iranians made it clear whoer this shooting at. they built mockups what they call enemy military bases for them to launch the missiles out. the it also comes as the iranians are sabre rattling potentially closing the straits of hormuz where 20% of the world's oil flows every single day. partly in response to this the united states reportedly has amassed a lot of fire power in the region right now in case things get a little frisky. perhaps, martha, to try to send a message to the iranians that we will not tolerate this kind of stuff anymore. martha: how does this play into the inspection issue with the nuclear weapons in the works there? >> reporter: well the iranians have been masterful playing the delaying game when it comes to where inspectors are allowed. this is a satellite image of one particular facility. the facility which is suspected by a number of intelligence organizations of being used by the iranians for high explosive tests which would be

necessary in order to trigger a nuclear weapon. this is a june 7th image. we'll switch now to the june 21st image where according to a u.s. watchdog group shows earth-moving equipment covered up a lot of evidence and water tanks were used to clean out buildings. if history repeats itself we'll see the iranians to suddenly decide to allow inspectors into the facility to buy themselves a little more time. martha? martha: leland, thank you so much. leland vittert in jerusalem. gregg: the united states apparently doing its own show of force. new reports that the pentagon has ordered more american warships into the persian gulf, this after iran threatened to disrupt traffic in the strait of hormuz. more u.s. fighter jets will also be available in case the standoff over iran's nuclear weapons program escalates. the deployments also reportedly part of an effort to reassure israel that the united states is doing everything it can to deal with tehran.

martha: just to give you an idea how important the strait of hormuz is, 17 billion, 17 million excuse me me, barrels of oil go through there roughly every day. that is 20% of the all the oil traded in the world. that shipping lane is extremely narrow. it is only two miles wide. because of the volume that goes through it is considered the most important choke point or narrow channel in the world when it comes to the passage of oil. gregg: the threats of closing it ending a recent slide of gasoline prices. the average has been dropping in recent weeks. no doubt you noticed that. the national averagehough now at $3.33. that is five cents more than at the start of the year. stuart varney the anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stu, talk to us about the dynamic of the escalating tensions in the strait of hormuz and that region of the world and what we're paying here at the home at the pumps.

>> there is a direct link. what happens over there affects us over here. the price of gas has stopped falling. it went up a little overnight because the underlying price of oil is up very sharply. oil is up very sharply because of what's happening with iran rat he willing its sabres. as of now the price of oil is $86 a barrel. it was $78 about 10 days ago. it is up over about $3 as of right now. and that is beginning to push the price of gasoline back up again after its long decline. as you said it is 3.33 the national average now. it went up a little overnight. that brought to an end a three-week spell of constantly falling gas prices. iran affects us directly. gregg: stuart, let me switch subjects. there are several numbers that we watch closely for the health of the u.s. economy. one of them, manufacturing numbers. second quarter just came out. talk to us about this. >> manufacturing was the bright spot for america's economy. the latest figures show a

first contraction in the manufacturing sector. it shrank, first time we've seen that in three years. so the indicators are piling up that this is a very weak economy. you've got manufacturing. we've got spending down. on friday we get this jobs report. the unemployment rate could go up. and certainly job creation will be very weak. there is now a darking outlook for the economy as "the wall street journal" puts it. the word recession is being used quite frequently. gregg: the "r" word. >> yes. gregg: the dreaded "r" word. stuart varney. thanks very much. martha: all right. well, nearly two million americans this morning are still in the dark. folks up and down the east coast facing their fourth straight day with no power and worst of all, no air-conditioning, during a brutal heat wave gripping this part of the country. hurricane-force winds ripped down trees, knocked down power lines, destroyed cars, destroyed homes. 26 people have lost their lives in this event.

a lot of folks are trying to cool down any way they can. some facing long lines for necessities in places. they're looking for water, ice and gas. >> somebody called us and said they were giving water away here. we came and got some water here. but it is 104 degrees up in the shade in our house. there are five of us. we have a 2 1/2-year-old with us. maybe a day. >> i had to go 28 to 30 miles into the sunoco at new martinsville to get gas for a generator to run. martha: wow! fox affiliate wttg live in bethesda, maryland. this is a rough situation, melanie. how is it going? >> reporter: you know, people are starting to lose their patience. the first day, perhaps they were willing to give it a little beat. now folks in this neighborhood and many other neighborhoods around the area going on their fourth day now without power. not going to be a happy 4th of july. we can say that for a lot of people as well.

this is part of the problem. look behind me here. this didn't happen yesterday. this happened four days ago. friday night, 11:00 p.m. when the storm came by and neighbors here are saying they have not seen a power truck. they haven't seen a person from the utility companies here. big trees down. power lines down. utility poles down. this is not an easy fix. but the problem is that you're seeing situations like this, all throughout the area. we're still talking about maybe 400,000 people in the dmv, that is washington d.c., maryland, virginia region for those not in the know here. they still do not have power. the power company is saying 11:00 p.m. friday night when they will get most of those people back on. we'll find out tomorrow night there will be a significant portion of people that aren't even going to have power martha, through the weekend. not good news. martha: quick question. how are they doing trying to get people supplies? how successful is that? >> reporter: it hasn't been too bad because in

situations like this neighbors do help each other out. people for the most part able to get out of their neighborhoods. there may be one or two spots where people can't. while there are some gas stations that are closed and stores that are closed, there are others that are open. you have just to find those spots. people are sharing information with each other through twitter and online and from our local fox five website as well. they know where to get to. people are helping each other out. that is the good news. martha: melanie, we wish them well. thanks for keeping us posted. thanks, melanie. gregg: maryland is also dealing with power problems right now and dry ice in high demand. folks scrambling to find it everywhere they can to keep refrigerated food from spoiling. >> big lines, trying to get ice to go in my refrigerator. >> we wait in line like everything else does. >> i will buy a generate tore. gregg: we're told the only manufacturer of dry ice in the state is without power. the company said they ran

out after selling 10,000 pounds. martha: the heat is taking its toll on people in missouri where the scorching weather is being blamed for one death and possibly two others. firefighters are offering tips to everybody on how they can stay safe through all of this. watch. >> if you have an elderly or disabled person around you, not only just talking to them, the power of touch, see if you can touch their hand and arm to see how hot they are. >> we brought what, 12 bottles of water around a bottle of gatorade. >> [inaudible]. >> that is smart. >> we thought we were going to die of heat. >> that is realistic concern for some folks. here is what you need to know about heat. the body normally cools itself by sweating but under some conditions it simply can't do that to the extent it needs to cool off the body. those at greatest risk are young children and those over 65 years old. those overweight or on certain medications are also at risk. best way to keep cool? drink cold, nonalcoholic

beverages. get plenty of rest which is not too he easy when hot, hot in your house or take a cool shower or bath to bring the body temperature down a little bit. dangerous situation. gregg: especially for the young and the elderly. try to stay in the shade. martha: and try to check in on them as he was saying. gregg: that's right. those are some of the stories we're following on "america's newsroom." new fireworks in the race for the white house. governor mitt romney accusing president obama, telling quote, vicious lies about him. martha: as the health care law is implemented what will it mean after all this at the supreme court? how will it change your life when it starts to kick in? dr. siegel is here. he has got some new information under the new regulations. gregg: it could be the new solyndra. a green energy project reportedly pushed through by the white house despite serious safety concerns. should congress now investigate? >> this project is a perfect example of a green agenda at

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gregg: welcome back. the well the name is flip. it is celebrating a very special anniversary. it is part surface ship, part submarine. the one-of-a-kind research vessel designed to flip to a 90 degree angle. look at that. isn't that amazing? built by the navy, flip allows scientists to study everything about the ocean.

>> the flip rotates 90 degrees around this. doing the same thing like this little guy over here. >> when it flips, that is when it goes from its horizontal orientation to vertical orientation it becomes stable even in heavy seas. it doesn't move up and down very much at all. gregg: well the flip ship is celebrating its 50 year anniversary. happy anniversary. martha: happy anniversary, flip. to this for you this morning. a republican congressman is calling for an investigation into the nation's first offshore wind farm claiming that the obama administration applied pressure to get the green energy project approved. just as they did with the failed solar panel company solyndra. that is the accusation here this morning. here is look where this thing would go. the massachusetts cape wind project as it is known and has been hugely controversial in that area for the last 10 years, basically puts 130

windmill-like turbines right into nantucket sunday but several lawmakers say the faa ignored safety concerns when they decided to green light the construction of this project pointing to a 2010 power point document that reads like this okay? this is one of the things that the people who are against this wind farm have attached onto this this whole fight. this is from a power point presentation. it says, the secretary of the interior has approved this project. the administration is under pressure to promote green energy production. it would be very difficult politically to refuse approval of this project. pennsylvania republican congressman tim murphy joins me now. he was also involved into the look into the solyndra company. he is on the house energy and commerce committee and says the project is worth looking into and perhaps a congressional investigation. congressman, good morning. good to have you here this morn. >>ing good morning martha. gregg: this has been very controversial as i said over last 10 years. it mate i had through twice i believe through bush

administration purview. and now is under obama administration purview. so, you know, i guess very bipartisan approval of this project so why do you have a problem with it? >> the concern over the bigger picture what is happening with energy. wind energy is subsidized $56 per kilowatt-hour. coal about 64 cents. and this is continued push by the administration to push one type of energy, this green energy, wind and solar while cutting off so many other areas. keep in mind where very concerned about 40 months plus of poor job reports. unemployment above 8%. coal is looking to lose 100,000 jobs per year. what happened here the administration managed to push through and bypass concerns of the federal aviation administration about having blind spots with radar with this. but they have been able to move this through quickly. in other areas they stalled for the longest time in permitting us to drill for

oil or natural gas offshore while they push for wind offshore. so this biased approach which hurt our economy and hurting our jobs for the sake of the green energy which concerns us deeply. martha: wouldn't they say there are lots of successful wind farm projects in europe? according to what i read people who are in favor of the project said it would create 75% of the energy that the cape needs? you know, i guess, it is a question of why not? why not try this as as part of above all, all of the above kind of solution to energy? >> well if indeed was all the above solution energy would be worthwhile. no one is against wind or solar overall but exclusion to coal. it has dropped from 50% of our energy to 30% of the their energy. people can expect electric bills to increase by 30 to 40% over the next few years. these are families already hurting for spending a couple thousand more per year in gasoline will spend 3 to 400 more per year on

electricity. look at manufacturing losses in this country because of the increased cost of energy. bear in mind this wind and solar energy costs much more to produce. we have massive supplies of coal. we can clean it up but this administration has abandoned its promise of working on clean coal technology. to the exclusion of working with these other green energy. it concerns us that this indeed is not an all of the above energy picture. martha: i got you. >> it will cost us more jobs. martha: this is a statement the faa put out. now as you point out they're being accused of green-lighting this project when they felt it wasn't in the best interests of flight patterns around the cape. they say that employee opinions that are expressed in internal e-mails or documents are not official agency positions. the faa makes obstruction evaluation based on safety considerations and available solutions to mitigate potential risks. what they're referring to there this freedom of information request just

fulfilled a couple days ago show a pattern of e-mails from some folks at the faa that indicate they felt they couldn't speak freely. they were under pressure by the administration to green light this project. will congress look into that? are you going to do an investigation? >> that is what we'll look at. this administration despite what it said on the first day of office would be the most transparent administration ever has been everything above that. look at what they continue to block our investigation of solyndra and "fast and furious" and so many other areas. we would love to see exactly what the facts are with the faa. if this is in dangerous area. if it creates big blind spots for aircraft and air traffic control that is important aspect we need to take a careful look at. martha: it is interesting, that ted kennedy long a proponent during his life of environmental, making environmentally sound choices, was very much against this cape wind project. the whole kennedy family has been very much against it. that would no doubt put them at odds i guess with the administration on this and

the prior administration? >> more exactly why there was. was that a factor because they didn't like appearance of location? is it a public safety issue? i'm deeply concerned about the public safety of any of this. remember the loss, massive loss of jobs when we had a huge job market that has been a problem and more manufacturing jobs leaving our country as well. martha: thank you so much, representative murphy. good to talk to you today. we'll see where this goes. >> have a great day, martha. martha: you too. gregg: new concerns about the quality of health care under the new affordable care act. many patients wondering what their next doctor visit might look like and what their premiums will be when you open that envelope. dr. marc siegel is here to break it all down. martha: police in texas bringing out the big guns in the fight against violent drug cartels. casey stiegel takes a ride on the very dangerous sometimes rio grande patrol. we'll tell you what he found out when we come right back

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♪ . martha: fireworks but there are new concerns surfacing this week over the welfare of bald eagleses in all of this. that is putting a damper on some people's 4th of july celebrations. the a community of in upstate new york called off their annual fireworks display. this after a local paper reported that some baby eagles left their necessary last year possibly because they were startled by the pyrotechnics. they bill itself as bald eagle capital. they have a celebration to celebrate our national bird. protect the eagle in its nest. gregg: i get scared from the firecrackers. imagine if you're a little bird.

serious new questions this morning about the quality of health care under the new affordable health care act. many patients are asking will i still have access to new treatments? will my premiums go up? will i have to wait longer to see my doctor? here is our doctor, dr. mark seek gel, part of the fox news medical a-team. associate professor of medicine at nyu langone medical center. very good to see you, doctor. >> good to see you, clearly doctors such as yourself who treat patients every day will have to take a huge hit on this thing but you're concerned about the 250 million americans who you believe, you're absolutely convinced, are going to see health care diminish. in what ways? >> gregg, i talk a lot how this will impact doctors but the fact is most doctors are not going to quit. most doctors are trapped in their profession. most are super specialized and can't do anything else. but the thing is if they're disgruntled, why? why are they unhappy? what are they worried about?

i want to bring that to america's patients. 250 million americans have health insurance. so much focus has been on ones who don't. what about the one who is do? i'm very worried about high-tech solutions. about the latest treatments. gregg: a cure, to, i might not get access to with coverage? >> absolutely. because you have 33 new committees with obamacare. you have independent medicare advisory board. we've seen from the u.s. preventative task service force they're starting to go against certain treatments or tests i like to order. ma'am dwrams over 40. -- mammograms. gregg, these are specific things. that i have actually used to save lives over the last few years. i have found, i have found lung cancer early in smokers using ct scans of the lungs. gregg: right. >> i'm worried that test isn't going to be approved by insurance going forward. same problem with mammograms. same problem with pap tests. when you start having all the guidelines, if insurance weighs in on them because they're trying to save a few

dollars we might not have the options. we're going the direction of personalized medicine which is very expensive. if you think obamacare will cover that, i don't. gregg: let me hit a couple things. first of all, flex spending accounts, they will go down? >> in the united states we already only spend 12% out-of-pocket for our mill costs. that is very little. one of the most disturbing things about obamacare it makes it much, much worse. it shrinks the flexible spending accounts. you can only use up to $2500 per year. you have very little co-pays, very little deductibles that will be allowed grandfathered in. you will only be able to deduct medical expenses if they're more than 10% of your gross income. that means that you're not going to be able to see, i like it when a patient comes to my office and says, i've been looking at this, i can get a tax deduction but i'm not sure if i need that. so patients look more carefully what it is they need when they can spend out-of-pocket. gregg: do you anticipate rising premiums or people

out there, and decreased access to doctors because will be a doctor shortage? >> everyone out there knows there will be rising premiums as we extend bells and whistles to more people. gregg: you have to pay for it? >> yeah. i don't think people realized one of the biggest myths of obamacare that access is increased. how is access increased if my waiting room is already full and put more people in it? how is access increased to increase the amount of time i spend with you to six minutes? how is access increased you have to call three months in advance to get a appointment the way it is in massachusetts. how is access increased. gregg: you can only see dr. siegel for five minutes. >> dr. siegel you can always see for five minutes. i can't vouch for the entire country of physicians. gregg: dr. marc siegel, many thanks. check out his column by the way on foxnews.com. you will gain more information about the

subject we're just talking about. martha. martha: thanks, doctor. coming up, governor romney accusing the obama campaign of vicious lies in the latest attack ads. we'll have a fair and balanced debate. take a look at that. gregg: amazing images showing the uphill battle as fire crews are facing as they try to contain the worst fire in colorado's history. today's new view from the fire lines. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes and deposits at the same time. for paying your friend back for lunch...from your tablet. for 26 paydays triggered with a single tap. for checking your line, then checking your portfolio. for making atms and branches appear out of thin air. simple to use websites, tools, and apps.

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martha: we've got some brand new video coming in of the wildfires that are burning around colorado springs and it is giving us a much better idea of the dangerous conditions firefighters there are facing. and boy, it is tough to look at. check this out. awful, awful scenes in colorado. this video was actually taken by the fire crews. you. it shows neighborhoods

burning down. so sad, heartbreaking what is going on there. 350 homes have been reduced to rubble. two people died in these fires. here is the incident commander describing what he is seeing. >> honestly i stood at the hood of that truck and i took a deep breath and said, it is time to go to work. that's what everyone on this scene did. martha: boy, those teams are incredible. they worked so hard out there, this wildfire is the most destructive in colorado state history. right now it is about 70% contained. so that is the good news. gregg: all right. here's one that is zero percent contained. it is a desperate firefighting effort underway in wyoming. 85,000 acre fire burning near laramie. firefighters say they have only 55 people working on it. that's all. they can't do much until backup arrives. hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes. >> god is the only one who can take care of these fires, you know. he is helping the firefighters to the best of

his ability. just got to keep praying. gregg: well, as we mentioned this fire currently stands at zero containment. martha: governor mitt romney's presidential campaign fighting back against the latest attacks on the candidate's business record while he was at bain capital. launching a new tv ad in the ohio swing state. watch this. >> barack obama's attacks against mitt romney, they're just not true the "washington post" says, just about every level this ad is misleading, unfair and untrue. but that is barack obama. he also attacked hillary clinton with vicious lies. martha: so that is just a little piece of that. the obama campaign has been accusing romney of outsourcing jobs during his time at bain. joined by bob beckel, former democratic campaign manager and co-host of the "the five", and gretchen hamel, former spokeswoman of the house republican conference and at public notice. good to see both of you this

morning. bob, let me start with you on this. clearly the obama campaign decided they will go back to bain. they sort of let it rest a little bit during the whole health care issue. but they decided it works for them in terms of fund-raising and think want to go back to the well, right? >> and it does work for them. they ran ads in ohio and obama opened up a double-digit lead in ohio. for romney he will have to take this on the best defense is a good offense. that is what he is trying to do here. i don't think it will do him much good. in states like ohio where there are a lot of working-class people and despite what the ad says, there is evidence that these jobs were outsourced. some jobs were. but, look the other problem is romney's based his entire campaign on creating jobs. you have to wonder, since he never run a business or started one how will he make that claim? martha: the romney campaign went back to ceo's of those companies, gretchen. they have them on record saying they actually created more u.s. jobs during that period than any that they

outsourced. the outsourcing was done primarily to service business already happening in those other countries. how do you think politically, how is the romney camp doing in terms of their reaction time the way they're coming back with this ad? >> they do need to come back with this ad. they need to answer ads out there on this and they need to set the record straight. this is something that these businesses did. they created more jobs here. because of the products they were producing they were actually getting to sell them to over 90% of consumers that live outside the u.s. and to do that you need people to help support your export markets overseas. that is something that is good. that is good for americans. that is good for businesses. that is bringing more money back home. that is something that this president said he wanted to do more of. having said that the romney campaign should point out this president wants to do anything than talk about the economy and about jobs. they're just bracing for friday's news. that is why they're trying to get ahead of it. martha: jobs number comes out on friday. bob, pennsylvania and ohio

is the focus of the president during course of this week over the course of the campaign trail. clearly he doesn't want to talk about the last three years. he can't go to these places and stand up, gee, aren't you doing a lot better than you were before? >> certainly can say you were doing a lot better four years ago. no question about that. look, assume for a moment that everybody's right here and that romney, these companies did create jobs in the united states and all that. i get back to the point. mitt romney has never run a business. never created any. >> neither did obama. >> what do you mean? he never said he did. romney is the one made this claim that he is created jobs. >> he called himself a problem-solver. he -- ran the olympics. done a number of things to help businesses get back on track. the president never had a job like that. >> the private equity business is about going making money for investors and bain capital. companies that went under, bain capital made millions of dollars in fees. you could argue all you want but still has not create ad single job from his own

businesses, ever. martha: i mean, you know -- >> except for his campaign. martha: because he didn't own a hardware store doesn't mean that he hasn't been involved in business in the economy. i'm not going to, i think it is pretty clear that he spent a lot of his years working in the private sector. you want to have it both ways. you want to slam i am for working in the private sector and say he didn't work in the private sector. which is it? >> he is the one that said he created jobs. that he understands the everyday economy. martha: when you help, their argument they helped get companies off the ground like staples and like and that in essence creates job, right, gretchen. >> he was working at bain to help companies get back on track and help create jobs. when it seems like they weren't able to make it and help them break down in a way to -- >> did he ever meet a payroll? >> did president obama meet a pal roll or create a job except government job. this is what you're wanting out of a president. >> this is his whole case.

his whole case falls flat when it comes to the question has he ever met a payroll. >> and neither has the president. martha: governor of massachusetts and, you know running companies at bain. that is argument. i can't wait to see head-to-head debate. that is when these these questions will come out and mitt romney will have to answer them and president will have to answer for his three years in office and what his kind of experience. >> they have both answer on creating mandates for health care. they that as well. martha: thank you, gentleman, bob, and our lady gretchen. good to see you both. gregg: want to show you what is potentially the result of the storm and some downed power lines that apparently set several cars afire. we did have videotape of that. right now you're looking at, i can't make it out on this monitor but, can you make that out, martha? i thought we were going to see some cars on fire and maybe to some extent we can see that there. it is kind of a distant

shot. martha: there are burned out cars in the distant shot. if you have your binoculars you can get a good look at it in silver spring, maryland. gregg: maryland area is really hard-hit. that is one of the scenes there. downed power lines. people are trapped in their homes and can't get out because it is too dangerous with all the downed power lines. they're sweltering in the heat. no lechist interest. no air-conditioning. so, you know, be careful out there. martha: thinking about them. gregg: meantime another california city goes bankrupt. it may not be why you think. we'll tell you why coming up. martha: plus a defiant iran flexing their military muscle right now and threatening one of our allies in the middle east. coming up general jack keen, four-star general retired, will join us whether sanctions will actually work or if military action is inevitable here when we come back. [ man ] ever year, sophia and i

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no one knows that i'm wearing them. call... today to try them free for 30 days. martha: let's get you headlines developing right now here in "america's newsroom." barclays boss, bob diamond is stepping down, bowing to pressure a week after regulators fined the bank a record $450 million for lying about their lending rates. inclear whether mr. diamond will face any charges in that case. the cash-strapped town of mammoth lakes, california, filing for bankruptcy after failing to make good on $43 million budget.

it is twice the town's budget. goes back over legal fight over land development. it is a second california city to go bust in about a week. we will see if there is a domino effect. how about this one? how about this one. a baseball fan showing impressive multitasks at the atlanta braves yesterday. watch. >> here's a great catch. dad --. martha: all right. there you go, foul ball. >> he caught the baseball, held on --. martha: while holding his baby. thankfully nobody was hurt except for the braves who lost for the cubs. very impressive. anyone who had a baby on hip, can tell you a lot about multitasking. gregg: looking at baby looking at catch. martha: keep your eye on the ball, dad. gregg: attaboy, dad. martha: nice job. gregg: back to our top story now, new questions about how to deal it iran after the

rogue regime response to oil sanctions by launching new war games and test firing missiles it says can reach u.s. targets. there are many questions on whether the sanctions imposed will even work. general jack keane is the former vice chief of staff for the u.s. army and a fox news contributor. general, always great to see you. >> great to see you, gregg. gregg: these latest sanctions kicked in but apparently have been gutted already by the obama administration. here is how "the wall street journal" describes it in an editorial. quote, the iran sanctions regime is looking like the u.s. tax code filled with loopholes. it is so weak in fact that all 20 of iran's major trading partners are now exempt from them. we've arrived at a kind of voodoo version of sanctions and in fact, general, india, china, japan, they can all buy iranian oil. are these sanctions in name only and, in truth they're

feckless? >> those sanctions are certainly driven by the lobbying the administration imposing the legislation you can get out of it as long as you reduce ad certain amount of trading with the iranians. some reduced 11%, 15, 20%. therefore they're exempt from the oil embargo. so it is a feckless economic sanction to be sure as you stated. listen, what we have to recognize is that the iranians fully intend to get a nuclear weapon because it guaranties regime survival and it helps them to achieve regional hegemony by exporting the islamic revolution. gregg: right. >> if that is true, and i believe all of our leaders know that to be true, then it is unlikely economic sanctions other than economically-collapsing iran would bring them it table so they would give up their weapons. so what you have to have on the table clearly if you want to stop them from having a nuclear capability is a credible military option that they believe you

will use. gregg: well "the new york times" appears to be the beneficiary of another administration leak. this time our military forces are quietly moving significant forces into the persian gulf. do you begin to wonder about the motivation of these leaks, general? >> well, i don't know what the motivations of the leaks are certainly and the intelligence leaks that we had were absolutely horrific and unprecedented in my lifetime but certainly it is prudent what the commander and central command is doing is to move his forces into that area to let the iranians know that they fully intend to protect the straits of hormuz and if they tried any shenanigans with attempting to close it we would reopen it. and of course closing the straits of hormuz in of itself in my judgement is an act of war. that is a big step for the iranians to take. gregg: as you well know the revolutionary guard test-fired some ballistic missiles yesterday including a long-range variety that

could hit u.s. bases in the region, not to mention israel. what is your takeaway from their move? >> i think it is mostly sabre rattling. they reminded us before they entered diplomatic negotiations again with the five powers plus one that they have a military capability they fully intend to use it if anybody attacked them. that capability they have is certainly real. and obviously that is why the nuclear weapon is such a threat to the region because they can put a nuclear weapon on top of that missile capability that they already have. gregg: president obama has touted diplomacy as a way to deter iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. there were talks yesterday, as you know, in istanbul. they went nowhere. no surprise, right? >> well, this is the iranian ploy for 20 years now. they're willing to talk and permits them to advance the program. the other thing is they have watched the north koreans and the united states plus

other countries negotiate into a nuclear weapon capability in north korea. they're taking a page out of that chapter. we have to be, have both feet on the ground here. the iranians are not going to diplomaticly give up this pursuit of a nuclear weapon. they may delay it and make a small concession which would be delusionary on our part to accept it. gregg: okay. general jack keane, thank you so much. good to see you. >> you're welcome, gregg. good seeing you. martha: this is a nightmare for a 150 airline passengers. they were stranded at a texas airport for 16 hours. much of that was without food, without water. do you have any power in this situation at all? our legal panel weighs in. gregg: and one state is fed up with drug cartels deploying its own mini navy to protect its borders. casey stiegel takes us along the rio grande.

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gregg: some pretty welcome news for the state of alabama. airbus saying it plans to build a jetliner factory in the city of mobile. the european firm says it spent about $12 billion in investment and supplier contract work in the u.s. last year which supported more than 210,000 jobs in more than 40 states but, this will be the company's first plant in the u.s., which is expected to create 1,000 more jobs. the largest employer in the state of al bam is the alabama. martha: the texas department of public safety is now deploying a small navy of heavily armored gun boats to

patrol the rio grande. the latest effort they say to head off violent drug cartels before they are able to reach our shores. casey stiegel is live in the dallas bureau with a ride-along and more on this story. good morning, casey. >> reporter: good moing to you, martha. stay law enforcement working very closely with the department of homeland security to help fortify the 1200 mile-long border texas shares with mexico. now dps has a new tool in its arsenal to help battle these cartels. >> support vehicle on the south side. >> reporter: the rio grande river in south texas, places only a few hundred feet of water separates mexico from the u.s. it is very rough down here and that is putting it lightly. >> at gunpoint and three rafts. >> reporter: almost every single day the smugglers try to use the river to move drugs, weapons and people into our homeland. >> people we go up against with the drug cartels they

have unlimited monies. they have unlimited firepower. >> reporter: but these new 34-foot boats boasting 900 horse power, should help serve as a deterrent. as the drinking cartels on the mexican side get more and more brazen, law enforcement has to be one step ahead of the game. that's why these vessels are equipped with everything from bullet-proof shields and fullly automatic machine guns that can fire off 900 round a minute. >> very important for us to be armed better than they are. >> reporter: very dangerous down there. soon there will be six of these shallow water interceptors out on patrol with a price tag of $580,000. martha, money that came from dhs grants and also provided by the texas legislature. martha: wow, pretty interesting. casey, thank you so much. casey stiegel in dallas. gregg: all right. this may surprise you. a record number of americans now getting disability payments. what is going on here?

we'll take a look at the reasons behind the spike. martha: getting a lot of attention on that one. plus reports that the obama administration is looking to slash our nuclear arsenal yet again. so why is that? and what would it really mean for the safety of our country? that's coming up. ♪

♪ proud to and on our own ♪ proud to be homegrown ♪ a familiar face and a name you know ♪ ♪ can you hear it? ♪ fueling the american spirit ♪ no matter when, no matter where ♪ ♪ marathon will take you there ♪ fueling the american spirit martha: heading down our nuclear arsenal. the white house is said to be close to a decision that would slash the number of u.s. nuclear warheads. this at a time from ne north

korea and iran are said to be build thaeurg arsenals. i'm martha maccallum. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bell hemmer. gregg: the obama administration has been considering a range of options, including dropping the number of warheads to 400. martha: joining us now is senior white house correspondent wendell goler. what do we know about the plan. >> reporter: the 400 to 500 warheads is the low hepbd. the more realistic raining is a thousand to* 1100. the russian vs. a bit less than 15 pun. each count here has thousands more in reserve. in april of 2010 in prague president obama and then russian president signed treaties where both pledged to get rid of

warheads by 2015. they agreed the verification process which has lapsed under george w. bush contributed to stability. now each country can inspect the other's arsenal once again. martha: what is the republican response to the latest news and the numbers. >> reporter: it hasn't been good. arizona republican congressman trent franks who is on the armed services committee called the proposed kphut cuts preposterous. it's likely the white house won't announce the proposal until after november. there would have to be tkpwoerbgts -ts wit negotiations with the russians and a treaty ratified by the senate. president obama in march described his vision of a world without nuclear weapons e. said he was looking forward to meeting with russian president putin in may to discuss future cuts, but that didn't happen since mr. putin skipped the g-8

summit. they say it is easier to bring pressure on north korea and iran. iran is saying their nuclear program is peaceful. north korea is known to have tried a nuclear test. gregg: context for you now on the nuclear program as it sands today. the united states has a total of just over 5100 warheads, of authors 1700 strategically deployed. russia has the next largest arsenal, with just under 1500. martha: from nuclear warheads to the great green fleet is what they are calling it, a new navy policy that is coming under fire from republicans. it's a policy that mandates paying $26 for a gallon of gas. it is actually a bio fuel blend of reb an regular and alternative fuels. the government wants to turn

half of the navy fleet green over the next ten years and the price will come down over town. but critics remain a bit skeptical about all that. gregg: nearly 2 million homes and businesses still this hour without power in 11 states, and washington d.c. four days after that terribly destructive storm, or set of storms that turned off the lights. crews are working to clear debris and downed trees tangled in power lines. >> we all got hit pretty bad too. this is bad as hurricane irene in many places. >> what happens is the storm comes through and the trees come down and the power lines come down, and the poles come down, and everybody sits and sweats and complains. gregg: steve centanni joins us live from falls church, veneer the number of chainsaws nearby. describe what is going on there. >> reporter: they are working furiously, this one hot spot

here. at this intersection there were two trees town. look up this street it was blocked by a giant tree that fell across the street. two cars were damaged. luckily the house was not hit. somebody put up a sign on the tree trunk, free firewood, come and get it. nobody has come to get it yet. that's where the chainsaw activity is right now that you can here, down that street. we have crews working on an even larger tree that fell across here and knocked down power lines. let's take a look at the activity we have video. they had to first rearrange some of the power lines. they will have to bring in a crane to lift up that tree so there won't be too much pressure on the chainsaw blade when they try to cut through it. it could be gone by today. we don't know for sure they are working and hoping it will be cleared out by today. gregg: that's sort of the big question for all those folks who

were really struggling out in the heat and no power and so forth. when do they expect things to get back to normal, steve? >> it's a big profpblt it coul problem. it could be days. people are running out of ice, food is spoiling in the refrigerators. it will be 97 degrees in the d.c. area today, a lot of people don't have air conditioners, so it's going to be the end of the week before everybody is back to normal hopefully but nobody can guarantee that. the power companies have brought in extra crews from as far away as can today. some gas straeugss are running oustations are running out of gas. people are trying to cope and do the best they can. gregg: that storm came out everybody. everybody. thanks. martha: attorney general eric holder speaking out in his first interview since the house voted to hold him in contempt of congress, holder telling "the washington post" that republican attacks on him are really meant

to hurt president obama, in his opinion, during this election year and also to cripple a wide range of white house policies. the contempt vote against holder was over the justice department's decision not to turn over documents that westbound tied to the failed gun-running sting fast and furious. holder says he is not considering stepping down as attorney general. >> there are new polls out there showing president obama leading presumptive republican nominee mitt romney. the new gallop daily tracking poll shows the president holding a 5 point lead over governor romney his largest advantage since april. the president apparently getting a boost from his move to stop the deportation of some illegal immigrants, and perhaps the supreme court's ruling on his healthcare law, whether the president can maintain that lead is likely to depend on the june unemployment numbers, which will be released this coming friday.

martha. martha: on the defensive, 22-term new york congressman charlie rangel fighting to hold onto his seat in congress. his shrinking primary lead is now under scrutiny as his challenge eris pushing for a federal investigation claiming widespread voter suppression. eric shawn has handled so many of these stories for us. eric, rangel has emailed his supporters, he's asking them for money to help defend his victory if court. >> reporter: that's exactly the right. the congressman has an email message. after the allegations of voter fraud in this case. he has sent that sunday raising letter saying his opponent has quote, pounced on him, saying that mr. rangel has somehow stolen their votes. and he says he is baffled by the controversy. he was ahead on election night last week.

accusations of wrongdoing at the polls. both side in court yesterday and they are still exploring how to mount a challenge. on election night rangel appeared to win comfortably. now the new york city board of election has him ahead by only 802 votes with 2,000 absentee ballots still to be counted. they demand that u.s. attorney general eric holder step in some investigate their charges of voter fraud, claiming the votes of latino espiatte supporters were suppressed. >> the people of the 13th congressional district must be reassure that when they go to vote that the person they vote for that the system will allow for a nare inch hrebgs, and in faca fair elections. i don't think that is the case right now. here we are a week later, right we still don't have the final count. is this the america that we live in. >> they want the campaign to be as transparent as possible and

finish quickly, martha. martha: what do the voters say there, eric. >> reporter: some latino voters tell us they were turned away from voting sites, barred from voting on machines and had to fill out affidavit ballots instead. in some cases they were asked for voter id. and some falsely were told it was a republican primary not a democratic primary. the group that supports espiatte, fears there was an attempt to throw the election do you believe there was fraud. >> if you examine the reports from voters, all from latino voters, and many of them who don't speak english, and you put together the nature of the cause, their names were not found there, they were turned away and told you don't feet here. >> reporter: his campaign wants to get the ballots secured and have a monitor monitor any row

count. if you suspect fraud said a letter to our address. martha: eric shawn in the newsroom. gregg: a staggering number of americans now getting a government handout, we are talking about more than the entire population of new york city. can you believe that? the details straight ahead. martha: incredible numbers. that is getting a ton of attention this morning. and also this. criticizing the high court, why some say that the supreme court may have strayed from it's primary purpose, and who they believe is to blame. gregg: budget woes in california forcing fire stations to close at the height of the dry season, how some departments are trying to deal with that loss. >> i'm losing friends and fellow firefighters that i've worked side-by-side with, and yeah, it's sad. >> it's too bad. i think people are going to be sorry. >> they saved my woman's life. how much more personal can you get. [ male announcer ] if you think any battery will do, consider this...

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martha: even with all the raging wildfires across several western states fire tkerpt departments are not immune to deep budget cuts. it's lights out for three fire stations near san francisco. the fire chief vowing to do the best we can withwha with what he has left. >> we are going to respond the best we can and prioritize the emergencies and that's the resources we have to work with. martha: the chief saying this will increase response times.

he's looking to add volunteers to lessen the burden, but says it will take time and money to get them trained. gregg: new fallout from the healthcare decision, and allegations that the supreme court has gone political along with the chief justice of the united states, john roberts. critics say roberts broke from his conservative colleagues simply to avoid damaging the court's reputation. let's talk about it with jonah goldberg, editor at large and fox news contributor. cbs is the one who broke this story with very good reporting based on two sources of knowledge of the specific deliberations. that is their terminology, that roberts changed his vote only because of external pressure from the white house and from articles in the media. now, if that is true, that roberts based his decision not on the law, not on the constitution, but on political considerations, my goodness, is

that a breach of his duty? >> it's a problem, and it's a mistake. we can be honest about this and sort of split it down the middle. courts have always paid attention to politics. the problem with this is that roberts did something that the other justices usually haven't done, which is he didn't hide it very well. it's very difficult to explain this decision in terms other than him chickening for political reasons. won my big problems with it is that people say he was trying to protect the integrity and reputation of the court. the majority of people who didn't like obamacare and had big problems witness they care about the reputation too and he damaged the reputation in their eyes in order to bolster the reputation with a bunch of inside the beltway pundits and the mainstream media. gregg: i wonder if it

backfired. according to cbs con one conservative justice approached roberts trying to get him to say why the switch and went away completely unsatisfied with the response. if roberts was trying to help the reputation. with this action might that damage both his reputation and the integrity of the court in. >> i think it's a great point and tells you something about how rankerous this was. it's amazing how tightlipped the supreme court is. they don't leak these sorts of things. the people on word talking to jan greenberg from cbs about this they are clearly disgruntled about what roberts has done. at the end of the day justices should vote based upon what their convictions and what their reading of the law was. it's very difficult to read this decision without concluding that he basically reverse engineered

it. he said this is the finding i want to come to, this is the conclusion i want to have, i want to uphold this. let me rationalize backwards from that conclusion and it's not convincing anybody. gregg: you pointed this out in one of your columns, that roberts upheld the law constitutional for the very reasons the president passionately rejected it, that is to say as a tax. i'm surprised you're not surprised the white house is still insisting it's not a tax. and jack lew the white house chief of staff went so far overt weekend to say, oh, no the court didn't say because it was a tax. >> reporter: the white house -- this is one of those consolation prizes that people keep talking about about the roberts decision. it guts the liberal interpretation of the commerce clause. it sets up a political issue by calling it a tax. while that is all well and good and as a conservative who wants barack obama to lose i'm

delighted by the silver linings to it. at end of the day i'd rather have him rule the way he should have consistent with his record and at least three out the man day it puts the obama white house in an uncomfortable position. as we saw eric fer eric fernstrum saying, no, it isn't a tax either. martha: a plane with 150 passengers from los angeles to orlando diverted to midland, texas. the passengers were left stranded for 16 hours overnight at that airport, no food, no water, no blankets, no nothing. >> it was difficult at 9:00 at night everybody got off the aircraft. everything is closed here at midland, we are winding down for the independen end of the day. if it was going to be a longer timeframe we would typically get

with the red cross and make sure would he could provide some could thes. martha: bad situation. what is the legal resource if any for a passenger put in a situation like this? our legal panel will weigh in on that bad one next. gregg: if you read online reviews to check out restaurants, hotels, maybe oeu other businesses, be ware of a new cyber scam. ements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

gregg: 22 minutes past the hour. syrian president bashar al-assad says he regrets the shooting down of a turkish fighter plane by syrian forces.

he says he doesn't want tensions between the two countries to deteriorate into armed conflict. a new study shows coffee drinkers are less likely to develop a common kind of skin cancer. the study of more than a hundred thousand people found that those who drank 3 cups a day had a 20% less chance of developing basil cell carcinoma. a mini statue of liberty on display in paris. it was built from the original small scale hold that created the statue of liberty that now stands of course in new york harbor. we ought to get a mini aoeuf eiffel tower then. martha: how about this this morning, scammers are making some restaurants and offer that they really can't refuse, a payoff for discount, or they'll post a nasty rating in an online

review cite like yelp or avera angie's list. claudia cowan is live in san far on this. that sounds almost like blackmail. what is going on here. >> reporter: no exact numbers on all of this. evidence suggests it's a growing problem because cameras know these online reviews carry a lot of weight and they can affect a company's bottom line. some are willing to pay to keep those bad reviews from popping up, but not sacramento restaurant owner sonny, he described how a patron recently tried to shake him down after alleging they got food poisoning. >> i'm going to do with scathing review of you on yelp and reports you to the health department. if you buy here a hundred dollar gift card to a nice restaurant here in counsel you'll save me from doing all those things. to me it was extortion. >> reporter: he didn't pay a dime and that customer's post

while negative didn't men's anything about food poisoning confirming his suspicion it was all made autopsy. legal experts says he was wise to pay or file a lawsuit. they say that can do more harm than good to a business' reputation. the better course is to use social mea media to explain their side of the story and work harder to earn more positive reviews. martha: this is a huge issue for any business. one bad review at the top catches somebody's eye. to yelp and angie's list have any legal responsibility to fight these exportion attempts? >> reporter: they really don't. the web sites are not responsible for what their users do and they are protected from liability. however if someone crows the line and say they post something defamatory, that is a legal term, that speech is not protected and that person could be successfully sued. it is in the website's best interest to try to screen out, fake or malicious reviews if

they want to maintain their popularity and their integrity. martha: wow, claudia, thanks so much, in san francisco. gregg: here is a jaw-dropping fact for. there are more people taking federal handouts than the entire new york city population. we're going to tell you why. martha: speaking of new york the health conscience mayor of the big apple, remember the soda ban that you heard so much about and we had a big huge soda on the set to celebrate that. apparently he condones stuffing your face as long as it's for money. as long as it's grossly entertaining. ♪ [singing] down here, folks measure commitment by what's getting done. the twenty billion doars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar

commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through.

martha: this one caught our eye this morning. a record number of american

workers are now claiming federal disability insurance. more than 8.7 million people in this country now getting federal checks for disability. that figure actually exceeds the entire population of new york city, and it has been steadily on the rise for the past 20 years, really. john fund is the national affairs columnist for the national review and he joins me now. good morning, john, good to have you here. >> thank you. martha: it is surprisinges surprising especially giving the fact that there are measure intended to prevent workplace injuries. you have physical therapy that is better than ever. why would this number be going up of disabled? >> well, sadly there are a lot of people who are in financial trouble, especially in their 50s and 60s having trouble finding work at that age, and getting on federal disability, whether it's valid or not valid is a good option for them, because think about it, it's not something like unemployment that goes away after a while. once you get qualified for

disability you're on it forever. the payments keep coming. after two years on disability, no matter what your age you you automatically qualify for medicare. whether you're valid or in valid it's a good deal. martha: you touch on really the most significant point of awful this. valid or in valid. and i tweeted about this story this morning, and already got some responses from people saying, look, i don't want to be on disability. on i'm oxygen 24-7, i'm doing this. i'm doing that. what everyone wants to separate are the valid cases and the invalid cases and it simply doesn't make any sense that the numbers would be rising at such a rapid pace especially giving longevity that has improved and everything right. >> i don't want any angry emails from people that are on disability for good reasons. most people are, a vast majority of people. there is a cottage industry in this country of physical therapists and doctors and they

will find some disability to qualify you for the federal payment. maybe it's not a chronic disability, maybe it goes away once in a while. once you get on the federal disability role no one will take you off easily. martha: it should come as no surprise that this is underfunded. at the levels people are cashing in on these benefits we simply can't keep paying them right. >> all of us pay about 1.8% of our income through a federal disability fund through social security. we are all paying that bill. the problem is it's running out of money. because we've seen 120% increase in inflation adjusted increase in the cost of the program in the last 15 years. it's going to run out of money in 2016 or 2017, that is just around the corner. martha: it's amazing that just 20 years ago there were 3.3 million people on this program and now you've got nearly 8.5 million on this program. it boggles the mind. when you think about all the things we've talked about,

including food stamps. there is the numbers versus new york city. more people are on disability in this count traoepb all the people to live in new york city. you have hume numbers of people on food stamps and disability and we are becoming more and morey hraoeupblt on government checks. >> senator tom coburn has ways to cleanup the system and perhaps detect, waste, fraud and abuse. the real answer is we've had a federal government whose policies haven't allowed the economy to grow very much in the last three or four years and we need to get the economy growing again. once the economy gets growing again, some people will be able to find jobs they won't feel the temptation to a employ for disability if they really don't need it. martha: that is a great point. the other yes is with the food stamp issue it's a similar issue. it used to be something that nobody really wanted to get to that point. you would really try not to be in a position where you wanted to accept that government handout, but those kind of stigmas seem to have changed dramatically in this count throw as well. >> of course they've changed

because the federal government has contests and songs and skwreupbg else and commercials urging you to sign up for food stapls. its not just that heights available if you night, they are actively looking for customers as if they were a business. i guess they are in the business of dependency. martha: john, thank you. something to think about today. john fund joining us from washington, many thanks. gregg: back now to the massive power outage across the mid-atlantic, almost 2 million homes and businesses still without any power this hour days after a wave of deadly storms slam the area. maryland, virginia hit the hardest more than 500,000 customers still have no lights, no air-conditioning, suffering through dangerous triple digit heat for the fourth day in a row. here is one family describing how they are handling the situation. >> i go outside to play, then i'm all who the and sweaty. when i come in i usually expect a burst of cold air but now it's just hotness.

>> we'll go outside and we actually talk to our neighbors. we've been doing a lot of commiserating. >> we can't afford to go out for every single meal. we used up everything we could in the past 48 hours. gregg: joining me now is laura southard who is spokesperson for the virginia manage. i know there are people out there watching via generators and are anxious to find out the latest information on when they will get power back. what can you tell us. >> we've had a historic event in virginia, it will take up to a week in many places to fully restore power. we had 286,000 customers this morning still without power, that is statewide. gregg: what can you do to help those folks, you know, who are really suffering out there with the enormous heat, and things are just getting worse day-by-day for them without it?

>> in virginia our local governments, our cities and counties all have emergency operations functions, and many of them are opening cooling centers where people can go and get out of the heat for a while. we have a lot of volunteer efforts in virginia also with setting up feeding stations, and providing some shelter support too. gregg: how do those people, you know, without electricity and communications, how do they find out where the food sent t*er centers and the cooling centers are located? >> everybody is helping each other with sharing information and providing information. the cities and counties are actually going into neighborhoods and seeing folks. the fire stations, many of them are being used as cooling centers and gathering places in the community. and folks are resilient. this is a dangerous situation, we don't want to downplay this. but folks in virginia are resilient. we've had extended power outages before. nobody likes it, it's invent and

it certainly can be dangerous when it's hot. gregg: we were talking over the weekend with some reporters on the ground there and there were concerns about live power lines. do people still need to be worried about that, i mean if they are convenient aourg out to their homventuring out of their homes to cooling centers they don't want to get electrocuted. >> they are asking customers to let them know where downed power lines are and stay away from them. make every effort to stay away from them. give them a call and let them know where the outages are. they have a really good handle on it, they are working 24/7. they have brought in crews from other states and even canada is my understanding to help out with the situation. gregg: best of luck to you in virginia. thanks tpoef so much for taking a moment. martha: thank you. sorry folks hires the move, alec bald rain will not be speaking his mind any more at least not on twitter. the actor has shut down his

popular twitter page. sweeting, quote it's been fun. maybe he's too busy enjoying his married life getting married overt weekend in new york city and that was preceded by the whole photography thing and the shove and all of that, but apparently he shut down his twitter account a couple of times before, but he just cannot stay away. he gets sucked back in. gregg: i wonder if his new wife put her foot down now post nuptials and said, honey, no more sweeting. >> let's stop sweeting, shall we? gregg: he's the poster child for anger management, isn't he. martha: he is. gregg: a police chase in los angeles involving a truly desperate suspect, the dramatic ending to that saga coming up next. martha: and stranded in the airport for hours with just pizza and pillows from the airline. what resource do these passengers have if any? will an apology do?

our legal panel debates that next. >> i'm cuddling with my cousin, like super cold. i went back to little kids, like you see little 6 years old, tired, sleepy and crank key. you fee cranke, sleeping on the floor, yeah, crying. pwhrafp

martha: it was a dramatic ending to a police chase that happened in los angeles. police were chasing a woman who was reportedly suicidal.

she had refused to pull over for a traffic stop, and incendiary uended up crashing into two cars, before she jumped out of vehicle, and fell to the ground. officer grabbed her when she tried to get back into the car. you see the end to that awful chase there. we hope she is doing better. gregg: an airplane carrying more than 150 passengers from orlando to los angeles forced to make an emergency landing in texas after a man became terribly ill. the unexpected landing leaving passengers stranded for 16 hours, much of that time no food, no water, no blankets, left to sleep on a floor overnight. the airline says once the plane was on the ground they then discovered a mechanical problem which further delayed the flight. >> the aircraft is heavy at this time, still has all the fuel on that and everything else. when they do that they need to make sure everything is working and everything is proper at that

point. gregg: so what is the legal recourse for a passenger put in a situation like this. if any at all? let's bring in our legal panel. criminal defense attorney keith sullivan and former federal prosecutor annmarie mcavoy. things happen and there are events beyond the control of an airline, right. >> that's correct. the dot, the u.s. department of transportation pwe transportation website says that airlines are subject to change their schedule and are not required to stick to and passengers node to make other provisions if time is of the essence. there are so many things that can go wrong when a man-made bird is up in the air, forget about the mechanical issues. you have the poor situation of a death here. i understand people are inconvenienced, i get it, i travel all the time for lectures and speeches and i get there hours in advance.

gregg: stuff happens. you have to stop in midland, texas. no hotels have availability for 150 people, so on and so forth. there are some things that an airline can do to make the passengers stranded in a terminal more comfortable, aren't there? >> absolutely. there certainly should be. this is something that is a foreseeable event. the passengers can get sick on an airplane, that is something the airline has to realize can happen. they have all these people, including children, one of the children even had autism and to dump them there and say this isn't our problem is not the answer. and i think that the airlines should be held responsible. the problem is that the passenger bill of rights doesn't necessarily cover specifically this situation because it gives them all kinds of outs unfortunately. and i think what we need to do is bring this to light, put pressure on the airlines, and make sure that this does get added so that they can't do this again, and maybe boycott united, if this is an airline that did

this. then make sure that people are aware of this. it worked with jetblue and they made changes as a result of the presents that you are was put upon them. gregg: human decency would suggest at least feed them, get them liquids and so forth. i've been reading through some of the comments of the passengers, they insist that it wasn't until one man demanded there has to be a 24-hour pizza parlor here somewhere that suddenly a couple of hours later 20 pizzas show up. but for that man that won't have happened. is there any legal resource here for the passengers. >> the only legal resource is the passenger bill of rights, that is the only federal regulation that covers all of the airlines. every air loin has its own personal and individual policy on how to handle these things sthao what does tha. gregg: what does that mean, they can or cannot shoe. >> they won't be able to sue, they'll get a 75-dollar voucher, could sraoe have lan we have

handled this better, sure. keep in mind a man died on the plane. they want tonight to be stuck in this one horse town. >> when you buy a ticket there is all this little tiny fine print on it, conditions and suggestions, that is a contract of adhesion as you learned in high school. you have no ability to negotiate it so it's arguably unenforceable and invalid. but a lawsuit, what do you think? >> people can try, unfortunately they'll probably want a lawyer to represent them and that costs money to do, so that's the problem here. maybe if some of them got together, i think that they may have a ground here. i mean this is in a sense cruel and unusual punishment what they've done to these passengers. gregg: how about negligent infliction of emotional distress. >> absolutely. it would be worth a shot here and riz awareness. i think the legislators need to get involved and change the regulations and bill of rights so that passengers do have rights in situations like this

and airlines make provisions in advance in case something like this happens. gregg: keith, i don't want to beat up on the airline here, everybody lived through this ordeal except arguably, we don't really know the condition of the gentleman who may have passed away, may be in critical condition, we just don't know, who was on board the flight and actually was the reason why they had to land in midland, texas as an emergency and then the mechanical failure down there. but, you know, at least the airline made sure that nobody was injured or died. >> that's correct. look, we have to remember that the stewardess and the pilots, they are not hotel consierges of the wal tkoer of his tore yeah. they did the best they could under the circumstances. we need to move on. if you look at airline grid and look at how many planes are flying across the country at any given moment in time it's amazing we don't have more problems. gregg: they actually have an incredibly good record most

airlines. good to see you both. thank you. martha: they are calling it an early 4th of july fireworks display that is coming to us courtesy of the sun. you're not going to see that on your local village green. details of the solar storm that could reach the earth over the next 48 hours.

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jenna: hi, everybody, i'm jenna leave. coxing up on "happening now." much more on the desperate situation from some residents who are still without power more than three days after the wild storms hit the mid-atlantic. we will talk about that and get you live updates on what is happening there. we will turn to texas.

the attorney general of texas will join us. what will that state do now that the healthcare overhaul has passed. will they take federal money and set up exchanges? they say in the past they won't, but we'll talk to the attorney general about that today. and we also have a very special guest joining us, staff sergeant traffic describes mills is here on set with us. we've been telling you about his heroic battles, during the war in afghanistan and since then. his amazing story today with us on "happening now." gregg: new york city's health promoting mayor presiding over one of the most unhealthy events ever. the nathan's famous 4th of july hot dog eating contest. mayor bloomberg will be on hand. the actual face stuffing is tomorrow. if you're not familiar contestants have ten minutes to eat as many hot dogs as they

can. it's been a new york city tradition for 97 years. i'm putting my money on kobiashi. martha: i would rather watch somebody drink 16-ounce sodas and stuffing their faces. that is just me. the sun is shooting out an exemploys of solar flair hot enough to disrupt things in europe. we forget that we are completely at the mercy of the sun. >> the sun is the thing we think of as the constant. rises ever morning, sets every day. if you look at the sun like the pictures you're just showing there are telescopes that show violent activity on the sun. every eleven years the sun goes a little bit crazy and we are headed towards one of those

crazy periods right now. it will happen next may and during that time there are a lot more eruptions on the sun and that creates what is called space weather, tus turbulent space weather. when it hits the earth that's when the real fireworks starts. it goes at 2,000 miles a second. martha: it can weigh 5 trillion-tons, which is just hard to wrap your britain around. >> the sun is so big that the numbers are hard to even fathom. the thing you really need to understand is when you're looking at the sun there the sun is a hundred times as wide as the earth. our entire planet to fit into one of those little curleyques in that picture. the amount of energy and power that is coming at is is tremendous. it's invisible to the naked eye but you can see it through the

telescopes. >> what do you think in terms of black outs and the 4th of july, what should we be concerned about? >> technology allows us to get incredible pictures of the sun. it also makes us null in a rabl. we have satellites in orbit, power grids, all of those things are sensitive to magnet i can storms from the sun. what the satellites do is they give us advance warning so you can shut down satellites put them in a protective mode or the grid operators can adjust things so the forecasts help, but every once in a while there is a storm so big that it could cause essential low a global black out. the last one happened about 150 years ago in 1859, and that's the thing people are really worried about. that's what you want to see coming. think ou things are in washington d.c. right now. imagine instead of earth weather knocking out power in one city. space weather knocking out power across the world, that's what people are worried about. martha: how likely is that. >> we know it happens and we notice doesn't happen that often.

with more satellites like the one you're seeing. there is a japanese satellite and an american satellite, they are watching and monitoring and trying to give us advance warning. but honestly, you know, advance warning -- >> the earth could fit in one of those little loops. if it acts up there is not much we can do about it. >> a preview of the 4th of july. martha: good to see you. happy 4th of july, happy independence day. gregg: the earth blew up in that move she with nick cage, knowing. martha: that movie was disturbing for you. gregg: 75 years since the most famous disappearance in history. what happened to amelia earhart?

>> there is a final chapter in your life, a castaway on an island struggling to survive, ultimately failing but a heroic effort, if that happened that needs to be known. we ned to finish that story. and there's lots of cool stuff happening with progressive mobile. great! tyler here will show you everything. check out our new mobile app. now you can use your phone to scan your car's vin or take a picture of your license. it's an easy way to start a quote. watch this -- flo, can i see your license? no. well, all right. thanks. okay, here we go. whoa! no one said "cheese." progressive mobile -- insurance has never been easier. get a free quote today.

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[ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! >> there is a new expedition underway to learn the truth about whatever happened to famed aviator amelia earhart. she vanished over the south pacific 75 years ago this

week while trying to become the first woman to fly solo around the world. the latest search mission is privately fund and and will use the latest deepwater technology to hopefully find her plane. it is part of a documentary that will air next month on the discovery channel. always been one of the great, great mysteries. >> cory powell was talking about she was a great navigator and been in very tight situations before where she had to take care of herself and people felt the chances she could do that were really good. >> that area has so many tiny islands she might have been able to get to one of them. martha: good to see you, gregg. happen "happening now" starts right now. bye-bye everybody. jenna: we start off with a fox news alert. we're starting to get new reports of an immigration and customs enforcement agent shot in texas. they say it happened in

hidalgo county, north of corp. russ christie. the agent was conducting what i.c.e. is calling an ongoing criminal investigation. the agent is undergoing surgery at a local hospital. we don't know what happened here, who shot him, what he was doing. as we find more on this developing story we will bring that to you. jon: days after deadly storms slammed neighborhoods across a huge part of the country, almost a million and a half people are still without power. 22 people have been killed and authorities fear the extreme heat could raise the death toll. jenna: ongoing situation there. ongoing in colorado, fire officials just releasing this video of the waldo canyon fire at its peak. more of this dramatic footage and the very latest on the worst fire in that state's history. jon: the attorney general speaking out on the house vote to hold him in contempt of congress. eric holder says the whole thing is just an election-year attack. those storie