forest fire ouour outfour out l suffer from poverty. the wa wharton school of busines have found

that 1500 suburban suburbanites are living in poverty al already. their shipyard closed and the town's main source of income disappeared. 5is15 percent of chester's residents are unemployed. with a ship building industry long gone, chester has not had a super m supermarket until the last one closed. fair and square opened two months ago. >> the babies need this and the elderly need it. half of chester's rest residents don't have access to a car. a trip for groceries used to involve taking a couple of buses. >> there was no where in chester where you could get a head of lettuce. it's a new

model to deal with urban areas. >> i don't have any real estate costs. i don't have a rent or mortgage payment to make. that helps me keep the costs low. >> 60% of the shop pers receive food stamps. >> they also receive a 7% credit every time they make payment. the store also provides access to social services. we are negotiating for prenait y'alpreflitprenatalscreening an. >> the goal was to provide easy access to food for a community that are in need. the shoppers tell me they feel safe shopping here. lisa hem helps her god daughtero take care of her three children.

>> the most important of you all it's safe. >> chester's crime rate is three times higher than the national average am th and the schools rs the worst in the state. they hope that this may be the first part of chester's renewal. a community of this size of 30,000 people without a supermarket says something about the decay of the community. converserconversely the arrival tells you us more about the community. >> more for let's bring in dean baker and curtis skinner and he is the directo director of the c security program. we saw the american dream seems to be cut off from a major segment of the population. it's not the inner city poverty we are used to seeing but we are

seeing it outside of the major urban areas and suburbs. >> chester , pennsylvania i went to school near there. and it's an area that has long been victimized. >> the ongoing store of the economic downturn. we are far from being recoughed from it. w recovered from it. the economy is better at the trough in 2009 and 2010. we have populations that have been hard hit for loc long peris of time but that has been impacted by the economic downturn whichs don which doesny sign of going away if any time soon. if you luke a look at the numbee are at the same playing we were in the recession in the 90s and the 80s.

>> it's considerably worse. when we look at child poverty. the child poverty rates are high. thethe child poverty rate was dn to 16% in 2000. it's a historically high rate. it's the same for people and we are at 15% rate. that was the high rate that got there in the early 90s and 80s too. >> exactly. in the early 90s there was fairly high poverty rates and then in the late 90s poverty rates fell. dean it's a growing suburban issue. you think of poverty you think of inner city poverty. currently there are more people living in the suburbs in poverty than in the inner cities.

>> this is it a flip-side of gender i genterfication. you have upper middle class moving back to the cities and revitalizing the areas and expensive restaurants and places are becoming up-scale. what they have done is pushed the populations that used to live there. the inner ring suburbs that used to be occupied by middle class families a lot of note those hae been taken over by those that don't have work. and part of the story those that used to be middle income in the suburbs have lost their job. and they are living floor near the poverty line. the numbers are a astonishing hw often every american some point in another will end up being

near the poverty line. four out of five will need welfare or unemployment. the numbers are really shocking as to how many of us are going to need assistance at some point in our lives. >> yes it's compelling data. you see how mainstream poverty is in this country come faired to our average standard of living. people cycle in and out. if you luke at th look at the poverty cells. and you have people living in prolonged poverty. and families living in ex-theme poverty are apt to experience these prolonged period of poverty. it speaks to the importance 69 f the safety net. the percen percentage of poverts

something for of a marginal population is not a true story. >> from a racial stand point two-thirds of people in poverty are white. >> you can say a higher percentage of african americans or his pan hispanics are in poverty. but the bulk of the people in poverty are white. the percentage of people that are hard-core portfoli poverty t of the people are i in and out f poverty and that is what you would want to see from the safety net programs. that people have a troubled fell anfell -- spell and they lose a job or family break up. and you have a safety net that supports them through that time and they barack o back on theird working again. i would like to see more generous programs but for the most part the people in poverty

are not hard-core poverty. that's not a hard track. it can be changed. people are not in poverty all 6 their lives. >> curtis what about the fact are we not spending our money properly when it comes to the safety programs? when you look at what is happening in europe the average rate of poverty in europe is half of what it is in the united states w. we are spending enormous amounts of money or the entitlement programs for the last decade. >> if you look at the spending percentages not a lot of money is being spent on safety net programs. if you exclude social security and medicare. in terms of speeding for sped -- spending for children i there and a decline n fed spendin spendfederal spendit

years. only 10% of federal spending goes to children. and some of these discorrection discretion discretion airdiscretion discretionarysafety net program. and if you make a real cost benefit analysis as to what medicade coul contributes. i would really like to see that kind of an accounting i expect that the medicade saves us a lot of money. how important is it this every changing face of america how are the dollars spent and to be able to move forward and impact the problem. there are two side to this. one is the before tax side. what can we do to get people into

decent paying jocks. that is why the poverty rate is rising. people in washington are reluck tareluctant to take the steps to to spend money to do it. people are scared of the budge deficits and that is the reality. the other part are the programs and the food stamp programs. and women and infant and my nutrition program. and trey sheep ver i very cheap. i would have to do the calculation that it's one tenth of the been people are reluck

tent reluctantand know how much is ge i focus on the former and what we can do on the before tax income and we could do a lot more on the other side the tracks petransfer programs tens of million of people are affected by this. >> it's a topic that needs to be focused on. i appreciate you taking the time to join us and talk to us about >> despite treacherous conditions, rescue efforts in the philippines continue... >> bodies are on the roads and nobody is picking them up... >> joie chen report live a special edition of america tonight... 9pm et / 6pm pt on al jazeera america

imprisonment in a brutal prison colony pla may have research resurfaced.

after months in a prison she has said. >> i'm joined by nadia's husband. petro. i know it's been a rough few days for you. there is a report that nadia has reappeared and is in a penal heard. >> we have the same information that she has is in one of the penal colonies. and this is why we are here to basically make the search for her and discover if she is in the quite

quite quite vicinity. and thre she has been in complee isolation. we consider that as punishment. both inside russia domestically and internationally. she has been missing for several weeks as you said while she was in transit from this camp to sigsiberia. >> did you have any idea where she was durin during that time. >> our source and informal leaks from the system and from the fellow prisoners told us she went through several cities and over a distance of up to 5000 kilometres to get to siberia. and given the fact she has only four months to serve we consider

this long transfer to be part of a punishment process that has been chosen b for her by russias government to she that people that raise problems or russia's system and social problem will not have their way taken easily. >> she got in trouble because she was protesting against russia president vladimir pew continue. putt putin. antnshe alleged a whole number f terrible things how inmate are treated in that camp. we'll are made to sew for 16 to 17 hours a day and no more than four hours of sleep. they get one day off every six weeks. they would face frequent loss of bathroom and privileges and they

would eat poor quality food and they would suffer beatings from fellow prisoners sand they could be pu punished for speaking out. >> when i read this list it's like going back to the russian go goolags. >> it does take it's legacy back from the goo lag days and it's the political system of the country has changed. the prison system in various regions did not have a chance to change as much as it was supposed to, to basically lift iitself up to basic human right standards. this is what we faced when nadia wrote this. >> verypowerful letter when youe

are talking about extreme conditions in those prisons. that is far beyond what anybody would think would be going on in russia. was she threatened in the ma camp. >> gentlemeyes she was threatene camp and the problems come out of the threats and this is the main difficulty that she las mass has faced during her time. she has to consider her legal fights. and go via the pro test of the prison officals attacking her and other things. >> we have heard of the terrible conditions at the old soviet prisons. how worried are you about what

her situation is going to be especially in the dead of the russian winter as it's coming now . and given the conditions at the other prison. if it was bad there how bad is it going to be there. >> this is going through the transfer process that nadia had to go through over the last month. this has to be judged serc sepay from what has happened the last month. and we would pay a lot of attention to the new prison and study them and it will be a huge scandal if the conditions in the siberia camp will be as bad as what she and other pric prisoned to face

. >> the world is certainly watching. when it was the last time you had contact with her. >> the last contact was one and a half months ago. she was seen on october 31 and we basically had no contact. we have a question for you from social media. >> since ide thated i e nadia's protest have you received any threats on in your live. life. >> i have not had any threats against me. the har authorities are square scared to put psychological

attention they prefer to used verse tactic s use -- pr perverse tactics. >> given the kind of pressure that has existed there is all kinds of protest in russia against what president putin has done tothat yeah. to nadia. and why is there no movement and to have her released and her band member and colleague released in. >> russia has several political cases going on at the same time that are all of them are quite

prominent and raise a lot of questions and a lot of international attention including the bein activists. but at the same time these things do not change. president putin feels he has to resist pressure from the west and continue the pol poll policies. this is it another problem we have to face here. >> peter i know dia supposed to be research released in march. how is your little daughter doing. doing? in the end given what has happened was this all worth it? >> shshe misses her a lot. and there are cases where she has been sending prison escape plans to nadia in prison. she is five years old and she has drawn so realistic and so

natural that prison censorship service has banned them because a child pictures are okay but images that are disclosed to prison escape plans are not acceptable even though they come from a small child. this is it the level that she cares about her mother. was it all worth it. >> it has to do with what he feels has to be done. and the government makes us pay a ster seven price. certain price. we do what we think must be done to change this country and then the government pays it's price. >> we wish you and your daughter the best and that nadia is okay and she is out soon and keep us

>> despite treacherous conditions, rescue efforts in the philippines continue... >> bodies are on the roads and nobody is picking them up... >> joie chen report live a special edition of america tonight... 9pm et / 6pm pt on al jazeera america

toronto mayor rob ford has embarrassed himself and his city

with wild words and wilder actes by taking illegal drugs. ford mixed apology and defines as he stood for four hours before toronto city council for a public flogging. >> have you purchased illegal drugs in the past two years. >> yes, i have. >> he stood in my way an blocked my path in a threatening way and in a way that i have never experienced with my time on this council. >> you are too much, buddy. >> i would ask that he apologize. his brother fe defended him. >> a yes yes or no, have you sd marijuana. mayoit was the first meeting ofe

city council since mayor ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine. this is a video of him in a drunk en rage. >> most toronto city council members want mayor ford to take a leave of absence but they have no power to make him do so unless he is convicted of a crime or stops coming to work for a long prepare period of ti. >> i'm not aned addict of any sort. i'm not help. >> is there some way you can explain to us why you won't take a leave of be a sense. absence. he was not quite confident. >> you don't know if people are videoing this or doing that. i don't know what is out there right now. everything i am aware of is out there. for more on toronto mayor

rob ford i'm joined by toronto by kevin newman who is the anchor of kevin newman live with ctv. >> was that the worst of rob ford's display our is there more to the story that we don't know about? >> who knows. there are things that are going to come out in the police investigation. it's head shaking stuff. just when you thought you heard enough he said he i bought drugs when i was mayor of toronto. and the staff are concerned about drunk driving and he downs a mickey of hard licke liquor an and driving and he consorts with prostitutes. >> legally he can stay on as toronto mayor until his term end.

he was a fairly popular mayor. because he had done a pretty good job, right? you are right. >> one of the things he has done is he brought the city's finances into check. he is a bit like a tea partyer. he respects the tax taxpayers dollars. he is a bit of that kind of brand of popular. >> he was incredibly popular. and he did better than anybody thought. and then all of this stuff started to unravel. at the beginning there was nothing to say it was causing him any harm politically. the day after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine, his approval rating went up four persian. four%. and the vast majority say just go off and deal with this issue. it's not only harming you

physically but it's harming the reputation of our city. >> we saw that aggressive behavior mayor ford's brother doug is on the council. what are they like as a team? >> well they are bully boys. the city is being run a bit like a frat house you know what we are seeing, antonio, we are seeing anyone who has experience with an addict in the family most of us know of somebody. and what the city and all of the north america is going through. there is that pattern. there is rage, there is sadness and frustration and the guy at the stint a center an and stands up and says i don't have a problem he needs a interinvestigation. intervention. he is not gettin getting it fros family. >> but even today when city

council stood up there and almost did an intervention. even he his strongest supporter and friend couldn't convince him to get help. >> the question is as you bring that up. we have all ben been exposed to. we all understand it's a disease. and doesn't he deserve forgiveness if he is willing to do something about it. >> he is not willing. he is a long way from recovery. he is in a stage of doug denial. >> you know you need everyone aligned against you before you deal with it. that is not what is surrounding the mayor of tonigh toronto. >> he is like the anti-canadian. you are all known as nice people and pleasant and certainly not like rob ford.

>> you know what, if this is what we have to seem interesting i would rather be boring and nice. >> how would you compare him to american politicians who tried to brazen and stay in office. we have marion berry who had a crack problem. we saw the former san diego mayor who tried to stay on desmytdesmythdespite the fact he pled guilty to sex crimes. >> he is more like the former mayor of san francisco. dogging it out to the very end. there is it no way to get the mayor to leave office. it's not like the council can vote him out here. there are no recall rules like there are in parts of california. >> there is no way to do it. the only way he can be forced from the of office. he could be a convicted criminal

and still be mayor. he has to beer i to be in jail. there is not much that can be done. he has to come to this him sow an righsow -- himself and righte is not there. >> kevin appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. it's time to see what is trending let's check in with hermela. a new study published by the aclu show that 80% of people were convicted of non-violent drug ow offences like possessing a crack pipe or traces of drugs in their clothing. 10% were convicted of non-violent shoplifting crimes. in 83% of the cases the junctios

didn't have a say in the sentencing. they had to follow mandatory guidelines. and now to your reaction. a new form of slavery and mel list is is youcan read more on the website america.aljazeera.com. >> audiences are intelligent and they know that their

the hubble space tel telesce has spotted something that has never been seen before. is it a comet or astroid or something else. it's got six tails that change shape day-to-day. the sung i sun is reaching the maximum solar bein being a test. activity. the olympic torch has hitched ride where it's become the first olympic torch to experience the vacuum of space here to talk about the space stories and more we are joinedbly dr. derek pit. thanks for joining us. great to have you back as always. let's talk about the astroid 32013 p 5. scientists have never seen an

astroid that has six tails and most of us thought only comets have tails. how does this grow a tail and let alone six of them. it's a very unusual creature indeed. an object like this having this many tails is unusual. for comets it's not unusual, because the heats of the nucleus of the comet by the sun as it comes in towards the solar system can generate dust and gas. gas and as it rotates you can see the gas come off the nucleus. when analyzing this it's too hot to have ice layers. what the thought now turns to is that in some si instances astroids are not much more of lose conglomeration of golder gold

boulders and rock and dust this may be loose enough that as the sun heats it it generates jets of dust that comes off and the solar winds create the trails of dust. as the nucleus rotates another location where the loose dust can come off forms the long tail. >> that is another interesting thing is how much the tails seem to be changed over a relatively short period of of time. over a few weeks the tails can move drastically what can we learn from something like this is there. >> we can learn a couple of things. we can study the effect of the solar wind the blast of the electro magnetic particles coming from the sun and we can learn more about the structure of the astroids. an something about the idea that

theeing the astroid can rotate. we can learn mothe more about te astroids as we go along. it's the first time we have seen something like this. but typically when we see one on on joke likobject like this we cane mother. ore and his more and more on the history of. >> how big do they think it is. 1400 feet in size. certainly with the them blasting out tons of material in it's a considerable piece. >> will it disintegrate.

>> no it won't. it will continue to dust until the easy stuff to off gas disappears and then we are left with the heavier pieces. >> you brought up the sun. what is going on. it's supposed to be hitting the stoso hearsolar maximum and it'. >> is this something we should be concerned about? >> this has been a very weak solar maximum and the weakest for a long time. and i watched it from the beginning. and took note that it was taking a long time to produce the first being active spot regong. regions. we we look at the weakness of the maximum it makes us wonder what we can look forward to in

the future. it's not unusual for the sun to do this but it's unusual that we are identifying this pattern. the length of time we have been studying the sun with any degree of certainty is not that long. we are still learning about how the sun can behave. dr. david ha hat the h do the intensity of the sun spots may tha play thata role on the climate. >> the it's true the effect of the sun on the atmosphere has a lot to do with the weather systems of the planet. so you certainly can see there is a direct connection between solar energy coming to the

planet and the weather of the planet itself. although to try to make a connection between -- let me say it this way. it's probably better to keep the two separate so that there is less confusion between global warming and climate change and the sun's connection to the earth. that is it a long going relationship it's probably better not to mix those two. the sun's effect on the earth's atmosphere. we can see how it can change the temperature on the planet slightly for a brief period of time. opposed to the global warming climate effects that are more closely related to the human activitys on the planet it's better to keep those two separate. lotlet's move onto the international space station. it just hosted the olympic torch. it the went on a space walk andt

is the first time it's been in the vacuum of space. it also created a situation that it housed nine as thro astronauts and cosmonautses. what is it like to be in that confined space that long especially when you have these extra people. it's better being on a international space station with nine people than it would have been on space shuttle with seven to nine people. that would definitely be a crowded situation. it may not be as good as a very large presidential suite in a fine hotel. but for being in space it's nice accommodations and nice digs. there are some adjustments that have to be made. the space station has three people on board and has move to have six on board on a regular basis and having the extra three

people it had been easier in the past to attach new modules. the first thing to consider is where do people sleep and are there enough supplies on board and is there enough carbon dioxide pulled out and if oxygen is provided and what do d to do in case of an emergency are there enough emergency vehicles to return to the planet in case there is an emergency on the space station. american astro naugh astronaut says it's great to have nine people on the space station because there are more projects they can do. what kind of work is being done there. there are all kinds of projects being done. there are biology projects and

chemistry project and there is experimentation being done that is related to extending or developing capability of living in space for a long period so that longterm space travel may be better acomp accommodated. all the way out to earth observation from the space platform as well. it's a great place to look down at the earth and see how the environmental systems on the planet work together. and some of this is major work that really does help push things to forward and a lot of the work that they want to do on the space statio station as it turnt it's not the best place to do the work on the spacetion a spas intended. >> it will probably echo what is going

ford. what is it like being on that station in that little space if people don't get along. >> it can be a problem. >> has it been. one thing astronauts have learned in training is how to get along with people in confind spaces. >> thank you appreciate you joining us as always. the show may be over. the conversation continues o the website. on monday we have esp espionaget the heart of the terrorist attacks in mumbai i-po mu mumbai india. and kitty kelly an he and here s

welcome to the news hour from al jazeera in doha. i'm adrian finnegan. an end to a desperate week of waiting as a family is reunited in the philippines. childhood friends go head to head as votes against underway in the chile elections.