>> welcome to al jazeera, i'm john siegenthaler. not good for bay area commuters. san francisco bart is ready to strike. thursday afternoon negotiations fell apart. newly released surveillance footage from inside nairobi's westgate mall, 67 people killed by gun gunmen. president obama will nominate jay johnson as the next head of

homeland security later today. johnson will replace janet napolitano. google shares hit a new high in after hours trading jumping more than 8%. the search engine giant reported better than expected sales this quarter. the stock hit nearly $960 a share fueling speculation that it could reach $1,000. those are the headlines, i'm john siegenthaler. america tonight is next on al jazeera, remember you can always get the latest news on aljazeera.com. >> on america tonight. the price of politics. winners, losers and how ordinary americans shoulder the cost. if. >> i didn't win anything out of this. i lost, i lost time.

i lost money. >> also tonight, continuing the series on the hacktivists, anonymous and other activists behind the digital mass and a death with dignity. vermont's new law and how it could redefine who makes that final decision. >> i don't fear death at all. life is what's hard. >> good evening, thanks for being with us. i'm joie chen. it is over except for blaij and

the shaming. fowsefocused on the win and the, the truth is the shutdown hurt both the nation's economy and the economy of ordinary americans. big picture now. the total loss to the economy $24 billion. standard & poor's another number for us, $4.8 billion is what's cost lost economic output. the loss the government produced, because of the shutdown, higher interest rates, which will add another $114 million to the federal debt. and then there is the cost to the personal economies of ordinary americans. shopkeepers, to people worried about the future, care for kids with no childcare and government workers, who don't get a

paycheck from the government exactly. but who rely on the government. he works for a government institution, and he represents a big part of the american workforce left with a lot of debt about lawmakers on capitol hill. if there's anything john anderson takes away from these last two weeks he says, it's this: you just can't trust those guys. >> i was just shaking my head. it's like it is demoralizing. it's like they don't see me. it's like they see through me. >> anderson's a cook at one of the top lunch spots on the mall, the cafeteria at the national museum of the american indian. he went back to his his $10.50 b because he needed to. >> we still got to get back and

forth owork. i spent my last $12 gettings me and him back and forth to school. and i got here and borrowed $20 from one of my co-workers. >> he was just making it paycheck to paycheck before the shutdown. but 16 days off the job left him with nothing. >> we also had a test, the psat that i couldn't pay for. luckily one of the guidance counselors looked out for me, and gave me a fee waiver because he was furloughed. >> even the $40 he needed for bus fare to and from school was a tight squeeze. anderson watched anxiously, looking for something that would protect contract workers but the shutdown deal was sealed by workers who never had to worry about their own paychecks.

>> a lot of them, i serve a lot of them. they loo look at us like peons,. >> bureaucrats for hire? many of the 7 million federal contract workers are like john nns anderson and no hope of getting back pay for their time off. >> we're not going to get that money. it's lost, gone. nobody said anything about us being reimbursed. i lost time and money. >> now anderson knows anew round of budge warfare will likely come around. early next year. >> that's why i'm looking at options. if i can stay with the job and find something on the side, and use this for a springboard to do better things, get my name out

there. >> also, on the losing end, welfare recipients in north carolina. that state cut off federally funded welfare checks, leaving 20,000 people, mostly children, without benefits. blame it on the shutdown. now more on the shutdown's effect on the comeen. country. loreloren. $24 billion, explain to me what that means. >> thanks for having me. really, that $24 billion is all of the money that was not paid to the 2 million or so federal employees and the contractors during this whole standoff essentially and that is effectively a waisted drain on the economy that we had all these people doing work and we're still going to back-pay them but while they weren't being paid these are the folks

who didn't go to the movies as much, didn't go to the pump as much, didn't buy the refrigerator and that has in econ speak, didn't spend as much.p. >> that is lost of productively, not paying these people for not working for 16 days but also the creation of whatever work they would have done. >> exactly. i think one of the worse effects is the folks like john who will never get paid. it's the contractors and most people when they think of contractors they think of lockheed martin or boeing. but most of the defense contractors, they're pretty small companies and those are folks who without that government check they probably weren't able to make payroll

during this period. and that is however many people working at that firm that didn't get paid. >> john is very aware of the situation and very aware going into next year that we could be looking at this all over again as it were. you know for him he's -- there's no way for him to plan for this. and there's no way really for him to learn from this. but investors on the other hand, corporate investors are looking at this and what have they learned from this? >> so i hope on the optimistic side i hope the corporate vefertion know that -- investors know that we get things done, but the more we go to the precipice, that's a very scary thing for them. back in 2011 when we had our first big debt limit scare recently the government policy center put out a study where they analyzed the data on that and that cost the federal budget

$19 billion -- >> 19 billion? >> exactly while we were controlling the debt, which scenes counterproductive. >> it's also taught investors that look they are going to solve that in the end anyway, a cynical view but -- >> exactly, it is cynical. the more times we do this the less it's costing us, you see a lot of americans scared it's one thing for americans who do this day in and day out. but 50% of our debt is held by foreign investors. i talk to people in europe and whatnot and they are more concerned i was trying to convince them that it was a .1% chance we would go pass the x date, but they were thinking about the 14th amendment and printing $1 trillion coins.

>> thank you loren adler. coming up a cybercrack down. are hactivists more concerns, coming up next.

(vo) tomorrow night: faultlines chases the flames as they spread throughout the west. >> there's a thick, acrid smoke smell in the air and we're following a strike team now to the top of the mountains where the fire line begins. (vo) it's a war being fought by air and on land costing millions of dollars every year.

>> you will make an individual decision to build a home there, but what's the cost to the rest of us? (vo) what's going wrong with the war on wildfires and what are the true costs of putting them out? >> last night on this program we introduced you to hactivists. they use online skills to right what they see as wrongs. we told you the story of one of them, who helped cover up rape cases in steubenville, ohio. as lori jane gliha reports, that

activism is running unagainst the law. >> in 2010, anonymous launched attacks against mastercard, veea and paypal. >> the fbi was able to infiltrate the group of with the help of an arrested hacker turned informant. in 2011 the fbi arrested 16 anonymous members, chargedunder the cfaa, a 1986 law that criminalized unlawful use of computers. each law could carry 20 years in prison. increasingly, the punishment doesn't fit crime. >> it's very poorly written. >> a number of hackers charged under the cfaa.

you could you know go to a website right now click on a link and the owner decides that they don't want you to be at the website, your access is unauthorized, bang you probably just committed a felony under the cfaa. >> one anonymous member whom he represents. >> this is a call to arms. >> federal officials suspected him of hacking into a website to do it. >> jumped on the door, what appeared to be a fedex struck, put me in handcuffs. >> ing he said the fbi confiscated his computer and questioned him for hours. >> they want to charge me with three felonies. identity theft, aggravated identity theft and taking control of a secure computer. >> think that he is definitely

going to be charged. i think the department of justice is look at people they can make examples of. >> you get 25 years in prison by forcibly entering your way into a computer but two years for forcibly entering your way into a female. >> charges against lof stutter. >> recently raise money for jailed hactivists. >> this government is unrelenting in the oppression and the oppression and the repression of internet activists who want to reveal the truth, want to democratize the

internet. >> first between secrecy and openness. >> they also spoke out against the cfaa. >> we want to talk about the computer fraud abuse act. which is the weapon that the government uses to restrict free flow of information on the internet. thank you very much. >> the department of justice and the fbi's cybercrime division refused multiple requests for an interview so we weeched out to mark rash who helped write the legislation. >> theft of information, those weren't crimes, until we passed a specific law making it a crime. so we needed a computer crimes statute to deal with the new technologies. >> ultimately do you think that this law is doing more harm or good? >> i think by and large it's

doing more good the way it's being used. the problem is at the edges. the problems are when we try to use the statute to go after behavior which isn't clearly criminal. when we use the statute to go after whistle blowers or protesters, or people who merely embarrass other people. >> rasch says people who break the rules have to pay the penalties. >> you have taken it upon yourself to violate the law for a civil did obedience purpose. when you do that you run the risk of being arrested. dr. martin luther king engaged in civil disobedience but he was arrested and prosecuted for it. >> few hactivists end up spending years in jail.

>> dr. martin luther king was arrested 35 times or 40 times, i can't remember the exact number. spent a lot of time in jail but it was all misdemeanors, there was a respect i think for the idea that political activity that broke the law probably shouldn't be a felony. >> some lawmakers are attempting to narrow the scope of the cfaa. one bill introduced by zoe lofgren of california. >> aaron was arrested in january of 2011 but he was dieted on four and then they under it to 13 felony accounts. >> schwartz was charged under the cfaa for using an unauthorized computer downloading unauthorized articles. the government alleged he intented to distribute the articles to the public.

>> then they upped the number of counts he was indicted on. he could have been in jail since until he was 76. the last time i saw aaron was the wednesday before he died on that friday. i got an instant message from terin. she said i'm really worried about aaron which was something she didn't usually say. >> later that evening, ben's phone rang. >> i got the call from her like 7:06. it was like the world fell apart. >> aaron are schwartz's suicide which many attribute to government prosecution, rocked the online community and created pressure on members of congress. >> we still need to pass aaron's law to stop this from happening. right now if this ends leer, you

know, the system beat aaron in a way. we need to change the system now. >> for now though, the bill remains in committee and hactivists like derrick wait to see what the future holds. the government indicted 13 more members of anonymous. so joie all sorts of people are affected by this. they are in limbo wondering what kind of penalties they will be facing. >> there are a lot of citiics of anonymous. what do they think of the group's are attempt to fight the law? >> there are private information has been exposed. they say they become victims of a mob mentality sometimes where all sorts of information is released without having all the facts. so that has caused some of these hactivists to be labeled as

bullies. the sheriff's office and the county prosecutor's office felt bullied. even today this happened a couple of days ago but even today those websites are still shut down. on the flip side, you have eric, who wonders what kind of penalty he is going to be receiving. when we interviewed him he talked about all kinds of anxiety about what will be lapping to him. there is got to be a happy medium, where the punishment does fit the crime. >> we are working in new and uncharted territory. lori jane gliha, thank you. we talk to cindy, we appreciate you being with us, the very title frontier foundation, we are in a new area

of the law and different considerations. but is there a necessity for this as mash raesch is saying, do the benefits outweigh the crimes that were occurred? >> this law was written a while ago and really at a time before people were beginning to use computers for political statements and some of the ways that they use the computers for political protests and other things now. the law is just overbroad. it doesn't define terms very well and we see it being misused. there are lots of provisions in the computer fraud and abuse act that weren't very well, violating terms of service or other agreements on websites, have hurt innovation, they've hurt security researchers and they've hurt ordinary people as well. so the law is ripe for reform.

>> let's talk about aaron's law specifically. where does that sound now? >> aaron's law has been introduced, it is a bipartisan bill, introducinged by zoe lofgren and representative sensenbrenner. we hope the bill will get grouped in with a bunch of bills introduced into the house, there is a piece of aaron's law that was actually in a separate bill passed by the senate a couple of years ago by the senate judiciary committee. the bill is i think fairly modest. it frankly doesn't go as far as i would like. but it brings the law into what ordinary people think ought to

be illegal and not and most importantly will really take the penalty scheme and make it a little less crazy. one of the problems that people have is that the law is really disproportionate in its penalties. >> you know i cannot help bus think about the edward snowden disclosures and when that has taught us about the nsa and the kind of gathering there is. i look at this legislation and i wonder, are we looking at the wrong side of the ledger? >> in what way? >> well, just in this -- you know, this is an environment where the checks and balance he are applied in some way where you know, in the meantime, there are all these indications that the nsa is collecting huge amounts of data and we are looking at individuals here when the nsa is gathering a rather big glut of information it turns out. >> well, i think that's right. i think a little harmonization might make some sense. i mean i think nobody wants to live in a world where the government can find out

everything about you but if you step one step out of line with your computer you're in jail for 25 years. i think that's right. there's a pretty big disconnect between the rights the government is aggregating, with respect to us, and the way that the law in our use of computers and then the way the law will then respond to people who take computers and do things you know perhaps to protect themselves to hide their identity perhaps is one of the situations in which you can face the cfaa violation. so i think both sides of the aisle need to be addressed, trying to stop the nsa spying since 2006 so i'm on your side on that one too. >> well, i wasn't going to stay a side but it did seem quite curious. frontier foundation cindy cohn thanks for being with us here. ahead here on america tonight, time of death, is physician-assisted suicide a

gift or just unnatural? a discussion on that is up next. what happens when social media uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? it drives discussion across america. >> share your story on tv and online. on august 20th,

>> and now a snapshot of stories make headlines on america tonight. a dangerous journey for 1228 somali migrants. earlier this month two boats carrying migrants.

capsized near libya,. now palestinian president mahmoud a abbas. >> evidence that it causes lung cancer and increases the risk of bladder cancer. if you have ever been at the side of a terminally ill family member you know that the final days of life can be very painful but what if there was an option? the right to die movement says there is one. vermont just became the third state to legalize physician assisted suicide. america tonight's adam may gives us the look, some law enforcement agencies are trying to shut down.

>> ben underhill knows he's living on borrowed time. ten years ago, he was diagnosed with a rare and deadly blood cancer called multiple m my loa. now he's planning to die here. >> i don't fear death, life is hard. >> you were only given a few years to live and now ten years later. >> when i was diagnosed i was 44. and at that point the life expectancy was three to five years. >> what's life like to get that diagnosis? >> you don't have a lot of choice. you either give up or move on. i've had people have to bathe me, pick me up. i was in bed for quite a while

because of bone disease, i know there are things i have to ask for help but you know it's going oget so bad that you can't do anything for yourself. and so somebody else is keeping you alive or keeping you in existence. and for what? three extra weeks? to me, i've had seven extra years already. so three weeks is nothing. >> the 54-year-old insurance agent was a driving force behind a new controversial law. earlier this year, underhill lobbied state lawmakers to legalize physician-assisted suicide. >> if this bill passes i'll be comfortable that i can end my own life. >> we now live in an area where other states have not gone. >> vermont's governor signed the death with dignity law in may.

>> this will be the first legislative effort where the governor has had the privilege of signing the bill. >> i have no fear that i will ask for the medication. will i get to the point where i will take it or i feel that i'm so bad that i have to take it? i don't know. >> what is it about dying this way, that is more comforting to you? >> it's on my terms. >> vermont is now the third state after oregon and washington, to legalize physician-assisted suicide. but it is happening in other states. often involving a controversial group operating in the shadows. it's called the final exit network. >> the difference between me and kevorkian? he liked the publicity. i think this is a private thing. >> dr. larry eggberth, the

former johns hopkins anesthesiologist, keeps his residence in a small row home in baltimore, maryland. >> you're not physically doing anything? >> i'm physically doing absolutely nothing. and then each of these would go to a tank. so you stick it on the tank. >> and a candid conversation eggberth shos us what he uses to die. cooking bags that hook up to tubes attached to helium tanks. >> i asked the patient one time, i said would she be willing that some other person use this? >> eggbert has used a so-called exit hood like this one to help many people end their lives. >> the fact that i -- she would be giving a gift to somebody else, when i had done that.

>> recycled them? >> recycled them, reused them. >> has this one been used? >> yes, the person died with her head in there. >> what's that process like for patient? >> a person breathing that doesn't feel any pain, discomfort at all and they just go to sleep. >> you hold their hand sometimes? >> yes. >> how many times have you held someone's hand through their final moments? >> about a hundred. it's an honor. yes, an honor. it's a good way to put it. >> you want to put it on? >> well, i don't want you to suffocate. >> don't worry about that. >> since so-called assisted suicide is illegal in most cases, dr. eggbert has faced charges, he will ep help anyone die regardless of whether their medical condition is terminal. he is unapologetic. >> i don't take that as a

regional criteria. i think it's better to say, a person has a right the make decisions about their life. for instance, a man called me up, he is 94 years old. he is totally deaf. he says this is living? i don't want to do this anymore. >> do you think he should have the choice? >> you have that right to go down and buy a rifle and blow your brains out, why in a way that's not considerably more dignified. >> pulling a helium balloon over their head some people would say that is not very dignified. >> you don't have to do it that way. you save up the pills, get the pills, that's up to you. >> he's pulling balloons over people's head. i think it's creepy. >> cary is helping people with

the debt with dignity law. >> they want you to think that the only way to make it pretty is to plan it, and take a pill for it. and i just don't believe that frankly mother nature is really that cruel. >> how old was your mother whether she passed? >> she was 90. >> she was 90 years old? >> yes, she really had a good life. >> she is motivated by family experiences. she recently sat by her mother's side as she died a natural death. >> what is your concern about the legislation that's just passed here in vermont? >> i want the option to die naturally. i don't want an environment in our future where people are pressured to ending their lives prematurely. >> do you think people want to live? i think people want to live basically. until they can't live anymore. >> jean mallory was married to

vermont's former congressman dick mallory, the moderate republican represented the state in the u.s. house during the 1970s. he then returned to vermont as a leader in state politics. >> tic was legendary in the state. they don't make him like this anymore. >> i think clearly the time has come. >> after being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in 2004, mallory and his wife began the effort to bring physician-assisted suicide to vermont. >> we just hope that it's in time for us, that's all. >> i hope it's early enough for other people, too. >> but despite their televised appeal early versions of the law failed. dick mallory took his own life in 2011. >> it was a beautiful fall day. and i came home, and fown a note on -- found a note on the door. >> do you mind sharing what the note said?

>> to jeannie and my family, the time has come. i've done everything that i wanted to do. and i don't -- i don't regret my life. he knew it was going to be a shock to me but i feel that this is what people who make this decision go through. they weigh the benefits and the burdens. he certainly didn't want to put us through watching him become helpless. and he didn't want to be nursed. you know, he was very proud, proud man. my hugest regret is that i couldn't be with him. and that's because it was not legal. >> with the new law in vermont, if ben underhill chooses physician -- assisted suicide he can be surrounded by family at

the end. >> i'd much rather go out on the terms that i want to go out, feeling good, being happy, being comfortable, being with the people i love. than lying in bed suffering. and i think it's almost an enlightened position. of not having to suffer at the end. >> the avid baseball fan is now planning for his death. >> initially i thought i'd have a nice meal and watch the red sox game. but now i found out you have to have about five hours between having a meal and taking the medicine. now i'll have a nice meal, wait five hours, watch the game and fall asleep. >> this is such a gift to people. it is such a gift they just don't know it yet. >> now so far no one in vermont has actually used this new law but it's only been on the books

for a couple of months. it is a very different story in oregon. last year 77 people there ended their lives using doctor prescribed medication. that is most since that oregon law went into effect. but joie that law has been on the books in oregon for 15 years now. the right to die movement has been very slow to gain momentum across the country with vermont just the third. there was a referendum in massachusetts last year and evening the polling was popular, some ads aired there by massachusetts paid by the catholic church. >> let's talk to somebody who has direct personal familiarity with the oregon law, marnie, your own sister had a long struggle with lou gehrig's disease. i'm sorry to hear that.

but do people have regret, doubt, and did you have any regret after? >> i certainly did not have any regret after and i would like to share that my sister nancy, being a resident of oregon, was totally aware of the legislation that existed there. and when she was diagnosed with als, lou gehrig's disease she and i began having very serious conversations. and she said, of course, she knew about the legislation, and that that would be a choice that she wanted to pursue. and so she did. >> marnie i'd like to ask you, there is opposition to the death with dignity movement especially from the disability community where folks there feel as if you know, that they would be using this, that people could be forced or coerced into going ahead and ending their lives. what do you have to say to that?

>> i feel so strongly that the oregon law allowed us to know exactly what the procedures were, the safeguards, the patient meets with their physician, the physician and the patient have the discussion, the patient makes the choice, and the request, there's time taken between requests, there's verbal requests as well as written requests. the patient sees another doctor, the assessment of mental capacity is done, it's -- i feel so strongly that now, vermont has this, in its law as well, in oregon it's worked for 15 years. i really feel that the statistics are there to help us know that there's not been abuse, and as a personal join

that i had with my sister, it was not at all something that there was any coercion happening at all. >> adam do you see in this, this is a situation where marnie was able to help her sister to support her through her illness and her decision to end her life. do you see this being part of the discussion in other places that is family members being directly involved in the decision? >> absolutely. it's something that we haven't really pointed out is a lot of people like to have this medication because it's comforting to know it's a possibility. in oregon more than 100 prescription he were written for this medicine that ends your life but only 77 ended up using it. a lot of people have it there, when the pain becomes so bad, but don't end using it. >> it's not a final decision just because you requested it

from the physician. >> ben underhill will get that medication, because he wants it as an option. still don't know whether he will use it if his condition deteriorates. >> america tonight will return after a break. >> hi i'm phil torres coming up this week on techknow >> it's gonna get bumpy over here, it looks like... >> we dropped like a rock... ...and then you experience zero g's >> this is a modified dc 8 with about 28 different instruments on the outside... >> it's one wild ride... >> we're flying at 300 feet over the gulf of mexico... >> climb aboard nasa's laboratory in the sky... >> techknow - 7:30 eastern on al jazeera america

on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you. >> wildfire season is coming to an end but it's been one of the deadly easy in memory. asphalt lines intafnt walker reports, the tragic deaths of 19 firefighters in arizona brought

the issue to the nation's attention. >> news of a different kind of wildfire tragedy. we'd been getting reports throughout the evening. a team of firefighters had lost contact with their commanders. and 19 of them have now been declared dead. that's worst hole since 1933. we're on our way to the airport now to try oget down there as quickly as possible. >> pretty quickly it had become clear that something terrible had happened. >> is this the furthest point we can go to? >> yeah, it is. >> i think the average age of these firefighters was 22. it's such a young life and they gave it up to protect that community. >> the granite mountain hot shots were deployed on what seemed like a routine mission. they expected to be home after a couple of days of cutting line

around this small retirement community of ya yarnell. >> you see the proximity of yarnell to look closer. the houses really seemed like a few hundred meters of natural. >> the last contact from the team was a desperate radio call. the fire was upon them. they were deploying their shelters. >> the area is where they found the bodies after they deployed their fire tents. >> the media is clamoring for answers. what were the firefighters doing there? why were they caught in that spot? >> basically, the wind changed. >> was there a lookout? >> i do not know that. i think what you're trying oget at leer is exactly what happened. and we don't know that, okay? we have 19 people that are dead that are brothers of ours. okay? a fire, a wild land fire specifically is a very dynamic

and moving situation. >> for those who lost fathers, husbands, brothers, the struggle to comprehend their loss is just beginning. in this tight-knit community it seems like almost everyone knew the firefighters personally. the job had its risks, but nobody could have anticipated a tragedy on this scale. >> you trained to pull your shelter but you're not supposed to be in a situation where you may have to, you know. that's your last line of defense, as you pull your shelter, something went horribly wrong. >> brandon bunch had been a member of the crew until a few weeks ago. he reluctantly left the job to spend more time with his family. >> they're your best friends. you travel with them, eat with

them, sleep with them, you do everything as a unit. i was really close with them. they're like my brothers. ♪ >> it's hard to explain, but like taking half your soul right out of your body. my son was my life. >> david caldwell's son robert was just 18 when he started. he'd asked his dad for a check to cover the initial training. >> that's been the hardest thing for me to bear, that i helped him along and he really wanted to do this, you know but maybe if i got him into something else i wouldn't be talking to you today. >> the last time david saw his son was two nights before the fire. >> get in the car before he closed the door. i said robert don't be a hero.

and he just smiled back to me and got in his truck. that's the last thing i saw to him. >> david turbeville also lost his son travis. a metal worker. he's honoring the fallen firefighters the best way he can. >> i did this design i believe tuesday evening after they perished. >> he said he could barely get through engraving travis's name. >> that's when it really got to me. we knew all the names. there was no turning back. >> one letter at a time, he says, he came to terms with his loss. >> you can see a yellow flame coming out the bottom of the -- you know as the letters are being cut. they died in fire. they are reborn in fire. >> david's hoe is that the

tragedy spurs a national conversation about how the country deals with wildfire. >> every accident we've had, there's a reason for this. but in my mind errors are made long before they ever went to the fire. >> thon >> thont -- anthony rhodes, john person junior. travis. >> i think that there's nobody in this country who would disagree with the proposition that we have the most, you know, well trained wildfire firefigh firefighters probably in the world. problem with firefighters is, they're their own worst advocates. and in a world where they're

increasingly going to face impossible dangerous situations, they're going odie, and they're going to be -- going to die and they're going to be injured. we celebrate them as heroes but we don't ask, should they have been in harm's week like this? >> so heartbreaking. fault lines correspondent sebastian walker joins us from san francisco. sebastian, i know you travel to many places. is there consensus on how these things should be handled? >> i think firstly it is about acknowledging that there is a serious problem here. that's something we heard again and again not just from people personally impacted like those you saw in that clip but also from people who make it their business to really understand the phenomenon and track the costs. those costs alone really are extraordinary. if you think about the money that the forest service is spending on fire suppression and preventionists you know a decade

ago it was something like $300 million. in these days it is in the billions and in fact since 2002 it's averaged about $3 billion every year. but despite all the money that's being spent the problem's actually getting worse. the fires are getting bigger and more intense. in fact since the 1960s the six worst fires that have occurred in the u.s. have all taken place since 2002, so really it's -- something is going wrong. and i think firstly it's about raising awareness that there is a problem here and then thinking how to fix it. >> well then talk a little bit more about how to fix it. as you note these things have gotten bigger badder worse, longer fire as soo seasons as w. what is the solution? >> well joie one of the main reasons is obviously climate change. there's been warmers temperatures and drought certainly making these forests more combustible. there's human errors that have been made. that's what we've with heard

from people we interviewed. the way land management has been done in the last few decades has set the stage. suppressing fire from forests that have known this as a particularly occurrence have created there buildup of dry brush and cateed a situation where these fires get much bigger but also, it's about development of the wild land and the number of homes being built in areas that are prone to fire. that's been massively expanded over the last few years and really that brings the cost way higher than they've ever been before. >> makes it difficult. a lot to learn here. fault lines sebastian, you can see it friday night on fault lines. coming up. what's grounding a village in mourning? families on the west bank are springing new life out of destruction. al jazeera america brings you

more us and global news than any other american news channel. find out what happened and what to expect. >> start every morning, every day, 6am to 10 eastern with al jazeera america. that's all i have an real money. victoria azarenko

>> finally tonight we leave you with a look at jewish settlements growing in the occupied territories.

in fact, the group peace now says more than 1700 homes are built in occupied land in the first six months of this year. palestinians have staged protests but met with crack downs. more verdant signs of life. from the gardens of the wetion banwestbank. >> four years ago her son bassim was killed by the peaceful protests near the israeli intreas wall, now her family has honored him by this very unusual garden. planting flowers inside tear gas grenades. >> he used to love flowers. i hope he will always be surrounded by flowers and greenery. >> her daughter jawoha also died

after inhaling dear ghast after a protest. but he was killed right here after being hit in the chest by a tear gas canister. his death captured on camera. >> i feel he's around me. i feel heist watering the plants when i do. he knows i'm hurting. i'm sad because i lost two of my children. >> the garden's a chance for people to pay their respects. the nonviolent protests here on the outskirts have been going on for eight years now and villagers hope with the garden children like these will remember those that have given their lives to the struggle. >> translator: the israeli occupation is that we're transporting canisters of death into canisters of life. with flowers. >> a simple message but one that will take root elsewhere, as well. >> that's it for us, have a good

night. >> welcome to al jazeera i've i'm stephanie sy. here are the stop stories at this hour. san francisco is now two hours away from a major transit strike. a walkout by union workers could strand more than 200,000 daily transit users. far apart on pay and working conditions. negotiations have been going on for months. bart workers walked out for five days in early july. furloughed workers are back at work and national parks have reopened. president obama said the 16 day walkout inflicted unnecessary damage to the e