good evening, this is aljazeera america. >> holy cow! >> a powerful storm system has killed at least six people moving through the south and east and the danger is not over yet. the standoff on capitol hill over the president's plans to nominate replacement for supreme court justice scalia, the republicans say don't even think about it. >> it's going to be an amazing two months. >> six days and counting to a

critical super tuesday when some candidates may get new life and others see the end of the road. choosing the sex of your baby. a super model's decision to use science to give birth to a girly nights a long standing ethics debate. we begin with day two of a powerful storm system that first roared through the south and now is going across the east coast. three were killed today as the storm moved into virginia and millions still face danger from this fast moving system. >> in louisiana, dozens were injured when a tornado tore through this trailer park. >> there are family members

calling in that has not made contact with loved wins and that they know were in this area. >> and near the new orleans airport, a powerful water spout. it also spawned tornadoes in virginia, mississippi and knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes in the carolinas. from alabama to georgia across much of the eastern seaboard, thunderstorms dumped several inches of rain. in washington, d.c., a rare winter lightning show, on the backside, snow, lots of it, indiana residents are still digging out, and at o'hare airport in chicago, once again this winter, plenty of cancellations. >> it was on time and then got delayed twice. >> winter is still very much here. paul beban, al jazeera. >> let's bring in meteorologist kevin corriveau. he said been monitoring the snow. >> the risk of tornadoes is

coming down, but for thunderstorms and severe thunderstorms, that risk is going to continue as we go into the morning hours. i'm going to show you the big picture. first of all, you can see the storm system moving towards the northeast. the backside is the winter part. we'll deal with that in just a moment. i want to take you over here to the eastern seaboard and show you what we saw today. notice these lines of thunderstorms that passed through. they came in several waves of lines which caused a lot of problems here. not only tornadoes across this region, but we also saw all these yellow dots, that is the wind damage from these storms. at times, these storms are moving between 65-75 miles per hour themselves. i want to show you what is happening a little closer towards the metro area, philadelphia-new york. we are now watching this line which thunderstorms pushing through. it has just come through philadelphia now making its why towards newark and new york city. we are looking at severe thunderstorm warnings in effect

right now for new york city, dangerous hail, lightning, as well as very, very gusty winds. the threat of tornadoes still towards part of new jersey and long island and connecticut it is still a thunderstorm watch there. not only that, we're also dealing with flooding, flash flooding across parts of pennsylvania, as well as into new jersey and back here towards the west where we are still dealing with some areas looking at blizzard conditions up towards the great lakes, so a lot to deal with tonight. >> tornadoes this far north in the winter, wow. the war of words between the president and republicans raged on with the threat to block any supreme court nominee. >> republicans drew a line in the sand this week, promising to shut down the process to replace justice scalia. >> we wrote a letter saying we are of the view that there

should not be a hearing in the judiciary committee for anyone that the president nominates. >> president obama responded wednesday morning. >> i recognize the politics are hard for them, because the easier thing to do is to give in to the most extreme voices within their party, and stand pat and do nothing, but that's not our job. our job is to fulfill our constitutional duties. >> republicans say any decision should wait until after the 2016 presidential election. >> we are very comfortable letting the american people speak on this issue. the american people will choose a president in november and they'll get a choice between a president that is likely to appoint someone in the tradition of justice scalia or a president who's more likely to appoint the

type of nominees that we've seen from president obama. >> but the president dismissed gop suggestions that he's a lame duck in his last year in office, saying politicians become lame ducks only after the election that's still nine months away. >> ironically, these are republicans who say they believe in reading the text of the constitution and focusing on the intent of the constitution. none of the founding fathers thought that when it comes to the president carrying out his duties, he should do it for three years and then on the last year stop doing it. >> senate democrats are backing up the commander-in-chief and say republicans will regret shutting down the vetting process. >> senate republicans are giving a middle finger to the american people and giving the middle finger to this president. that's why we're confident that this is going to go very badly

for mitch mcconnell and his republican conference. >> the white house says president obama is reviewing candidates, and will pick the best person for the job, politics aside. >> when the president gets to the stage and i'm confident he'll get here, interviewing nominees or potential nominees in a conversation, i'm confident he's not going to ask them which party primary they vote in. >> white house officials say the president isn't rushing his decision, which will be announced in the coming weeks. to the race for the white house now, the most critical day of the year so far for the candidates is just six days away. super tuesday, 14 states hold caucussors primaries, the candidates made campaign stops across the south. bernie sanders was in kansas city, missouri then edge oak. bill and hillary clinton was out

today, hilly in south carolina ahead of saturday's primary where she's way ahead in the polls, bill was close by in virginia. bolt ted cruz and marco rubio campaigned in texas, a critical state for senator cruz. he is shown in a virtual tie there with donald trump. trump campaigned in virginia where polls show it is a very close three way race. john kasich was in mississippi and louisiana. we found no scheduled appearances today for ben carson. more on the republicans now from michael shure. >> donald trump didn't just win the nevada republican caucuses, even if you add up the votes of marco rubio and 10 crud who finished second and third, together they couldn't have beaten him. it's trump's third straight victory, adding now to an air of in vincibility. >> we weren't expect to win too much and now we're winning, winning, winning the country,

and soon the countries going to start winning, winning, winning. >> marco rubio said second place finish was anything but decisive leading cruz by only 2.5 personal points. >> the goal now is to get someone to defeat trump. the problem is that party elites have already coalesced around rubio, but voters this year aren't following the lead. >> danley is associate professor political science at the university of nevada las vegas. he sees the distant second place finish as having a small silver lining forego rubio. >> now it's two races in a row that he came in second, so we're starting to build a narrative and narrative says are important. cruz efficient a very close third to rubio in those contents and said is still the one with the best chance of beating trump. >> the only campaign that has

beaten donald trump and the only campaign that can beat donald trump is this campaign. >> cruz was helped in his home state of texas wednesday by the endorsement of governor greg abbot ahead of thursday night's debate in houston. much has been said about the importance to of finishing second or even third in these primaries, but the fact is donald trump is beginning to build a lead that not even his closest rivals may be able to erase. >> here's the fact, the vast majority of republicans do not want donald trump to be our nominee. >> rob yo doesn't show that the republicans want him to be the nominee. john kasich under pressure to leave the race in order to help rubio knows this. >> we had 54 that these electoral reactions and all over we've had four, so everybody just needs to chill out. >> as the gop's gaining of five heads to houston in what promises to be a fiery debate

with reports that rubio and especially cruz expect to turn up the volume on trump, it remains trump hips who has the most reason for optimism. >> it is going to be an amazing two months. >> michael shure, al jazeera, las vegas. first up for the democrats is saturday primary in south carolina. hillary clinton is trying to shore up support among african-american voters as bernie sanders deals with criticism that he has given up on the poll metostate. >> under this headline, sanders campaign bracing for south carolina loss, the paper said sanders is so far behind clinton in the polls that he's off in search of votes in states where he stands a better chance of

winning. sanders held a news conference on the face of it to talk about poverty but really to push back on the notion he's walking away. >> there is a feeling in south carolina that you are writing off the state. >> no, no no no no no no no. >> sanders may deny abandoning south carolina but has left for states like texas and ohio. at a luncheon wednesday for the african-american sorority, clinton appealed for voters to look at her entire career while in the voting booth. here's when i ask all of you, hold me accountable. i'm laying out my plan, my agenda, my hopes and dreams. >> she rattled off a list of issues these voters care about, jobs, justice reform, civil rights and they rose to their feet when she discussed the supreme court gutting the voting

rights. >> that's why i support president obama 100% in his fulfilling his constitutional adult to send a nominee for the court to the senate. >> clinton knows she likely that south carolina in the bag but appears to be taking no chances. unlike sanders, she has several key events lined up for south carolina between now and primary day including one with husband bill on the eve of voting. al jazeera on the trail in colombia south carolina. when a super model decided to take no chances when it came to the sex of her child. it renewed the debate of choosing the sex of your child.

>> are miners across this region affected by the dodd-frank law? >> sourced from illegal mines. >> this is a serious problem. >> an undercover investigation reveals the real cost. >> there's no way of knowing what minerals are coming in. >> "faultlines". >> what do we want? >> al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today they will be arrested. >> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning, investigative series. we have two stories tonight that recognized ethical questions involving scientific options for getting pregnant. the first is in england where a judge allowed a woman to appeal a ban on using her dead daughters frozen eggs to give birth to a grandchild. the daughter died of cancer but not before she froze her eggs. the daughter wanted her to act

as a surrogate but there's nothing in writing to prove it. a lower court said no. a judge is allow youing the appeal process to proceed. the other case is about selected pregnancy, choosing the sex of your child. the new revelation that a super model chose the sex of her baby. she has been open about their fer fillty and used invitro to become pregnant. the model said it was her decision to give her husband a bean girl. joining us to discuss the ethics in this is marcy garnoski who has written extensively about human bio technology. it's good to have you with us. i didn't know that gender collection had become big business in the united states. one estimate said it's more than $100 million business. it is perfectly legal here. >> that's right, unlike dozens of other countries, there are no laws and in fact, there are no

tracking mechanisms, so the $100 million figure is plausible, but i don't know how that would even be estimated, because nobody is keeping track. >> now, it's not legal in many countries, including canada or the u.k. is the fear that we're inviting the brave new world for seen by aldous huxley of designer babies? >> well, that is one of the concerns that if we say it's fine to have parents or fertility clinics or anyone else decide in advance the sex of a child are we then going to be normalizing that and normalizing the idea that people should be able to select various traits of their children, and that's especially a concern, because right now, there's a big controversy about new gene editing technology, technologies that can be applied to every life form including human beings that could be used for

beneficial things like gene therapy if it's proven safe and effective and is affordable, we hope, but also would be used to control the traits that are passed down to our children and all future generations, we can see actually i think in part by the way sex selection has been marketed in this country, how that might take off and just get out of troll and we could wind up in the kind of world that science fiction has portrayed. >> you talked about preimplantation i am pretty good nation diagnose where there is screening for genetic diseases, you bring up taking it even further and maybe deciding whether you give a child blue eyes or other genetic traits. when do you draw the line? >> that's a good question. that's the right question to ask. actually with preimplantation

genetic diagnosis, an embryo screening technology that's a kind of add on to invitro fertilization, it was developed for and most use it to prevent passing on really serious genetic diseases where children suffer and die early, but it's also been misused and abused for things like sex selection and it can be used for much, much less serious condition. it can be used increasingly as we learn more about genetics for things like eye color, fast twitch versus slow twitch muscles and raises the question of what counts as a disease, what counts at normal, people in the disability rights and disability justice movement pointed out that, you know, they don't necessarily want these litmus tests about who deserves to be able to be born into the world, and that many of them are living just fine very happily,

thank you, with conditions that some people would take as a reason to discard an embryo or terminate a pregnancy. that line drawing question is really critical, but the technology i was just referring to, gene editing technology even go beyond that. those are changing, replacing, inserting genes. >> raises so many issues and the regulations are not terribly clear. there probably should be a national debate about this and clearer laws. a pleasure to have you with us, thank you for your insight said on this. >> thank you. >> saving detroit one restaurant at a time, changing once blighted areas as an area for the city's best chefs. >> a white house tribute to ray

charles. ♪

the foot soldiers of the 1965 voting rights marches received the congressional medal. reverend frederik reese accepted

on behalf of marchers who walked from selma to montgomery, alabama to demand their right to vote. >> some of the unmovable lines, day in and day out, some stood on courthouse steps, attempted to register and vote. some were beaten, tear gassed, triarch pelled by forces and left bleeding in the streets. >> congressman john lewis thanked congressional leaders for making the ceremony possible, but many activists are angry congress has not acted to restore the voting rights act of 1965 after the supreme court struck down a part of the law. 16 states have put new voting restrictions in place since 2012. tonight, the certificate sewnian is shooting ray charles in a performance at the white

house. ♪ president obama host add concert. it was taped and will air on pbs friday. michelle obama hosted a workshop for students and performers spoke to middle and high school students sharing their experiences in the music and entertainment industries. recent headlines from detroit have mostly focused on the city's financial woes, but tonight a story of a renaissance of sorts. new restaurants and up and coming chefs are blazing a trail, turning blighted buildings into gastromommical oasis. bisi onile-ere has more on the culinary transformation in detroit. >> can i grab a carrot soup? >> evan hansen and a partner purchased an old mid town detroit abandoned believe and turned into it a restaurant more

than a year ago. >> detroit was really the only place that seemed to make sense for this restaurant. >> plagued by blight, detroit was once a city that many investors tried to avoid but not anymore. the restaurant which features new american cuisine is one of more than a dozen new jump scale restaurants in downtown detroit. it's estimated the boom has created hundreds of jobs over the past five years. sell don alone employs more than 70 people. >> the interest in the local farms, the interest in doing slightly more creative non-traditional food is definitely on the rise. >> over the past three years, i would say it's really exploded. >> serena daniels, a food critic

for the metro times believes detroit's bargain real estate market where homes have sold for one grand or less is a huge draw, according to a 2015 global cities initiative report, more young people are moving into the city and finding a place to live can be tough. the occupancy rate stands at 98%. seven years ago, that would have been unheard of. >> i think that, you know, if you kind of have like a vision or you have an idea of something that maybe you heard about in another city, you can make it happen. >> some have called detroit a food mecca, but daniels disagrees. >> there's a huge amount of poverty within the city. it's very difficult to find a decent grocery store.

a lot of the people who live here might not be able to afford some of the higher end restaurants that are opening up. >> parks and recreation executive chef sarah welch hopes to see the economic growth reach the neighborhoods. >> people think detroit is the 10 square miles that make up downtown, but it's so much larger, so seeing restaurants crop up outside that have will cause the infrastructure to spread, light, water, resources. >> evan hansen's whose restaurant was voted the best in the region said the thriving restaurant industry is another sign that america's come back city is finding its way. >> to you were to leave and come back five years from now, you would say what happened here, this is amazing. bisi onile-ere, al jazeera, detroit. >> thanks for joining us. for the latest news anytime, head to aljazeera.com.

ray suarez is up next with ""inside story"." have a great night. >> in the last lap of his presidency, barack obama is wrapping up unfinished business. like the promises of u.s. senator, candidate and new president, barack obama, to close down the prison at the american naval base at guantanamo bay, cuba. fewer than 100 inmates remain, and some have waited for years for trials, and some are already understood to be not guilty, but have no place to go. but what happens now? a problem of our making, it's the "inside story".