>> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. syria's refugees fight a massive snowstorm while the u.s. cuts back on aid to rebel forces. a budget deal reached by an unlikely dual. and the picture of the pope on the front of a magazine. >> the united states is putting the brakes on some aid to northern jaar syria.

why? america and britain will suspend non-lethal equipment to syria on reports that one al-qaeda group took buildings of the free syrian rebels. >> reporter: how much assistance to give these rebels whether it be non-lethal or small munitions that were given in the wake of the notorious chemical attack of bashar al-assad's forces.

the vehicles, meals ready to eat, communication equipment, things that have nature. now this islamic front that has splintered off from the main force fighting against the assad government has taken over a border outpost near the turkish border, a warehouse as well as a headquarters building. josh earnest is the principle press deputy secretary here at the white house. >> you know, we had seen reports that islamic front forces have seized the headquarters in question, and warehouses belonging to the supreme military council. we're concerned about those reports. we're gathering facts to inventory th provided to the sm. the united states has suspended all further deliveries of

non-lethal assistance into northern syria. >> now tony at that briefing had an opportunity to ask josh earnest what about lethal aid? they never confirmed the program run by the c.i.a. to send small munitions to the syrian rebels. it was congressional sources that initially confirmed that they wouldn't talk about that, but they do stress the humanitarian aid is still going forward. >> what does this mean for syr syria's rebels, valerie, research analyst at the institute of the study of war. let me put that last question from mike viqueira right to you. has the united states been supplying small arms to the so-called vetted opposition with within syria through the c.i.a. what is your understanding? >> hi, it's a pleasure to be here. i can't give you details about

that, but my understanding is there that might be small amounts of strategic arms going to vetted groups, and that would be in the southern borders of jordan. this would not be related to this story we're following. >> but it would raise concerns, if the u.s. were involved in supplying small arms to the rebels, wherever they are in the country, the concern would be those weapons getting into the hands of the islamic front, correct? >> i think that would be one concern, although it remains to be seen if the islamic front is really a problem or a threat. i think the smc--it doesn't involved any of the al-qaeda-linked groups, and smc has hesitantly welcomed the islamic front. i think trying to reach out of hand in hopes that they can come together if in defeating assad.

>> wait a minute, do you see that happening? >> yes, there were reports of the u.s. potentially reaching out, but the reports put out by the smc after the formation of the islamic front were positive. >> yes, yes, what is your understanding now of how fractured the option is in syria right now? >> i think there is some confusion about that point. the opposition was never fully united. it arose independently in different places all over syria. what we're seeing now that is troublesome is groups actually united but united independently of the smc and western backed forces because they have not been giving them what they need. we see groups becoming more independent and really undoing any kind of control we might have had. >> there was a meeting of the gulf leaders in kuwait, would anyone on either side of the fighting ahead the call of the

call of the arab leaders for all foreign troops to leave syria, and what does that ultimately portend for geneva? >> no, i don't think so so. i don't know how genuine those calls are considering the fact that some of the groups that gulf states are funding include foreign forces including pro regime side, iran, whose funding hezbollah, who is in there, and all foreign forces on the other side need to leave. i don't know if those statement versus any direct effect on geneva. >> i'm glad you made that point so i wouldn't have to. research analysts at the institute of the study of war. thank you for your time. i have to tell that you snow is making life tougher for refugees in lebanon. they live only in tents with plastic sheets covering the ground. the kids decided to have a snowball fight. the parents are worried about

how to keep them warm during the winter. some say the shelling would have been easier than the storm. >> meteorologist: tony, this is a story that we saw last year at this time. the unfortunate thing is there are more refugees living in refugee camps here. it is not just parts of lebanon, it's parts of syria, turkey as well. there are so many refugees liv living in makeshift tents as well as just cardboard and wood. what's happening right now is this area of low pressure is coming off the mediterranean. it's picking up the moyes. as it makes its way towards the middle east and the higher elevations, it's dumping it. lower elevations are seeing four inches of rain. higher elevations are going to be seeing six inches of snow. this event is going to go on for the next couple of days. tony, some people are without any fuel to cook, fuel to heat.

>> yes, it is really tough. kevin, thank you. the house and senate have reached an agreement on the budget plan that lawmakers could approve before their christmas recess. the house is expected to vote on the plan tomorrow. the senate will likely vote on it next week. the deal comes weeks before the funding bill expires on january 15th. libby casey has more on the debate. >> reporter: well, it may an bill that nobody loves, but the bipartisan budget act did gain momentum today. house republicans went behind closed doors to talk it over. when they came out many said even though they don't get everything they want in this deal, it does bring them closer. greg waldon, republican of oregon, said he can live with it. >> very few people expect us to come here, find common ground, do the best we can, stick to our principles but governor. i think that's what this achieves. >> reporter: congressman waldon is not a lone voice. many are saying this is a deal

they can live with. while they would like to see a bigger panel on the table, this will do it for now. and many say this does not roll back on the sequestration cuts too far. the democrats are happy to get some of those sequestration cuts pulled back. this will mean less of a cut to the military, but also programs such as n.i.h. head start and other programs. nancy pelosi said the democratic plan on the table would have gone farther, it would have been more successful, and she's very concerned because long term unemployment benefits expire at the end of this month, the extent not included in this house bill. >> it's absolutely unconscionable that we could possibly even consider leaving washington d.c. without exten extending those benefits. >> now the house could vote as soon as tomorrow on this bill. it would then go to the canada

which has more time. the senate is still in washington doing work next week. the real deadline is january 15th. that's when the government would face a potential shutdown if the deal isn't brokered. many weeks away, but budget watchers are seeing this as a crucial time, a moment where congress can show that they can actually work together on a bipartisan basis to get something done. >> libby, thank you. the deal may--under line tha that--may break the stalemate. but many lawmakers are saying this is not a permanent fix. >> reporter: tony, this deal may work because the republicans do not see tax hikes, and democrats do get some spending restored. this focuses on two groups, money for the military and for the rest of the government. they're working with less than usual because the spending cuts earlier this year. now they each get $22 billion more next year, and more the year after that. it's not as much as they used to have, but it is something that pleases some lawmakers. so how to help pay for all this?

for one airline tickets will get more expensive. right now the government tacks on an extra fee of $5 per flight. that will reportedly flight to $5.60 per flight. new federal workers will have to pay more into their pensions. retired soldiers won't get quite as much in their retirement, and this does not focus on some of the big expenses lawmakers want to reform like medicare and social security. these budget showdowns are all about cutting our national debt which stands at 17 trillion-dollar. it is a huge number. this deal saves only a fraction of that and cuts off $20 billion over the next decade. some say these cuts are largely women sol--symbolic. >> a lot to do to bring that number down to zero. >> jonathan, appreciate it. thank you. pope francis is "time" magazine's person of the year. the pope is practicing what he preaches. >> reporter: depending on your

point of view, "time" magazine's annual selection of the person of the year is either blatant publicity for a magazine operating in an if you have marketplace or it is serving. the vatican issued a humble statement on behalf of the humble pope francis. the holy father is not looking to become famous or receive honors but if choice of person of the year helps to spread the gospel, the message of god's love for everyone, he will certainly be happy about that. >> he is the most popular man on twitter. he is the most popular man on facebook. he is the most talked about man online at all. >> the reverend senior religion editor the huffington post pope

francis is first a pastor. >> pope francis is the religious leader we've been waiting for. he is speaking for those who have been excluded from our world for so long. he's saying come in, be a part of it, i'm with you. >> the point of the person of the year award reflects someone who has great influence good or bad in the last 12 months. "time" also listed more names. edward snowden, whistle blowing that exposed u.s. government spying the world over. syrian president bashar al-assad whose nation is in its third year of civil war. and the junior senator from texas, ted cruz, for helping to shut down the government over the affordable care act. time editors and senior staff make the final choice helped by people's vote by social media. this year's decision came inly a wrecking ball, miley cyrus.

[♪ singing ] on the steps of st. patrick's cathedral in new york catholics were thrilled that their leader triumphed over pop culture. >> he wants to come down and be with the people. i think that's important. that's what christ would want us to do. >> only nine months in, pope francis, person of the year. al jazeera, new york. >> people lined up for hours for just a few moments to say good buy to nelson mandela. mandela's body will lie instate in the capitol pratoria. we are we havwe have more from . you say today's event were more emotional than even yesterday's memorial service for many south africans. >> reporter: yes, we saw mandela's family breaking down. we talked to a lot of people outside of the state hall, and

talked about a real sadness, a real mourning. there was celebration over the weekend, people grateful, thankful, celebrating his life and his achievements. today was much more somber an. people say this is tough for me. everything that i have i owe to him. this young man was grateful to be able to say goo goodbye, thak you for giving me the opportunities that i have. one singer traveling to the states said, i would never be able to do that without him, and i'm here to say goodbye one last time. >> we'll get there, more importantly south africans will get there monday after the burial, but many of you have spoken to our already thinking long and hard about the future of the country after mandela. >> yes, tony, as you know there

are a lot of people who--all of us, all of the journalists here have met to say, look, mandela gave us our political freedom but we don't have our economic freedom. we don't have opportunities for jobs. we don't have hope for the future. whites make six times on average what a black south african will make. there are a lot of people living in townships, people saying look, we don't have the freedom. we're still struggling, why hasn't mandela's struggle led to our freedom. >> nick in pretoria, south africa. the south africans are investigating what may have a been a security breach. a sign language interpreter, you see him to the left of the president on the screen. standing next to president obama, and other dignitaries. but the head of the deaf foundation of south africa said the man was a fraud, and that the sign had no meaning.

it's still not clear who he is, how he got there and the sign had no meaning. when we got bac come back. >> sex offenders say the laws are making it difficult for them to find a place to live after they've done their time. we go to a community established solely for sex offenders. al jazeera america is growing and now more americans are getting the high quality, original, in-depth reporting al jazeera america is known for. >> to find out more about al jazeera america go to aljazeera.com have been telling you in the san

joaquim river, freeze warnings in effect. never seen too much in terms of rain. los angeles, you are going to be seeing some beautiful weather all the way to sunday even into the low 70 did or high 60s, partly cloudy conditions, overnight, about 44 degrees. texas also dry for you as well. we saw rain showers and a mix of precip just a little bit up here towards the north. temperatures for dallas at about 42. san antonio at 55. for houston, well, you are going to be seeing rain by the time we end the week. 59 degrees there. that will will last one day. your weekend should look better with a high of 63. over here towards the southeast, some rain showers pushing through orlando right now. atlanta is going to be about 56. an american auto maker making history. the newer ground general motor is making as it names its latest ceo.

>> into florida sex crime rates are among the highest, and for offenders after serving their time finding place to live can be a challenge. laws restrict them from living wherever children gather. it is a community of just 200 people but more than half of those residents are registered sex offenders. natasha joins us live from miami, and in nana shark shah,w

remote is this village. >> very, 45 minutes from west palm beach by car and 15 minutes from the next tiny town. not only do adults live here, more than a dozen kids live in this community. >> reporter: deep into florida's sugar cane country just off a two-lane highway there is a 23-acre patch of tiny neutral colored run down moment. a no trespass sign greets visitors. this is miracle village population 200, including 115 sex offenders. >> patrick powers cofounded miracle village in 2008 along with now deceased pastor of 25 ministries. powers is a registered sex offender, and he knows how hard it is to find a place to live after leaving

prison. strict precedency laws force sex offenders to form an encampment. laws prohibit sex offenders to live within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, anywhere children gather, but that has been increased to 2500 feet. here the church is the focal point of the community. the men even formed a band. no serial rapists or pedophiles are allowed. christopher dawson is the youngest resident. >> i had sex with my girlfriend at the time. she was 14. did i not know her age. she lied to me about her halleluiah. i thought she was 17, and i was 19. >> despite the fact that they have not had support of their

families, they have moved here. >> my neighbor is a sex offender. my best friend is a sex offender. i feel more safety here. >> i have peace, i hope. it would be great if we didn't need a place like this. >> tamara agrees. >> they result in ostracizing people, making it difficult for them to find work, be with their families, homelessness is the result, and it makes it likely that people will lapse and become criminal. >> enacting stricter laws in florida but he wants to insure that sex offenders do not end up homeless. >> having affordable housing built to offenders is a good thing to have happen. but see, what they want you to believe is residentialcy restrictions created their

problem. their deviant behaviors created their problem. >> the sex offenders we spoke to say they don't want to live in miracle village for the rest of their lives. they want to live freely. >> why wouldn't you want us to become normal. why wouldn't you want us to come back to societies? >> they hope one day this place does not exist but for now they have plans to expand what they feel is a model community for society's ultimate outcast. you might be wondering how the village sustains itself, residents pay rent, $400 to $500 a month, and staff is paid villa donations to the ministry. >> natasha, appreciate it. that's fascinating. in a tasha ghoneim in miami. a new study shows that the pay gap is steadily closing between men and women between the ages of 25 and 34.

it now stands at an historying low. david shuster is going to be exploring this and much more in "real money" how much have women caught up and closing this gap? >> well, tony, according to a research women saw their earnings in 2012 rise to 93% of what men in the same age group receive for doing the same work. younger women had made 67% of what their young male colleagues earned back in 1980. but since then minimum wages for women have increased while they have decreased for men. they are now better educated than their male colleagues and they're actually likely to be in the workforce. >> the pay gap still committees

for women later on in their careers, correct? >> reporter: that's right. overall the reason today are more likely to take time off from work when they get married, have children while the opposite is still true. they're more likely to keep working. when you factor it all in together the gap for all workers, men versus women, it is 84% of what women make compared to men. it's better, but there are terms of progress in narrowing it in the future. we'll discuss the minimum wage. there is an effort under way to raise the minimum wage. we'll look at both sides, the workers' perspective and small business owner's perspective. that's right here on "real money." >> david, we appreciate it. we'll see you then. ross is here with a look at the sports headlines and a big

change coming to the washington redskins. >> reporter: we all thought it was going to be a coaching change but it is a quarterbacking change. rg3 is not even required but mike shanahan wants to protect him for the offseason. it's definitely a statement by shanahan who is telling his team and the owner daniel snyder i'm in charge. now shanahan is saying that griffin has taken too many hits after being zapped too many times in the past five games. rrg3 will step back and cousins will take over. kobe bryant showing off. how tall is he. >> 6'6". >> he scored 20 points and gave himself a d-grade as he gets himself back in shape. the lakers would drop to 0 and 2 with kobe in the lineup. one of the most iconic numbers in nascar number three car will

make a return in the sprint cup series next season. dillon will be driving the car made famous by champion dale earnhardt. the number has not been used since dale earnhardt's tragic death. >> now i can't wait. mr. cousins becomes the sacrificial lamb for an offensive line that cannot protect. great to be a backup quarterback in the nfl. thank you sir. the details behind the flight of 214, and what caused the deadly accident. the tonal truck had dangerous cargo will get a new location.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at your top stories. a vote on a budget agreement coo comcould come tomorrow.

the president said he's willing to sign the bill in its current form. health secretary kathleen sebelius is calling nor an investigation in the roll out issues regarding healthcare.gov she made the announcement just before she was grilled again on capitol hill. nelson mandelnelson mandelag instate until his burial on sunday. maya angelou wrote about nelson mandela. >> he all lost somebody. that's why i mentioned the people of south africa and tell them that we the people of the united states, we americans, in particular, we also lost a friend. we speak of the people of all

the south african people and say, sorry, we, too, we have lost someone. sorry, we have feelings for you. >> confusion over the cockpit computer systems and the captain in training worried about landing a jumbo jet manually at san francisco airport, those were some of the elements leading up to a crash of the boeing 777 in july. today the ntsb held a hearing into its cause. the board was mostly focused on cockpit automation, an issue that the industry is grappling with. we're joined from washington, lisa. >> reporter: tony, nice to see you. it was a day-long hearing and continues even as we speak. one of the things that came out in this hearing was that the man at the controls, the pilot who was training on this boeing jumbo jet, he was really concerned about that landing in san francisco. he said it was very stressful. he was concerned because he was going to have to fly the plane by hand and take a visual

approach into the san francisco airport. video released at the hearing shows how violent the accident was. moments before the crash pilots realized they were coming in too low, too slow, and they tried to correct, but it was too late. they ran into the sea wall snapping off it's tail and three people, three girls, died. >> we do have an issue in aviation that needs to be dealt with with respect to automation and performance when it comes to the interaction between the aircraft and the human being. >> in the asiatic craft the pilot disabled the automatic speed control on the bow be 7777. the crew failed to notice the speed was dropping. >> the planes are becoming so

automated, and they're removing, you know, human judgment from so many aspects of flight that pilots really are becoming somewhat complacent. >> reporter: it has been a challenge for all airlines as well. in 2009 an air france jet plunged into the atlantic, and an air flight crashed in buffalo. investigators blamed both accidents on confusion of cockpit automation and the pilot's failure to handle the controls correctly when the auto pilot kicked off just last month the faa issued a report that found that pilots are so reliants on the automated systems that they're losing their skills to take over and fly the plane in an emergency. the reports said pilots should be given the chance to practice their basic flying skills both in the plane and during training. >> working on manual flying skills is always a good thing, and we should continue to make

sure that we create opportunities for us to refresh that muscle memory, if you will. >> reporter: and also critical automation design. even before the asiatic crash there were concerns about boeing's automatic speed system which will not kick back on in certain settings. i pilot said he thought that the airspeed was always work. boeing defended it's design and said ultimately it's the pilot in control. >> as we aid the pilot, not replace the pilot. >> reporter: now it will be months before the ntsb finishes its investigation and comes up with an official cause but you can bet there will be recommendations on trying to improve that delicate dance between man, pilot and machine. >> lisa, how widespread is this problem?

>> reporter: well, on one hand automation has made flying a lot safer. we don't want to live without t and it's been a long time between accidents. what everyone is say something this is trying to make a safe system just all that much more safer. >> one more for you, do we know why the pilot in training was nervous? >> reporter: it had to do--there was an instrument out in francisco that helps guide you down to the runway, he would going to have to make a visual approach. it was trickier, and he had never flown into this airport, and he was training on this jet. it all came together to create this disaster. >> lisa, thank you. riot police in ukraine crashed with protesters in kiev and u.s. is not pleased. it sy said all policy actions including sanctions are under consideration. >> peaceful protests hav respone

has been completely unacceptab unacceptable. >> al jazeera's robinforestier-walker is in kiev. >> they're rebuilding their defenses and bringing in supply. the opposition movement on kiev's independent square is creating a fortress for the pro european movement. early wednesday saw militias muscling their way in and breaking down barricades. but pro tes protesters have re-established their tent encampment. they feel that they have momentum. president yanukovych offered direct talks with opposition leaders, but they remain skeptical, and they want a new government and a new president. yanukovych is facing diplomatic

pressure from the e.u. and the u.s. >> i made it absolutely clear to him that what happened last night, what has been happening in security terms here is absolutely impermissible in an european state in a democratic state. >> reporter: ukrainians who want closer ties to the west came out in thousands. they believe they have scored a victory against the police and it's government. yanukovych appears unable to restore his authority here. when he last agreed to talks he sent his riot police in. protesters are not taking any chances. robin forestier-walker. >> french minister of defense asked u.s. to help get troops in

to the central african republic quickly. 500 people have been killed in two weeks of violence last week. police have used a robot to recover radioactive waste in mexico. five men were arrested for allegedly stealing a truck and exposing the toxic waste. they were later treated at the hospital. the food and drug administration is trying to phase out using antibiotic in meat. they're worried its live spread use in livestock is helping create superbugs making people sick. the pharmaceutical companies agreed to the idea that animals would need to be prescribed the drugs. new york could be the third state in the country do legalize recreation marijuana. lawmakers introduced the bill yesterday, and say taxing the

pot would add $430 million to the budget for new york city alone. it is a disease spreading. dementia is expected to rob the memories of 76 million. barnly phillips has this report. >> this is a cruel squeeze that leaves loved ones trapped in their own impenetrable world, unable to recognize their partners that they might have lived with for decades. at this summit in london a warning the number of people with dementia is set to triple by 1950. with people growing old all over the world this is no longer a problem for developed countries. >> it doesn't matter if you're in london, los angeles, rural india or urban japan, this

disease steals lives, wrecks families, and breaks hearts. this is why we're here to beat it. >> reporter: this is a disease that often doesn't get this kind of attention, but one of the problems with dementia all over the world it is surrounded by stigma and fear. one message of this meeting is we don't have to wait for the results of expensive research just by living a healthy lifestyle we can prevent or delay the onset of some kinds of dementia. >> no smoking. good exercise. healthy diet. of course, modest drinking. if the country ace culture permits. if you can address these four, not only reduce heart disease, diabetes, cancers, but at the same time it can protect people from developing di me dementia. >> in china today there are some

9 million dementia sufferers. here as in most countries its families that carry most of the burden of care. there aren't enough beds in constitutions. anyway, many people like to keep their loved ones close. now governments are trying to spread a message of hope. the dementia is not part of the normal process of aging but rather a disease that we can and must defeat. barnaby philips, al jazeera, london. >> uruguay has become the first country to legalize marijuana. private companies will now be able to grow pot. citizens 18 and over will be able to grow the drug or buy it from licensed pharmacies. the law goes into effect in mid-april. india reinforced a ban on gay sex.

>> shocked and it's a offense and jaded in india. many gather to hear the verdict. >> why am i a criminal just because i want to live with a person of my own choice. >> supporters of gay rights also marched in mumbai. activists say reversing the 2009 rule something a step backwards. a deli high court made gay sex as a basic right four years ago, but coalition groups since said it's genes nature and that group was heard by the country's highest courts. >> as i said to you on the validity of the law and the supreme court, it must be respected by government. >> open homosexuality is not the

norm in india but since 2008 there have been a number of gay pride marchs in major cities. the supreme court argued that politicians should be the ones to change the law. the 2009 ruling many said in a was a sign of india's progress. but since there has been backlash against the gay community. >> the law enforcement agency also also be part of that prejudice in some sense, and the harassment, the persecution and bullying of lgbt citizens in india would... >> reporter: so gay sex is once again a criminal act by law created in the 19th century.

and many people may be forced to live hidden lives once again. >> when we come back reclaiming detroit, a new recycling project that is putting the shine back in the motor city, and down in washington, d.c. the drama continues, who will be the quarterback for the redskins. ross has the story next in sports. >> this isn't a new channel, this is a watershed moment in media for america. >> this entire region is utterly devastated. >> people our here are struggling. >> the fire jumped the highway we took earlier. >> your average viewer want's to actually understand how the health care law is going to help them or hurt them. >> they know they can get extremist bickering somewhere else. >> people say that we're revolutionary. our revolution is just going back to doing the best in

journalism. >> this is the place to go watch high quality journalism, period. most of the students are black or latino, some with an undocumented parent. none were born with a silver spoon in their house. 98% qualify for free or reduced price launches. >> the majority of them face a challenge. it may not be their skin colour. it may be socioeconomic status. it may be being homeless. >> the children are quick to connect nelson mandela. >> i heard that he was, r martin luther king in another state. ms klieforth says her students are bringing their personal experiences to the classroom. >> the kids tell stories. i walked into a store and felt like people treated me differently. it. >> it's cool.

what he did - he didn't came, if >> in detroit one house in every five stand empty, and there are more than 75,000 of them recently tearing these structures down has been a top priority. the city wants to spend

$7.5 million to tear down blight removal, but others have plans of their own. >> where some people see trash others see treasure, or in the case of these abandoned houses a lumber yard. >> the lumber we get out of these houses is beautiful stuff. >> reporter: reclaim detroit salvages lumber from these houses. >> i thought we got to start saving this and put people to work. >> reporter: it cost abouts 9,000 to demolish a house. many have been stripped by scavengers who stri who take co. but lumber, flooring, 2 x 4s, plywood. entrepreneurs want to reclaim that wood, recycle it instead of seeing it wasted and ruined. >> we're doing what we can to

show people the inherentout bbey in this wood. >> reporter: designing furniture from this reclaimed lumber. >> i think it has huge appeal, the natural quality, the fact that it has a story behind it. all of our pieces come with its unique detroit address. >> more and more architects and interior decorators are using reclaimed wood for their environmentally conscious glints we're protecting the environment and offering exotic wood space rather than destroying a rain forest. >> but it's not just about recycling. it creates jobs. they call it deconstruction work. >> it's the opposite of construction. instead of building the house from the ground up, we take it down from the top down. >> reporter: contractors say

deconstructing a house takes more time, skill and labor than just knocking it down and carting the debris off to a landfill. >> right now we have six workers on this one. it's coming down pretty quickly. to demolish a house you have a machine and maybe two guys, two or three guys. >> reporter: before being turned into a cutting board, dining table or coffee shop county, reclaimed lumber needs to be sanded, plained and finished. every step in the process means more jobs, and right now that's probably what detroit needs more than just about anything else. david hawkins, al jazeera, detroit. >> ross is here with a day in sports. what on earth is going on in washington, d.c. >> drama, mike shanahan is just pulling the plug on the franchise. he has said that rg3 is getting

hit too often. now the redskins have lost five straight games or shanahan is shutting down the raining offensive rookie of the year. he wants to protect griffin for the offseason. there is speculation that shanahan is skating on thin ice with the owner, because they both want to be in control, but this move shows the owner that thashanahan is in control. kirk cousins will be backed up by rex grossman. as you can imagine it was a circus at today's press conference because shanahan has some explaining to do. >> the first thing did i was talked with dan snyder, talking about the number of hits that robert has had, and any time you're hit as many times as he has been hit, i thought it was in his best interest, of the

organization to talk about if we should continue playing robert if he's been hit as many times as he has been hit. dan thought about it, talked to bruce about t and at the end of the day we felt that the best thing to do for robert was to not play him. what we have to do, or at least as an organization what is in the best interest of robert? what is the best thing going forward for him? to have those next three games? the experience of going through those reps? or having him healthy in the offseason? >> that's why i thought it was just another normal week. turns out it's not that way. at the end of the day coach's decision is what we go with. that's what it's always been. so i have to deal that. i have to sit here and do whatever i can to help kirk. do whatever i can to help this team win. that's what we got to do for the next three weeks.

>> griffin is done for the season. but th the big question in greey when are we going to see age ron rod injuries. the packers are still just a half game back. and greenbay has a monster game in dallas to take on the cowboys. but mike mccarthy does not sound optimistic about his star quarterback. >> he'll work out more, as part of his rehab, he'll be reevaluated by the doctor, the training staff. they're going to do some things tomorrow that they haven't done last week. he's still medically cleared. yesterday where he is--he has hurdles to get over, and you know, medically he's not cleared, so we're playing.

>> he didn't say was that rodgers took some reps today. austin dillon will be driving the three car made famously dale earnhardt. the car has not been used on a full time basis since earnhardt's tragic death. now richard childress owns the three car, and he decided the time something right. >> there is so much heritage behind the three, so much history, but my hoping is that dale earnhardt fans will be re-energized again. you will not please--you're not going to please everyone. we know that. you give somebody $1 million and someone will say why didn't you

pay the taxes on it. we'll do our best to make it proud. there will be more talk and more energy built around it. that's the key thing i wanted to do. >> major league baseball has agreed to the terms of the japanese baseball league to cap japanese players coming in at $20 million. the big market teams like boston red sox paid $150,000 just in negotiations. rangers paid $150 million. now they're capping it at $20 million. that player can now pick which team he wants to play for. the big name out there which is why they're having this talk is matta hiro tanaka. a pitch who are went 24 and 0 this past season. 1.27 era. >> terrific. what are you going to be watching tonight? >> the celtics with doc rivers and the clippers. >> all right, appreciate it. thank you. heavy rains in parts of brazil

flooding has shut down some airports and public transport. take a look at these scenes outside of ri rio de janeiro. that is a lot of water. some residents were threatened by the landslides were urged to leave their homes. an artist from queensland, australia, has mounted his art on the great barrier reef. an abstract painter who wants to make the public aware of the dangers to one of the seven wonders of the world. do you see it there, the floating turtle will be on exhibit until friday. when we come back kevin has the national forecast. >> reporter: coming up on real money, men, women, and the gender gap at work pays only part of the story. we'll have a closer look.

and the minimum wage debate raising it could hurt other hard working americans. what is it really like to be homeless in america. we'll take a look through the eyes of a mom trying to break the cycle. we'll have all that and more on real money.

>> from our headquarters in new york, here

>> meteorologist: up to just showed you the video coming out of brazil and all the flooding coming out of there. let's take a closer look to the region. we're talking about rio de janeiro and sao paulo. there is that frontal boundary that pushed through. you can see rio and the towns just southwest. that's where we saw 4.7 inches of rain fell in two hours. that's why the flood something such a concern. one of the other concerns is, of course, we have soccer coming up, and are they going to be ready infrastructurely to handle any flooding like we've seen in

this area. we'll keep you informed on that. still a lot of lake-effect snow going on for parts of the great lakes. you can see its streaming off lake ontario, lake erie as well. but in the next couple of days we have a big snow vent coming. temperatures are quite low across the region. minneapolis seeing minus three. take a look at the forecast maps as we go. not too much thursday. friday we begin to pick up more snow across the ohio river valley. as we go towards saturday that's where things come together with more snow across indiana, ohio, and this is going to start to move towards the east, saturday, sunday, and unfortunately for the northeast that is going to look pretty bad. ♪

>> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. a house vote on a bipartisan budget bill could come in as early as tomorrow. president obama said he'll sign the spending plan as soon as it's on his desk. thousands waited in line to pay their respects to nelson mandela. his body will lie instate in pretoria until saturday before being taken to his home village on sunday to be buried. riot police with batons and bulldozers have withdrawn in the ukrainian capitol. secretary of state john kerry is yi