>> steve: we're going to do the grand daddies of blog shows, on the after the show show coming up on-line. everybody! the news is breaking in arizona, a shooting on look air force base west of phoenix, a spokesman for the base saying two people ran a car through a gate and a live picture now of that car, we're told an air force guard told the men to stop, they drove through that warning, then the guard opened fire. now, one of the suspects is dead, another injured. more on this developing story when an officer with the police department investigating the incident joins us live here for that. in the meantime, a high order for the high court, the supreme court taking up a controversial case that could redefine the term support for terrorism. one of our main stories this morning. good morning, everybody, that's where we start on a busy tuesday here in "america's newsroom", i'm bill hemmer. martha: starting off the news day, i'm martha

maccallum. the highest court will appear an argument about whether the terror law is constitutional, bill. bill: the law makes it illegal to provide support to terror groups. now that's being challenged by many that say it violates the right to free speech, this as a u.s. attorney general late yesterday had this to say about the arrest of this man you see here, najibullah zazi, arrested for allegedly breaking the law that is being challenged today. hears holder. >> our federal civilian criminal system has the ability to incapacitate terrorists, hoos the -- has the ability to gain intelligence from those terrorist s, and is a valuable tool in our fight against terrorism. it doesn't mean it is the only tool that we should use. but we have to couple it with what we do on the military side, what we do on the intelligence gathering side, but to take this tool out of our hands, to denigrate the use of this tool, flies in the face of the facts, flies in the face of the history of the use of

this tool and is more about politics than facts. bill: some of those tools may be going away, and shannon bream is live at the supreme court with more. what is at stake before the justices today, shannon? good morning. >> reporter: good morning, bill. basically it boils down to a showdown between the first amendment and issue of national security and protecting us against terror groups and organizations. you know, there's a law that says you can't render material aid to some groups that the u.s. government has deemed a terror organization. that seems to make sense to a lot of people, but there are groups who are challenging this, saying listen, it's too vague, what if i want to give to the charitable arm of hamas or another organization that has medical or educational outreach, those kinds of things, i want to be able to do that and give to the good side of the organization and not get in trouble and criminally prosecuted for not giving to the bad side. one of the groups supporting that is aiming for this constitutional project, talking about the importance to exercise that right. >> i don't know if many

recognize how important that is to us in our daily lives and drawing these lines and carving out this balance can be difficult. >> reporter: and she's among those who say hey, listen, we want to be able to render medical aid and do other things but we can't because we're afraid of what will happen under this law if we do. it is a thing to carve out and that's what the justices will decide today. bill: how is this law being disputed, how is it working so far? >> in the wake of 9/11 it's been used quite a bit, 150 people have been charged with rendering support to hamas and those kinds of thing. it is one tool folks say in the fight against the war on terror and they say money is fungible, you can't say you're going to give it to the good side of the organization and be sure it's not going to wind up funding bombs or nefarious activities. we talked to the league that says they are in favor of holding this. here's what deborah lautner told us about how the american public views this fight. >> i think all americans

know one basic thing, terrorism is bad, and that any support for terrorism must be fought. we can fight terrorism on all kinds of levels. we have our troops abroad fighting for us on that level, we can tight in other -- fight in other ways >> reporter: and they see that as a tool in that fight. the obama administration is weighing in, saying we're not trying to take away any political speech but drawing the lines about speaking freely about these groups and aiding with support. bill: shanon, thanks for that, keep us posted when things move at the high court. in the meantime we mentioned eric holder there. yesterday, late yesterday, he said this planned and plotted attack against new york city's subway systems was the most serious attack aimed at new york since the attack of 9/11. after he said that, he made the comment we -- we just played, arguing about civilian courts in cases of terrorism. we're going to talk about

what najibullah zazi has given authorities. martha: here's another big story, former vice president dick cheney checked into george washington hospital yesterday after experiencing chest pains. we're getting updates on his condition and will bring those to you shortly. a spokesman for the cheney family says he is resting comfortably and his doctors are evaluating the situation. the former vice president as you know has had a history of heart problems. he had four heart attacks, the first one when he was only 37 years old. and boy, they didn't hold him back in his life. after that, he has had four of these heart situations and you know, heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women in this country. in a couple of minutes we're going to talk about not only vice president cheney's situation but also what you need to know about this disease with dr. manny alvarez. bill: in the meantime martha, back in washington a big day for the nation's economy. will this idea work? the senate meeting at the top of the hour to take up the jobs bill among other

tells. this is the new massachusetts senator scott brown and four republican colleagues, voted with democrats late yesterday to move that bill forward. it's a $15 billion measure, would give a tax break to businesses that hire unemployed workers, a big debate as to whether the 15 billion makes any difference in a -- and a $1000 tax credit if new workers stay on the job for a full year. we'll watch that as we move to the hill today. martha: back to the top story about the curious shooting, at an air force base in arizona. that is all happening late last night. this is the location. look air force base, happened late last night when two people ran a car through a gate at this air force base. the security officer confronted the two people, tried to get them to stop the car. when they didn't stop the car, he opened fire on them. one of the men was killed in the car, the other was injured. it appears, and of course, this instantly raises questions of whether or not this was some sort of terrorist event -- it appears, though, and it's early in the investigation,

that it's an isolated incident, at least as far as we know now. investigators do not suspect terrorism so far in this case. you can see all of the news trucks lined up, this has developed into quite a story, air force base captain jerry gonzales updated reporters on this moments ago. let's take a listen. >> at approximately 7:00, two alleged car thieves can into -- ran through the base, you know, they weren't authorized to there be and once they came inside they were confronted by security forces. once there, we set up a road block to try to stop them, and basically they charged the road block and our forces opened fire on them. martha: boy, you know, every time anything like this happens, you think about fort hood and you can imagine how high tensions run at these security gates at all of these bases as we try to keep our men and women who are protecting our country safe where they are, as they're doing their training but boy, look at that vehicle. bill fort hood comes to mind, also the case of the

military base outside of south carolina, going back a year and a half, two, perhaps this is two guys out late at night up to no good, taking a car and making a run for it, or it could be more nefarious, at this point, we don't know but we're working with folks in arizona and we'll let you know as soon as we do. president obama, heading into a high stakes health care summit without a final price tag on his new proposal from the white house. our next guest, stephen moore, has three issues with this and is up in only minutes. martha: this is what we call a very sick cruise ship, folks. they were supposed to be having the time of their lives, but guess again. not on this tour.

martha: a mysterious virus breaking out on a cruise ship in the carribean, at least 300 people are sick with stomach pains and vomiting and diarrhea. my goodness. according to the folks at the mercury celebrity cruises, the ship left south

carolina with about 1800 probably very happy people on that ship, they made four stops, and then all of the sudden, people started going i don't feel so well, okay? so the medical facilities became so overwhelmed on the ship that they had to stop in saint kitz -- saint kitts in the british isles. they say they're trying to figure out where this came from, bill. bill: must be the sushi. martha: might be the -- you know, it's the air conditioner, the waters, we've seen all kinds of things. not so much fun, after spending all that money, right? bill: sick in the sun. the the white house has put the health care bill forward, and it's $100 billion over ten years, which sounds great, only there is this, the people who tells us how much it costs once the law is implemented say they have no idea if this is the case because they don't have the

details from the white house. stephen moore, how are you, stephen? >> great, thank you. bill: now he has the book, prosperity, and the rush -- the return to prosperity. you have three issues, the economic destimulus bill and so far, what you can tell about what's been made public, what's the issue? >> the issue is the president is trying to advance this economic stimulus plan to create jobs which includes a lot of tax cuts for small businesses but guess who pays the price tag for this huge trillion dollars health care bill? all these new taxes on small businesses, the same businesses that are supposed to get tax cuts and the -- in the jobs stimulus bill. so i think when you look at who's going to pay the cost of this bill, it's pretty clear it's the employers in this country and if they're paying a higher tax, they're not going to hire as many workers. bill: that's one issue you have, the other is this is bipartisan, right? how many republican ideas were incorporated in what the white house has put forward? >> bill, meet the new health care bill, same as the old

health care bill. as i look at this bill and i have read through the 12-15 page document the white house put out, all of the ideas are just rehashed ideas that were in the house and senate bill. when i talked to republicans about this yesterday, they said wait a minute, where is the medical malpractice reform, where is the ability to buy health insurance across state lines, things that republicans have been agitated about. there's none of that in that and that doesn't set up a good bipartisan summit in a couple of days. bill: which is thursday. i mentioned the cbo and the lead-in, here's what the cbo is saying, they need more information, frankly. cbo cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail, and even if such detail were provided, analyzing the proposal would be a time consuming process that could not be completed this week. now, the cbo is the branch of the government that tells us how much it will cost if signed into law. the "wall street journal" tagged it at $950 billion, just under a trillion dollars.

is that the best guess we have now? >> based on past estimates they've made of all the components of this bill, we think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars over ten years. that's a big number. a trillion dollars is a million, million dollars, so we're talking about a massive increase in government spending and the question you're asking, bill, is where is the money going to come from to pay for it. we know some is going to come from small businesses, some of it is going to come from the taxes on insurance programs. by the way i hope you don't go to tanning salons because those get hammered with new tax. martha: we got to cut back! bill: more makeup. also -- >> also, cats and dogs but my guess is this is a decifit increase and if that's the case it breaks one of the president's fundamental promises on this, which is the bill will not increase the decifit. as i read the numbers, it looks like it's a couple hundred billion dollars short of paying for itself. bill: what you're suggesting is -- suggesting is the

promise not to raise taxes on somebody under $250,000 a year, that could be violated if it goes forward. is he doing this to advance the issue of health care or is the political equation wrapped up in this move on thursday, meaning on the house side at least, it doesn't appear, even if you get all the democrats together, that you have enough votes to get it passed, anyway. >> you know, i was shocked by this bill, quite frankly. i thought there would be some olive branches to the republicans, after all, we're in this new era of bipartisanship, right, the president saying he's reaching out to republicans, to the house and senate but there's nothing new, there's nothing republicans like in it. so i don't think it's a very good -- >> bill: i know you're on the economic side but confronted this, across the television networks, this is going to be broadcast at night, there's a lot of talk about this, you could say the white house might think we tried. we tried. >> but my point is what's in this bill that he presented that differed from what he presented six months ago or a year ago?

nothing. and that's the point. i think a lot of republicans were thinking the -- taking the president at good face, he wants to make a bipartisan effort, my point is there's nothing bipartisan that republicans will take a close look at. it's rehashed. rehashed. bill: the devil is in the details and we do not know the de -- the details. that's why we brought you in, stephen, we'll see what happens thursday. stephen moore from the "wall street journal". thank you sir. >> thank you. martha: this was a story that made huge headlines when it happened, all the way back in 2002 and we are waiting for the sentencing right now of that man, jason williams, a former nba superstar had an extremely bad night at his home back in 2002 that turned out even worse, in fact it was deadly for the hired driver that night, he was costas christofi, who got shot in the death. williams pleaded guilty last

month of aggravated assault in the death of that driver. he said that he snapped the shotgun shut in his bedroom, they were having a party in the after-hours party at his house and it went off and fired and hit mr. christofi and it killed. it's been a devastating case and has taken years for this to come. eighteen months is what they expect he's going to get in prison. we're awaiting as we find out exactly what happened after all these years. bill: also new details on a shocking report dealing with the attorney general, eric holder and high ranking justice department officials, why one lawmaker says holder has a big problem on his hands. we'll get to that next.

bill: in dallas, snow is falling, texas facing its second winter storm already, up to 90 flights are canceled to dallas-fort worth and the area under a winter weather advisory throughout the day, an inch of snow expected. dallas, within 2 inches now of setting a record for snowfall this winter. more than 15 inches, already falling north of dallas in the northern part of texas. martha: get that man a snow scraper! he's doing it with his bare hands. here's a question this morning that is being talked about, is there a conflict of interest for several lawyers who work at the justice department, senator charles grassley is raising that question to eric holder after reports that a high ranking justice official once represented osama bin

laden's driver. all right, so grassley asked this question, it took three-months for him to get an answer from attorney general eric holder, who responded and said yes, we went through our records and it turns out that at least, note at phrase at least, nine justice department officials, nine, have in the past in their legal careers represented terror detainees, and that they now are able to work on those detainee issues. air --, eric holder feels without any conflicts. byron york has been reporting on this. we've seen your reports for the past couple of days, who is chief political correspondent for the washington examiner. you lack at this story, nine, at least nine, according to eric holder, people in his department in the past have represented terror detainees in their work as attorneys. they now work for the justice department, where they will be trying to prosecute terror detainees. but many people look at that and say, you know, a lawyer

can represent people from either side. that is their job, to be fair in the way that they represent their clients. >> well, republicans have a couple of answers to that. one is that this is not the same as for example a lawyer who represented corporations and going into the justice department and doing stuff related to big business. national security, life and death, attacks on the united states are a separate category and the other thing is look, there are lawyers who specialize in representing organized crime figures which is fine, because mafia dons are entitled to legal representation, too, but should the justice department then take those lawyers and make them the staff of the organized crime division. and if they do, should we know about it. the big question is eric holder did not answer for senator grassley, he said there were nine, at least nine, who had represented terrorist detainees, but grassley asked who are they, which detainees did they represent and what are they now doing in the justice department and holder did not answer those questions. martha: and that's sort of

the rub here. i mean, the impression that is given in your story, byron, is that the attorney general kind of bristled that he was even being asked about this, sort of how dare senator grassley inquire about my staff. what about that? i mean, don't the american people have the right to know who they're paying and what that person is doing? >> well, certainly republicans felt there was a sense of dismissiveness in the letter and it actually goes back to november. this whole thing started at a hearing with the senate judiciary committee last november, they were talking about guantanamo and detainees and grassley brings this up and eric holder blew him off, said i might think about it, then later in the hearing, he said well, i will look into it, i have concerns about the privacy of these lawyers, but it seems there is little doubt that the senate has a right to know who is working on detainees, and which detainees they represented in the past. it may be that they have recused themselves, that is they're not taking part in anything involving any of these detainees, on the

other hand, holder has said that they are all entitled to work on general detainee issues. martha: so where does this stand now? i mean, eric holder certainly has a whole lot on his plate recently and the last thing he needs is one more issue to deal with right now. is this going anywhere, or is charles grassley kind of the lone person speaking in the woods about this? >> well, grassley actually wrote a letter after that hearing and he was joined by all of the other republican members of the judiciary committee, so if it were up to republicans, eric holder would be up in a hearing, you know, testifying about this, but the fact is democrats are the majority in the senate and they control the judiciary committee and they've not shown an inclination to press the attorney general to answer the question fully. martha: interesting report. byron york, as always, good to have you, thank you very much. >> thank you martha. bill: in a moment, scott brown was elected to the senate promising to stump for health care, but the first vote went the

democrats' way. now brown is explaining why he voted the way he did. we'll have that for you. martha: 25 -- this might be my favorite story of the day, $25 million from your tax dollars went for that airport scanners which, as you remember, the president said we had to get into our air force after the christmas eve -- airports after the christmas eve bomb ing attempt, but they were ordered, paid for by the u.s. government, taxpayers, of course. and they are not even out of the boxes yet. why would that be? after this.

bill: 9:30 in new york, and as we mentioned at the top of the hour, former vice president dick cheney in the hospital again this morning after experiencing chest pains, he's at george washington university in the nation's capitol, no word yet today on when the former vp will be released but we're told doctors are evaluating this case and this is far from the first heart problem. heart disease affects hundreds of thousands of people every year, it's the leading cause of death for both men and women. every 34 seconds an american will suffer a heart attack. wow. and every minute, someone will die from won. this year, heart disease will cost the united states more than $316 billion. dr. manny alvarez, member of the medical a team here with us now in the studio, doc, good morning to you. >> good morning. bill about the important thing is dick cheney, he knows and has said publicly, man, if i feel a little bit

of discomfort, i'm going to the hospital and i'm going to get checked out. >> you know, he's very knowledgable, he's been dealing with heart disease since the late 30s and at the age of 37 is when he started having difficulty. very well versed in recognizing the signs and symptoms of chest pains and disoft, and you know, he goes to the hospital right away. this is not the first time. which tells you that if you're able to recognize some of the signs and symptoms, whether you have shortness of breath, whether you have pressure in your chest, difficulty just getting around, any of those signs, it's far better to get to the hospital right away, get checked out and if there's nothing going on, great, but if there's something going on, you'll be there for them to do the right. bill: a sense of mind or sense of heart, so to speak. we're awaiting updates from kelly. there has not been one yet. we hope the vice president is sleeping at this point. >> one of the things that happens when you go to the hospital with chest pain, you get an ango gram, there

are reports maybe he got one last night, but this is a cath they are that they use, placed through one of the main portals, the arteries and this goes all the way down to the heart and the doctors basically are able to locate a collusion in the coronary arteries and if needed, president clinton, of course, had a stent put in a couple of weeks ago, this is the stent, it's tiny, but it tells you the mechanicses that a lot of the doctors have today and are able to then open some of the pathways and bring blood flow to the heart, of course to prevent permanent heart disease. bill pill this is amazing how many -- bill: this is amazing how many lives this piece of steel has saved. >> absolutely. it comes in different sizes, some have embedded medication and -- medication and it lasts a long time. early signs, recognize them and go to the hospital. bill: chest discomfort, as you mentioned, especially in the upper areas of the body, shortness of breath, these are obvious signs. manny, if -- and if you want

to know more, go to fox news, and we have everything you need to know about heart disease. bill: i like it, this stent, made of steel. a man of steel. thank you manny. >> you got it. martha: well, the latest on the stimulus bill out there right now, the one discussed, is president obama's $15 billion brand new jobs bill. now, the new senator from massachusetts, scott brown, shocked a lot of people yesterday when he voted yes for this jobs bill. talked a lot about fiscal responsibility when he was running up in massachusetts, but remember he is a senator from massachusetts. and he was not alone in breaking ranks there, five republicans broke ranks to support this measure, olympia snowe, collins, voinovich. and kit bond. scott brown said i will vote for it paw it helps put

people back to work. rick santorum is a fox news contributor, and maria, welcome, let me go 20 u -- and were you disappointed in the senator's vote? >> no, the principal objection that republicans had on this bill was it didn't allow republicans to offer an amendment, that we wanted to bring a bill to the floor and have republican ideas be put forward. you know, i don't think a member from massachusetts can get you and say look, i didn't vote for it, not because i don't like what's in it because he obviously did like it and most republicans liked what was in it, but because -- martha: what did they like about it? you go back to it, we still haven't spent at least one third of the other stimulus bill, i think americans go what about that money, why can't you use that for a jobs bill, why do we need a new one? >> this was incentives for the private sector, incentives for construction projects, which is something kit bond voted for, because it had more infrastructure spending. these are things that

generally speaking republicans support and actually believe that are better stimuluses than what was put in the original bill. so again, it wasn't against the specific provisions, it's just that we wanted our bite at the apple to do some of the things we wanted to do and scott brown can't go back and say i wanted more or i wanted republicans to have a chance. i think he did the right thing. martha: maria, what do you think about all this, are you encouraged by these five republicans who voted for this bill? >> absolutely. i think what it shows is that when legislators on both sides of the aisle, the republicans and democrats, really put their heads together and focus on trying to get things done for american voters on what they want most right now, which is jobs, it can be done. i think it was a very smart vote for scott brown, especially being from massachusetts, and he said it's not the end, it's the beginning, and frankly, that's what senator reid has said and that's what a lot of democrats think as well, there needs to be much more, and there will be much more. and i think it's very encouraging. martha: i don't want to belabor this because i want to move to health care and the president but i think a

lot of americans, maria, say we don't have this money to spend in the first place and we still haven't spent the stimulus, so if this is a better way to spend the money, why not convert what's in the stimulus bill, which most people don't like to begin with, instead of coming up with another $15 billion that we just don't have? >> well, i think what the reality is that, you know, even though a lot of republicans say they don't like the stimulus bill, they're the first ones in line in their districts in the home states when you have the ribbon cuttings for the projects that are created by the stimulus bill. at the local level you are seeing the stimulus bill. americans are seeing that. martha: that may be why you see a lot of those same republicans and democrats showing the weighing to -- shown the way to the door perhaps in november, because people are outraged about a lot of the spending. let's talk about another issue, and that is health care and this health care summit coming up on thursday, and it's raised a lot of questions about why the president has decided, you know, politically, why

has the president decided, rick santorum, that he must get something, and that he's willing to put some of this other stuff aside? they would say we're still working on it and indeed they are but they done the -- nonetheless is focusing on health can and wants this passed. why do you think that is? >> two reasons. they look at the polls and say the republicans are against what the democrats want to do, the independents are against it and the people for it are the base. the librate base is 20 -- liberal base is 20 percent of the electorate. they would be excited to pass a bill, so what he did was put together the worst of the house and senate plans, it's more regulation, more entitlements and subsidies to people who are in the middle class which of course will make it even more expensive over the long term. this is the worst of both but something the left will be more excited about. he's trying to energize his base, number one, and number two, he really does believe and the democrats believe if they are able to pass this thing, to shove it through

reconciliation and get it in base, they will change america, that america will be more dependent on government, we will never go back to the days of free markets. martha: maria, i was fascinated by this comment by jay rockefeller of virginia, and he was talking about coal when he said this, but what he said was about president dm, this well -- well-known sen to, he said he's beginning to not be believable to me. it raises the question, does the president want this badly right now to sort of reignite his credibility or believeility in jay rockefeller's words? >> i think most of all he wants it badly because he knows that american voters do have a health insurance crisis on their hands, and it is something that american voters want fixed. and if you look at the provisions in what is in the bill, there are 215 amendments that came from republicans in what the president is going to

present. the health care exchange is a republican idea, so no matter what republicans say, this was crafted with republicans at the table, and it actually does things to help americans in terms of safety and security, for those who have insurance, covering people who don't, and it bends the decifit curve. those are three positions that are popular with voters, and he's going to move forward with that. martha: got to go, maria, thank you very much. rick santorum, great to see you as well. we'll see what the american people think of this health care bill and whether or not they like it when it goes to them. thank you very much to both of you. bill: thursday is going to be a rocking day. martha: sure is. bill: acorn, new details on how the committee's organization might not be an organization anymore and harry reid has a whole new observation about men who are out of work. wow. we report, you decide. next.

martha: have you seen this today, senator majority leader harry reid makes a

novel pitch for the jobs bill, saying basically men who lose their jobs are more likely to be engaged in domestic violence? look at this. people end up with domestic abuse, it has gotten out of hand, why? men don't have jobs. women don't have jobs, either, but women aren't abusive, most of the time. men, when out of work, tend to become abusive. martha: he didn't say exactly where he got all that data, but reid went on to say the domestic cryis -- crisis shelters in nevada are, quote, jammed now, the senate voted to end debate on that $15 billion measure and move it to a final vote. i think that may be kind of offensive to a lot of people out of work. bill: you think? martha: who among us does not know men and women out of work and if i'm a man that lost my job, i'm thinking you're not talking about me, are you?

bill: i'm standing up for every man in this country that has lost their job and handled it with dignity and class, and they're trying to find a new way. come on, guys! fifteen minutes now before the hour. it's been called the most significant threat against new york since the attacks of 9/11, and it has been stopped. najibullah zazi pleading guilty for his role, targeting -- targeting the new york city subway system. he feds are reportedly threatening to bring immigration charges against his mom. eric stackelbach is with us, good morning to you. a couple of things we don't know, did he tell us everything, are there more guys connected to this plot? those two questions are on my mind today. >> mine, too. i believe there are other men out there. if you think back to september when this investigation broke and zazi was arrested, investigators said they were look at least

ten men, so obviously, there are some other suspects out there. are they in new york city, are they being monitored, are they in denver, where zazi purchased these explosive materials. we don't know. but i think now that zazi has cut a deal, i think you will see him come forward with more information about coconspirators in this case. if you think about it, bill, we have a real problem with american muslims, radicalized american muslims travel to go waziristan, to the safe havens, training with al-qaeda and returning to -- >> bill: boy, isn't that the biggest fear out there, you're an american citizen, you travel to of afghanistan or pakistan or somewhere, maybe yemen today and you hook up with this al-qaeda leadership or al-qaeda trainers and you get the training you need, because zazi apparently was taking notes when he was in pakistan, he was e-mailing himself, so that upon his return to denver, colorado, and new york city, he could act out, eric. >> bill, you know, lone

wolves are one problem, self-starters, but when you get a guy like zazi and his coconspirators that have had training in al-qaeda's high hierarchy in pakistan, that's a whole new level of danger. if you think back to christmastime, we had five young american muslims that right here in the washington, d.c. area, travel to pakistan, link up -- to link up with al-qaeda, wage jihad against american troops. what would have happened, the big question, if they would have taken that training, they would have been hardened jihadis and returned to u.s. soil. when you train for jihad overseas, i'm sorry, you're not going to come back to the u.s. and transition into a 9:00 to 5:00 job. the hunger for jihad doesn't leave you. bill: he could provide more information on the al-qaeda plots, and when eric holder yesterday said the most serious threat against new york city since 911, that perked up my ears, eric. that's the first time i've heard him talk about that,

directed related to that case. >> this shows you the seriousness of that plot, zazi plotted to blow up sub sway cars in new york city. think about the madrid bombings of 200 4-rbgs the london bombings in 2005. i think, bill, that this is the strategy al-qaeda is moving to here in america. of course they want to pull off another 9/11, of course they want to acquire weapons of mass destruction, but i think the more likely tact they're taking now is a more chipping away strategy, blow up some trains, have an underwear bomber take down a plane on christmas day. these are horrific attacks, absolutely, but they're not quite on the scale obviously of a 9/11, because we've done great intelligence work since 9/11, great law enforcement work, but we can't let up, obviously. bill: do you think the reason he turned is because of the threat against his own mother? >> that seems to be the case, bill. apparently his mother is facing immigration charges. also remember his dad was a part of this case, his father was arreested, and now charges have apparently been

reduced there. i think his dad cut a deal as well. so i think the family concerns were very big here and mr. zazi is 24 years old, he's got his whole life ahead of him, i'm sure he doesn't want to serve it in prison. >> thank you air o'clock. you want a question you want an answer to about anything on the news, some is not quite clear, e-mail hemmer at foxnews.com, because you asked, bya. martha. martha: we've got new information coming in now on that shooting at the military base in arizona, new details about what prompted security to open fire on two men inside that now demolished car. bill: kids from town get rowdy on the bus ride home but now one school district says it knows how to keep the kids quiet. martha: that's a little creepy.

bill: we have found this frantic rescue from a pond in massachusetts, the town of todden, police say a man fell to the ice while fishing and a young girl heard his cries, she was the one who called 911, fire crews using a hummercraft to rescue that man, a big operation, the victim was taken to a nearby hospital. we are awaiting word on his condition. martha: look at how much ice there is there. bill: a lot of it. ♪ silence is golden martha: can't tell you how i feel about this story. you know, the school bus can be a noisy place, that's kind of the way it's supposed to be.

sometimes things can get a little out of hand on a school bus, especially if billy hemmer is riding on it, but one school district in arizona thinks they've found the answer. wi-fi. okay? on the school bus. adam housely is live in bail, arizona. adam, talk to me about this, what's this all about? >> reporter: we find it on trains, ferries, you know, when you take a ferry across the san francisco bay, you have wi-fi. why not a school bus? it makes total sense, right? i can tell you on a personal relate i -- i relate on a personal level. as a kid we did a lot of reading, as you mentioned, we would get loud and the school bus driver would say no radio unless you guys quiet down. in vail, arizona they found a solution, not too expensive, either. most kids carry laptops, in fact the kids here are getting laptops that cost 5-$600, they figure that's the price of books for four

years, and because kids are riding buses sometimes two hours to and from school they put a wi-fi system on the bus, kids can do e-mail, home work, do a lot of work they would do, all on a school bus and they say it's been a success and they hope to have more of it. martha: the question is kids -- socialization is just nonexistent now, they communicate with each other all the time by internet. so here's one opportunity where they're actually on the bus, they can talk to each other, they can get to know each other, they can have a fight once in a while, have some physical interaction with each other and now they're not going to have it there, either. >> i mean, there's good and bad to this. on a school bus, martha, i don't know if you remember, they didn't want us to move around, it was not -- it was not that long ago, martha. martha: it was, believe me. >> reporter: they -- you couldn't jump around, no talking to kids behind. martha: discipline is not that bad. >> it's not, but this way, they can actually -- you see

the kids, they have laptops, they can do their home work, they can e-mail each other, all that fun stuff. martha: one -- one mom is not convinced. >> reporter: keeps them out of trouble. martha: that can be helpful. laptops are taking over children's lives. taking over their lives. bill: that would have kept me out of trouble. i was the one in the back, free shoes no the bus driver. that was good. there's a commuter train crash, it killed nine people, injured more than 80 others. it was the worst crash in d.c. metro system history. now the feds, holding a rare public hearing today to make sure it doesn't happen again in any american city. we're on that. martha: all right, here is a question for you folks. is acorn's shell cracking? months after an undercover video scandal rocked this controversial activist group, why are they deciding to shut down the big umbrella over acorn?

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austin, texas, along i-35, the traffic camera shows you a crane, where department of transportation officials were working on behalf of the state of texas, the crane collapsed and the man inside the crane is now trapped. said to be trapped in austin, texas, courtesy of ktvc and we're work the story, developing now in "america's newsroom" and more in a moment. in austin, texas. martha: good morning, we have been following a story, acorn, for some time, and, news today that it could be the beginning of the end for acorn, folks, the embattled community organizing group now says they'll dissolve their, quote, national base and federal funding for the group has now been pulled, as a result of all of the reporting and the videos like this one that surfaced from several branches of acorn and the workers there, were giving advice to a exposed pimp and prostitute, but that was just the beginning, folks and how to avoid federal tax laws, another thing they passed

along there, and, so that starts us off on a brand new hour now of "america's newsroom," welcome, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: and i'm bill hemmer. good morning, and state and local chapters of the group are doing all they can to stay afloat, distancing themselves from the defunct national acorn title. martha: many finding new names, so, they may be operating under a different name, as they ditch the acronym, the association of community organizations for reform now, what acorn stood for, and eric sean joins us live in new york city, eric, that raises a important question, and -- in all of this, is it just the acorn name that is going away and some of these in some cases, somewhat nefarious organization will still exist? eric: that is the question, martha. this morning is acorn roasted? it apparently changed its name and reorganized into local chapters, according to reports, still, they say, some of the same acorn officials, will be in charge of those local groups. for example, a new york city report says the local acorn

office will now be called the new york communities for change. and will no longer be officially associated with the national acorn group and the same move has been made in california as well as massachusetts, all in an apparent effort to distance their work from acorn's national troubles. and the debate about the capital research center has written extensively about acorn. >> keep the money flowing in order to could that, they figure they need to change the name, and change their image, and they are doing that, by reincorporating their state chapters under new names. eric: it comes after the explosive expo says, and multiple efforts in congress and elsewhere to cut acorn funding and the group is even under criminal indictment in nevada, for voter registration related charges and there will be a trial in las vegas in a couple of months there. martha: what is acorn saying about this todayed . >> a spokesperson is quoted as,

claiming the switch on, quote, a series of vicious right wing attacks, over the past year-and-a-half. and this has made it harder, he says, for acorn to raise funds and organize and serve its members, and interesting, acorn officials and their reaction, don't seem to put the blame on the action of their own workers and are now seemingly ignoring the continues various over now acorn conducted business, with various overlapping entities and the two congressional reports that come from california republican congressman darrell issa, and those reports brand acorn as a, quote, racketeering enterprise, and, issa even called acorn a, quote, criminal conspiracy. martha: we all remember, eric, watching those videotapes which really brought the issue to a head, a lot of people were watching acorn for quite some time and what is the impact in the end of those tapes and what they uncovered. eric: and, they say the tapes really blew it wide open and the controversial tapes made by conservative activist james

o'keefe, and they shocked the nation and in response, lawmaker voted to cut off acorn's funding and acorn denounced the filmmakers and their action and have taken action against employees, who were seen, some of them, seen on the tapes and acorn also tried to uses the tapes and, so keefe's notoriety, to actually raise money, and a recent acorn so elicitation, said we can help expose the corporate backed and it main street agenda behind o'keefe's moves and acorn asked, can you chip in $52? to help us keep the pressure on o'keefe and his corporate paymasters? no word on how much money acorn has raised, with that solicitation. martha: how they arrived at $50 for each person, eric sean, thank you very much, fine report. bill: and the u.s. jobs front a

january "gallup poll" finding 20% of our workforce say they are under employed and that means 30 million americans, are either jobless or only able to find part-time work. as a result, many folks are having trouble making ends meet, you know that, and gallup's numbers are higher than the official number and 16.5% of american workers are under employed as of last month, the month of january. martha: spiking about how much money everybody is making there is a new report that says that some wall street bonuses are up about 17%, over last year. that is according to the new york state controller and he says the bailed out financial sector paid out more than $20 billion in bonuses in 2009. and that overall compensation of the largest security firms, grew far beyond that figure. and that growth rate, is slightly skewed, though, because of the record losses from the year before. and this is a huge comparison over the tough year before and analysts say the bonuses, bring in a tremendous amount, of tax

revenue, once the money is sprinkled around in real estate, and restaurants and all of the other things that you can spend billions of dollars on. bill: washington, too. martha: indeed. but it is for many, a bitter pill for taxpayers to swallow when they hear the numbers. bill: and watching new developments on the hill today, top executives for toyota, coming face-to-face with the lawmakers today. the house committee expected a grill toyota on the sudden acceleration problem and how the japanese carmaker responded, to the concerns of american customers. senior correspondent brian wilson is on the hill, this morning, there. wonder how things can get any worse for toyota these days, brian? good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, it is hard to find a way it could be much worse for toyota now, 8.5 million cars are being recalled, production lines are shutting down, cars are stacking up, on the dealers' lieutenants, and they are taking a big financial hit, at the same time, toyota is facing not only a civil and a criminal investigation, but, today, in 2123 rayburn across the hall

from where i stand now begins the congressional probe. congress has very tough questions to ask, and have to ask questions about a memo that came out yesterday suggesting that toyota was celebrating the fact that it had negotiated a better deal with the government, when it came to early recalls, of toyota models. serious concerns, you will hear today from eddie and rhonda smith, of severeville, tin nasa, toyota customers who had a bad experience with their products and these are very tough times for toyota today. bill: what about the u.s. government agency, responsible for watching over the auto industry? how will that fare in this, brian? >> reporter: listen, that is the question that has not really been focused on a great deal. sure there are many questions about toyota, there are also questions about how the government has responded, how the government negotiates these kinds of recalls, with the automakers. i mean, there is -- these agencies, gnanhtsa is supposed

be a watchdog agency and some on capitol hill believe the watchdog had become a lap dog and had become too friendly with automakers, bill. bill: thanks for that and watch for us inside the hearing room and in 20 minutes, neil cavuto is with us in new york to tell us what it means in the end, thank you, brian, here's martha. martha: demanding answers on what ledded to a catastrophic train derailment, day one of federal hearings on the deadly d.c. metro collision, boy you remember this, what a tragic day it was in washington, d.c., nine people were lost in this accident including the engineer, killed when the train slammed into another train that stopped on the tracks and dozens of other passengers were hurt, and steve centanni joins us live from washington and what do we expect to learned to. >> reporter: the safety board is first looking into the cause of this horrendous train collision in june, as you said, nine people killed and dozens injured when one train rammed into the rear of another one, on this same track, in washington, d.c., and the first car of that train compressed on impact and was partly pushed up on top of the

other one. indications are the systems were keeping a safe separation between trains, but it was not operating properly and the panel wants to investigate why they compressed or telescoped on impact. >> the transit passenger rail car's ability to withstand the dynamic forces of an accident is essential to protecting passengers and crewmembers, and essential to increasing the survivability of an accident. >> reporter: that is one thing they'll be looking into on the first panel today is metro's general manager, john cado who announced he'll be retiring in april and there were 17 deaths in the past five years on d.c.'s metro rail system. martha? martha: thank you very much, steve centanni reporting from washington. bill: 10 minutes past the hour and the white house is ramping up the health care push, this week but a leading republican saying the deal, new deal is a nonstarter, is it the same bill, in new packaging? we'll talk to a democratic lawmaker about what he thinks about the idea.

martha: we sure will and what about this? look at this guy, does it looks like the face of a vicious dog? why the ten-year-old pooch is facing a criminal trial, bill! he looks nice enough. i don't know... howling ] [ male announcer ] it balances you... [ water crashing ] [ male announcer ] ...it fills you with energy... and it gives you what you're looking for to live a more natural life, in a convenient two bar pack. this is nature valley... delicious granola bars made with 100% natural ingredients. nature valley. 100% natural, 100% delicious.

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call the number on your screen. bill: the news is breaking in arizona, west of phoenix, police investigating a deadly incident, at luke air force base near glendale, arizona. a spokesman at that base saying that two men, drove through a security gate in the stolen car, and the security officer saying when he moved to confront them the suspects tried to run him over and opened fire on the vehicle and the car crashed, and one of then is dead theents injured. investigators are -- and the other injured and investigators don't believe it is tied to terrorism and they add the suspects might have been car thieves. more information as we get it.

martha: all right. we are into the count down to the high stakes health care summit, and that has begun, president obama unveiling his version of the health care bill, excuse me. health care bill, and, several republican lawmakers are already blasting this bill, and here's congressman eric cantor just from this morning. >> if we look at some of the details that are coming out, this bill is a nonstarter. i'm hoping the president will answer the question, why does he want to continue to push a bill that the american people have jeekted? and, will he join us, in a bipartisan way, to try and accomplish the things that most americans can support which is focusing on bringing down health care costs. martha: all right, now we have new york democrat eliot engel on the house energy and house subcommittee, congressman, welcome, good to have you here today. >> thank you, pleasure to be here. martha: did you hear the sound bite from eric cantor and is asking why the president is

pursuing is if it's not what most americans want. what do you say to that, sir. >> eric cantor is a friend of mine and i have respect for him but i think he is dead wrong here, 63% of the american people want comprehensive health care reform in the latest poll and the republicans should stop saying no and should roll up their sleeves and work with president obama in trying to craft what is hopefully a bipartisan health care bill. martha: do you think you will get -- you need 218 votes in the house, and there are real questions out there today, as to whether or not you can get 218, and they got just 220, with the last bill. >> well, you know, it's always a difficulty getting 218 votes, but, i think we can. look, the current system, the currents system we have for insurance, is not sustainable. premiums are going up, year after year after year. and i just saw a poll where they said that they thought premiums might rise, a third in the next couple of years. and the current system is not sustainable. we have to have a new system.

otherwise, the 47 million americans that have no insurance is going to swell to 50, 60, 80 and 100 and we need to stop that and... martha: no, i want to agree with you. when you say the 63% number, want comprehensive health care reform that is one thing, and i think that is something that most americans do agree on, they want to see change in the way health care works in this country. and the big question, though, is whether or not they want this bill that has, this huge tax on people who have decent medical plans, out there, the cadillac tax is something that is very controversial and also, a mandate is very controversial, people in this country don't necessarily want to be told you must have health care, the government commands you to. >> well, you know, what we have now, the current system, besides it being not sustainable, we have a situation where insurance companies deny you coverage, for so-called preexisting conditions, and if you lose your

job, or change your job, often you lose your health insurance and insurance companies say that there is a cap, either an annual or a lifetime cap beyond which they'll pay no more and people have paid their premiums year in and year out and when they are sick, are told, sorry you are not covered, and that has to stop. you know, the way it is figured, and if it is different i would like to see the republican plan, we really haven't seen it yet. people... in order to bring health care costs down, in order to cover the types of things that i just mentioned, everybody needs to be in the program, because, that is the way you do it. yes, we need to keep health care costs down, and we don't want to raise taxes... >> when you look at the bill, we spoke to someone earlier and i don't think anybody really has a firm handle on this, even the cbo says we are not really able to score this bill the way it is right now, but it looks hundreds of billions of dollars shy, according to some folks we've spoken to, on paying for it and, i think a lot of people look at

that and go, how does it bring down the cost of health care, if it will put is in the hole by a couple hundred billion dollars? >> well, we have only seen the summary of it and i haven't actually read the bill. i hope by thursday i will. but, i think we -- republicans have unfortunately made a calculated decision, that they don't want to do any kind of real comprehensive health care reach and would rather spread, misperceptions and falsehoods about the bill, in a hope to bring it down and score political points and i don't think that is what the american people need or want. let's put our heads together in a bipartisan way and pass the bill. but if the republicans don't do it, then democrats have to get the 218 votes to pass comprehensive health care reform. martha: do you think people need more time to read the bill before thursday, in general? >> well, i think that we're not voting on the bill on thursday. we have already read the bill, this bill supposedly is a lot like the senate bill with some

changes and i think there will be a lot of debate between now and the time we pass it, but, republicans ought to stop being the party of "no" and work with us to get health care reform which the american people need and want. martha: good have you here, representative, good to talk to you. bill: 19 minutes nasty hour and now we know the harsh and mountainous conditions awaiting american troops in afghanistan and how can you be trained for something like that? casey steegel went out to -- set out to find out. where are you. >> reporter: good morning, we are in the sierra nevada mountains, 7,000 feet above sea level and how do you fight a war in some of the most unforgiving conditions on the planet, training is the key in these rugged mountains a sneak peek inside the training, next here on "america's newsroom."

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bill: break news out of austin texas, more information about the crane collapse, apparently a man is trapped somewhere inside the picture, along the i-35 in astin, and we now know the home depot parking lot, and the collapse occurred near the garden center. of the home depot and the fire department from austin, now on scene and we're hoping they can find the man, operating the crane and bring him out okay. i-35, near 51st street in austin, texas, news that is happening, right now, here on "america's newsroom." martha? martha: and this is also news, that is happening right now, look at the dow jones industrials now, down 70 points, okay? as we -- if we can get number for you, the reason we are seeing pressure on the markets and keep in mind we saw a huge drop yesterday. this is the consumer confidence number, taking a sharp fall in

february. down almost 11 points to 46 in february, and keep in mind, folks, the number that -- 46, is a measure of how confident we are about the economy, 46, and in and of itself may not have meaning for you but it was down from 56.5, in january, and analysts thought the people who watch this stuff for a living thought it would tick down one point, 56.5 to 55 but, no, lo and behold it comes out and it is 46. an 11-point drop in consumer confidence over the course of the last month and you ask why? 460 some thousand job losses and told it was 700,000 and you should feel good when it is 400,000, obviously people don't feel so great about that. bill: and that is a stunning number and a couple years ago, it was over 100 and had been for years, and watch that. 24 minutes, past the hour. the u.s. marines bound for afghanistan getting intense training in mountain warfare and getting ready, high in the the sierras, of northern california,

learning to battle the elements as well as the enemy. casey steegel is in bridgeport, california, figuring out what this is about, casey, good morning. >> reporter: hey, bill, good morning, we're battling the elements as well, last year, 14,000 or so marines, came through this mountain warfare training center. that is a more than 200% in agrees from the year before. and no doubt the lessons the men and women are learning here could, one day, save their lives. as if fighting a war was not hard and dangerous enough... try doing it in feet of snow. blistering winds and mountainous terrain. >> you can move and communicate in this environment, then you can pretty much do it effectively anywhere. >> reporter: medical skills are among the most important taughts here. >> you have to kids frostbite, hypothermia, various stages of frostbite and conditions turn badly quickly. >> reporter: if it sound like

i'm out of breath, i am, not only are the condition unforgiving, but we're also at 8500 feet and that brings up another concern. altitude sickness. and that is what these corpsmen or learning how to do, recognize it and treat it because if it goes untreated, it can be dad. just as we reached the top of this mountain, a simulated marine casualty. and they spring into action. >> marine, are you breathing? respiratory rate... >> get inside the warming station, now get him warm. bring the tents over here, get the ready. still not responsive. >> reporter: not just u.s. forces utilize the center, the dutch, british and norwegian ma militaries send troops here to train. bill: good show, and on-line you can see a slide show of our military in action along with pictures of the incredible technologies they are using today, go to

foxnews.com/scitech, and you can see the photos on-line now. martha: toyota, guess what, on the hot seat again, this time, they are in washington. facing the music. and the company also pumps a lot of money into washington. so, how does all of that meet up? when they come to these hearings and can congress be fair and balanced about the way they treat somebody that has given them some money over the course of time? neil cavuto, who better than to weigh in on that one. bill: and also in a moment, the guy is a nuclear scientist out of canada, at least he was. you'll see him in a moment, until he vanished. a developing mystery, only minutes away. right here, on "america's newsroom."

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with confidence. we're working to restore your faith in our company by providing you with safe, reliable vehicles, like we have for over 50 years. for more information, please visit toyota.com. bill: 10:31 in new york and we're talk -- we talked with brian wilson a few moments ago andy live look on capitol hill, developing there today a house panel is about to open up hearings on toyota, what a star it has been, testifying firsts is a woman, rhonda smith, he's from tennessee, and she is expected to describe her six mile nightmare. when her toyota made lexus accelerated to 100 miles an hour and somehow, she slowed down, just before she crashed. listen here: >>... that i'm going to be able to do it. to testify. not only for me but for all of

those who are not able here and not -- well all of those that have died. i feel like i'm going to be able to testify for them, too. bill: toyota is also a major employer in the country, and dozens of lobbyists working inside of washington on that matter. and how does that figure into all of this? we asked the question, can congress be fair and balanced? neil cavuto, the senior vice president and managing editor of fox news channel and fox business network and the anchor of "your world" 4:00 eastern time on the fox news channel. can it? >> well, i would be -- i think it is safe to say when jim lents, the u.s. toyota chief is brought before the committee, he'll be a pinata and akio toyoda, who oversees the company, will be an even bigger pinata and the question is will there be any other pinatas, and the scapegoating and the blame-scoring, will it be targeted at u.s. agencies that also dropped the ball. bill: that work for the u.s.

government. >> absolutely, and now -- >> and they have to figure whether or not toyota, put profits for the company ahead of safety for the consumer, in this case, the american car driver. >> and i think the american car driver can ask, did my own government let me down when they were aware there were these safety concerns and i suspect this will be pretty much toyota-centric and how evil they are, but versus how much the government... >> and 31 lobbyists in washington, d.c. spent $25 million in lobbying the past five years. >> right. bill: connected like this, neil! >> you have to wonder, and you also have to wonder whether toyota is coming out at a time when we bailed out the u.s. automakers and, they they're beneficiaries of all of that and early sales indicates they have been the beneficiaries and if you keep beating up toyota you improve their sales, and you don't want to be too jaded but suffice it to say, toyota is going to get kicked around a lot and what toyota officials have

to prove is that this is limited and not the sweeping technical nightmare that some -- >> to take your point a step further, we are hearing from ford dealerships, people are coming into the showrooms and saying we'll buy you car because you did not take money from the government. ford is getting a boost as well. >> yeah. yeah. and toyota, of course, used to be the beneficiary of that, for the u.s. manufacturing operations and -- in the deep south and now it's not a sure bet, they'll continue, to and toyota's press in these next couple of days will be decided, this is an aberration and we are getting a handle on this and seems to be unique to accelerator pedals and floor mats and is not a systemic problem and if they can make that a convincing pointed, and something that -- with a lot of these guys they'll be okay. . bill: and if not they are damned. >> absolutely. bill: wow. >> absolutely. bill: first, up is rick lentz and the head of toyota tomorrow, and i think it is fascinating

and japa and japan's culture, you -- in terms of public shamefulness, as he goes before the -- >> i spent some time in japan and it is a different culture as far as the reaction to criticism, let alone from abroad and in the japanese press there is' lot of anger at america, they are making a bigger deal out of this than is warranted and are shaming the japanese and they are a loyal ally and friend and be that as it may it will be interesting how toyota treats it. it is a matter of personal culture pride, and family pride, his grandfather founded the company and he's between a rock and a hard place but the view in japan is you americans are way overstating the case here and also, 100 toyota dealers wills be on capitol hill today, who are saying, thousands of u.s. jobs are at stake, if you, congress, overdo this. a real battle. bill: house hearing today, house

hearing tomorrow, and then a senate hearing, neil, see you at 4:00. >> yes, man! roll, roll, roll. martha: thank, neil. there is a battle brewing in nashville, the city has seized, can you believe this, the musician's hall of fame? the museum and put it under imminent domain to build a new convention center and it's not going over two well and the two sides are haggling and it is playing out in court and jonathan serrie is there doing duty today. hey, jonathan. >> reporter: martha, nashville's metro development and housing agency offered the owner of the private museum, $4.8 million. that is based on the fair market value of property, but joe chambers the owner of the facility, says, he needs nearly twice that amount of money in order to make it work and he says in order to make the museum work he needs to relocate it, somewhere with in nashville's bustling tourist district.

listen: >> the tourists visited venue -- you can't put this somewhere that is not where the tourists are. >> reporter: and so, the negotiations continue. martha: jonathan, obviously, nashville is the home of country music, and is amazing to me, that they would allow something like this to go forward. you say this is a private museum, right? are there many museums similar in nature to this one? >> reporter: there is a combination of private and public museums. you know, nashville officials say that they do value this museum, and they are sympathetic to mr. chambers' plight, and at the same time they say they have to look out for taxpayers. martha: all right, jonathan serrie in nashville where there is a battle going on over the museum, that is a hall of fame for musicians and don't mess with the my sinusicians, thank bill: the christmas day bomber

was supposed to -- the outcome of it, is supposed to change the way people are screened at the airport and why are the machines not even out of the box. martha: that is the question of the day and this little guy is involved in a criminal trial, what this reportedly vicious pooch did. hey!

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with us, live, on "happening now" get outer saddles! -- get out your saddles. martha: there is a big mystery, north of the border, a nuclear scientist from canada nan ishd without a trace, and police say 4 -- the 41-year-old has been missing since january, he got onto a bus after work, where he lives by himself and was seen later that day or the next morning taking out his garbage and then vanished. he has not been seen since and authorities have been searching a nine-mile area along the river and have found no sign of him and police don't think he was targeted. because of his job or that he was a victim of a crime but, at this point have no infantry division as to what might have happened to the nuclear scientist. bill: a good mystery, huh? and millions of dollars in state of the art airline security equipment sitting in storage, and you paid for it. the president's 2009 stimulus

package setting aside $25 million for full body x-ray scanners, equipment capable of detecting weapons like those used by the would be christmas day bomber and the homeland security department has yet to actually install a single scanner. and more than 100 of them are still in their bubble wrap from the order, tom schatz, president of citizens against government waste my guest from washington and this is right up your alley. what gives? >> there are scanners already, like these in 19 airports around the country and of course, nine years after september 11th, these should have been put into place, many years ago, and as they've been tested an deployed in some places and now we have the stimulus to make this a higher priority because of and incidents that could have occurred at any time. bill: apparently... >> another example of -- >> it took the department, the facts, and correct me if i'm wrong on any of this stuff, took the department 7 months to order 15 machines, and now, it takes time to build these things, right? and you have to deliver them, and have them installed.

but, of the 150 ordered, 100 are still sitting in the bubble wrap? >> that's right, and they claim they will have 450 deployed by the end of the year. which i think most people would find lightly unlikely, and improbable and will not tell anyone where they are going. and some of the major airports, like la guardia, and kennedy and new york, don't have them. and they again should have been higher priority, a long time ago to get these done and we didn't need this stimulus, to do this, it should have been put into place, many years ago. bill: and you know there are privacy concerns, specifically as they deal with the machines and could be an explanation for the delay, and the delay in installation, could it not, tom? >> there is certainly a privacy concern, but, again, they are deployed in 19 ofhe these airpos around the country and are deployed more in europe where they have similar privacy concerns and so there is always the trade off. and they are not -- not used on every flight and will not be used for every person but i think most americans now at this

point feel that, let's do something that will help protect the country, but if you are going to do it, don't sit around and wait for some plan that they should have put tone place years ago. bill: and your point is some of the bigger areas of the country that take in international flights, specifically, new york, chicago, washington it ain't happening there yet. >> only reagan has it and that is not an international airport. so they really should be focused on where the problem might be, the targets have mostly been new york, people flying in and out of the city, so, this is something that is another example of stimulus money, not as bad as the others we have seen, like money for people to get blackberries to help stop smoking, but certainly is something that concerns taxpayers. bill: how about the tunnel to help the turtles get across the street, do you like that idea. >> there is that one, too, and... bill: i'm sorry, say that. >> and we will have a new web site, soon, mywastedtaxdollars.course --

mywastedtaxdollars.org and we'll have more things to read. bill: must-see tv on-line. martha: more bad news for the economy, the dow jones industrials down 70 points, a quick look and here's another piece of information, we are seeing the first increase in what is called mass layoffs since august of '09, any company that lays off more than 50 people in one fell swoop and that is up to 1761, mass layoff actions in january. and that results in a loss of 182,261 jobs, at companies across the country where they had to fire more than 50 people. in one shot. boy that hurts any community. where that is going on. bill: indeed it does. and we talk about what is happening in vancouver, and this is a story that takes us back a couple of years. an olympic medal winner from years back, today, is dead. his wife is facing a murder rap

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dispute, oscar mayer he's not, this is sparky the dachshund, facing a possible death sentence, he's been labeled a vicious dog, by city officials in lafayette, after biting a lab tech on the chin during a trip to the vet. the victim apparently got a bit too close to the dog's face during dental surgery and his owners say he's really just a cute little canine. >> every night, i tuck him into bed, if he doesn't have a blanket on at night, he'll start crying. bill: oh... colorado state law does not allow people who work with animals to file dog bite charges, but apparently, the

city of lafayette does and that is where the rubber will meet the road and threat tone euthanize the ten-year-old -- threaten to euthanize the ten-year-old, 17 pound puppy. updates coming. martha: and now, we have california. where there is a court hearing in a bizarre case of an olympic medallist, dave laut. and his wife is now firsting murder charges, the 52-year-old was shot dead in high school backyard in august, back then, his wife had a different story. she told the police that he went outside, heard a prowler in this backyard and next thing, she heard gun shots and now, she says, something different. she says actually, she shot her husband, in self-defense. because he was abusive. of her, and the problem is, he was shot four times, in the head. and, that raises a lot of question about what happened here, and, a criminal defense attorney, joins us, how are you doing, and the circumstances as we described, you know, if you

are in an abusive situation, and she may have been, in an abusive situation and we want to talk about that in a moment, four times in the head, is what the autopsy report says and that is not necessarily, get this guy off me, right. >> no, and, you know, self-defense claim and the problems with self-defense claims is, she allegedly wrestled the gun away from the olympic athlete, right? the strapping olympic athlete an wrestled the gun away from him and one, there is a duty to retreat, and self-defense doesn't mean if someone is mean to you, you can kill them and if you wrestle the gun away and alleviate the threat of danger there is a duty to retreat, you don't have the legal authority to shoot one and also, fours times in the head -- four times under the, you don't need to shoot someone four times in the head, once will do it and the killer is the cover-up, the lies, and the things that she said initially and somehow her defense lawyer will say she was scared and panicked and

concerned, but, you know, cover-up, shows the consciousness of guilt, the prosecution will put forward is is a tough one. martha: and you go back at him and her and he was supposed to go to the olympics in 1980 and we banned the olympics and didn't attend, in moscow, and, then he got a bronze medal, had big expectation, was supposed to win the gold and got a bronze and everybody said he's a nice guy and ways local coach in the area and, there are other stories, he wasn't good to her, that he treated her badly and ordered her around the house and she worked, all day long, and taking care of him and he was abusive to her and they are high school sweet hearts and go way back and the one person said, they were the nicest married couple. god only knows what happened in that house. and that is what the defense attorney will argue. >> the defense will be post-traumatic stress order syndrome. that she was a domestic violence

victim, and that this was something that -- martha: had all the reasons to disintegrate in his own personal character. >> but if it is a true post-traumatic defense, it is mitigating and takes it from murder to manslaughter. martha: what if i shot him and i needed to make sure he was dead, because i was scared out of my mind and i shot and shot and shot again. >> well, the cover-up and the domestic -- basically the domestic violence facts, there -- the defense will throw out will really be to nullify the jury and paint the jury -- and a self-defense case really, the domestic violence issues, is not something that is prominent and doesn't make her not guilty. martha: and shows pictures of her with bruises. >> no doubt but they'll say it was self-defense and for a good reason, he has beaten me for so long and get the jury to say we'll find her not guilty, because, really what they are saying with the post-traumatic stress order is not, not guilty

but manslaughter. and she snapped emotionally and got to a point -- martha: no premeditation or intention of killing her husband. >> that is manslaughter. martha: do you think that is what will happen. >> most likely, i don't see a jury letting her off with the cover-up factors that are... martha: sad story, started out as a promising young couple and promising medal athlete ending up being killed in his own backyard by his wife, at a appears, joe, good to see you, thank you very much. bill: in a moment, executives from toyota, arriving on capitol hill after countless recalls and question on brakes and accelerators for multiple models, will congress get answers? a live look inside the hearing room now, where those executives will answer to congress and this action gets underway only minutes after the break. want to know how fast it took my stiff joints to feel better?

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fancy schmancy name for a really big igloo. they've been working on it all winter long, that's what you do in wisconsin in february. a survey, it americansuse 27 feet in diameter, 17 feet high, larger than the current record holder of the bigloo. they hope to hear from the guinness book of records in the next couple of weeks and when they do they'll be on our program. martha: i have one in my back yard and it's nowhere near that big, we have work to do at home. bill: look at that guy from cleveland, he made that igloo, put table tv in there and a plasma screen. that's my man! asked does he have a girlfriend? no. martha: hey, want to come to my place? it's a little chilly, but -- >> bill: we will see you here manana. martha: