latest. you going to take on her again? >> right. the wounded warrior football game was amazing. remooch on the toboggan with the girl. >> see you tomorrow. >> have fun. bye. a home went up in flames today. no word on what caused the fire. also the morning after in the southeast. cities in the south trying to get moving yet again after 3 inches of snow and a little bit of ice caused a lot of chaos. hard hit atlanta, a graced yard of cars as far as the eye can see. crews facing the task of

removing cars from the highways where folks gave up and abandoned 36 hours ago. that's where we start. i'm bill hemmer. martha: i'm martha maccallum. these image out of atlanta are unbelievable. the kid spent two nights, many of them, at their schools sleeping on the floors. many people were forced to sleep in their cars in the freezing cold or seeking shelter where they could in supermarkets. >> it was bad. they were sleeping on toilet paper towel and box tops. >> i went to home depot. >> i parked on the side. i should be able to get it out.

i walked all the way down here. >> it was completely like nothing. we don't even think about it. because people exaggerate. but then we get caught by surprise. everybody try to get home and it's a disaster. bill: honey, i spent the night in home depot, true story. atlanta's mayor under fire. jonathan serrie with us from atlanta. >> reporter: today at 10:00 a.m. the d.o.t. and other state agencies will start bringing motorists back to their abandoned vehicle. you can see i75 in mayor yeta where many vehicles were stranded on the interstate. many of these vehicles on this exit ramp in mayor marietta.

you see a man on foot trying to return to his car and recover it. but many of these vehicle have been sitting here abandoned since tuesday when hasty snow began to fall. one motorist describes what it was like then. >> reporter: people were walking around on the road. they looked dazed and confused. they were freezing, they were limping. it was like the walking dead. report report the georgia d.o.t. is providing free fuel for people who run out of gas and jump starts for dead batty are yous. bill: the leaders in georgia and atlanta, what are they saying? >> reporter: local and state leaders say the problem tuesday was kid were in school, people

were at work. when the snow began to fall, everybody hit the interstates at the same time and that caused gridlock. but in retrospect the mayor says by creating a plan for staggered dismissals that might solve the problem. listen to him. >> if we had to do it again we would have said schools you go first. private sector businesses you go second, and government goes last. >> we can't control mother nature. just as we can't make better predictions, neither can school superintendents which is why the cool children were in the situation they were in. they were probably looking at the same modeling some of our state folks were looking at as well. >> reporter: but some weather forecasters argue there was ample warning. some officials are wondering whether they should have closed

schools and tough thoroughfares. also blamed where they underreact and then you experience a severe winter storm what by southern standard is a severe snowstorm. bill: every three or four years you get smacked down there. terrific work along the highway. martha: all the student stranded at metro atlanta schools now home with their families. but they had a couple extra nights at school. some of the kid said they had a pretty good time. it's an experience they will never forget. schools scrambling to find meals for the kid. but at least they had a warm and safe place to stay. some student were stuck on busses. they had the toughest situation of all. >> from 11:00 this morning. >> the bus driver pulled over

and you slept on the bus. what did you eat? >> we didn't eat. >> around 11:00 a.m. this morning the national guard came to get us and took us to kroger. martha: they have got a story they will tell their grand kid. the night they slept on the business. americans come together aid of those in need. a chick-fil-a handed out hundreds of free chicken sandwiches to the stranded drives. store workers refused to take any money from anybody. chick-fil-a you have ad a spot for people to sleep on a bench or in a booth. bill: the blame game well underway in atlanta. america i am reid, and the governor, they are under fire. here is the governor responding to those allegation

and questions. >> do you think there were errors made? >> obviously there were errors. the mayor use sad descriptive term. it's like somebody blew a whistle and everybody desired to leave at the same time. if -- decided to leave at the same time. if we had bloant whistle earlier could it have been different? i don't know. bill: it's an interesting see to see jonathan serrie on i75 with the stranded vehicles. martha: what i don't get is the black ice issue is always an issue in atlanta when this weather happens. when they know it's coming, we heard weather reports for two days ahead of time. why don't they send out the sanding trucks.

bill: a lot of trucks just aren't there. atlanta has 7 or 9, i think? the governor is coming up in 30 minutes. martha: there is more bad news for the so-called economic recovery in the united states. 348,000 filing unemployment claims last week. that's the highest in about a month. also new number showing the gdp came out like this. 3.2% for fourth quarter. charles payne with the fox business network. let many start with the jobs number. how is that looking? >> reporter: it's not a great number. a lot of people coming off long-term unemployment. we'll see a lot of noise in this number. an additional million-plus people may drop out of the labor force. we are not going to make any headway, i don't see, with respect to employment outside of

the small gains we have had the last few years. this is unfortunately where we are going to be. north of $300,000. martha: some of the study show when the unemployment runs out, people get jobs. they find work. >> it's true. study after study said that. what you have a lot that's gone on in america the last several years is fairness humanitarian type of argument masked as an economic argument. you can see you the rate thing to do, but on the other side of the coin is letting someone's skills erode for 3 or 4 years, you are helping them? ultimately you are not helping them. it sound mean spirited but the exact opposite has been proven to be right. martha: the gdp, 3.2%. bill: the number itself is not

exciting. when we saw in the fourth quawrmter government spending was down 12.6%. government spending was down in the third square. our economy has gotten so much attention since the government shutdown that the mass media said was an evil, awful thing and hurt us. during that period jobs were created and the stock market was up. as government gets out of the way, the private sector comes in. the savings went down. it was the best consumption by consumers in well over 3 years. the negative would be housing, the residential stuff wasn't good. some people blame the weather. we had earnings, two big housing builders, both were great numbers and they both have positive things to say. martha: thank you, charles. bill: can you believe justin

bieber surrendering to police again? the second arrest for the biebs in a week. martha: we are waiting for a verdict from the amanda knox retrial. bill: eric holder under fire on the irs targeting of conservatives. grilled on why no one has been held accountable and an obama supporter ran the investigation. >> is it your position the only laurel available to head this investigation was a major obama donor? not all food choices add up. some are giant. some not so giant. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant with olive garden's plebest 2 for $25 yet choose two melt-in-your mouth entrees

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martha: a fox news alert. a verdict in the amanda knox trial could be coming at any minute.

after spending four years in prisonct was overturned in 2011 and they are being retried. knox is home. she did not go back to italy for the trial. bill: the temperature was hot on the hill when senator ted cruz presses eric holder on the irs targeting of conservatives. the woman the lead investigator, a woman named barbara boxerman. >> did you know the lead investigator watts the obama donor. >> the characterization of the lawyer as a lead lawyer is not

correct. >> did you know this lawyer was a barack obama donor. bill: it was revealed she gave $6,000 to the democrats during the 2006-2008 elections and most that was given to the obama team. you say many of the people who believe they have were targeted about it irs have not even been interviewed yet. what did ted cruz have to say about that. >> that was one of the most interesting lines of questioning cruz used against holder. it is the case that most of those targeted by the irs haven't been been interviewed.

what kind of investigation is going on if they haven't even been asked what happened. it suggests it's not a serious investigation. cruz said 280 days. lindsey graham chimed in and said how do you investigate if you don't talk to the victims? >> the vick timents -- the victims have spoken. they have been testifying before congress and other settings. but it would seem to me investigators who are serious look at what happened would want to be talking to the victims. >> now there are allegations they are trying to do this again by another route. something called a c4 that runs through the treasury department. mitch mcconnell was on with megyn last night. he said if the new director of the irs doesn't do something about this, there will be hell

to pay. >> nixon tried to use the irs to go after his enemies during watergate and the commissioner of the irs said no. we have a new commissioner over at the irs. we want to see if he has the integrity to stand up to this white house like they did when richard knicks on was trying to use the irs to achieve a political objective. bill: do you have any doubts that he can run this impartially? do you think he can do it fairly? or are there question surrounding this? >> i think he can do it fairly. the question is whether he will do it fairly. we know the administration made a priority of reef defining what is unin the context of 501c-1 as political activity. what they want to do is

categorize the kind of activities and scrutiny the irs brought upon these conservative groups a year ago. they want to make that part of the rule. so that what was done in the past wouldn't be the exemption, it would be the rule. it would rule out non-political activities for these tea party groups. bill: mcconnell says he wants to see a statesman in charge of the irs. the credibility of the agency is now on the line. >> i think that's right. all of this, whether it's mitch mccounselor ted cruz. -- whether it's mitch mcr mccounselor lindsay a graham, there has been a serious lack of credibility whether it was irs or benghazi.

this is an administration particularly over the last year, there has been no accountability for the people involved in these things. when you have ted cruz asking why haven't there even been interviews after these groups after 80 days. he's saying we need some accountability. is there any on the horizon. from eric holder it seems the answer was no. bill: you asked the most pertinent question at the beginning of this segment. do they take it seriously? we'll find out if they do or not. martha: there is more trouble for the man we affectionately term the crack smoking mayor of toronto. what he is now being accused of. bill: justin bieber arrested for a second time. weep's charged with and might that get the bieb booted from

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bill: thousands are home early after an outbreak of the flu cut their caribbean vacation short of a stomach bug. that ship docking in new jersey two days ahead of schedule. one person taken out on a stretcher, rushed away in an ambulance. the company says it will compensate passenger for the trouble. but one couple on their honeymoon says it's their first and now it will be their last cruise.

mir. martha: justin bieber busted for the second time this week. check out this video as turns himself in to police in toronto. check this out. did you attack the limo driver? that's what this is all about. tv crews and screaming fans. this happened in december. he was arrested in miami for a drunk driving accident. drag racing in a luxury rented sports car. then he was accused of arresting arrest. >> reporter: the assault charge stems from an incident involving justin bieber and his entourage in a limousine. apparently one of the passengers

hit the limousine driver several times in the back of the head. it happened in the early morning hours of december 30. police say bieber was one of 6 people picked up by the limousine from a nightclub. they were headed to the hotel while some type of altercation happened en route. the driver called the comes. but by the time they arrived the passengers left the scene. martha: this is quite a scene when he's turning himself in here. you don't know if he's loving it and he might be hating it very soon. >> reporter: we didn't see him dragged about by police in miami. when police escorted bieber, hundreds of frenzied fans were screaming justin. they had to brave the bitter cold to greet the singer.

it was freezing out there. he climbs out of a black suv. he was not driving. he made no comment to spectators and his manager. where did he go? to twitter to explain. asking people to stop passing judgment. tweeting clearly he unless a bad boy phase. he, by the way, pled not guilty to that drunk driving charge. and the raid on his california home after he allegedly egged a neighbor's house. martha: i wonder how the neighbors and the limb oap driver feel about the bad boy phase. bill: thanks, j.b. same initials you have there. >> reporter: no relation. martha: jet skiing in panama. the panama part was fun.

bill: top intel officials telling congress what the biggest threat to our national security is. and eight am not al qaeda. martha: republicans trying to stop the president and what critic call his latest power grab. >> i think the president owes it to the american people and you owe it to the president as his attorney general to make sure when he does act by executive order, that he do so clearly and clearly state the basis of his authority.

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martha: the gop * is -- the gop is pressing for a federal lawsuit that would challenge what they say is barack obama overuse of executive power. meanwhile the senate judiciary committee grilling attorney general eric hold her on the constitutional basis for president obama's executive orders. >> how about the executive order he pro mowed with regard to minimum wage. would that be category one, two or three. >> without having delved into this to any great degree. >> you are the attorney general, i assume he consulted you. >> there have been consultations

done with the justice department. martha: senator mike lee is a member of the judiciary committee. senator, welcome, good to have you here today. you went through a number of instances where executive orderu were pressing the attorney general for the process of determining whether they were constitutional. what happened. did they go through the justice department? did they go through him. do you think thera is a constitutional evaluation process before these orders are put in place? >> i would assume there is an evaluative process. i was shocked to hear that the attorney general was not involved in that. the president issuing executive orders that undo existing

statutes and law you without the slightest explanation publicly what just guys the president doing this. the president is not a law unto himself. if he wants to change the law he has to go through congress to do that. when he fails to do that he owes us an explanation. martha: you are saying all presidents do this. look at the numbers. president george w. bush 291 times. clinton 364 time. they would look at those numbers and say president obama is well within the realm of his executive powers as president. each i have got two responses to that. first, martha, not all executive orders are bad. there are instances in which the law authorizes the president to

act by executive order. and it has been the case presidents of both political part why is have abused flower their executive orders. but the fact that other presidents have done it doesn't justify it. but even so what this president has con is unprecedented. what this president has done is to repeatedly change laws, even laws he pushed through congress, for his own political benefit where he considers it inconvenient to go through congress. that's wrong, it's unconstitutional. martha: perhaps folks at home say what are you going to do about it? this lawsuit that's even inact. what does it mean for people who have been hit hard by obamacare? >> it's difficult to challenge a president because so much of the president's power is inherent in the office itself. there are some things that can be done. you can bring a lawsuit against

a particular executive order. in some instances congress can with hold funding if congress is willing to do that. each time a president does this, he undermines his own negotiating power with congress. he undermines his own support with the american people as they see he's' diminishing their prerogatives to live under a constitutional government. martha: let's talk about immigration. the sense is there is a big divide on the republican side in terms of what would be negotiable with democrats if this is the one issue everybody might be able to get together on. i know senator sessions issued a 30-page rebuttal that the house republicans will take with them on their retreat that says here is why you should not offer any form of am necessary city to the 11 million illegal immigrants in this country.

where do you stand on this? >> i haven't seen this 30-page report. i look forward to reading it. in order to reform our immigration code, i agree we need to reform it. we need to undertake this in a step-by-step fashion. the first thing we need to do is secure the border, and we need to reform our amount quitedout dated visa system. our legal immigration processes. once those things are in place and it's been verified, then we'll be in a better position to figure out how best to treat the 11 million people here illegally. but these things can't all be wrapped together. they can't all happen at once. we need to undertake those first two steps first and complete them before we move on to the third. martha: how much room is there for negotiation on this issue? this is the one thing americans look at and say if they can't

get together and figure out something on this, maybe they can't do anything. >> i think come below mice and negotiation are not only possible, they are imperative. i think the best way to achieve that is to start with this step by step approach. americans understand we need to secure the border and understand our legal immigration process is broken and antiquated and it needs to be' updated and reformed. those are the areas where there is broad-based bipartisan consensus. let's start with those things and get those things done. then we can move to dealing witho the other problems. martha: thank you so much, senator, great to talk to you. have a good day. bill: 22 minutes before the hour. in the deep south it's day three. crews struggling to remove

vehicles. thousands of them clogging the highways. the mayor and the governor of atlanta and georgia respectively under fire for their response. >> did you make the right call? >> i think we did under the circumstances of what we knew at the time. could you have prevented it? i don't think anybody can say they know the answer to that. bill: governor deal is next in our newsroom. martha: a lawmaker caught losing his cool on camera. what congressman michael graham is saying about his -- what congressman michael grimm is saying about his confrontation with a reporter. when you have diabetes like i do, getting the right nutrition isn't always easy. first, i want a way to help minimize my blood sugar spikes. then, a way to support heart health. ♪ and let's not forget immune support.

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to throw a reporter off a balcony after the state of the union address. he was asked about an alleged campaign violation. here is what ensued. >> this is only about the president. martha: that's one of my favorite pieces of video when the camera and mike are left back on. the congressman had to apologize to the reporter. they are going to have lunch. isn't that nice. grimm says his emotions got the better of him.

>> i made my apology. he accepted it. this is an unfortunate incident that shouldn't have happened and i'm sure my italian mother will yell at me saying you weren't raised that wait, and she is right. martha: his outburst is said to be in violation of the house's code of official conduct. which says you have to behave like a gentleman or gentle woman. bill: in the metro atlanta area and across the deep south waking up to frozen roads. crews across the sprawl of one of america's biggest cities scrambling to remove thousands of cars and trucks. stranded drivers cannot hide their own frustration.

>> we literally sat in one place without the car making a single revolution for 14 hours before i saw anything change. before we moved another inch. >> it seems like they are never prepared. it happens once or twice every five years and it's always the same story of. we weren't repaired. it was more than we expected. bill: not one revolution the guy said. today's front page of the "atlanta journal-constitution" asked this question, "how did this happen?" sir, good morning to you. did you screw this up? >> well, i think we could have done a little bit bettered we reacted earlier. that's always a guessing game.

do you act on preliminary reports, the weather forecast bounced around for a number of days as to where the center of the storm was going to be. initially it was projected to be south of atlanta and we made prep rairgses for those areas much less repaired in these kind of emergencies. bill: the national weather service saw it coming and the weather channel saw it coming so it wasn't entirely unexpected'. address the question on the front page of the newspaper. how did this happen. >> it was one of those circumstances as to the timing on it. everybody had gone to work that dave. school superintendents in the metro area decided school would be open that day. businesses decided they would be open that dave. state government was going to be open that day.

about 10:00 in the morning it appeared to us it was going to be concentrating further north than originally projected. we gave an order that state employees were allowed to leave. then of course the real snow started about noon and a little after that. about 12:15 our signals on our interest states were all the roads were green. they were free and ready to move. within 15 minutes it went to almost completely red. so the congestion on our interstates occurred within a short period of time. bill: you can understand how people were ticked off. i'm sure of that. you apologized within 24 hours. that single apology is a lot more than we are getting from other leaders in america right now. >> the appropriate thing to do is apologize for the inconvenience. we tried to minimize that inconvenience.

right now the interstates are relatively open and traffic is moving rather freely. we still have cars on the sides of the roads. we announced if people will report the specific areas, that the national guard will escort them back to their vehicles that they left. we expect to have that hopefully cleared out. bill: late when the storm hit you came out and said it was unexpected. but it wasn't unexpected, was it? >> the forecast apparently from the national weather service changed at 3:00 or a little after 3:00 in the morning. they changed it. i think it had been downgraded about 11:00 the previous night. so it was a changing forecast. bill: that was 3:00 in the morning. that would have been plenty of time to put out an alert to keep kid home from schools. i know this is easy looking back in the rearview mirror.

up in the north we are well equipped for this. the city of atlanta has bought a lot more plows and sand trucks the last few years. but give us an assessment of when this is managed and the cars are off the highways and everything is back to a reasonable normal pace. >> i think let many start with where we started in terms of priorities. that was school children. unlike in some states i don't have authority to tell schools when they open and close. that's a decision at the local school level. we had busses that were stranded as the storm started. we had children who had to spend the night in the schools. of child was returned back to their home and they were returned home by yesterday afternoon. we then started to concentrate on other areas of concern making sure every driver out there was contacted. they were offered a ride to a

safe place or you have as food and water if they chose to stay there. we had a tremendous outpouring of support. bill: you are facing the music now. we wanted to give you a chance to defend yourself. nathan deal, the governor of georgia. martha: there is a new bombshell in the nfl bullying scandal. new comments from the suspended dolphins player ritchie incognito. bill: a neighborhood in shock as police remove hundreds of snakes from one home.

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hoarding. martha: a man is arrested for hoarding snakes. hundreds of pythons. many of them were dead. okay? glad you are not neighbors with this guy. william lajeunesse is live in los angeles. how did they find out what was going on in this house. neighbors complained about the smell which led to a search warrant. guns and tasers drawn. animal control and and police entered the house. live rats feed opening dead ones in cages and on the furniture. bones and feces scattered about the house.

>> you see the snake in there. it's hard to believe they are still alive. there are spider webs. >> we have rats with the live rats and they become cannibal and each each other. >> the hobbyist turned into a hoarder to began breeding pythons. experts value this operation at half a million dollars. martha: what can you tell us about this lovely owner. >> reporter: he's charged with likely operating a business without a permit. he's a 6th grade teacher in newport beach. they have been called to the house because of the odor. they say he started living his entire life here but started

losing it when his mother died. people gagged and would throw up jup just being on the street. >> anybody who comes to the house for a party, they don't want to come. what's that smell. >> reporter: buckman is on leave from school until he can get his life together. martha: we'll hope the situation will improve and the man can have friend over to his house. thank you for musting those lovely images -- bill: nightmare scenario, spend one night in that house. bill: the latest poll showing hillary clinton the front runner for democrats. by is there a favorite for republicans? bret baier will analyze in a moment. martha: it got the award for the biggest non-truth of the year.

now the president's speech writer saying maybe they should have looked a little closer at the reality. >> if you want your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthcare plan. period. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. ooh, homemade soup! yeah... [ male announcer ] campbell's homestyle soup with farm grown veggies. just like yours. huh. [ male announcer ] and roasted white meat chicken. just like yours. [ male announcer ] you'll think it's homemade. i love this show. [ male announcer ] try campbell's homestyle soup.

>> this 73% suggests that, again, this train is going to be

rolling. martha: yeah, tremendous amount. >> it'll be tough to see any significant opposition to to her should she choose to get in. on the republican side, it's completely different. martha: yeah, it is. let's take a look at the matchup with republicans getting similar pieces of the pie here. and one of the things that, you know, happened yesterday, jeb bush started speaking out in a way that we really haven't heard him speak before. he kind of, you know, has put off questions about whether he would run. let's pull up this quote at a school event. he said i am considering it and expect to make a decision next year. there are lots of factors, the biggest is my family. and he was asked about what, how he felt about his mom, you know, repeatedly saying, oh, i don't think he should run. he said i really wish she would stop saying that. [laughter] >> right. and then he mailed one of our colleagues and said i'm rate sure she would vote for me. martha: she would vote for me, yeah, that's great. >> but i do think jeb bush will factor in significantly if he chooses to get in the race.

but it's also important to point out not in this poll, governor scott walker, he is considering a run. governor mike pence in indiana considering a run, from everything we've herald. not on this poll, susana martinez, the governor of new mexico. we have such a long way to go before really the field gets gelled that these polls are kind of really early. martha: yeah. i wonder if the president's numbers were better if this conversation would be put off longer? >> yeah. i mean, that's true. there is a vulnerability here, so i think there's an an shusness hong -- anxiousness among republicans to say who is going to be the standard bearer. i think when you talk to most republicans here in washington, they are most focused on 2014. martha: definitely. >> and getting the senate back. martha: yep. it seems so. all right, thank you so much, bret, we'll see you later. >> have a good one. bill: talk to us on twitter this hour, do you have a favorite?

we'll share some of your ideas later on. paul ryan did not get a promotion, by the way, he's still in the house. martha: exactly. bill: you knew that now. awaiting a verdict in the amanda knox retrial. an italian appeals court deliberating at the moment. knox accused of killing a british student in italy back in 2007, waiting it out halfway around the world. she lives in seattle now. jonathan hunt, our newsroom here in new york and, jonathan, good foreign morning to you. it's been a marathon process. >> yeah, it really has been a long nightmare for everybody involved in this. the family of the victim, of course, and all of those accused in that brutal hurd. murder. amanda knox was arrested very shortly after the murder back in 2007, then she was convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2009. in 2011 the verdicts against iowa hand da knox and her -- amanda knox and her

ex-boyfriend, her co-accused, were overturned. that was 2011. it was overturned on the basis of some shaky forensic evidence that had been seized by police at the home iowa hand da knox -- iowa amanda knox shared with meredith kercher. knox's lawyer appears very confident that the not guilty verdict will be upheld in this trial. he told the jury this morning, quote: it is not possible to convict a person was it is probably that she is guilty. the penal code does not foresee probability, it foresees certainty. now, the judge has said, bill, that there will be deliberations for at least seven hours today. by our calculations, that means we could get a verdict announced anytime at around 11 a.m. eastern this morning. bill: so she's living in seattle, right? >> yeah. bill: and if she's found guilty, what happens? >> well, she stays in seattle

for the moment at least. now, there is the possibility, of course, that if she is found guilty, italian prosecutors would ask for her extradition, although they're likely to have to wait for that, practically speaking, until a final decision could be made, because there is another appeal by italy's supreme court. that could take up to one year. either way, she is unlikely to return willingly. she has said openly she would become a fugitive from italian law. not such a good situation for the ex-boyfriend, he's likely to be rearrested immediately if he's found guilty. bill: late in the afternoon in italy right now. we'll watch it. jonathan hunt in our newsroom here in new york. march all right. another fox news alert right now, russia now identifying the homicide bombers responsible for two deadly attacks. the blasts killed 34 people in the is city of volgograd last month sparking security fears for the winter olympics which are just about to get under way in a few days in sochi, and two arrests have been made as a result.

but authorities are still searching for these three so-called black widows who they determine to be potential homicide bombers out to avenge their husbands' deaths. and some serious new concerns about the irs just in time for tax season. a new watchdog report outlines major problems for the millions of us who are now trying to fill out our tax returns. chief washington correspondent james rosen is live on this. it seems like this report will not be improving anybody's idea of the irs, right? [laughter] >> reporter: no, it won't, martha, but it may give americans a better grasp of the challenges facing the agency which is perhaps the objected- object of more fear and loathing than any other in the government. of the more than 100 million calls placed to the agency last year, nearly 20 million went unanswered with the average wait time on hold stretching to 18 minutes. what's more, when the agency does get around to your call or

even your walk-in visit to a branch office, its front line customer service officers will only be able to answer, quote-unquote, basic questions. at the risk of vast understatement, said olson, it is a sad state of affairs when the government byes tax laws as complex as ours and then is unable to answer questions from baffled citizens who are doing their best to comply. irs took a big hit in the sequestration while tasting a surge in identity theft crimes and fraud cases surrounding tax refunds. martha: boy, all this is really shocking, isn't it? we learn this at a time when the irs itself remains under investigation, james. >> reporter: that's true. and this stems from the general's finding last spring that irs targeted tea party groups in their applications for tax-exempt status, similar findings reached about liberal groups, though apparently not to the same extent. at least one irs official has

pleaded the fifth. republican senator ted cruz of texas yesterday criticized attorney general eric holder for the fact that no indictments have been brought and suggested the case cries out for a special prosecutor. >> no one would have trusted john mitchell to investigate richard nixon. likewise, janet reno appointed robert fisk to investigate allegations against president clinton. >> i don't think that there is a basis for us to conclude on the information as it presently exists that there is any reason for the appointment of an independent counsel. >> reporter: holder also said the fbi and the treasury department are involved in this ongoing investigation. martha? martha: and now the irs will have a big role to play this health care as well, so they can add that to their list of things to do in a tough environment. james, thank you very much. >> reporter: thank you, sure. bill: a stunning new report about president obama's promise that you could keep your doctor, period. >> i can tell you that that

statement, that -- about the way the law was worked, was something that was perhaps not examined closely enough at the time. bill: that is president obama's former speech writer talking about obamacare and how they shaped the message. you're going to be surprised to hear the rest of that. martha: exactly. also top intel officials testifying on capitol hill. according to their latest threat assessment, al-qaeda's no longer the number one threat worldwide. so what is? bill: also folks in the south trying to recover from a freak winter storm. what they're now telling the drivers who abandoned their cars on the highways all over metro atlanta. >> everywhere is very slippery and hard to drive and pretty, sliding down the hills and everything. so you have to take a different route. too big. too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup.

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♪ ♪ >> if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care land.

period. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. period. [applause] martha: well, it doesn't take long for everyone to find out that wasn't true, so why would the president of the united states say that in speech after speef after speech? one of his former speech writers that now gone on the record on this saying that the administration really didn't examine the accuracy of that statement closely enough, and then he said this: >> the fact that more people ended up being caught in this, in this change, i think, it -- you know, i have not, i'm not a particularly media-trained person be, so i tend to be pretty blunt about it. it's crappy. it's not right, you know? these are people that thought they'd be able to keep their plans because the president said so, and i think the president made this point himself. martha: wow, how about that? he went on to say that a he

still believes that people will be better off under obamacare, but that's a pretty stunning admission from one of the speech writers, former speech writers. juan williams joins me now, and monica crowley, radio talk show host and fox news contributor. monica, what do you think about that? >> please, martha, spare me the we didn't know it was going to turn out this way nonsense. of course they knew it was going to turn out this way, they designed it to turn out this way. what we do know is before the president signed obamacare into law, he was caught on tape admitting to the house majority leader, erik cantor, that, in fact, it was possible that millions of people were going to lose their plans. we also know, it's since been reported, that the policy people in the white house and the political people in the white house got into an argument about sending the president out with that very declarative statement, if you like your plan and your doctor, you'll be able to keep them. they knew it wasn't true at the time. political people won that debate. the president was happy to go along with it, and thousand they

still -- now they still continue to try and spin it when all of the evidence is to the contrary. martha: juan, he said it's crappy. people got hurt, too bad. >> yeah, well, of course it's crappy when people get hurt. contrary to what monica just said, what mr. lovett indicated, there was no deceit involved, that the understanding was that the underlying structure would not impact most people, and they at no time think it would impact the number of people that it eventually did, and here he is being very much an honest public official and saying he's sorry. that, in fact, it turned out to be worse than they anticipated. but he's right. i mean, if you look at the underlying structure, i think it's 70-80% of americans, they're not having their health care plan affected. and even in the individual market most of the people who were affected, who got those cancellation notices, they've been able to get better plans now through health care to the golf. health care dot governor. >> no, that's not true, juan. >> yes, it is. >> six million people have had their plans canceled.

now they're forced into the exchanges where they're forced to buy the plan at a much higher rate, and sometimes the plans are a lot crappier. martha: one of the crazy admissions is they don't know. oh, hello, welcome to obamacare, what is the reason that you're here, did you lose your former plan, did you not have a plan before? which is crazy to me. who recommended this restaurant to you, it's pretty easy, you know? you check off one of the three options. it just amazes me that the system doesn't tell them where these people came from. but, you know, juan, you're saying that, you know, everybody's finding health care, they're doing okay with it. ooh, the unions, not singing that tune. they are very unhappy. you know, the original thinking was that the unions were getting, you know, sort of concessions for their cadillac deals, that they were in the back pocket of this whole plan, that the president was going to make sure they're taken care of. they are not happy, and they are saying things like this. if the administration honestly thinks these proposed rules are

responsive to our concerns, they were not listening or simply didn't care. they say it's a sad irony if the signature legislative accomplishment of the administration has cut living standards for middle income work's and low-wage workers. they're mad. >> yeah. because, guess what? in the era that we live in, a declining number of union members this the country and very much stagnant wages, what unions have done is to argue and bargain for an increase in benefits. and among them health care, very general rouse health care plans. -- generous health care plans. and what you see under the president's plan is an effort to bring down health care spending. so it brings it down for employers, but it has the impact of lessening some of those benefits for union workers. so the unions are seeking concessions. you mentioned, martha, republicans on the hill said, hey, we don't see why you should be having carveouts for these unions, so the administration's caught between a rock and a hard place.

think unions are going to have to get use to it because obamacare will not work if you have all these concessions for unions. >> yeah. and you know what? i mean, the unions, to them i would say welcome to the club because now you have tens of millions of americans for whom obamacare is negatively impacting them this terms of loss of coverage, higher premiums, loss of access to their doctors. and now the unions who were the biggest cheerleaders for obamacare, i mean, the seiu, andy stern, richard trumka, the afl-cio, they were bragging that they were talking to the white house or to members of his staff every other day trying to push obamacare through. and now they are the biggest whiners because now reality has set in for them the way it has for every other american. martha: yeah. apparently, they're shocked they're being treated like everybody else. monica and juan, thank you very much. >> pleasure. good to talk to you both. bill: thank you, guys. he's the football player accused of bullying a teammate right off the team. relationship chi incognito is

telling fox news he's got the evidence that proves that he harassed no one. that's next. martha: and what poses the biggest threat to our country. the director of national intelligence, james clapper, is saying it's not who you think. >> terrorists and other adversaries of country are going to school on u.s. intelligence sources meds and trade craft, and the insights that they are gaining are making our job much, much harder. en you have diabetes like i do, getting the right nutrition isn't always easy. first, i want a way to help minimize my blood sugar spikes. then, a way to support heart health. ♪ and let's not forget immune support. ♪ but now i have new glucerna advance with three benefits in one. including carbsteady ultra to help minimize blood sugar spikes. it's the best from glucerna. [ male announcer ] new glucerna advance. from the brand doctors recommend most. advancing nutrition for diabetes. bulldog: oh boy!

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to the beach. bill: an nfl player publicly trying to tackle claims against him. offensive lineman richie incognito saying that text messages prove he did not harass his miami dolphins' teammate jonathan martin. charlie gasparino from the fox business network's been reporting on this throughout the day. >> right. wrote a fairly lengthy story -- bill: you did. i've got it right here. so come on and explain the first text message that incognito claims came from martin. here it is: it's insane, bro, it's just the culture around football and the locker room got to me a little. >> um, that a's one of the most tame e-mails that i saw. bill: that you've seen. >> i was given a packet of text messages, e-mails between richie incognito and jonathan martin that spanned the year and a half, two years that they played together in 2012 when martin was a rookie and half of 2013 before

they left. one of them left on their own, incognito was suspended. it's been defined so far, this story, as richie incognito bullying jonathan martin. that's what martin is essentially saying. he's gone public recently about this. if you look at these text messages, and i've done a lot of reporting on this, you know, jonathan martin gives as good as he gets. this is a family show. we're here in the morning, you know? this is something you have to read. i can't repeat the language that martin used -- bill: so just to be clear, what you're saying is based on the messages you've seen back and forth, they're equally offensive? is that how you -- >> i don't condone -- the n-word is something very bad, and richie incognito used that word in a conversation with jonathan martin, but if you read what jonathan martin said back to him in terms of -- these guys were playing with each other in a very nasty, vulgar way on e-mail, on text and in voice messages. bill: so i've read your piece, and it's clear incognito's

fighting for a job. he's trying to get back this the nfl. his lawyer told you this, the coarse and unacceptable comments and text messages that were sent to jonathan martin were of is same poor taste of those sent by him. the nfl investigation, that's ongoing, what they show is banter between friends, not bullying. >> right. we should point out that ted wells, who's a great lawyer, by way, he's been hired by the nfl to investigate the bullying claims. he got done with his interviews in november, sometime right around thanksgiving. you have to ask yourself why is it taking so long to come up with this report? bill: yeah, why? >> it's going to be made public after the super bowl. >> i believe because there's a lot more gray here than black and white, and we've talked to everybody involved. listen, i wasn't there. i wasn't in that homer room. but i could tell you -- locker room. but if you read these text messages, they're in the story, they paint a fairly different picture of bullying. they paint a picture of two using vulgar, coarse language with each other.

they show martin to be a very troubled guy when you start parsing through. i mean, he admits, it appears, that he's using, that he smokes pot. i mean, he admits in one of these e-mails that he's seeking mental counseling. bill: all that stuff could be made public. five seconds, does this change anything about the game? does it change anything about the league? >> um, i don't know. i will tell you this, this changes this story. richie incog knee know is -- incognito is now fighting back. he'd love to play this miami, but he wants to come back in 2014. bill: thank you, charlie. good reporting. martha? martha: brand new video of the long trek that many people in atlanta are now making to get back to the cars that they abandoned yesterday after two inches of snow and a thick coat of ice. plus, this -- [inaudible conversations] bill: it wasn't a quiet homecoming now, was it?

new trouble for justin bieber, this time in toronto. could it get him kicked out of our country? ♪ ♪

martha: road crews in atlanta are using four-wheel drive vehicles to take drivers back to the cars they abandoned on the road

during that snow and ice storm. earlier today on "america's newsroom," governor nathan deal blamed the situation, he said it was all about bad timing, explaining road conditions deteriorated very quickly. >> the real snow started about noon and a little after that. at about 12:15 our signals on our interstates was that all the roads were green, that is they were free and ready to move. within about 15 minutes, it had gone to almost completely red. so the congestion on our interstates occurred within a very short period of time. martha: he and others are getting a lot of heat for the way this whole thing was handled. there's a live shot in atlanta. people just walked out of those cars and walked home from them, and now there are some vehicles that are trying to help them go back and retrieve their cars. they say they're going to have fuel available for the vehicles that ran out of gas out there because they were there for hours and hours going two miles. they've already created a database to help you locate your vehicle if it was towed.

whoa, what a bad week for them. bill: it's one thing when you hear about it, right? it's another hinge when you see all those -- thing when you see all those cars on the highway. a new security warning from america's top spy saying the biggest threat to the u.s. is not al-qaeda, but rather, security leaks that provide sensitive information to our enemies. listen. >> terrorists and other adversaries of this country are going to school on u.s. intelligence sources' meds and trade craft and the insights they are getting are making our job much, much harder. and this includes putting the lives of members or assets of the intelligence community at risk as well as our armed forces, diplomats and our citizens. bill: jon bolton, fox news contributor, back here in balmy new york city. good morning, sir. >> morning. bill: i tell you, i think it's going to surprise a lot of people. what do you think he's trying to tell us about these leaks? >> i think he's highlighting that the severe damage that the

leaks from edward snowden and bradley manning have done to the united states. but it's hardly inaccurate to say it's our own fail, it still is our external adversaries. but i quite agree. the damage that edward snowden has caused is incalculable. bill: really? more than all this nsa stuff, or is it all kind of lumped into the same pile? >> well, you know, the allegations about nsa spying on american citizens are way overblown, exaggerated. politicians are taking advantage of it. the nsa can't defend itself effectively because it can't say what it does. that tells our opposition the same thing. and i think what clapper's trying to say is we really need to focus on correcting these inefficiencies that allow edward snowden to reveal all the information he has. bill: just make it basic for people, what have the leaks done to our ability to protect ourselves or national security? >> well, they revealed a huge amount of the way we conduct

intelligence, the users and methods is the buzz phrase that's used. and the reason that's important is that our adversaries learning about our techniques can make protections against our being able to exploit their vulnerability. so it means a reduction of the intelligence that we will gather in the future. and that's why i think snowden has caused such damage and why anybody who says he's a whistleblower doesn't understand. bill: so the threat about al-qaeda now. obviously, this came up. how can it not? what he seemed to be saying is that the threat to americans here at omahas not changed. -- home has not changed. but over the last ten years the threat from al-qaeda in other parts of the world is the same today as it has been, say, over the past decade. and that is dramatically different from a 2008 and 2012 campaign when the president said al-qaeda's on the run. how do you square this? >> well, you can't square it. clapper's statement yesterday, i thought, was stunning. because be it is, as you

indicate, a flat contradiction of the obama campaigns of 2012 and 2008. i think clapper's assessment is accurate. i think it's a different form of al-qaeda, but it's metastasized, and its threat is growing worldwide as is the threat of other terrorist organizations. bill: our inaction in syria came to light as well. and the suggestion is that the al-qaeda fighters are in syria. they're crossing the border into iraq and back, and they've got a free area to train, to roam and eventually cause damage. do you agree with that? >> i think that's right. i think this is a result of a poor strategy in iraq among other things, our being absent there means that there is sectarian civil war in iraq. it means the cross-border cooperation between al-qaeda in iraq and al-qaeda in syria is possible. and i think it's a major contributing factor to a middle east that's on the search of spinning completely into chaos. bill: and when you hear about the fact that al-qaeda's been

splintered, etc. -- >> al-qaeda was never -- bill: now we're hearing that they've kind of broken up into five different groups and still are as effective as they once were. >> al-qaeda's always been a loosely-affiliated group of terrorists. and what we're seeing is that that loose affiliation continues even as the so-called core al-qaeda in waziristan has been reduced. but the effectiveness of al-qaeda country by country, i i think, has grown all over north africa and the middle east. bill: al-qaeda no less a threat than a decade ago, that's from james clapper yesterday. >> this is a stunning statement by clapper, very important. bill: thank you, mr. ambassador. john bolton. martha: now to something completely different, police picking up justin bieber for the second time in one week, and now as an effort to have to have the canadian crooner deported, catching the attention of the white house now. bill: also a tumbleweed invasion in the southwest. take you to a town where they're

taking over as far as the eye can see. >> tumblewields are right up against their doors, and oh, my, it had to have been about eight feet tall. i mean, it was high. oh!

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♪ ♪ bill: you know what day it is, right? martha: what day is it? bill: rollback thursday. 81 years ago today the lone ranger debuted on the radio, and soon families across the country gathered in their living rooms to listen to the adventures of the masked man. success on radio spawned a tv show, and that starred clayton moore as the famous texas ranger. but the iconic character struggled to make an impact in films. there was a somewhat forgettable adaptation in 1981, and then last summer disney's big budget

flick failed to make a lot of money at the box office. 81 years ago today. martha: simpler time when people sat around the radio listening to the lone ranger. bill: it was good then. martha: good one. i liked that one. he's been arrested again, that's twice in one week for the biebs. he's been slogging through a swarm of paparazzi and fans. how did all those people know he was about to get arrested? gee, i wonder. an alleged altercation with a limo driver happened back in december. this arrest just one week after the police in miami picked him up for dui and assorted other things. meantime, a petition to have him deported from the united states topped 100,000 signatures, and that means that officially the white house must sort of pay attention to it. they have to consider that as a possibility. so let's bring in our legal experts and find out what's going to happen to justin bieber. arkansas thur aidala is a fox

news legal analyst, brian claypool is a criminal defense attorney. so, brian, let's start with you. how do you defend the biebs? >> well, the good news here, martha, is we do have a criminal justice system. and in justin bieber's situation, he turns 18, he's getting into loads of trouble. he's not listening to his parents, he's not listening to his friends. but criminal justice system is like a surrogate parent here, and he is going to have to listen. he's going to have to answer to these charges and these crimes, and it may ultimately take him serving some jail time to get him to turn his life around. i mean, right now it's like a little bonfire trouble for him. he's not going to be convicted of a felony, but unless he gets this under control quick, this could turn into a raging inferno and go completely out of control. martha: so far, arthur, i mean, they've sort of patted him and said go on your merry way. does this look for serious in

terms of the charges that have leveled against him? >> it's not really the charges, martha, it's more the multiple events. this is exactly what i do, seriously, day in and day out. this is what i do. martha: you defend justin bieber? >> i defend people like justin bieber. i defend people who are 18, 19, 20-year-olds, and they have parents behind them, and what i do is i sit them down and say, listen, you're on an express train to the wrong direction. so here's what we're going to do. i'll be able to keep you out of jail, i may be able to keep you from having a criminal record, but i can only help you if you want to help yourself. so your wanters aren't police tinning you, so you're -- parents aren't disciplining you, so you've got to go to a life therapy counselor, and if you don't pay attention, then i'm stepping back, i'm giving your parents their money back, and you go with whatever attorney you want who's going to watch you let your life spiral out of control. martha: all right. so you're both telling me this

is more in the l psychological, behavioral realm than it is in the realm of anything very serious this terms of possible felony charges that he could be put away for, is that >> >> that's true, martha, but here's another important point. even though these are all misdemeanors, the charges in florida -- martha: the egg throwing and the drag racing just to remind everybody what we're talking about here, he is accused of vandalizing somebody's home to the tune of $20,000 with an egg-throwing incident. the one in toronto that he just got brought in for last night is being accused of hitting a limo driver on the back of the head to the point where the guy called police and said i'm not driving this car anymore, you guys have to check this situation out. and then there was some other stuff that happened in california. go ahead, brian. >> right. and the charge, martha, in toronto's a summary of fact, about tantamount to a misdemeanor. even if he cops a no-contest plea and he doesn't serve jail time on any of these charges, he will be subject to terms of

probation that are going to be very restrictive for his behavior. martha: yeah. we've seen how that works out with lindsay lohan. that is so strict, nobody gets to go out and party -- [laughter] >> we're talking california. in california their prouation system seems to be a little wit more lax than other parts of the country. martha: you know what? i can't let you go without asking one other question about the white house and this petition. 100,000 people have signed this saying he these to be deported. arthur, big deal? >> no, it just shows his popularity because that petition got 100,000 signatures pretty quickly which just moons, you know, he's a force to be reckoned with. martha, i'm really afraid for the kid, i really am. i see kids like him, it doesn't seem like he's heavily into drugs, but the lamborghini, it doesn't take much to wrap that around a pole and die. one of these kids is going to have a gun who he hangs out with, and then he's just going to be another headline and sad story we'll be covering.

martha: it sounds like he's hanging around with some folks he shouldn't be, and once you're the big moneymaker for your family, it's pretty tough for you to say, okay, mom, you know, i'll start to behave myself. it gets very complicated in terms of the family dynamic. thank you, brian, thank you, arthur. good to see you both. bill: looking forward to that white house response, huh? that'll be clever. jenna lee's standing by, "happening now" in 12 minutes. what's interesting? jenna: it will be interesting. well, we have new polling with insight into the 2016 presidential race, plus new strategizing from the grand old party on the midterm elections as democrats try to come up with a strategy over obamacare, so a lot of great politics for you. also updates on the shutdown of atlanta, and embattled toronto mayor rob ford back in the news for a brand new reason. a possible amanda knox retrial verdict during our show today, and, bill, i don't know if you watch ufc, but i'm a big fan. bill: you are? jenna: and the all-american, chris weimann, is here. he's a top fighter, and he's

going to tell us what it's like to be number one. bill: and he's tough. jenna: he holdings that american flag -- he holds that american flag, you'd be a fan too. bill: with a growing number of veterans leaving us, national cemeteries are running out of room. a new push to find a final resting place for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. >> one of the benefits is to be buried with dignity. all veterans are entitled to that. and, again, i think they should have that opportunity, not be a victim of where they live.

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martha: you don't see this every day, massive tumbleweeds taking over a town in new mexico. look at this. burying homes and blocking the streets. we're told folks in clovis have dubbed it the invasion of 2014. public works employees say that the high winds blew thousands of

the weeds in sunday night, and it's expected to be weeks before they can get them out of there. like atlanta, tumbleweeds. bill: they've put their lives on the line for our country, but if something is not done soon, veterans may be faying for their own -- paying for their own final resting place. national cemeteries are running out of room. will carr's on that story live at los angeles national cemetery. will, good morning. >> reporter: well, right now if you're a veteran in nevada or utah, you may have to come to california or another neighboring state to be buried in a national cemetery like this. but one congresswoman says it's time for that to change. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: what does a national cemetery mean to a veteran? just ask jack ford, a navy vet who served for nearly 25 years. >> unless you've experienced it, it's hard to describe. it's a place where you are with

your fellow, your come raids. >> reporter: ford is run of more than 300,000 veterans living in nevada, but the popular retirement state current are hi one of eleven without a national cemetery. last year alone almost 125,000 veterans were laid to rest in national cemeteries. one big reason congresswoman dena titus has introduced a bill pushing the va to build new cemeteries in states that don't have them. >> one of benefits is to be buried with dignity. all veterans are entitled to cha and, again, i think they should have that opportunity, not be a victim of where they live. >> reporter: nevada had two state-run cemeteries that received federal funding including one in boulder city that recently expanded. >> i think we can handle the veteran population that's here. in the 24 years the cemetery's been here, obviously, we've seen a steady increase of the population of southern nevada. >> reporter: but for ford, there's only one place for a proper burial. >> as veterans, we served our nation, and i think it's only

reasonable that we have a national cemetery that we can be laid to rest in. >> reporter: we received a statement from the va which in part reads: the va's national cemetery administration is in the midst of the largest expansion since the civil war. it has made major progress towards achieving its strategic goal of providing an honored veterans' burial to 96% of the veteran population within 75 miles of where they live. the va also plans five new cemeteries in the very new future, but those=1( ♪

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martha: well he can't seem to stay out of the headlines and always seems to be for the wrong reasons. toronto mayor rob ford, there he is dancing to some reggae music. we love rob ford, don't we? this time it is his family. the brother law accusing the mayor i don't remember, take a break from the crack-smoking mayor, that the whole incident left him badly injured. explosive claim in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. the mayor denies this as well. just another drop in the bucket. there are so many baseless al probations out there. look at him he is harmless. one love. bill: toronto is the heart beat. rob ford and justin bieber in the same town. how will they manage that? martha: big enough for e for the two of them? we'll find out. see you tonight on greta. 7:00, "on the record." see you at 1:00. "happening now" starts right

now. bye-bye. jenna: right now, today's top headlines and brand new stories you will see here first. jon: new charges for a 15-year-old already accused of murdering his math teacher. why he is back in court today. plus a high-speed chase caught on camera. wait until you hear who was behind the wheel this time. and u.s. middleweight champion, all american chris wedman. just beat his adversary for the second time. he joins us and it is all "happening now." jenna: "happening now," we start with a little politics today. hillary clinton has taken one of the largest leads ever in a early primary matchup. according to at least one new pole, we have a few to look at. great to see you, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. "the washington post" poll shows the former secretary of state