those are the headlines. >> steve: join us back here at the same time, same channel tomorrow. we'll tell you all about what happens tonight with the state of the union. everybody. after pressure to release his tax records, mitt romney now giving the country a built of a glimpse of his personal income. the former governor making his most recent tax returns public this morning. that's where we start today. good morning to you out there. hope you're having a good day. it is "america's newsroom." i'm bill hemmer. martha: certainly is "america's newsroom." good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. everybody has been scrambling to look at these documents and now they are out. his reported income in 2010, $21.7 million. he paid a 14% tax rate. meaning he gave $3 million to uncle sam. he also gave $3 million in charitable donations. half of that went to the mormon church. romney drew most of his income from very successful investments over that period

of time. bill: at the moment jim angle is on a conference call with the romney campaign talking about the release going through the information. as soon as he has more information on that jim will come out and join us live. first, romney went on the attack during last night's debate in florida. the former governor getting fired up with this shot against his rifle in newt gingrich. >> it is about leadership. the speaker was given opportunity to be the speaker of our party in 1994. at the end of four years he had to resign in disgrace. bill: newt gingrich is not leting that go unanswered. phil keating live in miami. you have been canvasing the state. good morning to you. >> this is first debate in the election cycle for the republican nominee where mitt romney was not polling ahead of everybody else. at least not perceived as the absolute frontrunner as they all entered the forum there at the university of south florida in tampa. and so, two reason polls came out,

post-south carolina which has gingrich ahead of romney in florida, by eight points and nine points. and this is after weeks and weeks of romney with a very clear lead in the polls and in organization. so romney, came on the attack and gingrich, appeared to take the higher ground. >> i'm not going to spend the evening trying to chase governor romney's misinformation. we'll have a site, newt.org by tomorrow morning. we'll list, he said four things are false. i don't want to waste the time on them. the american public deserve a discussion how to beat barack obama. american public deserve what a discussion what we do with the economy. this is the worst kind of trivial politics. >> reporter: here in florida, romney, like i said, had a long time lead on organization. he has got, great fund-raising lead as well. he has been running tv commercials for about a month. gingrich has the lead in the polls. and he clearly is now taking the position of frontrunner and we'll see how that plays out.

we've got nine days to go until the election. bill: believe it or not, four guys on stage. guys on the wings were santorum and ron paul. how did they deal with this romney versus gingrich element, phil? >> reporter: that was certainly a sidebar with all the sparring. romney on the attack. gingrich sparring back not necessarily as aggresive. santorum as well as ron paul, clearly not getting enough airtime. even moderator brian williams seemed to make a comment about that. santorum says, look he won the iowa caucus. he won one of the three elections here. not just gingrich and romney. he thinks anybody trying to make prediction at this point is a bit foolish. >> i think if you learned anything about this election that any type of prediction is going to be wrong. the idea this was a two-person race has been an idea that has been in fashion now for eight months, it has been wrong about eight times. >> reporter: ron paul also

asked about his electability here in the sunshine state. it is the biggest battleground state in the country. the first real test where much more of a national dynamic than new hampshire, iowa and south carolina and ron paul says, if you take a look at the demographics of all the people voting for him. he is doing very well in the under 30 voter crowd. he thinks he is doing pretty well in hypothetical head-to-heads with president obama. bill: got it, phil. one media analyst called hit armageddon in florida. enjoy next week and a half. phil keating. martha: ron paul with young folks across the country. continuing to hit the former speaker for his work with freddie mac. romney trying to remind florida voters, gingrich he says was cashing in while many in the state were suffering there from the housing crisis. watch this. >> there is point in this process gets unnecessarily personal and nasty that is sad. the fact i had a very long career of trying to represent the people of

georgia and as speaker the people of the united states. i think it is pretty clear to say that i have never, ever, gone and done any lobbying. >> mr. speaker, you were, on this stage at a prior debate you said you were paid 300,000 dal by freddie mac as an historian. they don't pay people $25,000 a month for six years as historians. martha: we'll talk about that coming up. newt's campaign released his contract with freddie mac right before the debate last night. that document shows that he was paid to provide, quote, consulting and related services to freddie mac. the word lobbying is never mentioned in that contract although he was hired by the lobbyist at freddie mac, for the services. coming up we'll put the questions to rick tyler, former gingrich campaign spokesman about whether or not the former speaker did any lobbying, this is a big issue. so we'll get into that. bill: in the meantime it was not any easier for newt

gingrich on the trail, dealing with a heckler during a stop in tampa. hear is the exchange from yesterday. >> so when you --, when you look at -- [inaudible] i'm not a reagan conservative? [booing] did you know ronald reagan? [inaudible] right and in 1980 i was campaigning for him. in 1980 i was campaigning for him. in 1981 i helped pass his program so -- [booing] i'll talk to you later. well, look it is a free country, you know, mitt is allowed to have two people out of this number. bill: she wasn't giving up, was she. gingrich went on to call his rival mitt romney, quote, desperate. the former house speaker saying romney is losing his lead in the polling and will say anything to get the lead back. martha: i will talk to you later about that. rick santorum taking on

florida hot button issue of offshore drilling. long time supporter of offshore drilling despite it could endanger florida's essential tourism draw, its beaches. >> what threatens the tourism economy in florida is very bad economy it became a very bad economy because of a huge spike in oil prices in 2008. energy is absolutely key to keep all of our country healthy, specifically florida which is a destination place. martha: it certainly is. florida's tourism industry means big bucks for the state. some 82 million people visited the sunshine state last year according to the latest records. they open their wallets when they're there, spending more than $62 billion. florida's tourism industry employees nearly one million people. bill: a big part of the economy. did you know that we've got to you covered for that primary. next tuesday, full coverage throughout the day. our special election kicks

off at 6:00 p.m. eastern time in the evening with bret. fox news is america's election headquarters. it will be battle number four. we'll see how it goes. martha: to into it -- tonight is big night the president obama delivers his third state of the union address. it officially marks 1,000 days since the senate passed a budget. 1,000 days they have been working on that. april 29th, 2009 was the last time the senate passed a budget for the united states. three months after president obama's inauguration. now the president has delayed the release of the budget. stuart varney is here with the fox business network with a little bit more on that. stuart, what do you make of at that you will that? >> 1,000 days is the best part of three years. i believe that is a record for no budget out of the united states senate. many people will say that that is a sign of fiscal irresponsibility, financial irresponsibility. it is also, martha, rather convenient. if you have no budget, you've got no constraint on spending. you don't have a blue print for how america should spend

its money. so all programs are just continued with built-in cost increases. therefore the costs, the spending continues to rise. in that 1,000 days we have racked up approximately an extra $4 trillion in debt. that is the meaning of no budget for 1,000 days from the u.s. senate, a huge chunk of extra debt because there is no constraint on how america spends its money. martha: incredible. so how has this happened, stuart? how did we get here? >> the senate has been markedly reluctant to cut spending. if you've got a budget you have a plan, you have to spell out where with the money goes. you have to spell out any cuts that you want to make. in the absence of a budget there is no constraint on that spending. the senate doesn't want to take the heat for cutting spending. therefore, no budget, therefore, much bigger debt. the president has delayed sending his budget out, putting his budget out.

by law it is supposed to be out on the first monday of february, that would be february the 6th this year. we heard it will be february the 13th, because of difficulties with the technical details of getting the budget together. so another delay for the budget, for 2013. martha: incredible. stuart varney, thank you very much. fox business network coming up in a few minutes. bill: folks like paul ryan are out talking about that. 1,000 days and still waiting. >> we'll talk to john barosso. bill: that is coming up this is coming up here in "america's newsroom", only two days delaying the keystone oil project. president obama will tout u.s. energy sources tonight. is that a contradiction? key guest on that next. >> did you hear about this? senator rand paul, taking on the it. a. wouldn't you like to do this sometime when they say, could you please step over here? what happened with the tsa that kept him off a flight to washington? great story coming up. bill: deadly storms ripping a path of destruction. look at the images from above.

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martha: some drama in a los angeles courtroom. a former highway patrol officer collapsed when she learned that she was convicted of murdering her husband. take a look. >> we further find the allegations that the defendant, tameka johnson personally an intentionally use ad firearm within the meaning of penal code section 12022, 25-3-b to be true. we find the allegation in the commission of the above offense --. martha: boy, what a moment. for that woman. tameka johnson said she and her husband got into a

struggle over a handgun and it went off. prosecutors argued that she intentionally fired on her husband. she faces 50 years to life in prison. bill: it was only days after the white house torpedoed the keystone pipeline project. president obama will call later tonight for an increase in u.s. energy production. my next guest says the keystone project would have created thousands of new jobs and developed that very energy. cathy mcrogers, vice-chair of the republic kahn house conference energy committee. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: this is right up your alley. you sent a letter about a month ago about keystone asking specific questions, have you heard back? >> not yet. urn unfortunately the president said he didn't have enough time to make the decision on the keystone pipeline. it is a very important project for american energy production. this is a project that has bipartisan support. the state department has

been looking at it for three years on average. they take year-and-a-half, two years. they have had plenty of time t could be up to 100,000 jobs here in america that are desperately needed at a time when we need to be putting americans back to work. the president unfortunately is saying no to american energy and a no to american jobs. it is the wrong answer. bill: you think 100,000 jobs? that is lot higher than i have heard? how do you arrive at that number? >> well there's a lot of potential. there are jobs that are directly related to the building of the pipeline. there is secondary jobs that come with a project like that. just last week the president's jobs council, it is interesting, this is a group of ceo's that are brought flat white house to advise the president how to create jobs. they recommended an all-in strategy for america.

say yes not to just green energy but oil, gas, coal. they said it was very important. the administration, the president isn't listening to his own jobs council. bill: when he makes the appeal about increased energy production tonight, how do you believe that squares with the keystone call? >> well, i think it, he doesn't understand what it is going to take to, you know, he needs to start saying yes to american energy and unfortunately he hasn't. we have an example here of two different approaches. one is a keystone economy where the private sector developing american energy versus the solyndra economy where it is the federal government deciding who will get the money, who will, who is going to get money for investment. it is a contrast in approach. i believe the private sector is the way to get this economy going, start saying yes to american energy and it's a win-win for americans. bill: do you think republicans have made these points with clarity?

i mean if keystone is not going to be built and gasoline around memorial day, every year it seems to shoot through the sky. just a couple years back we were looking at $5 gasoline. there is political risk by the white house making this decision. >> i think it is the wrong decision by the white house. look at facts when president obama was inaugurated gas prices were $1.80,. today they're 3.off on average. we've seen dramatic increase in gas prices. americans are concerned about dependence on for return oil. propping up dangerous dictatorships around the world, whether vaenz venezuela or whether it is the middle east. americans want an energy plan for america. they want us to start saying yes to american energy, start putting together a plan to make us energy independent. we have tremendous resources. let's start developing those resources. bill: do you think it is an easy thing for the white house to explain why

canada is willing to work with the chinese now? >> i think it is very tough, very tough for the, for president obama to explain his decision on this pipeline. yeah, at one point he said, well, the republicans didn't give me enough time because we only, we said, he needed to make a decision in 60 days of a he had three years. well, he made the decision on day 26. if he needed more time he could have had a little bit more time. we'll keep pushing him on this. we'll push the issue for warned hopefully say yes to american energy. bill: kathy rogers. thank you for being with us today. martha: there is new twist in the "fast and furious" controversy. that is the botched gun-running operation linked to the death of border agent brian terry. one state decided what they must do is launch their own investigation into that. we'll have a live report on that coming up. bill: this is not what folks in the south or anywhere

expect in january? tornados? jonathan serrie is live near birmingham, alabama. jonathan? >> reporter: that's right, bill. we're in the town of clay which, as you can see was hard hit by tornados yesterday. coming up we'll show you one family's amazing story of survival. dinner? candles? i wanted it to be special. oh, what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. mmm, it's good. honey, i love you and... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. yeah but honey, i love you and... is that what i think it is...it is... it's bacon. honey look. [ male announcer ] progresso rich and hearty... 4 new flavors, you can lose yourself in. what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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bill: we are right now 23 minutes past the hour. the new consumer financial protection bureau, richard cordray, bows before congress today. he was appointed by the president bypassing congressional approval. 9-year-old girl who escaped her kidnapper by calling 911 in a convenience store. she said she got the strength for her dad who told her to stand up for

herself. large rock side in yosemite. the rocks causing damage to a well-known road. look at that. no word word when the road will be back. what a great part of the country. martha: that girl told her parents. if anyone tries to take you fighting fighting, until you get away. that is great lesson for all the kids out there. good for her. how about this? devastating tore made coast -- tornados teaearing across the heart of alabama. 400 homes heavily damaged or completely destroyed. lack at the devastation on the ground in birmingham, alabama. take a listen to what the victims say as they described what happened. >> i ran to the laundry room. got the rest of my family. we were in the laundry room when it actually hit. we could hear the walls vibrating. we heard a loud crash of the tree landing on our roof. >> pressure on my body.

i said everybody get down now. i covered up. my mother start started back to fall as the floor gave way. i pulled her back. martha: one of the hardest hit areas which is clay, alabama. jonathan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, to you, martha. clay is just outside of the city of birmingham. as you can see behind me, dozens of structures either damaged or destroyed. toppled trees. as you pan over here, you see relief crews did a great job rapidly removing trees and branches from the roads to clear the roads and allow first-responders to get into these areas. everywhere you look you see blue tarps on roofs. we shot some video a little earlier this morning that i want to show you. we took a walk up the hill. we saw this house where the tornado had ripped the roof off the house. one of the walls was missing. as you looked in, it looked like a dollhouse. at the far right of the home you see this pink room with

a baby's crib in it. there was this 18-mont old girl was sleeping there. her parents were sleeping you have stairs. then the torenado -- tornado sirens went off. the father describes what happened. >> heard the sirens, woke up and went back to he had about. my wife got up and watched news. got me a little before 4:00 and took me downstairs. we, just, hung in there. >> reporter: chip snyder says as the tornado struck the windows were blown out. after that happened the family could feel the air getting sucked out of the house. after it all passed, he put on some shoes and went out. he heard a neighbor calling his name. and, went out and other neighbors helped him to dig the neighbor out and bring him to safety. as for the home, which is a near total loss, chip says that he is not worried about that. anything can be replaced except yourself, he says.

martha, back to you. martha: boy, what a story. that blue sky over clay, alabama, this morning after all of that devastation. our hearts go out to the people there. jonathan, thank you so much for that report this morning. >> reporter: thank you. bill: too much for any state much less than alabama after what they have been going through. bill:. we have an update. the divers are back searching for at least 17 people that are missing. crews are starting another tricky operation on this cruise line in italy. we'll tell you what that is in moments. martha: it is out, folks. the mitt romney's tax returns that have been much discussed in this whole process. we'll tell you how much he made, how much he gave to charity. a fair and balanced debate on whether or not -- send me a tweet @marthamaccallum. do you care how much he makes? we'll talk when we come back.

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bill: so mitt romney's campaign holding a conference call at the moment talking with reporters, explaining the release of these tax returns. jim angle is on that call. he is live in washington now. you hopped off the line to join us. what's the headline that you're hearing, jim? >> reporter: well, bill, we all knew the romneys made a lot of money. we confirmed that this morning. he released his returns from 2010 and estimated returns from 2011.

he made earnings from investments in blind trust of more than $21 million in 2010, just under 21 million in 2011. he made charitable contributions over the two years of some $7 million. about 16 1/2% of his income. in addition almost all his income is in the form of capital gains which is tacked at a lower rate of 15%. so the romneys effective tax rate after deductions was 1.9% in 2010 and 15.4% in 2011. that is less than his political opponents who learn most of their money in salary but his effective tax rate is in the same range, analysts say as most americans. >> for most americans, that even goes up into $150,000 in income, it is right around 12%, 12, 13%. >> reporter: so there is nothing unusual about investment income taxed at lower rate. president clinton passed a rate of only 20%. george w. bush lowered it to

15. president of both parties like lower capital gains rate because it encourages investments and helps jobs grow. president obama emphasizes a different point everyone paying their fair share which we're hear more in the state of the union. bill: that bring us to the question of what is fair, jim? >> reporter: it does indeed. romney pays millions of taxes on earnings. gives millions more to charities and earns a lot of money. here is how he put it in the debate last night. >> i pay all the taxes really require and not a dollar more. i don't think you want someone that is candidate for president that pays more taxes that he owes. i will point out that is the case. will there be discussion and an article? sure. is it entirely legal and fair? absolutely. i'm proud of the fact i pay a lot of taxes. >> reporter: in terms of broader tax fairers in the top 5% of the earners in the u.s., pay almost 60% of the total taxes paid in the country. the bottom 50% of the taxpayers, pay only 2.25% of

the total taxes. so the rich obviously earn a lot more but they pay the lion's share of the nation's total tax burden? bill: get back on the phone call. jim, we'll talk to you a bit later. when more headlines come back, we'll talk to you. martha: mitt romney answering questions about his taxes as you saw in the debate last night. he did so ahead of this morning's release. take another look at last night. >> you will see how complicated taxes can be but i pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. i don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes. i will point out that is the case and will there be discussion? sure. will there be an article? but is it entirely legal and fair? absolutely. i'm proud of the fact that i pay a lot of taxes. the fact there are a lot of people in country pay a lot of taxes. i would like to see the tax rate come down and focus on growing the country, getting people back to work. that is the problem in the country. we have a lot of people out

of work. let's them start paying taxes because they have jobs again. martha: he is glad he pays a lot of taxes because he made a lot of money. he says that is good thing. andrea tanteros, and bob beckel. both are co-hosts of "the five". good morning to you. bob, it's out. are we done with this? >> i think he is probably done in the republican primaries. i don't think among republicans it will be that big of a deal. i'm a little surprised he waited this long to do it because republicans think paying as little taxes as possible is good thing and get away as much as you possibly can and that's fine. i think bigger issue for him in the general election when it will look to the average american, i don't know who that guy was jim angle reported, 12% is ridiculous. that is not the case. people pay a lot more money than that. martha: is that your phone? >> my bookie calling, i'm sorry.

martha: we'll let you take that. go to andrea. bill: take the giants. martha: take the giants bill said. andrea, bob basically says that republicans like it when people make a lot of money. this is no big deal for them but in the general it will be a bigger deal. we saw he paid $3 million in taxes just this last year. $3 million in charitable contributions as well. that is nice piece of change. >> yes. 7 million in charitable contributions over the last two years. this is not a big deal. i know for the last two weeks bob and his buddies have been speculating there is something sinister in the tax releases. frankly mitt romney was successful. that's the bottom line. we're not going to demonize success. that is not what we do in this country. president obama's campaign will. we should thank mitt romney. he paid a lot of money. millions of dollars that goes to fund the welfare state that bob and his friends expanded to extreme levels. look, i think when bob says that republicans try and pay

as little taxes as possible, bob, everyone of us walks into the h&r block in april and takes every deduction available to us. now, if democrats have a problem with it, they should reform form tax code, something the deficit commission obama commissioned himself put together a plan. he hasn't touched. don't complain unless you put changes forward. martha: bob, i think you're right, you say in the general election this will be the turned into the fair share discussion. no doubt we'll hear a lot of that from the president. he believes everybody should pay their fair share. mitt romney, did he pay his fair share, $7 million over course of a couple years? >> under this tax code he did, yeah. martha: okay. >> to a certain extent andrea is right, somewhat unusual situation this early in the morning but the fact is, there is, there are two different groups you're talking about here. you're talking about republicans in florida versus independents and people who are in middle

class in the general election. in that case, i think that's a problem. the other thing, let's keep in mind, mitt romney's own tax proposal he gave two or three months ago would decrease amount of taxes he paid by several hundred thousand dollars. as he said last night, newt gingrich's tax bill he proposed would have romney paying nothing. martha: is that a problem, andrea? >> that is not actually true. i know, believe it or not i'm going to be right again, bob this early in the morning. under mitt romney's tax plan he would pay more than under the gingrich plan. >> more than under the gingrich plan. >> what i found so amusing. look, i think they're trying to demonize mitt romney as the jeffrey dahmer of capitalism. in fact he saved or created to use some obama language more jobs than this president has in his career. >> that is ridiculous. that is absolutely ridiculous. >> bob, it is ridiculous when this man is so successful, made a fair living. no scandals at bain capital.

>> i'm not arguing that the guy broke the law. i'm not arguing he broke the law. martha: you don't like it? >> i'm arguing this is compared to the average american who pays considerably more than 12%, whoever that dude was -- >> bob, he is covering a lot of people who pay no taxes at all. >> they pay no taxes at all -- top 5% of the pay 60% of the taxes they also control 70% of the wealth. martha: exactly. that is exactly right. >> let them pay 70% of the taxes. martha: because they're creating or making a lot of money and creating jobs. >> it is ridiculous to argue they pay all the money in taxes. they own almost all the money. what is the difference? of course they should pay it. >> bob, he pays a lot more than most americans. >> he makes a lot more. do you know many americans pay 29 million. >> would you like him to pay 100%? would that make you happy. >> you shouldn't dodge out and get away with 15% because you're a hedge fund and he got in the caymans in

bahamas and switzerland. >> who would you bet on? martha: we'll hear it tonight on "the five". >> you bet you will. martha: that is my tease. bill: only 9:30 in the morning. beckel, let's go. south carolina, new hampshire, iowa, all told us one thing. about the economy, jobs and government spending. these are major headwinds in an election year. we'll talk with the communication direct or of the white house about all that in moments. martha: i love this story. did you hear about this? senator rand paul and airport security. what got him very upset. >> so i said i'm happy to show you my leg. i showed them my leg. but that wasn't good enough. they wanted to do a pat-down. you always have homework, okay? i don't have homework today. it's what's right here is what is most important to me.

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all right, well the future of our space program, speaking of that, was a big hot topic at last night's debate in florida which of course is the home to the kennedy space center. so it gets a lot of attention in the florida discussion. but nasa has seen its extensive budget cuts happen lately with the shuttle fleet's retirement. that was not lost on mitt romney. this is what he said. >> we have a president that does not have a mission or vision for nasa. because of that people on the space coast are suffering and florida is suffering as a result? what is the right way forward? the right mission for nasa should be determined by the president with a collection of people from the different areas, from nasa, from the air force, space program, from our leading universities and from commercial enterprises. martha: well in 2010, an economic impact study found that the space agency accounted for over $4 billion of economic output in florida. some $33,000 jobs and $2.2 billion in household income.

bill: so the president is set to make the economy issue number one later tonight in his state of the union address. dan pfeiffer an assistant to the president and white house communications director. welcome here to "america's newsroom", dan. >> good morning, bill. how are you? bill: i'm doing fine. you have a tough job here selling the economy where it is bumping along here. you know so many communities across the country in key parts of the country that will determine the outcome in november are hurting. what is your message? >> well, i think it is important to recognize the progress we have made. when the president came in office we losing 700,000 jobs a month. we have created 3.2 million jobs past three years. this past year we created more jobs than any year since 2005. so we're making progress. it is not happening fast enough. we need to create more jobs. the economy needs to grow faster. the president will create a blueprint to create jobs, grow the economy and make sure the middle class has a

fair shot in this economy. bill: your answer is delivered with candor. clearly you're not happy with the level of progress now. i mean you have to sell this argument with 8 1/2% unemployment. this is almost 10% in florida alone. as you well know that is where the political focus is right now with the primary in a beak. 4 -- week. $4 trillion added to the national debt in a four years time. those are headwinds, dan. >> absolutely this is tough economy. the politics of the economy is not important. what is important how the economy affects middle class. he put forward the american jobs act would add $1.2 million jobs. we passed some of those elements with republicans. unfortunately even those were bipartisan ideas the republicans supported in the past the republicans oppose this. you will hear him talk about new ideas that will help create jobs by discouraging outsourcing and encouraging what we call insourcing when companies are bringing jobs back.

bill: look forward to hearing those ideas. but when you're the president, you're the one holding the bag. i think the number that is most difficult at the moment is the right track-wrong track polling. if you average all them together right now, 66% of the americans believe the country is on the wrong track. >> well i think, there is no question people have been hurting. we h a financial crisis in 2008. but the middle class in this country has been hurting for a long time. the american people understand we didn't get into this mess overnight, we're not going to get out of it overnight. the question before public we debate which question to go in terms of economic policy and philosophy, we want to keep moving forward or go back to the policies that got us in this mess. bill: that poll, that right track, wrong track, that decideses you've been in politics long enough. that is what decides national elections. speaker boehner was asked about the themes later tonight. he called them pathetic. what do you say to speaker boehner?

>> i say couple things. i encourage speaker boehner to hear the speech before he renders colorful judgement on it. he will hear ideas are things that he supported in the past. things like putting construction workers back to work be rebuilding roads and bridges. the question for speaker boehner and all the republicans in the chamber tonight, are they going to be willing to put country before party and work with the president to get things done? our hope is that they will do that. that is what our country expects. it would be disappointing as we read in some reports house republicans and senate republicans want to spend the next year just playing politics trying to hurt the president. that wouldn't be good for the country and probably not good for them either. bill: we'll hear how the debate goes and more colorful judgment to come. dan, appreciate your time. >> thank you. bill: martha? martha: you heard about this? this is a massive solar storm. this is for real, folks. we're being told it could crash the internet, it could destroy satellites and could bring down electrical grids. ist is literally coming at us. the biggest storm of its

kind in six years. senate tom jones will tell us what to expect and how to get ready. bill: not to mention your blackberry. why one state is launching its own investigation into "fast and furious". why are they doing that? we'll find out. martha: before you head out today, make sure you take us everywhere you go. bill and i will be in your back pocket, foxnews.com/mobile. download the app for the mobile service and we'll come along with you. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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bill: senator rand paul's taking on the tsa over a pat-down. paul says he was detained at the airport in nashville. was noll allowed to board the flight in washington. he was not open to getting a pat-down. >> i said, i'm happy to show

you my leg and i showed them my leg but that wasn't good enough. they wanted to do a pat-down. i'm happy to go through the rescreen and walk through the screener again. and they wouldn't let me. so i was detained in an area and told if i used my phone, i got the full body pat-down. bill: some of us have been there. martha: unbelievable. bill: paul was not detained, rather, quote, passengers, in this case who refuse to comply with security procedures are denied access to the secure gate area. support paul got on another flight to washington. both senator and father, candidate ron paul, long voiced their operation to that pat-down method in american airports. ♪ . martha: [inaudible] if your smartphone goes on the fritz today and mind already did. i don't know if i can link it directly to this, if you can't surf the web today or

have trouble sending an e-mail it may be because of what is coming from the sun right at us right now. the earth is getting bombarded with a dose of radiation the likes of which we've not seen in more than six years. it is called a massive solar flare. possibly could disrupt satellite communications and global positioning systems. former nasa astronaut and fox news contributor tom jones joins me now. good morning. always good to see. >> you good morning, martha. martha: i was reading notes you sent on this segment when i got to the bottom this is the headline. we should prepare for on set of major storm that could crash the internet, destroy our satellites and bring down electrical grids crippling to the digital society. you really believe that is a possibility here? >> perhaps not in this particular storm this week, martha, but over the next few years as we head toward the maximum of the solar cycle in 2014 we should be ready for a storm in that dim men shun. that historically happened

in the past and we should be ready. we shouldn't always assume our past experience of the sun is what we'll see in the future. martha: who is in danger with this particular storm and what would you watch out for? >> this week the radiation levels are termed strong and that means in the polar regions we're getting a lot more charged particles hitting the top of the earth's atmosphere. if you're airline passenger gopher over the polar route to asia you could get more exposure to radiation. nasa astronauts are restricted from doing spacewalks because of higher radiation dose. martha: you have flown through these but you wouldn't want to be on spacewalk during one of these. >> when i was on the shuttle and i flew through the aurora borealis in the southern hemisphere you've seen the radiation flux. if you're outside and you could get a dose sufficient to stop you from going on another spaceflight so it is a career risks. >> would you advise people

not to take flights to the asia in middle of this? >> the airlines are rerouting flights and flying at lower altitude to get more air above you to protect you from the radiation. martha: tom jones, always enlightening. thank you for being with us today. >> my pleasure. bill: true your blackberry has been a mess. martha: my new iphone which has given me no e-mails since 6:33 this morning. bill: them are fighting words, right? martha: exactly. bill: hey, did you know florida is already voting. coming up, larry sabato on which candidate could benefit from that. this is fascinating. >> closing arguments in a case involving garth brooks. what has this country star so upset. we've got the details on that coming up. ♪ . in america, we believe in a future

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martha: fox news alert, mitt president's state of the union address tonight. in a couple of minutes from now he is set to deliver a pre butt alto the president's address this evening. that's how we start a very busy brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. a busy night for romney, and releasing his taxes today. martha: carl cameron is live from the romney event in tampa. what does newt gingrich say now that it's out there, the mitt romney tax releases are fair game? >> reporter: they've only begun to sift through what was a teleconference call by the romney campaign revealing all this information and making the documents available online. the gingrich campaign is saying they didn't expect fraud or wrongdoing per se, but they felt it was important that romney release his tax returns so the republican electorate with know the financials of the nominee

before he glow forward. he is so wealthy and has shown a propensity to mislead in his attack ads and political rhetoric that somebody has to be careful with somebody in his circumstances. romney had a swiss bank account that was only closed down in 2010. that is the kind ever thing that has the gingrich campaign raising its eyebrows and says that voters have to look at that further because these are the questions that ultimately could di disqualify him from being the republican tomorrow knee. martha: w tomorrow knee. martha: is there a perception that there is nothing in here that they need to worry about? are they still going to keep looking, and perhaps they will find something? >> reporter: no i think the gingrich campaign has put its sword back in the scabre.

they wanted the information released and they'll look over it and see if there are any additional questions to be raised. as for the caymen island investment -blgts the romney campaign forcefully pointed out on the profits from the investment -plts mitt romney pays all the u.s. taxes. not a lot of negativity there. last night just before the debate in tampa newt gingrich revealed the contract from 2006 that one of his business enterprises had with freddie mac, nan that mit and in that mitt romney says he has an advantage. he is suggesting that beginning riches disqualified for having worked for $1.6 million for freddie mac when freddie mac was involved in contributing in mr. romney's view to a housing collapse. there is an ongoing battle of documents here, and it's not going to stop, and it's also going to only amplify the real anger between these two candidates as they question one

another's character and integrity with these two things. what both campaigns are hammering here is the character behind each individual that raises the questions. martha. martha: indeed they are. that's why they call this the vetting process, and the vetting is sort of heavy right now. carl, thank you very much. carl cameron joining us this morning as usual at the top of the 10:00 hour. we turn our attention to rick taoeurl, a former spokesman to gingrich. he is now with the winning our future political action mitty that supports the former house speaker. good to have you today. >> good morning, i'm happy to be here. martha: did you find anything in mitt romney's tax returns that concerns you? >> the one thing that does concern me, i'm glad that he disclosed them. he's probably to disclose more. one thing that does concern me is how much taxes did he avoid paying from having off-shore accounts. that is one question people would want to know. martha: we know that so far the campaign has said that the taxes

was paid on the money before it was deposited in those accounts. i'm sure you're right, we will hear a little bit more than that. there was a swiss account closed in 2010, that will be discussed as well. as karpl wa carl was just saying, and i was asking our twitter fans what they think about this issue. do they think it's worse that newt did for freddie mac, $1.6 million brought into that work and the medicare part b we'll get to as well or are they more concerned about mitt romney's money? it's a mixed bag. some of them are concerned about your candidate's associations that they consider to be lobbying, then though it doesn't fit the technical description they say he used his influence for medicare part b. there are three congress people out there that say, yes, he did call me and said he wanted that to pass while he was working and

peud by paid by a pharmaceutical company. why should people not have a problem with that? >> newt nor a longtime worked on large-scale change. he started the health transformation to come meet with universal payer which is now what we have under obamacare, which is based on romney care. he said we should move more toward free market healthcare and not socialized medicine. they casted obamacare, based on romney care and we need town do that. so the stake holders that came together under the center for health transformation were companies that voluntarily joined who were saying we don't want socialized medicine we would like to work toward an alternate model where the free market works. the free market you get more choices of higher quality at lower costs. martha: he was being paid by novo-nortis which is a company that makes insulin. an was arguing, i believe that

it's better to give these patients th the insulin than it would be to pay for their dialysis machines later on, which is a notion that people can understand. could you say he wasn't using his influence, mitt romney would say peddling his influence with these congress people. this ended up to be a one trillion dollar of entitlement in this nation. a lot of people very outraged that it passed an was instrumental in getting it passed. that is the issue they are bringing up with this. >> it's medicare part d, d as in drugs. medicare part d we have a medicare system, one way or another or like it or not. we won't bar drugs that help people with mental impairments to stabilize, and alzheimers to diabetes, and diabetes will cost the american taxpayers billions,

and billions are dollars. some estimates on alzheimers go up to a trillion dollars. we are going to tell those people who are on medicare, even though we'd like to see a new model of medicare we're going to tell them the government will pay for your kidney transplant for diabetes, we'll pay for your foot am stations, we'll pay when you go blind but we won't pay for you to get insulin which is a lot cheaper. there is a smart thing of doing things and a dumb way of doing things. martha: it's going to be an issue that we'll hear a lot about to be sure. now you released the contracts, with regard to freddie mac. can you tut this to rest for newt gingrich or will it continue to come up over the course the debates, the work that he did for them, $1.6 million, not lobbying, influence peddling? >> newt gingrich was asked to join fred doe mcfor tr

strategic advice. it started to go down under carter annex paepbd under khreupand expanded under clinton. he was brought in to see if they could go in a different direction. ultimately he was asked to decide if they should be dispanded. what is never said is mitt romney has earnings from fed demcand fanny may. he was a keynote tpaoebger at freddie mac in 2004. he didn't complain about them then. by the way, mitt romney's burks ndlier list, all of them are on k street. if anyone is is doing peddling, it's mitt romney. martha: a lot of people want this to be over. they say let's forget about the

stuff that has happened in the past and move forward. >> i couldn't agree more. martha: ric rick tyler we thank you for being here to get your side of the story out. bill: mitt romney coined a new phrase in his answer about immigration. nba's brian williams asking him to clarify his stance on deportation. >> well the answer is selfdeportation is that people decide that they can do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here. so we're not going to round people up. bill: immigration is a big issue in florida. the hispanic population is sizable. he says his policy would make it more difficult for illegals to get jobs. in the past he said you can't round people up and deport them. a lot of speculation that ron paul might run as a third party candidate. paul is saying, do not count on that, stopping just shy of saying, absolutely, positively not. >> will you run as a third party candidate? >> i have no plans to do that,

no intention, and when i've been pressed on it and they ask me, i said i don't want to. i haven't been a absolutist. bill: he once left congress vowing not to return but he changed his mind on that one. you will see how he will do in our primary coverage a week from today when fox news brings you complete kofrpblgt also on our website at foxnews.com. breaking news, a series of car bombs leaving at least 14 dead across baghdad today. 60 others injured. those attacks are the result of rising tension between the ruling shiite and the s sunni minority. more than 200 people have been killed since that pull out. watch that story. martha: a lot to watch there. that is a tough one that will continue to be in the news as well. the death toll is now 16 as crews continue searching for victims of the coast t coasta

chip wreck. bill: black eyes at the white house, what happened in senator john kerry? ♪

martha: he showed up at the white house with two black eyes and a broken no, sir, got to give him credit, though, he was still all smiles because he was there for a very happy occasion, folks. the massachusetts senator john kerry went in because he was with the team that he loves, the boss toon bruins had been invited by the president after winning the 2011 stanley cup. big win for the pwraourpbgs it was actually a holiday hockey game, he leaks to get out there and play pickup on the ice. he got the shiners from hockey,

denying rumors they were linked to cosmetic surgery. he was out there playing hockey, which we know he likes to do. bill: that is true. quite a picture, though, wasn't it? arizona is launching its own investigation into operation fast and furious, that is the state doing this now. the legislature wants to know if the federal government broke state law. two of the weapons turned up at the scene of border patrol agent brian terry's murder and that started a firestorm for some time. willia >> reporter: yesterday arizona initiated another investigation. they want to know if state laws were broken. two, what about additional crime victims. 2,000 guns were illegally bought, sold and smuggled inside of arizona. some were used in kraoeufplts the justice department knows where but are refusing to say. third, the committee wants to

hear from arizona gun dealers who helped the government sell the guns to buyers they knew were criminals. they believe they were coerced. >> there are 1500 guns or more missing and we don't know where they are. hopefully we'll be able to find it. that affects arizona and arizona citizens. >> reporter: some state laws may have been broken by federal officials, including misconduct involving weapons, facilitation, conspiracy, those are some of the questions they'll try to answer. bill: what does this committee start its work, then? and how does that conflict in any way with the federal investigation, william? >> reporter: it could, it could, bill. the committee is by part son, members will be selected this week and the report is due march first. the first hearing will be fairly soon. we don't know if they'll use the grand jury, a state attorney general or the special prosecutor to issue subpoenas. the department of justice will probably try to to squash the subpoenas of federal employees. many in arizona say it's time to find out what happened in fast

and furious. >> we waited long enough for the feds. this thing is now well over a year old. i think it's time to move forward and see where we are really going to be and see what really happened here. >> the feds won't do it, we have to do it. the answer simply would be, they've had their chance, they've dropped the ball. >> reporter: so you know we're going to see political theater and grandstanding, yes but the testimony should also be pretty exploits i have. bill: thank you for that. martha: this is just the latest fallout from this operation fast and furious. the atf designed that program to stem the flow of weapons over the mexican border but it allowed suspected traffickers to buy weapons here in the united states and they hoped they could track the weapons to find out where they were going and get to the heart of some intelligence work on mexicans cartel -- mexico's cartel members. the weapons sold through fast and furious are now linked to at least two violent crimes here in

the united states, and there in lies the huge problem in all of that. bill: there was a milestone today for senate democrats. today marks the one thousand day without passing a budget. this as we get word that president obama is going to miss the legal deadline for his own budget plan for the third year in a row. what do republicans plan about that? we have a senator here to break that down for us. martha: this morning they released the final tapes, the audio tapes from jfk's final days. what was he talking about in those days before dallas? that is next.

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martha: 21 minutes past the hour right now. unbelievable flooding in northeast in austraila. you can see cars and businesses completely submerged forcing evacuations. it has knocked out power to thousands of people. it is martha in the middle, not this martha, that martha over there. she's got a deal with macy's, now there are products showing up at j.c. penney and macy's is not too happy about that. they say it violates her contract with them and they are not too happy about that particular martha. how about this the man wind wikileaks coming to a tv near you. announcing plans for a new talk show. he promises more of his specialty, which is controversy. bill: i like that. he can book martha stewart on the show and he can bring you on, and they would have both marthas. i'd watch that.

martha: one can't cook. i won't tell you which one. bill: a hidden piece of american history coming to the surface. the last batch of previously secret recordings made by president john f. kennedy go public today from vietnam to the space race, to the last days of his life. laura ingles on this story. live from new york, what do we hear on this. >> reporter: the tapes being released come from more than 260 hours of recordings jfk privately made in the months before his a assassination. they include meetings and discussions with the s soviet union and re-election plans. he talks about young voters heading into the 1964 elections. ago you can hear when it comes to america's frustration with its america outlook the more things change the more they stay the same.

[inaudible] >> reporter: it's a fascinating listen for anyone who has craved more insight into jfk's presidential style as it brings his personality to life as you hear the sound of his voice. bill: how many hours are there here, laura? >> reporter: there are 45 hours of these privately recorded meetings ever phone calls which jfk's top aid didn't know were being recorded by the president. one made days before his assassination he asked staffers to schedule a meeting with an indonesia general around the cape then comments about what would become the day of his funeral. why did he make these tapes? they say jfk may have been saving them for a memoir.

we'll have more of these throughout the day. bill: thank you for that. a look back at a key part of american history. martha: rick santorum is trying to link mitt romney to president obama. >> there is no difference between president obama and these two gentlemen. that's why this election in florida is so critical that we have someone that can actually create the contrast between the president and a conservative point of view. martha: why the sunshine state could be ground zero. the g.o.p. battle, it sure is right now, and how the early vote will be a major question from florida. bill: speaking of words. the road worker who painted this one, painted near a high school in fact would never make it through the first round after spelling bee. where this happened in a moment.

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martha: back to italy now where divers off of the coast there have recovered the body of the 16th victim now from the costa condoria. officials prepare to pump a half a million gallons of fuel from the wreck anal. they hope to prevent an environmental disaster as the search continues for people

still missing. he going burke is live from giglio. we are told they are pretty confident they can get the oil out? >> reporter: martha, that is right. there are a number of factors here. one is that the weather has been good, but more importantly that the ship, which you see right behind me seems to be settling in on that ledge there. that has allowed them to get started with this oil extraction process. they probably actually won't wart pumping until start. it's very complicated. they've got to send divers down, and they actually have to heat the oil up before they can get it out. it's been chilled by the water there, it's called the hot pap process, which they send actually steam into these containers down there to do there. they do seem to be quite confident about getting the work down. 500,000 gallons is a huge amount but they say it will take an entire month if the weather continues to cooperate, 28 working days. martha: how are the people on the island dealing with all of this.

gregg? >> reporter: well, they just want to see this over with. first of all the oil out, and then second of all the ship gone. this is an island that relies a little bit on fishing but almost entirely on tourism, people coming here to sale, scuba diving, summer rentals, that clearly depends on this water remaining clean. they obviously want the ship out of there, that is an eye sore for them right now, although some tourists are coming right now just to take pictures, but they want the ship out of there, but most importantly that the oil get off safely. this is a very popular area with scuba divers. they make most of their money after of that kind of thing, people coming here for the summer to enjoy the waters, they've got to remain clean. martha. martha: thank you very much. best of luck to them. bill: a big job, isn't it? martha: sure is. bill: mitt romney is about to speak live in the sunshine state, he's on the stage right now in tampa. romney calling it a pre butt alto the state of the union

tonight. he's in tam tpa in part because that's where the votes. you go back to 2008 you see on our touch-screen billboard behind us here and the results of that contest and the primary between john mccain and mitt romney in florida. mccain won by 5 points. 1.9million votes cast in florida alone four years ago. here is tampa, this is hillsboro county. to the west, pinnellas county. also the votes found in the southeast where mccain was very good four years ago. that is miami-dade, 153,000 in the primary. this is broward at 97,000 votes cast and palm beach county at 96,000. over the next week expect to see a lot of mitt romney, and newt gingrich in these parts. all these counties, by the way,

all 67 at the moment are open for early voting, which brings in our professor of everything, larry sabato director of the center of politics, university of virginia. sir, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: 40% of the vote will have been cast before election today. what is the effect of that, do you think? >> the affect is to help mitt romney, and goodness knows he needs it. he's behind 6 to 9% in every poll that's been taken in florida so far since the south carolina primary and beginning's win. why is he ahead? because he's the candidate who has had a major ballot operation for both absent tees and early voting, and he's got a clear plurality of the 200,000-plus who voted so far, and he's going to need it, bill. bill: he's going to need it because of what happened in south carolina, he needs a major bounce back. you were talking earlier today, and some other people are talking about this too, and i don't know how much truth there

is to it. if gingrich were to win florida by a sizable margin that you believe the republican establishment would try and push somebody else in to this race, is that a possibility? >> they would start talking extensively about it, bill. look, a lot of them are going to share that ballot with the nominee in november. now maybe the establishment is totally wrong, but they believe that gingrich will lose to president obama, and they believe that there will be coattails that will sweep some of them out of office. if gingrich wins florida on top of south carolina, they are going to get very nervous, they will try to find somebody, i'm hearing again, they are going to go back to mitch daniels hoff course is giving the response to the state of the union address tonight, and who was once considered a possible candidate and said, no. now whether it will actually workout, probably not, but you never know. this is a wild year, bill. bill: what romney would say is that his strength is in the

states after that, nevada, and michigan. he's got a chance to recover before big super tuesday early march. >> exactly, that's why i don't think it will workout the way some people are talking. there is no reason for romney to give up. he's got a great operation in nevada. he's very sure of carrying nevada, he thinks. he's got pretty good operations in other states, including michigan where he grew up, that's the end of february, and also arizona on the same day, february 28th. so he has no reason to give up. you'd have to get romney how the to get another candidate in to become the anti-gingrich. remember we talked all year about the anti-romney, now people are talking about the ante gingrich. bill: there is a media analyst who says that florida is arm ma tkpwed on at the moment. that's what they said about south carolina. i'm not sure what to believe any more. there was a report today that said florida is a test of romney

4 dominance, whether money triumphs the populous field that beginning riches pulling along with him out of south carolina. do you sense that? >> yes, although, remember, gingrich has got even another 5 hill dollars contribution from his favorite donors out of las vegas, the adelsons. that is 5 million more. i assume he'll spend most of it in florida. if you live in florida and you don't like negative teugs need to turn off the tv the next week, and of course we don't recommend that because you'd miss all the great news coverage on fox. bill: including yours. >> yes. but i tell you it's going to be a torrent, it's going to be a category 5 hurricane. >> appropriately enough in the sunshine state. you have a piece today in the "wall street journal," you asked whether or not endorsements matter. you have a conclusion? >> yes, and the evidence is they actually do, surprisingly. not the really minor ones, its the major endorsements by

rel-know well-known party figures that people have confidence in. people are trying to find their republicans, not just a republican, their republicans. it helps them sort out truth from fix. bill: romney has 72 members of congress backing him thus far. from gingrich it may be a handful and many of them are from the state of georgia. whether that matters in the end remains to be seen. larry thank you. it's great to have you back again. larry sabato, university of virginia. >> thank you, bill. martha: we are $15 trillion in debt in this country. we have high unemployment, and now the white house says that they are going to delay the release of the federal budget. the whole process has to start with the president, and he says he's not ready to release it quite yet. republican lawmakers speaking out on that coming up. bill: john boraso is on debt. why is country music star garth brooks suing an oklahoma hospital? >> i don't want to be that guy, i don't want to be a guy that is

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bill: this lawsuit brought by country star garth brooks against a oklahoma hospital could come to a decision today. the singer is suing the hospital after he says they failed to name a women's center after his late mother in return for a $500,000 donation. the hospital says they did agree to do something to honor brooks' mother but never promised exactly what that would be. keep you posted on the verdict as soon as it comes in. martha: all right republican lawmakers are now blasting the obama administration for announcing that they will delay the release of the federal budget. the move comes as today marks one thousand days since the democratic-controlled senate has passed a budget. a thousand days with absolutely no budget, that is one of their utmost responsibilities as legislators. joined now by wyoming senator

john borasso. good to have you here today. >> good to be with you, martha, thank you. martha: this is the third time administration has postponed the release of their budget. what is going on? >> well, i think that the democrats don't want the american people to see just how week less and irresponsible the spending continues to be. the president, by law, has to submit a budget, the beginning of february, and then both houses of congress have to by law, by april 15th pass a budget. it's now been a thousand days since the democrat-controlled senate under harry reid has actually passed a bulge e. last year the president put out a budget, it was felt to be a budget that wasn't very serious, and it failed, zero-97. not even one democrat voted for the president's budget. martha: that was a huge failure. they may be trying to avoid that this time around as we wait for him to release the budget. he will have 1.2 trillion in

cuts because of the failure of the super committee. that was the deal. what do you think we'll see in cuts when we do get the budget. >> i want to see what the budget is and the president ought to talk about that tonight in the state of the union. he hats a responsibility to own up to the american people in terms of the direction and the spending. just since we started talking this country has borrowed another 2 hil $2 million. we are going to borrow $4 billion today a lot of it from china. that is just not right. we need a budget. families have a budget. states have a budget. in the state of wyoming we balance our budget every year, families do that. it is time for america to do what families all across the country do, and it falls on the democrats in congress and harry reid to pass a budget. the house passed a budget last year under congressman paul ryan and it really did have a directional shift in terms of focusing on ways to get our fiscal house in order. the democrats have been irresponsible. martha: we have ability piece of

sound from john boehner in terms of what he expects tonight. >> the president has been in total campaign mode since labor day. since the campaign apparently wrote the speech i expect we'll hear a campaign speech. martha: i mean the president is going to blame republicans. he has in the past, for not being able to come up with a budget that was passable by democrats in the senate. that's what they'll say. >> well, the people all across the country believe that this country is heading in the wrong direction, and the president has been ineffective. when you look at what the president has promised over the last several state of the unions, he said, pass this healthcare bill, and it will lower the deficit. we know that not to be true. he said, pass this and we'll get all of these people back to work. we now know we have over a million and a half more people out of work now than when he became president. so on point after point what the president's rhetoric is is very different from the reality of what the american people have seen, which is why so many

people are very disappointed with this president. he inherited a bad situation, an made it worse. martha: senator, earlier bill was speaking to dan phiffer, a communications head in the white house an blamed it on republicans. he said we hope that republicans and democrats can come together, we hope it won't be the sort of soul mission of republicans to see that the president is not reelected by blocking any progress, that both sides need to come together and work for the american people and get something done and not waste another year. >> well, i'm on the conference committee dealing with the extending of the tax relief for hard-working americans. we'll be meeting in the next 20 minutes. i want to find solutions, i want to get people back to work, but when the president stands in the way of the keystone pipeline, energy security, which is part of our national security, bringing that energy to the united states, jobs to america, at the same time selling -- the

canadian people are saying if you don't want it we're going to sell this oil to china i think it was an absolutely raw, political move by the president in the face of what our economy need. he made that decision to appease a number of his extreme supporters who really do not have, i believe, the best interests of the american workers getting people back to work in mind. martha: all right, we'll see what we hear tonight. senator john barasso, thanks for being here. bill: jenna lee is standing by telling us what she's cooking autopsy there and is happening in the newsroom. jenna: it's one week until the florida primary, ten hours until the state of the union and the republican response. among our guests today, neil cavuto, brit hume and the man who crafted tear down the wall reagan speech. peter robbins will be joining us. plus the solar flares hitting earth right now, if you didn't have enough to worry about. what it means for you. we'll talk about it.

bill: we are actually using this as an excuse for work today. see you in a few minutes, jenna. the tea party driving a driving political force throughout president obama's first term. you haven't heard much from them so far in the battle for the republican nomination. have they lost some of their influence? we'll talk to congressman dick armey who helped build the grassroots group. martha: she is 85 years old and he is 82 and they would still do anything for each other. how one sharp senior saved her husband's life with a shovel. >> i would go over and pound and then he would back up a little bit what i was hitting him. and then i saw, finally i saw blood skirting out of george's head. squirting out of george's head. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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martha: love really does conquer all. ask this 85-year-old who was forced to defend her husband who was coming under attack b a moose. this wild animal started charging towards her husband when they were out walking. that was scary. >> i hit it with everything i had, and the dog then just climbed up his leg, biting him and he chased him clear up the road out of sight. martha: her 82-year-old husband is recovering. looks like he's doing okay, he sustained head injuries and several broken bones. good thing she brought a shovel along on the walk. bill: he is lucky to have her won't you say. it's a mystery in new england that has experts at a loss. dozens of dolphins stranding

themselves in scenic cape cod. 80 showed up in the last week, 30 in one day. the question is why, and molly line streaming live out of cape lines in or leans orleans, massachusetts. what is happening there, molly. >> reporter: hi, bill. its been an incredible year for this type of activity, keep the rescue organizations that try to save these dolphins and release them into the ocean very, very busy. joining me to talk about it is a. j. catie. they go out and they do these rescues, more than 85 doll anyone's stranded this year. it's been an exceptional year, right? >> it's been an unprecedented year. normally deal deal with about 120 dolphins over the whole year and we are getting close to that figure just since the 12th of this month. >> reporter: over 60 deaths, is that unusual? >> it's not unusual for a strapbgd of this magnitude. the good news is we've got 24 of

them back out and into the water. we are starting to prove increasingly every year if you get there you can save the animals and get them back. >> reporter: this is tough work, you're lifting up these heavy animals, trying to get them across the cape and rereleasing them where it's safe. talk about that effort. >> it's an incredible effort with our volunteers helping out the staffment it's muddy, cold. we load them into stretchers. we take them up to the trailers. the veterinarians check them out. we take a little ride out to ray's point and release them into the ocean. we know they have the best chance there. >> reporter: what does that feel like? >> it's a great feeling. it makes up for the heartbreak for the ones that you lose. >> reporter: why are there so many strand inks on cape cod, save for australia and new zealand this is one of the hot spots for this to happen around the world. >> a lot of it seems to be related to geography. if you look at the cape it's shaped like a hook. and the haerb is almost another little hook. we think a lot of it has to do with that. there are other things at play that we don't know and we are

still researching. >> reporter: one of the things that fascinates things about dolphin is they are social animals. are they following each other? >> they have incredibly tight family bonds. when one of them gets into trouble all the other ones can stay there. it also can help because when you put them back in the water they go out together. >> reporter: there are consistently reports of dolphin strand inks, maybe, one, two or day, you guys are chase them around. you heard of one possibly today, can you give us an update? >> it's down the coast in rock harbor. i just had a report of one. i just came from there, i haven't seen it yet but we are still looking for it. >> reporter: thanks for your effort. a. j. cady thanks for chatting with us this morning. bill: let's figure out that mystery and soon, martha. martha: an embarrassing mistake for one new york city school, can you tell -- i hope you can tell what is wrong with this crossing sign. it's bad. we'll be back.

martha: did you get about this in the goal -- about this? the goalie from the bruins getting attention yesterday. most champions of sports teams get this great opportunity to go to the white house but the goalie and mvp of the game says he declined to go to the white house for political reasons. he basically said he thinks the government has too much power and that it is not the vision that the founding fathers intended. he's one of two americans on the bruins team, bill and he basically dissed the whole thing! >> bill: that's a statement normally, you would think you can't wait to go to the white house. it's a treasure. martha: i think he made a mistake. you can state your political beliefs but when your team is going to the white house, you have to respect the office, respect the team and show up. bill: he's going to see john kerry, too! it is not your typical

school crossing sign. see something wrong here, do you? it's been that way for months! man oh man, just outside new york city. here's what some of the locals are saying about shcool. >> sh? they forgot the -- >> they forgot how to spell! >> it happens. it happens to the best. >> that's terrible. that's really bad. really bad. they need to fix it. >> bill: they are. department of transportation is going to correct that sign because it's so cool to go to school! >> martha: you thought there was a letter missing. there was not a letter missing. the letters are just arranged in the whole order! >> bill: can i buy a vowel? you could buy a vowel, if it was spelling a different word, but in this case, it doesn't fly! >> martha: this is reflective of one of the small problems -- >> bill: and i don't see a problem with the top word. i see a proble