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school was happy place. >> reporter: it's a program designed to give kids a head start in life but a half century after it began some people are questioning whether it should continue. ♪ good morning and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy chris christie is doing serious damage control and 24 hours after a bridge scandal threatened to derail his promising political career the normally contentious governor held a press conference thursday apologizing saying the buck stops with him but christie said he did not have any knowledge of the scheme to close lanes on the busy george washington bridge and learned of the top aid's political vandetta wednesday morning and fired two for their roles but it doesn't end with his apology and the u.s. attorney a job christie once held announced a federal investigation is now underway and erica has more and erica we may learn more about the different roles people played in the scandal today. >> absolutely, that is right, new jersey assembly will release 900 pages of documents turned over be david wilestein who made the four-day traffic jam a reality and the government expressed humiliation over the scandal and it could produce more revelations. heart broken and be troyed are some of the words chris christie used explaining feelings and insisting he played no part in the political ploy. >> no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or excuse. and i am stunned by the abject stupidity. >> reporter: they translated into the immediate termination of the deputy chief of bridgett kellie as political pay back to the town's mayor who refused to back the governor for reelection and kellie wrote time for some traffic problems in fort lee. >> she lied to me. >> reporter: with a top aid gone christie apologized to the people of new jersey as a whole and went straight to ft. lee to deliver a personal apology. >> i'm op -- apologizing to fort lee and terrible and will work to regain the trust. >> reporter: he was the target of the political revenge accepted the government noor's op guy. >> i take him for his word which is he had nothing to do with it. >> reporter: paul fisherman is not taking any one word as fact and his office is considering a criminal grand jury investigation and getting testimony under oath and the first up is david and he carried out the lane closures when he responded to kellie's e-mail with one of his own that simply said got it. he resigned from his position last month and yesterday he refused to ask a legislative committee's questions invoking his fifth amendment right. >> i respect my right to remain silence. >> reporter: the scandal have just begun and new jersey democrats are vowing to subpoena everyone mentioned in the e-mails and they filed a complaint to bring about a class action suit on behalf of some individuals and base owners effected by the lane closures who are seeking economic damages. >> and i understand this complaint doesn't just talk about inconvenience when it comes to the road closure. >> reporter: that is right, for one woman it triggered a panic at tack and had to get out of oher car and so stick she threw up on the side of the road and no way to get home and no help for hours. >> erica thank you. more than a million american whose rely on long-term unemployment benefits are still waiting to see if they will get those weekly checks again. a deal floated by democratic senate majority leader harry reid would allow benefits to carry through mid november and the 18 billion proposal has cost-cutting concessions that republicans are seeking and the deal hit a snag when republican opponents questioned how long it would take to pay the referencety price tag and 1.4 million americans had unemployment benefits run out in late december. for the first time in u.s. history a majority of congress members are also millionaires and a report from the center for responsive politics said 26 # of the 535 members of congress have an average net worth of $1 million or more based on financial disclosures filed last year and california congressman darryl isa tops the list and republicans are worth $464 million. he is followed by democratic snore mark warner of virginia and the worth is over $257 million and gerad with $198 million. the center of a standoff between u.s. and india is on her way back to her home country at this hour. on thursday federal prosecutors officially indicted devyani khobragade with visa fraud and we report the u.s. ordered her to leave the country. >> her rest in december sparked an international fire storm straining relations between u.s. and india. and now devyani khobragade has been ordered back to india by federal authorities who indicted the diplomate on thursday. the indictment, two counts of visa fraud and making a false statement. but devyani khobragade will not see the inside of a courtroom. >> they will wave immunity on 9 january 2014 the government of india declined to do so and transferred devyani khobragade to the ministry of external affairs in new deli. >> reporter: the u.s. accepting diplomatic immunity and departure from the country the charges however that devyani khobragade paid her maid a little over $3 an hour remain in place. as for whether or not the furor in international case will die down remains to be seen. >> unfortunately america believes it can write its own rules sometimes and that is not acceptable to any self-respecting nation. >> reporter: given posturing by both sides with perks being revoked as u.s. officials with no longer bring friends to a popular social club and not get parking tickets fixed any longer. former assist and u.s. secretary of state pjcrowley believe there were missed opportunities. >> there was a pocket of time between september and december where the indian government was notified of the case and the american concerns and somewhere between the indian side, the american side, there was an opportunity but a missed opportunity to resolve this without bringing the diplomate into court. >> reporter: learning his daughter was headed home her father made it very clear the fight is not over. >> an entire nation and parliament and the charges were false and i'm confident that we continue to diverse to tell u.s. to drop the charges. >> reporter: the diplomate's departure from the u.s. avoids a trial and had she been found guilty a potential prison sentence and u.s. energy secretary earnest cancelled a key trip to india to promote trade and investment in the energy sector. the family of a teen killed in the airline crash filed suit against san francisco, the parents of a 16-year-old say rescuers acted recklessly in the aftermath of the crash last july and the teen actually survived the crash and later run over by a fire truck racing to help and the parents say firefighters should have examined the daughter and moved her somewhere safe. the white house issued a federal disaster declaration in west virginia after a chemical spill in charleston, the state capitol, 100,000 people are effected in at least nine counties and health officials are warning people in the areas not to drink, bathe or cook with the water. the chemical which is used to process coal leaked from a factory located along the elk river in charleston and as al jazeera erica tells us the daycare centers, restaurants and schools are being told to shut down. >> they way please. >> reporter: shelves are empty in the west virginia grocery store, customers snatching bottles of water and when that runs out ice. >> now it's utter chaos. >> people are grabbing every ice bag they can. >> about gone. >> reporter: water is scarce following a warning from west virginia governor do not drink, bathe, cook or wash clothes using tap water and effecting people in nine countries near freedom industries, a coal processing plant in charleston and say early thursday a chemical crude chm used to separate coal particles leaked and seeped in the river and they have a treatment plant nearby and it's that company's customers who are effected. >> we sought advice from people and we are confident that our water treatment plant with an advanced activated carbon treatment plant could handle any issues that we had, but it's clear that that has migrated through to our finished water. >> reporter: officials are not sure what the health risks are but so far no reports of illness. the company says it's also no, ma'am clear how much of the chemicals spilled in the river. many are questioning why officials waited eight hours after the spill to issue the water alert. >> people are angry because this happened so early and then why are we not being told to use our water. >> the water wasn't impacted earlier in the day. we started to respond when it was in the water. >> reporter: requests to fema or the federal emergency management system to bring in bottled water and in the meantime people are making the best out of a bad situation. >> you will melt this down, that is what you do, like in the old days and put it in a tub and put it in there and take like a bird bathe. >> not enough to bathe but we can make coffee in the morning. >> reporter: they are flushing the system and doing testing but officials cannot say how long the advisory will last, erica ferrari. >> reporter: and the department of health and human services says there could be serious problems with people who drink or come in contact including severe burning in the throat and severe eye irritation and non-stomach vomiting and trouble breathing and serious skin irritation and blistering, the freeze in the u.s. put a temporary chill on the luke-warm economy and the brutal cold forced americans to stay home instead of working and costing billions of dollars and flights were cancelled and some dealt with pipe bursts and power outages but $5 billion is not as bad as a 7th of the production of the country. it's combining with rain to cause serious flooding concerns and for more on the forecast we will bring in eboni dion. >> we have disturbances i'm tracking this morning and talking about thawing out and additional rainfall and will cause problems across many areas of the northeast where ice jams are occurring and this is the radar and a lot of moisture already in place and most is falling as light snow this morning and light snou in philadelphia and newark and that will make for slippery roads and be extra careful traveling this morning along i-95 and later in the day it will change to rain and with additional rainfall as we get into the weekend it will be heavy at times and some places one up words of to inches of rain and lead to flooding concerns and that is why we have a large area across the northeast and up into new england a flood watch and that is mainly saturday going into sunday and this is why, we see a rapid warm up and temperature also be as much as 10-20 degrees warmer than average so not only are we thawing out we see the temperatures really increasing. so with that warmer air in place that will mean all rain. with the snow on the ground the ground is already frozen so that extra rainfall really can't get absorbed into the ground, that means it's going to runoff into the rivers and cause ice jams and lead to additional flooding and back to you. >> what a difference a couple days makes and thank you. the leader of the central african republic is pressured to resigned and he is not doing enough to stop the violence that fractured his country and a regional summit is underway in chad to talk about the fate and he came to power last year after rebels over throw the government and since then a thousand have been killed and close to a million displaced because of fighting between muslim and christian groups and they are warning of a developing humanitarian crisis. south sudan they are fracturing along ethnic lines and the army says it's advancing on rebel-held areas in key cities but little progress from peace talks in ethiopia and stalled after the south sudan president failed to release prisoners. the international crisis group says close to 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, a few weeks ago the u.n. put the number at only a thousand. more than 200,000 people have been displaced inside south sudan and tens of thousands more are fleeing to neighboring countries and as al jazeera malcolm webb said the road ahead for the refugees is long and uncertain. [crying] these children have to run for their lives. they are already traumatized and now they lost their parents. they are among tens of thousands of refugees who fled fighting in south sudan. after days on the road they reached this holding center at the border of uganda and now they are waiting for help. and she has to hide in the bush for three days. she says she stepped over more dead bodies than she can count. >> translator: when we crossed the river some people drowned. i got separated from my son. i don't know where he is. or if he is alive. >> reporter: trucks come to take them to a camp. and their other children are hoping they will find food and shelter. they are all taken to the reception center of a long-term refugee settlement. people brought whatever possessions they could carry when they fled and mattresses and sauce pans but not much because they traveled here for hundreds of kilometers crammed on the back of trucks and put up simple shelters with bed sheets and blankets to keep the sun off because it's hot and dry and dusty here and people are cooking what food they have left and waiting for aid agencies to bring more supplies and the number of people here are just going up everyday. aid workers struggle to register all arrivals and over 20,000 people have come here in recent weeks. >> the numbers are great, the need is huge and you can look around and there are so many children coming with parents and so many elderly and basically we need all the support and assistance we can get. >> reporter: at the nearby health center yellow john needs assistance more than most and shot by soldiers and robbed. >> i don't know why they shoot me. they shoot me and take my papers. they took my money in my pocket and they leave me and go. >> reporter: he is waiting to be taken to a hospital for surgery. and like many here he blames the leaders for making civilians suffer as they struggle for power. meanwhile the children look for a space to wait for registration. they sit in the shade of a tree. they will probably sleep here for days before it's their turn. after that they will be given food and plots of land to start farming. it's tough but it's what these people want for now. they don't seem to expect peace at home any time soon. malcolm webb al jazeera in northern uganda. >> reporter: in the next hour al jazeera mohamed will be reporting from neighboring ethiopia where the south sudan talks are talking place. egyptian prosecutor say three journalists will be held for 15 days and producers fahmy and mohamed and peter greste have been detained in a prison outside of cairo and accused of spreading lies, farmful to state security and being involved with the muslim brotherhood and it was labeled as a terrorist organization and al jazeera says the allegations are false and is demanding the men be released immediately. a new map shines light on an old problem, an earthquake fault line running under hollywood and how it could impact a big construction project being planned there and governor christie's reputation has taken a hit but will it change the style that made him so popular. an unusualen eerie attraction, the island of the dolls, why so many people flock to see this spooky sight. >> revolving door in d.c. keeps turning and i'm not talking about politics, we will meet the newest redskins coaching hope and maybe 7 will be washington's lucky number. ♪ and in those cases where formal education isn't feasible because of the sec ♪ good morning and welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy. just ahead a new report that could put construction along hollywood's fault line in jeopardy but first let's look at what temperatures we will see across the nation today and metrologist eboni dion is back. >> it's going to be a lot warmer especially as we get in the weekend but just speaking of right now as you set outside we are as much as 26 degrees warmer than where we sat this time yesterday in amarillo and it will heat up ap long the east coast of 5-10 warmer and it's chilly but not bad, around dc it's 28 and new york city 31 and upper 30s in new york city and boston we could see light snow coming down in our area and will hover around the freezing point and rise to 39 so a lot of what we are seeing as snow will change over to rain and by saturday we are talking mid 50s and close to 60 around new york city. >> that is crazy and eboni thank you. a project to build two high rise towers in hollywood may be on shaky ground and new the project was close to an active fall line when i was approved but now it shows it's closer than it is thought and it's illegal to build right on top of an earthquake fault. >> reporter: this is by the records building is one million square feet of office, residential, hotel and retail space including two 39 and 35 story towers. the new geological map released by the state shows that the $200 million towers are within the 1,000 feet danger zone of the fault line requiring extensive testing to find whether the fault would run directly under the buildings. >> no building that we know of can be built actually astride the surface rupture of an active fault and that is why it's forbidden in california to build across the trace of an active fault. >> reporter: the fault line is ten miles long running near the historic hollywood and sunset boulevards and it's a service rupture fault, the kind that could crack open the ground. investigation by the la times last fall revealed the city used out dated fault map to approve 14 major projects and the melinium included and this is a draft until final approval but opponents seized upon it that proof that the milenium should be stopped. >> if they get built they will imperil the lives of thousands of people that would live and work in the buildings. >> reporter: among the projects defenders is la council member who voted for it. >> this project will be good for hollywood on several levels. first of all, it will employ employees of people during construction and more thousands of people during the operations phase of the lifetime of the development. >> reporter: a statement from the project down played the importance of this new map saying investigations that were perform on our site which included borings and sub surface exploration found nothing. it was already delayed about what lies below but developers say they will do what is required to build on this spot and al jazeera los angeles. >> reporter: california governor jerry brown asked for $1.5 million to pay for new fault line mapping in the state. and some teams who did not make it have coaching vacancies to fill and we have more on sports. good morning. >> if you don't make the playoffs the coach takes a fall and look for somebody with the touch to turn it around and jay come on down, you are the next man up to rescue the redskins and he is the 7th head coach hired by dan schneider since he bought the team in 1999 and takes over a squad that was terrible and fell 3-13, one season after winning nfc east and comes to d.c. after three years as a bengels and he will be closely monitored. >> i see toughness. i see a guy that wants to win and a strong leader and see every trait that a quarterback has to have to be successful, i see robert having all of those. so why wouldn't you want to coach a guy like that? i'm excited to coach him and hopefully he is excited to play here. >> reporter: turning to college football just days after sticking his likely very expensive shoe in his mouth billionaire mccolms apologized for hiring charlie strong of texas and former owner of the san antonio spurs donated millions to the school and said in a radio interfere that the hiring was a kick in the face and strong would make a good position coach and maybe a coordinator. here is what he had to say in that interview about strong's hiring and said i don't believe he belongs at what is one of the first three university programs in the world at ut austin and i don't think it adds up and thursday he called strong on the phone and apologized and mccombs apologized in his words to anyone who might have been offended by anything i said or did. trey mason of auburn wants to play on sunday and the junior is for going his final year to enter the draft and he led the sec in rushing with 1800 yards, that was 5th nationally and he run for a 195 in the loss to florida state in the bcs title game. nba now and suddenly the knicks don't look awful with a 3-13 starts and getting mojo and who thought that miami heat would feel it. and lebron james and taking on at madison square garden and lebron wide open and you cannot do that and reverse dunk and james a giem high 32 and knicks take charge in the second half on the half court and he will miss and tim junior does not and put the knicks up by 6 and fourth quarter knicks grabbing control of the game, up 9 and ray fellton and ca remarks melo and 102-92 and won three in a row and hosting oklahoma city and the man second quarter down and reggie jackson and thunder down at nine at durant on fire and drives for a sure thing with 24 points in the first two quarters and durant 6 after the break and it has an explanation point and the nuggets 101-88 and denver with four straight wins and that is a wrap on sports this hour. >> new jersey governor chris christie is known for his tough, no nonsense personality. >> you really are not serious with that question. >> reporter: the fiery comments that have created his image and if that will change because of this latest scandal. >> my son is learning and i mean, it's so beneficial to me that it's just, oh, my gosh i'm about to cry. >> reporter: an in-depth look at the head start program and why funding for it could be in jeopardy and the dolls may be disturbing to some and what is behind it is meant to drive evil away. that is coming up. ♪ >> every sunday night al jazeera america presents the best documentaries. a historic election >> we have 47% of our people who pay no income taxes... >> we take you behind the scenes >> i'm rick santorum, i'm running for president... >> no barriers... >> i intend to be the nominee that defeats barack obama >> no restrictions... >> i think we're catching on... >> no filters... >> my guess is they won't be voting for me... >> al jazeera america presents caucus real reporting that brings you the world. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. ♪ welcome back to al jazeera america. new jersey governor chris christie says he is sorry about a political revenge scandal involving a top aid and they ordered lane closures on the georgia washington bridge last september causing gridlock for days and he denies the controversy. his national profile is that of a blunt, no nonsense politician and the frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2016 but some critics say this latest scandal proves he is nothing more than a political bully and al jazeera's john looks at the politician that made him popular. >> reporter: he has a career out of his and reelection speech in november after a landslide was packed with the language of the street. >> my mom used to say to me all the time, christopher be yourself. >> reporter: days after hurricane sandy with president obama by his side he was big hearted and by partisan and talking in glowing terms about the democratic leader and days away from the national elections. >> and i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern. >> reporter: some say there is a fine line between being a straight talker and bullying. one of his first moves in office was to trim public employee benefits including teachers and this educators was right in the firing line at a rally. >> if you want to put on a show and giggle every time i talk i have no interest in answering your question. >> reporter: there are legends of reports out there of the governor's bullying style and he has denied about the retribution but others have a different opinion and matt reporter for the radio and new jersey public radio had a one on one confrontation over the george washington bridge affair only a few weeks ago. >> i work the cones and you are not serious with that question. >> some of that is enduring because he comes across as a real person and if he gets a question he doesn't like and says he doesn't like it and sometimes it's funny and somewhat insulting. >> reporter: he tired key personnel and said he is embarrassed by the whole affair. >> the fact is that mistakes were made and i'm responsible for those mistakes. >> reporter: but will that be enough to dispel the image of a petty, over burying governor who until now who was a frontrunner on a republic ticket for the white house in 2016. >> please don't sit down and i'll answer the next question, what is your choice? >> reporter: al jazeera new jersey. >> more on the governor and what led to the controversy we are joined by a reporter at the new york star ledger and reporting extensively on the story and good morning and first of all excellent reporting on the part of the star ledger and congratulations to you and your colleagues. >> thank you. >> reporter: what did you make of governor christie's apology yesterday? at times he seemed to see himself as the victim. how would you characterize it? >> well, i would rather not characterize it. but certainly the governor been over backwards to make it to assert that he knew nothing about what happened and, yes, he did feel like he was a victim. in fact, his main emotion he said was sadness upon hearing that some of his most trusted aids had lied to him about what they knew >> you have been covering the port authority for a long time and let's talk about that, the relationship christie had with the port official who orchestrated the closers, how fight are they, are they buddy, buddy where they have daily conversations? >> it's been said that they were high school friends, they did go to high school together at livingston high one year apart and the governor said they were passing acquaintances at best back then. they reunited later in political circumstances and david wilestein was in regular contact with the governor's office and people in the office as we have seen from the e-mails and as we knew prior to that. in terms of his direct personal contact with the governor that has yet to be accomplished. >> i would expect he would try to distance himself from this and as a citizen when i heard the story it made me feel powerless like politicians have the power to mess up our daily commutes and our lives and a lot of people do feel that way around the country. does the port authority generally have the power to close roads and bridges whenever it wants, disrupting traffic at the beck and call of an official in the governor's office is that generally the case? >> the port authorities are very, very powerful organizations, it's true, and they do close roads when it's called for. they would probably say that they don't do it whenever they want. they do it when it's necessary for maintenance, for capitol projects, the bridge just started having overnight closes for a roadway raising and that facility is under going. >> reporter: it calls into question the trust we have with the authority and the u.s. attorney now for new jersey has announced that he will be reviewing the incident. was there a possible crime committed here? >> well, a few people have cited the different kinds of crimes that they say might have been committed. j rockefeller the senator from west virginia who heads the senate commerce committee, he has called on the federal d.o.t. to look into weather the federal bridge act might have been violated or weather interstate commerce may have been improperly impeded by what happened. local folks including the governor's former opponent barbara bono called on the u.s. attorney of new jersey paul fisherman to look into any possible criminal activity resulting from this. other folks have asked whether there might have been an abuse of official authority, a form of official corruption that went on, using the authority to shut down and tamper with bridge lanes for political pay back. >> so we will continue to look for your reporting on this. steve is from the newark star ledger and thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> reporter: iraq leaders are holding off on an all-out military offensive against al-qaeda fighters and concern any attempt to retack the city of fallujah would lead to civilian casualties and could insight sunni anger against leadership and the alaska -- al-qaeda group took over a week ago and graham are calling for more u.s. military involvement in iraq and mccain blames the spread of this on the obama administration. >> the bloody conflict that was fought in our entire involvement in iraq was the second battle of fa loo -- faloosia and what do we tell them, their sacrifice was squandered. >> reporter: they agreed to send weapons including missiles and surveillance drones. afghan president karzai will not sign an agreement with the u.s. any time soon and cites a diplomatic cable from james cunningham and cunningham doesn't believe karzai will sign any deal until after elections in april and they want the deal done within weeks if u.s. troops are to remain in the country beyond this year and karzai ordered release of dozens of prisons accused of killing u.s. troops and drawing criticism from the u.s. three americans have been killed in what is described as an aircraft incident in eastern afghanistan and to dead are military personnel and the third is a civilian contractor and all of them were part of a surveillance team from the nato led assistance force and it's not clear what happened but the deaths are not believes to be the result of enemy fire. identities of the three victims have not yet been released. the search has been called off for a missing crew member of a navy chopper that crashed off the virginia coast and they scored the atlantic for 30 hours and could not find the lieutenant shown christopher schneider and five were on board when it went down and two died and others hospitalized. president obama has an effort of tackling poverty in america and vowing to help some of the poorest areas in the country with the first five so-called prop miss zones and neighborhoods in la, philadelphia, sand antonia and southeast kentucky and the chowktow nation and the program will create jobs and expand education and housing and improve public safety and mr. obama wants to create 20 promise zones in the country by 2016 and the announcement comes 50 years after president lyndon johnson launched the war on poverty and head start was one of the signature programs of the effort, one million children and pregnant women benefit from it each year but it's $8 billion if funding could be at risk. >> she is an accomplished woman, law school graduate, former school board member and former congressional aid and says it all started in a room much like this one. >> head start made me believe that school was a happy place. school was a place where you could go and grow and learn. >> reporter: she grew up in chicago, daughter of an african/american single mom and her father an immigrant stressed education. that helped. but so she says did lessons learned in head start. >> when i entered kindergarten i was confidence and confidence is so much of your ability to master anything new. and, again, there are subtle things i think head start may not be getting credit for. >> reporter: do you like coming here everyday? >> yeah, it's my favorite class. >> reporter: your favorite class, why is that? >> this is my school. it's my school. >> reporter: the three and four-year-olds at the head start class in washington d.c. get more than an early education, there are two meals a day, healthcare, plenty of play time and classes for their moms and dads. head start has served more than 30 million children and it's nearly half century of operation and even today there is an ongoing debate about its effectiveness. two studies funded by the government found the benefit of head start to children and families appear to fade. >> research actually done by the federal government, at least commissioned by it shows there are no lasting benefits. and that includes not just economic or educational but social and emotional. >> reporter: and neil believes head start which cost taxpayers $7600 a year for every student should be phased out. >> the research does not support at all continuing head start and certainly not expanding. >> reporter: the obama administration has tried to boost standards for head start centers and the latest congressional budget deal adds back some of the funding cut from the program and some parents say the program is a life saver. >> my son is learning and it's so beneficial to me that it's just, oh, my gosh i'm about to cry. it's so beneficial to me because they have helped me so much. >> reporter: she understands completely and started a local nonprofit to help kids like these succeed after preschool. lisa stark, al jazeera washington. >> reporter: while head start is best known for early education programs, in 1968 it also help fund a help vision show which you may have heard of and my daughter watches seven days a week, sesame street. about two hours from now the government will release its jobs report for december. economist expect employers added 196,000 jobs last month and for the unemployment rate to remain at 7%. but resent data has prompted some to become more optimistic about the jobs picture. >> the odds are quite high we will get a positive surprise. the initial consensus was for a number, a shade under 200. my sense is that we could very well get something in the vicinity of what we got from adp, close to 230 which will be a fairly decent acceleration from the pace we have been seeing lately. >> the jobs report also likely to give more insight on the pace at which the federal reserve will further reduce the bond-buying program and we will have full coverage of the employment report right here on al jazeera america and this morning it's 8:30 eastern. wall street a positive ahead and stock futures are pointing to gains an and the dow is 16444. s&p 500, 1838 and nasdaq 4156. in asia markets ended the week mostly higher but china's composite fell .7% after the trade data out of china showed a slow down in experts and european markets higher. sears shares falling after the stock market open after sales dropped during the key holiday season and not expected to get better for the retailer and they are forecasting a hefty loss for the first quarter and all of 2013 and it raises questions about the 128-year-old department chain's future. consumers ditch personal come tiers and research firms and gardner and idc says sales of desk top and laptop fell in 20123 and the steepest decline on record and the shift to mobile was the reason for the drop and the holiday season did not fari and pc dropped and novo as the top pc supplier followed by hewlitt packer. they rolled out a healthcare plan and provides services for indonesia who cannot afford them and rolled out on new year's but it has had a rocky start. >> if he was born one week earlier his parents would have faced serious financial problems and the baby started suffering from severe jaundice and needs expensive photo therapy but since the boy was born after january 1st his healthcare costs are covered by the government, much to the relief of his father, who doesn't earn much as a porridge seller. >> i made a down payment in cash and officials helped me to get a card and all money refunded, i'm extremely happy that poor people like me are assisted in this way. >> reporter: since the launch on january 1st across indonesia thousands are signing up for the healthcare plan everyday. for many it's a chance for long-awaited treatment and others are confused and cannot blame the government for informing them properly about the national healthcare scheme. hospitals are overloaded with patients, many asking questions about the new health card and the president has declared that with the new scheme not a single patient will be refused medical care anymore. a common practice in indonesia but still mohamed was sent home. >> translator: my father had breathing problems and hospitalized for two weeks, diagnosed with liquid in his lungs then he was sent home because there was no space for him and since then he has got worse. >> reporter: lack of doctors and hospital capacity are one of the main concerns of the new scheme and the low premiums the government is paying per patient are a major worry. >> translator: there is a huge risk because the hospital is not allowed to refuse pay sents but have limited funds to treat them so the quality of the service to the patients suffer. >> reporter: they say the government should pay $5 per person, more than it's paying now and the government is willing to revise the positive despite the euphoria of the healthcare scheme and it will take months or years to run smoothly. al jazeera. >> reporter: the new healthcare system in indonesia is a huge under taking and the first stage it will cover 86 million uninsured citizens, that is twice the number of uninsured americans covered under the affordable care act in the country. a new medical test can pro digit a person's risk of suffering a heart attack and they isolated a rare cell that gets released in the bloodstream of heart attack patients and they believe testing for those cells in a person's blood could predict the risk of a heart attack or determine if they are in the early stages of one. it may look like a scene out of a scary movie but this island of dolls is a tradition and the legend behind the unusual tourist attraction. a truck driver trapped under his truck and a wife and cell phone saved his life. i'm tracking where temperatures will be warm for rain this weekend and where more snow is expected. ♪ >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america >> every sunday night, join us for exclusive... ♪ in us for exclusive... welcome back to al jazeera america, just ahead an island of dolls meant to ward away evil spirits and first let's look at where the snow and rain may fall across the nation and eboni deon is back. >> lots of rain coming in across the southern plains and could be a live for a rumble or two of thunder. heading in the southern plains we are dealing with not only the rain but lots of dense areas of fog and be extra careful because you will encounter the fog and bring visibility down somewhat through the late morning hours. in florida we deal with a warm front across the area with all the moisture in place and it's fueling storms over west palm beach and could deal with flash flooding and be careful in the northeast this morning and light snow will switch to rain later on today. >> reporter: a florida woman helped save the life of her husband from across the country and he is a truck driver who checks in with her every morning, during the cold snap this week the brakes froze and when then he was trapped under it for 8 hours and was unable to get to his phone and his wife kept calling and calling and vibrated out of his pocket and allowed him to help. >> i thought about our kids and grandkids and we just had christmas and i was just thankful he was still alive. >> froze to the pavement. >> reporter: hours after her first worried phobe call the wife finally got a call from ems workers who revived her husband. he had to be cut out of his frozen clothes. in mexico a mile south of the capitol of mexico city lies a tourist attraction called the island of the dolls and it's covered with hundreds of discarded children's toys and we report what began as a memorial decades ago is one of the country's most bizarre tourist stops. >> these are one of the biggest tourist attractions in mexico city, a welcome escape from the concrete and high rises where people can enjoy the same beautiful canals once used by the aztecs and the waterways hold many stories. no where is that truer than here on the island of the dolls. it looks like a scene from a horror movie. hundreds of dolls strung up and hanging from trees. his uncle started collecting the dolls 50 years ago after he found the body of a young girl who drown on these shores. >> translator: he found the dolls in the canals and in the crash, he started hanging them up to protect him and try to scare away the spirit of the girl. >> reporter: now every year more and more tourists with a morbid curiosity come and visit the island and people like linda flores. >> translator: in mexican culture there are a lot of legends about dolls and people believe they can trap evil spirits and stop them from harming anyone. >> reporter: some of these dolls come from columbia, australia and even russia and brought here by visitors from all over the world. and this is not the only frightening folktale here. the most famous legend is weeping woman, it's a frightening tale performed yearly about a woman who drowns her own children in these canals instead of surrendering to the spannish concurers. >> translator: so she has a long history dating back to the 10th century and we have 17 communities and all of them have their own legends and we have one legend about men turning into animals. >> reporter: the island of the dolls is not an ancient attraction but most bizarre and the mystery which surrounding these canals is very much alive today, al jazeera mexico city. >> the island remained relatively off the grid for decades and discovered in the 1990s during a local government effort to cleanup the canal and we have a look at the stories we are following for the next hour, good morning meshl. >> good morning, an indian diplomate is returning home after being set on visa charges and there is relations between the u.s. and india as they talk about the diplomate. chris christie apologized for a scandal involving a top aid and accused of shutting down the lanes of one of the busiest bridges in the world as political revenge, a federal investigation is launched into what happened. west virginia has declared a state of emergency, a dangerous chemical from a coal factory spilled in a river contaminating drinking water for more than 100,000 people. plus printing out your next meal. yes. how 3d printers can give new meaning to fast-food. and temperatures are climbing, i'll show you how warm it will get and have the details ahead. and al jazeera news continues and we are back with you in 2 1/2 minutes. thanks for watching. ♪ >> i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. >> under the microscope, a bridge controversy puts chris christie in the political spotlight, but will it dim him on the national stage. >> a diplomat accused of wrongdoing is indicted by the u.s. and ordered to leave the country, making it harder for the u.s. and new delhi to get back on track. >> looking at the fukushima disaster and fallout. >> it's from a printer? no, i don't trust it. >> bon apetit. the future of fast food in america. le ultimate kitchen appliance that may have you longing for the real mccoy. oh, dear. >> good morning, welcome to aljazeera america. i'm richelle care re. >> the bridge controversy surrounding new jersey governor chris christie is now under a federal investigation, but it could get worse when tate democrats release more emails and text rewarding the scandal. >> only fraction of the 900 pages of correspondence has been released and they plan to release more today. in a 108 minute conference yesterday, christie apologized having any knowledge of the scheme to close lanes on the george washington bridge. >> he said he learned of a toll aide's political vendetta, saying he's fired two senior members of his team for their part. >> we have more on the controversy. that we're going to learn more today, it seems about who did what. there will be more of a release of information. >> that coming from the new jersey state assembly expected to release more of that 900 page stack of documents turned over by the official pointed by christie who allegedly carried out the instructions. while the governor expressed humiliation, those documents could produce more humiliation. >> blind hearted, broken and betrayed, some of the words governor chris christie used explaining his feelings there a press conference while insisting he played no part in the ploy. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution. i am stunned by the stupidity. >> that translated intoed term anything else of before i got kelly, the one responsible for instigating the lane closures as political payback to the town's mayor who refused to back the governor for reelection. in an email to a port authority official, kelly wrote time for some traffic problems in fort lee. >> she lied to me. >> with one of his top aides gone, christie apologized, then went straight to fort lee. >> i'm here today to also apologize to the people of fort lee and it's a terrible thing, and we're going to work oh regain their thrust. >> the target of the ve very long accepted his apology. >> i take him at his word. >> the senator is not taking anyone's word at fact, announcing his office is considering a criminal grand jury investigation, this as state agencies are trying to get testimony under oath. first up, david wild stein who carried out the lane closures when he responded with an email that said "got it." he resigned last month and yesterday refused to answer questions, invoking his fifth amendment right. >> i respectfully assert my right to remain silent. >> the legal fallout is just getting started. new jersey democrats vow to subpoena everyone mentioned in the emails. also the tate legislature is investigating whether christie's administration used government resources for political ends. i saw one exchange between bridget kelly allocates $6,000 for the traffic study used for the reason behind the lane closures which we now know was a cover up. no word on whether that money was actually used to pay for anything or is somewhere separately. >> this didn't take long. there's already been legal action, a class action complaint has already been filed in court. >> that's exactly right. that's a private attorney filed the complaint yesterday on behalf of individuals and business openers who were either inconvenienced for hurt by the lane closures and they're seeking economic damages. there's going to be more on this. >> breaking news now out of africa. we are learning the president of the central african republic is reportedly stepping down. critics accuse him of not doing enough to stop the violence fracturing his company. he came to power last year after rebels overthrew the government. since then, 1,000 people have been killed and close to a million displaced by fighting between muslim and christian groups. the united nations is warning of a diplomatic crisis. >> on thursday, federal prosecutors officially indicted the indian consul. the u.s. then ordered her to leave the country. >> her arrest in december sparked an international fire storm, straining relations between the u.s. and india. now she has been ordered back to india by federal authorities who indicted the diplomat on thursday. the indictment, two counts of visa fraud, in making a false statement. she will not see the inside of a courtroom. >> the u.s. government requested the government of india to wave the immunity of the consular. the government of india declined to do so and transferred her to the ministry of external affairs in new delhi. >> with the u.s. accepting her diplomatic immunity and requesting her departure from the country, the charges that she paid her made a little more than $3 an hour remain in place. >> as for whether or not the furor will die down, remains to be seen. >> unfortunately america really does believe it can write its own rules sometimes and that is not acceptable to any self respecting nation. >> given the posturing by both sides, as u.s. officials can no longer bring friends to a popular embassy social club and will not get their parking tickets fixed any longer. >> it was a pocket of time where the indian government was notified of the case and the american concerns and somewhere between the indian side and the american side, there was an opportunity, but a missed opportunity to try to resolve this without bricking the diplomat into court. >> meanwhile, after learning that his daughter was headed home, her father made it very clear the fight is not over. >> an entire nation, indian parliament says the charges were false and i'm confident... compel u.s.a. to drop the charges. >> the diplomat's departure allows her to avoid a trial and had she been found guilty, a potential prison sentence. >> hamid karzai is keeping his word to not sign a deem with the u.s. until after elections. efforts to persuade him on the measure are likely to fail. the obama administration has asked the afghan president for an answer within a matter of weeks or else thousands of u.s. troops will be pulled out of the country by the end of the year. this delay comes as president karzai ordered the release of dozens of prisoners who killed u.s. troops. karzai said there only was enough evidence to hold 16 of the eight apprize nurse for trial. u.s. officials say they are dangerous members of the taliban and if they are released view lathes an agreement made last year rewarding afghan detainees. >> the obama administration is considering resuming aid to forces in syria. ionments were suspended after equipment was seized by the islamic from the, a group that broke ties with the american backed free syrian army. "the new york times" reports the white house may restore aid to the rebels as a show of support, just as some opposition groups threatened to boycott a peace conference later this month in switzerland. >> there is a huge hype in the estimated death toll from south sudan's conflict. the international crisis group said close to 10,000 people have been killed there in less than a month of fighting. just a few weeks ago, the u.n. put that number at only 1,000. meanwhile, the warring sides meeting face-to-face in ethiopia to hammer out an agreement. just yesterday, there were reports that these talks stalled because the south sudanese president refused to negotiate on a group of political prisoners. that where do the talks tanned now? >> well, the humanitarian crisis in south sudan, countries getting pressure to bring the two sides to agree on a ceasefire. the opposition indicated that they were not ready to talk until nine political prisoners in juba were reds. however, the mediators right now seemed to have left alone that issue of the prisoners, because that has porch to be folly and are on the issue of ceasefire. they have circulated agreement. both sides are right now discussing among themselves if there are any objections and they are supposed to come back together later on today to talk face-to-face and raise any objections or concerns that they have about it. >> clearly a lot of civilians being caught in the crossfire. can you tell us more about the conditions in south sudan and the humanitarian situation? >> well, south sudan is a very large country. it's massive. it's almost the size of if not bigger than kenya, uganda together and some of the fighting is taking place in some far flung areas where it's very hard to take food to the people, not only because of the conflict going on, but also because of poor infrastructure, so people are fleeing their homes and some of them going outside the country. >> thank you. >> the white house is releasing federal resources to help west virginia deal with a chemical spill. more than 100,000 people are affected in nine counties. health officials warn people not to drink, bathe or cook with this water. this chemical which is used to process coal leaked from a factory in charleston. day care centers, universities, restaurants and schools are all told to shut down. the national weather service is investigating whether a tornado touched down on florida's atlantic coast. storms went through the area late last night. the reports of damage to homes in the area most coming from this mobile home park where roofs were left damaged and windows blown out. fortunately, no one was injured. warmer temperatures set to move in for some parts of the u.s. this weekend. that could create some problems. more on the national forecast. let's bring in our meteorologist. good morning. >> good morning. as we continue the fallout, we're talking about additional rainfall and with that, coming down to frozen ground, that's going to cause really big problems especially into the northeast. we expect rain from the southern plains into the midwest. it's definitely going to be warm enough to see mostly rain showers although right now we are dealing with snow coming down to the northeast, mainly light snow. we are not expecting to see accumulation, even freezing rain advisories, we are seeing another round of snow moving back into the upper midwest going back into early saturday. this is what we're dealing with this morning, freezing advisory stretching up into parts of new jersey. now, that's going to make for some slippery roadways this morning and that advisory set to expire right around the late morning hours, so keep that in mind. getting into the weekend, temperatures will continue to rise and we are going to see numbers from 10-20 degrees above average. that means we're going from freezing rain this morning to just all rain and it's going to be very mild. flood watches are from new york to new england. we could see half an inch to an inch of rain. the ground is frozen. with rain coming down, it's going to add to rapid runoff. ice on the rivers will break up and block flow. flooding will be a big issue. into the upper midwest, snow across much of wisconsin. >> what a difference a day makes. thank you. >> passage to india, the indian diplomat ordered to leave the u.s. >> a tale of two economies, a look at how americans are doing when it comes to just getting by. >> $50 billion, it's our big number of the day and it's the price tag some on wall street might have to play to make amends on main street. employment report right here on aljazeera this morning at 8:30 eastern. >> wall treat seems optimistic ahead of the jobs report, do you futures up, the dow starts at 16,444. the s&p starts at 1838, the nasdaq at 4,156. in asia, markets entered the week mostly higher, but china fell .7 after the latest trade data showed a lowdown in exports. european markets are higher. >> sears shares are falling ahead of the tock market open after the struggling retailer said sales dropped dramatically during the holiday season and things are not expected to get better. sears expects to heavy loss for the fourth quarter and all of 2013. the dismal results adding to wall street concerns about the future of the 128-year-old department chain. >> consumers are ditching personal computers. research firms reporting sales of traditional desktop and laptop computers fell 10% in 2013. that's the steepest annual decline on record. the shift to mobile is the main reason for the trop. p.c. sales dropped 7% in the last three months of the year. the title was held on to the top seller of p.c.s in the quarter followed by hewlett packard. >> india dropped plans to partner with google. google pitch add project to the countries election commission, to make information accessible to voters. the election commission backed out after an i understandian backed alliance of consumer experts saying that data could be used for spying. those fears come at a particularly sensitive time for relations between india and the u.s. a diplomatic fire storm broke out after the strip search and arrest of a diplomat last month. that she is on her way back to india now. on thursday, federal prosecutors indicted her with visa fraud and making false statements. here's how india and the u.s. reached this point in this contentious debate. december 12, she was arrested and charged with visa fraud and lying about how much she paid domestic help. later, she was strip searched. on december 17, indian police removed concrete security barriers outside the embassy in new delhi. january 8, she was transferred. thursday, india refused to waive her diplomatic immunity and she was indicted by a federal grand jury. >> we will talk the legal ramifications of this case. good morning. this is an interesting case, the legal issues, especially. does this indictment have any meaning if she's not brought to trial. >> as a practical matter, the answer is absolutely not. she's not going to be brought to trial. she's not here, has diplomatic i am mint. the nature of this case is imagine full your mother grounding you and your father giving you $200 to go to the movies. it's the same government on the one hand prosecuting her on the other hand helped her to get full diplomatic immunity so she could get out of here. to add insult to injury, she's already been charged so the charges don't go away, but they could be dropped. >> speaking on the issue of full diplomatic immunity, there were weeks when it wasn't clear she would get that and did in the end. her dad has made a big deal of that, the indian government made a big deal of that. what's your take on how legally they arrived at full diplomatic immunity for her. she was a consular official. it wasn't clear if she had the status of a diplomat. >> i would say the best is oops. >> oops on the part of who? >> the one government, united states government, made a decision to prosecute her criminally which she had limited immunity status based upon her position at the time, which means that she could be criminally prosecuted for non-official things. then the oops moment is wait a minute, you can't prosecute this woman, now we have to come up with a diplomatic solution, the same government saying ok, now while give you full diplomatic immunity so you can't be criminally prosecuted even though the charges are already there, no why don't you get out of here. >> it sounds like a safe saving measure. what's the point of indicting her at all? why not drop the charges? >> i think ultimately it's one of these political back office, you think it's going to work out and you're doing the right thing, but you actually makes things worse, because what is it about trust? it's about consistency. it's about predictability, and here, how could there be any trust where again, the same government on the left hand is prosecuting you criminally, and then on the right hand saying go, get out of here, go back to india, it's all good, you have diplomatic immunity. >> is she a fugitive? i understand that her two daughters are still in school in new york. >> she's not a fugitive, because she has diplomatic immunity, but because she go ahead it of a the charges were brought and she was indicted, the charges remain. should she come back and there ever be a question about her immunity, she could be criminally prosecuted. because she is this persona non-grata, she's not supposed to come back. wait until attention is diverted elsewhere, i belt the charges get dropped. >> we'll have you back then. thank you for the legal perspective on this interesting case. thank you so much for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> coming up, new jersey governor chris christie under the federal microscope, u.s. investigators trying to determine if laws were broken over that bridge scandal. we're talking about whether this controversy will tarnish his political image. >> the millionaires club on capitol hill, the record number of congressional numbers with large bank accounts. >> nuclear future, aljazeera returns to the fukushima disaster and looks at that countries push to bring idle reactors back on line. >> baseball's most elite club is welcoming three new members. hear what these hall of famers have to say about playing with cheaters in their game. that's ahead. >> good morning, welcome back to aljazeera america. >> new jersey governor chris christie is working to undo it is damage from this bridge controversy. he is favored for the gop to run for the white house, although he hasn't declared officially. that we're going to talk about whether the scandal hurts his chances. >> at some point in our life, i know i have likely gotten food from a strange place, but this is beyond the pail. would you eat food from a 3-d printer? that's the question. we're going to show you where the males of the future are coming from. first, new jersey governor chris christie was in damage control mode thursday. he says he especially felt sorry for the people affected by the traffic delays on the george washington bridge. >> i'm here today to also apologize to the people of fort lee, and a terrible thing. we're going to work to regain their trust. >> christie went to fort lee thursday afternoon and offered an apology to the mayor of fort lee. he also apologized earlier in a press conference saying he felt embarrassed and humiliated, saying he knew nothing about a revenge plot to close lanes on the bridge. the mayor of fort lee who originally disregarded an apology from christie changed his tone after meeting with the new jersey governor. >> i accepted his apology, yes, i did. i had indicated that, you know, maybe it wouldn't be product i have to come up now and explained to the governor that wasn't to be disrespectful, it was just to would it make sense to when this investigation was concluded. the governor insisted and we would certainly welcome our governor with open articles as we did. >> new jersey lawmakers say they're going to release an additional 900 pages of correspondence on it is bridge scandal today. >> the scandal comes at governor christie has been put on the short list for the 2016 gop presidential nomination. this morning, a republican strategist joins us. good morning. let's start with something that i found in christie's home state newspaper, "the star ledger." this paper endorsed him. they say this 108 minute press conference was a right first step. they're not satisfied at all. i pulled a quote from their editorial page: >> do you agree no. >> i think there's a question of executive privilege when you talk about his specific emails along the way, other people sending him things are a different story. >> the bigger point, they're saying -- >> i'm trying to take it point by point. the press conference i think was a great first step. it was by no means a last 10. it started the process. the only thing he could have been was into it the day before, but that would have taken away the opportunity you to talk to his staff. >> he said himself that he fired ms. kelly without actually speaking to her. >> he went to everybody and said you come clean, figure out what's going on and they didn't the first time. he got that, he fired her without speaking to her. then he went back to the staff again and said is there anything else that's going to come out now, come clean now, i'm going forward with this. we're going to a press conference through a cleansing. any staffers that lied, he'll take immediate action to fire you, number two, you expose your boss. these political operatives have done something quite horrendous in that reward. when he said something four weeks ago, that was very poor politics from every angle. >> right now, it's up in the air whether or not the public actually believes what chris christie has said. he said he was blindsided by the entire episode, but there's a poll that we pulled from the new york post. these are the numbers. 68% of the people pod think kristie knew about the so-called bridge gate, only 32% think that he didn't. let me finish. if he claims that he did not know what was going on in his office, does that disqualify him from higher office and if his staff thought this was something that he would have wanted even without his permission, what does it say about the culture no. >> this is the port authority was the agency that did these actions, not his office. >> but the governor of new jersey -- >> his appointees are the ones that did the things wrong. a deputy chief of staff is the one who actually then started this. it does come back to him. the biggest issue here is the on going investigations. when you talk about a potential presidential candidate and an investigation, all these things going on and on. >> and potential lawsuit. >> lawsuits are going to come. >> there's already been one last night. >> there are civil lawsuits and could be criminal. discovery in any lawsuit, whether business -- >> impeachment -- >> anything can happen, 100%, any kind of discovery with the subpoena power is not a good thing. coming back to the u.s. attorney's office, that's the office he used to run. they may want to separate themselves and allow someone else to handle this. don't be shocked if someone calls for a special prosecutor or along the lines that is not to u.s. jersey attorney just because of the labor of their, and what they do. >> let's go back to the press conference for a moment. christie spent a lot of time pushing back against this narrative that he's a bully. >> i am home, but i am not a bully. >> that was brief. [ laughter ] >> let me puck thi pick this up. do the action of his staff play into the image? >> 100%. what i said prior to to his press conference was these actions magnify. i always believe he's a leader, the people supported him, republicans, independents supported him. he was a leader. what he did in the press conference yesterday was bring it back to being a leader. when he attacks people one-on-one in the town hall leaders, that was being a leader. then a bully. >> there were moments where he was a bit confrontational in his leadership style. >> no question. i call that leadership. any time that a politician stands up whether i believe them, when they speak to what they really feel in their hearts and issues, that's called leadership. it's how you go about doing it, whether it goes to being a bully. >> i would think, i would say that maybe that's why these poll numbers are where they are. people do see chris christie as a leader and do find it a little difficult to believe that something like this would be going on under his nose. >> the new york post, the one thing i have a question is this didn't have enough time to set in. if you look at 107 minutes of a press conference, i watched the whole thing -- >> what they saw on the 11:00 news last night and read in today's paper will help them decide how they feel. he knew about traffic jams in fort lee at that point. i believe that, far as back at september. there's no question about that. whether or not his staff told him here's what i did, they could have been out one night for dinner and said you won't believe what i you did to so and so. that may come out in testimony instead of emails. that goes back to the same thing. with subpoenas, now that there's a civil lawsuit where people could be found personally financially liable, they're not going to say anything. that no matter what the governor says, they're going to say i can't have this conversation because i'm being sued. >> at some point, all these peel could be compelled to testify. >> of course. >> every single player. >> no question about it. if you look at the presidential calendar, we're three years out. lawsuits take quite a long time. at any time, you could have a subpoena drop, somebody under testimony the day of the debate, the day after a debate. the day after a primary. >> what does this do for his chances? >> it definitely doesn't help. what it does is as the romney campaign learned and as you read other narratives of that campaign, any day that you are not talking about your message, jobs, cutting taxes, whether it be gay marriage when they come after you with gay marriage or gun issues, the issues in iowa, new hampshire, in those states having those confidencion and all of a sudden the reporters go oh, there was a subpoena served today, oh, you had so and so in court today. you've got a new jersey assembly controlled by democrats, a democratic controlled assembly in new york, it's a port authority, they have authority, too. you've got two democratically controlled organizations that can control the calendar on having these hearings. >> there's people of all political persuasions that want answers. >> was. this is the first step in a long process. at the end of the day, it doesn't kill him but sure makes it a lot tougher to do. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> back to you. >> for the first time in sufficient history, a majority of those in congress are also million ayres. a new report finds that at least 268 of the 535 members of congress have an average net worth of $1 million or more. that's based on financial disclosures filed last year. >> california congressman daryl isa tops the list, worth $464 million, followed by democratic senator mark warner of virginia, worth more than $257 million and colorado representative jared polis. another democratic comes in third. >> in the final installment of our series return to fukushima, we look at efforts to bring japan's idled nuclear reactors back on line. >> the prime minister when japan's nuclear nightmare first began: >> i had experts simulate a worst case scenario showing however the accident could spread. if conditions were to deteriorate, there were $250 million within the radius. all those people would have to evacuate. >> the country and the world held their breath as the disaster that could have turned tokyo into a ghost town was slowly brought under control. >> we were walking on a knife's edge, wondering whether the worst case scenario would occur or not. >> the close call caused the prime minister to reassist everything he believed about nuclear energy. >> while you were prime minister in the middle of this crisis is when you were viewing a nuclear power change. >> kneel one third of japan would have had to evacuate their communities. i came to believe that we should halt further operation of nuclear energy that entailed such huge risks. >> after leaving office, he made it his mission to rid japan of nuclear energy. the political movement he helped build has forced all of japan's 50 reactors off line, but that success has come with a price. the sudden shock of losing nuclear power has driven up electricity prices in japan. emission of spiked and japan has a trade deficit for the first time in decades, due to massive imports of fossil fuels. a japanese energy policy expert in the i don't have the of tokyo says japan's national security is at stake. >> no viable natural resources of its own are in japan to deal with the economic demand for electric power. consequently, the industry would like to see these reactors get on line schooner rather than later. >> japan's nuclear industry that mounted a drive to bring the reactors back on line. the current prime minister has joined forces with them. massive protests by a public overwhelmingly against turning on japan's nuclear reactors have failed to sway the administration. less than three years after the disaster, the prime minister is promoting nuclear technology abroad, recently signing agreements to sell nuclear reactors to turkey, the unit arab emirates and india. japanese nuclear manufacturers received $50 billion in international orders last year. new technology and reactor designs insure that this will be different. >> we apply what we think -- so the technology is always improving to overcome any events. >> the current administration is learning the wrong lesson from the tragedy of fukushima, according to him. >> japan can supply efficient energy without nuclear power. over half of japanese sit accepts demanding that. whether or not that voice will be crushed will be decided in the next one or two years. >> who's likely to win that battle? >> i believe in the not so distant future, japan will stop using nuclear power. i believe that to be true. >> you can see more of the exclusive report tonight. >> a man held for 12 years at guantanamo bay has been recommended for release. the review is part of an effort by the white house to close the controversial prison. the board decided the man no longer poses a continuing significant threat to the united states. he was accused of being an al-qaeda fighter and body guard for com bin lad but was never charged. >> a minnesota man jailed in the united arab emirates is now back in the u.s. the 29-year-old was sentenced for a parity video he made about youth culti in dubai. he was held in prison since june. he repeatedly said that he did nothing wrong and that the video was not illegal. >> baseball's new hall of fames are talking about being honored in cooperstown and all the players who might not make it because of performance enhancing drugs. >> this process gets more and more controversial every year. every year, voters have a decision to make not only based on statistics. do they vote for players who are admitted or suspected steroid users? this year pitchers greg maddux and tom glavin and slugger frank thomas made the cut and each has his own take on baseball's steroid era. here's john henry smith. >> baseball hall of fame voters have made it known they consider the accomplishments of many players from the steroid era tainted. as such, guys who would otherwise seem like blots base said on numbers, clements, bonds, sosa, mcguire are struggling to get enough votes. these days, milestones like 300 wins for a pitcher or 500 home runs for a slugger no longer mean an automatic trip to cooperstown if voters think you cheated. 2014 inductee greg maddux said he never cheated but new plenty who did. >> there was a lot of guys taking the stuff when we were playing, but never really worried about it. you know, i think guys were doing it because they felt it gave them an advantage, a chance to be better, you know, it wasn't right, you know. it was cheating, and, you know, so many guys were doing it that, you know, it was what it was, but you looked in the mirror and take care of yourself and go out there and be as good as you can. >> four years, maddux with tom glavin, doesn't envy the difficult job of sorting out the candidates from the steroid era. >> there's maybe different classification of guys, guys that maybe people know they failed a test, some guys that they're strongly suspicious are, guys that they're like well, i really don't know, and it's really hard to separate all of them. >> the lone slugger voted in this year is two time a.l. m.v.p. frank thomas, the big hurt as he was known blasting 521 home runs over 19 seasons says he prides himself on the fact that he did it his way, the right way. >> i don't disrespect anyone. i'm proud of the way i did it. i would never, you know, point the finger at anyone until proven guilty and what has happened over the last the knew years, pretty much everyone has been proven guilty. >> thomas said fans sometimes thought he was guilty of underachieving when they compared his numbers to big leaguers who cheated. >> sometimes 40 home runs didn't look right. that was not enough for a big guy like me, he's underachieving. i heard that for years, but i was a 420 r.b.i. guy my whole career when i was healthy. i'm proud of my numbers and what god gave me and 100% proud of going into the hall of fame. >> maybe one day voters will warm to the idea of including perceived cheaters like bands or clements but that day is not today. in the most recent vote, none of the big names associated with steroids got more than 36% of the votes and numbers for each tainted player are down from the previous year. >> that's our john henry smith reporting. the voting gets tougher next year with those eligible for the first time. >> it's like you want to say something about that. >> those are huge names and they're going to burch other guys down. >> and some of the guys who barely didn't make it, missing by two total votes, you got to weigh all of these things every year. >> it's tough for everybody. thank you. >> food from a printer? ok, it sounds like something from a sci-fi front of very well. food going high tech. >> another turning point for traveling into the heavens. >> every sunday night al jazeera america presents >> welcome back to aljazeera america. >> it is friday, i'm happy about that. lead to printers are getting buzz about exhibits, including creating food. we'll show you what could be the future of dining. >> first, a look at potential precipitation you could see today. >> it's a wet start in the northwest. higher elevations watching out for snow. snow levels will rise getting into this evening but lower again heading into saturday evening. we expect five to 10 inches through the next 12 hours and by saturday evening, an additional foot of snow. we have an area of low pressure from the southern plains into the upper midwest. that means more snow coming into wisconsin, around milwaukee expecting to see snow showers developing later today. in the south, it's all rain, could be in line for a rumble of thunder in texas. >> a massive rocket lifted off thursday in a mission to supply the international space station. it was the first of at least eight cargo missions contracted to be performed through 2016. the mission is carrying over 2,000 pounds of supplies, including science experiments, provision and spares parts. >> 3-d printers are creating toys to shoes to handguns. the technology could find its way to the dinner table. >> it's a meal, possibly the future which fast food, pretty surely made straight from the printer. >> that's a specially designed plate that we have. >> it marks a new phase in kitchen appliances, the ultimate gadget for those hard pressed for time. a dish is programmed, then a short wait while the meal of your choice is printed out. encapsules of fresh, unprocessed ingredients, the point is to get more people preparing additive-free food without too much fuss. >> it's certainly not out of reach. if you can plint your own meals, it brings the term veeps food to a whole new level. >> printing your own food is on add concept but at the end of the day, it is a lead to printer. in essence, it is a kitchen appliance, a technology kitchen appliance, but makes cooking easier. >> would it catch on? 3-d printed cookies. >> it's been printed out? how is it done? it's good. it tastes like a normal cookie. >> it tastes enter delicious, it's really good. >> for some, the idea is perhaps too radical. >> no thank you. >> it's from a printer? no, i don't trust it. >> printing a meal might take some time to catch on, still in the preliminary stages and it's not a complete process. a dish would still need to be flavored, and cooked and that's where human skill can't be replaced. for some discerning diners, a meal made by print are may be hard to swallow. aljazeera, barcelona. >> the idea of this 3-d printing might sound interesting, but don't expect to see this happening anytime soon. one of those printers, one will set you back $1,300, which i see is just a lot of delivery. >> the only thing that looked good was the pizza. >> so spend that $1,300 on real food. del walters looks at what we're following this morning. >> my lips are sealed by that. indian diplomat going home after indictment on series have a charges, straining relations between the u.s. and i understand. >> >> chris christie apologizing for the bridge scandal, the aide accused have ordering the shut down on one of the lanes on the busiest bridge in the world as political revenge. >> west virginia declaring a state of emergency with chemicals spilled into a river. >> i'll show you just how warm it will get. i'll have the details just ahead. >> the morning news continues. bell walters is back with you in just two and a half minutes. have a good morning. >> i come here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. >> new jersey's governor chris christie denying wrongdoing in a bizarre transportation problem in the state. >> civilians sufferinging south sudan. thousands of refugees, including children fleeing the violence consuming that country. >> everything is a struggle. >> the alarming number of chirp living in poverty in just one american city. >> good morning. welcome to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. new jersey's republican governor, chris christie doing some serious damage control 24 hours after a bridge scandal threatened to derail a promising political career, the governor holding this press conference yesterday, apologize in, saying the buck stops with him. christie was emphatic he had no knowledge of that keep to close the lanes on the busy george washington bridge. he said he learned the vendetta wednesday morning. he fired two senior members of his team for involvement. the fallout doesn't end with that apology. the u.s. attorney in new jersey, a job christie once held announcing that a federal investigation is now underway. we have more. we may learn morgan today. >> new details coming from the new jersey state assembly expected to release 900 page little of documents turned over by the official who cared out the instructions to create the traffic jam. while the governor has expressed humiliation over the scandal, those documents could lead to more humiliation. >> words governor chris christie used during a two hour pros conference explained his feelings while saying he played no part in the political ploy. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning for its execution, and i am stunned by the abject stupidity. >> that stupidity translated into the immediate termination of his deputy chief of staff, bridget kelly, the one allegedly responsible for instigating the lane closures in fort lee new jersey as political pay back to the mayor's refusal to back christie in the election. kelly wrote time for traffic problems in fort lee. >> she lied to me. >> christie apologized to the people of new jersey then went to fort lee to deliver a personal apology. >> i'm here today to also apologize to the people of fort lee. terrible thing, and we're bog to work to regain their trust. >> the mayor who was the target of the political revenge accepted the poll. >> i. >> i take him for his word, which is he had nothing to do with it. >> a criminal grand jury investigation is expected after grand jury testimony has impugn. first up is the official who carried out the lane closures. he resigned from his position last month, then yesterday, refused to answer questions invoking his fifth amendment rights. >> i respectfully assert my right to remain silent. >> the legal fallout over the scandal is just getting started. new jersey democrats are vowing to subpoena everyone involved in the emails. the tate legislature is investigating whether christies administration used resources for political ends. there was an exchange between bridget kelly and date wild stein mentioning money behind the traffic study used as the lane closures. >> there is talk of a class action complaint. >> there was a private attorney who filed the complaint yesterday on behalf of individuals and business owners who say they were inconvenienced or hurt by the lane closures seeking economic damages. >> thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> the diplomats at the center of the standoff between the u.s. and india headed back home at this hour, on thursday u.s. officials indicting her with visa fraud. >> her arrest sparked and international fire storm, straining relations between the u.s. and india. now she has been ordered back to india by federal authorities who indicted her on thursday. the indictment, two counts of visa fraud and making a false statement. she will not see the inside of a courtroom. >> the u.s. government requested the government of india to waive her immunity. on january 9, 2014, the government of india declined to do so and transferred consular to the administrative of internal affairs. >> with the u.s. accepting her diplomatic immunity and requesting her departure, the charges remain in place. as for whether or not the furor in this international case will die down, remains to be seen. >> unfortunately, america really does believe it can write its own rules it seems sometimes and that is not acceptable to any self respecting nation. >> given theporturing by both sides with diplomatic perks revoked, as u.s. officials con no longer bring friends to a popular embassy social club and not get their parking tickets fixed any longer. former u.s. secretary of state believes there were miss said opportunities. >> there was time between september and december where the indian government was notified of the case and the american concerns and somewhere between the indian side, the american side, this was an opportunity, but a missed opportunity to try to resolve this without bringing the diplomat to court. >> after learning his daughter was heading home, her father made it very clear the fight is not over. >> an entire nation, indian parliament is aware that charges were false and i'm confident that the u.s.a. will be compelled to drop the charges. >> her departure allows her to avoid a trial and prison sentence, the energy secretary cans celling a planned trip to india. >> the family of a teenager killed in the airlines crash has now filed suit against san francisco. the parents say the fire department acted recklessly responding to the crash last july. the teen survived the crash but was run over by a firetruck racing to help. the parents say the firefighters should have examined their daughter and moved her to safety. >> the white house now declaring a tate of emergency in west virginia after a chemical spill. more than 100,000 people affected in nine counties there, health officials are warning people not to bathe, drink or cook with that water. the chemical leaking from a factory located along the elk river in charleston. day care centers, restaurants, schools all being forced to shut down. >> shelves are empty inside this west virginia grocery store, customers snatching bottles of water and when that runs out, ice. >> now we're under chaos. >> see people grabbing everything they can. >> it's about gone. >> water is scarce following a warning do not drink, bathe, cook or wash clothes use in tap water, that affecting people in nine counties near a coal processing plant in charleston. officials say early thursday, a chemical used to separate coal particles in the coal prepping process leaked from an old storage tank and seeped into the elk river. west virginia american water has a treatment plant nearby around it's that companies customers who are affected. >> sought the advice of water quality professionals and we were fairly confident early today that our water treatment plant with an advanced activated carbon treatment plant could handle any issues that we had, but it's clear that that has applying greated through to our finished water. >> officials are not sure of the health risks, but so far, no reports of illness. the company says it's also not clear how much of the chemical spilled oh into the river. many question why officials waited eight hours after the spill to issue the water alert. >> people are angry because this happened so early and then why are we just now being told not to use our water. >> the water wasn't impacted earlier in the day. we started to respond when the water was impacted. >> requests have been made to fema to bring in bottled water. people say they're making the best out of a bad situation in the meantime. >> well, honey, you going to melt us down, that's what you're going to do like back in the old days, but a little tug in there and just take like a bird bath. >> at least we can make calf fee in the morning. >> workers are flushing the system and doing additional testing. officials can't say how long the advisory will last. aljazeera. >> jeff mcintire is the president of west virginia american water company that provides water for many affected by the contamination. he is in charleston this morning. good morning, jeff. >> good morning, del. >> we are receiving conflicting reporteds on how many people have been affected. that what are the numbers that you know? >> we serve 171,000 customers in the state. we believe that there's about a 100,000 customers in parts of nine different counties that are affect by this issue. >> now many of the families and i'm from that state so i know this to be factual are economically affected, and they are now having to get water. is your company, is the coal company doing anything to help them get water in places where there is none and they can't afford it? >> the governor's office has declared a state of emergency to help in large part with the supply of water, but the water company itself has deployed tankers from other parts of our business, american water serves any number of states and we have a dozen tanker trucks full of fresh patible water an their way from pennsylvania, three already deployed. we brought four tractor trailer loads of bottled water that we're distributing locally here. all our distribution efforts are orchestrated through fema, national guard and emergency management system. >> can you give us an idea about what you became aware there was a potential leak and when did you issue the warning to the residents there no. >> sure, thanks, del. we first became aware of the leak just before noon. it had gone on before that, i don't know how long before it had started. we didn't see -- the material was identified to us, then rei departmentified later as a foaming agent. it was mentioned earlier in the report the specific name of that product. our treatment process can handle that, but in the quantity that we got in, our finished water started to be affected at 4:00 in the afternoon. we worked with state bureau of public health, other agencies, the governor's office in trying to determine the appropriate course of action, and we got a press conference just before 6:00 and we made the final determination on our course of action just before that press conference. >> jeff, correct me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like there were two things that went wrong. one you didn't find out in time or at least when it happened. the other thing is it sounds like you were saying you were misled about what may have been leaked. >> i wouldn't say misled. you're trying to identify the product. it was originally identified as a flockulent, a chemical we use in water treatment. it takes fine particulate ago degree gets into a larger particle so that will settle into the water team. because we use them, we didn't expect the nature of the issue we're dealing with now. the foaming agent is much more difficult. we have an advanced treatment plant here, an award winning plant. we run activated carbon and in these events turn on what's known at powder activated carbon. those are the preferred treatment processes for this type of event. january fortunately, this chemical is so strong in nature, it overw overwhelmed the carbon. >> thank you, jeff. >> that recent freeze across the u.s. putting a chill on the economy, the brutal cold forcing thousands of americans to stay home instead of working. that cost the country $5 billion. hundreds of flights were canceled, some battling burst pipes and power outages, experts say $5 billion isn't as bad as it sounds, only a seventh of a day's production in the u.s. >> the big warm up along with rain causing concerns with flooding. for more, we turn oh our meteorologist. >> we are already starting to see freezing rain that will change over to all rain in parts of the northeast. just a lot of moisture, milder temperatures in place, so wintery weather to start. we will be seeing that switch to rain. right now, it's the freezing rain causing concerns right allege portions of i-95 traveling across northern areas of virginia. not really expecting to see much as far as accumulation, but we will see enough to cause travel problems, so just be extra careful out there. farther north, we have light snow, a few places around new york city and boston. getting into the weekend, temperatures will heat up, and we are going to see our numbers anywhere from 10 up wards to 20 degrees warmer than average. we will be dealing with 50's and 60's, so any precipitation that we get is going to be all rain and rain coming down on already frozen ground. that's going to cause big flooding concerns, because what we're going to be dealing with is ice jams occurring around the delaware river, in parts of new england, know on the ground, rain coming down will cause rapid run off. ice on the rivers will break up and hinder the flow we typically see, so dealing with flooding concerns. into the northwest, we'll continue to see the area with rain around seattle, snow for the mountains. >> there is a big development happening right now in the central african republic. the countries president is stepping down. he is accused of not doing enough to stop the violence that has fractured the country. the countries first muslim leadier came to power last year after rebels overthrew the government. since then, at least 1,000 people have been killed, a million displaced by fighting between muslim and christian groups, the united nations warning of a humanitarian crisis. >> in south sudan, the fighting has raged for weeks. the army just announced it has regained control of the capitol of a key state that the rebels had taken over. there is also little progress to report from peace talks held in ethiopia. they stalled after the president refused to release political prisoners. close to 10,000 people have been killed. the u.n. says that number is closer to 1,000. more than 200,000 people are displaced inside south sudan as tens of thousands flee to neighboring countries. >> a newman shedding a new light on a fault line under that hollywood. how it could affect a planned construction project. >> a lot of people even employed, it's hard to make ends meet with the money you're making. >> more than 16 million children in the u.s. living in poverty. we take a look at the struggles one city faces trying to combat the problem. >> tracking a great white, how you can be part of research into a species that has captivated all of us. and in those cases where formal education isn't feasible because of the security situ >> good morning, welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. straight ahead, a new report that could put construction you along hollywood's fault line in jeopardy. first let's find out about the temperatures across the nation. >> i'm sure many will feel that nice difference in the air, temperatures starting to rise. we're 27 degrees warmer than 24 hours ago in cleveland, 10 degrees warmer in new york city. although on the cool side, it feels better. we're seeing 20's and lower 30's, mid 30's around pittsburgh into boston. we're dealing with light snow changing to rain as temperatures rise later today. we'll be in the mid-50's saturday. even as we dry out, mid 40's to low 50's getting into early next week. this mild air will be stricking around. even into the upper midwest, we are sitting at 28 in omaha. >> iraqi leaders now decided to hold off on that military offensive. there is concern that any attempt to retake the cities would lead to civilian casualties, incite in soon any anger against the country's leadership. the isil taking control of two cities in anbar province more than a week ago, senators calling for stepped up u.s. military involvement, mccain blaming the spread of al-qaeda in that region on the obama administration. >> the bloodiest war conflict that was fought in our entire involvement in iran was the second battle of if a judge i can't, 95 brave americans killed, 600 wounded. what do we tell these young people and their familles? what do we tell them? i'll tell you what we have to tell them? we have to tell them that their sacrifice was squandered. >> the u.s. agreed to send weapons to help the military, including missiles and surveillance drones. >> afghan president won't be signing that long term security deal with the u.s. anytime soon. the washington post citing a diplomat i can cable from the u.s. ambassador cunningham saying he doesn't believe the agreement will be signed after after elections in april. the u.s. wants that deal did you within three weeks if u.s. troops are to remain in that country. karzai ordered the release of dozen was prisoner who killed americans, drawing criticism from the as you see. karzai said there was only evidence to hold 16 of the prisoners held. >> the search for a pilot of a helicopter that crashed, rescuers searching for 30 hours before altogether off the search. it went down during a training mission wednesday. two men died, two others hospitalized. >> a project to build two high rise towers in the heart of hollywood could be on shaky ground. ty planners and the council knew the project was close to an active fault line, but a new geological man may mean the line is closer than thought. it is illegal to build right on top of a fault line. >> the millennium hollywood project near the landmark capitol records building is 1 million square feet of office, residential, hotel and retail space, including 239 and 35 story towers that. the new map released by the state shows the $200 million towers are within the 1,000-foot danger zone of the hollywood fault line, requiring extensive testing to find whether the fault would run directly under the buildings. >> no building that we know of can be built actually astride the surface rupture of an active fault, and that's why it's forbidden in california to build across the trace of an active fault. >> the line is 10 miles long, running near the historical hollywood and sunset boulevards. it's a surface rupture fault, the kind that could crack open the ground. an investigation by the los angeles times last fall revealed the city used outdated fault maps to approve 14 major projects. the millennium was included. the new map is considered a draft until final approval, but project opponents have seized upon it as proof the millennium should be stopped. >> if these buildings somehow get built, they will i am peril the lives of thousands that would live and work in those buildings. >> among the projects defenders is an l.a. city council member who voted for it. >> this project will be good for hollywood on several levels. first of all, it will employ thousands of people during the construction phase and even more thousands of people during the operations phase of its lifetime of development. >> a statement from the millennium project down played the poshes of this new map, saying investigations that were performed on our site, which included botherrings and sub as far as exploration found no evidence of an active earthquake fault on the property. groundbreaking had been delayed by questions about what lies blow, but the developers say they'll do what's required to build on this spot. los angeles. >> california governor jerry brown asking for $1.5 million to map those fault lines in the state. the final map expected to be published by july 8. >> the nation's jobless report is set to be released in just a few minutes. we'll have the numbers for you. >> it amazes me that those suspects are many teenagers. >> the problem of crime and child poverty, how it is leading some kids to a life of crime. >> 1'42", go ahead and try for the blood. >> tracking world's most efficient predator, the great white shark. >> baseball has formally introduced its newest members of the hall of fame club and now it's pro football's term. we'll show you who could be on their way to canton. >> a foggy look at the nation's capitol, that being the capitol dome. it is now 31 degrees in the nation's capitol. things are getting warmer, hopefully the same inside that building right there. >> every sunday night, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks... with the most interesting people of our time... >> as an artist you have the right to fail... that's a big right to have >> his work is known across the globe. but little is known about the gorilla artist behind the glasses... we turned the camera on the photographer shaking up the art world. >> 2... 1... that's scary jr... >> talk to al jazeera with jr only on al jazeera america real reporting that brings you the world. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. >> 2000 aljazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we're following. president obama issued a federal disaster declaration for west virginia following a chemical spill in charleston affecting the water supply in nine counties. the chemical used to process coal leaked from a factory along the elk river. health officials advise residents not to cook, bathe or drink that water. >> a diplomatic fire storm between the united states and india. the diplomat is on her way back home, u.s. prosecutors charging her with visa fraud and making a false statement. federal officials ordered her to leave the country. she has done so. >> new jersey's governor says he is score about an apparent political revenge scandal involving a tap aide ordering lane closures on the george washington bridge in september causing major massive headaches in traffic. christie denies having any involvement or knowledge of that controversy. >> president obama launching a new war on poverty in america is vowing to help the poorest areas in the country with promise zones. neighborhoods in los angeles, philadelphia, san antonio, southeastern kentucky and oklahoma's choctaw nation will receive millions in federal grants and tax in acceptives aimed at providing jobs, provide housing and improve public safety. the white house hopes to create 20 promise zones around the country by 2016. >> the need for help goes well beyond those five zones announced thursday. in new orleans, an alarming number of children now live in poverty. >> april we will white is 33 years old, that three kids and is studying to become a paralegal. she works a part time job and makes considerably less than the $24,000 poverty line. >> inning comes easy. everything is a struggle i don't being poor is a term she doesn't want her kids to grow up with. >> you know, the main thing i preach is education, and perseverance in whatever you do. you take a bad situation and you totally make it good. >> for white, that is exactly what she is trying to do, but since 2000, the number of poor children in america has increased nearly 35%. that's over 16 million kids nationwide. >> as the war on poverty continues in metropolitan areas across america, you can see the remnants of projects once been years ago holding families and children are now being torn down. this one in new orleans, this court yard just a few years ago, many children out here playing, not a safe place, as it's ridden with gangs and violence. >> two decades after public housing demolitions began, four out of 10 children in new orleans live in high poverty neighborhoods. one of the highest rates in america. catherine grew up in child poverty. today, she runs the harmony neighborhood development empowering the poor with financial consulting and the building of new mixed income homes where housing projects once substitute. >> the biggest thing is having access to information, having access to quality products, quality food. you find a lot of poor kids are obese because they can't afford healthy food. >> it's called food insecurity and the most recent day at a reveals that over 25% of african-american households don't ever access to proper nutrition, and that's just one of the challenges of child poverty the. >> we hear more and more about murders every day. it amazes me those suspects are many teenagers. >> with school not a priority and little structure, some kids join gangs and fall into life on the street. >> there's got to be individuals who are willing to work with these kids and who are committed to helping these kids make a difference. otherwise, we're continually, you know, going to have more young people in jail. >> for april white and her three children, they count their blessings each day, happy to have a roof over their heads and food on the table. >> a lot of people even employed, it's hard to make ends meet with the money you're making working all day, you know. >> for white and many others living blow the poverty line, the belief that raising the minimum wage could help take their children from being poor is as real as every day life with little or no money. >> many in who's lose live blow the poverty line. >> we have breaking news on the economic front. the jobs report has just been released. the numbers you say are disappointing. >> they are very disappointing. just looking at what the economy added in terms of jobs, only 74,000 jobs in december, far below analyst expectations. they were looking for 196,000 jobs. to clock it at 74,000, that is a bad number. in fact, that is the worse number we've seen since 2011. the unemployment rate edged to 7%. the labor force participation rate, the number of people in labor force in work and actively looking for work, that number also edged down slightly to 62.8, so all in all, this is a very disappointing report. we were shaping up and hoping for -- >> some people talked about 238,000 jobs on the high end, this is 125,000 job loss or difference there. >> exactly. they were hoping for a strong finish to the year, hoping the economy was getting on the right track. this is going to definitely be looked at very closely by the federal reserve. of course they announced last month that they would beginning the tapering process this month and that's a very fine balancing act. they have to put in that tapering process without derailing the economic recovery. these numbers are extremely disappointing, will be watched by wall street and the federal reserve. >> might wall street react favorably to these numbers because it indicates that the fed's stimulus program should stay where it is, because we're not out of the woods economically. >> you have to keep in mind that wall street that priced in the tapering. when the fed announced the tapering, wall street reacted favorably to that. they braced for that. this is unexpected and wall street doesn't like unexpected surprises. it's going to take time to digest these numbers, but you could see that reaction where they say there's going to be more free money, not a total unwinding. this is disappointing news. we were hoping to see more manufacturing jobs added again in december. in november, for example, we had 27,000 manufacturing jobs added. in december, it was only 9,000, so oh this is something that we have to keep looking at, because manufacturing jobs, those goods producing jobs extremely important because they create other jobs. >> thank you very much. we want to continue this conversation, we turn to the chief economist at oppenheimer funds here in new york. you heard the numbers, you saw patricia's lack of optimism. what is your feeling no you ever to be disappointed with this number, there's no question about that. i want to say one thing for people to keep in mind. whenever we see one of these extreme numbers and they come out once a month, almost always they get revised. remember, this is based on survey date that that the labor department did in the middle of december. sometimes those surveys aren't complete, they look at the numbers again. any of us who looked at statistics know there is some estimation era. next month, we'll probably get a revision up to this one. i can't manual that it's going to get to the levels that folks in america, folks on wall street, folks watching around the world would have liked to have seen. it's a disappointing number. >> if i were buying a house right now, i would be looking at sticker shock. yesterday there were reports that we might be seeing job creation of 238,000 jobs. we come up with 74,000. can you imagine somebody saying ok, the house you thought was going to cost you $1.5 million is going to cost you $250 million? >> this is pretty shocking. i'm not sure whether you're looking for comparison to home prices going up -- >> to anything economic. this is a big gap -- >> it's a big gap -- >> and what we wound up with. >> it's a large gap. it shows people, economists are out there in order to make weatherman looking like they can make good predictions. there's uncertainty about it. there's uncertainty about the way the measurements are done, too, based on surveys, we may see revisions, but there's no question. this has got to be a disappointment to folks in the government. folks in the federal reserve are going to ever a reaction, as well. >> what about the overall economy? popping champagne corks saying happy days are here again? >> i would say maybe people were opening bottles, today opening bottles of ripple, rather than bottles of champagne. i don't think anybody was exaggerating the strength of the sufficient economy. it takes years to get over the kind of financial shock we felt in 2007 and 2008. economic history toreians typically say it's a good seven years before you get upon the full effects of that shock. no one would have said that we have champagne popping economic growth. that there was more optimism than there is right now, but we're going to be looking at the numbers, we're going to be looking at factory orders, which have been better. we're going to look at capitol investment, a little bit better. we're looking at home prices, which helps the average american family that typically owns a house. we're going to be looking at all these things and trying to see what comes next. don't forget two things about december, one, we have bad weather, two, there are things that stats i guesses try to do to say hey, there's always going to be a pig pop in employment in december as we add people in the retail sector, people who look at stores for holiday sales. we tone things down. that seasonal adjustment may be a problem, too, we'll be looking at those numbers carefully. >> looking ahead, where is the economy weak, strong and where do you think people -- where do you think it's going to be by this time next year no. >> i think it's going to continue to grow with this sort of fairly modest rate it's been at. i think the weakness is our ability to continue to create jobs. you had a segment on i was only able to hear the audio about the difficulty that a lot of families are facing. i think it would solve that when we begin creating more jobs. we've been slow to do that, probably not as slow as december numbers suggest but that is something we need to have during the year. employment creates more employment. i'm hoping we'll see more of that as the year goes on. i expect we will see more of that as the year goes on and then we'll see businesses begin to invest and employ people, the economy can move forward. i don't see any major empedestrianments that bring the economy to a stop, but we are not moving as fast as i would like to see. >> thank you very much. we want to give you a programming note. the detroit auto show kicking off next week and ali velshi will be there live. >> india is now asking the u.s. to remove that american official from its embassy in new delhi. there are reports that this particular diplomat is of the same rank as the former indian deputy consul indicted on charges of visa proud and making false statements. american officials ordered her to leave the country. we report on the concerns in india about the future of its relations to the u.s. >> this incident represents some of the greatest diplomatic tension between india and the united states in recent years. the indian government responded quite strongly to the arrest and detention of its consular official in new york city. it's done everything from remove security barriers outside the american embassy to call on the embassy to cease commercial activities there. these moves have been welcomed by people across india who want the government to show a strong stance, a commitment to helping and supporting the consular official at the center of this diplomatic row. even as measures have been rolled out, restrictions put in place, senior minute at hers in the government have said they hope this incident will not permanently damage or impact new delhi's relationship with washington, which has traditionally been very warm and cordial. >> good morning, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for asking me. >> how should this be playing out and is it playing out the way you thought it would be? >> i think the main problem was that the retaliation was not anticipated at all by the united states. one thing which i think everybody in this country missed was that the diplomat in question was drop the lowest caste. >> you are saying the caste system has played a role. >> most definitely. the most important thing for new delhi now is dignity and the quest for social equality. they converted too bad. >> in a massive scale to get out of hindu society. when you're taking, strip searching, forget about the fact that she is a diplomat, that is attacking her dignity. this is why nobody here expected that there would be a reaction on the part of almost everyone in the country. >> she's a diplomat, two, strip searched, three, of the lowest caste in india. >> exactly. >> also, there is a person, a made involved in this. why does nobody ever talk about her rights? >> i think a lot of us do -- are aware of that -- >> but not the government. >> but the government will not say anything on that, because, you know, i was a worker on immigration. lots of people will want to immigrate and they'll go to some third rate college in this country, because once you get a degree here, you can apply for immigration. immigration becomes the objective of many people and asylum has now become a favorite way of doing it, so you charge slavery, trafficking -- >> that doesn't make it right. >> it does make it right to say this is a typical case, because this is the third time the consulate has been hit with these kind of claims. it's not the first time. it's become virtually a way in which you manage to get asylum in this country, which is what happened with this. i think when you want to talk about the conditions of work and so on, we can do that, but that's a very different kind of conversation. >> as we examine this and remember, there are people that do not understand the diplomatic situation, they do not understand the situation in india. >> right. >> but they do understand who's right and who's wrong. >> right. but there's no -- in this case, i think it's quite absurd to say that indians not interested in the dom the accident workers. every family that i know, including that of my own brothers, there's paternalism towards the servants, they are educated, given a whole lot of rights, but it's paternalistic. >> at the end of the day, do you recall think this jeopardized relations between the u.s. and i understand i can't or does this make good headlines. >> i think it will go away in due course. i think they are now on to the right track, because removing things like court barriers and so on was exactly the wrong way to go. what they're doing now is at this timtitfor tat, which is dic behavior. finally india got around to expelling someone at a diplomatic level. that's the way to do that. relations are very important and i think we have to do something at this end, because this is election time. >> as they always say, stay tuned. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> he is the nobel prize nominee in economics and law of international affairs at columbia university. >> the nfl playoffs tomorrow that i will be glued to my set. >> back on december 2, the new orleans saints traveled to seattle and were ripped by the seahawks. tomorrow, the saints make a return trip to the northwest. they picked up their first road playoff win ever, and hope to carry that to seattle. seattle seahawks head coach very wary of drew brees. >> he said an incredible football player, just historic numbers, and accomplishments, and there's nothing that the guy can't do, and so, you know, that's as hard as it gets, you know. he's completing almost 69% of his passes, that's a crazy number at the end of the season, and so we hold him in the highest reward. >> certainly when you're playing the number one seed, the team that's outstanding in all three phases, well coached, they've got a ton of pro bowl players and they're exceptional. we're going to have to have our best effort. >> now in the a.f.c., much like the saints hope to pack good vibes to seattle, the coats look to duplicate their win over the chiefs as they travel to new england. maybe without the needing to come out from 28 down part, the second largest comeback in playoff history. that now the patriots with a bye week to revert and get healthy are next. they pounded the coats last season in andrew luck's first season and now the stakes are much higher as the colts leave the dome. >> it won't. we played outside in the cold, in the rain, the sun, you know, and the snow, so whatever coach pagano decides to do practice wise, we'll do it. we won't think twice about it. >> they were 11-5 in the regular season, 12-5 now, so have had a great year and they've been tough to beat. they beat some of the best leagues in the league, teams still in the playoffs now, so they can play with anybody. there's no question about that. they've got plenty of skill, playmakers on offense and defense. >> i'm not sure tom can rock that hat. tomorrow's schedule looks like this, just saying, six and seahawks kick things off then the patriots host the coats, new england unbeaten at home this season. >> the pro football hall of fame announced its 2014 finalists to be he willable modern era players and coaches must have last played or coached more than five seasons ago. several prominent names are injury momentum beanies, michael strahan, tony dungy and tim brown. the vote will be february 1 with a minimum 80% required for induction. >> you haven't grown your beard for the playoffs. >> i was mentioning that earlier. everyone's growing beards starting with the red sox and now nfl players. maybe our producer. that's not my look. >> rock the beard. when we come back, we'll talk about the science of sharks, how researchers are unraveling the secrets of the great white. >> we are following this breaking news out of egypt. police in cairo firing tear gas at supporters of ousted egyptian president mohamed morsi mannerring in opposition to an upcoming constitutional referendum following friday afternoon prayers. demonstrations in cairo hurled stones and empty bottles at security forces in the southern city, protestors hurling gas bombs at police who responded in turn with tear gas. last month, authorities declared morsi's party a terrorist organization. >> we have new information concerning that holiday security breach at target. target said hackers got their hands on more than 40 million debit cards and accounts. now they say it could be 70 million. the stolen customer information includes names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. target making that discovery investigating the first security breach. >> the blockbuster film "jaws" captured the public fascination with the great white shark. florida has the most shark related injuries anywhere in the u.s. as we explain, researchers are trying to find what draws them to the sunshine state. >> meet catherine, a great white shark helping researchers uncover the secrets of one of the ocean's most feared and misunderstood predators. researchers at the shark biology program say recorded scientific data on great whites is limited, but that's changing, because of catherine and other sharks like her. >> i believe that there is a lot of general fascination, and that the general public looks at this as a beautiful species, majestic species. in many cases, i think the tide has shifted and people are interested in it. it's such a large species that it plays into our primal fears. >> stoked for years by entertainment like "jaws." last august, a team caught catherine off the coast of cape cod and tagged her. every time she surfaces, the tag accepts a signal to the satellite. what's known as shark tracker allows anyone to go on line and follow updates on catherine and other tagged great whites. >> the internet has really caused this explosion of admiration and intrigue for the white shark. >> catherine has traversed coming as far south as daytona beach and this past week roamed near cape canaveral. >> the use of the data is giving researchers information on her exact whereabouts and travel patterns. they hope the compilation of that will let them know how many great whites are in the area, how long they stay in this region and if their presence here is in any way related to their breeding patterns. >> marine biology graduate student brenda anderson is studying great white reproduction and breeding. researchers say their population is believed to be small and they reproduce slowly. anderson was part of the teague that tagged catherine. she performed annulet at a sound on the shark. her findings could be crucial to understanding them and insuring their survival. >> we want to track their my greg patterns, if we see their numbers, find later on that their population is declining, we can know these areas and protect them. >> researchers hope as technology improves, they will learn more and show that a feared predator is really much more intelligent than originally thought. aljazeera, jacksonville, florida. >> researchers hope by studying catherine, they can understand when and why sharks attack humans. the number of shark attacks in the u.s. have grown and they've gone down in recent years. 2001, 51 attacks, 2008, only 36 were reported. in 2012, 53. >> let's find out where it's going to rain and snow. >> we're going to see a little bit of both in the northwest. the series of disturbances impacting seattle into washington and wyoming as we get into the weekend, we're going to see heavy know at times across the southern plains we're dealing with a stream of moisture and deeming with rain as well as a few thunderstorms around oklahoma city. del. >> thank you very much. that's it for us this morning. there's always news at the top of the hour on aljazeera america. i'll see you then.

Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20140111

tonight, water is on the way to west virginia. washington is sending it in the wake of the dangerous chemical spill into the elk river. this was just moments ago fema trucks arriving in charleston, west virginia bringing the water to hundreds of thousands who can't drink or bathe or use the tainted supply. a federal disaster declaration has been issued for the affected counties. at the same time, an investigation has begun into what happened, why, and who may be responsible. until then, the water supply there is off limits. jonathan martin is on the scene. >> fema and homeland security have brought in about 12 tanker trucks like the one behind me to help with this crisis. many people have been bringing sizable containers and filling them up with water because at this point it is not clear how long this problem will last. it all came to light yesterday morning when the industrial company freedom industries reported a leak from one of their containers, a chemical leaking right into the elk river. this was an immediate concern because their facility is really close about a mile and a half upstream from the water treatment facility. so this chemical got into the water line and many people started reporting a strange odor, a strange smell to that of licorice or a sweet candy. health officials tested the water and realized it was the chemical used in the preparation of coal. the question right now is how much of the chemical got into the water and hour serious is the risk. >> do not use tap water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing or bathing. at this time i do not know how long the order will last. >> the president of the company says they are working around the clock, testing the water and flushing it out and using chemicals that will oxidize the water. the state has ordered the company freedom industries to remove the chemicals from their property. there is an investigation wanting to know how this chemical leak happened and how authorities were notified in the state. >> jonathan martin in west virginia and the people of west virginia are not strangers to environmental disasters. chuck nelson was a coal miner for 30 years but after seeing the impact the industry is having on his family's health and the environment he became a activate against the coal miners of west virginia. i asked him if he's upset about what's happening. >> yes i'm upset. i live with spills every day and it impacts people's lives. i have seen people die of brain tumors and kidney cancer and some of the coal waste and stuff that i live is a toxic waste dump. you know, after they use this chemical, this chemical that spilled, with other chemicals, 237 schedules that they use to clean the coal, when they clean the coal you know they actually get it ready for shipment. and the coal floats to the top. you know, they use water, 95 globs per ton of coal and then the coal floats to the top. they rake the coal off, and then they have to do something with the waste they have. >> former coal miner chuck nelson tonight. now to our other big story. the massive security breach at target. the first reports reportedly only scratched the situation. 110,000 possible victims. john terrett is here. >> a target spokes woman confirmed to me that the information may have affected people who shopped at target before the holiday season got underway. that means anyone who shopped at target before the breach was discovered could have had their personal information stolen. let's take a look in detail of what target tells us has happened and how the company assessed the number of accounts hacked in this cyber-attack which went of course around stores nationwide. now originally target said 40 million accounts had been hacked and affected and they were absolutely right. credit and debit information was taken at that point. we learned that in dis. now today -- in december. now today the company says an additional 70 million accounts were seized and this time personally information may have been captured. now remember, there's an easy way to think about this. there was one hack, says target but two thefts. and in the 70 million one revealed today its names, streets addresses phone numbers and e-mail address addresses that were taind not credit or dibt information. it's possible your personal e-mail was stolen even if you didn't shop with them the date of the hack, november 27th and december 15th. even before that. you could be at risk and you should check your bill whit comes through. you can go to target's website, if you are worried about it, there it is on the screen and in the meantime, the kerry whose name is -- the ceo whose name is gregstein hoffel, we are truly sorry that they are having to endure that. he goes on understanding and sharing the facts related to this incident is important to te target team. now, target says customers will have zero, zero liability for the cost of any fraudulent charges arising from this breach, if they crop up on your card you won't have to pay. but target will. and target's also said today that it took a big financial hit over and above the cost of sorting all this out when people abandoned it albeit temporarily whether this came out before christmas. it released guidance, and target is right now telling wall street that it anticipates an overall sales decrease of 2.5%. that's compared to a flat forecast that they had before all this happened. now times are tough for all of us, we know that but they are particularly tough for discounters like target. the reason is there is no fat in the system, they cut everything back to the bone, it's very difficult for them to make money. this hack was not the kind of christmas present that target was looking for in its stocking this year. >> all right john terrett thanks for update tonight. hundreds of documents related to governor chris christie's office, were released tonight william with the apologetic grove at the center. david shuster has the story. >> so far the documents do not appear to undermine governor christie's position. he says he wasn't involved in the scandal and didn't know about it until this week. probing the scandal raised new questions about the lengths the staff would have had to have gone to keep christie in the dark. in a september 13th e-mail patrick foye warned a number of officials access to the bridge was critical, i believe this hasty decision, foye reported, i'm appalled by the lack of process, and the dangers created to the public. one of the e-mails went to david samson the chairman of the port authority. according to other documents samson met with christie, a week before bridged cel yeah asked the are authority to carry out the lane closures. >> i'm convinced that he has absolutely no knowledge of this, that this was executed at the operational level. and never brought to the attention of the board of commissioners. >> do you have any questions? >> yet in another september e-mail david wildstein at the time a christie appointee at the authority wrote to one of the staffers, quote, we are reportedly going nuts, samson helping us to retaliate. growing controversy under wraps. bill baroni wrote to colleagues, "i am on my way to the office to discuss. there can be no public discourse." taken together, the documents released friday paint a picture of bridge ant agency officials besieged by anger. e-mails were pouring into the port authority with complaints about the lane closures and the traffic jams in fort lee where four access lanes had been released to one. the latest batch of documents plan to issue subpoenas forcing christie's staffers to testify under oath. aides and appointees at the authority all of whom are staying silent for now. david shuster, al jazeera. >> on to the grim new jobs report. just 74,000 positions were adding to prms in december and -- to payrolls in december. there is more to that than you might realized. "rea"real money"'s ali velshi gs us the information. >> the problem is when people fall out of the workforce as they did in december basically the whole pool gets smaller and fewer people are working. so it doesn't reflect what's going on. this is something that you'll see in a dynamic job environment like this. the unemployment rate going down doesn't necessarily mean good news and an unemployment rate going up doesn't necessarily mean bad news. it's got more to do with how many people could be working are actually looking for jobs. that is something called the labor force participation rate. that dropped again this month and it's the lowest level since 1978, john. >> ali thanks very much. congress should extend jobless benefits for the long term unemployed? that program expired at the end of last year. mike viqueria breaks down what is happening in washington. >> the white house for their part when the data gives you lemons they try to make legislative lemonade. they're turning it around and talking about the need to extend long term unemployment insurance. that's bogged down in the senate and mowpts. at thhouse of representatives,le without benefits. that number is increasing every day. meanwhile the bickering goes on in the u.s. senate after some positive signs earlier this week. jayjay carney tried omake the distinction in the weekly briefing. >> that's something the president has talked about a lot. it is something that is very much at the heart of the debate on how to move forward on extending unemployment insurance benefits we are talking about people who have been unemployed and have been looking for a job and have been doing so for along time. >> the president's economic disparity are viewpoint, the white house has announced plans for the president to travel to north carolina and the high tech sector of the economy, the president continues to put pressure on congress to pass those unemployment benefits extension as well as raise the minimum wage. back to you. >> mike viqueria, thank you. an indian diplomat arrives home and an american is sent packing. capturing crisis, a photographer tells us the story behind the striking images from south sudan. >> the indian diplomat accused of lying about how much she paid her housekeeper in the u.s. is back in new delhi, her arrest created one of the most serious break downed in diplomatic relations in years and the backlash is not over. , nidhi dutt reports. >> a diplomat spat between india and the united states. >> i say no comments now. i want to thank my nation for the support they have given me. >> as she landed events took a new turn. india has asked a diplomat posted in new del high to leave, a twist in the standoff that began almost one month ago, when the diplomat was arrested in new york city. despite being granted diplomatic immunity, a grand jury in the united states has indicted kho braggade for charges including visa dprawd. >> i look forward to proving them wrong. however the nanny at the center of the diplomatic row stand by her are accusations of mistreatment. when i decided to come to the united states my hope was to work for a few years, to support my family. and then return to india. i never thought that things would get so bad here, that i would work so much that i did not have time to sleep or eat or have time to myself. because of this treatment, i requested that i return to india. but that request was denied. but in india, it's america's treatment of the diplomat and not nanny's case that is the focus of the attention. security barriers from outside the u.s. embassy and the withdrawal of diplomatic privileges traditional reply extended to american consular officials. >> translator: we should show the u.s. that we are equals. we should not be pressured by america or any other developed nation. >> she is not april individual, she is representing india in the u.s. i as an indian think u.s. woman is taking back step and indian woman the case ultimately. >> domestic political pressures have also played a part of the indian handling of this case. politicians want to be seen as strong leaders particularly when it comes to defending yifned on- india on the world stage. libi dutt, nu del high, al jazeera. according to a diplomatic cable cited by the washington post, dye has called for the release of prisoners accused of killing troops of the u.s. secure a deal in the coming weeks to keep 92nd troops in afghanistan beyond this year. celebration in the central african republic today. the residents in the capital bangui cheered the resignation of the interim president and his prime minister, comes two weeks after talks of neighboring corte madera. the president swept into power last year but critics are accusing him of not doing enough to stop sectarian violence in the country. thousands have been killed. an attempt to secure a assesceasefire. thousands have died during month long fighting and many more are trying to credi flee conflict z. >> the doors to this cargo plane have been closed. for now only the wounded have bebeen allowed in. a few civilians have been allowed on board, many women and children. they leave a community trying to recover from weeks of fighting. government officials say they have recaptured bentu and parts of eunof unity state. >> the images of the women and children killed some of them are even slaughtered and many of them are not buried. i was unable to sleep at all. this is not the nation we wanted. this is not the home i dream of before the independence at all. >> reporter: many people haven't returned. there are no civilians here. the place is deserted. when the fighting started, many ran to the u.n. base, others went as far as the capital juba. here is another blow to the state, production of the oil facility has stopped. before being sent to sudan along the appliance. the government blames the rebels for the destruction. >> they have destroyed the facility processing of taken and removed out all electronic machines, you know, in the operation rooms. and they remove all assets that belong to the staffs, and then also, the same damage reach up to thomas house and where the place under control of those people so they actually destroyed so many facilities. >> some locals believe the power struggle between president salva kiir and his former deputy is tearing along ethnic and tribal lines. government officials say they will soon capture towns captured by the rebels. south sudan. >> many have run to u.n. bases for safety. photojournalist nicole sobieki has been following had ongoing crisis and shared her experience from one rebel held camp. >> these are people who have gone through decades of war. the majority of their life has been lived in conflict. they are coming off these boats empty handed to arrive at a camp for displaced people that is freshly set up, barely has clean water, has very little shelter, and i think there is a real sense of lost hope. people have been traveling all night. left the bor region, swampy land full of modification. they have had to leave -- fr full of mosquitoes, most have lost relatives or friends in the conflict. so you can imagine this is not really where they want to be. the greatest humanitarian need is clean water right now. they are plifg alongside the nile -- living alongside the nile, it is not good drinking water. aids organizations are trying ramp up quickly, but there are not enough latrines or sanitary facilities, not enough shelter, the temperatures at night can become quite cold so people are trying to struggle to meet their most basic needs. this is a scene around one of the port areas and the child was lying on the ground. their family was not in sight and people were just walking past the sleeping child. and didn't appear to be ill. i'm sure her family was around. but it's -- there's just this sense of sort of everyone sort of trying to find their way. everyone seems a little bit lost. >> now, nick oh says she believes people of south sudan want their story told so the people of the world know what they're going through. now to tobacco and cigarettes. 50 years ago, ash trays were on nearly every table. then the motion senior doctor in america says smoking kills. kimberly halcut trveg has the story. >> it was 1952, the report concluded that smoking causes illness and death, the report was not well received especially by the biggest tobacco companies. hiring celebrities and even doctors to promote the joiment and even safety of cigarettes. >> more doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette. >> requiring warning labels on tobacco products and eventually it imposed tighter restrictions on tobacco advertising. most successful campaign in the united states. smoking rates are now down 59%. back in 1964, 42% of u.s. adults were smoking compared to just 18% in 2012. the government tobacco efforts, which included bans of smoking in public places have helped to save lives. >> nothing has come close to this contribution to the safety of americans, nothing. >> there is still more work to be done. they say the number of americans smoking may have dropped in the decades but globally that's not case. this antismoking campaigner says in the last century 100 million people have died from tobacco use across the globe and he says until big tobacco companies are restrained that number is expected to rise to 1 billion smoking deaths this century particularly in low and middle income countries. >> the tobacco industry is carefully meticulously and targeting people in those countries. everywhere we go, we see the kind of marketing in low and middle income countries that hasn't been allowed in the united states, europe and other wealthy nations in decades. >> even in the u.s. he says more than 3,000 children still try their first cigarette every day. it's a trend he says will will only be reversed by even stricter restrictions, kimberly hellcutt, al jazeera, washington. >> coming couple the win are is the colorful and unlikely players who decide who get golden globe awards. interwelcome back to al jazeera america. here are the top stories. a state of emergency in west virginia. about 300,000 people are without water after a chemical spill along the elk river in charleston. the white house issued a federal disaster declaration. the target credit issues are larger. the data breach could effect up to 110,000 shoppers. names, addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers. congress is stepping pressure to extend unemployment insurance. no secret that most members of congress make more money than the average american. turns out for the first time ever most law makessers are actually millionaires. that's according to the report of the center for responsible politics. morgan radford is with us. my morgan. >> hi john. financial disclosures from last year showed that at least 268 of them are worth $1 million or more on average. that's more than half. keep in mind these numbers ever estimates. the exact figures could be even higher and that's because members of congress don't have to specify how much their spouses are worth. they can check a box for assets more than $1. million. gop lawmakers have a net median worth of $1 million but for democrats it's slightly higher. republican member of the house darryl issa made his fortune secondly car lawrmts alarms. worth about $464 million. dave welcome. >> good to be with you. >> what struck you about the report? >> what struck me is not only are the numbers going up and up and up, president obama giving a speech about poverty, there being a huge debate in congress right now through december and january about unemployment insurance they're trying to be the party of the poor, of the working man, of the middle class and yet democrats are actually on average in congress as you just said a little bit wealthier than even republicans are. as we transition here into 2014, as we head into a mid term election cycle there is going to be a political struggle going on, doesn't play into the hands of the democrats, quite the opposite, we are in the same boat as democrats, coming from modest means, we are all kind of wealthy but at the end of the day, we're all kind of wealthy. >> the top 20 in congress, top 20 millionaires they make i guess from darryl issa is on top right? >> he is. there are several congressmen historically, you look back the past couple of years, the current study that's been out now, there are not millionaires, there are not tens of millionaires, but hundreds of millionaires. >> like 45 million, top 20 members of congress which seems pretty remarkable. >> at a broader scope here when you talk about members of congress and you talk about how in touch they are, with the average working person, somebody who's trying to make ends meet, who may have two or three kids at home, a single mom, go on and on and on, really what you have is a situation where almost all members of congress, there are some exceptions but almost all members of congress are factors of two, three, ten, 20 times richer and more wealthy than the average person who oftentimes are representing and in talking about representing and not only a political way but an economic way. >> where does a member of congress invest their money? >> in stocks that are very, popular, g.e, mobile, exxon, chase, on and on and on, in addition to being familiar names to most people, they're the companies that lobby washington the most, the companies that have the most contracts with washington. many of the most popular stocks and investments among lawmakers, members of congress, in 2012 were defense contractors. you have this very intimate intersection if you will between those types of companies, the political influence efforts they have in washington and the members of congress thems who have a financial interest in those, trying to press them for this that and the other thing and doing so every day. >> how do you think a report like this translates into the mid term elections? what are people going othink about this? >> it does dull the enthusiasm, it might be that much harder for democrats to hold that banner or have that mangt l and republicans may have stories of people, take steve stockman the representative in congress running against john cornan, he was homeless at one point. there are exceptions to the rule. the representative from arizona lived in an empty gas station when she was growing up with her mother. there are stories of people who came from almost nothing to practically nothing, who rose to a very high salary well into the six figures. >> did most of them inherit this big money or did they make it themselves? >> some of both some came if you will born with a silver spoon in their mouth, have never had a tough day in their life at least economically speaking, they have not wanted, been on food stamps calm the things that have been debairted in congress they have never been themselves, they came from wealth themselves, came from more than modest means, grew up in a middle class or upper middle class family, been able to build a life for themselves and found themselves in a position of power. you do have a bit of a dichotomy there but generally speaking the majority both democrats and republicans have not been born into poverty. they have not been born poor, they've been relative wealthy or at least solidly middle class throughout their lives and are here in washington today again earning a very nice salary and doing very well for themselves. >> interesting report, thanks very much. >> even though the state government refuses to do so, the supreme court will put civil unions on hold after an appeal by the state. recognize 1,000 couples married before the federal ruling making them eligible for federal benefits. >> federal benefits on the same terms as other same sex marriages. these families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds. >> poandz oopponents of the meae spoken out against the ruling. same sex marriages and receptions are prohibited in their churches and overstepped federal authority. the u.s. government is urging americans attending the olympics to be cautious in sochi. it issued a warning about terrorist activity and hostage-taking. lisa stark has the story. >> it is not unusual for the state department to issue a travel advisory, they did it in 2008 when china held the summer olympics. this is a particularly extensive alert. the state department says it's not aware of any particular threats against u.s. citizens but it says americans who attend the games should, quote, remain attentive americans are to avoid large crowds and to exercise good judgment. the alert has pointed out there are three suicide attacks in a city close to sochi against public transportation, about 30 people were killed in those attacks. this is an area where there is a lot of unrest as part of the world and in fact there is an organization that the u.s. has designated as a terrorist organization that has threatened some sort of action during the games. that's why we're seeing this extensive alert. now russians are saying they are starting to ratchet up security in the olympic village area. they say there will be about 100,000 security personnel on site, that includes police as well as the russian army. the fbi is also involved. they are sending some two dozen agents to work with russian intelligence, some will be situated in the moscow some in sochi. the president, first lady and vice president biden have all indicated they are not going to attend the olympics. openly gay athlete billie jean king the tennis player, a signal from the u.s. about how it feels about the anti-gay laws that were passed not long ago in russia. >> our thanks olisa stark. and now to more olympic coverage and a conversation with one of the all time olympic greats. john henry smith. >> it was a fascinating interview, jacki jackie joyner r kerrsee. >> called the triple play, the game plan for the mind, body and soul, coca-cola company is the sponsor and we had over 200 families to enter into the contest and now it's down to five and they're going to be in los angeles and the winning family will have an opportunity to go to the olympic training center in colorado springs, colorado. >> let's get to the upcoming olympics and i tell you the olympics already are controversial. they haven't even started yet, partly because of the russian government stance on the lgbt community and also partly because there are concerns about safety. the state department has put out a message saying that americans should watch themselves over there. did you ever feel unsafe competing at the olympics? >> you were aware that there was a possibility that something could happen. no one could, you know, never forget what happened in munich. and so you were always very aware. but the olympic committee, and the international olympic committee will do their best to protect us. and so they really wanted us to focus on what we had to do athletically, but you know, we live in different times now, so you can't really ease up on just being too relaxed. you have to be aware of your surroundings and do everything in a group and just be aware. >> certainly the olympics like every other sport it seems has had to deal with the cloud of performance-enhancing drugs. how bad was it during your day, and do you think that situation is getting any better? do you think athletes are competing on a more level playing field at this point? >> you know what? you can't say if it was during our era, you know. they want to say every great performance maybe it was tainted and it's unfortunate because for someone like myself who worked day in and day out having a dream, and to not -- to be aware, you know, you have the drug testing, they are trying put things in place but you know if people are going ocheat they are going to cheat and it's unfortunate, it takes away from those who are putting in the hard work every day to be the very best. >> well, our thanks to jackie joyner kersee, the feaf female athlete of the century. john. >> thank you, shaking things up for charities that depend on the wealthy, melissa chan has that story. >> the symphony, the venerable pillar of light, but in san francisco, classical music has to keep up with the times. >> we are spending more money on marketing. we're working really, really hard to build that loyalty between our audience and the symphony. >> for decades, well centuries the music hall would be the one of the first places that see the largesse of millionaires but tech millionaires want to give different, reinvent philanthropy. take jason a startup millionaire and investor. he is employing miss entrepreneurial skills for good. at causes.com. the goal like they love to say here can is to change the world. >> working at causes is the best way i can think of to give back. >> the catch? causes is for profit. redefining charity and creating the confidence that as much as it makes money. >> they are treating it like a business and venture capitol. they are specific with their giving and they want results. >> some have called it philanthro-capitalism. they believe the same are issues that made their businesses successful ought to apply to giving, 20 million students powered by wealthy engineers to promote computer science education. >> certainly my brother and i but more importantly many of the other people are also very successful entrepreneurs who don't need to work but are doing it out of passion for the cause. >> daniel leery come from a family of philanthropists, working by measuring results, whether low income students read better. >> we have no endowment. every dollar we raise goes out the door within 12 months. >> depending on new philanthropy may turn out to be a struggle for traditional nonprofits like the san francisco symphony and fans may wonder how flen could put a number on the impact of beethoven. melissa chan, al jazeera, san francisco. >> up next, riding tides, new concerns that big changes could be coming to the california coast. >> the northeast has been dealing with rain today, started as snow. while temperatures were warming up we had a big problem with snow going to freezing rain, going to ice across the country and freezing rain advisors going up into maine. we are going to shift the concern from temperatures and freezing to rain and warming. wind advisories high wind watches in place all the way from manhattan to massachusetts. we are expecting the wind to increase saturday in places new york city to boston. winds gusting 35 to 50 miles per hour. and we have a high wind watch in place for parts of maine. now the forecast will call for plenty of mountain snow to the west along with several hits of rain with showers in between. it's going to be windy also for the northwest. montana into western washington and oregon we're going oget strong gusts lot of wind advisories in effect for the west. east coast as we get into sunday the mountain snow continues throughout the west especially the rockies. >> beach erosion is already causing problems in the california coast making exchanges like rising sea levels a real danger. city of los angeles is making bryan rooney reports. >> every at low tide, the study says that the pacific could rise by as much as two feet by the year 2050 which is a lot if there's a big storm. cities like los angeles are going to have to think about engineering a future that could survive rising sea levels and raging storms. >> the danger is that more severe storms and bigger waves, coupled with high tides, we will see more flooding, certainly see more flooding in those coastal areas. >> in potential danger are densely populated coastal areas, this waste water plant and power plants would be vulnerable to flooding. as storms become bigger and more powerful with bigger waves and higher tides, beach communities in southern california and beyond may have to begin building protective barriers for homes and public facilities along the coast. los angeles officials say they need to do it in the next few years, and not when it becomes an emergency. especially in communities where low-income renters live in older buildings that are not prepared to weather storm. >> those are the places where we expect to see the most flooding. they're also the communities that have the most social vulnerability, the pofntion he thad.the population he that popn danger of losing. >> no sand, no, sir at many tourists. >> that's brian rooney reporting. and one of the most feared features has a chance at redemption. creatures have a chance of redemption. 2300 pound great white shark up and down the west coast. julia yarborough reports. >> meet katherine, a great white shark who is helping researchers uncovered the secrets of one of the most feared and misunderstood predators. researchers at the shark biology program says recorded scientific data on great whites is limited but that's changing because of katherine and other sharks like her. >> i believe there is a general fascination and the general me public looks at this as a beautiful species, a majestic species. it's such a large species it plays into our primal fears. >> primal fears stoked by years for entertainment like jaws. the research organization osearch, a team caught katherine off the coast of massachusetts and tracked her. what's known as shark tracker allows anyone to go online and view data on katherine and other great white sharks. >> it sparked intrigue for great white shark. >> coming as far south as datona beach, florida and she roamed near cape canaveral. >> information on katherine's exact whereabouts and travel patterns. they hope the compilation of that data will let them know how many are in the region, if their presence here is in any way related to their breeding patterns. >> marine biology student brenda anderson is studying great white production and breeding. researchers believe their population is small and breed slowly. she performed an ultrasound on the shark. >> she was a wild one. >> anderson says her findings could be crucial to understanding great white sharks and ensuring their survival. >> we want to see if we can track their migration patterns, if 2003 find out later on that their population is declining we can know these areas and protect them. >> researchers hope that as technology improves they will learn even more about the greatly white and show that a feared predator is really much more intelligent than originally thought. julia yarbeau, al jazeera, california. >> stealing the show, it's not stars at this sunday's golden dploabs, it's the folks who choose the winners. >> that's a scene from gravity. , sandra bullock is up for a golden globe award. we're interested in the real power players, the people who decide who wins. and that may be the strangest group of folks you'll ever meet. david poled, editor of -- poanldpolepoland. who are they? >> sometimes it's 86, sometimes it's 89 depending who lives or dice. they basically spend all year wined and dined by studios. >> that compares to how many in the academy? >> 6,000. all who have been qualified. >> what sort of perks do they get as those 85 or 88 or 86 people who actually make the decision? >> well to start with they're traveled all over the world by the studios, throughout the year. they're given special access to the talent, their private press conferences, god knows if you are not one of them you're not allowed to be anywhere near the press conference. every time they see a movie they get a free dinner with it, sometimes they are given concerts, pretty much anything can you think of. >> what are the requirements to be a member? >> that you got in somehow. basically. >> who are they? >> they're people who do have -- who have written over the years for foreign papers. they are for that country but they live in los angeles now. and it's only one per country. so the 86 countries that are represented, it's one person per country. and so you kind of have to wait until somebody dies. >> they all live in l.a? >> they all live in l.a. now, all people who have moved to l.a. >> so what does that tell you about the awards, what does it make the awards in your opinion? >> it tells you about awards in general that ultimately if you can get a television slot which dick clark, they were on nbc but dick clark put them up into the big time about 30 years ago now. and once they became a television show all the jokes about pia zadora went away and they became a legitimate tv show and then all of a sudden everybody wanted to get on the gravy boat or the gravy train consume. >> how much does this organization maim now? >> eight to $12 million a year. >> where does that money go? >> they give away some of it which is lovely of them and probably has tax benefits. as a member you get two tickets to any film festival in the world. >> do you see anything positive about these awards? >> no, they become a marketing tool, they are usually between the nomination of the academy awards and the wins. if you have a tv platform, if you have a print platform, everybody wants to show up and look pretty and this gives them a chance to do so. >> it will happen and i'll probably watch it. david, good to see you, thanks for coming. >> always a pleasure, enjoy the globes. >> our top stories, coming up next. >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. here are the top stories. hundreds of thousands without tap water in west virginia. the white house has issued a disaster declaration after a chemical spill along the elk river. the data breach at target keeps getting bigger now the company says up to 110 million shoppers could have been affected and what's worse, target says hackers stole more than originally reported including names, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers. >> congress facing renewed pressure to extend long term unemployment benefits after job figures for the end of the year

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