or fall me @ray suarez news. in washington, d.c. i'm ray suarez. on "america tonight," who is watching you and why? with cameras on every corner of our lives "america tonight" we ask are they really there to make us safer or just targets for a government drag net. >> i would not think of another surveillance technology that had the potential to be as invasive. >> reporter: russians on the run. what's behind a surge of russian immigrants to the country and exaggerating. >> having your head shaved and

urine poured on your head do you that. >> reporter: lbgt russians who say it wasn't safe to stay home. and the end of the road. the community that had its heart pulled right out from under it. now says its last good-byes as a hometown hero tells "america tonight" why buying corn is going away. deal. >> they got the shaft. >> they really got the shaft . >> reporter: ♪ and good evening and thanks for being with us i'm joie chan and it's the blessing or the curse of digital age and track our every move and the government

thinks it makes us secure and stepping up an intelligence domestic program scanning millions of license tags to tack drivers and to stop trouble. but that huge net raises troubling concerns especially to those who will seen government monitors spin out of control. the rewards and risks of tracking america from "america tonight"'s adam may. >> reporter: hillary has been a licensed private investigator for more than 15 years. digging up information on other people is part of her job. but nearly two years ago a shocking discovery, when the tables turned on her. >> came out of the blue in the mail one day and john and i received separate letters saying a dnr accessed drivers information and terminated from his position. >> reporter: john hunt a former employee at the minnesota department of natural resources is accused of making 19,000

queries of protected driver's license records. mostly women and saving some of their photos on his computer. it was creepy and got a lot worms. >> pandora box and in shock. >> reporter: she and her husband a private eye of an audit who looked at the private data and got stacks of records. >> the cities who looked up our information, the city we live in, the amount of times that our accessed. out? >> we had numerous. >> queries. >> queries. >> reporter: how many? >> i think total with both of us 1400 i think. >> reporter: 1400. they looked up your information why? >> that's what we want to know. >> reporter: they discovered a spike in activity when hillary was featured on the local

paper's front page, the focus of the article busting a cheating spouse. in a matter of days dozens of law enforcement agents, even someone at the post office looked up her dmv data. a pretty girl. >> want to know where i live and that is what scares me. i have kids now and . >> reporter: is it uncomfortable living here? >> i think that we don't know how far it's going to go. >> reporter: you feel like you're being monitored. they were unwilling victims of one of the most widespread cases of data abuse in the state's history and they weren't alone. an ex-police officer a lawyer and local news anchor had hundreds of unusual inquiries. >> we have paid out tens of millions of dollars in the last

five years because of representatives of government that have illegally searched data. >> reporter: john is a representative and a state legislature and in the wake of these stories a state audit found half of the law enforcement employees were likely accessing state database fore questionable reasons. and what worries him even more is new surveillance technology called alpr or automated license plate readers. >> this technology allowed law enforcement to do something completely different which is population. >> reporter: mounted in public places or law enforcement vehicles alpr devices scan the license plate of every car that passes. each device can scan thousands of plates per minute, check each plate against a hot list of stolen cars or wanted persons and data from alpr devices which

includes photos, a time stamp and location is also retained and thousands of databases across the country and shared by various agencies, even sold to private companies with little or no regulation. he says it's unconstitutional. >> if you don't have any independent probable cause against a citizen or an individual why are you keeping their data? there is no reason to do it. >> use of alpr increased in the last few years. >> reporter: jennifer lynch a lawyer with the electronic frontier says with alpr mass surveillance became affordable. >> it really has potential to collect data on a scale we have not seen so far. for example in los angeles the lapd has about 250 squad cars equipped with cameras and about 35 stationary cameras, each of the cameras can record up to 1800 plates a minute with the capacity to collect so much data

so quickly, these databases are very, very large. >> reporter: large and invasive. >> if a license plate camera picks up your license plate many times during a week, then it can pinpoint your location and chart your pathway through your life. now that can reveal some very sensitive information. it can tell who you associate with, which doctor you're going to, whether you are sleeping in a different house every night and i could not think of another surveillance technology that had tif. >> reporter: just north of st. paul the ramsey sheriff office had the first mobile alpr last year and since then they purchased two more and we went along for a test spin. so it's picking up these license plates in this parking lot, right? so we will do one more row here. there we go. so we just got an alert.

so i have to run the plate, okay. this time it turned out to be a false alarm but inspector rob allen says he saw alpr work when he was the deputy chief of police in minneapolis. give me a list of some crimes technology. >> auto shelves and homicide, it provided proof. >> reporter: did you show the stalker had been by the victim's homes tons of times. >> reporter: is this keeping people safe? >> it helps keep communities safer. >> allows go back on serial criminal actors and where were they and potential victims which is a capacity we never had before. >> reporter: director of the northern california regional intelligence center and department has been aggressive in using al pchl rpr data and can tract

crime. >> what this does is potentially allows us in the future to geo fence and areas where folks are not supposed to be at and you can imagine the person who is a registered sex offender whose vehicle is parked at your child's elementary school, now previously the officer would drive right by but now you have the ability once that alert goes off let me go and make contact with the person. >> reporter: but in the wrong hands a tool to fight crime can reveal intimate secrets, even about the police themselves. >> people can access it for different reasons. they can be accessing it against activists or people they don't like politically. >> reporter: a blogger and privacy activist in minneapolis, she wanted to give the police a taste of their own medicine. >> as you can see it's an ice vehicle from homeland security and they would park in these areas, i made sure that the vehicles that i was running their data on had some sort of

police signature on it. >> reporter: the city alpr database used to be public so hill searched for unmarked law enforcement cars near official buildings, ran their plates and posted what she found on her website. according to this internal document minneapolis police worried she would reveal under cover operations. >> and i found out that they were mentioning my blog and myself by name saying be careful about parking your vehicles in public areas because i was going around and taking photos of them and taking alpr data, i kinds of got the sense the city as you not comfortable using the data they were tracking us with. >> reporter: soon they made alpr data private. turns out the trackers don't like being tracked but that doesn't stop them from tracking the rest of us. adam may with al jazeera

. then there are the tracking systems we all actively participate in. al jazeera science and technology correspondent jacob ward joins us and the first thing that comes to our mine is waze and the traffic app and it doesn't give you just map and it points out detours and speed traps and now some police organizations are coming out against it, why is that? what is the issue? >> well, really joie it has to do with the fact that it's a two-way communication system. users are not just plugging into some sort of database, they are also looking at actually what is going on and marking them and police are concerned they may make an identification of a police car up ahead, one is parked here, trying to tell people about speed traps and that kind of identification police officers are worried future. >> reporter: the report we saw from adam may and indeed this

indication we have, the government is going to expand the use of license tag watching technology, scanning more license tags and millions as it were, how is that different from something like the waze situation? >> well, when you're talking about mobile technology, digital technology we have the option of turning off our phone and tossing out our laptop and enabling privacy protection on browsers and disengage tomorrow the mechanism used to track us but this license plate program you are talking about not being able to do that, your physical self and vehicle is being grabbed not just passive and it used to be you had to be an offender of some sort and be parked in a certain place and get unlucky for the police to get your tag and pulled over and run your case and that is not the collection and it's a collection of every one's tags at one time and it's a real time identification system for all of

us. and it's one joie it's important for people to understand, you cannot unplug from, if you drive a car in america you will get picked up by the system no matter what you do, there are no options for everyday citizens like you and i. >> no opting out, i do have to note there are other ways in which we are going to get tracked all the time anyway even if we were able to turn off our phones let's say we use our atm and logging of that and through the metro station and swipe a card and a sense we are followed all the time anyway. >> i think that the distinction of the privacy advocates are encountering here is there is truly a contrast between ourselves and surveillance apparatus at large, entering a subway you are agreeing to be pick up, use your atm you agree to have that location done but going on a sunday drive used to be in america an expression of freedom and wander where you want to go and that is itself

going to be the subject of surveillance. we definitely reached a turning point when it comes to privacy in the united states. >> reporter: that is al jazeera, and science and tech correspondence den jake ward, thanks. when we return what is behind a growing movement of russians leaving russia? >> when i see this movie, i imagine scared. >> reporter: america"america tonight" on fears of lbgt russians and afraid and coming to america and later the draining away the shocking image that brought the nation attention to the small community and how it everything. >> that is a new sign right here and over here. >> these signs were put in after the sinkhole. >> yes, as a matter of fact a year after the sinkhole. gas.

>> reporter: "america tonight" on the last days of buoy corn. >> because i was african american i was trying to fit in >> misty copleland's journey wasn't easy >> dancing gave me the opportunity to grow into the person... i don't think i could be without it >> now, this trailblazer is opening the door for others >> i wanna give back to ballet what it's done for me... >> every sunday, 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

russians on the run, even moscow tally shows a huge spike in number of russians moving out and five times as many immigrating than in the early 2000, why is that ?

tune and political environment and one key issue in the winter olympics after president putin signed a law and sanctions opened discrimination against lbgt people and why so many are leave and where they are going. >> reporter: how many times do you think he hit you in the head with a wooden baseball bait? bat? >> two times. >> reporter: the pain has never gone away. >> on the face and shoulders. >> reporter: she recently arrived in the united states from russia, afraid for her safety she doesn't want to use her last name. >> this one and this one. >> reporter: the attack more than a decade ago still gives her headaches and has been a target several times since because she is gay. what is it like to be a lesbian in russia? >> terrible.

and if you are gay or lesbian lives. >> reporter: getting help from the police is not likely. >> they said they would rape me many times until when i be normal normal. >> reporter: videos like these are easy to find on russian social media sites, many posted with derogatory and hateful again? >> faggots like faggots should go away. >> reporter: they know them well, the two friends now living in washington d.c. cringe at the thought the gay men being harassed and doused in urine in these types of videos could have been one of them. >> when i see this movie i

imagine scared. >> reporter: and they didn't know each other when they lived in russia and grew up in different cities but both know what it's like to be a target of antigay violence there, and he says he was once attacked by a group of men as he left a gay club with his friends. >> they just start to beat us up and yet just for fun. >> reporter: many victims like him never go to the hospital. >> if you go to hospital, they will call the police and you have to tell the police what happened. and russian police is actually homophobic. >> reporter: the story is similar and also beaten outside a gay club, what did you think was going to happen? >> i could be killed. >> reporter: according to a resent report by human rights

watch, violence against gays intensified in russia after a 2013 law went into effect, the law bans gays from public displays of affection and talking about sexuality in the presence of minors calling it propaganda and human rights watch says the law effectively legalizes discrimination against gays, in the past two years research says attacks by vigilante groups have increased. >> for me it's like one extra fine and it could happen with me any day. to be gay in russia i would say, i would characterize like it's like a nightmare. >> reporter: and they are part of a growing population leaving everything be hand in -- behind in russia and seek a new life in the united states. >> i think we got maybe 50, 60 requests for assistance in 2011,

requests. >> reporter: specializes in gay rights and says the russian client load sky rocketed in the last year. >> felt unsafe in russia and once the laws began to pass it was the last straw and couldn't take it any more and saw in very resent past a huge top down effort by the russian government to disenfranchise lbg temperature people and from that we also saw sort of a condoning of violence against that community. >> almost anything that happens in russia is magnified like 100 fold here in the united states for domestic consumption, i question almost all of it. >> reporter: austin is the president of the conservative group cfam center for family and human rights which signed a public declaration in support of russia's law. he has traveled in russia spreading his message that marriage can only be between a man and a women.

>> it's perfectly acceptable to say not everybody has a right to children. >> reporter: do you think that violates directly a person's themselves? >> there is no human right in any international treaty, any accepted international norm that anybody has a right to tell their story to school children. >> reporter: that is not part of freedom of expression? >> no. >> reporter: the media accelerates the persecution of gays in russia and he doesn't believe the 2013 law increased violence there. >> it's not like this is an underground community afraid for their lives and live openly. >> reporter: we heard the opposite from people who have come here, the people seeking asylum saying there are places we can go for a short period of time but we have to moved and moved this place to this place. >> i don't believe that.

asylum is a very serious thing for people who are being killed. and this is not happening in russia. this is not happening in russia. >> reporter: you are nearfearing you are humiliated and attacked on a daily basis. >> because of that. >> reporter: with urine poured on their head do you think everyday? >> if this was a widespread thing accepted by the government then perhaps but, again, that is just not happening on any kind of a wide scale. >> reporter: but erin morris sister the fear among russian gays is real. >> i went to russia in november 2014 and spoke to dozens or hundreds in the lbgt movement looking to leave. >> reporter: and u.s. judges think it's legitimate. read this to me.

>> as of september 20th, 2014, they granted asylum in the united states. >> reporter: although the united states does not keep track of gay asylum seekers he knows a growing number accepted here and his friend is hoping his chance will come too. >> i'm excited and nervous and emotions. >> reporter: what will you do if you don't get asylum? >> i will get it. >> reporter: for nadia and partner leaving her home and family has not been easy. >> you can give a hug, hugs and you can touch and it's terrible because you want this . so so.

>> reporter: but the pain is a price she is willing to pay to russia. >> i think i have a future. i believe it. and it's amazing feeling to have a future. >> reporter: did you think you had a future in russia? >> oh, no. no. future. no way. >> reporter: the future for these new arrivals is full of uncertainty but at least they have a future, something they say they couldn't count on in russia. "america tonight" can lori and it's almost puzzling to see this america president and campaigning in russia for this particular issue. >> he will say he doesn't believe he had specific enfluns flunsfluns -- influencing the law there but the definition of marriage has expanded and we see this with

conservative groups going outside of the country to go influence or express support for antigay laws or laws that propose gay marriage and happening in russia and other countries as well. >> reporter: do we know exactly how many people are exiled or seek asylum in this country because they say they were issues? >> i tried to get to the heart of this information, there are two government entityiesthat keep track of numbers but the case can last different amounts of times and months and years and five reasons to get it that is race, religion, gender, politics or whether you are a member of a social group and it's hard to pinpoint how many people identify as being gay so to quantify most of the numbers we have are coming from immigration attorneys and the information is anecdotal but said the numbers have gone up. >> and multiple issues and this

is lori on "america tonight." another approach to gay america next week on "america tonight," sexuality. >> i'm not gay no more, i am delivered! i don't like men no more! women. >> reporter: we will take an in-depth look at a radical effort in the black church aimed at curing homosexuality pray away the gay next week on "america tonight" and ahead in the hour the crisis that pulled the earth from under a small buoy and the future of louisiana aes corn.

now a snapshot of stories making headquarters on "america tonight," a deadline pass an international prisoner swap i.s.i.l. had threatened to kill a japanese journalist and a pilot and jordan release a would-be suicide bomber who admitted the role of a bombing in iman and tensions in a brawl in st. louis, community members clashed with police at a meeting on wednesday about a proposed

civilian review board to over see police and mistrusts that exists after an officer shot and killed michael brown in neighboring ferguson, missouri. a gas truck explosion estimated part of a hospital in mexico city killing at least two people and they dug through rubble trying to find dozens of missing people and it was fueling the hospital's gas tanks and it's likely that a leak in the hose caused that explosion. now to another crisis that threatens to wipe out a town, an ecological disaster and a small amount of corn in louisiana parts of that town are slowly disappearing right in the ground, the result of a sinkhole created when an under ground mine collapsed and many residents are leaving for good believing the situation has gotten too dangerous to stay. and a follow-up to his original report and michael revisits buoy

corn and people say their last good-byes. >> i decided a couple years after i moved here i was going to die here. >> reporter: you were planning stop. >> this is it, this is it and texas took care of that. >> reporter: texas brine and it will quickly turn friendly smiles into scowls and mike shaft and many neighbors blamed the houston based mining, company for destroying the local environment uninhabitable. here. >> reporter: . sinkhole. >> a year after the sinkhole. >> reporter: danger keep out highly flammable gas. >> reporter: what brought them here was a massive column of salt in the ground covering an area one mile wide and three miles across and in the 80s they

began es began excavating for chemicals and i was risky and caused an enormous under grounds cavern and 2012 the unthinkable happened part of this collapsed and then it began swallowing the surrounding countryside the sinkhole continues to grow today. it's not just the growing sinkhole that threatens the corn, deep within it a brew of crude oil, rotting debris and explosive methane gas has been slowly rising to the surface. >> looks like bubbles there. >> some spots looked like it was a coffee pot and boiling and the water was boiling so bad. see the green pipe right there is where they used to have a bubbling spot and still do but they shoved it down to make the bubbles go through the pipe so it's not as obvious, to me it's a public relakess gimmick and

looks harmless until you strike a match on the pipe. >> reporter: he was met in 2013, under orders from the state he and neighbors had evaluated buoy corn and at the temporary. >> we were supposed to be at moment but we are not. >> reporter: what was temporary has become forever. the situation in buoy corn has gotten so hazardous shaft and 90 homeowners recently agreed to a settlement with texas brine and includes the buyout of their homes and it's moving week. how long have you been here? >> 25 years this coming april. >> reporter: lots of memories. >> lots of memories. >> reporter: what does this feel like the house you have lived in for two decades is full of boxes? >> feels like you are

, feels like you lost a good friend. a friend that has protected you for 25 years and there is nothing you can do about it. >> reporter: on our first visit to the buoy we caught up with general russell, and he was the commander of joint task force katrina responsible for relief efforts for the hurricane-battered gulf coast, a local her hero and an advocate for communities like this. general. >> i wanted to see it. >> a relaxing spot there. >> reporter: and a team of environmentalists have been tracking the sinkhole and began as a small depression now covers 40 acres and once more it's slowly inching it's way to the two-lane road which connects

buoy corn to the outside world. how has the place changed? >> it's almost accepted because there is a devil brewing because none of the scientists or engineers can say don't worry about it and can't tell you don't worry about it because they don't know. >> reporter: general it's really clear there are not a lot of people living here anymore. >> yeah, it was a buzz with life and people and kids and families to now it's literally looks like a ghost town. >> reporter: your view is these people here got a raw deal. >> oh, yeah, they got the shaft. >> reporter: they really got the shaft. >> they got the shaft and got the bum end of an industry doing what it wants out here playing wild, wild west cow boys and put the hole here and the hell with it and when it goes bad stand behind their lawyers. >> reporter: the spokesperson for texas brine, when we met

with him in 2013 he defended the company's record. do you believe there should be more regulations or at the very least that the regulations should be much more tightly adhered to? >> regulations are pretty strong and certainly the local regulators or the state regulators were watching this operation and were aware of everything and again we had no event for 28 years. >> reporter: in a statement for this report he told us residents who took the buyout received fair market value for their homes and that some even got allowance to assist we vacuum weighs weighs -- evacuation and had broils and cookouts. nick is also moving out. they built this house on land they withins once used as a campsite and like shaft they

planned to die here. having to leave this home is the saddest thing that ever happened to us. >> it was good while it lasted. >> reporter: for brenda coping with it all has been especially difficult, the same year the sinkhole began swallowing the community she was diagnosed with cancer. so what is your feeling about texas brine now is? >> they were a bad commute and never came to the door and introduced themselves and said i'm so and so we have been doing business here for 40 years and i'm so sorry this is happened. >> reporter: when you look at this place you undoubtedly reflect on all the things that have happened here, what comes to mind? >> just the friends that we made here. the parties we had. my husband dressed as a woman one year. i dressed as a man, you know. >> you realize you are admitting this on national television. >> that is okay, we lip synced devil with the blue dress on.

we just know how to have a good time. and the friends that we made here with the same way. >> reporter: there are some people who argue it has, in fact, stabilized and toxic gasses are not escaping at the rate they did before and the sinkhole acreage in terms of the size is no longer expanding. >> it was not that long ago that it was 38 ag acres and now it's 4 is and didn't want to say after we saw the trees fall in, i'm sure everyone in the nation saw that clip, we just knew there was going to be problems with the homes. >> reporter: some evidence the gas leaks have been tapering off not everyone in buoy corn is pessimistic about the future and dennis owns the local marina along with several others on his block and decided not to sell out to texas brine convinced the concerns are over blown. >> i think there were some scare people.

i think there were some fear mongres out there. residents? >> not so much residents, maybe a couple perhaps but mostly outside environmental-type people you know. >> reporter: what is haunting you about this experience? >> it's just that if this had been my place for so long and so many memories here and it's gone, you know. it's time to move on and letting go is the hard part. >> reporter: just as hard for many to accept, there is no telling how many more calamities like buoy corn lay ahead. michael with al jazeera, buoy corn, louisiana. ahead in our next segment the battle down under. >> it's like women are fighting two wars and they are fighting

one war with the men that are supposed to be there side by side and they are fighting the war over there too. >> reporter: and enlisted women on board the silence service, will they speak out against sexual violence? >> king county is going both directions with a low income fare of $1.50 and at the same time, fares will go up for richer riders to a high of $3.25 at peak hours. >> sort of a classically good-hearted seattle move to say "you folks need to ride the bus... ride it for $1.50". is this in its own way redistribution? >> it's not just about altruism

though, you know? it's about economic development. we need to make sure workers can get to work. it's about economic opportunity. >> in a transit system that has had 5 fare hikes in 5 years, price is a sensitive point. san francisco is the only other major metropolitan area with a similar two teired system, with 20,000 people buying half price fare cards. in king county it could cost 7 to 9 million dollars in lost fare revenue every year, plus a few million more for administrative start up costs. >> we're eliminating routes, we're cutting back service in some areas, there's pressure on the system in terms of money and we're saying "okay, we're gonna make things cheaper"... so it seems almost counter intuitive. >> yeah, well not everyone has the money to afford the kinds of fares we've arrived at in king county... we need 'em, we need 'em to bring in the revenue to keep the busses on the road. >> there was no vote on this the policy came out of a county council comity. the new fares, higher and lower, start in march.

finally tonight on point, she may be the world's most famous and most anonymous dancer ever and in the 19th century greatest artist and some of the biggest fans are trying to solve the mystery be hind the muse and got the sheer

exhaustion of a ballerina when dance had opportunity of art from girls from humble backgrounds. >> becoming a ballet student and rising through the ballet was a cans to rise in the world and it was a slim chance but it was a chance. >> reporter: they are best known for the figures of the dance lesson, in the years of studying and painting in paris he knew well the simple reality of their lives. >> they were called rats, that was a slang term for the young ballet students and they were young and skinny and scampered in from the streets. >> reporter: and tapped the energy in his studies and in a parallel, more private project he produced her. little dancer, aged 14, a jarring difference from the art

standard of the day. >> this young girl was modern and wasn't mature enough or fine featured enough to be beautiful and then the realism was scary. >> reporter: eyes closed, chin up and she was crude and nearly primitive and x-ray shows her cobbled with piles. >> there is a structure and around that is cotton padding inside held in place with wire and then rope. when he needed to put a little more strength in her arms he used paintbrushes from his studio and then he put a coating of surface. >> reporter: the first and last he exhibited was a tough one for critics and for art lovers. >> people loved it or hated it and thought she looked like a criminal and thought she was a specimen from an anthropology

museum and other people thought that he had with one stroke sculpture. >> reporter: his model was marie who along with her two sisters posed many times for him. one sister we know had a successful ballet career, one accused of be coming a petty thief but marie, the distant federal government -- figure of a female dancer. >> she is dismissed from the why. >> reporter: the mysteries of the muse have long intrigued his fans including a claimed broad way director and coreographer and created a musical about her. >> the statute was a part of me as it is for most dancers and i would see that in the museums

and i would wonder about that little girl and wonder why he chose her and she looked very different from all the others he pane character. >> reporter: character and secrets and why did she leave the core, what became of her? was she the chattel of a black headed gentleman who was in the paintings or a ghost who simply slipped away from the spotlight. >> i feel like writing this musical has brought marie back to life. >> reporter: for us though the little dancer is a figure trapped in time. >> the beauty of young girls and the promise, the possibilities that they represented, girls who might become great, who might rise, he liked the double nature of the girls the fact they were

street merchants and potential queens. >> reporter: the hard labor and high art. poised as all of the dancers to take flight. the little dancer, the original sculpture will be on display at the national gallery of art through february 8 and you can see the little dancer, the musical in los angeles this summer. that is "america tonight" on our weekend edition cutting to the front of the immigration line, we will look at a controversial program that some let's people buy their way to citizenship if you want to comment go to our website al jazeera/"america tonight" and talk to us on twitter or facebook page and good night and please join us for more "america tonight."

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello from al jazeera's headquarters in doha this is the news hour coming up in the next 60 minutes i get's president leaves the african union summit early after a string of deadly attacks in the sinai peninsula. growing discontent and we speak to people inside iraq controlled mosul who say they are hostages in their own city. >> we feel really sad