. . welcome to al jazeera america. here are the top stories we are following at this hour. >> making sure that the united states government pays its bills - that's nonnegotiable. >> president obama says a deal on the budget and a debt ceiling needs to be reached now. >> tornados rip through the midwest - damaging homes and other structures. >> rallying for reform. immigration activists gather

also a tornado... blizzards dropped 33 inches of snow on the great plains, three are dead in related accidents. it's a state of emergency along the gulf coast as tropical storm karen approaches. evacuations are in effect for parts of southern louisiana. >> we go to venice louisiana, with karen is heading. first we'll go to our metrologist who has the latest on the conditions. >> we are keeping close tabs on tropical storm karen. winds are at 40kph. it's expected to make its way to gulf states. it will bring a lot of rain fall along the coast. that's what we are watching closely. as it lifts to the north, and makes a curve to the north-east

we'll see isolated rain fall amounts from pennsy cola. we'll watch for that to make landfall tonight, early sunday morning. it's been weakening, not expected to see too many changes in its intensity. a lot of rain associated with it - up ward of 6 inches and localised areas. impacts are lessened the further inland you go. we could see an inch or two across southern areas of georgia. most of the impacts will be felt along coastal indiana and the panhandle. >> a cold front is making its way across the dakotas, and rain will pick up around chicago, into milwaukee, and we are watching out for a temperature drop. in addition to the threat of strong to severe storms we'll watch temperatures cooling off, a difference of up to 20 degrees

or more in some locations. >> let's go to jonathan martin, who is live in an evacuated area of louisiana, with more on tropical storm karen. good morning to you. >> a lot of folks heeded the warning and got out of town. we are at the venice marina. people were told to leave the community by 6 o'clock last night. as we were coming in, we noticed most did leave. there were a few cars on the road. at the marina a few boaters said they are going to wait it out. this is a coastal community. these people are used to storms. they dealt with katrina and isaac. even though now we are talking about a tropical storm, people say they are not taking chances. there are shelters set up here in parts of louisiana, but if you go into new orleans, you will see that things are pretty much normal. the university football game is continuing. a lot of arts and craft

festivals are continuing. here in pakenham parish at grand isle, they could see the brunt of the storm. >> talking about the storm - is it changing plans at all? >> there's a conference calls going on between the mayors of the communities, emergency management and representatives from the weather services. they are on the phone talking about a game plan. they thought they'd be hunkered down getting ready for the storm. a lot of them got to go home, and come back this morning. probably in the next hour we'll know what the game plan is, if the evacuation orders will be lifted or continue. we'll keep you posted on that. >> at times the storms can be unpredictable. i want to head to capitol hill,

and randall pinkston, who is standing by on more of what the president said. he had a lot to say about the shutdown. >> yes, the president did an interview with associated press on a wide range of topics, focussing, of course, on the shutdown and the looming approaching debt ceiling, which will be hit some time later this month. the president insists on what we are calling - the legislatives call clean bills - that is to say - one will to reopen government, another to raise the debt ceiling, and talk about whatever else you want to talk about, negotiate as best you can. he doesn't want the republicans to tie the obamacare act or funding or anything else to either of that legislation. let's listen to what he said to the ap reporter. >> speaker boehner made a decision that he's going to hold out to see if he can get additional concessions from us and what i have said to him is

we are happy to negotiate on anything. we are happy to talk about the health care law. we are happy to talk about the budget. we are happy to talk about deficit reduction and investments. what we can't do is keep engaging in this bringsmanship, where -- bringsmanship where a small fraction of the republican party forces them into brink "smanship to see if they can get more from negotiations by threatening to shut down the government or threatening america, not paying its bills. >> the president says you can't have the republicans or a small faction. republican party holding the government hostage. everything in politics should be nejable. the democrats and the president should discuss items of interest. democrats said they did it in

2011 when they accepted a budget less than what the democrats want. all they are asking for is to continue to allow spending to be done until the end of the year. it's obvious that they are available in the house to pass a clean bill. it will require speaker boehner allowing the measure to come to the floor. so far he is standing firm with the members of his party who are saying, "we won't give a clean bill unless we affect obamacare, the affordable care act." maybe there's compromise out there. so far no one is talking about it. >> remains to be seen. looking ahead to the 17 october deadline to raise the debt ceiling, what is the take. what is the sense on the hill? are we headed for a default? >> yesterday i watched some of the financial shows, and all of the smart money seems to believe that there's no way anyone is going to allow the united states

government to not pay its bills, to go into default. not only would that cause a catastrophe at home, it could wreck markets around the world. so the thinking is at least, you know, smarter minds than mine don't believe there'll be a default. the path to getting to - to avoiding a default at this point is not clear. >> there's a lot at stake. randall pinkston on capitol hill. >> supporters for a comprehensive immigration reform are holding rallies in 150 cities across the u.s., wanting congress to pass the immigration bill introduced by democrats this week. the ralies are directed at house republicans who refused to put the bill on the calendar for a vote. and to get president obama to stop deportations. we go to andy who is at a rally. >> this is a national effort for immigration reform. >> where is the rally being held and what is the goal?

>> well, 154 cities across the country - obviously major cities. there are rallies in 4 is states - denver, san francisco, washington d.c. and smaller city, alabama, little rock ashing saw, and the goal is the same, putting pressure to move the bill ford. to push immigration forward, immigration reform forward - a bill similar to that which passed the senate last june. >> we understand that chicago mayor will be speaking at the rally. can you tell us more about that and what else is planned? >> actually, the mayor wrapped up his talk a little while ago. he and the other people here are really hammering home the children involved in immigration - specifically, they say, 56,000 parents, the

children of those parents who have been deported in the last four years. he hammers that message home. who was not here was congressman grugeraz and others in washington dealing with the government shutdown. peter larkin, he has appeared in illinois. the rally is to bring the vote for the republicans on that house bill that the departments have unveiled - they are pushing peter roskin to do that. they are not holding out much hope, but will go into his district a few miles west, go door to door, urging people to urge him to bring the boat, the bill to a vote in the house. >> supportser are taking the rally on the road and are

heading to washington as well. >> that's right. the rally on tuesday will be at the national mall, a national exclamation point, they are promising a march and a concert. they are talking about civil disobedience and maybe arrest. a lot of the cities are holding more rallies along these lines. they'll have a rally marching through downtown. again, the push for immigration reform. i talked to an organiser and said, "how diff is it to get people rallied around immigration reform, now that you have the government shut oun don people's minds?" she said, "look, congress can multitask." >> it's an emotional debate. thank you andy, in chicago. >> the health care website at

the heart of the health exchanges is getting down time for repairs. a series of technical problems overwhelmed the launch of the markets. many users were unable to sign up for getting quotes. officials say they are working to fix the problems with health care.gof. the site will be taken down at 1am eastern for a few hours. >> instalment to injury. first floods and now a government shutdown. colorado's rocky mountain national park is hurting. >> made in america - why some countries are staying true to that motto.

welcome back. military forces carried out a strike against al-shabab in somalia. an al-shabab spokesman said british and turkish special forces carried out the raid and a british commander was killed. there's no independent

verification of those reports. the strike took place south of mogadishu, two weeks after al-shabab militants attacked a mall in kenya killing at least 76 people. -- 67 people. four officials have been named in the attack that left 67 people dead. al-shabab claimed responsibility for the four-day assault. the announcement contradicts statements claiming that between 10-15 attackers were involved in the september 21st attack. >> bad weather has brought rescue efforts to a halt in the island of lampedusa italy, two days after a packed migrant boat sank off the coast. hope is fading that survivors will be found. 111 african asylum seekers have been confirmed dead and hundreds more are missing. the migrants spent two days at sea travelling from libya, 155 survived. italian divers hope to resume the search for more victims of

the shipwreck. >> colorado's picking up the pieces affairs being hit by the worst floods and are feeling the pinch of the government shutdown with the closing of rocky mountain national park. >> 1700 miles from washington, herds of elk come down from the high meadows, stroll through front yards and stop traffic. 3 million tourists come through esters park to enter rocky mountain national park every year. this fall main street is practically deserted. the streams of sightseers down to a trickle. that's because around the corner the gates to the mark... >> we want to take a break. we'll go to washington - following developments where republicans are speaking about the government shutdown, let's listen. >> this administration has been almost absent when it comes to discussions and working out our

distances. we'll stay focused on trying to ease the pain of the shutdown while we continue to ask both the president and the senate majority leader to sit down and talk. >> it has to be clear from the house republicans that we never desired to shut down. that's why we continued to pass bills for the final hour to fund the government. most people don't realise for the final bill we asked for the senate to sit and talk about our differences. that didn't happen. earlier i read and saw the president cancelled his trip to asia. it's a unique opportunity, he is here, and we are here. let's recap what has gone on this week. wednesday the house passed opening the national parks, funding nih and funding for dc.

hon thursday the house passed funding the guard and reserves, funding veterans. friday we passed a national emergency and disaster recovery act, friday nutrition assistance for low income women and children, as the leader said today we made sure the federal employees and the military was able to have service on sunday. the senate - wednesday - no roll call votes. thursday, no roll call votes. friday - no roll call votes. they have worked. they adopted the national chest week. this has to stop. everyone hurts in a shutdown. we never desired to shut down or asked to shut down which is why we fully funded the government and continue to as we go forward. now is the time, since everyone's in town, to pick up the phone, to work together and

solve the problem. >> while senate democrats and the president refuse to negotiate with house republicans, we continue to do our work. we have passed 12 bills that fund critical parts of the federal government. we have shust passed a bill that will take care of the -- just passed a bill that will take care of the 800,000 federal employees that were furl lode. -- four lode. contrary to what the president and those in the white house believe, there's no winners... >> you are listening to house republicans calling for a compromise asking for the president to come to the table to end the shutdown. day five and no deal. any new developments we'll bring you live. we are coming right back. sti was. -- stay with us. ç]

welcome back. recapping the headlines at this hour. president obama again calls on house republicans to reopen the government. the shutdown is now in its fifth

day with no end in site. the impasse is complicated by the looming debt ceiling deadline, which treasury sis will hit on 17 soct. >> the mid -- 17 october. >> the midbest was hit by storms blowing through iowa and nebraska, and south dakota. >> immigration reform rallies are taking police. they want support for undocumented migrants to become legal residents. >> made in america was a gold standard until american jobs were sent overseas for cheaper labour. several major u.s. companies are rethinking the tactics with the idea of putting americans back to work. >> lost livelihoods, shattered communities - images of u.s. manufacturing jobs migrating overseas. that picture is changing. according to a survey by boston consulting group more than half of executives polled at large

u.s. manufacturers are planning to bring production back to the u.s. from china or are actively considering it. a nearly 50% increase in the last 18 months. what we have seen over the last 10 years are costs in china which are low, rising at 15-20% per year. >> it's not just labour costs, proximity to customers are making it more attractive. since 2010 more than 200 u.s. manufacturers returned 80,000 jobs to u.s. shores. as the jobs come home services spring up around them, creating more jobs. we believe we'll have a significant impact on job growth. we believe by the year 2020 we'll see 2.5 million jobs created because of changes to manufacturing in the u.s. that could move the unemployment down by 1.5 to 2 points. >> no one knows how many u.s. manufacturing jobs are moving

overseas. some argue many jobs that there gone to china are unlikely to return. >> the chinese have real capability in manufacturing and are good at getting new products to market rapidly. susan berger spearheaded a study of innovation in u.s. manufacturing, and says it's not the jobs trickling back from overseas, but the ones created here that drives growth. >> company after company that we visited people are making - not only making goods, but attaching valuable services to them. >> berger says u.s. manufacturers need more programs to train workers and capital to ramp up production. with foreign shores looking less appealing images like these will hopefully become less common. >> he's considered one of the most prolific modern artists of the 20th century, who created master pieces up until his

death. a model of pablo piccaso is about to hit the auction bloke. we look at his work, expected to snatch record-breaking prices. >> andy warhol said if you look at something long enough it loses its meaning. >> i see knows, eye, elephant. >> pablo piccaso's work on the chicago daily plaza has kept the curious guessing for years. >> it's a human from a different perspective. >> a columnist wrote the sculpture had cold, mean eyes. 46 years later the art world is eyeing two models going up for auction. >> these sculptures you don't see regularly, to ss a rare opportunity to acquire such work by the master. this is estimated at

$$25 million - it's something we hope to achieve a great price for. >> it belonged to jan krugier, widely considered an influential art collector. it could fetch between $170 million to $175 million. many art enthusiasts home the model that pablo piccaso kept for himself will soon call the windy city home. >> if they were going to go for a civic sculpture they could have picked a commemorative thing. instead they went to a challenging artist and said, "make us something. he did. >> janine says pablo piccaso never visited chicago, and never explained what the sculpture was. >> i think that the precise problem in reading it assistant what he was trying to make. it is difficult to read.

it's not an accident. that's what he was making. >> a mystery and master piece making for a monumental sale. >> if you want to enjoy dinner you may need to stop looking at the foody pictures online. a study by a university suggests that those who look at food on social media sites can be left without an appetite. participants were shown 60 photos of food and given pae nuts. those looking at salty food were less likely to enjoy a salty snack. it's a classic example of sensory boredom. thanks for watching al jazeera. techknow high-tech phfamine is coming up next, and don't forget

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