>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. here are the stories we're following for you. today is one of the deadlines to sign up for the affordable care act. there is one group the white house is desperate to get on board. holiday travelers are having a tough time getting around for the holidays. the weekend storms bring snow, ice, and flooding. hhein south sudan the fearsf an all out civil war. >> today marks the key deadline for the affordable care act better known as obamacare.

there is one group in particular the white house is desperate to sign up, young and healthy. al jazeera america's melissa chan tells us why this group is so crucial to making the entire system work. >> it's right before christmas and tori and sarah hay have last minute shopping to do, but one thing neither plans to buy after work is health insurance. the obama administration wants badly for young americans like them to enroll. they're not convinced. >> the only thing that i know about obamacare is what i've seen on saturday nigh "saturday" >> i have not. >> they would like to see 7 million people signed up by spring. they would like a third of those to be young and healthy americans. it's not about the number of people who sign up for obamacare, it's about the distribution. in order for this system to work enough young healthy americans

must enroll to pay for the healthcare costs accrued by older americans. if too few young and healthy americans enroll premium gas up. the fear is it will become so expensive which will keep more people from buying which will make the system unsustainable. but some state exchanges have performed well. california has enrolled 17,000 americans between 24 and 34. about 22% of those enrolled that's on target of california's population. >> california has done a great job. they don't rely on healthcare.gov . they rely on their own system. >> state exchanges have educated the public. and if done right obamacare works. >> i think it's worth being

cautiously optimistic given what is coming out of california, given the numbers that we're seeing in new york. i don't think it's the case that the plans are unraveling right now. >> reporter: in the meantime many young americans will not sign up by monday. >> i've been living this long without health insurance. i'm just going to keep on doing the same thing. >> reporter: carrying on without insurance even if it means paying a federal penalty. melissa chan, al jazeera america utah. >> joining me from washington, d.c. to discuss the effect of young adults on the healthcare act. thank you for joining us. you've been signing up young people for healthcare. how has it been going? >> there were some challenges in the beginning with the website but over the last month we've seen a pick up, huge amounts of interest. a lot of people are looking forward to that march 31st, the

deadline to avoid the penalty as far as signing up, but we're really in that education mode, and there is so much work to do. >> are there some questions, how much is this going to cost me? are you hearing that some think it costs too much for them? >> reporter: cost is central here. so to put it in perspective there are 19 million uninsured young people. the statute lists they're looking to get 7.2 million. when you look at the costs it's important to realize that it's going to vary based on how much you make. if you make 17,000 a year, which is the immediate one for a young person you're looking at premi premiums that is $40 a month. if you're at the higher income you're going to have premiums of $200 a month. getting that information in people's hands is key right now. >> is the administration, do they have a backup plan in case they don't get as many young people as they need? >> reporter: i think that at this point we're doing everything that we can to make

this thing work. we saw in massachusetts young enemy's insurance rates between the from 27% to 5%, so we know it can work, and we've seen it work in states like california, kentucky, others, but we have to see that work in all the states. >> keep us posted on how your efforts go to continue to get more young people to sign up. aaron, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> ice, snow has put a damper on last minute shopping. people across the country are dealing with some pretty severe weather. a powerful storm left 400,000 people without power in the metro detroit area. the of we're talking temperatures around 20 degrees. in canada a storm system turned trees into ice sculptures, damaged cars and left thousands without power. toronto mayor ro called it the worst in history.

>> reporter: wild winter weather across the country cutting off power to hundreds of thousands and taking a number of lives. in kentucky floodwaters rose so high, so fast it washed away an suv drowning three people insi inside. >> it got up to my door. >> i grabbed my grandmother, her dog, and my great cousin. >> reporter: in ohio dealing with fast, moving floods as firefighters go door to door in rafts to rescue residents. in arkansas storms ripping part homes and injuring several peoples. winter conditions causing crashes in oklahoma, icy roads there are blamed on the deaths of three people. in oklahoma city this scary moment captured as sheets of ice came crashing down, almost hitting holiday shoppers.

ice cutting off heat to hundreds of people while the winter wonderland makes for pretty pictures it's also down right dangerous. >> 2:30 this morning we awoke to the house shaking and discovers the tree next door had fallen on our house and cars. >> reporter: parts of northern new england seeing the same thing as ice takes down huge tree limbs in vermont. >> i need gas and i can't get into my car, my it's completely frozen. >> reporter: up state new york filing the freeze, too, the governor declaring emergency. and in new york city, near 70 degrees temperatures has shoppers and skaters outside in t-shirts. >> this is what people in florida must feel like. it even got people out on the golf course. >> it doesn't feel like christmas to a point, but it's great for the golfers.

>> from as far north as canada and south, there is no argument that weather is crazy. >> meteorologist: temperatures have been all over the place. right in the middle we have rain coming down. if it falls in cold air you get freezing rain. scraping the ice off the windshields and here in new york the temperatures are climbing to 70s. this is happening not too far apart. we have this line which is the divider between warm and cold air. we're pushing to the south. still problems up over new york. we get this rain falling into air below freezing. that's where you get this coating of ice, the freezing rain. that continues with the ice storm warning going into effect. by 11:00 tonight all of this is pushing off the coast and we're drying out briefly before we get a shot at very cold air. lake affect snow coming in.

you see that on the east side of the great lakes with the arctic temperatures coming up with the national forecast coming up later. >> thank you. south sudan's former vice president rei k machar said he's ready for talks once his detained allies are freed. loyalties have been split between the two men and their supporters. thousands are seeking refuge at u.n. compounds as violence escalates. we go to the city of juba. >> reporter: fighting has erupted in oil rich area. hostility coming in, and we hear that soldiers from the army has defected and joining those loyal to reik muchar. the u.n. is having a tough time dealing with thousands of people running to their bases for shelter. i spoke to the u.n. humanitarian

coordinator. >> i think the situation is very tense over the last three days, and i've just come off the phone to my office, the tension continues. there are skirmishes that are ongoing, and i think the parties that are having this political struggle for power here, but it's also armed youth who are increasingly taking matters into their own hands in different parts of the state. it's particularly worrying, and we'll do everything we can in the united nations to make sure those who seek refuge in our base, that they'll be safe. >> reporter: can anything be done to stop a civil war from breaking out? >> everything u.s. nobody done. as humanitarian coordinator, we're focusing on getting sense to people on time. but we're counting on capitols and those engaged in that

process to do everything they can to bring people back to the table to talk to each other and not settle differences that they have by the barrel of a gun. >> reporter: do we have any idea about the death toll since this all started? >> i think its difficult to say with any precision, but i'm sure that at this stage we'll be over 1,000 and in the low thousands. when we talk about the displaced people who have sought shelter in u.n. bases we're now approaching 50,000 people. but that does not include the people who are looking for shelter in churches, in the cathedral in the capitol. the bush. i've had countless phone calls from our own staff centers that people are leaving the city centers and heading back to their villages and out in the villages and the savannah is where people feel safest. i'm very concerned now that this is not going to be a situation effecting tens of thousands of

people, but hundreds of thousands of people. my main message is that in terms of peacekeeping and humanitarian response the united nations is here to stay. >> reporter: even in these u.n. camps things are tense. in one camp not far from here but we had to move because things are volatile. we had people with us who were south sudanese but from a different tribe from those in the camp. they said get them out of here or we will kill them. this shows that it's a political struggle but it's escalating. if it is not contained we'll see violence. if things aren't contained things will get much, much worse. >> soldiers killed three rebel fight necessary central african republic. it sparked a backlash against the french who are there to end the weeks of violence. we have reports from the capitol of bangui.

>> reporter: this is a scene after the french army patrol confront seleka rebels. they shot three men dead. the french are coming under violence themselves in an area of sectarian killing. here they're backed up by a helicopter. they decided to withdraw for a short while and then returned. minutes later former seleka fighters began to spread french hate messages. then peace keepers back up the french. there is an area of tension right now. this is a contingent of the peacekeeping force deploying. we've seen unofficial roadblocks have been set up. we stopped at one of them. we had to. we were threatened with a hand grenade. the threat came from these men who blocked the airport road and were angrily trying to stop anyone who they thought was french from passing through.

later former seleka members summoned the media to show the bodies. most here are from the fighters of the mostl mostly seleka rebe. but the interim government announced the three dead were from the presidential guard and all the men here accused the french army of being soft on the christian anti-beleka but hard on seleka. >> up to now we haven't heard of the french killing one anti-baleka or trying to disarm them. the southern california are back in their barracks. they only travel with their papers. >> reporter: a relative with of one of the dead gave this message. >> i'm asking all of you french to go home. since independence you have done nothing for us. now you're manipulating us. sometimes you're with us, sometimes you're against us. which side are you on? >> reporter: this has all caused more fear for the impoverished

people of this country. such clashes are often followed with reprisals on civilians, and the interim government seems to be doing nothing to cool down the anti-french sentiment. >> the man who designed the world's most popular weapon has died. a russian official said ak-47 inventor died in a hospital in central russia. he invented the assault rifle after world war ii. it has been used to kill more people than any other weapon. he said he had never been troubled by his contribution to warfare. he was 94 years old. people are worried about the pipeline starting up in their back yard. and new challenge of same-sex marriage in utah. we have more in our headlines when al jazeera america returns.

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>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. the proposed keystone ex-he wi l pipeline is still under debate. >> reporter: driving the back roads of east texas is a birth right. this land was left to him by his grandfather. but his relationship with these accords and fields have change. the keystone pipeline now runs through the family property. something that he fought for three years in an expensive legal battle. >> it's going to leak. it's not like your common crude oil or gas or anything like that. this stuff is hazardous. >> reporter: opponents point to a history of major hills in similar projects across the u.s.

in 2010 transcanada's keystone spilled a dozen times. residents in east texas say that the pipeline is so close to the angelina river that it could threaten their fresh water supplies. but texas is no stranger to pipelines. this state's future tune has been built on the oil industry, and transcanada said they'll build the safest pipeline in history. >> they say they've been inspecting and testing critical to the pipeline construction and they went on to say that each section of the pipeline is built to high parents and they won't compromise to september. >> you can hear it, it's making noise which totally creeps you out. >> reporter: maya lemon has spent her life living in the shadow of what she calls extreme extraction. the property has several pipelines running through it, and it's close enough to give

her concern. >> this pipeline is something that puts a lot of fear into the daily lives of people all along this route. and people--that alone should be enough to stop this project. people should not have to be afraid for their health, safety and for their communities. >> reporter: the final approval rests with president obama. so far it's a decision he has delayed time and again. but in east texas opponents say it won't make any difference. this section of the pipeline will become operational in january. >> canada is the leading supplier of crude oil to the united states. here's a look at today's top business headlines. santa claus rally continues on wall street. investors picking up where they left off last week with more spying.

the dow at 89 points. the blue chips on track for its fourth straight record. the economic recovery is also on track. the commerce reporting spending rose half a percent in november. that's the best showing in five months. separately consumer sentiment rising to a five-month high in december as outlook for the economy and job prospects improved. apple finally reaching a deal with china mobile. the company will begin selling it's iphones through the carrier's vast mobile network january 17th. it gives access to china mobile's 700 million subscribers. target was not able to lure back customers with discounts after it's credit card hacking scandal. they saw a decline over the weekend. it fell 3% to 4% compared to last year.

estimates by the retail consultantly group customer growth partners. the family of a california girl on life support is expected to appear in court today. the judge is expected to appoint a doctor to provide a second opinion on the girl's condition. the 13-year-old girl was declared brain dead after going into cardiac arrest during tonsil surgery at the children's hospital in oakland. >> her favorite color is purple. if you have a purge shirt please wear it and march with us. >> reporter: family plans to hold a rally outside of the hospital later this hour. utah is trying to get a federal judge to block his ruling allowing same-sex same se state. the state is making its case in court today. couples rushed to get marriage licenses after the judge said on friday that the state ban was unconstitutional. that ruling has made utah the

18th state to allow same-sex marriages. only 28% of residents in the conservative state support same-sex marriage. coming up, prison drama. how inmates in mexico city are confronting their crimes by forming shakespeare. sport. >> dennis rodman is in north korea to train basketball players for an upcoming player. he wants everyone to know he's not a joke. this is the same guy who dressed up in a wedding gown and will rite a book with his bff, kim jong un.

the 52-year-old rodman, who never shies away from the spotlight arrived in north korea

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. these are your headlines. today marks a key deadline for the affordable care act. it's the last day for americans to sign up for health insurance to have coverage begin on january 1st. violence is escalating between rival groups in south sudan. the u.s. military just announced it's responding repositioning, that is, forces i force to prepr further future possible evacuations from south sudan. five journalists were called in a suicide attack in an iraqi

tv station. suicide-bombers attacked the building and this is one of several attacks that have left at least 26 people dead. the place where convicts are performing shakespeare. it challenges the inmates and the audience. >> reporter: confronting one of literature's greatest little vans inmates at this mexican penitentiary are learning about drama and insights. >> king richard forces us to face our dark side, the parts that are false and hypocritical. but in a way everyone has a bit of richard iii inside of them including people in the audience. >> reporter: for men like garcia who is serving a life sentence for kidnapping, paying power hungry king richard hits close to home. each actor uses his own life experience to write monologues based on the original play.

rehabilitating and facing personal demons is one objective of this prison theater program started by an acting company in mexico city. the other is to challenge the audience to challenge their assumption abouts prison life. >> people come with the idea that we're terrible and we have no redeeming qualities. but when they see us perform they see we're talented, passionate and in what they transform and create. >> reporter: for many of these people entering the prison is an intense experience not only do they have to overcome their fears but their stereotypes of the men they will perform. the play begins on the bus ride to the prison. a former inmate and member of the theater company is the warm up act. he intimidates the audience by sharing his own violent experiences when he was in jail. it's this woman's second time

seeing the show. for her the experience humanizes people behind bars. >> as you watch the play you forget they're inmates and committed crimes. you see so much of their emotions and really see them as people. >> back in the theater she, along with family members of the inmates and even other prisoners watch as the play unfolds. but for one man, one person in thedowaudience is missing. >> i wish my victim could come see see me perform, that they can see that we can change. if trash can be recycled, then why not a life? >> reporter: a challenge these criminals-turned-actors hope that more and more mexicans will accept. al jazeera, mexico city.

>> meteorologist: i'm meteorologist dave warren. we're still looking at all this rain along the east coast and also some freezing rain as the rain warm weather moves into the cold air art at the surface so we still have ice storm warning in new england. things are pretty quiet now. once the rain clears out, the cold air moves in. that's lake-effect snow that we will see. you start to see that we have another warm day in philadelphia. temperatures are in the 60s. rain is coming down now, but once the rain clears out that cold arctic air moves in and here is that lake-effect snow. the temperatures will drop from 60 to 30 by wednesday, and thursday, back to 42 degrees. the bitter cold air moves east rapid there is flooding acros as the mid atlanta states. >> thank you so much. and thank you for watching

al jazeera. i'm richelle carey. the strea"the stream" is next. thank you for watching. go to www.aljazeera.com. >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you're in "the stream." detroit is not alone. chicago's public pensions are short $28 billion and the city that works is in trouble. our digital producer, ra raj is here, and most people are familiar with detroit's crisis, but chicago's is whooshes. >> people have been