thanksgiving, we have our relatives come visit us. bill: don't they get it? [laughter] happy turkey day. heather: you too. i will be here tomorrow, so i will see everyone for thank giving right here. bill: bye-bye. jenna: well, before we head into the thanksgiving holiday, we do have some brand new developments in the gop race for the white house. we're glad you're with us everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: and i'm jon scott. mitt romney is campaigning in iowa. romney's addressing employees at nationwide insurance in des moines as he picks up a big endorsement from a rising star in the gop, south dakota senator john thune who unseated one-time senate majority leader tom daschle. jenna: you know, romney is one of the front runners in the

latest real clear politics national average coming in with 21%. that's right behind, though, newt gingrich who's at 23%. herman cain next with 18%, then you have rick perry, ron paul and michele bachmann rounding out the top six. jon: and the candidates all tackling foreign policy and national security issues in their debate last night with gingrich and romney looking like the ones to beat. joe trippi, the former campaign manager for howard dean and a fox news contributor. what about this john thune endorsement? he is considered, as we said, a rising star. he was thought to be a possible presidential contender himself. >> yes, jon. it's significant because romney, romney's sort of a weak front runner who kind of needs to get back, i mean, he needs these kinds of endorsements to keep momentum, particularly in iowa, where he's started to really look like he's going to play there, and i think the thune endorsement will help because of his strength with conservatives

and, also, the proximity to iowa in defeating daschle next door. it's important, i think there are a lot of iowans that pay attention. jon: i guess when people in iowa go into the voting booth, though, even for the caucuses, are they going to say to themselves, well, john thune endorsed the guy, therefore, i'm going to vote for him? >> you know, i don't think so. it helps him in terms of getting some anticipation -- romney, i mean, it helps him. but the fact is these endorsements don't tend to work that well, particularly when it's a conservative trying to give, you know, trying to give some support to a guy that a lot of conservatives have issues with and aren't sure he's the real thing. so i think it helps. it shows that he's continuing to gain some support from important gop senators, but i don't think in the end it's going to change much in the end game here in iowa, and newt gingrich seems to be having real momentum in the

state right now. jon: mitt romney seems to have a problem with some of the social conservative groups in iowa. there was a secret meeting held on monday to try to unite those groups, apparently, behind anybody but romney. they are looking for somebody they can vote for besides, they say, mitt romney. how is he going to overcome that kind of opposition? >> i'm not sure he's going to. he's a very weak front runner. i think that's why you see conservatives like michele bachmann and rick perry and now newt gingrich, herman cain, each one of them has popped and developed problems. but if one of them gets moving and doesn't falter, as newt gingrich seems to be right now, it's going to be a real problem for romney among conservatives particularly in iowa and these early states when they're looking for someone who's not him. jon: well, of those people you mentioned, michele bachmann peaked and seems to have faded, same with rick perry.

does newt gingrich have staying power? >> i don't know yet. i do think we're getting close to the end game in terms of who it's going to be. i mean -- what happens in these things when you have a weak front runner like romney is the electorate tends to keep looking for, quote, the other guy, the other candidate, who is it? and they think they find him, and then they find fault with him. in the end, it may be the last one standing with any momentum may actually shock romney and, i think, maybe even beat him in iowa and maybe even in new hampshire. it's a really interesting dynamic that's happening right now within the republican party. jon: joe trippi, a fox news contributor, thanks. >> thanks, jon, happy thanksgiving. jon: and to you. jenna: speaking of a happy thank giving, millions of folks are

hitting the roads or taking to the skies. that's a look down sixth avenue, doesn't look too bad. [laughter] jon: you could go bowling right now! jenna: in new york it's pretty quiet even on the wednesday before thanksgiving. let's talk to chief meteorologist rick reichmuth. >> reporter: i guess people are out of town already. jenna: it's nice when it's like that, right? >> reporter: maybe start your christmas shopping, jenna. [laughter] really not looking that bad. the new york city airports which are susceptible to bad weather delays, newark and jfk, no delays at all. philadelphia, the only airport that has a delay anywhere in the country right now, and it's about 45 minutes, so that's not even that bad. this is the storm that's caused the concern, but it was a big concern yesterday and last night, and about 12 hours later we thought we'd have big problems today, but it's exiting the coast. the mid-atlantic looking pretty good. there's one more batch of showers that's about to move

through, and that'll likely cause maybe a few delays for a brief period, maybe another shower or two behind it, but in general this system's gone. the west coast, we still have this storm that's going to continue to bring moisture across the northwest, that's going to be a weather maker for us by the time we get to saturday and sunday. might be more delays. the east coast, all this moves out of here by 9:00 tonight, it's looking pretty good. a few showers around the great laking as the winds -- lakes, but in general it's not looking that bad. and we're going to set up for thanksgiving day looking like this. see the sunshine? most of the country looking good. really warm across the plains, a great travel day if you're driving. the only problem you're going to see is across the pacific northwest, and eventually by tomorrow afternoon we'll see showers, but we're looking pretty good. jenna: a shopping forecast, we should add that to your -- >> reporter: i think that's just for you. [laughter] jenna: how did you know? all right.

[laughter] rick, thank you very much. jon: i think that's the reason enclosed malls -- jenna: right, that's a good point. jon: now to a fox news alert, and the number of americans seeking unemployment benefits grew slightly last week. the labor department reports 393,000 americans now applied for benefits, that ends two months of what had been steady declines. the future of unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts for millions of americans is in jeopardy if congress fails to act soon. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel live in the washington with a look at that. first on the payroll tax, mike, what's the status? what should we expect? >> reporter: jon, good morning. the senate may vote as early as next week on extending the tax cut, president obama's pushing congress to do it arguing if they don't, middle class families are going to get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time. take a listen. >> for the average family, your taxes will go up a thousand dollars if congress does not act by the end of the month. now, we can't let that happen.

not right now. it would be bad for the economy, it would be bad for employment. >> reporter: now, house speaker john boehner's response is, quote, we told the president in september that we stand ready to have an honest and truthful discussion with him regarding the payroll tax extension and that invitation stands. meanwhile, the american people continue to await action on the more than 20 bipartisan jobs bills passed by the house that are currently stuck in the democratic-controlled senate. some republicans have raised the concern about the cost of extending the payroll provision, so you can expect that will be part of the conversation. jon? jon: so what about unemployment insurance and unemployment benefits? >> reporter: well, jon, long-term unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of the year. with unemployment still at 9% nationally, democrats say it is important to extend the benefits. republicans recognize unemployment is still a huge issue but say with $15 trillion in debt and building, it is important to pay for it. so that will likely be another

key issue before congress post-turkey. jon? jon: all kinds of arguing still ahead. mike emanuel, thanks. >> reporter: thank you. jenna: we're going to turn overseas now. new, deadly violence in egypt, protesters and police facing off for a fifth day in cairo. activists now saying 38 people are dead. demonstrators calling for egypt's military movement to hand over authority to a civilian government. in the meantime, three american students are being held in cairo, they're accused of throwing molotov cocktails during protests earlier in the week. reena ninan is following this story life in our mideast bureau. reena? >> reporter: hi, jenna. we'll get to those american students in just a moment. we've got some breaking news out of tahrir square. we're getting word that religious leaders from a well known mosque in cairo have been negotiating a cease fire between the military and some of the leaders of these protesters. they have declared that they're going to try and hold a cease

fire to stop the clashes between protesters and police. it's not clear yet whether this will hold. they're trying to spread the word in tahrir square, and they're also trying to tell police not the fire at protesters, so we're waiting to see how that develops. meanwhile, jenna, as we mentioned, those american students who were picked up by egyptian police, we're hearing a little bit more from the relatives. the sister of derek sweeney, a student from georgetown, 19 years old, says they are taking hope in the fact that her brother isn't being held in a prison, but rather in a courthouse, and they view that as a good sign. the mother of another student says he's an idealist, not a violence person, and they don't believe the allegations that he would fire a firebomb from the top of a roof at a university. these gentlemen were studying in a study abroad program this semester. meanwhile, i want to take you back to tahrir square. army soldiers earlier in the day took over part of the street

near tahrir square where a lot of the clashes have been taking place. the protesters continue to demand they want the military out, and yesterday's announcement that a transfer of power by the egyptian government could take place at the end of june, well, that's not good enough. these protesters want, they want the military leadership out by no later than april. we are also waiting to see exactly what happens come friday. it'll be interesting. they are calling for more protesters than ever before to take to the streets, come to tahrir square, but what we're waiting to see in the coming days, whether they're able to tone down the violence and the clashes between the police and the protesters. jenna? jenna: we'll continue to watch this fascinating story, reena. in fact, we have more wreaking news from the arab spring in a sense here, jon. jon: it is pretty astounding news in this fox news alert, yemen's president has signed an agreement in front of his fellow gulf state leaders to hand over power. he has been in office 33 years

as the president of yemen. in front of the saudi king and others, he has agreed to relinquish power. it is going to be a new era in his impoverished country. we'll see what some of the other gulf states, some of the wealthy ones like saudi arabia will come to their aid. but ali abdullah saleh, the long-time president of yemen, has agreed to leave office. meantime, the occupy wall street movement in this country is costing cities bigtime. the price tag for those protests ahead. you won't believe who's really footing the bill. we're live with that story. jenna: i hope it's going directly to jon scott. jon: i don't have the money. jenna: the amazing discovery, if you take a look at those outlines, what scientists are learning. jon: also getaway day underway from coast to coast. we're live right now at lax. the sun's shining there with the lowdown on what travelers are

facing as they head out for theness that giving hold lay. plus, give the latest weather updates, just go to foxnews.com/weather, punch in your zip code and get the most up to the minute weather specifics in your hometown or maybe grand ma's n. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? jeff, play a game. turbo-boosting now, sir. dennis, check in everywhere you go on foursquare. that's mayor dennis... of the water cooler. you're the best. liz, rock out to pandora. oh, no i'm an only child. and nick, you shouldn't even be here, you can do everything from the golf course. good? good. [ male announcer ] on at&t, blackberry® torch moves at the speed of 4g. ♪

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jenna: well, it is getaway day right now, and however you slice it if you're traveling for thanksgiving, it will cost you more this year, as much as 20% more, in fact. that's not stopping roughly 42 million americans from hitting the roads, rails, skies, everything else in between. bob decastro is live at lax airport bright and early out in california can. hi, bob. >> reporter: absolutely. hey, jenna, how are ya? so not that bad here at lax, you know? nice, sunny skies, maybe one of the reasons we're not seeing huge traffic backups here. this is terminal one and the entry to lax, and you can see

traffic moving very smoothly. i did take a look inside, doesn't look that bad at all. in fact, what's interesting is that lax has now the distinction, according to orbitz, we are the busiest airport in the country. i'm always surprised because atlanta and chicago always seem to beat us, but apparently, orbitz says we are the busiest. so we're looking at one of the busiest travel days of the year, one of the busiest times of the day, and it really doesn't look that bad. lax telling us that 1.78 million passengers will be traveling through here over the 10-day period. so i asked some experts why we aren't seeing a lot of activity here. they say, first of all, lots of folks have already traveled, they take a week the get to their thanksgiving destinations. also, sunday and monday tend to be a lot busier than today because everybody is coming back, and also because we've been covering this year after year after year, the airlines and the airports have gotten really smart on this, and they staff accordingly.

so they get the folks through here as quick as possible, not to mention we are dealing with some beautiful weather here in los angeles and nationwide, we aren't seeing any big problems in terms of huge snowstorms or weather, so looks like things are running smoothly at rlax. back to you. jenna: looks like a good day to go to the beach. that's why it's not too busy, bob. >> reporter: absolutely. come on out! jenna: bob, thank you very much. jon: surf's up. there's some new information compiled on how much it costs to pay for those occupy wall street protests. the tab for the cities where they took place has reached $13 million. that according to a survey done by the associated press. the movement claims the rich don't pay their fair share. well, it's been going on for more than two months now, but guess who's paying the bill? you are. you taxpayers out there. elizabeth macdonald of the fox business network is with us.

so i am going to guess which city actually paid the most, the

. jenna: the dow is trading lower by nearly 200 points there. normally ahead of holidays light volume in trading, so we take a look at what's happening, but we also have to keep in mind that sometimes volume can be light, so it take less to move the needle here. we got one reading on consumer spending that wasn't as positive as some investors liked, and in general, we know consumer spending really fuels the economy. in the meantime, a harsh warning from moscow over the planned missile defense shield in europe. what the russian president threatens to do if a deal can't be reached soon. jon: also, you can forget camping out in front of your favorite store on black friday. many shoppers hitting the internet for amazing deals, but

window shopping could get you in trouble. we'll tell you why. jenna: also, forget that salt shaker for your thanksgiving meal, why there's more than enough salt in your food already. dr. manny is going to join us after the break to explain. ♪ ♪

jon: a developing story we're keeping an eye on right now. russia is getting ready to flex its military muscles with the president issuing this warning: he says moscow will aim missiles

at u.s. missile defense sites in europe if washington does not address concerns about the missile defense plans. medvedev also saying russia might opt out of the new s.t.a.r.t. arms control deal with the u.s. and start other arms control talks if washington proceeds to build that planned missile shield in europe. pretty ominous stuff, we'll get our correspondent, ed henry, from the white house up on all of this in the next hour of "happening now." jenna: let's take a little bit -- talk a little bit more about thanks giving. there's no need for a salt shaker on the table this year, turns out there's plenty of salt hidden in your food already, and this is important to remember because one out of three americans has high blood pressure. so we have three of us on set, jon, dr. manny and me, and i hope it's one of them. >> don't have it. [laughter] jenna: your blood pressure's just fine. no salt shaker on the table? how do we know? >> look, this is a good reminder to tell everybody out there that

there's a lot of hidden sodium in food. you know, when you're preparing a big meal, this is something you have to take into consideration. salt is a big problem, we keep saying that you want to stick to two to three grams of salt per day, and as you get older, you have more difficulty processing that salt. so try to pay attention, especially look at all the stuffing. 600 milligrams. jenna: right. and the turkey in particular. >> 640 milligrams. if you add all the sodium, plus if you put salt in the processing of this menu, you're going to really overseed the amount of recommended daily sodium. the message is not for you to go crazy tomorrow and pay attention to the sodium, it is a reminder. you know, one day doesn't do anything, but -- jenna: really? [laughter] >> come on, one day doesn't do anything. i'm telling you, one day doesn't do anything. and it's a reminder, everybody out there in tv land, that you should think about this and then don't do it every single day. you're going to end up with high

blood pressure and a lot of difficulties. jenna: we also have a full screen made just with some tips of ways to avoid salt if you want to keep a lower-sodium meal on the table. and some of them are pretty good. i thought this was interesting, if you serve sweet potatoes, you're less likely to put a bunch of salt than you are in regular mashed potatoes. >> and the grey i have, you have -- gravy, you have to pay anticipation to gravy, low-sodium gravy. you'd be surprised how much salt there is in seasoning and, again, a lot of herbs do not have it, so think about alternatives. jenna: you know, there's something new every year. we're taking a look at salt, we could do the segment probably for sugar, right? >> you could, but this is a good reminder because you know the whole political movement here in new york and in many cities that they want restaurants to pay attention. look, what makes food taste good is salt, and we love good tasting food. so people say, okay, that's great, but they don't realize, you know, we live in a society with a lot of processed foods. we tend to get everything

precooked and premade, so reminder is pay attention to the sodium content inside those packages. jenna: i thought this was interesting, kraft tried to sell ritz crackers, low sodium, and no one bought them. if they changed that language -- they didn't change anything in the package -- if they changed the language to a hint of salt, then we started buying again. it shows we have a connection to salt. >> it's a big connection. jenna: a teaspoon, right? that's all you're supposed to get a day? >> not quit tomorrow. tomorrow's not a good day. you know, we need a day off from medicine and medical advice. eat and drink and be merry. [laughter] that's for tomorrow. for tomorrow. jenna: only. >> comparing your sodium today. jenna: did you hear this before he started the segment, jon? he's telling a little campari and soda? >> it will get you ready for the digestive process tomorrow. jenna: i don't know, it's the there's advice. you going to take that up? jon: i disagree with the doctor,

i think ice cream makes food taste better. ice cream on anything. >> you're an ice cream person. jon: yeah, you know. >> there you go. jon: all right. [laughter] if you've heard of six degrees of separation, well facebook is out with some new numbers showing this world may be much smaller than you think. and it sounds like a biblical plague. salmon in the streets. but it's really happening. that story and rick reichmuth has your travel fox cast. where are the delays? coming up. ♪ welcome idaho,

where they grow america's favorite potoes. everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they'reood for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart assoction for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal.

jon: the most powerful name in news is keeping tabs on hundreds of satellite feeds around the country and globe in our acquisition room. take a look at the hearts field international airport where things seem to be moving okay on one of the busiest travel days of the year. move it over rebe to remote 259, that is the security screening area it looks like a bit of a mess there. it usually does in denver. things are said to be moving pretty well across the country. let's check in with remote 292. we find rick weymouth who has a look another travel delays.

>> reporter: the denver line looks tkeufplt newark you're back to about a 30 delay. j. f. k. nothing. if that's all we're dealing with on this day we are doing really putty good. this is a storm impacting so much of the east coast over the last 24 hours or so. you can see the southern end of this has exited, behind it lots of sunshine. atlanta, the world's busiest airport, you're looking fine. in the northeast troubles to be had. cloudy, a few batches of showers through new york city, maybe through washington d.c. and boston as such. this afternoon light delays but i don't think we'll see anything significant. across the west we'll see a few days maybe from san francisco up through portland and up through seattle with this steady stream of moisture. take a look of this video from the seattle area. these are salmon that are trying to spawn. you think they are going

upstream. they are trying to cross the food. that area seeing the most rain they've seen in the last four years. it's right at the time when the salmon are spawning. the road has become the stream. they are tough little guys. i bet they cross the road and will make it just fine. send it back to you. jenna: it is a small, small worblgsd eve world. you know six-degrees of separation, the idea that everybody is kepbgted to eac connected to each other by no more than six people is turning around. facebook says try five people. they look a look at their users and found out that the distance between two completely random people is 4.7 people before they can actually connect each other. we have the president of

eforensics. in your experience, your professional experience, is what we hear about facebook the same for any social networking? are strangers really connected in less than five people? >> yeah, you know when you take a look, for example i'm connected from two people, actually one other person to arnold schwarzenegger. jenna: are you really? >> absolutely. someone i know passed away last year. he was connected to arnold schwarzenegger. there are a lot of people connected to people they don't know. that connectivity is very, very good. we have to watch how we protect ourselves. jenna: i had to do a little research on you. you don't have a facebook page. >> no i don't. i don't want one. i'm married and have two kids. i use linkedin for business. jenna: what about twitter?

>> i love twitter just a little while ago that i'm going to be on fox news here. you're getting information out. people use facebook. sarah palin is very successful with facebook when you want to get information out and share information. for people to see it they have to join facebook, even though they may not want to. jenna: you see the archives that we're creating whether it's through facebook, twitter or any other social network, it's something that you're not sure how it will affect us in the future. >> i've been warning kids since the 1990s that this has been going on. kids are immature and we have powerful technology. kids will say stupid things. when they say it on facebook and twitter those are being archived. facebook has timeline out now. they'll save all the information for years to come. something you've made as an immature kid is going to come back to haunt you when you go for a job, run for office. jenna: is there a way to get

some of that stuff off once it's out there. >> no there is not. these are great tools, no doubt about it, when used correct leave. you have to protect yourself. one woman put out the fact that she is going out with her husband to see a koerpbt one of her friends broke into her house that night. the only reason she knew is because she had cameras in the house. jenna: when it comes to security, a lot of us, maybe i'm just speaking for myself, will be online shopping over the next couple of days. every year it becomes easier to online shop but i bet it's easy as well to steal information from people while they are shopping. what are tips. >> go to legitimate sites. make sure you see the ssl security that when your credit card goes across the internet it's not going across in clear text. make sure that the ads that you get in email, they are legitimate ads, you could be sending your credit card to something where someone is going to abuse the credit card.

if you're getting something from macy's, go to the macy's. if you're getting something from barnes & noble go through barnes & noble. so many people are victimizing people through email. jenna: do you online shop. >> absolutely. these are all great. facebook is great when used correctly. jenna: john, great to see you. always nice to have you, jon. jon: speaking of shopping online, shoppers are already camping out for black friday deals. bargain hunters setting up their tents yesterday in california. they say it's worth the wait to get christmas gifts for less. stores this year are opening earlier than ever. the erro earliest being toys r us opening at 9:00pm thanksgiving day. morey tailors are letting shoppers in at midnight. black friday is not just about going to the mall, it's about shopping online in a big, big way and lots of folks do it at work. now some employers, though, are saying they have had enough.

companies are claiming that online shopping, is it really that big of a problem? >> jon, i know you don't do this. and i don't do this at work, nobody does this at fox. there are apparently people out there spending their time at work surfing the web doing online shopping. the big bosses are getting on to the trends. a new survey out surveying about 1400 chief information officers, or cio's and found that 60% of these companies are blocking access to online shopping all together, that is up 50% from a year ago. and even if your company hasn't all together blocked net access 28% of them are actually watching for excessive use. now while online shopping is a good deal, and is convenient, there is certainly a lot of down sides for employers out there, because it takes out of productivity. there are estimates, jon, that at least four hours a week as we go into the holidays employees will be using company time to

shop online for deals. again, not happening here. jon: in some cases i guess that could even cost you your job. >> yes in this era of high unemployment and people who are looking for job security there are easy things that you cannot do to keep your chances of keeping your job up. one of the things that career builder said in a survey, saying that 22% of companies out there have fired someone for excessive use of the internet. 50% of companies out there keep tabs on internet usage, on email usage. that means when you spend your time twittering, and spend your time on facebook keep it to a minimum and keep it limited within working hours. jon: fox business network, some good advice there. thanks. jenna: first arizona, then bam r and now utah coming under fire from the justice department for its own illegal immigration laws. full details in a live report

just minutes away on that. how about this. big foot getting his day in court, sort of. as you can see why one film maker says his first amendment rights were violated when all he wanted to do was post a video on youtube. poor guy. his story, next. looking good! you lost some weight.

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jon: fox news alert, and who wins the presidential nomination depends an awful lot on how the candidates do in the two pivotal states, iowa and new hampshire. there is new polling out from an american research group about registered republican voters in iowa. it shows that newt gingrich now leads the pack with 30% of those registered republicans in iowa. mitt romney has 17. ron paul at 14. carl cameron will have more at the top of the hour. we'll also be talking politics with michael baron in the next hour of "happening now." jenna: a break from politics, perhaps, unless this guy can

weigh in in any way. jon: is he registered? jenna: is he registered? another big question. big foot is getting the big boot in new hampshire over . the park ranger demanded that he pay a hundred dollars for a film permit. he was making a youtube video. now his case is in front of the state supreme court. douglas kennedy is live in our newsroom with this story. really, doug? >> reporter: park rangers don't want big foot rooming the woods without paying a fee. it's a case that could determine whether youtube videos are hollywood films or simply home individual owes. it was december 2009 on the top of one of new hampshire's premiere tourist attractions. a group of hikers spot a large

animal-like figure on a ridge. >> what is it that you saw? >> i saw a big, hairy man-like creature. >> reporter: was it big foot coming from a cave, or sasquatch? unfortunately it was just jonathan daly in a suit. this was performance art that you posted own youtube. >> yes, i posted it on youtube. >> reporter: it got him kicked off the mountain. when he came to shoot a sequel later they told him no. they said you were a film crew and needed a film permit. what is up with that? >> well, you've got to come up with something, you know, when basically it's just a bunch of friends out with a camera. >> reporter: doyle has hooked up with the american civil liberties union and is suing the rangers for violating his right to free speech. the rangers say they have a

right to make anyone making a film apply for a film permit, and this laura grease. >> youtube videos can be considered analogous to a filming. >> reporter: youtube has become so big they say you are now like a hollywood production. what do you say to that. >> i think it's absurd. the way this all started is i was going out with my friends to shoot a video. i'm no hollywood production. >> reporter: doyle says if big foot is a hollywood production everything posted on the internet is as well. that's it, jenna back to you. jenna: there is a lot to think about. how did you keep a straight face when you new that big foot was just waupbging right behind me for that shot. >> reporter: was big foot walking behind me? jenna: yeah. >> reporter: oh, okay. some people had been telling me that, but i didn't notice. jenna: you didn't notice. got it. thank you. it's an interesting story we'll

continue to watch it. jon: there is proof that he exists right there. newt gingrich rising quickly in the polls but did he alienate conservatives about what he said about immigration right now. if you didn't hear it we'll play you the bite, that is the debate ahead in the next hour. a whale of a discovery, a marine graveyard in one of the dryest places on earth. how did these bones get there? right after the next break. ok, people. show me the best way to design a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately.

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jon: a discovery in a remote desert in khili, a massive

graveyard of ancient whales. they've uncovered 80 skeletons, including 25 that are complete, each of them thought to be millions of years old. how did they wind up in the middle of the desert? and what do scientists hope they can learn. joining us now the curator at the houston museum of natural science, dr. robert bocker. this is half a mile from the nearest ocean. how did these whales end up in the desert? >> this happens all the time to find ocean-going critters, whales, or giant sea lizards not in the ocean set ta meant, but far away because the coastline is not fixed, it's shifted a lot over the last 5, 6, 7 billion years. jon: what kind of whales are they, do we know? >> the initial reports are these are very exciting, it's what i call the near past. whale history goes back 50 million years, and the

smithsonian has been digging whales for a hundred years, and whales begin about 50 million years ago in pakistan. these whales are close to the ancestry of modern whales, to the sperm whale. plus some weird things, totally extinct. there is a dolphin there with giant fangs like a walrus and a swimming giant sloth. jon: i hadn't heard about that one. that sounds cool. whales strand themselves all the time in the modern era. could this be an example of that kind of thing? >> i don't think so. there are occurrences, fossil occurrences of many whales together onshore sediment. you have a variety here. you have a medium big sperm whale, the swimming sloth and the walrus-headed dolphin. something else brought them

together, something like a lagoon or bayou. if you want to have a good looking corpse you have to and be buried immediately. jon: they were discovered as chili was getting ready to build a highway. they have located the skeletons before they put the road over it. i guess they are going to move them and get whatever information they can. dr. robert bocker, thanks very much for being with us. >> my pleasure. jenna: a killer convicted of the horrifying triple murder of a mother and her daughters in her home in connecticut is waiting to find out what will happen to him next. will iting the death penalty, or life in prison. the judge has ruled that the jury can hear from the killer's daughter. we'll update you on the case. we are watching another situation around the country, updates on new delays potentially and what is ahead on this very busy travel day.

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jenna: nearly at high noon on the the -- on the east coast. we want to show you what's happening on wall street. the dow is lower by nearly 200 points. it looks like right now we're headed for what could be an historic thanksgiving week on wall street for the wrong reasons, potentially the worst thanksgiving week in nearly four decades with stocks turning lower on so many things, the debt crisis in europe, our debt crisis at home and our concern about our employment situation and consumer spending. we'll keep you updated on what's happening on wall street. in the meantime the economy is going to be a very big deal when it comes to the elections in 2012. a presidentia hopeful,

though, is picking up a big endorsement today. we're glad you're with us, i'm jenna lee. jon: no holiday mood on wall street. i'm jon scott, welcome to a brand new hour of "happening now". scat bethune is backing mitt romney for president, this announcement comes as romney hits the campaign trail in iowa, the first in the nation caucus state. now remember, romney did not pay a whole lot of attention to iowa four years ago, so is this part of a new campaign strategy for him there? chief political correspondent carl cameron with us live from demoines, he'll be talking with the candidate live in a couple of minutes. carl. >> reporter: jon, the big question whether or not myth rom stphe going to put in a serious effort in iowa, and today his appearance here in iowa, before one long holiday weekend, with the number four republican leader in the u.s. senate, from the next door state and almost ran against romney is a sign that he is ramping up

his caucus campaign. back four years ago, he spent millions of dollars in what ultimately ended up being a losing evident in iowa. this i'm around, he's hoping the holiday spirit and the help from next door south dakota makes a big difference. here's what happened a short while ago. >> i'm proud to be with you on this day before thanksgiving. >> he is a guy who has turned failing things around. in business he turned failing companies around, he turned the olympics around, he turned the state of massachusetts around. we need somebody that can turn this country around. >> south dakota senator john thune almost ran for president, back when he was thinking about it, he had critical things to say about romney but not today, he says his business acumen and experience is what the country needs to oust president obama and get the country on track, jon. jon: does it mean romney is paying more attention to iowa this time? >> >> reporter: well, listen, he's got less than six weeks to make a difference. the latest poll from the american research group suggests newt gingrich is leading here 27-20 percent

over mitt romney. last saturday, there was a huge forum here in iowa, in demoines, the faith and family forum, that brought most of the republican field here, but romney skipped it, and as a consequence of his absence, and some misgivings about his reliability on social issues, a number of socially conservative evangelical christians who organized that event had a meeting monday night where they discussed their inability to select an alternative to romney to unite behind, they're concerned if the social conservatives are divided in the upcoming caucus, romney, because of his evolveing positions on social issues, conservatives will be split. jenna: national security and foreign policy the focus of last night's republican debate, just six weeks before the iowa caucuses. pretty unreal to think about it, but that's the case, six weeks. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon to work through a

few parts of the debate with us, jen. it looks like you're at our d.c. bureau, instead of the pentagon today. i bet that's a treat for everybody involved! >> thank you. jenna: jennifer, let's start off with this part of the debate. michelle bachmann sits on the house select intelligence committee and there's speculation that maybe she revealed classified information about pakistan's nuclear program. what's the truth in that? >> reporter: well, u.s. officials say no, she did not. she was defending u.s. aid to pakistan, which governor rick perry said he would cut. in the process, she called pakistan too nuclear to fail. apparently she was quoting from the atlantic magazine's december cover story. she just forgot to attribute her information, leading some to conclude that she was revealing classified intelligence. >> we have to recognize that 15 of the sites, nuclear sites, are available, or are potentially penetrable, by jihadists. six attempts have already been made on nuclear sites.

this is more than an existential threat. >> she defended u.s. aid to pakistan, showing a flewencey with the national security ramifications of cutting aid, but she did not reveal classified information, according to experts. jenna: so glad we got that cleared up. certainly a lot more information on pakistan in the future. the other big conversation starter last night, and really over the last couple of weeks has been iran. what do the candidates say about iran when asked about specifically a military strike? >> reporter: well, newt gingrich went the furthest, suggesting that he would pursue regime change in iran >> we need a strategy of defeating and replacing the current iranian regime with minimum use of force. we need a strategy as rick santorum was saying about being honest about radical islam and design ago strategy to defeat if -- defeat it, wherever it happened to exist. >> herman cain backed that, but warned how difficult it

would be to destroy the program militarily. >> if israel had a credible plan that it appeared as if they could succeed, i would support israel, yes. and in some instance, dependent upon how strong the plan is, we would join with israel for that, if it was clear what the mission was and it was clear what the definition of victory was. >> governor rick perry called for sanctioning the central bank of iran, even though that would cause oil prices to spike because iran would no longer be able to sell its oil abroad, more than 2 million barrels a day. >> we need to sanction the iranian central bank, and when you sanction the iranian central bank, that will shut down that economy, at that particular point in time, they truly have to deal with the united states. >> reporter: that's an issue being debated right now by the white house and the treasury department. another big headline from the debate, governor perry called on secretary of defense leon panetta to

resign if the trigger mechanism to cut the defense budget by $650 billion over ten years remains in place. panetta's spokesman, george little, said panetta is, quote, a man of principle, but has no plans to resign. jenna: a lot of big topics covered there last night. jennifer, thank you for the rundown. jon: on the debate topic from last night, newt gingrich raised a few eyebrows with unorthodox positions especially when it comes to immigration. michael paron for the washington examiner and fox news contributor is with us. michael, i want to play for you what newt gingrich said. i'm sure you saw t maybe our viewers didn't. but he said something about immigration that had a lot of conservatives wondering. take a listen: >> i don't see -- the party says it's the party of the family. it's going to adopt an immigration policy that destroys family that have been here a quarter century and i'm prepared to take the heat for saying let's be

humane and enforcing the law without giving them citizenship but finding a way to create legality so they are not separated from their families. >> so newt gingrich says illegal immigrants in this country who have been here peacefully and working and so forth should be allowed to say. -- stay. maybe not necessarily increase citizens but should be allowed to stay. what's that going to do to him, michael, when it comes to conservative voters? >> i think he's taking a risk, because a lot of conservative republican primary voters and caucus goers take the view that any sort of legalization provisions for illegal immigrants are amnesty and are something they just cannot back. i think gingrich made a more deft argument for the proposal that you just heard than rick perry did when he was defending the texas law for in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants. that was passed nearly -- unanimously in the texas legislature, but it clearly

cost him some points with republican primary voters. gingrich here was talking, interestingly, about having local rather than national decision making on who would stay. he cited the example of the selective service boards which were set up for world war ii, and specifically, delegated to local prominent citizens, the decisions of which people would be called to serve in the military in a war in which we ended up losing some 400,000 men, women killed. that decision was not made on a national level, but locally. and so i think gingrich is hoping to, by appealing to family values, by appealing to localism, to take the sting out of that proposal for many republicans who dislike amnesty. i'm not sure it's going to succeed. and what strikes me as odd about this debate, and previous republican debates on immigration, is that

they're talking about a problem that really doesn't exist anymore, that is to say, very large numbers, 500,000, 750,000 illegal immigrants coming in every year, that stopped with the recession. we've got basically just about zero illegal immigration these days. and the prospects for it continuing, even with an economic recovery, are not good. jon: well, you know, so many people have peaked and dropped as sort of an alternative to mitt romney. you straw with michele bachmann. you saw it with rick perry. is this an issue you think is going to hurt newt gingrich with republican voters? stkpwhraoeu think it's got the potential to hurt him. i underestimated the hurt that rick perry got from his backing that in-state tuition for children of illegals, and it's possible that gingrich for all his

deftness in making his case may sustain that kind of damage soon. we'll know within a week or two. jon: but as we saw in that poll, that carl cameron brought from us iowa, newt gingrich is on top right now, at least in the state of iowa. we'll see what happens. michael barone, good to have you with us to watch all of these developments. >> thanks. jon: thanks michael. jenna: in the meantime new information on rising tensions between the united states and russia. the kremlin is threatening to target u.s. missile defense sites in europe, and there's a lot of background to this story. chief white house correspondent ed hen very live on north lawn. explain where this comes from. >> reporter: good to see you jenna. this is a story that's gone on for some time. we're talking about the fact that the u.s. wants to build a missile defense shield in europe and going back to the bush administration, u.s. officials have repeatedly told russia, look, this is a defensive move to protect our european allies against an attack from iran. it's not an offensive move to maybe launch missiles at

russia. now, former president putin was very skeptical, though, always thought there was a chance the u.s. would use this against russia in an offensive way. now it hears president medvedev is buy going that as well, warning today that russia may point its own missiles at these u.s. defense sites. interesting, because this could be a big embarrassment for president obama. he's had this big reset of u.s.-russian relationships, a big part of that was signing this new start treaty for both sides to reduce their nuclear stockpile, today president medvedev said that may be unraveling. >> taking into account the direct link between strategic, offensive and defensive weapons, the circumstances could arise in which we had grounds to pull out of the start treaty. >> reporter: now, the context here is that medvedev is going to be leaving the stage in a few month, he's handing the reigns of the presidency

back to putin, currently the prime minister. as i mentioned, putin has been a hardliner on this issue, so perhaps medvedev is showing he can be a hardliner as well. maybe this is a lot of bluster. but it's a stunning turnabout from last week when i sat down with u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton and she insisted both sides are working together on missile defense. take a listen: >> we have always said if the rugs want to cooperate with the united states and nato in developing missile defense, that we'll protect them, as well as us, from the kind of threats that we foresee in the future. we would be willing to work with them on that. >> another interesting wrinkle to throw in the mix, you heard jennifer griffin reporting about how the supercommittee's failure could lead to these massive automatic defense spending cuts. one of the things that secretary of defense leon panetta has said he may put on the chopping block if that were to happen is this whole missile defense deal so, that might please russia

but could obviously leave the u.s. and its european allies less safe. jenna: interesting. interesting timing as well, the day before thanksgiving, to get all this news. one has to wonder about the coincidence in that. ed, thank you very much. it's a story we continue to follow. great interview with the secretary of state. thank you. >> thank you. jon: the feds versus the states. we just heard michael barone talking about newt gingrich and his thoughts about illegal immigration. now there's a new lawsuit. the state that is being sued now by the federal government, and how it plans to defend itself. also, a s. w. a.t. standoff ends badly. the suspect managings to escape. what he is accused of doing and where the search for himle stands. plus rick reichmuth is in the fox weather center. >> reporter: there are delays across the northeast up to 30 minutes at la guardia and newark. this storm has been impacting us but it's looking better. pulling off shore towards the mid atlantic and the northeast, that's the band of showers moving through

that's going to cause a few more delays as we move forward through the afternoon. once that last bit moves through, we'll be good but we have a few more hours of trouble spots and stuff across the midwest. coming up, we'll tell you about the next storm that is going to have big impacts for your return home this weekend. stay with us. we'll be right back. helps defenl constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with the strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

jenna: right now new information on crime stories we're keeping an eye on, including this one, investigators shutting down the command post they've been using in the seven for missing baby lisa irwin, the leads in the case are dwindling. of course the little girl vanished two months ago in missouri. we've been following this story closely for you on fox news. detectives and the fbi will continue to work on the case, but again, dwindling sources at this time. out to nevada, henderson, nevada, in fact, where authorities are searching for a suspected gunman, police say the teenager shot another teen, the suspect barricaded himself in an apartment but then got away. no word on the shooting victim's condition as well.

natalie wood mystery grows, the lifeguard who helped pull her body from the water, now speaking out. according to a report, he believes the actress sul actually survived for a while in the water and could have been saved if authorities were called earlier. jon: the justice department is filing a lawsuit against utah over that state's new immigration law. attorney general eric holder says the law violates the u.s. constitution. utah lawmakers, though, say they are ready to defend it in court. they like what they have passed. peter doocy has a look at that live from washington, here. >> reporter: jon, under this new law, if you're arrested for a serious crime in oudz, you've got to then prove your citizenship and attorney general eric holder says that's not going to fly because people might start getting harassed and because he doesn't think states should have their own immigration laws. holder says that would create a patchwork of immigration laws which he says is not good and wants everyone obeying federal statutes, nothing else, and he also says, quote, the

federal government is the chief enforcer of immigration laws, and while we appreciate cooperation from the states which remains important, it is clearly unconstitutional for a state to set its own immigration policy. this lawsuit was filed against utah by the doj, the state department, and the department of homeland security, whose secretary janet napolitano says if crops are enforcing this kind of immigration law they won't have time to enforce other important laws and her line there is that, quote, this kind of legislation diverts critical law enforcement resources from the most serious threats to public safety and undermines the vital trust between local jurisdictions and the communities they serve, but the attorney general there in utah, mark srirkland, says he looked at other states sued by the feds for having their own imgraceulation like arizona, south carolina and pwapls and he thinks utah's law is legal and will hold up in court, he says quote, we feel strongly we made significant changes with our law compared to arizona's at

the time. we think the way our law is with our changes, we himself we can defend it, that we can prevail on this, and have it held constitutional. he says he is still talking to the feds even though they're suing them, trying to resolve their differences of opinion before these controversial provisions kick in in 2013. jon. jon: peter doocy, live in washington. the arguing goes on. thanks peter. >> thank you. jenna: we're going to turn it to overseas now. mounting pressure on egypt's military regime as thousands of demonstrators face off against riot police. straight ahead, what they're demanding and what it will take to restore the calm.

jenna: in the streets of cairo, egyptian police clashing with protestors for the fifth straight day, the worst violence since the reskwraepl that ousted hosni mubarek. more than 30 people have been killed in this latest uprising over the last couple of days. the demonstrators are rejecting a proposal from egypt's military ruler to creed out the transfer of power to civilian government, saying they want him gone, the military leader, now. robin wright, robin, let's start with our relationship with the egyptian military, because that's something key that we need to consider when we're talking about the state of -- fate of egypt over the next several years. describe our connection, country to country, with the military in egypt. >> the united states has been one of the main funders and armers of the egyptian military. the united states gives about $1.3 billion a year to the egyptian military. that's aside from any kind of civilian or aid or

development assistance. that relationship has been pivotal on a lot of different levels, whether it's on an arab-israel repeace, counterterrorism, and the united states had continued that aid in part because the army had initially been seen as an important power, the critical power, in the transition. jenna: just to interrupt for you a second, we're taking live pictures of cairo. that said about the egyptian military, what's in the best interest of the united states? is it in the best interest that the military is the government in egypt, or is there another scenario that could be more beneficial to us? >> what's happened ten months after the ouster of president mubarek is that the revolution has spread. it has become not just about one geriatric ought accurate or dictator being forced from power. it's about changing the whole order. and that includes the military leadership that has backed down on every promise it made to the egyptian people. it continued marshal law for a year after promising to

lift it after six months, it refused to end military trials of diffidence, it has delayed the democratic transition originally until the year 2013, it backed down on that yesterday by saying that it would complete the writing of a constitution and a presidential election by the end of june next year. so that's clearly not enough, and this is a real crisis for egypt, trying to figure out what common ground will lead people to agree to open up to electricals on monday. jenna: it sounds like you're saying the military made a key mistake there in not moving faster. >> absolutely. the military is responsible for the chaos on the streets, because it refused to follow through on its own promises. jenna: so what about this question of the vacuum that's created in egypt if the military goes, civilian rulers come into place? there was talk yesterday on our show about it being a technocrat that comes into office, not a politician.

but there's also been talk about the muslim brotherhood gaining more ground and potentially being in that role of a civilian government, and of course, the muslim brotherhood has more ties, it's not secular like the military, for example. so talk to us a little bit through that, about who exactly could come into power here. >> well, the government has proposed a transition to a civilian rule, that the army would still have the ultimate power, it would bring in a technocrat, not a politician, to run the transition. egypt's elections, which are scheduled to take place on monday, will open the way for the muslim brotherhood to play a larger role, but most of the polls indicate that they won't get more than 30-35 percent, and that there are other parties, secular parties, even politicians who are at one point supportive of the old regime, may actually be able to get an important role in the skwraoepl. so i don't think we can leap to the assumption that

religious movements are going to take over the future of egypt, if the military should step aside. jenna: just a final thought here robin. i know this is a fast moving situation. but do you think the egypt that emerges next will be an ally of the united states? >> it depends upon how this plays out. the longer this disorder goes on the more the united states is seen as an ally of the military, the greater the danger the people also hold the united states accountable. so a lot of this will be determined really by the time factor. jenna: very interesting perspective, robin. always nice to have you. thank you for joining us and happy thanksgiving. >> same to you. jon: in washington, economic policy is very much in the air as you know with the failure of the supercommittee to come up with some kind of a deal to cut the decifit. now a worried federal reserve might be ready for more monetary stimulus. what that means for the value of your hard earned dollar. plus are you travel fog thanksgiving? some important information about where, when and how mother nature could affect your holiday. >> ♪ >> ♪ >> ♪

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jenna: "happening now", one of the busiest travel days of the we're and rick reichmuth is back with us from our extreme weather center. a little sprinkling of trouble but nothing major?

>> reporter: we're doing pretty well, delays holding at 35--- 30-45 minutes, there's one last bit of rain moving through. this storm impacting the northeast, it happened about one -- if it happened 12 hours later we'd have big problems because last night, very heavy rain along the eastern seaboard. it's exited the east coast. still have a last batch of showers near the airports causing delays. big snows across new england so the roads driving home will be problematic. not across the west, the steady stream of moisture is pulling in, across oregon and washington, you get that this time of year but this is certainly a wet storm out there. here's your look at tomorrow. we've got rain across the west, the center part of the country is warming up. we're going to see temps around 30 degrees above where you should be in the heartland. so a very nice day, much of the east coast looking great. it won't be that windy, great lakes will see a little bit of cool weather. want to quickly, though, jen kwrarbgs talk about your return home, because there's another storm across the

west, saturday, it's going to bring problems around the gulf, stretching towards the great lakes area. that's going to have delays if you're traveling on that date. sunday this storm pulls off to the east, and we'll see delays maybe towards the northeast and sorts of the southeast as well. get ready, as cool air moves in, maybe seeing a snow flurries. jenna: by that time it's christmastime, though. >> exactly, you're ready for the snow. jenna: >> jon: the federal reserve is keeping a close eye on the economy and congress, as it considers additional steps to try to promote economic growth in this country. fox business network correspondent peter barnes reports for us live from washington. peter. >> reporter: hey jon. a lot of this could be triggered by gridlock, believe it or not. some economists now saying the federal reserve may have to ride to the rescue of the fragile economy once again because of the failure of the supercommittee. some economists now worry

that congress and the white house will not be able to agree on extending a number of provisions that expire at the end of this year that might help the recovery. there's a $100 billion or so in payroll tax cuts for workers, $60 billion in unemployment benefits, $50 billion in accelerated writeoffs for companies that purchase equipment, and that totals more than $200 billion, more than 1 percent, of gdp. now, without those, one former fed economist thinks that it means more stimulus from the fed in the form of another round of purchases of long term bonds to help push down long term interest rates on mortgages in particular to help the housing market, and it could be big. >> my guess is if by january, they haven't extended this or taken some other comparable action, the fed will certainly move, if the payroll tax cuts are not extended and nothing else is done, then i think you're thinking of more than a trillion, as much as

2 trillion. >> reporter: but republicans say they are interested in negotiating with the white house on extending the payroll tax cuts, and some of these other measures, but some republicans want offsets in the budget to do this. they don't want this to add to the decifit. jon. jon: it always -- where does the money come from. that's the big question mark in washington right now. peter, thank you very much. >> okay. jenna: certainly not coming from wall street. we're keeping this -- there it is, that bug, just showing you where wall street is trending today, down nearly 200 miles. mia mcginnis -- maya mcginnis, nice to have you back with us, we are talking to you about the go big coalition, you've been a big part of getting this together on the hill. what is next as far as where lawmakers go from here? >> well, as discouraging as it was, the skpr committee wasn't able to come up with the savings necessary, there seems to be no letting up on the focus of the need to do something in terms of

getting in place a plan that will deal with the deficits and debt and there are so many lawmakers, both parties, both the senate and house now, who have become really focused on this issue, putting in place a plan and i don't think it's in anybody's best interest or the right plan to say well, we know we're facing this fiscal crisis potentially, let's take a year off and deal with it after the election. so i think the first step is to figure out how to keep moving forward, even without the supercommittee, try to get a plan in place this year, and importantly, what that does is it would turn off the sequester. we have the blunt cuts awaiting us at the end of the year which are not the right way to do policy. we want to put in changes on our own terms. jenna: before we get to that sequester, there's a couple of things that peter mentioned, the payroll tax holiday, where it's taken out of our check to pay for social security, and so we've had a bit of a payroll tax holiday, which means we can keep more money as we get our paychecks once a week, twice a week, whatever it is. what is the go big

coalition's stance about the payroll tax holiday, should we extend it? >> there are plenty of differences both between the members working on this and economists about what to do with the stimulus. the ideal is if you put in place a multi-year plan to stabilize the debt and bring it down over time, you could then have space up front to include more stimulus measures like the payroll tax cuts, without that bigger, broader plan, i think it actually becomes likely that any further jobs measures won't work quite as well and it becomes more difficult to pass, so i think we're going to have quite a fight on our hands in the coming weeks about what to do with the expiring provisions and if they come out of the economy right now, it's a pretty precarious time to take that money out. we should at the very least, if we put them, extend them, keep them in place, think about ways to offset the costs over a longer period of time. jenna: and of course, a comprehensive plan. that's what's been tough right now, to put them into a comprehensive plan could be a challenge before the end of the year. let me ask

you something a bit more personal. this is an article from roll call, this is what they had to say about you, maya might be one of the most influential bipartisan deal makers on capitol hill. this is good stuff, maya. hang out for a second. senator warner, a democrat from virginia, says she's a trusted intermediary, senator coburn, republican from oklahoma, says she wants to solve the problems. you got people on both sides of the aisle saying great things about you on capitol hill. i'm curious, as an outsider, you're not in elected office, why do you think you're needed? i mean, why do you think lawmakers feel like they need someone from the outside to help talk about these issues or maybe bring them together? >> okay. i didn't even know you were going to bring up that article, so it's -- i think the important thing about this issue is it's incredibly difficult to make these choices. this is not the easy stuff, we're going to cut taxes and we're going to raise spending. this is the hard stuff and you can't do it with one party alone. there needs to be bipartisan

cooperation. i think just because i'm a political independent that probably helps me get to work with both members of both sides. but the honest truth is that people doing the real work are the members of congress, from both parties, who are joining together, building trust, and listening to each other. so you talk about senator warner and coburn, they have a better understanding of why senator coburn wants to keep government small, why senator warner want toss protect progressive values, they've built that trust on their own which is why i think groups like this, bipartisan groups and the senate and house working together are really critical in moving the tough issues forward, because if you don't have that, when we talk about the realities, that we're going to have to make changes in entitlements, think about raising the retirement age, talk about your revenue, they are going to just beat each other up unless they decide to go at this in a united, bipartisan way, so it's the key to success here. jenna: i mentioned it because i want our viewers to know about the work you do and it seems like you're

getting great compliments. we appreciate you joining us and sharing your thoughts. it looks like it's key moving forward for whatever compromise you get, maya. again, happy thanksgiving. >> thank you. thanks a lot. jon: some amazing video to show you. a helicopter, install ago christmas tree, plunges to the ground. the pilot, though, makes an amazing escape. [ male announcer ] how are we going to make this season better than the last? how about making it brighter. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work? so we can build on our favorite traditions by adding a few new ones. we've all got garlands and budgets to stretch. and this year, we can keep them both evergreen. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. make your season even brighter with 300-count icicle lights for just $7.48.

jon back now to one of our series on one of the most important political roadway necessary america, florida's interstate four corridor. this one area could determine which candidate wins that state's 29 electoral votes in 2012 and for voteners that corridor, issue number one is the economy. steve harrigan is live at

legoland, breathing new life into the local economy. steve. >> reporter: jon, almost half of florida's registered voters live along the i4 core do, they're split almost exactly evenly between republicans and democrats. but the key issue for both sides right now is jobs. have a wonderful day in the park. >> reporter: when the mortgage company brenda barnhill worked for went bust it took two years to find another job. she did things she never thought she would do. >> i applied for food stamps. i've never had public assistance of any sort. we were getting late notices, and i'm a really upbeat kind of person, so i didn't get real down. just you know at night where you're like oh, i wish something good would happen. >> something good did happen for the 49-year-old mother of four. >> welcome to legoland! >> the new legoland in winterren brought 1000 jobs to a county where unemployment is over 12 percent. the single issue of jobs is what unites swing voters

across central florida. >> they want jobs to be created and they want government policy that is are going to help create t. so it's going to be up to the candidates to formulate that vision and try to sell it to the people. >> have a great day! >> >> reporter: current levels of government spending may prove a hard sell to people like barnhill. >> i can't go and purchase something for $500 if i don't have $500. it's hard to understand how that happens. you know, how government gets to spend lots and lots of money that they don't have. >> jon, we've been hearing that same sentiment several times. we've been driving this highway for several days now, and we're hearing again and again the idea that people have that there's one set of rules that applies to them and their families but a completely different set for the government. jon. jon: how is legallyland doing? seems like a pretty busy place, huh? >> reporter: it is. it's really a niche park. it's lower priced than nearby universal and disney, aimed for young kids around

age six, so there's a pink knuckle roller coaster going on behind me. you can probably hear the screams. so doing very well right now as far as attendance goes. jon: i'll check it out sometime, although my kids are a little older than that. steve harrigan. jenna: you can still go. why not? >> jon: you'll let me? >> jenna: you and steve! jon: thank you steve. jenna: hardly anyone in washington was surprised by a new u.n. report saying iran's nuclear weapons program had reached an advanced stage. what no one knows is how to stop it. our next guest says there's an option that needs to be considered and it involves the iranian people. that's next. hes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories.

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jenna: right now, new information and stories we're watching across the country and around the tpwrorld inside our control room, first, new zealand, where a helicopter was installing a christmas tree,

and theo that's what happened. amazingly, the pilot escaped serious injury without -- without serious injury, escaped with his own life. he limped away on his own. this is incredible vedo. in italy, flash floods have killed at least four people, among the victims, a ten-year-old child who died after the house was hit by a mudslide in sicily. wow. a warning for parents to be on the lookout for alcoholic candy, apparently kids are soaking gummy bears and other treats in vodka. jon and i had no idea. apparently you can do this and bring this bloated candy to school. if you see any big gummy bear, be careful! jon: beware of the pwhraet dollars bear! teenagers. it has been called the greatest threat to u.s. national security. iran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. but is war the only way to stop tehran, or is there another option?

counter terror analyst and middle east expert joins us now. the conventional thinking, lisa, has been that you either bomb iran or let iran get the because, the nuclear bomb. you might say there might be a third way. what is it? >> right. so the third way, a way that we haven't actually used yet, and that is either to enforcenon militaristic actions in the form of sanctions that are well implemented and well enforced and more importantly, to support the people of iran in a popular uprising, which we lost the opportunity in 2009. now, the military option should never be taken off the table in the case of iran, but until we use the other two options and enforce these sanctions well and try to support the people of iran, then the military option is not really the best option. jon: white a -- wait a minute. we've been putting sanctions on iran for years now and it

doesn't seem to have done anything. >> again, sanctions work to the extent that they are well implemented and well enforced, well implemented meaning they are targeted, choking the correct sectors of the iranian economy, and now that we see that on monday when president obama announced we're going off the -- after the petroleum sector, energy sector, we're going after the banks and they're well enforced and we go after the countries ducking out of the responsibility, the onus of the iranian threat is not just on the united states. we have to make sure that europe is on board, we have to make sure that russia and china are on board. if they become well enforced and better implemented we'll see better results. jon: governor perry said in that republican debate last night he wants to sanction the central bank of iran. if you do that, it essentially freezes out iran from trading in oil. doesn't that spike oil supplies and prices all over the world? >> it does. and there are other side effects to sanctioning the

iranian regime. it does affect the people of iran, it affects the world economy, but again, this is something that goes far beyond the effects of war, and that can be used to choke the regime in a way that will offset some of these other options. jon: the flipside, i suppose, is that if you think sanctioning the central bank is going to spike oil prices, just try a strike on iran's nuclear facility, a military strike. >> right. and more importantly, the iranian regime is almost inciting military strike, they've used it to their benefit like they did in the early 80s by doing to -- going to war with iraq and rallies the constituents around the flag. the most important thing we have to remember in the iranian equation here is that the biggest threat to the regime still remains the people of iran, and first missile, scud, bullet shot at the iranian territory from an external source will result in rallying the

people around the flag and galvanizing this constituency that they have been having trouble getting. jon: as you point out, we may have lost a huge opportunity to get the people on our side in iran during the iranian spring. lisa, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: millions of americans are on the move as families get together for thanksgiving and we're so glad you're spending a little of that time with us today. we're going to have your travel forecast all day here on fox news, and at foxnews.com. plus still time to vet in our online poll. when you look at the thanksgiving table full of food, what's your favorite dish? what are you looking forward to tomorrow? log on to "happening now", we'll read the results and tell you our favorites, next.

jon: it is of course thanksgiving tomorrow. we've been asking you what your

favorite part of the thanksgiving dinner is. we have the results. 52% of you say the turkey. jenna: no real surprise there. jon: richard barrett says it's the ohm made gravy over everything. another person says it's the green bean casserole. jenna: i talked with the second lady, dr. jill biden. she says that's what she makes every year for the biden family. everyone has a green bean casserole. your favorite dish wasn't on the list. jon: it was mash potatoes, and dina our expert poll writer didn't even put it on the list. jenna: disrespect. i could eat a plate of stuffing and be happy. no nothing, just the stuffing. you'll see an exclusive interview with dr. jill biden, check that out that will ben