terms, florida, pennsylvania? >> i think it makes it harder for the democrats to take back the hours, in 2012 there will be 15 new republicans because of redistricting. martha: john fund from the wall street journal. bill: it's clear in cleveland, thank you to viewers for making us number one this election cycle. martha: have a great weekend. see you monday. jon: and lots more news to cover. good morning, i'm jon scott. jenna: happy friday, everybody. it's a nice end of the week, right? i am jenna lee, everybody. there's martha and bill one more time. why not say one more guide buy to them! let's start with the top stories today. alarm over terror plots against the u.s., just how safe are we, michael chertoff joins us with that.

jon: minutes from now, the california transit cop who shot and killed a rail passenger. the riots that took place last summer, making sure they don't happen again. jenna: nasa, the space shuttle delay, why the delay and what's ahead for the final voyage into high 11s -- high heavens. here live at cape canaveral. jon "happening now", a big uptick in jobs, the labor department reporting employers hired 151,000 workers in october. the biggest hiring number since may. way more than the 60,000 or so economists predicted. but not enough to put a dent in the unemployment rate which remains stuck at 9.6% for the third straight month. molly henneberg live at the white house for us now. molly, the president says these numbers are good but not good enough, right? reporter jon, yes, it's, quote, encouraging the u.s. economy has added 100,000

jobs for october, september and august and says the private sector has added at least some jobs over the last ten minutes but that unemployment rate as you were saying has stayed at 9.6% since late summer and here you see the unemployment numbers going back over the past several years. it's been above 9 percent since may 200 # and economists say that the u.s. really needs to add 200, to 300,000 jobs, month after month, to really start bringing the jobless rate down. the president says he's not satisfied with nine-point # percent unemployment. >> the unemployment is still unacceptably high and we've got a lot of work to do. this recession caused a great deal of hardship. and it put millions of people out of work. so in order to repair this damage, in order to create the jobs to meet the large need, we need to acset rate our economic growth so that we are producing jobs at a faster pace. >> reporter: the president said he's open to, quote, any idea, any proposals that get the economy growing

faster. jon. jon: and republicans say they have an idea, right? >> reporter: yes, they say for one to extend all the bush tax cuts which are set to expire at the end of the year, soon to be house speaker republican john boehner put out numbers on the jobs figures saying, quote, any job growth is a positive sign but stagnant and stubbornly high unemployment makes clear why stopping all the looming tax hikes should top washington's to-do list this month. the white house says the president is now open to compromise on the subject. president obama had said previously that he did not want to stepped the tax cuts for families making over $250,000, so the white house says now the president may consider to 1-2 year extension of the bush tax cuts. here you see the president boarding air force one, about to leave on the longest overseas trip, going to indonesia, india, japan, south korea to promote trade. jon molly, thank you. speaking of the president's trip to cashia, that, too, is coming under

fire. fox digital politics editor cries stierwalt about the heat over the trip, with his party taking a beating at the polls and the economy still not creating sufficient jobs. that big jobs number, out today. we have a great town hall usa panel of economic experts to answer your questions. get those questions to us, join our live chat, fox news.com or post to our blog, and send us an e-mail, tweet if you'd like, it's all easy, just log on to foxnews.com/temperature happen -- "happening now. jon: -- jenna: the fort hood community is still healing one year to the day after the massacre that killed 13 soldiers, questions raised over army major nidal hasan and his ties to the man on the screen, anwar al-awlaki, a u.s.-born cleric. according to brand new documents obtained exclusively by fox news, al-awlaki used a mysterious

e-mail address after the for hood rampage to keep in contact with his followers. catherine herridge, tell us about the new documents. >> reporter: jenna, thank you. these documents from the jttf, joint terrorism task force, obtained exclusively by fox news' investigative team as part of the ongoing report about the cleric and his ties to the united states, investigators believe that awlaki, an american citizen, is finding a way to reach followers even though his website was taken down last year after the fort hood shooting, the statement reeth it's likely any long term outage of the website will be mitigated by a grassroots effort to disseminate articles and sermons. in addition they cite an islamic website, islam-based info, where we found 42 lectures of awlaki, including one that he was bn banned from presenting, titled beyond guantanamo,

this is where brothers were held at the supermax facility in florence, colorado and as we noted yesterday, it's only now that youtube has begun taking down some of these awlaki videos, they're taking down those when they -- which they believe incyte violence, not those of a purely religious nature. jenna: tell us about this mysterious e-mail or web address used after the fort hood shooting. >> reporter: after awlaki's website was taken down in the days after the shooting at fort hood, because of nidal hasan, according to the documents awlaki used another web address to maintain contact with followers. we have decided for security reasons not to show you the entire e-mail address, but we have confirmed through a search called the way back machine, that awlaki was using this address, a commonly used address at yahoo,um at least january of

2010, that's two-months after the fort hood shooting and the documents from the jttf states that awlaki disappeared from his home in yemen in march 2009, just a few months before the fort hood shooting ands indicates he left his wife and five children with his father there. so that is seen by some members of the intelligence community now as a major red flag that awlaki was using, saying he did not anticipate returning. jenna: catherine herridge, on this exclusive reporting, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. jon: there are growing concerns over the intentions of a key u.s. ally in the war on terror, analysts wonder if the deadline to pull troops out of afghanistan by next july is pushing afghan president hamid karzai closer to iran. karzai confirming recently he routinely receives bags of cash from the islamic regime. so with the u.s. on the way out, is karzai simply keeping all of his options open? jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon for us, has an

exclusive interview with admiral mike mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. what's the impact, jennifer, the july 2011, has had on hamid karzai in >> reporter: jon, it's the reason that many observers say that president hamid karzai is meeting more frequently with iranian leadership, though there was the admission a week ago that he, in fact, accepted routinely bags of cash. these were his own words, from iran, millions of dollars of cash that come into his government. his cabinet is generally thought to be split between those who follow a certain second vice president of his, who is very close to iran, and the finance minister who is generally seen as favorable to the u.s. but what you're seeing in terms of karzai reaching out to taliban leaders, he is very concerned that if president obama is serious about the july 2011 deadline to begin pulling u.s. troops out of afghanistan, that pakistan will try to

influence -- will try to possibly overthrow him, so he is basically hedging his bets by reaching out to iran as well as to trying the reconciliation talks about the taliban jon. jon: just this morning you sat down with admiral mullen. >> we spoke tom this week and i asked him about concern about president karzai being pushed into the arms of iran as a result of this july 2011 deadline. listen to what he said: >> our relationship with him is critical, obviously, he borders iran, he has visited iran, but what from my perspective, i have not seen the kind of iranian influence, for instance, that we saw in iraq, to use a comparison. or anything close to that. >> reporter: well, u.s. generals that we've spoken to downplay the iranian influence in afghanistan right now, but there are increasing examples of them

coming across weapons that have been supplying the taliban on the one hand and also supplying money to the karzai government. so it is clear that iran is trying to make inroads into afghanistan as the u.s. projects that it is beginning to leave next july. jon: we know they've been hang out bags of money but what about influence, do they have any? >> if you look at the election, the parliamentary election, which was fraught with fraud and many complaints about iranians trying to influence with money, parliament members, look at the one race in particular out in herat, just recently, the u.s.-backed candidate, someone by the name of nisad fazai, was essentially stripped of his sition and the iran-backed candidate was placed in herat, which is a border town that's very influential in afghanistan, jon. jon: jennifer griffin live at the pentagon, thank you.

jenna: a fox news alert for you, want to take to you las vegas where you're seeing what happened after a school bus accident, and apparently, that school bus, that belonged to a high school in the las vegas area, crashed into a small car, carrying, we believe, three people. what you're seeing, again there, we believe, is a school bus involved in the accident and all of that melts we think is the car. now, here's what happened. firefighters have been working over the last hour or so to try to free people -- free three people from this accident. apparently three people were injured. we're not hearing about any reports of deaths, and right now, the students that were on that school bus all reports are saying that they're okay at this time. there's an investigation ongoing, obviously a developing story. we'll keep an eye on it closely. all we know, three people injured, firefighters have worked very hard over the last year to try to free those people from what you're seeing is a pretty terrible accident, jon. jon: wow, what a mess.

right now, we're awaiting sentencing for a former transit officer who shot and killed an unarmed man in california. sparking racial rioting. in about 20 minutes the judge will sentence johann mehserle, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in july in the death of oscar grant, who was african-american. mehserle says he went for his taser and accidently grabbed his handgun, shooting grant on a train platform on new year's day, 2009, the entire scene, captured on video. the initial verdict, sparking riots. police are standing at the ready now in oakland and los angeles, where the trial took place in case we see the same kind of violent outbursts as we saw after the sentencing. we are keeping an eye on what's going on, we will bring you the sentence when it is handed down. jenna: three days after a political setback for democrats, president obama is head to go asia. what's on his agenda there? and will we see any political shakeup at home?

more ahead.

jenna: taking tu to georgia now where we're getting brand new word and images of a derailed train there, we have no information on what caused this or any injuries at this time but you can see for yourself some dramatic images out of georgia. as we get more on this developing story we'll bring you those updates. jon: and right now, engineers are working to fix a leak on the space shuttle discovery. nasa scrubbing its intended launch after find ago hide again gas leak. how bad is the problem and when might nasa schedule the next launch? phil keating live at the kennedy space center. >> reporter: breaking developments on that leak, this leak may not have been serious as we thought, however, nasa is now saying that the reason for this morning's scrubbing of the launch, of discovery, for her final voyage into space was actually due to a

computer glitch. this final launch of discovery has been plagued by delays all week long. two technical issues, a computer glitch, then bad weather yesterday and apparently a computer glitch today, indicating a leak in the ground carrier plate. bottom line here is this launch was rescheduled to happen on monday at the earliest. they needed a seven two-hour delay to assess the leak situation and fix that problem, because it would jeopardize the safety of the crew upon launch time. however, now that possibly could be moved up. we'll see what nasa admission managers decide, if this was just a computer glitch, then this could turn around quicker than we thought. if it was a problem with the line and the hide again loin -- hydrogen headline, it could stick until monday. at the nasa glen research facility, about a possible and unconfirmed gunman on site, having everybody there

on lockdown, well, that all turns out that whatever -- if it was a gunman -- it was simply an emergency security drill for the 3000 employees there so that story ended up simply being an emergency drill. as for discovery. we'll know more a little later. jon: good news i -- good news i guess that there wasn't a gunman anthe -- on the loose there but man, what a panic. phil keating live from florida. expwren jen -- jenna: the president is heading out on a continue-day trip to asia this morning, three days after seeing his party lose control of the house. there is a whole lot of drama going on behind the scene on capitol hill when it comes to the democratic party. let's bring in chris stierwalt, digital politics editor. our viewers have a lot of questions about the timing and cost of this trip. what can you tell us about both? >> well, there had been overestimations of the cost, but obviously this is expensive to take the

president and the first lady for ten days across asia, it costs a lot of money, though the white house would obviously say it's important that they carry a diplomatic presence across the world and go to these sorts of summits and conferences. the timing of the trip, if you recall, he tried to schedule this trip before, tried to take a trip to asia to his boyhood home in indonesia before, but the timing was never right, so they scheduled it for after the election, fringe that no one could complain about him going then because the elections were done. jenna: real quick, we talked about a white house shakeup. any changes you expect to see when the president is gone? >> there are a lot of democrats who want to see changes wil the president is gone and it's always a danger for a president who is in bad odor with his party to be out of the country. right now conservative democrats are not happy with the president, they want to see big changes in the administration, big changes with the priorities, people like evan wi -- evan bayh,

retiring senator, they want to see a change in the white house. of course at the same time on capitol hill you have nancy pelosi and those folks who are moving to the left, so the president is going to come home, i think, to some headaches. jenna: we'll see what develops over the next couple of days and chris, we're glad you're here watching it with us, chris stierwalt, thank you. jon: connecting the dots of terrorism, al-qaeda extending its reach, plotting attacks from hideouts in pakistan, all the way to yemen. what's going on? we'll talk with bob baer, former cia case over, next.

jenna: we start off with another fox news alert, at the foreign deck, the international desk, taking in new information about this homicide bombing we just heard about in pakistan

and dominic is live on the ground there with the latest many dead and more injured, dominic. >> absolutely. the latest figures we have are 50 dead and at least # on injured, those numbers expected to rise. the blast was so big at a mosque, some 100-kilometers from where we are in islamabad that the roof caved in, that's how many people were -- authorities say it was a suicide bomber who blew himself up. the town has a reputation of being the tribal belt and the biggest manufacturer of arms in pakistan, but it appears it wasn't worships but an antitaliban militia founder who had been encouraging people to take a stance against the extremists. simultaneously, 20 yards down the road in the past hour a second explosion has gone off targeting a mosque there, some people were praying at the time, casualties expected, information still coming in

to us here. we'll have the numbers for you hopefully later on, jenna and will bring you up to date then. jenna: always watching stories out of pakistan, an important ally in the war on terror. dominic, thank you very much. jon: al-qaeda's reach now, the "wall street journal" reporting osama bin laden and other al-qaeda leaders, hiding out in the far reaches of pakistan are still guiding the terror group's branch in yemen, the same group thought to be behind last week's attempts to send bombs to the united states in cargo packages. let's talk about it with former cia case officer bob bay, intelligence columnist for time.com. why have they scattered? so many of them have gone to yemen, it seems. why? >> i think these drone attacks have been very effective. you can see actual faces from the drones. they can follow somebody for two or three days, and i think we truly decimated al-qaeda and the operational leadership has fled to yemen. that's probe the best guess. jon: because we're not using drones there? >> not using them there.

the government has said don't do it, it's going to raise problems with the tribes, it's harderter ape to hit because we know pakistan, we don't know yemen as well. it's going to take us several years to be in the same position to do the same sort of drone attacks. jon: but the saudis have human courses -- sources in pakistan, right? >> they have people in those areas since the '30s, they know the tribes and the leadership and it's the main threat against saudi arabia so they're very good in yemen. jon: how much is osama bin laden doing to control all of this? for instance, the cargo bomb plot that we saw. >> i think he's pretty much franchised out the operations. i mean, he knows that he's the center of this hunt and the less he communicates with the world, the safer he is, and the safer the cells are. so what he's done is simply give them orders to get the technology and they know what the targets are, so they go out and do it. jon: all right. so there was speculation that some communication from him, an audiotape that he put out, may have been

importance i believe -- responsible for triggering this cargo bomb plot. >> why would you need bin laden to direct this? he just said kill americans, end of story, do it any way you can, so why would he need to say now is the time or not the time? i just don't see it. jon: you don't think the prospects are good for us getting those drones in the air over yemen? >> we're going to have to. these bombs are not going away and the chance of the ee -- petm, the explosives found in the cargo planes, of bringing down a cargo airliner are pretty good. we're going to have to react. jon: one of the things i learned in preparation for this z segment, there have actually been double agents who have infiltrated al-qaeda after coming out of places like guantanamo bay or maybe going through that saudi rehabilitation program. they've gone back to their al-qaeda brethren but playing the role of double agent. >> i think they have. the saudis are very good. they're the ones that provided the warning on the two airplanes, they were clearly inside this operation, they called washington, as soon as they found out.

it was a neat operation, very good on part of the saudis. jon: how do you thank them for that kind of work? >> well, they're under threat, too, so we're on the same side on this. bob bob -- jon: bob bear, thank you. jenna: a republican -- republicans are set over the house in january but democrats hold on to the senate. one retiring democrat says he knows the message his party should take in the midterm if it wants to make a comeback. senator bayh iron dorgan is our guest. hurricane tomas is bearing down on haiti. steve harrigan is in the middle of it all. >> i'm steve harrigan in port-au-prince where a hurricane is now bearing on a country least prepared to handle it. that story ahead.

jenna: this is a fox news alert, the city of oakland, california, bracing for violence today, when the sentencing of a former transit officer, johannes mehserle comes down as expected. back in july, mehserle was found guilty of shooting this man on your screen, an unarmed black man, oscar grant and that sparked racial rioting in the streets of oakland. gregg jarrett is following the developments on this case live from the newsroom. >> we are keeping an eye on oakland. california is hoping for the best but are preparing for the worst, jenna, what could be a violent reaction to a judge's decision and that's about to happen. this is the sentencing of a

former transit police officer, found guilty by a jury of involuntary manslaughter in the killing of an unarmed man in oakland. take a look at the cell phone video of the incident on a train platform, johannes mehserle, the white officer, testified he shot to death a black man, oscar grant, entirely by mistake, firing his handgun instead of his taser. the video shows grant being shot in the back while another officer kneels on the unarmed man, the incident, widely circulated on the internet, and that triggered several protests and riots in and around oakland, the enormous publicity forcing the trial to be moved to los angeles, where it a jury then acquitted mehserle of murder, but convicted him of the lesser charge, concluding it was all an accidental shooting. though the officer was negligent, they decided. now, the verdict also triggered violence. there were no african americans on the jury. and right now, the city of

oakland is on alert. they're having to deploy extra officers today, should this sentencing, again, momentarily once again prompt rioting out on the streets. prosecutors asking for prison time for the officer, saying the shooting was intentional, the victim's family calling it murder, the defense insisting no, this is just a tragic mistake and merits probation only. now, the maximum term for involuntary manslaughter is four years, but the jury also found mehserle guilty of what's called gun enhancement that, could add ten years to it, and the judge may decide to toss out the gun enhancement? why? and there is mehserle. because the statute requires that the shooting of a gun be intentional, and yet in convicting mehserle of involuntary manslaughter, the jury found just the opposite, that this was not intentional, and so it would appear the jury either misunderstood or misapplied the law and whenever that happens, a conflicting verdict, the judge often

tosses it out. so we're going to wait to see. high alert in oakland, california right now. jenna: a developing story, gregg. thank you very much. jon: as if haiti has not suffered enough, people are still recovering from that terrible earthquake there back in january and now they have to cope with a hurricane, hurricane tomas approaching the island and getting stronger, storm surge and destructive waves battering haiti already, families who already lost their homes in one disaster is face -- are facing another with no place for safety. steve harrigan is live from port-au-prince, haiti. >> reporter: jon, we're feeling some of the heavy rains, those outer bands getting ready to hit near the capitol. we haven't felt the hard winds yet. they've already hit the seven part of this island and there's a hope that the heart of the storm could pass the capitol, certainly hard to imagine a place more poorly prepared for a hurricane. you've got 1.3 million people on the ground here in haiti still left homeless

from january's earthquake, largely in at the point in times and tarps and the real concern is even if the stwroingdz don't wipe out the tarps and tents the wind could cause great damage, particularly after the storm is over. we could see flooding, as well as mudslides and the concern about cholera. there's already an epidemic in effect and it's a water-borne disease, so 10 inches of rain on the sewage could raise the numbers of dead behind this limit of 400 now. the government has tried voluntary evacuations, they don't have secure houses, don't have the buses to move people. the president himself said to the people you've got to help yourselves. that's what they're trying to do, largely on their own with minimal resources. jon: so tragic what is about to happen there. steve harrigan, keep an eye on it for us, thank you. jenna: right now the president reflecting on the democrats losing control of the house, and seeing their majority shrink in the senate. here's what the president is telling "60 minutes". >> over the course of two

years, we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that we stopped paying attention to the fact that that leadership isn't just legislation. that it's a matter of persuading people. jenna: now we're hearing of a potential compromise from the white house, extending the bush-era tax cuts for everyone, but the question isn't just if the republicans will go along with that compromise, but if the democrats will as well. how do they feel about seting this new tone? let's ask retiring senator bayh iron dorgan, democrat from north dakota, the democratic policy committee, i think this is the first time i'm introducing you as a retiring senator, senator dorgan. how does that feel? >> well, i've done 30 years and it is true, it is my last day but i'm excited for another chapter in my life. this has been a great privilege, but as i leave there are significant challenges, so there's a lot

for congress to do. jenna: we don't want you retiring yet. we have a couple of good weeks left and a lot of news to cover. let's talk about what we're hearing about a potential compromise here. what are your thoughts, a compromise on tax cuts? >> well, i think there will be a compromise on that. let me say first of all, the whole issue is jobs. you know, the republicans had a big night tuesday night but i don't think the american people think either political party is much of a bargain these days and we've got to focus like a laser on putting people to work, because to the extent that people feel like they've got the opportunity to get back the payrolls, a good job is much more important than any social program i'm aware of, and we need to focus on that and get the best of what both political parties can offer to try to put people back to work. jenna: how do you do that, by the way, senator? what's the first step in that? >> instead of fighting each other on everything, let's sit on the table and see what both parties can offer in terms of a menu. putting people back to work

isn't just one thing, there's not just one strategy. let me give you a couple. for example, number one, how about getting rid of the tax cut that now is given to companies that move american jobs overseas? let's plug the drain. as we try to get the faucet moving to get more jobs into moving this economy, let's plug the drain at the same time. then i would say let's provide additional tangible rewards to those companies that stay here and have a label that says made in america, let's say to those people, good for you, we want to encourage that, and here are strategies by the way to encourage that. those are things we ought to do very quickly. jenna: let's talk about the bush-asia tax cuts. some speculation has been going on about what a compromise might look like and again, purely speculation but here's one of the ideas we're hearing. the idea is that the middle class tax cuts would be extended permanently, and the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 would then be extended one or two years. are you for that, are you for extending the middle

class tax cuts permanently in exchange for a couple of years to compromise here? >> i'm willing to compromise but let me make this point. these tax cuts were to return surpluses to the american people, that's why they were created nine years ago. turns out there weren't surpluses, all there were were large deficits and now we have a $13 trillion debt, extending the tax cuts will cost up to $4 trillion in the coming ten years. i think we ought to be a little conservative and say dealing with these unbelievable deficits and debt means that you have to cut spending and you've got to tighten your belt and also, you have to get some revenue in. and so continuing to cut taxes sounds really good, but perhaps we can't afford that forever, or permanently. we also have to deal with the estate tax, as you know. jenna: there's a lot lot of different parts to that tax cut. final thoughts, everyone is reflecting about these elections, you hear that phrase the american people have spoken, you know, they've spoken here through the votes, and i'm curious, after 30 years in office, what did you hear?

and what do you think other democrats need to hear from the voters? >> well, it was hard to determine a message, except they voted for republicans, a big victory for the republican party, and sent a pretty strong message to democrats that they were going to let some of those folks stay at home. so i really think the american people understand that this economy has been in critical condition, it's now improving, but we still have 20 million people that are either looking for jobs or out of work or looking to get the kind of jobs that they're looking for. jenna: senator, real quick, how quickly can you get something done? and how quickly can compromise on those tax cuts be made? >> listen, we have a lame duck session that's going to go perhaps three weeks into december. and it's very important in my judgment that the president and the leaders of congress on both sides sit down to say you know what, we're all americans, we represent this country, we want this country to succeed, let's find the best ideas of both parties and

move forward. jenna: senator dorgan, you have a couple weeks left, so we expect to see you back a few times before you take off. >> hope so. thanks jenna. jenna: senator dorgan, thank you very much. >> thanks. jon: this could be the gop's first big cast as republicans -- test as' aves take over the house, do they nominate michelle bachmann to a key republican position or will they go with a mainstream, you might say traditional republican? which way could this race tilt? jenna: we also know from the exit polls which issues americans care most about and senator dorgan was talking about it, jobs, jobs, jobs. we're getting so many great questions from viewers on our interactive town hall. keep them coming. it's friday. stay with us. jon: we have a great panel, town hall u.s.a., economic experts to answer your questions about jobs and the economy. get them to us, join our live chat, post on our blog, send us an e-mail, tweet. it's easy, log on to foxnews.com/happening now.

jon: a fox news alert and new video of that situation we brought you before. this is a serious bus crash in northwestern las vegas, nevada, just about a block from centennial high school. a car and the yellow school bus you see in the upper righthand corner of your screen there collided. now, fortunately, no one on board the school bus was hurt, this according to a las vegas fire spokesperson. but they had to bring in the jaws of life and literally cut apart that car that you can kind of see the remnants of there in the center of your screen. they had to cut apart that car to free the three adults who were inside it. the investigation is still underway. if we learn more about what happened, we'll bring it to you. well, right now, republicans are rejoicing in their newly won control of the house of representatives, but now the battle for some key leadership posts is heating up. raising the question of how tea party-backed candidates

who won seats might fit in with the more entrenched members of the gop. this is front and center in the contest underway between the leader of the house tea party caucus michelle bachmann and jeb hensarling, both trying to become the republican conference chair. let's talk about it with bob cusack, managing editor of the hill. it's kind of hard to draw some of these distinctions, michelle bachmann ran for congress as a republican before the tea party sort of swelled up, but she has harnessed that energy as the leader of what's called the tea party caucus in the house, right? >> that's absolutely right. now, jeb hensarling is a conservative, he has the backing of john boehner's deputies, boehner has not endorsed anybody, i don't think he will, but hensarling has the inside track. he did vote like others for the prescription drug benefit that many conservatives did not like in the george bush administration. michelle bachmann is a

controversial figure, she likened them to gang administration, she is going to be one that is going to be tough to control for john boehner. jon: she's also a plor figure -- a popular figure. >> you either love her or hate her. she's a lightning rod for the left but conservatives around the country have embraced her, she has a ton of money, they have tried to be targeted because of the battle ground district, she won in a big democratic year a few years ago, so michelle bachmann is a a survivor and wants a voice in the republican majority. jon: at a time when republicans are trying to prove they are a big party she would be a woman in a leadership party. >> cathy rodgers would be in the slot below, in the number five position so they do have a woman in the leadership hierarchy but she's going to make the case they need a woman in the number four slot. jon: what does boehner do about all this, he's the guy who has to herd all these

cats, right? >> one of the many challenges john boehner has, a good problem for him to have, but i don't think john boehner gets involved, he's embraced the tea party, he's repeatedly praised them so i think he lets it out, he says the conference, okay, my deputy potentially has more seniority so hensarling has a slight edge but the big question is will tea party groups in the country rally behind bachmann and pressure republicans to vote for mer. that's going to remain to be seen. jon: it's going to be interesting to see. thank you very much for being with us. jenna: one week ago, we watched u.s. airports as we learned about a mail bomb plot out of yemen. we are again asking how safe are we here at home. former homeland security secretary michael chertoff will be live here next hour and will answer that question for us. from safety at home to safety at churches, churches serving as sanctuaries for all kinds of people and now these hows of worship are teaming up with the u.s.

marshals. a conflict there? we're going to tell you about it, next.

jenna: happening right now, law enforcement and the u.s. marshals, teaming up in a new initiative, called the fugitive safe surrender program. and this program allows nonviolent offenders to turn themselves in by surrendering, these fugitive s can get stable treatment from the courts. >> it's run by the u.s. marshals' office, for nonviolent offenders who have warrants and tickets and it's a chance to start fresh and be set free from worry, but under the protection of the church, thousands of people came out to put themselves in the hands of the law.

fugitives' safe sur ender program is sweeping the country, people with mountains of tickets get debts restructured and records wiped clean. they have -- devon has $3000 in fines and a bench warrant. >> it's excellent. being a mother of four, i have to get around town, all the time, and it's just great not having to worry about being pulled over, being stopped, asking your name, your i.d., and it being run and something come back. >> but secular groups are criticizing the program for blurring the lines between church and state. the freedom from religion organization says chunks should not be treated as arms of government, this is what you'd expect in a theocracy, not a republic. this gives the appearance of a direct affiliation between the u.s. government and the churches involved. but of course, organizers disagree.

>> it's quite clear, there is a blurring of the line. there are no court facilities in this great sanctuary. >> our church is not pros they sizing, they're not showing religious movies, we're not handing out bibles. we are in that sense a venue and a set of volunteers. >> both law enforcement personnel and people surrendering said they felt safer coming to a church, more safe surrenders will be in austin and jacksonville, florida. jenna: i saw from your piece, they were from a first baptist church. is it only baptist church? >> no, churches actually sign up to be part of the program. they have to agree to it. one of the reasons this minister agreed to it is because they told him that when law enforcement approaches someone with a bench warrant they don't know how violent a person may be. if they feel threatened they might be. so a church is a safer environment. jenna: thank you.

jon? jon: in connecticut, jurors are locked behind closed doors, trying to decide what happens to a man convicted of murdering a wife and two daughters. will it be life behind bars or death for stephen hayes? one lawyer said go ahead and kill him. we're watching a tense situation in oakland, california. this was the scene back in july. police are standing at the ready in riot gear in case protests like this break out in the sentencing of a white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man. that's next. ♪

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gout flares, joint pain, and rash. [ male announcer ] if you have gout, ask youroctor about uloric. jenna: great to see you and you on a friday. hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: and i'm jon scott. high noon in the east. we are following some hot stories from coast to coast. all new on "happening now," live reports from jamie colby, chris

gutierrez and laura ingle. first, to a highly-contested governor's race where they have been counting votes all night. jamie colby is here. >> reporter: jon, first they declared a winner, then they said we won't know until votes are double and triple counted. it all may boil town to bridgeport where the mayor said the republican challenger is far behind, that challenger saying in the last hour those numbers are false. we'll have more coming up. jon: heading west, muslims in this country are promising to see after voters banned the use of sharia law. chris? >> reporter: should islamic law be considered in u.s. courts? in oklahoma voters said, no, and now one group says the ballot measure was unconstitutional. we'll have a fair and balanced report. jon: and a jury in a connecticut triple murder is now deciding what happens to the defendant. >> it will either be lethal injection or life in prison for

steven hayes. the jury deliberating right now. we'll have the latest from new haven coming up. jon: a full report from each of them coming up later this hour on "happening now." jenna: our top story today, a growing concern that al-qaeda may be entering a bold new phase of terrorist activity. a splinter group, al-qaeda in the aarabian peninsula, suspected in several attacks. joining us now to talk about this, former homeland secretary michael chertoff, also managing principle of the chertoff group. mr. secretary, thank you so much for join us. >> good afternoon. jenna: there's a lot to this story but one basic question: how safe are we? >> well, of course, one of the things that's important about this plot is it was not directed at passenger airplanes. it appears to have been directed at cargo jets or, perhaps, the ultimate recipient of the package. and that reflects a lot of the progress that's been made over the last years with respect to

mistake airline -- passenger airline security. now we've got to look at the jet cargo system, and we've got to work with the logistics company to get -- companies to get a better idea of the high-risk packages. jenna: that being said, if you had to give us a rating between 1-10, 10 being the most safe, how would you rate us right now as a country? >> the country's clearly much safer than it was, you know, ten years ago, nine years ago, and it's increasingly gotten safer. what we have seen, though, is as we have raised the level of security, the enemy has adapted. and they've come up with techniques to try to avoid the countermeasures we've put in place. so it's kind of an ongoing dynamic effort, and in many ways some of the sophistication that was shown in the most recent plot reflects success we've had with respect to other kinds of attacks that have now driven them to look at jet cargo planes which have been relatively less protected than passenger planes. jenna: let's talk about the

sophisticated nature of this plot that we're learning about and where this plot originated. mr. secretary, what do we do about yemen? this. >> well, yemen, of course, has been a location where terrorism has been developing over a period of years now. the saudis have experienced it firsthand and, of course, they were responsible for giving us the critical tip that allowed us to move swiftly with respect to these packages. the problem with yemen, it's a state which does not have full control over the territory within its own boundaries, it's a state that's had civil war, it's had internal conflict and the capability of the state in order to really crack down is, frankly, somewhat doubtful. you know, we've had cases in the past where people were arrested, they were imprisoned in yemen, and they either escaped or were released, and that's certainly a troubling notion if we're relying on yemen to keep a lid on these terrorist activities. jenna: right now estimates we're

pouring $200 million into that country and, obviously, there's some different military exercises going on in that area. what would you suggest? what is your advice on how to proceed with yemen going forward? >> well, i think, first of all, we've got to get a firm commitment from the current government in yemen to take the resources we give them and actually deploy them in the fight against the terrorists, and not use them for other purposes. i think we're going to have to be more involved in the training and the capacity building, in the counterintelligence work. we'll need to have better information flow from yemen. it's been a somewhat mixed picture, sometimes they've been helpful, sometimes i think there's been a little bit of disappointment about this. but now yemen is becoming a major platform for attacks against the west, and i think we're going to have to push them for allowing us to help build their capacity. jenna: germany is banning all passenger flights from yemen. they're telling those planes to turn around. do you think we should do the same thing?

>> i don't know that we want to do a blanket ban with respect to flights into yemen, but i do think we, obviously, want to take a very close look at travel and cargo that comes out of yemen. but let's be careful not to only focus on yemen because the same kinds of techniques that were applied in this case could be moved to another location and bombs could be built elsewhere and sent across the system. that's why this is a global issue, it requires a global response from the international aviation community and particularly some of our friends overseas need to raise their game to our level of security in order to make sure that the whole system is protected. jenna: in the meantime, as we wait for some of our friends to raise their game, as you say, you know, the thing about these stories is it makes people feel vulnerable and exposed and helpless in a lot of ways. what would you say to the american people out there that feel that way? what would you say directly to them? this. >> i would say to the american people, look, we are far safer than we were ten years ago, and

we've continued to get safer every year. but we have to recognize that the enemy's not standing still. in this case what we need to do is build on some of the intelligence-gathering capability we have. we've got to target the packages that come in from certain locations and that means we may, we may require some of these shippers to give us earlier warning about the manifests than they are accustomed to doing. we have to continue to invest in technology that gives us more accurate and more efficient screening. there's no magic bullet, but it's a combination of these layers of defense which have proven to be successful so far, and i think that's where the success in the future is going to lie. jenna: secretary chertoff, a real pleasure and honor to have you on the show. thank you so much. >> good to be on, jenna. jon: well, even three days later we don't know some of the answers. the race for governor in connecticut is turning into more and more of a mess. bridgeport mayor bill finch now

saying democrat dan malloy has taken the lead over republican tom foley in the state's largest city, but foley is not backing down. he says he has no plans to concede this race. jamie colby has the latest on it, and we still don't know who's won, right? >> reporter: and it's developing by the hour. i should mention that the republican, tom foley, had a news conference, and he's even challenging the numbers that bridgeport's mayor came up with saying that they're false. the mayor saying that the republican challenger was 13,000 votes behind. the ec tear of state -- secretary of state had declared a winner. she's a democrat, she said the democrat won. that would be dan malloy. but now the secretary of state's office has sent everyone that's asking, we got it too, saying don't call, don't ask, we won't know until the votes are actually double and triple counted, so we don't have a winner in the race. and in this news conference tom foley had this to say, he's preparing to take office. listen. >> dan malloy has said he's

formed a transition team, and he's working toward preparing himself for office, to take office on january 5th. and we are doing the same in case we're the victor. so i don't think either candidate is being held up in preparing to take office by taking another couple of days to make sure that we can have confidence in these results that are being reported. >> reporter: and that's what both candidates want, a fair and accurate counting jon. jon: and the vote controversy centers on bridgeport. why? >> reporter: it's interesting how bridgeport is playing such a key role. they ran out of paper ballots on election night, so a judge was asked whether or not the polls could be extended from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. the mayor says that only 100 people came between those hours to actually cast their votes, and he says, as i mentioned, that the republican candidate is 13,000 votes behind. but the secretary of state saying the numbers aren't final yet, so they can't declare a winner until they actually sit down and count those votes. that's what they're doing now.

she has until november 25th, thanksgiving day, to actually certify the vote. pins and needles there in connecticut. jon: sounds like it. jamie colby, thanks. jenna: well, now to another undecided race in alaska. the senate race in alaska still ongoing. right now the write-in candidate holds the lead over tea party favorite joe miller, but miller says he's not ready to concede defeat to incumbent lisa murkowski. now, official returns show write-in pal lots hold an edge of more than 13,000 votes over miller, but it isn't clear how many of the write-in votes are actually for lisa murkowski. remember, they had all those candidates -- jon: 160, i think, altogether. yeah, that's going to be a wild one. you can get extensive coverage of all the election results fights at foxnews.com/politics. those fights still going on. jenna: we go to this breaking story out of connecticut, jurors are deciding if this man who

viciously murdered a doctor's wife and her two daughters should be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison. laura ingle has been following the story so closely since it first broke. she's in new haven, connecticut, with more. laura? >> reporter: hi, jenna. well, these jurors certainly have a lot to consider as they go through the six capital counts against steven hayes. now, they're going to have a lot of paperwork to get through. people have asked, how fast is this going to go? we could be here a while, and the judges even said these jurors could deliberate into the night or weekend if they don't come up with a verdict. they have to weigh the mitigating and aggravating factors in this penalty phase that were presented to them yesterday just after closing arguments. we want to explain one thing, for one statutory mitigating factor, hayes' defense attorney argued that steven hayes' mental capacity was significantly impaired at the time of the home invasion which would take the death penalty off the table.

but prosecutors presented jurors with their list of aggravating factors that were very strong ones that include the question if hayes committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner. now, if jurors find the aggravating factors outweigh the regular mitigating factors, the things like his childhood, his drug abuse, they will sentence him to death. the lone survivor, d. william petit, and his family are in place to hear the jurors' verdict. this has been an especially grueling week for the family as prosecutors described the grim details of all the events that led to the deaths of jennifer hawke-petit and the petit sisters that killed 17-year-old hayley and 11-year-oldmy michae. hayes raped and strangled mrs. petit before the fire engulfed the house. we have our producer who's inside the courthouse who tells us what's going on.

we understand the verdict forms have been printed, they've been handed out to reporters. we're going to have a chance to look through those, so when the verdicts come in, again, which we are waiting for -- could be today, could be later tonight -- we will let you know and explain each and every one of those counts and what steven hayes will get for his crimes. jenna: looking for justice for that family, that poor family. laura, thank you so much. laura ingle's in connecticut. jon: one state votes no on bringing islamic law into courtrooms under its jurisdiction. well, one group is taking action against the state now. we'll get into that controversy. plus, he's supposed to protect us from the enemy. now a navy seal faces some serious federal smuggling charges that have neighbors shocked. >> even more concerning, obviously, if he's supposed to be defending our country and then he's, you know, allegedly smuggling arms from out of the country -- jon: also, we're taking your questions for our jobs town hall

panel. the experts will answer your questions in the next hour or so, so get 'em in to us. link to the live chat on our foxnews.com home page or go to our show beige. reach us by e-mail, send us a tweet, foxnews.com/"happening now." everyone has someone to go heart healthy for. who's your someone? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. [ commearlier, she hady vonn! 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.

jenna: this next story is getting a whole lot of attention. an islamic man is taking his case to court after oklahoma voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure that the man says is unconstitutional. the case concerns sharia law and whether it can be apply inside oklahoma courts. chris gutierrez in our dallas bureau following this story. break it down for us. >> reporter: you bet, jenna. critics say this is just another sign of islam have been -- islamphobia that continues to sweep across our country. one group is asking the courts to stop this ballot measure

before it becomes law. the measure passed with 70% of oklahomans voting from keeping courts to consider sharia law or international law in cases brought before judges in the sooner state. here's what the man trying to stop it had to say. >> what this state amendment is going to do is enshrine in our constitution the words islam, the word koran, the word mohamed all in a negative light, and they specifically point to these, the tradition that comes out of this practice, the practice of islam. the muslim faith. it points to these things as a threat to the american way of life. >> reporter: now, there has never been a case in which islamic law was even considered in oklahoma, and the state senator who proposed this measure wants to keep it that way. there was, however, a case in new jersey where a muslim man raped his wife and said his actions were legal because of his religious beliefs. that case was initially overturned after considering the islamic law.

people voted, the measure passed, end of story. listen here. >> i think really they're just trying to, you know, gum up the ma cheeks and really dust -- machines and really, if anything, show they're going to have their way over the people which is what sharia law is all about. kind of ironic. >> reporter: less than 1% of the state's population are muslim. jenna: an interesting story. chris, thank you so much. jon: he is an active-duty special warfare operator first class, a member of the elite utah navy seals -- u.s. navy seals. now he's facing conspiracy charge, what prosecutors claim he tried to smuggle into the u.s. and where it was headed. that's straight ahead. k> [ female announcer ] in the coming weeks and months,

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jon: a u.s. navy seal now facing

charges that he smuggled ak-47s into the country, those are the russian-made machine guns. he and two other men face conspiracy charges allegedly for selling the weapons to undercover agents thinking the guns would wind up in mexico. the feds athey found five pounds of c-4 military plastic explosive along with blasting caps, grenades and night vision goggles in one of the homes of these conspirators. the guns include those ak-47s we talked about, also machine guns made in iraq. let's talk about it with michael farkas, a former active-duty jag officer and a military law attorney. the idea here, i guess s that a lot of these returning service members, navy seals, for instance, don't get searched all that closely when they come back in the country after deployment? >> it's really not uncommon for their not to be the level of scrutiny on these types of service members coming boo the country. jon: and the idea was just,

what? to sell these monies to make weapon? >> appears that way. the sheer number of the costs and we've already been told there were actual sales, alleged sales to a federal agent. so unlike other cases that have happened many this context, the sheer number here makes this case pretty significant. jon: yeah, you hear about military members maybe bringing back a handgun or a souvenir of some type, but 80 ak-47s, i mean, that's enough to start a small insurrection. >> it sure is. and there have been exampled of a marine gunnery sergeant, i believe, an army green beret sergeant first class did it as well. more than just a war trophy or souvenirs. there have been plenty of attempts to bring back stock for black market trade, but this really is a much higher number. jon: the thing was they could sell these, perhaps, in mexico to some of the drug cartels that

are shooting that country up. >> you really don't have to be a rocket science to know where these arms were headed, and once we see we have explosives being recovered, machine guns, there really is only one purpose for this type of stuff. jon: it should be pointed out that this is pretty rare. there are thousands of navy seals on active duty, some of the best people in the country, and to have one of them accused -- and we should state it's only an accusation at this point -- but accused of violating federal law in this case is pretty rare. >> it certainly is, and i'm sure if you asked any special operator, really anyone in the armed forces, they would consider this to be an embarrassment if charges are proven t tbe true. jon: and what kind of a penalty do you get for bringing in, you know, illegal weapons and plastic explosives? this. >> the cases we've seen in the past actually have been under three-year sentences. however, again, this is a more significant case. i believe the maximum is probably at least ten years depending on the charges, and i would anticipate that he's going to serve several years in in if he's convicted.

jon: wow. and there are other conspirators too. >> right, two civilians. jon: michael farkas, thank you very much. >> thank you. jenna: here's a question for you, what does the united states have in common with north korea, iran and cuba? you may be surprised. plus, today's town hall. you said the economy is your number one issue during this midterm election, and we heard you. our panel takes your questions like this one from jim who wants to know is unemployment high because we keep extending unemployment insurance? we're going to get an answer, and you can ask your very own question. come chat with us at foxnews.com. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] in the event of a collision, the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply, unlock the doors, and turn on the hazards. or get a car that does it for you. ♪ to stay fit, you might also want or get a car that does it for you. to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor.

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about how you can move toward relief. celebrex. for a body in motion. jon: time for a quick check on two big court cases we're watching. sentencing in los angeles for a former pay area transit officer who killed an unarmed man. and in connecticut a jury is deliberating whether a man convict inside a deadly home invasion there should get the death penalty or life in prison. jenna: big stories to watch. we're also watching this story, a major battle shaping up over how much money washington can borrow. now, we're already in the hole for nearly $14 trillion, and now in the first big test of the new congress, some are saying, lawmakers are considering raising the debt limit. this time, though, the tea party could play a role here.

jim angle is is here the break it down for us in d.c. jim, this decision on the debt limit, it's expected march, april of next year, so in the spring. is this battleground for those determined to cut the deficit? is this really the fight they're gearing up for? >> reporter: conservative analysts say most republicans are eager to cut federal spending, but then they say voting against the debt limit is not the best way to do it. listen. >> not raising the debt limit means not paying the bill for past commitments. it could mean social security checks not going out, it could mean defaulting on the national debt. that's the kind of thing that would panic financial markets and do more harm than good. >> reporter: and some 500 billion of federal spending goes to pay just interest on the national debt. conservative republicans are determined to cut spending, but many agree that borrowing cannot be stopped in the space of just a few months. listen. >> we have a trillion and a half deficit this year. i don't think we can balance the

budget in the one fiscal year -- in one fiscal year. and so, you know, realistically i think you would have to have some increase in the debt. >> reporter: now, barton and others say republicans hope to do it over a three or four-year period, the shorter the better, but the doing it all in one year would mean eliminating more than a third of federal spending in just the next few months. as a peeling as that sounds -- appealing as that sounds, others say it might be too disruptive. jenna: sounds like a lot of work ahead. what is likely to happen? >> reporter: conservatives will emphasize the necessity of raising the debt limit is the painful result of past spending practice, not their intentions for the future. there are already proposals from republicans in both the house and the senate to cut about $100 billion in spending, that's about 15% of the new spending added over the last three years. make no mistake, spending is going to be the major issue in the next congress just as the tea party's wanted it to be, and

many conservatives want to start the country on a path to a balanced budget but concede they can't unravel years of excess in the first few week of the new congress. jenna: that's a good point. jim angle, thank you so much for that. jon: lots of questions coming into our newsroom from you, our viewers. a hot topic today, the jobs report just released. the labor department saying employers added 151,000 jobs in october, the best numbers in months. way more than analysts had expected. let's bring in today's town hall panel, mike santoli is associate editor for barron's, peter morici with the university of maryland and former chief economist at the u.s. international trade commission, and john challenger, ceo of challenger, gray and christmas. welcome to each of you. let me, let me give you the question first from robert who wants to know, peter, how will printing money to buy $800 billion in u.s. treasury securities stimulate the housing

market without long-term inflationary concerns? this. >> well, i don't know that it will stimulate the housing market. it might lower interest rates a couple tenths of a point, but interest rates are already as low as a snake's belly. i don't think lower them from 4.2 to 3.9 is going to cause people to run out and buy houses. and there is a risk of inflation down the road. jon: here's a question, john, let's give this to you. why on earth do we give tax breaks to companies moving jobs overseas? >> well, again, we've got to find a way to make our companies not job exploiters, but companies that export products and services to those markets as the middle classes grow. that's going to create jobs here in the u.s. jon: that question i should give credit to barry welch from california. can congress and the administration put a halt on all foreign aid, spending on grants and projects like them for at least two years, get our

financial house in order, then give a good look at these projects whether they be out of our country or in many it? that country -- question from carolyn stewart in chandler, arizona. mike, do you want to take that one on? >> certainly, they could do that, but i don't think foreign aid and grant-driven type of projects are driving the deficit. it's mostly here, t mostly entitlement programs that are the long-term budget problem. jon: here's a question from david matthews who wrote this one on our blog. peter, maybe you could take this one on. if bush tax cuts are extended, will that apply to capital gains and inheritance taxes as well? >> well, that's up to the congress. it might apply to capital gains tax, but inheritance tax, that went to zero in 2010. it's not going to stay there. the question is whether do they set it. it'll probably be somewhere about 40%, splitting the difference between the

republicans and democrats, with an individual exemption of about four million, four and a half million per person, eight and a half million to nine million per couple. jon: john, your firm deals a lot in employment issues. this is a question related to that. shouldn't our unemployment rate, says dave, shouldn't it preclude amnesty? i assume he's talking about amnesty for workers who have come to this country illegally. he's saying we've got so many unemployed, why should there be talk of an am nsse program? this. >> well, certainly there is a large pool of unemployed workers, 14.8 million people right now. the people who have been out of work for over 27 weeks hit a historic high in may, so no question we need to create policy that helps people in this country find jobs. jon: here's a question from scott harvey who wants to know, mike, congress, he says -- it's more of a statement.

congress should support no more earmarks period and across the board spending cuts every department, period. can you do that, yes or no? >> yes, again, you can do it if you have the political will and now maybe you have the votes for something like that. but i really, again, think that people have this perception that it's a lot of kind of discretionary spending that drives the long-term budget imbalance, and that's really not the case. you really have to do things like get momentum to raise the social security retirement age, that would reassure markets, that would put you on a better trajectory for a longer-term budget fix. it's not really waste and abuse of public funds. jon: peter, i don't know of a family in america that hasn't sat down over the last couple of years and tightened up its pelt in one way or the other -- belt. why is the government unable to do that? >> you know, in 2007 before the crisis the government was spending 19.6% of gdp. in 2011, two years after the recession is over, this president is projecting he's

going to spend 25.1%. you know, getting back to mr. santoli's comments, let's compare the 2007 and 2011 projected budgets and look at all the additional entitlements and bureaucrats and regulators that we have haded and just -- added and just roll back to that. why should the government not live the way the rest of us did, the way we did in 2007? because we don't have anymore cash! jon: that could be the answer. i know that jenna has been getting a lot of blog questions specifically from viewers who have things to ask -- jenna: we'll cut, we'll go ahead and go to the budget. they're all schoolen tiering. -- volunteering. we'll see about those into itments, how many of us would give up our social security and the like. becky spence has a great question, how do you bring manufacturing jobs back to the unite? can you even do that? we'll ask our panelists that after the break. come join us at foxnews.com. [ male announcer ] taste pops with pringles cracker stix.

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jenna: back to our town hall and our great panel today. we have mike santoli, peter morici and john challenger as you join our live chat on foxnews.com, and can we're going to start off with that question from becky spence, jon, and i'll hand it over to you. she's asking, how do you bring manufacturing jobs pack to the united states? john s that even possible? this. >> well, you have to remember it's not just that jobs, manufacturing jobs have gone overseas, it's also been automation that's changed what manufacturing's about. our economy is no longer dominated by industrial manufacturing. so we ned to focus on specialty manufacturing kind of work, that's where we can make a difference. but the jobs of the future are going to be more in technology, in information, in services. we can't go back to where we were many this the '50s. jenna: peter, that brings up a great question from tom. tom was asking how can you

actually even the playing field with china when it comes to the economy? peter, i know you have some strong feelings about that. >> you know, china undervalues it currency by essentially subsidizing our purchases of yuan to buy its products. if we could put a tax on that, that'd be about 35%. in addition, china has all kinds of regulations that prohibit its companies from buying american technology products. we could counter with a similar set of regulations in l they stand down. both of those actions would be wto-compliant. jenna: and rocco was wondering jug in if general, mike, about some of those imports. do you think it's a good idea to raise tax on imports kind of to boost our own companies here? >> i'm not sure t a great idea because we are so reliant on imported goods that, essentially, that would pass through as a broad-based tax to the public. so i think you have to really to get to the problem of having better export policy rather than

trying to minimize the imports. because we just simply don't make the things here that most people buy every day. jenna: as the president is traveling overseas to maybe kind of build some of those relationships with those markets, mike, take another stab at this one. this is a question we get all the time, and jim wants to know, is unemployment so high because we keep extending unemployment benefits? mike, your thoughts on that, and then i'll get everyone else involves. >> it has to at least play a minor role, right? you have the disincentive to take on a new job if you might lose benefits if you get found out. i don't think it's the major factor. you have a major mismatch between the kinds of jobs that companies are advertising for. the help wanted ads keep going up and the capabilities of the people who happen to be unemployed. jenna: we are seeing people getting jobs actually have higher levels of education versus those that didn't or didn't have that opportunity and were in some of the manufacturing sector jobs and things like that. what are your thoughts on that, about extending unemployment? does that deter people from

going out and looking for work? >> well, maybe to a bit, although the monieses they get in unemployment are not that, you know, certainly replacing the kind of income you'd make from a job. those people want job. the question we have right now is we've got a big pool, historic highs of long-term unemployed. people have been out of work more than six months, in fact, people who have been out of work more than a year is at a record high right mow. so the question is how do you help those people compete against newer entrants into the job market who seem like a better hire to employers that are now starting to create jobs with this latest report, the 159,000 jobs created by private businesses, does suggest that the economy's beginning to get back on track after it was derailed in the spring by the european crises. now we're seeing job creation start to return, but we've got to help those long-term unemployed. jenna: and how do yo do that, peter? this the president was talking about compromise, tax cuts, he's

talked a little about unemployment benefits being extended or just in general. can the goth do what john says we need which is maybe some more training or some more support in some way, or should the government get out of the way? this. >> training can be helpful, but fundamentally you have to create a demand. and, you know, over the last ten months the private sector net of government-subsidized health care and services, social services has only created about 60,000 jobs a month. that comes out to about 18-20 per county versus, say, 5,000 to 6,000 people in each county that are looking for a job. you know, we can't spend our way to prosperity, budget deficits aren't helping, and we simply can't keep pumping welfare into wall street. the bottom line is the president has to get off this notion that he needs to fine tune his policies. they have failed, we need radical changes in this trek on trade and spending, and until we get that, we're not going to have those new jobs that we need.

jenna: peter morici, john challenger and mike santoli, thanks, guys. appreciate it very much. >> thank you. jon: she was in the national spotlight because of a case nonstop hiccups. now a judge is denying jennifer mead bond. she will stay in jail on a first-degree murder charge. greg jarrett is at the breaking news desk. >> reporter: yeah, we just got word the florida judge refusing to the grant any bail for 19-year-old jennifer mee. she is accused of luring a man, 22-year-old shannon griffin; to a vacant home where two others allegedly robbed and killed him. police say jennifer mee admitted to setting up the robbery. now, under florida's felony murder statute if somebody dies during the course of a felony, everybody involved is equally guilty of murder as if they pulled the trigger themselves. three years ago jen fe mee -- jennifer mee endured that

unrelenting case of hiccups. she was eventually diagnosed with tourette's syndrome, and interestingly now, her attorney is advancing a so-called diminished capacity defense to the murder case, claiming that all of this may have been caused by tourette's syndrome and other learning disabilities. now, that doesn't rise to the level of ip sanity which would legally -- insanity which would legally excuse the crime of murder, but it would help explain r actions and, thus, lower the level of punishment upon a conviction. you may recall the most famous diminished capacity way back in the 1970s in san francisco, the so-called twipg key defense in the shooting or harvey milk by a supervisor, dan white. white had consumed so much junk food that it actually altered or diminished his mental state and, thus, he was convicted not of double murder back then, but manslaughter. doesn't always succeed, this

kind of a defense, but apparently the hiccup girl is headed in that direction, diminished capacity. jon: keep an eye on it for us. greg jarrett, thanks. jenna: thank you for not mentioning, jon, that i had uncontrollable hiccups before the show yesterday. [laughter] jon: but you got 'em fixed. jenna: it's changed the way we think about hiccups. we're going to move on to another story we've been watching. what do china, cuba, libya, saudi arabia and the united states have in common? the answer might surprise you, and we have that answer coming up next. plus, should she stay or should she go? new reports that nancy pelosi might stay on as minority leader. so what message would that send to fellow democrats? that story straight ahead. he con of three good probiotics in phillips' colon health defended against the bad gas, diarrhea and constipation. ...and? it helped balance her lon. oh, now that's t best part. i love your work. [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

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kelly. will she stay, or will she go? nancy pelosi showing no signs of stepping down so far, and some republicans are delighted. we'll have an update. plus, the u.n. human rights council slams the united states! and guess who our chief critic is? us! k.t. mcfarlane is here. republicans tell the white house they'd better lawyer up, the house investigations are about to begin. will the white house cooperate? and christine o'donnell speaks out about her loss in delaware. guess who she's blaming? our power panel breaks it down. see you at the top of the one. jenna: fox news alert, we have breaking news on the politics front. the man in charge of doing all the fund raising or leading the fund raising for the democrats in the house is stepping down from his position as head of the democratic congressional campaign committee. you see him on your screen, it's congressman chris van hollen. we should mention, of course, this is after the democrats saw some pretty big defeats as far

as house elections, but the timing, congressman van hollen says, is not necessarily related to that. he's been a part of this committee for the last two election cycles, and that's pretty typical. he's stepping down, and that's the news today, congressman chris van hollen stepping down as chair of the dccc. jon: the u.n. human rights council is taking aim at a new target, the united states. why? take a listen to a couple of the charges; discriminating against muslims and holding political prisoners behind bars. so how is it that the u.s. is among a group of nations that includes alleged human rights violaters like china, cuba, libya and saudi arabia? let's talk about it with jim kelly, directer of international affairs at the federal society for law and public policy and joining us over the phone, the directer of policy and programs for human rights first. all right, so first of all, jim, this human rights council is

something that the united states did not even participate in under the bush administration, right? >> that's correct, jon. the bush administration's concern about this human rights body was that it wasn't exactly the most fair ask and balanced -- and balanced place to be defending the human rights record of the united states. the human rights council is heavily weighted towards countries that themselves are human rights abusers, so this obama administration decision to now every four year put the u.s. human rights' record under the microscope is coming back to haunt us in this a significant way. jon: all right. so this u.n. group based in geneva is taking a look at american civil rights and saying what? >> basically saying that there are very serious deficiencies in our human rights records, and the councils coout throughout the country and document what they perceive to be human rights abuses and make their report back to the u.n. human rights

council. some of the claims made today, as you've articulated, in the council session are countries like mexico that say we racially profile, china criticizing we haven't become parties to international treaties on the rights of women and children, russia wallets us to eliminate -- wants us to eliminate the death penalty. it's sort of the naming and shaming of the united states in a venue that isn't the most reasonable in the world. jon: ted, it seems a little disingenuous for a nation like china to be criticizing the u.s. over human rights? >> well, it's important to remember that every country submits to this review process, not just members of the human rights council. so countries in which we disagree about human rights like china and iran submit to it but also allies, the united states, israel and others. and i agree that the council has not been a productive place to advance real human rights protections for people on the

ground -- jon: then why do we do it? >> to try to make it better. it's to try to strengthen the u.s. ability to advance human rights in other places. i talk a lot to human rights defenders around the world in different place like china, and they welcome the united states' participation in this because that's the standard they want to hold their governments to, that governments should come, they should listen to criticism, they should listen to their civil society. jon: all right. thad and -- >> i would -- jon: real quick. >> i think the reason they want us there is so we can become a punching bag and they can gain some moral equivalency in the field of human rights. jon: thank you both. we'll be right back. >> thank you. [ male announcer ] gout's root cause is high uric acid.

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