aljazeera.com/techknow. follow our experts on twitter, facebook, google+ and more. > this is al jazeera america, i'm thomas drayton in new york. word tonight white house representatives will be attending the funeral of michael brown. [ chanting ] they want justice for eric garner who died after police put him in a choke hold. thousands protest police brutality. [ explosion ] israel escalates gaza air

strikes, levelling an apartment building. soldiers join kurdish forces. we take a deeper look in the islamic state group, how it's reciting fighters and funding its efforts. it's good to have you with us. it's been exactly two weeks since a police officer shot and killed michael brown, an unarmed black teenager in missouri. it sparked a week and a half of protests, unrest and strong-armed police tactics. earlier it was in support of david wilson, the officer that shot michael brown. diane eastabrook was there and has more. >> reporter: under a scorching sun they waived placards and displayed peace signs. backers of ferguson police

officer david wilson. >> support him because he's innocent until proven guilty. and the media is trying to convict him. organizers say it's a way to provide financial and emotional support to wilson, who has remained in hiding since shooting brown two weeks ago. >> we share the belief that officer wilson's accesses were warranted and justified and he has our support. >> donors have contributed 300,000 to wilson through two websites. online fund rising netted $200,000 for brown's family. the rally for wilson is drawing locals, and supporters from illinois, like this woman. >> i haven't met an officer that i did not like. i appreciate the job they do, and i'm here to thank them. >> reporter: a brown supporter showed up to blast law enforcement for the way they handled protesters supporting the slain teen. >> they come out with guns. we are unarmed.

why are the police here. >> many are frustrated by a case being investigated by a st louis county prosecutor. the justice department and the f.b.i. >> this case should be evaluated on the rule of law from the president on down, and all the people sent out here. that's what we expect to happen, and should happen. >> reporter: the police officer who is funding the fundraiser hopes it will help david wilson, and cast a positive light on other police. services for michael brown will be monday in st louis. three white house officials about attend. joining me is al jazeera's political contributor jason johnson. good to have you with us. it is unclear whether the individuals will attend officially on behalf of the white house. is there some significance to this? >> this is huge. this means that president obama has been listening to the news

while on vacation. if you notice over the last couple of days, he has been ex-coriated in the press, especially by african-american leaders - one of myself included - for his inaction when it comes to bill ferguson -- ferguson, and lack of a passion and involvement. he will investigate police militarization, and now we hear that may or may not be representatives from the white house at the funeral. president obama is listening, and that's why he's taking the step. >> is there added pressure that the white house must react? >> i think the pressure came from the feeling that president obama was detached when the situation was occurring. the reality is the president is not the top cop and is not responsible for responding to every local crime that occurs, no matter what race is involved. but when a whole town of bill ferguson exploded into violence and unrest, and when police

officers were using weapons from a programme that this president signed off on, that's when he should have got involved. he's late to the game. >> what do you make of the criticism that this send a message that the white house is prejudging the investigation. >> i don't think so. the reality is that president obama and eric holder have to follow the law. it's the responsibility to uphold the constitution and the law. attending a funeral for a young man whose death sparked nationwide protests is not siding with one or the other. we have not heard from david wilson. he has disappeared off the face of the map. and the ferguson police department has only given snippets of the story. i think the president is expressing empathy, not necessarily which side he is on. >> does this help build race

relations between the black community and the white house. >> not necessarily in the long term. it's been baked in a cake how president obama will behave when it comes to the black community. many are disappointed with him, and understandably so. to this is a constituency that voted to put him in in 2008 and 2012 in the face of law to limit black voting, and he's had tepid or nonemotional responses to issues. if this was doctors, if this was farmers, no one would expect the president to be this week when it comes to addressing their need. >> ahead of my brother's keeper task force will be in attendance. how successful has this process been by the president. >> i don't think it's been so successful to far, but it's just started. the president says "just wait until i'm out of office and i can get my brother's keeper

started", then he'll address racial issues. once he has no longer president, he won't have legislative power to do the things to make my brothers keeper powerful. it's in its early stage and hasn't impacted many people. >> what will be the headline on the talk shows regarding the three white house officials attending moun's funeral. >> if you are on the right. you'll say president obama is infliming racial relations, and he's shown which side he's on. if you are on the left you'll say he's lix. if you are on the left you'll say "the president is doing his job, paying attention to the needs of those that voted him into office. it will just really reflect everyone's ideological conditions, i don't think it will change what people thing about president obama. >> do you think the white house should come out and say "yes, we

are spending these individuals." . i think it will affect this. don't keep it a secret if someone is going to attend. there's an ongoing investigation. you know, so having someone attend this funeral, and obviously they probably have been invited or received permission from the brown family to go, there's nothing wrong with that. president and presidential officials attend funerals of individuals, this is not different. i do think the president should say yes, i sent them there, yes they were invited, and it was okay to go. that way you don't have people guessing, or whether or not he has motives. >> where do you see us as a nation going from here? >> i think we need to fundamentally change our conversation about race in this country. for too much time we had a discussion where it's preaching to the choir. you have african american and

white men's discussing. reality is this conversation needs to change, where white americans, need to address white racism. that's what needs to happen. this is not a prab that can be fixed by minorities, there needs to be a conversation in the white community as to how that group of americans will address the changes in this country, in the history. it can't be a conversation where black people spearhead how the nation changes. >> appreciate your time. good to see you. >> thank you. >> in new york city, thousands march today, protesting police brutality, the rally began on the street where eric garner died. this video shows police trying to restrain garner with a choke hold. cailin ford was at the rally. >> god is calling on you to change the mind of this racively

regime. >> reporter: it began with a prayer. >> put the police na gaol. and bring us good police. >> reporter: on a site where 43-year-old eric garner took his last breath. >> i can't breath. >> 200 people took to the streets to express anger, grief and a desire for justice, after the high profile death of two unarmed black men at the hands of police officers this summer. [ chanting ] in the wake of garner's death, it emerged new york's police department received 1,000 choke hold complaints. despite the fact that the practice was banned. police have stopped and frisked people more than 1,300 times, more than any other place in the city. >> before saying they'd stop the stop and frisk, now they started murdering them. i don't know what it is, it's an

epidemic. the death was ruled a homicide. a grand jury will decide whether it was a crime. for many of the protesters, deaths are the all-too-common outcome of aggressive policing witnessed every day. >> garner and brown's death at the hands of police are two of many across the country that should be federally investigated. local investigations don't lead to justice, too many say. n.y.p.d. hopes to learn from garner's death. >> it's a tragic incident. we are hoping we'll come to an agreement that out of this can come something positive and moving forward we can get beyond this, and learn from one another. >> for alicia garner, eric's sister, it's about making her brother's death mean something. >> eric's life was taken away selfishly. with all that said, we are fighting for justice.

>> reporter: justice, his family hopes, will be the biggest part of his legacy. we should mention the protest was peaceful. new york police report there was no arrest. turning to the latest on the situation in gaz a. [ explosion ] >> a 12-storey apartment building in gaza city brought to the ground by israeli air strikes. residents were given a warning to get out. two missiles brought the building down. israel says there was a hamas operations room inside. meanwhile palestinian authorities president tries to jumpstart a new round of peace talks. >> reporter: after more than six weeks of fighting... [ explosion ] ..this is perhaps the largest act of property destruction by israeli forces in a single strike. distraught residents fled the area with little more than the clothes on their back. several were injured, including

many children. we were informed about half an hour before the shelling. this town has 11 floors and 32 families were living there. the minute we evacuated the place was hit by a warning rocket. and the f-16s fired two rockets. the building collapsed. all were in the streets. god hep us all. the military was targeted. it was used by hamas. residents deny this. >> what concerns us more at the moment is to put an end to the blood shed, putting an end to an act that costs sacrifices. once that happens, the humanitarian relief aid and rebuilding must start. >> after weeks of bloodshed and destruction. residents want to see an end to the violence, but only if israel agrees to lift a years-long

blockade which strangled the economy. >> in the background of the violence and calls for a ceasefire, signs that palestinian officials may apply to join the international criminal court. that would enable them to call for an investigation into whether israel may have committed war crimes, but joining the i.c.c. would mean they, too, could face the same scrutiny. in iraq a new ally in the fight. iranians troops joining in, crossing the border to help the kurdish fighters take been jaluala from the islamic state. >> there was fierce fighting by kurdish forces in the north-east. around jaluala, 30km from the iranian border. for the first time iranian units crossed the border in support of the kurdish peshmerga.

hundreds of fighters crossed on friday. bringing artillery to counter shelling by the islamic state group. the peshmerga are stalled on the outskirts of jaluala because of mines and bombs laid by the islamic state fighters. they say they'll push on to try to retake the town. iraqi helicopters have backed them, but not u.s. air strikes. the u.s. has been limited in response, focussing on areas of national interests. u.s. interests and using the strikes to protect u.s. citizens and other assets. here in the north there has been reports of one bombing in baghdad, meanwhile. this one scide car bomb near a pice station that also houses a unit of iraqi intelligence attached to the interior military. several civilians and two police officers have died in that one. security forces and police

stations are a tart of attacks that are -- target of attacks claimed by islamic state oup. >> also in iraq there were explosions throughout the county. a suicide car bomb killed 19 in baghdad. there were three explosions in kirkuk. 30 were killed and 130 others injured. the bombings are believed to be retaliation for the mosque attack on friday. >> the islamic state group that killed american journalist is threatening to kill another american. he is one of 20 westerners the islamic state group is holding. several aid workers are being held. two are italians. vanessa and greta. they are 21 and 20 years old. the international committee of the red cross says three of its workers were kidnapped last october. still ahead - we look for answers to question about the

islamic state. how is it funded and where is the group recruiting members. we'll take a deeper look in a few minutes here on al jazeera america. a controversial russian convoy has left ukraine. russia insists trucks contained humanitarian aid. the trucks were taking equipment used to make an aircraft tracking system. the latest accusations come after the security council met in an emergency session to discuss the crossing. russians claim they lost patience and wanted to bring aid to people in need in rebel held areas. ukraine described the actions as an invasion. >> german chancellor angela merkel met with ukranian president petro porashenko in kiev. she pressed for a path for peace between ukraine and russia. the president of both counties are due to meet in bell on tuesday. the chinese government accused

the u.s. of overreacting to a close call to one of its jets. four days ago. a chinese pilot passed within 30 feet of an american plane. the chinese said if the u.s. stops reconnaissance missions these types of things wouldn't happen. a strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake shook buildings, knocking out power to chile. the cake struck outside the capital of sandy argio -- santiago, near a port city. there's no tsunami risk. app alert code to red in iceland after the bardabunga

began to erupt. the seismic activity was enough for officials to declare a no fly zone. hundreds have been evacuate in case the glacier melt leads to flooding. >> coming up, taking a look at the group calling itself the islamic state. from its tactics to how it's raising millions. that's after the break. and days after a mentally ill man was shot dead by police, we look at whether it may have been avoided.

>> welcome back, it's saturday night and time to take a look at a group calling itself the islamic state group. first, how it came to be. they grew outle al qaeda, which was led by abu bakr al-baghdadi. many fighters travelled to syria. it was in syria that they had

military successes. abu bakr al-baghdadi changed the name to the islamic state of iraq and levant, i.s.i.l., and referred to i.s.i.s. it gained strength in sunni muslim areas of syria, it became more extreme and eventually carried military operations back into iraq. in far greater force than before. in june, following a string of conquests, it changed its name. the new name reflects an aspiration to rule the world's muslims, and re-establish a calafat as it existed in the first generations of islam. courtney kealy has more on how islamic state group is recruiting members. >> reporter: the islamic state's recent recruit. videos are produced and aimed at muslim men in the west. >> oh, my goodness, living in the west, i know how you are

depressed. the cure is you have disobedience. >> reporter: the group is composed of iraqis and syrians, an estimated 6,000 syrians joined. the islamic state has routes with al qaeda in iraq, and the original leader. nicknamed the sheikh of the slaughterers, he is thought to have personally beheaded western captures. the group has been rejected by al qaeda, but has met as te sized with ferocity into a region too familiar with violence. it published mass executions and the beheading of james foley. >> this is a capable group in terms of its propagation effort. the video will play into the narrative. it's a group that wanted to show it's paying continuation.

>> in a recent issue. alivant was featured on page 22. >> they are sophisticated. what i.s.i.s. did is take the words of my co-author and use it to present to their followers "look, the western analysts take us seriously". >> reporter: it's a multi-pronged effort that some describe as a threat to the west. >> let's take a deeper look. joining us to talk about the issue is jack thomas, former deputy, under secretary for intelligence and analysis operations at the department of homeland security. and phillip smith, researcher at the university of maryland, where he focuses his study on shi'a militias. good to have you with us. jack, i have known you for about five years and have spoken on these terror organizations. islamic state is like something

we have never encountered before. >> it is, it's something different and serious, and persistent. the first time we see a radical islamic organization that has the ability to project power beyond syria, which is where it was birthed, into iraq, and with aspirations to rule the calafat that would essentially go beyond the middle east into europe and possibility into the western world. >> it is a brutal organization, a brutal group. they have an end of times mentality. >> it is almost mico liftic. where al qaeda was aspirational, they never had the ability to take and hold territory. we have a proto state sitting in the middle of the middle east. that is dangerous, not only to the countries that surround that area, but the countri in eupe, and tohe west. >> this is more than a terrorist

organization, this is a full-fledged army. they are very sophisticated. >> yes. when you try to build is state, one goes with the other. they tried to establish social welfare programs and different setups to support the state apparatus. >> what is intriguing is americans have never been to the middle east are somehow intrigued by the islamic state group. why so? >> well, when you have ease of access - if we are talking about social media, this is a system that can be accessed by an american or european, anyone in east asia, and you can see the material that the organization is putting out, and the nasty brutality of it will attract people to look. it's kind of like wanting to look at a car accident. it's horrible. sometimes people want to stare.

with that said, do you belief the islamic state changed the game when it comes to recruiting, via social media. that's a cliche statement, that they changed the game. i wouldn't agree with it. there are other organizations to use social media. a lot of shia organizations that i fold. particularly backed by iran have been using this recruitment technique for over a year. this is not something that is all that new. the big piece is how it's developing and how it has normalized. this is a piece of a larger puzzle. >> it plays a major factor. working under homeland security. you looked at social media. this was a factor. >> it was, and we had american citizens that became radicalized as a result of going online and using social media. as philip said, it's not a new

tool, it's not a game changer. we are seeing something that is developing over the last five, six, seven, eight years. i.s.i.s. has been able to reach out and get a lot of foreign fighters who have contacted them through the medium of social media, and that is struggling. >> they are looking for skilled individuals. >> if you look at some of the that i.s.i.s. put out. they are asking for engineers and military officers and doctors. people who essentially have professional skills that you need not only to run an army, but build an infrastructure and the stat. >> looking at the propaganda, how effective are online recruiting videos. there's a lot of concentration. they have put out a lot of mixed messages. they want to create a sub universe, and in terms of effecti

effectivene effectiveness, yes, it will draw people in, rallying people who support them. so, yes, they have been rather effective. perhaps more troubling. self thousand fighters may hold passports of western nation, including 100 to 150 minister. this is troubling. >> it is. we don't know the numbers, how many americans are fighting with i.s.i.s., i have heard as low as 12-15. and in excess to 200 we don't have a true number. there are several thousands of brit ans, germans and chechens, representative in their ranks. because the individuals carry passports, because they are citizens of those countries, it allows potentially free access into their home of record, or other places around the world: we don't know if the americans

are fighting for the islamic state, and they could return back to their homeland. >> that is a problem. it's something we have to watch carefully. >> we want to point out that members of the islamic state are not the only ones fighting in iraq. here are some others. kurdish peshmerga are trying to defend forces in iraq. the main militias are active in diyala, and other provinces. they are known to have links to iran. there are some armies, someone based in anbar. that brings us back to the islamic state. the i.s.i.s. group is in control of iraq's second-largest city mosul, tikrit and anbar province. with that said, what does this mean. is it a game changer. when we see the groups banding together. what does it mean? >> well it can mean a lot of

different things. on the side of the iranian proxies, they have been together and operating together. in terms of i.s.i.s., looking at how they have been operating, the broader coalition can develop. that is not good. it's not good at all. from a national security perspective. if you want to counter an organization, you look for splits and ways you can defeat them, even through different alliances. if they build further alliances it's never a good thing. >> what do you make of the fighting? >> iran is a shiite nation. they see it as a clear and present danger on the border. they have had a number of military officers and fighters in iraq. they went into action today. i think that the iranians are - odd as it sounds, they are turning out to be strange. >> funding has a lot to do with

it. the islamic state group has bank rolled a significant amount of money. courtney kealy with a deeper look at a break down of their funding. >> reporter: when the so-called islamic state stormed across the borders from syria in june, fighters seized the city of mosul, looting and pillaging along the way. the haul of cash from banks and iraqi owned weaponry cannot be independently verified. it's an immense payload for the 10,000 strong fighters, adding to the trove of captured oil fields in war torn northern syria with three needles in iraq. they have been tapping into pipelines, looting storage facilities, and sending oil along a smugglers network to turkey. the biggest boost to resources is hostage taking. >> a goal is to get western money in the forms of ransom, and use it to kill westerners.

>> in spring, some journalists were freed after their governments reportedly paid ransom. >> it was an effort by the united states to collect them, homed them together and barter them. there was similarities in the negotiation tactics that went out with each captive, they were almost following the exact script. where there was a centralized effort in the yate to get the captives and profit from them. >> they launched a raid to locate the hostage. the islamic state arrived for 130 million. in retaliation for air strikes, the group killed him. issued a gruesome video of the beheading, warning president obama, that an american journalist will be next to die as retribution for air strikes

against the islamic state. >> this is a well funded operation. philip, did we, the u.s., as allies, under estimate the islamic state? >> well, underestimation is a way to say it. not count aring them when we could -- countering them when we could caused a problem. >> how big of a threat to united states is the islamic state? >> it's hard to say. there has been rhetoric that they may be in the united states already. i don't know if it's true tore not. we know that one of the things that abu bakr al-baghdadi said when he was released from u.s. detention in iraq, he said to his american captors, see you guys in new york. they had been clear they want to bring the fight to the west, home to our home. so, yes, it is a danger, and that is something, especially with american citizens that are over there in an undetermined number, the ability of those

individuals to come back further radicalized with a desire to do damage to the homeland is something that the u.s. intelligence community and the law enforcement community takes seriously. >> there's a rivalry, if you will, with al qaeda, almost saying we are going to do what you haven't since 9/11. >> again. al qaeda kicked these guys out. they were a little too brutal for even al qaeda. there has been a little one-up-manship. i.s.i.s. has the upper hand. they are getting all the press. al qaeda is probably saying we are kind of second-seeded here. they are bold, they know thou use social media and terrorism. the foley incident was an act of terror. the idea that we will behead someone, we will come to your town and kill you. that's terror. how do we stop the islamic state in its tracks, as far as social

media and its funding? >> well, there are a few different ways, i come at this as a researcher. i like it when terrorists organizations put out information online, it helps me put together a good picture on what they are doing, and i'm assuming, and i can't really speak to this, but i'm assuming other intelligence agencies look at this in order to put together countermeasures against them. in terms of countering them there's a few different ways. if you notice the direct recruitment. if you see the different things, that's a great place to chart and check on and attempt to get into the networks and destroy them. there's not much one can do. let's say if i start a twitter or facebook account. to take those off and make a huge dent because they'll make 15 more. i'm not adverse to anyone saying that, you know, we should continue to kick them off once in a while. it's good to put pressure on

them. >> where are they getting their equipment? >> a lot of the equipment that they are now using was u.s. equipment that was given to the iraqi army in the last couple of years, that's fallen into their hands. you might recall there were times in the last 2-3 months when an iraqi army went up against the i.s.i.s. fighters, and they ran off. when they have beaten the iraqi army divisions, they have taken their equipment. they have a healthy, robust amount of u.s. equipment. they have a bunch of ex-soviet russian equipment that the old iraqi army has from saddam hussein's day. they are well armed and well financed. >> what do you make of the u.s. air strikes? >> i think they have been effective. they have blupted the advance in the north. they helped the peshmerga, the

kurdish fighters and the iraqi army. i think that those air strikes, the tactical air strikes will continue, as you know. the u.s. is weighing the option of expanding that into syria. a lot of the i.s.i.s. bases and their enclaves are in syria, they have a lot of traffic going from syria into iraq. >> do you think the air strikes will be enough to stop the islamic state. >> we don't know, we don't know where this will go. there's an adage that people say air strikes alone can never win a war. there'll have to be more than air strikes. the iraqi army will have to toughen up. there'll have to be coalition activity. hopefully u.s. led to blunt i.s.i.s. wh it means -- whether it means boots on the ground, i don't know if we want to do that. it's difficult to say where

we'll be with the situation three or four weeks from now. >> philip, in your research, is negotiating with the islamic state an option? >> well, i guess negotiating in which sense is the bigger question. i don't think that they are in the mood for negotiating with anyone. they are following in their mind what is god's plan on earth. if we negotiate, they'll take advantage of it to press their own demands. i mean, it's a complex problem and it don't think that the united states or the west or any regional government will get that much out of negotiating with them. >> perhaps a restated question. there is fear among the american public. what have we learned. do we know what is sought there and do we know what is coming? >> no, we don't. i.s.i.s., at this point, is contained in the iraq syrian theatre of operations. they may have individuals outside of that theatre. they may have individuals that travelled to europe or in the process of trending to other

countries, it's difficult for us to get excited about that, or to get - to raise a clarion call, because we don't know. certainly one of the things that the intelligence community and the military is doing is trying to put together a picture of who their leaders are. other than abu bakr al-baghdadi, who are the commanders, who are the people calling the shots and that are operational. we don't know that. this is, again, a threat that has just been with us for three months, four months. in fallujah, they took fallujah in january. that's eight months ago. it was thought to be a smaller group than it now is. so we have got - we have our work cut out. >> a lot of questions remain. we'll have to leave it there. researcher at the university of maryland, focussing on shia militiases. and jack thomas, former deputy under secretary for intelligence and analysis operations at the department of homeland security.

good to have you with us. >> thank you. >> thank you. ahead on al jazeera america - could this death have been avoided. a cell phone video captures a mentally ill man killed, who was wielding a knife. schools did not open in ferguson this week, but teaching didn't stop. we show you why.

in ferguson, missouri, there was an n.a.a.c.p. rally for michael brown. in st louis, there was a rally for officer darren wilson, the officer who shot and killed the teen two weeks ago tonight. >> we are not speaking on behalf of officer darren wilson or his representative, we were speaking on behalf of the online campaign titled support darren wilson. our mission is to declare that we share a belief that officer wilson's actions on august 9th were warranted and justified and he is has our unwavering support.

we believe the evidence has and will continue to validate our position. >> supporters believe negativity and hate paralysed officer darren wilson's ability to pursue justice. >> schools in ferguson are due to open on monday, a week late. some parents took the past week's events as an opportunity to teach lessonsism. >> you are on your way. >> reporter: 8-year-old jab ril hasn't had a chance to wear the outfit picked out for the first day of a new school year. for two days he got the chance to learn about animals and make friends at a pop up school at the ferguson library. >> it was pretty cool. >> it's been dubbed the school of peace. due to the turmoil in ferguson school was postponed for more than a week, leaving families scrambling to make last minute

day care. his mum and dad had to take days off work. >> regardless of what is going on, you have to teach your children. volunteers say they tried to create a sanctuarsanctuary. >> a counsellor devoted hours, with emotions and fear of violence. on monday, a dozen kids lined up to go to school. on fridays, as word spread, there were more than 200. >> we had to turn a child away yesterday because the child's school was in session. they tried to skip their school to come here to go to school. >> reporter: this week jab ril joined his parent to protest. when he sou the police lined up, he was nervous. he said "i wanted to be a policeman, i don't know. are they, like, scary."

we had him take a picture with the policeman and get a feel that they are okay, because he was walking past and really scared. we were, like, you don't have to be scared. >> why would you like to be one. >> because you get to... >> reporter: you help people. jab ril will be able to wear the back to school outfit on monday. his parents tried to use the unrest on the streets as a real-time history and social studies lesson for their son. >> he learnt that we have to stand up for what we believe, and nothing is given to you. you have to go after the things that you want. he's learnt a great deal. a police shooting this week that happened just a few miles from where michael brown was shot and killed is raising questions about how police respond to the mentally ill.

st louis police released this cell phone video, officers shot and killed powell on tuesday after a robbery on tuesday. he had a knife. the incident is under investigation. david clinker is an associate professor at the university of st louis, and a former police officer. he talked about the use of deadly force. >> when a police officer hears someone saying "shoot me, kill me", often the officers knows click, this man is not stable. if you listen to the officers, one said "drop the knife, bro", he's trying to establish, i'm not a cop, you're not a bad

guys, we are two humans, let's see if we can resolve this. the suspect fails to comply with the order, fails to take the officer up on continuing a dialogue and moves towards the officer. yes, you want to try to do that. however, the mere fact that someone is mentally derange said doesn't mean that you'll sit there and let someone plunge a knife into the throat or neck. the officers understand that. officers are trained that you de-escalate. in a situation where someone is within 20 had 25 feet. if a person moves past that point, your life is in jeopardy, and deadly force is appropriate to protect yourself and your partner. >> we invite you to join us for "the week ahead" when we look at the civil rights issue surrounding the death of michael

brown. 8:30 eastern, 5:30 pacific. college football is about to kick-off. there are major changes this season. we tell you who stands to win and who stands to lose, and who stands to cash in, up next.

college football season kicks off in a matter of days. there's big changes in the upcoming seen and including how the number one team will be determined at the end of the season. jessica taff explains how it's expected to play out. >> there are a few changes to the rules of the game, but the biggest changes will determine the champion and who is paid to play. here is a look at the two major moves and how they will change the landscape of college football as we know it. the end of an era has come. after complaints about the series, college football will introduce a 4-tier bracket, the college football play-off to

crown national champion. the select quartetly be chosen by a 13-member committee. including past and present officials, and former secretary of state condoleezza right. the four chosen teems will be played in two elimination, and will switch amongst each bowl. cotton, fooesta, orange, peach, rose and sugar. the two face off at a rotating site. the move extends the season ending mid jan has been a long time coming for the b.c.s.s critics. each team a worthy team or two a left out. one of the biggest in 2004, when an undefeated team watched southern california and oklahoma play for the championship. the committee is charged withes choosing the four most deserving teams, the college football play-off moves the line of contention from number three to

number 5 team. the move is big business for college football, and in 2013 forbes.com says e.s.p.n. paid over $150 million for ex-cheese if tv rights to five games and upped the ante to $7.3 billion. the b.c.s. paid $18 million per team in major bowl games, divided among the schools and conferences. that number also will increase dramatically. the move will not be without its critics, there are five power conferences and four spots, not to mention at large teams and those from an upstart conference that can make noise. >> another rule change can lift restrictions. before nearly all contact was forbidden, the conferences will be left to determine how the athletes can cash in on their

image and notoriety. >> let's talk about the weather. >> we have big storms to the south-east. i'll show you where the flooding happened and the track of the storm that everyone from florida up the east coast is watching close i. i'll show you the latest on that, coming up.

>> police in ecuador intercepted an illegal stash of liquid cocaine hidden in buckets of disin effectant. drug detection dogs sniffed out the cocaine. in japan, rescue crews are

searching part of hiroshima for survivors of the deadly landslide much officials say 46 people in the suburbs were killed on wednesday, wn several tonnes of mud, rocks and debris slid off a mountain. 41 are missing. rescuers are concerned that time is running out for loved ones. this man is searching for his wife. >> translation: i hope she'll appear. i come every day to wait for her. >> about 3,000 are working. thousands are in temporary shelters. now for a look at the forecast. >> mountainous areas and heavy rainfall. that is what we are dealing with around puerto rico, where we are showing you video of flooding in puerto rico. mudslides, and just general

issues with all the rain coming down so fast and so hard from a cluster of thunder storms that many forecasters have been watching this cluster of thunder storms cautiously because it has now turned into a tropical depression. it is tropical depression, and on the satellite the development of this particular storm and it's past puerto rico, but it is heading to the bahamas. we expect for it over the course of the next 36 hours to travel along the bahamas, causing downpours like this. the rain fall in puerto rico is unique. if you see the heaviest rain, it's 8-10 inches, that is focused over the ount ans. there's a peak -- mountains, there's a peak over 4,000 feet. when the rain comes obvious the mountains, it's lifted higher, causing heavier rain fall than if there were flat ground.

that is a big problem for them. it is a problem forecasting the storms as a whole, because you can see over the course of time ensembles, this is a series of mathematical models telling you from the start where the storms will go. there's disagreement going on here, but the national hurricane center - they are going on a forecast where they believe it will be tracking up the east coast. it will brush florida, and the carolinas with heavy rain and high surf. something to watch. this will be happening. otherwise, a big, big story from montana into the dack odas, rain fall, flooding and problems happening overnight into sunday. >> they are unpredictable storms. you want to heed the storms much are they slow moving. >> the ones over south dakota are, and are causing flash flood

warnings because they are slow and dumping so much rain. >> you'll track this one. that will do it for this hour. thank you for joining us. i'm thomas drayton your in new york. stay tuned, "consider this" starts now. the u.s. increases air strikes against islamic state extreme ists, a former u.s. official says president obama a being advised on iraq by the prong people. former attorney-general joins us on eric holder's strip to ferguson, and the federal government's role in the case. i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this", that and more straight ahead. . >> jarring language from administration officials about islamic state. >> this is beyond anything that we