welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. lawmakers searching for answers regarding that chemical spill in west virginia. desal nation without having another source of supply, we would clearly have shortages of water. >> and california deals with one of the biggest shortages of water, a new plan to turn sea water into drinking water.

and a two plan to help people in afghanistan. for five days 300,000 people in west virginia went without water after that toxic chemical spill. congress now wants to find out just what happened. now the u.s. senate calling all parties involved to washington. robert ray is where it all started. what is the latest? >> dell, good morning, we're on the elk river where the chemical spill occurred. on capitol hill this morning, starting at 10:00 am, the senate committee on environment and public works has been holding a meeting to try to find out what occurred nearly a month ago. this morning the senator from west virginia came out and said that the regulation in west virginia is soft, and said he is angry upset and embarrassed as we spoke to the panel. some interesting notes as well,

the secretary of state of west virginia who just started speaking talked about public mistrust and the fact that the numbers have been changing and no one knows what is occurring. she said one day it is one chemical, the next day it is two chemicals. there's confusion. she went on to say she has gotten notes from residents saying that they are taking snow from outside and bringing the snow into their house so they can bathe in it and even drink the water. center from maryland said some interesting things from earlier. let's roll that. >> yes, the reckless conduct of a private company, freedom industries, was responsible for the spill, and the failure to report properly, but our system needs to be adequate to protect against all contingencies, and it was not in this instance, so

i think we need to look at how we can strengthen our laws to make sure the public indeed has safe drinking water. >> reporter: so senate bill 373, which was discussed last night in the house chambers of the state capitol here in charleston, about 50 members of activist groups and residents talked to delegates and the delegation was not all there, about half full which upset a lot of the residents wondering where they were? what this wasn't an important evening? but their concerns last night were if the regulation is passed, they want amendments to it here on the senate bill 373. they would like a long-term medical treatment to look at the

[ technical difficulties ] >> i have a hundred dollars antibiotic in my pocket to take care of that. my skin gets itchy and red. i can handle it, but there are a lot of folks who cannot handle it. >> reporter: so he says he is a big boy, and a lot of folks can handle it, but a lot of people here questioning lawmakers as to whether these regulations will actually have an effect. west virginia regulation is soft, doesn't have a great history here, del, a lot of people wondering whether they should stay in the state and how long they can go on like this, bathing in water that they think is not safe with miscommunications from different agencies, so still a lot of questions and answers needed here, and a lot of people hoping that much of that gets resolved on the hill or at least pushes

these solutions forward, del. >> robert thank you very much. in another hearing, target's chief financial officer appearing before the senate judiciary committee. he has been called to ask about the data breach last year. retailers are also going to be talking about creating a national notification system. >> for many years target has invested significant capital and resource in security processes and personnel. we had multiple layers of protection in. but the unfortunate reality is we suffered a breach. all businesses and their customers are facing increasingly sophisticated threats from cyber criminals. news reports have indicated that several other companies have

been subjected to similar attacks. >> today's hearing will also address a proposal for a federal law that would protect credit card transactions. there is a bill on the floor that would sentence hackers up to 25 years in prison. the dow right now in the positive territory, up 69 points. positive earnings news and a better than expected report on factory orders is putting investors in a rather good mood today. the tension between the united states and afghanistan appears to be getting worse. there is new report out that claims the afghan president has been in secret talks with the taliban trying to negotiate a peace deal leaving the u.s. out of the deal all together. jane ferguson has more from

kabul. >> reporter: the war in afghanistan increasingly feels like a battle between kabul and washington. relations between the two supposed allies are in crisis. the taliban is undefeated. and the u.s. military mandate runs out in 11 months. if a security pact isn't signed they will all leave. afghan president still refuses to sign an agreement. speaking last month he was defiant that the u.s. must bring peace first. >> translator: in return we want peace and security for the people of afghanistan. without that, it is better they leave and afghanistan determines its own future. >> with afghan forces now in the

lead for their own security, our troops have moved to a support role. together with our allies we will complete our mission by the end of this year. >> reporter: continued financial support is also at steak, afghanistan's 350,000 soldiers and police officers are largely paid by foreign donations, much of it american. and its economy is propped up by aid. the u.s. congress recently cut development aid in half, a move seen as further incentive to sign the security agreement. >> i don't believe in aide. i have never believed in in it. my colleagues know that. i have never asked any foreign country for assistance in my meetings. never. i don't think afghanistan will ever be made with foreign money. i think afghanistan can only be made with the hard work of its own people.

>> reporter: but it's those people who continue to suffer. taliban suicide becomes regularly rip through targets in the capitol. a bus full of afghan soldiers was attacked last week, killing several. the taliban will keep up its fight against both sides. jane ferguson, al jazeera, kabul, afghanistan. coming up later, we'll talk to a solder from iowa who is trying to get the people of afghanistan goats. military investigators are looking into allegations that hundreds of army recruiters took kickbacks. more than a thousand people are suspected of collecting payouts that total more than $29 million. john the senate now looking into this matter. >> they think it is very serious indeed, del.

it was called the recruiting assistance program of 2005, and basically 800 soldiers and 200 officers were accused of being paid illicit bonuses for trying to recruit their friends to the national guard. and we with told the amount of money that went out ran into hundreds of thousands of dollars. now claire mchas call from missouri is outraged by this, he has called together the oversight committee, and within the past few minutes she has said this scandal is discouraging and depressing. >> even one case of fraud would have been too many. instead we now know thousands of service members their families and friends may have participated in schemes to defraud the government they served and the taxpayers.

>> well, that scheme was canceled in 2012, so it no longer exists. >> are we talking about just the army in this case? >> well, it's very difficult to know. at the moment it centers around the army and national guard, but you have to believe if it has been going out in the army, they could have been going on in other branches as well. although recruiting at the times of the wars of afghanistan iraq, recruiting was very difficult. >> we have to have those incentives to bring young men and women into the military so we need to have those tools to be able to man the force. >> and del, the hearing here on capitol hill expected to last for a couple of more hours. >> john, thank you very much.

elsewhere on capitol hill the senate closer to passing that five-year farm bill. the house passing it last week. it calls for $8 billion worth of cuts to the food stamp program, it also would end the direct payment program that program seconds checks to farmers even if they don't grow crops. a will be used to expand a crap insurance program. there is an old warning finding new legs in california. the world is running out of fresh water. you have heard that before. in california a slow and steady drought is showing no signs of any relief, but one community is now working towards a solution. j jennifer london reports. >> del, by now you have probably heard the numbers, 2013 was the driest year on record since july there has been less than an inch

of rain that has fallen. we got a little rain over the weekend, but it doesn't enough to make a difference. yet california has the pacific soesh ocean on its doorstep. we live in a world of water. oceans control the weather, give us food, and a place to play. but the irony is the sea can't give us what we need most these days, fresh water. that's where the promise of desay leenation comes in. >> we have the world's largest reservoir at our doorstep. >> in carlsbad, california, hope lies in the construction of the largest plant in in the western hemisphere. when completed the plant will provide 300,000 san diego

residents with fresh drinking water. >> there's this disconnect between supply and demand, meanwhile, the technology has become very affordable. >> reporter: affordable at a cost of a billion dollars to build the plant and around an 8% rake hike. the san diego water authority which has agreed to buy the weather says it is worth it. >> without having another source of supply, we would clearly have shortages of water. >> reporter: large plants are already operating in the east, but the west has been slow to adopt the technology. the promise remains very much up to debate. on the surface it seems like a viable option, but delve a little deeper, and there are a number of unresolved issues that must be addressed before we can

say pass the salt. joe is with the surf rider foundation. >> marine life mortality, enormous energy demand, and it's so expensive it crowds out other alternatives, conservation, stormwater capture, recycling wastewater. >> we're looking at an investment in in insurance policy. it's worth a little bit more. >> reporter: as it remains a prickely issue, few would argue that california is running out of water and time. to the north a plant was built in the early 1990s when there was another

[ technical difficulties ] >> jennifer london, thank you very much. and they need the rain badly. last year it was texas, this year california. any relief in sight? >> there is a little change in the weather pattern. we have only gotten about .01 of an inch. this gets worse every week. the radar plus the clouds shows not much is happening. but look at this. this is the weather pattern changing. the storms have been going well north, but a slight change will show some hope. the weather pattern changing a little bit. we now see these storms approaching coming in from the

pacific getting. so that is a needed change. just need stronger storms and a lot more moisture between now and typically april 1st. but we certainly need more. del. google is being told to remove its barge that is docked in san francisco, the barge wasn't have the proper permits, they say. they say google can doe it and move it to a nearby area coming up on al jazeera america, we'll tell you about an iowa vet who wants to help people in afghanistan by doing it one goat at a time.

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story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. >> we pursue that story beyond the headline, pass the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capital. >> we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. >> and follow it no matter where it leads - all the way to you. al jazeera america, take a new look at news. this is the 900 page document we call obama care. and my staff has read the entire thing. can congress say the same? there's more to it. facebook turning ten today, the social media giant began as a way to connect students to each other. today it boasts more than a

billion users and quarterly revenue of $2.5 billion. president obama is headed to buck lodge middle school in maryland this morning, talking about bringing internet access to 99% of the nation's students. the middle school participated in a project where each student at the school is issued an ipad. ♪ wall street is bouncing back somewhat after yesterday's big se off. the dow is up 51 points right now. yesterday's selloff being prompted by weak manufacturing data. new orders fell 1.5% in december. that is the largest decline in some five months, but beat expectations and when you strip out the volatile transportation

sector orders rose. jcpenney reporting a 2% increase in sales. this is the first quarterly sales gain for that company since 2011. jcpenney's rival wal-mart is adding stores north of the border. it will build 35 [ technical difficulties ] >> reporter: from his dining table in elk horn, iowa, rick burns has been formulating a plan for helping the afghan people help themselves. >> these are not people that i was -- that i was just interacting with.

these are people that i consider to be friends. >> reporter: he spent nearly three decades in the army as a civil affairs officer. he said he has seen the problems of waste, fraud, and abuse firsthand. >> we have not gotten it right when it comes to the develop piece of this thing. we tend to think if we spend a enough money we'll fix the problem. >> reporter: as of september of last year, the u.s. has appropriated . . . what lieutenant colonel burns was looking for was a simple solution to a complex problem. he believes he may have found it in the form of, of all things, goats. the project aims to give two dairy goats each to 15 families.

>> it's at a village level. if you take an afghan family that has nothing, and give them two goats you have created a huge increase in nutritional value for that family and a revenue stream for that family. >> reporter: it will also set up facility for a milk processing area. >> instead of giving them things that they are just going to use up and then not have anything to live on, that's why it's sustaining. >> i knew they didn't have a lot of opportunity to enhance their way of living, so i thought the goat project would be good. >> reporter: 7,000 miles away is the city where burn's partners are preps for the goats. he understands it's just a drop in the bucket, but he says every

little bit helps. >> gandhi said whatever you do will never be enough, but it's enormously important that you do it. and these efforts are enormously important. up next on al jazeera america, archeologists make a discovery of biblical proportions.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters, these are your headlines at this hour. that west virginia chemical spill prompting hearings on capitol hill. a senate committee questioning state and local officials about the accident that left 300,000 people without drinking water. the senate now moving toward -- closer towards the passage of the farm bill.

the house approved the bill last yeek. the president says he will sign it into law. will is a new report out that claims the afghan president has been in secret talks with the taliban. the white house meanwhile is urging karzai to sign a peace agreement. and the bulls making a bit of a comeback on wall street today after yesterday's more than 300-point selloff, the dow is up now. ♪ i'm meteorologist dave warren. we have another storm developing. this really intensified over the past few years, you see the center of the storm over oklahoma. the problem is you are bringing warm air into some cold air.

now you have getting freezing rain and sleet. so ice will be a big problem with this storm. this is the close-up view, shows the very heavy snow. but arkansas is seeing a big area of freezing rain and sleet. that's where you get that rain falling and freezing on contact, could see coatings of ice quarter to a very inch in this area. below freezing, where you are getting that rain falling, sleet and freezing rain. there will be some snow, but the storm will be clearing out by about 7:00 tonight. it will continue to push east, fall right on top of the area that had that snow and rain here yesterday. here is the heavy snow that goes to this sleet in ann romney r

-- arkansas and rain to the south. now talking about the mid-atlantic and northeast by 2:00. seeing that sleet develop from washington, d.c. up through baltimore and philadelphia, but look at this snow line pushing well to the north. this is a large area of sleet and rain during the rush hour tomorrow morning. that snow continues across new england, and ending by rm tomorrow evening, so there will be throughout the day tomorrow. the rush hour will be key in that morning. here is this heavy snow developing late, and then tomorrow that snow is pushed to the north, but this area in the pink, that is a quarter to maybe half inch of ice potentially. del? >> dave warren thank you very much. british archeologists say they have discovered the 4,000 year old biblical home of abraham.

take a look. it is as big as a football field and now mostly undisturbed. thanks for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. "inside story" is next. supporters or opponents needed to end the argument. canada, u.s. and oil are the "inside story." >> hello, i'm ray suarez.