>> this is aljazeera america, live from new york city. charged with battery, donald trump's aid is expect to plead not guilty to allegedly grabbing a journalist. new security concerns after a man hijacks an egyptian airplane to get his wife's teams. and addicted to heroin, a national treasure in danger, what is destroying the grand canyon?

donald trump is standing by his campaign manager, who is charged with battery, corey lewendowski, and aljazeera's david schuster reports. >> corey, good job, corey. good job. >> reporter: it was just two weeks ago, after the initial complaint, when donald trump publicly thanked his campaign manager. on tuesday, the jupiter police department charged corey lun gdowski with battery. and released this video. it appears to show reporter, michelle fields, on the top with a tape recorder, trying to ask trump another question, and lun gdowski appears to stop and grab her. other video also caught part of

the intersection. fields insisted that she had been manhandled and she tweeted a photo of bruises on her arm. >> this has to be, aside from my father's death, the worst experience i've gone through. >> on the airplane, trump said that the criminal charges charge is absurd. >> the news conference is over, and it was done and finished, and she was running up and grabbing and asking questions, and she wasn't supposed to do that. and i told him, you should never settle this case, you should go all the way. >> reporter: lun gdowski's lawyer said that he will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. he is confident that he will be exonerated. but the tensions associated with the trump campaign, earlier this month in chicago, there was pushing and shoving between protestors and trump supporters after he canceled the candidate's appearance.

and texas senator, ted cruz, tried to dominate more positive move in his bid. scott walker made the endorsement by phone on a milwaukee radio show. >> after a lot of time looking at the speeches, looking at the records, and not only what the candidates say but what they have done in the past, i it was an easy call perfec for me to st ted cruz. >> reporter: at his first state event on tuesday, he played walker's interview on loudspeaker. and when cruz took the stage -- >> how's that for some breaking news this morning? >> reporter: he called the conservative governor, walker, who survived a recall election after his fight against unions, strong and principled. >> governor walker, with the help of the men and women gathered here across this state, won an election, and then another election, and then another election.

>> reporter: trump tried to under ever cut walker's endorsement of cruz. he tweeted, after the way i beat governor scott walker and jeb and rand paul and others in the presidential primaries, no way he would ever endorse me. still this may go down as a bad day for donald trump. instead of promoting policy that's seemed to resonate with conservatives, his campaign was put on the offensive over an alleged physical attack. david schuster, aljazeera. >> the news came on the same day that donald trump held a meeting in wisconsin, which holds it's primary next tuesday. the event took place in janesville, one of paul ryan's most vocal critics, and michael shure joins us now and what message was donald trump trying to send to the town hall

meeting? >> reporter: here's the thing, he comes right to the speaker, and the speech ended a little while ago, and you can see the gauntlet of police, and they even have swat vehicles here. and we're in the middle of paul ryan country here. he's coming to us and taking pictures inside now, and taking questions as well. but he's coming to us right from the heart of republican wisconsin, is it that's the message that donald trump is saying, we're coming at you, washington, and that's what you saw today. but janesville is not what you would think, and donald trump may be in territory that he's not necessarily familiar w today, donald trump brought his campaign into america's heartland, janesville, wisconsin, home of house speaker, paul ryan and the two republicans could not be more different. >> our political discourse,

both the kind this we see on tv and the kind we experience with each other, didn't used to be this bad, and it does not have to be this way. >> as the presidential race presses further into springtime, it's more than just a coincidence that trump is bringing his combative brand of politics to the backyard of america, and that's not lost on the people of janesville. >> i would like to say that for all of 25 years that we have been here, and the only time i've seen a fight big enough where somebody walks out the door was over brett favre. >> on main street, just across the street from ryan's office, every visiter is offered a free cup of coffee andan technique for not much more. but puzzlement to curiosity to outrage over donald trump. joni knows speaker ryan as paul

to everyone in town. >> paul is well respected in the community. and among democrats and republicans, he's a hard worker and that respects our community, and there's not much nonsense that goes on. >> reporter: but nonsense has come to town in the form of donald trump f. you ask others here. >> how's he going to make it great, when he's fighting a new $15 an hour standard for the young people? who is he kidding? >> like many in janesville, bill is a democrat. >> when i first started voting, there was george wallace, you know? and that was a tough one. that election was. but anyway, this whole town is a working town. and you're going to have democrats. >> reporter: janesville lost it's oldest in america after 89 years, and bill doesn't see

trump as truly being for the workers. >> i'm headed there to protest right now, and just to show, i think that he wants people to protest, and it brings out that side of him. but i'm still going. >> reporter: fred harmon has been a republican since 1986, when jimmy carter trumped the supporters of the viet nam war. >> some of the things that he said, immigration, and he really needs to apologize for making -- saying things to people that he has been nasty to. >> paul ryan, i'm going to get along with him. and if i don't, he's going to have to pay a big price, okay? >> donald trump may be the speaker, but in this town of 54,000, there's one speaker that has the support of many of them. >> paul is a good guy, and he has realistic views on stuff, and a compromiser, and he'll

work with a lot of different people. >> and tony, one of the things that surprised a lot of people in the audience in janesville, when donald trump came out and said, how many of you like paul ryan? and there were boos throughout the hall. and it surprised a lot of people. one man said i used to like him. so donald trump is playing on a lot of the anti-washington feeling, spreading throughout the country. >> let's talk about the state of the gop race there in wisconsin right now. does it look like donald trump will be able to pull out a victory there? >> when you look at the demographics of the state and the politics of the state, its like iowa. ted cruz did well in iowa, and there should be a lot of that here. ted cruz exceeds expectations. cruz is in california doing fundraising and then going to

north dakota for the state convention, and coming back here for a push in wisconsin. donald trump is going to be here all week, and he sees it as his opportunity to start vanquishing ted cruz in this race. >> the tie votes are rare on the supreme court, but today's even split is magnified each more because of the vacancy left by the death of justice antonin scalia. the organized labor n. the case that threatened to cripple the union's ability to collect fees. aljazeera's lisa stark is joining me from washington d.c., and tell me more about this decision. >> this is the case of the california teacher's association and what's called fair share dues, and a teacher who doesn't want to join the union has to pay for the dues of the union, because they're

going to benefit for the contract that's negotiated. a number of teachers sued because it violated their first amendment rights of free speech. it was a simple one paged decision by the supreme court saying, the judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court. so it was a 4/4, on each side. and it means no national, the court affirmed the 9th circuit court decision, and they upheld the dues, saying that it was legal for the public employees union or the teacher's union to collect them. >> that's the next question, right? what does this ultimately mean, this decision mean for the unions and the teachers? >> well, the union is breathing a sigh of relief. this is a victory for the teacher's union, and really for all public employee, teachers unions. they're allowed to collect

these dues. issuing a precedent, saying the u.s. supreme court rejected a political ploy to silence public employees like teachers. other the other side, the center for individual rights, saying that they didn't the to pay these dues. they said it's too significant of a case to leave as is, applying for the court to hear again. they say a full court needs to decide this question, and we expect that this case will be reheard when a new justice is confirmed. so this battle may be far from a over. >> speaking of that, i'm wondering how has the vacancy left by the court, by justice scalia's death, affect this ruling and might impact future decisions? >> well, it had aing is impact on this ruling. the opponents said in their statement, look, it probably would have gone the other way. we expect the 4-4 split with

justice antonin scalia not being on the bench. he was expected to side with the conservatives, and the unions would have lost their fair share ted cruz duels. tony, abortion, immigration, affirmative action, we could ep up with a 4-4 split. >> lisa stark, thank you. >> thank you. >> more problems for volkswagen, and this time with the federal trade commission. the fdc accused them of misleading the public in their clean diesel ad campaign, and bmw is currently under a federal probe for rigging the emissions testes. a hijacking of an egyptian airliner ended peacefully this afternoon. it was supposed to fly from egypt to ka cairo, and a passenr claimed to have a bomb. and he eventually surrendered.

>> reporter: passengers and crew heading to safety after hours of captivity. the crisis was reaching the end. and the man himself, a 59-year-old egyptian, taken into custody. around his stomach, something white, possibly a suicide bomb belt, that authorities now say was a fake. >> from the aircraft, nothing was found, not on the suspect nor the aircraft itself. it did not appear to be related to terrorism. >> reporter: egyptian authorities showed this photo of the suspect apparently going through security. his belt, apparently made of mobile phone covers, went through undetected. what should have been a 30 minute journey to the egyptian capital, he threatened the crew and demanded that the plane divert to cyprus.

for hours, they talked to him. and as to motive, it seems to be personal, rather than political. police in cyprus say that it's not being treated as an act of terrorism, but as a criminal act. and the man involved is likely to be indicted on wednesday. part of their investigation will focus on the contents of the letter that he threw from the plane and was recovered on the tarmac of the airport. that airport, apparently to his estranged wife. prompting this response from the leader, when asked if this was all over a woman. there's always a woman, he said. other reports suggested that the hijacker had asked for certain female egyptian prisoners to be released. >> at thi at some point, the hir demanded to meet with the eu representative, and at some point, he demanded to depart from the airplane and head for

another destination, he raised no specific demands. >> by noon, the airport had been opened and they took the passengers at last to cairo. the investigation is well underway. as our renewed questions about the airline's security, the fake belt went undetected and the captain and the crew had to assume that the real one had gotten through. >> the united states has ordered that certain people leave turkey. there is a danger of americans being targeted by isil or other groups. jamie mcintyre has more. >> reporter: tony, want want ste department said that the mandatory departure was not the result of any specific intelligence, but rather the response to the overall

deteriorating security situation in turkey and the increasing threat of a mass casualty attack. at the air base, where the u.s. coalition jets launch daily attacks against iraq and syria, the base was closed last week, citing unspecified concerns. and now the u.s. is ordering most, but not all families of state department and american military personnel to pack up and leave, out of what the pentagon called an abundance of caution. >> so we want to take this step now, as we can, in a safe and deliberate fashion, and try to minimize the disruption to those families. we realize that this is a disruption, and we sympathize with that, but at the same time, we feel we have a responsibility to do everything that we can to ensure their safety. and that's what this represents. >> reporter: the order implies want three areas of turkey considered dangerous. add ona, to the south.

and in the west. and ankora in the north andition staistanbul in the wes. they're considered safer. it was weeks in the making, and in full consciousness with turkey. >> first of all, it wasn't taken lightly. it was done after careful thought and consideration, and interagency accord nation, i might add. and it's very much the ongoing assessment of conditions in turkey and recognition of the threat environment, specifically in southeastern turkey from a regional perspective. >> while the order applies only to members of u.s. government employees and dependents, the state department ordered a general warning. citing increased threats from terrorist groups throughout turkey, noting that u.s.

citizens have been targeted, and especially near the syrian border. it comes as turkish officials are traveling to wash where for a summit on nuclear proliferation, and the move is temporary, that so-called accompanied tourists may resume in turkey as soon as the threat subsides. >> jamie mcintyre reporting from the pentagon for us, up next on the program, defending a controversy law, a governor defends the smear campaign on

legislation.

>> north carolina governor, pat mccrory is defending his state's controversial bathroom law from discrimination against lbgt people. >> there's a well coordinated national campaign, which is distorting the truth. and frankly smearing our state in an inaccurate way, which i'm working to correct. and i hope that the media starts putting out more accurate information on the facts between a basic, common sense bill, which allows businesses to determine their own restroom and shower and locker room facilities, and not government. >> okay, but the new law is not

going unchallenged. on monday, the aclu tried to get it overturned. and north carolina's attorney general said that he would not defend the controversial law in court. i'm joined by the mistakes reporter, colin campbell of the observer, and how did the state get to this point? is this law in response to last summer's supreme court decision affirming same-sex marriage in this country? >> this all came out of a city ordinance out in charlotte, and the city council passed an ordinance, for incrimination against lbgt people. but if you're transgender, you're able to use the bathroom with the gender with which you identify. so if you're a male, but you identify as female, you can go in the women's restroom.

and that's where some of the evangelical groups had a huge backlash against, and came to town for a special session just to do that before the law took effect on april 1st. >> that's interesting, so without the language about the bathrooms, there would probably -- well, there might not have been much of a fuss over the city ordinance? >> yeah, that seemed to be what the main focus was, and the republican lawmakers who have been pushing this bill are saying, we see this as a public safety issue. it's going to let grown men use a bathroom facility next to young girls and the law that they passed goes beyond that, in validating non-discrimination in the different cities. >> let me get to that. is it true that this legislation overrides and prevents local governments from establishing anti-discrimination rules against gay and transgender people, and it also wipes out anything that's already on the books in these areas?

>> yeah, so what this does, it replaces the local laws with a statewide non-discrimination law. and the state law does not include the categories of transgender identity. the democrats asked to put that in there, and they chose not to, and the bill preempts and supersedes these local ordinances in the books, so towns and cities across the state don't have the power to pass a more sweeping non-discrimination ordinance that would mention gay and lesbian status. >> with polling with the debate around this, do north carolinians know that theirs is one of the states, there are 26 others, in the country, where you can get married as a same-sex couple in the morning and be fired from your job for being gay that afternoon? do north carolinians understand what this law means?

yeah, i think that's a lot of the rhetoric around the system involved in that. folks are hearing about the bathroom issue, and that seems to be the one where a large number of people seem to think that the issue of who can go in what bathroom, that's what this is all about. and i think that the discrimination angle has not been disowned much by a lot of the politicians, including the governor on this issue. >> so colin, the state's attorney general, his name is roy cooper -- has called the law an embarrassment, right? >> yes, he has, and he's running for governor against the sitting governor in the fall. and this has a lot of political connotations on who is going to be the govern. so he and mccrory have been going back and forth on this, and typically, he would be the guy responding to lawsuits like what the aclu has filed. >> and you mentioned, there's this lawsuit. and i'm wondering, is there another court challenge looming

on the horizon for this? >> you know, there may be other court challenges that come up. the one that we saw this week, from the major groups that have opposed this, like the aclu and equality north carolina and the human rights campaign, there may be more lawsuits and i think that this is going to be the key one to watch, going forward. and the obama justice department has said that schools have to provide for transgender students who want to use the bathroom or the locker room facilities of their choice, and this may prevent the citizens of north carolina from applying for that. >> so expressing dismay with the legislation, and the law now, and dismay, it's not this is a national embarrassment, right? anything to suggest that corporations will actually do more than threaten, but will actually leave the state as a result of this position? >> you know, we have not heard

any corporations saying that they're going to pull up stakes and not be in north carolina. the closest to that is the nba, which said that the all-star game is supposed to fake place in charlotte in 2017, and they're talking about possibly reconsidering that location, and atlanta came out today and said. >> so there will be likely be more movement on this. colin campbell, appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. >> up next on the program, america's heroin epidemic. now the white house is stepping up efforts to address the health crisis. and plus, wrongfully convicted but never compensated. the fight to help an exonerated man get a fair settlement. to the voiceless. >> we are creating a class of adults exposed to mediocre education. >> there's bad people out there in these sports. >> we call chicago "chiraq" because we have more killers than iraq. >> in order to save my children, i had to try to save everyone

else's. >> i had to encourage them... to tell them, there's a better way. >> i have to do my one hundred percent best so i don't end up in a place like this again. >> you have kids here who've killed someone? >> yes we do. >> my homie got shot five times. >> have you ever seen anybody get shot? >> highlighting threats to children around the world. >> it's very difficult for us. we don't have clothes, we don't have food. >> in terms of child labor, myanmar is ranked one of the worst in the world. >> do you make anything that ends up in walmart? >> yes. >> this is where a lot of america's clothes come from, and it's a reality many companies don't want us to see. >> shelee, how old are you? >> 12 years old. >> shelee, do you go to school? >> i used to. >> the shells exploded right in the middle of the room. you have to remember that this was a school and the blackboard still has a lesson plan on it. >> this is imagery and scars impacting scores of children across gaza. >> pernilla ironside and unicef sponsor therapy for children who have lost a parent or a home. 10 year old ibrahim nasser lost both.

thanks to the exercises, ibrahim can look forward. >> can you tell me what you want to be when you grow up? >> a doctor. >> why do you want to be a doctor? >> to heal the wounded. >> al jazeera america - proud to tell your stories.

>> people loved him. teachers loved him. >> we were walking the river looking for him. i knew something was really really wrong. >> all hell broke lose. >> people were saying that we were terrorists. >> how are you providing a cover for your brother to do this? >> we saw the evil side of the social media take off. >> president obama teached a summit in atlanta on the growing heroin ep dick, in the country, and the meeting shows the gravity of the health

problem to officials p robert joins us from atlanta with more. >> you know, tony, prescription painkillers are easy to get these days, and apparently so is heroin. and it brought the president to atlanta, in the busiest summit of its kind. >> barack obama. >> reporter: 2,000 medical professionals and advocates listened to president obama and others talking about the opiate and heroin abuse crisis in america. >> it's not just enough for the structure of treatment, but there has to be funding for the treatment. >> crystal is the mother of two, and is now in recovery for heroin addiction. her home is at the center of the struggle that she endured can be a lesson to others. >> it slowly happened, from weekend, to throughout the week, and needing something to go to work, and eventually, i needed something stronger than the vicodin, and i was doing

oxycodone and very well addid and things like that, and that led to me doing heroin. >> opiates killed 28,000 people in 2014, more than any other year on record. want president is calling for $1.1 billion in funding to expand addiction treatment centers, and increase mental health coverage, and heighten awareness at medical schools across the country. my hope that being here today, people going through heroic struggles with this issue, and hearing from the community to see how to make a dent on this. >> gary lost his son to heroin and he said that the president could do more than without waiting for congress. >> there could an emergency executive order tomorrow.

this is spreading, 30,000 people are going to die this year, half of the vietnam war. >> president obama is pushing congress to act on what the centers for disease control calls a problem of epic proportions. >> my hope is that all of folks say to congress, this is a priority. >> in the u.s., heroin killed 40,000 people in 2014, and that's an amazing amount. here in atlanta, in the northern suburbs, a huge issue, a lot of wealth there. and recently, the numbers came out about the number of high school kids dabbling in heroin and the amount of deaths that occurred. this is a serious issue all over the country, and certainly, the president made his point today on that stage that talked about their personal struggles. >> yeah, yeah, pretty rivetting

stuff, actually. robert ray for us in atlanta, thank you. the police will tell that you you can not arrest your way out of the opiate epidemic, still law enforcement remainels the most common response to the crisis, but some officials are trying new policies on the efforts to save lives. ranrandall pinkston reports. >> this is my favorite picture. she didn't want me to go, so she wrapped her legs around me. >> the memory is bittersweet. dennis' daughter, amy's little sister, an a student and cheer leader, gone before her 24th birthday. >> the phone rang, and i thought, alissa has been picked up again, and she's in jail. and it wasn't that. he said that she was found dead in an apartment with a needle

sticking out of her neck. >> reporter: in a small town, near the family's beautiful home on cape cod, elizabeth's life ended with a heroin overdose, but her path there seemed much more innocent. recreational use of prescription opioids. >> she said to me, mom, i wish that i would never have taken that first pill. i would rather have cancer. >> the lure of opioid pills, like oxie dodden, has caused a full drug epidemic in the united states. half a million people took a prescription painkiller for the first time in the previous year. that means 1,350 new initiates a day. >> who do you blame for this crisis? >> pharmaceutical companies, absolutely, without a doubt. >> what i'm about to tell you could be difficult to believe. >> dr. andrew is a physician responsible for prescribing and

chief medical officer at a finix medical house. >> we were duped. it was a campaign. >> the pharmaceutical industry downplayed the dangers to drive up profits. >> from every direction, you hear if you're a licensed, compassionate physician, you'll understand that the right way to treat pain is with an opioid prescription. since 1997, there has been a 900% increase in addiction to prescription opioids. >> he has lobbied for decades for prescriptions on opioids. like the families, last week, they watched the governor of massachusetts sign a law, limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply, and encouraging doctors to try other pain relievers first. >> i stand here representing want thousands of grieving

mothers who have lost their children to opioids. >> while they stand on new regulations to limit the use of opioids, addicts like elizabeth, continue to look for ways to get high. that's one of the reasons why heroin overdoses and arrests are es speculating in cities and towns like this one, all over america. in massachusetts a two-square mile town across the river from boston. >> we saw it five or six years ago. >> he said the heroin trade here has exploded. >> the drug dependent people this we come across, for the most part, more affluent suburbs, cambridge, who come here after they run out of their oxycodone supply. >> in fact, four out of five heroin users begin by misusing prescription painkillers.

>> so this is the oxycodone and this is want heroin, which is cheap march. >> heroin. >> he supports the effort to restrict prescriptions. >> limiting the amount of drugs that are available, it's definitely going to slow down the process. nobody is immune to this problem. i realize that, and since i've had my own kids, i have three kids, and i have at least a 33% chance of one of them being affected by it. >> heroin? heroin? where would you get heroin? how does that happen? >> like the one in mass marx they help the reduce the stigma of addiction, and it could have help to save her sister. >> she had a long struggle with this addition, and there's a piece of me that is glad that she's not struggling anymore. >> she's safe and home. home with god right now. >> yeah. >> aljazeera reached out to the maker of oxycodone and several

other medications, and the company said this company accepted full action that some of its employees took prior to 2002, and now it leads efforts to battle abuse. filed a lawsuit against the state of kentucky last year for misleading market practices in 2001. >> randall, thank you. glenn ford spent 30 years on death row louisiana for a crime that he did not commit. when he was released in 2013, the state refused to pay him any compensation. ford died of lung cancer after he ras released but his attorney is still fighting for him. >> that's how i feel most of the time. prayed out. hopeful sometimes. >> in his final months, glen ford was a defeated man.

after 30 years on louisiana's death row, wrongly convicted of murder, he was released, only to find out because of a technicality all he would get from the state was an apology and told. >> i got doughnuts and a cold drink. and that was it. >> aljazeera sat down with ford one year ago as he was suing the state for compensation. at the same time, he was losing his battle with cancer. ford dialed three months after our interview at age 65. his attorney, chris winstrom, refuses to give up on his case. >> he never saw any formal recognition from the state of louisiana that what happened to him was wrong, and he died not knowing if he would be able to provide for his children and grandchildren. compensation is the way that he thought he would be able to do that. >> in 1984, an all-white jury

convicted him of a jewelry store robbery. and after finding that he pawned items from the victim's home. in 2013, nearly 30 years later, the d.a. said a confidential informant had identified someone else as the shooter. the state agreed that ford had not participated in the robbery or murder and the judge ordered his release. but the state attorney general refused any payment, saying that he was blameless because he pawned items from the victim. >> he still was wrongly convicted and still spent way too much time in prison, and 30 years longer on death row than he should have, and he's entitle to compensation. >> louisiana law, the maximum is $330,000. and denied any compensation. the case is before an appeals court. if the judge grants his case,

its hoped that the state will have the money to pay. >> for a lot of these guys, the compensation money is for only consistent source of income. >> his dying wish was that any payment would be put in a college trust fund for his grandchildren. >> there's no retribution, no payment, they can't pay for that. >> reporter: he felt it was the least the state could do for taking 30 years of his life. aljazeera, new orleans. >> up next, japan's new military law takes effect, but it's far from over. snow in the rockies, a preview of what the upper plains might see this week.

>> so it has been more than a week since the start of spring, and winter is not letting go out west. look at these pictures here. a snowstorm dumped as much as a foot of powder on western nevada yesterday. and a winter storm warning is in effect for wyoming. let's check in with kevin, and what's going on? >> this is going to be a long-lasting storm, considering that it started saturday in california. and we saw pileups and wind damage, and in terms of this week, we have winter weather, and storms on the east coast because of the storm. as you look ant the big picture, this is the stormy that we're talking about. if you notice, in the last 12 hours, the center of

circulation has not moved too much, and that's one of the problems with this storm over the last few days, because it's lingering and slowly making its way down across the region, leaving so much snow there. i want to show you the radar now, we see a lot of snow in nevada and the video here in nevada, across the region. major traffic problems, hep on highway 80 in nevada with this storm here. we saw problems in california, and did see one fatality because of the winter storm across parts of nevada as well. we're going to be seeing more snow for the next day or so, and the warnings and the watches are out across the region. i want to show you the forecast for the snowstorm as we go toward tomorrow. because even though we saw a foot of snow down here, a foot and a half across parts of nevada, it's really going to be toward parts of wyoming that we see the majority of the snow. and how about 30 inches of

snow, north of highway 80. we do have blizzard warnings now in effect. we mentioned the blizzard watches yesterday, but now in effect for parts of wyoming, that means that we'll see visibilities down to less than a quarter of a mile. winds over 45 miles per hour. and the storm is going to last more than three hours. they did say that once the storm goes through, we're looking at severe weather and flooding in the region, and down here to the south, we don't need any more rain because of the previous flooding, so major problems coming up. >> thank you, and japan has passed two controversial security laws that would allow it's military to engage in armed conflicts overseas, and exercise collective self defense. but it is facing a lot of opposition. aljazeera's rob mcbride reports. >> reporter: they have been protesting outside of the japanese parliament every month

since the new laws were passed last september. the protesters were back again to witness the laws coming into cause. japan, they say, is turning it's back on the pass. >> that it has called for 87 years, since world war ii,. >> japan took pride in not aging war, and now we have lost our cause and wage the war that will fight. >> i cannot accept it. it has been unjust means. there's no way to accept it. >> the prime minister wants to see japan's soldiers have a more assertive role in the peace-keeping mission, and to be allowed to fight along their american allies.

new challenges in the courts, and japan's constitution, which said that it's illegal. and he now intends to change the constitution itself. >> he got the order wrong. i undermined it. and now he's trying to change it to be unconstitutional. that's not what a law-abiding nation would do. that's an auto crat. >> it comes with when and how japanese troops should now be used overseas, and what the reaction should be from japan's neighbors, given the tension that's already exist with the north korean weapons testing and the expansion. with the lives of japanese soldiers are lost on foreign soil result of the change, a national trauma, only previous

generations endured. aljazeera, tokyo. >> still ahead, saving one of america's greatest treasures. what is threatening the grand canyon.

al jazeera america. >> i know, to look at it, you would never know the expansive beauty of the grand canyon is a battle ground. mining threatens the water supply, and they want president obama to protect t but the industry is too economically vital to scrap. aljazeera's jennifer london brings us part one of our special report. >> reporter: in one of the most photographed places on earth, it's likely you've never seen this before. the remnants of an old uranium and copper mine, tucked in the

shat owes of 1,000 feet below maricopa point, are not exactly the images associated with the beauty and wonder of the grand canyon. but just as the colorado river runs wild, mining is also inextricably linked to this national treasure. if you walk on the south rim of the grand canyon, you can't escape the footprint of the mining that happened in the park. it detours around the old orphan mine that closed in 1969. today, its fenced off to protect visitors from radiation and other contaminants. >> it breaks my heart to see people do that to my land. my sacred lapped. >> she's a member of the halve supai tripe. and they have done damage from the orphan mine.

but it's the new damage that poses the greatest threat. >> it contaminates the water, and we don't want to see that. the water is very very sacred. and we have to preserve t. >> according to the grand canyon trust, 40 mines operate on the north and south rims of the canyon. one of them, the canyon mine, known as the zombie mine because it lay dormant for decades. it operates in the basin, which provides the hava supai people with their primary source of drinking water, and it's the main tourist section of the park. >> it's a time bomb in the layup. >> we met roger clark with the grand canyon trust as he was leading a group of college students. >> when the waterfalls on it, the water coming off of it is radioactive. >> a 20-year ban on mining but

mines are able to resume operation. additionally, arizona officials and the arizona chamber of commerce are working to overturn the ban, saying that uranium and copper mining will create jobs. >> in terms of arizona's economic health and from the day of our founding, mining and copper have been a vital part of our life. it would almost be like saying let's shut down the financial service industry in new york. we don't believe that the federal government needs to come in and basically make unusable a land chunk the size of the state of delaware. >> reporter: the national mining association wants to overturn the ban. in a 2013 letter posted on its website, the association's president wrote, the impact of modern uranium mine on land is minimal, and on itself, virtually non-existent. >> you're laughing, why are you

laugh something. >> its like there's virtually no impact of deep offshore drilling in the gulf until there is, and when it happens, it's irreversible and irretrievable. meaning that the uranium contamination in the ground water is forever. it has happened here at this mine, and it can happen at other mines, so i think that those who don't live here who want to tell people that have to live with the consequences that there's virtually no harm is really an insult. >> in 2010, the u.s. geological survey reported 15 springs and five wells near uranium mines near the grand canyon watersheds have dissolved the concentrates greater than standards, this impacts 40 million people who depend on the colorado river and nearby

watersheds for safe drinking water. >> does the grand canyon need that to protect it. >> it's the best that we can get. and they're trying to overturn it, and their attack on that is at risk. and it was a decision made by this administration, an executive decision, that could be changed with new leadership in the presidential office. >> is it real? >> yes, and that's why we're pushing for a permanent ban under a designation of this entire area as a monument. the -- outside of the park, the land, it would put an end to all new mining. >> colleen caska said that a ban is the only way to protect her people. >> my future is not promising with the uranium mining but we'll continue to fight it with the protection of the environment and my people and everybody. >> as the fight over the future of mining continues,

fences along the south rim and rusted relics clinging to the cliff side are a constant reminder of what the people and mother nature have already paid. >> and tomorrow, jennifer london looks at how new tourist attractions could threaten the canyon's natural beauty. we'll bring that to you tomorrow night. and finally, hollywood is mourning the death of oscar-winning act stress, patty duke she won best actress for playing helen keller, and identical twins on the patty duke show. though she continued acting, she has best-known as an advocate for mental health after her own battle with bipolar disorder. john seigenthaler is up next with more of today's news. news. we begin tonight with presidential politics and

scandal. donald trump's campaign manager briefly su rended to police in florida today. he stands by his man tonight. david shuster reports. >> good job corey. good job. >> reporter: it was just two weeks ago after the initial complaint when donald trump publicly thanked his campaign manager. on tuesday the florida police department charged his manager with misdemeanour battery and released this video. it appears to show reporter there in the lot top with the tape recorder trying to ask trump another question. the man with the crew cut seems to reach from behind him to stop and grab her. other video also caught part of the interaction. fields insisted she had