good evening. welcome to al jazeera and our special coverage of the conflict in syria. i'm john siegen that willer in new york. president obama has a week to firm up the congressional votes he needs for a strike on syria. leading republicans are now warning that a vote against an attack would be a disaster for america's credibility. this afternoon the president met with john mccain and lindsey graham. both want more than the limited strikes the president wants. >> if the congress were to reject a resolution like this,

after the president of the united states has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic in that the credibility of this country with friends and enemy -- and adversaries alike would be shredded, and it would be not only implications for this presidency but for future presidencies as well. >> the president really has no one to blame in many ways but himself about the lack of public understanding of what's at stake in syria. we talk about the past, present and future. two years ago when an opportunity to get assad out when there were dozens of al qaeda only in syria. now there's thousands. a year from now there will be tens of thousands. two years ago there were not 600,000 refugees in jordan compromising the kingdom of jordan. time is not on our side, so we urge the president to up his game. >> well, president obama made it clear that the u.s. should take

military action against syria, many americans disagree. a recent nbc poll asked americans whether the united states should launch an attack on syria. 42% of those questioned said yes while 50% said no. more americans say they support military action when specifically told the attacks would not involve so-called boots on the ground or navy jets. 50% support that kind of attack, 44% oppose it. 79% or 8 in 10 americans polled say they agree with the president about seeking congressional approval first, but 16% said a congressional okay is unnecessary. now, our paul bibman is live following it in d.c. the congressional hearings get underway tomorrow. what can we expect? >> reporter: well, john, the d administration is flooding the zone to make a case very

strongly to a skeptical congress that this is the time for action against syria. as you know, senators mccain and graham at the white house today, two senators pushing from the right for stronger action. the president now finds himself between a rock and hard place between voices like that and voices who don't want any action at all. >> i think it's a fair assessment to say that we still have significant concerns, but we believe that there is in formulation a strategy to upgrade the capabilities of the free syrian army and to degrade the capabilities of bass shar al assad. before this meeting, we had not had that indication. >> saudi arabia, turkey, jordan, a lot of the gulf arab states have been helping quietly now.

now is the time to get out front and be more overt. >> reporter: the hearing get underway in ernest tomorrow beginning at 2:30. senator kerry, defense secretary hagel and chairman of the joint chiefs, martin dempsey will be there. that is open, so we will see that on a live web feed actually. on wednesday there's a top secret hearing that the secretary of state kerry will be at again with director of national intelligence, james clapper. following that on wednesday afternoon, kerry will testify again, this time at the house foreign affairs committee. again, john, as i said, they're really flooding the zone getting the officials out there in front of congress. >> so, paul, did we get some sense that they may progress today when the republican senators met with the president? >> reporter: well, senators graham and mccain seemed to indicate that if the president, again, took stronger action than he's been advocating so far they could get on board and maybe convince other lawmakers to come

along. again, the president really finds himself trapped between the senators like mccain and graham on the right pushing for more action and those on the other side who don't want any action at all. it's a tough sell for the white house. john. >> paul, thank you very much. joining us now in the studio is new york congressman gregory meeks. he's a democrat and senior member of the house foreign affairs committee and financial services committee. welcome. it's good to see you. >> good to see you. >> what was your reaction to what you heard today? >> you know, there's still some issues and there's still work that has to be done. for me it's important that we know that some of our allies are truly on board. it shouldn't be just the united states working in a unilateral way. it should be a multilateral force to make sure that such an international rule was violated. it should be international force that goes to uphold that and to make sure that assad pays for the utilization of chemical weapons. >> it doesn't sound like that

will happen, at least that's what we've heard the last few days. >> there will be a problem with my vote, because -- i think the president, though, by going to congress is doing the right thing. he also has time. he's now going to the g-20 on tuesday. he'll have an opportunity to talk to some key leaders and try to bring more people on board. i still think that ultimately what we want to do is have a resolution in syria. it seems to me the only way the resolution will come about is if russia, who is a strong ally of syria, they won't give up on being an ally without certain facts going forward in the united states, and we're not giving up on our allies. so there's still conversation up front or behind closed doors to get an ultimate resolution to the crisis. i do believe and i'm very concerned about the utilization of chemical weapons, but it needs to be an international force as it was in libya. >> there was a briefing yesterday, right? were you part of that one?

>> i was part of the briefing. >> how did it go. >> i wasn't part of the class tied briefing yesterday, but i will be on thursday. i'll be at the hearing on wednesday. i was on another conference call, a declassified conference call today. there was more information that was given out, but for me, i know that this question that i had has to be in a classified setting. i will ask some questions publicly on wednesday to see what the secretary says and others in the classified say. >> what do you need to authorize this? >> i told you what i need is to know what took place in libya. you know, in libya we were clear that what the united states' role was, and there was the arab league and nato. it was a unified position against libya at that particular time. we need a unified position because the actions that took place against syria by assad was against the international

community. >> if you don't get a coalition, you vote no? >> yeah. i can't see -- unless the president tells me something that indicates that there's an imminent threat to one of our allies, because if there's a threat to allies or anything of that nature, then that changes the whole ball game. >> you're clear that in your opinion assad launched this chemical attack on his own people? the evidence is clear to you? >> to me so far everything i've seen, i don't think there's a question about that. >> what particular piece of evidence that you can point to? >> i think it's what the secretary or what i can discuss openly is what the secretary has said. the fact that they know where the weapons came from, the trajectory of where they landed. they know who was in charge of that particular piece of territory. there was every piece of evidence and this is what the secretary drove home today on our conference call, that beyond a reasonable doubt. so do you have the person holding the gun, the smoking gun? i don't believe you have that,

but beyond a reasonable doubt. i'll take him up on it in a classified session to show me exactly what they have. >> are you getting calls from your constituents? what are people saying? how is it running? >> most individuals right now don't want boots on the ground. in fact, they don't want to go to war. they feel war wary, but what they want to do is make sure that the facts are straight. some folks are still concerned because, you know, they still are thinking about what took place when we went to war in iraq. that the government gave them bad information. in fact, a lot of members of congress are concerned about that. most members -- i happened to vote no after i had all the information. those that i have spoken with who voted yes on that say that was absolutely the worst vote, a vote that they most regret making in their entire congressional career. so they're going to focus on this to make sure he they know as much as they can to make the right decision, because those that made the wrong decision then don't want to do it again.

>> congressman, good to see you. thanks for taking time to talk to us on labor day. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> we'll have live coverage of the hearing in washington at 2:00 eastern time tomorrow. worldwide opinion is divided for plans over military intervention in syria. a spokesman for china's foreign ministry said today that china has serious concerns about plans for military action in syria. russia said the evidence the u.s. presented on chemical weapons was absolutely unconvincing. in france the prime minister met with a reluctant parliament and told members that france has evidence that syria has 1,000 tons of chemical weaponry. ya jackie roland reports from paris. >> reporter: making the case for war. senior politicians arrive at the prime minister's residence to get a key briefing on intelligence from syria. the government wants to convince members of parliament from across the political spectrum

that france should intervene. it's a tough sell. >> translator: on the 21st of august president assad's regime used chemical weapons to oppress the syrian people. nobody denies the reality. u.n. inspectors and the evidence we have gathered allow us to hold the regime responsible. this act cannot remain unanswered. >> reporter: the government game mps a nine-page report to support the case. the document makes a number of key points. the report says that satellite imagery shows the chemical weapons were fired from government-held territory. the attack was massive and coordinated, and the rebels would not have had the capacity to launch it. government forces bombed the area afterwards to remove evidence of chemical weapons. some opposition politicians left the meeting unconvinced by the government's argument. >> translator: france is very

isolated. where are our allies? there are no european allies at this stage to support our position on an international level. we should keep our position, which is that of intervention, if only justified within the setting of the united nations. >> reporter: france is still talking about trying to assemble a coalition of the willing. the u.k. parliament says it won't take part. germany and canada have ruled themselves out, and we still don't know the position of the united states. it's hard to see right now who the other partners in a military intervention could be. speaking in brussels, the secretary-general of nato ruled out involvement of the alliance. >> if a response to what has happened in syria were to be a military operation, i would envision a very short, measured, targeted operation.

>> reporter: the french parliament will debate, but there will be no vote on military action. that decision lies with the president alone. right now, he looks like a leader who is paralyzed. yack jackie roland, al jazeera, paris. >> our syria coverage continues in just a moment. al jazeera america - a new voice in american journalism - >>introduces america tonight. >>in egypt, police fired teargas at supporters of the ... >>a fresh take on the stories that connect to you. [[voiceover]] they risk never returning to the united states. >>grounded. >>real. >>unconventional. [[voiceover]] we spent time with some members of the gangster disciples. >>an escape from the expected. >>i'm a cancer survivor. not only cancer, but brain cancer.

>> "consider this" will be right back. ♪ ♪ syrian president bashar al-assad is warnings a strike will cause them to descend into further crisis. in an interview assad said the middle east is a powder keg and

the fire is approaching today. we will talk about what will happen after the first strike. nobody knows what will happen, and everyone will lose control of the situation when the powderkeg explodes. chaos and extremism will spread and there's a risk of regional war. the secretary-general of nato said a firm international response was needed to the use of chemical weapons. >> we believe that these unspeakable actions cha claimed the lives of hundreds of men, women and children cannot be ignored. there is a reason that chemical weapons are banned across the civilized world. they are horrific and barbaric arms that have no place in the 21st century. nato allies consider the use of

chemical weapons as a threat to international peace and security. >> sarin is a nerve agent, a class nerve agent, the most toxic and fast-acting type of weapon. it was developed in nazi germany as a pesticide. it is a clear, tasteless liquid. when a person is exposed it hinders an enzyme in the body that acts as an off switch for glands and muscles. without this switch the muscles are overworked leading to exhaustion, difficulty breathing, and even death. i want to bring back new york congressman gregory meeks. he's a senior member of the house foreign affairs committee and financial services committee. congressman, that sort of information combined with the pictures we saw, especially of children, and yet we see the poll, and it doesn't seem to have had an impact when it comes to the use of force.

why? >> i think that americans want something to be done. they just don't want to do it alone. it shouldn't be -- i listened very closely to what the secretary of nato said. don't say that something should be done, but the united states, you're the only one to do it. we're not going to have anything to do with it. it should be all of us, because it's an affront to all of us, and we should not let assad get away with it. it is a danger to every one of us, but don't say that and then say or stop short of saying there should be military force utilized or we're not going to participate in any military form. let's do it together, because it's an affront to the entire international community. >> you heard lindsey graham say earlier that the president should have done a much better job selling it to the american people to begin with. do you agree with that? >> i think that the president -- i think the president is working to do right now to sell it to the international community, because if it's sold to the

international community, then in my estimation as he did in libya he can go ahead as president saying we're playing our role in the international community. i don't think he even had to come back to congress. the fault lies in that the international community has to stand up, and when i hear senator mccain say it loses or credibility, no. we don't lose our credibility. i think our allies are losing their credibility if they don't stand also. let's stand up together against this kind of atroscity. >> you hear your constituents are saying no, they're tired of war. they had enough war from afghanistan and iraq, and i would assume, from some of the people we've talked to, they're afraid of a long-term involvement in another country. >> i think what my constituents want to know is that, number one, we're doing the right thing. my constituents would not have been against it and i would not have been against the war in iraq if i thought those

individuals were connected to 9/11 or an imminent threat of the use of weapons of mass destruction. that proved to be not true. so what my constituents want to know, number one, is what's going on now true, and if it is, why is it just the united states? if something did go wrong, everyone else will step by the wayside, and we're isolated against internationally and folks look at the united states as if something is wrong with us or if we're some kind of bully. we need to work and the united states is willing to work cooperatively with our partners and allies. if we do that, we can stop the horrific crimes. >> iraq hurt the credibility of the united states even with its own voters? >> absolutely. i think that you've seen individuals lose elections as a result of how they voted on the iraq war. so it absolutely did. people want to make sure that we're doing the right thing and he's doing it for the right reasons. they don't want to do the wrong thing. as i said, a lot of members of

congress who voted for the iraq war say to me today that that was the worst vote that they've ever taken, and they wish -- if there's any vote to take back in their congressional career, it was that vote. they want to make sure they're making the right vote this time, and we don't -- i can tell you i don't want assad to get away with utilizing chemical weapons, but i think that there's an international affront, and we need to answer this internationally, and then it speaks to anyone else that wants to utilize it. they know that the world will come together and condemn them and collectively take action against such horrific crimes against humanity as using chemical warfare. >> congressman, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> there's new evidence that the united king come granted licenses for some of the components. lawrence lee has that part of the story. >> reporter: they say the u.k.

government will help economy recovery, they will help syria from the start of last year. the company said they would ship contempts for last year, but those same materials sodium fluoride and potassium fluoride are integral in the chemical weapons, which much of the world has assumed the syrian government has used against its own people and bratian described as a war crime. the get-out clause for the government appears to be that the shipments never went, so at the moment nobody is suggesting that british chemicals have been used to gas syrian children. there's a bigger question as to whether the government here has learned the lesson of a decade ago about so-called dual use materials. dual use was the phrase on everyone's lips at the end of 2002 when united nations inspectors were racing around iraq. they were arguing then that some things imported by iraq that

looked harmless enough had a military capability. that suddenly sounds a bit familiar. >> i expect there's a great deal of soul-searching at the moment within white all and utki and no doubt in discussions with the security services to find out exactly how these precursor chemicals slipped through. >> what has changed is the internet. nowadays sodium fluoride can be bought freely online. you can buy tons of it from a variety of suppliers in chien. the policing trade is more and more difficulty. countries that take the moral high ground against syria can't afford to be seen to be making mistakes. lauren lee, al jazeera, london. thousands of refugees flee syria, one seattle, washington woman is heading into the heart of war. jordan native rita is heading into syria with medical supplies and other essentials, and she told us this mission is worth risking her life. >> my name is rita zuwani, and

i'm headed out to jordan, syria on wednesday. i'm taking a medical mission over, a group of 39 doctors. we have syringes, we have gauze. these are medicines we got donated from different families here. this tim lar mission we're having 1500 pounds of medicine being sent over by royal jordanian airlines free on air cargo. we have everybody, different specialists that go in, so we have it set up which field hospitals we'll be going to and then we've been told by the different people of where the injuries or new injuries have come in so that we can turn around and take care of those. i believe in the people. i'm a humanitarian and arab. i love the syrians. i lived in syria for ten years. you see those kids, and you listen to those stories. it's way -- you know, you can't turn your back on it.

you're in a city that's dead. that's it. people that are scared, people that just don't know what's actually happening all around them at all. you don't know from one day to the next or one hour to the next if you're going to still be alive. i think i'm making somewhat of a difference. i mean, anything when you can bring in any medicine or you can help people in any way possible or just listening to their stories. they want people to know there are people out there that really care. sorry. i know there's an enemy out there. there are people shooting, but i also think that there's someone that's looking after me, because i believe in what i'm doing. >> again, be sure to stay with al jazeera. we'll have live coverage of the senate foreign relations

committee hearing in washington, and our coverage gets underway at 2:00 eastern time. there's other news we're following. taliban fighters attacked a u.s. military base near the pakistan bord border. three of the attackers were killed. they exchanged gunfire with nato helicopters joining in the fies. jennifer glass reports from kabul. >> reporter: they planted bombs in a vehicle at a base at a border crossing between pakistan. >> translator: the enemy of our country has set fire near the base from security forces. the attack was at two different locations. the vehicles there were set on fire. near the base all three were killed. >> reporter: the armored cars and mine sweepers are part of the $30 billion worth of equipment withdrawn as u.s. forces leave afghanistan. there are no u.s. or afghan

casualties. the border attack is the latest incident that marks an increase in taliban assaults across afghanistan. in the past week or so, 100 afghans including security forces and civilians have been killed. this is the second attack on a nato base in less than a week. on wednesday taliban fighters attacked a nato base south of kabul detonating a truck bomb at the entrance, then sending 20 fighters in to assault the base. eight afghans were killed and more than 50 injured in that attack. in the same province on sunday, the bodies of five afghan soldiers were discovered, their hands bound with chains. the taliban captured them on the highway and shot them to death. jennifer glass, al jazeera, kabul. there's much more ahead on how lethal levels of radiation at japan's nuclear plan have the government promising a rescue

plan. success for diana nyad swimming through the florida straits. our children and to get 7.35 raise up to 12.35 or 15. the young folks. >> what are the laws going to begin to take effect? >> reporter: the laws do not go nothing. here is my question for every membç]

welcome back to al jazeera. senators john mccain and lindsey graham met with the president on monday to discuss authorization for war. hearings begin tomorrow. the french government is also trying to make the case for military action against syria. a nine-page report given to parliament says satellite images show the chemical weapons were fired from government-held territory. syria's president assad told a french magazine that any strike against his country could result in a larger war in the middle east. radiation near the crippled fukushima nuclear power plant in japan is now at the levels that could prove lethal. plant officials in charge of cleaning up the facility say radiation is 18 times the level first reported. they believe the sharp spike in radiation is coming from leaking pipes in damaged containers holding water used to cool the nuclear reactors.

last month 300 tons of water leaked from one of the tanks and that's yus one tank. in total they're 1,000 containers hold 330,000 tons of contaminated water. we have more now from al jazeera reporter florence lui from tokyo. tell us about the concern about the radiation levels. >> reporter: well the higher radiation level readings were recorded over the weekend because the company has recently started using more sophisticated machines to read radiation levels. previously they read up to 100 mill sigh verts an hour. that discrepancy was discovered. the immediate implications are, of course, what are the health implications for workers involved in the cleanup? the chairman of the nuclear regulation authority started to down-play the theaters saying these are beta rays and a worker with protective clothing should

be safe from radiation from these high radiation levels. >> so had last month's problem been taken care off? what's the problem now? >> reporter: right. john, you mentioned that there were -- that they're leaking pipes. the company said that there was -- that they did discover some moisture droplets on a pipe that links to these containers that hold highly contaminated water. they said that has since been repaired, and they wouldn't describe it as a leak, because it's nowhere near the leak that was discovered last month where 300 tons leaked into the -- leaked out from a container. so they say that problem has been sorted. the chairman of the nuclear regulation authority says the plant is still unstable, and he says this crisis is still not over. when he was asked a question the a press conference on monday, he was asked if he thought tepco,

the company in charge of the cleanup operations, lacked a sense of crisis. his response to that was, i don't know. that's a question i've asked myself many times. >> what else can the government do? >> reporter: well, the government has said that it wants to lead in the clean uprole and take a more comprehensive role in this. now, the chief cabinet secretary says they will be presenting a more detailed plan. that could even happen on tuesday. it's tuesday morning here in tokyo. we know that a prime minister is going to be chairing the 32nd session of the nuclear response meetings. we don't yet know what details will be contained in such a plan, but it will have to include plans to deal with the contaminated water, because as you said, there are thousands of these tanks. it's water that -- it's an amount that increases daily, because those melted nuclear reactor cores have to be cooled,

and that water is parting through and needs to be stored. >> florence, thanks again. joining us now is the editor of "popular science," jacob ford. compare this this with other nuclear disaster? >> we have seen worse, although that's not saying much. chernobyl was between 3 and 10 times as bad, depending on how you look at it. when you look at mid-century nuclear test the military did in the united states in the 1950s or '60s, that is anywhere from 40 to 50 times as bad. that said, the problems at fukushima have just begun. >> what about the problems in the pacific ocean? >> well, the trouble with the fukushima site is it's a very difficult geographic location. fukushima sits at the bottom of basically a bowl, which groundwater kind of pours in through this valley and out to the ocean.

anything contaminated, any of the contaminated water that florence mentioned that gets picked up by the groundwater heads towards the ocean. at this point there is -- i mean, some good news to be considered there. the ocean has a tendency to carry these sorts of radioactive materials away from habitation. no humans live in the ocean, so that's one thing to be somewhat grateful for. on the other hand, there really could be -- there seems to have already been a leak of 300 tons, something like 80,000 gallons of contaminated water, and some of that has undoubtedly hit the pacific, which could cause health concerns all over the world. >> how do we measure how serious the concerns are, how serious the radiation problem is? >> well, this was a resin-sealed tank designed to last, but water seems to have gotten out. that means that you have a situation in which about 1800

mi millisieverts were detected. in an industrialized nation we receive 3 millisieverts a year, and at 100 you have an elevated risk of cancer. at 1800 you could be dead in four hours. 5,000 millisieverts is fatal almost instantaneously. this is a bad new leak. it's a 3 on a scale of 1 to 7 on the nuclear regulation authority's scale of international nuclear events. >> it continues to be a serious situation. good to talk with you. thanks again, we appreciate it. >> thank you. there have been new crackdowns by egypt's military-backed government against the muslim brotherhood. a judicial panel is asking them to revoke their status as a nongovernmental organization. the group registered as an ngo to gain legal status in egypt, but since president mohamed morsi was pushed from power in early july, most of the group's leadership has been arrested.

14 members of brotherhood as well as morsi have been ordered to stand trial for inciting violence. ripples from the turmoil in egypt are making waves half a world away here in the united states. there are nearly 180,000 egyptians are here, and many are coptic christians and they're concerned for their relatives in the homeland. we have the report. >> god have mercy on you. >> reporter: the pews in queens, new york, are growing more crowded these days. around half the people filling them came from egypt in the past two years. many seeking safety because as members of the coptic christian minority they were increasingly targets of extremists. yusef is visiting from cairo. he's not sure how long he will stay. that depends on the situation back home. >> of course, egypt is not the

best place to work or stable right now. >> reporter: in the past two weeks, dozens of churches and christian-owned properties across egypt have been destroyed, and at least 7 christians killed. the military government and some human rights groups blame supporters of former president mohamed morsi and the muslim brotherhood. some supporters have called for violence against christians and accuse them of having a role in the president's overthrow last month. father michael soreal is the priest at st. mary and st. antonio. he said it's too early to know who is behind the violence. >> what i can assert of you is it's not christians, and there are certain media outlets that say the christians are doing it. we completely reject that idea. >> reporter: in bay ridge, brooklyn, the biggest mosque in the area condemns the attacks. >> translator: the muslim brotherhood in its long history has never targeted a church. >> reporter: around 1,000

worship here and half are egyptian. the imam say they want morsi back in office. around the corner in the window of this restaurant is a different picture. one of clear support for the general that now rules egypt. the owner is a coptic christian. his open support for the military government that replaced morsi has cost him customers. how much has it affected your business? >> 15% to 20%. it's okay. we have to support them. >> reporter: his clients still include egyptians christians and muslims, and he hopes all egyptians can one day live side by side in his homeland, a hope shared by people like yusef. >> i pray it's peaceful as it used to be and a place for all people to gather, muslims, christians, everyone. >> reporter: many people here admit they don't know how and when that will happen. for now all they can do is hope

and pray. several members of congress are pushing to make the 13 victims of the fort hood shooting eligible for benefits and the purple heart. the act would classify the november 2009 shooting as a terrorist attack. right now the rampage that killed 13 and injured 32 is labeled as a workplace violence. that means the victims and their families are receiving reduced benefits. last month hasan was sentenced to die for his crimes. today a woman giving meaning to saying if at first you don't, you c succeed try again. 64-year-old diana nyad swam from cuba to key west. an amazing feat. we have more on the historic swim. >> reporter: 64-year-old diana

nyad wanted to prove it's not too late to chase your dream, arriving on the shores of key west, florida, she finally succeeded after five attempts. spectators cheered her on during a last 100 yards of her swim. >> i got three messages. one is we should never, ever give up. >> okay. >> two is you never are too old to chase krur dream. . >> that's right. >> three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team. >> reporter: 53 hours after beginning in havana with a 35-person support team helping her along the way, nyad completed the journey without using a shark cage, wet suit or flippers. >> adios.

>> reporter: her past attempts started back in 1978, but she was defeated by severe weather, jellyfish stings and exhaustion. today she triumphed over that that seemed just beyond her reach. >> a remarkable lady. america tonight with joey chin who is also a remarkable lady is coming up in the next hour. joey is standing by in washington, d.c. with the latest. >> cannot compare, john. on "america tonight" on this labor day they're engaged with a living wage war with walmart. it has been introducing itself to many neighborhoods nationwide. the company claims its goal is to bring jobs in places like d.c. and chicago. they believe their stiff low wages rule hurts local economies. we find families in chicago struggling to get by and other workers desperate to take on anything, anything at all. >> i'm going to be the first in

line to apply for a walmart job. >> reporter: even if the wages aren't really high? >> yeah. something is better than nothing, and right now i don't have anything. we're also going to meet another family trying to survive on the walmart wages. i talked to a local leader charged with increasing that wage. that story and lots more coming up at the top of the hour on "america tonight," john. in sports the washington redskins named their starting quarterback. we'll have the details in just a bit. same champs as english and arabic channels. disorder in a mexico court. why this judge lost his cool.

christopher reed.org. >> what happens when social media uncovered fascinating news stories. >> they share. >> social media isn't an after thought, i draws the discussion across america. >> the social media community, on t.v. and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. lap >> an interesting debate. coming up, a school where students don't read books. instead they use ipads almost atlantic city used to be a premier destination for people

on labor day, but in the past few years the chips have been down. a new gambling law aims to change that. they can place bids from home or inside the casino using their mobile devices. it's a bid to boost declining revenues, and new jersey isn't the only state turns to online gaming. nevada and delaware have passed similar bills. bill is the lobbyist for the princeton public affairs group. he joins us in studio. you've been spearheading this online effort. tell me about it, and tell me how you think it will make a difs difference. >> john, luck is the residue of hard work. it's been a long battle, and as a democrat i'm working with a republican governor and democratic legislature in new jersey. the critical thing we've done here is we're the first state in the nation to have full games, not just poker like nevada and not limited games like delaware. we're going live on november

23rd, and we're very excited about the opportunity to present. >> why do you think it will work? it hasn't worked in the casinos necessarily before. i don't mean online, but the casinos are in die kline. >> nevada had 5 billion. atlantic city, 5.2 billion. today atlantic city is going to be lucky when we get through the fourth quarter to reach 2.5 billi billion. >> what happened? >> smoking ban. the proliferation of other casinos in surrounding states, new york, pennsylvania and other closely proximate states. the recession hit us hard. we are not a destination place like nevada is, las vegas for sure. this is a way for us to turn that curve, and it's a game-changer, in my opinion, to attract the 18 to 35-year-olds. >> a lot of people said it was the hurricane, right, that was the cause of all this.

not? >> no, no. i don't know who you may have heard say that, but that's a little baloney. sandy -- the governor did a good job of trying to rebuild. sandy did not impact atlantic city but for a week. it was not significant. our numbers have downtrended since 2008. >> how will this turn it around? >> here's how. in addition to having multiple platforms, so you can go on resorts and go to multiple platform providers and play the same games you could play in a brick and mortar casino online or on your mobile device. what's important is that will give the casinos an opportunity to market it. let me take one quick example. poker stars, the number one online gaming company in the world happens to be a client of mine. 50 million customers. they're going to be the first property up and running linked with resorts to go live and be able to reach out to those 50 million folks and attract them

to resorts. >> so the casinos are done? the actual casinos themselves as we know if? >> there's been an argument about cannibalization. that's why this law is perfect, because the only way to do online gaming is for the online platform to link with an existing brick and mortar casino. >> how much does the state make out of this? >> governor christie is estimated $1 billion in year one. >> i knew you'd get that in. it's interesting to see. i'm sure other states are looking carefully at this and whether or not it succeeds in your state. >> this is the domino effect. we're the first domino to topple. >> it's great to see you. thanks very much. south korean researchers may have come up with a solution for busy commuters. it's an electronic model of a car that folds in half for easier city parking. it's body can lift, slide and shrink to less than 5 1/2 feet long. it has a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour, and with

ten-minute fast charge it can run for 60 miles and probably would fit in a large walk-in closet. it doesn't fold up, but fans say it has a unique quality unlike any other motorcycle. that's the sound they love. the roar of a harley davidson. thousands rode to the celebration of the company's 110th anniversary of milwaukee. harley owners came from mexico, brazil and even australia for the weekend. here's sports. >> rg3. it's all about rg3, john. robert griffin iii said he'll start, but head coach had to hold him back until today. shanahan made it official saying griffin will start the season opener on monday night.

he's coming off restructurive knee surgery. the redskins have been very careful with the franchise player because griffin didn't play a single snap in the preseason. dig this. after being cleared by the doctors and head coach, there was still some concerns about the knee. shanahan discussed it with fwrif fin over the weekend. what were those concerns about, coach? >> i don't share those conversations, and so we'll have to go from there. you have to trust us that the doctor feels good about it, regardless what the concerns were, i need to share it with robert. we have these conversations, and i don't share. there are certain conversations that stay between doctor and player, a coach and a player. this is one of those conversations. we didn't feel like that robert couldn't go, and he was ready to play and he would do all the things you would ask a guy could do. we believe he can do everything a quarterback is asked to do. >> to get you jacked up, al jazeera will have exclusive one on one interviews with some

of the best players. tonight we start off strong with strong safety troy polamalu. can he stay healthy at 32 years young and lead the steelers back into the playoffs? our neil scarborough went searching for answers with the seven-time pro bowler? >> where are the steelers at this year? >> it all depends on how things -- how healthy we can be throughout the season, how this team can -- the camaraderie and how this team is built. that's kind of been our strength. >> what will your defense miss this year with james harrison gone and signed with the cincinnati bengals? >> obviously, his game speaks for itself. he was the intimidator. he could play -- you know, he was the steel curtain. he was one of those style of players. so we lose that for sure. we also have guys that can carry that on, you know.

we have jarvis jones, who is extremely talented. he's not a james harrison, but james harrison wasn't a joey porter either, and joey porter wasn't jason gill and jason gill wasn't his predecessor. thank god we have a line of people very successful. their games may not be similar but the production will be. >> with age and years in the league, folks say he's not the same player anymore. what do you have to do to get back in the form that earns you the defensive player the year award? >> they're right, i am getting older. as far as you're concerned, honestly, i'm not sure. i will say my knowledge of the game is much more. i feel for the game much better. who knows, you know what i mean? time will tell. that's the success we'll have this year. >> how do you feel the league is changes? is it a good direction because players are protected, or is it

the other way because you have to think about what you do on the field now more than you ever have? >> whether -- when you talk about health, that's an important issue, especially brain health. the development of that part of the game is obviously positive, because you want to take care of people and be healthy. on the other side of it, i'm a football purist. this game challenges people in so many different ways, and fear is a huge part of it. when somebody is going across the middle and he's got to think of somebody taking his head off, that's what separates a professional football player to somebody that's watching it from a couch on a tv. there's only so many things you can do in this game before it's not football anymore. you know, you're not going to tell people to stop touching people in the head in boxing or mma because that's part of the sport. this is what we chose to play, and that's the beauty of our

sport. there's so many different emotions in it, and the most important one to overcome is that here. >> in that interview polamalu had his hair pulled back, but do you know that his flowing locks are insured for $1 million? speaking of money, our nfl kickoff series will continue tomorrow with another two-time super bowl champion in the giants linebacker. has father time caused roger federer, he's 32, but in tennis that's considered the backside of your career. he's taking on tommy brobredo. federer probably wished it kept rain, and he continues to struggle. remember, he got bounced in the second round at wimbledon, and tonight just wrapped up. he lost in straight sets to tommy rebredo in the fourth round which hasn't happened in the u.s. open in over a decade.

it's upset alert, because nadal number two seed lost as well tonight. we'll have your update at 11:00. thanks very much. kevin is back with a look at weather and the forecast coming up. "consider this" will be right back. but should you be made aware if you are consuming them. that's next on "consider this." my name is jonathan betz. i'm from dallas, texas, and i'm]

it is the eve of your three hi- three-day weekend so it's ending. we have flash flood watches and warnings in effect right now and severe weather is taking over the northeast part of the united states. come to the weather wall. this is the frontal boundary responsible from new york down here towards pardots of kentuck. we expect more heavy rain. across the northeast in portland, maine we saw 2.5 inches of rain. it's not over yet for places like boston, a little over three-quarters of an inch of rain right there. one-third of an inch of rain and albany a quarter and montreal with three-quarters of an inch of rain. this is the pattern we're seeing right now. a lot of rain is pushing through, and the frontal boundary that's making its way

is producing severe weather. we'll watch this the next couple of hours. you see the yellow boxes as well as the orange boxes. that is where the severe weather threat is, and then over towards the rest of new england where the green is, that is where we're watching for more flooding. manchester, concord new hampshire had more flooding today and we expect more in your forecast. on tuesday in new york we see some rain. that's going to clear up later in the day, and then it's going to be get much nicer. by friday we see 77 degrees. down towards dallas things are better over the next day. the rain is moving down towards the south. things are going to stay quite warm, though. partly cloudy conditions with a temperature on wednesday of 100 degrees and more heavy showers towards parts of nevada. that is causing its own problems with flash flooding in the forecast. that's a look at the national weather. your headlines are coming up.

takeaway is our company emerges from a time of war that i was elected in part to end. buzz we really want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an >> welcome ting al jazeera. i'm john siegenthaler. here are nirt's top stories. john mccain and lindsay graham met with president obama, congressional hearings on syria begin tomorrow. syria's president told a french magazine today that a strike against his country could result in a larger war in the middle east. he called the region a powder keg. there have been new crack downs by egypt's military backed government against muslim brotherhood, a ngo non