trace: steve centanni, thank you. it is streaming live on foxnews.com. watch the space walk live. martha: politicians on both sides are very concerned about how to pay for the health care reform plan. we will take you to capitol hill to answer the question, is it possible to trim the cost of health care legislation and get support on both sides? the president will toward that . quality and reliability... are more than words here. it's personal. i have diabetes. rodney's kid too. so we're so proud to manufacture... the accu-chek® aviva meters and test strips... here in the u.s.a. plus, we've proven you'll waste 50% fewer strips... when you use our meter, which means greater savings... for people with diabetes, like me. now that's a true american value. accu-chek® aviva. born in the u.s.a. [captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- martha: this is the "live desk." i am martha maccallum. trace: i am trace gallagher. in the top box, president obama meeting with the prime minister of the ro

steve centanni has more. forget about a general election. does he have a chance of winning the democratic nomination in 2010? >> slim to none. the democratic establishment is full of democrats. people were lined up against him. they want strong candidates to keep him from getting on the ticket. had he gotten on the ticket, it would of been a problem. they thought he would be vulnerable. he could have lost that seats and democrats could of lost a seat in congress, something they do not want to do. this decision was not unexpected. burris probably have little choice. rick: what are analysts saying was his fatal mistake? >> it was probably his failure to disclose that he did have phone conversations with the brother of rod blagojevich about campaign fund raising. as you know, this was happening during the time that governor blagojevich was considering who to fill the post with. at the time, the fbi was investigating whether or not there was a paid to play scheme of who would benefit financially or otherwise from who they put in there. burris sa

steve centanni has more. forget about a general election.chance of winning the democratic nomination in 2010? >> slim to none. the democratic establishment is full of democrats. people were lined up against him. they want strong candidates to keep him from getting on the ticket. had he gotten on the ticket, it would of been a problem. they thought he would be vulnerable. he could have lost that seats and democrats could of lost a seat in congress, something they do not want to do. this decision was not unexpected. burris probably have little choice. rick: what are analysts saying was his fatal mistake? >> it was probably his failure to disclose that he did have phone conversations with the brother of rod blagojevich about campaign fund raising. as you know, this was happening during the time that governor blagojevich was considering who to fill the post with. at the time, the fbi was investigating whether or not there was a paid to play scheme of who would benefit financially or otherwise from who they put in there. burris said he had no con

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steve centanni, thanks so much.ow back to iran and what's being called the country's worst air disaster in six years. state television there reports a passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff and killed all 168 people on board. it was a caspian airlines jet, made in russia, heading from tehran to armenia. it smashed into a field about 75 miles north and west of the iranian capital. here's the scene. as you can see, the explosion left a massive crater in the ground and large pieces of wreckage scattered everywhere. witnesses say they saw fire on the plane's tail before it came crashing down. it's just the latest in a string of recent plane crashes in iran. tehran reports the country's airlines just cannot afford to maintain older jets because u.s. sanctions prevent them from getting spare parts. again, everything is our fault. but analysts point out that's less of an issue when those parts are coming from russia. north korea is apparently responding to recent reports that its dear leader is suffering of cancer by

steve centanni has more. buffalo, that sounds interesting. >> reporter: it is in the wake of 9/11, variety of unusual measure were considered or untaken to counter the al-qaeda threat. now we are learning sending the military in to make an an -- an ans in a major american city may have been considered. "new york times" reports it was debated in 2002 of sending troops to buffalo, new york to apprehend men suspected of plotting with al-qaeda came to be known as the lackawanna six. president bush ordered them arrested by the fbi monitoring that group, five were arrested in lackawanna near buff flow september of 2002 another picked up in bahrain all pleaded guilty and are serving time now. sending the military would have raised legal questions since the constitution bansc- -- 1878 law called posseÑi comitatus%#1 prohibits the activity on u.s. soil. >> if i was asked i would have said no, i don't believe you need to do it we are trained in the posse comitatus act it is important and we are not trained to be law e

steve centanni reports on today's announcement from illinois democrat roland burris. good evening, steve. >> good evening, chris. today's announcement came as no surprise because burris was badly damaged politically and had little chance of winning an election next year. supporters urged him not to give up and to run for a full senate term in 2010, but burris announced he won't do it, citing the demands of campaign fund raising. >> i was called to choose between spending my time raising funds or spending my time raising issues for my state. >> in fact, burris has reportedly raised only $20,000 for an election bid. burris' announcement marks the end of a political drama that began last year when illinois governor rod blagojevich was accused of trying to sell the senate seat once held by barack obama. after his arrest and before his impeachment, blagojevich appointed burris to the sake ant seat. >> please, don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man. >> the appointment came in clear defiance of a warning later recounted by democratic senate l

steve centanni is following that. >> he is set to announce an end date for his brief and controversialrod blagojevich, who was impeached for trying to sell the senate seat. burris never gained much of a foot hold. he decided not to run for reelection in 2010. the announcement is expected in half an hour. trace: no -- new word the cia is looking into congressional briefings. catherine herridge is following breaking news. >> a short time ago, a democrat on the house intelligence committee told fox that she believed the cia "kill the very serious covert program that was hidden from congress after 9/11." a senior official tells me that account is not accurate. they said the program was never fully operational. we confirmed the cia is conducting an internal review into the briefing process for congress. trace: catherine herridge. to the weather center, where his time matches the weather map. hot across -- his tie matches the weather map. hot across the country. >> dallas, 99. we have seen some areas already at 110. yesterday, oklahoma got up to 150 degrees, the highest temperature in the en

steve centanni is following this from washington, d.c. what are they doing today? this is the third of five space walks planned for this mission. you can see them getting in position. they will be traveling quite a distance from the airlock, and so they have to use a special tether as they do their work. it is about as far away as you could travel on the space station. of course, it will be difficult with all of the movements of the battery. each battery weighs about 375 çpounds, the size of a small refrigerator. jon: so we're not talking about aa-size batteries? >> absolutely. it is very delicate equipment. oday, the other two on friday. in all, there will be five space walks. quite a crowd as well, 13 people in all, the most ever. jon: besides the battery change, what else do they have to do? >> the main goal was to deliver a platform or porch for a scientific experiment as part of the japanese space lab. by the way, it got the all clear on that possible heat shield problem. there was concern about falling debris from the field tank. they were worried it may hav

more steve centanni has more from washington. >> the obama administration is pushing back against thosehe stimulus package didn't deliver the results promised. president-elect obama did have high hopes for the plan right after his election. here is the president then and one of his chief critics today. >> we need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape and that is focused on the 2.5 million jobs that i intend to create during the first part of my administration. we have to put people back to work. >> i think the stimulus was a big mistake. i think we can fairly safely declare it now a failure. it was sold to us as something that was going to jolt the economy, that was going to hold unemployment to 8%. unemployment has gone over 10%. >> the stimulus package was defended by the vice president who wrote a piece in the "new york times." he said the care with why we are carrying out the provision of the recovery act caused some people to ask whether we are moving too slowly but it was to provide over an extended period not a jolt that would last only a few months. s

steve centanni is live. >> even though f-22's and hate crimes don't seem to have much to do with eacher they are legislative partners in the senate and at least for the time being. as you probably remember, matthew shepherd is the student from wyoming who was beaten and left to die outside laramie in 1998. the legislation named after him is to broaden hate crime to include gender and sexual orientation. the federal government help in prosecuting the cases and allows the justice department to step in if it believes justice is not being done. the house has passed a hate crimes bill. now the senate has attached its version of the legislation as an amendment to defense spending. that bill is controversial. the defense spefrpding bill. not because of the hate crimes amendment but because it has spending for the f-22 fighter jet. the president an defense secretary are against additional spend for it feeling it has no central war with the current war fighting. the secretary of defense cut production as a way to save $1.75 billion. he was asked about it today about the hate crimes bilk linked

. >> dave: where does the legislation stand now and for that we go to steve centanni, in washington with alisyn, time is running out before congress takes the august recess and it is now looking like the president's original deadline might pass without either house passing a health care reform bill but, discussions are still under way on capitol hill, an idea gathering momentum is to pay for the plan with a tax on so-called gold plated cadillac insurance policies and chuck grassley says they are looking at that and democratic senator john kerry floated the idea, but the senate has said there will be no bill before the august recess, and, things don't look all that promising in the house, either. >> certainly the speaker and i both had the hope that we would be able to pass the health care bill, by the time we left here on the 31st of july. my view is at this point in time, that may the not be possible. >> reporter: now, the president meanwhile kept up a steady drum beat for health care reform and is said to be intrigued by the idea of the tax on the highest value insurance plans and is w