Latest Breaking News On - Jason harvey - Page 1 : vimarsana.com

Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20140221

and why many pay their tax bill in cash. plus solving crime with new technology. the science tracking down app suspect. ♪ it was an especially deadly day in ukraine. sniper attacks and more fighting between police and protesters, an ugly seen as you look live at the capitol of kiev. the ukrainian ambassador called it a sad day for his country. what we know now is this. it's the worst violence seen in the protests. 39 people were killed in kiev today. that brings the total to 67 people who have been killed since tuesday. world leaders have condemned the violence. the european union imposed new sanctions on european officials. nick schifrin is live in kiev tonight. tell us what you are seeing right now. >> reporter: john, what we saw this morning was chaos and carnage, and right now that has been replaced bier calm. it is 3:00 am behind me, and still these protesters are going strong. they were singing the national anthem just a few moments ago. now they are trying to rally their troops to maintain their excitement. you see people licking their wounds, people really digging in. i saw scenes of people feeding each other, lining up for barbecues, sleeping, of course really getting a sense they are digging in, grateful for at least a few hours of peace. a few blocks from here we saw protesters surround a busful of police. we are told that they have let those police go. the protesters allowing a tunnel of police to walk out of that area. but john, there is a real sense that today was so bloody that bridg bridges have now been crossed. >> and nick european officials have decided on sanctions and they have been meeting with ukraine's president. are they getting anywhere on that front? >> i think the sanctions will take effect. eu officials telling us there are travel bans as well as the freezing of all eu assets of people deemed responsible for the violence. but there is a real sense that are these officials who are responsible for the police here, are they going to listen? there is no indication that they have listened to any eu, u.s., or un pressure. the polish foreign minister has suggested via twitter saying that presidentian -- yanukovych may be considering early elections. but they have not confirmed that. >> and we heard that vice president biden talk with president yanukovych earlier today. do we know if anything came from that? >> reporter: well, john, two nights ago, vice president biden was on the phone with president yanukovych as the police were firing into protesters. biden was unable to convince him to stop. so yes, again, he is putting pressure on yanukovych and he is simply not responding. one analyst said we have a government that doesn't want to talk, and protesters who aren't being controlled. there is aer coof radicals inside the protesters who are very willing to make this a violent clash and there are police and snipers who are more than willing to take aim at fellow ukrainians, and so there is a sense that while there is calm right now, there's a real sense that the divisions here are becoming much more wide and the violence will increase. >> nick thank you. i spoke with the you ukrainian ambassador to the un and asked about his reaction? >> i was shocked today hearing that the victims appeared despite the fact that today is a national mourning day killed in all of the atrocities. i have my family, friends, colleagues there, and that's why i'm expressing my sympathy to the families of those who were killed. >> the swedish foreign minister has said that the president has blood on his happens. does the ukrainian government have blood on their hands today? >> that's not for me to judge. what is important is those in power today, they should understand they have the responsibility to demonstrate responsibility. any government in the world is responsible for everything, so -- >> but this is going on in the ukraine -- the ukrainian president is apparently negotiating. doesn't he hold some responsibility for this? >> if he is still negotiating, it means he is open for negotiation and this is important. it means that we still have -- have the room for a peaceful settlement. >> have you seen the video of the snipers on the ground pulling the trigger, firing bullets into crowds of protesters? have you seen that? >> no, i have not scene. but from the previous violence we had before, so when the protesters were killed 16 of them, and 10 policemen, saw the snipers, they were shooting, but nobody until now identified who were snipers who killed the police people and -- and the protesters, this is what should be immediately identified who they are, because different rumors appear in the internet explaining who they are, but, well, i can't command the rumors. >> i don't know who they are. i'm looking at the pictures just like you are, but they look like authorities to me. >> well, but it is not proved -- it is not proved, a lot of people there have thesement camouflage uniforms and that's why the -- the investigation should be very correct. >> so you are blaming the protesters equally as well as the police; is that what you are saying? >> no, i'm not blaming, but what i'm addressing to all of the sides involved to demonstrate patience, wisdom, and to stop -- stop any violence and -- and usage of -- of arms. >> and you believe that leadership is coming from president yanukovych? >> it should come from every side. >> would it help if president yanukovych stepped down? >> well, if it was a part of the -- of the compromise, if it's a part of a deal, it -- but it is, again, it should be a complex -- complex solution, so it means that not only the political solution, who will lead the country, but how to lead the country. the constitution reforms are badly needed as well. >> as i speak to you today, i take it that this is a very difficult day for you and ukraine. can you tell me your feelings? this >> true, yes. i am shocked. all the morning i spent -- i spent in telephone calls to -- to my mother, to my sister, to my friends, to my university partners who are with their students on the streets. so it's very shocking. >> that's the ukrainian ambassador to the united nations. ukraine's relationship with russia is a big factor in this uprising. richelle carey is here with more. >> the history is over shadowing its present, the question is what role will it play in its future. >> reporter: 46 million ukrainians are now struggling with a choice, should they lane toward russia or toward the west. russian and ukraine trace the root as nation all the way back to the 19th century. after the break up of the soviet union, ukraine struggled to find a national denthty. the country sought more economic ties with the european union, but it was a move russia did not support. f after all these neighborhoods had their own economic ties. ukrainian pipelines transport natural gas from russia to european markets. in turn, russia sells natural gas to ukraine at reduced rates, but late last year, all signs pointed to ukraine brokering a trade deal with the eu. but russia was offering a $15 billion loan and continued discount on natural gas. at the 11th hour, president yanukovych sided with russian president and pulled out of signing with the eu. critics accused the kremlin of arm twisting. the result? months of street protests, and some of the worst violence ukraine has seen since the end of the soviet era. president putin has sent a formal russian mediator. and our coverage continues. >> kimberly martin is a processor of political science. welcome. >> thank you. >> what do you make of russia's influence on this? and can they bring this to an end or not? >> so far russia's influence has not been a positive factor. vladimir putin and the prime minister both said they wanted yanukovych to end the situation, and that they were not going to give the 2 recently promised to ukraine to somebody who acted as quote a doormat, unquote. we also have an indication from the russian foreign ministry earlier today, they offered to second whatever help was needed to solve the situation. so it's very nice that they are sending the person to be a mediator, our understanding it's not somebody who has a great deal of political power in russia, and there are fears that perhaps this is just an effort to deflect western attention and make the west believe that russia is playing a positive role. >> in the eastern part of ukraine, does it appear that there is still a great deal of support for the president? >> i think it's really hard to tell at this point. so much has been changing today. many members, high ranking of the president's party have been deserting him. there are rumors of private chartered planes trying to fly out to leave the country. we do know that the support for russia and russia oriented administration remains very high in certain places, like heavily russian speaking, russian ethnic part of ukraine, and right now we're in a messy situation. >> it was interesting to listen to the ambassador from ukraine who didn't turn down the possibility that the president would actually step down. >> yes. >> if the president were to step down, what would happen after that? >> it is very interesting because the ukrainian foreign ministry's facebook page said they called for ukraine to join europe, and sign the european agreement. there are three candidates who would potentially be able to step to the top. we have kill shaningco who is still in prison at this point, and a power vacuum isn't necessarily a good thing -- >> couldn't there be more violence? >> there certainly could. there are very strong all tra nationalists. they have weapons that have been taken from police stations, and so i think the whole situation is very uncertain. and one very important thing to keep in mind is that the police in ukraine ce straight out of the soviet system with soviet training, so there's not really any particular hope on the horizon even if there is a change at the top. >> some really good information. kimberly martin thanks again. we're following this story for you throughout the evening. now to the weather. severe storming sweeping through the midwest right now. already more than ten tornados reported in illinois. kevin corriveau is here with the latest. >> that's right, john. the storm -- you can see the last 12 hours of its history, is really beginning to organize. look at the line. it has moved through parts of illinois, which is good. so what we're really concerned about is what is happening towards parts of indianapolis. also over here towards nashville. within the next hour that line will also push through. and gulf port as well as over to mobile we'll see tornadic activity. the red are tornado watches in effect right now. within those are tornado warnings, and most are to the east of that line. and that will continue all night long. we have people without power in parts of illinois because of the winds and attorneys. we also have flooding happening in if parts of ohio. we're also dealing with the winter part of this storm in iowa, wisconsin, this is a true blizzard. visibility is down to about 9 on the highways. this storm is going to go through, i'll tell you more about what is going to happen on the eastern seaboard later in the show. >> kevin thank you. >> coming up, not guilty, our al jazeera colleagues enter a plea in egypt. also an exclusive look from the battlefields in afghanistan. the view from the taliban. plus a criminal investigation in a coal ash spill in north carolina. federal prosecutors are trying to find out. our three al jazeera colleagues detained in egypt were in a courtroom today in cairo. they pleaded not guilty to charges. they are accused of joining or aiding and abetting a terrorist organization. al jazeera says the charges are false and is demanding the immediate release of its staff. >> cameras were barred inside the courtroom where the trial of the al jazeera journalists was convened. mohammed fahmy, baher mohamed, and peter greste have denied all of the government's charges. they are accused of belonging to a terrorist organization, and thre threaten egypt's national security. >> translator: we demanded their release and the chance to interrogate prosecution witnesses. >> reporter: the three are among 20 defendants. al jazeera management expressed satisfaction that the trial was upway. >> we're very pleased we are in court. we believe we will get a fair trial, and we believe we can defending ourselves. >> reporter: family members of the journalists said the charges had no merit. >> translator: from my point of view this trial is politicized. my son and his coworkers are good patriots and work professionally. >> he has been prepared for today, but he is also prepared for an outcome that perhaps -- that we don't want. >> reporter: two of the journalists shouted that they have been subject to, quote, psychologically unbearable conditions since their arrest. they said they got only one hour of exercise a day, and had no access to reading material. the cases raise protests from journalists around the world who warn that egypt has become one of the most oppressive countries for independent reporting. >> i think by not registering as forcibly as possible that this is not acceptable, people think it's a perfectly fine way to proceed, and not only egypt, but other governments are following suit. >> reporter: the judge said prosecution witnesses will be heard and the evidence considered at the next hearing scheduled for early next month. we have a human rights activist and coordinator of the committee to protect journalists, welcome. >> thank you. >> were you surprised by the court proceeding today? >> unfortunately not. i'm egyptian, and i'm seeing this happen [ inaudible ] i myself was in a trial that went on for 18 months. very similar to what we saw said with al jazeera and the trial two years ago. >> what is the point of the delay, first of all? the >> the system is allowing the judge full control on how the proceeding of the case will take place, and the judge usually takes into consideration other cases that he has on his plate, and we know right now there are thousands of people who have been rounded up, many of them are also being held without charges, and without any evidence, so the fact of any matter there are a lot of injustice in egypt, but also there is no rule of law. so it all depends on what the judge wants to do on this case. >> there has been a lot of pressure that is mounting on egypt, al jazeera, the committee to protect journalists, your organization, some of the biggest journalist organizations in the world, as well as some of the best known journalists have spoken out in support of these three journalists. how does that pressure play out in egypt? >> i think it's important. the egyptian government yes, have some fractions who do not care about international opinion or international news organizations, i'm pretty comfortable somebody like general al-sisi who is poised to run for presidency next month will not want the international public opinion having this case on his head when he is running for office, and eventually might be leading the country over the presidential election. i would think he would want to have a smooth transition to being a president, and having this case and others, people behind bars is not going to help, it's not going to have the international community give him any legitimatesy. >> we got a little bit of information today in the courtroom from some of t the -- journalists about the conditions they are being held in. is this typical of on youralists when they are detained? >> from day one we have voiced concern of how differently they were treated. we have seen a lot of horrible deterioration in human rights overall. we have seen, however, a little bit more over reaction of the government in this case. those specific journalists were kept in confinement, denied access to a lawyer, after a lot of pressure from the international community and also from their colleagues, they were allowed to stay together instead of being in solitary confinement, which is some progress. we're hoping that will lead to them to be allowed bail possibly at a later point for the charges to be dropped. >> we appreciate the support of your committee, and thank you for coming to speak with us tonight. now to north carolina where a federal investigation is underway into a huge coal ash spill. state officials say the water is safe. others aren't so sure. robert ray has the report. >> reporter: these are the muddy banks of the dan river, to be specific eden, north carolina. this green foam is meant to catch up the contaminates of the coal ash that spilled into the river. duke electric is to blame for this. a leaky pipe underneath a coal ash pond released what they said two weeks ago to be 82,000 tons of coal ash. that figure has now been downgraded. but much of the coal ash is scattered around the river at the bottom in various spots all the way 70 miles downstream. on tuesday a second pipe leaked, spewing arsenic-laced ground water into the river. 90% of that is clean, and they did not know the pipe was faulty at the time, officials say. officials also say do not eat the fish. much of the coal ash is at the bottom of the river and on the banks. if we go down a foot or so, bring it up, you can see clearly we have sentiment, leaves -- we'll let this out, but you can see the dark coal here in the mud mixed together. just this week federal prosecutors demanded documents and orders 20 state environmental employees to testify. coal ash is currently not deemed hazardous, and coal ash is a biproduct used to make things like center blocks, drywall and assault. many environmental groups have for years said there should be more stringent regulations on coal ash because the long-term hazards and effects on the water system or people are simply not known. there is much more to come on this broadcast, including the violence in the ukraine and the uprising just ahead. european leaders are moving forward with sanctions on some ukrainian leaders despite objections from russia. plus tax day for pot sellers profitting from green rush in colorado. and the campaign urging customers to skip fast-food chains paying workers low wages. welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york, there is a lot going on this half hour, including inside the taliban, exclusive access to an attack in afghanistan, it's a story you will not see anywhere else. plus clutch dna technology, how new science helped solve a 19-year-old cold case. and it's tax day for colorado pot sellers. first richelle is here with the latest on ukraine. >> thank you, john. there were more than three dozen people killed in the last 24 hours, and hundreds more injured in the worst day of bloodshed in the ukraine. some of the victims were gunneded down by what appeared to be government snipers. 67 people have died in the fighting since tuesday, and police officers are among the victims, but opposition forces say the death toll is actually much higher. this comes a day after the government and opposition leaders said they agreed to a truce. world leaders have condemned the violence. and both sides say there needs to be a long-term solution. >> would it help if the president stepped down? >> well, if it was a part of the -- of the compromise -- if it's a part of a deal, it -- but it is, again, it should be a complex -- complex solution, so it means that not only the political solution who will lead the country, but how to lead the country. the constitutional reforms are badly needed as well. >> diplomatic channels are being worked as well. vice president biden spoke to the ukrainian president earlier today. >> and there is another part to this story as well, eu foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in brussels, announcing that the block will impose sanctions on ukraine. phil ittner has that story. >> reporter: foreign ministers and top dignitaries arrived in brussels to agree on a response to the violence in ukraine. in the end the decision aims to impose a blockage on weaponry or items that could be used against the protesters, but also to join the u.s. in travel restrek shuns asset freezes and other sanctions against officials. >> the responsibility to stop this violence rests squarely with those in power, and we urge them to do so as quickly as possible. >> russia disagrees, though. sergey lavrov said sanctions are nothing more than blackmail and a double standard. the russian position that the eu sparked this crisis by forcing ukrainians to decide between east and west. >> translator: as for the individual sanctions by the u.s. or european union, which they try to operate at the moment, from our point of view and based on international law they are illegitimate and unrepated. >> putin announced he would be sending a mediator to ukraine for talks. and shuttle diplomacy is being conducted between president yanukovych and world leaders. but the sanctions the ministers agreed upon thursday won't be in place for days, and adding to the pressure is the realization that in ukraine things could get worse and fast. >> damon wilson is the executive vice president of the atlantic council, he served as a senior director for european affairs at the national security council as well. he is in washington tonight. welcome, damon. >> pleased to be here. >> let's talk about the vice president. can the u.s. do anymore than it is doing right now? >> vice president biden has been active on this. you are right. the problem is he doesn't have a counterpart who is reliable. the united states does have leverage. the united states moved first before the european union on the issue of imposing these targeted sanctions. sanctions designed with those around president yanukovych question whether they want to be caught with blood on their hands. >> some people have suggested a compromise might include that the president actually steps down. do you see that happening? >> in his eyes that's not been a compromise. he has been resolved to stay in office, but the problem is, i don't see how he can remain. he has lost the legitimacy. he has lost the support of his people. there are regions of ukraine that will no longer respect his leadership. i think any deal will have to lead to early elections in ukraine. >> do you think that's what the u.s. is trying to work out in the coming days or not? >> i don't know the americans are trying to dictate a particular outcome. we have european union officials on the ground, the americans are in close touch working with them. to try i think to forge a technical unity go that could form a majority in the parliament, this is based on constitutional legal terms. a deal to help them through the economic situation, and i would imagine pressure on the president to lane towards early presidential elections. >> do sanctions put pressure on the rich and powerful or the citizens of ukraine? >> these are smart sanctions. they are targeted. they won't cause hardship on the average ukrainian. these are targeted sanctions against those that give the orders to use force that are part of the decision-making process or that play a sup poring role. so whether you are in government at the interior, or a business standing behind the government jshlgs these individuals have to think very seriously, the ability to travel outside of ukraine will be cut off, and the ability to access their financial assets which is a big deal for these power brokers. many of their assets are in europe. >> damon, let me show you this video. i don't know if you have the video of the snipers that we saw today. we heard from the un ambassador to ukraine today, who essentially -- who essentially said he wasn't sure whether those snipers were actually police or government officials. is there any doubt in your mind? >> there's no doubt. with all due respect to the ambassador, the ukrainians themselves put out a statement saying they were using live ammunitions. there is no doubt that the government forces have been involved in executing individuals and targeting individuals on the streets of key -- kiev. the government has crossed the line. >> damon wilson in washington. thanks for your incite. >> my pleasure being with you. >> ukrainian skier withdraw from the olympics today to protest the deaths in her homeland. she said she will not ski in tomorrow's race. she says she cannot continue competing in the sochi games while people are dieing in her country. >> after day before yesterday when i heard the information when i not sleeping the whole night, i have not slept -- like i cannot do this. it's crazy when the president just kills the citizens of country and when it's olympic games, when it's peace on all the world, and we have almost war, it's -- i cannot. it's crazy. >> she said she would like to join the protesters, but so far has been unable to book a flight home. a new warning tonight of a stronger taliban in afghanistan once u.s. and nato troops have left the country. keeping afghanistan stable will cost billions of dollars more than estimated two years ago. al jazeera america has been given exclusive access to one taliban attack on the afghan national army. and richelle is back with that story. >> this footage was filmed in october while a journalist followed a group of self proclaimed taliban fighters. what he found offers a rare incite into the war in afghanistan from the other side. it's just after dawn at an afghan army base 40 minutes from kabul, and the taliban are about to attack. [ explosion ] >> the taliban has little military training. they fight on instinct. [ explosion ] >> the ana fight back. al jazeera gained exclusive access to this group of self proclaimed taliban fighters in october. in this latest operation, suicide bombers are sent forward. the plan say the fighters is to blow open the gates and allow the other fighters to stream in. but things are not going to plan. the fighting tins for more than 90 minutes. to the camera, the taliban claim they are more successful than the evidence suggests. once the taliban get word the afghan national army has called in backup in the form of tanks, the commander orders his men back, including the suicide bombers. when they see fighter jets, they don't seem too worrieded. they even stop to pick up fruit on the way back. the reporter is worried and takes cover. >> i just saw two fighter jets in the air flying very low, possibly targeting us. i'm scared as hell. >> reporter: the plane, unable its seems to get a definite target, move on, and so do the taliban, back into the town blending in with the local population. >> i'm sure that there are indigenous afghan fighters fighting with the taliban, and i'm sure they are getting significant external support. >> reporter: it's clear the taliban were happy to provide access to show they have an the upper hand in an area they say they control. [ gunfire ] er >> reporter: what al jazeera witnessed was strong resistance from the afghan army. but what happens when u.s. and nato troops lead may change the dynamic on the ground. we'll have more on this story at the top of the hour, and fault lines will have the full exclusive report coming up in a two-part series next month. >> it is tax day for marijuana business owners in colorado. many are paying in cash because it's still a federal crime for banks to handle drug money. the justice department said last week prosecuting banks will not be a priority, but the banks are still reluctant. >> reporter: when you pay your taxes, do you hire combat veterans to keep thiefs from stealing your money? you do if you own a marijuana dispensary. >> everybody has been shot at it, everybody has had to deal with the enemy in one way or another. >> reporter: this is the muscle for nervous pot store owners. they are hired to transfer tens of thousands of dollars in marijuana revenue every day. >> reporter: if you look on the left there are the guys in the dark windows looking out as well. >> reporter: february 20th is the first day that pot taxes are due. in many cases hundreds of thousands of dollars are being paid in cash, because federal laws won't allow them to have bank accounts. al berke is big al, he is a former special ops marine. dispensaries started to turning to him for protection when armored car companies found the job too risky. >> reporter: these places need your help? >> oh, they do. >> reporter: in just a few weeks light shade labs will be joining denver's 48 pot retail shops. >> it's like growing tomatoes except the crop is much more profitable. >> reporter: these plants are worth thousands of dollars. >> you are always being reported no matter what you do or say. the second thing we have is panic buttons, and standard depreciation procedures, where we can shut the entire december pencery down like that. >> reporter: the denver mayor is nervous too, despite the fact that the mile high city is going to reap millions, he sees the cash as a safety problem for the city employees. >> i'm always concerned when large amounts of cash come into the city. we have had $50,000 walked into city buildings by some of these owners. >> reporter: dan left light shade loaded down with thousands in cash. just one day's take from one of colorado's over400 pot shops. in seattle it's being called boycott mcpoverty. a demonstration demanding a hike in the minimum wage. fast-food workers and supporters rallied outside fast-food stores asking people not to buy food. our alan is live in seattle with more on this. alan? >> reporter: good evening, john. this is what is left. these 20 people or so of the city wide protest action organized by union labor here. minimum wage here is $9.32 an hour, but these folks are pushing for a big, big raise. the fight to raise the minimum wage by more than 40% in seattle heats up again. with what organizers call a day long mcpoverty boycott. >> it has been pretty easy to find people and get people excited to stand up and make a stand. >> reporter: jason harvey works at the burger king where he is picketing and says the extra money would make a big difference. >> i would immediately be able to get off of food stamps, i wouldn't have to go to the food banks, and i would have a little bit of discretionary income to maybe go to a movie or maybe be able to save up to get my teeth fixed. >> reporter: we see protesters at three restaurants, with food workers telling us it has been business as usual. the biggest rally is downtown where a city council is one of the speakers. is this >> it is absolutely critical that we have public action like this that fire people up. >> reporter: the recently elected socialist ran on a $15 minimum wage platform. >> the $15 an hour struggle is about capturing all of the anger and frustration and people are saying, you know what, we have got to do something. >> reporter: protesters only the only ones making statements. paul made a point of buying his lunch at burger king. >> these are not career jobs. it's not meant to be a koor career -- >> and the politicians the only reason why they would want this, so they can get a vote from the people that don't care about politics, but $15 an hour sounds have very good. >> reporter: the folks at this mcdonald's tell us things have been a little slow today, the other restaurants said business as usual, and the mcdonald's at the downtown rally was very busy this noon hour. john? >> so you have the fast-food industry being targeted but there is a broader push in seattle for $15 an hour, right? >> yeah, that's the benchmark. the major has already said by executive order said that will be the lowest amount the city workers can work. and that could cost the city 1 to $2 million. and two different officials are looking into the minimum. >> alan thanks again. up next on al jazeera america, how a high-tech vacuum can help solve cold cases. ♪ as we continue to watch the severe weather develop, we have already seen over a half dozen tornados in this illinois develop already. and that is going to continue into the evening time frame. but up to the north we are looking at winter conditions there. not very far from where we're seeing the severe weather. a lot of snow being dropped in iowa, minnesota, and wisconsin. tomorrow that weather will shift to the east. here in new york what we think is going to happen, we'll have a frontal boundary go through in the evening time, but in the morning it is going to be the fog right before the front comes through, and that is going to make the visibilities go down and cause delays at the airport. for new york you are going to see, really temperatures warming up just slightly as we go towards saturday and coming back down as we go towards tuesday with another cold breakout of arctic air on the north. minneapolis your high only 6 degrees, dropping to 5, chicago you are only going to get to about 25 degrees, in new york, we'll drop down on tuesday, high of 36. your news is coming up after this. as daybreak quickly approaches in ukraine, the search for the end of violence carries on. authorities say the death toll could rise, the latest violence began when demonstrators tossed fire bombs at police and the police fired back. it was a murder mystery unsolved for 19 years, but new technology may help crack the case. dr. crystal dillworth has more on one cold case that may finally be solved. >> reporter: we begin about an hour southeast of salt lake city. along the banks of the provo river. the sheriff knows the river well, but not all of his memories are good ones. it was a december morning in 1995, when he was called to the scene of a murder. the body of a 17-year-old had been found badly beaten and very few clues. it was a real life who dun it? and soon after that, the case went cold. for more than 15 years, the case was cold. but finally, thanks to new technology, sheriff bonner caught his break. >> i heard about touch dna. one of my detectives wanted to know if we would submit only evidence we had. >> touch dna when you touch someone with force dna is shedded. crystal with killed with a rock. at the time they didn't have the technology to recover dna touch analysis. but now a break through. >> if this were to be used as a murder weapon, the suspect is going to leave touch dna, skin cells and sweat and that kind of thing on the surface of this rock. if you can't see it with the naked eye, those are the perfect samples for this system. the suspects name is joseph michael simpson. >> phil torres joins us now. how reliable is this kind of touch dna? >> touch dna is just as reliable as dna as you could get out of something like a drop of blood, but it's able to detect really trace amounts of it, and still find the unique fingerprint of dna. >> has it been used in the courtroom? >> as far as we know this is the first case where it will be the primary piece of evidence used to potentially convict someone. >> the system that investigators is using is changing everything. how far back can they go to solve a crime? >> the real limit to this is the dna itself. dna naturally degrades over time. so if you go back 100 years, it will be hard to find enough complete dna. in this case it was used 19 years in the past, but i think we'll start to see it used further and further. >> so the idea here that the crime scene investigators are able to use smaller bits of dna to solve cases? >> the dna is the same thing. it will be the same sized bits. the difference is where the dna comes from. normally you need something like a drop of blood, but from this you can get it from 10 to 15 skin cells. you lose about 400,000 skin cells every day. so if you brush up on something they will be able to detect you. >> thank you phil. for more of these stories you can watch phil and the rest of the "techknow" team on sunday. coming up, the growing inequaltive gap in the country. plus family reunion, tears of joy after being separated since the early 1950s. those stories and a lot more. 11:00 eastern, 8 pacific time. and tonight we take an image out of ukraine that caught our attention. it's an image of an anti government protester who is holding a crucifix while praying in independence square in kiev. the headlines are coming up. ♪ >> al jazeera's investigative unit has tonight's exclusive report. >> stories that have impact... that make a difference... that open your world... >> this is what we do... >> america tonight next only on al jazeera america welcome to al jazeera america. i'm rich rich. here are tonight's top stories. dozens killed in kiev today as violence in ukraine surges. some of the victims were hit by sniper fire. secretary of state john kerry says the international community will hold to account those responsible for what has occurred. and european union foreign ministers had an emergency meeting to work on a specific response. they announce addition that aims to impose a blockage on weapons or items that can be used against protesters. the sanctions will not be in place for days. the trial of three al jazeera journalists in cairo has been adjourned until march 5th. they have been in prison for 54 days. powerful fast-moving storms are whipping through the midwest tonight. several tornados are already touched down in illinois. thunderstorm launches and warnings have been posted in a large part of the south. those are the headlines. i'm rich rich. "america tonight" with joie chen is up next. remember you can always get the latest news online on our website, aljazeera.com. thank for your time. do keep it here. ♪ on "america tonight," a short ceasefire, ukraine erupts again with more bloodshed after the so-called truce. why the fight is spreading and what is at steak? also tonight a star athlete and popular celebrity, accused of drugging and raping women in five states. would normer new orleans saints player have lead a double life? and onhe

Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20140221

now your smirks. >> reporter: two men confessed of badly beating a man at a baseball game and what they did to set off a judge during their sentencing. >> there really is no middle class. >> reporter: the widening income gap in one american city and what is causing the divide between the rich and the poor. ♪ good morning and welcome to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy. after days of blood shed in ukraine that left dozens of people dead, all night crisis talks may have a cease fire agreement and the president viktor yanukovich announced a tentative deal, was worked out with russia and eu ministers and the government website said the deal would be signed later today but there has been no official response from opposition leaders. a french official inside the talks said the opposition has not agreed to the proposal yet. at least 70 people have been killed in kiev in the worst fighting since unrest began and that is a live picture of kiev now and jennifer glasse is joining us and mixed signals coming out of the deal announcement. good morning. . >> good morning, stephanie. if there is a sign things are getting back to normal at independent square you can hear it behind me. they used to do it every hour and planning the ukraine national anthem and getting in the rhythm of the protest and a drastic change from yesterday morning when at this time there was terrible violence here, terrible shooting. now that deal really is a very questionable one at this point. i spoke to someone familiar with the deal today and it's a deal that president yanukovich wants and not something he thinks the p osignificants will agree to. that deal calls for a return to the 2004 constitution in 48 hours and that is the constitution that would balance the power between the president and parliament and it also would call for earlier presidential elections at the end of this year, just a few months ahead of schedule as well as a new cabinet within ten days but it's the early presidential elections that are a deal breaker because many here want the president to step down. >> you are saying right now the atmosphere in insquare has markedly changed from yesterday. >> it has, very much. what a difference a day makes and as you know if you have been with me on the story that it changes any time and you never know what will come next in kiev and today is a very festive atmosphere on the square and the barricades are manned and molotov cocktails piled up and they are watching to see what will happen in the political realm and they want change and will not stand for anything less than what they have been demanding for the past three months here. >> parliament is meeting right now and what do we know is happening there? >> well, you know, messy scenes in parliament this morning. they were hoping that this agreement will be put on the table. they were also hoping to get more details of the agreement officially from either parliament or the president's office. but instead what we saw was the parliament meeting and talked about the resolution to bring back the constitution and give the parliament more power but the parliament speaker wanted to sit down and adjourn the parliament and try toy to prevent him from sitting in the chair, that has been a tactic of the opposition for the past few months when they don't want things to happen. if the speaker cannot sit in his chair and parliament cannot make a decision and they block him from sitting in his care and again back to the same deviedev devisiveness and see if it's acceptable to everybody and the president and calm down and make this come to some sort of an end. >> reporter: jennifer glasse from kiev and thank you. lisa stark is in washington with more reaction from the u.s. and lisa good morning to you and john kerry issued a statement saying it was with anger and anguish the u.s. is watching the violence on the streets of kiev, with russia and eu involved in negotiations with president yanukovych what role is the u.s. playing in this? >> the u.s. is concerned about what is going on in kiev and ukraine and keeping a close eye on the situation and working on a couple of different fronts and first of all behind the scenes the u.s. trying to reach ukraine officials. in fact, in the past few days they had trouble doing that which was very concerning to them and trying to have these conversations and keep the dialog as the u.s. urges them to stay calm. u.s. and eu talking about possible sanctions on the leaders there and u.s. has taken action of banning visas for 20 officials they say is linked to the violence in the square in ukraine and the president is using the pulpit as he often does and urging calm and urging negotiations and warning about the tougher sanctions if things don't get better and he has also stepped up criticism of russian president vladimir putin and saying that is causing criticism and that is stepped up. >> he is telling him to pull back his security forces and they set out the administration's position and let's listen to that. >> we have been very clear for quite some time now that the yanukovych government has the primary responsibility to ensure that violence does not occur or to bring violence to an end when it does. it is clear that at least some of the human rights, basic human rights that we hold so dear in this country are not being respected in that country. >> reporter: so lisa you mentioned that the white house is talking about sanctions but does the u.s. have enough influence on ukraine for that to make a difference? >> well, analysts believe the u.s. really has very limited options when it comes to influencing what is going on in the ukraine. as we talked about they might move forward on economic sanctions and seeing what the eu will do as well and divisions in the eu on this. the best thing they can do is put pressure on the olagarks who have influence with the government in ukraine and in a sense this is a column war type battle played out between the western one side and u.s. and russia on the other side. what really probably needs to take place is high-level negotiations between the u.s. and russia to bring this to an enbut relations between the two countries are very poor, at an all-time low if you will now and that is unlikely at this point, stephanie. >> stark has contest for us in washington and thank you. stay with al jazeera america for continuing coverage of the ukraine up rising in our next half hour we will take you to a city about 300 miles west of kiev where the violence is so bad police have given up and stopped fighting with antigovernment protesters. the u.n. security council is set to vote tomorrow on a resolution for humane humanitarian add and condemns starvation as a strategy of war and calls for an end to shelling and barrel bombs and threatens further steps if the warring sides don't comply but it's that language that may be a sticking.for syrian allies, russia and china and vetoed and threatening the regime. they are asking for help in the central african republic and moon said an additional 3,000 troops are needed to slow the sectarian violence, 6,000 mostly african and french peace keeping troops have been in the war-torn country since december and at least 2000 people have been killed since fighting broke out between christians and muslims and 700,000 displaced. large parts of the midwest are under severe storm watches today and powerful storms have tornado in illinois on thursday and as many as 8 twisters may have touched down in the state and at one point 24,000 people in illinois lost power. metrologist dion is tracking the severe storm and joins us now, good morning, what is the latest? >> we are seeing storms racing to the east and a long line of storms that are firing up this morning. we will continue to see this line kind of pushing off to the east but i want to show you what with yesterday and over illinois we saw 11 reports so lots of tornado activity around the illinois area and you see the line is heading off to the east and it's here with the yellow shaded area and where we have the embedded thunderstorms within this line and also dealing with a lot of lightning strikes. no tornado watches at this time. they have since expired but we are watching closely just to the north of atlanta, northeast earn areas of georgia we have a tornado warning around rabun county and it's pushing to the east and southeasterly flow and bringing in warm, moist area and we will continue to see the severe weather threat lasting through the first half of the day and into the earlier part of the afternoon and evening and we will watch from jacksonville and southward into tampa all the way north ward into raleigh and does look like many major cities across the northeast will deal with rain and thunderstorm activity but the severe weather theft will stay further east. as i take you through the day we will be watching a line of storms moving through and we have a cold side of a system and still bringing a little snow on the great lakes and still have the winter weather advisories for northern maine and back to you. >> reporter: details on the department of home lands security warnings about shoe bombs on planes and u.s. tells them it's based on concerned about an al-qaeda affiliate in yemen and he is a bomb maker to down airplanes with explosives and he may have designed a new bomb to get past airport security measures and it was sent to airlines flying to the u.s. from 30 airports in europe the middle east and africa. and a judge displaced a lawsuit brought by muslims and saying the nypd of mosques and muslim schools unfairly targeted them and erica joins us now and the plaintiff said they felt discriminated against because of race and religion and must feel disappointed by the decision. >> reporter: they are, an american soldier in the case who served in iraq called the ruling a slap in the face all because of the way he prays. nypd admittedly uses video surveillance at several mosque restaurants and grade schools in new jersey and new york and the department says it's in the name of terrorist intelligence and they claim the police practice is unconstitutional because it focused on religion, national origin and race. the federal judge disagreed saying the surveillance program is not discriminatory and said the police could not have monitored new jersey for muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the muslim community itself adding the motive for the program was not solely to disname against muslims but to find muslim terrorists hiding among the ordinary, law abiding muslims n the center for constitutional rights they say the court's decision gives legal sanction to the targeted discrimination of muslims anywhere and everywhere for no reason other than religion and there is a similar lawsuit filed in federal court in brooklyn and no decision on that yet. >> reporter: the ruling i understand specifically names the associated press which broke the story two years ago. what did it say about the ap? >> this is very interesting. first the judge said the confidential documents obtained by the ap were printed without authorization. then he says the lawsuit never claimed that the plaintiffs suffered any harm prior to publication so in essence the judge is saying that any harm they may have suffered stemmed from the publication of the stories and quote not fairly traceable for the city. >> reporter: interesting and thank you for that story. new jersey governor chris christie has been hounded for weeks because of the bridge scandal but voters in new jersey are much more concerned about the response to super storm sandy and vented frustrations at a town hall meeting hosted by the governor and our john was there. >> i think i drove in the parking lot at 8:10. >> reporter: and first in line. >> yes. >> reporter: the lines formed early in middleton, new jersey for the 110th town hall and voters came ready to question the governor over sandy and not bridge gate. >> i want to go home, i had enough of the crap of the storm and telling me i cannot get reimbursed from my work from fema or rent money. >> i'm interested to hear what the governor has to say and he is interesting. >> he tells the truth and what we need to here. >> i'm not here about the bridge, i'm here about sandy. >> reporter: and the world's media was hoping for a sound bite on the scandal including lane closures last september on the bridge most people we spoke to said they voted for christie and supported the run for the white house in 2016, this woman however wants him out of a job now and fed up with having no home since hurricane sandy and no one is helping her. >> waiting for grants and not a dime and i filled out the paperwork to have it lost in the shuffle and we are told to stay tuned and be patience, how much more patience do we need. >> family law reform. >> reporter: she fielded questions with autism care and reform of family law and flood insurance and no one mentioned the bridge scandal directly and every chance he got he took blame for the woes on washington d.c. and calming fema the new f word. >> you hear them yelling and screaming from the rooftops, the greedy corporations who just take your money and don't pay you, guess who that is taking your money and not paying you now? the federal government, they are the people doing it. >> we don't want to be brushed off. >> reporter: thank you for the delays and see you soon. >> people said not enough time had been allocated to what they felt was the key question of the day, lack of progress after hurricane sandy. >> i think it was all planted, staged and none of it was about sandy. >> i will tell you about bridge gate but i don't care but people who don't have homes is more important and people at this meeting is what they are worked about getting back in their homes and not worried about the bridge. >> reporter: that was john reporting. governor christie says the federal government's multi-billion aid package could fall $20 billion short of what the state needs to rebuild after sandy. emotional testimony from the family of a man nearly beaten to death at a baseball game. >> no sentencing you receive will be long enough and eventually you will be released and the sentence is of a lifetime. >> reporter: what one of the confessed attackers did in court that infewer infurated the judge and why the taliban fighters will not stop in an al jazeera exclusive and investigating a chemical spill in north carolina and al jazeera takes you into the water to see how much coal ash is accumulating. i'm mark morgan and the usa team drop as heart breaker to canada now it's the men's turn for revenge against their counterpart. this is the brooklyn bridge in new york city and it's 36 degrees in new york and the area is under a dense fog advisory. ♪ good morning and welcome back to al jazeera america i'm stephanie sy, straight ahead emotional testimony from the family of a man beaten at a baseball game and let's see the temperatures across the nation today and ebony is here. >> with the storms through the midwest we have cold air settling in behind the strong cold front and we are teens, 30 and 40 from minneapolis southward to memphis and it's a drop from 30 degrees colder and 25 degrees colder in bismarck and 33 degrees colder than where we were this time yesterday in talsa and we will feel the chill this morning. this is a view of what we find as we step outside in omaha and 23 degrees now and some warmth in the and atlanta is 64 and birmingham and 42 in memphis and 30 up to 50 in new york city and then we will see cooler temperatures for next week and stephanie >> thank you, to men in la plead guilty to the 2011 beating of a man at dodgers stadium and it left brian stow with permanent brain damage and left his family devastated and as thomas tells us their emotions poured out during the sentencing. >> the beating was so fierce that brian stowe requires help 24 hours a day. >> he is in a wheelchair and diapers and permanently brain damaged and not getting better ever. >> reporter: they plead guilty to assaulting stowe in a dodgers stadium parking lot on opening day in 2011 and he had been attending the game between the dodgers and the san francisco giants, his favorite baseball team and polices and witnesses say he was targeted because he was wearing a giants jersey and sanchez who received 8 years acknowledged punching him so hard he fell unconscious to the pavement fracturing his skull and he kicked stowe in the head as he laid helplessly on the ground and nor wood got four years and his role was less violent, preventing his friends from helping him. >> he has a lifetime of pain, therapy, hard work daily. that he must endure. >> no sentencing you receive will ever be long enough and eventually you will be released and brian's sentence is a lifetime. >> reporter: it was a smirk by sanchez that drew the judge's anger and did not mix words. >> you continued to hit and kick him in the head which tells me and i can only reach one conclusion from that that you are complete cowards. >> reporter: he can take small steps in walking a nl the cost of care according to his attorney has approached $5 million, thomas with al jazeera. >> reporter: his medical expenses are being sought in a lawsuit against the then ownership of the dodgers. the suit contends the baseball organization was negligent and failed to provide adequate security in the ballpark and parking areas. when they dropped the puck in sochi today the red white and blue will be looking for revenge and they are talking about the last-minute lost yesterday. >> we can get to that but the men can have revenge and we will explain that. remember four years ago in vancouver they lost to canada in the gold metal games and sidney scored a goal in over time and later today the americans look for revenge to neighbors for the north in the semi finals and they scored 20 goals in four games but americans hope the match up to be the toughest so far in the tournament but a match up the u.s. wanted. >> they have more skill and they are a deeper team but we are a harder team to play against and we are going to match up and go toe to toe with them and doesn't mean we are going to back down and we will play a shell and let them come at us and give us 50 shots and try to win with 15. but, you know, this is the match up we think we wanted and we are ready for and i know this group has been ready for. >> reporter: it was a devastating loss for the usa women's hockey team in the team against canada and two goal with 3 1/2 minutes left including the game-tying goal with less than a minute to go which was minutes after the u.s. barely missed an empty net goal that would have won the game and they went to over time and poolin who scores for the canadians and that would be the gold metal clincher. here is your metal count this morning as we check out the stand, united states has 25 metals, 8 golds in the total. americans followed by russia with 23. netherlands 22, norway has 21 and canada with 21 as well. turning to the nba, the nets are considering signing colins to a ten day contract, if that occurs he will be the first actively openly gay player in the nba. he had a private workout with the team earlier this week in la and has a history with the organization and its players having played for the nets alongside head coach from 2001-08 and played on other teams with current nets and joe johnson and paul pierce and kevin garnet, the heat visiting the thunder and it was 112-95 on the january 29 and he went this for the dunk at one end and westbrook had 16 and not enough and lebron james is whacked in the face and finishes the dunk and close lines james and lebron left the game with a bloody nose but 16 of the points in the first and heat win 103-81. going to campus and there is a resurgence in chap hill hill and north carolina lost 15 to virginia falling to 11-7 in the season, that was 8 straight wins ago because the tarheels and the duke being the latest victim thursday night and north carolina down six and heels in transition and misses and jp does not. unc down only four under four minutes to go now and game tied at 60 and leslie had a jumper and led with 21 and heels up two and marcus page and watch them wheel and deal and a tough lay in and had 13 points in the second half and north carolina out scores duke by 15 after the break, the fans flood the court and it was 74-66. and north carolina has now beaten three teams ranked in the top five this season and that is a look at sports this hour. thanks so much. ukraine is not taking to the streets of the capitol. we will take you to another ukraine city where things got so out of hand police gave up. [gunfire] and al jazeera exclusive inside the afghan taliban, it's a rare look at who the fighters are and how they live. >> i think a home is a basic human right. >> reporter: the growing gap between the rich and poor is forcing some people from their homes in a major american city. ♪ >> al jazeera america is a straight-forward news channel. >> its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. >> we believe in digging deep. >> its unbiased, fact-based, in-depth journalism. >> you give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy, ukraine bloody crisis hinges on a potential peace deal and both sides are close to signing a peace accord that would end but no word if they agree to the terms and it comes after clutchs and 70 people and it's the worst since the unrest began and this is a live picture in kiev where things are calm now but protests and rites have spread beyond the capitol kiev and they attacked a building 300 miles west of kiev. as david reports the violence was so intense the police there just gave up. >> the minister was set ablaze, by molotov cocktails and protesters, this is the city on the western ukraine where progovernment forces are in full retreat. yielding to sheer force of numbers, the police defense lines have been handing over their riot commitment to demonstrators and withdrawing. the officers of the interior ministry have also fallen and officials jeered and humiliated as they are forced out of the building and six police stations have been ransacked and eyewitnesses reported that an arsenal of weapons were taken and not possible to say who was responsible and could have been extremist or others and the situation here is slipping towards anarchy. the main prosecutors office has been occupied and thousands of criminal files destroyed. the government security services here have essentially been rerouted and this is a police rezone. and not a single patrol dares to take to the streets and essentially it's a surrender but for how much longer, the situation here is still volatile. even on the polish border protesters mounted a blockade and it's clear president yanukovich has lost all control here. and david with al jazeera. >> reporter: stay with al jazeera america for continuing coverage of the ukraine up rising in our next hour, a former advisor to the kremlin who says the european, u.s. and the media have the situation in the ukraine all wrong. in venezuela they are calling for protest and six have been killed since demonstrations against the president intensified last week and blame maduro for crime, high inflammation and a repressive political climate but accusing one leader lopez of trying to overthrow the government. lopez turned himself in this week after being charged with arson and criminal incitement. venezuela spoke with al jazeera consider this about calls to strip her of immunity so she can be arrested. >> this regime fears that specific and massive movement that is coming from the grass roots and expressing and the desire for freedom and democracy grows day after day and they want to threaten all the citizens by taking away some of the leaders but they don't know there are millions of officers right now in the streets. and if they take away some others will come and join because they have to realize it's not only because of the economic disaster and the social crisis, at the end it's about dignity, human dignity and it's about freedom and it's supposed to be about children and kids that are being killed at this time and have a future in our country. >> reporter: venezuela's president is also threatening to expel journalists from covering the protests. three elderly men accused of being nazi guards have been arrested in germany and they are 88, 92 and 9 four-years-old are believed to have been directly involved in the killings of prisoners at the polish concentration camp during world war ii when it was occupied by the nazis and they were arrested after the police searched homes and investigating nazi war crimes and afghanistan could be a safe haven for taliban once nato and forces leave. and it will cost between 5-6 billion dollars a year to keep afghanistan stable and almost all of that money would into used to sustain afghan security forces and the report says it will take 373,000 afghan troops to keep the country safe and withdraw of u.s. forces will leave them 150,000 troops short of the mark and the commanders recommended sending international advisors to afghanistan to support troops through at least 2018. al jazeera america has gained exclusive access to a taliban attack on the afghan national army. the footage was filmed in october while a journalist followed self proclaimed fighters near kabul and as we report the video offers a glimpse in the internal war that is still being fought in afghanistan. >> it's just after dawn in an afghan army base in the providence 40 minutes from kabul and the taliban are about to attack. the taliban has little military training and fight on instinct. the ana fight back. al jazeera gains exclusive access to the group, a self proclaimed taliban fighters in october, in the latest operation suicide bombers are sent forward. the plan say the fighters is to blow open the gates and allow the other fighters to stream in but things are not going to plan. the fighting continues for more than 90 minutes. to the camera the taliban claim they are more successful than the evidence suggests. once the taliban get word the afghan national army has called in backup in the form of tanks the commander orders his men back including the suicide bombers and when they see fighter jets circling in the air the taliban do not seem too worried and stop to pick up fruit on the way back, the reporter is worried and takes cover. >> i just saw two fighter jets in the air flying very low, possibly targeting us. and i'm scared as hell this time. >> reporter: the planes not able to get a definite target move on and so do the taliban back in the town blending in with the local population. >> i'm sure there are indiginous people fighting with them and getting support. >> reporter: they are with the taliban and it's clear the taliban were happy to provide access to show they have an upper hand in an area they say they control. [gunfire] but what al jazeera witnessed was strong resistance from the army and what happens when they leave may change it on the ground and shake the future of afghanistan and i'm with al jazeera. >> reporter: the al jazeera program fault lines will air more of this exclusive report in a two-part series next month. president obama will meet the dalai lama this morning at the white house and china is not happy about it saying it can damage the u.s., chinese relations and he has been in exile for years but say he is a criminal pushing for independence and the president does not support an independent tibet the white house says he favors the daily llama approach and the nobel peace prize winner will be in the u.s. a week. federal pros -- prosecutors are looking at a spill there and arsnic was dumped and they say the water is safe but others are not so sure and we report from eadon, north carolina. >> this is the north carolina, virginia border and eaden, north carolina and the green foam is meant to catch the ash that spilled in the river on february 2nd. duke electric is to blame for this. a leaky pipe underneath a coal-ash pond released what they said two weeks ago to be 82000 tons of coal-ash and now it's downgrade from 30-39,000 tons and nonetheless much of the coal ash is scattered at the river at the bottom in various spots all the way 70 miles downstream. duke energy is the largest electricity provider in the nation and on tuesday a second pipe leaked spewing arsenic-laced into the water and 90 percent is clean and did not know the pipe was faulty and said do not eat the fish because they are not sure of long-term consequences and the ash is at the bottom of the river and banks and if we take the cup and go down a foot or so, bring it up, you can see clearly we have sediment, leaves, and you can see the dark coal that is here in the mud mixed together. just this week federal prosecutors demanded documents an ordered nearly 20 state environmental agency employees to testify before a grand jury coming up. coal ash is not deemed hazardous by the federal government or the epa. if you didn't know coal ash is a byproduct used to make things like cinder blocks, drywall and asphalt and many environmental groups have for years said there should be more stringent regulations on coal ash because the long-term hazards or effects on the water system and people are just simply not known. >> reporter: al jazeera's robert ray reporting. federal prosecutors are looking into the spill. earlier this week they ordered 20 state environmental employees to testify before a grand jury. a california woman is facing murder charges in a deadly rampage inside a native american tribal office and mrs. roads was attending an eviction hearing and she pulled a gun and killed four people and wounded another person and ran out of bullets and then grabbed a knife and stabbed a woman and they found her running outside the building with the knife and tackled her. a business man wants to divide california into six states and tim draper said it's too big and inefficient and impossible to govern and home to 38 million people, more than any state and he needs 800,000 signatures by mid july to get the measure on the november ballot forming states requires congressional approval. arizona governor jan brewer must decide to sign a bill that let's people go for religious reasons and legislation is being debated in several other states but arizona's plan is the only one passed. fast-food workers want to raise the minimum rage with a boy court called mc-poverty and they have been outside fast-food restaurants asking customers not to buy any food. >> the fight to raise the minimum wage by 30% in seattle heats up again with what organizers call a day-long mc-poverty boycott targeting 25 outlets of the big burger chains and wendy's, burger king and mcdonald's. >> it's easy to find people and get excited to stand up and make a stand. >> reporter: jason harvey works at the burger king where he is picketing and says the extra money would make a big difference. >> i would immediately get out of food stamps and would not have to go to food banks any more and totally have extra discretionary income like entertainment or going to a movie or something and save up and get my teeth fixed. >> reporter: on our tour of a dozen locations there are protesters at three and food workers telling us it has been business as usual and the big rally is downtown where seattle council member is one of the speakers. >> it's absolutely critical that we have public actions like this that fire people up. >> reporter: recently elected socialist ran and a $15 platform and it continues. >> the $15 struggle is not only 15, it's capturing all this anger and frustration and you know people are coming out and saying do you know what we have to do something. >> reporter: protesters are not the only ones making statement and paul usually packs his lunch from home and today he made a point of buying it at burger king. >> these are not career jobs. it's not meant to be a career and not meant to raise a family with. >> and those politicians the only reason why they want this is so they can get a vote. from the people who really don't really care about politics but $15 an hour sounds very good, doesn't it. >> reporter: it's hard to tell whether the boycott part of all this is really working. the people at the mcdonald's here say things have been slow today so perhaps it had an impact at least here. the other restaurants we checked said it was business as usual and at the mcdonald's where the big rally was held downtown they were very busy and i'm allen with al jazeera seattle. >> reporter: a spokesman for seattle mcdonald's owners and operators say they are not fighting wage hikes and considering raising minimum salaries at restaurants and looking at business news the pendulum is swinging for stocks, the market getting a boost from encouraging signs the economy could pick up after a slump and futures are higher and here is where we stand, the dow opens 16133. s&p 500, 1839 and nasdaq is 4267. overseas markets sharing the up beat mood and gaining 3% and european stocks are higher at this hour. a tough winter for the housing department and they release figures for january and today an expectations are low and a drop in sales is forecast due to bad weather. but analysts say higher prices are also a problem. >> there has been this pick up in house prices which is a good thing for the market overall but it does taint affordability and also higher interest rates makes homes less affordable and then there is the overall uncertainty in the economy that has been weighing down the housing market for the last several months. >> reporter: realtor's point to low inventory and cash buyers for the rise in home prices. the number of farms in the united states is declining, a new government survey counted 2.1 million farms in 2012 about a 4% drop from five years earlier but some of the bigger farms got bigger. the average farm grew 16 to 334 acres and with fewer farms market values for products have reached record highs. predicted demise of the personal computer may be premature and pc maker hewlitt saying pc sales rose last quarter and despite the growth of tablets and smartphones they are doubling down on the pc business and shares of the company are up in premarket trading. income gap between the rich and poor has been increasing for years and now new research suggests the bigger the city the bigger the problem. we go to san francisco where the widening gap may be changing the character of communities. >> it cost 3400 a month to rent a one bedroom apartment here. >> reporter: aaron walks me through the neighborhood that san francisco call soma and stands for south of market and soma has changed and once a run down part of town it is one of the hottest neighborhoods driven by the influx of technology, entrepreneurs and engineers. >> the income disparity is growing at unprecedented rates and if you look at san francisco levels it's an hour-glass shape in a sense and no middle class. the average income is $46,000 a year but the average income for somebody working in tech is largely over $100,000. >> reporter: the money has led to a construction boom. and that means many older residents had to move out, sometimes against their will. the last few years have seen the number of evictions sky rocket. >> having a home is a basic human right and i think it touches a lot of issues so if you are kicked out of your home your lose access to your community and maybe healthcare if you have to relocate. >> reporter: san francisco went through a tech boom before in the early 1990s and while many welcome economic growth especially as the rest of the country struggles some people say the money, the billions of dollars and the dizzy ipo from facebook and twitter turned san francisco to a city that caters almost exclusively to the new rich. in a place that prides itself on activism people responded with regular protests targeting the tech industry including attempts to stop the private shuttle bus of google, apple and companies that go from homes in the city to their jobs in silicon valley. and campaign against tech has gained momentum and is the city's top political issue. but many tech workers take issue with the way protests have targeted them. they say they are not evicting residents, instead they blame real estate speculators and they say they too would like to see a more equitable city. melissa chan in san francisco. >> with an influx of higher paid workers housing in san francisco has sky rocketed. the medium price of a home is $1 million, that is up 32% since 2012. archeologist may have uncovered the remnants of a 2000-year-old tribe and whether the site in florida should be saved or developed. the serious problem people are trying to solve by spray painting reindeer antlers. >> strong storm has a watch over parts of the southeast and i will let you know who is at risk of strong to severe storms through the day. >> that is a live look at sochi, russia where it's in the mid 50s as the olympics near a close and the winter games end on sunday. . welcome back to al jazeera america, just ahead the ancient find putting a billion development project on hold but first let's look at where the snow and the rain may fall across the country and metrologist ebony is back. >> we have a strong storm system pushing to the east and across georgia and south carolina and into the panhandle of florida. this line will continue to track east, most of the storms are moving pretty quickly just about 50 miles per hour so you can see this whole line kind of racing through parts of georgia, atlanta now starting to get on the backside of it. we still have the rain in the area but that severe weather threat has diminished but the main threat is the strong, damaging winds and winds up words of 60 miles per hour and these storms have had a history of a lot of lightning. so stay inside until the storms pass and once they do we will have some drier air moving in and conditions will improve as the line pushes off the east coast through the later part of the day. as we head to the carolinas and virginia we have the rain kind of westward but again it's going to make its way off to the east as well and a lot of clouds around early this morning and the northeast and we still have some cold air in place and mixing is occurring in parts of maine and that will continue through the afternoon hours and snow starting to wrap up rounds the great lakes but it will put down a few inches before it end. >> the european union is taking legal action against the uk over air pollution and they say britain failed to comply with air quality standards and the group says high level of nitrogen dioxide can lead to respiratory illnesses or premature death as than which supposed to meet the limit by 2010 but the government said it will not achieve that goal for ten years. archeologists in florida believe they have found a prehistoric canal built by native americans and now excavating the site in naples trying to learn when it was built and believe it may have been a shortcut for canoes. >> this society was much more advanced than they had ever been credited with. and of course this is part of the prejudice of europeans who are looking at these people through a very obscured view. >> reporter: on the other side of the state in miami there is a battle brewing over the preservation of another ancient site and as we report a native american city was discovered on a billion dollar construction site. >> beneath the layers of soil in downtown miami there are eras of history, a u.s. army fort, a plantation and iconic hotel, archeologists have now unearthed the oldest on the plot and found several thousand post holes with 8 circles and part of what they say is a foundation of the native american town dating back at least 2000 years. the tribe was called the takesta and now extinct people. >> there is nobody here to speak for them so that is why i'm thinking we is to come up with a respectful way to handle the situation. >> reporter: they made the discovery over seeing the construction of a billion dollar residential and commercial complex. the city of miami requires their presence for certain projects. and other sites have been documented in the vicinity. >> we would like to see balance between preservation and development as much of the site preserved and interpreted as feasible. >> reporter: the developer mdm group offered to reserve and build a museum on a corner with 450 post holes forming one circle. but the group wants to continue to build on the remainder of the site. their attorney says considering what they believe archeologists discovered the offer is more than generous. >> the work announced here is embarrassingly bereft of fundamental science and a lot is fiction. >> reporter: this is not the first battle in miami, as 1998 as they were building high rises they found this, a foundation of a ceremony structure and preserved and is now called the miami circle but many people criticize the way the ancient site has been displayed. houston with the tribe says the developer should use this as an opportunity, not to repeat the mistake of the miami circle. >> i hope that we don't have that sort of same disappointment or failure to preserve the site like we have with the miami circle. >> reporter: the preservation board is planning to designate the plot, a local and historical site. next month the city commission is expected to determine how best to balance the interests of preservation and urban growth. natasha, al jazeera, miami. >> reporter: they have found thousands of things at the site including bones and tools. in finland reindeer wandering on the roads is a serious problem and trying to come up with a way to prevent the animals from being killed by cars, after a few botched attempts they decided to spray paint the antler of 20 reindeer with a glow in the dark dye and if it works they will paint all 200,000 deer that roam northern finland and we have a look at the stories we are following for the next hour and good morning. >> a possible cease fire deal in ukraine and what opposition leaders have yet to sign off on the agreement. a storm across the u.s. and leading to tornados and thunderstorm storm watches and we are in february. a federal judge tossing out a lawsuit against the city of new york the police department there over the secret surveillance of mosque and muslim schools in new jersey. also in the next hour we will talk to a former advisor to the kremlin who says the eu is partially to blame for violence we see in ukraine and will explain what he thinks it will take to end the deadly crisis straight ahead. the rising price of buying a home, what is behind the increase and why it could actually put the brakes on the housing market recovery. >> reporter: and severe storms moving through the southeast this morning, i'll let you know how long the risk will last and where the storms are headed. >> reporter: al jazeera news continues, and dell and libby are back with you in just two minutes and i leave you now with a look at new york city which is under a dense fog advisory right now. the temperature is in the 50s. we will have continuing coverage of the events in ukraine coming up, in the next hour and you can take a live look now at the square in kiev and no violence that has been reported in the square and our reporter there telling us that it's currently calm and peaceful and we will have a live report in a few minutes from the center of ukraine. >> a pause in ukraine arrest with talks of a ceasefire, but it's a tenuous peace. >> it's been a liability for the departments. it's something they struggled with. >> democrats are trying to use obamacare to their advantage. >> a new pressure facing the housing market, how they're making it harder for the average buyer. we'll talk about why a huge supply of cash from an unexpected source is driving prices higher. >> everybody's been shot at, under direct fire, everybody's dealing with the enemy in one way or another. >> it's a dangerous business. the legal pot transactions that have some business owners turning to armed guards. >> good morning, welcome to aljazeera america. >> ukraine's bloody crisis right now hinging on a potential peace deal. we want to show you live images right now from kiev prosecutor protestors are awaiting news of a ceasefire. president victor yanukovych announced a deal has been worked out. >> at least 70 people have been killed in kiev this week in the worst fighting since the unrest began. we are joined by jennifer glass joining us on the phone from kiev. we're hearing mixed signals coming out of kiev today. >> it is the agreement that the president wants right now to return to the cops substitution. presidential elections in december, and that is the problematic part of this agreement, it's a pact deal that the president wants. i spoke to an america businessman here today, lived here for four years and he said this deal is no deal. >> there's so muchinger, i don't see moving the elections up changing things on the ground. he's gone beyond the bounds of civilized behavior. most people in kiev want to see him go at this point. >> in the square, things are peaceful, people walking to see what's going to happen today. they know that a deal is out there. i spoke to one protestor who's been in the square since this all began in november and he's confident that they're going to win in the end. >> i'm not worrying that we will not get the victory, because we are getting it. we got it in a lot of meaning, but we didn't get it yet in the political level, but this is just the question of time and not even of days, but even not of hours. i hope less than an hour, it will be done. >> any deal will be very closely watched by the people in the square and the opposition. they don't trust president yanukovych. it's not clear whether anything other than hess resignation will end the demonstrations. >> give us a sense of what's happening. parliament is reading right now. >> it is and we've seen some very boisterous scenes from parliament this morning, meet to go consider that constitution deal, but the head of parliament tried to sit down and recess the parliament. the opposition blocked him, so big scuffles in parliament this morning. that's been the oppositions strategy. when they don't want something to happen, the president still has a majority, although that is slipping. we've seen his party members, when the opposition doesn't want things to happen, they want to recess, they try to keep parliament speaker from sitting in his chair so nothing can be done. parliament is at a standstill now. >> we're looking at images, that real tussle that happens, you can see the tension in the room. thank you so much, that's jennifer glass reporting from kiev. >> president victor yanukovych said he is eager to sign that deal today. the opposition has not yet agreed to sign off. for more, we're joined by phil ittner in brussels. those talks are called contentious. >> absolutely, the europeanin is keeping a very close eye on this. already we know that various heads of state have actually been consulting with one another on this potential deal. the british prime minister speaking with chancellor angela merkel, french president has been calling other capitals. we know that the polish prime minister has been on the phone. we're now at the head of state level when it comes to these negotiations. was, the three foreign ministers in kiev are heading up efforts in liaison with factions on the ground and also a russian mediator on the ground there. an awful lot of talking going on, various capitals discussing what is going on. they are desperate to find a way to stamp down the rye lens and while all of this talking is going on, there is still discussions going on here in brussels about these sanction programs that they intend to put on ukraine, so both punitive and discussions going on right now. del. >> phil, do we know the russian response to this deal, these concessions that have been made? >> >> well, the russians are on the ground. they are also eager to find a way toned the violence, but there's been very strong language coming out of the foreign ministry, russian foreign minister saying that he thinks the e.u. is trying to draw ukraine into its sphere of influence, ukraine is in the russian sphere of influence. >> phil, thank you very much. >> lisa stark is in washington, d.c. where the obama administration has been monitors the increasing violence in ukraine. good morning, lisa. what's the white house response? >> the white house will be keep ago close eye on what's going on in ukraine today, looking to see if this supposed deal really takes place. the u.s. has been also talking about possibly freezing the assets of those top ukrainian officials they believe are partly responsible for the violence. there is some talk that president obama could sign an order today that would freeze those assets. that may depend partly on what is going on on the ground in ukraine, whether this deal in fact does take place. the u.s. has already decided that it will not issue visas to 20 ukrainian officials, including government officials, who it believes have been involved in the violence and we can also expect continued behind the scenes conversations between top u.s. officials, those in the e.u. and also of course, those in the ukraine, as well. >> the white house has been send ago message to the ukrainian government about its rely in the violence. what have they said publicly? >> behind the scenes, vice president biden yesterday did make a call to president yanukovych telling him to make sure that he pulse back his security forces. then at the white house briefing, deputy white house spokesman josh ernest reinforced the administration's position. >> we have been very clear for quite some time now that the yanukovych government has the primary responsibility to ensure that violence does not occur or to bring violence to an end when it does. it is clear that at least some of the human rights, basic human rights that we hold so dear in this country are not being respected in that country. >> president obama has also come out and criticized the russian president, vladimir putin for his role in what's going on in ukraine. president obama also saying that america stands on the side of basic freedoms and that the russian president clearly does not. >> lisa stark in washington, thanks, lisa. >> stay with aljazeera america for our continuing coverage of the protests in ukraine from on the ground in kiev and around the world. in our next half hour, we'll talk with a former kremlin advisor placing blame on the west for the violence in ukraine. >> venezuelas president taking measures to restore order after growing anti-government demonstrations there. the president deploying additional security forces to the capitol of caracas in border towns. six people died following clashes around the country, the protestors mostly students are now calling for the president's administration, blaming him for staggering inflation, lack of basic necessities and also poor security. >> the u.n. security council is set to vote saturday on a resolution for humanitarian aid to syria. the resolution said aid con voice should be allowed to cross the syrian border from neighboring countries, blaming starvation as a strategy to war and called for an ending to shelling and barrel bombs. it threatened further steps if the warring sides don't comply. the language maybe a sticking point for russia and china. they've vetoed three resolutions threatening sanctions on assad's regime to the central african republican is asking for 3,000 troops, adding to the 6,000 officers from african, french and european forces already in the country since december. at least 2,000 people have been killed since fighting broke out between christians and muslims. 700,000 people have been displaced. >> there are no details in the department of homeland security's warnings about shoe bombs on planes. u.n. security forces saying the warning was based on concerns about an al-qaeda affiliate in yemen. one of the group's leaders is a well known bomb maker. reports suggest he may have designed a new kind of bomb that can get past airport security. the warnings were sent to airlines flying to the u.s. from about 30 airports in europe, middle east and africa. >> a saudi man is expected to bleed guilty for on al-qaeda attack on a french oil tanker that was off the coast of yemen. under a pretrial agreement with the u.s. military, he will spend up to 15 years in prison, serving three more years in guantanamo bay before sent to saudi arabia to finish his sentence. that's on top of the 12 years already in custody. he greed to cooperate with prosecutors and expected to testify in other cases. >> large parts of the midwest are under severe storm watches today, powerful thunderstorms spawning a series of tornadoes in illinois on thursday. national weather service says as many as eight twisters may have touched down across the state. at one point, nearly went to 4,000 people in illinois lost power. >> for more on where severe storm systems are heading next, let's bring in ebony dionne. hi, ebony. >> good morning. we are watching storms just blowing across georgia now and in northern areas of florida. snow across the upper midwest. the storms have been moving quickly. this morning and through the overnight hours, unorganized but now the line has come together. you can see the indication where we had the heavy rainfall along with a lot of lightning, so strong, gusty winds associated with this line. as it continues to bow out across georgia. we do have thunderstorm warnings in place in south carolina and a small portion of west areas of georgia. this area of yellow indicates that. that will be until 2:00 p.m. local time. still watching for strong storms to erupt. in the north, the risk shifts to virginia and we could see storms around new york city and philadelphia going into the afternoon and evening. after that, things will clear out as that line will continue to push off the east coastline. the main threats, isolated tornadoes, but really overall widespread strong damaging winds. we'll continue to keep a close watch on this. as we go through the day, you can see by this evening, the eastern seaboard clears out. we'll still have areas of weather to deal with across main. >> detroit should have a blueprint in place today for how to restructure the city after bankruptcy. the plan will be filed in federal court after months of negotiations on how and where to cut detroit's $18 billion debt. aljazeera is in detroit. bisi, what is in the blueprint? emergency manager kevin orr is expected to file his plan of adjustment here at the federal courthouse sometime today. when does he, we'll get a good look at how exactly he wants to eliminate $18 billion in debt that will essentially drive the city out of bankruptcy. there will be a lot of people watching, among them city retirees who will learn today how much they stand to loose. we'll also get a good look at what the future may hold for the detroit institute of arts, as well as the city's water department. the goal here for orr is to shed this massive debt, while at the same time improve city services here in detroit. now this process, this bankruptcy process has gone going on now for several months. today's development is supposed to be a major turning point in this case. however, as a bankruptcy expert put it, there's still a lot of work to do. take a listen. >> everybody a concrete idea of what the city's thinking and this is more of a trial balloon than the initial proposal that the city floated several months ago, and this will tell the creditors that the city means business. now what they submit and what ultimately may get confirmed by the bankruptcy court, probably two different things. >> there was a draft of this plan that was released a few weeks ago and it favored the retirees over the banks, but everybody here, they want a piece of this pie. i'm told no one is going to walk away completely happy and that we can expect challenges in court. del. >> bisi, thank you very much. she joins us live from detroit. >> president obama will meet with the dalai lama this morning at the white house. china is not happy bit, saying it could damage relations. he has lived in compile for years. china calls him a criminal for pushing his tibeten independence. the white house says he does favor the approach for more autonomy he will be in the u.s. for a week. >> greeted with full military ors in beijing on friday, his visit coming as two allies, the philippines and japan are caught up with the territorial dispute. they are talking about working together on humanitarian relief operations and naval exercises off the coast of hawaii later this year. >> let's look at today's headlines making news around the world. the washington post reports on a french company at the center of reparation talks with the state of maryland. these would go to u.s. holocaust survivors. this is making news because the french company wants to build the purple line, subway rail line in maryland outside d.c., but the general assembly says not until the french government moves forward on making good with these survivors of the holocaust. >> it shows how long the tentacles of world war ii are. this is a controversy that dates back to the 1940's, but it shows that sometimes history doesn't forget and sometimes it takes a long time for history to catch up with the rest of the world. >> princeton university taking steps to prevent another meningitis outbreak. they are just concerned, taking measures to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> eight people got sick last year. they're watching this closely. it's a b. strain, a specific strain they are looking at for at princeton. >> in south florida, a traumatic rush to save an unconscious baby. a woman jumped out of her car on a busy expressway and pleaded for someone to help save her five-month-old nephew. he was turning blue. a miami herald photographers on the scene. he ran to get help, found police and snapped this unbelievable picture. the infant is in the hospital in stable condition right now. >> there were a lot of people that tried to help. a driver stuck in traffic left his car to get out and make sure that he helped, as well, so not only the miami herald photographer taking the picture, but so many saw this woman come to help. >> it stopped traffic in the best way. >> setting the stage for word war three. that is the warning coming from a former advisor to the kremlin considering the violence in the ukraine. we'll talk about keeping the peace there. >> we'll look at the growing price tag for new homeowners. >> more than 38 million people, that is our big number of the day. why they could be divided up if one venture capitalist has his way with a new proposal. real reporting that brings you the world. >> this is a pretty dangerous trip. >> security in beirut is tight. >> more reporters. >> they don't have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab. >> more bureaus, more stories. >> this is where the typhoon came ashore. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. >> al jazeera, nairobi. >> on the turkey-syria border. >> venezuela. >> beijing. >> kabul. >> hong kong. >> ukraine. >> the artic. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. >> what a difference a week makes. you are looking at the manhattan bridge. a week ago, everybody was digging out of the snow. welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. >> i'm libby casey. ahead, we'll talk with the former advisor to the kremlin who thinks the west doesn't understand what's taking place in ukraine. >> the coming mid term elections, some democrats looking to ease it is pain from the rollout of the affordable care act. >> we'll look at the construction of the first new nuclear power plant in the u.s. in more than three decades. >> after days of violent clashes that killed at least 70 people in ukraine, the worst stretch of violence since the unrest began, a peace treaty is cause ago ceasefire, and may be signed. >> ukraine's history with the kremlin is overshadowing its present. >> two neighbors, russia and ukraine caught in a complicated relationship. 46 million are now struggling with the choice, should they lean toward russia or toward the west. russia and ukraine trace the roots as nations all the way back to the ninth century when a collection of tribes found in what is now kiev. after the breakup of the soviet union, ukraine struggled to find a national identity. the country south more economic ties with the european union, a move russia did not support. these neighbors have their own economic ties. russia is ukraines largest trading partner. ukrainian pipe lines transport natural gas from russia to european markets. russia sells natural gas to ukraine at reduce the rates. late last year, all signs were point to go ukraine brokering a trade deal with the e.u. the e.u. promised agreements that would lift barriers on ukraine and european markets. russia was offering a $15 billion loan and continued discount on natural gas. at the 11th hour, president yanukovych sided with russian president vladimir putin and pulled out of signing with the e.u. critics accused of kremlin of arm-twisting. the results, months of street protests and some of the worst violence ukraine has seen since the end of the soviet era. >> joining us now to provide the russian perspective on what's happening in ukraine is alexander, a former advisor to the kremlin. he joins us from london. what do you make of this tentative deal that's been reached with the e.u.? >> it's very difficult to comment now because we already had a previous truce established between the opposition and president yanukovych, and then it all fell apart when the demonstrators tried to attack the building of the national parliament in kiev, so it's unclear, still, because there are reports coming in that the e.u. ministers are saying no, there is no deal. opposition leaders are saying there is no deal. the problem is this, that during this crisis, the so-called protestors, the radical elements in them, got out of control completely. once they started shooting and killing police officers, this whole conflict turned very nasty and the opposition and the e.u. countries and especially the european union itself, should have put pressure on these radical elements who were basically getting out of control, taking over government buildings. this one had all the markings of a coup. >> of course people have been killed. i want to get your perspective. what's the responsibility of president yanukovych, should he think about stepping down because this has gotten out of control? >> well, you see, at this situation, it's very dangerous for anybody like for example yanukovych to suddenly step down and leave, because the situation is out of control. in ukraine, you don't -- not only in kiev do we see those mocked and mercenary's basically shooting at people and police officers and troops, but we have other in other cities that have basically lynched one of the governors there, taken over interior troops. they have been attacking government buildings in other cities. at this moment, when the president, who is still in charge, has been an elected president, by the way, he can't just step down and leave a vacuum and then it will be even worse. >> should there be a state of emergency? >> well, to be honest with you, if i were advising president yanukovych, i would have told him to introduce marshall law after we saw that day of violence when 12 policemen were shot dead. i think it's a situation where he had a act, but he decided not to do that. he obviously thought that he might be able to negotiate the way out. unfortunately, the e.u. countries continue to pile pressure, continue basically to encourage these so-called protestors who are armed to continue their resistance, and they be was, we have these ministers from the e.u., germany, poland visiting kiev yesterday, and they're talking to yanukovych in a patronizing way, instead of calling on the opposition to at least calm down, they didn't do that. all the pressure was on yanukovych. i think the most important thing we should learn is this, ukraine had a perfectly legal right not to sign this agreement with the european union. it was not a good agreement. it was basically a very risky agreement. it did not offer the ukrainians the freedom to move across europe and find jobs. it did not offer any security for the industry, any security for agriculture, and what is even more important, the e.u. was offering a measly $800 million or euros when russia came up with a much better proposal of $15 billion plus. >> i want to get to that deal in just a moment, but i have to key up one phrase you said, marshall law. what would that mean for any semblance of democracy and what about people who believe they have to take total streets to try to have their voices heard? >> marshall law is introduced when so-called protestors start taking up arms and become combatant. they are no longer protestors. they are no longer demonstrators who want democracy. this is turning into civil war situation. you have to stop that, because when any country is confronted by situation where protestors pretending to be, you know, protesting are shooting at the troops and police, when they are taking over government buildings, including, by the way, the buildings of security intelligence agencies and the police, you have to act quickly. >> i want to show you this quote that russia's foreign minister said yesterday. he said the e.u., european union is trying to discuss imposing sanctions, at the same time, they are uninvited missions coming to the ukraine and such actions represent blackmail. why are the russians calling it blackmail when efforts are being made to stop the violence and calm things down? >> they are calling it blackmail because this talk of sanctions is part of the blackmail, part of this pressure, and they're calling it blackmail because when i said about ukraine, you know, choosing out of the two options, choosing a better one for itself, the response of the european union was absolutely uncivilized. we have in the 20 first century in europe, the european union blackmailing a country for not signing a deal, which was not a good deal for that country. >> this is what the protestors are in the streets for, their concerns about not signing the deal. >> no, this is -- no, the important thing was this, the protestors had their grievances about corruption in the country, economic problems, low standards of living and that everybody understands, but these protests were highjacked by these extremists, by these opposition leaders who have nothing to offer, who have no program at all and they were just start to go demand that we need to join europe. now, you must understand something about ukraine. eastern ukraine is the power base, industrial power base. western ukraine depends on eastern ukraine. eastern ukraine is connected to russia with billions and billions of contracts and historical links, cultural links and even relatives, families living there in russia. >> what is president putin's responsibility? some international publications described this violence as putin inferno. should he share some of the blame of the violence? >> i think that is deeply unfair to accuse the kremlin of in flaming tensions. i'm sorry, but it's the european union acting in a strange way and meddling in affairs. by the way, information is coming out, we can see even the coverage of the western press of the events in ukraine is totally biased. they do not show the other side. they do not give any opportunity to any government official or anybody on the other side to say anything. they only show the opposition. they only show some people, you know, so-called protestors go on talking in good english and describing their feelings. then they show the same footage all over again. that's how those demonstrators are showing each other. they never show footage of dead policeman, wounded policemen. they never show those snipers, who are actually protestors in inverted cam makes with armed rifles. >> aljazeera is trying to show everything they can to get a sense which what's happening on the ground. i want to get a sense of where money comes into this. the kremlin has offered a lot of money to ukraine. you talked about the close economic ties of eastern ukraine to russia. is money being put ahead of democracy and free choice? >> no, this is about pure economics. i don't understand this idea that why is the kremlin giving the money. first of all, the kremlin, i mean russia, unlike the european union which is bankrupt and printing money like mad, russia has a surplus of $500 billion and going up wards. so russia has the money to actually defend its economic rights. why should on earth ukraine join the european union, which is printing money, producing average growth of 1% compared to russian growth, why should they join a sinking ship? the ukraineens have done a logical step, chose the best deal out of the two. now they said at the same time, we are prepared to talk to europe and guess what russia said? we do not object to ukraine having deals and having some links with european union, but the european union immediately said no way. >> we ever breaking news here, the opposition leader said he will sign this deal. he said further talks are needed with the prosecutor testers but at this point, he is willing to sign. what's your reaction? >> that's good news. good news. that's good news because at least the opposition have started to become constructive, because otherwise, there are fears that this is going to be another trick and that there will be a provokation. i will still warn against high hopes and expectations, because the same thing happened already this week when all the prisoners were released, the people who were arrested during the riots, i would call them riots rather than demonstrations, there was an amnesty. the next day, there was a provokation and the demonstrators attacked the parliament. so we have to be very careful, take every day as it comes. i think in europe, in america, by the governments, of course has to change. this has to be treated as a situation where the national interests of ukraine have to be included in the deal. >> we have to leave it there. thank you for sharing your perspective. former advisor to the kremlin, joining us from london. >> stay with aljazeera america for continuing coverage paragraph tests in ukraine. we're both on the ground, also around the world. >> fascinating that he said that there was not balanced coverage. obviously he is not watching aljazeera america. the may be things he talked about, the police officers being shot, we saw those bodies being drabbed away and also he forgets the fact that he was just on the airwaves for a long time talking about the russian position, so balance was interesting on that one. >> interesting to see all perspectives. >> a federal judge dismissing a lawsuit in new jersey brought by a group of muslims claiming the nypd secret surveillance program unfairly targeted them because of religion and race. the judge said police could not have monitored new jersey for muslim terrorist activities without also watching the muslim community itself. similar lawsuit filed in brooklyn is still pending. >> an arizona governor jan brewer has to decide whether to sign a bill allows business owners to refers service to gay people because of religious reasons. the measure passed on thursday, similar measures in other states, but arizona is the only one that has passed. >> president obama promised health care reform and delivered. the affordable care act was signed into law in 2010, but the battle over the controversial bill rages on across the country. democrats are trying dew convince voters they were right to support the law. i spoke with some strategists to gauge how hard the task will be ahead of the 2014 mid term elections. >> the affordable care act or obamacare has taken steady hits from republicans, 47 repeal attempts and now with the mid term elections approaching, attack ads. >> call congressman peters and tell him obamacare isn't working. >> it has been a liability for the democrats, and they think that's something they struggled with since it passed. >> political science professor said obamacare is still the main challenge for democrats. >> is it the issue of the election for democrats? >> it's not the issue they would choose, but it's the issue that they're going to ever to contend with. >> polls show the american public is down on the law. half see it unfavorably. only a third feel good about it and 16% are on the fence. ignoring obamacare is a bad strategy. the election results of 2010 are proof. >> they took huge losses in 2010 as president obama said it was a shellacking and it certainly was 60 seats. >> now the democrats are trying to take control of the conversation. >> kirkpatrick listens and learns. it's why she blew the whistle on the disastrous health care website. >> the political action committee is spending tens of millions to get more democrats elected to congress. >> the purpose for the ad is to underscore all of the additional protections that are now available to people as a result of the affordable care act, but also pointing out that problems with the rollout of the website, which are universally recognized. >> democrats have to defend obamacare while admitting to the law's shortcomings. that's their only option. >> they want to see look it, we wanted to change the system the way it was. we didn't, you know, like everything that happened with obamacare, but we think it's better to move forward and fix this than to repeal it. >> is that a complicated message? are they trying to have it both ways? >> it's a very tough message to deliver for a politician. it takes a talented word to make this case and it takes voters who are really keyed in and listening. >> poll data seems to support that rationale, a majority say they would rather improve the law than throw it out. the key is to give democrats more time to improve it. >> the fight for control over congress may depend on just how patient voters are willing to be. >> here with us to analyze democratic strategy for the upcoming mid term elections is political editor for national journal and joins us from washington. good morning, thanks for being with us. president obama said yesterday close to four mill people have signed up for health care, one day after the vice president lowered expectations. why do these numbers matter for the mid term election? >> the politics are are more people in the country benefiting from the president's health care law than the ones who are displaced or not satisfied with their new health care. the numbers that the government released are very inplated, 3.3 million is the latest figure, the h.h.s., health and human services department has released, but a lot of those folks haven't actually paid for health care, so about a fifth of those, 3.3 million haven't received the health care that they supposedly signed up for and more people were displaced from their individual plans on the market and pushed out of their old plans into the new obamacare plans. we don't have a good feel on how many people were uninsured previously who now have insurance thanks to the president's health care law, but anecdotally, it does seem to be lower than what the white house was originally projecting. >> i want to look at president's current approval ratings. 46% approve of mr. obama's performance while half disprove. is president obama the question the democrats have to grapple with or is it the health care law? >> a combination of both. the president's approval rating has a strong correlation with how his party does. in 2013, the president's job approval rating dropped when the controversies over implementation over the health care law, the website started earlier in that area. if the law is more popular, it will stop the bleeding that the democrats are experiencing, but there's no signs of light anytime soon. the white house has been delaying some of the provisions into 2014 to 2015, like the businessman date, so there's no sign that there's going to be a turnaround quickly, at least not before the mid term elections. >> thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> the sochi olympics are in the stretch run. men's hockey looking for payback against canada. they sort of done in the women. >> that was a tough one. we begin on the ice. later today, it's the u.s. men's hockey team squaring against canada. the men have a little score to settle. not only did they loose to the canadians in 2010, but canada defeated the women's team yesterday. >> the shot scores! >> it was looking like a sure thing for the u.s. women's hockey team, ahead 2-1 with a minute left, kelly stack shot the puck at an empty net and missed by inches. canada scored it's second dramatic goal, sending it into overtime. in sudden death, canada struck gold with a power play goal, winning 3-2 and sending the americans home with a silver and in tears. >> california's mad debowman won the first ever gold medal in halfpipe skiing which debuted at the sochi games. it's easy to see what impressed the judges, she did he haved gravity with roles, spins and grabs. her gold medal was the sixth for the u.s. in the halfpipe. in an upset that raised russian spirits, along with some eyebrows, a 17-year-old glided to the gold medal in figure skating. the hometown crowd overflowed with joy as she became the first russian ever to win the event, but some think the favorite from saw the korea was robbed. she skated a near flawless program and looked heart sick when the results were read. some blamed the olympic scoring system with its anonymous judges. >> you've got one judge who's married to the russian federation president and the russian wins tonight and another judge who was kicked out for a year for cheating at the previous olympics. there's your answer. >> grace see gold fell during her program and placed fourth. >> here's your medal count. the first of the men's hockey finals underway. the faceoff will be around 12:00 eastern time in the united states. >> marijuana owners facing taxes and hiring armed guards. >> new guidelines for c-sections. newt prescription for women in labor and doctors in the delivery room. heard before... i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism >> good morning, welcome back to aljazeera america. the business of selling legal marijuana in colorado is proving to be look are a active, but it's a tricky business to run. >> first let's find where it is going to rain across the country today. good morning. >> good morning. it will rain up and down the eastern seaboard. we're watch ago cold front that has made its way east overnight. it blue through the midwest with strong storms leading to power outages with strong damaging winds from missouri into illinois. it even spawned tornadoes. we do have a severe thunderstorm watch across parts of georgia and south carolina. it's with this line that we are watching very closely as it moves across southeastern areas of georgia and through florida. it will continue to bring heavy rainfall. you can see that here in this line of red. that is where we have that intense rain along with lightning and very strong winds. book to you. >> thursday, tax day for marijuana business owners in colorado, where recreational pot is now legal. it's still a federal crime for banks to handle that money, which makes paying taxes a little tricky. >> when you pay your taxes, do you hire combat veterans to keep thieves from stealing your money? you do if you own a marijuana dispensary. >> everybody's been shot at, everybody's been under direct fire, had to deal with the enemy in one way or another. >> big al's security team is the muscle for nervous pot store owners, hired to transfer tens have thousands of dollars of marijuana revenue every day. >> if you look on the left, there's a guy in a dark vehicle, sitting looking out, as well. >> february 20 is the first day state and city retail marijuana taxes are do. hundred was pot shops are paying january's entire tax bill, in many cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars each in cash, because federal laws won't allow them to have bank accounts. >> it's going to be a lot of cash going to the buildings. >> big al is a former special ops marine. they started turning to him for protection when armored car companies found the job too risky. >> these places need your help and you've grown five fold. >> yes, they do. >> the labs is going to join denver's other forth eight recreational marijuana shops. along with that comes a pile of cash and follow that, more nerves. >> it's like growing tomatoes, except the crop that it yields is much more profitable. >> these plants are worth thousands of dollars. to protect the crop and cash, security has no blind spots. >> we are always being recorded, no matter what you do or say. we have panic buttons. we also have standard operation procedures where we can shut the entire dispensary down like that. >> denver mayor michael hancock is nervous, too, despite the fact that the mile high city is going to reap millions in tax benefits, he sees the cash as a safety problem for the city's employees. >> i'm always concerned when large amounts of cash come into the city. >> how much money are we talking here? >> we've had $50,000 of cash walked into city buildings by some of these owners. >> dan left light shade loaded down with thousands in cash. lied shade asked us not to say how much, just one days take from one of colorado's over 400 pot shops. carrol mckinley, aljazeera, denver. >> it is estimated the marijuana business will create nearly $100 million in annual tax revenue for the state of colorado. >> the aljazeera morning news continues. del and i are back with you in just two minutes. >> we leave you now with these images of ukraine. right now, there is a fragile truce in place, both sides signing off. we continue to monitor the events in ukraine and will bring you all the developments as they occur. >> julys break out in ukraine's parliament, the country remains in chaos as the president offers an olive branch to end the deadly violence. >> a controversial practice by new york city police, a federal judge saying it is within its rights when it speed on muslims. >> no sentencing you receive will ever be long enough. >> emotional statements in court for a man beaten into a coma just because he was a baseball fan. we'll look at why the judge had harsh words for the men who attacked him. >> for the first time in 30 years, two nuclear power plants are being built in the u.s. what it means for alternative energy production. good morning with that welcome back to aljazeera america. after days of bloodshed in ukraine, all night talks may have produce add peace agreement. protestors have been waiting for word. >> earlier today, president yanukovych announced a tentative deal brokered by russia and e.u. ministers, early election said to be part that have agreement. >> opposition leaders agreed to sign the deal just a few minutes ago. both sides say that deal is necessary to end clashes that killed at least 70 people this week. jennifer glass joins us from kiev. what's the latest on the deal that we've heard about today? >> libby, opposition leader says they are willing to sign the deal but first have to talk to the people in the square behind me. they have to really talk to the protestors here to see if that deal is what they want. if the agreement offers enough. i spoke to an american businessman who's worked here for the past four years. he says this deal is no deal. >> there's so much bloodshed, violence, anger at the president, i don't see moving back the elections a few months changing the situation on the ground. people want to see the president go. he's gone beyond the bounds of reasonable civilized behavior, so most people in kiev and elsewhere in the country want to see him go at this point. >> here in independence square, it really is a question of what these people think. on the table of this deal is a return to the 2004 constitution that balances out the pours of the president and the parliament taking powers away from victor yanukovych early elections. but the question is are they early enough. we believe they're talking about december of this year, just a few months before elections were scheduled. many people here want president yanukovych to step down. one protestors i spoke to said no matter what this deal is, he's confident of victory. >> i worry for people. i am not worrying that we will not get the victory, because we are getting it, and we are -- we got it in a lot of meanings, but we didn't get it yet in the political on the political level, but this is just the question of time and not even of days, but even not of hours. i hope less than an hour, it will be done. >> so it's a very delicate time here in ukraine, when deals have fallen through in the past, it has turned to rye lens. that is the worry. there are thousands of protestors behind me and in roads behind me manning multiple barricades, worrying that the police or army might come in. some police have left their posts, nobody really knows what that means, a lot of mistrust of the president and everyone waiting to see what the next word will be from the opposition leaders and if they get a real deal. reporting from kiev, thank you. >> lisa stark is in washington, d.c. where the white house has been closely watching the situation in ukraine. what can we expect from the white house today? >> no doubt they are closely monitoring what's going on right now to see if this is a deal that will stick. they were skeptical about the last deal, which as you know did not hold. we expect that president obama will continue his high level conversations with e.u. leaders. he spoke with german chancellor yesterday about the situation. they decided to talk on a daily basis to try to resolve this. the u.s. has also talked about possibly imposing sanctions, maybe freezing assets of some of the ukraines it believes are closely tied to the violence. there could be action on that today, but it depends a lot on what comes out of ukraine that brings a temporary end to this crisis. >> the white house making it pretty clear who we believe is responsible for the escalating violence. >> we've been very clear for quite some time now that the yanukovych government has the primary responsibility to ensure that violence does not occur or to bring violence to an end when it does. it is clear that at least some of the human rights, basic human rates that we hold so dear in this country are not being respected in that country. >> but we just heard a representative from russia saying that he believes that the people that are in the streets are not protestors, but people who are trying to attempt a coup. with with that rhetoric on the left and on the right in the east and west, how do you manage to bring about calm in ukraine. >> del, that is a very tough question. i think the u.s. and obviously the e.u. leaders are struggle with that, as well. yesterday, vice president biden spoke with president yanukovych and urged him to pull back the security forces, and secretary of state john kerry issued a statement saying it is with anger and anguish that we are watching the unfolding violence in kiev. he said that the violence must stop. he condemned the u of force by the government against those protestors saying they have a right to protest peacefully. the u.s. called on the protestors to please keep those protests peaceful. publicly and privately, the u.s. is trying to have some influence, but it's very, very tough to have much influence on the ground there. del. >> lisa stark, thank you very much. >> joining us right now from brussels is the russian ambassador to the european union. there is a fragile truce right now. do you see that holding? >> well i'm keeping my fingers crossed, was, because the situation is very volatile. i understand there was a tentative agreement between the president and those who claim to be leaders of the opposition. what i am concerned most of all is that those individuals who claim to represent the opposition, they do not actually control the situation on the ground, including in the streets and squares of kiev. >> mr. ambassador, we have been watching this situation unfold since november. it has been peaceful all the way up until recently. now we are seeing this violence. the russian ambassador to the european, excuse me, earlier in an interview here on aljazeera, this is what a spokesperson from the russian administration had to say about what he thinks needs to be done. listen. >> if i were advising president yanukovych, i would have told him to introduce marshall law after we saw that day of violence when 12 policemen were shot dead, so i think it was a situation where he had to act. >> on the russian side of this particular debate, we have been hearing words like marshall law, like blackmail. why so much tough rhetoric coming from the russian side of this conversation? >> well, first of all, i personally would not -- i'm not in a position to give any advice to president yanukovych, but what we're witnessing is in fact an attempte attempted coupe det. unfortunately, parts of the media, particularly in the west, i must admit, i haven't been watching aljazeera lately. >> perhaps you should. >> they give a very one-sided picture of what is really happening. well, perhaps. but the situation in reality is that the police and those special forces, the squads, they have been maintaining cordons on the central streets of the square unarmed with batons in their hands against an increasingly hostile group of extremists. there are different people protesting. you are perhaps right that it all started as a -- >> let me interrupt you please and ask this question. if a group of people disagree with an election, disagree with an administration under a democracy, how else do they bring about change in ukraine? >> certainly not by throwing molotov cocktails at police. they go to elections and vote the government out. that in my view is what democracy is. >> so in terms of moving forward, what can russia do with the e.u. to make sure that this fragile truce in place stays in place and why is it russia versus the e.u. with rewards to the situation in ukraine? >> well, i don't think it's russia versus the e.u. i think has all of us would want to see is a settlement of this crisis. we all want to see a stop to the violence. there the problem lies, because the government is certainly in a position to deliver. i am not so sure about the opposition. there are people, you know, it all started as demonstrations, a huge number of e.u. flags and demands for the government to sign the association agreement with the european union. nobody remembers that anymore. if you carefully look at the pictures coming on all t.v. channels today, there are no e.u. flags anymore and the portrait that the opposition groups are carrying are not those of baroso. they are of an acknowledged war criminal, bander a. the flags are the red and black flags of the extreme nationalists. >> thank you for joining us this morning. >> the u.n. security council will vote tomorrow on a resolution for humanitarian aid to syria. the resolution said convoys should be allowed to cross the syrian border that have aid. it condemns starvation as a strategy for the war and calls to an end for shelling and barrel bombs and threatens further steps if the warring sides comply. that language maybe a sticking point for russia and china. they've vetoed three resolutions threatens sanctions on assad's regime. >> afghanistan could become a safe haven for the taliban once nato forces leave the country. it will cost between $5 billion and $6 billion a year to keep afghanistan stable. almost all that have money would be used to sustain afghan security forces. the report says it will take 373,000 afghan troops to keep the peace. the withdrawal of coalition forces will leave afghanistan about 150,000 troops short that have mark. military commanders recommended sending international advisers through 2018. president obama has yet to make a final decision. >> the former president of pakistan will be indicted next month. a court has rejected musharraf's plea for a military trial. he faces treason charges for unlawfully suspending the countries constitution in 2007. if found guilty, he faces the death penalty. >> the u.s. is asked to help in the african central republic, asking for troops to join the french and african forces on the ground since december. at least 2,000 have been killed since fighting broke out between christians and muslims there. 700,000 people have been displaced. >> a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit in new jersey brought by a group of muslims. they claim the nypd's secret surveillance program unfairly targeted them. >> the plaintiffs saying they felt discriminated against because of religion and race. >> one plaintiff in the case who is actually an american soldier who served in iraq called the ruling a slap in the face, all because of the way he prays. >> the nypd admitted the use ever surveillance video at masks and grade schools in new jersey and new york. the department said it's all in the name of terrorist intelligence, but the civil suit claims the practice is unconstitutional because it focused on religion, national origin and race. a federal judge degreed, saying the prom is not discontinual in a story. >> the center for a constitutional rights which represent understand the plaintiff said the court's decision now gives legal sanction to the targeted discrimination of muslims anywhere and everywhere for no reason other than their religion. there is a similar lawsuit filed in federal court in brooklyn. no word on a addition there yet. >> thank you so much. >> right now, we are taking a look at breaking news out of somalia. multiple explosions have been heard at the presidential palace. we are watching the developments from kenya. we are joined now by phone. catherine, bring us up to date. what's happening? >> what we do know and i've been talk to people is that the attacks started with an explosion right outside the back gate, the north gate which holds the presidential palace. the compound also has offices of the speaker of parliament and other ministry government was as, as well. what happened is when the explosion happened, the gunman stormed the compound. they went very near the presidential palace believe where there was a heavy firefight between them and the military, the police who are guarding that compound. we are told that this armed gunman were wearing military uniform and red hats normally worn by the presidential guard. it's not clear exactly who are they, but al shabab has claimed responsibility for this attack. we are told there are casualties that don't have the figures yet. the situation has been contained. we spoke to the interior minister who said the president as well as senior government officials have said the president himself called somalia's representative to the u.n. secretary general and told him that he is in hand. let me just tell you, this is the second attempt on the president. in 2012, suicide bombers stormed into a compound of a hotel where he was hold ago press conference, his first as president. i was at that press conference and one of the gunman in a suicide vest managed to get into the compound before he was killed. >> joining us live by phone from kenya. thank you very much. >> emotions and anger in a california courtroom at two men are sent to prison. why their reactions brought some harsh words from the judge and from the family of a man they beat into a coma for being a baseball fan. >> there's nobody here to speak for them. that's why i'm thinking we have to come up with a respect physical way to handle this situation. >> old america, the project where workers have found signs of life in the u.s. and how they plan to preserve it. >> two nuclear reactors are under construction in southern georgia. the push to boost alternate forms of energy leads to more questions about the sift of people who live in the area. ♪ what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. >> parts of the southeast are under severe storm watches today and powerful storms spawned tornadoes in illinois yesterday. the national weather service said eight twisters may have touched down in that state. at one point, nearly 24,000 people in illinois lost power. >> we have been tracking the severe storm system. what is the latest? >> we now have a severe thunderstorm watch in place across georgia and south carolina, including northern florida. we could see this shift further east. watches have been following the line of storms progressing eastward through the overnight into this morning. we have heavy rainfall around atlanta, now on the backside, drier air is moving in. you can see we have a lot of heavy rainfall, lots of lightning strikes as well as strong, gusty winds. these storms are racing to the east 40 to 50 miles per hour at times. at last check, no severe thunderstorm warnings in place, no tornado warnings but that was a different story yesterday. we could still see the threat going through the day. here's a broader view, an area of great pressure across the great lakes. we have the warm, moist air that just continues to lift northward so it's really fueling the heavy rain with stronger storms. through the day, the threat will shift from florida all the way into the northeast. that is the area we expect thunderstorm activity. as far as the severe weather, virginia beach, raleigh into savannah, charleston, we could be in line for isolated tornadoes, but the main widespread threat will be damaging winds. as we get into this evening, the line clears the coastline. by tonight, we'll mainly have left behind but the main activity will continue to wrap up. >> two men in los angeles pleading guilty to the 2011 beating of a man at dodgers stadium. >> the attack left brian stowe with permanent brain damage. their emotions poured out. >> the beating was so first, he requires care 24 hours a day. >> brian stowe is serving a life sentence in a we'll chair and diapers. he's permanently brain damaged. he's not getting better ever. >> louie sanchez and marvin norwood pled guilty to attacking him in a dodgers stadium parking lot on opening day in 2011. the father of two attended the game between the dodgers and san francisco giants, his favorite baseball team. police and witnesses say stowe was targeted because he was wearing a giants jersey. sanchez, who received eight years acknowledged punching stowe so hard he fell unconscious to the pavement, fracturing his skull. witnesses say sanchez kicked stowe in the head even as he lay helplessly on the ground. norwood got four years. witnesses say his role was less violent, preventing stowe's friends from helping him. >> brian has a lifetime of pain, therapy, hard work daily that he must endure. >> no sentencing you receive will ever be long enough. eventually, you will be released. brian's sentence is a lifetime. >> it was a smirk by sanchez that drew the judge's anger who did not minutes words sentencing the men. >> you continued to hit him and kick him in the head, which tells me and i can only reach one conclusion from that, that you're complete cowards. >> as for stowe, his family says he can take small steps when walking, but the cost of care according to his attorney has approached $5 million. thomas drayton, aljazeera. >> stowe's medical expenses are being south in a lawsuit against the event owners of the dodgers, contending the organization was negligent and failing to provide add scat security. >> the pendulum is swinging for stocks, getting a boost from signs that the economy could pick up after a winter slump. dow futures up 27 points. here's where we stand this morning. the dow opened at 16,133 after snapping a two day losing streak. the s&p add 1839. the nasdaq stands at 4267. overseas market sharing the upbeat mood or wall street, tokyo's nikkei gaining 3%, european stocks also higher this hour. >> it has been a tougher winter for the housing market and we'll get another read this morning when the national association of realtors released existing home sales for january. expectations are low. a drop in sales is forecast because of the bad weather but analysts say higher prices are also to blame. >> there's been this pick up in house prices, which is a good thing for the market overall, but it does taint affordability, also higher interest rates makes homes less affordable and then there's the overall uncertainty in the economy that's been weighing down the housing market. >> realtors point to low inventory and cash buyers for the rise in house prices. >> six years after bailed out, fannie may is about to make its last repayment to the federal government, saying it will soon send $7.2 billion, making taxpayers whole for the bailout. unlike other companies rescued, the firm will remain under government control until congress winds it down or replaces it. the number of farms in the united states is on the decline. a new government survey counted 2.1 million farms in 2012, about a 4% drop from five years earlier. some of of the bigger farms however got bigger. the average farm grew 16-acres to 434-acres. with pure farms, market values for agriculture products have reached record highs. >> there will be no fight this year over leadership at j.p. morgan chase, activists removing a ballot question that would require positions to be held by different people. last year the shareholders battled over diamond, saying he should give up one of those roles. >> the city of detroit presenting its plan to get out of bankruptcy. it's no simple task when you're deal with $18 billion in debt. >> there's a new medical study saying too many pregnant women are getting c. sections instead of delivering naturally. we'll look at the new guidelines that every mom to be will want to hear. >> if revenge is a dish best served cold, than today on the ice is a perfect time for the u.s. men's hockey team to make amends. >> welcome back to aljazeera america. these are the stories we're following this hour. >> ukraine's cries may be nearing and end, both sides agreeing to sign a peace accord to end the violence comes after days of deadly clashes that killed at least 70 people. it's been the worst stretch of violence since the unrest began. >> the u.s. wants more soldiers to help curb the violence in central africa. >> a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of muslims in new jersey, claiming the new york city police department secret surveillance program of mosqued and muslim schools targeted them because of their religion. the judge found no discrimination. >> detroit to set a blueprint for bankruptcy. >> after months of negotiations on where to cut detroit's $18 billion debt, we are in detroit. bisi, what do we know about the blueprint? >> detroit's emergency manner is expected to file that plan here at the federal courthouse today. someone's he does, we will get a look at how he wants to eliminate $18 billion in debt that will essentially drive the city of detroit out of bankruptcy. a lot of people will be watching what happens here. among them, city retirees who will learn just how much they stand to lose. we'll also get a good idea on what could happen to detroit's in substitute of arts as well as the city's water department. again, the emergency manager's plan is to eliminate, shed this debt and improve city services, such as police and fire. this whole bankruptcy process has been going on for about seven months. i'm told what happens today will be a big development in this case, but the work is far from over. >> it will give everybody a concrete idea of what the city's thinking and this is more of a trial balloon than the initial proposal that the city floated several months ago, and this will tell the creditors that the city means business. now what they submit and what ultimately may get confirmed by the bankruptcy court, probably two different things. >> there was a draft of this report released a couple of weeks ago, and it favored pensioners over the banks. it's going to be interesting, because everybody wants a piece of the pie and i'm told that we can expect there to be challenges in court. >> what happens after that plan is filed? >> there are thousands, over 100,000 creditors involved in this case and everyone wants a piece of the pie. i'm told that once this deal is finalized, there will be negotiations behind closed doors between the creditors and city attorneys. once they finalized this deal, they'll be voting on it. these creditors will have the opportunity to vote on it. once they're done with the vote, the case will be handed over to the judge here and behind me, who will have a final say on what happens. i'm told that could take months. >> thank you so much. >> this week the energy secretary announced the approval of $6.5 billion to build new nuclear reactors in georgia, the first to be built in 30 years, construction already underway, started in 2008. peter is from the inner american dialogue, a think tank for policy issues affecting the western hemisphere. he is in washington, d.c. this morning. these are the first plants build in 30 years. does this suggest a new push for nuclear power? >> it doesn't look that way, frankly. what you have had over the past five, eight years is three or four incidents, events, developments that have made nuclear power particularly unappealing, one the biggest perhaps was the nuclear accident in japan that three years on is still -- they are still leaking radioactive waste into the atmosphere and perhaps into the ocean. no one quite seems to know the solution. another country, germany, big country, decided to end its reliance on nuclear energy totally. >> do you think this is a good thing? >> there was the u.s. discovered all these -- that you could extract gas and oil from shale gas at a relatively good price, which means that the cost of energy has gone down in the united states and plus the huge recession. >> so you think this is a good thing or do you think the united states should rethink its position? >> my own sense that is nuclear energy is just a long way off if we're going to get to it. the costs are immense. governments don't have that money now. the recession was devastating to most national government budgets. without governments involved, private businesses aren't going to invest the amounts necessary. they want guarantees. it takes 15-20 years to get a plant on line before it produces a single built of energy, and most of the investment is during that period, plus, of course, you have a huge opposition from environmental groups, particularly after the japanese accident, environmental groups are opposed to almost any form of energy development, but nuclear energy has a special place in their profile of enemies. >> i want to show the audience a map right now showing that there's right now 104 working commercial nuclear reactors at 65 plants in the u.s., generating 20% of the countries totally electricity supply, but based on what i'm hearing you say. you believe that $6.5 billion should be sent someplace else and the united states should scrap that plant where construction started back in 2008. >> well, i frankly don't know the details of the particular plant. i do know that congress approved $50 billion back in 2005. that was supposed to jump start the nuclear energy industry. this is the first use of that $50 billion, the $6 billion after almost 10 years doesn't sound to me like it's a very robust pace for investing in nuclear energy. >> now 30 other countries use nuclear power. is this, in your opinion, as we look at where these plants are located around the world, is this in your opinion a dying form of a way to generate energy? >> unless the price of energy begins to rise substantially, i think nuclear energy is going to be at best on a plateau and probably declining as older plants simply have to be taken off line or become much more expensive to manage. my own sense is at the current economics of energy, the shale, the gas and oil discoveries and the immense ability to take advantage of that just seems to me that the economics is just not going to work for nuclear energy and i'm not even begin to go talk about the politics. >> peter is the president emeritus at american dialogue, join us from washington. >> federal investigators are expanding their investigation into a massive chemical spill. state officials say the water is safe but others around so sure. aljazeera's robert ray reports from eden, north carolina. >> these are the muddy banks on the river on the north carolina, virginia border. this green foam is meant to catch up the contaminants from the coal ash that spilled into the river february 2. now a duke electric is to blame for this, a leaky pipe under a coal ash pond released what they said two weeks ago to be 82,000 tons of coal ash. that figure has now been downgraded to 30-39,000 tons. much that have coal ash is scattered around the river here at the bottom in various spots all the way, 70 miles downstream. duke energy is the largest electricity provider in the nation, and on tuesday, a second pipe leaked, spewing arsonic laced ground water into the river. officials say that 90% of that is clean, and if they did not know that that pipe was faulty at the time. officials are also saying to not eat the fish. they are not sure of long term consequences. much of the ash is on the bottom of the river and on the banks. we go down a foot or so, bring it up, you can see clearly we have setment, leaves, we'll let this out, but you can see the dark coal that is here in the mud mixed together. just this week, federal prosecutors demanded documents and ordered 20 state employees to testify before a grand jury coming up. coal ash is not considered hazardous by the federal government and e.p.a. it is a byproduct used to make cinder blocks, drywall and asphalt. many environmental groups for years have said that there should be more stringent regulations on coal ash, because the long-term hazards or effects on the water system or people are just simply not known. >> aljazeera's robert ray reporting. federal prosecutors are looking into the spill. earlier that week, they ordered 20 state environmental employees to testify before a grand jury. >> the european union taking action over air pollution. the group says there are high levels of nitrogen dioxide leading to respiratory illnesses and premature death. the british government admits it won't achieve the goal set for nearly 10 years. >> nearly one in three women give birth by cesarian sections. they're sometimes scheduled for convenience. two groups are special specialists published new recommendation that is suggest they are being overused. dr. gene conroy helped publish the new guidelines. thanks for being with us. i want to look at the numbers to start. cesarians increased in the u.s. to nearly 35% in 2010. why are more women having cesarians? >> good morning. i think it's a host of different explanations. certainly one is preference. >> we look at what doctors and hospitals tell them, right? >> correct. the practice in the hospital has to do with how a woman labors and how long, or what we consider the active stage of labor that influences when we're going to perform a cesarian section. >> there is a very strong statement about vaginal birth after cesarian. some has to do with the medical legal environment, some with hospital that is don't want to do that, they can lead to emergency cesarian sections rather than a planned cesarian section, so therear number of different factors that influence that, but you're correct, we've seen a marked decrease in the vbac or vaginal birth rate after cesarian. >> is it riskier for hospitals to do a vaginal birth after a cesarian section in terms of numbers? is there a reason medically? >> there is, it's easy tore schedule a c-section rather than an emergency situation. you've got to be prepared for everything. our whole whole with the 2as that came out with the statement are to improve maternal and newborn outcomes. whether we're looking at normal vaginal deliveries, if we're looking at cesarean sections or a repeat section, the goal is a healthy mom and baby. >> what are the recommendations? it has to do with guidelines like this, describing in ducks of labor, when we should induce and when we shouldn't. the guides lines talk about patience, we want to give time to labor, labor longer, push longer and be more patient. it has to do with a patient's expect is a. it is ok to wait until you're in a good labor pattern. it is ok to have a longer labor, and it is ok to push a long time. that's got to be both the patient's understanding, family understanding, and certainly the physician's practice. >> perhaps a third group involved in this, insurance companies, the payment piece of the puzzle, as well. >> the payment part of it is there, you know, how much is reimbursed for a cesarian versus a vaginal delivery. things are bundled right now, the payment is one aspect. looking at the vbac rates has to do with hospitals and how comfortable they are to allow a woman who has had a prior cesarean being allow to the labor. >> thank you for joining us. >> moving to sports now, payback time on the ice for the united states. canada versus the u.s.a. becoming the theme of the olympics. >> it really is, the nhl stars all over from both sides of the roster. four years ago, the u.s. men's hockey team lost to canada in the gold medal game. crosby scored a dramatic game-winning goal in overtime. later today, the americans look for revenge. this time, in the olympic semifinals, the u.s.a. lit the lamp, but the americans expect today's matchup to be the tough effort so far in the tournament and is a rivalry they relish. >> it's such a great rivalry, whether the teams play each other in the gold medal game or preliminary round, the two teams bring out the best in each other. it makes for a great game on television back home for the fans. there's always from a player standpoint always something special when it's a u.s. canada game, but at the same time, for us, it's about getting back, trying to get back into the gold medal game regardless who we play. >> finland is facing sweden, the winner gets the winner of the u.s. and canada. they are heading to the third period. we're in the intermission. sweden has a lead. elsewhere, finishing one and two for cab da in the women's ski cross today, today pitting the four fastest women. sweden took the bronze. >> the medal count, the united states 25 medals, eight gold. the americans followed by russia with 23. the netter land and canada 22 apiece and norway 21. >> the nba, the brooklyn nets are considering signing center jason collins to a 10 day contract. if that occurs, he will become the first active openly gay player in the nba. he held a private workout for the team earlier this week in los angeles. he has a history with this organization and its players, having played for the nets alongside head coach jason kidd, he also played on other teams with current nets joe johnson, paul pierce and kevin garnett. >> the boys of summer going south for spring training, and in arizona, ryan braun has some imageriable talking about on his agenda. remember him after ve hemently denying he used performance enhancing drugs served a suspension. >> it was difficult. i've been asked the most difficult part of the process and there was no easy part. none of it was easy. there is no blueprint, this is how you handle the situation. i made a big mistake and all i can try to do from it is learn, grow, become a better person and move forward. >> that programs it up for sports. i think the key word in spring training is spring. i think i speak for a lot of parts of the country, we're ready for spring at this point. >> watch that go hockey game yesterday broke my heart. we were on the edge of our seats. >> canada beat them again for the gold medal. >> four years, four years away. >> a modern development coming up against historic discovery, life found beneath this florida construction site. >> welcome back to aljazeera america. just ahead, how early signs of life in america may be getting in the way of modern day progress. >> first break out the bumper shoots. it could be rain across the country. >> it's mainly the east coast where we are going to watch for rain. it's going to be heavy at times and we are going to be dealing with an up and down the east coastline. here's a broad view of our storm system we've tracked. it brought severe weather across the midwest and now through the southeast. you can see the line indicated here by the yellow shade, we do have the heavy rainfall, lots of lightning with storms blowing through the area. on the northern side of the system, it's snow and it's been coming down across the western great lakes. around minneapolis and surrounding areas, upwards of 10 inches. we have snow coming down and the winds are very gusty, just gusting 35-45 miles per hour from minneapolis to chicago, blowing all of the snow around. the area of low pressure just about here. we can see that counter clockwise spin. it's going to lift off to the northeast. our winds will wind down and those snow showers but here into the northeast, we're start to go see the impact of the system, lots of cloud cover, moisture, temperatures mild, but all rain as it comes through mainly into new york and pennsylvania. up into main, we still have the winter weather advisories. severe weather, we can see that develop through the afternoon through virginia as well as carolinas. the threat is in place for strong storms through georgia north carolina and florida. >> a canal built by native americans is being found with excavating. they believe it may have been a short cut for canoes. >> on the other side of the state in miami, a battle is brewing over the preservation of another ancient site. a native american city was discovered on a billion dollars construction site. >> there are many eras of history, a u.s. army fort, plantation, iconic hotel. they found several thousand post holes, forming eight circles. part of that what they say is the foundation of a native american town dating back 2,000 years. the tribe are exstinct. >> there is nobody here to speak for them. we have to come up with way to handle the situation respectfully. >> the city of miami requires certain projects and other sites have been documented in the vicinity. >> we would like to see some balance between preservation and development, obviously as much of the site preserved and in they were related as feasible. >> the developer offered to preserve and build a museum on a corner with 450 post holes forming one circle. the group wants to continue to build on the remainder of the site. their attorney says considering what they believe archeologists discovered, the offer is more than generous. >> the work that's been announced here is embarrassingly bereft of any fundamental science. a lot of it is just fiction. >> this isn't the first battle between developers and a structure preserve'd is now called the miami circle. >> many preservationists criticized the way the site has been displayed. some say it should be used as an opportunity not to repeat the mistake of the miami circle. >> i hope that we don't have that sort of same disappointment or failure to preserve the site hike we had with the miami circle. >> the preservation board plans to designate the ancient plot a local historical and archeological site. next month, it will be determined how best toe balance preservation and urban growth. >> thousands of items have been found at the site, including bones and tools. >> that does it for this hour of aljazeera america. >> more news in just two minutes. ses e ... welcome to al jazeera america. i am del walters. these are the stories we are foll following at this hour. ukraine's crisis may be nearing an end after all-night negotiations, both sides agree okay friday to sign a peace accord that would end the violence that comes after days of deadly clark that killed at least 70 people. it is the worst stretch of vie rents since the unrest began. venzuela's president, nicholas maduro has deployed security forces. six people died following a week of clark around the country. there are new details around from the department of peopleland security about the warning concerning shoe bombs on plains. u.s. security forces telling reuters it was based upon concerns about an al-qaeda affiliate in yemen. one is a well-known bomb maker. a federal judgment dismissing a lawsuit wrought by a group of muslims in new york city. they claim the new york police department scent surveillance of mosques and muslim schools unfairly targeted them. the judge finding no such discrimination. large parts of the midwest under severe storm watches. thunderstorms spawning tornados until illinois on thursday. "consider this is next." i am del walters in new york. here is more on what's ahead. >> venezuela al security forces faceoff with demonstrators in the streets.

Anyone think John Swinney would make a good Noah?

City has new flag design - Evanston Now

New Baltimore recognizes National Gun Violence Awareness Day

Officials are inviting citizens to join them in wearing orange on June 7 to help raise awareness about gun violence.

OSU to clear pro-Palestine encampment, some vow to stay

A statement from Oregon State University saying the encampment will be cleared at midnight is seen by some as a "vague threat."

New Baltimore requests speed study for 24 Mile Road

New Baltimore officials are taking a closer look at controlling traffic on local streets.

Lanesboro Council Discusses Potential Highway 250 Project

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT – The Mike Harvey Foundation is May's myFM Ricco Foods Community Partner

The Mike Harvey Foundation is May's myFM Ricco Foods Community Partner