missing stradivarius worth millions of dollars. they found it inside a suitcase in an attic in milwaukee. three people are now in custody. those are the headlines. america tonight is yoie chen is up next. check out our win site al jazeera.com. >> on america tonight, the licorice smell in west virginia's drinking water is back. schools are closed. and patience is running low. also ahead, six more weeks of this? the bitter cold heavy snow and the powerless. is your community ready for what's next? >> i'm ready to pack up and move somewhere. but everybody is getting snow this year. so it is like even in warm states. >> and paying the price in paradise. our in depth look at crime and

punishment. a hawaiian innovation. stopping trouble in its tracks. >> we have research showing that people in hope are getting arrested for new crimes half as often than people on probation as usual. >> and good evening. thanks for joining us. i'm joie chen. we begin with a disturbing development in west virginia's drinking water crisis. it has been four weeks since a chemical spill tainted the water there more than 300,000 west virginiaans were affected. today we learned however that five schools had to abruptly close after complaints of foul licorice odor had returned to the drinking water. that is three weeks after state officials started to give the water the all clear. residents are assured that the

drinking water is safe. but the level of distrust is growing now. we are joined by ashton she joins us via kuip. tell us the latest incident started at the schools? >> they started flushing the schools themselves and then what we know is that a high school at an elementary school yesterday as they were flushing the systems again, the licorice smell started to resurface. we had a teacher at one of the schools faint and students complaining of eye and skin irritation. noses burning. and then again today we heard of three more elementary schools who were experiencing the same thing, the strong licorice smell. out of an abundance of caution the schools were told to close. >> i want to clarify. you are on skype, it is hard to keep whop you are saying.

you said a teacher fainted because of the odors? >> a teacher fainted at one of those schools that closed yesterday. and we also understand that a cook at one of the schools was transported to the hospital as well. >> is there any indication that anyone had to be hospitalized for any length of time as a result of this latest? >> there is not at this point. the cdc said yesterday during the press conference that these are really mild cases that they are seeing. they are not seeing anything severe or that needs to be treated long term with hospitalization. all right. speaking of the c dc and state health officials as well and the governor of west virginia, there seems to be mixed messaging coming through to the people of this community who probably are having trouble understanding whether the water is safe or not safe at this point? >> at this point been told all along that the water is safe. as you said at the top of the show, it was -- we have been given the all clear. people have flushed their homes and been told told that

it is okay to use the water. but then you see instances like this where schools are having issues with smells. people are becoming physically ill and there is kind of a distrust within the public because we are seeing both sides being told one thing and then another. the governor herself made something of an about-face as i understand it about what should be done with water testing at this point? >> he did. testing within homes. many people have been calling for testing within a sample of homes in the 9 county area, 300,000 residents were affected. they want a sample tested to make sure what we are getting is safe. the epa maintains if it is coming through the water distribution system as clean water, that is what you will get in your home. but the governor said yesterday that we will start considering testing a sample of homes and the process is seeing what that would take for the state to start doing

that type of test. >> i know that you are not only following the story, you are a residents of the community. you talk with a lot of people in the area. there must be tremendous frustration and must be hard to know what to do whether you can drink the water, whether you can use the water, whether you can bathe. what are people doing about all this? >> to tell you the truth we have been in this for a month now. i cannot tell you of a single person that i have interacted with either as a arer or in my daily life that they feel safe to drink it and are drinking it. plenty of people are using it to bathe, do dishes and laundry. i think that what we are seeing in the schools is a perfect example of what the community is feeling at this point. we are being told that it is safe. and then we are seeing people getting sick from exposure. there is no trust right now in the water. >> i can certainly understand. i have always heard reports that there are people who are

driving miles away just to take a shower to feel comfortable with that. >> initially i think in the beginning when the do not use advisory was in place for the first few days we had a lot more people doing that. but i heard stories that the house of delegates had a public hearing the other night and had women say i'm pregnant or i have young children, i'm not going to use this water. even to wash their clothes and to put them in that kind of risk. there are plenty of people who are still driving 20, 30 miles to find an alternative water source because they don't feel comfortable using it. >> ashton with us via skype we know there are delays in the delivery but hope you got the message. bringing us the latest details out of the charles top, west virginia area. another crisis of nature, environment and another dangerous winter storm. the second in a week has left

hundreds of thousands of people without power. the latest ravaged several states dumping snow, on the roads. pennsylvania took the brunt of it this time causing the governor to declare a state of emergency. the national guard has been called in and with yet another storm in the forecast the northeast is bracing for the worst. hoping for the best. so, just how ready is your state for all this? here is america tonight correspondent. >> i'm ready like to pack up and move somewhere. but everybody is getting snow this year. so it is like even in warm states. >> across the country it is hard to get a break from the bad weather. in pennsylvania, preparedness for another winter wallop. means shelters are stocked up with supplies. >> ahead of the icy storm. volunteers in southeast pennsylvania cleaned cots and positioned them at shelters that might need them the most. with the power company reporting more than 600,000

people without power at up with time, the facilities were ready for an influx of families looking for a warm place to sleep. too cold temperatures forced 200 people to spend the night with the red cross in southeastern pennsylvania. philadelphia mayor told america tonight practice with devastating storm unfortunately is part of the preparation. u . >> we are on constant ready alert because we get snow december through about march. >> still, snarled traffic and closed roads are always a challenge no matter how ready anyone may be. >> in maryland having enough salt for any storm is a big part of being prepared. this is a sand salt combination. >> there are 95 salt barns like this one throughout the state with a combined capacity of 360,000 tons of salt. that is 120,000 more tons than 10 years ago. >> after each storm, the salt here is replenished but not

usually to full capacity. officials want enough to handle future storms without too much leftover at the end of the season. right now the statewide supply is at about 75 to 80% of full capacity. officials insist it is plenty to handle the next big vent. maryland is in fairly good shape. but some states further north are experiencing salt shortages. other states have learned how to prepare roads the hard way. atlanta's recent snowstorm traffic nightmare left thousands of people stuck in highway gridlock for hours. but the georgia governor would improve hits states preparedness. no i think what we are looking here at is not looking backward. we are looking forward. what cap we do in the future to avoid situation occurred this past week. he has plans to implement new warning systems and the state needs to fix how it readies itself for impending winter weather. that includes increasing

communication local meteorologists and with georgia residents making sure think get important details like alternative transportation routes. a new preparedness task force he says will convene as soon as possible. for al jazeera silver spring, maryland. >> believe it or not the weather departments are telling us there is more snow on the way. meteorologist kevin corvo this is like a prize fighter fightera ring getting it over and over again. how could it be? >> well, we could be seeing yes, actually three storms this week. i'm going to talk about the third one in a moment. but first let's go over to pennsylvania. the good news is there is no snow in the forecast. so the crews can get out there and fix the power lines. the bad news is we are talking about temperatures that are still quite cool. philadelphia at 30. interior parts of pennsylvania are talking about 25-degrees. overnight the temperatures are going down into the teens. so a lot of people are going

to be feeling those chills because there is no power in the area. we expect this situation is going to last at least for the next couple of days before the temperatures slowly start to come back up. new york tomorrow morning is going to about 17-degrees. talking about the third storm coming in to play. there has been a lot of controversy about how strong and where it is going to go. let's start the clock friday at 5:00 p.m. coming into the situation. on saturday morning by saturday afternoon seeing showers in north carolina. see something snow here ray cross parts of the peninsula. we could see 1-2-inches of snow in the areas of virginia. now more into the future. then we will be seeing here on sunday afternoon, sunday morning, sunday afternoon some snow showers coming across parts of new jersey as well as new york. upstate new york. but this, we don't think will be too bad in terms of accumulation. maybe 1-2-inches. it is definitely not going to be what we saw earlier on this

past week. we saw ten inches in new york. and another four inches just the other day. also, snow out here towards the northwest. that is great for california. into the cascades and oregon. by the next three days, some of those locations we could be seeing levels about two to four -- two to three feet of snow in these higher elevations. and here on the coast, we are looking at much needed rain for california as well as oregon because of that exceptional drought situation we are looking at. joie, back to you. we willig nor the groundhog and point out there are just 40 days left to spring. thank you. >> security concerns on the eve of the sochi winter olympics. but what's really behind it in sochi?

>> team usa will be the largest delegation at the sochi games and in winter olympics history. 230 members have already arrived in russia at the black sea resort community. while athletes are aiming for gold, the kremlin is aiming to keep them from becoming targets. russian president put sinn confident in the ring of steel. he has put 30,000 forces inside the city, thousands more military units to guard surrounding mountain areas. but even russians are not convinced that is enough. 63% of russians said they did not believe the government can protect them. against a potential terrorist attack. the state department in the united states has said that americans aren't being specifically targeted but they could become victims of inchris -- indiscriminate terrorist attacks. they are tracking a number of specific threats several rebel

groups are active in this area. decades of war between the kremlin and rebel factions have made sochi a hotbed for tensions that could bubble over into the olympics village. join augusting us the director of the center for policy research at the university of albany. joins us from philadelphia tonight. want to talk to you a little bit about this. help us understand what part of russia we are talking about and why this is a potential for crisis. >> so, we are talking about the caucuses. and the caucuses in southern russia is an area where a large part of the population for hundreds of years have been resisting russian control. so going back 150 years you have relutions against russia. expulsions of entire populations by the government. first the russian empire then the soviet union then russia today after the cold war. again and again, atrocities

and violence and opresentations. we have a long history of vial frenches the state and resistance against the state in this area. not just in chechnya which a lot of people have heard about. and a lot of anger against russia. for some very good reasons. are these ethnic hatreds. different communities? >> so a lot of the news articles you are seeing about this focus on jihaddism and that jihaddism is a terrorist threat. but there is a deeper source of the anger. jihaddism came in after the first and second chechen war as a fuel to the fire. but the fire was there beforehand. chechnya tried to become independent. the russians destroyed grozny and killed an enormous at of chechens during the fight and this radicalized people and led them to jihaddism.

but there is a huge ethnic and nationalist component here which is the seed bed for this anger. and if you look at where terrorism has been happening in russia, the star area for terrorism is really the caucuses. i have to ask because the u.s. state department did make this comment about americans not being specifically targeted but do you think that is a risk? are americans in some way vulnerable in a way other tourists or international visitors might not be? >> i think americans are more vulnerable anywhere they go. if you kill a nepal ease in nepal they will hear about it. maybe a short comment someplace else. if you kill an american in nepal everybody will hear about it. if you kill americans at sochi that is a phenomenal media source. a lot of terrorism is about getting attention. the right way to get attention is to kill americans. after the boston marathon bombing the two individuals

linked to that had some flunks this region. and there are people who suggested that now with the u.s. government pursuing the federal death penalty against survivor this might inflame other anxieties, other tensions there. is that possible. >> possibly. but i don't think that is the major issue. the major issue is russian opression in this area for a very long time and the anger that this has created. the strong men that russia has imposed upon this area in various regions. and the continuing opression of the various ethnic groups in the area. that is the major risk here. and combining that with the jihadi idealism makes it worse. thank you so much. university of albany professional. appreciate you being here. >> my pleasure. later on the program, russia's anti-gay laws, take a

look at the situation through the eyes of two russian skating champions. >> 2010, when they won gold medal i became a gay activist. what i know now is that 87% of russian population is not happy about gay people. the government has the negative attitudes. and the policy will continue the level of homophobia in russia. >> when we return, palm trees, pineapples and probation. a hawaiian judges approach for keeping hope alive. >> at sentencing i can send them to prison or the beach. ha is not a knock on probation officers, it is just a reflection that probation is usual just doesn't work very

well. our in depth look at crime and punishment in paradise next. >> like? i don't know. i don't understand.

>> it was the ukraine born soviet president kruscef who gifted it. now they push for equal rights with the ethnic majority here. the leaders feel only europe can really end the discrimination. >> we need not just closer ties, but membership of the units because of their standards in protecting minty groups. >> the parliament fears what they call fascists in kiev are attempting to grab power and send ago plea to moscow for help. they say russian by ethnicity, culture and language, and only

>> now a snapshot of stories making headlines on america tonight. faa is inspecting hundreds of control towers nationwide following a lightning strike at baltimore's main airport which injured an air traffic controller. this incident happened back in september. if faa is looking for problems with the lightning protection system at airport towers. tennessee couple has been charged with murder in the death of the man's 5-year-old daughter. district attorney says the girl died from being forced to drink more than two liters of soda and water according to the autopsy, the girl died from acute water intoxication. subway is removing a chemical from its bread that is used to make yoga mats and shoe rubber. the announcement comes after a blogger launched a petition asking the restaurant chain to stop using the ingredient. this ingredient was used in

the bread as a bleaching agent. now for the final installment in our series crime and punishment. we take you of all places to the islands of hawaii. the picture postcards of palm trees and sandy beaches don't tell the whole story it turns out. even paradise has its pro problems. methamphetamine and property crime hit hawaii tickerly hard and landed thousands of hawaiians in prison. one judge think there is is a better way. adam may introduces to that judge. his zero tolerance for bad behavior has brought hawaii hope in the form of probation. >> growing up in hawaii steven alm earned the badge of tough guy the hard way. >> boxed in a local jim. i was one of two white guys in the jim gym. at first there was not a lot of seriousness given to it. but after my first fight, that is when one of the long time

trainers said you have shown you have heart and everybody accepted me. ♪ years of boxing scored him a walk on roll role in the original hawaii five-0. and has a reputation as a judge. >> i have the respect of the law enforcement community. i was the tough et sentencer. >> he served as deputy prosecute attorney for honolulu. he knew hawaii and the justice system also knew it needed a change. particularly probation. >> at sentencing i can send them to prison or send them to the beach. that is not a knock on probation officers it is just a reflection that probation is usual, just doesn't work very well. hawaii may seem like paradise the way the tranquil beaches and glimmering resorts, an evil tide has swept across the

island, methamphetamine. drug abusers repeatedly arrested for clogging the criminal system. so judge created hope. hawaii's opportunity probation with enforcement. hope is a new way to do probation. it is a more effective way. >> traditional probation is offered as an alternative to hard time for a misdemeanor or felony. the guilty party is assigned a probation officer. he calls it probation on steroids. >> they are given a number of conditions to follow. see your p.o., get drug tested go to treatment if needed, pay restitution. the difference is they would not do knows things on probation as usual and often for a year or more no consequence. the usual consequence for testing positive is nothing. >> and very often after the second, third and fourth violations, still nothing. the difference in hope is there any violation of provide base, they will go to jail.

depending on how you handle it in the face of violation it could be short time or long time this is parenting 101. your parents give you consequence immediately. that is what we are doing. into if you keep violating you are sentenced to more time america tonight sat in court to watch hope in action. >> today will be your first day in the program. the ideal thing is you start following all the rules of probation and i won't see you again. i recognize we are all human beings and can make bad choices, bad mistakes, we can run into our friends who say let's get high. right? if that ever happens. come in and admit to it your p.o. right away. if that happens you get a few days in jail. if you ever test positive and deny it and the lab confirms it you will get 15. >> don't show up at all, that is 30 days behind bars. and not some time in the future but right away. >> if that happens repeatedly

it is the open term. some people don't violate at all. a smaller group violate once. smaller group violate twice. smaller group violate three times. it is like a small tail that is violating the most. that is who we should spend our resources. >> you will all be on a drug test hot line. your p.o. will give you a color for privacy purposes. if your color is called, your drug test is that day. there are meetings with a probation officer, restitution and sometimes rehab. success means freedom. >> i haven't seen you since july. >> but he went up in front of the judge again. into if you don't show up for a drug test or probation appointment, what are we going to be assuming? >> dirty right. >> you are going into custody right now. i'm going to give you five weekends. >> starting immediately. >> on regular probation you can fool the system. you can fake it do whatever

you need to do and get by and then get early release because they never detected anything. michele fernandez has seven felony convictions. hope accepts every case they are given and a quarter of the state's felony cases. i was known as the biggest dope dealer in this building. i robbed everybody in this building. if they owed me money i would tax them. i had guys from prison that were my right hand men. they would break down the door and take what they had. she served one year for distribution and then burglary got her another year. >> i did my year and they came to see me over at the federal prison an said we will put you on hope. she had her p.o., regular drug tests and for a while her freedom. but she messed up. >> i ended up back in for 15 days which was five weekends for taking a pill. >> but there was another dirty test.

this time cocaine. another five weekends in jail. so then i said i'm done. i'm almost 50 years old. i can't do this anymore. so that is where i'm at now. i just had enough. >> now michele fernandez is back where she was in the very same apartment building. but she has a new lease on life. she started to go to church and now she manages the building. you might say she is resurrecting a community that like her life was almost lost. >> i wiped out the trees that made it dark. i have brand new renovated rooms versus the old beat up ugly rooms that were just trashed. people used to hide in the dark in here. >> fernandez is still in project hope. she still gets called in for urine analysis and is still just one dirty test away from a week end in jail. but she also has a reason to stay out. i have a life. i have a home.

i have a beautiful home. i would rather be in my ac with my remote control rather than sitting in a cell with another girl and crazy out of control. >> and there is this remindedder, keeping her on track. the success of judge and hope is not just anecdotal. they are 55% less likely to be arrested for a new crime. 72% lease lickly to use drugs. 601% less likely to skip appointments with their supervisory officer. >> the hope program has been so successful here in hawaii, 17 other states have implemented versions of it. states like washington, texas and massachusetts. and representatives from foreign governments are interested from places as far away as japan and sweden. >> credit for time served. so see your p.o. he admits it takes more work for everyone. but the short answer is this is what we get paid to do.

these are our jobs. i have more hearings i'm busier. proves prosecutors, public defenders have more to cover. police, sheriffs marshal, they are busy serving the warrants. but this is what we get paid to do. we have research showing that people in hope are getting arrested for new crimes half as often as the people on probation as usual. >> in january, the judge received this letter from the white house office of drug control announcing $4 million in federal funds. it will be spent to support the expansion of hope because of its success. it is exactly the news the judge was hoping for. >> it is going to reduce the size of our prison sits tem. right now a lot of probationers are failing. many people fail at probation and end up in prison. many people do a prison sentence, get out on parole, fail at parole and go back into prison. >> you have been doing really well. >> and tough guys like this judge say some of them deserve the chance. >> since you have been doing

so well, as of today, i'm going to grant the motion so your court supervision is over. best of luck. >> a chance to prove they can be free. adam may, al jazeera, hawaii. >> a lot of folks the hope program sounds too good to be true. one might be angela hawken. when you started looking at this professor, you too were pretty skip tickal. why? >> well for those of us who have been researchers fordecades and more we have heard of programs that are likely to succeed and once you dig more deeply. i had been involved with many other criminal justice programs and was really disappointed what return to prison. and you went out and saw this one and saw that it is making a difference. there are some pretty good

statistics. it is making a difference? >> well the data is hard to refute. that is why i think many of us who were suspicious on the front end, the numbers were almost too good to be true. when you see numbers that are too good to be true there is something afoul. those of us who flew to hawaii and landed it was clear that it was something different. especially after we started to interview inmates. we started to hear language used by inmates that we didn't hear with other sorts of programs. for example language of personal responsibility. usually we hear i'm doing time because the judge doesn't like me or my p.o. is mean. we started to see what the program was doing was teaching personal responsibility. this was the first time i experienced a program that had that type of component. >> what makes a difference here? >> many things. i think we have learned learnedm hope firstly that the sanction doesn't matter.

particularly we have a long list of conditions that people have to comply with. what is so wonderful about hope is that the rules are deliciously simple. it is very difficult to comply about the rules of a program if you don't know what the rules are. they are reduced the length of rules, they articulated them clearly. you don't need a law degree to understand them. typically you need a law degree. >> and the immediacy. is relevant. we heard the judge telling the guy look, you knew what was going to happen. you brought your car. let someone else take it home. you are going to jail. >> exactly. what hope did is it substituted length of stay. other jurisdictions will see a six week sanction or six month sanction. it is length for speed. turns out humans are more responsive to speed than to the dose. and i think that is an important finding across the country. we can get people to comply

with the terms of probation as long as we can reconfigure the system to deliver a small dose of sanction immediately. that's the challenge. >> in 17 states that are trying this, is it clear they are seeing the same sort of results or just something that is particular to hawaii for whatever the difference is in their population? >> turns out hoe responds to basic human instincts that aren't a hawaii island phenomenon. human instincts is we want unpleasantness to stop. punishment is unpleasant if delivered immediately. in texas if you have been souichiro viced under the set of rules where the punishment is imposed, people tend to respond in similar ways. the challenge isn't so much whether people in texas, massachusetts or arkansas respond delivery, the challenge is can those other jurisdictions reconfigure the systems to reliably and credibly follow through on this threat. hope is really a system of

credible threats. if you aren't able to deliver that small dose of punishments, the credibility is lost. got that. pepperdine university professor angela hawken would probably work well as a parent too to deliver that sort of justice. thank you. >> absolutely. >> you may remember a case of aflew endsa. tonight we find there is more to it. the young man who is behind the wheel during a drunk driving accident left four people dead. two others quite seriously wounded. his defense was that he suffered from affluenza. a condition that affects wealthy young people. the symptoms include lack of motivation, not knowing the difference between right and wrong. an expert psychologist said he could be cured of the disease. he had treatment. on wednesday a judge warded -- ordered he be sentenced to a lockdown treatment facility at his parents expense. he will not serve any time in

prison. he will do 10 years of probation. prosecutors wanted him jailed for 20 years. up next, a tail of two colombias, one that is working towards a peaceful future. another that can escape its violent past. >> fault lines hard hitting... ground breaking... truth seeking... al jazeera america's breakthrough investigative documentary series. >> this is where colombia's war continues... >> decades of violence... familes driven from their land... >> we have to get out of here... >> now the people are fighting back. >> they don't wanna show what's really going on >> fault lines columbia: the fight for land only on al jazeera america

>> start with one issue education... gun control... the gap between rich and poor... job creation...

climate change... tax policy... the economy... iran... healthcare... ad guests on all sides of the debate. >> this is a right we should all have... >> it's just the way it is... >> 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 >> the stakes have never been higher in colombia. as peace talks continue the government is trying to return land to the millions of people displaced by the conflict. but despite attempts at land reform, people are being driven off their land by right wing para military groups. trekking through the jungles with farmers determined to remain on their land.

>> des this part of colombia is isolated. it is here that the country's 50 year war is playing out. >> the government is trying to bring an end to the fighting by negotiating with a rebel farc group. but the community told us that officials were ignoring the real threat. >> [ speaking spanish ] >> officially, the colombian government mobilized par a military groups. but the community told us they are still operating.

>> as you can see it is completely empty. nobody is living here. the people that are with us are telling us that the family that was here left because of the threat by the military groups. and apparently a base that they used to use is not far away from here. >> they left their harang behind. >> he wanted to show us the area where the par military groups operate. the camp is supposed to located high up in the mountains where they can move

quickly and when they won't be seen. he believes there is a reason they are able to move easily around here. >> the land in this part of the country is valuable. and not just for the crops and timber here. coal has recently been discovered in the region and the government and private companies are expected to begin extracting it soon.

>> >> an hour later we arrived. it is almost a ghost town. >> a few weeks ago para militaries came here. reminding many of what they have done before.

>> killings here have left people tram sized. emilio is reluctant talk about what has been going on here. he told us that groups of 200 men come into the village wearing uniforms and carrying machine guns. >> when the para militaries came back a few weeks ago, they told him they would chop him into pieces.

so he left with his family. he returns during the week to work the land. he said he has no other choice if he wants wants to feed his wife and children. >> >> teresa joins us to follow-up on her story. we watch this. this is not just a journey for the country. its was a journey for you to understand what was happening deep in the judgele in the countryside. >> this was an interesting experience. it was a difficult trip. i mean, we went -- we have to get on a horse, on a mule, go up in the mountains. there were thunderstorms, there was you know at some

point we thought we were not going to able to make the whole trip because it was very difficult. people there move easily. they don't have a problem. but by did. it was a very challenging trip. gear wise everything was getting wet. filming in some parts -- >> were they threatening to you? were people uncomfortable with the idea of bringing cameras in? >> yeah, definitely and people were afraid. they were very much aware of everything they were telling us. it was difficult to convince them to talk us to. we made it for example, to this small village in the middle of the mountains. people saw the cameras and thought what are they doing here. they explained that group of men, armed men that are wearing uniforms, they are para military groups go down into the village and threaten them and the people many of them are trying to go back to their land. the government is implementing key land reform. they are trying to bring back to the people that were displaced by the colombian

conflict but those who try to go back are threatened by the group. so, we went to this villages and people were telling us were afraid to talk because once you leave the groups are going to come back and threaten us and kill us. in fact, they are being killed. lots of people continue to be disappeared, continue to be killed in the areas and the government until now has not been able to stop it. >> you know the presentation of the colombian government though telling the world look we are engaged in a peace process, having elections, attempting reform, reconciliation. the picture to the world is that colombia is a place that international visitors would like to come to. >> there has been huge security improvements in the last years. the government has launched during former president launched a full scale war. so they pushed them out of the main cities. up into the mountains to more rural areas. so if you go to colombia or bogota you will find beautiful

places and you will find restaurants and a night life. things that people did not see before. but what is happening is that in rural areas where you know there is not this you know investment in many ways where people continue to suffer where people continue to be hungry. where people continue to try to make a living out of something security continues to be a very big issue. and not only by if farc. but by all the new groups. >> appreciate your coming in. following up on your story teresa bo from fault lines. , into thank you very much. >> you can see all of teresa's report on fault lines colombia the fight for land friday night at 9:30. still to come on america tonight, russia's anti-gay laws. we will introduce you to a pair of champion skaters who are challenging status quo. >>

>> finally from us tonight. security is not the only hot topic of the winter games in sochi. the issue of gay rights in russia is also in the spotlight. as the law reads there, anyone who promotes nontraditional sexual relations in the presence of minors could be prosecuted. activists say that law criminalizes free speech. gay rights now through the eyes of two skating champions in moscow. >> my name -- i'm 30 years old. i lived in moscow for 13 years. now i'm the president of the lgbt russian sports federation which takes care of team support. >> he is a figure skater who is openly gay. >> in 2010, when i won gold medal in gay games, i became a

gay activist. 87% of are you man -- russian population is not happy about gay people. but it is not their fault. the government formed these negative attitudes. and if this policy will continue, the level of homophobia in russia will rise. >> i'm olympic champion. in speed skating, 2006. >> she worries that activists like this one are rushing things. other societies went through the same stages. they didn't achieve this tolerance towards african american people and sperm people in one day. it took some time as well. russia is more clumsy. it has always been a bit like a bear. >> i teach chemistry for disabled children. after my coming out

administration of school didn't fire me. because to fire a teacher it is very difficult. they need to break lots of rules in order to be fired. but of course i feel that they are not happy i'm gay activist. and if i leave the job i have a feeling that i will never find another one another another school. because no one wants to have a teacher who is gay activist. they have three tvers in russia who are already fired due to their sexual orientation. >> it takes time for people to get used to this because there were no homosexuals in the soviet union. our days a person with autism orser balance palsy can come out in the street and no one will stare at them anymore. people get used to the fact that yes, they are near us, they are smart, they start going to the same schools. but this has to be done slowly. >> when i was a school boy, i

was terrified by the -- and bullied by my schoolmates because they have a feeling i'm gay. and it was very hard. >> we have to be more careful about this topic and not impose it on the entire society. especially if the society is not ready. we have to prepare the society for sufficient things. a child needs to decide for himself. given time maybe parents can correct him and bring him up in such a way. maybe the child will be grateful to them later. >> not too long ago we also had a negative case. and we had -- called us and told us we cannot give you anymore sports even sue because you are gay community. because they had a call from their government from the moscow sport branch who

ordered them that we never give them this venue. >> we all need to calm down, take the issue of homosexuality calmly, slowly, step by step, making little steps towards moving towards people becoming more tolerant. >> to be gay is safe when you not out. but if you are out, problems can begin. >> this is the first requirement we have to provide to our participants otherwise no one here comes to lgbt sports competition. >> and you know, they can be quite aggressive. every day i get letters from people wishing that i have gay children because they write me the letters. how do you think a person is supposed to feel about this community. >> now, is a moment when you

we have the olympics. when all international communities watching us. and we have to remember the experience of china olympics when all human right defenders were jailed after the olympics ended. >> to speak now front of the world mass media and tell them the good stories. that i'm gay and i'm healthy. i'm successful. i have a job. i have profession. i have man or woman who love me and i love. i'm absolutely the same as you are. >> the word from moscow. that's it for us here on america tonight. please remember if you would like to comment on any of the tories you have seen. log on to our web site al jazeera.com/america tonight. get sneak previews and tell us what you would like to see in our nightly current affairs

program. join the conversation on twitter or on our face book page. good night. more of america tonight tomorrow. >> >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm in new york here are the top stories. atop u.s. diplomat in ukraine trying to defuse if political crisis there. but she is under a cloud controversy. a recording leaked online the

assistant secretary of state for europe victoria nuland is heard using profanity to criticize the european union's efforts on ukraine's unrest. she has since apologized. restoring long term unemployment benefits for 1.7 million americans stalled. the senate as unable to find enough votes to move forward with a bill that would extend long term benefits for three months. the white house called today's vote disappointing. the top-ranking republican in the house is warning america not to expect much progress on immigration reform. house speaker john boehner says republicans have little reason to trust president obama because how the white house handled issues like the healthcare law. nearly 400,000 residents without power in the philadelphia area. the outages occurred wednesday during a powerful winter storm. they could last for days. and a mystery buyer paid a high price for pope francis's harley davidson today. the motorcycle went for 327,000 at a paris auction house. proceeds go to the roman

catholic hostel and soup kitchen. those are the headlines. see you back here at 11 eastern 8 pacific. consider this is up next. sey back here at 11. l it's is our face's power grid vulnerable to terrorists? a stunning attack is raise be concerns, inside of minds of a child with autism. what's it's like to have the disorder? plus facing an armed militia with nothing but courage and, surviving a real-life house of horrors. hello, i am antonio mora, welcome to "consider this." here is more on what's ahead. ♪ ♪ >> scare a salt on the power grid in california. >> whoever did this