>> hi everyone. this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. no indictment. the anger. another unarmed black man killed and another grand jury decision not to charge police. the coalition, 60 countries review the strategy to defeat i.s.i.l. as a long time u.s. adversary has apparently joined the figh fight.stay of execution. the last minute decision to spare a mentally ill man on death row. working mothers, the supreme court case over pregnancy and the right to work.

and christmas on the radio. why it started earlier and playing around the clock. we begin tonight with more anger more fru frustration and more protests over a grand jury decision. manhattan protesters, in the borough of staten island, new york city. police used a choke hold to restrain eric garner, who later died. yelling "i can't breathe." ball beban joins us with more. >> reporter: this is the video

that helped spark nationwide outrage in july. an unarmed 43-year-old black man with his hands up, facing arrest on charges of selling loose cigarettes, eric garner was placed in a choke hold by a white officer. a move banned by new york city police more than 20 years ago. garner died within minutes. the last words of the father of six heard on tape. >> i can't breathe, i can't breathe. >> those words used in protest. >> i can't breathe, i can't breathe. >> new york city's coronenew yod the case a homicide. michael brown, in both cases the prosecutors sent the cases to grand juries. nine da days after the missouri

grand jury voted not to indict, staten island grand jury votes not to indict. new york mayor bill deblasio, who is married to a black woman. says what he would say to his own son. >> we have literally had to train him as families have, over the city for decades. >> he has called garner's father and called for calm. >> one of the things he said so squarely was, there can't be violence. eric would not have wanted violence. violence won't get us anywhere. >> that's paul beban reporting. tonight is an unusual circumstance in new york city. you have the christmas tree lighting at rockefeller center.

huge crowds and protesters flowing into manhattan. jonathan betz is in new york, where a number of protesters have gathered. jonathan, tell us about the scene. >> john, huge crowds bringing parts of midtown manhattan to a standstill. columbus circle. >> reporter: one of several protests that erupted today after the decision not to indict the officer who killed eric garner. along with a new one saying i cannot breathe. it is the last words eric garner said, when police arrested him on that july night. throughout the streets bringing traffic to a standstill. earlier they tried to approach rockefeller center to interrupt the christmas tree lighting. but at a entire area is locked

down, officers a huge line of officers in fact are keeping protesters and large crowds a block away from rockefeller center, protesters can't get close to the tree lighting ceremony. they turned the different direction they are winding their way between cars between buses with their hands in the air trying to block the streets, block the traffic. and demanding justice for eric garner. now all day today, john, the sense of frustration to certainly voice their displeasure but to remain peaceful and it seems that that's exactly what is happening. >> jonathan betz stand by, we'll get back to you. attorney general eric holder announced an investigation into eric garner's death. mike viqueria is at the white house. >> he spoke to president obama in the aftermaf aftermath of thd

jury decision. the civil rights division of the attorney general opposite office will go ahead with an investigation, did the officer in staten island violate the man's rights by killing him? more holder had to say about this situation. >> tested the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve and to protect. this is not a new york issue nor a ferguson issue alone. those who have protested peacefully across our great country following the grand jury's decision in ferguson have made that very clear. >> reporter: not a new york or ferguson issue alone, says the attorney general, yet this is a second investigation, very similar, a parallel investigation you might say

already underway in ferguson, a civil rights investigation into darren wilson, they will use some of the investigative materials that were jted b geney the grand jury but the department of justice will be using its own materials. >> the attorney general spoke earlier, what did he say? >> in this latest development today the white house and the attorney general very quick to get out ahead of many of these protests calling for peaceful protests and yes, sir calling for empathy and understanding for the motivationa the motivatd peoplsendingpeople into the str. he announced $623 million for training more police officers, body cameras, and looking at the mistrust between law enforcement

and particularly communities, minority communities. here is what he had to say at a previously scheduled event. >> we are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust, and a strengthening of the accountability that exist exists between our communities and our law enforcement. >> particularly the new york delegation expressing outrage calling the verdict today or the decision i should say by the grand jury a disgrace to democracy and a miscarriage of justice. john. >> mike viqueria, thank you. we are monitoring a press conference from harlem, and the reverend al sharpton speaking. let's listen in. >> we are standing against wrong and here you now have a man choked to death on video tape,

and said 11 times, "i can't breathe." it is against the police department's guidelines to have a choke hold. it is against the law to have excessive force. but if you are choking a man who is down with other police helping and hovering over him, even if the guidelines don't kick in your mind, even if the law don't kick on your mind, after 11 times of i can't breathe, when does your humanity kick in? >> the reverend sharpton has been representing the eric garner family with eric garner's family tonight. we will check more on that press conference more. but roxana saberi is in midtown manhattan now.

she's on the telephone. what can you tell us roxana? >> hi john, i'm in a couple of blocks from radio city, for those of you who know radio city. you can hear the chants in the background, jail killer cop. people of all races, some are holding signs, saying ferguson is everywhere. eric garner's death to michael brown's death. many say they joined the protests when they saw protesters crossing them on the streets and others say they followed twitter and decided to come here. the protests have been dispersed throughout the city. i was in time square earlier today also joining a bunch of protesters walking very briskly uptown, 20, 30 blocks, i joined them through columbus circle north of the city and they even stopped traffic. walking down the middle of the street. a lot of them feel justice was not served.

they feel that officer pantaleo was not held accountable and he should be dieghted john. >> roxana we told that they were headed to the christmas tree lighting. they were locked out. is there any sense where they are headed tonight? >> it doesn't know this they know. it is very spontaneous. demonstrators say, we are following the crowds, we're not sure. they just come to the christmas tree area rockefeller center to try to shut down the christmas tree lighting, but because of the rg lock down. cord pegues, give me a sense of your reaction of what's happened in the past few hours?

>> personally, i'm not surprised. when you look at the state of the police minority community shootings where the community resident is dead, you look at these cases, there's no justice for the family. so i'm really not surprised. the nypd is prepared to handle any and all protests. that's the good thing about this particular situation, this is not a ferguson situation, the mayor won't have that, to allow peaceful protests but today is a sad day for the criminal justice system. we need to make sure that there's a national law that if a police officer kills somebody you need a special prosecutor come in and look at these things. >> you were a police officer in new york so you understand the point of view from the police perspective, there are a lot of people in this country i think who are watching what's happened in the last few weeks and the last few months. and say that there's some police

bark going on. what do you say about that? that they're painting the whole police departments in cities across the country with a broad brush an unfair brush a racist brush. what do you say? >> you can't take a broad brush and swipe the police department of america and say everyone is racist. that's not the case. some of the backlash is warranted. people are tired. in the minority community people are tired. i get these phone calls all the time. i do a lot of speaking at public events. people are tired and the criminal justice system is based on people getting a fair trial by jury. >> when you say people are tired, what are they tired of? >> these no indictment verdicts. black on black crime people are talking about it all the time. people are going to jail that's shooting people, people are going to jail that are robbing

people but just the bare minimum go to trial and let a jury of their peers make the decision. i'm a cop and i'm advocating for all cops. i have a daughter that's a cop and i love police officers. i love good police officers. at some point when -- officer pantaleo didn't go to work that day and say he wanted to cil eric garner. >> he was doing his job you think? >> he was definitely doing his job. >> it was an accident? >> an accident that somebody has to be culpable for. when you violate a clear department rule and regulation at the grand jury all you need the probable cause. so when you are sitting, you set this case to the grand jury is there probable cause that the crime may have been committed? when the coroner says there was a homicide, what factors led up to the homicide?

the medical condition, the compression of the chest, and the choke hold. that's what people have said. >> you've said this before, the problem is that the police officers and the prosecutors are so close that it's difficult for that to happen. >> it's very difficult. let me give you a case in point. let's say officer pantaleo had 15 pending cases before eric garner case. then he kills him. the district attorney, it's no secret that district attorney's jobs are based on clearing of cases. then you've got this eric garner case and you're going to lose 15 other cases and it looks like there's some improprieties, there may be, but how could the public work so close and every time you put these cases before the grand jury you're not getting an indictment. i've been a policeman for a number of years and it's easy to get an indictment.

they're not going to face a jury of their peers and it's not fair, i feel sorry for the garner family, i'm a cop and i feel bad for the cop family, i'm also african american. this is the only ethnic group to have to tell their kids how to deal with police, it's a sad situation. >> corey, thank you very much ver.traffic jams throughout manhattan, you can see them there, not on the sidewalk but out on the streets. they're causing jams just like they did after the ferguson decision. we're going to have more on this story at the top of the half hour but including why critics say new york police are still using choke holds long after the practice was ban. plus evidence, iran has joined the fight against i.s.i.l, what the u.s. government is saying about that.

>> tonight top diplomats from dozens of nations have come together for a strategy session on how to destroy i.s.i.l. it is the first gathering of its kind since i.s.i.l.'s rapid advance started nearly a year ago. tim frend ha friend has more frm brussels. >> the coalition's assertion it's making progress against i.s.i.l. is met with skepticism as they met for the next attack. only remaining medical services in the syrian border town of kobani is preparing for a new surge of admissions as fighting intensifies. a single aid station is all that's left after two of kobani's three medical facilities were destroyed when i.s.i.l. attacked the town in mid september. injured from the coalition of

kurdish and free syrian army fighters received treatment here. from now, as the situation in kobani permits we will find other places where we can hospitalize the injured because we know that the number will increase, more people will come. the most important for us is having an operating room. >> reporter: the coalition meeting here in brussels insists it's making progress in military operations, cutting off flow of supplies as well as fighters to i.s.i.l. but there's a long way to go as the u.s. secretary of state admitted. >> we have already made significant process in two and a half months. but we also acknowledge there's a lot more work yet to be done. dash is still perpetrating terrible crimes. but there was a consensus that the momentum which it had

exhibited two and a half months ago has been halted. >> the iraqi prime minister who was also here spoke of i.s.i.l.'s global threat. >> the challenge we are facing is not only police but the challenge to the whole world. this is most criminal organization that committed atrocities in iraq and they will commit other atrocities so we have to stop them. >> reporter: the medics in kobani don't have to be told how urgent that task is. tim friend, al jazeera, brussels. >> there is more evidence that iran has joined the fight against i.s.i.l. >> john, the united states is not confirming its long time adversary is conducting air strikes against i.s.i.l. in iraq but privately it is, and it turns out it's not all that

unhappy about it. >> this video shot by al jazeera last week shows a fighter jet, providing support to retaking an area, an american fighter sold to iran. something tehran is denying but the pentagon says is probably true. >> we have no indication that the reports are not true. that iranian aircraft have conducted air strikes in the last several days against i.s.i.l. targets in eastern iraq. >> reporter: the pentagon declined to say if iran's attacks against a common foe was a good thing or a bad thing but speaking in brussels secretary of state john kerry was more forthright. >> if iran is taking on i.s.i.l. in some particular place and it's confined to takings on i.s.i.l. and it has an impact it's going to be a net effect as

positive. but that's not something we're coordinating. >> the obama administration keeps stressing that point, no coordination with iran. a nation the u.s. has accused in the past with meddling in iraq. >> it is up to the iraqi government to deconflict that air space. >> reporter: that suggests the u.s. is coordinating in a fashion. albeit through an intermediary, in iraq. in a television interview this week, iraq's prime minister haider al-abadi, says it's no secret there are advisors helping the embattled iraqi government. just like american advisors, but he flatly denied there are any iranian fighters on iraqi soil. it may be the enemy of your enemy is your friend. but for one point, it's

suspicious of the shia majority in expense of the sunni minority. >> in the studios tonight, welcome back, chris. >> it's a pleasure john. >> so iran is not willing to admit they're carrying out air strikes, why? >> well, i think that they don't want to affect the political situation too negatively right now. and the big problem in iraq, iraq particularly, is that the sunni population is deeply mistrustful of the central governmental because it sees it basically as an agency of iran. it's not, not only a secret that iran has advisors, they're all over the place in iraq. and they are working very closely with the militias. when one town was taken a couple of months ago, taken back from i.s.i.s, sulimani head of the

kuds force of iran head of a sort of sinister group went ahead and took control of the whole deal. none of that was secret. now if iran says we're flying bombing missions over iraqi territories, that's one thing that says to the sunnies, this government is in the pocket of iran, and it makes it impossible to move forward with the political initiatives that need to take place. >> america has denied any military coalition with iran but is there something else at work here? >> clearly we don't wan iranian planes shooting at american planes and vice versa, we want everybody shooting at i.s.i.s. or i.s.i.l. and that is what the iraqis are trying to coordinated on the ground. after all they've got the air traffic control but who trains them in air traffic control? who advises them at air traffic control, who's probably sitting next othem in air traffic control?

almost certainly the americans. >> so the u.s. needs iran to make this work? >> the first thing they need is for iran not to screw it up worse than it is and that is a real risk and a repreoccupation. if iran is for instance running bombing raids and starting to kill a lot of sunni civilians then all bets are off. >> the sunni population of iraq. >> this would be disastrous. that's another reason the iranians don't want to make it terribly public that they're doing this. and you do have to remember that the other air force that has f-4s are is the turkish government. we don't think they're involved but -- >> how does this happen, they deny it on the one hand and then they have conversations -- >> sure, this is the land of untrue facts and constant denial of reality. we know there are american diplomats talking to the

iranians now, that's not a secret. we know there are trainings in iraq. we know the big enemy is the so-called islamic state, but the truism of the enemy of my enemy is my friend? that's wrong, the enemy of my enemy is my enany in the middle east. >> bashar al-assad and syria -- >> we just published a piece about the conference in brussels, where was he? there was no mention of him in brussels, nobody talked about him. the turks came out and said what are we going to do about assad, they were the only ones. everyone said the islamic state was the enemy, when assad had ceased from exist. when assad -- >> far from ceased to exist.

coming up. choke holds, new york city banned them years ago, but why are they still being used and the reverse of sentence of a killer in texas, coming up next.

>> i'm john siegenthaler. this is al jazeera america. no charge.

>> i can't breathe, i can't breathe. >> the decision, the outrage and the nypd ban on choke holds. execution stopped. an appeals court spares a mentally ill inmate on death row. right to work. the supreme court case that could change the way employers treat pregnant women. >> we shouldn't be made to choose between our job and having a child. >> plus all christmas music tal timallthe time on some radio st. why do they do it? a grand jury has decided not to charge a new york city police officer in the death of eric garner. an unarmed black man who was put in a choke hold during an arrest. >> hands up can't breathe hands up can't breathe. hands up can't breathe. >> the decision has sparked protests around the city of new york including this one near the rockefeller center where the

annual christmas tree ceremony is being held. protesters yelling, hands up i can't breathe, eric garner was heard saying i can't breathe before he died. jonathan betz has more. >> i can't breathe, i can't breathe. >> reporter: the cries for help heard across the country. >> once again, police beating up on people. >> also revealed a darker side to policing. officially new york city has banned choke holds for more than 20 years but a review this summer by a civilian watchdog agency found more than 200 choke hold complaints in the past year, the most in more than a decade. leading the group to find the use of choke holds appears in new york to be increasing and if the city's police department too often failed to hold offending officers accountable. >> there no need for no punching. >> just days before eric

garner's death in july, new york city's officers were caught using a choke hold on a suspect in harlem. >> what else do can they do? >> they have mace, they have taser and they have the baton. >> for one only a few new york city officers carry stun guns. most rely on mace or batons which can be dangerous and cause more problems. so when faced with an unruly suspect, officers simply rely on their hands. >> it is never okay to use choke hold. it's a contact sport and sometimes a rough business and sometimes these situations happen. >> new york city is retraining all 35,000 of its officers and using police body cameras by the end of the week. >> this is another way to create transparency, account ability. god foshed i forbid if this hape

going to have a clearer understanding of what happened. >> jects ijonathan betz is on tt side highway. what is the situation there? >> this large movement is on the move. hundreds of protesters, causing massive gridlock. right now they're on the west side highway where large highway runs along the west side of manhattan, this is part of what they've been doing all night long which is marching throughout the streets, demanding justice, could not be indicted for a crime. so they've been wandering through the streets, interviewing traffic, shouting shut it down. police for the most part have been maintaining their distance from the protesters, although right now they've shown up in

very large, trying to hear what they're actually trying -- i can't tell. those on the streets have been maintenancing distance, stopping traffic for the protesters, bringing to a stop, let them walk into the street, and then the police have left. and protesters march through the traffic and down the streets through the cars, creating gridlock. so yeah, right now they are threatening arrest actually at this moment, they stopped to block a major highway right there. for the first time we're hearing that officers are strongly warning the protesters they will be arrested. they are chanting you are block a highway you must move off the street or you will be arrested. for most part, leaders urged for calm, people vent their anger, and it -- john. >> all right jonathan betz we'll

keep an eye on this. and i want to show you a bit of a news conference that was held a little while ago with the eric garner family. it was eric garner's mother who spoke along with the reverend al sharpton. >> i am so disappointed in the grand jury decision this evening. i don't know what video they were looking at. evidently, it wasn't the same one that the rest of the world was looking at. how could we put our trust in the justice system when they fail us like this? >> our duarte, geraldino was at that news conference. >> the overwhelming outcome was translating outrage into action. at the beginning of the process they are planning a national march against the targeting of

what they say young black men. at the conference we heard just moments ago, the family spoke in really impassioned tones. the family was asked, do you accept the officer's condolences? they say no we do not because they still want more. this is not end. the room itself was probably about 20% media and overwhelming number of the core group of activists that are going to stand around new york city and according to the reverend al sharpton around the country to bolster support for this national march. again there were moments when i spoke to some supporters who -- they expressed a mix of profound disappointment, they said we'd hope something would happen, we pray that the grand jury would come back with a different decision, but we sort of expected this.

and it's that anger, that disappointment that makes this group right now say that they want more, and this national march according to what they've said, this press conference is only the beginning. >> duarte thank you. the grand jury proceedings are secret and the proceedings are closed. randall pinkston has the story. >> where eric garner died last july, district attorney donald donovan spent nearly three months presenting evidence and calling witnesses. highly unusual in homicide cases especially where there's video evidence.

>> i can't breathe, i can't breathe. >> if you or i were on videotape putting our arm around someone's neck and that person then said i can't breathe and we sat on them and they died we would be indicted in 30 seconds and the grand jury would take no more than a day, possibly two. >> reporter: the difference says howell and some other legal experts, is that the defendant daniel pantaleo was a police officer. he was the one that used a choke hold to subdue garner. >> how does the presumption of innocence shift when the accused is a police officer? >> ideally it doesn't. prosecutors work with police officers as witnesses in just about every case, they collaborate a lot. when a prosecutor seeks an indictment for a police officer, they don't necessarily want that indictment. >> iin effect says howell, to

give the public an impression that the grand jury is making the decision when in fact the prosecutor leads the panel to the decision the prosecutor wants. >> 99% of the time they will get the decision they want, there is no judge in the room. >> only the prosecutor and the grand jurors. >> right. they seek indictments where they want indictments. >> he was quoted as saying i will go wherever the evidence takes me without fear or favor. >> i mean they say a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. >> according to the grand jury on staten island, the evidence as different donovan presented it, holds no police officer accountable for eric garner's death. randall pinkston, al jazeera,

new york. >> corey pegues and jennifer. >> you've got a bunch of police officers who are involved in this incident who have been given immunity and you have the man we're thinking who should be dieted or might indicted or investigated by this grand jury and he's testifying and there's no judge in the room. there's possibly no real cross-examination going on. i didn't think there would be an indictment. >> but i can't understand. what is the prosecutor thinking in that case? why are you giving him immunity? what are they trying to get? >> they're supposed to be trying get at the truth. and that's what professional howell was suggesting. you want a prosecutor to be seeking the truth. >> from police officers? >> what we see time and again and i want to let the officer

speak but what we see time and again when a police officer is the defendant and you go to a secret, right, a secret, it's not transparent grand jury, is no indictment. we saw it in ferguson. we see it here and we see that across the board. so while i don't think the grand jury process needs to be scrapped, i don't think it works when you're talking about -- >> i don't want to belabor this but in grurs i hav grand juries, the prosecutor gives the person immunity so they squeal on the person they're trying to get an indictment on. i'm trying to understand it. >> you're asking a very good question, why did they give it to him, things that say hmm. >> she pretty much summed it up, as a cop and you know i'll probably get a lot of backlash on this, it's just about doing what's right. those cops, the cops said it was a homicide based on choking of

the throat compression of the chest. pantaleo was on the throat, a few other guys are on his back on his chest. why are you giving him immunity, you usually get immunity to pressure the person to say listen if you don't testify you're going to get charged but it didn't happen. >> we saw the video in this case, right? >> you know, the president and everyone even myself is on the rally drum saying we want more video. we have clear and convincing video here, and no indictment. >> and the video reaction as we're seeing very clearly tonight on the streets of new york where a lot of people are out. go ahead. >> i had to john honestly double check the facts of this case when i heard that they got immunity. i mean my husband is a criminal defense attorney. i said kurt, did those guys get immunity, aren't they all on the man's chest? why aren't they all being investigated. you are asking the right

questions. you're asking the right questions. >> you know john i'm going to be very clear with you. what we're creating in america sad to say, what we're driving a stake between the minority community and police. and it's not far fetched for now these young african american or hispanic men when they're in confrontations with police they're going to be thinking, life or debt situations. and -- life or death situations and we can really start having cops getting hurt if not murdered. >> you say your daughter is a police officer. >> yes. >> given everything that's happened, every police officer must be thinking about this tonight. any situation that they're in where it's tight and tense and dangerous they got to be worried about doing the wrong thing, right? >> of course they're thinking, i actually just got off the phone with my daughter not long ago, we was talking. i saw her before we came out here. of course she's concerned, her co-workers are concerned, i have thousands of friends in the new york city police department. just before i came here a car pulled up to me i said hey

fellows, the verdict came down, be careful out there tonight, because i'm a cop at the end of the day. >> what about the situation the police officers are in now? >> the law takes that into account, that's why it's very difficult if you got an indictment to get a conviction. the self-defense law works in our favors, when we say we're in fear of our life, we administer the choke hold, police officers get an extra layer of self defense because they're operating in the position. the department has its lawyers. >> obviously there was no indictment this time. >> right. >> but the scrutiny that's on police officers now seems to be more intense than ever. >> i think what you just said is so terribly important at this critical juncture. we don't want to have a divide in our society between police officers and any community. when we were kids weren't we

told that the police officer is your friend? that's not what we're telling young people today. >> what are we telling young people? >> i think there's this terrible fear now in certain communities that when a police officer approaches you, i mean i've been in situations where police officers walk up and everybody's hair stands on end because we think we're about to have a confrontation that it's going to get ugly and that's a terrible state of affairs in the united states of america. >> and i speak to young men and women all the time. i do this all the time and there's a serious distrust between the minority communities and the police. and until america acknowledges that and try to fix the problem. you can't fix it without acknowledging it. you have the pba president for the new york city police department saying it's not a choke hold on national television. that's what he said. an arm around the neck you squeeze him by the neck and took him to the ground, he is saying that's not a choke hold, that is

inflammatory. >> you know you have a problem, before you can fix it. two things on our side, the presence of videotape which is going to make everybody honest and we have social media and i hope we can have those things bringing us together rather than driving us apart. >> and an overwhelming number of police officers out in the country are doing their job but like you said in the performance of duty if i kill you, i shouldn't get is a free pass. >> corey, jamie, good to see you. >> good to see you john. >> there is new information about the cleveland police officer who shot and killed a 12-year-old boy operating a opeg a pellet gun. john lohman resigned from another police department, after his performance was found to be dismal. lohman is under investigation for killing tahmir rice a

12-year-old boy. rice's funeral was held today. switching gears to texas, the last minute stay of execution for a man on death r row. for killing his in laws. heidi zhou-castro has more. >> reporter: hey john yes. it was this morning that a conservative appeals court granted the stay giving the judges more time to consider whether panetti is legally competent to be executed. his last mental elevation was in 2007 at which point the doctors found he was competent. but he's even more are ill today. >> 56-year-old scott panetti, in a two judge opinion, the court of appeals says it is staying the execution to allow it to

consider the legal questions at issue. panetti an honorably discharged navy vet. hospitalized more than a dozen times then in 1992 he shot and killed his wife's parents. >> he did so believing that this was a fight between good and evil and in killing them he was getting rid of the devil. >> but that defense never made it into evidence because panetti was allowed to defend himself, dressed like a cowboy, said sarge was responsible for the murders. >> he has one of the most severe forms of schizophrenia that i've ever seen. >> a doctor was hired to assess his competency in 2007. did not have a rational understanding of his punishment.

>> in my opinion it is clear that he did not understand the reason he was being put to death. he thought he was put to death because he was preaching the gospel. >> they are grateful that the court agreed to postpone the execution, it would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. that question is still before the u.s. supreme court. now, the state's argument is that panetti is faking his schizophrenia and as evidence they submitted hours of recorded visits between him and family members in which the state says he was lussi lucid and intellig. john. >> heidi zhou-castro, thank you. the question: how much protection does the law offer pregnant women at work.

kimberly halgt ha health has ha. >> when her doctor provided a note to ups restricting her to nine kilos or less -- >> they basically told me go home, we don't have anything for you to do because you're a liability. >> ups told her they didn't qualify for a temporary assignment. she says she lost pension and medical benefits. she claimed short term accommodations ups routinely made for workers recovering from injuries should be extended to pregnant women. but two lower courts sided with ups. >> so far the courts said that what ups did was not illegal. but we believe it was.

>> ups argues it did not intentionally discriminate and has since changed its policy. in october it sent outage internal employee memo and said that it elected to change our approach to pregnancy accommodations in order to provide equal employment opportunity for all workers. as of january 1st, the company says it will provide light duty positions not just for injured workers but also for women who are pregnant. this employment attorney welcomes the change but says the supreme court rulings is still necessary to send a message to other employers who may see previous court rulings in favor of ups as a potential loophole in the law. >> peggy young is the tip of the iceberg. this is happening to women croot thacross the country, women make up half the workforce, they are working later into their pregnancy and are responsible as breadwinner in their families.

women cannot are afford to face this discrimination at work. >> we shouldn't be made to choose between our job and having a child. >> the u.s. supreme court is expected to rule on young versus ups in expwru june. imerkimberly halkett,. al jazeera.

>> good evening, i'm meteorologist kevin corriveau. last evening we were giving you images from southern california. but now these images are from san francisco bay area, we've seen anywhere from five to eight inches of rain coming across that area, northern parts of california as well. we are still looking at flood watches in effect right now for most of that region as well as

still down here towards southern california. now the rain has gotten a little bit lighter in this area but over the next 24 to 48 hours we do expect to see still accumulations down here. and you got to remember that the accumulation is on top of already saturated ground. we can be seeing about another inch and a half down here towards los angeles. but it's really up here towards northern california where we could be seeing anywhere between three and five more inches of rain by the time we get towards thursday. san francisco you're going to be seeing a very rainy day on thursday. the rain is going to start to subside on friday morning but as we go towards the weekend things are going to get a little bit better. that's a look at your national weather, more news is coming up after this.

>> and coming up on our broadcast at 11:00 eastern tonight. 30 years after killing more than 10,000 people in india, the lessons learned from the worst industrial disaster in history. we'll check in with orion spacecraft getting ready to launch tomorrow. and if you get christmas fever long before there's a chill in the air, they do more than spread holiday cheer, they spike ratings for radio stations. mary snow reports. >> the next time you hear christmas music on the radio, listen carefully. you might hear the sounds of cash registers ringing all across the area.

a small automated 4,000 watt radio station located in atlantic city, and transmitting to cape may new jersey. what makes it unique is it's the very yoke is it's the first radio station going all christmas music 24 hours a day. when does it begin to play merry christmas and silent night? october 21st. a full two weeks before halloween. christmas music can be enormously profitable for a radio station. the industry calls it flipping. and according to nei neilsen, ro stations that flip can average a 129% lift in their ratings. the all holiday radio iens i aue is 5% larger than any other time

of the year. >> when we go all christmas our ratings double every year and under our signal we become the number 1 station in cape may county. as a result our revenues explode. >> according to fisher flipping is like christmas present. producing an additional $250,000 of revenue every year. >> the beauty is every retailer is a candidate for a christmas promotion. >> and it's a trend that's catching on. 279 radio stations flipped in 2004-2005 to aroun2004 to arounk christmas music. in 2014, that number almost doubled. in fact the revenue for all radio stations was $17.7 billion up from $16 billion in 2009. >> radio is the cockroach of media. it can't be killed. >> radio is very simple. radio is free. you don't need to give anybody

your credit card. you don't need to download any software. >> there's no reason why we wouldn't continue to do it. if we're making money and we're making people happy, isn't that what radio stations are supposed to do? >> reporter: and ultimately those endless loops of feliz navidad and frosty the snowman -- >> marry snow, al jazeera. crowds gathered in response to tonight's grand jury decision not to diet a police officer in the death of an an unarmed black man.

>> on "america tonight": what will it take? another death at the hands of police. another decision not to indict. >> i don't know what video they were looking at. it wasn't the same one that the rest of the world was. >> will eric garner's death on camera reignite the fury in ferguson. what can be done when officers and the community they serve face the next flash point. also tonight: the search for