>> i wanna squeal! >> i approved this message >> i need your help >> midterms, the series begins only on al jazeera america >> hi everyone, i'ming john siegenthaler. this is al jazeera america. direct hit. direct hit, in the path o >> our special election report on alaska.

>> we begin tonight with hurricane gonzalo. slamming into bermuda, in the path of the category 2 storm. for much of the day, bermuda has been battered by it is the most powerful to hit the island in more than a decade. more than half of the residents are without electricity, david lehada is there. what is the situation david? >> thank you john. this may have down graded to a category 2, but this hurricane is lark the island. total destruction. about 95% of islanders without power. that is reported from delko, the

islanisland's electric utility. here in my own house, the windows are rattling and rumbling. i have had doors that i had to lash down. things are not doing well in bermuda, john. >> i assume this storm has been going, raging for several hours now right? >> yes, well, there's no question. i lost power in hi house here in southham-- here in my house in southhamton. the reason why that is, it is on the heels of tropical storm take which killed the island last week. last week fay came here and killed us because no one knew what -- when this storm was coming through. and what happened was, no one was prepared. so it actually blew my roof off,

john. it put so many people without power here. so there were a lot of folks that were just not ready for that storm. and certainly, everyone was trying to prepare for this one here. so lots of problems going on here in the island. >> all right, david lahada, david stay safe. our meteorologist kevin corriveau is tracking the storm. kevin. >> john, we had seen the category 3 may its way towards bermuda, now down graded to category 2. i want to show you the radar that has come in from bermuda, this is from the bermuda weather service, we have seen this very carefully all day long. ray in the center, that's located on the northeast side of the island. you can see the eye went through. now we're seeing the back side of the storm.

so earlier tonight about two three hours ago we saw the front part of the storm, very, very powerful, wind gusts of 125 miles per hour when that went through. it was calm, lot of people went out to survey the damage. power is out lights are out as well, now we're looking at the back side of the storm, which is not going to be as long as what the front side of the storm is but we're still dealing with winds over 100 miles per hour. once that goes through, tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m., sun comes up, we're going to be surveying the damage. i want to show you on google earth what we're talking about. the winds were coming from the south and also the east, now the winds are coming from the west, the big problem here is what is going to be what we think is flooding and storm surge here across the bay region. there is a lot of low lying area along here, we'll be watching this as well, flooding will

occur on the back side of the storm. for the most part, two or three hours of very strong winds. it's going to clear out very quickly tomorrow with sunny skies, believe it or not, as we go into our noontime. >> all right, kevin corriveau. tonight the world health organization is partially to blame for the ebola crisis. in a document obtained by the associated press, the organization should have better nood hounderstood how bad it wo. lisa stark has more from washington. >> with the two nurses sick and dozens of others under ebola watch, the white house could no longer resist stars for an ebola czar. mr. obama has tapped ron klain, hardly a household name but

well-known. former chiefs of staff to joe biden and al gore, leaves his job with a venture capital firm for now. president obama was asked, why pick someone with no medical expertise? >> what we were looking for was not an ebola expert but an implementation expert. that's who ron klain is. extensive experience in the federal governmental, extensive management experience when it comes to the private sector. lisa stark thursday night after meeting with his ebola team signaled he was ready to consider an ebola czar. >> it may make sense for us to have one person in part after this initial surge of activity. we can have some regular process just to make sure we're crossing all the t's and dotting all the

i's. >> reporter: there is much to coordinate, including the cdc's efforts to screen anyone who might have had contact with ebola patients. the u.s. military's push to build treatment and testing centers in liberia which is staggering under thousands of ebola cases. the military's effort alone could cost $750 million in the next six months but it is not enough. according to secretary of state john kerry. speaking to u.s. diplomats at the state department, he says they must step up their help. >> no one group of nations is going to resolve this problem by itself. it is going to take a collective response, all hands on deck. >> reporter: kerry warned, if

this isn't stopped, ebola will become like hiv or polio, the world will be fighting for decades. secretary kerry says the united nations has over a billion dollars of pledges and has less than half of that. >> jeannie cano is in our studio, welcome. >> thank you. >> what difference does it make now that we have an ebola czar? >> i think the president is hoping that the difference is to try to stop what has been this momentum from the republican side and from congress as a whole that the administration has faltered, that they haven't done enough to respond to this crisis. i think he's hoping that this makes him move forward on this. i'm not so certain it has called the nervous or fears -- nerves or fears by the way. >> there is obviously concern

that others might get sick bust ron klain how is he going to be different from the cdc director? >> it is a fascinating matter to me, he is a lawyer who mass been chief of staff for vice president biden, for al gore before him. here is somebody whose real expertise is working on tough governmental inside washington politics. i think that's what the president is getting at here. he sees the crisis he's facing in the office is a political crisis, he has medical in place to reach the ebola crisis but it's communicating with the american public and politician hsthat he needs oget a handle o. >> there seems to be a problem in some ways with the medical procedures because the dallas hospital didn't have the correct procedure. isn't it in part a health care problem? >> it absolutely is a health care problem and this is where a lot of the criticism after his

appointment has come from, is the fact that are you putting politics over policy? a lot would say that is a fair question. but the president would say no, to than communication aspect, the expertise is in place. but the american public is feeling numerically, there's a small number of cases, there is the uncertainty. not to be the case when what happened in dallas. >> there is a "new york times" story that suggested the president was not happy when he met with his lieutenants when we ran that story last night. was it too little too late? why wasn't the president on it sooner? >> quite possibly what the republicans are thinking about. the october surprise of talking about ebola when we are supposed to be talking about benghazi and all the other things we are

supposed to be talking about to determine the election. >> some are calling for a travel ban tonight. >> yes, i think president has foundered in his response to that. if that is not a good way to protect the american public then tell us, and tell us why. i'm disappointed with his response, not going to do it now, might do it later. and this is over and over with this administration that is very frustrating. has given rise to this narrative among republicans in particular, that the government is not able to respond the way it should, not effective. >> people don't seem secure with information where maybe but maybe not. >> and with good reason, i mean you know, we know the cases are small but yet at the same time, there is enormous uncertainty and for the president to be responding as you mentioned what seems to be late and kind of iffy kind of gray, what they're going to do next. given this momentum really going

to impact what is going forward in the election. >> could hurt democrats? >> it could hurt democrats but democrats are responding. what they're seeing is the republican cuts to the cdc, republican cuts to the health care in this country are killing americans. they have allowed ebola to come to this country and by the same token the republicans are saying it is our porous borders that have allowed this to happen. two competing narratives, we don't know who yet will win out, but the republicans have the lock on why not a travel ban. >> jeannie thank you so much. new guidelines for health care workers dealing with ebola patients.the new rule should be sent out on saturday. meanwhile the national institutes of health has upgraded the condition of the patients, nina pham, despite her

condition she is not deteriorating and up beat. the second nurse to have contracted ebola in dallas, amber vinson had contact with her stepfather when she traveled to cleveland, the stepfather has been ordered to stay home for 21 days. another texas health care worker who may have handled some of duncan's lab specimens is in voluntary isolation on a cruise ship. that cruise ship is on its way to galveston, texas after belize refused to let the ship dock. troubling missteps in america's health care system. tonight we see how the virus could affect uninsured people in the country. our science and technology editor jacob ward is reporting from dallas. >> passengers on a plane they lived together they were colleagues in a hospital.

ideally the cdc should be able to get word to anyone who has been exposed, hopefully he anyone with symptoms should come into a hospital and get checked out. that's one out of every 28 people who can't afford either the cost of treatment or the legal exposure of a stay in the hospital. the exposure could be much worse. those without health care typically put off care the longest. how could the cdc have helped them? where would they have gone? texas has the most uninsured residents, dallas is home of north africa west africa and mexican immigrants, don't have insurance. east dallas is a low cost clinic for populations like that. and their experience shows it's very hard to reach people with any kind of health services much less the kind of something like

ebola. in the face of possible symptoms somebody without money or citizenship isn't necessarily going to come in for health care. >> you don't know what their day is like and it may involve choice of medicine for me or food for whoever i'm taking care of in my house. when you look at things like this national crisis if you will if it's the influenza which we have known for decades what we should do or something new like ebola, you face these challenges, food, ebola, i've got other priorities that are more important to me to be addressing right now. >> reporter: and because of those difficulties information doesn't move through this part of american society in the kind of efficient way one would want during an outbreak. >> i would want to have myself or my providers or my community health educators go right to the patients which we do at times but it's those intermediaries. it's those, who do you know in your housing project or your

apartment complex or your congregation, they don't look right. tell us about them and get them on in here. >> reporter: ebola poses an almost insignificant 37th to something exaishe compared to h, cancer or car accidents. but not having access to it is a danger to everyone. jacob ward. al jazeera, dallas. nepal is facing one of its biggest liking disasters ever. government says the foreigners tried to save money by not hiring guides. meanwhile dozens are still missing. sabina shresta is in nepal with the story. >> it's been days since rescuers

reached the annapurna area. towards the 5400 meter doran pass. with snow still chest high all had to be rescued. helicopters were transporting people in and out every day while army medics treated the injured. and as the last few trekkers are brought to base, a body of a trekker is also flown in. this woman is visibly upset. >> my husband is still over there. you know, he's maybe dying. >> reporter: the leader of the rescue team tries to calm her. >> you see the weather is improving right there. that rolling cloud goes something left or something right and we'll start in this light. don't worry, don't worry madam we are not leaving your husband any way.

>> the government has come under severe criticism not only for the total lack of disaster preparedness but the lack of communication since the disaster happened. the rescuers had to use most of their aviation fuel in rescuing, evacuate being people who were -- evacuating people who were trying to cross the pass. friends identify the body. there is a window in the weather and the chopper takes off again. the last of the trekkers is brought but there is no room for the people who rescued him. >> you are waiting in coldness for three hours or four hours. there was no rescue. >> as the weather takes a turn for worse the army rescue team is left on the mountain. sabina shresta, al jazeera. >> a professional mountaineer, he worked for many years when

this disaster took place. he's in seattle now. peter welcome. >> hello john. >> tell us about i this region d the risk it poses. >> the risk it poses to trekkers and likers, many will go around on a trek called the annapurna trek. it takes in the entire annapurna massive system, exactly in the center you're at a pass that's about 17,500 feet. it's a high, very remote place. communications are not always that consistent. and given the intense nature of this snowfall, this was a terrible place to be, for scores of people on that terrible day. >> this was the risk. but how would they know it? >> that's the difficult thing. obviously, there's so much information out about the annapurna trek. it's the signature trek of

nepal. it's one that's been very popular for many years and as far as communications, especially for trekkers who are just organizing by reading a guide book and looking at maps and not being in communication with guides or local people terribly well it would be hard for them to know what type of weather to anticipate. the effects of the altitude going to 17,500 feet and obviously just a lack of performance and speed at those altitudes. then when the storm comes in not having the visibility of the trail having to break trail in snow that might be chest-deep or shoulder-level deep and being forced in this situation to hunker down and try to survive. >> it is the second major disaster in the himalayas this year. how is that going to effect the community to rely on tourism? >> it would definitely affect psychologically these two

incidents very different. technical people, on everest, perhaps anticipating more of the difficulty and the environment that everest climbers do. whereas the annapurna trek is considered much easier for people. psychologically for people who rely on tourism and for people to come and go on their holidays, people don't come on holidays to wind up in situation like this. the government is feeling terrible about this. >> for budget travelers who didn't hire guides, do you think there needs to be changes made in the way this sort of climbing takes place? is should there be -- should there be regulations? >> there's plenty of responsibility all around. the travelers should research this better, perhaps hire local guides who are trained but there could be certainly better guides available, better agencies who hire those guides and then certainly, the government itself could be more active, respective

to the policies of people coming and enjoying themselves in this country. >> for those who have never been could you give us an idea of what this environment is like? >> well, you're traveling well above tree line. you're going to places well above 17,000 feet. higher than anyplace in north america say, for mountain mckinley in alaska above 20,000 feet, this is a high mountain environment. you know obviously during this time of the year they have excellent weather but it's not to say that you still can't have freakish snow storms, extreme high winds and then you can be out in this expansive pass with very little visibility, no landmarks to be able to find your way. and deep snow to have to travel through. and with travelers who don't have that much experience mountaineering. they're probably very poorly equipped. this is just the right type of chemchemistry for a disaster.

>> peter, thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you john we miss you in seattle. >> i appreciate that very much. 16,000 people were killed in an accident ta at an outdoor venue. event collapsed, 16 people died, another 11 were injured. they were there to see the popular all female pop group, four minute. coming up. declined. even the president has credit card problems. plus, the campaign in alaska, wait until you hear what's being spent on each potential voter. federal authorities have charged federal authorities have charged seven people with conspiring seven people with conspiring with al qaeda. with al qaeda. >> since 9/11 the us has spent >> since 9/11 the us has spent has spent billions of dollars on has spent billions of dollars on domestic counter-terrorism domestic counter-terrorism operations. operations. >> i wanted to be in on the big game and to be paid top-dollar

>> i wanted to be in on the big game and to be paid top-dollar for it. for it. that's it. that's it. >> many of these involved targeted informant led stings. >> many of these involved targeted informant led stings. >> to them, everyone in the >> to them, everyone in the muslim community is a potential muslim community is a potential informant or a potential informant or a potential terrorist. terrorist.

>> president obama announced a plan today to tighten security for debit cards to transfer federal benefits to millions of americans but it was a story that he told during that announcement that got a big reaction from the crowd. the president said he was dining with the first lady in new york last month, when his credit card was declined. he said he first wondered if he was a victim of identity theft. >> turned out i guess i don't use it enough. they thought there was some fraud going on. fortunately, miche mi michigan .

>> fortunately she did have hers. tightening federal benefits like social security to millions of americans. nasa says a rare comet would find unusually close to mars on sunday. within 87,000 miles of the red planet. that may not seem close but nasa says it's ten times closer than any known comet that's passed by the earth. up next, our special report, five days in alaska. health care, environment and marijuana in america's last frontier plus. >> i'm allen schauffler l in alaska. a nasty preliminary battle, unprecedented price tag. >> mark begish is shamefully wrong for alaska. >> that story just ahead.

>> america's last frontier. fewer than a million voters could decide which party controls the senate. a state that's different. >> i feel like we're really rich because of all the resources we have. >> bigger, more expensive. >> you get that itemized bill and it's $25 for aspirin. >> debating health care cost, big business versus the environment. >> can we preserve what's here and still still go for what's in the ground? >> and legalizing marijuana. >> i think they understand. >> our special report, america votes, 2014, five days in alaska. >> i'm john siegenthaler. >> the state of alaska is a mystery to most americans. it's enormous when you

superimpose a map of alaska over the lower 48 states. it also stretches from the atlantic to the pacific ocean. nearly 95% of the state is uninhabited but in 17 days alaska could be one of a handful of states that determines the fate of congress. republicans need to pick up six senate seats to get a majority. there are 11 democrats, fighting to keep their jobs. alaska senate candidate mark begich is one of them. the latest poll says alaska is still a tossup. allen schauffler went to alaska talk to the people about the issues, the critical issues that voters are talking about. >> the sound track of a nasty senate race is in h escapable. >> alaska get ripped off. dan sullivan didn't stand up for alaskans. >> begich acts like our friend when he wants our vote. but the truth is he votes with bowx anobama and his d.c. frien. >> more than $43 million has already been spent on this campaign. that is $160 plus per eligible

voter. it touches everybody. >> the race between incumbent senator democrat mark begich and republican dan sullivan in this traditionally very red state could tip the balance of power in the u.s. senate. one controversial television ad may have backfired. >> i'm mark begish and i approved this spot. >> this spot to a light sentence given a sex offender an offender on the day of his release allegedly committed horrific crimes. >> one of them got out of prison is now charged with breaking into that apartment building, murdering a senior couple and sexually assaulting their two-year-old granddaughter. >> a man named engineery active was arrested and extented sentet

it was a clerical error that led to his release date, something that happened before sullivan became attorney general. they are now considering leaving the state for good. they are worried that it is going to taint jury poll. they're worried it could taint the jury pool and they accuse the senator of paying politics with a terrible event in their lives. pollster ivan moore has been tracking campaigns for 25 years. >> was it a mistake? >> it was a huge mistake. >> the sullivan campaign capitalized on the begish mistake with one of their own. >> i personally put criminals away for life and that's exactly where jerry acta belongs. mark begich's lies about this this incident are unbelievable. >> most polls show sullivan making big gains as the controversies swirl. moore who is doing internal apology for a candidate in a

different race believes begich hurt his own cause and the commercial mess may have cost him two to four points in what is expected to be an extremely close vote. >> a very, very politically savvy person who just gets it in an intuitive hard-wired way. what's smart and what isn't. and i don't know. i don't know why that happened. it's crazy. >> senator begich won in 2008 by just 4,000 votes, about one percentage point. so if that ad did cost him a couple of points, it might have cost him quite a lot. >> you think it did? >> you know, the polling after that, you can't tie it specifically to when that ran. , bubut when that ad ran and the sullivan response ad ran, most polls are showing sullivan with a bit of a lead, a couple point lead. >> do i get a sense that maybe

in alaska tv ads have more impact than possibly other states? >> you know i'm not sure about that, in terms of the actual viewer and the actual voter but i can tell you this race has absolutely choked out the television market and prevented any of the other issues, candidates from buying time up there. they actually have time booked up right to the election of course the last moment they can buy it and they have completely blanketed the air waves. is everyone you hear from says it's too much. i hear it everywhere. >> and much of it comes from outside the state? >> you know, about $25 million comes from outside the state, of that, $43 million, we're talking about. most of it from pacs, slightly lesser amounts from dark money and the candidates themselves spending a lot of money. both parties, republican and democrat clearly realizing that mark begich is vulnerable and sullivan is a viable candidate in alaska. they're just throwing in the money.

>> allen schauffler, thank you. >> outside spenders have poured more than $twaif millio -- 25 mn into the alaskan senate campaign, according to the center for responsive politics. paul blumenthal is here. why is all this outside money being spent of all places in alaska? >> alaska is one of the pivotal races that is going to decide which party controls the senate for the last two years of barack obama's presidential administration. so this is a really big deal, who wins this race. right now it's held by the democrat mark begish. and if dan sullivan wins, this is one of the few races that will really determine whether republicans can get over that 50-vote margin and win the senate and that's why you're seeing so much money being poured in especially by these outside groups that as is mentioned has already topped $20 million, more than half of all

the campaign spending in the entire race. >> to what extent is alaska changing, following the death of senator ted stephens from alaska? >> i think alaska is really at a crossroads right now. you know, ted stephens was sort of the grandfather of the state. he helped found it back in the 1950s and 60s. served as senator for decades until his defeat at the hands of begish in 2008. so the state has really sort of looked at which direction they're going to go towards. i feel like in a lot of ways, this election and the money being spent in it sort of exemplifies the difference you see. whether the state is going to line up behind the traditional issues that politician he tend to care about, that people care about, whether that's fishing, whether that's the energy industry, whether that's

the independence that alaskans really see themselves as having or whether this is going to be sort of a straight partisan response to six years of barack obama, a state that's traditionally republican, whether they're going to vote that way just to stick to this party line. >> key sources of money, where does the money come from and is it difficult to figure it out? >> well, a lot of the money coming into alaska is actually coming from these nonprofit groups that don't disclose their donors. this is you know over $12 million already of the total in outside spending has come from these kind of groups.the vast majority of that comes from groups controlled by the billionaire koch brothers, who have been making the money covered by disclosure laws. there are also groups like the senate majority pac, the major superdmsh pac thasuper-pac thate

group backing senator begich. this is being churned through different pacs and presented to alaskan voters as having sort of an alaskan feel to it. >> yes, grass roots feel. paul blumenthal thank you ver >> today alaska came the latest state to recognize same sex marriages. the state attorney general will not appeal the decision. 31 states now recognize same sex marriage. the cost of health care alaskans feel every day. for a number of reasons, medical costs are higher in alaska than other states. here again is allen schauffler. >> hello. >> lunch rush at the oldest steak house in anchorage, club paris stan helped open it in the 1950s. they have always paid for their employees' health care and

today those costs are soaring. >> about 16 to $18,000 a month for health care for 25 people. >> reporter: with so few employees, club paris is not legally required to provide health insurance under the affordable care act, but they do it anyway, because that's what stan's dad would want it. coverage has to meet aca standards and the restaurant pays more than $200,000 a year one of a declining number of alaska businesses still providing insurance for workers. >> i just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep paying the bills and right now we're doing all right. >> reporter: in alaska, the word outside is often capitalized. capital o, a proper noun, a place name where the rest of us live and the rest of us pay a lot less for health care. it can be so expensive here that many insurers will pay for treatment in the lower 48 rather than here, it is cheaper that way. specialty care can cost four times the u.s. average.

primary care is 30% higher. basic hospital cost, 50% higher. as club paris waitress sheila hestes discovered after major surgery. >> you get those itemized bill, and it's $25 for aspirin. they rent you a blanket, it adds up, it adds up. >> reporter: alaska is one of the states that the federal government allowed to manage insurance under the affordable care act. under dan sullivan both candidates are bashing each other over health care. >> dan sullivan would limit health care choices for alaska women. >> as in races all over the country, sullivan links his democratic opponent whenever possible to obamacare. and in this case, senator begish

made a point to highlight his differences with the obama administration. >> back at club paris, sheila hestes says she will make ballot decisions based on what's best for her family and count her blessings that for her work means health care coverage. >> i couldn't afford to stay here if i didn't have it point blank. >> and dan sellman looks ahead and hopes he can still afford that coverage for his employees. >> i hate to be doom and bloom but we're a small family owned business that doesn't have deep pockets. i figure you can only sell a piece of meat for only so much money. >> allen schauffler, al jazeera, alaska. >> and till e-still ahead, salmon or gold, alaskans will vote on whether to support a $500 billion mine or protect alaska's famed fishing industry. and debate against legalized pot in a state that's struggling against substance abuse.

>> america votes, 2014. >> tomorrow is alaska day, a legal holiday in that state. it celebrates the day russia sold the territory to the u.s. for about 2 cents an acre. russia may not have realized what they were giving up. alaska has vast resources, oil gold and copper all critical to the state's economy. and so is the environment. especially the fishing industry. that's what makes one of the state's ballot initiatives so interesting. allen schauffler explains. >> reporter: the pebble mine could be nearly as deep an the grand canyon, according to the environmental protection agency. the entire operation including waste dump sites would cover an area the size of manhattan. the stakes are huge.

there could be $500 billion worth of gold and copper here. 70 miles downstream from the potential mine site is the fishing port of dillingham, something of a ghost town this time of year, where the pebble mine is not popular, especially among native alaskan tribes who rely on salmon harvest for money and food. here in what's called the last frontier, federal meddling on state and local matters is even more frowned on than the lower 48. alaskans are known for their independence and self-sufficient nature. asking outsiders for help, not exactly their style. but this is what six local tribes did, reaching out to the federal government and the environmental protection agency. >> some folks you say, federal government you stay out of my backyard but at the same time, we need to fix our harbor. we need them to make sure we have clean water.

we need to make sure that we have clean air. and how can you have both? you know. >> reporter: the mine site is in the mountains above bristol bay, one of the richest and most productive salmon fisheries in the world. many here worry the mine could damage the streams where salmon spawn and cripple the industry. so the seen has been over for a lot of months. we are going to the paf marine services where there are lots of boats up on block. how you doing? thanks for letting us in. the fishing season is high and dry, the short but lucrative sockeye season is over. for more than a decade tommy tillden and others oppose the mine and see the epa as a potential savior. >> there is nothing wrong with mining. a lot of folks point out this mine is in the wrong place in the wrong time. >> reporter: in a lawsuit, the state of alaska and others

challenged the epa's authority to akd preemptively. -- to act preemptively. ballot measure would give the state legislature the final say on the project. possibly neutralizing epa action on this and future mine proposals in the area. can we do both? can we preserve what's here and still go after what's still in the ground? >> we absolutely can. >> in terms of pebble mine? >> absolutely, absolutely. >> mining interest says the pebble vote is confusing and unnecessary, politicizing what should be a science-based process and could slow investment and development in the state. >> it is horribly unfair to the state of alaska what future revenue we could receive, it is horribly unfair to future job opportunities and people in that region. it is one of the most economically depressed regions in our state.

>> reporter: pebble could provide a thousand jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue in this state but the same argument could be made for fishing. figure 2,000 permits a season, 2,000 boats that can fish for salmon on bristol bay, say four people on each boat fishing, are 8,000 jobs. then add in the cannery workers, the people on shore repairing boats, the people operating the tenders bringing fish to shore, fishermen say it adds up to 14,000 jobs are at risk and much more. >> there's nothing more that i love than setting that first net and watching that first hit. >> so salmon supporters say they're not against mining, and mining supporters say they're not against salmon. it is natural resource icon versus natural resource icon in the far north, no clear answers ahead. allen schauffler, al jazeera, alaska. >> still ahead, burning through cash to legalize pot. outsiders spend big on alaska's

marijuana debate.

>> america votes, 2014. >> recreational marijuana is already legal in washington state and colorado. in a few weeks voters in alaska could join them. the state has a tradition of tolerance when it comes to pot but in america's last frontier, substance abuse is a complex issue. allen schauffler went to one of alaska's native communities worried about broad legalization. manokotak, what residents simply

call the bush. flying is the easiest way in. it's 4,000 miles from washington, d.c. where the campaign to regulate marijuana like alcohol, has its roots in money. >> why would someone from outside of alaska, try to push legalization of marijuana in alaska? i don't think that's right. >> this is a place where local control is important. a matter of health and safety. we're here visiting this little town in many communities in alaska, it's completely dry, no alcohol allowed. so we're here to find out what they think about the possibility of broad legalization of recreational marijuana. >> alcoholism takes a disproportionate toll in the native american comurnts of the state. -- communities of the state. >> federal studies have shown alcohol related deaths are nearly nine times u.s. average. booze has been banned here since the town was founded 42 years ago. it is a local option allowed under state law, and used by more than 100 communities. >> alcohol destroys minds and

makes people do things they shouldn't do. >> reporter: but there's not the same kind of local option built into the proposed pot law. and much of the pro-marijuana campaign is built on branding it as safer than alcohol. manokotak leaders would like to be able to make their only decisions about marijuana. but leaders have a different idea. >> they are tired for this wasteful prohibition and they realize it is time for a new approach. >> have you ever been to manokotak? >> i have not. >> chris rempert worked in washington, d.c. and then was sent north for the mpp project. the mpp has contributed more than $700,000 to this campaign, part of a statewide strategy. big political victory for legal weed after yes votes in bright blue colorado and washington. still rempert calls this a grass roots effort. >> that is a little disingenuous. the mpp is running the campaign,

has made no secret about it. >> right but our chair is a local professor and our board is made completely of alaskans. >> but virtually funded 100% by the mpp. >> not 100% but close to it. >> 95%? >> yeah, sure. >> it is clear there is a generational split over legalization. >> what do you think the young people in this community think about legalized marijuana? >> i think they're happy. >> do you think it would be a problem? >> yes, i think it will be a problem. they're ask money from their parents or their uncles, aunts. >> i just talked to a 19-year-old girl, camera shy who said frankly in this village a lot of people smoke marijuana. and to smoke regularly,

teens and young adults about 30% more likely to smoke marijuana regularly and for ages 26 and up the numbers are even grairk. manokotak, a tiny player that could bring huge differences to the states of alaska. >> do you think they understand, in manokotak? >> no, they don't. >> all of the retail sales of marijuana, 21 years or older,. >> but oregon, washington state has already voted. alaska, what's going on with the northwest? >> well, clearly a very sort of libertarian strain in the pacific northwest and frankly a lot of people like to smoke their weed and that's the case in alaska too as we saw in that piece. there are a lot of alaska pot smokers up there and it's been

legal in a sense in alaska since 1975. the supreme court there said it's legal to have a little bit, to smoke a little bit, in your own home. and that has been challenged at various times in the past but that has stood. so alaskans are familiar with the concept of weed being legal. it will just now much -- if it passes, be much more widely available. >> allen what are things that are tough to see from the outside that even were difficult to show in your stories? >> reporter: well, interesting from the political, the outside of the political circus that is the state of alaska. and we have a couple of things going on. there is an election on a measure, a vote on a measure in the city of anchorage, about a labor bill. it's a fight between organized labor and the city of anchorage. and anchorage is where 40% of the state is. if organized labor gets the vote out the way they have historically showed they could do, that could help everything.

>> and could help democrats? >> it could help mark begish. bring more people out that would vote for minimum wage we talked about for legalizing pot all those things. that is thing to keep an eye on, how many people are coming out in anchorage because of that labor vote. >> you've pointed out some things, what else are they upset about? >> reporter: well, they are very upset about the fact that the election is dominating their lives right now. you talk to them, their mailboxes are stuffed with fliers, the air waves are stuffed, and we hear this all over the place, that people are tired of the tenor of the campaign and tired of the volume of the ads and all that but people up there john where things are much, much bigger than normal are really, really tired of it. >> you spent some time up there, what surprised you about it this time? >> you know what surprised me. i didn't understand the history

of the state's relationship with marijuana and that was very interesting to me. it's a place that legalized it in 1998 for medical purposes and has had a couple of measures up there one run by the marijuana policy project who is really in charge of this race that failed. and the fact that since '75 it's been part of people's lives up there, and that now they may ffers formalize it, really is interesting. don't know how this one will come out. >> it's so close in the senate and a number of these races are very close. what can we expect that night as far as timing? >> well, that's another one of the x factors in an alaskan election. and that is that only billion two-thirds, maybe 80% of the vote is expected to be counted on election night. they just have so far for ballots to come. so far for votes to be tallied from all these far flung districts that they just traditionally don't have much or all of the vote counted on election night. it can be days, it can be a week before we get a final renumber

in alaska. so if everything has gone in interesting ways in the lower 48 and that senate race really counts in alaska, it could be days, weeks before we get anything from alaska. and we know we have a similar thing going on in louisiana, we are expecting a delayed result. it could be the same thing with the great state of alaska. we could all be waiting a long -- very long time. unless it's a blowout early on for one man or the other in the senate, we could be twiddling our thumbs and waiting. >> allen schauffler, thank you. >> a pleasure. >> and that's our special report. thanks for watching. i'm john siegenthaler.

>> if you want to invite jesus into your life, then pray this prayer with me. i've been thinking a lot about how i can get the gospel to everyone. i wanna talk to my principal about giving a speech at graduation. and yes, i would talk about jesus. >> i go to fishburne military school. i'm the battalion commander. every single minute of your free time will be devoted to me. >> let me go over your list of acceptances and who you're waiting on. >> west point prep, and then navy prep, princeton.