a single boat on the mexicoan side but what we did see was a mexican military aircraft and the sheriff suspects he knows why. watch this: >> just beyond that pillar right there is the mexican side of fal don lake. u.s. authorities cannot legally venture into those areas to search, however, that's the area that tiffany hartley says she and her husband david were jet skiing last week. officials down here in texas say that's a known area for the zeta cartel members, in fact, the sheriff here in zapata county is actually reaching out to the zeta cartel for assistance. >> through print media, through television, in english and spanish, telling these people, all i want is a body, that's all we want. we're going to prosecute. we can't prosecute in another country. if it happened in another county or state -- but it happened in another country. we can't prosecute. >> the sheriff tells me he's

never reached out to the cartels like that before, hopes he never has to again and at this point, there's been no response. jon: what a strange case. kris gurterez, thank you. jenna: a major cleanup is underway in hungary, rescue crews working on this toxic sludge that's reached the danube river, europe's second longest. troops are trying to dilute the mess. three villages are already affected and experts say the mess is nearly as big as the bp gulf oil spill. think about that. so far, five people are dead, several more are missing. we're going to have a live report from hungary in our next hour of "happening now". brand new video coming in after an early morning raid in the west bank city of hebron, sparking protestes after word israeli forces killed two

palestinian militants. the military says the gunmen were wanted for killing four israelis near that city, all raising tensions as peace talks remain stuck over the issue of israeli settlements. hamas has threatened to retaliate with violence. also, russian spacecraft blasting off this morning, heading for the international space staeurbgs on board, an american astronaut, along with two russian cosmonauts and starting next year the u.s. will be relying on russian shuttles to space. amy kellogg explains. amy, what's the significance of this launch? >> reporter: hi jenna. well, right behind me you can see a mockup of the soyuz spacecraft which is what scott kelly blasted off in on his way to the international space station. let's take a listen to that takeoff this morning: >> three, two, one fueling

power. >> this is the original soviet space program's launch bad -- pad this, is where the first man went into space nearly 50 years ago, but because nasa is going to retire this shuttle program, because it's so expensive and they need to plan for future projects in outer space, american astronauts are going to be relying solely on this sozu -- soyuz spacecraft to get into space. now, people question the wisdom of that, relying solely on the russians. of course there was a time when we were in a space race with the soviet union and some say it's low-tech compared to the space shuttle, that it's really an old piece of technology, but nasa feels quite comfortable, jen kwrarbgs that it's a work horse, its simplicity is its el gans and it's been proven tile and again to work, so that's going to be what american astronauts are going to be using for the next few years

until something devised, but this day in age with economic restraints there's going to be russia's cooperation in space because it makes good dollar sense. jenna: thank you, amy. jon: and this fox news alert finally, california has passed its long overdue state budget. the vote came after an all-night session, more than three months after the start of the fiscal year. it's a nearly $88 billion budget. it also closes a $19 billion decifit. governor arnold schwarzenegger who helped negotiate some of the details is expected to sign this when it's presented. -- jenna: other breaking news, the police have arrested the honey bee killer. remember we talked about this yesterday, harris? kind of an unusual and scary case. >> reporter: we're also getting new video in. i want to say this is very fresh, this just came in moments ago. police in northeastern illinois, will county

sheriffs, coin them saying they have picked up a man suspected of killing one and wounding two others in a rural area, 35 miles south of chicago. jen kwrarbgs you'll remember when the man approached with a gun out in this rural community he was asking about honey bees. very strange. they were concerned that this man was unstable, and because these were seen as random shootings, does not know where he might go next. the one man killed we're finding out was the father of ten children. the two men whoor injured remain hospitalized this morning and i'm finding out one is in critical and one is in serious condition. all we know is will county sheriffs have picked up a guy meeting the description of the person who's been called the honey bee shooter because he talked about honey bees before he opened fire. as i learn more, of course, i'll bring it to you. this is just breaking. that is seen now from i believe crete, illinois, which is outside of chicago, fresh crime scene now coming in from the area that we believe he was arrested in, just a short time ago. again, i'll continue to

collect information. this is good news if they've been able to pick up the person they suspected, because the whole public was unaware out there, they didn't know why this guy was roaming around with a gun and what the honey bee connection was, so police say they've made a huge development in the case. we'll find out more. jenna: as it develops, we'll be back to new a moment. jon: blackmailers target actor john stamoes, the plot, not going according to plan. now the extortionists are in court for sentencing. harris has more on that as well. that's coming up. also new information coming in on this developing story, the president's national security adviser, stepping down, just about three weeks before midterm elections. why? we'll have the latest on that next. breaking news on mortgages, as well. you'll want to hear it.

jenna: we have a fox news alert and this is big news. bank of america, halting all foreclosures nationwide. listen to this. they're actually halting foreclosure necessary all 50 states. so it's not just in one state or another or a mich mash of different cities, it's in all 50 states. this is on the heels of news where we heard people were kind of rubber stamping these foreclosures. give us some context for this. >> you have 40 states attorneys generals asks for banks to do what bank of america has done. j.p. morgan, bank of america, allied bank have said they were going to stop

foreclosures from what's being called as robo signatures, in one case, j.p. morgan chase, 18,000 documents, all signed by eight people in a month's time. it means no one is reviewing those documents. at the end of the day although they're going to stop and review the legal documents, is anyone in foreclosure going to keep their home? most likely not. eventually the foreclosures will go forward. jenna: let's pick up on that. a lot of people as you mentioned have been foreclosed upon or maybe in neighborhoods where you see foreclosed homes, how much time is it going to take to work through this? >> that's the question nobody knows. looking at it this way. we have an inventory houses right now according to the national association of realtors, 11.6 months of supply, that's double what it would normally be, a third of the homes sold recently were foreclosed properties. well, those properties now, which are in foreclosure, which will not be cleared, which means the inventory will continue to grow. so it's not so much the people in foreclosure, which is an unfortunate situation, a horrible thing to happen, but think of the 49 million other outstanding mortgages

out there who aren't in foreclosure. if you're trying to sell your house, it's going to take that much longer and prices are going to be actually distressed because of all those foreclosed properties now not going through the system. jenna: just to put this in context even further with the political environment, i know this news is just breaking but we heard that maybe the democrats are going to try to put through a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures that looks like this company, bank of america, stepping ahead of that. do we expect this to come from other banks or do we expect legislation to come down to do it? >> other banks are going to start doing this, simply because what's happening is lawyers are filing lawsuits on technicalities. what we are talking about here is what legal document did you sign and did you review it. the -- the question of are you making the mortgage payment is not being addressed tpwheu and at the end of the day if you're not making the mortgage payment the person or entity which owns the mortgage, which owns your note, they're going to foreclose upon you, it's just now going to be a longer process. jenna: thank you very much, adam, we'll keep everyone updated as it develops.

jon: a michigan couple, convicted of trying to blackmail actor john stamos, now getting ready to hear their sentence, the couple demanded 700,000 bucks from stamoes in exchange for handing over embarrassing photos of him. harris faulkner at the breaking news desk has more. >> reporter: alison koff and scott siffila said through e-mails they would ruin the reputation of actor john stamoes. it's pretty for them to be convicted, back in july, on conspiracy and the threatening e-mails. the fbi, by the way, never found compromising pictures from al kohn -- alison kopf and john stamoes in florida, when she was just 17. we'll find out in a short while. we are told exactly what that penalty will be for this couple. again, the fbi never found any of these compromising photos, and you might know him, full house dad john stamoes is on fox hit "glee" and there's the couple,

alison kopf, clearly a minor in 2004, said she had some kind of photos. we have yet to see any proof of that, but we will see the full sentencing today john. -- jon. jon: thank you, harris. jenna: the final jobs report comes out and the economy losing more jobs than expected. elaine chao joins us to talk about the numbers and what they mean for the economic recovery. we'll talk to her next. a thrill ride goes from excite to go scary in a split second. we're going to tell you what landed several people on stretchers at a california amusement park.

jenna: today, the september jobs report is in, the

unemployment rate remaining at 9.6%, and the labor department saying we lost 95,000 jobs, reflecting mostly layoffs in government sectors. also, the private sector, though, failed to pick up the slack, we did see private job growth but companies are hiring fewer workers than expected and really, fewer workers than are needed. elaine chao served as labor secretary to president george w. bush, also a fox news contributor and elaine, you know, taking out some of the policy talk, we're going to talk more about the president moments from now when he actually addresses the nation on jobs, but if you were in the chair again, if you were labor secretary again right now today, what would you be fighting for? >> first of all, let's remember from 2001-2008 that the unemployment rate on average was about 5.3%, and i credit every single time that the unemployment rate above 5 percent, now we see a 9.6% unemployment rate, that's pretty much stuck at that level, and it's been there for about one four-months now.

and this is the worst long stretch of unemployment rate news since the great depression. now, we have to remember, the government doesn't create jobs, and why the economy is not creating jobs right now is that there's a tremendous lack of confidence in this team at the white house. there's a great deal of lack -- there's a great deal of concern and uncertainty and worries about where this administration is taking us. it's not political. it's just the facts. jenna: let's stop it there. what the administration will say is that we have seen private job growth over the last several months. it hasn't been enough to counter some of the government jobs that have been lost but that's a fact, there has been private job growth. you've also heard from the administration and other economists as well that the recovery is going to be different than anything we've seen in history, it's going to be choppy, it's going to be uneven and it's not going to be great. that's what they're going to say. what's your reaction?

>> i think all of that is not true. first of all, when we talk about all these -- the real problems with this economy is a lack of jobs. and the job creation is not occurring, because there are spectors of increased taxes, there is tremendous new array of regulations emanating from the government, and the unemployment numbers today are so disappointing because they show that even when it's over a trillion dollars in new additional spending, and the deficits that we have incurred, even government jobs cannot be sustained. the stimulus package -- we're not even creating government jobs. jenna: let's go back to that first question again, if you were in the chair, what would be the top of your list, would it be sure that we keep the bush tax cuts, would it be to sign another stimulus plan? what would be your game if you were in office, because a lot of people say it's just going to take time. >> i think there has to be a recognition that you cannot

continue to create uncertainty in the economy by having high taxes. our taxes are going to increase automatically in january of this year if the congress does nothing. and even -- and this issue was not raised just before the congress went out, because there was tremendous division within the democrat caucus itself. second of all, there has to be a handle over the tremendous number of regulations that are emanating forward. the employer is not the enemy. the private sector creates the jobs. and we have to somehow restore trust and confidence in the private sector so that the employers feel confident in looking forward that they're not going to be facing a hostile environment. employers are sitting on basically over $800 billion in cash right now. there's a liquidity issue, the housing issue is still out there. there's not enough confidence in the economy. it needs to be addressed.

jenna: elaine, as we wrap up here, and we'll come back to you after we hear the president speak, but speak to our viewers, when does it get better? >> it won't get better if the present polices proceed and persist and that's the real problem. jenna: we're going to be back to you in a few minutes. we expect the president to step up and talk about the job market in about ten minutes and then we'll be back to hear what you say about what he has to say and we look forward to seeing you then. >> thank you. jon: a fox news alert, tesla motors, you've heard about that company, on friday it said it is recalling 439 roadsters from the 2010 model year to address potential fire hazards, the government's auto safety agency says this will involve about 500 cars. the 2-seat electric car costs more than $100,000, it plug spwos an electrical outlet to recharge. they've gotten all kinds of press but now this big recall from tesla motors.

three, 12-year-old girls, among ten people recovering from a frightening ride at a california amusement park. people were riding the pony express roller coaster at knott's berry farm just outside l.a. when two cars collided near the loading area. medics took the passengers to the hospital as a precautionary measure. everyone is expected to be okay. the park remains open after the incident. jenna: a critical mention of the president's security team announces his departure. the question is who -- who comes next and how does it affect current policy. plus from politics. a daring expedition.

jon: "happening now", reaction to the latest high profile resignation at the white house, general jim jones is stepping down as national security adviser to the president. mr. obama, expected to name his successor in a rose garden ceremony at 1:00 p.m. eastern, about 2 1/2 hours from now. make that an hour and a half from now. the general's departure, the sixth high profile exit from the white house since may and the third in recent days. joining us now, former nato commander, admiral john stuckelby, he worked for general jones when he was commander of the sixth fleet and jones was supreme allied commander in europe. first of all, had he expressed to you any indication he was going to be stepping down from this very high profile position? >> no, he did not. i know he had some reluctance in taking the job initially but once he was in there he intended to serve as long and honorably as the

president would allow. jon: well, it's not unusual for leave to -- people to leave into an administration two years in. we've seen cristina romer e. rahm emanuel and peter orzan leave but a national security have or, that's a different position, isn't it? >> unlike a cabinet official, tantamount to that being the same thing, the issue for general jones or any security adviser is to balance the needs of what the president wants and what the nation wants, if there's a difference there at all and as a result, i'm going to suspect that general jones felt that he served as long as he could be effective and maybe now it's time for somebody else to do that. jon: he was portrayed in that new carl woodward book as being sort of the odd man out in the white house, he's a man obviously with military training, headed up the marine corporation, et cetera. your take on that? >> i don't believe it for a minute. i believe he had the full kw-fd of the -- full

confidence of the president, he was running a close apparatus, had the secretary of defense, the chairman of joint chiefs, i think he gave the president the best advice he could, was a loyal american in doing so and i think america was very lucky to have a leader of this caliber who stayed at the strategic level. jon: what about the replacement? we understand tom donilon is going to take over, a man who has a fair amount of political experience but not a great deal of military experience from what i can tell. >> well, that could be an interesting selection if that's who is in fact named. look, the national security adviser has to have three things under his belt from this point forward. one, he has to have a commanding -- a commanding knowledge of what's happening in afghanistan, he has to be able to multi task and balance the other national security issues that are around the world and he has to be sensitive to the priorities of the administration so, maybe a politician would do well at that but maybe somebody with other experience might have more successes. >> admiral john stuffelbeam, thank you for being with us and we'll take our viewers

to the rose garden when the president makes that announcement. jenna: a lot going on on this busy friday, but first to hungary, as we've been talking to you about this for the last few days, the terrible sludge from theluma plant that has taken out cities and towns and is moving towards the danube. we've heard of five deaths and now two more bodies have been discovered in a small town in hungary. the long term effect of this, unknown at this time and still so many questions remain. we're going to work this story and bring you updates as we get them. fox news is your headquarters for politics this election season and we've heard from analysts and politicians on where they think our country is headed, but now we're turning to you. what do every day americans think about our government? that's an interesting question. william la jeunesse hit the road for us for our series, listening to america. william. >> reporter: jenna, if

perception is reality, the reality is voters believe, number one, that washington is broken, number two, congress is dysfunctional, and that the system is corrupt. and thirdly, that the candidates are not listening to them. >> i give you my word -- >> what politicians say. >> -- can change america. >> -- isn't always what voters want to hear. >> they're in la la land, as far as i'm concerned. >> in atlanta -- >> my concern is that they don't tell you much about specifics. >> they're talking about jobs, or they're -- but they're not doing anything about it. >> in norcoo. >> all i hear is political fights on commercials all day. >> i see them out on the street, and the grat roots people, i've not heard much about that. >> in seattle -- >> i'd like to see a shift towards more collaboration between the parties. >> i'd really like them to lean back off the government a little bit. >> they take too much control and it concerns me because of the fact that maybe we'll start

controlling other things. >> what concerns me is that we're spending and spending and we seem to be thinking we have a bottom of the pit and we don't. >> compared with seattle, new yorkers were more liberal and less worried about the fed's role in the economy. >> it's very relative. today, we might need more government control so that we can get the economy back on track. >> we need more focus -- focus on the economy, it would certainly be a good thing. >> in atlanta, more conservative. >> that's definitely a concern for me. the government needs to stay out of the private sector. >> to me it's a bad thing, the government has got too many hands in the kitty pool. >> reporter: you know, one other thing we found, voters by in large were in a pretty foul mood, more pessimistic than optimistic. finally, jenna, confirming what many polls have said, many voters see their vote as a verdict on the president's platform, if you will, rather than a vote pro or con for an individual candidate's positions in this election. jenna: interesting theme, very provocative. william, thank you very

much. >> you bet. jon: right now, all kinds of excitement in the scientific community. dozens of new species once unknown to man just discovered, and they are something to see, including a bat that looks a bit like yoda! it even has yoda's greenish color on some of his body parts. also a green cadydid with green eyes, two of the new 200 species -- species found in the remote wild. director of the rapid assessment program, at conservation international, a group of scientists making these spectacular discoveries. obviously, this is a trip where you went out looking for what you didn't know was there, right? >> that's right. papua, new ginnie has -- is one of the few places in the world where we can find so many new things. jon: how do you find them? you just go out, set up your tents in the junkels and hope they come to you? >> i wish it was that easy!

we actually use a lot of different techniques and a lot of it is doing with sound because the cadydids and the frog, each one has a distinct sound so the scientist will say oh, i never heard that before, that's a new species and they can find it. other ones we have to look tporbgsants, we have to search the ground for those. jon: although i did read that you were able to find some new species ants by basically dropping crumbs on the fourth floor and sure enough, as if it were a picnic, they found them. >> that is true, that is a good way to ants. it's actually an interesting thing aboutants, they're out scavenging, so i think there would be a lot of dead things piling up ants were not eating them all the time. jon: we have -- well, we've changed. that peculiar looking bat, what can you tell us about it? >> there's a lot of that area of the world, they have a lot of fruit bats and they

have a tube nose, they have very strange nostrils on their head but they're important in dispersing fruits and seeds in the forest. jon: they eat the fruit, fly around and leave what they leave and that's how some of this stuff gets moved around, huh? >> exactly. yes. jon: the cadydids are pretty amazing, including one that was pretty aggressive, huh? >> yeah, and actually that's an interesting discovery but never before has a cadydid uses a kick to defend itself, and it was a pretty thankful kick, i'll let you know. jon: wow, i'm sure there are a lot of kids who would like to follow your footsteps and discover new species. it's great to have these discoveries. leanne lonzo, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: fox news alert here, real quick, we wanted to show you something in progress that's happening in hollywood, florida, a water tower rescue, an unbelieve able live picture that we're watching here,

near miami. the details are very sparse right now but we understand this is just starting at the hollywood water tower in florida. much more on these developing details after the break. -- actually, here's the president, he just started speaking on jobs and the economy today. >> -- to help a family business, turn it around, it was experiencing losses, he ended up purchasing the company, and now has grown it enormously, has terrific employees here who he provides full health insurance to, they are supporting their families, and even during this difficult downturn, he hasn't had to lay anybody off and is still confident about its growth. so we're very proud of him and what this company has accomplished. now, these are the guys that build serious stuff, concrete blocks, bricks, for

walls -- that are thick, difficult to move an stop anything in its path, sort of like the way i feel about congress sometimes. but this is a family business that's been here over 80 years, they believe in investing in their workers, they care about the environment so they collect and process using cooking oil from pwhroebgal restaurants to power some of their equipment, their community cares about them, so business is growing. brendan has hired folks this year, and with the smart investments he's made, he hopes to continue that growth. small businesses like this one are the bricks and blocks of our entire economy and over the past two years, my administration has been doing everything we can to help encourage more success stories like this. and because it is small businesses that will power our growth and put our people back to work. this morning, we learned

that in the month of september, our economy gained 64,000 jobs in the private sector. in july and august, the private sector job numbers were revised upwards. so we've now seen nine straight months of private sector job growth. in all, more than 850,000 private sector jobs gained this year, which is in sharp contrast to the almost 800,000 jobs that we were losing when i first took office. but that news is tempered by a net job loss in september which was fueled in large measure by the end of temporary census jobs and by layoffs in state and local governments. i should point out that these continuing layoffs by state and local governments, of teachers and police officers and firefighters and the like, would have been even worse without the federal help that we provided the states over the last 20 months.

help that the republicans in congress have consistently opposed. i think the republican position doesn't make much sense, especially since the weakness in public sector employment is a drag on the private sector as well. so we need to continue to explore ways that we can help states and local governments maintain workers who provide vital services. at the same time, we have to keep doing everything we can to accelerate this recovery. yes, the trendline in private sector job growth is moving in the right direction. but i'm not interested in trends or figures as much as i am interested in the people behind them. the millions of honest, hard working americans, swept up in the most devastating recession of our lifetimes. as i've said before, the only piece of economic news that folks still looking for work want to hear is you're hired. and everything we do is dedicated to make that happen. last week, for example, i

signed into law the small business jobs act, a small business bill that does some big things and want to mention three of them today. first, in the 11 days since it took effect, more than 2000 small business owners have already received more than $1 billion worth of new loans. with more to come. and beginning today, the small business administration is offering larger loans for folks who need them. second, it expands the tax cuts for all the equipment investment small businesses make this year, something that brendan has planned to take advantage of here at mare block, and we were just talking about his belief that the more we can accelerate depreciation, the more likely we're going to see businesses like his make these investments. that's going to help small business owners upgrade their plants and equipment, it will encourage large corporations to get off the sidelines and start putting their profits back into the economy, and it will

accelerate $55 billion in tax cuts for businesses that made job creating investments over the next year. third, it creates a new initiative to strengthen state programs that spur private sector lending to small businesses. a step that will support $15 billion in new small business loans across the country. maryland, for example, will be able to support $250 million in new lending for businesses that are expanding and creating jobs in communities like this one. thousands of small business owners across america have been waiting for months for this bill to pass, for loans and tax cuts they badly needed to grow their businesses and hire new employees. unfortunately it was held up all summer by a partisan minority until a few courageous republican senators put politics aside. just imagine the difference it could have made for small businesses and our economy had it happened months before. putting the american people

back to work, expanding opportunity, rebuilding the economic security of the middle class, is the moral and national challenge of our time. it is too important to fall prey to pure partisanship or blind ideology. this bill's rapid results prove that when we work together, we can get a lot done and that's what the great debate we're having today is all about. i believe that instead of extending tax loopholes and encouraging investments in overseas jobs we should permanently extend the tax credit that goes to companies for all the research and innovation they do right here in america. i believe that instead of borrowing another $700 billion, we don't have, to give tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent americans who don't need them, we should permanently extend the tax cuts for middle class families. they are the folks who saw their wages and incomes flatline over the past decade and they're the ones who deserve a break.

and i believe that instead of sitting still, we should invest in rebuilding america's roads and railways and runways. too many american workers have been out of work for months, even years. and that doesn't do anybody any good when there's so such of america to rebuild. our infrastructure is falling far behind what the rest of the world is doing and upgrading it is vital to our economy and our future competitiveness. this is a project worthy of america's efforts. it's something that engineers, economists, governors, and mayors of every political stripe support and many have issued a sobering report about this challenge last week and on monday i will be meeting with some of them at the white house to discuss how we can put americans to work doing what they do best, building america. so as i've said many times before, it took us a long time to get out of where we are right now, and the damage left by this

recession is so deep that it's going to take a long time to get out. it will take determination, persistence, and most importantly, the will to act. all elements that the american people have in abundance, and if we summon that spirit now, if we keep moving forward, i'm absolutely convinced that we will rebuild our economy, we will put our people back to work, and we'll come through these tough days to brighter and better days ahead. and i want to thank brendan not only for his hospitality here today, but somebody who's got the courage and the foresight and the skills to create a terrific business that's supporting so many families. thank you very much. >> thank you, appreciate it. >> all right. thank you. jon: the president there, bladensburg, maryland at a concrete products company, a small business that he says has been hiring, but you wouldn't know it by the jobs

numbers that came out today. yes, there is some private sector hiring, but that is more than offset by job losses among government agencies. let's talk about it with elaine chao, former secretary of labor under president bush, and charlie hurt, washington bureau chief for the "new york post" which isond by the same parent company as fox news channel. i was struck by some of what the president had to say there. he said essentially that his administration, elaine, is doing everything it can to make it possible for small businesses to expand and grow the job base in this economy. your take. >> i think that's sad news, that they really think they're doing a good job, when there's not one person at the white house who has ever been on a project sector payroll, must less operate a lemonade stand. the problem in this economy is a lack of job creation and the uncertainty created by this administration's polices like in health care, in financial reform,

creating -- in taxes that are emanating in january, all of this is creating a hostile environment for employers who are disinclined to be creating new jobs. jon: charlie, talk to me for a minute about the''s demeanor. he just seems to sort of run out of gas there. there wasn't a whole lot of passion in what he was saying. >> this is an entirely different guy than we saw during what was really a brilliant campaign in 2008. like you say, he does seem like he's run out of gas. and you know, he can sit there and talk as much as he wants to about his small jobs bill, but small business owners, if you talk to them across the country, that's not what they're talking about. what they're talking about is this looming tax hike that will come with the expiration of the -- >> jon: yeah, three months away from today. >> and president obama sort of glibly refers to them as the 2 percent of wealthiest

americans who don't need the tax cuts. wow! these people are -- they're not looking for loans. they're wait to go figure out whether -- what they can afford next year because they don't operate on loans. they operate on what they have. they're very conservative, they're very careful with their money, and they're looking at tax hikes, which means they're not going to hire anybody now, and they're certainly not going to hire anybody if the tax hikes go through. jon: elaine, you're an expert in that area. there's said to be an awful lot of money sitting on the sidelines, people who would spend it if they had certainty. >> there are over $850 billion that is in the coffers of just the nonfinancial fortune 500 s&p companies. clearly, there's a great deal of uncertainty going forward. you know, people talk about the tax cuts. we have had low tax cuts, we have had a low tax rate for the last ten years, and what's going to happen in january if congress does nothing is everyone is going to get an increase in their taxes.

so this increased taxes will be an additional disincentive for small businesses to create jobs. this new texas increase is going to impact 750,000 small businesses, it will impact 50 percent of small business income, and affect over 25 percent of the work force. so if that's the first priority -- that's the first priority for this administration. >> let me read awe quote from house speaker nancy pelosi. here's what she had to say this morning regarding those jobs numbers, she said today's jobs report shows our private sector continues to lead our economic recovery. elaine, your response? >> if you call creating 46,000 jobs a -- >> 54,000 was the number, i think. >> yes. as creating -- leading the charts? i think that's pitful. our economy needs about 150,000, to 200,000, net new jobs, every month, just to keep up with population

growth. and the unemployment claims filed yesterday was still about 450,000 a week. we need to get much below that number, into the low 300s, for healthy job creation to occur. so clearly, this is a team of people who do not understand how the economy really functions and how jobs are really created. it's not by the government. it's by the private sector. we've got to reinstill confidence in the private sector. jon: elaine chao was labor secretary under george w. bush. and thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. jenna: we have to bring you back to hollywood, florida, where a rescue is taking place at a water tower. harris, this is extraordinary video we've been watching here. >> i'm actually able to listen to a conversation that's going on with our chopper reporter and camera person. they're being told, some of the helicopters in the area, jenna, to pull back because of the windy conditions from the chopper blades. fyi, they are the middle of

trying to ventilate this tower. there are toxic fumes, there are two trapped workers in the water tower and they're trying to ventilate it, trying to get breathing equipment down there. one of the workers is conscious and talking, that they know, they're trying to cut the power off but keep the lights on inside the tank to pull these guys out. i'm going to stay all over this, this is hollywood, florida, lots of people are watching from the ground. as i look more, i'll bring it to you. jenna: back to you in a few minutes, harris. jon: tpao*bgs news is on the job hunt. even in a sluggish economy one company is growing by leaps and bounds, tkpwropon offers coupons to customers online but the growth of this company is causing controversy. why? mike tobin, live in chicago to explain. mike. >> reporter: john, it's this new trend, e commerce mixed with markets.

groupon, what they do is they send sales people out to the retailers and convince them to put together the mega discounted deals, then sell those deals online in the form of coupons with limited group size, one or 200 deals get sold at any given time. they sell them to the bargain hunting subscribers and groupon takes a percentage of the proceeds. >> christie peterson is trying a new salon because she found a coupon online. >> i never saw this salon before and i saw this coop kwraopb so i decided to try. >> because of customers like christie, groupon has grown to 2500 employees over four continents. >> we're in one of the worst economic downturns we've seen, however, this is the fastest growing company ever. >> copycat companies are erupting as well. >> we've gone from 3-20 in 9 months. >> the deals are too good to be true because they are. the retailer often takes a loss, with the goal of getting customers in the door. that's why natalie's restaurant in chicago won't

do business with internet discounters anymore. >> i found out, with all the coupons, that people are coming in, but they're coming in one time. >> and he's constantly fending off sales people. >> it's an infest aeurbgs i'll call it, at this point. >> and you have a frenzied, if not addictive, customer base and that's why you have all the copycat, you soup, restaurants.com, deal a day, and groupon itself is growing by about 125 employees every month. back to you in new york. jon: mike tobin, live in chicago, mike, thank you. fox news has been on the job hunt. how about nine months now? our correspondents are all over the country, traveling to find out where the jobs are, which industries are hot and which companies are hiring. you can find all that on foxnews.com. check out our interactive map, click on the cities and towns we have visited, you can see our reports on the jobs situation in each one. jenna: a developing and dire situation in this water

tower rescue in this area near miami. you can see two firefighters there, working to rescue two workers. fox news has just learned they were overcome by fumes while working in this area. apparently one is unconscious, one is conscious, these rescue workers are trying to basically fish them out of this water tank. we're going to have more on this developing story after the break.

jenna: fox news alert, happening right news, tea

party convention underway in richmond, virginia, and it's the largest such gathering to date. this movement certainly has made a lot of noise this year, many are wondering, though, what impact the tea party is really going to have in november. we're keeping an eye on this event, will take through if any news develops. later this afternoon virginia governor bob mcdonald is going to be speaking at this convention, he's our guest 30 minutes from now on "happening now". we have more breaking news at this time on the president and economy. thank you very much for joining us, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. brand new jobs numbers out today, and they're not good. the nation lost 95,000 jobs on government's side in september, and unemployment, at 9.6%. president obama addressing the media as he toured a factory in maryland. wendell goler is live outside the white house. what is the reaction from

the white house and president obama about these numbers? >> reporter: hard to find a bright side in the ugly jobs report, the last one before the midterm election, the president, delivering a somber speech in one of the suburbs of washington just about a short while ago. the only thing he could possibly find is the trend is upwards, nine straight months of private sector job growth but it's not positive enough for the president and he said he's not as interested in trends as he is in the people behind them, and what's also troubling is not that just that the jobless rate is not falling, the number of people having to settle for part-time employment is actually rising. the chair of the president's council of economic advisers, ausence tkpwao*pbs bee, says what we're -- austan goolsbee is the depths of the recession. >> in this case, the recession, the president comes into office in the middle of, is worse than the 1980s recession, the 1990s recession and the 2000s recession, combined. so when you start from that low of a point, we need

positive private sector job creation which we have now seen in nine consecutive monthly reports. but the president is the first to agree with you, stuart, it's got to be faster. >> reporter: goolsbee speaking to stuart varney on fox business network. jon: what are republicans about the numbers? >> the same thing they've been saying for the past four-months since the stimulus bill passed which are where are the jobs and what's particularly troubling about today's report is that state and local governments cut # on thousand jobs, the president poured billions of dollars of stimulus money into state coffers to try and keep the teachers, firefighters and the police officers on the payroll. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said in a written statement this morning, quote, the trillion dollars stimulus didn't live up to the proms made by the obama administration and democrats in congress, the massive growth of the federal government didn't result in a similar growth of jobs, and the maze of new regulationsings, health care

mand it's a and taxes are having a predictable impact on the economy. the private sector actually added jobs last month but not enough to make up for the government job cuts, jon. jon: wendell goler at the white house, wendell, thank you. jenna: even more drama now in the california governor's race. after a recorded phone call sud beenly surfaces, capturing jerry brown's camp describing his opponent, meg whitman, with some very inappropriate words. anita vogel is live in los angeles where this story is developing. what do we know precisely about this voice mail record something. >> hi there jenna. this tape is a voice mail that jerry brown left for an l.a. police protective league, basically wanting to discuss a possible campaign endorsement. what's causing the controversy is what happened after brown hung up, or when he thought he hung up, thinking the phone call was terminated, brown and his aides can be heard continuing to discuss this issue and specifically, their suspicions that brown's opponent meg whitman

is offering to vent police officers from her pension reform plan in exchange for endorsements. i have to say this recording is muscled, it's hard to understand who is saying what, but a brown campaign spokesperson is confirming to fox that this tape is authentic, it goes something like this. at one point, brown can be heard saying do we want to put an ad out that i have been warned if i crack down on pensions i will be -- that they'll go to whitman and that's where they'll go because they know whitman will give them. a brown aide said well, ex-prettyive, brown tkphuts and said well will cut them a deal but i won't. that's what a brown aide or brown, apparently, says she's a whore. brown then says well, i'm going to use that. it proves you've cut a secret deal to protect pensions, again referring to whitman. very muscled stuff here but the end result of all of

this is that particular union, the l.a. police protective union, has endorsed whitman and is giving her campaign $450,000. but to be fair, both brown and whitman have a fair mix of law enforcement unions endorsing them. jenna: so we have a muscled tape, we have 25 days until the election, and we have to put this in context. how is the whitman camp, though, reacting to this? >> well, the whitman campaign is very upset at this salty language that was used, whether it was brown or an aide. we have a quote from the whitman campaign. they say the use of the term "whore" is an insult to both meg whitman and the women of california, this is an appalling and unforgivable smear against whitman. at the very least, brown tacitly approved this despicable slur and he himself may have used the term at least once on this recording. at this point jerry brown doesn't have any public

appearances today, meg whitman has an appearance in orange county tonight. no word on whether she's going to continue to discuss this issue or push it any further. but as you mentioned, jenna, it is certainly fodder for this campaign. jenna: interesting story to watch, anita, thank you very much for bringing that to us today, anita vogel in l.a. jon: if you've driven i-95 in southern broward county, you know there's a huge water tower alongside that road that advertises the city of hollywood, florida, and there is high drama underway right now on that tower. harris faulkner is on it from the breaking news desk. >> reporter: high drama. 150 feet into the air where we've just seen now them lay down red taring for a triage at the bottom of this tower. you're looking live from our fox affiliate, wsvn, and you see the emergency workers getting ready. i'm going to tell you what they're about to do. they're going to lower rescuers inside that hatch. so they're getting ready to see a lot more fire rescue members up on top of that

tower. you see them climbing up there now. it's happening before our eyes, this rescue. they're going to lower them inside the hatch and try to reach those two private contractors who were doing work inside this water tower. chemicals somehow spilled out or became too toxic for them and those fumes from the chemicals knocked these guys back. one of them is unconscious, reportedly, according to our fox affiliate, the other is talking. they're trying to get there, ventilate the system, pull them out, with very little air to work with. i will continue to watch this situation, right off i- 95, at sherdan, in hollywood, florida. jon and jenna. jon: harris, i'm just going to guess they didn't have water in that tower, if they're in there working with chemicals, it was probably drained of water, you know? >> reporter: i haven't gotten a definitive on that but i want to remind everybody, inside, when they're empty, you can get lowered inside and there are platforms inside. it's possible that maybe water is at a different level than where they are, but it's my understanding that one of the guys is

lying on the bottom, which would speak to the very issue that you are, that perhaps there's no water in it. rescuers, again,ba -- about to climb to the top and be lowered inside that hatch. jon: keep an eye on it for us, harris, thanks. >> will do. jenna: fox news alert, president obama expected to make a statement soon on another change in his administration, this time, national security adviser general james jones, has called it quits. mike emanuel is live at the white house with this story. hi mike. >> reporter: hi jenna. not a surprise. we've been hearing that general jones was likely on his way out. this is a guy who served many, many years in the united states marine corporation, rose to the level of commandant, sounds like he did not enjoy his transition to the political realm. sources tell me that a lot of the people that were around him on the national security council team were not really people that were loyal tom or that he had a history working with. he's being replaced by tom donilon, who was deputy

national security adviser, famously in the new bob woodward book, gates said replacing don lon would be disaster. that is a dated reference,ty now enjoy a good working relationship and gates said moments ago he's enjoyed working with jones and looks forward to working with donilon in the new capacity. if it's a friday, it's a major personnel change here at the white house. today, it's national security adviser. we'll hear from president in the rose garden, top of the hour, jenna. jenna: we'll be watching for that. we're going to speak with the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general richard myers, a close con phi infant -- con phi daunt. jon: taking to you hollywood, florida, in this fox news alert, fire rescue crews, making their way, wrung by wrung, inch by inch, up that 150-foot tall water tower that sits along i-9 five, and it's really a

gigantic billboard, as well as a functional unit for the city of hollywood, florida, brightly painted blue as you can see there, the information, according to harris faulkner, is that two contractors were inside that tank, doing some maintenance work and somehow became overcome by fumes involving some of the chemicals they were working with. fire rescue, as you can see, is sending lots of people up there. they're planning to try to pluck those two workers out and bring them down to the ground for some kind of treatment. the nature of their injuries, we do not know at this point whether it was a fall or whether it was some kind of chemical ingeston. again, it is all happening live right now, and we don't know exactly what the situation is. harris faulkner is continuing to watch it from the breaking news desk, as are we. >> reporter: jon, i just want to let you know, the see the guys going up. i've just gotten a report from our fox affiliates, four fire members from the

city of hollywood, five from broward county now, a total of nine rescuers will be atop that tower within a couple of minutes. you asked the question about whether or not there was water in the tower, local reports saying the tower is empty except for those chemicals that the two private contractors took in with them, so just a couple of nuggets there. we'll be right back, everybody, stay close for this one.

jenna: the democrats' top campaign strategist now admitting his party may not retain control of congress after the midterm phrubgss. tkreufd pluss was the man behind president obama's successful 2008 campaign but what is really behind this strategy and him talking down some of the democrats now? let's talk about it with chris stierwalt. what do you make of this? >> reporter: certainly this is what you call the expectations game, democrats know that it's a tough election season, jenna, and

they've got a lot going against them, so what you saw, pluss, you described him as the architect of obama's 2008 campaign, but we should also remember he's the architect of the 2012 campaign. this is a team that doesn't stop. and what he basically said was well, if republicans don't just mop the floor with democrats, if they don't win both the house and senate, if it's not an historic overwhelming victory for republicans, it's really a defeat. so what he's trying to do is move the goal post. jenna: let me stop through. is he right? if republicans don't take all that, is it not a victory? >> no, of course. obviously, if you lose 30 or 35 seats, even, that is a tremendous defeat for the democratic party but pluss, we should also remember, he has personal interests because this is his own strategy that's being played out by democrats right now, which is to fire up the base, even if it costs them with independents in the middle. so what he's eager to do is make sure the democrats have the right frame of reference here so they're not blaming him and the president after

election day. jenna: all right, chris, appreciate it. you have some great stuff today. chris stierwalt, fox news digital. you can get digitally powered up. there is exclusive reporting by chris in this edition today. go to foxnews.com to get the download details. it's your shortcut to american politics. jon: fox news alert, some good news for those 33 miners trapped way underground in chile, the health minister there saying rescue efforts will get underway on tuesday. the men have been deep underground for more than 60 days now. stave harrigan, streaming live for us in chile. steve. >> jon, certainly the big news is they may start pulling those miners out on tuesday, but today also could be a great day, according to government ministers. the mine is just now 130 feet away from being reached, those 33 miners who

have been down there for two months and this could mean close to the end for a long, anxious wait for the families here. >> ♪ >> ♪ >> ♪ it looks like life, laundry, knitting, children, but it's not. since the first day, maria says, i have one thought. to know. to know her two sons, half a mile underground, are alive. they send messages in bottles, they watch giant machines roar by. but mostly, they wait. on rocks. in desert sun. to know. >> reporter: now, when that escape shaft is ready to go, the first man down will be a chilean navy medic, he'll test the condition of those 33 miners down there. it may be that one of the fittest, one of the strongest, might be the first ones up to test the system, then after him, some of the wacker miners, those with health problems, jon.

jon: steve harrigan, a bit of good news out of copiapo, chile, thank you. jenna: two private workers -- two workers overcome by fumes, stuck inside this water tower in hollywood, florida. we have the latest on this developing story after the break.

light, are now at the scene, as well as triage down below. but the big news now is that the equipment they say they need is coming up that tower on the backs of the men. look, there's another guy, joining the circle right now. again, a total of nine of them will then begin to lower the rescue workers into this water tank is we're learning is empty. it doesn't have water in it but it does have chemicals that put off fumes. one guy, still reportedly

unconscious, another, talking but injured. jon: keep an eye on it for us, harris. we will check back with you later. jenna: "happening now" in the job markets, nearly 50 million people out of work in this country. it's certainly tough out there, we don't need to tell you that, but it's tougher than what this number actually shows. as add 1.2 million americans to that number, that's a record high of discouraged workers in this country. they're not even counted in the monthly jobs report because they're not considered part of the labor force because they're not looking for work. what will actually ignite this job market? let's ask our panel, cofounder of simply hired, david sampson, former deputy of congress and adam lacinsky, senior editor at large at fortune magazine. adam, let's start with you, what will intphaoeug -- ignite this labor market? >> i'm the only thing that will ignite it is time. we shouldn't be looking for

any explosion or ignition. we need to find the good news where we can take it. for example, the fact that the private sector created jobs, created some 60,000 plus jobs, which was only slightly less than the whisper number than economists expected is a glimmer of hope that this economy has not stalled out completely, it's not going in reverse, it is creating private sector jobs and we shouldn't see a huge surprise that government sector jobs are in decline. the census lays people off and the stimulus money which helps creates jobs isn't around anymore. jenna: do you buy that david, we need to be more patient, let time process through this recession? >> no, jeba -- jen kwrarbgs i'm afraid i don't. i think the polcy uncertainties that have been injected in the economic equation by the administration and by congress have made consumers very, very nervous, consumers account for over two-thirds of the u.s. economy, and it's cut businesses -- it's got businesses on the sidelines when it comes to business expansion decisions, capital

investment decisions, or hiring decisions. and unless there's some resolution to those policy uncertainty that is are out there and a clear recognition on the part of washington that it's the private sector that is going to lead this recovery and not the public sector, i think you're going to see that nervousness on the part of consumers and businesses sideline and continue into the future and i think that's indicated, even the fed and all the other government economists are downsizing their projected gdp growth for the second half of this year. jenna: you're part of an organization that looks for where the jobs are, so why not give us context. compared to last year at this same time, how are we looking? >> sure, i think there's no doubt that what we're seeing with the economic recovery is that the job tkpwra*ut is at best anemic. in the next year the only thing we'll see as job growth are the seasonal jobs where retailers expect to add 550, 600,000 jobs over

the holidays. the good news is the big retailers are putting up great numbers, so you see, for example, best buy putting up 29,000 new jobs, toys "r" us, 45,000 jobs, macy's, 65,000 jobs, but the fact is we had a tough recession and we're in for a long recovery. jenna: adam, if you had a chance, what would you tell the president, what's your advice, just to stay back, let time, let it go through his administration or is there something that needs to be done here again? >> well, it's interesting, if you look at the remarks the president did make this morning he clearly is getting the message they needs to talk about people, right, so he said i see the numbers, there are encouraging things in the numbers but that has nothing to do with people, and i care about people, and this really is about atmospherics to david's point, i really do disagree that there's this feeling that uncertainty is what's holding back consumers. it's interesting political rhetoric but there isn't any evidence to support that. consumers have some --

>> jenna: let me jump in there to clear it up for some of the viewers who might be feeling uncertain about this recession. what would you call it if it's not uncertainty that's causing people to feel nervous about our economy? >> they are uncertain about a lot of things. they're not uncertain about the polices that are coming out of washington. they know that taxes on the wealthiest people are going up, they know there's going to be new health care insurance provisions coming down the road. that doesn't change the fact that we're not making 17 million cars a year anymore, that people have their homes still in foreclosure, and that that needs to work through the system. my point is these things can't be solved immediately, and nobody should expect them to. jenna: david, though, consider the timing, though, we're rate ahead -- right ahead of the mid terms. have we politicized this recession to the point where we're not really talking about the economy anymore because there's just so much going on? >> jenna, my concern is we've created an environment now in this country and in washington that leads to such risk aversion on the

part of businesses. i mean, every business failure now out there is criminalized, success is not celebrated and rewarded, and so there's just a tremendous amount of risk aversion in our economy right now. and that's reflected in all the money that's sitting on the sidelines. and my concern is that unless we get back a balance and realize that you can't love employees and demonize employers at the same time, and the people who form capital and invest capital, that we're looking for a prolonged period of very subpar economic growth, and i don't know where adam lives but where i travel around the country, there is a general shared consciousness among the people that i talk to that our economy is in real difficult shape right now and people are very hesitant about making long-term commitments. jenna: and by the way, i have to -- sorry, adam, we're going to have to wrap it up but adam does live in

my home town of san francisco, so we have to be careful about that, come on! gentlemen, appreciate it. we have breaking news and we're going to have to run, but we hope to have you back soon. thank you very much. >> thank you much. jon: and a beautiful city it is. new developments in the foreclosure crisis as the nation's biggest bank announces it will freeze foreclosures. state ahead, why the latest mortgage mess could end up hurting all homeowners. and maybe even your pension. plus, gruesome scenes of carnage from around the world after suicide attacks. this deadly brand of terror, is it stoppable? let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. harris faulkner welcome back to happening now. i'm harris faulkner from the news desk. we are watching from the sky, the chopper is above the hollywood water tower off of i-95 at sheraton, this is a rescue that is 90 minutes old. two guys are inside the water tower that was drained recently for contractors to come in to do maintenance work. they took chemicals in with them and were overcome by fumes. i have talked with a spokesperson with the city of hollywood, florida. now i understand just how complicated and dangerous this rescue is. she told me that not only are they 150 feet above the ground, but the curvature of the water

tower makes it extremely difficult to climb on the inside to the bottom of where these guys are, at the bottom of this tank and then climb back up against the curved walls and pull up two people who are injured. the two men are hurt. one has a serious leg injury and the other as we've been telling you is unconscious. the city of hollywood has confirmed the very dangerous and complicated nature of this. no water in the tank but it's a serious one, they have many guys going to the top of this county. the broward county sheriff's office has sent up teamworkers who worked right here in new york on 9/11 at the trade center. some of the very same members are reportedly part of this team. and then firefighters from hollywood as well. we'll come back to the scene periodically as i update you now to jon and jenna. jon: bank of america today announcing a freeze on all foreclosures, this amid a growing foreclosure crisis that could hurt anyone who owns a

home even if you are up to date on your own payments. there is a growing call to freeze home foreclosures after claims of shoddy paperwork and possible fraud. halting foreclosures could slow down home sales and threaten the economic recovery. jim angle is live in washington with more. state attorneys general are going after the banks, what are they saying about the foreclosures, that what, they themselves are not legitimate? >> reporter: not exactly, jon, in 23 states an officer from the bank has to sign and affidavit and attest to the judge they reviewed the paperwork and the foreclosures necessary. several pwa*pbs were processing them thousands of them a month and those signing affidavits did not review the work done by others at the bank. does that mean anything is wrong with the foreclosures themselves? no one knows but many attorneys general want to find out. >> people have filed affidavits with the court, they swear they have personal knowledge of the

facts attested there in. those are the facts in which the court is depriving people of their private property rights, that is all supposed to be done carefully and properly under the law in this country. >> reporter: he wants a moratorium in ohio and fine the bank 25,000 for every mortgage at issue which could be hundreds or thousands. 40 other ag's are pursuing a freeze on foreclosure. bank of america has extended its freeze to all 50 states. p & c financial says it is halting many of its actions as well. jon: many people say that sounds great if all the attorneys general start suing and pushing for a freeze on foreclosure, that sounds great, but the law of unintended consequences also can kick in here, huh. >> reporter: there are lots of repercussions for this. it has potential to create chaos for the housing industry, the banks and the economy.

this could hit seniors as well. banks were faced with more and more doe faults as the recession dragged on and they got slope pea. that doesn't mean the foreclosures themselves are unwarranted. >> this is very serious but it is being played with as a political football by people who are trying to gain political advantage from it. this is a serious problem. but it's only a technical problem. it is not a fraud by the banks. >> reporter: and he says until we resolve this we won't ever recover in housing. until that happens he says we won't have an economic recovery either. jon: jim angle live in washington, thank you. and this just in, that catastrophe in hungary worst than first thought. the toxic sledge is almost as large as the bp oil spill in the gulf of mexico and it has reached the danube river.

greg burke is streaming live in kolontar, hungary for us. >> reporter: very sad state of affairs as the sun was going down we saw a couple go off to identify one more victim in this tragedy. cleanup is in full swing here. army units out in the hazardous material suits. it looks like something i've seen out of a film. local residents are going back into their homes with shovels and rubber boots trying to save what can be saved, and a lot of damage clearly all to the ecology, the farm land, one river already declared dead. signs of the devastation are all over the place, we saw a parking lot of cars that had been carried away by the mud and also a big red line along so many of the homes, stpeupls as -- sometimes as much as six feet high where the damage did come through. they have been working very hard, we saw them out late last night as well that the cleanup happens quickly. as the sludge dries it turns into dust and then can travel by

air making it perhaps even more dangerous. jon: that just sounds awful, greg burke reporting live from hungary, thanks, greg. jenna: fox news alert on the departure of president obama's national security adviser general james jones. the president expected to make an announcement in the rose garden within the next maybe 20 minutes or so. he is expected to name tom do donelan as jones' replacement. our next guest knows jones very well. on the phone we are joined by general richard myers, the former chairman of the joints chief of staff. i understand you talked to general jones last night. one of the questions we have here is why is he leaving. >> reporter: i think it was always his plan to serve, you know, approximately two years and then move on. here is a man that has served 40 years in the military and then another two years as a -- in

public service as the national security adviser to the president. he is my age, we were born in the same hospital in kansas city, a bit of trivia there. i think it's just time. he's got family matters to attend to. i think that was always his intention actually. jenna: it seems a little bit peculiar because of the timing with the midterm elections and also the timing of this bob woodward book that really describes tensions going on in the white house over the plan for afghanistan. in fact your friend, general jones, was quoted as saying, you can't win. you can't win this war. is there any truth to any speculation that general jones is leaving because he believes the administration can't win or doesn't want to win this war in afghanistan? >> well, in my conversations with general jones, i think he's confident of the decisions, the policy decisions that have been made and where we are right now,

in terms of both iraq and afghanistan. i didn't ask him that specific question but i'd be very surprised if general jones would opine that we can't win. one of the problems you have with people that are reporting on that sort of stuff is they get tidbits here and there and report things in context, and i haven't read the woodward book yet, but you always have to worry that some of the comments they get are not in context, and that sounds very strange to me, it sounds different than anything jim jones ever said to me. >> that is a point well-taken. i know you don't know tom do donalyn very well. we won't have you speculate on that. you have a long military career along with general jim jones who has a long military career as well. the man who is replacing him is not a military guy. how do you feel about that, that one of these new people for the

national security team doesn't have any military background? >> well, of course in the bush administration and in the clinton administration before it we had people with nonmilitary backgrounds as national security advisers. i think it works well. it was a good choice to have jim jones come in. i think he's been very professional in a lot of the discussions there. it doesn't have to be a military person. the principal military person is admiral mullen, they'll get their military advice. i don't think anybody should be concerned about that at all. jenna: general richard myers we appreciate you very much joining us on this breaking news. >> thank you, jenna. jon: fox news alert trapped 150 feet in the air inside the orb of a gigantic steel water tank, two workers apparent low overcome by chemicals.

you can see the rescue team on top trying to get to them, but their rescue has not been affected yet. we'll update you after the break. h! earlier, she had an all-over achy cold... what's her advantage? it's speedy alka-seltzer! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief for all-over achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team. alka-seltzer plus. so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? yeah, maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what's your number?

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megyn: the administration gives a huge union a huge waiver on the new healthcare law. what about the rest of the country? plus, tiffany hartley who says her husband was killed by mexican pirates now says she may be willing to take a lie detector test. wendy murphy says there is good reason to doubt her story. she is here live. raiseee pictures surface with regard to a candidate for the house of representatives. see you at the top of the hour. jenna: the tea party making big strides in the primaries this year. many are wondering what impact they are really going to have on

the november elections. you're looking at live pictures of the virginia tea party patriots gathering for a convention in rich richmond. it's a federation of tea parties from around the state. thousands are there including virginia governor bob mcdonald. he's taking part in the tea party panel a little later on today. he's joining us live in the meantime. governor, your presence really lends credibility not only to this event but to this group that many have dismissed. why do you think it's important that you are there? >> i think there is a growing wave not only in virginia but in america of people that are just very concerned about what is going on in our nation, a strangling national debt of $13 trillion growing a trillion-five a year, unfunded mandates in the states, unfunded mandates, federalized healthcare. the independent voters and large number of republicans are just very concerned about the direction of our nation and want

to stand up and say look, we need to go a different direction. i think the tea party folks, especially the ones in virginia, that's what they are concerned about, taxes, spending, regulation, free enterprise, federalism. that's why i'm going today to talk about some of the things we are doing to reform our state government. jenna: the tea party has backed you certainly on some legislation, for example, healthcare reform and states rights on that. is there any parts of the tea party agenda that you differ with? >> you know, that is the thing so far. this is a loose group of tea party affiliates who have all come together for a meeting. it's the largest one in the country. i think there will be nearly 3,000 people there over the couple of days. they have not put out a policy agenda. they are supposed to be developing that over the course of the weekend. on the issue of state government reform we have broad agreement, cutting taxes to balance the budget, that's how virginia has earned a surplus this year by doing those things that i

advocate, the tea party advocates. their first initiative in virginia was to ask for an amendment to say that federal healthcare reform by mandating an individual buy a product of health insurance is illegal. i sponsored a bill on that. i think they are right on that. there are a lot of areas of agreement. jenna: being that you have so many similarities would you ever think about being part of the tea party only and not a part of the republican party? >> well, the tea party really is more of a movement of people across party lines, mostly republican, but also independents and some conservative democrats that think we need to restore a limited government, the federalist view that our founders had. i'm a republican i think our principles are the right ones for america. a lot of the tea party people support that view and we have a lot in common. but it's not a separate party it's a movement and it's helping to energize the republican base during this election. jenna: all right, governor we wish you luck. you have that big talk a little bit later on. thank you so much for taking the

time to join us today. jon: we see it all too often someone willing to sacrifice his or her life to mount a terror attack, they murder more people than any kind of terrorists, how do we stop them? hing changes. [ man ] then try this. new and improved freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, but it's not gonna- [ bp ] wow. [ man ] yeah, that's the patented eestyle zipwik™ design. [ woman ] did it just -- ta the blood? target the blood? yeah, it drew it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of onetouch®. that is different. so freestyle lite test strips make testing... [ man ] easy? easy. [ man ] greatcall or click -- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. fr is good. [ man ] freestyle lite te strs. call or click today.

jon: it is the scurge of the world right now, homicide bombers, suicide bombers, those who are willing to fly air planes into buildings to try to prove a point. how do we stop them? it's talk about it with robert pate. he is an author. military authorities have said that stopping someone who is willing to die in pursuit of whatever aim it is that they are trying to prove is the hardest kind of terrorism to stop. >> that's absolutely right, jon.

that's why we have to stop them before they even start. you see, over the last ten years we've waged a war on terror but we now know that it's a total failure. donald rumsfeld had the right metric when a few years ago he said, are we producing mortar reuss than we are killing? well, in the twaoer 2000 that is the year before 9/11 there were 20 suicide attacks around the world, one of those against americans, the cole in yemen. in the last 12 months there have been 300 suicide attacks around the world, 90% of those anti-america. by the metric that rumsfeld pointed out we are certainly today with our war on terror producing store terrorists than we are killing. jon: i have always thought that these kinds of attacks are motivated primarily by religious fanatics. your study indicates that is not the case. >> jon i agreed with you before

i collected the date a. what this book does is it looks at every suicide attack over the last 30 years, and what is striking is that a phenomenal number are carried out by purely secular groups, such as the group in sure a language ka ear the pcc in curbing key. those two groups are marksist, section ooh lar groups. the tigers aren't even islamic they were a behind due group -- hindu group. 95% of all suicide attacks around the world have in common the specific strategic goal to compel a democracy to withdraw combat forces, tanks, fighter aircraft and arm or units from territory, that's why the more we've put large ground forces in

muslimuslim -- muslim countriese worst the problem has become. jon: robert pape, the author of cutting the fuse. thank you. and like that, we had a new side to our business. [ male announcer ] when the martinez mily saw an opportunity, the hartford was there. procting their employees and property, and helping them prepare for the future. nice boots. nice bag. [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com. [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications.

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