we'll be talking about the bear >> gretchen: the bear is still here? >> yep. >> gretchen: see you tomorrow. rainfalls for the month. there are advisories stretching from the carolinas to the state of maine. officials call it a nightmare. add another 5-7 inches, expected in the coming days. martha: i don't want another 5-7 inches. bill: where are they going to put it all? good morning, i'm bill hemmer. >> martha: it's good to see you, i'll martha maccallum, it's true, the second major rain event to hit in less than three weeks and there are my places, including my neighborhood, that haven't completely cleaned up from the last one. rhode island is preparing

for a, quote, potentially life threatening situation there. >> we could be face something of the worst flooding we have seen any of us in a long, long time, worse than a couple weeks ago, potentially worse than 2005. >> all 17 of us have raised our hands, saying we want out of here really, really bad. >> the solution is to take these houses, buy them up and let the river have this whole stretch of land, because we don't own this property. bill: there are hundreds of thousands of people dealing with this now on the east coast. the waters, rising as we speak. now there are concerns as we mentioned, the storm might get even worse. molly line is in warwick, rhode island. how is it going there this morning? >> reporter: it has been a brutal, wet march and people have suffered all month and now they're suffering again. we're here along the putuxa river, this is up and over its banks already. if you haven't moved your car, it's too late now, this river is flooding into basements and homes and we're outside the lu --

lumpkin residence, the back pool is in a pool of water, faz face -- massachusetts is facing a national state of emergency and these people are trying to keep things dry. i have diana lumpkin, you've lived here for 18 years, have you ever seen it like this. >> it's never been like this at all. >> someone lived before you for six years. >> she said the highest the river ever got was the beginning of my pool, right there, and nothing like this at all. >> what are you guys up to today, is this hard work? >> this is hard work, we started at 4:00 this morning, sandbags from the public works in warwick. >> that's a story we'd like to hear. >> a lot of people are dealing with what you guys

are dealing with. i hope it works out. i hope the sandbags hold. i know a lot of people are sharing this story with the lumpkin family. the rain is expected to keep going throughout today and into tomorrow. it's a tough situation in rhode island and all the way up the northeast. back to you. bill: i tell you what, there's a lot of misery out there, they've got a lot of company. molly line, thank you for that, from rhode island. martha: the conditions, when the weather is like this, they can change in an instant, and we know a lot of you are online, you're looking at the situation where you are, while you're watching the show with us this morning. so you can stay on top of the latest weather developments if you go to fox news.com and click on that bar you're seeing on your screen. we'd also love to see your pictures and video of the weather that you're experiencing out there. you can e-mail those to us at the address that's on your screen at you report at foxnews.com. we'll get as many of those on the air as we can. bill: in the meantime there are new developments in the midwest my laisha, a ninth member of preparing to wage war against the government

is under arrest, joshua stone, surrendering to police in michigan last night, already in custody is his father, david stone, sr., considered the ring leader of that group. seven other members also under arrest, when the fbi, saying that members plotted to murder a police officer, then bomb his funeral in the hopes of starting an uprising against the government. in a few minutes, we'll talk to a former fbi counterterrorism at on why the fbi made its move now. that's in minutes. martha: and police and border patrol agents in arizona are hunting for a killer today following a brutal murder that is quite mysterious and it happened over this weekend. police say the well-known rancher in the area, set out saturday morning like he always did with his dog, he was checking water lines and fencing on his 35,000-acre property. investigators discovered his body out there, about 14 hours later. fifty-eight-year-old robert crentz was shot in the heart, tire tracks, pointing south toward the mexican

border were nearby, the local sheriff says the search for his killer will be tough but he is not giving up. >> all law enforcement work depends on the quality of work we do and a whole lot of dumb luck, frankly. and so it's just going to depend, what population he assimilates into. everybody talks to someone. and our best chance of capturing this guy at this point with this time lapse is he'll say something to somebody who somewhere down the line will say somebody to somebody else and we'll work it back from there. we didn't capture him going south, we didn't capture him at the fence. it's going to be very, very difficult. martha: very difficult indeed. the ranch is in the middle of a busy corridor, where drug and human smuggling from mexico. we're going to have a live report from the scene on this mysterious murder story. bull bill an update for security concerns causing a flight from new york to washington to be diverted,

american eagle 4117 landing safely at dulles national airport. the plane carried 45 passengers, was supposed to land at reagan national outside of washington, but the transportation security administration diverting that flight to dulles when the crew reported security concerns during the flight. the tsa, not giving up much more than that right now. we're working on that story this morning to find out what happened on board. martha: you know, one of the biggest questions that still surrounds this dramatic overhaul of our health care in this country is this one, how is it all going to be paid for. the plan raises taxes, as we know, on families making more than $250,000 a year, but a new report today in the "wall street journal" says that that money raised through those taxes and that plan is not going to be enough. so the next step could be taxes on the middle class. stuart varney is with the fox business network and joins us now. at the stage that we are in now with all of this is adding it up, businesses are adding it up, people are

adding it up. what is it going to boss people? >> okay. this bill proposes to tax the rich, relatively small number of people, take $1.2 trillion more off the rich, taxing the rich over the next ten years. the "wall street journal" article makes the point that it doesn't work. it does not bring in all of the money you think it's going to bring in, because people change their behavior when they're faced with a massive tax increase. and remember, the rich already pay half of all income taxes. so they change their behavior, the money does not flow into the treasury, so you've got a choice, you either tax the middle class, because that's a big source of extra money, or you allow the decifit to grow even more than you think it's going to grow already. that's the star choice but you cannot take any more money, certainly not $1.2 trillion, off the rich who are already heavily taxed. martha: and they're getting it in a number of ways, from

the payroll tax, investment tax is the one that's adding up to a loss. >> here's the list, $210 billion from extra investment tax. $364 billion from raising the federal income tax. $105 billion from raising the capital gains tax. $500 billion from phasing out exemptions and deductions and capping them. that adds up to $1.2 trillion, all paid by a thin sliver of people in our society. martha: so what is the likely measure to tax the rest of americans who make up the difference? >> comes back to what we've been talking about for the last few days following an article by charles krauthamme. r, we are looking at it looks like seriously a value added tax, that's what they have in europe, like a sales tax, that's a way of getting an enormous amount of money out of middle europe. martha: last time i was in europe, i spent several dollars for a coca cola. i'm wondering if that's the way we're headed here. stuart, thank you very much i guess for that cheery news

on this sunny -- well, we'll pretend this is a sunny day. thank you as always. bill: it's dry indoors, isn't it? martha: lovely in here. bill: you think about the families that molly is talking to, up at 4:00 and digging their way out, and it's not going to stop today, this goes into today and tomorrow. who knows how high these waters can rise. mash march usually in these situations people say i'm staying, i'm not -- but did you hear that woman? take it. the river has taken my home. it's not mine, it belongs to the river now. bill: our hearts go out to them. we'll get to molly and others throughout the day. in the meantime, this story is awful, a 15-year-old girl enduring unbearable suffering before taking her own life, today, nine of her teenage classmates face felony charges, but are the charges of criminal harassment enough? we ask that today. martha: then there's this story, two friends went up. only one has come back down. but there is a hiker who is

stuck on a mountain right now and the latest in the search efforts, and when they think they may be able to even try to get to him. what is he doing up there to try to survive. bill: so much for the golden years, a popular retirement resort has been inundated with vultures. now the community has a solution for shooing them away, they say. will this work? we'll take you there. martha: look at those creepy birds. >> ♪ >> ♪ black birds, fly >> ♪ into the light of the dark black night. >> ♪

captioning performed by mediacaptioning.com. martha: a california man is believed to be trapped now near the summit six a -- summit of a mountain, mark thomas, his buddy called 911 on sunday. thomas was the one who was able to walk down the mountain but his friend thomas bennett is stranded in the bad weather up at the very upper levels of mount

shasta, we understand. the reports are today are that the winds are up to 70 miles an hour on that mountain. and that is keeping the search crews far away. they can't even get in there with a chopper we're told to even investigate whether or not he's up there. the rescuers might have to wait until thursday to get the choppers to the high peaks of where they believe that thomas bennett may be. next hour a survival expert is going to join us to talk to us about what he may be doing up there right now to survive and what he needs to do to make it through to thursday, which is the first possible window to get some help to him as well, we're understanding right now. tough situation. bill: in the meantime, martha, there's the ninth arrest in connection to the midwest militia accused of plotting to kill police officers. a close look at this website shows mayor things statement and training videos hinting at the sinister plot. the feds saying that group, calling itself hutaree, plotted a series of attacks they hoped would lead to an uprising against the government, but why did the fbi make its move now?

richard shorboro with the fbi, good morning to you. before i get to that issue, did you know about this group before? was there common knowledge about the hutaree group in the midwest? >> certainly, bill. all of these religious fanatic paramilitary militia groups are well-known to law enforcement and known to the fbi and other law enforcement agencies that are looking into this. any time you have an organization such as this, bill, that is highly religious and extremist views, paramilitary training, and government paranoid, you're sitting on a powder keg. bill: if that's the case, if the -- did the fbi think something violent was imminent? >> when you read through the affidavit you know right away that this group was already planning and plotting for two years, they had conducted training, and it's very difficult for law enforcement agencies to investigate a group such as this, they can't infiltrate it, they can't send in sore respect, they can't send in

uncovered operations and they know a group has been plotting and training for two years now and yeah, they felt it was an imminent threat to a local state law enforcement officer at this time and that's why they brought the group down now. bill: is there proof they were trying to incyte others, evidence of that, richard? >> definitely. even on their website postings, they're reaching out to other militia groups, they're also driving to meet with other militia groups and train with other militia groups in other parts of the country. a lot of these groups do stay together as far as communication and training wise, because they feel like as a whole, they're a better trained unit, however, some are not quite as paranoid and others aren't quite as religious as others. they're all antigovernment, however, some of them have different views and even among most of the militia groups in this country, they view this group as the most religious fanatic, the most extremist among the extremists. bill: i was not aware of that. how did the whole idea of christianty fit into this group's thinking?

>> i think what you have here, bill, one or two group leaders who are trying to gather a group amongst themselves and base it upon religious values that, you know, that this is a religious war, and when you incyte people with religious beliefs and people are willing to die for those religious beliefs, that's very hard to combat. bill: this leader, david bryan stone, he was the ring leader, he pretty much brought most of the members of his family into the group, and there's a woman who apparently knows him, she was quoted as saying he makes it sound like he's out to promote christianty but he's not in it for christ, he's in it to make a name for himself. do you find that often? >> certainly you do. you look at it, when we had the situation with david koresh and waco and that's possibly why the fbi decided now to take this down so they didn't find themselves in another situation, this is a very progressive movement for the fbi and for law enforcement to get in here before any of this powder keg goes off or

before this happens. bill: one more thing, richard. i got to run here, but this other arrest that was made last night, that makes nine, where does this go now? >> i think right now, you're going to see unfold is all of the coconspirators are going to start talking, they're going to start playing people out now, go in further and see who they might have been cooperating with in other militia movements. bill: would you expect more arrests or do you think nine is the end of it? >> i think it's inevitable you're going to see more arrests from this. they were acquiring the bomb making materials from somebody, so somebody had to be assisting them outside of this group. bill: richard, thank you for coming in today, richard shoroboro, my guest from washington, former fbi. thank you. martha: bleed to death, and now nine teenagers, nine, are facing serious criminal charges in the relentless bullying of a classmate who killed herself. but are these charges enough? >> bill: hello e-mail!

congress is proposing major cuts to your mail service and it's going to happen sooner than you think. look out, it's coming, change is on the way.

bill: so, the postal service plans on cutting saturday mail delivery under a cost savings plan submitted today, this this as they fight a $238 billion -- face a $238 billion decifit by 2020, it says $3 billion can be saved in the first year by eliminating deliveries on one day, that being saturday, followed by a savings of $5.1 billion a

year after that, until the year 2020. the postal service saying it plans to keep local offices open on saturdays, but the plan would eliminate the 40,000 full-time jobs. they employ 623,000 people. ultimately congress would have to sign off on the proposal if it were to go that route. martha: to a story now that is shocking, a small community -- shocking a small community to its core, nine teenagers in hadley, massachusetts are facing serious criminal charges in the bullying of a fellow teenager who after a particularly rough day of this treatment took her own life. the body of phoebie prince, the young girl we're talking about, was found hanging in her family's closet after she moved to this small town and made what would become a fatal mistake of dating a popular football player. she was a freshman, he was an upper classman, some of the other girls, according to the reports in the area, not too happy about that, so

what resulted was her stalking and harassment, relentlessly, from september until she killed herself on january 14th. even after her death, nasty, taunting messages were posted on the internet. joining us now on the phone from st. louis is somebody who knows all too well what it is like to lose her child to senseless cyberbullying, tina meyer joins me now, her 13-year-old, meg an, hung herself after she was the victim of a cruel internet hoax. tina, thank you very much for being with us today, welcome. >> thank you martha. martha: you know, you did not get the justice that you would have liked to have seen in the case from the woman who was involved in your daughter's case. now you see these nine teenagers who are charged with everything from statutory rape to civil rights violations. what do you expect will happen, what do you hope to see in terms of justice in this case? >> you know, one thing is i am thrilled there is a district attorney who is standing up in the right way

this time. you know, i think it's going to be a long road for this family, unfortunately, no matter the outcome. they still have the loss of a daughter, and that's for the rest of their life, a grief they're going to be dealing with. but i think that adults, parents, educators, have to start realizing how dangerous cyberbullying is and bullying in person and start standing up. kids have to face consequences and today, we're too quick to hurry up and take them back in and brush it off and not act like it's a big deal. students have to be held responsible when it's in their school and parents have to realize that consequences will apply to their children, too. martha: you know, you can imagine the scenario, tina, in some ways where the school has a lot of different situations going on at once and they don't realize that something -- sha someone is really that close to the breaking point as a result of it. sometimes kids can be very good at covering up their feelings, it's no big deal, i'm doing okay. >> right. and i do think it's very hard for schools to try to

define which child can cope with things and which child can't, but i think that when things do happen on school grounds, it is brought to their attention and situations happen, they have to take severe consequences, and whether they're fearful of being sued because of taking those consequences, they have to start getting policies in place that are strict enough to be able to do the things that they need to do, and that is where i think schools have to start stepping up. they are responsible and those children are -- when those children are in school during the day. martha: tina, thank you very much, it's good to have you with us. unfortunately, you know too much about this topic and really glad you're sticking up for these kids and sharing your thoughts on this story. thank you tina. >> thank you so much. martha: we're joined by fox news analyst kimberly guilfoil. it's a tragic case that we're looking at here, and there are nine students now who will be facing charges,

everything from statutory rape, the football player that she dated i guess is involved in one of those charges, another young man is also charged with that, and then the girls, the teenage girls, who apparently were the ones who caused all of this harassment and all of this pain for this girl, four of them are facing civil rights charges. what do you think of the charges and how apartment they are for what they think happened here? >> actually, i think the charging in this case is spot on, it's actually pretty aggressive, and progressive in terms of these types of cases because enough hasn't been done historically to discourage students from engaging in these acts of essentially terror. it's like organized terror at school by other students which makes it impossible to have a learning environment. and especially for young women, young students that are trying to work through their own self-esteem issues and maturing into adulthood, it's hard enough going to school, let alone being afraid, terrified every morning when you wake up about what kind of harassment or abuse that you're going to face, and

this was a new student, that's a difficult transition, anyway. martha:is just going to say, she moved from ireland and it seems like the rest of these kids were ewell entrenched in this society and this town, the football players, some of perhaps the more popular girls in school, and those families can be very tough on anybody who tries to push back against those kids in terms of, you know, exonerating their own kids' behavior in some cases. i mean, we'll see what happened here. before i let you go, kimberly, the d.a., elizabeth schiavo, on this case, she feels they can't press charges against the school. she says that their actions are inactions of some adults in this situation, were troublesome but not illegal. what do you think about that? >> unfortunately, i think she's right with respect to a criminal prosecution, however, an investigation is underway, the district attorney has said the actions are troublesome, there could be a civil action against the school, and perhaps some people should lose their job, because any day a child takes their life like this and a school sat by and did

nothing, there should be consequence and a -- consequences and a message should be sent. martha: it's a tragic case and we're going to keep on top of it. thank you for joining us, good to have you. we want to know what you think about this story, it is so disturbing for all the parents out there. there is so much bullying discussion that goes on in schools today, and yet in this case it did not save this young girl and we need to figure out why that is. you can get additional coverage on our website to try to figure out why this could have happened and how to prevent it in the future, foxnews.com/live shots is where you can read the background and we'll stay on top of it. bill: what a tragedy. think the argument over health care reform is over? think again. after you see the new poll numbers trickling in. we'll debate that. and toyota's massive recall is getting new attention today. so i ask you, why is nasa getting involved? bring in the rocket scientists. martha: absolutely! bill: we need him!

bill: about 9:33 here in new york and health care reform might be moving forward in washington but so too is the debate across the country about what it means. drop into a part of a town hall meeting in arizona with senator john mccain, and watch here. >> like you, the rest of the republicans are just as guilty as letting this thing pass because of the corruption that you guys let happen, and why most of you got voted out. my question to you, which is the question most -- >> it's turning into a charge. you're going to have to give me a specific. >> because most of my clients are asking me, do you guys not believe that there's a term limit, that you should not be there

forever, yet time -- it's time that you and everybody else to stand up and say you can't be forever, you've been there for 20 years. >> if you can tell me one thing that we republicans should have done differently on the health care bill, i'll be glad to say i'm sorry. i'm glad that the american people listened to me on the health care issue. i'm glad that i was able to vote because of the knowledge and information and the -- shall i say the standing that i had in america that people would listen to me on this issue. bill: that's senator mccain in his home district. we know congress is on break right now, and we'll be watching these town hall meetings to see what kind of discussion comes of them. like that one from arizona. later today, president obama signs the bill with the changes that were made at the end of last week in congress. that happens in about two hours from now, you'll see it live on fox when it goes down. martha: all right, so just 90 minutes from now, president obama, signing the bill that finalizes the sweeping health care

overhaul law, and there is a passage in there that revamps the student loan system. this sort of became part of this bill last minute, at least it would appear to the public. critics say the education act was put in there, into the legislation, last week during the fixes chapter in all of this. the change makes the government the primary lender to student loans. peter marajenin joins me, he was advising to the clinton campaigns in 1992 and '96, and the gore campaign as well, jennifer miller dykes joins us as well. good to have you with us. >> good to be here. martha: this is an interesting situation. first of all it sort of popped into this situation and student loans, what does that have to do with health care, peter? why is it in there? >> the way the reconciliation worked is that they were able to put in the education piece as something that the committee and senate committee is working on. the fact of the matter is,

what this does is it fixes a loophole, it saves us $68 billion over ten years, it increases the number of pell grants that students get t. lowers the interest rates, it extends the payouts for how long it takes to pay the loans back, 8.5 million more students getting these loans. i don't see what the big deal is here. i think it actually is a win-win, and i find it curious that republicans have an issue with it. martha: what is your issue with it, then, jennifer, if you have one? >> well, the issue is that we're spending more time debating this issue here on this program than the congress did. i mean, we were promised that there was going to be a new way of doing things in washington by this administration, they promised bipartisanship, they promised transparency. the only thing they lived up to is a new way of doing things, and it's strong arming things through congress, ramming it down our throats. this was tacked on, no one debated it, no one had a chance to make comments on it, and it's supposed to apparently help pay for some of this health care provision. so it's also part of the accounting gimmicks that were used to try to force

through health care. i think it's just another example of how the democrats are abusing their power. martha: you know peter, one other way to look at it is that it's just one more thing that the government is taking on and i think that a lot of people out there are wary of the government continuing to take more and more control over different parts of our economy. now, i know it's not popular to stick up for banks, okay, but it's going to save $68 billion over ten years, and that's the plus, for the federal government. it's going to cost the private lenders $70 billion a year in business, so clearly, the student loan industry was good for the banking industries, and the president has said, you know, special interests has protected this for all this time, but i ask you this. as a result of the $70 billion a year in business that the banks got from this, people were employed, business was done, money was generate -- generated, tax base was generated from these banking industries as well, so what about all of those side effects, economic generating side effects that came from that business? >> well, martha, first, basically, jennifer's answer

to your question was an answer about the process and what took place on capitol hill, didn't get to the merits of what the issue was with the student loan programs. the bottom line is that i think that the way the system was before, and i think of americans would agree, is that the banks gave these loans out on the backs of american students, and this now by removing the middle man will streamline the process and get the loans to where they need to get. so i don't think anyone is shedding any tears over the fact that the banking industry is going to lose out on some students loans here. i don't think that republicans -- >> martha: but -- should -- i'm curious, i haven't heard anyone make t. either, jennifer, is that a legitimate argument, the bits and industry perpetuated by the loans, or is that not a good way to look at this? >> it's the exact way we should be looking at this. if you like what the government has done with the postal system, i'm sure we'll love what they do with the student loan program. it's another example of the government taking over

private sector jobs and changing them in for public sector jobs. that's what this is good -- about, government takeover, regulation, more government involvement in our daily jobs, more public sector jobs, less private sector jobs. martha: it's an example of more growth for the government and shrinkingist private sector and i wonder if over time we're going to see gee, why did we want more government jobs and fewer private sector jobs. >> again, i think the democrats are more than willing to take to this argument about whether or not the changes in the student loan program will affect and impact students in a positive way, and if the republican argument is all about jobs and privatization and convoluted comparisons to the postal service, which most americans still use for 44 cents every day, i -- >> if they wanted to talk about the -- >> martha: i think you both make great points. what's interesting is it's the very beginning of the discussion on this whole issue and it's now been passed into law. so i think that's raising a

lot of questions as well. peter, thank you very much, jennifer miller wise dykes, thank you for that as well. we're going to hear more about this. bill: we could! we have this mystery surrounding toyota. why nasa is joining the quest for answers. why call the astronauts? we'll find out. martha: check this out, he's surrounded by police with guns, and they start shooting at him. he says you know, i'm out of here, a high-speed chase that ended to a legendary entrance to a movie studio. this guy is wanted for more than just reckless driving. i know this comes as a big surprise for all of you. wait until you hear what he's suspected of and why he wanted so badly to get the heck out of here. >> that's really stepped things up here, those officers really came up onlf do, him, really tight.

martha: here's the latest on this, there's new video now of a south korean navy ship's final moments before sinking below the surface.

we first brought you this story on friday and it's been developing throughout this week. now, this as the south president ordered the military to closely monitor any moves by rival north korea. the 12-ton ship sank on friday while on routine patrol near the tenth water border area shared by the north and south. fifty-eight crew members were rescued from that ship, and 46, the prospects for the other 46 is dimming that are still missing out there. the south defense minister says the blast that sank that ship may have been caused by a north korean mine, and the investigation into that continues. bill: we are starting to see a whole host of numbers trickle in, brand new numbers on the public's reaction to health care reform. check these numbers out. new "rasmussen poll"ing, 41 percent of likely voters say health care reform is good for the country, 50 percent say it's a bad idea.

why has this been such a hard sell? scott rasmussen, independent roll sister and president of rasmussen reports.com, good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: why is this hard to sell to folks you're talking to? >> well, let's remember, we're talking about health care reform in general. people want to see the system reformed, they want to see something that will reduce the cost. they don't like the law that was passed, and the dynamics of the perception of the bill are the same as they were before it was passed. democrats really like it, think it was good for the country, republicans and unaffiliated voters say not so much. bill: that's a political breakdown. let me keep that in mind as we put this on the screen, do you favor the repeal of the health care bill, strongly favor, 44 percent, ten points higher than strongly oppose. what are they telling you in that number? and is there a political breakdown to that, republicans, democrats, independents, that you know of? >> absolutely. there's a huge divide here. overall, 54 percent of americans, at least somewhat support the idea of

repealing the bill and that's virtually identical to the number who opposed the bill before it passed. 84 percent of republicans support the idea of repeal, 59 percent of unaffiliated voters. among democrats, 25 percent of white democrats support repeal, but black democrats overwhelmingly are opposed. bill: okay. what about the decifit? you asked about this question, too. and you wanted to find out whether or not people thought it would reduce the decifit or increase it. 60 percent say we're paying more. they're not buying the cost reduction, scott. >> no. in washington, d.c., everybody says the congressional budget office numbers are gold, but across america, people don't believe them very much, only one out of ten americans believe the cbo projections. 81 percent say it's going to end up costing more than projected which will lead to higher deficits and people are concerned it will also lead to higher cost of care, it will include an increase to the middle class taxes. bill: that's on the price of the bill now. what about the quality of care? you asked about this, too,

will it get better or worse or stay the same. 49 percent think their health care is going to get worse. where is the confidence in that number? >> well, there isn't any. and bill, if you went back and looked at our last six months of polling, we've been tracking this issue every week, this number has barely budged since thanksgiving, before the bill became law, people had the same skepticism, after its pad, nothing has changed. now, we don't know if the numbers will be in october or november, but if they keep looking like this on election day, it's very bad news for the democratic party. bill: one more thing, i think this kind ofo toe refers back to the decifit question we asked before that related in the following sense. do you think your health care costs are going to go up or go down. 59 percent think the cost is going to go up. so did they believe that they are the ones who will be paying for it? >> of course. people are skeptical about a government program, people who have good insurance are worried they'll be forced into some new program, and people just have a generic

skepticism about this. only 17 percent, one out of six people, believes this legislation will accomplish its goal of reducing cost. a big, big uphill battle if you're trying to sell this plan. bill: scott, thank you for that. this is really the first glance we're getting here. other folks are out there doing polling numbers, too, that in many ways mirror what you're producing here and we've got our own team on t. too, so we'll find out about our own numbers at the end of the week. scott, thank you. >> thank you, bill. bill: this is the first taste of what america thinks about health care reform. martha: some who think the cost is going to go up say they don't mind, say that's what -- if that's what needs to be done, they're willing to pay for it. bill: you will see the president on the stump, because there's still a bit of a campaign underway right now trying to convince americans this is the right deal, so you'll see that a bit later on fox. martha: should we talk about solar flare? solar flares, okay? this is the latest idea. could they be the culprit in toyota's runaway cars? that is what nasa is hoping

to help toyota figure out. bill: uh-huh? how about the vultures? how about the vultures at the retirement community? >> martha: look at them. bill: creep iest things. >> what people are doing to make sure the guys don't retire there for good. that would not be good.

bill: about a thousand vultures setting up shop at a retirement town. the goldens years are not supposed to go this way? they say they swell and residents fear they will con

tomnate the local water supply, so the town has taken action, sun city there be -- will be made a place vultures won't stay away for, they're using air horns and propane, canons and pyrotechnics to scare them away. martha: why are they there in the first place? it's like "the birds". creepy, isn't it? bill: they're not pretty, either. martha: no, no, they look exactly like they're supposed to look. vultures. all right, let's move on, shall we, and talk about something else, the troubled automaker toyota is getting new input on that accelerator issue. it feels like every week there's a new theory on what's causing this, the obama administration is tapping nasa and the national academy of sciences to get involved in this problem now, so can space technology really help to get to the bottom of this? so far -- of this so-far unsolved sticking pedal, the mats beneath the gas ped el, the computer systems.

adam, what can nasa do about this? >> some people might say this is not rocket science but perhaps it might be rocket science. nasa actually has the expertise to look at all kinds of electronic components in the acceleration system, and that's what nasa is going to do, but it's not just nasa, martha. they're also enlisting the national academy of sciences and both of these studies are going to be separate but they're going to be the same kind of study focusing on whether solar flares or other possible electromagnetic interference is one of the causes or the potential cause of this sudden acceleration or unintended acceleration issue that so many who have been driving toyotas have been complaining to the government about. martha: what about other cars that use electronic acceleration systems? we've heard of other issues as well. are they also going to study this possible reason for all of this? >> great question. nasa is going to only help on the toyota investigation, but the national academy of scientists is going to look at the electronic acceleration systems used throughout the automotive

industry and as you said, the good old days, you used to have a little cable after you pushed the accelerator on the other side of the fire wall, that went to the carburetor, that was the throttle control. now it's electronics. so the national academy of sciences is going to look at the entire systems, whether there's electromagnetic interference or something electronic going on with the cars throughout the united states. martha: for those who suffer through the problems and had issues, they might look at this and say what's that going to take, two years to figure out that, how long is it going to take before we find out if this is the problem. >> you're not far off when you say two years, the first study, the nasa study, and we actually, by the way, when we were at the georgetown, kentucky plant where they build the camrys and other cars for toyota, people say we want to get on this as soon as possible. nasa has until the end of late summer to finish their investigation of the problem in toyotas. the national academy of science's study, which will coordinate somewhat with nasa, but that study is much longer, that's a 15-month deadline, so we can expect

some results in 2011. martha: adam, thank you very much. adam shapiro. i guess if they're not going to go to the moon, they can figure out the toyota problems, right? bill: you remember that report from the telephone lines that go across the highway. the mostry continues. in a moment, there is a crucial barometer about the economy and if things are actually getting better out there. we are minutes away from receiving the latest fegs and we'll break down what it means for every american in moments here. martha: i don't have to tell you, that march, bill, has been one wet month in the northeast. historic rainfall, causing huge problems for new jersey, in my neck of the woods, all the way up to massachusetts, and the water is still rising right now. >> i lost all my walls, carpeting, lost a dryer. i guess i'm still trying to rebuild from last time, haven't had a chance to do that, and now this happened again. acuvue oasys for astigmatism.

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the eastern sea boar, torrential rains from carolinas all the way up to canada. and leaving parts of the atlantic coast literally under water. it is the second major storm in less than a month. and, we are gathering hit with and meteorologists predicting, quote, very dangerous flooding, this is nothing to sneeze at, this is a very serious event we

are looking at here, and already a lot of areas are completely washed out and several inches of precipitation, set to drench the region, through all the way from right now, all the way through tomorrow night. so we'll get you your full forecast, how that is going to get into your area and janice dean will join us, our meteorologist just ahead in "america's newsroom." martha: and this on this tuesday morning, a brand new read on a key barometer for the u.s. economy. fox news just getting confirmation on the consumer confidence index. which tracks saving and spending to measure optimism, how optimistic are we? in the economy right now? with all of the tough times we have been through, and fresh numbers, just released moments ago showing a rise of about 6 points, that is a pretty nice jump. that we are looking at, from last month and that is how we start a brand new hour of "america's newsroom." so glad you are here with us on this rainy tuesday morning, i'm martha maccallum.

bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning, the index, by the wa, an increase in confidence for march, albeit slightly and meaning americans might be feeling a bit better about the future and about what they are experiencing today. does it mean, however, things are actually getting better? martha: that is a good question i'm going to ask gerri lewis that and it looks like a sizable jump, up over 50 which is usually a good indicator and what do you make of reading. >> don't get excited yet. i mean, it is a better number and we're glad to see it but the reality is february was really, really weak, so we were due for some improvement. we got it, and that is good news and when you look at into the future, the next six months, consumers are not happy and here's why. it is about the jobs as we have said for some time now, and look forward, at jobs here, and folks are saying, they are not expecting a big improvement, it will give us a view on friday's number. remember, the folks at -- who put together the index, talk to people, 5,000 people on the telephone, asking them what

their views are on the economy and we're 2/3 of the economy and it matters what consumers are thinking, and feeling. martha: yeah, so, you know, is there any real evidence, gerri consumers will start to act on optimism, when people feel better and get a job, buy cars and maybe a dishwasher and other items, take a trip... >> we're not exactly there yet. but the reality is we have seen some improvement at retail. i spoke to one expert recently about what she is seeing, take a listen: >> well, we are hearing many of -- from many retailers is consumers are starting to take baby steps away from all of the necessities like dishwashing detergent and socks and maybe buying candles or shower curtains or something that might be more of a discretionary purchase. >> you are seeing some improvement there, and people spending more at retail but it's not really yet hitting the big-ticket items, and we'll be watching for that, and continuing to follow consumer confidence, martha. martha: a big number coming up on friday, too with the

employment number and that will really sort of make the picture a little bit more complete for right now, won't it? >> it will, and people have a lot of expectations, and it will be a positive number. this survey, though, tells you it may not be what everybody is expecting. martha: gerri, good to see you. bill: four or five years ago the number was double what it is there and tread around the 50s, it was well over 100 in 2004 and 2005:we have a ways to go. martha: think about it, every you talk to and you don't hear a lot of consumer confidence and people feeling that they want to buy a new home or do anything that puts them out on a limb economically. bill: point taken and the president next hour, the president obama set to sign the final piece of the massive health care reform law in about an hour and the reconciliation bill with changes made by congress last week and one passage in the bill is not as well-known and makes big changes in the student loan system and feds will be the primary lender to students seeking loans and banks no longer have the role. now, the president saying it will help make college more

affordable. for the students who say the government subsidies -- the government pays the banks to lend money to schools and critics call it a government takeover and the president will sign it at northern virginia community college next hour. martha: now to this from moscow. we have new video just coming in, of yesterday's deadly attack on the metro system, in moscow, an amateur cell phone video. that just after the blast. we're told, we are getting our first look at this as well and police say two women, detonated explosive belts in separate subway stations, 45 minutes apart, which we reported to you and the blast killed a total of 39 people. and you can see, some of the scene there, it is a frightening situation, from the underground and more than 70 people, were sent to the hospital and investigators believe the bombers had ties to chechen rebels and they are figuring out what group these might have come from and police were armed with machine guns and are patrolling

the moscow underground and cities around the world including here in new york, beefing up security, in the wake of these attacks, everybody is always concerned, of course, the people in moscow and wondering if and when, something like that could ever happen right here at home. bill: we talked yesterday how hard the russians responded and putin said we'll drag them out of the sewer, to find those responsible. and watch that story, in moscow. martha: we have seen that happen, after the theater attack and the beslan school attack and the crackdown is severe. bill: indeed, six minutes past, now, an investigation underway in arizona. after a prominent ranger is found murdered on his own property near the mexican border. 58-year-old robert crentz shown here, found shot, authorities saying he was likely killed by an illegal immigrant and william lajeunesse is outside douglas, arizona and what is more about the ranger? william, good morning. >> reporter: bill, what would -- what happened has ranchers warning that they will take matters into their own hands if

the administration refuses to secure the border and this area of southeast arizona has become increasingly violent and active, and really, a smuggling super highway. now, 58-year-old robert krentz has been a ranger, four generations dating back to 1907, and the ranch was in his family, and saturday morning on the atv with his dog, fixing fences and mending water lines and he was going to assist -- radioed his brother an illegal immigrant on the property and they didn't hear from him and brought in search and rescue teams and found him 11:00 p.m. slumped over the atv, shot once and his dog was also shot and what police speculate happened, is this: one, the guy, illegal immigrant may have been a cartel scout. looking through the area to get a load through and number 2:may have been part of an armed robbery ring, if you will, of illegals in the area, .9 millimeter guns were taken a week earlier and he was shot with a .9 millimeter, and,

thirdly, that he may have been -- it may have been retaliation, two days earlier on the man's property, 35,000 acre ranch, they stopped a group of 8 illegals with 290 pounds of pot and those illegals were arrested and drugs seized and it may have been retaliation. and what was odd, bill, is this guy was alone and normally of course you have a group of ten or 20 illegals and that was not the case and the man had a rifle, it was not used and they believe, ranchers say when he picked up the phone to call the border patrol he was shot. bill: two things, how far are you from the border and what does it mean for the ongoing debate over border security? >> reporter: i'm about 15 miles from the mexican border. this is a very active corridor and, of course the big pitchers -- as you bring up is this: it is a set back for the administration, in their efforts to get a comprehensive immigration control bill and the reason why is you have to have operational control of the border, a precondition, to have a bill go through because you

don't want to legalize people here if you have people coming over and ranchers in the area say it is clearly evidence that the border is not under control, and, they believe if words in washington meant actions this would have been secured a long time ago and clearly, they say, it's not. bill: william lajeunesse on the story, developing this morning, douglas arizona. martha: and now this story, police say a missing family's computer records are providing some clues about their total disappearance. investigators in california say there is evidence the parents have been looking into passport rules, for children traveling to mexico. that is interesting. because the e-mails indicate joseph and summer mcstay had made inquiries before the couple and their two young sons vanished into thin air, and then, last month investigators say surveillance video might have captured the family crossing into mexico on foot. so it may give more credence to the video story, and police say they've found no troubling

indications or threats that would have prompted them to suddenly disappear. bill: 9 minutes past the hour, three months ago, he was a prisoner at guantanamo bay. today he's a free man and we ask you this, guess where he is and what he's doing, in minutes. martha: and cops tried to stop him for speeding, they thought they had him and the driver had this truck, though, you can see on the video, had other ideas, what made him run, wait until you hear this and why he ended up at a tourist attraction. bill: also, we will go inside one of mother nature's most powerful weapons today. this is videotape from the center of a twister. that tore through a florida car dealership. and this is just the beginning. you'll see it, in minutes. don: if you live near a walmart pharmacy...

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♪ three decadent flavors. 60 calories. it's me o'clock. time for jell-o. bill: frightening warnings about europe's largest under water volcano they've coast of italy. scientists say the volcano like the one you see here, con blow

at any time and -- can blow at any time and hot lava and rock could create a giant tsunami in the mediterranean capable of engulfing all of southern italy. watch that story and mother nature might be calmer in iceland. and the volcano threatening that tiny island nation and possibly the global climate may be slowing down and seismic activity is down 25% in the past day or so and if that trend continues the eruption could end within the next month. martha: getting tired, i think. worn out. bill: take the day off, man, huh? martha: and the gitmo story, a detainee released from guantanamo bay in december is now believed to be back fight alongside the taliban and you have seen it happen before and now again according to the reports and he is fighting according to these against u.s. and nato troops there and the word comes from a u.s. counterterrorism official, abdul habiz is from afghanistan and is tied to the murder of a worker

for the international red cross and the pentagon says roughly 20% of the 560 taken niece released from gitmo during the bush administration and now the obama administration are back on the front lines of tear trroter in five go back to fight and since the president took office, 66 detainees have been released or transferred to other countries. so, can we prevent this from happening? it is a big, important question for us today, and cliff may is the president of the foundation for the defense of democracies and joins me now. cliff, it would be, if this is true, if he has gone back to the fight would be the first person who has been released we know of, during the obama administration, who indeed has gone back to fight against us. >> yes. the first we know of, that is the important point and the figure of 20% is generally accepted, at one point it was thought, 14%, and i know

credible analysts who think it is 30 or 40%, when you release them they do not enroll in school and become accountants and go to their home country and become teachers and a lot are eager to get back to the battlefield and kill americans and it is dangerous to release these detainees from guantanamo while hostilities continue. martha: the argument has been that some people are basically turned into criminals and terrorists because of their experience at dpaun bay. -- guantanamo bay and closing guantanamo bay would alleviate that and not give them a reason to turn their guns against our own soldiers. >> look, it is also ways possible someone is sent to a prison or a detainee facility and shouldn't be and it doesn't happen as often as some might speculate and yes, they'll be around bad guys, no question about it but the fact of the mary is we are fighting a war in many countries, in afghanistan, and in iraq and other places. we can't and shouldn't kill everybody we encounter on the

battlefield, some should be detained. and some should be interrogated so we learn more and we have to put them somewhere. the question is, where do you put them during the hostilities, and, do you understand that when you release them, they are going to go back and try to kill other americans, and other of america's allies? i have to say i think the administration is too eager to get people out of guantanamo and the bush administration also released too many from guantanamo and the lawyers volunteering down there are too eager to get these people free and lawyers would say you cannot prove, absolutely they committed war crimes. our soldiers cannot play cfi kandahar and be gathering evidence for criminals, especially federal trials, while they are on the battlefield to do so, risks their lives, it is unfair to ask that of them and never happened before in american history and, world war ii, martha, we had thousands and thousands of people we detained, and they didn't get lawyers and we didn't free them until the hostilities were over. martha: obviously it is tough to determine whether or not somebody you released is an

innocent person who may have been swept up in the, you know, and should be released, and, determine which of these people is completely lying in your face and cannot wait to get back to the fight. it is a tough thing to do. >> and i don't think many were... just swept up. the number of people that we detained, in places like afghanistan, is very large and the number that gets sent all the way to guantanamo, is very small. when i was in guantanamo, one of the things they'd show me is, okay, this guy claims he was just on the way to his cousin's wedding and we have a lot of proof that he was a terrorist, no, but he had $100,000 in bills from ten different currencies, and grenades an ides and kalashnikovs in his wagon, what do you think he was, a fairmer n his way to a wedding or a terrorist. and what are we telling our soldiers to do, kill anybody you think is dangerous because we have no place to put them or tell them, you must stay on the

battlefield and collect evidence to give to a prosecutor as if you were a policeman, who wars -- the criminal justice model does not fit for a war like the one we are fighting and as long as we pursue it we are going to be on the losing side. martha: and, when you think about it in the most realistic terms, even one person who gets out of there and goes back into the field, and kills any one of our u.s. soldiers is one too many. to have returning to that battle. >> and you know how few terrorists it takes to do something like 9/11 or something you records earlier happened on the moscow subways. how are you going to feel and how will you explain to people that you let somebody out, who perhaps slaughtered many of your people or other innocent people, this is not -- need to be further debated and thought about, thanks. martha: thank you very much for talking to us today. cliff may, good to have you, sir into thank you. martha: we know a lot of you are on-line, simultaneously, we're a nation of multi-taskers, and we're on-line on the set and we

know you are at home and if so, click on foxnews.com on that laptop that is nearby and you can read more about this very important story because it boils down to that. any one detainee who goes back to the battlefield to fight against our soldiers, is really one too many, and, only to return to those front lines and that is the question, foxnews.com, tell us what you think. bill: i know what i -- i don't know what i would do without this thing next to me, we'd be literally lost and without a leash and without like, kernels on the floor to tell us where to go, our path will be gone! you know... martha: the feeling of panic when your laptop doesn't work, right. bill: don't tell me you don't feel the same way. martha: you know you do, your phone, laptop, not functioning. bill: we have the developing story in the american west, a race against time to savy a young man stranded now, 14,000 feet. the weather is not helping. the latest on the search, and this developing story in minutes. roll this: >> looks very, you know, surreal

and, you know, majestic but it is very dangerous and we have lost a lot of hikers up on the mountain. you get up there and the storm comes in, and, you know, bad things can happen. good job, keep going ! you took my eggs ! it's an "egg management fee." what does that even mean ? egg management fee. even kids know it's wrong to take other people's stuff.

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bill mentioned earlier, a good day to be a duck and that is about it. the rest of the northeast is saying uncle. we cannot take anymore and we are dealing with record flooding. the tawtuxet -- pawtuxet, the river at cranston and we are watching the river continue to rise and now it is 14.79 feet, and the flood stage at 9 feet and watch what happens, 24 hours, and they updated the crest to 17.5 feet. and that is two-and-a-half feet over the record. which actually happened two weeks ago. these people are evacuated and

sandbagging and doing what they can to protect their lives and property and as we go to cranston, rhode island, these are the historic pawtuxet river crest and the current right now, it has not crested but to give you a perspective the number one crest was just two weeks -- a little -- two and a little bit weeks ago, 14.98 feet and that is the type of flooding we are dealing with and the worst of it is today and tomorrow, showers and people are crossing their fingers, because, we are dealing with historic flooding, in the northeast, back to you guys, and, by the way, the airports, delays up and down the east coast and at least two hours at the new york airports and that will be a ripple effect. martha: boy, the last within we had, everybody, thought, well, that was it, right? the snow, the rain, it is over and here we are, hit again. >> i have a good forecast for the weekend, though! if that helps. martha: thank you! >> beautiful sunshine for the northeast. martha: good, get outer easter bonnet, janice, almost that time, thank you very much,

janice dean with a look at what is going on and those of you with a laptop and go to febru y foxnews.com/weather and, you can put in your zip code and know what the weather is in your area and, we want to show everybody else what you are going through, with the weather and, send the pictures to us and, we'll get them up on the air, the best we can. bill: and dangerous winds and stormy weather, efforts to save a hiker, thomas bennett is traveling to the summit, 14,000 feet, and is climbing -- his climbing partner saved after calling 911 and walking down the mountain and getting help and we are calling on a survival expert to help us with the story, and ross mcfadden is with me now, out of florida, good morning to you and i think the most -- >> good morning. bill: the worst part of the headline is the guy who was with him, climbing, his buddy, told authorities his friend was

disoriented and appeared to have altitude sickness, you are at 14,000 feet and wind is howling, how do you survive this? >> the only way to really survive it is to be prepared ahead of time and also, you can -- what you can do, if you are not really prepared, like it appears they were, is get out of the wind and dig a snow cave and basically, bury yourself in the snow until the storm is passed. and one of the number one things i would do, to be prepared, before you leave, put together a grab bag, something small, and sort of -- throw emergency items in it, the number one thing, a personal locater beacon and i've done research, in that area there are places that actually rent the personal locator beacons to you, before you climb. bill: that is a great point and i don't know if they had one or had two or... none on this particular adventure here. but you have winds blowing at 70 miles per hour. dropping overnight temperatures, and you can't get a helicopter up there. until at least, well, maybe 48

hour more hours. >> right, what you need to do is dig yourself a snow cave, you will actually raise the temperature from the outside temperature, if the temperature is, a, 0° outside. you dig a snow cave and bury yourself in there and if you can get inside there and the same sleeping bag together, you can actually raise the temperature inside the snow cave, up to around 40 degrees, higher. than what it is outside. bill: that could save lives right there. and there is -- >> you bet. bill: and there is another element to the story and i don't know what it has to do with it but the pair didn't fill out the climbing report that apparently costs $25. which i'm told makes it a lot more difficult for rangers to pinpoint where they were. do you know about this? >> exactly. i don't know anything morally than what i read in the story which is basically the same think you did. however -- thing you did, however if you let people know where you are going ahead of time, the park rangers or your family, and friends, it sure makes it a lot

easier, to come and fund you later. bill: one of the forest rangers got to 9,000 feet yesterday and he was forced to turn back, because the conditions are so tough. i mean, fingers crossed for this guy and we'll figure out a bit later today, once the sun comes up in california, whether or not it is even possible to fly a helicopter near the summit. at the moment, it doesn't look like it. >> right. bill: thanks for coming in today. ross mcfad den, live, today, in pensacola, florida. >> you got it. martha: a break in the murders of three u.s. consulate workers, this is a tragic case in a mexican border town and the mexican army i can tell you now arrested a suspected drug cartel leader in the case. next, the violent war playing out on both sides of our border. why does lubriderm work so well with skin?

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bill: significant developments after the murder of americans in mexico, arresting a suspected gang leader, connected to the killings of three people with ties to the u.s. consulate, just south of the border. they were two separate attacks, two weeks ago and the suspect shot up two different cars, and killing the pregnant woman who worked at the consulate, along with her husband, and the u.s. committing hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the bloody drug war on both sides of the border, and michael brown, the former chief of operation for the u.s. drug enforcement administration, michael, good morning to you. apparently the guy they arrested was a hit man. hired to take people out. not just in mexico but maybe texas as well, do you know much about this guy? >> bill, i don't know much about this particular individual but, suffice to it say in 34 years of law enforcement, i've dealt with many like him in the past.

he was a hit man. obviously, pretty good at what he does. and, it is an important first step for the mexicans, as well as the fbi and dea -- >> we are trying to figure out, michael, why these people were targeted. i don't know what your theory is or who you are talking to, right now but the theory is the people may have been targeted because of ties to the u.s. government and a strong signal to washington to keep your hands out of the drug war down there. true? >> i mean, listen, there are different theories right now, that is one of them, obviously and another one is, just mistaken identity. the assassination team bungled this operation, and went to the wrong party, and followed what vehicles they believed were containing the people they had targeted for assassination, away and, they executed them. but the bottom line is, is whether it was -- whether they were misinformed or mistaken identity or not, the bottom line

is, we lost two americans, one of whom was a federal government employee. at the consulate in juarez, and we lost a mexican citizen who was affiliated with that same consulate. bill: do you think it is a battle over drug money? is it a battle over territory or is it a fight for both at the moment? >> well, all of the above. and probably more as well. you know, those two things obviously, you have cartel-on-cartel violence, you have a tremendous turf war that has been playing out in the last three to four years, in mexico, but you also have unprecedented force being exerted against these very powerful cartels by president calderon and his administration and the cartels in mexico have never been faced with this kind of a sustained attack by their own government. bill: do you think in the end it works, 18,000 dead, over the past three years?

18,000, in mexico. >> listen, i know, bill, and, here's the bottom line: the cartels for all intents and purposes, much of government in mexico, turned a blind eye to them for the better part of 4-5 decades. and, you can't turn that type of a situation around. suffice it to say that there are vast differences between columbia and mexico, but, there are many similarities when it comes to fighting the drug wars. columbia was facing the same kinds of violence about 20 years ago and if you look at what happened to columbia, just within the past five years their homicide rates plummeted and kidnapping for ransom rates plummeted and home invasions and all the violent index crimes plummet an columbia is one of the safest countries in the western hemisphere in which to live and raise a family and i'm convinced if the mexican government and mexican people

don't throw in the towel and sustain the fight they could eventually win but it could get worse before it gets better. bill: you are a great guest, appreciate you sharing with us, today, your knowledge. >> thank you, bill. bill: all right. martha: speaking of languages and what language you speak, president obama is going to have to speak a little bit of french today. as he hosts french president nicholas sarkozy and his wife, carla bruni sarkozy and they'll be meeting with a joint news conference planned for later this afternoon which we'll be watching closely, expected to talk about the war in afghanistan, president obama wants sarkozy to send additional troops to the country, and he spoke in new york city at columbia university and said france, quote, remains by your side in afghanistan, but he didn't indicate whether or not he'd be willing to send more troops to do that. later tonight the president and first lady will host a private dinner for the sarkozies at the white house and last time they got together in paris, there was a scuttlebutt over how they got along and we'll see how things go tonight.

bill: they were like... little kissing birds over the weekend, and tabloids, were out with the pictures. martha: out to prove -- >> and that wasn't an accident. martha: together and happily married, right. bill: three of the big employers in america asking congress and the president to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul and saying it could cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars if to tnot billions over time and you will likely pay for that, in minutes here. martha: a big story and a prime target when a hurricane season rolls in and the sunshine state caught in the eye of a twister. we have video to show you, that looks like something off of a movie lot but it is real. when we come back. (announcer) we're in the energy business. but we're also in the showing-kids- new-worlds business. and the startup-capital- for-barbers business. and the this-won't- hurt-a-bit business.

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>> i'm gregg jarrett along with jean skinner, on happening now,

is iran getting close to producing dangerous nuclear weapons. >> and ansy-year-old boy was found hanged, it's not a suicide and investigators have hey warning about what they call a dangerous game, coming up. bill: and, that is in 18 minutes be, the man was wanted for speeding and the man in the gray suv pulled away from police and looked like he was stopped dead in traffic in southern california and is suspected of attempted murder and cops fired at the vehicle and the driver kept going and going and steven sadderly behind the wheel eventually stopped his vehicle at the gates of the universal studios. and, tried to make you a run for it. i mean, maybe he wanted to be in pictures, after all! police fired their weapons and he was hit once and now in stable condition, and he wanted for allegedly stabbing the mother of his child, in his home state of indiana, from california.

martha: all right, this is going to be a big story, april 21, you will want to mark your calendars and get ready to sit in front of your tv set. there will be fireworks on april 21 on capitol hill, and we want to make sure you know what is going on. three of america's largest employers have been summoned to washington for a hearing with the house energy and commerce committee. california democrat henry waxman sent sharply worded letters to at&t, caterpillar and john deere. fired up over calls to repeal a provision in the overhaul of health care. it will reduce -- look at what happened to the companies, they are taking a billion dollar charge in the at&t situation and that is going to reduce their tax deductions, the companies could take and they cannot take it anymore, for providing prescription drug coverage for their retired folks, who used to work at at&t. folks it will cost a billion dollars and that is what has caused the bombshell and look at john deere's situation, they say it will cost them $150 million,

once this prescription drug benefit goes away for them, and caterpillar, $100 million for them, too, and congressman waxman insists that the health care reform bill will save these companies money and is trying to understand why they are saying it won't and is hauling them down to washington, to talk to them about this and, bill mcger in the meantime, a member of -- and former writer for george w. bush and good to see you, the bottom line, the companies say, look, shareholders, they have to tell their shareholders, we'll take a charge against earnings and used to get a tax break, to provide prescription drugs for our retired folks, and, we can't get that tax break any more and will cost us in at&t's case a billion dollars and henry welcomes man says, what! the health care reform plan is supposed to save you guys money, come down to washington and show us your e-mails and communication and prove to us that it will cost you money. >> that is beltway economics, you just force what you can't do

normally. and look the problem with these guys is they are not going by the script. the script was, lower cost, more benefits, more jobs. and these write downs mean there will be less money at the corporate level for shareholders and expanding jobs and, probably less benefits for the employees. and so now they are trying to be bullied -- bully them into changing their minds. martha: you know, it strikes me, bill, that all companies, whether big or small, across america right now, are now that we have the bill, right, and everybody can look at it and accountants are going through the bill and saying, look, guys, small business, big business, here's what this will cost you. now the company starts to evaluate, well, we don't get the tax break for the prescription drugs, retirees, and at what point do they say, we will not provide those anymore. >> they'll look at the tax rolls, what their lawyer is doing and a lot of the companies are global companies, and, when they look at where they are doing their operations, they are looking for the cheapest place to do business, and, the best place and we are making america more expensive and there are a

couple of announcements that it may mean the closing of facilities, and whatever you say inside the beltway, is not going to change the economic dynamics for these guys. martha: these companies to -- >> and also are intimidating, subpoenaing the documents and this is the way washington does work. martha: you raise an interesting point, so that makes it -- if i'm a company, and i am saying to my shareholders, this is going to cost us $100 million, the change in health care, and, waxman says, i want to see every bit of communication in your company and if i'm another company maybe i will not scream so loud about the fact it will cost us something if i don't want to be hauled in front of congress and share my e-mails with them. >> exactly. i like the principle and wish it applied to the government and i wish a few years from now when all the numbers on medicare savings and so forth don't come true, we can see the e-mails of all of the government officials and congressmen that made these laws and put them in there and go back and ask them for all the documents and let them appear and explain why the numbers didn't materialize.

martha: and what else strikes me, companies evaluate how much it will cost them, at some point, they are going to say, you know what? we will not provide this benefit an any more. >> right. martha: for that benefit and if you like your health plan you can keep it but, guess what. that is not true. >> you might not like it anymore if it doesn't have the benefits. martha: i mean -- >> might not be the -- >> i like my benefits and health care plan and i'll keep it and the company says, sorry we will not keep it. >> exactly. look, we saw it coming and they are angry the businesses are doing it and now the law is here and i think the businesses should take the time to explain what they are doing and say, you guys passed the law, this is the effect on business and no one listened to us before. and, it will have consequences to people and if you are an employee of the -- one of these companies and you see that your company is taking $100 million write down, do you think that that is better for your company or not better for your company, better for your job or not better for your job? and better for your benefits or

not better for your benefits? and, so, this is how the beltway reacts, they'll beat these headlines down, and try to bully these people into not speaking. martha: it is possible it may blow up in their faces and invite these corporate executives down to go over the numbers with them on television, in front of henry waxman's hearing and i think bart stupak is overseeing the intelligence committee that will be doing this. and start breaking it down, that could be bad. >> you know, i would be in favor of this if we could have a parallel hearing where every question that went to the cbo, if we played with this number, what will we get at the end and if we did this number and see all of the rigging in the background, it would be nice to have all of those e-mails and see what numbers they ran to get the outcome they want. martha: why don't you demand those in a freedom of information act. phil, thanks for coming down. bill: april 21 the hearing on the hill. martha: will be interesting. bill: we'll watch that. in a moment here, if you thought you knew everything about the death of michael jackson, wait. what one doctor now claims happened after jackson arrived at the hospital.

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martha: all right, listen to this. michael jackson still had a heartbeat when he arrived at the hospital. that is according to tmz reports today, that at least one doctor who worked on him, he under went two ekgs at the u.c.l.a. medical center and reports say that a doctor who examined those results insists that there was a pulse at one point and why is that so important, at this point? because, it completely contradicts the claims by joe jackson's attorney who says his son was dead when the paramedic

arrived at the house an promising to file suit against the king of pop's private doctor, conrad murray and in order to do that may need to prove that the doctor failed to do when he should have done on the scene to keep him alive. bill: roll this, 7 minutes to the hour, incredible pictures out of southern florida. check it out, surveillance cameras catch a tornado in action, whipping through the car repair business near fort lauderdale, frightened employees huddled together for safety and some inside the building and some inside the automobiles watching the chaos, and michael is the man behind the pictures, and he's the owner of renew auto collision near lauderdale, good morning to you. what happened, man, what did you see. >> a rain y morning and next minute the building started to shake and i look at my video cameras, and i just saw the sky just turn white. and, angle that wasn't bolted down was flying right by and it is amazing how buildings around me got the roofs ripped off and

someone was watching over me that morning, huh. >> indeed they were, how about the rest of the folks. >> my secretary robin dove under a desk and fred and everybody else, was running into their cars and i didn't know what was going on at one point i thought it was a dream, you know? and before i knew it, it was just quiet and peaceful and looked around at the devastation, and it was amazing. bill: how long did it last. >> when i played the camera back it went from 8:27 a.m., to 8:28:03, less than a minute, the power mother nature could have was unbelievable. bill: you are right about that and the camera now, displayed it for us. >> and the only guy in oakland park with security cameras in my building and had every news station coming and an amazing thing to watch over and over again. bill: and your employees hid in the cars. >> they ran into the spray booths and some ran under the car and we didn't know what to do, we ran around and slammed

the doors shut as fast as we could and if we didn't close any doors we would have definitely died. bill: any warning it was on its way. >> i drove into work, and heard of alerts, 11:00 a.m. and here we go, they'll be wrong again and i tell you, i'll listen to them from now on, 18 years living here you hear of tornado watches and, never, you know? and, it really happened, and, pretty wild. bill: sometimes you catch the waterspouts coming off the atlantic, but... >> and we were -- i was on the phone doing business one minute and told the person hold on and, there is a tornado coming and he's like, you're kidding me and listen and he heard it. he said high could hear it. it was powerful. bill: and michael tell everybody down there we said hello, okay? great to hear you are okay. and nice to hear your attitude. >> all right, bye. martha: good guy. thanks for sharing that story with us, michael. all right, well, this is an absolutely hard breaking situation. and now, really, in an unprecedented move nine teenagers are facing charges

after a young girl took her own life. what prosecutors say these nine teenagers did that now has them in court and that may have led to phoebe prince's death. coming up. if you have heartburn more than one day a week, try prilosec otc. it shuts down many acid-producing stomach pumps for twenty-four hours of heartburn protection with just one pill a day. for frequent heartburn, try prilosec otc.

bill: ♪ >> here comes peter cottontail ♪ >> ♪ martha: are you ready for easter? cute easter bunnies could be

good for you, depending upon what kind of chocolate they're made of, dark chocolate, remember this when you hesitate to eat that yummy chowk lat on sunday is rich in cocoa which has very good long term health benefits, the new study showing low blood pressure and risk of stroke for those that eat dark chocolate over the course of ten years, scientists warn against using it, though, as an excuse to pig out basically on all that stuff, they say small amounts can be beneficial and only if it replaces other junk food. i bought dark bunny -- dark chocolate bunnies for my kids. bill: happy easter and happy passover. we do this thing every year, we have this golden egg hunt, and whoever finds it gets pumpkin bread. martha: and all the hemmers fight over it. bill: there are 60 million looking for the darn thing. have a great day everybody, catch you again tomorrow. martha: a gazin