>> hello, and welcome to aljazeera america. i'm richelle in new york, and john has the night off. a rising cold snap has a rising toll on the crops. and plus: >> a lot of our friends and a lot of our neighbors have lost their jobs and they're working their tails off every day trying to find a new job. >> restoring benefits. president obama calls on congress to restore assistance to the long-term unemployed. >> . >> on defense, dennis rodman goes to north korea to play basketball and create a new controversy over captive americans there. and plus:

>> how happy are you? >> the warm account of generosity. a determined 18-year-old wakes up on a cold morning and decides to do his part to help the homeless. >> tonight, we begin with the historic toll that the cold is taking on the country. millions of americans are feeling the bite of this unusual cold snap. the death of dos of people are blamed on the wintry weather. and we can still see it at the supermarket. many faces another night struggling just to stay warm. these are the areas in a warming center in detroit. so these warming centers, are there enough in the city to accommodate all of the people who would like to get inside?

>> richelle, there are. in detroit, they are here helping out a lot of people, as you see behind me. and as you can see, the space is getting kind of tight. but they're going to make room, and they're making room because the organization says they will not turn anyone away. overall, there are about 19,000 homeless people here on the streets of detroit. many of these people, they have come here in search of food and warmth. and there's also, on many occasions that the organizers here will actually go out on the streets and look for people who are in harm's way. the goal they say, here at the organization, is to save live beings and save people from the bitterly cold temperatures. i spoke with the president of the organization earlier today and he talked about the overwhelming need this they have seen here in the past couple of days, and i also spoke with a

man who is homeless and he said he's grateful that he has somewhere to turn when the temperatures get dangerously cold. take a listen. >> unfortunately, in detroit, we have an increase in people that are homeless and they lost their homes, and right now, it's impacting our shelters. so there are more people that are homeless and they need our services, so this year, we see more people than in any other years in the past. >> i see people out there trying to brave the weather every day. and sometimes i have to pass out hats and gloves myself, just to keep some of them remain war, because i know how bad it is, and i know how i have came from the weather myself. and it's very dangerous out there for others as well. >> so yeah, as i mentioned, i talked to people tonight. and they're grateful to have shelter from the cold. in the situation, oftentimes

many of them are closed now, and they have their doors closed. but because of the situation outside, they are keeping their doors here open 24 hours a day at least until the temperature turns for the better. >> 24 hours a day. and have doctors scene any weather related injuries? what have they seen? >> they have. a made a couple of calls out to hospitals. there have been deaths in the past weeks because of the storms that have come through. they have seen people come in with frostbite, as well as people outside, shoveling, and all of a sudden, they had chest pains, the potential for a heart attack, so yes, they're seeing injuries as the weather gets colder >> and the centers like the one you're at are literally saving lives. thank you so much. from detroit to new york now. the travelers in and out of the city have been battling the affects of the deep freeze.

live tonight, the transportation problems caused by the cold. jonathan. >> yeah, richelle. rochelle. a lot of people are friesen in their tracks as the cold air creeps across the united states. >> a polar plunge across the u.s. the governor cleared an emergency in 2 counties. >> the temperature kept dropping in the house, and my son, who was very concerned. >> south to georgia, which saw snow in single-digit temperatures for the first time in decades. schools closed and shelters opened in atlanta. >> i'm wearing long underwear and i feel like i'm going skiing, but i'm going to work. >> louisiana, alabama, texas, oklahoma, all seeing stunningly low temperatures. even in new york, just yesterday was in the 50s.

24-hours later, a near 60-degree plunge. temperatures hovering around 0°, shattering a record set in 1896. it only takes minutes for frostbite to set in. so cities are stepping up efforts to help the homeless. >> we'll look for you later on tonight. >> okay. >> straining equipment and closing delays. but in northern illinois, it was snow that stranded three trains. nearly 500 passengers stuck. forced to spend the night onboard. >> this was just another 15 minutes, and no, it was 9 hours. >> they finished the journey by bus the next morning. traveling by plane though offered little relief. jet blue just now getting back in the air, after making the unusual move of grounding it's jets in boston and new york for 17 hours to help its crews catch

up. in two days, airlines canceled 10,000 flights. >> this is our fourth day trying to get back home. we have had cancellation after cancellation of trains and buses, and i'm a heart patient over 70 with no medications left. >> frozen in place as millions wait for warming. >> amtrak from most of the airlines hope to largely return to normal by tomorrow. but it's not expected to get above freezing in new york until friday. rochelle. >> all right, let's turn it over to meteorologist, rebecca stevenson, and rebecca, this is a winter that most of us will not soon forget. my goodness. >> that's true. many of us have not felt this kind of arctic chill before. we usually see that arctic air stay well up into the poles, but it broke off, a piece of that cold air, and it moved down into

the u.s. and while it was starting to warmup in canada, we were starting to reach the north pole. this morning, we had a lot of record lows outside. central park in new york was one of them. with 4 being the record low set for you, and now we're seeing about 13 states report record low temperatures for the morning. 45 or so. and now temperatures feel comfortable with a lot of rain coming in in the west. we have been seeing that for seattle and portland. and mountain snow developing too for the northwest. but it's the cold. cold, dry, and the sun will fool you. it's so cold that it's 1 for chicago. it's 9 right now in new york. just a little bit of breeze makes it feel a lot colder, so the weather, it's interesting. you can go to georgia. not only do we have record low temperatures this morning, mississippi, south carolina, georgia, we have record cold highs. what's impressive about these,

not so much how cold it got, yeah, 23 in last night a. but the old record was set back in 1884. athens, georgia, broke a record set in 1805. the arctic air may be leaving tonight, but we still have a lot of cold weather to talk about. i'll show you coming up. >> this deep feze may end up putting a dent in a lot of people's budgets. i asked ali velshi where consumers could be hit the hardest . >> scam ling to it stay warm. wholesale electricity prices in the northeastern united states are spiking well above the seasonal levels. half of all of the homes in the united states use natural gas to heat their homes, and that's separate from the electricity. we hope that everybody has electricity. about you a lot of homes use natural gas to heat their homes.

in urban centers like new york and boston, most of it is heating oil, but natural gas prices have surged to record highs. and natural gas futures are trading 32% higher than they were a year ago. now, oil futures remain largely unchanged from a year ago. and that's good news for a household again in the northeast because they use heating oil to heat their homes. gasoline futures, that's up by 1% because a number of people are using generators to keep their homes warm. and that's also triggered by the fact that a handful of refineries have glitches in gasoline. so basically, across the board, richelle, heating and 234567 gas and heating oil is up the least. >> has it affected farmers and agriculture. in particular, it got cold in florida and has it affected them yet? >> it has an affect on the

oranges. can you do stuff, but it reduces the value of it. and there's something called winter wheat, ands this a problem, but the biggest problem is on livestock. the cold and the snow make it harder for cattle to gain weight. richelle, you probably don't. but bigger folks like us, in this kind of weather, you burn off a lot of calories and energy just trying to stay warm. and when you want to sell your livestock, you want them to be fatter and this kind of temperature makes it harder for them to retain their weight and heat the facilities, and you're heating them with electricity or natural gas. and 15% of the winter wheat plants could face damage from frost. there's snow cover from this weekend's snowstorm x. that, believe iter on, insulates some of the crop from the freeze, but we don't know how much damage will be done, and in florida, the owner night freezing may

ruin the citrus crop. >> let's hope that we all thaw out very soon. >> and catch "real money" with ali velshi. the u.s. airforce confirms one of its helicopters has crashed in the united kingdom. local officials say four people were killed. the helicopter went down this evening in a training mission on the east coast of great britain. the police have cordoned off an area around the scene, which is near a u.s. air base previously. >> to washington, the senate is moving forward on a measure to restore unemployment benefits. president obama approved a bill to help americans, but it faces tough opposition in the house.

the unemployment rate in this country is sinking, but it's 70%. for every job opening in this country, there are three people looking for work. the president was leave being for the holidays and the president was on the pr offensive. >> it was a surprise in the senate. 6 republicans,a 55 democrats, clearing a key hurdle, on the way to a 6 month extension for benefits for those out of work six months or more. >> i can't name a time when an american would rather from an unemployment check than the pride of having a job. >> at a white house event, president obama welcomed the news, and hit back at opponents that argued that the endless benefits discouraged people from looking for work. >> the unemployed are not lazy,

they're not lacking inning motivation. they're coping with the aftermath of the worst economic crisis in generations. >> 1.3 americans saw their benefits cut off at the end of december, when congress allowed them to expire. >> it has given us a mess we have in the country. >> the leaders in the house and the senate said they won't go along until the cost of the extension, $1.4 billion, is paid for with cuts else where. >> yes, we should work on support for those out of work through no fault of their own. but there's literally no excuse to pass unemployment legislation without finding ways to have good jobs, and the money to pay for it. >> unemployment was stended five times under george bush, and now it's twice of what it was in the bush administration. among the republicans pushing for extension, dean heller of

nevada, where unemployment is 9%, 2 points above the national rate. >> helping those in need should not be a partisan issue. it's part ever the responsibility of the federal government. >> it's still making its way through the senate. and assume that can it does ultimately pass, it goes to john boehner, the house speaker laid down his law. he's not going to put it on the house floor unless the 6 and a half billion dollars is offset with cuts elsewhere in the budget. richelle? >> thank you so much. and tomorrow, marks the 50th anniversary of a landmark speech by late president linden johnson. his war on poverty resulted in the department of housing and urban development. looking in it san francisco to see where johnson's dream stands today. >> drew jenkins walks me through the housing project where he grew up and now works as a youth

leader and community activist. it's notorious for decay and violence. he shows me where he was wounded in a random shoot being. it shattered his pelvis. [ unintelligible ] sunny dale is the largest housing prompt in san francisco with about 800 units. at the corner marks, the only retail store we came across, residents had much to complain about. >> . >> it's depressing. >> here's the so-called park. if the neighborhood looks forgotten, the city has plans to change that. processing a multimillion-dollar repair and redevelopment project that would create a mixed community with gardening and green areas, and better schools. the promises go on and on.

the utopia years away. and meanwhile, the children here continue to play in squaller, and in the sad shadow of violene and crime. it could not have been president linden johnson's vision when he made housing a pillar in the war on poverty, establishing the department of urban development, known as hud. sunnydale was built in world war ii for shipyard work,. it was a pleasant place to live into the 1 1960s. people could save money until they had the money to leave public housing. >> the hud act was a principle. the federal policy was not just about housing people, of building instruct,, but of

building the people who lived there. >> if the goal years ago was to help families, especially african-american ones to climb out of poverty, for the residents of sunnydale, the war with on poverty has lost it's way long ago. this was president johnson at that historic state of the union in 1964. >> we must, as a part of the revised housing and renewal program, seek as our ultimate goal in our free enterprise system, a decent home for every american family. >> decades after that speech, drew jenkins works at the youth center, trying to instill a sense of community. >> your home is everything, you're supposed to feel safe there. >> but for the people who live here, that's the dream, but not the reality.

>> evacuation plans for sochi. the u.s. olympic ski and snowboard team. they have a plan in place in case the worse happens. and plus, basketball backlash. question that caused dennis rodman to meltdown during his tripe to north korea.

>> it's exactly one month before the start of the winter olympics in sochi, russia. today, russia imposed a massive security lockdown in the area, and john is here to walk us through all of that. >> richelle, i am, and let's take you straight to the heart of sochi so you can see it. the need to worry about the games getting underway. look at the size of sochi, and there are two main centers. the olympic stadium, the

mountains, where the skiing will be, it's about 45 minutes away by train. it's much closer than the vancouver games. and here's the problem. sochi is situated on the edge of the mountains, and the problem here, there has been a war raining for years and years and years, trying to create an islamic state. two wars, back in 1990, and there have been numerous wars in russia. and this is the man, the main rebel here. here he is. he's called on his fighters to attack the sochi games, and he says the games are a satanic dance, on the bones of our an cessors. very poetic and very dangerous at the same time.

according to the think thank, the heritage foundation, in order to protect these olympic villages, 100,000 personnel are going to have to be placed. 37 police officers. they're all going to be sealed into this huge zone, and you need a passport to get in and out. there will be surveillance cameras, and jet fighters overhead. despite all of this, it's far from clear that they will be successful in protecting the games, because the targets are many, and they are in need of improvement. we have heard on the station that there's evidence that some of those security personnel have been bribed to let bombers slip through. and let's hope that doesn't happen. one of the biggest threats is from the so-called lone wolf. in other words, a single man or woman, acting alone without much backup.

and that's a real problem. while it may be relatively easy for the police for sochi, as we have seen in this one and other russian cities really can't be ruled out. especially given the sheer size. and richelle, the usa today newspaper is reporting that a private crisis company based in boston, massachusetts, has up to five planes on standby to evacuate the u.s. ski and snowboarding team from sochi in the event of a medical or terrorist emergency. one plane has enough to seat 200 people. and this is a unique challenge, given the fact that sochi is located, as he puts it, in the

shadow of a terrorist background. >> oh, my, and the world is watching. john, thank you so much. one of the best american athletes will not be competing at the sochi olympics. skier, lindsay vaughn, withdrew today. she said that her reconstructed knee is not ready to compete. vaughn hurt it last year in aus industria. he's famous for basketball and infamous for his wild behavior in the 1990s. dennis rodman in north korea, david schuster has the story. >> even by dennis rodman standards, it was an epoch meltdown. >> what the hell you think. i'm saying to you, look at these guys here, look at them. >> cnn anchor pressed rodman about an american missionary, being held in a north carolina a

prison for a year. >> you tell me. >> you tell me why they have been held. >> they haven't been released. >> rodman then tried to change the focus, and he appeared to get choked up when talking about the sacrifice that his entourage is making. >> we have ten guys here who have left their families, left their damn families to help this country, it's a sports venture. >> the country is led by dictator, kim jong up. never mind rodman, he's accused of killing his family and threatening a war with south korea. charles smith is serving at the american player's spokesman. >> the south korea team, meeting the citizens. we're connecting people to

basketball and people to people >> and smith trying to shame cnn for veering away questions about the sports exchange. >> we're not here to talk mistakes, and outside of that, any questions that come back through that is debating to get us into politics. >> but when cuomo accused rodman of hiding -- >> don't use these guys as a shield. >> you are behind the mic, and we guys do one thing. we are going to go back to america -- >> wednesday's exhibition game in accident in income is expected to attract the north korea dick parrot, kim jong un.

>> next up, the devil is in the details. why some former nfl players are not happy with the multimillion-dollar concussion settlement deal. and plus, patient dumping. why hospitals are resorting to kicking patients out the door.

a.

>> here are the top stories. >> independent comments have shown that extending emergency unemployment insurance actually helps the economy. >> extending benefits moving forward with a debate over a white house bill that would extend jobless benefits to 1.3 million americans. congress wants spending canuts to pay for the measure. >> . >> record lows and bitter cold blasting the country for the second day.

airlines canceled almost 2,000 flights, and forecasters say that temperatures should begin creeping back up starting tomorrow. stereo. >> and deadly avalanche. at least one person has died in an avalanche in the backcountry near veil, colorado. it was triggered outside, and three other people were injured. >> . >> south sudan's government is rejecting calls by rebels to demand the immediate release of detainees. fighting two of the biggest ethnic groups, they have killed more than 1,000 people. an american family of missionaries have been caught up in the violence while trying to protect a group of orphans. it's a story that we first told but on new year's day. tony spoke with the family about leaving the south sudan and the tough choice to leave the orphans behind. >> the campbells and their two daughters are now safe in kenya, but their hearts and minds are

still in south sudan, having left their life work and ten beloved orphans behind. >> we have been trying to get a strategy for going back into the country and continuing the work it we started. >> they left their home in nebraska back in 2012 and headed to south sudan, where they set up an orphanage, part of their work as christian missionaries, but part of the government forces landed on their doorstep. >> we could hear machine guns very nearby and bullets hitting our roof. ability to plan a strategy to escape was gone. that moment was gone, and we had to teal with the situation at hand. >> the kids were in the room and under the bed way before any of us. we were like what's going on and what's happening in and the kids were like pulling us under the beds with them. and that was crazy this they knew, just instinct to do it right away. >> the family made it out of the

line of fire and to a nearby united nations base camp. >> they said, mama kim, is this the first time to hear bullets like this one? and i said, of course it is, i've never lived through anything like that before. and they said, not for me, i've done this many times. and it's disheartening that that's the sad reality of their world. and the question is who was protecting who? >> but as they prepare to leave for kenya, they ran into a disturbing reality. the government would not allow the orphans to leave with them. >> it was really hard for any of us to leave. we decided that it was worse for us to stay there, then it would be to come and try to do things outside to help. >> leaving the kids that are family now, that was the worst thing ever. more than the bullets that passed our house, more than anything. >> the campbells and their

daughters are determined to return to south sudan and reunite with the children they left behind. >> we really have raised these kids as family, and it's very important to us. you can't just walk away from family. because there are challenges in the area. >> as the conflict rages on, it's uncertain exactly how long those challenges will stand in the way of their goal. tony harris, aljazeera. >> in syria, the first batch of deadly chemical weapons has left the country. it involved chinese and norwegian vessels. syria has pledged to disband their entire chemical weapons program in august after the u.s. threatened military action. aljazeera continues to demand the release of its journalists held in egypt. for the past ten days, they have

been accused of spreading lies harmful to state security and joining a terrorist group. aljazeera says the allegations are fabricated. the three are being held separately in a prison outside of cairo. peter is here in his last report out of cairo. an award-winning correspondent. and mohammed has been interrogated by state prosecutors, and ali has been a producer for most of last year. jpmorgan has agreed to pay billions over concerns over bernie madoff ponzi scheme. the world's largest bank will pay $1.7 billion to the justice department. and $350 million for civil charges. the prosecutors say every penny will help to repay the thousands

of victims of the $17 billion fraud. the bank suspected madoff of fraud but never told the authorities. bernie madoff is serving a 150 year prison sentence. a practice has returned to los angeles, it's cooled patient dumping. security cameras were signaled in the area, and patient dumping has started to slow down. hospitals are trying to figure out how to get recorded. brian is in los angeles, so brian, what is the city going to do to stop this from happening? >> well, it's very difficult, richelle. they don't have the ability to watch the streets 24 hours a day. we're here in the heart of l.a.'s skid row. there are hundreds and hundreds of homeless people here. basically, in order to prosecute this, they need someone who happened to complain or witnessed it, or some of the

security cameras that were recorded. this is where they're left, in skid row, not far from city hall. olivia said that it happened to her. a hospital dumped her in the street. >> i literally had threatened to cut myself with a razor before they would give me bus fare to downtown. they didn't offer no transportation, just released me from the hospital. >> robert jones lives in the rescue mission, and from his wheelchair, he has seen patients get dumped. >> they're dressed in the hospital gowns, and half of them are in wheelchairs and walkers, they can't walk and can't take care of themselves. >> they tend to be people with serious addictions and mental illness who spend a few days in the hospital. hospitals want them out because they're expensive and uninsured. seven or eight years ago, several hospitals were fined and new rules were imposed for how

patients are discharged. and jones says that hasn't stopped t. >> you see the same people coming back and getting dumped again? >> the same people. it's like a revolving door. in and out, in and out, all the time. >> some of the van and taxi drivers know to avoid places like the union mission, where surveillance cams. >> we slowed to done when it was big time in the news, but it continued. and not from, i would say good hospitals, but from the kind of hospitals on the fringe. >> l.a.'s new city attorney said that patient dumping is a priority for him. >> we have a feeling that this issue is more pervasive than simply a case here or there, and we're involved in investigations to determine whether that's true. >> in a case that just settled, this hospital, in montebello, california, was accused of

dumping a woman on skid row last may without finding her a shelter. the hospital said it would issue a statement but so far has not. >> there are values that are quite basic. among those is, everybody is entitled to dignity and to be treated with respect, particularly where they're in such a vulnerable state being discharged from a hospital. >> i was angry and that anger stemmed from fear because i didn't know what my next step was going to be. a lot of times, coming out of an institution like that, you're on strong medication, and it's easy to be taken advantage. >> the hospitals are supposed to release these patients with a certain plan. either directed to an overnight facility or to family. and with information about medical follow up. for those who don't, the l.a. attorney said that he's going to go after them. >> we're finally learning some

details about the nfl landmark $760 million concussion settlement plan. and some nfl players are not happy about where the money is going. michael lee joins us with the details laid out for us. >> basically, it's a lot of money. >> it is. >> but it's not so much. >> compared to the nfl. >> $765 million, a total that represents the largest sports related settlement in history. but when you dive defer, the players who received concussion and mental illnesses may not receive as much as they thought. those who dies and cte is found in his brain, $4 million. $3 million available for former players with dementia, but a diagnoses with any of these conditions must be made before the age of 45 in order for a player to receive the maximum amount. only a handful of players will

qualify. the older the player, the less money he or his family receives. joining us from tampa, florida, ted corliss, what does this mean for those who accept the terms, and those who opted out of the lawsuit? >> yesterday, the representatives of the nfl, as well as 18,000 players filed a motion with the court to approve a settlement that had been entered into last august, regarding a payment of $765 million. the way it's going to be broken up, $765 million will be available for compensation for players that suffered particular injuries or fall into the grid system that you mentioned. the rest of it will go to research on individual players who are asymptomatic, and some of the money going to educate people in some of the problems with particular equipment. >> and there are attorney fees

involved and all of the testing and pay off. a total of $900 million for the medical. but the revenue, ted, is more than $9 billion. and how good is this for the nfl. >> there's absolutely no downside to this particular settlement for the nfl. as you pointed out, the estimated revenue for the nfl is $9 billion. and in 2025 it's estimated to be $27 billion. if this settlement were being made by a public traded corporation, their stock wouldn't be affected by it. >> and con comings related in the past. what bearing does this settlement have on any future nfl players. >> the reason why this particular settlement was available was because of a lacking time between 1997 and 1993 where there was not a collective bargaining agreement.

and the reason it wasn't, there was no way to waive these kinds of rights. now players under a 2011 change of rules and a collective bargaining agreement are barred from the cases. >> didn't mean to can the you off. >> i was thinking you for the info tonight. ted corliss, and this money is expected and how their revenues will go up, and the money will stay still. 19,000 players are eligible for the settlement. but they can file their own lawsuit against the nfl. >> so while it's a drop in the bucket now, it will even slower drop in the bucket. >> as the revenues and the tv contracts are bigger, way more. >> helping the less-fortunate. >> trying to get some coffee, that's what we're trying to do. >> you to the get some coffee? >> why one teenager decided to

clean out his closet and take it to the street. and plus, wearable gadgets. it could be the next best thing to come out of the consumer electronic show.

>> we have had record temperatures and record snowfall in the last few days. the lake affect snow, the machine is going strong and steady, and tonight, the focus has changed because the winds

have changed direction. a little more from the west. and that's creating significant snowfall on the eastern edge of lake ontario and lake erie. this is coming down quite heavily. but some spots only get 6-8 inches of new snow tonight. however, because we have the gusty winds, we're continuing not only with windchill warnings here, but a blizzard warning as well, coming off the tip of lake erie. the snowfall is pretty intense, and with the wind blowing it around, you can't see it at all. it's not just the fresh snow coming down, anywhere from 5-15 inches as you look at lake erie, but adding more to that. so it's an impressive story when you talk about the great lakes and the snowfall. and we'll keep you updated on that and just how cold it's going to be as we move into the early morning hours.

>> a closer look at the homeless and their nightly struggle to stay alive. >> it's a full house at the mission for the homeless. the shelter opens its chapel and

dining room to accommodate extra demands. on monday night, the temperatures fell to 5° fahrenheit. the shelter took in 179 people who had nowhere to go. matt helps to run the mission, but not before struggling with addiction and homelessness himself. >> everyone you're already dealing with guilt and shame. many years i tried to do it on my own, but there were folks out there that approached me in a way that i didn't care where i was at. >> the new york homeless population is growing at record levels. every night, the shelters take in 55,000 people. and that number includes 25,000 children who suffer the most. >> children can't go to school. they get what they aren't provided at the school.

addiction, domestic violence. >> making policy changes, which at least one advocacy group said has a direct impact on thousands of homeless people. >> bill deblazio has a policy to shelter anyone whenever the temperature drops below freezing for more than four hours. centers are open 24 hours, and people can drop if any time and bypass the normal registration process. the homeless has increased. >> i ask the people of new york city, if you see a homeless person in distress, if you see someone who needs help, please call 311. >> in the u.s., there's 3 and a half months of winter left. and the chilly conditions request last much longer, and

without a roof over your head, it can much colder. >> when the bitter cold began moving into philadelphia, one teenager set out to make a difference. evan jones set out to give away extra clothing from his closet. and the photo journalist had the camera rolling. >> can you take a picture of me in the jacket in. >> you want a picture in the jacket. >> it's sweet. it's a cool jacket. >> have you got any more friends or anything? i have more stuff in my car. >> evan jones joins us from philadelphia. and thank you for your time. this time of year, millions of americans will donate money to the homeless or clothes, but you made it very personal. why did you make this choice. >> well, i saw my mother and

father donating clothes to places like the purple heart and good will, and i decided i would go out this time, and i really wanted a personal condition. co. and i decided to eliminate the middle man and go directly to the source and meet these people on the streets. and i was surprised to see how great a person people really were. >> so you literally, these are literally clothes from four closet. and you just loaded up the car and drove to philadelphia. where did you go? >> you know, first, i stopped in wilmington, which is a small town just outside of where i live, and found no luck because it was so cold. no one was on the streets. and i had my girlfriend punch in on the phone, some homeless shelters in philadelphia. and we drove on up this. no luck again around some

shelters around north broad street, an area around there. so she said, well, i guess we're going to have to go home, and we drove through love park, which is right by city hall. and i caught eye of a couple of homeless people, or what i thought why homeless people. and we stopped and i put the hazards on in the video, i literally ran up to the guy and made their day. >> often, evan, i think in a daily basis, we often find ourselves walking by homeless people as if they're invisible, or some may walk by them with fear because of stereotypes. did you have any of those feelings at all? >> you know, i've grown up as one of those kids, with friends and everything, has definitely faced those stereotypes. and you or me, and i walk up to

them and held a conversation with them and realized and basically wake up on the streets, and just get money and food for themselves, and have to face all of the other struggles they have to face to make it through the day. especially when it's cold. >> you feel so appreciative and happy. and what did you get out of the day, and what do you think they got out of the day? >> you know, i can't stress to you enough how happy they were. every single second i heard one of them laughing or smiling, and at one point, when we took them to mcdonald's and sat down, one of them turned to me and looked me right in the eyes, and he said, i'm glad i didn't decide to do drugs today. because if i d did, i wouldn't

remember how much of a thing this was that you did for me, and that hit me that it was making a difference just for five or six people in a huge city, and it made it all worth it. >> evan jones, thank you for what you did and for sharing it with us so we can share it with other people. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> on a lighter note, you can catch a member of our aljazeera family on comedy central. yes, our own john seigenthaler will be a guest tonight on the cobair report.

>> that's a pretty big number there. an electronics show is underway right now in las vegas. it's for tech manufacturers, from computer screens to brushing habits. that's kind of personal.

jacob ward got this lucky assignment. so jake, do shows likes these really predict what we're going to see in the future? >> well, richelle, the thing is, about a show like this, it's a lot of hype. and people are not always correct. for the last years, one of the big sources of hype has been 3-d. desperate television makers have been pushing 3-d like nobody's business, and just this year, it was announced by vizio, one of the largest makers of television, so all of you who said i'm not buying a 3-d set, good job. through all of the noise and the hubbub, is 65,000 people and all of this back room dealing among the consumer electronics manufacturers and consumers, are signals that you can detect from the noise. one of the big things this year

has been drones. there has been an incredible number of tiny flying objects. as the electronics become small enough and the ac waiters, are small enough, the drones can carry full-fledged cameras. one of the companies, dj eyes, not only do they have one in the sub $1,000 price range, but they can carry a full-sized cannon camera. it's one of the things in the future, with so much incredible controversy around drones, around personal drones, among the privacy areas, it's an amazing thing. so we're seeing an endless set of perm drones that can do these minutethings, and we're seeing a

handful of announcements in the show. tiny, tiny 3-d printers, all sorts of robots, and silly stuff as well. i saw a robot recently that had a speaker built into the groin of a human shaped robot. not always the classiest, but amazing things nonetheless, so it has been an extraordinary experience to see the food of stuff coming through here, from automakers, drone makers and others. >> you definitely got the cool assignment this week, as you always do, jacob ward. thank you so much. and i think that baby was a robot too i think. thank you. and all right, coming up tonight on aljazeera, exposing j edger hoover's secret fbi. spy program on the civil rights program, a 43-year-old mystery is solved. and murder of a beauty queen,

who killed her and her family, why they were targeted. much more tonight at 11:00 eastern, and 8:00 possible.

>> welcome to aljazeera america, i'm richelle terry and here are the top stories. a military hospital crashed in the united kingdom tonight. four people are dead. it went down on the east coast of great britain. record break being cold. polar vortex has continued to drive arctic air cross the country today. thousands of flights were canceled. and forecasters say that by tomorrow, the temperatures are supposed tore start rising again. the third batch of chemical weapons has left syria. it will be destroyed aboard a