bill: all right. everybody. good morning. hope you had a great weekend. breaking news. a top dollar donor to president obama's re-election efforts accused of fraud. president's team looking at serious allegations facing that donor who has given the obama team $50,000. good morning, i'm bill hemmer. no, we did not win the lottery. martha: we're still here. i'm happy that we didn't win the money and still here together. bill: you didn't want it anyway. martha: i didn't want the money anyway. i'm crazy i'm martha maccallum. good morning, everybody on this monday. this new york donor is listed as a volunteer fund-raiser. she is now accused of defrauding a businessman, impersonating a bank official and leaving a paper trail of debt. bill: that's where steve centanni picks up the story. he is live at the white house. how is the obama campaign reacting, steve? >> reporter: bill, good morning, pretty much the same way they reacted last

time this happened. they downplayed there are so many donors it is hard to guaranty there won't be questions about a few of them. the questions arising in this case. they involve a donor facing a civil court case in florida where she is accused of stealing more than $650,000 in an e-mail scam by impersonating a bank official and using that money to help build a multimillion-dollar house. her husband denies the charges. he said he they have a charity that does important good work. the white house is left to investigate embarrassing reports. white house campaign spokesman, ben labolt said, quote 1.3 million americans donated the campaign. we we constantly review the donations for issues. once an issue has been raised we address it promptly as we will do in this case. the president has raised more than $120 million so far for his re-election, not

including millions more from the democratic party. bill? bill: so this has happened before. what happened, what was the outcome in that previous case, steve? >> reporter: well the president was forced to give back the money. now, the, this case was two brothers, carlos and alberto cardona who it turns out have another brother in mexico who is a fugitive from the law on drug charges there. it was later discovered that. this situation was discovered and the president returned the money. he may have to return this $50,000 from her as well but that has not yet been determined. obama by the way is the only presidential candidate who has released his list of bundlers, that is financiers who go around collecting high-dollar donations from their friends and associates. bill? bill: thank you, steve. i hear the arborists are out there in april. martha: beautiful out there. so the u.s. coast guard is coming to the rescue of two sailors stranded in the

middle of the pacific ocean. the british man and woman were in the middle of a race around the world when their yacht was suddenly hit by a freak wave over the weekend. the coast guard reaching them late last night we understand. we understand they will reach shore sometime this morning near san francisco. the coast guard said they are being treated aboard one of their ships as they make their way back to land. fellow sailors say, this kind of incident? not uncommon. >> we have had winds up to 55 knots gusting. i think the major program they have a massive wave broke behind them and came forward. so you had all the water breaking over the boat and pushing them forward. that is a quite common occurrence but in this case it was a very, very large wave. >> being so far away from any land and, waves the size of buildings, winds that you have never experienced before, it's, pretty interesting. martha: pretty interesting is one way to put it.

boy, oh, boy, the remainder of the ship's crew will stay on board as the yacht continues the rest of its course toward the san francisco bay area. what a ride for those folks. bill: and lucky too. martha: new information on this developing story this morning. the black box from a deadly plane crash in russia has now been recovered. according to the investigators there. 31 people were killed when this plane went down in siberia today, about 1,000 miles from moscow. 12 people survived this crash. greg palkot has been on the story in the beginning in the wee hours of the morning. he joins us from london. greg, what happened to that flight? >> reporter: yeah martha, according to russian media reports we've been following a turboprop plane after regional russian airline went down shortly after a takeoff from a siberian city. smoke was seen from the engine. the pilots tried to do a landing but landed in a snowy field a mile away. the plane broke up in several pieces.

it is believed all the victims were russian all kid and injured. oil energy producing area. it was briefed they were workers for an energy firm headed to another oil center. according to media reports we're following, either pilot error or mechanical problem. terrorism being ruled out, martha. martha: what does this tell us? we've seen similar crashes like this before. what does it say about russian air safety if anything in general? >> reporter: the skies above russia are not too friendly, martha. last year alone, we checked research, 15 russian planes crashed. 15. a lot of problems. aging aircraft. poor crew training. run down airport. lax government krofls. after the last major crash last fall ordered a major overhaul of airlines. apparently he didn't do enough, martha. martha: apparently not. tragic. greg palkot. thank you very much.

bill: so we know what tomorrow is. the republicans candidates getting ready for three primary contests then, washington, d.c., maryland and perhaps the most closely-watched race the state the wisconsin. rick santorum trailing in most of the polling but vowing he will stay in the race no matter what happens on tuesday. >> if you go fast this month of april and we've got these primaries and five more at the end. month the map in may looks very, very good for us. >> this president can't run on his record and so he is going to try in every way he can to divert some other kind of attack and try to have people disqualify our nominee, which will probably be me, and, instead of talking about where we've been and where we're going as a nation. bill: so there is two of the four there. we'll ask rick santorum live about that race. we'll look ahead to his home state of pennsylvania three weeks from tomorrow. some suggesting that that primary could be his last. he would beg to differ however. rick santorum live in a few moments here on "america's newsroom.".

martha: pennsylvania's primary is in factset for three weeks from tomorrow. that one is on april the 24th. four other states go to the polls that day. that will be one of the big nights we have to look forward to in the whole primary race. connecticut, delaware, new york and rhode island in the mix. 219 delegates are on the line. new york and pennsylvania, you can see the numbers there, they are the big prizes, 92 and 69 delegates respectively. speaking of the whole gop race, mitt romney showing over the weekend he can a take a joke on april fool's day. he was pranked by his staffers who took romney to a room thought where he was going to be speaking and it would be full of supporters for a pancake brunch yesterday morning. take a look at this. >> governor mitt romney, the next president of the united states. [cheers and applause] [laughter] ♪ . >> oh, you guys. >> april fool's!. martha: pretty funny.

they had a whole room full of people at another floor. romney called it forgive but remember moment. meaning that he will store up some good ones for his, get back for that one. bill: the other two clowns in the room are ron john on -- johnson and paul ryan. martha: in on the joke. a lot of people forgot it was april fool's day. bill: my mom was the best. she got us every single year. she was slacking this year. did you know student loan debt is having a devastating impact on a unexpected group of people, senior citizens. there is a report that show that americans 60 years or older owed l owe $60 billion in student loans? stuart varney, fox business network. what gives here? >> the traditional belief you go to college, you come out you get a better job with more money. that traditional belief has broken down because tuition costs keep on rising so

there is more and more higher debt. there are not the good jobs with high pay that you're supposed to get when you come out of college. those jobs are very, very scarce. so you get these unusual groups like seniors who still have senior debt. maybe they took out a loan in their '50s to go back to school to get a better credential. when come out hit by the recession can't get a job and retire and have student debt which you can not discharge. you can declare bankruptcy, but can't discharge student debt. you don't get out of it until you die. bill: what about a bailout, could you get one? >> that is very interesting. there is a proposal, i believe full name student loan forgiveness act t has been proposed and you would be forgiven your student loan if for 10 years you would paid 10% of your disposable income. if you done all of that. the rest of your loan is written off. the taxpayers would pick up the tab. so with a trillion dollars worth of student debt

outstanding, by the way, 20 to 30-year-olds, 40% of them have average debt of $23,000, there is a lot of delinquencies here. the possibility of winning votes by proposing a bailout by the taxpayer, that is on the horizon. what? bill: seniors, college students and loans and man, that is a connection you do not make every day. >> they can garnish your social security payments. bill: i don't like that. see you in 10 minutes on fbn, okay? >> got it. bill: see you stuart. 10 minutes past. martha. martha: those are a few of the stories we got on tap for you this morning. how about this one? he got fired up during the health care debate. >> that sun true rumor. you want to be led out of here. you're welcome to go. now, wait a minute. wait a minute. you want to leave. leave. >> you remember that one? now former senator arlen specter, losing it during an interview over the weekend, stick around to see what happened. bill: there is nfl

cheerleader in court accused of having sex with a student while she was a teacher. why is her mother also facing charges? another question to ask. martha: one lucky winner hitting it big in the mega millions jackpot drawing. the mystery is, who is it? ♪ . more than 150 million professionals

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martha: this is getting a lot of attention this morning. a former senator losing his cool a bit on the air. arlen specter, the pennsylvania republican turned democrat threw a bit of a fit. he was promoting his new book on an atlanta radio station, here is what some of the viewers listening heard. >> i gave you 10 minutes. you've been over every subject except for my book. i have listened to two round of your come meshals. i think that sin sulting. >> senator, i hate to break it to you, arlen. this is public radio sir.

>> you are absolutely insulting. martha: well, does the former senator have a point? we'll talk about that with radio show host jason lewis to did interview with arlen specter. that is coming up later in the hour. it gets a little bit hotter. bill: prediction, martha? i think he will sell more books because of it. rick santorum says regardless what happens tomorrow in wisconsin he will not drop out of this race. mitt romney sounding increasingly confident he is the candidate. >> this president can't run on his record. and so he is going to try in every way he can to divert to some other kind of attack. and try and have people disqualify our nominee, which will probably be me. and, instead of talking about where we've been and where we're going as a nation. bill: all right. now, here with meal to react to all of that, rick santorum. how are you doing, senator? good morning to you. >> thank you, bill. actually i agree with what governor romney said. i think president obama

can't run on his record. it is an abysmal record on foreign policy and economics. we have to have someone that can make that the focal point. not someone whose record is problem particularly on the biggest ish shufs day. that is why we're doing so well. bill: that is why you think you should be the guy. mitt romney said he will likely be the nominee. what do you say to that. >> i think he has been saying that for a long, long time. we're still here. we won the last state by 23 points. for someone who is the eventual nominee, that is, by the way, being outspent and being outspent pretty much everywhere we go yet we're hanging in there. we're competing. we're competing effectively, here in the state of wisconsin. we feel very good that we're going to have a good result here in wisconsin. we'll have a strong showing. maybe even sneak in and have an upset but, you know, either way we'll have a strong showing in the face of obviously overwhelming money and overwhelming establishment support.

well, you know the establishment is trying to shove mitt romney down the throats of conservatives and tea party folks. hopefully they will stand up and say, nope that is what the message of 2010 is just as viable now and we need a strong conviction, principled conservative, just like we did in 2010 to be able to take this battle to washington, d.c.. bill: you mentioned the establishment. mitch mcconnell, senate minority leader, he says now is the time to urge republicans to get behind what he considers to be the eventual nominee in mitt romney. to unify behind him. you said on sunday the establishment is getting nervous. what would the establishment be nervous about with a rick santorum candidate? >> well, you know, i'm not someone who's a politician that maleable to folks inside the bubble in washington are come forable with. i came to washington, d.c. and shook things up at its

core. was considered, when i was young a bomber thrower. someone who didn't go along to get along that is more of the case now as i had the opportunity to be outside of washington, see the problems, see the group think that happens. look, i admit in some respects part of that, you see things differently when you're inside the bubble, even for a short period of time. and it's important to have someone that comes from the outside, who understands the anxiety, the concerns of the american public. wants to see the kind of big scale changes as opposed to some of the invery mental stuff that governor romney is campaigning on and frankly will hit the reset button in the fall anyway. bill: a lot of house republicans flatly disagree on what you're saying based on vote for paul ryan's plan in the future. they would say you're all wrong about that? >> well, i mean, paul ryan's plan is a great start. i said that from the very beginning. i said it last year. it is a great start but doesn't get us to balanced

budget in 10 years. we need to get to a balanced budget sooner than. paul put together a political document. it is a good plan but not as aggressive. i said 5 trillion over 10 years. i said we need to do five trillion over five years. bill: some suggested balancing budget within seven years. three weeks from tomorrow. you trail in polling in wisconsin you about three weeks from tomorrow is your home state of pennsylvania. over the weekend you said you will win in pennsylvania, today, senator, can you guaranty a victory in your home state? >> well absolutely. we feel, very, very comfortable that the people there, in the republican primary know us. look, it is a tough state. there is large moderate wing of the party particularly in the southeastern part of the state. we upset the applecart in pennsylvania. we were the first conservative to break the stranglehold. republican party. we were part of the movement to change the republican party in pennsylvania to a much more conservative party. we've been successful

winning elections doing that. so you know it will not be easy. bill: just to be clear, not be easy you're saying that you guaranty a victory in three weeks? >> oh, no question about it. bill: senator, thank you, good luck in wisconsin. maryland and the district of columbia. they all go tomorrow. thank you for your time. see you down the road. >> thank you. bill: martha? martha: all the talk on friday, right? a moment millions of people werist withing and hoping for. >> final white ball for this fried evening is, 2. now for the megaball. tonight's megaball number is 23. >> now one winner, somewhere in a very small town of just 3,000 people is hiding out. who is it? the mystery in red bud, illinois. bill: must be a heck of a town, huh? stunning new evidence revealed in the susan powell matter. why her family now say police bungled case, ignoring clues that could have saved susan's two young sons. >> i need that answer. he should have been arrested so long ago.

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bill: we are 24 minutes mast the hour right now. unemployment in europe reached a record 10.8% that is the highest since 1999. spain has the most people out of work. unemployment more than 23% in spain. record rain derailing a train in northern idaho. authorities say the ground just gave way. no one there was injured as a result. surfs up in southern california. 15 foot waves are spotted along the beaches. huntington beach, manhattan beach. surf's up. nicely done. you can do that if --. martha: so inclined or able. bill: if you were in socal today.

martha: who wasn't checking their numbers when this thing happened on friday night, right? now there is a megamystery going on. a search for a winner of the world's biggest lottery jackpot. a record-breaking $656 million. three winners in all. each worth more than $200 million right now. they're just leting this information sink into their brain and figuring out what it means for their lives, right? one of those tickets sold in the small town of red bud, illinois. even for those who did not win, still nice to dream, right? >> before we knew we actually didn't win the, okay, what would we really do, you know? and then my wife says, oh, i would still stay in this house and still drive my car. he says, no you won't. >> this is a winning ticket, right? >> a whole $3. [laughter] >> not 200 million? >> no. maybe next time. martha: maybe next time. now a small town is trying to figure out who the multimillion doll mayor

amongst them. this is mystery. julie banderas, a lot of buzz about a little town most folks never heard of before, called red bud. >> reporter: we're putting it on the map. because of state laws, winners in maryland and kansas can remain a mom must. red bud, illinois, where everybody knows your name with population of 38698 folks, everybody is anxious to call one of their neighbors a friend. rumors are swirling so fast. anyone tired of being asked if they were the newest millionaire. they can buy a t-shirt, yes, i am from red bud. no, i am not the winner. >> everybody is super excited. people checking their tickets. a lot of conversation going on. a lot of meeting out in the parking lot and trying to find out who that winner was. so far nobody stepped up and said anything. >> reporter: lottery officials say americans will find out who bought the winning ticket in illinois

only when whoever it is claims the prize which could be in days or even weeks from now, martha. martha: boy, what a story. how rich are these three win being ticketholders, julie? >> reporter: they're not doing too bad. there were only three winning tickets that matched all six numbers including the megaball from friday's night drawing. they are each worth $218 million. that is 105 million after taxes or $5.59 million a year for 26 years. a nice retirement fund if you're one of the lucky three. a third of the nations that is 100 million played mega millions for a shot at the $656 million prize. the largest lottery jackpot in u.s. history. the maryland winning ticket was sold at a 7-eleven in milford mill as a quick pick. the seller of kansas ticket in the northeast part of the state will collect 10 grand. the store that sold the quick pick ticket in red bud illinois get as bonus check of $500,000 according to

state lottery rules. advice for the winners, safeguard your ticket by signing back of it. make sure you claim it so nobody else does. martha: very important detail. thank you so much. bill: nobody in new york, right? nobody in new jersey. martha: nobody who bought their ticket downstairs like i did. bill: at the deli on the concourse. martha: my numbers weren't even close. bill: no? not even the same orbit. my, oh, my. stand by for more out of red bud. what happens if the supreme court throws out the health care law? we'll talk to florida attorney general pam bondi. she was live in the courtroom. she is here in a moment to talk about that. martha: it call comes down to this. notre dame beating connecticut sunday night for a second chance at the women's basketball national title. they will face off against baylor tuesday night. can the fighting irish take down the lady bears, bill? bill: that will be a great game. martha: that is the question. >> they are going back to

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fine to the pakistani government. the women served 30 days being arrested on march 3rd. they have 15 days or so left. after they finish serving that sentence the pakistani government are trying to deport them. two of the women are from saudi arabia and one is from yemen. the women that shared the compound where bin laden was killed doesn't appear either of those government are enthusiastic taking the women back in. they are working with the saudi government and yemeni government taking them back. it appears both those governments are not willing to be connected with osama bin laden and his wives, bill. bill: what is that investigation in pakistan then go from here, connor? >> reporter: bill, there is a lot of big questions that remain and it doesn't appear that the pakistani government is all that interested in digging too deep out of fear finding, incriminating evidence. there are questions about who helped bin laden. how was he able to survive nine years in the pakistan?

right now the pakistani government is resisting calls it appears tom dig deeper and appears out of fear what they might find, bill. bill: conner powell, thank you, streaming live out of kabul, afghanistan. in fact the pakistanis released video, two wives, three wives, actually and ex-wives and two of the daughters. first time we've seen it. video of the compound said to be destroyed or was on planning to be destroyed. we'll keep you updated on that. breaking news out of pakistan yesterday. martha: so the obama administration is saying that it bleefls that the health care law will indeed be ruled constitutional. vice president joe biden says he doesn't even want to consider the possibility that the supreme court would throw the bill out. here's what he said over the weekend. >> i'm not going to speck late about something i don't believe will happen. i don't believe it will happen. so, i just think we should focus on what is the law doing for people now and

what would happen if in fact the republicans are able to repeal it. martha: pam bondi is florida's attorney general of course. florida is one of 26 states that challenged this law and good morning to you, pam. great to have you with us again. >> good morning, martha. thank you. good to be here. martha: obviously there is optimism, at least outward optimism within the administration. when you look back, i know you were very enthusiastic how things went over the course of last week, but until june, until that decision comes down none of us really know what the thinking is on the part of these justices. are you at all concerned now that you have had a weekend to sort of let it all sink in. >> well, you know, martha, you can never predict, i said what a justice is going to do. look what happened in the 11th circuit. people kept saying we were going to lose and we got a great bipartisan decision. you can't predict. we had great questions by the justices. we're very hopeful because i firmly believe with every

fiber in my being this mandate is unconstitutional. it is unprecedented. it is the greatest overreach really in our history by the federal government and it is so much bigger than health care. so we've got to remain confident and we truly, truly hope and belief this mandate will be struck down. but regardless what happens, we're going to follow the law. martha: it is a huge, huge, decision with far-reaching consequences as you wellpoint out there and no doubt the supreme court justices feel the weight of that decision very profoundly but one of the biggest and most interesting questions at this point if indeed that individual mandate is struck down is it really in the justice's purview to figure out what to do with the rest of the law legally, or, were they asked to decide that individual aspect? and after that, when they decided the mandate is it even in their jurisdiction to do anything about the rest of the law that was written by congress? >> yeah. that's a great question and

that's why severability was such an important issue because judge scalia held up the 2700 pages, said, whoa!, federal government, what do you expect us to do, go through this line by line? that is why the severability argument is important to us. meaning if the mandate which is at the heart, the giusties said, government forcing us to purchase this, if the mandate is struck down does the entire statute fall, does the entire health care law fall? that's why it is so important tos the severability issue, yes, it should. what do you do? you have portions left but the heart of it has been it abouted. regardless they will have to go back to the drawing board. martha, there the bottom line is we needless government control. we need to let the industry regulate itself. we need to have be able to have health insurance across state lines. that is what will bake health insurance more affordable. less government mandates.

this is all about the government dictating what we're doing, mandating what we're doing and that's why we're fighting it so hard because it is in violation of our constitutional rights. martha: i understand. if they to shoot down the mandate, and they say that it is severability, if that is part of the decision, they can not turn to congress and say, we tell you must start at square one. i mean then there will be a debate in congress i would imagine, correct me if i'm wrong, over the remaining parts of the bill and salvageability of the remaining parts in the bill. that would become the next fight in congress i assume? >> yes. absolutely, if they fine, yes, if they find only the mandate is struck down they take what's left. even the federal government, generally speaking they aagree with us the largest portions of the mandate, the largest portions of the law are gone when the mandate's gone. that's why the courts had to bring in a special counsel

to argue that part of it because in general terms they agreed with us. so really with the mandate gone, congress they do have to go back to the drawing board and i'll tell you, we need to get conservative senators in there. we have got to get the senate on our side and get a conservative president if we have to go back to the drawing board. martha: you believe that would be the next venue basically if it is indeed upheld, it goes to the people and election to the decide how they want to see health care decisions made in the future. pam, thank you so much. great to talk to you. we wait at this point for that decision. pam bondi. bill: two months at a minimum. maybe 2 1/2 depending what happens in june. he calls it the path to prosperity. paul ryan's budget blueprint. why are some republicans calling it a trap? martha: she has been missing since 2009. her husband, killed their two children. during the investigation in a horrific fire. now susan powell's family is saying that this whole thing

could have been prevented if the police had done their job. >> he should have been arrested so long ago. i don't think he should have been let loose. when he started giving them bad answers at the station and they knew he was lying.

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martha: there were riots this weekend in kentucky where they take their college basketball very seriously, at least some of folks take it to quite an extent. take a look what happened. [shouting] martha: that was after a win, okay? flipping cars, setting fires. thousands of rowdy university of kentucky fans swarm the streets near the campus in lexington. 20 people were arrested. police say they are ready for tonight when the wildcats place the national championship game against the kansas jayhawks. bill: will be a great game. wonder what will happen in lexington win or lose, right? why is the game starting at

9:30? martha: i don't know. bill: who will be up that late? martha: not us. bill: just released police report raising serious questions in the susan powell matter. powell's family says police had more than enough evidence to arrest her just josh in connection with the disappearance three years ago. they found among other things, blood in the powell home and handwritten note from susan, who basically said if she dies it will not be an accident. >> based on the fact that we now know the case against josh powell for the murder of susan powell is one that we would have charged. washington law allows for prosecutors to pursue murder even without a body. that said, i don't know the law in utah. i don't know what facts were available the utah d.a. i don't know what the strategy was with law enforcement. therefore i can't speak to what the utah d.a. did or what utah law enforcement did. bill: in the end powell was

not arrested. he killed himself and two young sons inside of his home back in february. bo dietl, former nypd detective and fox news contributor. >> good morning to you. bill: they had lived in utah and weeks after she disappeared he moved to the state of the washington with his two young sons where i mentioned they died. there has to be a reason for police not to make a move on him. what's your logic tell you? >> well, bill, first of all i don't want to be a monday morning quarterback but when you have cases like this, a lot of these cases are made with circumstantial evidence. with all the evidence that i read about that they had, including the blood on the couch, blood on floor, tiles, all that kind of evidence, the fact that he tried to collect the $1.5 million insurance 10 days after she allegedly disappeared, the fact of the shovel, with the tarp in the car. there was a snowstorm. they supposedly went out. things kids were talking about, i honestly think

there was enough there possibly to arrest him and have him in jail and incarcerated on circumstantial evidence. bill: according to this report within hours after her disappearance he was the number one suspect. you're surviving family members. you're thinking about the evidence, why didn't you tell us? what would you have done? >> bill, i'm not there. i don't know what evidence they have but there seemed to be blood in the living room. blood on the couch. the fact of opening that up that letter, the letter describes that she is saying if i disappear he would be the person that would make me disappear. bill: that letter was written by susan. that was put into a safe. >> exactly. a detective that is investigating this, has to make the determination, bring it to the district attorney, say look it, we've got to collar this guy. we'll develop more. maybe you will never find the body. with all the circumstantial evidence you probably would be able to convict the guy. he had motive, means, opportunity, enough to commit the murder. i think he would have been

convicted what he saw. good knows what the forensic evidence. bill: bo, why did this happen? mayor of this town, west valley city, he says i stand behind the police department. different matter if you're in the legal community to have enough evidence to go for arrest. do you find some towns are not equipped for stories like these, for cases like these? is that where the case leads you? >> some towns don't have the "c.s.i", don't have investigative capabilities developing capturing all the evidence possibly in the house with the blood. now they're looking for help from the state police or something like that. some of these small towns don't have capability. with that said again, you have to make a determination. bill: do you need "c.s.i" when you have blood on a tile floor? do you need "c.s.i" when you have a letter in your hand and. >> you need forensics that will match the blood which they said in fact was her blood on the couch which he cleaned, which was on the tile again. shovel, bringing kids out in

a snowstorm. put all the factors together, bill, honestly i think he should have been collared, had him in jail, tried to find the body. bill: bo, thank you for being here. must be tough for the family. our website, hemmer at foxnews.com. and stwiter@bill hemmer bya, because you asked. tough way to start a week. martha: after that fire they seemed like they were in shock. they could barely respond and who could blame them. now to have this on top of that and think maybe they could have saved those children had he been taken in sooner. it's a very tough story and a tough situation. coming up here on "america's newsroom", the government is building a brand new spy center. it is huge. many times bigger than the u.s. capitol. so what are they doing in there? will big brother be watching you from this place? i want to know. bill: great question. remember arlen specter, he made an headlines during an

outburst during the health care battle. >> that is just untrue rumor. you want to be led out of here, you're welcome to go. now wait a minute. wait a minute. you want to leave, leave. bill: we found out a radio host told arlen specker to wait a minute and wait another minute. who is his target now? we'll find out. each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. 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.

bill: what a tragedy here. five members of the same family dead after a horrific motor home crash. the kansas highway patrol saying the rflt v was driving along interstate 35 when the driver suddenly lost control crashing into this nearby ravine as you see. 18 people on board, including some children. friends of the family say they were on vacation and on their way to see a motocross race. that --. martha: former pennsylvania

senator arlen specter threw a bit of a tantrum during a live interview on a conservative radio talk show. the republican turned democrat was a guest there to promote his new book. >> i have one final comment. i gave you a 10 minutes. you have been over every subject except for my book. i have listened to two round of your commercials. i think it is insulting. >> senator, i hate to break it to you, arlen, this is not public radio, sir. >> you are absolutely insulting. >> oh, boy. good god. this is not public radio. i don't have a government grant. we have to pay the bills. they're calls commercials. >> listen, i'm talking about somebody is civilized. i told you last time around i wasn't going to sit around and listen to your commercials and i didn't want to hang up on you. this is no way anybody to run an interview. i'm as experienced as you are if not more so. >> let me ask you something. >> that is all you have to tell you good-bye. good lord, senator.

no wonder you got beat. martha: how about that? he didn't stick around to answer questions after that about his book which he said he wasn't asked about in the first 10 minutes. i'm joined by the man who is getting a lot of attention based on this morning, jason lewis, syndicated host of that show. good morning, jason. >> good morning, martha. martha: did you ask him about the book at all? was that what he was on to talk about? is he right to in that respect. >> i don't know. i think the love has gone from our relationship. martha: what makes you think that? >> i don't know, just a thought. the first aspect of the interview was indeed about the trayvon martin case. he was a former district attorney and prosecutor. i thought, that was apropos. immediately he says, well we need a federal hate crimes allegation against this guy, mr. zimmerman, regardless how you think about the case, going into a federal hate crimes sort of angle on it was classic arlen specter. but every other topic i brought up was referenced in the book. citizens united, obamacare.

all the topics. he didn't want to talk about issues. he wanted to call his opponents extremists and i wasn't going to let it happen. martha: he said something about commercials, being upset he had to sit through commercials. he said, look we have to pay the bills here. >> imagine that. go on commercial al radiotation and television program and there are commercials. makes you wonder where the fellow has been? he is almost a poster-child for why the tea party rose. martha: in terms of your last comment, you wanted to ask him more questions about the book after that, you said, i guess this is why you lost, right? >> yeah. he really did come off spending obviously too much time in washington. the reaction i've got, boy, oh, boy, is this guy out of touch. look, nobody likes to sit through commercials i suppose. we're not npr we don't have a government grant, although if he was still senator maybe i could get one of the the point is, it is bizarre

reaction to say there are breaks in a commercial radio program. of course there are. what was he expecting? and, just the arrogance of his attitude was i think self-explanatory why he, he switched parties in order to run again. and of course, got beat. martha: well he may have end up getting more attention out of all this for the book. we'll see. jason lewis, we thank you for coming on to talk to us about it. interesting story. >> you bet, martha. martha: thank you. bill: looking forward to round two between those two. it has been a wild couple weeks with midair meltdowns like this 1a new report shows how the airlines are doing. what do you think, huh? to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪

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try some. mmm! two flavors. in harmony. yummy. four nutritious grains and two big fruit flavors to make your day bunches better. this is my grandson. and if it wasn't for a screening i got, i might have missed being here to meet him. the health care law lets those of us on medicare now get most preventive care for free like annual wellness visits, immunizations, and some cancer screenings. and that's when they caught something serious on mine. but we could treat it before it was too late. i'll be around to meet number two! get the screenings you need. learn more at healthcare.gov. you don't want to miss any of this! martha: lobbing grenades in the battle for the women's vote in 2012, president obama calling out the gop candidates for saying they would scrap planned

parenthood. listen: >> when some professional politicians casually say they'll get rid of planned parenthood, don't forget what they're really talking about, eliminating the funding for preventive care that millions of women rely on and leaving them to fend for themselves. martha: that is how we start a brand new hour now of " "america's newsroom", good to have you with us, i'm martha maccallum. bill bill i'm bill hemmer, hope you had a great weekend. both candidates struggling for support for women voters, polls showing that women heavily favor president obama over mitt romney. why is that? martha: rick santorum faring not much better with the ladies. take a look at this. there is also talk, the matchup among women, and when you get to the hispanic vote there's talk of marco rubio as a vp choice to attract that latino vote. joined by brit hume, fox news political analyst, good morning, good to have you

here. >> hi martha. martha: hi there. obviously these are two huge groups that anyone who's going to win the white house needs to have in their corner, the female vote and latino vote. let's take a look first at the female vote, the president dame out with that statement this morning, basically saying look, they're going to try to take away planned parenthood. good move? >> well, i suppose you can understand his saying it because romney said at one point, planned parenthood, we'd get rid of that. when he was -- what he was talking about was the federal funding of planned parenthood. planned parenthood is not a government agency, it is a private organization and funded heavily by private donations so the elimination of whatever government subsidies are being paid to planned parenthood would not he said the organization so in some sense it's a distortion of the position taken by the republican likely nominee but i suppose all of it feeds into the issue that you see in both those two polls, one of latinos and one of women, that both candidates on the republican side who have a chance are in very low standing right now.

look, this is low ebb, probably, for the likely republican nominee, mitt romney. the long primary season has taken its toll, the relentless attacks from his opponents, added to by attacks from the obama campaign, the ugly struggle has been long and i think people are sick of it and so on, it does not stand mr. romney nor mr. santorum in very good stead with the public at the moment. my sense is that the numbers aren't real, that the sentiment isn't that hard, that these numbers will change once someone is crowned nominee and the process of building that person up for real begins. martha: interesting. you know, just quickly on the latino vote and the question of marco rubio, who has really steadfastly and always -- everyone says they all do but he's been pretty convincing i would say in his contention that he's not interested in that spot. do you think that mitt romney needs to have that kind of representation on a vp ticket? >> there are a lot of obvious benefits if one could -- that one could note

from a rubio candidacy for vice president. one is he's very bright, well-informed and would seem to the pubic -- public to be qualified as president if the awful moment came. the second qualification he has is political. he comes from a great big state where he's very popular and has an hispanic background as a cuban american, all of which add to the possible appeal he might have can a key voting block, so obviously he would bring real strength to the party, one i'm sure republicans would love the idea of him debating vice president biden who can be a bit meandering and off base with some of the things he says, although i don't think vice presidential debates can have an effect on the campaign. they sometimes affect morale and such a thought elevates republican morale. martha: understood. good to have you here, brit, thank you. bill: mondays with hume. weren't we going to label

that! i'm looking for ideas. martha: we'll work on it on a commercial break and get back to you! bill: they've been arch rivals but newt gingrich says he will be on board with the nominee, whether it's him or anyone else. >> if governor romney gets to 144, not -- 1144, not counting delegates in florida, idaho, but if he gets to 1144, he'll be the nominee. >> will be endorse him? >> i'll do everything i can do to help elect him. if santorum, i would help elect him, and if i were the nominee they would help me. we are all committed to defeating president obama, his reelection would be a disaster for the country. bill: and that is not prematurely calling the campaign over. martha: a bit of a change in tone. and also talk of 2016, the presidential race is already heating up, if you can believe it, hillary clinton has ruled on the running for

vice president but in an interview today, bill clinton said this. i believe that she's being absolutely honest with you when she says she doesn't think she'll go back into politics but if she comes home and we do this foundation stuff for the rest of our lives, i'll be happy, if she changes her mind and cities to run, i'll be happy. what do you make of that? bill: you think she wants it or does he want it? >> i think they would probably both be interested in it if the tame came, don't you? bill bill it will be the most speculated story, whether she gets in or not. martha: a long way to go before we get to that point. the coast guard pulling off a daring rescue, 200 miles off the coast of california, this giant wave injuring two sailors, knacking -- knocking out the steering controls, that yacht taking part from a year-long, round the world race and there were other competitors who say they suffered injuries during that competition. >> the statistics of people injured on this, it's quite

high. in our boat, we've had one with a broken back, one person can a rotator cuff operation, one person with a broken foot. we've seen -- yeah, quite severe. bill: that's where sailors go. they go to the bar! claudia cowen is live in san francisco. this is serious, claudia. what happened? >> reporter: it is. it's pretty dramatic pictures there, bill. the 70-foot yacht was on the longest and most difficult leg of this around the world race, the part that goes from china to the bay area, more than 5600 miles, and on saturday morning, about 250 miles west of the golden gate, rough weather struck, a very deep, fast moving depression and the 13 crew members on board were hit by a rogue wave. now, that competitor you just heard from, he was on another yacht, he described the horrendous conditions: >> we were in winds of up to 55 naughts -- knots, but the

major problem was a massive wave broke behind them and came forward so you had all this water breaking over the boat and pushing them forward. that's a quite common occurrence but in this case it was a very, very large wave. >> reporter: the injured sailors are a man and woman from england. they may have broken bones but early indicators are that they're going to be okay. they were rescued by that coast guard cutter yesterday and as for the yacht, bill, that big wave knocked out its steering mounting but is making its way back to oakland and the cutter can the two injured sailors should arrive in alameda this afternoon. bill: claudia, thank you. better days ahead weather wise. claudia cowen in san francisco. martha: how about this on a monday? a new study finds that airlines are performing at an all time high. really? despite budget busting fare increases, and meltdowns, we've seen those frofling

flight attendants and even a pilot over the last week. doug zader is working on this story. what were they rating they seemed to be doing so well on? >> reporter: the first thing is time performance, this is the annual report card for 2011. the news, believe it or not, is good for the 15 largest airlines. better last year than the year before, but we're playing on the margins here. first this study is based on data from the department of transportation and gives the airlines 15 minutes of leeway in their schedule before it even calls the flight late, so there's built-in wiggle room and a relatively mild winter didn't hurt, either. last year, across the airlines, an average of 80 percent of flights were on time. that is a massive improvement from 2010 of 2/10 of 1 percent. having said that here are the top five performers for 2011 for ontime performance. hawaiian air had 93 percent of flights on time, delta

rounds off the list at 82 percent. now, the bottom five on time performers, american, continental, american eagle, atlantic southwest -- excuse me, southeast, last was jetblue. on the other hand the good news, martha, for jetblue was that it had the lowest rate of bumping passengers of any of the major airlines last year. martha: flying isn't what it used to be, right? but i guess by the lower standards that are set they seem to be doing okay on some of them but one of the biggest problems is you get where you're going and your bags aren't there. that's why everyone tries to carry on these days. >> it's an issue, especially now that you have to pay to check a bag. as far as the numbers for checked bags they're improving a little bit and the top performer was airtran, followed by frontier, jetblue, hawaiian and delta. the bottom five, united, skywest, mesa, atlantic southeast, and american eagle. the study also looked at the rate of customer complaints

and that really didn't change much year to year. overall southwest airlines was the best, and if you look at all of the factors together, the study considered, airtran was judged to be the top performer. martha: interesting, doug, thank you very much, doug lu zader in washington. bill: you're a fan of the train. martha: i am a fan of the train. bill: i'm a fan of the plane. you take the ground, i take the air. martha: i have a relaxing trip! bill: we both went to washington the same day and we raced. martha: you got there sooner but i was relaxed! bill: paul ryan's endorsement of romney sparked controversy. >> you got to tell people the truth and if they can't accept the truth, why, we'll suffer the consequences as a nation. i applaud paul ryan. bill: why some republicans say that his budget, paul ryan's, is a political trap. martha: we're going to talk about that. plus an nfl cheerleader is in court right now, accused

of having sex with a student while she was a teacher. how about that story, right? why prosecutors believe that her mother was also involved in this crime? bill: crazy. twenty-five years ago, we heard a story like this and now a toddler, again, falling 36 feet to the bottom of a well. wait until you see the amazing rescue. martha: unbelievable. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol

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[ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. bill rescuers, saving the life of a two year old boy who fell down this abandoned well. watch here. the boy dropped 36 feet into a narrow opening, so narrow the crews feared he would have no oxygen. after several attempts rescuers lowered a camera phone to monitor the operation. that's what did it in the end. they could see him down there. once on the surface, he was taken to the hospital. look at that! martha: look at him! bill: this happened in china he only suffered minor bruises and no serious injuries.

martha: all right. back to this amazing story now, quite different kind of amazing. there are new questions out there about whether congressman paul ryan's conservative budget proposal is a, quote, political trap as is the contention of juan williams for republicans. the white house is already call iting it the romney-ryan plan after the presidential candidate threw his support behind it. here's moit romney on the campaign trail with the wisconsin congressman. >> a lot of people say what he's talking about, the issues that he's talking about, that you can't raise those topics because if you do they'll bedom going dollars and -- demagogued and twisted hi other people and become political liabilities and he's saying you know what, we've got to tell truth and if you can't accept the truth we'll suffer the consequences as a nation. i applaud paul ryan. martha: kirsten powers is the daily beast columnist, rich lowry is editor of national review and both are fox news contributors.

good morning, guys. >> good morning. martha: i guess in a way, let me start with you rich, there's a lot of conservatives out there who have been sort of waiting for myth rom neto take a strong, disciplined approach to the debt and a dramatic look at what might need to happen in this country and to get out there and talk about it. is he doing just that, and will it get him anywhere, or is it a trap as juan williams contests? >> over the last several months he's basically endorsed the key elements of the romney plan -- sorry of the ryan plan, so if democrats want to call it the romney-ryan plan, that's basically what it is, it's a serious effort to address our debt and do voters a favor of explaining to them how republicans want to deal with this problem going forward. and i just think that's a much better way to go about your politics compared to what senate democrats are doing, which is not offering a budget at all compared to what the president is doing, breaking his promise on the budget, he said he was going to cut the decifit in half, so this is taking voters very seriously, considering them as adults and saying this is our vision and let's

run on this. martha: and the question that's raised is, kirsten, are americans who do claim to be very concerned about this debt and passing it on to their grandchildren, are they will to go sort of take the tough medicine that might be required by this ryan budget in order to actually do something about it. >> well, first of all, i completely agree with juan's article and i suggest people read it, because i do think politically this isn't smart for the republicans, because i do think, yes, people are willing to take tough medicine, it just has to be tough medicine for everybody and the ryan plan isn't tough medicine for everybody. it's basically cutting tax rates for rich people, and he has -- then saying well, i'm going to cut all these loopholes and break that is they get, but never really identifying what they are. and so it doesn't to me appear to be a shared burden. it also doesn't relate add up. it's a very hard -- it's very hard to cut the decifit and cut taxes. if anything, i would argue you need to be raising

taxes, not cutting taxes, and the tax rate is so low right now compared to what it was when i think conservatives like to say well, we've cut the tax rate in the past, and stimulated the economy, but the tax rate isn't even that high. we're talking about basically, you know, raiseing it to what it was during the clinton years which we all know the economy did very well then. martha: the bottom line is you don't have any real constructive discussion on the democratic side of cutting the debt in a meaningful way that adds up to any real numbers, so you've either got that and as rich pointed out, no budget that has been produced at all for three years by senate democrats, versus what some would see as a somewhat more radical plan by paul ryan, so to me, rich, in many ways it's a question of laying out both sides and the reality of what's happening in this country and as mitt romney says, you know, putting it before the people and letting them decide. >> exactly. on the tax side, it just echos the approach of the bowles simpson commission,

the president's own bipartisan commission set out, which would lower rates because it's more economically sufficient and cut loopholes in deductions, which benefit the people at the top more than anyone else and this is also a bipartisan keystone of the reagan administration, when both republicans and democrats got together and said let's lower rates and make the tax code switchler, and it's revenue-neutral. there's one option in the bowles simpson plan where the rate would actually be lower and you cut even more loopholes and deductions and get more revenue. ryan is just saying let's have a more economically efficient system that raises the amount of revenue, at the same time cut spending and reform entitlements. martha: we've got to go, but the question that was open-ended of exactly what that means to cut all those loopholes out, you know,

why a new facility that is five times the size of our u.s. capitol is being built. what are they going to do in there? and will they be watching us more closely than we'd like? we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar,

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bill: there are new questions about the national security agency's massive sky center under construction in the desert of utah. once finished it will be five times the size of the

u.s. capitol building, the nsa is is not allowed to spy on americans but now a whistleblower has come forward saying the agency is doing it, anyway. want to bring in mike baker, former cia covert operations officer, now president of the global intelligence and security firm known as diligence llc. welcome back here. what do you make of this now? >> well, the fact that they're building a new data center isn't news, in the sense that they've got several other facilities. the size of this is what is creating the stir, i think, in part. plus, there was an article in wired magazine, again, as you referred to, the whistleblower, a former nsa long time employee who is now talking. i would say out of furn, about what he views as the inappropriate nature of nsa's work, and it sounds to me as if there may be an axe to grind there. i don't know what his motivation is for talking. bill: they planned this thing ten years ago, it's

not finished just yet and it has been reported on, especially in the past couple of weeks. >> right. bill: and if the intent there is to stop terrorism here, great. >> right. well, absolutely. bill: if the intent is to stop cyber networks from tearing down our networks, right, i think that's purposeful, too. >> and that raises a great point, because the number one threat that we face as a nation frankly is not iran, it's not actually the war on terror, it's cyber warfare. it is the daily, astounding number of attacks against our government infrastructure, our private sector, the amount of economic espionage that's directed at our country on a daily basis would stun the american public, so nsa has both a defensive and offensive requirement. they're out there, obviously, working on the war on terror by looking for possible terror suspects. now, when you talk about putting together a mill square foot data center out in utah that is -- >> bill: 17 football fields, 18 times bigger than the white house, i mentioned, five times bigger than the u.s. capitol building. >> and people think about that and there's a tendency,

and i always found this interesting, there's a tendency on the average american to think their life is fascinating enough for the government to want to surveil them all time, to collect information on them. i can honestly say having spent a long time in the intel community that if you're engaged in terrorism, or supporting or promoting terrorism or criminal activity as an average american, they're going to find you -- >> bill: but there a danger having this in the first place? the intention might be all well and good but what happens ten years from now or 20 years from now? are we overly paranoid about folks watching us or should we be? >> well, no, we're not being overly paranoid. i'll say that. but again, i understand what the concept is from the other side. the other side looks at it and says of course they're going to be monitoring us, collecting information. that's horrible. i come from the other side of this, having spent the tile and looked behind the curtain, i honestly can say they don't care about the average american, that's not

the point of the exercise, but think about the expansion of the internet, of communications over the past ten years, you realize what that means in terms of our ability to be able to sift through all that. the function is the same, whether we're talking about ten years ago or right now, the purpose is the same, to collect the bits of information related to potential points of concern, terrorists, or others, or, again, we talk about the crimer -- cyber warfare. bill: i think if that is the intent in the end it will be lauded. i'm out of time but you come back. >> i will do it. bill thank you. martha, what's next? martha: there's no end in sight to rising gas prices as you probably learned when you filled up. now there's news that obama's energy policy could push it higher with plans for oil companies to pay more in taxes. that may mean that drivers need to dig deeper to pay at the pump. bill: remember this from last week, on friday we showed this, the firefighters who nearly went down that smoky hole are talking, that video a testament to the bravery and quick thinking.

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martha: we've got a fox news alert crossing the wire moments ago, armed and dangerous. there are brand new images of what appears to be preparations for north korean rocket launch, satellite photos show a mobile radar trailer and rows of fuel tanks is what you're looking at in this picture, they are stationed near a new launchpad in that

reclusive country, and analysts say they believe looking at this there's a dish antennae likely part of that tracking system, north korea says it's putting a satellite in orbit to study natural resources. washington claims that these types of launches are typically cover for testing nuclear weapons. though they say the north, they believe, and our intelligence circles, that they are a long way from shrinking an atomic warhead down to missile size. bill: fascinating thing to to look at. so republicans ramping up the attacks on president obama's energy polices. right now, national average, gallon of gasoline, 3.93 according to aaa. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was talking over the weekend about the president's attempt to end subsidies for america's oil companies. roll this: >> why don't we look at the facts, regardless of what polls reflect about how people feel about the oil industry, which is not at all surprising, the

congressional research, which is not a polling organization but analyzes objectively legislation says that if you raise taxes on oil production, the price of gas at the pump goes even higher, so this is an absurd suggestion when you've got $4 gasoline. bill: what about that? stephen moore of the "wall street journal," good morning to you. he's making a classive argument that if you take away the subsidy or raise a tax, in essence, that that gets passed on to the consumer. is he right in this case? >> in economics, one of the most important economic lessons, if you tax something you get less of it and its price goes up. so i think mitch mcconnell has it right. i think if you increase the taxes on the oil companies, eventually as you know that gets passed on or at least some of that gets passed on to consumers. the other effect of increasing the taxes -- what the president is talking about is increasing the taxes on new drilling. that means they're going to get less drilling and the

effect will be less domestic energy and higher prices in the future because we're not going to have access to a lot of that energy that we have so much of. by the way i have to say this, the president said three or four times in the last several weeks we only have 2 percent of the world's oil. this is -- that is complete imple wrong. fox news did a great story on this. we have, if you count all resource necessary states like montana, north dakota, texas, off shore, we have about half of the world's reserves, so we can drill and reduce prices, but it just isn't happening. bill: this also came nup a rose garden appearance. roll this from past leak -- from last week: >> we use 20 percent of the world's oil but we only have 2 percent of the world's known oil reserves. instead of taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's never been more profitable, we should be using that money to double down on investments in clean energy technologies that have never been more promising. bill billion the first part of that clip is exactly what you were saying. >> exactly. bill: what about doubling

down on green energy? would you support that to create jobs or do -- or do you believe there are green jobs? >> you know what, bill, here's my philosophy and policy on energy. i believe we should get rid of the word subsidy. we shouldn't be subsidizing any area of energy production whether it's oil, gas, nuclear, wind or solar. let's create a level playing field where taxpayers aren't subsidizing one industry over another. the problem with that excerpt from the president is on the one hand he says let's get rid of the oil subsidies and invest in wind and solar power, what he's saying is let's throw subsidies to them. if you look at the study that mitch mcconnell mentioned, they show that actually for every dollar that we provide in subsidies to the oil and gas industry, we provide 30-$50 of subsidies to the wind and solar industry. so let's get rid of them all, bill. let's create a level playing

field. bill: right pocket, left pocket. stephen moore, thank you. three point nine three a gallon across the country. >> i was just in chicago, it was 4.69 a gallon. we're getting close to $5 in a lot of cities. bill: you can tick off a lot of consumers that way. thanks stephen. martha: there's new fallout today in the investigation of a shooting death of an unarmed florida teenager, 17-year-old trayvon martin killed by neighborhood watch volunteer george zimmerman who has claimed self-defense in this case. now the teen's parents are demanding to know why zimmerman has not been arrested. steve harrigan is live on this story. what's the very latest today? >> reporter: martha, attorneys for trayvon martin's family have asked the justice department to investigate why the local prosecutor did not file any charges against the admitted shooter, george zimmerman. in the meantime the special prosecutor who's in charge of this case said that despite growing protests and calls for an immediate

arrest, there would be no arrests until her investigation is complete. >> the problem is making an immediate arrest is we have laws in the state of florida that you can only hold a person for a certain amount of time before they have to be released from jail. that's why when there's an intensive investigation, and affirmative defense, you wouldn't necessarily rush to an arrest. >> that special prosecutor has given no public timetable as to when that investigation will be finished, martha. martha: very interesting. so is there any new light that is being shed on what the scene was that night, what really happened? >> well, each day it appears that more and more tiny details are coming to light. the latest are some recorded calls from the emergency medical responders to the scene of the shooting on february 26th, initially two ambulances were called to the scene of that shooting, one for trayvon martin, the second was canceled before it arrived. presumably that was for zimmerman and keep in mind

zimmerman said he filed in self-defense and zimmerman's family members say his knows was broken and head was pounded into the pavement. martha: steve, thank you very much. steve harrigan with the latest there. bill: if you had to pick an actor to play apple innovator steve jobs, who wo that person be? how about ashton kutcher? which one is he? he's been cast as steve jobs in an independent film simply called "jobs" it will follow his life from the 1970s california hippie to his days as cofounder of apple. they have the hair, right? martha: what do you think? bill: i think it's a match! martha: some big steve jobs fans and long-time followers are not happy. they don't think ashton kutcher is a serious enough actor to play steve jobs but he certainly looks like him. maybe he can pull it off. maybe it would sort of change the actor image. bill: how about jackson browne? martha: there's a flash from the past! bill not shown here!

martha: we're going to think about that on the break and get back to you! not a lot to cheer about right now for a certain young lady, the cheerleader on the cincinnati bengals team, talking about this a bit this morning, why one is facing time behind bars for something that she's accused of doing before she even joined the pep squad, bill! bill: winning, huh? sarah palin, serving you a a cup of morning coffee, filling in tomorrow as a host on a major network morning program. wait until you hear which one of her rivals that she will face off against. martha: quite interesting. ♪

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bill: a morning faceoff show of the ages, sarah palin and katie couric facing off, palin is hosting a show designed to compete with katie couric. here was couric on morning tv earlier. >> i'm happy to be here, george, thank you for inviting me, of all but it's

a little strange and i'm a bit nervous. my heart is beating nervously right now. >> it's ever six years, i first woke up at 1:15 this morning like i'm ready to go! bill: some days we wake up like that, too, but it's rare! martha: i'm really glad when i get to go back to bed. bill: couric had a few gotcha questions during the interview in the 2008 campaign cycle. martha: apparently sarah palin says game on! we'll be watch -- watching. in the meantime an nfl cheerleader and her mother leading not guilty moments ago. we've been watching this in a kentucky sex abuse case. sarah jones is accused of having sex with a minor while working as a high school english teacher while her mother, who you will see in a second, here she comes, she, there we go, cheryl jones, is the principal at a local middle school and she's accused of tampering with evidence in this case.

this is not the first time that sarah has been the center of sexual accusation accusations. she made those accusations in the last time around. we're joined to talk about this with our legal panel, tamra holder is a defense attorney and fox news contributor and joey jackson is a former prosecutor. welcome to both of you good morning. martha: good morning. so where to begin with this one. tamra, let's talk about the current case. she has pled not guilty, the accusation is that she had sex several times with a 16-year-old boy while a teacher and she interacted with him via text message and all the rest and there's evidence of that and for the mom it's that she tampered with that evidence. she's a principal. >> right. well, you have to look at it as this is just the very preliminary part of a case. just because somebody is indicted, that's just the smallest amount of information that you can give to the grand jury to say look, we think that there's enough here to go to trial. that doesn't necessarily mean that the person is

guilty or that they committed a crime. they have some kind of evidence and it may not be enough to rise to the level of guilt. what's interesting is just briefly, you brought up the other case that she has alleged -- accusations. she won an $11 million judgment against an internet company for things that they were saying about her that were disparaging to her name. so it's interesting, that case is getting ready to go to trial in june, that this thing pops up right now. martha: joey, do you read anything into that? >> that was a default judgment and what that means is there's not really a response. it is going to trial in june. the merits of that will be adjudicated and we'll see what happens. but on this case, listen, i agree with tamra, it's preliminary and everyone deserves the presumption of innocence. that said, here's what concerns me here. what concerns me is you have her being a teacher in a high school and as a result of that you're in a special relationship. let's remember that. martha: sounds like it was a very special relationship! >> i meant a relationship of trust.

martha: ah! >> what we have to keep in mind, in kentucky the normal age of consent is 16, however, whenever you engage in relations with someone, when you have a relation -- relationship over them, that is 18. what concerns me, if you look at the second charge, not the first one, sexual abuse in the first degree but the second one which talks about the use of that device, if they have text messages, it tends to corroborate the charge that she was otherwise involved with the student where she should not have been. furthermore if there's any dna evidence, sometimes younger people tend to save things, right, we remember monica lewinsky's situation, won't bring that up but if there's dna that attaches and they brag to the friends, and these are recent outcries, martha, when they could say something incriminating .

>> information that they probably got through an investigation but they'd rather go to the person themselves and say tell me this information that you know about your daughter. i think what has happened here is that the mother probably wanted to cover up for what she knew, some kind of behavior her daughter engaged in and they said look, if you're not going to tell us anything, we're going to slam you with a case and you're going to be charged with a crime and you're going to go to jail. i think that's what happened here. >> if tamra is right it's easily defensible. remember it's not an obstruction of justice charge, right, it speaks to temper -- tampering of evidence charge. they're tight lipped on the investigation but in the event the mother had something and it was more than telling the police something she knew but was having something of evidentiary value that she

disposed of, it represents a further problem. >> she would had to have known at the time it was evidence and she wasn't disposing it before she knew of an investigation. martha: all right. we'll see where it goes from here. nice setup. joey, thank you very much. tamra, thank you. >> take care martha. bill there was a winning team in cincinnati! for the first time, three firefighters revealing what this life and death moment was like to live through. >> it was like fine, i was cutting, and then it just dropped. 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. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm.

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>> jon: i'm jon scott, on "happening now", looking to political controversy, washington, d.c., bret baier joins us with that.

of health news, the top ten things you can do to prevent cancer. we know fast-food is fattening but can it also make you depressed? and is sugar killing us? if you saw "60 minutes" you might be quite freaked out about the sweet stuff but is it really addictive, maybe toxic? our panel weighs in with their expertise. martha: we'll look forward to that, jon, thank you. a brand new update on a story we brought you last week. it was the sort of video that could -- well, it was fire feeters in dearborn, michigan on the roof as it suddenly started to give way and they kicked into action, pulling each other to safety over the side of that wall there in the middle. it wasn't until they saw the video, though, that they realized how close of a call this really was. >> oh man, i was more -- i was closer to the hole than i thought i was. and it wasn't until i saw

the video that i realized that. >> really, i didn't realize how lucky we got. we were told to open up the hole to let the hot air out so the crews could get in, and it was burning so long underneath there it weakened the structural members, and basically caused a collapse. martha: brave. that's why they call them that. the cause of the fire is under investigation. bill: watching that as it happens, it takes your breath away. martha: good that they're okay. great teamwork. bill: and to watch it on camera. atlantic city welcomes its newest addition to the famed board walk today and it's not just the owners betting that a 2 1/2 billion dollars bet will pay off. rick len enthal is live at the casino now where he

feels very comfortable! >> reporter: bill, the owners of rebel hope that it's a new era in gaming and entertainment. it's one of the nation's largest casinos. a soft opening today, and we'll give you a look around at this spectacular property. the second tallest building in the state of new jersey. it's encased in glass. there are ten pools, 14 restaurants, 6.3 million square feet total and they hope people will come here not just for gambling but also entertainment and the spa and to make a vacation out of this. the governor, chris christie, toured the property last week. here's what he said: >> we're sending a signal to not only just the region but the entire country that atlantic city is back. and that is going to be doing things that other resorts in this country can't provide to you. you go to other places where they offer gambling, they don't offer this. >> reporter: the governor tried to convince bruce springstein to perform here. right now beyonce is scheduled to open memorial

weekend. bill: he's hoping for labor day weekend, right? some people think this is a bad bet. how come, rick? >> well, they invested $2.4 billion in this property, and atlantic city has been on tough times for about five years and some think they'll just take business from other casino hotels. of course donald trump still has a stake in two of them. here's what he said: >> it's a positive for atlantic city. it's a good thing for atlantic city. probably will hurt other casinos quite badly. atlantic city always seems -- that seems to happen. a new casino opens in atlantic city and it always seems to hurt the other ones, but look, it's a positive step for new jersey and that's always good for atlantic city. >> reporter: and they do believe here at rebel that they will attract more jobs and more investment in this town and that things are only going to go up, bill. bill: let's hope, huh? let's hope for all of them. come become with some money, huh rick? don't lose it all! >> i'm going to try! bill: keep us posted. rick len enthal in atlantic

city. he could be mayor someday! martha: he could. a little bit of experience. let's hope for that labor day concert, right, and we will go. left behind by nasa and their government, the local economy killed america's space program and it said goodbye. >> the final liftoff of atlantis. america will continue the dream. all right, let's decide what to

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bill: we saw the hunger games over the weekend. martha: i made an investment. my kids have been several times. i havvery interesting. i didn't know what to expect. jennifer lawrence is wonderful. a very good young actress, somebody to watch. bill: she got a pretty good job, didn't she. martha: yeah. bill: see you on tuesday. martha: "happening now" starts right about now. jon: a horrific plane crash