>> have a good day. >> nice to see you. have a great day, great morning, everyone. >> good morning, it is monday, march 19th. i'm melissa francis in for gretchen carlson. extreme weather alert, tornado touching down in nebraska one hour ago, and mother nature is just getting started. there's snow in arizona. what? the latest on the wild weather in just seconds. >> wait a minute, spring starts tomorrow. meanwhile, mitt romney has 20 more reasons to smile this morning after winning the island of puerto rico, their primary. rick santorum says tomorrow is another day. >> if we're able to come out of illinois with a huge or surprise win, i guarantee you, i guarantee you we will win this nomination. >> but did rick santorum forget about the deal he made with romney's campaign? it could cost him the state. details straight ahead. >> all right.

can cell phone interference or an ipad game really take down an airplane? >> what? >> the f.a.a. is about to find out. they're rethinking the old policy. that could be good news if you're flying right now. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> ok, melissa? >> thank you very much, dr. ruth. she's saying hello to you. >> she hasn't been on our show for quite sometime. melissa francis is finally here. >> thank you. thank you. i'm so excited to be here. my family is watching at home. boys, brush your teeth before you go to school. >> your kids are not up. >> they said they're going to watch it on tivo from the beginning. my 5-year-old likes to kiss the girls at school. i think it's better if he brushes his teeth first. >> a lot of people think they have baby teeth, why brush them

anyway? please brush them. >> the francis kids have the minty fresh breath. >> i heard that. >> anyway, busy three hours. lots of politics to talk about. we'll do that after the headlines. >> that's right, let's begin with the headlines with an extreme weather alert. major destruction in nebraska overnight where two tornadoes struck derailing a dozen railroad cars in north platte. there are reports of several homes destroyed and several people trapped. these are the first pictures posted on line. so far, reports suggest there are two people hurt. and severe weather and tornadoes also swept through parts of oklahoma. this is video out of willow, oklahoma, more twisters, hail and heavy winds are expected throughout the day. western oklahoma is expected to see the worst of the storms. wow. the american soldier accused of killing 16 people is waking up in an isolated jail cell in kansas this morning. he is expected to be charged in a massacre this week and his lawyer now in kansas is meet

with him face to face for the first time. here he is already pleading his case moments after stepping off the plane. >> everybody that had three or four deployments to the middle east is probably going to have some form of ptsd. i don't know anything specific about it. i know he had a concussive head injury. >> his family releasing a statement saying "they are stunned but stand behind the man they know as the devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed services." and the f.a.a. reconsidering restrictions on permanent -- personal electronics on planes. no passengers will be on board during the test flights. the f.a.a. not saying how long testing will take or when it might change the rules. those are the headlines. >> let's talk a little bit about politics. let's look in the rearview and then look out the front

windshield. first of all, rearview. yesterday, in the island of puerto rico, mitt romney won by a landslide. it's a winner take all state if you get over 50% of the vote. he did and so he winds up with 20 delegates. >> yeah, he got 83% of the vote, steve. that's certainly a lot and you think about with rick santorum, you can't pretend like you didn't want it. he wanted it. he wanted it right after the last primary, yes, and he also made a couple of mistakes telling puerto rico, calling them a country and saying if you want to be the 51st state, make english your number one language which a lot of people -- >> that ranked them. >> he loved the idea. >> mostly he later said, that was taken out of context. >> i don't know. i mean, there's speculation he was trying to play it a different crowd at that point. now that all these delegates are gone, you might think twice of that. you look at romney with 521 now, the lead begins to look more insurmountable. we'll have rick santorum on later and he certainly would not

agree to the insurmountable characterization. >> all the focus will be on illinois. newt gingrich even though he's third is not competing in illinois, over the weekend, he didn't campaign at all. i don't think he'll be there on monday either. it's going to be truly a two horse race. at stake is 54 delegates. rick santorum only eligible for 44 because he could not get cleared in four separate congressional districts. >> that's right and this morning on this monday before the illinois primary tomorrow, according to the real clear politics average, mitt romney right now is ahead by 6.4%. but if -- keep in mind, than an average of three different poeldz. if we take a look at the most recent poll, the rasmussen poll completed a couple of days ago, romney up by nine. >> illinois has changed. illinois used to be a moderate state. it tends to be more conservative and the person that's going to win will have to win over conservatives and both were playing that tune in terms of what they are and what they

stand for, rick santorum saying i'm the true conservative. mitt romney saying no, i think i am. >> and of course, everyone is fighting over who is the best one to lead us out of this economic mess. that's something that mitt romney certainly says he's the best guy to do. he is a turn around guy and he is a private equity guy. country needs a turn around right now. that's largely been used against him as well. >> there's an interesting story that's floating around now that's come to light in the last 48 hours and that's this. back in january, apparently romney's camp and brian was talking about how rick santorum is not registered to get the delegates in a number of districts. romney people started to challenge mr. santorum so mr. santorum's man in illinois started digging through the romney petitions and realized, wait a minute, these were notarized in massachusetts. it's supposed to be done in illinois. and then the romney people said oh, you're look on our paperwork. let's look at yours.

yours was notarized in iowa. >> you think they would have realized that about their own campaign before they challenged on this point that they were essentially on the same boat. >> on top of that, i think the real problem is the state treasurer. the state treasurer didn't set up an infrastructure around the primary on the republican side. therefore it was a total mess. they agree with him refereeing let's decide not to look at each other's petitions and decide not to look where they were signed and just play the game. they decided to. at that point, rick santorum was in single digits. he was not a major player. now he is. >> naethat's right. keep in mind that if rick santorum's campaign would have been successful, mitt romney would not be eligible for any delegates tomorrow. >> wonneding if they regret that truce now. right? >> no kidding. >> the interesting thing is you were talking about the state treasure who has been the chief surrogate in illinois for mr. romney, they pretty much threw him under the bus and said, look, that guy was a total disaster. we wanted him to do some stuff

for us and he failed. >> let's take a look at what senator santorum's message is to the people of illinois. it's not only vote for me but definitely don't vote for the other guy because he's like your former senator from illinois, barack obama, listen. >> the more i look at the record of governor romney and match it up against barack obama, i feel like i'm doing the training run for the general election. same issues i'm out there campaigning against governor romney are the same issues i'm going to campaign against barack obama on which is the government's overreach on health care, cap and trade, trying to control the manufacturing and energy sector of the economy and , of course, the bailouts. all of these things are -- are, you know, unfortunately governor romney and barack obama in the same place. >> well, mitt romney took some shots at barack obama yesterday. and, you know, he was really trying to capitalize on the anger that is growing in this country toward the high cost of gas. in fact, mr. romney yesterday said i would hire president obama -- or rather, fire president obama's gas hike trio.

he would fire the secretary of energy, secretary of interior and the e.p.a. administrator as well and on top of that, mr. romney says he's better organized to beat president obama. >> if i become the nominee, i'm going to be going up against president obama and he's put together an organization. he says will raise about a billion dollars. we have to have a nominee that has the capacity and organization necessary to raise money and be competitive. >> that was one of his major things. he was talking about fundraising and also said senator santorum, i think, has the same characteristic as the president in terms of background and spending life in government. when you talk about raising money, you would think with the president has been at 101 fundraisers and you think he has plenty of money right now. >> we were looking at that state dinner last week where he had all the high end donors in. when you look at the actual stats of collecting money, he has a hard time finding people

that donate more than $2,000 each. these big money donors are just not there as they were in the past. this is actually unusual for a sitting president at this time in the campaign. so you wonder if that's going to carry over. >> does it make sense when you consider the fact that he talked to congressional leaders and his staffers and said by the way, i don't have enough money to help you guys out in your campaigns and now it makes sense, he wants to rauz raise a billion. >> it's interesting, i think "the washington post" did this comparison and showed that george bush at this place in his campaign eight years ago had, i think, double the money. but to your point about how some of the donations are tiny, they're asking for just $2 or $3 plus there's a caveat. donate $2 to $3, you might win lunch with him. and this is something that you can talk about working over at fox business and that is there are so many people are bundlers

and big donors from wall street, they're so steamed because over the last fee years -- >> a lot of the wall street money has absolutely gone away. when i talk to people privately that don't want to go on record, they are furious and out there supporting the mitt romney campaign to be honest. he's lost a lot of money in new york and on wall street and from business in general. he still has all that hollywood money without question. that's why i was surprised with those numbers. i know what's happened with business and wall street and you think hollywood would make up for it. >> a couple of minutes ago, steve recommended a story for fox business. >> i thought you were going to do it. >> i'm available at 9:00 eastern. >> 9:10, after the show show. very popular. >> why do you think so many of barack obama's big donors have decided to take a pass right now? there's an interesting bit of spin and that was one of his bundleers said the democrats see the republicans as so easy to beat, why bother putting the money in now?

come on! he doesn't need the dough, those guys are lightweights. >> coming up on this show, a school district hoping to eliminate english in favor of dual language classrooms. meet a mom who is not happy. >> the new report on the most corrupt states in the country and who is running them. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] what if that hemorrhoid pain is non-stop to seattle? just carry preparation h totables. discreet, little tubes packed with big relief. from the brand doctors recommend most by name. preparation h totables. the anywhere preparation h.

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>> welcome back. some parents upset over a proposal at capri elementary school in to phase out english

courses and provide only dual language classes. parents who don't want them in dual classes will have to send their kids to a different school. >> joining us is karen brink, thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> i was putting myself in your shoes, i have a son entering kindergarten in the fall. what is it about having your child in a dual language program that you don't like. what harm do you think there is in it? >> it's not that i think there's any harm in it. i think that it should be a choice as a parent that you should be allowed to have your child in english only or dual immersion program. they're taking our choice away. that's our biggest, i think, disagreement with whole problem here is that we don't want our choice being taken away. >> and karen, explain to our viewers what dual language school means. >> a dual language immersion program is a program within a general education pool comprised of 50% native spanish speaking

students and 50% english only speaking students and then starting in kindergarten, it goes all the way to sixth grade but starting in kindergarten, it's taught in 100% spanish. >> oh, man. in california? >> in -- there's different programs. in our school, that's how it's done, yes. >> what have they told but your choices and why they're doing this? >> they really -- we haven't had a lot of information but what they are stating is they would like to start with the kindergarten class next fall, all four classes coming into capri would be dual immersion, spanish speaking only. if you don't want to be in the dual immersion class, you'd have to go to a different school and participate -- participate there. basically you're being kicked out of your neighborhood school. >> and you've got a second grader there right now. so going forward, will they continue with the spanish only lesson at that school or move across town? >> my child could potentially stay there. they'll be phasing it out but of

a kindergartener daughter who is eligible for kindergarten in two years so i could have one son at one school and a daughter at another school. if i don't want her to go into dual immersion. so you're fracturing my family so i don't know how that would really work. we'd have two kids at two different schools. everything that we've worked really hard for our school at capri, i wouldn't be able to have that with my daughter. we did talk to the school superintendent and he's suspending his proposal. he said in a statement all change is hard. sometimes there's short-term pains and may be long-term gains. what do you think about that, karen? >> well, i think his answer is right there. he's saying it's going to cause pain. why would you put pain to your students at all? why would you do that? we're happy as it is. there's a lot of us that feel we don't want change. the program works at our school. i think there would be other ways we could look at budget cuts and do other things than fracturing a school and taking -- and breaking the cohesiveness of our school. >> what are you going to do in

the fall if this goes through? are you going to send your younger child to the same school as your older child or move that child? >> no, i would not want to participate in the dual language immersion program and again, it's just my choice and that's what i'm arguing against is don't take my choice away. don't make me leave my local neighborhood school and fracture my family. that's really what it's about. don't take our choice away. our general education should not be taken and dictated by a program. we should be allowed to have an english speaking only language program in our general education. so yeah, it would fracture my family. >> sounds like you're going to be doing a lot of driving across town come next fall. karen brink joining us this morning from san diego, thank you very much for telling your story about your school. thank you. >> thank you. >> you bet. >> mitt romney comparing himself to senator john mccain but mccain had more than double the delegates at this .4 years ago so can romney get the same

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>> quick headlines. angry birds fans, the latest edition of the cell phone game will be released this thursday. no word of how much this app will cost and a brand new study ranking states about the level of corruption and guess what? not a single state got an a. the best grade was a b plus that went to new jersey. seriously? a whopping eight states got an f including michigan, south carolina, maine, virginia, wyoming, georgia and north and

south dakota. i lived in maine. i would have bribed a lot more people if i would have known it was corrupt. brian, who knew? >> we all miss our opportunities. >> yeah. >> to be corrupt. meanwhile, hoping to seal the g.o.p. nominee sooner rather than later, mitt romney is calling for the g.o.p. to come together like they did in 2008 for john mccain. >> we got behind john mccain last time. he lost 19 states in the primary process. when the process was over, we got behind him. we worked for him. we'll come together in part because president obama has been such a failure. >> and he did actually rally for john mccain after john mccain beat him. will his appeal convince the voters? let's ask our washington insiders. haley peterson and the president and ceo of she should run, sam bennett. welcome to both of you. haley, let's begin with you. do you think that governor mitt romney has made a call that should be heeded? >> you know, romney is using this mccain reference as an effort to down play his primary

losses and point to a candidate who did lose 19 states before being able to bring the g.o.p. together. romney is trying to get the message across to voters that interparty division at this point in the primary contest is not all that unusual. there's one problem with that argument, however, to compare himself to mccain and that's what mccain lost the general election. >> he did. and he was leading in september and we also know about the financial crisis that played a role. do you think it's time for the republicans to rally behind a guy that has 525 delegates. at this time, john mccain had over 1,000. >> i actually think it's about time the republicans started paying attention to the women's vote. i think that that's going to be not only a key factor in this pry primary but in the election in general. when you look at rick santorum's loss to women, this sort of anti-women rhetoric that seems to be a thread through the republican campaign in the primary stages, i think is going to really hurt whoever is the

final nominee and clearly romney will be the final nominee. >> that's the democratic spin that the republicans are attacking women wasn't really the question. let me bring it back to where john mccain was. in 2008, he had over 1,000 delegates but the key there is it was winner take all. >> right. delegates are being, you know, divvied up in a different fashion this time around so it's going to take him a little bit -- it's going to take him longer. remember, barack obama didn't steal the nomination until about june of the last election so, you know, romney -- he has a couple more weeks to make the case here. but another problem, again, with comparing himself to mccain, you look at mccain's favorability ratings at this point in the 2008 campaign and they were up 45%. romney's right now are at 29%. >> huge and how much do you think, sam, that has to do with the fact that -- that he's been attacked by his own side, this fight is still on? >> well, i think it -- it's pretty clear that republicans were trying to take a page out

of the democratic playbook, right, so that long primary between hillary and obama really played to obama's advantage in the general. but it looks like it's not flushing out that way on the republican side at this point. we're going to see. but clearly, the republicans are going into the general wounded rather than built up and supported by this long sort of tenuous primary process. >> haley, by any chance do you believe that mitt romney might have inoculated himself to some of the attacks by the days at bain capital, some of the things he did as governor about his religion. they've already been through this battle in the intramural level. >> yes, those attacks are going to come out anyways and i talked to a lot of political analysts who said, you know they're going to come out one way or another and may as well come out earlier than later and he gets more of a chance to inoculate himself against those attacks. >> coming up later, senator rick santorum and real quick, sam, do you believe that if senator santorum wins illinois he'll get the nomination as he promised

and guaranteed yesterday? >> well, he's from my state so we've all been rather surprised by his performance. i wouldn't underestimate him. he did very, very well in our state when he was a senator before he was sort of rousted out. so we'll see what he's going to do. i wouldn't underestimate him. >> absolutely. thanks so much. >> absolutely. >> all right, coming up straight ahead, gas prices expected to go up again today. does president obama set those prices? no, he doesn't. stuart varney says that's not the question. i'm sorry, stuart, for asking it. the question is is he responsible for them? he'll explain next and it will all make sense and the bank thought she was dead and gave all her money to the government. now that we know she's alive, can she get her money back?

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>> time for your shot of the morning and these are good ones. american politicians showing off her bodies of work literally. here's rick santorum sun-bathing shirtless in puerto rico this week. he later apologized saying i'm sure it's not a pretty sight. but, you know, he's not the only one. he doesn't look so bad. you think he looks so bad? >> he said himself he wants to lose 10 to 15 pounds.

the guy can relax, right? >> gentlemen, take your shirts off and we'll compare. >> gentlemen, start your engines. >> do not take your shirt off. cut out of varney's time and he's really smart. >> this is from a 2002 campaign commercial with mitt romney swimming in a lake without his shirt. that looks pretty good. it looks like he's sucking it in a little bit. >> the water's cold. >> all right. that's impressive. let's not keep going. >> try to flex. >> don't you flex when you're cold. >> i'm flexing right now. ok? >> thank you very much. there was, of course, president obama taking time and his shirt off in hawaii. that's pretty impressive. >> you have any women in this clip? >> with their shirts off? >> this segment is for me and has nothing to do with you guys. >> and former president bill clinton did the same thing back in 1993. all right. what do you think? pretty good. and finally, you guys aren't even -- >> you've been so burned, you don't want to -- >> we focus more on the wet t-shirt contest.

>> our favorite honorable mention. this is new york congressman charl charlie rangel. a little more modest. that was a rough one. >> looks like he was shot with a tranquilizer gun. he lost control of his body. he's over the edge! that is passed out. and he is not -- >> they're both -- >> that is not sleep. >> i wonder if we could put side by side he and rick santorum because they're both on -- that would be the only ones side by side comparison. >> let me tut it this way, if you're rick santorum, you don't want to compare to charlie rangel. that's not the shot that you want. >> i don't know. by comparison, right? there you go. >> rick santorum looks fantastic. >> yeah. >> all right. fine. >> i'm a little more comfortable. >> the male waxing has not taken over in politics, has it? >> it has not. i'm not really sure unless you're in a body building competition, you should be waxing. >> i think i read on line the picture of rick santorum was

taken in puerto rico, someone on a gay cruise driving by took that picture. >> what kind of web site were you looking? >> that was on drudge. >> you really set yourself up. >> look out for the gay cruise lines if you don't have a shirt on. that's my message. >> could be photo shopped. >> i think it's probably real. what was supposed to be a weekend of fun turned into tragedy. three boat racers were killed during this year's spring thunder regatta. thousands watched in horror as a boat collided with another boat being driven by an experienced racer. both dying in the crash. another fatal crash came a day earlier when a racer was ejected from his boat and hit a passing vessel. these are the first deaths in the regatta's six-year history. >> all right. it's a story all parents should hear. a washington state teenager says he stabbed his best friend to death after getting high on spice. now his family is speaking out

as the drug becomes more and more popular with teens across the country. >> a young woman is dead! because of this. those people will never get their daughter back. ever! i'll never get my nephew back. >> and it breaks my heart to know this is still available and that it could be being smoked by people's children tonight. >> spice described as the synthetic form of marijuana often sold in colorful candy packets like packages. this suspect in this case claims it caused him to black out and do things he would not normally do. he's now in juvenile detention awaiting charges. melissa? >> a 92-year-old woman from washington state declared dead by government? but she's alive! and raced to the bank before the feds could take $17,000 out of her account. >> i thought i'd just say hi, i'm alive and she'd give me a hug but she said no, it's not as

simple as that. >> betty longshore had to jump through bureaucratic hoops to prove the social security administration that she was still living! she was declared dead after someone pressed the wrong button on their computer. difficult to understand. eventually, betty quiconvinced feds and they dropped her claim. >> one key stroke? that's crazy. many states are seeing an unusually early winter thaw. that's not the case for arizona. this is arizona, look at all the snow. five feet of the white stuff dumping down on the mountains right there. flagstaff getting three feet. number of roads were closed because of the slippery conditions forcing drivers off the roads. there have been no reports of any serious injuries. scan of the map shows you we have a big line of thunderstorms as you can see moving through portions of nebraska, kansas, oklahoma and texas at this hour. widely scattered showers elsewhere and through portions of the ohio valley and tennessee

valley. it's a balmy 55 already here in new york city. about the same for the mid atlantic. 63 right now in minneapolis. it is warmer in kansas city right now than it is in phoenix. now, let's talk about your brackets, brian. >> yeah, the bracket near you. march madness down to 16. finally, you got cincinnati in the sweet 16 for the first time since 2001. bearcats played real tough and got past florida. 11th seeded north carolina, north carolina state pulling off the upset again. georgetown goes down 66-63 holding off a late hoya rally. and the florida gators devoured the norfolk state squad 84-50. this was never even close. florida had a 25-0 run in the first half and never looked back and xavier beat lehigh to reach the semis for the fourth time since 2008. let's see who is actually left in the east. you have sir excuse against wisconsin and ohio state against cincinnati in the midwest.

you got north carolina facing ohio and kansas against north carolina state. over in the south, kentucky gets indiana. that will be the marquis matchup and baylor will face xavier and in the west, michigan state against louisville. rick pitino still alive and marquette against philadelphia and that's the way the brackets look! now back to school, kids, you might have a test this week. >> meanwhile, gas prices expected to go up again later on today. does president obama set those prices? absolutely not. but stuart varney says that's not the question. question is he responsible, the president for them and he joins us live. good morning. >> and the answer is -- yes, he is. had he not had this policy on energy three years ago, we would not be in this situation today. is the president doing anything about high gas prices? answer, yes, he is. he's taxing the oil companies. will that bring gas prices down? in my opinion, no, it won't. will gas prices continue to go up? yes, in my opinion, they will. into this summer to well above

$4 a gallon. >> because demand is up? >> no, it's because we're going to switch from winter to summer blend for these -- for gasoline at the retail level and because in the northeast, we're likely to see the shutdown of a very big refinery in pennsylvania that will restrict supply of gas in the northeast and here in the northeast, we'll see gas prices go up some more definitely. >> they like to say there's no quick fix to this problem, that we got into it over a period of time but when you look at what's happened with natural gas, for example, the price of natural gas has fallen so dramatically with $15 down to $2, because there has been so much drilling in the u.s. because we've had this shale revolution, the same thing is possible with oil. >> right? >> yes, it is. we in america do have enormous reserves of oil in the ground, much of it locked into shale way underneath the ground. in ohio, in pennsylvania, in new york, in north dakota, etc., etc., we've got the supply. granted, it will take a long time to go get it and bring it out of the ground. but if you made a commitment, if

you made a commitment three years ago, or you made the commitment today, we've got a national effort. let's go get it. >> right. >> maybe you would see some impact on prices. but the political fight over this is getting really, really nasty. the two sides are very clearly drawn. president obama says look, you got to tax the oil companies. that's the way you get prices down. david axelrod says you republicans who say you can get the gas prices down, that is snake oil. he used that expression. governor romney over the weekend, he says fire the gas hike trio, three cabinet secretaries who he says are responsible for high gas prices. >> by the way, a record in 2008 blaming bush for the high gas prices. that's the problem. credibility issue. >> finally drawn two sides here. it's a nasty fight and gas prices went up $3.84 your national average. >> up 110% since president obama has been in office. >> that's correct. >> stuart varney, always a

pleasure. we'll be watching you on fox business at 9:20 eastern time. we learned from melissa francis earlier that you now drive a crazy gator, all terrain vehicle. >> it's a john deere product, american product. >> these guys have such a rivalry. we have to get you a counselor. keith ablow, come quick! from limits to -- from limits on where you read the bible to whether or not you can collect rain water, our government is reaching further and further beyond the pale. look at some of the most ridiculous new laws. >> and then living longer doesn't always mean living better. so how do you make the decision on the best exit strategy? one doctor with some controversial advice on how to die well. nice topic for monday morning. >> here's my strategy. i'm leaving. good-bye! ♪

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>> so we all want to live forever, right? and technology is helping us add years on to our lives but our next guest says living longer doesn't necessarily mean living better. joining me now is the author "the best care possible, a physician's quest to transform care through the end of life." he's here to teach us how to get the best care possible through our entire life. basically you're saying that it's become possible through technology to live longer but that may not be the best choice? is that what you're saying? >> sure, i mean, i'm a physician who loves to save lives and extend lives. we have more power to treat disease than ever before in human history. and i celebrate that. but the problem is we have yet to make even one person immortal. so at some point in time, more treatment for disease must not be better care. and people are living longer but

we've made dying a lot harder than it used to be. what we've all agreed is when we or someone we love is seriously ill, we want the best care possible. what that is for you may be different than it is for me. what it is early in the illness may be different than what it is late in an illness. you have to work with members of a team to find out what's best for you and the family member. >> you say you have to be prepared. let me walk you through some of the ideas that you have in your book about how to get the best care possible. one. first tips is talk about your illness with your loved ones. >> talk about your illness and what you hope for. the best care is matched to your values and your preferences. that's going to be informed by your ethnicity, your family history and even your religion. find out what you want when the time comes when it's time for you to leave this life and talk to your family about it. >> and you also say that always use the best care possible but one size doesn't necessarily fit all. what's that mean? >> well, what the best care is for you may be different than someone else.

to find out what that is, you have to look at your individual values and preferences and match that to your health condition and what's achievable through health care. but i want to be clear not to medicalize this very difficult time of life called illness and even dying. they are only partly medical. they are profoundly personal for the individual and family. >> yeah, and the last thing you say is that you have to prepare. >> well, you simply have to prepare. you know, there are these things called advanced directives. we don't want to think about anything having to do with illness, dying, care giving and brief. in order to do it well, you got to think about it and you have to write it down so your family has full permission to speak for you if you're so ill that you can't speak for yourself and you've told them what you think you want so the burden isn't on them when the time comes. >> what if you're on the sidelines and watching a family member go through end of life and haven't made it clear to you, how do you have to do with this? >> our team at dartmouth

hitchcock medical center works with families who have a loved one who is seriously ill. we talk with them and find out not only who they are medically but who they are personally and what the family thinks they would want and we help guide families to often complex medical conditions so they get the best care for them so we can return this difficult situation giving them the best medical treatment possible but also, frankly, best treatment for their comfort and quality of life. i think the best care melds cutting edge technology with frankly unabashedly tough medical care. >> thank you for having me. >> we appreciate it. there's a ton of oversight for any company trying to cash in on taxpayer money. how did solar companies like solyndra slip through the cracks? a brand new report at the top of the hour. and from the limits on where you read the bible, to where you can smoke in your own home, the most ridiculous new laws on the books. coming up next. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there?

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>> a five day festival in spain all leading up to today. the fiery festival has been -- has been burning strong in vallencia. amy kellogg is there to prove it. hi, amy. >> hi, brian. they couldn't -- you know, unfortunately, the night that they're going to burn all of these that you can see behind me. it's incredibly windy. i don't know how they're going to do this. there are hundreds of these all around town and tonight, they have something that is the term for burn. which is the conclusion. it's kind of out with the old and in with the new. this is a festival to welcome spring and so it's fire. it's sound. it's -- they have something that goes off every day at midday.

fireworks, very, very loud. 500 pounds of gunpowder packed into a six minute serenade here and anyway so tonight will be the end of this all. it's been a lot of fun being here and seeing all the different rituals that go into one fantastic festival, brian, back to you. >> should be great as long as they can block the wind. thank you, amy kellogg. steve, over to you. >> thank you very much. amy and brian. meanwhile, you want to save some money and use rain water in your garden? how about teaching your kids some business know how with their own lemonade stand? not so fast, you could actually be breaking the law. that's right, it looks like america is transforming from the land of the free into regulation nation! here so share his always colorful opinions on some of the laws around the country, comedian conservative brad stine from nashville. good morning. >> good morning, steve. great to be with you again and i'm glad to have you walking through this crazy law thing.

>> there's so many crazy laws in this country. 40,000 new laws went into effect in january. here's one of them. out in a number of western states, it's illegal to collect rain water. >> yeah, you know, i got to tell you something, you can't get anymore arrogant than to start charging god for his resources. that's what i'm talking about. but see, that's what the liberal idealogue always does. if they can't convince you, they'll coerce you. god almighty only needed 10e laws to tell human beings how to survive. we have to say that rain water coming down from the sky needs to be tax controlled in some way. you know, i find that interesting. maybe that's a new thing they can do by the way with these bottled waters, forget recycling them. heck, here's what you need to do. just take and put the caps back on them and start selling them as bottled air. why not? just tax the entire environment. it's god but it's ours now. >> just a matter of time.

that's using your head. also in some places, illegal to smoke in your backyard and real quickly, illegal to hold bible study classes in your own house. >> yeah, well, smoking in your backyard is killing me. you know, it's always arbitrary, too, which health things you're allowed to do. if you're smoking marijuana, the liberals don't care. if you're getting drunk in your own backyard, invite us over! but cigarettes, i might smell that. that's the ultimate new sin, by the way. what is going to happen next? are they going to start taxing us for barbecuing because a vegetarian might smell the meat odors? this is getting out of hand and by the way, if you're going to start telling people they can't teach the word of god in their own homes, i hope they have their life insurance paid up because god is going to be cashing that in soon. get some rubber shoes, i think some lightning is coming. >> some rubber shoes. all right. always a pleasure, he's here with us every monday, brad stine, thank you very much. >> my pleasure! you know that. >> i know that.

thank you, sir. straight ahead, the stars and stripes under fire. should a school be allowed to fly a flag that looks like that? the story is straight ahead. live on this monday. ♪ what if one little pop ♪ could open a world of wonder? ♪ ♪ so sensory ♪ so satisfying ♪ the discovery never seems to stop ♪ ♪ it's the magic friskies makes happen ♪ ♪ every day

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>> good morning, it's monday, march 19th. i'm me llissa francis in for gretchen carlson. tornadoes strike the midwest again. now it's reported that people are trapped under the rubble. we have the latest. >> john mccain says this is the nastiest republican race he's ever seen. why isn't the infighting helping president obama? huh? >> good clue, brian. >> thank you. >> veterans fired up about this. should a school be allowed to flay a really worn out, torn american flag? that's flying over a new york city school at this hour. we'll tell you all about that and so much more, hour two for this monday starts right now live from new york.

>> all right, melissa francis in for gretchen carlson. you have to work later on the fox business channel? >> i do. i do. i have a show coming up at 1:00 p.m. eastern time but my whole family is at home watching right now. hopefully my husband has it under control. >> i wanted to know. i didn't want you to promote your show. >> it seemed like an opening. i dove into it. what do you expect? let's start with the headlines. we have extreme weather today. tornadoes leaving a path of destruction in nebraska. these are the first pictures that we are seeing from there. at least two touched down in the town of north platte and more than a dozen railroad cars were derailed. we're hearing there are injuries including one person who had to be rescued from her home. severe weather also ripping through nearby oklahoma. this is video of a suspected tornado in willow, oklahoma. western parts of the state could get hit harder today. hail and heavy winds are also

possible and a developing story out of france. a father, his two young sons and another child murdered this morning. that's in front of a jewish school in the city, witnesses say a gunman opened fire and then quickly set off on a scooter. french president nicolas sarkozy reportedly on his way to the school right now and he's ordered authorities to step up security at all jewish schools across the country. police say the gunman may be the same person that killed two french soldiers in a drive-by shooting last week. the american soldier accused of killing 16 people in afghanistan is waking up in an isolated jail cell in kansas this morning. the army staff sergeant is expected to be charged in the massacre this week. his lawyer is now in kansas to meet him face to face for the first time. here, he is already pleading his case moments after stepping off the plane. >> everybody that had two or four year deployments to the middle east will probably have some form of ptsd. i don't know anything specific

about it. i know he had a concussive head injury which can be as serious if not more serious than ptsd. >> the sergeant's family releasing a statement saying they are stunned but stand behind a man they know is a devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed services. and occupy protesters on the march again in new york while the city's police department is investigating an on-line death threat. a suspected protester posting twitter "we won't make a difference if we don't kill a cop or two." the tweet following the arrest of 73 protesters. >> all right. let's talk some politics. mitt romney had some really good news yesterday. he won big in puerto rico and got over 80% of the vote. it's a winner take all island. and so let's take a look at the delegate count so far. mitt romney at 521. santorum about half that. gingrich less than that and ron paul with 50 delegates. >> how unbelievable is it that they have more delegates for the commonwealth of puerto rico than hawaii which i believe is a state according to the tv

series. >> both islands. >> but it's just incredible. what kind of system is this? congratulations to mitt romney. he did good, 83% gets them all and something else is important, that's illinois. >> just to go back to the delegate count quickly, you were pointing out that john mccain had more than 1,000 delegates last time around. winners have changed and it's changed the make-up of this race. >> right. illinois is not winner take all. it's proportional. there will be 54 delegates up for grabs tomorrow. there are a total of 69 delegates in the state but 15 of them are floating around for the most part. the win are takes all if only the candidate receives over 50%. mitt romney. >> that's not going to happen. >> he had been very competitive. it looked like it was going to be a cake walk for a while. mitt romney has energized the tea party members and the religious conservatives and they're interested in pulling the lever for him tomorrow. >> one group that mitt romney

needs is women and his wife was out over the weekend coming to his rescue. this is what she had to say. >> is there anyone in here that's going to vote for obama next time? is there anybody? we're really upset and i love it that women are upset, too, that a women are talking about the economy. i love that! women are talking about jobs. women are talking about deficit spending. thank you, women! we need you. we all need you in november, too, we have to remember why we're upset and what we've got to do to fix things. >> and why romney is doing that, she knows the polls show right now the president has a 49-37 advantage over mitt romney with women when it comes to men, mitt has the advantage by five points, 48-43. meanwhile, senator john mccain was on the shows yesterday and he was talking -- characterizing this race. comparing it to his past races. in fact, every race that he's seen and witnessed first hand or

taken part in in the race for the primary, listen to what he said. listen to what he thinks. >> this is the nastiest i have ever seen and again, when you have las vegas casino mogul, by the way, who gets part of this money from a cow, pouring $20 million into one campaign and most of those are negative ads, obviously, that drives up people's unfavorable so it's a result of the worst decision the united states supreme court has made in many years. >> talking about the super pacs and talking about she would on attleson from las vegas and thinks that newt gingrich is the best candidate and single handedly propelled, i think, possibly newt gingrich to that win in south carolina. >> former mississippi governor haley barbour was on one of the chat shows yesterday and revealed to a abc correspondent afterwards that he voted for newt gingrich in mississippi. he also had -- said this on television and that was that all

this republican fighting, you would think, would be helpful to the president. it hasn't been. here's haley. >> i don't think anybody in their right mind thinks the way the primary has played out has been good for the republican chances. what to me is remarkable is it hasn't helped obama much. if this republican kind of primary is really hurting, he ought to be soaring. well, he's not soaring. >> he's not soaring. >> his approval rating is under 50% in every poll and he drops six points in march as compared to where he lost in february and i think it goes back to, among many things, gas prices. >> absolutely. when you look at the fact that the president had the chance to go ahead and green light the keystone xl pipeline and said no. keep in mind, that thing had been approved before a long time ago. >> right. >> and he said nope, the republicans are making a political and we're not going to do it. >> and as consumers are paying more and more for gas, you're looking at according to the

usda, the price of beef, the price of pork and the pry of corn and bread all up in the past year. consumers are feeling it at home, they're paying more for gas and more food. they're making less money. are you doing better than you were four years ago? and how you answer that question has a lot to do with how you feel about the government. >> on a different note, if you go to harlem and go to p. s. 28, you might look at the flagpole and wonder why is that all torn up? why is that all tattered? why is it allowed to fly? >> yep, a fellow by the name of sergio villavedi, a coast guard marine commander saw that flag in january and wrote to the principal and asked him to fix it. a month later, it was still in that condition. so he called the city's hotline, 311, complained in january. complained in march. and get this, the department of education when asked by one of the newspapers here in new york, the department of education said that flag, that's the janitor's problem. don't bother us.

talk to the custodian. >> it's actually a federal law that you can't display a flag in this condition and it's supposed to be taken down at nightfall unless it's artificially lit -- there's all kinds of rules for this. they're obviously following none of them. they have other things to do but vets nearby are saying this is not the right image to be showing our kids. >> especially in new york city. what does the veteran say? this, as a military person and veteran, i feel like it's highly disrespectful to have a flag like that, that the kids walk by every day. it's just a bad lesson to teach our kids. i have a hunch they will be changing that flag. >> i got a feeling it's going to be a brand new flag later on today but interestingly enough, i think this is a story from "the new york post." i read some of the comments and one of the commenters said if the principal can't control the custodian, how do you expect him to control the kids? >> first job, cleaning erasers. second job, fix the flag. >> i don't think they have erasers anymore. you're dating yourself. >> they have erasers!

>> no, they have smart boards. >> as long as they still clean the desk with babo, i'm ok with that. >> although, anyway. i'm going to let it go. >> what do you think? e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. >> am i really out of date saying clean the erasers? >> they have erasers in my kids' school. >> ok. coming up, is the department of energy breaking its own rules while handing out loans to green energy companies? congressman darrell issa says absolutely and he has the evidence you have not heard until now. >> air traffic controllers forced to guide pilots with nothing but walkie-talkies? >> breaker, breaker. i think it's time to land. [ male announcer ] have you heard?

it's bring your happiness to work day. campbell's microwavable soups. in three minutes -- the deliciousness that brings a smile to any monday. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do. >> turns out the department of energy is reportedly breaking its own rules while doling out

loans to green energy companies. spending over $3 billion investing in new technologies but they've been use in europe for seven years. obviously not new. joining us is the chairman from the house oversight committee. always good to see you. >> thanks for having me back. >> you have so many different expertise. let's focus on the main thing, oversight. this solar company wants to build solar panels. if they're just building solar panels they're not going to get energy loans. they told everybody they're bringing something new to the industry. what are they bringing new? >> what they is they took advantage of two things. one, technology already available in europe. two, they brought another company to get a place in line sooner and ultimately, the professional staff at department of energy ruled against this and were overridden by political appointees and clearly wanted to make these loans and were willing to bend the loans to make them. >> how much different stories do we have coming out of green

energy companies whether it's solyndra where these loans -- where the companies are going belly up or the company in massachusetts that's a vacant part of the believe, what i'm wondering is did the president go outside the lines not checking with you guys first before allocating this stimulus money that is supposed to be used only for emergency? >> very clearly what happened is when the stimulus was passed, it was passed with only democratic votes in the house and the senate. they were requested by the president and they left it to where that $800 billion was essentially, if you will a president earmark. in most cases, they could do what they were doing without ever coming back to congress and that's what they've been doing. >> we went to the department of energy and couldn't get a comment from them. while i was actually talking -- >> the secretary will be commenting in front of our committee. >> what day is that? >> tuesday. >> look at all the failed green energy companies and the premise of the stimulus package was to get us out of a mess. we were hitting a fiscal wall.

is this an emergency situation? do these solar panels have to be built? do these electric cars have to be done? >> of course not. these were long reach programs and basically that's the nature of where the deception was. stimulus was supposed to be quick. in fact, they never intended to spend it and will not completely have effectively spent it until after the president's re-elect always looking at how do you get the maximum hit when the president was up for re-elect? the problem is some of these programs against every intention by the administration to bail them out are showing they were insolvent, bad decisions sooner than they expected. they really expected these to last past the president's re-elect. >> and it absolutely has and in many cases, the president and vice president in front of those companies hailing those companies and they end up having troubles. >> state dinners, visits to the white house, trips by the president and vice president. they were all in companies. they were companies that ideologically they wanted to invest in. >> i'll see you next week at the armed forces foundation.

you are a veteran of the armed services as well and big supporter of the troops. congressman issa in the studio. we move ahead now. have you seen this ad? >> not as shovel ready as we expected. >> if i don't have this done in three years -- >> coming up, i'm caught up in it. frank luntz has here and he has stunning new findings. the ads against president obama are working with democrats? ladies, leave your luggage at home and we'll tell you about the island that's reserved for men only.

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>> time for news by the numbers. that's the price at the pump staying up $3.84, the national average for a gallon of gas. that's up $0.04 from a week ago and $0.30 from last month. word is that means a lot. next, $97.6 billion is how much apple had in cash the end of last year. it will issue dividends to shareholders. today marks nine years since the u.s. began operation iraqi freedom. 448 of our nation's finest sacrificed during that war. >> we've seen and heard so many negative g.o.p. ads. what do they think about the ads against president obama? >> here to break it down, our buddy frank luntz. >> it's changing. a majority of the ads against barack obama are not working today and one of the reasons why is the voters' threshold for

negativity has gotten so high, it has to be credible and has to be emotional for it to cut through and a majority of the negative ads aren't working right now. >> you isolated two ads and the first one will be from cross roads and you say it's working because? >> because it has specific information and shows the president saying, making promises that he did not keep. let's take a look at the first ad. >> he promised. >> we're investing in a clean energy economy with the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. >> it's used with politics at every level. 500 million to solyndra. now bankrupt. nearly $100 million to a pet project teetering on default. laid off workers, forgotten. typical washington. tell president obama we need jobs. not more insider deals. >> that was so interesting. if you looked at the democrats through that, it was up in the beginning and then went off. what was that you were telling us? >> they thought it was a pro

obama ad and then realized it was a negative obama ad but the last phrase, we need jobs and not empty promises. you'll see that phrase a lot in the election campaign and that's what made that ad so effective. >> also, famously and if you could have one do over, the president, for one soundbite, it would be three years ago when he was talking to matt lauer he said if i don't have this done in three years, it will be a one term proposition. that's come back to haunt him. >> the american people say it's not your fault, after three years, you should have fixed it. that's why this ad did so well. let's take a look. >> if i don't have this done in three years, it's going to be a one term proposition. >> i signed into law the american recovery and reinvestment act. conduct a rigorous analysis of this plan and come up with projections of how many jobs it will create. >> this is going to be a one term proposition. >> we'll create or save more

than three million jobs. >> this is going to be a one term proposition. >> more than two million americans out of poverty. >> there's going to be a one term proposition. >> immediately jump-start job creation as well as long-term economic growth. this is going to be a one term proposition. this stimulus package is just right. >> congratulations to you on that legislation passing. >> we hear the stimulus, we hear what has been right by the way, wildly successful. >> shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected. >> if i don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one term proposition. >> hold my administration accountable for these results. >> it's all his language. it's all his words. it's almost like a history lesson. >> right. >> by barack obama and people look at this and they say you know what? i know why i voted for you but you didn't deliver what you promised. that's why that rnc ad is so

effective. >> do people feel like it's less negative if you're using the candidate's voice but you're using his own voice against him. >> it's not only negative. that's honest. they don't want the spin. they want to know what did you do, what did you do and what are the results? and ads like the two you just saw show exactly that. remember, the higher the lines climb, the most persuasive. those are two of the most persuasive ads on television right now. >> let's fast forward to the general, if it is rick santorum or mitt romney, are there things they have said in the primary necessarily fair game? >> you are going to get all of it. we are going to get all of those mitt romney comments strung together, one after another. and the question is -- is it credible? this is why that ad works so well. it was the longer soundbite. i know it was a minute ad which is tough but that meant you got to hear exactly what he said. if they think you're taking it out of context, they'll punish you. if they think that it's done in a correct perspective, they will reward you with support and by the way, you at home, if you want to dial these ads, just go

to luntzglobal.com. luntzglobal.com and you can get a device and turn it up and down. and i promise, it will not electrocute you. >> thank you very much for dropping by the curvy couch. good to have you live in the studio. >> thank you. pleasure. >> another ad we are dissecting this morning, the president's 17 minute film made by an oscar winning director. >> donald trump here next with his reaction to that. air traffic controllers forced to guide pilots with walkie-talkies. land it right there on runway 39 per. dad, you are not meeting him looking like that. i look fine. just a little trouble with a bargain brand cooking spray. i told you like a gajillion times to use new and improved pam. it's 70% better than that bargain stuff. see? look i gotta go.

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>> time for your shot of the morning. british prime minister david cameron getting paddled by the press over his gift to president obama. cameron called the tennis table a proud example of british manufacturer. problem is it's made in china it was only painted in england to include the american and british flags. >> just what he wanted. didn't you want one of those anyway? >> you know what? president obama has made it work. >> and our president gave david cameron last week a barbecue grill. >> made by george foreman. >> no. only the champion.

>> with flags on it. >> all right. now time for your headlines. a desperate search under way in california for a missing teenage girl. 15-year-old sierra was last seen early friday morning walking to her school bus stop a half mile from her home. police say they have found her cell phone in a field nearby. her parents understandably are worried sick. poor thing. >> come home, you're not in trouble. everyone wants to see you. >> can't believe she would not contact her friends and let them know she's ok and do this. she would never want us to go through all this pain. >> heartbreaking. police not ready to rule out foul play. will spend the next few days interviewing her friends and combing the woods near her home. >> they say she's been practicing in front of a mirror for days. kate middleton getting ready to deliver her very first public speech today. the duchess of cambridge will reportedly speak at a children's

hospice center in england. she made her first solo military appearance this weekend presenting st. patrick's day shamrocks to members of the irish guard. >> that's why she's wearing green. >> meanwhile, some airline passengers are probably very happy they didn't know this. air traffic controllers forced to walk pilots through their landings by walkie-talkie. it's all because an air traffic control tower at john wayne airport in southern california lost power. it had been running on a back-up generator since friday but even that clunked out. several flights were delayed as a result and they did apparently use the walkie-talkies to bring them in. >> wow! >> so you've heard of the man cave, right? an australian beer company is going one step further. a man island. >> huh? >> men only island retreat. the beautiful location on an island on the southern great barrier reef is called pumpkin island now but in october, it

will be xxxx island. they get to go on the trip in the fall. that raises so many questions. opens it up to to so many jokes. i'm new. i'm not going to dive on them. you should feel free. >> not when we find out that donald trump is on the line. my ad libs come to a crashing halt because done trump is here. welcome to the week, mr. trump. >> i don't think your ad libs will ever come through. there's nothing you can do to kill that. we don't want to stop them! >> there you go. donald, some bad news in the world of show business. rosie o'donnell's show killed by oprah winfrey. your reaction, sir? >> well, i always knew that oprah was smart and frankly, that was just going to happen. i knew it immediately. when they announced it, rosie fails at everything. she had a variety show, it failed. i mean, she -- i don't understand now, somebody else, some moron will come and hire her again to do something else and that will fail. at some point, let her rest.

let her go away. she'll never make it and i've said it for years. she'll never make it. she must have a very good agent. >> no kidding. what about the whole oprah winfrey network? i mean, nobody is watching that. >> well, i don't know. i mean, oprah is a great friend of mine. i did one of her last shows and i think she's a terrific person but i disagreed with her hiring, i said that's the beginning of the end with rosie. but oprah is a terrific person. she will -- she'll always do fine. >> let's turn to politics for a second. mitt romney out on the trail with this weekend. he said, you know, he's made enough money. he wants now to make you successful. the public successful. let's listen to what he had to say. >> i am not in this race to make money. i've already made enough. i've worked for the last 10 years -- i've worked for the last 10 years without taking a salary. i'm not -- i'm not embarrassed

about being successful but i'm embarrassed for people who think there's something wrong with that. i want to help people become successful for themselves. >> you know, donald, he says he's not embarrassed but i've often wondered why he doesn't turn that argument around and say, you know, i've made $250 million for myself from nothing. look what i've done, you know, i can do the same for the country. he kind of doesn't go out there and sell that. what advice would you give him on that front? do you think that's a good idea? >> right, i've said that and i've actually discussed it and he should be very proud. he's done a great job. he's made a lot of money. he's put a lot of people to work. and it's really wonderful to, you know, to hear his -- to hear him talking about the american dream because ultimately, what he's doing is talking about something very sacred to us. that's the american dream. and that's a good thing. >> right. i want you to hear what david axelrod said yesterday about mitt romney and his economic credentials. david axelrod came out flying because president obama's approval rating is dropping. listen. >> i do watch him parading around this state calling

himself an economic heavyweight and it's the same pitch that he made in 2002 to the people in massachusetts and what happened? massachusetts went to 10th in the nation in job creation to 47th. their debt went up 16.5%. government jobs grew at six times the rate of private sector jobs. if he thinks he's an economic heavyweight, he must be looking in a funhouse mirror. that is not the record of an economic heavyweight. >> donald, your reaction? >> well, i have to say this. president obama is a complete and total disaster! and i really believe that his statement, his soundbite last week that the president of the united states has absolutely no power over oil prices or gasoline prices could lose him the election and i think if oil prices go up, he will in fact lose the election and it wouldn't even be that close. >> i think romney is going to win in illinois and i think he's doing very well and we'll see what happens but i just think that the soundbite that obama gave last week that he has

absolutely no power to do anything about oil prices was amazing. >> and the thing about that is, donald, as you recall back in 2008, he was making the same arguments about then senator running for president about, look, you know, we need to be doing this and this and this. ok. he's got three years under his belt. you would have thought he had done some of that stuff. he did none of it and now we're in a pickle. >> and lots of votes like debt limit votes and then he went against that and he does lots of things and did lots of things before he was president that all of a sudden, he turned on. but if you look at what is happening with oil prices, we could have -- we're in a very fragile state, the economy, and you look at what's taking place with respect to oil prices, it could be the end of the economy but it could also be the end of obama. >> and energy secretary has said that will be a good thing about energy prices -- if gas prices went up and actually got the job after that statement and then had to walk it back last

week. it was not a good week. the 17 minute video came out, tom hanks is voicing it over. it talks about how the president is dealing with adversity. is that a good move on his part? >> well, you have to do something. look, you're running for president and you're in there. he spends -- he must spend 95% of his time running for president using the beautiful boeing 747 to go from place to place at taxpayer expense because believe me, they reimburse us a very tiny portion of that. but look, he is running. he does need videos. if tom hanks who i like very much is going to get involved in a video, then obama got lucky. but the fact is that, you know, when you run for office, you do good videos about yourself whether you're a democrat or republican. >> no, without question. although it is the message and it's the record, of course, this is brit hume this weekend reacting to it. >> he will be judged not on the basis who started the trouble but whether he finished it. whether he got us out of these ditches that we're in in a number of ways. i think that's what has to worry

about the president and all the attempts are politically foolish and they seem small, petty, weak, look, winners take responsibility. losers blame others. >> is that true? do you agree? >> i think it's very well said actually, i mean, we are in trouble. we've got a lot of things going wrong. other countries, you look at what's going to china, it's boom town u.s.a. china, what's happening for china because of the u.s.a. is incredible because we're rebuilding china. we are simply and nobody talks about it. we are rebuilding china. you look at what's going on over there. then you look at the opec nations, you look at others, they're doing so well and look at us. we're doing not well at all. you know, i oftentimes give the analogy, when is the last time you saw a bridge? a major bridge like a verrazano or george washington, when is the last time you see a bridge being built in this country? you go to china and they're building it all over the place. we are largely doing that.

we are rebuilding china and it has to stop! >> we do build bridges. evidently, china is building them for us which is unbelievable. all right, though, as also, last night, i'm allowed to stay one night up late and it's sunday night and i'm watching the whole thing and i saw that lou feregno is leading how to sell a mop got the men exonerated putting all the pressure on the women and the hottest woman on the panel gets -- what were you thinking, donald? you kicked -- you fired the wrong woman last night. tia is gone! >> tia was the project manager and her team lost and you have to hand it to lou. lou just wants to win so badly, poor lou, he's really in there pitching and working and everybody is against lou. a lot of them don't like lou. but he is in there trying but you have to understand, she was the project manager. her team lost. and just about everybody felt -- and she even felt she should be fired. >> brian just thinks there should be a beauty life line. >> i mean, can you do a save for something like that?

>> yeah, but that's very good. but she's a great woman. she's a great person but it was her time to go. >> there you go. maybe rosie o'donnell could be on "celebrity apprentice"? >> you know what? maybe that's a good idea but i don't think we'll take her. you know the problem is she'd be the first one fired so what's the point? >> yeah, there you go. >> all right, donald trump joins us every monday at this time. thank you, sir, have a great week. >> ok, thank you very much. >> 19 minutes before the top of the hour. the white house contraception mandate just got even more controversial but chances are you haven't heard about this one. peter johnson jr. here with brand new details. >> but first, it's the trivia question of the day -- man, i'm glad aflac pays cash.

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>> in another friday night document dump, the obama administration expanding its contraception mandate despite objections from religious employers. it will now require religious colleges and universities, among others, to provide free contraception to students as well as employees. fox news legal analyst peter johnson jr. is here with his prescription for truth. >> good morning, everybody. hey, how are you doing? >> they released this information on friday so nobody would be talking about it today but you are. >> we're talking about it today because this is the most unprecedented and radical intrusion into religious freedom in this country's history in the past 100 years. half century. the federal government is saying yes, we're for religious liberty but we are not respecting the rights of the catholic church, the rights of catholic universities, the rights of

catholic social service agencies to chart its own course, its own moral and religious course with regard to contraception and more importantly, with regard to those drugs that actually induce abortions so the federal government is saying, listen, we're not going to make you pay directly catholic institutions for these but your folks are still going to be getting these. the federal government is going to make sure this is free to them and they're going to get it so don't you worry yourselves about it. the moral and religious implications. we'll take it out of the equation. you're going to wind paying for it anyway? how are you going to wind up paying for it anyway? there's a pool of costs, employers and employees are going to pay into this pool of insurance. >> right. in some cases, catholic institutions are self-insured so, you know, they're -- that's obvious, they're going to wind up paying. >> self-insured is even going to be a bigger scam that the federal government is

perpetrating. they're saying something called a third party administrators. who the catholic institutions pay. their agents that administer the programs, they'll pay for it and somehow they'll get the money from big pharma that supported obamacare to begin with and they'll kick in dollars and we'll make it all right and women's rights will be preserved and we'll also preserve religious liberty. they're not preserving religious liberty and it's phony about religious rights. >> when they say it's a war on women, you say? >> well, that's a fiction. it's a short-term political war in 2012 to ensure that the president wins. the problem is those who are defeated are those that stand up for religious liberty. this time it happens to be catholicism. catholics that is hurt but in the future, who will it be? what group will be hurt by the lack of religious freedom that's being perpetrated by the federal

government, by this obamacare mandate. today, it's the catholics. tomorrow, who knows? >> well, in listening to cardinal dolan, he's not going to -- >> he's not backing down and the catholics are the swing vote in this election. >> you're right. all right, peter johnson jr., thank you very much. >> good to see you. >> straight ahead, he may be down in delegates, don't count out rick santorum. he says he has a strategy to secure the nomination. he is here live next. first on this date back in 1979, remember this song? beegees. "tragedy." [ male announcer ] have you heard? it's bring your happiness to work day. campbell's microwavable soups. in three minutes -- the deliciousness that brings a smile to any monday. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do.

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>> the trivia question, glenn close. everyone got it but who got it first? michael from hudson, ohio. you know who you are. you got something special. meanwhile, 9 minutes before the

top of the hour. republican candidate rick santorum making quite a promise on saturday ahead of tomorrow's primary in illinois. >> this is a primary and turnout is everything! you do your job. you do your job. and this is the pledge. if we're able to come out of illinois with a huge or surprise win, i guarantee you, i guarantee you that we will win this nomination. >> joining us now is former pennsylvania senator and 2012 presidential g.o.p. candidate rick santorum. thanks so much for joining us, senator. we heard your pledge. >> thank you, melissa. >> but obviously, the numbers don't quite get you there. right now, mitt romney having 521 delegates. you have less than half of that. so what's behind this pledge that this victory is so key to take you all the w i mean, thisa victory in a state that has, you know, governor romney has an

overwhelming advantage in both in demographics, you know, this state is dominated by the city of chicago and the suburban and urban areas which governor romney has run well in and we -- we've been outspent here badly again. and we can come back and show that we've got this core base of the republican party here in the state of illinois, that they are rejecting mitt romney in spite of all the advantages he has in this race. i think that will send a signal that this race is heading in our direction, that they -- that the republican party wants to nominate a conservative. they don't want a moderate massachusetts governor forced down their throats, someone who cannot provide the contrast that we need with barack obama and i think illinois could be a big key to that. >> right. i want to bring you back to january when you were in single digits and just struggling along trying to get your name known before you became second in this race. and looking to be first, you had an opportunity to almost k.o. the romney campaign in illinois really because of the state

treasurer. tell me about that decision because part of that decision has -- has you not eligible to get any delegates in four separate -- four separate districts so do you regret that? >> well, brian, as you know, we had to file for delegates in illinois in december of last year. and as you know, brian, i was -- i was driving around in iowa, in a dodge ram pickup truck and we had four or five staff people for the entire country. we had limited resources and here's the interesting thing, there were a whole bunch of states, about 20 states that you had to get on the ballot in december and again, we had virtually no resources and we had to -- we had to use volunteers in most of these states but what we did do is we dedicated tens of thousands of dollars in resources. instead of putting them in iowa where i was fighting for my political survival. we put them in getting on the ballots in most of the states that the handful of states that we had trouble getting a full slate on, illinois was one of them, had very byzintine rules

that require a lot of signatures and a lot of organization on the ground in these states. we simply didn't have the volunteers. i would make the argument that we've done a remarkable job given the organizational problems, you know, we naturally had before we won iowa and getting as many states and being competitive that we are. >> let me bring you back to it. i don't want to go too deep into election process but basically, the governor of massachusetts got his petitions notarized in massachusetts. and both camps mutually decided not to challenge each other. do you regret that? >> no, not really. look, i'm not the person in this race who is going out there trying to disqualify ballots. i think that, you know, we should have ballot requirements, let the candidates on. if you're a legitimate candidate for president, they shouldn't have these ballot requirements that as i saw particularly in virginia, that keep legitimate candidates off the ballot. i've never played that game.

i believe that governor romney should be on every ballot and i would hope that he and all the other candidates would try to encourage that we would and other candidates get on the ballot. this shouldn't be a contest of following, you know, arcane rules in each state of the country. this should be about making sure that we have a clear vote for president. >> senator, real quick before you go, do you think if you made it to the general election, you would have to soften your message. a lot of the media has painted awe as right wing extremist. would you stick with what you are? >> that's what they said about ronald reagan. i'm going to be in dixon, illinois, today standing in front of ronald reagan's statue and i encourage you to look back at the press reports about how out of step ronald reagan was and he was too conservative to win and, you know, he has to soften his message. and reagan stood up and articulated a clear conviction about who we are as americans and americans were drawn to it and i think that's what's happened in the general. >> as a former employee here at

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the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer. >> good morning. today is monday, march 19. i'm melissa. tornadoes strike the midwest again. taking down homes,ers and a tree. there are reports of people trapped at this hour. we have breaking details on that news. >> steve: meanwhile, wasn't media matters supposed to guarantee fairness in the media? liberal funded group now starting to show its true colors. they have taken sides with al-jazeera. >> brian: cindy lauper sang "true colors." he kept his secret hobby fore years. did you know ronald reagan was an artist? "fox & friends" starts right

now. >> okay, melissa. >> brian: dr. ruth. what is the story behind melissa? >> steve: alisyn camerota was interviewing dr. ruth westheimer and she apparently thought that alisyn's first name was melissa. she called her that. >> melissa: i was really nervous about that. i didn't know where we were going with that. >> steve: but you're also mommy and you got the update from your children. what are they doing? >> melissa: i said brush your teeth, boys, before you leave the house and i got a message that they're doing it right now. good for you guys. >> steve: you want to boss me and brian around. >> melissa: i hope you both brush your teeth. >> brian: and we floss. >> steve: from the business channel, we're delighted you would join us. >> melissa: let's get to your headlines. extreme weather alert.

nebraska tornadoes, two touchdowns in north plat. the strength derailed at least 15 railroad cars. several homes also damaged. other tornadoes reported elsewhere in the state. tornadoes also touched down in oklahoma. you are looking at video of one of the twisters tearing through willow, oklahoma, western oklahoma bracing for more severe weather. wow. hundreds of people forced from their homes because of this wild fire. it is raging across northern colorado at this hour. high winds fanning the flames, destroying two homes, several others were in harm's way. evacuation orders for the town lasting throughout the night. no word when people can return home. three firefighters were hurt. their injuries thankfully are minor. american soldier accused of killing 16 people in afghanistan is waking up in an isolated jail cell in kansas this morning. army staff sergeant robert bales expected to be charged this week. his lawyer now in kansas to meet

with bales faced him. here he is pleading his case moments after stepping off the plane. >> everybody has three or four deployments to the middle east and probably going to have some form of ptsd. i know he had a concussive head injury which is more serious. >> melissa: the family release ago statement saying their, quote, son, husband, father, and dedicated member of the armed services. an actor, president and an artist? these drawings by president ronald reagan are from the private archive of margaret thatcher. among the drawings, a man in a hat smoking a pipe, male torso, and an eye. the president is said to have drawn these sketches during a summit in 1981 after

apparently -- thatcher apparently swiped them during a break. >> steve: are you suggesting he may have been day dreaming? >> melissa: whose torso is he sketching there? >> melissa: good question. >> steve: maybe just an art project. >> melissa: could be some of the torsos we were showing at the begin from some of the presidential candidates out there in their bathing suits. >> brian: right. i don't think so. but that's theory. >> steve: i don't think that was rick santorum. >> brian: president obama is hitting the campaign trail again to push his energy policy. but it isn't sitting well with the gop. >> steve: with more on that, wendell goler joins us live from the north lawn of the white house and what looks like a beautiful day. wendell. >> lovely day. the president headed wednesday and thursday to nevada, new mexico, oklahoma and ohio to showcase his all of the above energy approach. he'll visit a plant powering 17,000 homes and an oil and gas production facility on federal land. republicans are calling it a campaign trip.

white house hopes it counters their claims that the president is paying too much attention to alternative energy sources and not enough to fossil fuel. the president took a shot at newt gingrich claiming he could bring back 2.50 a gallon gasoline. >> it's easy to promise a quick fix when it comes to gas prices. there just isn't one. anyone who tells you otherwise, any career politician who promises some 3-point plan for $2 gas, they're just looking for your vote. >> the latest spike in gasoline prices is caused a corresponding shrimp in his poll numbers. even if people don't blame him, they don't like what he's doing about it and the republicans are taking advantage of it. here is mitt romney. >> seen his plan on energy, put a moratorium on drilling in the gulf, don't get oil out of anwar in alaska, turn down the keystone pipeline? how do you get that one wrong?

he's made it harder and harder to get coal out of the ground and harder and harder to use coal. all of these things kill jobs, send money outside our country, make our energy supply less reliable. if i'm president, i will instead do the opposite. i will open up drill not guilty anwar, open up drilling in north dakota, i'll get our gas out of the ground. [ applause ] i'll make sure we can get our coal out of the ground and bring in that pipeline from canada! >> the president will also visit cushing, oklahoma, where keystone excel will start work on a segment running to the texas coast while they find a route for the pipeline running from canada around the aqua fir in nebraska. >> steve: thank you very much. live from washington, d.c. where i understand tomorrow the cherry blossoms will be at their 100% maximum bloom. >> brian: but we're not going to believe that until mike emmanuel calls in.

let's talk about puerto rico. 20 delegates go to mitt romney. he got 83% of the vote. leaves him with 521 delegates overall. santorum with 253. gingrich won 36. ron paul with 15. i haven't seen him in ages. all the focus is really on illinois. it's the new michigan, the new ohio. >> steve: let's talk a little bit about that. their primary is tomorrow. there will be 54 delegates up for grabs. they have a total of 59 and 15 are floaters. hard to explain. they've got -- one of the things is this also, like puerto rico, is a winner take allstate if you get above 50%. the chances of that, though, for either candidate who currently are leading slim. according to real clear politics, mitt romney leads santorum by 6 1/2 points. >> melissa: right. we talked to senator santorum just in the last hour who says that this -- this will take him right to the nomination. it was interesting to hear him talk about that. he sounded really confident in

spite of the fact he is ill down in the poll right now. >> brian: it's not done by a popular vote. it's done by the district. you got to win these districts. you can win the popular vote and not get most of the delegates. but rick santorum, four districts he's not eligible four. the max delegates he could get is 44. a lot of people saying illinois is a moderate state and the midwest has done good things for mitt romney. but the fact is, in 2008, the stats read they're becoming more and more conservative in illinois. so rick santorum would have somewhat of a leg up. you can see by mitt romney's rhetoric that he believes that being more conservative gets him a victory. he yesterday said senator santorum has the same characteristics as president obama in terms of background, spent his life in government, never run anything. those are the buzz words with a guy who wants to be more conservative. >> steve: mr. santorum has done a good job lighting a fire under the tea party out there and they

are energized. meanwhile, according to the white house, they've just twittered that president obama has raised $45 million in february. what's interesting about that is the fact that there is also a story out this morning that shows that while during the first hope and change phase when the president was running four years ago, he had a lot of people who supported him to the tune of at least $2,000. take a look at this graphic. supporters who donated more than $2,000 back then, 23,000. right now, less than half that. >> brian: only 7% supported him with money the first time around, are supporting him again. that's much lower than was expected. you're still doing good, but the billion dollars thing is not going to happen. if you read karl rove did the math on thursday, put the column out friday, he said listen, he's behind what we were doing with george w. bush. we had half as many fund-raiser

as he had. if he wants that billion dollars, he's getting half as much he needs every month. the administration came back the reelection side ask said we never said we wanted a billion dollars. wait a second. they say that every day! >> steve: he also pointed this out, the burn rate for this campaign is enormous. in month of january, they spent $17 million. they only took in 11. you do that very long, you start operating at deficit. >> melissa: and speaking of a story that you fired up on a monday morning, monday school morning, we talked to a parent who is outraged 'cause her children go to a school in southern california, capri elementary school, where the school has decided that they're going to go ahead and immerse all of the kids in dual language classes. so it's no longer an option to have english only education. that everybody will take math, science, everything in both spanish and english. the mom that we talked to, karen

brink, already has a child, older child enrolled in the school and they offered them the option if you don't want to do this, you can send your kids to another school across town. she's saying she doesn't really want to send both of her kids to different schools. here is what she had to say earlier. >> no, i would not want to participate in a dual language immersion program. again, it's just my choice and that's what i'm arguing against. don't take my choice away. don't leave my leave my local neighborhood school and fracture my family. that's really what it's about. don't take our choice away. general education should not be taken and dictated by a program. we should be allowed to have an english speaking only language program in our general education. >> brian: wow. we know there is a heavy hispanic population down there. but that is no right to make english not the number one language. the superintendent says this, defending the proposal, all change is hard. sometimes there are short-term pains, but there may be long-term gains. like the whole country could be

speaking two languages. >> steve: sure. so we asked you what you thought. here is an e-mail from truman in florida, only a pc idiot would ever suggest such a thing. teaching in two languages begs the question, aren't we discriminating against people who speak languages other than diminish and spanish? let's do it in 172 languages. >> melissa: that's a pretty good point. then looking at twitter, larry williams tweet, that would be fine if the schools are located in mexico. >> steve: you know, it would be daunting, can you imagine, if you are a kindergartener, who is going into kindergarten and you're going to learn everything in english and spanish. that's going to be daunting. but at the same time, if you live particularly that close to mexico, maybe that would be very handy to have that in your tool box. >> brian: in kindergarten, they're still learning shapes. >> steve: the problem is, for a lot of the families, if you want your kid taught in english, you have to cart your kid across schools. >> melissa: in our schools that

offer immersion, this is a popular thing, depending on the language. i think her point was she wants the choice, that she's being forced to do this in a public school setting and that doesn't seem fair to her. it seems like her rights have been taken away. >> brian: 13 minutes after the hour. tweet us. the government thought she was dead. so it helped itself to her bank account. how did that happen? we'll explain. >> steve: she looks okay now. >> melissa: she does. she looks okay. and wasn't media matters supposed to guarantee fairness in the media? the liberal funded group taking sides with al-jazeera? >> steve: why not [ male announcer ] what's the beat that moves your heart? how about the beat of a healthy heart? campbell's healthy request soup is delicious, and earned this heart, for being heart healthy. ♪ feel the beat? it's amazing what soup cano.

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>> steve: the organization in a claims to prevent media bias is taking a side. left wing site media matters is

teaming up with al-jazeera. joining us now is senior editor of the daily caller, jamie weinstein. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> steve: how are they teaming up? >> there are links between the two. one is that through its foreign policy voice, mj rosenberg, everything he writes for media matters action network are most of what he writes is posted as a column on al-jazeera. it's not like he's attacking their anti-american, anti-israeli biases. he's often saying that the network promulgates and promotes them. he gave speech in al-jazeera at this forum in cutter where they're headquartered. and basically he praised al-jazeera as factual and main stream while bashing fox news and gave what was in effect the stunning speech where he

attacked america for deliberately attacking al-jazeera bases in iraq or afghanistan. so as a fairly stunning speech, but shows this kind of acceptance of al-jazeera and links with it. >> steve: you were talking about this m.j. rosenberg, one of the fellows at media matters. here he is during one of those speeches where he refers to al-jazeera as a main stream media outfit. >> you want to talk to the arab and muslim world and also even much of the world. al-jazeera is very much a main stream network now. >> steve: oh, boy. i know i interviewed alan derchwics and he says media matters crossed the line into anti-semitism because they're tolerating him being on the payroll. >> mj rosenberg got a lot of heat for many things. one of which is he refers to

american supporters of israel as israel firsters. basically questioning their loyalty to the united states of america. he only recently last week said he won't use that term because it created a hubub. if you listen to his speech in qatar, he expresses unreserved joy that president obama is treating israeli prime minister worst than any president ever treated an israeli prime minister that he's taking israel to the mat. this is in front of what is probably largely an arab audience with anti-israel tendencies. he's laying it on thick. he doesn't mention the threats israel faces from iran or palestinian terrorism and never once criticizes al-jazeera's coverage of them. >> steve: it's crazy. he hates fox news, but he loves al-jazeera. man, something -- thank you very much for bring this to our attention. jamie weinstein from the daily caller joining us from d.c thank you. >> thank you. >> steve: wow. all right. 20 minutes after the top of the

hour. coming up, he's not your average doctor. our next guest saved bill clinton's life. now he's sharing his advice for the rest of us. then, is the department of energy breaking its own rules while handing out loans to green companies like solyndra? congressman darryl issa says absolutely. and he's got the evidence. in my line of work, it's not uncommon for the term "hero" to be bandied about. but does bringing a floor back to life really make us heroes? [ chuckles ] yes. yes, it does. ♪ call 1-800-steemer

the largest class size in the nation. 47th out of 50 in per-student funding. but right now, we can make history with a ballot measure to send every k-through-12 dollar straight to our schools. to every school and every child. not to sacramento.

it's the only initiative that can say all that. check out our online calculator and find out how your school would benefit. visit ourchildrenourfuture2012.com today. >> brian: fox news alert. the french prime minister has just ordered police across the country to quote, secure all schools and religious organizations until further notice. this after four people were shot and killed this morning outside

a jewish church. the victims were a teacher, his two young sons and the principal's daughter. the gunman escaped on a scooter. remains on the loose. we'll follow it. melissa? >> melissa: he's credited with saving president bill clinton's life. >> man who has helped the members of my family, including me, and who now believes that we can turn the obesity epidemic around and increase the wellness better through community through support, but most importantly worked with rick warren and satle back church where over 14,000 of his church members now lost more than 250,000 pounds. please welcome the incredibly energetic and creative dr. mark hyman. >> melissa: wow, if that's not an endorsement! now he's helping us regular folks by tackling what he calls the diabesity epidemic. he's the author of the blood

sugar solution, the healthy program for losing weight, preventing disease and feeling great right now. what is diabesity? >> it affects one out of every two american, basically imbalance in your blood sugar. 90% of the people have it. don't know because their doctors aren't train to do diagnose or treat it. it's an imbalance in your blood sugar that causes diabetes and it's everywhere. >> melissa: how can you figure out if you have it? >> there is a few clues. you have belly fat, sugar cravings. you have high triglycerides. maybe high blood pressure, a family history of diabetes. you can be of nonwhite ethnic ancestry. all these are rich factors for it. >> melissa: one interesting you think is that the way to treat it is through what you eat. it's not medication. >> that's right. chronic disease is -- food is medicine. it's more powerful than any drug. it works faster, better and cheaper. >> melissa: you have the perfect plate. what's on that? >> i was thinking of what you

put on the end of your fork is more powerful than anything you'll find at the bottom of a prescription bottle. when i go to the grocery store, i think of it as my pharmacy. i think, how do i create the perfect plate? half of my plate is unlimited nonstarchy vegetable, like green beans, asparagus, could be broccoli, salad fixings quarter plate would be protein, lean chicken or fish. and the other quarter, even with a, brown reich maybe a sweet potato. that's the perfect plate. you want to eat early, often. have breakfast. eat in a way that keeps your blood sugar balanced. >> melissa: i ate one of those pack annual of those easter peeps last night, that's not good? >> not a good idea. most people -- the most popular thing is skittles. not good. >> melissa: you have a list of don't. i think my peeps are on that plate. what else is on there? >> a few things that are driving this epidemic causing this overwhelming obesity problem. one is sugar. we eat 150 pounds per person,

per year. high fructose corn syrup. one can of soda a day will increase a woman's chance of diabetes. two slices of white bread raises it. transfats, the bad fats. those things, you cut those out, you'll be healthy. >> melissa: what's the pitch you make to people like myself who are still eating peeps? >> i think the thing that people don't realize is that it's not just you're a little overweight that, this is the major driver of so many chronic illnesses. diabetes, heart attack, cancer, strokes, dementia. infertility, ask acne. >> melissa: thanks so much. i'm going to read your book. get a load of this, brand-new study is out ranking states by level of corruption. guess ha? not a single state got an a. plus, should a school be allowed to show off the stars and stripes in this kind of condition? why isn't this tattered flag taken down?

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it's bring your happiness to work day. campbell's microwavable soups. in three minutes -- the deliciousness that brings a smile to any monday. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do. >> steve: take a look at this. shot of the morning, a concerned husband truly thinking pink to help his wife fight cancer. this is photographer bob carey in a pink tutu, shirtless in

various locations across the world. his wife is batting breast cancer. >> melissa: that is love. >> steve: he's taking the pictures for a book. proceeds will go to breast cancer patients. it's called "the tutu project." look at him laying down. that looks like new york city. he says he hopes -- it helps him cope and let's him focus on something that is fun. that's great. the things we do for love. >> melissa: there you go. >> brian: there is a school in harlem that's got a flag pole and it's got a flag. the problem is, the shape the flag is in. >> steve: we're going to put up the picture. look at that. old glory not in her glory. that is public school 28 in harlem. >> brian: betsy ross would be furious. >> steve: she would get out a needle and thread and stitch it up. >> melissa: potentially -- actually there is a federal law against this. a flag is only supposed to be displayed in good condition, taken down at sunset. >> steve: this thing flies 24/7

and they don't have a light on it. there is a fellow by the name of sergio villaverde, coast guard reserve and he saw this in january and he contacted the principal and asked them to fix it. later that month, still there. so he called the city hot line to complain. they did nothing. he called again march 6. they did nothing. the department of education, when contacted by a local paper, said not our problem. is that is the janitor's department. so the janitor is responsible for old glory. >> brian: you might not live in harlem, but do you have an opinion on this. marion in ohio says instead of complaining about the tattered flag, the veterans who lodged the complaints should have bought a new flag and given it to the school. you can't make them put it up every day. >> melissa: people twittered in as well. drone watcher said sad and inexcusable. the school administration needs to be taught a serious lesson. obviously two sides of that.

>> brian: i assume drawn watcher looks up a lot. >> steve: if this guy calls the principal and talks to him at least once and says, you know, that's disgraceful, you ought to do something about it. >> melissa: take down even if you don't have another flag. >> brian: they're trying to get the guns away from the kids at that point. meanwhile, the rest of the headlines. department of energy now accused of cutting corners and breaking its own rules. so if you give out billions of loans to companies like solyndra. the solar company high school to use technologies. get it? earlier on "fox & friends," congressman darryl issa, who is doing the investigation, told us it's not working out that way. >> they really weren't bringing anything new. what they did was took advantage of two things. one, technology already available in europe. two, they bought another company to get a place in line sooner. and ultimately, the professional staff at department of energy ruled against this and were overridden by political appointees who clearly wanted to make these loans and were willing to bend the rules to

make them. >> brian: house republicans are prepared to grill energy secretary steven chiou this morning again over $1.6 billion in loans to finance two massive solar energy projects in the southwest. >> melissa: in a brand-new study outranking several states' level of corruption. guess what? not a single state got an a. the best grade was a b plus, which actually went to new jersey. go figure. and its republican chris christie a whopping eight states got an f. there they are on your screen. michigan, south carolina, maine, virginia, wyoming, georgia and north and south dakota. who knew corruption was rampant in south dakota? >> steve: yeah. kate middleton goes solo. she's not breaking up with the prince. she's delivering her very first public speech later today. she's expected to deliver a brief statement in a hospice center. she's been practicing in front of the mirror for a number of days. kate also made her first solo military appearance this

weekend, giving out st. patrick's day shamrocks to members of the irish guard. appreciative members of the irish guard. >> brian: 92-year-old woman from washington state declared dead by the government, but she still is alive. she raced to the bank, so the feds couldn't not take $17,000 out of her account. but. >> i thought i'd just say hi, i'm alive and she'd give me a hug. but she said no. it's not as simple as that. >> brian: betty longshore had to jump through bureaucratic hoops to prove to the social security administration that she's alive. she was declared dead after somebody pressed the wrong button on their computer. >> steve: take that button off. >> brian: eventually she convinced the feds and they dropped their claim on the retirement benefits. >> steve: you are so ipad. no button. >> melissa: it is time to get geeky. clayton morris went to one of the hottest tech events in the

country and now he's back with the download, low down, right? >> that's right. i had a chance to go to south by southwest festival in austin, texas. this is the area where twitter started. foursquare started there, all of these different companies showing off their apps trying to compete, trying to get your attention saying hey, brian, pay attention. here is my app. shear what i found for you. take a look. here we are in the heart of it all, the middle of south by southwest on the exhibit floor. hundreds of companies vying to get your attention. let's go find what's hot. this year it's all about connecting people. we are in an election year. i'm here with lou, with a polling app. >> what we do is use the answers that you give us to questions and then connect you to like minded people to discuss the issues with and opposing minded people can debate the issues.

>> i'm here with brett from sonar, one of the most buzzed about apps. >> it's a mobile application that uncovers the hidden connections you travel with people nearby. it shows you where your closest friends are and how you're connected. >> all of your friends there? >> i can click in, steve, brian, eating tacos around the corner. >> this early? >> yep, this early. never too early for tacos in austin. >> what better way to meet a company than come into a pub in the middle of austin, sit down with shelby tv and learn about it. >> i like to think of shelby as my place for video. there is so much great video on-line. a lot comes through facebook, tumbler, im. we pull all that stuff together. >> it gets rid of all the noise. like if your friends are constantly sharing cat videos and baby videos, and some are good, but it filters through and you're finding excellent videos to watch?

>> yeah, exactly. >> after a long day of covering south by southwest, you need to take a break. can't wait to get back here next year. already booked my flight for next year. >> melissa: do people mistake you for a nerdy college student? >> i go weekend don draper and walk around with a cocktail, too. >> brian: you can't write it off anymore. >> this year there aren't a lot of big breakthrough apps before. we saw huge companies that have you virtually gone public. this year there are not any break out, but over the year, you'll probably start using some of these apps. >> brian: no matter what they try to come up with, there is nothing that can replace the weather guy. you can't get an app for somebody to interact with.

>> steve: there is an app for that, brian. clayton, great job. you go out to an assignment, you get a massage. a week ago we sent rick reichmuth and he wound up with a manicure. we need to get out on the streets more often. >> we're sending you next week. >> brian: that should be great. >> steve: we are at -- great job, clayton. we're out on the streets because it is a beautiful last day of winter. spring officially starts tonight. so we thought we would go ahead and celebrate how nice it is with a samuel adams. theres. i'll bring it right in, brian. let's take a look at the maps, find out where it is appropriate to drink some beer. that will be the high temperatures in a minute. take a look. we got a big storm system moving through the central plains states at this hour. all the way from nebraska down through kansas. heavy stuff moving through the wichita area, down through oklahoma city and portions of

northern texas as well. also some widely scattered showers in portions of the tennessee and ohio valley. next map shows you the current reading as you step out. right now here in new york city at la guardia, it's 55. same temperature as raleigh-durham. we have 54 in cleveland. and it looks like the current temperature in chicago is 62 degrees. come on over here. there is a guy who is taking a picture of us while we were doing that. what's your name in. >> ken. >> steve: what's your name? >> raleigh, north carolina. >> steve: it's 65 degrees down there. how is your last day of winter? >> so far great. >> steve: do you watch the fox news channel? >> all the time. >> steve: really? do you even bother with the remote? >> well, when there is sports on. >> steve: see, brian? if there is not an app for weather, sometimes you need an app for sports. >> brian: absolutely. steve, give him a hug, tell him we got to go.

>> steve: keep in touch. i'll meet you back here in five years. >> melissa: from opening the emergency hatch to dropping their pants, anything can happen at 35,000 feet. a former flight attendant here to share some of her craziest stories. don't miss that. >> brian: new york city police commissioner putting critics in their place. it's about time. he's got a challenge to anyone attacking the nypd surveillance program or anything else he's doing. bring it on. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota.

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>> brian: new york city police commissioner firing back at those critics attacking the surveillance program. he's challenging them to come up with a better solution. ray kelly. joining us now is michael goodwin. he finally stood up last week and said enough. >> right. brian, this is one of those no good deed goes unpunished. under ray kelly and his predecessors and the new york police department, murder is down 75% in the last 18 years. there have been no successful terrorist attacks in ten years -- >> brian: 14 plots have been broken up. >> for that, he gets attack bid a lot of members of the new york city council, a lot of other political candidates and some of these professional interest

groups and the whiners who say you got to stop your tactics, they're too rough. you're intruding on people's civil liberties. there has been absolutely no claim of any one law being broken, no so-called victim produced and yet the attacks continue. so last week at a public hearing of the city council, the commissioner shot back and challenged the members of the city council who are attacking him. what are your ideas? how would you solve the crime problem in your neighborhood? how would you protect us from islamic terrorism? of course, they had no idea. >> brian: they said, well, you're discriminating against people of color. bottom line is, he came back with a stat. over 75% of the victims of crimes shooting crimes are people of color. so by going in there, he's trying to save them. >> right. he said this in his prepared testimony and he spoke to me about it afterwards. 25% of the population is african-american. 75% of the shooting victims are african-american. so for these council members to say, well, you're being too rough on my neighborhood, the

police are not the problem. the police are there to prevent crime. that's one of the great advances brought by new york mayor rudy guiliani first and now michael bloomberg, which is that the police not just there to catch bad guys afterward. they really use tactics to prevent crime. >> brian: governor christie says they haven't been telling me they've been coming into our state. does he have a point? >> no, he does not. in fact, what governor christie complained about is that the police were doing surveillance of muslim neighborhoods and mosques and restaurants, really just taking notes, doing things they are allowed to do under federal law and previous governors of new jersey were alerted to this. the police were. so the fact that they didn't tell christy may be the slip here. but lately, you haven't heard governor christie talk too much about it. i suspect he realizes that ultimately, he's on the side of the nypd. they are not his enemy. those trying to blow up new york and new jersey are the enemies and governor christie, i think,

recognizes that. >> brian: i'll talk to you more on 9:20 on the radio. we can always catch you in the "new york post." >> brian: naked and trying to break into the cockpit. the most insane stories from 35,000 feet in the air. the former flight attendant here to spill the dirt which he witnessed. first, let's check in with a guy with no dirt in his background, bill hemmer. >> how you doing? happy monday to you. breaking news in a moment on a shooting rampage. details and where this school was hit in a moment also breaking news on fierce storms. karl rove and where to now republicans? now critical primary this week. gas prices headed for the all-time high. the pace of increase is faster than anyone wants or anyone has seen to date. mondays with brit. see you in ten minutes on t "america's newsroom" eal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy.

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>> flight attendants have been made fun of and glamorized in hollywood for years. >> i think the man sitting next to me is -- >> excuse me, sir. i'm sorry i have to wake you. are you a doctor? >> that's right. >> is there an oxygen mask up above you. >> on a hidden shelf. before helping the people with you, put it on yourself. >> we're here as representatives of long trip and the airlines. pan am. >> name? >> panam. stewardesses. >> brian: oh, yeah. >> steve: back when they were stewardesses. now they're flight attendants. what do we really know about the sky high profession? >> melissa: heather pool has been a flight attendant for 17 years and now she's telling all in a new book, "cruising altitude ," tales of crash pad, crazy passengers at 35,000 feet.

that is a title that sells. i have no doubt. >> i think the scarf is what really is selling it. you see that scarf and you just know, it's flight attendant. >> melissa: so you have crazy stories. >> naked people at 35,000 feet. >> steve: trying to open the door. got to get off. >> if your naked, i would think you would want to get off. what's the craziest thing that happened? >> i've had lots of things, but it's always been naked people that everyone wants to hear about. i had a little old lady who wanted one of those call lit bottles of vodka and i gave her two and i didn't know somebody else had given her two and neither one of us had known she had drank four and she went into the bathroom and wanted to christen the whole flame. we tried to keep her seated. she said something horrible about any co-worker being gay and i was in shock that he didn't have the gay mafia meet our flight because she was out of control. so it's really the ones that we never expect to be the problem that's crazy for me. i mean, normally they walk on

board and make themselves known cloud and clear. >> steve: there have been instances where the person is not only naked, but they're also trying to open up the door as well. they're in an exit row or something like that, that's really terrifying. >> it is. but just so everybody know, you can not open the door in flight. >> melissa: that seems logical. >> yeah. >> steve: especially if they're naked. >> i had a naked lady on not so long ago and she had her seatbelt on, i was very happy to see that. [ laughter ] >> brian: she didn't have to go through the metal detector. didn't have to pat her down. >> melissa: you have tips for flyers. in all seriousness, you have written this book how flying has changed. it's gotten a little bit more hostile. people have gotten a little more hostile because you have to go through so much to get on planes and they're all so crowded. what do you tell people as someone who has been in the industry for 17 years how to look out for themselves? >> number one, simple, get to the airplane emergency room. the -- early.

if you're reasoning late and the line is long and it's going to be long because the flights are full, then you don't have time to stop for something to eat or drink and then you almost don't make your flight and now your being doesn't get on. >> melissa: they take it out on you. >> exactly. >> steve: one of the suggestions you make is bring a sweater because? >> it's cold. airplanes are like movie that's rights. especially if you're in the exit row. >> steve: what about the blanket? >> if we have one. those are scarce. >> steve: they're definitely clean, right? >> i'm not saying that they are not. when they're wrapped up, that's a clean blanket. i see a lot of those. >> brian: are you a survivalist? >> for sure. flight attendants, that's what we are. i mean, i don't care how much a bottle of water cost, we will buy that water and carry food in our bags that last five years. like oatmeal or granola bars. >> steve: we got more questions for you. stick around. her book is "cruising attitude" are choosing advil®.

we'll be right back.

>> steve: in the after the show show,