>> brian: right. >> gretchen: and also her great jewelry. >> i'll try. >> gretchen: join us for the after the show show. >> steve: see you tomorrow. martha:. bill: guys, thank you. good morning, everybody. 9:00 in new york. new warning to the u.s. get your financial issues in order or face another downgrade. fitch ratings agency revising our long-term out look to negative. we will stay positive. good morning, everybody. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom". martha: the long-term outlook is negative, right. good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. as you know the super-committee had a job to do and they didn't deliver. fitch looks at that and they always said if they didn't deliver on the goal they would give them a downgrade down the road. they're giving them another year, 2013 to tackle the u.s. debt. bill: stuart varney from the fox business network. good morning to you. they have gone negative on us, huh? what is the impact?

>> the impact at this moment is zero. in fact money is pouring into america, pouring into our stock market, pouring into our bond market. why is that? because europe at this precise moment looks absolutely terrible. they are right at the cliff edge. they're trying to fix this problem in europe. every single european country is under threat of a similar downgrade and they're using language like the situation there is more dire than in 2008. there are forecast that is the euro is going to collapse and if that happens, some european economies will shrink by 50%. that is a --. bill: that is remarkable that will have an effect on us but the issue here at home is our debt, right? that is why the rating is negative and we've not come up with a plan to get out of it. >> yes, we have not got a plan to get out of it. we have a plan that maybe will cut 1.2 trillion by january of 2013. if we do that, fitch says we

will keep our aaa rating but is that enough for the other ratings agencies? they want 3 or 4 trillion cut over a 10-year period. that would keep america at its present ratings level but at the moment europe looks so bad that we look a little better, therefore the money is flowing in here. bill: that 15 trillion dollar figure will scare a lot of people no matter how optimistic you are. europe is predicting a recession but there are some countries in europe say that is nothing. they're headed for a depression? >> yes, they are. bill: a depression? >> listen to the extreme language being used right now. they are talking about a collapse of the euro and the eurozone, a flat-out collapse. we've got forecasts here say if that happens and we're on the bring of that happening in europe you will have, i guess what you call a hype are dedepression over there. some economies shrinking 50%. never seen that in my lifetime. bill: indeed. stuart, thank you very much. they're questioning that decision of 15 years ago to

go together now. we'll see you at 9:20, okay? >> got it. bill: fbn. thank you, stuart. martha: boy, that is an ugly picture from stuart varney this morning. how about this fox news alert for you. american airlines is filing for bankruptcy. the airline's parent company saying it made the move to make the airline more competitive, more efficient. we're told flight schedules will remain normal. i always wonder about maintenance and all those important things when you deal with these kind of financial issues for our airlines. the frequent flyer miles are expected to rehain intact. you can be fairly optimistic on that point right now. american was the only major airline that did not file for bankruptcy after september 11th in that period but now american airlines is another one. bill: that stock will get hammered too when the stocks open. >> down 30% in the early going. bill: cyber monday turning out to be as big as black friday. new numbers showing shopping online, they jumped yesterday up double digit

ditsz up 18% from a year ago. taking advantage of web deals, trolling the internet for the best bargains they can find out there. >> consumers are behaving differently this year the way they're using coupons and looking at discounts. >> despite that owners of mom-and-pop shops say the web makes it tough for them to compete. that is a fact. we'll see where we go at 9:30 coming up here in a few minutes. martha: tough for local folks. all right. so newt gingrich has taken the gloves off in the race for the republican nomination. he is going right after mitt romney. for a long time he was inclusive with all the people running against him but now the former speaker says he is the conservative alternative in this race. kelly wright is in washington for us this morning. kelly, gingrich used to say republicans should only focus on president obama. now it is interesting and he is in the top spot he finding a few faults with

some of his own, right? >> reporter: apparently so. newt gingrich knows the campaign is heating up right now. he gained a lot of traction on frontrunner mitt romney. he knows he has to challenge romney. so former house speaker newt gingrich is turning up the heat on his fellow republican mitt romney. it is a clear sign gingrich is willing to take shots at his fellow republicans. during an appearance on a morning radio talk show in south carolina gingrich took the gloves off and threw serious verbal jabs at current republican frontrunner mitt romney. >> i don't claim to be the perfect candidate. i claim to be a lot more conservative than mitt romney. we need a solid conservative to mitt romney. i think i am the one candidate who can bring economic conservatives, social conservatives in order to make sure we have a conservative nominee. i wouldn't lie to the american people.

i wouldn't switch my positions for political reasons. >> reporter: martha, there you have it. of course gingrich really laying it on the line in clear terms he believes he is the man who can be the republican nominee. martha: interesting. he has taken a page out of the democrats playbook, kelly? >> reporter: typical of what happens in these kind of campaigns. democrats already launched an ad that states that mitt romney flip-flopped on abortion, immigration and guns and other issues. gingrich has joined in. he is attacking romney on changing his positions or flip-flopping on key issues. gingrich said he would not, as you heard him say, lie to the american people or switch his positions for political reasons. martha: clearly he -- >> perfectly reasonable to change your position in facts change, if you see new things you didn't see. everybody has done that. ronald reagan did it. it's wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election because

then people have to ask themselves, what will you tell me next time? >> reporter: clearly gingrich is in his new skin on the attack and democrat attacking romney as well. romney on the defense, martha, responding with conference calls where some republican officials and former officials defending him. iowa caucuses are just five weeks away. this is going to get hot. martha: romney has put all his focus on obama. it will be interesting to see if he turns some of his ire and competitiveness against newt gingrich in this case. kelly, thanks very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. bill: meantime herman cain says here we go again. cain rather facing a new allegation that he had a 13-year affair with a woman named ginger white. white claims she met cain back in the late '90s when he was the president of the national restaurant association. >> it is pretty simple. it wasn't complicated and i was aware that he was married and i was also aware i was involved in a very

inappropriate situation. i didn't want to do this but it was something that i felt at the end of the day was the right thing to do and is it going to hurt a lot of people? yes. i'm sure i will be one of them. bill: cain's camp says it is not true. hear is the statement, part of it anyway. the american public is tired of dirty politics ander. tactics as evidence of their tremendous outpouring of their support for me, my family and my campaign this pastmont. we'll get more with chief political correspondent carl cameron coming up in a moment here. when the first allegations came out, coming out day after day. it hurt him in the polling. you watch cain slowly start to drop. we'll see whether or not this has similar --. martha: maintain ad third place position. this is very different allegation. affair versus harrassment charges. the way people react to both of those things could be very different. i wonder why she comes out now? she said she feels strongly she needed to say something

about this relationship. she pulled up her phone number on his cell phone and dial it and went right to him according to those reports. i don't know. get bogged down in a lot of this. we'll see. bill: she is from georgia, right? martha: yeah. bill: she is from georgia. she says she has text messages and phone calls. martha: he said it was not of a sexual nature but his spokesperson said that he felt questions along these lines about a relationship that may have lasted a long time are off limits. he said it is between the family, this issue which certainly gave some credibility to the charge some might say. we'll see what happens with herman cain. a lot to be written so far in that one. you can find the latest on all the potential candidates including that story. if you want more on that and all the top political news go right to our website, foxnews.com/aehq. that is america's election headquarters. a great site. everything is there. bill: sure is. you can go online while we're on the air. fox news alert out of tehran,

iran. protesters stormed the british embassy in that city. a group described as hard-line students entered the compound and throwing stones and breaking windows. one group we're told hung up the islamic flag. the students apparently shouting down with britain, down with america, down with israel. more on this. on sunday iran's parliament voted to cut diplomatic ties with the u.k. and downgrade the relationship between london and tehran. 10 minutes past the hour. martha: that is all over the place these days. just a few of many stories that bill and i are covering this morning in "america's newsroom." coming up --? >> [laughter]. martha: oh, my goodness. is that a cain that was flying. bill: one was a cain. one was a fist. martha: old rivalries die-hard. the a fistfight between two

foot ball legends. we'll tell you what you're looking at. bill: certain grudges do not die. i know you understand that. are we paying president obama to run for re-election. the president and his record-breaking campaign swing on the taxpayer dime. steven hayes on that. martha: then there is this. new jersey governor chris christie calling out president obama on the debt stalemate in washington this way. >> what the hell are we paying you for? it is doomed for failure so i'm not getting involved? what have you been doing exactly? are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

martha: we got some brand new details in the death of the drum major for florida a&m university's marching band. the director of the band was fired. now he says that he warned about hazing and was ignored by the university's administrators. so here is what this is all about. robert champion died after allegedly being forced to run, a quote, gauntlet of

fists of band members on the university bus. reports that 26 band members were suspended for hazing two weeks before this young man's death. robert's family says they believe that a cover-up is underway. >> no one wants to be standing in our shoes. >> we are concerned about the culture of cover-up that hazing has been covered up at the band famu for generations. >> i just want it to stop. so in order to have it to stop, then somebody has to step up, go forward, open that door up, wide open, so you can see what's been hidden behind it. martha: boy, a trage ji -- tragedy the death of this young man. officials say champion was feeling sick collapsed on the bus although as you can tell the director of the band and the parents believe there may be more to it than that. what a sad sad.

bill: very well-known, the rattlers. the white house reacting to new reports blown past the visit to key swing states more than any president before him all on the taxpayer dime. press secretary jay carney was defending the president's travel and was asked about it here. >> it is a guessing game to suggest we know what states are battleground states necessarily. the salient point is then senator obama in his presidential campaign expanded the map dramatically, made states battleground states had not been for a very, very long time. to say he can't travel to those states because he won them and made them competitive i think would severely restrict this president's ability to travel and any future president's to travel which i don't think is a good idea. bill: that is the white house position. steven hayes, white house, from "the weekly standard.". >> good morning, bill. bill: do you think this has been abused? >> i do. bill: you do. >> the president traveled more than his predecessors

have. let's be clear this is something presidents of both parties have done going back several years, decades even. president obama just done it more often than george w. bush did, more often than bill clinton did. bill: hear is the record now. 1995 on the screen. president bill clinton at this point in his first term, rather, 40 events, 24 days. 2003, same for george bush. 49 events, 34 days for president barack obama. 54 events, 42 days. on wednesday, in scranton, pa, will be event number 56. is that proof? >> yeah, right i think it is proof. this was a study conducted by a assistant professor at u.s. naval academy. not somebody likely be to accused being a biased source on this. the look the bigger problem for me is not that president obama is doing this as we said. his predecessors have done it too. the answer from the white house. for jay carney to suggest we don't know what battleground states are? that is silly. you don't see the president

making these kind of stops in places like texas or deep south known to be republican strongholds or in new york or very month or those areas that are known to be democratic strongholds. clearly they're doing it. bill: some that will decide the election in 201. >> exactly. bill: here is what the white house says. take virginia and north carolina specifically, steve look what happened historically in the last election here back in 2008. now on the map here, red is republican and blue is democrat. virginia three years ago went for a democrat for the first time since 1964. and obama beat mccain handily, 53-46% in the state of virginia. north carolina, the borders to the south of there, they were 4.2 million votes cast in north carolina between obama and mccain. the difference between the two men? 50/50 right here percentage wise. it is about 18,000 votes out of 2.2 cast in the entire

state. that shows you, steven, how critical these states will be to re-election if you get a second term. >> yeah, it sure does. jay carney should pay more attention to what david axelrod and others are saying. they made it clear, they see virginia, north carolina states like that as the new battleground. that has been a term used to describe virginia and north carolina and those states president obama to his credit made competitive in 2008. that's where the election is going to be fought along with the midwest and florida and maybe a couple of western states. but, it's clear from the president's travel is dictated to a large extent by where his political fortunes lie. it is natural. i guess i think the white house shouldn't insult of intelligence people listening to it by suggesting otherwise. >> i understand your point. bully pulpit, presidential pulpit has a lot of power when you're looking at a second term. >> it does. bill: stephen, thank you for your time. martha, what is next. martha: down know how much

you're paying for health care? think about that for a second. there is a new report that finds that you are paying a lot and it may not be the worth the price what you're getting for it. our medical a-team is on this big story. that is next. bill: it was a big blowout in the big easy. the new orleans saints trounced the new york giants 49-24 on "monday night football". martha: you have to remind me. bill: that was a game giants had to win to keep playoff hopes alive. drew brees was unstopable. throwing four tds and running one in himself. who medicare. it doesn't cover everything.

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bill: if you haven't seen this it's gone viral. just watch. [laughter] >> oh.

bill: that is an awards ceremony for former pro football players in canada. memorable for all the wrong reasons. nfl quarterback, joe kapp and cfl star an going at it with a cain on one side and fist on the other. apparently because of a controversial tackle in 1963. kapp called the fight regretful and later apologized. martha: i love it. one much these days. all right. how about this for you this morning. new numbers out about how much we pay for health care in real terms. each one of us in this country. a brand new report compares 24 countries and finds that americans spend far more than people do in other countries for our health care but are we getting the quality and outcome for that money? that raises an interesting question. who better to bring in than our good friend, dr. marc siegel, part of the

fox news medical a-team and from one of the best medical centers in the country. >> good to see you, martha. martha: the big question is, right, the notion in america we have the best health care system in the world. is that true? >> in certain respects it is. we have the best emergency care. this study showed our cancer care is excellent. breast cancer survives 89% of the time five years but we're spending $8,000 per person on the care. you and i discussed this before we came on. there is overuse syndrome where everybody wants it. when everybody wants it, it gets more expensive. knee replacement are more likely to occur here than in canada. i had two 80-year-olds came to me and one said i want a knee replacement. i want a hernia? martha: i want a hernia repair. >> i don't want a hernia, i want a repair. i told her you're 80 years old. there is lot of problems with that. but we have this sense of entitlement here. another problem is that we're not as healthy as some

other places. the same study said, came out and found out that japan, the average lifespan is about 83 years. here it is 79. in japan they use medical services less so they can be less expensive. martha: why are they healthier in japan? >> they eat better. more vegetables and fish. they exercise more. there is only 3% obesity rate in japan. it is 30% here. martha: when i looked at numbers felt they were skewed in many ways. as you point out cancer care is superior in the united states to other countries. lots of people come from other countries to this country to get care for those kind of things. diabetes, asthma, very high rates of both. so you have a huge diet issue in this country that is pulling down our numbers. >> precisely the point. those issues come from obesity. we don't exercise. we don't eat right. we get all the diseases. there is couple of reasons. one is supply and demand issue. another point you made off there which is right, doctors are worried about malpractice. martha: right. >> appendectomies are $8,000

here. only $5,000 in canada. you know why? here doctors are very worried they will get sued. that jacks up the price. martha: pay extraordinary amount of malpractice insurance. >> passed along to the patient. martha: why is tort reform not an issue in health care reform? it was argued about but nowhere in that bill, right? >> it should have been in that bill. loser pays. capping malpractice, pufring and -- pain and suffering. we felt people who passed the bill might have had other lobbying concerns. martha: health care costs are heading towards 30%, 30% of the budget, bigger than defense in this country. we have to get a handle. super-committee as we point out didn't get anywhere close. >> we're talking $4 trillion in the next decade for health care expenditures. martha: regardless of your -- great to see you. >> thank you, martha. >> he is not running for the white house but that is not stopping chris christie

delivering a strong message to president obama. quote, what the hell are we paying you for? his words. fair and balanced debate on that. talk about a grinch? one u.s. town banning christmas lights? martha: come on. bill: come on, i say, what is up with that? martha: what is that about? ♪ we're america's natural gas and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more.

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but only if you act right now. call now! lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. bill: there are new developments now in the search for missing florida mother michelle parker, mother of three. police now calling her ex-fiance the prime suspect in her disappearance. now why the change? rick leventhal on that in our newsroom. rick, is it has been what, two weeks. why now? report report orlando's police chief said they had to look at every aspect of the case and every possibility before zeroing on dale smith the last person known to have seen michelle parker. the 33-year-old mother disappeared after sparks flew on previously taped episode on "the people's court" airing a dispute between parker and her former fiance about a missing $5,000 engangment ring. on the show parker accused smith of having a violent temper and the father of her twins was sleeping with other women. smith is no stringer to law

enforcement. arrested several times in the 1990s. he was also court marshalled and dishonorably discharged from the marine corps. >> michelle parker is out there missing. we still need the public's help trying to find her. we will not rest until michelle is found. i will not go into details about the case but i will say we are putting forth all of our resources to bring michelle home. >> reporter: police have searched smith's home and his father's home and say smith has refused to take a lie-detector test, bill. bill: the family is not surprised at this development? what have they said? >> reporter: family members knew the relationship was troubled but they were hopeful michelle was safe and they say they haven't given up on finding her alive. >> in my heart i know she is out there somewhere and we need her, we need to find her. we still need searchers. we still need the flyers. this is a sad day really. you know, but, i think it was inevitable. >> reporter: the only sign of parker so far is her suv found abandoned the day

after she disappeared. smith has hired a lawyer. bill: a story that has gotten national attention. rick left shawl on that -- heavy thal on that development ma thing. thank you. rick. >> reporter: sure. >> we're talking governor chris christie, now blasting president obama at a an appearance yesterday for tail failing to handle our debt crisis. here is what he said. >> i was angry this weekend listening to the spin coming out of the administration about the failure of the super-committee and that the president knew it was doomed for failure so he didn't get involved. what the hell are we paying you for? it is doomed for failure so i'm not getting involved? well, what have you been doing exactly? well he is the one in washington and he has to get something done here. and it is not good enough to say i will get it done after the election. martha: pretty strong words which is not that unusual coming from governor christie. joined by bob beckel, the former campaign manager for

walter mondale and andrea tanteros, both co-hosts of the wonderful "the five" on fox news channel. good morning. >> good morning. martha: bob, reaction to what the governor of new jersey had to say. >> the president never said it was deem and refused to get involved so he should get his facts straight. if he is such a tough and smart guy why didn't he have guts to run for president himself. martha: that is question people may be asking. >> he keeps shooting his mouth off. if you have the understanding of the problems in america, bring it forward like he done for new jersey which is kept afloat by stimulus funds. >> come on, bob. chris christie is allowed to have an opinion. >> sure. >> supporting mitt romney and his opinion is dead on. i mean the president has failed to lead on the deficit. i believe balanced budgets were a campaign promise of the president in 2008. and look the president has done nothing on the big budget buster of entitlements. i know what you're going to

say. i know you well enough to say he tried. he tried to do a deal with john boehner behind closed doors. bob, he knew there was no political will in your party to touch entitlements. instead of actually leading he is totally vilifieded paul ryan the man who put forth an actual workable plan to address this problem. martha: bob, it is interesting, you look at it, you can specifically say the program was doomed, that he thought the super-committee was doomed. assessment from all sides when you looked at it even if the president had come forward and said to democrats, look, i want you to cut entitlements, i have a plan, i want you to put it forward, chances are they wouldn't have gone for it. in that essence the feeling was his hands were tied to influence this committee. but what everybody seems to be yelling and screaming about, why not try? you know what i mean? even with independents if they saw him come forward say look, here is what i want you to do. we need to cut entitlements. republicans, you need to give at least on revenue for

unraveling some of these tax codes and that kind of thing that would pump up revenue. he could have brokered some sort of thing that might have made him look better. >> let me try to get the record straight here. they didn't do it well but two weeks before the deadline the democrats in fact did offer up entitlement reform including means testing for medicare and social security, increasing the age of social security and changing the inflation adjustment for social security. all that was put on the table and was all obama's proposal last summer. now the republicans, and i think it was too late, they should have done it earlier, the democrats, republicans of course being the party run by grover norquist, this little lobbyist on k street who refused, when you say they came forward with tax cuts, come on. martha: they did, bob. they did. >> in exchange for protecting the 2% bush tax cuts for the top 2%. now come on. >> if democrats were serious they would put their ideas down on paper. >> they did.

be happy to show it to you. >> he did not put forth a budget for years. when he did was overwhelmingly voted down. i don't see any plan. martha: i want to go back to the initial question at hand that was proposed by chris christie. in slightly more delicate terms. should, is the president doing his job? is he doing his job if he is not doing enough to get a handle over our debt and our deficit in this country? and is it enough to say well i can't really get anything done until after you reelect me? >> no i think what he has done trying to get something done over and over again. three years going up against republicans who refuse to be serious about revenue, what are you going to do? eventually you say no. >> he had total control of congress first two years of congress. you know in political fight you come out bruised. the president doesn't want to be bruised. he is doubling down now more people on government dole or not so he doesn't care about the deficit. he will be president handout until november 2012.

martha: he could have come forward and talked a little bit about pat toomey's proposal. most americans across the board say yes i would be willing to cut down the tax code. doing so you will get increased revenue that is revenue increase because corporations will start to pay some taxes they're able to get out of paying right now. that is not seen by democrats as revenue increase for some reason. i don't understand why. >> average poll numbers 75% of the american people thought top 2% should not have bush tax cuts, one. two, cuts, i think there was some pretty good things there. idea reforming tax code. let's do that and not continue to reward these people at the top. >> bob, the president won't even touch the recommendation of his own deficit commission. he is a political coward. admit it. >> you call him a political coward. what will be cowardly when all the republicans are shooting their mouths off realize this guy a lock to get reelected. he is a lock to get reelected. get used to it. martha: continue at 5:00.

andrea and bob. bill: it was a terrific performance from both of you. >> thank you very much. bill: a showdown over how to handle terrorist suspects could a faceoff between the white house and congress keep gitmo open for good? martha: asleep at the wheel. a chilling 911 tape after a woman crashes into a canal. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> i'm in the water. i'm floating in the water.

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♪ 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 martha: she was trapped in her car and the water was rising all around her. the childing 911 calls have just been released from a florida woman who accidentally drove into a canal on her way home from work. listen to this. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> i'm in the water. i'm floating in the water. >> are you in the car? >> yes, ma'am. i'm still in the car. >> is there any way you can get out? >> no. i'm starting to go under

water. >> is the water around your waste now or around your legs? >> no. coming up to the seat now. martha: a sheriff's deputy jumped in the water to save her. her name is tiffany joyce. she works at target. people say she fell' slight at the wheel working very long shift at target on black friday. another reason not to overshop on thanksgivinging weekend. bill: they are overworked for that matter. now there is a showdown between the white house and congress how to handle terrorists suspects forever. the obama administration it pushing to a scuttle a bipartisan proposal that would put detainees on trial in gitmo possibly for good. mark kirk, senator from the appropriations committee. welcome to "america's newsroom". >> thank you. bill: what will this bill settle, do you believe? >> it actually raises new issues. i'm very concerned about this language because it

expands the authority of the president to arrest anyone including u.s. citizens, on u.s. soil if the president alleges that they committed an act of terrorism or were part of al qaeda or the taliban. the critical thing is, americans would not have to be presented to a civilian court. all the decisions on their detention would be made by the u.s. military and the president and our rights are inalienable. i don't think congress has this power. bill: well, so, there would be no civilian trials if you're picked up as a terror suspect? >> that's right. bill: the only military tribunals? >> i'm very concerned about this because i served in afghanistan for three reserve tours. i swore an oath to the constitution as a sailor and as a senator and our rights as u.s. citizens are inalienable. we have a large military establishment to defend the country, mainly overseas. but here in the united states, especially if you're a united states citizen, you

have rights that are protected by the constitution and no congress and no president can take it away. i'm very concerned under this process you could be detained by the u.s. military only on the accusation from the president and no civilian court would have jurisdiction. bill: if this bill went through and by the way it has bipartisan support, democrats are on board for this too, would this keep guantanamo bay open for good? >> it's likely. congress already prohibited transfer of guantanamo bay detainees to the united states. the president lost that battle about a year ago. bill: all right. so there is a veto threat from the white house now. maybe everything going on the senate floor could be all for naught anyway, could it? >> that's right. senators like rand paul and i on the right are also concerned because we think your rights as a united states citizen are invie late. if you are picked up pursuant to civilian

authority and you appear before a civilian court. no american citizen picked up inside the united states should being dragged before a military detention authority. bill: mark kirk, thank you for your time. i want to ask you about some breaking news because i know you're very much attuned to what is happening in iran today. apparently a number of people stormed the british embassy. has that been resolved and what is your effort in this? >> students have taken over the british embassy. seized classified documents. about 50 personnel are there. it is shades of the 1979 iran hostage crisis that lasted 440 days. ironically the senate is considering the menendez and kirk amendment today to collapse the bank of iran because of its support of terror. well-timed acts by the senate in terms of brazen act by the iranian government against the british embassy. >> in the past when sanctions brought down on iran they seem to be doing okay or a-okay in many cases.

we'll see whether this effort gets anywhere. mark kirk, senator out of illinois. we call it bya because you asked. we'll talk about anything you want. you pick your poison online anytime. martha: incredible scenes in tehran. bill: we'll see if it is resolved. martha: we'll have brand new video a little while away. stick around for that. in the meantime barney frank has called it quits, folks and using a flame thrower on the way out. the long-time liberal how congress has changed and why he believes the media is to blame. we'll play that brand new tape for you. bill: also the grinch is stealing christmas in one american town. wait until you hear what folks are banned from doing this holiday season. martha: please. bill: striking again. ♪ . @@úúxx

♪ . bill: talk about ba humbug. the homeowners' association, doylestown station, pa, banning colored and blinking christmas lights, passing a rule you can only have white christmas lights allowed outdoors on your house or business. >> i think colored lights are festive. >> it is limited to white lights only. that has been our family tradition. that is what i grew up with. that is what my husband grew up with and even some of our neighbors. >> i will put my colored lights up. you know. and i'm going to stick with them. humbug.

bah, humbug. bill: you go, guys. so far no word with will happen to those folks who dare to hang lights with qlors or dare to hang lights with blinking lights on them. martha: are they kidding? you can't tell people they can't hang colored lights. i like the big huge old ones with all the different colors. bill: that's right. hard to find. martha: how about those? bill: hard to find. martha: how about that guy. i'm curious to see what happens. if you hang those lights and anything happens we want to know about it, right? it has been nearly four months since a maryland woman vanished in aruba. you remember this story? there is follow-up now. the only suspect in her disappearance, american gary giordano will be leaving jail, folks. he will be homeward bound. phil keating live in miami with more on this. very tough to keep him in i guess based on what they have got, right? >> reporter: they have kept him in four months now without being charged but there are built-in

protections for people in aruba so they can't be held forever. so that is why he is getting out. the judge says the evidence is not mounting sufficiently and they haven't charged him yet. so the fresh word we're getting from aruba right now from the solicitor general is that 8:00 p.m. tonight, gary giordano will walk out of that aruba jail and presumably head right back to the last spot where he was a free man, that was at the aruba airport where he was arrested about four months ago. reportedly totally drenched in sweat as he saw the cops arriving. his story, his alibi, he and robin gardner went snorkeling on a beach near baby beach on the southern tip of aruba. strong currents took her away. aruba authorities dismissed that whole notion. they believe a body would have been found had that actually happened. take a look at the security camera videotape from the restaurant bar, dive shop where they had some drinks

and some lunch, prior to allegedly going snorkeling and a lot of people read into that video and show gary giordano the not really running around frantically trying to find help or call the police. they thought he looked a little bit more relaxed and lackadaisical. martha: could he be charged anywhere else? could he be charged back here? what about the travelers insurance policy he took out on her? >> reporter: yeah, the $1.5 trillion travelers insurance took out for each other prior to leaving the u.s. to go to aruba, a lot of observers think american express would be hard-pressed not to pay that if eventually he is not charged with a crime. however, upon landing in the united states, it is possible he will face some sort of charge here in the u.s. somehow related to that travelers insurance if there is believed fraud involved with that remember the fbi did execute a search warrant at his house in maryland and according to the aruba authorities and

investigators, laptops, ipads, and cell phone data that was being forsenically examined over in the netherlands is still accumulating. so the evidence could mount. martha: they won't necessarily go back to the united states. we'll see. phil, thank you very much. there is another mysterious murder goes unsolved i guess in aruba. bill: a horrific plane crash claimed the lives of six on thanksgiving. now we're hearing 911 calls when people saw when that plane went down. martha: there is mitt romney and newt gingrich is on top of some of the polls out there right now. why is the white house so laser focused on that man? [ male announcer ] medicare...

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martha: fox news alert. a very tense situation that is unfolding right now in iran. protestors storming over the walls at the british ep embassy in tehran throwing stones through the wind does. parading around with a portrait of queen elizabeth. taking down the union jack flag that was hanging outside the british embassy. they put a tehran, iranian flag up in front of the british embassy in tehran. the british foreign office has expressed outrage about what's happened. they are demanding that the iranian government immediately put an end to the violence and insure the safety of the people in the embassy. many of saying that this scene is ererily similar to what happened at the u.s. embassy.

that has raised a lot of concerns about what is going on right now in tehran. also there is this back home on the political front, allegations of a long-time extramarital affair threatening to be the end of the line, perhaps, for the cain train and for herman cain's bid as a presidential nominee. an atlanta-based business woman named ginger white says she has had a 13 year long relationship with herman cain. we'll have more on that. this is "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer, everybody. cain denying this story, but ginger white is the fifth woman to accuse of him inappropriate behavior. >> it wasn't complicated, and i was aware that he was married, and i was also aware that i was involved in a very inappropriate situation. he made it very intriguing. it was fun, it was something

that took me away from my sort of hum drum life at the time, and it was exciting. bill: the fox atlanta wrote that story. carl cameron is live in d.c. what is herman cain saying about this? >> reporter: he's not doe tphaoeug they have a past friendship, but his denials of an a fair have been very forceful. he told donors at the hilton just outside of washington last night that he'd swear on a stack of bibles that white's charges are false. white actually showed the atlanta tv station phone records indicate -lg dozens of texts and calls from king always personal cellphone as recently as eight months ago. cain says he has his wife's full support and will not drop out of the race. very, very adamant and blanket denials from cain and the campaign itself. bill: what is the legal push back? >> reporter: from the political prospective he took an unusual step of denying the charges before the charges were made on

an atlanta station that broke them. cain and his campaign says this is a smear campaign by the woman who accused him of sexual harassment to destroy his campaign. lin wood said this is not an accusation in the workplace. it appears to be an accusation of private conduct between adults and is not a subject of public inquiry by the press. mr. cain says his personal life has been dragged through the mud here, and it's all by detractors. he says he will not drop out or be pressured by anyone about this. bill: here is martha. martha: newt gingrich has recently taken heat for his stance on illegal immigration. the former speaker did say in the last debate that he thought some illegals should be allowed to stay in this country. and that drew fire from the likes of michelle bachmann and others. newt went on the o'reilly factor to elaborate his position on

this. >> i would support registration of those here illegally. you'd have immediate deportation if you did not sign up within a certain time. the way you framed it bill i wouldn't support putting them in jail because i wouldn't want our taxpayers subsidizing them in jail. if they are here and illegal let's kick them out. martha: the white house pretty much ignoring gingrich up to this koeupbt. they have put a laser focus on mitt romney. larry sabato will be here in a few minutes and we'll ask him if that is the right strategy. bill: is it a double standard against the tea party. a richmond, virginia, tea party group saying they had to pay $10,000 to hold a rally in a class a that the occupy wall street crowd got for free. after complaining they say a target of an audit by the city. jones, a longtime democrat supported the occupy proceed terbgs he was seen cheering them

on. they say there was no by as, and it was a roo seen probe into their financial records. martha. martha: big news this morning. the parent company of american airlines announced this morning that they will file for bankruptcy protection. the troubled carrier scrambling to stay afloat by posting a loss of nearly a billion dollars in the past year alone. how bad is the situation and what does it mean for us flying on their plains? jerry willis is joining me now of the willis report. good morning. when i saw that, wow, here goes another one. american airlines, obviously a huge carrier in this country. what does this mean? >> this is the last of all the majors to file bankruptcy. it's kind of become business as usual almost. it's so roo seen. ual, delta, northwest, us air, awful the airlines have filed bankruptcy. they do it because of legacy debt associated with pensions

and union workers. fliers should expect minimum disruptions. we don't tend to see a lot of disruptions when this happens. and operating through bankruptcy things should be pretty much as usual for frequent fliers out there, i've got to tell you, if you're really nervous about your points, you're afraid you're going to lose them at the end ever the day you can give them to family, friends, even charity or use one of the other airlines in the alliance partnership that the airline maintains. what is more likely, though, is that some people will drop out and american will be forced to double or even triple points to keep those frequent fliers. the best strategy here may be staying put. martha: you look at this, it's almost like the car companies. they have union issues that force them to -- into deals that now they are having trouble making good on, right, and then you look at the fuel costs, of course, which has given up to make such a difficult environment for the whole airline industry. what is the future of this whole

group? >> american airlines says the disadvantage that they have because of extra costs is 800 million a year. it means that the airplanes that they fly are older than other carriers. it puts them at a disadvantage in many ways. they were not able to plan a recent round of megamergers in the industry. they think this will improve competitive advantage going forward. all the other airlines have done it. i've got to tell you this is an industry that has difficulty producing decent margins. american airlines in particular its stock prices have dropped 79%, a very big dive. martha: they say their maintenance is not affected by these situations, right? >> that's what they say. martha: thank you very much. >> my pleasure. bill: breaking news on michael jackson's doctor due in court in a short time for sentencing on the singers death. prosecutors want murray to get

four years in prison. adam housley is at the courthouse. what is expected in the building behind you in about 90 minutes. >> reporter: the jackson family is expect ned there. dr.~conrad murray who was found guilty back on november 7th is expected there. the hearing itself only going to probably last an hour or so. the judge says he will be in charge of the camera. meaning if for some reason one of michael jackson's children takes the stand to talk about their father, or if there is somebody else who has an emotional moment the judge could potentially turn the cameras off. there is quite a witness list. jackson's parents, his siblings, his kids. the defense will have a chance to present their argument for less of a penalty. it's expected to be about an hour long with judge pastor presiding over it. it's the final thing that goes against this whole case with conrad murray, of course found guilty of involuntary ma manslaughter, just one charge back on november 7th of this

year. the prosecution is asking for a lot of money too, over $100 million in restitution. bill: you wonder who pays that, who has that? but the four years, that is what prosecutors are pushing for. is there any indication how much jail time he will actually get, adam? >> reporter: yeah, prosecutors pushing for the $100 million. four years is the most he can get for his sentence from judge pastor, who will make the decision, there is no jury involved in the sentencing hearing in california. what a lot of legal analysts will tell you is more likely it will be less than four years because he has no priors whatsoever at all. when he goes get that sentence it will be served in a county jail, not in prison, and the day he walks to that jail, bill, automatically his sentence is cut in half, and then he'll get credit for time-served on top of that. a lot of people believe he'll only serve a couple of months in county jail overall, bill. bill: some were guessing that he will serve no time based on the overcrowding in california. it will be interesting to see how it plays out. adam housley live in l.a. martha, what is next.

martha: one state capitol is becoming sort of a microcos microcosum of washington. that's an ugly scene. lawmakers kicking off a month long special session. a live report on what exactly is going on in that video, folks. bill: a major break in the case of this missing mother of three. what detectives are now saying about the former fiance who took her to people's court. martha: calling it quits after 30 years in washington. barney frank in his own words on becoming the 17th democrat now to bow out of congress this cycle. >> stop the bs here, stop the crap. from august 07 to august 08 under your tutelage this industry declined 90%. 90%. none of this was your fault, oh,

no, million lost millions of tkhrarbgs it wasn't your fault, come on you coward. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

bill: it was quite a scene in oakland, california after a gunman opens fire on more than 20 people there. there was a group apparently in the middle of shooting a music video when witnesses say someone pulled out a gun and started firing. >> got a call of a large group of probably 20 people. we got information that a gun battle was going on. >> so many gunshots, i've never heard that many gunshots before in my life. bill: so many bullet parks too on the ground. you saw the evidence marked on the pavement, eight injured, most of the victims in stable condition. one listed in serious condition. police are still on the look out for that gunman. they have not found him or her in oakland. martha: back to d.c. now where there is new reaction from long-time liberal congressman

barney frank, the 30 year veteran becoming the 17th law maersk announcing he will retire since the 2010 midterm elections. during an interview this morning barney frank said the media is part to blame for congress' historically low approval ratings. >> you exemplify what i think is a change in the tone. you manage to ask all sort of negative questions, i understand that is the media's current per sefplgts it didn't used to be that way. that's part of the reason. it's got you this. it's got you that, it's got your journalism and politics. it does lessen our chances to get things done. martha: there you have it from barney frank this morning. steve moore joins me now senior economic writer at wal "wall street journal." what do you think about that steven. >> reporter: great to be with you, martha. i think one of the reasons congress has such a low approval rating is precisely because of people like barney frank. when you talk about the big financial crisis that we've just suffered under and especially

the housing collapse, the guy who was in charge of the housing market in congress was barney frank, and he was the one, as you could tell from those clips you just played earlier when he was on bill o'reilly and he said this many times, he believed that the media was exaggerating the extent to which we had a housing crisis. he was one of the biggest defenders, as you know, martha, of fanny mae and freddie mac throughout the entire bush years. every time the bush administration tried to reform fannie and freddie he would push back and say there is no crisis here. of course now we've lost $100 billion. martha: you know, it's been reported here to a great extent, but it is something. you look at occupy wall street and all of these sort of outrages against corporate america, but the responsibility for what happened and the oversight of fanny mae and freddie mac is a story that still continues to be told, and it may be something barney frank doesn't want to deal with any more. that is a question in terms why he may be leaving. we don't know all of this is

reasons. >> reporter: mart that, it's worse than that. you're exactly right. what we did is we had this huge financial meltdown in the housing market. it caught people like frank already completely flat floated. flat-footed. he never saw it coming. then we put him in charge of solving the problem. this is one of the things that makes me so angry, we passed this 2,000 page dodd-frank bill. what is amazing about that bill, martha, in that entire bill do you know how many pages deal with reforming fannie and freddie? zero, not a single page. even after the crisis was over we didn't reign it in. as you know fannie and freddie and fha are now guaranteeing 80 to 90% of the mortgages again. martha: and millions of dollars in bonuses for doing such a good job. let's take a look at what we're talking about to remind people what barney frank said back in 2003 and 2004 when his job was to make sure that proper oversight was happening in these

entities. here is what he said. >> i do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis, that is in my view the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, fanny mae and freddie mac are not in a crisis. i think we now see pressure on it that is generated in part by exaggerated fears of a financial crisis. martha: so, basically he was saying that the bush administration was pushing them to reform fanny mae and freddie mac and barney frank not only looked the other way, he pushed back against the initiatives to reform fanny mae and freddie mac and later on as outlined in 2008 he ended up voting for the very reforms that he said he was against, right? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. part of it is because for years and years, and this isn't just barney frank this is a lot of members of congress, there is a very incest two us relationship between fannie mae, which is a kwas sigh government agency and

congress. a lot of the members of song when they leave congress they go work for fannie and freddie i. won't be surprised if that happens with barney frank right now. martha: that would be icing on the cake, right? >> reporter: exactly. i don't know if even he would do that. i mean you know the guy who wrote that bill with him, chris dodd got one of those sweetheart deals on a mortgage from countrywide. there is this incest two us relationship. the amazing thing to me, martha is that barney frank has never been held accountable except he was held accountable by voters in the last election when he only got 54% in a heavily democratic district. i do believe one of the reasons he is not running again is he believes he would lose if he did. martha: steven moore, thank you. the reason that it's so important to rehash all of this is because we're still in really deep financial trouble with these entities and we need to be aware. >> reporter: he said we're going to roelt dice role the dice. that's what we did and it didn't turn out so well.

bill: he may be running second in the polls but mitt romney is still everyone's favorite pinada. >> i don't claim to be the perfect candidate, i just claim to be a lot more conservative than mitt romney, and a lot moreee hrebtable than everybody else. bill: newt gingrich hitting hard on his biggest republican rival, and he's not the only one. why democrats are focused more on romney than gingrich. martha: six people dead on impact. today the frightening 911 calls from the moments after a catastrophic plane crash. >> a plane just crashed into the soup err station mountains. >> a plane did? >> we were watching it fly over and it just burst into flames. the mountain is on fire. >> the mountain is on fire? >> the mountain is on fire up on the top, why it is. >> oh, my god.

martha: frantic 911 calls from the moments after a deadly plane crash. police in pinal county, arizona releasing records from the emergency call center. the residents describing the horrific sight after a fiery wreck that killed six people near apache junction. >> a plane just crashed into the superstition mountains, at the top. >> a plane did in. >> we were watching it fly over, and it just burst into flames. the mountain is on fire. >> the mountain is on fire? >> the mountain is on fire up on the top, yes it is. >> they were flying blind, oh, my god. >> you were watching? >> we live up here, you know where flat iron is and ship rock, it's right up on ship rock. it's like they flew and didn't know ship rock was there. martha: they say the pilot flew southeast and flew into the side

of a mountain. it played out exactly how that man described. there is no evidence that they had any technical problems another alat all with the aircraft. bill: thousands clashed with lawmakers arriving at the capitol to make tough cost cuts. it went on from there. union members, the occupy movements, social service groups all represented, shouting at local elected officials combining a month-long special session. several people taken away by police when a state trooper was bitten in the process. dan springer in seattle on what all went down here. what happened, dan. >> reporter: it was mostly a peaceful protest by the occupy movement at the beginning of this 30 day special session at this special body in owe limb pea a. at 5:30 the troopers said u know what it's time to leave,

this building is closed. that's when it all started to happen. you can see the video, you can see what happened when the protestors refused to leave. several hundred of them were escorted out physically by the police officers, by the state troopers. at 7:00 they were carried out. a group of 30 tried to rush back in the building, that's when state troopers pulled out stun guns and stunned at least four protestors after a trooper was bitten. people wish you'd tickets fortress passion. they are not allowed to go back to the capitol grounds for 30 days. bill: what does that occupy movement want, dan? >> reporter: well, they issued a let's of demands to the governor, a democrat here in the state of washington who has said she wants to close a $1.4 billion budget hole by cutting services and education. but she also wants to have the voters decide on a $2 billion sales tax increase, a half cent

sales tax increase that would be temporary, but that is not good enough for the protestors. they want to see taxes only on the rich, and a budget that has no cuts to any services, bill. bill: dan springer in seattle on that. thank you, dan. martha. martha: a mother of two missing for weeks, and the new person of interest in that case. bill: also the search for life in outer space continues. and scientists think they may have just discovered planet earth's twin. that is not it. martha: that's what it sounded like. bill: that is dr.~michio kaku on what it may just mean. ♪

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martha: we want to get you back to the very latest. this is just crossing the wires. the british embassy in tehran there are reports that the protestors have re-entered the british embassy there, and according to what we are learning at this point, the protestors have foreigners in their control, but they were described as protecting those foreigners, which we -- you know, the understanding would be that they were staff people at the embassy there. of course all of this brings back memories of the 1979

hostage situation in the u.s. embassy in terrain. there is a picture from back in 1979. but the british embassy is not mincing words on how they feel about what is going on there and what they are insisting the iranian government do to protect their people there, which they say they are held to international law to do so. it looks fairly calm around the outside. what is described as dozens have stormed over the gate and have got even into the embassy, and have been trashing it and changing the flags and taking down pictures. bill: watch the u.s. senate today. they will make a move and try to cut down the iranian banking system. see whether or not that can be effective. back to 2012, newt gingrich now leading the republican pack but the obama campaign ignoring gingrich and launching an all out assault on mitt romney. >> from the kraoe aeurt of i'm running for office for pete sake is the story of on two men

trapped in one body, mitt versus mitt two mitt willing to say anything. bill: larry sabato is director for the center of politics in virginia. how are you doing. >> reporter: doing great, bill. bill: we've talked in the past couple of weeks about how the white house is already getting its campaign motion in gear against romney. why is it ignoring gingrich? >> reporter: because the obama white house would love to run against newt gingrich. look, obama is playing an old game in politics. this has been done many times by national campaigns and by state campaigns, it's called playing in your opponent's garden. playing in your opponent's backyard. trying to pick or help pick the nominee of the opposing party. they would much prefer to have gingrich, or really any of the other republicans than romney. bill: they want to weaken him

early is sort of what you've tried to explain to us. there is a history for that as you mentioned too, it goes back 30 or 40 years. how has romney handled this. do you believe? >> reporter: well, romney is taking the lemons of the obama attacks and making lemonade. he's saying, hey, they are elevating me. clearly they think i'm going to be the nominee, and you know what for once barack obama is right, i am going to be the nominee. having said that i'm sure they would prefer to do without some of these attacks, because they are attacks aimed at the republican base. if you watch these democratic ads, bill, they are going after romney on issues like abortion, and gay marriage, and immigration, that really undermines him with say social conservatives who are so dominant in caucuses like iowa's and primaries like south carolina. bill: you still have to get that nomination too and that's what the battle is about at the moment. in the meantime and on that note

newt gingrich is not sparing mitt romney either. yesterday in south carolina, in charleston i believe it was, he said a couple of things, pointed right at the former governor of massachusetts. i want you to listen to these. roll them. >> it's wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election. people have to ask themselves, what will you tell me next time? no person except christ has ever been perfect. i don't claim to be the perfect candidate, i just claim to be a lot more conservative than mitt romney and a lot more electable than anybody else. bill: i don't know if gingrich has spoken so bluntly about his one-on-one with mitt romney before. have you heard it like that before, larry. >> reporter: no, his posture in the debates, bill has been, i'm here for all of us, every single candidate on this stage would be

better than barack obama. i, newt gingrich is the unifier. he's stepping up the pace because he's now the key opponent to mitt romney. inevitably somebody is going to attack him. is it going to be mitt romney or is romney going to hope that one of the other republicans will do the job for him. they have to get rid of gingrich, they have to bring him down in order for them to move up and become the anti-romney. bill: what would you do if you were on romney's team and you were hearing this? >> reporter: i would hope that another candidate did it. i'd be privately encouraging in whatever ways i could, ron paul, or michelle bachmann, you do what you can, and there is a lot of material there. remember, gingrich has been running for office since the mid 70s, bill. he has voted on hundreds, if not thousands of bills. he has given thousands of speeches. he's written dozens of books.

he has uttered millions of words. think about what is there in the record, if they want to use it. bill: larry, thank you. we'll talk again next week okay? larry sabato from the university of virginia. >> reporter: thanks, bill. bill: nice seeing you. martha: great i hope you don't own american airlines stock today it's down about 85%. the stock for the competitors, united and delta jumping by about 6%. these stocks have been hammered pretty handily over the deterioration in their industry. as jerry willis was saying before from the fox business network the hope is that going into bankruptcy will hopefully make the company stronger in the end and help them negotiate some of their union deals and all the money that they owe. tough, tough situation for american airlines and for the shareholders. bill: sure is. martha: ouch. all right. so they are now just a month away from coming home for good, the last remaining fighting forces in iraq gearing up for the official drawdown.

dominique d-natali is streaming live for us from baghdad. what is the latest on that? >> reporter: martha, you know what is happening in iran today, the storming of the british embassy, that is of great concern to the u.s. military here. iran has been playing out its soft and hard power in iraq, *erbgs pebgted to be the dominant military power in the region once the united state forces leave in matter of weeks. here are contingency sites. we are surrounded by the world's second largest shear community, many of those individuals influenced by iran. the base here coming under fire on a fairly frequent basis from militia in the area we had a warning a couple hours ago. no casualties for soldiers in this area for quite a few months, but ultimately as the force leaves they head for the and come down heading toward kuwait they are having to protect u.s. forces to be sure they don't come under further attacks. as a result of what is happening in tehran there will be a further sense of caution here in

case the iranians use any of their proxys to hurt u.s. troops, as they threatened to do. still very much a sense of caution and a threat for our soldiers as they leave here. martha become to you. martha: a tense situation and we wish them well. dominique d-natali in iraq, thank you so much knee is eight years old, he weighs 200 pounds. the state just took him away from his mother. guess what the state is saying about that decision today? we'll tell you. martha: a lot of mail on that went. and they went to the people's court, but michelle parker vanished the day the episode aired. now there is a major revelation in this case. >> in my heart i know she is out there somewhere, and we need her, we need to find her. we still need searchers, we still need the fliers, and this is a sad day, really, you know? but i think it was inevitable.

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bill: i want to bring you this update now on a story we talked about yesterday. an eight-year-old boy in ohio removed from his family. he weighs more than 200 pounds. child protective services depending its decision saying the move had nothing to do with the child's weight but rather everything to do with the child's health. >> we were involved with this family for about 20 months before that action occurred. the medical community brought this situation to our attention. this is a medical neglect case. when a child's medical condition warrants intervention by child protective services we respond. bill: it also says that they worked with the boy's mother as you heard there for 20 months to try to get his weight down, but that it only over that period went higher. martha: there are some bombshell developments in the case of a missing florida mom. michelle parker vanished after appearing on the people's court with her exfiance.

now police officers are focusing their investigation, this is the grand new information on this. on that ex, dale smith. listen to what they said. >> we are officially naming dale smith, the exfiance, as the primary suspect in the disappearance of michelle parker. many questions will be asked why dale smith wasn't considered a suspect prior to today, and the answer is, we had to look at every aspect in the case before we could come out publicly and state that mr. smith is our primary focus. martha: bill daley is a former f.b.i. investigator, of course, bill, welcome. >> thank you. martha: what do you make of that? he was not a suspect, and now they are calling him the primary suspect. what must they have on this guy to have said that? >> through the process of elimination. the police do need to take a very broad view so they don't get myopic and hone in and say

it must be this person because of maybe this people's court incident. however, i think at this point they have some forensic evidence to connect him witness, a timeline issue, maybe even some technology. if we go back to the fact one of the patterns in this case, one of the facts in this case is that her cellphone was used to text a message later that afternoon when she had at that point disappeared. that text message may have come from her phone which may put him in a certain location at the same time. there are a number of things here i think more circumstantial at this point than probably forensic-based, meaning that they have any real evidence that he harmed her. martha: he apparently was discharged from the military in a less than ceremonious way. and he also has some prior charges against him, including some charges of domestic abuse. >> uh-huh. martha: so clearly, you know, that sets some stage at least for suspicion. >> certainly that behavior pattern certainly lends itself towards a concern about this

individual. now that police have kind of focused on him as the primary suspect. i'd probably say this all along law enforcement was probably looking very careful flow at him, as you can imagine. if we go become to a few years to a case of richard jewel who was the accused bomber in the atlantic park bombing a number of years ago police jumped to the early announcement that he was their suspect. police since then have been very cautious to jump into that. martha: what role do you think as an investigator this appearance on the people's court might have played and what might have triggered this? >> when you look at -- let's realize this court case was taped, so the airing of this was coincidental to the date when she disappears. i think what happens is that when you see people appear in these court shows, including this particular one, and they do look at the clip of it, is that it's very emotionally charged and people come out with all kinds of, you know, personal, dirty laundry about their relationship.

i'm just going to suggest that him being the primary suspect, the fact that this case was on people's court, is that at that time it could have invoked some type of a response, emotional response. martha: because it was taped a few months earlier. seeing it and knowing that everybody else in america could have seen it as well could clearly have stirred up very strong feelings. that seems to be where they are headed with this. bill daley thank you very much. we'll keep on top of it with your help. thank you, sir. bill: there are developments at the top of the hour. jenna lee work being "happening now." what is going on, jenna, good morning to you. jenna: good morning. more on breaking news out of iran today, the british embassy in tehran is attacked. what should the proper u.s. response be and what does this for shadow as well? gingrich is on the offense going off mitt romney in this race for the top spot of the gop nomination. karl rove is here to tell us whether his strategy is a winning one. bill, what exactly are they building underneath the white house, a little early spring

gardening maybe or something else? we have answers to that mystery straight ahead. bill: radishes? jenna: maybe. healthy eating for the first lady. we'll see. bill: see you at the top of the hour. nine high school football players accused of assault but allowed to play in their big game. there are major developments in this case that have deeply divided the community. the final frontier, have we discovered an earth-like planet in the way that has never been seen before. dr.~michio kaku has gone deep into space for us. do not miss our man michio.

martha: we wanted to update you with new developments in the case that we told you about of nine new jersey high school

football players who have been charged with aggravated assault. now the wayne hills high school coach chris olson, who you see pictured there, will now have to find out if he can do what he said he could do which is to win the state championships, which he's done seven times, without those nine players who have now been charged. the board of ed had allowed them all to play in a semi final game, that arouse eud a lo aroused a lot of controversy and has deeply divided this town. now they say they cannot play in the championship that is going to happen, by the way at giant stadium over the weekend. the students are charged with beating up two students, leaving one of them unconscious in the street from a rival school. they will face charges today. bill: we may be closer than ever to finding life in outer space. scientists say they discovered a planet with the most earth-liken sraoeurpbment they have ever

seen. 135trillion miles away. it's in the middle of a place that could support intelligent life. dr.~michio kaku professor, and author after book on "the new york times" best seller list. good morning to you. there was only 123 trillion miles away, a road trip today, right. >> a hop, skip and a jump away. bill: you say this is big and exciting news to astronomers. >> this is really big. astronomers have spent a lifetime chasing back the holy grail, and earth-like twin in outer space. when you're looking at the constellation libya you'll wonder if anybody is looking back at you from outer space. bill: what are they seeing on this planet? >> this planet may have a liquid ocean. if it was too close to the mother star the ocean would turn to steam. if it was too far the ocean would freeze. it's liquid water we think on that planet and that's where life got off the ground, dna,

proteins, the mixing bowl of life is found in liquid water. bill: we cannot say whether or not there is a liquid ocean. >> that's right. the next step beyond this now is to verify the fact that there is water on the planet, and the temperatures are just right to have water in liquid form. the universal solvent, the mixing bowl of life itself. bill: you see this picture on our screen right now? that's us to the left, right? and that's what it is gliese. >> yes, gliese581g. bill: you told me it's relatively close because it's only 20 light years away. we can't prove even if there is liquid oegtss there, right? >> we can by looking at light from that planet, putting it through a prism, analyzing that light in a laboratory, then we can detect the presence of water molecules. we hope to do that and determine the atmosphere of that planet. remember this is the holy grail. people have spent a lifetime looking at it and this could be that moment. bill: next you would sake your

best telescopes and train it toward that area to get more information. >> telescopes still can't see this planet because it's too dim. we look for the wobbling of the mother star indicating there is a solar system, a planet surrounding that star. six planets by the way surrounding that mother star. bill: it could be more at only 13 trillion miles. that would be a lot of gas. >> gas, right it would take 300,000 years for the sat urn rocket to reach that planet. bill: let us know what you find on that. congratulations on the book, it's been a huge hit for you. we'll see what happens with this one. thank you michio. >> okay. martha: gliese581g the new home planet. thank you michio. frosty the inmate? why police in maryland tackled the snowman and led him away in handcuffs. ♪ are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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to october 15th through december 7th. so call unitedhealthcare now. martha: when it comes to what happened on black friday with that mayhem here is jimmy fallon from last night. >> man, oh, man, it was a huge weekend for shopping. everyone was out for black friday. i went to wal-mart and found a great deal on a flat screen and a really great deal on pepper spray. martha: it was free. give you a little free pepper spray on the way out. bill: will give away the flat screens pretty soon the way prices are dropping. are you ready for christmas? martha: no. bill: mentally ready. martha: i'm mentally ready but not ready, ready. bill: when i hear christmas songs i'm not quite ready. isn't it phenomenal the weather here in new york city.