birthday it was. he was cool! bill: have a great day, everybody, see you tomorrow. bye bye. jen hi everybody, hope you're having a good columbus day, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. we're here in the fox news room to bring yous the latest, "happening now", president obama pushing forward with a massive infrastructure project. jenna: live to the white house in a moment. after ten years of war with the taliban in afghanistan, the u.s.-backed government now says it's it's in talks with the taliban, what our military brass thinks about it and how it could change the war effort. jon: after the celebrations in north korea and will the u.s. have a breakthrough in dealing with that nuclear-armed dictatorship, a rare look into pong kong from one of our correspondents.

"happening now", the white house raises new questions about republican campaign funding, stepping up attacks against the chamber of commerce of the united states, as well, the democratic natnal committee now accuses the chamber of using secret foreign contributions to influence the upcoming midterm elections. tain a listen: >> karl rove, ed gillespie, they're bush cronies, the u.s. chamber of commerce, they're shields for big business, and they're stealing our democracy, spending millions from secret donors to use republicans to bid for them in congress, taking secret money for their elections, it's incredible, republicans benefiting from secret money, tell the bush chamber and the commerce, stop stealing our money. jon: james rose sen following the uproar over that political ad, live in washington. not just the dnc but

president obama himself is -- himself is making that charge. >> that's right and the president continued making this charge even after "the new york times" on friday dubbed it one for which there was, quote, little evidence. here's how it went down, while campaigning for jose sestak in venz, democrat for u.s. senate, obama questioned whether the outside groups funding helicopter-backed candidates like the chamber of commerce, americans for prosperity and american crossroads, that last group supported by gop strategists karl rove and el gistes pee, the president questioned whether they were foreign-controlled. the chamber, which has an annual budget of $200 million, collects 100 grand worth of dues of overseas affiliates, the paper noting there is little evidence in what the chamber does is improper or unusual. the paper also said that liberal organizations like the afl-cio and sierra club also collect funds from overseas sources. >> this part about foreign

money t. appears to be peanut, mr. axelrod, do you have any evidence that it's anything other than peanut. sue: do you have any evidence that it's not bob? the fact is the chamber has asserted that but they won't release any information about where their campaign money is coming from and that's at the core of the problem here. >> reporter: all right, we also heard from defense -- defense from karl rove on fox news sunday. do we have that clip? >> the president of the united states accused the chamber of commerce and democratic national committee in its new ad accuses ed gillespie and i of a criminal violation of our law by gaining foreign money and spending it on an american political campaign and they are not one shred of evidence to back up that lie. this is a desperate and i think disturbing trend by the president of the united states to tar his political adversaries with some kind of enemies list. >> the chamber of commerce also says the funds it collects from overseas are strictly segregated as

campaign finish laws require that the group enbeginnings to -- group uses to enbeginning in political activities. the white house says the president was making larger point about the need for campaign finance disclosure. jon: what a hornet nest. thank you. jenna: the obama administration says it does not support a nationwide freeze on home foreclosures but the white house is facing growing pressure to step in after evidence surfaced banks have used faulty paperwork to evict homeowners. fox business network's carl casone joins us. talk us through this. what could a for torum mean for the housing market at this point? >> it could spell disaster for the housing market. if you listen to mark zandi, a well respected communist for moody's.com, he will tell you he thought the housing market would start to recover in the third quarter of next year, he's saying 2-3 years out minimum if the moratorium were to be put in place, even if the moratorium were not put in place, you still have the

issue of improper foreclosures and improper documentation. this reads like a spy novel, you know, fake social security numbers, lies, the paper trail ending and not being able to be followed up on by the banks, investigations by states attorneys general, class action filed across the country. this entire mess no matter what the outcome, no matter what the white house is going to say about it is going to hurt the housing market. it's a done deal. jen yuen then there's that growing sense of impatience amongst the american public wondering when this is going to get better. is there anything else on the horizon that could either help or hurt the housing market, especially when it comes to those foreclosure? >> one of those things we haven't talked about and need to be tpwaug is the fact that you're going to have more mortgages reseting in the next couple of years. a lot of the folks that got these great smoking deals on their homes got seven-year arms, five-year arms and a lot of the mortgages are going to be reseting in the next couple of years, so

you've already got hundreds of thousands of foreclosures in the pipelines, some are going to have to be either thrown out in court or have to be reworked entirely, then you've got this next issue of the mortgages coming due, the interest-only mortgages, all these crazy products that we had three years ago, now those are going to be flooding into the market over the next couple of years. luckily, david axelrod, he was on face the nation and eric kantor was on fox news sunday, coming out and speaking about the issue. that's good enough right now for the markets and for analysts to say okay, if they're going to be discussing this, if it's going to be on the front page of the paper tomorrow morning, maybe we can stop some of the problems that could hitting housing market which as you know is so fragile right now. jenna: excellent point. cheryl, see you on the fox business network today. thank you very much. >> thanks jenna. jon: breaking right now n. carlsbad, california, elementary school student heading back to class, just three days after witnessing a shooting during recess. police say a 40-year-old --

41-year-old gunman shot two girls in the article on friday as he emptied his weapon into a crowd of screaming first graders. harris is on the story, at the breaking news desk. >> reporter: that's really the complicating factor, the crowd of little young kids, and a second grader maybe put it best, quote, i saw two people got shot and then all i saw was red. these children are traumatized, teachers and faculty wanted to get kids back into the classroom as soon as possible because they want to give them the kind of support they will need to go forward. many psychiatrists saying many kids will get over it in a week or two with counseling but those closest to the bullets flying will have a harder time. they are holding crisis crowns ling meetings today with children, trying to get them back into normality, but a couple of things, they're going to schedule a student picnic and story time in each classroom today to try to reach out with those little witnesses who saw a gunman open fire and they still, police say, have still not determined motor five why he chose this school, why he chose these

little children. thirty-one-year-old brendono brendan o'rourke is the suspect, he was picked up, saw in some of the video he was arrested three hours after this happened, right there on the campus and the kids today, tpwhabg their classrooms with lots of support at kelly elementary in carlsbad, california. back to you guys. jon: we are lucky it wasn't worse. >> the two little girls, by the way, are expected to recover from their injuries, the two who are shot but no fatalities but you know as a parent it's shruf. jon: that's for sure. harris faulkner, thank you. jenna: to chile, chile's 33 trapped miners may be days away from freedom, finally. rescue teams say they hope to start pulling them out by we, just two days from now. right now, they've just finishing reinforcing an escape shaft under -- into the ground underchamber and will pull up the minor one by one. that process could take 48 hours. the men should been -- have

been stuck below ground for three months now. jon: we're going to take you to the white house, the president is preparing to make some remarks, he's in the rose garden. let's listen in: >> mayor villaraigosa and economists and verse from -- engineers from across the country to discuss one of america's greatest challenges, our crumbling infrastructure and the urgent need to put americans back to work, upgradeing it for the 21st century. we're also joined today by two former transportation secretaries, both political parties. sam skinner, who served under president george h. w. bush, and norm mineta, who served in the cabinet of both president clinton and president george w. bush, they're here today because they are passionate about this task. their cooperation, and indeed this country's very history, proves that this is something for which there has traditionally been broad bipartisan support.

sam and norm have been leading a bipartisan group of more than # on experts who just last week released a call to action, demanding a fundamental overhaul of how america approaches funding and building our infrastructure, and today, my treasury department, my council of economic advisers, have released our own study, and these reports confirm what any american can already tell you, our infrastructure is woefully insufficient and outdated. for years we have deferred tough decisions and today our aging systems of highways and byways, air routes and rail lines hinder our economic growth. today the average american household is forced to spend more on transportation each year than food. our roads, clogged with traffic, cost us $80 billion a year in lost productivity and wasted fuel. our airports, choked with

passengers, cost nearly $10 billion a year in productivity losses from flight delays, and in some cases our crumbling infrastructure costs americans lives. it should not take another collapsing bridge or a failing levy to shock us into action. we're already paying for our failure to act, and what's more, the longer our infrastructure erodes, the deeper our competitor edge erodes. other nations understand this, they are going all in. today, as a percentage of gdp, we invest less than half of what russia does does in their infrastructure less than one third of what western europe does. right now, china is building hundreds of thousands of miles of new roads. over the next ten years, it plans to build dozens of new airports, over the next 20, it could build as many as 170 new mass transit

systems. everywhere else, they're thinking big, they're creating jobs. today. but they're also playing to win tomorrow. so the bottom line is our short sightedness has come due. we can no longer afford to sit still. what we need is a smart system of infrastructure equal to the needs of the 21st century, a system that encourages sustainable communities with easier access to our jobs, to our schools, to our homes. a system that decreases travel time and increases mobility. a system that cuts congestion and ups productivity. a system that reduces harmful emissions over time and creates jobs right now. so we've already begun on this task. the recovery act included the most serious investment in our infrastructure since president eisenhower built the interstate highway system in the 1950s, and we're not just talking new and restored roads and

bridges and dams and levy, but we're also talking a smart electric grid and high speed internet and rail lines required for america to compete in the 21st century economy. we're talking about investments which impacts are both immediate and lasting. tens of thousands of projects employing hundreds of thousands of workers are already underway across america. we're improving 40,000 miles of road and rebuilding water and sewage systems, we're building a smarter, stable, electric grid across 46 states that will increase access to renewable sources of energy and cut costs for customers. we're moving forward with projects that connect communities across the country to broadband internet and connect 31 states via a true high-speed rail network. what's more, a great man of these projects are coming in under budget. by investing in these

projects we've created hundreds of thousands of jobs but the fact remains that nearly one in five construction workers is still unemployed and needs a job. and that makes absolutely no sense at a time when there's so much of america that needs rebuilding. that's why last month i announced a new plan for upgrading america's roads, railways for the long term. over the next six years, we will rebuild 150,000 miles of our roads and enough to circle the world six times. we will lay and maintain 4000 miles of our railways, enough to stretch from coast to coast. we will restore 150 miles of run ways and advance a next generation air traffic control system that reduces delays for the american people. this plan will be fully paid for. it will not add to our decifit over time. and we are going to work with congress to see to that. it will establish an infrastructure bank to leverage federal dollars and focus on the smartest investments.

we want to cut waste and bureaucracy by consolidating and collapsing more than 100 different often donica tiff programs and it will change the way washington works by a different path of funding and maintaining our infrastructure. we've got to focus less on wasteful earmarks, outdated formulas, we've got to focus more on competition and innovation. less on short sighted political priorities and more on our national economic priorities. investing our infrastructure is something that members of both members of political parties have always supported, it's something that groups ranging from the chamber of commerce to the afl-cio support today and by making these investments across the country we just won't make our economy better over the long haul we'll create good middle class jobs right now. there's no reason why we can't do this. there's no reason why the world's best infrastructure should lie beyond our borders. this is america. we've always had the best

infrastructure. this is work that needs to be done. there are workers who are ready to do it. all we need is the political will. this is a season for choices and this is the choice, between decline and prosperity and between the past and the future. our future has never been predestined, it has been built on the hard work and sacrifices of previous generations. they invested in yesterday for what we have today. that's how we built canals and roads and highways and port that is allowed our economy to grow by leaps and bounds, that's how we led the world in the pursuit of new technologies and innovations, that's what allowed us to build the middle class and lead the global economy in the 20th century and if we're going to lead it in the 21st, that's a vision we can't afford to lose sight of right now. that's a challenge that's fallen to this generation. that's the challenge that this country is going to meet, and with the help of

these gentlemen behind me and i hope strong bipartisan support, i have no doubt that we will meet these challenges. thank you very much, everybody. jon: the president there in the rose garden with current members of his administration and members of former administrations, as well as outside political leaders, you saw there governor ed rendell of pennsylvania, for instance, talking about his push to upgrade the nation's infrastructure. the question is, how do you pay for it. he says it will be paid for as this process goes along. he wants to lay new roads, improve bridges, transportation systems, all across the country, and you might take note there, he made a very nice mention of the chamber of commerce. if you were watching james rosen's report early ner the hour, the president has some problems with the u.s. chamber of commerce right now, but he gave them a nice plug in that speech. we'll continue to update you on what the president wants to do regarding transportation on "happening

now". jenna: now to north korea, the next leader of north korea making his official debut, king jung un sitting next to the current ruler, his father jim -- kim jung-il as they presided over a massive military parade, one of the largest ever in this massively secret country. greg palkot has more on this. tell us what you saw. >> reporter: jenna, we were remarkably close to the two, maybe 75 years, the young kim jung un made the right moves, clapping, waving, talking to the general. from time to time, you got the feeling he would be doing his reported favorite task, watching nba basketball. as for kim jung-il, as he walked -- he looked his age, he would grab the bannister and limping. maybe we'll see this transition sooner rather than later, jenna. jenna: any reaction from the neighboring countries on this announcement? >> reporter: it's been swift. the military and political although i didn't to the north of north korea

kwrarbgs china, offered an invitation very quickly to kim jung-il and what they called his new leadership circle, the sun, and -- the son, and also from the rival of north korea, south korea, was not too positive t. called on north korea to stop the nuclear program, the suspect northie program and was dismissive of any generational change here. jenna: we only have 30 seconds but any reaction tphrort koreans about this leadership change? >> reporter: we've been trying to get that. we've been out on the street talking to people as they lay flowers, at the statue for the founder and other places. it's tough when you got government minders in tow. you can imagine the general opinion, the unanimous opinion was positive about this boss-to-be. there are changes that need to be made, however, as we looked around the country and we looked around the country and saw not just a young face but a lot of old faces entrenched in the government here, that is status quo that would

prevent anything revolutionary here. jenna: thank you greg. jon: a fox news alert and major announcement from israel. benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, is offering a moratorium, or to continue the moratorium on any settlement building in the disputed lands if the palestinians will recognize israel as a jewish state. as you know, the palestinians have been loathe to do that up until now. we will see whether they will extend -- how they will respond to this offer from the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu offers to stop all settlement construction if there is a recognition of the jewish state and it is just crossing the wires that mahmoud abbas, the palestinian president, at least the president of the faction in the disputed territories, in the west bank, is saying no to this offer. again, the back and forth

continues in that part of the world. we'll be back with more coverage, straight ahead.

jon: major developments now in afghanistan where afghan president hamid karzai confirms he's meeting with taliban leaders in a push for peace. jennifer griffin is live in washington. how serious are these talks with the taliban, any way to know, jennifer? >> reporter: it's clear that president karzai wants to make you think they are serious. he has set up a 70-member council to focus on reconciliation with the taliban. he told cnn's larry king in an interview, quote, we have been talking to the taliban as countrymen to countrymen, not as a regular official contact with the taliban, with a fixed address, but rather unofficial personal contact has been going on

for quite some time. the question is how senior are the taliban members that they are speaking to. i am told these are really fledgling efforts, jon. jon: why is he being so public about this, why admit he's talking to the taliban now? >> don't forget president karzai has an increasingly strained relationship with the obama administration right now, and became very nervous when the president set the july 2011 date for u.s. troops to begin pulling out. this is his attempt to make sure pakistan doesn't use the taliban to overthrow him. he's the u.s. envoy richard holbrooke about the effort. >> we're not involved in those talks but we support them, provided they follow the red lines that are absolutely critical. because we have a strategic interest here. that anyone deciding to rejoin the political system in afghanistan has to announce -- denounce al-qaeda. >> reporter: there's no evidence the taliban is doing that or laying down their weapons, so it's

unclear how far these reconciliation efforts have gone up to this point but certainly there's a new emphasis on it jon. jon: also that british aide worker was killed during a rescue attempt in afghanistan. do we know how she was killed? >> we don't. linda norgrove, she was scottish, 36, heading a u.s.-aeufplt d program when kidnapped, u.s. forces tried to rescue her in kunar province. on friday, she was killed during the rescue attempt and there are reports that one of the rescuer's grenades caused her death. they have ordered an inquiry into her death, jon. jon that would be so sad. it's so sad either way but so sad if the rescuers ended up doing that. jennifer griffin in washington, thank you. jenna: well, as we reported earlier, there's a brand new ad hitting air waves,

lasting the gop, where the democratic national committee claims republican campaigns are misusing funds from secret foreign groups. now, there's no evidence to support this, but keep that in mind as you watch part of the ad. >> spending millions from secret donors to have republicans do their bidding, it appears me have foreign money for the elections. it's incredible, republicans using secret foreign money. tell the bush crowd and chamber of commerce, stop stealing our democracy. jenna: a strong statement but apparently not everyone is actually buying it, even some democrats, according to chris stierwalt, he has done exclusive reporting on this. chris, who's not buying it and why is that important? >> what's important here, jenna, is that for democrats locked in swing state battles, they are not certainly going to take up this issue that the president and his team at the dnc have embraced because for them, and what they tell us, is that it's

sort of a distraction, they'd rather be talking about for not jobs and the economy, then hitting republicans on issues like shipping jobs overseas or outsourcing, or things like that, and the ones we talked to basically said, and these are in big races, basically said it's not an issue for them and they think it's a spwrabgs. jenna: how do you think this can play into the president's relationship with the business community? that's something that both sides really focus on. >> well, look, the problem for the president right now is that a lot of people think that he is antibusiness, whatever that means. we know that in a recent poll of investor, 77 percent of american investors classified him as antibusiness. it's an image problem that the president has. and certainly, there is a potential downside with going to war with the u.s. chamber of commerce, which is the largest business group in the country. democratic strategists that i talk to today basically said this, desperate times lead to desperate choice,

and that what you're seeing now from democrats is taking chances on topics and issues and campaign that is in a healthier electoral season might never see the light of day but if you were in the war room trying to figure out what to do you may be willing to take a chance on if you're behind in the polls that you wouldn't otherwise. jenna: a healthy electorate might be an oxy moron but real quick, where do you think this goes, does this continue, this battling about, foreign money coming from secretive places or is it a few days and on to another top snick. >> we've seen democrats start with hitting president bush, then we saw the attacks on john boehner, now it moves on to the u.s. chamber of commerce and karl rove and ed gillespie, so these are sort of the -- the targets are downgrades as they are looking for republicans to go after. so no offense to ed or karl, but -- >> jenna: i was going to say, chris, be careful! you may see karl in the

hallway there. >> and i should say he is a target of some opportunity but they seem to be moving down the ladder in terms of the hits that they're making on republicans, and i think that's probably a reflection of having a hard time getting that message to really stick. jenna: we'll be watching it chris and we know lu as well. we want to tell our viewers, get politically powered up with the fox news power play, go to foxnews.com to get the app download details, your shortcut to american politics. fox news is your headquarters across all platforms, get chris' great reporting and a whole lot more reporting with the iphone app. jon: in less than three months, you're going to get less money in your paycheck. now the big question raging on capitol hill and beyond is just how much less. a tax increase debate, raging on in washington. and send us your election questions. america is asking, and wheat answers in our inaugural town hall u.s.a.

jon big changes in a country that is considered dangerous, north korean leader kim jung-il tapping kim jung. n has his -- kim jung un as his suck of -- successor, throwing a party in pyongyang. what does this mean for the word, especially when it comes to the north's nuclear ambition? joining us, jim walsh,

international security spwert and research associate at mit securities studies program. he is, what, the third son of kim jung-il? >> the first son. the first two didn't work out so well. he's the guy. now, kim jung-il, the father, has appointed someone to sort of be a caretaker, a regent, if you will, back to the day of monarchies to sort of manage that transition but he is the appointed one, the son. jon: he also gave the military a title, he has to keep the military happy in his nation, doesn't he? >> kim jung-il first introduced this concept of military first, the national rallying cry and be careful what you wish for because then presumably, and we don't know because it's a closed society, the military has grown under his leadership and they have their own thoughts and views about how these things should go. >> you say closed society. they have actually opened the window just a tiny bit, letting people like our correspondent greg palkot in

to see the celebration of this changing of the guard, whenever it officially comes >> yeah, i think so. i think that it means both giving legitimacy to the son by having him at this event, having the media cover it and giving legitimacy to the process because the foreign media come in and cover testimony it's part of a coming out party. what kim jung-il is trying to do is solidify that transition to the youngest son. remember, this has happened once before in north korean history and kim jung-il's son had 20 years to do this process. they're trying to do it in a year and a half. it's a much more strained, much more unsure process going forward. jon: talk to us about what we're not seeing. greg showed us some of the footage of the military parades, i guess the largest north korea has ever held, you've got the gymnastics and the people waving banners in the stadium and so forth, but what are we not seeing? i mean, this is a starving

nation, incredible poverty, incredible illiteracy. it is just one of the world 's worst places to be. >> it's true that behind all this pomp and circumstance, and i've been to north korea and the shows they put on for visitors are quite impressive but pyongyang is the capitol city, the city what has the most cash and the most resources and even there, things are tight, but if you were to drive north several hours to the northern industrial cities, you'd see wide spread unemployment, people dependent on food aid, victims of floods who are still trying to recover. it is an economy on squeeze and on the edge, but this is a country that has lived through famine in the past, through economic circumstances that have been dire and they're probably dire right now. jon: jim walsh, thank you. >> thank you jon. jenna: a quick update into our newsroom on these 33 trapped miners in chile, they've been trapped

underground since august 5th, now in a breaking news conference, we got word they're going to start coming out tuesday at midnight. what you're seeing is that capsule they're going to lower down one by one and bring these people up, all 33 of them. there was an announcement that they test add capsule, that it seems to work fine. they didn't go all the way down and didn't really say why they didn't do that, but they said it's all systems go, midnight tuesday, those miners start coming up. we're going to move on to d.c. now. it's something americans don't really want to hear but we're going to have to tell you, anyway, you're soon going to be getting less money in your paycheck and that's because whether or not congress extends the bush tax cuts you're going to be paying more to uncle sam. how much will it cost you? shannon bream will answer this, live from washington. shannon, is it true even if congress does pass an extension for somebody, we're still going to see higher tax bills? >> reporter: it does look that way, jen kwrafplt here's the deal.

the treasury department and the irs need time to calculate new tax rate tables if congress does get something passed, they've got to get them prepared, get them distributed to employers. that could take several weeks. here's how scott hodge, president of the tax foundation explains it: >> not only does the irs have to put out tables that allow people to figure out their withholding, but then millions of employers have to implement those withholding tables and get them into the payroll system. and that means tens of millions of employees and workers are going to be simply unable to figure out how much to withhold from their paychecks. >> and some employers say the irs is actually telling them go ahead, take charger chunks of everyone's paychecks until we get this all figured out, so come january, every american getting a paycheck will find out it's smaller than expected. jenna: that's not good news. let's talk more about specifics, though. how much more will we all pay if the bush-era tax cuts do expire? >> we both have a couple of different groups to look at.

we've got a graphic to show you, if you're in the 30,000 to 30.9000 range you'll have an additional tax burden of $917, taking your burden to more than $5400. if you're in the 50-$75,000 range, bump it up by nearly $1200 which you've got to pay, taking that tax burden to 12440. in the group of 200,000, you'll jump up 3800, that takes the burden close to $36,000. those are the hard numbers. jenna: guess we have to start saving now. shannon bream for us in d.c. today, thank you. >> sure. jon: some new development toss tell but in the so-kaeuld pirate attack on a lake that straddles the u.s.-mexico border, mexican police are now reportedly hunting for two brothers they may say -- say may have gunned down an american tourist, tiffany hartley who says her husband was shot in the head reacting to that news this morning on fox p* friends. >> we rant don't really know if these two people were actually involved in the shooting, or are they just

using two names that they've, you know, known that have had been part of other attacks. so hopefully, these two guys are the ones that are responsible, and then they can leadtous david. jon: harris is on this story at the breaking news desk. harris. >> reporter: this is partly the mexicoan government's way of answering those accusations that they weren't doing enough. so now they've even got the mexican military on this, according to authorities there, saying that they have turned up some information that two brothers in the area, one pedro and jose valvadorios is wanted in nine death -- in the death of david hartley and the search for his remains. what the mexican authorities are saying today is these two brothers were wanted already for being -- belong to go a gang of pirates that operates on falcon lake. they're wanted in many of the cases that have happened there, where people have been attacked.

falcon lake, of course, is a dammed section of the rio grande where this couple was out seeing ruins there, they were on their personal water craft like jet skis when tiffany hartley says her husband was shot in the head. david hartley's body has not turned up and this case has so many twists and turns where people did not believe the story, and now to accusations that the mexicoan government has been sitting on its hands and now the report that two suspects are being sought and they are searching with 102 people on that laying and trying to do as much as they can to try to solve this case and hopefully solve others that have had to do with other attacks on falcon lake. jon: let's hope they can get a solution. thank you, harris faulkner.

jon: new next hour engineers in hungary racing to stop toxic sludge that burst through a charges they're trying to stop it from hitting nearby villages, plus news of an arrest. we'll have the latest. president obama and house republican leader john boehner both heading to the sunshine state. how they're dualing campaign

stops could influence what happens in the november election. and stunning new information on the effect television might be having on your kid. dr. keith ablow will be along to tell us about the it and how we can protect our children. jenna: today, a major milestone in the stem cell debate. right now doctors are treating the very first patient with embryonic stem cells as part of the very first study ever authorized by the fda to test this controversial therapy. dr. marc siegl of the fox news medical e team joins us. just to give more context to the viewers, the patients getting millions of stem cells injected into the spine, they're partially paralyzed, so what is a stem cell? >> a stem cell is a cell before it becomes specialized. it's a general cell, a cell before it takes on the body's functions. they use embryonic stem cells because those cells, none have differentiated

yet, they're not a hair cell yet, not a skin cell yet, not a liver cell yet, but what they've done in the test is manipulate them to become like spinal repair cells, nerve repair cells. and they found in rats if they injected these cells seven days after a spinal injury, and jenna, 12,000 people in the united states get severe spinal injuries every year, most are bruises to the spine, so they thought what if we get cell toss repair these bruises, to protect the nerves before they get permanently damaged? in rats, that worked pretty well. in humans -- >> jenna: but where the controversy is, to stop you there, is going back to again where they're getting the stem cells, embryonic stem cells and that's why there's the controversy between the got and whether or not we should use federal fund. brad: i want to talk to that. first of -- first of all this is privately funded and with all this controversy about federal funding, i've always maintained if this is going to work, private corporations are going to get involved in it so we don't need the federal funding.

jerome corporation is involved in extensive research in this, at the shepherd center, the rehabilitation center, they're very excited about this research. another point to make is that you may not need embryonic cells because the cells i described that repaired the spine, why go through the process of taking an embryo and manipulating it into the kind of cell that repairs? we may be able to skip that step. jenna: how? >> by starting with the nerve cells themselves, rather than starting with the embryos. another thing, a lot of people have a problem with the idea that embryonic cells could be create fod this purpose. jenna: exactly. >> that's a major concern, and i've also been worried about ivf, in vitro fertilization, making too many embryos we're not going to end up using. jenna: getting back to this patient who is partially paralyzed, you were referencing -- ref -- referencinging the testing. >> this study is designed to see if we tolerate it if it's safe but once we get past that point there's a lot of excitement this may work. it has started to work in animals.

it's very preliminary. with the hype around stem cells, it's all very preliminary but i think it's a scientific step in the right direction. skwr*pb jen good context for us to think about. thank you, dr. marc siegl. jon: the threat of a catastrophic earthquake always hangs over california, jenna's home state, but now scientists say when the big one comes, it could be far worse than previously suggested. the potential scope of this looming disaster, next.

jenna: breaking news out of the middle east today, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu offered to extend curbs on settlements if the palestinians recognize israel as a jewish state. palestinians say they're not doing that. lee land vitt ser live from jerusalem with this

developing story. leeland. >> reporter: this is sort of a latest attempt to revive the peace talks here, it lasted all of about 45 minutes. here's what happened. prime minister tpha*et yahoo said he would go ahead and extend a settlement freeze in the best bank -- west bank in order for palestinian toss return to the negotiates table. he put in a big restriction, the palestinians had to agree to recognize israel as a jewish state. they said they're not going to do that. i just got off the phone a few minutes ago with the chief palestinian negotiator, he accused the israelis of playing games. what he said was happening here is the israelis were trying to go ahead and put out a feeler here into the international community and world so the palestinians would have to reject it to take the international pressure off of israel. as you might remember, jenna, on september 26th, israel has been under tremendous pressure to extend it, get the peace

talks going again. jenna: leeland, bringing us fresh information on the developing stoergs leeland vitter, thank you very much. jon: there are new fears about a massive earthquake that could devastate california. scientists have been predicting the big one for years, now they're saying the san andreas fault is a ticking time bomb in the heart of that state. there's new evidence suggesting the big one could be bigger than previously thought. lisa grant ludwig from u.c. irvine and co-author of this latest study, lisa, you put a lot of people on edge with this article in the scholarly journal geology, you say this quake along the san andreas fault could happen sooner rather than later. why? >> well, first of all, i live in california, and i always tell people don't get scared, get prepared. jon: all right. >> because california is earthquake country and in that sense, we haven't learned anything particularly new there.

but it's true that the san andreas fault has stored up a lot of energy. the last major earthquake on the southern san andreas fault was way back in 1857, it's been 153 years, and during that whole time, it stored up a lot of energy. so a good analogy is like a car with a full tank of gas. on that full tank of gas, you can go a long way. so there is the potential that the fault could generate a large earthquake, just like a long car trip using a full tank of gas. but on the other hand, it could also use that same tank of gas to produce a series of smaller trips. that doesn't mean they'd be small. i'm talking more like the 1994 northridge earthquake, which did cause a lot of damage. so we can't actually predict earthquakes, but we can forecast them. jon: but the billing one

you're talking about, if it -- the big one that you're talking about, if it does get that series of small quake, you're talking about 8.1 on the richter scale for the quake? >> it could, if the whole southern half of the san andreas fault went, it could produce an 8.1 magnitude earthquake. jon: we saw what an earthquake of that magnitude did in haiti. obviously haiti does not have the building codes we have in this country and it only exacerbated the damage. >> that's right. jon: you're telling people to get prepared. how do you get prepared for an 8.1? >> we know in california we have an earthquake problem and we started, in 2008, we started this exercise called the great shakeout, do it once a year, this year is coming up on october 21st at 10:21 in the morning. onjon we'll get information on our website for people who want to look into that. lisa, thank you very much.

>> everyone can sign town participate. jon: thank you very much for joining us. it sounds like california has got to be looking up. thank you. jen just ahead, news that affects every single american who's either getting or will get a social security check. your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. style that lasts a lifetime. what do you say we get the look we want, the softness we need, and an unbeatable lifetime stain warranty for whatever life throws at it. then let's save big on the installation. ♪ we're lowering the cost of going barefoot. more saving. more dog.

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you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, gehelp paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. harris faulkner a story out of d u.n. stable, >> was trying to land in area and somehow missed ace target and got caught up in the big trees that dot the east coast. they are gorgeous until you hit one.

a high level rescue going on in essex county, massachusetts. i will bring you new information as you can. hopefully they'll get this guy down quickly and safely. jon: let's stay on it for a second. their camera is pulling back, maybe we can actually see where the skydiver is stuck in the trees. you would think the parachute would be obvious in this picture. we don't see it yet. harris, make the phone calls, stay on it for us. >> reporter: you see the tree off to the left center of your tree. depending on the color of the shoot he may have come down and it's torn in between the branches. we know that is where he is, we can't get a location on it exactly from the chopper angle. i like the fact they pulled out a little bit. they brace i can lee brought out trailers and specialized equipment to try to get this guy down. he's got to be pretty high up. those houses, some of them are

three stories tall. jon: generally a die driver is -- skydiver is going to land at the airport where they took off. the fact he landed in a residential area is there was an airport nearby or a pair chute foundation that put this skydiver miles or hundreds of miles away from their intended target. >> reporter: i'll get on it. jon: high noon on the east coast. hope you're having a great monday, i'm jon scott, welcome to the second hour of "happening now." jenna: i'm jenna lee. 22 days until americans decide whether the country sees a new balance of power in congress, that is the stake. with the countdown on both parties sending out their big guns. today they hit the very same battleground state. jon: a couple hours from now president obama departs the white house for a campaign

appearance in florida. and the man the president has made a political target these days is not too far away. jenna: that man, house minority leader john boehner is stumping down there. mike, what are the president and congressman boehner doing in florida today? >> reporter: no coincidence this time of year in an election year that you hear a lot about travel, about florida, ohio, pennsylvania. today it's all about florida, president obama going to south florida to raise money for democratic congressional candidates. he's going to do a fundraising event at the home of former athlete particular star alonzo mourning and generate much needed cash. minority leader john boehner who is also traveling to florida is doing meet and greet events with allen west who is a republican candidate for the 22nd

district in florida, a lieutenant colonel. these guys may not always see eye to eye if west is elected. boehner wants to see republicans take hold of the house. he is down there trying to stump for votes for allen west. jenna: we hear a lot about florida, why it's so important this year. tell us a little bit more about particularly this state means so much in these elections. >> reporter: well, let's take a look at that 22nd district. you've got an incumbent democratic congressman, it's a district where in 2000, 2004, 2008 all voted democratic. now the experts are calling this race a toss up. so you see the minority leader john boehner there to stump for votes for the republican hopeful, and then you also see the president going down there to raise money for the

democratic incumbent. an interesting race to watch, obviously one we are watching here and has got even the attention of not only the president of the united states but the minority leader in the house. jenna: you don't get to go down to that trip in florida you have to stay in d.c. >> reporter: i was in philly for the streaker at the president's rally, no i don't get to go to south florida. jenna: i guess it's a fair trade. thanks mike. jon: i think he could use some florida sun, eris looking pale. president obama scaling back on campaign finance accusations that he aimed at republicans. he charged gop big wigs of using foreign money to fund campaigns. yesterday at a national democratic committee rally he used less politically charged language. one of the republicans the president called out by name responded to the claims head on. >> the h-t president of the united states accused the came pwer of commerce and accusessed

gillespie and i of spending foreign money on campaigns and they have not one shred of evidence to back up that baseless lie. jon: karl rove is a fox news contributor, he is -- he also helped found the american group, the political group i should say, american crossroads. let's talk about it with bret baier. he is the anchor of special reports. i've talked to karl a lot. he is an easy going guy. he is obviously steamed about this broadside from the president. >> reporter: he was fired up on fox news sunday yesterday. this issue is one that is developing just through the weekend. you saw the president's senior adviser david axelrod go out on the sunday shows and talk about this specifically, the foreign money, the allegation that the chamber is using money from overseas to fund political campaigns, and ads for political candidates here in the u.s. there is a democratic national committee ad that says just that, that has started airing

around the country. the problem is, is that there is not evidence to back that up. and the not socon serve tiff new york times had a very detailed story about this in which they layout all of the facts and that the chamber is not -- is flatly denying it and says they only get $100,000 from foreign members overseas in their tens of millions of dollars of funding that is used for u.s. political campaigns. jon: david axelrod's one of the president's closes advisers was making the same charge. he was asked to back it up and he really didn't have much in the way of information or rebuttal. >> reporter: yeah, bob schiefer on cbs says is this all you have. it was a blunt confrontation. we saw the phraseology develop from last week on the stump in illinois where he first brought

this out to yesterday in philadelphia where as you noted it was scaled back and saying exactly how do we know who these contributors are unless the chamber comes forward, and he didn't say the chamber by name. unless these groups come tp-rd analyst all of their contributors. it's worth pointing out that back in 2008 the barack obama campaign did not list all its contributors. the thousands and thousands of contributors that went online. there was a call back then for -- by the mccain campaign for the obama campaign to do just that, and they chose not to. so this whole back and forth is a little disingenuous and it may be changing as we speak. jon: brett, one of the things people don't like about politics is so much, democrat versus republican thing. you did some peace making in washington over the weekend. i'm sure you won't blow your own horn on this. i'm going to let our viewers peak behind the curtain and see what you've done for the

political discourse, here it is. >> reporter: you've had no ideas put forward. we've got to come forward. why don't you and i -- >> reporter: we do have to come together. >> reporter: i have to interrupt here. >> let's do that i'll go to dinner with you. you guys have refused to do that. >> reporter: i'm glad we could set up dinner. >> debbie wasserman schultz and eric cantor and you got them to have dinner together i guess. >> reporter: i'm glad we could set that up. two as you know via satellite interviews where lawmakers decide the way they are going to operate is to continue to talk and not listen, it's a little tough, and not having them in studio, but they have agreed to go to dinner, and we'll agree to have them in studio next time. jon: i'm sure special report is going to be a hot one tonight, 6pm eastern. bret baier the anchor. campaign finance one of the many issues american voters are hearing about in the runoffs to november's electionses. we want to hear from you. today weee nicaragua great our

town hall series, america is asking. we've assembled a great panel of guests plus our own harris faulkner to help respond to what is on your mind. coming up in a little bit. jenna: let's move onto new york where the republican candidate palestiniacarl paldino is respoo critics after making remarks about homosexuality. he's telling orthodox jewish leaders he doesn't want children brain washed into thinking that homosexuality is acceptable. david lee, what did he say exactly. >> reporter: he questions and criticized the homosexual lifestyle. he said specifically that he did not march in the gay pride parade but he went further than that. he went onto criticize his democratic opponent andrew cuomo for taking part in the gay rights parade and doing so with his new daughters. he also said being grade is not

in his words an equal and valid option. that's what he told a group of religious jewish leaders on sunday. here is some of the other things he told the group. >> i just think my children and your children will be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family. and i don't want them to be brain washed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. it isn't. >> reporter: reaction to those statements was swift, it was also very critical. and this morning carl paldino in what some have described as damage control went on network and local television stations. he says his views are essentially no different than the views of the catholic church. he acknowledged the gay life is difficult, he's sympathetic to discrimination. he does not discriminate. he has a gay nephew and gay employees. here is what he said speaking a short time ago to the fox

affiliate in new york city. >> i won't disavow the comment. the comment was made properly. the comment was directed at teaching young children about homosexuality at a young age. i don't think they are prepared and i think that is a parents' jobs. i don't think it should be done in the schools. >> reporter: some of the controversy seems to center on what he didn't say. let me repeat that, some of the controversies is about what he didn't say. apparently there was a text of his prepared remarks that he gave on sunday that was given out to the media. it included the phrase, there was nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. that particular line of his speech he struck before appearing before the jewish leaders. nevertheless that statement kwus a -- was a tributed to him further fueling this. jenna: what about his competitor, andrew cuomo, does he have anything to say about his remarks. >> reporter: plenty. today is columbus day, and

andrew cuomo and carl paldino are marching up fifth avenue. we talked to him and he says carl paldino's reparks are repugnant and said he was the last person he would ever take advice from talking about appearing at the gay pride parade with his daughters. he issued a statement, mr. you see it on the screen. jenna, one of the other issues here further making this a very complicated, contentious issue is same-sex marriage bill that was defeated here in new york city, paladino has said that unlike andrew cuomo if the bill is ever put on his desk as governor he would veto it. jenna: interesting. 22 days to go and still more drama to come. david lee miller, thank you so much.

jon: a fox news alert. let's take you back to massachusetts where authorities are responding to a report of a skydiver stuck in a tree. harris faulkner has some more information from the breaking news desk. >> reporter: as we take everybody to commercial break i want us to cutback if we can to that video of the parachute. we had just seen the parachute in the screen, there it is, for the first time we are getting to see where this guy fell into the tree. we can't see him yet but i've got even on the phone with police officers and fire. i'll give you more when we come back. i want to set this up by we can finally see the color from the parachute. stay close we are right back after this commercial. ready to try something new? campbell's has made changes. adding lower sodium sea salt to more soups. plus five dollars in coupons to get you started.

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jenna: some of our most powerful military and political leaders laying out what they think is a growing threat to national security, our national security. it's not just al-qaida or homicide bombers, what you would normally think. they say one of the biggest dangers facing this country is the massive national debt.

liz mcdonald with the fox business network is live outside our studios with this story. liz, who has raised concerns over our extreme debt. >> reporter: pentagon officials including admiral michael medical even who is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. hillary clinton, u.s. secretary of state. take a hreuts tone what hillary clinton has said about this issue. >> rising debt levels poses a national security threat. it undermines our capacity to act in our own interests, and it also sends a message of weakness internationally. >> reporter: general at issue here government officials are saying look a debt- the u.s. could basically caus cause a gll run on the u.s. dollar that could start overseas. we are seeing the u.s. dollar dropping to 15-year lows against the yen already. there are fears that our foreign holders of u.s. debt could start rotating out of their holdings of the u.s. treasury. we see china doing that already.

china's hold dinner dings are down by about $100 billion from last year. borrowing costs could rise as bond yields rise. this is a very serious issue for the entire country. jenna: there is a lot of information out about the debt right now. when we talk about foreign ntoncy issues secretary c touched on this a little bit, why is it so important for americans to realize what that debt does to our foreign policy? >> reporter: because here is what happened. take a look at what happened before fannie mae and freddie mac were seized by the u.s. government. henry paulson former u.s. treasury secretary had testified to congress saying that russia pressured china into unload be fanny mae and freddie mac debt. russia had unloaded $60 billion of that debt to force the u.s. to take the two companies into conservatorship. it could cause the foreign cost to rise and the printing of money devals the dollar and

makes the dollar cheaper leading to inflation. back to you. jenna: thank you so much, liz. >> reporter: sure. jon: fox news alert, and some new information about that skydiver stuck in a tree. harris is on it from the breaking news desk. >> reporter: good news, i talked when i talked to fire and police departments in dunstable, massachusetts that they thought they had a very good chance of getting this guy down. now we are learning he doesn't have any major injuries and he's alert and talking with rescuers. they've got, jon from what i'm being told some of the best high ankle rescuers in the state of massachusetts on this rescue. you can see a little bit of red to the bottom side of your screen, that's part of the parachute i'm told, this is in dunstable, massachusetts about an hour drive north and west of boston. a high-tech ankle rescue going on with a skydiver who doesn't have a lot of experience. he's about 40, 50 feet up in the tree. there is a life flight on stand by and a medivac on stand by.

they do feel they will get this man down safer. a skydiver falls into the trees in a suburban part of massachusetts. stay with us. of games and two more pills. the games are over, her pain is back, that's two more pills. and when she's finally home, but hang on, just two aleve can keep back pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rachel, who chose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. ♪

>> reporter: we have a consider versus carport situation going on in hollywood, florida right now. i understand that the hollywood building division of the local government is going to come out and check the structure. some minor injuries to the driver of that red pickup truck in the middle of your screen. you know i'm watching satellite feeds coming in from all over the country and the world here at the breaking news desk. this is one of the things making news across the country. hollywood, florida, the driver has been taken to the hospital because he has minor injuries, but somehow or another put on

the gas car into the carport. is it safe for anybody to go in there? the officials will come out, the authorities will determine whether or not it is. in the meantime a little bit of construction going on in this house. it looks like they'll need a little bit more. jon: fox news is america's election headquarters. laying out the stakes for the potentially historic november midterms weeks away. on the table control of the u.s. congress. right now all 435 seats in the house are up for grabs of course. democrats hold 256 of them. republicans 179. the gop needs to win 39 seats to gain the majority in the house. let's take a look now at one of the tightest races in the country, that is arizona's first congressional district, a sprawling district as you can see that covers the bulk of the state. william la jeunesse is live for us in los angeles with a look at that race, william. >> reporter: that district is

the size of illinois. ann kirkpatrick is down by 7 points in the polls, she is running away from the president, her party, even her own record. >> i am proud to be a democrat. i always say i'm a democrat. >> reporter: but neither in her campaign ad nor in direct mail does congresswoman ann kirkpatrick say she is a democrat. nor does she mention voting for two big democratic bills, health reform and the $800 billion stimulus. >> she has runaway if her record. >> i'm so disappointed that the president is talking about more spending. >> reporter: records show kirkpatrick voted for multiple spending bills including one that increased the deficit by $134 billion. >> beam would say that you're trying to portray yourself as one thing when you voted as another. >> i am concerned about spending, and those were tough

votes, believe me. >> reporter: kirkpatrick campaigns like a fiscal conservative. >> this is not the time to raise taxes. i've always been an independent voice. >> reporter: "the washington post" says she votes with nancy pelosi 84% of the time. >> aoeufp opposed all the bail outs. >> reporter: she claims to have stood up to the democratic party and voted against bank and auto bailouts when this fact she wasn't elected then and couldn't have voted. >> do you think those were factually inaccurate statements or misleading at this time. >> no, i have voted against every bail out since i've been in congress. >> reporter: many would maintain that the $26 billion bill to help out the states with us a bail out bill. tarp 3 was 30 billion for small banks and there were homeowner bail outs that you voted for as well. >> i don't see those as bail outs. what a bail out is, is saying you're too big to fail. >> reporter: she says her party unity score is better than it

looks, and that was then and this is now, and given the economy she is no longer for those big spending bills and now she is for extending the bush tax cuts, back to you. jon: just one of those races that is really important to the whole country. william la jeunesse, thank you. jenna: remember today we want to hear from you. we are going to have our a inaugural town hall series, america is asking. you can send us your election questions. we've assembled a great panel of guests plus our very own harris faulkner who is monitoring comments coming in, she says a lot of them are great. we will bring them all to our panel coming up in a few minutes. in the meantime we'll be right back. diabetes testing? it's all the same. nothing changes.

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jon: there's a new study just out today about television and children's health, and parents will want to pay attention. british scientists say kids are likely to have more psychological problems if they spend more than just two hours a day in front of a television or playing games on a computer, and unlike previous research, this new study says physical activity does not help alleviate the resulting problems. let's talk about it with psychiatrist and member of the fox medical a team dr. keith ablow. interesting study because they also researched the physical activity level of these kids and they found if they're watching television or playing video games, playing computer games, not studies but playing games on a computer more than two hours a day, even exercise doesn't take away some of the bad effects. >> that's right.

that's their findings that basically kids who are in front of the viewing screen, whatever viewing screen -- screen, whether it's tv or the internet whatever it might be, if they're not doing home work, and that was the exception, that they have more problems in terms of anxiety, attention, all these things seem to come home to roost but the study isn't without its own problems as well. jon: such as? what are the problems you see in it? >> well, this is a study that has limitations. so basically, they take 1000 young people, ten years old or so, and they have them rate how much time they spent in front of a screen over the last week or so. first of all they may rate this accurately or not, but also it's not the kind of controlled study where you say let's take kids and we'll deprive them of the screen-related tile and see how they do over the next year or two. this might be as well because kids with problems

gravitate towards screen time, so we don't know who these kids are or whether the ones who have interpersonal troubles, are they drawn to watch tv and use the internet more. jon: but one of the takeaways for parents here is that if you sense that your child is having some adjustment problems or, you know, anger management problems, that kind of thing, you might want to take away the television remote. >> all the data, including this, though it's flawed to some extent, but all the data is stacking up in the very same direction, that overuse of tvs and the internet equals emotional and relationship troubles down the road. we're getting just piles of data coming in, and yes, one quick way that parents can really impact their kids' well being is to say we're going to put you on a bit of a diet, you have a bank of tv and internet time that you can use per day, say an hour, 90 minutes and that's it, you use it as you see fit.

>> that's good advice, dr. keith ablow, medical a team for us, thank you. >> my pleasure, thank you. jenna: a medical marijuana -- medical marijuana workers in california taking a giant step forward, joining the mainstream labor pool, negotiating union contracts guaranteeing benefits like pensions, paid vacation, health insurance, even. this is even though their work is considered illegal, under federal law. claudia cao sen covering this story in live, of all places, san francisco, my native city! no hit on sf, but i guess par for the course. >> this is statewide, jenna, with thousands of workers, and estimated sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars, california's medical marijuana industry has never been bigger and now with a ballot measure to legalize candidates for adults gaining in the polls, the most powerful lab be unions are growing membership by going to pot.

take a look at this oakland pot shot where workers are unionized. like other employees in other industries they want to negotiate collector bargaining agreements, have a place to file a grievance. antidrug advocates call the union's involvement, quote, pathetic and point out the new members are doing work that's considered a federal crime. >> i think they help your workers do something that's criminal to begin with is wrong, okay, and their workers need to find a way to make a living other than doing something completely illegal. >> nevertheless, 175 pot workers have joined the united food and commercial workers union while in oakland, dozens of growers have seemed up with the teamsters. these partnerships may seem unconventional but labor experts say not really. >> it's not a surprise to me that the united commercial workers and teamsters would say here's an area where there's going to be potentially job growth and

an area where workers want representation. ets a logical place to go. >> if california voters legalize marijuana next month, labor experts predict even more unions will get involved not just as negotiators for employees but as allies for marijuana growers as the industry fights the legal challenges certain to come from the federal government. jenna? >> jenna: definitely a story to watch, claudia. want to get your thoughts on something really quick. we're expecting questions from viewers for a new town hall we're doing in a few minutes and one of the questions from our viewers had to do with this issue, asking whether or not a vote for marijuana in california is actually going to bring young people to the polls and if that could have a real effect on the election. what are you hearing about that? >> there has been a lot of discussion about that. midterm elections generally tend to be more conservative because you don't have those presidential elections going on. we have a heated debate going on right now in terms of who's going to be our next governor. that may draw out some young

voters. there was some discussion, you might say, about whether to put this issue on the ballot now or to wait a few more years, but backers of prop 19, the ballot measure to legalize cannibas for recreational use for adults, whether to put prop 19 on the ballot now, they decided this was the year to do it because even conservative older voters, they believe, get this issue and because they will believe that it will bring out more younger voters, but we'll wait and see on that. jenna: we're going to have to wait. as you mentioned, we'll see what happens in the next few weeks. claudia cowen, covering that story for us from san francisco. in the meantime, "happening now", lots of students are heading back to class and parents are feeling the effects of a another school year in the wallet and that can mean more debt for everybody. the author of "a debt-free you", he says college kids can get a quality education without driving their parents into debt.

zac bissonnette, how do you do it without going into debt? >> it starts off with your choice of college. a lot of people look at college and say it's going to cost 40, $50,000 but tuition fees and room and board at the average four-year college in america costs $15,500 per year. most students are also going to get a $2500 tax cut which lowers the cost to $13,000. when you break that out over a monthly payment plan, to go to almost every applicable college, it comes to $250 a week. if you have the kid working and the parents manage expense, that's not an unmanageable amount of cash flow. >> you know what parents say, student loans will help build up credit and allows me to keep more cash in my pocket, whatch is what we need, it's a recession. first of all, does it allow students to build credit and does it actually let the parents have relief from those loans? >> well, it's actually terrible for your credit to

take out a student loan if you end up going into default ton and the latest data from the federal government, of student loans, in 1995, 20 percent of those loans have gone into default, a higher default rate than credit cards or subprime mortgages. they are not a safe step. people get into trouble with them all the time and it isn't just their fault. kids who graduate with debt are much less likely to pursue fields like teaching or social ministry because they have to take the highest paying job straight out of college. i think that's bad. >> looking at some of your notes it looks like those that get debt are likely to be more depressed, less likely to enjoy their jobs and less likely to get married. seems like a good read at least going into this school year, zac. a "debt-free you" is the book. zac, thank you very much for joining us today. >> thanks. jon: moments from now, we want to bring you into the conversation. viewers have been sending us election questions. we have a great panel, standing by to answer them.

it's all part of the kickoff to our special series, america is asking. harris faulkner is monitoring what some of our viewers have already sent us. >> reporter: if you build it, they will come. if you go to our page, click on jenna and jon's picture, fox news.com, it will take to you several ways to interface with us. this has got to be the hottest topic now, i call it a hot talker because both e-mail, i've got charles lines, jr. from fort worth, i would want to know why seniors on social security are not getting a cost of living increase again this year, but congress and the federal employees have received one. is this fair? are we second class citizens. lots of people asking about this, want to go know, how do you make congress feel the same pain that seniors are feeling. i'm monitoring this. it's one of the top hot talkers going on -- topics going on. go to our page, twitter, you can blog, e-mail us, and you guys are -- we'll have more on this. lots of interesting comments. they could do the show, jon

and jenna. jon: i was reading some of the questions. it is fascinating. we'll be back with that in just a bit. harris faulkner, thank you very much.

megyn: hey everyone i'm megyn kelly, president obama holding an mtv town hall and mtv is casting it for him, asking people for pictures and political meetings before they get in. fishy or fine? >> the attorney general calling whitman the w word. was his wife the game changer? you decide. it brett farve show female pictures of him? another woman has come forward in kelly's court. all that, plus bullied to death, a town ripped apart by a town that turns the cheek too many times. that's the lead story. see you at 1:00. jon: a fox news alert and request from general david petraeus, the man who is running the war effort in afghanistan for an investigation into what

killed linda norgrove, a british aid worker kidnapped september 26th, in kunar province, afghanistan, just 12 days later, u.s. forces had located her and mounted a rescue attempt on friday. it was during that attempt she was killed. was it the unfortunate result of friendly fire, was she killed by her kidnappers? that's what general petraeus wants to know. an investigation is just beginning. jenna: during this election season, we at "happening now" want to ask you, america, what questions do you want, do he need answered before you head to the poll? every day up until november 2nd we're going to take your questions to some of the brightest minds out there in our new america's asking town hall. e-mail us directly or put your questions on the blog, there's even a twitter account if you like to use that, all an effort to provide you the be pest expectative so you can be the best voter you want to

be come november 2nd. the panel includes joe trippe, howard dean campaign manager and fox news contributor, chip salzman, campaign manager and bob cusack is managing editor of the bill. welcome, and this major event starts on "happening now". >> great to be with you. jenna: joe, you are known for pioneering online activity for campaigns. it's appropriate that we give you the first question with the online town hall. we're getting a lot of questions from stu in tennessee, sesil from california, about the president's use of air force one to do campaigning around the country, going to florida today. tell us about what we actually pay for as taxpayers when he uses air force one to make some of these campaign trips. >> well, i mean, the president travels air force one, regardless of whether he's going to political purposes or for official purposes. generally, the campaign has to pay some of the expenses that are related to campaign

parts of the trip, so it happened with george bush, every president, because of their security, needs to be aboard air force one when they travel, and it's just the way things are, and generally, the campaigns have to pick up some of the expenses related to them. jenna: and chip, do we know if any of that is public knowledge about how much the taxpayers foot the bill versus the campaign? >> it actually is because the campaign has to disclose it. the national parties and state parties all kick in and pay for the expenses of air force one and taxpayers have some of the expenses but it's usually a small number. it's a huge campaign tool for the president, republicans use it, democrats say it, they pay the lion's share of the cost, and it makes a great backdrop and you can bet president obama is going to use it for the next few days. >> nancy is asking do you think establishment republicans like mcgrain and -- mccain and tkpwra*l and mcconnell understand voters

will not accept politics as usual, that we'll see somehow a different sort of republican emerging after the midterm? >> i think that's a great question, jenna. i think republicans, the tea party movement is a great thing for republicans right now, but as far as moving forward when they have to govern, if they take back the house or senate, it's going to be a problem for john boehner or mitch mcconnell in the senate how to tkpwofp republicans that are not going to want to compromise with president obama. it's going to be tough for republican leaders in congress. jenna: it will be interesting to watch. joe, chip, bob, stand by. we have a lot more for you and jon is coming with those questions next. jon: here's a question from one of the viewers, paul vagt asked essentially if republicans take control of congress and try to repeal the recently passed health care laws, would they be successful, given the fact that the president always has the veto power? and that's one of the questions we'll be asking our panel, right after a break.

jon: america is asking. let's bring back our panel to get the answers. joe trippe, former howard dean campaign manager, chip salzman, former huckabee campaign manager, bob cusack, managing editor of the hill. chip, let me give you this question, what is the chance the new congress would repeal the health care bill successfully knowing the president has veto power? i think this gentleman is assuming that republicans might win back control of the house, possibly even the senate. what are the channels that republicans will take on the health care bill? >> i think they will. 90 percent of the house republicans are running on repealing obamacare, i think they'll try, even if obama has the pen, the veto overside which probably has the votes to do that, i think the real chal sing to go after the funding for obamacare and go back and

pick out the ideas they like, like tort reform, tort reform, but it's a 2-term attack, one going offense with portability, tort reform and one on defense, go after the funding if they want to dismantle obamacare. >> does that become a useless exercise if the president has the veto then. >> i don't think it's even going to get to the veto pen. the problem is, like democrats had problems getting anything passed because you need effectively 60 votes in the senate to do this kind of stuff, you're going to have -- i mean, first you're going to have the problem of even if republicans have 52 seats in the senate, how do they get the 60 votes to do it, and then, on top of that, the only way is compromise, to get democrats to come across, and if they do that, you may have tea party members of the senate who don't want to compromise. so i think it's going to be a very messy thing for a new republican senate and house to do much in regard to health care. jon: of course a lot of democrats think 52 republican senators is

optimistic and bob, let me pass this question along to you, bob short -- don short, excuse me, asks what happens in essence if there is a tie f. there are 50 republican senators, 48 democratic senators, along with the two independents who caucus with the democrats? in that case who gets elected majority leader? >> bob. >> under that scenario, the most powerful person in washington would be joe lieberman, he's an independent who caucuses with the 2k-78s. if it is a 50-50 tie, the tie goes to democrats because they control the white house. but joe lieberman has indicated -- has not ruled out the possibility of running as a republican in 2012. so if it's 50-50, the person to watch is joe lieberman. but if it's 50-50, unless the senate changes party, it will stay in democratic hands. jon: gentlemen, thank you all. >> thank you. jenna: little do you know, hair sis the one who's chatting and fielding everyone's questions now and

she's going to be doing more of it over the next couple of weeks. >> i'm having a blast. jenna: what exactly is america asking? >> i found this really important, jenna, the giants, game four tonight, we're listening. at leaf the falcons beat the 49ers, david scott. i think you should know that. jon: i love david scott. he'll be back with more comments tomorrow. >> reporter: one of the things people will talk about tomorrow is illegal immigration. it's blowing up our blog now. so it's noon tomorrow, you can tweet, you can blog, just go to the page with jon and jenna's picture atop the fox foxnews.com home page and click on the picture and get started on the conversation, town hall tomorrow at noon. we can't rate to -- wait to he'd your stuff. stay with us.[ commenta we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief for all-over achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team.

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