what is x-ing? >> martha: please. bill: when they do, we'll bring you that! >> martha: i'll be with you again tomorrow. "happening now" folks are coming right up, we'll see you tomorrow. thank you for being here. jon: and we begin with this fox news alert, after 24 hours, we're seeing devastation on a massive scale, entire neighborhoods wiped out in alabama, after those two deadly tornadoes roared through in the middle of the night monday. good morning to you, i'm jon scott. jenna: hi everybody, i'm jenna lee. we're here in the fox news room, and "happening now", 500 homes damaged or destroyed. the governor of alabama declaring a state of emergency. he's going to tour these affected areas today and get an up close look at it. it's pretty remarkable what you're seeing on your screen now. one man rode out the storm in his home and described what it was like to see it crumble around him. >> i felt that pressure on my body, felt it in my ear, i said everybody get down, get down now. that's when i covered up,

and my brother and my mother started falling back as the floor gave away, i grabbed her and pulled her back in this area right here. we have a tree right here, a tree right here, all around us, it's chaos and things are going to hell in a hand basket, yet here we are. not touched. jenna: what an account. he's lucky he survived. two people, though, died in those tornadoes, an 83-year-old man and this 16-year-old girl. jon: you can see here how a tornado forms. experts have desmed that what they call an ef3 twister hit those areas of jefferson county, an ef3 typically has wind speeds between 136 and 165 miles per hour. they can knock down walls and damage to homes is usually severe. jenna: jonathan serrie is live in clay, alabama. jonathan, just seeing around you just like utter devastation. >> reporter: it truly is. take a look around here, over here, this -- what

looks like used to be a mobile home, unsalvageable. as we pan to the right you can see this debris scattered. crews have done a good job clearing the roadway so that first responders can get in, but a lot of damage to repair. over here you see blue tarps on this roof, a gentleman is passing out water and biscuits to the relief workers. he works for a local bank, he's using a relative's house as a staging area to get into this area, and he says it's eery, because he was doing the same thing when tornadoes hit the tuscaloosa area less than a year ago. i have some video that i want to show you now from earlier this morning when we took a walking tour of the neighborhood. we saw one house that was gutted by the tornado, the roof was ripped off, one of the wall the was missing. looking inside it looked like a dollhouse. one of the rooms was all covered in pink and we saw a baby's crib. we were very worried until we met the father, who said that yes, the baby, the

mother, the father, were all asleep at the time that the storm hit, and then they heard the sirens go off. he describes what happened: >> we heard the sirens, woke up, i went back to bed, and my wife got up and watched the news and she came and got me a little bit before 4:00 and took me downstairs and we just hung in there. >> coming back to our live shot, over there in the distance, that dog is named ce. cee and residents here say that that dog was a hero. the dog's neighbor is a woman who has epilepsy, she's an epilepsy medication that makes her sleep soundly through the night. well, when the sirens went off, the sirens did not wake her, and the dog, ceecee, started barking, started tugging on her. in fact, that's the woman right there, cuddling the dog, and she says that dog

woke her up with 12 seconds to spare, she got her son, the dog, went into a closet, and survived the tornado which caused heavy damage to her home. jen yarks back to you. jenna: heros emerge in stories like these, jonathan. thank you for introducing us to just one of them in this sideways. more from alabama as we get it. jon: well, it is make or break time for the republican presidential candidates. one week before the florida primary. mitt romney, newt gingrich, rick santorum, are criss-crossing that state, working to shore up support. fifty delegates at stake in this winner take all contest. ron paul is bypassing florida for now, choose to go focus on nevada and some of the early other caucus states. meanwhile a stunning role reversal in the debate last night, mitt romney taking off the gloves, blasting newt beginning arrive on a number of issues, including his time as speaker of the

house. and his consulting work with mortgage giant freddie mac. >> in the 15 years after he left the speakership the speaker has been working as a peddler -- as an influence peddler in washington and during tse years i helped turn around the olympics, helped begin a successful turnaround in the state of massachusetts, when i was fighting against cap and trade, the speaker was sitting down with nancy pelosi on a sofa, encouraging it. jon: newt gingrich taking the high road, choosing instead to try to refute romney's charges calmly. >> i think it's pretty clear to say that i have never, ever gone and done any lobbying. in fact we brought it in an expert on lobbying law and trained all of our staff and that expert is prepared to testify that he was brought in to say here's the bright line between what you do as a citizen and lobbyist and we consistently for 12 years, running four small businesses, stayed away from

lobbying precisely because i thought this kind of dem a.m.tory and false charges would be made. jon: let's get a debate. with us former howard dean campaign manager and fox news contributor joe it. rippe, former adviser and deputy chief of staff to george w. bush is karl rove, also a fox news contributor. so did we settle or did newt settle that lobbyist argument, karl? >> no. in fact, i thought this was the best prosecution of it that romney could possibly offer. he called it an influence peddler and look, there was a reason why freddie paid newt gingrich $1.6 million, it was so that he would be on the payroll, they could point to his support of freddie and fanny as evidence that conservatives could comfortably continue to support them. i thought newt gave a good response, which was to fly and float -- try and float after ito above it and say they were hiring me for my consulting advice. we'll see how it plays out but i thought it was an effective prosecution by

romney and gingrich took the best course, which was try to float above it and try and act presidential. jon: joe, do you agree with the assessment it seemed to be a reversal, you had a fiery romney and calm beginning snrich. >> definitely. i think romney had one of his better debate performance. i don't know if that's because he has a new debate coach or because he's been sort of forced into that role. but the interesting thing, again, this is exactly how newt got into trouble the first time. he kind of, once he went to the lead, he had that surge before iowa, and he started getting careful, and he's not a good frontrunner. he's a very good come from behind guy, but once he gets the lead, he just seems to get too careful and cautious, and i think it hurt him again last night. jon: and a lot of darts have been thrown, karl, at mitt romney over his wealth, frankly. when you hear that newt gingrich, you know, got $1.6 million from a failed mortgage agency or failing mortgage agency, the title

kind of sticks to him as well. >> yeah, look, there's a difference, though. romney made his money in the private sector. the issue of fanny and freddie is this. president obama has given a blank check to fanny and freddie, he gave it to them on christmas eve 2010, we've already put nearly $150 billion into both of them, we as taxpayers will never see that money back again. the question is if you want to make that an issue in the fall election can you do it with a guy who was on the payroll of freddie mac or do you have to go with a guy who wasn't and that was essentially the argument that romney was making last night, it's the argument he's putting on tv today. we'll see in seven days how it works out or not. but there's a difference in making money by investing in the private sector and making money by being on the payroll of a government-sponsored enterprise that helped bring about the financial collapse. jon: of course these guys are fighting to be president of the united states, the man they want to replace is speaking tonight, so if you would be good enough to stick around, joe and karl, i want to ask you about the state of the union address

in a moment. jenna is going to give us a preview. jenna: there's no doubt that happening now, the president is making final preparations for that big speech tonight. the white house says we can't expect to hearo we can expect to hear a lot about fair play and economic security. wendell goler is live at the white house taking in all this news. >> reporter: president's aides say to get everything he called for in a state of the union address, you probably didn't aim high enough, so the president will revisit his push for a tax reform system that delivers a better deal to the middle class, as one of four pillars of what the white house is calling an america built to last. the other three, a rebirth of the manufacturing sector, expanded domestic and alternative energy production, though there be no mention of the keystone xl pipeline, and improved education and worker training. we got a shot of the president working on the address yesterday with speech we're john fabreaux. we are told it's mostly the president's work. it's under the fairness issue that president obama will call for ending the

upper income tax cut and reforming a tax code that let mitt romney pay a lower tax rate than many middle class americans. >> we'll talk about taxes and a fair way to have a tax system where people are paying their fair share, and i think that's something that the the american people are hungry for and it's one that will really create a durable, strong economy that will grow for the future. >> reporter: the president calls that the buffet rule, where billionaire warren buffet's secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. she will be one of the guests in the first lady's box tonight. also a 23-year-old cancer survivor who has health insurance because of the health reform law. aides say mr. obama is not yet in campaign mode but every state of the union address has a political component, and that is especially so in an election year. polls suggest his job approval rating has never been lower, and disapproval, higher, at any other state of the union time, so this address is critical. republicans say the president has not delivered on a number of state of the

union promises he's made in the past, including and most significantly, one to cut the budget decifit in half by the end of his first term. house speaker john boehner says he expects a political speech tonight, and as for the buffet rule, he calls that the politics of envy. jenna. jenna: we'll be watching this story, wendell, thank you very much. jon, we found out one more person will be joining the first lady in the box, the wife of steve jobs, cofounder of apple. we'll hear who is going to be in the box throughout the day today. so we're getting a couple of names early on. jon: i guess the president wants to talk a lot about technology and hence he'll have steve jobs' widow there. let's bring back joe trippe and karl rove. wendell just said, joe, that the president's staff, his aides, say he is not yet in campaign mode. is that true joe? >> well, i think no state of the union address is full campaign mode. it is about the state of the country and laying out the ground work for the next

year. but there's no doubt that that's political. we're in an election year here. and i do think the case of fairness for the middle class and fair tax code and cutting the loopholes, getting more tax fairness and job fairness for americans is important and jackta poses, it's not a coincidence against romney and his release today, too, the 13.9%. so there are political consequences to the speech, and how it's projected out there, definitely. jon: and karl, despite the 43 percent approval rating that wendell talked about, you know, this president gets to go up in front of the congress and give this state of the union address and look presidential. there's an awfully big advantage. >> sure. there is. but look, it raises questions like if he thinks it was so important to revoke the bush-era tax cuts why didn't he do it in the first two years when he had huge majorities in house and senate? look, every one of these speeches, last year's and this year's, are going to be completely political.

remember last year, high-speed rail, high speed internet and countless green jobs and this year, we're going to put poor mr. buffet's isn't in the president's box. the question is if mr. buffet is paying a low tax rate, why doesn't he pay his secretary in hathaway stock so she can get capital gains and dividends rather than being put simply on a poor salary? if she wants to lower the rate it's mr. buffet's ability to do so, pay her the way he pays himself, in stock! >> jon good suggestion there is, karl rove. thank you very much, joe trippe as well. we appreciate you guys being here and we know you'll be watching on fox news. we'll have full coverage of the state of the union address. keep it here for that. jenna: in the meantime there's been plenty of talk about mitt romney releasing his tax returns, and right in florida, he's taking on the president ahead of the state of the union, his team is calling this a prebuttal to that speech, if you will. we're watching this and you can watch it too at foxnews.com. one of the big topics for our future leads is

iran, denouncing europe's embargo on oil today, tensions with tehran reached a boiling point. we're looking -- we're going to look at what may lie ahead in a growing standoff. i'm really glad we took this last minute trip! you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me.

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jenna: back to politics now and the issue of mitt romney and his tax returns. former massachusetts governor releasing his returns for 2010 and an estimate for 2011. there's a live look at him in tampa, florida today. those tax returns show that romney earned a total of more than $42 million over the past two years, mostly from returns on investments. he also paid or will pay a total of $6.2 million in taxes. tracy burns is with the fox business network. she's the one to talk to about all this and a former accountant at one time. not quite as glamorous as television but equally as interesting! >> let's talk about the taxes here because so much has been made about how much

romney pays in taxes, how do his tax rates compare to the rest of the country? >> if you figure out the effective tax rate he comes in at 13.9%. a lot of it has to do with the fact that the bitting of his income is from capital gains and dividends, those are taxed at 15 percent. but nevertheless, the rest of the world comes in at around 12 1/2%, jenna, about 50 percent of filers pay an effective tax rate of 12.5%. so romney actually is paying a little more. now, two things you need to remember. one, 40 percent of all people who file don't actually even pay federal income tax, so you know there's a big chunk of people carrying the bulk of the load. if you go up to the upper echelon, the 1 percent, their effective tax rate is closer to about 24 percent. but again, they are taxed on wages. mitt romney and his wife mostly live off capital gains and dividends. jenna: and that's why he has a lower tax rate than just if he got it in a paycheck, for example. >> right. jenna: what about these

donations? there was a big question mark about how much he made in donations, what this tells us about his money. what do we see in looking at his tax returns? >> for 2010, he basically donated as much as he made -- as he paid in federal income taxes. he paid $3 million in taxes, he donated $3 million in taxes, 1.5 of that actually went it the church of latter day saints where he is a mormon and been a practicing mormon for a very long time, so this man is doing what capitalists should do, they make money, they donate it back to society, they pay their fair share in taxes. it's all there in the tax returns, 200 pages, jenna. i went through most of them. jenna: tracy burns, thank you very much, from the fox business network. as we watch mitt romney sign off there, ending his rebuttal to the state of the run, surely this tax question will come up. thank you. jon, we have questions about what's going on worldwide, big news items to cover today. jon: we have tensions with iran escalating by the minute, jenna, ter ran shrugging off the european's decision to embargo iranian

oil effective in july. part of an effort to force that country to abandon its nuclear program. how will this standoff affect oil and gas prices for you? >> and new developments in a mystery along the new england coast. rescuers are racing against the clock after 85 dolphins strand themselves. an updatena live report, coming up. [ british accent ] i host a book club. so sexy... vaga had no tolerance for such dastardly deeds. finally... [ male announcer when you combine creamy velveeta with

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jen another day, another escalation in the growing standoff with iran, iran denouncing european moves to embargo iranian oil. the australians are joining that embargo at the same time. it is growing. each day the tension is increasing on the regime to stop its march towards nuclear capabilities, begging the question whether the iran situation is truly at a boiling point this year

former congresswoman jane harman is president of the woodrow wilson center, and is congresswoman, nice to have you with us. >> thank you jenna. jenna: what is the advice here, where do we go next? >> well, i think the escalating rhetoric from iran is just proof that sanctions are waiting. the really good news story in the last several weeks is that the european union has collectively blocked oil imports and exports from europe to iran. it's a very big deal. it's also news worthy that today, president obama added a couple more banks. these are very central to the iranian economy to our sanctions list, and that congress on aby partisan basis, yes, it was bipartisan, passed very tough sanctions resolutions as part of the defense authorization bill which was signed into law. so all of this means that the noose is tightening

around the iranian government, the goal of that is not to hurt the iranian people who are our friends, but it's to get that government to benefit its -- to ban its policy or its potential policy to develop nuclear weapons and i think the sanctions are biting and the reactions from iran shows that they are, and that says to me two things: number one, keep it going. and number two, keep the military option on the table. jenna: you say that the iranian people are our friends, and i'm curious what you think the nature of our relationship should be with iran as we look into the future, not just looking over the next year, but let's say we look ten years out, let's say the sanctions do work, they've stopped pursuing nuclear weapons. what type of relationship do we really want with iran? >> well, iran was one of the great ancient societies. we had relations with iran over many years. i was working in the carter white house, and i had just left when the shah fell, and there was a complete regime

change which has been a very, very tough problem for us over the years. but i can certainly imagine that we find a way, even with this government in place, that they abandon nuclear ambition and allow for full inspections, find a way to work with them and to build a relationship with one of the most interesting populations on the planet and restore the relationships we have. there's a huge iranian american population in the united states. i represented a part of los angeles that was called tehrangeles because there are 750,000 iranians living there, it's the largest population outside of iran. so i would certainly hope that even now, and i believe it is this is true, our message is getting to the iranian people, many of whom protested the unfair election a few years ago, that americans are their friends, president obama says this repeatedly, but we are absolutely against, and not just we, the european

union, many arab states, and increasingly, russia, which has been speaking out against this, their pursuit or potential pursuit of nuclear weapons. jenna: russia has been speaking out. >> and it's something we have to work on. jenna: i apologize for interrupting. russia has been speaking out, against the sanctions and we hear reports that russia is selling weapons to syria, still, so the relationship with syria and iran is one with question marks. >> yes it is. jenna: as we look at different hypotheticals, as we are now, we talked about the hypothetics, what about the situation if we go through the next six months when they're really supposed to take effect and they don't deter iran, then what? >> well, as i've said, i am for keeping the military option on the table, i think there has to be red lines, i think we have them, i don't think it's something we're

going to discuss on this show, but i think we have to keep working on russia. you are right, it has transferred technology to iran over the years, but it is at least making some constructive noises. china uses iran as a gas station, but the fact is that the world is producing a lot of oil outside of iran, and there is a way to target these sanctions so that iran pays the penalty and the consumers at the pump maybe pay slightly more, but let's understand that there is now oil coming out of libya and coming out of iraq and the saudis are liberalizing their supplies, so we can survive, and we should survive, while depriving iran of any benefits from its oil production unless and until it abandons --o abandons its nuclear or potential nuclear ambitions. >> congresswoman har man, nice to have you with us. >> thank you jenna. jon: in response to the

embargo iranian lawmakers are renewing a threat to block the strait of hormuz. just making noise about the strait can boost oil and gas prices here in the u.s. and around the world. joining us live, fox business networks' elizabeth mcdonnell old. are we already seeing that price spike, elizabeth? >> no, in fact, just the opposite, jon. there is concern always in the oil markets, and what have been rattling the oil markets for some time is the fight over the strait of hormuz where one fifth of the world's supply passes through that very narrow strait. but we're seeing oil instead breaking down below $99 a barrel over fears about greece, and that greece cannot get a deal to get its creditors to take a hair cut on the the bonds it's issued. also the imf is now coming out with new economic growth numbers for the e.u., saying it could break down and basically possibly move lower towards recession level-size growth of just 2 percent a year. so always there's this tug-of-war demand versus the

flight in the oil markets. a slower economic growth means slower demand. also the plight about the strait of hormuz? that -- in that iran needs to sell its oil, even if the strait of hormuz is clogged with military ships, for example, slowing down the delivery of iranian oil, that instead, the e.u. embargo and sanctions on iran will kick in in about july 1. that should give the markets enough time to find alternative sources of oil. so also the other story line, iran does need to sell its oil, its biggest customers are china and the west, possibly china would get sweetheart deals on iran's oil but still the idea still being in the oil markets that other alternatives come from other sources elsewhere if iran continues to do saber rattling in the area. jon: elizabeth mcdonald, fox business network, thank you. jenna: a story we'll continue to watch. another story in florida, we're getting brand

new numbers out of that state. what it means for the republican candidates one week before the crucial primary. we have a live report coming up. jon: also the tea party played a prominent role in the 2010 mid-term elections. but where are they now? former republican house majority leader dick armey gives us his take. jon: -- jenna: plus jon, a massive solar storm underway. do you have an umbrella for that? >> jon: i'm not sure it will help you. jenna: this apparently is on a scale not seen in years, how it could affect you today, just ahead. ♪ what's he looking for? i think he's looking for savings. ♪ i can't watch this anymore. stop!

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add this personal shredder-- a $29 value-- absolutely free with your enrollment. don't wait another minute. call now or go to lifelock.com. lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. jenna: the florida primary is a week away, lots of folks have voted already. we have some new numbers for you. phil keating is live in miami with all of this. >> reporter: more florida republicans have now voted early for the state's january 31st primary, which is next tuesday than the total number of votes that came up in new hampshire earlier this month. according to the republican party, we are now at about 290,000 votes cast early in the sunshine state. most of those early votes cast by mail, a record number of florida republicans requested an

absentee ballot this year, which are coming in daily. those votes will be added to the mix at 7:00pm next tuesday night, once the polls close. early voting began statewide in person in florida's 67 counties on saturday. five counties, including very important hillsboro county around tampa bee gone a week earlier reporting about a thousand early votes a day. despite two recent florida polls that show newt gingrich with an 8 point and 9 point lead over mitt romney, over the past year the romney campaign has far out spent and excelled in getting an organization and ground game on in florida. rick santorum and newt gingrich were focusing hard in new hampshire and south carolina, the romney campaign was sending out mailers to ever single florida voter trying to influence the vote trying to mail back in, which the other

campaigns were not doing. everyone is here in florida right now and again the big primary for the big battleground state of florida is next tuesday. jenna. jenna: looking forward to it, phil, thank you. jon: let's talk a little bit now about the tea party, the grassroots movement burst on to the national political scene back in 2009 with huge rallies railing against big government, high taxes, corporate bail outs and the healthcare plan. their energy helped fuel the g.o.p. take over of the house in 2010. with many tea party leaders largely sitting on the side lines so far in the republican race for the white house, many of the media are asking, where are they now? take a look at these headlines. from "the new york times," is the tea party over? tea party hoopla fades on the hill, that from politico. and the tea party is dead, long live the tea party in the media. that from the nation. so let's talk about it with the former house majority leader and chairman of freedom works, dick

armey. you say this epitaph has been written to early for the tea party. >> oh, yes, the whole movement is born out of a disaffection with both phreu political parties. we are also pretty well aware in our movement that the republican nominating process isn't likely to produce a republican presidential nominee that is a reliable, innovative, assertive small government conservative. we are focusing our efforts on the house and the senate. further build and reinforce the conservative majority in the house and capture a working conservative majority in the senate. when we accomplish these objectives, whomever is in the white house will have a legislative fence built around them. the president can't fine anything other than what he gets from the legislative process. so our long-term goal is not republicans or democrats, it's public policy outcomes, and we

believe that we have a more defining influence on what policy is signed by the next president than what will come out of this contest over the presidential race than. jon: so if the premise is that the tea party has largely been sitting on the side lines in the presidential race, that is by design? >> sure, i'm laughing at this. because of course the press wants to, and is obsessed with reporting on the presidential race. this is like, you're reporting on the baseball season, and we're winning the football season. but you're not paying attention to where we're doing our work. that doesn't mean we are not there, we are not being effective. furthermore, we have an impact on the presidential primary process as well. first of all, all the candidates are singing our narrative. secondly, they are finding themselves in such a fuddle right now you'd have to argue it's not likely that anybody on the field is going to come out of this process with 51% of the delegates, therefore, the real

determination of the presidential nomination outcome is going to be at convention time. our impact is extremely important at that point, that critical margin that defines out outcome. so we are quite content, let the republican party wallow around in its politics while we accomplish the election outcomes in the house and the senate that allows us to govern the legislative outcomes when the new congress convenes with conservative majorities in both bodies. jon: there was one other headline that caught our eye, this one from the christian science monitor, it goes like this, is the tea party dead if newt gingrich fails in south carolina? well, he didn't fail, does that suggest that tea party support helped put him in the number one role, and that the tea party lives? >> first of all, it's wrong for anybody to say, i'm the tea party candidate. one thing about a grassroots

movement is it is very much a set of individuals. jon: pretty hard to see mitt romney as a tea party candidate. >> it's very hard to see mitt romney as a person who enjoys a lot of support of a wide number of tea party activists. we see ron paul a great deal. you see a great deal with newt. but you also see with rick santorum. for any candidate to think, i've locked up the tea party vote is a mistake in judgment, because it is so diverse, so independent, so separate that's what grassroots is all about. so the fact is we can focus our efforts much more clearly and defining in the senate races, in the house races, and get the outcomes that we know we need in order to build that legislative fence around whichever nominee comes out of the presidential process, and the person who wins the presidential nomination may in fact not be on the field today as we look eight. jon: dick armey spent 18 years

in the congress and headed as house majority leader. thank you. jenna: uncle sam is telling big banks to pay up a cushion them of deceptive foreclosure practices. tens of thousands of people could be getting a pay out just how much, we'll tell you next. lawmakers in one state not willing to row lie on a congressional probe, taking the investigation into operation fast and furious into their own hands. a live report straight ahead. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪

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senior editor for the wall street junior. what affect will this have? that will be a deceptive practice when banks tell you you were foreclosed upon but you actually weren't. >> reporter: faulty information in the loans when they were first initiated. it's only going to be about $1,500 per person. jenna: the estimate is about $1,800 for 750,000 americans. >> reporter: that is one or two mortgage payments. that won't do a lot to prevent the big problem, jenna, which is 11 million american homeowners dar underwater are underwater, which means the mortgages are larger than the house is work. that is the big problem. jenna: what about roughly a million homeowners that could see their mortgages reduced as part of that plan? could that have an effect? >> reporter: it could. we have had four or five mortgage modification programs, these were federal programs by the government, uncle sam paying

tense of millions of dollars to reduce the mortgage payments. after six months, nine months a year, guess what the people just reee faulted on the loan. the big problem is two fold. the housing values continue to fall. the incentive to for close on the mortgage is much higher. the second is the louse key economy. we don't see many jobs and that puts financial stress on people to pay the mortgages on final. jenna: they report that the $25 billion settlement is the banks getting off easy. it's a drop in the bucket to them. if you dig into the mortgage foreclosure practices there were a lot of skeletons. >> reporter: there was a lot of deceptive behavior on the parts of the banks. i don't think a lot of these people that took out the mortgages are innocent victims either. as you know about a third of the people who foreclosed on the mortgages, they lied on the mortgage application form, about our assetts, income, if they lie on the application form they are

hardly a victim. i think both parties are at fault. what i object to is the policies we've had at the national level that basically say that people making a financial sacrifice to pay their mortgage on time you have to pay your mortgage and pay higher taxes to help other people to pay their mortgage and probably shouldn't have taken out the mortgage in the first place. jenna: the president is reportedly going to speak about the house -gs market tonight. is there anything he could say in your mind that would help the industry. jobs, jobs, jobs. getting high growth again so people feel more secure about their jobs, getting a pay raise. american workers haven't had much of a pay raise for the last two years. if you have that and people feel more financially secure, yeah they'll pay their mortgages. i really believe this comes right down to the heart of the matter being we've got to get this economy moving again. if the housing values are falling it's like swimming upstream in terms of recovering. jenna: they continue to do so. thank you so much. steve moore with the "wall street journal." jon. bill.

jon: secrets kept for decades. conversations that john f. kennedy recorded in the days before he died. a batch of tapes just released. you'll hear some of them coming up. a marine life mystery baffling scientists. dozens of dolphins continue stranding heplss off cap stranding themselves off cape cod. we'll take you there next. call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties ha sixty calories oless per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce.

jon: "happening now" scientists are looking into a mystery playing out on the tphaoeupbg land coast as dozen of dolphins continue to beach themselves. two more died recently after rescuers continue save them in time. they say 85 dolphins in all have stranded themselves, 30 of them in just one day. our molly line is live in orleans, massachusetts on cape cod. what is the latest, molly?

>> reporter: jon, we are in an area where searchers were actually looking today for a dolphin that may have been stranded. there is good news and bad news to report, the good news according to the experts they haven't found the dolphin which means it may have moved back out to the ocean behind me, the bad news is that it's very likely it could strand again. this is an area that has seen a lot of strandings, particularly in this month. just down the beach about a hundred yards there is actually a carcass of one of the dolphins according to the experts here. it's the international fund for animal welfare that has been working on this and they say it's been an unprecedented year for dolphin strandings, more than 85 strandings, more than 60 deaths of dolphins, and it's an ongoing effort. there are hundreds of volunteers involved in this effort to rescue the dolphins when they are found and to move them to an area where they can release them into the open ocean. sometimes the dolphins that are released actually come back and strand again. it's a very difficult process. cape cod is one of the hot spots for this activity around the

world. there is areas in australia, new zealand, where this happens but it is a significant event each year in cape cod, but this year has really gone above and beyond many of the most recent years that they've seen as far as dolphin strandings are concerned. one of the reasons they believe this may happen in this area is just the shape of cap cod, this elbow shape, the inlets, they believe the dolphins may be getting confused. because they are such social creatures they actually mighting following one another. the efforts here are continuous, ongoing, and they are not expected to wrap-up until at least april. jon. jon: mol lie line, live on cape cod, such a sad story. molly, thanks. jenna: happening today the sun unleashing a massive amount of radiation. right here on a level not seen in years, and it may have a direct impact on us. rick, how so? >> reporter: well the radiation that is hitting our planet right now, general ace much higher than it usually is. this is all thanks to solar flares erupting on the sun's

northeastern hemisphere. we have images that show exactly what we are talking about. take a look at this courtesy of nasa. you can see the flares shooting up there in the lighter colors. this all started on sunday, it will last through tomorrow. radiation is a bayh product of these eruptions and experts say that the threat is not such a big deal for us but it could be an issue, it has the potential to interfere with satellite communications and power grids, even airplanes that fly near the north or south poles, and we have video, this is an animation released by nasa to show what a coronal mass ejection looks like. they happen every 11 years. we will have better images when the events take place in the future. depending how strong this storm is scientist says we could see a more powerful one as early as 2013. jenna: hopefully that one doesn't affect us also. as long as it's maybe the

satellites and airplanes, pretty picture, thank you. jon: the devastation almost unimaginable, small towns wiped off the map by violent storms. the latest on cleanup efforts after these horrible tornadoes. then it beat out cities like florence, italy to become the number five travel destination in the world and the top american city. you'll never guess which one. i'll give you a hint, it's in california. [ jody ] four course feast. man it's great. the guests love it. [ male aouncer ] red lobster's ur course seafood feast is back. get soup, salad, cheddar bay biscuits, dessert and choose one of 7 entrees. four courses for only $15. offer ends soon.

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jenna: the state of the union and america's economic future. hi, everybody, we're glad you're with us, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. president obama prepares to lay out his blueprint for what he hopes will be a second term standing before a joint session of congress. much of what he has to say will

focus on the economy, we're told, and here's something he cannot ignore. jenna: europe is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and certain countries, of course. the imf is predicting a sharp slowdown in the global economy and a recession in europe this year. the head of the imf is warning the entire world needs to help europe with the debt crisis or else. neil cavuto is senior vice president of business news and anchor of your world with neil cavuto. neil, the or else is, according to the head of the imf, facing a 1930s-like moment. what exactly does that mean for us? >> what he's saying in regard to the former finance minister is saying if europe doesn't get its act together, it could tumble into a depression. that is not a stretch. if things are going as they're going now, greece's debt is on the verge of being downgraded yet again today, it could easily be a house of collapsing cards here which he is saying is that

if europe doesn't get ahead of this, they're going to be consumed by this. the question is, how do you deal with it? what she seems to be hinting at is budget cuts, that sort of thing, can only go so far, raising taxes can only go so far, and that's their dilemma. but it does serve as a reminder here ahead of the president's speech tonight, jenna, that there's only so much you can do in terms of raising taxes on the upper income, whatever the policy du jour will be tonight to get out of the mess here. what the imf chief is saying that particular genius has run out of particular tricks ask cures. jenna: we've spoken with administration officials, neil, and i know you have as well that remind us that according to their opinion, they believe that this administration's policies has avoided the united states slipping into another great depression. is that still a threat though? is a recession or even a depression still something that we need to be concerned about here stateside?

>> well, you know, you can never prove a negative. it's just like with the bailouts four years ago, we avoided financial armageddon. many republicans and democrats made that argument. there's simply no way to know what would have happened, so i always find those type of arguments to be not quite worth the paper they're printed on. having said that, i think it is fair to say that the slowness of this recovery, its tepid nature, the slow gains that we're seeing in jobs each month, the relatively anemic retail sales, if that is a cure, i'd like to see the disease. and i think that's what americans are wondering about. i think the president has to make a convincing pitch tonight that these policies, while they might be off the worse as we were going a few years ago, is this trend convincing enough and meaningful enough to warrant another four years in office? because don't mistake anything, jenna, this speech tonight, as is everything in this town these

days, is about poll l ticks. it's about convincing case the president will try to make for, you know, renewing his lease on pennsylvania avenue. this is where it starts. he's got to make an argument that his policies have gotten us off the mat, and if we abandon them now, we're facing, again, the potential of far things worse. hard to say, but that's how this goes. jenna: so we understand and, again, just looking at initial reports, neil, some of the themes the president will touch on when it comes to economy are economic equality and fairness as well. what are you going to be watching for about how those two themes come up? who decides what's fair, and how is economic equality, what are you going to be watching for as that kind of surfaces in the speech tonight? >> you know, i guess i'm a little geeky and unusual here, jenna, but i look for who's in the audience, who's sitting next to michelle obama. i find it interesting that

tonight among the people who have been invited are warren buffett's secretary. of course, she has become famous because her boss has said she pays a higher tax rate than he does, and that's not fair, that's not right. so she's going to be there, no doubt to make the point and sort of for the president to point to the idea that that's not right that someone like a secretary pays a higher tax rate than millionaires and billionaires leaving aside, of course, the cap gains rate is lower than the income rate. those who pay cap gains have already paid high taxes in many income. leaving aside the optics become the operative word here it's going to look pretty interesting, that there's a secretary who is paying a higher rate than her boss who's a billionaire, and the president will use that to make the argument that the rich should pay more because that's only fair. he'll leave out of the equation that roughly half of all american households pay no income tax at all. so that, i guess, by definition is a fairness issue we will not

see addressed tonight. jenna: we'll be watching. we'll have geek glasses on too, neil. not saying that your glasses are geeky -- >> trust me, i embrace who i am. jenna: thank you very much. i know you've got a couple big shows later today, 4 p.m. eastern time, of course, your world today. neil's going to be broadcasting from the newseum also at 6 p.m., you don't want to miss that, and he's going to have coverage, as well, for the state of the union. that's going to kick off 8:55 tonight and running right through 11 p.m. jon: well, on the campaign trail some of the republican candidates are crisscrossing florida ahead of next week's crucial primary there. after last night's fiery debate, they are trying to shore up whatever support they can. carl cameron is there live on the road in, what, sarasota, florida? is that what's near you there, carl?

>> reporter: hi, jon. well, we're just about to start crossing over a little bit of the bay leaving tampa on the way to sarasota. earlier this morning we had an opportunity to watch mitt romney give his pre-buttal to president obama's speech this evening saying that tonight will be largely a campaign speech from mr. obama and a lot of empty promises not fulfilled according to mr. romney. beforehand, i had an opportunity to talk to him at some length about the race. he made no mention of gingrich directly in his pre-buttal to the president's speech, but he did say it's time to thom mate somebody who can beat obama. he was making a direct reference to newt gingrich, it was clearly in his head, and in the one-on-one we did just beforehand, mr. romney pulled no punches. listen to this about the former house speaker. >> the speaker has been all over the place just in this year on a whole host of issues whether from afghanistan and libya to the health care mandate and

sitting down with nancy pelosi, just in may he said he would sit down with nancy pelosi again in favor of a cap and trade proposal. look, he says very inflammatory, exciting things, but his record as speaker shows he hasn't been able to deliver in a consistent, effective way. my own view is if we nominated speaker gingrich, it would not be a good experience for our party. >> reporter: there have been a lot of republicans in washington who have been complaining that a gingrich nomination could cost them seats in congress and perhaps even the house majority. we'll go back and show you as we go through the toll booth so you don't think we're stopping dead on the highway. we're going to go see mr. gingrich, he's likely to draw one of the biggest carouse of the 2012 -- crowds of the 2012 campaign so far. we're told more than 2500 people have registered to turn up for his event. we're going to have an opportunity to speak to him as well. last night mr. gingrich released his contract from 2006 with freddie mac showing that there had been no mention of the word

lobbyist, though he was actually working for the department of public policy at freddie mac and had been hired by the organization's top lobbyists. and as he said he would, mitt romney released his tax returns, and there was a new revelation that for a short time he had a swiss bank account, but it was closed in 2010 according to one of his aides because it just wasn't worth having. as for those cayman island accounts, these are investment accounts on which any profits he has paid u.s. taxes on. and, of course, there is no doubt and there wasn't before we saw the tax returns today, mitt romney is a very, very wealthy man. he made almost $20 million last year and the year before that and paid taxes in excess of $6 million and made charitable donations of almost $7 million. jon? jon: fascinating stuff. carl cameron, we'll let you get to that gingrich event. we've got to get you a sunpass, too, it was -- >> reporter: there you go. jenna: at least he paid, we got him through.

[laughter] carl just mentioned this as well, obviously a big topic when it comes to newt gingrich and his ties to freddie mac. his former consulting firm releasing his contract with the troubled mortgage giant, that was big news when it was released late in the day, and james rosen has been working through that contract and bringing us some headlines. james? >> reporter: good afternoon. not surprisingly, the romney campaign is unmollfied by this move with a romney spokesperson saying this morning it raises more questions than it answers. this 16-page document released last night covers 2006, one year in an eight-year relationship between freddie mac and the former house speaker's consulting firm. and it only accounts for $300,000. gingrich's company received $1.6 million from freddie mac, but the gingrich company claims it cannot find the other contracts. the contract is unusually vague, making reference only to consulting services. gingrich has emphatically maintained he never acted as a lobbyist, however, the contract

shows the group was hosted on k street and retained by freddie mac's vice president for public policy, that is it lobbying arm which was in turn headed by craig thomas, at that time a registered lobbyist. mitt romney cited the k street address, ridiculed gingrich's original claim and turned to still other clients of other gingrich-owned entities to suggest that the former speaker did, indeed, lobby lawmakers to vote for the medicare part d coverage plan. >> if you're getting paid by health companies, if your entities are getting paid by health companies that could benefit there a piece of legislation and you then meet with republican congressmen and encourage them to support that legislation, you can call it whatever you'd like. i call it influence peddling. >> let me be very clear because i understand your technique which you used on mccain, you used on huckabee, you've used consistently, okay? it's unfortunate, and it's not going to work very well because the american people see through

it. i have always publicly favored a stronger medicare program. >> reporter: since he left the house in 1999, gingrich started four businesses, the gross receipts for which his campaign estimates at anywhere from $10-$20 million per year. jenna and jon. jenna: all right, we have newt gingrich's contract can, mitt romney's tax returns, what's next? could get interesting, james? is. >> reporter: my high school diary, i suspect. [laughter] jenna: we'd like to see those, express mail them, we'd appreciate it. jon: you know they would be well written. a german national accused of terrorizing southern california by setting dozens of fires is due in court today. wait until you hear how much time this guy could face if convicted. and new developments in the fast and furious controversy, that failed gun-running operation that led to the death of a border patrol agent, many say. why one state is now launching its own investigation. also, let's check in with

rick over at the web wall. >> reporter: well, everybody waiting for the state of the union tonight, you might want to go to foxnews.com because we've got a video that outlines the president's economy by the numbers, what the president claims versus what the reality is. just one of the many things you can find at foxnews.com. of course, our coverage of the speech begins 9 p.m. eastern time right here on fox news channel. and we'll have more of "happening now" after a quick break. don't go away. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief?

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you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. jenna: right now some new information on a few crime stories we're keeping an eye on for you here, the german national accused of setting fires in the hollywood area, he's facing arraignment on 37 counts of arson. now listen to this. if convicted, he could be with sentenced to 300 years in prison. we'll continue to follow that case. well, the 9-year-old girl who escaped that man by calling 911 at at a convenience store is

speaking out. she says her dad always taught her to stand up for herself. that suspect is facing kidnapping charges, and good on her to call out for help on that. a community college in raleigh, north carolina, is on lockdown after someone reported seeing a gunman near the campus. police are searching the area, no suspect in custody, we're going continue to watch it for you. jon: arizona is turning the tables on the federal government. the state says it will investigate the feds over that botched gun-running operation called fast and furious. the program put thousands of weapons into the hands of drug cartels, a failed operation that is tied to the murder of border patrol agent brianer terry backn 2010. william la jeunesse is all over this story live thousand in los angeles with an update. >> reporter: fast and furious, as you know, was a federal operation that helped transfer some 2,000 weapons into the hands of criminals. the state wants to know if feds broke any state laws and can

they be prosecuted. so yesterday the state initiated their own investigation by appointing a committee of lawmakers who want to know if state gun dealers felt coerced by federal officials into selling guns to buyers they knew to be criminals. in other words, did the u.s. attorney's office and atf agents help facilitate a crime? secondly, what about additional victims injured by these guns? right now we know of two, border agent brian terry, and a state police officer who was shot, but not fatally, by a fast and furious gun. >> there's 1500 guns or more missing, and we don't know where they are. and hopefully, we'll be able to find it. that effects arizona and arizona citizens. >> reporter: now, already the justice department inspector general and congressman darrell issa are investigating fast and furious trying to determine who's responsible. should they be punished, how high does this go? well, the state investigation could pose a conflict with those investigations, and it is likely

some witnesses will fight their subpoenas. some in arizona welcome the battle. >> i'm asking you, attorney general eric holder, to resign now before you're forced out. >> we're giving guns to other countries, we're just spreading our own nonsense? really? >> reporter: now, a legal expert told me this morning that the state could see fast and furious as a conspiracy between the atf and straw buyers or aiding and abetting the cartels by certain u.s. attorneys. their defense, federal officials, will be the federal statute, jon, that generally protects federal employees from state criminal prosecution if they're acting in their official capacity. the bottom line, it's unclear if these hearings will result in a prosecution, but the testimony is likely to be informative and potentially damaging to the government. jon? jon: and yet another battle between arizona and the feds. william la jeunesse, thank you. jenna: the secret tapes of president kennedy rell vealing what was on his mind just days

before his assassination. this is nearly 50 years later, and we will share some of them with you. also, we're going to talk to this man, there he is, brit hume, about tonight's state of the union. we're going to be right back after a commercial to get his take on what to expect this time.

jenna: some new information on what's sure to be a treasure-trove for presidential historians. the john f. kenty library -- kennedy library releasing are 45 hours of heatings and phone calls providing a rare anyplace into the final moments of jfk's life. laura ingle l with more on this story. . >> reporter: these tapes being released by the john f. kennedy presidential library come from more than 2 60 hours of jfk privately made in the month

before his assassination. they include relations with the soviet union and plans for his 1964 re-election campaign among other things. the first clip, jfk talks about young voters turning into the 964 -- 1964 hecks, and when it comes to america's frustration with its economic outlook the more thing change, the more they stay the same. >> reporter: the tapes reveal two sides of the president, pote a world leader and a father. in one recording you hear his children playing just outside the oval office. in another you get a glimpse of the visionary he was when he talks about raising the bar for creating film for the 1964 dem cracks -- democratic convention

n. >> reporter: and in one recorded days before his assassination, he eerily predicts that day would later become his funeral would be a tough one. some believe jfk may have been saving the tapes for a hem worry. jenna? jenna: fascinating stuff, laura, thank you. ♪ jon: well, the house and the senate will gather together tonight for president obama's state of the union address. the president expected to take aim at the deep divisions on capitol hill, attacking partisan bickering by what he's been calling a do-nothing congress. senior political analyst brit hume joins us with his thoughts on the state of the union. first of all, he gathers, i mean, he's invited into the house chamber both the house and

the senate sit there, you know, and listen to the president's speech. can he go on the attack and insult them in their own house? >> well, it's an interesting dilemma for a president in an election year. the state of the union address has a huge audience because it's carried, you know, on all the broadcast networks and all the cable news channel, so the potential audience is very large, indeed. and a president, obviously, has some partisan duties he'd like to carry out, some l tasks he'd like to paint the congress in an unfavorable light and make it appear it's controlled completely by the republicans. he'd also like to do what he can to perhaps do a little damage to whoever seems to be coming up against him in the election. so he'd like to do those things. on the other hand, he's the president, and manager more is expected of -- and something more is expected of a president. people don't mind a few criticisms or comments about congress, but if it's an all-out attack, it's unpresidential, and that's the risk that goes with the opportunity.

i'll be very interested to see how he handles it tonight, jon. jon: he's got a 43% approval rating in most of the recent polls. in that big speech he made in kansas, he talked a lot about middle class, the upward mobility of the middle class has been effectively cut off, i guess, by rich people or corporations or so forth. should we expect to hear more of that? >> well, i wouldn't be surprised. the middle class is the big prize in any election year. if you can win the middle class, you win. we've got a big middle class in america. i don't know. i suspect that he will certainly assert that the middle class has been damaged by everybody except him and his party. he may say that. we'll see how, you know, see how it washes. the president is always faced with this problem, jon, which is that in the end results count. and so far, as you can see from the approval rating, people are not content with the results. so a speech can move the ball a little bit, sometimes you get a

bump in the polls after a speech, but what this president needs and has needed for some time is better results. he may be starting to get them on the economy. we'll see how this momentum lasts. all of us hope it'll last a long time and turn into big momentum, but that's what he needs, more than anything that any speech can english for him. accomplish for him. jon: i believe in 2008 he was talking about -- well, it would have been 2009, he was talking about healing the divisions in the country, this after two terms of george w. bush and the country was bitterly divided about iraq and afghanistan and that kind of thing. can he go to the podium tonight and, you know, say that he has healed those divisions? >> no, i don't think he can do that. and i don't think he'll try. my guess is he'll blame the continued divisions on the that isty republicans. the nasty republicans, you know? and i want to say one other thing, jon. i want to con dwrach late you on

having remembered he said that because one of the hardest -- i've been covering state of the union addresses for, you know, 30 some years, and except for gerald ford saying the state of the union is not good and bill clinton saying the era of big goth is over, i find it extremely difficult to remember any president has said despite the fact they come every year and they're always very long. so hats off to you, buddy. jon: i get a little help from our brain room doing that back research, brit. >> you need not have acknowledged it. [laughter] jon. jon: jon thanks, and you need not have acknowledged the number of state of union addresses -- >> i think it shows in my face anyway. [laughter] thanks, jon. jenna: we will look forward to that coverage. you can see it live here on fox. in the meantime, this has been a very big story this week, the wild weather that has just been tearing across this nation. devastating tornadoes hitting the heart of alabama, we're

going to be live on the latest with what's going on with mother nature. also, a dangerous scenario in syria right now, new reports of violent government crackdowns as an arab league peace mission fails to stop the violence. what this means for the region next. [gunfire] [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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jenna: terrible weather affect being the country coast to coast.

we are all in it together. in the southeast tornadoes and severe storms ripping through parts of alabama. in the meantime the northwest hit with pounding rain in the past few days, set to get more today, as well. take a look at that cat trying to get out of showers. in colorado a wide-spread danger of avalanches there. rick fulboum has phoefrpblgts an ef3 tornado with wind speeds at 150 miles an hour made the storm dangerous. it hit between 3 to 5:00am, of course when everybody is in bed and a sleep. a lot of roads are closed, schools and businesses are closed, and there is a curfew from dusk to dawn that remains in effect and will be again tonight. meantime in oregon, there is a search underway for a 6-year-old girl swept away by floodwaters there. the parents of this girl, vanessa, took her up for a hike and then her father looked back

over his shoulder just in time to see her whisked away in the swollen river. 50 ground searchers and divers and a helicopter team with thermal imaging equipment now searching for that young girl. then out to the rockies, the snow in colorado, as you mentioned, claiming a handful of lives in the past ten days alone. two skiers, a no border and a no mobiler. a foot of snow falling in the mountains, the state issuing a handful of avalanche warnings. roads closed so crews can complete avalanche. and a storm coming out of southern california could produce new tornadoes. heads up on that. jon: international pressure building against the government of syria as that nation vows to

continue a violent crackdown on its own people. plans for an arab league solution seem to be falling apart. renna ninan is keeping an eye on it. >> reporter: this was a big blow to the arab league in syria. they decided to pull out several of their monitors. a lot of gulf states are starting to realize that the mission there that the arab league, trying to protect people from the violence in a seeing the situation has become a joke because they are not able to stop the violence from continuing. the syrian foreign minister called the withdrawal a conspiracy against syria. the funerals of the dead continue day in and day out. the man running the arab league mission in syria is from sudan. he's believed to be a close friend of president bashar al-assad. he has said he believes the violence has actually subsided in syria. countries like china, and russia are still siding with syria, and

they managed to weather a bunch of defections in the army. asaad has that going for him. they say it's a tie there, with the opposition versus bashar al-assad. they say the only way it will change is if there is foreign intervention to shake things up over there. most of the western countries for now don't want tone gauge in that, jon. jon: the arab monitoring didn't seem to do anything or go anywhere, the arab league. >> reporter: absolutely it's not going anywhere, that's right, jon. jon jon. jon: thank you. jenna: mitch daniels will deliver the republican response to the president's speech this evening. we were talking about how often the speeches aren't memorable. peter robinson who wrote the historic berlin wall speech for president reagan, a fellow at

the hoover institution. peter, six years for president aeug began is tha reagan? >> i was in the white house for six years. i worked for george w. bush and then the rest of the time for ronald reagan. >> was it what you say or how you say it. >> with president reagan it was both. if you set out to make a speech memorable you're doomed. if it works well the memorable lines arise from the nature of the speech, from the fundamental, underlying argument that you're trying to make. in my judgment a lot of speech writers, including some in the current administration make a mistake of trying to write lines rants getting their arms around the deeper, underlying argument. jenna: it's 12:37 on the east coast. we have less than nine hours until the big speech is made. what is happening right now in the white house when it comes to that speech?

>> my guess is that they are scrambling. president reagan was extremely disciplined. he would make his mark ups on the speech the night before. even in the reagan white house there was one state of the union address where there were -- some facts were wrong, the bureaucracy fought back on something or other, it was 9:00 in the evening and we gave the president the final version at 8:00, he read it over in the limousine on the way to capitol hill. something like that is going on in the obama white house right now. their speech writers, finish one of the most frantic moments in the west wing television show with people rushing up and down the halls and that won't be far off. jenna: how much of a hand did president reagan have in the writing of the state of the union. >> president reagan was present in every single speech, not because he called the writers in over and over again the way richard nixon did or george w.

bush did or ace understand it barack obama tends to do, president reagan was present in the speeches because before becoming president he had given speeches 30 years. we knew where he stood, the sound of his voice. we would write to his voice and principles, the draft would go across to the west wing, almost all including on state of the union addresses the president would look at a draft a day or two beforehand, usually in the evening upstairs in the family quarters and it would come back to the speech writers with his mark ups all about it. we were able to write pretty good first drafts because ronald reagan spent 30 years establishing the sound of his voice so to speak. jenna: i was working as a writer as well, when you have that voice in your head it becomes easier to write for that person. it resonates saying don't write a speech looking for lines much the debate we see with the g.o.p. candidates, you wrote an article saying who you thought had a good message or not and who was improving.

i'm curious what you think about mitch daniels as the choice to deliver the g.o.p. rebuttal to the president tonight. >> i should confess immediately, mitch daniels and i have been friends since we got to know each other in the reagan white house. i'm talking about a friend and someone i admire enormously e. has a record of governor of indiana of genuine accomplishment. he's turned the budget around, cut staffing, engaged in school reform. his approval raeupbgts are in the 450eu6 0%, low 70s. and i promise this is the truth about mitch daniels, it gets said about a lot of politicians but i swear to you this is true. he writes every word of every public utterance himself. jenna: really? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. he goes -- he will go back and forth with the editor of the "wall street journal" i was talking the other day with him at the journal, when mitch daniels has a piece in you send your changes back and forth by email to governor daniels himself. zero staff between him and the words he speaks.

this is a highly intelligent man who knows what he wants to say, and does the writing himself. jenna: very interesting. now i'm really going to have to pay attention to what he says tonight. we were going to do it any ways. the fact that he writes all his own speeches is interesting and unique to know. peter always nice to have you, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure, thank you. jon: it will be fascinating to be a white house speech writer won't it and have a front row seat to history being made. jenna: absolutely. jon: an offer to survivors of the cruise ship disaster in italy and it's sparking new outrage. that is not what was intended, obviously. and a spelling mistake on a city street, um, getting lots of attention. in america, we believe in a future

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jon: fox news alert and a mess in miami. this courtesy -- the picture courtesy of wsvn our affiliate there. that is a fedex truck and a miami-dade transit bus that collided at that intersection there, northwest 17th street and 7th avenue in miami. no word yet on how many people might have been hurt aboard that bus, or for that matter aboard the truck. we'll keep an eye on the situation there, let you know more as we get more information. jenna: right now new information as well on a few stories we are keeping an eye on across our country today. speak of traffic jams we are getting record that the holland tunnel between new york and new jersey has now reopened. traffic out of manhattan was shut down earlier this morning causing quite a mess after a construction crew hit a gas main on the jersey side. this caused extensive traffic

types. it looks like things maybe are back to normal. mourners are lining up at penn state to horn the late football coach joe paterno. current and former players are attending a private viewing. the public viewing begins later this afternoon. a private funeral is planned for tomorrow. and a spelling error that is hard to miss. a road crew marking a school crossing in new york city getting the word school wrong. they have all the right letters, just not in the right order. the city, jon, is blaming a private contractor. jon: of course. there is new information on that cruise ship tragedy in italy. 16 people are confirmed dead now in the shipwreck of the costa condoria. 17 people remain missing. to top it all off the ship's owners, carnival cruise lines is offering a 30% discount to people who were booked on future concordia cruises. a full refund to sur sraoeufrs asurvivors as well.

one survivor is calling the offer ridiculous and insulting. >> reporter: moments ago the company, concordia issuing a press release denying that it did this gaffe of offering a 30% discount to future travelers, insists it never offered that discount to people on the ill-faithed ship. that italian ocean liner has been lying oeupbts side like a bloated beached whale for 12 days now and the longer it eyes there, the deeper the crisis for carnival, which may be creating a second shipwreck given this gaffe-riddled response. let's look at the damage assessment. $140million maybe in cash they'll have to layout for reduced earnings and deductibles for insurance. 2.7billion lost in the company's stock market value since january 12th. day before the accident and that branded image. reputational damage could be bigger. the key problem maybe 11 days of silence from this man, carnival

ceo mickey arrison. he's the 75th richest man in america. he has said hidden from the public. his different cruise lines operate as separate businesses. the pr firm in the u.s. works for the italian subsidiary, not for carnival. that is a big mistake. look at this litany of pr nightmares. they failed to report the wreck for 30 minutes after it happened. reports of a cowardly captain. a young woman came out defended the captain amid reports he was having wine with some nice blond. 11 days of violence from the ceo and the word of this stingy offer of 30%, they said they didn't say it, then they said they didn't, and now they say they don't. that will be a big problem for the company, part of it is a confused message. that's why the consultants say it's time for the ceo to step up and take the hit.

they told me this morning the whole thing is a shipwreck. he said what clever marketing mind came up with a stupid idea of this 30% discount. how horrific is that. no wonder, jon the company is backing away from that news they had made that offer. carnival has to get more involved, their brand is taking a big hit. jon: and the ship is still sitting there, and there are a lot of people yet to find that they don't know, you know, what happened to them. >> that's right. that big ship there, that is an ugly image, wish you could drape a whole sheet over it. jon: dennis kneale, fox business network, thank you. jenna: oakland, california, right across the bay from my ohm town san francisco ranks after london and before tokyo on a now lee released list. that list may surprise you. we'll tell you more about it coming up. it's storming in outer space. how a solar storm is taking place today and how it can affect you right now. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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jenna: somewhere between london and havana, cuba, oakland california takes the number five spot on the new york times 45 places to go in 2012. the city high on the list of must-see places despite 2011 being one of the toughest years for its image. cloud yeah cowan is taking a closer look live for us from oakland. >> reporter: it is surprising. san francisco didn't even make the cut. but this list is geared to the veteran trave traveler who has seen all the popular tourist

places and is looking for something a little more provocative and oakland fits the bill. it's rife crime. and protestors. some were surprised to see "the new york times" give oakland the 5th spot on the 20 places to see. >> the interesting thing is that it made the list at all. >> reporter: it beat out florence, italy, moscow and every other city in the u.s. along with some topped tier choices there are off beat destinations geared to the traveler unafraid of mean streets and edgy vibe. >> oakland has grit, authenticity and roots. from the roots has sprang something entirely new and unexpected. >> reporter: like the fox theater, built in the 1920s then closed for decades the newly renovated art deco landmark is an entertainment showcase. >> welcome to the fox theater in

oakland, california. >> reporter: reinforcing the nightlife. the times touts oakland's award winning restaurants, art galleries and boutiques that capture the city's new-found pride and creative spirit. >> i think it's a city going through a big revitalization. it deserves praise for a new travel destination. >> reporter: oakland still has its problem. the mayor could be recalled, the professional sports team here all want to move out and the crime rate is disturbingly high. even though tourists may come away with a look at a city they only thought they new. jenna: there is an airport right in oakland, easy to get there. cloud yeah, thank you. >> reporter: absolutely, check it out. jon: it happened in the middle of the night sunday, a huge solar storm that is bombarding the earth with a blast of radiation. the geomagnetic storm light up the northern skies but it can

also bring trouble affecting airlines, power grids and even satellites. so, what do we have to worry about? let's talk about it with a solar scientist for nasa. the sun burps all of this election throw magnetic energy, right? >> reporter: that is correct during active periods the sun generates lots of extra energy, in terms of reconfigure erring it's magnetic field. every now and then the energy is released in huge blast, for example what we saw sunday night. jon: all right. and this is heading our way right now? >> reporter: that's correct. so we had a blast sunday night, and the massive several billion ton cloud that was generate ned this has been traveling towards the earth, and actually we observed the hit, the impact of this cloud just about 30 minutes ago or so.

jon: all right. from nasa, thank you very much. >> thank you. jon: we'll be right back 5-hour energy? when i'm on overtime. when i'm in over my head. when i have to be sharp... no matter how many time zones i've crossed. when i'm on my feet for hours. when it's game time. when the day's only half over but my energy is all gone. when i need the energy to start exercising. every day. every day.

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