>> ali: you have three doors down on tomorrow's summer concert series. i'm jealous. >> steve: stop by. >> ali: i will. >> steve: or watch on tv. we'll be talking to the bates family. >> brian: it's sad because i wanted to be adopted today, but i don't have the paper it is work. watch tlc on monday. see you. bill: how would you like to try and find jobs for that family. a fox news alert. weekly unemployment numbers just out. last week's claims falling to 361,000. we'll go through these numbers. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to america's newsroom. good morning to you. patti ann: i'm patti ann browne in for martha maccallum. bill: we are well above where we need to be as a country.

you can see the numbers since the numbers started faltering. we need to be below that yellow line. we have been at or above that for 195 of the past 216 week. that's phenomenal. stuart varney, you are going through the numbers. down 6,000 now. what does that tell you? >> reporter: do not grasp at straws. do not take a 6,000 reduction as a positive signal. 361,000 new faces on the unemployment lines is still way too high. it still implies far too many layoffs in this economy and the bottom line is the economy is still weak. it's sluggish at best and these numbers suggest exactly that.

bill: does it suggest that jobs are coming back to you or not? >> no, it does not. a rising unemployment rate at 8.3% and 360,000-plus people filing for unemployment claims, that's a grim picture. bill: how toss each side sell this number? >> reporter: they will both play with this number. i suggest president obama will say down 6,000 jobless claims, we are going in the right direction. i would expect governor * to say the opposite, that this claims number is a signal of failure. bill: the revised number is when they go back to the previous weeks and sometimes month and adjust it on different

information and data they are taking in. you say it's a pattern to go higher. why? >> reporter: there is a pattern that the previous week goes up scoirnt week looks better because it may go down. some people think the numbers may be mipulated. i don't believe that. but there is a pattern of adjustment of last week's numbers that make this week's numbers look better. bill: thank you, stuart. context on the job market. 15% of americans are unemployed or underemployed. average americans spending 39 week unemployed. so if you lost your job today that means you would be jobless until may of 2013. patti ann: president obama is

pushing economic fairness attending campaign events in colorado continuing his argument that the wealthy should pay their fair share. romney is slamming his policies saying they haven't worked. >> normally when you have a recession you put in policies that cause a quick rebound when the recession is over. with president reagan a million jobs a month were created and we got back to an economy that was strong and vibrant. but this president's policies have not done that. patti ann: the president said if i don't have this done in three years there's going to be a one-term proposition. since january 2009 the economy is down 316,000 jobs. 5.2 trillion dollars have been

added to the national debt. bill: mitt romney has a campaign event in virginia. but president obama has spent two days in colorado. why would that be? obama beat mccain by 9 points in colorado in 2008. but this what is we found just this week. the latest polling numbers that came out through quinnipiac. obama leads romney by 2 points in colorado. the themes he's picking up in colorado. hispanics in colorado make up 20% of the state's population. you see why you position yourself to spend 48 hours in

one state after the poll numbers shows you down 5. patti ann: fox news is america's election headquarters. in prime time join bret baier and megyn kelly for all the big speeches and analysis. martha and bill will be live in tampa for the rnc and charlotte for the dnc. fox news alert. in syria nothing is sacred. new amateur video of a mortar attack on a funeral. smoke and dust filling the air. mourners running for cover. then they began to chant,

"bashar, we are not leaving." >> reporter: on the ground it does not look good for the rebels. they are losing ground in the town of aleppo. slowly but surely president asaid's forces are pushing the rebels back. and also they are running low on ammunition. aleppo is a key part for the battle plan. they hoped to make that as a base of operation and open supply line to turkey where turkey can send the rebels ammunition. a win by the rebels which appears unlikely will prove them as a fighting force worthy of going up against president assad's forces. a win by the government would tell theorld president obama assad is likely to stay in power

for the future. patti ann: what is this conference we are hearing russia is planning to attend. >> reporter: iran and russia meeting to end the violence in syria is like the proverbial fox meeting to talk about the chickens in the hen house. this meeting is meant to counter the united states and turkey, friends of syria meetings that supports the rebels. certainly with weapon and ammunition it's coming from some of the gulf states. the iranians and russians are trying to figure out a diplomatic counterweight to those meetings in the rest of the world. bill: new video of a massive

dust storm smothering a large u.s. city. this is phoenix, arizona. the cloud you see is dust moving across the town at 35 miles an hour. it's called a haboob, which is an arabic term for wind. they usually last 20-30 minutes. but when they hit the blinding, choking dust can reduce visibility to zero in a matter of minutes. if you are driving your car it can be very dangerous. patti ann: it's instant blindness. bill: a daring rescue at the bottom of the world. saving an american with a medical emergency and one of the most difficult places in world to reach. patti ann: new allegations of widespread fraud at the i.r.s. the alarming amount of money

that has been wasted. bill: critic slamming an ad by a pro obama group. now a romney group suggests a senior member of the obama campaign has been caught in a lie. john sununu weighs in with reaction.

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bill: both campaigns launching attempts to win over the women of america. obama courting women in colorado and romney announcing a mitt for women in virginia. republicans argue the details are what matters. >> he's winning women by 50% less than got last time around and he's running worse among men and hence the race is 47-46 in

today's gallup tracking. bill: monica crowley and alan colmes. what the [bleep] happened to my women in america. that's your title. how do you think this thing goes? >> that's me, bill? since i'm the woman on the panel. bill: women always lead. ladies first. >> the democrats have usually had a strong lead among women. this time around it looks like president obama is still leading among women. governor romney is leading among men. so it's a much stronger lead among men. i think the governor sees a true opportunity to go after women with an economic security message. remember in 2004 george w. bush tailored a message both to men and women, but particularly to

women based on national security. what governor romney is doing is also targeting men and women about economic security. in this obama economy women have suffered just as much as men in terms of unemployment and lack of economic growth. i think that's a strong message, a powerful one, and it's resonating with a lot of women. bill: doug, what do you think about that economic security message. >> i would tell you with all due respect monica is far more cogent in outlining an argument than the romney campaign is. romney has been anti-obama without offering a positive and coherent view. the obama campaign has focused on women generally and single women particularly. obama care to make the case women are at risk if you go back as he says to the 1950s with

healthcare policies. bill: i think that was a compliment. i think he's saying you are a good communicator. 51-43, obama as the edge in colorado. overall, losing that state in the latest quinnipiac state. in 2008 here is president obama 56 to 43%. why a 14-point gap? >> traditionally women tend to go for the democratic candidate because the so-called women's issues are thought to prevail with women. because gap for obama among women has narrowed to 9 points, 10 points, that's why you see the strategy about the focus of the war on women. he's seeking to deflect attention away from romney and

saying they want to take away birth control or whatever it may be. bill: those mean, mean republicans, they are going to destroy your lives. >> that's the obama strategy. they recognize their negatives are high. they recognize they are not doing as well as they were doing four years ago and they are making a case on access to contraception, access to abortion, funding of planned parenthood, preexisting conditions being covered. bill: do you think that works? >> among single women obama is 25-30 points ahead. that's the focus of the election. bill: one more theme i want you both to respond to. karl rove writes this race is essentially tied.

whenever it's tied it's good news for mitt romney. >> i think doug will agree with you. when you have this calculation. we have a sitting president with the powers of the white house and the power of the incumbency. when he at this point in the campaign is tied with the challenger you will usually see people who are undecided at this point and going into november, they will usually break for the challenger because they already know what the incumbent is all about. bill: undecided voters tend to break late. >> because romney's rating is so low the obama campaign understands what karl rove is saying. >> i think for the general electorate that this election is not about governor romney, it's a referendum on barack obama.

that's why you see these desperate attempts to make a war on women. >> so it's not a referendum on his performance. bill: monica, what the [bleep] happened to my ... >> exactly. patti ann: how the u.s. and its arab allies are protecting themselves in the face of a growing threat from iran. then this ... >> are you okay? you sounds like you are a little out of breath. bill: those 911 calls from the arrest of randy travis. what that caller saw that took his breath away. have you seen this picture?

[♪]

bill: they say they found him naked lying in the middle of the road allegedly drunk. new 911 calls about the sung errandy extra vision. the man calling 911 was clearly shocked by what he saw. and who wouldn't be. >> i'm on the road 337 to valleyview. and i just found a guy laying on the road.

bill: according to police a store clerk reported travis naked and drunk and trying to buy cigarettes. shortly afterwards he crashed his car. when police arrived they say he threatened to kill the officers. the charges could put him in jail for 10 years. patti ann: an australian rescue plane picking up an american researcher undergoing a medical emergency. it's 30 degree below zero right now. the medical rescue team has landed back in new zealand and

david lee miller is in our newsroom with more on the story. >> reporter: for privacy reasons authorities are not revealing the identity of the patient but he or she is in a hospital in christchurch new zealand reported to be in stable condition. this patient was working at the research station in antarctica run by the national science foundation. though there is a medical facility there, this individual needed treatment that cannot be provided. the police reported this individual about hours ago arrived in new zealand and is getting the treatment that he or she needs. patti ann: what more details can you provide about the rescue? >> reporter: this is the type of stuff you see in the move why is. the united states could not provide aircraft for this rescue so an australian rescue team

decided to step in. they made the 5-around flight landing an airbus on an icy air strip and it had to be timed to coincide with the narrow sliver of daylight because it' the middle of winter in antarctica. this photo was taken at the mcmurdo research station. you can see in the photo a similar airbus 319. this is one of the few air strips in antarctica that can accommodate aircraft. the new zealand air force had to provide search and rescue just in case the rescuers needed rescue. but thankfully that was not the case. patti ann: quite a story. thank you. bill: the i.r.s. is watching you, but who's watching the i.r.s. new allegations of failure to

root out widespread fraud. patti ann: gas prices in one state shooting up 10 cents overnight. what's behind this and can it happen across the country? hey joe, can you talk? sure. your hair -- amazing. thanks to head and shoulders for men. four shampoos that give men game-winning alp protection, great looking hair... and confidence [ male announcer ] up to 100% flake free with head & shoulders for men.

bill: we asked you before the commercial break who is watching the i.r.s. tax returns worth more than a million dollars came from a single address in florida could be the tip of the iceberg. fraud could cost the taxpayer, you, billions of dollars. steve centanni is live in washington. what did you find out? >> reporter: this report from the inspector general found 154 different mailing addresses where multiple returns were filed resulting in millions of dollars of fraudulent refunds. from one single address nearly 24,000 returns were filed and refunds were issued totaling $26.3 million. an address in oxnard, california where 2,500 refunds were mailed.

the report says the i.r.s. has not established control over those submitting returns with numbers issued no non-resident workers. it all came to light because of complaints to congress by i.r.s. employees who saw this going on. wanted congress to know about it. the report says the agency needs better training and documentation so they can spot these questionable applications and stop fraud. the agency says the i.r.s. has moved quickly and aggressively to address issues identified. we have taken major steps to strengthen our documentation standards and significantly increased our scrutiny of applications. congress likely to be taking a look at this, too.

congress saying we need to know why the i.r.s. is not catching this fraud. patti ann: sending a strong message to iran. the u.s. is working with its arab allies in the persian gulf to create a regional defense system aimed at protecting cities, pipelines and military bases in the event of attack by iran. joining us is former general jack keane. thank you for joining us, general. first if you would, bring home the magnitude of iran's missile threat. >> they have a credible and impressive inventory of missiles. they have short, medium and

long-range police particular missiles. they have cruise missiles which go along closer to the ground. some of them beneath our radar intercept capability and they do not leave the earth's atmosphere. they have a significant inventory of these weapons and they are continuously improving them. the weapons can reach their neighbors in the gulf as well awsms s. bases. it's a credible threat and one that's worrisome to us and one we have to defend against. patti ann: the allies are bahrain, kuwait, ask you tar, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. how tricky is that cooperation among some of these rival nations?

>> we have good relations with each of them but unfortunately they do not have good relations with each other. we don't have a regional command in terms of the regional command and control. what our defense system consists of is command and control and communications. long-range detector missiles, then radar to guide our missile to the target which is an incoming missile, then the launch platform and the missiles together. what these countries are doing is buying parts of all of that. what we are trying to do is stitch all that together so it's an integrated system working with each other, not just working independently of each other. patti ann: secretary of state hillary clinton said you defend one nation you might need a neighboring nation. how far along is this joint

shield? >> we are moving very quickly to get the capability but it's still a ways to go in terms of it being fully operable and integrated. we don't have in the gulf states -- even though we have a cooperation council there. we don't have a military headquarters like nato that would stitch all of it together so you have a comprehensive defensive umbrella. the capabilities are arriving quickly because the gulf states are worried about the looming iranian threat. but the command and control network is not there yet. patti ann: how are the costs being shared? >> these countries obviously have wealth and they are buying most of the equipment from us. they are buying our patriot missile system, they are buying our radar and they are buying our long-range missile system. they have the money to buy that and they have been buy that the

last 5, 6 years. bill: a new report on college debt with some surprising results. the "wall street journal" saying upper income families have been hit the hardest by rising costs in a bad economy. 25% in student loan debt. they owed $33,000 on average. many families are taking a look at the cost in choosing a college. borrowing is at a smaller amount for lower income families. checking the markets. we are moving sideways. a reaction to that jobs number that was not good. we are not building the way we need to be building the economy. hints of a deteriorating economy out of beijing. that's tied into this global effort. off 5, 6 points.

7 minutes into the day. patti ann: a fire at one isle refinery sending oil prices spiking. is that all it takes? bill: the firestorm over what has been described as a despicable attack ad. the president's advisers saying they knew nothing about the details of this man's story. but were they caught in a flatout lie? you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter.

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bill: one of president obama's top campaign members under fire for her response to a controversial democratic ad linking the death of a laid off steel worker's wife to bain capital. here is part of the ad that's causing this back and forth. >> by then it was stage 4. there was nothing they could do

for her. she passed away in 22 days. i do not think romney realized what he has done to anyone. furthermore i do not think mitt romney is concerned. bill: mitt romney is not concerned and also the 22 days. yesterday's obama's deputy campaign manager saying she did not know any of the details surrounding that man's story. >> you do know we don't have anything to do with priorities u.s.a. by law we are not allowed to coordinate with them and by law we don't have anything to do with their ads. i don't know the details of when joe sopic's wife got sick or when she died. stephanie cutter was hosting a conference call featuring that same steel worker. >> you can't expect much from someone who says he likes to fire people with no concern

about their families. i turn the call back over to stephanie. >> thank you, joe, we appreciate you and david sharing your experiences. bill: we are late in august. former governor john sununu served as chief of staff to former president george w. bush. bill burton used to work in the white house and worked for senator obama during this run for the white house in 2008. now runs the super pac. he apparently was on cnn yesterday and said what fact in that ad is wrong. so i give you the opportunity now to respond to that. >> well, let's give it a context. a year ago ben smith of politico after interviewing burton and others in the white house and on the obama campaign and obama white house wrote an article in which he said the strategy that obama will employ is to destroy mitt romney.

to character assassinate him because the white house could not run on their record. a year ago they laid out this agenda. if burton wants to know where the lie is, the lie is in the omission. if you listen to the gentleman when he read his script with stephanie on the telephone and he is reading a script, you will see that the campaign crafted a statement then that didn't point out, for example, that his wife and the 22 days happened in 2006, 7 years after mitt romney left bain. so first of all, they craft a despicable ad full of lies. then stephanie cutter and robert gibbs and jay carney lie to the press that they didn't know anything that was in that ad. can you imagine that the press in the press room now in the white house know that there is a white house spokesman, a press

secretary that lies to them? this not onlyeveals the character of deceit in this campaign. it shows you how stupid the white house crowd and his campaign is. bill: burton also said what this ad tells is the story of one guy and the impact mitt romney had on his life suggesting there at the end of that quote here. a spokesman for the obama team said he refuses to accept responsibility for the jobs that were lost and the workers impacted, mention mitt romney. where does this lead us when you are 89 days away from a campaign. are we looking at perhaps diamonds. >> one of the dirtiest political campaigns this country has seen. even the liberal media is telling us how despicable this campaign is right now. it's dirty out of desperation. this president knows 8.3%

unemployment scares america. this president knows no growth scares america, and this president knows that the private sector is ready to leave the country in he sense with their investments because of the regulations and the bad policies. bill: they are going right after your guy in that comment. he refuses to accept responsibility for the jobs that were lost and the workers that were impacted. the suggestion is the lives are changed permanently by your guy mitt romney. >> if you want to talk about the steel industry. they invested in steel dynamics which was about to go under, and is now the number 5 company in the steel industry in america. the obama campaign has done what they said they would do a year ago. they look for little factoids they can distort and factoids they can misrepresent and little

factoids they hope they can sell the american public is representative of a reality that isn't there. mitt romney created hundreds -- over 100,000 jobs and the democrats and obama can't stand hearing that. they are trying to undermine it with this dishonesty. campaigns show character. and the character that is shown by what's going on in this campaign is the dishonesty of obama, the desperation of obama and the not very bright aspect of president obama. bill: now we find out the man featured in this ad was offered a buyout before the steel plant closed in 2001. >> i didn't know that, to tell you the truth. i don't know that. and i'm not going to state anything here that i don't know. but obviously if that is true, then you have again dishonesty by omission. by the obama campaign and

unfortunately by this gentleman whose tragedy we empathize with. but if that turns out to be true, what he has been griping about toward mitt romney is certainly a misrepresentation. bill: do you think all this matters in the end? >> it does. bill: people and sort and say it was stated, i accept it as fact. >> what matters in the end is people are knowing obama will lie, his campaign will lie and his pac will lie. they will see 8 more days of dishonesty coming from these people. bill: john sununu thank you for your time. thank you, sir, for our viewers at home. hemmer@foxnews.com. all oh on twitter @billhemmer.

patti ann? patti ann: there are questions about the separation of church and state. could taxpayers soon be funding a church near you? bill: check this out from mars. there is a scientist saying it looks like a lot of places right here on earth. what that could mean for chances of finding a little bit of life on the red planet. cool stuff. and you will see more of that in a matter of moment.

bill: another golden day for the u.s. at the london games.

women's beach volleyball facing off in the finals. third straight final to end their careers together. they beat the americans on the other side. patti ann, i owe you a dollar. we bet on that game. u.s. victories across the board. allison felix winning the gold. check her out. bam! two-time world champion britney reese. watch her fly. in hoops we go. kobe bryant leading the u.s. team to a win over australia. le bron james doing this part with a triple-double. they are one step closer to gold. here is the medal count. the u.s. leading with 82. i told you that would happen. china is now in second place followed by russia, great

britain and germany. u.s.a.! u.s.a.! just a few more days to go in london. 2 two exact. the u.s. women's soccer team taking on japan at the finals. the u.s. lost to japan in the world cup finals. organizers are expecting a crowd of 83,000. i'm going to miss it. i agree with you, patti ann. patti ann: there is an ongoing debate whether religion is under attack. in florida is an amendment on the ballot that would pave the way for government to fund religious institutions. opponents say it violates the separation of church and state. >> reporter: almost everyone believes discriminating on the basis of religion is wrong. but does that mean taxpayers should have to pay for religious

education. one rabbi in florida says no. as a rabbi he believes in religious education. what you don't believe in is paying for someone else's religious education. >> exactly. nor should anyone be forced into paying for someone's religious education. he says that's what everyone will be forced to do wh florida passes the so-called religious freedom amendment. he claims it's a smoke screen designed solely to skirt a ban on taxpayer funded education. it's called religious freedom. ultimately muslims wille paying for catholic education. catholics will be paying for hindu education. hindus will be paying to educate

buddhists. >> it's discriminatory because those faith-based organizations are not allowed to compete on a level playing field. report rrp he says education is a marketplace and religious schools need to be treated the same as non-religious schools. >> they shouldn't be telling a group just because you are a faith-based organization you can't participate in the marketplace. >> we have separation of church and state in this country. >> reporter: he says secular groups can use tax dollars but religious groups need to be kept separate. patti ann: douglas kennedy, thank you. bill: gas prices shooting up overnight. why would that be. a new report find 100 million americans are now relying on

welfare from the fed cal government. >> it's wrong to make any change that would make america more of a nation of government dependency. i will restore work in the welfare. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

bill: the political world now waiting for a big announcement. who will round out the republican ticket and join governor romney in a race for the white house. buzz over a possible vp pick hitting a fever pitch and the romney team fanning the flames a little bit. the governor's wife, ann romney tweeting yesterday afternoon, mitt's joys nor vp will be announced soon, end quote. is that more than a tease? i guess that's why we watch. i'm bill hemmer. patti ann: i'm patti ann browne in for martha maccallum. names mentioned.

tim pawlenty had this to say. >> are you going to come become to michigan when you're vice president. >> i'm in michigan a fair amount. it isn't the vp process or who is going to be vp, the main issue is what do we do to get this economy moving begin and provide for people. the vp thing will reveal itself soon enough. bill: soon enough. it could happen any hour, quite frankly. or it could be a couple of days or weeks from now. byron york, a fox news contributor. you jumped into the game yesterday. portman, pawlenty, ryan and rubio. take the first one, rob portman is a senator from ohio. why do you think he would be a good pick, or do you? >> because you have to -- first of all i'm talking about who mitt romney might pick, i don't have a personal choice in this. but look at what mitt romney,

how he operates, he's a very cautious man. he believes that the boss should be the boss, that is the president nominee will pick the direction of the campaign, the vice president will follow. and he is not looking for a flashy choice. so, rob portman fits all of those things very well, experience in the house, the senate, the executive branch, a very, very solid pick might help romney in ohio. romney doesn't win ohio he doesn't win the presidency. bill: 18 electoral votes in the buckeye state. tim pawlenty the former governor of minnesota does he fit the criteria you just laid out? >> that is kind of a ditto with portman. he's been a governor and that's a very big thing for mitt romney. critics would say, well he ran a pretty bad campaign. he campaigned for president, dropped out after the ames-iowa straw poll, not a good sign, but his fans would say, look he's not going to be running this campaign. he's been a very, very effective

surrogate on the stump for mitt romney. bill: marco rubio. yesterday he was listed fourth. today he's bumped up for third. is there a reason for that? >> the first two choices, pawlenty and portman would be the solid, unexciting choices. the next ones, rubio and ryan would be the exciting choices, clearly excite the base at the republican convention more. rubio -- the same is true for florida is true for ohio. romney doesn't win florida he doesn't win the presidency. bill: 29 electoral votes right there. don't mean to push i along here, paul ryan, how possible? >> ryan has a lot of fans. the "wall street journal" editorial page today saying they really want paul ryan. he is the only choice out of the four that would mean a fundamental redirection of the romney campaign. if he were selected that would elevate the ryan budget plan immediately to the centerpiece, the top of the romney campaign. if you look at the campaign mitt

romney has run until now it has not been at the center of it. bill: thank you, byron. >> thank you, bill. bill: it could be any moment, so don't go far. patti ann: stay with us. we'll have it. well the economy is the number one issue for voters, and today's new numbers show little growth in the job market. the labor department reporting new jobless claims dropped by just 6,000 last week, that is a total of 361,000 americans filing for unemployment benefits. ed henry is traveling with the president in pueblo, colorado. how do the numbers play out on the campaign trail? >> reporter: well, it's unlikely the president is going to say much about it because it's a mixed pwafplgt it's very similar to what we saw last week in the monthly jobs report. some positive news, some negative news, similar to what we heard from the fed bank in boston who said he believes the economy is treading water and the federal reserve needs to move in and act soon. that suggests that the

president's pitch about the economy turning around is not coming together as quickly as he had wanted. that's why you are hearing from mitt romney and some of his surrogates say they say that is why these ads come out attacking mitt romney, because they don't want to focus on the economy they want to attack the governor. >> if the campaign and the people working with them have focused almost exclusively on personal attacks, you know, in the past when people pointed out that something was inaccurate, why campaigns either pulled the ad, they were embarrassed. today they just blast ahead. the various fact checkers look at some of these charges in the obama ads and they say that they are wrong, and inaccurate, and yet he keeps on just running them. >> reporter: and the obama camp insists they do want to focus on substance about the economy. they have a new report out this morning showing the impact in some key battleground states of the romney tax plan, claiming that if you push through tax

cuts for the wealthy it's going to result in some of the poor and the middle class paying more. patti ann: what is the president's message specifically there in colorado? >> reporter: i think it was pretty clear yesterday when he rolled things out here, first in denver before coming onto pueblo, when he had sandra fluck who was in the center of the contraception controversy, that he was all about women's health and he believes the romney camp would take the country backwards. take a listen. >> when it comes to a woman's right to make her own healthcare choices they want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s and the 21st century. >> reporter: there was a new poll by "the new york times," cbs news and quinnipiac suggesting maybe the president has work to do with women in a battleground like colorado here. he has an edge over governor romney among women but a smaller one in colorado than we've seen in other battle grounds, suggesting he may have work to

do. patti ann:ed henry, live in colorado, thank you. bill: about a thousand gallons of gasoline spilling into the streets of miami from a chevron station there. the u.s. coast guard checking for any trace of royal in the water while the city's public works department is checking the local sewage system for contamination. they say the local drinking water has not been affected. the cause remains under investigation. patti ann: fox news alert and another big problem for chevron, this one on the west coast. a huge fire at a critical fuel refinery is hitting drivers hard in their wallets already. a controlled burn at this california refinery spiraled out of control and analysts say it is driving up gas prices nationwide. prices in california shot up overnight to $3.93. that's up 10-cents from the day before and california is getting hit harder than the rest of the country, but the national average is just 3.67. but that fire did come just two days after an even bigger one at

the same plant when huge plumes of smoke forced hundred toss local hospitals. with analysts expecting gas prices to continue to rise some are wondering whether the fires are really what's to blame. phil flynn is a senior market analyst at the fox futures group and a fox news contributor . thanks for joining us. >> thanks. patti ann: wholesale gas prices went up 30-cents a gallon the day after the fire and there are predictions they'll go even higher. what is your forecast for california and also nationwide? >> i think the gasoline situation in the united states is running under the rule of murphy's law, what can go wrong will go wrong. we are going to see those prices on the west coast go up much more dramatically. in fact they've already gone up over 6 to 7-cents a gallon in the san francisco area. we will see price increases like that across the state of california. patti ann: yeah, prices at the pump in the bay area already going up and people say they will go higher.

some people are crying foul wondering if it's an excuse to raise prices. if you say this chevron fire really was disastrous enough to justify the price hike? >> it was. if you look at the wholesale prices they've been restraining the price increases in california. the wholesale market went up over 30-cents overnight. you've only seen a 6-cent increase, in los angeles barely a penny. they are trying to hold back the price increase. if it were just california i'd say the whole country shouldn't go up. it's not just california. look at what is happening across the country. last week we had a pipeline leaking, it cut off oil to two major refineries in the midwest. the same two refineries had a fire of their own that had shut down production. plus you've had a very active tropical storm season down in the gulf of mexico, that slows imports. you have problems in the northeast. you name it, it goes wrong and when it goes wrong we pay for it at the pumps.

patti ann: phil flynn, senior market analyst at the fox group. thank you. bill: stunning new numbers on how many americans now are on welfare, and some lawmakers say the president is making it easier for even more people to sign up. if that's the case, who is paying for all this? patti ann: amazing new pictures just beached back from the surface of mars courtesy of curiosity. we have a former astronaut tom jones joining us. bill: three terrible accidents in the span of four days. what in the world happened and why one bus company is coming under scrutiny for this. >> the bus was -- the tire blew. we smelled the smoke while we were on the bus. when we were leaving off the bus we smelled the smoke. 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

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patti ann: dozens of passengers escape an intense bus fire. of the megabus was traveling

from atlanta to charlotte when it burst into flames in georgia. no reports of injuries. one passenger said it could have been much worse. >> very close. the bus could have tipped over. anything could have happened. people could have panicked. there were a lot of kids and elderly people on the bus. >> definitely they need to do the maintenance check before they allow any passengers to get on another bus. patti ann: this is the latest in a string of recent incidents for this discount busline. on tuesday a megabus driver in chicago struck and killed a 76-year-old woman crossing the street, this a week after a bus slammed into a highway overpass. a passenger died and 50 others were injured. bill: a stunning new survey showing a big jump in americans on welfare. this as governor romney goes on the offensive against president obama for what he says is a

dismantling of welfare reform. u.s. census bureau reports that more than a hundred million americans are now receiving some form of federal welfare. if you take a look at the chart the number has been rising steadily since 2009. art laugh eri laugher is the architect of reaganomics. thank you for joining us. >> this is a huge increase for people that don't work or work very little. there are a lot of categories that are not inc those numbers. what it really means is that, you know, if you pay people not to work, and if you tax them if they do work, you know you're going to get a lot of people not working. the way to see this number clearly is imagine we have a two-person world, farmer a and farmer b, and that's all there is in the world, bill nothing

else. if farmer b gets unemployment benefits who do you think pays for them, farmer a. government spending is taxation and i have yet to ever seen an economy taxed into prosperity. we are on a crash course and collision course, and it's going to stop -- stpho: how do you break this cycle, art. >> cut the spending. bill: cut the spend stph-g. >> yeah, th-s its. you have to make the eligibility requirements much tougher. raise the average age for social security. you've got to make the criteria for food stamps for unemployment benefits much tougher than they are now. you have to make it so that the best form of welfare is a good high-paying job rather than a handout. bill: we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. >> that's correct. bill: how does this society change when it becomes more and more dependent on the state in. >> well it's sooner or later crashes. because when you get fewer people working you don't get enough on tax revenues to pay tees people and the checks stop. that's what is happening in

california today as you can see in those cities. you just can't pay those retirement benefits to the government workers. so it will crash, it will stop. the question is whether we do it through logic or whether we let it crash into the system on its own. that's what this election is all about, and that's what romney is talking about and that is what obama is talking about. bill: what the governor is saying is he's suggesting the white house is gutting welfare. >> yes he is. bill: and taking apart the way the program was set up in 1996 between bill clinton and newt gingrich. do you agree with that? >> he's cutting the work requirement to get welfare. in 1996 clinton and the congress agreed that you had to actually look nor work to get welfare. that was welfare reform. he has now said you don't have to look for work to get welfare. that's what obama just put through that you can drop the work requirement in order to receive welfare. so he's not gutting it, he's increasing the eligibility dramatically, president obama is and mitt romney would go the

opposite direction, and i think clinton and romney are right and i think obama is probably wrong. bill: one hundred million americans is one-third of the nation. >> it's huge, a big number. bill: art, thank you for coming in. we're going to watch this okay. >> thank you. bill: art laugher out of nashville. you're always happy. you're always coming on delivering terrible news about the direction and the future but you do it with a smile. so kudos. we'll see you soon, okay, art? >> thank you bill. patti ann: we have warnings of prices going up because of healthcare. we'll tell but the two u.s. industries that could be hit the hardest and how it affects you. bill: forget the dogs, one u.s. city is going to the bears. while an unexpected hotel guest is just one of many we have seen in recent weeks. patti ann: and some rare photos of the red planet and they look a lot like our own. the best images yet from curiosity's made even voyage.

bill: 22 minutes past the hour now. it could be at least two more days before police know if a body found in louisiana is that of missing student mickey sh u.n. ick. looming defense cuts could force them to send out a slew of pink slips before the election. it's too early to predict if that will happen. the u.s. beginning a project to cleanup dangerous chemicals in vietnam. scientists in body suits ser

searching for materials when they dropped agent orange there years ago. that will be very interesting. patti ann: i wonder how long those things linger. nasa's curiosity rover is hard at work on mars. it just sent back some of the sharpest pictures yet from the surface of the red planet. for many the most striking feature is how much these images look like earth. what does this say about the possibility of life on mars and the chance that maybe humans could live there some day. let's bring in former nasa astronaut tom jones, also a fox news contributor and the author of "sky walking." one nasa scientist said you would really be forgiven if you thought nasa was trying to pull a fast one and we actually put a rover in the mohave desert and took a picture. basically it looks just like california.

is this further evidence that life exists there or did? >> i think they chose this landing site in gale crater because of its earth-like qualities. we might expect the similarities in landscapes. they wanted to place where rocks had sed men tear relayers and that might point to organic chemicals that are precusors to life or traces to past life. it's got the most earth-like climate and past. if earth started here as it certainly did, was it also on mars, we are looking for that evidence now. patti ann: as an astronaut yourself, this rover will be there for two years. what are the questions you most want answered? >> we are looking for evidence that ancient past of mars exhibited the right temperature and pressure and chemical conditions to support life. we now how tenacious life is on earth. once it got haoeur here, once

it got started here it expanded to every nook and cranny. if life was on mars years ago that life may still be hanging on there today. for an astronaut the idea might be to partner with the machines like curiosity and add the human exploring skills of chemists and biologists and get to the bottom of this biology on mars, are we alone. patti ann: we have had other rovers on mars, phoenix, and opportunity, what makes curiosity so different. >> a all the other rovers we've addressed a series of more difficult questions about mars and it's geologic path. curiosity now with the laboratory it's carrying can address the search for the chemistry that is necessary for life to exist or have existed in the past. for the first time we can

examine four chemicals to see if we have life as we understand it. and we can analyze minerals in the bedrock that we see in these pictures to see if that could support life as we understand it. it's zeroing in on evidence for life past. that might be the driver to send humans there one day to get to the bottom of this question. patti ann: that would be exciting. tom jones, thank you so much. bill: i thought curiosity was out in utah, didn't you. patti ann: i thought it killed the cat. bill: maybe that too. maybe killed the cat in utah. we'll stop now. businesses are bracing or what might be a massive spike in the cost of healthcare. how that could affect your coverage and wallet. patti ann: a highly respected doctor and family man accused of having a very dark side. what police say he did, it has an entire community in shock. >> i've never seen anything quite like it.

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patti ann: new concerns about homeland security after a report criticizing the handling of a bomb found near a federal building in detroit. guards at the building discovered the suspicious package outside last february. instead of calling police they took it inside and locked it in

a closet for three weeks. luckily it never detonated. the homeland security department blames poor training and oversight and says new guidelines have been issued on how to deal with suspicious package. bill: something waoelgee have we'll have to deal with for a longtime. american businesses of bracing for rising costs as a result of president obama's healthcare law. both the retail and hospitality industries are preparing for the worse increase because they employ a large number of part time workers. 46% of them expect a 3% jump. the healthcare industry is close behind with 40% expecting an increase in costs for them. matt mccall is president of the penn financial group. he'll examine this from a national perspective. and john fund is with us also. >> it's hurting the small

businesses rather than the large corporations. even though the bill, it made it through the supreme court there are still unknowns out there. what i'm seeing is, you had the mcdonald ceo come out during a conference wallace week. he stated out of 14,000 restaurants in the united states 80% are owned by franchise he's, you and i bill, it will cost them between 10 and $30,000 per year, that is one more employee per restaurant to mow. it's hitting some of the smaller people. you think mcdonald's, you think multibill dollars. it's the small guys that are being hit. bill: all these businesses are making decisions too. what is the practical affect of this john or perhaps the political affect, what do you say? >> if you higher lower income people in the retail and lodging industries, you're probably going to be very tempted to go make everyone part time so you escape this kind of mandate. you also might make sure you stay under 50 employees, because it doesn't kick in until 50 employees. if you're paying higher wages

there will be an enormous temptation to drop coverage. the penalty if you don't have coverage for your employees is only $2,000 a year. i know a lot of businesses, i spoke to one in louisville, kentucky the other day. as soon as this kicks in they are dropping coverage. bill: how many employees. >> roughly 100. president obama said if have insurance and you like it you can keep it. that is clearly not going to happen. the second quote that is most famous, nancy pelosi said you'll have to read the bill to find out what is in it. you know what they passed the bill now we have to find what's in it. bill: a mercy study found higher prices. only a quarter will make changes. further in the study they find a great majority of companies say they wil have now. is that true? >> i think they'll keep what they have now because there are still a lot of unknownout there. we really don't know the full

effect of this bill on many corporations. and what's happening is we're seeing this in the stock market and the economy is there is many large corporations sitting on cash right now because they are not making major decisions, meaning bring on more employees based on the fact there is the unknown of the healthcare law going forward. that is really detriment alto the economy. >> a recent survey of businesses found most businesses don't expect a major change in the next five years, but they asked them, do you think you'll be offering the same healthcare coverage ten years from now. a lot of businesses said we have no idea, or said no. bill: they are in this area where they can't make decisions for their business. but if you want to stop what is happening, then november has a major impact on that. >> now that the supreme court has given the green light to obamacare, the only thing from stopping it from kicking in, by the way, koupbs once you get the subsidies and regulations in place it's very difficult to remove.

it won't kick in until 2013, 2015. the next president will have the a little to repeal, expand or limit obamacare. >> that's two more years. they going to sit on cash, not expand, not hire people in an economy in which we needs that right now. bill: you see a jobs number where it's a flatline, it's really not moving. >> and a lot of uncertainty. bill: here is pathee ann now. patti ann: one u.s. city may be going to the bears. check out this unexpected guest at a new mexico resort. this is just the most recent case of a furry visitor making an unwanted appearance. other bears have been spotted rummaging through kitchens and eating bop corn on a man's couch. drought conditions have reduced food supplies and that has forced the bears to search far and wide for something to eat. that's kind of sad. bill: maybe leave a little snack

out for them. patti ann: i don't think you want to encourage this. bill: a doctor accused of trying to kill his wife. what police are saying about this. what he did, they allege, and how his wife says she can prove it. patti ann: some cellphone junkies are putting their thumbs to the test in the national texting championship. do we really need this. bill? maybe it will be the next olympic sport. bill: right on. ú?ñx@wúp9÷÷9

bill: breaking news from the campaign trail right now. you know it's all about money in many cases. now we are hearing that mitt romney is set to raise $5 million in two days. that is after events here in new york city and also in the state of new jersey. that follows up reports that he raised more than a hundred million dollars in july. that was the second straight month the romney team raised more than a hundred million dollars. he had a hundred million in

june, a hundred million in july, and the month of may also, that was the first month when we really saw governor romney surpass the obama team in fundraising. so you went, may, june and july now, three straight months where mitt romney has bested the obama team, and this is about $5 million between new york and new jersey. watch the money trail. patti ann: president obama's team warning supporters he's going to be in trouble toon and not able to keep up. bill: you have 89 days now. depending on how the campaign is going to work battleground states you have decisions to make about what you're going to target and where depending on what the polls look like. polling numbers yesterday, mitt romney was up, in virginia he was down. in the state of west rer was down, buwisconsin he was down, closing the gap with mitt romney. now the campaigns are going to make decisions over the next

three months wh-rpb the whether or not they should pump a little more money into one state and perhaps leave others as they move this strategy around literally day-by-day. patti ann: a well-known and apparently well-liked doctor is accused of poisoning his wife over a span of months. police in tennessee say dr. hal hill pud barium in his wife's coffee, possibly every morning. barium is a toxic chemical used in rat poison. lisa hill told investigators she caught him in the act after becoming sick over a long period of time. >> very unusual. i've worked -- been here 26 years, we've had off and on some kind of semihigh profile things, this situation where it's a serious charge, serious allegations. patti ann: pamela holder is a defense attorney and fox news

contributor. and annmarie macavoy. thank you for joining us. the doctor has not been charged and vehemently denies these charges. >> this chemical is known like a sudden death-like chemical. if you administer it or in tend to kill somebody it's a one-shot type of thing. its not like you administer it over the course of a period of say five months. she says he's been trying to kill her or poison her for over five months. this isn't the type of chemical that would be used for such an act. patti ann: there are different types of barium. police do say that the level that they tested in this coffee had high levels of barium, high enough to cause symptoms. if you're smart, though and you don't want to get caught, you're a doctor, wouldn't you go for a gradual poisoning, make it look like a mystery illness and not a murder? >> absolutely. this lady, i'm sure the idea would be that the wife would not become suspicious, she'd just

think she had flu-like symptoms and in fact this would be doing damage to her body over a period of time. so this is actually a very smart way, if indeed this is what he was trying to do and if he was doing this to do that so that the authorities would not get involved and at some point she would perhaps get very ill or pass and nobody would realize that it was him. patti ann: tamara she says she saw him put something in the coffee but she can't prove that. police are investigating. they've searched the house and vehicle. this is a tough case to prove isn't it if charges were filed? >> i think that's why nothing has been charged yet, because the police are investigating. i know that they've taken evidence from the home. they are definitely going to look at whether he had access to such a chemical, because it's not readily available at a pharmacy. so -- but the interesting thing is he's an infectious diseases specialist, and this type of chemical was used to treat

tuberculosis back in the past. maybe he knew about it and maybe he had access to it through his medical training. patti ann: annmarie, we know barium was in the coffee. the question is, how did it get there? it took five months to test that coffee that lisa gave police and during that time she stopped drinking it and she says she got better. before that she had symptoms that experts say are consistent with barium poisoning. stomach problems, she was lethargic. how stroeupbgs the circumstantial case? >> i think they have a very strong circumstantial case. they'll look, for instance he had the knowledge as a doctor to understand the affects barium would have. he probably had the ability to acquire barium either through his practice or perhaps elsewhere because of his being a doctor. he also had perhaps motive. there are two children involved, there likely will be a divorce, a custody proceeding. if the wife was just out of the picture he would get awful the assets and get the kids and there would be no battle over any of that.

he also has motivation, an had access, because he had access to her an had access to the coffee. in some sense it will be a he said, she said as to whether he was in fact putting it in the coffee. on the other hand who else would have had access to it. the only other possibility would be the wife, and it would be unlikely she would do this some herself. >> she, herself is a pharmacist. there are some people speculating she was trying to frame him somehow. what about the fact in a she was sick for all those months? would you do that to yourself? >> as i said earlier, if he wanted to kill her, and this would be my defense argument, if he wanted to kill her he would know what to do and it would be a one, two, three sudden death type thing with this type of chemical. it's interesting that there is such a small amount and she is a pharmacist. maybe she was setting herself up and didn't want to kill herself and was looking for attention.

the other thing is the motive. i bet there is an affair going on on one side of the relationship. that will be another interesting thing. if somebody was looking to leave the other then there may be a motive. patti ann: a lot more to find out about the relationship between these two. they did have two kids, though, as we said, so a very sad case all around. tamara holder, annmarie macavoy, thank you so much for joining us. bill: the world's greatest athletes going for the gold in london. for those who cannot put the cellphone down the main event is right here in the usa. 16-year-old austin warski winkin winning the national championship, two years in a row. it's typing phrase edz backwards. i think you need spell check for that. he walks away with $50,000 in prize money. patti ann: with a black case of

blackberry thumb. bill: i have a nephew that could give that kid a run for his money. patti ann: it's bad for your thumbs. bill: 50 grand is 50 grand. popular vacation spots getting dangerous visitors. while drug cartels could be using resort destinations at shipment points. patti ann: a farmer who flattened these cars with a tractor and the support he's gaining in vermont.

patti ann: the struggling u.s. postal service reports ra $5.2 billion loss in the third quarter. the pain has been coming for quite some time. since 2007 they have lost $25 billion. in may they announced phrapbsz to drops 27 rule offices and

consolidate 140 mail processing centers within the next year. bill: smugglers using some of the most popular vacation spots to ship huge amounts of drugs and weapons, and some of these places could be where you are headed or have been in fact. phil keating is streaming live on this story in san juan puerto rico now. >> reporter: puerto rico, st. thomas, st. croix are all u.s. territories. for the south american cartels these islands are ideally located as a spring board for smuggling. >> tracking a point to the northeast. >> reporter: it's wheels up for yet another night of high-tech hunting for cocaine smugglers. >> we are looking at a vessel. >> reporter: on these routine missions they use infrared cameras, radar and intel to alert boats on the water to inch he interdictto

rico. >> we see them coming to puerto rico, the dominican republic and now they are becoming ordinary. >> reporter: almost as ordinary enormous busts like this. so much cocaine it took a production line of people to haul bag after bag from the van to the table, some bricks labeled with the tiger. >> approximately a thousand kilos, street value over $80 million. >> reporter: the u.s. commonwealth is booming as a transshipment point for the south american drug cartels. once the drugs get here they are much more easily smuggled into the u.s. mainland as domestic cargo. >> we need more resources. this is the proof. we are not just saying it, we're showing it. 80% of it, 800 kilos would have going through the northeast corridor. >> reporter: and mail inspections revealed the drug there as well.

locally outrage is also arising as crime is surging, 70% of which is drug related. right now the murder rate here in puerto rico is now six times higher than in the states. a big march for peace planned for sunday. bill: phil keating live on the scene there in puerto rico. patti ann: police are dropping one charge against a vermont man accused of crushing seven police cars with an enormous tractor. the 24-year-old is still facing 14 other charges. no one was hurt in the incident. he pleaded not guilty this week and is being held on $50,000 bail. supporters, though, and he does have them are posting pages on facebook asking for donations for his defense. some have even written songs about him and designed a t-shirt calling for his freedom. bill: the dude's got issues. patti ann: the supporters say that he's unfairly ticketed for things like driving with his dog in the front seat andwhat not. bill: took the tractor overall the cop cars.

patti ann: not the way to respond. bill: the operators were inside and said they never heard it because the air-conditioning was on. they come outside and see all the cop cars are destroyed. patti ann: can't make it up. bill: hard time at gitmo. may not be as difficult as you imagine. a classic u.s. sitcom finding a whole new audience with detainees in orange. [ male announcer ] introducing zzzquil sleep-aid. it's not for colds, it's not for pain, it's just for sleep. because sleep is a beautiful thing. ♪ zzzquil, the non-habit forming sleep-aid from the makers of nyquil.

>> new problems for the jetblue pilot whose midair rant forced an unscheduled landing. >> you may recall that. passengers say clayton osborn ran through the cabin yelling about jesus and al qaeda. he is now in a prison hospital in north carolina where a judge says he suffered another psychotic episode. he was facing charges of interfering with a flight crew. he was found not guilty by

reason of insanity. this latest episode forced a judge to postpone a hearing whether he should be released. ♪ . bill:. lrlt are, now this is a story at gitmo will smith. for 168 detainees. favorite show on tv, "the fresh prince of bel-air". who knew. reading "harry potter" is how they used to spend their days. boy wizard's adventures were all the rage. when six seasons of fresh prince rolled in, the books were forgotten. right now we're told it is ramadan there. days include little tv and no food during the daylight hours. ramadan is a time of contemplation and prayer. the prison librarian expects them to go back to watching "the fresh prince of bel-air" as soon as ramadan concludes. they have got that to look

for. >> i don't know what to say. bill: not much. will smith is huge at gitmo. make it a great thursday, everybody and we'll see you again tomorrow. good to be with you, patti ann. right on. mapping now starts right now. jenna: thank you, so much. this fox news alert. we're waiting an update on what the rest of the hurricane season will look like. it comes courtesy of from scientists at noaa. we've been so far spared from any major storms. remember the hurricane season only started in june. and what looms on the horizon is far from certain. that's true. this august, marks the 20 years since hurricane andrew just devastated south florida. that category 5 storm was the first storm in a late-starting storm season. could be like the one we're having now as far as a late start. we'll have to see. we'll be monitoring this update and bring you any details as we get them. some brand new stories and brein