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? real perspective, consider this on al jazeera america >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm tony harris. snow is in charlotte and raleigh, north carolina, and the storm is far from over. the senate passes a bill raising the debt limit, ho plus, a new study raises questions about the effectiveness of mammograms.

>> millions of people along the east coast are bracing for a huge mess. there is gridlock in charlotte, north carolina, while roads are virtually empty. thousands of flights and trains have been canceled. crews are working to restore power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the region. only a few people ventured out despite city and emergency officials, and for good reason as for some places from washington, d.c. to new england will see several inches of snow even a foot, and we start in north carolina. take a look at these pictures here. it is looking just like what we saw in atlanta just a few weeks ago. drivers barely moving along the snow-covered and in some places icy roads.

let's go to mike, director of emergency management in north carolina, and he joins us from raleigh, mike, good to talk to you. thanks for the time. you have been in consultations with your governor updating him on how things are going, so give us a bit of that update if you wouldn't mind. >> basically it's not been a long-distance consultation. he has been here at state operations. >> wow. >> the governor got front and center and said don't drive unless it was absolutely necessary. i'll tell you that throughout the state all of our major school systems were closed for the day. and so that really worked out well for us so we didn't have issues of school buses and children on the road as we

experienced this winter weather. now we will tell you that initially when the storm hit, and some of our larger cities we did experience gridlock. that's beginning to thin out now. it was not all over our cities, but they were in points like at major highways and a couple of roads. we still have some of it, but as we begin to work through folks on the roads. >> perhaps you're a little frustrated. let's go back to the pictures in just a moment here. we will look at the cameras of a pretty extensive back up, i don't know if it's 85, you've experienced, what i'm getting at here is how do you explains given the warnings from the

governor, from your office, that there is still so many people out on the roads clearly everyone had to be watching what was going on in atlanta a couple of weeks ago. >> sure, i-85, our interstate highway, and i-540, you know, i'll tell you when the snow hit, it stopped quick. in charlotte, it was two inches an hour. i think in raleigh it was an inch an hour. so there are a lot of people who travel interstate highways at any given time. just doing their normal business like truckers. and so you know there is still going to be traffic on the road. all things considered we're looking at a lot of people did stay out of work because they

had to look out for their children who were out of school. that's a significant amount of people. so obviously you've seen it. you're looking at the dot cameras. as i mentioned that's starting to calm down now. so we're pleased with that. we've got national guard activated. the emts, highway patrol, all of our emergency response team partners are out on the road and decisively engaged. we're starting to segue snow into freezing rain, so that's an issue for power outages. we're on schedule for more snow tomorrow. >> how long are you going to be in the midst of this weather event? >> i think we come out of the winter warning at 6:00 a.m. >> we're about to engage in social media in just a second, and we're getting a lot of tweets from folks who are were

saying, i was warned, and the governor and your office did a good job warning me that this was going to be bad, but i decided to go out any way. to your credit you did what was a responsible thing which was to get word to your people. mike, i appreciate it. thanks for your time. >> thank you, sir, have a great evening. >> yeah, yeah, you, too. you, too. we have amazing picture coming out of north carolina. >> reporter: these kids are trying to help the truck along. all this traffic that you see here, everything just covered in snow, and people just having a hard time in this traffic. margaret mary said on may wa myy home. didn't we learn from atlanta? and another wrote, it took three hours to get home. and also you've got annie here

who writes, on the bridge by the rock quarry is impassable. cars are just parked on the road. over here you have vive who said it took three hours to drive 22 miles, and snow keeps falling, and you see her windshield wipers there. >> do we still have the pictures of the charlotte area? because maria, there we go. that's probably--yeah, and that's what we've been following here for the last hour or so. pretty closely. it's been going on all day. we're talking about accidents, the number of accident it's, i-70, it was a pretty bad accident there. state route 73, but it is that area, raleigh, durham, and chapel hill. you got to get through this russia hour, and maybe folks will stay off the roads completely tomorrow until the system moves out of the way. thank you. >> now to georgia where they seem to have learned their

lesson. people stayed home and the roads virtually empty. robert ray, good to see you. it looks like there is virtually no one on the roads there behind you. >> yeah, exactly. a couple of cars every once in a while. a snowplow or two. looks like definitely people learned their lesson from two weeks ago here in lappet. it appears perhaps people in the carolinas should have watched that a little closer, tony. here's the deal right now. the temperatures are like swinging up and down in the past hour. it's strange. we'll go two degrees down, two degrees up. it goes from rain to snow though sleettosleet, it's been a winter sandwich all day long. just as th they spoke about in a

press conference about an hour ago, we're not out of the clear here. the pine trees keep coming down because of the weight under the power lines. this is interstate 75. this is where the gridlock was a couple of weeks ago. you can see the ice forming, and you can see the lights on the cameras. the sheets of ice on the fence here. the trucker giving us a little honk. mostly truckers on the road today. they feel like they can make it through, but let's see what happens overnight. >> terrific, robert ray for us in marietta, georgia. the storm is really taking aim now at the east coast. we'll take a look at the storm path and what the northeast can expect. >> meteorologist: i want to take to you raleigh and durham, what is happening now the freezing rain is just about ready to begin. you have all these cars on the road, and the freezing rain is now coming into play. the cars are on their way home. this could be a major problem

for them over the next couple of hours. they may not get home as soon as they think, and it will last the next eight hours across that area. let's take a look at what is happening with mike viqueira. let's get back to our weather maps, should we do that? i guess we can. i'll tell what you is going to happen. atlanta will be cleared out followed by this evening, and we're going to be seeing better conditions for them. we'll bring you those, we'll have a little bit more time. >> kevin, appreciate it. thank you. now let's go to washington. a crisis was averted, the senate joined the house in approving a bill extending the government's borrowing authority. now it heads to president obama's desk. al jazeera's mike viqueira at the white house, and he'll do traffic and weather for us--no, he's not. what happened in the senate today, sir?

>> reporter: it was reminiscent of 2008. do you remember that bill that went down in the house of representatives, the stock market plunged 700 points in an hour. it was a nail biter and everybody took it for granted. everyone thought the senate would follow suit with the house. after all if the house can raise the debt ceiling, which had been bumped up a bit, and treasury started moving things around, so time was of the essence. so if the house would do it, surely the senate would do it. not so fast. it was a 15 minute vote that was scheduled, it stretched well beyond that, and they were short 60 votes they needed to move on and move this legislation ultimately to the president's desk. there was high drama. republicans were huddled in the chamber back in the cloak room, and then finally after about 45 minutes' time did some of the g.o.p. leaders emerge from the cloak room and virtually jumped hand in hand in a political

abyss, switched their votes from no to yes, passing the debt ceiling hike. we won't have to talk about this, tony, for another year until mid match of next year. the thinking was as many republicans decided they didn't want to take the blame for a new financial crisis no matter how short lived over the next several days while all this got ironed out. they want to get back to their bread and butter. that's attacking the president's affordable care act. the debt ceiling has now been lifted for another year. >> it is an election year, and there may be an opportunity to get some things done. small things but get some things done. mike viqueira at the white house. it could be the beginning of a major shift for the auto industry in the south. workers of a tennessee volkswagen plant are voting on whether to join an union. the uaw hope to unionize

employees. right now none of the plants owned by foreign automakers have unions. jonathan, a lot of people are watching this vote. >> reporter: yes, certainly, tony. there has been a lot of political back and forth, a lot of campaigning from outside groups, so much so that the volkswagen plant humanity us is not allowing any outsiders or visiters to come on because they really want their workers to have a clean and clear vote without outside influences. there are a lot of people watching this vote. a lot of politicians, a lot of business leaders because if the uaw gets a victory, if they're able to unionize this plant in chattanooga, many feel it would signal a change for unions and foreign automakers here in the south. >> we're confident now at this point that we'll win the vote. >> reporter: shawn wright works in quality assurance. he's happy with his pay an benefits, but feels he has no

voice in key decisions made by management. that's why he supports the uaw plan. they would bargain wages and plan to set up a work council which is standard in germany and volkswagen plants in other places. it would give blue- and white-collar workers a stay in work hours and training. >> we would have more communication with management for improving anything on the line or anything that the employees feel is important to them. >> reporter: 1600 hourly employees are voting by secret ballot and there is a lot riding on the outcome. if the uaw is successful in unionizing the chattanooga plant, it may push for unions at bmw and nissan. >> i feel in my heart that they're ramming this down our

throat. >> reporter: he feels that the union would create more read tape, hurt his wallet and lead to more work hours. he said the uaw is making too many promises. >> he's telling us that they'll give us $28 an hour. me personally, i'm going on three years now, i'm making more than that now. i'll take a cut in pay, but they're being told that they're going to make more money. >> we're down to 40 hours a week instead of six days a week and we have a three-day weekend every week. let's not mess that up. >> reporter: the united auto workers declined the question to speak with al jazeera with plans for the volkswagen plant. while volkswagen say they're staying neutral, some outside organizations are weighing in. renting billboards in tennessee blame uaw for detroit's problems. and the governor said the union

would hurt attracting new manufacturers. >> they have told us that. they said if uaw comes in there, we'll be much less likely to locate a plant close t to chattanooga. >> reporter: the uaw has said a solid majority of workers at the plant want to unionize. they're counting on a victory to bring a new labor model to the u.s. and new momentum to their organization. and this whole vote has been facilitated through the labor relation it's board. they started voting today during shift change. and they'll have a chance to vote tomorrow and again on friday, and then wrap up the ballot at 8:00. shortly thereafter we should know the vote. >> jonathan martin, if the workers succeed, they will be the first in the south to unio unionize. david schuster it here with more on that. >> reporter: fascinating story. unions in tennessee and our

southern states are generally unheard of thanks to right to work laws, laws that allow employees to decide for themselves whether to join and support an union. the ones in red, a couple in the midwest. but look in the south, from texas all the way to florida all the way up to virginia. the number of unions in the south is very low, and nearly all the ones that do exist exist with the supreme court of the company and the employer. in general because unions are weakened by right to work laws, economists note that wages are usually lower in those states and workers safety conditions are worse. workers in right-to-work states earn an average of $5,538 less each year than workers in states without the union busting laws. and the rate of workplace deaths in right-to-work states are

52.9% higher. over the last 20 years more jobs have been created in right to work face than union friendly states. the average ratio was 1.4 person ohi1.4% hire.the big three u.s.s they're all unionized. by contrast the foreign automakers have avoided unions by locating their factories in southern states with strong right to work laws. from their perspective unions mean work stop package, more ex-pen i have benefits plans and the inability to fire people at will. but many believe if having an union will boost productivity. and they know this from experience the rest of the

factories in the world they are also unionized. >> tonight president obama is helping to boost the wages of some workers. ed president signed the executive order increasing the hourly wage of federal contractors to $10.10. the president said he would do this in his state of the union address. former new orleans mayor ray nagin was found guilty of 20 of 21 charges today. he was charged with taking describebribes after hurricane . any reaction from the former mayor or his defense team? >> reporter: one piece of reaction from the former mayor, tony. he said, i maintain my innocence. nevertheless, 11 days of trial,

six hours of jury deliberations and ray nagin walked out of federal court in new orleans as the first former mayor in the history of the city to be convicted on public corruption charges. he had been charged with 21 counts of corruption. he is found guilty of 20 of those counts. one count he was not found guilty on, it had to do with bribery and a city contractor. as you said he was convicted of these counts accused after hurricane katrina when billions of federal dollars were coming in the city, of bribes and kickback schemes. he hung his head as the jury rattled off the counts saying guilty. his wife began crying, and nagin sat there somber looking. the big problem for him, the big concern is the consequence of his actions after this guilty verdict. his attorney said they will appeal this guilty verdict.

>> ben, appreciate it. ben for us in new orleans. still to come on al jazeera america, the study that questions whether mammograms help women get a jump on breast cancer.

>> one of the world's most in-depth studies of breast cancer is casting more doubt on a long-standing practice. the report found mammograms do not help prevent breast cancer deaths. jennifer london has hour report. >> reporter: this is one of the largest studies ever conducted of 96,000 women, and the findings are sure to renew the debate and even confusion over the efficacy over mammogram. it was published in the british medical journey. it found that death rates were the same for women who got mammograms and those who did not. when you look at the numbers of those who received mammograms and diagnosed with cancer, 500 died.

with those who did not go through the screening and diagnosed with cancer, 505 died. additionally women who got mammograms were more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. which on the surface sounds like a good thing, but that can lead to the overdiagnosis of breast cancer. 22% of cancers discovered during the screening process were overdiagnosed. another way to think of it, up out of 424 women who were screened received treatment that were deemed unnecessary based on the findings, the author said that women shouldn't get mammograms as part of their preventive care. >> there is no benefit in an era where we have modern treatment for cancer, to use mammography. >> doctor miller said the

primary issue is it is not able to determine if it was slow growing or fast growing and needs surgery. he believes that mammograms should only be used after breast cancer has been detected. the mammogram debate has been going on for a number of years after a government panel found that women under 50 were receiving screening. earlier today the american cancer society recommended that women over 40 should have mammograms every year, and additionally they review their recommendsdations every five years, and they're in the middle of a review, and may update their guide lanes later this year. >> earlier i spoke with a doctor

from new york university. she explained why the medical community is so split on mammograms. >> the fact that mammograms aren't a perfect test, and we don't have a perfect treatment, either. depending on which side you lie on, if you would rather catch everybody with cancer and treat them no matter what, that's one extreme. if you're at the other end and say well, i want to reduce the harms for people who don't have cancer. i don't want people who are healthy to have all these unnecessary tests and treatments let's reduce the number of mammograms. it depends on what your values are. >> a massive recall by toyota recalling its prius car. a problem could cause the car to stop while it is being driven. there have been more than 400 cases of cars losing power. the recall effects 1 point 1.9 n

cars. and this shows that human teeth were rotting from sugary foods 15,000 years ago. and the findings suggest that people from that time period ate a diet of nuts and oaths year round. that means they stored food for winter months. if true that contradicts beliefs about early human development. these severe winter storms are taking a coal on the economy. ali velshi is following that story for us. ali how bad is it looking for the economy as a result of these storms. >> reporter: it's hard to tell because we're in a weird place in the economy where half will blame everything happening on the weather, and won't. look at the jobs numbers, in december we fell off to 75,000. then january, 113,000. half of the economists said it

was weather and the other half said it was a slow economy. half of the economists say this winter could shave off a percentage point off first quarter gdp in the first quarter of 2014. let's talk about some examples. 30 million passengers saw delayed and canceled flights in january. economists say that's half of the gdp, $25 billio $2.5 billio. also affected consumer spending. people aren't going to restaurant. job creation in january and february, you saw disappointing numbers. in january we had an increase in construction work. it will be a few more months before we see what the damage is. >> is it a completely story in the west? >> yes, it's different news because droughts aren't daily occurrences, but in california, it's been going on for a long

time. state of emergency was declared. san francisco bay has received the area, the bay area has received only .25% of the rain that it normally gets. it's hurting cbs, raising food prices, hurting tourism and ski resorts. we'll speak to a local beer brewer in a ski area because he's not selling his beer because people aren't coming out. >> the top of the hour right here on al jazeera america. ali, thanks as always. a deluge in the u.k. flood of waters damage homes and businesses and cause hundreds to be evacuated. and classic cars swallowed up by a sinkhole.

>> welcome back, everyone, to al jazeera america. the senate voted this afternoon to raise the debt ceiling.

the vote allows the federal government to increase it's borrowing limits. republican leaders helped get the bill through the senate. a landmark vote is taking place in tennessee as works at a volkswagen plant vote as to whether or not to join an union. and the british medical journal published a research that claims does not help reduce breast cancer deaths. the storm bringing down branches, power lines and nearly a half million homes and businesses are in the dark. power crews from other states are arriving in georgia oh to help local utility workers to deal with the outages. john craft, a spokesperson for georgia power in atlanta. john, good to talk to you. we're trying to get an accurate

with the as we can of the number of areas shifting a bit. what is the number without power in your state? >> hi, we're working to get back on as quickly an safely as possible. as of 6:30 eastern we have about 133,000 customers out statewide. we have about 2.4 million customers in the state. we have restored power. the power outages, you got a significant number. you're working on it, but is there a sense that the worst is behind you or could you see

further jumps and spikes and outages later tonight and into tomorrow? we made progress. the number is down, but i don't think we would quite predict that we've peaked necessarily. if we get a lot of wind overnight, these heavy, ice-laden trees are very likely to come down, even more of them, and do more damage. we'll be watching it closely through the night. >> john, i know thi this is an estimate, but what is your turn around time? how quickly are you able to get crews to the areas impacted even if at that moment you can't promise folks when they'll get their power back? >> it varies so much, are they having road problems, getting the crews, the big instruct there. most of the trucks, we're

outfitting them with trains, and we are he working to get those ahead of time. so we had those trucks ready to go. but that said there are some road conditions that are tough. the state dot has been doing a great job. they helped us move resources over t to augusta and east georgia, that was a big help in getting resources moved around. a great partnership there. but there are challenges. you can't drive fast o in this type of weather. >> john kraft, i got t to tell u the storm that caused all the power outages in the south have made it tough to get around. thousands of flights have been canceled, and amtrak has been canceled in the area.

>> everyone is getting out of dodge. they're all getting out of town really early. they've been told to. this 6:00 hour eastern the government has imposed a state of emergency here. they will be towed in the next couple of hours. snow is due to come in at 8:00 or 9:00 an hour here. let's deal with the airlines. there have been so far today around 3,600 flights just canceled up to philly, baltimore, boston, there are going to be travel delays on the airports at least until the weekend. let's deal with the trains. here is amtraks behind me in

d.c. and the romantic sounding names that they give their trains, like the palmetto and the crescent, most of the rail services in the northeast are promising to review what they do, and there will probably be some sunday service. the message is stay off the roads unless you absolutely have to, all the schools are being canceled, and authorities will have a review once they have a before handle of what they're dealing with. >> this storms could affect 100 million people. what has the government in d.c. done to prepare for this? >> this is a big storm, huge. janet yellen is continuing her time on the hill. she's appearing before the senate banking committee tomorrow, or was because they

canceled it. the president has canceled an event as well. jay carney, the white house spokesperson said, in the last few minutes he has just signed the state of emergency declaration for the state of north carolina, and he's also sent forth members of fema to be in these various areas when the snow strikes in order to get all they can in the moment here is jay carney. >> fema has deployed an assistant team to the georgia operation center, and the teams are on alert where deployment is need: fema has lee ya liaisonsn south carolina, maryland, and virginia, and others are will be deployed if requested. >> you have seen how bad the snow and ice are going to get from the pictures we've shown you in the south. at the moment there is nothing in the north, but it's coming,

and we've been told by the meteorologists that when the snow comes the deterioration is swift. meaning once it starts snowing it hits you like a hammer. >> that's what we heard from north carolina just moments ago. john, thank you. the united kingdom is also dealing with serious weather troubles. parts of the country have been underwater for more that two weeks now, and three counties in southern britain are is the a high risk of even worse flooding in the coming days. towns along the river thames flooded after it burst its banks earlier this week. and it's government is pushing back against critics who claim they did not do enough. >> one of many hundreds of roads flooded, houses threatened. if this water goes up a few feet, this house will be threatened. this is on higher ground. we've been to dozens of homes

where they have left their homes already. many have moved all their furnishings off the second floor and taken things off the ground. we've seen the army come in to the villages, going door to door, getting through the scrimmages, trucks and big four wheel drive vehicles is the only way to get around. we've been to several villages nearby and many are worse off than here, some areas are totally cut off. the water is three-, four feet deep, and others have moved their belongings up to their second floor. these are scenes we're seeing repeated across britain as this flood really affects the whole south of britain now. the prime minister said they will spare no money to help these people and try to prevent further floods. the government has come under

kit simple over how it has handled this situation. there is more rain and there is concern of what the thames will do in the coming days. london not really threatened. it has a thames barrier where they can regulate the flow the water there. we're not far from heathrow airport, this is not over yet. it could take days, weeks or even months for most of this water to even go away. >> a top u.n. officials is warning what he calls ethnic religious cleansing in central africa republic. the warning comes after a mass grave is discovered. it is the latest to come in the war between the muslims and christians in the war-torn area. >> the head of the u.n. refugee called humanitarian catastrophes

of epic proportions. a grave was found of witnesses say at least a dozen bodies. it's not clear who is in the grave or who killed them. in video released today showed christian militiamen burning a muslim village in revenge for an earlier attack on them. one 12-year-old boy sailed the christian militia killed his mom and sisters. >> they killed all my big sisters and my mother. they killed them. they took the money. >> the conflict has displaced 8,000 people. that's a fifth of the population. thousands of people have been killed. tony, the u.n. added a month long airlift to people in need. >> what is the administration

response to all this? >> the u.s. said its concerned about attacks in both muslims and christians, but right now france is the only western country with troops there supporting african peace keepers. the european union is planning to send troops, too. >> thank you. appreciate it. in algeria there is more information about the plane crash that killed all but one passenger. the bodies of the 77 who died, the defense ministry confirmed that bad weather is to blame. air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane. officials from north and south korea held their first face-to-face meeting for the first time in more than six years. pyongyang reportedly requested the meeting. the two sides with limited reunions of families split by the korean war. but north carolina threatened to cancel those reunions because of

military practices between the u.s. and south korea. the united states so-called pivot to asia has a pivot effect. defense contractors arors are ma splash as they look to beef up their military height. >> reporter: it is the military shopping mall of asia, and there is a growing need for aircraft, missiles and weaponry. in six years nearly $1 in $3 will be spent in the pacific. the u.s. looking to take its slice o, at the showing. >> right now there is a push to the region, and i believe all the companies in the u.s. pavilion are seeing that. we're a very small company, a

family-owned business, so it's a little bit of a stretch for us to come out here, and we see it as an important market. >> the u.s. military has also become more interested in the region, but it's rebalancing the focus on asia pacific region. the military said this is very well suited to the region law because of the location. >> reporter: this tension in china's rapid middle build up has increased regional spencing. >> the biggest challenge is trying to convince people that the rebalance is not about containing china. it's really about u.s. interests. u.s. has 57% of its total trade in the asia pacific region. so our best interest in this

area is secure. >> some feel maintaining that perception is critical as so much of america's trade is directly with china. >> it's an interesting balancing act in its own. a lot of contracts including 9 united states are trying to balance against the rising china or hedge against a rising china while at the same time not doing anything that could make it worse. >> as the dispute for territory in trade routes in asia pacific condition militaries will continue with their build up making this one of the hottest markets for defense contractors for years to come. al jazeera, singapore. >> david shooser is here now with stories making news across the country. >> reporter: tony, we're going to start with the passing of an entertainment icon. the veteran comedian syd caesar died early this morning in his home in los angeles.

his 90 minute program credited necreatednew programs. he saihe said, i don't take myso seriously. i laugh a lot and call myself a dummy. syd caesar, dead at 91. the judge denied lawyers request for extra time to prepare for the defense. starnaev is charged with the use of weapon of mass destruction. in april of last year three people were killed and 364 were injured when a pair of homemade bombs went off near the finish line tsarnaev is also charged

with shooting a police officer three days later. juan chavez admitted to the ghoulish death. he kidnapped a boy and took him to a trailer and raped him. when he tried to escape he was shot and dismembered. his remains were found near chavez trailer. new orleans based form for equality plans to challenge the ban on protection and free speech clauses, and the court is

no, sir explicitly ruled on the constitutionty of state bans including the one in louisiana. in washington a crow made an unusual discovery. workers found a tusk from an ice aged mammoth. it was verified by officials. there are a lot of fossils. still this was a first for construction joe wells. >> i've dug a lot of ditches, and you uncover bottles and weird stuff but never anything like that. >> wait a second, what weird stuff? >> he didn't ask, unfortunately. >> reporter: tony, i know you love the corvette, and in bowling green, kentucky, this has been a memorable day for folks at the corvette museum. a giant sinkhole opened up and damaged six cars.

there is the surveillance video. look at the car fall through the floor. the dome part of this facility was built 20 years ago, however the rest of the museum will remain open. you just can't put those corvette owners down bowling green contains some of the longest and deepest underground caves and bowling green is the only place where general motors builds the iconic corvette, which i understand is iconic in your eyes. >> oh, yes, i had a day. maybe we should send the guy from the previous story down to the corvette tunnels and see what he comes up with. just trying to tie it all together. thank you. coming up on al jazeera america. yankee star derek jeter had important news to share today, and an emotional homecoming for a man rescued after being adrift at sea for more than a year.

take a new look at news.

>> some big news from the future hall of famer new york yanker shortstop derek jeter today. michael yves with us in sports. >> reporter: over the last two decades if there has been one face synonymous with the new york yankees, it's that one, derek jeter. he helped lead the yankees to five series titles and he'll be remembered for not how well he played, but how he carried himself on and off the field. in an era of steroid-laced athletes he managed to stay away from the fray of controversy. check out this resumé. over the course of 19-plus major league seasons, he amassed 3316 hits. he was 19,196 rook rye of the

year. he earned 13 all-star to along with the five world series rings and batting average .312. wednesday world record holder in the men's speed skating davis not only failed to win his third straight gold medal in the event, but he failed to medal at all. davis said there was no excuse, but he simply didn't have the speed today. the netherlands took two medals in the race. davis, who finished eighth will compete saturday in the 1500 meters. in the women's down hill event history was made as there was a tie for the gold medal, an olympic first in an alpine event. tying dominique ginson of switzerland. now the ties were measured and recorded to the .0001, four

digits to the right of the dismal pointdecimal point, not . that's why they'll share the goal. another way leads with 12 medals, canada and netherlands behind them with 10, and united states with 9, and usa lost to canada in women's hockey, but there is a likelihood that they'll face each other again in the gold medal games. michael yves on sports. a man who spent a year at sea made it to his home of el salvador. he was spotted in the remotor spatter of the marshall islands. he drifted 365 miles across the pacific surviving on raw fish,

turtle and bird blood--hmm. a wire fox terrier taking the top prize at the westminster dog show. >> at this 138th westminster best in show this evening is a wire fox terrier. >> five-year-old sky won best in show last night. the ginger white dog is no stranger to success. he has 129 ribbons for best in show. >> reporter: maybe you're sick of snow, but we'll talk about one business own who are is counting on it to keep his business open. and all that and more on "real money." each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could

drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real.

>> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. a wicked storm is taking aim at the eastern seaboard. the national weather service said 100 million americans live in an area that is under a

winter storm warning, watch, or advisory. the senate voted to raise the federal debt ceiling this afternoon. the vote will allow the government t through to march. a jury has found former new orleans mayor ray nagin of 20 counties of bribes. veteran comedian sid caesar, has died. he passed away in his home in los angeles. despite battles of alcohol and drug abuse he worked into his 70s. he was 91 years old. and president obama has increased the minimum wage of federal hourly wage to $.10 $10.

for more go to www.aljazeera.com. that's www.aljazeera.com. "real money with ali velshi" is next. >> old man winter is putting a chill on our economy. and we'll have a rude awakening with heating bills climbing as the thermometer dips. and workers have the power to change the face of the auto industry in the south. i'm ali velshi. this is real money.