we don't know how she is doing. you have to wait until the next "american idol" to find out. that's why we call it tees in this business. steven tyler -- she must wake up looking at steven tyler [screaming] have a good day, everybody, see you tomorrow. bill: see you tomorrow. jon: good thursday morning to you. the stan tore um surge and the issue that may be propelling it. jenna: i'm jenna lee. here fresh off winning all three presidential contest th-s week rick santorum campaigns in oklahoma today and he's sharping his attacks on mitt romney especially when it comes to the hot button issue of insurance coverage for birth control, or the requirement to cover birth control when you have insurance coverage. the growing debate over the provision of the new healthcare law that would force religious

institutions to provide contraception benefits to employees for free. jon: the issue sparking outrage and protests with it critics calling the birth control mandate an attack on religious freedom. supporters say it's about women's access to family planning and healthcare. chris wallace is the anchor of fox news sunday and joins us now. is rick santorum benefitting, chris, or is his campaign benefitting from the publicity over this issue? >> i can't offer any hard numbers that would indicate that, jon. but it does stand to reason, all the candidates have certainly criticized the president's plan to allow, in fact to mandate that catholic institution, not churches, but schools, hospitals, charities, provide this birth control. they've all condemned it, but santorum has the longest and strongest record as a social

warrior. obviously he has a lot of other credentials as well. to some degree to the degree that republican voters, the conservative base is upset about it it would cause them to rally around his candidacy. jon: he has pointed to the massachusetts law that was enacted while mitt romney was governor there. he says it's the same thing as obamacare therefore you can't separate mitt romney from the president's point of view on this issue. >> i think that is a little bit of a reach, because the fact is that the legislature passed a rule that all hospitals had to offer rape victims emergency continu contraceptives. romney vetoed it, they passed it over his veto. i'm not sure you can tie romney to the obama ban. the obama plan has really caused a political backlash clearly beyond what the white house thought it was going to be.

and to the degree that republican social conservatives are upset about it. one would figure that they might see rick santorum more than gingrich or romney as their champion on this issue. i don't think it's just about birth control. i think this controversy is about government intrusion. there are a lot of people who aren't catholics who are very upset about this because they think the government shouldn't be in the business of telling anybody, in any religion what they have to do. and so it becomes a question of government limits, or government intrusion in the lives of institutions, or of people. jon: apparently the administration has been warned even by some of its own members, supposedly vice president joe biden. richard daley, the former chief of staff of the white house has said to the president, or the president's people that this is going to be seen as a real problem among catholics. >> that's right. again i think it's more than just catholics.

i think that there are a number of people who see it as the spread of government. there are a lot of people po beyond catholics that were opposed to obamacare and to some degree have died down. this reminds opponents who didn't like obamacare, whether it's man dating, or you have to provide health coverage, in this particular case which provides certain, specific benefits. this thing of mandates i don't think you have to be catholic to be upset about that. jon: we saw rick santorum win the three states in the caucuses and primary on tuesday and his campaign seem to be on a roll. and i guess it comes down to the question of whether he has seized this issue and is making some political points witness. >> i don't know that you can tie his very strong showing on tuesday to that. i mean the fact is that he was concentrating on those three states because he knew that he really couldn't compete in

florida, and in nevada. so he didn't spend as much money or time or effort there, and he spent it in fact in colorado and minnesota and missouri. but clearly this does play to a strength of his. and as far as the santorum campaign, look there's been eight contests, santorum has won four. romney has won 3. gingrich has one one. in the battle to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney one could argue santorum at this point has as much if not more of a claim than newt gingrich does. jon: it's a fascinating race. thank you for keeping an eye on it for us. be sure to watch chris wallace. check out his guest sarah palin, the former governor of alaskan former gop candidate. check for the listings when it runs in your area. martha: slamming the bush and obama administration over release of detainees at guantanamo bay.

the report find too many risks were taken in releasing detainees from this prison. one out of three of terror suspects released or transferred from gitmo either went onto reengage in insurgent activities or are suspected of doing as much. peter doocey has more on this for us. how many returned to terror. >> the doj said 779 detainees have been held at gitmo. 600 have been released so far. 27% were confirmed or suspected to have been engaged in terrorist or in sur gent abg sifts in 2011. that is a report by the armed services committee. back in october of 2010, that was 150 detainees. in april of 09 it was 14%. you can see the number is rising. senator john mccain explained why so many detainees end up

going back to their old ways. >> it's their badge of courage. they rise immediately to leadership positions because they have been in guantanamo, so it's especially dangerous. >> reporter: the report suggests that the obama administration and the bush administration were trying too hard to gain goodwill from the rest of the world by retkaoegs the detainees. they should have made sure that the threats were totally gone and the countries where we were sending these detainees were ready to keep an eye on them. they say despite earnest and well-meaning efforts it suggests failures in one or both aspects of that process, jen a. jenna: as you mentioned both administrations under criticism here. why are a few lawmakers disagreeing with this report and who are they? >> reporter: a few democrats, and it's because they think that the report is incomplete and missing information, for example, about detainees who have been successfully reset eld in places like bermuda and

albania, and information about the prison, guantanamo bay as a whole with democratic congressman adam smith saying i continue to believe that the detention facility at guantanamo bay cuba is a black eye for our nation approved serving as a powerful recruiting tool for terrorists. some of the democrats are trying to do a glass half full come pictured to a glass after empty for the republicans. jenna: all right, peter. we'll continue to watch this story thank you. jon: a fox new alert now. you're looking at brand-new amateur video out of syria. it shows syrian forces firing mortars and rockets on the city of homs, unconfirmed reports of at least 20 people killed there today in a week-long assault

that has already left hundreds dead. dominique d-natali is live across the syrian border in lebanon. >> reporter: the latest numbers we are getting in is that at least 105 people have actually been killed today, just adding to more casualty numbers, as a result of the heavy barrage of attacks. you can see in today's pictures, those pictures coming from a neighborhood, which is in the southwest of the city. it's being targeted by the government, it's close by to an area of loyalists who are actually concerned about the rising ability of the opposition there to actually launch attacks. also today we're hearing that some 40 new tanks by the government forces have been moved into position around homs to back up to one thousand extra troops they have to move into position soon to tighten the grip on the city. they themselves are starting to fight against the government

forces as well as loyalists groups of thugs that are attacking citizens in the city. on top of that we are hearing that the iranians intend to send in as many of 50,000 iranian revolutionary guard to back up syrian forces. that is not concerned but being discussed by people within syria. that of course is going to create a very complicated situation when it comes to the international effort in trying to reduce violence in syria, jon. jon: those efforts have failed so far. what is the next move to pressure bashar al-assad? >> reporter: well the arab league is meeting on sunday, and what it's going to discuss is whether it should actually recognize the syrian national council, that is the main opposition body, as a legitimate representative of the syrian nation. it might even let them open offices in the various arab league nations. that would undermine the presence that the government has in its embassies around the

world. that is going to isolate the syrian government somewhat more. we are hearing that the european union is going to up the sanctions. they want to prevent the syrian government from selling diamonds and gold as well to arm the funds purchases they need, particularly from the russian. the united state is going to up humanitarian aid efforts as well. once america gets involved like that it will be very politically complicated. jon: thank you dominic. jenna: testimony includes in the murder trial of a college hro* cross player accused of beating his girlfriend to death. we are hearing chilling information on their relationship. we'll bring you that next. jon: u.s. forces kill a major militant leader in pakistan. fox news national security analyst kt mcfarland is here and

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s. jenna: we have brand new words this morning a u.s. drone strike has taken out a top militant in pakistan that had ties to both al qaeda and the taliban, one of the america's main targets inside the country. the associated press that the leader was killed in a predawn strike in the pakistan border. fox news flags security analyst, kt mcfarland to talk about the entire area with this top story today. what does it mean taking this one guy out? >> we've seen a lot of drone strikes taking out terrorists in pakistan. the difference with this one pakistan cooperated withs. why? this terrorist set off bombs

in pakistan. they have interest in cooperating. in the past they don't necessarily cooperate with us merely somebody going after americans. they harbored osama bin laden in a safe house in pakistan. they only help when they think it is in their interests involved. jenna: that is an interesting difference. interesting to think again about our drones going over the border into a sovereign nation, our ally and doing this. when you look at other parts of the world, syria, for example, there is questions about why we are not more involved. >> right. jenna: using drones or otherwise. how would you answer that question about why we, and the international community overall is not getting involved in syria? >> if you look at libya, what was example of lib kra? what was your role? we went in for humanitarian to prevent slaughter of people. in syria, 600 people have been slaughtered. we've shown pictures where people will be slaurd. why is syria harder? they have important friend in the region. qaddafi and syria.

russia and china vetoed any condemnation of assad at the u.n. there is no, sirrian rebel army. they don't even have tanks. who will you support? there is no army to aid and go in and underwrite and help. the third thing is that, the united states, what do we have left? we got two terrorists in the gulf. we have crisis burning in iran. third carrier on the way to the gulf. what do we have left to deal with another war in the middle east? jenna: what do you think the message is to iran when we're not getting involved? some say you have to think of syria and iran as one group, one regime that supports each other. what message are we sending by standing back. >> when you want to kill a snake you don't cut off the tail of the snake. iran is the snake's head. until you deal it iran it is difficult of dealing with assad of syria.

particularly for a president who is pulling away from the middle east. he is pivoting to asia. he wants out of the region. he doesn't want a war in the middle east. >> dominic di-natale said the arab league may recognize the opposition force. >> right. jenna: you say the opposition force is not really organized. some say the case in libya. >> this is worse. >> is there hope that the arab league and the nations in the surrounding area can help build up this opposition force? is the arab spring in that form, strong enough to help elevate them? >> it's a good question but i think it has a longer timeline than this weekend. you were announcing the slaughter. assad of syria, he his family, they control everything in syria and they decided kill or be killed. they saw what happened in other countries when mubarak stepped aside. they see what happened in libya. for them it is kill or be killed. i don't think they stop until somebody stops them. jenna: what is the risk to us if this goes on longer and longer? >> risk to us, the real issue to deal with. don't get distracted the

real issue is iran and iran's nuclear weapons program. the secretary of defense said iran will in a year or less have nuclear weapons. two or three years after that have a intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a nuclear weapon and we don't have defense for that. don't get distracted. deal with iran. jenna: nice to have you on set as always. jon? jon: there is a new outbreak of a stomach virus on a cruise ship and it is the very same one which passengers became violently i'll just days ago. so what is happening with that ship now? we are live with an update. then he is accused of brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend. now some brand new information about their stormy relationship and the violent threats he made against her right before she was killed.

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jenna: now this fox news alert. we'll take you out to l.a. normally when we do so early in the morning it is for a car chase. this time it is for a roof chase. the guy on your screen is on top of a roof in a residential area in los angeles. he is running from police by running through backyards and getting up on roofs and trying to evade the cops. you see the cops at the bottom of your screen there. apparently what happened just before 8:00 eastern, i'm sorry, 8:00 pacific time the cops ran the plates of a car they were following and found out it was a stolen vehicle. they tried to pull this guy over. a pursuit started. he got out of car and headed for the roof, jon. jon: maybe a remake of "mary

poppins". jenna: i never thought about that. jon: it is los angeles. maybe they're shooting a movie and you know, he is a chimney sweep. i don't know. jenna: so far we have been able to confirm it is indeed a police pursuit and not a movie. we'll continue to watch this maybe he will get down, maybe he won't. we'll follow him to see where he goes next. jon: we're getting some new information on the volatile relationship between a uva lacrosse player, george huguely, and his late ex-girlfriend, yeardley love. huguely on trial for killing her after an argument in may of 2010. rick folbaum is following the case. rick? >> reporter: jon, even the defense admits that huguely killed yeardley love. this trial is to decide whether the murder was premeditated. both sides agree huguely and love had a rocky relationship. they were known to fight a lot. there was a record of angry e-mails they wrote to each other before love was killed. prosecution says huguely had

a history of being violent and point to a e-mail sent days before her death quote, i should have killed you. that is a big part of her case this was and should be first-degree murder. we're getting first images of yeardley love playing lacrosse. some of the pictures are not great quality. this is first time we've seen the former star player in action. there she is. her former roommate said she saw huguely attack love a couple of times. one time he put her in a choke hold. the defense team says it was not premed dated. it couldn't have been. huguely was too drunk to plan it out beforehand. they want him to face involuntary manslaughter charges which is much less serious. we're waiting for key testimony coming up in this case, jon, from yeardley love's mother and sister and medical examiner who performed the autopsy and from other close friend and former teammates. so we'll keep you posted on what they have all have to say. we'll bring you more when we get it. jon: rick folbaum, please do. thanks. jenna: a has-been a mild

winter across the united states but some folks in maryland waking up to a little bit of snow at least enough to cover the ground and forcing drivers to slow down just a little bit. we want to show you some of the video as a friendly reminder to drive slowly. looks like there is some snow, a little bit of snowfall across the region. jon: i asked janice dean about snow yesterday. she said we would get a dusting and we did. old man winter could be making a comeback along the east coast. people are breaking for winter temperatures this weekend. the cold front is moving in and snow is expected to follow. jd live in the extreme weather center. hey, janice. >> i think the groundhog might have been onto something, jon scott. he said six more weeks of winter. jon: we don't need meteorologists anymore, right? >> oh, come on, he is a little fury guy kind of cute but what does know. i predicted the super bowl. jon: yes, you did. >> we'll talk about what is going on across the country.

we have a wintry mix across texas, across oklahoma, across the panhandle there. the light precipitation over the northwest. fairly quiet weather pattern. we had the snof move across the mid-atlantic and northeast. things are changing a little bit. we'll see some of the cooler air invade much of the country. look what happens as we head toward the weekend. jon was alluding to this. we have a clipper system and a system offshore will provide accumulations for cities like d.c. all the way up towards boston. we'll quickly monitor this over the next several days to see what happens. we could certainly see some winter in our future. taking a look at temperatures right now, certainly cooler than we have seen especially in the month of january. record-setting temperatures in the month of january. 38 in chicago. 47 in new york. but as we head towards the weekend cold air is going to surge in from canada and that means we'll see temperatures drop in some cases to the single digits, even up towards the teens

for minneapolis. 32 for chicago and even colder than that as we head into the weekend. jon and jenna, we're alluding to the fact we saw very warm temperatures. look at this map. basically this is showing you way above average, at a little over average or just around where we should be this time of year and nowhere on this map do we see below average temperatures for january. so i believe it was the fourth warmest january on record. things are going to change though as we head further out in time. there's our pattern that we've seen. the jet stream, the arctic jet stream just on the border of canada and the u.s. so keeping that really cold air bottled up north. we've seen the spring-like storms in january, bringing potential for severe weather over 80 reports of tornados but over the next 14 days you can see the cold air starting to sink down toward the great lakes and the northeast. that is going to give us the potential for not only stormy weather like snow,

but also very chilly temperatures as well. so, jenna, i hope you have not put away that fancy, puffy coat you like to talk about every winter, bringing out from storage. jenna: is the indicator when the puffy coat is out. >> has anyone seen the puffy coats? jon: there has not been a puffy coat sighting to my knowledge this year. >> might happen. jenna: the fashion indicator. jon: thank you, jd. jenna: maybe some day out on the plaza doing a live hit we'll bring it out. maybe we will. whole different contraception controversy at one pennsylvania campus where the morning-after pill is actually available in a vending machine. we have some brand new reaction to this story that just broke this week. plus some new insight into the war in afghanistan from someone who has been on the ground talking to our troops. this op-ed piece has caused quite a stir all across the country. we're going to talk to the editor who decided to publish this next. wake up!

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jon: "happening now", new reaction after one college offers the morning-after pill for sale in a vending machine. plan b, available to students at shippensburg university in pennsylvania.

the school says a majority of students wanted it. >> we had some conversations with them. we went out and did a survey of the student body and got an 85% response rate that students would be supportive of having plan b in the health center. jon: anna kooiman is live in our new york city newsroom with more on the controversy. anna. >> reporter: the morning after pill can protect women against getting pregnant and not against sexually transmitted diseases. some opponents of the machines at shippensburg university say easy access will promote promiscuous behavior. >> when it is this successful be without anyone they want to be without worrying about the effects of getting pregnant when you have plan b in the vending machine. >> reporter: the school denies the charge saying the university is not encouraging dmin to be sexually active. that is decision they make

on his or her own. they urge students to make wise an appropriate decisions in all aspects of their lives. plan b is legally available to anyone 17-year-old and older but must be kept behind a pharmacy counter. the school that's plan b is in one vending machine in the student health center at $25. it is not included in the normal $150 health care fee. >> now that it is over the counter it wouldn't be any different than picking it up at wal-mart or something. i'm okay with it in a vending machine. >> i'm a very pro-life person. i think it kind of blows my mind. i'm not a fan. i don't think it should be that accessible for people to fix their mistakes at the tip of their fingers. >> reporter: mixed reaction there. health professionals are urging women not to use the morning-after pill as a regular form of birth control because extreme levels of estrogen can be

associated with increased risk of breast cancer, and menstrual cycle irregularities and blood cots, jon, the controversy goes on. anna kooiman in the newsroom. thanks, anna. jenna: a column in the armed forces journal getting a lot of attention. it has a strong criticism of the u.s. war in afghanistan and what the government is telling all of us that is happening there. it is coming from someone who has been on the ground and seen things first-hand. colonel daniel davis spent last year in afghanistan and talking with troops and their partners. his editorial is entitled truth, lies, in afghanistan and how military littlely leaders let us down. how many men must die in a mission not succeeding and behind an array of seven years of opt mistakes statements by u.s. leaders in afghanistan. no one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan but we do expect and the men who do living fighting and dying deserve to have our leaders tell us

the truth about what is going on. we have the editor of the armed forces journal, the nation's oldest independent periodical on military affairs and green lighted this editorial to be published. the truth, brad, what is the truth about afghanistan?. >> i have can tell what you lieutenant colonel daniel dave says says. he traveled in a year in afghanistan. he traveled virtually to everywhere u.s. troops were fighting and talked to hundreds of people and he came away with the impression was going on in afghanistan was not what, if u.s. officials had been saying was going on. jenna: one of the things he talks about is the gulf between the troops on the ground and the generals and lawmakers really back at home. you've covered this war yourself for 10 years or so that it's been happening. why do you think that gulf exists the way it does? >> well, what davis says is that the generals have not

been giving the u.s. politicians and the american people the facts that they need to make an informed judgment on the war. he says that the, it has been going worse than what the official statements have been. so he came back from his latest deployment, he has been to afghanistan twice now in combat deployments and felt morally compelled to speak out. so he wrote the piece that we published in the armed forces journal most recent issue. jenna: did you feel morally compelled to publish it? >> i thought it was a very interesting piece. davis is a very interesting figure. he has a track record. a few years ago he published the a piece about the future combat systems. this was the army's largest acquisition program and said basically it was unworkable and broke ranks with the army to say that. two years later the secretary of defense canceled the program. he has a track record. he is also very unusual that is serving military officer chosen to speak out against a war and against how his senior officials have,

senior officers have described it. jenna: it is interesting to have an active duty guy to be able to publish a piece like this critical not only of this administration but past administrations as well. over the last seven years overall officials haven't been sharing with us the right information about afghanistan. what is the reaction not only to him but to your organization for publishing such a piece? >> well, first of all i should say that the piece has gotten a huge amount of interest. we've had more than 700,000 hits on that particular page since it went up on sunday. and the reaction has been really across the spectrum. fox nation tweeted it. michael moore tweeted it. we've really seen people responding to it from all political and personal experiences. jenna: that is interesting to see the defense press secretary was asked about the editorial by the associated press just yesterday and in not some words i will paraphrase a little bit that he disagreed

with the portrayal, that it was one person's point of view. it has already driven the conversation and i guess, brad, as an editor that's all you really do want in some of these situations is to broaden the conversation so people have it. >> right. that is exactly what armed forces journal exists for. we want to help the military think about what they do and talk about it as well. jenna: brad, nice to have you. an interesting piece. a big success for your organization and gave us a lot to think about as well. thank you, sir. >> thank you. jon: fox news alert and some interesting news from the new leader of al qaeda al-zawahiri, who took over the late unlamented osama bin laden was killed by u.s. forces. ayman al-zawahiri says al shabaab, the terrorist group, has formally joined al qaeda. al shabaab basically headquartered in somalia, a governmentless state.

al shabaab and al qaeda have officially joined forces according to ayman al-zawahiri. perhaps he is trying to puff up resume' or credentialals i should say of the group he is running but that appears to be the case at least according to ayman al-zawahiri. we'll have more from our pentagon people what this could mean later on. parents of teenagers should listen up. drug-sniffing dogs may be the new way to keep your kids out of trouble. and guess what? now you can rent one. plus mitt romney, the latest presidential candidate to get glitter bombed. it is a growing trend and why the guy accused of tossing the sparkly stuff at romney faces criminal charges. ♪ .

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jon: new in the next hour of "happening now", submarines, elaborate tunnels and panels tucked inside vehicles, just some of the tactics being tried by drug smugglers and human smugglers to get goods across the border. we'll show you the latest way they're trying to get past our border agents. plus he is trying to adopt his 40 something girlfriend in a plan that would protect his financial assets in an upcoming criminal case. geraldo rivera on whether or not this guy will be able to make this highly unusual legal maneuver work. and it took scientists two decades of drilling to get to a subglacial lake that could hold secrets to live life on other plan etc.. we'll talk about that coming up. jenna: we'll look forward to that. look what is happening on wall street right now. markets slightly lower today. we have new numbers on the job market we wanted to share with you. kind of helps with our employment picture when we look at the weekly numbers.

the labor department says the number of americans filing for unemployment benefits is down, it fell last week by 15,000. you see the total number on your screen, 358,000. that is seasonally adjusted. that is the second lowest level since april of 2008. overall hear is the headline the job trend continues to improve. there are still concerns about the debt crisis in europe and how that could affect us later on this year. over all a better trend in the labor market. jon: criminal charges for a guy involved in a trend that has secret service agents who protect presidential candidates on edge this season. it's called glitter bombing. it has happened to all of the republican presidential candidates thus far. rick folbaum has more what it is in this particular case. >> reporter: you might not think of something used in arts and crafts being dangerous but glitter is used in new ways these days and law enforcement not liking it. ask peter lucas smith on the left of the screen there, a 20-year-old college student

from colorado, facing misdemeanor charges for throwing glitter in the direction of presidential candidate mitt romney in campaign event. it is an act known as glitter bombing. secret service agents protecting romney removing smith from the event and turning him over to local police. up to now the glitter attacks are mostly used by protesters to target politicians to protest same-sex marriage. smith says he did it to object to romney's overall political philosophy. rick santorum was hit a couple times including at this event had minnesota. the pennsylvania senator said that those show who engage in this practice is trying to shut down people. he had glitter thrown at him during a book signing in minneapolis. that is the state where ron paul was targeted in minnesota. the new thing here that this is the first time a glitter bomber is facing criminal charges. smith facing up to six months in jail and a $1,000

fine if he is convicted, jon. he has no regrets about his protests. jon: i'm sure his parents are so proud. rick folbaum, thank you. jenna: maybe show up in glitter. then the glitter bombs are uneffected. show up in glilter and won't get glitter bombed. i can see a little glitter. jon: try some tomorrow. jenna: just an idea. we're talking a lot about the debt crisis in europe but there is another big crisis there as well. a deep freeze. the worst cold spell in decades knocking out power to thousands an killing hundreds of people. how long will it last? how come europe is getting it so bad when we're getting mild winter here at home? a cruise ends early after hundreds of passengers come down with a stomach virus. phil keithing, we know him. i guess he is there at the scene. this isn't the first time this very virus has taken over this ship. we'll be live with that story and phil keating coming up.

jenna: now this fox news weather alert. hundreds dead after a deep freeze settles over europe. greg palkot is live streaming in london. >> reporter: jenna, it is an icy but pretty scene here in the london is a bush of barnes but it is pretty ugly across europe as the continent reels described by experts as the worst february cold-snap in decades. the 12-day cold spell seen temperatures reach minus 40 degrees fahrenheit. they have seen snow accumulations as high as 10 feet or more. that has left over 400 people killed and tens of thousands of people stranded in villages across europe. it is caused by what the meteorologists call a negative arctic ocellation. that in translation means a

lot of cold air coming from the north pole. the governments across europe have been scrambling. they have been declaring states of emergency and mobilizing army, helicopters, ice-breaking ships, trying to get food and aid and shelter to those who have been stranded. transpourtation across europe has basically been frozen for the last week or so. the very important, danube river, that waterway has been closed to traffic because of the ice. we, for example, here in london the past weekend saw 1,000 flights canceled at heathrow airport but there are some positive transportation results from this. in holland they might be able to run for the first time in years a 125-mile, 11-city, 16,000 person ice skating race. we'll be watching for that. tonight here in london it is expected we'll be seeing more snow and falling temperatures. it will not get better until at least next week. back to you. jenna: we'll continue to follow that news, gregg,

thank you. jon: some brand new developments now in a story we first brought you last week a stomach virus sweeping through three different cruise ships. now it is happened again on one of the very same ships. the crown princess pulling into port early today after hundreds of its passengers became violently ill. the outbreak came even after crews thoroughly cleaned and disinfected the ship for hours. phil keating live in port everglades for us now. phil? >> reporter: hi, jon. for about 3,000 passengers on board of crown princess this was supposed to be a seven-day cruise all the way down to aruba and curacao. but after passengers started getting badly sick, it ended up being a cruise to nowhere. so returned here to port everglades this morning after a five-day trip. so two days early after sick passengers on board that ship, for the second time returning here with sick passengers in a row. the culprit according to the u.s. centers for disease

control is norovirus. that is a stomach virus, not a pleasant one, which according to passengers, certainly did not make for a fun cruise at all. the cruise ship left saturday night after a six-hour delay while it was being thoroughly scrubbed down and disinfected. but the scrub-down apparently did not completely eliminate the virus for the new passengers. >> the sickness is montezuma's revaengs. they have a fancy name for it. can't tell you what it is. >> reporter: 24 hour gastrointenstinal? >> yes. >> reporter: confined to your room? >> yes. day and a half. my opinion they shouldn't have sailed the ship to begin with. >> got up from the table. they wiped your machine when you were in the casino. they were so astute about everything in cleanliness. >> reporter: now according to the passengers princess cruise lines offered everybody 25% discount on their next cruise.

they're also helping to pay for their return trip homes and also pay for free food and drinks while sailing back here to fort lauderdale. one thing they did not do for the passengers, return all of what they lost at the casinos while out at sea. another ship returned to new orleans on saturday. this makes three ships in the past week returning to port on cruise ships with sick passengers related to the norovirus. jon? jon: phil keating in port everglades, florida. thank you. fox news alert and we're just getting word about u.s. soldier bradley manning, the man who is accused of leaking all those confidential u.s. diplomatic and military cables to wikileaks. he is to be arraigned on february 23rd. that according to the u.s. military. the announcement is just out. bradley manning, to be arraigned february 23rd. we'll have more on this developing story as we get it. "happening now" will

return in just a moment.

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>> reporter: hi, everybody, brand new stories straight ahead. you'll only see them here over the next 60 minutes including this story out of california where mexican criminals are hitting the beaches of malibu. they're going up and down the california coast, as a matter of fact. we'll tell you what's being done to stop them. also, a young girl fights back against an attacker in a walmart store. she is fine, he's behind bars. we'll show you the video coming up. and also the latest bizarre twist in the case of a wealthy florida man in legal trouble who's trying to adopt his girlfriend to protect his assets. geraldo weighs in many on that. the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. jenna: love that legal one with geraldo, interesting to hear his

take on that. it is a critical period in the republican race for president. welcome to the second hour of "happening now," everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. we welcome america's election headquarters. from the outside it looks like a fairly quiet day on the campaign trail, but behind the scenes the candidates are under intense pressure. none of them more so than mitt romney with many of his backers pushing him to shift gears. what's that all about? larry sabato is director of the center for politics at the university of virginia. there are some prominent republicans who normally don't get involved in this kind of thing, larry, who are telling mr. romney, governor romney that he needs to step it up a notch, huh? >> absolutely. mitt romney is receiving loads of unsolicited advice as candidates always do in crisis periods. and, of course, some of the advice is good, some of it's bad. i think the best advice he's getting is, first of all, to drop the songs. you know, "america the beautiful" is a great song, but

mitt romney -- i'm sure a lot of people have told him by now -- cannot sing. i identify with that. i can't sing either. he needs to substitute substance. and particularly in his area of expertise, the economy. because i think the republican base in part is saying to mitt romney, if you're elected, we know you're substituting for obama. we like the fact that obama will be gone, but what are we getting positively with you? and that's the part he still needs to fill in. jon: well, is it, it is often said of governor romney that conservatives, the conservative base of the republican party has a lot of doubts about him. is he being urged to, you know, make more conservative pronouncements, for instance? >> well, he is, although he has to be himself. he's got his own positions as they've evolved over the years, and by this time he's stuck with them. i don't think he can evolve much further, jon, or he's going to be accused over and over again

of flip-flopping even more. he's got to focus on his strength, and, you know, he has one of the longest, most detailed economic plans that i've ever seen a presidential candidate put out. but he has to summarize it. he has to boil it down and summarize it and make it sexy. and so far he has failed to do that. if you don't give the base some red meat and you don't give the general electorate some red meat, what do they have to chew on other than negative ads? negative ads are not enough. they may be an essential element in today's politics, but it's not enough to sell an electorate. jon: you surprised me a little bit in answering the first question, larry, when you said a politician in crisis. is this really a crisis time for mitt romney's campaign? i mean, he's still widely considered the front runner, isn't he? >> well, he's widely considered the front runner, but he won't be for long if he has many more tuesday evening like last tuesday. you know, losing three contests

by decisive margins, i would say -- and i rarely say something is must-win -- i really think both michigan and arizona coming up on february 28th, they are must wins for mitt romney. he's got to show that last tuesday was an aberration and is not becoming the new normal. jon: and real quickly, you've also got a piece in this week's crystal ball about the makeup of the upcoming house and senate, especially when it comes to retirements. how is that going to change the balance of power in washington, do you think? >> we were very surprised when my colleague, kyle condit, did the study on retirements. we were very surprised to find out that all these retirements, 41 in the house which is a fairly substantial number, that really isn't changing the composition of the house. it's falling about as you would expect, as you would expect. most of the democratic members are going to be replaced by democrats, most of the republican members by republicans. overall, a tiny effect for the

republicans, positive effect for the republicans, and, you know, our prediction at least until we get to the presidential race is that the republicans will hold the house. jon: larry sabato, the director of the center for politics at the university of virginia. larry, thank you. >> thanks a lot, jon. jenna: right now the white house faces growing political pressure over a policy that's being called an attack on religious freedom. the new health care mandate forces some faith-based employers to provide health insurance that covers birth control for free. senior white house correspondent wendell goler is live on the north lawn taking a look at all of this. >> reporter: this pressure is coming from catholic leaders like new york archbishop i'm the think dolan who says the new hhs regulation doesn't jibe with assurances president obama gave him and from catholic groups that supported the health care reform law like sisters for charity. the head of that group welcomed vice president biden to ohio today with an op-ed that read in part, quote, the regulation

denies adequate conscious protections for religious employers like us. biden, who is catholic, reportedly warned the president the contraception decision would likely cause an uproar, though it's unclear and the white house won't say if he argued against it. the president's aides say they think they can implement the rule in a way that accommodates catholic concerns, but a father of one of the group priests for life which plans to sue the government over the ruling says there is no way his group can live with it. >> the administration's assurance that it can make this acceptable to us is a false and empty promise. it's a dead end. there is no way that we can pay for the destruction of human life or the destruction of human sexuality. >> reporter: meanwhile, democrats and particularly democratic women rejected the republican claim that the issue was religious freedom. >> they said that it's about freedom except, apparently, not the freedom to make your own health care choice.

well, we have news for republicans: this is about contraception. and if they think it isn't, we'd love them to hear the women whose access to contraception is on the line with the battle that they're taking on. >> reporter: some of the strongest support for this regulation within the administration is said to have come from women within the administration and particularly health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius who says the regulation does respect religion. jenna? jenna: a lot to this story, wendell. thank you so much, it's something we're going to continue to watch. if somethihing is required by lw to be offered for free, like contraceptives in the new health care law, then who really pays for it? because someone has to foot the bill, and we wanted to take a closer look at this. if you want more, it will cost you more. so in this situation if government is requiring a company or a group to offer more services for free, free birth control in this situation, the group that's providing the insurance has to pay more for more coverage.

so catholic charities, for instance, will have to pay more to cover its employees because they will have to buy more benefits from the insurance companies. this means that catholic charities, for example, have less money to spend on their employees, their services or items. remember, insurance companies aren't offering birth control for free. those insurance companies don't do it, the employers have to cover it. so when you're processed to cover rising costs, that can mean less employees, less pay for us or it could mean cuts to the budget to try to cover that extra fee. just something to think about as we take a look at this story and where it goes. on a different note, a positive sign for the economy, the number of americans filing for new claims for jobless benefits is down this week. you see the big number on your screen. the trend overall seems better. charles payne is ceo of wall street strategies, a fox news contributor. better trend? >> better trend, yeah. 358,000. it's amazing, jenna, that we're actually cheering the fact that 358,000 americans filing for the first time than unemployment

benefits -- jenna: what would be normal, a normal number during a normal time? >> i think that network should be under 300,000. jenna: after weeks and maybe even months of announcing they're close to a deal, the government has a deal in place with states when it comes to these foreclosure settlements. $25 billion. what changes with that settlement. >> there's some fundamental changes that they'll make, and if you're dealing with a bank, you'll have one representative, and there's some things they've done that they can't do, but five banks -- people should know that. if you have a mortgage with these banks or you had a mortgage with bank of america, wells fargo, citi or ally, you might be eligible for a principal reduction, and this is where you're going to -- jenna: is it anybody that's eligible for that principal reduction? if you have a mortgage -- >> with these five, yeah. they've set up phone numbers, web sites. now, here's the problem, and this is the slippery slope everyone talks about. in many cases you have to have not made a payment. in other words, this might actually induce people to not paying their mortgages so that

they can actually now qualify for this principal reduction plan. up to $25 billion, 7 -- 17 billion has been set aside for this. jenna: so helping to reduce the principal payment that, let's say, i have on my mortgage with bank of america. so overall i might have to pay less for the mortgage? >> overall your principal, what you owe -- let's say you bought the house for 300,000, now it's worth 150,000, they're thinking the average reduction would be about $20,000. listen, it is a sort of slippery slope. same thing with people, if you bought your house between 2006, 2008, right? yeah, you can get up to $2,000. if you've already lost the house -- jenna: if it's already gone. >> you've moved on, you've already moved on, but you're out the house, you can actually maybe get a check for up to $2,000. jenna: because some of those foreclosures happened, and they

may not have happened in the right way. >> well -- jenna: that's -- >> let's be honest about it. over 95% of these were going to end up being foreclosed. the fact that it was done without human intervention or it was done within an assembly line -- jenna: the robo signing. >> obviously, that was a bad move on the banks' part. the overwhelming majority were people who were going to be foreclosed anyway, so in some cases it's something of a gift. bank of america, jpmorgan, wells fargo, citi and ally which used to be gmac. certainly, everybody better look into this. $25 billion, worth a lot of money. jenna: charles, thank you so much. appreciate it as always. jon: coming up, a facebook fight that police say leads to murder. it began when this couple decided to unfriend somebody. now they are dead. plus, american shores facing an all-out invasion, what the u.s. coast guard is up against

and what you can do to help. now to rick at the web wall. >> reporter: we're taking a look at foxnews.com which is running a story right now about the president giving a pass to ten different states simply unable to meet the requirements set out by the no child left behind law. it is the most-read story at foxnews.com. you can read it right there. we'll is have more "happening "g now" howe after a quick break. don't go away. i'm a marathon ru, in absolute perfect physical condition and i had a heart attack right out of the clear blue... i'm on an aspirin regimen... and i take bayer chewables. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. he's my success story. [ laughs ] it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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jenna: new information on a few crime stories we're keeping an eye on. a man named as a person of interest in the murder of his wife saying today he had no motive. the body was found in an suv in detroit. her husband, robert, says he thinks a handyman killed her. that handyman says robert paid him to kill her, so quite the story to follow there. in the meantime, in tennessee these two men on the screen are charged with killing a couple. police say the victims were facebook friends with the older

man's daughter, and the daughter got upset after the couple decided to unfriend her, so they went and killed the couple, allegedly. again, we'll follow that out of tennessee. and prosecutors are continuing their case today in the trial of a former university of virginia lacrosse player accused of killing his former girlfriend. george houlihan's attorney says he was very drunk the night yeardly love died and was incapable of plotting to kill her. that's jon scott, he's not part of that story, but he has our next story. jon: hope so. [laughter] the u.s. coast guard is asking for the public's help. drug and human smugglers storming california's beaches. mexican criminals in cheap boats, apparently, are landing up and down the coastline x the coast guard -- and the coast guard would like a little help. adam houseley is live in malibu, california, with that. adam? >> reporter: yeah, jon. we first started following this story a couple of years ago in north san diego county, about 50

miles or so north of the border. now they are significantly further north, and the numbers are staggering. so far in 2012 there have been more than 26,000, almost 27,000 pounds of drugs seized, that's more than all of 2011. along california's majestic coast, 250 miles north of the mexican border, surfers and sailors have company. >> they are moving further and further north. >> reporter: they are cartel smugglers bringing drugs and illegal immigrants to the shores of places like malibu, ventura and santa barbara. >> we want to be able to prevent bad things from getting into this country, so being effective out at sea is just as important at stopping things from across the land border. >> reporter: and with the land border some four hours south, efforts to stop cartel smuggling here have intensified, including an expansion of maritime controls by the u.s. coast guard. routine patrols like this one with the coast guard off the

coast of california can only find so much. tracking intelligence, even good old-fashioned luck does help capture some of these smugglers, but when they're in bolts as small as 25 feet open bow, it takes the public also to keep an eye out. >> the coast guard can't be everywhere at all times, so depending on the general public to tell us what they see out there and what experiences they've got, you know, that really helps us, and that adds to our ability to defend america from threats coming from the sea. >> reporter: now, jon, these boats are going as far as 100 miles offshore away from mexico, away from security cameras and patrols. then coming, again, a couple of hundred miles north trying to circumnavigate security and patrols. they are spilling fuel in some cases, getting stranded causing the coast guard to go out and do rescues, and, of course, they're coming ashore with some of this contraband or the illegal folks and that is a major threat here. the further north they go, the more remote it is and difficult

to find them. jon? jon: well, let's hope we do find them. adam houseley, thank you. >> reporter: all right. jenna: well, a reality t producer arrive anything mexico to face trial for the murder of his wife. what he's facing, just ahead. plus, an amazing journey back in time. what scientists are hoping to find in a lake buried under miles of ice. an incredible story. you don't want to miss it, it's next.

jenna: well, right now an emmy-nominated tv producer arriving in mexico under heavy security to face trial for murder. rick has more on all of this. rick? >> reporter: well, jenna, he says he had nothing to do with his wife's murder, but prosecutors will now get to try him for that crime. we're just getting this video out of mexico where you can see this man entering a prison facility in cancun. this is bruce beresford-redman,

extra title. ed to mexico for this trial. mexican officials say he killed his wife, month -- monica, dumping her body in a sewage container outside their hotel many april of 2010. they were on vacation with their young children. reportedly, in an attempt to save their marriage after monica had/ed that her husband was cheating on her. beresford-redman had been in u.s. custody, jailed for leaving mexico without permission. his lawyers say that he had to get back home in order to take care of his kids. now the defense team says they're confident this trial will clear him and that there is no physical evidence linking him to this crime. monica's family says they're glad the trial will finally happen, and if he's convicted they will ask for the max. and you should mexican law, jenna, that would be 12-30 years in prison. back to you. jenna: got to think about the children in all of this as well. rick, thank you. jon: russian scientists are

celebrating a major breakthrough after years of drilling under very harsh conditions near the south pole. they finally have reached a giant lake buried under miles of ice. some are comparing the difficulty of what they have accomplished to reaching another planet. tom jones is a former astronaut for nasa and a fox news contributor, we'll be talking with him. but first, let's talk with robin bell, with the earth observatory, she joins us on the phone from london. so this lake was, i guess, only discovered in the last 20 years or so. it's the size of lake ontario, but it's buried under two miles of ice? >> right, exactly. under two miles of ice. even though it's -50 at the top, it's only, like, -28 at the bottom. jon: and the excitement, the scientific excitement about finding this thing or actually getting a drill rig down to it is that the water that's buried this has been buried for' ons.

>> well, it's been buried for somewhere between 15 and 34 million years, that's a long time. jon: yeah. the russians have been pulling up these core samples. why has it been so difficult to do this? i mean, we've known how to drill deep for a long time. >> well work the reasons. one, they didn't want to contaminate the lake, so they didn't want to get any of the drilling fluid into this pristine lake. the other thing is, it's the ice is really warm, and it freezes things up really quickly, so it was hard. jon: all right. so they drill down, they finally have reached the water that is not solidified, not frozen. what are they hoping to learn, what are you hoping to learn from that water? >> well, i hope they're going to learn what can actually live in these environments underneath two miles of ice, because it's kind of like the environment in outer space, like in the moons that spin around sat turn and jupiter. jon: so there are indications of microbial life in this water? >> well, we have samples that

are also from the lake, but they've been kind of contaminated, so we hope these will be the first clean samples from the lake, and we hope that we'll have a first insight into what can live in a lake underneath two miles of ice. jon: robin bell, thank you. let's talk about it with tom jones. tom, some are suggesting that this is the accomplishment, the scientific accomplishment here and maybe the technological one is equivalent to landing on the moon? >> it's certainly an impressive engineering feat, jon. it's equivalent to having to work in the south pole of cold. this is one of the -- it's almost the coldest spot on the planet, it's been as low as 128 degrees fahrenheit there during the winter, so for the russians to overcome the surface drilling challenges and make it down through over two miles of ice to tap into the lake there is really impressive. and it's the kind of channel that's facing us as we search for life elsewhere in the solar system. like those moons of saturn and jupiter where we think and we have proof that there are

subsurface oceans, we'd like to think that with water and energy sources and chemical nutrients or the chemical ingredients that are necessary for life we'll get microbial life on other planets like that. jon: 128 degrees below zero at times or the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth, yeah, that would be pretty difficult conditions in which to work. i guess part of the problem is the simple matter that it is so cold they get this drill in there, and it freezes up again. i mean, the hole fills up again and freezes. >> true. and they've got to keep this drill string or this drill bore open for over two miles of ice, 13,000 feet down to the lake. and then you've got to penetrate into this pristine lake water without injecting, as was told us, contaminants into that hole. so it's a very carefully-planned effort or more than ten years to make it this far. next season we'll get actual samples out of the bore hole to see if there is bacterial life or something more complex.

jon: yeah. and if there is life, it would be absolutely amazing because under two miles of ice there would be no light penetration, no sunlight and, obviously, in those harsh conditions not conducive to life as we know it. is in the kind of, well, similar to conditions on other planets possibly? >> that's right. life as we know it on earth is very adaptable, and so we find it in places like yellowstone hot springs, two miles down in a gold mine in south africa, we find it in unexpected places all over the planet. the atacama desert in chile. so if we have an expectation that if we find things in this lake, maybe it's a chemical energy source, maybe it's hot springs down there at the bottom of the lake that might keep the life that was trapped there ten million years ago alive. if that's true, we would expect these same conditions might prevail on these outer planet moons or down underneath the surface of mars. jon: tom jones, a former nasa

astronaut and a frequent guest of you ours, and robin bell befe tom, thank you both. jenna: taking you to the president who's speaking about this huge mortgage deal between states and banks. let's take a listen. >> roy cooper, attorney general from north carolina, lisa mat began from my home state of illinois and former seat mate of mine when we were in the state legislature together. dustin mcdaniel from arkansas, gregory zeller from indiana and tom miller from iowa. and i also want to acknowledge bob ryan who worked with shaun donovan extensively on this issue as well as tim madsen of treasury, and i'm going to acknowledge, also, gene sperling who doesn't always get the credit he deserves for doing outstanding work. the housing bubble that burst nearly six years ago triggered, as we all know, the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. it cost millions of innocent americans their jobs and their

homes, and it remains one of the biggest drags on our economy. last fall my administration unveiled a series of steps to help responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages to take advantage of historically low rates x. last week i urge -- and last week i urged congress to pass a plan that would help millions more americans refinance and stay in their homes. and i indicated that the american people need congress to act on this piece of legislation. but in the meantime, we can't wait to get things done and to provide relief to america's homeowners. we these to keep doing everything we can to help -- we need to keep doing everything we can to help homeowners and our economy. and today with the help of democratic and republican attorney generals from nearly every state in the country, we are about to take a major step on our own. we have reached a landmark settlement with the nation's

largest banks that will speed relief to the hardest-hit homeowners and some of the most abusive practices of the mortgage industry and begin to turn the page on an era of recklessness that has left so much damage in its wake. by now it's well known that millions of americans who did the right thing and the responsible thing -- shopped for a house, secured a mortgage that they could afford, made their payments on time -- were nevertheless, hurt badly by the irresponsible actions of others. by lenders who sold loans to people who couldn't afford them, by buyers who knew they couldn't afford them, by speculators who were looking to make a quick buck, by banks that took risky mortgages, packaged them up and traded them off for large profits. it was wrong, and it cost more than four million families their homes to foreclosure. even worse, many companies that

handle led these foreclosures didn't give people a fighting chance to hold on to their homes. in many cases they didn't even verify that these foreclosures were actually legitimate. some of the people they hired to process foreclosures used fake signatures to -- on fake documents to speed up the foreclosure process. some of them didn't read what they were signing at all. you've got to think about that. you work and you save your entire life to buy a home, that's where you raise your family, that's where your kids' memories are formed, that's your stake, your claim on the american dream. and the person who signed the document couldn't take enough time to even make sure that the foreclosure was legitimate. these practices were plainly irresponsible. we refused to let them go unanswered. so about a year ago our federal law enforcement agencies teamed

up with state attorneys general to get to the bottom of these abuses. the settlement we've reached today thanks to the work of some of the folks who are on this stage, is the largest joint federal/state settlement in our nation's history. it is the result of that extraordinary cooperation. under the terms of this settlement, america's biggest banks -- banks that were rescued by taxpayer dollars -- will be required to right these wrongs. that means more than just paying a fee. these banks will put billions of dollars towards relief for families across the nation. they'll provide refinancing for borrowers that are stuck in high interest rate mortgages, they'll reduce loans for families who owe more on their homes than they're worth, and they will deliver some measure of justice for families that have already been victims of abusive practices. all told, this isn't just good for these families, it's good for their neighborhoods, it's good for their communities, and

it's good for our economy. this settlement also protects our ability to further investigate the practices that caused this mess, and this is important. the mortgage fraud task force i announced in my state of the union address retains its full authority to aggressively investigate the packaging and selling of risky mortgages that led to this chi sis. crisis. this investigation is already well underway and working closely with state attorneys general, we're going to keep at it until we hold those who broke the law fully accountable. now, i want to be clear: no compensation, no amount of money, no measure of justice is enough to make it right for a family who's had their piece of the american dream wrongly taken from them. and no action no matter how meaningful is going to, by itself, entirely heal the housing market. but this settlement is a start, and we're going to make sure that the banks live up to their end of the bargain.

if they don't, we've set up an independent inspector, a monitor that has the power to make sure they pay exactly what they agreed to pay plus a penalty if they fail to act in accordance with this agreement. so this will be a big help. of course, even with this settlement there are still millions of responsible homeowners who are out there doing their best, and they need us to do more to help them get back on their feet. we've still got to stoke the fires of our economic recovery. so now's not the time to pull back. to build on this settlement, congress still needs to send me the bill i've proposed that gives me every responsible homeowner in america the chance to refinance their mortgage and save about $3,000 a year. it would help millions of homeowners who make their payments on time save hundreds of dollars a month. and it can broaden the impact building off the settlement.

that's money that can be put back into the homes of those folks who are saving money on the refinancing, helping to build their equity back up. they may decide to spend that money on local businesses. either way, it's good for families, and it's good for our economy. but it's only going to happen if congress musters the will to act. and i ask every american to raise your voice and demand that they do. because there really is no excuse for inaction. there's no excuse for doing anything to help -- nothing to help more families avoid foreclosure. that's not who we are. we are americans, and we look out for one another. we get each other's backs. that's not a democratic issue, that's not a republican issue, that's who we are as americans. and the bipartisan nature of this settlement and the outstanding work that these state attorneys general did is a testament to what happens when everybody's pulling in the same direction. that's what today's settlement's all about; standing upfor the

american people, holding those who broke the law accountable, restoring confidence in our housing market and our financial sector, getting things moving, and we're going to keep on at it until everyone shares in america's comeback. so, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your outstanding efforts. we are very, very proud of you. and we look forward to seeing this settlement lead to some small measure of relief to a lot of families out there that need help. and that's going to strengthen the american economy overall. so thank you very much. jenna: that is the president on the settlement that was just announced between 49 states. there was one holdout, oklahoma. 49 states and five major banks. these banks like bank of america, for example, jpmorgan, wells fargo had investigative probes into them for their foreclosure practices, and this settles some of those investigations. $25 billion, around that amount, is the settlement. just for some context, though, all of these big banks were bail out by the government. bank of america, for example,

got $45 billion through t.a.r.p. funds, so just put that in context for the $25 billion in settlements these five banks are sharing. the government says there'll still be more investigations, but this is the first step. we'll watch for the implementation, but if your bank is jp mo began, bank of america, citigroup, ally or wells fargo, it's worth a phone call to see if this effects you in any way. jon: you in america -- you're in america's election headquarters now, the conservative political action conference kicks off in d.c. three republican presidential candidates aiming to win over voters here tomorrow, but first some major voices in the conservative movement are setting the stage. doug mckelway live at the conference in washington for us now. doug? >> reporter: good afternoon to you, jon. much of this first day of this three-day c pack convention has been focused on fiscal conservativism. we've been hearing from senator

jim demint, also mike lee of utah, ron johnson of wisconsin. but the biggest applause line of this still-young convention came from senator marco rubio when he lambasted the obama administration's mandate which would require religious institutions to fund health care policies that include birth control. he says this has nothing to do with a woman's health and everything to do with the constitution. [cheers and applause] >> we have a president that just a few weeks ago or just a few days ago basically issued a mandate ordering religious institutions to follow his ideas. telling religious-based organizations that they must by mandate of the federal government pay for things that that religion teaches is wrong. now, you may not agree with that religion believes. that's not the point. the point is the first amendment still applies. religious freedom still exists. [applause] >> reporter: well, that issue

will clearly give some momentum to rick santorum when he speaks here tomorrow fresh off his hat trick victory on tuesday night in missouri, minnesota and colorado. so it's really important for mitt romney to connect with this audience when he appears here tomorrow. at least one high ranking republican of the american conservative union thinks he will do that. he told a washington radio station this morning that the only liability mitt romney has is the fact he was a republican governor is arguably the most liberal state in the union. that's big applause for michele bachmann right now, she just took the podium. jon: doug mckelway, thank you. jenna: some republicans with an eye on the 2012 campaign have a little advice for mitt romney. our next guest says if he wants to stay in the game, he's going to have to step it up. a.b. stoddard is associate editor of the hill, and he wrote this editorial, romney has no base. what do you mean by that? >> well, unlike the other

contenders in the race, romney doesn't have an actual loyal base of supporters who are with him, um, you know, through thick and thin. remember four years ago romney was considered a conservative alternative to john mccain. now that romney's running in a conservative field, the least conservative candidate. and conservatives continue to resist him in contest after contest, and we saw that this week. it doesn't mean rick santorum will definitely be the nominee, it just meaning that conservatives -- means that conservatives continue to strongly resist mitt romney. he doesn't have a sufficient base. he's not growing base at this point in the primary season, and that's why the path of the nomination just got that much harder. jenna: how do you build a base? >> for john mccain, he was considered, you know, not a traditionally conservative candidate, but he was a defense hawk. he was sort of the original person who, you know, led the fight against earmarks and pork barrel spending. he was also considered to be a favorite of more moderate republicans, so he had a large

coalition of voters. when you look at romney, who is his coalition? businessmen, country club republicans, people who believe that he's ultimately the most serious candidate with the best campaign to win and beat barack obama in the fall. but it's not really a bunch of passionate romney supporters who nobody beliefs in -- believes in, who trust his policy positions, who have no problem with his flip-flops from the past. it is just people who believe primarily in his cause which is i'm going to be the nominee, i set up the best campaign. you don't have to love me. so the plausibility argument is running out of steam, he's just not a beloved candidate. he's trying to be the last person standing. jenna: an organization doesn't get you a base, it has to be something bigger about the brand. it's interesting to hear folks taught santorum's victories in minnesota and missouri and colorado. and just overall in the press in general kind of disregarding these wins because they don't technically count. you know, what are your thoughts on that? you say those were humiliating

defeats for romney. how much do those matter for santorum, and does he have the base that you talk about? >> oh, rick santorum certainly has a base, and he's growing his base in places like missouri, minnesota and colorado, places where romney won handily in the primary season of 2008, states that the republicans need to win in the fall. and you saw a bunch of republicans say, no, i'm not going to vote for mitt romney. he is not my only choice. newt gingrich has his only base. ron paul, as you know, has a very inspired, passionate base. what you're looking at in these victories this week is, yes, they were nonbinding, those states will pick delegates later. still, romney maintains he has a 3 to 1 delegate advantage over santorum, but they were consequential victories. money is flowing to santorum. conservatives are considering leaving newt gingrich and flooding to rick santorum. this gives him a chance in ohio on super tuesday and places that could really be the end of mitt romney. jenna: interesting.

>> you have a small window of time, but he has an opening now. jenna: and only 8% of those delegates assigned, so 3 to 1 maybe is what romney says, but 8% isn't that much. interesting article, a.b.. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. jenna: and we'll be right back. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

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jon: right now in a north carolina courtroom a sensational murder trial is replayed, you might say. prosecutors are trying for the second time to prove that a man killed his pregnant wife after a jury deadlocked on the same case last summer. jason young is accused of beating his wife michelle to death in 2006 leaving her in a pool of blood. the couple's 2-year-old daughter found hiding nearby. young claims he was out of town on business, he could get high in prison if convicted. geraldo rivera joins us now with a look at this case. all right, so he says he was 160 miles away at a hotel, he called up his sister-in-law, his wife's sister and said, hey, i need some papers from the house, would you, please, go get them? she finds her sister dead in a pool of blood and the little girl nearby, just an awful story. but the jury last time around deadlocked with eight in favor of acquittal. so who has the advantage,

geraldo, when you replay a trial like in the second time? who has learned the most? >> excellent question. jason young took the witness stand in the first trial, jon, and was very convincing as he explained how much he loved his wife, that he may have been a jerk because he was, the testimony indicated and now in the retrial the sister is, again, meredith, the sister of michelle, the dead woman, is testifying that jason young had at least two affairs going on at the time michelle, the five-month-pregnant wife was murdered. he was, indeed, 160 miles away on this business trip, but what is interesting, jon, is it reminds me very much of o.j. simpson. the o.j. simpson case where the two -- his wife and, his ex-wife and her boyfriend, ron goldman, were slaughtered in front of his house, when the bodies were found and all the evidence traced by that time o.j. simpson was already, had won from

brentwood in california to chicago at a golf meet. that, it seems to me, is what jason young did. he was 160 miles away on a business trip in north carolina. however, the hotel jason young was staying at in north carolina reported that its surveillance cameras had been unplugged and an emergency door had been opened. the prosecution argued that jason young had ample time with no surveillance to get back in time to murder his wife. why the jury deadlocked, i really believe it was the power of his testimony, getting up there and saying, frankly, i'm a bad guy, but i didn't murder my wife. and remember, the only witness is this sweet 2-year-old cassidy, and what she said when asked by the sister what happened to mommy, she said mommy's got boo boos everywhere, and that was the extent of her testimony. didn't mention dad day as far as i know. and -- daddy as far as i know. and it was because of that and the lack of certain forensic evidence that the jury allowed jason young to skate. but he reminds me, jon, more than anyone else of josh powell,

the utah dad who we think murdered his wife susan before he murdered himself and his two children. jon: yeah. let's turn quickly to another case, that florida businessman -- >> i love it. jon: international headlines by legally adopting his 42-year-old girlfriend, heather hutchins. john goodman is his name. now, he is facing charges in a manslaughter case for a vehicular death involving a 23-year-old man. his other two children who would have been the beneficiaries of his trust, this multimillion dollar trust, their guardian has filed suit to stop this adoption. will they succeed? >> they might. they might, indeed, show that the adoption -- i mean, john goodman who's worth $300 million, jon, he adopted this woman only six years younger than he is so it's not an incestuous relationship. what it is is an attempt to shield assets from this lawsuit, you mentioned. he killed a 23-year-old while driving drunk, now he's trying to shield his assets.

the two children, his biological children are suing because he's diluting their estate. the judge has already ruled that the trust may not be considered by the plaintiff in the -- jon: geraldo, we're about to get cut off. gotta go. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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