>> gretchen: log on for that. have a great day. >> brian: see, i have no time to say anything. bill: here we go starting a whole new week. good morning everybody. a major endorsement for newt gingrich and a colossal snub for mitt romney. the new hampshire union leader putting its weight behind gingrich saying he is not the perfect candidate but he is the best option. >> gingrich by far handled himself the best. he is certainly not without flaws and we disagreed with him on issues but he is the whole package. he's a forward thinker. he don't need someone to manage the malaise further into america's sinking. bill: that is the publisher of the newspaper. good morning, everybody. hope the turkey is still in the fridge, right? we'll have leftovers for a week. hope you had a great

holiday. i'm bill hemmer. good morning. martha: work some of the turkey. i'm in that camp. good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. this is called a huge blow to mitt romney. the paper doesn't call him out by name the paper says quote we may back with someone who disagrees and tells us what he thinks we want to hear. bill: romney leading latest real clear politics in new hampshire. all the poles mashed together ahead of the primary in early january. romney has the lead. bob cusack, managing editor of "the hill" newspaper. >> good morning. bill: what does it mean for newt gingrich at the moment? >> i think it is a pretty big deal. we're not talking about newt gingrich's comments on immigration which got him in trouble on right and left. we're talking about this endorsement. newt gingrich's timing is quite good. this is when john mccain started to make his move four years ago, around thanksgiving. this is a big deal. newt gingrich is a threat to

mitt romney which, has got to be concerning the romney camp especially this is the second time romney has been snubbed by this newspaper. bill: besides that what does it mean for mid romney conversely? >> i think romney will have to --, he doesn't panic. when rick perry got in the race and his numbers went up they didn't panic. they're going very steady. they contend whether herman cain or rick perry orbach bach they have been steady. if you look at early numbers in various states romney is still well-positioned. bill: his whole idea do well in iowa and win new hampshire and go on from there. what do you make of the statement, the one who tells us what we want to hear? >> yeah, that's a real biting shot at romney and that's what democratic national committee has been going after on romney as far as being genuine and they make the case, listen, we don't agree with everything newt gingrich says but he has conviction and by saying that about gingrich they're saying that romney does not have conviction, is not

genuine and that's a real problem for romney. bill: part of this process for gingrich is reintroducing himself to voters. reminding them of his track record in the '90s. for the next generation of americans, that was a period, all likelihood they did not pay a lot of attention to back then. >> that is good thing for newt gingrich because a lot of people in washington do not fondly remember the days of newt gingrich when politically he lost his high-profile showdowns with president bill clinton. a lot of republican members of congress are getting worried about gingrich's rise. they did not enjoy working with him. that helps gingrich in a way. he can start to claim the mantle of being outsider even though he has been in washington for decades. bill: funny how that works. january 10th in new hampshire. bob cusack from "the hill". martha: although gingrich grabbed the big endorsement over the weekend mitt romney is the candidate that made the most visits to new

hampshire. he has a house there since people well know. since announcing his candidacy he has been to new hampshire 16 times for 22 days. mitt romney doubled that made 30 trips there totaling 25 days. bill: we'll talk to the man himself, new hampshire union leader publisher. you saw him in that clip earlier. we'll ask him why not mitt and why newt. we'll get it all together here. that is next hour here in "america's newsroom" on that. martha: the union leader hardly had a perfect record predicting winners. back in 2008 many well remember they backed john mccain and he did end up winning the new hampshire primary but he lost to president obama in the general election in 2008. back in 2000 the paper endorsed steve forbes, calling george w. bush at the time, quote, an empty suit. well we know how that one working out as well. they backed pat buchanan in '92 and '96.

they backed ronald reagan twice. in 76 they were wrong. in 80, you know what happened with that. all the way to the white house. they really have a very mixed bag how they do. bill: watching other candidates in the field getting their reaction and seeing how they're sizing this up, for herman cain he is taking the endorsement in stride saying this decision will not change his strategy. >> that is good for newt he has that endorsement. i will still meet with them and take my message to the people. here is how we plan to stay in. look at the latest polls. we're consistently one of the top three. what that says is, that people who get on the cain train, they don't get off. bill: you heard 30 minutes ago on "fox and friends" he has a new movie out today, and it is called, 9-9-9 of course. cain is in virginia for a campaign fund-raiser in that state. >> it could be called the cain train but called 9-9-9. what about jon huntsman? he is saying the union leader is a one of a lot of

newspapers in new hampshire. he is confident he will pick up an endorsement from at least one of them. over the weekend he told "fox news sunday"'s chris wallace we could be set for a surprise in new hampshire come scrap. >> people in this great state they love an underdog. i'm an underdog right now. if you can be an underdog and have a message that begins to connect with people on the ground you can make things happen. do i believe we're going to beat expectations in new hampshire? i absolutely believe we will. martha: huntsman is a big question mark for a lot of people in terms how he has been faring through all of this he is now on a six-day swing through new hampshire. been unable to really connect and get to the ground but claimed to chris wallace over the weekend he would have to come in surprisingly second at least in new hampshire to change his trajectory. bill: we talked to him last week on "america's newsroom." he needs gas money to keep his campaign alive. martha: i think he has enough for gas money. bill: everybody is in new hampshire. those are some of the top political headlines on a monday morning.

for the latest updates wherever you are, make sure you go to foxnews.com slash aehq online where we are america's election headquarters. check it out. martha: let's go overseas for this fox news alert. a landmark day in egypt as the first post-revolution elections get underway there. people casting their first votes since the end of hosni mubarak's rule. after riots left dozens of people dead. a pipeline in the sinai peninsula, delivers fuel to israel and. it is the 8th attack since mubarak was removed from office. greg palkot is there. what is the scene like right now? >> reporter: the violence and chaos we have seen here first-hand in the past so far has not materialized. egyptians are going to the polls and here is what it looked like on the ground. we're in the dahar

neighborhood of cairo where there is a massive turnout for the first of three leak shuns since the fall of egyptian president hosni mubarak. it is a lengthy process. there are many ballots. it is complicated. there are many parties. there are many candidates. it is controversial. some say the vote shouldn't happen at all. it is potentially dangerous. there is massive turnout of soldiers, of police. they call it maximum security. but the folks here seem to be defying all the odds. they seem to want to give democracy a chance. they are voting here at this school. some confusion at other polling stations. mostly they're overwhelmed by crowds. mobilized by islamist parties. they are expected to do well today this week. as for the egyptian military ruler, field marshal whose presence has been a cause of recent violence we've seen here we caught up with him earlier today. here is what he had to say. >> translator: some people say the military council

should step down. what do you think? >> we are not going to stay. >> reporter: when will you leave? >> i announced yesterday. >> reporter: he is refering to comments he made he would step down next july. that is when all the elections will be over here. we should see the first results this week coming on wednesday. as for tahrir square behind me we've seen so much tumult it is quiet, martha. maybe some of the folks are at the polls. back to you. martha: fascinating. greg palkot, thank you so much back in cairo. bill: could use a quiet day. meanwhile afghan force, beginning phase two now in the transition of powers that the u.s.-led coalition nears end of its mission there. hamid karzai saying that the afghan security forces are taking over from the u.s. and nato in all or part of 18 provinces. those areas include after half the population of afghanistan.

the goal to put afghan forces in control of security for the entire country by the end of 2014. good luck. martha: we're talking about the scene in cairo. three american college students were arrested in those violent clashes in egypt. remember these pictures we brought you before thanksgiving. they looked pretty scared at that moment. we're learning details. they say they were hit. they were threatened with guns by the authorities. one of the them described the first night in custody as the scariest night of his life. you can imagine that would probably be. we'll speak to one of these young men at the top of the hour. they are very happy to be back on american soil. bill: yes, they are. they didn't know each other before they went to cairo but they will be friends. martha: they have a quite a shared experience. bill: that is some of the stories we're watching. in "america's newsroom", there is this. watch. >> hey. grabber had. grab her. come protech her right now. bill: they were heading home from thanksgiving. they turned out to be good

samaritans and holiday heroes. you will see more of the amazing rescues in a moment. martha: with congress deadlocked over the big fat number you see on the screen the next big fight is knew browing. republicans say they have a plan to protect our military from the massive cuts but will democrats play ball on that? bill: search for missing mother michelle parker incense filing over the weekend. why orlando police raided home of her ex-fiance's father. >> we love you so much. we're looking forward to see that beautiful face come home. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i?

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♪ because they see no limits, there's eukanuba nutrition designed to help their body go as far as their mind wants to. eukanuba. extraordinary nutrition for extraordinary beings. see the difference in 28 days or your money back. martha: after the big super-committee flop the military budget is becoming a huge issue on the campaign trail. you have the defense cuts expected to take place after the failure of that committee and they're trying to strike some kind of deal. mitt romney is calling on president obama to block the $600 billion in automatic

cuts and instead, find some money to do that from other programs. he also called out the president for not being involved he says in the super-committee process saying that the president has been spending most of his time out on the campaign trail. we'll talk about that coming up as well. bill: a little more on that at 15 minutes past the hour. republican lawmakers not waiting for president obama to step in. setting up battle over looming cuts to our military just a week after the super committee failed to strike a deal that would slash our debt. republicans saying they want to reconfigure the budget cuts. senator pat toomey, he is a republican, saying democrats might be on board. >> i spoke with a number about democratic senators who were not serving on the super-committee who thought that the plan that we put forward was very constructive, was reasonable. senator durbin didn't agree with the plan that put on the table but we republicans put on the table but he did suggest it was a break-through. i think there is a chance to

work with some more moderate members of the democratic caucus who want to make progress, who realize how important this is. so i'm cautiously optimistic. bill: what about that? congressman scott garrett, vice chairman of the house budget committee, republican in studio. good morning to you. thank you for your time. i hope you had a great holiday with your family. >> it was a great holiday. bill: you go back to washington, d.c.. >> after this. bill: i pity you. what do you think about senator toomey. >> i'm glad he is in the senate. i'm glad he was able to put that issue out there. put this in perspective with regard to defense cuts first of all, that the defense cuts don't go into effect today. they don't go into effect next year, 2012. they go into effect if at all, 201 after the next presidential election and after next congress and senate and house is in there. so we do have some time to work on this but i try to be optimistic like pat is. bill: but you would be in favor of reconfiguring the cuts to the military? >> absolutely. i think the defense cuts

they're talking about in the deal went way too far. although there is waste fraud, abuse over at dod, the defense department i think we can find some of that waste, fraud abuse and bring the spending down. bill: you know what democrats say, hey you've got to cut somewhere and this is the deal we agreed to. now you have a lifeline that will go for another year. >> yeah. bill: and americans watching out there hey, you guys said you were going to cut spending but now you're trying to find a loophole. what would you say to them. >> i agree with them there is area for trying to cut back both in defense and rest of the budget as well. i would agree something should have been done. i was never optimistic about doing this but look at it this way the republicans on the committee actually compromised. they went more than 50%. they started out saying no tax increases. pat toomey came up with a plan and would agree with some of them. democrats never came to the table with coherent plan. now we're in the situation we're in right now. now we have to do some of the things pat is talking about. bill: is there a fear you think folks will say there

you go again? >> what's that? bill: trying to do an end round not just on republicans but democrats also saying that you weren't really serious in the beginning on this? >> well i agree with them on that as well. i don't like don't think they were ever serious getting something out of the committee. i voted against the committee because i thought it was over a messy way to come up with a budget. we don't have a budget for over 900 days. we have to do it the regular way. this is end run. the burten is not on congress but american public to it pressure on congress to cut spending. bill: even if you did a deal the president said he would veto isn't. >> he has said that so many times in the past. i won't go this far. i won't go this far. once the senate and house came together on certain things the president was able to --. bill: it is election year. all this is viewed in the prism of politics. what is your sense where the pleern american people are right now as we go into 2012? >> i think the american people are upset with congress. our poll numbers are way

down. they're concerned about uncertainty in the economy right now. they're concerned what is going on over in europe. hey, despite all that, spending over on black friday was better than last year. bill: more to my point, is it a republican year or are you not convinced of that yet? >> i'm pretty strongly convinced it is a republican year going into the the wlek election the republic is not happy of 2 1/2 years of administration getting nothing done. unemployment is 9%. $700 billion spending didn't create jobs. the public is upset with washington. bill: it will be an interesting year and we'll see which way the country decides. scott garrett. thank you. >> appreciate it. bill: martha, what is next. martha: he likes newt's immigration policy. thumbs up what some would call a surprising source but will it hurt or will it help? what is hills real motive in that. we'll talk about that. bill: the prince to the rescue. how the writ tish heir saved folks on the high seas.

how about that. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ nothing melts away the cold like a hot, delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow

bill: so prince william did his part to help save two russian sailors from a sinking ship. this is video from a rescue in the irish sea. the prince a royal air force helicopter pilot battling rough weather conditions as they hover above. one of the sailors waving for help while clinging to a life raft. sadly five crewmembers remain missing. one is confirmed dead at the moment. the russian ambassador thanking the prince in a letter, for his quote, selfless effort. well-done.

martha: all right. let's go to this story which got a lot of attention over the weekend. syracuse university firing long-time basketball assistant coach bernie fine amid new child sex abuse allegations. fbi agent searching fine's home this weekend. the decision to fire him came on the same day that espn released an explosive audio recording of the accuser, bobby davis, talking to fine's wife back in 2002. the syracuse chancellor says, quote, the taped call, the phone call that espn revealed today was not provided to the university by mr. davis during the 2005 investigation by our legal counsel. like the media review of the case a few years earlier, no other witnesses came forward during the university investigation. those felt they knew bernie best could not imagine what has unfolded. rick leventhal has the details on this in our newsroom. hey, rick. >> reporter: hey, martha. when the story first broke the head basketball coach in

syracuse came out in support of bern anyone fine. this phone call appeared to change a lot of minds. bernie fine was the assistant coach at syracuse 36 years. longest active assistant in basketball hoops. that ended yesterday when espn's outside the lines released a taped phone call from his wife and one of the his accusers, former ball boil, bobby davis. where she says she knew the abuse was going on. >> there was something about you. >> like, i'm wondering why? >> reporter: in a statement syracuse head coach jim boeheim said the allegations that came forth are disturbing and deeply troubling. i'm personally very shocked because i have never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged. i believe the university took the appropriate step tonight. initially boehim suggested that the two accusers only came forward to so they could sue the university for

millions of dollars. martha: now there is a third accuser. >> a 26-year-old man from maine, saying penn state scandal prompted him to come forward saying fine molested him in a pittsburgh hotel room nine years ago. he has given dates and details to police and media. listen. >> i do remember getting out of the shower and there is mirror that is kind of by the bathroom and he was sitting on the bed and he was looking at me, get out of the shower through the mirror that reflected into the bathroom. >> reporter: got a lot more graphic after that. state and federal authorities continue to investigate the charges. bernie fine now officially fired, martha. martha: boy, this is one too many of these kind of stories. thank you very much, rick leventhal. bill: 26 minutes past the hour now. there are new developments this morning on a mother who vanished after appearing on "the people's court" with her ex-fiance. why police may be targeting

the fiance's father. her sister will be here coming up. martha: did you see this pictures over the weekend? bill: crazy. martha: very busy holiday shopping weekend. we'll talk about that and come back. ♪

bill: all right. it is 9:309 here in new york. it is okay to look at our 401(k) today at least when trading begins right now. shopping was big for black friday. friday sales up 16% over last year. the dow expected to jump about 250 points in the first few minutes. watch her go. cheryl casone from the fox business network. good morning to you. how good was the shopping

over the weekend? >> very good. the black friday weekend, those four days, $52.4 billion consumers spent. they didn't spend it in the stores. they spent money online. if you look at black friday sales, 10% of those on friday were actually ipads and iphones. so people are going for electronics. they're going for televisions. they were going online not just going into the midnight special deals that we saw over the stores got flooded at midnight over and over across the country on friday morning. really people are spending and we're seeing big numbers to the upside this year versus last year. that is good thing for a lot of these retail names frankly had a rough year because of the economy. bill: i saw numbers that would make your eyes pop out here. 30, 29 million they believe shopped over the thanksgiving weekend? >> yep. bill: they're expecting 226 million shoppers hitting the stores. how do they come up with this. there are only 300 million americans in the country?

>> believe it or not, i found so interesting this year, 25% of everyone that was going to go out and go shopping for black friday, 25% of those went to the stores at midnight. so those big crowds you see on the television, those numbers are actually true. we're getting the actual numbers now. some of the big winners from the retail space will be macy's, wal-mart, dick's sporting goods and a company like amazon very big into online shopping. we had some predictions about this, bill, from ups and fedex. they started to do more hiring for the holidays we had a feeling online was going to be big. it will be big. real quick i want to say the average person spent on black friday weekend, $398. that is average amount of money that each person went out and spent over the weekend. bill: that is 30 bucks more than each person spent about a year ago. >> yep. bill: 276 on the dow right now. nice thing to see green arrows. we'll see you soon.

chairman casone at noon on fox business. martha: craziness. how about this morning? newt gingrich's controversial immigration stance getting unlikely thumbs up from former president bill clinton. i kid you not. the republican presidential candidates have been blasting gingrich for took liberal on illegal immigration. his former 1990s political enemy says the former house speaker's policies are appealing to a key voting bloc. here is what he had to say. >> i watched the national security debate overnight. newt said two things that would make an independent voter say, well, i got to consider that. he said, okay, i don't want to legitimize people, immigrants who came here undocumented illegally. on the other hand, a lot of those people have been here for years. they have worked hard. they paid taxes. they have got kids in the schools. they're not criminals. we're going to have a hard time sending them all home. there are millions of them. so i'd like to have a

process where they could be here legally but not have a path to citizenship. i think he is doing well just because he is thinking and people are hungry for ideas that make some sense. martha: well, all right. there is bill clinton cheering on newt gingrich. doug schoen joins me now, former pollster to bill clinton. worked with the clintons a very long time. a fox news contributor. karen hand raty, former communications director for the republican national committee. doug, what is your old boggs up to? >> i think he is right, martha. i think newt is thinking. he is managing in the campaign make it clear he have can speak about issues voters outside the republican primary electorate find important like health care and immigration reform and talking about concerns that republican primary voters are interested in and he has become the anti-romney because he is a palatable alternative to the former massachusetts governor. martha: hmmm i think there may be more to this than

that. karen, what do you think? >> first of all this is hardly a new idea that newt's come out with. it is essentially a rehash of the immigration proposal that president bush came out with that john mccain endorsed and that drove conservatives like insanely wild back in 2007 as we were headed into the presidential primaries back then. you know, has a slightly more cynical twist though because, you know, newt says if you're a member after church and belong to your community. are we going to telling a no, sir tick or atheist i will immigrants you can't stay because you don't belong to a church. >> that will be interesting twist very hard to defend. i don't know how you implement something like that. not to mention the fact that to conservatives if you are in the country illegally, you are breaking the law. so newt is going to have to reconcile --. martha: a lot of people on the left think that

newt gingrich is sort of this very right-wing conservative and you know, we could go on for a whole another hour about different policies and issues and break that down. >> right. martha: i'm interested, doug, who do you think the white house would like to run against? i know david axelrod and some top campaign folks sat down with bill clinton a couple weeks ago with his office in harlem in new york city. is he on the agenda or off the agenda in terms of what is going on in this conversation? is he working with them when he says this? do they want to run against newt because they think it is easier? >> i'm somebody who advised bill clinton when we ran against newt gingrich in 1996. we talked about dole-gingrich all the time. the white house and president clinton want newt gingrich as president obama's opponent. anything they can do to boost him up they're going to do. he is much easier to defeat than mitt romney and the white house would welcome such a contest. martha: let's take a look at some of these numbers in

terms how they're stacking up right now. this is the real clear politics average. you have iowa. newt gingrich has fairly decent lead. within the margin of error above cain and romney at 17%. this is new hampshire. romney and gingrich, romney has very solid lead, 36%. before we got the news from the union leader. i don't know if that will make any difference in terms of numbers on the ground. in south carolina. gingrich at 20%. romney down to 18%. karen, how does all this work itself out as we get rolling here? we don't have that long amount of time. >> that's right. coming up very quickly. i think that as you see more advertising go on television i'm curious to see does newt gingrich have the money to go on air in iowa? does he have the money to go on air anywhere really? you know, we're hearing more about this ground game that he is putting together in new hampshire but i'm curious to know what does he

really have going on in iowa? caucuses are very complicated. they're very complex. you have to get people into your corner. get them out there and in really bad weather. martha: structurally he needs to ramp up? >> i still think he is at a significant disadvantage. i get poll numbers and this recent endorsement which i don't necessarily think means a lot. >> thank you, martha. martha: good to see you as always. karen, thank you as well. very interesting, bill hemmer. bill: 30 from iowa. 40 from new hampshire. martha: january 3rd. bill: january 3rd, iowa. martha: we're officially in the christmas season that is not far away. bill: speaking of christmas, a warm welcome for three american students. they are now free from a jail in cairo, egypt. >> so good to see you. >> oh. bill: that young man is derek sweeney. described his captivity as the scariest time of his life. he is live out of st. louis,

his hometown. we'll talk about what in the world is going on there. martha: also we've got this. a potential break in the case of this missing florida mother. michelle parker vanished after an appearance on "the people's court" with her ex who police are now talking to in this. her sister joins us three minutes away. >> i've been praying that she will come home safe. i felt it was time for me to come out here and do something more physical. i'm a mother of two children and this can be any one of us. this could have happened to anyone. [ male announcer ] you wouldn't swim in a pool with no water.

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martha: so the occupy l.a. protesters peacefully defying the mayor's order to vacate a park they have been in near city hall. instead of leaving at 12:01 a.m. this morning the protesters threw a block party. enconcluded burning $50 bills. that is smart. i'll take those. police eventually cleared the streets there. at least four people have

been arrested. bill: probably monopoly money. martha: burning money. that is great idea. bill: there are newvillements in the case of a missing florida mother of three, michelle parker. she vanished after appearing on people's court with her ex-fiance. the orlando police searching the home of her the father of her ex. they are believe the last words they heard from michelle. >> dad, this is 8:40. wednesday morning. i know you're at work. call me when you have lunch or you have a break or at the end of your day. i love you. talk to you soon. bye. bill: it was only 12 seconds long. rainshower ren lauren erickson. is the sister of michelle. >> good morning, bill. bill: first of all in the house what did they find there? >> the house they went to it was actually the parents, grandparents house, all i can tell you i know they

didn't find michelle. i know that once they go into a home they have to have some kind of a search warrant. as far as what was entailed in that i don't know but michelle was not found there. bill: but you don't even know what they were looking for at the moment? >> i'm really, i don't, unfortunately. this is one of those things where they have to protect their investigation and i stand behind opd fully. they have my complete faith right now. bill: i know you talked very glowingly about the police and how they helped you from day one. >> yeah. bill: do you personally, do you have a gut feeling about the ex-fiance or about his father? what does this tell you? >> about either one of them, i mean, gut feeling? i mean i have a lot of feelings going on right now. i am not ruling anything out though. me personally, i'm looking at anything and everything. i will try to lay my head down to go to sleep at night. of course that runs through my mind. for her sake i'm not ruling anything out because i have to look at every

possibility. bill: your mother mentioned something last week. i want to mention it in a moment but that voice mail, what does that add to this now? >> the voice mail of my sister? bill: yeah, that is now public that we just listened to. >> that was the day before and you know, she called her dad the day before saying hey, i love you. let's meet up and go to lunch. there were people that asked, you know, would she just take off? do you i think the pressure of three kids and school and a job would be too much? this is something to show people she would never leave her kids. she was making plans to go have dinner and lunch with her dad sometime soon hopefully that weekend. in fact they had made plans. they were going to go have oysters that weekend. bill: lauren, i thought you sounded good on that voice mail? >> i'm sorry. bill: i thought you sounded good on that voice mail. >> she did. bill: is that the attitude she carried? >> she is such a go-better. she doesn't let, there is

doesn't let anything hold her back. she never has. if something gets her, she stops, take as breath, okay, that moment is over. time to move on. she doesn't --. bill: are you still getting fresh tips? >> we are. i mean our phone line even last night was getting tips all throughout the night. some, maybe helpful. some are a little out there but, no, we still have tips coming in which is what we need. we need everybody out there. there is still that one person out there that knows something that we're waiting for so. bill: you also, there is reward money out there. what difference will that make? >> the reward money, the crimeline is still offering the $5,000, if anybody calls in through timeline and the tip leads to finding her. we had an outside donor to donate $50,000 for the possibility of finding michelle. that deadline was last night. so that one is now over but if one of the tips that came in the before last night leads to her, that $50,000

is still entitled to that person. bill: when you, even your mom, you come on tv you're helping your sister because you're keeping her story out there. how well did you know her ex-fiance? >> i didn't know him. i mean, they were together for a little over five 1/2 years. so i, i knew of him. i have my own opinions of him. she is my sister so i'm protective over her. so, you know --. bill: i can understand that. you know the way his relationship has been described to us is that he is a good father. you know, he has taken good care. perhaps the relationship wasn't the best but he cared about those kids. is that the way you saw it? >> i don't doubt by any means that he cared for those kids. he has never ever harmed the children or anything, you know, like that in that sense but, i mean, i was never really around him all

that much so. bill: your mom last week said she thinks her daughter is the victim of a carjacking. is that based on evidence somehow or is that a gut feeling on her part? >> that was, that was a couple days in i think when she first said that and it is just once again looking at all and any possibilities. it definitely seems like it. we, she goes missing and her car is found but in the case of a carjacking usually they would keep a nice vehicle like that i would think and try to get rid of it or sell it on the black market, i don't know. bill: you seem like a terrific stir. my best to you and your family, lauren. we'll keep in touch with you and your mom and the police down there in orlando. lauren erickson, our guest out of orlando. the numbers, 321-325-5300. if that helps lauren, best to you. >> thank you so much, bill. bill: our website, bya, because you asked website. we've been following the

story for two weeks. also on twitter at bill hemmer bya because you asked. they're doing their best. it is certainly strange. martha: let's get a look at the big board. look at your 401(k) this morning, up 288 points. 11,500 and change. we'll keep an eye on that. also this morning. they were strangers heading home for the holidays, working together to do the impossible. listen to this. >> right there. >> pull, pull, pull. >> hold on. hold on. >> we'll get her out. martha: they came upon a horrible accident and lifted the car. their story is coming up. you do not want to miss this, folks. we'll be right back. >> let her stay there. let her stay there. [ male announcer ] sometimes a hint

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bill: if you're out and about over the weekend you know the holiday travelers were packing the roads over the weekend. fortunately in california there were plenty of good samaritans based on video like this. roll it. >> hey, grab her. grab her. go protect her. bill: this was a remarkable scene in the california desert. a pickup rolled over on the freeway east of palm springs, trapping three inside. the group lifts the truck off the ground, rolls it over to free a woman inside just as police arrive on that scene. the driver however did not make it. but the woman and another passenger did survive. they were able to get it up just high enough in order to get two of them out. >> terrible scene. you can hear them working together and directing each other around. thank goodness these people were there. at least they were able to

save two people. all right. you hear a lot about merging companies but what about merging towns? it is exactly the case in new jersey where an historic vote has two towns on the path to becoming one. it is an interesting economic story. laura engle is live in princeton, you in jersey with more. good morning, laura. >> reporter: good morning, martha. the effort to merge municipalities have been going on for decades. after years of failed attempts the marriage of princeton borough and princeton township is underway. it is an attempt to save taxpayers a chunk of change an could be the spark for other communities across the u.s. to do the same. it is the first significant consolidation in the state of new jersey in 60 years. >> it is an idea whose time has come. >> reporter: advocates for the princeton merger say combining services like the trash cloak shun and police departments is expected to save $3.2 million a year which will trickle down to

significant savings for locals. other states are keeping close eye on the move. >> pennsylvania with 2500 municipalities. they have reached out to us, citizen groups. florida. new york state. new york state, governor cuomo when he was attorney general he pushed through legislation so people could have the power to consolidate. they have thousands much taxing districts up there. >> reporter: princeton borough and princeton township have similar populations and tax rates some say one size fits all solution may not work for other towns considering consolidation. >> you have to consider when municipalities merge and grate one government entity where there were two, that will be a larger government entry, covering a greater amount of ground. consolidation and municipal merger is an interesting debate because the one-time where you hear it said that bigger government is more efficient and more effective. >> reporter: in a statement to fox news governor chris christie says he hopes that more new jersey municipalities will follow

the princeton example to help consolidate and save money. martha, back to you. martha: it is a very interesting idea when you look at the burden going on in so many states and all the small municipalities. thank you very much. laura engle in beautiful princeton, new jersey this morning. bill: we have breaking news. this will come as a shock to congress. barney frank, the long-serving democrat out of massachusetts fourth congressional district will not seek re-election in 2012. he has served that district since 1980. he will not seek it again. news conference, 1:00 this afternoon. that is breaking news out of washington. martha: that is surprising. the old guard moving on in some of these cases. this also coming up for you this morning. he says it was the scariest moment of his life. when you hear it described you will understand why. one of the three american students who were freed from captivity in egypt is now back home. >> [crying] >> so glad to see you. martha: boy, what a story

this young man has. he will be here with that next. bill: newt scoring big in new hampshire. we'll talk to the paper's publisher. what makes gingrich a better candidate than the others we wonder. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that miissippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home.

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martha: it's monday, it it is a whole new ball game. big news for newt. he got a big endorsement in mitt romney's backyard. others have been peeking and tumbling, a busy number, a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." good morning i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. hope you had a good weekend. martha: i did. bill: gingrich has a slight edge but it was taken before the union leader's endorsement. martha: will he have staying power? that's one of the thins we want to put to brit hume, fox news analyst. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. martha: barney frank has decided not to run again. we want to see what you thought

about that. >> reporter: barney frank has been a very powerful and important member of congress, particularly over the last six or eight years. one senses here -- i don't know what he's going to say at his news conference, it will be interesting. it's not as much fun to be a member of congress, particularly a member of the house when you're in the minority. he was in the majority for much of the time and chairman of the banking committee and had a lot to say about legislation on such matters as the bail out and so on, a very important person. some of his power is gone. there are two sources of power in congress, one of them is knowledge of the issues, which matters a lot. if you know a lot you can do more. the other is seniority. he had both. it made him chairman, i'm sure he found lifeless interesting in the minority. martha: we'll hear what he has to say when he comes out. what about the endorsement of newt gingrich by the union leader in new hampshire. >> reporter: formerly the

manchester union leader, that enforcement is not as important as it used to be, but it doesn't hurt. i don't think mitt romney waufrs goinwas ever going to get that endorsement. the paper has never cared for him, favorite son or not. mitt romney has a house there. newt gingrich merges as the alternative for the moment. it's not surprising he got the endorsement, it came 0 a slow news weekend, a holiday weekend, so it made more of a flash than it would have done. it helps. endorsements don't matter in contemporary politics. there are so many other ways to reach voters. they are not what they used to be. martha: he may not have even tried for it too hard. when you look at jon huntsman who keeps claiming that new hampshire is going to mean something for him. herman cain, rick perry who

really needed if he's going to make any sort of come back to rally the troops in new hampshire. is it any reflection of what is going on with voters in new hampshire at all? >> reporter: i think so. the other candidates as you mentioned have either all fallen by the wayside, or really never got any traction to begin with. that would certainly be true in the case of jon huntsman, despite on paper looking like potentially a powerful candidate, has never really got even any traction. at the moment, newt is the man to be the alternative to rom me and we are getting close to the moment when people start voting, then we could have this whole thing up ended and things could look very different. at the moment he's sort of the logical guy to receive the endorsement of a conservative publication like the union leader. martha: we've got some pretty interesting weeks coming up. we know you'll be weighing in on them for us. thank you. the union leader is the largest daily newspaper in what could be

the most important state in america. the publisher of the paper made that decision. he's here in "america's newsroom" 25 minutes from now. we will talk to him. bill: newt gingrich throwing a big upper cut towards president obama, mocking him by offering the ability to use a teleprompter during a debate. he said, i already said he could use a teleprompter, it would be fair. martha: there is herman cain who has been acknowledging his drop in the polls saying false accusations and policy confusion. a fair amount of that is to

blame for his slip in the polls. here eris this morning on fox & friends. >> it is amazing, and we call it surge just before the skwrurpblg. a lot o surge. a lot of things happen in a campaign as you know. we didn't drop down all the way down to 6th or 7th, we dropped to third. the reason we stayed still in the top three is because quite honestly a lot of our supporters, they didn't defect because of all of this other noise that was going on. so we're excited about that. martha: he says once you get on the cain train you're there to say. he was once a frontrunner. it bears pointing out that he is in third place across the board on these polls. he could be in worse shape. bill: the cain train. east would say, buy your ticket today. there is a movie out today that you can watch for free. meanwhile a historic day in egypt people casting votes in the first election since the ouster of hosni mubarak.

the three american students who were arrested during protests are back home and speaking out about their or de. they were detained for allegedly throwing fire bombs at security forces. one of those students is with me now, he's derrik sweeney. welcome home. how in the world does it feel to be back with mom and dad. >> it feels excellent. i just had a bowl of serial and cereal and i just love it. bill: why did they arrest you? >> because we were foreigners. they yelled [foreign language ] which means spy. bill: what r-r you doin were you doing in the square with your two other classmates. >> in the square itself it's a peaceful environment. we were hoping to see the protests which have obviously drawn the eye of the world. so we hoped to see those and see where democracy in egypt was

hegd. heading. and we were arrested just on a street off tahrir square. martha: had you been there another night. >> i had been there twice before. it had gun to get violent in the previous two nights. i hadn't been there for those. i had been there a couple times previously in the semester. bill: in the past month more than 40 people apparently shot and killed. they accused of you throwing explosives from the top of a roof. was that you derrik? >> no, that is entirely false. we were never on a rooftop at all. we never handled, threw or had any involvement with fire bombs or molotov cocktails. bill: will you go back? >> i hope one day. i still think the egyptian people are generally a very good people i. don't think they want me right now. but one day. bill: enjoy the holidays at home where you're nice and safe.

i'm sure your family are quite relieved. martha: fox news alert on disturbing images out of syria. [gunfire] eufpltd. martha: kind o [gunfire] martha: firing automatic weapons. look at this picture. these are men told to line up on a foot path and told to turn around and face the wall in terrifying moments playing out. leland vittert is following all of this. what is president assad's reaction to these latest sanctions? >> reporter: it seems like, martha, that the syrian president could tear less what the international community has to say or think about what he is doing to be able to stay in power. the foreign minister says the latest sanctions are tantamount

to economic war, but president assad has declared war on his own citizens. funerals are not even off limits, as people march peacefully through the street. this is a low grade civil war almost where you're starting to have members of the syrian army defect on to the side of the protestors. what you're also seeing, though, is still a very strong president assad. today hundreds of thousands came out to rally support inside of a square in damascus. this is a made for tv moment. we are seeing that assad's allies are really helping him stay in pow he shal in power here. russia and china are helping h him. back to you. martha: leland vittert with the amazing scenes playing out in

syria. bill: check this out, martha, on a monday. a 308 for the dow. black friday was a big deal. shoppers were out. it turned out to be much bigger than expected. they believe there could be a deal in europe. that's been weighing on the markets for month. they think the euro zone is trying to figure a way out of it. we are not here yet, many times we've had false stops. you buy on the rumor and you sell on the news. the rumor is out there 300 owe far on a monday. bill: does that work for you. martha: for the moment it will. i wish i had greater optimism and say that something like this could stick or even go higher but i'm treading lightly. martha: we'll freeze right there. 56 trips to swing states this year, that is a presidential record. so is president obama campaigning when he should be governing? that is one of the big questions out there. we'll talk about that. bill: sugary snacks and a sodas,

and a lack of proper parent lee turning childhood obesity into an epidemic. one state just took an 8-year-old boy away from his mother. martha: finding baby lisa irwin seems to be withering away. they are taking desperate measures. >> she feels like the baby was dumped. >> i'm looking for a live baby, but, you know, 50-50.

bill: new developments in the search for baby lisa irwin, the baby missing in missouri. with little progress in finding her some volunteers are turning their hopes to a psychic. search teams out of texas combing an area in kansas city over the weekend after a psychic said the baby's body may have been left there. >> she has very strong feelings

lisa is around here. that's why we're here from text action. >> she has never been here. >> she has never been here. >> what makes you believe in a psychic. >> i don't believe in a -- i don't believe -- it's hard. i don't believe in it, i just, you know, i just am respecting her. bill: the group came out of texas, went to missouri, so far nothing has been found. little lisa has been missing since the 4th of october. her parents claim she was snatched from her crib after her mother put her to sleep: martha: back to politics now. the commander-in-chief some say he has been more like the campaigner in chief over the past few month, president obama breaking a record with 56 visits to swing states this year, part of a re-election strategy targeting, where else, folks, ohio, pennsylvania, florida, ahead of the 2012 november election. that beats the record, the previous record for visits to swing states was held by president george w. bush back in

2003, and critics are now complaining that the president should spend less time campaigning and more time governing. let's think of lani davis this is about that. a former adviser to president clinton and fox news reporter. >> i wonder if in front of the word critic should be republican. martha: perhaps, perhaps. let's take a look at the situation. from his perspective. if you're working for the president's re-election do you think he's getting too much attention for spending too much time campaigning right now. >> there is always a borderline that he might be. it's a valid point. i think it's traditional for presidents to use their incumbentcy the year before and the year of the election. if negotiating washington would have done it it would have been the same system. i don't really criticize that. because of the economy there is a danger he will look too

political rather than focusing on the economy. martha: perhaps the deeper criticism of the president, and it comes certainly from republicans but also from democrats and people who have voted for him as well say they want him to be more of a leader. what i'm wondering is would it be a better strategy for him in this moment in time and say look we are in a very difficult situation in this country. these times call for a different kind of leadership. i am not going to spend my time campaigning, i'm going to spend my time working, that kind of language, would that sort of make people wake up and say, hey, i think we are seeing a turn here? >> well, i've been one of the democratic supporters of president obama and i am a supporter and i white a weekly column for the hill newspaper and i was critical in his lack of leadership in endorsing simpson bowles the deficit commission he appointed. i was critical of his absence at

the asian summit. he has to campaign e can't go all one direction and not campaign, that is really giving up the field to your opposition, but he's got to find the right balance, and i think right now the right balance is to focus on the economy and trying to find a way to recover from the failure of the super committee. martha: you make an interesting point about erskin-bowles and the commission. is there any reason to think he's going to come out and say, let's revisit that, let's go become to that as suggested by you and others over the weekend, that they should take a look at it and reintroduce it. >> i honest to goodness don't understand why on day one at the state of the union address he didn't have erskin-bow hrerbgs s stand up and address everybody and say, i'm going to ask everybody in this room to stand up and support what these two

people have done. including dick durbin and senator coleburn. he hasn't done it do this day. martha: why doesn't he do it. >> the part of the democratic base was offended by the cutbacks in medicare and social security and entitlement programs, and i certainly support those programs. i recognize there needs to be an across the board balanced approach. the republicans only want to cut spending and not increase revenues. they don't have a balanced approach. only erskin-bowles and alan simpson gave us that approach. martha: someone say desperate times call for a different kind of behavior than we've seen in the past. martha: past. >> agree. martha: thank you. always good to have you here. bill: did you watch a lot of football over the weekend. martha: a bit. bill: someone must be smiling on quarterback tim tebow, the quarterback leading the broncos

to another dramatic victory. he's 5-1 as a starter. strike that tebow pose. we'll tell you what happened here. martha: great story. kung fu fighting. we've seen the most amazing images of this man over the years. he wants to leave russia again. why this decision could have dangerous implications for the united states. we're going to talk about that. ♪

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skwraot ti martha: the tim tebow train rolls on. he led his team to 5-1.

he's taking over the starting quarterback job. he carries the ball 22 times for 67 yards, the most carries by a quarterback since 1950, bill. bill: remarkable. martha: you didn't know i knew that. he is known for being very vocal. watch these moments. up to the heavens thanking glad. jake plummer says he thinks that tebow needs to tone that down on the religion talk. and a few others say he should let his play do the talking. it seems like somebody up there he has a new connection with, why would you mess with that, right? bill: he strikes that pose on the field where he puts his fist on his head. there are web sites springing up all over the place with people doing this in all parts of the world all over the country. a great stat, 1950. martha: i know these things. they just roll off my tongue. you know what i thin why i

think it's working for him? he's always been a committed person. he's always done that. bill: dramatic video showing violent protests breaking out in pakistan after outrage after a deadly nato air strike. conor powell live on the ground in kabul, afghanistan, what is the latest. >> reporter: bill, angry protests continue across pakistan. pakistani leaders are taking a more confrontational tone with regard to the united states today saying the relationship between the united states and pakistan must be reevaluated. this all comes on the heels of a deadly u.s. hyphenate tow air strike on pakistani military outposts in western pakistan on saturday. pakistani officials say that 24 pakistani soldiers were killed after nato launched an attack on these two outposts. they say the reason nato called in the air strikes is that afghan and u.s. commandos were in afghanistan taking fire from the outposts.

pakistani officials today denied that claim, they say pakistan did not fire any weapons in the direction of u.s. and afghan troops. there has been a debate here in afghanistan among military commanders on the u.s. side about what to do about the pakistani military. commander's on the ground say that the pakistani military helps insurgents. u.s. commander's are not so sure. the u.s. is promising a full investigation into this incident. it has raised tension between the united states and pakistan after the osama bin laden incident in may. bill: thank you, on the ground in kabul. 26 minutes past the hour. martha: the curtain may have come down on the space shuttle program but nasa is not done exploring the final front tear. >> zero, and liftoff of the at last five with curiosity, seeking clues to the planet tear re, mars. martha: the quest to find signs

of life, we are headed to the red planet. bill: it takes a while to get there. newt grinning rich scores a major endorsement in mitt romney's backyard. we'll ask the publisher of new hampshire's largest newspaper what they see in the former speaker. >> he's the one who brought the republicans to congress after 40 years in the wilderness. he came up with a contract with america. he helped balance a budget with a democratic president. he's a bright guy, he's going to make mistakes. ♪ more, more, more... get more with honey bunches of oats 4 nutritious grains come together for more taste, more healthy satisfaction. get more with honey bunches of oats.

martha: this coming in a look at economy and a double edge sword on the housing market. sales of new homes, these numbers just crossing rose 1.3% in october. that means about 307,000 new homes were sold last month. the bad news is that's only about half the way there in terms of what would look like a healthy market. home prices, they just keeping falling and falling, they are at the lowest levels this year.

analysts means that the market -- here is a big news flash for you, it is far from recovery i. bill: new hampshire which could be the most important election state in america early january officially endorsing newt gingrich. the union leader throwing its weight behind newt gingrich passing over mitt romney. joe mcquaid is the publisher of the newspaper and he wrot endorsement. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: why newt? >> we think he's head of the class. we think he showed that through the years. we think he did well back in the 90s, bringing the republicans to power, and we think he's the innovative guy. i just don't think changing out president obama next year is going to do it. new hampshire is really in a

pivotal position. bill: the newspaper is publishing for the folks in your state. martha: exactly. bill: did you meet with gingrich one and one or with the editorial board. >> a, we don't have an editorial board. we are different in a lot of ways and that's one. there are two people that write the editorial and call the shots, that's myself and drew kline my editorial writer. we met many times with gingrich. we met with all of the candidates this summer and fall. most of them were taped by c span, and are probably still on there. and gingrich is as good as it gets. he's feisty in the interview. he argues with you, which is good. you want somebody who is going to say what he thinks, not what he thinks you want him to say. bill: you know mitt romney quite well, based on hispanic tree in the neighboring state of massachusetts, you obviously sat down with him as well. why not mitt romney? >> we don't think he's got it. we think he's the manag

managerial type, he's a blank slate and he's going to go with the winds too much. i think, and this is crazy, but so are we, that gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than mitt romney. i think it's going to be obama's 99 versus the 1%, and romney sort of represents the 1%. bill: the inference from what you wrote also seems to be a veiled shot at mitt romney and you repeated that here just a moment ago. he tells us what he thinks we should hear? what do you mean by that? was that directed at romney? >> yeah, it was. it was. very per september eu perceptive of you. the fact is when he was governor of massachusetts that was in very much a liberal direction.

in 2008 he suddenly flipped switches and became a conservative. and he's on that switch now. he was attacking gingrich in the last debate with a big a on gingrich's forehead with saying amnesty, amnesty, which gingrich wasn't doing, and in fact romney had done in 2008. bill: and you did not endorse romney the last time around also. here is also what you wrote about gingrich. he is by no means the perfect candidate but republican primary voters too often make the mistake of preferring an unattainable idea to the best candidate who is actually running, in this incredibly important election that candidate is newt gingrich. you also found so much remain unsure. only 40-some odd days away from a primary about who they will vote for. what does that tell you, joe? >> it's a volum volatile field. the inside j u.n. kies have been

talking about nothing else but the average vote her has plenty to do. i think this year the way a lot of national reporting has gone, and fox being an exception, that it's all been on the fluff, and not the substance. it's all been on -- bill: on the trivial -- the shouts back and forth. >> exactly right? thank you for your endorsement of the fox news channel. joe mcquaid out of new hampshire. we'll see you in january. thank you. >> okay. martha: the prime minister of russia vladimir putin is warning the west do not interfere in their election process east intensifies his campaign to become president once again of russia. this is the video from his big announcement the other night announcing his re-election campaign saying he wants to make russia's military go to a whole new level. what does he mean by that? that is raising eyebrows as

well. kkt mcfarland, fox news analyst is here. i feel like i've seen him wrestling with bears, he's a macho man of russia. i guess we should have known that he was not going to sit by in the number two spot indefinitely, kt. >> reporter: he's really been running russia for the past 12 years. it's been part of a plan. when he became president of russia, russia was a country on the skids. the soviet union chanced. their empire had gone down, there were massive problems, economic beings social and all the other things. he's reclaimed it. is he going to be prime minister? no, he's now going to be president again. it's real it once and future king as far as russia is concerned. martha: what does it mean for us? he says in the next five to ten years we must take our armed forces to a qualitatively new level. this will require big spending and we must do this if we want too defend the dig i dignity of russia. >> he's going to do a couple of

things. one he's going to criticize the united states, very popular politically in russia. he's going to use the oral revenues and build up the military to where it was in pre putin levels and pre collapse of the soviet union levels. how is he going to do that? he's going to use the oil revenues and use the economic leverage he has over eastern europe, the former countries of the soviet union. he wants to bring them back into the foal. he doesn't want an empire like he had before, he'd love it if he could get it but he won't get it. he's going to use the ph-rg weapon. i went back and looked at his dissertation in the 1990s when he was a student he wrote about how russia could be great again, by using its energy and natural gas to get political leverage in european by using its oil exports to get the money to rebuild. martha: russia and china are always the two countries that pop up whenever we say, well but we can't get the cooperation from russia and china, whether it's economically or military

against iran, you know, a stronger russia, do we need to fear that? >> well, here is the thing, iran is never going to be -- iran does business with russia, so russia is never going to go along with severe sanction -gs, it's against their economic interests and i think we are fools to expect them to do that. what the russians will continue to do is trade with iran, they sell iran things, they trade with iran. could we have a relationship with russia? yes. what we can do is have energy independence from oil, from russia because it allows them, they are the world's largest exporter of oil, from their point of view, what are they looking for in the middle east? they are a dream scenario is a high price of oil and their competition can't get to market, in other words a crisis in the middle east means the only oil on the world market is russian. martha: the theme is if we want to remain economically independent we need to be oil

independent. >> we can do that with all the unbelievable strides we have made. bill: a lot of russians making a lot of money these days. she says she is not running but not everyone is taking no for an answer. a new tv ad set to air in iowa saying pretty please to sarah palin. we'll show it to you. martha: how about this this morning, an 8-year-old child taken away from his mother and placed in foster care because he is overweight. can the state take your child because he is obese? we're going to debate that coming up. be right back.

diabetes testing? what else is new? you get the blood, hope it's enough, it's-- what's this?

bill: just arriving moments ago the capitol hill christmas tree. it's in the form of a 65-foot sierra white fir, a beautiful-looking tree arriving all the way from california. martha: california? bill: which i'm sure is a nice place to find a tree, i mean there were no other options between washington and california? martha: i have one like that in my backyard. maybe when they stand up straight it will look better. don't you think it looks a little skinny. bill: i'm sure it will look great. martha: i like a big, fat tree. bill: thick, and a fat tree. the stanislaus national forest, which i'm sure is a beautiful place out in california. martha: now we want to turn our attention to this serious story. it's being called the first caves its kind in ohio. here it is. an 8-year-old little boy who weighs more than 200 pounds, that's about four times what

most third graders weigh. he was taken from his family because of this. and placed in foster care. the social worker says that his mother was not doing enough to control his weight. so, can the state take your child away from you just because they are overweight? tamara holder fox news legal only list, and march that chakotzki. this child's hel health is compromised because it's not healthy to weigh that much. but county state take the child away? >> it's terrible. there was a case in new mexico, they took the kid away for two months and found out that the kid had a genetic disorder. this was a hospital program create, then they brought in social services. then they decided, okay we'll take the kid out and have a hearing later on down the road. there are no laws here that say a kid's body mass index must be

a certain percentage or a kid must lose a x number of pounds within a certain amount of time. if they want to do this they must do it the right way and create certain legislation, which i don't necessarily tkpwraoe with either. you can't take a kid and rip it out of its parents' arms. martha: they are calling this abuse. on what grounds are they taking this child out of the home? >> social workers are calling this medical neglect. they are saying that the mother was told by doctors and given orders that she allegedly is not subscribing too, so thr-frg she is causing her child not to lose weight when he is in that program that was just discussed. it's called healthy kids, healthy weight. it's a program designed to help children to lose weight. what social workers are finding not only was the child not losing weight, he was gaining weight. they waited about a year before they went to the social workers.

martha: i find it's always tied up in psychological factors as well, emotional health and well-being. you take a child away from their family assuming there is no abuse. i'm assuming for the sake of thises conversation that we are not talking about any abuse situation here, simply that the child is overweight and that is compromise his health. tamara, i mean imagine the implications of that, the emotional implications are being taken away. >> it's terrible. i grew up in a town where lots of kids had foster parents and was because the parents did not want to take care of the kids. you have a situation here where the parent wants the child. the parent has put this kid in a program. so the parent doesn't want anything but the best situation. and for them to take this kid away and hut hi put him in foster care and not in a hospital to monste monitor pheupl, ther monitor, there is something wrong. i would think this is like a

kidnapping. martha: you're shaking your head, why is this not a kidnapping. >> every state has statutes that govern what is in the best interest of the child. if there is child abuse, if there is medical neglect let's say in this case, the state has the right to intervene and take that child and remove it from the home and put it in a more stable position, this case a foster home. martha: there doesn't seem to be any of the programs that work. the one you're talking about in new mexico, the child was gone for two months and didn't lose any wait. i don't know that the state is in a position to help encourage this child in the way that they need to be encouraged. so, we'll keep an eye on it. thank you both. bill: an interesting debate too. we'll see what happens on that. 12 minutes before the hour. we are ear going to see what is going on with jon scott. how you doing, jon? what is going on. jon: bill doing well. good morning to you. it's a busy cyber monday after a gang buster's black friday.

but the debt disaster that is weighing on the minds of markets. why the european debt crisis could mean trouble for your money. and we'll talk about the increasingly frayed relationship with pakistan. dr. keith ablow goes inside the mind of casey anthony. bret baier talks 2012, and we'll get info on the growing sex scandal at syr acuse university. and what the mayan calendar means for the end of the world in 2012, coming up. bill: they say it's not too late, a group calling for sarah palin to enter the race in 2012. what they are launch hoping to change their mind. do they have a shot? nasa is enroute to the red planet as we speak. will they find life on mars? have you heard about this mission once it lands on the red

planet? ♪ is there life on mars? fiber one. h, forgot jack cereal. ♪ try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, ts is pretty good. [ male announcer ]alf a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. 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. my feet and exactly where i needed more support. i had tired, achy feet. until i got my number. my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotics number. now i'm a believer. you'll be a believer, too. learn where to find your number at drscholls.com.

martha: one group is not giving up hope, conservatives for palin launching one last push, they say, to urge alaska's former governor to get in this race. a brand-new tv ad set to air only in i've what. they acknowledge it's a long shot but they will try to get some national poll numbers if the ad creates momentum. bill: nasa's biggest rover ever, now on an eight and a half month journey to mars. >> zero and liftoff of the atlas

five with curiosity, seeking clues to the planet tear repuzzle about life on mars. bill: what a beautiful launch. it took off over the weekend at kennedy space center, with curiosity on board, a six-wheeled one -p-armed wonder that will search for any evidence of any form of life. corey powell wishes he was on board that rocket. how are you doing, buddy. >> that would be a fun ride. bill: that it would be. it would take you a while too. how is it going? >> so far it was a beautiful, clean, launch, you saw the video, everything is looking healthy. basically there are two nail biting moments for engineers, one is take off when you don't want the thing to blow to bits, the other is landing. the flight time is eight and a half months of journey, it's pretty quiet. bill: eight and a half months. it's got to land on mars and stay in one piece. >> it's going to land like tom

cruise in mission impossible. fire rockets and rappel down with cables. bill: i hope we get a picture of that. why is this mission necessary? because man, it's expensive. >> it is. look, there are a bunch of ways to frame it. you think about all the things that we spend on education, this is an unbelievable educational outreach. you think of all the different ways we try to push technology, this is the same kind of technology that is creating collision avoidance or do google maps automatically. you give engineers the hardest possible problem and you get better engineering. bill: 2.5 billion i think on this mission alone. what i came across is what i think is the most interesting facet of this. there is a device on board this rover that will send a laser out on the planet mars anne and explode a rock in front of it, and disintegrate it and then what. >> it has laser beams and x-ray

vision. first it shoots into the rock to pwhroeut up an uses its x-ray camera to look at what is inside. all of this is to understand the geology of mars and really understand if there is life on mars or if there ever was life on mars. bill: they are looking for water, i would assume. >> they are looking for water and chemicals. this will not probably find the martian walking by. it will tell us a lot what mars was like. bill: haven't we been there and done this already? >> yes. bill: what is the ult malt -- what is different i guess about this time? >> what's different is you want the answer, is there life out there in the universe. you don't want, yeah, maybe we saw some interesting-looking things. you want, yes there is life. bill: we've sent roefrs to mars before. >> basically those roefrs were like columbus in the new world. this is lewis and clark, this is going down and really doing the science. this is like sending a geologist and a chemist and a guy with a

whole lab to mars accept it costs thousands to send people. we don't have the budget to send people. bill: at the moment you're exactly right. corey powell, wowing us all. nice to see you. >> if they find life or evidence of life, $2.5 billion -- bill: you'll be right back in that chair. martha: she was accused of committing a horrific crime. now a new psychological profile of casey anthony, what she may have been thinking while on trial for her daughter's murder

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call this toll-free number on your screen now... for this free information kit, including this... medicare guide and customized rate quote. . >> ♪ >> ♪ >> ♪ martha: isn't that beautiful? >> bill: pretty dog! march there she goes. martha: that's a ram! leading cops for four hours, it took nearly four hours to capture the animal, it was roaming on the busy street. where did the ram come from? officials say the ram is doing fine, bill! and they will find it a new home. bill: where did the ram come from? that's like a nursery story we make up! who knew? >> martha: get that video going in slow motion. bill: that was in miami. it wasn't in st. louis. because if it was in st. louis, it would make sense because the rams play there. martha: exactly. bill: have great day! we'll see