dave ramsey will be doing his job. and ainsley earhart will be on the road. >> steve: thank you very much for joining us for gretch the last couple of days. >> anna: thank you. i had fun. have a great day, everybody bill: thank you, guys. good morning, everybody. fox news alert a string of huge explosions rocking a propane plant in central florida overnight. just listen to that an watch as the flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air. large propane tanks popping off one after the other after the other, causing that massive fireball you see over the city there in central florida. that is where we start, good morning, everybody. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom." there is lot more we're learning overnight. >> huge, huge blaze. bill: welcome back to you. >> so good to see you, bill.

i missed you. i'm jamie colby in for martha today. good to be here. it is amazing that everybody at the plant survived. the explosions first erupting at 11:00 p.m. and they went on four hours. witnesses saw the flames for miles. >> we were in the house. we didn't know what was going on. we heard loud booms and some of the doors were knocking. this is inside the house and this is in leesburg. we went inside the house. we saw the orange blow. we got in the car and took off. bill: it happened in tavares, florida. 40 miles west of orlando. at any given time that plant holds 53,000 propane tanks, ones just like these you would use in your backyard barbecue grill. steve harrigan is live in miami, leading our coverage there. what happened, steve? good morning. >> reporter: bill, it all went down 11:00 last night. there were concerns about a

major loss of life. there were 24 workers on the second shift at the blue rhino plant t was tough to account for them. all are safe. eight are in the hospital. four with some very serious burns. initially it was these 20-gallon tanks whiching collided and began to explode. officials are not sure what caused the fire but they're sure it was not a deliberate act. >> we don't think there was any act of sabotage or anything like that. we honestly think it was, probably an equipment failure with a combination of maybe human error from one of the staff. >> reporter: this fire initially sounded like fireworks according to locals and then it got more and more intense. at this plant you have 53,000 metal containers of propane and they began to explode one after the other. a mile around the plant was evacuated. firefighters had to pull back twice. people came out of their houses

stunned, wondering what was going on. >> i heard a big thump on the roof. the cat ran like hell because it thought i was going to blame it for something. went out in the backyard and the sky was lit up red, vibrant red with a huge plume of smoke. >> reporter: you can see some of the wreckage this morning, some tanks still smoldering. fire is out. the residents have been allowed back in their houses. officials says things could have been worse. three giant, 90,000-gallon tanks failed to ignite. bill: look at them spread across the field. steve harrigan leave leading our coverage there. jamie. martha: this is one of several explosions. there was a explosion outside a chemical plant in baton rage, louisiana, it killed two worker and injured a lot more. toxic chemicals released into atmosphere around the cause still under investigation. back in april there was a devastating explosion at the

west fertilizer company in texas. many were killed, remember the elite firefighters responding to the scene? authorities have not still figured out the cause of that one either. back in february, one killed and seriously injured in a gas plant explosion, 25 miles from houston. bill: there horse been another train accident, this time in switzerland. two trains colliding head-on and leave one dead and three dozen injured. investigators say likely one of the trains ignored a signal. this comes day after a speeding train flew off the tracks in spain that killed 79. the engineer on board charged with negligent homicide. investigators are looking at the black box data recorders which contain data on the train's speed as well as communications to and from the driver. >> fox news alert e it is a big day for army private bradley manning. today he will learn whether he will be convicted of aiding the

enemy for sending hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to wikileaks. a charge that could put him away for life there is a military judge that is making this decision. she says she will announce her verdict at 1:00 p.m. eastern. steve centanni is live from washington with more. steve, how likely is it do you think that manning will be sentenced to the max, life in prison? >> reporter: that is possible, jamie. there is a very high bar for a judge to find him guilty of aiding the enemy. to do that the judge would have to find manning to have evil intent and that the leaked material would find its way to the enemy. this is what prosecutors tried to prove during the of trial but at least one legal analyst says they didn't quite get there. >> manning from what i understand claims that he was performing some kind after whistle-blower function in releasing this information to, in his view, to provide information to the american people about what was happening and it was done in his eye, in

his brain, done to help us and not to hurt us. >> reporter: so some experts say manning didn't actually give any secrets to al qaeda and he shouldn't be found guilty of aiding the enemy. jamie? >> nevertheless it is the the biggest supply of classified documents provided and his attorney also brought up mental health issues. with some of these being viable defenses, what could he face what penalties could it carry as well? >> reporter: of course aiding the enemy is the most serious of charges he faces and for that he could get life in prison but there are a variety of other charges that could land him in jail for some time. manning also charged with eight charges under the espionage act, five theft charges, and two more of computer fraud. all of those federal charges. each one could get him up to 10 years in prison. on top of that there are five military counts of violating regulations punishable up to two years. manning chose to have a judge decide the case instead of a jury.

it is entirely up to her now. the judge tentatively scheduled a sentencing hearing on wednesday. that could run for several weeks since each side has more than 20 potential witnesses. jamie. >> will be interesting to see if manning speaks on that. thanks so much. bill: support for anthony weiner dropping like a stone amid the latest fallout from his newest texting scandal. the former congressman held on to second place in the days after the latest story broke but with the headlines with lurid details of his online activities the candidate hounded with questions about the scandal at every campaign stop voters are not hearing anything else. now a quinnepiac poll finds screener falling to fourth place, down around 16%. the poll's director saying weiner is in a free fall. free fall or not he is resisting calls from fellow democrats and a lot of pundits frankly to drop out of mayor's race in new york. >> i don't really care in a lot of pundits or politicians are

offended by that i'm going to keep dog those things and i think new yorkers deserve that choice. i will let new yorkers decide. >> how low has weiner fallen? even client number nine, former client number nine, eliot spitzer is piling it on now. the former new york governor himself forced out of office in a prostitution scandal saying, he won't support weiner for mayor. he is running for comptroller. he is trying to make a political comeback doing that and new york's current governor, andrew cuomo? he says new yorkers have to laugh, laugh at weiner's sexting scandal or they have to cry. cuomo says in the end it will be up to the voters. >> i'm not going to say who should run, who shouldn't run but who wins is a different situation and we're only in the opening act of this play. >> new york city's democratic primary is set for sent 10th, 42 days from now. anything can happen between now and then bill. bill: he was leading now in

fourth. thought it was interesting when you look at the demographic on the polling, who, hey, man get the heck out of this thing and who was allowing him a little bit of leech. >> you know what women are saying according to poll? bill: two to one. get out of here. president obama blastings income inequality in america. he calls it morally wrong. he thinks the government has the responsibility to fix that wrong. we will debate it and wonder how you do that. jamie. >> there is possible break in the acts of vandalism on some of america's most cherished national monuments. police say they know. bill: who needs "iron man" when you have jet man flying through the neighborhood. >> there he goes. bill: coolest picture of the day back in a minute. ♪ so then the little tiny chipmunks go all the way up...

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jamie: welcome back.

investigators are trying to figure out a cause in philadelphia and they now say it was a gas leak to blame for a house explosion that injured eight people including a baby yesterday. the city officials are saying it happened when a contractor was working on a water heater in the basement of that house and he remains in the hospital with critical injuries. bill: to the president taking another swing today at what he calls income inequality in america which he says is morally wrong and he will argue government has a responsibility to fix that. >> this growing inequality, not just of results, inequality of opportunity. this growing inequality, it is not just morally wrong, it is bad economics. bill: all right, mary ann marsh, former advisor to john kerry and mary catherine ham, editor-at-large, hot air dot-com. ladies good morning to you. i want to debate the morally wrong. brit hume, his take on how you create wealth in america. >> republicans tend to worry about the health of the goose.

democrats worry about the distribution of the golden eggs. democrats seem to think spreading the wealth more equally will create more of it. after four years of weakness it might dawn on them it simply doesn't work that way. fairly uncomplicated, before you can spread the wealth you have to create it. the government does not create wealth it absorbs it. private sector creates. bill: we heard from both. mary catherine, where does it go? >> obama when he talks this offers indictment of his own policies. nobody on either side wants median household income to be going down. they have different views how you can prevent that from happening. i'm not in favor of arbitrarily making these distributions to even things up but the problem is from my perspective when you have a big government that guests bigger and bigger and more complex all the time and layers on regulation as you go forward, obama had his way on many of these issues for five years you get sort of a non-recovery that is not helping the middle class and working

class. why? because, the guys who have lawyers, who have giant pockets, who can lobby the government, get waivers, get contracts, get all the giveaways and little guy has trouble breaking into the market. bill: from mary catherine, to mary anne. >> there is nothing more important than putting people back to work to make a living wage at this job. that not happening. this company prides itself if you work hard, play by the rules you can get ahead. that is not the case. if you're making minimum wage you're making less money than you made 30 years ago. if you made more than that, you're making less money than 30 years ago. that is wrong. senator warren, if the minimum wage kept inflation, that the minimum wage would be $22 an hour. we need to do something. president obama this morning in his speech at amazon talk about the fact if corporations who are sitting on scads of cash and not hiring want more tax breaks, that is going to be paired with a benefit to make middle class

make more money. bill: income inequality has gene since the recession of 2008 and, who has been the president since 2008? >> right, you have to take some responsibility for that. let me point out one of the remedies offered by liberals and discussed by obama, federal contractors should have to pay more. keith ellison you said you could do this through executive order. fine. who does that hurt on the ground. not giant contractors who already have relationships with government guys, it hurts the small contractors and small business who would like to break into government contracting. president down at amazon today. amazon lobbied for internet sales tax. why? because it muscles out little guys who might compete with them. if he looks at his own policies and the fact that things are getting worse in this area, perhaps the policies are not doing what he thinks they do. bill: i think folks in chattanooga would take issue with the hoity-toity comment. >> i'm talking about federal contractors.

bill: that was sarcasm. what is his responsibility as president. >> two things. we bailed out wall street and bailed out big corporation. they never had it better and not doing great. >> on his watch. >> hiring people and investing. president obama will make sure we now invest in things, manufacture things and make things because that is how the middle class got built. we need to do that in this country again so the middle class can earn a living to support a family on and buy things and do things and send their kids to school and be able to afford it. that will be the package deal. businesses and corporations want more tax breaks with republicans pushing time and tile again. we know that tide did not lift all boats, that will be paired with rebuilding infrastructure, making things, manufacturing things and putting the middle class and working so they can support themselves. bill: this is fundamental issue you have to both debate here. that is what hume says. before you spread the wealth you have to create it. the government doesn't create wealth. it absorbs it. the private sector creates it. >> you have the biggest stimulus

in history and that didn't work either, mary ann for five years. >> it worked for wall street. >> we have, exactly. obama's stimulus worked for wealthy. thank you for putting it that way. >> it has not worked for the middle class and working poor. that is why it has to change. bill: thanks to both of you. we appreciate it. >> thank you. bill: 18 minutes past. jamie. jamie: so much more ahead. this little girl is fight fighting for her life after catching a rare and deadly disease. it is so-called brain-eating amoeba she contracted in very unusual place. doctors think she might have picked it up. we'll tell you about that straight ahead. bill: another washington, d.c. landmark has been vandalized. an arrest has been made. we'll tell you if police believes the attacks are connected

bill: a 12-year-old girl is now

fighting for her life after contracting a rare form of pair sittic meningitis. kali hardig is hospitalized in the state of arkansas. reports say she likely contracted illness after swimming at willow springs water park in little rock. the amoeba that causes her kind of meningitis can be found in warm water. it can often be deadly her mother says she indeed is a fighter. >> kali's number three stands for the third person that would survive this amoeba disease. we're just going to take baby steps, other than that that kali they say is doing remarkable. she is a little miracle. bill: the water park so far has been closed. we'll keep her updated on the condition and we wish her the best. it is summer. water parks are out there are crowded and they're busy. jamie: ask the doctors on sunday's house call about this one. parents want to prohe can their kids this is so serious, this

little girl. we'll get back to you on that i'm. new details this morning on recent rash of vandalism from our nation's capitol you may ask who does this? investigators are questioning a 58-year-old woman in connection with green paint splattered on several national monuments, not just the lincoln memorial, also the national cathedral. amazing. bill: got a fox news alert right now. we're awaiting bradley manning's arrival in court at fort meade, maryland. he will hear a judge's sentence later today in the wikileaks matter. the maximum penalty is life in prison. this case has all kinds of implications. manning apparently just walked in right before we went to the camera picture there we'll talk about this throughout the morning. we believe 1:00 eastern time the judge will hand down her sentence for manning. a lot of people are watching this from the outside for a lot of reasons.

jamie: what is so interesting manning waived the right to have more than this one judge to hear the case and decide so it is all in her hands. bill: manning has pled guilty and there is a long list of things he is accused doing. you look at the 21 counts of espionage, computer fraud, theft charges but the most serious charge of all is aiding the enemy. that's manning there, which carries a possible life sentence. prosecutors have said that he had a general evil intent, giving up secrets to al qaeda. jamie: you have to prove that too. bill: not directly but doing it online enables others to gain access to it. jamie: the old thumb drive. they made some changes and they will continue to look what they need to do to tighten up security in this matter. one person having all that access, bill. the greatest and largest classified document distribution ever in our history. bill: we've got some great prosecutors on deck to take us through this a bit later in the program this morning.

meantime after months of gridlock president obama set to announce his new budget proposal to republicans. is that a fair deal? will it go anywhere and will republicans go for it? we'll take a look at that. jamie: how about this. okay, you get busted and you don't want to go to regular jail so you get a room upgrade. it's happening. we're going to tell you where. we'll even tell you what it costs and how it works. >> we are the trustees of a large facility that was paid for by taxpayer money. we need to be good stewards of that investment and maximize its use and its efficiency for the taxpayer. you know throughout history,

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block the acid with prilosec otc, and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning 24 hours. zero heartburn. jamie: fox news alert for you. the white house is claiming it wants to break the budget gridlock in washington offering a brand new carrot along with the stick. president obama set to offer a deal of sorts to republicans later this afternoon. planning to propose cuts in corporate tax rates. but it is in exchange for a significant investment in some sort of job creation program. doug mckelway is tracking all of this for us live at the white house. hey, doug, any reaction yet from republican as they anticipate this proposal by the president? >> reporter: indeed there is, jamie. we just heard from michael steele, spokesman for speaker john boehner who said in a statement moments ago if this proposal louse president obama to support president obama's position on taxes and president obama's position on spending while leaving small businesses

and american families behind. that of course a reference to the fact that most small businesses in this country, the real drivers of the economy, have paid their, income taxes at the individual level, not at the corporate tax rate. still, this grand bargain may hold some promise. there is a lot of common ground between the two parties, both don't like the high corporate tax rates in this country and since japan lowered its corporate tax rate last year, the united states has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. mr. obama will announce today during his visit to the chattanooga amazon distribution center, a plan to cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%. he would also give manufacturers an even lower rate, 25%. another potential sticking point however is that mr. obama would tie that corporate tax rate to new investments in infrastructure. here's josh ernest speaking yesterday. >> if we invest in the kind of infrastructure that is required

to allow companies to get products to market more quickly and to customers more quickly that is certainly something we want to encourage. >> reporter: amazon, the largest online retailer as a case in point, amazon just announced it will be hiring 7,000 new employees at its distribution centers across the united states. jamie? jamie: doug mckelway, live at white house. keep us posted, doug. bill: lot to analyze. stephen more, senior writer "wall street journal." sister publication. promise on this? going anywhere? >> we've been waiting three or four years for the grand bargain, right? this is the latest iteration of this. my opinion president obama has it half right here. there is lot of economic value to cutting the corporate tax rate. boy, do the republicans believe that as well. so that will be music to their ears. we have as you know the highest corporate tax rate in the world that puts america in a very competitive disadvantaged situation. what they're not going to like is a call for all the new

spending. president obama calls this investment spending. i call it more deficit spending. bill: you think that goes anywhere? >> maybe? bill: you think? more spending goes through the house? >> the question is, will the grand bargain go forward? will republicans agree to some more spending to get the tax rates down? maybe. let's face it. when republicans won the house back a few years ago, what was their central promise? >> we'll bring spending down and bring the deficit down. this proposal by president obama would increase the deficit with all the spending. one of the things by the way when i talk to some of the republican leaders about this today, i ask what is your reaction, bill to this, if we need more infrastructure dot xl pipeline? that doesn't cost any money. that is more infrastructure. bill: a question whether the president will move on that do you think he ought to no. >> it's a no-brainer. jobs, economic development and infrastructure and doesn't cost taxpayers a penny. president yesterday scoffed at this and said only 2,000 jobs.

when you have 7.6 unemployment, 2,000 jobs is a good thing. bill: you suggest he may give on keystone? >> i were him i would do it. it is no-brainer. bill: you call it territorial taxation, which means no matter where you make the product in the world the u.s. government could tax that, correct? a little different from what the problem is. >> let me kind of make annalgy. say i'm six-inches taller than you and we want to play basketball, i will have natural advantage, right? the united states has a natural disadvantage because we tax our corporations, bill at higher tax rate than japan, germany, china, france, every country we compete with. of all the oecd countries we're number one. economists say get our tax rate down to the international average, way i like to put it we're putting a tariff on our own goods and services. bill: how do you compete? >> exactly. bill: when you're the shortest guy on the field? >> that is the way -- bill: his campaign rival mitt romney wanted to cut corporate taxes.

his proposal was 25%. >> not only that, bill, paul volcker, who headed a commission that president obama appointed -- the president had two or three commissions that he appointed said this is really positive for the economy on the corporate tax rate down. you have got some countries like ireland that has a 12% tax rate, compared to 30 5% for the united states. that is one reason some corporations have moved their manufacturing abroad. bill: one other point about the economic policy of government right now when it comes to sequestration. >> right. bill: some argue this is the one policy actually working. >> yep. bill: when you look at all the government agencies would have to furlough employees and how many of these departments pulled back furloughs because they said, hey, folks we found money in other areas. department of education. justice department. u.s. park police. >> yeah. bill: when they had to cut they found a way to do it. >> this evolving story. we talked about this a couple months ago when they were shutting down air traffic control system and tourist office at white house and we'll shut down -- that backfired

politically. i will give the obama administration some credit here. now they're actually making cuts in a very responsible way saying look, every agency can cut five or 6% out of its budget. bill: go find it. >> find the waste. they're doing that this is one of rare times i will actually give credit to the obama administration for doing the right thing. bill: chalk it up, save the tape. steve moore. good to see you in new york. thank you, steve. jamie: there's a brand new energy push that's taking shape actually in our country and it's generating electricity using scaled-down nuclear power plants. that is an interesting use. john roberts live in our atlanta bureau with that story. john, always great to see you. how about this? is this the future of electricity in our country? >> reporter: jamie, good morning to you. there are a lot of very smart people who hope it will be. president's climate change speech last month he wanted to get rid of dirty coal-fired plants. what do you replace them with.

there is mockup of one built in lynchburg, virginia. a mini nuke. a one fifth the size of a typical power plant. it incorporate as number about different systems into one unit, all of that built at a factory. the company developing this, bab cox and wilcox, says that could drop into the foot print of existing coal-fired plant. they incorporated a number of safety advancements. the whole thing is built underground. has a small profile. the size of a wal-mart. it includes a passive gravity-fed cooling system in case much natural disaster or power failure. >> think about our country and tornadoes and those types of things. it is really kind of immune from that type of thing. we've taken a whole class of threats, if you will, for reactor safety off the table. of course being underground makes it a lot more secure from the terrorist type perspective. >> reporter: the company insist there is is no chance with this design of a fukushima or a three-mile island type of accident, jamie.

they say this is a very, very safe design. jamie: wesured would hope so. you make us smarter every time you're on, john. it is not without controversy all of this it is a nuclear power plant. >> reporter: yeah and after all there is a lot of resistance building more nuclear power in this country. the controversy is over federal funding of research and development. the government may give babcocs and wilcox $226 million to help build this ground up. a watchdog group says that is not wise use of taxpayer money. it gave it golden fleece award. taxpayers could be on the hook for a nuclear version of solyndra. the ceo of the tennessee valley authority says that is not going to happen. >> no. we're going to watch this closely. we're going to work hard on this. stop at every point to make sure it makes sense. no, this will be successful. we'll know early on what we have to do to make it successful.

>> reporter: supporters of modyou lar nikes say -- modular nukes say this could be -- critics say this is another subsidy for an industry that is as close to socialized, jamie, as you possibly can get. jamie: john roberts live in atlanta. interesting story, john. thank you. bill: 22 before the hour. the middle east is exploding in chaos. two sides in an age-old dispute breaking bread in peace talks but could the turmoil offer a window for middle east peace? we'll talk to john bolton about that coming up. jamie: plus you know what, bill? you asked and you got it. here is the jet man over our head, in flight,. why is he doing this? we'll tell you, next. ♪ hey, the new guy is loaded with protein!

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bill: all right. say hello to a real-life rocketman getting ready to take to the skies over america today. this will be cool, cool, cool stuff. making his flight public in a custom-built jet suit. earlier eve rossi, a frenchman put on a show for reporters, flying close to a b-17 bomber. who is cooler than him? jamie: he's cool. bill: he use as throttle in his hand to propel himself through the sky at over 190 miles an hour. >> it moves, i can see, on the wing, that means it follows my moves. it is like when you are skiing. when you look, when you're skiing in a turn, you look inside the turn. you do that move, and it turns. bill: when you look, that guy is a stud. jet man can go as high as 12,000 feet. he prefers to stay around 5,000 where he does manuevers and formations. that is cool stuff.

you may see a lot of pictures coming out of this later today. jamie: if he flies over new york and doesn't stop in here, that is just rough man. bill: a lot of guts. jamie: right now the turmoil and uncertainty in the middle east, that is really the basis now as we look at peace talks resuming in washington between israel and the palestinians after many years. they got together but some middle east observers are saying it's the turmoil from the unrest in egypt to syria's civil war that could finally give peace a chance. perfect to ask ambassador john bolton, former ambassador to the united nations, a fox news contributor. ambassador, good morning. >> hi, jamie, how are you? jamie: as i look at the unrest in egypt, i think to myself with the muslim brotherhood in turmoil and hamas being the palestinian franchise of the muslim brotherhood maybe it could bring them to the table. they have this meeting in washington of both sides. what, are you optimistic? what do you predict?

>> well, i'm not optimistic. i think this meeting in washington is intended anyway to focus mostly on logistics and to plot out what the next nine months of talks are supposed to look like but the fact is that basic positions of israel and the palestinians remain very far apart. other than a lot of time and effort to get them to sit down in the same room at the same time, nothing really has changed to provide any basis to think that substant tiffly they can come to an agreement. in fact one of the biggest problems is on the palestinian side. as you mentioned hamas in the gaza strip is very hostile to the palestinian authority represented in these talks and whatever the palestinian authority says it can't really commit hamas, it really can't commit much outside of its own headquarters on the west bank and that's a real problem in terms of any kind of long-range solution. jamie: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has released

more than 100 palestinian prisoners that were being held. is that a good-faith effort to say, we can work together? >> well i think it's netanyahu's bowing to american pressure and to palestinian pressure and i think actually it will have a negative effect, number one, it is obviously very unpopular inside of israel and i think while netanyahu is saying, look, i did this to satisfy the obama administration, in fact in israeli domestic political terms i think it constrains his options on other issues. the palestinians are ungrateful that all 100 are not going to be released at the same time. one much their leaders in fact called it, a form of blackmail. that they're being released in tranches. so that's not a good way to lead off. i think the israelis think we made a concession, where is the palestinians and such. jamie: so secretary of state kerry is saying we're looking for a reasonable compromise between the two and he named

martin indyk, who twice has been the u.s. ambassador to israel, to basically be the envoy on this. and for the very first time he has said, ambassador indyk, he believes that peace is possible. is he wrong? >> yes. because the fact is that it's not the scale or lack of skill of the american diplomats involved, it's the geostrategic realities that israel faces and the palestinians face. you mentioned at the outset the turmoil sweeping across the middle east. that's one of the reasons nobody's particularly paying attention to the palestinians. they are not a priority and for israel, they are faced with far more dangerous threats from iran's nuclear weapons program. so, it's hard to imagine a less likely time i think for there to be any progress on the race -- israeli-palestinian front. jamie: that is interesting. that is not what i expected your

take on it. one observer said if you have this much unrest and violence in the middle east it, wouldn't be in israel's best interest not to step forward and with hamas being weakened basically bit muslim brotherhood not having the control it did with the military moving in egypt it would be a the perfect scenario at least to move somewhat further toward peace? >> actually it's a good opportunity for iran to step back in and supply hamas as it has in the past with weapons and finance, to pose a threat on israel's southern border in cases rail is looking at a possible military strike against iran's nuclear weapons program. so i think that the fact is, that israel could make a lot proving guess with the palestinians. it wouldn't change the strategic balance in the region at you will. syria would still be in civil war. egypt would still be in deep trouble. libya would still be disintegrating and iran would day by day still be getting

closer to nuclear weapons. jamie: they have been awfully quiet, iran has. ambassador poult ton. thank you very much. >> thank you, jamie. bill: word from the associated press. they are saying president might meet with both sides in negotiations at the white house. jamie: i bet you he does step in. bill: meantime we have a terrifying moments at a boat race. watch this here. >> oh. [shouting] bill: that high-speedboat coming around a curve losing control and crashing into a crowd of spectators. , how all of this turned out. we'll tell you. would you pay to stay in a prison cell? why some inmates will have to fork over some big money and they say they're just happy to do it. >> soth is one of our pods. you do get cable tv but don't get a warm cookie on your bed.

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bill: frightening scene at a boat race in oregon. this jet boat, coming across the water through the grassland, losing control and goes right into a crowd of spectators sending folks running for safety. fortunately as bad as this looks no one was seriously injured. not even the guys on board the boat. these boats can go from zero to 90 in under three seconds. state of oregon, right into the crowd and everybody in the end was okay. wow. jamie: speaking of okay, jail officials in fremont, california, are stirring some controversy this morning. oh, they are offering a much better option. how about this plan? it allows inmates to pay their way to a little more comfortable jail cell.

listen. >> there is a cost to government, and that cost where appropriate should be borne by the people using the program or the facility or what not. jamie: michael graham, radio talk show host, columnist for the boston heard. a nice to see you this morn. >> happy to be here and happy not to be in jail. jamie: take that would be okay. it at least has cable. you could be watching but we wouldn't have you on. meanwhile they say it's a revenue generator for the community. that's not a bad thing but you should you be able to pay your way to a bert environment? it is only for people charged an convicted of misdemeanors? >> we know that deal here in massachusetts with white collar criminals. we've had three speakers of the massachusetts house in a row convicted of felonies. by sheer coincidence, all democrats. my attitude those guys want to pay extra to stay in a jail where they're more comfortable and city end up making money? that's great. i'm a lot more worried about

cities particularly in california becoming the next detroit than i am worried about a detroit-like crime wave from shoplifters and dui types. what is important to me the guy oversighing the jail says specifically they get the same treatment. they have to be in their cell. get the same crappy food. so they're not getting special treatment. they're just getting a jail cell that is nicer than the one they would have to face say in oakland. jamie: you definitely don't want to be in one of those now that you talked about the food. you know they will spit in it. meantime 12 to 15 people are signing up for that. so they're actually paying. >> sure. jamie: what shocks me, it is $156 a day. so -- >> right. jamie: some of these misdemeanors are pretty serious but they're coming up with this money. is that right that only people who have the money can do it? >> well, yeah, and that is the way it is supposed to work. all you crooks if you're low level thugs pushing over my mom and snatching her purse, nothing for you.

be a big-time crook, get money and stay in someplace nicer. i don't want to go to jail in oakland if i can possibly afford it. you can get hurt at a occupy oakland rally on the street. imagine what happens in the oakland penitentiary system. please don't send me there. jamie: you stay out of trouble. i want to point out you have option if you have want to be a weekender, check into these for just the weekend. >> right. jamie: they're revenue generating, places looking at detroit are having financial problems. at least they're being innovative. thanks for weighing in, michael. nice to meet you. >> my pleasure. happy to be here. bill: i like the creativity, right? innovation, right? jamie: they're trying. they're trying. bill: low-level criminals, come on in. pay a little extra money and check in when it is convenient for you at home. all right, the new fight to defund obamacare pitting unlikely allies against one another. we'll tell you what's is about. huge explosion rocking a

propane plant. new details this morning what happened here overnight. >> it was huge. and i thought either that or a railroad train was carrying ammunition or something. the sky was just lit up red, vibrant red with a huge plume of smoke. >> with hotwire's low prices, i can cross even more places off my travel wish list. this year alone, i hit new york and texas. see, hotwire checks the competition's rates every day so they can guarantee their low hotel prices. >> men: ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e, hotwire.com. ♪

bill: here we go, whole new hour. fox news alert. series of massive explosions rocking a small town in florida when a propane plant goes up in flames. people livingay at first they thought it was just fireworks in the night sky. that is amazing to watch and to listen to and that sound you hear, individual propane tanks like the one in your outdoor grill shooting in the air one after the other after the other. the explosions rattling windows and homes 10 miles away, leaving at least eight workers injured there. searching for answers there in

florida. good morning, everybody. welcome to a brand new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm bill hemmer. great to have you with us at home. jamie, welcome back. jamie: thank you, so much, bill. good morning to you and good morning to all of you. i'm jamie colby in for martha maccallum. it all happened in tavares, florida, in the middle of the night. it is a suburb northwest of order. started at 11 an went on for an hour. authorities say there were 50,000 small propane canisters in the plant along with three massive tanks to fill them. fortunately none of the large tanks were affected. as you can see by the video, fire crews say most of the small canisters exploded. now the investigation is underway as to what caused it. >> we don't think there was any act of sabotage or a crime in progress. but the state fire marshall's office, lake county/'s office and city of tavares police department will work in unison

to help determine the final cause. >> the mayor of tavares, florida, robert wolf, thanks for joining us. >> yes, ma'am. jamie: i'm sure it was a really, really busy night and morning. are you closer to figuring out what caused this explosion? >> no we're not. we think it possibly was just -- what's? jamie: what about the injuries? it's a miracle, so far we heard of no fatalities. can you confirm that? >> as of right now there's still no fatalities. there were a couple of people that were critically injured and their names haven't been released yet due to the investigation. jamie: how quickly were responders able to get there and attend to this fire? it almost looks like it was too big for them to go in initially and battle it. >> yes, it was. the initial response from the police showed up first and then the fire department came on scene between the tavares fire

department, eustis, mount dora and lake county, to to assess the fire and how large it was. they really had to stay away just for the safety of themselves. jamie: i read that these explosions went on for an hour. we know you had to evacuate fairly large surrounding area. will you rethink the location of this plant? >> no. i mean they're in a commercial/industrial park. the residents, there really isn't any residents real close to them. i would say the closest would be 3/4 of a mile. so i mean they're not in the a neighborhood area or such. they're off -- jamie: how is the air quality today? >> it's fine. jamie: okay. >> the tanks, they, of course, like you said, they blew up and burned their own fuel out last night and the fire department was able to start putting hoses on everything probably around

3:00 in the morning. >> i'm curious. any history of any issue at that plant given the fact they're dealing with propane? >> they were cited in 2011 by osha on a small infraction. and it was based on some cleaning apparatus. so they have had no real issues with the propane and such. jamie: all right. we're so glad and we hope those critically injured recover. we're so glad nobody lost their lives. everyone is accounted for at this point, correct? >> yes, ma'am. jamie: okay. that is at least the good news out of this. mayor wolf, thank you. >> you're welcome. thank you. bill: have another fox news alert now because the white houses just confirming with fox news that president obama will meet with the israeli and palestinian leaders. that meeting set to happen at the white house later this morning. actually not the leaders, the negotiators for middle east peace and our senior white house for inaffairs correspondent

wendell goler is live at the state department. wendell, what do you have on this? good morning. >> reporter: they have to be held fairly soon because the president is headed to chattanooga, tennessee later this morning. secretary of state kerry hosted the israeli and palestinian delegations here at the state department at a dinner last night. that meeting, that dinner lasted about an hour 1/2. he met separately with each delegation. the dinner was described as productive, mostly in establishing that everyone is serious and engaging in food faith. doesn't sound like they got into the issues. israelis and palestinians began actually talking to each other today after a quick photo-op here at the state department about an hour from now. now, if you're looking at video the woman at the table is the israeli justice minister. she is heading the israeli delegation. on her left is palestinian negotiator saeb erekat. these will be the first talks in three years. if they continue they will be

the first serious mid-east negotiations in five, bill. bill: what is the sense any of this moves forward? all the starts and stops we've seen for decades, wend kel? >> reporter: they're tough issues and the tough issues have been put off until the very last. the issues were never discussed in any previous discussions, borders, status of jerusalem, issue of israeli security and the rights of palestinian refugees, they get more complicated every year with some israeli settlements complicating the border issues and both sides claiming jerusalem as their capital. secretary of state kerry says it will be a heavy lift. >> it's no secret that this is a difficult process. if it were easy it would have happen adlong time ago. it's no secret therefore that many difficult choices lie ahead for the negotiators and for the leaders. as we seek reasonable compromises on tough, complicated, emotional and

symbol like shoes. >> reporter: the goal is to set up a framework for dealing with issues in the talks here today and negotiations on the middle east to begin sometime in the future. bill: thank you, wendell goler at the state department this morning. thank you, wendell. there's an aggressive new push to defund the president's health care law, obamacare, pitting republicans in some cases against republicans. some gop lawmakers saying it's a bad political strategy to threaten a government shutdown when you know the other side will not budge. senator rand paul has strong disagreement on that as he told sean hannity last night. >> it is like announcing preemptive surrender. we don't have control the government. we don't control the senate and presidency but we do control the house. we use utilize the leverage of the house to pass things we think are good and we should stay the course until the democrats and the president compromise.

we won't get everything we want but if we announce from the beginning, oh, we're afraid of our shadow and we're never going to, you know, push democrats to try to come to the table, then i think in essence we announce our surrender. bill: how many agree with him? jonah goldberg, editor at large, "national review." good morning. what do you think of rand paul's idea, his strategy there? >> i'm actually kind of a fan of rand paul's but i think it is not a fantastic argument but basically true of any strategy. he is basically saying everyone has to agree with our strategy and if they don't agree with it, that is the reason why our strategy is not going to work and the problem is the reason the strategy is not going to work because it's a bad strategy. this idea somehow you are going to get democrats and obama to defund obamacare by holding a the debt ceiling limit or the budget hostage or threatening a government shutdown, i don't know very many people, i kind of

doubt that rand paul really believes that's going to happen. bill: you sound a little bit in your argument like what charles krauthamer was making the point he was making the other night. here is charles on that same idea. >> why would you threaten something and demand in return something that you know the president will never do? it is signature legislation. it will be repudiation of his entire first term and the only alternative is to go over a cliff. it is really dumb. bill: kind of sounds like the argument you're making. ted cruz says republicans are just scared. if they stood together instead of standing in the way they would make something happen here. >> i like senator cruz too but this is one of these arguments that works fantastically well for fund-raising when you want to go and run in 2016 for president or up your profile with the base of the republican party. to me, the idea that somehow, you know, they are also arguing if you're against this strategy

you're not really against obamacare which is absolutely ludicrous. the house, voted 37 times to repeal obamacare? now if you don't go along with the strategy none of those votes count? it kind of remind my from the scene from "blazing saddles" where chief von little holds the gun to himself and says, one move and the sheriff gets it. the idea that somehow the republicans would win this battle strikes me as ludicrous. so -- bill: the only option would be that if you want to defund it is to take back the senate in 2014? >> right. i think that is part of the smart way to think about this. the republicans need the goal to take back the president in 2014 around the presidency in 2016. that should be the strategic goal. confusing it for obamacare stuff i think is sort of a mistake. i think idea of voting to fund the government and extending debt ceiling means you're endorsing obamacare that argument, that leads to madness.

that means anybody who votes to keep the government open is therefore encoring everything the -- endorsing everything that the federal government does and that's ludicrous. we never had that standard before in american politics. bill: jonah, thank you. good to get your reaction on all that. >> thank you. bill: jonah goldberg, out of washington. good to have you. 10 minutes past. jamie? jamie: a powerful twister tearing through a neighborhood. wow, that is incredible to watch and we'll tell you where it happened and where people had to run for cover. debris filling the skies. bill: new charges launched against the irs. who the agency is accused of targeting this time. jamie: plus, everybody's talking about it. two reality stars are facing fraud charges in court this morning. could a real housewife of new jersey and her husband face real jail time?

jamie: this is absolutely incredible of video of a twister that touched down in italy. take a look. why someone would be that close to that window we don't know but this is amazing cell phone video capturing the tornado in the province of milan. you can see all the debris flying around. several buildings and vehicles were destroyed. windows and roofs were blown off. they even uprooted telephone poles. at least 12 people were injured. those come on so quick i don't know if they have a warning system there. bill: that is crazy stuff. you don't think about it in milan, italy. northern part of the country. jamie: that is why we're sharing it. so unusual. bill: 14 minutes now past the hour. back here at home there are new allegations leveled against the irs and targeting of

conservative groups. in a letter to the treasury inspector general congressman darrell issa writes the following. it has come to the attention of the committee that in addition to inappropriate treatment given to some applicants for tax-exempt status existing organizations already recognized as tax-exempt by the irs appear to have faced questionable treatment by the agency. oklahoma congressman james langford, chairman of the republican policy committee, member of the oversight committee. good morning to you, and welcome to our program on "america's newsroom." >> good morning to you. bill: the allegations are different. these weren't groups applying for tax-exempt status. these were groups already granted that status some time ago. explain. >> that's correct. this actually two different things we're asking the inspector general to investigate. since we started investigation of the tea party groups and other conservative groups held off, not given an answer yes or no on the exempt status, put in permanent irs perking o gay terry to wait on that.

we learned entities that phased an audit unusual. leadership institute of virginia, existed at non-profit in 1979, suddenly faced audit from the irs. there is evidence that lois lerner was interested in any tea party groups got in the system put in automatic review of operations. automatically a year later or two years later they would get an audit. there seems to be a systemically targeting of that. bill: is there anything that would explain that? >> well, it is reasonable to say someone comes in you have a question about, i'm not sure they're really telling me the truth, let's do some review. to systematically say all of these groups, let's examine whether we'll take all of them and assume all of them need review, that is very different. so there are a lot of questions. bill: you have reports back from the irs. what have they told you? >> we do have reports from irs. they have been incredibly slow in releasing documents to us. occasionally when they release documents to us, it would be this one.

e-mail from lois lerner we got back from the chief counsel's office and this information information included in it. we have multiple different documents thousands of pages fully redacted this page might have personnal information so they redact the entire page. bill: two-page return and second page was entirely blacked out? >> oh, no, not just the second page. many, many pages came that were entirely blacked out. whole tables entirely blacked out. information, we get no information, entire page is redacted saying this might have some personal information so we'll redact entire page. that is absurd. they're not getting us documents in time. if the irs went to a business and said you're being audited turn all your documents over the business would not have the option to be able to say, sorry, some of that information is personal. we're not going to turn that over. the irs shouldn't have that either. they need to turn the documents over. we'll release everything, we'll get this cleared. this incredibly slow-walk of documents to us we need to be able to get the information out. bill: elijah cummings, democrat

on the committee he writes following on your screen for viewers this is unfortunate, this is the response to darrell issa, that you persist in this pattern of selectively releasing quotes instead of conducting a responsible investigation, focused on implementing real reforms. i urge you to focus on obtaining the full set of facts rather than making unsubstantiated allegations. to elijah cummings your colleague what would you say? >> cummings is asking for a full set of facts so are we. this is not a full set of facts. ig investigation we asked him to broaden look at some of these groups we've been very clear on this. any group that has been attacked or we perceive is out there being targeted because of their political activities whether it is republican, democrat, liberal, progressive, doesn't matter if they're targeted we -- bill: i apologize for interruption. interests of time, on the second issue of tax-exempt groups that had standing for years and were audited by the irs at least once, maybe twice, possibly more, have you found that liberal groups were tar getted

as well? >> we have not had those come back and report to us but we're asking the inspector general to look for both. we're not just asking for conservative groups. we're asking for all groups that were targeted. we do know the tea party groups, we have specific information if they were to get through the process there is asking of systematically going back and auditing them. that is inappropriate. so we do know that. bill: james langford, republican from oak home. we'll see where this one goes. thank you for your time today. jamie. jamie: we're awaiting a potentially historic court verdict. army private first class bradley manning arriving in court in the last hour and he will learn his fate today the judge says. why some call him a traitor and a few call him a hero. bill: this might be the biggest hunt for the great white ever but the massive predators are in no danger. we'll explain that and why. ♪ geoff: i'm the kind of guy who doesn't like being sold to.

the last thing i want is to feel like someone is giving me a sales pitch, especially when it comes to my investments. you want a broker you can trust. a lot of guys at the other firms seemed more focused on selling than their clients. that's why i stopped working at my old brokerage and became a financial consultant with charles schwab. avo: what kind of financial consultant are you looking for? talk to us today.

bill: so now the cause of a massive traffic headache may be nearing an end and because of this. give a look. some big booms. a project to add new lanes leading to some 70 blasts so far this year dating back to february. crews finally met in the middle of that tunnel this week. well-done, guys. traffic delays are expected any day now because the months of explosions kept drivers out of that tunnel in the state of colorado.

jamie: this might keep people out of ocean. a research group is gearing up for what they call the largest great white shark expedition in u.s. history, hoping to tag as many as 20 sharks that have been lurking along the cape cod shores. molly line streaming live from massachusetts. all right, molly, what is the project about and is it keeping folks out of the water? >> reporter: well, it's a pretty ambitious project and i don't think it will keep anybody out of the waters here on cape cod although the great white sharks are spotted closer and closer to shore over the years and occasionally shut down some beaches. this project is so ambitious, the research team is called osearch. they are going out in the ocean over cape cod, and their aim is to capture, tag and release 20 great white sharks. the video shows how challenging the work is. even more challenging the researchers would like to hold

the sharks for a period of time on the deck for 15 minutes to study predators and conduct scientific tests. how do they make this happen? it is incredible. 126-foot esearch vessel has 75,000-pound custom made shark lift that smart of technology that allows them to get that close to the predators and they can actually do some of the work and get some studies done and share the knowledge with all of us, jamie. jamie: so many people are interested in sharks. how do they get more information once they discover more about them? >> reporter: absolutely. at esearch.org they have a incredible amount of information. they have a expedition blog so people can follow along with this incredible scientific adventure. also on the website is something they call the global shark tracker. when they're tagging sharks on cape cod, they give them names, you will be able almost in real time as they tag them see where

they go. they have done that already with 30 sharks all around the globe. jamie? jamie: molly, interesting. thank you so much. bill: beautiful day out there, huh? nice. jamie: if you're a shark. bill: on a day like today. get maccallam on that story. she is out there. she can find the great whites in the cold water. jamie: i will call her later. bill: get on that. wasteful spending at a massive level. more than a billion dollars of money lost in a federal construction boondoggle. jamie: also, bill can not wait to tell you about this. check it out. it is a massive black spot that covers roughly a quarter of the sun and he has all the details on what it is. ♪

bill: fox news alert, because we will soon know the fate of private first class bradley manning. he's accused of stealing classified u.s. intelligence, giving it to the web site wikileaks. he could face life in prison when a judge makes her ruling today. criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor and retired u.s. army jag, culley stimson is a senior legal fellow with the

heritage foundation. good morning to both of you. steve, i want to start with you. the most serious ruling could come down to life in prison. which way does this judge go in manning's case? >> well, it looks like she's going to have to go the way of evidence or the lack of evidence. in this particular case on this particular charge, it is a life sentence that is attached to it, and there's a reason for that, because it is an extremely serious charge. and they must show, the prosecution must show that he had actual knowledge that this information that he disseminated through wikileaks would end up in the hands of the enemy. bill: have they proven that? >> i do not believe they have. bill: really? >> based on the evidence that's been reported, there's not been sufficient actual knowledge shown. again, this is not a recklessness standard. and you also had to have the intent that the information would harm the united states. and, again, i think they came up short there as well.

bill: culley, do you agree? >> i think it's hard to tell. i have to be careful as a iting military judge not to second guess my friend and colleague who's the judge in the case, but to steve's point, this is a circumstantial case that the government put on, there really is no direct knowledge of his intent, and he has to specifically intend to ininjury america through wikileaks. so whether the defense's argument prevails or the government's is what irrelevant in the grand scheme of things because, remember, already pleaded guilty to a number of other charges, and he's looking at 92 years just for those charges a alone. so in ways he'll probably be sentenced for a long period of time regardless -- bill: here is some of the evidence, guys, and it's extraordinary. 470,000 iraq and afghan battlefield reports, 250,000 state department diplomatic cables, several battlefield video clips as well. and, steve, if he is found

guilty or even despite the outcome today, what does it do to other whistleblowers or other people who might have access like manning did or even other departments of the government about how they handle sensitive, classified information? >> well, this is clearly a case that sends a large and loud signal out to anybody that works in the military, anybody at all who has any contact with classified information. in this basically puts upon them the emphasis that, look, if you disseminate this material and it gets out there and it is, in fact, classified and you did not have permission to do it, you are likely to spend the rest of your days in jail or at least a significant amount of time. and that's regardless -- and this is important be -- this is regardless of whether or not the united states, the government is actually injured in the dissemination of this material. so it is a very high standard, and i think that it is going to have a chilling effect, and it certainly will have an impact.

bill: and that could, and we will see that over time. culley, when you are in a position like this, you are granted enormous privilege to access. >> right. bill: there's a deep moral question involved in this. >> yeah. i think that there is, and i think steve would agree a moral and legal obligation to follow the rules under which you live. i mean, imagine if any hundred officers in the military, army or navy like me, got together and decided we don't agree this should be classified, so we're just going to put it up on an unclassified web site. that's a crime. you are under obligations morally and legally to follow the rules whether or not you agree with the information being classified. bill: yeah. we look back over time whether it was the japanese in world war ii or the koreans during the war in the early 1950s or during the vietnam war, ultimately what happened, steve? what's your guess? >> as far as the verdict? bill: yes. >> well, the verdict is likely not guilty on this top count. however, it's been noted and it is still an extremely serious case. he's looking at at least 20

years. the minimum in this case is 16, so for bradley manning, this is a very serious case, and he's likely to go to jail for at least 20 years and could be still the rest of his life. bill: 25-year-old native out of crescent, oklahoma. cullty, what happens? >> well, i think the judge certainly has evidence in front of her that could help her find him guilty to some of the charges. whether he gets found guilty of the article 104 which is aiding the enemy, i don't know. bill: thanks to you both. gentlemen, we'll watch it later today. prosecutors tried to i've a general evil -- prove a general evil intent in this case. we're about to find out how they did. jamie: it's a really high standard. ♪ ♪ jamie: there are allegations of more wasteful spending of your taxpayer dollars. a gao report finding a number of planned veterans' hosnd our couy behind schedule and a billion

dollars over budget. alicia acuna is live in aurora, colorado, this morning, and that's the future location of one of those projects. go ahead, alicia. >> well, right now it is, jamie, and if you take a look at this property behind me here, the construction is underway, and the original estimate was that this was going to be complete as early as 2008. the new projection is 2016 at a cost of $1 billion. that is 144 percent over the original estimate according to the u.s. government accountability office. the gao has blasted va oversight of this construction project and others in new orleans, orlando and las vegas. the aurora site sits in mike coffman's district. the retired marine major questions whether the va should be allowed to manage its own construction projects in the future. be. >> it is extraordinary. i mean, from the standpoint of being a veteran, it's certainly

offensive to me in that capacity. in terms of respecting the men and women who have sacrificed so much for this country and earned their health care benefit and for the taxpayers who are footing the bill for this financially. >> reporter: in a statement to fox news, the va says in part: the department has taken measures to implement recommendations from the government accountability office through several initiatives to improve the scope, cost and schedule information of major production projects. now, the construction company says, jamie, that they actually need more money in order to finish, and right now they're actually trying to get out of this project. jamie? jamie: interesting. and if they do bring everything to a halt, alicia, what would it mean specifically to veterans there? >> reporter: well, as you can imagine, if that grant is -- if that request is actually granted, it would mean one more delay to this new hospital that has been promised to people who have served our country and also more money down the drain.

>> no business could operate like this for very long. but, of course, our u.s. government is too big to fail, and they can operate like this as long as they can keep taxing us and keep printing money. >> reporter: and and the construction company right now is blaming the va. jamie? jamie: keep us posted on that one, it's an important one. thank you. bill: a whole new definition of reality television. two stars from the real housewives of new jersey are in trouble with the law. will they be sent to jail? jamie: well, they're in court this morning. we're following that. and a fisherman comes face to face with a gator in a place you would not expect. >> the first thing that went through my held, i didn't want to die, i was too young. [laughter] and then i thought that if i just stayed back, i'll be okay.

bill: well, some more extreme weather hitting north carolina. heavy rainfall causing severe floods, the worst they have seen there in 70 years.

a local river cresting more than 17 feet, homes and roadways underwater, flash flooding killing at least two so far, and forecasts warn the danger's not over yet. more rain in north carolina is in the forecast. ♪ ♪ jamie: from the tv screen to a real life courthouse, two of the stars from the real housewives of new jersey are facing federal fraud charges. first, take a look at a clip of their show. >> you're disappointing our family! >> i am? >> yes! >> shame on you. i'm not sticking with scum like you. >> that wasn't right. >> i don't care. she's scum, and i'm going to call you scum. >> you know what? i'm outta here. >> that's right, leave. jamie: well, they left, and they made their way to court this morning. here they are. they are charged in a 39-count indictment including false statements they alleged to have made on loan applications and

then bankruptcy fraud. jeff gold is a new jersey criminal defense attorney where all this is taking place, and john bix a bankruptcy attorney. gentlemen, thanks for joining us. >> good morning. jamie: jeff, a 39-count federal indictment, where are they -- what are they charged with? >> well, i mean, if you want to break it down simply, there's really two elements here. the first part is that they created false documents, lied about things on applications to get loans, that's one thing. and some of that's very serious because they created, according to the indictment, false tax returns to show that they made money that they didn't, and then also that they were very loose and, in fact, under the allegations defrauded the bankruptcy court by lying and getting other monies and hiding that while they were in the process of bankruptcy. so that's the simple end of it, that they were fast and loose with the truth. jamie: in terms of stuff that was put in writing and probably signed, john, then your expertise is bankruptcy.

after pumping up their income to get loans, they also are facing bankruptcy fraud. how serious is that, and what are today looking at? >> bankruptcy fraud is a very big deal. for the last at least five years, ten years the department of justice has made bankruptcy fraud a real priority. all you have to do is look back at some of the -- and it doesn't just happen to celebrities. lenny dykstra just got out of jail not long ago. bankruptcy fraud is a big deal. when you file for bankruptcy and you list all your assets and you sign the schedules under penalties of perjury, there's a reason that they have to be right. if you're transferring as sets sort of on the sly to family members or other folks, you're not only defrauding the creditors, you're defrauding the whole system. so the system requires the presumption that people will act honestly, and where they don't, people do get sent to jail. this is not something that just happens to celebrities. the haas case that i was involved in where there were serious allegations of fraud,

the ceo company who lied about expenses that he was paying to escorts and called them in the bankruptcy pleadings expenses for maintaining the corporate aircraft, he's still doing the back end of five years. jamie: wow. and, joseph, basically, the -- jeff, basically the 39 charges, is that how many times the counts this the indictment they actually filed false paperwork? what's the most serious charge they're facing, and what's the potential sentence? do they face that equally, or is one looking at more time than the other? >> well, first of all, i'm not so sure that the fact they're celebrities doesn't have something to do with this, as john thinks. i think it may. but they are very serious charge, and the feds don't kid around generally speaking on these types of charges which really involve millions of dollars of loans that they're saying was defrauded and then, of course, you have the bankruptcy allegations. it's not like they're victimless people here. this is not kidding around. so i think that they are facing prison, not the 0 or so year -- 30 or so years that you might do

by adding it up, but there are guidelines that would make very serious allegations like this into a number of years though possibly. i think at the end of it cases like this are often resolved with the husband taking most of the heat. i don't know if that'll happen here, but i suspect juicy joe is going to jail. jamie: we know there may be some sort of spousal immunity, but they both said they're going to protect the other. and this just happening in court in newark. they are both going to hand over $500,000 bonds, they did not enter a plea today, but they are under travel restrictions to only new york and new jersey. john, does that say to you that this judge setting the bail at this amount, and this is new video in to fox, that they may be a flight risk, they may be concerned about them actually showing up for a trial. >> >> absolutely. or with them simply absconding. i agree with jeff. i think this is the kind of case where, again, being a priority

of the justice department i would expect that there's going to be a jail sentence at the far end of this case for both of them. jamie: jeff, what's the message to folks out there who don't file tax returns which they're said to have not done, at least he has four or five years, who puff up their income on applications for loans? what is the message from you today? >> well, look, the federal government is very serious about that. we have a reality tv show where the individuals involved are paying contractors on tv, on camera with boatloads of cash. bad idea. jamie: all right. jeff, john, great insight today and the very latest from the court again, no plea offered bond, and they have to stick to new york and new jersey. not sure of the future of their television career at this point. >> they may be filming it somewhere else. >> they may be filming it right now. bill: jenna lee's standing by, "happening now" is 12 minutes away.

jenna: from the real house wife toss the peace talks, bill, nice transition. secretary of state john kerry is set to speak on the ongoing negotiations between the israelis and palestinians which we've just learned, as you reported, included the president. we'll have analysis ahead on that. plus, the president today also offering what he calls a grand bargain on taxes and jobs spending. how's that going over? also really important news for so many families in this country. a government panel arguing for changing the definition of cancer. we speak to a doctor who's apartment of the panel suggesting this. why he says this is the right move for all of us, coming up top of the hour. bill: that's an interesting story. looking forward to that. thank you, jenna lee. a major discovery in space as nasa spots an image that suggests the sun may have a dark side. jamie: trying to figure out what that means. ♪ ♪ the great outdoors...

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jamie: well, some teenage fishermen in pennsylvania make a potentially dangerous find. they thought it was a fish from a distance, and it turned out to be an alligator. five feet long. the teens say they knew how to handle the gator from watching tv, quickly springing into action. the state's game commission says no one is sure where this gator came from but that whoever's responsible could find themselves in some deep trouble. ♪ ♪ black hole sun, won't you come to wash away the rain, back hole sun won't you come, won't you come. ♪

bill: a whole new meaning on that song lyric. scientists at nasa have given us some amazing images and have discovered there's an enormous dark hole over our sun. discover magazine here to the look at these images. nice to see you, corey. what is this? >> a weather happen on the sun. you'll notice this is a picture of the sun in ultraviolet rays. what you're seeing is this is three and a half million degree plasma erupting from the surface of the sun. this part of it's missing. the reason it's dark is that whole chunk of the sun basically rips off, blew out and is coming our way at about two million miles an hour. bill: our way? >> our way. [laughter] bill: that doesn't sound good. >> well, i mean, this kind of thing happens all the time, but you don't very often see something that big. so i'm going to go all carl say began on you for a second. this is about 80 times as wide as the earth. if you're looking at the earth on this stale, it's about --

scale, it's about that large. so this is an incredible chunk of the sun that's flying out. what happens when it hits our planet, it causes auroras, it wi the magnetic field. the thing you really worry about is it can disrupt your gps, mess with your communication satellites, power lines -- bill: is that like a solar blare? >> yes. so these hot spots where things are, the things are really kind of intense and bubbling, this is where it's basically reached the point where it just kind of completely blew off. you're not actually seeing the hot gas here -- bill: did we ever know this before, or did we not take note of it? >> well, we -- it's really very recent that we've even been able to see these things, so we kind of knew there's this constant low-level thing, you know, a few million dollars a year damages more or less just our solar satellites, power lines, we knew that the sun was messing with us, and we didn't exactly know

why. now we see why. and the real worry is this is actually -- believe it or not, this is a small one. bill: wow. can

happened again, that could cause a global blackout. bill: you always talk about, you know, solar flares is the biggest danger on a large scale, so we will see. corey, thank you. excellent explanation, and we'll call you carl sagan next time. >> millions of millions of earths would fit in this picture. jamie: now we know, bill, thanks. president obama a short time ago meeting with israeli and palestinian negotiators in a last minute change in schedule. hmm. we are waiting to hear from secretary of state john kerry too, expected to hold a news conference a at the top of the hour on the status of talks that are now underway. that's coming up. [ man ] look how beautiful it is.

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[ male announcer ] don't wait. call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan to go the distance with you. go long. it fills you with energy... and it gives you what you are looking for to live a more natural life. in a convennt two bar pack. this is nature valley. nature at its most delicious. this is nature valley. man: the charcoal went out already? ... forget it. vo: there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford original charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill. bill: well, corey was telling us that part of the sun does it grow back, and he said it's like a lava lamp. he said it just recreates itself yet again. so that black spot you see on the sun will be filled in yet again, that's why you don't see it all again.

jamie: thank goodness. bill: to me, that looks like a black bear in fetal position. jamie: i think it's the best picture of the day. bill: you're back on friday? jamie: you ask, i'm here. bill: "happening now" starts right now. jenna: brand new stories and breaking news. jon: well, the next presidential election more than three years away, but a group is already paving the way for hillary clinton's campaign. plus, a group of scientists looking to redefine cancer. why they say a simple name change could prevent thousands of people from being treated unnecessarily. and a judge ordering sealed court documents be made public in the case of chandra levy. we'll tell you why and what is inside those documents. it's all "happening now." ♪ ♪ jon: but we begin with a developing story out of florida