>> good evening, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. here are the top stories. >> we do not feel that the evidence in this case feels that the defendant acted in lawful self defense. >> the detroit homeowner who fatally shot an african american teenager has been formally charged. 54-year-old theodore wafer is currently being held on $250,000 bond. president obama met with health insurance executives today. he says the changes he's proposing to his health care reform act will make sure that all americans can get the kind of affordable care they deserve. the meeting took place just hours after the house passed a

bill for individual health dhoonch doesn't meet the new law's minimum standards. china is relaxing its controversial one child policy. families will now be able to have two children but only if one of the parents is an only child. rural couples may also have a second child if their first born is a girl. china says it will getting reiterate of its reeducation labor camps. that's al jazeera, you can get the latest on aljazeera.com. >> on america tonight: philippines in crisis. joie chen surveys the damage with the mayor of a remote town. why he's counting his blessings, amid the chaos. also tonight, going offline.

is hacktivist a. >> secrecy and opennence. >> and a bridge over trouble water. can new technology suspend catastrophe during an earthquake? >> good friday evening everyone, i'm adam may. one week ago supertyphoon

haiyan, strongest ever reported, storm shredded villages, leveled towns, destroyed everything in its path including families. badlbadly needed aide and relies finally beginning to arrive. while the u.s. says they have turned a corner new statistics suggest otherwise. nearly 13 million people impacted, close to 2 million are displaced and the local red cross say some 25,000 people, men, women and children are still unaccounted for. america tonight's joie chen is on the ground in the philippines, she joins us from sabu airport, the staging ground for supplies. joie you have been traveling for the last couple of days. i can only imagine what you've witnessed. >> adam it's really quiek remarkable. we are here at sabu where we have been and in fact as you say

it is a staging ground. we're seeing international aircraft from all across the world, these big c-130 cargo aircraft bringing much needed supplies coming in from a number of different countries and all coming through here. the problem is that this is really quite a difficult mission for a lot of the aircraft. understand that the philippines makes up of 7,000 plus ielt isl, it is quite small, a lot of the runways play be damaged and it makes it very difficult to think about moving in supplies as well. that's what they've had to do for the many several days. we see a very steady supply of provisions, trying to get to safer ground, as well. a lot of places are still too difficult to reach even by anything but maybe a little boat or over land. we in fact went about 50 miles trying to reach some of the northern parts of sabu province

trying to understand what was going on in the communities. we did find that though there is a lot of hurt, there is no loss of hope. >> it felt as if we had reached the end of the world. after hours of driving through debris and devastation, we arrived at the far northern end of sabu tiled a tiny community that faced the full force of the supertyphoon. >> what was it like when the storm came? >> it was very, very frightening. we were here in our office. i think that's the strongest so far, i have experienced. >> have you ever seen it like this before? >> no, no, it's the first time we've seen it. it's just you know roots flying, it's as if, to describe it, it's

like the discount of the 747, you know. >> 747? >> 747 and the office is shaking. it seems like it's going to burst. >> mayor augusto corro says even when times are good, don batayan is not a wealthy community. they catch tuna in the waters here. 87,000 live in this part of the province. the fact that only nine died is almost a miracle. it's because when leaders demand he evacuations, the community did respond. >> what was important, evacuation? >> evacuation. >> evacuation. that's right. >> imagine 32 evacuation centers that we have, all of these evacuation centers were also damaged. but we can just lucky, i will say we were just lucky. >> what do people need the most right now? >> shelter. tents. >> tents. >> that's why we have more foods coming in.

>> and water. >> yeah, water. are but it's more for shelter. >> shelter is really your biggest need? >> yes. >> have you had any disease? >> that's our biggest challenge now. >> mayor augusto tells me as bad as it looks now, he is grateful. for the steady flow of support and the steady flow of locals, to offer donation and transfer them to the people who need the most. remarkably, even after school after apart, the district offered students to come in on monday and the children told me, they intend to be there. >> you don't have any power. >> no. >> do you have any water? >> we -- we have, but we're waiting for relief goods. >> you're waiting for relief goods? >> yeah.

>> the big challenge is to figure out how to bring really isolated communities like this village maya back. looking around it's hard to figure where you would even start. community leaders have been promised that the power lines will be picked up, that the power itself will be restored. they have been told it would take almost a month. >> the mayor insists he's optimistic about the future. some mayors have said please if you have some other city to go to, if you could go to sabu observe manila or srmsome other city, go away, what do you tell your people? >> no. i'm still telling my people to stay put, we can rebuild our house. we can stay put. >> you believe you ask rebuilt here? >> yes, we can. >> even as bad as it is? yes, we can. foreign countries and our national government, i'm very sure that we're going to -- there's a lot of helping hands

that's coming in. >> people are not going to give up? >> i'm sure nobody will give up. >> between the broken houses and along the debris-strewn lanes, the work has already begun and the mayor promises anything that comes from outside will make a difference. we found that the mayor really did want to assure the international audience that in fact if aid does come to his small community even, he wants to assure people that aid is going to reach the people most needed. and part of the issue really was underscored by what the mayor was saying, philippines has a long history of constantly in top levels of government. in fact as this storm came into view in the philippines a lot of concern about a particular woman who was accused of setting up shadow organizations, fake nonprofits supposedly to help people but actually to siphon

off money from the government. there is a lot of history of scandal in the philippines. if you can bring aid to my small community it will make a difference. we do find that there are a number of people trying to get out of the most badly affected communities trying to make their way to safety. in the last half hour we saw a c-130 coming in. betty and her six-year-old daughter mica, you were telling me why was it so bad in guyan? >> the firsts few days after the typhoon were so bad there were looters trying oransack every store. leaving us no more supplies to buy. even if we did have the money, which was starting to run out at that time, there was no medicines to buy, no more food to buy. even the rice was hard to find. >> what did you tell your little

girl? >> this too shall pass. and we will be safe. once we get away, we find a way to get out of the place. >> and you came out with her, and now what is your plan? >> right after this, we plan to go to the airport, and book a flight to manila. >> and you're going to meet your husband? >> yes, she will meet her father. >> is it your plan to go back to your home at some point? >> yes. hopefully if the airlines will be restored, or the transportation will be restored, to guyan in the next few months, we plan to go back and see how things are. because we left family members there. there is still our sister-in-law is there, our nephews and nieces are there. >> you look pretty worried. >> i am. my mother-in-law, and she -- we are worried about them. and they need help.

guyan really needs help. all the people who are affected by the typhoon yolanda needs help. and we are very grateful that the nations have been helping us. all these nations have been pulling together their resources, their funds, just to help out and reach out to those who were affected by the typhoon was really great, it's are alley great help. -- really great help. >> thank you, we wish you and your daughter and your family much luck going forward. as you can imagine, adam, it's a difficult scene here. people didn't want to leave their homes, they wanted to stay and hang on. but they felt there was nothing to do but to get off their islands and at least come to safety here, adam. >> joie chen reporting from the philippines. joie thank you so much. don't miss our special report, typhoon hiern, the philippines in crisis.

the america tonight's joie chen will be in the philippines. now a high profile hacktivist. wikileaks responds, next. find anything... >> ...dies with no medical explanation... >> no liver cirrhosis... no traces of cancer... >> was he murdered? don't miss, what killed arafat? tomorrow at 3pm et/12pm pt and sunday the rivieting conclusion... >> one other thing points to this being an assassination... >> killing arafat sunday at 3pm et/12pm pt on al jazeera america

>> a high profile internet activist will spend ten years in prison for violating the computer fraud and abuse act. drawing widespread criticism from internet activists. america tonight correspondent lori jane gliha was in the courtroom when jeremy hammond was sentenced. outside the courthouse, dozens of people rally with posters and banners, high profile computer hacker jeremy hammond. >> today i turned 50 and for my birthday the judge stole my child for another ten years. happy birthday.

>> rose collins is hammond's mother. she traveled all the way from austin, texas to see her son. >> i really, it was like being stabbed even though i knew it was coming. >> the 28-year-old computer hacker is accused of are a 2011 cyberattack. hammond admitted to associating with fellow members of the online collective anonymous and hack or defacing several websites. he stole financial data, e-mails and account information for up to 860,000 clients, he also compromised the credit card numbers of 60,000 clients leading to over $750,000 of frawjfrajlent charges.

>> why do you call what he did civil disobedience? >> why do i call it civil disobedience? because he disrupted business as usual for a corporate entity. out of a deeply held political belief. i think that the challenge here is that the modes of -- and strategies of civil disobedience change over time. but i think our definition has to expand, and particularly, as technology evolves, digital dissent is a new important piece of the new civil disobedience. >> why did m jeremy do the hack? >> he felt he needed to do action for what he saw was the greater good. >> attorneys tried to convince the judge to impose a lighter sentence, a letter from his twin

brother jason who begged the judge, please consider a sentence for somebody who truly means well. also considered hammond's own words. he told his fellow hackers he wanted to commit financial mayhem. >> what did you think when the judge started using jeremy's own words against him? >> it wasn't unexpected for us. some of the words that were repeated often were maximum mayhem. i personally don't think that maximum mayhem or the desire to cause maximum mayhem is incompatible with deeply held political beliefs. >> hammond's case has drawn attention from around the world. bringing attention oand raise money for jailed hactivists. >> this government is unrelenting in the oppression and the repression of internet

activists who want to reveal the truth who want to deck accuratize the internet. >> hitting the internet with a sledgehammer, they are so upset by it, because there is a struggle going on between secrecy and openness. >> the dpaft justice and the fbi's cybercrime division refused multiple requests for an interview. so we reached out to mark rash, a divider member of the doj who helped right the legislation. >> that was a deliberate planned and malicious attack which used a lot of different tools and technologies to break into a computer and computer system in a way that the people knew was illegal. and just because they were motivated to punish for his actions or to liberty information doesn't make it any less illegal than trying to

break in to stratford's offices and try to publish them. >> a real need to get that information to the public and there's no other way to do it? >> there's always another way to do it. you can file a lawsuit, okay, get discovery, obtain the records and publicize them. there are things-that would be like saying i had to break into the guy's office and steal his files because the public had a right to know about what was in it. well, maybe they do, but what you did was a crime. >> on america tonight's lori jane gliha was in the courtroom during this high profile case. i can only imagine what it was like to be in there. why did he go ahead and hack? there are so many other options out there. >> he got in front of the judge and said there are a lot of methods, but he actually said those in power do not want the truth to be exposed. some of the his supporters say

there was a lot of things he exposed with this latest hack. what he was doing he said was a form of protest but clearly the judge did not see it that way. she said there was nothing he demonstrated in his behavior that would make her think he wouldn't go ahead and do this again. >> how would you describe the tone in the courtroom? >> he was powerful and confident, he came in with a smile on his face. he said what's up everybody, after he got his sentence he made the peace sign, he was smiling throughout. i think his attorneys did anticipate that this was going to be the case that he was going to get ten years as the sentence but they still argued their case too. >> sounds a little defiant. lori jane gliha. thank you so much. coming up earthquake drills the big one could strike at any time. but will california be ready if or when it does?

techknow examines earthquake readiness, up next.

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>> finally tonight, we visit san francisco. a city famous for cable cars, fog and, of course, earthquakes. ever since the last big quake took out the city's bay bridge, scientists have working on ways to engineer the next big one. as marita davidson found out, not just in california but perhaps around the world. >> rising from the depths of the san francisco bay is the newest architectural crown jewel of northern california.

the new bay bridge, which connects san francisco and oakland, is now open for business. and what a sight it is to see. roughly 280,000 vehicles travel the east and westbound lanes each day. it's now widest bridge in the u.s., with five lanes in each direction. this is six years' worth of time lapse video of the new 2.2 mile east span. the project cost $6.6 billion. the bay bridge is a stunning engineering feat for another region. something that's not visible at first glance. crumple zone technology. until now, crumple zones have mostly been used in car. they absorb the energy by controlled deformations. so engineers say this new bridge

won't collapse, even in a powerful quake. this is an animation of how the bridge responds to a major quake. the engineering community considers the animation game changers. first one is sheer link beams. inside the 525-foot tower on the self-anchored suspension bridge. >> the sleer link beam is the heart and soul of how we make it work. reducing the forces that goes on the bridge. everything is elastic. >> how the four legs of the tower move independently. the beams take the energy by bending and deforming. >> the stiffer the structure the more rigid it is the more forces the earthquake applies on it. the more flexible the structure is the less forces go into it. >> just watch your step. watch your path. >> we're now deep in the bridge's bowels, to see another

innovation firsthand. to get there, we have to walk through a mini city of steel. we are hundreds of feet beneath the bay but under the traffic. >> this is a big steel dowel. sacrificial elements, we want this to be damaged to protect the bridge deck itself. >> you are looking at more than 20 beams strategically placed inside the bridge. they work horizontally, bending and contorting while allowing the rest of the bridge to move. >> while allowing this to fail, that will protect the more structural element. after an earthquake the engineer can inspect and determine what needs to be replaced about. >> where would you want to be during the earthquake? >> the safest place would be on the the top of this bridge.

it would be one heck of a joy ride but a safe one. >> the way homes are being built, on techknow, sunday, 7:30 eastern on al jazeera america. we also want to remind you to please join us for a special report on sunday night, typhoon haiyan, in crisis. by joie chen, 9:00 eastern, joie chen on the ground there for the last couple of days gathering more information for us. she's going to have more reports there as they continues to go around that country side and talk to people that have been affected by that awful typhoon. and that is it for us here on america tonight. remember if you would like to comment on anything that you have seen tonight, you can log on to our website at aljazeera.com/america tonight. you can meet our team, get sneak previews of the stories we're working on and also, tell us what you would like to see in a

nightly current affairs program. also you can join our conversation on our twitter page, and facebook. for all of us here at america tonight, including joie chen, reporting from the fil philippis and the expwrier staff, thank you so much for watching, we'll see you again tomorrow.

in california prison. >> i couldn't believe it. it did not compute, they're taking your life. i was 46 years old. >> her crime: possession of less than a gram of heroine. >> how do you call yourself a judge with the interest of justice and look at somebody and... tell somebody i'm going to take your life because you have an abuse problem against yourself? >> 18 years later, sonja is out because californians amended the state's notorious three strikes law. >> this was how much room there was between my bunk and my locker in prison.