u.k. in fact other raids happened across london. the arrests said to be tied international islamist terrorism. according to our sister network, sky news, police could be moving the raids up in advance of the games. a terror scare on a highway outside the city of birmingham, 1120 miles north where we are in london. armed police moving in on an inter-city bus at the height of the rush hour. 49 passengers were onboard. one passenger apparently saw police and said he saw another passenger reaching into a bag and vapor coming out of the bag. an officer in a hazmat suit examined the coach closely. a bomb squad nearby, fire engines, emergency vehicles. all the passengers were searched. highway shut down after a few hours. what was it all about? one of those electronic cigarettes was apparently inside one of the bag being reached into by a passenger and there was smoke coming from that electronic cigarette. a sign, jenna, really how

very much on alert the folks are, the authorities are here, watching for any possibility of terrorism. again that incident on the highway ruled to be not a terror incident. again, we've got three weeks to go just before the olympics even start. back to you. jenna: certainly has our attention, greg. thank you very much. jon: right now the united states faces new threats from iran. the islamic republic saying it will destroy u.s. military bases across the mideast and target israel within minutes of any attack. those threats coming as that rogue nation extended test firing of ballistic missiles it says can reach israel. trucks carrying supplies to u.s. and nato troops in afghanistan are once again crossing over from pakistan. supply routes closed by pakistan for seven months are now open once again. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon with that. jennifer, what does this, to

what extent does this solve nato's problem? >> reporter: well it is a partial solution i will say. there are still 50,000 vehicles that will need to be moved out of afghanistan before the 2014 deadline. 100,000 containers will need to be moved. some of those won't be able to be moved across the pakistan border because they are considered lethal and there are still restrictions what can cross pakistan at its two border crosses. what is significant, jon, just moments ago the pentagon confirmed several trucks, vehicles have crossed over at the shaman border crossing from pakistan into afghanistan. those are the first vehicles to pass in the last eight months since the pakistanis closed this back in november after 24 pakistani soldiers were killed. for the first time we heard a verbal apology from the pentagon to the pakistanis for those deaths. captain john kirby just told reporters just moments ago,

that we are sorry for those mistakes. he was referring to the mistakes that led to the deaths of those 24 pakistanis. he said regrets and condolences were issued at the time. but now, they are quote, sorry for the mistakes. we heard secretary of state hillary clinton had spoken to the foreign minister of pakistan on tuesday. that is what laid the groundwork for this apology which caused the route to be opened. now we have heard from the pentagon spokesman sim elf, an apology to the pakistanis, jon. jon: this thing happened in november. ever since then the administration said it would not apologize. what happened? what changed? >> reporter: they said over and over, we spoke to officials here in the pentagon and white house officials were on the record, state department were on the record, they were not going to apologize. the turning point according to an article in the "wall street journal" this morning came during a backyard barbecue at the new ambassador, from pakistan barbecue. she invited the national security advisor, tom donnell len, they say

according to their source that was the breakthrough moment and that at that point tom done lon went back to the white house. they decided if they were going to pull out by 2014 they would need the land routes. they already spent $100 million a month in excess fees by having to use the northern corridors. and it was going to be too expensive and it would be impossible to pull out of afghanistan. they sucked it up and essentially apologized. jon: all comes down it a backyard barbecue. jennifer griffin at the pentagon, thanks. jenna: to the economy now. you probably haven't heard the name countrywide in a while but today there are new allegations about the former mortgage giant. the firm reportedly tried to buy influence in congress by discounting loans to more people than previously thought, including lawmakers and their support staff. countrywide's huge business in risky subprime loans are blamed in part for helping trigger the housing collapse. mike emanuel on the story.

he is live in washington now. mike, the key findings of this report? >> reporter: jenna, the house oversight committee conducted a three-year investigation into countrywide financial friends of angelo and vip program. the investigation found countrywide lobbyists and ceo angelo mozilo used discounted loans as a way of ingratiating themselves to key elect the officials to benefit the company's business. chairman darrell issa said quote, a former lobbyist testified members of congress staff and other government officials were directed to the company's vip program as part of an effort to create a favorable impression of the company on capitol hill. this preferential treatment varied depending on influence of borrower was not offered to the public. a few minutes ago a key member of the committee offered this assessment. >> we have to continue to look at this because there was very concerted effort to use something to pedal influence. they did it also at fannie

mae. remember this ended terribly they dumped so many of these loans on the american taxpayer and that's what makes this sew egregious. >> reporter: congressman chaffetz is determined to make sure the report does not end up on a shelf and it is further investigated to see what went wrong here. jenna: that was congressman chaffetz as you mentioned. he is a member of committee. what about the members of congress mentioned in this report, any reaction from any of them? >> reporter: the investigation found 29 loans were issued to 12 members of congress and staff as all part of this countrywide vip unit. both democrats and republicans. only one to respond so far is congressman buck mckeown of california. he is a republican. his spokesperson told us quote, mr. mckeown has been completely up front and transparent about his loan. he was never aware of any end friends of angelo designation. he provided all the loan documentation from the 1998 loan. mr. mckeown shares chairman issa's interest in determining if there is any wrongdoing by countrywide.

so we just got our hands on the report a short time ago. we'll continue digging and bring you more details throughout the day. jenna: you're not on any vip list, are you mike? >> reporter: not at all. not even close. jenna: me, maybe on the frozen yogurt shop down the block but beyond that nothing more high-profile. mike, thank you. we'll get back to you with more on this report. jon: a bus driver accused of molesting teenagers and women, tells the court caffeine made i am do it. so what did the jury do with that defense? also governor romney clarifying his position on the individual mandate saying it is a tax and that the president reneged on his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. the impact this could have on the race for the white house. we'll talk about it next.

jenna: welcome back, everyone. right now some new information on a few crime stories we're keeping an eye for you here on "happening now" including this one involving george zimmerman. he is waiting to learn if he will be released on bail while he awaits the trial in the shooting death of florida teen trayvon martin. the judge is expected to rule today. when we get the ruling we will bring it to you. meantime a texas death row inmate is granted an appeal so new dna testing can be conducted. hank skinner, once came within an hour of excuse. he says he will sure he will be exonerated in the stabbing death of his

girlfriend and her adult children back in 1993. we'll stay on that story. a washington man accused of groping three high schoolgirls last year. the man insists that excess sieve caffeine intake led him to commit the crimes. we'll have to check that one with the doctors, jon. that's what he says. jon: i'm not heard being an affect. >> i said i agreed with the dissent. the dissent felt very clear it was unconstitutional. it was in the minority. now the supreme court has spoken, while i agreed with the dissent that is taken over by the fact the majority of the court says it is a tax and therefore it is a tax. they have spoken. there is no way around that. you could say you wish they decided a different way but they didn't. they concluded it is a tax. and the american people know that president obama has broken the pledge he made. jon: that is governor romney, clarifying his position on the supreme court's health care decision, making it

clear he believes the individual mandate is a new tax. meaning that the president broke his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. byron york is chief political correspondent at the "washington examiner". this is so interesting, byron, because, one of his top campaign aides, eric finnstrom, said earlier in the week that the new, the new health care mandate is not a tax. this puts the governor in the position of disagreeing with one of his own campaign aides. >> well the bottom line is, the court's decision to hold the obamacare mandate constitutional under the taxing power as opposed to say the commerce clause, it threw the romney campaign for a loop. when eric finnstrom came out earlier this week the governor believes it is a penalty, not a tax. he did not make a gaffe. he was not going off the reservation. he is saying what the romney campaign thought at the time. but you're right, at the same time, republicans in the party, across capitol

hill were coming out saying well, if the supreme court says it is a tax, that means president obama raised taxes. so you have this conflict between romney and the rest of the republican party had to be resolved and it was resolved by romney coming out, you just saw it saying the supreme court said it is a tax. it is a tax. jon: it puts both campaigns really in kind of a strange position. president obama's campaign has said, we agree with the court ruling. we just don't agree with the way they got there. the romney campaign is saying we don't agree with the court ruling but we agree with the rationale that it is a tax. >> boy, you're right. everybody has had to twist themselves into a pretzel on this one. this morning we have the obama campaign through the campaign spokesman and the president's white house spokesman both saying president obama believes the mandate is a penalty. that it is a, not a tax. so, but the president himself hasn't personally come out and spoken on this, as mitt romney did. so now romney come out and

give the definitive word, yes he believes this is a tax. now we're waiting for the president. but his spokespeople say they believe it is not a tax, that it is a penalty. jon: it seems like nobody is happy about this supreme court ruling except maybe justice, chief justice john roberts, i don't know. >> you have to go to malta to figure out these, he left the country shortly after this. this is the kind of thing. it is so big. it is having repercussions. takes awhile to sink in. does this make sense? what does it mean for the campaign? but i will tell you this is a manifestation, a new manifestation of a continuing problem for mitt romney because what he passed in massachusetts, romneycare, has many features like mandates, penalties, subsidies, exchanges, that are, that it shares with obamacare and it is very difficult for romney to create a line and walk it in which he defends what he did as governor of massachusetts but criticizes what president obama has done with obamacare.

jon: yeah, but isn't what the president says, isn't that, i mean, so much attention is being paid to whether or not mitt romney disagrees with his campaign aide, eric finnstrom, about whether this is a tax or not. but ultimately isn't president obama's position less tenable? >> absolutely. but we first have to find out exactly what president obama's position is. we heard his spokesman this morning and his campaign spokesman saying he disagrees with the supreme court to the extent he believes this is a penalty, not a tax. i think we'll have to hear from the president himself. see what he says about it. but, the president is going to have to be held to the same kind of scrutiny on this, that governor romney has been. jon: all right. byron york, from the "washington examiner". byron, thanks. >> thank you, jon. jenna: the final report on a deadly air france crash back in 2009, what caused this flight to go down in the atlantic killing more than 200 people?

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jon: a final report released today on the deadly crash of air france flight 447. the plane heading from rio de janeiro, brazil, to paris plunged into the atlantic three years ago, killing all 328 people on board. harris faulkner from the newsroom. >> reporter: there was no mystery around this, jon. it has been a long search for what happened. it took years to find the bulk of the wreckage and bodies from the air france flight had 47.

most of it was in the mountain range deep in the ocean. most investigators determined plane crashed because the speed sensors on board gave the wrong reading. the plane climbed to 38,000 feet when the stall warning was triggered and the plane stalled. the engines were working but it descended quickly into the atlantic. they say it likely took just 3 1/2 minutes to hit the water belly-up. in fact, it was intact, most of the parts. but oxygen masks were never deployed, indicating the cabin did not depressurize. what a painful way to go for those people. this is frighting. the data recorders that pilots failed to talk about repeated stall warnings and had no altitude training to deal with it the situation. interesting to note as well, the plane was passing through an area called the intertropical convergence zone. it is known for volatile weather and a belt of low

fresh spur that wraps around the planet. jon, you and my dad are pilots i heard this from you and him before. investigators say the egregious error made by the pilots, after the plane stalled, they pointed the nose up instead of downward to recover. 228 people died on the trip from brazil to france june 1st, 2009. jon? jon: to make clear to viewers we're not talking about a engine stall. we're talking about a wing stall where the air sort of peels away from the wings. they pointed the nose of the plane up so much that the air flow going over the wing was not effective and the plane dropped like this and hit belly first even though the engines were working perfectly. if they pointed the nose down and they would have picked up airspeed and everything presumably would have been okay. >> reporter: you're pointing out the clear difference, that high altitude training you got, they didn't. jon: they got a lot more training. there was also a problem learned with the plane, that

particular airbus. one pilot was trying to push the nose down and while the other pilot was pulling back and the two overroad each other. just a very strange and very sad situation. >> reporter: indeed. jon: harris, thank you. >> reporter: schur. jenna: back to some politics now, new signs of decline in union membership in this country. organized labor apparently struggling nationwide. some say it may be a factor in this election and potentially open up an opportunity for republicans to win some votes. we'll see. doug mckelway live in washington with this story. doug? >> reporter: good morning, jenna. unionized labor makes up the smallest percentage of the american workforce in over 60 years. one-third of american workers belonged to unions back in 1945. but in 1998. it was down to 13.9%. adding to labor woes, unions took heavy hits especially in the public sector as they focus, blue-collar and industrial jobs, declined

and moved overseas. defeat the pub sector vote in wisconsin dealt a severe blow to organized labor. so did the supreme court ruling. they ruled seiu, the service employees international union must earn approval from dissenting members before they collect dues to pay for political campaigns. speaking 7-2 majority, justice alito wrote, this aggressive use of power by the seiu to collect fees from nonmembers is indefensible. it is that kind of pressure imposed by unions on its members that helped turn off some workers to big labor. >> the membership in the american federation of state, county and municipal employees has fallen by more than half since union membership and paying union dues became voluntary. part of the reason the unions have so much of the power, in most states workers don't have any choice. they simply have to pay the union dues or get fired. >> reporter: but union members make up a sizable percentage of democratic

party base. no wonder the obama campaign is making a strong appeal to that core constituency as vice president biden did earlier this week speaking to the national education association. >> but there's a pretty uniform view held by mr. romney and republicans in the united states congress today. they criticize you. and they blame you. they make you the fall guy. they should be thinking of ways to help you make your job easier, not more difficult. instead they hector, they lecture, and they blame you. and they call you selfish. >> reporter: another huge problem for labor, american workers continue to demographic migration to those traditionally ant at this union -- anti-union southern states because that's where the jobs are. jenna: doug, thank you. >> reporter: my pleasure. jon: take a live look at new york city's central park. temperatures are soaring toward the 90s. will there be any relief

coming? we'll get you a foxcast. president obama hits the road defending his economic policies in a couple of key battleground states. will his message resonate with blue-collar voters? are they with him? that's coming up in a fair and balanced debate.

jenna: we have different news for you but there is no end in sight to the sizzling heat across the country today. in fact right here outside of our studios in new york city temperatures are heading right into the 90s again and the big question for some of us in the country today, how long will the heat wave last? let's see in janice dean knows. jd, how long? >> well, for some of the country, monday, tuesday. and i was thinking, as we were in the break it would be really good is a fox news kiddie pool. jenna: for us or for the kids? >> for everybody. jenna: for everyone, okay.

jon would look nice. >> our promotions department needs to get on that. look at heat advisories. we're making light of the situation but it is really dangerous. we're talking about heat indices, feels-like temperatures upwards to 115 degrees. the nation's heartland again seeing these high heat watches and warnings. that is going to continue for the next several days. as we get into the weekend and early next week, high pressure that has really been dominating the eastern half of the country is going to break down a little bit. so we'll see more seasonal averages. but for now we're still going to see record-breaking temperatures. these are the highs today. so this is not including what it feels like, but 101 in north platt. 103 in des moines. 103 in kansas city. 101 in memphis. this has been ongoing for weeks in some cases. 102 in chicago. 102 in louisville. again we've got to get through the weekend and then a little bit of relief is on the way, fingers crossed,

she says. look at the temperatures. yes we're into summertime but in some cases 10, 15, almost 20 degrees where we should be for this time of year. again, next few days, have to get through it. make sure you check on the kids and elderly. make sure the pets are indoors. really take precautions over next several days. want to make note this is the good news. we are getting some monsoonal moisture into the four corners. we have a seasonal shift in winds. that means we're getting some moisture from the west coast. so that will move into those wildfire areas that have been really depraved for moisture and that is the good news. real quick i want to point out we could see some severe weather across the northern plains, ohio river valley and appalachians. busy day in the fox extreme weather center. back to you. jenna: good news about the situation in colorado. hope for rain there. good warnings for just in case those areas where severe weather could be. jd, thank you. >> you bet. jon: well, president obama

is kicking off his first bus tour of this campaign and he is hitting a couple of very important swing states. right now mr. obama is in ohio gearing up for a campaign event in maumee. that is outside toledo. he is trying to talk to the working class vote that gave him strong support last time around. then the president heads to another very important battleground state, pennsylvania. let's talk to marjorie clifton a former consultant to president obama's campaign. hadley heath is a senior policy analyst at the independent women's forum. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. jon: marjorie, cbs news described his tour of ohio as, no swing county tour. they say it is a lot of need to have, but not nice to have territory for any democrat hoping to win the white house. what do you say to that? >> absolutely. ohio and pennsylvania will

be mission critical for this election. the good news for obama right now he is ahead in both states but he will have to work for those votes. other good news for him right now the economy is improving in both ohio and pennsylvania. he is going to be talking a lot about the auto bailout, how that was success. you have a lot of manufacturers in those areas. so that is good thing for him to be speaking on. things will be tough for romney is going to be addressing the recent health care fallout. his dissension from his, from his head campaign advisor and how that is going to play. right now he will really have to get into the details of his own economic plans. he did lay out his 59 point plan which kind of fell flat. right now obama will be focusing on the way that he has worked to improve the economy and the ways that romney's plan really isn't going to shake out. it will not bring jobs, this is what the election is going to be about, economy, economy, economy. jon: all right. hadley, if it is going to be about the economy, i mean overall, the economy is kind of in the stinker right now and the jobs numbers

expected out tomorrow aren't going to be looking good for this white house. if it is all about the economy, will the president's tour of these two states, will it succeed, will it help him? >> president obama has been on the attack with some new ads criticizing mitt romney as an outsourcer of american jobs and mitt romney should push back that a lot of our american business goes oversees because we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. i agree weather a marjorie this will be the on the economy but president obama has to own the economy. jon: marjorie just said that auto bailout was a success. in your view, was it? >> i don't think so. polls of americans at large, 59% of people say it was not a success. and gm basically would have to double the price of their stock in order to get back to make that loan back up to the american people. so, we understand, when we hear bailouts, whether wall street bailouts or auto bailouts, taxpayers are always stuck with the bill.

jon: marjorie, what about the so-called reagan democrats, the blue-collar workers, blue-collar voters in places like ohio. are they with this president? >> they are right now but again, it is going, this is going to be the up and downs of the political season which will continue. romney will have his highs and obama will have his highs and they will have their lows. right now obama is feeling on top. he will have to continue the momentum. jobs report coming out on friday absolutely could be a hit depending what we see the numbers. biggest piece is voter turnout. that is where he ended up winning, a lot of those with him is it a matter do they show out as they did in 2004. >> sure, if i was, were president obama i wouldn't be worried so much about mitt romney at this point. i would be worried by my enthusiasm gap in my own voter base. so i agree, it will be voter turnout. that is not boding well for the president given turnout in 2010 was much lower than 2008. people generally are very discouraged about the direction of the country.

>> you see in presidentialals greater numbers showing up. >> absolutely. >> it will be a different thing. >> sure, but i think people are discouraged. jon: turnout is going to be key, you both agree on that? >> absolutely. >> absolutely. jon: marjorie clifton, hadley heath. interesting. >> thank you. jenna: always find common ground. jon: turnout is key and i guess both parties are working --. jenna: try to get everybody out there, right? jon: get as many of their base out there as they can. jenna: always good when they have high voter turnout. represents the country more. jon: yes it does. jenna: does vitamin-d help prevent broken bones? a new study says yes. but we told you about last month a study that says the opposite. what gives here? we'll break it down with our fox news medical a-team. dr. siegel is on deck for us. netflix reporting a big surge in streaming video. just how much video are its customers watching online? is this the new, the new age, jon, in movie-watching? we'll talk more about this coming up. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals.

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jenna: coming up new next hour, iran, a big story for us today, threatening to block shipping through the strait of hormuz saying it will attack u.s. military bases across the middle east within minutes of any attack on them. a live report from our middle east bureau coming up. it has been one year, one year since casey anthony was acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter,

casey. what have we learned really about the death of her daughter? plus the mars probe curiosity to land on the red planet next month. but with all cuts to government funding will america stick with this ambitious space program? a former nasa astronaut, a whole panel in fact joins us on this coming up next hour. jon: netflix announcing it hit a major online milestone in june. the company reports that for the first time customers watched more than one billion hours of video on the internet in a single month. that is not including all the dvd's that netflix still sends out. let's bring in fox business network's dennis kneale. we pried you away from the television watching your movies to bring us this report, right, dennis? >> reporter: certainly did, jon. netflix rose to popularity on deals with hollywood and broadcasting cable channels to restream tv shows and movies but is netflix a threat to the partners that helped it grow? netflix saying this week its subscribers watched one

billion hours of programing last month, about an hour per person. that is netflix first that billion dollar mark. research firm btig crunch the numbers. it makes netflix, quote, the most viewed cable network on television. it is in talks to open a slot on the dial for a netflix channel. netflix is going into competition with hollywood studios and cable channels that supply most of its content. spending millions of dollars on new shows and reprise of the cult hit, "arrested development". cable operators such as comcast, the nation's largest are fighting back. they're starting up on demand channels to compare with netflix. netflix ceo reed hastings insisted a, not a direct competitor of cable channels like time warner and hbo. he said last year, quote, we compete with hbo like baseball and football compete. people subscribe to both. just seven months later, last december he is changed his tune, saying quote, the

competitor we fear most is hbo go. hbo is becoming more netflix-like and we're becoming more hbo-like. hbo has 30 million subscribers who pay 20 bucks a month. netflix has 20 million subs at only 8 bucks a month. the question is at what point do their interests clash so much that the content guys cut off netflix? jon: sounds like more battles to come. dennis, thank you. >> reporter: yep. jenna: well a new study out today suggesting taking high doses of vitamin-d can help prevent broken bones in older people but the findings seem to contradict other recent studies on the impact of vitamin-d. that is why we have dr. marc siegel here. member of fox news medical a-team and professor at nyu langone medical center. one looked at vitamin-d by itself and vitamin-d and calcium taken together. that study says look that

doesn't appear to be much benefit. do we take vitamin-d or not. >> i like this study. published in the "new england journal of medicine". it a swiss study. it started with your question, why are previous studies conflicting? you know what they found out? a lot of times you study these things you don't know if people actually take the vitamin-d. they started out with studies that people actually took vitamin-d. that is important. they cherry-picked better studies. they found especially over the age of 65 your risk of fractures go up enormously. 75% of the fractures occur over 75. and in those groups, they looked at over 30,000 people, most of them women, 90% of them women. they found those taking vitamin-d had 10% lower risk of hip fractures and other kinds of fractures. i was impressed with this. jenna: so the age important? meaning can you actually bulk up on the vitamin-d as younger person so when you

get older you're in a better position or is it really about taking supplements once you reach higher age or older age? >> general that, that is a great they're rye. we have to study that because they don't have that answer. should you start at 40? should you start at 50. another thing, i'm not in favor of universally everyone taking vitamin-d because i can check vitamin-d levels and i do do. remember we don't get enough sunlight. vitamin-d is absorbed from sunlight. in northern climates where we're sitting you don't get enough. vitamin-d helps calcium absorption. vitamin-d and calcium both give you stronger bonls. if you have a vitamin-d deficiency you have softer bones. how much do you need? i start off checking a level. jenna: do you take vitamin-d? >> i do. jenna: i have a list from "consumer reports." it is so many confusing. there are so many vitamins you can take. this list is from "consumer reports" talk about the most vitamins bem are ache taking. vitamin b was the top.

then c, d, e, a, and then multivitamins. should we take all of this, none of it, a combination? how do we know what to take? >> i will give you a strong opinion. i don't think multivitamins are necessary. i like vitamin-d 3 has calcium in it although we don't know if calcium should be taken with vitamin-d. i check vitamin b-12 levels. as people get older they don't absorb it as well. in industrialized countries like this you don't have vitamin a deficiency or vitamin b deficiency. you might have a vitamin minute b deficiency if you're alcoholic. we don't need multivitamins if you're eating well-balanced diet. jenna: if you walk into the vitamin stories you think you need to buy everything. >> you don't. more than a vitamin. we think it may help you decrease your risk of heart

disease. may help you against certain cancers. jenna: are all vitamin-ds created equal? are there certain brands or price range. you can get by one, get one free. get an extra vitamin c tablet or something. is there a way for us to shop efficiently? >> they're not all created but i like site minute d-3. word of caution. it is fat soluable and you could have too much. i will take 4,000 units. i will take 5,000 units. do not do that. that is too much. 1,000 units a day. they're recommending 800 units a day. more than a 1,000 units a day you better have physician involved. i think a physician should be involved period. there is toxic range here if you take too much. jenna: good advice for us today. good to know you take your vitamins, doc. >> some vitamins. jenna: dr. siegel, thank you very much. great to see you as always. jon? jon: a fox news alert for you now, jenna. george zimmerman will be allowed to be released on

bond in his, in the trayvon martin shooting. as you know he awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge. he had been out on bond after an april bond hearing but then prosecutors say he misled the judge as to his financial resources. he had raised, along with his wife, $135,000 in an online contribution fund for his defense. the court didn't learn about that until later and so george zimmerman went back to jail. now, he can get out if he posts a one million dollar bond. generally in the bond, bail bonding process you can get out with 10% of the posted amount. so if he can come up with $100,000 in cash or property, george zimmerman will be out of jail a second time awaiting trial for the murder, for the second-degree murder of trayvon martin. we'll keep you updated here on fox. meantime a glimmer of hope in the struggling labor market as jobless claims

dropped to their lowest levels in weeks. is it a sign of a rebounding economy or just a pit stop on a downward spiral? a live report on that coming up. also, london reveals its tallest building in spectacular fashion but building the shard wasn't easy. we'll tell you about an obstacle that threatened to stop construction in its tracks. juicy brats grilled up on a thursday. the perfect use of the 7th inning stretch. get that great taste anytime with kingsford match light charcoal. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years?

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jon: the london skyline looks a little different today, standing more than 1,000 feet tall, the shard towers over the city and the tallest building in european union. it was unveiling featuring a dazzling laser light show is tonight. it was sketched on the back

of a restaurant menu in berlin 12 years ago and it was almost not built. construction funding stalled during the investment crunch. a big investment from qatar helped save the 95 story skyscraper which cost, $700 million just in time for the owe rim picks -- olympics. jenna: brand new numbers on the job market head of the big jobs report tomorrow starting with this one, 374,000 americans filed for unemployment in the latest week. that is the lowest level we've seen in six weeks but if you take a look at the last several reports the weekly number is still too high to really indicate any substantial job growth. robert gray with the fox business network is here with the roundup from all the things we saw today. robert? >> reporter: jenna, good morning. that's right, we did see an improvement, better than economists expected on average at least and down from last week. what we've seen every week this year and going back to last year we've seen the prior week revised higher.

that happened higher. 388,000, that was revised up a couple thousand last week. this month's number is a grain of salt but nonetheless a move in the right direction for the jobs market. below 380 for the first time since middle of may. february and march keep in mind we were getting closer to cracking the 35,000 level. a lot of economists attributed to that, better than expected weather and mild winter where we borrowed some of the jobs. particularly think about construction jobs at that particular time versus a slowdown in hiring we saw for may and june. this week's economic data, of course calling into question whether or not the fed will be acting. we've seen slower manufacturing numbers. that is borne out with some of the numbers. as far as private sector jobs, jenna, we had better than expected report from adp. they are of course a payroll processor out, 176,000 jobs created well above the estimate. better than may which was revised higher as well. again small business, the engine of job growth. 93,000 jobs coming from that group.

medium-sized jobs getting in on action little more than we've seen this spring, up 72,000 in that month. challenger, gray, christmas out with a separate report on planned layoffs. down from a year ago. of course we get the big number the from labor department. 90,000 jobs, that is the expectation for tomorrow. remember, may was just 69,000, a big disappointment. jenna: we'll look forward to getting that number and more insights what the job market actually looks like. robert, thank you so much for that. >> reporter: you're welcome. jenna: robert mentioned the report from challenger, gray & christmas. with us, john challenger, ceo of challenger, gray & christmas to talk with us more about jobs. john, where do you see job growth? >> job growth is occurring in areas like health care which has been a bulwark of this economy but also technology is creating jobs, the automotive sector has been strong all there has been recent concern maybe that is slowing down. professional business services like accountants, those kinds of jobs, have also been growing. jenna: taking a look at your report, you said planned

layoffs are down, when you look at this most recent month of june. in fact down to 13-month low. but if you take a look at this year overall, we still have seen more job cuts this year than last year. so how do you see this information? are we making any gains in the job market or is this still sort of stumbling along? >> well, this is the third consecutive spring, early summer, where the economy kind of started really kicking and then we hit the spring, summer and it slowed down. that happened this year. we saw a heavier job cuts in the first quarter and in the second quarter than we saw the year before but this number today, just 37,000 job cuts announced is significantly down from what we saw in may. that suggests maybe we're about ready to get past some of these doldrums the economy has been in. jenna: i have only 30 seconds here. you mentioned a pattern repeating itself. last year we saw summer

doldrums and a pickup in the fall. seems like, at this point you might be expecting, a pattern to repeat itself again? >> well, certainly we're hoping for that. there are some real concerns on the horizon, like there always have been but looks like this economy, it has been coming out of recession for the last three years, is kind of on this, surge forward and take a breather and surge forward and take a breather. we can't seem to get steady momentum going but today's set of reports certainly suggests that on a labor front things seem to be ticking up. jenna: interesting way to put it. take a breather. go forward. take a breather, go forward. john, we'll consider that tomorrow when we see our big jobs number. thanks for the time today. always nice to see you. >> thanks, jenna, guess who shipped some very putterful -- powerful computers to north korea and iran, possibly illegally? it was your friends at the united nations. that is sparking new concerns about the u.n. sidestepping restrictions the rest of the world is

expected to follow. a 4th of july tragedy, a yacht capsizes off new york's long island. three kids are dead.

jon: a fox news alert right now, the president is in ohio, essentially in the, well, it's in the northwest corner of ohio. toledo area. had a momentary brain freeze there. it is a campaign appearance, but he is expected to announce some

get-tough sanctions against china for its trade policies. we're going to take a listen to the president's speech for just a moment. [applause] >> i love you! it's great to see ya! [cheers and applause] i hope everybody had a wonderful fourth of july. [cheers and applause] we had, we invited some people over for a barbecue. [laughter] had a chance to say thank you to our incredible men and women in uniform -- ms. -- [applause] and we're so proud of them. and then, and then it was malia's birthday yesterday. [applause] she was 14 years old. and -- i know, it happens too fast. don't even remind me, she's going into high school next year. which means that she's, when she was small, i could say all these fireworks i had arranged for her birthday. [laughter]

but she doesn't believe me anymore. [laughter] so, now, unless you have been hiding out in the woods somewhere, you are aware of the fact that it's campaign season. >> yeah! [cheers and applause] >> get fired up! t campaign season -- it's campaign season again. i understand it's not always pretty to watch. there's been more money flooding into the system than west virginia ever seen -- than we've ever seen before, more negative ads, more cynicism. most of what you read about or hear about on the news has to do with who is up or down in the polls instead of what these issues actually mean for you and for america.

so it can be frustrating. i know sometimes it may be tempting to kind of turn away from all of it and just turn off the tv, tivo everything that you want to watch so you can skim over the commercials. it's easy sometimes, i think, to lose interest and lose heart when you hear what's going on in washington. and i'll be honest with you, i think there are some folks who are betting that you will lose interest. that that will, that are betting that somehow you're going to lose heart. but here you are in the heat. [cheers and applause] i'm betting you're not going to lose interest. [cheers and applause] i'm betting you're not going to lose heart. [applause] i still believe in you. i'm betting on you. and the country is betting on you, ohio. [cheers and applause] because you understand that even

though politics may seem real small right now and may seem real petty, the choice in this election could not be clearer. and it could not be bigger. the stakes could not be bigger. >> you can do it! >> i know. [cheers and applause] what's going on in this election is bigger than just a choice between two candidates or between two parties. it's about two fundamentally different visions of where we go with the country. see, i believe in an america where no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, you can make it if you try. [cheers and applause] we've never been a country that, we've never been a country looking for handouts.

we're a nation of strivers, risk takers, entrepreneurs, workers -- jon: we are not in the business of giving either campaign free time on television to make their campaign points, and the president seems to be in campaign mode right now. we had been led to believe that he would be announcing some, perhaps, sanctions against china because of some business dealings that they've had with the u.s. that the administration doesn't like. at any rate, we will monitor what the president has to say. if he get toss that china news, we'll bring it to you live. in the meantime, if you'd like to watch his campaign speech, watch it live on foxnews.com. >> well, now let's turn to one of our top stories. iran launches a new military threat against the united states and israel. i'm jenna lee, so glad you're with us today. jon: i'm jon scott.

a commander of iran's revolutionary guard boasting about plans to attack and destroy u.s. military bases across the middle east, to block shipping through the strategic strait of hormuz and potentially fire missiles into israel. leland vittert is live in jerusalem with more on that. leland? >> reporter: hi, jon. what is so interesting now is the iranians are changing their rhetoric a little bit, not only going after israel, but also the united states and, in a sense, the entire world economically. the latest video coming out of iran during their war games this week is of them firing anti-ship missiles at targets there off the coast of iran. it's a pretty thinly-veiled threat that if attacked, iran will then go after some of those world's largest oil supertankers that carry 20% of the world's oil every day through the straits of hormuz. and you can imagine the disruption if the iranians ended up hitting one of those large oil tankers. u.s. access in the region --

actions in the region continue to increase. there is a carrier battle group there, also mine sweepers to clear the strait of hormuz if and when the iranians mine that area. and there is precedent for the united states military providing escort with navy ships to oil tankers in times of conflict. obviously, that would ratchet up the stakes very, very quickly. the other thing the iranians are doing are blasting off the missiles putting the bull's eye at anything in the middle east, what the iranians say they are going to target is u.s. bases. those would be fired at within minutes of an attack on iran, and we've highlighted those bases in red including the fifth fleet headquarters in bahrain, base in kuwait and also the large u.s. military operation in afghanistan. in all, nearly 120,000 u.s. soldiers conceivably could be in range of those iranian missiles. jon, back to you. jon: ominous times there in the

middle east. thank you. jenna: the pentagon responding to the threats with a military buildup in the gulf. joining us now, general jack keane. nice to see you, general. >> good to see you, jenna. jenna: so this buildup, here's the way it's described: significant military reinforcement in the persian gulf. what is significant about it? >> well, mostly, it's being able to deal with the straits of hormuz, certainly. they brought in some additional mine sweepers to be able to deal with the mining threat that the iranians have. and also significant we brought in some strike aircraft, air force strike aircraft, f-15s and f-22s and put them at different bases in the gulf area. i think it's a precautionary measure on our part. i believe the iranians are mostly saber rattling here. they do not want a war with the united states, to be sure. the united states is the only country that can force a regime

change, and they want no part of that. having a nuclear weapon, after all, is all about guaranteeing the survivability of the regime by having a nuclear weapon. jenna: general, let's talk about some of the patterns we've seen. we've seen this before, things get tense over the strait of hormuz, than they dissipate, is there anything different this time around, or do you see it following a familiar pattern that really doesn't produce much? >> well, i think it's pretty much the same. there are a couple of variables. certainly, we're having diplomatic talks, and that's part of the reason for the saber rattling by the iranians. their economic sanctions are having some impact. you know, inflation's about 50%, their currency is devalued, there are food shortages, and now the eurozone oil embargo's taking effect. that hasn't been felt dramatically yet, and also some further sanctions on the central bank. but i don't believe that khomeini is going to give up his nuclear weapon because of economic challenges.

you would have to have crippling sanctions that there's economic collapse which is forcing the survivability of the regime. then you probably would get some movement out of him in terms of the nuclear program. but economic setback is not going to move khomeini, i don't believe. jenna: general keane, just quickly here, some have been critical of the united states. the economic sanctions, they say, are equivalent to a blockade, the cyber warfare is equivalent to war. what do you think of those that are critical of our moves so far, and what would be your next move here? >> well, first of all, if you have a serious military option on the table, you know you do not want to have to execute that. so, therefore, short of military action and war there could be a lot you'd be prepared to do. crippling economic sanctions, very aggressive covert cyber attack on the iranians not just their nuclear program, but on economic and military targets to be sure and other espionage that we can do.

and all world trade should be banned with the iranians. that would absolutely put them on their heels. and i still believe that's a far better option than actually military action. jenna: general keane, nice to see you today. thank you for the time. >> it's good seeing you, jenna. jenna: it's a story we'll continue to follow. thank you, sir. jon: a fox news alert for you now, a father and son have just been charged in the shooting of an immigrations and custom enforcement agent. the shooting happened tuesday morning in hidalgo county in south texas along the mexico border. we told you about it on "happening now." prosecutors say the unidentified agent was conducting surveillance. well, now pedro alvarado and his son are charged with assaulting a federal officer and using a firearm during a violent crime. the agent needed surgery but is expected to fully recover. more on this developing story as we get it, and "happening now" will be right back. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing

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jenna: right now the chairman of the house judiciary committee is raising some serious questions about a possible conflict of interest by the justice department, and it involves money the department paid to an outside company to help challenge the texas voter identification law. we're going to find out more about this with our chief washington correspondent james rosen. >> reporter: good afternoon. we are on the eve of a major federal trial that pits the obama justice department against the state of texas, and at this moment a top republican lawmaker is crying foul. attorney general eric holder is fighting in court to block texas from enacting a law passed 14 month ago required all voters to possess a valid state-issued photo id. doj's civil rights division argues it will disadvantage already disenfranchised minority communities. an expert witness retained by doj, a harvard professor,

determined the percentages of whites and minorities that register to vote in texas and that do and do not possess state-issued photo ids. he testified that he found nearly all persons identified as white, black or hispanic identified themselves but check out the web site. clients include virtually every major liberal power player in politics from emily's list to planned parenthood and obama for america. indeed, the firm describes its mission as, quote, to provide progressive organizations with the data ask services needed. house judiciary committee chairman lamar smith, a republican from texas, wants attorney general holder to explain why doj apparently without any competitive bidding process chose an unabashedly partisan firm to provide data for an ostensibly nonpartisan

governmental agency. quote, there is at least the pearns, smith wrote to the ag this morning in a letter obtained exclusively by fox news: >> reporter: the litigation that will settle this dispute, texas v. holder, is set to begin on monday in d.c. federal court. follow me on twitter @james rosen at fnc, and i'll tell you more about this professor. jenna: james, thank you. jon: new concerns from the state department now about sensitive technology shipped to iran and north korea. where'd it come from? the united nations agency which instituted sanctions to keep that kind of equipment out of the hands of the rogue regimes. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge joins us live from the state department in washington. can you explain this one, catherine? >> reporter: well, jon, thank you and good afternoon. these documents first obtained by foxnews.com are now at the center of an international

investigation into whether a u.n. body violated sanctions by shipping equipment to iran and north korea, and new revelations surfaced at the house judiciary committee last week. >> it's an outrage. really, it's an outrage that wipo would be transferring material violating the sanctions that we have to north korea and iran. and this stuff, i mean, it's basically funded by u.s. inventers. >> i have to tell you that the leadership that the u.s. patent and trademark office was disappointed when they got, to say the least, that information. >> reporter: the reporting by foxnews.com in april was the catalyst for the information into the world inti lek chul property organization also known as wipo. the shipments took place in late 2011 and early 2012 and were financed through the beijing office of the united nations' development program. in the case of iran, wipo committees -- computer shipments, pardon me, included

20 hewlett-packard desktop computers, and this appears to be in violation not only of the u.n. sanctions, but also hewlett-packard's own corporate restrictions on transfers to those regimes. the is a member of wipo but was apparently in the dark about these projects and these sipments. -- shipments. fox news was told that so far responses have been quite limited. jon: catherine herridge at the state the president for be us. catherine, thank you. >> reporter: you're welcome. jon: a new mars rover making its final approach to the red planet, but with all the budget cut toss the space program, could this be our final mission to mars? jenna: plus, exactly one year ago today came the bombshell verdict acquitting casey anthony. so what have we learned since then about her daughter caylee's mysterious death? our legal panel weighs in next. with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process --

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>> as to the charge of first-degree murder, verdict as to count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty, so say we all, dated this 5th day of july, 2011, signed foreperson. jenna: that was one year ago today, casey annie found not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, caylee, in a decision that truly shocked the country. and now in a new book, her former lawyer says he originally thought she should take a plea deal before the trial ever happened but came to believe her story that her little girl's death was an accident. >> i'm disturbed that when a person is found not guilty in a court of law and justice has been served that justice isn't respected. and i am powerless to sit back and just watch how all of this

happens. so if injustice can happen to casey anthony, it can happen to earn. >> jenna: one of the questions we're asking today is, you know, what can be learned really from this case? do you think we learned what jose baez said if you're found not guilty, you can never truly recover, and that's something we could all suffer from? is that the big takeaway from this trial, jen? >> i think he makes a good point, there has to be respect for justice, for our system and, listen, she did earn an acquittal. but at the same time what we have learned is that juries are wildly unpredictable. and i agree with baez. had i been her defense attorney and they had offered that 13-year plea deal, i would have been begging her to take it because despite the fact the prosecution's case had holes, there was plenty to convict her. jenna: doug, what's your takeaway? what did we learn her? >> we've learned that prosecutors shouldn't be swinging to the fences and committing to a theory they can't prove. notice i didn't say that didn't

happen, they couldn't prove it. interestingly enough, i'll defend the prosecutors in the sense that the body had decomposed badly over a long period of time, and they felt the defendant and those around her were responsible for that, so why should they benefit and, therefore, we're going to go for murder. but if i were sitting in a conference room with my supervisors, jenna, i would say, look, we can't prove murder, she obviously administered chloroform which is felony child abuse -- and hold on, because i see you shaking. felony murder was in the jury instructions, okay? >> right. so it's about the strategy. jenna: that's a big takeaway. but what about finding out what really happened to little caylee? jose baez had this to say, he said we need to talk about whether an actual murder occurred, and he says that's where the focus should have been, and it never was there. >> the problem was she was not forthcoming, and there's no question that she has information, that she has some causal connection to this death whether it was accidental. i mean, they've always claimed

it was accidental. in fact, i believe baez said in his opening statement she drowned in a pool. of course, they never proved that up, so there are questions. but at this point in the game i seriously think we're going to have to just be comfortable with the fact that we're not going to know what happened to caylee. jenna: you see this sweet little girl on the screen, we've seen her face so much, doug, and we just want to get some answers. who's out for justice for her? >> all you can bring to the table is the ability to sherlock holmes what happened. in my opinion, basically, i mean, dr. baden -- i don't usually refer to specific experts -- he said, doug, i've never seen a case in 40 years where somebody administered chloroform to kill somebody intentionally. the kid's an infant, you can suffocate the trial. and all of the panicking and the covering up is consistent with an accident because if you're a cold-hearted murder -- jenna: you still think she did it? >> accidentally. she administered chloroform,

with the caveat that i wasn't there, the child then die inside an accident. that's still a crime. >> that may very well be the case. again, we're just speculating. >> yes, i am. >> but at the same time it's important to understand, i think, that she was a lucky lady. nine times out of ten this jury would have come back guilty in a case like this, and i happen to believe if she was a man or each a woman of color, she would have been found guilty because i believe the jury had a hard time wrapping their head around this sweet-looking, young woman with this beautiful child had the capacity to do something so evil. jenna: in your experience, has that been the case -- >> yes, absolutely. this evidence would have convicted nine out of ten people if they didn't look like -- >> i think that's an excellent point. and the fact of the matter is, sadly, and you have to front that for everybody to discuss this tremendous subliminal bias, and to work off that point. had this been somebody from a very, very low strata in society, the thing wouldn't have been on television, it wouldn't have been covered, and there is a subliminal bias by law

professors, and they're right. but the fact of the matter is this jury was badly confused. they thought it was murder or nothing. when the legal reality is, and it should have been explained more simply, it's either murder, but it can also be what's called a lersz. jenna: i have to run but quick scenario, do you think anyone else will be brought to trial? >> no. >> absolutely not. >> no. >> i think it's over -- jenna: sad case. >> no, i don't think so. jenna: a little girl, she's dead. nothing changes that. >> terrible. jenna: nice to take a look at this one year later to try to see can we take anything away from this, and certainly a case that will be studied for a long time to come. jon: i can't believe it's been a year. in the meantime, there is a mission to mars underway. it's about to arrive on the red planet. what budget cuts could mean to america's future in space. is in the last mars mission maybe ever? plus, a big celebration turns into a major disappointment.

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jon: an investigation underway right now into a new york tragedy. after a yacht taking a 4th of july cruise top watch fireworks capsizes in long island sound. harris faulker is working the story. she is live at the breaking

news desk. >> reporter: jon, as details become clear on this story it is heartbreaking. the victims that died are three children, 12-year-old boy and two little girls ages 11 and 8. they were inside the cab bin in this yacht. they had to dive down obviously to find their bodies. 27 people on this 34 foot boat watching fireworks. what they know there was a thunderstorm moving through moments after this capsized according to witnesses but they don't believe the wind were above 15 miles an hour. they're not sure if weather played any role in this. number two thing they're looking at possibility why this tip would have tipped over is a wake from another boat. what leads them to that conclusion is one of the boaters took part in rescuing plucking some of those people out of the water, because there were a lot of boats in the water at the time watching fireworks, the boat seemed to shift right and tip over as if hit

by a large wake from perhaps another boat. the third thing they're looking at, i mentioned it was 34 foot long and 27 people on it they're looking whether there was overcrowding on board. the saddest part about the 24 people getting out are okay. the three children obviously didn't make it. jon: what a sad story. harris faulkner. thanks. jenna: now fox extreme weather alert. scorching heat gripping much of the country right now and it is expected to last well into the weekend and maybe early next week. we'll go to steve brown. he is live in chicago where an excessive heat warning is in effect from 6:00 p.m. eastern time. steve, you can report inside, we're okay with that, in air-conditioning if that is what you prefer? >> reporter: i appreciate the option. we may take you up on it a little later in the day as it gets warming. in milwaukee between the summer fest music festival and the fireworks display at veterans park, they treated

70 people for heat related illnesses. here in chicago we have a lake breeze that helps cool the city. 95 degrees. may end up near the all-time high temperature that the city has on the record breaks, excuse me, at 105 degrees. record-breaking temperatures all over the region. in st. louis yesterday, at some independence day festivities, people there were dealing with temperatures between 106 and 107 in some of those locales. so extraordinarily high. a lot of public agencies urging people to please stay inside if they can and setting up emergency cooling stations. that is all over the place. another impact that is being seen and having quite a heavy impact as a matter of fact, are what is happening with the roads. because of heat you get the opposite of freeze shift or frost shift, you get heat shift where roads buckle where pieces join up. that happened in chicago and a number of different places up in milwaukee. you have crews trying to

repair this, repair these roads in this heat. a lot of these roads are being shut down. it is a real difficult situation. couple this, jenna, many midwestern states are in a rain deficit. haven't gotten as much rain as they normally would have this time of year. some places it is an inch less. some places three inches less. they're looking at drought conditions in places like northern indiana. jenna: not good for the corn farmers, steve. thank you very much. amazing to see the roads like that today. steve brown, thanks. jon: nasa's latest mission to mars is sending a rover named curiosity to explore the red planet. it is due to land next month but budget cuts could mean this would be the last visit to mars for quite some time and it is raises the questions about the future of america's space program. let's get into it with tom jones a frequent guest of ours, a former shuttle astronaut and fox news contributor and author of

planetolgoy. derek pits from the franklin institute plan nair plan nair -- planetarium and. tom, to you first, talk about the mission that is the last marches mission plan for quite some time. it will be a pretty technologically sophisticated thing to get the lander on the ground on the martial surface. explain what they will do. >> very. it weighs the ton, size after mini-cooper. so they will lower it with rockets suspending the rover from a harness and as the rover touches gently down the rocket system will cut the at the time they ares and fly away. it is called a sky crane. never been flight tested because we don't have mars gravity back here. nasa is putting 2 1/2 billion dollars in faith on this system. they have done a lot of component testing. but the real proof will be

on august 5th. jon: derek, if they can get this thing onto the surface of mars safely and effectively and the thing actually works, it is nuclear powered as i understand it, what do they hope to learn? >> what they're really looking for are environments where it may have been possible for life to flourish on mars in the distant past. so the analysis that is going to take places to see what the soils look like and see what chemical components are there that might indicate that the environment was right at some time for life to have existed on mars. jon: all right. so if that's true, scott, i mean, if they, if they figure out one way or the other, i mean this mission isn't going to tell us, yes there was life or no, there wasn't, is it? >> well, you know, it's science to it depends on what you find and what the data tells us. you might be able to determine life did exist. of course the first thing you have to do are the conditions or were the conditions proper for life to exist? but the big question is, not

did life exist but will we send life to mars sometime in the future? jon: that is the big question and because of the budget situation, tom, doesn't look very likely. nasa's budget is shrinking, right? >> the overall budget is shrinking. it is about $18 billion this coming year and nasa's budget for space science and planetary budget for mars in particular is dialed back 20% lower than it used to be. that means no more big flagships missions like the curiosity rover. there might be future orbiters. nasa pulled out of european collaboration on future exploration. we're releasing number one lead on mars exploration just at a time we should be capitalizing on the experience. jon: i'm envious of both you and scott. astronauts and scott carpenter and others were my heroes of childhood and yet manned spaceflight is a very expensive thing. everybody says you can do it cheaper with robots but even

this mission was supposed to cost, what, $600 million in the initial going and turned out to cost, 2.6 billion? how do you justify that kind of expense? tom, let's give you a whack at that one? >> right, overall this kind of science exploration is what the u.s. excels at. fills people with awe and wonder and inspiration when we uncover new secrets of the origins of life on mars for example. and then human explorers i hope will one day be able to follow up these robotic discoveries and get to the rub of these questions. is there life there now? did life exist there in the past? that would really answer the question are we alone? that is fundamental. i think that is what we should be pursuing and human explorers have a role in that. >> you spent a lot of time in the franklin institute looking up at mars. what would you like this probe to answer, this explorer? >> as tom said the question we're trying to figure out were conditions ripe on mars

for life in the past. and as scott said, could there be any life in the future? will we find anything now, actually? these are all really important questions because the big question of all this astronomical research is the very big one of, are we alone? the question we have to ask ourselves actually, do we want to lead in this kind of space exploration? if we do, we have to step up to the plate. if we don't want to lead, then we have to follow. jon: scott, i'm not one of those who thinks the moon missions, for instance was wasted money but you know it's a time of trillion dollar deficits in this country. how do you justify spending more money to go to a place like mars? >> well, it's just like when i balance my checkbook and like you do at home. you decide what's important and you decide what you spend your money on. right now we spend less than one half of 1% of the federal budget on nasa. if we just increased it back to what it was in 1991 at 1%, nasa could do a lot more of the things put on its plate

and do them a lot better. so, i tell people, we spend a lot of money on apollo and going to the moon and the big benefit wasn't that we got a lot of technology out of it. we motivated a whole generation of scientists an engineers. doing great things in space will help the u.s. lead in space exploration and we'll get the next generation prepared to lead us into the future. jon: but, tom, i know that you're also one of those who has said that private industry can be doing a lot of the jobs that nasa has been doing up till now. >> well, it has a role and in particular can takeover some of the routine cargo and transport to the international space station but, commercial industry is not going to do mars exploration. this is where nasa excels. this is where we're at the cutting-edge of technology. we're the only country that knows how to land big things on mars and do science there. i think we should not give away the lead, that superiority. that is technological edge that could be very valuable across the technology board

and we shouldn't be withdrawing from the enterprise just when we're starting to hit the big payoff. jon: let's hope it works and gets to mars and makes that very tricky landing in august. tom jones, lawrence pitts and scott horowitz. thanks. >> thank you, john. jenna: new critics of the health care law finding ways to repeal and replace it. we'll look at the range of ideas and actually keeping some key parts of the law. tough holiday week to make a whole lot of what is happening here in the markets. kind of a quiet day usually on wall street during these holidays. we see the dow trading lower by 30 points. we'll be back with more "happening now.". 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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states that are very close and very important in this presidential election. joining us now for a closer look at the political maps of ohio, virginia and north carolina, larry sabato, director for center of politics at the university of virginia. your guy who put together on this piece on ohio says it doesn't carry the electoral punch that it once did. is that because of the shrinking manufacturing base and shrinking population? >> yes. which results in of course fewer electoral votes. jon: right. >> ohio is down to 18. used to be more significant. it is still very important. it is still a key swing state. jon: that is explains why the president is there today to try to tout his auto bailout plan. >> yes. and he has got a lot of pieces to put together in ohio. he's got to try and minimize what is a clear republican resurgence in the more rural parts of ohio, outside the key urban areas of cleveland,

columbus, and cincinnati. jon: the reagan democrats, the blue-collar workers who voted ronald reagan into office, they're not necessarily turning out in ohio for president obama? >> clearly he is having some problems there, jon, there is no question about it. you know, it is interesting even john kerry did better in many of those blue-collar counties than barack obama did. of course obama carried ohio fairly handily and carry kerry lost ohio. that is why he lost the 2004 election. president obama has an enduring problem with many of these blue-collar workers in ohio and elsewhere. jon: let me start with the ohio, "real clear politics" average of the polls. i'm going to show ohio first. i hope i'm taking these a little bit out of our intended order. in ohio, according to "real clear politics" average of the polls, president has 46.2%. governor romney 43.6.

pretty tight race. if you go to north carolina, same thing. the positions are reversed. mitt romney leads in north carolina 47.3, to 45.3. north carolina is a state that the president is banking on. it is part of the reason the democrats are holding their convention there, right? >> well, that was the original intention, jon. look at the crystal ball here, we had north carolina leaning republican. we think that romney will carry it. it won't be by a landslide but it will be by enough. president obama won it by 14,000 votes. he clearly slipped in a lot of key places in north carolina from '08 to 12. jon: virginia real quickly, we have to mention the president up by a couple points in virginia as well. but those three states are going a long way determining which of these men win the presidency in november. larry sabato, from the university of virginia. larry, good to have you on. >> thanks, jon. jenna: a fireworks fiasco in a major city. why what was supposed to be

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jenna: you know the drill on july 4th. you get everybody ready, your kids, your friends, your spouses. hopefully, just one spouse, right, not plural. you know what i'm saying. get the cooler, blanket. you wait for hours in the perfect spot. maybe pay for parking. and then this happens. [shouting].

jenna: and that's it. wait for it just a second here. it is a big fat fireworks failure. harris faulkner is in our new york city newsroom. i wait to see the moment where it all goes black. >> reporter: this is one of the stories we didn't have to he had it any video the whole thing lasted as long as you saw it, about 15 to 18 seconds. the big bay boom over the bay in san diego, california was a big bust. it was supposed to be about a 20-minute show. this is such a big deal and story there today the coast guard spent much of the day answering local press questions why it only lasted a few seconds. tens of thousands of people lining the waterway there. there were people in boats to see this. and it just was a fizzle. the san diego fire department says there were no injuries and they're very sorry that this went the way it did but, there was a timing malfunction, having to do with the countdown

clock. just moments before this, they had tested it but it just didn't go well. and so instead of counting down and taking some time, it counted down and took just a few seconds. no one hurt in this. just their pride i would imagine, the people who put on that show. jenna? jenna: all the fireworks go off at the same time? >> reporter: yeah, either the worst one you ever seen or maybe the best one you have ever seen because it was some fireworks. jenna: excellent point. glass half fall. harris, thank you. jon: the whole thing one big finale. next part ever the health care debate sunday way. chief correspondent jim angle joins us live from washington with that. jim? >> reporter: democrats republicans argument against the health care law want to return to the old health care system. republicans an analysts say that is not true. listen. >> the health care system, status quo is unacceptable. as a physician it doesn't work for patients. certainly doesn't work for doctors. >> they need to be able to talk about a health care

vision that is different from the obamacare vision and they need to be able to announce some principles that people can understand and agree with. >> reporter: now while a large majorities hated the individual mandate in the new law they consistently liked the coverage of preexisting conditions and republicans say they can do that without a mandate or a trillion dollars in tax increases. they would create large pools of individuals to spread the risk so those with expensive illnesses wouldn't affect the premiums of others. >> what if we allowed everybody who is a member of a civic organization, kiwanis club or rotary or lion's club to pool together to purchase insurance? then you get the purchasing power of millions. >> reporter: but there is an obstacle, as it turns out if you don't work for a multi-state employer it is illegal for individuals or small groups to buy health insurance across state lines even though auto or life insurance can be purchased anywhere. >> often jokingly say isn't

it interesting you can buy car insurance from a lizard across state lines but you can't buy health insurance. >> reporter: republicans would change the law and have lots of bills in the hopper. jon: more arguing to come. jim angle. thank you. we'll be right back 0

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a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer. jon: that san diego fireworks show was one of those core yo offed things to music, but everything went off -- jenna: only 30 seconds of fireworks. jon: oops. jenna: it was fun while it lasted. jon: you got to see it all, you just had to watch quickly. thanks for joining us. jenna: "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert on a new push by the obama campaign to win over a key voting bloc that could make or break this election. welcome to "america live," everyone, i'm megyn kelly. president obama moments ago wrapping up the first event on his two-day bus tour through working class sub you are ya. he's working to convince blue collar voters that he, and not governor mitt romney, holds the

key to a better future for them. >> you know, that's their plan for winning an election, but it's not plan to create jobs. it's not a plan to provide you with greater security for you and your family. it's not plan to restore the middle class or restore the american dream. and that's the kind of plan we need right now, is a plan to build the middle class and restore the american dream. megyn: it could be a tough sell. among construction workers in this country, the unemployment rate is a staggering 14.2%. manufacturing fares better, but it is still high at just over 7% unemployment. and that industry just yesterday we had reported took a hit. chris stirewalt is host of "power play" on foxnews.com. so the president will go through ohio and pennsylvania and try in particular to appeal to middle class and blue collar voters, chris. is that an uphill slog for him, or is it