join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> crews return to the site where they found the first victims of the airasia craft but their search missions that just begun. police respond to protests of the putin critic. >> and supporters of the palestinian state lose their latest fight at the united

nations. and the latest numbers paint who is trying to cross the border into the united states. >> we begin tonight in indonesia where divers and other crews are about to return to the java see. they'll search for more bodies and debris from an air asian airasia play. some debris and bodies were found already today in shallow water near borneo. family members of the 162 people on board were overcome with emotion when they saw images of some of the bodies on television. >> reporter: on the third day of waiting finally news of their loved ones, but not the news they wanted. >> we will find things

belongings, bodies of the passengers in the plain and we're sure that everything will be brought back to our base. >> reporter: they found the debris and bodies in sector seven, one of 13 areas being searched within 139,000 square kilometers. it was just ten kilometers where the air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane. on the way they flew over the area where the bodies an debris were discovered. then he met with the families. >> i asked them to do a massive search, and i've asked them to look for the plane and passengers, as well as the crew. i've focused them to focus on evacuating the passengers and the crew. >> with so many indonesians on board this was a tragedy for the nation. in the three days of waiting took its toll across the country as it did with the family

members. tuesday's find does not bring complete disclosure to this tragic store. it will take i some time before all the bodies are back to the airport where the plane took off on sunday. then the difficult process of identifying the bodies and then the months, years of what brought the plane to the bottom of the java sea. >> you earlier today i spoke with david gello director of special projects and he called and i asked him what he knew of the java sea. >> well, it's fairly shallow water. we're used to dealing with two-plus miles of water. comparatively speaking, shallow.

but the specific place where the debris and bodies were found is the caramata straits. so it is an important place of ocean geographically as well. >> does the shall bow depth help or hurt search crews and could bad weather and rough seas hinder any search efforts? >> bad weather is always an issue, and there is plenty of it to go around in those areas. the shallow water does help. the kinds of instruments that you can bring to bear are easier to find. you don't need instruments that are very sophisticated that go three, four, five miles into the ocean. lighter weight instruments. but there are three things that you're going to be seeing happening. backtracking for the debris on the surface.

you're going to see pinging those using the pinger to find the black boxes. and then sonar searches so those things will work in concert. >> do we all those submersibles? >> yes those could be called submersible. s. there are submarines that are remotely operated vehicles. so we have someone who is in a control room driving it around with a joy stick. there may be some drones involved as well. i think from here on end it will go very quickly. we'll soon see. the simplist thing is that they find it with a pinger that will take them right to the black boxes, and they can begin studying the aircraft itself. >> based on the parts of the

debris from the aircraft that's been found so far what does that suggest part of the plan, it would seem to me, being able to determine whether or not you're dealing with a narrow redebris field or a pretty wide expansive debris field. >> you raised a very good point that i was thinking about. you know, with air france we had a fairly large debris field tens of miles. but it was picked up over a matter of weeks so it kept spreading out. in this case, and i'm hearing what everybody else hears, there were just a few bodies recovered, and a few scattered things from the aircraft. i'm wondering if they were isolated. that's very strange. if the plane came down in one spot on the surface of the sea you would see more bodies and parts of the plane dumped together. but we didn't hear that. so either that wasn't reported on or it's something different

than i'm used to thinking about. you're absolutely right. the fact that they are an all together suggested that the plane impacted the surface. if it's scattered widely, it suggests that the plane broke up in the air. we have to get more information when day breaks in a few ours here. >> john golia. he discussed what clues the debris field could give investigators. >> there are clues in what is found in the debris fields. for example i saw picks of a suit case that was rather pristine that was found flowing. that means it came down and separated from the airplane after it impacted on the water. which means at least a portion of the airplane was intact when it reached the surface. the same thing with the bodies. the bodies were intact, and the autopsies, when they get them in to the medical examiner's,

they'll look to see what kind of damage they sustained to be able to tell a lot about the impact of the airplane. >> there were more scary moments for airasia today. filipinos officials say that a plane overshot the runway in the country and ended up stuck in mud. none of the 159 people on board the plane were hurt. as investigators serve for what caused flight 8501 to crash in the java sea there is renewed focus on safety. roxana saberi? >> reporter: more and more people in the region are traveling by plane. indonesia alone is on track to be one of the world's top aviation markets in 2020 and airlines are struggling to keep up. the crash of airasia is renewing questions about air safety in southeast asia.

the region has seen five major crashes this year alone. in indonesia since 2010 there have been 13 serious incidents involving passenger planes. four of those resulted in-depth. until now airasia has had no fatalities but on monday indonesian officials said that they would look for ways to improve safety. >> we'll review airasia indonesia to make sure that it's performance could be better in the future. >> since 2010 the number of passengers flying each year in the asia pacific region has jumped to 1 billion with more passengers traveling by air than europe and north america combined. the region now has an an estimated 1600 jets filling the

skies and 1600 more are on order. that means each jet needs ten trained pilots. but there are "r" not enough local pilots so they're hiring abroad. a search for pilot job in asia yields 400 response. >> there is increased infrastructure to handle the increased air traffic. some airports don't have enough equipment to determine wind speed and direction. >> you need to know more. thank you. two albanian sea men were killed in an accident today while towing that greek ferry that caught fire. it is still smoldering off the italian coast. more than 400 people were rescued after the fire started on sunday. ten people were killed, and an unknown number are still missing. the ship will be towed to italy which will conduct the investigation. thousands of people took to the streets in russia in protest. they gathered in the crime len

to demonstrate against one of the leading critics of vladimir putin. the opposition leader was detained 37 police say they were simply escorting him back to his home peter sharp has more from moscow. >> supporters claim that the trial is another attempt by the kremlin to curb dissent in russia. and the term will certainly remove one of russia's most effective opposition campaigners from the stage while depriving him from a long jail term creating a mandela persona. he is for many the credible face of russian opposition.

he's been one of the most vocal opponents of president vladimir putin, president for once calling the ruling party of united russia a bunch of crooks and thieves. but in february thinks political ambitions came to an abrupt end when he was placed on house arrest. his wife and his brother always by his side in frequent court appearances. >> he blames the political establishment for attempting to silence him. if it has been trying to keep him quiet it clearly has not worked. in a few years this anti-corruption blogger has become one of the biggest challenges to president putin's grip on power. he is the man that the kremlin fears the most. the opposition to president

putin across russia. the kremlin will be hoping that the suspended sentence, instead of the ten years in jail that the prosecution was looking for will help to defuse the planned protest by his supporters. peter sharp al jazeera, moscow. >> we can tell thought protesters have been posting pictures on social media. ines is here with that. >> here is one of the most retweeted pictures related to the protest. demonstrators, you can see they also took pictures of him at the protest before he was detained. there were also holding signs that say niva lyricsli in protest. also members of the pussy riot were also at the protest.

the pumping rock activists released this video in preparation for today's demonstration, watch. [music] >> they're chanting "clean honest word deed." those words are meant to imply that russians are ready to clean up the corruption in their country. they're dressed as witches cleaning out the square. today's gathering was organized through facebook. a much smaller gathering than the number of people who said they were going over 18,000 who signed up for this page. facebook, google and twitter have received orders from the russian government to block sites like these but google is ignoring those orders. >> thank you. the quest for palestinian statehood met a roadblock. the united nations security council rejected the timeline for the withdraw of israel from

occupied territoryies. the united states used its veto power to defeat the proposal. james bays live from london with more. more over to you james. >> reporter: well, tony, i think the palestinians will be disappointed. they knew there was no way this resolution was going to pass. i had spoken to a number of diplomats, palestinians and others who told me they thought that the palestinians had at least nine votes. now normally nine votes is a majority, but of course in the security council you have countries with veto power and the u.s. was always going to veto this. i think the palestinians would have claimed a moral victory if they managed to get those nine votes. they didn't. one of the reasons why i think they didn't was because of the procedure, this last draft was produced 4 hours ago. but the u.s. ambassador said that she believed the vote didn't pass because it was one-sided and unbalanced. >> regretbly instead of giving voice toes aspiration to both

it addresses the concerns of one side. it is imbalanced and is not conducive to negotiations between the parties including unconstructed deadlines. in addition the resolution was put to a vote without discussion or due consideration. >> it's not the u.n. always about the content it's also about the diplomatic persuasion, and we learn that ambassador power and her boss, country of state john kerry has spent the last 24 hours on the phone twisting arms. that makes why the palestinians thought they had nine votes and only ended up in the end getting eight. perhaps someone was persuaded. the security council in its

current form is as it is for another 24 hours because the first of january five new members take their seats five of the current members including the country that joined the u.s. in voting against, australia, will be leaving the council. >> james, with that new makeup, is it possible that a revised, a new draft of a resolution might see the light of light another road? >> it does make you wonder about the palestinian tactics here. because if they had waited australia would have been on the council any more. new zealand would have been on the double. new zealand government much more favorable to the palestinian position. other countries would have joined like spain which parliament reached recently voted in favor of recognizing the palestinians. venezuela, strong supporter of the palestinians. if they had waited a little bit and if they only had to wait just a little 24 hours time they would have had a different

composition, and the last minute they changed their resolution, and actually toughened it up. putting mention of prisoners in there. putting mention of settlements maybe some of that scared people off. also remember as some of these council members are leaving the u.s. always and all the five members have a vote for two years. when they only have a day left, the u.s. does not have to be so nice and was quite hard on some of those five who were leaving. among those five that were leaving you have, for example south korea. well, it could do with u.s. support at the moment given the situation across the border with north korea. >> thank you. james, it's good to see you: airstrike in somalia appears to have killed an al-shabab leader. it comes three days after the groups former intelligence chief surrendered to police.

jamie mcintyre with more in. >> reporter: confirming to al jazeera america that the u.s. was targeting a man identified as the chief of intelligence for for al-shabab an islamic group affiliated with al-qaeda. it's known as two names. the pentagon is not confirming his death in a drone strike late yesterday, but somali officials say he was killed in the attack. pentagon statement said simply the u.s. military conducted an airstrikes in the vicinity of somalia against the al-shabab network and said that the network was of an al-shabab leader. despite huge losses including the killing of their leader in an u.s. airstrike earlier this year al-shabab remains a threat. on christmas day gunmen attacked the main african union base in

mogadishu. they said it was in retaliation for the death of al-shabab leader who was killed in that u.n. airstrike back in september. african union troops reporting somalia's army has pushed al-shabab for strongholds. but al-shabab fighters still carry out attacks in somalia's capitol. after years of sluggishness, a lot of exerts are saying that the u.s. economy is finely showing real growth. we explain what it means for you and for me. that's next. and the south korean airlines executive who delayed a flight over a bag of nuts is now facing criminal charges.

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>> the second to the last day of of 2014 was down on wall street. the dow lost 21 points.

sapp 500 lost ten points and nasdaq down 21.5 points. what a year for u.s. markets. "real money's" ali velshi is here. how well did the markets do? >> forgetting today and there is one more trading day and anything could happen, the sapp 500, which i like to look at more than the dow because it's broader, it's up 12.5% for the year. that is a big deal. the low point was in february for the dow and sapp s&p 500. looking at this market in february you would not have thought we would end up the year 12.5%. remember, that first quarter remember all that terrible weather that we had. the bad weather and nobody shopped, and the negative gdp growth, that all changed. >> is this the second year running where the bulls have

been running wild on the markets? >> yes and it's all got to do with interest rates. all the investigators have been doing is wondering what the feds are going to do. if joblessness if unemployment goes too well, will the fed hike interest straits. what are they going to do? take a look at mortgage rates for the last year. when we started the year, january 2nd, a 30-year fixed mortgage with 20% down was 4.53%. today you can get that for 3.83%. interest rates are lower than they were a year ago. when there is no place for interest rates you put your money in the stock market. if the feds change their tune, watch out. >> what is your thinking when it comes to oil for 2015? >> that is a really good question. oil is down, 45% since the beginning of the year? 46%. at the beginning of year it was $101.

and today $45.12. gaspeople are enjoying it. as long as those continues the fracking operations in north dakota are starting to shut down. there are people who are making good money because of drilling. they're also making good money in their stock portfolios because of oil. they have started to see that drop in the last few months. this is a mixed blessing, we all like cheap gas but we have to watch out. if they keep the prices down too long we may lose our advantage on oil. >> you'll looking at incomes "real money" coming up at the top of the hour on al jazeera america thank man. it was a macadamia nut rage dust up and we're still talking about. a former south korean airline executive was losing it because she was served the nuts, right?

nuts in a bag and not on a plate. >> it's becoming a familiar if unwelcomed ordeal. another round of public reckoning for her blistering reaction to a bag of nuts wrongly served in a first-class cabin. the vice president of south korean air had the man thrown off. she stands accused of breaking aviation safety and workplace laws and more generally of abusing her powerful high status position. the extraordinary level of interest in this case stems not just from the fact that it all started with an argument over a bag of nuts, but also because of what all of this says about hierarchy and inequality in this society. she made a public generation member of corporate giant.

the elite of the elite. >> this is just one instance that actually grabbed some of the public's attention. but i hear almost every month similar instance that happens within the corporation that does not end up like this. >> it highlights the continuing problem of cosy relations between regulators and big business. eight months after the ferry disaster, which was supposed to have triggered reform. on monday the transport ministry admitted some of its officials tried to hamper the investigation. eight will be disciplined. any favoritism has well and truly evac rate evaporateed. she now awaits trial that could see her with a prison sentence. >> why this particular man right here is a threat to vladimir putin's presidency.

also, a top republican lawmaker under fire after admitting he gave a speech to a white supremacist group. david shuster has the details next in power politics.

>> updating one of our top stories. police in russia have detained a well-known government critic as part of a crackdown on protests in front of the kremlin. he violated his house arrest. about 130 people in all were detained at the demonstration. navalny received a sentence for fraud while his brother got prison time. alexi navalny is a threat to

vladimir putin. he led mastiff protests before and after putin's run for president. navalny has political aspirations of his own. he lost the election for mayor of moscow and said he'll run in 2018. we spoke with the director of the center for russia and eurasia at the rand center. i asked her why he was a threat to vladimir putin. >> i think of all the opposition leaders available in russia, he has not just name recognition but standing as a nationalist standing with the russian public as a whole. he does not present himself as this egg head divorced from the public. that's not his image. he has been a fighter against corruption. because he does have a

nationalist way he thinks and talks about russia he has a certain appeal that i think others in the opposition do not. >> fighter against corruption. i wonder if that's the reason why i often hear him referred to as a tool from the west. a realthe--tool for the west. >> i think that's another thing of his appeal. he's russian-grown, russian activist. he is trained as an attorney he's relatively young. he grew up in the post soviet system. he came in to his own after the soviet union collapsed, and he is--he is a russian nationalist for good or ill which protects him a bit from these accusations of being funded and supported by

the west. >> alexi and his brother were sentenced for embezzlement. the trial is widely viewed as being political in nature. any truth to the charges against him? and i'm curious why his brother received jail time. >> the company they're accused of having embezzled from says no money is missing which certainly makes one wonder about the charges. past charges of corruption and reignition including the ones that he was under house arrest forish also had very little evidence to show that actually indicated that he might be guilty of the things he was accused of. the brother even--i can't say there is evidence in the first place. now he was being prosecuted for anything other than being his brother.

alexi's brother. the prosecution was asking for less prison time, and as it turned out. he is off to prison. >> olga went on to prison that navalny's prosecution could give him more name recognition and help the opposition cause. new york congressman a michael grimm has announced he'll resign after charges of tax evasion. we have more from power politics. tell us more from mr. grim. >> yes notorious not only for being under investigation because when he had his restaurant in staten island, he allegedly cooked the books. but when the reporter asked him about it, he threatened to break the reporter in half and throw him off the house balcony. he is a controversial figure.

he wanted to stick around and stay in office, but he'll be sentenced in june. after pleasing guilty to felony charge, once you're stepsed to jail he's technically no longer fit to serve in congress. he was under enormous pressure from john boehner, who reminded him not only of the tax evasion but the threatening of a report. he said i do not believe i can continue to be 100% effective in congress, i it is time for me to start the next chapter of my life. as far as this particular congressional seat, there will now be a special election in the next couple of months. >> david shuster are you hear to tell me that the house majority whip is actually acknowledging that 10, 12 years ago he gave remarks, a speech before a group of white

supremacists? >> yes. the report came out that he addressed a group 12 years ago when he was a state law make center louisiana, a group started by david duke. >> we know who he is. there was a look warm statement put out by scalise confirming this but that it was taken out of context. and then john boehner saying this was in error for scalise to speak to the group and he said one of the many groups he speak to regarding the legislation that he supported at the time was a group whose views i wholeheartedly condemn. it is a mistake that i regret and i emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold. he's already under enormous pressure from democrats including nancy pelosi who says this guy should not be serving and there is an incredible

search under way to find out what was his relationship with though group. there was an interview that scalise gave in which he praised david duke's position and said i share some of the same conservative views but i'm more viable politically than david duke. he was one of few people to not condemn david duke and what he had been doing at the time. that's what is raising questions, and maybe knew more about this group that he spoke to than he's letting on to. >> he has more explaining to do. >> and his job may not be score. maybe for now but we'll have to see how it plays out. >> david shuster and power politics. thank you. president george george h. w. bush is now out of the hospital. he spent nearly two months in

the hospital two years ago from bronchitis. new york city's player bill de blasio was trying to clear the air with the police unions. he met with the head of the police unions. it came after the unions turned their backs on the mayor. the head of the largest police union says there is more to do. >> there was no resolve. and our thoughts here today is that actions speak louder than words, and time will tell. >> union leaders say de blasio has fostered an anti police atmosphere in the wake of the deaths of eric garner and michael brown. most migrant apprehended by border control were not mexican. that's according to the report

by the pew research center. mexicans cross the border in smaller numbers, and thousands of migrants travel to the united states from guatemala honduras and el salvador this year, many escaping gang violence. many of the central american migrants were unaccompanied minors. those numbers have dropped since the national guard was deployed to the border. but they're still making 100 arrests per day. and many of those are mothers traveling with children. heidi zhou castro joins us now. what is happening to these families as they're stopped? >> four out of these families are from central america. and the detention centers down south are still so full that these families are processed and then released into the community with an order to appear before an immigration judge at a later date. twice daily in texas a homeland security bus pulls up to the

public bus terminal, and a treatment of families, mostly single mothers with their families pour out. they're anxious fearful and tired. many of these women had been on the road for 20 days from central america with their children in tow. at a nearby church. run shelter these women and children are offered food, clothing a warm shower and volunteers there say that they have staff at the shelter night and day since the summer, and to them the immigration crisis is not over. >> obviously as, see, we are getting refugees in, in large numbers. over the last two weeks our numbers have doubled. we're seeing upwards of 110 sometimes more than that a day. and they're predicted to continue to to be coming in record numbers through the early spring. >> the border security surge

with more border control more national guard that has been effective in decreasing the uncompanied minors apprehended by 40% since last year. but when you look at family units, that's been hardly touched. the numbers are down 2%. >> we all know that it's a huge risk for these families to cross the border when they're likely to be caught. remind us again why these families keep coming? >> well, you know, the violence, the poverty in their home countries, that has not changed since this summer. that's still driving people away from their homes. further, i did speak with many of these mothers who say that rumors of immigration action in the united states has trickled down to these countries, and they've heard about the executive action that obama has taken a jump-start reform. this action in no way effects recent border crossers, they still see that as positive for

their cause and that's what causes them to cross at this time. >> heidiheidi zhou castro for us. after american lives lost the u.s. war in afghanistan is officially over. what was achieved? that is next. >> they will never forget 2014 here in washington state. snoqualmiesh mud mudslide, the deadliest in history.

e journalists live. >> speaker boehner criticized president obama saying a former end to the conflict does not mean it is over. he added that afghan forces are too weak to take on the taliban. joining me now with more on

this. the author of "a secret sky," and is a foreign correspondent. she spent five years stationed in kabul and embedded with u.s. nato and afghan forces during the war in afghanistan. good to see you. >> thank you tony, good to be here. >> we worked together for years. not that long ago. tia, a pleasure. so america's longest war comes to an end. did the coalition and the taliban fight to a stalemate here? far from ear side, and difficult for either side to claim any sort of victory. >> it is difficult for either side to claim victory although the taliban are claiming victory. they say the fact that the nato forces have basically concluded the war that they won the war. but that's not true at all. from what we've seen it's been a very difficult battle for both sides. lives lost on both sides as

well. we've seen gains made for the afghan people in the last 13 years with the nato troops and community within the country but they've been fragile gains. the taliban themselves will say they've taken over towns and villages that the u.s. once occupied, and they're continuing to do so. right now the instability we're saying that the war may be over in afghanistan but the war is not over, it will still go on. >> how would you describe the afghan government in place? the country needs a strong leader. is president ashraf beguny the man of the moment, enough to unite this country? >> i've interviewed ashraf begun any. and he is a man with a plan.

he has many ideas. he does have a plan to try to fix afghanistan and help the afghan people where they won't need international support in the future. but he's smart enough to realize that they still need international help at the moment. although you have a man right now who is in charge along with his rival actually, dr. abdullah abdullah, they're trying to form this unity government. they are both men who want to help the afghan people. they're going to try to help the afghan people. but they also need the right people around them. they'll try to put the right people around them and below them to implement their plans. it's not so much the man in charge but the men and women below them.

>> gotcha, what is president ashraf ghani's position about the taliban. >> his position seems to be to try to bring them in the government fold, just as president karzai before him try to do. first of all the taliban don't want to be part of the government. they feel that the government is a puppet of america and the international community. second, it's not just the taliban. this is not the taliban of the 1990's where you had a leader. you have a fractionalized, divided taliban. you have different groups and different organizations vying for power. you can bring one group or convince one group to come in to the government, if you can even do that, but then there will be other groups that will fight the afghan government j. >> what are the positives of this war. i'm looking for a couple of positives.

ngos are building wells for people who otherwise would not have drinking water. schools are being built women are being educated. is those some of the verifiable positives? >> you know, it has been america's longest war. it has been a long war for the afghan people as well, and the international community who have been involved in afghanistan but there have been gains in the last 13 years, fragile gains. but just recently looking at the successful election. we had a peaceful transition of power. although the rivals were debating on who should be president. they decided to put their differences aside. they decided they'll have a presidency, a chief executive for the good of the afghan people. again, these are fragile gains they haven't been able to form a cabinet yet but this is not necessarily a bad thing. they could be waiting to make sure that they have the right people within those ministries rather than picking the wrong people and seeing more

corruption and seeing more basically bad things happening within the afghan government. we've seen more students going to school including females who weren't allowed to go to school during the taliban. there have been these gains but again, i will reiterate they are very fragile gains that can fall apart. >> atia, great to see you author of "a secret sky," which i hear is a really great read. i'll take a couple of trips to amazon and give a couple of gives to friends. she's also a foreign correspondent. thank you. >> washington state was hit by the worst mudslide in recorded history, is still recovering. we look at the disaster and what has happened since. >> in washington state they will never forget 2014. the landslide that dammed a

river and spread mud 50 feet deep for a square mile won't let them. it killed 54 people, the deadliest such slide in u.s. history. clareing a state highway took six months. a roadside memorial includes 43 newly planted cedar trees. >> it's a constant reminder of how many friends i've lost and everything else that happened. >> two wrongful death lawsuit brought by a dozen families targeted county, the state local native american tribes and a logging company. this shoulder of cascade mountain food hills has slid before and had been studied and worked on so often that the slide zone has its own name hazel. residents should have been warned about buying property and

building homes here. the there was praise for emergency responders, and emphasized better use of local volunteers in disaster zones and called for smoother coordination between responding agencies. the national guard was not put in action until a full week after the slide hit and request to activate a multi agency response usually reserved for wild land fire emergencies was turned down because this wasn't a fire. >> kathy lombardo chaired the governor's commission. >> did we miss an opportunity? >> potentially. could we work more quickly? yes, probably so. >> the report lone includes that the state needs better planning and more state funding to handle unusually disasters. >> how do you get responders there faster and more of them once you understand that the situation is extraordinary?

>> at year's end with memorial trees decorated for the holidays the traffic is moving again. but that scar on the mountain keeps terrible memories alive. >> the wounds just heal over time but you never forget something like this. >> you're always going to see that thing. >> i'm always going to see the devastation and forever. >> marla scagland said that some of her neighbors have simply moved away. >> when the history books are written, 2014 will be remembered as a breakthrough year for gay rights across the united states. the milestone achievements and the road ahead. that's next.

>> 2014 will go down as a water shed year for same-sex marriage. 30% of americans lived in states that allowed gays to tie the nottingham foster, but not today. the majority of states now allow

it. ash har quaraishi takes a look back at how far gay rights have actually come. >> bonnie and lynn never expected their relationship to be part of a battle that would go all the way to the u.s. supreme court. >> i feel like rosa parks. we need to get rid of discrimination. >> the two have been together for more than 13 years. but a man on same-sex marriage in their home state of indiana prevented them from taking their vows. >> i don't want to leave the state of indiana. i love the state of indiana even though they might not love who i am. >> last year a serious illness sent bonnie to the hospital. but because they're not married lynn was prevented from going to bonnie room while she was in intensive care. >> i was totally helpless. i broke all of my knuckles open pounding on the door so hard.

>> the two were part of a landmark lawsuit that challenged the indiana state ban on same-sex marriage and won. >> possibly the most important thing to say about the intersection of the usual dishary and same-sex marriage is that the pace of change has just been extraordinary. compared to other social movements, for instance, of the 20th century. >> you're joined in marriage as wife and wife. >> that change has been evidence this year with the series of federal court decision that struck down the same-sex marriage bands in several states. in october the u.s. court declined to intervene. same sex opponent had one in every case. >> to take the case is when the lower courts of appeals are split. right now there is no disagreement among the lower courts in favor of marriage equality, in favor of the idea, the correct idea that our institution requires marriage

equality for guy and lesbian couples. >> according to a pew research center poll, more than half the public favor allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry. the decision by the u.s. supreme court not to hear cases like that in indiana defaulted to the lower court decision to allow couples to marry. >> i'm is to blessed. not only to be with bonnie for hopefully the rest of my life, being legally married to her but we've already got our wedding bands. >> courts, legislatures and vote necessary 35 states and the district of columbia allow same-sex couples to marry. proponents say these have been bittersweet scripts because there are places where same-sex couples cannot marry. fathers of two recently sued the

state of kentucky and it's governor seeking marriage rights. they lost. but on appeal their case could be amongst several that can finally be heard among the supreme court. >> when we started this a year and a half ago we certainly didn't think we would be a case that would go out before the supreme court. there were so many other states in the cue before us. we thought this will get settled before if kentucky makes it to the supreme court. sure enough all the other circuits have ruled in favor of marijuana equality except for the sixth circuit. >> it was here that michael and greg lost their appeal. there is mounting pressure on the u.s. supreme court to finally weigh in, and it's possible that greg and michael's case could be the one to set the stage for a national same-sex marriage law. >> if we do end up being part of that case that goes we won't be able to hide.

we'll be prepared for that. >> that may happen soon after justices take up their cases in the next private conference in early january. >> so if the supreme court decides to take one of those cases it could issue an issue a decision on gay marriages by this summer. low gas mileage ines with that story. >> finally, how much less, the average price of regular is at $2.27. >> i love it. >> yeah, and in missouri and oklahoma it's better. the average there is below $2 a gallon. with these low prices, folks are just snapping pictures at the pump with the hashtag #cheap gas. that's the sight to behold. the way it should always be. and laura from colorado writing

this has not happened since college. and mike he says happy new year, everybody, and this one $1.75. >> ines. thank you. that's all of our time. "real money" is next. vladimir putin's engaged in a new cold war with the west but some of the kremlin's loudest critics are right there on the streets of russia. and i'll tell you why more americans are getting evicted from their homes. plus philadelphia's remarky -- rocky middle class. i'm ali velshi this is "real money." ♪