>> gretchen: no way! >> steve: better or worse. >> gretchen: what a great story. coming up tomorrow, actors and model stacy keebler, girlfriend of george clooney. >> steve: jim demint. bill: one rolls right into the other. good morning, everybody. new this morning in bombshell in the solyndra matter. did the obama administration try to influence last year's election to company delay a great many announcement, waiting until one day of at midterms of 2010 to announce a serrie of layoffs. new e-mails obtained by house republicans showing the department of energy pushed hard for that. the solyndra at the time was the centerpiece as you remember of the president's green energy initiative. that's where we start. good morning, everybody. back in the saddle here. martha: good to have you back. bill: thank you. martha: that raise as few questions, doesn't it? bill: sure does. i'm bill hemmer. martha: i'm martha maccallum. good morning.

hear is the issue out there this morning. solyndra went belly-up after they got a half a billion dollars in government loans and private investors got paid back on that before the taxpayers. bill: therein lies the rub. stephen hayes, senior writer, "weekly standard", fox news contributor. good morning. what do you make of this, stephen. >> good morning, guys. this is big deal in of itself. if you have suggestion that the administration was postponing this announcement. the entire solyndra episode is wrapped in politics. if you have suggestions that the administration asked the company to postpone this kind of announcement to delay it until after the elections that sounds like high level hijinks here. but the bigger problem, it fits into a pattern here. we've seen the white house and administration comments contradicted again and again and again on this. whether it was jay carney saying this high-level obama bundler or fund-raiser who met several times with people in the white house, didn't discuss solyndra when

in fact evidence suggests that he did, whether it is president obama saying these things went through all of the regular procedures when his own energy secretary stephen chu said both before the loan was approved and afterwards it would be expedited. you have a series of contradictions. that is the problem here. this pattern that the white house is facing. bill: so the e-mails, could they prove the white house knew the company was hurting sputtering, wanted to hold the news until voters went to the polls? that would have been a bad headline, stephen, clearly. >> horrible headline absolutely. that is exactly what the e-mails suggest. i suspect one of the things we'll hear from house republicans tomorrow when they talk to stephen chu, energy secretary about this in a hearing on capitol hill what accounts for that. they will ask him did know this company was having trouble? did know somebody apparently at the energy department or elsewhere in the administration requested this announcement be postpone until after the election, we'll see how the energy secretary reacts to

all that. it will be an interesting hearing. that's tomorrow. meantime for today, thank you, stephen hayes on the hill out of our bureau in washington. martha. martha: it has been a long and winding road leading up to the solyndra scandal. it started back off in march 2009. that is when solyndra first got approval from the energy department for a huge guarantee, a half a billion dollars going to this one solar panel company. nearly two years later, that company ran into trouble. they hit a severe cash crunch. then this past september solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection and all of the employees at that company so heavily supported by the u.s. government were laid off and that was despite the protestations of some people said to the administration this is company that is in big trouble. two days later the fbi agent came in. they raided solyndra's offices and went to the executive homes to look for documents as well. on october the 12th, that is when the ceo threw in the

towel. he called it quits. bill: we mentioned that with stephen hayes. tomorrow will be a big day on the hill. energy secretary stephen chu will face questions at this congressional hearing on what happened inside solyndra. next hour we will talk to one of the lawmakers asking those questions, tim murphy. he is the pennsylvania congressman. he is our guest on that. don't miss it. martha: and here is a fox news alert and a major and unwelcome milestone today, folks. our nation's debt clock. will you look at this thing a lot, right? look where the number sits right now, folks. it is rolling by quickly as it always does, closing in on the $15 trillion mark. it is expected to hit that this afternoon. it comes exactly a week before the super-committee deadline. they're entrusted with reaching a deal to cut that huge number behind me down, folks. stuart varney is anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. he joins me now. good morning, stuart. boy, this is number i didn't think i would see in my

lifetime. >> they are flat-out historing rick numbers, unsustainable numbers and truly grim. you said $15 trillion in total debt probably by mid-afternoon today. that breaks down to this even worse numbers. we have to spend $454 billion this year on interest on that mountain of debt. that works out to roughly $9 billion each and every week, some of it going overseas. and since the inauguration of president obama, january 2009, that total debt has gone up by $4 trillion. meanwhile the super-committee is trying to get that debt down, trying hard apparently. well since that super-committee was convened three months ago that mountain of debt has gone up by $400 billion just in the three months since that super-committee was convened and they're having trouble cutting $400 billion even though it is only three months worth of added debt. i'll give you one more number, martha, if i may.

i walked into my office this morning at 5:00 eastern time. from then until now our national debt has gone up nearly 400 million. martha: boy, it is absolutely incredible, stuart. >> it is. martha: and the word this morning is that they're, in some ways employing perhaps some accounting tricks to kind of get to the number of 1.2 trillion in the super-committee and bill is about to talk to jeb hensarling about that. >> the numbers are so big and so unlikely they can really get a grip on this the word downgrade is being added to our vocabulary all over again. three eastern you will hit 15 trillion. martha: we may hear from the ratings agencies as well in the short term. thank you very much, stuart varney, fox business. bill: fox news alert we don't like to see, 3:00 today. new this morning the man who first reported witnessing a child, sexually abused speaking out for the first time since these allegations at penn state went public. mike mcqueary is his name. graduate assistant back in

2002. today he is an assistant coach on leave. mcqueary being rather careful with his words when a reporter caught up with him on this. >> do you have any idea when you think you might be ready to talk? >> this process has to play out. i just don't have anything else to say. >> okay. just one last thing, just describe your emotions right now. >> all over the place. just kind of shaken. >> crazy? >> crazy. >> you said what -- >> like a snow globe. >> like a snow globe? >> yes, sir. bill: that was from "cbs news". mcqueary was the one who told joe paterno, the head coach he saw former coach jerry sandusky abusing a boy in the shower back in 2002. martha: the department of justice is now getting involved in this investigation of child sex abuse at penn state. u.s. attorney will look at possible violations of federal law here requiring colleges to report crimes that happen on their campuses. david lee miller is live on

the latest on this from the penn state campus. good morning, david lee. >> reporter: martha, the department of justice is getting involved in this investigation in more than one way. we're getting word doj is also going to assist the state in its prosecution. that is in addition to the department of education that you just mentioned. the education department is trying to determine now if penn state violated what is called the cleary act which requires all universities to report any campus-related crime. in another development yesterday for the first time in a regularly scheduled tuesday news conference which is a tradition here on the campus, the interim coach, tom bradley, spoke to reporters. he said he did not watch the jerry sandusky interview that aired on nbc and he also talked about coach joe paterno. he said he did not talk to the coach in the last few days and he explained why. listen. >> if i call him today he will ask me why many a i calling him? what do you call me for? you have things to do.

he has been through this. he understands all the things that have to be done with a big game coming up and players are excited for the game and the responsibility we have. >> reporter: "the new york times" is reporting this morning that joe paterno transferred ownership of the family home to his wife suzanne for one dollar back in july. the home has a fair market value according to the newspaper of $594,000. a lawyer for the paterno family said that the transfer had nothing to do with the scandal. more about estate planning but there has been a lot of speculation about the exposure to civil suits that the paternos and school and others may have. one other thing worth noting there is report out now that joe paterno will retire. when he does retire i should say the pension will be they say $500,000 a year. back to you, martha. martha: david lee. lots to be told on this one. thank you so much. bill: story grows worse by the day. adding now to this growing controversy more than 30 members of congress are calling for hearings in into

the role of ncaa illinois democrat bobby rush requesting an investigation into the ncaa's ability to investigate misconduct in college sports. rush says that the penn state case may become the most unnerving scandal in cover-up in a century of college sports. we'll watch that. martha: even sarah palin weighed in on this whole penn state scandal. alaska's former governor supporting the penn state players and telling greta van susteren "on the record" last night what she thinks should happen to the former defensive coordinator charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse. >> it is not the players fault they have have a perverted former assistant coach. i would like to see the players not suffer more than they have suffered. as for the perp and perps though that allowed the sinfulness to go on as they had allowed in the past, you know, i say about this assistant coach sandusky, hang him from the highest

tree. i will bring the rope. martha: well the question came up when greta asked what sarah palin thought about rick santorum, penn state, his alma mater should not be allowed to play in a bowl game which is something that has been discussed. bill: 11 minutes past the hour some of the stories we're watching and more coming you this morning including this debt committee. it is coming down to the wire possibly deadlocked. with 15 trillion in red ink, will they get a deal? will it mean new taxes. we'll talk with the co-chair charged with solving that problem. what a problem it is. martha: problems sure running this man as well. calls for attorney general eric holder to go. citing federal gun-running sting of "fast and furious" what he knew about it. >> in my opinion there are only two options. either mr. holder is not telling the truth, or he is inept. and in either case, he should resign. martha: so the first lawmaker who called for holder's resignation which

was a very bold move, that was congressman joe walsh. he joins us live next what he thinks should happen. bill: we heard sarah palin's take on penn state. she also had advice for the candidate. we'll talk about her message today to mitt romney. >> president obama doesn't understand, it is not government that makes america strong. it is the free people of america that provide our future and our strength. [applause] [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8.

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martha: what a story this is. on the hunt this morning for the man suspected of opening fire on the white house. secret service is now looking for 21-year-old oscar ortega. they found two bullets yesterday, four days after reports that shots were fired near the white house, an assault rifle was found in an abandoned car nearby after that shooting and is linked to that man ortega. the president and the first lady thankfully were not even in the house at the white house at that moment.

agents say one of the rounds struck a especially designed bullet-proof window. another struck the building itself. we have a live report next hour, who this guy is, what he was up and --. bill: in the meantime, a possible stalemate in the do-or-die battle to reduce federal spending. next wednesday, november 23rd, folks, that is the deadline for a deal to cut $1.2 trillion from the budget. two of the most powerful republicans in congress meeting behind closed doors yesterday after hearing the super-committee may be deadlocked with only a week to go. if they fail, automatic across-the-board cuts are expected to kick in divided between domestic and defend spending. first round of cuts go in place january 2013. republican jeb hensarling is the co-chair of the super-committee and chairman. house republican conference. welcome to you. >> good morning. bill: are you guys going to get a deal or not? >> i don't know, bill, i

haven't lost hope but figuratively speaking it is a few strokes before midnight so we remain concerned but here's where we are. america has a jobs crisis. america has a debt crisis. republicans are not going to make one worse by addressing the other. the bottom line is even president obama has admitted that the main drivers of our debt crisis are medicare, medicaid, health care, nothing else comes close. that is essentially what the president has said. i mean we have medicare that frankly is beginning to disserve its beneficiaries with forms of rationing and at the same time, drive america bankrupt but the democrats will not put a plan on the table that fundamentally will save medicare for current seniors and future seniors. at the same time they're insisting upon a minimum of one trillion dollar tax increase on families and on small businesses at a time when our economy is the worst it has been since the

great depression. bill: you're in these meetings. sounds like you're not even close? >> again, hope springs eternal. i couldn't be a member of congress if i didn't have hope. republicans have gone a great way trying to negotiate here. we put forth a plan that would actually save and strengthen medicare. they rejected our plan that was in our budget. we said, okay, if you don't like that plan, how about something called rivlin-domenici which a bipartisan plan written principally by bill clinton's former head of the office of management and budget? we could negotiate around that. they rejected that too. we put tax revenue on the table, something that frankly is contrary to our dna as republicans but we said you know what? if we're going to do that, let's at least do it in a way that will help the economy through pro-growth tax reform, clearing out all the special interest deductions and loopholes, bringing down rates and making our tax code fairer, simpler and more competitive

but unfortunately that's been rejected too. bill: that has been rejected too, you say? that is $250 billion. that is what has been reported anyway. >> of what they call static revenue. frankly because it would help grow the economy, we believe by historic standards we would gain even more revenue because the economy would grow. you broaden the base, you lower rates. bill: if you don't get a deal and congress has a way of changing the rules at the last minute anyway. >> yeah i know. bill: you're in the fourth quarter. you're coming up on overtime. if you don't get a deal, we talk about the automatic cuts to the military, automatic cuts to medicare, is there an effort on outside of the committee to even change those rules so when the deadline comes the cuts never happen in the first place? >> two important things to realize. number one, the committee has a statutory goal of achieving $1.5 trillion of deficit reduction over 10 years which by the way is

roughly equivalent to last year's one year deficit alone so it is a modest effort. even if we don't succeed it is backed up what is known as sequester or automatic cut of essentially the same amount, 1.2 trillion. the bad news for many of us half of that is aimed at our national security. secretary of defense leon panetta said that would begin to hollow out our --. bill: is concerned about it too. >> he should be. i'm committed as i think most are insuring we have at least 1.2 trillion of deficit reduction but have 13 months to do it in a way that does not hollow out our national defense. i'm equally committed to that as well. bill: i have to squeeze in one more topic here. scott brown introduced this idea, should lawmakers be exempt from insider trading laws, would you two for that? >> of course they shouldn't be exempt. bill: you agree with brown on that? >> yes. now, we have laws on the

books. we have ethics committee. if they're not strong enough we ought to go back and strengthen them. bill: jeb hens zarlink -- hensarling thank you for your time. good luck. you need it. >> thanks. martha: newt gingrich is one that has been riding high in the recent polls but could a guy named freddie mac throw a wrench into this whole thing? we'll explain what is going on about that. bill: how about freddie huh? duke's coach k is number one winningest coach in history. passing bobby knight with win number 903. a number of his players to see coach k last night. well-done. >> set the record in division one basketball with his 9 -- [applause]

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bill: we have new reaction to president obama's comment that america has gotten a bit lazy when it comes to attracting foreign business. this from mitt romney on the trail. >> sometimes i just don't think that president obama understands america. the last week he said that americans are lazy. i don't think that describes america. then in october he was saying that we have lost our inventiveness and our ambition. and before that he was saying other disparaging things about america. i don't think he gets what is happening in this country. bill: mitt romney from the trail there. the president made a lazy comment at at ceo summit in hawaii. 25 minutes past the hour. martha. martha: there is new questions about the future of the occupy wall street

protests. a few people spent the night in zuccotti park last night. they cleared up the tents and came in with sanitation crews. demonstrators have different ideas what should come next for them. take a look. >> got a lot of attention but now the time to turn a corner and become a national organized movement which is engaged with legislatures, not just sitting in parks. >> we'll find a new place. absolutely because this is getting to move out into local communities. there needs to be kind of central place. martha: maybe they have some good ideas if they want to keep their ideas going. julie banderas is live in zuccotti park in new york city. what is going on there this morning, julie? >> reporter: well i can tell you this, they have got a lot of ideas. it is night and day quite clearly as compared to what days ago when this place was filled with hundreds of demonstrators spending the night with camps set up and tents and sleeping bags but a far cry from what it looks

like this morning. in fact overnight just about a dozen people decided to spend the night here instead of using their cushy sleeping bags, they had to sit up straight on these marble benches. there is no sleeping allowed. they can not lay down but can fall asleep standing up what i'm told or at least sitting up. this place has been home for nearly two months for many of these people. they spent the night talking, trying to stay awake, occasionally chanting we are the 99%. a reduced police presence here though as well with about 30 cops keeping watch. people are having their morning breakfast. they're allowed to bring in food as well as, you know, their belongings and their pets but this area that you're looking at right now, a far cry from what it looked like on tuesday night, that midnight raid when nypd armed with riot gear moved to edistrict protesters resulting in 200 arrests for those who refused to leave. then came the occurred order yesterday afternoon filed by national guild of lawyers to

try to prevent the city from enforcing park rules on demonstrators. only it backfired the judge ruled in favor of the city that the protesters could return to zuccotti but not set up camps. basically here you have a couple dozen protesters. we did talk to early warning 9 street tracker. they say occupy wall street. they say tomorrow they have a lot of stuff planned. martha: some people hanging out having enough to eat. chatting among themselves. thank you very much, julie banderas. bill: whole idea sleeping when you stand up though. martha: i see lots of people sleep standing up. bill: that is talent. martha: exactly. bill: industrial production rising for the fastest rate in three months. factories making more cars and electronics. that is good sign. we'll see how that reflects when the opening bell gets underway. martha: we'll get a little pop out of this morning. sarah palin has words of advice for mitt romney after she was asked this by greta. >> governor romney has

stayed above about the same numbers in the national polls. he doesn't go up. he doesn't go down. he stays where he is. i assume he wants to do better. i assume he doesn't want to do worse but what's his strategy and why isn't he move in the polls? martha: good question. sarah palin's answer to that, very interesting. couple minutes away. stick around. we'll be right back. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol

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martha: former alaska governor sarah palin has some advice for mitt romney's presidential campaign. he says what they really need to do is reach out to the right. listen. >> what romney needs to do is reach out to the fiscal and social conservatives, the tea party independents and really show his authenticity and explain what are perceived and real flip-flops over issues that he has been called out on. martha: joined now by tucker carlson, editor of "the daily caller" and fox news contributor and alan colmes, homes of the alan colmes radio show. nice to have you here with this morning. tucker, start with you. is she right? >> palin is right. there is about 70% of the republican primary electorate shown very clearly they don't want to vote for mitt romney. a lot of theories why. i won't weigh into that. the question is why hasn't the romney campaign made more vigorous efforts to

reach out to tea party folks? we did the story a couple weeks ago. a reporter called a dozen or more tea party leaders and not one of them heard very much about the romney campaign. there is clearly a strategy. i don't know what it is. martha: some groups expressed they reached out. they haven't gotten response from the romney campaign. i guess only logical explanation, alan he is trying to hug that moderate vote and he is counting on dissatisfaction with the president plus the moderate vote, do you think. >> so it seems. it he hasn't had a lot of competition from his own side as we've seen people have boomlet's and fall by the wayside. he may have a problem with newt gingrich who is rock solid conservative and may give him a run for the money in terms of nomination at this point. he will have a real issue if he doesn't at some point reach out to the right. he is a technocrat. doesn't seem like a people person. doesn't give you warm fuzzies. don't reach out over the transome and grab you like some candidates which is why he hasn't resonated so much.

martha: interesting to look at the tea party and their influence in all this, gentlemen? you wonder some ways where they have gone. "occupy wall street" going on. where are the protests from the tea party? where are they saying in strength after the debates or a after super-committee hearings, we want to cut in the debt in the country? you wonder some of the candidates they backed seem to be exploding all over the place for lack of a better term,, tucker. >> the explanation is broader. leadless movements don't he endure they can't. this is basically lead eless movement. the biggest effect the tea party destroyed the republican establishment. all people republicans and conserve it iss looked to for guidance haves been discredited by tea party. that may be a thing. may be a bad thing. i don't even know. but that is the legacy of the tea party. no more washington establishment on the right. >> i thought they were all occupying wall street? i guess the tea party is not doing that.

i don't, seems like they have, they should be embarrassed by some of these candidates. herman cain, who doesn't have a command of the issues. seams people they have supported have not done well and not seemed like credible candidates for national office. martha: look at iowa poll. this is sort of the result of everything that we're discussing right now is this split. this is the bloomberg poll. you have basically got them all in a dead-heat. ron paul, gingrich, cain and romney in iowa. makes you wonder what will happen this iowa, tucker when you look at the numbers about. some people think ron paul could take iowa. what if romney comes in third or fourth in iowa? what is impact of that? >> that is exactly right. romney campaign is preparing people for that possibility. second, i think you take a lot of cain numbers move them over to gingrich. in any normal year i think speaker gingrich would have tough time getting nomination. i think it is entirely possible get republican nomination. not likely but it could happen. martha: we've seen a lot what is coming back to haunt him in terms of positions in the past.

we'll talk a little while about freddie mac. what do you make of ron paul? what if ron paul wins iowa, alan? what is impact to these players? >> you have a boomlet there would bring warmth to the hearts of libertarian conservatives. i don't think you can. ron paul, who i like very much is so many positions not in sync with the standard republican party. i don't know how they go for a giant at this war, wants to pull out of all foreign involvements. his positions, drug legalization, i don't know how the establishment ultimately goes for ron paul. martha: we have seen iowa pick candidates in the past who did not go on to secure the nomination but make a name of themselves in iowa. >> that is true. martha: jernlt men, thank you very much. good to have you both here, alan colmes, tucker carlson. always a pleasure. bill: wait until july, right? changes everything. fox alert. oil hitting $100 a barrel for first time since the

summer. crude has been surging 26% since the end of september. gas prices fall slightly. national average at $3:40 a gallon. expect prices at pump if this holds to go up. look at markets. there is significant concern what is happening in europe. there are fears they will go into recession yet again. dow closing slightly up yesterday. finished the day at 12,096 we're off considerably at the open, 120 points to the wrongside. that would be downside. martha: different day they would like the numbers in manufacturing we saw come in. nice strength in manufacturing in the country. seems like the focus is clearly on europe for now. coming up here this morning in "america's newsroom", he touts himself as a tough-talking republican from texas. and now rick perry is telling voters his plan for congress if he hits the oval office. look out congress. bill: also calls for the attorney general to step aside. our next guest about to take

action. he says he is not alone. >> the question now for mr. holder is whether he is only protecting himself or whether he is also protecting others, perhaps all the way to the top of the administration. is to keep it whole for better nutrition. and that's what they do with great grains cereal. see the seam on the wheat grain? same as on the flake. because great grains steams and bakes the actual whole grain. now check out the other guy's flake. hello, no seam. because it's more processed. now, which do you suppose has better nutrition for you? mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal.

martha: on the same day that syria is expected to be formally suspended from the arab league for the deadly crackdown on its own people, we are getting some new video in right now of the violence there. it is incredible. [gunfire] incredible. we saw the pictures yesterday of tanks set on fire. amateur video is believed to show tanks in the streets and homes set on fire by government forces. meanwhile we're also hearing reports that some members of the army are beginning to defect. this is highly volatile situation that is emerging now in syria, folks. it is one that we need to watch very closely. the u.n. estimates that 3500

people have died in these uprisings. bill: indeed. sometimes it escapes the headlines but it has not gone away. turning up the heat now on attorney general eric holder. a growing number of angry lawmakers demanding his resignation saying that holder did not tell the truth about the controversial gun-running sting "fast and furious". this from florida congressman allen west. >> i ask the president of the united states of america to recommend eric holder resign from this position. if the president does not agree with that stance, then perhaps the president of the united states of america is also complicit in this horrible, tragic event. bill: those are strong words. my next guest was the first to ask holder to step down, republican congressman joe walsh is here. good morning to you. >> bill, good to be with you. bill: what did you think of what allen west said there? those are strong words directed against the president. >> strong words reflecting real strong sentiment at what a tragic, tragic

operation "fast and furious" +++k general the president himself, bill, called this a huge error in judgement.

which had tragic consequences. there is consensus now that whoever thought of this program was mistaken. this program is a mistake. it is incredibly botched. bill: in your letter to the attorney general, you talked about the role he played in the subsequent cover-up. now what do you allege his role was? >> there are clearly questions that need to be answered. the attorney general has given conflicting questions as to when he knew about "fast and furious", when he first knew about it. he has given conflicting answers which are troubling and which need to be investigated. but bill --. bill: he says there are many operations happening in this huge organization operating out of washington, d.c. operations that happen at any given time. do you give him the benefit of the doubt? >> look, it goes to leadership. again the attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer of this country. "fast and furious" broke

laws and led to deadly consequences. he needs to be, the department needs to be held accountable for that and he needs to exhibit leadership as the head of that organization and be held accountable. look, i want to know what he knew and when he knew it but what we know is this was a tragic, tragic, mistake, handled miserably. someone needs to be held accountable for that even before we get to what the attorney general knew and when. bill: is your ultimate issue with holder that the operation happened in the first place? or that the timeline upon which he says he was aware of the operation has changed somewhat? now what he said in testimony is that he was informed about it a few weeks ago. and, now he came back and said i probably should have said a few months ago. is that enough in your view for a resignation? >> that's problematic. his conflicting answers as to when he knew about it are problematic and need to be

investigated. from my perspective the program itself was a huge mistake that should never have happened, led to the death of one of our border agents. it was handled absolutely improperly and, by those two things alone, bill, the department needs to be held accountable. he needs to exhibit leadership as the head of that department and step down. bill: we're going to watch for this letter, you say it will be done by the end of this week. we'll see what is contained in there. also we'll see how many people agree and sign on with you. another topic, should lawmakers be exempt from insider trading laws? >> absolutely not. look, i'm just a freshman. i'm one of the poorest members of congress to boot but this is what ink aers -- angers a lot of american people, we should not be a special class of citizen. we should be held to the same laws that the general population is held to and if members of congress violated insider trading laws, there

should be no special treatment. bill: scott brown introduced this. it is his idea. do you agree with scott brown then, don't you?. >> there should be no special treatment for members of congress, absolutely. bill: joe walsh, republican from illinois, thank you, sir. >> thanks, bill. bill: on our website foxnews.com /americasnewsroom, there is a bya box on there. you probably know about that by now? martha: what is that, bya. bill: shoot me a little e-mail, bill hemmer@foxnews.com. we're covering or perhaps missed for a day, imagine that. that's what we call --. martha: everybody send those in. bya@bill hemmer. this man's name is much in the news today. newt gingrich is looking like the comeback kid in the race for the white house now but a new report change everything in that? bill: we'll look at that bears in the burbs, martha. the growing safety concerns

and what communities are doing about it. there is not a whole lot that preys on the black bear, especially in jersey. martha: they don't know what to do with bears in jersey. ♪ .

bill: eight minutes before the hour. now developing here in "america's newsroom." the soyuz rocket carrying an american astronaut and two russian cosmonauts safely docking at the international space station. the three blasting out of kazakhstan on monday. effort to recall wisconsin governor scott walker now in full swing. volunteers trying to gather more than half a million signatures to force an election. that drive fueled by walker's controversial decision to restrict

collective bargaining rights for public workers. parts of san pedro, california, slowly disappearing. sinkholes and slow moving landslides starting to get more serious in that area. >> i'm a little concerned. i live right up the street. i've been keeping my eye out. >> the whole area is in jeopardy. bill: keep your eye out and a lot of other things. thankfully no immediate danger to any homes. san pedro. martha: hate that problem. dangerous new neighbors are forcing parents to keep their children inside their homes in florida, in naples. look at this video. black bear sightings on the rise there. homeowners say they see them nearly every day. look at this. >> this is a tree that has the bear markings and, i really am concerned because it is so close to our home. >> at this point i do feel the bears need to be reed moved from this area because it is becoming an everyday occurrence. martha: an everyday occurrence to see a black

bear running around your neighborhood. not just florida. around the country, roaming black bears are many becoming a big problem. who better to ask about this our roaming black bear expert, jonathan serrie joins us live with more on this. good morning, jonathan. >> reporter: good morning, martha. it is something we'll have to get used to. did you know that licensed bear hunting is actually up. hunters looking for bears for meat, pelts and trophies but what has gone way down is the unlicensed killing of bears. attitudes are changing. many people getting more comfortable living around the bears and apparently the feeling's mutual. watch. >> they take photos. >> reporter: when john mccormick installed the outdoor camera to observe wildlife in his suburban atlanta yard, this is what he found. >> sort of shocked me a bit. >> reporter: suburban bear sightings are up. licensed bear hunting increased in recent years it is regulated. combination of game law enforcement and changing at

tides, dramatically reduced unregulated killing of bears in past four decades according to georgia wildlife. >> bears were killed whatever at will as they were encountered. >> reporter: as bears are increasing numbers in wilderness they expand food, in the suburbs, trash, bird seed and pet food. hunting may slow down and not prevent bears into residential areas which is fine with this man. >> fun to watch. pretty animals. >> reporter: wildlife experts tell us bears in the suburbs usually don't pose a problem as long as they're passing through. if you hear about a bear sighting near you, bring in the trash and any outdoor pet food so the creatures don't get too comfortable in their new suburban digs. martha? martha: very interesting, jonathan. i will set up one of those

cameras to see what is going on. bill: nabe pells, florida. crocodiles and pythons in the everglades but not black bears. martha: you know what you do see in a black bear in the woods. make yourself very big as you can and yell as black bear. grizzly you freeze or play dead. bill: you go try that. martha: i know these things. bill: you go try that. martha: makes a big as you can and really really loud. bill: let us know how it works out that will be a story. taxpayers already bailed out fannie and freddie with more than $170 billion. now new details on a million dollar bonus executives, executives were getting bonuses rather at those two firms and what they took home. details on that. also? martha: this is a story everyone is talking about in this country, the fallout from the penn state child sex scandal. congress now and the department of education say they need to get involved in this situation. many are asking what price should the nitany lions pay in all this? should the season be

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martha: we are back with this fox news alert. there's a live look for you at what's going on on capitol hill today, a congressional hearing is set to get underway and this is a big story, folks, if you haven't been following this now might be a good time to start, they're looking into the millions of dollars paid in bonuses to top executives at fannie mae and freddie mac, two organizations which had a huge contribution to what went wrong in our housing crisis, and you know, the executives of those -- both of those entities have not really ever had to pay for any of that. that's how we start a new hour of "america's newsroom", good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill bill i'm bill hemmer, nice to see you, martha, i know you missed me. martha: i did miss you! you bet i did! bill: the bonuses -- the

bonuss are still being paid, even as taxpayer money bailed them out. twelve executives at fannie and freddie received $35 million in total salary and bonuses in 2009 and 2010 and so far taxpayers have paid out about $170 billion to rescue those two firms, that's the most expensive bailout of the financial crisis, and it's not over. the government estimates that the bailout could reach up to $220 billion through the year 2014. martha: that bailout is ongoing, and the ceos of both fannie and freddie are expected to testify at today's hearing. a lot of reasons being given for why these people deserve this money and jim angle is on this story from washington in morning. what is the deal here, jim? >> reporter: martha, as you noted, congress is already unhappy about that $170 billion so bail out fannie mae and freddie mac, the quasi federal agency that is own or guarantee about half of the nation's mortgages. when they learned that the overseeing agency had approved salary and bonuses

for 12 managers of some $35 million in 2009 and 2010, it was too much. and that included $1.7 million in assign -- in a signing bonus. a hearing is about to start as you said on oversight and government reform where the two top executives of fannie and freddie will face lawmakers' questions. yesterday the house financial services committee voted 52-4 to end those bonuses and any future ones, as well as reduce executive pay to standard federal levels. committee chairman republican spencer baucus said, quote, these lavish compensation packages and bonuses are unfair, unreasonable, and unjust to the taxpayers whose assistance is the only thing keeping fannie and freddie afloat. martha: what an incredible story this has been. it goes all the way back to the leadership during the financial crisis and franklin raines and the money he had when he left all of this. so what could be the explanation for the bonuses that are being paid by

taxpayers, as you point out, jim, to these people who are still accepting taxpayer bailout money? >> reporter: well, the head of the federal housing administration, which oversees fannie and freddie, said yesterday and will say again today that he needs the kind of people who have executive financial firm experience. listen: >> i am trying to encourage these people to stay and continue to mitigate losses and keep the current infrastructure of the country's housing finance system operating. >> reporter: and, he argues that those people require much bigger salaries. now, this development is an uncomfortable one for the obama administration which has been sharply critical of bonuses for private sector executives. in this case, ten executives of fannie and freddie got almost $13 million in bonuses, that along with the administration's frequent criticisms about the wealthy faring better than the middle class is sure to be a theme when the two executives are questioned and testify before this committee this morning. i can already tell you, from

what we know about the statements issued by the committee chairmen, that will be a major theme of today's questioning. martha: it's going to be very interesting. i don't think the administration has ever called these executives fat cats to my knowledge, have they? >> i'm sorry i couldn't hear you. martha: i'm just pointing out, these people have never been called fat cats by the administration. is that right? >> no. no, they haven't come up! only members -- only the people in the private sector who give bonuses and high salaries have been the target of the administration, not those who actually work for quasi goafn mental agencies. martha: jim, good to see you. bill: a little bit of context, fannie and freddie executives make 15 times the $400,000 the president is paid, that's 30 times greater than what cabinet secretaries earn and apparently consultants make pretty good money, too, newt gingrich, said to make up to $1.8 million, in consulting fees. could his involvement come back to bite him during the presidential race that's coming up a little -- race?

that's coming up later this hour. we'll have a look at that then. martha: the congressional supercommittee has just one more week, folks, to come up with a debt reduction deal but senate majority leader harry reid does not seem too optimistic that will happen, he adds if they don't those deep spending cuts to domestic and military programs are unavoidable. we'll see about that, right? days left on the clock, he says thinks are not looking good. watch: >> at this stage, we've seen a few arm locks and a few -- locks around the neck. head locked. that's what it is. so as has been indicated here, congress and government generally don't do things until the last minute. the last minute is fast approaching. martha: indeed it is. so the total u.s. debt has increased some $400 billion

since the supercommittee decided to sit down and discuss money so they've got even more added to the plate now. we want to know what you think about this. earlier we asked you to bay in -- weighnon foxnews.com, will the supercommittee come up with a deal before turkey day, folks, before this deadline. so far, 84 percent say no, they don't think there will be any deal, 15 percent say they will make it and it will happen just under the wire. one of the big questions is whether or not when they do it will be done with accounting magic. bill: hensarling said he did not seem optimistic. a shooting near the white house, the secret service saying they've recovered two bullets from inside the grounds of the white house, one of which struck an exterior window. police issuing an arrest warrant for this man, 21-year-old oscar ortega hernandez who they say may have been involved in that incident from last friday. senior foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler on the north lawn. what do we know about this

wendell? >> reporter: as you say, the incident occurred on friday night, hours after the president left for hawaii. but what's new is that yesterday, police found a couple of bullets, one penetrated a window, stopped by the bullet-proof glass inside, another impacted the exterior of the white house. they believe they are connected to the shooting. they believe they were fired about seven or 800 yards away from the south portico of the white house, police on friday fairly quickly identified a car, found an assault rifle inside. this is what they traced to their suspect, this oscar ortega hernandez, bill. bill: and they're still looking for this hernandez, is that right? the suspect, wendell? >> a lot of people still looking for mr. ortega hernandez, not just d.c. police but park police, who monitor the grounds of the white house, the secret service, and the fbi as well. ortega hernandez, described as a 21-year-old hispanic man, 5 feet, 11 inches tall,

160 pounds, medium build, brown eyes, black hair, and a lot of people looking for him. bill: that is a good missy. wendell goler on the front lawn, thank you for that. martha: the supreme court is set to take up the new health care law, and there are new questions now about whether justice elena kagan has already made up her mind on this issue. now we're seeing justice department e-mails from kagan's time as president obama's solicitor general and a day after the new law passed in congress 2010, kagan told harvard law professor lawrence tribe, quote, i hear they have the votes, larry, simply amazing. that is the e-mail now uncovered. this case raises a lot of questions. national correspondent steve centanni joins us live from washington. steve, what connection did justice kagan have with the health care law when she was solicitor general? >> reporter: that's

whatgen tore jeff sessions of alabama wants to know. he requested detailed information in a letter sent to the attorney general just yesterday. now, aside from expressing her support of the bill, in that e-mail you just mentioned, there are also questions whether she helped to organize a legal defense for the health care law, anticipating court challenges, which we have since seen, of course. now, if she were closely involved in the health care bill, she would be legally required to recuse herself from the case but according to the constitution a justice must recuse, even if he or she, quote, expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy. that's from article 28 of the constitution. in spite of this controversy, though, kagan has given no indication yet that she would would recuse herself in this case and in fact justices rarely do so. martha: very interesting. so she's not the only person being pressured to recuse herself for connection to the health care law. >> reporter: well, there are calls from the other side of the political aisle,

too, for clarence thomas to step aside from this case, that's because his wife, jenny thomas, has worked for a group called liberty central which opposes the health care law. if thomas or kagan did recuse it could be a title four, which would cause it to stand. bill: this is going to be day when we're sitting here, because it's going to come down at 10:00 in the morning, eastern time, because that's usually when they announce it, and it could shape and it could direct and guide the entire election of 2012. i mean, that's going to be a moment when it comes down. martha: look forward to that in june. bill: new details emergeing in the investigation of the solyndra matter, e-mails suggesting the white house may have tried to influence the elections of 2010, that should make the hearings on capitol hill more interesting tomorrow, won't they? also? >> martha: it's been a good week for newt gingrich,ies been rising in the polls but now questions arise concerning his involvement

with fannie mae. co that haunt him? we'll ask ed rolleins for his take on that. nearly $2 million in consulting fees, a lot more than was originally claimed. we'll talk about that. >> your firm was paid $300,000 by fannie mae in 2006. what did you do for that money? >> you're asking me? >> yes. >> to offer advice on precisely what they didn't do. [applause]   

bill campus police at u.c. berkeley shooting man near the protest site for the occupy movement at that school, thousands of demonstrators had gathered to protest against big banks and budget cuts. that's when a campus police officer apparently opened fire on man who brought a gun inside that school. >> i heard like five or six shots, pop, pop, pop, right away. >> it was loud and i haven't heard gun shots inside before so it sounded like doors slamming very quickly

is what it sounded like. and then when it became clear it wasn't doors -- >> bill: they're looking for more information on that story, the condition of the alleged gunman has not been released. martha: there are brand new reports that newt gingrich was paid more than $1.5 million in consulting fees by market giant fannie mae and that new figure is significantly larger than the $300,000 payment that gingrich was asked about in the debate last week. watch some of this: >> to offer advice on precisely what they didn't do. [laughter] look, this is not -- were you not trying to help fannie mae fend off the effort by the bush add sntion. >> no, i have never done that. i have never done -- >> did you encourage fannie mae? >> i assume i get a second question. i have never done any lobbying, every contract -- contract was written during the period i was out of the

office, specifically saying i would do no lob yeg and my advice as a historian when they walked in, said we are now making loans for people with no credit history, that's what the government wants us to do, i said at the time, this is a bubble, this is insane, this is impossible. martha: so meanwhile, the latest mcclatchy maris poll shows gingrich matches up head to head with president obama, trailing him by only 2 percent. ed rollins is campaign manager for president reagan's reelection campaign in 1984 and chair of the national republican congressional committee and has a long history, of course, in republican politics. >> when you're old, have a long history! thank you. good to see you. martha: boy, we've been watching this sort of bouncing ball go from candidate to candidate in terms of the poll numbers and it seems to have landed on news gingrich. >> he's -- newt gingrich. >> he clearly is the markettest -- smattest guy on anybody on stage, knows more about government than

anybody, as fox viewers know when he's been on many shows, how good he is and to a certain extent i think we'll hold this position. he's the alternative to romney and we'll see where it goes from here. martha: he has add a lot of questions, the fannie mae issue comes up and it's bad timing the executives will be filing into this congressional hearing who will being paid millions of dollars and it raises questions about how he was advising them. they say he never advised them, that there was a bubble, and that they should run from it, that wasn't the nature of what he said to them at all. >> i don't know what he said to him but the bottom line is he has to disclose what it is he did. as he said in the debate, he did not ever lobby, he was always very careful along those lines. he's a very smart guy, fannie and freddie both hired a lot of people in washington to get advice, he clearly was one of them and he's going to have to explain why. martha: let's take a look at rick perry for a moment. here's a piece of sound from mr. perry, i believe it was yesterday. let's take a look: >> i happen to believe it is time to create a part-time congress for their pay -- where their pay is cut in

half, their office budgets are cut in half and their time in washington is cut in half. martha: no doubt that got some applause in the room. congressional approval numbers are not in great shape. is he going to get anywhere with that? >> no he's not. first of all he -- first of all he ought to read the constitution, the president doesn't make or break what the congress does. richard nixon, a lot of presidents would have done it a long time ago. to a certain extent, it's an applause line but it diminishes him somewhat. people are not taking him as a serious scholar, against a gingrich, who is a serious scholar, to make one of these charges basically may be a good applause line but it's not going to lead to make people think he's ready to be president. martha: we see these people move into the microscope when they get to the top spot, newt gingrich is going to be asked about global warming, why he thought the ryan plan was called, talking about hillary clinton and health care and the relations across the aisle. that could work to his

benefit in a general election but it may work it his detriment in the nomination process. >> he's got a very long process. he's had a lot of thoughts in the course of his career and he's expressed them very well but some, not so well, and to a certain extent, he'll be scriewt need in a different way. no one took him as a serious candidate early on, when his campaign impleaded. he's a very serious candidate now and better look at him hard and fast and the points and media will and my sense is he will defend it well. march when he first declared his intentions to run for president, his poll numbers, you know, were in the 1 percent, 2 percent range, the whole staff was fired. he said look, lots of people have fired their staff and started over. look at him now, and when you try to look into the future for us for a moment, how do you think this ends up, who is the gop nominee, and can that person beat president obama? >> i think whoever the nominee is can beat president obama. i think it could be either romney or newt, or one of the others. i mean, there will be probably two or three people come out of iowa, certainly

he has the potential of doing that, romney probably wins new hampshire, south carolina and florida. by the end of january we'll know who the frontrunner is, the chaser is. martha: who wins iowa? >> i think iowa is wide open. i think gingrich could easily win iowa or ron paul. he has a good organization there. martha: very interesting. thank you very much for coming in today. hopefully we'll talk to this in the future as all this rolls along, right? >> take care. bill: in the meantime, a fox news alert out of glauster, ohio north of athens, ohio, home of iowa university, you're looking at a pipeline explosion, the explosion occurred at 8:45 so, this thing has been going for about 90 minutes now. witnesses saying the flames shot hundreds of feet up into the air, and based on what we're watching, that's probably at least hundreds of feet up into the air. it's burning at the moment, no evacuations ordered yet, no injuries immediately reported but we're watching this now out of south central ohio to see whether

or not they can get a handle on t. a gas line explosion there. in the meantime, the penn state scandal has rocked college sports. now allegations of a coverup at the highest level, leading some to call for that school to cancel the rest of the football season. do you agree with that? should they? >> martha: plus, will the american public be able to watch the historic arguments over president obama's health care law. a new push for cameras in the supreme court. that is next. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently

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martha: let's get you a quick look at the thiens morning, the

consumers getting a break at the register, the report on the consumer price index is down a bit, paying less for gas, cars and computers last month, the first major drop we've seen in prices since june. that is good news. facebook is saying it is working on a spam problem, trying to eliminate most of the pornographic and violent images posted on that website. we'll see how that works out for them. police in nebraska looking into who may have stolen a $15,000 comic book. wow! the owner of the rare superman issue suspects that it was taken two weeks ago. maybe that's -- sorry, it was a spider-man comic book! taken two weeks ago. i guess he doesn't check for it every single day, then went to look for it. bill: 15 grand? good money in animation! >> martha: worth every penny. bill: good luck. police in texas, taking notes from the air force, unmanned drones, in this case, a 50-pound helicopter, to be run by a laptop computer. but there are critics and kris gutierrez is on that

story in conroe, texas with more. first on the drones, what's up with that, then we'll get to the critics. >> reporter: you bet. this is the shadow hawk, you can see behind me it's 6 feet long, weighs 50 pounds and fits in the back of this suv behind me, built by vanguard industries, the same company that is supplied other aerial assets to other troops overseas and it is remote-controlled. they use this like you see with video games, even this laptop computer down here to fly this thing. the montgomery county sheriff's department purchased this helicopter with a $500,000 federal grant and here's how they plan to use it. listen here: >> we can launch this, put it over a fire, a hazmat spill, put on -- put it over a house with a barricaded suspect, and literally, give the incident commander the ability to look at the entire scene with a bird's eye view. >> reporter: faa regulations keep this from

flying above 400 feet and it carries enough fuel for two hours of flight. bill: seems like it would be helple. what do the critics say, what are thir concerns? >> reporter: don't forget this is unmanned so safety is one concern for critics. take a look, we have video of it flying in the air. other critics say there are privacy issues, the aclu of texas says technology used by law enforcement officials is getting ahead of our privacy and that needs to be questioned. while no one here in this county has complained to the aclu about possible spying, for example, future litigation is not off the table according to the aclu. here's what else they told me. listen here: >> i got to tell you, it sort of looks like boys and their toy, you know, golly, we got a grant, we can buy this, let's do this! for no real good reason. reporter the sheriff's office in montgomery county tells me the only time you'll see this thing looking at you is if you're breaking the law. bill: how about it. kris gutierrez, thank you. there in texas. martha. martha: there are new e-mails just released in the

solyndra matter that showed the energy department tried to push the company to delay their layoffs, and that puts energy secretary stephen chu on the hot seat in all of this. congressman tim murphy will be questioning him on those e-mails at hearing tomorrow morning. that is going to be an active hearing. he's going to join us live in a moment. bill: president obama told to watch out for the crocs down under. why the extra insurance policy has been taken out for this trip. >> ♪ >> ♪ crocodile rock. >> ♪ >>

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[lock clicks] martha: big news today, the white house is under fire how it handled green energy stimulus funds, and now they're looking into the programs that were funded by the white house, and it's showing a number of subsidies and guarantees that were handed out to campaign donors who had some links with companies that got the money. just how much taxpayer money went to the friends of the administration is a question that is being raised. so doug mckelway has been doing reporting on that, looking into it. is this a lot broader, doug, than solyndra? >> reporter: indeed it is martha. behind the headlines of solyndra and life grip, congressional investigators have uncovered a pattern of scrutinized loans and loan guarantees given to well

connected democrats. here's a few of them. we know about solyndra, a $535 million loan guarantee to a company whose chief investor was george kaiser, was right source energy, a $6 million loan to robert kennedy, jr., solo reserve, a $737 million loan to mike at frauman, deputy assistant to the president who bundle up to half a million dollars for the president in 2008 and, $168.9 million loan from deparle, a white house deputy chief of staff. peter shhh wiser, author of "throw mem all out" says the blame lies with the president. >> what he's done is he's taken the alternative energy program and used it as an opportunity to make his campaign contributors and members of his finance committee for his campaign even more wealthy than they

are. if you look at the percentages of guaranteed loans and grants that have gone to obama-connected companies, it's astonishing. it's around 75 percent. and this is in a program where the acceptance rate is less than 10 percent. >> reporter: this is a problem of when the government becomes involved in economic decisions that are best left for the private sector. it reduces the incentive to lower cost and innovate. >> reporter: shhh wiser believes that of many of those chose tone receive the loan guarantees were picked almost solely for their success in raising money for the obama campaign. martha: doug, thank you. very much. doug mckelway. bill bill this morning we have u e-mail showing the energy department requested the know-bankrupt solyndra solar company to delay layoffs until after the 2010 midterm elections. that bombshell revealed just as energy secretary steven

chu is set to testify before congress and one member asking the questions is pennsylvania congressman tim murphy, member of the committee on energy and commerce. sir, good morning to you, this was first reported in the "washington post". what do you make of this? >> it's just one of a series of deep concerns we have. when jonathan silver came before our committee a few months ago he said he had not discussed this with secretary chu, now we find out they did, they said mr. kaiser had not been involved in discussions with the white house, now we find out he did on many levels, that the white house we're told didn't have information with regard to political donor, now we know they had information on the donors as it was linked to people invested in the company. it's one of a series of many concerns we have in terms of information that doesn't seem to sync with what we're told and what reality is and pointing more and more to direct involvement with the secretary of energy and other people within that department of using these loans in a way that was more political. and so it was either political or reckless or

rushed, either way, the taxpayers are out of a lot of money and we still need to find out what happened. bill: here is one of the e-mails from arganon equity, apparently one of the largest investors in solyndra, they, the doe, department of energy, did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation of employees and vendors to november 3rd. oddly, they did not give a reason for that date. the lks was november 2nd that year. the layoffs were actually announced the next day. on november 3rd. put two and two together. >> well, and that's a question we have to ask the secretary. it's pretty clear that that was not a random date, november 3rd, the day after the election, and i'm sure they didn't want other fallout that was going to affect the election. and you see, also, when people were telling the white house this isn't ready for prime time, we shouldn't be going out there, hold off on this, wait until we get these loans taken care of, wait until we find out if solyndra is going to make it, and there was pushback,

anyway, the vice president and the white house wants this done, pushed this through, the secretary of energy appears to have complied, all questions that we need answers to and we hope that this is manager that secretary chu gives us under oath. bill: you're going to be asking those questions tomorrow. how much do you think is truly going to be revealed? how far will he go in giving you what you're looking for? >> we don't know yet. because in some of the e-mails and some of the information we've received from the department of energy, there still are some significant gaps. we've also seen memos that have had the address label changed on them in terms of advising secretary chu and others about issues. all those are questions we have to have the answers to. look there, are so many inconsistencies. this is a fairly bright man and he certainly understands the value of understanding all signs of the issue. he's a trained scientist, and certainly if there are people telling him don't go through with this, we need to know why this happened and why the taxpayers are out of so much money. bill: one of the critical questions in all of this is how the language of the loan

could be restructured, and in order to repay the investors who put up, what was it, a minimum of $90 million, or $60 million? it was tens of millions of dollars. how they would get paid back first before the taxpayers. >> and it appears that a discussion took place, to promise those investors that that -- >> at what level was that conversation? >> we're trying to find out. certainly, it was the legal advisers at the highest levels who would not testify. >> bill: that the wet wing or outside the white house? >> within the department of energy. but even so, you go back to what the president had people promise, they couldn't get politics mixed up with this, and it appears it has. bill: tim murphy, we'll follow it tomorrow and see what we get out of it. see you tomorrow. thank you for your time. martha: for something completely different, president obama tag a trip down under this week and getting extra protection from one of the outbacks fiercest predators,

insurance providing the commander in chief with insurance against crocodiles, you heard me. the president will visit a territory that boasts the largest number of crocs in the country, michelle and the children would get 50 grand if the president were to get taken by a crocodile but he says he really does not think that's going to happen, and i would have to agree, i don't think they're going to let the president of the united states get into any situation where his life would be threatened by a crocodile. bill: why would you even get near one! reporting can't even get close to these people. martha: too bad they didn't give the iraqi government protection against shoes. bill: we are watching the insurance clause down under. who knew. also we're watching this, why the supreme court of the united states could break its own rules just one time. also, fallout from penn state. congress and the department of education might be getting involved. should penn state even try

to finish its football season? even coach k weighing in on that controversy. >> i just feel badly for him, and whatever he is responsible for, it will come out. and hopefully, it will come out from him.

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they eventually made it to the florida coast and both listed in stable condition. how about that? >> martha: all right. there are new questions into whether penn state university should cancel the rest of their football season after the child sex abuse charges against former assistant coach jerry sandusky, meanwhile, after making ncaa basketball history, the legendary duke coach, coach k, says he feels sorry for head coach paterno. listen to this: >> i think one thing you have to understand is that coach paterno is 84 years old. that it's not -- i'm not saying that's an excuse or whatever. the cultures that he has been involved in, both football wise and socially have been immense changes, and in how social issues are handled in those generations

are quite different. quite different. martha: controversial statement from coach k that raises a lot of questions about how people respond to what happened or appears to have happened at penn state. path bordy is a yahoo national college sports columnist and joins me now. good to have you with us today. >> thank you martha. martha: you know, i guess one of the big questions that's come up and we mentioned it in the introduction here is whether or not they should finish out the season or perhaps even suspend the football program for next year. what do you think about that? >> well, martha, i think the thing to do is to take a deep breath at some point and that's not going to happen during the season. this has all come in such an incredible rush. i think it would be unfair to the 100-plus players on the program who have nothing to do with this to arbitrarily cut their season short now. they have two games left and most likely a bowl game. if they win their division and go to the big ten championship game, that could create an incredibly

awkward publicity situation for the big so. -- big ten. i don't think they'll do that. they have two games left and will play a bowl game. at that point there needs to be a decision whether the football program needs to be de emphasized, but canceling it now would be unfair to the players who are completely innocent in this situation. martha: they are, obviously, completely innocent, the players, but when you look at it, from the standpoint of the university and what the priorities need to be, to go back to the idea, that at a university, the academics and people have to take priority over athletics, and i know that is a very hard thing for a lot of people to agree with out there. and you know, we've had lots of people tweeting me about this and we've been talking about it here as well. but if they don't make an incredibly bold statement about how very seriously they take and if they don't clean house with the people who had any tanning eveningual connection to any of this or who -- tangential

connection to all of this, can they move on? >> i think that's a great quevment they've already taken steps with getting rid of a 60-plus year icon with the school, and i think that was the right move with joe paterno and it spawned outrage. they no longer have the president they have, no longer the vice president, theath lettic director and the legendary football coach, so i think they've made pretty bold moves so far. do they need to go further? we'll wait and see. i think there needs to be a real communal soul searching to get to the bottom of that before they move from this point. i think we need to get to the end of the season and evaluate priorities going forward. martha: do you expect we're going to hear more from coach paterno or mike mcquery? >> those are the two people that america is dying to hear from. coach paterno since he's no longer employed, really unless his lawyers are telling him not to speak which may well be the case, he's the next person we need to hear from in this and he has said he wanted to answer

questions. i was in state college last week when his press conference was canceled, i think a lot of people did want to hear from him, he was ready to go, they decided against that. he needs to stand up and say something. mike mcquery to me has been the biggest mystery, what has been said in the grand jury report and in the attorney general's presentment has been somewhat contradicted by later reports about what he did or didn't do when he came across that very disturbing scene in the showers at penn state. his reputation is very much in jeopardy. we'd love to hear from him. but he may also have some legal restrictions holding him back. martha: no doubt, that the lawyers are telling these folks that they should not speak right now as this whole thing plays out. thank you very much for being with us, good to see you again, and take care. >> my pleasure, martha. bill: 11 minutes before the hour. jon scott is coming up on "happening now", what you working on jon? good morning to you. jon: good morning to you. there is new information out on the solyndra investigation, the energy secretary steven chu on the defensive.

we'll take a look at that. mitt romney might not be getting a lot of press of late but don't tell that to the white house. they seem focused like a laser on a "romney candidacy and the romney campaign, they are returning the favor. plus, would you let an emt essentially freeze you to try to save your life? the cold truth about new life saving medical technology. and of course, we want to hear from you. go to foxnews.com/happening now, click on the america's asking tab, to weigh in on today's headlines. bill. bill: jon, see you then, top of the hour, "happening now". is the u.s. supreme court about to do something it has never done before? that's next.

bill: c-span is asking the supreme court to allow camera intos the nation's

highest court, when it hears arguments over the health care law, today, onlyo toe date only the audio recordings where the closest the public has gotten to gavel to gavel coverage, the first, bush v. gore in 2000. remember this? >> i'm just reading the person was mind -- you're looking at a piece of paper, and the supreme court's in the state of south dakota and in other states have told us that you will count this if it's hanging by two corners. bill: the echos in the chambers, too, takes you right in there. judge andrew napolitano, host of "freedom watch". >> i remember that as if it was yesterday! bill: you're right you do. now, would the supremes allow this to happen for the first time? >> i don't think so. there has been an institutional reluctance to allow cameras in federal courts forever, and no camera has ever been permitted in any federal court. the most the courts will allow is the sketches. and even those tapes we

heard, we all thought they were in real time, we found out the next day, there was a delay so that an engineer could cut in if something were said that in the engineer's opinion the court didn't want us to hear. bill: very significant, as i remember, it was a couple of moment, right? a couple of minutes. >> yes. bill: one of the big hesitations to do this is it changes the behavior of people who are either presenting the arguments or hearing the arguments. >> yes. bill: when you were on the bench, did you ever have a camera in your courtroom? >> i initially was of the view that it would change my behavior and might change the behavior of the lawyers and litigants and the jurors might be afraid of it and i banned cameras in my courtroom, in the court where i sat it was the decision of the individual judge, in the federal system it's the decision of the supreme court. bill: that was your call. >> it was my call and i changed my mind, after looking at the camera and seeing how tiny it was, how silent it was, unobtrucive it was, i authorized it, the

people paid for the courthouse and paying my salary and paying for what's goingnon there and the people have a right to know what's happening in there. now, not every case is worthy of being broadcast. a lot of cases are boring as can be, and the media doesn't want to invest the time and money in putting a camera in there. however, supreme court does not look at it this way. the supreme court believes that there's no power without mystery, and without a camera in that courtroom, there's a little bit of mystery as to what those nine folks in those black robes do. bill: did it change the way you behaved in the courtroom? >> no. bill: did it change the way the lawyers behaved? >> no. those are two very good points. in my view it did not change anything that happened in that courtroom except it exposed the courtroom to the view of the taxpayers who are paying for it, and that's a good thing. bill: there is no mystery without power. there'smo -- >> there's no power without mystery. bill: that too! hang with me now. but what the supremes would argue is that it will change the behavior of the lawyers in the court. >> yes. bill: it may also change the

behavior of the justices. >> it might. some of those justices have very big and even entertaining personalities. bill: entertaining. >> i'm not mentioning any names! they get a little carried away. bill: no power without mystery. they changed their mind at the last moment in 2000. we'll see whether that's the case now. >> chief justice can change his mind right up into the oral argument. it's 5 1/2 hours of oral argument. bill: see you 8:00 prime time, judge. see you later. martha: i like to change my mind at the last minute, too. something in common! thanks you guys. she claimed he was the father of her former's four-month old baby but is the woman at the center of a paternity suit involving teen sensation justin bieber suddenly changing her mind as well? we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] from an earache... to the flu.

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