welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. a week jobs report. we'll have reaction from the white house. new problems for target. nearly one in three adults in america could be effected by that massive data breach. a chemical leak in west virginia, rez -- residents there being told don't drink the water. there was some very disappointing news for american workers today. the labor department saying just 74,000 jobs created last month. economists were looking for

almost three times as many. as while the unemployment rate is still low, the real story may be those who gave up trying. the number of people working or actively looking for work, the labor participation rate now down to 62%. tom perez alling our ali velshi that he is focusing more on long-term unemployment trends. >> those trends clearly show us that the economy is moving in the right direction. last month's report clearly underscores what the president has saided repeatedly that we need to pick up the pace. >> jobs priority number one, this report has to be disappointed, mike. >> right. there is a paint by numbers reaction from the white house each and every month these numbers come out. today they point out that

2.2 million jobs have been created in the last calendar year alone. 46 months of private sector job growth. the unemployment rate the lowest it has been since october of 2008. at the outset of this great recession we have been struggling to recover from ever since president obama took office. having said that, you pointed out the bad news here. it's not so much that the rate is down but it is down for the long reasons. the lowest since the carter administration. 62.8%, the so-called u-6. that's the real unemployment rate some people term it that combines the unemployed with the underemployed. that has remained static at 3. -- 13.1%. but if the data gives you lemons here in washington and you are a

political commune tait for, you try to make legislative lemonade. so they have tried to turn this around and say this is a perfect argument to pass that extended unemployment benefits. he says despite an abundance of evidence that this problem is far from resolved, congress allowed extended unemployment benefits to stop in the end of 2013. so the unemployment rate remains a volatile issue, not -- not just politically, but for the some -- 12 million americans who remain out of work in this country. >> mike are they scratching their heads though in washington in earlier estimates had this number almost three times this amount. they must be confused? >> well, you point out the mitigating factors that the

secretary of labor pointed out, some of the weather that occurred in december. these are seasonably adjusted rates first of all, and the weather is obviously a variable not withstanding that. but the fact that 347,000 americans simply dropped out of the labor force, an ominous sign no matter how you slice it dell. >> mike, thank you very much. >> all right >> we'll hear more from ali velshi's interview from labor secretary perez on "real money" al ali velshi tonight at 7:00. target's data beach news now getting worse. it is expected that 30 million more were effected from the beach. the company says that holiday sales will be disappointed and sales and profits will be worse

than expected in this quarter. the white house declaring a state of emergency in west virginia after a chemical spill in charleston which is the state capitol. more than 300,000 people have been effected by the contamination in at least nine counties. the chemical which is used is to process coal. it leaked from a factory along the elk river in charleston. >> we need to know exactly the quantities that we're dealing with. we're still trying to work with -- through the msds sheet and the company that manufactures the product with their toxicologists, hygienists to try to understand the risk assess assessment. so whatting kind of quantities

can be present in drinking water and not pose harm to our customers. we don't know that the water is not safe, but i can't say it is safe. >> erica ferrari has more on how residents are responding. >> reporter: shelves are empty inside this grocery store. customers snatching bottles of water and when that runs out, ice. >> now it's utter chaos. >> reporter: water is scarce following a warning do not drink, bathe, cook, or wash clothes with the tap water officials say early thursday a chemical used to separate coal particles in the coal-prepping process leaked from an old storage tank and went seeping into the elk river. there is a treatment plant

nearby and it's that company's customers who are affected? . >> we are fairly confident that our water treatment plan with an advanced activated carbon treatment plant would handle any issues that we had, but it is clear that has migrated through to our finished water. >> reporter: officials are not sure what the health risks are, but so far no reports of illness. the company is also not clear how much of the chemical spilled into the river. many are questions why officials waited eight hours after the spill to issue the alert. >> people are angry because this happened so early and how are we just being told not to use our water. >> the water was not impacted earlier in the day. >> reporter: requests have been made to fema to bring in bottled water, in the meantime people say they are making the best out

of a bad situation. >> you are going to melt this town, like you did in the old days in a tub, and just take like a birdbath. >> reporter: back at the plant workers are flushing the system and doing additional testing, but officials can't say how long the advisory will last. there are new developments in the traffic scandal that has rocked the new jersey governor's office. state legislators say they plan to release nearly 1,000 pages of documents that may shed new light on the investigation. governor chris christie firing two staffers after emails suggested they instigated the traffic jam for political reagain j. the india diplomat in the international back and forth between india and the u.s. has returned home.

>> reporter: her arrest caused one of the most serious breakdown betweenen deeia and the united states in years, but with the official's return to india, the end of a month long stand off is now in site. >> the u.s. government requested the government of india to wave the immunity of the counselor. on 9, january, 2014 the government of india declined to do so, and transferred the counselor to the ministry of external affairs in new delhi. >> reporter: at the time of her arrest she was india's console general in new york city was granted diplomatic immunity, but she has been indicted for crimes including visa fraud. before she left she told the press trust of india that the charges against me are false and

baseless. i look forward to proving them wrong. however, the nanny stands by our accusations of mistreatment. in a statement released by the organization representing her, she says . . . but in india, it's the government's response to america's treatment of the diplomat and not the nanny's case that has been the focus of attention. many indians have welcomed new delhi's removal of security barriers and withdraw of diplomatic privileges traditionally extended to

american officials. >> she is representing india and in the u.s., and as i an india think u.s. involvement is taking back step, and indian involvement has been [ inaudible ]. >> translator: we're very happy that india stood up for itself. >> reporter: domestic political pressures have also played a part in the indian government's handling of this case. there will be national elections soon and politicians want to be seen as strong leaders. officials in afghanistan say u.s. troops have accidentally shot and killed a four year old boy. officials in the province say marines opened fire on a group of suspects and mistakenly killed the boy. the debt coming at a fragile

time for afghan u.s. relations. the president of the central african republic has stepped down following a two-day summit in chad. barnaby phillips has more. >> reporter: the crowd celebrating in the middle of the area at the news that the president has stepped down. they are delighted. they say he was a thief. but the mood here in extremely tense at the moment. we have been hearing a lot of gunfire within the last hour. we don't know if that is celebrateory gunfire or something else is going on. these people are confident there will be a better future for their country. it is far from obvious that

there is any individual who can unite the central african republic at this time. egyptian prosecutors saying those three al jazeera journalists will now be held for another 15 days. mohamed fahmy, baher mohamed, and peter greste have all been detained for 13 days in a prison outside of cairo. they are accused of inciting laws and being involved with the muslim brotherhood which they recently categorized as a terrorist organization. al jazeera continues to deny the charges, and demand their release. i'm robert ray live in new orleans in the lower ninth ward where we're tracking where $1.5 billion of hurricane funds in the state of louisiana have gone or not gone, coming up on al jazeera america. ♪

wall street falling at this hour on that weak december job's report. the dow is down 47 points. the blue chipsn't have been trading at these levels since right before christmas. america's biggest banks might have to shell out billions more for the meltdown. time says industry insider the $13 billion settlement by jpmorgan chase now being used as a template. when it comes to trade, the u.s. is no longer number 1. china is. beijing saying its total imports and exports dropping $4 trillion last year. the u.s. was $3.5 trillion. and a programming note, the

detroit auto show is ramping up and ali velshi will be there live. you can check him out on "real money" with -- ali velshi. money sent by congress to help out new orleans for hurricane katrina has yet to be spent. robert ray reports. >> good afternoon, del. $1.5 billion has not been spent by the state of louisiana from hurricane trina, rita, ike, and gust stof. last hour we reached out to the governor's office we wanted to get a response. they called us after the live shot and are putting together a

response as to why. where is the money going, some of it already earmarks to schools and infrastructure. so i'm going to hold my phone and hopefully by the end of this live shot it zings and we have a response. this is the lower ninth ward here, the recommend -- remnants of where houses used to be. no onlies here anymore. i'm going to show you the inside of a busted out house here in the lower ninth. this house hasn't been reconstructed because there's no funds to make that occur. perhaps the $1.5 billion could have helped, but you can see the inside of the shell. earlier today we talked to someone with the lower ninth ward development group, his name arthur johnson, here is what he thinks about the whole situation. >> we are still recovering, and people are still trying to get into their homes. there are small businesses who

still are not operating where they once were prior to hurricane katrina. and the other disasters. so this would make a big difference in our community from economic development, for residential and neighborhood growth, and in our infrastructure. schools, fire stations, libraries. >> reporter: so del $108 billion of damage is what katrina cost, and right after was rita, gustov, and then hurricane ike. so a lot of money was given to the region here, and it was up to local officials to figure out how they were going to spend that money. it is called flexible block grant rebuilding and strengthening. congress approves it. they give it to the local officials. they decide how to redistribute it. but $1.5 billion they are

sitting on? where is it going? we want those answers. we were opening the governor's people would clip me with a message. they have not. but we'll stay on this story all day, del. >> robert thank you very much. the flu is hitting hard two states. 843 cases confirmed. most of the cases are linked to the h1n1 flu virus, also in florida. five of the victims there under 40, as many as 450 people in florida have already been admitted to the hospital. the science of sharks, we'll tell you how researchers are unravelling the secrets of the great white.

and in those cases where formal education isn't feasible because of

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters.

these are your head lines at this hour. the unemployment figures released today show the jobs picture may not be as rosy as once thought, only 74,000 new jobs created in december, that's well below what experts had anticipated. target lost more customer data than they thought. 70 million customers effected by the recent data breach. personal information, including phone numbers, email, and mailing addresses all stolen. a dangerous chemical spill in west virginia, health officials advise gz people not to drink, bathe, or cook with the water more than 100,000 people have been effected across the state. ♪ i'm dave warren. many people will be effected by a storm this weekend. first one moving across the east

coast. there will be a lot of rain as the warm air returns. the next one across the pacific northwest. but right now it is just a mix. this is not a big storm winding up, this is just the first part of it. freezing rain happening now as the temperature is right about freezing. now it is starting to climb and this advisory only in effect until about 1:00. a winter weather advisory a little farther north of philadelphia there right to lehigh valley. here is that snow this morning. that was a brief period of icing, now it continues to clear out and warm up a bit. maybe still some rain coming down, a little mix there across the lehigh valley along i-95 corridor, there could still be sleet or freezing rain. this will be the big storm impacting us this weekend here

across the east coast. 33 in philadelphia, 34 in new york, numbers are climbing, so the road should just be wet by this afternoon. as the storm comes across the great lakes, on saturday, look at all of this rain. rain will be heavy at times and this could lead to flooding with 1 to 2 inches of rain predicted from virginia up to new england. that rain-slow line is north of the border, so the temperatures will be climbing and a lot of rain -- coming down not snow or ice. one to two inches of rain, flood watches are in effect, because we could see flooding saturday afternoon and sunday. del? >> dave warren thank you very much. the federal government now saying it will recognize those same-sex marriages performed in utah. earlier this week the u.s. supreme court putting a stop to

the unions until a state appeal is settled. also today, clerks in the state say they will finish the paperwork for those pair ages that were completed before the supreme court ruling. there may be hope for one of the most feared creatures in the water. researchers in florida have been tracking a 2,500-pound great white as she goes up and down the coast. >> reporter: meet katherine, a great white shark who is helping researchers uncover the secrets of one of the ocean's more feared and misunderstood predators. researchers say recorded data on great whites is limited, but that is changing because of katherine and other sharks like her. >> i believe there's a lot of general fashion nation, the general look at this as a beautiful majestic species, and

in many cases i think the tide has shifted, that people are very interested in it. it is such a large species that it feeds into our primal fears. >> reporter: primal fears stoked for centuries like jaws. a team caught katherine and tagged her with a device. every time she surfaces the tag sends a signal to the satellite. what is known as shark attracter allows anyone to go online and follow katherine and other great whites. since august, katherine has traversed the eastern seaboard several times coming as far south as daytona and near cape

canaveral. the research is giving scientists information on her traveling data, and lets them know if their presence here is in any way related to their breeding patterns. researchers say their population is believed to be small and they reproduce slowly. andersson was part of the team that tagged katherine, and performed an ultrasound on the shark. >> she was a loud one. >> reporter: she says her findings could be crucial to understanding great whites and to ensure their survival. >> if we see their numbers -- we find out that their population is, you know, declining, we can know these areas and protect them. >> reporter: researchers hope that has technology improves

they will learn even more about the great white and show that a feared predator is really much more intelligent than originally thought. al jazeera, jacksonville, florida. carnival cruise line says the wrecked kostka concordia ship will be hauled away this summer. the cruz ship crashing off of the coast of italy. the removal team will use tanks of air to lift the ship and toe it to a yet undecided location. >> we are very confident we can remove the ship from the island within the month of june, and that is not that far away anymore, and that a great job will have been done. we're not going anywhere, but we want to thank you for watching this edition of al jazeera america news. "the stream" is next.

and check us out at aljazeera.com where the news continues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ♪ hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you are in "the stream." no question olympic hopefuls endure years of gruelling training, but behind the scenes many say they are suffering abuse at the hands of their coaches. olympics. ♪ omar is in tonight as digital producer. we'll be bringing in all of your live questions and comments throughout the show. i think there is a tendency and to look at the olympic environment