♪ hi, everyone. this is "al jazeera america." i am john seigenthaler. course correction: rethinking the strategy against isil in syria and iraq plus the iran equation. you will hear from former sprooel addlied commander of nato. fired: the school police officer who violently threw a student to the floor. why are cops in classrooms? driver beware.

th the sky high insurance rates in detroit and what it may say about race, income, and inequality. plus, in session, g.e. smith. from performing, con fronting the s and l ban. the pentagon is on the defensive tonight over its strategy against isil. the next remains the same, but the means of achieving it are changing, especially with the possibility of more u.s. troops on the ground. national security correspondent jamie mcintire is at the pentagon. jamie? >> it's a bit of a mixed message on the pentagon. on the one hand, it says the u.s. military needs to do more to defeat isil on the ground. on the other hand, it says, u.s. troops won't be doing the heavy lifting when it comes to direct

combat. >> the new u.s. strategy was on display in iraq last week as seen from the helmet camera of a kurdish fighter. for the first type, u.s. commando did were paired with battle-tested local forces, and while the plan was for the americans to hang back, they were almost immediately drawn in to a fierce fire fight that killed one u.s. sold, master sergeant joshwa wheeler. the pentagon insists the u.s. troops were still advising and assisting and that the new strategy is not a slippery slope to a ground role, something last year president obama specifically promised wouldn't happen. >> i think we always have to guard against mission creep. what i have said in the past, let me repeat, american combat troops are not going to be fighting in iraq again. >> under the new strategy, they are fighting and dying in combat. just not according to defense secretary ash carter in an

overarching combat mission. >> the overall mission of the u.s. forces in iraq is to enable by equipping, training, advicing, assisting, a capable and motivated local forces and rather than to substitute for them as a matter of a combat mission. >> we are in tie back. that's why we care guns. >> a united states military spoemingdzman in baghdad struggled to make the distinction saying american troops with twill accompany friendly forces on raids in limited situations: namely short duration, in and out operations in which u.s. groups are supporting, not leading local fighters who are not just motivated but also capable. until now, the u.s. conducted raids exclusively with american

forces such as last may when u.s. commandos killed the isil leader, captured his wife and seized seven terrabytes from his computer come pound in syria. >> it not only accomplished a military objective, an important intelligence objective as well and other isil leaders have met their end directly as a result of the sensitive site ex plotation coming out of the operation. >> the pentagon says the u.s. will soon be stepping up airstrikes and focusing more on the oil infrastructure that provides a steady source of funds to issim. it denies russian strikes in syria have hampered coalition air campaign insisting fewer strikes in syria this month are part of the ebb and flo of warfare. the pentagon released this of iraqi troops by using an explosive rope fired by a rocket that can clear a path by

detonating buried bombs. those dug-in defenses set back the effort to retake ramadi by months. >> pentagon sources confirmed there are various options being considered that would increase the pressure on isil, everything from deploying possibly more apache helicopters to possibly allowing u.s. special forces to be based in syria the same way they are in iraq. but john, tonight, officials stress that nothing has been decided. >> admiral james tavridis of nato currently dean of the fletcher school at tufts university. he is the author of "the accidental admiral" joins me from medford, massachusetts. it's good to see you. do you expect to see more u.s. action in syria? what had to this business of no troops on the ground? >> i think we have crossed a line in terms of putting more

troops on the ground, particularly in special forces role, and you saw it, of course, in the very daring special forces raid. >> just freed a group of hostages from the islamic state so we are going to have to get at this with some number of ground troops but it's not going to be 150,000 troops. it will be certainly less than 10,000. probably five to 6,000. >> because we heard the mantra of this administration say over and over, no boots on the ground, no boots on the ground, is this a dramatic shift or just a tweak? >> i would say it's somewhere in the middle. despite saying no boots on the ground, there are about 3500 boots on the ground right now doing support, training, logistics, intelligence, aviation special forces. i think you will see that number go up to 5 to 6,000 over time. >> iraq says no u.s. direct action on the ground now. what do you make of their

response? >> i think the united states is in a pretty robust dialogue with iraq and this gets in to the different sation between having a u.s. battalion in a fire fight not going to happen. but having some discrete number of u.s. advisors embedded in iraqi units will happen. in the middle is probably special forces operations. we are already seeing them. i think we will continue to see them. >> but the fact that iraq says they don't want as much help as the united states was giving a while ago, i mean is that some indication that russia's really having an influence here on iraq as well? >> i think there are a wide number of factors at play here one of them is the arrival of russia into the theatre. another is iran having executed this iranian nuclear weapons deal now feels a little further latitude to operate.

>> that's impacting baghdad's views and strategy, but at the end of the day, i am confident the united states will continue to have a strong and robust relationship, will have 5 to 6,000 troops on the ground in iraq doing ops both in iraq and in syria. we are going to have to work through the modalities of iranian influence as well as russian activity. >> let's talk iran for a second. now, iran is going to join the peace talk with the united states in russia. won't this just mean that asad remains in pour in syria? >> probably not forever. but let's face the reality here we are not going to get a military solution to the asad regime immediately now that russia is in the game. so there has got to be a negotiation. iran has troops involved here. the russians do. the u.s. is backing moderate syrians. we've got to get to a dialogue, and i think it's going to have to include iran, russia, the united states, as well as

probably saudi arabia. >> that's, i think, the right quartet to have the conversation, and the model we ought to think about, john, is the balkans in the 1990s. we wanted to get rid of melosovich. we did. my feeling is we will get rid of assad but there will be a diplomatic dialogue before that happens. >> how do we prevent a proxy war? >> i don't think we can in the immediate future. let's face it: the united states is backing moderate syrians and the russians are backing, if you will, the assad regime. we have the saudis backing moderate sunnis, and we have the iranians backing the asad regime. so there is a proxy war that's in progress. what we can do by bringing those actors to the table as we just discussed starting in vienna, i think we have an opportunity to kind of walk it back. >> let me go back to iran for a

second, and the nuclear deal with the u.s., i believe, you described the holes in this deal big enough for iran to drive a truck through. can you really trust iran to, do you think, to be an honest broker when it comes to syria and these talks? >> no. i think that just as in the iranian nuclear deal, we are going to have independent verification with cyber, with clandestined, with overhead sensors. by the same token, in any accord we come to concerning syriaanding the asad regime, we will need independent verification. that's the very poisoned relationship that doesn't appear to be on a path toward reconciliation any time soon. >> you have said that russia has doubled down on its support of

assad. what does that mean? >> i will give you numbers. it means 3,000 russian troops. it means 20 to 30 russian fighters. it means russian naval assets doing intel skwhenings collection. it means shanelle weapons in the hands of the assad regime and money going in to the coffers of the assad regime so they can hire for figmore fighters fire side. it's pragmatic. they have come in high with a great deal of capability. they are striking hard. >> support is very real. it has impacted the facts on the ground as the saying goes. >> can you imagine a situation where nat 0 would actually take direct action against russia because of its aggression? >> not based on the aggression i see thus far in syria. what i think nato would be prepared to do -- in fact, i know it's prepared to do it, is to defend turkey, a nato ally if

this conflict threatened to spill across the turkish and, therefore, the nato borders. but realistically, i don't see nato coming in to this fight against russia. i do think nato might be willing to do training missions in iraq to support the united states in bringing the iraqi state. very unlike. >> good to have you on the program. we appreciate it? >> good to see you, john. thank you. >> now to capitol hill where paul ryan is one step closer to becoming the next house speaker. house republicans nominated wisconsin -- the wisconsin congressman for the job today. the vote is tomorrow. libby casey is in washington. >> congressman paul ryan may not have sought the job, but by wednesday afternoon, he was sounding like the next speaker of the house. >> but tomorrow, we are turning the page. we are not going to have a house that looked like it looked the

last few years. we are going to move forward. >> republicans voted behind closed doors in a inaccurate bal offenseto choosing to nominate ryan as speaker with 200 in favor. his only challenger, don yell webster was far blind with 43 votes. to win before the entire house on thursday, ryan needs 218 votes. but varepublicans say their ran will rally behind the nominee. three weepingdz ago, ryan said he wouldn't run for speaker. >> are you going to run for speaker. >> republicans pressed him to step up after majority leader kevin mccarthy dropped his bid for speaker, sending the caucus into disarray. ryan agreed but on his own terms. >> i cannot, and i will not give up my family time. i may not be on the road as often as previous speakers, but i pledged to try to make up with it with more time communicating our vision, our message. >> the 45-year-old's wife and three kids live back in ryan's home state of wisconsin.

ryan is far younger than most speakers but already chairman of the powerful ways and means committee, a job he spent years working for and will now have to give up. he has a run for vice president on the romney ticket under his belt and wid conservative credentials, pro-gun rights, anti-abortion and against gay marriage but ryan worked across party lines .2 years ago with democratic senator patty murray on a budget deal and some in the conservative house freedom caucus worry he's too similar to outgoing speaker john boehner. in his last act as speaker of the house, boehner pushed for a bi-partisan deal on the budget and debt ceiling hoping to give paul ryan a fresh start. >> i made it clear a month ago when i announced that i was leaving that i wanted to do my best to clean the barn. i didn't want him to walk into a dirty barn full of you know what. so, i have done my best to try to clean it up. >> ryan complained about the budget negotiating process but

ultimately said he would support the deal. we have been a clean barn, ryan has a tough job ahead. he inharris the same fractured republican caucus that pushed john boehner to step down and a charged political climate heading into the 2016 elections. libby casey, al jazeera washington. the house today also approved a sweeping bucket deal. it would raise the federal borrow limit until march of 2017 ending the threat of a government shutdown until well after a new president takes. the deal would increase federal spending by $80,000,000,000 and i am mroement a variety spending cuts. the senate's also expected to pass that measure. house speaker, former house speaker disis hastert pleaded guilt today to try to avoid federal banging laws, part of a plea deal to limit his time in jail for what prosecutors call a hush money scheme. she say he agreed to pay $3.5 million to conceal undisclosed conduct in exchange

for the plea prosecutors are expected to drop a charge of lying to the fbi. hastert will be sentenced in february. he is expected to get six months or less. coming up, driving dirty, the epidemic of uninsured drivers in detroit and why some are calling it a civil rights issue. plus, army's giant runway blimp cutting power lines, threatening aviation. hour it finally, came down.

thousands of students in predominantly black east st. louis, illinois, have been out of school for nearly a month. teachers there are on strike demanding higher pay and changes to the scale. the long walkout has some kids wondering if they have ever get back to class. diane esther brook gets back to class. >> east st. louis teachers wants out of their classrooms october 1st. if you aruos over a tentative contract that would have nearly doubled time it takes them to reach the top salary scale from 11 years to 21. >> there has been an atmosphere since this strike began of the administration telling teachers what to do. we expect to you go back and vote on something you already voted down. east st. louis is one of illinois's force communities. half of its residents live below the poverty line. state took over the school district four years ago because of poor performance. district spokesman kelly hawkins says the district needs to rein in teachers' salaries that top

out at $76,000 to avoid potential lay-offs and program cuts. >> we are nat no position to raise the taxes for the community, and we already are experiencing challenges with keeping up with taxes which are higher than our surrounding areas. we want to make sure that again, again, we are making a decision that is best, first, for our students, for the teachers, the district, and we have to consider the entire community. >> the students probably won't miss that much time in the classroom because the school year will be he can tended. the problem is: they may not be as well prepared for standardized achievement tests in the spring so community organizations like the christian activity center are filling the void, tutoring in kids in math, reading and other subjects. still, high school junior talexia johnson says the strike has taken a toll on her and some of her friends. >> i don't think i am going to be as motivated because, like, because the school is like -- i don't know.

people already think of it as like a falling like system. and then so, i don't think the school is taken seriously. >> but some teachers say students could be the big losers in the long run if they give in to the district's demand. >> my fear is that our district will not be able to retain teachers because it's going to take them too long to -- they will crawl to the finish line. >> the teachers thought they were close to resolving the execute tuesday night. talks broke off. they will resume again thursday diane easterbrook, illinois. >> it was widely expected short-term rates would be held near zero but the fed also said today, it could raise rates at its final meeting of the year. the dow closed up 200 points for the day. folks wagon reporting third quarter lots of nearly $2,000,000,000. vw's biggest quarterly decline

in more than 10 years. the company set aside more than $7,000,000,000 to cover costs from its recent emissions rigging scandal. volkswagon says it expects profits for all of 2015 to be down significantly from last year. in detroit, more than half of the city's drivers have no auto insurance. one of the key reasons: the price. the motor city has one of the highest poverty rates in america, also, some of the highest insurance rates. bici reports. >> reporter: ient to go past eight miles because i might get stopped, and i know that i am riding dirty so, you know, it's like i can't go past eight miles. >> eight miles, it's a road that draws the line between detroit and the suburbs. driving dirty is the term used by the estimated 60% of people in detroit who drive without auto insurance. >> how many years do you think you went without insurance? >> i went employ two or three

years. >> in a city plagued by poverty, detroit has some of the highest auto insurance costs in the country ranging from a few thousand up to $5,000 a year. i have been quoted different things by different companies, as high as a thousand dollars a month. >> i think it's a civil rights issue. what happens is in michigan, we have credit scoring, which is legal, and that really allows insurance companies to legally discriminate against the poor and charge really much higher prices for auto insurance than someone who has the exact same driving record but doesn't live in detroit or that has a better credit score. >> we spent months searching for an uninsured driver who would talk to us on camera, but many were afraid to share their story. that's because driving without auto insurance is illegal. but the high rates most agree are the result of the state's no fault system that provides

unlimited medical coverage. earlier this year, detroit mayor mike dugan proposed a plan called d insurance. >> would cap medical coverage at $275,000 which the city says could reduce rates by up to 30%. >> it is excellent coverage, and as a result action we safe the average detroiter under that formula between 600 and $2,300. so this is major savings, and it would break through what has been a defendant stalemate in lansing. >> but d insurance has been stalled in the michigan legislature for months and faces fierce opposition from michigan's healthcare industry which opposes the cap on medical benefits. >> there is no cap today on those benefits, and we think having detroiters give up that benefit in exchange for no guarantee in rate reductions is

something that our lawmakers should and are very concerned about and we think has led to the bill being stalled in the michigan legislature. >> today, done nelson is covered by auto insurance he can afford people are hurt with this. >> the hope was d insurance would be up and rolling by january of next year is it appears there may be a long road ahead. >> a senior vatican priest is stepped of his post after announcing he is in a gay relationship is firing back. kristof kiramza it was fired after introducing his partners at a newscom conference three days ago. we learned on the same day karamza septa letter to pope francis. he criticized what he calls the hypocracy in gaubanning gay priests. he says his goal is to publireject the violence of the church toward homosexual, less

bean, by sexual, trans sexual and intersectional peel an officer who flipped a high school student out of her chair is fired. look at the challenges schools face to keep students safe plus why scientists are worried about this winter's el nino.

hi, everyone. this issays. i am john seeing he willingthaler. >> school safety, debate over police in the classroom as the officer in this disturbing video loses his job. el nino. >> it is like godzilla traffic across the landscape. >> reality in california plus guitar hero ge smith talks about his incredible career from backing bob dylan to center stage at "saturday night live."

> in south carolina, an officer who sparked outrage across nation has been fired. john terret is here with more. >> the school resource officer seen in the videotaping down a 15-year-old high school student is out of work tonight but not for the reasons you might think. >> sheriff's deputy deputy ben fields was not fired for this, violently pushing a routine age girl off her chair but for this: throwing her across room. >> that's what's caused me my heartburn and what my issues with this. the maneuver that he used was not based upon the training or acceptable. >> losing control, a violation of the rules of arrest, says field's boss, sheriff leon lott? >> it continues to upset me when i see that video, is the fact that he picked the student up and he threw the student across the room. >> that's not a proper technique and should not be used in law enforcement. >> it's been just two days since the incident took place at

spring valley high in colombia south carolina. cell phone video went viral. the state, fbi and justice have all opened investigations. sheriff lott said deputy fields was notified despite strong support from him from the classroom teacher and principal. the deputy who has been in the job seven years is if not remorseful concerned in doing his job, discredited the department. >> he's sorry that this whole thing occurred. it was not his intent. his intent was not to do anything that brought discredited on the sheriff's department or him or that school. he tried to do his job. >> the unnamed 15-year-old girl who was pulled from her chair and a 16-year-old classmate who was also arrested at the same time aren't off of the hook either. >> he was like, you want some of this, too? and he just said, you're going to jail, too. >> sheriff lott says they will need to face up for disrupting class. >> the students who were

arrested, the original charge stands. there is nothing happened that changed with those charges at all. they still need to be held accountable for their actions. >> lawyers for the 15-year-old girl say she's charged with one count of disturbing school. they tell us she is in foster care tonight with a broken arm and bruised ribs allegedly sustained during monday's incident. the second student, a 16-year-old girl you saw at the end of the film was arrested but has yet to be charged. john? >> john terrett, thank you. the number of police officers posted to u.s. schools increased after the columbine attack in 1999. there are more than 10,000 of them. courtney keeley reports. >> scenes like this in sack ramtho, california where a high school principal needed help to break up a fight, one argument in favor of putting police in schools. >> as a school resource officer, i am here as a law enforcement officer. so, i am here to help keep the school safe, keep the grounds

safe. but i am also here to act like a teacher for the kids. >> but after this video from south carolina went viral, advocates are questioning whether police in schools are a good idea. >> what we are finding is that police officers are being put in the schools and school administrators are now relying on them to enforce school regulations where they shouldn't have any part in it. >> sean burke heads a lobbying group dedicated to improving safety in schools. he said police known as school resource officers should only step in to deescalate violent circumstances, not to discipline children for routine misbehavior. >> you guys know the difference between a rule and a law? he says one problem is duties and responsibilities of resource officers vary from state to state and county to county. for instance, some officers are armed. some unarmed. >> even though there is federal money that goes to hiring police officers in schools, there is no federal oversight.

there is no federal requirement for training on either the sro or the school administrator part. >> the department of justice started the cops in schools grant program in 1999 soon after the columbine attack. since then, the number of school resource officers has increased by about 40%. nearly one in three public schools nationwide now have school resource officers. >> if we teach younger people why police officers do what they do and that police officers are human and that police officers can be approached and spoken to and questioned, i think that is only going to go further in this world to build relationships. >> reporter: what this hybrid role of meantsor to students and law enforcer on school grounds should be remains up for interpretation with little oversight. courtney keeley, al jazeera. >> activists are calling on colleges to do a better job fighting online bullies. they say the school should

screen anonymous social media websites to get rid of abusive language. this report. >> reporter: this is yickyak. >> social media apps help stud fenced communicate anonymous on column campuses. some say they are used for harassment. they want colleges to monitor the sites. in a letter, more than 70 access groups asked the department of education to set up guidelines for colleges under title ix, a law which prohibits discrimination in any federally-funded program. >> an obligation to protect students from harassment, including harassment that happens okay. if they need to ban these sides on cam puss they need to. >> there have been complaints of anonymous rape threats as well as racially abusive languages at some schools. earlier this year, the app was at the center of a protest at

kolby college where someone had anonymously posted racist comments. schools like the university of mary washington say they cannot ban yikyak from campus. they write unw is obligated comply with all federal laws, not just title line. the first amendment prohibits prior restraints on speech and banning yikyak is tant amounts to a proceed lib bus on speech. >> once you say i don't like that speech, so i can shut it down. i don't like the other one, where do you draw the line? and who gets to draw the line. >> poundsers of yikyak say they do all they can to keep out offensive language. >> we havetons of filters, geo sensors. we just made a higher who can help identify bad language and good language and which yak. we are doing everything we can to make sure the community is health. >> it was blocked from high schools after complaints of bull looking and offensive comments. >> imports news tonight for people who use epinefrin.

about a half million packages of aviq inject orders are being recalled because they might not deliver the right amount of the life-saving drug. the manufacturer estimates about 200,000 people in the u.s. use those injectors. tuberculosis rivals aids as the leading cause much death from infectious diseases according to a new report from the world health organization. last year, 1 dots 5 million people died from the disease with 9.6 million total cases. meanwhile, hiv aids killed 1.2 million last year. but progress has been made against tb. death rates from the disease have decreased by nearly half since 1990. the world health organization is asking for $3,000,000,000 now for treatment, research, and development. dr. saline ground is an infectious director from new york city in our studio. welcome back. what are these numbers -- what

do these numbers mean to you? >> i think there are a few reasons americans should care about it. b still. we don't have a lot of tb in this country anymore. however, most of the tb that we do see here occurs among the forei foreign-born. you might say why don't we screen everybody who comes into the country? the problem with that is tb is a disease that we've provideder natures. most people who developed it in this country do so several years at least after entering the country. we have actually studied whether screening, enhanced screening would make a difference. it's, our dollars go further if they are spent overseas to turn the disease off at the tap in the source countries. >> how do you do that? >> we need to strengths en control programs. you need to start with better primary care. if you don't have a clinic to go to or a doctor or nurse to see if you have symptoms, that's a major problem. beyond that, there are issues with respect to tb drugs. for 40 years, we want without a new drug for tb until 2013 and finally had a couple of new drugs at that time.

we don't have an effective vaccine. there are not enough resources being put in for research for tb. >> why not? >> we have had a couple of things happen. one sequestration which really hit the u.s. centers for disease and prevenlings, national institute of health and, also, the u.s. agency for international development. >> in washington? >> in washington have made a huge difference. and even before those cuts, the nih, national instut duties of health, were only spending a 10th on it. bbcom paired to what they were spending on hiv. >> we know how deadly and contapeous it can be. why is it so many indications that go unreported? >> part of the problem is lack of access to care. one of the things that was being proposed, president obama, his administration, had rolled out a plan to address anti-biotic resistant bacteria in march. the plan had been to propose similar plan to complement it focusing on it. b.

the administration pulled back on that. they aren't willing to commit the resources and political will to move forward with that. >> you mentioned new drugs. what about a vaccine? is the world closer? >> we have a few candidates in the pipeline. i think it will be quite awhile yet before we see one and form, we are seeing pharmaceutical companies right now scrapping their tb research programs. >> we heard so much about it. b that can't be treated in the last few years, some cases came in to the united states. is that still a problem worldwide? >> it certainly is. drug resistent tb, multi-res ut apt to more than one drug, to every drug that's out there. that's a real problem. and issue for us here in the u.s. is that if we get one of those drug resistant tb cases, that can wipe out the budget for a local health department because the cost of treating one patient is so high. >> how often does that happen? >> well, we certainly see it. in new york city, we have a few

of those cases per year. across the border in new jersey, their budget is smaller than ours, so again, just one case in newark, that can make a huge dent in their budget. >> thank you very much. a wooden boat carrying hundreds of refugees capsized off of greece today. officials say the greek coast guard managed to rescue nearly 250 people but at least three others drowned including two small boys. rescuers searched through the night for survivors. more than 500,000 refugees, many in syria, have entered the greek island since january. humanitarian groups say freezing temperatures and blocked roads are en dadangering survivors of montgomeried's deadly earthquake in south asia. mounts nus terrain complicating the relief efforts. air lifting tents, food, blankets to hard-hit areas.

thousands were injure maid in the quake. almost 400 killed. california is finally, expected to get some rain. it may be more than the state can handle after years of extreme drought, forecasters are predicting what could be the worst el nino season on record. jennifer london reports. >> this is what i cannot get across to go home. i have they have seen this before. >> this in southern california after just one brief storm, a warm-up for what climate scientists are calling a godzi willaua el nino. >> it was scary. i was thinking how i was going to get out of the sunroof to get on the vehicle. >> homes swamped with mud. cars swept away, a deadly storm forecasters say should be a warning. >> modis operanti, floods, mudslides, and general mahem. >> nasa climatologist predicts this winter's el nino, ocean warming that brings wetter,

stronger storms could break records. >> they have impacts all over the planet. some of those impacts are extremely damaging. it is a little bit like godzila tramping across the landscape and the sea scape from continent to continuenent. >> over the summer, the los angeles public works department cleaned out these drainage basins to provide essential flood relief though communities living behind them. >> those are the first lines of defense. the mud and debris goes into the bassins and during storm event did, we go flu there as quickly as we can with bulldone dozers and trucks and pull that material out so we are ready for the next to storm that comes in. >> disputetha despite that, four of los angeles's counties 14 flood control dams have excessive amounts of dirt and debris that have built um behind them from past rains, putting cities like pasadena at risk. pasadena is home to the rose bowl, one of the most famous sporting venues in the country. it sits in the middle of the

arroyo sacka which means drystream. it was built as a flood control exag. the fear is, if el nino brings more rain than the channel can handle, the stadium and 500 homes downstream will be in the district path of potential flooding. >> devil gate dam feeds into that flood control channel. the county watted to remove more than 2 million cubic yards of saidiment. environmental groups sued saying bringing in heavy equipment and dump trucks would increase pollution and dispush neighborhoods and wildlife. the scope, the impact and the amount of time, 425 diesel trucks a day is a big deal. >> marney gatey lives near the dam. she is all for el nino preps, but doesn't support you have such a massive removal of saidiment all at once. >> my son went to school here he has chronic asthma. he wouldn't have been able to attend school if this project were in existence because of the

impact of the diesel smoke. anyone else who has any kind of chronic lung disease will be impacted. >> downstream, along the arroyo sako says it could put lives including her horses, in danger. >> i think in this case, we should have done something. i total, understand their point of view but it would be faster if we can avoid a disaster, we have 110 horses here it's going to be quite a difficult task to get them all situated. >> it's too late to do anything because el nino is right around the corner, and so everybody's got their fingers crossed that we don't have extremely excessive rainfall above the arroyo, and it conclusions or perhaps even overflows the d. >> the irony with the possible

godzil el nino. cals have been wishing for rain. too much of a good thing could swamp the stayed in a matter of months. jennifer london, al jazeera, los angeles. >> an indonesian officials say el nino is making it harder to fight wildfires that very many spread across southeast asia. jonathan betz is here with that. >> a major concern, government officials say they underestimated the extent to which el nino would impact indonesia. they are blame that pattern for creating dry conditions that have created forest fires to largely burnout of control. they are often started by farmers to clear land. this year, a heavy smog is now blanketing several countries, and it is making a lot of people sick. >> those who burn are not using their brains the otherwise, they would think about the impact on other people and they would know it would create this hayes. clearly those who burn are greedy. >> in the next hour, the possible long-term tests of this lingering hayes, how it may impact public health.

some criticsists say nay single day those fires are pumping out more greenhouse gases than all of the u.s. industries combined. >> we will look forward to that, jonathan. thank you. stunning pictures from the international space station. astronaut scott kelly and shel cylinder gwynn completed hair first ever space walk to do maintenance greats. thursday will mark 216 days in ashit for kelly, good enough to break the longest single space flight. he will remain on the station until next march. back on earth, above the skies of pennsylvania, a run-away blimp floated away from an army facility in maryland today. the military surveillance blimp knocked out power lines after somehow breaking loose from its mooring station. >> college students in pennsylvania laughed frpts it's going down. >> going down. >> but they didn't know that the runaway blimp is a highly sophisticated military aircraft designed to detect missile

attacks. somehow, it got loose from its mooring at the u.s. army's aberdeen proofing ground in maryland. called an aerostat, it drifted about 150 miles to central pennsylvania where according to norad, it finally landed. >> it has been deflating. i understand that it is deflating as we speak, and we continue to work closely, very closely with the local authorities on safely securing the aerostat. >> no injuries were reported but as the blimp floated, it drapd tellers crosses power lines triggering blackouts. the pentagon said there was never any danger but it did scramble f 16 fighter jets to keep track of the way active warning device blimp. >> we were never looking seriously at shoot down this aerostat, that our action has been solely focused on monitoring the aerostat and tracking the aerostat and

working closely with the authorities on the ground and with our inter agent seem partners to recover it. >> it was one of two blifrpz u.s. army spent $3,000,000,000 to develop. a revolutionary long-range surveillance came ability. >> its mission it is identify large metal obvious zekts like flames and missiles over a 300 mile range in any direction across the northeast u.s. boat ships can hover at 10,000 feet and are designed to foil a sudden short range enemy strike. the army sees the airstrikes as superior to ground base missile defenses. >> it is persistent. it's over the horizon. we don't have to worry about the terrain, buildings. >> the air shift must still undergo three years of testing. the army hopes these aircraft are better than the 15 earlier lighter than air think spramz at a cost of neil $7,000,000,000. >> still ahead on the broadcast

the, my interview with g.e. smith. >> people say are you nerves when you go on stage? and i say, no, that's the only time i cannot nervous. >> from hall and oats to saturday night roll how playing a supporting role turned the guitar wizard into a star.

in our culture segment tonight, guitarist ge smith, the former leader of the saturday night live band. for decades he's been tabbed tapped to back the biggest name in the music bix. david bowie, bob dylan. i asked smith when he first realize music was his passion? >> when i was 4, i went down in the basin with my mother. she was going.laundry. i grew up in straussbergburg spenz. there was a guitar that blomd to my uncle george. a guitar. can i have it? it's been hanging here for 10 years. take it. that was it. i was obsessed. >> he probably would get the award for most talented guitarist with the most expressive favorite. do people ever talk about those poses on saturday night live? >> not everybody liked it, you know. so what are you going to do?

you can't please everybody, no. it makes me happy when i play. that's the only time -- people say, are you nervous, you know, when you go on stage in front of all of these people? i say, no. that's the only time i am not nervous. the rest of the time in my life, i am nervous, walking around without the guitar, i am nervous. >> what was it like on that show? what work, when you started in 1985? i mean a lot of people have written books about how wild and craze saturday night life was. >> sure. i mean it's young people, you know, mott most part working there, younger people. not teenagers but certainly there were a lot of people in their 20s and 30s and you get a bunch of people that age together and they have fun. you know, but there was a lot of hard work. >> hard work? >> a lot of hard work, a lot of all nighters by the writers. >> tell me how you got to know some of these artists that you worked with. for instance, david bowie? >> i met him at a party, and he

was going to do a video, as it turned out, the next day for a song called "fashion." he needed some people with unusual faces. and he saw me, and he said, hey, do you want to be in my video tomorrow? i said, sure. ♪ then later in the party, he came back and said, why didn't you tell me you played the guitar? you can be the guitar player in the video. i said, okay. >> you wiere with hall and oate for how long? >> six years. >> and you toured with them? >> all over the world. yeah. >> what was that like? >> fabulous. yeah, when i first started, they were sort of in a slump. they had a couple of big hits in the mid 70s, smile, rich girl and a um of years where they weren't doing so great. i got hired in there. i was getting 200 a week, $100 to play geta and drive cars. we were playing bars. bars. >> this was after -- >> after squ"sarah smile" thingo up and down.

show biz. right? but then lucky for me, i happened to hit there in a period where they produced some great music and things really caught on. ♪ private eyes are watching you. yeah. not ♪ >> you talk about the ups and down in the bids. what would you tell a young person who has same aspirations? >> become a doctor or a lawyer. that's what i would. >> that's what i tell them. >> but you don't really believe that? >> i really believe that. >> somebody is going to come along and be the next ge smith. right? >> i hope -- i hope not exactly about yeah. somebody is going to come clooning and do william and that person will not be dissuaded from that path. will they? >> how much travel do you do now days? >> the past five years, i have been working with raj waters and we did the wall tour all over the world for three years, which was an incredible experience. i thought i had done big tours before. nothing like that. >> was a jay gaptic production.

♪ we don't need no education ♪ >> do you have a favorite moment in your career, a favorite time in your career? >> now. always now right? >> all we've got is now. memories are nice. i remember certain wonderful moments. there was a time in london with bob dylan, you know, where we were on stage doing a little acoustic part of the job and he is singing "mr. tambourine man" and i am going, i cannot believe i am here and there are beatlees on the side of the stage watching us. i always get that thing. how did, you know, little george smith from straussburg, pens get to this spot? there are lots of great guitar players am i have been very lucky. >> it's great to see you. >> thank you, john. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that's our broadcast. thank you for watching. i am john seigenthaler. see you back here tomorrow night. the news continues next with

jonathan betz. wha

cautious optimism. >> positive they're willing to come to talk. as we've said, it's hard to imagine the solution to the syrian crisis without their participation. we hope that, that participation can be please at this. >> the united states invites tehran to talk about syria. >> human suffering. >> i really regretted it. i will