before the big wedding. we'll find out how that -- >> brian: find out what your bride looks like. >> gretchen: maybe it's for the grooms, too. >> brian: could be. >> gretchen: also we'll have geraldo rivera tomorrow. >> brian: guess what? repelling up the top of a building. >> steve: 30 stories. amazing. see you tomorrow, everybody. showdown in the house today, democrats bringing the tax cut issue to a vote and daring republicans to vote against it. this is going to be some kind of political theater! happening in that dome right there. good morning i'm bill hemmer, welcome to "america's newsroom". we have plenty to talk about. martha: good morning, bill. how you doing? we sure do. i'm martha maccallum. it's political chicken, house democrats challenging republicans to go on record for extending the tax cuts for only the middle class and john boehner saying

democrats, they still don't -- democrats, they still don't get it. >> the house leaders are going to go down this path of jerry mannerring this process and they have only one option, that's for voting on some relief to the american people, i think it's wrong, it does undercut the conversations we had just yesterday, all continuing to play political games. imagine, people said election day, stop the games >> the president's position obviously is, as he stated, has stated before, and that is our goal is to ensure that middle class families don't see their tax bills go up on new year's day. bill: it is game on. it's your paycheck that literally hangs in the balance. molly henneberg leads our coverage. molly, good morning to you. does it pass or does it fail? >> reporter: democratic house leaders certainly have the numbers to pass it but it's not clear if it will actually pass. if it were to pass, this

would be more -- maybe be more symbolic, it would allow democrats while they still control the house to show their base that they do not want to extend these tax cuts for the wealthy. republicans want to extend them for everyone, saying no one should get a tax hike in a recession. the vote in the house should be first up, it would extend bush tax cuts for -- families making $250,000 or less. it's not expected to pass in the senate. bill: republicanning are holding firm, with 42 votes in the senate. if that's the case, and it passes on the floor of the house and doesn't get anywhere in the senate, what happens then? and what are the chances of a deal by the end of this year? >> reporter: according to the temperature senate republican mitch mcconnell, the final sticking point between republicans and the obama administration, they're trying to work out a deal, is how long to extend the tax cuts for everyone. the white house has signaled that the president might go along with a temporary extension of all the tax cuts, but would not agree to a permanent extension. president obama has called for, quote, some sensible common ground, and bill, it

may end up being a 1-3 year continuation of the tax cuts for everyone, and then lawmakers would probably have to take it up again. bill: it's your town, molly, good luck living in it, okay? >> thanks! bill: wow. here's what it all means in terms of cost to you and to the government. if all the tax cuts are made permanent, it will cost nearly $4 trillion over the next ten years, the middle class tax cuts would cover about $3 trillion of that, the cut for the wealthy americans comes out to about $700 billion over ten years. on the other hand, if all the tax cuts expire, a person earning 30 grand a year could see a tax increase of $771. a person who makes or takes home $100,000 every year would see an increase of more than $3500, to seep an eye on the pay stubs, america, it's happening today. martha: all right. and for those who are not getting any pay stubs, that number, unhe can't -- unexpectedly spiking, unemployment benefits, it starts to run out, the benefits people have been receiving for about

2 million americans this week. meanwhile new claims rose. here's the number that just came out, 436,000. that is a jump of 23,000 people who are now having to get on that line and file for unemployment claims. tomorrow we're going to get the whole look at the month of november for that rate. economists predict it will stay stuck above the 9 percent unemployment rate level for the united states right now, and that streak of high unemployment numbers could break the record that was set back in the 1980s. bill: well, the president's bipartisan decifit commission, dealing with a nightmare right now. expected to vote tomorrow on the plan to get our money problems under control. they are proposing, among many things, to reduce nearly $4 trillion from the decifit over the next ten years. scale back a host of popular tax credits, freeze department department salaries for about three years, and increase the retirement age to 69 by the year 2075. there's a lot of other things involved. these are just a few of them

one of the most influential democrats on the panel saying he's okay with all of this in america -- and america must act now. >> on the left, they won't like me for saying it, but what you have suggested, increasing the social security retirement age, is acceptable to me. to raise it one year over 40 years is hardly radical. bill: so what do you think? do you agree raising the retirement age to save social security? go to our web page, foxnews.com/"america's newsroom", cast your vote, see what others are saying about it and look at how states are dealing with their own budget gaps, and bobby jindal is our guest in 30 minutes, he's got a plan for louisiana. and louisiana needs help. $1.7 billion in the hole. martha. martha: outrage growing over this issue, as well this morning. your tax dollars, going overseas, during the height of the financial -- financial meltdown, the federal reserve -- let me say it again, we sent

$3.3 trillion in emergency cash to a slew of u.s. banks and other american firms but we also learned that a huge chunk of that money went abroad. take a look at this list. some of the money during this financial bailout period went to the swiss banking giant ubs, they got 37 billion of u.s. american taxpayers, the british bank barclays, they got $10 billion, and belgian bank dexaa.g. put in $20 billion. eric bolling will help us make sense of this from the fox business network. good morning, eric. obviously ubs has a huge trading arm this year in -- based here in the united states. it would make sense that we had to bolster these banks if we were going to bolster our own. >> absolutely, i get your point here, there's a web, any financial transaction may go through country to country, may come back here. if you're going to go ahead and bail out u.s. banks, do you go ahead and bail out the foreign banks. so those who say don't bail

out any banks, too big to fail, too important to fail, has risks associated with it, so when you spend $3.3 trillion, and right now, i'm reading estimates could be as high as $9 trillion of emergency loans that went to not all u.s. banks but around the world, not only banks, martha -- here's the other part of it. in some cases, korean auto companies, other financial institutions that aren't banks alone were getting u.s. -- were getting aid for little or no interest. this is a very, very, daunting, scary process because if it happens again, they may take these risky loans, they may put themselves back in that position where they need a bailout and the only one to bail them out is the u.s. martha: eric, when does this happen? does it trace back to the bush administration when banks across the country were baffle told they had to make money? >> this starts in 2008 going forward, but did the problems start under the bush administration?

probably. did some the risky behaviors that have been going on start during then? absolutely. but i think what they've tried to do is they've tried to close those things. a bank can't take a loan, a mortgage, then resell it 15, 16 different times to make a profit on it when it's only worth this and not this. so those things are over. but the problem is will they go ahead and take risky behavior, make risky loans, and then go -- and go u.s. give us a handout, you did it before, do it again. martha: in my mind, it's all linked. if you're going to do it for the huge banks in the united states, small banks as well, then you have to do it for the banks that they're doing business with, because all of them share the underwriting as you well know. if doesn't make any sense if you're going to bolster some part of the system ow not another part of the system. but i hear you. perhaps the initial question is the important wound -- one, do we bail out anyone at all. >> part of this loan program that we're talking about may be the -- i'll give you that, i don't think we should bail out any of them but if you did, go ahead,

you can't let ubs fail if, you know, citigroup is in for them for hundreds of billions of dollars but ge, did they really need bailout, goldman sachs, did they need to tap this line? how about foreign auto companies? the system got abused is part of the problem. martha: absolutely. i don't think there's too much argument about that. eric, thank you very much. fascinating stuff that we're still learning about. you can followle -- follow the money with eric bolling, fox business network, every monday through friday night,sy prime time on fbn, times on your screen there, folks. you can see eric pretty much all the time on tv! bill: more developments on the wickileaks scandal. julian assange want sweden on rape charges, a spokesman from wickileaks saying this about his whereabouts. >> we were just talking about security, you think about the threats that we've heard against our people, and against julian at this

time, it's just tremendous -- it's necessary that his location is kept secret. bill: there are new questions about the obama administration's handling of this threat as the website releases thousands of secret diplomatic documents. the attorney general eric holder announcing a government crackdown on websites that sell counterfeit designer purses. >> pretty serious stuff. bill: so is the justice department letting wickileaks run wild? our panel weighs in on that straight ahead. it is the holiday season. you get bargains on canal street. -- martha: and we talk to a congresswoman about that juxtaposition. just when it looks like we might start to see bipartisan action, we're going to get a vote most likely today, folks, and it is expected to get very heated -- heated. will it sandbag is chance for the bush tax cuts? will time run out?

we're going to ask dana perino. bill: chilling calls from a student holding other students and a teacher at gunpoint.

bill: there is a big showdown expected today over the bush-era tax cuts, this coming as republican leaders in the white house were trying to hammer out a bipartisan compromise. all signs seem to be pointing to a possible deal. here's the press secretary robert gibbs on that: >> what everyone agreed on yesterday, and that is this is a problem that has to be dealt with by the end of the year. we cannot have congress leave for the holidays

without a solution to an issue that will bring a hard ship -- potentially a big hardship to middle class families at the end of the year. bill: then house democrats scheduled to vote today to force the hand of republicans. could this undermine a deal? how ugly might this get? dana perino, former white house secretary for president bush and fox news contributor, pressure off the book tour, good morning to you dana. what's going on? it's like a big kabookie dan and there's political theater everywhere! >> and it's just tuesday they had a meeting at the white house in which nothing really happened except for an agreement to have continued negotiations and discussions and then the very next day, the house democrats, led by speaker pelosi, and probably will be followed in the senate, decide to hold a vote today. bill: and this is my question: what is their strategy? >> well, you know, i wish i could understand it. i think that what it is is a play to the base. it's the show that she is

following through on her promise that she made that she would hold this vote to make sure that the tax cuts for the rich weren't extended. the problem is it doesn't help president obama, and it flies in the face of the bipartisanship they were calling for. let me tell you this, bill. the only thing that will be bipartisan today when they vote on this is a vote against tax hikes. they won't get any republicans to vote for that, but they'll get several democrats. what i was told today is it's not even clear that the house democrats actually have the votes to be successful today. bill: that may go back to what that -- with the house democrats before the election. you said something, this does not help president obama. why not? >> well, because, one, it flies in the face of him holding a meeting on tuesday, inviting everybody down to the white house and agreeing that they would continue to have discussions, and you saw the press secretary robert gibbs having a conciliatory tone, saying everybody is going to work together, they hold this vote today, and let me tell you what will happen.

they are about to from a communications standpoint which is what i like to look at, they're about the change the language that everybody talking about the bush tax cuts to these being the obama tax hikes if they don't get this done. earlier in your show, you were talking about the impact it will have on people if these tax hikes are allowed to take place, january 1st. karl rove is in his column today in the "wall street journal," he details that, and it's not going to help president obama because if they don't get this done before the end of the year, i think the economic growth that will inevitably return to the country over the next few years will be delayed and it won't help him in his reelection. bill: that's interesting. we know what the fate in the sen tkwrat is because the republican senators got together and signed a letter that said listen, we're not going to take up any matters on the floor of the senate unless it deals with tax cuts, the budget or the economy. so that takes a lot of things off the table. so if the house democrats do pass it today, it goes to the senate and sits there, does that mean, then, that

these lapse on the first of january? >> let's look at what senator mcconnell said yesterday. he promised that no one in america will see their taxes increase and that they will block that, and -- so that's what they promised voters they would do and i would take him at his word. i think at the end of the day, what happens is these current tax rates that everybody has will continue, there will be -- there will be a 2-3 year extension and the only question really is do you add unemployment benefits on top of that to get the bill passed and done so that this lame duck congress can come to an end. bill: that's a separate argument than unemployment benefits, but what you're saying is you believe the extension happens. >> i do, but i think that they'll tack on unemployment benefits, too. bill: i understand that. but does this happen before the first of the year or does this trickle into 2011 and you've got two or three days into the new year, where then the house leadership comes in and now it's republican and puts it through? >> if they're smart, they'll

get it done before the end of the year, but they haven't shown that they're very smart in the past, so i don't know if they will. a lot of this vote today is purely ideological to show the base they're following through on what they can do and that's fine, you take a principled stand, you make your members vote ton and then we know where members stand but the problem is the voters -- members vote -- members voting today won't be there january 1st. bill: your point about mcconnell was well taken, whether to extend them one your or two years. thank you for your time. it will be interesting to watch in that building behind you. dana perino from washington, thanks. nineteen past. martha. martha: well, you think uncle sam has financial problems? they were just talking about that. wait until you see the top five states in this country and what kind of trouble they are really in. is your state on that list? and the oil drilling ban that the white house just announced is not going to add any jobs in florida or louisiana, that is for sure.

we're going to talk to governor bobby jindal, he has a plan about what to do about that. bill: hey martha, is there life out there? ok deep into space now, nasa has what it says is a major announcement later this morning. generating buzz in cyberspace to outer space and back again! >> ♪ >> ♪

bill: this call certainly was stunning, an armed student holding 24 classmates and a teacher hostage outside of a high school in wisconsin, police now releasing the 911 call from the principal inside the building: >> emergency center. >> yes, this is marinette high school, we have a student holding a class hostage right now. >> okay whorbgs is hold thank? >> a student that's holding an entire class.

>> okay, does he have any weapons? >> yes he does. >> what does he have? >> he has a pistol. bill: he was a 15-year-old by the same of sam hengel, he eventually released everyone after a 6-hour standoff. he died on tuesday from a self-inflicted gun shot. investigators still trying to figure out why he did it. those answers, still elusive martha: there's a lot of buzz today about a big nasa news conference that is set for this afternoon. nasa revealing that it has something to do with the search for extra tomorrowestral life. of course, that has created quite a bit of fascination with what they're going to say. has the space agency discovered that we are not alone in this galaxy and could there be life on the moon or maybe another moon in the solar system? who better to ask than phil keating who joins us live from miami. what are we talking about here, little green men, intelligent life, something along those lines? >> reporter: something not that exact, but we don't know exactly what nasa is

going to announce. we know that at 2:00 eastern time, nasa is going to have a news conference announcing its new astrobiology discovery, and since nasa won't say anything about what's going to be said, the internet has just been exploding with commentary and speculation ever since yesterday afternoon and a lot of people believe it's all going to boil down to yosemite national park because one of the four featured scientists at today's 2:00 news conference is simon, who spent the past two years researching mono lake in california, that lake has one of the highest concentrations of arsenic on planet earth and the speculation is she may have discovered that microbes can actually exist in that very poisonous environment where all other life that we know of exists on phos or us. everyone has that as a basic building block of their member ab lism but it's something that can exist on

arsenic and that leads -- leads many to think that life forms can exist on other planets that don't have such friendly atmosphere. martha: the basis for our life and all human life as we know it that they found something that has a different basis for life and that that might sort of document that something came from elsewhere, i suppose. >> right. it's speculation that it's alien life discovered right here on planet earth that nobody knew. martha: it's very interesting. i'm looking forward to hear what they found. you know, a lot of the speculation that you talked about on the internet has focused on one of the moons of saturn. why is that the focus? >> reporter: the moon in particular is titan, it is a very large moon, the second largest moon in our galaxy. it is larger than the planet mercury, which is the closest planet orbiting around the sun. it has a thick atmosphere, much like earth, much like venus, so a lot of people have speculated, hey, here is a logical place to look

to see if possibly some other life forms exist outside of earth. martha: fascinating. phil, thank you very much. you don't want to miss what our physics professor friend who's coming by, michio kaku has to say about this. we're going to talk to him next hour and at 2-bg, "america live" will have full coverage of this major nasa news conference. what do you think bill? bill: i think it will be mildly interesting. martha: mildly interesting! bill: the little guys, right? >> martha: really little. but the question is if their foundation of life is different from all of ours as we know it, where do they come from? >> so far, i don't think any of that stuff has come back here, so i guess it's reason to watch, michio kaku on a thursday, next hour. thousands more americans losing their jobs last week alone. now more than 2 million americans could lose their unemployment benefits. what is the answer, america? will congress act on that? also -- >> martha: plus which of

these is a bigger threat to u.s. national security, folks? on the left, a fake louis vuitton purse, on the right, wickileaks founder julian assange. one congresswoman has a bit of a reality check for the u.s. government. >> i have an idea for attorney general holder. shut down wickileaks, which represents a far greater threat to our national security than the sale of fake lewis vuitton purses.

bill: 9:30, new york, top stories, major retailers supporting strong sales in november, raising hopes for a stronger holiday shopping season. today the house expected to vote to censure democratic congressman charlie rangel, if that happens rangel will stand on the floor of the house and be read his punishment, only 22 congress members have received a censure in the history of the country. >> london is cold, freezing temperatures and heavy snow causing big problems throughout britain, the railroads and roads and air

travelers facing major delays in parts of europe today. martha: well, there is new outrage over comments by u.s. attorney general eric holder that are reverberating a bit on capitol hill. take a look at the timeline, one day after wickileaks dropped the bum shell dump, there was a pre-arranged announcement they were cracking down on websites that break counterfeit laws, so here's what eric holder was talking about first on cyber monday. take a look: >> operation in our sites, too, targeted online retailers of a diverse array of counterfeit goods, including sports equipment, shoes, handbags, athletic apparel, sunday glasses and illegal copies of dvds, music and software. martha: one republican congresswoman says mr. holder should be focusing on only one website right now. take a listen to what she

had to say. >> well, i have an idea for attorney general holder: shut down w*ubg i leaks, which represents a far greater threat to our national security than the sale of fake louis vuitton purses. it's time that the obama administration treat wickileaks for what it is, a terrorist organization, whose continued operations threatens our security. shut it down. shut it down. it is time to shut down this terrorist organization, this terrorist website wickileaks. martha: representative mill er. kirsten powers is fox news contributor, and k.t., welcome to both of you. eric holder was questioned about this issue on monday. we showed the prior pre-arranged issue that he talked about that had to do with counterfeit hand bags, he was asked of course about wick i leeks and what the doj was doing about it. here's what he said. >> it puts at risk individuals who are serving this country in a variety of capacities, either as diplomats, as intelligence

assets, puts at risk the relationships that we have with important allies around the world. we have an active, ongoing criminal investigation with regard to this matter. martha: so kirsten, the criticism over this administration really from the top down has been that they're out of touch, that they talk about stuff that people don't care about and they don't sort of notice the big huge elephant in the room like this and get to the immediate matter. why didn't eric holder start with wickileaks and talk about fake louis vuittons? >> i think you're right that, is the criticism. they are constantly making sort of p.r. missteps where they don't seem to be in touch with what most people are focused on or where most americans are. the question really is what the doj could be doing, whether or not they have cause to be shuting this down. i think probably the better way to handle this is what happened with just having government talking to amazon, saying stop the

site, versus the government stopping free speech, which is essentially what this is, no matter how vial people may find it. it is free speech. martha: but the message that gets across is this is not a priority, that it doesn't matter. the president said nothing really about this entire wickileaks thing and there was some talk about a reason that might be viable for doing that, but what you hear everywhere is that people don't get that, they don't understand where the urgency is, the understanding of this threat, where is it? >> that's exactly right martha, and the real frustration is that many of us knew that this was an information terrorism organization eight months ago and unfortunately, folks from the obama administration and many on the left were busy sort of classifying some kind of amorphous journalism outfit when we knew what was going on. what's changed now is a high ranking member of the obama administration, hillary clinton, has been embarrassed so they seem to be taking it a little bit

more seriously, but certainly not as seriously as they should be. martha: then you have robert gibbs yesterday kirsten coming out and saying we're not afraid of a $35 website that can be purchased and one guy, but you -- but you know what i would put out there is why not discuss -- you don't have to give julian assange all of this sort of -- you don't have to put him on a pedestal where he's going to become a bizarre folk hero for people who think this is an excuse for free speech but what you can do is establish this as a precedent and say that we understand that terrorism can take the form of cyber warfare and hacking and we're serious about this, we get it. >> well, it can, but i don't really see how it has i think is the problem. you're referring to him as a terrorist, and i don't really see him as a terrorist, unfortunately. martha: you know what i'm referring to? hold on, kirsten. i didn't refer tom as a terrorist, although a lot of people have he may be. let me finish my thought. the reason i brought that up, i spoke to k.t. mcfarland the other day who worked in several different

security capacities and white houses and she said this is the new form of terrorism. you've now got people battling on the internet to take this guy down. there is a war going on here on the internet to get him down and for him to stay up and be able to stay up on his network. this is a serious issue and it's not going to go away with him. there will be more of this. >> i think it is a serious issue and something to be aware of that one person can wreak havoc if they want to but i think we have to be careful about how we talk about this site, a lot of people are talking about he should be shot, killed. he's not a terrorist. >> he should be prosecuted. he should be prosecuted. >> he can be prosecuted under the law, but there's a lot of just talk of he's treasonnist, he's not even an american, for starters. i'm just saying we need to look at this for what it is, and it you -- when you compare him to al-qaeda, i'm just saying, i don't see it. you know, when we heard a lot of about this from the w*ubg i leaks, when they came out about iraq, all these people are going to be killed and in fact it's not really what happened, so i'm just saying let's look at what is actually happening

and not be hysterical. martha: kirsten powers, thank you very much, s. s.e.cupp. we'll talk about the military implications with general keys. that is still coming up. thank you ladies. >> thank you martha. bill: there was a war raging just over our southern border, turning thousands of mexicans into virtual refugees, out of control drug violence, forcing thousands to leave everything behind and this place is not far from el paso, texas. steve harrigan is there live this morning. what did you find, steve? >> reporter: bill, a lot of places you hear about how dangerous they are in the media, then when you finally get there it doesn't live up to the hype. that is not the case with waez, mexico, we spent three days inside the city with a police radio and the murders don't stop. >> reporter: in two states of mexico that border the u.s., the central government has lost control.

>> they have one of the highest murder rates on the planet. higher than baghdad right now. higher than kabul, in afghanistan. >> the worst spot is waez, across the border from el paso, texas. >> we've been in jaurez about one hour and come across the first murder, these are the victim's family members, you can see them there basically collapsing with grief, a man has been murdered and dumped in this drainage ditch and the police and fire department are here, trying to pull the body out. murder in jaurez has become routine. >> [speaking in spanish] >> the worst days are when you woke up and there are already ten, 15 people dead and then as the day goes on it's another 10rbgs sometimes 25 people killed by the end of the day. those are the hard *s days. we realize just how ugly this city is. >> ugly enough to make people flee. five thousand houses abandoned in the last six months in jaurez, a place

that has become scary enough to make families leave everything behind and run. >> reporter: a bad year where i am in el paso, ten murders a year, right down there in jaurez, they're on schedule for 3000 murders this year. experts say that disparity just can't last. bill: that is a stunning revelation. staef harrigan, thank you. our coverage over america's third war continues on foxnews.com. follow our in depth reporting on the drug violence on the border and what it means for u.s. security. twenty minutes before the hour. martha: well, it is being called the moment of truth, and it may well be, folks. the debt commission's plan to slash our federal decifit once and for all. but many states are individually in some very tough shape. coming up, we're going to talk to louisiana governor bobby jindal about the trickle down effect and what he is doing to help out his state. bill: martha, can you grow a car? martha: no. bill: how about a car like this.

grow? the wild idea one car company is working on. whether or not they can actually pull it off. rev it up. bock in a moment. bobby jindal is on deck. >> ♪ >> ♪

martha: this is a strange story, folks. you know that lots of things are grown in labs these days, right? now one company is saying why not a car, perhaps? yes, and that company is none other than mercedes benz, proposing cars like this one, proposeing this could be grown custom in a lab. there's just one more imaginative, some may say crazy idea that came out of the los angeles design challenge. the folks behind this futuristic car say that various parts of the bio me would be grown separately with the help of genetic engineering and wouldn't run on fuel but bionectar 4534,

which of course bill hemmer has lots of it at home. i'm not expecting one of these to show up under the christmas tree but it's cool looking, don't you think? bill: i'll wrap one for you, the bio nectar! right. america, the recommendations from the president's debt commission on how to cut the nearly $14 trillion debt, here's the projected budget cuts, california, short of $21 billion, new jersey, 10 1/2 billion, texas, 10 billion, state of new york, $8.2 billion shortfall. bobby jindal, governor of louisiana, thinks he's in pretty good company. look at those states. he's my guest and author of the book "leadership in crisis", he's on a tour now, today we find him back home in baton rouge, louisiana. governor, how you doing and good morning to you. i want to talk money first off here. you would actually support colleges and university necessary your state raise ing their fees and their tuition costs.

>> bill, good morning to you. bill: good morning. why is that a favorable view given the clineat we're looking at now? >> we haven't endorsed any proposal. we present our budget in march. what we have told every state agency is we're not raising taxes in the state of louisiana. we want to hear their ideas and proposals, college leaders have suggested this is one potential solution. what we have done to state in louisiana, we have cut spending 26 percent since i've taken office, we cut thousands of government positions, we privatized services for example group home services and certain insurance risk management functions, and in other words, trying to be more efficient, do more with less. we've also enacted while i've been governor tax cuts on things like getting rid of the taxes on businesses' utility costs, debt, equipment, the largest income cut in our state hiss refplt we're not like washington, d.c., we're not going to print money or increase taxes. this is an important point, the bureau showed that

louisiana had the fifth largest growth, employers.com second we're the second best in overall economic performance. every state you mentioned, every state in the country, has a fundamental decision to make and in this recession, do we raise taxes or do we make the tough decisions in our state capitols. in louisiana i made a firm commitment, we're not raising any of our taxes as long as i'm governor, we're not shifting this burden to our families and businesses. one of the reasons the cato institute made us an i grade. bill: you have a budget shortfall of $1.7 billion. that's peanuts compared to california. but how is louisiana going to get out of its mess? how will these other states get out of their mess? or in the end, do all 50 states end up pitching in? >> you know, the $1.6 billion shortfall we face is for fiscal year 2011. we're going to have to do like every family and business, tighten our belt, do more with less, an we've already seen that. for example in the state of louisiana, i'll give you a couple of examples, we are operating group home services, that was costing

the state four, $500 a day to provide thoses -- those services, private sector is doing it for $200 a day. we've gotten out of that business. we have to be more efficient with the dollars the people send to the state capitol. the difference between us and washington, d.c., they've grown spending from the economy from 18 percent to 24 percent of the economy, they want to grow it to 26 percent. we understand in the states you can't tax, spend or borrow your way into prosperity. you have to make tough choices. bill: it doesn't seem like all the states understand that. >> well, we do in louisiana, and any residence orioo residents or businesses in states where they're trying to threaten to raise your taxes, move to louisiana. for three years in a row we've had people moving in, reversing migration. there's a season that business development has said louisiana has led the state per capita, there's a reason we're the most improved state in the entire country. bill by think you said that mark twain our wallets are

safest when the legislature is not in session. the debt commission, a lot of people hanging on the hope that perhaps they bring a breakthrough but even then you don't know if this he have the votes to bring it through congress. you consider some of these idea, is that the answer for america? because if you listen to erskine bowles and allan simpson, yesterday, a democrat that worked for bill clinton and republican out of the state of wyoming who came out of retirement, these guys were dire in their prediction, they're telling america, if you don't act now, you're going to pay dearly down the road. >> well, three things i think we need to do right away. first, it's a small but symbolic step, get rid of the earmarks, secondly roll back nondefense, prestimulus levels, third, i've got a whole chapter in the book on how to improve medicare while making it more fiscally sustain ab. we've got to be serious about entitlement reform but bill, we need structural change. otherwise all these reform will go no naught. what we need is a balanced

amendment in the constitution so they can't spend more than they take in. a supermajority requirement so they can't simply raise our taxes and like you reference, look, let's pay congress to stay at home, let's have a part-time congress. you're exactly right, mark twain was exactly right, we're safer when they're not in washington, d.c. by the way, these are all the kinds of structural requirements that we have to live with in baton rouge and louisiana that most tkpwr-pies -- governors have to balance their budgets, most governors can't simply borrow or spend more than they take in. we've got a spend be progress, historically, post world war i, they spent 18 percent of gdp, now it's 24 percent. it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem in washington. bill: thank you -- thank you for your time, bobby jindal. thank you. i know you said a million times you're at running for the. -- for president, a lot of people think you should be in the running. we'll pick that up next time. >> thanks bill. thank you. martha: living behind bars and stiffing taxpayers at the same time. wait until you hear about the 50,000 inmates who got

tax refunds. bill: it's a great country, isn't it? the wickileaks document dutch, our next guest says it puts american lives in danger, despite the white house saying there's not much to fear.

martha: all right, this just crossing the wires, senator john mccain is speaking out right now about the call to repeal the don't ask don't tell policy in the military. he says he believes that it is premature to repeal that policy. top military leaders appearing right now, there's admiral mullen before a senate committee on this very topic and at least one lawmaker says the report that they're all presenting, they have ady large survey

of military families, is calling that report flawed. steve centanni live at the pentagon, what's happening there so far this morning, steve in >> reporter: martha, here before the senate armed services committee on don't ask don't tell, as you know, the pentagon completed its steady of how service members would react and what impact a change or repeal of don't ask don't tell would have on the military if they allow gay service members to openly serve. now, the secretary and admiral of the joint chiefs saying it would not have a big impact on the military. what we've been watching for, and as you indicated, is to see how senator john mccain, ranking member on this panel, reacts, because he has been against it at this time. he did say it would be premature, we are in the time of war, he seems to have serious questions. he doesn't say we should never change the law but doesn't think this is the best time, and here's more from senator mccain: >> these views should not be considered lightly especially considering how much combat our force is

facing. additionally, i am concerned about the impact of a rush to repeal when even this survey has found that such a significant number of our service members feel that it would negatively impact military effectiveness. >> reporter: and secretary gates has spoken today, saying that this change would be disruptive in the short term, but not in the long term. it wouldn't be the wrenching change that many feared would come about if gays are allowed to openly serve and said it would be unwise to move ahead before the force can be prepared for the change. martha: one of the lame duck issues they're trying to work on before the end of the year. steve centanni, thank you very much. bill: a convicted cop killer living in prison, posting pictures on facebook, the victim's mother is raging mad about it. we'll talk to her next hour. it is tax day, house democrats ready to vote today. how's that going to go over, you wonder, huh? >> regardless of what the majority forces house

republicans to do, it's not going to go anywhere. we're going to extend the current tax rates, we're not going to raise taxes on anybody. [ sneezes ] client's here.

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martha: "fox news alert." a fiery debate that could really affect the bottom line for every, single one of us, here's a look at the place where this is shaking out today, that of course is the capitol, house lawmakers about to debate and

likely vote today, folks, on whether or not they will extend the expiring tax cuts and the devil is as always in the details and it could be a really, bumpy ride as they hammer this out, that is how we start a brand new hour of "america's newsroom," glad to have you with us, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer, good morning, good morning, martha. martha: good morning to you. bill: they are voting on the tax cuts for earning less than $250,000 a year, something republicans are not happy about. martha: and house speaker nancy pelosi saying republicans want to give tax cuts to the rich, but not pay to extend unemployment, here's what she says. >> you hear talk about extending tax cuts to the wealthiest people in america. and those tax cuts, we are told, should not be paid for, $700 billion, in tax cuts, to the top 2% in our country, and, our republican colleagues say, we should do that, and we should

not pay for it, we should add the $700 billion to the deficitment -- deficit. martha: the argument is different on that, and, carl cameron is watching the shrinks and arrows, flying back and forth. what is the real prospect? what do you think, there is any chance of, in terms of a vote today on this? >> reporter: the house will vote on it, and, most likely pass it. there will, however be bipartisan opposition. all the republicans will vote against this and, the hand. perhaps a couple dozen democrats are likely to vote against it, too, because they believe it is inadequate and the consequences of what the democrats are putting forth would ultimately raise taxes on a lot of people, on january 1st. basically, the democratic proposal is, to make permanent all of the bush tax cuts only up to a quarter million dollars in terms of income, every income bracket after that would see dramatic tax hikes, and, that is the problem and republicans are against it as are democrats, but, with this action that is expected to happen, today, martha, the house will have completed the two most important

things of the lame duck session, yesterday they passed the continuing resolution in the house to keep the government open and today will pass there, essentially, dead on arrival version in the senate, tax cut package in the house and is not -- what the house is doing is not relevant to the negotiations that are happening in the senate which are elaborate and making progress, but, it does mean the house's businesses is done and they'll have done the tax cut and the government operations funding and now the game comes to the senate. martha: i guess the question is why, carl? nancy pelosi, who is -- interesting to see her speaking and i feel like we haven't seen her much since the elections, is this a personal thing for her, that she said she'd do this and wants to see it done. >> reporter: sure. well, i mean, the whole country saw her in attack ads using her as the think they -- the republicans pounded democrats with and you are right, she has been fairly quiet since the pounding and a couple things, she promised on the campaign trail as did democratic liberals, that they would pass an extension of the bush tax cuts only for what they called

the middle class up to a quarter of a million and having said that, her move to do this today is seen by a lot of folks including democrats at the house and treasury department as a little bit unnecessary and maybe even a bit combative and two days ago the police department hat the leadership of democrats and republicans on the hill at the white house and talked about reaching common ground and appointed negotiators and now she pulls that, forcing it through. republicans will have no amendments or opportunity to have their say and comes to the senate where talk of the deal of extending unemployment benefits and tax cuts, and, really matters between reid and mcconnell, leaders over here, now. martha: thank you very much. carl cameron with that. in the capitol. bill: speaking of money, you have $100,000 in the bank, america, better start saving if you want healthy golden years. a report out showing the average person who retires at 65 nee$65 $125,000 to cover health care costs, even if you have medicare and employee sponsored coverage. shelling out for co-pays and

premiums and other nonreimbursed medical expenses, experts say the number is more like $150,000, for women. martha: congressman charles rangel bracing for what neighbor most important vote of his 40 years in office, waiting for a house vote on the ethics committee resolution to censure the new york democrats. among other violations, the committee found rangel filed misleading financial records for over a decade and, if that passes he'll be required to stand before his colleagues, the most extreme sort of punishment they can hand out, within the floor of the congress, he'd stand there and get an official condemnation, for his unethical behavior, as donald trump said this morning, maybe he should be grateful for that, if it happened to a lot of other folk out there, including, you and me, we'd be heading to jail. bill: only happened 22 times in american history. martha: and, not good personally, for sure about that. bill: a story ripped out of a hollywood murder mystery, the

murder of a high powered hollywood publicist, ronnie chasten, she was chshot a coupl of weeks ago and a person of interest connected to her murder was killed himself, william lajeunesse on the mystery. what happens now? >> reporter: bill, police had the suspect under surveillance several case and approached him last night, around 6:00 p.m., the lobby of the hotel he was staying, he shot himself in the head. this is an odd story. police say they don't have a motive and the case remains under investigation and here's where the story gets really odd. residents of the harvey hotel where he lived, eclectic place, you pay by the week, he was known only as harold and was mentally deranged and was known only to travel by bicycle, however a retired investigator who saw the autopsy report of the woman said she was killed by an expert marks man who was able to squeeze off multiple rounds

age tight patte-- in a tight pa, and, he was shot five times in a tight pattern by at least one of those rounds, was a . .9 millimeter hollow-point bullet and also say that harold, according to one of the neighbors there, said he was an ex-con, twice served time in up prison and talked about the chasen murder, odd for a hit man and said he'd be receiving ten grand. bill. bill: at this point what else do police know about her murder? >> reporter: here's what is odd. initially, when he was shot as she returned home from the premier of the movie, "burlesque" they believe he was shot in a downward motion it was an suv and it was a gang initiation kind of speculation but, while she was well liked she had her enemies and the day

after the shooting, police were carting records out of her business, speculation it may have been again a hit of some kind, and at this point in time we know that the suspect is dead. that we don't know his identity and we don't know if he was acting alone, but we know they'll be looking to see if the gun that he used to shoot himself yesterday was the same gun used in her murder and it is as you said, bill, something right out of hollywood reporter. bill: william lajeunesse, thank you, more on the story throughout the morning here, major development, though, out of l.a. martha: boy, we have a weather alert. look at this, rescuers are rushing in to save hundreds of drivers, who were stranded overnight in upstate new york. storms there dumped 23 inches of snow on the buffalo area, trapping drivers in their vehicles in some case and dangerouses conditions up and down the east coast, janice dean is covering this, live in our fox extreme weather, the aptly

named area where she stands today. >> are you a snow bunny, martha? martha: i love snow. >> bill hemmer. martha: it is range here in new york, i feel bad for the folks in buffalo. >> the same storm system, we have incredible rain across the northeast and wind gusts, i'll show you those, look at the storm totals east of the buffalo area, close to 2 feet, within a 24--hour period and yeah, they are getting ready for winter, pretty early, though if you live across the lake-effect snow belt you are used to this, the colder air moves across the relatively warmer lake waters, and that gives us bunches and bunches of snow. let's look, just around the buffalo area and cleveland, too, you are getting the lake-effect snow and we could see upwards of two feet, if you believe it, from more of the cold wind down wind of the lakes. okay, can you believe this? look at the wind gusts, we saw yesterday. this is of course the mountain area, in vermont, over 100

miles-per-hour, guys, this is -- we're talking about hurricane-force winds in vermont be and look at teetterborterbor jersey, 59 miles per hour, we have video and we'll show you the damage that was caused by the storm system and i guess this is out of new jersey, seabreeze, new jersey. sea bright, my apologies -- >> seabreeze is something different, janice! >> my apologies, you're a "jersey girl." martha: that is cranberry and vodka. >> can't wait to taste one of those. martha: wait for the holiday party -- maybe later for you, actually, she's on the wagon. >> thank you. bill: nine minutes past the hour, how do you get a tax return if you have no income? thousands of prisoners, fixing out how to beat the system and you paid for it. big time. martha: a lot of time on their hands, and supporters say julian assange is fighting a noble battle, he is using the first amendment rights to expose

government secrets. just ahead we'll speak to a four star general about how the wikileaks founder is putting american lives in danger. bill: also, nasa says it has a major, earth-shattering announcement, life deep in space? did we find the spirit in the sky? michio kaku is up, in moments. ♪ ♪ naturally colorful vegetables are often a good source

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bill: here we go, america, snapshot of the economy, signed contracts to buy homes jumping more than 10% in october, 10.4%, the third gain since the low point bang june, and analysts see the uptick across the board

in every region of the housing market and initial forecasts predicted a decline based on problems on the market, home sales up more than 10%, and, retailers reporting strong holiday sales raising hopes of a rebound in consumer spending and u.s. shoppers responded to deals rolling out for black friday, spending more than -- last month than the same time last year, the numbers coming out a day after reports that cyber monday was the biggest on-line shopping day ever. 14 minutes past. >> unaware that some may mistakenly applaud those responsible, so i want to set the record straight. there is nothing laudable about endangering innocent people and, there is nothing brave about sabotaging the peace. relations between nations on which our common security depends.

martha: that was hillary clinton, of course, the secretary of state. condemning the wikileaks document dump, ordered by founder julian assange, saying it put innocent lives in danger and exactly how does a security breach like this affect our u.s. soldiers fighting overseas, we'll take on that and other question with retired four star general jack keen, former vice chief of staff of the army and is now a fox news contributor. first time on "america's newsroom" with us, general, great to have you with us, good morning, sir. >> good morning, mar that, pleasure to be here. martha: my question for you, as a military person if we wanted to have taken down the site, we knew what he released about afghanistan and iraq in the past, could we have taken it down, did we have the ability. >> absolutely, the u.s. has the number one cyber attack capability in the world and if there is a function anyplace in the world driven by a computer we can take the function down dramatically, at network speed. a simple web site like this, is not even a challenge. it could be taken down

relatively easily. martha: why do you think we didn't? >> i'm not sure. it mystifies me. i don't know if we tried to take it down and, to get permission to do it through the department of defense, and, first amendment rights got into the way, i'm not sure but it mystifies me, why we didn't take something down that was clearly threatening the national security of the united states and also, the lives of our troops, overseas. martha: you a are sort of entering into this -- we are entering into this cyber war period in our history and what strikes me about this, you can talk about whether or not his first amendment rights protect him but is the dawn of something new, in terms of the kind of hackers we are fighting and the systems they could get into. why do you think we have not figured out a way to get at him personally, to take him into custody, to talk to him, or, gotten cooperation with other governments, so we can at least start to fight the battle. >> it mystifies me, also, if he is in an allied country as

reported to be in the u.k., why they haven't picked him up, based on the swedish authorities' request to do that. i'm not a law enforcement expert but i'm shaking my head like everybody else is. martha: back in july, the then u.s. national security advisor, james jones, talked about the releases that had to do with the afghanistan war, primarily, and he said that he felt that it put -- our partners at risk and threatened our national security and that was what he said back in july. what do you think about that, and how real is that threat, to our men and will on the ground? >> the overall threat, i think, is simply that it undermines the credibility of the united states, particularly, with our strategic partners. in the sense they can use confidence in us and our adversaries think we are weaker as a result and encourage, more behavior on their part and specifically for the troops on the ground and the most

dangerous releasing tactical and brigade field reports which get into some of our operations, and how we conduct those operations. taliban leaders are computer-friendly and, are part of the information age, as are al qaeda and other radical islamists. to be sure they've gone through the releases to see if there is information they can take advantage of there and certainly, as we know, the release of informants' names, is absolutely outrageous. and, it clearly puts them as a target, you know, for the taliban and the al qaeda. martha: you have spent a lot of time in these areas, how much damage is done with some of the stuff revealed about saudi arabia, and, yemen, and, their own desires to get the taliban, and to get iran and, you know, how it under cuts the conversations we were having with them privately, how damaging is that? >> well, i think, certainly, they have to be frustrated by that. but, to be quite frank about it, martha, all of us who have traveled in the region, the leaders of the sunni arab states

have been saying that privately to us for years and frankly, if anything positive has come out of this, the fact the world understands clearly how much the arabs believe the iranians are a pariah in the renal and hgion a more so and the dispute between the israelis and palestinians. martha: good point, great to have you here. see you soon, we hope. >> good seeing you, martha. martha: thanks, general keene. bill: jobless claims, up, last week and, should unemployment benefits be extended further? at fox news.com, click on the youdecide poll and tell us what you think and see how folks are voting on-line. martha: we are awaiting a big announcement from nasa, is et out there, somewhere? ♪ ♪

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martha: we're getting word of a tragic situation, unfolding due to a wildfire in israel, these are pictures that are just coming into our newsroom, a large and uncontrolled fire, burning in northern israel, and, they began to evacuate, the university of haifa, hundreds of residents, you can see the video coming in, of people as they are trying to get out, and we have learned that during the process of evacuation, a bus overturned and there were many injuries. the local reports in israel are that 40 people were killed, as a

result of the wildfire, we're waiting to confirm that. with our folks on the ground in our jerusalem bureau. mixed reports in terms of the numbers dead, israeli ambulance service says they could be prison guards or rescue workers, as the prison is involved in this story as well and we'll nail down details and continue to get you pictures and bring you the latest as it comes in. bill: what a tragedy that is. all right, we are counting down, what is called an earth-shattering announcement out of nasa. experts calculating and speculating the american space agency may have found life in outer space, what do you think, america? huh? some form of extraterrestrial life on taitan, one of saturn's moons, michio kaku, host of sci-fi science physics of the impossible and he is one smart man, the real deal? >> the only aliens we have identified are in the u.s.

congress. we have yet to find a real alien or, capture a real flying saucer, however i would bet what they have discovered is chemicals, chemicals of life, like oxygen, water vapor, amino acids, organic compounds on titan, a moon of saturn or maybe a distant planet and also we do have two satellites in outer space, tand we expect dozens of earth-like twins to be identified by these satellites and that is a game-changer and realizing that we could have copies, xerox copies of the earth in outer space. bill: but, those are planets. what they expect today are microbes, that is the anticipated announcement, there is evidence found, albeit, smaller than we can see with the eye. >> right, we're not talking about e. t., we are talking about microbial life at best, perhaps germs on a distant moon or planet in outer space, not talking about intelligent life

or ufos, we are talking about germs, bacteria, viruses, perhaps, being found, on a distant -- >> life forms that live off of poisonous arsenic? doesn't sound like a good life! >> we live here based on water and carbon, that is our body chemistry, however in outer space perhaps they use silicon, or a different form of chemistry, than us, why should they be water-based? why should they be carbon-based like us and that is speculation, the speculation is they could be another kind of life in outer space. bill: there was a report from phil keating last hour and he says one of the scientists involved studied a lake in yosemite national park and found high levels of arsenic in the water and was able to extrapolate and make the connection, deep into space with the martian moon titan. figure that out for us. >> life can exist in very

inhospitable places like the bottom of the ocean near volcano vents, who would think the sul frus, and hot volcano events, were where dna got off the ground and, that is probably where we all have begun, the bottom of the ocean. bill: on a scale of 1 to 10, the announcement is a... >> i would give it a 4. bill: maybe they'll surprise even you, michio, we'll cover it live, later today. >> i hope so. bill: 2:00 eastern during america live with megyn kelly and, you can also go to fox news/scitech, stay tuned, nasa could give us a shocker, later today. martha: a new spike reported in jobless claims but the unemployment benefits, are they the answer? plan b on that idea, coming up after the break, plus the

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bill: a lot of news on the economy, everybody, good morning again, if you are waking up, jobless claims, jumping more than expected last week, 436,000 americans filing for unemployment claims, that number is up, and comes as aid is set to run out for 2 million americans, among the ranks of the long-term unemployed. and these are americans who have not found a job in well over 90 weeks. the white house today will release a report on the nationwide impact, if congress does not extend benefits, for those folks, byron york, chief

political correspondent for the washington examiner and a fox news contributor. byron, good morning to you. >> hi, bill. bill: the white house is cranking the pressure up on congress to get this thing going and in the meantime, house democrats are saying, we're going to vote on tax cuts for the middle class, 250,000 or less. what is at play here? >> this is one of these issues where both parties agree on the policy goal which is to extend unemployment benefits, beyond the 99 weeks, they currently are. question is, how to pay for them, house democrats and senate democrats are basically saying they don't have to be paid for, with corresponding cuts and other spending, republicans are insisting that they are, and, you've got -- argument going back and forth, where democrats are saying, look, if you republicans want to support tax cuts for the rich, which you are not paying for and now insist that we pay for unemployment benefits, that is not going to fly, the white house is trying to put pressure on republicans with this new -- >> why wouldn't democrats on the house take this up first? seems like the right hand is

doing one thing and the left is doing another, byron. >> well, i think part of this is, because they can in the house, i mean, the leadership has the power to put on these votes, and make them happen without any republican input and not possible, in the senate, where, there have been a couple of debates already, over the extension, and there is an interesting proposal, that has come from scott brown, the republican from massachusetts, who, basically, says that his plan can be paid for, to extend unemployment benefits for a year with money that has been appropriated by congress but has not ever been spent by the federal agencies like, you look under the seat cushions and can find billions of dollars and may hear more about that the next few days. bill: you have to find a way to pay for it before you -- >> i spoke with republicans in the house and the senate this morning and they said, their insistence is that it be paid for and are not insisting on one specific way to pay for it but they say it must be paid for before they will agree to it. bill: what is your view on why

house democrats are doing what they are doing on the house votes on taxes today? is this a hangover from the election? do they want to get republicans on record as voting no? >> you know, what is working on the higher levels down there as to why? >> here again, it is something they can do without republican input, something that they promised their base they would do and may be trying to stiffen the spine of the white house, because the general feeling has been, is that the white house would cave on this, and president obama has now made his line in the sand, opposition to permanent extensions, of the tax cuts, meaning he'd agree to extending all of the tax cuts, for some temporary period of time, maybe 2, 3 years and you may see the house democrats, basically, trying to say to the white house, look, let's hang tough here. bill: it was almost check, maybe check-mate yesterday when the 42 republicans signed the letter on the senate side. an interesting move and one that portends, well, a lot of

interesting by lines over the next coming weeks in washington, byron, thank you, to our viewers at home, we're asking, should unemployment benefits be extended further, so far 1200 have responded and now, 20% say yes, and, people have to feed their family, a whopping 79% say no, we can't afford it and we need incentives to look for work, if you want to vote, lines are open now, foxnews.com/"america's newsroom." on-line now. martha: here's an interesting story, a rising republican star now says he is going to sue uncle sam on behalf of his state, after scrapping a billion-dollar federal project, new jersey governor chris christie, cancelled a plan that was going to build a tunnel, another tunnel that would connect the garden state to new york city. but, now the u.s. government says, the state has to pay back more than $270 million, already spent on the project in federal money and they want it back and the governor's administration says they'll fight back on that,

here's a quote from his spokesperson, the governor will fight to make sure that new jersey and its taxpayers are treated fairly by the federal government, on this issue. and, i'm joined by doug burns, a former federal prosecutor, a lot of issues here, legal and political issues at play between chris christie, and the obama administration. you know, one thing that i wanted to bring up first, in that quote, basically they are saying, don't be unfair to us, new jersey is, like so many states in this country, strapped for cash, drowning in debt to a great extent and why would the frag government, the mother so to speak of the rest of the 50 states want to put and on russ burden on the state. >> a good point, new jersey claims there were other instances of cancelled projects, okay? with the federal government and the feds have not come to get the money and to break it down league quickly, the question is, is it a loan or a grant and it was a funding grant and the

government shelled out $271 million and the governor cancels it and legally is a contract dispute and will boil down to whether the cancellation is due to factors within or without new jersey's control. martha: we had a contract, new york was going to pay a third and new jersey a third and the federal government a third and it turns out, the overruns for the project will be socked on new jersey, that is the understanding from the christie administration, why can't you have breach of contract on that and say, we didn't get into the deal, saying it would cost us $11 billion, rather than $8 billion. >> i did not realize the overruns were specific to new jersey. my understanding is, each of the three, federal government, new jersey, port authority of new york, port authority, roughly $3 billion each in the massive $8.7 billion project, and to put another tunnel under the hudson river, for trains -- >> a lot of folks down -- >> 625,000 people come into the city every day from new jersey and 185,000 by train, apparently, a lot. but -- and they need expansion, but the point is, now, they start doing

engineering, and start building it, and new jersey says, wait, it will cost $5 billion extra. and the political rhetoric is fascinating, because they say, how can governor christie waste $271 million? excuse me? the response is, he's saving you between $2 billion and $5 billion and i'm not sure the governor should announce i'm suing them, he should, under the letter sent by the transportation department, they say he can challenge it. he should put that in motion. martha: buy for time. >> buy for time. right. and the other amazing thing that is interesting, viewers might find interesting, disputes between two states are heard in the u.s. supreme court as a court of original jurisdiction and a dispute between a state and the federal government can also, technically be filed in the supreme court and they don't have exclusive -- >> christie versus the -- >> it wouldn't be filed in the supreme court, it would be in a

regular court, but that is an interesting, thing, i came across in my research. martha: we'll hear a lot more about this, i think, bill, back to you. bill: breaking news on northern israel near the town of haifa, fires are out of control, a serious drought in israel going back to spring of last year, they've gotten little rain and now there are deaths to report. we can confirm at least 40 people have been killed as a result of these forest fires, perhaps many of them evacuated in a bus, bus that went off the road. inside the bus we believe could have been security guards and prisoners at a local jail and we are working to confirm that. fires continue to rage, almost out of control, near the northern israeli town of haifa, we're on that story, after the live pictures come to us, here at "america's newsroom." in the meantime, here at home, a guy flaunting drugs and booze and weapons, on his facebook page, from inside his prison cell, we'll talk to the mother of the man he's convicted of

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>> i'm jenna lee, when i'm joined by jon scott, high drama on capitol hill, extending the bush era tax cuts and we'll talk about that with several big names, weighing in and big news on what is shaping up to be a nightmare in north korea, we're all over that and, this story, is wifi frying our brains? we'll try an answer that for you, go to foxnews.com/happening now to get your voice heard in our town hall, u.s.a., america's asking, we have a special feature there, today, check it out, in the meantime, back to bill and martha. bill: thank you, "fox news alert" out of zurich, switzerland, russia has won the right to host the world cup tournament in the year 2018. why do we care, you ask? because and moment now, they'll announce also, the host country of the year, 2022, and, the u.s. is in the running. the u.s. along with australia,

japan, qatar and south korea and the decision any moment and we'll see whether or not the u.s. takes the cake out of zurich, stand by. martha: america, look at your tax dollars at work, government investigator finding some 50,000 prison inmates, across the country, claimed tax refunds, this year, can you believe it? collecting more than $130 million, while making absolutely no money at all. the report did note the irs spotted nearly a quarter million fraudulent tax returns this past year preventing a billion-and-a-half dollars, in fraudulent refunds, i guess, you are supposed to feel better about that, and speaking of prisons, to this very serious story now, a convicted murderer, the man you see in the middle of that picture, managed to sneak a blackberry into his cell prison, and, post disturbing pictures of himself on facebook. our local fox affiliate in oklahoma has this story, take a

look at this. >> reporter: he's known as justin walk on facebook and a known gang member of the arian brotherhood and is not shy about posing as a cellmate. >> what! >> reporter: it is very real. convicted murderer justin walker, shows himself smoking what appears to be a homemade bong inside the cell at the granted reformatory, a medium security facility. >> i'm smoking a bong... >> in prison. >> in prison. martha: the photos get worse from there. this is a picture of the sheriff, who is the family man who was murdered by justin walker, who you saw. kathy lawrence, was his mother, and she joins me now, kathy, welcome. you know, i can't imagine what this is like for you to find out what this man is living like, in prison. >> well, in some way i was not surprised. i mean, it seems like criminals

have more rights than the average citizen. martha: he took away the life of your son. and you look at these pictures of him, smoking pot, and flexing muscles for the camera, look like he has lots of family pictures around him. he seems to be having a good time in there. what would you say to him about this? >> well, he deserves to be in the ground where my son is at, is what he deserves, but, you know, that is not the way the justice system works. martha: what was your reaction when you heard about this and saw these pictures? >> i have not seen these pictures, i'm sorry. i was called at my home yesterday and this was told to me about kim having a facebook page. i'm not surprised in some ways. i know as much as the prison system has tried to monitor

everything, it is just probably an impossible task to keep -- they cannot confiscate everything. martha: we're looking at a beautiful picture of your son's family, four beautiful children, who are getting older and bigger now, i would assume. talk to me about what the man did to your family. >> he not only destroyed our family, put my mother in an early grave, has, you know... he took the innocence of the whole community, where my son was the sheriff at and where she was raised at, people, they didn't lock their doors at night. even in the state capital offices, people that knew my son, you know, they just, everyone feels it as a loss, and not because he's my son but he's

a warm, loving, kind human being and yet, honest that's day was long and a good man and his oldest in that picture was, he was in the 4th grade when his daddy was killed and he's now a freshman in college. he has wonderful kids, their mother has done a wonderful job raising them but it is fun seeing the kids, their daddy comes out in things they say and do, that this man took away our lives. i don't sleep like i should and i'm not the only one, it is the whole family. martha: our hearts go out to you and the reason to show this story is because people should know the way this man is existing in prison and he is allowed to have a facebook account and has a blackberry and appears to be smoking pot, and, basically, continuing with his life, behind bars and, in a way,

shape or form, and robbed your son of the abilities to do that and i hope the folks who watch over him there are getting the heat from this situation and it will be changed and thank you very much for being with us today, we wish you well and happy holidays, merry christmas to you and your family, okay? thanks so much. >> thank you. bill: changing gears here. united states up in the world cup, soccer tournament, 2022, the word is out moments ago, we did not win, america. qatar gets the world cup in 2022. the heart of the middle east. temperatures, 105°, it will be one interesting tournament! in qatar, come year 2022 and russia got it 2018. martha: and the u.s. team lost, the front of the paper here in new york, they said, "we don't like this game, anyway" you can have it. bill: silly game, silly sport and we'll take you to the first of any run for the white house, steve brown on the changing

political landscape, and a state already geared up for 2012, what is happening, steve-o, in iowa. >> reporter: there's a lot of new changes just happening over the course of the last 30 months here in iowa, we'll have a live report from spirit lake with details, right here on the fox news channel. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x

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>> president obama host aid bipartisan meeting with leaders from both parties and after that he said things went well but i don't think it went that well, president obama's body language is subtle, and, if you study it -- here, he didn't look that pleased. take a look. >> president barack obama: i appreciate the tenor of the conversations and i think it will actually yield rutesults before the end of the year and look forward to continuing the dialogue in the months ahead, thank you very much, everybody.

[laughter]. martha: a love that. he actually put his foot to the door, wasn't that shocking? bill: a "fox news alert"! all righty, folks. sarah palin, burning the midnight oil, fans camping out to get a copy of the governor's new book, is iowa the same place as it was two years ago, when he was running as the vice presidential candidate, steve brown is in spirit lake. what is the biggest change there, steve. >> reporter: they'll get a new republican governor here, who happens to be the old republican governor, who was elected this year and will take office next month and first of all, immediately becomes one of the most sought after endorsements the republican presidential candidates will be going after and the competition is on, to get his attention, in a conversation with branstad he said he doesn't have any plans to in dors and may do it and if he does it will be very close to

the caucus date. the other impact that he had is that already, he picked up four caucus veterans for his staff, with another 100 or so, left to hire and that will have an impact on all of the presidential campaigns and they need experienced iowa caucus veterans to help them run a very effective operation, because, one, it is labor-intensive and, two, has to be very, very persistent, because, remember you are going after, maybe, 1/10 of what you saw in terms of the voters this year and need a lot of boots on the ground and he'll be taking veteran help off the table off the top and will make it difficult for campaigns to come in here and find veteran help to run a successful caucus campaign. bill: tea party folks, how do they factor in all of this? >> reporter: there was a gathering, the saturday after an election day, of about 20 some different tea party groups in des moines, already, plotting out how it is, that they are

going to vet presidential candidates and very much want to a role and very much are eager to show up at these events and we're told there is a strategy that will be put into place, and these presidential candidates will have to go through them, as well as the other hurdles and voters here in iowa. bill: a ways to go, spirit lake iowa, starts with steve brown, thank you, steve. martha? martha: democrats pushing for a key vote on extending the bush tax cuts for the middle class, what they are doing today and the vote takes place this afternoon. republican congressman mike pence, says, extend them all, all the way across the board, he doesn't want discrimination in that and he'll tell us why, next, plus... bill: see these girls? they can do it, right? what is all this fuss about? we'll tell you in moments, here. it has gone viral. martha: love that! [ male announcer ] welcome to that one time of year

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martha: something truly amazing out of ohio and i don't mean bill hemmer! the fire crackers during the half time show at the naval academy, the presidential inugration, and they will be on david letterman? and we thought we would invite them. their amazing feats are getting 12 million hits online