i'm david shuster for ali velshi and every here at "real money," thanks for watching and have a great weekend. >> hello, and welcome is to al jazeera america. i'm randall pinkston in new yo new york. john seigenthaler has the night off. [ explosion ] >> fear and anger as israel and gaza send fire rockets at each other. battle over the border, a powerful congressional leader says no to president obama's immigration plan. watching the border. the leader of a group that once patrolled the 1900 miles is talking about doing it all

again. and the tennessee newsman who became a champion of civil rights. tonight we pay tribute to john seigenthaler sr. we begin with the crisis between israel and gaza is an exchange of airstrikes and rockets that has not let up since tuesday. 120 people have died including 20 children all of them palestinians in gaza. israeli strikes hit the town overnight killing six people. assault continued as locales looked for bodies in the republirubble. gaza's rockets are notoriously inaccurate but one landed on a gas station wounding two people.

[ sirens ] and in israel constant air sirens warning residents to take shelter wherever they can. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said he's not ruling out a ground offensive and feels no pressure to stop airstrikes. >> now international pressure will prevent us to defend both with determination and wisdom our moment front, the citizens of israel. >> netanyahu said that israel has hit 1,000 targets so far and still has more to go. u.s. secretary of defense chuck hagel spoke on the phone with israel's defense minister today. hagel reiterated that the u.s. condemns hamas' rocket fire into israel. he noted that the u.s. stance that israel has the right to defend itself. and he expressed concern about

further escalation. the leaders agreed to work together on all security issues facing both countries. nick schifrin has been ot on both sides of the conflict. tonight he is in gaza city. it has been hit by dozens of strikes since tuesday. >> reporter: randall, good evening. i'll tell you that the streets in gaza city right now are completely empty. they were empty in the middle of the day, which is extremely rare for around here. there is so much fear of more israeli strikes, and right now in gaza there is so much mourning. when it comes to this war and this is war, gazaens say, perhaps the most frequent sound is grief. [ crying ] >> reporter: the most frequent image is of children missing their uncle or a woman mourning her husband. mohammed was a bia pious man,

his family said. he was 66, and his family admits that he helped fighters fire rockets. his community is calling him a martyr. their silence shows their reverence. they commemorate what they call his skies. mohammed's family said that he helped the fighters so he could make money and because he believed. >> he was 66 years old. why would he want to die a martyr? >> for our land palestine. >> reporter: mohammed's cousin. at a local mosque he says a traditional prayer. and mohammed's youngest relatives who have lived through airstrikes for four days come to show thanks. >> mohammed liked visiting people and helping people. and he educated his people.

>> as a crowd of a thousand walked out of the mosque, they're reminded that the frequent sound is the loudest. [ explosion ] >> reporter: israeli bombs shake the earth, shockwaves travel through your spine. this one landed just 300 feet away from us. and the aftermath? part of this video is too grizzly to show. that man in blue is carrying a dead toddler. [ screaming ] israel said the target was a palestinian fighter. we saw one woman wounded. and the scars felt by the children who were just a few feet away. the women who are incon solible.

>> reporter: the prayers were just ending as this strike happened. you can still smell the explosive powder in the air. there is a lot of tension, just a mile down, 30, 40 seconds ago there was yet another attack. today israel vowed to step up its campaign which means in this war there will be more sounds, more images like today's. >> nick, you've been on both sides. how are israelis and gazaens coping? >> we've spent two days on the israeli side right on the border. there is fear on both sides. there is panic on both sides. in israel you see people running for bomb shelters, you see air raids going off constantly not only on the border but going all the way up into tel aviv. but less than 3% of rockets

fired from gaza into israel has hit a the areas. here it's different. the israeli military has dropped 1100 bombs from various sites in the air, from american f-16s, these are huge bombs. 200 to 300 pounds. they really shake the ground and you can feel it through your body. that's what causes so much fear here. that's why these streets behind me are empty tonight, and were empty this afternoon. nobody wanted to venture out. >> earlier, nick, we reported that israel has dropped leaflets where they're targeting for bombing. >> reporter: yes, they are trying to warn some of the families who might be around the palestinian fighters.

for example, hamas, jihad, some of the armed wings of the palestinian factions. they will call that number and say you have 10 seconds, you have 5 seconds, you have 15 seconds to get out. what happened the first day when we saw one whole family killed by an israeli strike is that when that call was made, more people ran to the roof, and israeli officials saying the bomb was already in the air before it could be diverted. that's why that family was killed. you do have this kind of psychological warfare combined with israel trying to reduce civilian casualty. we should say that more than 25% of all the people killed in the last four days, which has been over 100, have been children. >> finally, are they anticipating a ground invasion by israel? >> there is certainly a lot of fear that there will be ground incursion programs limited in scope into gaza over the next few days. israel has not made it office

that it is not going to do a ground invasion. the defense minister has been talking about it. there have been lots of tanks and lots and lots of israeli troops coming into the border area. but there's no indication that it's imminent. the prime minister netanyahu used the exact same language about a possible ground invasion tonight as he has used over the last few days. one senior u.s. official telling me actually there is hesitancy among the israelis to actually go in. so clearly the debate is still going by israel as to whether ground invasion should still happen. >> thank you, nick schifrin, stay safe. we've all heard the statistic gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth, but how does it compare to some american cities? gaza is pretty strong. the entire gaza strip would fit inside new york city. 1.8million people live there.

that appeals in comparison to america's largest cities but similar to philadelphia or phoenix. to give you a sense of the density gaza's 12,800 people per square mile is close to philadelphia, chicago, boston. that's a lot of people but it's less densely populated than new york or san francisco. in the latest fighting between israel and hamas it is important to understand what the israeli army is up against. the history of hamas spans decades but their methods have largely remained the best. >> reporter: the hamas is an acronym for th. the scene has become too familiar for far too many. rockets fired between israel and

hamas. the latest round in a fight lasting decades. hamas officially launched in 1987 out of the up rising against israel. that was followed by suicide-bombings and attacks on israel. hamas-led the way, encouraging followers to destroy the jewish state and free palestine. all considered hamas terrorist. when israel pulled out of gaza, it's borders became largely sealed. israel's pull out left hamas to take over the strip and began ruling the tiny slice of land as a de facto state government. it's leader lives in exile. >> people make the mistake of thinking that hamas only has an agenda against israel. hamas has a domestic agenda. >> reporter: that agenda includes running hospitals, schools and soup kitchens in an

area where most of its million plus people live in poverty. cut off from much of the world food and supplies are expensive and hard to find. yet weapons and rockets are smuggled in mainly from iran. since 2012 they've grown very powerful. yet hamas' relations with supporter like syria and iran have been strained recently. >> it'tonight will continue its assault. >> now a look at the israeli military. israel uses fighter jets, helicopters and drones to fire missiles into gaza. it has tanks and 20,000 troops on the border. israeli warships have been firing missiles from the mediterranean sea. joining us to discuss this is a policy analysts at the center for american progress. his work focuses on u.s. national security in the middle east, and the

israeli-palestinian conflict. thank you for joining us. first question to you, sir, what do you think it will take to stop airstrikes on gaza and stop hamas from firing rockets into israel. >> first, an agreement where hamas agrees to cease the firing of rockets. there may have been some intermittent launching of rockets, but for the most part when rockets were launched, and there were some rockets launched, it was by factions that other than hamas. factions that in many cases were seeking to draw in hamas into precisely this type of conflict. for hamas' part one of their key concerns, one of their key demands is for the siege on gaza

to be lifted, but also for prisoners to be released specifically, prisoners who were alleged by the' least deal several years ago, but who were rearrested during yo during israel's crackdown over the past few weeks. >> with parties in gaza having access to rockets. if hamas say okay, we'll stop. can they stop islamic jihad, for example? >> that's one of the problems here. hamas has shown in the past that they put the effort forward they can control the launching of rockets and make it stop. but the problem here is when you have israel striking at hamas' infrastructure, one of the problems from that is it lessens

hamas' ability to control other groups. >> you describe it as asyste asymmetrical. >> well, hamas can't compete with israel in a traditional war. you have an insurgent group or a terrorist group, which ever word you want to use, that is using conventional methods in the battlefield. >> are you suggesting there is disproportionate use of force? >> i would say that it seems disproportionate to me, yes. i certainly recognize israel's right to defend itself, but i think when you have a situation like this, one, first of all, occupation, and with regard to gaza, a siege a blockade, a captive population that is not allowed to leave gaza in most cases. a population which is under the control--which is the one who is suffering the most under the rule of hamas.

so i certainly recognize israel's security concerns, but i think we can say very definitively that the policy of blockade followed by every couple of years a series of strikes like we're seeing now as a failed policy. >> who can negotiate the settlement? obviously not val because they have declared hamas manner nod graduate apersonna non grata. egypt, excuse me. >> it is very hostile to hamas and unwilling to perform that function. that's a real question. there are some possibilities, perhaps turkey. there is also qatar, which has a past relationship with hamas.

interestingly in the conversation two prime minister netanyahu and president obama last night, president obama offered that the united states could mediate this. i would be looking for more clarity of what that actually means. the united states officially declares or sees hamas as a terrorist group and is by law in a forming setting. if the u.s. would like to sit in an intermediary role, that would be a step. we need to look at how perhaps we can leverage the unity government into a cease-fire here. >> some difficult issues and difficult days ahead. matthew dust, policy analyst with the american progress institute. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> in east jerusalem the israeli army is limiting access citing

security concerns. men under the age of 50 are not allowed into the mosque to pray. and the observe venezuel >> that area hyped me is deserted. that would normally be packed with thousands. supremsecurity reasons only men over the age of 50 are allowed in. they're saying for security reasons, they would say that they're also coming.

the signer dome has intercepted. the other ones that will fall on open ground will fall on open ground to preserve the stocks of the iron dome missiles. while the missiles keep coming in, the u.s. said it's willing to step in and try to help or bring together some sort of mediation between the israelis and hamas. but the israeli prime ministers have no comment on what president obama would do for the israelis or for hamas either. the egyptians have been approached to help with the negotiations. they brokered a peace deal back in 2012 when mohamed morsi was president of egypt. but then mohamme mohamed morsi

was aligned with the muslim brotherhood. so the egyptians this time are not that keen to step into the breach and mediate. >> straight ahead, the president's request for billions of dollars. but americans are calling for both sides to come to an agreement. and dealing a deathly blow to government.

>> the crisis at the u.s.-mexico border has turned into a battle over money in washington tonight. they said no to president obama's $3.7 million emergency request. but republicans said there is no need for that much money and the house won't approve it. homeland security secretary jay johnson visited migrant

detention facility in new mexico today. johnson says more money is needed as his agency works to open new detention facilities. he stressed the need to send the message in natural america tha central america that despite the violence there, this is not the best option. >> for those who are coming here illegally. for those who are contemplating coming here illegally into south texas, we will send you back. >> reporter: three of america's wealthiest men are urging congress to pass immigration reform. sheldon adelson, warren buffet, and bill gates published a op-ed said reform is long overdue. they right you don't have to agree on everything in order to cooperate on matters about which

you are reasonbly close to agreeing. it's time that this brand of thinking find its way to washington. a group of citizen who is once patrolled the 1900 miles is thinking about making a comeback. jennifer london reports. >> reporter: it's been years since jim has driven through this decembe desolet part of the desert. >> this is a fence that separates the united states and mexico. it's made out of steel metal blitz that were used as landing platforms in the vietnam war. >> reporter: this is something that he and others see as another war. a band of civilian who is took up arms along the border. >> my country is not a nation

governed by the rule of law. it's governed by 553 members of the u.s. house, u.s. senate who for whatever reason have recklessly disregarded and ignored endorsing the law and protecting these foreigners. >> reporter: one of the best views of the borders. >> it was one of the best observation points because you can see forever. >> reporter: what gilchrist couldn't see was the future. as the movement grew, inciting violence led to its down fall. in 2010 he pulled the last outpost at the border. >> it ended up with that national movement with members with nazi swasticas. that's where this was always headed.

>> reporter: moving the immigration debate from the border to the beltway. while the minutemen movement may be gone there are still lone types who patrol the desert. >> they're very dangerous and heavily armed. >> reporter: that's joel smith with you main borders in arizona, an aid organization that mans water tanks. >> reporter: for those trying to cross the harsh arizona desert especially on a day like today when temperatures are well into the 90s these water stations may be their own chance for survival. >> over the years i've had the barrel shot. i've had barrels stabbed. >> back in california we met dan russell. he comes three times a week to fix this old bas barb wire fence. >> you do what you can do.

>> gilchrist said he's committed, too, but the future is uncertain. >> i wake up every morning wondering if it's time to relaunch the minuteman project. this time three times as large as the last one. by the end of the day after careful thought i wonder if perhaps it is time to bring them back. >> an attack in ukraine. before the attack government forces appear to be gaining the upper hand in the three-month battle with separatists. hundreds of people are now leaving the city of donetsk

fearing more violence. still ahead, buyout. snatching up real estate and the effect it's having in some cities. remembering a giant journalist and the civil rights movement. we'll look back on the life of john seigenthaler sr.

>> this is al jazeera america. i'm randall pinkston. coming up, home court, back's biggest star is taking his talents back to cleveland. flexible tv, the next wave of televisions are so thin you can roll them up and put them in your pocket. and behind the scenes, jay leno's former producer tells us what life was like working with the late night funnyman. >> secretary of state john kerry and treasury secretary jacob lew were in china trying to mend relations after allegations of hacking. meanwhile economic relations

have never been stronger. chinese investors are here buying real estate. >> wow. >> reporter: new york real estate broker works in one of thmost most-- >> two bedroom, plus a roof-deck. he said most of his listings sell in the first month. what is the average price range? >> you're looking at $1 million to $5 million price point. >> reporter: new york is in the mid-of a real estate boom with tight supply, high demand and nos nosebleed prices. in one year ending last march foreign buyers purchased

$92 billion in u.s. real estate. canadians bought the most, but chinese nationals spent the most, cheltenhaming out $22 billion for single family homes. foreign buyers are driving demand for the tallest residential building in america. 432 park avenue, a 97 story tower where the starting price for an one-bedroom unit is $7 million. going all the way up to $95 million for the top floor penthouse. but even at those stratospheric prices realtors say american real estate is a bargain. >> your average price per-square-foot in new york city is $1,300 a foot which at the end of the day is a pretty good bargain considering the fact that sydney, london, are at 2100-square-foot and above. >> reporter: economists say chinese nationals are here to stay. >> this is not a quick investment team in terms of the

chinese buyers we're seeing. they actually want to put some money down into a property and rent it out over time if they're not using the property themselves. >> reporter: realtors who cater to foreign buyers say most don't use mortgages. >> 99.9% all cash. >> reporter: effectively shutting out american buyers. >> when you have someone who cams i comes in and says i can close in two weeks. i can pay in cash, that is puts other buyers at a disadvantage. >> reporter: it is helping because mortgages are funded by international investors. >> the chinese is one of the major investors that puts money into mortgage back securities that keep interest rates low for the average american. >> reporter: most average americans aren't looking for places like these. but for those who are, no matter how low the interest rates, it's not low enough to compete with

cash. >> joining me now, the founder and principle of th. tell me, is new york the only place this phenomenon is happening where chinese nationals are lungin nationals are plunging down millions? >> no, it's happening globally, but certainly there is a much higher concentration in the united states and in new york. but cities like los angeles where there has always been a large asian population where we have seen more growth in los angeles, chicago, and even parts of detroit we're starting to see investment, which is good for the city of detroit. >> did you say detroit? >> yes. >> chinese foreign nationals investing in detroit. >> not to the same extent to new york in fairness but even in

cities like detroit. the housing market in china is softening. there is a huge pollution problem in china and people want out and people have money. and there is also a lot of chinese people just generally. we know about the population there, so they're looking for opportunities in other places, and they're making investments and culturally the house, owning homes is a preferential form of investment. >> you know, i've been in the new york city a few decades now, more than a few, and i remember when certain parts of brooklyn were places where people would say, oh, no, i never would want to live there. now you have multi million dollars brown stones going up. is it something that foreign nationals see in the value potential value of american real estate that a lot of americans don't see? >> reporter: i think so. there is that dynamic because chinese investors tend to be value-oriented, value focused.

that value does exist. but at the same time i think there is also just such a demand for them to place their money somewhere because they see their own economy as not one that has a bright future. they're concerned about the economy slowing down. i think that's really a big driver of it, too. >> now what about the possibility because we saw japanese people plunge a whole lot of money in real estate two or three decades ago. and the market tanked. are we looking at a new real estate bubble here? >> we always have to be concerned about a real estate public. that's a consistent thing. but i think the housing market is start to go recover in a meaningful way. housing is a large part of this--of our economy. and construction workers at one point were one-fourth of the long-term unemployed. to the extent that we can put folks back to work that's a good thing. people should not be fearful of

this investment. we should be mindful, we should be focused. we don't want a bubble, but at the same time the housing market has not gotten back on sure footing. canadians are the largest home buyers in the u.s. but chinese are second and spend more money and they pay in cash. >> all in all, net-net, it's a good thing. >> i think net-net it's a positive thing. even from a job standpoint, chinese companies have created 70,000 full-time jobs in this country. as of 2013 that was the figure. i think people we want to make sure that we tell the whole story that if people are coming and spending money here. people were so concerned about investing in china, and china is doing the same thing here, so we're recooping some of our

losses. >> good point. thank you. >> thank you. >> a big move in the sports world tonight. the king returning home to cleveland. lebron james has announced he's leaving the miami heat. he grew up in ohio and said he always believed he would return to finish his career. al jazeera's michael yves joins us. you covered the nba for 13 years. i imagine you ran into lebron james more than once. >> a few times, teas at least. >> was this decision a surprise to you? >> it was and it wasn't. he made four trips to the nba finals rand won two of them. if you bring back all of those pieces you would think that he has a chance to get back to the championship level. to go to a team that didn't make the playoffs last year, that is surprising. but what the average fan doesn't realize is how lebron james feels about ohio. he has been a superstar since he was 15, 16 years old.

he wants his son to go to the same high school that he attended in the area, and he wants to bring a championship to that city, which has never won a championship. athletes a lot of times are concerned about their legacy, how many championships can they win? can they equal their championships to michael jordan who has won six? he is about to do something that no one else has been able to do in that city. >> he left before on not such good terms. >> there was a lot of emotion in cleveland when he left and took his talents to south beach. the fans were obviously upset. but the owner of the team, dan gilbert posted a letter that remained up until just a few days ago, he called lebron a coward, and there was a lot of emotion. there was reconciliation between dan gilbert and lebron james and that opened the door pore

him to open the door. fans are emotion. if he plays for them, he's wonderful. if he plays for somebody else, they hate him. >> do you think money played a role in the decision? >> no,ca, salaries are capped. he signed a maximum contract for three years. co-have signed a longer deal. co-have gotten more money in miami because he could have had an additional year. but wherever he went he was going to get maximum dollar. plus the $20 million he's making in the nba pales in comparison to the other money he makes in endorsements. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> from blurry black and white to 4 k flat screens technology has come a long way. now the new way of tv tech may be bendable screens that are so compact that they can fit in

your project. jacob ward explains. >> reporter: it's a cliché of screen fiction. transparent flexible screens as in this scene of "minority report." but only in the last few years has technology made the concept possible. at the consumer electronic show in january 2013 samsung showed off the first truly bendable screen, a flexible oled surface. at the same show a year later the technology began to show up in curve, full-size televisions. now lg, the appliance giant has revealed an 18-inch screen that can be rolled down to just over an inch. that's like a bag in your back pocket, although you shouldn't sit on this. it's made possible by a screen made not of plastic but the material used in electronic cables and high temperature

adhesives. it has a resolution of a high end computer model. by 2017 the company plans to release a television that is both this athletickible and almost entirely transparent. the thing to consider about this technology, yes, sure it will bombard us with ads, and you'll be able to watch a movie on a flexible screen on a flight sam day. but the thing to consider is it's going to make possible the embedding display information into all kinds of architectural features like these. some day when this technology is cheap and plentiful enough it's going to be giving you traffic safety information and weather advisories, all kinds of stuff that you might need to know. the built in environment will be your person user interface. for the moment this display is just a very expensive fragile prototype. but in the next few years it could be the beginning of televisions as easy to move around and a poster on your wall.

jacob ward, al jazeera, san francisco. >> we here at al jazeera america have some sad news to report tonight. our anchor john seigenthaler's father, john seigenthaler jr sr. passed away in his home in nashville. he was 86 years old. his life was remarkable leaving a lasting impact on journalism and civil rights. >> reporter: john seigenthaler, john's father, is one of those men who could live more than you could pack into one life. a legendary journalist, a counselor and family man, and really an inspiration for all of us. [♪ music ] >> reporter: champion for civil rights. relentless defender of freedom of the press. adviser to the kennedy as mentor

to a young al gore. john seigenthaler sr. was a journalist, confidant and witness to water shed moments in our nation's history. born in nashville in 1927 seigenthaler was a voracious reader, who started chasing stories at an early age becoming editor in chief of his high school paper. after serving in the air force and marrying, he landed a job at the tennessean where he would be named editor. under seigenthaler the paper was fearless and hard hitting whether uncovering corruption in the teamster union, uncovering the klu klux klan or fighting segregation, he had a love more news and politics. he was part of the kennedy inner circle taking time off from journalism to work in washington and on the campaign trail. his bond with the family would

survive decades and assassinations. and while running his paper seigenthaler didn't just hire al gore as a reporter, he changed his life, calling gore with a tip that a long-standing congressman was retiring, seigenthaler's advise went right to the point. for what it's worth, he told gore, i think you ought to run. then there was the fight against injustice on the front lines of the civil rights movement. in 1961 seigenthaler was in birmingham, alabama, when a mob savagely attacked a busload of freedom writers. trying to protect a group of girls, black and white, seigenthaler was kicked, and knocked out when he was hit in the head with a lead pipe. i was out for 25 minutes, seigenthaler said, never felt the plow. blow. but his life was touched and shaped by what seigenthaler felt, how he did it.

he saved the life of a suicidal man about to jump off the bridge in nashville. that very bridge was renamed after john seigenthaler sr. our colleague anchor john seigenthaler jr. released a statement saying we celebrate his life, his devotion to social justice, his advocacy to human rights and his loyalty to friend and family. >> one could only wonder what would happen if he stayed in politics. >> robert kennedy has been described as his best friend. he said if kennedy had been elected president he would have taken a position in his administration. but that's not how things turned out, and he said he couldn't have thought more meaningful to do with his life than journalism, which of course is an inspiration for all we try to do here every day. >> absolutely. thank you. julian bond is the chairman of the naacp.

he met john seigenthaler sr. at the heights of the civil right movement in the 1960s. >> he demonstrated what a hard working journalist could do and could be. that was a great movement because we badly needed someone to tell our stories and to tell them correctly, and to tell them the way they should have been told. he was a leading journalist in doing that. >> at that time what were the other publications, tv stations, how were they handling the civil rights story? >> they generally needed to be nudged. they needed to be pushed. they needed to be told that this story should be told truthfully. you should tell who is doing it, why they were doing it, and so on. some did not do that or believe in that. >> mr. seigenthaler at one point was an aide to mr. kennedy and especially during the freedom

writers. the freedom writers' job was to take a break because they didn't want conflict. tell us about that time. >> robert kennedy sent him to alabama to meet with the freedom writers to convince them to call the whole thing off. thinking that it upset the president's meeting, and attempt to meet with heads of state in europe. they thought it was creating bad headlines for the united states, which certainly--which wasn't a deliberate thing on behalf of the freedom writers. >> mr. seigenthaler at some point changed his mind about his mission? >> oh, yes, he saw it early for a white southern journalist. he saw what the freedom writers were doing.

it was something that any american ought to have asked for. he saw that very quickly and very easily. >> what do you think americans need to know who seigenthaler was? >> he was a hard working journalist. he told the truth. he exposed wrong and corruption. he was someone that journalists ought to be i am my lating and imitating now. >> former vice president al gore called seigenthaler a trusted friend. in a statement he said seigenthaler commanded respect from all who knew him because of his integrity and character, and because he was always a force for good in everything he did. our state and our nation have lost a true giant.

>> meteorologist: in new york on this day we call it length. at 8:25 this evening this is what we saw. this is looking down 42nd street. as it was setting it only got more brilliant. this only happens twice a year. may 30th and july 11th. we have a partly cloudy and clear skies. that's what we have. we have complete ply different scenario. it is going to be a heatwave that is taking place right now. we have fires in effect. these fires are across the northwestern part and central part of washington state. the temperatures are going to be 20 degrees above average for this time of year. we do have the red flag warnings in effect as well as the coast for oregon, really washington.

we're looking at heat advisories. these temperatures are going to stay well above average all the way through the next four days saturday, 91 degrees in seattle, and these temperatures are spike into the low 100s. that's your weather. the news is next. >> a new book is shining light on what went on behind the scenes of jay leno's tonight show years. long time producer has written a tell-all book. it reveals the dirt on celebrity

meltdowns, presidential mistakes and backstage mishaps. the book is coming out next week. dave berg joins us from los angeles. we should confess, it's not really a tell-all tell all in that sense of the word, but you tell us the behind the scenes goingings on. what would you think people would surprise people in preparation of his show, what he was doing all those years. >> first of all, jay was the same guy in front of the camera as he was behind the camera. he was a decent guy. we had a family environment, but i think what would be interesting and most surprise to go people is how dedicated jay was to the monologue. he was obsessive. i use that word in a good way. but he would wear the same clothing every day. denim jeans, same lunch, same

dinner every night. did he not want anything to interfere with his monologue. he went through 1500 jokes a day and edited it down to 24. his absolute dedication to the monologue. >> you say in your book at some point you tried to suggest jokes to him, and jay did not buy it? >> well, he--he didn't. you're in the business of throwing pasta on the wall, and maybe if i were a batting average as a baseball player my batting average was .025. once in a while he would take my ideas. >> now tell us about some of the guests that you've had. many legendary guests over the years, and a lot of work went into getting them to come on the set. who do you recall as being the guest who took the longest to be on the show? >> the guest who took the longest who i actually got on

the show was john f. kennedy jr. that was a very, very special booking for both jay and for me. in fact, he's our favorite guest. and i think it's because for our generation we remember president kennedy and his assassination. but it took me six years to book jfk jr. the reason was he did not think he was good enough. he didn't think that anyone would have any interest in seeing anything that he had to say on the show. so i think it was his humility that was just amazing to me. >> and you had some well-known figures make surprising announcements on the show. tell us about arnold schwarzenegger. >> well, that was fascinating. arnold had announced he was running for governor on the show. i have to say that it came as a complete shock and surprise. not only to his staff because i saw their mouths collectively

drop in the studio, but also to jay and the rest of us. we all thought and were led to believe he was going to come on the show basically to promote "terminator 3". so when he announced he was running for governor, you know, jay didn't really have a lot of political questions. fortunately, he knew everything about the election and seamlessly got into that topic, but it was an absolutely surprise for us. the question was how much of a surprise was it to arnold? >> you also had dealings with president clinton to get him to come on the show, but you did get a sitting president to appear, president obama. how special was that? >> well, yes, that was incredibly special. in fact, it's the crown jewel, i think in jay's 22 years on the air. we spent five years on that booking. when i saw an unknown illinois senator speaking at the democratic convention in 2004 in

boston. >> your tv producer is saying, the clock is ticking out. thank you for your time. thank you for the great story. the book, behind the curtain. >> thank you very much. >> and now to our picture of the day were wyoming. damage to yellowstone park by heat. the day's top headlines in just a moment.

>> this, is what we do. >> al jazeera america. >> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm paul beban. here are tonight's top stories. airstrikes. the airstrikes and rockets between israel and gaza have not let up since tuesday. more than 120 palestinians have died including at least 24 children. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said israeli strikes would not let up. he also said that his government is still considering a ground invasion. president obampresident obama

is push forgive money for housing for migrants so they won't be turned loose in the u.s. those are the headlines. >> what do we want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> >> i speak today for the voiceless, those who are illiterate, those you cannot come out of prison and speak for they selves. >> i did everything an innocent man could possibly do... everything that you love is taken away from you... >> i think the prosecutor has the greatest power of anybody in our society. he has the power of life and death... >> i was in prison for 21 years... faced on false allegations against me. >> you can check me for gun powder... check my truck...