story of a police officer that works on the issue but couldn't prevent his own daughter having problems much the conversation continues on our website and facebook and twitter. you can tweet me @amoratv. see you next time. hi, everyone. i'm john siegenthaler, this is al jazeera america confirmed case - a new york doctor tests positive for ebola. the response. >> we have been preparing for months. >> a journalist tweets against mexican drug cartels - did they tweet her murder segregation - alive and well in new york city schools. the city law-maker fighting to change it. we begin with the ebola

crisis and the first confirmed case in new york. a 33-year-old doctor testing positive. greg spencer recently returned to the city after treating ebola patients in africa. he is in quarantine in the bellevue hospital. we go to jonathan betz with more. >> civic leaders say they knew it was likely to happen, new york feels prepared. it is bound to set off alarms in the country's crowded city. >> reporter: it's the first case of ebola in a large densely populated city. confirmed thursday evening by officials. we want to state at the outset there's no reason for new yorkers to be alarmed. >> media reporters identified him as craig spepser -- spencer, working with doctors without borders rgs treating ebola patients in guinea. he left africa and on tuesday he was tired. the next day he wept bowling and rode on the subway.

thursday, he reported a high fever of 103 degrees. he alerted doctors without borders and the city's department of health. paraimmediatics in full protective gear rushed him to new york's bellevue hospital. his apartment was sealed and neighbours alerted. health care workers spread across the city looking for people who had been in contact with him. >> ebola is difficult to attract. being on the same subway or or living near someone with ebola doesn't put someone at risk. >> doctors without borders followed guidelines by monitoring symptoms. >> it came after the u.s. tightened screenings, and the world health organisation warned the virus is spreading in africa. >> there's exponential increase in cases in countries with the most intense transmission.

>> four people were potentially exposed, including his fiancee. all quarantined, none showing symptoms. >> the preparations at bellevue are extensive and put into action. courtney kealy is here with more on that. >> craig spencer is in quarantine at the hospital, which has been preparing and drilling workers for such a case. it's part of a multiproppinged effort that the city and state has been putting together. in addition to the four people in quarantine, new york city mayor bill de blasio said medical detectives are at work tracking others who may have come in contact with matt spencer. meanwhile -- craig spencer. he will be monitored in an isolation room. it has sliding doors. doctors and nurses will be monitored by observers as they put on and take off protected gear. they'll be expected to follow

protocol with layers of gowns, gloves and a hood as part of the leave no skin cell uncovered level of preparation. there are specific sterilisation for the gear before it can be disposed of. and a broad range of hospital disinfect ants more poetant than normal will be used. blood tests will be isolated and conducted near the unit, to lower the chance of contamination in the rest of the hospital. a rapid response team has been dispatched by c.d.c. he was not showing symptoms and not contagious while on new york city subways. spencer was very responsible, following a monitoring routine carefully, including takes his temperature twice a day. he's at the new york columbia hospital which issued a statement calling him a dedicated humanitarian, and said he had not gone back to work or

seen personalities since returning from guinea. >> courtney kealy, thank you. several other decembers fomp pose a bigger and deadlier threat. many as 16 americans will get the flu, and it kills an estimated 36,000 americans every year. the doctor is an assistant professor of epidemiology, he is in our studio. thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> did dr simon, based on what we know, take the proper precautions coming back from africa. >> he did. without evidence of disease, no symptoms, fever, one cannot know whether or not he or she was infected with the virus. as soon as he knew that he had the virus, he quickly came to medical attention, and was taken care of and taken to isolation unit. >> he took a subway, a taxi, went bowling, should we be concerned about that.

>> it's almost impossible to know until you have the symptoms, during the moments he was on a subway, going bowling. he wasn't showing symptoms. it wasn't until this morning he realised he had a fever. he came to medical attention. the worry we should have doesn't stem from this, but we should focus on the epidemic in west africa. >> because new york is a densely populated area, does it make it tougher. >> it is a lit of tougher. the city health department has been preparing for a case in new york. this is the most densely populated city in the united states. a number of flights come in regularly. the c.d.c., the department of health have tape it seriously and thought though the plans about how to deal with the inevitable case. >> we have been through questions before, but it's important to go through them one more time, especially now this

has hit new york. are hospitals and health care workers prepared. what have we learnt since thomas eric duncan? >> the situation with thomas eric duncan. the two transmissions that resulted, the c.d.c. learnt a lot. a lot of what has come out of that are plans that i think are robust around how to deal with the case in the united states. it's my opinion that the hospital systems in new york are well suited, particularly bellevue. >> why is it to deadly, why is ebola deadly? >> it is a disease that actually is evolving in other animals. when it comes to humans, we are not well prepared to deal with it. when it's an epidemic, it's deadly for us. >> how does it spread exactly. >> ebola spreads via transmission and bodily fluids. one has to come into direct contact. there's no evidence that ebola

is an airborne disease in humans. >> and mutation, is there a risk of mutation? >> the kinds of mutations that we are worried about are mutations that give the virus the fact to become airborne. the risk is low. ebola itself doesn't mutate nearly as fast as other diseases. it mutates one one thousandth as the flu. not fast enough for us to worry. >> has the media overreacted to this? >> it's an important story affecting a number of people worldwide. i think it's important for us to make sure we portray the facts and talk about this with the level of seriousness with respect to the united states. this is not going to be the epidemic we see in west africa. >> let's talk about the government response. we talked about how the government responded in dallas. was the government ready back then, and are they ready now.

>> i think the important thing to remember is we learnt a lot. we had a case that came to us organically that resulted in two transmission, policy changed, as has policy in the community, local health departments. in that respect we are ready, and new york city has been ready to deal with the threat. >> i expect we'll see more cases. >> i have no doubt we'll see more cases. even as the epidemic rages on. the likelihood that we have cases in the united states is high. >> what i am less certain about, i have strong opinion that we will not see more transmissions, but one has to wait and see. >> good to have you on the programme. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> more details on the attack in canada. police released surveillance video showing the gunman, identified as michael zehaf bibeau outside parliament, just moments after police say he murdered a canadian soldier, he

was shot to death moments later. his given name is joseph michael hall. at some point he converted to islam and changed his name. he was described as radicalized. canada revoked his passport and had a string of convictions for assault, robbery and other crimes. there's no known connection between yesterday's attack and one on monday when a sct killed one soldier and injured another in a hit and one. bisi onile-ere has more. >> reporter: the fatal shooting of a canadian soldiers rattled the nation and served as a wake-up call. >> the fact that a guy with a shotgun managed to get in the parliamentary building while the caucuses were meeting could have been a catastrophe. >> the violence comes the same week the canadian military forces join the fight against i.s.i.l. >> this will lead us to strength ep resolve and double efforts to

take all steps to identify and counterthreats and keep canada safe at home. >> government leaders in one of the safest countries are pledging to adopt tougher security laws. prime ministers are calling on surveillance and power for police and military forces. jeremy klein is a canadian that wants to see tougher measure enacted and worries that the country could be driven into fear. >> i hope that we don't overreact. and start to become a more closed society, because i think that's not the solution. >> despite the fact that we had two incidents within a week. these are the first incidents we have since 9/11. al qaeda has not been capable of committing terrorist attacks. the authority in canada were able to arrest or dismantle the plot. >> with canada on heightened

alert. the national council is speaking out saying what happened here is nothing to do with the muslim phase. >> more details and new reports say that coalition air strikes have killed more than 500 fighters in the past month. they also killed 32 civilians. the streaks targeted aleppo, and other areas, and the oil fields captured by i.s.i.l. they are threatening to take control of kobane. the new defense minister says his troops plan to go on the defencive against i.s.i.l. the miles per hour says he'll rebuild the iraqi military and wants an army the people can trust and depend on. >> a steady flow of cash is fuelling i.s.i.l.'s campaign, and the treasury is going to make i.s.i.l.'s finances its main focus. >> the administration says there's no silver bullet to cut

off i.s.i.l. funding even if the terror group amasses at an unprecedented pace. u.s. officials say i.s.i.l. is among the best-funded armed group in the world. among the top streams, from mid-june until air strikes in august, i.s.i.l. took in about $1 million a day in oil revenues, the u.s. insisted it won't pay ransoms because it leads to more kidnappings, other countries and individuals pay. >> other i.s.i.l. sources of revenue, according to the administration - looting banks, crops and selling antiquities, selling girls and women as slaves. individual donors, and social media fundraising with the group breaking in money online. 15,000 foreigners joined the fighters. many paying their open way, travelling through turkey and

syria and iraq. others rely an i.s.i.l. to pay the fare. >> dade cowan is a point man. i.s.i.l. can use the funds to pay for the fighters to come into the area. which is one of the reasons also that we are focussed on keeping i.s.i.l. out of the international financial system. >> there's plenty of money coming in, it's how much is going out. i.s.i.l. has high overheads, as i.s.i.l. forces gain ground. they have to hold it. the iraqi government spent 2 million to keep the lights on in places like mosul. they are being paid by i.s.i.l., and that is putting a strain on offenses. >> the administration is threatening sanctions on anyone that deals in black market oil including middleman traders and refiners. >> mike viqueira at the white house. a hearing in federal court over

a lawsuit claiming the nations sparked a deadly epidemic. u.s. government lawyers on behalf of the u.n. asked a job to toss out the group. a u.n. peacekeepers are said to have contaminated the waterways. more than 700,000 people have contract cholera. 8,000 died. the u.n. de nice responsibility arguing that it can't be prosecuted under a peacekeeping agreement with haiti. the hun has no plans to appear in court. >> sebastien walker is correspondent for "fault line" and has uncovered new information and joins us. why did cholera victims decide to take the cases to the courts and why does the u.s. want the lawsuit thrown out. >> it's the latest step in a long process that has

taken years to get to the point. it's the first time the oral arguments have been heard in court. it's been four years since we fimed the scenes. it was the first link with the u.n. to the outbreak in haties. it's tape all that time to get to this point, and before that the lawyers tried other means and mechanisms to get compensation from the u.n. the lawsuit in front of the judge is the latest step in a process that has taken years to get here. >> sam is losing strength. her relatives are worried the journey down the mountain might kill her. the sun is bright. they were going to wait until later. we offered to give them a lift and drive them down the mountain to the nearest cholera treatment center. they decide to make a run for it. taking it in turnals to carry

her over the -- turns to carry her over the rice field to where the road begins. this is haiti in the time of cholera. communities living in fear. each day a new race for survival. >> this person reach the clinic before losing her strength. in the end it was not enough. >> obviously the u.n. is claiming immunity from prosecution. that's where the u.s. role comes in, the judge will have to despite whether to accept the u.n.'s immunity, or if the case can go forward. it's a big decision. >> it's hard to believe you have been working on this since 2013. what is the next step? >> well, the judge said that they were going to reserve their decision, so it's going to take time for them to get back on the

critical decision on whether the case can go forward. that is what everywhere is waiting for, to see whether the u.n. can claim immunity, it's something the harp families are saying -- haitian families are saying it should be acknowledged, the tact that 8,500 died from the disease, and 700,000 infected. it means something has to be done. some liability and accountability, and appointing fingers at the u.n. saying that's the entity that needs to step up. >> sebastian walker, thank you. you can see more coverage coming up at the top of the hour next - the journalist that used twitter to report on mexican drug cartels, until they tracked her down. >> the civil rights act 1964 put on end to segregated schools. it does not seem that way in some school systems.

in mexico prosecutors say a drug car tell killed a journalist and used the woman's twitter account to boast about the murder. doctors and social media journalist ran a citizen news site. they report their movements. she started receiving death threats in october and kidnapped and reportedly killed a few days ago. for more we turn to adam raney in mexico city. >> the murder of this twitter journalist and tweets by the keem, the kitting -- people, the killing and places it on the murder site shows the risk that social activists and journalists face in mexico. she had been tweeting about daily criminal activity in the north of mexico where she had been based and had become a target for criminal organizations that had been looking for heir. threatening her on social media. we had been in that region,

along the u.s. border and that part of the mexico is violent, and we had spoken with people who are active on twitter, who face the same risks as this woman, and they hide their identity. they no longer allow us to film their faces, and cannot take chances. somehow this criminal organization discovered her identity, abducted her, killed her, and by pasting and posting it on the quitter act spread fear further. it shows what journalists in mexico face. it is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. 80 have been killed, many missing. they are threatened by groups and by sources in the government, and face some of the greatest risks of journalists. >> that is adam raney. christopher wilson is a senior

associate. a think tank based in washington. welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start - i was going to ask you who the cartels control. now i thing i should ask who don't they control? >> yes. i mean, the situation in certain parts of mexico, and particularly in the north-east along the border with texas is such that the criminal organizations, there are two major ones, the golf cartel. they do exert such an amount of pressure over state in local government, over the local police forces, journalists working in the area, that it's hard for any of them to do their jobs. at the level of government, the corruption in terms of security apparatus is such that, you know, it's hard to distinguish between members of criminal groups and the police supposedly protecting the citizen.

the situation, the contacts that can lead to something like this. >> other are than the yourm if, what or -- journalists, what are ways can the citizens defy the cartels? >> she was a journalist, a citizen journalist. a doctor who saw the effects of the types of violence happening in the state for too long. really, there's no way that the organised crime, the pressures they put on society and government can be overcome. we have seen in other cities in mexico and other places, one of the most dangerous cities of the world. they have movement of citizens coming together, standing up and saying it's enough. demanding the government do a better job of protecting them and taking an active role in ensuring that would happen. in other parts of mexico we see

radical responses, in the south-west of mexico much we had vigilante self defense groups take up arm and fight against criminal organizations. responsesar varied. the reality is there's no long-term solutions without citizens saying it's enough. saying we may be afraid, but we'll act. that's what she did. it's amazing. >> you talk about the border with the u.s. how does it still over on to the united states? >> the truth is the violence doesn't spillover. there are isolated incidents of what could be considered cartel crime or organised crime from the drug trafficking groups in mexico. they are few and far between. what comes across the border is crime and the drugs from across the border, which fuels violence and gang issues, but, of course, we need to think about the demand side of that, it's not just the mexican suppliers, you

know, pushing drugs on the u.s. population. the u.s. population is looking for the drugs. it's an issue of shared responsibility. we have issues on both sides of the border that need to be addressed before the federal issue of organised crime will go away. >> we see protests from mexican people who have been upset recently about the missing students, who may have been killed by a combination of drug cartel combined with the police. thousands of people have been protesting. does that have an impact, or not? >> yes, absolutely. those types of incidents that cole esque and criticalize an emotion in society have an -- crystallise an emotion in society have an impact. they force people to react.

the peno nieto have been making a lot of sanctions, but less on the security front. with this new renewed focus, with this focus of the media, and citizens on the issue of the students killed, potentially killed in equala in southern mexico, the government will have to respond, there's no doubt about it. they'll have to respond in a stronger fashion than so far. hopefully it will be the right type of response that will lead to a real solution. >> thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> next, the first case of ebola confirmed in new york. how the city prepared for it months in advance. plus, how tobacco plants are helping to fight ebola. we here from a man whose resurge led to the experimental drug zmapp.

this is al jazeera america, i'm john seigenthaler. coming up, the c.d.c. is sending a rapid response team to new york to handle the first confirmed case of ebola in new york city.

also - this story - new york might be diverse, but the public school is not. we'll talk with a city council member that tried to change that. >> and why the los angeles skyline may not look like this for much longer. we begin with the first confirm case of ebola in new york city. a 33-year-old doctor tested positive. craig spencer his name. he returned to the city after treating ebola patients in west africa. he is in quarantine in new york's bellevue hospital. new federal ebola response guards are getting ready to fight the disease. the teams will rush to any u.s. city within hours of a confirmed case, and the government is forming teaming to prepare hospitals around the country.

three of the units have already been deployed. jonathan betz is there with that. >> medical detectives are trying to nail down where spencer has been, and who he has been in contact with. it could be a daunting task in the country's crowded city. spencer tested positive for ebola today. now he is in isolation at bell few hospital in new york city. hours before he was at a restaurant, went bowling, was on the subway. he was ruled not to be a risk because he did not have a fever until the next mourning. the 33-year-old said he started to feel tired on tuesday. a week after returning from guinea. >> after he realised he had a fever, he warned the health department and paramedics in full protective gear rushed him to the hop. >> we emphasise a -- to the hospital. >> we emphasise again, ebola is

difficult to attract. being on the same subway car or living near someone with ebola does not put someone at risk. wr working closely with state and federal partners to ensure we protect the health of all new yorkers. >> initials are monitoring four contacts, including his fiance, they are in quarantine. the city says it is prepared and is competent the risk to the people is slow. >> thank you. >> let's get the latest on the preparations from courtney kealy. >> bellevue hospital has been preparing for a case like this for weeks. spepser will be -- spencer will be monitored. doctors and nurses will be monitored by observers as they put on and take off protective gear. they are expected to follow protocol with layers of gowns, gloves and a hood with a face

guard as part of the leave no skin cell uncovered. officials stress he was not showing symptoms whilst in the subways. he was following a self-monitoring regime carefully, including taking his temperatures twice a day. he issued a statement calling him a dedicated humanitarian. the city has not gone back to work, and has not seen patients since returning from africa. >> courtney kealy, thank you. with me is new york city council member. good to see you. thank you for being with us, counselman. what do you think about the city's response? >> i'm supremely confident in the ability of the city to respond to the one confirmed case of ebola. we have to be careful not to overreact, to be historical. ebola is not air born, you cannot contract it easily, only

through bodily fluids, my understanding is that the doctor wept bowling but before he showed symptoms. >> when you hear that, when citizens here he went on the subway, they are asking which train was he on, which cab, where did he bowl, those sorts of things. but the facts are important. >> exactly. >> it's not airborne, he was riding on the a train. the participation for an outbreak in new york city is next to nonexistence. we have a first-class public health infrastructure, and i'm confident in the mayor's ability to handle this. >> talk about bellevue. it is the place to go for this, right. >> it's one of eight hospitals designated. it's not only bellevue, we have the center for disease at the state level, and here in new york city we have the best infrastructure in the world. >> part of the reason there's

concern is because of the way, or some of the things that happened in dallas, what do you think we learnt. >> the greatest public health challenge is not ebola. more die from obesity and diabetes than will die from ebola in new york city. >> councilman, when we invited you to talk about another topic. we'll get to that in a moment. first, there's no vaccine. one drug showed a promise. the f.d.a. did not approve it for use in humans. the supply ran out. suppliers are scrambling to produce more. we have the first television interview from inside the lack where zmapp is made. >> reporter: when professor charles suggested more than a decade ago that the route to fighting ebola may lay in a tobacco plant neither scientists, feds nor the

pharmaceutical industry bought it. >> when we opposed it in 2002. lots of people thought it was a crazy idea. this is tobacco, a terrible plant that people smoke. all sorts of bad things. >> that proposal, his research led to the development of zmapp. the experimental drug that is credited for saving the lives of two aid workers. dr brant, nancy writebol and two others. >> i showed my wife the website and said we started this. to see some fundamental discovery actually rasp the point that you can say yes, this had an effect on human health, and even more dramatically save the life, i - there aren't many of us that get that experience, where you can draw a straight line from discovery to success.

>> it's a holy grail in the field of research. >> it's wonderful. absolutely wul. wonderful. today developers are in a race against time to produce more doses. this man gave his interview in his lab at the biodesign unit at the university. >> they replicate quick lick, it's like the tobacco plant is a ready-made pharmaceutical system that works better than any other plant species that we tried. >> here is how the drug is made. developers infect mice with the ebola virus, and fuse the genes for the antibodies that are produced with the genes of a natural tobacco virus. the tobacco plants are injected with a genetically designed virus. >> now you see is it spreading out through the leaf. the liquid is going in,

replacing all the air spas that was in there. and wherever the liquid comes in contact with a cell in the leaf, that cell gets invaded by the virus, and it is now a manufacturing system. it's making the proteins we want, which is monoclomal anti-bodies. after this in, say, 10 days, we'll have in 20 of these plants, about a gram of antibodies. >> watch the fuel report at "america tonight", coming up at the top of the hour. >> today a member of new york city council introduced measures to end what many believe is widespread segregation in the classrooms. according to a civil rights group report. 19 of the 32 public school districts had 10% or fewer white students. in specialised high schools, 10%

were open to students of colour. 70% of students in new york are black or hispanic. with me is richie torez, new york council member, a sponsor of the bill. what will to do? >> it's worth noting the context. 60 years an brown versus board of education, new york has a segregated school system. the package that the three of us put together has three components. it requires the department of education to submit a report on diversity, with emphasis on racial diversity. second, a deal to make diversity a goal of the department. and third we are calling on the state to amend the emissions process. >> how do you do that? >> at the moment, the fact that it has a neutral stance, in my

mind it's a betrayal of the case. we have lost our sense of diversity of education equity, i don't want to lead you to believe that a policy change will enable the uprooting, but we should try. the scandal is not that we are failing to achieve diversity, but we are not trying. >> i'm thinking 19 of 32 students this 10% of pure white students. how do you get more white students to the districts. >> it's a change. the schools are a reflection of neighbourhood segregation. >> sounds familiar from past history. >> i believe we can influence the diversity of schools. >> if they can't, do you have to go back to court to do it over again. >> there's a limit to what we can do, because the supreme court shut down conventional attempts. we feel like, you know, how do

you decide where to site a school, place a school - that can make a difference. let's not site schools in ways that split neighbourhoods racially. >> do you think the public school system in new york made diversity a priority? >> no. >> why not? >> that's what is puz lipping to m me. -- puzzling to me. we steer of the issue. diversity teaches us to be citizens, how to interact with people whose backgrounds are different to those of our own. persistence of tensions can be traced to our segregated schools. >> what does it mean for the schools? how are they different. i assume you think some of them are in worse shape. >> they are worse off. we benefit from earlier exposure to diversity. >> you are not getting enough

money. >> i think it's part of education equity. the best means of ensuring that the schools are resourced. diversity has its limits. i went to a diverse school. >> i was going to ask you about that. did you get a good education in the bronx. >> i had the benefit of an earlier exposure to diversity. >> what did your classes look like? >> when i wept into igc, it became exclusively white. students segregated themselves. diversity within their school had its limits. >> i guess the real question is how do you call attention, get people to pay attention to the issue in a way that they vapt before. >> a -- haven't before. >> a colleague said admission is the first step of recovering. >> ritchie torez, good to see

you attorney general eric holder expressed frustration over the ferguson place investigation into the death of an unarmed teenager michael brown. he is exasperated with media leaks, autopsy results suggesting brown was shot in the hand, backing reports that the teenager scuffled with darren wilson while the officer was in his control car. the leaks have been called selective and inappropriate. a report after the choke hold death of new yorker eric garner slammed the police departmenting saying "the city failed to discipline all but the worst officers." >> it could have been me. >> reporter: two years ago angel was on his way home with a friend when he said two officers approach him and started to pat him down. >> the officer came out the car and said "get off the bikes", approached us then. my hands are up by this time. i know this by the time he

approached me, i know the deal, what he wants to do. >> when martinez objected to being frisked without explanation thinks escalated. he said his fates was slammed on to the -- face was slammed on to the car and ground. >> i'm in a choke hold. i'm trying to get it out. i'm not resisting. i'm choking. i can't breathe. >> police use the chokeholds banned by the n.y.p.d. 20 years ago. the practice remains. the n.y.p.d. was under fire in july when video surfaced of officers restraining eric garner, arrested for selling cigarettes. following his death the new york city civilian review board, an gint agency say that reviews police misconduct complaints released a report on choke hold clants for 5.5 -- complaint for

the last 5.5 years. an attorney is on the board. >> we had to play a role. we have a unique of being the repository of 7,000 complaints of interactions between citizens and police officers. no one else has that information. and to the extend that it revealed anything about the use of chokeholds, it was important to mine the data. >> according to the report over the last year the ccrb received the highest number of choke hold complaints since 2001. in recent years less than 1% of claims has been substantiated. the reason is the rules have been watered down. >> what was your initial reaction when you heard the news about eric garner. >> that could have been me. for me, i was tearing up when i thought about it. i was in the same predicament as he was.

i know his fear. for a person to die because of that is a shame. in 2012 encounter when too far. after filing a complaint, he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. >> to me they beat me up. i was not going to accept that. it wasn't a routine stop. this was nothing routine. from the moment i was in the car, i was like you're not going to get away with this. >> martinez wants to raise his voice for the people, like eric garner who can no longer speak for himself two lawmakers said they were introduce a bill to stop social security payments to suspected nazi war criminals. the announcement comes four days after a report of a justice department deal that allows nazi suspects to collect benefits if they left the u.s. voluntarily avoiding prosecution.

the measure will be sponsored by new york senator chuck schumer and bob casey of pennsylvania. our picture of the day is next. plus the los angeles skyline could we getting a big makeover. now rules have

a series of with the storms tapping into tropical moist our is coming to the west coast. what we call an atmospheric river, tapping into places around hawaii, where we are tracking hurricane anna, which will be making its way into the west coast. the next storm system will bring powerful wind gusts, from north carolina up into oregon as we get through the day on saturday. and it will be on tuesday morning that we'll have the next round of strong winds and a lot of rain fall. the storm systems are moving

north ward and south ward. we'll see relief at times for some areas that are having flood problems. flooding has been a big story around boston, around the north-east coast. overnight tonight that continues to slowly track to the north-east. by tomorrow most of the rain fall will be in the northern portions of main. drier air is moving in. the wind gusts are blustery as we get into tomorrow night. we have a big dramatic change. as we get into the weekend and next week temperatures will warm dramatically. al jazeera news continues.

by the news of the day... >> it's digging deeper it's asking that second, that third question, finding that person no one spoken

to yet... >> you can't tell the stories of the people if you don't get their voices out there, and al jazeera america is doing just that. los angeles is a world class city with sometimes less than world class sky lines, some say so. look at downtown l.a. you'll notice something about all the skyscrapers, they have flat roofs. none much them have the spires that make the skyline making new

york iconic. that can change, because the fire department is changing a 40-year-old rule. here to talk about this is katherine, a project manager for caman tall architects. welcome back. >> a pleasure to be back. >> last time we talked about new york city skyscrapers, why are they making the change? >> they have had helipads on the top of skyscrapers as an degrees of edepress. if there was a fire -- egress, if there was a fire, people could go to the top of the buildings. it hasn't been successful. there has been one rescue, they saved five people. because they are in better technologies in fire safety, they don't need the helicopter system. now they'll build buildings without flat roofs. how will that make it look different. >> it is incredibly different. it's like winning a lottery. when you think of l.a.

you don't necessarily think of the sky line. now you have the chance to make beautifully ornate spires and tops to the buildings, you can literally change the identity of the city, how people envision it. as soon as you say l.a. you'll see something different like in new york. you see chrysler, the empire. l.a. has the same chance. >> are there buildings going up. >> there's one that is going up. it will be the first fire in l.a. the wiltshire grand. it is interesting, because you would think since they haven't had the ability to make the beautifully ornate tops to the buildings, that the first would be a knockout. something that is completely eye catching. with the wiltshire grand, it is beautiful. like a spine that runs from the base through the top and capitalized.

except if you look at it from any other perspective, it's not impressive. it looks like a tooth pick, stuck on the side. it's a handsome building. for the first iconic spire for l.a. it falls short. >> with california and l.a. in an earthquake zone. does that affect how the buildings are designed. >> because of the earthquakes, you have to build them sturdy, once they are too ridged, that's when you have the potential for collapse. it's more the guts of the building, how does it compare to paris. >> paris is interesting because what they have done with the zoning, they kept everything in the historic district capped. you can't go beyond a certain height. they want to keem a certain character. what they have done is pushed out tall towers and financial

districts to the outskirts. you have a distinct character for the historic district, which is all these high-rises that are shooting up. >> in new york, how do they work those regulations. we talked about the fact that there are super skyscrapers going up lately in the city. >> in certain areas, they have to stay below a certain height, no more below 10 stories, others - if they want to boost the economy or change the use, like when we had industrial. we don't have industry. it's more of a service economy. the buildings need to change. they have been able to upzone to put in commercial, offices, put in residential. that is where you get the taller buildings. >> you have favourite sky lines and buildings. >> i do. my favourite building is naturally the chrysler building. part of it because it's the tallest brick building in the world, and the iconic teared

crown is literally that, a hat, a stainless steel hat placed on the brick building. as far as sky leaps, i love rio, because the skyline is down been the particularly landscape. you have in the mountains, the favelas, you have a mix of beautiful land masses and on top. mountain, everything is mixed. >> i agree with the chrysler building, the best before. it's good to see. thank you for being with us. >> our freeze frame is a picture of the solar eclipse viewable from much of the u.s. clear skies. the photo was taken in utah. as the moon began to cover the son. nine years before getting that eclipse. >> i'm john seigenthaler in new

york. "america tonight" is next. we'll see you tomorrow night.

on america tonight. toughened up. and attack on their capitol forces canadians to new action. >> our laws and police powers, need to be strengthened in the area of surveillance, attention, and rest. they need to be much strengthened. >> signs of a growing threat north of the border and what canada will do now. also tonight, ebola in new york city? the young doctor who sudden sickness launch as full scale alert, has the virus landed in our biggest city and can it be contained? and behind the headlines.