we begin with an arrest in san bernardino. enrique marquez charged with conspireing to commit terrorist attacks. they say he purchased the weapons a husband and wife used to murder 14 people. jennifer london is in l.a. with the latest. jennifer. >> reporter: he's the first person arrested and charged in connection with the mass shooting in san bernardino that occurred two weeks ago killing 14 people. he's a former neighbor and friend of syed farook. one of the counts is that marquez and farook conspired to

commit acts of terrorism in 2011 and 2012. they were never carried out, but the affidavit said that the pair planned to attack a local freeway during rush hour and planned to attack either a cafeteria our library at riverside community college where they both attended. the second charge is the unlawful purchase of two assault weapons. these are the semi-automatic assault weapons used during the deadly attack. the third charge is that marquez allegedly defrauded immigration authorities by engaging in this so-called sham marriage with a member of syed farook's family. john. >> so what do we know? has marquez been cooperating with investigators? >> reporter: according to the affidavit, four days after the mass shooting at the inland regional center, marquez began to speak with investigators. we understand he's been very cooperative and he even waived his miranda rights, and

reportedly marquez has admitted that yes, he did, in fact, buy the semi-automatic rifles. that being said, john, at this point investigators have not charged marquez with participating directly in the december 2nd attack, and they also say at this time they don't believe that marquez had any prior knowledge that that attack was going to happen. >> this arrest happens the day before president obama is scheduled to visit san bernardino. what has the president got planned during the visit? >> reporter: we know that the president is scheduled to come to san bernardino tomorrow. this will be his first visit to the area since the december 2nd attack. there hasn't been a lot of information from the white house, but we expect the president to be on the ground for about two hours. he and the first lady will visit privately with family members of the victims, and then john, the first family will fly to hawaii where they will have their holiday vacation. >> jennifer, thank you very much. there has been a sense of

heightened alert since the sb attack. today threats against schools across america, more with thoughts to be hoaxes. in suburban indiana three school districts closed. officials say the threats were serious, promised deadly violence. on tuesday los angeles shut down it's entire school system after e-mailed threats. investigators are working to figure out the source of those threats. all this comes as president obama visited the national counterterrorism center, and he said he will do whatever it takes to make the country safe. mcviqueira reports. >> heading into the heart of the holiday season, president obama again sought to reassure an anxious public. >> at this moment our intelligence and counterterrorism professionals do not have any specific and credible information about an attack on the homeland. >> reporter: statement, mr. obama warned of the difficulty in unearthing plots by lone attackers. >> because they are smaller, often self-initiating,

self-motivating, they're harder to detect. that makes it harder to prevent. >> reporter: with security now topping the list of public concerns, the president has taken heat from republicans both on the campaign trail. >> he leads from behind. >> reporter: and in congress. >> with the present policy and lack of strategy, there will be other attacks on the united states. >> reporter: in 2009 critics said the white house was unprepared when the so-called underwear bomber tried to bring down a plane on christmas day while mr. obama was on his an annual family vacation in hawaii. as he prepares to leave friday on the same trip and in the wake of attacks in paris and san bernardino, mr. obama has held a series of events designed to reassure the public and ease fears. a rare oval office address, a trip to the pentagon to meet with his national security team. >> good morning, everybody. >> reporter: and thursday's visit to the national counterterrorism center where agencies across the federal government share intelligence and information in an effort to

thwart attacks. among the officials present, fbi director james comey who counseled employees spending time with family and friends over the holidays to say they shouldn't be afraid. isil and other terrorist groups don't pose a threat to america. it was a message echoed by the president. >> anyone trying to harm americans, they need to know we're strong and resilient. that we will not be terrorized. we have prevailed over much greater threats than this. we will prevail again. >> reporter: mike viqueira, al jazeera, washington. defense secretary ash carter admitted today he used a personal e-mail account to send work-related messages. carter insists he did not send classified information, but he says he knows it was a mistake. >> particularly someone in my position and with the sensitivities about this issue should have known better.

there were plenty of people during the time that you're taking office and so forth who explain to you what the rules are about e-mails, so this is -- it's not like i didn't have the opportunity to understand what the right thing to do is. i didn't do the right thing. this is entirely on me. >> carter is in iraq to meet with military officials. he stopped using his personal account a few months ago. in moscow today putin held his annual end of the year news conference. the three-hour affair included a defiant pledge about the fate of syrian president bashar al assad. peter sharp has the detailed. >> reporter: this was a relaxed performance from a president who looked like he was enjoying himself at this annual event, and he didn't dodge the big questions. the president assad, he said, will stay on. >> translator: i have said on many occasions and i want to repeat it, that we will never

agree with the idea that somebody from outside, whoever it is, should impose the idea of who should rule another country. it simply doesn't fit with common sense or international law. secretary of state kerry asked me about this. i told him our position has not changed. we believe the syrian people have to determine who should rule them. >> reporter: he says russia's expanded military presence will continue the support for assad's forces as long as the syrian army continues its operations. putin returned again and again to the shooting down of one of his aircraft by turkey. it wasn't an unfriendly act, he said, but a hostile act. >> translator: our people died. if it was an accident and the turks didn't know it was our aircraft, they would have apologized. that didn't happen. so nato started to get involved. was that really necessary? >> reporter: putin said a sophisticated surface-to-air

missile system is in place, and he warned turkey not to cross into syrian air space. in a year that saw russia play a key role in the peace process in ending the war in syria, putin said this week's talks in moscow with u.s. diplomats confirmed the russian plan was similar to america's. peter sharp, al jazeera, moscow. >> the russian president also talked about donald trump says. trump says he will work well with putin if elected, and putin returned the favor. >> translator: he is a very bright person, talented without a doubt. esshe is saying he wants a deep and more solid relationship from russia. from our point of view, how can we not welcome that. >> putin says russia is ready and willing to improve the relationship with the u.s. following the 2016 election. marvin joins us now. he worked as the moscow bureau

chief for nbc news and is senior fellow at the brookings institution. his new book is about putin, ukraine and the new cold war. great to have you on the program. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> let me start with what putin said about donald trump today. he said he was a colorful, talented person and an absolute front-runner in the presidential debate. what do you make of that? >> he is simply playing it safe. if it were to work out that donald trump became president of the united states, putin would like it to be said that he established a good relationship with the president because putin does not get on very well at all with president obama. he's looking for the next president. at this point, look, putin would say a nice thing about anybody at this point. i don't think we should take it all that seriously. >> having observed and analyzed what happened with what he did

in crimea, what do you think will happen with regard to turkey and how will he escalate this conflict? >> at this particular point, the russians are ses claitting the conflict no doubt, but they're doing it in a political way, in an economic way. they're dealing with tourism. they're dealing with direct financial transactions between the two countries. putin is no fool, and he is very much aware of the fact that turkey is a key member of nato. if there were to be any serious military confrontation between the two, putin is in effect saying that russia is prepared to take on nato. at this point i see no evidence that everything else that russians are doing that they're prepared to do that. >> so you spent a lot of time investigating russia's invasion of crimea. vladimir putt tin is very strong in his support of that move and continues to be. was it the wrong move for

russia? >> putin is an autocrat. he believes the best russia is the russia that he leads and there's no evidence he's thinking about leaf leaving his job. he is now and i know this is not accepted by western experts. i think putin's political position now is weak. it's more vulnerable now than it has been in quite a few years. his move into syria is not going the way he anticipated it would. in crimea there is enormous economic unhappiness, and the 68% or 70% of the people there who are russian are being increasingly unhappy about the state of economic affairs and political affairs. in ukraine itself it is a total, unmitigated mess. there is no logical way right now for the russians to leave

except to be humiliated once again, and certainly he won't do that. >> what is it that western leaders don't understand about vladimir putin? >> most of all, that putin is in a long line of russian leaders one at another placing the interests of russia as they see them ahead of the interests of everything else around the world. so for putin, who is a politician first and foremost, wants to retain power, for him it is central that he be seen by the russian people as a very powerful leader capable of taking on anyone including the president of the united states. what the west does not recognize is that putin is prepared to play just about any card, including the military card, to retain his political power. >> marvin's book is called

"imperial gamble: putin, ukraine and the new cold war." thanks very much for being with us. in baltimore tonight there's anger in the city one day after the mistrial of the first police officer tried in the death of freddie gray. in the neighborhood where gray lived protests are peaceful and residents are calling for justice. we have the report from baltimore. >> there's no way that these people should be able to walk. there's no way it should have been a mistrial. it's unfair. that's what i believe. it's really, really unfair how we're being treated. >> reporter: and you're crying now and upset just talking about it this morning? >> yes. it hurts my heart. it really does. >> reporter: disappointment and frustration over the hung jury in the trial of officer william porter accused of manslaughter and other charges in the death of freddie gray. porter's case was to be the beginning of a six-part legal drama. the prosecutor's response to a case that rocked the city. >> i don't believe that black

lives matter. i feel as though them paying the family off was an easy way for the officers to get off. i just really think it's unfair. i really think that it needs to be way more protests going on right now about it. it's unfair. >> reporter: west baltimore, junction west north and pennsylvania avenues, ground zero during last april's riots. it's pouring and miserable here, a reflection of the mood on the streets after the mistrial. >> that's just a whole bunch of b.s., because i really didn't watch a lot of case because i don't want it to upset me. it's not so much about freddie gray. it's the idea in general that cops get off with a lot of stuff. >> reporter: the neighborhood freddie gray called home is realing from the rioting that left so many businesses burned out. cvs is recommitted to building the pharmacy, but seven months on its still just a shell. while many fear the mistrial

would set off further unrest, that wasn't the case on wednesday night. this unity march was sizable, but it was calm. >> i'm glad people aren't running around acting crazy and a fool. that's the way to get results. people may expect us to act like that, but i'm glad they're not because it will lead to more people getting hurt and more people going to jail. >> reporter: as the city gets ready to set the reset button on the trials, there's a sense of despair among people on the streets. >> if there isn't a retrial, i don't think it's going toob any different. >> reporter: a double-standard when it comes to the law and policing. >> i wouldn't say we just want a guilty verdict. we just want justice. we want to feel like somebody is on our side for once. >> reporter: for now west baltimore lives with its past and looks for the future with some anxiety. john teret, al jazeera, baltimore. state of emergency. the toxic threat in flint,

michigan's water supply. were the warnings ignored? money for nothing. the young entrepreneur known for buying companies and making enemies is charged with fraud. street fraud. the crisis seen through the eyes of a journalist who once was homeless.

now to presidential politics. today senator bernie sanders got a big boost in the democratic race. his campaign said it surpassed 2 million total donations and sanders picked up key

endorsements. david shuster reports. >> reporter: at the communications workers of america, it was the boost by reason offy sanders was hoping for. >> we're here today to formally endorse the next president of the united states, senator bernie sanders. >> reporter: that means the cwa with more than 700,000 members will now dispatch thousands of activists into the early nomination contests. they will go door to door and make phone calls and help the campaign turn out the vote. >> god bless the united states of america. >> eight years ago the cwa chose not to make an endorsement in the obama/clinton nomination race. this team the members' decision was a landslide. >> they voted decisively for bernie sanders. >> even sweeter for the vermont senator, on thursday he also received the endorsement of the million-member group democracy

for america. earlier this year dfa organized a movement to draft massachusetts senator elizabeth warr warren. warren, sanders and most progressives share one major concern. >> while the middle class continues to disappear almost all of the new wealth and income being created in america today is going to the top 1%. that's not what our economy should be about. >> reporter: in a speech thursday, sanders said the anger across america is understandable, and he took a shot at republican donald trump. >> the challenge of our time is to make sure that we do not allow demagogues to use that anger to divide us up. our job is to bring our people together to attack the real issues, the real problems facing this country. >> reporter: those problems, according to sanders, are income equality, skyrocketing costs of college education, and a

political system that favors corporate elites. hillary clinton has issued proposals to try and tackle those challenges. >> in america if you work hard and you do your part, you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead. >> reporter: while analysts say her plans are not as progressive, the efforts seemed to have helped her campaign. the latest polling average of democrats in new hampshire indicates she's gaining ground, though sanders maintains a lead 48 to 43. in iowa the polling average puts clinton ahead 52 to 35. clinton campaign supporters are still nervous. all the polls indicate sanders has a huge edge with younger voters, and his late night television appearances keep going viral. most recently it was want popular whisper contest with nbc's jimmy fallon. >> feel the bern. >> feel the bern!

>> reporter: traditionally younger votes are the least likely to show up and vote, but not always. the key is a large, round organization and an organization that is now something that bernie sanders can count on. david shuster, al jazeera. al jazeera has learned the u.s. is setting free 17 prisoners from guantanamo bay. ash carter has approved the release of the men considered to be lower level detainees. not clear who the men are or which countries agreed to take them. the transfers would likely happen next month. this would lower the prison population at guantanamo bay to 90 inmates. for some u.s. citizens traveling to cuba, it's about getting a lot easier to travel. the two countries announced today that commercial flights are due to resume. the state department says there could be up to 110 round-trip flights per day. that's nearly four times the current number of charter flights. general tourism is still banned, but americans can visit if they

fall under one of the 12 special categories. new diplomatic relations between the u.s. and cuba led to a surge in cubans seeking refuge here. most are not traveling on makeshift boats to florida, but they make their way to texas through mexico. heidi jo castro reports. >> reporter: it's 2:00 in the morning, but the light burns bright at the offices at the cubans in liberty. always open doors. >> 24 hours. >> reporter: the nonprofit formed by cubans helps newly arrived cubans find transportation and temporary shelter. the office, adorned with the cuban flag, lies at the foot of the laredo international bridge. >> translator: on this night mario gonzalez mans the watch for his arriving countrymen saying he's ready to welcome them to the land of liberty and opportunity. these are the very steps that 28,000 cubans took this year

here at the busiest port of entry for cubans seeking refugee status in the united states. across the country that number is higher. 43,000 cubans entering the u.s. under a special cold war provision that allows them almost immediate parole into the country and permanent resident status after one year. claudio is resting after just crossing the bridge. while an uprise of immigrants of other countries have to sneak across the border to gain entrance, she could simply present herself at the checkpoint and ask for asylum because she's cuban. she just had to say political asylum, and they let her enter. she's a college student from an upper middle class family in havana. she left six days ago taking a boat to cancun, mexico and following a guide to the border. she says she left cuba because she disagreed with the communist

government and hopes to find opportunities in the u.s. she came now, she says, because she fears the warming of relations between cuba and the u.s. will put an end to the law allowing cubans to enter. she's not alone. there has been an exodus from cuba flying to places like ecuador and journeying towards the u.s. on land. almost 5,000 cubans are now stranded in costa rica because nicaragua closed the border to the influx preventing the movement north. they blame this on the u.s. immigration policy towards cubans. along the u.s. border that policy has its share of critics as well. catholic social services runs this shelter for central american refugees who end up detained and deported, unlike their cuban counterparts. >> it is unfortunate because these families are coming from the same type of environment.

fleeing some sort of violence, persecution or gang violence. they're fleeing poverty, and they're looking for a better way of living. why they're still taking the same approach of either this group of refugee versus this group of not, i think that's a political climate. >> reporter: a spokesman tells al jazeera the obama administration has no plans to change the policies towards cubans. the assurance is not enough to keep away cubans determined to cross this bridge to begin new lives in the united states. heidi jo castro, al jazeera, laredo, texas. up next, life on the streets. we talk with an investigative reporter who was once homeless herself. her emotional story and her message to kids across the country.

hi, everyone. this is al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler. paying the price. from allegations of price gouging to fraud. drilling down. scientists get an unprecedented look at the history of climate change and its future. at pharmaceutical company ceo who drew outrage who he raised the price of potentially life-saving drugs is facing federal criminal charges. martin shkreli was arrested

today in new york accused of securities fraud. late tonight he's denying the charges. mary snow has more. >> reporter: he's a ceo so des despised he's been labeled the most hated man in america, but martin shkreli's arrest has nothing to do with the controversy that thrust him into the spotlight. he used money from a biopharmaceutical firm as a personal piggy bank to pay off debt from his hedge fund. >> he used each subsequent company to pay off defrauded investors from the prior company. >> reporter: shkreli pleaded not guilty. the company he founded in 2011 sued shkreli in august seeking $65 million. it replaced him more than a year ago because of a what a company

spokesperson described as serious concerns about his conduct. shkreli is more widely known as the poster boa boy for greed raising it to $750 a pill this summer. it's used to treat hiv and cancer patients with weak immune systems to fight toxoplasmosis. after public pressure he backed down saying he willed lower the cost. >> he talked about second thoughts. >> i would have raised the price higher is what i would have done? >> why? >> i think health care prices are inelastic. i could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders. again no one wants to say. no one is proud of it.

this is a capitalist society, and my investors expect mihm to maximize process and not to minimize them but to go to 100% of the profit curve. >> reporter: his current company did announce in november it would discount the price of daraprim to some hospitals by 50%. doctors and advocates widely denounced the move saying the drug price was still far too high. he didn't seem faized at the scrutiny surrounding him. he spends time leave strieming daily activities and bragged about paying $2 million for a rare wu tang clan album taunting critics on twitter should with one of my companies change its name to wu tang pharmaceuticals. lawsuits be damned. earlier this month he summed up his answers. >> try to be a ceo yourself and see how it goes. try to maximize profits and not

get kicked out of a company and let me know how that goes for you. >> reporter: mary snow, al jazeera. >> alexi gold stein left wall street to join occupy wall street the movement. she's a senior policy analysts for americans for financial reform. alexis, in the case of martin shkreli, one of the fraudulent activities is setting up a shell couple to funnel funds to investors from another company. how common is that practice? >> it's fairly common, although i think what martin shkreli used it for is not what we see it used for. he was robbing one company to pay his old hedge fund investors. usually shell companies are used in order to dodge taxes. just as one example, it's been reported that walmart has a number of shell companies in europe in order to dodge american taxes. so it's quite common. it's just usually used for tax avoidance and not ripping off

former investors like shkreli used it for. >> you listened to that sound bite. what's wrong with trying to maximize profits for your investors? >> well, first of all, martin shkreli didn't actually do that for his former investors as this securities fraud case shows. he actually lost a bunch of money, started a new company and used the money from that company to pay his old investors. when you maximize profits at the expense of people that need drugs and at the expense of people who are buying homes that they can't afford because you've told them that, you know, the rate is going to be one thing, and there's a huge balloon payment at the end buried in the fine print on page 18 of a complicated form they don't know how to read, you're screwing people over who lack the same information that you lack. that's the wall street mentality. >> let me stick with drugs for a second. you hear it from the pharmaceutical industry all the time, which simply is, we can't create these drugs because it takes a huge investment, and in order for us to provide that

sort of investment, we got to have high prices for our drugs. you say? >> i would say that the government can do a lot in order to drive down costs. we had this debate in america. it didn't turn out that way. if a government is an entity buying drugs in bulk, there's a lot to be done to drive prices down. sort of equivalent to the drugs that martin shkreli are prous gouging are are available in other countries for lower prices. a lot of times that excuse is used as an excuse in order to drive up prices and maximize profitability and it's not what needs to be done to keep a company operating. >> let's talk about corruption on wall street. you worked on wall street for several years. is there a mindset that you think encourages people to use questionable business practices? are these just a few isolated cases? >> absolutely not. in fact, we've seen a lot of crimes since the financial crisis. one comes to mind, there were about four different banks,

jpmorgan and citi group recently caught having a chat room they named the mafia they were using to manipulate currency prices. one of the things they wrote in the chat room is if you ain't cheating you ain't trying. the attitude on a trading floor is essentially if a customer gets ripped off, it's their fault. they should have been smarter. if you get ripped off, you should have studied harder in school. it's a very, very cruel mentality. >> you laugh when you say it, but it's a very, very serious business. it's important to talk about. alexis, good to see you. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me, john. florida's famous oranges are under threat. scientists are trying to stop an insect from spreading a tree-killing disease. some orange growers say it's more deadly than hurricanes. jonathan betz has more. >> reporter: harvest time in central florida. this year the fruit keeps

falling and so are fortunes. >> this is not normal. we should not see so many oranges on the ground. larry black is the fifth generation of farmers in these florida fields. have you ever seen anything like that? >> not at all. >> reporter: he lost a third of his crop to a devastating disease sweeping through florida's orange groves, citrus greening. >> this is a normal orange and this is a greening impacted porj. >> the bacteria slowly starves the trees and stunting growth and falling early. >> the fruit size is extremely small and the peel is very thin. this fruit has a bitter taste that's not normal and pleasing to the palette. >> can i taste it? >> sure. >> it takes like a watered down orange. >> exactly. >> it arrived here from asia a decade ago, spread fast by a tiny bug, the asian citrus

cilid. >> it's the most feared credit truss disease in the world. i was aware of it. i knew it was a severe impact to the industry and threat, but i had no idea that the impact would so rapid. >> reporter: it sent prices soaring at grocery stores and helped to cut the florida orange har veries for more than half to its smaller since 1963. already in the past decade the industry has lost nearly $8 billion and 7500 jobs. >> we want to keep this industry intact. it's iconic and has been here since the late 1800s. why not do everything possible to keep it alive. >> reporter: this professor is among those trying to stop the disease. so far there's no cure. >> it's viewed by many as the worst disease in the world. we're at a point in time where you talk to growers, they say we're running out of time. >> reporter: growers like larry black refuse to give up. for now he's using pesticides to

kill the bugs and extra fertilizer to strengthen the trees. >> we as a company continue to rebuild, replant, invest in the future and we'll be here and provide oranges to consumers around the world. >> reporter: still focused on keeping his company growing when hope keeps falling. jonathan betz, al jazeera, fort mead, florida. to flint, michigan. that city declared a state of emergency over the drinking water contaminated with chemicals, bacteria and perhaps most troubling lead. the toxin is particularly dangerous for children. many in the city have been found with elevated levels. now residents are demanding answers about what city officials knew and what happens next. we have more. >> reporter: the city of flint residents, they are not people that are disposable. we just are not. at rhonda kelso's house in

flint, michigan. >> i have a filter up under here. >> reporter: this is one of the certified ones that filters out the lead? >> filters out the lead. >> reporter: cold water runs through a new filter, but the 52-year-old stroke survivor says she still won't drink it. >> it's a crime for people to be serviced with water that's classified by the epa as toxic waste. this is water that came out of the tap. look at this green at the bottom. >> reporter: it was only a few months ago when she selected this from her unfiltered faucet. >> it came out brown. >> reporter: at a time when state and city officials insisted the water was okay to drink. >> yeah, it's orangey when it settles all the way down. >> reporter: for more than a year now rhonda and tens of thousands of flint residents, mostly minorities and many low income, have been without certainty that their drinking water is safe. the state agency tasked with overseeing testing of the

drinking water for safety is still trying to explain what went wrong. >> there was no nepharious intent to put flint at risk. let me be real clear about that. >> reporter: dan wyant heads the department. have you apologized to flint? >> i apologized to some that brought it forward because of our tone. >> you won't say you're sorry? >> i -- i recognize flint is anxious and concerned about it, and i feel the plan that we have addresses the issue and we're committed to seeing the plan through. >> reporter: during an octobered press conference, he announced flint was using proper precautions to keep lead from leaching into the water supply. >> when we switched from the

water, they utilized corrosion controls. >> he now admits his public statement was wrong. when you said, corrosion control was in place in flint, was that true? >> no. corrosion control is a term of art. there are multiple corrosion control techniques. i want to be real clear. flint needed more corrosion control, and we understand that. >> how do you think you're going to regain the public trust when you just sat here and told me what you told the public was not true? >> no. what i said to you was true. it was not that it wasn't true. what i do want to indicate is to get the public trust back, that will only come, again, from our actions. >> eric maze -- mays is a flint city councilman. he's in detroit this evening.

how are the residents ever going to trust this government, councilman? >> well, we just changed the mayors november 3rd, and that's a step in the right direction. so, you know, flint is a town of about 100,000 people. they trust some of us, and so we'll monitor and watch and try to fix some things, and then we'll tell them the truth. i think it will be coming from different people they trust and believe. >> when i hear this story, it makes me wonder whether you've had a rush to leave flint, to get out of town because they're afraid for their kids. what have you heard? >> well, you know, lead poisoning is irreversible damage, permanent damage. blood lead levels were high. after 20 days the lead goes into the body. the medical community haven the found a cure.

this is irreversible, permanent damage that will affect mental and physical development. >> so who is responsible, councilman? >> i think that the michigan department of environmental quality, the governor, the emergency managers who were sent in, the former mayor and others in the administration. there's enough blame to go around. >> can you talk about how big -- how significant this crisis is for your city? >> well, we think it's a major crisis, and i think it's an example of epa's standards and enforcements that should be looked at not just on -- in flint but around the nation. the medical community says that no lead levels is acceptable, and the epa has different standards. this was negligent, you know. there was no corrosion control

based upon what experts have told people it should be. so this could have been preventible. >> so the government just lied to the people of flint? >> i could say they did. that's the tragedy of this. they've destroyed the infrastructure. it's an environment coded by the corrosion control, the phosphates that had went through our system for over 50 years with water from detroit. they shot the corrosive water from the river in fl and no corrosion control and destroyed the biofilm. we need help from the federal and state government to replace some infrastructure, and we need help dollars and cents-wise, you know, to look at some medical damage that's been done to kids and the elderly. so the mayor has recently declared a state of emergency. so we're going through that process now. >> you have to wonder whether people are going to be able to

believe what the government says yard to this water in particular. >> well, i'm a god-fearing politician. i pray on my knees. i trust in god. my father was my pastor, mayor weaver, the community knew us. we're monitoring this and we're going to tell them the truth. i'm shooting straight here, and i appreciate the opportunity to talk to a bigger audience. >> good luck with flint. thank you. >> god bless you. up next, he could be the future of climate research. the new drill that could reach polar ice dating back hundreds of thousands of years after this.

a vinyling vigil today in philadelphia billed as homeless memorial day. there's a special focus on that city and across the country on homelessness and youth. in 2014 there were nearly 600,000 people without shelter in the u.s. many of those are young people in their teens. laura renna murray is an investigative journalist and wrote a piece for aljazeera.com on how the child welfare system has failed homeless children. it's called philly's invisible youth. laura, welcome. why did you take on this topic? >> i came to this story because

it's personal. i was a run-away homeless kid in philadelphia when i was a teen. i wanted to see what the situation was like 17 years later. >> what did you find? >> the school district only started counting in 2009. there's a survey every two years, and what we've seen since we added those questions is that the numbers of youth who are reporting themselves as run-aways and saying that they are homeless alone have been climbing. >> are there not enough beds for them? they don't want to go to the shelters or both? >> both. there are -- there aren't beds for -- youth-specific beds in philadelphia. there are 20 emergency shelter beds for youth who are under the age of 18, and there are 50 for youth aged 18 to 24 in the city.

that's it. >> who are these children? where do they come from? >> many of them are running away from abusive homes or placements. 40% of homeless and run-aways are lgbt and often are kicked out of their families because they don't accept who they are. >> tell me a little bit about how difficult it was to do this story, given your own personal experience. >> i think that it was difficult to report the story because of my experience, but i also felt really important to get it right. and one of the things that was from us traiting is that everybody would use the same adjectives to describe run-away and homeless youth. they called them invisible, and i spoke to dozens of kids and they weren't hard to find. >> did you engage with the kids

you talked to about your experience compared to theirs? >> the thing that was shocking to me when i would talk to them about their stories was how many similarities there were in what was still happening to them today. >> what's the message to send to people like the people of philadelphia or others who ignore or don't see these kids? >> there is a lack of resources that have, you know, earmarked for kids who need it the most. these are kids who are homeless while being alone. they don't have families to help them. most of the kids want to stay in school, but it's really difficult when you're homeless. >> laura, your story is very powerful and personal. people can find it on aljazeera.com. thanks for talking and sharing your story with us. >> thank you. now to a story about guns. the white house has put gun control at the top of its agenda

after a series of recent mass shootings. president obama met with several high profile gun control advocates, that includes former new york mayor michael bloomberg. the billionaire spent millions of his own dollars to proceed note new gun laws across america. mr. obama is preparing a new executive order to try to tighten access to guns. now to a battle over oil and the environment on capitol hill. ali velshi is taking a closer look at that. >> republicans get the ban on america's oil exports lifted for the first time since the '70s. democrats get more solar and wind tax credits, but with any deal there are concessions and someone or something always gets the short end of the stick. i'll talk to a man who says the gop's gain in this case was the plane net's loss. that's tonight "on target" 9:00 p.m. eastern. next on this broadcast,

they're behind bars, but they just pulled off what most recording artists only dream about. they just got a group of east african prisoners a grammy nod.

[ music ] the sound of inmates at a crowded prison in malawi. they've been nominated for a grammy award. the album is nominated for a grammy in the best world music album category. there are five inductees to the rock 'n roll hall of fame. chicago was among those chosen by fans, and more than 800 voters in the hall of fame foundation. other undeductees include deep purple, cheap trick and steve miller along with the rap group n.w.a. climate researchers found a new method to look at climate research dating back hundreds of thousands of concerns. >> humans have only had the ability to directly measure the climate for over a century. how is it we're certain that we

are that the climate is changing radically right now? ice is the answer. trouble is it's taken literally years in the past to pull out a single sample of ice. i'm joined by two scientists leading the charge to figure out a new way to do that. we need to find out the implications for climate change. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> you were sitting in a canteen at the edge of the earth and began to collaborate on this. what is this device? >> it's a drill that has the ability to just cut through ice really fast, and so it's got a lot of torque to it. it has a lot of power that we can chew through ice really rapidly and take it to the bottom. >> traditionally you had to very delicately over the course of what, months? >> it takes five years to drill a conventional ice core and we can do it in three days.

>> what can you do with this? >> we can date the bore hole and the ice in the bore hole without saying a sample of the ice back to the lab. >> what will we learn we couldn't before? >> it's extending records and being able to really because of the mobility of the system visualize the ice sheet in th e three-dimensional ways that we don't currently have access to to help us understand the current state of the ice and what it's doing now but also to look back in time to see what our, you know, climate history is in the polar regions. >> you are making this announcement this week at the annual meeting of the american geophysical unions, one of the greatest concentration of climate scientists in the world. they pat themselves on the back for the historic climate accord in paris. did you come away from paris feeling good about what was accomplished there? >> it's baby steps. i don't want to sound negative

about it. it's good. realistic, this is just the beginning. what we really need is a global price on carbon so that solar and wind and other alternative energy sources can compete in the marketplace. >> that's our program. thank you for watching. i'm john seigenthaler. >> i'm ali velshi, "on target", slick dealing. congress clears the way for america to export oil for the first time since disco was king. >> and the c.e.o. blasted for jacking up pharmaceutical prices, faces trouble on a different front it's almost sad how happy