>> rick: hello, everybody. welcome to a brand-new hour inside america's news headquarters. i'm rick folbaum. >> arthel: i'm arthel neville. topping the news, a stark now warning to gops from senator john mccain not to repeat a key mistake from the past that led to disaster for republicans. >> rick: also casey anthony right now spending her last hours in jail and no doubt wondering just what she'll find when she gets out. we've got a live report from orlando. >> arthel: amazing story of recovery. some of the nature's most majestic creatures make their way to the big apple.

>> rick: we begin with the debt crisis in our nation's capitol. negotiations on hold between president obama and congressional lawmakers today. instead, both sides taking to the air waves making their cases directly to the american people. as an important august 2 deadline fast approaches, molly henneberg is live from washington. hi, molly. so the president is pushing more of his you give a little, i give a little message today. what can you tell us? >> hi, rick. always nice to see you two. republicans are not really buying it, but the president said in his weekly radio address today that since he's willing to include cuts or, quote, reforms, to entitlement programs like social security and medicare, as part of a debt negotiation, which he says doesn't, quote, make folks in my party too happy, then he believes the gop should go along with certain tax hikes. the president is appealing to americans today to back his plan of what he calls shared sacrifice. >> we have to ask everyone to

play their part because we are all part of the same country. we're all in this together. so i've put things on the table that are important to me and to democrats and i expect republican leaders to do the same. >> the president contended in his press conference yesterday that the public is on his side in this debate, but his call for spending cuts and tax hikes. rick? >> rick: so that's the president's plan. republicans said that's not the right idea though, right? >> republicans say the reason that the u.s. has such a debt problem now is not because americans are not paying enough in taxes. it's because washington spends too much. >> the situation has only gotten worse after the obama administration in its first two years in office, discretionary spending skyrocketed by 84%, including the failed stimulus, with spending reaching 25% of our nation's economic output. we haven't seen spending levels this high since world war ii! >> republican house speaker john

boehner has stole the president repeatedly that he does not have the votes in the house to pass a debt reduction package that includes tax hikes. house republicans are insisting that any increase in the debt ceiling is matched with equal or more spending cuts. rick? >> rick: molly henneberg, thank you. >> arthel: time is running out, we are now less than one week away from the first critical deadline. the u.s. could begin defaulting on its obligations by august 2. that is when the treasury department predicts we will hit our debt limit. but the real deadline is sooner than that. white house aides say a deal must be reached by july 22 in order for congress to draft and pass a bill in time to avoid defaulting. by the way, congress has raised the debt ceiling 102 times since it was first instituted in 1917 and ten times in the last decade.

>> rick: casey anthony is spending her final few hours behind bars. the florida history is getting out of jail tomorrow after being acquitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter, caylee. and the verdict, of course, sparking outrage across the country. authorities say that her freedom comes with a heavy price. serious concerns for her personal safety. casey stegall is live outside the orange county correction facility in orlando, florida. casey, now we're hearing that she may be headed to a private airport. is that right? >> yeah, rick. a lot of rumors have really been flying in the last 48 hours or so terms of where casey anthony is going to go once she walks out of this jail right back here behind me a free woman. we are now hearing that there is a private airport not far from this very location, the orlando executive airstrip. it's really only a couple of miles from where i'm standing right now. there are two terminals at that location and according to one of our own fox news channel

producers, an independent security company has basically indicated that casey anthony would be going to that location, but that security consultant would not elaborate and would not go into any further details with our producer in terms of how she knows that information. crews at the airport are, in fact, telling our own producer that high profile people do come and go from that specific airport and usually they don't even have to go through those terminals if they can come and go with ease. but they have been instructed there at the airport to not issue any further information to members of the media because obviously a lot of telephone calls are being made, a lot of checks are being made trying to figure out where casey anthony will go if it will, in fact, be at that private airport where private jets come and go at all hours of the day. let's say hypothetically she winds up there. then the next big question, where on earth would she fly to? we have heard everything from

puerto rico to new york, to staying with an aunt in texas. again, rick, it is simply speculation and that remains to be seen. but we will find out soon enough. >> rick: do we know anything about the kind of coaching or advice that casey anthony or her team are getting right now? >> we have seen her primary defense attorneys come and go from this particular jail where casey anthony has been incarcerated. on thursday it was jose baez and yesterday, chaney mason stopped by here and was inside for quite some time. both of those attorneys, baez and mason, have not spoken to reporters as they have been coming and going. but, of course, we assume that they are inside, they are coaching her on trying to get through life when she walks away from this facility, and carefully orchestrating her release from jail because as we know, death threats have been made against casey anthony.

this has really struck a cord, this not guilty verdict on that first degree count of murder, really struck a cord with a lot of people in america and there are very strong emotions, a lot of people think she is walking away and she has really gotten away with murdering her own daughter. so safety is of the utmost importance here. they want to make sure that she is not in harm's way, rick. >> rick: casey stegall live for us today in orlando, florida. thanks so much. >> arthel: we go to this now, drivers in los angeles seem to have taken fears of carmageddon to heart. have you heard about it? authorities shutting down a ten-mile stretch of one of the nation's busiest highways last night, letting work crews begin a massive road project. the normally gridlocked highway now looking like a ghost town. our reporter is live in l.a looks pretty empty back there, unusual sight. right? >> yeah, it is an unusual sight. i'm going to steal a line from a london newspaper, this story making news around the world.

i'll steal this line from the mail on-line is that carmageddon or kramaheaven? i didn't feel more like carma heaven. you can see the dump trucks lining up to take away some of the chunks of concrete that are being hammered away up on that bridge. that bridge up there is the bridge that's been here for 51 years, built in 1959. the reason why they're demolishing half of it is to expand the south half and then they'll expand the north half next year so they can expand the freeway underneath it. it's a necessary thing. they say they have to do it. but it has set off all kinds of bells ask alarms about the possibility of traffic gridlock and nightmarish situations. we really haven't seen that yet. and so far so good. but this is a 53-hour event. right now, saturday of it seems to be okay because there were many warnings to stay in your neighborhoods because really traffic could get bad.

people may very well, at least according to politicians, consume out tomorrow and forget about all those warnings and then we could have problems then. so nobody is actually giving up on the notion that this could be carmageddon, but at the moment, it seems a little more like carmaheaven. >> arthel: i like that because i have been stuck on that 405 too many times to just talk about it. you know there are serious concerns because you've got the airports there off of there. and then you got emergency services, ambulances that would normally use that route. >> yeah. that's right. you know as well as i do, all the emergencies we have in this city, it's an enormous city with millions of people, in order to prepare for this, and there was a tremendous amount of preparation -- l.a.x., which has 20,000 employees, had to start making special arrangements. they have an incident management center running and they say 170,000 people will come in and

out of there today in the way of travelers. another 170,000 tomorrow. plus their 20,000. so you're talking about a potential gridlock over near the airport in the 405. we have emergency services like hospitals which are housing nurses and doctors in empty rooms to be sure they have people to handle emergencies if emergencies happen. right here which only has one skinny road aside this freeway for traffic to go through, they've set up little mini police stations and fire stations all over the place so if there is an emergency, they can get to it right away. and many law enforcement are working right now on motorcycles so they can get in and out of situations as they have to. a lot of people were taking it lightly. after all, we've had celebrities like ashton cup they are and kim kardashian tweeting about staying home. but then by the same token, there is this very serious side of this on what could go wrong.

we have about another 40 hours to deal with this and we'll sort of see where it all goes. we hope it will go well. >> arthel: i have a good feeling about it. i think it's going to work just fine and those guys are going to meet their deadline, 'cause if not, they've got to pay like $70,000 an hour if they're late? >> it's $6,000 for every ten minutes for each side of the freeway. so potentially, $12,000 if they don't get these two sides open up, every ten minutes. so they have plenty of incentive to get it done. why don't you and i think carmaheaven. >> arthel: i'm thinking it right there with you. thank you for the report. >> you bet. >> rick: i like how the road crew looks. one way to avoid carmageddon out west, take off the road and take off in the skies. jetblue is offering a two new flights a day to help southern californians hop over the 405 section. between long beach and bob hope

airport cost 4 bucks each way. >> they found crews to staff the aircraft. we found the aircraft, period, and put a schedule throughout and rolled it out today at 12:30. direct tv will be operational, but with the 20 minute flight, you might not catch your whole show. >> rick: quite a bargain. right? if you want a roomier seat with early boarding, that's going to cost you about a dollar more. still not bad. >> arthel: new details on the jet collision on a runway at boston's logan airport. the national transportation safety board now joining the investigation. passengers describe thursday's crash, as terrifying when the wing of a moving delta plane clipped the tail of a smaller regional jet sitting on a taxiway. both planes were taken out of service. investigators hope to have a preliminary report on what actually caused that crash within the next two weeks. >> rick: delta is about to cut back on some of its u.s. routes. the airline says 15 cities

around the country are going to be affected by this. claim it's losing $14 million a year serving these smaller cities, while delta's overall flights average over 80% full in smaller markets, the average plane loads are as low as 12%. delta serves small cities under a federal program that provides subsidies to airlines that fly to cities that otherwise might not have any air service. >> arthel: historic protests rocking syria's biggest cities after months of violent unrest. tens of thousands defying security forces and firing opposition groups around the world to work to overthrow the al assad regime. >> at least 28 people were killed in demonstrations on friday, but despite the government crackdown, it was the largest show of protesters since the uprisings began in march. in the areas where the government brutality has been the most intense, this shows

that security forces are having a tough time keeping the revolt contained. activists say since the uprising began in march, some 1600 people have been killed. most of them unarmed protesters. on saturday, shops were closed as people attended funerals of those killed friday. tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on saturday following the funerals, shouting, we want freedom. and god is great. syrian forces killed four and wounded five when they opened fired at pro-democracy demonstrations. in turkey, syrian opposition figures held a conference to find ways to oust al assad. hillary clinton criticized the crackdown. >> syria's future is up to the syrian people, but, of course, the efforts by the opposition to come together to organize, to be able to articulate an agenda are an important part of political reform.

>> amid the unrest in syria, there are reports syria shipped weapons to hezbollah. reena ninan, fox news. thank you very much. >> rick: this is an extreme weather alert. dangerous heat wave sweeping across the country. in some parts of the u.s., highs will reach into the 100s and factor in the humidity, we're talking 115 degrees. maria molina is here. i was talking to my grandmother in south florida, she said it feels like it's in the 100s there. >> it feels like that in a lot of the country, unfortunately. this is going to continue and right now the thermometer point to go triple digit heat in dallas, texas. we're looking at 100 degrees out there. 97 as far north as rapid city, north dakota. it's a widespread area and unfortunately, the heat is going to continue to spread as we head into the next several days. you mentioned the humidity. factor it in and we're looking

at current heat index values in the triple digits across the center of the nation and 97 is what it feels like in rapid city. because of the heat and humidity, we have a number of heat advisories across 15 states, as far south as dallas, texas. it takes a lot for a heat advisory to be issued out for north central texas, by the way. we are looking at up to 115 heat indexes in these region, especially those shaded in red and again, this is going to continue as we head into tomorrow, it's actually going to get worse. minneapolis, 104 will be the actual temperature tomorrow. humidity, factored into that, it will feel hotter. the reason for all of this is because we have a large area of high pressure that's going to sit in this area and it will slowly track eastward. so pushing in all of that hot air east, even here in new york, we'll be looking at highs in the 90s as we head into monday. around that area of high pressure, we do have showers and storms bringing heavy rain along

portions of the gulf coast. that's good news. we really need the rain across portions of louisiana. also southern mississippi, alabama and georgia and the florida panhandle. we also is a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms with the potential to become severe. so tornado watch has been issued just now across eastern north dakota and northern minnesota until midnight local time. so we'll continue to track that area for the potential of some tornadic storms to develop. otherwise monday, more heat, 90s widespread across the center of the country and 91 will be the high here in new york city. guys, stay safe and hydrated. >> rick: all right. maria, thanks so much. >> arthel: you got the weather report from your grandmother. what do you call your grandmother? >> mom mom. >> arthel: i call mine mama and the other one mommy. >> rick: how nice. >> arthel: hold on to your wallets. experts say higher taxes are on the way. we will tell you why and how you can prepare for the increase. >> rick: also president obama rolling out the welcome mat for

the dalai lama. sparking outrage from china. we'll tell you what it means for relations between the two countries. >> arthel: turning global trade on its head. one u.s. state is selling chop sticks to china. >> rick: really? >> arthel: we'll tell you where. that's going to come up. verizon claims i 4g lte is twi as fast as &t. we're putting them to the test against the speed of a rescue unit. go ! they're downloading a music album. the first network to finish gets rescued.

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>> rick: hope you're enjoying your summer saturday. here are some of the top stories we're following. president obama meeting with the spiritual leader, the dalai lama, amidst major backlash. china is calling on the president to cancel the meeting, calling him a splittist who is bent on dividing their nation. that meeting is taking place. security experts saying casey anthony had better watch her back. a lot of people recommending she stay in some kind of safe house

when she's released tomorrow until public anger surrounding her trial dies down a bit. and the congressman from ohio, dennis kucinich, considering a major move west. the democrat weighing plans to seek a congressional seat in washington state, leaving ohio where he has served for decades. >> arthel: there is no end in sight to the stand-off over the debt ceiling, but one outcome seems likely, experts saying higher taxes are on the way. for one thing, states are suffering from massive budget shortfalls, plus a series of tax breaks are set to expire. so what moves should you be making to brace for the tax hikes ahead? patricia powell from powell financial group joins us live on set. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> arthel: we were chatting in the commercial and you sort of gave me headache because you said -- not you, but the information is, guess what? higher taxes are already here. >> absolutely. this is really serious to begin with. we already have taxes, higher

tacks coming down the pike. it's the law of the land. it's not what they have to vote on this week or next week. it's the law of the land. we have higher tacks in what they call the bush tax cuts expiring and that will happen in a year and a half. what that means is that if you're in the top tax bracket, your taxes will go up by 13%. but if you're in the lowest tax bracket -- these are the bottom taxpayers, your tax bracket will go up by 50% from a 10% tax bracket to a 15% tack bracket. why? because the bush tax cuts gave preference to people at the bottom of the tax rolls. so the perversity here is you're going to hurt the people you keep talking about trying to help. >> arthel: that's what the white house is saying, right? i'm not sure. i think it's getting all confusing. they want to extend -- or expire for those making a certain amount of money. >> yes. they've done that, too.

that's the obamacare law. remember, there is two taxes built into that. these are the people that the obama people define as wealthy. this is a $200,000 earner. if you're singer or $250,000 if you're a family. you're going to be adding to the top tax bracket which just went up 13%, adding 0.9% to your earned income, and you'll be adding 3.8% to your unearned income. meaning that your tax bracket could now be 43.4% and that doesn't count social security tax. that doesn't count the medicare tax. and it doesn't count state tax that you already have people who will be paying 50% of what they make into the government between the state and federal government. so what is the fair share? is it fair for somebody to take more than 50 cents out of your pocket for every dollar earned? i don't have the answer. >> arthel: how does the government get around that? you've got the federal government and the state government. how do you get around that? >> the way to get around -- there is no way to perfectly get

around that. but if you plan a little bit, you might be able to keep a couple more bucks in your pocket. first of all, the capital gains laws are changing. right now the maximum capital gains rate for a long-term capital capital gain is 15ers%. when the new law comes in, that's 20%. 33% increase. somebody out there has the potential, $10,000 capital gain, right now for federal purposes they might pay $1,500. if they wait 18 months, they could pay $2,000. that's $500 in their pocket or in the federal government's pocket. so you want to look at your capital gains, see whether it makes any sense for you to actually bring them forward, get rid of them now as oppose -- usually we defer, defer. that may not be good advice in this environment. >> arthel: we're running a little bit out of time. it's so fascinating. but before the -- the final point i would like for you to cover, because all we're hearing is the squabble in washington over one side wants to raise taxes and some people on the

other side say no more tax increases. so what is the bottom line from the person who is in iowa, middle america, who they're working hard every day, what do they want to hear out of washington? >> the bottom line is, the government has never -- we've never experience add government that spent money more efficiently than you do. whether you're sitting in iowa or new jersey or california, you as a consumer are much more efficient than our federal government. so if you want to take money out of the pockets of the people and give it to the government to redistribute it, what you will have is a less and less efficient government. you will have less and less growth and in my opinion, you will have the recession of 2013- 2014. oh, and by the way, higher unemployment will go with that. >> arthel: don't like that. pat powell, thank you for stopping by here and breaking it down for us. >> thank you. it's serious stuff. >> arthel: it is very serious. thank you so much, pat. appreciate it. >> rick: i think i need a couple

of aspirin now. >> arthel: yeah, i think i have a headache now. >> rick: let's switch gears. we'll talk more about the debt coming up a little later on. we have a debate in a couple of minutes. they're running out of chopsticks. >> arthel: what? >> rick: in china. this is not a joke. asian markets are looking to american companies to pick up the slack. elizabeth prann is live in atlanta with more. kind of sounds like a punch line to a joke, but i guess it's not. >> no, it's not. that's right. china is growing so quickly, they're running out of natural resources, which is why savvy business owner opened up georgia chopsticks three hours south of atlanta. he's tapping into an abundance of natural resources. poplar trees, sweet gum trees, that they grow in abundance. he's tapping into a work force, one that is suffering from a 13% unemployment rate in america. a lot of those people are very eager to get those hours. >> we have 50, 60 employees right now.

our plan is at the end of this year, we'll have 150 employees. when we have final products, like we have packaging machines to come in here, we'll grow to 300 to 400 employees. >> it takes eight poplar trees to make a million chopsticks. he's making an average of 2 million chopsticks a day. local officials tell us that the company is simply putting america on the map. take a listen. >> chopsticks are a staple in asia. it's like our forks and spoons or napkins. these basic goods being made here in south georgia and shipped to everyday families in the pacific rim is a pretty neat thing when you consider how much we import as a nation from china. >> now, lee said he's looking at

additional packaging, machinery and additional locations to expand. as of right now, he has a sign on the door saying they're not hiring, but there is applicants who come every day looking for work. rick? >> rick: elizabeth prann, it is nice to hear about exports to china for a change. thanks. >> arthel: arizona senator john mccain warning a leading presidential candidate to change course on the heated debt ceiling debate. is he right? we've got a fair and balanced debate coming up next. >> rick: thousands of people taking to the streets in the capitol of libya supporting the dictator, moammar gadhafi, while rebels are making gains miles away. we've got a live report straight ahead.

>> arthel: it is the bottom of

the hour. time for the top of the news. hugo chavez is leaving his country to undergo cancer treatment in cuba. he just returned from cuba last month after having surgery to remove a malignant tumor. >> rick: secretary of state hillary clinton in turkey talking tough with the nato ally. she is expressing concerns over turkey's recent crackdown on journalists and religious freedom. >> arthel: final movie in the harry potter franchise casting a spell in the box office, rake not guilty a record breaking first day haul totaling more than $92 million. >> rick: arizona senator john mccain talking tough this week to fellow gop lawmakers, including the congresswoman from minnesota, michelle bachman, who is running for president. taking her to task for opposing a debt ceiling hike, but comparing her to then senator barak obama who did the same exact thing back in 2006. in an interview on-line, senator

mccain warning his party, the president obama could get leeway from what mccain calls a cheering media to paint the gop as responsible for any economic trouble caused by a default. joining us now for a fair and balanced debate, former communications director for house speaker dennis hastert and kristy, former spokeswoman for vermont governor howard dean, and the president of new heights communications. it's nice to see you both. thank you for being here. rob, let me start with you. is senator mccain right? >> i think senator mccain has a great point in that we want to get to some type of deal that does a massive amount of spending cuts, but doesn't do tax increases. i think to oppose a deal is extremely dangerous if we actually default, but right now i think every leader, the president and republican leaders agree, that they don't want to get that far. but we can't have tax increases because a tax increase is not created a job, it's not a

silverbullet. and no president frankly has ever been reelected since fdr for trying to raise taxes. >> rick: at the same time when we look at this debate that is going on now, kristy, do you think that there is any chance that the president of the united states, democratic president will be talking about making cuts to entitlements and cutting government spending were it not for demands from the republicans? >> look, i have to agree with senator mccain when he said that there is some danger here for republicans. as we've seen in poll after poll, americans are saying that they actually trust president obama and not republicans in congress. both to handle the economy and if this crisis goes through, they're going to blame republicans and not the president. that's because they know the republicans are the ones who racked up this massive debt in the first place through two unpaid for wars and tax cuts for millionaires. now they're trying to ruin our economy by not actually paying for the debt that they themselves racked up.

>> rick: ron, i want you to spahn, but i want to ask you because it seems like they're digging in their heels on no new revenues at all across the board. it seems like the republicans are really just sort of trying to appeal to their base and i'm wondering why, 'cause the base isn't going anywhere. it's independents they need to attract and the point that christy makes is a pretty good one, that polls do show that independents out there are in favor of raising taxes on the most wealthy no matter what the republicans are saying. >> raising taxes is a job killer. they know it. republicans like you said, drug the democrats this far kicking and screaming, just like president obama was able to get a trillion dollars health care spending bill -- >> rick: but independents, ron, are in favor of raising taxes on the wealthiest. >> i'll tell you what, president obama in the end is going to get

the massive amount of blame here because he's the president of the united states. the buck stops here. everyone is going to get some share of blame, but president obama, by going out there and warning americans they may not get social security checks and scaring the heck out of everybody is not the way to act when you're trying to get a deal with republicans. >> rick: christy, what happens if the mitch mcconnell deal happens? the offer that he's put out there that really puts the onus entirely on president obama as far as raising the debt ceiling and allows republicans to never, ever, ever have to vote on raising the debt ceiling, i mean, this is a guy in senator mcconnell, who has said that his number one priority is keeping president obama from winning another term in office. why would president obama sign anything that was written by mitch mcconnell? >> look, i think americans get this. they understand that, for example, if they were to rack up a big bill on their macy's card and try not to pay it, what would happen? they would take away your card. i think americans across are

seeing the way republicans are acting in congress and they're saying, i think we should take away their card. these guys are not responsible economic stewards. so i don't think that president obama has too much to worry about here. >> rick: ron, how do you think people around the country are feeling about this? we were talking with one of our financial experts here. talking about folks in iowa and new jersey. the average person out there who is watching this debate take place between republicans and democrats, what do you think they're thinking about this? >> first of all, i don't think they're going to go out and shop at macy's. i think they're going to get pretty nervous about taking out that credit card. it's getting pretty scary. the stakes are growing and people are getting really nervous that we haven't come to some sort of an agreement yet. frankly, it's the republicans that have been pushing this because we've spent so much over so many years, yes, both republican and democratic administrations are to blame, but now it's time to stop. and yet, you have a president of the united states advocating for

tax increases at a time of massive unemployment. that just seems fundamentally wrong and frankly, the polls may show some support for president obama there, but if you look at his reelection polling, it looks pretty bad! if we're in the same position we're in this time next year, i'll tell you what, he won't be reelected. we'll have a republican president. >> rick: christy, historically speaking, ron has a good point because no president has won reelection with unemployment rates as high as the ones we're looking at right now. let me give you the last word because i think folks in iowa, jersey, wherever they are are watching our lawmakers in washington and saying, let's get rid of all of them. all of them, democrats and republicans alike. >> i disagree. i think they're seeing president obama as a responsible leader and i think they are seeing the republicans in congress as being willing to put our economy into absolute economic ruin to cut money for troops that are fighting overseas, cut social security and medicare and send more people out of work just to

hold to this point and i don't think those are values that americans agree with. >> rick: i appreciate both of you coming on. christy, used to work for the vermont governor, ron, used to work for deny hastert. enjoy the rest of your weekend. >> thanks so much. >> arthel: this is a fox news alert. heavy fighting in libya. the rebels holding the high ground on the outskirts of tripoli. we're getting reports of pro-gadhafi forces unleashing a brutal attack, killing at least ten rebels in the key oil port of braga. leeland vittert with the latest. >> arthel, we're having these battles go back and forth. and you see the grad rockets being fired. it's dramatic video, but neither

side being able to make any gains on the battlefield. you were talking about big distances and very key cities, especially when it comes to the town of braga, which is where the video you're seeing is coming out of. it's a fierce battle because of the key oil refinery that gadhafi holds and there is a battle going on in the western mountains as the rebels try to cut off an oil pipeline supplying tripoli right now. but the rebels aren't able to project enough power in order to take any of these towns. gadhafi's forces aren't able to push them back at all. inside tripoli, we're seeing massive rallies. this is a lot of the kind of political theater that we have seen coming out of the gadhafi regime. huge rallies in support of gadhafi. the problem is, it's very difficult to tell whether these people are actually in support or simply scared for their lives. that's why they're coming out. they're coming out for bread or extra money, you just don't know in this case with the regime. journalists are not allowed to freely act and report from inside of tripoli and the

capitol. here in misrata where we are, which is a city under siege over the past couple of days, the amount of grad rocket attacks have increased just since we've been on the roof here in the past hour, there have been no less than 15 or 20 loud thuds as the rockets around our hotel have come in somewhere between a mile, two miles, three miles away from us. some of those missiles have been aimed at the port, which is the only way for the rebels here to get resupplied. so clearly gadhafi has the ability to project force and the willingness in order to try and rein terror down on his own citizens despite four months of the nato air strikes. arthel, back to you. >> arthel: thank you very much for that report. >> rick: coming up, we'll lighten it up. do you eat a lot of yogurt? >> i do. >> rick: my wife and kids love it. i'm a chocolate pudding guy. buying yogurt at the grocery store used to be so easy. so many choices and so many varieties. it can be overwhelming. luckily our friends from

"consumer reports" and shop smart magazine have seemed up and they'll make sense of it all. >> arthel: i can't wait for that. look at this guy's marine life thrive not guilty a place that might surprise you. we'll tell you where the whales are making a comeback. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them. thought they were dead. [ laughter ] [ grunting ] huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. america's number one weed killer. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. guaranteed. weeds won't play dead, they'll stay dead. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem.

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our girl's an architect. our boy's a genius. we are awesome parents! biddly-boop. [ male announcer ] if you find a lower rate on a room you've booked, we won't just match it. we'll give you $50 towards your next trip. [ gnome ] it's go time. >> rick: some of the biggest creatures in the sea are making a big comeback in the waters surrounding new york city. the thriving wild life is sparking sightseeing tours and creating an unlikely tourist

attraction. julie banderas has the latest. great story. >> yeah. absolutely. who needs to waste the gas money to go all the way to cape cod when you can do it right here? it's not what you would imagine to go whale watching, but beneath the sea just ten miles from new york city swims more marine life than there has been in the past century. sharks, dolphins and, yes, even whales are settling back into the big apple after being driven out by polluted water and overfishing. but after decades of antihunting laws and a major effort to clean the waters around the hudson bay, experts credit humans for the thriving mammals. >> new york is surrounded by water and the waters are being more productive now. there is more bait, more mammals, and people that had to go to cape cod to go whale watching and dolphin watching don't have to go now. >> now in its second year of running boat tours from queens, tom, captain of two ferry boats, says that pods of aquatic mammals off the city's coast have increased ten fold. he went from seeing ten whales a

year to 100, incredible numbers of dolphins, and closer to shore, he recently started giving weekend tours where many more seals have been spotted in of all places, the new york harbor. >> i'm from manhattan. never knew this existed. believe it or not. >> when i saw it, i remember thinking, really? that close? and we're still not that far off of shore and they're not that far away from here. kind of amazing. >> as many as 30 to 50 fin whales live full time in the waters past the bridge, not including those that migrate with the seasons. right now there are efforts to raise money to install a monitoring system much like one in place in boston, massachusetts that would notify boats to slow down to keep the whales from being killed by passing ships. >> rick: i want to hear a dolphin with a new york accent. julie banderas, thanks so much. when we come back, are you

looking to find the best yogurts out there? arthel, what have you got? >> it's not chocolate pudding or rice pudding. it's delicious yogurt and you should eat some. i'm going to call your grandmother who is watching us. stick around for the best in yogurt at your local grocery store. this is good.

>> arthel: we are rating popular healthy snacks. millions of americans -- i know you have healthy snacks. there are so many different option when is it comes to yogurt. >> rick: who knew there was so many choices? "consumer reports" sorting it out, from greek yogurts to probiotics to smoothies. deputy editor of shop smart magazine and we love when you stop by. thank you very much. let me ask you, probioticses, what are they? >> they are live micro organisms that are in these. these are crawling with them. but so is our gut. these are very similar to what's already in our intestines. you want them in there. they're really healthy. they're safe to eat, unless you have -- well, anyway, they're very safe to eat if you're a healthy person, they're safe to eat and what they do is restore the balance of the bacteria that's in your stomach, your gut, if you've had a round of

bites, gastrointestinal upset, this can be very good. plus these are like great bone food, tons of calcium, just like milk and loaded with protein. so really good healthy food. >> arthel: let's start with this one. you've got this one. looks like face. >> it's pronounced fayay. these are our winners. the two greek. we taste tested the greek yogurt regular yogurt and yogurt drinks. the greek yogurt, these two greek yogurts are our taste testers favorites. they were rich, creamy, and the fruit actually tasted like natural real fruit. >> rick: you like one? >> arthel: i like these two. >> rick: let me try this. these are greek yogurt. they're more expensive? >> they are a little more expensive. >> rick: is it worth it? >> yes, it is, because if you're a vegetarian and trying to get quality protein, these have twice the amount of the regular yogurt. that's 14-grams of protein,

which is excellent. they make a nice mask. >> rick: i'm not rubbing it on my taste. >> arthel: it's good, isn't it? >> rick: it is good. >> these are runners up. i actually happen to be a danno dannon. we have these. organic yogurt, regular, and the stony field, greek yogurt which was a little bit chalky, so that's why it didn't make it with the rest of the greek yogurt. then we taste tested the yogurt drinks. also swimming with those good beneficial bacteria. >> rick: my big girls love these. are they good? >> they are good. they're good, they're healthy. it's a good healthy drink. this isn't very much for 75 cents, but this is the danon. this did very well. this is one of our favorites. this one is -- this one is from trader joe's.

so 75 cents is really a good price for this. and this is the stony field yogurt drink. all three we like. but this is rating number one, two, three. >> arthel: how did you rate them? i know you said in terms of those that have the best benefits and price? >> yes. we sent them out. they all have great benefits. they all have the probiotics, crawling with them. so that's a given. all of them are very good in there. then we wanted to say, health isn't everything, how do they taste? we had our trained sensory testers, you are trained to do these projects and these are their picks. >> rick: i'm going to get to eat extra yogurt for the crowd here. >> arthel: good. we've got people from michigan, somebody's aunt watching in atlanta. >> danette. >> rick: you want to take one of these. >> arthel: this is good stuff. what's your favorite? >> my favorite, my guys, my husband and my son are, which

hobani fans. >> arthel: very good. >> rick: thanks for coming out today. everybody like their yogurt? thank you so much. take it easy, everybody. enjoy the weekend. copd makes it hard to breathe,

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