>> brian: run to the radio. kilmeade and friends is coming your way. we'll review all the audio highlights. >> steve: we'll see you back here same time, same channel tomorrow. bill: thai, guys. we have breaking news on a state trooper shot and killed during a traffic stop. this is in washington state. 20 miles outside of seattle. the killer is on the loose. police say the trooper made a stop, radioed location and license plate number. there was no response from that moment on. he was declared dead a short time later at a hospital. we're working on more information on this out of washington. breaking news here on "america's newsroom.". meantime, for the first time in a month they were back on stage shrugging it out only six days before the next big vote. four on stage. mitt romney and rick santorum taking spotlight in arizona. both battling it out considered front-runners

neck-and-neck in polling when it comes to arizona. that's where we start the i'm bill hemmer. some fireworks last night. martha: interesting night, huh? always very interesting. good morning, bill. good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. we had the final face i don't have on the primary calendar. all four of them out there last night trading jabs where they could. rick santorum was on the defensive a bit as we've seen others who have surged to the top of the polls do. here is some from last night. >> the reason we have obamacare, the senator you supported over pat toomey in pennsylvania. arlen specter, pro-choice senator you endorsed in the race over pat toomey he voted for obamacare. if you had not supported him. if we said no to arlen specter, we would not have obamacare. don't look at me. take a look in the mirror. >> he is out there on television ads unfortunately

attacking me i'm the great earmarker, when he not only asked for earmarks for the salt lake olympic s in order of tens of millions of dollars, sought those earmarks and used them, governor of massachusetts, 3 or $400 million. i would be something i would be foolish if i didn't get federal dollars. >> this is a very sober period. i believe this is the most dangerous president on national security ground in american history. [applause] >> i think sort of the like the, conservatives use argument about guns all the time. guns don't kill. criminals kill. in a way morality of society we have to deal with. the pill is there and contributes maybe, but the pills can't be blamed for the i'm more ralty of our society. bill: and it went from there. who shined and who was left behind? mike emanuel leads our coverage. romney and santorum sitting next to each other at times. they could be sitting in each other laps as they were going at each other. how did it play?

>> reporter: rick santorum seemed to go after. santorum for to be a little more defensive on issues like earmarks. >> so the idea that somehow earmarks during the time that i was in congress were this thing that drove up spending in washington, d.c., if you actually look at it as i said before, as percentage of gdp actually the debt went down. what happened is there was abuse. >> while i was fighting to save the olympics you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere. >> reporter: former senator you have to explain votes and santorum explained votes for education program no child left behind. styles you take one for the teach, the leader because it was important to the president bush. bill: there was a lot more to that. what about gingrich and ron paul, did they get a shot in the arm they were hoping for, mike? >> reporter: gingrich tried to portray himself as cheerful alternative. republicans are not out of

the mainstream on issues like contraception and abortion. >> if we have the debate who the extremist is on issue, senator obama state senator voted to protect doctors that kill babies who survived the abortion. it is not republican. >> reporter: ron paul said it is misconception he can not win and struck familiar themes on foreign policy. >> the neoconservatives who want us to be in syria, want us to go to iran have another war. we don't have the money. we're already today, gasoline hit $6 a gallon in florida. and we don't have the money. >> reporter: the 20th republican debate is now over. we'll see what impact it may have on arizona and michigan voters next tuesday. bill: we certainly will. at times it has made a difference. mike emanuel in washington. martha. martha: just hours after mitt romney picked up a big endorsement from the detroit news one of the paper's editors is reportedly criting his campaign for selectively editing the endorsement. romney team left out paper's

criticism of his opposition to the auto bailout in the press release. the paper editor said that is bit inappropriate. romney's team said they couldn't send out the whole article because of copyright laws but had a link to the complete endorsement. bill: governor rick perry back on the trail this time as a surrogate on behalf of newt gingrich. the texas governor saying gingrich is the only true conservative left in the field of four. perry endorsing gingrich last month after dropping out himself and going back to austin. martha: rick santorum's momentum not slowing down really too much last night. according to "real clear politics" average he is leading with a five-point advantage. former pennsylvania senator coming out on top with 33.7% in that particular look at polls. romney with 28.4. gingrich with 14.4 and paul with 12.3. bill: all the fallout on the

morning after the big night last night is on our website. we have all the headlines for you. foxnews.com/aehq you will find the latest breaking details on the trail. fox news your front row seat to politics. have a question about gas prices coming up there as well. martha: we have a tragic report that has just been crossing the wires that we need to bring to you. two choppers crashing in yuma, arizona, and the report that seven u.s. marines were killed when these two choppers collided near yuma late wednesday. we're getting these reports as they come in. we'll continue to give you more information as we can but a very tragic development in yuma, arizona, this morning for seven u.s. marines. we also have a fox news alert for you on the nation's gas pumps. a lot of talk about this through the course of this week. fuel prices jump overnight that president obama plans to deliver a speech that will in part address this problem according to the

white house. according to aaa, drivers are paying a average of $3.61 for a lal lon of unleaded fuel. three cents pop overnight than it was wednesday. stuart varney joins me. the anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stuart, this was not a part of the huge discussion last night interestingly enough, but continues to be a big story. >> not a single question on the gas price run-up, in fact we're in middle of rapid surge phase at the gas price run-up. huge detail there, 3.61 is the national average up just three cents overnight. look at california for a second. here is what a surge is all about. 4.14 for regular there, up seven cents just overnight. look at cincinnati, pick some individual cities, cincinnati the price of regular has gone up 27 cents in one week. in los angeles it is up 24 cents in one week. right now we're on track to beat the previous record year, 2008, very, very

easily. 14% ahead of the pace in 2008. this is a surge, martha. martha: well, you think of the $40 that the white house put back in people's pockets the way they put it with the payroll tax cut. you wonder how much gets quickly sucked into gas prices as they're rising. we have a poll we want to take a look at looks at the question of the president's actions to address gas prices and 58% say they disapprove what the administration has done so far to help lower these prices. you think of keystone. you think of all the different options that have been on the table and folks according to this are not impressed so far. >> well the money that, the payroll tax holiday extension put into people's pockets, half of it has already been clawed back by the gas price run-up. we really are in the surge phase right now. going up rapidly. and oil, priced today at $106 a barrel. that oil price, not yet factored into the gas price. that is why we're going up

some more in the immediate future. martha: the president will address this and talk to the nation a little bit later this morning. stuart, thank you very much. stuart varney, fox business network. bill: he will be in orlando later today. here impact on people living in the city. current average price of gasoline in orlando, people drive suv about $30 a day, spend $24.99 on gas a week. seems cheap, doesn't it. 3.61 from what they paid to fill up last year. if prices stay this way, people will pay $187.72 more over the next year to fill up. so that is where you see the context for the increase. martha: so hopefully gas prices at one orlando station are not a preview of what to come for the rest of the country. look at this. fuel prices hitting $5.89 a gallon? drivers saying they have simply had enough. >> what do you think of these gas prices? >> crazy. there is like $3 nearby.

don't know what it is going on. >> saw the pump. heading out of town we'll get it somewhere else. >> how much did you spend on gas today? >> $80. >> for how many gallons? >> 14 gallons. >> what goes through your mind you see this? >> gouging. i'm not going to pay over $2 more a gallon i should be paying. i take my business elsewhere. i am very frustrated. martha: boy, very frustrated indeed. most folks echo sentments of a lot of people pulling up at the pump including me over the weekend. i said, what? bill: i've been a victim of that gas station in orlando. the last gas station in the airport before you return the rental car. this guy is famous in orlando. all the local tv crews go to his gas station every time we have stories like this because it shoots right up. still in business. making a fortune. house minority leader nancy pelosi, blaming the spike in gas prices on wall street. profiteering, not oil shortages.

she claims speculators and unscrupulous investors are artificially inflating the price. she also blames republicans for protecting wall street profits at the expense of consumers. martha: so how is the gas price spike affecting your family's budget? we're talking about it here. we want to know what you think about it at home. log on to foxnews.com /americasnewsroom. let us know. very little attention paid to this last night at the debate. we want to know if this is something on your mind. send me a tweet t to@martha maccallum. we'll see what everybody is thinking about on the program. bill: thought it would be the first question of the night. martha: i did too. bill: and it was not. we'll talk about that and a whole lot more including the revamping of the tax code. the president has a plan but is that plan any good for small business in america? a critical look at that. martha: thousands now reportedly dead. is it time for the u.s. to intervene in some way to help the people of syria?

we hear from the mother of the journalist who was killed in syria. bill: what a story she has to tell too. romney and santorum head-to-head. the heated exchange back and forth. it is a battle are if the top spot now. >> he voted for obamacare. if you had not supported him, if we had said no to arlen specter we would not have obamacare. >> governor, let's get this straight. first off, number one you funded romneycare through federal tax dollars through medicaid. i know it well. called disproportionate share provider tax. sweetie i think you need a little extra fiber in your diet. carol. fiber makes me sad. oh common. and how can you talk to me about fiber while you are eating a candy bar? you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one.

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the. martha: some pretty scary moments for passengers onboard a plane arriving at a new york airport. their pilot landing in a snowstorm late last night at the greater rochester international airport. the plane touched down but it could not stop, skidding forward on the snowy runway. the passengers said the pilot told them he hit the

brakes but he could not get any traction. >> it was typical sort of rough landing. then the pilot announced they had gone off the end of the runway. that everything was fine. they were shutting the engines down for safety but there was no damage and to remain calm. martha: i guess to remain calm they did. they had to stay there for 20 minutes before they could start the process of getting off the plane. thankfully the pilot did a good job. there were no reports of any injuries. >> the idea that somehow earmarks during the time that i was in congress were this thing that drove up spending in washington, d.c., what happened is there was abuse. when abuse happened, i said we should stop the ear mashing process. >> i didn't follow all of that but i can tell you this, i would put a ban on earmarks. i think opens the door to excessive spending, spending on projects that don't need to be done.

a lot of projects voted for. you voted for the bridge to know where. >> he supported folks on wall street and bailed out wall street was all for it. when it came to the auto workers and folks in edetroit he said no. >> arlen specter, the pro-choice senator of pennsylvania, that you supported and endorsed in a race over pat toomey, he voted for obamacare. if you had not supported him, if we had said no to arlen specter we would not have obamacare. don't look at me. take a look in the mirror. bill: did you follow all of that? that is how much it went last night but did anyone get the upper hand? stephen hayes, senior writer "weekly standard", fox news contributor. how do you evaluate the four? >> it was certainly a fiery debate. you captured exactly the dynamic between mitt romney and rick santorum. i thought in interesting way romney won most of the exchanges. rick santorum spent most of the night on the defensive fundamental about his candidacy.

he pitched himself as the consistent conservative alternative to mitt romney. i think what happened last night, in part as a result of kind of exchanges you just showed and also with ron paul piling in on the other side of rick santorum, they were able to take shots at santorum's claim to be both consistent and to be conservative by pointing out his record of earmarking. talking about his support for no child left behind which he seemed to indicate was a mistake. he said he had taken one for the team. bill: there are people talking this morning that romney and ron paul have an alliance. they're book ending ron paul. do you agree with that? >> no question about it. it is actually not something they have even downplayed too much or at least the ron paul camp. ron paul's campaign manager jesse benton given interviews regular phone calls between the paul campaign and romney campaign. ron paul, interview with a radio show in north dakota said, well, not necessarily strategic alliance we come

up with arguments we'll make yeah we talked about what debates we should do and what debates we shouldn't do. bill: what does ron paul get out of that? >> that is the big mystery. we don't know. one of the things we know ron paul wants to do is go all the way to the convention, republican convention in tampa and to have a roll there, to have impact either on the policy debate or potentially on the politics. so if mitt romney were to come to the convention as part of a contested convention where you have the four candidates remain in the race but nobody has 1144 delegates needed to actually seal the nomination --. bill: can could ron paul --, quickly back up your point, john king asked ron paul why he thinks rick santorum is a fake. paul did not back down. listen. >> because he is a fake. [cheers and applause] >> unreal. unreal. >> thank you. >> no i find it really fascinating that when people are running for office

they're really fiscally conservative. when they're in office they do something different. bill: that goes to ron paul's point about big government. was there a standout line last night that you heard? or was that possibly? >> no, yeah, that was an effective attack. one of the reasons people are drawn to ron paul because he doesn't mince words. when asked about that, this is what i said in my campaign ad this is what i meant. so people like that about ron paul. he is sort of a straight talker in that respect. i thought maybe the line of the night was when rick santorum was defending his decision to support president bush and no child left behind and he said he decided to take one for the team. it is just not the kind of thing that rick santorum has positioned himself being. not the kind of politician. he is saying no, i am a principled conservative. you will never have to question whether i'm going to be on the right side of things. in that instance he said this was about politics. bill: that was a piece of legislation passed overwhelmingly, bipartisan support.

>> indeed. bill: terrific. great to see you. >> thanks, bill. bill: stephen hayes in washington. martha. martha: we have breaking news coming from the white house. what they are now saying about the controversial burning of the muslim holy book. that is a big story. that is coming up this morning. plus this. first a solar company went belly-up after they got more than half a billion dollars from our department of energy. now a new development in the solyndra story this morning that may get some taxpayers blood boiling. we'll be right back.

bill: awful story just breaking now. two helicopters colliding near yuma, arizona, late last night. there are reports that several u.s. marines have died. we're working to confirm what is true and what is not. we have a reporter heading to that scene. when we get further confirmation all this we'll bring it to you.

that is a tough story out of arizona. martha: also this morning we've got some new reaction coming in now from the white house as anti-american riots in afghanistan continue to spin out of control. the u.s. embassy there is now in lockdown. the violent protests sparked by unintentional burning of korans at a u.s.-run military base there. wendell goler has latest on the story from the white house. good morning, wendell. >> reporter: good morning, martha. president obama apologized to afghan president hamid karzai for the burning of those korans. this is contained in a letter sent to karzai earlier today. the folks here say the letter was a follow-up to a phone conversation the two men had a few days ago that continued the discussion on a range of issues. also included, quote, a our regret and poll business over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled at bagram airbase. the letter was delivered by u.s. ambassador ryan crock they are afternoon. it was unclear when it was

sent to crocker. whether that happened before or someone dressed in afghan soldier uniform shot and killed two nato soldiers today. the head of the nate toe -- nate cocommand had already apologized for burning of core rans which was used to pass messages back and forth by afghan prisoners. general allen said the burnings were unintentional. he issued order for coalition soldiers to complete training for property handling of religious materials in the last week and a half. folks at state department say it is mischaracterization to say the embassy in kabul is on a lockdown. the diplomats and other americans there have been advised not to leave the compound, not to go out into the city because of unrest over the koran burning but they're not necessarily confined to the bomb-proof shelters within the embassy compound itself. martha? martha: very tense situation. wend dell, thank you so much for the update from the white house this morning. bill: we have that going on right now. also this matter in syria,

literally growing more violent by the hour. how the u.s. is reacting as the crackdown on the rebels intensifis. this is serious, serious stuff. martha: back home to politics, the final four battling it out but romney get the what he needed last night to gain the frontrunner status? karl rove will join us in a few minutes. we'll get a take what happened last night. >> we must not allow iran to have a nuclear weapon. if they do the world changes america will be at risk and some day nuclear weaponry will be used. if i'm president that will not happen. if we reelect barack obama, it will happen. [applause] 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: the syrian government is denying responsibility for the deaths of two foreign journalists killed in the opposition city of homs. one of them american marie colvin the syrian foreign ministry said the journalist, quote, sneaked into their territory at their own risk. her mother is now reacting for the first time. >> she really pleased in bringing a story, the real story out, not, not just the surface. she said she was on a story. that she just had to complete and she would come today. so one day was, just one day too late. we have nothing on whether we're going to bring her home.

so i don't know. martha: what a story. so the family will await funeral arrangements because they are pending their efforts to get her body out of syria. she worked for the london sunday times which is owned by the parent company of this network. bill: she was a woman of great courage. she wears that eye patch because she took a bullet to the face in sri lanka three years ago and went back time and again. we have this video. the u.s. is considering military aid for rebels in syria. this came up during the debate last night. act it activists saying assad government is stepping up attacks on city of homs. mitt romney was talking about this last night in arizona. hear is the neighborhood a source of so much strife in the last 13, 14 months, shares a long common border with iraq is having its own problems with al qaeda in that country and iran further to the east. if you follow the headlines out of iran you know how

much trouble that has been lately. so the -- to the south and west is israel and then egypt. go back to the country of syria. we can show you the area, the center of resistance. hear is the capital city of damascus. homs is a the town north of damascus. that is where marie lost her life yesterday. the killing in homs has been reported from 3,000 up to 5,000 dead in areas of syria. this is staggering figure to think about. this is a small pouredder syria shares with lebanon. in that country where we find our own reporter dominic di-natale live with us. he is a world affairs correspondent for us. he is live with us now. what is happening today there, dominic? >> reporter: demonstrations bill, broke out last night in support of maria and the french photographer who were killed in that rocket attack that claimed lives of at least 60 other people. we believe that the four other western journalists injured in that attack are

now safely back here in a hospital in beirut. it is unclear though the where exactly the bodies of marie and r.e.m. i actually are at this time. the french president, sarc sachs says, it is time to get those bodies back. also the regime must go. he says this as the investigators have handed a list of key names to the united nations which they say are syrian officials guilty of crimes against humanity, indicating that bashar al-assad is one of the names at the top of the list. they cite women and unarmed children shot dead and tortured wounded protesters in hospitals being tortured and harmed under direct orders of those at very high left levels they say. whether they will go to trial is tough to know. there is no military intervention nor humanitarian intervention. people believe that will start to happen next 24, 48 hours.

a big meeting taking place tomorrow in tunisia. we'll see if it does. people and fighting in homs continues. another 50 rounds slamming in here today. bill: dominic di-natale today in beirut, lebanon. martha: the race for the white house, the final republican presidential debate before the next set of primaries. mitt romney by most accounts needed to have a very good night last night if he wanted to regain his footing and try to knock rick santorum off of his. here is some of it. >> the earmark process is broken. thousands and thousands of earmarks, money being used inappropriately. olympics coming to the united states congresses asking for support, no question about it. that is nature what it is when you lead an organization or state. you come to congress, say these are things we need. in the history of the olympic movement the federal government always provided transportation and security. so we came to the federal government asking for help on transportation and security. i was fighting for those things.

our games were successful. while i was fighting to save the olympics you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere. martha: karl rove, former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush. also a fox news contributor. welcome, karl, good to see you this morning. >> thanks, martha. martha: what is your take? how did things look to you last night? >> well, i think romney became the winner of the evening in part because santorum did so badly with his answers on things like earmarks. he sounded like a sitting member of the united states senate defending business as usual and i think particularly in that exchange over earmarks, romney got the better of him. gingrich showed up, the old newt showed up last night. jovial, visionary, big, funny ron paul showed up but the main focus was santorum and romney. i think by all accounts romney did better than santorum and santorum did not get the night he needed in order to keep momentum going. martha: this is fascinating

dynamic to watch this play out. seems like with each debate, karl, the home run is build connection with the audience. get reaction from the audience. you could tell when they walked in it was a pretty warm romney crowd. santorum even made a comment after, well, there was a, they were stacked or you know the romney folks had done a good job turning out folks. it felt like it was his crowd last night in there. >> yeah. and you're right. when gingrich had a crowd earlier before the south carolina debates worked to his advantage. you just touched though on one thing. santorum should not engage in stuff like that. he looked like he was whining. in fact last night he looked angry. looked a little bit upset at times. he was jabbing in the air. that is one of the ways romney got better of him. romney looked cool, calm, prosecuting case against him. raising questions and making points. romney didn't jump on one of the biggest names santorum made. when romney described process he would like to see

for appropriations. santorum said that is how we handle earmarks. everybody knows who is behind the earmarks we vote on them that is not the way they go in congress. most earmarks many earmarks if not most earmarks in most year are never voted upon. they're included in report language. you never know who is behind the earmark. staff puts in report after the appropriations bill is passed. agencies street that as sort of gospel in order to placate their appropriators. so we never know who is behind these earmarks. and no case has ever made for them and never even voted upon. that is one of the problems with them. romney missed that opportunity to ping santorum defending it claiming it was all transparent and voted upon agreed upon by all members of congress. martha: very interesting. a lot of talk about a potential deal perhaps behind the scenes between the romney folks and ron paul folks. and comes in part, based on moments like this. let's look at ron paul last night.

>> the question is if he voted for planned parenthood like the senator has, you voted for birth control pills and you literally, because fund are fungible, you literally vote for abortion because planned parenthood gets the money. martha: all right. so, you know, what people are picking up on, he goes after everybody in the room except romney. mention fact he is buying anti-santorum ads in michigan, a place where ron paul said he is not really playing. >> multicandidate primaries or, see alliances of convenience. notice for example, gingrich announced he was pulling out of michigan in order to basically signal his voters there vote for santorum in order to embarass romney as gingrich said if he can't win michigan he ought to get out of the race. this is not unusual. we see this all the time. saw it earlier when santorum and gingrich double-teamed romney in debates. what is interesting we have candidates whining about it afterwards. this is, you know a blood

sport. and these guys ought to get used to the fact that there will be moments like this when in politics, particularly in a multicandidate race for presidency. they're not permanent enemies. they are potential lies and adversaries all the time. martha: is there an alliance already between the two candidates, between romney and paul and agreement what might happen if there is some sort of contested deal at the convention? >> no, i doubt it go that's far but i'm shower there is a marriage of convenience. both say different reasons important to keep santorum down. paul wants to keep santorum down because he gets conservative votes. if he can say i'm solid guy on earmarks you're the phony conservative, fake conservative he says in his ads he wins in places in virginia where he is on ballot, santorum is not and places like arizona where santorum is hurting. this is all marriages of convenience. you know what is interesting though to me, martha? let's step back a minute from last night's debate. last night's debate was important point where santorum needed to

breakthrough in order to get michigan. michigan we have five, six polls in the last week. excuse me five polls in the last week. two santorum leads, two romney leads, one is a tie. we have it tieds a tick. "real clear politics" average is .6 of a percent. santorum need ad night to break out of being dead-even. if it is dead-even in all likelihood romney wins because he is banked, he banked a lot of votes in the 200,000 people who voted early in michigan. this is santorum's night to break through and i'm afraid he didn't. martha: always interesting to talk to you karl. thanks very much. see you soon. >> you bet, martha. bill: we're getting details on the deadly military chopper collision in the american southwest. we'll have details on the u.s. marines in a matter of moments here. also? martha: republican candidates taking on issue of contraception last night at the big debate but how the audience responded to that question might have been the real story of the night. >> this demonstrates the

problem that i'm talking about. there is always an excuse to do this. i don't know whether you inferred that i would support title 20 for abstinence. costs money as program. it is not a program of the federal government to get involved in our lives this way. i'm a lobstergirl. [ laughs ] [ laura ] top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster. e one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ doug ] the sweet, succulent meat. that's a good-tasting lobster. [ laura ] i'll eat it any way i can. [ doug ] we're the mennan family from spruce head, maine, and we sea food differently.

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absolutely free with your enrollment. don't wait another minute. call the number on your screen now, promo code: alerts. lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. martha: we've got breaking new information on a tragic story we are following this morning. we can now confirm to you that two helicopters collided near yuma, arizona late last night and seven marines were killed in these collisions during this training exercise. we're working on all the details here. it was a cobra and a huey helicopter collision. they were conducting routine training operations around 8:00 last night. sadly we can confirm that seven u.s. marines were killed in this collision. bill: if you followed the news yesterday, president obama has a new plan on

taxes hoping to eliminate what he calls major loopholes. he calls for lowering the corporate tax rate to 28% but then raising taxes on oil and gas companies and adding a new tax on american companies doing business overseas but what is in it for small businesses? todd mccracken, president of the national small business association back with us here. todd, good morning. much have you seen the plan? do you like it? is it doing anything for folks in your group? >> good morning, bill. i seen the plan such that it is. a lot of details are not disclosed in the plan. for a plan hard to be against anything that could bring a little simplicity in the tax code. on the other hand it doesn't do a whole lot for small companies to reform the corporate tax system. bill: you have issues with the payroll tax and income tax. how does that directly impact small businesses trying to get that engine working again, todd? >> well, what was proposed yesterday doesn't really do much at all because they

don't pay taxes at corporate level. small companies pay taxes at individual level. at the end of this year we'll see the bush tax cuts expire, so most small companies will be paying top marginal rates of 41% or 42%, so if we cut corporate taxes to 28%, that doesn't do a thing for them. bill: what does that do to the economy you think? >> well, certainly creates some parity issues. i think that the corporate america does have some real issues here and they would like to see us, to see the federal government address these issues. could help some of them. we just don't think we can just reform part of the tax code because small businesses, which drive most of our job growth, employ half of all americans, sit at the nexus of the business and individuals side of the tax codes. you have to reform both of them. not just business and corporate tax. bill: did you expect more from this white house or not so much? >> i thought they what they

proposed today what i expected. they have been sending signals for a while now this was coming and we've been saying for a while now that we don't think that it will be nearly sufficient. and that we would have real trouble just reforming corporate taxes which actually could wind up increasing the amount of taxes small companies pay and in order to decrease the amount of taxes --. bill: quickly if you pick up "the wall street journal" this morning, mitt romney has an op-ed piece tomorrow. he will make a major proposal tomorrow on taxes talking about tax reform to restore america's prosperity. can you support his plan based on what you know of it so far or is they're a candidate that you think best serves your group? >> well, we're, none of them have really put forth yet a comprehensive plan that is detailed enough that we say, okay, this is the thing that we can support and get behind. we're encouraging all of the candidates to look at comprehensive tax reform. you have to throw the whole thing out and start over again fundamentally because our tax system, you know

cost us jobs. costs economic growth. is unnecessarily complex for the average american. certainly way too complex for the typical smalls about owner. bill: i would expect to hear a lot more about this in the coming months especially as we get into the heat of this campaign. >> thanks. i hope so. thanks a lot. bill: todd mccracken out of washington. martha? martha: we have more breaking news crossing on the state trooper story that was shot at a traffic stop. what police are asking for in the search for this suspect who is on the run. bill: also gas prices, three cents up overnight? what is up with that? it is the highest we've ever seen in the month of february. what can congress do? what can the white house do? we'll ask a top leader in the house about that. first we want to know how the price at the pump is affecting you at our website foxnews.com /americasnewsroom. is your family's budget affected by the rising cost of gasoline? you have three options online. go ahead and cast your vote

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bill: we mentioned the story at top of the hour. breaking details out of a story on washington state. police are asking all available officers to search for the person who shot and killed a state patrol trooper during a traffic stop late last night about 20 miles outside of seattle. police say the trooper made a stop, radioed his location and a license plate number. there was no response from that moment on. he was declared dead a short time later at a local hospital. we're working with our affiliate out of see at that time -- seattle for more on this. martha. martha: how about this.

florida's smallest city is about to get wiped off the map. they are home to five people in the whole town. the sliver of the state was a ruse by developers in a classic get rich scheme. phil keating better on the story. he was the sixth person in town. >> reporter: crowded to you. idyllic down there. you don't worry and stress about daily gasoline prices. no one has a car. you can't even drive to get there. south of miami in biscayne bay sits florida's smallest city. call i had islandia the or call it paradise. >> it is paradise. >> reporter: deb jobs johnson is one of five people that call it home. >> the water like an aquarium here. >> reporter: front yard, backyard is all atlantic ocean? >> that's correct. there is a little bit of isolation but i don't feel claustrophobic at all.

>> reporter: back in the '60s a shirtless president lyndon johnson vacationed here. that is him with the flipped up hat. islandia has always been more of a ruse than a real city. this was the only intended road. there is no courthouse. no city hall. in fact, there is not even a mayor. it was all just a classic get-rich scheme to pry florida taxpayers for bridges and development. then lbj signed islandia into biscayne national park but incorporated status remained, creating an annual bureaucrat headache for nearly 50 years. >> they have never filed their state papers. they do not cash checks that are made to them and they do not file the reports and pay their fees. >> reporter: so islandia is going away forever. early next month, islandia the city gets erased for good from the florida books.

remains mart of biscayne national park. any taxpayer can rent a boat what president johnson enjoyed, sans the shirt. martha? martha: shirt might have been a good idea. he is on vacation. what can you do. bill: grab a street sign while they're still out there, phil. a guilty verdict in a case that gripped so many. a jury find as former lacrosse player guilty for killing his ex-girlfriend. up who time now will this young man now face? martha: tragedy. and mike huckabee will be with us shortly. he has been meeting with israel's prime minister as the u.s. urges him not to strike iran. what happened in their conversation? we're going to talk to him about that next hour as the republican candidates weigh in on the situation as well. >> syria is a puppet state of iran. they are a threat not just to israel but they have been a complete destablizing force.

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>> martha: once a premiere college athlete and now he faces 26 years behind bars for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. george huguely, former ncaa lacrosse player at the university of virginia was convicted late yesterday in the murder of yeardley love. and that is how we get started in this brand new hour of ""america's newsroom"", welcome back everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: good morning, i'm bill hemmer. these are two young people who had promising lives and dated for two years, huguely, age 24, found guilty of beating his lover to death in an apartment in a fit of rage and attorneys that both sides are reacting to that verdict: >> there are no winners in this case. there's nothing but loss, everywhere. >> we are, of course, disappointed with this verdict. and we look forward to some

corrections in what happened here tonight. martha: doug mckelway joins us live from charlottesville, virginia. describe the mood in that courtroom when the verdict was read. >> reporter: pretty remarkable scene martha. no sense of joy, no sense of victory on the part of anybody there, no sense of retribution. the one sense you really could detect in that courtroom was this pervading sense of sorrow, and the sense that two families, utterly devastated by the crimes committed by george huguely v. commonwealth attorney david chapman but it -- put it best as he stepped out into the driving rain storm. here it is: >> what we do in court is a very rough aapproximation of justice in any given case. we hope that they feel some solace from the outcome that's been achieved here today. >> reporter: after the sentencing, recommendation

was read last night, george huguely was seen being led into the same stlan brings him here every day, that takes him back to prison. but this time, in stark contrast to the other perpetrator walks that we belt,inusough the weeks, he his shoelaces. the jury recommended 25 years in prison on second degree murder conviction, one year on the grand larceny conviction, for a total of 26 years, but the judge, when he imposes final sentence, can lower that threshold. he cannot raise it, martha. martha: interesting system there with the jury making that recommendation, of 25 years, for george huguely. it is, as you say, doug, just a tragedy all around in that story. thank you doug. doug mckelway. >> bill shortly after that sentencing the love family thanking everyone for their support. in a statement, love's mother, sharon and sister lexi said the following: we have received letters from so many people telling the

stories of her many acts of kindness, intelligence and athletic ability and god-given talents. kindness and compassion are choices. choices that yeardley made every day without a second thought. we'd like to thank everyone for their kindness and respect for our privacy during such a difficult time. end quote. martha: fox news alert, and it is a deadly day in iraq. al-qaeda militants suspected of a series of attacks in baghdad and nearly a dozen other cities where that situation continues to be very unrestful. at least 50 more people have been killed now in iraq. more than 200 hurt. in one town, a car bomb was set off close to a grade school, injuring some of the school children. they were hurt in those attacks. the latest in a series of large scale attacks. insurgents have launched every few weeks, basically, since the last u.s. troops left iraq.

bill: to arizona, they were back at it last night, back on stage for the first time in more than a month, mitt romney and rick santorum, head to head in arizona. santorum at the center of attacks from his rivals for the first time in about, oh, 20 debates so far! some of the sharpest criticism, coming from mitt romney, who trails santorum in some of the polls in critical states like his native state of michigan. here is one sharp exchange between those two: >> well, i'm looking an historic record, voting for raising the debt ceiling five different times without voting for compensating cuts during his term in the senate, spending grew by 80 percent in the federal government. >> he's a fake! >> unreal, ron, unreal. bill you had that scenario there, santorum was in between mitt romney and ron paul and it looked like a tag team there. alicia acuna is live with us today. they were seated at this

table, awfully close to each other. >> reporter: i wouldn't exactly call it cozy, but it was tight. i think what you said, it kind of explains like a lot of it. it felt like a tennis match at times with mitt romney and ron paul with santorum being the paul. take a listen. >> that's always a copout when you compare yourself to the other members of congress. the american people are significance and tired of the members of congress! they get about a nine, 10 percent rating. >> senator during your term in congress, the years you've been there, government has doubled in size, you voted to raise the debt ceiling five times without compensating cuts in spending. in my view, we should not raise the debt ceiling again until we get compensating dmuts spending, a cut, cap and balance approach must be taken. >> reporter: santorum for his part did put up a fight but found himself explaining a lot of past decisions, especially earmarks. >> the idea that somehow earmarks during the time that i was in congress were this thing that drove up spending in washington, d.c., if you actually look at t. as i said before, as a

percentage of gdp, actually the decifits -- the debt went down. what happened is there was abuse. >> reporter: and santorum, bill, did receive a number of boos last night for some of the hits he was making on his rivals. bill: what about newt gingrich, sitting stage right? >> reporter: well, yeah, newt gingrich really spent a lot of time reformulating the questions. it almost seemed like he was the moderator at times. but he did take his turn on everyone else. take a listen. >> i think it was totally appropriate for you to ask for what you got. i just think it's silly you turn around and run an ad for for getting what you got, and claiming what they got was wrong and what you got was right. >> reporter: this was the final debate before the michigan and arizona primary. bill: that is next tuesday. thank you, alicia. martha: another heated issue, health care. romney accusing santorum of

being the reason that president obama's health care bill passed in the first place. santorum fired back, saying so-called romneycare actually set the stage he believes for the president's program. watch this back and forth: >> arlen specter, the prochoice senator of pennsylvania that you supported and endorsed in a race over path toomy, he voted for omabacare. if you had not supported him, if we had said no to arlen specter we would not have omabacare. so don't take a look at me, take a look in the mirror. >> governor, let's get this straight. first off, number one, you funded romneycare through federal tax dollars, through medicaid. the bottom line is, what you did was you used federal dollars to fund the government takeover of health care in massachusetts and then barack obama used it as a model for taking over this health care system in america. bill: it was fiery, especially at that moment. then they were asked to describe themselves in one word. might not be too tough for you but you're not running for the white house. here is the word each one

chose: >> consistent. >> [applause] >> senator santorum. >> courage. >> [applause] >> senator? >> resolute. >> [applause] >> mr. speaker? >> cheerful. >> [laughter] >> bill: [laughter] >> martha: i like that! cheerful. bill: we're -- remember, we had him on yesterday and he said the two daughters, daddy, you got to look more presidential in these debates, and he didn't deny it. that was ater usk response. it was almost like gingrich saw it coming. what would you have said? >> martha: happy? >> bill: i would have said hyper! >> martha: all right. this is the next one on the lineup for you folks, and you can think about the one word that you would describe yourself as while you watch this, a story that is infuriating to a lot of folks, solyndra, the failed solar panel maker that burned through half a

billion of your tax dollars. might make you describe yourself as angry this morning, and abruptly pink-slipped more than 1000 workers, now gets the green light to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses. i kid you not. national correspondent steve centanni on this live from washington. what are the latest developments in this? >> >> reporter: martha, u.s. bankruptcy judge has approved the bonuses for about 20 of the remaining employees of the troubled solar panel company. as you remember, president obama paid a visit to the plant in fremont, california in 2010, as part of his efforts to promote jobs and renewable energy. the company got a $535 million federal loan guarantee, but later, facing stiff competition from china, the company went under, 1000 people out of work. solyndra had wanted to pay a half million dollars in bonuses to the workers who remain on the job, trying lick qui date the -- lick wi date the company but the shot -- judge shot down that request, instead totaling bone yous of $350,000. martha: unbelievable.

what kind of reaction are we getting to the news of the big bonuses at the bankrupt company? >> reporter: a lot of people unhappy with solyndra and i just got this reaction by e-mail from one member of congress, congressman morgan griffin, on the house energy and commerce committee, said that he's deeply disappoint ed because in effect the taxpayers are now footing the bill for bonuses for the seoul ind are employees, and of course, there is an ongoing investigation in this very committee on capitol hill into how they got that big loan guarantee in the first place. martha: that's been going on for some time and we expect it will continue. thank you, stef creen tani. bill: there are new developments in the meltdown of the securities firm being investigated over $1.6 billion now missing. mf global was once headed by john corzine, the former democratic head of new jersey and top fund-raiser on wall street. investigators looking into two money transfers from customer accounts during the firm's final days as they try and figure out what happened to more than a

billion dollars in client money. good mystery. martha: this breaking news just crossing moments ago. and we can now confirm from the u.s. official, this is coming across from a.p., that the two nato troops who were killed by an afghan soldier during the koran protests were, indeed, american soldiers, so it has been a very tragic day for members of the u.s. military two serving in nato, killed in afghanistan, and seven killed in the yuma, arizona area, in this collisions of the helicopters. the u.s. embassy has basically told people who reported to you earlier that they should not leave the embassy. it's not exactly on lockdown, is the word we're hearing. also we can tell you that the president has sent a letter to hamid karzai, as we reported earlier, to try to smooth over this situation of the unintentional burning of those holy book that is has led to all of this outrage. bill: we have that going on. also, we have this breaking story out of arizona, and

sad news here, seven u.s. marines have been killed after two military helicopters collided during a training exercise. we have a live report on that, in a moment, with new information. martha: tough day. how about this? in terms of the economy, prices just keep going up at the pump. it is a hot button campaign issue. and they have been rising even overnight. so what can the white house do about it? take our poll, and we'd love to hear what you think about all of this. how you think the high prices are impacting your family and your pocketbook. send me a tweet at martha maccallum or go to the polling. we've got at least 1000 people weighing insofar so be one of them, we'll find out how you feel about it. bi-bi-affect everybody. also mitt romney has a dire prediction about iran, what will happen with iran if president obama is reelected? governor mike huckabee on the ground in the middle east will join us live on that. >> he could have gotten crippling sanctions against iran, he did not, when dissident voices took to the streets in iran to protest a stolen election, instead of

standing with them, he bowed to the election. this was a president who has made it clear to his -- through his administration, in almost every communication so far, that he does not want israel to take action. you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com. 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.

bill: jury selection continues in the case against a rutgers student accused of spying on his roomate, the suspect facing bias crime charges, invasion of privacy and prosecutors allege he used a web cam to secretly record his inmate in an intimate encounter with another man and posted that online, his roomate, tyler clemente, then committed suicide. prosecutors say clemente was targeted because he was gay, and they point to facebook messages his roomate sent to friends, including this: first i found him on a gardening website, where you trade seeds, that was suspicious. then i found him discussing theater and broadway and violin. i was irked, end quote. the messages become more

detailed after that. martha: all right. well, mitt romney throwing some very harsh predictions around at last night debate saying the country is on the brink of nuclear war with iran and reelecting president obama, he believes, would guarantee that. listen to this: >> we must not allow iran to have a nuclear weapon. if they do, the world changes. america will be at risk. and someday, nuclear weaponry will be used. if i'm president, that will not happen. if we reelect barack obama, it will happen. >> [applause] >> martha: very stark terms in defining that. joining me now from jerusalem is former arkansas governor mike huckabee, host of "huckabee" here at fnc, governor, good to have you with us from jerusalem this morning. welcome. >> thank you very much, martha, it's great to be here. it's a very interesting time to northbound israel with this iranian situation looming so large over this nation and its people. martha: no doubt. and i know that you've met

with prime minister netanyahu. how did that meeting go and what did he tell you about the sanctions that have been imposed and what's working and what's not? >> reporter: well, without going into a lot of details of some things i can't disclose, i can tell you this, that the basic issue for israelis including the prime minister is a simple one: does israel have the fight to defend itself as a sovereign nation against a very clear and present danger, a threat from a country that is developing the nuclear weapon and has made it clear that they would love the opportunity to wipe israel off the face of the map. why wouldn't the united states stand with a country who has been our ally and our friend and who is faced with extinction from a person who says that the holocaust didn't exist and who actually believes that israel shouldn't exist, either? >> martha: you know, governor, we've spoken with general jack keane about this, and he feels that the israelis and the united states in terms of the intelligence that we have are looking at things slightly differently, and he believes that israel looks

at this with a much shorter time frame for action if they want to stop this program in its tracks. can you tell me any thoughts that you might have independently or based on your discussions on that? >> well, i think it's fair to say, and i've talked to people, for example, labroni, long-time ambassador from israel to iran before the shah fell, a number of people here, and the consensus is that this is a very delicate, dangerous situation. nobody in israel wants to go to war. i think that's the misperception, that the people here just have their fingers on the trigger and can't wait. they would love to wait. but they can't, if, in fact, iran is close to getting weaponize dollars nuclear material. and i think one of the things that a lot of people in america can't fully appreciate is the proximity and the fact that if iran is able to get nuclear capacity, it doesn't just endanger israel. but the saudis, the kuwaitis, the jordanians, the emirates, ultimately,

the united states, because israel is the little satan. u.s. is the great satan. whatever they do with israel is target practice for the united states. martha: absolutely. almost out of time governor but i do want to ask you this. what's the impression of president obama and how strong or weak he is on this issue from folks there? >> he's extremely weak. people in israel are perplexed, why on earth would they continue to send emissaries to pressure israel against doing what in its own best interest. the united states ought to be standing with its ally and the one thing they do not united states, how -- do not understand, how could they send the chairman of the joint steeves of chaff with the laughable notion that iran is a rational country. there is nothing about iran that is rational, alation led by a fanatic, man likal -- man eyeical mad dog who thinks it's okay to wipe an entire country off the face of the map. martha: he's gotten a lot of

heat in all of this, calling them a rational actor. mike huckabee, thank you for giving us great insights into a critical situation. >> thank you martha. bill: a fantastic meeting, to meet with netanyahu, especially during this time. all this talk about businesses shipping jobs overseas. some don't have to get on the boat to get a better deal in taxes. where are they going? we'll tell you. it's not far. martha: the president is about to step in front of microphones and talk about the soars price of gas today and what can be done about it, the chair of the action team weighs in on that. bill: how do the prices affect you and your family at home? vote now, fox foxnews.com/ "america's newsroom". that's the home page. we will bring you the results momentarily. 1500 votes so far. jump onliant right -- online right now, while we get a break.

martha: we are working on a story out of washington sthait morning and we have breaking details on the death of a trooper who basically pulled over a pickup truck at a routine stop about 1:00 a.m. in the morning this morning, and he called in the fact that he had pulled over this pickup, and then when his dispatcher called back to discuss this traffic stop with him they got no answer and they got concerned. they went out to the scene and they found that that trooper had been shot and was very wounded and later died. so they are continuing to search. they found the pickup truck about a mile away from there but they still have not found the person who did this and they've asked every officer in the area who's available to get out through and search for this shooter of a washington state trooper, in a tragic case that unfolded early in the morning hours today. we'll keep on top of that,

get you more as it comes in. bill: there are new concerns today over american companies leaving the u.s. in search of lower corporate taxes. now, that may not be new to you. but where they are going probably is. they're heading north to canada. from detroit now, steve brown is on that story. steve, good morning. >> reporter: hey good morning. in canada, it's just across the sinclair from where we're standing, there have been a number of profitable companies in the u.s. who have had criticism for not creating more jobs. some of the companies are creating more jobs. it's just that they're making them a bit north of here. >> welcome to the business friendly land of canada. that's right. canada. forbes magazine last fall ranked america's northern neighborhood, the world's top country to do business in. >> it's one of the clear advantages we have over our u.s. counterparts, having a better corporate tax rate. >> better as in lower. the u.s. corporate rate before deductions is

35 percent. second highest in the world to japan. in canada, the combined federal and provisional rates range from 25-28 percent. >> it's an added incentive for us because of that. >> arvin sango makes exhaust systems for toyota in three u.s. plants but to efficiently supply a canadian line, the new facility is being built in london, ontario. another example, target, their largest and biggest international expansion is going to happen up in canada. it's happening right now. over 100 stores, some 20,000 new employees. and that's all up north, that's after walmart already did an expansion up there. there are u.s. businesses adding to their payroll. but it lot of it happening in canada. bill. bill: interesting stuff. steve brown, thank you. out of detroit today. thanks. martha. martha: well, tragedy in the skies, when two military helicopters collided.

and seven u.s. marines have been lost. the details, coming in. more coming ahead. bill also it is issue number one in america. that's the state of the u.s. economy. is it getting better? or not? is that a shot in the arm for the president? and the campaign? wait until you see brand new polling numbers on all of that, moments away. [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait

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martha: it is a very sad day for the u.s. marines, they have lost seven of their own in a helicopter training exercise collision. military officials say that twot choppers collided near the california border just north of the marine base at yuma, arizona. casey stegall has gotten on to this story for us, live from our los angeles with the details. good morning, casey. >> reporter: good morning martha. this is a developing story at this hour. the marines we're told were all based out of camp pendelton, california which of course is north of san diego. we were just showing you the map. let's show it to you again, the accident site, happening north of yuma, arizona, and this happened last night during training exercises. we know that the choppers belonged to the third marine aircraft wing, headquartered out of the marine corps air station in m muir marioo in miramar, california, with

aviation forces capable of of deeing anywhere in the world on short notice. military officials are not saying much in materials of how this happened. they are only saying that two choppers collided. one was a cobra, and this is a picture of what that aircraft looks like, it is the backbone of the marine corps attack helicopter fleet and can hold a crew of two, the other was a supraho ewey, a twin sized helicopter capable of holding ten passengers, one or two pilots and crew chief. the pentagon says it will be 24 hours before the names of the seven marines will be released. martha: our thoughts are with their families at this time. casey, thank you very much, casey stegall, reporting live from l.a. bill: is president obama seeing a bump in the polls as americans feel a bit better about the economy? an a.p. survey showing that

30 percent think that the economy is doing all right. that is compared to 15 percent only two months ago. man, were we on the floor! now compare that to an approval rating up ten points from december, now nearly 50 percent. brad blakeman, former deputy assistant to president bush and crist han, former aide to senator chuck schumer, good morning to both of you and thank you for coming back. you guys are a great pair, that's why we want to bring you on today. brad, what about the numbers, what does it say to you politically? >> look, if it weren't for bad news this guy wouldn't have good news at all so any good news, they'll crow about. if you ask those in arizona, about the economy, they have terrible unemployment, foreclosures at record rates, bankruptcies at record rates. there's nobody in arizona who feels the economy is getting better and when i go back home to washington, they feel the same way. look at his energy policy, bill, where we have gasoline prices, 120 percent of what

it was prior to taking office. >> okay. >> this guy is -- any good news, i'm not rooting against the economy, but certainly if you -- i would tell the american people, if you like the last three years, you're going to love the next five years if this guy is reelected. >> bill: what do you think chris? >> i think the republicans have no choice but to root against the economy because the trends are clear. people are getting happy with the polices this president has initiated that has grown our economy. let's face it. this trend continues. 60 percent of people by election day are going to feel that the economy is on the right track and if they feel that they're going to elect president obama regardless of who the republicans nominate. they could nominate ronald reagan now. if the economy is good, the president will be reelected. >> if the economy is good. there isn't time for the economy to get to where it should be, even by barack obama's standards who promised us if we follow his

plan, employment would be -- unemployment would be below 8 percent. >> it's below 8 percent. >> when? >> if the trendline continues it will be below 8 percent come sevment that is perfect time fog a presidential election. you know the -- month --hold -- moment, then you guys can continue. unemployment, it's above 8 percent. you see the trendline. i don't know if it's leveling out, going lower or will tick higher but that is major marker of this campaign, and brad, you mentioned gas prices. in that same poll, only 39 percent approve of the administration's polices on gas prices. at this stage where it is, that is front and center for months to come. >> look, bill, we have record high gas prices, and we're in the winter time. this is the time when gas prices are supposed to be at the lowest. if the president really wanted to impact gas prices he would open refineries, reduce the a blends in this country. we have something like 30 blends. that would really get our

refineries going to get product to market. he would have a foreign policy that makes sense so we don't have the kind of turmoil that creates a lack of confidence in the marketplace. >> to -- bill: to those points, chris, how vulnerable is the president on this? >> gas prices are something that will cause pain in this economy. i agree with brad that that is a deaf at this time warning that the president needs to heed, that if gas prices continue to skyrocket it's going to hurt our economy, it's going to hurt peoples' confidence on our economy. that's why i'm very optimistic about what the president has to say today. i think most of the problem in the gas market now we can all agree is speculation. there's been no shortage of supply. we're talking about iran, we're talking about the closing of the strait of hormuz, it's driving the price up. the president has to speak today very clearly on how he will deal with any disruption in the oil supply. that might even include saying if it happens i will allow the strategic petroleum reserve to replace that disruption. if he does that, it will calm the market. >> bill: the psychology has a real impact. i want to show our viewers

another thing out there, this deals with your pocketbook and the retirement account, the dow, the last three months, the low point on november 25th, 11251, this week, 12950, thereabouts, that's an increase of about 7 percent. >> amazing. bill: factors like that make people feel better. don't know if it's going to stay there, volume has been superlight out there, with trading on wall street. >> people want to feel better. they don't want to feel bad. bill: and sometimes the president gets too much credit when the economy is good and too much credit when the economy is bad. we'll see whether or not the polices play out for them. brad, thanks, and chris, thanks to you as well. thank you gentlemen. martha: find your gas station? maybe loct you a mickey ds on a road trip that will get to you point a, to point b, even if you have no idea where you are, but apparently your amazing gps may be a bit smart for you and everyone from mobsters to al-qaeda may be trying to take advantage of this and that is not great news.

we're joined by john roberts, live from atlanta this morning. good morning, john! >> >> reporter: good morning to you martha. gps is becoming great in our lives in ways we don't realize, it guides ships at seas, air traffic control system is built on t. it time stamps financial and stock trades every day and one little jammer here, $50 on the internet can cause havoc with the system, a big conference of experts yesterday talked about the emerging threat from gps spooming -- sphamming and snoofing, making a gps think it's somewhere it's not. in an experiment researchers used a low level jammer to fool with ships at sea, way out in the english channel. their communication systems went down, their emergency systems went down and they veered off course without the crew even knowing about it. then there's the stock trading system, if you could manipulate the gps timing signals by a mili second it could be worth millions of dollars. todd humphreys from the university of texas is an expert on gps and was the

keynote speaker in yesterday's conference. >> you're able to match the prices between the networks in a way different from everyone else in the world. everyone else in the world might be 20 mill i seconds off and you happen to know the actual time sog you're able to buy low in one market and sell high in another market. >> reporter: that's all it takes is a few mili seconds. manipulating the market by the way could cause it to crash, rogue states, terrorist organizations and criminal enterprises all looking at ways to exploit this system. martha: it is truly frightening and this cyber war is perhaps one of the biggest security threats we're facing now. so how easy is it to get these jammers and how widespread is their use? >> they're illegal in the united states but again, $50 on the internet, you can get one. a landmark study in the u.k. found they're in widespread use there, it's believed they're in widespread use here and sometimes with unintend consequences, a gps landing system at newark base was goingdown ex-ex --

unexplivitily, a guy used the gps jammer to fool them into not knowing where the van was and every time he drove by the airport, he took down the landing system. martha: wow. >> there isn't a single civilian receiver on the market that has any kind of rudimentary defense against gps spoofing, and so from my perspective, our u.s. civil infrastructure is wide open to an attack like this. >> reporter: as much as gps attacks could be a problem humphreys also says gps privacy is a problem, a little tiny dot, you can put that on a person, employees you're following and they have no way of knowing it's there and no way to get around it. privacy issues and national security issues, martha. martha: that is a fascinating story. john rob it's, enough, reporting from atlanta. bill: while you were sleeping last night, gas prices jumped 3 cents a gallon. the president will talk about that a bit later today. will his polices help or hurt? >> martha: i should have filled up before i went to

bed last night, right? take a look at this. this is not a fake. this is a real live lobster. as bret baier tweeted earlier, that's going to take a lot of melted butter to enjoy that baby, right? you won't believe how big that is! bill latter up! -- lather up! [ wind howling ]

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>> i'm newt gingrich and i've developed a program for american energy, so no future president will ever bow to a saudi king again, and so every american can look forward to 2.50 a gallon gasoline. martha: well, that's newt gingrich, hitting on an important issue to americans, gas prices. ironically, that was all we heard about it from his opening statement last night after that, the subject was

pretty much dropped, but that is something the president is expected to address today during a trip to florida. he will speak from miami. he is pushing energy policy that he says will reduce our dependence on foreign oil in the long term. and as of this morning, the national average for a gallon of gas, 3.61, it popped 3 cents just overnight. joining me now, illinois congressman, chief deputy whip and co-chair of the house energy action keep. congressman roth, good to have you with us, thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. martha: a lot of people talking about this out there, we've gotten a huge response this morning when we asked people what kind of impact it's having on their lives, yet no discussion of it last night. what do you expect you're going to hear from the president today? >> well, what i would hope the president would do would be to acknowledge the failure of the administration on this issue. the administration has basically come up with an energy policy that rewards his political allies. he has put solyndra on top of keystone, said yes to solyndra, the inspector

general of the department of energy has said $3 billion has been lost in loan guarantees, and the president is sort of shrugging that off as no big deal, that's the cost of doing business. at the same time as he's put a stiff arm on the keystone pipeline, which is a job creator and something that ultimately creates energy security. similarly, the white house is complicit in this, in that they're slow walking the permits for expansion of off shore drilling. martha: if i could jump in for a second, congressman, we were talking about this earlier, bill was just talking about this to chris han, saying oil supply is at very high levels rit now, so it's not a question of supply in terms of drilling. there is the pressure, of course, of what's going on in iran and the potential for some kind of blockage at the strait of hormuz which nobody wants to see happen. >> so think -- >> martha: including speculators driving the prices higher of gasoline. >> okay. so take those two issues,

take the strait of hormuz and if there's saber rattling by iran, what's the best remedy to that? the best remedy is to bring safe canadian oil down through the united states, our closest and most stable ally, and to open the keystone pipeline, create 20,000 jobs, and not have to deal with all the iranian adventures. think about the speculation issue. what is the least thing that a speculator wants to find? a speculator wants to control the market. what happens if there is more energy, more highly productive? this is why it doesn't make any sense for the administration to not expand off shore energy, not to be pursueing it aggressively in the mountain west where we've got huge mine necessary terms of natural gas. that is where the action is. instead, the white house has come up and said look, we're basically going to reward political allies. we're going to indicatetory a radical environmental base, which is -- which is completely on the fringe of the energy discussion.

we're going to kowtow to them as opposed to trying to lower energy prices for the rest of the country. martha: some folks out there think that they don't mind the price of gasoline being a bit higher and this it encourages the green initiative. we heard basically that from a quote quite some time ago from the energy secretary about what drove people in europe to start driving smaller cars. do you buy into that concept? >> that is completely out of touch. and if that's what the administration is saying, it shows how completely out of sync -- look, i'm talking to you from chicago, and here in the midwest, within the past year, gas prices have jumped 1.50. and for the administration to say look, this is something high energy prices -- high energy price social security something we should welcome and embrace and celebrate i think is ultimately out of touch. and i think it is something that should be shunned and wholeheartedly rejected. they need to drop this nonsense of catering to a narrow political base of their allies and look out at

what's going to create lower energy prices for the rest of the country. martha: peter rothscam, thank you very much. >> bill: we're asking you at home if your families budget is being affected by the rising cost of gasoline. at foxnews.com/"america's newsroom", you can vote, 91 percent say gas prices are affecting the family budget, 2400 votes in about an hour. you can vote still. it's a nonscientific poll, as we say. tell us what you think, our show page, "america's newsroom" scwhrien. it was perhaps the most controversial topic of the arizona debate: contraception. but perhaps the most surprising part of the discussion did not come from anyone on stage. >> if we're going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues, it is president obama, who is a state sen -- as a state senator vote to protect doctors to kill babies who survived the abortion. it is not the republicans.," soup to make easy enchiladas,

cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

bill: the contraception issue, getting a big reaction in last night's debate. there was a question apparently from a viewer on the issue, and many in the audience did not like t here's how that went: >> -- did not like it. here's how it went: >> as you can see, it's a very popular question. >> very popular question in the audience. >> i want to make two quick points, john. first, there is a legitimate question about the power of the government to impose on religion activities which any religion opposes. that's legitimate. >> sure is. >> but i just want to point out, did you not once in the 2008 campaign, not once did anybody in the elite media ask why barack obama voted in favor of legalizing infant cried. -- infanticide.

>> bill: governor, thank you for your time. you say there are three elements to this story. what are they? >> i think it's interesting, i think the reaction of the audience there last night captured in essence different parts. i think that, one, a lot of people view this as a gotcha question, gaining rich saying you won't ask democrats but you ask republicans, and second there was unease by the audience saying wait a minute, are we going to talk about gas prices or things that are directly impacting my life, and thirdly and i think most importantly, at times the media loves controversy. this has been seen as a controversial issue. but you know, i think that a lot of people are saying wait a minute, we see it very, very clearly, that the notion of the first amendment, this notion, the bill of right promised to every one of us, that each could pursue religious beliefs based on our

conscious as we see not driven by government is a fair premise. i think it's fair what you saw with the audience dug last night's debate. bill: does this issue help the candidates more or the president, or vice versa? >> you know, i think that the president views it as a winner, but i think it's a very dangerous game he's playing. i think that he believes you can set up some kind of tug-of-war between individual liberty or rights and religious liberty and rights. i think that that is a very dangerous tug-of-war to play, one, because again, the first amendment promises every one of us a freedom of conscience in the pursuit of our religious beliefs and setting up some kind of tug-of-war because the president believes he can pick up young voters or female voters is a dng reduce game. bill: sir, thank you for your time.

we'll be right back. -one. -two. -three. -one.

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