>> gretchen: tomorrow on the show, country singer matt kennen. have a fantastic day. >> steve: see you tomorrow, everybody. time for cake. march good morning, everybody, we start with this fox news alert and two big stories that are breaking right now in "america's newsroom", the first one is the latest peek that we are getting at the u.s. economy, brand new numbers just out for you on jobs in america, 440,000 americans, that is the number on this thursday morning, they filed first-time unemployment benefits last week. the good news is that that number is actually better than what economists were expecting. what does it all mean? stuart varney joins nous a few minutes. then there it this big story this morning, iran promising the world that on this day they would deal a harsh blow, and now we know on the 31st anniversary of the iranian revolution, ahmadinejad declared today to the people of his country they are now, quote, a nuclear state. the iranian president says they have produced their first batch of highly enriched uranium to the point of 20 percent purity. that's well below the # on percent that would be needed to make nuclear weapons, but ahmadinejad says he believes they could get there if they wanted to now that they've gotten this far, the iaea, international atomic energy agency says they're looking at these comments with a great deal of skepticism, it may just be bluster, but at this point, they don't know. here's a video of thousands of iranians marching in support of ahmadinejad today, but as he made this proud proclamation, protestors are also out there in the streets and they want to make a very big statement as well. they hope to topple ahmadinejad and want to be heard today, they've been taking to the streets. we're going to have brand new pictures of the rebellion that is going on in certain pockets of tehran. you remember they were out there last summer, protesting the outcome of ahmadinejad's election. and since then, two of their members have been hanged, six more, expect to be executed. we are following this situation very closely. we're going to talk to an american iranian journalist who is part of this movement gregg: and this morning, millions of folks, digging themselves out after a record breaking snowstorm tore its way up the east coastline. it was, well, 12 hours or more of constant snowfall in washington, new york, and parts of new england. that monster snowstorm, crippling our already batter ed capitol, grounding flights, canceling classes, causing a nightmare on the roads for millions of commuters. the weather is finally starting to ease up. good morning, everyone, i'm gregg jarrett, in for bill hemmer, right here in "america's newsroom". martha: good morning. we made it through that big storm, i'm martha maccallum. we've got full team coverage of the storm for you, stef centanni is in washington, janice dean is in the fox weather center. let's get started with steve in washington where it looks rather dark inside that car. hey there, steve. >> reporter: absolutely, it is dark inside the car, and right outside, that's why you see the extreme contrast between what you see inside and outside because it's a bright sun sunshiney day, not a cloud in the sky and that's a stark contrast from yesterday, all up into new york and beyond, it was a blizzard, the snow was blowing so hard, there was low visibility, in a couple of areas around the washington, d.c. area, they had to pull the snow plows off the road or tell them to stop working temporarily because visibility was so bad they were afraid they'd be running over cars or people and as you can see the cars are buried under this snow. they haven't been able to dig out since last friday when they got that 2-3 snowfall in this area. ever since then, it's been a struggle for everybody, for community, crews, people living in snowed-in neighborhoods, for the federal government, shut down for the fourth day in a row in the d.c. area, people struggling to dig out under this immense snowfall. martha: how long are they saying it's going to take to clean up, now that people can get out there and walk around in the sunshine, how long until that car, for example, is -- is dug out from under the snow? >> reporter: it may take a while. some haven't even attempted to dig out their cars from last friday when we got the snow in that area. it's going to take a long time. i was driving around d.c. yesterday and today and i didn't see a snow plow. i'm in arlington, virginia right now and driving around the residential streets. i haven't seen a snow plow over here. they are certainly concentrating on the main roads in and out of the cities on the highways so people can get around somewhat, but it could be days before anybody who lives on a little sideistrate like this, a residential area in arlington, virginia, gets dug out. it's immense. some are struggling with snow shovels and saying i don't know how i can do it, they're awe-struck when they walk out the door and have no idea how they're going to deal with snow. we may not be out of the woods yet. there could be a snowstorm coming next monday. martha: don't even talk about that yet, we can't think about that. steve, they've got to get out of there with the shovels and dig their way out. pretty soon they're going to run out of food in there. steve centanni, thank you very much. gregg: it seemed like a lot of light stuff exactly -- where you look, exactly how much fell? janice dean knows. hey j.d. >> reporter: we saw 10-20 inches in d.c., baltimore and philly, then around 10-12 here in new york city. we're going to get those snowfall totals for you shortly. here's the bull's eye of who saw the worst of the snow system, 2 feet in parts of pennsylvania, upstate new york, over a foot in other parts of new york, new jersey, and virginia. so this was another winter blast that adds insult to injury to these regions. the other big story, this is now historic, records shattered for winter, for the winter season, for philadelphia, baltimore, washington, d.c., and will noing, the previous records, you can see those and now we're into the 70-inch totals for baltimore and philadelphia. so incredible. and as steve mentioned, yes, we have another storm on the horizon which we'll start to talk about because people need to know that obviously as we get into the weekend. it will not be a blockbuster but it is going to add several inches to the ground. we are also watching this weather maker across the south, snow to dallas and parts of the deep south, parts of mississippi, alabama, even georgia could get snow in the next 12-24 hours. gregg: boy, am i glad i bought my wife that new shovel for christmas. got her a new vacuum cleaner, too. martha: i bet that went over really well. valentine's day is your next chance, buddy. gregg: she's getting a new washing machine for valentine's day. >> we know you're joking. martha: we have received so many amazing photos from all of you out there, take a look at the slide show, foxnews.com/weather, great pictures that we -- so many we can't show them all to you but click on that and send us your photos. gregg, you can send in your wife, if she has a shovel, outside the house, she'll appreciate that, foxnews.com, go to the link and click on you report. gregg: all right. some chilling new photographs of the twin towers collapse as you've never seen before. the haunting images released more than nine years after the 9/11 terror attacks, taken from a new york city police helicopter, that horrific day. the pictures are offering a rare aerial view of the devastation, some of the images obtained by abc news through the freedom of information act show one of the towers burning after a hijacked airplane flew into it. others show the towers collapsing to the ground. the clouds of dust and debris, moments after both towers crumbled to the ground. coming up, we're going to be talking to a retired new york city fireman who was at ground zero the day of the attack, to find out what he thinks about the pictures and their release. martha: wait until you see all of them. they are incredible images, and worth revisiting and thinking about on this day. and also on this day, we have new weekly jobless claims that we mentioned to you a moment ago, here is the number of the day, folks, 440,000. as we try to get a handle on where the trend is in employment in this country, that is a number of first-time unemployment benefits that were filed last week. this comes in as the white house expects the u.s. economy to pump out an average of 95,000 new jobs each month this year. that is their forecast. the estimate comes from the annual economic report of the president, which is compiled by the white house's council of economic advisers, but it is that prediction of new jobs -- but is that prediction enough to pull the u.s. economy out of its rut? stuart varney joins me. good morning to you. >> good morning, martha. martha: what do you make of the 440,000, what does it tell us about where we are in the line here? >> let's deal with that first. it's not clear whether that 440,000 number was affected by the bad weather across the country. it may be that some government offices were closed, so new claims couldn't be filed, may be that some people couldn't get to those offices because of the bad weather. so it's not clear that that number is a valid number. it does represent a marginal improvement from the week before, but you can't read too much into that number. now take a look at the 95,000 new jobs per month claim from the white house for the rest of this year. that is not enough to bring down the unemployment rate. you need well over 100,000 new permanent jobs each and every month to make a dent in the unemployment rate, and you need well over 100,000 new permanent jobs every month to really get the economy moving at a solid rate of growth. martha: stuart, interesting numbers from the white house today, and your take on them as we. we'll see you later, thank you very much, stuart varney from fox news business. gregg: there is a new poll out showing americans of attitude about the institution that works for you, the federal government, and it could have big implications come the mid-term elections. martha: you have to admire nasa, as always, and in this case, their perseverance, the space agency giving the launch of a scientific rocket another go today. we showed you this yesterday. today, they are going to try to get that liftoff of this unprecedented mission that is going to take amazing pictures we hope of the sun. grag gregg that's right. more violence, there you see some of it, out on the streets of iran. well, it got ugly in other places. demonstrators, opposing a repressive regime that now claims to be a nuclear state. we're going to get a clear picture. we're going to try to at least, of what really is going on from a person involved in the protests over the summer. martha: welcome back, everybody. back to that chilling announcement from iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad today, he came out and claimed to the people of iran they are now a nuclear state, ahmadinejad said his nation has made its first batch of higher enriched uranium which is a step closer to being able to create fuel that could be used in a nuclear bomb. now, all of this is happening anvery significant day in iran. this is the 31st anniversary of the islamic revolution, which overthrew the shah. these are some of the pictures we're getting in of the progovernment demonstrations in the street. now hundreds of thousands of people are out in the streets on both sides of this today, things are said to be very tense in tehran now as iran tries to stifle any of that opposition. we're just starting to get in new pictures of the other side, very difficult to get pictures of the opposition, and what they're doing, because the iranian country, the president controls all of the press and all of the images that are coming out. the internet has slowed to a trickle, i'm being told by my guest who's going to be here in a second. but this is the opposition happening on the ground, and our next guest knows all of this firsthand. he was part of those bloody protests that took place last summer after the elections, jas onshams recently moved to the u.s. from iran and is now a contributor to the daily beast. welcome, good to have you here. >> thank you. martha: what was it like for you, having lived there and worked there 20 years and having been part of what we watched unfold on the streets last summer and everyone remembers the death of nei that became symbolic against the backlash of you and others on the streets. what's it like to be watching this unfold on the streets today? >> it feels like a responsibility to tell people over here what's really happening over there, because they have kicked out reporters and cut down the internet and stuff like that, the images that comes out of there is very distorted. the objective of the government is that distorted image. and the people are involved in a struggle right now to really get the word out on what's happening. martha: you wrote some very specific things in your speech yesterday about the speakers that were on the streets and these huge speakers that were designed basically to drown out the shouts of the protestors. tell us about that. >> yes. one wrote that today millions of speakers are coming out in support of the government, so basically, that's what they're trying to do, they're trying to project the image these people are a small minority, a bunch of trouble makers on the street, instead of the real people of iran, who -- which whom are big majority have real objections to what's happening now. martha: when they saw ahmadinejad come out and saying there's going to be a rouge blow to western powers from all this, what's the reaction on the street when we hear we are now a nuclear state? >> well, i think that's irrelevant now to what's happening, because this government lies so much that people don't really know what to take, what this means right now. 20 percent, that means nothing to the people now. they have much more legitimate concerns about how the government is working and how the country is run. martha: it's so hard for people to get their voices out, and we know that there have been hangings, at least two hangings, and there are six people who are also set to be executed as a result of speaking out against their government, which is something that we take for granted in this country, the ability to be able to do that. talk to me about the courage that it takes, knowing that you could be shot on the street, you could be hung for speaking your mind against this government. >> well, it does take quite a bit of occur on this, but together next the fact that everybody is coming out, helps one gain that courage. also the fact that the people feel that they're on the right side of this argument, on the side of the law, they are on the streets based upon their legitimate rights to assembly, et cetera, gives them that courage to go out there and stand for what they believe in. and also, the fact that you see old people, young people, people carrying infants and toddlers in the streets -- >> martha: they're not afraid? i put myself in that situation, i think i would be afraid to go out into the street, knowing that there would be police that worked for the government who would shoot me if i spoke out. >> they are afraid, but i assume, and i felt that myself, when i was there, that they're more afraid of living a life where this trend continues, and they're the voice -- the voice of the people will be ignored, and the whole push is to prevent that from happening in the next years, in the next decade. martha: throughout history, we've watched people rise up in protest against totalitarian rejeels and against leadership they didn't like, even with the birth of our own nation. do you feel that our country, our government, should be doing more to support the protestors on the streets in tehran? >> well, the country is one part government and one part the public. if the government were to speak out in support of the people on the streets of tehran, that would just play to the hands of what the propaganda machine of the state is trying to do, which is to tend this movement on foreign countries and say this is a scheme to undermine -- >> martha: it would be dangerous for the united states to -- >> for the united states government. things like public support, and the feeling for people who got killed, and the whole sense of togetherness that the world came together with the people of iran is very welcomed back home. martha: jason, thank you so much, i hope you'll keep us updated, we appreciate having you here today. gregg, back to you. gregg: almost ten years since the 9/11 terror attacks, the events of that day still fresh in the minds of millions of americans and now there are new never-seen pictures of that terrible day. we're going to be talking to a former fireman who was on the scene in downtown manhattan, september 11th. and police in texas tried to find out who was responsible for setting nine churches on fire. we're going to have the very latest on that investigation plus -- >> by 23, he completed college at the university of michigan and his mba and his law degree. >> rick schneider is an entrepreneur. >> why this guy says people should vote for him to be michigan's governor. his unconventional campaign, coming up next. martha: he wants to be the next governor of a state facing tough economic challenges and to prove it he's showing his game face or if you ask him, his nerd face. check it out. >> michigan has tried politician, we've tried happy talk, and we're 50th out of 50, dead last. >> it's time for a nerd. >> his ten-point plan to reinvent michigan is so detailed that, well, it's likely no politician could even understand it. >> but it's the way to finally save our state. >> rick schneider for michigan. he's one tough nerd. martha: that ad from businessman and republican michigan gubernatorial candidate rick schneider, who spent $80,000 of his own money to run the commercial locally during the super bowl on sunday. he is branded as one tough nerd on michigan's primary. it's four-months away and he makes the point that i think comes home to a lot of people, 50th out of 50. i mean, if you're living in michigan, where people have been through such tough economic times for several years, before the rest of the country started to kick into this, you do have to ask yourself, you know -- and the other thing it reminds me of, ross perot with his charts and analyses of exactly what was going on in the country, and you wonder if this man, you know, who knows, may be on to something. gregg: nothing else has been working for michigan, in the motor city. last time i went there, it was a veritable ghost town. maybe this will resonate with some of the citizens there. martha: one tough nerd. maybe it's the cool thing to be. gregg: god's house burning in east texas. investigators say this is no accident, the feds believe a serial arsonist or group of arsonists have been burning down churches, two monday night, just miles apart. in all, authorities say nine churches have been deliberately set. there's the map. in the area, since the first of the year. crist gutierrez is live in smith county, texas. chris, what's the latest? any leads here? >> you know, i think there are some leads coming in, federal investigators are reag staying tight-lipped on this case because they don't want to jeopardize the investigation, but here is the dover baptist church behind me, this church was set on fire monday night and get this, firefighters hadn't been here for 15 minutes, when they got another call for another church fire just 3 miles away. that fire was at the clear springs missionary baptist church, again, 3 miles away, the pastor there tells me someone kicked in a back door. that suspect made his way into the sanctuary and started a fire in the exact same spot where that pastor gives his sunday sermon every week. here's what that pastor had to say. >> it makes my skin crawl a little bit because i stand there every sunday and bring the lord's word and some people have asked me do you think it was anything thrown toward you, but i don't believe i have any enemies to that extent, i believe it's pure hatred. >> reporter: at this point, federal investigators do not believe it's a certain ethnic group being targeted or denomination because it runs the gamut so far. gregg: what are the churches doing? they've got to be absolutely petrified, worried that there will be nothing left of their house of worship. >> reporter: you're exactly right. in russ county, about an hour from here, the sheriff there, no churches have been targeted there but he's already talking about trying to form some type of church patrol and things like that, some parishioners are offering to sleep in the sanctuaries and other churches, but at the clear view church, not too far from here, in fact it's five minutes down the road, the same night of the two most recent fires, someone tried to break into that church but apparently they got spooked because parishioners there had already voted to arm the sanctuary with an alarm system and it apparently paid off. listen here. >> i can't imagine somebody wanting to do that. they've got to -- there's got to be devil involved somewhere. >> reporter: a lot of these congregations are about 50 people or fewer so they can't afford the expense of elaborate alarm systems, the dover church had a fake camera installed as a deterrent but it didn't work. gregg: chris gutierrez, thanks. martha: the constitution assures us of several things, including freedom of speech and freedom of religion. but does god belong at the mall? a pastor, arrested for talking about the lord to shoppers. find out what his rights really are, straight ahead. gregg: and the nation's capitol, a ghost town in many ways, thanks to all that snow. but just wait until you hear how much the government shutdown is going to cost you. gregg: brand new video into fox news out of k1 there, where police clashing are protestors, firing tear gas to disperse them, paint ball toss mark them for arrest. and this is, of course, supposed to be a peaceful celebration of the anniversary of the revolution in places there. it has turned ugly. you saw moments ago some of the protestors, tearing down and ripping apart of the images of the leadership in tehran. we'll continue to follow what's happening there. martha: the big dig, after a record breaking snowstorm, still not back to normal for millions of people after a second blizzard in less than a week slams the east coast, washington, philadelphia, baltimore, all broke records. for the most snowfall of the season. some parts of new york city got up to a foot of snow, utility crews are working to restore power to thousands of people who are still sitting in the cold and dark and that is a rough situation to be in. laura ingle is live in new york with more on the storm's aftermath. are things returning to normal pretty much around the region? >> reporter: hi martha. new york city, you know, was under that blizzard warning but we didn't quite make it to blizzard status. as you can see here behind me on 48th and sixth here outside of our fox news headquarters, things are looking pretty good. it's certainly a different story than what we saw yesterday. but middown manhattan can be a little deceiving because we do have so many snow plows, salt spreaders and of course all the taxis help burn off that snow but definitely a different story across the region. it was enough to keep kids out of school in many school district areas outside of new york today. the roads that were closed in pennsylvania that we talked about yesterday are slowly reopening. interstate 80, 81, reopened, but 78 and roads around the philadelphia area are still closed. in delaware, the governor says crews are still working to clear out not only snow but get all those disabled vehicles off the roads. a spokesperson with the office of highway safety in delaware, asking people once again to stay home. so people are doing what they can to dig out, and financially, just so you know, it's a million dollars per inch to clear snow in new york city. martha: good grief! are you kidding me? my goodness. i couldn't help but think on the way to work what a fantastic job they do of clearing the roads around the metropolitan area. in new york, they are very good at it and we thank them for it. laura ingle, thank you for that report from right outside the corner here. gregg the record shattering storm shutting down the nation's capitol and expecting to cost u.s. taxpayers and local businesses an enormous amount of money, the know freezing or suspending all commuter train and bus services, all government offices are closed for the fourth straight day because of the weather. now, get this, the office of personnel management estimates taxpayers, that's you, will have to pay about $100 million for every day the federal government stays closed. martha: so do you support the government shutting down because of a blizzard? we'd like to know what you think. a lot of folks are wondering why it has taken them so many days to get back to work in washington. log on to fox news.cole and simply click on the you decide link on our home page and weigh in and check out how others are voting, over 70,000 have voted, 20 percent say yes, they think federal workers and families should be dealt with top priority, 26 percent say no, this is silly, i'm not my desk right now, why can't they go to work. that's a pretty good question. gregg: he talked about god at the mall and ended up in cuffs, a youth pastor, arrested after striking up a conversation with shoppers at the roseville galleriaa mall in california, it happened in 2006, the pastor, matthew snatchko was never charged but he's fighting back in a court of law, challenging the constitutionality of the mall's limits on controversial conversations. joining us now, constitutional attorney david rivkin. good to see you. >> thanks gregg. gregg: there is no implied right to free speech in a shopping mall under the federal constitution, so says the u.s. supreme court. but they also said california is different, that they do have under the constitution there a right to free speech in parts of the mall subject to reasonable regulation. so wasn't the pastor's first amendment rights violated? >> i think it's an excellent case, as you correctly point out, under the california constitution. it's broader in scope than the first amendment in the federal constitution, and the gist of it really would be this, that the regulations were both -- that the mall put in place were overly broad but also they're enforced in an arbitrary fashion. he did not try to carry placards or try to organize a demonstration, which is the kind of activity for which you'd knead a permit. he struck up a conversation with three shoppers. the thought that you need advance approval for that type of interaction is quite frankly silly. gregg: the so-called reasonable regulations the mall had instituted are two of them: first of all, you're restricted to a specific place in the mall. second of all, the speaker, and this is the troubling one, the speaker has to submit an application four days in advance. doesn't that strike you as a lawyer as maybe potential censorship here, and unreasonable? >> it is. and again, it would be quite different if we were talking about a large city, where you're going to org nase a demonstration of many thousands, a number of cities -- actually, i can tell you a number of cities don't require that long of an advance period, so they manage it, but another thing to emphasize, remember these regulations only apply to conversations involving political and religious -- and noncommercial speech. so it's not just a question of reasonableness of regulation and place of timing, but it's the content, because it -- it singles out religious and political content. gregg: that may what about bothers people -- people, it may be okay to strike up a conversation about baseball or summer vacations, but you can't strike up a conversation about god. >> right. gregg: there is somebody that may be offensive to great many people about that. >> that is absolutely true, and let's be clear, the content regulation are regulations that treat one type of speech differently from the other, they are foremost and always constitutional. that's different from asking, for example, in the context of getting a permit, let's say it was reasonable to get a permit for a large demonstration but if regulations say you don't need to get a regulation if you're talking about art, but you need to get a permit talking about god, it would be struck down as unconstitutional under the federal constitution and the california constitution. gregg: the other part of the regulation was well, you can only proselytize over here in this destate -- designated area and i thought about that for a while and i thought if i'm a business owner and somebody is proselytizeing in my mall and driving customers out, i guess i have a legitimate business interest to prevent that from happening and thus the reasonableness of the designated area? >> no, because what you do is you want to tailor the restrictions as nearly as possible and i would say this, your behavior in a store, in a mall, it's driving customers away, there would be general nuisance and loitering approaches that would enable you to ask the person to leave and in fact cause him to be arrested. you don't need to have regulations of this kind for it. nothing like that happened here. grawg gregg david, yes or new york is the preacher going to win? >> well, it's in california state court. gregg: i know, but -- >> i think he has an excellent chance of winning. he obviously lost so far at the trial level but things tend to get resolved better with this type of a level at the state level. i'm optimistic he'll win. gregg: david, it's a fascinating subject and it means an awful lot to america, thanks a lot. >> thank you. martha: this morning we got a new look at unemployment numbers out today, they were better than economists expected but more than 15 million people are still filing for unemployment benefits. let's take a quick check at how the markets are reacting, down 23 points, the dow closed lower the past three sections, but yesterday closed back up above 10,000. let's see if we can hang in there today. gregg: the new york police department releasing new never-before-seen pictures of the twin towers the day they were attacked. coming up we're going to be talking to a decorated new york city firefighter and survivor of the september 11th attacks. >> nasa, about to make its second attempt to launch its atlas five rocket. there it is, they're filling the fuel tanks right now. we're going to take a live look at kennedy space center, see if the liftoff will finally happen today. gregg: a power company in venezuela calling on a higher power to help it get through a rough patch now, the state-run company asking employees to pray about electricity shortages after president chavez declared an energy emergency, the company even tolding -- holding a mayor meeting and encouraging -- a prayer meeting and encouraging workers to attend, the government vowing to punish business it is thinks use too much energy. chavez blames the crisis on drought that has cut water flow to a dam that provides venezuela's electricity. martha: this is a very important story today, earlier we showed you some of the haunting new imannuals that have just been released of what happened in lower manhattan on september 11th. now, these photographs offer a rare aerial view of the devastation in lower manhattan, just moments after the terror attacks. the thing that was strike to go me about these photographs is that they were taken by the new york police department aviation unit. they were taken by detective greg semidare as he was flying in a chopper over lower manhattan, witnessing all of this in an effort to help. the idea was these choppers might be able to pull people off the tops of buildings and sadly, as this detective reported, in looking at these pictures, that was not a possibility, and you can see quite clearly when you look at them just why. tim brown is a retired 9/11 new york city firefighter and he's the founder of a group that really strives to preserve this memory and to make sure that no one forgets, it is called the bravest.com, he was on duty on ground zero on september 11th and tim, it's always good to have you here >> thank you, nice to see you. martha: news that they were releasing these new photographs, some people say why now, why release these photos which clearly would be disturbing and upsetting to many of the family members? >> right. they are very powerful photographs. i think they are difficult, they bring up some difficult memories, but i think it serves a bigger purpose of reminding us of the horror of that day and what these very evil people did to us. i mean, it's very personal for us here in new york. so although it's difficult to view them, i think it's the best thing for america. to look at them. martha: you have said that you feel that for a lot of people in the country, maybe, it was -- it feels like something they saw in a movie, and for us here in new york, it is very real, we all know people who died on that day, and i was struck by what -- here's another one of these images, it's just incredible. i still have a hard time looking at these pictures and realizing this happened, because you know, i worked in the building with the rounded top there for many years, it was not during this period, but you know, it also strikes me, it reveals an area of the rescue effort that we really haven't seen before on the part of the great men and women of the new york police department and fire department. >> absolutely. the police department has the helicopters, and they did fly around that day, i believe there were two helicopters flying around the towers, observing, but they really couldn't get to the roof because of the terrible conditions, the terrible smoke conditions and the updrafts from the heat, from the flames. so they were kind of render ed to do other things, and to observe. they were an observation post in the sky for the police commanders, and they helped give us a better view. now, if you can just imagine, you know, we were in the street, these buildings are 110 stories up. it's hard to lean back and look straight up and be able to assess what's really happening, and see how many floors are really on fire and how bad the situation was. from the helicopter, they could see that a lot better. martha: they could see it from completely the other view, which is what we're getting a very unique look at here. you said something very interesting, you said you would like for the administration to do sort of -- when they do these town halls and meetings, you'd like them to do it with people directly affected at least at some point because you feel it would help to sort of focus on how we deal with terrorism today. >> sure. martha: continue to remember what happened and why. >> right. there's a gap between what the administration is doing and how americans feel. especially new yorkers. i think a poll came out where 60 percent were for the military tribunal. we don't need this revisited on us here again in new york, and we'd love to be able to sit in a tawn -- town hall meeting, a transparent town hall meeting with the president and explain to him how we feel and maybe he would understand a little better. i think they're a little disconnected from it. martha: tim brown, thank you for shaing your thoughts with us and they are, no matter how you feel about them, extraordinary pictures and important that we never forget. good to have you here. >> thank you martha. martha: gregg, back to you gregg: the pressure is on, there are new calls for top counterterrorism adviser john brennan to step down or be fired. what the white house has to say about that. plus we're going to be talking one on one with a key u.s. senator with why he believes brennan has to go. martha: their marriage is on the rocks to say the least and now a new report that john edwards' estranged wife is threatening to sue, but not him and not his mistress. wait until you hear she thinks is to blame for their breakup. #ñ#ñ#ñ#ñññññññññ martha: today is going to be the day, forget rocket launch day two, the window is now open on the atlantis five rocket, sitting on the launchpad at kennedy space center, high winds forced nasa yesterday to scrub the planned launch. the rocket is carrying a new solar dynamics observatory, that means it's going to look at the sun in really cool ways from what we are hearing, it will scrutinize sun spots and solar flares and hopefully reveal some of the hidden secrets lurking out there in the great beyond for our solar system. we're going to bring you any updates and we'll get you that launch as soon as it happens. gregg: i hope they don't come back with bad news like the sun is about to expire in my lifetime. martha: we'll save that from you. gregg: all right. >> ♪ every rose has its thorn. ♪ martha: this is a good excuse to play that song. gregg: isn't that a pretty snong and the flowers. sunday is valentine's day. martha: is it really? gregg: did you get your hubby something? tell us, whisper in our ear. martha: it's a surprise! this year many americans are choosing to be more frugal with sweethearts, especially with the flowers out there. the unseasonallably cold weather and other factors are driving up the cost of roses and add in the bad economy. martha: let me get my violin gregg: orly salinas knows. orly, tell us where the flowers come from. >> look, most of these flowers come from latin america, specifically columbia and ecuador, stacks of these coming in -- have been coming in for about 45 days is what i'm told. we are now inside the sunburst farms, this is their location here in miami, florida. we have been here just for about 45 minutes or so. joining us right now, this is gino valdez, the president of sunburst farms. gino, if you could, you were telling me ear, this is sort of like your super bowl. >> absolutely, this is the super bowl for us, it's a time when everything we've worked for as far as the company, as a group, is right here, and ultimately, the success of the holiday is measured after the holiday, monday and tuesday, based on our customers' experience with their flowers. so this is it, right here. >> reporter: now, we're looking at all these pictures, you have all these people working, and i would ask you this: when you talk about sales, it's hard to really quantify it, but this one holiday, valentine's day, is your make or break. >> yeah, in terms of dollars, yes, it's about 20 percent of the revenue for us, it's about, you know, 80 million stems of flowers will leave this facility, and actually have been leaving for the last couple of days, so yeah, in terms of volume, it's huge. very huge. >> reporter: thank you very much, gino. let me tell you something, folks, we're wondering, also, how will this bad weather affect your flowers? apparently it won't. they've made it in, now it's a matter of getting these flowers out to your local delivery folks and getting to your home. martha: they have until sunday, they'd better hurry. gregg: every year i give my wife the same silk and plastic red roses. over and over again. martha: really? gregg: it saves money and they last forever. martha: these are the pictures of a big story that we're talking about today, that iran does not want you to see. but they are getting out, anyway, and we will show you what is going on in iran right now, as they rip the picture of the iranian leader. we'll tell you more on the ground, get a better understanding of what's going on. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. pancakes! ♪ from dawn 'til sunset, i'll never walaway ♪ ♪ blueberry pancakes are so go ♪ [ male announcer ] bisquick. pancake lovers unite. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. launch your dreams. [meow] desperate for nighttime heartburn relief? for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. and for the majority of patients with prescription coverage for nexium, it can cost $30 or less per month. headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain are possible side effects of nexium. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. ask your doctor if nexium can help relieve your heartburn symptoms. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. martha: breaking news at the top of the hour, welcome to "america's newsroom," a "fox news alert," 440,000, people who filed first time unemployment claims last week and while it is a big number in today's world it's good news, because it means new unemployment claims dropped to the lowest total we have seen for that number in a month. the new weekly unemployment numbers coming out just as the white house released a new report today, the u.s. is likely to create to their best estimate about 95,000 jobs more each month. this year, we'll have a live report on what the number means, and the estimate coming out of the white house in terms of economic recovery. another big story on the horizon today. a violent show down is reportedly taking place now in the streets of iran. a very important national anniversary there. and that has prompted this... happening in the streets. this is a picture of the iranian leadership, ripped from the streets, the new video we've gotten in, shows several hundred anti-government protesters clashing with iranian security forces and this story is topping a brand new hour of "america's newsroom" now, good morning, i'm martha maccallum. gregg: i'm hemmer and clashes bg out on the anniversary of the islamic revolution which created the islamic republic in iran. martha: joining us by phone with the latest on what is happening on the streets of tehran is a freelance journalist there now and for his safety we're protecting his identity. good afternoon, to you. what can you report to us from where you are? >> caller: well, i can report pretty much what -- confirm what you are getting through this mobile clip. tehran is a total mess, especially parts of the areas close to the freedom square where this anniversary of the iranian republican was held today. the clashes are still to continue as the night is fall down and getting dark, the usual scenario is a cat and mouse play taking to the streets and the neighborhood of the north tehran, i can recap as to what happened today. you can judge by what you see from the newswires and what we see from ground, this morning, one of the opposition leaders, a candidate, one of the candidates defeated in the june election was attacked twice when he was trying to get to the revolution square, freedom square. his son was arrested and has not been freed by the intelligence services. as well as that, the nephew of the grand supreme leader, and his husband, were also picked up and briefly were arrested so you can see if the iranian government arresting the nephew of the supreme leader, anybody in iran cannot match such a thing happened. we have been hearing unconfirmed reports of a shot and one woman dead, arzu, and that is to be verified and motorcycles and police cars have been set on fire but at least one confirmed vehicle which is bringing people from the other cities and towns across iran to bring in people to the revolution square that is being set fire in north tehran. martha: thank you so much for that report and we know how difficult and dangerous it is to get any word out of where you are now and we'll watch the star with great interest as some wonder whether or not civil unrest on the streets of tehran and a verizon even within the main government as he was describing may mean there is more to come there. we'll update you. gregg: digging out after a double winter storm, looking live right now, at dupont circle in downtown d.c., the nation's capital, slowly coming back to life, actually this is tape that got in to us. a pounding from mother nature to be sure, shovels and plows out in full force and similar scenes up and down the eastern seaboard and the beltway region getting the worst of it by far. we have live team fox coverage, janice dean live in the fox weather center all over the latest forecast in a second. first we begin with molly henneberg live in hanover, maryland. what is happening at that facility? >> reporter: hi, gregg, this is the maryland operations center for the state highway administration. and there are cameras all over the state and they feed in here and i'll have my photographer give you a look at the video cameras and it is manned 24/7, so people can tell the conditions on the road , and wht roads have been plowed and they can respond and plan the next step in the cleanup. gregg: how are the roads in maryland right now. >> reporter: better than expected. at least when we were coming up follow washington, we could see bare pavement on parts of the roads and neil peterson, the highway administrator says almost all the highways and freeways are passable but not all lanes are open. the state is responsible for the main highways which you see on the video cameras and counties and municipalities are responsible for the local roads and there are more of them and will take longer to get them plowed and passable. gregg: molly henneberg live at hanover, maryland, thanks. martha: it may not be old man winter's last stand in the east. eyeing another possible storm now on the horizon. janice dean, live at the fox weather center, and it is reminding me of what winter was like when we were kids and there was snow a lot in february, right. >> true. a lot of 0 folk in tfolks in th '80s say it was what i dealt with. martha: called winter. >> it is extreme across the mid-atlantic where we set records for the snowiest season on record for parts of baltimore and d.c. and philadelphia and there railroare your latest tot foot to 20 inches, when you think of it on top of the record breaking snow we saw a few days ago and another storm on the horizon, a fast mover, clip your system and could bring several inches over regions that really don't want to shovel anymore. we are watching this southern storm bringing several inches to dallas and that is our last system and it is out to sea. good news, good riddance and the next system is getting acits ac together and will be a main event off the gulf coast an dallas could see several inches, 3 to 5 inches and then as we go into the evening hours, the snow will spread across areas that don't typically get a lot of snow, louisiana, arkansas, mississippi, there is dallas, the bull's-eye and we could get 6 to 12 inches, big news for them! and down towards alexandria and jackson, mississippi. we'll be watching the system in the next couple of days and our new system arrives monday the mid-atlantic and northeast and we'll bring you the latest. martha: we'll have to get shepard smith down there with a shovel over the weekend. >> i think he just likes parades, maybe he'll shovel for us. we'll see. martha: thank you, janice. this story really caught my eye this morning. forecasting what could be another economic storm in this country. listen to this: commercial real estate is threatening to sink the american financial system even further. reports say the market has plunged in commercial real estate more than 40% since early 2007 and now a tidal wave of defaults in the commercial part of the real estate market could trigger another economic melt down. if you can believe it. $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans will mature between now and 2014. analysts say half of those are already under water. meaning the property is worth less than the remaining balance, basically this is what we saw happen in the homemaker and lots of folks have been watching it and saying the commercial market will be the next shoe to drop. we'll see if there is a sequel in the banking industry to go along with this. gregg: let's move to the housing industry. housing market could also be poised for another melt down, foreclosure rates for -- down for december to january, still 15% higher than the same time last year and now analysts predict another wave of mortgage default due to a surging cash strapped homeowner. 315,000 american households got a foreclosure notice, just last month. mark her marriage crumbled on the front page of the tabloids and now elizabeth edwards is placing blame for her divorce from the two-time white house hopeful john edwards and is not just blaming her philandering soon to be ex-husband or his mistress. wait until you hear who she may sue. gregg: and he has been under fire for his handling of the attempted christmas day bombing, the white house is standing by the deputy national security advisor john brennan, a lawmaker calling for his job, he'll join us, live in three minutes. martha: here's something for you, if you get high and board a commercial airplane. gregg: yeah, that is me. martha: we know you never would. don't mess with this woman. she's a feisty flight attendant, and a high-flying action drama, fit f in the skies, we'll show you that. next. ññ gregg: the white house is defending its top counterterrorism advisor amid calls for more republican lawmakers he resign or be fired, john brennan is his name, the deputy national security advisor and has been pushing back at critics of the administration's handling of the christmas day bombing suspect and in an op-ed piece called the criticism politically motivated and that column prompted criticism from some republican lawmakers about his credibility and the white house is standing behind their man and in a written statement, white house spokesperson nick shapiro said he has devoted his life to defeating terrorism and has served his country with courage and distinction through five administrations, republican and democrat. that's the wrong graphic but i'll get to that now. joining us now is missouri senator kit bond, who has been critical of brennan and also vice chair of the senate intelligence committee. senator, thanks for being with us. let's put the graphic on the screen, because i want to ask you, your reaction to it. here's what the white house said about you. we regret senator bond's assault on mr. brennan and urge everyone to resist the temptation to play politics on these serious matters of national security. senator, wasn't it brennan that first politicized this when he blamed you republicans for, quote, politically motivated fear mongering and aiding al qaeda? >> john brennan as the national security advisor on intelligence for the president, knew last january that the president had taken away the interrogation responsibility from the cia and they were going to set one up and we found out christmas day there was not one set up. and then mr. brennan went on and took on the role of the white house press office, to make those attacks, next, he said that i and the 7 other members of congress who had been briefed knew of course that umar farouk abdulmutallab was being given his legal rights not to speak or mer rmirandized and neither the intelligence community or -- gregg: are you telling me he was lying. >> he was mistaken in what he told us. because none of us were told they were going to mirandize him. my real argument is with the administration's policy. the world changed on 9/11. we found out treating terrorists as common criminals didn't work at the cost of thousands of lives and i'm concerned the current administration has gone back to those pre-9/11 policies -- gregg: let me ask you. you called for brennan's resignation and the white house reacted to your call by calling that a, quote-unquote, pathetic attack. will you back down or do you still believe that john brennan needs to go? >> the most important thing -- and if we can get one message to the white house, is start treating these terrorists who come in not as common criminals but as enemy combatants and mr. brennan has not been able to do that and there has to be a wholesale change. gregg: let me ask you about that status, enemy combatant because an hour or so ago robert gibbs was on another network and was asked if it happens again will you mirandize the same way you did u.mar farouk abdulmutallab and he said the next time it happens it will not be like what happened in detroit as detroit was not like the previous attack and the question was it sound like the government feels it mirandized too soon and he said that is not true. what do you make of that? >> it was true. and the leaders of the intelligence community, director of national intelligence and counterterrorism center were shocked that he had been myr mirandized and she had valuable information and mr. gibbs and brennan justified that he could shut up saying we got all the information we needed in the 50 minutes of questioning and that is ridiculous, anybody engaged in intelligence knows in 50 minutes you cannot get all the background and ask the question you need to ask. gregg: and they are now saying -- in fact they are saying he's talking again, doesn't that negate their claim. >> now he's giving them valuable information, directly contradicts what they said that myrirandizing him didn't make a difference, critical information on the most dangerous area for attacks on the u.s. and that is the area of yemen where they are training suicide bombers. bill: gregg: i'm running out of time, should brennan resign. >> yes. change the policy. bill: senator kit bond, thank you very much. ma martha: mother nature may have shut down the federal government and the blizzard is also generating jobs out there! fox news find out where they are, coming up. gregg: and nasa giving yet another go, awaiting lift off of the atlas-5 rocket, launch begins in five minutes, the trip to the sun, you'll see it, on "america's newsroom," three minutes. upbeat 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[ male announcer ] say hello to the can-doers. ♪ the budget masters. the knockout artists who are finding more ys to bolder color in less time. say hello to newer ideas and lowered prices, enabling more people to turn more saving into more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, get any gallon of glidden paint for just $14.97. you're saving up to $5.50 a can. martha: get ready for the launch of the atlas-5 rocket. let's watch. >>... 5, 4, go for main engine start, 3, 2, 1... zero and ignition and lift off of the atlas-5, with the solar dynamics observatory. learning why our star is changing our lives. >> 40 seconds, looking good, pressures are normal. going into control, p-u... >> and try and close the control... and the stabilization system. pressures continue to look good. flight control data smooth as expected for this portion of the atmospheric flight. coming up on mach-1. and vehicle is supersonic. approaching maximum pressure. everything is looking good. and we are hitting max-q, controlling as expected engine operating as expected. everything looking good. and the vehicle continues down the center of the range track. we are 12 miles in altitude, 11 miles down range, traveling 2300 miles per hour. >> propulsion and hydraulic security. >> transition to 95.% plus... controller as expected. and we are now at 50% of our lift off weight. engine continues to operate as expected 95% thrust. >> automatics... >> approaching our -- >> pneumatic... >> steering phase, we've entered that. martha: that is a super cool event, we are watching, taking place at cape canaveral, florida, they said the rocket is now 50% of its lift off weight as it ex-spends the fuel it took to get up there, 2300 miles an hour and you know where it is headed? the sun, going to the sun to take pretty amazing pictures. gregg: and may eventually lead to more accurate forecasts of violent storms here on earth. how incredible would that be, if we could anticipate them better. martha: indeed it was and we've had a number of those storms recently, and people would really appreciate the technology and is basically a huge rocket camera, and also feels like the kind of thing we'll see a lot more of because the program is coming to a close, the administration is not signing off on manned missions, and haven't described what kind they might be backing in the future, not returning to mars but this rocket is heading to take pictures of the sun and we could get really amazing images like never seen before what that fiery ball that keeps us all warm every day, actually looks like. gregg: the solar flare, you can't see very well, we'll see real well, as well as the mass, ejects that can damage satellites and maybe we can adjust the satellites to diffuse the problem and it's supposed to be budgeted for five years we operated and nasa hopes to keep it going for ten years. martha: can't wait to see the pictures from the atlas-5 which has taken off a beautiful launch from cape canaveral, florida. you can see demonstrated there, coming up the president called bankers and wall street folks bringing home bonuses fat cats and he said he wasn't elected to protect fat cats, something along those lines and said said something different, said i don't begrudge jam jamie dimon, the ceos of goldman sachs and mag, and people went, hmm... which is it? we'll talk about that coming up next. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. gregg: getting new details on a white house report out this morning cautiously predicting that the united states will add an average of 95,000 more jobs each month this year. but it said the high unemployment rate would probably only go down slowly, wendell goler is live at the white house with details and what does the report say about what the economic future holds for us? >> reporter: gregg the report predicts the economy will grow about 2.5%, creating as you say, 95,000 jobs a month, not just this year, but in 2011 as well, but since about 100,000 or more people join the labor force each month the unemployment rate will not go down significantly before the end of the president's first term in office, the chair of the president's council of economic advisors, christina romer says the tough times will continue but it beats, she says losing 800,000 jobs a month. >> surely not good enough, right and the fact the unemployment rate is 9.7% is exactly why the president has emphasized job creation and the president is bringing legislation to jump start that. >> reporter: harry reid hoped to pass a package this week, and republicans were excited about it since it contains more spending and the president should be focussed on reducing the budget deficit. gregg: and christina romer has spent her professional life writing about how government action doesn't fix the economy and what about republican complaints the president is blaming the past administration for the difficulty easing the current economic crisis. >> reporter: well, they say the president is not only exaggerating bush administration policies, the effect of bush administration policies on the deft in g difficulty of getting out of the recovery and is exaggerating the stimulus package, and disputing that it saved or created 2 million jobs and the white house scaled back the number of jobs it thinks the stimulus package created in the final three months of last year, virginia congressman eric cantor is quoted as saying, instead of blame, the white house should, quote, provide smart solutions to reduce uncertainty but christina romer says it is a fact the bush administration's decision to add to the deficit with the tax cuts, prescription drug benefit and medicare and wars in iraq and afghanistan left a deeper hole for the economy to climb out of. gregg: wendell goler live at the white house, this morning. martha: the president may be changing his tune a bit. when it comes to bankers and the wall street elite. accepting at least somewhat the astronomical bonuses some of those players have taken in. at institutions and in some cases took a lot of bailout money from taxpayers and some bonuses approached $20 million apiece. listen to what the president said about this, just two months ago. >> president barack obama: i did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of, you know, fat cat bankers on wall street. martha: now president obama, is, you know, saying things along these lines: to bloomberg "businessweek," i, like most of the american people don't begrudge people's success or wealth, that is part of the free market system. when he was asked specifically about these bonuses that were taken in by jamjamie dimon at j morgan and lloyd blankfein at goldman sachs and, let's bring in bernard whitman, former pollster for president bill clinton and bernard, why the change of tune, do you think. >> i think, clearly the president should have objected to the outrageous bonuses as it becomes more and more apparent the role goldman sachs had in accelerating the financial collapse and what it underscores is the need for comprehensive financial regulatory reform to stop the reckless, irresponsible and abusive practices that got us into the mess, the truth is we have a mid 20th century regulatory system for a 20th century financial system. martha: you are touching on something that i think may be in some part at least at the core of this. let me bring ein chip saltzman and there were a couple of high profile stories and one of which outlined a meeting at a bar in the d.c. area, jamie dimon and john boehner, and republicans say, hey, wall street you were enthralled with candidate obama and gave him lots and lots of money and he's vilifying you, calling you fat cats and maybe it is time you sent money the g.o.p.'s way. >> i don't think there is any question the president is changing his tune in a big way and he raised big money from wall street and went on a bent to bash and vilify them and i don't think they like it and now he has a complete flip-flop saying they are savvy businessmen and i'm not sure how savvy it is to take hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government and bonus it out to your top people, i'm not sure how savvy that is but the president is in a tough spot. he's managed to make both sides mad, after criticizing wall street for so long now he's saying how great they are and now has both sides mad at them and i think the republicans have a chance to get there and get into the game on this one. martha: bernard, talk about that. the regulations have upset a lot of people on wall street and want to be the engine for economic growth and they are looking at the white house and saying, look, you know, we supported you guys and helped you get in there and now you are trying to cut the legs from beneath the way we do it business and others might see it another way. >> i happen to agree with tip, based on recent wall street performance i don't think anybody deserves a $17 million bonus, having said that -- mark wait, hold on, i have numbers. goldman sachs net income for last year, $13.3 billion. jp morgan, net income, $11.7 billion. the economy is going, these businesses took the money from administration, most of the it came through the bush administration and paid that money back with interest. >> and, you know, one thing that we ought to talk about, we can get away from a bit of the cynicism here because i think that while these bonuses are wrong there is value here in ratcheting down the rhetoric a notch or two. we had such a hyperpartisan environment right now in washington, and with all this it makes it difficult to get anything done, the most important thing is, to push through the financial regulatory reform and if we can tone down the rhetoric and get dialogue to enact real financial protections for the american people including a strong independent watchdog agency to ensure these abuses that led to the collapse in the fall of '08 don't happen again i certainly support that. martha: i think you are absolutely right. i think that is what this effort is here to ratchet down the rhetoric, speak a little bit more diplomatically to both sides and get them talking to each other and maybe that is exactly what the president was trying to do here. thanks for being here, good to see you guys, see you soon. >> thanks, martha. >> good to be with you. gregg: a new poll showing more americans are frustrated with the way the federal government is working 67% of the people saying they were dissatisfied or out right angry and only 32% of the people say they were satisfied or enthusiastic with government and a "washington post"/"abc news" poll asked people how many cents are wasted out of every dollar the federal government collects in taxes? their answer, 53 cents, gets wasted. and we do have breaking news, the death of a fashion icon and plus a symbol for peace and freedom. today marking 20 years since nelson mandela began his journey in south africa from political prisoner to the people's president. we're live with details mark as if you needed another reason to avoid flying, american airlines may be giving you one. what the air loan wants to charge you, for now, woipt believe it. -- you won't believe it. when we come back. diabetes scared me to death. there's so much to learn. i just shut down. but liberty walked me through it all... like when i test at night or after i eat... makes a big difference. when it comes to your diabetes supplies, quality and reliability are important. that's why liberty offers the accu-chek aviva meter. and it's the only meter and strip combination manufactured in the usa. if you're over 65, have diabetes and are on medicare... call now and we'll send you a free meter. it offers alternate site testing, so you can test on your arm. no more pricking your fingers. so it's less painful. it makes a big difference. and to make it even less painful, the cost of your diabetes testing supplies may be covered by medicare. join over a million others who have chosen liberty medical. call now and receive a free accu-chek aviva meter. plus, for a limited time, get a free cookbook when you join. call the number on your screen. >> good morning i'm jon scott, i'll see you along with jane skin are in 15 minute, for "happening now" and big protests in iran on the 31st and various of the revolution that overthrew the shah, the country says it will shock the west, and we now know what the shocking revelation is all about, and also it costs 5-and-a-half dollar and an emt invented it and it could save your life, we'll introduce you to the guy who developed the life-saving medical equipment ahead on "happening now". martha: from the fashion world, shocking news, alexander mcqueen is dead, a famous fashion designer, the most famous in designed, and designed for his own line and was known for his wild fashion shows and no word yet on the cause of his death, as soon as we get word we'll let you know. gregg: there is plenty of reason to be celebrating in south africa, the country rejoicing over how far they have come, since nelson mandela took his first steps as a free man 20 years ago today and becoming the president of the nation and the government marking the day with a special event and greg burke recently returned from south africa, and he's in rome with details and what do you think he'll be remembered for? >> above all is keeping a lid on top of it and the situation from going from apartheid to post-apartheid could have gotten out of control, the early '90s were tense times as is understandable, and mandela to his credit was able to help lead the transition without a lot of bloodshed. >> mandela was a bridge, he linked a transition, to democracy an struggle from freedom with the modern government and did that by bringing a different part of the country together. >> really it was a question of stability and unity, and south africans argue about a lot of things but they say he's the father of the new nation and he's the one unifying factor in that country. gregg: is there a sense that after mandela, there really had not been leaders of the same stature? >> reporter: that is right and i think people fault him to a certain degree with that because the african national congress, his party, has been in power since the time he came in, but, it just has not been the same, the current president right now met with a lot of protests, mostly because of jobs and conditions, and unemployment is still at 25%, and many of the same people who are living in townships under apartheid without electricity in many cases and without running water are still that way and certainly are blaming the earth pa, african national congress in part for that situation. gregg: later this year south africa will host the world cup. is that a first? >> reporter: it is a first for africa and a big test. i think, you know, the federations have been reluctant to go to africa up until now and south africa seems like the place and probably the biggest test there, the globe will be looking at it. it is after all the global sport, soccer and the u.s. is catching up and certainly for the rest of the world, everyone will be watching and the big question i think there, is going to be crime, that is one of south africa's biggest problems and they have to see if they can keep it under control. gregg: greg burke live in rome, thanks very much. martha: to prove that no one and no company is immune to the economic crisis for the first time in the company's history, ritz-carlton resort is closing down, this coming may, the 5-star ritz near las vegas will shut its doors and operators say the terrible economic conditions have forced that move. about 350 people work there and the company is trying to transfer some of them to other properties and other resorts... and other resorts in the area have expressed interest in hiring the workers who will be losing those jobs. gregg: we're continuing to get videotape into "america's newsroom." look at this: gregg: ripping up the leadership, at least on the posters there, in tehran, the protesters coming out, this visual president mahmoud ahmadinejad does not want the world to see. but we have them, anti-government protesters, anti-government supporters, all of them clashing with police. martha: and she's this flight attendant you do not want to mess with, folks! part woman, part ninja master, one unruly passenger learned the lesson the hard way, she'll join us live in "america's newsroom," three minutes from now. ♪ ♪ gregg: get ready to get allerng american airlines will charge passengers $8 for a pillow and blanket, it comes that's airline announced it will also charge $50 for nonpremium passengers, who want to fly stand by and switch to an earlier flight and the airline says, well, that is not really a new fee, we are eliminating a free loophole! martha: one way to look at it! gregg: flying high never hurt so bad for one san francisco stoner. accused of sparking a surreal scene at about 30,000 feet. martha: the man scarfed down a double dose of medical marijuana cookies and buckled up for a magic ride into the clouds on the wings of u.s. airways, you could say and reports say he started acting strange and then banging and screaming in the bathroom, causing the pilot to make an emergency landing. gregg: final straw, witnesses say he strolls out of the bathroom with his pants down, and then throws an elbow to the crewmember and the flight attendant brought the big guy to his knees using, we'll find out now! lauren gorman is the crime-fighting flight attendant and joins us live and you are a 4th degree black belt in tae kwan do and he's making all kinds of noise... and when you try to stop him he tosses an elbow, what did you do? >> well, i had to react to it. it all happened really fast, came at me and the first thing i did was put him into an arm lock and then i tried to get the other hand, so i could get this cuffs on him and he resisted me and i had to put him into a choke hold, basically. gregg: how did you know how to do that? explain? >> well, i'm very fortunate, i trained with david sha neen, a world grand master of tae kwan do and trained official forces in the civil war in lebanon and has had a -- fought in the war and gave me actually special training after 9/11 on how to deal with terrorists, what to look for in a terrorists and how to respond on an aircraft in small spaces, and i just never really thought i would be using it against someone who had taken a double dose of marijuana in a cookie! martha: martha maccallum here. you are so impressive. i wish that you could be the flight attendant on every single flight i go on. because it would be great to have flight attendants who are trained to take action. have you ever had to use your tae kwan do training for life, for real before. >> i never have and have considered different scenarios and in our training, at u.s. airways, we are trained to be vigilant. all of the flight attendants and it was great. everybody worked together and we were able to communicate to the captain what was going on and have cuffs on the aircraft and we got them back to the back of the plane and i held him until two other attendants got the cuffs on him, and the pilot landed the plane, in pittsburgh. martha: good for you and good for the crew, it's amazing how people pull together in those kinds of situation and you are a mother of three to boot. there is nothing you can't handle. lauren, thank you very much. gregg: lauren -- martha: i love this, the first thing she said was, you need to sit down! but he didn't listen. gregg: of course not, that happens when you have two marijuana cookies instead of one, okay? lesson to be learned there. martha: all right. checking in on the stock market this morning, after news of a drop? jobless claims, a little bit better number than we thought we'd get and the white house forecast for job growth is out there, and down 23 points, not a lot of mutual in the dow jones industrials, we'll keep an eye on it. gregg: one man's junk could be another man's expensive work of art. look at that. find out how much this old vase, or "vase" depending on your point of view, could sell for, this thing is really valuable. ring ring ring ring progresso. hi. we love your weight watchers enrsed soups but my husband looks the way he did 20 years ago. well that's great. you haven't seen h... my other can is ringing. progresso. hey can you tell my wife to relax and enjoy the view? 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