bond believed the act was meant to day. julian >> this is aljazeera america, live from new york city. i'm tony harris. boiling point. michigan's governor will use the state of the state address to address the water crisis in flint. the crisis on immigration, and staggering, 19,000 civilians killed mir ac in less than two years. and the auto industry is being bailed out by the federal

government. so let's start with a live look at the michigan state capitol building. in just a couple of minutes now, governor rick snyder will deliver his state of the state address, and he's expected to dedicate a large portion of his speech to the water crisis in flint. and financial assistance for emergency needs. as soon as the governor brings his address, we'll bring it to you live. and the governor's address comes as the white house expands it's role. the president met with the city's mayor, karen weaver, and he named a health and human services official to lead the response to the health crisis. >> reporter: at the very least, these protesters want two-term michigan governor, rick snyder, to resign.

at most, they want him charged with a crime. >> i think that he's very culpable to t he appointed the emergency managers and gave them authority over the decisions. >> he doesn't care about the people. >> reporter: governor said that the water crisis is his katrina, and he said that the crisis represents a failure of leadership. in his state of the state address the governor plans to talk directly to the people of flint and expected to tell them that solving the water crisis is his number one priority. it was the governor who appointed two city managers to run flint with almost unlimited powers, and it was under their leadership that the city, in 2014, switched to a different water supply, the polluted flint river. kurtz isn't commenting on his

role, but last fall, early d. >> it fell to me to implement the plan that had been used by the council and part of that was to use the flint river as a water source. >> reporter: either way, the department of health and services has appointed a the rest of to get clean water to the city and test for lead levels in children. a u.s. congresswoman from detroit welcomes that. >> . >> what i'm looking for is a fund to be set up to address the developmental issues that the children who have been contaminated will have. education and developmental, and these issues there must be funding >> reporter: but governor snyder is blaming the michigan department of environmental quality. he said that the was "blowing off concerns that his department had last summer about the quality of the water." >> okay, so once again, it is the state capital of the

legislature building there in lansing, michigan, and you can see the governor there, being ushered into the room. so a really important speech now for this governor, who is feeling all kinds of pressure right now from activists in the community of flint, michigan. from residents, some 100,000 residents, in the mostly poor, mostly black city of flint, michigan, who are in many cases calling for action, and in some cases calling for the governor to step down. as you can see, he's getting a bit of a rousing be response. this is a republican-controlled legislature. so you would expect that he'll see some support there from his fellow republicans. there he is, rick snide, expected to speak at some length about the water crisis in flint, michigan. why don't we give a listen to

his remarks. [ applause ] >> thank you, thank you very much. thank you. >> members of the joint con vince of the state of michigan, rick snyder. >> thank you, thank you very much. please be seated. thank you for joining me tonight. lieutenant governor, brian kelly, senate majority leader, senate minority leader, house minority leader, members of the

supreme court, members of the court of appeals. attorney general, congressman, fred upton, congresswoman, brenda lawrence. my cabinet. ladies and gentlemen of the legislature. fellow public servants, citizens of michigan. and my family. i welcome you herer tonight. i would like to begin by adding a special welcome, to our active duty military reserve and national guard members, and law enforcement, let's give them a shutout too. [ applause ]

otherawa. >> thank you, i do want to share one special situation with you with respect to our medical. last year, we had deployed the 127th air wing out of sulfrag. they have two key elements in terms of aircraft, the war hog, which is an air support unit that was deployed in the middle east, dealing with terrorists and other issues flying sorties, and it's the tanker, which was deployed refueling aircraft like the wart hog and others to make sure that they could fly those mission. we should be proud. they have roughly flown three years of flying in six months. in terms of the c135 pilots and

their crews all together, they did incredible work. and they have a special mission critical role, and they have a special why they were deployed. and they did something that has never been achieved in the history of the air force. not just the air guard. they had an inspection where 100% of the members of that unit received 100%. they were perfect, and they shows the spirit of michiganders, we have isabel, the commander of air national guard, and brigadier general be slokum, from sulraj, and -- >> let's do this, and breakaway while this is all important, and it's always important to recognize the efforts of the military, we to the get more information, on the protest

that's going on outside of the state capitol building out there. andy, can you hear me okay? we're about to cut to you. give me a nod or a thumbs up, can you hear me okay? >> reporter: yes, i can. >> we want to get a sense while we're waiting for governor snyder to address the water in flint, we want to get what's going on in your location. can i protesters walking behind you with signs, and walk me through that scene there. >> reporter: tony, fire snyder is the protest crying for the hundreds who have shown up on this cold night. they are demanding that the governor resign, but he won't, or become critically charged with his role in the water crisis. and the protesters are bringing up quite a bit. there's another wrinkle in all of this. and that is that there have

been reports of 87 cases of legionnaires disease in the flint area since the water supply was switched to the disaster water crisis, and ten of those resulted in deaths and so the big question, is there a link in the leg areas disease to the switch to the other water, and not to mention the high lead levels in the water. >> i don't know if you were able to hear it, but the governor entered the chambers, there was rousing replies there, and my understanding is that this is a republican controlled legislature. he's talking about the water crisis in flint. >> you could not have created or prevented it. i want to speak directly and honestly and sincerely to let you know, we are praying for you, and we are working hard for you, and we are absolutely committed to taking the right

steps to effectively solve this crisis. to you, the people of talent, i say tonight as i have before, i'm sorry and i will fix it. no citizen of this great state should have to endure this kind of catastrophe. government failed you, and the trust that you placed in us. i'm sorry most of all, i let you down, you deserve better, you deserve accountability and you deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. most of all, you deserve to know the truth, and i have the responsibility to tell the truth. the truth about what we have done, and what we'll do to overcome this challenge. tomorrow i will release my 2014 and 2015 emails regarding flint to you, the citizens, so you will have the answers to your

questions about what we have done, and what we're doing to make this right for the families of flint. anyone will be able to read this information for themselves at michigan.gov/snyder. because the most important thing that we can do right now and work together for the people of flint. [ applause ] i know apologies won't make up for the mistakes that were made, but i take full responsibility to fix the problem so that it will never happen again. tell you what has been done so far, and what we'll be doing in

the coming days, weeks, months and years to keep our commitment to you, to make flint an even cleaner, safer, with stronger city than it was before. because that's what you and your families deserve. we're working to do whatever we must until the crisis is resolved. the people of flint have chosen a new mayor, and i'm personally committed to work hand and hand with mayor weaver to rebuild the trust that has been broken. i have taken steps for the environmental quality. it will be directly communicated to the people of the state. for knows who contributed to the disaster, we're fully cooperating with the government investigation and will hold those individuals accountability. let me be clear in all state government, in situations like

this, they must come to my desk immediately, no delays, no excuses, period. [ applause ] we will provide resources to help anyone and everyone that is affected. just as we provided since we first learned of the crisis. in addition to emails, tonight i'm releasing a comprehensive timeline of the steps that we have taken, and the actions to solve the crisis. let me walk you through the facts. first, this crisis began in the spring of 2013 when the council voted 7-1 to boy water from the kwa. former mayor supported the move

and the emergency manager approved the plan. dwsd, replace, and in 2014, flint began to use water from the flint river as an interim source. second, soon after the switch, residents cleaned about the water, the color. in august ask september of 2014, each lasting several days. third, the department of environmental quality and the federal environmental protection agency began communicating about lead concerns in february of 2015. sadly, both were ineffective in fully addressing and solving the problem. dq misinterpreted the

relations, and epa did not address the concerns of one of its experts about dq's approach and the risk of lead contamination. in may of 2015, lead service lines to one residence were removed and replaced due to high lead levels, but still, they both failed to systematically identify the problem. fourth, in july of 2014, my office asked about the quality of flint's water, and testing. the deq told us that they were in compliance, and there was one concern with one house that was corrected and there was nothing widespread to address. the department of health and human services told us that the elevated lead levels were to be expected because they followed the normal seasonal trends. these conclusions were later shown to be correct when the

health and human services provide for the relevant day. ho 5th, doctors sounded an alarm about lead in flint's water. but tragically, based on what deq and health and human services had seen on the ground, they initially failed to reach the same the same conclusion. i want to thank the professor and doctors for bringing this issue to light. we're actively investigate why these agencies got it so wrong, and i believe this we have dr. atisha here tonight, and if you could rise, please. [ applause ]

dr. hannah achisha. i apologize. i always call you dr. moan a he, on september 28th, 2015, i was first briefed on the potential scope and the magnitude of the crisis. deq and dhs, department of health and human services. ep teameologists validated dr.a tiesha's finds, and at this point, i immediately ordered a ten point plan that conclude immediate search of water filters and blood testing in schools, and about 12,000 filters were distributed. 700 water tests, and 2,000 blood tests were conducted within the first three months.

7th and october 8th, i announced that we would reconnect to the detroit water system to minimize any further damage, and later that morning the task force to recommendidations to address the crisis. eighth, the task force issued its initial actionable recommendations and identified critical problems in mid december. specifically, it pointed to a primary failure of leadership at the deq, and a culture that led to this crisis. the task force was right. and i immediately took action, applying new leadership at the department. ninth, i declared an emergency in flint on january 5th, so we could access additional resources and support. including the michigan state police and the michigan national guard. these critical resources were needed to help families get clean water. and end any risk or exposure.

and i requested a presidential declaration of federal emergency, which was granted. and the members of our congressional delegation who are here tonight, this is a challenge that we must work together to solve. and i look forward to working with you for additional support from the federal government to the people of flint. tenth, to date, more than 37,300 cases of water, more than 53,700 water filters, and more than 7,300 water testing kits have been be distributed. more than 21,300 homes have been visited. this is not enough. i'm increasing the support from the michigan national guard, starting tomorrow, to ensure that every home we need to visit in flint gets visited as soon as possible. and i'm appealing the president's decision not to

grant a major disaster declaration, will continue to deliver water, filters, and we'll not stop working for the people of flint until every single person has clean water, every single day, no matter what. [ applause ] that's why today, i made an official request of the legislature to fund a series of immediate actions to provide every in flint clean water and care for flint's children. in addition to the $9 million supplemental appropriation for flint, the request today is for $28 million with $22 million from the general fund.

it includes additional bottled water, filters, replacement filters for anyone who needs these resources. assistance to the city of flint to help with utility related issues. testing in schools, daycare facilities, and other high-risk locations. treatment of children with high lead levels, including diagnostic it testing, nurse visits, nutritional counseling and environmental assessments. services will be available for the treatment of potential behavioral health issues, such as adhd, for those who have or could have elevated lead levels. we'll work with primary care in hospitals, to educate the community00 toxic stress, and how to identify delays. additional church for children's healthcare access. infrastructure integrity study

for pipes and connections using outside independent experts. and importantly, this will not be the last budget request for flint. addition at resources will be needed for water needs, educational needs, economic needs and more. if you would also like to help flint, go to help for flint.com. all spelled out, to volunteer to donate. if you are a flint resident who needs help getting the water you need, do go to help flint.com. these are the facts of what we have done, and what we're doing. but just as important as solving short-term needs and improving any long-term solutions, we need to make sure that this never happens again in any michigan city. [ applause ]

we began this process by creating the independent flint water task force, and asking to report on exactly what happened, what accountability measures must be in place. >> all right, you've been listening to the governor of michigan, rick snyder, and as advertised, he committed a nice portion of his opening remarks in his state of the state address to flint, michigan. he says we are praying, and working hard for you. speaking directly to the people of flint, michigan. i am sorry, an apology, i am sorry, and i will fix it. i'm sorry i let you down, the buck stops with me. you driveway the truth -- deser.

and he's promising emails connected to the decision making with the water crisis in flint. i take full responsibility to fix the problem so that it never happens again. he is promising to work with the new mayor of flint, michigan, mayor weaver, to fix the problem. the people responsible for the problem will be held accountable. and he's also implying, it seems to me that he was not fully informed with the mistakes being made in handling this crisis. let's bring in susan beamer, inside of flint, and a syndicated columnist, covering the crisis in flint. and she's outside of the state it capitol building. so suzanne, let me do a forensic dive here on this speech and the crisis to date. so the decision to switch from the detroit water system, and draw from the flint, michigan,

that was a decision made by what body? was that the flint city council? >> reporter: the decision was actually not made by the city council. it was a decision made by several emergency managers, who are appointed by the governor, and they are accountable to him. flint has had economic problems for years, and as part of that, they have an emergency manager. >> gotcha, gotcha. so the governor seems -- susan, can you hear me okay, before i continue? >> no. oh, my goodness. da gone it. we're going to try to get it fixed and come back to you, because this is our lead story

on the day, and we'll work on that. let me get you to additional background information on the problem in flint. it seems to boil down to the amount of contaminants in the water supply. and it's not clear why it took so long for the officials to it deal with the problem, but it's hard to ignore the science. >> reporter: the threat of lead poisoning is not a one-time fall over and die kind of threat. lead is dangerous over time because it slowly builds up in the body. so the long-term exposure that one gets from drinking lead contaminated water is the problem. in children under six, hearing loss, and in babies, slow growth and learning difficulties. that slow term problem, it's why they measure lead in drinking water in points per billion, and a number at or

below in what you would find in 90% of homes in a given area. that's why the lead content in flint's water is so much a problem. they tested homes in 2015. and here's what they found. in neighboring cities, freeway, which is 45 miles away, a reported level of 1.1 parts per billion. in detroit, 2.3 points per mr. that's the point at which 10% are worse than that, and 90% of the people are less than that. >> it doesn't get a concern until 5 parts per billion. and that's the epa standard, but that's when health problems start to show up. among the 271 homes, the reading was 227 parts per billion, and that's almost twice what the epa allows, and their limits are considered to be too loose.

in a home in flint, 158 parts per billion, and that's ten times the epa's limit. and in one unlucky home, when the researchers went to check on what had been very high readings by officials, they were careful to get the most representative, it was 13,000 parts per billion. at 5,000 parts per billion, the epa considers it to be toxic waste, and that's what was coming out of the pipes in the home. one researcher said we have never seen such high levels, and this city, flint, michigan, has a very serious problem. >> jay, thank you. and let's see susan again. and susan, i want to check before we go to break, and can you hear me okay? >> i can hear you. >> you stay there, and don't

you move a muscle. >> okay. >> we'll take a break and come back with more of our coverage of the state of the state address by michigan's governor in just a moment. this is aljazeera.

>> okay, so let's bring in susan, the editor and publisher of inside of michigan politics, and a syndicated columnist who has been covering the water crisis in flint for a long time now. susan. i want to do a couple of things here. i want to understand better what the governor is doing with his speech. part of it is to say i'm sorry, but part of it is to lay blame at the feet of some agencies there in michigan. and i want to get to the bottom of that. but first here, the decision to switch from the detroit water

system and draw water from the contaminated flint river, who made that decision? because the governor seems to be suggested that the flint city council had a big role to play in that decision. >> reporter: all evidence that we have is that it was the emergency mornings who are appointed by the governor and are responsible to him, that it was ultimately their decision. under the emergency manager law in michigan, which is a unique law, local government doesn't really have very much power. >> so what was the switch some what is your understanding? your reporting on this, the reporting of your staff, the understanding with the knowledge that the flint river system was inferior in quality? and ultimately, what i'm driving at here, was this a financial decision? cost saving decision? >> it was absolutely a

financial decision. flint has been a financial mess for years. they have been looking to save money in all sorts of ways, with labor costs and what not, and the decision to go with the flint river water was absolutely to save money. i'm not saying that they thought it could be unsafe, but i do believe that cost was the primary issue involved. >> so susan, treating the water, we understand that there was a treatment system set up. treating the water would have made the flint river water more expensive to treat it properly, so are we sure that not ordering the chemicals to properly treat the flint river water, that's a story that's percolating as well, are we sure that not ordering those chemicals to not treat the water out of flint river was a

simple oversight, oops, we forgot, or was there something more here? >> reporter: that remains to be seen. we don't have a lot of the documents related to this issue. in michigan, the freedom of information act does not extend to the executive, so we don't know what role rick snyder played in this, or how high up the decision was made. so we don't know how much risk they knew they were assuming in not treating the water. perhaps they thought it was safe, perhaps there was evidence to the contrary. >> so how much of a detailed document, sort of email dump are you expecting from the governor tomorrow? he's proposing to release all related emails. are you expecting him to follow through on that? and how have the emails done

for you expected? >> well, that also remains to be seen. we have to take the governor at his word. he's releasing all of the documents, and legally, he doesn't have to release anything. so it will be difficult to determine if we're getting the whole story. >> so the former chief of staff of the governor, you know this man, and apparently he raised the red flags, right? was he ignored? >> reporter: he absolutely did. back in july, he wrote a very heartfelt email saying, i don't think that people's concerns are being considered. i think that people think that they're being blown off. these are parents afraid for their children, and he much more is the top adviser, he was at the time to rick snyder, and nothing was done. >> okay, so susan. flint, as you know, is a prominently black city of

100,000 residents, you know the city better than i do. but both blacks and whites there are low income people, and do you accept the critique? i'm asking you to put on your columnist hat for a moment, do you accept that people of flint were basically left to deal with their problem on their own for a year? that this was discrimination based on race and economics? what's your response to that charge? >> people were certainly left alone to deal with this situation. their concerns were ignored, which is a tragedy with serious hik consequences. this sort of situation probably would not have happened in one of the rich detroit suburbs, in ann arbor, where the governor lives. so i don't think that we can talk about this situation without raising the issues of

race and poverty. >> so who is calling for the governor to step down, to your knowledge? and is there any snip of a recall movement in that legislature? listening to the applause this evening, i can't imagine that there's any support there for a recall movement. >> reporter: well, he certainly has the supportive republicans, but citizens have been exploring recall option. >> okay, susan, the editor and publisher of inside michigan politics. it's very cold out there, and i appreciate you sticking with us through our technical difficulties here. the newly elected mayor of flint met with president obama, and tomorrow, president obama will be in michigan to celebrate the rebound of the auto industry. any word, bisi, on what the

president is going to highlight in his visit? >> tony, president obama is expected to highlight the tens of thousands of jobs that have been created since the federal bailout seven years ago. but the president is dealing with a tumbling school system and unemployment. in 2019, homeowners were on the brink of bankruptcy, and ford was losing it's financial footing. auto and uw worker, rhonda, recalls the uncertainty. >> we do not know what was going to happen with all of our jobs. it was a very scary time in my life. >> reporter: today, big three auto makers are thriving. sales are up, and there's job growth. last year, a record 17 million vehicles were solid. and they have 46,000 jobs since

bailout. >> i think the obama administration had tremendous foresight. if gm and chrysler would have gone under, ford would have as well. and the industry would have been decimated >> reporter: under the observe administration, the u.s. government she would out $80 billion to bail out gm and chrysler. >> it's estimated that if the auto industry would have gone under completely, you would have lost close to 3 million jobs, probably more than that, and that's a huge impact. >> reporter: all three auto companies reorganized and made painful concessions. >> we made it work, just to save our own jobs, save our business and save our company, and we all came together and did that as a union, with the company jointly did that. it was not a good time for any

of us, but we did what we had to do. >> reporter: on wednesday, obama will become the third president to visit the north america auto show in detroit, the last being bill clinton in 1999. the president is expected to tout the industry's turn around. >> president obama realizes that detroit is the future of america. that if we cannot make detroit right, we cannot make america rite. >> i'm glad that obama took the chance. >> reporter: >> reporter: but obama's deal with the automakers may have fallen short. instead of selling more fuel efficient cars, suvs have driven the comeback, and work is still hard to come by in the city for many detroiters, according to a new workforce study out on tuesday. with a population of 680,000, the city of detroit has just about 258,000 jobs.

civil put, there are not enough jobs in detroit. >> reporter: and this will be president obama's 18th visit to michigan. it will be a very short trip. he will arrive around noon and wrap up just after 5:00. >> that's interesting, and bisi, it might be worth making a stop just north of detroit to flint. and i'm wondering, even if the president doesn't stop there, will he address the city's water issues? >> reporter: right now, we're hearing that it's unclear. we know that he plans to visit a detroit neighborhood tomorrow. and he just wants to get a clear idea, i'm told, of just how far the city has come since filing for bankruptcy a few years ago. but flint's water issue is not something that you can ignore. >> bisi, thank you. and next on the program, the cost of war in iran? staggering new statistics in

the civilian death toll in the fight against isil.

>> staggering is the term used by the united nations today to describe the number of civilians killed by isil in iraq. the report said 18,800 citizens have died in less than two years. another 36,000 were injured. and about 3.2 million have lost their homes. aljazeera's mohamed has more from baghdad. >> reporter: a new u.n. report points to a staggering number of civilian lives lost because of the crisis in this country. the latest u.n. report points to approximately 90,000 civilians who lost their lives between january and october of 2015 because of the conflicts in this country. in addition to that, the report points to 3.2 million

internally displaced people. and of that number, 1 million of them are children. it's a dire humanitarian crisis here that has only gotten worse, not just because of the rise of isil, and they have taken up so much territory here, but also because of the conflict going on. the clashes with isil, and the number of internally displaced and because of the rising sectarian violence. now, there are several reasons why the crisis is as bad as it is. take for example the north, my team and i were in ibeer, and we saw many, and the camps were being internally displayed. and they can't return to sinjar. though it has been cleared of isil, they continue return there because of the devastation of the infrastructure, but isle still has a stronghold. and then you look at other parts of the country, an area where there was rising

sectarian tensions this past week. the sunni families began to flee, and they are trade to go back because they're afraid that they will be started by shia militia. and it's only going to get worse in the long-term. >> president obama is praising australia for its role in the fight against isil. he hosted the prime minister today. and australia is the second largest contributor of troops on the ground after the usa. he visited the troops in kabul and he was proud to work alongside of americans to retake ramadi. global trading today, ended flat with rise of shares in asia, wall street ended up just up, the u.s. trading session was choppy today.

and stocks initially shrugged off the slowest reading in china's economic growth in 25 years, but concerns over the price of oil weighed heavily on markets. patricia joins us now, with more on all of this. and patty, look at this, if you don't have skin in the game, if you don't have money in stocks, why does all of this news bother you? >> because regardless of whether you are invested in the stock market, you are a part at in the global economy. >> really? >> yes, you are. because if you work for a firm that exports overseas, right now, the u.s. dollar is very strong, and the cost of products, going down for any number of reasons. we're all part of the global economy, and we have to look at what's going on in the global economy. not just commodity prices and energy prices and consumer demand. >> so the news out of china, why do we see an even bigger

reaction to what's going on in china. >> you actually saw the share price goes up around the globe, because it wasn't as bad. >> it wasn't as bad. the slowest growth in 25 years, right? >> but we have had a brutal opening week. >> that's true. >> and the main concern is how far, how fast is china's economy slowing down? so when the initial number came out, it wasn't as bad as many expected. and then also, as many investors are the to do, many were looking at the glass half full version, and maybe it will mean that china will do more stimulus measures, but as we dig down more deeply into the gdp reports, there are troubling signs. a slowdown in investment in infrastructure and in factories, and that could have a knock-off for employment. and if there's unemployment in china, consumers don't have money to spend. china is trying to shift its

economy from investment and manufacturing to one that's consumer spending. you know how difficult this is? imagine a formula one car trying to change the tires without going into the pit. >> and oil, i forgot where oil ended in trading, but it's still being dragged down, and what's the latest information? why is it continuing to be interestingedraggeddown? >> don't get caught up in the day-to-day. right now, it's traiting below $30 a barrel, and that sets the stage for oil to be $20 a barrel. and the iea came out and said that oil markets drown if their oversupply. and nobody is going to let up. what is it going to take to boost oil prices at this point? you have to either have a bigger increase in demand. and that's unlikely at the time

when the global economy is growing so slowly, and emerging markets are under pressure. you are not going to see a boost in demand. and the other is to cut output. you have to get saudi arabia and iran to play ball together. and good luck with that, and non-opec producers to play ball with them, such as russia, and that's a pretty tall order. >> so what about the u.s. economy here? is this an island of stability in a sea of instability? >> okay, so this is what a lot of people are hoping, that the u.s. does remain an island of stability because about 90% of our economic growth comes from it. we have seen troubling signs, weak retail sales in december, and inflationary sectors, oil prices and metal prices, and

low cost imports coming into the united states, and the s&p 500, about half of their sales come from over seas. and right now, the u.s. dollar is very strong. but it became each stronger when the federal reserve made the decision to raise interest rates in december. so that made the dollar stronger, which makes the u.s. imports less competitive, and it has the affect of sucking more money out of the beleaguered emerging markets. right now, investors are looking for safe haven investments, u.s. treasury, and we're seeing right now, the volume of global trade is likely to shrink, so even though we may not export a lot to china, we want to sell to other countries, that may sell things to china. so we're all part of this global economy. >> appreciate t. a solid analysis, thank you. one of the u.s. marines who

spent four years in jail in iran spoke. >> i feel lucky, alive for the first time in a long time. and very humbled at everybody's support, from the president to congress, to my fellow marines, and especially my family, who have really gone through so much throughout this time. >> however, one american who went missing in iran four years ago is still missing. cia agent, robert levinson. the iran deal will help the administration in the search. >> one of the things that was secured in this agreement was a specific commitment from the iranians to help us locate mr. levinson, and that's why we continue to press forward for information about his where hezbollah busy. >> they don't believe that levinson is still in iran.

a warning about traveling overseas, for pregnant women or women who hope to get pregnant, because of the zeeka virus. there's no cure or a vaccine. >> reporter: american women planning to get pregnant are being told to talk with their doctors before traveling to latin america and the caribbean, where mosquitoes are spreading the seca virus. distraught mothers are holding their babies. born with smaller than normal he heads, it leeds to brain damage. >> we had cases, and we heard last week, there have been 3,000 reports. >> last week, the first known case in the u.s. was diagnosed in hawaii. the virus is spreading so fast that disease experts predict that infected mosquitoes could

reach texas in three months. all travelers to latin american countries wear long sleeves and avoid mosquito boats. >> the foreigner who comes to brazil and expects to get pregnant is in the same situation. take all necessary measures to not come in contact with a mosquito, because they might carry the zeeka virus, and the problem is extremely serious. >> reporter: the brazilian army has been calledded in. and the government has recently announced that it will help to develop funds for a vaccine against the virus. >> i have to tell you, if you live in the northeast, a couple of snow days may be in your future. this is what it looked like today in omaha, nebraska. be careful. but the national weather service said that major northeastern cities are about to get slammed by 18 inches of snow. kevin, how would you describe

what's coming east? >> this is going to be the biggest storm that we have seen all winter long for the eastern seaboard. we don't exactly now the date, but it's going to be friday and it's going to be saturday. that's going to be the big issue. if you are traveling, you do want to check your weather forecast as we check those days. this was of the storm system that pushed nebraska, but not the storm system that's coming to the east coast. by the time we get to thursday morning, the one that we're really concerned about is out here, coming across parts of the southwest right now. doesn't look like much rain right there, but as it makes its way east, here on wednesday, we get it developed here across texas, and it's going to be a rainmaker on wednesday. we go to thursday, and we start to see more rain across the southeast. and then we get the snow to the north. but take a look at what happens on friday. the storm reintensifies, and

makes its way to parts of the virginia area, and that's where we see quite a bit of snow. i want to go deeper in, and where the storm lays out on friday and saturday really depends on how much snow, and where the storm is going to be. if it's a little bit more to the west, that's one scenario, and if it's a little bit to east, that's different. but here on friday, we're talking about 178 inches of snow there, and then we go to saturday. and it's the northeast cities that we're talking about, anywhere from philadelphia, all the way up to boston. we're going to be seeing winds up to 65 miles per hour. and a lot of power lines are going to be down, tony, and if you're traveling on i-95 to any of these airports, it's going to be a nightmare. >> kevin, appreciate it, and thank you for watching, i'm tony harris, and john seigenthaler is back with today's news.

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