problem in this country but who should solve it? parents? individuals? maybe the federal government. critics say new proposals, calling them the nanny state gone wild. jon: think about this, what if you could read or sleep on a long car trip when you're the driver, sort of? cars driving themselves. they are now for real, and they will be on public roads, soon. a firsthand account. it's all "happening now". jenna: have your hands firmly on the wheel for this story. jon: under control! jenna: that's going to be a great segment in a little bit. the first big story is the new reaction coming in to the president publicly speaking out in support of same sex marriage. we're glad you're with us, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. mr. obama becomes the first sitting president to endorse the right of gay couples to

marry saying he arrived at the decision after what he calls an evolution. >> over the course of several years, as i talked to friends and family and neighbors, when i think about members of my own staff who are incredibly committed in mon og mus relationships, same sex relationships, who are raising kids together, at a certain point i've just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same sex couples should be able to get married. jon: speculation over whether the president would change his position started right after similar comments by vice president biden on sunday. the president suggesting that forced his hand a bit. >> i had already made a decision that we were going to probably take this position before the election, and before the

convention. it probably got out a little bit -- out of generosity of spirit. >> you're not upset with snib. >> would i have preferred to have done this in my own way, in my own terms, without i think there being a lot of notice to everybody, of course. but all is well that ends well. jon: well tonight the president attends a sold-out, record setting fund-raiser at actor george clooney's los angeles mansion. hollywood is, of course, home to some of the most high profile supporters of same sex marriage. this development, likely, will rally that part of the democratic base and bring in lots of money. but what other political consequences might it have come november? let's talk to a.b. stoddard about it, associate editor of the hill, she has a new column on the president's stance on gay marriage. a.b., you think that he was

sort of dragged into this by joe biden. >> well, he admitted that he was. at least in terms of the timing. i think the president had a long, public evolution on this topic, it was clear to all those in the activist community that he had actually decided he was supportive of same sex marriage, but that he was waiting for some perfect moment. he admits in this interview he was going to do this before the convention, he was going roll it out in his way, but it was an evolution that had ended and he had already made a decision and the fact that his vice president spoke too soon forced him to come out quickly, and in the intervening days, as they tried to cover up what -- or sort of change the perception of what vice president biden had said, they looked silly and it was costing the president, becoming a question of his character and he looked like a coward and he was forced to come out early and i thought he missed an opportunity to lead and bungled the entire issue, considering that on the

policy matter itself he had already made his decision. jon: let me read back to you your own quote, just because i enjoyed the line you used here in your article. you write, obama's water treading wimp out on the highly charged issue was making him be cynical, cowardly as his adversaries describe him. you're not saying he came to this as a rock solid matter of principle. >> well, if he did, then he was hiding it, and i think the matter is not that the president supports same sex marriage. it's that he was not being completely honest about his opinion, that he was changing over a long period of time in which people on both sides of the issue questioned because creditil and reasonable it was, to say that although you continue to oppose any effort to ban same sex marriage, you still can't support it. that evolution seemed too long and it didn't seem genuine and people started to question whether or not he was hiding the truth until after the election. so it's not really so much the merits of the policy

itself so much as the way in which he came his announcement. it might be from a core conviction but he probably made that decision a while ago and wasn't being truthful about how he felt. jon: but was it politically smart? when you take a look at the states that have already voted to ban gay marriage, states that are very pivotal in this upcoming election and we have a map of seven of then, it was just over the weekend that north carolina voted against may gairnlg -- ghairnlg and that's where his convention is going to be, also colorado, nevada, iowa, missouri, ohio, florida. florida, elderly voters are solidly against gay marriage, and the president needs these states if he wants to win reelection. >> that is true, and i'm sure that is why he was waiting and trying to find a perfect way to do this, if he was going to do it at all. he has probably kissed north carolina goodbye, he won there last time by fewer than 14,000 votes, he registered 300,000 new african-american voters in that state last time to eek out that very slight win.

they could be disappointed by the economy and those among them who are very religious and more culturally conservative and oppose gay marriage could decide to stay home and sit out the election. it could cost him in swing states for sure, and that is probably why he made the political decision to remain quiet, but his polices were the most progay rights polices ever passed by any president, he had had a record that was indicating that he was himself a believer in the legality of same sex marriage. he was just refusing to say so. and again, i'm not arguing the policy, i understand the politicses -- politics were dangerous but he had trapped himself into a good corner and he was going to try to galvanize the gay community into helping him across the finish line and i guess he was going to announce it before august but it was a difficult high wire act for them and that's why it was difficult this week. jon onand the vice president helped drag him across that finish line. a.b. stoddard, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: as you can imagine, the political fallout from

the president's announcement reached capitol hill very quickly, with very different reactions. at one point it got heated between a couple of lawmakers on a related issue. rick has the details from the newsroom with more. >> reporter: good morning. the house armed services committee, burning the midnight oil to craft a pentagon funding measure, but that same committee also approved two amendments. one would ban the performance of same sex marriage ceremonies on military installations, another proposal would create a conscious clause, allowing military chaplains to opt out of same sex marriages, and that sparked a fiery back and forth between california democrat loretta sanchez and georgia republican austen scott. sanchez asking a hypothetical question, would the amendment protect the beliefs of service members who interpret the bible literally and think that gays should be killed. scott fired back and said the bible does not say that, and that's when sanchez read directly from the stripture. take a listen: >> if you read leviticus

2013, you will see in there the issue of they are to be put to death. if a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable, they are to be put to death. >> ms. sanchez, that is the old testament. >> it's the bible. >> it is the old testament. >> it's the bible. >> reclaiming my tile and yielding it back. thank you. >> reporter: the leading republican in the house of representatives also weighing in on the president's announcement. here is house speaker john boehner, speaking with our colleague, gerri willis. >> well, i think he made his position pretty clear. i've always believed that marriage was between a man and a woman. but republicans here, on capitol hill, are focused in on the economy. the american people are still asking the question, where are the jobs, and our focus is going to continue to be on the economy, like it has been for the last year and a half. >> reporter: and the presumptive republican

presidential nominee mitt romney reacting from the campaign trail: >> i do not favor marriage between people of the same gender and i don't favor civil unions if they're identical to marriage other than by name. my view is that domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and the like are appropriate, but that the others are not. reporter a sampling of some of the reaction, with less than six months to go before election day. you can be sure the issue is going to get more attention as the race for the white house intensifies. jenna, back to you. jenna: who knows, maybe more bible study! you never know what's going on in the halls of congress. rick, thank you. as we told you at the top of the show, the president is the first sitting president to support the right of gay couples to marry, but what can the president actually do to help push that agenda or change the policy? the options at this time are relatively limited, especially since the president doesn't have the power to legalize it. there are some things, though, he can do. for example, he can push for legislation to amend or repeal the defense of

marriage act. he can use the bully pulpit to encourage states to legalize same sex marriage, and push for a constitutional amendment to recognize same sex marriage. as it stands now these are the states that allow same sex marriage. thirty states have banned it. washington state and maryland both passed laws, though, that have yet to go into effect. so that's the state of today, and we're going to move now to more on the race for the white house. jon: that's the big political development, that presidential announcement, but there are other developments in the race for the white house as well, as governor mitt romney, fresh off his trip to the key swing state of colorado spends the day in neighboring nebraska. historically, it's a red state, but its unique system of awarding electrical votes may not make it a sure thing for the gop this time around chief washington correspondent james rosen is follow thank story live in our -- live from our washington bureau. >> reporter: then-senator barack obama lost nebraska by more than 15 percentage points back in 2008 but he

was still able to claim one of the corn husker state's five electoral votes, that's because nebraska was system of awarding electoral roats is proportional, omaha falls in the second congressional district where governor romney will be campaigning and fundraising today and that district could help determine who wins the lion's share of those five votes, stumping in oklahoma city, the presumptive gop nominee for the most part tread lightly on the president's much balancey hood announcement on gay marriage and instead sought to return the focus to mr. obama's weakest point, the economy. >> i think the president is just being guided by things that have been spoken about by liberals for years and years and years and have been proved not to work, and you -- and you go through them piece by piece. the idea of raising taxes on small birks it doesn't help. it hurts jobs. >> president obama, for his part, is heading west today.

he left joint base andrews before 10:00 a.m., embarking on a swing through seattle, washington, where he will rally supporters at the paramount theert and then to los angeles, as jon just noted a short while ago, for a $14 million fundraising event at the home of anac ar-- actor named george cloon yevment here's our brilliant segue. when in love, george clooney, you can expect the obama campaign to stress women's issue. a gallup poll finds women to be consistently more reliable supporters of him. in april the poll found 44 percent of women approved of obama's performance but 50 percent of women did. being professional journalistis we know not to ask jenna her opinion. jenna: wi say it goes furl circle, by the way. it proves that men also love george clooney. jon joond how do women feel about george clooney dumping all those girlfriends? gen jen we don't have time now, james! we don't have time. jon: good report on that!

thank you james. we have new information in that honor endous duck boat crash on delaware river that killed two tourists. this video is shocking. we have a settlement now reached in the wrongful death case. you'll see that full video coming up. jon: also new recommendations on how to fight jee -- obesity in america. a report says changes need to take place across the board. what should the government do, if anything? we'll debate that. jenna: these french fries look good. plus a car that drives itself. what do you think? jon: i wouldn't relax next to it, that's for sure. jenna: a closer look at a new set of wheels that steer themselves. ♪

[ male announcer ] want your weeds to hit the road? hit 'em, with roundup extended control. one application kills weeds, and stops new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control.

jenna: welcome back. everyone. new information on a settlement reached in a duck boat crash that twiled killed two hungarian students. those students families will split $15 million.

they were killed when this happened a tugboat guided barge slammed into the duck boat in philadelphia. the video shows you how violent that was. there were 18 surviving passengers. those 18 surviving passengers will share two million dollars in the deal. the settlement was approved by a judge just days into that wrongful death trial. jon: a live look at the dow now after weekly jobless claims take a slight dip. the labor department reporting applications for unemployment benefits topping, dropping i should say, by a thousand. over in spain stocks are rebounding. investors there reacting postively to the news that the country will nationalize its fourth largest bank. greg burke is following this story. he is streaming live from rome for us. fred? >> reporter: john, that's right. spain is not greece. you're talking about the forth largest bank in the country and the fourth largest country in the

eurozone. when center right came into power after cries mass they knew the honeymoon would not be long if it were there at all. to shore up the bank being sector and calm markets keeping banks from collapsing in the country. really the government has taken over one of the country's largest banks known as banca. you see why the government wanted to move in before customers got too nervous. this bank has more than $40 billion worth of risky assets. so there were certainly a lot of fears that things could get worse. spain's problems are many. we were there just last week looking at unemployment. one out of four people without a job. many of those problems and certainly that in the banking sector are related to the real estate boom. there are so many bad loans out there, so many banks have billions of dollars in risky assets all related to the real estate boom and bust that came in 2008. you see especially in southern spain but really throughout the country, just areas, huge areas, even neighborhoods of houses that

can't be sold and can't be rented either. that is major. now, finally, jon, one piece of good news the socialist have backed center right on this so there is unity. the initial reaction from the markets has been good. so the government may not have a honeymoon. they haven't had a lot of good news, at least today a little sigh of relief. jon? jon: in this country the dow up 30 points right now. greg burke live from rome. thank you. jenna: race for the white house one of the dramatic election battles this year. the balance of power is up for grabs in congress. our next guest says it might be so close in the senate the vice president next term may have to cast tie-breaking votes. what do you think about that? larry sabato here with his crystal ball next. i love to eat. i love hanging out with my friends. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free -- it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth.

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>> reporter: rick folbaum in the newsroom a clarification to a story we brought you other day on pet food recall. centers for disease control and prevention asking for recall of several brands of dry dog food from a gadsden, south carolina plant after a suspected salmonella outbreak. some brands are from the diamond pet food plant. we reported that the food was contaminated with mold. that is not the case. the issue with mold at that plant was 2005. federal officials say several people have been sickened recently but none of them are workers at that plant and they are also no reports of any animals getting sick but you can find more details and all the information you need on our website at foxnews.co foxnews.com/happening now. jenna: get ready for suspense and drama this election season. we're not just talking about the race for the white house of course. we have a little taste of

what might look like in going into the congressional race this is week when veteran indiana senator richard lugar lost the republican primary. he was thought to be a shoo-in for re-election at one time. now democrats may have a shot at his seat. that along with some other very big races in battleground states could shift the balance of power in the senate. right now democrats are in control there. 51 to the gop's 47 seats. it is not quite as competitive on the house side. the republicans have majority there. they have control there. 242 seats to the democrats, 192. our next guest says you have to keep close eye on both of these races. larry sabato, director of center for politics at university of virginia. you deliver every week with your crystal ball. this conclusion caught my attention when it comes to the senate. you say might be so close when it comes to the senate next year a tie-breaking vote may be necessary by whoever the vice president might be. why do you think that could happen? >> well, when you look at

the races, jenna, and you look at them one by one and you also judge the races on basis of which presidential candidate will carry that state, it is easy to see how might, might end up as 50-50. we still give slight edge to republicans to control the senate but we wouldn't be shocked, wouldn't be surprised if it ended up the way it did after the 2000 election when vice president cheney broke ties in the senate for five months before senator jeffords from vermont switched sides an converted from republican to democratic. jenna: what was effect of that, having vice president as a tiebreaker? >> well obviously they tried to avoid tie votes whenever possible and there weren't many of them. that was also a bit of a honeymoon period for new president george w. bush. that was before 9/11 of course. he was working on his education package and other things. so i don't think the effect was dramatic but i think we're much more divided now. we're much more polarized

and if that happened in the senate you would really see the polarization become even more prominent. jenna: something you're also seeing in the house. republicans have the majority if you take a look at races that, they would still have the majority according to your calculations just wouldn't be quite as big. so again, going back to the effect, larry, does that mean anticipating more gridlock in congress if that's possible? >> well it depends who wins the presidential election. if president obama wins, i think he is nearly guaranteed to have at least one house in republican hands. he could have both houses in republican hands. can you say gridlock with a capital g? but if mitt romney is elected, i think he will certainly have a republican house and i would bet that he would also have a republican senate though not anywhere near 60 votes, 60 senate seats which you need to run the senate. there would still be some gridlock but i think romney would get some reasonable honeymoon period of at least a few months. we used to give two years of

honeymoon to new presidents. now we're down to four or five months. jenna: that's all you get. >> that's all you get. jenna: larry, very interesting take. it would be interesting if the president's reelected and joe biden still the vice president what he may look like as a tiebreaker in the senate? >> we would get some long speeches. get long speeches with each tie-breaking vote. jenna: and maybe news in those speeches. >> probably. jenna: larry, nice to see you. thank you again. crystal ball today. >> thank you. jon: a lot of expletives in the senate microphone. as america faces threats from rogue nations like iran and north korea a new plan to protect our east coast gets one step closer to approval. how much would it cost? also, new recommendations to fight obesity in country. they include changes everywhere from schools and restaurants to whole communities. a needed recipe for a healthier country? or is it the nanny state gone wild? that debate coming up wake up!

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jon: "happening now", the house armed services committee approving a missile defense site along the east coast of the u.s. a

debate split along party lines. the pricey plan the pentagon did not ask for. national security correspondent jennifer griffin live at the pentagon with more. why do republicans feel this is necessary at a time when budgets are so tight? >> reporter: essentially because they worry that the president is not serious about missile defense and that he may in fact cut missile defense in light of that hot mic moment he had with then russian president dmitry medvedev which he said he would have more flexibility on missile defense after the election in november. >> he had some secret deal or plan and we want to make certain we're making the missile defense system robust while he at the same time announcing internationally that he wants to weaken it. >> reporter: republicans are asking for $100 million to do an environmental study of the east coast for 20 missile silo sites. this was not requested in the pentagon's budget. republicans argue that the east coast needs to be protected the way the west coast is protected from

potential north korean and iranian missiles, jon. jon: democrats are calling this election year politics? >> reporter: they are. basically because they think the republicans are simply trying to force the president into vetoing the measure so that he looks weak on defense. what democrats point out is that north korea and iran don't even have any intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the east coast. iran's longest range missile can travel about 1,000 miles. 5,000 miles short of washington. and north korea's longest range missile would maybe travel 1800 miles, 5,000 miles short of the east coast of the united states. >> of course this is a election year politics. of course it is. beating the national security drum is something republicans do often, usually six months before a national and regional election. >> reporter: last night the house armed services committee passed the measure, the $100 million for this environmental study by a

vote of 65-50. it will now being included as part of the defense authorization bill. jon. jon: jennifer griffin. thank you. jenna: the key to fighting obesity in america, lies in our nation's schools. that's according to new report by institute of medicine the independent organization advises the government and it found that changes need to take place everywhere that americans live, work, learn and play. it goes on to say schools should be a national focus because that's where children spend most of their day. among the recommendations include these. schools should insure kids get an hour of physical activity each day. they should serve healthier food and teach nutrition. communities should consider a tax on sugary sodas. and even consider zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants in certain areas. restaurants should also offer healthy choices without charging more for them and employers should expand work place wellness programs. those are some of the

recommendations. for more on this, dr. cathleen london, family practice physician at iris cantor women's health center. she thinks they're pretty good recommendations. david is a columnist for "human events" and author of this book, "nanny book, how food fascists tea total aling do-gooders and bratsfaolis bureaucrats are turning --. why do you think some of these are good ideas? >> start with one-third of adults right now are obese. 2/3 are overweight. we have children now going from 5 to 17% obesity over the last 30 years. and a third of children are overweight. this is costing us nearly $200 billion a year. 20% of the 2 1/2 trillion of health care costs. these are direct medical costs. in addition, this is going to hit employers. the military has already said they have a smaller pool of people who are

eligible to be in the armed services. and now we've got, you know, there is unemployment benefits. businesses will face additional costs with obesity related job absenteeism lost productivity. this is really become an actual crisis and the idea of this report, which remember, you picked a few things out of a nearly 500-page report, is to really integrate five big areas. make sure everybody is getting physical activity. market what matters for a healthy life. make healthy foods and beverages available everywhere. activate employers and health care professionals. jenna: all good intention, right. >> yeah. jenna: david, all good intentions there. what is wrong with some of those? getting everybody involved, their whole premise, yes there is personal responsibility but people aren't making changes fast enough and it is a huge problem. >> well one, because most of these things are ineffective, secondly we already do all these things. there are healthy foods available everywhere.

people can exercise anytime they want. they're just making choices that bureaucrats don't like and so, they want to coerce them into doing the right thing. this is zoning fast-food restaurants. making them, taxing sugary drinks, which study after study shows actually does not help in any way. >> that is not true. >> i think the problem is, northwestern study recently showed a lot of overweight people drink artificially sweetened sodas for instance. it made it very little difference in obesity. i think the biggest problem with that it is coercive. we want to tell people what to eat we don't like choices they're making. >> what about money issue, david. what about the fact even for bad choices all of us making different choices or better choices will have to pay eventually through medicare and medicaid and other programs? >> the key i guess would not be to socialize medicine. more than that, there are many things we pay for in free society. promiscuity. we don't ban murlow and soft

rock because people are promiscuous. jenna: what a combination. >> yeah they always were. jenna: pick up a couple of points david made about coercion and whether or not government involvement really works. we took a look at some of the areas states, for example, where calorie count is listed and there is no national study on this but if you take a look at new york, for example, the studies showed according to "the washington post", that it actually didn't change people's habits. in fact in some cases made them consume more calories. so do you have any examples, dr. london where government involvement actually helped change people's behavior. >> yeah in boston there was a study in public schools where they did ban having sugary drinks. the kids didn't go get emit elsewhere. that reduce consumption. his assertion doing a tax or something about sugary drinks doesn't matter, 20 to 50% of our current obesity weight again are due to sugary drinks. that is study after study

after study. minimum is 20%. jenna: pick up off of that, cigarettes for example where you have all the ads on television showing the surgeries that people have to get if they're smokers, do you think we need to take it that far to make sure people have accurate information so they change their behavior if that is what you would like them to do? >> i think you need to make it more available to have healthy choices. there are definitely communities that they don't have safe sidewalks, they don't have safe parks. they don't have accessible, easy, healthy choices for food. they are bombarded with advertisements for unhealthy foods. that's where with the shift needs to happen. in addition to personal choices. >> david, to doctor london's point, place like detroit for example, has no grocery chain, none. maybe government incentive would get grocery chains and fresh food in place like detroit. with place like that maybe incentives would be something you will to agree on? >> doesn't work that way. the market decide what kind

of stores people have because it is kind of food they're choosing. are we saying that people don't realize eating at burger king is bad for them or whatever they're doing? i think we're working at problem backwards. people are just not making some people are not making choices that bureaucrats want them to make. so we're trying to force feed them things they are not going to eat. do you think if they had a grocery chain in detroit? people would be healthier. i don't know there is any study that proves that true. jenna: what do you think is the solution then to the national obesity issue? >> well i don't know that there is some sort of overall solution. i think people are aware already being obese is bad for you. that you're going to have diseases because of it and we have to continue to educate children. i think we do that. we have, most schools already have pretty nutritious lunches available if parents want them. >> no. no. >> most parent can actually brown-bag a lunch for their kid if he wanted to. >> if they can afford to. don't forget some kids only get their meals at school. jenna: quick final thought, dr. london. this group wants to make the

schools responsible for this. schools already have all these issues they have to deal with from the budgetary restrictions to having to fire teachers. so why put this on the schools to do. >> because schools because of a lot of these restrictions cut pe, cut that time and we need to add it back and need to make it priority and teach our children correctly or we'll have even worse epidemic because all kids will become obese adults. >> incidentally --. jenna: just wondering. >> burger king. jenna: dr. london, probably not burger king. interesting debate. it is a big issue the costing us a lot of money. to david's point maybe there is no comprehensive solution and to doctor london's maybe we have to work better at one. nice to have you both. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. jon: watching your bottom line. right now the dow is up about 57 points. that's good news for your 401(k) but what about today's new numbers on weekly jobless claims? what they tell us about the country's economic health we'll get into that. plus, look, ma, no hands.

a car that drives itself. could it be hitting the road near you soon? one state is leading the way. ♪

jenna: new next hour the prosecution planning to rest today in the john edwards corruption trial without calling rielle hunter to the stand. could she testify though for the defense? it's a possibility. we have the latest from the courtroom coming up. we'll also tell you about a battle heating up between america's toughest sheriff and the justice department. plus new concerns about drugs meant to make bones stronger. why the fda has some concerns that they could actually do the opposite. jon: right now, gearing up for a test drive like you have never seen before.

we're talking about the car that drives itself. google's self-driving test vehicle got the go ahead from the nevada department of motor vehicles for a license application. that means it can be tested on public roads right there next to you and me. it is the first such license ever issued in the u.s. under new laws and regulations for autonomous vehicle development. we'll talk about it with tom jacobs, chief public information officer for nevada's department of motor vehicles. this is only a test, right? how many vehicles are we talking about? >> actually google is licensed for up to three vehicles to drive in nevada. jon: all right, so that means the next time he head out there to las vegas i could be driving alongside one of these things? >> you very well might and you can recognize it. google marks the cars pretty clearly. it has unique license plate. very bright red license plate with inifiti symbol on it indicates that is a test vehicle. jon: you have been in one of these things, correct? >> i have.

i took a ride in july and it was pretty press sieve. jon: how does it work? >> it is combination of artificial intelligence, gps and radar. the car actually, insert finger quotes here, it actually sees the road and, it will run on a map and it is very easy to bring it in and out of self-driving mode. i was sitting behind the person that was sitting behind the drivers, behind the steering wheel. i couldn't tell when it was on self-driving mode and when he was actually operating it. jon: i read actually the driverless cars get honked at more often because they're being more safe than a real human driver? >> well, they don't have any bad habits. they don't tailgate. they don't speed. they don't cut you off. don't go 45 miles an hour in the fast lean with the left signal on. that sometimes causes a problem. i was talking to a san francisco radio station yesterday and he brought up

the point that in 101 in san francisco during the commute it is 55 miles per hour but nobody is doing that. so if you're obeying the speed limit you're really heading up traffic. understand, this is still a work in progress and i'm speculating that it may reach a point where you can actually adjust the speed of the vehicle. it doesn't have to necessarily be ironed into the speed limit. jon: but if gps is involved in the navigation, we've all heard about sun spots and what sun spots might be able to do, solar flares what they might be able to do to gps operations in this country. aren't there are a lot of potential down sides here? >> the gps is just one of the pieces there. i really can't go too far into the technical end of it because that's google but i do know that the car runs on a map and it is able to map roads by itself or i would assume at some point you would be able to download maps from google. but the, once they have the map that they're running on,

then they're looking at the road, comparing that to what the map is in the memory of the computer. jon: tom jacobs. >> this is -- i'm sorry i was just going to say this is kind of like cruise control only cruise control that reacts. jon: a little more than cruise control. tom jacobs from the nevada department of motor vehicles. we'll see what happens. thank you. jenna: sounds like we could take the show to vegas. give it a shot. said next time you're in vegas, right, jon. jon: haven't been there --. jenna: forever. >> in years. a long time. jenna: we'll see what happens when the three cars are on the road. we'll keep you updated on that. meantime homes go up in smoke and weather may be able to blame. how mother nature sparked the fires we'll have an update on that coming up.

jon: new video just into fox

of protests on the west bank. demonstrators out in force outside a prison where more than 1,000 palestinian inmates are on a hunger strike. the protesters burning tires and throwing stones at the soldiers. israeli forces responding with water cannons trying to break up the crowd. mass hunger strike one of the biggest in palestinian history is spearheaded by the islamic jihad and hamas. the. jenna: new bloodshed in syria today where a pair of explosions rocks damascus killing at least 55 people. the blast is now the deadliest attack in the capital since the uprising against president assad began more than a year ago. leland vittert following the story from our mideast bureau in jerusalem. tell us how sophisticated these bombs were and what happened. >> reporter: jenna, not only sophisticated but also coordinated. clearly whoever carried out this attack knew what they were doing, something the syrian opposition largely

doesn't know what they're doing. so it may be somebody else behind these attacks. it happened this morning about 7:50 in the morning, rush hour time in the capital of damascus. we have amateur video right after the first blast. the guy was filming and then came the second blast. in all 55 people were killed outside a military intelligence headquarters there. we're told by the syrian government that it was about one ton worth of explosives that were used. so the people who were driving these car bombs and also set up the attack had to penetrate a lot of security to get in there. lately there has been a group called the al-nusra front taking responsibility for attacks inside the damascus capitol. nobody had heard of the al-nursa front. they thought they were al qaeda syndicate. this does not bode for what is at best a shaky sees fire inside syria. this is what syrian government wants to have

happen. it gives them a pretext to launch more assaults. confuses good versus evil argument made by the west to the united nations. of course, jenna, since we're in the middle east we have to put a little intrigue into this, it could be a false flag operation. meaning assad's operations are carry this out to continue attacks. as attacks on the capitol continue that seems less and less likely. jenna. jenna: you wonder when this conflict will end. more than a year we've been covering this. leland, thank you. jon: lots of new questions swirling around president obama changing his stance on gay marriage. is hollywood influencing the president's agenda? does george clooney have a roll in all of this. we'll talk about that. also, a terrifying attack caught on camera. a man chasing after a woman and her daughter with a knife. rick folbaum has an update on the story straight ahead. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪

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>> reporter: rick folbaum in

the control room. some stories we're working on just for you brand new over the next 60 minutes including up in the top screen. will they or won't they? prosecutors in the john edwards trial getting set to wrap up their case. will edwards' former mistress be called to the stand? we'll tell you. do you take flomax or any of those bone density drugs? we have news you need to hear about the safety of these very popular medications. that is coming up straight ahead. take a look at this, a woman attacked. her young daughter right by her side. now police need your help finding this man. we'll show you the surveillance video. that and breaking news as the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: as wick told us it is a key day in the john edwards corruption trial. the prosecution planning to rest its case against the former presidential candidate. we still have a while to go. a few more weeks ahead.

we're glad you're with us. i'm. jenna: that lee. jon: i'm jon scott. prosecution says they will not call rielle hunter to the stand. the woman at the center of the case could still testify. jonathan serrie from greensboro, north carolina. jonathan. >> reporter: we have new details. the prosecution called leo hindery, he is the former senior economic advisor to john edwards. he described the waning days of the campaign even when john edwards was giving up hope of becoming president he said the candidate still had his sights set on high office. wanted to become a supreme court justice. in addition to hindery, prosecution is calling a couple of federal agents but they will not be calling on edward's mistress reyell hunter. although rielle hunter is central to this case legal analysts say it is unclear whether her testimony would help or hurt the prosecution. in the campaign they feared what she might say publicly

during the testimony. former campaign spokesperson jennifer palmieri, decribed a 2007 confrontation where the candidate's wife elizabeth questioned wealthy benefactors, the barons why they had taken hunter or shopping trip and flown her on private jets. according to palmieri, lisa was say being you have to hold your friends close and enemies closer. rielle was a loose cannon and we just didn't know what she would say to the press. palmieri broke down in tears when she described a conversation between her and mrs. edwards just days before she died from breast cancer. according to palmieri, she was concerned when she died there would not be a man around that loved her. although rielle hunter will not be testifying for the prosecution she is still on the defense's witness list and could be called to testify sometime later in the upcoming weeks of the trial. jon, back to you. jon: so the defense is going to be at it for weeks? >> reporter: quite possibly.

when they started this trial they said that it would last up to six weeks. so we're looking at late may, possibly into the first week of june. jon: wow! jonathan serrie in greensboro. thank you, jonathan. jenna: we'll take you from north carolina to arizona now, where a man who calls himself america's toughest sheriff is in a battle, a battle brewing between joe arpaio and the justice department. federal officials announced plans to sue the maricopa county sheriff's office over allegations of civil rights violations including racial profiling. william la jeunesse is live in phoenix with more. william? >> reporter: jenna that battle should land in federal court within the hour. the justice department claims that the sheriff is guilty of widespread discrimination against hispanics. on the streets and in the jails. punishing inmates for speaking spanish. stopping hispanic drivers up to nine times more often than whites. and that his crackdown on illegal immigrants unfairly and illegally targeted hispanics. therefore the civil rights

division believes that they need an independent, outside monitor to oversee the day-to-day operations at the maricopa county sheriff's department. the sheriff says that is unacceptable t would mean that every decision he made had to be cleared in washington first. that this is a political hit job. >> i'm the poster boy for this illegal immigration situation. 3 1/2 years it's been going on and why is it now being finalized if they sue? they say they have the intent to sue. they have been stating that for quite a while. so if they sue, we'll go to court and we'll get the facts. >> reporter: now the sheriff admits mistakes but insists there is no systemic discrimination in his department. he claims the fed report is old based on anecdotal and incomplete or isolated examples that are not untypical of a department his size.

he says he wants to see the evidence used to back up their claims. and the county attorney does as well. since he has to take these cases to court which could be tainted and tossed and he claims that the feds refusal to release that evidence causes him to question their veracity. >> they have neglected to take into account i have a separate constitutional role within local government as an elected law enforcement official n that regard i say they have been playing around and continue to do so. >> reporter: now just for context, jenna, the l.a.p.d. was under similar consent decree for seven years and can affect training policies and procedures. in this case the sheriff says they are kind of political enemies in this case and he doesn't want washington and this justice department under this administration and eric holder making law enforcement decisions for arizona. now it goes to a judge. back to you. jenna: more on the story as we get it, william. thank you. jon: at first, it was simply missing. then there came reports of a

possible hijacking. now new information on the deadly crash of a new russian-made passenger jet doing a demonstration flight in indonesia. the wreckage was found on the side of a volcano south of jakarta. all 45 people on board are believed to be dead. because the site is so hard to reach it may take some time to recover the bodies there is word russia is launching a criminal investigation into what happened. david piper streaming live for us from bangkok, thailand now. david? >> reporter: hi, jon. yes, rescue teams are continuing to search the crash site but there does seem little hope they will find any survivors from that russian plane crash. now the rescue teams are facing the grim task of getting the bodies they found so far down the mountainside. they're carrying them in nets but it's a difficult task because this is very steep mountain, over 7,000 feet. russia's latest airliner the

sukhoi super jet 100 was carrying 45 passengers and crew when it disappeared from radar during the demonstration flight near the indonesian capital jakarta yesterday. according to the indonesian authorities pilot requested to descend rapidly 6,000 feet near the city of bogor 20 minutes into the flight. but the plane wasn't heard of again after it flew into mount news area which includes mount salak which stand at 6,000 feet. chief of indonesia's national search-and-rescue agency said it is not clear they shifted course especially they were so close to the volcano. communication tapes between the crew and air traffic control will be reviewed as part of an investigation. russia has opened a criminal probe of its own into the crash. their investigators say they will be looking at procedures of the flight crew and also the technical conditions of the plane before it left russia. most of the people on board were representatives of

indonesian airline companies who are looking at buying the plane and also some journalists. among the dead was also an american consultant for a local airline. the new aircraft has never crashed before but it has experienced problems when flown by russian carrier aeroflot. russia's aging aircraft fleet a has had a history of air crashes but it was hoped this new jet would change that safety record. this russian jet was also on a six-nation tour of asia, jon, to try to drum up business but unfortunately after that crash some of those contracts it has been trying to sign now are in doubt. back to you. jon: and the fly-by wire operation, a pretty complicated technology and they may not have it all ironed out yet. david piper, thank you. jenna: some new details on a massive manhunt for the man suspected of kidnapping two young girls after killing their mother and their older sister. we'll have more on that. plus, the president citing vice president biden for the timing of his announcement

in support of same sex marriage. chris stirewalt says it is actually not joe biden but george clooney that may have a part in all this. we'll ask him to explain that. what do you think about that, rick? >> reporter: oh, i don't know. you know what? i didn't realize you were moonlighting jenna. jenna: moonlighting as what? >> reporter: moonlighting as restaurant critic. go to the "happening now" homepage at foxnews.com and click you will see it right there on the right-hand side of the screen. jenna lee out on the town in new york city. jenna: oh, no. >> reporter: eating things you would not believe. jenna: have to try everything once. >> reporter: have a job over the commercial break. check it out, foxnews.co foxnews.com/happeningnow. we'll have more of the show and more of jenna's grasshopper review. we'll be right back. don't go away. [ male announcer ] research suggests

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jon: right now some new information about some crime stories we're keeping an eye on. this fugitive, adam mayes, who police believe is on the run with two young girls is now on the fbi's most-wanted list. mayes is charged with the murder of the mother and older sister of these 2:00 young girls who he reportedly believes are his own daughters. jurors deliberating for a second day in the trial of a chicago man accused murdering oscar-winner jennifer hudson's mother, brother and nephew. william ball four is hudson's former brother-in-law. amanda knox's slander trial in italy is postponed because judge is busy with another trial. she got slapped with the charge when she accused of police physically and verbally abusing her during detention. her conviction of murdering her britsh roommate was overturned last year. jenna: new information today on a small snapshot of the jobs market. 367,000 americans filed for

unemployment benefits in the latest week. peter barnes, senior washington correspondent with the fox business network with more on this. >> these weekly unemployment insurance claims are close to a real-time indicator of the economy as you can get. economists are breathing a little bit a sigh of relief for the latest numbers. no big decline but no sign of a major reversal in claims as we saw last month. first time claims as you said were 367,000 last week, down 1,000 from the previous week which was revised upward by 3,000, to 368,000. but a few weeks ago we saw claims spiking back up towards 400,000. that got folks nervous about another possible spring stall in the economy and labor markets as we saw in 2010 and 2011. >> the claims number this morning with was very important. 367,000. they were in 350 in

mid-february. spiked to 400,000 a couple weeks ago. that was largely related we think to the seasonal distortions related to eastern passover holidays. that is now out of the numbers. >> reporter: today's numbers are at levels we saw back before the financial crisis. jenna? jenna: peter, more on this a little later on with steve moore from the "wall street journal." peter, thank you. >> for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. jon: president obama now announcing his personal support for same-sex marriage, reversing his previous position. although the tiling seemed rather awkward, the president blaming it on vice president joe biden who recently expressed his comfort with gay marriage. something else may have been going on behind the scenes. chris stirewalt is fox news

digital politics editor and host of "power play" on foxnews.com live. chris, where does george clooney come into all of this? >> well, certainly he is among a whole category of people in the entertainment industry, jon, very important base group for the president when it comes to fund-raising for his very expensive re-election bid. and mr. clooney is hosting a very fancy fund-raiser tonight for the president out in southern california. they may raise as much as $15 million. not only are bigshots from the studios and stars coming to give money, they have been raveling off a chance, if you give a small donation you could win a chance to go. they have been, obama campaign has been doing that. so they really beefed this up. i don't think it would be very easy for the president to go out to california and talk to this important group of donors forking over all this money if he were still, as he liked to say before, evolving on the subject of

gay marriage. jon: right. this dinner was supposed to take place at the home of david geffen, a noted supporter of gay marriage and so forth. it only got transferred i guess to george clooney's mansion because geffen's mansion was under renovation. i hope they do a nice job there. >> happens to me all the time. jon: the president seemed a little timid though even when he decided to come out with that. there was a lot of hemming hawing, qualifications. my personal decision and so forth when he made that statement. >> well, yes. look, this is a, this is not a, an epiphany. this is a straddle. he is not all the way back to where he was back in 1996 when he was running for office and filled out a questionnaire saying that not only was he in favor of gay marriage, and thought that it was a good idea but he would fight against efforts to do it. staked out essentially the same position that mitt romney has except he feels differently about it. they both believe that the states should have the right to determine who can get

married and who can't get married in that state and determine those laws. he is a federalist on this subject. and though he thinks that, i guess, what he is saying is that he likes the fact that the district of columbia where he lives does have marriage for same-sex couples. jon: you write this was awkwardly rolled out but our former colleague, major garrett, now writing at the "national journal" says he thinks this was all very carefully crafted and calculated in an article he titled, biden with the assist veep again dumb like a fox. here is what he wrote. any day obama can redirect the national conversation away from the economy is a good day in chicago and a bad day in boston. in other words, everybody is talking about this and nobody is talking about mitt romney. nobody is talking about how bad the economy is. >> well look, i think there is some truth in this but in politics you've got to be careful not to cut the baloney too thin the truth

of the matter is that on the whole, maybe this is a wash for the president. maybe he does get to attack mitt romney for what democrats and gay marriage activists say is a big goted stance against same-sex couples. maybe helps him in the suburbs. maybe helps him with fund-raising. to get the topic off the economy certainly where he does not want it to be. but at the same time, north carolina just voted 20 points in favor of a very stringent ban on gay marriage that includes by my reckoning at least 35% of the democrats who voted, voted for that very stringent law. so this is not an unalloyed victory. this is not a moment for at a boys. maybe a wash good and bad but i think you have to be careful about reading too much into it. jon: that is going to some convention in north carolina when the president gets renominated. chris stirewalt. thank you. >> sure. jenna: speaking of north carolina, prosecutors are getting ready to rest their case there in the john

edwards corruption trial. his former mistress, not taking the stand for the prosecution, or so we assume now. will we hear from her at the trial at all. and did the government prove its case? our legal panel weighs in coming up. plus a woman and young child attacked outside a market and all caught on tape. we'll show you video and tell you what happened next. [ kyle ] my b. [ roger ] tell me you have go insurance. yup, i've got... [ dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have... [ dennis ] ...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and everything. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

jenna: update on horrifying attack caught on tape. rick you have more details on this? >> reporter: this tape has been out a couple days. what is new the up tense manhunt for the person responsible. we want to show it to you again. a scary situation outside a grocery store. you see the whole thing go down. we have the video on the ipad. look at this for a second. a woman attacks by a man

with a knife. you see her 4-year-old daughter right by her side standing feet away. this is friday night, 8:30. the mother and daughter had done food shopping at that store when a man approached them and demanded the women's pocketbook. she tries to get away. she tries to run back in through the front door of the market. that is when the knife the man was holding punctures her neck, leaving her with a minor cut. thankfully she will be okay. the little girl was not hurt but police as i mentioned still trying to find this guy and they have released this surveillance video to see if anybody recognizes him. there is a tip line. you can call and even text your tip to the number there on the screen. do it anonymously. locals say this is usually, jenna a very safe spot in town in springfield, mass. not where you would think a holdup would take place. hopefully they will find the guy. jenna: scary situation. let's hope they do, rick. thank you. jon: we're continuing to keep a close eye on the john edwards corruption trial. prosecution calling lots of witnesses to the stand past

three weeks. as they prepare to rest their case, prosecutors say he is this won't be calling on the woman at the center of it all, rielle hunter. so what's the strategy behind this? our legal panel joins us now. former federal prosecutor doug burns. also criminal defense attorney chip merlin. doug, the prosecution decides they have done their case. a lot of people speculated that they didn't have enough to make the charges stick. they apparently think they do and they don't need rielle hunter to help make that case. >> well that's true. i also think, jon they see potential downsides with rielle hunter. she is sort of like that snake you look at and have to be careful of. while theoretically could help their case on some level she could also backfire. i think that is the calculus they're engaging in. as far as their view of their own case my position is they think, the prosecutors they have improved their lot in this trial. i think the reason they feel that way is that the jury dynamic is bad when a jury views a defendant as

somebody who is engauged in a pretty massive cover-up of the has lied what went on. the checks after all at issue were made out to a furniture design company. all of those sort of indicia an bans of covering up, kind of make these prosecutors feel as though they're in good shape. the other huge point which i saw yesterday i think prosecutors think once john edwards' wife learned affair, any movement of money after that point is clearly tied towards the campaign and the election. so i think that's what they're staking. jenna: right. --. jon: right because his side is arguing about really trying to cover up the affair. keep his wife from learning about it. not the general public. >> exactly. jon: chip, what about it though, she could still testify on behalf of the defense. would that be a wise move? >> well, we don't know and i don't think that the defense knows either because throughout this entire matter everybody has been concerned about what rielle hunter is going to say. as a matter of fact a lot of

this hush-money was because, nobody knew exactly what she was going to say. they kept transporting her all over the coup trias a matter of fact to keep your enemies closer i think what the quote was at the trial. so i don't think the defense, it is possible they could. i actually kind of doubt it. i don't think she is a very material witness to this case. jon: in your view, doug, the prosecution, which again, a lot of people thought had a pretty weak case at the beginning, seems to have turned a corner. >> no. as i was saying, jon, you look at a trial like empty swimming pool. not trying to be funny. you fill it up and fill it up toward the reasonable doubt line. jurors, they're also very smart and keep things very sill pell. chip knows this. -- simple. we lawyers engage in high amounts minutia and thinking and strategizing. jurors are like, wait a minute, did he try to hide this and cover it up? the answer is basically yes from everything i described earlier. did he do it just because of

his wife or doing it in connection with the campaign? they keep things simple. that's why i think they have improved their case. jon: chip, jennifer palmieri, the former speechwriter was apparently in tears on the witness stand yesterday recounting a conversation she had with the late ex-wife, elizabeth edwards. that, that can't be good for his case, just all of the sympathy directed towards elizabeth? >> well, in front of jury obviously the sympathy part will not be in favor of john edwards. paying a mistress to keep quiet, everybody knows that is bad. prosecution has to prove that the john edwards violated the letter of the law. the letter of the law is very technical election standards and laws that very questionable they have been broken. does this qualify under the law, giving of quote, money to a mistress to keep her quiet as a campaign donation or a campaign expense? they're arguing, lawyers for edwards that it doesn't as a

matter of law. the law could have been written at that way and maybe this is bad but he did not break the letter of the law and didn't do it will fully either. jon: chip and doug, stick with us. another case grabbing national attention. a florida developer on murder for trial of his wife. originally he claimed a spray tanning session might have led to her death. now his lawyers are arguing his wife died of heart failure. not from strangulation as prosecutors claim. why this shift in strategy? will it make the state's case harder to prove? doug and chip will join us again later on "happening now". jenna: interesting story there. well, remember those drastic cuts to budgets that were supposed to automatically kick in if congress couldn't get its act together on spending? well, guess what, congress didn't get its act together on spending and now lawmakers don't want those automatic cuts to happen especially on defense. we have the latest twists and turns on this story coming up. a terrifying crash caught on camera. a bus drives off a mountain

road and nearly plummets off a cliff into the river. you won't belief what saved the lives of those on board. more on that coming up.

jon: house lawmakers are voting today on a bill that would save your nation's military from billions in spending cuts. the plans set to go into effect early next year. they are a result of haw makers'

failure to try to trim from our national deficit. the bill would shift the burden of those cuts on to social programs. mike emanuel live on capitol hill. so what is the republican pitch for this bill and exactly what are they trying to accomplish? >> reporter: well, jon, they got a little bit of help from the vice chief of staff of the army who said the military would be in a lot better shape if these massive cuts were not hanging over their heads. so $110 billion is the first wave of cuts which is due to kick in in january. the majority of that coming from the military. so what congressman paul ryan and his colleagues are trying to do is, essentially, cut domestic programs that they think have got too bloated. andinstead of cutting the pentagon, here's the house budget chairman, paul ryan. >> it's an across the board spending cut that has a formula written into it which disproportionately cuts defense

starting january 2nd. according to the president and the defense secretary it would decimate our defense, so we don't want to lose the savings, we just need to cut government spending in other places of government. >> reporter: the house is expected to vote this afternoon, it is expected to pass the house but will likely die in the senate because senate majority leader harry reid is not interested in these cuts, and we know the president has issued a veto threat. jon? jon: i know democrats don't like this bill very much. what are they planning? >> reporter: well, they say they're going to come up with their own measure, but the translation is they're saying, you know, either you can protect national security, or you can protect millionaires, but not both. so their ideas we've heard on a variety of issues is raising taxes on upper-income americans. here's congressman chris van hollen. >> the issue's going to be do they care more about protecting these tax breaks for the very wealthy, or do they care more about protecting defense

spending. >> reporter: and it sounds like from the democrats, if necessary, if congress cannot come up with an agreement on how to offset these cuts, how to make separate cuts, that the democrats will essentially say we're going to go forward with these automatic cuts which the pentagon and republicans are very worried about. jon? jon: mike emanuel in the capitol building for us, thank you, mike. >> reporter: thank you. jenna: we have three big headlines for you today in the business world. this is the first one, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is now at a record low. 3.83%. also the 15-year mortgage on average is also at a record low, so that's manager to think about. today we learned 367,000 americans filed for first-time unemployment in the latest week. the four week average is right around 370,000, 380,000 or so. and gas prices are also down. in fact, for seven days in a row gas prices have dropped. is so some important things for us to think about today. steve moore's on the editorial

board of "the wall street journal." steve, are any of those items related? >> yeah, jenna. i think the really big news, the one that i get so excited about is that 3.8% mortgage interest rate. jenna, i'm going to tell you something, when you're talking to your kids and grandkids 40 years from now, you're going to tell them there was a time we had a 3.8% mortgage interest in this country because i don't think we're ever going to see that again. those rates are one of the few positive signs we're seeing in the economy. think how bad the mortgage crisis would be right now if we had 10, 15, 20% interest rates like we had under jimmy carter. so that makes me feel really good. jenna: are there enough people out there that can take advantage of them, do you think? >> oh, yeah. yeah, look, the mortgage interest rate is an important impetus to getting new home buyers so, yeah, i think it is helpful. obviously, jenna, you're right, we have all these negative

things going on with housing; the high foreclosure rate, the fact that people's incomes aren't rising, so it's tough to pay the mortgages. put it this way, it's a lot easier to pay when you're only paying a 4% interest rate than if you're paying 78 or 10 -- 8 or 10%. jenna: that's true. you talk to a lot of people around the country about the economy, and on the issue of jobs, i'm just curious, are you hearing any brand new ideas about what to do about the job market and how to get more people back to work? >> well, look, i mean, this is going to be the number one issue, jenna. there's going to be three issues debating in this campaign for presidency, jobs, jobs and jobs. look, mitt romney's going to have to do, i think, a better job convincing the american people that his economic plan with the tax rate cuts and taking some of these regulations off businesses are the way to get jobs back. barack obama's going to have a very difficult time explaining to americans why we've had such a lousy job market for such a long time.

we've had, now, 38 straight months, jenna, of 8% plus unemployment, and as you know, we've talked about this before, but the real unemployment rate in this country is not 8%, jenna. if you count those people who have just become so discouraged they're not even looking for a job any longer, it's closer to 10 or 11% which is catastrophicically a high number. jenna: i hate to even say this, but with it almost seems normal, now, right? be when people are going to the polls, one of the things they're going to have to do is fill up their gas tank, and if gas prices are lower, people tend to feel better about the economy. there's a debate happening right now about whether or not gas prices are low just because there's not demand and the economy's weak, or maybe something else is going on. what's your theory on that? >> first of all, i agree with you, jenna, gas prices is an indicator of how americans are feeling about the economy. every time we pay maybe a little bit less at the tank, and you're right, the last few weeks we have started to see a very

welcome decline in those gas prices. i live in virginia, and we're still paying about four bucks a gallon. but this is going to help barack obama, unquestionably, over the next few months if we see those gas prices start to fall. if people have to pay less for gasoline, especially people on a limited budget, they have more discretionary income to spend on oh things, so that's a positive thing for the economy. every time the gas and oil price fall, it's like a tax cut for the american consumer, and that means they have more money to spend. jenna: and that's always a good thing. it depends how much you shop. >> definitely. so, you know, some pretty good news today for once. jenna: all right, we'll take it. when are you coming back to the east coast? >> i'll be back tonight. jenna: got it. you're probably hard at work. steve, thank you very much. >> take care. jon: they are products ment to help strengthen bones, could those drugs actually have the opposite effect for some women? we'll tell you what the fda is saying, you'll want to hear

that. plus, the edge of disaster. we'll show you what happened when this bus veers off a dangerous mountain road and what happened to the passengers. 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.

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[ all ] yay! [ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge! jon: here's my nominee for crazy video of the day. a bus accident in taiwan that injured 15 people, but as you can see, it could have been a whole lot worse. the engine apparently failed while the bus was climbing a steep mountain, causing it to then slide backwards. it veered off the road, over a low wall and off a cliff. but luckily, it got stuck on a ledge before tumbling down the ravine and into the river far below. all 13 passengers, the tour guide and driver were hurt. all were taken to the hospital, but none of their injuries life threatening. jenna: wow, lucky there, right? the fda raising some concerns about some very popular drugs on the market to help bone strength. rick folbaum has more on this. >> reporter: this is an

important story because millions of women take these drugs, they're sold by the names bow neva -- boniva, others, they're prescribed to help keep bones strong, but the fda review says in some cases the drugs weaken the bones in certain women leading to serious problems including fractures, esophageal cancer, another painful condition that effects the jawbone x. this is all after long-term use of the drug. so a woman would need to be on these drugs for years at a time in order for these risks to come into play. but the truth is a lot of women do take these drugs for years at a time. some are on them indefinitely. the fda review also found that the drug's benefits almost disappear for most women after several years of use. between 60-70% of women who use these drugs would be candidates to stop using them after a period of only 3-5 years. the study does not issue any direct recommendations, saying

that women need to make these decisions with their doctors, and the study also notes these negative side effects are rare, but certainly it gives women and doctors something to think about as they deal with the very serious problem of bone density. back to you. jenna: very good points, we'll continue to watch this story and see what comes out of more research on this, thank you. jon: the house oversight and government reform committee holding a hearing today asking where are all the watchdogs after a new report reveals inspector general positions at several federal agencies have been vacant for years, searchly, leaving no one in charge of monitoring spending. might we soon have another scandal on our hands like the one that recently enveloped the general services administration? shannon bream has more. >> reporter: hi, jon. just to give you one example, the state department has not had a permanent inspector general since 2008, more than 1500 days. inspectors general are, essentially, responsible for making sure the agencies they oversee are on the up andup, not

wasting taxpayer dollars or committing crimes. gsa comes to mind, and it has come up today. the house committee is looking at the problem of all these unfilled ig spots. darrell issa wasted no time expressing his concerns. >> the obama administration has often proclaimed its commitment to transparency and accountability. that's why it's so troubling, even more disturbing, even more disturbing is the administration's willingness to demonstrate a pattern at times of hostility towards some members of inspector general community. >> reporter: right now 10 of 73 federal ig positions are open, four of them have been vacant for more than a thousand days. five of those are cabinet-level positions. democrats say the situation is not unique, though, to this administration. >> the fact that president bush had as many ig vacancies in 2004 as president obama does today does not mean we should ignore

the current vacancies. similarly, we should not single out the current administration for purely partisan reasons. >> reporter: eight of the current openings must be filled by a nomination from the president and then confirmed by the senate. two nominees were sent from the white house to the senate last year, they have yet to get a vote. jon? jon: got a lot of people who need jobs in this country, and those jobs are going unfilled. >> reporter: ten slots open. jon: shannon, thank you. jenna: well, it's quite a change in legal strategy. a florida developer who had claimed a spray tan may have led the his wife's death is now changing his defense in his murder trial. our legal panel be takes it up next.

jon: right now a murder trial underway many a miami courtroom

getting national attention. developer adam kaufman allegedly strangled his wife, but his lawyers say his wife hit her neck on a magazine holder while suffering heart failure in the bathroom. initially, they planned to argue a spray tanning session coupled with fainting spells led to her death. rejoining us, doug burns and criminal defense attorney chip merlin. chip, is this the kind of thing that the jury would know about? i mean, would the jury have heard both theories, or will they be totally unaware that the defense changed theories in the middle of the trial, or in the middle of the investigation? >> jon, that's a great question, and the jury will never know about the defense's first theory of how this all happened whatsoever. unlike the casey anthony trial where the defense came out with a theory of the case and then changed it midstream and they still won anyway, this jury hasn't heard anything. they're in jury selection right

now. the only thing they're going to hear is the defense's position of exactly how this death happened with a heart attack falling over on the magazine stand, and that's all they're going to hear. >> yeah, doug, the spray tan theory, the reason this case got so much notoriety is because this guy, adam kaufman, claims that his wife went to a spray-tanning he's, she was allergic, and that caused her death. pretty ludicrous defense, at least to my ears. now that they're going, now that his side is switching, does he stand a better chance here? >> if i'm the prosecutor, jon, i don't care if it's the spray tan defense or she hit her head on the floor defense, the reality the prosecutors claim that he strangled her, so they're going to have to step up to the plate and do it. the first way they're going to do it is this, jon, he said i was asleep the entire time next to my wife. well, there's only two problems with that. number one, the hood of his car was warm in the garage, and number two, his side of the bed appeared to be unslept in --

jon: and the defense tried to block that evidence. >> and i was just going to say the defense specifically moved before the trial to block that from coming in which gives you a telltale read that they know how much it hurts them, jon. jon: but, chip, here's another weird thing. it's my understanding that the defense plans to call the victim's parents to the stand as though they're going to say nice things about their son-in-law? >> well, they probably don't want to say nice things about their son-in-law if they belief that he -- believe that he murdered her, but the truth of the matter is linda kaufman had prior fainting spells, and she had a heart condition, and they want to bring that in through the parents. so this is going to come out, and they're also going to bring out the spray tan incident where it was found just to show there was sloppy police work going on to show that the police could only find reasons of a criminal nature as to why she died. jon: well, you know, as chip

said, doug, in the casey anthony trial, one theory was put forward in the opening arguments, it was never substantiated, and casey anthony got off anyway. could that happen here? >> yeah, that was pretty reckless. they said the child drowned in the pool, and then the father had sexually abused, you know, the mother. here, though, as chip pointed out, and he's right, nobody -- at least yet, they didn't start the trial -- has opened on any theory other than we expect they're going to say, you know, it's funny because when they handicap the evidence, the discovery, they probably figure they have a better chance with this defense and, you know, maybe it's born out by the fact that she slipped and hit her head. this is a straight forensic case. they're going to have to prove how she died, they're going to come forth with expert testimony witnesses, and we'll see what happens. jon: all right, chip merlin and doug burns, this case expected the take about three weeks, jury

selection just underway now, so we'll know in a few weeks. thank you both. >> yes, sir. jenna: a massive dust storm hammering neighborhoods without warning. we're going to tell you where next. i'm reallyoing to miss you.

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jon: two house fires in the phoenix area blamed on a dust storm in rick has that. rick? >> reporter: well, jon, we've told you in the past about these dust storms that hut the phoenix area -- that hit the phoenix area. those two house fires doing some major damage. there was a thunder and lightning storm that they think was the cause of these fires in northeast phoenix. there was also some very strong winds that made it virtually impossible for firefighters to get a handle on these flames. and also near the downtown area a cardboard recycling company went up in flames.

the roofs of several mobile homes also torn right off, the result of this wind and the dust storm. the good news amidst the destruction, nobody hurt. still a lot of cleanup after the latest dust storm. jon: scary, especially for drivers. thank you. jenna: definitely for a car without a driver like you did the segment earlier. are they better in dust storms? jon: apparently, they work in bad weather. we'll see. jenna: that was jon's favorite story of the day, by the way. jon: thank you for joining us today. jenna: "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert on new developments and new questions regarding the president's new support for same-sex marriage. welcome to "america live," everyone, i'm megyn kelly. president obama is expected to land this seattle, washington, before this broadcast is over today, the first of three west coast fundraisers with the last one at george clooney's house in hollywood. in the days leading up to yesterday's announcement of his rs