Transcripts For FOXNEWS Americas Newsroom 20120206

his swif susan vanished in 2009. no charges were ever filed against josh powell and susan was never found. some reaction today. >> the explosion and. it was huge, black, dark, smoke. there was just like white stuff all over the place. >> this was something deeply wrong. this was something evil. this was a horrible murder of two little kids. >> we knew he was a dangerous person. we knew he probably had murdered susan or helped with it. martha: what a story. dan springer streaming live from dwram graham washington. what are folks on the seal telling you this morning. >> reporter: it all happened very quickly, martha. let me give you the timeline. at 12:30 this afternoon, graham, washington. caseworker pulled up with the two workers inside. they run inside the her dad's house ahead of her. when she gets up to the front door, the door is locked. josh powell locked her outside. she calls a supervisor. within minutes there is explosion. all three people inside dead. police are calling it murder suicide. 30 minutes earlier he sent his attorney an e-mail, saying i'm sorry, good-bye. powell was upset with a judge's ruling before he get his kids back he would have to pass a psycho sexual evaluation and polygraph test. he lost cuss did i when he was charged with child pornography and voyeurism. susan powell's family is deaf stated. >> i think it came down to two things. he knew the police were really close. he was afraid the polygraph. i don't think the polygraph was going to ask him the questions he was afraid of. i think he saw a opportunity to hurt a whole lot of people at the time he ended it for himself and so he took the boys with him. >> reporter: those two boys were given to chuck and judy coax who always believed josh had something to do with susan's disappearance. martha: does this end the missing person's investigation, dan? >> reporter: it does not. utah police are on the way to washington police to see if they can find the truth but the truth may have died with josh powell. washington state officials will look into what happened with the case. could the caseworker have done something different. of course they're saying he had two supervised visits a week. this was supposed to be supervised. the caseworker was supposed to be inside the house. she could not get inside the house. there will be investigation into that. the officials said yesterday there was no indication the children were in any danger. martha. martha: you think about the cox family and all they have gone through with their daughter missing in this case and now to have lost these two grandchildren as well, it is so tragic. dan, we will continue to follow your reporting on this thank you. gregg: there is a candlelight vigil at the local elementary school for the children last night. the oldest boy, charlie, was a student there. about 60 people placing stuffed animals, balloons, candles in a makeshift memorial. >> susan's father said one consolation i have now is that those boys are with their mother again. i was afraid if he had the chance the only way he could win this game he was playing was to kill them and i really felt that he was going to do that. martha: let's take a look how all this began. susan powell was reported missing by her husband back in 2009. at that time he appeared about as distressed as any husband could be. watch this. >> my boys love her. >> how are they doing? >> they're doing okay. >> do you have any idea what happened to her? >> no. thank you. and any help to try to find her would be appreciated. so really, that's all. we just, she's somewhere. martha: boy how eerie to look back at that moment. job powell told police he left his home midnight december the 7th to go camping, folks thought it was strange to go camping with his two young boys at midnight while he claimed his wife was sleeping. powell the next day called susan's father to tell him she was missing. a week later he was asked to give a dna sample. he was labeledded as a person of interest. in very strange twist he took out a restraining order against susan's father forbidding him to approach his sons. just last week during a custody hearing over the two little boys, powell was ordered to undergo a psycho sexual evaluation. as you heard in dan's piece that may be what he didn't want to face. that may be what triggered this horrendous act last night. gregg: we'll have a lot more coming up into the police investigation into susan powell's disappearance and why the police were looking into her husband josh powell as a person of interest. martha: in another case from a couple years ago, jury election is underway for the man accused of killing this young university of virginia lacrosse player. yardly love was beat in her off-campus apartment. george huguely is charged with her murder. he admitted he kicked in her door and violently shook her causing her head to hit the wall several times. she was a member of the university of virginia lacrosse team. gregg: republican presidential candidates now turning to the state of colorado. mitt romney, rick santorum and newt gingrich all holding campaign events in the rocky mountain state today ahead of tomorrow's caucuses. as of right now ron paul has no events scheduled. romney enters the colorado caucuses with some considerable momentum. the former massachusetts governor won that state back in 2008. martha? martha: well the final results from this weekend's caucuses in nevada are officially n took them a little while to come in. as we've been reporting mitt romney walked away with this one, folks, resounding victory finishing with 50% of the caucus vote in nevada. he beat rivals newt gingrich, ron paul and rick santorum hand dilly. the party leaders blamed the delay on counting votes of old-fashioned system they use of handwritten ballots. >> it is very complex to begin with. you're talking about 38 site locations, thousands and thousands of people, handball lots. i can tell you that on the most part everything was, went beautifully. martha: director tore for the nevada republican party representatives each of the campaigns approved that counting process beforehand. so they got what they knew what was coming so it took a while. gregg: a major u-turn for one u.s. automaker that was bailed out by the government just three years ago. general motors setting its sights on a goal that may have at one time seemed impossible, $10 billion in annual profits? what may be most surprising of all, they could pull it off. stuart varney is anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. well, what do you think of this. >> let me give you the numbers now. gm's numbers now are solid. $8 billion in profits last year. maybe $10 billion this year. 13,000 workers rehired after the bankruptcy. and, they, and also you got to remember that general motors profit margins are now up. that's where they are now. now look at where they are coming from. take a look at this. the american taxpayer gave general motors $51 billion 8. they have paid back just 24 billion, meaning we own one third, roughly 32% of general motors. don't forget gm will not pay any federal income tax to the government for the next two years. remember the chevy volt, the hybrid electric car? that is heavily subsidized and that is not doing well. that's where gm is coming from. also look at ford, which took no bailout money at all. ford is profitable. look at chrysler, which did take a lot of taxpayer's money. it was given free to the italians. so is general motors back? you could say it is profitable, it is stable and it has got good profit margins but it is still very much in the hole to the taxpayer. gregg: but the value of the stock of general motors, i think, and correct me if i'm wrong, is below the price at which taxpayers paid for it. there is talk about the government selling its shares. they would lose i think up to $10 billion taxpayer money if they tried to sell that stock, wouldn't they? >> the stock as of right now is at $26 a share. it has to go to $53 a share and we sell our one-third stake. if it goes to 53 we get our money back. in the unlikely event it goes to 53 and we're able to sell all of those shares without destroying the market. gregg: if we sold the shares the stock price would probably go down because the stake is so high, right? >> if you flood the market with millions and millions of shares all of sudden or even over a short period of time you would depress the price of that stock. gregg: start varney, thanks very much. appreciate it. >> those are just a few of the stories we're watching for you this monday morning on "america's newsroom." mitt romney on a roll. february is shaping up to be a pretty good month for his campaign but can he keep the momentum going? we have new poll numbers that could spell trouble for the frontrunner. gregg: brutal war in syria is on the horizon one that threatens more instability in the middle east. the united nations they can't seem to do anything about it. we're live on that subject. >> another crisis for the cruise industry of the thousands of people suddenly fall violently ill on two different ships. we're going to tell you what you need to know. >> it was okay until a couple days ago and i guess this virus started on board and they came out with all the hazmat equipment and took people in rooms and isolated them. [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar than leading regar juice drinks. because less sugar is a better way to fly. ♪ just not literally. capri sun. respect what's in the pouch. ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. martha: there's new violence sweeping across egypt's capital today. [shouting]. martha: incredible scenes we've seen on the streets of cairo. this is the fifth day in a row protesters clashing with security forces. the crowd is throwing rocks and bottles. police are firing tear gas from armored trucks at people in the street. the protesters denouncing police actions during a deadly riot that broke out last week after a soccer match. at least 74 people were killed on that horrific day in egypt and about a dozen have died in the protests in the days that followed. gregg: mitt romney's campaign is starting strong the month of february with a decisive win in nevada. romney is already turning his attention to president obama and away from his gop rivals. >> let me ask you, our vision for the future could not be more different than his. president obama will grow government and amass more trillion dollar deficits. i will not just slow the growth of government. i will cut it. i will not -- [cheers and applause] i will not just freeze government's share of the total economy. i will reduce it. without raising taxes i will finally balanced american budget. [cheers and applause] gregg: bob cusack is managing editor of "the hill" and joins us live. good to see you. i have the fox news entrance polls are very interesting. mitt romney won in the state of nevada with support across just about every group of voters including, very conservative voters, strong tea party supporters and evangelical christians. might that help dispel concern within the party, especially among those who have been somewhat skeptical of his candidacy and his conservative credentials? >> i mean to some degree i think it will, gregg, but he did pretty well here in 2008 in nevada. so he hasn't had a major win but the good news he is certainly closing in on the nomination. he has the momentum. he has the money. the map looks very good for him in february. we're not having a debate a day. so that doesn't help newt gingrich. so that's a good news for newt gingrich. bad news is president obama's numbers are looking better because the unemployment figure has gone down at least on friday. gregg: indeed. now romney is a strong favorite in, you mentioned the month of february is good for him, maine, colorado, arizona and michigan. he seems to be leading there in those states. he is tied in minnesota. but newt gingrich has a strategy and he laid some of it out the other evening at his news conference. he is counting on the march 6th super tuesday, winning georgia, tennessee, oklahoma. next week, alabama and mississippi and he plans to win texas in april. what do you think of that strategy? >> well it is a defensive strategy because he will do pretty well in the south but how he gets there? he will be limping into super tuesday. can he win those states, some of those states? surely. there are some obstacles for him. and the base does seem to be reluctantly coalescing behind romney and, the lack of debates really hurts gingrich because he doesn't have the organization or the money that romney has. gregg: he does have money woes apparently. some republican leaders claim that gingrich's campaign is now running on the fumes of malice. in fact dick armey, former majority leader in the house, who is a leading figure in the tea party said this. quote, i think he is digressed into a state of taking a second-rate campaign and turning it into a first-rate vendetta. this is a tea party figure here. what do you make of that? >> sure. well, dick armey should also be noted tried to topple gingrich as speaker. army and gingrich are not the best of friends. gregg: right. >> gregg, this will go on for a while. romney can not formally clinch this thing based on delegates and how the republican party does it until april at earliest. if gingrich wants to stay on he can make the case, he hasn't clinched it i will make it to the convention. will it go all the way to the convention. at least in the spring. gregg: romney was leading in a bunch of february states and tied in minnesota. the guy he is tied with is rick santorum. well, actually has a statistical two-point lead there in the latest polling data. what do you make of santorum's candidacy now? >> he just hasn't captured that momentum. he had it so much after iowa. he has done decently in the debates but he hasn't caught fire. he doesn't have the money. he also doesn't have a huge backer like gingrich does, las vegas sheldon adelson putting in millions of dollars in a super pac. san tore rum is hurt by that and he is hurt by this lack of momentum where i thought i was going to catch on fire a little bit and possibly going into south carolina. wasn't able to do it. so it will be tough for santorum. gregg: bob cusack, managing editor of the hill. good to see you. >> thanks. >> we've been following this and can report to you that the u.s. embassy in syria is now being closed. the diplomats there, including ambassador robert ford, have been taken by convoy we're being told to jordan. the horrific violence that has played out on streets of homs in syria over the weekend, the papers were littered with bodies and services held for those being killed. this has been a crackdown by bashar al-assad that continued to intensify in recent days and the u.n. unable to take significant action against it without the help they needed from russia and china. we'll have more coming up on that momentarily. gregg: the effort to get back a massive taxpayer loan from a failed solar company, we'll talk to a congressman who is pressing the white house on this and why he says they're stonewalling. >> you tell me, what you as a person in charge did with half a billion dollars of taxpayer's money now saying it is all my staff's fault, i didn't know, i can't do anything about it. you tell me what you're going to tell the taxpayers. don't our dogs deserve to eat fresher less processed foods just like we do introducing freshpet healthy recipes of fresh meat and fresh veggies so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido >> developing right now in "america's newsroom" a pharmaceutical building in the pakistan city of lahore suddenly collapsed following a gas explosion there. at least three people are dead. dozens more are still trapped in the rubble. today a federal judge will determine whether 23-year-old jared loughner is competent to stand trial. he pled not guilty to a shooting rampage in arizona that killed six people and injured 12 others including then congresswoman gabrielle giffords. the captain who steer ad cruise ship into an island reef off the coast of italy will learn his fate in a court of law. he has been under arrest since the january 13th disaster that killed 32 people. martha: we have breaking news that we're covering in "america's newsroom" this morning. the u.s. embassy in damascus, syria, has been closed. we're continue to go to get word. we heard the diplomats and their families departed in a convoy going into jordan. this is after a week of horrific violence in the streets of homs. we've seen citizens of syria and those two cities blasted by the leadership and military that supported bashar al-assad there. it has been a deterioratings situation that steve centanni kept an on as well. big development this morning, steve. >> reporter: we're hearing the ambassador has left syria, damascus, syria, on his way back to the united states. the embassy is shuttered there. the u.s. state department saying they're no longer in control of the security situation there and can't be a assured of security of their staff an personnel in damascus. so the u.s. embassy has been closed. president has not commented directly on the closing of the embassy but he did have an interview with nbc and commented on the situation in syria this morning and he said it is very important to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention but he did not rule out some kind of military intervention and he said it is time to send the message to president assad it is time for him to go. this is nothing new. the u.s. state department has been saying this, secretary of state hillary clinton over the weekend had some very strong language when russia and china vetoed the united nations resolution that would have cracked down on syria. we don't expect the president to address this directly today. he has had closed meetings although that could change. we have a white house briefing with jay carney at 12:30 which this situation in syria rapidly deteriorate something bound to dominate. back to you. >> there will be questions questions asked of jay carney at the press briefing today. we'll probably hear something from hillary clinton as they decided to close down, for those who might be tuning in the u.s. embassy in syria. incredible violence deteriorated situation on the ground there so dramatically in recent days. steve, thank you. we'll stay on top of the breaking news this morning in "america's newsroom". gregg: of course russia and china vetoed the you know resolution calling for the ouster of bashar al-assad. so it is going nowhere here in manhattan in that respect. he has been dominating the primaries. but does mitt romney have enough support to go up against president obama? we'll talk about that. martha: we have new numbers. plus, halftime highlights. we have a look at ads that stole the show during last night's big super bowl. gregg: dogs. can you guess what sparked this massive riot at the university of massachusetts? well, give you a hint here. fourth quarter touchdown. [bleep]. [shouting] martha: good morning, los angeles. gregg: wow. martha: your former home, gregg jarrett. a beautiful sunrise over loss who is on this -- los angeles on this monday morning. maybe transplanted new yorkers out there and patriots fans not to happy. we have more coming down the road. it is monday, february 6th, we're glad to have you here. back to politics in a moment. mitt romney sweeping last two contests but new poll shows he may be in for a taste of his own medicine. if they are the nominees, president will be the nominee, the poll shapes up this, 51% leaning voting toward president obama, romney 45. he has work according to this poll. romney has been ahead before in the head-to-head polls. "daily beast" columnist, kirsten powers, part of the clinton-gore transition team and "national review" editor, rich lowery. both fox news contributors. good to have you on a monday. these are numbers president obama will feel pretty good when he wakes up this morning. what you do think of it. >> i did not disagree with kirsten because she successfully predicted super bowl on "special report" on friday, with careful analysis. >> my deep reservoir of knowledge about football. martha: got to go with the gut feeling. hemmer is talking about over and under and points. i go with my gut. congratulations kirsten for her good prediction. get your prediction in a second. rich, what do you make of this number? >> white house ha like it. i wouldn't read too much into it at the moment. you have some ephemeral factors. this is taken after the state of the union address which was mostly just a catalog of kind of clintonian pole-tested style initiatives meant to be popular but not have really much effect on governing the country. the economy has been taking an uptick, whether that continues we don't know. you had this horrendously negative republican primary fight which i don't think anyone is inspired by or particularly likes and surely suppressing rom nil's numbers at some level this just a snapshot. martha: speaking of which, this person doesn't like to see the head-to-head matchups between obama and president. and that is newt gingrich. let's hear from him last night. >> the difference between timidly trying to manage at margins a system that has to be profoundly changed and boldly taking it on is a very, very big difference. i don't think a timid approach is going to beat obama this fall. martha: that really, kirsten, is the battle the gop is having. timid approach or bold approach work? newt gingrich would label romney's approach as timid and are we seeing that to some extent in the numbers coming out to support him in these early caucuses? >> no, i don't think it has anything to do with romney's approach. he actually previously was beating obama in matchups or was tied with obama in matchups and what has happened, if you look, there has been a series of polls shown him dropping among independents. he was beating obama among independents by about 10 points in most polls and what's happened is newt gingrich attacks on him have taken a real to and his response to them frankly has taken a real to, particularly taxes issue hurt him in this poll, the "abc news/washington post poll" that they showed something like 2/3 of people believe that the tax rate that romney pays is unfair. so i think that has taken a toll. and then the bain attacks i think also taken a toll among independents. they generally don't like the nastiness. democrats and republicans are tending to stay with romney, with republicans, democrats with obama. it is independents that are moving. martha: i think you got it right on, kirsten in that assessment. when you look at some of the economic numbers out there, rich, they are feeding into this narrative as well in a big way. consumer confidence number that came out, 92.3. this is the rasmussen consumer confidence, this is highest level we've seen in a year. there is general notion, whether it is true or not, that things are improving and clearly that is helping president obama with some of the middle of the road voters to be sure. >> that sense continues to build. it is a huge boost to president obama but we'll see. cbo projection, is just a projection, not reality, we'll see how it turns out we'll continue to see really slow growth. the federal reserve obviously believes that. they say we'll stay basically zero percent interest rates for a long time here. if you're putting 250,000 new jobs on the board through the duration, through november, president obama will be in a real strong position, no doubt about it. >> kirsten, the president spoke yesterday and we'll talk about that a little more down the road but you know, did he seem confident to you and where do you think his most vulnerable spots are at this point? >> well i think the white house is getting confident but, hess vulnerable spot, the vulnerable spot is the economy, what will happen with the economy. there are projection that is the growth will not be what they need it to be, however the projections have been off in at least the last couple months. the jobs numbers have been a big surprise to people. we don't know what is going to happen but pretty much everything hises for obama on what happens with the jobs situation. martha: there is still a lot of tile. when you start to look at the head-to-head matchup, a lot could happen between now and then. kirsten, rich, thank you so much. >> thanks, martha. >> thanks for getting up and showing up this morning. gregg: kirsten, right on the money in picking the giants, huh? she has got amazing skills. hey, the super bowl trophy may have gone to big blue last night but in the battle of super bowl ads it he is going to the dogs. here are some of the highlights. [dogs barking] gregg: both --. martha: wonder how many takes it took. gregg: that was great, wasn't it? volkswagen taking on timely topic during their super bowl spot, dieting. i liked that. they poked at themselves from the wildly popular darth vader kid commercial from last year. what would the super bowl be without snacks? doritos kept the laughs coming. cat owners might not like this. ♪ . gregg: oh, i love that one. i think that was the most inexpensive come merge meshal. they didn't spend a lot of money. real role reversal. pet bribing owner. >> cost a lot to get the spot. might as well do it on the cheap. i like the matthew broderick one. he revisiting. gregg: ferris bueller. martha: "ferris bueller's day off". kudos to the giants. they played a fantastic game. we have cheering going on in the studio. we're very happy. that was one of victor cruz is from paterson, new jersey. victor cruz is one of the many who live in my home state. gregg: gronkowski, almost dives and gets it. he just missed it. >> was injured going in and a very tough game for him. he could have had a moment of glory at the final moment. the momentum was in the giant's favor. gregg: all the way down to the last --, yeah. >> it was a good game, right? gregg: great game. president obama defending his record on the u.s. economy. three years ago you may recall he said he should not be reelected if he couldn't turn the economy around. well now, president obama says he does deserve a second term. we'll debate it straight ahead. martha: and the investigation into a mysterious illness at one school is now expanding as more victims are coming forward and now they are not just students who are getting this strange disease. we've got new details on that coming up. >> i can't control it. there is this weird feeling in my back people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savings you deserve with snapshot from progressive. okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's rth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. hey, i love your cereal there-- it's got that sweet honey taste. buno way it's calories, right? no way. lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. martha: such a mysterious story. an upstate new york community says more tests are needed to get to the bottom of this illness that has affected more than a dozen teenage girls. tourette's like syndrome include facial ticks and out bursts. a boy and woman have been diagnosed with the same bizarre illness. school officials have conducted air quality and ground tests around the school. they believe so far, although the jury is still out, environmental factors do not seem to be the cause. >> if we had a environmental cause we would see this in a widespread spectrum of folks. we wouldn't just see students, wouldn't be predominantly girls. >> that really indeed is true that will be fine and, they need to do it with the quickness. martha: the school scheduled more tests for coming weeks. we'll stay on top of the story. very, very strange. gregg: some new calls to get the department of justice involved in a fight to get back millions of taxpayer dollars, half a billion, really, given to the solar company solyndra just before it collapsed. louisiana congressman steve scalise, joined by 24 colleagues formally requesting a doj investigation. a little background on solyndra for you. the whole thing began in march of 2009. that's when solyndra first got approval from the department of energy for the half billion dollar loan guarantee. nearly two years the later the company hit a severe cash crunch. this past september, solyndra officially filed for bankruptcy protection. all the employees were laid off. two days later, fbi agent raided solyndra offices and executive's homes. louisiana congressman steve scalise is spearheading as i mentioned the involvement with the doj on this he is here with us live. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, gregg. gregg: as for the people who made the decision to loan this half billion dollars to solyndra did they have any advance warning that the loan should not be made because solyndra was in poor financial health? >> absolutely. we've already covered e-mails from within the department of energy as well as pressure that was being put on energy from the white house to approve the loan but there were people in energy that thought that solyndra was not ready for prime time, shouldn't get the loan. even some people at treasury who questioned whether it was legal to subordinate the taxpayers, to put them back in the line and many of us feel it was illegal for the administration to put the taxpayer in the back of the line for the first $75 million we need to recoup. gregg: i will get to that in just a moment but i want to ask you about the document dump on friday. the white house turned over 313 internal documents there. i know you haven't had a lot of time to review them. anything in there that may belie the white house claim they did nothing improper? >> from what we've seen they still have not complied fully with the investigation. we've asked the white house to give us all the information they have regarding solyndra and they're slow-walking this process but they're also being very selective in what they give us. we know we haven't gotten all the documents. the white house even acknowledges that. it frankly begs the question what does the white house have to hide and why aren't they turning over information so the public gets the transparency that the president promised. gregg: who at the west wing was involved in the decision and had access to the president? >> we already know that there are some close advisors to the president that are listed in some of these e-mails. unfortunately we haven't gotten all of the information. gregg: axelrod, browner, valerie jarrett, ron klein, those folks? >> they're all mentioned in e-mails we've seen. we haven't seen the full breadth of it. that's why we will continue to pressing to make sure the white house complies wit the subpoena they were issued. gregg: now in your letter, and i have a copy of it here, i want to read one line. the department of energy's decision to subordinate the taxpayer interest to private investors in relation to any recovery against solyndra allows private investors to receive money before the taxpayers in direct violation of the law. if that law was broken, what should happen? >> well, we've called on attorney general holder to go and investigate this and to get the money back, to first of all, to violate that the subordination. the law is clear, first of all in a loan like this the taxpayer should not be put in the back of the line yet that's what the white house did when they brought in their own private investor friends to help bailout solyndra, they actually put the taxpayer in the back of the line which violates the law but also jeopardizes 75 million of the $535 million that has been lost. gregg: well, congressman steve scalise, let us know what you hear in response to your letter. thank you very much for being with us. >> we'll continue fighting for the facts. martha: we've been covering this breaking news story this morning out of syria. the state department has confirmed that they are closing the embassy. they have evacuated all of the diplomats including the ambassador by convoy heading over across the border into jordan. new warnings that a brutal civil war may be imminent. we're live with breaking details on that big story this morning. gregg: not exactly the vacation thousands of folks signed up for. what you need to know about the virus that quickly spread through two cruise ships. >> we had to wait forever and ever. we went to walgreens and bought a lot of stuff and it was quite funny to at walgreens all the little wipeses you wipe your hands with all disinfectant, all gone structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. gregg: hundreds of travelers left stranded following a massive snowstorm in england. that's right. england. half of all flights out of heathrow international airport have been grounded, a move that is being questioned by critics who say airport officials made the decision to cancel those flights hours after it stopped snowing. an airport spokesman says the severe weather left them no choice. tourists say they're trying to make the best out of a bad situation. >> unfortunately it is freezing very much. so it's, today is the first day that the sun is shining and, yeah, you can really go outside. gregg: yeah, well, i got bad news for you. it will not last very long because more snow is expected today. martha: again, we're not getting any of it. but these folks are getting something that they don't like. thousands of people on two different cruise ships violently ill today and this is not because of rough weather. it is a fast-spreading norovirus that hit two ships heading to florida. dr. steven garner from new york methodist hospital joins us this morning. dr. garner, good morning. good to have you here. norovirus. what is that? >> used to be called norwalk virus after an outbreak in ohio. very aggressive stomach flu. it is not bacteria but a virus. martha: is it potentially deadly. >> most people don't die except very old or very young. most people have two days of hell and start feeling better. it is tricky for two weeks after they are infected they are contagious. martha: two weeks? >> you can imagine how this can spread like wildfire. martha: obviously reason it is rampant, once it gets on a cruise ship, closed quarters, right? >> closed quarters. everybody is going around with the hand --. martha: you are a prop master. i'm thinking about the big sugar dump from one can of soda. very effective. >> five get this will not do much for the virus of the doesn't kill the virus. what you're trying to do is get it off your hand? what is best thing, ivory soap or any kind of soap, wash it gets viruses off the hand. few as five virus on hand, you know how tiny they can be, make you sick. it will not do it. will not kill anything. martha: everybody has those in the purse. effective against some things. >> most things. most bacteria it is great. martha: not against the virus. >> this has envelope around it to prevents it from getting in to kill it. martha: anything people do on a cruise. this is winter. they have the plans. they hear the stories and think, man is this a good idea? >> 70,000 people are admitted to the hospital for norovirus and 800 die. it is not confined to cruise ships. follow same basic hygiene. you don't want to eat raw oysters or shellfish. martha: ever? >> i wouldn't eat on fish for one. that is biggest contaminant. if you're off the ship and get sick you don't mind but paying a lot of money for vacation. if you have artificial nails, it is not good. you can't clean those off and the virus ends up hiding. raw sellry, spinach. apples. >> anything that needs to be washed. >> want common sense. don't want to have it happen on "the love boat". martha: that is not what "the love boat" is supposed to be all about. not a lot of love going on there the these poor folks. we wish them well. very good advice as always, dr. garner. have a good day. gregg: i will throw away my artificial nails. you probably know this. gas prices on the way up. almost 20 cents in the last few weeks. today the new warning they could get even higher just in time for summer. what is causing this? martha: and a strange twist in the case of a missing woman. the father of her sons blew up their home with his two young boys inside. this is just tragic, awful story this morning. did the courts miss something, allowing the boys to visit their father? >> closure for us would have been all the answers coming forward, all the questions resolved. there's no answers anymore. unless josh told something to somebody else or he had an accomplice, those answers are gone with him. know you don't until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement. hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. 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[ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. martha: busy monday morning, folks, good to have you here. i'm martha maccallum. greg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer. a report of hundreds killed in the streets of sear yeah, the government tries to crush a more than 200 people deed in 24 hours. the toll may be higher than what we saw in libya before nato forces stepped in. washington pushing for a coalition to stop the violence. secretary of state hillary clinton warning of a catastrophic outcome if we do not act. martha: one of the biggest stories over the weekend with regard to this is that russia and china put up road blocks at the u.n. to try to do something about the situation. >> what happened yesterday at the united nations was a travesty. those countries that refuse to support the arab league plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime in damascus. martha: strong words from hillary clinton with regard to russia and china. leland vittert is live on the story for us in jerusalem. what do you hear about what is going on on the ground in syria. >> reporter: we can confirm that all u.s. embassy staff and their families are out of syria. there is really two reasons that the u.s. government pulled the embassy staff out, number one it was simply too dangerous on the ground there. u.s. embassy staff had come under attack. in addition it is really a statement by the government about how upset they are with the syrian regime that over the weekend continues its assault on the town of holmes. things have gone from bad to worse. there is a siege laid to the city as syrian army government tra*pbgs surround i tanks surround it. 300 people have been killed since this assault began. countless wounded, medical supplies are very, very tight inside holmes. it's impossible to get more in there. there are a number of hospitals being reported being hit by artillery shells. martha: who is helping military, who is helping the syrian government with this crackdown, leland. >> reporter: it's really incredible. we are hearing a report that a top iranian generalless inside damascus helping organize this assault on these protestors. not only that, china and russia as you mentioned was behind the veto at the united nations, keeping that resolution from passing. just today we saw dissidents and activists inside of syria returning russian and chinese flags. they are begging for help from the outside world. because of the vetos it does not seem they will get the kind of international support that we saw in leak yeah. reports on the ground in syria say it is much worse there than it was in libya before the nato intervention. it seems the syrian government and the bashar al-assad regime has been emboldened and they feel they can go ahead and kill as many people as they want. back to you. martha: hillary clinton clearly devastated by that news from syria, and russia, you see the signs in the street, save humanity that the people are holding up. leland, thank you very much, leland vittert on that. greg: syrian embassies all over the world coming under fire as the bloody crackdown continues. seven embassies from london to australia attacked by mobs of angry protestors. outraged demonstrators smashing windows, even setting fires, destroying furniture and computers, chaotic scenes unfolding in egypt, kuwait and greece. martha: a little background on the situation in syria. the population is 22.5 million people, slightly fewer people than you have in texas, for example. about 12% ever the population lives below the poverty line in syria. more than 19% unemployment in the country, and more than half of the population is 25 years or younger. very youthful populations all across this part of the world. greg: human rights groups releasing estimates showing the extent of the bloodshed in syria, activists say the government has killed about 7,000 syrians and is holding 40,000 others. 260 people were killed on february 4th alone. more than 7,000 syrian refugees in turkey, the united nations says it has stopped compiling a death toll because it is too difficult to get information out of syria. martha: it's a very disturbing story this morning. egypt is ignoring threats from the u.s. government and they are moving forward with the prosecution of 19 americans, including sam lahood who is the son of our transportation secretary ray lahood. they are accused of using illegal foreign funds to promote unrest in egypt. secretary of state hillary clinton warning the country that failing to resolve this dispute could lead to the loss of $1.5 billion in american aid. greg: now to presidential politics. we turn to the state of colorado where today we find mitt romney, rick santorum and newt gingrich all three making campaign stops there ahead of tomorrow's republican caucuses in the rocky mountain state. 36 g.o.p. delegates up for grabs in colorado, seen as a key swing state in 2012. alicia acuna is live from denver. mitt romney won the caucuses last time in colorado, is he expected to repeat history. >> reporter: am camp is confident. romney did win colorado back in 2008 for the republican party. his organization remains largely intact from 2008. two days after he won here last time he dropped out because senator mccain had such a substantial lead. romney is back in the rocky mountain state speaking this weekend in colorado springs. in his corner several of colorado's stabbed and prominent republicans who offered their endorsements. on saturday he was fresh off his win in nevada and aimed his focus again on the president. >> we simply can't allow a president to continue to borrow and borrow and spend massively. it's wrong for america. government is too big. my course is very different from is. >> reporter: this is home to focus on the family whose founder james dobson has endorsed rick santorum. rick santorum says when so many states ahead, now is when it will start to get competitive. >> this nomination is far from over. colorado has not spoken and you can, just this state alone change the whole tenure of this race. [applause] >> reporter: for his part speaker gingrich's colorado spokesperson says the speaker will receive the majority of the delegates he can assure. greg: tomorrow is a caucus. the rules tend to vary from state to state. how does it work there in colorado? >> reporter: yes, here in colorado, the results -- the caucuses are nonbinding, and they won't be finalized until april when they have the state assembly. that said, all of the candidates are spending time here because there is little chance that the results of those preference polls that will be taken tomorrow will change. >> it certainly is a great referendum on where colorado republicans stand in the process, and it generally informs the ultimate selection of delegates that go to the national convention. >> reporter: and as with most caucuses, these gatherings are small and they are attended, gregg by the more conservative of the party, back to you. greg: alicia, thanks. martha: a new warning that gas prices could go up another 60-cents before this summer. right now the national average for a gallon is regular unleaded gas is 3.48 khrarz. $3.48. gas prices have been on a steady incline over the past four weeks. eric bolling joins us live. what is going on. >> reporter: good morning. that little report you had with leland vittert over in the middle east is a big part of the problem. when there is tension in the middle east like that syria is lighting up starting to show signs of tension, we already know what is going on between iran and israel. the rhetoric is stepping up there as well. leland told us there may be people from iran helping syria out. in between those two countries there is a big country called iraq that produces 2.5 million barrels. if that world starts up and if we see whatee saw a year and a half ago you'll see up in oil prices. beer at $98 a barrel. in egypt it started at $80 a bail up to 105 bucks a barrel. couple that with the seaso seasonality. there is seasonal demand that hits in the summer. people are jumping the gun and speculators may have something to do with it too. all those things push prices up. martha: the jitters, do they translate in any change in our supply at this point or is it just have iters. >> reporter: the problem is, for some reason we have an energy policy that refuses to drill our own crude oil here prices continue to go up. look what is going on in natural gas. natural gas prices have been on a downward trend for the better part of three years now approaches $3.50. five years ago it was up to $14. natural gas as we discover more and find more the price goes down. it's simple economics, you want prices to go down at the pumps, drill more crude oil here. martha: supply and demand. thank you very much. thanks, buddy. coming up right here, gregg. greg: reports that israel is considering a military strike to takeout iran's growing nuclear program. president obama speaking out about it, his loud and clear message to our allies, and enemies, plus -- martha: what a mess. sore losers, where this played out after the super bowl last night. greg: and this home intentionally set on fire inside a man considered the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance, and the couple's two young sons. we'll talk to a homicide detective about this sad and tragic story. >> seemed like he was never going to hurt the boys. >> we had a number of what if's. you talk and come up with all kinds of possible scenarios. i for one never really thought he was capable of it. i didn't think -- you know, two years ago i didn't think he was capable of killing his wife. that shows how stupid i am. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. fresher less processed foods introducing freshpet recipes so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromisen taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance. greg: okay your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together gregg: welcome back. some college students in massachusetts in a rather foul mood after their patriots lost the super bowl. police at u mass am hearsay using smoke bombs and flash grenades. 14 unruly students at least behind bars. unrest like this not uncommon at that university students rioted after the death of osama bin laden and the patriots lost to the same giants in the super bowl back in 2008. martha: developing news in syria this morning. the state department closing the u.s. embassy in damascus. they are urging all diplomats, all americans to leave, not to enter the country either if that is anyone always intention. hundreds of people have been killed in these riots, over the past two days and as many as 7,000 since this incredible violence started on the ground in syria. look at these pictures, folks, they tell so much of this story. kt mcfarland joins me now, fox news national security analyst. good morning k. t., it's good to have you with us. your reaction to this news about the closing of our embassy in damascus? >> the president is doing it because he's worried that the american diplomats are going to be taken hostage which is exactly what happened in iran at the end of the carter administration. the tragedy is that bashar al-assad will have nothing standing between him and shrault errin slaughterin his people. it's kill or be killed. martha: what might push any others to act in any of these situations? what do we do about all of this. >> reporter: here is the problem, mart that, it's not just about syria. it all goes back to the root of iran, and really this administration's policy towards the whole region. initially secretary clinton said that bashar al-assad of syria was a reformer we could do business with eupl. president obama wanted to negotiate with iran. the united states wanted to reset relations with russia. what's happened? the russians are supporting the syrians. we have no ability to bring international pressure to bear on syria, because the russians and the chinese stand in the way of the u.n. with iran, iran feels completely eupl bold * emboldened to the point where they are sending their own people to help with the slaughter. the whole mideast is on fire. martha: and quite empowered as you say, iran and syria. let's listen to the president in the interview they talked a little bit about israel and whether or not it would make any kind of preemptive strike on iranian nuclear facilities. let's hear what he said. >> i don't think that israel has made a decision on what they need to do. i think they, like us, believe that iran have to stand down on its nuclear weapons program. and we have mobilized the international community in a way that is unprecedented and they are feeling the pinch. martha: what do you think about that? >> reporter: well, i think at the end of the day this administration in the iranian regime is never going to come to the negotiating table in good faith they are not going to stop their nuclear weapons program. i think the only answer is some kind of regime change. the great tragedy of this. martha, is we have known for years that it would ultimately come down to the choice between bombing iran, knowing that that would ignite a regional war in the middle east or letting iran get the bomb which means other countries in the middle east get the bomb, which means the next war in the middle east, and there's always another war in the middle east, that war could well go nuclear. there is a hail mary pass to crash the iranian economy the same way that president reagan crashed the some of yacht economy to force regime change. it's president reagan's birthday. it would be very fitting if on president reagan's birthday president obama would go after the iranian economy to force regime change. martha: that's what they are trying to do. they said that's a move that has not been tried in this. >> reporter: that is the right first step. president obama needs to enforce the sanctions immediately. we talk about sanctions, what does that mean? we've talked about sanctions for years. what we now have within our grasp is to effectively blockade iranian oil from the world oil market. now what does that mean for iran? 80% of their gmp comes from oilment if they don't have that money they don't have the money for the government to handout subsidies to its people. they don't have money to help hezbollah and hamas. they have already started withdrawing some of their support for hezbollah. at the end of the day iranians don't have money to do their nuclear program. they will be so busy trying to stay in power they have trouble expanding through the middle west. the sanctions have to be done ruthless lee and rapidly otherwise you won't crash the iranian economy in time. israel is look at this. they know within a year iran is going to have nuclear weapons. even our secretary of state has said that. martha: very, very important, k. t. thank you very much. we'll be talking about this again. let's take another closer look at israel and the aid that it gets from the united states as part of this whole discussion as well. the u.s. provides nearly $3 billion to israel every year in the form of aid and grants. nearly all of that aid is in the form of military assistance. israel is just over 8,000 square miles, that makes it just a little bit bigger than the state of new jersey. iran is almost 600,000 square miles, or about the size of alaska. so the geographics are apparent as well as the military threat in the situation. we'll see where we go from here. gregg: you're always probably saying don't to kids, don't smoke. well the dangers of secondhand smoke, why the cdc is saying young people are more in danger from smoking than previously thought. we'll have a live report on that coming up. 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[ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. martha: young storm chaser who is one of these folks who is very used to putting his life on the line while tracking severe weather was killed on the job. 24-year-old andy gabrielson was working for the weather channel saturday when a driver traveling the wrong way on the highway crashed into his vehicle. the other driver, his name has not been released, also died in the head on collision. investigators say alcohol may indeed have been a factor. gregg: you try to protect your kids from the dangers of smoking. well the cdc finding that one in five high school-aged students are exposed while riding in cars with their friends. jonathan serrie is live in atlanta. what are the specifics concerns with secondhand smoke inside these cars? >> reporter: yeah, the concerns is it's not just when they are riding with friends, in many cases the parents that are doing the smoking, and while smoking has been banned in many public venues, private automobiles are one of those few remaining enclosed spaces where secondhand smoke is still prevalent. the good news is that the numbers are going down. when you look at high schoolers, and middle schoolers exposed to secondhand smoke in cars it's gone down from 39% in 2000 to 23% in 2009. the bad news that is one in one in five teenagers being exposed to secondhand smoke in cars. when you consider all of the health risks, what public health officials are taking this se seriously, gregg. gregg: do you think this is going to lead to perhaps some new laws, jonathan? >> reporter: certainly a renewed call for new laws. public health officials are calling for them right now as a result of this study. you have a handful of states that have already enacted bans on smoking in cars with kids under a certain age, including arkansas, california, louisiana, maine and the territory of puerto rico. other states have attempted sometime bans but they have been voted down. the resistance is that critics say that it's government over reach, that while you have laws for seat belts and stopping at traffic lights that affect traffic safety, smoking in a car is not necessarily related to the safe operation of that motor vehicle. but as a result of this study when you see the prevalence of secondhand smoke in vehicles that certainly adds weight to the counter argument that children really don't have a choice when they get into a car of whether their parent or another friend is smoking in that automobile, gregg. gregg: that is right. jonathan serrie, live in atlanta, thanks very much. martha: remember back when president obama said he had three years to turn the economy around or he would likely be with one-term president. that was three years ago. what the president is saying about that today. gregg: and this mother vanished back in 2009, her husband, josh, considered the only person of interest now after an unspeakable act we may never find answers to what really happened. >> it was torched. it was absolutely torched. >> the explosion, and it was huge, black, dark smoke and there was like just white stuff all over the place snowing down. >> i can't believe it. i still can't believe it. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ like many chefs today,? i feel the best approach to food is to keep it whole for better nutrition. and that's what they do with great grains cereal. see the seam on the wheat grain? same as on the flake. because great grains steams and bakes the actual whole grain. now check out the other guy's flake. hello, no seam. because it's more processed. now, which do you suppose has better nutrition for you? mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal. gregg: investigators on the scene of a deadly home explosion in washington state, the husband of a utah woman who vanished two years ago killed himself and the couple's two children in that tragic event. shibanjosh powell was the only person of interest after his wife disappeared in december of 2009. they say he blew up his home yesterday while his two boys were visiting in the company of a social worker. they had been staying with their grandparents who had temporary custody. reports say the young boy had started remembering details of the night their mother went missing when their father took them to a mysterious camping trip in a blizzard. rod wheeler, a fox news contributor joins us. i want to play a sound byte of the brother-in-law of josh powell, here it is. >> closer for us would have been all the answers coming forward, all the questions resolved. there is no answers any more. unless josh told something to somebody else, or he had an accomplice, those answers are gone with him. gregg: rod, did the answers to what happened to susan powell likely die with josh powell. >> they likely did. there is not a whole lot of more information the police can learn pep maybe they can find susan's body at some point. they never have found her body. yesterday's event was more tragic. the more interesting question here, tkpw*eg is whether or not the courts missed the warning signs with josh powell. gregg: were there? >> i think they did. i think there were a number of warning signs actually. last week at the hearing there was a custody battle last week on wednesday of last week and the police testified that they were concerned about the welfare, gregg, of the two little boys. whenever a police officer or an investigator says that they are concerned about the welfare, what they are saying is the fact that they believe these kids could be in danger of this individual, even if it is a parent. so instead of the court saying, don't let the kids go back to the house they allowed visitation, and as we saw yesterday it ended up very horrificly. gregg: finding pornography on josh powell's computer and being worried about the welfare of the kids in that respect, that is quite different than murder, isn't it? >> well, it is quite different, but, again, gregg you have to look at the totality of everything that's been going on. this wasn't just a normal custody battle. we're talking an individual that was already named as a person of interest with the fact that his wife was missing and believed dead. we're talking an individual that has had a number of other issues. the courts have already stated back in september of last year that they didn't think this guy should have the kids. and the kids were given to the parents of the woman. at that point there was a lot more involved in this case and i think the courts probably, gregg, should have allowed visitation at the courthouse, at the police department, at a more neutral location until this matter could have been sorted out. gregg: rod wheeler, thank you very much for being with us. we'll continue talking about this story now. joining us on the telephone susan powell's friend. thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you. gregg: our condolences go out to you for the loss of your friend, and now this on top of it. what's your reaction to these events? >> it's just horrifying. it feels freshly all over again just like the day we learned that susan disappeared. gregg: are you pretty convinced that josh powell killed susan? >> i have believed that for a longtime, yes. gregg: and talk to us a bit more about that. i mean, why would he do such a thing? >> i don't know why he would have, unless he felt like he was losing control, and that she was getting too independent and not afraid of him any more, and possibly he just -- i know she's told me in the past that when they would have arguments and fights about things and talk about divorce he would say thins, like you're not getting the kids unless it's over my dead body. gregg: was he physically abusive with her? >> not that i ever saw or that she ever told me. she said that he did push her once, but she didn't tell me that he hit her. he was very verbally abusive and put her down a lot. gregg: yeah. if i may i want to play a sound byte of josh powell and this i believe was shortly after susan vanished. so this would have been december of 2009. take a listen to this. >> do you have any idea what happened to her? >> no. thank you. any help to try to find her would be appreciated so, really that's all -- we just -- she is somewhere. gregg: if he was lying at that point in time he's a pretty good actor i guess. did you -- did you ever believe his story? >> no, not for a second. gregg: why? >> well, for one thing to say that he woke his children up at midnight and took them camping on a sunday night was absolutely ridiculous. i know susan, she was a wonderful mother and she would never have allowed her children to go out camping in the wintertime at midnight. i knew right away that that was immediately not true. gregg: did you ever confront him? >> yes. one time he was at my house about probably a few weeks after she disappeared and i said, josh, what do you have against talking to the police? why won't you go and talk to them? if you're innocent, what do you have to hide? what are you worried about? and he wouldn't answer me. he just looked at the ground and didn't say anything. gregg: he didn't answer at all, nothing. >> no, no he didn't. gregg: not even a denial? >> no. gregg: did you take it so far as to say, i know you killed her? >> no, i didn't say that, and the reason i didn't is because i hoped that if i could still be a friend to him that at some point he would open up and tell us something. gregg: yeah. did you -- can you tell us about any other conversations that you had with susan in which, you know, perhaps she feared for her life and expressed that to you? >> um, in the summer ever 2008 about a year and a half before she disappeared things were really bad. josh was so controlling that he wouldn't even give her money to go to the store to buy food and she was the one who was making all the money. and he went and talke she went and talked to a divorce lawyer, she made some plans about getting her own bank account, she said things were really bad and she wanted to save her marriage and didn't want to break up her family but if he was not willing to do anything to be the kind of person that she thought he was, then she wasn't going to stick around and be unhappy. gregg: yeah. well, it's a sad story all the way around. and thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. gregg: martha. martha: we want to get you some news that has just crossed the wires moments ago and it keys right into the discussion that we had moments ago with kt mcfarland. the white house press secretary is saying this morning that president obama has ordered new sanctions on the government of iran, including the central bank. and we continue -- including the bank, the property of iran, the financial interests, et cetera. we're going to get more details about exactly what the sanctions entail waoefplt were just talking to kt mcfarland moments ago and she said one of the most powerful things our government could do to crackdown on syria where our diplomats had to evacuate our own embassy would be to really put the pressure on the financial situation in iran in a way that was really meaningful that might eventually force some kind of regime change there. she felt that was the best long-term way to go at this problem. we may be getting some indication that there is a strengthening of those sanctions coming from the white house this morning. we're going to keep an eye on that. we'll continue to follow-up with more details as they come in. gregg: all right. take a look at this. a baby stroller rolling right off of train platform, even more amazing, see that guy? he's a commuter. he didn't do anything to stop it. so we'll tell you more about that story. martha: how about this question, does president obama deserve four more years? back in 2009 he said it would all depend on how the economy was doing when that time came around. we'll tell you what he's saying about that now. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get bk to these invoices... whh i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. i'm in a tricky situation here. i'm bidding on a 1979 dukes of hazzard lunchbox, but my auction ends in 15 seconds ! even worse, my buddy's bidding on the same lunchbox. it's airbrushed ! but i've got verizon 4g lte. it's so fast that i can outbid him at the last second. i got it ! yes, i won ! woo hoo ! it's got a thermos ! rely on verizon 4g lte. because only the fastest survive. gregg: guard your inboxess the very politicians who voted to restrict mass email blasts back in 2003 could be the ones clogging your inbox with spam today. the fox news investigation finds that some states are selling voters' email addresses to politicians looking to get their messages out. how is that even possible? what can you do to keep your inbox spam free. eric shawn is live with more on that. >> reporter: you've got mail, you know, whether you want it or not. you think those recorded robo calls from political candidates are annoying? now they will fill your inbox. it turns out the politicians can spend spam email to voters as the newest way to get their message out. you know if they were selling like viagra that would be illegal in some states. when it comes to politics it's okay, because political messages are protected under the 1st amendment and are not considered commercial spam. just where do the campaigns get your email address? well from you. when you register to vote and include your email ae address on the voter registration form. 19 states and the district of columbia ask for voters email on voter registration cards. the voter advocates say it's an invasion of privacy. >> it seems to be duplicative. they are signing up because they want to vote. they do not really know the implications of what happens. they don't know that that information is going to be sold and resold, and retargeted, and people will be contacting them whether they like it or not. >> reporter: by the way you do not have to include your email when you register, but, you know, gregg most people don't know that. gregg: what are the campaigns saying about that. >> reporter: they say there is no difference between getting email addresses when folks register than getting their street address to send hem campaign brochures or telephone numbers to call voters. a washington d.c. firm uses the state voter registration email list. they say it's part of the democracy, that they have a duty and honor to have a dialog with voters and email is just a part of all that. you can only block the politicians, though, in your inbox like any other unwanted email, you just click, unsubscribe or ask the center to remove you. it seems like they are coming. gregg: a duty and an honor. that's an interesting take. all right. eric shawn. thanks very much. martha: well, right before the super bowl last night president obama sat down for an interview and he made his case for re-election saying that he has succeeded in starting the process of turning around this economy. and just after he took office back in 2009 he sat down in a similar interview back then and he said this. quote, if i don't have it done in three years, talking about fixing the economy, it's going to be a one-term proposition, he said. so now listen to what he had to say about this yesterday. >> i deserve a second term, but we're not done. look, when you and i sat down we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. now we're creating 250,000. we created 3.7 million jobs over the last 23 months. we created the most jobs since 2005, the most manufacturing jobs since 1990. but we're not finished. and we've got to not only boost up american manufacturing, so that not just the auto industry but all american manufacturing is building again and selling overseas. martha: steven moore joins me now, senior economic writer for the "wall street journal" and lani davis special council for the clinton administration and a fox news contributor. gentlemen, welcome. steve let's get your take on what he had to say about the economy. >> reporter: i think it's a little premature about the mission accomplished banner. that could haunt him in seven or eight months. there is no question he got a very good jobs number on friday, no question about it. the question is whether it's sustainable. i want to give you one statistic to think about, martha. we are still 5.5 million jobs lower than we were in 2008. so the idea that we've turned around the economy, i don't think that is something most voters believe right now. in fact, one other statistic, lani, 40% of americans today are still worried about losing their jobs. that is the people who have jobs, and think this economy is so fragile and built on such sand that the economy may collapse and they may lose their job. martha: all right. lani, you just got handed a few more new statistics. the president clearly was feeling confident. he had to be very happy coming off that friday unemployment report to be going in to do that interview over this weekend. >> i hate to hurt steve's credibility with conservative audiences but i tend to agree with him on everything he just said. >> i'm dead. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry, steve i'll try to help a little bit by at least supporting the thrust of what president obama said, which is there has been a turn around. there is no doubt the data shows 3 million-plus new private sector jobs. it doesn't include the lost public sector jobs, but of course conservatives like that. i do think it's premature to announce that he deserves re-election, and i'm sorry that he did that. i more would like him to be the way ronald reagan was in 83 and 84 coming out of a deep recession where unemployment went up 10% where he had passed the greatest tax increase in american history in 1982, steve, that's your man, ronald reagan, and then he did a deal with tip o'neal on social security which raised taxes and cutback benefits to save social security e. was coming out of a recession. what he said is not that we've solved the problems, but it's morning in america, that is we're heading in the right direction. that to me is what president obama meant and that is a good argument. martha: let's take a look at the unemployment numbers i want to show people the charts. we showed them this on a regular basis when we get the thursday numbers and monthly numbers. clearly the chart has been improving. i want to show you one other number while we're all throwing numbers out here. this is a look at the people who are out of work, and if we have that number we can put that one up as well, because the folks that are still looking -- there you go, january of 2009, this is the number of duration of unemployment. out of work for six months or more back in 09 $2.69 million. today out of work six months or nor 5.5 million people. that is a big number, steve. >> yeah it is. look, i think one of the big problems for president obama is that you still have such economic pessimism out there in terms of where this economy is headed. a lot of americans think that we kind of built this recovery to this extent it even exists based on $5 trillion of debt and that is a very frightening number. it's interesting, lani that you brought up the 1980 election. i think this will be se similar to that carter-reagan election. what reagan asked the american people as you recall martha, is are you better off today than you were four years ago. lani i believe for the american people to go to the polls in november and to think, yeah i'm better off than i was four years ago, yes, president obama will win this election. i think there is still a significant majority who think they are not better off than they were four years ago. martha: quick thought on that. >> steve has a point. if he looks at 1980 i'd rather not remember 1980, and look at what reagan did in 84 when we were still in a recession but the trend lines were positive. that's where it was the morning in america much i would run that tkpwaeug and commercial in i were in the obama campaign back-to-back with that declining chart and say, we're headed in the right direction, it's morning in america again. martha: a lot of people feel that is the message he has to tap into. always great to see you gentlemen. gregg: that would make a pretty good commercial won't it. martha: yeah. gregg: all right. what is happening now, let's go to jon scott who is going to tell us what is happening on "happening now." jon: good morning to you. final results in from the republican caucus in nevada on saturday, finally. as we look ahead to missouri, minnesota and colorado, can mitt romney keep up the momentum? plus, new polling with head-to-head match ups, bret baier, karl rove and byron york are here with analysis. the desperate situation for syrians, that government killing its own peep. should the u.s. do more than just close the embassy? and a threat from iran is an attack on its nuclear facilities in the works? plus a sung even ship with 3 billion in treasure, one treasure hunter says he's found it. and unprecedented technological boom for america could be ahead. we'll talk to one optimistic columnist and a mountain lion in the suburbs of new york city. lots of reports of sightings "happening now." gregg: thanks very much. take a look at this. how could this happen at a train station? there is a little stroller, and it's going onto the tracks with a train coming down the pike. and that guy, he's just standing there. sweetie i think you need a little extra fiber in your diet. carol. fiber makes me sad. oh common. and how can you talk to me about fiber while you are eating a candy bar? you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. year-long celebration, 60 years ago young elizabeth's father, king george the vi died and that put her on the world stage in an instant as the queen of england. ♪ [music playing] ♪ [singing] martha: that is quite a moment. queen elizabeth, that was at her 1953 coronation, and there she is now at 85 years old, and what is she doing? speaking to her people and pledging to renew her pledge to serve them at 85. joining us now is paul rail former butler to the queen and to princess diana, and a fox news contributor. thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you. martha: talk to us about the significance of this day and all the events that are coming this year in the huge celebration of this moment. >> well, you know, today is a very poignant day for the queen. today is the anniversary of her father's death so she does feel sadness. i've been with her on many occasions. she is sad but she is also rejoicing in the fact that she is still queen after 60 years. she only has three more years and 7 months to go to be the longest serving monarch our country has ever seen. so she is determined to do that. i stood by her once and she said to me, paul i swore an oath before god and my people in front of westminster abbey to serve my country for as long as there is breath in my body, and that i will do. martha: yeah, you know, we look at those pictures of her father who so many americans think of as the man in the king's speech at this point, and she was very close to him. he was portrayed in that movie as the king who did not want to have a public life. you know, a lot of people talk about her passing it on, power to charles, and then perhaps to prince william. today basically she is saying that is not going to happen, she is here until the very end, right? >> martha i always told you, that is the truth. she will always be there. she will die queen of england and then we'll see what happens. martha: all right. we will be watching that, june 5th -- we have to leave it there. we will be talking to you more about this i guarantee you. the big ceremony of the actual ceremony that you just saw will be in the first of june. thanks paul. gregg: the latest on unfolding events in syria. don't go away. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. >> want to show you that big scare at a train station in aus rail kwrarbgs baby

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