small, but they are violent, and they are causing trouble, smashing windows, setting fires, throwing rocks, firecrackers, osling with police, in front of and then going into the courtyard and lobby and roof of the office building, not far from big ben, the house of parliament, that house us the conservative party. we are told the protestors came prepared and by all appearances they were not prepared, vastly outnumbered by the small number of vie

lens. we are getting 11 injured, police, and protestors. we are told, in fact, however, no arrests. a quick background, americans used to the high cost of college height be surprised at what these folks are upset about. the proposal is to raise tuition here from $5000 a year to $10,000, and in some cases, $15,000. that's to make up for cuts in subsidies by the government to universities, as much as 40 percent, all universities here, by the way, are public. again, with average tuition in the u.s. at least $25,000 or more, that might not seem too extortionate and as we've been tracking violent protests across the continental europe, across france, with smaller budget cuts we've been surprised at so far how quiet things have been through really, really big proposals. maybe now we're seeing more trouble and more trouble to

come, some people even here have been talking about a winter of discontent. back to you. martha: might not seem like a big deal to us but certainly a change in the way of life for some of these european with some of these austerity pictures. we'll stay on it. a developing story. we even saw fires burning in the courtyard there and we should mention evening falls quickly in london, it's going to be dark soon and we'll continue to monitor this situation out of london. greg palkot, thank you very much. now back to more news. jon: let's hope they keep that under control. fox news alert, some new information on what's being called a mystery missile, spotted off the california coast. good morning, i'm jon scott. jenna: it certainly is a mystery. hi everybody, i'm jenna lee, happening right now, the defense department working to figure out what caused that big vapor trail. if a missile was, in fact, launched and if so, who fired it, these are some of the questions out there but right now it doesn't appear the u.s. military was involved. jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon with more. jen, what's the latest, what

do we even know about it? >> reporter: i'm sensing a lot of frustration from military spokesmen, the spokesmen for norad, because news reports started using the word missile earlier in the day yesterday, and the defense department has been checking with nora -- norad periodically in the last 24 hours and with strat com. they have not found that any of those entities were carrying out any planned missile attacks, and -- missile tests and because they were so slow in coming out and saying that it wasn't us and because of the news reports got ahead of the story, it seems, and now, they're finding it very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, and they couldn't rule out -- and they still can't rule out that it wasn't some sort of top secret operation carried out by the government. but they certainly have ruled out that it was anything carried out by a foreign military, and right now, most of the experts who

are looking at this are saying that really, this was probably an optical illusion, created by a jetstream from what they call contrail in an airplane and the light at sunset making it look like it was sort of the tail of a missile test. martha: jennifer griffin at the pentagon following this developing story and we'll keep everyone updated as we learn more about this mystery. jon: a lot of questions on the west coast and a lot going on in this first hour of "happening now". democrats lost big in the mid terms and she's about to lose her job as house speaker. so why is nancy pelosi throwing a party? also, a journalist, just doing his job, brutally beaten in moscow, days after another reporter covering the same story was also attacked. jenna: we'll look at that video we have on that. why the state department is getting involved with that story. new numbers on health care, why some of you are actually paying more and are you getting more, getting

better service? you won't believe who's actually paying less, though. we hate to break the bad news for -- to you. jon: tug boats are hauling a stranded cruise ship back to the united states, an engine room fire cripples the carnival slender, leaving that ship at -- and its 4500 passengers and crew adrift at sea. a week long cruise along the love boat route to the mexican rivera. instead of gourmet dinners, they are getting things like spam, flown in. a passenger who left before the fire, stunned by the news. >> this really came as a shock that it was dead in the water that it was stranded and adrift, not having the air conditioning working, not having the bathrooms working and cold water and hot food, it would be trying times. jon: joining us on the phone, petty officer kevin metcalf of the u.s. coast guard and tara martin, her

boss, is on that crippled cruise ship. first of all petty officer metcalf, the ship is in no danger of sinking. there was an engine room fire. but the vessel is certainly sea worthy, right? >> yes, that is correct. the vessel is sea worthy. right now, it does have its critical systems, it has all its navigational equipment, radar, radio, has internal lighting, as well as sewage and running water. jon: it's got some critical systems, but what about comfort systems, like air conditioning? it doesn't sound like those are working. >> no, its just auxillary generators that are able to power those right now, so there are some systems that were not able to be arranged. jon: tara martin, have you heard from your boss? >> no, we haven't. we've only received confirmation from her family members that she was on board yesterday. jon: so you don't know what the conditions are like? >> not as of today, no, but we're hopeful that she's

comfortable, she's from yonkers, so she's a tough girl, and we know that probably -- she's probably running the cruise ship by now, knowing her. so -- but again, our thoughts and prayers are with her and the families, of everyone who's on the ship and we're looking forward to their speedy return. jon: petty officer metcalf, what do you know about living conditions on board, anything? >> you know, i know that we are sending people, coast guard, as well as navy personnel, on board to check with, you know, living conditions and the safety of the operations. you know, we're making sure that the people on board, their safety and welfare are being looked out for. jon: nobody -- we're not talking about a situation here where somebody is -- we're not talking about loss of life here but it sure is going to be or has the potential to be a pretty uncomfortable session at sea, especially for those hours that they were adrift. was it at all stormy? i mean, would sea sickness be a problem, officer metcalf? >> no. we're not -- it's not really

a tough state as far as the sea goes right now. we're expecting maybe 2-foot waves, with a vessel that size, it's not exactly going to be a rough ride. jon: all right, petty officer kevin metcalf, also tara martin joining us with the latest on that carnival cruise ship, the heavy engine fire, and being towed back to port. those folks are not going to be happy when they get back. jenna: the number of americans filing for first time unemployment in the last week is at a four-month low. that's pretty good news. you also look at the 4-week average, the volatility, that's also low, however, historically the number is still high. eric bolling is here to talk about this jobless situation. what do you see in the numbers? >> last month we got the unemployment rates and it was elevated, 9.6%, 14 1/2 million people still out of work, the initial jobless claims, the new filers for jobless benefits, stays elevated. anything above 400,000 is

elevated. three hundred fifty thousand, down to 300,000, you want the number to go down, then you start talking about job creation in the economy. under 300, then clearly we're creating jobs. above 400, we're at least staying stagnant, maybe hemorrhaging jobs continuing. jenna: we need to see a trendline. we're seeing that number on our screen now. we should mention, we get it early because it's veterans day. just not to surprise anybody. i want to ask you, what was happening in london, we see the huge student protest and it has to do with tuition costs but the u.k. is really going through something with their economy. what's your take? >> first we saw it in greece, the protests in greece, then we saw it -- saw it in france, remember they took hostages outside an oil refinery in paris because of austerity measures. these are similar protests, austerity measures, with protests by up to 50,000 students who say it's not

fair that their tuitions can be raised. and get this, jenna, to $12,000 a year. twelve grand. jen a change of life, though, for them. they're used to paying less so it rocks their world. >> we go from a retirement age of 60 to 62, it changes your life but boy, we do it here, people are working into their 80s here in america, and they riot and protest when they have to work until they're 62. it's the european system. jenna: we'll see what changes we have to make in the coming years. eric, thank you very much. follow the money, by the way, 8:00 and 11:00 eastern time. >> thank you. jenna: thank you for following the money with us! jon. jon: brand new developments in a story we brought you about the manhunt for a killer who shot a decorated police officer and veteran in cold blood. hair sis working on new information from the breaking news desk. we'll bring that to you a bit later. first, nancy pelosi with big plans for democrats, even though they lost control of the house of represent i was, why she's now throwing a party, plus what she says they'll celebrate, next.

jon: a fox news alert, and things are getting ugly in london now as darkness falls along millbank tower, the headquarters of the conservative party, absolutely surrounded now by students who are upset over proposals to increase tuition prices for higher education in that country. tuition would be allowed to go up to $14,500 u.s., starting in 2012. the students don't like that, the national union of students president calls it utterly unacceptable and an outrage. they have not broken into

that building, police have pushed them back. so far no arrests. jenna: house democrats took a hit in the mid terms but nancy pelosi is offering this view of her party's accomplishment in congress. in an op-ed piece for usa today, the soon to be former house speaker writes this, quote, the results of last week's election reflected the genuine frustration of the american people who will justififiably angered by the continued high unemployment rate. democrats are also disappointed at the rate of job growth. it does not diminish what we have accomplished. and perhaps, as some say, in celebration of these accomplishments, pelosi is throwing a bit of a party for congressional democrats later this after that. bock beckel, are you invited to that party, by the way? >> no, i'm not. i regret i am not. but i have other things to do, so -- >> jenna: i see. bob, as a democratic strategist and forecasts news contributor i wanted to get your take on how you think nancy pelosi is reintroducing the democratic party post the midterm elections. >> first of all, it's tough

for her to reintroduce the democratic party because frankly i wish she had not decided to run for minority leader, because for better or for worse, and mostly for worse the republicans demonized her in the course of this campaign. i've never seen anybody who's in congress that has been demonize dollars as much as she has been. but one of the things she said in the letter or the op-ed piece, there were a series of accomplishments that were real accomplishments. health care reform, you may not like it, but the fact of the matter is people didn't like medicare for a number of years. if you believe the polls. the republicans did a good job of branding a lot of what the democrats did, which were positive things, into a negative light, and so that was part of the price that we pay, but she's right, it's unemployment that did it. jenna: let me speak up on that a little bit because you make a point about productivity. she mentions that experts are saying the 111th congress is the most productive in a half century, but what is more important? being productive or the court of public opinion? >> well, if you live by the court of public opinion, why

not poll everybody and have a congress to vote on it? look, the fact of the matter is there are going to be a lot of people who are uninsured, insured. it's going to take a long time to get that to sink in. and who could argue with the wall street reform bill? the republicans have been against this, but they're lap dogs for the big wall street firms. i don't know why anybody considers that being a negative. also the bill makes women equal in terms of pay. there were a lot of things that were done. the problem was that what was not done was a message to explain it very carefully, and the interesting thing is barack obama, the great communicator of the campaign of 2008, was not a very good communicator as president in 2009 and '10. jenna: do you think that, again, going back to this op-ed piece today that it's making up for not being able to explain this in the past? is this setting the footsteps where the democratic party says hey we're hearing you to the public and we're going to go about the next two years differently than the past two years because we're

going to try to bring everybody together here in government? >> i don't think many people believe they are going to be brought together, but what they're doing is putting down a marker, saying we passed these things and republicans said they're going to undo then him this is a shot across the bough, and we have the numbers in the house and majority in the senate and a president with a veto pen so try to undo the things we've done and we're going to stop you from doing it. jenna: even though you weren't invited to the party, neither were we. >> i'm surprised you weren't. jon wasn't, either? it's amazing. i'm surprised all of us weren't invited. i thought we'd have our own special table but apparently not. jenna: maybe next time. things change. bob, thank you very much. >> you're very welcome. jon: we have to warn you the video we are going to show you is disturbing. a well known russian journalist, brutally beaten outside his home in moscow. you can see the images there, captured by a security camera. the terrible trend of violence against reporters

in russia. what's behind it? next.

jenna: taking you back to london where a student protest has been going on for hours in the center of that city, at a very important building there, the headquarters for the conservative party, that's making so many tough austerity cuts for the economy. harris has been watching this live and it's been getting better over the last couple of hours t. seems like -- instead of getting better, this protest is getting worse. >> reporter: it's gotten worse in the last few minutes. i was listen to go sky news, our sister network in the united kingdom and what's being reported now is they simply do not have enough people to deal with the small group of protestors now that have just ignited a fury in a very large and growing crowd. so what they're doing is

they're trying to bring in police officers from all around the area, as reinforcement. some will show nup swat gear, some won't even have time to do that. they just need the bodies, the law enforcement. now you're looking at live pictures, this is from sky news in the united kingdom, and what they've been doing is they've been wall to wall with coverage as you might average. look at the people on top of buildings in the area. you mentioned the very important nature of this building. it is the headquarters for the conservative party there, as they make cuts, and among those cuts, tuition, to try to get spending under control, and listen to this. tuition increases -- tuition increases i should say. listen to this, there are other offices housed in that building so the great concern now is the safety and security of the other people who have nothing to do with raising the tuition for these students. so they're trying to maybe even get some of them out the back door but they need more police officers just simply to hold back the crowd.

a growing, tense situation, trying to keep this from becoming violent. jen yarks i'm going to watch this one very closely. jenna: we'll continue to watch the situation. you can see the police are kind of pushing back on this crowd and just behind the police line you can see the fluorescent green invests that the -- vests that the police wear. there were 8-foot windows smashed, and you can see the debris and the violent emotion that was part of this crowd. we'll continue to watch this story, harris, thank you very much, and bring our viewers up to date as we hear more. jon: the u.s. state department is calling on russia to fine and -- fine and punish those responsible for a brutal attack on a prominent political reporter the near fatal beating of olay kashin was caught on camera and a warning, this video is very disturbing, two men attacking kashin with a metal bar outside his moscow apartment. the latest of a series of assaults on journalists in

recent years. do we know anything about the motive for this attack or what it was he was working on? >> the police have not reported anything on that just yet, but the widespread opinion is he was attacked for his work. this is just one of the three confirmed cases of attacks on journalists in russia, in the past week alone. two reporters were beaten up in moscow, one, the chief of a newspaper in the town of cerratos and one of the most severely beaten was a reporter for the moscow-based sun newspaper. he was attacked in the early hours of saturday by two men just outside his home, just a few miles from the kremlin. his car -- the skull was fractured, his jaw shattered and legs and fingers broken, the reporter was beaten up so badly that the doctors reportedly conducted four simultaneous surgeries and later induced the reporter into coma to speed up recovery.

he is now reported to be in a stable condition, although he's still in a coma, and the police says that more than 30 people have been questioned, but they don't have any suspects yet. they're looking for a taxi driver who drove him home that night and also, studying cttv footage from 13 cameras from the area where the reporter was attacked. now, it's important to say that there have been a number of cases of attacks on journalists in russia in recent years. the new york-based committee to protect journalists said last year 17 reporters were -- that 17 reporters were killed in russia in the last ten years, directly connected to their work and another o., international federation of journalists, said that over 300 reporters were killed or have gone missing in russia since 1993, and the rate of solving these cases remains extremely low. jon: anya, thank you. for more on the violence directed at journalists in russia, we're joined on the phone by clatil lecleu,

director of reporters without borders. eighteen journalists have been murdered in russia since 2000. none of those cases solved? >> 19, actually. and none have been solved. what we are witnessing now, and you can put as many numbers as you want, 300 reporters have been either kidnapped or attacked or killed, and we don't know what is going on with their cases. and you can put really as many numbers as you want. i just want to tell awe sentence, that a russian reporter told me, three weeks ago. in russia, you don't get into jail for reporting or for doing their job. either you live or you die. and every single russian reporter, when they get up in the morning, they know

that. jon: there are so many problems in this country right now, but at least we journalists, you know, can go out and do our job, we can cover the government, we can cover corruption, whatever, without having to face this kind of threat. is there the thinking that the government might be involved in this? >> well, that's what we are asking for. we want an investigation. we want this solved. president medvedev said it, he wants the responsible for those crimes to be found, and to be sentenced. we just hold him at his word. find them. sentence then. we are waiting for results. impugnty has been so long in that country. we just can't stand that anymore. jon: director of reporters without borders, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: outrage and backlash, this as central london

students protesting against proposed tuition hikes there. as you can see, the situation, getting it looks like worse, not better. we're continuing to monitor this situation out of london. more developments as we get them. we'll be right back.

jenna: back to central london now where we're watching some incredible photos and video from student protestors who are protesting a proposed

additional rate hike in their tuition. so this is happening at mill bank towers, the headquarters of the conservative party, the lead party here in the u.k., that is proposing some very tough austerity measures, obviously raising tuition and in one stance, cutting services and fees, and other sections in order to try to bring this country back from debt, debt that so many countries, including our own, are carrying right now. jon: of course these students want to be able to attend school, they just don't want to have to pay more money for it and that's what these protests are all about. they have issued a statement, apparently, saying that they stand with poor people and others. they have managed to breach the building and there are protestors on the roof of this office river which sits along the tams river not too far from the houses of parliament, the headquarters of the conservative party. that's where this is all taking place. jenna: if you're looking at your screen, we're seeing a

few different images, one from sky news, the bigger picture on your screen and we're going to listen in to the reporter on site and see if we can get more information of what's going on. >> there's a lot of damage, but before anything gets underway what we want to try to do is clear the area, of course, and that's we still have uniformed officers in sight, and we are making sure they can't get into the building proper. what we're trying to do to do, a lot of people here, we'll have to try and fight our way through but get in a position where we can get near the front there. >> [inaudible] >> police in riot gear have

been searching the upper floors. we know that a lot of the protestors managed to get inside the buildings, not just in the foyers, but on to the roof. jon: again, looking at live pictures from london, where it is, as you can see on the screen, 4:37 p.m., the building that houses the offices of the conservative party which basically won the most recent british parliamentary election, the conservative party building is under attack by a court ad of thousands of students upset over the prospect of paying more to go to college. they have smashed windows and apparently as you're just hearing, some of them have reached the roof of the building.

police have formed a cordon to try to keep them out but so far they have been unsuccessful. who knows what kind of mischief those students are up to inside the building. jenna: the quickest count is around 40,000 students have showed up over the last several hours to protest and again, going back to these austerity measures in europe, where we have seen a whole bunch of protests for different measures, this tuition raise would not happen this year, it would be in the next couple of years that this proposal would go into effect so the students are opposing what would happen in the future additions in their tuition. we are hearing in sky news, it seems like the reporter was talking to a police officer, or a security official there, and we're going to listen back in to see what else we can hear.

>> [pro test and cheering] >> you can get a flavor of the sounds from the courtyard of the protests who has turned somewhat violent, students throwing cooking pots, rocks and other key brie at the officers lined up there. harris faulkner is with us, keeping an eye from the breaking news desk. >> reporter: i have been watching as we've been listening to sky news but now it's being reported -- i had at least one person taken to the hospital, now it's being reported by our sister network sky news that at least eight people have been taken to the hospital with minor injuries with regard to this protest. the numbers have grown, jenna is right, first it was 30,000, now estimates have reached up above 30, maybe as many as 40,000 students. the protestors issued a statement saying that they have occupied the roof, and at one point, you could see

a fire extinguisher being thrown from the roof of that building into the crowd on top of the police in riot gear. they were able to move out of the way but this has taken now a new generation of intensity level. it has now become more violent and we don't know the nature or how these people were injured but we do know that at least one large, rather heavy, if that extinguisher is full, heavy object projected from several stories up, from the roof of this building, into the crowd. the protestors' statement had said we oppose all cuts and they read it fully on the air, but that was kind of just the gist of it. it's not just the tuition hike, but they oppose all cuts in government entitlements that people would be getting. protestors now occupying in their own words the roof of this building. jon and jenna. jenna: let's go back if we can to sky news. it looks like they're interviewing a protester. we can hear what he has to say about this.

>> you condemn what's happening? >> i have mixed feelings about it, to tell you the truth. i understand there are people here doing their job, politicians are doing their jobs and that should be respected. i also think -- i don't think anything changes. >> you think the protests are justified? >> that's what i said. i didn't say anything like that. i think you need to let politicians know that the decisions they make affect people, you know, deeply, and for a long time. >> thank you very much for speaking to us. jenna: we want to mention, we keep on talking about student protests but it's important to point out this is not just any student protest, it's part of a larger union, the national union of students, they have organized this protest against the conservative party and there's also the liberal party in the u.k. and what the protestors are saying, what the union president is saying, let this be a warning to you, that you will lose future generations if you allow

these austerity measures to go through. in some ways, different country, different situation jon but you can see the echos at home as well. jon: the point being this is not just an entirely organic uprising. some of these students were bused in from cities and towns all across great britain. our greg palkot is there, and can perhaps gives us some flavor of exactly what's happening right now. greg. >> reporter: jon, yeah, i think the police were a bit surprised by this whole thing, in fact the metropolitan police scotland yard said we prepared our response anticipating a peaceful protest. can you believe it, they did not anticipate violence, the violence, they got. they also said they only think that it's a small band of trouble makers who are involved in this but in fact they are making a lot of trouble. as you guys have been seeing on our sister network sky news and the reporting that started outside of this office building, which is the headquarters for the

conservative party, the governing party here in the u.k., the party responsible in large part for the cuts that these folks are protesting, and then it moved into the courtyard inside of this tower and then smashing the glass, they went into the lobby, the reception area, and then moved their way up to the roof and apparently as night falls in london, they are planning to occupy at least portions of this building, and there are confrontations being reported between police and protestors at the building. the injuries are counted as nine protestors and two police, our counts of arrest, there are several arrests that have been made here. again, this is in response to the cuts being proposed in university funding from the u.k. and that means higher tuitions, these folks don't want to pay for it and now as you've reported, jon

and jenna, the small group of people making a violent stand here are trying to broaden it out, trying to make it a broader protest against the cuts across the board here in the u.k., the u.k., promising as much as 40 percent cuts in some areas of the government, and so far, the response has been as you would expect from the u.k., polite and staid. this is the first violence that we are, again -- that we account for in the u.k. to these cuts. more people are saying there could be more to come. and there could be more to come tonight here guys. jon: let me ask you about the police response. i know it used to be the case, they didn't even carry weapons in london. i think that changed at least in some circumstances. do they have tear gas, tasers, what do they use when they're getting pelted with rocks by some of these protestors? >> exactly, jon. the standard bobby on the street is like the classic stereotype we think of when we think of police in the

u.k. no weaponry, but just strong words. but no, they do come armed now, and what we've been tracking in the last 20 minutes from the aerial shot, what they are doing is a thing called keveling, which means they're trying to squeeze the number of protestors that are now occupying the large courtyard of this office complex into a smaller area to try to get them away from the building, try to get them away from the plate glass which has had so much damage to the building, the estimates now in the thousands of dollars, and they're trying to use riot control techniques which they also used in the economic summit we have seen here in the past year. sometimes they've gotten in trouble. in fact, jon, for aggressive techniques. so yeah, they can be strong if they want to be, and now i think we get the feeling that this is a time they need to try to get the situation under control, because frankly, it is still jot in control yet thanks.

jenna: let's go straight to the scene, gammal is on the scene in the midst of everything happening. gamal, what can you tell us what you see and hear? >> about five hours a. this was a normal working day outside the conservative party hq, but it has in effect been a standoff between police officers and the demonstrators. i'm about, say, 15 meters from the entrance, and they are trying to send off the protestors, they have the crash helmets on, the shields, and this is a breakaway group of protestors. they've been here, so it's been all afternoon, and then the officers at the moment, they're trying to make sure these protestors were not able to get -- they were able to get inside the building and get on to the

roof of the party headquarters, so they're trying their best to keep the remaining protestors right here, right now, out of the building, and they're driving them back at this moment in time. jenna: gamal, what kind of tactics are the police using? we call it police, but the security -- they're using to keep protestors at bay? >> what they're doing, the police officers, they are -- they have their batons and shields and they are standing fast, they are remaining exactly where they are. they are not giving away any ground. and they've been slowly, slowly pushing or are hoping to push the protestors back. the numbers have actually decreased over the last couple of hours. i've been here since this all began, and the numbers are much fewer now. but they're standing fast, they're not going anywhere, and they're hoping the

remnants of the protestors, once involved in the standoff, will move away shortly. jon: essentially you've got a coalition government in britain right now, right? why are we so upset at the conservative party only? >> well, they're concerned that -- they're upset about the conservative party, and the liberal democrats. they are concerned for the cuts, they say yes, across the board cuts have got to be made, but why against the education service. britain is well respected globally when it comes to education, they say if you cut -- make these cuts, that will not be the case and they're angry at the liberal democrats who in the past supported the students, they said that they wouldn't -- there wouldn't be an increase in the tuition fees and they wouldn't be cut back from their education, but now with the coalition, that doesn't seem to be the case. jenna: gamal, of sky news,

we appreciate those insights we're going to continue to follow this story more, right after the break.

jenna: back to london now where we're seeing tens of thousands of student protestors in the street. as part of a national union of students protest against tuition hikes that have been proposed by the government. it's a developing situation, it's been going on for five hours. but it looks like it keeps on going. we just heard from our sky news reporter that police are trying to contain this crowd and they're continuing to find that challenging. as of right now, # people, we hear, have been taken to the hospital with minor injuries. we'll continue to watch this situation and bring you up to date as we hear more.

jon: the holiday inn hotel chain is trying to stay relevant in these tough economic times, now it is relaunching itself, the makeover, pat of what's working on the road to recovery. phil keating is live in miami. phil. >> reporter: hi jon. the past three years for the hotel industry across the nation has been really, really rough, and the american hotel and lodging association points back to '07 crash of lehman brothers, and in that time, leisure travel dried up, especially the convention travelers, but in that time, holiday inn spent a lot of money on a massive makeover and today, it seems to be paying off. >> thank you for calling holiday inn. i'm stephen. may i help you. >> for every traveler making a new conservation -- reservation at a holiday inn. >> we've gotten rid of the bed spreads and replaced it with triple sheeting.

the brand had really begun to lose its way back in the '70s. we were in our heydays. >> but in the decade since, holiday inn had become less of a holiday and more of a no frills night on the road so holiday inn launched a $1 billion worldwide upgrade and image makeover, despite a recession, creating de cluttered lobbies, nicer showers and bathrooms and dreamier bedding. >> revenue has increased at all the properties they've done, they've been able to increase their share of the market in many of these locations. >> in an industry competing for where you rest your head, improving quality works. >> we know that smart brands invest in tough times and that those brands who invested in those tough times have actually been able to perform. >> reporter: holiday inn has upgraded about 3400 properties worldwide. its owner, the intercontinental hotel group, just yesterday released this year's third quarter profits showing an increase of 54 percent over last year at this time, and

they attribute it entirely to the massively upgraded holiday inns and the success that they are having now at filling those rooms every day. jon. jon: phil keating reporting live from miami, phil, thank you. jenna: lots of breaking news from london, but this one is brand new, coming from the associated press, where british police say forensic evidence now suggests that the yemen mail bomb could have exploded over the eastern united states. we're getting just this fresh breaking news on this. we'll be right back with more on this developing story. ♪

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jon: hello i'm jon scott. high noon in the east. we have lots of breaking news. new developments from coast to coast tan even more cease -- and even or seas coming your way. jenna: we have a live report,

harris faulkner at the breaking news desk and chris gutierrez in salt lake city. nancy pelosi is in the mood to party, is that what we're hearing. >> reporter: they say they are having a meeting to acknowledge all those who helped pass major legislation over the past couple of years. overhauls of the healthcare, and the massive stimulus bill. in less than two months republicans take over the house running on undoing much of what was done in the last two years. jenna: thousands of students put down their books and take to the streets today, harris. >> reporter: police outnumbered as students start rioting outside the building where the conservative party is housed. will reinforcements be enough to keep the violence at bay? warning, really a threat issued in the form of a statement from students who have taken over the roof of the building. the very latest from us. jenna: day three of riveting testimony, elizabeth smart reliving her kidnapped

nightmare. kris, this is the third day of this. >> reporter: you're exactly right. elizabeth smart just wrapped up her testimony for prosecutors. we'll talk about what we might here from the defense team in cross-examination. jenna: breaking report and latest developments coming up on "happening now." jon: the yet to be decided senate race in alaska, republican joe miller is picking up votes as his battle with write-in candidate fell senator lisa murkowski is set to become one huge spelling test. dan springer is live in the state capitol where they are counting some of the ballots. >> reporter: no hanging chads but a spelling contest. any minute we expect to see a security truck pull up and they'll unload all 230,000 ballots cast in alaska in the senate race and take them over to the corner. they will bring them to each one of these tables where election workers in about an hour will start going through one by one,

by hand over these ballots, and determining how many of the write-in votes should go to lisa murkowski. they'll have two different stacks. one will have her name spelled correctly, and the other lisa murkowski's name spelled incorrectly but they have determined that lisa murkowski should get that vote. state law are is clear on this, a vote for lisa murkowski should only be counted if the last name is spelled or the name that is written matches the name on the voter registration form, the write-in candidacy form. there will be a legal challenge on pwhorpb whether or not intent can be determined by election workers who will be going through the ballots in about an hour. you mentioned the gap has narrowed. certainly miller has closed that gap but not by much, a couple thousand votes. he is still trailing the write-in by 11,333 votes which

is about 5% of the vote which is a big, big gap to make up. he's planning to be here with his attorneys trying to challenge any of the votes for lisa murkowski that are spelled correctly. this is expected to take three days. only then will we know if lisa murkowski has pulled off the miracle winning as a write-in candidate. jon: dan springer in alaska, thank you very much. jenna: more information on and an entire county in florida where the schools are in lockdown right now. harris you're busy over there at the breaking news desk. >> reporter: if we want to just put me in one box and put the news conference up in the box what is going on i can tell you what is happening in people broke pines florida right now. they have just announced that the scare that locked them -- caused them to lockdown in mass schools in broward county came from a -- came from a woman who called a radio station this morning who said her husband

would open fire with a gun at a people broke pines school. the police are telling the public they took that threat so seriously that that's what caused a massive lockdown across florida's second largest county, broward county, and particularly people broke pines. we don't know -- pembroke pines. we don't know anything about the threat that came in or what is happening now. they are updating the public as we speak. they are not taking many questions at this point. this is the first that we've heard in more detail about what would cause them to sort of in a domino effect should down one school and it just kept going until we saw an entire counti' schools shut down. that's the very latest from florida. as i stay on this i'll bring you more details that come out of the news conference. jenna: we have more breaking news, jon. jon: we sure do. it is a busy day, jenna, good news and bad news when it comes to the capabilities of al-qaida in the arabian peninsula.

british authorities are reporting that the mail bombs, or at least the mail bomb that they took off of a ups-browned cargo plane in britain was timed to explode over the united states. it was shipped from yemen to cologne, germany, from cologne to britain. it was in britain that authorities noticed something suspicious about that printer cartridge. they took it off, disruplt edit, essentially -- diskupt edit, essentially -- disrupted it, stopped the timing device. if it had not been loaded in great britain it would have been loaded on a u.s. cargo plain in all likelihood it would have exploded on board that plane in the air over the eastern united states. to a second report regarding al-qaida in the arabian peninsula. you might have heard they took credit for the explosion for the fire that downed a united parcel

service 747 in dubai. that crash landed in flames. the pilot had reported smoke in the cockpit. according to the department of homeland security and the fbi there is absolutely no evidence that al-qaida in the arabian peninsula was behind that crash. they had claimed credit for it, trying to bolster their image in that part of the world, but apparently according to the fbi and the department of homeland security there is no evidence whatsoever that there was a bomb or anything else that brought down that cargo 747 back in september. jenna. jenna: lots of breaking news today, jon. we'll head back over to london. you mentioned british authorities breaking this story on this potential mail bomb plot. check out what british authorities have to deal with today, lots of protest, a major protest in the street of london at a building, corporate headquarters, mill bank towers which is the headquarters of the conservative party. the student union is protesting

a rate hike in tuition. you can see what has been happening the last five hours in london. you can see the scene, the different officers trying to hold back the protestors that have smashed windows and at times have become fairly violent. i think it is fair to say that. steve pearl is a former scotland yard detective, also a special operations team leader, he's joining us on the phone to talk to us a little bit about this. steve, what do the authorities have to be here. >> reporter: it looks like a massive demonstration. obviously at this point the police weren't prepared for this level of violence. that said there will always be con sin gent see -- contingencies for any demonstration. scotland yard have what they call of couple of hundred territorial support group officers, and they'll be mustering, ready to deploy to where the major unrest is

occurring. jenna: our connection with steve is a little break up here. we'll tri to get that back. and we'll talk to him a little bit more about this. this protest wasn't supposed to be violent, or really to have any sort of aggression. we are hearing now from sky news and a few other sources that this was an arranged protest, the students gave the authorities heeds up. apparently the authorities were not expecting it to get violent. you have 40,000 students on scene protesting proposed tuition hikes. police, you can see them in their yellow vests, they've been trying to push back the protestors as night falls in london. they are having a tough time. you see the fires, and all of that, and it doesn't look like too much is changing, at least from our eyes. jon: $14,500 the proposed tuition, not even now, not even next year but in 2012 for some

british universities and schools of higher education. that's what they are upset about. we're going to continue to keep an eye on these protests as they go underway in london. now that the dust has settled from the bruising mid-term elections some leading lawmakers are hitting the road. senator mccain, lieberman, brand and gillibrand heading to afghanistan meeting with that country's president as we speak. they are getting a first-hand account of the state of the war there and trying to make plans for the peace to come. conor powell is streaming live to us from kabul. >> reporter: members of congress frequently visit afghanistan to see firsthand what progress if any is being made in the war here. senators mccain, lieberman and brand are frequent visitors having made three trips already. they are visiting with top officials in afghanistan including general david

petraeus. they say they have seen clear evidence that the surge here in afghanistan is working, that it is making serious results, that the u.s. troops, and coalition troops are pushing insurgents out of key areas out of kandahar, helmand and across afghanistan. they express deep concern about corruption in the afghan government. they say the progress made on the ground by u.s. troops could be undermined by this progress and the surge is being under mind by progress here. >> obviously the clearing, holding and securing is vital, and what we are hopeful of is that good governance will go along with that. now whether it actually will or not is yet to be determined. >> reporter: senators mccain, lieberman, graham and gil a brand are meeting with afghan president hamid karzai.

they are all trying to push hamid karzai to do more about cleaning up corruption. so far it has done little to persuade president karzai to cleanup the corruption in afghanistan. many analysts say it's as bad if not worse than its ever been. u.s. senators say they will push and it has to be cleaned up in order for the surge here and the strategy here in afghanistan to ultimately work, jon. jon: conor powell streaming live for us from kabul. connor, thank you. jenna: another fox news alert. senior producer chad pergram throwing a question to john boehner a moment ago at a media availability event. he asked the probable speaker of the house about whether or not he would fly commercial or private in his new role, this is an issue a lot of you have asked about. here is john boehner. >> i have talked to our security

folks about the security that's involved in my new role. but over the last 20 years i have flown back and forth to my december strict on a commercial aircraft and i'm going to continue to do that. jenna: so commercial aircraft, jon, that's what he's going to take. jon: after the 9/11 attacks the secret service says the speaker of the house is third in line after the vice president, and he ought to have security. nancy pelosi started flying in the 747 that belongs to the air force. people are going to ask, so what happens to that plain now it goes back into the air force fleet. jenna: john boehner flying commercial. it's a little closer. jon: he probably gets a lot of frequent flier miles as well. elizabeth smart smart taking the stand for a third day in the trial of man accused of kidnapping her and brute ta hraoeuzing her for months when she was just 14 years old.

what she was saying about her ordeal and how she survived. a live report from the trial next. plus it's our town hall panel. send us your questions, join our live chat, harris is keeping an eye on things. what's the buzz today, harris. >> reporter: there is a trend line going on right now, jon and people are focused in on this. they say we didn't vote for compromise last tuesday, no more spending. new grandma writes who else is already ticked that they are recommending compromise before they even tried to achieve ra peels of wasteful programs. brandon writes, i think compromise should be a constant agenda for our politics. people going back and forth about one particular issue and sometimes getting pretty heated. go to foxnews.com, click on jon and jenna's picture and get in on the live chat. we are coming right back. stay put. ngs. introducing one a day menopause formula. the only complete multivitamin with soy isoflavones to help address hot flashes and mild mood changes.

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tens of thousands of students clashing with police there, storming the conservative party headquarters over university tuition hikes and other government cutbacks that are proposed. harris faulkner is keeping an eye on it. she is at the breaking news desk. >> reporter: i'm getting help from our foreign desk and we are working this as sisters. our sister network sky news and this newsroom together. they sent me a statement that the protestors issued. the protestors saying, this is only the beginning of the resistance to the destruction of what they call the education system and public services. they don't like the tuition hikes, this they don't like loose handgun inch title -plts for higher education and what are they doing? they broke into the conservative party building here. there are a lot of other different offices here. they've pulled the ceiling down in the reception area. they set fires on the fourth floor. they put lives in danger and people who don't have anything to do with this disagreement who work at different offices, disagreements that this group

has with the government. police in response have issued their own statement. british police saying we have now developed a new response plan, and they are moving in with new reinforcements as we speak. that's the very latest from the protest at 30 millbank in downtown london, jon. jon: harris keep an eye on it for us, thank you. jenna: right now some riveting testimony as elizabeth smart returns to the witness stand reliving the nine months in hell with her accused kidnaper. chris gutierrez reporting live in salt lake city. kris you told us her testimony, at least one side of it is over now. >> reporter: yes we heard that the 15-minute cross-examination of elizabeth smart just wrapped up. they didn't really question the facts as smart has outlined over the course of the past two and a half days or so. they didn't really question whether or not mitchell is the man who in fact kidnapped elizabeth from her bedroom, they didn't question whether or not

he did abuse her as smart has testified over the course of the past two days. instead they really spent their time asking questions as to whether or not she felt mitchell fully understood the consequences of his actions. remember, the defense team we're told is probably going to seek this not guilty by reason of insanity. instead of painting a picture of them really harping on what transpired over the course of that nine-month ordeal when elizabeth smart was just 14 years old, instead they'll use that time to question her of whether or not she felt he was insane, jenna back to you. jenna: kris, what have we here learned from elizabeth smart herself about her attempt to escape. >> reporter: we learned something new earlier today. that's been brought up several times in past questioning, whether or not she tried to escape. she said at a hard rock cafe in salt lake city, she scribbled the words "help me," and after a

night of heavy drinking she said mitchell and his estranged wife started arguing. she said this might be my time to escape. she slowly started to sneak off into the night. before she could get away mitchell grabbed her, threatened to tie her up once again and even threatened to kill her if she ever tried that again, jenna. jenna: she was 14 at the time. thank you very much. chris tkpwaou tear edz with -- gutierrez with breaking news for us. jon: do you know what an earmark is. some people call them pork. all projects that are paid for you by you, the taxpayers, now there is a battle in the republican party over these spending projects. what does it mean for you? nancy pelosi will skaopb step down as speaker of the house. why is she throwing a party this afternoon? rich edson on why she thinks there is a reason to celebrate. [ commentator ] lindsey vonn! she stays tough!

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jenna: in today's power play a battle on capitol hill overhanding out your money for a political projects. lawmakers call them earmark, others call them pork. they are becoming a litmus test some say for republicans. chris stirewalt is reporting on this. what really is an earmark. >> reporter: well it all kind of depends on who you ask, jenna. certainly for the tea party set an earmark is a dirty word. it's just pure political pork, a

project that gets carved out for a politician to try to get reelected. that i think is probably what has come to be the conventional definition of earmark. as you have a bunch of tea party candidates rolling up to capitol hill, more than 80 republican freshman are headed to town on monday to get orientated to find out what is going on, as they come in what they are finding is that the definition of an earmark is a little more complicated. jenna: walk us through what makes it complicated and what republicans really have ahead of them to make some of them say to you, chris, that this is a litmus test for republicans. >> reporter: it goes like this. an earmark is dedicated funding for a project. there are a lot of republicans now who are already here in washington, and some across the country who say, look, this is money that is going to get spent no matter what. as long as we're doing it out in the open and as long as we are doing this transparent lee we are taking this -- transparently we are taking this money away

from the bam station. we are not letting the obama administration take it away from us. this is a become and forth battle that is raging. and for these incoming members, what they are getting is the hard sell. you have people who say, look we can't ban earmarks forever, that is going to take away our power to deal with the obama administration, and then on the other side you have their tea party backers who say, look, earmarks are bad news, they are a gateway drug to further pork spending you can't do it. jenna: gateway drug, chris everything is about jobs. you've got the big g-20 meeting that the president is going to be attending. everything about it economy and job creation, what we're going to do about that. why now, why is earmark the key word now? >> reporter: well earmark is as we said the symbol, it became the symbol of corrupt spending in washington. in 2006 they changed the rules. republicans and democrats got together, they said we have to change rules, we have to do these more transparent lee. they have to be out in the open.

for the candidates who ran against democratic incumbents they hammered them for their earmarks and said you cannot do this, this is waste, waste, waste. at the time when the health of the economy and the national debt are seen as corelated people don't want to be out there spending money. jenna: all right we'll see what happens. chris, thank you very much. chris stirewalt in d.c. today. jon: you might not think that outgoing speaker of the house nancy pelosi would be in the mood to party. she is taking an unusual step in the final days of her term hosting a bash this afternoon to celebrate the accomplish -pltsz of the 111th congress. while democrats struggle to find the right language to prepare for their new minority roll. this is a live picture of the speaker as she gets ready for this event. fox business network rich edson is live on capitol hill with more. do the democrats have reason to

celebrate. >> reporter: not outside of tuesday they don't. they passed own overhaul of the financial regulatory system. passed a 800-plus billion dollar stimulus bill. to that speaker pelosi writing in usa today says congressional experts have called the 111th congress the one ending in january the most productive congress in half a century. our democratic members took tough votes to support americans working putting the american people before politics and thinking of the next generation not the election. democrats remain committed to fighting for the people's interests. jon: what is next for the democrats and nancy pelosi? >> reporter: oddly enough when we talk about looking back on the two years that speaker pelosi presided over that are coming to an end in january, they will be defending those two

years, that's because the house republican leader, the presumptive speaker of the house starting in the next congress john boehner and republicans have pledged to pretty much try to undue all that speaker pelosi and democrats have done here on capitol hill shall at least try to alter the healthcare bill, perhaps some changes to the financial regulatory overhaul and some of the other proposals here on capitol hill. as much as we look forward to the next two years it will be an awful lot about the last two years. jon: rich edson coming to us from capitol hill. thank you. jenna: it's a mystery off in the sky off the california coast. is it a missile, a jet? we're going to ask a former commander and navy official about that. california's budget keeps going into rehab like lindsay lohan only to have a relapse. will governor-elect jerry brown's find a cure for the state's big spending or become

enabler in chief. we have that story ahead.

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i'm hugh jidette. i'm running for president. if elected promise our 13 trillion dollar debt will double, maybe even triple. i'll continue to ignore our spiraling i'm hugh jidette and i say borrow like there's no tomorrow. jon: a fox news alert. british police are just now saying that forensic evidence shows a mail bomb sent from yemen to chicago on a cargo plane could have exploded over the east coast of the united states. authorities were tipped off to the plot, they intercepted the plane at the east midlands airport in england, opened up the package and disarmed the bomb. we're joined on the phone by scott webber, he served as

senior counsel to secretary chertoff at homeland security. scott, obviously it would not have had the same impact as the 9/11 attacks did but any time you blow up an airliner in the skies over the east coast, you have scared an awful lot of people. is that the goal here you think? >> i think that's part of the goal. the other part of the goal is to disrupt our economy. there are two things that al-qaeda looks to do: both are catastrophic. one is to cause as much death and destruction as humanly possible. the other is to disrupt our economy. and the reliance that we have in the global economy on shipping from country to country and over the ocean is so big that if they were to perpetrate this successfully it could have had a cascading effect on international shipping. jon: they seem to get a little more sophisticated with each attempt. i mean, department of homeland security and obviously in this case the british authorities and the saudis who apparently tipped us off to this plot did a

great job, but again, as has been said, we have to be right 100 percent of the time, the terrorist s only have to get lucky once. >> that is true, the threat is ever evolving, you have individuals who, though they are psychotic and sociopaths, tend to be quite bright in some instances, others tend to be not that bright, like our friend the underwear bomber, but they are trying to figure out unique ways and are thinking about it 24/7 on how they can cause mass havoc and catastrophes around the world. jon: scott webber, who was senior counsel to michael chertoff when he was head of the department of homeland security and just this note, it is crossing the wires from reuters news service that five terror suspects arrested in paris this week is suspected of conspiring to launch an attack in france, one of them was prepared to die, all five suspects are french and included one woman. jenna. jenna: lots of developments, and breaking news around the

world. we have this fox news alert. violent protests in the streets of london. tens of thousands of students, clashing with police there over proposed tuition hikes, and other government cutbacks, you're seeing some of the protests on your screen now, video from the events of the day. joining me on the phone from central london, the national union students vice president susan nash, the national union of students is the group that organized this protest. so susan, we've heard that some of the protestors have gotten violent, there have been some reports of folks going to the hospital. what are your thoughts on how the protests went today? >> the majority of the protests have been positive, we have 50,000 students, academics, parents, grandparents, come out to protest the higher costs to education, but a small minority of students, all members of the demonstration, have taken things too far and we condemn the violent activity that you have seen on your

screens and activities of a small minority. jenna: most of us are not familiar with the national union of students. what exactly is your role? >> the national union of students represents 7 million students in the u.k. in further and higher education and we organize the joint demonstration with the ucu and today we've seen the majority acting in a peaceful way against the bottom's proposals. jenna: i don't know if we lost susan. i'm sorry, susan, it looked like you cut off for just a moment. i'll let you continue. i'm sorry. >> actually, she's actually -- unfortunately we lost that connection. susan nash is president of the national students union that is organizing the protest you see on your screen now. it's nighttime, we should mention, in london and there have still been remnants of this protest, that susan said is 50,000 strong, protesting proposed government hikes on tuition for students. one of the questions i didn't get to is what their

suggestion is for the government, because so many different economies are being affected by this worldwide recession, so we know that certain cuts have to be made and certain fees have to be raised and not man of us like it very much. this is also brand new video, we're just hearing about it, it looks like some arrests being made. we don't have the numbers on that now, we do know that eight folks were taken to the hospital, according to some sources with minor injuries, but we'll look for more updates. jon: let me read an e-mail from adam marsh in london, he's a u.k. citizen, sickened by these protestors, these are middle class, meaning upper class in u.s. terminology, teenagers protesting in favor of higher taxes, used to subsidize their lifestyle , and adam marsh says it is pathetic and reprehensible. jenna: just one opinion. there you go. jon: right now the mystery in the skies off the california coast. take a look at the picture. is it from a jet, a missile, or something else? some 24 hours after the

pentagon says what we are looking at poses no threat, what is it? and should we be concerned? let's bring in former nato commander and u.s. commander of the sixth fleet, admiral john stufflebeem. if this were a military missile or projectile of some sort, we have to believe the u.s. military would admit it and so far the military is saying no, it's not ours, right? >> correct, and i don't believe that it is a missile. my logic tells me it's a jet aircraft. jon: that's what it likes like to you? because it's coming out of the west, the contrail illuminated by the setting sun? >> well, that's part of it. let me give you the three reasons that i believe it is a jet aircraft. the first is if there was really a surface to air missile fired of that apparent size there would be a lot of data available from our national intelligence systems that tell us it happened, and they say it did not.

secondly, i've seen a lot of surface to air missile launches, i've seen both from the ground and from the cockpit of an airplane, i've seen the space shuttle launch from on the ground and from an airplane. the plumes of those kinds of launches tend to dissipate very quickly, closer to the ground. and thirdly, you take a look at the imagery itself, if you are up in a helicopter, say 1000 feet above the ground, and you're looking to the west, the sun has set, you can see that the low clouds in the distance are still illuminated by the sun, you can then see at the top of the frame the dark clouds which are in the shadow as the sunlight has retreated over the horizon, and what you see is this long contrail of a jet aircraft flying at high altitude, straight at the u.s., and that's why having flown for thousands of hours and many years and having seen the very similar kind of a thing, that's why i believe that it's a jet aircraft. jon: this picture that we have on the screen now, and there it goarks we'll try and get it back up, but the picture that we have seems to show, though, a bright point of light and i think that's what made a lot of

people -- there it is -- a lot of people think that has to be the rocket plume. i suppose it is possible thatit the sun reflecting off the belly of the wings of an aircraft if that is what this is. >> yeah, and i agree with that. so many times, as a fighter pilot, as i'm looking for a target that's almost beyond my visual range of glint, of reflection of -- a glint, a reflection of the sun can sometimes give it away and the sun is a very strong source. if we are shot down, almost our primary device is a mirror to reflect the sunlight. >> john stuffelbeem says it was not a missile. admiral, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: we'll keep on working that mystery. meantime, to another fire in the sky, critical controls knocked out on the dreamliner, and a test pilot declares an in-flight emergency. what it means to boeing's new planes. we have that straight ahead.

megyn: hey everyone i'm megyn kelly, the democrats lost over 60 seats in the house last week. cue the democratic celebration? monica crowley reacts. plus president obama rips on israel again. john bolton is here with his reaction. plus the sentence given to that dad who stormed the school bus to protect his disabled daughter from bullies has many outraged. did you hear what he got? we'll have a full report. and the woman who solved the wheel of fortune puzzle with one letter reveals her actual secret behind doing it. see you top of the hour. jenna: the day after california voters elected democrat jerry brown as the next governor brown declared if you want frugality i'm your man. with the golden state facing

a $19 billion decifit, is brown really the guy to bail it out? william la jeunesse has that story from our l.a. bureau, appropriately so. so william, what kind of message did california voters send, do they really think that brown can do the job? >> it may seem schizophrenic because within own hand they vote fod liberal democrats, engineer oh brown, but they also want fiscal responsibility. that's going to make it tough on brown who boasted that 30 years ago he balanced a budget during the recession. well, the budget back then was 10 billion right now the decifit alone is twice that. and voters last tuesday said no to new car taxes, no to more fees and surcharge, and no to taking money from cities and towns to balance the budget. >> the voters said here's how much money you have, you are not going to raise taxes. so the voters rejected all tax increases and restricted

increases in fees. and basically said to the legislature, here's the amount of money you have, now you have to allocate it. >> reporter: and one other problem, jenna. washington is in no mood to bail out california. we've got 85 billion in stimulus. that's not going to happen again. jenna: i would say based on our chat today, william, our viewers aren't in the mood for any bailouts as well. so what actions does jerry brown have here? >> well, he's got two big problems. number one, there was about $12 billion in temporary taxes. that's gone. that was under arnold. also, washington was using something called build america bonds, basically underwritten by federal taxpayers because california couldn't afford to float its own bonds. congress may eliminate those. so jerry has basically four choices. he can open jails, he can cut public safety, or he can gut social programs or raise taxes. none of those are going to

go over very well with the public. finally, jenna, voters also now allow us to pass a budget with a simple majority. well, democrats own sacramento, they can't blame republicans anymore so when the cuts come and taxes come, guess who's going to get the blame? ery brown. back to you. jenna: we'll see if he can do it. william, thank you very much. >> you bet. jon: america is asking, and we are answering your questions. like this one. one of our viewers wants to know why the senate and the house are expected to compromise with the president. they have had six years to compromise, according to our viewers. we'll get back to our town hall questions just ahead.

jon: all right, a lot of questions coming into our

newsroom from you our viewers. former ohio congressman bob mcewen is a republican and senior fellow at united in purpose.org, democratic maria rment ardona was a senior adviser to hillary clinton's campaign and david drucker is a staff writer for roll call. let me start with a question from rick akly in utah, david, tackle it first, what are the channels the feds will bail out the states that are bankrupt. no state is officially bankrupt yet but california and new york aren't in such good shape. what's the mood on capitol hill? >> the mood is antibailout, and with the republican house that's set to take office in january the chance of more federally funded bailouts, particularly for the states where a lot of that money goes for state employees which helps funds unions, the appetite is not going to be there so i think you can cross that one off the list. jenna: let me bring in part of this to add to the panel and we'll get your thoughts as well, congressman. one of the things that just passed the wires according

to reuters now is a report coming from our decifit panel that's looking at ways to cut our debt, and this is the breaking news out of this report, that this panel is recommending raising americans' retirement age, and phasing in spending cuts, and i'm seeing even another alert that's saying they are proposing curbing social security increases. congressman, that's the recommendation coming from this panel, apparently about what we should do about our decifit. what do you think? >> well, it's really not very complicated. when you're borrowing 42 cents out of every dollar, you have to reduce the outgood. you can't raise enough taxes it would stall the economy, anyway. 40 percent of all of our national debt from george washington to tonight, 40 percent of all that debt has been added since the day that nancy pelosi picked up the gavel 46 months ago. the problem is not taxes, we've never been taxed this high. the outgood and the spending is what has to be addressed in this next congress. jon: murray, here's a question i'm going to ask for you, bonnie in houston,

texas, she gets mad at pundits talking about the last eight years of failed polices, she's referring to the bush administration there, she says dems had the house and senate for bush of -- six of bush's eight years. why is this argument not thrown back at the democratic pundits? maria, you're a democratic pundit. >> absolutely and i'm one that uses that argument very often and the reality is that democrats did not have control for six of those eight years, they had control for two of those eight years, and it's tough to reverse in two years what was already in play for six of those eight years, so i think that it is absolutely real for democrats to continue to point out that president obama did not come into the oval office on a level playing field. he was handed a $1.5 trillion decifit from the bush administration, from those failed economic polices, and he has had to do what is necessary to get us out of that incredibly

large hole. so that's the reality of it. that's why it keeps coming up. jon: congressman mcewen, you want to take that on? >> the decifit was actually $300 billion, on the first day he took office, ten days after barack obama became president of the united states, they passed an additional nearly 1 trillion, $800 billion in the stimulus. didn't go to the defense department, didn't go to interior, didn't go to agriculture. this was just went out and borrowed an additional billion dollars, which they continually quote as saying they inherited this decifit of 1.5 trillion. no, no, no, no, no, no, no. the national debt average during the bush administration was 2 1/2% of gdp. the first year that they took office, house senate and presidency, it increased to 11 percent, a 5-fold increase during these last two years. jenna: that's pretty good math thereof the top of your head, don't you think, jon? jon: elect that man to congress! jenna: he's already been there! let's bring you the news of the day. we appreciate your opinions,

maria. this one is for david. david was seeing the protest happens in london, the student protests and michelle had a question about whether or not you all felt that we're going to see some of those protests here in the united states, especially with that news we just got about raising the retirement age here. do you expect to see that david? >> no, i don't. i think americans are a little more civil and responsible than europeans. we tend to protest pretty deeply when there are real things in play, not when our college tuition is going up. so i don't think quite we're the children that are going to put the tantrum like they've done across the atlantic. but i do think that -- >> jenna: let me ask maria about that, it's funny you say that, we're way more civil and you take a look at what happens in congress and you wonder if that's really the truth. >> look, clearly what was going on over there is a difficult situation, and from what i understand, the tuitions are going up from $5000 to $15,000. that is a pretty big jump. but clearly, we don't live there, we don't understand what the details are, but in

terms of civility, i think it's just an indication that these tough times that everybody is feeling are really global in nature. we're not the only ones that are going through this. this is a global recession. this is something that everybody is going through and i think we do have to take a step back and try to be civil. you had one of the readers' comments earlier about how are democrats and republicans going to compromise. i think that's exactly what they need to do. that is what voters voted for in this election cycle and we need to try to return to that civil discourse. jon: maria cardona was a senior adviser to hillary clinton's campaign, bob mcewen, a former congressman from -- from ohio, republican congressman is the word i was trying to get in there, and david drucker, senior writer at roll call. thank you. jenna: they were all very civil and we appreciate that from our panel! jon: let's not all go riot at the eiffel tower. jenna: we won't. but speaking of riots and protests, we got to get you back to central london because they say upwards of

50,000 students, clashing with police, storming the ruling party headquarters. the very latest from that scene is just ahead. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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