Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140107 : vimarsana.com

When we began a feeding program in that area, our humanitarian workers were attacked. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Bitter cold, persistent and spread across much of the country today. Conditions were better suited to peng wins that people and gave new meaning to the term blue states. Im wearing long underwear, i feel like im going skiing but im not. Im going to work. Millimeters of americans spent another icy day in the polar vortex, from washington, d. C. Where readings started the day in the sing glits as soon as i got out of work i will make sure i bundle up and stay there. To most of the midwest and the northeast and new england. 28 below, 30, 40rbgs but it doesnt make a lot of difference. You bundle up in layers, whatever we have. Layers. Stay warm. Im using a towel as a scarf. Im using my wifes scarf because i couldnt find mine. And the deep south joined the misery, as frigid air pushed all the way into the renal renal. This is ice on the roads in atlanta. And snow in rural north georgia. And this completely frozen fountain in s. In greensboro north carolina. Further south, vegetable and citrus crops in florida are at risk. Farmers worked today to protect fields of potatoes and cabbage from the falling mercury. It depends on how cold it gets and how deep it freezes. It could affect the top layer of potatoes. The containage can be affected and it can burn the top leaves. Even places accustomed to cold winter hesitate a shock. Chicago hit a record low for mondays date at 16 degrees. Not counting the wind chill. This is what it looked like when a man opened his window and let freezing winds pour inside. In indiana, about 30,000 people lost power overnight. And with it, their heat. They turned to generators, blankets or shelters to stay warm. Many schools in the midwest stayed closed for a second day today. Michigan governor rick schneider. This isnt the day to have the kids go out and build a snowman or an igloo. The conditions are such that its not safe to be out in the cold for long. Black ice and slick patches on the road were another danger with the number of spinouts and rollovers growing by the hour. And more than 500 amtrack passengers got off trains they had spent the night on and climbed into into busses do their destination, chicago, blowing drifting snow had been stuck on the tracks since Central Illinois since yesterday afternoon. We did have power, we did have blankets and were happy about that. But one part of the country escaped the deep freeze, sunny Southern California with temperatures in the 70s. The fact that it is the beginning of january and im eating a cup of ice cream is awesome. Starting tomorrow, those still suffering through the cold can expect somewhat warmer weather, at least near or above freezing. We have heard the term woodruff weve heard the term polar vortex quite a bit during this deep freeze. Here to help us understand the Science Behind it, im joined by andrew freedman, Senior Science writer at climate central, a news and research organization. Andrew freedman, thank you for being with us. Tell us, what is the polar vortex. The polar vortex actually is not really a new meteorological phenomenon. Its just the National Attention has been focused on it in the past couple of days. You can think of it as this mass of very cold air that usually resides near the north pole, that usually resides in the arctic and is surrounded by fast upperlevel winds. Ifill so it usually sits there but what happened . What caused it to move . Thats what is especially interesting. Usually these fast moving upper level winds trap the air up there and keep it there and thats relative good for people down in the continental u. S. Because it spares us from some of the brutal cold. But occasional what can happen, the winds weaken and its like when you have a spinning top, when its spinning very quickly, its pretty stable. When it starts to slow down, it meanders and wobbles and what we had was a wobble in the polar vortex that kind of pinched off this large chunk of it and slid it south with the aid of other weather systems and the jet stream that were more familiar with. So at the risk of getting really in the weeds here, what caused it to slow down, to start this wobble . Well some of it is dynamics that are going on in the high atmosphere, in the stratosphere and there are often waves that go through the atmosphere from low to high and high to low and that can help cause some of these wobbles. Theres also, you know, areas of High Pressure called blocking highs that sort of act like stop signs in the atmosphere, preventing storms from kind of going through them, and we had a sear lease of blocking highs other the past week or so over the North Pacific especially. They kind of rerouted the traffic in the atmosphere. Is that what caused it to come so far south this time. Yeah, thats pretty much an explanation of why the polar vortex, why such a big chunk of it came this far south. But keep in mind we havent seen anything like this in a long time, in 20 to 30 years. A lot of the records are being broken from those periods but we have seen this before. This is not an alltime cold event, we have had many worse outbreaks. Any way to predict how often we will see it happen in the future, when we will see the next one come . Well, we can predict it in advance in terms of a week or two perhaps. But you know, what were sort of guaranteed is that were going to continue to have cold outbreaks throughout the winter, but longterm Climate Change means that a lot of the cold outbreaks that we experience may not be quite as cold as they used to be. Were seeing less frequent extremely cold temperatures in many cold places. Minneapolis has had much fewer days below 10 degrees fahrenheit, fewer nighttime lows that low. In the past decade versus the 1970s for example. So the longterm trend is up but we have these natural variations in weather patterns that we try to keep close track of. It and sure does catch everybodys attention. Andrew freedman of climate central. We thank you. Thank you. Woodruff j. P. Morgan chase agreed today to pay more than 2 and ahalf billion dollars to settle criminal charges in the Bernie Madoff fraud. Bank ignored warning signs that federal authorities charged the bank ignored warning signs that madoff was running a huge ponzi scheme. Well get full details right after the news summary. On wall street today, stocks finally had the first up day of the new year. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained more than 105 points to close at almost 16,531. The nasdaq rose 39 points to close at 4,153. A bill to restore longterm Unemployment Benefits took its first step forward in the senate today. Half a dozen republicans joined democrats to begin formal debate. Republicans also called for spending cuts to pay for the bill. Well have a full report on todays action later in the program. In iraq, the government claimed it struck a key blow at al qaeda militants holding two cities. The military said this video showed an air strike on an Operations Center just outside ramadi. It said 25 fighters died in the attack. The militants seized ramadi and fallujah last week when Government Troops pulled back. Today, sunni lawmakers warned that the shiiteled government to keep out. translated the iraqi troops were pulled out of anbar because they were defeated. They faced tribes and so many armed men. The troops participation in civilian issues which are in fact the responsibilities of local police has created chaos in anbar and the situation is out of control. Woodruff the Obama Administration has pledged to help the Iraqi Government by providing surveillance drones. The first chemical weapons materials have left syria. The u. N. Announced today that poison gas ingredients were loaded aboard a danish ship. The vessel took on the cargo in the port of latakia, then put to sea until the next shipment arrives. Eventually, the chemicals will be destroyed on a u. S. Navy ship. A Corruption Scandal in turkey took a new turn overnight, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan dismissed or reassigned 350 police officers. It was his latest effort to contain an investigation that he says is politically motivated. The corruption probe has grown steadily to include cabinet ministers and businessmen close to the government. The Los Angeles County sheriff announced today hell retire from running the nations largest county jail system in the face of a scandal. Last month, 18 current and former deputies were indicted on charges ranging from beating inmates to obstructing investigators. Today, sheriff lee baca said he decided not to seek a fifth term, to prevent further damage to the department. The reasons for doing so are so many. Some are most personal and private. But the prevailing one is the negative perception this Upcoming Campaign has brought to the Exemplary Service of the men and women of the sheriffs department. Woodruff baca is 71 years old. He said hell step down at the end of month. More than 100 former new York City Police officers, firefighters and Prison Guards were charged today with faking mental problems to get federal disability benefits. Some falsely said they suffered ailments after 9 11. Prosecutors say four ring leaders coached officers on how to describe symptoms of depression and other problems. They received payouts as high as 500,000, and the ring leaders allegedly got kickbacks. In chicago, a ban on handgun sales is now in limbo. A federal judge ruled monday that ordinances barring such sales are unconstitutional. But he agreed to delay his ruling from taking effect, to give the city time to appeal. Last year, chicago led all other American Cities in homicides. Still to come on the newshour another record fine for j. P. Morgan; a bill to extend Unemployment Benefits clears a key vote; what to expect from Janet Yellens Federal Reserve; an inside look at a terrorist Training Camp; plus, the challenge of fighting hunger in the worlds crisis zones. Woodruff we return to the j. P. Morgan story and the historic penalty it will pay for the banks connection with the madoff ponzi scheme. The settlement and fine were announced five years after Bernie Madoffs scheme collapsed around him and investors worldwide. Jeffrey brown picks up the details about those connections. At the time that madoffs crimes were unveiled, jpmorgans name was not publicly connected with the case in any significant way but federal prosecutors said today the bank new something was wrong well before the ponsy scheme collapsed. U. S. Attorney spelled out some of that history at a press conference this afternoon. Todays charges have been filed because in that regard, j. P. Morgan as an institution failed and failed miserably. In part because of that failure, for decades, Bernie Madoff was able to launder billions of dollars in ponzi proceeds, essentially through a single set of accounts at jpmorgan, as far back as 1998, a bank fund manager concluded that the returns were possibly too good to be true and that there were too many red flags. Patricia hurtado has been covering this for Bloomberg News and was at the Prosecutors Press Conference Today and joins me now. Thank you for joining us. Lets fill in the picture little bit. What exactly is jpmorgan admitting that it did . Well, theyre basically accused of being the private banker for Bernie Madoff and enabling his ponzi scheme to continue, merely for the mere fact that they were concerned and they got their own personal investments out of madoff and he thought they were suspicious and something was wrong they allowed other people to be victimized. We heard this phrase, too good to be true, thats how it looked at least at the time. But the problem is, nobody said anything . Yeah, the government basically alleges that for years, dating back to 1986, madoff had an account at Jpmorgan Chase and its predecessor entities and allowed hundreds of billions of dollars to go through and allowed very unusually suspicious transactions to go through and the bank never raised any red flags or concerns. But the bank was savvy enough to get its own money out when it became concerned before the fraud was uncovered in 2008. No individuals are cited. Am i right the company said it doesnt believe employees knowingly assisted madoffs scheme . Yes. Basically the u. S. Attorneys office conceded today theyre not charging an individual, that this is an constitutional failure. Many, many people, this is a huge bank, different parts of the bank didnt communicate well with each other and didnt share their concerns, so it sort of isolated or the concerns are fragmented, so not one individual was aware of the ponlzy scheme and allowed it to continue. To trish give us examples of the red flags that were ignored. Well, the government in an unusually statement of facts, its an admission of responsibility. A mea culpa of what the Bank Employees were talking and saying privately about madoff which is kind of incriminating. For example theres bun point in june 2007 where one employee speculated thtt madoff and his returns are speculated to be part of a ponzi scheme. In december 1998, jpmorgan manager said his returns are, quote, too good to be true and there were too many red flags, end quote. And the last, most significant thing, was four months before madoff basically admits that he has conduct add ponzi scheme that has gone on for decades in december 2008, jpmorgan in october 2008 was really concerned and redeemed 275 million of its own money from its investing with madoff, and at one point, one of the traders said in october 16, 2008, weeks before madoffs fraud was uncovered there are many elements in the story that make us inference and later when madoff was arrested in 2008, one madoff employee remarked to another one cant say im surprised, can you . And the other said no. This is referred to as a deferred prosecutorial agreement. What does that mean . Is there still potential for prosecution . No. If the bank agrees to behave itself, what you might remember with a probation, theyre told to behave, theyre under the governments thumb for two years. They have to report to the u. S. Attorneys office to prosecutors, to federal regulators, to banking officials as well as the fbi and they have to alert theogovernment as soon as theyre aware anybody is misbehaving and not complying with the banking regulations and then they are on notice to notify the government asap otherwise they will be prosecuted so its deferred for two years until they are off probation basically. So explained to us something about the money involved here; how much and where is it going to . Much or all of it going to victims . Basically, manhattan u. S. Attorney stead today that, with the addition of the 1. 7 billion, that theyre getting from extracting from jpmorgan today, on top of hundreds of millions of dollars and four billion dollars basically collected through another madoff case, forfeiture case, theres going to be 4 billion that will be gotten into the pockets of all of the Madoff Victims. So some of this is going through its a little confusing. Theres 1. 7 billion going through the criminal side and then separately paying hundreds of millions to settle private claims . Yeah. Basically all of the money from this case is basically the governments agreement with the bank. So this is 1,797,000,000,000 that is going to be disbursed to Madoff Victims and then theres 350 million that will be disbursed in a separate payment the bank is making to the office of currency and controller and then 543 million is being collected by the trustee that is overseeing the bankruptcy of madoff. And the other part of this, you say, is that the bank agrees to 134 kind of monitoring or various steps to make sure it doesnt happen again . Yes. It also, in addition, it has to acknowledge responsibility which went on for pages of years and years and years of systemic failures to Pay Attention to these basic red flags that madoff wasnt totally kosher. So how unusually is all of this . How big of a deal did the u. S. Attorney see it . It is very rare. And it is pretty significant. Its the secondlargest forfeiture that the government has ever been able to extract and the department of justice has been able to get from a banking institution. The only larger one involved hsbc, so its significant and its quite at a big dent. Its a cold day outside in new york and it was kind of a cold day for jpmorgan today. Patricia hurtado, thrawch. Woodruff even as prosecutors announced the j. P. Morgan settlement, a separate trial got under way today over allegations of Insider Trading by the former manager of the hedge fund run by billionaire steven a. Cohen. Insider trading has been a major focus of the u. S. Attorneys office for seven years, and cohens hedge fund, s. A. C. , has become a major target of several cases. Thats the subject of tonights frontline to catch a trader. Heres an excerpt about the pursuit of cohen, including exclusive footage of a video deposition he gave in a private civil suit over these matters. Narrator this is a copy of sacs code of ethics and conduct, obtained by frontline. In the industry, its called a compliance