apple has a value of the $535 million. the apple iphone experienced a downturn in sales since the launch eight years ago. more news from al jazeera and analysis and comment and video on the website. aljazeera.com. thanks for joining us for a special america tonight. decision 2016 is in full swing. the candidates are is chris-crossing the country vowing to bring change, improve our lives, make a difference. for some another campaign just means another round of promises made and broken. our special look at the

political season stays off the campaign, but we hear from the people left behind. we begin with sarah hoi on the reservation in nevada where the sound of trouble echos across the hard earth. >> reporter:% [ ♪ ] >> you represent more than 300,000, each a vital part of a shared american family. after i became president, i said that given the painful chapters of broken promises in our shared history, i would make sure the country kept its promises to you. >> reporter: political promises are easy to make, but hard to keep.

take the treaty of fort laram y. it promised native americans house, education and health care. today they have a life expectancy that is less than the americans. half of the students are not offered courses that prepare them for college. one in four live in poverty. >> poverty is a huge problem here because we don't have jobs available. we don't have economic development that we should have here. there are no casinos here. we've got people in dc that have never been out here and know things that are happening here. let's start worrying about us in this country. we were here first. natives were here first. i hate to go down that path but we were here first. >> reporter: liar on the reservation is hard living.

home to more than 3,000 people, the land is dry and desolate. it is a lonely existence, one behind. >> suicide, drugs, alcohol. no hope. it's real. it's what we have to deal with here. >> reporter: this woman was born and raised on the walker river reservation. she remembers the days when there was hope instead of hopelessness. the times when the land provided instead of poisoned. >> our name here in walker river is akadada and that means fish eaters and we do not have fish. >> reporter: when she was a child, she says things on the reservation began to change. >> they used to have these bombs that they would place in - you

know, this was a bombing range right below us. they used to fish and swim in this water. i wouldn't even think about doing that now. >> reporter: what's in the lake? >> what's in the lake is debris, munitions from the base. army and marines used to dispose of their munitions in this lake >> reporter: so this is basically polluted. >> yeah. it's polluted. i want them to do soil sampling and bring that fact forward, that these things are here. >> the help of tribal nations depends on the tribal lands. so it falls on all of us to preserve the beauty of that land. >> reporter: more words from washington that ring hollow for these people. as manager of the general assistance program for the tribe, one of her many

responsibilities is to ensure the help of her people and their land. although the government began april clean-up of the walker lake in 1974, it still remains heavily polluted. it's not the only site that she is fighting the government to clean up. so where are we? >> we're at the anaconda mine. >> reporter: this abandoned copper mine has been contaminating the environment here for decades. in a state which depends heavily on mining, elected officials have done little to address the contamination >> the people in this community need to have clean water, they need to have safe environments for our kids, for us, our wells need to be clean, our well water needs to be at a better level >> reporter: in mid-january 15

years after federal officials tested and confirmed contamination in the area, the area was designated a site that requires the clean up of hazardous substances and pollutants. it was a long battle and victory, but one that reinforced her belief in the political process >> i continued to have faith in the process because we have to believe that we're still going to be heard, no matter what >> reporter: yet not everyone on the investigate registration shares her faith and many suffer in silence. >> my brother committed suicide in 2005. that was a tragedy for my family in many, many ways. we have so many things and so many issues that need

to be dealt with. if i can just be a little part of that, it - it brings out emotion in me because it's really. >> reporter: in presidential election years , many people feel especially left behind here. we drew close to 250 miles on a two-lane highway through the desert to the indian reservation near the border. there we met this woman, social worker and former tribal council member. >> walker river is very important to me. >> reporter: the walker river people are spread throughout the state, the state of more than 100,000 square miles which can make voting a challenge. how far do you travel to vote? >> approximately three and a

half hours. >> reporter: three and a half hours for tribal council? >> yes >> reporter: do you vote in the presidential election? >> i have >> reporter: in a sense for you, is voting in the general election a waste of a vote? >> no, not so much. in my opinion a lot of the candidates that are running they don't touch base. they probably hit the larger cities here. they leave behind the rural areas and they don't come out and promote what they're doing and i believe that you can't make promises. >> reporter: she says take one example. a much violence. >> tribes can prosecute those who commit domestic violence. >> they're saying it's okay to

prosecute non-indians on reservations that commit domestic violence crimes, but yet they failed to provide the funding so that we can update our law and order codes. they don't supply any training on that. now we have laws for it, but yet updating it but not providing any funding to do it. >> reporter: it sounds like you're telling me it's lip service >> it is. until we get that, we need to be out there telling them what we need and what is required for us to take care of our people >> reporter: nonetheless, the walker river people are determined to be heard despite the scepticism they have one of the voter turn out rates among independentian tribes. tribal elders like her and are not sitting waiting for the government to right many of the wrongs >> these are issues that we find that some of the politicians, if

it doesn't affect them, they don't care. >> reporter: out of sight out of mind >> yes. that's why we have to have people like myself and others that are not afraid to have a voice. >> reporter: sarah hoi next on this special america tonight a toxic town with a long legacy of failed leadership. later, finally, the family makes its way onto the political agenda. will the next president bring change to family leave policies.

>> this is one of the most important sites in the century. >> this linked the mafia and the church. >> why do you think you didn't get the medal of honor? >> i can't allow you not to go into that because that is your job. >> we gonna bring this city back one note at a time. >> proudest moment in my life. >> these people have decided that today they will be arrested. >> i know that i'm being surveilled. >> people are not getting the care that they need. >> this is a crime against humanity. >> hands up... >> don't shoot. >> hands up... >> don't shoot.

>> what do we want? >> justice. >> when do we want it? >> now. >> explosions going on... we're not quite sure - >> is that an i.e.d.? as we continue our look at the political promises made and so often broken during presidential campaigns, we give special attention to the communities that have long sought help to make their neighborhoods better, safer, healthier, yet in so many cases they've been disappointed. in north-eastern ohio where the trouble has been brewing for a whole generation. >> reporter: in 1992 desperate for help, the people here turned to the men promising change, bill clint i don't know and al gore both campaigned here and promise-- clinton-- that they

would be the ones to look at for the little guys >> i went and shook hands with al gore and he signed an autograph and assured us all many times they will put a stop to this if elected. >> reporter: but they didn't. the hazardous waste incinerator went on line and the group has been fighting ever since. this which they say releases led, murcury and other toksins. >> it is not normal that we have all these cancers. we are at risk >> reporter: there have been protests, even arrests, but nothing has changed.

>> the waste industry pours so much money into donating to politicians and their elections, that we can't compete with that. their dollars are always going to win. >> that's what we took out for clinton. >> reporter: this man has been fighting the hazardous waste decades. >> shut this facility down. tear this facility down. move it out. >> you've probably heard that we were promised that they would shut this plant down or it would never go online. they didn't do it. now the politicians kind of stay away from it because it's not the - they see what has happened to this area and it's not a positive thing to run on. it's all negative. >> reporter: the incinerator is worth 100 jobs to this depressed

town. spencer and others say its presence stopped other businesses from moving in. the population here has dropped from 26,000 in 1970 to just 11,000 today. this junior high is now closed and elementary school was here. a mere 1,000 feet from the incinerator but the city tore it down. yet spencer is not giving up >> we hope it will eventually get shut down. if it isn't we're going to keep fighting it and try to make it obey the regulations which they are not doing now. >> my name is amanda. i'm the community organiser for the organization for making the area better. i'm fortunate or unfortunate enough to be able to work in my own neighborhood.

this place is the place to go. now when you look, two out of three store fronts are shut down. >> reporter: this man is 60 and he lives just down the street from the insin p sin rater. -- incinerator. he has lived here all his life >> there are times when the wind blows, and depending what they're incinerating up there, you will get dust all over everything. it seems to me there is an awful lot of cancer down here, an awful lot of it. within two blocks three people who have serious cancer and how many more people i don't know about that keep it private. you can't crawl in a hole and cry about it. you have to deal with it. >> reporter: this man has also been dealt cancer, colon cancer that he says has spread to his

lungs and he has already had two rounds of chemotherapy. >> chemo, i don't wish that on anybody. it's you rough on you >> reporter: at the end of the day he says he is left with one basic question >> why is it there? this is a neighborhood. that's a hazardous waste incinerator. there's two words-- those two words do not belong together. >> reporter: they may not belong together, but the people here have shared this valley with this incinerator for 20 years with no end in sight >> reporter: the fight goes on. the activists have promised to fuel suit of the current owner of the incinerator and continue the effort to save their own community. next on this report, will this complain season finally bring

help for families or will it be an issue left behind. bugged out, an in-depth look zika virus, in more and more communities. just how big is the risk? that's next on america tonight.

on the campaign trail the dynamic has already changed with candidates in this campaign, forced to take on an issue that challenges so many of us. what to do when a child joins the family.

every other developed nation in the world has leave. most voters say they want it. the sight of the first america tonight finds it is a long behind. >> our current law mandates that employers offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave to workers with certain family issues. >> we do not provide family pay. >> i oppose paid maternity leave to every country out there. >> we can design a system and pay for it that does not put the burden on small businesses icht >> taking paid leave is not a viable option for many americans. >> i think poverty is an interesting thing and i can say that because we skirt that line. i'm a college-ed indicated

person-- educated person. i have had a lot of opportunities, but working as i do, i still dance that line of what that poverty is, constantly battling in the financial terms of am i going to be able to pay my rent. if my car breaks down there's no back up. i think no support when we had kids was the breaking point. if i had the opportunity to have some paid leave, i think we would be in a much better financial position. >> the people who are left behind are workers. paid family leave will have succeeded when people who work at the restaurants or the grocery has access leave. >> time for lunch. >> i have two. i couldn't have planned better.

i have two a boy and a girl. when my son was born, i had just got a great job. i managed a restaurant. with my son i took four weeks off. if you live pay check to pay check, you take four weeks out of that and how long does it take to come back from that. >> currently only 13% of people nationally have access to paid leave. it shouldn't be a question of luck. i think the presidential race is indicative that these policies are catching more and more attention at a national level. >> wanting to be there for the kids during the day, i waitress. we're losing women to mother hood not because it's necessary but because our structure in the way that we've set it up doesn't allow for both. >> i didn't have any leave one child and i ended up going in, having him about eight weeks

early. so he was like two pounds 10 ounces and he was put into an icu. i didn't have any paid leave at all. i had some complications and at that point i was over 24 weeks on my second birth. we had to deliver that day or i was at risk of having a still born. so, obviously, life is better for chance than not at all. so i ended up having him and he was born on june 27 and he lived for an hour and passed away. i didn't get a chance to grieve. i went to about eight weeks after he was born to where i had to go back to work. our gas bill was going down. we had gone through all of our savings.

we still haven't been able to pay off everything. this is six months later. this is even with me working for the last three months. we're still playing catch up. we're looking at each other going how are we going to pay for christmas and be able to do some enjoyable things for our son to be able to have him still envoy life as well. the fact that she had no choice but to go back to work where she was really grieving, it's just not the way. we're one of the few countries of the world other than png that doesn't offer paid leave policy to parents. it's sad >> i've had breakdowns at work. i've had to go into the office to hide. working in a restaurant, you're not supposed to be upset. you're supposed to be happy, you're supposed to make their experience there enjoyable and i was not able to talk. i was hyperventilating and shaking. it was just

too much for me. >> they're concerned about the cost and implications for business. there are three states that have family leave poms. what they're finding is that these policies are not abused, they're of benefit to the families and to the businesses, worker retention is improved. >> i think it has to be federally mandated and that's-- federally mandated and that's the only path. there are many struggling by the fact of having kids and in a civilised country that's wrong. even me from a very conservative background who votes probably very differently than some people who are empassioned on this issue, thinks that it needs to be a conversation >> when i'm at home, my bills are still coming up.

we couldn't even afford a proper funeral for our son. that's sad. we had to choose to not bury him. we had to choose to cremate because we couldn't afford a plot. it's hard enough to lose a child, but have to decide those things as well, something that is supposed to be there to honor his life. i had to make the decision because i quite literally could not afford any other option >> the cross-section of americans that are dancing that poverty line is staggering. like, do i buy the bread this week, or the new shirts that my son needs. those kind of issues are that something that politicians haven't thought about or dealt with in a long time. maybe never. there's so many other countries have paid leave and it's making stronger societies. why in america with all the

brain trust that we have and all the financial resources can't we come up with a better solution for families? the americans who should not be left behind this political season. that's america tonight. tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/america tonight. you can talk to us on twitter and facebook and come back. we will more of america tonight tomorrow. >> our american story is written everyday. it's not always pretty, but it's real... and we show you like no-one else can. this is our american story. this is america tonight. al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com.

follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. ali "on target" is next. >> i'm ali velshi. "on target" tonight, a firsthand look at the harsh reality of the american dream. presidential candidates are making lots of promises designed to appeal to middle class voters. that's no surprise. one obvious reason is that more than half of americans still, still identify themselves as middle class. that's after a great recession that knocked many people out of the middle.