headquarters. have a great day. have a great day. >> eric: take care. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> brian: a little bit of luck and a lot of bravery in times square after someone attempted to set off an suv packed with propane tanks. we go live to new york on what the governor of new york called a terrorist attack. the situation in the gulf of mexico gets more grim and grim with each passing minute. the oil continues to gush. the blob continues to spread. the ecological disaster worsens. the president now on his way to get a firsthand look there as members of his administration answer tough questions on the sunday talk shows about the federal response. i am brian wilson filling in for shannon bream today. america's news headquarters live from the nation's capital starts now. new york city on high alert after a car bomb found in the heart of times square last evening. david lee miller is live in new york with the very latest

on that. hello, david. >> reporter: hi, brian. a few moments ago i left times square and i can tell you for the most part to the casual observer has started to return to normal. a little more than an hour's time, the sunday matinees will start and there are thousands and thousands of theater-goers now in times square. it was only a few hours ago, though, authorities removed the nissan pathfinder vehicle that had inside incendiary device. the vehicle was taken out on a flatbed truck around 6:00 this morning and it was covered in a yellow tarp. police had been on the scene all night. thousands and thousands of tourists were prevented from going to their hotel rooms. at this hour, the massive investigation does continue, because to a great extent, brian, the authorities now have the greatest gift that the would-be bombers could possibly have given them; that is, the intact vehicle as well as the incendiary device itself. they are poring over this device at a forensics lab. according to the homeland

security boss janet napolitano they are now trying to match finger piprints found on the car. we're told the vehicle identification number was removed. often times they have more than one vin, in a secret location and if they can find it it would move the investigation further. another thing is poring over the surveillance recording, videotape in the area that could show who is inside the vehicle. but as we understand it had tinted windows so it's not clear to what extent the recordings may be helpful. this much is certain. many new yorkers very well may owe their lives this morning to a t-shirt vendor in times square. the t-shirt vendor was in times square last night at 6:30 in the evening. and he had been there for the last 12 hours. he left just a short time ago. he was followed down the street by news reporters here. he was reluctant to speak. but he did say that yes, he

acknowledged he is something of a hero. he went on to offer this advice to new yorkers. he says, "if you see something, they should say something." brian, he was mimicking the public relations campaign that is prevalent in new york. it's very much on the minds of new yorkers as this massive investigation continues. brian? >> brian: david, one quick question; that is, i was just in times square earlier in week. and i noticed that security even on a normal day is pretty tight. has it gotten tighter? >> much tighter. there is a mobile chand post on 53th street and police in mark and unmarked vehicles. everywhere you look there is security. i believe, brian, to a great extent what they want to do is reassure the public much of this security for good reason is visible. but there is a great deal going on behind the scenes. 3:00, news conference is

schedule and we should learn more then. >> brian: we'll cover that live on your fox news channel. david lee miller, thank you very much. joining me now with more on the potential terror attack is congressman pete hoekstra, member of the house intelligence committee. i know you are on the phone and thank you for joining us. tell me what you know about this incident. >> i think you have just covered it. right now, i think there is a lot we don't know. we want to be able to quickly identify who is responsible and who is involved in the planning and attempting to carry out this attack. was it an act of domestic terrorism or might it have been inspired by terrorist groups overseas? hopefully that is the information we'll get quickly and be able to nail this down. >> brian: so there was a misfire of some kind. was this a sophisticated device based on what you heard or just some amateur

attempt? >> it sounds like it was very much a crude attempt. at putting together explosive device. a lot of groups have experience putting this together so it raises the question who exactly was responsible for this? and, you know, even maybe was it just, you know, hate to say that this would be a prank, but just somebody putting this out there. maybe not even with the real intent of it going off. those are just some of the questions that are out there that hopefully we will get answers to very quickly. >> brian: and do we have any indication is there any sense at this hour -- i know it's still very early in the investigation -- that this is domestic or is it international? >> we don't know at this point. you can make a case that it's tied to international terrorism, you know, we know that al-qaeda, especially al-qaeda on the arabian peninsula, has its sights set on attacking the united states and attacking us in the homeland.

we know that, you know, transportation centers and like in spain or in the u.k. have been targets. right now there is just so much we don't know and we shouldn't jump to any conclusions until we get more information. >> brian: all right. well pete hoekstra, thank you for joining us here on america's news headquarters. >> good to be with you. thank you. >> brian: a live picture of times square. you see behind me. and as we mentioned at 3:00 p.m. eastern time today, new york city police will hold a news conference to update us on the very latest in last night's near disaster, if it had just gone off. oh, my gosh, can you imagine the damage that would have been done? we'll bring it to you live right here on the fox news channel. now the other big story of the day. president obama in the air at this hour, heading to louisiana to get a firsthand look at the devastating oil spill off the coast. it is getting bigger and bigger. phil keating is monitoring the situation from venice, louisiana, and he joins us now live.

hello, phil. >> reporter: hello, brian. the high winds that are really plaguing all operations out there 48 miles offshore, where the deepwater horizon blew up, burned and, of course, eventually collapsed into the ocean and then causing this massive oil spill. well, this weather could impact president obama's visit here, because the winds are simply that strong right now. coast guard helicopter off in the distance right now testing out the winds. but we do expect the president to land on air force one in new orleans roughly an hour-and-a-half, two hours from now. he was possibly going to fly by helicopter, then all the way out to sea to see some of the very large and growingly larger oil slick out there. then come back here to venice, louisiana, where we are at the nearby coast guard station to get briefed by all officials here on deck. and then make a statement and head back probably to d.c. late in the afternoon. but, the winds and the weather might be flight prohibitive for the president. so they may possibly just drive down here and get the

briefing and then skip the actual tour out over the ocean. but, waiting for the president here is the harsh reality that coming from b.p., the giant oil company responsible for what is fast becoming the worst environmental disaster in decades in the united states is this: b.p. does not know precisely how much oil spilled in the gulf of mexico and it does not know precisely how much oil continues per day to spill and pollute the gulf of mexico. and it does not know how long the threat will be to all five gulf coast states. compounding the issue is everyone is working on basic estimate. the current ongoing estimate by the u.s. coast guard is 200,000 gallons a day of sweet crude are rising to the surface, spreading out rough waters and moving toward the coastline, moving so far about 2 million gallons in the water. all efforts for ten straight days to clifrp the pipeline shut and cap the well, 5,000

feet below the surface failed and each day the oil slick grows, at this point they will work on maybe six to eight days from now they can install a dome. sink that dome 5,000 feet. then suck the oil from the source of the leak on to an onboard ship. that is one temporary solution. until they can cap it, you can expect the oil to keep flowing in the gulf of mexico. >> brian: all right. phil keating, thank you very much for that rather grim update from the coast there. the shrimping, fishing and tourism industries of louisiana are in jeopardy, as the expanding oil slick threatens to wreak havoc on the gulf coast. louisiana senator david bitter has seen the damage firsthand and met with officials to discuss containment and clean-up efforts and senator bitter joins me from new orleans. how bad is it now? how bad is it going to get? >> it's extremely bad. already as of several days ago it was worse than all of the spillage related to

hurricane katrina and rita combined. that was significant. to equal the volume of exxon valdez based on estimate of 5,000 barrels a day we're probably 35 days out from that. but it is still major. the biggest problem is what you alluded to, there is no clear end in sight to when the flow will be stopped. >> brian: what are the needs -- you have at times been very critical of how it's going in saying the changes need to be made. as you look at the situation today, based on all the briefings you have had, are there changes? are we doing the right things? are we doing everything we should be doing? >> i'm not sure of that. i'm not convinced. first of all, i think there is no clear compelling plan in terms of coastal and marsh protection. and i think having b.p. operationally in charge of everything, having to make every decision is slowing that process down. the second point is exactly

what i expressed to secretary napolitano two days ago. basically saying b.p. should be taken out of the loop with regard to that coastal protection marsh land protection piece. not to change their responsibility or liability, but to make sure that the operational tempo increased dramatically. >> brian: let me ask you this other question, because you know it's always a balancing act. we're drilling in the gulf because we have a need for oil. >> sure. >> brian: our economy requires it. >> sure. >> brian: we could be talking without the oil in the gulf about significant increases in gasoline prices. >> sure. >> brian: which would devastate our economy. how do you find the right balance between drilling and protecting the environment? >> well, i don't think there is any argument that we should just start shutting down activity now or even shutting down new activity that's planned. clearly, there got to be changes made because of the incident. we need to learn a lot from it and there needs to be new procedures and equipment.

but we certainly shouldn't start shutting things down. two days ago, very early i think on "good morning america," david axelrod with the white house suggested shutting down new activity. i think that was the wrong approach. to his credit, president obama later in that day stepped back from that and said we would continue moving forward, but clearly there are going to be procedures and equipment changes made because of the incident. >> brian: all right, senator vitter, from his perch in louisiana. all the best to the people doing their hardest, working their hardest to solve the problem. for all of the latest news and information on the oil spill, you can log on to foxnews.com. where you will find links to local news coverage from the gulf coast and the latest update from our reporters and the producers on the scene be. sure to weigh in on the admittedly unscientific poll. should the u.s. scale back on the offshore drilling? so far, 82% of you say offshore drilling efforts should proceed. 11% say they should stop.

6% say they're unsure. five deaths and more rain on the way spurring evacuations throughout tennessee. memphis alone is expecting over a foot in rainfall today. increasing the floodwaters have led to more shelters opening up statewide. this is as the heavy rain comes after a sting of devastated tornadoes that hit the mississippi river valley earlier in week. watches, warnings, threats of severe flooding. here to break it all down is chief meteorologist rick reichmuth. hello, rick. >> hey, brian. yeah, such a rough time. memphis saw the foot of rain yesterday and they won't see as heavy rain today. it will move up toward the east. anywhere you see the burgundy counties, that is flash flooding going on right now. flash flood warnings. flood warning in the green and then the lighter green, flood watches in effect, as the storm will pull east, albeit slowly. that's why we're seeing such flooding concerns. the pictures coming out of

areas of tennessee and kentucky are absolutely devastating. and we're going to see more of that. we have threat for severe weather, tornado watch box in tennessee and mississippi. we have that threat. i have to tell you if you are on the eastern seaboard today you feel a day that feels like july. it's hot. temperatures already in the 80s up and down the eastern seaboard and it's humid. that's as the front approaches. the threat for severe weather today extends from the gulf coast all the way up to parts of new england toward vermont. we have a threat for hail, wind and we'll see a few tornadoes today as well. >> brian: they're warning us in washington, d.c., get ready later this afternoon i felt could get ugly -- it could get ugly. thank you, rick. nearly 2 million residents of greater boston are cut off from their clean water supply because a major pipe burst especially yesterday. officials ordered residents to boil water from the taps before drinking. engineers scrambling to repair the rupture with a temporary patch. they initially thought it could take weeks to fix but they now say it might be better by monday.

right now the president is taking a trip to louisiana to look at the oil spill, himself. is it growing faster than he thought? it may be. tripling in size in a few days. up next, we look at how it's affect america's shore, the fishermen and its wildlife. and florida governor charlie crist makes a bold move to try to hold on to hopes in winning a senate seat. was it the right one? we'll talk about that in a few moments. you're watching america's news headquarters. brian wilson in for shannon bream. back in a moment. ♪

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>> brian: president obama is currently on his way to the gulf coast for a firsthand update on the massive oil spill that is inching toward the u.s. coast. this as the administration and oil company b.p. are deflecting criticism that the response has been too slow. correspondent jonathan serrie is live on dauphin, island, alabama, with more details on that. hello, jonathan. >> reporter: hi, brian. as you know, the island community suffered a battering in recent years, first hurricane ivan and katrina and now the potential oil spill heading this way. we spoke with the owner of thelighthouse bakery earlier today and she said she had to

take out multiple loans to rebuild after the hurricanes and regrow her business. in fact, she said that this year was the best year she had in terms of customer business since those hurricanes. and now looking at a potential oil spill. also worries about the fishermen that she buys her seafood from. take a look at this video from one of the neighboring communities. yesterday, commercial fishermen held a meeting with the representative from b.p., the purpose to instruct the fishermen and other business leaders on how to file claims for damages that they suffer as a direct result of the oil spill. at times the meeting was contentious. listen. >> let me say this as your friend. if you take one penny from b.p., you make sure you don't sign a release form. because if you take a dollar from them, they make you sign a release form, if this thing lasted ten years, you can forget about it.

>> reporter: back to our live shot on dauphin island. brian, exactly 24 hours ago i was standing here referencing behind me the booms that b.p. contractors have placed in the water in an effort to keep the oil coming ashore. now you may notice there are no booms behind me because the waves have been so choppy in the last couple days the barriers had been breach and some of the booms had been damaged. late yesterday afternoon, crew came in and removed them from the bay here. back to you. >> brian: jonathan, i have heard from people in that part of the world who said they were going to dauphin island so they could show their kids what it looked like before the oil spill. is there that sort of mentality there? >> reporter: there is that sentiment. look over my left shoulder and you can see people fishing, recreational fishing. a lot of folks believe this is the last weekend and perhaps this is the last day

that they are going to be able to get that in. a lot of people heading to the island to get what some believe may be the last grimpse of the island in the pristine position. a lot of people with vacation rentals for the season canceled. >> brian: we haven't so much touched on the economic elements of that and that is one of them. jonathan serrie thank you much from dauphin island, alabama. well, this is a fox news alert. president obama -- sorry, tennessee is not the only state feeling the deadly effects of severe weather. two people are now confirmed dead in northern mississippi. after authorities say a tornado apparently a tornado, touched down in binton county this morning. dead identified as 25 and 26-year-old who lived in a mobile home. again, we'll keep tabs on that very severe weather throughout mississippi, tennessee, and it's moving east as we speak. now i'm just being told in my ear a third death has been

confirmed. primary elections get underway on tuesday in indiana, ohio and north carolina and the results could be an indication of the nation's political mood adding to november mid-term elections. in indiana, former senator dan coats was recruited by republicans but struggled to gain wide-spread support. coats could come out on top if they split the vote between former congressman hostettler and stutzman. in ohio, they support lee fisher against the secretary of state jennif jennifer brunne. in north carolina, there is cal cunningham but elaine marshall is pulling ahead of him in tos and fund reyes -- in polls and fundraising efforts. and now charlie crist announce head will run for florida in the senate race as an independent. kendrick meek polled six points behind rubio in a same

poll that amounted for much closer race for all candidates when crist is categorized as independent. joins us with more on this is the cofounder of real clear politics.com, tom bevin. good to see you and a pleasure to have you on. one of the best websites to get a quick glimpse of what is happening politically around the country. this thing with crist has a lot of people stirred up. >> absolutely. this is a huge move. two years ago charlie crist was on the short list of people who could have been mccain's vice presidential selection. he has been in political life in florida for a long, long time. always held in high esteem. and yet, you know, he goes into this republican primary and is just, was getting killed. there was no other option for him if he wanted to keep his political career alive or extend it through november. it's a decision he made and it has rocked the republican

party. you have had people taking sides and telling him it was the wrong thing to do. he ended up making the decision and it was a big decision. >> there are those who say look, this guy puts his finger to the wind to see which way the winds are blowing and does the political expedient thing. does it hurt him? vo >> voters will make that decision. like arlen specter who said i can't win this and survive this so he went in a different direction. he had another choice, gracefully back out and back rubio and live to fight another day. now he has pushed his chips in taking it to november. his future in the republican party is done. and so, you know, we'll see. it is going to be a close race i think. the problem for crist is that the way independents have been trending if you look at virginia, new jersey last year and look at where they are in massachusetts with the scott brown election, they've been sort of leaning

republican. the political guys over the last 18 months shifted heavily to taxes, deficit spending and all of that. that is where crist's real problems lie. his embrace of the stimulus package and the hug with obama, he has never been able to get past that with the republican voters. independents feel the same way so he's in a little trouble. >> brian: it seems to me as casual observer of the situation there, if crist does well handling the slick disaster headed toward his state as well, that could help him in the coming election. >> it could. probably. look, charlie crist has always been as i said, his approval ratings have been fairly high until recently. he's always been seen as competent in that regard. but, you know, he has done some things. this veto of the merit pay bill he did a couple weeks ago alienated a bunch of folks. so i'm not sure. even if he does a good job with the slick, i don't know if it changes the political calculus for november. >> brian: the other side of the occasion, if things don't

go well with the state response he could take a hit. tom beven, good to see you. thank you. >> all right, thanks. >> brian: is the car bomb in new york a terrorist plot? we will ask a former c.i.a. director his opinion about that in a few moments. just getting details about this. we'll give you the latest on what we know about deadly weather. three people now reported dead as a result of a tornado in mississippi. big storm headed from the mississippi area toward the east coast today. it affects a lot of people. you will want to stay tuned for that. back in a moment. [ male announcer ] mayo's always saying how real it is.

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>> brian: new york city on high alert this morning following a serious terror scare. nicole collins has more on this and other top stories of the day. >> new york city police found a potential deadly car bomb in times square yesterday evening. the area was cleared by authorities while the car that contained gasoline-filled containers and propane tanks was removed. president obama is on his way to the gulf coast at this hour to get a first hand update of the damage from the massive oil spill. the u.s. coast guard estimates at least 1.6 million gallons of oil gushed in the gulf since the explosion. one suspect is dead and another in custody after a minnesota police officer was shot and killed during an early morning ambush in saint paul yesterday. the 26-year-old policeman leaves behind a wife and two daughters. three people are

confirmed dead in northern mississippi after authorities say a possible tornado touched down in benton county, this morning. two of the dead were in a mobile home when the storm hit. those are the top stories right now, brian. back to you. >> brian: thank you, nicole. following the discovery of what could have been deadly car bomb in times square yesterday evening, new york city mayor bloomberg acknowledged the averted threat and thanked the police officers for their quick work. >> we are very lucky thanks to alert new yorkers and professional police officers, we avoided what could have been a very deadly event. if you see something strange, pick up the phone and call 911 and turn it over to the professionals. that's exactly what happened here. you had a vendor who saw something, thought it was strange, said something to the police officer on his horse. the police officer looked. and then the professional took over. that's why nothing happened. >> brian: an amazing story. street vendor spots it.

the new york city police officer on mounted patrol clears a block while the explosion might have been imminent. great bravery on his part. no suspects are in custody. they are combing through surveillance videos from nearby buildings looking for clues. homeland security secretary janet napolitano said this morning that investigators are treating the new york car bomb incident as potential terrorist attack. we have former c.i.a. director james woolsy. we want to know how the intelligence community including the c.i.a. might dive in a case like this. >> it could be a solo person like unibomber did but only using a car. or it could be like major hasan who exchanged 18 e-mails with al-awlaki in yemen, the islamic fanatic. and pie appears, we don't know for sure yet, inspired from

abroad though he may not have been guided or programmed from abroad. there are several possibilities here. i'm sure they are look at all of them. >> brian: if this is international, i mean the thing that comes to me is while it's troubling, and concerning and clearly people could have been killed, this is small potatoes. is that the best they got? >> i wish it were the best they could do. but the senior levels of al-qaeda are working hard to plan something huge. libby, the propagan propagand about that all the time. >> brian: tell me at the c.i.a. what things do you imagine are going on? >> i imagine they are staying close to phones.

and as soon as anything comes from the investigation from new york, or from the fbi, saying we may be looking for a connection abroad here is what we know, they'll leap on it. >> brian: thank you for joining us on the america's news headquarters. appreciate it. by the way, one of the people here at fox news who covers these kind of things, the terror i terror i terrorist and all the things about terrorism and concerns and threats about the country is our own catherine herridge and she is on the phone and she has been working her sources. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good afternoon. i had a conversation with a senior u.s. official who says to me based on the evidence so far, in investigation is wide open in terms who have may have been responsible. as you know, the nypd and the f.b.i. are in the lead. and what they're doing right now is they're assessing what was described to me as a wealth of forensic evidence. that forensic evidence is

important because it allows investigators to develop threads which may lead them to possible parties which are responsible. as for some claims purported from overseas, linked to the taliban, that was described to me as simply simply a claim this point because it's too early to say if any evidence points to a group overseas and whether that claim is considered credible within that realm. very wide-open but a wealth of forensic evidence which is going to allow them to develop tracks in the investigation to help them see whether it's domestic or whether it leads to a foreign source. that will be one of the watershed moments in the investigation. >> brian: one assumes that the person who tried to pull it off thought the bomb was going to go off and would destroy the evidence. quite a different story now. they have a great deal of information to comb over. >> reporter: well, what is clear in this case and certainly in other cases, for those like myself who follow

this is the detonator is the trickiest element of the devices. if you think back over the last even six months, if you think of the christmas -- the attempted christmas day bombing and others, it was the detonator which was problematic and did not lead to the mission being a success. i'm not tying it into that in particular but using it as an example in terms of the trade craft. that could be the most difficult element. if it doesn't come off, it leaves a wealth of evidence. in this case, for example, want to see whether the gas and propane cylinders have nails or other sl shrapnel strapped to them. that's hallmark of overseas. that is the information they are looking for now. >> brian: catherine herridge, thank you for mining your sources and reporting in on america's news headquarters. thanks a lot. >> you're welcome. >> brian: we're going to take a commercial break as we take a live picture of times square where the incident occurred last night. clearly had that bomb gone off, there would have been

people killed. in times square, even at 2:00 3 or 3:00 in the morning, it's always a crowded space. we'll continue to coverage the story and bring you the latest. we'll be back in just a moment.

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facing plenty of criticism for not attending to the situation sooner. julie kirtz is following the story and joins us now with more on that story. hello. >> reporter: that's right. the president is on his way to the coast guard station? venice, louisiana, to get that firsthand look at the oil spill and talk to first-responders there. the president left the white house this morning as his top administration official hit the sunday talk shows to try to contain the growing criticism that the government and the oil company b.p. should have done more at start, right after the oil rig explosion on april 20. on "fox news sunday," department of homeland security head janet napolitano said the federal government reacted quickly and forcefully to this disaster. >> i think we'll be happy when all is said and done to be very transparent with all the activity that has happened really from the first hours of the explosion. and those questions will be asked and they'll be answered, but the key fact of the matter is that this has been all hands on deck,

across the federal government, with the states, with b.p. from the day of this incident. >> reporter: while the law requires b.p. to pay for the clean-up, the federal response at this point, it includes 2,000 people, 75 vessels, including skimmers and barges. two c-130s for potential chemical drops and six staging areas in mississippi, florida, alabama, and louisiana. but today, the secretary of interior warned it could be three months before release well is completed to help stop the source of this oil spill. >> there are scenarios that it could be worse than the exxon valdez. we're not sugsugarcoating the sink. >> he said he's confident they can stop the leak. president obama has been getting regular updates from the spill. unstoppable spill today. he will get briefings in person and on location and is expected to make a statement this afternoon before flying back to washington.

>> brian: of course, we'll have coverage of that on the fox news channel throughout the afternoon. stay tuned, everyone. i know there are a lot of people who care deeply about what is going on, on the gulf coast. other news, congressman was arrested in immigration protest. congressman gutierrez from illinois sat in front of the white house with dozens of activists to press for federal action on immigration reform. tens of thousands of people nationwide took to the street yesterday to protest against arizona's new immigration law. gutierrez has been released since then. the department of homeland security estimates there are nearly 11 million illegal immigrants in the united states. a number that has increased by 27% during the last ten years. if afl-cio has come out against the new immigration law in arizona and is calling for a comprehensive solution to the immigration problem that doesn't threaten the livelihood of legal latino workers in the u.s. joining us is the director of

immigration and community action for the afl-cio, anna avandano. good see you. thank you for joining us. first of all, your reaction to the arizona law. as i read it here, the afl-cio said this is an affront to american values of fairness and respect for our constitution. >> of course arizonans are frustrated. people in california are frustrated, ohio, missouri. we are facing a national crisis. this is a national issue and this requires a national solution. arizona, the law isn't the way to go, because it's a patchwork approach, piecemeal approach. what we need is a solution to benefit the entire country. we need fair, practical and we need reform at the federal level. >> brian: i heard people in arizona who have been on this channel over the last couple of weeks ta talking about how the crime rate is so high and that when they crack down on illegal immigration, the crime rate goes down. you can't blame those people for not wanting to see something done. >> of course we don't blame people.

everybody wants to have a safe community. but the problem with it being illegal immigration crisis, it's not an issue of crime. arizona has the lowest violent crime rate now than it's had in the last 40 years. it's really an issue of employers being able to have workers they can underpay and under-cut fair employers. so we have to address this issue on a national basis by addressing what is really driving illegal immigration. >> brian: afl-cio is on record of saying this is an affront to american values of fairness and respect for our constitution. but these people are in the country illegally. i mean, they are illegal immigrants. >> of course. >> brian: what is wrong with cracking down on people who have not followed the rules to come to our country legally? >> this is nothing wrong with cracking down on people who employing people who are here illegally. if you are asking me whether we need to hold people who are here illegally accountable, of course we do. that's why we need a rational solution that turns the people who are here illegally

into taxpaying american citizens. it has to be on an federal level and done by respecting the american values and the constitution. >> brian: do you see in washington -- you're a rather sophisticated observer of this town. do you see in washington the appetite to take on this issue? >> well, you know, it's really time for congress to do what we elected our officials to. do time to stop playing politics with the issue. republicans have to come to the table and negotiate a fair and reasonable solution to the crisis. >> brian: thank you for joining us on america's news headquarters. >> happy to be here. >> brian: still ahead -- elang list franklin -- evangelist franklin graham was supposed to speak at the pentagon for the national day of prayer but the u.s. army pulled the plug on his invitation. he will be here in a moment and we'll talk to him about this in a few moments. prayer is what the state of tennessee could use a lot of now as more rain is expected to drape the flooded state. we learn three people died in severe weather in mississippi. more on the extreme weather straight ahead. stay with us. if you're taking 8 extra strength tylenol a day...

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>> brian: fingerprints have been collected from the smoke suv that sae sent a wave of terror through times square overnight. the federal response to what is called a potential terrorist attack has been

swift and serious. nicole collins following the situation and joins us with more. >> they do not have a suspect just yet. homeland security secretary janet napolitano was on fox news sunday this morning where she said the federal government is treating this as a potential terrorist attack but she said it's too soon to tell if this is a case of homegrown terrorism or if the attempted attack has links to foreign groups. the secretary said the investigation is a collaborative effort. >> everything in terms of investigation is being done. all the forensics are being done, all the leads are being pursued. the city of new york, it's the f.b.i., it's department of homeland security. it's looking at the vehicle, tracing fingerprints, it's looking at video because there are a lot of cameras in that area. a lot of activity today in terms of investigation. >> the nypd is leading the investigation with help from other agencies, including the f.b.i. the new york field office is

handling their response. they released a statement this morning saying all the resources of their office in new york are available to assist with the ongoing investigation. it reads -- "numerous initial reports will be check and authenticate and the appropriate leads will be set. more information will be forthcoming as soon as it is available and appropriate for release." the white house came out with a statement early this morning. in it we learned the president was briefed at 10:45 last night and that he asked his homeland security and counterterrorism advisor john brennan to communicate with the nypd about federal support, which the president says will be provided. brian? >> brian: nicole collins, always good to have you. thank you. three people are confirmed dead in northern mississippi after a possible tornado touched down there. and five are dead in tennessee from floods. elizabeth pran is following the developments on this from atlanta and joins us now with more. how is it looking, elizabeth? >> reporter: not looking too good, brian. like you mentioned, we just learned that mississippi officials confirmed that

three people have died in benton county, mississippi, as a possible tornado ripped through around 2:30 this morning. that part of the country not seeming to catch a break. tennessee still seeing a lot of flooding, about ten inches yesterday. flooding highways, roadways and rivers. now that band of slow-moving thunderstorms drefrnled t ss d volunteer state this weekend. ten inches falling in memphis turning streets to streams and the floodwaters so high some buildings were even see floating down what was once an interstate. emergency officials scramble to get people out of the flood areas, but even as rescuers were helping others they needed help themselves. raging waters flipped a fire truck, leaving the crew stranded on top of the rig until help arrived. in nashville, emergency responders rescued 50 people from that area yesterday alone. about 80 national guard men have been dispatched to the area to assist with the recovery efforts. like i mentioned, only five

fatalities so far, but we'll have to wait until it's dried up before we see the true aftermath. brian? >> brian: all right, elizabeth, thank you very much. you know much has been said over the last few days about the incident involving franklin gram who was completely dissed by the u.s. army, uninvited to a prayer service at the pentagon. franklin graham is going to be coming to us live in a few moments from north carolina. we'll ask him his side of the story and try to find out what really happened there and what he believes about the religion of islam. back in a moment. ♪

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the scare in times square. people are coming back today but it was a very different scene last night. a car bomb was discovered in the heart of new york city. i'm brian wilson. the second hour of america's news headquarters live from the nation's capital starts right now. we will go back to that story about the bomb scare in new york in just a moment. but first, president obama nowen route to the gulf coast for a first-hand look at the massive oil spill that interior secretary ken salazar calls a grave scenario. we have fox team coverage from the shores of the gulf to the federal response right here in washington. we are going to start with phil keating in venice, louisiana. hello, phil. >> hello, brian. the strong winds that continue to impact southwest louisiana could actually impact the presidents it visit. it is very possible that he

will not actually fly in a helicopter out 48 miles to overlook the oil slick but he will be briefed here on the ground. and the grim news that he is going to hear from the responders here is this -- the same news that everybody around the gulf of mexico are all dealing with today and that is bp's own concession that the real possibility does exist that this oil leak in the gulf of mexico could continue at this current rate for the next two or three months. bp even conceding it doesn't know how much oil is leaking up from the ocean floor per day. the best guesstimate is what the coast guard has been working with and that is roughly 200,000-gallons of oil per day spreading out into the rough waters and moving toward the coastline. that would mean about 2 million-gallons of the sweet crude polluting the gulf of mexico. all efforts for ten straight days to shut the pipeline down

and stop the leaks failed completely. each day the oil slick grows. bp is attempting to mitigate the flow. a second test of pouring the chemical disbursements from the ship will be analyzed later today so that could be done on a much larger scale soon. bp is assembling a large collection drone to drop on the seabed floor and then pump it on to a ship. the robotic efforts to pinch the valve shut a mile deep do continue. >> for the next couple of days we will be successful or we will get the containment system in place the next 8 to 10 days. the worst case scenario is it goes for two or three months. >> and that would be if we have to wait for a relief well to be assembled. it is being assembled where the

deep water horizon, blew up, burned and sank. you drop the new well pipe tapping into the same oil reserves that are currently leaking, thereby relieving the stress on the cracked pipeline currently there. but that would take 60 to 90 days to get that operational. they do think this dome could be doing some job of collection of the oily water in the next eight or ten days. brian? >> phil keating in venice, louisiana and we will have continuing coverage as the president arrives later this afternoon. now, is the government doing enough in the wake of the giant oil spill? julie kirtz has the latest on the federal response to the potential economic and eco logical catastrophe. hello, julie. >> hi, brian. the answer to the question from top obama officials is, yes. the federal government has and continues to do as much as possible to deal with the still

unstoppable oil spill in the gulf. president obama is headed to the coast guard station in venice, louisiana. the president left the white house this morning. top administration officials fanned out across the sunday talk shows in washington to try to deal with the criticism here that the government should have gone more right after the oil rig explosion. the obama administration facing tough questions now like is it time to federalize the disaster on vicks. thoperation. the head of the coast guard discussd that on "fox news sunday." >> i think it is probably associated with the perceptions around the exxon valdez. by statute and regulation bp is the responsible party and they will bear all the costs. we need to have an effective integrated response to this thing. >> homeland security secretary janet napolitano says the

government has taken and all hands on approach and ken salazar said this morning it could take three months before workers stop the leak by constructing that relief well. we willle hear from the president after he has the tours and he is said to give a statement on what is already the worst spill in u.s. waters in decades. brian? >> joining us now with more on the oil spill in the gulf is tyler priest. an expert on the oil industry and a professor at the university of houston. good to have you with us. as you look at it, i guess the real question i have is how did this happen? there is supposed to be all of these levels of prevention that are in place. how did all the various levels of prevention fail us? >> well, we really don't know for sure. we have to wait for the results of the investigation. what we do know is that the industry has had a great record over the last 40 years.

they have very sophisticated and technological systems that produce oil and gas from ever deeper waters. i would -- i think we should be careful about rushing to indict this industry for what has happened. this is an abration to its long record and i think we should also be careful about calling this a failure of regulation. we just simply don't know yet. >> but clearly no matter how sophisticated the technology is, it didn't work this time. >> it didn't work. and this demonstrates the risks of developing energy. oil exploration and development is risky. we tend to forget about that. oil has to come from somebody's backyard some where. and that involves risks and this industry has been very good at managing those risks and limiting those risks over

time. but this really makes us question and pause about this whole endeavor. >> it is an eco logical disaster and i don't mean to downplay that but it is also an economics story. many people believe if you crack down on the oil industry and the prices of gasoline and crude oil go up there will be an economic hit to this country. how do you find the right balance here? how do you find the right balance between responsibly exploring for oil and protecting the environment? >> that is the big question. we rely on the gulf of mexico for 30% of our crude oil and 20% of our natural gas. 75% of that crude oil from the gulf comes from deep water. we have struck a balance over the long period last 40 years. the people of louisiana, these are the folks who i'm really concerned about. they have co-existed with this industry. their fisheries and their

recreation and their livelihoods are dependent on the marsh but they are also dependent on the industry. and they live in this kind of ambivalent relationship with the industry. we can't get rid of it, we need oil from the gulf of mexico. and we can't stop it, we just have to pause and look at our safety systems and the way we operate in the gulf and the industry always learn from these things. they learned after the santa barbara blowout in 1969. i can assure you that every platform and every drilling vessel is redoubling their safety and they are examining everything. an accident like this is almost a sure indicator it is not going to happen again. >> we have to leave it right there because we have a lot of

other news developing. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> lots of deadly weather today including some tornadoes. rick reichmuth with details. sounds like it is getting rough out there, rick. >> this has been a rough really two weeks from the tornadoes last weekend. the tornadoes this weekend and the flooding. if you have seen pictures out of the nashville area from yesterday and today, i got to tell you, it is some of the most intense flooding i have seen. horrible conditions going on and there is more rain moving in across the area. all of these kind of red counties shaded in have flash flood warnings going on. flood warnings where there is green and there is more rain moving in and that will continue to cause more problems. tornado concerns, still one tornado wash bo watch box acros of mississippi. i think a better chance for straightline wind damage and maybe some hail. likely two days before the front pulls on in. this rain is continuing to fall across the same areas time and time again.

it has been about 24 hours and tennessee up towards kentucky has seen 8 to 14 inches of rain in a short amount of time and significant damage here. roads all across the state wiped out, impassible. people are urged to stay in because the situation is not going to be better any time soon. as the pictures come out of these areas it is certainly going to be quite dramatic. >> i have been told that the number of people according to the associated press killed in tennessee rises to eight as a result of the flooding. here is yet another fox news alert. runners in pittsburgh were deterred after an explosive device found on the course. it was found in a small microwave oven on a sidewalk. several blocks were cordoned off for the marathon and half

marathon. the bomb squad used a robot to disable the device. again, another explosive device. remember, we just had one in times square last night. another explosive device has been found in pittsburgh where they were having a half marathon and a full marathon, apparently found inside a microwave oven. it has been disarmed safely but no doubt this is going raise a bunch of serious questions. now, homeland security secretary janet napolitano says the administration is taking the attempted bombing of new york "very seriously. with more now on the federal response to last night's chilling discovery, we have correspondent nicole collins standing by. hello, nicole. >> hi, brian. the white house came out with a statement early this morning. in it we learned the president was briefed at 10:45 last night and he asked the homeland

security to communicate with the nypd to provide support. janet napolitano was also briefed last night. she was on "fox news sunday" this morning where she said the federal government is treating this as a potential terrorist attack. >> we are certainly considering it right now that it could be an act of terrorism or was intended to be an act of terrorism and so everything in terms of investigation is being done. all the forensics are being done, all the leads are being pursued. >> a big role that the department of homeland security will play in all of this will be sharing information with police chiefs and mayors across the country shooting spree want what this means for them.ow ed nypd is leading the investigation with help from other agencies including the fbi. its new york field office is handling their response. they released a statement this morning saying all the resources of their office in new york are available to assist with the ongoing investigation. it reads numerous initial reports will be checked and authenticated and the

appropriate leads will be set. more information will be forthcoming as soon as it is available and appropriate for relief. authorities do not have a suspect just yet. secretary napolitano says it is too soon to tell if this is a case of home grown terrorism or if the attempted attack has links to foreign groups. brian? >> nicole colins, thank you very much. joining us on the phone is the ranking member on the house homeland security committee, congressman peter king of new york. you are good friend of this program, thanks for joining us. look, we have a couple of things going on here. we have this bomb that was found inside times square and then in the last few minutes apparently in pittsburgh another small explosive device was found not too far from where 5,000 people were competing in a marathon race. what's going on here? >> brian, this could all be a coincidence or we have seen in other cases, 9/11 being the most dramatic but also in europe where you have a bombing

take place one day and a follow-up bombing take place the next. these things can run in pattern and sequence. we have to be on guard about that. all of this is being looked into by the nypd and the fbi, this was a lone wolf, was it part of a conspiracy, is there any international connection or is it just self-starters at home. could it be a timothy mcveigh or could these be al-qaeda supporters or maybe even actually controlled by some al-qaeda leadership. all of this has to be looked into and whether or not there are going to be follow-up attacks. that is why it is extremely challenging for the nypd and fbi but no one is better equipped than they are. and also they do have the advantage of having an awful lot of evidence left behind. >> let's talk about that. usually if people in the intelligence community get some sense this is not international terrorism they wave you off rather quickly. they haven't done that in this particular case. does that give us reason to

have pause? >> let me make it clear. i have no evidence that it is international so i'm not being cute with you. i could see that we have learned from the past we cannot rule anything out. and even though people say this is amateurish, well, we saw this in london several years ago where it was a bombing similar to this on a thursday or friday night outside a nightclub in london, very similar type explosives and then we saw soon after that, there was an attack at the airport. again, similar type attack. so we can't -- just because it is not done by a bombing expert doesn't mean we can rule out an international connection or even just having a cell or operatives in this country working together. >> do you have any inside intelligence, any background information on the nature of the bomb? we heard propane tanks, we heard maybe some fireworks were in the vehicle as well. what do you know? >> my understanding is there was propane tanks and they used

m-80s and there were timing devices. pretty much what i have been told by those involved on the case are similar to what has been reported by the media. the explosives were m-80s somehow wrapped around the tanks. not overly sophisticated but still would have caused tremendous damage if it went off. >> i looked on the web and saw some examples of what happens when a propane tank explodes. it is not an -- >> this would have been a ball of fireflying through times square. >> pete king, it is good to have you here and thank you so much for joining us on america's news headquarters. >> brian, thank you as always. thank you very much. stay tuned because soming up at 3:00 p.m. eastern time, new york city police are expected to hold a news conference to update us on the late nest last night's terror square in new york's times square. we will bring you that live right ear on your fox news channel. >> a popular evangelist who had

his invitation to speak at the pentagon rescinded. he said he spoke to president barack obama about the reason for all that. the reverent franklyn grahame will join us live in just a few moments. stay with us. boss: so word's gettin' out that geico can help people save in even more ways - on motorcycle insurance, rv, camper, boat insurance. nice work, everyone. exec: well, it's easy for him. he's a cute little lizard. gecko: ah, gecko, actually - exec: with all due respect, if i was tiny and green and had a british accent i'd have more folks paying attention to me too... i mean - (faux english accent) "save money! pip pip cheerio!"

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tornado and flash flood threats continue to hover over match of tennessee as that state struggles to continue from heavy rains that left at least eight people dead. the national guard called in to help with rescuing stranded families. a line of strong thunderstorms hit yesterday, dropping at least 10 inches of rain on memphis and creating some heavy flooding. the same line of storms has also hit mississippi where three are reported dead this afternoon from a possible tornado. well, this thursday is the national day of prayer, a day a wisconsin judge ruled unconstitutional. that is not the controversy we are going to talk about. eadvantagevangelist franken grl not be speaking. reverend graham as you can see joins me now -- i misspoke, you are in new york city. good to see you, sir. >> thank you, great to be with you. >> first of all, what exactly

did you say and do you believe that islam is a dangerous religion. >> well, brian, after 9/11 i said that islam was -- i love the people of islam, i love the muslim people but do i not agree with the teaching of muslim. if you just took what they did to women only, the violence that they portray to women is horrid. all throughout the islamic world, country after country. women are not allowed to vote, they are not allowed to drive, they can't have passports. if a husband decides his wife is no longer pretty and he wants a new one he can divorce her by saying three times i divorce you. he gets the children and she gets nothing. she goes back to her brother or father just to be a -- i don't know, a slave in their home so to speak. just look at what they do to women and it is a frightening and very violent religion. >> what has your message been to the muslim people that got you in trouble with the u.s. army?

>> i love the muslims and i want them to know everything that i know that god loves them and cares for him and sent his son jesus christ out of heaven to die for their sins. god will forgive them and give them eternal life, he will give them salvation but it is through faith in christ and christ alone. that is what i want them to know. >> recently president obama came to visit your father the reverend billy graham and you had a moment to talk to him and this topic came up. recount what i said. >> i told him exactly what i said after 9/11 and i didn't believe that any one, that muhammad could not lead any one to god and i asked him to overturn this decision simply because i have spoken at the pentagon before 9/11 and after 9/11. i have spoken for chaplains all over the united states. many military bases. i'm not on a crusade against

muslims. i believe jesus christ is the way of the truth and the life. the president said he would look into it. we'll see. i'm hopeful that he will rein state the invitation. >> are you troubled by all of this? you are still going to participate in the national day of prayer, correct? >> absolutely. i will even go to the pentagon whether i'm invited or not. i have a son in afghanistan. i purchase for him and for all the men that serve under him and i pray for all the men and women in the -- i pray for him and all the men and women in the military. we have two wars in front of us. our men and women are being shot at every day. they are being killed and we need to back them and we need to support them in prayer. we are the only christian relie christian religion is the only religion in the world that commands its followers to pray for its leaders.

congress has appointed thursday as a national day of prayer. >> we saw that picture of your dad meeting with the president. still looks pretty spry. people love billy graham. there is a great deal of love and respect for your dad. how is he doing? >> doing great. he finished a book called storm warnings. i hope everybody will get a chance to go out and get it. he just talked about what is going to happen in the future. the warnings that god has givenned a the judgments getting ready to come. >> good to have you here on america's news headquarters. thanks for taking time-out to be with us. >> thank you. >> tony perkins, the president of family research council joined us last week to discuss the day of prayer controversy. he compared it to when was disinvited to speak at andrews air force base because of his comments on don't ask don't tell. the air force said dr. perkins was not disinvited because of his position on don't ask don't tell as has been widely

reported. he was disinvited because airmen on the base complained about remarks he made about the president of the united states that were posted on the family research council website. still ahead, what is to become of the abundant wildlife as the oil spill creeps closer to the gulf coast shores? we'll have a report when we come back. and how is the federal government dealing with that oil spill golf crisis? chris wallace asked that of homeland security secretary janet napolitano today. chris will join me in just a moment. we're with you when you're saving for your dreams.

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this is a fox news alert. there you see the arrival of air force one in louisiana. the president has flown down there and will go to thary where the oil is coming ashore in the gulf of mexico. he wanted to be briefed by officials there on the scene about what they are doing to sort of mitigate the situation, an ecological disaster and economic disaster in some quarters. the president taking it seriously. at first there was thought that he would not go. midweek that changed and an announcement was made that he would be going to the gulf of mexico and there you see air force one arriving in new orleans, louisiana, today. and he will then go forward on down to the coast to find out

firsthand what is going on. "fox news sunday" host chris wallace interviewed interior secretary ken salazar andd that allen about the ongoing efforts off gulf coast. earlier i spoke with chris for a preview of what they had to say. >> chris, you had the sect other of the interior, ken salazar and the homeland security secretary on your show today. what is their sense of the oil slick? sounds like this is going to be long-term. >> they keep talking about we are going to try to get it stopped as season as possible and maybe we can make the blowout preventer work which it hasn't worked for ten days now. i have the feeling it will go on for weeks or months and ken salazar said given that timeline it will be worth than the exxon valdez which spilled 11 million-barrels of oil into prince williams sound. this could be an economic and,

again, could be but it could be an economic and environmental disaster. >> you pressed pretty hard about the timeline and the reaction of the federal government to this disaster. >> yeah, look, i'm of mixed minds on it myself. but the fact is that the explosion took place on the 20th of april. they thought for several days that there was no leak and then they thought it was a thousand barrels a day. it wasn't until the 28th that they decided bp that it was 5,000-barrels a day, that is five times as much as they said. and it wasn't until the 29th that the president made his first public statement. really ginned it up and got the defense department involved. their argument is we were reacting to the facts as we best understood them at the time. i'm curious about the whole relation shell with bp. according to the law, the oil company involved in the spill is primarily responsible, totally responsible for the cost, totally responsible for operating it but the federal government can step in and do

more at any point. hindsight is 20/20. should the federal government have been making independent assessments of the leak earlier. >> a balancing act. we need oil. our economy requires it. there is now some talk that this may reduce future drilling in the the gulf of mexico at a time when there was talk about beginning up drilling and doing more drilling to get over the gap to when we come to the new technologies. what is your sense about drilling in the future? >> i think that for the near term and i think ther i near tm is going to be months, perhaps years, the idea of new oil drilling is dead. there are 3,000 rigs already in the gulf and i think that they are going to continue. i suspect they will all be inspected and they will try to make sure that the failsafe mechanisms on them don't fail as it did in this particular rig. i think as a political matter that, you know, where so many areas were we beginning to open to the idea, yeah, we do need it as a country and it does seem to be safe, you know, you really want to be a politician

in new jersey or virginia or the coast of florida and you are seeing conservative republicans, marco rubio running for the senate? florida saying we got to make sure this is safe before we continue. i think there will be a big long time moratorium. >> and do you think there are economic and national did that come from that. >> we don't like the energy dependence on the bad guys in the middle east but on the other hand there are economic and national security reverberations if you have an exxon valdez along the gulf. it could be a disaster for the area in terms of fishing, oyster. >> we had some technical problems with that, we apologize. catch all of chris' interviews with secretary salazar and napolitano andd that allen today.

catch it on fox news channel at 6:00 p.m. it was a pretty interesting show, let me tell you that. you are looking again live. new orleans, louisiana. that is air force one as they pull up the stairway so that the president can come down and begin his tour of the gulf coast region. look, a very sort of unpleasant situation with the weather there today. so there is some question about whether or not the president will fly or not. but he has arrived there where it looks like it may have rained in the last few moments. he will be getting a complete update on what is going on, what his government doing and what efforts are being made to sort of stop the stem of oil, the flow of oil, to stem the flow of oil from the hole in the ground some 90 miles off the coast of louisiana. a serious ecological damage. a serious economic crisis in the making and the president wants to show that he is there with his team of people getting work done, doing the very best they can for the people of the

gulf coast region. the president will speak later today and fox news will carry those comments live in -- as the day progresses. now, federal counter terrorism experts are helping new york police investigate the car bomb at times square. on the phone with us now is former homeland security secretary tom ridge. mr. ridge, how in this case can federal agencies actually help? what would you be doing were you still the secretary of homeland security? >> i think that the organization has changed but i suspect that secretary napolitano is in contact with -- in fact, she is not in new york but i suspect now under president obama the counter terrorism chief john brennan is trying to coordinate the activity between the joint terrorism task force headed by the fbi as well as the new york police department. look, there is no city that works harder or smarter or spends more resources to keep its citizens and visitors safe and has as good a handle on counter terrorism efforts.

right now i think what the federal government has to do is try to collaborate with the troops on the ground and that is the new york police department. >> i don't know if you are aware in the last few minutes there has been another incident in pittsburgh. they were doing a full marathon today and some where near the finish line police found another explosive device. it was inside a microwave oven. it was disconnected, made not a threat but i guess nye question is if you are the secondary of homeland security and you had an incident in times square and then the next day you have an incident in pittsburgh, what do you conclude? >> first of all, i conclude nothing in terms of the source other than -- and i don't know anything about the pittsburgh attack but there is a similar pattern, i think the propane bombs were used on a couple of consecutive days in london and glasgow. they repeat the method they

used before but follow up one after another. the one in pittsburgh doesn't sound quite like this one. i think what you need to remind and the secretary doesn't need to remind america but we all need to understand we are not immune from these kind of attacks and you have police on the ground working every day. you have the joint terrorism task force working every day. at the end of the day trying to identify the terrorists before they strike but when you have 300 million people you are an open and welcoming society we need to be reminded we have to be vigilant and we need to understand we will never be immune and this is battle we will be waging for quite some time. >> thank you for joining us. could we bring the picture full from new orleans just briefly while i talk about what is going on there. the president just walked down the steps in new orleans, louisiana. there you can see he is getting into an armored vehicle. they have the armored vehicles positioned in various places around the country so when the president travels if they don't have time to send the full limo they have a safe car for him to travel in.

it does look like he will travel away from the airport there. and he eventually will be briefed on what is happening on the gulf coast and talk about what is happening to mitigate the problem and how they will do their best to stop the oil from coming ashore. a tough task. and we will hear from him later today around 5:00 this afternoon. we are scheduled to hear a briefing from the president about what he has learned. the president we are told made a decision to make this a very small footprint, that is sort of washington terminology for it would not be the full-blown motorcade. it would be a smaller footprint as he moved around the state of louisiana, not wanting to diverse resources from the task at hand, very large task and that is trying to stop the oil spill from coming ashore. investigators have recovered finger prints in the suv in new york that was set up to be a potentially deadly bomb. the vehicle is now at a forensics lab and they are coming through it for more

evidence such as hair and fibers. david lee miller was at the times square giving us the latest. he is on the scene now. david, what is the latest. >> times scar square has returo normal. looks like a typical afternoon. in a short period of time the matinee shows will be underway and the streets are teeming here with thousands of tourists. be mindful of the fact that a little over one block south of where i'm standing is where the explosive device was located inside the nissan pathfinder. the vehicle was removed here this morning at dawn. it was taken to a police forensics laboratory and as you point out they are now in the midst of trying to match fingerprints found on that vehicle. also we should be mindful that the authorities here received essentially a gift from the bombers in that the vehicle itself is intact and the explosive device did not go off so they have a considerable amount of evidence.

what they do have and what they are looking at is the device itself, it consisted of fireworks, propane tanks, gasoline, two clocks as well as batteries. authorities describe it all, brian, as very amateurish but at the end of the day this explosive device could have been lethal. and just a short time ago there was a report on the reuters wire service saying that an islamic website is posting a claim by the taliban in pakistan saying that they are in fact responsible for placing this explosive device here in new york's times square. we have not been able to move that story forward and get any confirmation whether this is just a claim that they wish were true but we may be learning a great deal more about this and other things at 3:00 when a news conference is going to be held here in new york city and we expect authorities to talk in detail about what they found and the direction of this investigation. brian? >> all right, david miller, he is on the scene in times square where they are still trying to

figure out exactly what was going on with the suv last night. by the way, information just now crossing the wire about the situation in pittsburgh earlier. officials there are now saying that they used a robot to disable the device which was found in a microwave not far from where they were running a full marathon race. according to the ap, investigators believe it was not an actual explosive. good, let's not worry about that too much any more. there is so much going on right now with the oil spill. as you see, the president is in louisiana right now, he is going be briefed on how they are working to solve the problem, what they are doing to stop the flow of oil from the leaking oil well. we have a lot of news to cover in the next 20 minutes. we will try to cover it all. you can't afford to move an inch right now. stay right where you are. you are listening to fox news channel. is america's news headquarters.

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united airlines flight 148 heading from chicago to philadelphia has landed safely after crew members found a suspicious message aboard. police and tsa officials met the plane on the tarmac to conduct an investigation but did not they say find anything of alarm. there have been no arrests made. a mega merger in the airline industry could we announced as soon as tomorrow. united and continental reportedly this close to a deal. where will it leave passengers? terry trip letter is expert on the airline industry and joins

us from minneapolis with the latest on that. thanks for joining us. mega merger thisis may would then be the largest airline in the world. what do you think about this and should we be concerned? >> it will be the largest airline in the world. i tonight think consumers -- i don't think consumers will we hurt. we will have three global carriers, huge, continental, united, delta and american battling for your dollar. they will want you to fly into their gateways for international travel. we will be the only country with three global airlines. i think consumers will come out find on this one. >> one thing i heard is when you look at continental and united together they don't step on each other. they don't fight for each other's business in a lot of markets and especially on international routes. >> that is absolutely true. continental is very strong to latin and south america and

united strong to asia and put the two together and theyville a tremendous amount of strength to europe along with the tremendous domestic network. it should be a tremendously successful airline. >> a story i covered a lot last week on the fox news channel has to do with the tarmac rule now in effect. airlines could be fined millions of dollars if they leave you on the tarmac waiting to take off for more than three hours. what do you think the ramifications of that is going to be? >> well, i think we are go to see a lot of airlines or some airlines be canceling flights. no one wants to take the risk of costing the airline several million dollars. the problem is i think our failure to look at the consumer end of this. if your flight is canceled what are you going to do, due to weather, air traffic or government regulation which this would be. come back to the gate and cancel the flights, the airline doesn't have to rebook you on another flight. they will. there will be no overnight and

no meals and no amenities at all. we have to wait and see how this comes out. >> thanks for joining us. great to have you with us. could the government or bp have done anything to prevent the oil spill disaster? we will look at that in greater detail when we come back. stay with us, everyone. ever thanks to the new venture card from capital one,

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a couple of things we are getting from the president as he arrived in louisiana. the reporters aboard air force one are telling us a few things. number one, the president got briefed on the situation in times square and also on the situation involving the oil spill during the first 50 minutes he was flying down to new orleans on air force one. as for the bomb explosion, robert gibbs, the press secretary has told people he won't get into assumptions about who might be involved and what their motives might be. the president right now getting a first hand look at what is going on there. along with federal and location officials responding to the oil spill are scoresful volunteers. the man in charge of overseeing the cleanup operation is admirald that allen. he has been coordinating the response, however, in an all hands briefing admiral allen

said the government would leverage every available resource to respond to the spill and its environmental risks. volunteers from the gulf states are pouring in to help rescue animals trapped in the oil spill. john hardeson reports on what the alabama wildlife center has been doing to help respond to the disaster. >> volunteers and staff spent hours each day feeding young birds who had been injured or forced out of their homes. this weekend, those same volunteers could be cleaning oil off of animals in the path of that giant oil slick approaching the gulf coast. >> we are on standby but we are preparing. we have called up our volunteers who have experience working with oiled wildlife and they will mobilize if need. >> several of the center staff have worked with oiled animals before and the center is ready to train more volunteers, even call up volunteered transporters from across the state to bring birds or other

affected animals to the center if need. >> it looks very likely that we will be involved, that the need will be great and will last for some time. >> this is going to require a major response. >> clayton hil hilton is a vett the birmingham zoo and is already clearing his calendar anticipating a call from the coast. >> this is a young species of bird. there are lot of young bird if their parents die they won't a.e it, let alone, what it >> the need will be greatest down the road. right now there is nothing to do bystand by and offer our good wishes but the need will go on for some time so it is good to make plans now if you can on how you may be able to help down the road. >> that was john hardeson reporting. new projects arising to help our wounded vets.

shannon bream is standing by with more on that. hello, shannon. >> i'm out fishing instead of being in d.c. but i'm not exactly playing hooky. we will introduce you to project healing using fly fishing to help wounded vets. we will be right back after this break. before rogaine, my solution to the problem was to go ahead and wear hats. i was always the hat guy. i can't even tell you how much it's changed my life. [ male announcer ] only rogaine is proven to regrow hair in 85% of guys. no more hats. [ male announcer ] stop losing. start gaining. ♪ [ male announcer ] we make them beautiful. ♪ we make them tougher. ♪ we make them legendary.

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the project healing waters is expanding nationwide to help

wounded vets learn new skills after returning home. joining us from rose river farm in syria, virginia is shannon bream. hello, shannon. >> this is an amazing project. is started just four years ago when a gentleman volunteering at walter reed said i'm just going to take one of these guys fishing, i think it would be good for him and out of that four years ago it has grown into chapters all over the country. they vascularring a tournament here today that teams up -- they are having a tournament here today that teams up pros and guys, teaching them a new skill and livin giving them a e to learn something new. we talked to two in the program. >> it is an honor and privilege to spend the day with these guys and gals. they have given so much to protect our country and it is great to be able to give back to them. >> it is liberating. i come out here and they teach you what they know and you just come out and have fun.

and the people you get to meet, you know, you can't beat that anywhere. >> and so many of these troops that i talked to today have said after their injuries, many of them very serious, they thought their lives would never be the same. some of them who like to hunt and fish and do outdoor activities thought it was over for them. they learned there was a new way for them to get out there with their injuries and do the things they love and it inspired them in other parts of their lives to relearn basic tasks, it was just a new way of living. this organization is all about that. they have spread around the country and hoping to get chapters to link up with every va hospital across the country to expand the program. brian, back to you. >> thank you very much. and hope you bring us back some fish. >> will do. >> that is all from me here in washington. stay tuned, america's news ericndrters with ehrlich shawn shawn and jamie colby continues. thank you for j