>> gretchen: log on to our web site for our after the show show. justin, he's only two. he did a great job. >> steve: see you tomorrow. >> brian: we'll cry in the after the show show, all of us. >> steve: it's our party. bill: nicely done. stay away from kill me, though! reig nighing the culture wars president obama hitting the campaign trail as the first president to publicly support gay marriage. that story rolls on as do we and a whole new week, i'm bill hemmer, welcome to "america's newsroom", hope you had a happy mom's day! martha: it was a beautiful weekend, welcome back, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. so the line in the sand so to speak has been drawn by both of these candidates, president obama, trying to rally his liberal base, mitt romney beefing up his conservative credentials this week with a big speak at a every longelical university. -- evangelical university.

>> what you believe, how you live matters. as fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate from time to time, so it is today with the enduring institution of marriage, marriage is a relationship between one mand an one woman. [applause] bill: meanwhile the isn't on the cover of newsweek magazine with a caption the first gate president, an obvious attempt to keep us talking, which is working, apparently! stephen hayes, now, senior writer, weekly stand -- standard, back home in milwaukee, wisconsin. how do you see this argument breaking at the moment, steve? >> you know what, actually watching the events of the last few days, i think we're likely to see it play out pretty much as it has been. president obama made a big splash with the announcement and immediately sought to raise money from the public backing of gay marriage, mitt romney, on the other hand, had a softer, more muted opposition, restating

his position that marriage is between one man and one woman but not going out with the full aggressive counterattack on president obama. bill: the romney team would argue what the obama camp wants to do is talk about anything but the economy. is that what is happening at the moment, and are they right? >> yeah, i think that's exactly right. i mean, look, we've seen since the beginning of the general election, starting whenever you want, a couple weeks ago, four weeks ago, six weeks ago, a repeated attempt by the obama team by democrats more broadly to talk about things other than the condition me, particularly as we've seen the jobs numbers get worse, the unemployment rate isn't as bad, but the overall jobs picture is not great, gdp growth, not great, so they would rather be talking about things other than the economy, and i think this fits that series of distraction that is we've seen and that we're likely to see continue. bill: it fits into the whole theme about values. is this a game changer or just something to talk about at the moment? >> yeah, i don't think it's a game changer.

the obama campaign, interestingly, seeks to energize a couple different areas of its base, i think particularly young voters, they want, as i said, to give the gay marriage, which is big in democratic fundraising circles, come forward and support the president with enthusiasm, but they risk on the other hand disspiritting some of the other parts of the obama constituency like black voters who have been opposed to gay marriage at the state level and remain opposed i think at the national level, and they also should be worried about potentially turning off white working class voters that the obama campaign is going to need in places like ohio, maybe places like pennsylvania, here in wisconsin, and elsewhere, if they're going to turn some independent voters, former reagan democrats, into obama supporters in 2012. bill: all interesting points, steve. thanks, good to have you on a monday, all right? steve hayes, from milwaukee this morning. martha: meanwhile the most outspoken and openly gay member of congress says the president's decision will not sway any votes in his

opinion. here's barney frank of massachusetts: >> if you were going to cast your vote based on a candidate's position regarding same sex marriage, you were already going to vote for obama or romney based on that. i can't think there are many people who say i'm going to vote for obama even though he said the defense of marriage act is unconstitutional and gays can serve in the military, but if he supports gay marriage, that goes too far. martha: congressman frank sayssy not surprised by the president's announcement say he did indeed expect it. bill: a poll says the majority of people are for some kind of same sex union but not the legal ability of marriage, 38 percent say they support same sex marriage, 24 percent support civil unions, at the same time, 33 percent say they support no legal recognition at all. our own bright hume, saying the pro marriage numbers may not be accurate: >> it looks like, you know, the majority of the public

now supports gay marriage but you look at what's happening state by state, you're getting an entirely different picture, and i think what people say to pollsters may differ. this issue is emerges as -- emerging has a civil rights issue, this is a country where you do not want to be standing to thwart civil rights so you may tell a pollster one thing but that doesn't mean that's how you're going to vote and i don't think it means this apparent support for this means that's how people are going to vote. it's a mess mine -- a net minus for the president. bill: is the president trying to divide the nation on this issue? some republican lawmakers are making that argument now. we'll have a fair and balanced debate. five minutes past the hour. martha: new details in the secret service prostitution scandal. senator joe lieberman says he will call the director of the agency to testify before the homeland security and government affairs committee. at issue is whether this scandal could have been avoided and the step that is are being taken to ensure that it doesn't happen again, the secret service director has not spoken yet

publicly on this issue. nine agents were dismissed after a night of car ouzing with prostitutes in cartagena, colombia, ahead of a presidential visit. >> also new fall out this morning from the multi billion dollar blunder of j.p. morgan chase, at least three top executives are now expected to step down from the country's largest bank. the ceo, jamie dimon, admits his company made a major mistake: >> we know we were sloppy, we know we were stupid, we know there was bad judgment. we support getting rid of too big to fail. it's very important that -- this is not going to remotely make money, we have tons of capital but we support too big to fail, we want the government to be able to take down a big bank like japan and it could be done. martha: very interesting. there are new concerns the incident could be used to push for more regulations that the administration has been very much in favor of on wall street. stuart varney is with us,

anchor of varney & company at fox business andies here this morning. stuart, what do you think is the outcome when you look at this at the end of this weekend? >> very good question, what is the outcome, where are we going with this. by the way the loss of j.p. morgan chase could be as much as $3 billion when this is all said and done and one of the people who are leaving the company is ina drew, one of the most senior women on wall street, she's going, along with two others. look, to answer your question, though, we're involved in a discussion about how to get the tax payor off the hook for a major financial crisis if, heaven forbid, we repeated 2008, and the banks went under, who's on the hook? the taxpayer is on the hook. that's the situation at the moment. should we change that? should we somehow or other get to the point where the investor in the bank's stock is on the hook? that's what a lot of people want to do. but if we go forward the way we are now, the taxpayer

will still be on the hook, given all these financial regulations that are coming down the hike in the immediate future. and that's what the politicians are pushing for. it's called dodd frank, financial reform, that leaves the taxpayer essentially on the hook. leaves the big banks in tact sits a new level of bureaucracy on top of them to stop it from happening again but essentially you and i are on the hook if we get another 2008. some people want to change that. martha: and is there anything in what's being discussed about regulations going forward that would change it as you see it. >> yes. you do hear sroeuzs raised in light of j.p. morgan chase saying why don't we return to the good old days of glassed eagle, when banks were banks and investment banks were investment banks and there was a wall between them. glass-steagall went away, the two were allowed to get together so the banks have a lot of money at risk. a lot of people want to bring back glass-steagall or flat out break up the banks when they get to a certain

size. you are now hearing those voices. martha: we'll see where this goes. thank you very much. that's the first i heard of a potential $4 billion loss at j.p. morgan chase and we'll -- and we'll see if the numbers add up. >> j.p. morgan chase lost another $150 million on friday alone on the position where it had already lost $2 billion. martha: stuart, thank you, and you heard jamie dimon saying the bank is still going to be profitable even in light of this huge loss, but when you start to double that number, what we expect, at $2 billion, that calls it into question. bill: and rare for a banking ceo to do a sunday morning. martha: very out front. bill: not only is j.p. morgan chase the largest bank in the country, it's also the most profitable bank we have. at the end of march, $2.3 trillion in assets. but the bank did lose about $15 billion in market value, when news of the blunder became public. its stock dropped about 9 percent on friday afternoon. there is a bit more financial news this morning. yahoo ceo scott thompson, stepping down amid allegations that he lied

about having a degree in computer science. but compton says he'so thompson says he's leaving because he was diagnosed with cancer. why the record had incorrectly included the computer science degree, thompson is now to the job, yahoo has gone through three ceos in five years. the irony there, too. the irony is unbelievable. martha: you can lie about your english degree and end up at yahoo. we turn our attention to the john edwards case and what a dramatic case this has been. big question today, we'll be there live, will john edwards get on that stand hours from now. bill: also martha, president obama's health care law facing new gridlock at the state level. why a growing number of states are blocking a key part of that law. we'll tell you what that's all about. martha: plus a leading republican wants to cut funding to the department of justice until congress gets the answers that it has been asking for from eric holder

on fast & furious. jason chavets -- chaffetz with us in three minute. sue: if we get stonewalling without your support, we will do a disservice to this country, a disservice to this body and we will not get to the truth. ♪

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martha: on this monday morning, raging wildfires keeping emergency crews really busy in arizona today. they've got a total of five fires to deal with that are burning across the staeurt. the one called the sunflower is the biggest that they are coping with. crews, airtankers and helicopters, battling the inferno in arizona's tonto national forest, nearly 300 firefighters are engaged on that scene. smoke, visible from as far away as phoenix. no evacuations yet ordered. firefighters are working to confirm what started this fire. >> this country should be embarrassed by what's happening in fast & furious.

my challenge to members on both sides of the aisle is to stand up and have the integrity to stay that we have a dead u.s. agent, we have a department of justice that lied to congress. where are the guts in this body to stand up and say we're not going to put up with that? bill: utah congressman jason chaffetz is not mincing words there, challenging democrats to take a stand against attorney general eric hold oar and join the republican counterpartso counterparts demanding all documents relate to the gun sting are made available, and last week that passed overwhelmingly with democrats in support. jason chaffetz, back home in salt lake with me now. good morning to you. >> good morning bill. bill: based on what i understand, you gave the attorney general memorial weekend to to comply. that's two weeks from now. what have you heard? >> with march 25 of 2011, when president obama said they were going to hold somebody accountable and get to the bottom of this, so here we are, fast

approaching memorial day, 2012 and we've not lived up to what the president promised so yeah, we have been preparing contempt documents, we don't have a specific date to that but we want a resolution to this sooner rather than later. bill: so you've not heard much, specifically stpheug? -- specifically anything? >> we've got to make sure, if you're going to hold the attorney general in contempt of congress, you've got to have everything in order. we've been cut thank in order, we've been more than patient, chairman issa has been absolutely patient and mostodical in their approach to this. i wish i could give you a locked solid specific date but gosh, we need the democrats to join us, and we need the president to fulfill his promise if we're ever going to get to the truth. bill: based on that amendment last week, democrats have joined you. three hundred eighty-one to 41? what does that tell you? >> well, we had more than two dozen democrats in 2011 sign a letter to the president saying they encouraged the president to provide all the documents

necessary to get to the bottom of this. just last week on the floor, as you mentioned, i had an amendment that says you cannot use funds from taxpayers to lie to congress. even though they have. remember, february 4th, 2011, they lied to congress. they sent a demonstrably false letter from the department of justice to the united states congress, specifically senator grassley, months later, more than nine months laters -- later, they had to rescind that letter because it was a lie. so we've got a dead border patrol agent, thousands of weapons unaccounted for. i think this meets the standard to making sure we get to the bottom of. bill: i know what your amendment said. i'm not quite sure what it does, however. it says that everybody should be held accountable. that might be nice on paper but i'm not sure what action follows that, if any. >> well, one of the concerns is that they have been lying and covering up what happened in fast & furious, and what this does is i think it will withhold funds from the department of justice to do those activities.

we still had 40 democrats who said of course you should be able to use taxpayer money to lie to congress, of course you should. that's how ridiculous this is, but if they do that, if they use these funds to lie to congress and we can demonstrate they lied to congress you've got a whole set of charges that can be laid on. bill: 22 categories in this subpoena you're looking for answers for and you have questions about. of the 13 categories, we are told by republicans that no documents have been provided. an additional nine account goers, considered far from compliant. we just heard you on the house floor say americans should be embarrassed by this. why embarrassed? >> we have a dead border patrol agent. we have a government who knowingly to the drug cartels gave thousands of weapons. we have a president who on march 25th, 2011, promised we would get to the bottom of this, we haven't. you have people at the senior level of the department of justice who have been promoted, given awards and bonuses along the way. nobody has been held accountable. and it's embarrassing

because this should not be partisan issue. we're trying to get to the the truth r* truth of this. eric holder called fast & furious fundamentally flawed. we've got to be able to solve it so it never happens again and you've got people who made the ridiculous decisions in the senior most portions of the government. think of lanny brewer, at the head of the department of -- of the criminal division. we haven't had justice here, we haven't had people held accountable to this, bill. bill: memorial weekend is two weeks from today, we'll see where it goes. thank you, jason chaffetz. martha: we've got a new twist in the search for a missing six-year-old girl in arizona, because now the police have taken her two brothers away from the father. why this happened, and what it could mean for this investigation. bill: also they called it a spray tan trial. now attorneys trying to -- throwing the whole defense out the window. how they're now saying this man's wife actually died and why police say the 911 call as you're about to hear

could make or break this case. >> the -- okay, calm down. she's not breathing? how old is she? >> no, she's not breathing. >> did somebody happen? >> no. most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com.

bill: 23 minutes past the hour on a monday morning, a key witness for the prosecution expected to testify at the trial for roger clemens whose former strength trainer says that he injected the former all-star pitcher with performance enhancing drugs. clemens deny the allegations students at florida a & m

will talk about the scandal about the death of a band member. >> and a bash for the queen, celebrities and horses? yeah, the horses, celebrating the queen's journeys around the world in her 60 year reign, they total 250 trips and counting. martha: it's going to be very exciting. bill: it is. a lot of frequent flyer miles. don't forget the horses! very important. martha: look at them! all right, we want to get back to the story which we talked about quite a bit in the last week. there are new developments now in the case of this little girl who's missing in arizona. six years old, her name is isabel cellis and she vanished from her bedroom overnight about three weeks ago. now her brothers have been removed from their father's care, and the couple spoke publicly in the days after isabel's disappearance and made desperate pleas for her safe return. remember this? >> we are looking for you,

isa we love you. we miss you so much. and we will never give up. we will never give up looking for you. martha: everybody is trying to figure out what happened to this little girl and i'm joined by former d.c. homicide detective rod wheeler. rod, good morning, good to have you here. >> good morning martha. martha: so the parents are living separately, the boys have been removed from their father's care, child protective service social security involved now. what's going on here? >> first of all it's important to note martha that any time you have a child missing from a home it's not unusual for the police to immediately notify the administration for children services or child protective services -- services because we feel as though if we get them involved early in a missing child investigation they can provide a lot of background and deal tailed information to law enforcement, so it's not unusual for that to happen. now, what may be a little unusual in this case is for them to remove the other

children from the home. the only time that usually happens, and not always, but usually happens, martha, is if the police suspect that there may be something else going on in that home, such as the domestic violence, maybe one of the parents have a drinking problem, maybe a lot of people come to and from the home at different hours of the night and day, so all of these could be reasons why they have decided at this point, martha, to remove the other two children from the home. martha: obviously, i think everybody's biggest concern is for the other children and their safety, so nobody would dispute the fact that if they feel there's a problem there. however, when you look at the legal future of this case, i mean, removing these children from this home, everybody is going to sort of reach the same peripheral conclusion when they look at that, they say something must be up, one of these parents must have done something, right? >> you're exactly right martha but you can't really jump to that conclusion and i caution the viewers not to jump to that conclusion too quickly because you really don't know. a lot of other things are in play and behind the scenes

of this case. the other thing that i think led the investigators to have these children removed is because, martha, the police aren't 100 percent convinced of the story provided by the father or the mother at this point, the fact that somebody came through this little window and took this child. they're not 100 percent convinced. as a matter of fact the police chief said last week martha in tucson, arizona that nobody has been ruled out of this investigation. what does that mean? that simply means that even after all this time and you know it's nearly been a month now that little isabel has been missing, they still have not come to the conclusion that the parents may have information or may not have information in terms of what happened to isabel. martha: a beautiful little girl and right now there are no answers and no isabel cellis to be found. rod, thank you very much. we'll stay on top of it. thank you for your help. >> thank you martha. bill the new front in the culture wars. is president obama trying to divide the country with his position on gay marriage? a top republican is making that argument and we'll debate whether or not he has a point, coming up in

minutes. also -- >> martha: california is hemorrhaging red ink, more than what is first thought. the governor says the golden state is about to completely run out of money. details on the $16 billion shortfall is causing a panic in the golden state. bill: not so golden, huh? having an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation puts you at 5 times greater risk of stroke. don't wait. go to afibstroke.com for a free discussion guide to help you talk to your doctor about reducing your risk. that's afibstroke.com.

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bill: here we go with a fox news alert, 9:31 in greensborough, north carolina, video of john edwards arriving for the first day of his defense. at issue, secret moments totaling more than $700,000 that prosecutors allege was used to cover up edwards' affair with rielle hunter. the defense now getting its chance to refute those charges, and jonathan serrie, back at his post in greensborough. the big question in all this is whether or not at the moment, john edwards is going to take the stand in his own defense. what are you hearing about that this morning, jonathan? >> you know, it really depends on which legal expert you're talking to. they go back and forth, whether it would be advisable for the defense to call on their own client to testify. but one former federal prosecutor says he believes that edwards will at some point during the defense testimony take the stand and

address the jury using her persuasive skills as both a lawyer and politician. listen: >> given the nature of the charges and the defense in that he didn't believe he was violating the campaign finance laws, i think only john edwards can deliver that message. >> reporter: but kiran shanahan believes it's unlikely we will see rielle hunter, the mistress, testify. the prosecution never called on her and her testimony would potentially be even riskier for the defense because she brings up memories of the affair and all the hurt that it caused elizabeth edwards, bill. bill: now we're trying to figure out the defense strategy. are they going to do a robust defense, are there a lot of witnesses to be called or not? >> they have an extensive list but that's no guarantee they're going to be calling all of the witnesses on the list. it appears their strategy is going to be shifting the focus of the trial from the morality of the affair to the legality behind the coverup. they're trying to show that john edwards was largely unaware of all the money

that was going into hiding rielle hunter and that whatever his involvement was in the coverup, that it was motivated by a desire to protect his wife, not his campaign. now, on friday, it is the defense tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to drop the case against john ed wads, lead defense argue abby lowell argued, quo, mr. edwards could have expenses for a baby if he had a campaign or if he didn't have a campaign, mr. edwards would hide an affair if he was or wasn't a candidate. and looking at today's defense witness list, we have former election commission chairman scott thomas, we have a political pollster harrison hickman, former edwards lawyer, wade smith, as well as a former campaign finance officer, laura hag arrested, all of them expect -- haggard, all of them expected to focus on the legality of the coverup, rather than dwelling on all of the moral issues and all of the hurt that the affair caused john edwards'

cancer-stricken wife elizabeth. bill: we move into phase two. thank you jonathan. here is what's on the line for john edwards. if convicted on all six counts against him he could theoretically face up to 30 years in prison. attorneys tell us any court would sentence him concurrently which means he would get five years max and hefty fines as well. we'll keep you updated. martha: well, new allegations this morning that president obama is trying to divide the country with his support of gay marriage. a top republican says that the white house is using smoke and mirrors to distract voters from the real issue of the election which he believes is the economy. here's john cornyn. >> president obama brought this issue up because he wants to -- he can't run on his record. let's put it that way. and so he's trying to raise divisive issues up to solidify his base and to divide the country, and that isn't what we should be focusing on now. we should be focusing on

jobs and the economy. martha: kirsten powers, columnist for the daily beast and fox news contributor and rich lowry, editor of the national review, also a fox news contributor, thank you both for being here today. kirsten, let me start with you. this is definitely the conservative take on this that it's really all about just sort of a dodge to get away from the glaring big issue of the economy. >> yeah, well, the problem with that is i don't think that this was planned. i think it was something that ended up happening because the vice president got out ahead of the white house and obama had to come out. i also don't think it necessarily is a net winner for obama politically. it helps him in certain ways in terms of fundraising, for example, maybe with young voters, but it puts him in peril in other states in battleground states, and i think that it wasn't something that was necessarily planned. so the idea that this was some grand plan that obama thought well, i'm going to distract everybody by

talking about gay marriage, i just don't think the facts bear that out. martha: rich, how long -- you wrote a really interesting piece on this, and first of all, you claim that you think he did this mostly based on conviction, personal conviction, on this issue. >> yeah, i think what cornyn says is a politically shrewd thing to say because anyone who is perceived as the aggressor in a cultural war is in the wrong place, trying to paint president obama in that spot, and also, any time the president says anything that doesn't have to do with the economy, no matter why he's saying or what it is, republicans should say look, he's afraid to talk about the economy and the record. all that is very

which everyone took to mean look, he's going to support it finally and tell us what he really believes after the election when he doesn't have to run for office again in his life, so he basically, kirsten is right, joe biden shamed the president into being honest and frank about this issue. >> kirsten? >> yeah, i don't disagree with that. i think people have long felt he definitely does support gay marriage and that he was for political reasons, had shifted his position into saying that he didn't support it because it does come with some peril electorally, especially among white voters in certain states where he already has a problem, he already has a problem with white catholic voters, for example. so this doesn't particularly help him, and which is why i think he probably wasn't going to actually come out and say this until after his reelection. >> and we should mention one other fact.

it's the -- >> martha: you know, i'm -- six months away from the election, right, and with this statement by the president, really not having any teeth in actually changing anything, he himself said this should be a state issue, the states have decided and bright hume basically said over the weekend that he thinks this is an issue that people may poll differently on than they actually vote, they say they're in favor of it but when it comes to voting in their states they've proved in many cases that they're not. inevitably, this whole conversation, does it go away and get back to what is most on americans' minds and we're all pretty selfish when it comes to the economy, how am i doing and is the president doing a good job. >> the election will overwhelmingly be about the economy. the public wants the conversation to be about that. i think if you ask people if they're going to vote on gay marriage, it's under 1 percent. i think it hurts at the margins especially in swing

states like ohio where 35 percent of the people support it and it always underperforms on the ballot, gay marriage and where it is in the polls, so it's a net loss to the president but a small wasn't it's going to be a big debate. martha: kirsten, quickly, if you can, how long before this issue goes away? >> i don't think it will completely go away. i think the media is obsessed with it, so it will stay in the discussion. i just agree with rich, though, i don't think in terms of your average voter it's going to rank. i think anybody who votes on this issue is already voting for obama. martha: kirsten, rich, thank you very much, if to see you. >> thank you. bill: did you know a growing number of states are not moving forward with new provisions in the health care law? and there are two reasons why. we'll explain both in a moment. martha: and he moved to america, knowing no english, not having a job. wait until you hear what he did this weekend! that's coming up. last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years.

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bill: so in a new swipe on president obama's health care law a. growing number of republican state lawmakers are stalling on setting up the exchanges that are supposed to be the foundation of this law. twenty-nine states so far are backing -- balking at setting up the exchange and are doing it for different reasons. stephen moore, senior writer, "wall street journal," good morning to you. >> hi bill. bill: the exchange is when you would not get coverage from your employer, then you would be forced to go into this pool of people in the state. is that right? >> it's essentially a kind of government-run insurance system, it kind of backs up for people who can't purchase insurance, kind of like medicaid, which exists. bill: there are specific reasons why. it's mainly republicans

balking at this and there are democratic leaders as well. you have, what a. supreme court decision in june, a political election in november, which some are banking on if romney wins we'll rescind this. >> if the supreme court rules out the constitutionality of omabacare there's no reason to set up the expansion, right? so that's maybe the most important reason they're not moving forward. but also, bill, if mitt romney were to win this election and right now it's a tossup then the first thing that romney says he'll do is have a vote to overturn omabacare in the congress and would probably happen, and the third one, maybe the most important, bill, which is the states just don't have the money to do this. states are very financially strapped right now, very tough times to balance their budgets. omabacare puts big costs on the backs of a lot of these states, and by the way bill, it also puts a lot of new costs on the backs of employers in the states, and when i talked to republican governors, they mention both those things that wait a minute, we don't want to put the new costs on employers when we want them to hire

more workers. bill on the first two points, it's based on a calendar, essentially, june and then november. >> it sure is. bill: is that a smart gamble. >> look, this has been happening now since the day barack obama signed omabacare into law, bill. the democrats want to get this implemented as quickly as possible, to make it kind of a fate accompli, and republicans are saying let's hold this off. it's a political game that's going on, not just in washington but in the 50 states. it's interesting, one of the points you just mentioned, bill, that even a lot ofin some of the conservative states are saying whoa, we're not sure we want to put in place omabacare because the opinion polls show omabacare as very unpopular in some areas. bill: but is it smart? say you gamble and you lose. are the people in your state at a disadvantage, or can we say that yet? >> i think it's just the opposite, bill. i think the states are taking their time and saying let's see how this unfolds, let's not rush for judgment,

get this infrastructure in place, send phaoepbd six months down the line, we have to disassemble it. so i think the states are right to say it's not quite time to go on this. bill: quickly, you're reporting that employers are already dropping people from insurance plans. what's happening there 1234. >> -- there? what's happening there? >> this is the real achilles heel. one of the selling points for omabacare, if you like the health insurance you have, you will not lose it. he said that over and over again. now we're find thank employers are saying you know what, it's actually cheaper for me to drop my employer plan that millions of americans get their health insurance through the employer, and i'm just going to put everybody in these exchanges, i'll save a lot of money. now, of course, what that means for americans is they're not going to have the insurance they wanted, because they're going to lose their employer-provided coverage, so that's going to be very unpopular with people as it continues to happen. it's just starting, bill, but as the law gets kpwhre mend, you're going to see a cascade of employers, big and small, dropping their health care plans.

bill: interesting. steve, we'll pick that up next time. stephen moore, wall street journal. go to foxnews.com/"america's newsroom". if you're home or on the job, click on the bya box, shoot me an e-mail, follow me on twitter, because you asked, bya and we'll weed through the health care questions throughout the week. martha: so a change in the skies over major u.s. cities. why unmanned spy drones could soon be watching you. bill: also a live look inside the so-called spray tan trial, why defense attorneys now argue that was not what killed this man's wife. >> there's something happened? did she fall, or -- >> no. >> where is she? >> she's -- >> is she bleed something. >> i can't tell. there's blood, there's stuff coming on the of her mouth.

she looks pail. i don't know what happened. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

bill: here is some proof on a monday the american dream is alive and well, a janitor working at columbia university, that's ivy league, folks, graduating with honors! gaxi lapogea. refugee out of yugoslavia, graduated sunday after 12 years of hitting the books. he's 52, managed to balance his classes and full-time job at the school. check him out! >> i got home at midnight, studied during the night, and got two hours sleep, sometimes, and sometimes no sleep at all. sometimes i got more sleep. and that's all the time i

got, except the summertime, when i didn't take classes. bill: that's wonderful. he says his dream is to become a teacher and i think one could learn an awful lot from a guy like that. martha: he wants to be a professor. it's a fantastic story. congratulations to him, well earned. >> back to this one. we have opening statements underway in the trial of a florida man who's accused of killing his wife. this is a live look as all of this gets underway. adam coffman's defense team was planning to argue that a bad reaction to a spray tan led to his wife's death, but now, a whole new defense is being planned in this case. phil keating is live from miami. phil, is the original defense still part of the coffman case? >> reporter: well, that remains to be seen. defense attorneys, though, indicating as the months and years have gone by in this case, their medical examiners have suggested perhaps a less bizarre and more reasonable medical

explanation as to how lily coffman died. eleanor is the real name, full name, she was 33 at the time, and according to her husband, a prominent real estate developer, andy coffman, he woke up, went to the restroom and found her lying on the floor and not breathing. here's the nine # one tape: >> reporter: now, the medical examiner for miami-dade county took a year and a half before suggesting this was perhaps a murder because of evidence that he found, of mechanical strangulation. the defense claim was that there was one orange brown

smudge on the bathroom wall, she had a fake tan the day before and that indicated there was no struggle at all. martha: quite unusual in a case like this, the victim's parents plan to testify for the man accused of killing their daughter, right phil? >> reporter: quite unusual. everybody related to this case seems to believe the husband. now, there's no way he would have ever killed his wife, and he had absolutely no motive for that. so this is basically going to come down to the testimony of doctors versus doctors. the medical examiner for miami-dade versus their own medical experts that the defense has hired, who will be here to testify. and key evidence for the police, they say the bed appeared that he hadn't slept in it the night before and the car's hood was still warm in the driveway. martha: and he says in the tape there are marks on her neck, which we'll hear more about on this, too. phil, thank you very much, phil keating on another case in florida. bill: team obama releasing its first official campaign attack ad going after

romney. what the president is targeting with the governor and whether or not that will work. brit hume is here to analyze in moments. martha: and california's governor, saying that the state is just flat out of money, folks, $16 billion in the hole, and now he's got a new plan to save california. >> ♪ >> ♪ say goodbye to hollywood. >> ♪ >> ♪

martha: an all-out assault on what could arguably be mitt romney's greatest strength as a candidate. president obama's reelection team, launch ago trio of attacks today on romney's business background. that's how we start a brand new hour of "america's newsroom", good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. pweupl pweupl i'm bill hemmer. first a new website was

launched, taking on romney in the private sector, then a conference call with someone who lost his job after his firm was acquired by romney's investment firm. martha: and this campaign vid oefplt watch. >> bayne capital walked away with a lot of money they made off this plan. we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> he has destroyed thousands of peoples' careers, lifetimes, just destroying people. >> he's running for president, and if he's going to run the country the way he ran our business, i wouldn't want him there. he would be so out of touch with the average person in this country. martha: strong words in that web ad. brit hume joins me, senior political analyst. clearly this goes after the heart of what mitt romney says is his biggest strength. >> you knew this was coming, martha, if you followed the primary season. we've been here before. you remember the attacks during south carolina and florida campaigns from gingrich and perry on vulture capitalism. i felt at the time that mitt

romney needed to develop a strong and coherent defense of this. his business record of how private equity firms operate. i'm not sure he ever really did that. i mean, the campaign moved on and the message didn't really ring a bell with enough republican voters. but it might ring a bell with a lot of independent and democratic voters. and i think this is a danger for mitt romney. martha: and that raises the big question for the romney campaign, how do they respond, do they take this head on, do they try to discredit this motion or any of these individuals? i mean, that could be tricky territory for them, too. what do they do? >> well, it seems to me, put crudely, there are basically two ways to go. one would be to fire back at the president for his record on job creation, for what happened to the workers at a place like solyndra, where the administration i guess encouraged that company to hire people and generate a

business, and then it went bankrupt and everybody lost, including the workers and the taxpayers. you could talk about the dealership, auto dealerships that were closed down when the government got control of a couple of the auto companies, an awful lot of people lost jobs, businesses were closed and so on. that would be one way to go. another way to go, however, which i think might be wiser, just looking at this from a distance, would be for romney to develop a defense and explanation of his business record and to note as we've heard jay carney note many times trying to explain solyndra that you make these bets, you make these investments, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. and yes, people do get hurt when you lose an that's part 69 process, something that the administration itself has said it's a legitimate part of what happens in the process of capitalism and this creative destruction, as it's called. that's what happens sometimes.

that's the way it works. arrest march there's no doubt they're -- martha: there's no doubt they're going to have to formulate an aggressive response because it's going to keep coming up and we're going to hear about it in the debate as well between president obama and mitt romney. there seems to be a rallying among some romney supporters for him to go to israel over the course of this -- what's going to feel like a short six months i think in this election psych. they think he needs to squeeze that in and points out that the president has not visited israel in his presidency. >> well, for people who are deeply preoccupied with israel as an issue, i can understand why that's an idea that would tempt them. i'm not sure that it wouldn't come across as sort of osten tatiously political and an effort to capitalize on the fact that and benjamin netanyahu are friends from back in the day when they worked together here when netanyahu was here. i don't really know that -- the reporter thing, of course, is it's often been hoped by republicans and

conservatives that because their position in support of israel is stronger than any -- than a particular administration, in this case the obama administration, that the jewish vote in america might be up for grabs and maybe it could be turned. it's been democratic since the earth cooled. it might be able to be turned. i think that may be a pipe dream. you look at the numbers now, i mean, jewish voters in this country know what president obama's attitude is towards israel and what is it, 61-28, obama over romney, something like that? i'm not sure there's any gold in them there hills, if you will. martha: it was 61 percent, pro*plny 28. it's a slightly higher percentage of jewish voters in florida, though, which is a battleground state and perhaps that's what the romney supporters are hoping might make a difference there. >> it's possible, i suppose, that some way could be found for a visit to occur, perhaps he would visit two or three places, israel

being one of them, where it would look like a natural, reasonable thing for a presidential candidate to do rather than a kind of a crass, direct attempt to capitalize on his friendship with netanyahu. it might need to be done with subtly. subtle -- subtlety. subtlety isn't always valuable in a campaign but it might be in it instance. martha: we remember obama's big trip overseas during his campaign and that was met with mixed reviews. >> well, he made that speech, you remember, in berlin in which he seemed to be running for president of the world! and the mccain people got all over that and won a whole zeroo went a whole series of news cycles ridiculing that. international celebrity is not something that helps so much when you're running for president of the united states. martha: brit hume, thank you bill: since the earth cool cooled! the united states on the hunt now for al-qaeda in yemen. it's a hot spot, that country claiming u.s. drone strikes killed 11 al-qaeda terrorists over the weekend.

no immediate confirmation from the pentagon on that, which usually does not publicly acknowledge such strikes, anyway. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge on this. what can you report? good morning. >> reporter: what seems clear what the bomb operation compromised in yemen, the u.s. and other allies are maximizing the targeting information they have with at least three major strikes in yemen in the last week, and more than a dozen militants killed, including this operations chief, al cuso, so in other words they've got this data, it's out there the operation is compromised so they're trying to maximize that targeting data before people scatter. bill: as you know, catherine, this drone technology is being imitated, not necessarily for war but for other reasons, here at home, in fact, and the faa is going to make an announcement of drones over american skies. what's going on with that? >> that's right, bill. drones are synonymous with yemen, afghanistan and iraq, but increasingly they are being used for domestic surveillance, first at the borders and now the faa is

scheduled to rule today on broadening the use of the drones domestically. advocates say they are a force multiplier for law enforcement. >> they'll have more eyes in the sky to assist them when they're going into volatile situations. >> reporter: that can include fugitives like what we saw in tennessee last week or missing children like you discussed with little isabel in arizona. bill: what's the risk in all this catherine, what are you hearing? >> it's pretty significant. on capitol hill, a leading democrat says there are privacy concerns -- concerns, especially if drones become big business for the private sector. >> we have to ensure that the faa, as they register these drones for surveillance, don't allow them to be turned into cash registers. the that private companies are able to use because of the information they glean about individuals within our country. >> reporter: so this raises questions about probable cause to do the

surveillance and then how long this data is ultimately held bill. bill: catherine, thanks, catherine herridge, out of washington. march we've got new developments in a massive man hunt for a missing fbi agent, 35-year-old stephen ivans last seen by his family thursday night leaving their for us on -- house on foot. he is thought to be kwraeury -- carrying a handgun and is described as suicidal. >> there's no evidence of foul play right now, but that's why we still have a robust effort to locate him. martha: laura ingle is on the story, following it from our new york city newsroom. laura, what's the latest here? >> reporter: hi martha. an fbi spokesperson tells fox the search will continue today and there is still no sign of the missing fbi agent who was last seen at his home in burbank, california, where he lives with his wife and young child. take a look here, 35-year-old stephen ivans, left on foot last thursday evening and was reported missing the next day. now, a handgun is unaccounted for at his home. that, according to the los

angeles county sheriff's department. and investigators say they are concerned for his well being. burbank police say that ivans has been a special agent with the fbi's los angeles division for the past three years, specializing in national security. about 100 fbi agents are helping to find ivans who they say is very well liked and is a good person in the community. >> we don't believe that there is any indication that he would be a threat to others, and we feel that he is only a threat to, potentially, himself. >> reporter: martha, agents say they can't get into the details of why they think ivans may be suicidal. an fbi spokesperson tells us he was under no disciplineary action at the bureau and never has been. martha: so laura, the search is taking teams of officers some pretty rugged terrain. >> blood hounds reportedly tracked ivans' scent, in a mountain range south of the western san gabriel mountains, surrounded by homes and urban development and is pretty much a hot spot for hikers and mountain

likers. -- bikers. he is an avid hiker and they are working on several tips they have received over the weekend from local hikers and neighbors. ivans is described as 6 feet tall, 160 pounds, with brown eyes, and what a reseeding hairline. he also wears prescription glasses. if you have any information on stephen ivans' whereabouts, you are urged to call the burbank police department. bill: could the president's about-face on same sex marriage end up backfiring? why one prominent conservative is saying the move will do nothing but help mitt romney. we'll talk to that person coming up. martha: he turned out to be a double agent working to derail an al-qaeda terror plot and find this man, the associated press breaking this story, but who leaked it? and will they face serious prosecution? bill: also in the west, california already in the worst financial shape of any state in america. now it's much worse than anyone thought. what the democratic governor plans to do in order to save

the gold in the golden state. >> ♪ >> ♪ california dreaming. >> ♪ >> ♪

>> 16 billion-dollar hole. not the 9 billion we thought in january. this means we will have to go much further and make cuts far greater than i asked for at the beginning of the year. martha: charles payne of the fox business network joins me. what is going on with california and what is it indicative of? >> reporter: this is our version of greece. you ask anyone who visited greece in the last 30, 40 years, they come back home and say, man i want to live there, they know how to live. same thing with california.

the golden state. they know how to live over there, they are surfing, chilling out. they built sanctuary cities, very envious. they dug themselves into a hole. martha: you compare it to greece. and it does look like our own situation of what we're seeing there. every time we see people sort of take baby steps towards austerity, cutting back here or there, and jerry brown said he tried to make some cuts in some of these programs and they weren't allowed, the minute they kick in everybody balks. they say that check isn't coming in the mail, are you kidding me? i thought that was for other people not for me. >> reporter: look at spain. spain has the historic votes, they brought in a guy, they say we are going to have austerity and then they say hold off my man, this is way too much. the further we try to push this off the more draconian austerity

has to be. it does has to happen at some point. california, look at the taxes that governor brown is proposing, over a million dollars, 13%. this is on top of the federal taxes that you pay, any other taxes associated with obamacare. over $250,000.30%. they are going to raise sales tax. 850,000 people left the state in 2008, 20 ot. those weren't dumb people. they were replaced by immigrants with little skills and babies. martha: in california there are very, very rich and very, very poor people. >> reporter: outside of that it's melting away, dissolving. by the way this should be -- if we're not paying attention across the atlantic as americans we should certainly be paying

attention to california. pain, pain, avoid answer of pain is central. every politician that says i can make life pain free, we vote for him. it's not possible, ey it's not possible. you may have a few hollywood stars like will smith say he doesn't mind paying taxes, every time there is a proposal something hits the average person. if i'm making minimum wage and i have to pay 7.5% sales tax i'm getting hammered. they mask it around saying we'll get it from the rich and corporations. these crazy obligations you've got to get it from the little guy. martha: no businesses will want to go to california. nobody will pick california to open a business. it's either the decline of civilization or the implementation of austerity measures. bill: we'll see what jerry brown gets done on this. a bizarre legal dispute for

actress reese witherspoon involving her father, mother and a so-called illegal marriage. why her family says the new wife is just out to take advantage. martha: plus, the pentagon got fed up with too many studies, so they ordered a study to see why they need so many studies. guess what congress is doing about it? i'm not kidding folks, they are going to study it. we'll be right back. eat good fats.

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martha: 23 minutes past the hour. a public health alert over a potentially dangerous shortage of kidney donors. tkr-rs now alertindoctors are alerting people that 25% of all donors are being turned away for being overweight. police are looking for a suspected arsonist after several city vehicles were torched in

moses, alabama. the mayor says he believes the fires are a feeble attempt to drive the police department out of town. weird story going on there. facebook founder mark zuckerberg, happy birthday, what a birthday he's going to have, his company is going public on friday. they have closed the doors on new entrants. the company will be valued at 100 billion, and 18 billion they say will be the zone of mark zuckerberg's personal wealth at the age of 28. bill: do you know how many hoodies you can buy with that much money? martha: at some point, you can't even imagine what to do with all that money. i think he's probably going to -- you have a house, a car, has its. what are you going to do after that. bill: clearly he's not investing in clothes. martha: he can give $9 billion to the state of california and help them out. bill: your government at work

folks or not. the pentagon so flooded with studies to commission a study to study the cost of all those studies, got that? john fugn from the american spec taeurt is with us. >> the defense secretary is robert gates an says i'm confused about what we're getting out of this. what did he do? >> he said i don't think we're getting our money's worth and i don't think we are studying the things we should be studying. let's have a study to see how we can get better studies or get rid of the studies we are doing. bill: what did he conclude? >> apparently the study wasn't finished. apparently about six of the nine studies they looked at were incomplete in their study of them, and the whole thing was called incomplete. so now they are talking about a study of the studies of the studies. i have allusion fo a solution for this. they should say to themselves, if it's really worth studying maybe someone in the private

sector has looked eight. i have three proposed studies the pentagon could do. bill: i thought we were up to our ears in studies already. >> she's are three good studies. bill: give it a shot. >> let's have a study as to why so many weapons systems are built in congressional district that the pentagon doesn't even want, because the congressmen from those district want them there. bill: that is one. what is another? >> the second one would be, why in the world after 60 years, 70 years after world war ii do we have a whole bunch of countries where we have troops in. that's another study. and the third study, which i think would be rile interesting in, in pentagon contracting, why don't we have more competition, bids from small businesses and other things rather than the same old defense contractors that do cost plus contracts. bill: i think you're onto something. the study, the study, the study

is not complete. perhaps they are looking at all that. gates was onto something. he knew there was a lot of waste. >> gates is a whole wiley bureaucrat. he use to head the cia, he knows where the bodies are buried. even a guy who wants to do the right thing cannot get the lower levels of the bureaucracy to do what he wants. we have to decent tr decent tra decentralize this thing. my father worked for this thing. bill: that explains that phrase, other people's money. >> that is the sweetest words in the english language. if you can spend other people's money you've got something you can go for. bill: you live in that town. john fund thank you for your time. we'll see you in new york soon. martha: new details on syria's deadly crackdown.

[gunfire] martha: unbelievable video continues to pour out of syria, and now reports that iran is using a shadow army inside syria. plus this ... >> marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman. [applause] bill: why our next guest says mitt romney is the one benefitting from the president's position on same-sex marriage. this is an rc robotic cw.

my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dlars into american education. that's thousands of ks learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool ♪

martha: it's a rough morning so far for the u.s. markets. the dow is down 154 points right now, really on concerns about the unease coming out of greece. they had parliamentary election as week ago, that has put in motion inability to agree how to move forward there, in terms of staying in the euro, leaving the euro, and the austerity measures not going over too well with the public in greece. down 151 as of now. bill: if your monday wasn't bad enough already. president obama's support for same-sex marriage will backfire and help mitt romney. that is according to some key conservatives saying that the governor, romney is already capitalizing on this controversy. >> the power of these values, this culture is evidenced by a recent brookings institution

study that senator rick santorum brought to my attention, culture, what you believe, what you value, how you live matters. now as fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate from time to time, so it is today with the enduring institution of marriage, marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman. [applause] bill: tony perkins president of family research council with me now. good morning to you, welcome back to "america's newsroom." you are making the case that this will backfire against the president and benefit governor romney in what way? >> well i think if you look at the gallop polls it shows the intensity over this issue, 26% of the voters disapprove.

13% say they will be more likely. since the president made that decision on wednesday i've one receiving phone calls from across the nation from prominent pastors, both white and black pastors. what is of particular interest is the african-american pastors, from traditional black churches that are saying, this is just too far from us. we cannot maintain credibility, we cannot be true to who we are and go along with the president on this. and i think as you played that clip from liberty, my alma mater that mitt romney made very clear where he stands on this issue, and i think he had an opportunity on saturday and seized that opportunity with that spaoefrpb. bill: you say that president obama just handed the key to social conservative support to mitt romney. yet you have not publicly endorsed mitt romney yet. why not? >> well, first off we don't endorse presidential candidates. i didn't endorse rick santorum in the primary.

i was favorable toward him because he lined up with our issues. when i speak to that issue of this hands the key, really in one way i described it as the piece of the puzzle missing overt intensity issue for mitt romney, it's because what the pass force have been saying when they talked to me was that look, i'm not signature on the sidelines i can't sit on the sidelines when this president is dismantling the very cornerstone of our society. i think it's mitt romney opens to have, and keep and move forward w. i think saturday with us a good start. i think he has to continue, just as he mentioned rick santorum in a way rick santorum woefr the two messages of the family and the economic together. mitt romney has to do the same thing going forward. it's not a don deal new mentioned sapbt r*r three times there. mitt romney did at well in that speech. why is his name so important? >> well, look, bill, look at the primary. we were told this election is about the economy, about jobs, yes, those issues are at the

forefront of concern, but rick santorum went from 1% in the polls in iowa to being a serious challenger to mitt romney for the nomination. and what was it over? it was over the social issues. even the media acknowledged, wow, this election is being driven by social issues. the president on wednesday assures us that it will be driven on social issues, because marriage will be very much in the mix, maybe as much as it was back in 2004. bill: we will see in time obviously in six months now that will play out. quickly now, you had said that some students at liberty had reservations about mitt romney as the commencement speaker. what were those reservations? >> well, again, mitt romney addressed that, he said look we have theological differences but we have shared values. 20 years ago when i graduated pat buchanan was the speaker talking about the cultural wars. he is catholic. there's long been issues between baptists and catholics. we've crossed that hurdle. i think when you looked at the shared values that the lds

church has with evangelicals it is common ground. i will not gloss over the theological differences that we v but when you look at marriage, california wouldn't have happened without the lds church. we have shared values. that's what he hit on, and i have to commend the students for being respectful, even though they had differences of opinion with mitt romney, i doubt that would happen on many campuses across the country. bill: tony perkins thank you for your time. nice to see you. martha: there is new fallout this morning from the leak of a covert operation that derailed an al-qaida bomb plot that was aimed at u.s. aircraft. senator dianne feinstein is calling for a full investigation. the chair of the intel committee telling fox news sunday that whoever is behind that leak should be prosecuted. >> the leak really did endanger sources and methods, and the leak, i think, has to be

prosecuted. so the investigation is being done, hopefully it can be con collide, and criminal charges will go to the department of justice. martha: farooqu kt mcfarland joins me now. you say this amounts to trees on. >> every administration complains and says we have leakers we don't want this information to get out u. this is really different. it telegraphs to al-qaida this is how we do things and conduct intelligence operation against you. it telegraphs to the guy on the inside, the family member, the tribal member who is thinking, i may turn, i may become a double agent. it tells him, we can't protect you, your cover may be blown. and the third thing it does, is it tells the foreign intelligence agencies in this case the saudis and the brits, who really it was their operation, it wasn't our

operation, it tells them that we cannot protect them, we cannot keep their names and their involvement out of the front pages of the newspapers. so what does this do? this is a war that is different. this doesn't mean we rely on drones or satellites to give us intelligence, we need the guy on the inside, the tribal member, the family member, the person who was in the ream when they are making these -- making bomb plots, when they are deciding how to assemble these things and carry out these operations. if we jeopardize our ability to be in that room we jeopardize the ability to see the next plot and the next one. i have a real issue whether it's the osama bin laden raid and all the information that came out about that after the fact or it's this one. we are talking way too much and we are letting the whole world know things that really are better off for our own protection, better off kept secret. martha: it seems that there is somebody who wants to get credit for some of these things that are happening, and that may be leading to some of this beings but as you point out, damage control is essential if we want to move forward with these

relationships. so prosecution would be a way to send that message, right? >> right. but the problem is that it's very difficult for an administration to investigate itself. the way i look at this is the doctor has just told you you've got cancer, you know, you've beaten it this time, we've had a great and successful treatment, but you know our ability to treat you again next time it comes back is really jeopardized by this. and i think you'll never know who to blame, you'll never know what went wrong, we have degraded our ability to gather intelligence and prosecute people in the future because of all these leaks, and for what end? political reasons? i'm interested in saving american lives not getting votes at the next election. martha: they say you can path yourself on the become for an incredible operation but it diminishes your ability to carry out others in the future. kt thank you for your insight as always. >> thanks, martha. bill: a cease-fire that seems

like anything but syrian abg ta sr*eupss saying government troubles are shelling a rebel held down. they are feeling fox news that syria and iran have put together a shadow army to do the regime's dirty work. leland vittert live in jerusalem. why is syria now so dangerous. >> as we've seen, bill, al-qaida now thinks syria is apprise worth fighting for, the amateur video coming out of that country is showing the fighting getting worse and worse and president bashar al-assad needing more and more help. and what we are learning is he's getting a lot of foreign help. thousands of highly trained, well armed and dedicated he hezbollah fighters. it's longtime ally iran with its thousands of revolutionary guard members. western intelligence sources tell fox news both groups are

now more focused than ever to keep longtime ally syrian president bashar al-assad in power. >> syria is a very vital link for iran. to cut or topple bashar al-assad is to hit or damage iranian interests in the region. >> reporter: sources say iran has helped create a shadow army for syria made up of foreign fighters and regime loyalists to take on the most unsavory of activities. they are helping the syrian army put down mass demonstrations. complicating matter -tss al-qaida's entrance to the syrian civil war. recent suicide car bombings in today mass cast have all the hallmarks of an al-qaida attack as it tries to create another failed state. in recent years, bill, a couple

of leaders of this shadow army have met their demise under shall we say unusual circumstances, but it appears now they are rebuilding. bill: as you point out the stakes indeed are high. leland vittert, thank you, in srerld. martha gerald. martha: why reese witherspoon's mother is suing her father for bigamy. bill: going where no daredevil has ever gone before. woe. ♪ [singing]

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every afternoon when that 2:30 feeling hits. -every day. -every day. every day is a 5-hour energy day. [ male announcer ] 5-hour energy. every day. martha: a family feud in court for actress reese witherspoon. she is trying to gain legal control of her father's finances, claiming he is not able to handle his own affairs, this as her mother is suing her

father claiming he illegally married another woman. she found out by reading an announcement in a local newspaper, and she says the other woman is taking advantage of him. tamara holder, and joey jackson, welcome to you both. by way of background, they separated quite some time ago but they have remained married, the first whether and mrs. witherspoon. she claims that her husband suffers from alcoholism that he's a hoarder, he's hoarding things and that he doesn't ever remember, according to her, marching this other woman, trisha ann taylor. their friends say they've seen them together at things. now she is making the new wife efforts to try to get control of their money and make purchases in his name and calling herself mrs. witherspoon and the first mrs. witherspoon says she is still mrs. witherspoon. it's a big problem here. >> it's a question of competency.

it's a factual issue. what she is trying to do, that is elizabeth witherspoon the first wife is she's trying to say listen, if something is amiss here we have to protect it. if there are family finances that need to remain in order you should not be getting married for the second time if you're legally married already. there was a separation in 1996 they've been separated since that time, 16 years but still legally they are together. if he does have dementia he has history of alcoholism and other types of issues, the money has to be preserved, that is the purpose of this hearing. if he is incompetent a conservator or guardian will be appointed, the assets will be frozen and the other woman will not get there. martha: the other woman is living in a condominium owned by reese witherspoon. and the first mrs. witherspoon says she is driving our vehicles, she's got even her husband to sign a new will. this is a terrible situation, but tamara it seems to me it comes down to the basic point, either -- that first marriage is still in effect or it's not,

right? >> right. right. and joey, you know, i love the guy, but he likes to maybe things a little more confusing than they th-r. there are two separate issues here. the first -- this second marriage there is no way that it can be a valid marriage. there is no such thing as common law divorce. you go out, you get married you must get divorced if you want to remarry or have your girlfriend on the side. you know there are plenty ever guys that do that. >> behave yourself, tamara. >> but the other thing is, the economy see unfor the to natal unfortunately, martha in tennessee, the burden is very low. you go in and say i'm going to fill out this affidavit, i think this guy is a alcoholic. he spends too much money e has motorcycles, take all the money away from him or the power away from him and put that in the possession of a conservator. i think it's a very dangerous thing that the court may do. martha: joey back to you so you

can uncomplicate things. i think they are pretty clear so far. if the marriage is invalid i mean that is the jumping off point for awful this. sh all of this. she can't change his will or do any of these things if she's not his wife. >> he should not have got even married again. generally a economy person will not get married again. if he does have a past history of alcohol or dementia or anything else someone needs to be appointed to protect his assets. it's unmistakable that this person should not come in and spend money that he's not entitled to and that's not hers, period. >> you're throwing around competency way too loosely. just because the guy drinks too much and owns too many motorcycles doesn't mean he's necessarily incompetent. >> he got married again. who does that who is in their right mind. >> his family new about the woman. he brought her to the wedding. to reese witherspoon's wedding. martha: she was not allowed in.

it's a very bizarre story. it comes down to one basic fact, if he's already married he cannot be married to this other woman legally, and that is the starting point for all of this. thanks very much you guys. >> bingo. take care of martha. bill: she was great as june carter cash, i mean spot on. martha: she won an oscar for that. great performance. bill: nicely done. jon scott is coming up next. jon: i think we better follow-up on that story in a few minutes the markets taking a big hit today, several factors at play, including the real possibility greece could default on its debt and that growing scandal at banking giant jpmorgan, a $2 billion mistake. as the campaigns turn sharply to the economy it's the issue voters say is most important to them. we have it all covered for you. the defense gets its shot in the john edwards star and the star witness takes the stand in the perjury trial of baseball great roger clemens. all coming up in "happening now." bill: see you in ten minutes. police make another gruesome

discovery, this time uncovering dozens of mutilated bodies. what is behind this incident in mexico? are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

bill: another horrific discovery apparently linked to mexico's ongoing drug war. police finding 49 more mutilated bodies dumped by a roadside in the northern town of monterey across the texas border. william la jeunesse is here to tell bus this. >> reporter: this incident like many occurred just over the border as the rival cartels fight over the profitable drug smuggling routes. this one the i35 corridor going through hughes tonight. controlling these routes is key, the life boulevard these cartels getting the drugs and the people north and the cash coming back.

the 49 bodies, including six women were dumped at a white stone arch at the entrance of the town of san antonio juan, a hundred miles southwest of ma cal lien texas. their hands, feet and heads were cut off making identification almost impossible. police say the massacre likely occurred nearby and the bodies were dumped here for maximum effect to send a message that these victims, you know, they could belong to the sinaloa cartel or it could be a group of immigrants being smuggled by that cartel when they were attacked and murdered by the rival zetas. the arch was spray-painted with the letters, 100% zeta. 50,000 people have died in the crackdown by president felipe calderon. why that crackdown has killed and jailed hundreds of drug lords it's actually fractured mexico's five main cartels. now you have many associated groups, in-fighting. the one thing that has probably changed, bill is that the people

are mexico are fed up with this and we have an upcoming presidential election and the next president is likely to continue the drug war. back to you. bill: disturbing to hear. martha: fire crews in one state have got their hands full this morning battling nearly a half a dozen out of control wildfires. a small town in the danger zone now where folks are defying an order to get out. new honey bunches of oats fruit blends and their unique taste combinations. like peach/raspberry. with one flavor in the granola bunch and one on the flake. two flavors. in harmony. honey bunches of oats. ke your day hes better. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores.

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martha: you know what they say, practice makes perfect, right? hundreds of in upstate new york watch nick wallenda take a practice walk over the niagra falls. he is a 7th generation member after famous daredevil family the flying wallendas this is the first walk over the biggest part of the waterfalls. tht