good morning be everybody. welcome back to you. martha: we'll talk about that in a little bit. i'm martha maccallum. we have a slight drop that following april that saw a spike in the number of people looking for unemployment benefits. the weekly jobless claims number we got today all the way back to the beginning of the recession. this highlights the last couple months. the road as you see has been pretty rocky over that period. bill: stuart varney breaking it down. >> reporter: there is no joy in these numbers. three years after the end of a recession. you have far too many people with first-time jobless claims. if anything these numbers confirm the economy is weakening. slower rate of growth and less

job creation. the spending power in our pockets is down. prosperity is a long way away. the associated prepares writes the following. when the number stays consistently below 375,000, it suggests the job growth is slow enough to vote unemployment rate. >> reporter: i think you need a lot lower number to get the unemployment rate. far fewer jobless claims and the unemployment rate largely depends how many people are in the labor force. the labor force has been shrinking, that's why the unemployment rate has come down. bill: back to that graphic. that yellow line is 375,000. that is where many people suggest we need to be at or below. you think it needs to be lower

than that. >> yes. if you look at other recessions. as you come out of that recession, that line was way below 375,000. it should be more like 300,000. that is far too high a number. bill: you talk the revised number, that's where the number changes. the pattern has been to go higher which means worse, correct? >> reporter: yes. 17 times on these weekly jobless numbers, the previous weeks numbers have been revised higher. that's a big story. bill: the sound you hear is the economy billing along. >> reporter: low growth, little job creation, spending power down. martha: back to this big story. there is fallout after president obama's evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage. after hedging on this issue the

president came out and told robin reporters from abc that he does support marriage for same-sex couples. >> at a certain point just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. i continue to believe this is an issue that will be worked out at a local level because historically this has not been a federal issue. martha: the president goes on to say he believes the issue should be dealt with on the state level. on the campaign trail. mitt romney reacted this way. >> i have the same view on marriage that i had when i was governor and i expressed many times. i believe marriage is a relationship between a man and woman. states are able to make decisions with regards to domestic partnership benefits,

such as hospital visitation rights. but my view, marriage itself is a relationship between a man and woman, and that's my own preference. i know other people have different views. this is a tender and sensitive topic. i have the same view i have had since running for office. bill: as you can expect is reaction in just about every corner on this. from the catholic church. cardinal timothy dolan releasing this statement. we cannot be silent in the face of words that undermine the institution of marriage, the foundation of our society. here is the president of the catholic league, bill donohue on this issue. >> the religious implications

are grave. obama is already at war with catholics over the hhs mandates forcing us to pay for drugs. there are all kinds of religious liberty questions. bill: donohue says this is another example of the white house being at odds with the catholic church. there is a political equation and that's whether this has any impact or effect on the election. we are asking that question on our web site at foxnews.com/america's newsroom. martha: we'll talk to monica crowley and chris hahn about the political ramifications. peter doocy joins us from washington. >> reporter: some members think it would level the playing

field. tawpped aiken feels homosexuals are more protected than other members of the public. so he proposed an amendment to ban same-sex marriages on military bases and it passed 7-4. >> the president repealed don't ask, don't tell, and he's using the military as campaign props to advance same-sex marriage. he's promoting same-sex marriages with federal employees on federal property. >> reporter: they also passed an amendment to protect the conscience northwest of any chaplain who is opposed. >> by singling out simply matters of religious conscience concern can the appropriate and

inappropriate expression whatever that means of human sexuality. i think this does more mischief than it prevents. >> reporter: despite that back and forth no one specifically mentioned president obama's position on same-sex marriage. martha: what were the comments elsewhere on the hill. >> reporter: the majority leader said the president is right but he says he doesn't agree. he says in a civil society two people should be able to marry whoever they want and it's no business. mine. marco rubio said i disagree with him on that position. i agree with the old barack obama. he's referring to the president's past words in 2004 where he said he thought marriage was between a man and

woman and he didn't think marriage was a civil right. bill: house speaker john boehner about the possibility of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. >> reporter: i haven't seen this proposal. all i know is it's a very controversial issue in our country. but most people believe that marriage is a union of a man and woman. but again our focus here on the hill is on the economy and getting the american people back to work. martha: north carolina banned state marriage. those states have 300 electoral votes. a candidate needs 270 to become president of the united states. minnesota will do so this

november. also on election day you have got maryland, washington that will vote on same-sex marriage. it's something that will be on a lot of ballots as we head forward. bill: got a fox news alert. massive explosions rocking damascus, syria. the assad regime claiming an attack killed 55, wounding 400. the force of the blast creating compounds leaving massive craters. if the reports are true it's the deadliest attack in the capital since the uprising began. it's getting worse in syria. a difficult place to get information, though. martha: we have a lot of stories and those are a few of them coming up in america's newsroom

on a thursday. an entire school, every single student was sent home for the day, and not for bad behavior. bill: new questions about voting and possible voter fraud in a critical battleground states. could hundreds or thousands of non-citizens be registered to cast a ballot? martha: serious concerns about the latest terror threat. why al qaeda may be looking to place bombs in household pets. >> i don't think those leaks should have happened. there was an operation in progress. i think the leak is regarded as very serious. anywhere near my c. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop.

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martha: there were so many kids sick at one school in seattle the principal said, everybody go home.

150 students at the school were sick. most of them had flu symptoms. a few of them even had whooping cough. >> we needed to take the precautions we believed were in the best interest of our students and employees. >> i believe having them confined in the building, breathing, sneezing, coughing on one another was not in their best interests. >> i think everyone will get better. but it's interesting we got school shut down. martha: students are being urged to get vaccinated for whooping cough. washington dealing with one of the biggest outbreaks of whooping cough. bill: going through those airport body scanners that see everything may be a waste of time and money. many experts say they would have missed al qaeda's new and improved underwear bomb.

here is darrell issa grilling a member of homeland security on that. >> do you agree that advanced imaging would have caught the new bomb? >> that's an interesting question and i would have difficulty answering that in open session. bill: add to that the high-profile cases much the tsa harassing and humiliating passengers. some lawmakers questioning why he has the job. sir, good morning to you. the question is why are your words so strong against brown. why do you want him out? >> he has a job, that's to keep american travelers safe. he failed miserably at that job, it's time for him to go.

bill: you call the tsa bloated and broken. you say the safety of american travelers requires drastic change but with that comes a responsibility on your part to give us a solution. >> we have to stop patting down grandma and children and start focusing on those who want to harm us. i congratulate our intelligence community for preventing this underwear bomber from getting on the airplane and for al qaeda to get on our aircraft. the tsa has not stopped one terrorist attack. we spent $60 billion. we have to have the intelligence. stop patting down grandma and children and focus on those who want to harm us. bill: john pistolee came to tsa

with 20 years of law enforcement experience. replace him with what and whom? >> i don't know who we'll replace him with but the tsa needs to change its direction and the department of homeland security does, too. we have known terrorists flying today. 17 known terrorists on the no-fly list have gotten on airplanes multiple times and have flown and we are patting down grandma and children. we need to focus on those who want to harm us, and that's terrorists. it's going to take people with boots on the ground to infiltrate these various terrorist organizations and stop them before they get to an airport. bill: the point you make is valid and many would say take an all of the above strategy.

we have not stopped any terrorists from flying. focusing on objects is not the way to do this. we have to have the intelligence. we have to do what the cia did in this recent case. the homeland security, i have been saying this for two years. the department of homeland security and tsa needs to stop focusing on people that are american citizens, patting down grandma and children. bill: i got the point on that. do you favor profiling then? and how would you do it? >> we have to focus on terrorists. whatever method of focusing on terrorists is the way we need to do that. we have to focus on them. we have to get involved in having intelligence and boots on the ground to get into those terrorist organizations, not only those here in the united states, but overseas. we have not had one -- not the

first aircraft in this country that has been involved. it's all overseas. bill: we reached john pistolee we hope to have him come on and explain today. martha: we'll take a look at president obama's evolution on the history of gay marriage and how it will play with the voters. did he lose a line of attack against mitt romney or did he do something good? bill: there was a manhunt for the man suspected in the murder and the mom and her eldest daughter. what police are saying about a possible motive and where are these two other girls. >> the bottom line is we are lifting every available resource we have to locate the missing girls and adam mays.

bill: rescuers reaching the wreckage of a russian airplane. it appears there were no survivors. that plane crashing on its inaugural flight yesterday. chinese made water slides sold sat walmart and toys are us. one death and two injuries related to that product. there is this. the cops call him sal. snake at large. a burmese python. i'm going to take an extra extra extra large python pizza to go. martha: i don't want to know what pizza place it was.

bill: sal has been captured by the way so the city is safe. martha: there are brand-new developments this morning in this unbelievable story we have been dploferg america's newsroom. it's a man opportunity for a suspected killer adam mays. he topped the fbi's most wanted list. he's suspected of killing a mother and her teenaged daughter and take off with the two younger girls. mays' wife and mother are also charged. his mother-in-law told police that mayes believes these girls are his own daughters. here is tennessee's chief prosecutor. >> they are believed to still be

with adam mayes. the primary objective to to bring these young girls home to safety. martha: bill daly is a former investigator. just to catch everybody up on this. these two girls that he's traveling with, he has been close to this family who is not his family. his wife believed he might be having an affair with joanne b air, nez. the family was about to move to arizona. that might have bent motive for killing joanne baines and her daughter and taking these two little girls he believes are his daughters. >> the focus is getting these two girls back safely. it's not that usual that they

put someone this quickly on the top-10 list. it shows the significance they are placing on this investigation and how they need the public assistance to find mayes. martha: mayes' wife claims she saw the murder. she saw this happen in the garage of the house. and they then put the two bodies and these two little girls in the car with their deceased mother and sister and drove them back to mississippi where the bodies are buried. do you think based on the theory that he thinks these are his own girls that they are safe? >> that could work in their favor. if he believes that they are his own children, that perhaps he will take some extra steps to keep them safe. the big question is, where is he and how is he getting around?

it doesn't seem to be at this point there was any elaborate plan where he had other vehicles and money to support them. this is somebody on the run with two small children. they need to eat, they need to stay someplace. he needs to get around and buy gas. how is he going to do this. martha: it seems like a man traveling with two girls who everybody is looking for, it would be fairly easy to track him down. we have the surveillance picture taken a couple days after the girls disappeared. he may have altered their appearance season that time. >> it's possible he took steps to make them look different. but this is not something people do every day. at some point he's going to run out of cash or he's going to run into a situation where he needs to take some steps. we are pleading with him, we,

meaning people in the civilian community. let the girls go safely. people can get them some help and turn yourself in. unfortunately this effort by the fbi is intensive. they have had a good success rate. and they will get him. martha: we certainly hope that you are right, bill, and those two little girls, everybody is looking for them. if you know anything, call the police in your area. bill: they were set to move out of that state. is the prosecution satisfied in its prosecution of john edwards? and will the former mistress take the stand. martha: hail and a huge cloud of dust. >> the back of the trailer lifted up and came back down.

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when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. bill: husband republicans trying to block deep cuts to the u.s. military. lawmakers say these cuts will decimate our armed forces. steve centanni is live on the hill to break this down. >> reporter: the debate continues on whether to cut the military or make cuts elsewhere. the vote is expected later

today. the defense department stand to lose 10% of its budget if this so-called sequester goes through at the end of the year. this happened because the super committee failed to reach a decision. here is budget committee chairman paul ryan. >> it would decimate our military at the very moment when our men and women are fighting from afghanistan. we don't want to lose the savings, we just want to cut government in other places. bill: what are democrats saying about all this? >> reporter: they say the republicans want to make cuts in all the wrong places like medicaid, school lunches and assistance for the poor. >> they have a totally lopsided approach that once again protects the special interests

and they whack everybody else. >> reporter: some say what happens in the house will amount to little more than a political statement because harry reid says the bill will not pass in the senate and tax increases are part of the mix. bill: thank you, steve. martha: president obama reversing his once-held position on same-sex marriage in an historic white house announcement. he says he believes gay couples should be able to get married. he's the first u.s. president to publicly support gay maij. in 2004 during his run for the senate he backed civil unions. but he drew the line at marriage. >> what i believe in my faith is a man and woman when they get married are performing something before god. it's not simply the two persons.

i don't think it's a civil right. i thinking about able to transfer property is a civil right. martha: monica crowley is a talk show host. christopher hahn is a former aide to chuck schumer. i want to discuss the political ramifications of this. we talked about the meaning of it and his decision to announce this. the timing was interesting and it seems to be, chris, prompted by a statement by joe biden. >> you have got to love joe biden. willy brown said it best. the prot's job is to take the country with him. george pataki said you can't get so far ahead of the parade you don't hear the music. i think when bind and other members of the cabinet came out and said this is the way the country is moving. i think he felt comfortable that

this is the right thing to do. i don't see how this hurts or helps him. i don't think there are a lot of people where marriage equality were their key voting issue who are voting or democrats anymore. this is great for the base. he will get some democrats who didn't think he was liberal enough. i know around here people think he's far to the left. but most progressives in america don't think that way. martha: monica? what is the political take on this? >> he was for gay marriage when he was a state senator, while he was a senator he was against it. while he was president he was evolving on it. and now he's for it again. he will have a difficult time attacking mitt romney for flip-flopping when he flip flopped on this.

it's interesting he made this announcement two days after major gay donors threatened to with hold money from his campaign. while he's pandering to gay activists web also has serious issues with other core constituents who are culturally conservative like blacks and latinos. martha: do it, chris hahn, negate the argument that mitt romney has flip flopped on issues such as abortion. you can imagine the scenario, where mitt romney says i evolved on issues as well as you did. done deal, we have both done it. >> i think we have to measure the weight of the flip-flops in 1994 he was going to be to the left of ted kennedy on gay rights. i don't know what that meant. by said he would have been to

the left of ted kennedy. now he's an extreme conservative who will never evolve. even allows his gay staffers to resign because he's getting pressure the right. >> that's not true and that's a cheap shot and you know it. martha: that was said by rick purnell himself. >> mitt romney did not ask him to stay. he let him go. >> you know what be chris -- martha: it's my understanding he did ask him to stay. but i don't want to get too far afield. >> this is a perfect example of what the democrats are going try to do. president obama cannot run on his economic record because it is absolutely abysmal. he has been a failure. everybody knows he has been a failure. so the left is trying to prop up these bogus, non-sensical

issues. whether it's the madeup war on women -- martha: it doesn't have -- what i'm interested in is, in the election does it have any impact whatsoever in terms of the vote, quickly and then monica. >> i don't think it does. it energizes the base but it doesn't have any impact on the base at all. >> economic issues will be number one. but on the margins with some core democrat voters likes blacks and latinos who are more culturally conservative. i heard from two democrats who voted for obama last time said that's it. i'm breaking up with him after this. martha: they might stay home. >> we'll see a poll in a couple of days. i don't think there will be a major impact. martha: saying it doesn't have any teeth in terms of changes. each state will decide and the president said that's what he wants to see anyway.

>> this is a civil rights issue it should not be up for a vote. >> obama's statement yesterday is the same as dick cheney's. >> we'll let you know what the poll says. bill: is florida at it again? are voters in that state non-u.s. citizens? how is that possible? there is an investigation underway and we'll tell what you they are fining out. martha: there has been a decision reached in this horrible story. it was a crash that left two young people dead. what this decision means for their family and the survivors. [ gnome ] enjoying your holiday?

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neurosurgeon. he was scheduled to give a speech on the cruise. instead fbi agents came knocking on his cabin door and they accused him of plotting a bio attack. >> i had no idea what they were talking about. the more questions they asked, they wanted to search my bags. after the fbi cleared me and homeland security cleared me, i still was not able to talk to those people to let them know what went on. martha: they cleared the doctor. the carnival cruise spokesperson said for the safety of the passenger dr. cruz had to leave the cruise. and they are searching for the terrorist who apparently hacked his account. bill: an investigation in

florida trying to determine if thousands of registered voters may be citizens of another country. >> we are not talking about illegal immigrant, we are talking about people who have legally gone through the process with highway safety to obtain a driver's license. but they can't register to vote. bill: florida is a critical state and you know that already. just a few hundred votes determined the weather. the senior legal fellow at the heritage foundation previously served as a member of the federal election commission. welcome to america's newsroom. what is the issue here? >> the issue is the state started comparing their driver's license records to voter registration records. they turned up 3,000 people who may be in the united states

legally but aren't citizens but who may have registered and veetd which is a felony under federal law. bill: how do you define a non-citizen. >> you can be in the united states legally, you can be a green cardholder, you can be here on a visa. every state will let you get a driver's license. the problem is, this is just the tip of the iceberg. they are only turning up people who are in the u.s. legally but not citizens. what they are not able to find by comparing those records are people who are in the united states illegally but are registering and voting. we know that's going on, too. bill: even if you wanted a driver's license and you are from another country, don't you need some identity to show where you are from? >> you do. but that doesn't prevent people unfortunately from breaking the law and registering and voting. as you can see, they have never

before compared these two records. look, the justice department in a three-year period criminally prosecuted almost a dozen people in florida who weren't u.s. citizens who were registering and voting. including a go who tried to run for the state legislature. bill: that remarkable. the laugh of sarcasm. here is what the critics are saying. the minority and the college students, those are the people you are after. you are trying to effect the outcome of an election. how do you respond to that charge? >> that's just foolish. it is against federal law and it's against state law in every state for you to vote if you are not a united states citizen. what are these critics saying they think people who are in the united states and aren't citizens should be able to vote

in the upcoming elections? that's something that americans do not agree with and rightfully so. bill: where is this headed? are you getting cooperation in florida? do you think you will be able to verify this before the next vote rolls around in 6 months? >> i think the state is doing the right thing. but what's not happening and what should be happening is the federal government is not giving florida access to federal ins records on people who are in the use the illegally and otherwise. that's what they need to be able to show that people registering to vote are in fact u.s. citizens like they are supposed to be. bill: we'll keep in contact with you and the folks in florida. thank you for your time. good to have you on. bill: go to our web site.

foxnews.com. america's newsroom. and shoot me an email at hemmer@foxnews.com. there is a new terror warning. why the same bomb maker who came up with the upgraded underwear bomb may be looking to use household pets as weapons of mass destruction. this is an incredible story. bill: this is mother nature. the fury unleashed as a massive dust storm hammers the neighbors with no warning. i'll tell you where in a moment. check that out. [ male announcer ] the inspiring story

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bill: there is a $17 million settlement for this horrific crash. two students from hungary were killed. the settlement comes on the second day of what was suppose to be a month-long trial. the boating companies blame each other for that deadly accident. martha: extreme weather unleashing on the phoenix area. a massive dust storm accompanied by 60-mile-an-hour winds. this storms called a haboob. look at this video it usually happens in north africa or india. this one was in arizona and it tore roofs off of homes. survivors feel lucky to be alive. >> we are lucky. it could have been worse. we were fortunate.

none of the heavy stuff came down on us except for the glass off the sliding door. this happens within five seconds. you don't have time to sit there and take any measurements. martha: fire crews say lightning sparked a fire gutting a mansion and people hardly knew what hit them. >> i heard a huge boom that shook the house. i can see the smoke. by then it was dark smoke billowing. crazy. it hit so quick. i saw the shooting flames and i got really scared. >> reporter: despite all this, thankfully no reports of injuries. bill, now, you know what a haboob is. bill: i have seen a haboob before. but this is a haboob. that has to range right near the top, would you agree?

think about that. of all the haboobs we could come across, we came across that one. martha: we are easily entertained. how about the neighbor showing the reporters what she saw on her iphone. martha: that was john edwards, that was not a haboob. bill: a lot of our viewers sent us video pictures. she is holding that there with a reporter. updates on haboobs when we get them. there is stunning testimony in a case against john edwards. why another witness burst into tears on the stand. we'll tell you why. martha: a republican lawmaker with a message for democrats. he's telling democrats to get guts. >> we are not going to allow taxpayer dollars to lie to congress. but we have been lied to.

it's embarrassing we even have to get to this point. ♪

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martha: we have new details on the suspected al qaeda bomb maker. his name is i bring him al-asiri. we have new reports he's looking to hide bombs inside computers and even pets inside planes. he is definitely the number one focus right now. also there is this as we begin america's so-called puppet sheriff is at the center of a controversy. the justice department plans to sue sheriff joe arpaio over charges of civil rights violations and racial profiling. i'm megyn kelly. bill: i'm bill hemmer.

that lawsuit escalating a long-running battle between sheriff joe arpaio and eric holder. the feds canceled all talks after the sheriff refused to accept a court-appointed monitor of police practices in arizona. >> i think when you look at the environment we are in this political year. there is a lot of miscommunications emanating from washington. i would like to get this resolved by i'm not going to give under the authority of the elected authority. i'm not going to give up my organization to the federal government. it's as simple as that. martha: he's a tough talker. now the feds want the authority to search his office for evidence. william lajeunesse is in phoenix, arizona. what is this lawsuit all about? >> reporter: if you believe the administration this is about protecting hispanics from racial

profiling and abuse of power. if you believe the sheriff it's about abuse of power. they are trying to force the sheriff to accept an outside monitor who will oversee the operations of the maricopa sheriff's office. he says that's unacceptable. >> i have complete confidence in my organization. it's a very professional organization. i believe in my dedicated employees. they have a tough job to do. and i'm not going to surrender the office of the elected sheriff to be taken over by the federal government. >> reporter: the sheriff admits his officers made mistakes. but he does not believe there is a systemic problem and he believes this is a political hit

job. martha: what do the feds say about that? >> reporter: the government argues that arpaio is guilty of wide-spread abuse. that the deputies punished hispanic inmates for speaking spanish and spanish were times for likely to be stopped than whites. arpaio says, this all anecdotal. this is isolated examples. show me the evidence. the county attorney who prosecutes these cases and must take these arrests into court says he wants to see the evidence as well. so far the feds have refused. >> they neglected to take into account that i have a separate constitutional role within local government as an elected law enforcement official. in that regard they have been playing around and continue to do so. >> reporter: the county attorney is saying if you have evidence put up or shut up. it will be up to a federal judge to see who gets what and if

there will be an outside monitor. bill: the sheriff has been on the job since 1993. he's been reelected to an unprecedented five 4-year terms. he leads 3,400 employees. he started a tent city for inmates in 1993. 2,000 convicted men and women serve their sentences in a canvas incarceration compound in arizona. martha: attorney general eric holder coming under fire. jason chavetz add that democrats need to man up on this issue. >> this is the test of principle and integrity. when you can't stand up and take on your own party, that's a lack

of guts. this congress has to stand up for itself and demand these documents be released. martha: we'll talk to former south carolina governor mark sanford. bill: today could be the day prosecutors wrap up their case against john edwards. there is even more emotional testimony revealing edwards' dying wife elizabeth believed her husband when he said he was not the fighter of reille hunter's child. how will the prosecution wrap up its case? what are the clues you have? >> reporter: prosecutors say they will call three federal agents to the stand. however, they are not planning on calling edwards' mistress. reille hunter not on their final list of witnesses. but the defense could still call

reille hunter later on in the trial since she had initially been on both lists for the prosecution and defense. though hunter is central to the case, some legal analysts say it's hard to predict whether she as a witness would have helped or hurt the prosecution. according to testimony some of edwards' closest associates were suspicious of hunter and feared what she might say publicly. edwards' former spokesperson described a confrontation in 2007 in which elizabeth edwards questioned benefactors why they had taken hunter shopping and flown her on private jets. lisa was saying you have got to hold your friend close and enemies closer. reil lerks was a loose cannon and we didn't know what she would say to the press. bill: we saw this last week when john edwards own daughter broke

down in court and had to walk out. there was another witness on the stand who broke down as well. what prompted this? >> reporter: john edwards daughter while she left the courtroom during this emotional testimony, she wasn't openly weeping. you could tell she was upset or concerned. but it wasn't like she stormed out of the courtroom. but this witness yesterday was opening sobbing. at one point the defense during cross-examination offered her a tissue to wipe her tears. in this broken testimony she was describing her relationship her relationship with elizabeth edwards. even though she had broken ties with john edwards, she was very close to his wife and she described the conversation she had with the candidate's wife before she died.

was unable to console her friend who continued to hold on to that terrible feeling of loss. martha: his mother and family is across the country getting ready to celebrate mother's day sunday. i took the opportunity to sit down yesterday with ann romney. she hopes to be the first lady by next mother's day. she shares thoughts with me on life, her husband and personal moment with her battle with m.s. >> it's like a rug being pulled out from underneath you. what are you left with. you have to evaluate. who am i? who am i really? am i just identified as a teacher, a mother, professor, a business person? those labels we have that we

identify in life. if everything is taken away from you, what are you left with. it was a hard time in my life. for mitt, he was the one reminding me that it wasn't what i did why he loved me, it was who i was was how much he loved me and cared for me and not to worry about those things and not to think that life wasn't going to be still rich without doing all those things. martha: very interesting talk i had with her. you can see the full interview. we'll air tomorrow on america temperatures newsroom. mitt romney will be on "your world" today with neil cavuto. it's interesting to her reveal a little bit more than what people have seen. theirs is a love story that goes back to high school. they went to the prom together.

he went off to france. she said i'm going to move on and he rushed right back and brought her into the fold. it's very interesting. bill: looking forward to hearing more about that. what is your sense of how she is doing with this campaign? martha: i think they are hunkered down for the next six months. she said it's six more months. this is the second time around for this couple. her energy is remarkable. the two of them seem to be very focused and she seems to be doing very well. bill: there is a high-stakes showdown over massive budget cuts to our nation's military. lawmakers say security is at risk because the president's super committee had failed. >> the democrats want a big tax

increase. bill: the white house threatens to veto. what does it mean for our troops and our safety in a time of war. plus there is this. martha: a celebration that turned into a wild scene. people getting arrested. why police were trying to stop those rowdy fans. bill: new jobless numbers are out. we'll tell you what they are. bya. because you asked coming up in moment. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. fohalf the calories plus vgie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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bill: there were thousands of soccer fans clashing with riot police, and that was after they won the game! check this scene out. out at madrid, spain, the

game was actually played in romania. police tried to stop them from celebrating at one of the city's most famous momments, several were arrested and one was injured, one a police officer. they went at it for a while. unemployment in spain, 23.6% as of press time. can you imagine that? martha: 23.6%. a lot of people have time to go to a soccer game. bill: ridiculous. martha: to capitol hill, lawmakers are arguing over a bill to stop $78 billion in cuts to the pentagon. there's a live look at the house floor where the rhetoric has gotten fiery over this issue. the white house is now threatening to veto any bill that tries to block the defense spending cuts. paul ryan says that these cuts, he also, would be disastrous. here's what he said: >> this sequester will decimate our military at a time when our men and women are overseas fighting in a war n. a world that has become much more dangerous. >> the issue is going to be do they care more about

protecting these tax breaks for the very wealthy, or do they care more about protecting defense spending. martha: well, there you go. that's the battle, and house democrats are pushing for an alternative plan that would end the tax breaks to large oil companies. virginia republican randy forbes is chairman of the house armed services readiness committee, head to go hill to cast his vote on this issue as soon as we're done here, so representative thank you for making time for us this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning thar that -- martha. martha: you heard chris van hollen, the argument is that republicans want to make cuts to food stamps and social service programs, including a number of medicaid for the poor, social services to grant blocks to states. is that true? >> that's not. everyone in washington knows that the reality is that we had the president with an $825 billion stimulus package that failed, $347 billion of interest on that. that's exactly equal to the cuts that we're facing.

martha, just over six months, we're going to be facing a trillion dollars in cuts to our national defense , moving us dangerously close to a point where we'll no longer be able to guarantee the safety of the united states and our allies. the air force says it will put them on the ragged edge, navy says we'll have fewer ships than in a hundred years, pink slipping 150,000, 200,000 active duty officials and secretary of defense said it could cost 1.5 million jobs across the country. we've just got to stop that, martha. martha: i guess one of the questions that comes up for people is why just defense. you know? i mean, if you want to have some cuts in the budget, it appears that the sole place they're doing it is in the defense budget and not other areas. >> the reality is this administration has not put a strong priority on defense or veterans. that's why we were up until 2:30 changing some of the things they're trying to do. martha, one example, they want to cut out seven

cruisers. these aren't old russ buckets, they're good vessels. the reason they want to do it is because of saving dollars but the result would be we would be reducing twice the firepower of the entire capacity of the british navy. that's why we're trying to have a tour across the country to bring this to the attention of the american people. they can go to defending our defenders and find out how bad the cuts will be for national defense. martha: i think people just shake their heads when they listen to this whole conversation, they can't understand how it could possibly be three years have gone by without a budget, we've watched the cliffhanger moment of raising the debt ceiling, several months ago, and that pushed us to this moment where they're trying to now preeven the sequestration that would kick in the defense cuts. i think you key is it in -- you see it in the nous, the poll numbers of congress are abysmal. what do you propose to get past that? >> martha, i think three things. one, we stayed up until 2:30 last night on the armed services committee trying to

change some of this around, second thing, we'll vote on a budget today that will actually stop these cuts, third thing is we'll launch a tour that begins next week going across the country, going to virginia, florida, california, arkansas, montana, illinois, trying to let the american people tell their story about the importance of not having these tremendous defense cuts. martha: does anybody across -- is anybody across the aisle reaching out saying look, we know you don't want the defense cuts, we'll give you this much, you give us that much, any conversation like that happening whatsoever? >> it is. on our tour, we'll have democrats and republicans that will be there who are concerned about these cuts, and remember martha, it's important to note, that the house has passed a budget. it's the senate that refuses to pass a budget. may not be a perfect budget, but they ought to pass something so we can at least go to con freansd try to reconcile those differences. we can't let this happen to the american people in defense of our country or balance this on the backs of our veterans. martha: looks like folks are pretty fed up.

congressman, we wish you and both sides some luck as you try to handle it. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. bill: and, too, in a time of war. there is disturbing new information about a new plot from al-qaeda, how the terror group may be trying to sneak explosives on to an airplane. it is new, it is original, it is unique and we'll tell you what that is in moments. martha: an inspirational story of a girl who refused to let a horrific accident stop her from fulfilling her dreams and there she goes. >> she really believed she was going to win and she was running really fast and took a really hard tumble, and she just buried her face in her dad's chest. >> it was my very first time. i sat on my dad's lap and i was like mom, [ male announcer ] this is corporate caterers, miami, florida.

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martha: it is 23 minutes past the hour, in "america's newsroom", and there are new threatsor more nuclear tests from north korea, despite the u.n. sanctions off a -- after a failed rocket launch in the rogue seem. -- scwhreem. and a new mission after experiments in the same spot. it will rove on out of there. a majestic site, the torch for the 2012 olympic games has been lit. i love this stuff! it happened at the ancient greek city of olympia and the torch is starting its epic journey around greece before it heads to london for the start of the summer games. bill: that's a cool scene. martha: isn't that neat? bill: every four years, right? off we go. so new jobs numbers out today, down a tad, 63,000 americans file fog first time benefits last week, but the number from the previous week revised, hire. that brings us to bya, because you asked, and a lot

of questions on jobs and the market. roger writes the following, the white house claims 4 million jobs traded by the obama administration, yet monthly unemployment figures have been lower and unemployment rate has stayed above 8 percent. where are all the new jobs? box fuse business network's liz claman here to ventura guess. how you doing? >> roger has a good question. bill: where are they? >> we are seeing job creation. remember, it's just thin. the last two months have been really disappointing and that's the problem because we started to get a little brightness out there starting in november. we had four decent months where the number of jobs that were created actually were better than expected, and then suddenly, march an april looked really bad. but we still -- >> bill: but what is your hunch about that? because we're seeing a trend in january and since then it's gone the other way. >> a lot of people point to weather. on the east coast, we barely had any storms. bill: is that legit? >> the legitimate part of

it, people started hiring in november, december, january, then they had to steal from march and april. that's what a lot of economists think. bill: i will throw a couple of numbers at you and get an explanation. the administration says job growth, last 25 months, a little more than 4 million jobs in america, total jobs lost since january of '09, 572,000. >> listen, the fact is that private companies are hiring. not at the pace we need them to, that would keep pace with the population growth, but the problem becomes, and some people don't see this as a prorks actually, the government has started to lay off people. these are both at state, local and federal government numbers. so when you superimpose private companies hiring over job losses at the government level, teachers and government workers, it starts to get tinted a little darker. bill: these governments are saving money, right? at the city level -- >> finally, hopefully. i mean, a lot of -- >> bill: but wasn't a lot of what kept them up here a little bit, was that stimulus money? >> well, sure. bill: that's dried up.

>> stimulus money that is dried up. there are pieces of the stimulus package still coming through, but sure, you started to see governments lay off and every time you see there was hiring in the health care sector, and manufacturing had decent hiring the last time around, you also see that governments were laying off people. so that seems to be target -- part of it. bill: here's another number, not in the labor force, since january 2009, an additional 8 million americans. >> these are people who are giving up looking. bill: so they're not counted, then? they're not filing for jobless claims, they are -- >> they're either going back to school -- >> bill: unaccounted for. >> this 8.1% rate is questionable because the underemployed, people who are working but not at the pay they were, is way higher than that. way higher than that. however, when you also look at that number, they take into account people who left the work force and stopped looking. now, these are people who actually could work, they've just stopped working because they're either upset about it, they don't want to get

paid less -- >> and bill: that's a remarkable number. liz, thank you. we'll see you back in the studio. to our viewers, if you have a question, i need one line there, send a question to hemmer, foxnews.com or also twitter, at bill hemmer, because you asked, bya. liz see, thanks, see you in the hall. martha: there is new reaction pouring in to the president's support of same sex marriage. what different religious groups are now saying. a live report on that coming up straight ahead. bill: the pressure is getting hotter by the day and eric holder, a key republican, making new demands in the fast & furious matter. what happens if holder does not comply? >> if we get stonewalling on the other side of the aisle, without your support, we will do a disservice to this country, we will do a disservice to this body, and we will not get to the truth. made it the number one sg anti-aging cream undeniably. it creamed unbelievably a $500 cream and now women have made regenerist microsculpting cream also unscented.

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bill: a fox news alert right now because they are turning the heat yet again higher on eric holder, stepping up pressure on the a.g. over fast & furious, here is jason chaffetz, calling on democrats to join his side and calling for a subpoena on the hearing floor: >> this country should be impaired by what's happening in fast & furious. my challenge to members on both sides of the ierl is to stand up and have the integrity to say we have a dead u.s. agent, we have a department of justice that lied to congress. where are the guts this this body to -- in this body to

stand up and say we're not going to put up with that? >> bill: there was a lot more, too. mark sanford out of south carolina, fox news contributor out of charleston, sir, good morning and welcome back to "america's newsroom". what chaffetz was saying was that all americans should be embarrassed by fast & furious. what do you make of that? >> well, you know, i think the basic issue is you have a botched operation, which inevitably goes with anything human. there are going to be botches. but in this instance, you've got a department that seemingly has covered up a lot of that botching, and i think what chavez is -- what chaffetz is getting at is two different levels. it's congress' ability to oversee, to look at things that in many cases prevents a mistake from happening twice, and so i think what he's saying is wait a minute, we've got to get to the bottom of what really happened here so we don't

have it happen again. i would say secondly, a department of interior is about fundamentally protecting the environment or the gorgeous landscapes of this country. a department of justice is fundamentally about protecting justice within the united states, in this case, you have, you know, all kinds of back and forth as to whether or not they were telling the truth before a congressional committee and that's a huge problem particularly given this president. bill: you talked about the question of resignation is not the prior question. it's secondary, actually. you believe the primary question is responsibility. what do you mean? >> well, what i mean by that is this. you know, if you or i were called to jury duty, you don't show up, you go to jail. in this case, you've got a congressional query that is sent 22 different categories of questions to the department of justice, 13 of which they haven't even responded on. it's this larger notion of are you going to respond and make your case so we can say

it's innocent, it's a misunderstanding, but in this case it's an airans. en tore cornyn was talking about the arrogance of eric holder in basically not responding, and unless we want to go to a dictatorship or a king-style system, you've got to have an executive branch that ultimately responds to the queries and questions. bill: you're suspicious of holder. so what do you think he's up to? i mean, some suggest he's just stalling for time. but as you well know, time runs its course at some point. >> it does. but you know, i think that this is why there's legitimacy in congress simply trying to get to the bottom of it. as a political matter, people have moved on and figured it to be washington's squabbling, but there's a big issue here and one is you should be able to play out the clock in terms of getting to the bottom of something in washington politics, but two, and i think even more important,

is this notion of, again, responding to the legislative branch. the legislative branch has a primary responsibility. it's, again, how you -- >> bill: so -- >> a lot of -- >> bill: a lot of people raise this question, were the guns actually out there because this guy happens to be against second amendment and would like to see more gun control in this country and therefore is there a whole lot of fire behind the little smoke we've seen in frankly challenges to the second amendment that go to the core of what the constitutional makeup of this is. >> a lot of this is working off a hunch and theories and we do not have answers. thank you, governor, out of charleston. >> thank you. martha: religious leaders of all faiths, weighing in today on president obama's decision to officially voice his support of same sex marriage, and lauren greene is looking into this, she's in our new york city newsroom with reaction from many of them.

lauren, what are they saying? >> reporter: you know martha, for months now, conservative religious leaders have been mounting strong campaigns to oppose gay marriage and just yesterday, we're celebrating a victory in north carolina where voters banned same sex unions. conservative christian dr. robert jeffies says he's not surprised by the president's position. >> i'm disappointed that he invoked the bible as a rationale for his support. the fact is jesus very clearly said in matthew 19 that god's plan for marriage was one man with one woman, for life. and so by embracing similar sex -- same sex marriage, president obama has contradicted the jesus that he says he follows. >> >> reporter: minority faith groups as well are also reacting. the president of the national hispanic leadership conference says for his con spittence -- constituency the biblical definition of marriage is about faith, not politics, he says it is our christian faith that requires us to uphold the definition of marriage as one man and one woman, and

he says i pray that his support of gay marriage does not -- does not exacerbate the growing intolerance of a christian world view. martha. martha: very interesting. what do some of the other groups say or nonchristian groups that have also weighed in on this, right? >> this is true. the national jewish center for faith says the jewish community does not interpret the bible literally but expects it will be divided on the president's stance: >> judaism, like all major religions, has very serious splits within it on these sorts of social issues. so in the most traditional ist community, sort of orthodox community, we call it, there will be opposition gloo one black minister i spoke with, he is bishop harry jackson, founder of the high impact leadership coalition, he says there are no parallels between gair marriage and civil rights and the civil rights movement and saysly mobilize minorities who oppose same sex marriage. martha. martha: definitely a hot

topic of conversation for the days and weeks to come. lauren, thank you very much. lauren greene. bill: to our viewers at home, what do you think? with the president's -- will the president's support of the same sex marriage help him or hurt him? so far 90 percent think it will hurt him, 3 percent say it will help. you can weigh in on our question of the day, fox news.com/"america's newsroom", wide open from a political standpoint. some of the critical battle ground states, they've already passed a state law or state constitutional ban on it, places like wisconsin and michigan, north carolina, west virginia, ohio, and a handful of others. martha: we'll see. it's a top of mind issue for voters as they head to the polls in november. coming up, we've got troubling new details on the al-qaeda terrorist behind the foiled bomb plot on u.s.-bound planes, wait until you hear where our intel officials think he is plotting his next bombs. bill: also, this swimmer coming face to face with something you do not want to see in the ocean! you guessed it. >> i saw she was in a pool

of blood in the water. so i immediately ran down there.

bill: female swimmer, lucky to be alive after a terrifying encounter with a shark, florida, a woman got a deep gash on her thigh that reportedly went all the way to the bone. lucky for her, nearby lifeguards were able to pull her out of the water, just in gliem i saw she was in a pool of blood in the water, so i immediately ran down there, got her out, and fellow life guard was with me and we started addressing the trauma to her leg which was sub tanksal. bill: that woman said to be recovering but in the hospital, she's in germany a. tourist. all the beach goers, allowed to go back in the water now but she's lucky. only 30 yards off shore. close enough. martha: disturbing new reports about the al-qaeda bomb maker behind the recent

foiled underwear plot. according to these reports, ibrahim al asiri is a master technician, capable of planting undetectable bombs inside cameras, computers, and even household pets on airplanes. scary stuff. a former adviser to the commanding general of the u.s. special operations forces in of a, seth, welcome. good to have you here. it seems like you hear so often about drone attacks in yemen taking out possible al-qaeda operatives, but this man has clearly become the focus and he seems to have quite a bit of skill and quite a bit of motivation. >> well, he is. he has a fair amount of skill in putting together very innovative bombs, one that we've seen recently, but also, as far back as 2009, have evaded airport detection partly because they've used for metallic components but also it's interesting he's been a

target of operation and attack by the u.s. for at least three years. he's been able to evade that detection. martha: it's eery, seth, because you look at the patterns of al-qaeda and this is the man they believe who was behind the computer cartridge evident in the plane, after that, behind the underwear bomb, umar farouk abdulmutallab, both of those failed, and we know from watching al-qaeda over the years that when they fail, they just keep working t. keep trying to perfect it, keep trying to go back and it feels and appears from the evidence that's what he's doing. >> reporter: well, that appears exactly what he's doing, and again, what's interesting is ibrahim al asiri and other bomb makers in al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula do look like they're watching the u.s. airport screening system carefully and looking for vulnerabilities in the system, so that makes the whole series of efforts to sure our borders and airports extremely

important. martha: you know, you hear a lot that al-qaeda is not concerned with planes anymore, you know, that they've moved on to other methods, and we know that they've attacked western bases in the middle east, but asiri seems to be very focused on the united states, he has a deep-seeded hatred against the united states and very much wants to pull something off on our own turf, right? >> that's correct. a lot of the bombs that ibrahim al asiri have put together have targeted either american civilian aircraft or in a case a few years ago, very senior saudi official which came very close to assassinating him, but he appears to have a very antiamerican focus, he hates the west, he hates american values, and would love more than anything to take a u.s. airplane down. martha: we know about the drone hit several days ago that was believed to have kind of unearth some of the evidence that led to this and we've heard about the double agent. it's an incredible story in

this case. what's your take on what works better in terms of snuffing out these plots? the drone attacks, or possibly, you know, just continued surveillance and watching these guys and trying to bring them and find out what they know? >> well, i think all of the above. i think there are some cases where if one has actionable intelligence about somebody, you can't get there with a team of individuals to capture, but you have a drone in the area that it may make sense to target using a drone. i think if you can capture an individual like this and interrogate him or her, that can be extremely useful as we've found with khalid shaikh mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. martha: absolutely. >> so a lot of different ways to do this. martha: seth jones, thank you very much. we'll be watching this story. >> thanks martha. bill: jenna lee, waiting, for about one # minutes, before "happening now" happens. jenna: the big headline, is

the president -- the big headline is the president in favor of gay marriage, but what happens next? what it means for the 2012 election and how it may potentially affect the elections for the house and senate. >> also new rules proposed for your local school and neighborhood about how to keep our children healthy, from p.e. classes to restaurants, will it actually help our nation's obeseity epsemmic -- epidemic or has the nanny state gone wild? bill: we'll see you then, thank you jenna. some republicans making the case for a new missile defense system to be built a lot closer to home. maybe even your home. we'll tell where you and who's against that n. a moment. martha: plus, a little girl with a lot of determination, how she did not let a horrific incident in her childhood stop her from achieving her goals. >> obviously, with her, she has this dramatic story, but honestly, everyone has a dramatic story, and i just

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march is quite a story, a # yrl girl full of a heart full of determination, haven shepherd in the green t-shirt, running for the first time with her new prosthetic running leg. she's from vietnam, she lost her legs when she was an infant after her birth parents strapped bombs to themselves with haven in their arms. a horrific incident that unbelievably has not quelched the spirit of this little girl. >> i don't care if i have prosthetics or no. my mom taught me this thing. it really doesn't matter if

you have fake legs or real. everybody will fall down. but getting up is the big deal. martha: wow. she is incredible. an organization that is called challenged athletes donated the new state of the art running legs, and although she didn't win that race they won it just by running t. and her mom is a real inspiration. she's clearly teaching this little girl that there are no limits for her, and more power to her. bill: getting up is the big deal. martha: isn't that true? for all of us, right? good for her. bill: now to our series, energy in america, new epa regulations could close several power plants that run on one of our most used energy sources, coal plants out of west virginia, where the coal industry provides 20 thaw jobs alone. doug mckelway, good morning to you. what did you find in virginia on this? >> it's interesting, we learned a lot of people believe the epa rules to

restrict carbon dioxide emissions with a death nell for plants. environmentalists praise the rules as a vital defense against climate change but in west virginia coal country, people across the spectrum of politics and industry fear the regulations will shut down as many as 20-25 percent of coal-fired plants. >> that's going to threaten the economy of this country, it's going to put thousands of people out of work, school systems are going to go into failure bathey won't have the tax base to do it. this is a very dangerous thing they've done and it's all based on an economic model. an unrealistic standard that they set. >> reporter: the new rules require coal-fired plants to install new technology called carbon capture and storage, but it's tre mend outsly expensive and not commercially available. >> we spent $10 billion on air pollution control equipment, and when we looked at the way the rules were structured we could not justify spending the money on some of the smaller,

older units. it just didn't work for us. >> reporter: the obama administration is banking on newly accessible resources of natural gas in the process of frack to go make up for the loss of coal. bill: they're finding a lot of natural gas down there but can that make up for the coal decifit that would be imposed by the new rules? >> you're right, natural gas is increasingly plentiful and cheap but coal still provides about 45 percent electricity for the united states and natural gas is tricky to transport and to store, which has led to price spikes in the past. >> they're telling us that you're going to see at least a 30 percent increase in your electric bill now. >> reporter: consider that nearly 200,000 people work in the coal industry, with the tens of thousands more employed in related industries. a lot of those people, really fearing for their jobs. bill: indeed they are, thank you, doug, with a look at energy in america today. martha: a glimpse into the future as one state signs off on google's self-driving

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i see you're crunching numbers with a cup of joe... when you could be relaxing with a delicious gevalia. or as i like to say, a cup of johan. joe's a cubicle. johan is a corner office with a young, eager assistant... who looks like me. put johan on your spreadsheets. he'll watch your bottom line. [ johan ] gevalia. meet me in the coffee aisle.

martha: the paid raise -- padres hit a foul ball to the rockies, it hit the ball right into the beer! watch this, yes! that's the move right there! bill: he's a man! martha: you got to drink the beer if the ball goes in it. bill: there's a budweiser commercial waiting for that

guy, an endorsement right there. one final night, the ipad joab session, reaching a whole new level, orange tans at the miami zoo, playing around with the tablet, the zoo is experimenting with computers and apes. handlers say the older ones are not so interested but the younger guys think it's cool! martha: that's funny. maybe i could ask them fore a few tips. maybe they have good apps. bill always gives me my apps. bill and the next thing, they're going to anchor a broadcast! martha: and we'll have tips on that, too. bill: catch you tomorrow, and ann romney, tomorrow. martha: that's attorneys and "happening now" starts right now. see you tomorrow. jon: the house approves a measure for a miss defense shield in case rand north korea gets the technology to hit the u.s. why some say it would be a waste of