>> there's something seriously wrong... >> there's been acrimony... >> the conservative ideal... >> it's an urgent need... and a host willing to ask the tough questions >> how do you explain it to yourself? and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on al jazeera america >> america tonight's team of reporters breaks it down. >> so let's get immigration reform done this year. >> michael oku on immigration. >> adam play on jobs and the economy. >> that's what health reform is all about. the peace of mind that if misfortune strikes you don't have to lose everything.

>> lori jane gliha on health care. and sheila macvicar on what mr. obama said and didn't say on problems. and on the night of problems, this is reality. >> i feel like 24 hours, at the restaurant five days a week every night i drive taxi. >> what it's like to work so hard and still fall short. >> and good evening, thanks for joining us. i'm joie chen. we can't exactly say it's a comment from the heavens. but on washington's biggest night of the year just as president obama finished his

state of the union address, a very severe, very rare storm, down in the beltway. beginning with the chaos down south. upper north you may not understand this but this is jackson, mississippi and this is when that part of the country gets snow and those vicious, vicious temperatures, it feels as cold as minus 30 with the wind chill not bad for a mid westerner, but this is beyond comprehension cold. in atlanta, the traffic came to a standstill. stand-still. meteorologists say it happens once every ten years. i think they would say it's been longer than that. state of pln louisiana declareda state of emergency.

aaccu-weather jim dicky. this is crazy. >> you move this up the coast to northeast new england not a big deal, a nuisance event. down south you don't have the resources, the salt trucks, the snow plows. throughout the day on tuesday still seeing the ice at this hour. the heaviest of that snow, event, norfolk up to four inches of snowfall with more to come in this way. we're expecting six to ten inches, storm total snow fall. in these areas the snow thankfully has come to an end. cold being driven down by a strong high pressure system, not much time for this to melt, especially in the morning hours, the morning commute kill still be a mess. look at the highs across the

region today. many spots above the freezing point, 34 in columbia, especially this morning it is going to stay icy. from here, the storm moves north and eastward. interior of the northeasterly, cape cod, a couple of inches, three to six inches in cape cod in fact just a coating in eastern maine. still minus 1 in syracuse, into droit, we'ldetroit we'll keep ie head throughout the day. >> you're right jim all weather is relative. accuweather meteorologist jim dicky. thanks for joings us. in his 5th state of the union address, president obama drew a line in the sand: if you don't want to work with me, i'll

go it alone. defiant or dead on arrival? we begin with mike viqueria. mike, it takes what, an hour and six minutes to deliver about a minute's worth of applause. >> that's right. the president did have some applause lines. he went for humor at some points. he came with an olive branch in one hand and a fist in the other. we are heading into an election year, the clock is ticking. the president walked into that chamber as more or less a lame duck, joie. it stands the possibility of going into republican chrome, on the house side it is going to stay republican in all likelihood. extension of minimum wage, big ticket items, immigration, earlier in the year before

politics schools everything. but he -- consumes everything. he says he's willing to go around washington. budget and spending bill even the farm bill give everybody hope in his view that the year doesn't have to be a partisan one. let's listen. >> as president i'm committed to making washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here. and i believe most of you are too. last month, thanks to the work of democrats and republicans, congress finally produced a budget that undoes some of last year's severe cuts to education. not everybody got everything they wanted and we can still do more to invest in this country's future while bringing down our deficit in a balanced way. but the budget compromise should leave us freer to focus on creating new jobs not creating new crises. and in the coming months --

[applause] >> in the coming months let's see where else we can make progress together. >> and so the president has these initiatives and he wants to work with congress but he made it clear the olive branch will turn into a fist, if congress won't go along. it is an inherent limitation, small balls in all ways, he would need congressional approval to enact anything significant. what the president had to say next: >> what i offered tonight is a set of concrete practical proposals to speed up growth strengthen the middle class and build ladders of opportunity into the middle class. some require congressional action and i'm eager to work with all of you but america does not standstill, neither will i. so wherever and whenever can i take steps without legislation

to extend opportunity for more american families that's what i'm going odo. [applause] >> well, the president was already rattling that saber earlier. when the congress said they would raise minimum wage for contractors athat worked for the government. it is only for new contracts that would affect a relatively small number of people but the president from here on out joie hid th hits the road, pittsburg, milwaukee, nashville, each component for each city, to talk about the things he wants to do joie. >> almost a campaign in and of itself. stick around for a minute. roland martin, mike viqueria just told us it was either an olive branch or a big stick. >> it actually was one, the

president said i need you to do your job but american people are depending upon us to do the job but he made perfectly clear, i'm going to lead. republicans are complaining about his threat of executive order. well, he's actually granted the fewest number of executive orders in the last five presidents. so i'm trying to figure out exactly what the complaint is. so democrats and republicans have used executive order in the past. so he has that right. what i think the president has to do is, you saw it when it came to the minimum wage, for federal contractors, raise it to $10.10. actually do it. you can keep on threatening all you want to but you have to do it, and that's called leading. i'm going olead, either you catch up and do what's right for american people or i will do it for you. >> did you have that sense of frustration that i think a lot of those government workers are going to have? because look he said i'm going

to do this, and as mike viqueria told us, it's only affecting a limited number of people, a half a million folks which might be a lot to some but there are an awful lot of people. >> first of all that's part of the problem, you're taking the action right now. for instance it was president truman who used the scuff order to integrate the armed services. it's now moving forward as opposed to going backwards. probably this president said man i wished i had done that a few years ago instead of waiting for now. it was interesting when he basically said to congress look, it's time for you to get to work. he made it perfectly clear, let's make progress together, let's make this a year of action. if you look at what took place last year, the congress worked on a normal job they would have

gotten fired for lack of productivity. >> mike viqueria, roland brings up folks might have from you traition, that this -- frustration, this didn't go far on the minimum wage. it was as far as the white house felt they could go at this point. >> and the white house told us earlier today that that proposal that was put forward to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 as the president wants to do for the rest of the country but now only doing for federal contract workers is as far as they can do legally in the white house estimation. part of that joe i joie is theyt to put pressure on congress. if that's about scoring political points, that's great. the average of the polls want to see a hike in the minimum wage but the ways and means committee controlled by the republicans and th the house of representatives, yes, by

definition some of what the president is talking about is small-ball because he is going to need the congress to go along if it's really going ohave a significant -- to have a significant impact across the spectrum, joie. >> they say you can't make law that's a delicate balancing act for the president. >> mike viqueria warehouse correspondent on the hill for us tonight. we're going osee you later. thanks very much mike. i want to turn in and bring in i know roland you are the master of social media but one of our digital producers is also a maven -- you guys are doing double duty. arizonazmat khan.i've gotten the last couple of days. did they carry out a full

designate full court press? >> they said this would be the most interactive state of the union address to date and they delivered. they had portal launch where you could watch links of information for things to coming. then today they had the live screen, state of the union, and info graphics that the obama administration wanted to share. while he was talking, they had charts and graphs and other points that he wanted the citizens to take home. >> why is this so important to the administration? why would they put that much effort into that? >> it amplifies their message.. there were points that he wanted to make, pithy sound bites.

everything they thought might go viral they put out for users. they maids it -- made it more accessible. >> so it works roland? you have a big following online. it works? >> some consumers are saying, i want more information, where do i go? if i can go to a place i can find the information i can have my questions answered. what they're also doing is saying look, we're not going to leave it up to mainstream and cable networks and websites to provide the information. because people are in that mode. literally my sister tweeted me earlier, they watched it with the family, they had to keep rewinding it because their kids had questions. >> they want to own the message. they want to say dig deeper, check that. >> control the message. >> it isn't just the administration, republicans have responded as well. >> they have.

what was fascinating was competing live streams. joarjohn boehner many shared his live stream also. every time president obama mentioned something or didn't mention something that was high on the gop leadership agenda they would put out an infoe info graphic. there was information about the keystone pipeline or benghazi that president obama wasn't necessarily talking about. >> he didn't talk about the keystone pipeline at all. >> he didn't. >> it was really like being at a bar, hearing people shout, fight fight fight! it was like that. obama's website had the total, here is how many billions, lost,

and that back and forth really played out in very aggressive ways. >> i got to wonder about the kind of bars that azmat is hanging out at. >> no one knows, but there was one hashtag, that one republican leader put out, obama, the the lies that you tell. they could be pretty tough but they were quieter than normal. for example if you think back to president obama's speech ahead of pos tbli taking congressional authorization on syria republican leaders were prolific that night. some of the republican leaders that were well-known for being digitally savvy, he didn't tweet or facebook anything. they were hiding out to some extent. >> conversation does continue online as it dogs for us here on america tonight. azmat we appreciate you coming in with all that. and when we return, we'll get america back to work in our time

of recovery. the president's remarks about job growth. coming up next. consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete?

>> no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. opening doors ... opening possibilities. taking the impossible from lab ...

to life. on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneak-peak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. techknow - ideas, invention, life. on al jazeera america >> i will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded glows a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour because if you cook our troops meals or wash their dishes you should not have to live in poverty. [applause] >> calls to raise the minimum wage as part of the president's very populace economic message. "america tonight"'s adam may, looking into the proposals and how they're going to affect real americans. >> and there's a reason why the president stuck with these very populace messages.

they polled well among republicans and democrats. the president's most specific proposal is to raise the minimum wage, it would lift millions of americans in our country out of poverty. president obama, from $7.25 would like to make that $10.10 an hour. moving them from 15 to $21,000 a year. the president called to raise the minimum wage in his 2013 state of the union. he wanted to raise that to $9 back then but congress did not act. so this time he did something kind of unique. he actually offered a solution around congress urging state and local governments to raise their minimum wages on their own. in fact some states have already done that. california is a good example here, they are currently phasing in a $10 minimum wage, now up to $9 an hour. what we saw in a lot of those cases those raises barely kept

up with inflation. there are 46 million americans living in poverty and almost 1 in 4 u.s. children. actually spoke to a mother with two children trying to get by on a convenience store salary. she said raising the minimum wage would allow her to buy her kids school carlos and a more c. and he aan on the other hand, ss barely getting by, on a $10 salary as it is, saying that is just not enough. >> where somewhere between 12 and $15 an hour which is quite a bit more and further than the president has gone so far. we have also talked about

unemployment, the president talked about unemployment and extending unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed. >> which is a messy battle on capitol hill. there are 1.6 million americans who did not get those benefits extended. the president illustrated that point through an illinois mother struggling to find a job. currently the unemployment rate in the country is down under 7%, back from a peak of 10%. there is another story beyond those numbers. it might like as if it is heading in the right direction but what you hear some of those people going back to work are underemployed, they are well educated may be qualified but finding jobs that are paying less. this is especially a problem among college graduates. i talked to a family living in northern maryland tonight. good example of the problems

people are having. she told me her husband is a 60-year-old very skilled worker, technical writer, has been out of a job now for three years. this woman is so disappointed that their unemployment benefits are running out, he is sending out applications all the time, one of the reasons he can't get a job is because of his age. he's competing with college grads. >> we talked about the disadvantage that older americans at least feel like they have, even among the younger folks getting into the job market. adam may, irnlg l lori jane glis been looking at another issue that the president was speaking about, even he can't avoid it,

obamacare, the affordable care act. >> he had to apologize for promises that didn't pan out. this is a signature part of his presidency so he couldn't avoid it and i did time how much he talked in the speech. it was five minutes talking about health care. >> in an hour and five minute speech. >> he took a minute to jab at the republicans. take a look at what he said. >> now i do not expect to convince my republican friends on the merits of this law. [ laughter ] >> but i know that the american people are not interested in refighting old battles. so again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, increase choice, tell american what you do differently. let's see if the numbers add up. >> so now the rest of the speech he did highlight many of the accomplishments that have been made during the affordable care

act. and we have a graphic to kind of illustrate where the affordable care act stands now. there are 3 million people as of the latest numbers that have signed up for heart insurance on these marketplaces. the projection was that 7 million people would send up by the end of enrollment, by march 31st. they still have a long way to go. the question is will they reach that number? the numbers were way off track in the beginning, there is a surge in the last couple of months and things seem to be on target. we have a map popped up right now and that is talking about medicaid. >> this is another thing that the president wanted, too. >> exactly. and he talked about how this is expanded as well. all of the states that have extended the medicaid program. >> bruce: more than more than 6 million people have been eligible for medicaid. many of the states did not expand medicaid and that made a

huge gap for people who made too much or too little and didn't make medicaid or the affordable care act. beyond this, the question is who is signing up in this, the young healthy americans are going to be crucial to this. and we have a graphic to kind of demonstrate who has signed up already. as i said the young people are going to be crucial for the stabilization. if you look at the numbers only 25% of the people who signed up are actually between that age bract of 18 to 24. ideally what is needed is 40% of these young invincibles to make this plan staiblgz, they would off -- stabilize, because the fear would insurance companies would increase these premiums. >> the president made a reference, he suggested you go and call your mother and help her enroll and she would appreciate you calling her. but he specifically refers to the young people that the president needs to get enrolled.

>> he was very jovial. throughout the speech he highlighted people. this woman who signed up for affordable care act. she didn't have insurance after that. a couple of days later felt a sharp pain, had to have emergency surgery, and was insured. haven't been able to keep their plan as the president promised and later had to apologize for and actually the republicans responded to that in the rebuttal and this is what they had to say. >> we have all talked to too many people who received cancellation notices they didn't expect or who can no longer see the doctors they always have. no, we shouldn't go back to the things -- the way things were. but this law is not working. republicans believe health care choices should be yours. not the government's. >> and we here at america

tonight, have heard from a few people who said their premiums were raised, didn't meet the criteria that was expected under the affordable care act. one of the numbers, that he wanted to emphasize, zero people will be denied coverage because of a preexisting condition. >> thank you for delving deep into those issues, on income equality issues, appreciate lori jane gliha and adam murray. after the break, did the president dedicate you now of to foreign policy and to immigration? coming up next.

sphwhrmpleghtsdz sheila macvicar. sheila macvicar, what he left out. >> first offal, some of the toughest speech was saved for iran and especially the congressional threat of new sanctions against that country. president obama says it is american diplomacy that has halted the advancement of iran's nuclear program and has temporarily, pushed that back. may be difficult and may not succeed and the trust between the u.s. and iran cannot be,

quote, wished away, vairvel vere actions. >> let me be clear. if this congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, i will veto it. [applause] >> for the sake of our national security. we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed. >> if facial expressions are anything to go by, senator mccain and speaker boehner looked unmoved. turning to afghanistan the presidential said as he said before, that u.s. will complete their mission and by the end of this year the longest war will

be over, president karzai, has continued to move the goal post on that and his relationship has continued to deteriorate with the united states. very much tonight the president was trying to flip a page, that page being the last 12 years of war. >> and part of that has been the detainees at guantanamo bay. >> close guantanamo. he says the war in afghanistan is coming to an end. as part of closing that chapter, it is time we figure out what to do with the remaining detainees and close it. >> sheila macvicar following up on the international issues that the president addressed. now, on to immigration reform. it was president obama's top priorities just a year ago. just this year, the president devoted only a few lines.

michael oku, what's happened there? >> as joie you know, there are more than 10 million immigrants in the state of california. people here have been anxious to hear what the president was going to say about immigration reform tonight. it may not seem a surprise that people we spoke to were surprised that the president spent all of, wait for it, 53 seconds speak about it. here is part of what he said. >> i know that members of both parties of the house want to do the same. independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy by almost 3 billion in the next decades. they make our country a more

attractive place for people to locate and create more jobs for everybody. so let's get immigration reform done this year. >> we have been speaking to immigrant rights groups, to hear the president declare that he's fighting for a path to legal status if not citizenship for nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, that he plans to use his executive powers to halt deportations, especially since the administration is on pace to deport a record 2 million undocumented immigrants. and to give a reprieve to undocumented immigrants allowing them to come out from under the shadows and illegally seek work as they await comprehensive reform, joie. >> michael we were just talking

a moment ago about this not being just an issue that the president took on but republicans as well, we understand are going to be addressing this at thair their g retreat. what can you tell us about that? >> that speaker boehner is expected to produce a list that we understand will probably fall short of the bipartisan senate bibbill that was passed earlier this year, that will essentially include a path not for citizenship which is what the senate bill did but that it will actually include some roadway, a pathway for undocumented immigrants essentially to become legal in the united states. so we know that that's going to be happening at some point in the next couple days, specifically in the eastern shore of maryland. but we also understand, joie,

that there is some discussion among the leadership in the republican party, particularly conservatives, who say that they don't want to push immigration reform just right now. they want to push it until after the mid term election, so as to not you know foment any kind of fracture within the republican party. so the president was very aware of that. he's treading i have carefully tonight. he didn't want to get in the way of any progress that is being made. so in terms of the issue of immigration at least tonight for the president, we are talking carrot, not stick. >> all right, indeed. "america tonight"'s michael oku. thanks very much for being with us. when we come back, we're back on the money, did the president discussion recovering from the financial crisis?

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consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete?

>> we're back now following up on the state of the union, with roland martin, also with us is john anderson who we first met during the government shutdown. mr. anderson works here in washington as a cook, at the national museum of the indian. i thought about you, when the president was going to raise the minimum wage for contractors of the government, to is this going to increase your wages? >> no it isn't. not going to increase mine or any of my employees. we were working all these years trying to fight to get more money. it was almost not a slap in the face but a step in the right direction. hopefully he can get other

companies to join in what the president is trying to get done. >> a little birth sweet though. you might be -- bittersweet though. for your company this doesn't increase your wage at all. >> no. >> what is the upshot of it, does it represent a good step forward towards increasing everybody to a higher standard of living, a higher minimum or a true living wage? >> it is not a true living wage. but it's closer, it's steps in the right direction. everything is not going to change overnight i understand that butter still the people out here are hurting, struggling right now. >> you were hopeful that the president was going to take out his pen and make a difference, he is to an extent. >> to an extent. he don't want to force everybody to do it but he started the ball

rolling. i'm taking the first step, i don't want to force y'all to do it but hopeful other dpraitions can jump in and -- exrairgses ae corporations can step in. >> counties and cities already take the action. in his speech he cited an minneapolis pizza store owner. >> and they're trying to lift their wage for city workers to $15 an hour. >> by the president using the bully pulpit, laying it out, clearly he said to every mayor, governor, state legislature in the country, you don't have to wait for congress to act. americans will support you, give america a raise. this is him using the power of it to say step up. folks out there stop waiting on

us. that is a critical point because all too often americans keep looking to the president of the united states, looking to congress to do things when, in fact, you have state legislators, you have governors, you have county commissioners, you have mayors. >> isn't that fine for you mr. anderson to say look shouldn't the president be able to move this ball for everyone? >> yes, i.t. seem like he should. i don't know what's hold -- it seem like he should. hopefully by the end of the year, a lot of companies and a lot of cities and states will start to get the ball rolling and jump onto the bandwagon. >> don't it seem that some of the municipalities, from the ground up from the top down? >> first of all there's never been a movement in america that has been top-down. it has always been the bottom-up. if you look at the civil rights movement, if you look at the strikes that we had just that day off a few weeks ago, it is

going to cause the american people to take to the streets, to demand this kind of change. remember: elected officials respond to boots on the ground. so it can't simply be well i'll simply vote at the ballot box. there has to be that kind of ground swell. you see labor unions, you see civil rights organizations driving home that issue until the people are going to have to rise up. again by having the president making this pointing continuously, it causes the people to say you know what, we should examine this issue. most of the jobs we are talking about you can't send those overseas. >> right, they have to be service jobs. in a sense though mr. anderson have you seen people galvanized, people wanting to work now to actually see if they can make the difference on this? maybe it wouldn't have happened before the government shutdown. >> before the government

shutdown in the smithsonian, it took the government to see how serious this is, when you don't have a job and your next paycheck isn't guaranteed. now we have the majority and we are in negotiation with the union to actually bring the union in there to get a pay raise and more benefits. >> thank you gentlemen for being with us. roland martin and john anderson, we really appreciate your voice on this, too. ahead in our final thoughts this hour: the other america and the pursuit of the american dream. can i.t. still exist? -- and can it still exist? our "america tonight" series continues.

>> and timely from us this hour,

a thought about the people not focused on washington's grand visions, lofty rhetoric or its petty political battles but the people who truly are parked just on the edge of making it and sometimes slipping right over the brink. people that understand that sometimes a minimum wage is not enough to get by or the leap of faith trying to make it on your own and your own ll enterprise e enterprise is sometimes a dream left dump in the heap. the other america, we leave you tonight with someone who is living it. >> i was always you know interested in karate or those kind of martial arts. i liked it. so when i was kid, when i saw a movie, rocky first time, i was so inspired by that movie. i started boxing in high school. i joined the team.

my boxing life started. i got a scholarship from the university in japan. and i joined them, started focusing on going to olympic games. but i couldn't be a national champion in japan. i started thinking so now what am i going to do? inspire people like movie rocky did to me. i thought it's my turn to inspire others. i'm dreaming about you know come to united states to be an actor. and also, i thought you know, movies, hollywood, it's california, maybe i can start from there. i decided to come to los angeles. when i came here, i was 27. of course, you know, i was nobody.

and i needed to have another job. you know started looking for a japanese classified paper. and i found one company, one gentleman, he had his own hat company. before then, i didn't know anything about hats. but i learned. we adjusted height of the crown, lower, higher, and left of the brim. >> we were looking for some assistant for exporting company. i liked fashion so that's how i looked up with the hat business, the fashion. and two years later i opened up, you know, a business. my company started growing. and i started, you know, exhibiting at the big convention trade show. and then first customer i got was the big nationwide chain

store they really liked our hat. i see people on the street working and wearing our hats. and i feel like oh, that's great. just -- we made it. they started you know sending me orders and we started working closer. volume of order started getting bigger and bigger. i did like, yeah, over 1 million annual sales. and there were five employees. but you know, recession hit. everywhere. i was trying my best. i pushed myself to the edge. my buying prices getting hieferr but my selling prices getting lower. my margin shrinking.

shrinking. shrinking. we were forced to close the company. i had to file bankruptcy. ordinary people work 40 hours a week. me, now, you know i have two job, daytime at restaurant in the evening driving taxi. so like 85 to 90 hours a week. work at the japanese sushi restaurant. i feel like i'm just flip a new page of my life. this page is over now. but next page. i'm opening my next page of my life. >> sushi bar recommendations please. >> okay. >> working for restaurant, next big benefit is, we get free meal. free lunch.

so i can save, you know, lunch money. came back home around 4:00, take a short break, maybe you know, have a cup of tea or something. and go to next work. driving taxi. ftc so now wso now we are ready. go get some passengers. okay now we are on melrose avenue. i had a customer on this street selling products, showing samples. and urban outfitters. i sometimes, sales, it was fun talking to customers, and selling products. i don't want to see, like, my old customers, when i drive a

taxi. that's kind of like -- kind of weird. and of course, you know, they -- they going to -- ah, maybe not ask but they going osay, oh, why he's driving taxi? and this is where i was hanging out, on every weekend. my dinner, or i don't even remember now, when was the last time i went there? i walk by there, you know, like a lot. or, you know, driving by. but haven't been inside of the restaurant for a long time. i mean, i started tracing this financial difficulty, well, one day i'm going to be a customer again, i go back there. but not now. okay. i have to figure out this

paperwork. i almost feel like i was 24. i mean, at the restaurant, five days a week, and taxi every day! every night i drive taxi! monthly, usually i make from restaurant about $900, and from driving taxicab, $4367. but rent, 780. utility bills, $50. car loan, $250. medical insurance, $200. home phone and cell phone, internet, $220. my taxi lease is -- cost $2080 a month.

wire money to japan, supporting my parents. like $500 a month. after deduct all those expense, only $120 left. $120 divided four weeks, $30 a week. $30 a week divided by 7, $4.29 a day. for in the morning, and exhausted and ready to go to b bed. outs there there are so many people, they are facing financial difficulties. i can, you know, have compassion for them. and yes, makes me better person.

>> and that's in the other america. that's it for us here on "america tonight". please remember if you want to comment on any of the stories we have on, or just want to comment on anything, log on to aljazeera.com/americatonight. we'll have more tomorrow. >> welcome to al jazeera america, here are the top stories: the economy was the main focus of the president obama state of

union address. >> i'll act on my own, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as pg. >> the president urged congress to prove a number of infrastructure construction projects and raise the minimum wage. >> parts of the deep south are in a state of emergency, hundreds of vehicles were stranded on georgia highways, freezing rain and sleet has been reported as far south as new orleans. the carolinas could get 8-12 inches of snow. flights from delayed. >> the number of air service members indicated in a cheating scandal have dozen. approximately 30 are the focus of an investigation in the cheating on proficiency tests. no word of whether they are accused of cheating or being involved in some other way. [ ♪ music ] >> tributes go out to singer keith seeger.

he died on friday. his hits were "if i had a hammer", and "turn, turn, turn", "consider this" with antonio mora is coming up next. you can get the latest news online at aljazeera.com. >> president obama calls for a year of action and challenges congress in the state of union. and profootballer hall of famer on new technology to protect kids and pros. keith seeger mourned. hate the trailers at the movies? how that may change. i'm antonio mora. welcome to "consider this". here is more on what is