brian moore, nbc news in washington. >>> bad news in afghanistan. a navy s.e.a.l. was killed during a rate saving dr. dill lop joseph who was kidnapped by the taliban. he was working for morning star development. the rescue mission was launched because u.s. officials believed the to being tore's life was in danger. president obama said the special forces soldier gave his life for a fellow american. >>> into syria, violence spilled over the border leaving 17 people dead. richard engel reports syrians are struggling to deal with the blood shet. >> reporter: parts of syria that are controlled by the rebels, there is no talk at all to finding a peaceful solution. the trips and meetings of hillary clinton with the u.n. and her russian counterpart, there's no hope for a diplomatic solution. instead what the people talk about are the suffering of the people. this house was bombed by mistake. the people who lived here lived next to a rebel commander. now they're homeless. there is also tremendous economic difficulties here. the syrian currency is worth about half of what i

brian moore, nbc news. >> thank you, brian.oving along, what would it take for you to run 30 miles? no, i'm not talking about 30 miles just all together. i'm talking about 30 miles a day for four consecutive months. there's a cross-country runner who literally runs across the country to raise awareness and $150,000 for lung cancer research. take a look at this story here. 24-year-old kelsey harrison from san francisco, well, she runs about 26 miles a day. and ran from new york all the way to california. she got the job done, in fact she needed 12 pairs of shoes to accomplish her goal. >> it was amazing. i mean, the support and enthusiasm that i've received from people across the country throughout this journey has been a huge factor in getting me home. that was incredibly, incredibly important to me. and today was no exception to that. >> that's a true superwoman. moving onto baseball, angel pagon received offers from two teams, the giants and the philadelphia phillys. both contracts are for four years. pagan is 31 years old. h

nbc's brian moore has the story. >> as senate leaders were behind closed doors mapping out an escape cliff. >> the economy is growing, but keeping it that way means that the folks you sent to washington have to do their jobs. >> if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff, each side says the other is to blame. >> we can still avoid going over the fiscal if the president and the democratic controlled senate with work with republicans to solve the problem and solve it now. >> all over the country right now uncertainty is in the air. >> it's not a matter of am i going to pay my light bill or not but a matter of if it's going to deplete by savings. >> it could cause us to have a drop off in sales. >> we are engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the white house in the hopes that we can come forward as early as sunday and have a recommendation. >> whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect. some people are not going to like it, and some people will like it less, but that's where we are. >> majority leader harry reid says they are confident they can come to an agree

here's brian moore with the latest. >> before heading off to hawaii to celebrate christmas with the first family, president obama tried to gifb lawmakers something to think about on their own holiday break. >> think about the obligations we have to the people who sent us here. >> nine days before the fiscal cliff and not a creature was stirring in washington. negotiations at an impass. the president says he hopes the holiday spirit will inspire a change of heart. >> everybody can drink some egg nog, have some christmas cookies. >> but republicans say the president's deal is jut too hard to swallow. >> the president's solution of raising tax rates would still be ready as far as the eyes could see. >> john boehner's plan b, raising taxes on americans making more than $1 million a year was scuttled by his fellow republicans. it's dead in the water with senate democrats. the president wants to lock in tax cuts for 98% of americans, but some house republicans refuse to raise taxes on anyone. for a few days though, both sides are setting aside the politics. >> i wish all the american people a b

>> brian: i'm not sure. >> steve: someone should sound the hypocrisy alert. do we have one? michael moore'sicious is that? "fox & friends" hour two for wednesday starts right now. >> brian, have a wonderful day. >> gretchen: wouldn't it be great for every man to wake up to a super model greeting them like that? >> brian: right. >> gretchen: finally, knew unanimous response from all the men on our crew who run our wonderful cameras. >> brian: i believe all this crew does wake up with a super model every day, their wives. >> steve: absolutely. >> gretchen: except for ted, who is not married. >> steve: not yet. >> brian: he just has a different super model. >> gretchen: we do try and set him up with all the model when is they come on the show. >> brian: ted does his own work, thank you. >> gretchen: i tried to help him. >> brian: how would you like to read my prompter? that's his best line. >> steve: they say no deal. it's what we refer to as a ted marital cliff. >> gretchen: maybe today he'll have some luck with petra. >> brian: she's seeing somebody, i think. >> steve: she is. >> gretchen: y

them as i have cards, charley goth from the apartment association, also victoria and stefan moor and also brian davis. >> i am a community organizor with the commission sro collaborate ive. the purpose is to improve livering conditions and fight for housing justice. through my work in sro hotels i've seen a variety of health issues that sro tenants face including secondhand smoke. when the opportunity came up for us to learn more about this, we took it. for about 6 months we surveyed 300 tenants who lived in sro's and apartments in all 11 districts to find out how much second hand smoke affected them and if they would be interested in a disclosure policy. we found 57 percent of tenants had neighbors who smoke in their units and of those people, 59 percent reported secondhand smoke drifts in their apartment. they reported having someone in their unit whose illness was made worse by secondhand smoke. many people didn't have enough information to make an informed decision about where they were moving. only 40 percent reported knowing when they moved in and 72 percent said they would want to know.

. >> gretchen: so moore now facing burglary charges. brian? that he can actually dance. ♪ . >> brian: that is fantastic. 81-year-old getting down and drawing attention to the fiscal cliff. he made this as part of a nonpartson group because you can not be partisan and do gangam style. the can kicks back, they're urging young americans to help solve the nation's crisis. simpson was one half of the simpson bowles commission tasked with tackling the debt and deficit. >> gretchen: the reason he didn't kick the can was because he had a plan that you wouldn't have to kick the can. you would actually put our fiscal order better off. speaking of the fiscal cliff and social media and getting the message out to young people, we know what lawmakers are saying, but what about the taxpayers? ainsley earhart joins us with disheartening answers to say the least. >> some of these responses are pretty funny and yes, obviously not watching the news and keeping up with where their money is going. >> brian: they're not watching the 5:00 a.m show? >> they need to b

>> brian: who is that next guest? i believe it's ryan moorecomfort of your own desk. how did you come up with the idea? >> close friend of ours passed away from cancer. we were inspired to join 100-mile, three mountain bicycle challenge. but we needed to train. we were having a hard time running our business, getting our work done while cycling indoors and training. so we looked for a device that would allow to us mount or computers, but nothing existed, so we made our own. after training for the event exclusively using what we made and riding it, we thought hey, this is a great idea. it really works. >> steve: it really does work. and brian was talking earlier about how when he works out at the gym, he's always reading. but what i've noticed is, and this is great because you've got a laptop here -- is it's often shaky. so it's hard to read. if you come up with this desk thing, foamy and i'm sure nasa helped you develop it, the computer stays absolutely rock steady while you're going as fast as you possibly can. >> right. we designed this so i

brian? >>> well, what does the looming fiscal cliff have to do with hollywood gossip columns? it appears to be the reason that ashton kutcher is suddenly trying to speed up his divorce from demi moore. couple announced their split more than a year ago but have been trying to work out a deal. now he has filed divorce papers and wants it done by the end of the year, reportedly for tax reasons. he is tv's highest paid actor and has also invested in a number of startups. he's a rich guy. >>> the fiscal cliff affects even him. thank you. >>> financials have been on fire for most of 2012 but low interest rates and pretty tough regulation, those factors are still putting some profit margins under pressure. we take a look at what is in store for wall street in 2013. >> reporter: after a year's long identity crisis, 2013 will see a spate of bank makeovers. barclays will spin off its investment bank, bank of america will review options for merrill lynch. behind these walls, citigroup's ininvestment bank will shrink considerably, focusing on top traders and deal makers. if that deal market returns as well as valuations, citi could sell all of its crisis-tinged bad bank citi holdings. about th

brian: i think i did. ♪ [ male announcer ] campbell's green bean casserole. it's amazing what soup can do >> steve: answer to the aflac trivia question, julianne moore.anwhile, we've become used to the media frenzy surrounding high profile celebrity court cases like casey anthony and o. j. simpson, case where is people follow every move the lawyers make and every word the witnesses say. what about average americans who aren't celebrities, who are facing justice by a jury of their peers? what are those cases really like? our next guest made it his mission to find out. he's spending a year in a small courtroom in new england, joining us, the best selling author of "fatal vision" and other books, joe gothic. >> good morning. >> steve: so 15 gothic street is the street address of the superior court courtroom in massachusetts. >> north hampton. >> steve: so what you decided to do is you were going to spend a year there just watching the everyday stuff that doesn't get the headlines. >> exactly. and write a book in serial form. this is the new approach i'm taking because the old publishing model just doesn't work anymore. and the magazines where i would pu