tv News Al Jazeera November 20, 2013 12:00pm-12:31pm EST
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award on the 50th year since its creation. later today the president will go to arlington where he will present a wreath at the gave of president john f. kennedy. it's now noon eastern standard time. these are the stories we're following for you. another healthcare official on the hot seat? the senate. set to speak as we speak. nuclear talks resuming in geneva, but iran's supreme leader saying his country will not accept back from its nuclear rights program. just two days before the anniversary of president kennedy's assassination, as you saw, president obama giving out awards that jfk created. ♪
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congress taking another look at the problems surrounding president obama's signature healthcare reform law. this time taking a look on the impact on small business. >> i want to provide health insurance for my employees and their families, but we have been doing it for 15 years since i bought the company, but now because it is so high, our plan in effect is not viable, because it's not affordable. >> this hearing coming one day after a sat -- startling admission that key aspects of the site are still incomplete. the obama administration decided to launch the website october 1st, despite warnings from a consult act. the president says these issues reveal a problem with the way the government builds its websites. >> we probably underestimated the complexities of building out
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a website that needed to work the way it should. the way the federal government does procurement and it is just generally not very efficient. >> the site's building sites need to be corrected by january 1st. the obama administration saying other issues will be fixed by the end of this month. president obama's approval rating have fallen to an all time low. robert ray has the story. >> reporter: in rome, georgia, political chatter about what is happening in washington is as familiar as the southern charm of its main street. >> 90% of those people up there don't have a clue what is going on in the united states. >> reporter: in the foothills, rome is home to conservative republican congressman tom graves. he is one of the architects of
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the legislation to repeal obamacare, and voted to continue the government shutdown. he can find plenty of supporters in rome who blame the president for the failures of government. >> there are people who are vehemently opposed to the affordable care act. that's one of the things that helped to energize the tea party in its early days. >> reporter: here in rome there is an overall lack of confidence in the government, but specifically for the president of the united states. now the problem plagued rollout of the affordable care act website and the partisan bickering are adding to earlier dissatisfaction, contributing to the sinking approval ratings for president barack obama. >> i think it has hurt him
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tremendously. >> charlene has been an independent pharmacist in rome for over 30 years. she thinks obama's policies are anti-small business, and with the affordable care act it will just get worse. >> independent pharmacies are not the preferred pharmacy, which are going to cost our customers more copay if they trade with us. >> reporter: in the local barbara shop, he hope is gone. >> when he was first elected, he had an opportunity as a black man, being the first black president of the united states that he could actually make some changes. >> reporter: retired factory worker roy hudson supports the president. for him the anti-obama trend is about something else. >> i think they really hate from the day he went into office, obviously because he is an afro
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american. >> reporter: some see that as a reason that will be more difficult for the south. >> there are some people who are attracted to the tea party movement because of racial resentment. tea party supporters are more likely to express views of racial resentment than the g.o.p. >> reporter: for the g.o.p. places like rome could become a way to bolster votes in the elections. the problems with the affordable care act have become fodder for late night comics. former president having a laugh with jay leno last night. >> when the president had that heart scare, how scary was that? >> it was very scary. >> i wasn't as scared? >> was it because of obamacare.
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[ laughter ] >> joining us from washington is mr. volsky. ted cruz says the only way to fix obamacare is to get rid of it. is he right? >> no, they need to fix the website, and that's what people like ted cruz fear, if people are actually able to sign up and connect to the product that they will like obamacare, but in order to get there, you have to make sure people have access. >> but you have to admit the white house has made it easy for its critics to lineup and say something has to be done. are they right? >> certainly. you have the political fallout, vulnerable democrats running for reelection are clinging to any
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political cover, but at the engineer of the day those folks who voted for obamacare, they will be attacked from it no matter what. so once they distance themselves from this day-to-day drip, drip of bad news, and if the website is fixed in a month or two months, maybe they'll be in a better light, but certainly right now it is very, very difficult. >> separate out the politics and the problems with the website, are americans better off with or without the affordable care act? >> yeah that is going to be the big question come 2014 and 2016, and at the end of the day you have a hundred thousand americans who will have private coverage. about 300,000 low-income americans who will have access to medicaid. these are big, big gains and they are only going to increase as access is made easier. the scorecard at the end is
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going to say you have hopefully millions of people with health care because that's what democrats did, and that's going to help them. >> thank you very much. the editor of the progress.org. iran's supreme leader says his country will not back down from their right to their num lar program. this is the third time the p5-plus-1 are meeting paul. any thought we might be closer to a deal this time? >> well, they wouldn't have come back so shortly if they didn't think there was a chance for a break through. so they are sitting down, and we are told that around this time
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as we speak should be the first meeting of everybody, the p5-plus-1 and the iranian side. they have three more days to talk about this. there are some stubbling blocks that we are well aware of. but again they have come back to geneva quick on the heels of though high profile meeting and there is a sense of cautious optimism that they can reach an agreement. >> phil what are the specific issues on the table that are being negotiated? >> well, the issues that are the sticking points, the french say that they are very concerned about a heavy water plant in iran, and that produces as a biproduct plutonium. and that has the international community deeply concerned. the other major sticking point that we are told is the standarding stockpile of already
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enriched uranium, and what to do with that. there are other issues. we have heard from the israelis that there is deep concern about the thousands of centrifuges in iran and could be brought up to speed in a moment's notice. obviously the question for the irans, what they want, is an easing of sanctions, and there is apparently on the table a 10 billion dollars easing of sanctions. this would not get rid of the sanction system, but for six monks they would be alleviated from that, and we would check back in then at the end of that period. >> phil thank you very much. the senate is debating a measure that would change the way the military deals with sexual assault cases. the penth gone has been under higher in for the way it handles those cases. libby casey is in washington, and libby this issue has even divided the senate in some rather unusual ways?
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>> that's right. it is not split along party lines. there are two competing proposals right now, senator gillibrand is leading a charge to get sexual assault cases taken out of the military chain of command. that means professionals would zeal with those cases. senator gillibrand told the story of one marine who has come from colorado to washington to share her personal story. >> sarah's story is extremely disturbing. she was raped as a young marine in 2003. she said i knew the military was notorious for mishandling rape cases so i didn't dare think anything good would come from reporting the rape. having someone in your direct chain of command doesn't make any sense it's like being raped
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by your brother and having your dad decide the case. >> now senator claire mccaskill of missouri says this is a big problem and has proposed a couple of steps. she doesn't however want to take it out of the chain of commanding. >> just like there is not agreement among all of the women in this chamber, there is not agreement among all of the victims. there is not agreement among all of the veterans or commanders. although most women commanders have acknowledged that even though this sounds simple, it is much more complicated, and we will be creating more problems than we will be solving if we make the change advocated by senator gillibrand. >> her proposals include making
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it a crime to retaliate against the victims of sexual assault and take away the power of commanders to dismiss a court-martial conviction. senator gillibrand and many of her supporters say we agree be senator mccaskill's ideas, but we want to go further. >> libby do we have any idea what side the pentagon is taking in this matter? >> yes, we do. they want to keep it in the chain of come -- command. and the white house is staying quiet in terms of this, that's why some members of the senate are also staying mum. >> libby casey on capitol hill.
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libby thank you very much. president obama honoring 16 individuals with one of the nation's highest honors. the presidential medal of freedom comes two days before the anniversary of the assassination of john f. kennedy. this afternoon the president will head to arlington national cemetery to lay a wreath at his grave. mike viqueira joins on that. >> it really was a welcome break from the toxic atmosphere in washington, d.c. the president heading over to arlington national cemetery with bill clinton, and hillary clinton, and michelle obama to lay wreath at the eternal flame of president kennedy.
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but the ceremony of the medal of freedom. 500 individuals have received this award over the years. ernie banks from the sports well as well as dean smith, a legendary basketball coach, there were people there from the world of civil rights as well. reverend ct vivian, patricia wald a jurist, oprah winfr winfrwinfrey reta lynn. we saw mr. cub from the president's adopted hometown of chicago.
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a happy moment, the president now heads off across the river to arlington, dell. >> mike thank you very much. coming up a florida congressman goes to court on drug charges. that story and much more when al jazeera america returns. interactive television. in fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. >> all these folks are making a whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> i think you've offended everyone with that kathy. >> hold on, there's some room to offend people, i'm here. >> we have a right to know what's in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> watch the stream. >> and join the conversation online @ajamstream. >> audiences are intelligent and they know that their
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more us and global news than any other american news channel. >> tell us exactly what is behind this story. >> from more sources around the world. >> the situation has intensified here at the border. >> start every morning, every day, 5am to 9 eastern with al jazeera america. ♪ welcome back. i'm del walters. here are your business stories making headlines. an up and down day for stocks. the dow pushing past 16,000 for the third day and then falling back again. the blue chips are now just below that 16,000 mark. more americans are falling behind on their credit card payments. credit agency transunion saying the rate of late payments from
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july through september rose slightly, but the level remains close to six-year lows. higher prices and interest rates are effecting the housing market. sales of preowned homes fell more than 3% in october. the average price of a home prizing 13% to just under 2 hundred thousand dollars. people in illinois and other midwestern states are spending another day shifting through the remains of their homes after those deadly tornados on sunday. andy roesgen is in the hard-hit town of washington, illinois. this is day two of families finally being able to go back to their damaged home, so how are they coping and are they getting the help that they need? >> reporter: well, it's a lot busier than it was 24 hours ago. they are getting big power poles
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to get the power restores to thousands of customers still. and authorities have cleared away two major streets. and authorities are allowing people about nine hours to come in today, get to their property and get stuff out. we talked to one man who lost his childhood home, and yet he is still keeping it all in perspective. >> of course this can happen, and you try to prepare for it, but you are never really ready for something like this. the only thing i can say is don't take life for granted. live every day as a blessing from god, because you never know when it is all just going to go. >> reporter: jason was so excited to see his photo albums and to show those to us. they were photo albums that were found in his home. everything else was lost basically. but he showed us pictures of his
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childhood. and in the meantime there is help. in a lot of ways. we called a ministry that really got going under hurricane tre katrina. they arrived here to bring cleaning supplies. >> andy roesgen joining us live from washington, illinois. andy thank you very much. from the midwest to philippines to italy, storms are the talk of the town. for that we turn to dave warren. another stormy day. >> yeah, it sure is. but the thank we're talking about now is just the recovery, and the colder temperatures that have moved in. chicago 36, 34 in illinois, st. louis at 39 degrees. the typhoon, the recovery effort
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still underway in the philippines. this is what happened in the mediterranean. large areas of the italian countryside remain underwater. they had about half a year's worth of rain in just a 24-hour period. so they are looking at the recovery efforts there. a lot of mud slides and transportation was shut down. also problems in mexico where thousands of residents have evacuated their homes in vera crus. the region was already saturated. so a lot of recovery going on now, not many big storms happening. you see it is all clear in mexico. the big thing we'll be talking about with the next storm is the cold temperatures across the
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country. i'll look at what you can expect, when the cold air will come. that's all coming up with the national forecast. >> thank you very much. a florida congressman appeared in court today charged with possessing cocaine. he was sentenced to one year probation. he was arrested last month in washington, d.c. in a statement radel apologized saying quote . . . as you heard the charge was a m misdemeanor. up next items go on display for the first time from jfk's funeral. ♪
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their blood will water the tree of freedom for the homeland. here ends the message. president. the president reiterated to us that he is holding steadfast and adhering to his legitimacy as the lawful legal president of egypt. this was a message dig tated verbally to -- dictated verbally to us by the president mohamed welcome back to al jazeera
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america. i'm del walters. these are today's top stories. two days before the 50th anniversary of participate john f. kennedy's assassination, president obama paying tribute to his legacy. he awarded the presidential medal of freedom to 16 recipients. world leaders are in geneva to resume nuclear talks with iran. iran's supreme leader saying his country will not step back one iota from its nuclear rights. today the senate begins bedated on a measure that would change the way sexual assault caseings in the military are handled. a killer was put to death
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after a debate over lethal injection. items from jfk's funeral will be on display for the first time. special artifacts including this flag, and clothes worn by those who at tended will be on display. the display marks the 50th anniversary of the kennedy's assassination and goes through participate's day. ♪ i'm meteorologist dave warren, we're back talking about the winter weather. there is a big arctic blast that we'll be talking about. first off the snow, just some light snow here in montana, idaho and iowa.
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a little accumulation, that's why you have the winter weather advisory issues here in this area in white. here is the first taste of the cold air, billings 17. you see that cold temperature. cold air dropping into montana and the dakotas. it is cold air, and we will certainly feel that here over the next few days as it continues to move south and east. the radar plus the clouds out ahead of it show maybe some rain as the temperatures climb but then drop. and this is just the cold area. we're not talking about the arctic air yet. that will be reinforcing this temperature. here is the cold air by friday. this arctic air coming in by saturday. we'll have lake-effect snow as
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the wind picks up as the arctic air moves in. by saturday to sunday it will move east, and the northeastern states you will see a big plunge in the temperatures, along with that there could be some wind. we'll have sunshine and clear skies except where there's lake-effect snow, but you'll see a big drop in temperatures. down to 27 between friday and saturday. that drop comes a little later along the east coast. dell? >> dave warren thank you very much. and thank each after every one of you for watching. i'm del walters. "the stream" is next. a reminder this was the day that the president honored 16 individuals with the presidential medal of honor. recipients hailing from chicago
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from ernie banks, oprah winfrey and all parts in between. we'll be right back. ♪ you're in "the stream." when a child is raised in a loving home with two loving parents, does gender matter in we'll hear from two raised by same-sex parents. >> all right, raj is bringing in all of your questions in the show. we have 600 lights on facebook right now. >> check out my page. this has set the record for the amount of community feedback.
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