from dallas, texas. we have a couple of things going on here. obviously health concerns over the people in richmond, california, near that refinery fire plus the financial hit we're all going to take if gas prices spike make above $4 a gallon. >> it has been going on for several weeks now. you blinked and it seems like you missed it. over the course of the last month or so gas prices have gone up about 30 cents, the national average now $3.66 a gallon, up about 30 cents and in the last month. the fire in richmond is just one of the problems. obviously there is a great deal of global issues and concerns that go into gas prices but what we have seen over the last few months is a disruption in service and flow of gas at refineries across the country from the midwest down to oklahoma where we have seen problems with pipelines and other issues and the infrastructure and this fire in california this week highlighted even bigger problem where now because of this fire many analysts are predicting gas prices to go well above $4 a gallon along the west coast and for those residents who live near that refinery in the san francisco bay area, this has been a very scary time as well. >> you put this poison out here killing us. >> do i have to look forward to having cancer? does my grandchild have to look forward to having cancer? >> my people ain't for sale. these nickels and dimes that you pay us around here are no good for none. >> john chevron says that they're monitoring the air quality around that refinery and so far they have found no problems because of the fire that's been going on for several days and they continue to monitor the air and the big question is how long will gas prices continue to go up? analysts say we will continue to see this for several more days if not several more weeks. the good ews, perhaps the bright lining here is over the course as we head into the fall, that they expect demand to start tailing off a little bit and then we see prices start to come back down. >> we'll be watching those pumps closely and nervously. thanks a lot, ed, in dallas, texas. >> here we are talking to the secretary of agriculture yesterday about the droughts and the grocery store and the food prices going up and now talking gas. all right. rest of the stories here we're watching on thursday morning and a stunning shakeup at the nation's largest breast cancer foundation. president list thompson and founder nancy brinker both stepping down. thompson will leave the organization next month. brinker will surrender her ceo title to focus on fundraising, focus on planning, and this is the latest fallout from komen's decision earlier this year, a couple months ago, to stop funding planned parenthood, a decision reversed after quite a bit of backlash and in a couple minutes we'll talk politics behind today's shakeup with laura bassett, the huffington post reporter that broke the story. >> we can soon find out the mindset of the man police say killed 12 people and hurt 58 others in the shooting rampage in a colorado theater. he is due in court this afternoon. they want investigators to hand over documents and a package that holmes sent to his psychiatrist at the university of colorado. the package was seized by authorities under a search warrant last week. the defense says it is privileged doctor/patient communication. >> new developments in the sikh temple massacre, the final shot went into his own head. fbi says the surveillance video confirms page committed suicide after being you understand wounded by a police last sunday. page killed six people and wounded others before taking his own life and it turns out more people may have been killed if not for the quick thinking of two young children, 11-year-old and his 9-year-old sister were sitting outside the temple when a gunman walks up and this is two kids talking about this whole story with anderson cooper last night. >> for a second me and my sister thought maybe he needed directions or needed help, and when me and my sister looked at him we noticed he was shooting people. then we ran as fast as we could inside to warn everybody in the kitchen and everybody else just to warn everybody there is a man outside with a gun. >> how about that? we also learn side note here 11 dwrerld abhay's name means fearless. >> understatement to say the least. >> totally. >> nypd is searching a manhattan basement to look for clues in the etan patz case, the 6-year-old boy that vanished in 1979 on his way to school and also the first child to appear on a milk carton. investigators have been to the site at least three times since april. they removed at least five large paper bags and tools including a shovel from the basement. they won't say what they're looking for. in may police arrested a new jersey man pedro hernandez who allegedly confessed to killing paetz. >> the martian crater looks a lot like earth. look at the pictures. a california scientist is comparing the early photos of the crater, the gale crater to the m o.j. aev desert. minnesota said to have mountains and lingering haze and so we'll space geek out again. we have all kinds of cool information and we'll translate the pictures here with the head scientist for nasa, michael meyer. >> overseas just another historic day at the beach. the u.s. is on top in the medal count with 81 thanks in part to the beach volleyball do you owe, winning their third, their third gold defeating jennifer casey and april ross yesterday. it was their last match together. the track and field won seven medals yesterday and one of the big winners was allyson felix who finally won her first individual gold in the women's 200 meters. don't miss the rest of the show. in 30 minutes we talk to swimmer rebecca soni and in the next hour gold medal winning gymnast jordyn wieber. politics, here we go. president obama continues his campaign through colorado today as mitt romney swings through new york, new jersey, and this morning romney's campaign is unleashing a new tough attack against the president in this new ad, what it does is accusing him of trampling on religious freedoms with the birth control mandate. roll the clip. >> president obama used his health care plan to declare war on religion forcing religious institutions to go against their faith. mitt romney believes that's wrong. when religious freedom is threatened, who do you want to stand with? >> i am mitt romney and a prove this message. >> that ad slams the president for requiring insurance companies to cover birth control even for employees of religious institutions and republican congressman marsha blackburn is a romney supporter out and about in virginia campaigning today and also a member of the women for mitt coalition. congressman blackburn, welcome and good morning to you. >> good morning to you. good to be with you. >> good to have you with us. let's begin as we started with that ad, the news of the day, and so this ad that's out today really hinges on this headline in this san antonio newspaper, so i will read the headline for you from the san antonio express news, the headline is obama insurance decision declares war on religion. i have to point out two things here. one, this article is an opinion piece. it is an op-ed and, number two, it came out actually before the president made this compromise back in february when he compromised putting birth control mandates on insurance companies and not on religious employers, right, so given those two we'll call them caveats, do you find this ad misleading, congresswoman? >> well, no, i think that when you look at what is transpired through hhs, and the secretary, and the steps that they have taken progressively through the obama care debate, and let's go back to '09 and look at the conversations that were taking place around that bill. what they were trying to do was give more power to hhs and take it away from the states and from congress, the elected representatives of the people. >> congresswoman, we're talking -- >> they came up, no, no, no, let me give you -- establish the predicate. let's establish the predicate on this. what you have is over 2,400 new mandates that are found in the obama care bill. one of these, and it was the subject of debate in health care subcommittee, in energy and commerce committee, both where i sit and i hold a seat on those committees. this was the subject of debate. great discussion. this was not going to tromple on any. you were supposed to be able to keep the insurance that you liked. >> i know we're talking 2012 and about this compromise and the ad out today, today, an opinion piece. >> i understand. in order to look at the ad, you have to go back and look what transpired through the process and the fact that this has all been, you know, just like so many other things, whether it is cost of insurance going up over $2,300, whether it is cramping the access to health care, whether it is forcing religious institutions -- what you've got is the federal government and the obama care bill trying to limit your freedoms. it is going to increase your taxes, supreme court even says it. >> let me jump in. i hear you and what you're saying is misleading but i only have so much time and i want to get to another ad all talked about really and hashed out on the network and cable news and i know you know what i am talking about this priorities usa, the pro obama super pac. have you this laid off steel worker blaming mitt romney for the death of his wife. i know you are calling on president obama to ask this super pac to yank the ad, but you know as well as i do, right, with the fcc rules you can't have a candidate, you can't have the campaign directly coordinating, talking to these super pacs, so how exactly do you propose asking this of the president? >> well, i think that when you -- i have heard some of the transcript where stephanie cutter was involved in a telephone call, a press call with this individual, and this is such a sad ad to me that this family would be pulled into this and this issue. there are so much -- you know what, this just needs to come off. i think the president could indeed call that super pac and say let's get this thing down, this is disrespectful to the deceased, sad for the family, has no place in this debate. >> we'll be talking to a democrat next hour and i will be posing the same question about possibly pulling this ad. just to be fair, we'll be asking that. i do want to talk to really the crux of this ad is, congresswoman, about health care and how because this man was laid off, right, from this steel worker, he lost his inurance. he filed for bankruptcy, lost his insurance ergo down the road his wife ends up dying and in the whole dot, dot, dot here we find out later it was really six years later and she actually did have insurance and we're not going to hash through that. what i do want to ask you is romney spokesperson, andrea saul, getting on tv and provided a unique rebuttal to this. >> to that point, you know, if people had been in massachusetts under governor romney's health care plan they would have had health care. there are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing health care in president obama's economy. >> reacting to that, congresswoman, i want to read a tweet from conservative eric erickson, omg, this might just be the moment mitt romney lost the election. do you think andrea seoul just stuck her foot in her mouth? >> i didn't hear the full interview, and i haven't seen the tweet. i can tell you what i know about the obama care plan. i know that it is already doubled in cost. this is in year one. those are not my numbers. those are the cbo numbers. >> she is bringing up the fact that -- >> you have the historic -- no. >> but she's bringing up the fact they could have gone to massachusetts and she brings up romney care. >> president obama's plan is going to limit access to health care delivery. >> we're talking about mitt romney here. >> it is going to increase the cost of health care insurance for individuals. you know, you have got all of these different states with different plans. >> we're talking -- with all due respect, congresswoman, we're talking about mitt romney. we're talking about a mitt romney spokesperson and specifically asking you to react to her comment and we played the sound bite where she is saying had this man gone to massachusetts where he would have had health care, perhaps that would have prevented his wife's death. it is nothing to do with obama care. >> though the point remains obama care is what is on the table. that is what is going to affect americans. it is what has increased the cost of insurance for all of our small business employers. i hear from people every single day that complain about the cost of insurance going up and the amount that it is going up every single day. >> congresswoman, if i may, if i may -- >> that's the issue. >> if i may, i want to move on and ask you about one other thing. as we talk about so many of these ads here, elections are a couple months away and it is getting interesting. i want to talk about a romney ad, not a super pac ad, work restrictions when it comes to welfare and we know the former speaker of the house is very much so supportive here of mitt romney and he spoke with anderson cooper last night. listen to this. >> you do think the actual wording under obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work, you wouldn't have to train for a job, they just send you a welfare check and that is not factually correct. >> we have no proof today, but i would say to you under obama's ideology is absolutely true. >> two words i want to point out, no proof. newt gingrich doing fact checking. how do you defend that? >> i think what you look at the executive order that came out. why did president obama ask the question? why did he feel like it was necessary to get rid of the work mandate and diminish that. >> the question i have is how do you defend that when you have newt gingrich saying no proof? >> i think that what i am doing is looking at the reason for this executive order and when you tell those states that you do not have to have this in place, then the states, and i was a state legislator. i was a state senator in tennessee. one of the things that helped with us our families first program was being able to look at those work requirements and incentivise work. that is how the states have been able to remove and to diminish and to help individuals move to productivity and jobs and work and have these success stories that they tell. it is a way that they have been able to certainly get the cost of welfare and assistance and appropriately placed assistance and to really do some good. >> we all want some good. >> the first program in tennessee was very successful because of that. >> okay. congresswoman marsha blackburn. >> i think you have to ask the question. >> thank you so much. we appreciate the conversation. >> good to be with you. >> we'll keep going joining me live from virginia this morning. as i mentioned a moment ago from team obama tim roemer will join us, former congressman and former ambassador to india. the shakeup in the world's biggest cancer charity months after mixed up in abortion politics. the question is why now? the reporter that broke the story in february is next. you're watching "starting point." 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