>> because i think everybody should have a bucket list of things they want to do before they expire. martha: all right, well, not sure that should be on them, but she suffers from a nonterminal leukemia, we're told, she also has a bipolar disorder and perhaps wasn't taking her medicine at the time, and that that story. she's been sent to jail. wonder if that's on the list, two counts of robbery. bill: don't put that on your list! "happening now" is next. martha: we'll be back in a while. jane: hi everybody i'm jane skinner. trace: i'm trace gallagher in for jon scott. "happening now". -- >> jane: you heard it from the republicans during the presidential campaign, drill baby drill, in a moment president obama will make a major announcement on offshore drilling. is a reversal coming? trace: take a look at rhode island, the governor saying they're facing unprecedented flooding during the second round of record rainfall. now the white house is declaring state of emergencies in both rhode

island and delaware, as the rain just keeps on coming. we are live in the very heart of the flood zone. jane: on the bottom a new cia report confirming not only that iran is moving closer to producing a nuclear weapon, but now we're learning about the country's ability to create biological weapons. we're live here in the newsroom at this hour, watching everything develop, and watching harris right now. for more information on our stories, she's going to bring you in in a couple of minutes. we begin with live pictures from andrews naval air facility in washington where we're awaiting president obama to announce a move to expand off shore drilling, part of a larger plan to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. this is a big deal. eric bolling from fbn is here to talk with us about it, one of our oil experts. this has been characterized today as really a pleasure for the oil companies to hear, music to their ears, and some environmentalists may be angry about it. is that a fair characterization? >> it's probably fair. this is a very, very big deal.

don't make light of this. this is the first step that this administration at least is hoping for offshore drilling. we heard during the campaign in 2008, we heard sarah palin saying drill baby drill, drill here, drill now, john mccain saying all of the above and we heard barack obama saying maybe not the fossil fuels, let's stick with the nuclear. he with -- he is now turning a little bit. let's talk about what he's actually doing. he's opening some of the gulf up to exploration. he's not opening all of the gulf up to exploration. he's opening some of alaska up to exploration. he's now opening all of alaska up for exploration. opening all of those leases and all that land would be a great thing for oil prices, for gasoline prices. opening some of it up will be good. it's a good first step, and you know, again, jane, it's going to take a long time to develop something like this. jane: just to let viewers know, eric is out jieng -- outlining what you see on the left. talk about this shift. some say it's a move to the

middle for energy legislation. >> a lot of people are saying maybe he's doing this now because he's got health care in the back pocket, it's signed into legislation, now he wants to make the next shift which would be cap and trade so if he goes ahead and opens leases up maybe he'll get conservative, middle of the road, both sides, republicans and democrats, to sign on to his cap and trade bill, which is looking -- which he's looking to push. it's not going to work. i mean, cap and trade is a massive, massive bill, it's a massive tax on american people and it's not just this year and it's not one time. it's forever. so if he gets cap and trade legislation through, it could be six or $700 billion, per year, for american families. jane: when we're talking drill baby drill, what is the timeline for something like this, when the leases are up and awarded, when would we be drilling? >> let's understand one thing. we've always been allowed to drill these areas. there was a moratorium put on these areas 2030 years -- 20, 30 years ago that said stop drilling there for

environmental reasonsful all he's saying is we're going to lift the moratorium on some of these leases. the law is there for us to be able to drill, we just haven't done it, so it could take years, it could take five years, ten years to develop some of these leases but again, the more productive ones, the ones holding a lot of reserves, that boil natural gas and other fuels are going to be worth it, especially at $83 a barrel. one thing, to make this real clear, a year -- a year ago, dollars was 2.04, today, it's 2.80, the difference between the two, $111 billion to consumers. so anyone who says hey, it's not enough, it's enough. let's start now, let's just start drilling, get this thing going so that we don't spend $111 billion over to -- send $111 billion over to countries that don't like us. jane: eric bolling will wait with us as we await the president coming to the mic. trace: to national security, you heard about iran's rogue nuclear program but what about chemical and biological weapons? a new cia report says the

islamic republic probably can produce such weapons for, quote, offensive purposes. mike emanuel is live for us in washington. mike, what is the cia saying about the iranian threat for chemical weapons, exactly? >> reporter: the assessment tehran has the capability to produce chemical warfare and is conducting research about how these items can be used offensively. the report says, quote, we judge that iran is capable of weaponnizing chemical warfare agents in a variety of delivering systems, end quote. the iranies accused saddam hussein of using chemical weapons in the iran-iraq war in the 19 # \on/zeros so they know firsthand how deadly these weapons can be trace. trace: what about the findings of the biological weapons, mike? >> reporter: the cia report says iran probably has the capability to produce biological warfare agents to use offensively to attack if it made the decision to do so. the assessment is the regime in tehran has previously conducted research and development in this area of biological weapons and continues seeking dual use

technologies that could be used for biological weapons, so germ warfare is a major concern and with iran you have to be worried about the threat of the regime giving the material to terrorists because they, of course, are sponsors of terrorism. trace: mike emanuel live for us in d.c., thanks. the cia report mike was just telling us about is also saying iran is still working on building a nuclear weapon, despite technical setbacks and international resistance. how should the u.s. respond? you decide. log on to foxnews.com, and simply click on the "you decide" link to weigh in on this issue. and you can see how other people are voting by clicking on this view results tab, and of course, top headlines and breaking news, 24/7, foxnews.com. mass transit systems across the country are now stepping up security following the moscow subway bombings. the deadly terror attack in russia prompting u.s. police departments and homeland security to take a hard look at how to keep america's

trains safe. rick leventhal is live for us in middown manhattan -- midtown manhattan. how safe with the subways and snrains. >> that's a good question. a lot has been done to protect our systems, they've added cameras, radiation detector, bomb sniffing dogs and random bag checks but security says it's not enough. consider on average americans take nearly 14 million train or subway rides every single day. in new york city alone, twice as many people ride subway trains as fly nationwide, yet on average, governments are only spending 1/100 as much securing planes as much as rails, in other words, they're spending roughly $6 per passenger on air travel and only 6 cents for passengers on rail travel. the other big challenge is, trace, our subways and trains are open systems, there's no funnel point. people can get on and off these trains very easily and quickly trace. trace: the past couple of days, when i got off the train, you can see a visible increase in security but everybody is kind of asking

the same question, how do we manage to avoid attacks so far? >> reporter: a lot of credit goes to police work. in new york city alone, they foiled five plots against transit systems since 1997, the most recent, many people obviously remember najibullah zazi who authorities say was plotting to put eight backpack bombs on new york city's subway cars. police used a variety of tactics to thwart the attacks, including the surge that we saw in new york city this morning, where hundreds of heavily armed police officers swarmed subway and train stations. this can act as a deterrent, since terror attacks require surveillance and practice, but the other tactic that's used very often that you don't see is infiltrating these groups to gather intelligence. >> maybe the biggest step, the biggest tag tick, is in very proactive, aggressive investigations, developing of confidential informants, and in communities where the radicals, these terrorists may come from. >> reporter: the experts

say the biggest weapon against terror may be our own eyes and ears, trace. if a terrorist thinks he's being watched he's more likely to shrink back into the shadows. trace: by the time they get to grand central, it becomes too late. rick leventhal in manhattan, thank you. jane: we're working to get new information on former first lady barbara bush, learning more about her health and when she may be released from a hospital in texas. also, this spring storm that has just battered the northeast, the storm itself is moving out to sea but in some places the worst is really yet to come from the flood waters. these are live pictures from rhode island. look at that. the mayor of that town says they are facing what he calls dire circumstances. people are watching and praying. >> never seen it like this before. this is pretty amazing. it is scary.

trace: that's a live look, by the way, at andrews naval

facility which is on andrews air force base, the president will come out and talk about energy. when he gets into the part about drilling off the coast of this country, we'll bring that to you live. the whole thing, by the way, is streaming live on foxnews.com. it is news. the takeaway here is after saying no, no, no to drill baby drill, the president is changing at least a little bit. coming up, the president's speech. it's minutes away. jane: "happening now" in the top box, watching a hospital in texas right now, former first lady barbara bush is expected to be released there soon. we may also be hearing more about her condition. she was admitted to methodist hospital on saturday, and wasn't feeling well. more carnage in russia, two suicide bombers set off a blast in a town on the border with chechnya, 12 killed, president put he -- prime minister putin believing the attack was planned by the same militants that bombed the

subway in morgan stanley cow monday. the upcoming -- admiral mullen saying the upcoming attack in afghanistan will be the next surge. traveling through afghanistan he says the operation will be the military's main focus this summer. trace: this is a fox news weather alert, rhode island getting hit by historic flooding, providence seeing the wettest month ever recorded, not just march, the wettest month ever, talking about 16 inches of rain, the president de layering a -- declaring a state of emergency, the president saying, and i'm quoting here, none of us alive have seen the kind of flooding we are experiencing now and forecasters say the worst, if you can believe this, is yet to come. with us on the phone is steve kass, public information officer for the rhode island emergency management agency. steve, we're looking at the pictures now. man, you guys got hammered up there. we also live in the northeast. connecticut didn't get it as bad, and it's kind of

amazing, the rain is going out, steve, and people are saying now the worst is yet to come because all that water has to come pushing down, right? >> that's exactly right and most of it's pushing up in my basement as we speak, but it's been a nightmare for everybody. i mean, the river, the main river that's been the biggest problem is the pawtuxet river, which is kind of the southern half of the state, and it runs by shopping malls and route 95, all of which are now under water. trace: you mentioned route 95, which by the way people who don't know this in the mid part of the country and the west, that's one of the main corridors in the eastern part of the country. these are live pictures on the left side of your streen in -- screen in rhode island. it's just disastrous there, steve. the flood stage in the pawtuxet we were just talking about, they're saying it's 9 feet, now it's close to 21 feet? >> that's exactly right. it's creating traffic havoc, as you can imagine, because so many roads are under water, including route 95, which as you pointed out is

one of our main thorough fares. trace: and i think what people don't realize or at least they forget, it was just a couple of weeks ago, that much of the northeast was without power, now we're hearing from the local power companies that in rhode island alone, some 20,000 people are without. we had that major storm a couple of weeks ago, they had hundreds of thousands without power, some of them just getting it on a few days ago, and now here comes round two. what are people doing where you are right now, steve? >> reporter: well, in southern rhode island, the town of westerly, they had two national grid sub station under water, so they've had major outages and i'm not sure they're going to get their power back real quick, either. so we've all been asked to conserve on the electricity we're using to maybe shove some more power back to them. but it's been -- i mean, no matter where you go, it's either water or power or some issue, and it's -- today the governor asked all the state employees basically to stay home, just

the essential employees to report. and we've asked kind of the business community and schools to do the same thing. trace: they talk about this being a 100 year flood. we had comments today, steve, people saying this is a 500 year flood. have you ever seen anything like this as long as you've been around? >> no, sir. and i've been here a while. trace: the best of luck to you steve and the people of rhode island. all up and down the northeastern corridor, they have gotten hammered up there. steve kass, steve, thank you very much. >> thank you trace. jane: trace, we continue to wait for president obama to make the announcement about off shore drilling in this country. he's going to do that at andrews air force base, the naval air portion of that in a couple of minutes. you're listening to ken salazar, the interior secretary speaking now. as soon as the president gets there for this major announcement, we'll take you straight there. also we're watching houston, texas at this hour, outside of methodist hospital, we're hearing former first lady barbara bush may be allowed to go home fairly soon. she had been admitted over

the weekend, her family said she just hadn't been feeling well for the past several weeks, we don't know what the problem was, so we're hoping to see a healthy mrs. bush walk out those doors and find out more about what's been ailing her. we'll be right back.

jane president obama has stepped to the microphones there at andrews naval air facility outside of washington. he's going to be talking about this new move to expand off shore drilling. he's at this point just thanking those in the crowd. as soon as he gets to the meat of what he is going to be saying we'll take you back there. trace: meantime, "happening now", top box, texas republican kay bailly hutchison announcing she will serve out her full term in the senate after losing a primary race for governor.

senator huff ison had announced she would resign to focus on that run. her term ends in 2012. in the middle box the white house pledging more than a billion dollars to help with reconstruction efforts in haiti. secretary of state clinton announcing the commitment during a u.n. conference. that's expected to raise nearly $4 billion for the earthquake-ravaged nation. in the bottom box, from rain to snow, blizzards slamming parts of the u.k. right now. heavy snow and powerful winds creating dangerous conditions for many drivers there. got a lot of cabs stranded on the roads, 30,000 homes currently without power. jane: right now, officials are keeping a close eye on the aftermath of a chemical fire in louisiana, witnesses say an explosion rocked the ground when the fire first erupted yesterday. the building produces oil and soaps for ships that use petroleum-based chemicals, it took more than 100 firefighters to bring the flames under control. nearby homes have been evacuated as a precaution. the exact cause of this thing is still being investigated.

trace: on to utah where a massive grass fire shut down interstate 80 for several hours on tuesday. strong winds, fanning the flames near the salt lake city county lines, winds, 80 miles an hour, hurricane-strength winds. the weather died down eventually, helping firefighters get control of those flames. jane jane want to take you back to andrews where the president has started talking about off shore drilling. let's take a listen. >> increased mileage standards, will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil overall, 1.8 billion barrels of oil. that's like taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year. today, we're also going to go one step further. in order to save energy and taxpayer dollars, my administration, led by secretary chu, at energy, as well as administrative director of the gsa, is doubling the number of hybrid vehicles in the

federal fleet, even as we seek to reduce the number of cars and trucks used by our government overall. so we're going to lead by example and practice what we preach, cutting waste, saving energy, and reducing our reliance on foreign oil. but we have to do more. we need to make continued investments in clean coal technologies and advanced biofuels. a few weeks ago, i announced loan guarantees to break ground on america's first new nuclear facility in three decades, a project that will create thousands of jobs. and in the short term, as we transition to cleaner energy sources, we still have got to make some tough decisions about opening new off shore areas for oil and gas development in ways that protect communities and protect coast lines. this is not a decision that i've made lightly. it's one that ken and i, as well as carol browner, my energy advisor and others in my administration looked at closely for more than a year, but the bottom line is

this. given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness additional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable home-grown energy. so today, we're announcing the expansion of off shore oil and gas exploration. but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect america's natural resources. under the leadership of secretary salazar, we'll employ new technology to reduce the impact of oil exploration. we'll protect areas that are vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security. and we'll be guided not by political ideology but by scientific evidence. that's why my administration will consider potential areas for development in the mid and south atlantic and the gulf of mexico. while studying and

protecting sensitive areas in the arctic. that's why we'll continue to support development of leased areas off the north slope of alaska, while protecting alaska's bristol bay. there will be those who strongly disagree with this decision, including those who say we should not open any new areas to drilling. but what i want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on home-grown fuels and clean energy. and the only way this transition will succeed is if it strengthens our economy in the short term and long run. to fail to recognize this reality would be a mistake. now, on the other side, there are going to be some who argue that we don't go nearly far enough, who suggest we should open all our waters to energy exploration without any restriction or regard for the broader environmental and economic impact. and to those forget i've got

to say -- to those folks, i've got to say this. we have less than 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. we consume more than 20 percent of the world's oil. and what that means is that drilling alone can't come close to meeting our long term energy needs. and for the sake of our planet and our energy independence, we need to begin the transition to cleaner fuels now. so the answer is not drilling everywhere, all the time, but the answer is not also for us to ignore the fact that we are going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security. ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debate of the left and the right, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure-all and those who would claim it has no place. because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.

for decades, we talked about how our dependence on foreign oil threatens our economy, yet our will to act rises and falls with the price of a barrel of oil. when gas gets expensive at the pump, suddenly everybody is an energy expert, and when it goes back down, everybody is back to their old habits. for decades, we've talked about the threat the future generations pose by the current system of energy. even as we can see the mounting evidence of climate change from the arctic circle to the gulf coast. and this is particularly relevant to all of you who are serving in uniform, for decades, we've talked about the risk to our security created by dependence on foreign oil. but that dependence is actual -- has actually grown, year after year after year after year. and while our politics has remained entrenched along these worn divides, the ground has shifted beneath our feet. around the world, countries are seeking an edge in the global marketplace by investing in new ways of

producing and saving energy. from china, to germany, these nations recognize that the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the global economy. and meanwhile, here at home, as poll igses in washington debate endlessly about whether to act, our own military is determined that we can no longer afford not to. some of the press may be wondering why we are announcing off shore drilling in a hangar at andrews air force base. well, if there's any doubt about the leadership that our military is showing, you just need to look at this f-18 fighter and the light armoured vehicle behind me. the army and marine corps have been testing this vehicle on a mixture of biofuels, and this navy fighter jet, appropriately called the green hornet, will be flown for the first time in just a few days on earth day.

if tests go as planned, it will be the first plane ever to fly faster than the speed of sound on a fuel mix that is half biomass. the air force is also testing jet engines using biofuels and had the first successful biofuel-powered test flight just last week. i don't want to drum up any kind of rivalry here, but -- >> [laughter] >> now, the pentagon isn't seeking these alternative fuels just to protect our environment. they're pursuing these home-grown energy sources to protect our national security. our military leaders recognize the security imperative of increasing the use of alternative fuels, decreasing energy use, reducing our reliance on imported oil, making ourselves more energy-efficient, and that's why the navy, led by secretary mavis, who's here today, has set a goal of using 50 percent alternative fuels in all planes, vehicles and ships in the

next ten years. that's why the defense department has invested $2.7 billion this year alone to improve energy efficiency the moving towards clean energy is about our security. it's also about our economy. and it's about the future of our planet. what i hope is that the policies that we've laid out, from hybrid fleets, to off shore drilling, from nuclear energy to wind energy, underscores the seriousness with which my administration takes this challenge. it's a challenge that requires us to break out of the old ways of thinking. to think and act anew. and it requires each of us, regardless of whether we're in the private sector or the public sector, whether we're the military or in the civilian side of government, to think about how could we be doing things better, how could we be doing things smarter, so that we are no longer tethered to the winds of what happens somewhere in the middle east. or with other major oil

producing nations. so i'm open to proposals from my democratic friends and my republican friends. i think that we can break out of a broken -- the broken politics of the past when it comes to our energy policy. i know that we can come together to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that's going to foster new industries, create millions of new jobs, protect our planet, and help us become more energy independent. that's what we can do, that is what we must do, and i'm confident that is what we will do. but thank you very much. and thanks again to all of you for serving in our armed services. you are making enormous contributions, and this is just one example of the leadership that you're showing. thank you very much. [applause] jane the president is there at andrews talking about this new effort to expand off shore drilling, and he mentioned there that he is

willing to hear from his democratic colleagues and republicans as well, and just as he was speaking, we have heard from a couple of different republicans, including congressman mike pence, who had this to say. he called this all a smoke screen, and says it most certainly will delay any new off shore exploration until at least the year 2012, and include only a fraction of the off shore resources that the previous administration had included in its plan. so for that republican, this does not go far enough. others have said this is at least a start and certainly a big change for the president on this issue. we'll continue to watch it. trace: and now to politics with mid-term elections on the horizon, members of both parties are concerned about moves that could cost them votes at the polls. for democrats, the year spent battling for health care reform has some lawmakers concerned the president's agenda may be a bit too ambitious, just as some republicans are concerned about efforts to repeal the new health care

laws that might end up burning them come november. brad blakeman has served as deputy assistant to president george w. bush, maria cardona is former senior adviser to hillary clinton, she served as communications director for the democratic national committee. i'm going to get on to pop ticks, but i got to get in ten seconds what the president said about drill a little bit off the coast of the united states. i mean, this was a no, no, no position, now all of the sudden, there is wiggle room for him. >> well, you wonder, you scratch your head and say why is the president throw ago bone to conservatives who screamed the loudest that they want off shore drilling, including the new virginia governor, governor mcdonnell ran on that and the president is throwing a bone to republicans in hopes that this will be his foot in the door to a massive climate change bill. and that's not going to happen. look, we're fatigued over what they've done with health care. if they think now they're going to take on another hot button issue like global warming, its just not going

to happen with democrats and republicans. trace: what do you make of that, maria, brad says the president is throwing republicans a bone because he wants to go for this climate change bill and it's going to cost business big time and he knows republicans don't like it but if you give him a bit on nuclear and some of the off shore drilling, maybe they'll acseees. >> -- acquiesce. >> look, this ising in -- nothing new for president obama. since he came into office he's been wanting to work -- to work with republicans on every issue. he tried to do it on health care. the health care contains 218 amendments and it contains republican ideas. this is absolutely nothing new for president obama, it shows the american people he continues to be -- to continue to be bipartisan in this country, it shows he's pragmatic, he wants to find solutions to the problems and he hopes republicans will join us, or suffer at their peril. trace: or does it show he has majority at least until november and he's going to get as much accomplished as he possibly can?

you know, maybe it's driving your troops into the end zone or maybe it's driving them off the cliff, that's the problem. a lot of democrats are saying wait a minute, i don't think we have any more political capital to spend. >> i think he's on a kamikaze mission because he understands what's going to happen in november to the democrats, so let's put the pedal to the metal and see what we can get done, because it will be hard for republicans to turn back or repeal the massive legislation passed by democrats. so i think they're going to put the pedal to the metal, going to try to get everything they can under climate change passed. the problem is democrats don't have the stomach for it because they're in self-preservation mode to save their own seats. trace: it's a fair point, maria, a lot of democrats are in self-preservation mode, a lot saying we don't have any more political capital and maybe the president will win on some of these issues but democrats as a whole will certainly lose. >> i think that the people who will lose if we don't try to get all of these things done are the american

people. look, president obama campaigned on all of these issues. it's nothing new that he wants to move forward on an aggressive agenda, because when he came into office, he was handed a mess that he's trying to clean up. the republicans, when they were in power, did absolutely nothing to reign in wall street. did absolutely nothing for job creation, did absolutely nothing for clean energy, did absolutely nothing on health care. these are the things that the president campaigned on, he promised them to the american people and he's trying to deliver. look, democrats, do we really think that if they take absolutely no vote from here until november that republicans won't try to unseat them? so let's -- we should have democrats run on an accomplishments list that republicans can't rival. trace: what do you make of that point brad? republicans, have they decided as a group saying we don't need to work with the president because we know we're going to pick up seats regardless of if he passes these things, we're going to pick up seats come november, so why should we join in? >> no, we should join in where it's helpful for the country and helpful for the party to do so.

offshore drilling is great but is that a stand-alone bill? no. it's going to be incorporate -- incorporated into a massive global warming bill. that's what the democrats want. if they want to focus on jobs or restructuring oversight, we'll be all for it. the trouble is they don't want to do that, they want to go for massive agenda and get as much passed as quickly as possible, because they see the handwriting on the wall and willer turned out in november. trace: good to see you both, good conversation. >> thank you very much. >> sallie mae, america's biggest student lender, spent more than $3 million on lobbying last year alone. but i didn't stand with the banks and the financial industries in this fight. that's not why i came to washington, and neither did any of the members of congress who are here today. we stood with you. we stood with america's students. jane president obama chiding student loan giant sallie mae when he announced the overhaul of the student loan program. the government will now begin lending directly to students, taking banks really out of the picture. sallie mae now says it will

have to cut thousands of jobs because of this plan. columnist shane is with fbn, he's here to explain how many jobs are they talking about. >> reporter: 2500, jane. that's the other side of this. sallie mae as a company employs 8600 people, so cutting back on 2500 positions is a pretty good chunk of the business. now, in those remarks we were showing from the president, what he talked about was eliminating the middle man in the student lending process, government lends directly to the student, you know, the problem for sallie mae, this is essentially the middleman, it's the big chunk of its business or had been in the past, so it has to make this adjustment. it's not a government-sponsored entity jane as it had been in the past much like fannie mae and freddie mac in housing. the private company, still has a private lending business, it will go forward there so it's not the end of the world for sallie mae but this is a pretty good chunk of the business going by the way side, costing 2500 people their jobs. jane: interesting the stock price has been moving higher lately. >> it's interesting. it's up a lot especially on friday when the details of this bill came out. one of the reasons is because now we don't have

any uncertainty surrounding the company. there have been -- has been back and fot -- back and fot, what would happen or not happen. we know we can move forward with it. and a lot of times when you cut jobs it helps the stock because you're getting costs in line. i was talking to officials at sallie mae and they pointed me towards a wall street analyst report last week that essentially went back to what i said a moment ago, highlighted the fact that it has other parts of its business, it makes private loans, for example, supposedly well positioned there. so it's part of business. it's not like this eliminates everything for sallie mae. it's just one part of its business and it's accounting for that. unfortunately, it's with the elimination of these jobs. jane: connell, thank you. trace: new developments on the midwest militia members, a bond hearing scheduled for today for the suspects accused of plotting to kill police officers. and say hello to my little friend. literally.

>> the viral video that raises the question, is "scar face" really appropriate for a school boy? the mystery solved. we'll tell you what's going on. really. next.

jane we're getting breaking news in houston, texas, we've been the hospital there where former first lady barbara bush has just been discharged, the hospital is saying she underwent a series of tests, she's 84 years old, and hasn't been feeling well for weeks to the family took her to the hospital to get test done. they think she had a relapse of her graves disease, a thyroid condition, she's been treated for that since 1989, so her doctors have adjusted her medication we're told and they said she

appeared to be talkative and much stronger than she was over the weekend. trace: she was in there for four days and the good news, she was talkative, came out, appeared to be strong and they're saying she should return to all normal activities. barbara bush is 84 years old. released from the hospital, just a little bit ago. >> you're supposed to say hello for my little friend? jane: "scar face" you need to work on your impression. trace: is "scar face" what you'd choose for a play? this video shows children taking a violent movie about a drug lord to the stage. many internet users have mixed reactions, wondering if the school actually allowed these kids to reenact the scenes from this very salty film. here are some of the highlights. watch. >> you drink coke and kill people, that's wonderful, tony.

>> i got a buddy, just for that. >> thank you tommy! >> say goodbye to my little friend. trace: it turns out these kids, by the way, were actually child actors, and it's not a school play, it was produced by a real deal music video director, his name is mark glass demand -- or mark plasfelkd, it was vid owed to demonstrate the sex and pervasiveness in culture. >> i'm going to be on

orilely on did you see that. it will be interesting to see what mr. o'reilly's take is on it. trace: will you do the "scar face" imtimation? a new public service announcement is hope to go prevent teen suicide, but the ads are coming after a 15-year-old took her life, that you've heard so much about lately, after alleged esuffering months and months at the hands of bullies at school. we're going to show you these ads coming up. they call her the fort hood hugger, the hug lady, troops returning from overseas, filled with gratitude. it's a very simple act of kindness. >> she is a true friend to fort hood, and it is very reassuring to see her and she thanks us for what we do and we appreciate all the support she gives us. jane: elizabeth laird is who he's talking about there, she's been hugging and hugging and hugging for

seven years. she has yet to miss a soldier returning to fort hood. she'll be with us. >> ♪ >> ♪ so here i am, with open arms. >> ♪ >> ♪ 

trace: nine minutes until the top of the hour. we have dramatic new video coming into the newsroom, a man stabbed on a crowded bus. okay, it's live to harris faulkner with more on the breaking news. >> reporter: actually, it had to have been a nightmare ride for the passengers on this bus. an 18-year-old guy by the name of andrew ad himself gets on the bus with his friend, this is in broward county in south florida, and they sit down and then all of the sudden, bam, a fight breaks out, it gets so intense the bus driver pulls

over. we're going to loop this and play it again so you can see it. they work themselves in a frenzy all the way to the front of the bus, the guy, his friend and somebody else on the bus. that somebody else, police say, had a knife, and when it was all over, the guy and his friend, the guy, andrew adams, was stabbed several times in the neck. he's said to be in good condition today, he had to be life-flighted to a hospital. don't know exactly what started all this. as you can imagine, police are talking with other people on the bus to see if they were able to eavesdrop on any of this and figure out what they were arguing about but the bus driver knew it was serious enough he had to pull over so that nobody else got involved in this. tipline, if you think you can help, that's pretty clear surveillance video, >> that is the broward crime stoppers tipline. you can be anonymous, you don't have to give your name. trace: harris faulkner, live in the newsroom, thank you. jane: she's described as a one-woman welcome wagon and

goodbye person, all wrapped into pun package. elizabeth larird, known as the initial fort hood hug lady, she embraces every soldier returning to and heading to the battlefield, doesn't many if it's 3:00 in the morning or 5:00 at night. she's on the phone now. elizabeth, good to have you, why do you do this? >> it's my may of thanking the soldiers for what they're doing for us. >> how did you come up with this idea? >> it just happened. jane: you just started with one and it snowballed? >> yeah, it wasn't planned or anything. it just -- we were going out and -- well, we had several groups, we had uso, the salvation army, and to begin with, the salvation army, uso, alternated the flights. this was back in 2003. and so we just continued to go out and support the soldiers. jane: well, we're watching some of this video of you, hugging these big guys. they certainly look like

they appreciate it. what is the reaction, usually? >> well, when they come back, they wonder if i'm going to be there, and it's my way of saying thanks, and they appreciate it. they come in, and i speak to them and they smile. it brings smiles to their faces. and it's just my way of saying thanks. when they go out, you know, i'm there, too. and one thing i do when they go out, i read them a story before they leave, a funny little story, and then i tell them about the 91st psalm, if they ask god for protection, he'll give it to them, and i give them little yellow cards that a company in florida sends us for the soldiers about the 91 sc psalm, and that's my way of saying hey, we're looking for you to come back soon. jane: is there a message in this do you think for others that such a simple at of kindness can mean so much? >> -- act of kindness can mean so much? >> probably, that our soldiers are doing so much for us, back in vietnam,

that was so sad, because it was such -- the soldiers did so much good over there, the people in vietnam appreciated what was done for them. jane: elizabeth laird, it is quite a feat. i don't think you've ever missed somebody or you have rarely done it if you have, coming back or being deployed. >> when my daughter was sick with -- she was dying with breast cancer, and i had to miss a few weeks back in 2007. jane: well, kudos to you, it's quite an example you're setting elizabeth. thank you so much for sharing your story. >> you're welcome, thank you. trace: there were likely plenty of hugs for these heroes as well, a huge welcome home for national guard members in yankton, south dakota, even the governor came out to cheer their return, the troops, just wrapped a year-long security mission in kuwait. welcome home to them. we have breaking news just coming in, barbara bush, the former first lady, has now been discharged from the hospital. according to all accounts, she was alert, she was in

good spirits, and the doctors say she should return to normal activity after two days of testing. the very latest on that, plus president obama getting on the drilling bandwagon. so how his new push to expand off shore drilling will sit with his supporters. it's a fair and balanced debate, coming up. ♪ we love getting our outback dirty. becaus seems like the dirtier it gets, the more it shines. the subaru outback®. motor trend's 2010 sport/utility of the year®.

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water at top of the hour flooding is onen ton rise. >> i'm jane skinner and i'm trace gallagher. >> historic flooding in several states hammered by this storm. we've got some live pictures coming in from fall liver, -- river massachusetts hoping to take look at those as we head to tim national desk who has been watching several different sources come in. tim? >> reporter: hard to pinpoint the worst hit area of this. we have molly over my shoulder. she's been spending the week in ri r that's where a lot of the headlines coming from but you can't forget about as you said up in the boston way falls river. wfx sfshgs --t giving live look. >>. they're out and over in new jersey. this storm is extending along the east coast. most of the headlines are coming out of ri r but all states have been affected in the northeast. we have rhode island, massachusetts, connecticut, new hampshire, new york, new jersey team fox coverage. i know you're going to go to

a live report in rhode island so we can hear what is going on on the ground. janice dean is going the tell us whether it is going to get worse or better. >> let's go to molly now in warrick, rhode island. president obama has issued a warning for that state. asking people to lim water usage and power because they have sewer and electricity problems. update us if you will. >> reporter: that's right they have some infrastructure issue here. one electrical substation that's underwater. we watched the fire department come through here not that long ago. going around and checking on the electrical situation from house-to-house to house. the national grid, electric workers have been going around shutting down powers so there aren't any of those electrical fires they've been particularly busy. also at least three sewage fa sltys that have been flooded out and you know what that means. that sewage is going to be right here in these floodwaters so people need to try to keep their children away from this this type of thing. you don't want to see the kids out in flip-flops running around in this stuff. it is some nasty, nasty business out here on the

streets of rhode island. jane: what is the latest with the infrastructure the power situation? >> reporter: people could be out of power for some time days in case where takes workers time to get things turned back on but neighbor who has been evacuate have to wait for this water to recede. actually starting in this particular neighborhood on providence street in west warwick to see the waters just slowly recede just a tad. that doesn't mean it is going to keep going in that direction. there's so much water here in rhode island right now on the road ways and we're talking about a moving element here which is what makes the situation so dangerous. that's why officials are asking people to try to stay in today to stay off the roads and they want to prevent that gridlock. that's why they shut down the state offices and why so many schools that shut down class today as well. jane? >> molly thank. trace? trace: talking about the rain and january izzedine in the weather center when they talk about rain not just talk about wettest march but wettest month in many parts

of the northeast. >> providence seeing wettest month ever over 16 inches of rain they have just seen storm after storm across the northeast the ground is saturated like a sponge. imagine a sponge with all the water still intact. you add on more rain on top of that sponge and the water just can't seep in. that's what's happening. that's why we're seeing repeated flooding across parts of new jersey up towards massachusetts like tim was reporting and of course rhode island up towards maine. the storm system itself is starting to fade. that's excellent news and i have better news from the fox weather department here. providence rhode island much of the northeast going to enjoy an absolutely spectacular easter weekend and even into early next week. a lot of time for trying out and cleaning up and hopefully people are protecting their lives and properties today especially with all that flooding. want to talk about the put tux ant river that's where molly was reporting along the tau tux it river.

-- paw tux it river. 20.9 feet. the forecast crest around here could go up a little bit we are expecting things to slowly go down from here on in. the prove use record 14.98. when was that set. oh, about two weeks ago so this has been an on going story. talking record rainfall as trace mentioned providence, rhode island 16.32 inches for march. march is the wettest month as well as the wettest month ever for them we set records in boston and portland and new york city as well over 10 inches for you and just from this storm alone trace and jane, close to 10 inches for parts of rhode island. the numbers are just incredible. we are weir crossing our finishes that we are hoping for a much improved springtime but you know what they say about april showers we're hoping they bring may flowers not more flooding back to you. jon: crshgs are rainforest that denl get 16 inches of

rain in a month. aton irk. >> it really is 'epic at this point. >> janice dean thank you. >> this morning president obama made major announcement at edwards air force base a new plan for offshore drilling. take a listen. >> and in the short-term as we transition to cleaner initial sources we've still got to make some tough decision about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development in ways that protect communities and protect coast lines. jane: this is a shift for the president but says it is the right thing to do given the current energy demands. congressman mike pence says the plan he doesn't believe goes far enough. >> well, right now the state department is investigating one of its own. a 30 year veteran recalled to washington from his post in south africa to answer some questions. steve centanni following this live for us in washington. who is this who is being

investigated and why exactly? >> reporter: trace the state department concerned about a dozen classified documents that were found in the possession of reginald eugene hopson who worked in various placess around the world as information management specialist. basically computer specialist for the state department. investigators found some documents in an unauthorized work space hopson used at the embassy port of spain, trinidad and tobago they found others he was attempting to ship from that em by -- embassy to his next assign in the south africa and still others yet on his person when he emptied his desk in south africa to return to the states. hopson was interviewed and claimed he was being fraimed by another employee someone he didn't get along with. according to official document in this case he state he left the box unsealed for day or more and thought it was possible that someone placed the classified documents in those boxes. now, investigators say hopson had no business having copies of any of those documents in the first

place. trace? trace: you mentioned he gave his side of the story bottom line here they just don't believe the guy. right? >> reporter: they're very skeptical of his claim and here's how they put it in their request for a search warrant hopson's repeated claim that another embassy employee must have planted the documents makes little sense as no one knew that law enforcement agents would be inspecting either his office or those boxes in question. in addition to all the documents found overseas investigators searched a storage unit in temple hills, maryland not far from washington, d.c. where hopson had shipped all of his household goods from south africa. there they found diplomatic passports a bolivian passport. photos disk its and bank documents from several different countries. not clear right now exactly how incriminating any of that evidence found in the storage unit might be in this case. so far no charges have been filed against hopson and actual status at the stat department is unclear.

>> national correspondent steve centanni live in d.c. thank you. jane: more on breaking news former first lady barbara bush has been discharged from a hospital in houston. she's been there for a few days john donnelly is in houston outside of methodist. what can you tell us? what have dock toshs -- doctors been saying? >> 30 minutes ago motorcade whisked her out a side door been here since saturday. wasn't feeling at the top of her game as one of her spoke people put it. few minutes ago she left and doctors issued statement, believe may have had a mild relapse of graves disease a thyroid condition treated for in 1989 as a result physicians haved a justed her medication upon discharge she was alert, talkative and appeared to be getting stronger as she prepared to head home. a year ago mrs. bush received a replacement aortic valve at methodist doctors say is work very

well. release goes on to say mrs. bush is expected to make a full recovery and should be home by now and able to return to her normal activities. live in houston john donnelly fox news. jane: good to hear. john, thanks very much. >>t teen's tragic suicide blamed on bullying she endured at school and on line. but teen suicide is much more common than you might think. the new response to combat a disturbing trend and a record bank bailout with tax dollars was supposed to help free up financing so why are people with stellar credit and money for a down payment having such a hard time getting a mortgage? we'll have answers for you. plus we're still keeping our eyes on the flooding in the northeast look at that. that's a sports authority a business in fall river, massachusetts. janice dean just told us a short time ago not just the wettest march on record in a lot of places the it -- the wettest month on record. 16 inches in parts of rhode island up to 10-11 in ma --

massachusetts we'll keep our eyes on breaking weather news right here on happening n.o.w.. @=h

jane: happening n.o.w. in the top box. several members of the militia as it is now will be back in court today accused of ploting to kill police officers in this country the hears will be to determine if they can be freed on bond. authorities say this group is preparing to carry out an attack next month. in the middle mexican authorities say they have a confession to the consulate killings south of the border. the suspect reportedly confessed the target was a jail officer whose wife worked at our consulate in juarez. on the bottom 5-10 mile-per-hour speeding cushion may be disappearing the tough economy is causing highway patrols in many states to crack down on offenders the national motorist associations are saying states are looking to fill budget gaps and the frequency of a warning rather than a ticket, well, that frequency is way down.

trace: to the economy now and the road to recovery. brand new numbers from the commerce department. factory orders for february were up but not as much as during january. james rosen is watching this. he's live for us in d.c. james today's factory data right in line with what dmiss -- economists were predicting. what does it mean for the economy going forward? >> good afternoon trace. economists are not really thrilled with these numbers they show at a minimum the slowing of pace of activity in manufacturing a sector thought to be leading the recovery. let's look at some specifics here. orders for commercial aircraft last month rose by a bhoping 33% -- whopping 33%. machinery orders demands for heating and cooling equipment turbines that sort of thing that rose by more than 5% but big-ticket durable goods consumer appliances for example rose by only ..6%. looking at all the

industries take tem the all into account. new orders last month from manufacturing rose by only 6- 10th of a percentage point over january to a total of 383.5 billion. that's up more than 10% from a year ago but february of '09 was a dark time. january's rate of growth by the way in new orders was upwardly reviseed to 2.5% so that tells you how weak february's growth was some who really follows these factory order reports anyway? we asked someone whose a written them former undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs. >> this information is really mainly for the market. it's for people to figure out whether or not really for investors frankly to figure out whether they should be investing in one sector or another. >> reporter: also troubling to some economists was yesterday's report by a major payroll company adp found employers cut 23,000

jobs in march. we will find out this friday trace if the bureau of labor statistics agrees. trace: i know you're also looking at the numbers on the rate of shupment manufactured goods. was that disapointing? >> a bit, yes. shipments are an indicator of supply if shipments decline could mean retailers are comfortable with inventory levels that in turn could mean they will be hiring people soon to help dispose of excess inventory or if you're the type of person who sees the cup as half empty that there's a lack of demand and that manufacturers will cease hiring today's data shows shipments in all industries declined one-tenth of a percentage point in february to almost 385 billion dollars worth. that is the first such drop since august but we are still up in this category by more than 6% over what were again the very dark days of one year ago. once again trace in these vexing anxious times with 14 million people unemployed when we give you this economic data it turns out to be a mixed picture at

best. trace: good news and bad news james rosen live for us in d.c. james, thank you. jane: speaking of good news and bad news we've got news on housing the bankers mortgage association said apbly kagss did inch up last week the demands for home loans reached highest level since october but the bad part is it's still very hard to get financing even if you have real i great credit even if you're willing to put 20% down. anita vogel is lookinging at these numbers why so tough? >> reporter: jane as you said it is a tight lending market out there even one ding on your credit something as simly as an unpaid bill can hurt you. you have to have near perfect credit and a lot of cash to put down. sometimes 20% isn't even enough to get you into the house you want. real estate experts say this is the banks reactsing to what they did during the last dekamd -- decade. >> we had in a sense you could say promiscuous lending to begin with a few

years ago and now we had the crash and the lending pendulum has swung the opposite direction. >> and it is especially tough for people who live in big cities like new york and los angeles because the housing prices are still so high here you have to get a jumbo loan to get into a lot of homes and get luck getting one of those and even federal housing administration which is supposed to be helping people get into loans and even they are tightening their lending practices jane. jane: what do you have to show the bank to prove that you're worthy these days? >> reporter: well, again, you have to have near perfect credit these days and you have to have a lot of cash. sometimes 20% as i said isn't enough. sometimes it is 40% and then you also have to have cash veved to show that you can continue to pay the mortgage and especially you have to be able show proof of your job and sometimes that's hard to do. especially here in los angeles. a lot of people work in the entertainment industry. they're paid like contractors so it is really hard for them to show that long-standing employment and a lot of people are

wondering about the $200 billion the bank just got from the government. they're wondering when they're going see a piece of that because they're just not able to get into their homes. jane: anita vogel in the newsroom thanks. >> back in the newsroom 15-year-old phoebe prince took her own life after unrelentzing -- unrerenting harassment from schoolmates. latest tragedy in a rash of teen suicides across the country. now one group is trying to put an end to a terrible trend. trace: the new public service announcement on teen suicide prevention and what we can do to save our young people next. for strong bones, i take calcium.

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trace: 21 minutes past the hour now looks like coming across the wires we've got a triple shooting in scottsdale, arizona and some kids involved here. harris faulkner what do you know? harris: what police are saying two little kids involved a dad about an hour ago calls 911 says i shot one of my children when police showed up a little while ago found two kids deceased shot to death and dad with self-inflicted wound and say it's nonlife-threatening gated community. scottsdale. very pretty area neighbors saw somebody swerving in a vehicle short time after this happened and all of a sudden about 10 squad cars we did have live pictures hope to bring that to everybody soon. trace: also covering breaking news outside of denver, colorado police looking for a 12-year-old girl who vanished while walking to her friend's birthday party. you're following that. what do we know on this? >> yeah i just got off the

phone with police in greeley this is strange situation because this child was due at this birthday party. her mom said she had left but she didn't call to make sure he had gotten there when the little girl hadn't returned she proerted her missing. she's a good student according to police likes to go to the library not one to run off. couple thing in play. big commercial area a lot of people around. good thing maybe a witness saw something happen. bad thing a lot of strangers around that area. other thing there's a two lane highway and sometimes kids will cross that to get from one side of the neighborhood to the other as a shortcut and what they're afraid of is something happened maybe someone just didn't reports it. so police right now are working just with the detail maybe someone saw something and will come forward with that and greeley, colorado to look for halia wilson. stephanie:. trace: fingers crossed first 48 hours. >> and we're past that point. trace: that's a concern. harris faulkner live for us in the newsroom. jane back to you.

jane: we're taking a look today at a brand new public service ad campaign that's targeting what a lot of people consider really an uncomfortable topic but a really important problem. it's teen suicide and this comes after students have now been charged in the death of their 15-year-old classmate the girl feeney phoebe prince you heard so much about this week. she killed herself after what prosecutors say was months of bullying. take a look at the ad. ♪ . jane: according to the government suicide is the third leading cause of death among people from the ages of 15-24.

that comes after accidents and murder. jack keefe is the president and firnd of the inspire foundation. he helped create that ad you just saw and may be seeing again on your television screens. thanks for being here. a what are you trying to accomplish with that? >> well, the big thing about this campaign is about communicating to young people a message that when they go through difficult times in their lives that they're not alone and i think what's really important about this is you have the federal government the substance abuse and mental health services administration working with the ad council and working with corporate partners to get a message out to young people that's saying look, we all go tlus -- go through tough times and there's young people just like you who have been through this. so what we're wanting to do here is to take a prevention approach. so how do we engage with young people early on in the piece before things get really serious and i think the great thing about this campaign is that it's being tested with young people and the response about it taking

a positive approach while acknowledgeing the difficulties has resonated incredibly well with young people. jane: it is hard exactly to figure out what exactly will work with kids this age. in georgia i just noticed this week that the statehouse there is passed an anti-bullying law m as you look at the problem is that something that can help when we put laws on the books or is it really closer down you have to get down to the community live schnell. >> i think it is really important in situation like this that we focus on working with the school and the families and the wider communities. i think the punitive approach is one but i'm not quite sure that's where we need to focus our energies. as a father of a 15-year-old teen myself i can understand why we might react and want to go and put laws in place. but i think the thing that's really important here is that we look at this in a wider context. so how do we in a school environment and there's lots of measures in place to prevent bullying in schools

at the moment but how do we construct a dialogue with the schools with the teachers with the parents and with the young people as well so that when these issues are coming up initially that there's an avenue for young people to go and raise it as concern to go and get help and that we see it beyond the case of any individual that's involved at that particular point in time as tragic and as difficult as the situation is. jane: yeah as one expert said not just one school assembly who can do it really involves everybody over a continuing period of time jack heath is the founder of the inspire foundation thank you very much for this campaign. >> thank you very much jane. trace: president obama unveiling a new energy plan a short time ago expanding offshore oil drilling. listen. >> today we're announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic resources and the need to protect america's natural

resources. trace: but the will the president's new proposal help break america's depen denshy on foreign oil or strengthen the economy. a fair and balanced debate is next.

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real people, real protection, real peace of mind. don't wait until it's too late. get your lifelock protection started immediately. call now. trace: bottom of the hours, here's what's happening now, brand new information on that the story fox is following, with tension between washington and jerusalem, at a high point, one israeli newspaper reports the obama administration is proposing the solution. let's get live to mike tobin, live in jerusalem. >> reporter: trace, no confirmation from washington and the israeli prime minister's office is hinting that the report is at least partially wrong. but one israeli newspaper is reporting the obama administration is proposing a four-month construction freeze, specific to east jerusalem as a means of ending this diplomatic crisis between jerusalem and washington. in exchange for the construction freeze, netanyahu government will get an opportunity to abandon 3-party talks and move to bilateral negotiations with the

palestinians. trace back to you. trace: live in the middle east. stocks fall after disappointing jobs numbers today. connell mcshain is watching the dow from the fox business assignment desk. >> that number on the jobs market is certainly not helping the stock market in what is the final trading day of the first quarter, a quarter that's been very kind to stocks. but it turns out this economy lost 23,000 private sector jobs last month, it was expected to have added 40,000. certainly doesn't set us up very well for friday when we get the big employment report from the government. we're expecting unemployment to hold at 9.7 percent. trace: a texas town is an high alert as a mexican across the border braces for a cartel gun battle. diane macedo has more on this developing story. >> reporter: thanks trace. fort hancock is preparing for a seige as people are fleeing across the border,

at least 30 residents are already in the u.s. and asking for political asylum after the cartel threatened the town to get out or pay with blood, fort hancock fears the remaining 10,000 residents may also be on their way and that violence may follow. get more at foxnews.com. trace: diane macedo live for us in the newsroom. that is what's happening now jane: we're getting reaction from republicans on the president's plan he just announced last hour to expand off shore drilling. the senator mitch mcconnell a few moments ago said it's a step in the right direction but it's a pretty small step. the president says this is part of a strategy meant to ease our dependence on foreign oil, allowing us to run on home-ground fuels and clean energy. jim angle is looking into this from d.c. explain to me how much of a shift this is for the president. >> reporter: well, it's a big shift for the president. it's not a big shift from where we would have been under the bush administration. president obama will open up

a few more areas off shore. he's saying a lot of areas will be available but there will be years of study to see whether or not they are appropriate for development. what he's opening up is mainly off the east coast, and in the eastern gulf of mexico, a huge area for oil and gas drilling. virginia has been eager to get into this, you know texas and louisiana have been doing it for decades. actually, president obama had resisted the steps the bush administration had taken to expand off shore drilling. that is some of the criticism you hear from republicans, that he is slowing things down. he halted the previous efforts by the bush administration, and now has had at least a partial change of heart but the early word is there will be no new leases until 2012, so that is slower than it might otherwise have been. jane: jim, talk if you can about how he approached this announcement on new drilling. it seemed at a point to almost be apologizing. >> it came close to that. environmentalists will not be happy and some of his supporters, who have never liked the idea of off shore drilling. now, keep in mind, this will

be 50 miles off shore that we're talking about. today, he emphasized he didn't make this decision lightly, that he and his aides, he said, had been studying for a year. take a listen. >> the bottom line is this. given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel, even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable home-ground energy. >> reporter: so in other words, his hopes of drastically reducing carbon emissions from oil and especially coal will have to give way temporarily to producing more oil domestically, which of course helps create jobs, lowers fuel prices and hes strengthen the economy. it also means he's headed back in the direction we were headed before the last year, when he held things up. one former bush official told me he's back to about 95 percent of what the bush administration was planning, depending upon how quickly he moves jane. jane: jim angle, thank you. trace: while the president's

new plan for off shore drilling is sparking debate, supporters say it will help america end its dependence on foreign oil and create jobs but critics say the plan doesn't go far enough and keeps the vast majority of america's off shore energy resources off limits. now a fair and balanced debate, patrick creighton, with the institute for energy research, and american energy alliance, he's also former press secretary for republican congressman john pedestrianerson of pennsylvania. also with us, dick harpulian, former south carolina democratic party chair. i was interested when the president said he went into the new nuclear facility he wants to build, he said in the short term, we need to drill for some oil off the coast of america. the question is, this is not short term at all. it's going to take years to get this stuff out of the ground. >> well, trace, what the president announced today, he did not lift the moratorium or open new lands. i'd argue to the opposite. the president locked up additional lands in alaska. the entire east and west

coasts were removed from the moratorium back in 2008. what the president announced today in the southern electric was simply a study. he didn't offer any new lands for release, there's no plan for that release, it's a study the interior department is going to undertake. what he's talking about in the eastern gulf of mexico requires congressional action, those lands are currently under moratorium from a previous law. so tons of environment -- >> trace: you see where he's going, dick? the bottom line here is republicans are going to say look, the president is just trying to sweeten the pot here, he's going to give us a little bit of this and in return, he wants to get this cap and trade, this climate change, bill through congress. >> i don't think that -- i think cap and trade is going to get modified, our own republican senator lindsey graham is working with democratic senator john kerry to get a climate change or environmental bill, energy bill, that's going to do two things: one, we've got to get off foreign oil.

that is a national security issue. and two, we have to come up with renewable energy sources so that we didn't ever have to rely on fossil fuels again. and that's the goal. now, this step, how big or small it is, really shouldn't be the debate. what should be remarked upon today is that we've gone a step in the right direction, and i really don't think that, again -- >> trace: but i got to say, he said a step in the right direction. dick, pardon me, but a lot of people have said a step in the right directions tomorrow the epa comes out with their new co2 guidelines patrick and that's going to hit businesses. they're in essence going to say this is what the carbon dioxide emissions can be. how much is that going to cost american businesses? >> well, trace, i have to go back to something dix said, because it's just simply misleading and factually inaccurate. this country, you know, the notion we need to get off of fossil fuels, we're 85 percent dependent on fossil fuels and by 2030 we'll be 78 percent dependent on fossil fuels so

this notion we can flip a switch and get off of fossil fuels -- >> trace: and the new co26789 guidelines? >> anything the epa does to regulate cash on emissions like you mentioned is going to increase the cost of doing business in this country. when you increase the cost of doing business it's passed to the consumer. it seems this administration is more bent on increasing the price of traditional forms of energy rather than fostering a climate where domestic energy production can flourish, we can produce jobs here in america, and frankly, we can increase our national security. trace:il still going to be a battle. dick, i'll give you the last ten seconds. >> we need to go to wind power, electric power, nucleolar power, we need to get off of oil. your other guest is paid by the oil industry. we need to stop the oil industry, the insurance industry, and all these folks that are greedy from telling us what our policies ought to be. >> that's factually inaccurate. trace: we are out of time, gentlemen, thank you both. >> you're funded by the oil industry. trace: still out of time.

>> negative. jane: want to show you pictures from warrick, rhode island where we saw molly line this last hour. flooding is significant, people are asking people not to flush toilets unless absolutely necessary, don't do laundry or anything else that would cause water to go into the sewage system. the flooding has knocked out sewer and power there as well. take a look at this. this is what they're dealing with in rhode island. we'll bring you more just after the break.

mig i'm megyn kelly, that code who accosted karl rove joins me live to defend herac, bernie goldberg comes on to respond, do you want to get in the middle of that? i will. monica crowley, on an attempt to ban sarah palin from a university. and stossel! top of the hour. what more could we have! trace: right now the

national transportation safety board and faa are investigating a near mid-air collision over the san francisco international airport. it happened last saturday, just moment the after united flight took off, carrying nearly 300 people. the united plane came within 300 feet of slamming into the cessna. so close the united pilot actually saw the underbelly of the cessna 182. it could have ended in disaster, as you might imagine, but nobody was hurt, the faa now says it was a control tower mistake, a mistake that aviation experts say should never have happened. let's bring in aviation analyst and former pilot reporter bob turr. good to see you. >> thank you. trace: it's amazing to me, when you look at these distances, they're saying 300 feet vertical. 1500 feet horizontal. i mean, you know, they want 1000 feet vertical between planes and up to 3 miles horizontally. when you're goingta fast, the jet was probably going, what, 200 miles an hour at a thousand feet, 2-plus, this

is like fractions of a second that gap can be closed. >> that's true. that's true. when you say 300 feet, there's a 300 feet difference and 1500 feet. that was because of the traffic collision avoidance system. had that not happened, had the warnings not been given, how close would those aircraft have come or would there have been a collision. so you're talking about fractions of a second, you're taking about fab a few seconds, quick pilot time. that captain of that united aircraft actually had to bring the aircraft down, ally -- actually had to change the altitude, and that's a dangerous thing when it's not being -- it's being ordered by the air traffic controllers. trace: the pilot was not -- the pilot was not happy about this. i want to play you audio between the pilot and 777 tower. >> traffic in for -- out for departure, 777. >> e --o correcto, in your sight. >> maintain your separate path behind that aircraft.

>> 70 go past behind him. >> just hang on to your right, tag insight head for 1500 maintaining those separation. >> that set off a t-pass. that was -- we need to talk. >> roger. flight 6888, ready for takeoff. >> heading 34 heavy cross right three left, contact ground 48 on the other side. >> all right, left 874. trace: the best part was in the middle when she said that set off a t thes -- test, the collision alarms. that clearly we have to talk. he gave the 777 clearance for takeoff but didn't notice the cessna 182 on the radar, right? >> that's true, he did not have the aircraft -- he didn't have positive control over both aircraft. and that set off the t test

attaching. fortunately. and there wasn't a problem. the system worked here, the automated system worked here, however the human element once again is a problem. >> that is a problem, because this should never happen, we should tell our audience the plane was heading north to china, the cessna 182 was coming in south to land. i mean, how do you get planes that close? >> they shouldn't be that close. really, the air traffic controllers, their primary job is to keep aircraft away from each other, and get them to where they need to go. that 777 was full of fuel, flying out of san francisco airport, and climbing at a very fast rate, you know, climbing at probably about 4000 feet per minute, and gaining speed as it climbs out of the airport, so it's moving very, very quickly. the cessna 182, and there is some talk it may be an aircraft like a cessna 182, it's moving much slower, its maneuverability speed is much slower, so it just

shouldn't be there, there's no reason for it to be there, so you saw a human -- a human factor here. that's usually the problem with these types of near misses. trace: it was a clear scai. bob terr, good of you sir. >> yeah, sure, any time. jane: trace, how does vacation in a bottle sound? we're not talking about tequila, it's the name actually of 100 relaxation beverages that are now on the market. so what's in them? doctors say you should know before you start sipping. ♪ relax, don't do it >> ♪ relax, don't do it >> ♪

trace: breaking sphwhiews the newsroom concerning the

homicide bombings that have rocked russia in recent days, crossing the wise, the chechan rebel leader says he personally ordered the attacks of the homicide bombings a couple days ago that killed 39 people on the trains and he says, quoting here, that in the video, that he put out on a website, that he personally ordered the attacks, he said the attacks on russia would continue. keep in mind, another homicide bomber rocked russia again today, there has been no claim for that, but the chechan rebel leader says he personally ordered the attacks that killed 39 people. much more on that as we get it right here on "happening now". jane: you could call them the opposite of energy drinks. they're beverage on the market now, supposed to calm you down. i think that's called the martini, isn't it? these are actually relaxation drinks, sometimes called downer drinks, but the question is what's in them and are they safe for

you. dr. manny is here, managing editor of foxnews.com. they have clever names, i chill, dream water, mary jane, relax soda. do you get it. what's in them. they also have different things. >> this is a big industry. we have a niche. we have the hyper active kind of energy drinks. >> the red bulls. >> the red bulls which were very popular, especially with young crowds, now they want to kind of relax you. some could things that could be dangerous, like caba root which if taken in amounts could have a problem on the liver, melatonin, kids make melatonin, so -- >> and that's a natural hormone, right? >> it's a natural hormone. if you look at some of the pockets some contain, and if you have a problem, if you take medication, too much of it, some of the drinks, you're supposed to take maybe one drink a day, maybe two max, but people tend to forget, some have sugar, they have delicious flavors so at the end of the day you

have to be very careful. some are natural, they have a green tea derivative that are okay for you, but mentally, these things at the end of the day, i am a big believer that if you need to take things to relax, or to give you energy, then your lifestyle is out of whack. and you know, basically, you're relaxing -- >> jane: you're talking to me! >> you're -- this is a business, you know, we're supposed to be doing this on our own. if you do change your life tile a little bit you're going to be able to kind of fall asleep at night, so taking a drink like this, it's cute, it's a big business, but i don't think at the end of the day it's that healthy. jane: we have ten seconds. does the fda look at these? >> no, if they have certain products the fda is going to look at it and i think fda is going to jump on the bandwagon and begin to look at this carefully. jane: he said massages and a hot bath. >> and a martini doesn't kill you once in a while! jane: hear, hear, i love it. trace, back to you.

>> wine. >> jane: or two. trace: thank you both. former white deputy chief of staff karl rove and hecklers from the antiwar group code pink who moved in to make a citizens arrest at a book signing in beverly hills, the cofounder of the organization in her own words on what she was trying to accomplish with this wild confrontation. allall this and more, coming up on "america live". ÷÷÷÷

trace: this ought to rev you up. you are about to see some of the coolest new cars heading for america's show rooms before anybody else gets a chance. laura ingle with a sneak preview live at the new york auto show. hey laura. >> reporter: hey trace this is the last big auto show of the season and time for all of the automakers to come together and show off their latest and greatest vehicles. get people to loosen up their purse strings and really think about buying that new vehicle for the year. electric cars hybrid cars plulg plug-in hybrid cars and also good old-fashioned horsepower cars. they're all here. let's show you some tape that we have of some of the electric cars that people are talk about. the nissan leaf was unveiled this is an all electrical vehicle. you pull up into your garage and you can actually plug it in. of course we've seen this before with other cars this is all electric huge push. $32,000 and that will go up against the chevy volt which is being talked about a lot today. $40,000. i'm here with allen taylor

of car and driver talking about trends talking about the latest and greatest also here on nissan section of the floor this is something brand new the juke. tell me about this why it's so cool. >> the nissan juke is interesting if you look at the compiling of this vehicle kind of wild and crazy and kind of youth oriented. even center console looks like the gas tank of a motorcycle. they're making vehicles for the youth. i think the youth is where they see the money coming from. obviously they're -- -- cradle to grave marketing and want these cool looking vehicles because that's what the youth is asking for. >> and families talk about value not everybody has $70,000 to spend on a cadillac that goes 190 miles-an-hour. >> what are people trending towards as far as value? >> clearly want to make sure they have the value. >> i have to cut you off and we'll send it back to you trace. trace: laura ingle live at the new york auto show very cool thank you. jane: that's going to do it for us. "america live" is up next we'll see you tomorrow. >> thankuy