back to you. >>> phil keating live in tampa.ank you. >>> now a look at some of the other news making headlines for you this morning. over 30 major u.s. newspapers endorsing mitt romney after backing president obama four years ago. we told you about new york's daily news endorsement yesterday. also on the list des moines register. fort lauderdale sun-sentinel houston chronicle illinois daily harold. long island news day. loss apg less daily news, press telegram national tennessee and the orlando sentinel. >> polling places have been moved officials preparing for election day in storm ravaged sections of new york and new jersey a week after sandy. >> it will work hard to make poll voters know where they are suppose to go on election day. >> the poling places that have power go and vote as normal. polling places not destroyed but have power will still have polling places. you vote paper pallet. >> new jersey residents also driven from their homes have extra options to vote by fax or e-mail. they cans cast their votes through fax or

john roberts is with mitt romney in headquarters and phil keatings in florida, keeping phil up all nightarting with wendall. happy people? >> not much change. president has faur more year slightly larger majority in senate and republicans still control the house . two parties still have to come up with a budget deal to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts. president obama is relected with the highest unemployment rate of 7 seven.9 percent. it was held here in the mccormic center. it was still a party and a lot earlier than had feared. the president thanked romney and paul ryan for a hard fought campaign. >> i have listened to you and i are learned from you and you can made me a better president. and with your stories and your struggles, i return to the white house more determined and more inspired than ever about the work we need to do and the future that lies ahead. >> the president called former president clinton and thanked him for the tireless campaigning and made a huge difference in the outcome and a tough choice if hillary clinton and joe boyd bide ask for his endorsement. >> brian:

phil keating has the latest. >> reporter: bp will pay a record criminal settlement to the u.s. government for its massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico back in april of 2010. bp agreed to shell out $4.5 billion will plowed guilty to 11 felony counts related to the deaths of nearly a dozen workers. two bp workers are also facing manslaughter charges. >> today's resolutions does not, does not mark the end of our efforts. in fact, our criminal investigation remains ongoing. >> reporter: bp releasing a statement saying we believe this resolution is in the best interest of bp and the shareholders. adding that it removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against remaining civil claims. the deepwater horizon rig exploded and sank 50 miles off of the coast of louisia killing 11 workers. an estimated 206 million gallons of crowd gushed from the ruptured well. the fill pill con-- spill contaminated beaches in four states, killed wildlife and closed down huge areas of the gulf to commercial fishing and tourism for many months on end. >> and about

phil keating what's the controversy?g a judge or at least a panel of judges in the federal level to override republican governor rick scott. he has basically dismissed all requests to continue early voting to extend early voting hours to include today the last sunday before election day which four years ago led to a lot of voters going from church to the polls and voting for president obama. democrats have been saying for about it is simply an effort to ong lines and c turnout. super long waits experienced by early voters in miami dade county broward county and palm beach county the democratic party says insufficient polling stations led to 5 and 6 hour long waits. led many voters to turn around and go home not have the opportunity to vote early. it is unclear how fast a court can act. as of right now florida law is early voting is over. back to you. >> phil keating live in tampa with that headline. you talk about long lines. i am getting so many people going through social media and twitter going where do i vote? i don'

phil keating with the news live from south florida now. what triggered today's fire? >> it appears to be a maintenance crew using a blade saw to cut some pipe. that shot spark noose some spilled oil. thus causing the fire and causing some serious consequences. this all happened about 25 miles southeast of grand isle, louisiana. the fire only burned for about an hour and a half. so the platform itself is not believed to be in danger of collapsing as did bp's deep water horizon rig 2 1/2 years ago. black he will o'clock energy sent this showing the section of pipe being cut when the fire started. >> the oil, the platform was confirmed shut in before -- before they started work. nonproduction platform at the time. >> several of those workers medivaced to la will being treated for severe burns and the latest word from the coast guard, they are still searching for the two missing workers. >> i read this is a far different type of operation than the deep water horizon. >> yeah, very different. same gulf of mexico, the one is shallow operation, another is deep water operatio

phil keating. >> gretchen: i didn't.>> steve: he's in tampa where there is trouble in tampa and elsewhere. >> i'm available. >> brian: phil keating is available. >> steve: tell us, phil. >> thanks for in a judge's order yesterday, there were four extra hours of early voting in a part of florida due to a suspicious package the day before and four hours lost in early voting. 332 extra people voted early. so the total now for early voting for florida, 4.4 million people. yesterday, though, in miami-dade county, broward and palm beach, as well as today, you can still go in to select election offices and request an absentee ballot, fill out your vote right there in person, whether that is the same thing as early voting or not, the two parties can argue over that. but there was some chaos and confusion when some of the doors closed. people were there were showing up as word spread, but they didn't have enough people inside the elections office to handle the crowds. they also didn't have enough print force print off all the abs

phil keating has more from our south florida newsroom. if you don't have a lot of money, you probably don't like it so much. >> no. it really doesn't apply to you. from rich, latin americans, primarily venezuelans, tired of hugo chavez, to chinese wanting their own american dream. this growing popular way to get a u.s. visa is also funneling money, much needed capital into the u.s. economy. here in south florida, most of these eb 5 visas are funding construction and development projects, creating hundreds of u.s. jobs. in return, the rich investors get a permanent green card. and the personal reward of boosting the economy of their new found home. >> i'm part of a larger thing. very good feeling, yes. the social impact and the benefit for the u.s. economy is very good feeling. it's not only the financial profit that can get out of it, being part of something more important. >> as word of this visa program spreads to other nations, interest does as well. here is an educational seminar put on by the miami beach chamber of commerce just frid

phil keating is in our south florida newsroom. phil, who is still counting down there?, as of just a few minutes ago, did i volume county around jacksonville finally finished counting, that leaves broward and palm beach county which hope to finish counting tonight. miami dade finally finished earlier this afternoon. a record 2.4 million floridians voted this year by absentee ballot. many of those being submitted in the election's final three days. and absentees take much more time to count because they involve more checks to prevent voter fraud. >> am i embarrassed and disappointed by some of the things that happened? absolutely. but, i have to focus on simply getting it right. >> moving forward, i will do whatever it takes to ensure that this does not happen again in my county. >> a lot of people certainly felt like crying on election night as they stood in line. pick one example in miami. one thing they did, they forced six entire precincts to vote all in one polling location. and, remember, some people never even got to cast their ballot until wednesday morning after

>> shepard: phil keating in south florida tonight.ackpot there is still a chance that you can cash in through kindness. ask this woman coming up here in australia. 12.5 bucks richer after helping out a neighbor. she died in 2009. she was 8 a then. when her family checked the will they got a nasty for them surprise. among her last wishes she said i am determined that my relatives, after what they have put me through will not get one cent. turns out the woman's family tried to force her into a nursing home rather than help her around the house. that neighbor helped out with all the shopping and chores. now a just just ruled the will is valid and the nice neighbor gets to keep all of those lottery winnings. one time rival set to break bread at the white house. president obama hosting governor mitt romney a little lunch at 1600 tomorrow and that's just one of the reunions the republic presidential nominee has planned. plus the sitcom star who said you shouldn't be watching his filth of a show now suddenly is saying he is sorry. well, ther

phil keating with the news in our newsroom tonight.y admit they screwed up. >> they are saying they simply did not search all of the search engines on that home computer. however, since this is now a closed case, the sheriff's department will not speculate on what all this could have meant in the trial. keep in mind, this is the same sheriff's department that never thoroughly searched those woods where caylee anthony's bones were eventually found without much evidence left on them at the time. the parents of casey anthony today released this short statement, quote: this search was never brought out in the trial and was never discussed or disclosed to the anthonys. however, while it is clearly more than an oversight, the trial is over and the anthonys are continuing to move forward with their lives. the sheriff's department now says that in the future if it needs help uncovering a computer's entire search history it will be more willing to ask the fbi for that help. shep. >> shepard: you know, it's clear whether the sheriff's department

who better than phil keating to bring us a report live from tampa? phil? >> reporter: hi, jon.ave been fighting and battling and visiting the state of florida numerous times over the past several weeks and months. because for the romney campaign the 29 electoral college votes are a must in his path to electoral college victory. the obama campaign wants to win in florida but feels it still can even if it does not win it. the lunch crowd starting to pick up here, earlier today, though, the lines were even longer as everyone showed up on their way to work. there have been some sporadic reports of some issues around the state of florida. west of us in pinellas county hundreds, if not thousands of robo calls went out this morning reminding voters they have until 7 p.m. tomorrow night to vote. not the case. 7 p.m. tonight is the deadline. in broward county, south florida, they've rejected 700 absentee ballots because those voters forgot to sign the back of their envelope as required. palm beach county had some scanners break down, that led to some longer lines as well as another prec

phil keating is in south florida. we know what happened. t things all combining but first the big news, miami dade county has completed counting the votes, and miami dade is no longer counting. but broward and palm beach it will counting as we speak. also jumping out, the honkest ballots taking voters 30 minutes to an hour to fill it out and then a strong voter turn out leading to the long lines plus the absentee ballots tens of thousands more coming in than anticipated. >> am i embarrassed or disappointed by what happened? absolutely. but i have to focus on simply getting it right. >> here is a look at the longest ballot in florida state history, 11 constitutional amendments and that is what took so long despite the problems only being focused on a minority of the precincts the governor plans to investigate and make some improvement. >>shepard: in the presidential race the vote was 322 apart with eight million votes cast. what are the togethers looking like now? fill phil: the secretary of state is counting. right new, governor romney with

phil keating is live in miami. e day finally the day for florida, phil. >> reporter: everyone has told me as of right now 66 of 67 counties in florida have caught up with the rest of the nation in tab hraeugt all of the rehrebgs-day votes leaving one county remaining, where else, palm peach county, the county, the home of that famous 2,000 butterfly ballot. all of the absentee ballots a record number came in. florida residents opted to vote from home and mail it in this year and those take longer to count and tab ooh late. simply put there are about four or five further checks on those ballots to prevent voter fraud. the scoreboard as of right now in the state of florida president obama leading mitt romney with president obama has 49.93%. romney 49.21. president obama has a 60,000 vote lead. take a look at the map of how the states voted. broward county finished counting all of their outstanding ballots last night. up pwof thaabove that palm beach county. as for the long waits, long lines, nobody is happy. >> disapp

phil keating is in florida with a lot going on down there.t to cast his ballot today. >> that will be in massachusetts in an hour and 45 minutes. for the romney campaign, it's all about getting out the vote. when you look at the 11 swing states, he only leads in two. the others are all within the margin of error. he's going to hit the trail again today, going to the vote center in cleveland later on this morning. this afternoon, another in pittsburgh. paul ryan will be in richmond and also join the governor in cleveland. the governor was sitting around in the tarmac yesterday, according to an advisor saying, i don't want to sit in a hotel room all day on election day. let's go out and do what we can to muster every last vote. when you look at the early voting, it's advantage obama right now. governor romney really has to rack up the count on his side of things. yesterday in columbus urging his supporters at a rally to get out there and get everyone they can get to the polls. here he is. >> some of you have been successful in convincing your n

. >> phil keating streams live in tampa, hillsborough county. >>> well, early voting technically ended at 7:00pm saturday night but today people are still votinger leave. i'm in hillsborough county here where tampa is, and the supervisor of elections says, well, early voting officially ended but yes still people are early voting. it's called a different name at the stage ever the game. you go to the polling elections office and you request an inch-person absentee ballot. they give it to you. you circle in all the bubbles, you pick your candidates and constitutional amendments and give it back and technically you voted and it is early. the polls do open tomorrow 7 to 7 here in florida. miami-dade county announced yesterday afternoon, for four more years you can come over here and we can do it through absentee ballot voting. so many people same that he were overwhelmed at the dural voting center. miami-dade, broward, palm peach county are allowing people to come in and get ballots today as well as here in hillsboro. it was 90,000 fewer votes voting

phil keating is live in tampa. there have been several election day snags. phil: it is going overall pretty well. there have been some issues, including longer to vote, but for others their ballot will not be counted n tampa it is smooth with no problems and a big crowd expected at 5:00. wet of us, the county mistakenly called hundreds or thousands of voters this morning telling them they had until 7:00 people tomorrow to vote. not true. the deadline is 7:00 p.m. tonight. in broward county, 700 absentee ballots have been tossed into the trash because the voters failed to sign the back of the envelope as is required to prevent vote are fraud. >>shepard: what is the word on turn out in florida? >>reporter: we will see bigger crowds in the afternoon and half of the expected vote have voted but the secretary of state says that until we know the numbers the day has progressed very well and positive reports overall from around the state. in miami, certain locations saw long lines throughout the day as was the case in the all-important swing county of orange county

phil keating live in miami with the counting.till counting, and will they make it by the deadline tomorrow? >> reporter: well, jon, in the entirety of the united states of america, there remains just one county still counting, that is florida's palm beach county. that's right, the same one from the 2000 butterfly ballot. they are still counting absentee ballots, and the latest word from the secretary of state's office up in tallahassee is that palm beach county's elections supervisor promises that by today they will have completed counting election day ballots. here's where we stand right now on the scoreboard for the state of florida. president obama winning 49.93% compared to governor romney's 49.21%. so the president leads by nearly 61,000 votes. and because palm beach county is a democratic stronghold, it seems almost a sure thing that president obama will win the state of florida. the romney campaign and the republicans aren't actually officially conceding, but here's what florida republicans sent to us in an e-mail statemen

and phil keating covered this disgusting affair and officials in florida which is the orlando metropolitana say, well, we should have looked there, i get, we should have looked on the computer for full suffocation. phil: that doesn't mean the claim it was a mistake but one person who does not buy this is the former lead attorney but we are talking about the orange county sheriff which so famously never thoroughly searched those woods that everyone just a quarter of a mile from the anthony home for a full six months when the bones of little caylee were found. the judge thought the google search was intentionally buried because it contradicted the state's entire story line. >> you cannot have your cake and eat it two. she is at home on the computer or she left at 12:50. it create as new amount of doubt that george anthony and casey anthony were home when she died. >> it was the father who told police and claimed on the stand that he saw casey leave the house at 12:50 with caylee still alive on that day but this search on the internet happened a full hour after that. >>shepard: this could hav

in miami phil keating, fox news. >>> the senate armed services committee is holding a confirmation hearing for president obama's toys for tots commander in afghanistan. general joseph dunford is speaking to the committee which includes john mccain and joe lieberman. the a man topic? focusing on getting troops out of afghanistan. general dunsford believes it can happen in 2014, but senator mccain challenged his credibility. >> that's interesting to me the guy that's going to take over the command is not even included in those conversations. >> senator, i think i have an understanding of the framework in which that decision out to be made. i've identified the most important variables that need to be considered but have not been involved in detail planning. >> the man general dunsford would replace, general allen, is not attending the hearings. it's the worst outbreak of -- >>> it's the worst outbreak of violence in four years. several rockets were fired into tel aviv from gaza. at least three people were killed. israel carried out its own military strikes that included dozens of hamas links

phil keating with more live in our florida news room.hat are the families of those 11 workers saying about this deal? >> many of the families are still searching for answers and still believe at least somebody ought to serve some time behind bars. to date, nobody has. this settlement with the justice department does not include the still outstanding wrongful death claims that involve almost all of the 11 families. an hour ago i spoke on the phone with the woman whose grandson died in the explosion out in the gulf. she says it bothers me so bad when i see the commercials on tv and they brag about how the gulf is back. but they never say anything about the 11 lives that were lost. they want to us forget about it, but don't know what they've done to the families that lost someone. she tells me her grandson always referred to the deep water horizon as the rig from hell because of chronic problems that were never fully resolved clearly. shep. >> shep: i'll say. phil, reaction to the settlement tonight, how is that? >> bp in its statement is a

this is in orlando and phil keating is there with more. what happened, phil?>> reporter: well, early voting was supposed to all statewide, end 7:00 p.m. last night, that remains the case. however, a judge has ruled in favor of the state democrats and that is to extend by 4 hours this afternoon, early voting, specifically in the orange county suburb of winter park, at the public library, to make up for four hours that were lost after a couple of suspicious items were found that turned out not to be bombs. the democrats have another lawsuit they fail filed in federal court to get the early voting extension for the southern counties in the state, miami dade, broward and palm beach county, because of incredibly long lines and waits all day yesterday and the day before. people waiting to vote early yesterday, waiting in line, up to 6 hour, according to the florida democratic state chairman rod smith, quote, because of the governor's refusal to follow precedent and extend early voting hours in the face of unprecedented early voter turnout, we are requesting in flori

phil keating live in miami now. phil? >> reporter: well the miami mayor called it inexcusable and south florida congressional representative says quote, this election was a disaster and the election, well, it is still is continuing in the state of florida. look at the latest vote tally coming in from the secretary of state's office up in tallahassee. shows governor mitt romney winning 49.25% of the vote and representative or president obama winning 49.89% of the vote. keeping the president in the lead right now by 53,250 votes. inside the ballot counting room in miami-dade county, this is what you're seeing this morning. the election continuing. still being counted are absentee ballots in the four counties around miami, jacksonville, fort lauderdale and west palm beach, very heavily populated counties by the way. despite station and national criticism and mockery of florida's election performance, officials say it is simply the numbers. >> this is simply a matter of sheer volume. we're dealing with a tremendous amount of

phil keating live from the miami bureau with there. phil? >> reporter: nasa is very excited about the 2:00 eastern time announcement about the polar regions about the planet closest tote sun. that is the terrestrial rock planet of mercury. scientists on earth long suspected ice is possible at the two polar regions of mercury. a spokesman there in nasa tells me that nasa will declare definitive confirmation what is on and is in the polar regions. the mercury messenger is the first spacecraft to orbit mercury having launched from florida eight years ago, slingshot off venus's gravity twice to land in march of last year. mapping of mercury's entire surface which has never been done and study the magnetic field. scientists believe either meet recordites carrying eyes slamming into the planet or planetary gas on the planet could have put the ice there on mercury in the first place. the way ice could stay on mercury would be on the poles or deep craters or trough where direct sunlight never penetrates. mercury's orbit is so that the planet orbits

phil keating joins us live in tampa. how many votes do they believe remain to be counted in florida? >> reporter: 10s of thousands of ballots are just now beginning to be processed in six florida counties. these are absentee ballots that arrived by 7:00 p.m. last night. but as it stands right now. aside from all those people you saw waiting in super long lines at miami-dade county it was 1:00 in the morning where one woman finally made her vote count. president obama over governor romney has 46,000 vote lead out of 8.3 million ballots cast. with these absentee balance on the it seems improbable governor romney could win all of them and make up that difference. martha: as we were reporting all year florida would come down to the i4 vote and the voters there defied the polls. >> reporter: a poll came out last week showing romney would beat president obama by points on the i4 corridor. but taking a look at the map of the state of florida, president obama decisively won key heavily populated counties. pinellas county, hillsb

phil keating is live in tampa with more for us now. hi, phil. >> reporter: hi, jenna.ntying of ballots and tallying of votes continues this morning in the state of florida at 8.3 million ballots cast yesterday. president obama currently leading governor romney by just .7%. that is 46,000 votes. now voter lines and waits lasted long and for hours yesterday and into the night especially in south florida. in fact, one miami-dade woman did not cast her vote until finally, at 1:00 a.m.. but still being processed, tens of thousands of absentee ballots submitted yesterday in nine counties. and then over the next two or three days, per the state elections division, perhaps another 40,000 or so provisional ballots will still be counted. statewide florida voting like this. northern florida, panhandle, desays sievely voted for romney as expected. south florida, giving obama double-digit victory margins. that is miami-dade, broward and palm beach counties. and the heavily fought for and critical central florida corridor, the i-4 corridor, as it did in 2008, this year it went for o

phil keating has the story from miami. >> reporter: brooklyn's brand-new barkley center, home of the and the soon-to-be south florida office park has something crucially important in common -- millions of dollars used for construction came from wealthy foreigners, like venezuela immigrant. >> there are two truths. they are looking for a place of safe harbor to preserve their wealth and a land of opportunity to the next generation. america is that place. >> reporter: for this man and thousands of others, it is possible under the u.s. state department's ebefore 5 visa program. >> this is a hot topic. >> reporter: miami beach's chamber of commerce held this well-attended seminar. >> they have to be projects that are going to create jobs. >> rich, foreign immigrant who is invest up to $1 million and create at least 10 jobs in the united states are fast-tracked to a permanent u.s. green card. >> they are eb5 projects. >> reporter: the immigration attorney facilitates wealthy foreigners with jobs projects, nationwide. >> the immigrant gets the benefit. the united states gets the benefit of

phil keating is live in miami.s computer search happened on the last day that little caylee was seen alive, is that right. >> reporter: that's right, bill, june 16th, 2008 a critical day in this case. the day casey anthony claims her daughter caylee meandered into the backyard swimming pool and accidentally drowned. investigators now admit on that date somebody searched full-proof suffocation misspelled inside the anthony home. both case tee and her father george were at home that day. prosecutors did not have that evidence at trial. they say they wish they had. the orange county sheriff's office now admits that they did not do an entire computer search inside the anthony home, it only searched for specific words. bill: if that's the case could have that changed the out cox the trial at all, phil, do we know that. >> reporter: a lot of people are wondering about that. most likely no. a few jurors who did speak publicly after their highly controversial not guilty verdict, they felt after the trial there was just as