01/07/14 01/07/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! below zero temperatures are expected through tuesday. these are extremely dangerous conditions and we strongly urge people to heed the warnings and take the necessary precautions to stay safe. >> it is called the arctic vortex. as the chilled wind blows across the united states, how could global warming he connected to such record cold? we will speak with jeff masters of the weather underground and

peter dykstra of the daily climate. first, we go to utah. >> and just to have this opportunity in utah, in our home state, because we could have gone to california or another state am a that we are from utah and that is huge. we are pioneers. awesome. >> just weeks after same-sex couples in utah began exchanging marriage vows, the u.s. supreme court stays a decision from a federal judge that had cleared the way for the marriages. we will speak to a just married couple. there union is in legal limbo. we will look at how the koch raised money and an attempt to sway the 2012 election. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. one of the great mysteries of the vietnam war era has been solved.

in 1971, group of peace activists broke into an fbi office in pennsylvania and lifted files that helped reveal the fbi's elaborate program of illegally spying on political groups. a documents, given to journalists at the time, provided the first hints of going tell pro, the fbi sticker program to infiltrate, monitor, and disrupt social movements. the burglars call themselves the citizens commission to investigate the fbi. they were never caught. decades later, a number of them are coming forward for the first time. the idea for the burglary came from a physics professor and leader of civil disobedience against the vietnam war, william davidon. he died last year. also involved for a social worker named bob williamson and john and bonnie raines, married couple with children. convinced the fbi was infiltrating groups, they hatched a plan to stage the

break-in on the night of a major championship boxing match. another of the burglars, keith forsyth, described his motivation in a video produced by retro report. >> once i got over the shock of thinking this was the nuttiest thing i had ever heard of my life, i'm like, this is a great idea because we're not going to make any allegations. we are going to take their own paperwork, signed by their own people including j edgar hoover, and give it to the newspapers. so let's see them argue with that. i definitely see parallels between snowden's case and our case. what we revealed change public opinion, which is why the laws were changed. revealing ourselves will get people arguing about what the fbi did then, with the nsa is doing now, then i think that is a good thing. >> he was arrested in a separate action months after the burglary by group of fbi agents who are monitoring the rate of a draft office in camden, new jersey. his role in the burglary was

never revealed until now. at of the break-in, bonnie raines, taste the fbi while posing as a college student. she could from the office like a security system. she describes her role in the video. >> to call the office and make an appointment as a sophomore student doing research on opportunities for women in the fbi. so they gave me an appointment. i try to disguise myself as best i could and i went to say goodbye and i acted confused about where the door was. that gave me a chance to check out both rooms and noteworthy file cabinets were. >> fbi director j edgar hoover assigned nearly 200 agents to investigate the burglary -- in particular, there were told the hunt for the mysterious college girl who had come to the office. but the case was closed when the statute of limitations expired five years later. the story is told in a new book by former washington post reporter who received the documents from the burglars at the time.

three other burglars have chosen to remain anonymous. record cold temperatures are blasting the midwest and eastern united states again today as a so-called polar vortex has dissented as far south as texas and florida. in chicago, it was -16 degrees fahrenheit monday or as low as - 42 with the windchill. in northern minnesota, it was - 40 fahrenheit, the actual air temperature, not the windchill. in new york, the temperatures plunged roughly 50 degrees in a matter of hours on monday. we will have more on the cold and its ties to climate change later in the broadcast. the united states is ramping up its delivery of military equipment to help iraq battled militants who have overrun parts of anbar province including the city of falluja. jay carney said the u.s. would deliver hellfire missiles and surveillance drones as part of a holistic strategy to oust the militant group known as the

islamic state in iraq and the levant. this situation is fluid and it is too early to tell or make conclusions about it, but we are accelerating our foreign military sales, deliveries, looking to provide an additional shipment of hellfire missiles as early as this spring. they are one small element of that holistic strategy, but they have been proven effective at denying ifil the safe haven zones they have sought to establish in western iraq. >> israel has given final approval to a new round of settlements in the occupied west bank as secretary of state john kerry wrapped up his visit to the region monday. the plan includes 272 apartments into different settlements. israel had reportedly held off on announcing the settlements in order to avoid embarrassing john kerry during his visit. houses of african migrants gathered in tel aviv for a third day today to protest israel's indefinite detention policies and demand asylum and work rights. is warningnations

conditions in central african republic are rapidly deteriorating with nearly one million people now displaced by sectarian violence. heavy fighting erupted last month between christian militias and muslim rebels who had seized power in a coup in march. the u.n. under-secretary general for political affairs said more than 750 people have been confirmed in the capital alone. he warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis. >> according to the latest information, approximately 2.2 million people in the car need humanitarian assistance. close to half of the population of the country. inhabits of the capital have sought refuge outside their homes. the number is estimated at approximately 513,000, of whom 100,000 are at a makeshift camp at the airport. >> the supreme court has halted same-sex marriages in utah.

tillie 1000 lgbt couples have gotten married since a federal judge struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage last month. monday's decision puts those unions in limbo. the case could end up before the supreme court. we will have more after the headlines. a federal judge has struck down chicago's ban on handguns sales. the 2010 measure banned gun shops within the city and barred gunowners from leaving home with their weapons. u.s. district judge edmund chang ruled the ordinance went too far. the number of murders in chicago has dropped to the lowest level and have a sentry, but chicago still leads the country in homicides with more than 400 committed last year. the senate has confirmed janet yellen as the next chair of the federal reserve, replacing ben bernanke. senators voted 56 to 26 to confirm yellen, with 11 republicans joining democrats in her favor. she is the first woman to head the central bank in its 100-year history. abandoned her

plan to run for the republican senate nomination in wyoming, citing serious health issues in her family. a recent poll showed incumbent had a 52 pointzi lead over cheney. her campaign was marred in part by public spat over same-sex marriage with her sister mary, who is lesbian and married. in texas, and hospitals keeping a brain-dead woman on life support against the wishes of her family because she is pregnant. munoz collapsed in late november, likely because of a blood clot in her lungs. at the time, she was 14 weeks pregnant. has no say munoz connectivity but the fort worth hospital is citing a texas law they super bids -- for bids are moving a pregnant woman from life support. the woman's husband told a local abc station his wife explicitly told him she never wanted to be on life support. >> we talked about it. we're both paramedics.

we have seen things in the field. we both knew we did not want to be on life support. we reached a point where you wish your wife's body would stop. >> despite her family's pleas, the hospital reportedly plans to keep her on life support for the next several weeks until the fetus is potentially viable. at least a dozen states have statutes that force women to stay on life support against the previous directives if they are pregnant. a former high school football player who raped a 16-year-old girl in steubenville, ohio has been released from juvenile prison less than a year after his conviction. received a year- long sentence last march. a second teenager convicted in the case is serving a two-year sentence. national attention following the emergence of images and social media postings from the night of the attack. jury selection begins today in the trial of a former hedge fund employee accused of orchestrating the largest

insider trading in u.s. history. former martel m, portfolio manager for sa see capital, is charged with conducting illegal trades based on inside information. the development of an alzheimer's drug. prosecutors say the scheme capital 200 $76 million in profits and averted losses. ac agreed to plead fraud and settle charges a systematic insider-trading. the former head of the federal communications commission is starting a new job at the secret of private equity firm the carlyle group. the ex-president's club has included a long list of powerful figures, including both bush presidents. carlyle owns a majority stake in booz allen and. julius genachowski, who led the sec for four years, will serve

as the managing director and partner, specializing in telecommunications. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. yearly 1000 same-sex couples have tied the knot in utah since a federal judge struck down the state's ban on gay marriage late last month. the ruling by district judge robert shelby had been the first to overturn a state gay marriage ban since the supreme court's themark decisions against defense of marriage act and california same-sex marriage ban last june. over the past few weeks, utah court houses have been the scenes of jubilation for lgbt couples and the movement for marriage equality. these are two of the newlyweds. don't think it will change day-to-day life for us, but it is nice to know there is a formal recognition for the relationship we have created over the last 18 years. it is a nice way to commemorate

the relationship we share. >> just to have this opportunity in utah, in our home state. we could have gone to california or another state, but we are from utah. and that is huge. that's huge. we are pioneers. it is so awesome. >> but those unions and many others in utah are now in limbo. on monday, the supreme court granted utah's request to block same-sex marriages while the ruling is appealed. the case now goes before a federal appeals court in denver, but many expected to find its way to the supreme court. a supreme court decision could have major repercussions across the country -- if utah's ban is overturned, the same could happen for same-sex marriage bans in nearly 30 other states. joining us now from utah are derek kitchen and moudi sbeity. they are one of three couples who are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging utah's ban on same- sex marriage. we welcome you both to democracy now! k, explain what has just

happened in utah. yesterday we had the supreme court put a stay on judge robert shelby's decision to allow same-sex marriage in our state. couples inabout 1300 what our attorney general calls legal limbo. then we have an untold number of gay couples in the state that cannot get married for the foreseeable future. married.e not there was that open where 1000 people to get married. why did you decide not to at that time and how does that allow you to be a plaintiff in this lawsuit? heard of therst ruling, we were in our kitchen working. we were in no position to drop everything and rush down.

we did have about three or four other days to go down and get a license, but we were not so much interested in that as in the fact that we have the opportunity to get married whenever we pleased. we wanted to do it more traditionally, if we could say, with a ceremony and family and friends. and in the supreme court granted the stay. i don't think that we will go on like this [indiscernible] >> explain the mood in utah right now, and the gay, lesbian, lgbt community, derek. >> you know, we are in the process of building -- i don't know, kind of a compassionate coalition of workers here that are trying to get a huge public outreach campaign going to try to educate its members of our society that may be on the fence

or not so sure what it means to have gay marriage in utah. there was a sense of jubilation for the 17 days that marriages were allowed in our state. as of yesterday, there was a somewhat sense of defeat, but i do believe in the end, this is going to just add momentum to our cause and really kind of just light a fire beneath everybody. so it is going to be good. >> you have a middle eastern foods business and you're giving out food to folks were getting married? mess were handing out hot -- hummus. we do have a middle eastern food business in salt lake where we package and sell middle eastern food through grocery stores. >> one people were waiting in line on december 23, the monday

after the ruling, we went out and handed food to people waiting in line. that day, there were people waiting blocks. i think they married over 400 people just in salt lake county alone on that day. this kind of underscores the mood among our community around the christmas time. it has been fun. >> on saturday, a group called the constitutional sheriff's and peace officers association held with a called an uprising against same-sex marriage in their state. speaker richard mack am a former share from graham county, arizona, called on law- enforcement officials to prevent gay marriages in utah. havee people of utah rights, too, not just the homosexuals. the homosexuals or shoving their agenda down our throats. the way you take back freedom in america is one county at a time. the sheriffs deed to defend the county clerks and say, no, we're not going to issue marriage licenses to homosexuals. >> i want to get your response

to this. >> i think there's something to be said about freedom here. we have to consider our freedom as well. we desire to be married. this is a civil marriage issue, so it has nothing to do with religion. we are not lining up at the mormon church to get married. i do believe in the end, as far as liberty goes, we are on the winning side. unfortunate that they are upset about this, but they can't really take away rights from us that we deserve. aboutdi, i want to ask the theory that is being used to challenge same-sex marriage in utah. the idea that banning same-sex marriage encourages diversity in parenting, having a man and woman be the parents.

>> rightful. there have been a lot of studies debunking the theory. i am of the belief that a child needs parents who can love and nurture them. i am not in a position to change everybody's mind -- anybody's mind about what they believe. all we ask is that they leave us to our own beliefs and our own family. there are hundreds of family types out there. we cannot all go out there and make sure to conform to our standards. -- how do you want to get married in utah? >> well, i think we were planning on a farmers market wedding because we spend most of our time at the farmer's market. we were planning something for this coming october, but with

the supreme court stay, that may not happen. although, i do believe that our appeal possis will be speedy. >> of course -- and you, derek? >> i was just going to add, i do believe we will be through the 10th circuit in march. depending on what they decide, that could be escalated up to the supreme court. and we are hoping for a ruling that could affect other states. we are in it for the long run. if that means putting our marriage on hold, then that's what it means. beand that stay up it would made to justice sonia sotomayor, who is assigned to oversight of the 10th circuit court of appeals, is that right? any words you would like -- if you could address her now, what would you have to say? >> we're just here to respect the process. i understand they didn't really

offer an opinion on the case, and that is totally respectable. i think we will wait to make our case to the supreme court in full later on in the future. >> well, derek kitchen and moudi sbeity, thank you for being with us, plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging utah's anti-gay marriage law. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. thes cold in many parts of united states today am a record freezing weather. it dropped more than 50 degrees here in new york and just a few hours. recorded in central park i think it was 5 degrees, a record low in history. when we come back, we will look at how global warming could be linked to such record cold. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. abramson, minnesota, the temperature fell to -40 degrees fahrenheit. fargo, north dakota recorded temperatures as low as 32 degrees fahrenheit below zero. in illinois, motorists are being urged to stay off the roads for second day and schools remain closed in chicago and other cities. in new york, the temperature dropped nearly 50 degrees over a few hours on monday. central park has just hit an all-time low for january 7 at 5 degrees fahrenheit. the previous record was set back in 1896. the cause? well, it is called a polar

vortex, a dense frigid air that is descended as far south as texas and florida. according to the national weather service, temperatures are 20 to 40 degrees fahrenheit below average in parts of montana, north and south dakota, minnesota, iowa, wisconsin, michigan, nebraska. to talk more about the record cold and the connection between the polar vortex and climate change, we're joined by jeff masters, director of meteorology at the weather underground for joining us from ann arbor, michigan. what is the temperature there? belowabout 14 degrees zero, 20 mile per hour winds for wind chill of about 40 degrees below zero. >> how unusual is that? >> the last time we saw conditions this cold was back in 1994. >> so tell us what in arctic vortex is. situation you see every winter over the arctic. you've got 24 hour darkness up

there. the cold air tends to build and build and build because of the lack of sunlight. when you get all of that cold air up there, it tends to drive stronger winds. they blow counterclockwise and a vortex and tend to isolate that cold air from the rest of the world. that cold air can stay cold and when that happens to slosh over where we are, boy, we sure notice it. >> in new york where not only talking about record cold, but 50terday it was more than degrees warmer. it dropped 50 degrees in a matter of hours. how unusual is this? >> that is pretty rare to go to a 50 degree change in one day. back on sunday, you had airplanes sliding off runways and then it was 55 on monday, now you're down to 4 degrees, which is a record low. that is some serious weather whiplash. you don't see things that extreme very often. >> rush limbaugh, the

conservative talkshow hope, bashed the media for its coverage of the polar vortex, saying reporters are using the recent cold snap to push the global warming agenda. this is a clip. >> so, ladies and gentlemen, we are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country. and right on schedule, right on schedule, the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it is completely unprecedented. because they have got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda. and they have. it's called the polar vortex. the dreaded polar vortex. do you know with the polar vortex is? they created it for this week. of course -- actually, i've got a piece in the stack that actually makes the case that all of this frigid chilling cold is

due to global warming, strange as it may sound. other wackos are saying it is a great example of climate change. regardless, the agenda is that we are responsible. we are causing that. we have to pay the price. trucks that was rush limbaugh. jeff masters, your response? >> it is good for entertainment, but you don't better rush limbaugh for science. the polar vortex has been around forever. it's just the media happen to latch onto it this week. i don't know why, but it sure did snowball. i've been talking about the polar vortex for years. it's just funny that a got out in the media the way it did. >> talk about this. all over fox and other places, you have this mocking and the derision, c, global warming can possibly be related to what is happening. so explain how it can. how can the earth getting hotter relate to such cold weather.

typeis is a one in 20 year cold weather event which expect to grow less common as the planet heats up. the planet heated up in the last 30 years over one degree fahrenheit, and you expect these events to occur one and 30 years. but they're still going to happen. ok, counterbalancing the fact we would expect to see these events grow less common due to the fact the planet is warming up is, well, maybe, if we alter circulation patterns in such a way where the polar vortex now will sleep southward more often am at now you can counterbalance that. there is some evidence over the last few years the jet stream has been doing something we haven't been seen before, or not as often, normally the winds blow straight west to east with a little waviness, but now we're seeing more extreme excursions in the jetstream where you get these big bulges, these high- pressure ridges on one side and then low pressure dipping far to the south.

very unusual to see the sort of contortions like we have had in recent years. there is evidence that possibly arctic sea ice losses could cause that sort of jetstream behavior. >> can you talk about what the drunk jetstream is? >> yeah. well, normally it flows straight west to east, but when the winds digest them,d they tend to wander around. they don't flow in a tight and a ribbon. now they can do these big meandering loops. when you reduce the temperature between the equator and the polls, you tend to slow down the wind of the jetstream and allow this meandering behavior. and this difference in temperature between the equator's and the polls has been growing less and less in recent years because we've been losing so much arctic sea ice. that allows the sun to shine more intensely up there because now you're exposing open water which is dark and absorbs more

sunlight, heats up the area, melts more eyes in a vicious cycle and increases the warmth even more. so all of this makes sense that it could be the fact that warming in the arctic is altering jetstream behavior. of whatar descriptions happens to skin when exposed to such cold. jeff, can you talk more about that? >> where i am in detroit, 40 below zero wind chill, if you expose your skin to that kind of extreme low temperature, you're asking for frostbite in just a minute or two. you really should expose flesh to that kind of extreme condition. -- you really shouldn't expose flesh that kind of extreme condition. >> can you give us an overall view of the extreme weather in 2013? >> globally, we had $40 billion weather disasters which tied a record for the most we've ever seen. now the actual dollar losses

from those events was near average. we didn't have a single hurricane sandy or a single drought of 2012, which was 10 siblings of dollars top of -- type of loss event. at that kind of $40 billion sort of year for these events does make me say, well, that was a pretty extreme year, even though we didn't have a major event which tends to drive sort of an increase in extreme weather events. it is hard to quantify extreme weather. we don't have very good ways to do it. we don't have data that goes back in time long enough. but surly by that measure, by the number of billion-dollar disasters, it was a very extreme year. >> i'm looking at a piece from emily akin. she says on sunday night a reporter for the weather channel stood in a minnesota snowstorm talking about local efforts to move homeless children into heated shelters.

how cold is it supposed to get? the anchor back in the studio asked. the reporter replied, colder than the mars. indeed, recent temperatures across the u.s. have been mars- like. jeff masters? >> yeah, i mean, north america is pretty amazing for its ability to create some very intense cold. all of that 24-hour darkness over northern california -- and it makes for some very old air masses. you can get temperature colder than mars. >> thank you for being with us, jeff. now we're going to move into, at least in new york, much, much warmer weather this weekend. >> yeah, you're going to be up in the 40's from above average temperatures, five degrees to 10 degrees above average. weather whiplash at work again. >> jeff masters, thank you for

being with us, joining us from ann arbor, michigan. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. survey ofw to a new global, change coverage in 2013 that found a 30% increase in the number of mainstream news articles and editorials on the topic. climate,te, the daily compile such stories on a daily basis. their results showed that for the first time since 2009, there was an increase in global warming reporting. some 24,000 reports were filed on the topic last year, compared to about 18,000 the are before in 2012. reuters news agency, "the associated press" and "the guardian" each file more than 1000 stories. was the york times" only major publisher to see coverage drop in 2013. the climate coverage on fox news continued to future pundit to argue, change is a hoax. this is fox and friends regular

donald trump speaking on the show monday. >> this whole global warming hoax. -- all ofice the way those people on the ship in antarctica that got caught in the eyes, you know, the ice is massive there. they started off in an area that did not have so much ice. within for five days, they had miles and miles and were surrounded i have. well, they were global warming scientist. the media is not saying that. they're calling them tourists. were going there to study global warming. brutal.ter is i am in new york right now. everything is closed. it is freezing. we haven't had a winter like this in a long time. by the way, forget about new york, everywhere it is freezing all over the country. texas, they're setting record lows and oklahoma.

the hoaxgone on -- doesn't bother me. >> what do you mean, hoax? >> i think the scientists are having a lot of fun. -- just like al gore started the internet, we are making our manufacturing factories and other things, we are making them noncompetitive to other countries. if you look at what is going on in china and india, they're not spending $.10 on their factories . how are we supposed to compete? you can't compete when you can't use fuel. >> that was real estate magnate donald trump speaking monday on fox and friends. for more on the media's coverage of climate change, we're joined by peter dykstra, publisher of dailyclimate.org, which just published its annual survey and found that climate coverage soared in 2013, spurred by energy and weather. georgia nearrom

atlanta, which like much of the country, spacing severely cold temperatures right now. he is a former journalist. he spent 17 years as cnn or he covered the environment and the weather. welcome to democracy now! what is the weather like where you are now, peter? >> it is an honor to follow donald trump. hi, amy. it is about 9 or 10 degrees here, which is not the worst i've seen in georgia in my 20 years here, but [indiscernible] >> but it is cold. talk about what you found. maybe you would like to respond to donald trump. >> if i must. on aoking at the weather specific day were specific couple of days and making a decree about climate change is nonsense. the only people who believe that are the people who have never paid attention or respect of the signs in the first place. and the donald is a poster child for that.

i don't know if i have much more to add about that. in terms of coverage, though, climate coverage is broadening. it is not just the science and predictions about what might happen in 20 years, but stuff that is in our faces and happening right now. alternative energy .ews, and including fracking climate news is finding its way into other journalism niches. includes stories. when drought causes huge problems with the food supply and for farmers. in security stories where the arctic ice cap melts any of countries jostling for position for resources and military position in the arctic. that is where we really see this growth. >> and yet the massive coverage now of the weather everywhere on every network and so many people are tuning in for it, you rarely

see any kind of connection between the meteorologists on television talking about the weather, how cold it is, how you have to bundle up or stay inside, and the issue of climate change. >> whether it is a specific cold snap or heatwave, the science tells us that you can't draw smoking gun conclusion to what is happening with long-term climate change, but it is time with all of the bizarre weather we've seen around the world, including now, including the cold weather, including the tragic storms in the philippines, the record heat in australia -- it is time to start [inaudible] tv and its failure to cover this is not just a special case. there just is no backbone and television news, whether it is the traditional networks or cable news, for talking about climate change in a serious and responsible way. >> what is preventing them from making that connection? doing the occasional special

that might be great investigative and really hit the mark is not the same as when people are hungry for news and how to protect themselves and what to wear every day. when it is part of the daily conversation, these are supposedly meteorologists on television, right? they're educated to do this. gotost meteorologists degrees in meteorology, so they're technically scientist. in local tv or even in network tv, they're close to the only representatives of trained science in television today. i think the issue goes deeper. people see controversy around climate change. they see a huge portion of the country that really, really wants to ignore the science and deny that i'm a change is happening. they are afraid of offending that segment of their audience. i know from my experiments at cnn, they were terrified of

driving viewers to fox by talking seriously about climate change. >> and what is the role of the advertisers in all this? of course, you're taking on the oil industry, coal industry. people sometime soon, watch a half-hour of network news in the next few evenings. what you won't see in all likelihood is serious discussion of climate change. what you will see our one or two or three commercials from the oil and coal industry talking about generating jobs and keeping the lights lit and keeping america prosperous and keeping us away from foreign oil. there is no smoking gun to say all of the money coming from oil and coal that is impacting things editorially. but that is another question to start asking broadcasters. massive, responsible journalistic failure in broadcasting. not nearly as bad in print or wire or web, but in broadcast news, at the network level on

failuree is a complete to cover this adequately. at the same time, there's a huge revenue stream from the people who would dearly love to see this topic ignored. >> peter dykstra, can you talk about "the new york times," which last year dismantled its environmental reporting pot and ended its green blog? took a slight dip this year. actually, it wasn't as big as i expected and a lot of people expected. just about a year ago, they shut down their environment desk. they no longer have a full-time environmental editor. the reporters there don't have a champion and a backstop on in karmiel stories. a few months after that, they shut down their green blog, which is one of the main outlooks. clear, there are still an enormous amount of reporting talent focused on this issue and some very good work been done in "the new york times

hurco in quantity, it was less. what bothers me most about shutting down the environment as, shutting down the blog is that if you are an up-and-coming ambitious reporter in a place like "the new york times" and they have shut down the desk and the blog, you're going to get a clear message that it is not a good career move to focus on informational stories. i'm afraid "the times" leadership is sending that message to its own staff. >> peter dykstra, you left cnn. why did you leave and start up dailyclimate.org and why are you focusing on the environment in this way? >> i that because they told me to go. itsdecided to get rid of entire structure for reporting on science and environment. there are still a few meteorologists there. just a little over five years ago. daily climate and environment all health news were here quite

a while before i came on the scene. i am in doing this for about two point five years. we produce original journalism. the silver lining in the toxic cloud of the state of journalism is your is really a lot of good talented journalists out there available because they don't have a newspaper jobs anymore. we have taken some of the cream of the crop, some of the best most experienced in terminal reporters and put them to work. we also aggregate anywhere from 150 to 200 environment and climate stories from around the world every day, and make them available for free to anybody at our website. >> i want to thank you, peter dykstra, for being with us, publisher of to environmental websites. also publisher of intermodal health news.org them my former award-winning executive producer at cnn were he cover the

environment and the weather. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we're going to talk about the koch brothers and their impact on the 2012 election. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. and today show with an in- depth look at one of the biggest collateral -- political operations in the country. a vast network of politically active nonprofit groups funded by the billionaire industrialists charles and david koch and other conservative donors. there is a expose a just published called " koch-backed local coalition, signed to shill

donors, raised $400 million in 2012." it reveals how elaborate of 17 tax-exempt groups and limited liability, these rates at least $407 million in the 2012 campaign. the staggering amount is equivalent to the combined spending of all unions in state, federal, local races -- it forced nearly all other sources of political spending in 2012. the groups were designed to help conceal the sources of the money, much of which into voter mobilization and television ads attacking president obama and congressional democrats. brothers -- a koch spokesman provided a statement to "the washington post" that read in part -- for more we go to madison,

wisconsin, where we're joined by lisa graves. she's executive director for the center for media and democracy. how cold is it in madison, wisconsin? is 70 degrees below this morning and madison without the wind chill. so it is -- it is 17 degrees below this morning in madison without the wind chill. it is not as hot as it is in the drought in australia. >> i would like to start there with a place that is not so funny, the whole issue of extreme weather. this is something you have looked at. if you could talk about the koch brothers and the whole issue of climate change and climate change denial. >> there's been tremendous work by greenpeace and others who have taken a very close look at who is funding climate denial am a who are the companies or individuals who were funding groups that are pushing out the idea that climate change is a hoax and that extreme changes in

weather are nothing to worry about. and no studies have indicated that much of that money has come from big oil including money from exxon, various koch family enterprises or philanthropies, along with others. when you look at the groups that are putting out information trying to say climate change isn't happening or that you shouldn't worry about it, a lot of those groups have received funding -- at least in part -- by some of these big oil interests or the ceos and foundations that are connected with some of these big oil and coal interests. >> lisa graves, where does the koch's wealth come from? >> the brothers have grown their family business koch industries over the last several decades into a multibillion-dollar operation. it is largely built on oil and gas and pipelines, but it has expanded to include the purchase

of georgia-pacific, paper mills, and paper products. it is a global enterprise. they have an extra marymount of wealth that has been obtained through trading and derivatives and through energy derivatives as well as other sorts of energy futures. one thing we've seen this past year as a study that indicates their wealth has skyrocketed over the last five years as most people's wealth in this country has stagnated or plummeted. the wealth of the koch brothers has increased. they are two of the richest billionaires in the world. one of the little known facts is koch's public sector lobbied against the wall street reforms of derivatives, more regulation of derivatives. get yourd like to reaction to the "washington .ost" report

, first't you go through of all, this whole issue of shielding donors, not knowing where the money is coming from that is affecting elections all over the country. >> it has been a long-standing practice in the united states for ordinary charities like the red cross or others to have anonymous donors, to have donors that are not disclosed to a charity. but what we're seeing is really a growth in the amount of money going to what are known as sea for nonprofits. those are tax exempt. the donations to them are not attack seduction. we have seen enormous rise in the activity of c4 organizations that are really political era running ads in our elections. what this really important story in "the washington post reveals is this network that has been

critical spent more than $400 billion, half $1 billion during largely the 2012 election, and no one even knew the names of some of the groups that were behind it, let alone the individuals who were funding it. this fall, just a few months ago, we learned there was a thing called freedom partners that was stocked with koch people from industries were koch charities or other koch operations that were on the board or staff of this entity that were doling out well over $100 million, over $200 million, really, to an array of groups. and those groups -- many of those groups were running ads in the elections. those ads were so-called issue ads, but they were plainly designed to influence the outcome of the election, in my opinion. write -- article they

she goes on to say "the resources in a breath of the organization make it singular in american politics, and operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups and the stopping what its financiers view as government overreach." the coalition target different constituencies, but together have mounted attacks on the new health care law, federal spending, and environment of regulations." so explain how this cloaking is done. >> it is quite clear the koch brothers and their semi retreats at posh resorts i can colorado's and other places have been gathering together billionaires and millionaires to help fund the source of operations. this is the product of those efforts. brothers and their

cronies, is one way to think about it. what has been assembled in part to the leadership of koch operative is a complex maze of .roups i don't think you would see something like this outside of a john grisham novel or some sort of a complicated fictional scheme where you see a number of limited liability corporations that have an alphabet soup set of names come and just initials that you can't fully decipher and no one knows who controls the who are the principles or leaders of those who did liability corporations. money is being passed from freedom partners and other of connected enterprises into these limited liability corporations and the money is sent out to some of these other ppr that operates out of arizona -- >> that is newly being talked about, what the arizona

connection. >> that's right. you have a group that describes itself as being for protecting patients rights that has been led by sean noble. it was implicated in the california campaign finance investigation this past year which led to a record $1 million fine, one of the largest in u.s. history, for the way the money was passed and people didn't know where the money came from. that was both through cppr and a rl of arizona. cppr is now one of the groups we see has been giving money to wisconsin during the 2012 election year as well. in wisconsin, there's an ongoing criminal investigation known as a john doe investigation coming to some of the groups that may have received some of this money. it is very secret. that one of the group leaders, air o'keefe here in wisconsin, he went to the "wall street

journal" and spoke about the investigation and subpoenas that were issued to some of these nonprofit groups in wisconsin that were running ads. what that is just a part here in wisconsin. nationally what you see are the way these groups and the way "the washington post" described them on focusing on different constituents will stop -- constituents, and running a lot of ads. their criminalg or civil violations, i think the campaign finance system is broken and this illustrates how broken the law has become in the wake of the judicial activists on the supreme court and the citizens united decision. i think congress ought to investigate it. congress has the right to investigate whether our elections have integrity or not. how people are influencing the outcome of elections. i think they ought to be investigating this and trying to impose reforms to protect the integrity of our elections, which have been undermined by this dark honey flowing in

directly to groups who are running ads to influence our elections. >> rachel maddow drew attention to how charles koch was allowed to buy influence over its faculty hiring process. >> and 2011, florida state economics department angrily cut a deal with a billionaire to essentially give that billionaire control over who the department hires. in exchange for money, that guy gets veto power over who the university hires to teach. "a foundation bankrolled by libertarian businessman charles pledged one $.5 million for positions and florida state university's economics department. in return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new department program." an advisory committee appointed by koch decides which candidate should be considered. the foundation and also withdraw its funding if it is not happy with the faculty stories earthy hirings do not meet objectives set by koch during annual

evaluations." forget naming rights to the stadium or whatever, conservative billionaire charles koch purchased hiring rights for the faculty of florida state government department. yes, florida state has the word "state" in its name because it is a public university. yes, it is objectively insane that the state of florida allows that to happen. >> that was rachel maddow talking about florida state university. lisa graves? >> that is not surprising. the kochs have a reputation for trying to make sure to have her return on their investment in trying to ensure the money they spend its results. after the 2012 election and the failure of romney to win that race, there was a lot of handwringing among republican or right-wing circles. quotedthe kochs was talking about how they needed to review the money spent and basically see what worked and what didn't.

which is interesting because the kochs i talked about this a first amendment issue. protecting thes first amendment rights. in this country for more than 40 years we have had a history of trying to ensure transparency in our elections. that is why it is called dark money, because money meant to benefit candidates that is given to candidates or to political action committees or two parties are supposed to be disclosed so the american people know who was trying to influence our candidates, who is help tried to hide the seats and who might wield in credible influence on elected politicians. that is why the money is supposed to be open. but through the supreme court's decisions in citizens united and other cases, there's been a proliferation of these nonprofit groups that are actively engaged in influencing election without necessarily saying, vote for or against this person. and that money has been secret ties. >> lisa, we have to leave it there. thank you for being with us.

stay warm if you can. executives is director of the center for media and democracy. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]