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>> wildfires are a regular part life. this has been the driest year on record. rebecca stevens is here with more on that. >> the santa ana winds can become powerful. typically camerillo has been getting the gusts. as you get the strong winds,

they are warm and dry. they bring in heat. in this very area we have temperatures, record temperatures. san francisco has a new record-high temperatures, and a california did hit records, while we were one or two degrees away from a record for places like los angeles, who hit 85. looking at the areas of drought across the u.s. 75% of california is included. the percentage of normal rain fall is barely over 51%. other cities below the percentage of normal. we get well into the water here, starting in july. the water year starts in july. we are three-quarters of the way through it. californian mountain snow, compared to 2012, we are now the

driest on record, comparing the snow pack in the mountains to what we have now, this january of 2014, it's an impressive difference. overall we are seeing very dry conditions, storms from the last summer completely avoiding california, coming up through mexico and texas. how long will we stay dry? we'll have more of an overview of the climate coming up >> on the eve of president obama's speech on the n.s.a. reforms, new information on the extent of the agency's spying. it's the latest story based on edward snowden's leak. the n.s.a. collects close to day, part of a global sweep, and includes people under no suspicion of illegal activity. it's a joint investigation between "the guardian", and channel 4 news in u.k. >> a highly anticipated speech,

tomorrow morning, 11 o'c at the department of justice. the premier will unveil his decision on what to do with recommendations from his council on reforming n.s.a. and other elements in washington, and how technology is used to spy not only internationally, but domestically. it's been controversial since the revelations put forward by they came forward with recommendations. the marquee item is section 215 of the law, gathering metagathering data. they recommend a third party, the government holding it for five years, or the phone companies should do so. they said they don't want to have a part of it. the commission, at the at least, said there should be another layer. the government should have to go to some entity, the secretive

court within the department of justice that handles the matters and ask or demonstrate the need for the data. the president will kick this over to congress, to have them decide. that's not likely to go over well in some quarters. national security letters send by the fbi. should there be another threater, should they go through the f.i.s. a court and justify asking for metadata from the communications company. a public advocate on the pfizer court to speak up to the right to privacy. this was recommended and talked about. this is the one item that the president was likely to adopt. as will be restrictions on foreign surveillance, and foreign leaders angela merkel, the revelation that her cellphone was listened to embarrassed the united states and other leaders' close allies, including france and brazil.

jeffrey spoke with ray swor ez from "inside sco story." n.s.a. is not a rogue system acting illegally. this is not like the '60s, and '70s. the n.s.a. is exercising authorities that congress and the courts have given it. if there's a fault, it's in the authorities, and the way they are instruct urt -- structured, and what they are doing. >> there's to evidence that metadata prevented terrorist attacks. at the same time they say the program should go on with more transparency and steps involved to protect the public's privacy. >> glenn greenwald is the journalist leading the way in publishing the edward snowden leaks.

in an interview on al jazeera's "the stream", greenwald says he's not expecting much from the presidential speech. >> it's a pr gesture, a way to calm the public, making them think there's reform, when in reality there won't be. the public, at this point, heard enough about what the n.s.a. does, and how invasive it is, and they'll need more than a pretty speech. >> the host of "the stream", lisa fletcher is here with us tonight. greenwald is sitting on thousands if not tens of thousands of documents stolen from the n.s.a. government by edward snowden, who is in russia. plenty are calling from clementsy, but america is divided as to whether he's a whisle blower.

>> i raised this idea that edward snowden could have held the nation's security in his hands, in the four laptops he allegedly has with him carrying the documents. greenwald's response is if you are going to be mad, be mad at the newspapers that publish the information, not the guy that stole that. >> the people that published it was "the washington post." >> he was in control of the information and handed it to journalists. he is culpable. >> when he handed it over to journalists he said, "i'm providing you with a lot of information much needs to be published, much is what you need to read so you understand how the system works, but not to be published. i'm trusting you as responsible journalists to vet the material and make joyses -- choice." is

it >> sounds like greenwald is putting it on the newspapers. >> email calls, locations of al qaeda is it in syria and mali. he said, "take your grievance to the media, not to edward snowden, it's not his fault." and another thing he said that i found interesting coming from a guy with nothing good to say about n.s.a. >> we need some degree on targeted spying. what we don't need is what the n.s.a. become, which is an agency devoted to creating a ubiquitous decision of spying. that we don't need. >> i go back to the thought that

he has thousands and thousands of documents. he told us about that, and this conditions to drip, drip. i suppose we'll talk about this again in the future. >> incidentally i asked him when he'd release more of this information, and he said to look for something in the next couple of weeks. >> lisa fletcher, it's good to see you. you can watch the full interview with glenn greenwald on "the stream", 2:30am eastern time, re-airing tomorrow. >> a republican from oklahoma said he will not serve out his term. the 66-year-old will leave at the end of the current session. his term was scheduled to end to 2016. >> putting pressure on syria. secretary of state john kerry's strong words to both sides. >> plus, helping the homeless.

a physician who goes block to block to make them healthier.

>> a new development involving chris christie. the question is who ordered several lanes closed on george washington bridge in september. the order was political payback aimed at a small-town mayor who refused to endorse chris christie's re-election bid. >> target security breach seems to be part of a broader and highly sophisticated scan. according to a report from a firm, the malware affected numerous retailers. a breach at the store come promised information for tens of millions of customers. i talked to science and technology consumer jake ward about it. what new information have we learnt about the target breach?

>> it's clear that there was probably an inside person on this. various analysts who look at this noticed a number of things about the point of sales software that was used to scrape credit card information. and one of the most interesting things is a big chunk of this stuff, a lot of code seems to have been written in russian. >> russia has a long history of cyber crime. >> in the last few years a number of cases originated in russia. the justice department announced indictments in a 7-year investigation in a matter scraping several years worth of credit cards involving russian industry. it's a thriving culture. >> we hope as a result of this hacks would be tougher and consumers safer. is that the case, or not?

>> the problem with security is you are behind the devious minds that come up with these ideas. in this case it seems as if someone probably connected to the point of sale machine, someone with access to it, was paid off. there's obviously going to be a lot of employee screening that goes into the touch of sale machine. there'll be a number of steps that target will take. that will be true of other informat. it will be a step behind. being careful with credit card data, reading the reports will be the best way to avoid it. >> i don't want to mix up stories, but let's talk about the big hacking stories that we have seen with several retailers, and questions about privacy regarding other retailers and the united states government. is this a new waive, is this

what we have to deal with going forward because of our technology. >> we are seeing how primitive the systems are that a lot of credit card companies and retailers are using. it's surprising how slow they respond when it was determined that target was hit as hard as it was. a lot of issuing banks like chase didn't say it's time to turn in your credit card. they put $100 holds on the cards, and very slow and, i think, pretty inferior s. so i think what we are realising is that credit card technology is out of date. and the way that that technology is protected is out of date. hopefully the massiveness of the breach will push them to safeguards in the future. >> i guarantee we'll talk about these again. >> a contacted killer in ohio was put to death by lethal

injection of a drug cocktail never used before in the states. ashar quraishi talks about the controversy surrounding the dug. >> dennis maguire was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a newly web. joyce stuart was 7- months pregnant when stabbed to death. the prison director, before the execution, was certain that it would be carried out in a human and dignified manner. a backlog in recent years has occurred because of the lack of the pento barb it ol. officials used a combination of a combination of drugs that hadn't been tried. at 10:29, as the drugs were injected maguire's eyes rolled back. six minutes later he appeared unconscious, gagging, struggling

to breathe. 15 minutes went by before he was declared dead. it was one of the longest executions. maguire's attorney's argued against this execution. the constitution bans those that are usual, it doesn't mean they are required to undertake a pain-free death. >> the vatican - a delegation of rome appeared before a u.n. committee, accused of deliberately hiding the rapes of thousands of children's at the hands of priests. the church is now committed to face the crisis. pope francis said dealing with the abuse crisis is a top priority. >> now to syria. it's been called one of the

planets severe humanitarian disasters. 130,000 died since fighting began. he is calling on all sides to attend peace talks in switzerland, dubbed geneva ii. >> john kerry rejected the syrian government's effort to change the focus of geneva, from ending the war to focussing on terrorism. it was called an attempt to change history, and said it would not work. >> it defies logic to imagine that those whose brutality created this magnet. how they move syria away from extremism is beyond logic or commonsense. >> in a letter obtained by al jazeera, the focus was tried to be shifted when he accepted the u.n.'s invitation to attend geneva ii. it was written:

>> john kerry leaned on the syrian opposition to unite saying that the syrian people need them to come together. >> on the eve of the syrian coalition, general assembly meeting to decide whether to participate in geneva, in the states, for these reasons, urges a positive vote. >> a syrian opposition spokesman says it's time for all time to talk in good faith. >> the assad regime was rejecting the principles. bashar al-assad needs to september these points otherwise it's a waste of time. >> the secretary's comments came

after a recent trip abroad, seeking aid for syrians inside and outside of their country. there's questions about whether the conference will make a difference in the 3-year-long civil car. no one knows what practical results come out of geneva ii, be it a ceasefire. moving medicine or a timeline for bashar al-assad to step aside. >> the baracka administration's view is let's get to the conference and see what happens. >> a legislative battle turned into a broul in ukraine's parliament. nighting broke out during a debate over the budget. opposition members of the parliament were trying to block the vote, bringing the country closer to trade union with russia. the parliament approved punishments more unauthorized protests. ukraine had weeks of protest

against the agreement. >> coming up a wildfire threatening downdon los angeles. we'll have a live report. >> and why the n.b.a. could turn its biggest stars into globe trotters.

>> >> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler, and here are the top stories. the national security agency collects close to 200 million text messages, according to the london newspaper "the guardian", the revelation coming a day before president obama proposing new reforms for the spy agency. >> it's the third fatal chopper the military investigating a hard landing in georgia, killing one, injuring two. the victims be longing to an elite unit trained to fly behind

enemy lines after dark. >> a wildfire may have started from a burning scrap of paper. >> now 2,000 acres have gone, and hundreds of firefighters are on the front lines trying to contain it. jennifer london is on the scene in california. tweeted that it may be night, but it's not over yet, referring to the so-called colby fire, and the fire broke out this morning in the foothills. san gabriel mountains, in a residential area. 1700 acres have burnt. five homes destroyed. 35% contained. firefighters stopped the forward movement, which is good news. they are concerned and are keeping an eye on the wind. they are hoping that it does not

pick up. the winds were gusting up to 45 miles per hour and that helped to fuel the fire. they are hoping that the winds will stay quiet, and don't further fan the fire. what is really causing a bigger concern is they are saying, "i wonder if we'll look at a rare winter fire", fuelled by dry conditions. the state is doing into multiple years of below-average precipitation, we haven't seen rain. that. hopefully we are not looking at wild fires in the winter. >> you can see the winds fanning the flames from the choppers. >> according to egyptian state media 90% of voters voted for a new military supported constitution. official results not expected until saturday. it's the second constitution put

into place since the 2011 revolution overthrowing hosni mubarak, replacing the constitution proposed by ousted president mohamed morsi, and the now banned muslim brotherhood. >> conflict rages on in south sudan, as government rebel forces battle for power. relief organizations say 10,000 have died and millions displaced. it's a case of deja vu for a man that fled to america 15 years ago. >> after weeks of worrying carol rinehart can breathe a sigh of relief. she's flown around the world from denver to africa to see the man she considered a son was safe. >> we heard the gun. i told my wife, "let's run." >> daniel is an american who was trapped in the violence of south

sudan. again, running for his life. >> when i left the country it was at gunpoint. >> daniel was a lost boy of sudan, the name aid workers gave 20,000 boys who fled or were orphaned in the civil war from 1985 to 2005. daniel came to denver when he was 19, when carol rinehart took him under her wing. he got a masters degree and american sit zenship. in 2011 he returned to south sudan. to help build schools this the young nation. violence has returned. >> i never thought this will happen again, because i knew that we have now got our independence from the khartoum regime. >> south sudan, the world's newest country is threatening to unravel. >> my home in jonglei, bor town was attacked. >> from bor, daniel led his

wife, 9-month-old son and 100 north through swamp land to safety. >> i saw dead bodies on the road. all shops along the main routes were broken into >> it was so unreal that i'm on a cell phone with him, and he is in hiding for his life, talking to me. >> ryan height is a cofounder of product education sudan, working with guy and other lost boy, helping them settle in denver and reconnect with their families before christmas guy needed their hep. >> i said, "what do you need?" he said, "we need your prayers." >> she did more, she worked for passports and a flight out of the country. she headed to africa where

daniel and his family made it safely to kenya. >> what is sad is i know a lot of children and i don't know who is left. >> neither does guy. he's shaken by the ordeal, but refuses to give up on peace. >> i hope it comes soon so i can come back to south sudan, to rebuild the hope and the life of the innocent that have never thought they'd go back again. >> guy told us he's counting on god to open the door for his return. >> and tech knoll -- tech knoll any makes the world smaller. michael eaves joins us now to tell us what the mba plans to do. >> sports is similar to fortune 500 companies, trying to find ways to expand business and revenues, for the national

baskell association, they may establish a team in europe. >> early in his career, a boost to expand internationally, gathering momentum in john barasso, the plirs olympiad to introduce basketball players, and it resulted in a basketball explosion. more people picked up the games, resulting in more international leads and better talent. leading to an influx of flares. in this season the n.b.a. had 84 international players from 37 countries. 29 of the 30 teams feature one international player on its opening night roster. >> football has always been more global in the make-up of its rosters. we've just gone out through the transition. our fans get to be excited about learning about other places through their team. people in the early days said to

me "is it going to hurt your league if these foreigners come in and play", the answer was of course not. the question is do they have game. it's amazing how fast yow ming became an estonian. >> some basketball insider maintain whether mr silva can maintain the global push and business model. >> it's as good as it's ever been. under adam it will get better. his expertise on globalisation, on digital, television negotiations - all three are confronting him. it couldn't be in better hands going forward, and it's - it's nice. it's successful, but there's room for additional growth. >> i have been working side by side with david for 22 years.

we have a fantastic group of owners, executives, executives at the league office, legends who tell me every day what i've done wrong. it's a family of people that make the league operate. it's daunting. i'm excited, exhilarated. it's a fantastic opportunity for all of us. >> stern&silver were in london for a match up at the 02 alina. part of the n.b.a. schedule. featuring 12 teams playing in 10 cities in seven countries, teams travelling 116,000 miles. the global game schedule set a record for the most n.b.a. teams to play internationally, but encouraged the n.b.a. to expand into europe with a division. >> once we had it in place, there's an opportunity to have a

division here. we know the interest exists. i wrote down in the tape they ped, i couldn't agree more with leb bron who was the number one sports brand. that was a great way to capture the n.b.a. we see opportunity. >> the last time the n.b.a. expanded internationally was in 1995 with the vancouver grizzlies. they didn't have enough financial support and moved to memphis. there's only one team outside the united states. >> you say it's popular in europe and asia, and china. travel could be the problem. >> that's where the technology needs to get to the point where plains and jets have an ability to get far away faster. if you have a team in london, paris, barcelona, they have to travel a long way. how does the league fix it and get them there faster.

>> they are globe trotters and frequent flyers. >> they are not flying coach, chartered plane. but it's a long way to go. >> even in the united states they try to work it out so the guys don't have to make trips back and forth across the company. >> if you go to new york or the east coast, west coast, you play three or four games. >> and a question about selling tickets - how many games? >> 41 regular season and four pre-season. you need a fan base of 10, 12,000 people to buy seasoned tickets for the business to be sustainable. >> they'll see if it works. >> if it can. >> thank you very much. coming up next - street medicine, a doctor helps some of the most desperate people stay well. >> saying thanks. the mother of a special young girl reaches out to a passenger

who bonded with the child f1 o aeroplane.

>> the next several days will bring cold temperatures to the north-east as well. parts of the west continue with concerns of fire weather and dry, low humidity. no rain in sight at this point for the west.

your high temperatures 20 degrees above normal. los angeles and san diego. it's a different story as we talk about the east coast. we look at where we are. we expect it again into minnesota. especially at the great lakes, impacting parts of west virginia. it will be cool, snowy and we can talk about what is happening to the west. high pressure. it is pushing the storm track into canada. all the storm systems are going around it. it is helping to warm parts of the south. now, because of the way the jet stream goes around the rig of high pressure, it has to dip down on the ordinary side of the rockies, and that is bringing in the cold air from canada, and a little clipper bringing in parts of the polar vortex making us chilly. we'll see the systems bringing

in lake effect snow in the next day or two.

>> a warning for pregnant women in west virginia, a ban may have been listed for 200,000, but officials aexpectant mothers should stick to bottled water until pipes are flushed. more than 7,000 gallons of toxic chemicals leaked into the elk river. a director is making house calls to some of the most vulnerable people - the homeless of pittsburg. >> dr jim witers is practicing street medicine. he and his team operate safety net and make their rounds on city streets,

working to keep homeless men, women and children alive and well. he joins us from pittsburg. good to have you on the program. tell me how this got started. >> i began in 1992. it was part of my teaching career as a teaching physician in medicine. my feeling was that we were good at taking care of folks in a hospital setting, but we weren't good at understanding the reality that a lot of the people who were excluded from health care was experiencing. i was looking for a classroom, where we could be able and forced, really, to see our health system through the eyes of others. and the street homeless population seemed to be a perfect population to do that. >> how did you get them to trust you? >> well, you know, my friend mike sellows had been homeless at a time in his past.

he was going on the streets. i met him. he agreed to take me to the camp sites, abandoned buildings and river banks. when i started i dressed like a homeless person. >> you did. >> i wasn't sure how to connect. so i thought that was the way to introduce myself to the community, and gradually i was accepted and embraced by the street people. >> give me an idea how many people you street a year. >> we see 1200 unique individuals in pittsburg every year. the number has grown slightly, but that is usually about what we see. >> how do you pay for it? >> well, a lot of our work is done through the support of the ittsburg mercy health system. that's the parent for operation safety net. and we also depend on volunteers and the whole pittsburg community helped a bit. >> talk about the health problems that the homeless face. >> they have a lot of the same reasons we all have - high blood

pressure, diabetes. a lot of them are going untreated. they are resulting in premature death and costly medical expenses and the use of the emergency rooms. going upstream we are able to intervene at an early time. there are other things that are street related, the violence against the homeless. we see frost bite, some things that are unfortunate. >> our system is set up for us to see the doctor, not for the doctor to see us, at least not any more. that is what you are doing, right? >> i made house calls with my dad in rural pennsylvania, when i was a kid. for me it's normal behaviour. >> is this a model for every city in america. >> we are having our 10th international street medicine meeting. we have 90 communities, many cities throughout the united

states that are connecting and talking about that. the new nonprofit that supports that is the street medicine institute. medical schools and others are beginning to see this as a really important way to learn and decrease the misery in our cities. >> what a great thing. it's a pleasure to have you on the program. good luck and congratulations on your continued success. >> god bless. thanks. >> still ahead - photo finish. our picture of the day. plus kate's story. the 3-year-old autistic girl makes friends with a businessman at 30,000 feet, and a mother's letter to the man, that will warm your heart.

>> into here is a story of compassion and kindness, a chance encounter on an airplane that left a mother full of gratitude. >> kate is three years old. this little girl from canada is touching the lives of people around the world. it's a story that kate's mum

channel is sharing in a story entitled "dear daddy", is begins like this. >> i had a vision of kate pouring water over our contracts. >> she liked the feel of your soft jacket. you smiled at her, she said, "hi daddy", that's my mum. >> you could have shifted uncomfortably in your seat.

>> i made a few polite options it distract her. >> it is a touching letter. it's gone viral from a mum with

a very special child.to the man turned a chance encounter into something extraordinary. >> it is a touching story. our thanks to john terrett. >> channel and kate joined me earlier. here is how she describes travelling with her child. >> well, it's never easy travelling with children period. but it sort of magnifies when you have a little one with autism. katy did you like to go on the plane? what is the plane like? what does it do? she has a hard time communicating, but she is very friendly. what happens is she'll want to connect with a person who is sitting by us, and if that person is not willing to connect with her oftentimes it can get awkward and uncomfortable for everybody. she jut wants to make a friend and we worry, and there's no

escape on a plane, that's one of the issues. we like to have an escape plan when we go out with kate. >> talk about this particular trip and this passenger. i saw this businessman, and i willed him to keep walking. please, not him, of all people. he had papers and an ipad. he looked like he was going to be busy. and kate was going to disrupt whatever he had planned to do on the flight. she rubbed his arm and said, "hi daddy, this is my mum." and i said to him, you know, "this is kate." i don't apologies. i said, "she had autism." they engaged and played. he had no problem. and kate doesn't communicate very well, as you can tell, so a lot of time people will stop speaking to her and speak to her. he found a way to communicate with her. that touched me, and made me

emotional. when i think about it now, it makes me emotional. he treated her like a little person. they played, and they playedeninga turtles, and he didn't use me as a translator. and i thought that was pretty neat. >> and that's what inspired you to publish this letter, and clearly it did strike an emotional cord. can you tell us a little more about why? >> i've been writing this blog since her diagnosis, and the whole idea is to spread, you know, awareness about autism so kids like kate will grow up fully accepted and understood. i really wanted to thank him for being exactly what i hoped kate grows up with. those kind of people. like this gentleman who turned out to be eric, who we did find. but he ultimately - i couldn't thank him when we got off the plane, because she was very,

very worked up. when i got home i processed what had happened and how helpful he had been. and i wanted to thank him. i didn't though his name or anything about him, beside she called him daddy. i got my thoughts out on the blog. never in a million years believing he'd see it. i thought the community of autism, family members and i had would see it. that would have been good enough for me. it's gone further. >> mummy. mummy. >> yes, babe. >> you have heard from eric since. >> yes. >> what did he say? >> he's very modestle about the whole thing. someone contacted him and said, "i think this woman is talking about you, eric, you might want to email her", he emailed me and i investigated to make sure it was him. because i refused so many emails. it was him, and he just said he

had a great time with kate. he had no - he didn't believe he had done anything special and he made a friend on the plane and he was thrilled to spend time with her. and he'd do it again. it was lovely. we have been talking back and forth. he's lovely. >> what strikes me, channel, is you work hard with your daughter kate, but to try to facilitate difficult situations with other people. what moved you was that somebody else understood your situation and it may be if others could understand, like eric understood, we'd be a lot better off. >> as kate and children like her grows, we want them to accept her as their peers. it's not pity or sympathy that we want, it's understanding and acceptance. this is what he gave us on the plane. that's why it was special, why i was touched. it was not in any

way pity for my situation. it was just an interaction with a cool little kid who he thought was worth playing with, and that was really special. >> you are a great mother and you have a beautiful child and this is a fantastic message. we are proud that you were able to share it with us today. thank you. >> thank you. >> autism comes in a variety of forms. it can affect speech, social, intellectual speeds. it affects one in 88 children. it's the fastst growing serious development disability in the united states, and there is no cure. >> now to tonight's photo finish. it's what we consider to be the january the 16th 2014, we chose this from the wildfires in southern california, still burning tonight. that is firefighter jason menned owesa trying to contain the

olympic games in california. headlines are next. >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. here are the top stories. >> police say paper tossed into a campfire sparked a wind-driven wildfire near los angeles. thousands of people were forced from their homes and several schools were closed. so far the fire burnt more than 1700 acres and is 13% contained. more n.s.a. documents have been leaked. this time involving text messages. the n.s.a. has been collecting millions of messages. collecting and saving data, including locations contact and credit card details. >> a lethal