welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we're following for your right now. >> everybody wins here if we work together to get this done. in fact if there's a good reason not to pass this common sense reform, i haven't heard it. >> president obama pushing his plan for immigration reform. and congressional grilling on the problems with the president's healthcare website. and trying to get to the bottom of the allegations that the u.s. listened to the german

chancellor's phone calls. ♪ president obama saying now is the time, this is the moment to pass immigration reform. he says now that the government shutdown is over, republicans and democrats should come together to fix what he is calling a broken immigration system. mike viqueira what does the president want exactly in >> well, as you reported the president says this is the moment. there is precious little time between now and next year, which is an election year in congress. bipartisan support now languishing in the house of representatives, and the president coming off on the big victory over the shutdown showdown, he is trying to build momentum and trying to get something passed, the immigration bill that many consider the potential signature bill of his second term.

he was surrounded by supporters. >> obviously just because something is smart and fair and good for the economy and fiscally responsible and supported by business and labor, and the evangelical community and democrats and republicans, that does not mean at that it will actually get done. [ laughter ] >> in response to the president's presentation today, john boehner says they are going to try to approach this in the house in a piecemeal fashion. it would not be one large comprehensive bill with the so-called pathway to citizenship by the $11 million people in this country, so the president is going push that through -- i'm sorry, the house

is going to try to push that through, and border security, you can expect that to be the first thing they try to tackle. >> and the bill passed in the senate with bipartisan support, so why so many problems in the house? >> because of the pathway to citizenship. whej president george bush championed this very same cause, republicans turned on him. there was an uprising, protests around the country, it slit the republican party then and now. but now in a political sense it has become more urgent for republicans to do something, many house republicans recognize this. they are coming forward with their own version of this legislation with a pathway to citizenship. and so as -- as the state -- some of the states -- texas is a good example, turn from deep red to a little bit more towards purple, calling into question republican

hygeminy, that could be changing. think that some form of immigration reform needs to be passed. >> with congressional approval rating somewhere in the subterranean reaches of the pentagon, is now the time to tackle this issue? >> the tea party affiliated members, are the ones who drove that wagon train right off of the cliff and lead to those all time low ratings for congressional republicans. one poll had it at 24% approval rating last week. so will john boehner do what is best for the party at large, and try to proceed, or will he still be paying heed to the base of

his party? >> mike, thank you very much. and now the fight over the glitches concerning the website of the health care law was front and center today. several testifying even as we speak before a house committee, but democrats and republicans using that hearing to resume their fight over the law. >> i have heard numerous promises from the administration officials that all is well with the health care law. not true. even i either these officials were shockingly unaware of what was happening inside their own agencies or deliberately misleading our committee and the public. >> let the goal here be to fix it not nix it. >> kimberly is on capitol hill right now. kimberly is this hearing more about finding out what is wrong and right or resuming the old

fights concerning obamacare. >> officially it's about trying to find the problems at the website and fixing it, but it didn't take long to figure out what was really going on, and that was a lot of finger pointing and blaming as to the fact that this website, now into its fourth week almost of running and still not being able to serve americans. we have four contractors testifying before the house, energy, and commerce committee, trying to explain to lawmakers about why this system still is not working, and what they have been saying is that basically high demand is the reason there have been the problems, but upon further questioning from both sides of the aisle, what has been identified is these contractors while they did independent testing didn't test amongst themselves until october 1st when this was rolled out. they say they flagged to the

obama white house that perhaps it might be good to delay this program that maybe it wasn't ready for prime time if you will, and they say that the president's staff, the health and human services secretary said, no, let's keep going, so ultimately the blame really falls with the obama administration. >> it sounds like almost that washington created its own nightmare. is that a safe assumption and is this the last we're going to hear from capitol hill on this particular issue? >> listening to this hearing you get the feeling this is just the beginning. it seems that every republican and democrat wants to weigh in on this, the republicans are saying, in fact, we need to continue to press forward, to try to scrap this program. it needs to be stopped in its tracks. democrats on the other hand saying, look when in 2006 president bush and his administration rolled out the medicare part d which was a

prescription drug program, when there were problems with that program that congresses worked together to try to fix it. and democrats charging this is not the case this time. we're just days from the government shutdown which was about trying to stop the health care reform act. and democrats are saying we're right back where we started, despite the republicans efforts to shutdown, delay or defund the affordable care act, that we're right back where we started, a lot of finger pointing, blaming, and a lot of americans really tired of what they are seeing. >> thank you very much. meanwhile the woman at the center of this debate is the secretary of health and human services. she is set to visit a call center in phoenix today. she addressed some issues on a

blog post on tuesday. canada's largest technology company, designed and built the troubled health care site. it's senior member was one of those testifying today. >> this is a really interesting company. despite having 70,000 employees and contracts all around the world, it is not that well-known in canada. if you look at its website, cgi will tell you it does technological services for everything from banks to insurance companies to most agencies of government and of course the healthcare sector. >> this is an incredibly successful company. it has done very well on the stock market. it is well regarded. it is considered to be one of canada's showcase technology companies. >> reporter: but the current problems in the u.s. aren't the first time it has faced

challenges with governments and health care. ontario last year terminated a $46 million contract to build a diabetes days ta base. >> the corporation couldn't connect its systems with the systems that exist in the public health care system here, which serves a population of 13 million people, and it's a big system, and whether it was the fault of the company, cgi, or the fault of the public health system is in legal debate. >> reporter: most large technology projects involving government or business or both end in some sort of failures, and experts say that's because of complexity and systems are not tested adequately. >> this is a highly complex project. but the people doing it were very, very strong, good competent companies, and yet it has gone off of the rails.

so we always look at the structure of the project more so than whether there were bad people involved. >> reporter: weeks of debate over those issues probably lie ahead. and fixing the bugs could take much longer. daniel lack, al jazeera, toronto. the u.s. ambassador to germany is expected to meet with the foreign min fisteminister. germany the latest country to confront the u.s. over i its aledged spying activities. tim has more. >> reporter: they were meant to come here to focus on immigration, on the economy, but with these latest revelations, including the allegation that the german leader's personal

telephone was tapped into by the nsa have over shadowed all of the discussions here. as you were saying, she arrived a few moments ago, and i think we can hear what she had to say as she arrived at this leader's conference here in brussels. >> translator: since we have been speaking about the nsa, i have made it clear to the president of the united states that spying on friends is not acceptable at all. i said that when he was in berlin in july, and also yesterday in a telephone call. it's not just about me, but every german citizen. >> reporter: sorry to interrupt you, but she is obviously incandescent and it's clearly going to have an effect. >> i wanted to ask you how it is playing across the ocean on your side of the atlantic? because on this side of the

atlantic, there seems to be the tas sid understanding that every nation in the world spies on every other nation. what is the difference of opinion between the two sides of the atlantic? >> reporter: a very, very good point to raise. it would be naive to think that people like the leader of germany, france, and others gathering here were not aware of though fact that the national security agency might well have been listening in to conversations of their citizens. not only suspected terrorists, but perhaps political leaders and people of the world of business. they perhaps considered that to be in their mutual interest, but listening in to the personal telephone of perhaps the most powerful woman in the world, who

was well aware at the kind of total tearism that ensues from that kind of listening in is another matter all together, and of course all of this is emerging from information provided by the whistleblower, edward snowden, who is wanted on espionage charges in the united states, so that gives you an indication of what washington feels about being spied upon itself. tim friend in brussels. pakistan has publicly condemned the u.s. regarding drone strokes, but it now appears that senior members knew about the strikes and even endorsed them. the documents say that pakistani officials were given classified beefings on the strikes between 2007 and 2011. pakistan denies the report, and

its prime minister has urged president obama to halt those strikes. chemical weapon inspectors are in damascus today. they say the government is cooperating and that they are on schedule to destroy all of its production capabilities by november 1st. syria has until the middle of next year to eliminate all of its chemical weapons, and there is breaking news. two u.s. citizens have been kidnapped off of the coast of africa. a u.s. defense official confirming that u.s. flag supply ship was attacked in the gulf of guinea. the captain and engineer said to be taken. right now officials don't know who if anyone else was on board that ship. lawmakers of florida looking to crack down on hit and run drivers. the tougher penalties they are proposing trying to save laws there. and we're talking about temperatures dropping down to freezing, plus 12 inches of

snow. i'll show you where coming up. >> every morning from 6 to 10am 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.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are your headlines. president obama outlining his plans for immigration reform. the president stressing an earned pathway to citizenship is his goal. congress is trying to get some answer. they are concerned with the problems of the health care exchange website. and germany summiting the u.s. ambassador to their doors to answer questions about aledged american spying. reports say -- in florida there have been 70,000 hit and run accidents last year. now officials are trying to put a stop to it by increasing the penalties. >> reporter: patty coen often

thinks about what would happen if she runs into the man who killed her husband last year. the driver lives three miles away and he has already served his time. >> i'm so angry, i can barely even talk about it. i feel like such an -- injustice was done. it's almost embarrassing the obvious lack of sense that it makes. >> aaron was riding his bicycle with a friend in miami dade county when the slammed into it. he left the scene, called his attorney, and turned himself in hours later. he may have been drinking but it was impossible to test his blood alcohol level. patty is still working through her enormous grief. and doing her best to raid her 3-year-old and 5-year-old.

her son barely remembers daddy. >> i really have tried to look at this as a challenge, and not be a victim, but be a survivor. >> reporter: somehow she is finding time to push for passage of a bill. >> the state leads the country in the statistics on a per capita basis. >> reporter: wagner says current florida law gives drunk drivers incentive to leave the scene of an accident. they know they will do less time when they drive off. the proposed act would impose a mandatory minimum sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. and increase sentences. >> this is not a short-term project getting more people into prison. it's also an educative product. >> reporter: other states have

already passed laws protecting pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable users of the road. patty hopes in the act becomes law fewer families will have to live with a void in their lives. >> you can't get bogged down in the anger, you can try to change it, and try to improve life for other people >> reporter: coen is asking people to contact lawmakers and sign a petition on change.org. she views it as a fitting legacy to her husband. ford is predicting a bright future. the car maker says thanks to strong demand from north american sales it expects the full year to be profitable more than once thought. they are also announcing record-setting earnings in their

fourth quarter. shares of electric car maker tesla getting a nice boost today. states will make it easier to build charging station. the goal is to increase the number of zero-emotion vehicles to 3.3 million in five years. the cooling refinancing market is leading to more bank layoffs. banc of america now cutting 3,000 mortgage jobs. higher mortgage rates have reduced demands for reify applications. and the employment situation continues to be tight for those of you looking for a job. labor department reporting that job openings barely inched up in august, just 70,000 more than in

july. and 2.91 employed worker for every available opening. still ahead on al jazeera america, this, hidden under layers of paint for centuries, a leonardo da vinci has been revealed.

you probably remember the story now a former university of california police officer who was caught on tape pepper

spraying student protesters is going to be getting worker's comp. a judge approved the settlement with the university of california system. he said he suffered from depression and anxiety after receiving death threats. you are seeing the november 2011 incident on the campus. he was suspended then fired a few months later. a plane trying to fight wildfires in australia has crashed. 64 fires are still burning across the state, 20 of them are burning out of control. temperatures will be getting cooler in the next few days, but officials are warning of hot and dry months still ahead. ♪ i'm meteorologist dave warren, we are dealing with

cooler weather here. much colder temperatures now affecting much of the coup try, midwest, and northeast, temperatures dropping down to the freezing mark. the first time that happens each year, that's the freeze warning issued, and that's the end of the growing season many areas here freeze warnings in effect overnight tonight. right now we're into the 40s as the cold air comes in from canada. you start to see these lake-effect snow, these streamers of snow that move across the same area, dumping a lot of snow over one area. we could get inches of snow, in new york, western pennsylvania, and ohio, and there are some freeze watches, indicating it could possibly get down to freezing. first time that will happen here this season, and that is in counties north and west of philadelphia into new jersey and parts of virginia and maryland. here comes the radar over the

same area. the wind direction not changing, so we're getting a lot of snow in the same area. temperatures are in the 40s, and it goes over the warmer water which is in the 50s, so here is the show. inches to maybe a foot of snow here in new york, and about six inches of snow in pennsylvania and western new york. temperatures will stay in the 50s with the clouds, but by next week starting sunday and monday, temperatures creep up just a bit to close to 60 degrees. so the warm air does come back. that warm air returning from the south but has a while to go -- few days to go before it works through chicago and the northeast. we're watching the situation in australia of course. there's no rain predicted. the temperatures have cooled off just a bit, but there are still plenty of fires, and that wind

is blowing the smoke across the sydney area. two typhoons will turn towards japan by stay off of the coast. the centers of each storm go into the same area by saturday. they are still fairly strong storms but look to be staying off of the east coast just impacting with an inand wind. dell? >> thank you very much. a lost work of art by leonardo da vinci has now surfaced. he was commissioned by the duke of [ inaudible ] to paint a mural of trees back in 1498, but it has been covered up until now. the duke had da vinci paint the last supper for his family's

moss lee um. i'm del walters. "the stream" is next. and check us out 24 hours a day on aljazeera.com. >> hi i'm lisa fletch fletcher and you're in the stream. we're talking with innovators working to stop 35 million tons of food from being wasted every year in the u.s. our digital producer wajahat ali is taking your comments. how to get a handle on this problem.