group of soldiers, the death toll is rising, reports of at least six dead, dozens more are injured. there may have been as many as four attacks at the same time in different parts of the country. more on this developing story inside of "america's newsroom". another fox news alert, is the u.s. heading for another recession? president obama says not likely, this as we see brand new unemployment numbers and the numbers are not good, the overall number, back above that key threshold of 400,000 which is up about 9000 from just a week ago. that's where we start, good morning, everybody, i'm bill hemmer, welcome here, busy day already martha. martha: good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. after saying he has a september announcement on a new jobs plan, president obama told cbs news where he thinks this economy is now headed. >> i don't think we're in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with what is a genuine

unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there and that's why we need to be doing more. bill: others say another recession is very possible, dow futures are way down, we could be facing another bloody day, a rough day on wall street. stuart varney from the fox business network starts with us, what's happening out there stuart? >> there is a great deal of skepticism about the future of the u.s. economy and there's a good deal of lack of confidence in the ability of the president to turn us around and get us back to prosperity and here's the evidence which is mounting. number one, the details which are emerging about the president's new jobs plan are a repeat of the already failed polices. that's not going down well. number two, all of the indicators are heading south to the economy, including those new jobless claims and inflation is rising. that's a big negative. number three, europe is looking like it's going into a recession. that rebounds over here, and hurts us. and number four, if you ask voters and investors, what do they think about the president's performance on the economy, it's a very

negative message that's being delivered. according to the latest gallup poll, only 26 percent approve of the president's handling of the economy. so sum it all up, bill. there is a declining sense of confidence that the president can turn this thing around and that the economy is going to move north instead of south. bill: two quick questions here: is there a consensus on another recession, yes or no? >> no, there is not a consensus on that. i think there is a consensus that the economy will be virtually flat for the rest of this year, with 1 1/2, 2 percent growth at very best. bill: how do investors react, stuart, when the president speaks about the economy? >> i regret to tell you, bill, there is a pattern developing. when the president speaks, makes a national address, traders sell, wall street heads south. that was true today, by the way, the president as you just said is saying that he doesn't think we're going to go into a recession, and at that moment, wall street starts to tank. we're going to open this morning down over 200 points on the dow industrials, and

gold is up another $25 an ounce, at $1825 an ounce. bill: that is absolutely remarkable. stuart, thank you. twenty minutes away, it will be a big news story for us this morning. see you at fbn. martha: busy, busy morning and with frustration with the white house boiling over at a town hall in detroit hosted by members of the congressional black caucus. now, some of the people in the crowd took president obama to task, feeling he hasn't done enough to help the urban poor in this country. democratic congresswoman maxine waters telling the crowd they're not the only ones who are frustrated with the white house. listen to what she had to say. >> the congressional black caucus likes the president, too. we're supportive of the president. we want to give him every opportunity. but our people are hurting. the unemployment is unconscionable. martha: unconscionable downemployment levels she talked about. we're going to have a lot more on that and the fallout

from it later this hour. bill: we talk a lot about entitlements. how about this, concerns over the jobs picture, the concerns over social security and the possibility of it running dry over the next 20 years, remarks at a town hall in atkinson, illinois, president obama said this about the future of that program: >> social security is not in crisis. we have a problem with medicare and medicaid, because health care costs are going up, and if we don't do anything about medicare and medicaid, it will gobble up our entire budget. social security is in a better position. and so when i hear folks say is social security going to be there for me, 20 years from now, yes, it will be there for you, 20 years from now, it should be there for you 30 or 40 years from now. bill: we will get into these debates come september, whether it's social security or the future for medicare and medicaid. a closer look at social security shows that more than 54 million americans received benefits and trust fund reserves are expected to last at least until 2036

at the moment, martha. martha: house minority leader nancy pelosi also getting an earful during a town hall meeting in oakland, california. the mostly supportive crowd there blasted the democrats for her vote on the debt ceiling deal. listen to this: >> -- for your tremendous leadership in the congress of the united states. >> [applause] >> when we passed this bill, which i did not like at all, but that didn't have the government support, we got some -- >> [interruption] >> i didn't like the bill, but because -- >> here's what we got. we got no cuts in medicare, medicaid, and social security. >> martha: who vated for that satan sandwich, that's a new one. many in the audience are americans, reportedly, who had lost their jobs in recent weeks, who are struggling to find work.

so a heated situation in the town halls in this country, evidenced by those situations. and here's a brand new poll that gives us a glimpse of how republican voters are looking at things in the bellwether state of new hampshire and how they would vote if the election were held today. according to the new hampshire journal poll, 36 percent of those voters, republican voters for the for him knee would choose mitt romney. that's a big number for mitt romney. it's not a huge surprise. he's done a lot of hard work on the ground in new hampshire and has had support there since the last election, 18 percent come in no rick perry, ron paul, 14 percent of that vote and rachelle bachmann who was there the other day runs with 10 percent. bill: as for the newcomer, rick perry, getting flack from a rival, ron paul over perry's comments earlier in the week about the federal reserve, the texas governor suggested that the fed chair, ben bernanke, could almost be committing treason if he printed more money before the elections of 2012 ron paul had a little something to say about that

last night. >> i can't remember his name , he realizes we're talking about -- >> -- he's on add mod. -- he's a moderate. i have suggested very strongly that the federal reserve system and all its members have been counterfeiters for a long time. [applause] bill: ron paul having some fun there. he went on to criticize the media for largely ignoring his second place finish in that straw poll in iowa. he lost to michele bachmann by only seven some odd notes in iowa over the past weekend. martha: interesting from ron paul. what do you j think about this? is it too late for a new republican to get into the race? go to foxnews.com/"america's newsroom", take our poll, we'll bring you the results later in the show when we talk about who might be

thinking about getting into that. bill: the ceo of starbucks, taking on washington and its handling of america's money. howard shut, urging other ceos to not contribute to any political campaigns until the nation's leaders resolve its finances. schultz cites the political wrangling and its effect on the economy. the leader of the coffee giant, inviting other business leaders and all concerned americans to join him in that pledge. we will see if he gets it. martha: we have been watching a developing story that's been crossing the wires moments ago and we do expect shortly there will be an announcement by president obama and he will call on syrian president bashar -- bashar assad to step down. this crossing moments ago, according to u.s. officials, the officials says the white house will also very shortly within the hour we expect issue a, quote, very tough new executive order sanctioning syria. we believe this will lend strong action, lend additional force to the president's words, meaning

the sanctions will back up his words on that. we're working on this story, we're going to get more on this as it comes through. bashar assad said they believe the crackdown on protestors was going to stop, they were going to end that and there were more reports of deaths in the streets in syria. more coming on that moments from now. in the meantime, "the new york times" is reporting this morning the justice department is investigating the credit rating agency standard & poor's for their role back in the '08 financial cry crisis that began then and the mortgage meltdown. the investigation began before they downgraded u.s. credit rating but as you can imagine, when this news crossed between the doj looking into the s&p, that raised questions about the timing of all this. peter doocy is on this for us. what exactly does the government think that the s&p rating agency may have done wrong back then? >> reporter: martha, the justice department has been poking around at standard & poor's, trying to figure out if there were ever cases where s&p analysts wanted to

lower the ratings on mortgage bonds during the runup to the complete economic meltdown, but they were told they couldn't by business managers at s&p. that's according to "the new york times". they've apparently been asking witnesses if they heard an analyst named david tcht esher say about mortgage securities, quote, don't kill the golden goose, end quote. if the government finds evidence it would probably be for a civil case and probably do damage to s&p's reputation as a rating agency whose ratings are supposedly not influenced by the financial climate. this investigation as you said started before s&p downgraded the usa's credit rating and in addition to the doj, standard & poor's is taking heat from the sec, the securities and exchange commission, also wants to know if the s&p rated mortgage securities improperly. martha. martha: a lot of heat on the sec for accusations today as well. peter, thank you so much, peter doocy reporting from washington. bill: we're just getting started, aren't we? >> martha: you bet. bill: in a moment, new

details on a shocking crime, a young pakistani mother, shot dead, her husband, wounded while they were walking their child in a stroller. what happened here? >> martha: and is there a possible run for paul ryan? the talk surrounding this is really heating up this morning. why so many are pushing him to get in the race and what his response is right now. bill: also a businessman, shot in the arm, his car vandalized, you see him here, he joins us to tell us who he thinks is behind this attack and his answer will surprise you. >> as quick as i opened the door and foolishly i guess stepped outside of the door, i got shot.

martha: breaking news right now, president obama is expected to call an syrian president bashar assad to step down, we expect that will be a paper statement released from the white house around 9:30 this morning, hillary clinton is expected to speak about this at 10:00 eastern, so we're

watching this situation very closely and we're glad to have on the phone with reaction to this, ambassador john bolton joining us live. ambassador, what's your reaction to this news? >> well, i suppose better late than never. it's the right thing to do. the administration should have called for assad to be overthrown five months ago or indeed we should have done this years ago, but as a practical matter right now, i'm not sure it's going to have that much impact, and it certainly raises the question if that's what the president thinks, what is he prepared to do about it, if anything. martha: yes, it's a good question. so let's look at it on the face of it right now. in terms of this statement from the president of the united states and the secretary of state, what kind of impact, how effective could it be, what difference will it make for the people on the street, an estimated 1700 people have been killed in these protests since april. >> right. if not more. some estimate 2500 or more. it's the right thing to do. as i say, i wish they had done it about five months ago. but given the stakes that

iran has in keeping the assad regime in power, without some outside intervention, it's going to be very bloody for a long time, even if assad goes. it doesn't necessarily mean it will open up democracy. and it does raise the question for inho herence in american policy given that we've been, along with nato allies, involved militarily in libya these past nearly five months without effect there, either. martha: and that's the question, the libya comparison is very stark here. so how are the situations different, the president called for an ouster of qaddafi in libya, it hasn't happened yet, we've been involved with nato forces for much, much longer, the president said it was going to be days, perhaps weeks, it's been months in libya. are we about to embark on another war in syria? >> we'll have to wait and see what they have to say and i think that's perhaps the biggest news in whatever these statements hold. i still think that qaddafi is going to go in libya, at least certainly they hope so

but it's more difficult in syria. i do think it exposes, though, the united states to the charge of just being a rhetorical power. if you say you want a government like bashar assad's to go but you're not prepared to do anything other than a modest increase in sanctions, in effect, that's giving assad and his iranian cohorts license to continue the brutality inside syria, to continue the killing, to do what it takes to stay in power, basically. martha: it's a big moment in this whole discussion, and for the people on the ground in syria. we'll see what happens. ambassador john bolton, thank you very much. >> thank you. martha: we appreciate your opinion on this. bill: it's a great question, why syria would listen at this point, too, 1700 dead, others, as he suggested, saying over 2000. martha: and democracy, does that embolden them to have the backing of the president of the united states, that he wants to see the ouster of assad and whether these sanctions will hurt the people more than they help

that democratic movement, all those big questions today. bill: we saw how qaddafi answered for months now. my next guest says the president needs direction not a vacation. so what to do on jobs? the big issue in america today. and this empty stroller in the street, moments after a gunman opens fire and a baby was -- on a baby's parents, why police say this may not have been random. >> boom, boom, boom, boom, like seven -- it sounded like fireworks, then somebody was yelling, and it sounded like gun shots, and that one woman was shot and killed and there was another guy laying on the ground and the baby was covered in blood.

martha: all right, we are just getting a little bit of advance on this story out of aruba, where there is now some indication that the suspect who you see on the

righthand side of that screen and the missing woman on the lefthand side, yesterday the word was he had taken out an accidental death policy and today, the update is that there are reports that he tried to redeem it, that he tried to cash in on that policy that was taken out shortly before that trip. so we're going to continue to get more information on that, find out where that leads to. bill: so president obama, facing his lowest approval ratings in the economy since taking office, 26 percent approve. republican candidate mitt romney says it's time for the white house to stop blaming others. >> there's no question about it, had he had a successful first three years, he wouldn't be on the bus tour. but he's trying to go out and campaign to convince people to reelect him, because those three years haven't been so good. he said just yesterday, he was saying that gee, i inherited a real mess from my predecessor, he loves to talk about george w. bush, but the american people are tired of hearing about george w. bush, they want to

hear about the polices of barack obama and so far his polices haven't worked. bill:y told after labor day we're going to hear new ideas. doug schoen, former pollster for bill clinton and fox news contributor, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. you say he needs direction not a vacation. what do you mean? >> i mean with the jobs situation in crisis today, the futures are dramatically down, jobless claims are way up, inflation, moderately up. this is a crisis, bill. he doesn't need two weeks on martha's vineyard. he needs to meet with the republicans, develop a bipartisan plan to create jobs, because basically, we can't wait. our country is facing -- >> bill: it looks like the vacation is going to go forward, despite what you say or anybody else. >> that's right. bill: this is the likely proposal after labor day, payroll tax credits, unemployment insurance benefits, infrastructure improvements, said to be very specific and fresh ideas. >> right. bill: do you think so? >> payroll tax credit and the unemployment insurance

extension are basically two ideas that he's used so far and we've seen the results. i don't think infrastructure expenditure on schools, as i read, is going to go too far. i don't think the republicans will buy off on it. i think he'd do better with regulatory reform, tax reform, extension of the payroll tax credit to employers, and more generous expensing of investment with the republicans on a bipartisan basis. bill: we'll see if you get your wish. in the meantime, this has been issue number one, going back to january of 2009, just a string of i guess speeches and different addresses when he talked about issue number one. that's jobs. roll this here: >> the question is, how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work. >> jobs must be our number one focus in 2010. >> as president, that's my commitment to you, to do everything i can to make sure our economy is growing, creating jobs, and strengthening our middle class. >> and making sure jobs are

available is the first thing i think about when i wake up in the morning, it's the last thing i think about when i go to bed each night. >> not a day -- day goes by that i'm not focused on your jobs. >> i'll continue also to fight for what the american people care most about, new jobs, higher wages, and faster economic growth. bill: so you can expect to hear more about that. and here is the vital question, doug: do americans believe that he can do anything about it? >> increasingly, bill, the answer is no. with the economic rating, as you put it, at 26 percent, with his own approval at 39 percent, absent some bold new initiative rand budgetary reform done on a bipartisan basis where the american people see real progress and real commitment to getting things durntion it's just politics, as far as i'm concerned. bill: we bump along as a country. >> yes. bill: doug schoen, thank you for your time. >> thank you. martha: we're awaiting news on a couple of very big stories now. you've got the market about to open, four minutes from now. now, they're implementing --

the new york stock exchange is putting in rule 48. that doesn't mean anything to most of us, but what it says is they're concerned about the open in terms of how the stocks will open and the futures have been down about 200 points this morning. that's not a good sign that they are concerned in that way. so we're going to watch when that happens. hillary clinton at 10:00, we expect that she will make comments on syria as the president is about to release a paper statement calling for bashar assad, the president of sir syria, to step down. big news on that front. bill: in the meantime, we've got a business owner shot in the arm, his car vandalized, he says he was a target of a union worker. >> he said you've been shot, and i looked and i got a bull the hole that went into one part of my t-shirt out of the back. >> we're in fear a little bit, i have to admit. it's a little tougher to are sleep at night.

bill: some breaking news, taking you down, 9:30 on wall street and here we go, folks. we expected this. futures are sharply lower and watch the dow drop now. we expect the -- we expected a drop of 230, 250 points over the next 15 minutes and then as we buckle up, we'll see which way we go throughout the morning, gerri willis from the fox business network here with more. good morning to you. >> good morning. this is an ugly scenario and it's all about global economic worries. overnight, asian markets sold off, european markets sold off. now we're seeing it here. morgan stanley, a major new

york investment bank, saying hey, big worries about global recession, they revised down their global growth numbers for two years, not one year, for two years, so people out there are very concerned about the global economy going forward, we're seeing it play out in europe, and i got to tell you, that selloff that we had last week, we actually recouped all of that, we're kind of starting at ground zero again. bill: we were bumping up against a bare market there a little bit, which would have been off, what, 20 percent and holding. right now you call it a correction because we're 16, 17 percent off the high. now, what i'm hearing is that the issue is with germany. >> yes. bill: and whether or not their economy was moving along and whether it was sputtering, and the figure came out and said they're barely moving forward. >> they're barely moving forward. bill: how does that affect us? >> germany is the economic engine of europe, right, and we expect germany to bail out any european countries in trouble in the e.u. if they can't do that, that means all of the eurozone is in a recession and that is

important to us because about a quarter of our products go overseas to european countries and are bought there. if they're in a recession, we are in a recession. bill: really? wow. i mentioned the bear market. we're not there yet. let's hope we don't go there jobs numbers came out, they are ugly, up 408,000 for the week. >> as you said, that -- >> bill: that trumped the estimates. you know what he see, gerri, you see on economy bumping against the bottom. we're not getting off the bottom. >> we're not getting off the bottom. we can't create jobs. jobs is what we need to get this economy moving forward, to fix the problems in the housing market, you have to have jobs. we don't have jobs now. can't expect them to grow. i saw number yesterday that if you look at the underemployed, that is 18 percent of people who are only working part-time, who want to work full-time. these numbers get ugly when you peel back the cover. bill: that's remarkable. fourteen million americans unemployed but there are millions more who have frankly given up. >> that's right. bill: because they've not

been able to find a job, and they've decided to pack it up for now. in the meantime, there's a question about inflation. >> we got a number about inflation at a wholesale level, producer price index, it was up dramatically. we've got the consumer price index today, it was up, beating expectations at 5/10 of a percent, for you and i in the marketplace, now, what that means is, the federal reserve has less ammunition to actually fight this downturn, because they don't want to encourage inflation. so it really ties their hands even more. bill: 273 is where we are now, three minutes into trading. it takes all 30 dow components about 10-15 minutes to open up but we're being told now we should expect all 30 companies on the dow 30 to open up lower. two hundred sixty-seven is your bottom mark now. gerri, thank you. monday-thir -- friday -- monday-friday, the willis report, 5:00 eastern time, don't miss it, gerri will have a full wrap as we move

throughout the day today. thank you. >> thank you. martha: let's hope it's better by the hoim gerri comes on later today. keep an eye on the markets. in the meantime, a case of vandalism that has spiraled into a life threatening situation for one man, he's an ohio business owner and he believes that union organizers are responsible for shooting him in the arm outside his own home, after they trashed his property. john kings owns a nonunion electrical company, a successful one in michigan, and he says he woke up in the middle of the night at his home and he caught somebody, he saw movement, he went out, saw somebody trying to slash his tires and scratching scab on the side of his car. this was a picture taken in the driveway. that's when the suspect then pulled the trigger on him and police are in the middle of investigating this case. we have seen escalating labor conflict in this country, at the same time that the influence of unions has been waning. since the 1980s, membership has declined dramatically,

as you can see on this graphic. i'm joined by the man that we talked about, john king is his name, who's the owner of king electrical services. welcome, good to have you here today. >> thank you martha. martha: with you -- can you describe for our viewers what happened and why you believe the union was behind it? >> one evening, i went to bed early, it was last wednesday, and about 11:00, i got up, and went to the restroom, noticed my motion light was on in front of the house, and i walked outside my front door and i noticed somebody alongside of my car, and i just thought maybe a vandal or something, you know, yelled, and as soon as i yelled at this individual, they took a shot at me. and i hit the deck, i crawled into my home and tore my knees and toes up, called the police department, monroe county sheriff's department, and they responded very quick, and within 4 1/2 minutes,

and and paramedics this, they took me out into the paramedic's vehicle and i wasn't even -- i didn't realize i was shot in the arm until the detective looked at my article and said you were shot. martha: what a scary situation. explain for our viewers if you can the history, quickly, of your company, and how you've put all this together and why you believe this is the local electrical workers union that have been putting pressure on you, why you attribute this to them. >> well, i've been in business for 40 years. and it's become common play, unfortunately, something we've lived with. we've had vandalism, picketing, assault -- salting, stripping of our people, just lately, we've had three incidents at our shop where we've had our windows broke out of our shop, truck tires sliced, windows knocked out of the shop, our people being stalked, and threatening little letters and things of that nature. all we're trying to do is

create jobs, something toledo, ohio needs very bad and it's not good for us, nor is it good for the labor union. par march 2 quick questions before i let you go. one is does -- did your voters ever -- have your employees ever had a chance to vote yes or no to the union in your shop? >> yes. back in the '80s, they had a union vote. that's when they stripped our health. and prior to the voting they were promised jobs with different union contractors, so many of them left, and that has not happened since then. we now have some great employees, and we're prospering through a bad economy, and we keep growing. martha: good for you. >> hope to keep doing that. martha: good for you. i got to go, but do police believe there is a link? what's their investigation telling them about what might trace this back to this union, as you believe is the case? >> they have evidence right now that is definitely is back to the electrical union

i was hesitant in repeating that. i'm not trying to contaminate the evidence they have. they think they're probably going to get somebody. we do have a reward, and last night abc called and they're doubling the reward up to $20,000 for any information that might lead to these guys or person. martha: thank you. good luck to you in your business. you're a brave man. >> thank you very much. martha: we thank you very much for being with us today, we'll keep on top of that story. bill: here is the statement from president obama on what's happening in syria: bear in mind, for months now, estimates say between 1,702,000 people have been shot and killed by government forces in various cities across syria. the statement, we have consistently said that president assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. he has not led. for the sake of the syrian people, the time has come for president assad to step aside. it continues. my administration announcing unprecedented sanctions to deepen the financial isolation of the assad regime. the immediate freeze of all

assets of the government of syria, prohibiting u.s. persons from engaging any transaction involving that government, quote, it is time for the syrian people to determine their own destiny. we will continue to stand firmly on their side, end quote. executive order from the president, moments ago. bear in mind, for months now, whether it was hillary clinton or the department of state or the president at the white house, they have urged president assad to step aside, that has not happened. it remains to be seen whether or not this holds water or if it's just paper. more on this from the white house, top of the hour. martha: taking notes there, the dow down 2.75 percent, a lefty loss, more than 300 points. we're watching that very closely throughout the morning here. a very rough day for the dow jones industrial average so far. also coming up straight ahead, the dow, a top -- a top democrat taking president obama to task, what she says voters need to do. we're going to debate that next. bill: hitting the beach to work on that tan, everybody does in the summertime, and now there is new hope for

victims of melanoma.

martha: a lot going on this morning. let's take a look at some of the top stories, the texas drought getting worse by the day and there are new warnings that communities could completely run out of the water. some are banned from using water for anything other than drinking and bathing in that area. also, a drug smuggling tunnel, shut down in arolos, arizona, agents discovering it after taking 2600 pounds of pot from three suspects in that case. hundreds are rallying in front of dianne feinstein's office today, urging her to advocate for social security and hikes against any big changes to that program.

bill: all right martha, 44 minutes past the hour now. there is new reaction today after a leading house democrat slams president obama's track record on jobs. california congressman maxine waters at a town hall meeting in detroit. >> the congressional black caucus, we're supportive of the president. so what we want to do is we want to give the president every opportunity. >> how long? >> [inaudible] >> to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. we want to give him every opportunity. but our people are hurting. >> yes they are! >> unemployment is unconscionable. we don't know what society is. we don't know why on this trip that is in the united states -- we don't know that.

bill: it went on from there. kirsten powers, karen hanretty, former communications director for the republican party, good morning to both of you. >> good morning. bill: i know she was speaking for african-americans, but i think this whole issue is less about race, karen, and it's more about all americans. >> yes. bill: and in a way, she was speaking for all of us, whether african-american or latinos or white men or white women in this case. karen, what do you think? >> i agree completely. this is probably the only time i'll be on fox news agreeing with maxine waters. unemployment is unconscionable and no one knows what the strategy is right now, and i think what we're seeing from maxine waters, an african -- african-american voters and hispanic voters and white voters is a sense of powerlessness, that we've seen plan after plan, speech after speech with the president with no real results and we're now offered another speech next month, which will really ab rehash of his labor day

speech last year. it's going to be more of the same. it's not really making any radical change to the economy. bill: the white house is saying it will be fresh ideas. we'll wait and see if that's the indicates. kirsten, on maxine waters, what do you make of that? >> well, i think there is even more frustration in the african-american community because their unemployment rate is 16 percent, almost 16 percent. it's almost double what it is in the rest of the country. so it's hitting them disproportionately, much harder, i think, and so for whatever the rest of the country is feeling, they're feeling that even more. and so i think that it was a reflection of that, a feeling that the president is not addressing that issue. if you look at the polls, you still have amazing approval ratings among the african-american community, 80 percent. granted, it's down a little bit, but you are seeing, as you look compared to last october, if you ask african-americans do you think the president's polices are helping the economy, he's seen a drop of about 20 points. so there is some

dissatisfaction there, but i think the main issue is just the overwhelming unemployment rate. bill: when you think about this, karen, what is the impact or the effect of someone like maxine waters asking a group of african-americans whether or not she can unleash on the president. >> right. you know what, it really focuses, what this debate is all about. this is not about partisan politics. this is not about a republican congress, president obama wants to run against congress right now, and say well, they're just holding everything up. maxine waters isn't out there talking to the african comiernt, blaming republicans. she's out there saying we've had enough of this president, we need 20 toe -- we need to know what the strategy is, we need to know what he's going to do for our community, which is a very fair question, and again, it just -- it's being man test throughout the nation. you're seeing it among independent voters who have dropped i think in double digits their support of the president on the economy. bill: they've moved anywhere

from 11-14 points away from him. >> that's right. he's got a real problem on his hands, if he continues to blame republicans. that doesn't solve anything. bill: kirsten, what do you think the effect of maxine waters, asking for permission to unleash against an african-american president? >> well, i mean, it's obviously not good, but i think there are other things that are at play here. the white house generally has ailen ated a lot of people. if you talk to democrats, they feel that the white house isn't responsive to them. i think maxine waters feels the same way. and i think that some of that, you're seeing some of that bubble up basically. bill: and we've talked about that, too. >> very insular white house, they live in a bubble, they're nonresponsive to people who disagree with them, so if maxine waters of to go to them and say this kind of stuff, they don't want to hear it, they're not interested in hearing from people who don't agree with him. bill: kirsten, karen, thank you. go to foxnews.com/"america's newsroom". got a question about this topic, anything you want to

know, leave a question there, bya, because you asked, also, e-mail hemmer at foxnews.com. lines are open, martha, how about that. martha: get the questions coming. this just in from the white house, president obama calling on syria's leader to step down. this is the most forceful call that we have heard from the white house on this. we are about to hear from secretary of state hillary clinton a few minutes from now on this issue. we're going to bring you that as that breaking news comes in. bill: also he's a leading force when it comes to budget issues. is paul ryan ready to lead the nation? what are the chances that he would run for the white house. go to foxnews.com/mark's newsroom and tell us whether or not it's too late for another candidate to get in another candidate to get in this race, we'll be back intelln three minutes while you do the b that online.

martha: all right. we're about 27 minutes into the market day, and it's ugly, folks, here's what it looks likes, down 332 points at this hour. let's go down to the floor of the new york stock exchange where we are joined by nicole pettelini. what are folks saying on the floor about how rough this is. >> it really is a rough open. you've' down here many times, we're down about 3 percent, down 334 points, as you noted, a sea of red, all the dwow components in the red, on the standard & poor's, 49 # names opened to the downside with the exception of a gold stock, knew month mininging and one energy stock that has a deal underway. what we do see is serious selling and consumer prices, we saw inflation, not good news, we also got our unemployment figures, again, not good news, but what roux maintenance are the worries about europe at the moment so as a result, banks are leading the way to the downside, names like j.p.

morgan, goldman sachs, down three, four, 5 percent. so the selling is across the board and the fear index is higher, and there is no safe haven at the moment. everybody is just running out of equity and into gold which hit a record this morning, and also, at 1824 an ounce and change, and the treasury is back in the 10-year, hovering at an all-time low here, 2.04 percent. that's where everybody is moving and they're not interested in the risk trade today. martha: nicole, tell me a little about the volume, so folks at home can understand how intense the selloff is now, because obviously it's the last -- almost the last week of august, we tend to see thin trading then, but how busy is this, how much volume? >> that's a great question, because last week when we saw the wild swings that everybody remembers, 630 points to the downside we had extremely heavy volume that we hadn't seen hins

leman filed for bankruptcy. today we're expecting run rates higher than usual we are showing conviction to the selling, though it's not as heavy as we saw last week. but we all know, this is a moment to moment market. but certainly the banks are leading the way now. martha: there is a pervasive concern about all of the western economy that continues to weigh on this market across the board. nicole, thank you so much. in terms of experience down there covering this story, we're glad to have you, nicole. bill: the high was 12,800 for the dow, we're now around 11,000. if you do the quick math, 10,800, you're looking at a bear market, that means we're off about 20 percent off the high. that's a strong reflection about how weak we are, and maybe the issues over in europe, too. martha: i think there's a deep seated concern about the western economy across the board and if you don't have that demand from europe and the united states and you see it in the emerge --

in emerging countries as well, that causes long term concern. bill: we're watching that and what about this, what will hillary clinton say about syria? she's expected in moments, with a strong move against that government. that's only minutes away. martha: how about this man? he's a couple of days into his run for the white house and rick perry is pretty much making headlines every day. we'll got new ones. >> this crisis is not bad luck. it's bad polices from washington, d.c. >> but a real interesting story here is what do other republicans think about rick perry and his approach? what are his chances against mitt romney? that's shaping up to be a big battle between those two men. we'll be right back. your favorite big g cereals. from cheerios to lucky charms, there's whole grain in every box. make sure to look for the white check.

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martha: we're breaking in with a "fox news alert," hillary clinton, secretary of state speaking about our country's perspective on the syria situation. >>... in all parts of the world. and can look only to iran for support for its brutal and unjust crack down. this morning, president obama called on assad to step aside. and, announced the strongest set of sanctions to dated, targeting the syrian government. these sanctions include the energy sector to increase pressure on the regime. the transition to democracy in syria has begun, and it is time

for assad to get out of the way. as president obama said this morning, no outside power can or should impose on this transition. it is up to the syrian people to choose their own leaders. in a democratic system, based on the rule of law, and dedicated to protecting the rights of all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, religion, sex, or gender. we understand the strong desire of the syrian people that no foreign country should intervene in their struggle. and, we respect their wishes. at the same time, we will do our part to support their aspirations for a syria that is democratic, just, and inclusive. and, we will stand up for their universal rights and dignity by pressuring the regime and assad

personally to get out of the way of this transition. all along, as we have worked to expand the circle of global condemnation, we have backed up our words with actions. as i have repeatedly said, it does take both words and actions to produce results. since the unrest began, we have imposed strong financial sanctions on assad and dozens of his cronies. we have sanctioned the commercial bank of syria for supporting the regime's illicit nuclear proliferation activities. and, we have led multi-lateral efforts to isolate the regime from keeping them off the human rights council to achieving a strong presidential statement of condemnation at the u.n. security council. the steps that president obama announced this morning will further tighten the circle of isolation around the regime.

his executive order immediately freezes all assets of the government of syria that are subject to american jurisdiction and, prohibits american citizens from engaging in any transactions with the government of syria, or investing in that country. these actions strike at the heart of the regime by banning american imports of syrian petroleum and petroleum products, and, prohibiting americans from dealing in these products. and as we increase pressure on the assad regime, to disrupt its ability to finance its campaign of violence, we will take steps to mitigate any unintended effects of the sanctions on the syrian people. we will also continue to work with the international community, because if the syrian people are to achieve their goals, other nations will have to provide support and take

actions as well. in just the past two weeks, many of syria's own neighbors and partners in the region have joined the chorus of condemnation. we expect that they and other members of the international community will amplify the steps we are taking, both through their words, and their actions. we are heartened that, later today, the u.n. security council will meet again, to discuss this ongoing threat to international peace and stability. we are also working to schedule a special session of the united nations human rights council that will examine the regime's widespread abuses. earlier this week, i explained how the united states has been engaged in a relentless and systematic effort with the international community, pursuing a set of actions and statements that make crystal-clear where we all stand, and generating broader and deeper pressure on the assad

regime. the people of syria deserve a government that respects their dignity, protects their rights, and lives up to their aspirations. assad is standing in their way. for the sake of the syrian people, the time has come for him to step aside and leave this transition to the syrians themselves. and, that is what we will continue to work to achieve. thank you all very much. martha: hillary clinton with her statement about syria, time for the syrian people to choose their own leaders, reiterating the pressure is a direction of going, on al-assad and james rosen joins me with his reporting on this. how big an event, how much has changed this morning, james, in terms of the president's statement and what we heard from hillary clinton? >> reporter: martha, it is

unlikely what we heard from the president and the secretary of state will likely change much of the ground in syria. it is unlikely that a butcher and a designated state sponsor of terrorism like al-assad will be mightily swayed by the diplomatic language, july 11 the obama administration said he had lost legitimacy and today they say he must step down and the sanctions will likely not affect the pocketbook too much. syria is not one of the top importers of oil or petroleum products to the united states and, since march 24, the administration counting these two statements, has made 12 statements on the crisis. in terms -- there are two ironies i want to get to here, quickly and number one is, that syria was once the linchpin of the obama administration's hopes for progress in the middle east peace. it was thought here in the state department, that the path to progress in jerusalem and the palestinian territories led through damascus, obviously, no more and one final irony. in the case of the egyptian

revolution, it took less than 2 weeks for president obama to call on the u.s. ally, hosni mubarak to step down and here we've seen five months pass and 1800 casualties and now, the u.s. is calling for bashar al-assad, a designated supporter of terrorism, to step down. martha? martha: james, thank you very much. a democratic spring, now has gone through the summer in that area, and, it is not a good summer right now on wall street, today. bill: that is syria and here at home, 462. 35 minutes of trading, for the dow 30. that is an absolute plunge. in the early moments here, of this thursday. the question is about germany, questions about the united states' strength and questions about jobs here, and we saw the figure an hour-and-a-half ago. gerri willis talked about inflation fears, creeping back into our economy, also, 10,900, back below 11,000. and it was a roller coaster all last week and we stabilized a

little bit and a lot of people thought, okay maybe we saw the bottom and maybe we will move through august at a much better speed. but, this is not the speed you want to see. martha: it is a tricky combination, u.s. corporations are doing fairly well but they are getting used to doing well with a lot fewer people in a much more efficient workplace and demand across the board is lower for all products and services and, when you have that decrease in demand, corporations are not growing and looking for ways to expand but they are hanging in there in the new normal and demand is decreasing from the european partners and you have the big question, that looms over the entire market, which is, are the western economies in decline? a depressing question, but, this is what you get when the depressing question becomes pervasive in a lot of people's minds. bill: and trillions of dollars are on the side and american companies are not investing into their businesses or expanding by buying other businesses. they are waiting to see the direction of the economy, and, waiting to see the political

winds and which way they blow in washington and just remarking on the markets here, we were at a high of 12,800 two weeks ago. and, look where we've fallen, below 11,000 and we had these fears last week and thought we were out of it and, look at a serious correction of the stock market and the possibility that we're going to enter a bear market, you have 400, 500 more points to go but that is the technical side a lot of investors are watching as we watch this. martha: it's not a silver lining but one thing to mention in all of this, when there has been so much continuing turmoil and rising unemployment numbers in this country and, you know, dampened housing market the market continued to march higher and everybody looked at each other and said, why, why would it go higher during this dismal time and generally the market is advance -- in advance of what is happening in the u.s. economy and it is possible that the market tried to remain optimistic, and, is seeing the backlash now.

but, as the end of the week, last week, it was down 175 points and is this... this kind of crazy volatility, is it something we have to get used to? is another question for investors, how strong their stomachs are for this stuff. bill: and speaking of retirements, you think of the 401(k) and everybody's future being tied up in the number, that you see on the screen. these big american tech companies have done very well, and think about ibm and apple and microsoft and they have had blowout numbers. in part because they've had so many layoffs. and they have not hired anyone else to fill those positions. taking the same employees, and expanding the workload on a daily basis, conversely, when an american company misses their numbers, they have been hammered. and we are seeing a lot of that, right now, 9 minutes past the hour and we'll bring in stephen hayes, senior writer for "the weekly standard" and a fox news contributor. and, steven, good morning to you, as martha and i look at this, what is your observation? >> it is pretty grim. i don't have a best guess on what is causing this

immediately. but, certainly, it has been the case that over the last three weeks we've seen so much volatility in the stock market that i think it can only be explained by the fact that people don't know what is going on and people don't know what is coming next, and they don't know where economic policies are going in the u.s. and they don't see a way out of the increasingly bad numbers we are seeing both on economic growth and on unemployment, and, without that solution, i think people are wondering what comes next. martha: you know, steve, you look at the number, as president obama gets ready to leave for his vacation, this is clearly not a number that he wants to have in the back of his mind, as he tries to get a little bit of relief from the intense pressure of his job, and, then you've got, you know, folks out there trying to run for his job in the white house, and you have mitt romney and a lot of attention given to rick perry, over the last couple of days as he weighed in, and boy if anybody is to take over the job, from the current president, they've got a heck of an economic back drop they have to deal with in the situation and it will take,

you know, somebody who has a very strong stomach for this stuff. >> martha, are right. and it is hard to see how it isn't the central story of the 2012 election, both at the presidential level and the senate and the house. races across the country. you've got an economy that, you know, seems to have cratered, and there are serious people suggesting that we are heading back into a recession again, and, this is not exactly the kind of debate the president wants to be engaged in now, and particularly because, when he came into office, remember, he had a democratic congress and implemented his stimulus plan which is what he campaigned on, and go back and look at exit polling in the '08 election, voters chose barack obama because he promised to handle the economy and he implemented his plan, and the stimulus plan and he cannot pay for it and it cost nearly a trillion dollars and i think it is fairly plain that it has not worked and he's talking a lot on the campaign trail, on the midwest bus tour about bad luck and that will not

resonate with voters. voters don't want to hear about the president's bad luck. they want him to do something. martha: we'll see what his reading list plan is over the course of the next ten days and i'm pretty sure last summer on the reading list was an autobiography of ronald reagan that got quite a bit of attention at the time. he is going to make a big jobs speech when he comes back and all of that has to be in the mix in his mind, as he heads for vacation, stephen hayes, always good to have your thoughts on this, thank you very much. bill: two quick notes, we got the manufacturing number. and it is far short of expectation, which indicates a contraction in our economy. no shocker there. when you saw the numbers dropped and we talked about mortgage rates, if you want to buy a home, you want to refinance. look at this. you can save yourself a lot of money, right now, based on what you see. martha: 30-year mortgages, right now at their lowest rate since 1971. that is a shocking number. so, yeah, not a lot of folks out there, feeling they are ready to take on a new investment in a home, unfortunately from the weak housing market, we're

watching it, down 497 points now. bill: 12 minutes past the hour, 8,000 more people expected, filing for unemployment last week and the president has a plan to create jobs and republican senator ron johnson wants to hear about it and also, why is the president, he asks, waiting until september to unveil these ideas? we'll talk to him about that. martha: and two tours in iraq and a stint in afghanistan and he came home and signed on with san diego's finest and today, haunting images from the final moments before the police officer was murdered in his squad car. bill: and a neighbor saving the day, ripping a 6-year-old girl from the clutches of a kidnapper and today, frightening moments right before the hero stepped in.   

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martha: a rough day, folks for the dow jones industrials, so far, down 452 points, almost 4% for the dow 30 right now, a rough situation for the s&p 500 as well, you have oil backing off, $3, right now and, of course, you know what the story is, right? gold, once again, is the only strong performer in the market today. so, we also got this news on the jobs market. 408,000 people walked into an unemployment office for the first time filed for unemployment claims and that number is not good, either, u 9,000 from the week before, joining me, wisconsin republican senator ron johnson, who's part of the senate budget committee and a former business man, in his prior life, senator, welcome, good to have you here today. >> good morning, martha, thanks for having me on. martha: we'll call it a good morning, except when we look at the dow. what is your reaction to what we see happening in the markets this morning, senator. >> it is a real tragedy today and, honestly, martha, has been

for the last three years and has been a disaster for the economy and is really hurting people and 401(k)s are plunging and we don't have leadership in the country and the president stood up in front of the american people two fridays ago when the dow was plunging and the market continued to plunge because, i think the american people saw what i saw, a president that really does not know what to do. and, martha, i don't think he ever has known what to do because he never had experience in the private sector and doesn't know how to create jobs and honestly believes the government can create long term self-sustaining jobs and doesn't realize we have to rely on the private sector and have to get the government out of the way, you know what, senator? that is a rough assessment of the job the president is doing but you are not alone, because, the recent numbers show that 26% of americans have confidence in the way the president is handling this economy. you know, the nation is really looking for you folks in washington, to get together, and

with the president's help, to figure out how to turn this huge cruise ship back around, in the right direction. and, we know that when he comes back from his trip, he will be unveiling a jobs program which is likely to have, you know, more stimulus in it, basically. to stimulate the job market and i want your thoughts on that and the other side of it is, apparently, a revival of the grand bargain, to get -- take a big bite out of spending in this country and perhaps do tax reform and, with that is a background, what will he do when he gets back? what do you expect will happen. >> well, unfortunately, again the president doesn't have a clue how to create jobs, and if we really want the economy moving again we have to remove the uncertainty, and we have to return confidence, and truthfully, the best thing we can do is first of all, repeal the entire obama agenda. get rid of the health care law and repeal that and repeal dodd frank and we have to roll back all of these regulations, that he has imposed and shackling the real job producers in america with.

i mean, it is very difficult for a business person to look in the future and say, yes, i have confidence to invest and create jobs, and... martha: i hear you, senator. so... >> the president simply doesn't understand that. martha: let me ask you, are you saying to the american people, look, the best we can have now is a logjam? until the next presidential election, and then we can try and overhaul the agenda? and if that is what you are saying, the best bet is in your opinion, what do you expect people to do for 18 months while they watch this kind of thing happen in the markets. >> again, it is just a false assumption that the government can actually create jobs. it can't. and we have a president of the united states, when he bets the entire u.s. economy on the government actually being -- >> i hear what you are saying and i understand your philosophy. i understand it. what i'm asking is, what do you say to the american people, desperate in many cases, right and don't want to wait until the next presidential election, necessarily, to get things moving again. so, is there anything short of just, you know, a logjam, on

capitol hill, and waiting that you could suggest, you know, to the american people at this point? >> it is difficult not to have a logjam when you don't have the president showing leadership. you know, he talks about the grand bargain, you know, but i haven't seen anything on a piece of paper. he talks about a new jobs program, and what has he been doing the last two-and-a-half years? the democratic senate has not put a budget on the table or passed a budget in over two years and it is difficult for somebody like myself who is willing to work with anybody, who is willing to seriously tackle the issue, we don't have anybody working in good faith on the other side, i mean, the fact of the matter is, we do need a credible plan for reducing the rate of growth, in the size of government, i mean, the root cause of the problem, martha, is really the size, the scope, all the regulations, and... martha: i understand. >> until we recognize that and start addressing that, i don't see confidence returning and the level of uncertainty being reduced and that is what we have to do to get the economy going, we have to rely on the private

sector. martha: that is a tough situation if that is what we're looking at in terms of the next 18 months, senators, thank you very much for being here. >> thanks for having me on. bill: we are learning this morning that the justice department is now investigating standard & poor's. this at the same time the s&p downgraded our country's credit ratings. and what is going on here? and details about a teenager's alleged plot or mass murder on the first day of school. >> it is really scary, because, you think your kids are going off to school to get an education, and are safe and everything, you know, is fine and then, you hear stuff like that and it makes you wonder, how safe are our kids. >> to think could do that, i was scared and if nobody found out about it, what would we have done?

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martha: police say the shooting death of a woman in new jersey

was not random and now believe it was targeted. she was shot while on a walk with her husband and her two children, ages 3 and 5, her husband and the children are okay. the shooting has shocked the small community she lives in. >> i heard two -- i thought it was fireworks. but, apparently, it was gun shots. >> how are you holding up now. >> we are fine. shocked, but, we have to, you know, go on. >> do you have any idea what could be behind this? >> no idea. martha: all right, no word on any suspects yet. the woman was wearing traditional pakistani clothing at the time. but at this point police and her family do not believe this was a hate crime. bill: developing story now, a "fox news alert," the death toll is now at 7. in what looks like something you would see from al qaeda, in the case, israel, three groups of attackers, armed to the teeth with explosives and high powered weapons, ambushing a passenger

bus. a military vehicle, and a private car in quick succession. leland vittert is live on the scene, southern israel. what happened there, leland? >> reporter: right now, bill, it is hard to underscore the level of alertness the israeli army and security forces are at. they are at their highest level, israeli army check points all over the desert, not only are they trying to catch the guys but are trying to prevent another attack like the one this morning, 7 people dead, at least 33 israelis wounded in this attack, and, you have to think of the sophistication here, an anti-tank weapon, ieds, along the roadside, scheduled to go off, heavy machine guns and mortar fire from the group of assailants, we are told there were at least 20 militants involved. on this attack, a border road that leads from resort town up north laying the egyptian border, an unguarded border i might add and you have to ask who would be behind an attack like this. there are two possible suspects, a militant group out of the gaza

strip, possibly hamas who denied responsibility for somebody else or an al-qaeda syndicate inside the sinai peninsula and either one, it doesn't spell good news an underscores the changing situation inside the sinai peninsula and the level of the ability of the egyptian army and, to give you an example of how bad things are, we're told a number of attackers were actually wearing egyptian army uniforms when they attacked these civilian buses, bill, back to you. bill: a whole new level, leland vittert, live on the ground, southern israel. thank you, martha? martha: the road to 2012 is getting interesting, folks, isn't it? why karl rove says it is the most fluid campaign he has ever seen and here's the question for you today, is it too late for a couple of last-minute candidates, programs, to jump in and make it more interesting? bill: some folks are pushing him, aren't they. martha: you bet. bill: he did a good deed, captured on video, as you see here and moments later a tragic end to the police officer's

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martha: pretty busy morning on wall street, take a look, folks, down 455 points now, that's a 4 percent loss, cheryl casone is anchor at the fox business network as you well know, catch her at 12:00 p.m. eastern time and she has stepped into this chair to give us the latest

take. >> reporter: good morning, there's a lot going on making the markets nervous. it started in the early a.m. hour but at 5:00, we got concerning news about europe, concern about european banks but now sundays the u.s. market opened at 9:30, just an hour ago we got more news on the u.s. economy and that is what escalated the selling. a couple of things: the philly fed index, manufacturing activity in that particular part of the country, it was incredibly negative, down 30, the july existing home sales, remember, existing home sales are 85 percent of the housing market of this country, that coming in to the negative, and that was down from last month. unfortunately, those two particular readings on the u.s. economy are really what are taking us down even further. and gold. just hitting moments ago. a brand new record. you're seeing a flight to safety, going for the gold bars, everybody, and seeing people running away from risk, which is the stock market. martha: all that becoming too familiar to everybody. cheryl, thank you very much, cheryl casone will be

covering that, fox business network, later on today. bill: in the meantime we have two candidates, one nomination, in the end, a decision that could shape the future of the republican party, texas governor rick perry, former massachusetts governor mim rothny touting their abilities, and criticizing president obama. bret baier, anchor of "special report" joins me now, how you doing? >> good morning, bill. bill: i thought this rasmussen report was quite revealing, rick perry enters the race, within five or six days, he has a lead on mitt romney, essentially been running for the lead in the white house in the past two or three years. what that tells me is voters are all over the floor now and they're trying to find a person, be it a man or in this case, michele bachmann, who is third on that poll. what do you make of this? >> reporter: i agree, bill. it is a poll that raised a lot of eyebrows, and definitely governor perry made a splash into this race. it's important, obviously, to put the caveat in there that this is one poll, but he has shaken up this race,

excuse me, and i think the big battle within the republican party is the heart of the conservative movement, the tea party and conservatives who are frankly very upset about the situation, many people are, but they really want a candidate that centers around what they think. and perhaps governor perry, congresswoman bachmann, even ron paul, does well in a number of these polls that go that way. governor romney, many supporters of his believe he could be better in a general election against president obama. and that's the battle that's ongoing in the republican party. bill: because the way they talk about it is that romney would appeal to independents or centrists, but then you've got rick perry is a bit of a live wire in the trail and people get excited about him. he's kind of a cheer leader and people might like that, too. >> yeah, i mean, if you fire up the base, first of all it's great in a primary and caucuses season because you

get out the base and you could go to the -- get the nomination. as we know, both democrats and republicans run to their bases in primaries, and then run to the center for a general election. so the question is whether the republican party comes to the determination whoever they nominate whether it's firing up the base the most or possibly the person who can appeal to independents the most. bill: you know, that "rasmussen poll" kind of goes to what karl rove was writing about today in the "wall street journal". this is part of his statement: the current gop race is the most fluid of any i have ever observed. this is rove writing now. most republicans are still uncommitted. desperate to beat mr. obama, they want to make certain the gop picks the right, re, colon, most electable, candidate. that's rove. you wonder, all these folks are talking about paul ryan or crist christie, that there might be room yet for another candidate. if that's the case, this

campaign will be even more fluid than anyone has seen in their lifetimes. >> yeah, and the bottom line here, bill, is right here, the ticker down here, the dow, wherever it is on this screen, bottom line -- >> bill: bottom left for you, bottom right for me. >> it's going to be the economy. and whoever the republicans decide on, it will be about president obama and about handling the economy. and when we go through this long process, and it is long, it's hard to believe it's a year away from the conventions, but we have started in earnest this process to winnow down the dpvment op nominee, and it is fluid right now. bill: you make a great point about the dow, 457 today, wow. bret, we'll see you later tonight, all right? >> okay buddy. bill 6:00, "special report", live out of washington, every week day on the fox news channel. thank you bret. we are asking for you scwhrien, is it too late for a republican candidate to get in this race?

right now 1200 votes, 85 percent saying no, it's not too late. you can weigh in, cast your ballot, cast your vote online now, foxnews.com/"america's newsroom". martha: at this point in the '04 race, it looked pretty sure that howard dean was going to be the nominee and at this point in the race, it looked like obama wasn't working out and john mccain was patting around, carrying his own suitcase, looked like he wasn't going to be the nominee, either, so history tells us it's certainly not too late, right? thank you for the input on that from everybody, keep those votes coming. in the meantime, this is a very sad story. it was a good deed that is forever frozen in time, the final moments in the life of one of california's bravest, san diego police officer jeremy henwood, seen here, paying for food at mcdonald's, chatting it up with a little boy, asking him what he wanted to be when he grows up, buys the kid a cookie because he didn't have enough money. moments after that, he got back into his patrol car and

was shot in the head at close range with a shotgun by a man on a shooting rampage. >> seeing this, knowing what happened to the officer, you know, the marine, it's amazing. >> why did he have to die like that. like after he did a good deed for a little kid, after that? that was the last good deed he had to do. martha: tragedy. san diego police says the video shows the kind of man that officer henwood was. the alleged gunman was tracked down a short time later and killed in that case, and officer henwood served in iraq and in afghanistan, and we thank him for his service, and our hearts and prayers are with his family. bill: a life of service. we take it for granted, these police officers walking the beat every day. martha: good guy. bill: so the credit agency, s&p, is downgrading the united states, and now the justice department is investigating standard & poor's. we wonder whether or not

that's payback. what do you think there, huh? >> martha: we'll talk about that. and a hero stepped in and saved the day. this is the most incredible story of this week. a little girl was abducted in broad daylight and today we're starting to hear the 911 calls, the chilling sounds from moments before she was rescued by a hero. >> albuquerque 911, what's your emergency? >> a little girl was kidhapped. my husband followed the van that they took the little girl in.

bill: what an ending here, the attempted kidnapping of 56-year-old girl thanks to the quick thinking of her neighbor. antonio diaz chicone spot a young man forcing ashley vagan into a van, the neighbor hospitalized into his car and folded him, a chase lasting 15 minutes ended when the suspect, phil garcia, crashed his car, chicone grabbed the girl,

police grabbed garcia, they are on the case following 911 calls from family members. >> albuquerque, operator 2064, what's your emergency? >> a little girl was kidnapped. my husband folded the van that they took the little girl in. >> you heard a man. >> we heard a man going hey, hey, let her go, we turned around, we were about to leave, we were on the truck, so the man came running to us and he said they stole our little girl. bill: they stole our little girl. police say ashley vaga suffered only minor bruises after fighting back against her a-- attacker. she is okay. martha: what a hero. i mean, that little girl was seconds away from a completely life changing experience, she could have died, we've seen what happens in these situations, she has that man -- she and her family have that man, mr. cahone to thank for her safety and her life potentially. god bless him. it's an incredible story and he's a great hero and we'd love to talk to him and his

wife. all right. let's talk about this now and switch our attention back to washington for a moment. the u.s. justice department now says it has no comment on a new report that claims that they're investigating the credit agency standard & poor's. now, the report says the probe surrounds s&p's rules in the mortgage bond meltdown that led to the '08 financial crisis, the investigation reportedly into s&p by the administration began before s&p came out and downgraded our country's debt last week. so jay secalua are is counsel at the american center for justice. always good to have you, welcome back. >> thanks for having me. martha: obviously, when you look at this at first blush and see the headlines, the doj is investigating s&p, you think well, is this a little payback for the downgrade that s&p did. what do you think? >> well, i mean, the timing sure is not coincidental. look, i think there was a problem with that s&p downgrade from a standpoint, i was a tax lawyer for a long time, i worked for the

treasury department, but the reality is if you look at the discussion about the downgrade to the u.s. from our aaa rating had been taking place literally for months, so the administration knew when was -- it was coming, then you have this investigation which it's been confirmed that it's civil, the doj, the department of justice, isn't talking about it, but the witnesses they've talked to have been talking about this, and they're saying it's a civil investigation of s&p in the mortgage-backed security issues, but it does look a little too cute, a little too close in timing as if it's payback for the downgrade, and to politicize that downgrady think is a mistake, and i'm hopeful, but i have no evidence to back up my hope, that the department of justice isn't doing this just as a political maneuver to say we're going to go after s&p. they went after us. i hope it's not political payback. martha: you know, when you look at it, though, on the basis of it, there is certainly every reason to investigate s&p's behavior. >> absolutely. martha: and the other credit agency's behavior with regard to the security crisis back in 2008.

what comes to my mind is what the heck took so long. why was it started -- why wasn't it started at the end of the bush administration? >> you have to ask that question. you look at s&p and the way they did their bond rating, and i do a lot of business law, the fact of the matter was it was pay to play, they get paid and then get paid for the rating. it's an inside job. you have to ask yourself, a, what took so long, the s&p clearly missed a major financial crisis and meltdown, the mortgage-backed security issue, and now you've got an investigation starting frankly it looks like way late. you know, to say we're going to have an investigation 2 1/2 years after the problem was created, that's fine but that doesn't solve the problem and unfortunately, we now have our credit downgrade and the department of justice investigation, and you look at that timing, no one is thinking about those mortgage-backed securities, martha. everybody is thinking about that this could be political payback, whether it is or isn't. martha: interesting. always good to see you, sir.

bill: a lot more coming up, top of the hour and "happening now". jenna lee has more. good morning, jenna. jenna: we have major breaking news on several fronts. how about this ilitration, bumpy, below far and -- below par and brittle, that's how a major bank is describing the economy now, have banks are a major part of what we're seeing on wall street. what's next? the u.s. calls on the president of syria to step down. and the latest on the scandal that could bring down one of the most historic college programs ever. we'll have that on "happening now". bill: what a story that is and still developing. oh joy, huh? isn't this wonderful? four hundred sixty-five? and it's not even 11:00 in the morning. we'll keep you posted, what's happening with your money. a 13-ton steel sculpture, built from the ruins of the world trade center. why can't this memorial find a home?

>> alterations that have no historic basis must be discouraged. >> are you talking about history?

bill all right. look at this with a smile, if you can. we're off the low, okay? we were down more than 500 points, come back a little bit, the dow off 436, below 11,000, though. there's weakness all across this economy, and the world economy for that matter, too, so all this right now weighing pressure on the stocks and your retirement, martha. martha: well, a lot of folks out there think they might be the one to turn things around and we've got this bold campaign promise from congresswoman michele bachmann, the presidential candidate, stumping in south

carolina and throwing down the gauntlet about gas prices. listen to what she had to say: the day that the president became president, gasoline was 1.79 a gallon. look at what it is today. under president bachmann, you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gone again. that will happen. martha: right now you've got regular unleaded at almost 3.59 a gallon, so that's a long way to go. back on january 20th, '09, when the president took office it was about 1.84 a gallon back then. big difference. bill: what a crime story this is, long time girlfriend of boston crime boss james whitey bulger goes before a judge today, she's six \on/zeroiers old, catherine gregg is her name, pleading not guilty to harboring and concealing a fugitive. these two were found in santa monica, florida, living on the beach. molly line, what happened?

good morning. >> reporter: you're absolutely right, bill, catherine gregg today pleading not guilty, essentially saying she is innocent of these charges after 16 years essentially on the run with james whitey bulger, this accused bob and mobster. she says that she is innocent. the prosecution, however, has a different story, she believe that she used multiple false identities to help conceal herself while on the run, as well as james whitey bulger, identities from names like carol gasko, helen march thal, chairl shaifen, mrs. thomas baxter and the list goes on. gregg's attorney says they would be taking this to trial, that they would not be cooperating, kevin runnington saying at this point she's holding up well. she faces five years in prison and a few years of supervision after being released if she's convicted on these charges and a $250,000 possible fine if she is convicted, and then they should be a free woman after those five years if

indeed she is convicted. bill: what's next for whitey bulger, molly? >> reporter: he remains in federal custody as you would expect facing serious racketeering charges, among those, the 19 murders he's accused of having committed. he is scheduled to be back in court in september. it's going to be long, slow process and this is really beginning. we're just beginning to get all the details about whitey bulger and his life on the run with catherine gregg, bill. bill: molly, thanks, molly watching that case out of boston this morning. martha: this is a fox news alert. take a look at the dow jones industrial average, taking big dive this morning, down more than 400 points right now. this is a reaction that we've seen to a large global selloff, european banks triggering some of this selling in the early going, then we got weak economic news at home as well, manufacturing, jobs, all not coming in with anything positive today. so that's what's going on on the big board, down about 3.8%. got a long way to go, though, and we've seen a lot

of volatility, so maybe things will turn around in the course of the day.

bill: some controversy over a massive structure that remembers the attacks of 9/11. it's 13-tons, 25 feet tall. it's believed to be the largest memorial in the country of the attacks of september 11th, so large that the city of saratoga springs, new york cannot decide where to put it. >> the date of september september 11th need not be tempered by the memory of an endless debate. >> ten years only comes once and you got to have this thing ready. bill: the city council says it will keep the sculpture in a temporary location while a committee agrees on a permanent spot. that has not been resolved yet. martha: they'll find a good spot for it. in the meantime home sales dropped 3 1/2% last month, but conan o'brien says that the president is not concerned. watch this: >> speaking in a speech

today, president obama said the housing market, the housing market, may not pick up again for another year or longer. yeah. on the bright side, president obama now has nine people interested in his house. [laughter] bill: buyer's market, huh? >> martha: wonder what they're willing to pay for it. that will be the question. all right. thanks for being with us, everybody. and you have a nice time off, perform hemmer. bill: a little vacation coming up. martha: good for you, well-deserved, we'll see you when you get back. bye, everybody, see you tomorrow. jenna: hi everybody, we start with a fox news alert, take a look at where the dow is trading right now, this after disappointing numbers on jobs, the housing market, manufacturing, multiple reasons why we're seeing the market, well, in the red today. we're glad you're with us regardless. we'll continue to cover this for you, no matter where it goes. i'm jenna lee. rick: i'm rick folbaum in for jon scott in the fox news room and "happening now", growing fears over the