gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill. the homeland security department starts accepting application. the line is forming nationwide. look live at downtown los angeles. 7:00 a.m. there. officials believe close to two million illegal immigrants may be eligible for the program. martha: of course many immigrants say it is a dream come true for them. but others are remaining skeptical about this program. here is some of that. >> waiting for a passport. we want to get our passport because obama might be asking for them. we don't know what the requirement requirements are but we're trying to get ahead of time and have all our documents ready. >> what if they want to deport us after they have all the information, where do we live and everything? martha: our chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge joins us live on this from washington. the catherine, you heard them speaking about what the requirements are. what are they? >> reporter: martha, good morning. this is the first day of six page form consideration for after c

gregg? gregg: doug, this contempt lawsuit where essentially you goo before a federal judge and say, your honor, make them produce the documents. this is not unprecedented, is it? >> reporter: not at all. this lawsuit is very much consistent with how the contempt of congress path went in 2008 when the democratically controlled house voted then to hold white house chief of staff josh bolton and white house counsel harriet miers in contempt. they didn't comply with congress so the white house sued the bush administration. they worked out a where bolton and miers testified. no reaction from the justice department. deputy ag said once litigation is initiated we will respond. the white house claimed executive privilege over the documents. we'll see what happens later today, gregg? gregg: what do you bet u.s. versus nixon will come into play during that debate in court. doug mckelway. thanks very much. >> reporter: sure thing. martha: paul ryan has not been afraid to take on the president in health

gregg: yeah. i wonder how far 20 bucks worth of jet fuel will get you. martha: fill 'er up. i've got 20 bucks. boy this story is getting a lot of attention, folks. virginia bakery owner making national headlines now because he said no, very politely, he would prefer if the vice president did not stop by his shop when he was there campaigning. it seems that the vice president's staff wanted to do a photo-op at this, cupcake kind of bakery store, called crumb and get it. it is a fairly new shop. this all happened during a recent campaign swing through the state of virginia. the owner acknowledges it is a new store. he could certainly use business. he could not say yes because he disagrees with president obama's recent remarks on who deserves the credit for a business's success. >> this is an opportunity of a lifetime, you know. and, essentially i said no, offense to you or the campaign but i just decline you guys coming in here. at that time, she said, well, you know there will be a lot of press. th

gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott. we're hours away from a major hearing in the jared loughman murder trial. at his competency hearing the loughner was declared mentally unfit. prosecutors have moved forward where both sides reached a deal where loughner would plead guilty to avoid death. first a judge needs to decide if loughner is competent enough to agree to a deal that would put him behind bars for the rest of his life. alicia acuna outside the district courthouse in tucson with the latest. how do we expect things to unfold today? >> reporter: hi, gregg. jared loughner's court appointed psychiatrist is expected to take the stand to testify that after more than a year of treatment in a mental facility, loughner is competent to enter a plea. now, if u.s. district judge larry burns agrees with that assessment, they move to a plea hearing which loughner will whenter a plea of guilty. doing this he avoids the federal death penalty and will receive life in prison. this is why the government would make a move like this. >

gregg. he could act out or even change his mind today. gregg. gregg: you know normally prosecutors will go to the survivors and the family members of those who lost their lives and consult with them, get their opinions on whether they would be willing to go along with a plea deal. what do we know happened here? >> reporter: well we do know that some are saying that they are okay with the deal and we are expecting a number of them to be inside the courtroom for the hearing today and we are hearing from commander mark kelly, he is the husband of former congresswoman gabby giffords who was severely injured in the shooting. in a statement to the associated press, kelly said, we don't speak for all of the victims and their families but gabby and i are satisfied with this plea agreement. the pain and loss caused by the events of january 8th, 2011 are incalcuable. avoiding a trial with allow us and we hope the whole southern arizona community to continue with our recovery and move forward with our

gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer. with the republican national convention just over a week away, a lot of digits there, we should hit that $16 trillion mark just as republicans take the national stage. martha: big number. stuart varney joins me now. host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stuart, good morning. the weekly jobless claims number, what do you make of that? >> it shows the economy is not getting any weaker. jobless claims are pretty stable but at a very high number. 366,000, that is high number. that means the economy is still weak. we still have 8.3% unemployment. we're only growing win 1/2, 2%, that's it. essentially, martha, these numbers tell us, they confirm that our economy is bouncing along the bottom. that's all you can say. martha: people talk about the fact that businesses are sort of stuck. they don't want any growth or hire new people because they don't know what is coming. that is a big issue for us here. you talk a little bit about the debt as a backdrop for this convention se

. >> gregg: i'm gregg jarrett. welcome to a brand-new hour. >> heather: i'm heather childers. topping the news this hour, a fox news exclusive, our own jennifer griffin has just landed in afghanistan with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. one-on-one interview with the general when she joins us live coming up. >> gregg: this police captain and devout christian is suing his department after he says he was punished for refusing to go to a mosque for a mandatory cultural event. our legal panel weighs in. >> heather: remembering the 9/11 fallen, traveling to ground zero to pay their respects. >> we begin with the race to the white house. democrats and republicans fine tuning their campaigns in the run-up to the party convention. red hot debate over medicare shows no sign of letting up with 79 days left until voters pick the next president. it's anybody's game. latest rasmussen poll gives president obama a very narrow edge over governor mitt romney leading by two points is 45-43. steve is live with more. the issue of medicare continues to be in the spotlight. what is new on

gregg: thank you both for being here. >> thanks, gregg. heather: we are awaiting the start of a service to remember and honor the first man to walk on the moon, iconic astronaut neil armstrong who died last week at the age of 82. mike tobin is live outside for us at the private service in indian hills, ohio. mike. >> reporter: here just outside of cincinnati some family, fellow astronauts and a few close friends have gathered for that private memorial to neil armstrong, as you kno the first man to walk on the moon, a man whose contribution was so great, the way mitt romney put it last night his boot print made a permanent impression on our souls and our psyche. >> the american flag is still on the moon and i don't doubt that arm r-ps soul i's soul is with us. when america needs someone to do the really big stuff you need an american. >> reporter: to name a few, buzz aldrin, john glenn, gene lovell and gene cernin the last man to walk on the moon that is here. they are turning to the charitable work spearheaded by neil armstrong when he was

gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer. presidential candidates are not known for staying silent in town hall events that romney and ryan are holding today. they will focus on the alternative medicare pwhrapb thaplan that they say will not affect anybody over the age of 25. we are live at a college in new hampshire. carl, what do we expect here today? >> reporter: it will be a little bit of the medicare, mostly it will be the romney-ryan ticket arriving back here in new hampshire the first time for the two-some to be together. he held this in abeyance until this moment so he could introduce his candidate to the granite state. we'lcoming to new hampshire is symbolic for romney. he has a vacation home here. yesterday he was at his lake house and went to church. paul ryan by contrast was campaigning in florida, whethe where he went to the "villages." he brought his mom along to say that the obama administration is gutting medicare. the democrats say that is an out-and-out falls hooout and falsehood, because mr. ryan's budget w

>>gregg: explain this. >>doug: what we see here in the exit poll in 2008, the democratic advantage was 7 percent. what we see, and obama won by 7 percent. what we see is the "wall street journal" polls are saying there are more democrats now than in 2008. so, the country gets worse and the democrats get better and obama's lead goes up. pat's right, the polls are skewed. and every poll is being skewed we believe in the democratic direction. >> it is irresponsible for news organization to run polls they know are this off and for the pollsters to allow them to be used because it creates an artificial momentum that affects the news, the donors. they have a responsibility to put polls up that pass the smell test. >>gregg: is there something nefarious going on? >>doug: i think it is just plain bias creeping in. let me take you to the white house. i can tell you, there is no way that president obama and his top advisors believe the numbers on the screen. they know it is tied. but the media treats as we saw this mo

gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill. ryapresident aepbt went after the congressman as just another republican standing in the way of progress. >> i've got even to know congressman ryan, he's a good man, a family man, a very articulate spokesperson for governor romney's vision. the problem is, it's the wrong vision for america. [cheers and applause] >> it's a vision that i fundamentally disagree with. >> president obama has given us four years of trillion dollar-plus deficits, he is making matters worse an is spending our children into a diminished future. we don't have to stand for that, we're not going to stand for that, and on november the 6th we're going to change that. martha: there you have it folks. that is tkaoet bait that ithat is the debate shaping up this morning. we haved henry traveling in iowa. let's start with james rosen in lakewood, colorado. james a new day this morning as paul ryan heads out there. he has a new state to present his argument to. are we going to hear a new message, do you believe, from th

gregg? >> gregg: turning in the focus to president obama's plan for medicare, the president highlighting the differences between his proposals and governor mitt romney's during a campaign stop in new hampshire. steve centanni live in washington. what's the president telling voters in new hampshire? >> he's saying he's trying to strengthen medicare by doing away with waste and fraud and to make it operate better and last longer. he's attacking the gop plans for a premium support system that is paying seniors a certain amount to buy private insurance. democrats at the same time put out a memo saying romney and ryan aren't giving many details of their medicare plan because it would be, quote, politically suicidal. and the president said this. >> governor romney and congressman ryan have a very different plan. what they want to do is they want seniors to get a voucher to buy their own insurance, which could force seniors to pay an extra $6,400 a year for their health care. >> the president and t

gregg: all right. now you didn't mention and i do want to ask you about florida governor rick scott, very unpopular in some of the recent polls in florida and yet florida is a key swing state for governor mitt romney. >> yeah. nobody likes rick scott but he is the host governor he will get a slot the i don't think it will be at a time when too many people are watching but you can't ignore the host governor when he is of your party. gregg: noticeably missing, you made reference to this, are some of the potential gop vice-presidential contenders. let's put them up on the screen. governor tim pawlenty, senator robb portman, senator marco rubio, representative paul ryan, governor bobby jindal. these are not designated yet. is that simply because they're on the short list for veep? >> correct. whoever is the vice-presidential nominee is of course going to get the witness night nomination speech for that slot. gregg: right. >> naming anyone as a keynote from this list that includes virginia governor bob mcdo

. >> gregg: an american icon is gone. word just a short time ago that neil armstrong the first man on the moon has died. hello, i'm gregg jarrett. >> heather: i'm heather childers. man that millions of americans watched step on the dusty surface of the moon nearly four decades ago has passed away. his family says that he died following complications from cardiovascular procedures. he was 82 years old. for a closer look and legacy of the former here is jon scott. >> the eagle has landed. >> i think perhaps a plan plan to be sent to the lunar surface. it's very challenging. >> for a pilot it was a wonderful experience. >> reporter: on july 16th, 1969 neil armstrong blasted off to the moon. his voyage would take him where no man had ever landed before. traveling had women had edwin bus aldrin and michael collins. >> after landing they had hours to stand there 15 feet above the surface. long before we actually got out on the surface we already pretty good appreciation for what the moon was like. >> it's one small step for man

gregg: 13 electoral votes up tore grabs in virginia and the match up there definitely a toss up. chief washington correspondent james rosen is live in springfield, virginia. james, the commonwealth has come to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of the senior staff of the romney-ryan campaign. tell bus that, why? >> reporter: good morning, gregg, aides to ryan referred to virginia as the scene of the line, that is the straight where president obama while visiting on friday the 13th made his famous community to small business owners, you didn't build that. the g.o.p. vice presidental candidate who stumped yesterday in the critical battleground of ohio will in his remarks today at west springfield high school portray the you didn't build that remark as a window into the incumbent's soul, evidence of hostility that he has for small business. he will offer a preview of a crucial session to be attended by his medicare mother. republicans hope to seize the high ground with seniors on the medicare debate. it's one that ryan told the ohio audience yesterday, he and mitt romney w

gregg's ms. lopez -- >> ms. lopez never testified to that. she testified to the opposite, which is what made the statement admissible. ms. williams made declarations, and it is also in the video, that he is very powerful. he said he can take away theo and that he is very powerful. >> it is your position that by saying he is powerful that it implies that he will use his power as an elected official and we should implied that he will use the power of his elected office to try to take custody of his child. or exert force over his wife. >> that is what ms. lopez said she understood it as. >> where is that testimony? >> there are two things. one is a testimony that she sent -- of a text message that she sent st., "use your power." she said that in her testimony. she understood her -- his power, and it is in circumstantial evidence as to what he meant when he said he was very careful. -- powerful. ili am happy to give specific e reverences' after i have a chance to sit down and look at the -- references after i have a chance to sit down and look a

gregg's moved. greg second. >> moved and seconded. all in favor? consent calendar passes. item #9. >> authorize the general manager to execute an impact agreement with north star short -- solar, or acquiring north stars solar to pay the mitigation impacts to interconnection of north star's generating connection to the grade and authorizing them to enter into substantial agreements with other projects. >> commissioners, you have in the packet you receive today revised resolution for item 9. >> i'm the assistant general manager for water, again. this is one of the agreements that we will potentially be entering into over the next several months or year or two for projects that are proposed to generate electricity in connection to the transmission grid under the new regulatory system. there's a lot of concern about how new projects might disrupt the grid. people have to be able to protect their systems from any disruption that happens from news sources coming into the grid. we have currently worked with about 15 developers for about 41 different projects that might have an im

take good care of my friend judd gregg. he's worth having around, i'll tell you. >> we will. >> thank you. >> he was talking about the salt lake city olympics and david brooks in "the new york times" wrote a parody about what his liberal colleagues have written about mitt romney and one of them was that this is -- i have to read it. after a successful stent at bain, romney lured away to run the winter olympics. the second most cause case institution. >> after the senate. >> you have so tee david brooks today. i hope maureen dowd and gail collins and i should go on and on. i didn't start at "the washington post." gene robinson, check it out. anyway. >> when we come back, the port of new orleans halting cargo operations as the gulf coast prepares for arrival of tropical storm isaac. we'll talk to the port's president and ceo an the impact of the closure. you know why i sell tools? tools are uncomplicated. nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicat

.... >> gregg: i'm gregg jarrett. seven people dead including a gunman at sikh temple in oak creek, west side, that is south of milwaukee on lake michigan. it happened this morning. the first 911 call at around 10:25 local time. reports of a gunman opening fire and several people have been injured, three at a local hospital in critical condition. one is in surgery. again, four people dead inside the temple, three outside are dead including the gunman who was shot by a police officer apparently the first to arrive at the scene who himself was shot multiple times by the gunman. he was able to get around even after the officer was hit killing the gunman. we heard a moment ago from the chief of police in greenfield nearby who is acting at spokesperson saying they believe the gunman is down. the gunman is dead and they don't believe at this time, they don't have any further information about a second gunman. back to harris faulkner. the s.w.a.t. team is still inside the temple and they are trying to rule out any second gun

>>gregg: huge amounts from a source in chicago. the indictment says that these prisoners would pool their financial resources to get a discount, believe it or not, on heroin. they would then use couriers to bring the drugs into indiana distributing them on the streets in central and southern part of the state of indiana. >>trace: thank you, gregg jarrett, from new york city. the feds warn that if congress does not take action, the united states could fall into another recession. it could cost us two million jobs. both rebound and governor romney have already begun pointing fingers. that is next. all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural ga

hey, phil. >> reporter: hi, gregg. the rain, the wind, less intense at this moment than it was, say, 45 minutes ago, when we broadcast from here before. but that's how this hurricane is going to go and has been going with band after band after band broken by somewhat calmer weather in between. as the hurricane now getting really close to downtown new orleans, out here in mobile bay, you can see the effect, driving rain, howling wind and churning mobile basically you can see these two docks? 8 years ago in a hurricane, they were partially destroyed. then they ended up being totally destroyed in hurricane katrina and basically, for the past 7 years to date, all that has remained is pilings. they will survive without a doubt through the this hurricane because this is a category 1, 80-mile-per-hour maximum speed, which will slowly begin dying down. however, the big issue is the slow-moving. it is going to take 44 to 36 hours to move on up the united states. up at this time north here, downtown mobile, 20 miles away, absolu

gregg jarrett has the news live in new york. >>gregg: if israel is considering a strike as widely reported, evidence allegedly uncovered by the nuclear inspectors could militate in favor of it. at an underground site iran has built hundreds of new centrifuges and could be accelerating their uranium enrichment. >> there is no reason to enrich at a level of 20 percent. can you not make a bomb with 20 percents you need 80 percent or 90 percent but that gets you down the path. that is what is most worrisome. that is what intelligence and government officials will look at. >> officials do not think iran has made a decision, yet, to build a nuclear weapon. but they are developing the capability to do is. it could then just be a matter of months before iran could construct a crude nuclear bomb. trace? >>trace: we have been asking this a number of times recently, but that is the status of negotiations with iran? >>gregg: two separate levels. today's talks with nuclear inspectors broke up without an agreement. the separate talks with the

i'm gregg jarrett. this is brand-new hour. >> heather: i'm heather chill determination. we're getting new reaction from stunned parishioners. there was a terrifying scene of a gunman opening fire before services, one man saying his uncle is among the wounded. >> as far as i know my uncle has died. he was shot and he was down for a while and the hostage situation. right now he is in the hospital apparently in the hospital with a light wound. i'm not sure what his condition is. we're waiting to see, my aunt to make sure she got out safely and the kids that are in there. we're waiting to hear and update on his status. at least he is out and not as horrible of a gunshot wound we were worried about. we have services on thursday but sunday is the biggest one, sunday morning where a few hundred of us actually come together and pray. unfortunately this situation the gunman came earlier than when most people come. i think relatively damages were limited. it happened an hour or two later. god knows how many people would be hurt or dead. i don't want to think about it. >> heather: