[captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> someone next to us got shot. then a bomb exploded. everybody around us died in that blast. they got up to look through the window to see the shooting. amy: in turkey, a triple suicide bombing and gun attack targeting istanbul's international airport kills 41 people, injuring 239

others. then to the supreme court, meet the attorney who argued the landmark abortion case that struck down a sweeping anti-choice law in texas. stephanie toti was 37 years old at the time. it was her first time arguing before the supreme court. aboutse laws are simply stopping women from a accessing ththeir constitutionallyly protd right to abortion. amy: a florida jury has found a former chilean army officer are of thefor the murder activist and folksinger victor ds after a u.s. back to o -- backed coup. we will speak to his daughter and his widow, joan jara.

[indiscscernible] , he went out that morning and it was the last time i saw him. amy: all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a triple suicide bombing and gun attack targeting turkey's main airport in istanbul has killed 41 people and left 239 others injured. authorities said three attackers arrived at the airport's international terminal and blew themselves up after opening fire. a witness described the attack. >> i was getting my three suitcases wrapped while i heard the blast. police told us to lie down.

the wrapping machine steelcase protected us. they were shooting at the police and the police were shooting at them. someone next to us got shot. then we saw the bomb in the x-ray explode. everybody around it died in that blast. i got up to look through the window to see the shooting. amy: no group has claimed responsibility, but turkey's prime minister said the initial probe pointed to the self-proclaimed islamic state. we will have more on the attack after headlines. one day after handing down the most significant victory for abortion access in a generation, the u.s. supreme court has dealt another victory for u.s. reproductive rights. the court rejected attempts by mississippi and wisconsin to reinstate state laws requiring abortion doctors to hold admitting privileges at local hospitals.

the law and mississippi had threatened to close the states last abortion clinic. we will have more on the significance of the decisions with stephanie toti, the attorney who argued the landmark texas abortion case before the supreme court. she will be joining us later. in britain, parliament members with the opposition labor party have passed a no-confidence motion against their leader jeremy corbyn. he has faced a coup within his own party following britain's vote to exit the european union. his supporters say his rivals are using the brexit to pretext -- as a pretext to oust him. the no-confidence vote is not binding, but labor leaders are expected to announce a bid to replace him.

republican presidential candidate donald trumpmp touted eutain's vote to leave the as he called for a rejection of free trade deals. he l likened the transpacicific partnership tradade deal to rate -- rape. "just a continuing rape of our country," is what he said. mr. trump: i want you to imagine how much better our future can be if we declare independence from the elites who let us from one financial and foreign-policy disaster to another. our friends in britain recently voted to take back control of their economy, politics, and borders. amy: donald trump attacked democratic rival hillary clinton for her wavering stance on the

tpp. critics say the deal will boost corporate power at the expense of health and environmental regulations. the committee drafting the democratic party platform voted not to oppose the trade deal. in an op-e-ed in the "new york times," bernie sanders urged democrats to oppose the tpp as part of a broader progressive agenda to defeat donald trump. invoking the brexit vote, he the notion that donald trump could benefit from the same forces that gave the leave proponents a majority in britain should sound an alarm for the democratic party in the united states," sanders wrote. sanders' warning comes as a new poll finds 71% of respondents believe the economy is "rigged." here in new york, progressive favorite zephyr teachout has won the democratic primary for new york's 19th congressional district. teachout has focused her message on tackling inequality, taking on wall street, and combatting political corruption.

she and democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders had endorsed each other in their respective campaigns. in 2014, she mounted a grassroots primary campaign to challenge new york governor andrew cuomo, winning more than a third d of the votote. senate democrats have blocked a bill providing funding to combat the mosquito borne zika virus, after republicans loaded it with measures to block funding for planned parenthood, take money away from obamacare, rollback parts of the clean water act, and allow the confederate flag to fly at veterans' cemeteries. massachusetts senator elizabeth warren tweeted "i did not think the gop could write one bill to hurt women, vets, obamacare, and clean water all at once, but they did it." today's vote ensures there will be no legislation -- tuesesday's

vote ensures there is no legislation to address the crisis this month while congress is in n recess. meanwhile, house democrats continue theirir protest calling for gun control i in the wawakef ththe orlandndo magic are ththat killed 49 9 peop at lgbt nightclub. less than a weweek after lawmaks staged a s sit in,ixix democrats stood and demand and recognition during a procedural session tuesesday. newewwmakers, including york congressman eliot engel, shouted as republican congressman andy harris gaveled ththe session to a c close. , the house stands adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on friday, july 1, 2016. amy: democrats have attempted to force a vote on a measure to prevent people on the no-fly list from purchasing guns, a step criticized by civil liberties groups who say the

list is biased and sweeps up innocent people. releasedublicans have an 800-page report into the 2012 attack on the u.s. diplomatic compound in benghazi, libya a tt killed u.s. ambassador c chris stevenens and three other amicanans. while the report criticizes the obama administration's actions leading up to the attack, it does not appear to contain any new revelations that could threaten the presidential campaign of hillary clinton. on the campaign trail in denver, colorado, clint blasted the report as a waste of resources.. i understand that after more than two years and $7 million spent by the benghazi ,ommittee out of taxpayer funds the report found today that nothing was found to contrtradit the conclusions of the

independent accountability board prior conclusions of the multiple earlier investigations carried out on a bipartisan basis in the congress. while this, unfortrtunately took on a partisan tinge, i want us to stay focused on what i've always wanted us to stay focused on and that is the important work of diplomacy and development. amy: u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon has criticized the israeli blockade of the gaza strip. suffocates the people. economy andhe --edes the construction there must be accountability. amy: california voters will decide in november whether to

legalize recreational marijuana. secretary of state alex padilla said proponents of legalization have submitted more than enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot. if the initiative passes, one in six americans would live in a state where selling marijuana is legal. as california reels from scorching heat and deadly wildfires, the city of oakland has taken a step against the fossil fuel industry, a main driver of climate change. on monday, oakland city officials voted unanimously to ban the transport and storage of large shipments of coal, quashing plans for what would have been the largest coal shipment facility on the west coast. the facility in west oakland would have sent coal from the western united states abroad to china and other areas. that oakland said or's know it is a false choice to say we have to pick between jobs and this community's health and safety. we can and we will do both.

those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers around the world. amy: before we move on, there is a major vote on puerto rico in the u.s. senate today. juan: yes, there is. looks like will finally vote on what to do on the so-called bill that both the obama adminisistration andnd republicicans in the house passd -- got through the h house inititially a cocouple of wewee, which would establish a means for puerto r rico to resestructe itits $72 billion in debt, but would also impose a financial control board, what i and other people call a colonial control island of puerto rico. mitch mcconnell moved this week

to have a cloture vote, which will occur today because he wants to prevent any amendments on the senate flooror from those who might have problems with the current bill. he wants to -- he is going to go for a 60-vote cloture vote and proceed to have a vote on the full bill because they are trying to rush to get it through before the july 1 deadline, when puerto rico is sure to default on a huge part of its debt. so, yesterday, senator bob menendez did a filibuster for four hours. he grabbed the senate floor and continued to condemn the bill, to condemn the efforts. reale process, you got a lesson on what is the problem and why people are calling this a colonial control bill. thatnstance, he said

contrary to what the obama administration has been saying and what many republicans in congress have been saying, the people of puerto rico are completely opposed to this bill. voters areto rican , this verythe bill bill the senate is about to pass. to any outside control board running the affairs of puerto rico. there is huge opposition on the island to the bill and yet the congress is moving forward. there are a lot of liberal democrats that are supporting this bill. some are liberal organizations and have astonishingly come out in favor of the bill and are insisting that this is the only way, as that is the bill is, it is the only way for puerto rico to be able to restructure its debt and to avoid a rush to the

courthouse by bondholders. is thatendez made clear there is going to be a rush to the courthouse anyway because of the bill passes, the bondholders are goining to go to court to challenge the constitutionality of the court -- bill. it is not as though there are not going to be legal challenges , but menendez went on for four hours. bernie sanders participated in a short time on the filibuster, so did maria cantwell. but it seems there are a susufficient number of democrats and republicans who will vote to approve the bill. amy: where did elizabeth warren come down? juan: she has not said anything. she was critical initially of the bill. she has not said anything about this. my sense is that she will vote for it, as well. there is a chance that bernie sanders or menendez could launch another filibuster today and the debate over the cloture vote,

the final debate, or the bill itself, but it seems unlikely. it is astonishing to me has so many liberals in this country layer -- rail about american aggression abroad are being so silent about this absolute imposition of colonial control over the affairs of puerto rico. , the secretary of the treasury, spent all yesterday basically meeting with democratic senators to treasure .hem to support this bill it is going to be a really dark day for the people of puerto opposedo are completely to the bill, if the senate votes to approve it. amy: we will continue to follow this. juan: we cocontinue our coverage of the most significant victory for abortion rights in a generation. on monday, the supreme court struck down provisions of a sweeping anti-choice law in texas. justice anthony kennedy joined

stephen breyer and all three women on the court in rejecting the restrictions as an undue burden on access to abortion. the supreme court ruled against provisions requiring abortion clinics to meet the costly standards of hospital-style surgery centers, and mandating that doctors obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. already, about half of texas' more than 40 abortion clinics have closed. if the court had allowed the provisions to go into full effect, advocates warned it would have left texas with about 10 clinics clustered in four metropolitan areas. amy: the impact of monday's landmark ruling is already reverberating throughout the country. on tuesday, justices rejected bids by mississippi and wisconsin to revive restrictions on abobortion doctors matching those struck down in texas. meanwhile, alabama's attorney general has announced his state will stop trying to defend its own "admitting privileges" requirement for abortion doctors in wake of the supreme court's ruling. well, for more, we're joined now by stephanie toti, the lead

counsel in whole woman's health v. hellerstedt, the supreme court case to protect abortion access. she just won her first-ever case before the supreme court on monday. toti is senior counsel at the center for reproductive rights. stephanie toti, welcome to democracy now! you are 37 years old when you argued this case. what was it like to be in the supreme court and your reaction on monday when you heard the decision? stephanie: it was a thrill to be in the supreme court. it was such an incredible opportunity. i'm so grateful for the opportunity and to be able to represent all of the women throughout texas, whose rights and health were going to be at risk if these laws were upheld. monday's decision was incredibly gratifying. it is a historic victory for women, for the right

--reproductive rights, and for science. juan: when you were arguing the case, did you have any sense of how the justices might be leaning? i know it is always hard to gauge by the questions the justices put forth. was it a surprise for y you, the final vote? stephanie:e: i it was not a surprise. we were very hopeful about the chance is of -- chances of victory y because the evidence s soso strong. they demonstrated that the laws were a sham. there was absolutely no credible evidence to support them. it was great that the justices recognize that and held that t e need to have credible evidence before we can restrict somebody's constitutional rights. amy: how did you prepare? how were you chosen? how were you involved to begin with? how did you prepepe for thisis case? stephanie: i have been at the

center for reproductive rights for about a decade now. i was lead attorney at the trial, i followed it through to the appeals court. i stayed with the case when it went to the supreme court. there was a lot of intense preparation. i've had many arguments in lower federal courts and state courts. amy: in a lot of cases, don't they choose a supreme court expert and handed over to another lawyer? stephanie: yes, that does happen sometimes. the plaintiffs in this case felt strongly that they would like me to represent them in court and i think it was meaningful to a lot ageeople to have a woman of there at the court arguing this case. the public support i've gotten has been really amazing and very surprising to me, but it has been very nice. juan: what about the impact in just a couple of days in other

states in terms of the impact of the decision? stephanie: already, three more laws have fallen. courtcause the supreme declined to take those cases. one because ththe alabama attory general decided no longer to defend alabama's law, recognizing it is unconstitutional. those are great development and we are very hopeful that in the coming days and weeks the other laws will start to fall like dominoes, all of the copycat laws around the country -- and there are many of them. amy: i want to read from justice stephen breyer's opinion for the majority. "abortions taking place in an abortion facility are safe -- indeed, safer than numerous procedures that take place outside hospitals and to which texas does not apply its surgical-center requirements. nationwide, childbirth is 14 times more likely than abortion

to result in death, but texas law allows a midwife to oversee childbirth in the patient's own home." breyer also noted a colonoscopy -- a procedure that typically takes place outside a hospital setting -- has a mortality rate 10 times higher than an abortion. and, the mortality rate for liposuction, another outpatient procedure, is 28 times higher than the mortality rate for abortion. ce, talk about the significan of the decision and these two particular regulations that they struck down, the surgery-style center you have to have and having admitting privileges at the local hospital. stephanie: what is so galling about these laws is that they are a sham, they are not designed to promote women's health.

those statistics demonstrate that abortion is among the safest procedures that a patient can have in an outpatient setting. if the state of texas really believed that either one of these requirements was deci-seri -- necessary or beneficial for patient health, it would have applied across the board to all procedures you would have in an outpatient setting, including those procedures that are far more complex and risky than abortion. this was just an effort to target abortion for special regulation to make it impossible for her -- women to access the procedure. that has a real harm. women all across the state were being delayed in their ability to access abortion because of partial implementation of the law. about half the clinics in texas at closed. we went from more than 40 clinics before the law took effect to 19 that were operating on monday.

as a result, in some parts of the ststate, women were havivino wait 2-3 weeksks to get anan inl appointment at an abortion clclinic and that isis a reallyg time to have to wait for such time sensitive health care. amy: this is not like same-sex marriage, where the supreme court makes a ruling and it is law across the land. stephanie: the court's ruling is certainly the law across the land. forward, all abortion restrictions will have to be judged by an evidence-taste standard. standard.e-based if the burdens are not justified by significant benefits, the law will be held unconstitutional. but it has got to be a case-by-case determination. it is not that i'll admitting privileges laws or surgery center laws across the country are automatically invalid. the decision creates a presumption that they are unconstitutional, but we still

need to go into court state to state and get the laws struck down. juan: those opposed to a woman's right to choose are not going to stand down. they are going to continue to pursue their cause. where do you see the next battles? stephanie: that's absolutely right. the struggle is going to continue. there has been a relentless onslaught in recent years it has created onslaught -- obstacles all over the country. what monday's decision does is it sends a strong statement that women have a constitutional right to make decisions about their health and their pregnancies and that they should be able to effect those decisions with respect and

should not have to face unnecessary obstacles. the can you talk about sexism you faced that you have taught about in this case in dealing with opposition council, etc.? you had a cocounsel on this case? stephanie: yes. there are a great team of lawyers working on this case, including partners from morrison and forrester. alex lawrence was my second chair. i hadou told "glamour," an amazing cocounsel, but because he is a slightly older male, our adversaries would know -- always presume he was the decision-maker. whenever we needed to negotiate something, he would always go to him and he would refer the question back to me. stephanie: that is absolutely right and that is a constant battle as a woman in the legal profession and as someone who has spent a lot of her career in the nonprofit sector your, it is

constantly -- folks are not used to seeing people with that profile in a position of our and i think that is why it is really great that a did have the opportunity to argue the case because it sends a message to that women and young women these opportunities are available to them. amy: the moment you heard the decision on monday, where were you standing -- i'm sure you will remember it forever -- and what were you waiting for and ont did you hear? stephanie: monday, i was gathered in the conference room at my office with a number of my colleagues watching scotus blog. when we got word of the decision , there was so much joy, so much elation, just knowing what is at stake in this case. the health and rights of so many

millions of women. it was a tremendous thrill to get the decision. immediately, we wanted to read it carefully. there is more than a hundred pages of opinion. we went into another room where it was quiet and got to work digesting the decision. amy: congratulations, stephanie toti, lead counsel in whole women's health. the case that will go down in history. her firsttoti won ever case before the supreme court. senior counsel at center for reproductive rights. when we come back, a major case in florida. ara, theing of victor jst killer brought to justice. we will speak with the great singers widow and daughter. ♪ [music break]

amy: "i remember you, amanda" i victctor jara. democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with juan gonzalez. juan: in floridida, a jury has found former chilean army officer pedro barrientos liable for the murder of legendary folk singer and activist víctor jara in september 1973. in the days after dictator auguststo pinochet seized powern a u.s.-backed coup, victor jara was rounded up, tortured, and shot more than 40 times. in 2013, on the 40th anniversary of vtor jara's murder, his wife and daughters f filed a cil lawsuit in u.s. court against the former military officer pedro barrientos, who has lived in the united states for more than two decades and is now a u.s. citizen. the jaras sued him under a federal civil statue known as the torture victims protection act, which allows u.s. courts to hear about human rights abuses committed abroad.

chilean prosecutors have indicted barrientos and another officer with jara's murder, and chile is seeking his extradition so he can be tried on criminal murder charges. amy: well, in a landmark legal victory on monday, an orlando court ruled that barrientos is liable for the killing of victor jara and awarded the jara family $28 million in damages. "the guardian" newspaper called the verdict "one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a u.s. courtrtroom." in a moment, we will be joined i victor jara's widow, joan jara, . first, i want to turn to our 2013 interview with joan jara talking about the day he disappeared. we were both at home with

their daughters. we were fearing there might be a military coup. , victor and i listened to a speech. the radios were falling off the air one by one and replaced with military marches. victor was to sing and he went out that morning and that was the last time i saw him. i stayed at home. i heard of the bombing of the palace. helicopters,aw the machine guns firing over the residence.

then we begin n the long wait fr victor to o come back k me. amy:y: and how long did you wa?? joan: i waited aeek. t knowinreallyhat had ppened to m. rom himromsge sobody w had beein the stium wi him. was t sure wt was rely haening toim. fears werconfird on , en a you man a said, iou need to lk to youi'm friendi' been working ithe tyorgue. 'm afraid toell yothat vict's body s been recognizedecause his was

well-kwn fac he said,ou must me wit me d cim hisody, otherse, ey will puhim in common gravand he wl dappear. then, accompand this you man tohe city morgue,e ented by aide entrae, saw thhundre of bodi -- lirally hureds of bodies iwhat wasled up actuallyhe parng place o the morgue.e. d i had toook fovictor's bo among a lg line ithe ofces of t city more. i recoized himi saw whatad haened to him i saw e bullet holes, iaw thstate of h body, i conser myselone of t luc tos, in aense that ad ce at that moment what h happen to pi yr and could gi myestimony with l

the rce of wt i feltn that moment a not tt whole ro, ofevernowing whahappens your lovedne. that happened to so many families, so many women who have spent these 40 years looking for their loved ones who were made to disappear. speaking is joan jara in 2013 on democracy now! she joins us live from orlando florida, along witith victor jaa 's daughter. in san francisco, we are joined , from the lawne firm that read resented -- represented the jara family. yourur reaction to the court decision. joan: it was almost incredulous. if you could respond to the decision in the court on monday.

, it was with happiness . incredulity -- all of these years,, we are gradually losing more and more hope of justice for victor. it was wonderful here in the united states of america, in court, to find this unanimous verdict. manuela, your reaction after so many years of finding some measure of recognition and justice for what happened to your father. says, for us,an eighs still difficult to w

how this is going g to aect our lives inin the future. a sense ofed with impunity and paiain in relelatio not knowing the truth of what and so weith victor are still -- we are happy, , but calm. there is a a lot to do still in relation to justice for victor and for other victims at the stadium. we received it, we are very grateful, really. , how did youa whon that it was barrientos was responsible for your husband's murder right in the

of septembercoup 11, 1973? yes, it has been only gradually. , i learned trial many things about what happened in the stadium. that is wonderful progress for lay -- chile. a number of people will be able to find a certain amount of justice for the loved ones who were killed. i must say that during the trial, there was so much evident against him, so much evidence and so much lying on the part of

the people defending him -- incredible, just easily proved lies, which were quickly and overcome by her lawyer, our wonderful lawyers. manuela: we've known about him for r years now. seven years, i should say. he has been denying having been saying he has, presentede evidence in this trial and also all the previous investigations thatat haveeeen going g on in chile puput them in the stadium with a

command responsibility in the stadium. this has been confirmrmed. no officers who have command responsibility in a situatioion , thathat during thahat week specific week just after the say they did, can -- know anything and thahat they have been constantly denying everything. also, he has been denying having been there this week. juan: we also joined by the justice, director for who tried the case against pedro barrientos. could you tell us who he was and

what was his role and what were you able to establish in the trial? dixon: yes, and good morning. barrientos was a former lieutenant under pinochet. what we were able to show in the court was in direct contradiction to what he claimed , which was that he did not know victor jara and had never been in the stadium. one conscript testified tosllingly that barrien brags many times that he was the one who shot and killed victor jara. we had other conscripts who identified him as being in chile stadium and having command responsibility there, performing a wide variety of duties there. we had civilians, we had a former student from the university where victor taught who identified that victor was

at theed, beaten badly university when the military laid siege to it. we had another witness who identified victor's body tossed outside of the stadium. through and through, we presented witnesses and evidence of what transpired in the days coup and the pinochet what happened to victor jara. amy: in 2012, i got a chance to visit spain and got a chance to interview the forensic specialist who exhumed and examined the bodies of the former president and of victor jara. i asasked him to tell us what he discovered abobout vtor jajara's murder. >> what happppened in the case f vioror jara is that he wawas ata

university in santiago. he was arrested and witnesses confirmed that. families believe he e was brougt into the locker omom. he was a popular person, the military knew w who he wasas. he ended up withth a singular bullet hole through the e back f his head and 50 broken bones in his body caused by machine gun fire. after he died, they fired many shots at him and then tracked the body out into the streets where people would find it and think it had beeeen a gunfight between the authorities s and others. what happened to him i is similr to w what happenened to otherern ththe same period of time. at thes verery c common earlrly stages of the dictatorsp . later, due to their international political reputation, the disappeared were still being killed, but the

bodies were headed in mass graves, throwing them into the sea, and other places. amy: that was the forensic specialist to exhumed the bodies of wealth the president who died in the palace and victor jara. talk osborne, can you about how significant this case is in florida and what will happen to barrientos? dixon: it is a very significant case. it is the first time the family has had their day in court. the court was able to find somebody responsible for the torture and murder of victor jara. i think it is significant for victims and survivors who are continuing to look for justice for what happened under the pinochet coup. what happens next four

barrientos, this was a civil lawsuit, not a criminal lawsuit. the jury found he was liable. to enforce will be the judgment to the step we can. juan: what about the criminal case in chile? why has the u.s. government not extradited him? dixon: that is a good question for the u.s. government. we urged the u.s. government to move forward. chile has indicted him. the u.s. has moved forward on other extradition requests. we hope they will take this one seriously and move forward. , what is your next plan as you head back to chile? joan: the plan is to seek justice for all the victims.

trial has revealed in a been hiddenwhat has for years. there has been a veil over what happened in the stadium. thihisur job to force to get together with other victims to continue the search for justice. to know from moment to moment what happened in the stadium. howas been extraordinary this has been hidden for so long. and men while a la, thank you so much for joining us from orlando onre the decision was held

monday, responsibility for the death of your husband, your father, victor jara. dixon osborne, thank you so much for joining us. when we come back, who got rich off student debt crisis? we will be speaking with the legendary reporter jim steele. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: joan jara -- victor jara singing "the right to live in peace." democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war r and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with juan gonzalez. juan: we end today's show witita look at student debt. people now 01 $.3 trillion in student debt. a new investigative report published by the center for investigative research peels back the layers on the trillion-dollar student loan industry. the article, titled "who got rich off the student debt crisis," follows what happened after the federal government relinquished direct control of the student loan program and opened it up to banks and profit-making corporations. amy: one of the article's authors, veteran investigative reporter and pulitzer-prize-winning journalistst jim steele, joins e now. lay out what you found. jim: w what we found was that if you go back to lyndon johnson, the whole idea of the student

loan program was to provide a way for people who were poor, minorities and so forth, to give them my way to go to c college,o provide them loans and it was thenistered largely by federal government. by the late 1990's, through the privatization of sallie mae and the signal that sent, they turned over this extremely important function to largely privatee industry. t, but alsosuing the servicing of the loans and, more onlyy, those that collected the link went loans. the complaints you hear over and over from former student is the , the kind of pressure they are put under, the whole money, not tolect figure out a way for them to pay loans thahat they have taken ou. juan: by t the late 1990''s, you are talking this was when bill clinton was president and the gingrich congress. jim: bill clinton had a good

idea to turn the program over to the federal government to issue the loans. but when the gingrich revolution came in in 1994, they reversed and they technically saved clinton's program, but ththey dd it i in such a way witith the privatization that they said, this is where we wanted to go, we don't want government involved anymore than it has to be. the whole message was clear that private industry should take this over, the federal government should not. that was the impetus back in the late 1990's. amy: can you explain more who our lord was? lord -- sally may was a public-private papartnership. it was overseen fairly significantly by the federal government for many years. after the privatization of lord became ceo and

he ticket to a different level. they bought servicing companies, companies that collected delinquent loans. they began issuing private loans and federal loans. they became a colossus of the student loan industry. students thought it was still part of the federal government, but it was not. billions of dollars in profits over the years, they did very well. he made so much money -- this is the thing that astonished us -- this is the thing that astonished us. his ownble to build private golf course. he made so much money, he was able to build his own private golf course in southern maryland. that is the kind of money he made. loans,he rise of private the loan industry, coincided with the rise of more for-profit colleges, as well.

there were all of these institutions that were basically being fueled by loloans. jim: absolutely. the whole message was we want private industry involved in the process. sure enough, private equity companieies began buyiying up -d we know how much of that work out. amy: i want to bring in someone you wrote about, solemnly -- saul newton. he dropped out of the university maryland stevens point and joined the army to qualify.. you wewere making online paymens for your student loans from a aniston? -- from afghanistan? >> that's correct. thank you so much for having me on. while i was deployed to 2011, itan in 2010 and

also had to make sure i was making my month lease student loan payment to protect my financial future. can you talk about how much student loan -- debt you amassed? >> yes. college in 2007. i'd always wanted to go to college, but i knew that financially it would he a hardship that be a hardship. i chose to go to a state university that was local. over the course of two years, my yearly tuition bill rose $1600. while i was going to school, i was working multiple jobs trying to make ends meet, but i was drowning. in 2009, i decided to drop out of college, joined the army, so

that i i could qualify for the g.i. bill. by that point, i had just over $10,000 in student loan debt. i enlisted in the army. about six months after i enlisted, i was to lloyd -- deployed to afghanistan. i called my student loan servicer and i said, i'm serving on active duty in the military and i'm about to deploy. is there anything available to me? they told me, no. i accepted that and make sure that every month after i went out on a patrol or after i got done with work for that day, i made my way over to a small wooden shack with a satellite connecection to get onto the internet and pay my student loan bill. can you talk about what

the average debt is that american students are coming out of college with? and this whole issue that the loan companies will let you not pay off the prprinciple because you are constantly accumulating more interest that you owe. if you wait for-five years, the debt grows. jim: that is the heart of this. aroundrage debt is $30,000. all of the data is not really all the data. it is probably a little higher. graduate d debt is much hihigher than that. if you put your loan in forbearance, you've lost your job, you are sick come you can't make it payment, the interest begins to accumulate. students whomany had $50,000 in debt and they now own $90,000 and $100,000.

paid $50,000have because of the interest. interest i is such a crucial factor. it is the great growth industry of the whole debt collectioion field. amy: what needs to be done to reform the industry? a principal thing has to be more oversight b by the departmt of education. they have fallen down on the job. there is a pilot program to bring somethingng back to the government. profit-making works great in many fields, but it is not working well in this field. that is one of the principal things that the department of education has consistently all them down in overseeing its duties. all caps of complaints about in -- all kinds of complaints about improper representation. their own inspector g general ce

back and said, you have done a horrible job. you are not performing your proper mission. .hat is a key thing probably getting the companies out of that field, turning a lot of this back over to the government. that is anathema in america, but that is probably the solution. amy: have you pay off your debts? >> i'm very close to paying off the student loans i accumulated. i have about $1000 left in visible -- principal to pay off every of amy: we will continue this discussion and we will post it online. thanks for joining us. saul newton, dropped out of school because of rising debt, joined the army, and paid his student debt online from afghanistan. jim, we will link to your amazing piece. is titled article

"who got rich off the student debt crisis?" i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. thanks so much for joining us. democracy now! is looking for

[soothing instrumental music] ♪ [peaceful folk music] ♪

- we bought 40 acres in 1993 and decided it would be a great place to finally build a home and retire. - i am fifth generation. my great-great-grandfather homesteaded here. hup! let's go. let's go. the gate's that way. let's go. what are you waiting on, maya? hup! sara, go on. go on. - we have 300 head of elk that come down out of the high country. they're incredibly beautiful. - i'm a fourth-generation rancher. when i was little, dad would let me have two cows out of the herd so i could have my own herd.

- one of my favorite things is the redwing blackbirds. and then it's usually, "honey, honey, the redwing blackbirds are back," you know. this has been my favorite place i've ever lived in my life, i must say. - this, representatives, is on your watch. - people have called and complained to every regulatory-- - the house and senate considered legislation today directing president bush-- - today's witnesses represent oil companies that have made more than $36 billion in profits. - $120 a barrel. now is not the time for-- - there she is. [laughs] we call it our new neighbor. neighbor 907. - we are in a split estate situatioion where we own the surface and someone else owns the mineral rights. and what happens in colorado, and i think in most western states is, the mineral rights are dominant.

- the law on mineral extraction goes back hundreds of years atat saythe e miral owowr has a right to extctct thaminenera antoto a ctainin eent, can extract it animimpacthe s surce without compsasation - we have 70 acres here, and i can't coconvince them tt they need to drill somewhere besides 200 feet from our house. - the energy policy has been to drill, drill, drill, and drilsosomeore. - th'' a v verstrong inindury. the'veot a a tmendououamount of politic influen and awful l o of moy. - as a civil servant, i spoke out, but it's difficult to do so, because you feel constantly that you're risking your job

and urur famy's ture. - oh, yeah, it burns. - yeah, i'd say. - as i sat there and looked out my window into my backyard, all i ululd thk wawas, "t"the'no way i can st o outf thisis "i'sitting re with alofof theight rources. ese peop need he." this i ibeforenyny proems,s, before wliveved riflele and th everying change - [groans] - they're motivated by profits, and unfortunately, they're motivated by short-term profits. they don't take the long view. - a couple of times i said, "you come out here and live. you come out here and live in my house for a week."

i have no rights. [sniffles] - ththe rocky mountains are seeing an unprecedented boom in oil and gas drilling. montana, wyoming, colorado, new mexico, utah, ththe bo is hahaeningg all over t country. the is oilnd gas orations in 3states rht now, but the rocky mountain states are really seeing the vast majority of the expansion. and it's overflowing into communities where people are seeing this right in their backyards. - i'll show you where they wanted to put this location, one of the first places that they wanted to put it. - they just surprise you and say, "we have to put a well out there," and you don't have any say in it.

- a split estate situation is when somebody who owns the surface of their land does not own the resources that are underneath their land, for ample, oil and g or othth minerers. a prive e pers cououldwn a house with land, d the feral govement or ather prite individl might own the resources under it. the person who owns the oil and gas has rights to access that oil and gas, whh means at w whoer ownwnthe surface prabably c't ntrorol at happens on theirir own propepe. - all of a sudden, i'd just find new stakes out in the middle of my alfalfa field. i believe this stake represent their outer boundary of their pad. just guessing it would be about 200 feet from our house, which is awfwful close. - 'cause we say, "we don't want the smell," and they say, "well, i'd rather smell a gas well than livestock." and i said, "you're crazy." i said, "you can't get sick from smelling livestock." - you feel so helpless, you knowow.

- the split estate is a a concept that dates back to when the english king reserved his rights to gold and silver deposits, despite who owned the land. as america was homesteaded, the government continued the tradition of this kind of separate ownership. - don't believe for one minute that anything is off-limits. 150 feet away from your house, one e and a half timimes the lengthth of the derrick, so if it falls over, it won't hit your house. we see this look on people's faces. they get that look and they say, "well, wait a minute. "that can't be right. that's not fair; that can't be." but it is. that's the way it is. - this is an active drilling rig near a small house showing just how close the two can be and how large the pad is. during drilling, a site can cover several acres before it is reduced to a smaller pad for the producing well. for decades, the oil and gas industry has bbbbied crereat a regulatory climate

whh h has ved d thway for the current drilli b boom. back in 2000, after the bush-cheney election, there was a dramatic acceleration in drilling activity. both had received large contributions from oil and gas interests, and the vice-president had been the chief executive of halliburton, a major player in the drilling industry. in 2005, the administration's energy bill passed with support from members of both political parties. it provided the gas and oil industry with billions of dollars in subsidies, tax breaks, and research money. - 65% of the current subsidies go to gas and oil, and you have this imbalance. we ohtht to ve 6 65%r morere 80% ought toe e goin to alternativerewablbl, to energy efficiency. - the energy bill makes practical reforms to the oil and gas permitting process to encncourage new exploratio. after years of debate and division,

congress passed a good bill. - orlyn and i were married in 1988. i was a pharmaceutical chemist for many years. my husband is a civil engineer with a specialty in water, and he is retired. a few years ago, we ran into some real problems with the oil and gas industry, because they havave begun drilling here. encana oil and gas contacted us in the early sprining of 2004 with the proposal that they would put wells on our land, and the bulldozers showed up one day and began ripping and tearing before we had signed a surface use agreement. we were told that they didn't owe us anything.

we were just finished. i suppose you want to go too, huh? once they bonded on, they began putting a pipeline in across about five of our hay fields. they drilled four wells. these are the two condensate and produced water tanks. the natural gas is immediately piped into a pipeline that goes across our fields, and so it's sent off into the pipeline off to either chicago or los angeles. - garfield county, located high in the colorado rockies, was always a quiet, rural area for its residents t t in t 199990s things started to chan.. s s and l drdrilng began to boomm and development has expanded dramatically each year. - when i first came to colororao 27 yeaears ago, e e ener p produion was s r oil, anatat theime e th therereas the synthetic fuels rprporatn, and it wasllll abo oilil sle.

natural gas,hehey di'have pipenes for it, and so they were trying to figure out what to do with all the natural gas. they knew there was a a lot, bubut there was no u f for i at theheime. now, natalal gas is theheiggest thing tha's goinon in wesrn coloro. - righwhere we're snding, had a spill. you can just see over my head here. we've got the neighbor's wells, i don't know--three, four of them over there-- and that stack closest to us blew one day. it looked like old faithful had shot off over there. - the separator spewed paraffin out all over the pad and on over into a good number of acres of our pasture, and that paraffin was laced with btex chemicals, hydrocarbons of various kinds. - we were concerned that it would cocontaminate in the ditc, and the grasses were heavy and dry and what not, so we just burned the ditch and the hydrocarbons

along with it so we wouldn't get it in our ditch water. - i think they'll go straight over the hill, porque-- you u can e where eyey-- - he w we're g goi that t y! - we'll p ' southth of th. onceou get ototop ofhe h hil baja a v a adóndestátán las otras. my greatrarandfaer c cam this valley obobablybout 184 and the ute indiss had capted this ung g gi. whoa settle dn. my gatat-grafathther bought this girl and lar r marrieheher. e e was chititi, which ululd ma uss lf spanish d d halfativive ericanan i havevever 100,0 acres of ranan land on my permit.

when isesed toome e upere with my dad in the late '40s, early '50s, there wasn't a single-- not even one--oil and gas well. now there's-- i mean, you can't even count them, there's so many. - conocohihillip opereres about 10,000 wells hehere in the e basi which isn n incriblele mber o owells try andananageon dailylyas. and so, as a splple ample,e,ws d look at what o w wells shou bg if wspspend ve m mines per well, it takes aboutine e mont to g gthrough that pross. - evything bowow us wn h her isrmenta canyon. so if you get up on the big harris mesa benches,

those benches are just littered with wells, approximately 500 all total. and now with the new well spacings that they approved, they will go from about 500 to about 1,500 within the next 20 years. - we drill, it averages about 350 new wells per year. when you take the colorado side and include that, we think that conoco phillips has probably another 10,000 wells that we wi drill iththe ban overerhe next 40 years, say. - the sharply crcrease drililng gilbertrmenta's ranch is typical of what has happened to vast expanses of northern new mexico land. a satellite image shows the crisscrossing patterns of access roads and wells extending for hundreds of miles across san juan county and northwest new mexico. - the land surface has been scarred up so bad that i can't recognize it from the first time i saw it.

- the ranchlands of san juan county aren't the only areas inundated by drilling rigs. in the towns near gilbert armenta's land, there are wells everywhere, in neighborhoods and near schools. - the gas industry has been here for 50-plus years, and we do drill in populated areas. you cagogo outere e a uple hundred yards from ts s offi anfifind aroducingell.l. cococo phiips s ishe lararst producern the san juanasin. enen youook k athe totot between our workrcrce dictlyly anththen iirececy, ople w wking for us, it's about 8% of the lalal popatioion. we' a very large emoyoyer inhe basasinere. inindust hasas bught job and momoney to thehe county, but for gilbert armenta, the price has been much too high.

- this gate would be the gate to enter into my property. the oil company had me completely locked out for 2 1/2 years. the only way they would give me a key to enter my own property is if i agreed to keep the gate locked at all times. the industry has the mentality that it's all theirs and don't belong to nobody else. and that's at they llll us wh t they me o outo drililhere on our lands "it'ours. you're in ouway." - weust thin the goodeighbor ogram is something that was somewhat elementary. and it's just respect, because if you don't, two things will happen. first t the gernmenen ll regulate you, d d a loof t tim gulate y out of siness. and cocond inew mexi b becom an unfriendl busisine environment, and oianand gaindudustes go elslshere.

dodon't ththin the state wantthat. the oil and gaindustry doesn't want that. we have a very large emphasis with our 325 member companies about being a good neighbor, about talking to people, abt t dointhe thin thahat u would do in your neighrhrhood with your xtxt dooneighbhb. - when they were doing this pump jack, i wasn't home at the time, and anyway, they brought in this huge rig to put that machine on there. they had already agreed several years before to fence off the old cemetery. my great-grandfather is buried here and his son, filomeno armenta, who probably died about 1914. when i came down, i saw the porta-potty. the porta-potty was-- i said, "well, they kind of put the porta-potty a little bit too close." and there was a huge pile of gravel

right on top of the cemetery. the first thing when we saw it, we were in shock. the markers were sandstone, and one e of the markers was an old cedar post. and i haven't been able to locate the cedar post or what the heck they did with it. i don't knknow if they hauled it off as trash. theyey totally wiped outut the cemetery. at my own expense, i came in, and i put this pipe fence to make sure they don't do it again. when i put t this fence up, they sent me a letter telling me they were going to sue me. they wanted me to furnish prprof that it was ththere. they had reneged on protecting the cemetery as they promised, and now i don't know where none of the markers are.

- in the u.s., in the lower 48 onshore, the boom that is currently going is driven a lot by tecechnolog there haveeeeen a t of tececological advances thth horontatal illingng with fracture stimululation. - one of the key elements to finding and getting ththe resource out of very tight sand or hard rock

is a fraining press.s. "fraing" is stst a srt w wor for "fraracturg." - hydrlilic frturiring or "fracking" as it's commonly called, is a drilling technique first commercialized by halliburton in 1949. - it comes in with very high-powered water and sand, d d a slhtlyly spy mixtu, anall l itoes s is it goes down, and it just fractures little tiny fractures in the rock, and then the sanand goes intno those frfractures and allows the gas to escape. and then the gas flows into the pipe and up to the surface and to people's homes. - draulic acturing isarargelyespoponsle for the domestic drilling boom. because of its high cost, it was not widely used until recently, in the 1990s, when the price of natural gas shot up high enough to make it affordable. - and really what was not economical over the last 50 years or so is now economic,

and it should continue, particicular if f pres stayayhere they are. - th i is-- heherere theheeserve ps here. - drththeo cbornrn isne of f e world's leadinauauthoriess on endocri-d-disruingg emicals s the environment anand thr imimpa on huhuns. - down in rere, e e truc arere cocong all the way from delt which is0 0 mileto h her - she has beentutudyin the e emicalss used bththe instryry r drilling and extractio andodocumeing g thr effefes. - basically r r firslistst the c cmicals at were being us was this ver v very ortt and untereststg list th e epa p togogetr. it certainly wa''comprehensive, we kw.w. we f fou out v vy rapidly thatt t was smamallist. ey do't tellll youveryrythg that's a a proct.. u may y ly get 5% of what's inhahat pruct,t, anthe rest of itit is proprietary or they y st don't veve it. thth don't have to. iti's wawar, and it's sand, and it's s a suactatant in o oer words,

but it is also pprieieta, bebecauseverery ngle fracng company, etether 's a umumber or it's a bjervices ort's halliburn, they selthat thes is the bt produc and so 's opririety. it wou b be li divivging, you kn, whyour cholatete ibetter than somody els's cholate, because u u have ose ingrients.s. - oiand gas desits below ound contain toc compous th are bught to e surfac duringrillin ese compnds llute thenvironmt ancan cae health pblems. but thimpacts drillin e made eveworse byhe chemil produc thatare inj. dr. coorn has cument ov 200 products used in colorado drilling. over 90% contain chemicals with adverse health affects. - in each fracking incident,

they use approximately 1 million gallons of fluid. each well can be fracked as much as ten times. they're fracked at different depths as they co h higheand d hier toward the surface. ch of wh e bebeininjected undergrground are coming back up and sitting in these huge open pits, almost in people's backyards. - this is condensate produced water. it's the water that comes out of the bottom of the wells that they keep telling us it's only water and it's safe and it won't hurt you, and it's not water. i mean, look at ththe film it leaves on the plastic, the liners, after they pull it out. this one's been here for three years. and for two years, they misted off of it. they ran a sprinkler system over the top of it all the time. that's an attempt to evaporate the water. when they clean it up, they won't take this stuff, all of it out. they'll just take a track hoe and just start ripping it, put some of the soil in it,

they'll bringn n someoilblbond and mix in it and bury it rit t wherit''s settttg. - ere is n anyny pof t tha there'e's been anything harmfu in t f frackg flflui thatt are used to fracture t w wells - - you owow, r fluidsdsre not toxic. i know we get lolot of i think there's lolot ofisundedetanding of what is actlllly in theseluidids. - i haha fracking fluid ken righouout of frarackg trucuc in my office. i've had it in my mouth, i've tasted it, and'm st f fin - for peopleho are telling y thatat tse products are safe, first,sk them whathey y ha been n ained in. two, find t who'payingheir salar and third, actually hand them a real glassful of something at you he e take from a aevaporation pond and ask them to drink it. - i think it's just so important for people to understand that we live here and love it also. soso why would we mess in our nest?

[laus]s] - dee anhaharoldoffmfmeier live across the road from t b bell rm,, surrndnded ban er-incncasing number onanaturagas s wes. - we werinin bed acactuly, slslping, and we heard ts s pop,and d th . he said that the well was on fire, and my husband went to try to go outside, and it was too hot on the deck, so he couldn't. - the wind was-- - it was blowing right thawaway. - wards s r house. - anththen thfirere trus cacame buthey waid way do, becausthere wanothin th could d had to waifor mostf it to bn out and th foamed threst of it. - yeah. so i think ty y wereherere basicacay for our homes, you know, t they ught fir oromethihi, you kn,, e ofof o strucucres. - dudustri acciden anand ills are mmonon these c commuties.

betwee202003 a 200008, itits estimated atat the werere 435 spspls in colorado. nearly q quart of f the spills are lievevedo haveve contaminated either grod d or sfacece wer in the sta. - every timewewe heathisis. "it'fifine. 'fine. aiait ansee.e. let's wawa and seeee." and then se hohorrle thihi happens, you kno a a litt fararth down dry hollow road is t d dividcreeeek. - okay, here we .. - ththa's s ere lisa bracken anand hefamimilyive. - this ibaback whe it w w first d disvered. we got a a calone day, ril 1s1s from a neighbor, steve thompson, d he sd,d, "y knonow, foundndome stuff down heronon my plee "thadodoesn't t lo rightht i think yoshshouldomee lookokt it." and heaiaid, "'s not nonormal." - see all them bubbles in that water up there, bob? looks like little fish jumping?

- jesus, yes. - that's all gas coming up there. - on both his and our properties, there was the evidence of bubbling in the creek. we didn't know what it was. it looked like a pepsi can. there was just an eruption of bubbles fizzing all over the place, in the reeds and in the water. it's percolating all over this field. - there's just thousands. this field is just covered with them. - we've been here 18 years, and this is the first time i've seen anything like this. - and it's funny. it just started happening the day they started fracking. - we notified the epa, dow, the health department, and then we called and notified the state. and my dad ntnt dow black k cloud, he's of native american heritage, and decided, okay, they're not listening to us. he waded into the water, and when he did, a cauldron of bubbles just erupted all around him. - in an effort to convince authorities that the bubbling was not occurring naturally,

lisa and her family demonstrated that the gas would ignite. - oh, yeah, it burns. - yeah, i'd say. - keep your face out. - yeah, i am. - so he lit some of these vents on fire and demonstrated a flame a foot high, a sustainable flame, from some of the things that were coming up in the creek. - water samples taken from the groundwater in the divide creek seep area showed levels of the carcinogen benzene, 48 times government standards. gas was released into the creek for 55 days before the well believed to have caused the seep was resealed. - after they remediated the well, evidence of the seep largely disappeared. here, it wenawaway. and pepi's s plac on lgegggge's,s, it dimished siifificany, and d ere's still some evidee e of itherer but t 's the on ngngerinpresesen. - to thidaday, gacontinins to bubble up

t the sp'main e et point on pepi ngngegg's nd. - so what theyrere tryg toto d contain everything, the contamatation, righin a. buththere stitillenzenene toluene in tre, d d nobo knonowsow lonon it's going t take, or if ev, , real, eveverhing is g gng to be clearedp. - accoining to statatent provided by ththe enna c corrationon "nothinghahat enna d did s out t of compliance "with the regulations in place at that time. "extensive monitoring following the incident "indicates there was no contamination "of residential water sources as a result of the seep. "an air convection system is in place to remove benzene from the groundwater in the plume area." - they come in and they put into the creek a sparging unit, okay. now, what a sparging unit does, according to what encana says,

is it takes the water and it roils it up and it mists it, anthe benzene, which is th cancncerausingngngredient, it takeses theenzene ouof theheater, d d it ps into t airir. [laughs] problem solved. so the people downwind can breae it insteaofof theeoplple downwnream drinking it. they had los11115 miion n cuc feet of gas into the gunund. r runs wn t to e riveve d d downo whwhersilt picks up its drinkinwawater and where rifle picks its s drking w wer. ye, that's wherit goes. encana w ordered pay a fe of $37200. - it's a pretty spot and, like i sayere, th is s prtinene ld, basically, wod be foromebody- if sebody was to have little heaway. who do you tnknk i coulsellll ito?

sa "well, ah, it's ni, t there's a little bzene comingutut of e ground [laus]s] ye.. - ilills a grorounater contamination can occu anywherehere's illingng industryepepreseativives often try to downpy theienvironmental imctct. - the e has t bebeen e ie in the sta o of nemexico ere war was s ntaminated by o operatis ththat aually nt into a consumer'ss placof business or a home. we talk abt t ruing ththe ter. there hasn't been one drop of water delivered to a consumer for consumption in the 100,000 wells that we drilled in 90 years, ever been polluted or contaminated. - the fact that i've heard, and, bob, correct me if i'm wrong, is that the oil and gas industry has self-reported 900 instances ofof groundwater contamiminatn since ththe '90s. that's self-repororted. arare you saying that there has never been an instance

where oil exploration in new mexico has actually resulted in the contamination of our water supply? - that was delivered to the consumer? yes, that's what i'm saying. - but that wasasn't deliveretoto the consusumer, that is there underground, you're acknowledging that there has been contamination in those cases? - i'm not sure if there's been contamination. i'm acknowledging that there has been some cases of a concern at oil and gas that has gotten close to a water table or in a water table, but not in a water table that's delivered for consumption. - this i is "colorado matters" some coloradans who live near oil and gas wells say drilling is making them sick. - the recent spike in oil and gas drilling in colorado is havining a biimpact.. - but ere'lilittle informion out the effect of all thatrillllinon humum health. - - in 24, s somresidedes in garfield ununty began to complain that they were getting sick as a result of the drilling activities in their neighborhoods. a young woman from silt, laura amos,

was one of the earliest and loudest voices. - as everyone in this room probably knows, my groundwater has been contaminated with methane, williamsport gas. there's a lot of people in this room with contamination and pollution issues. so who then is responsible to me for that loss of my welfare if it's not you, the gas commission? - if a well is drilled next to your residence or near your residence within the legal setbacks and there's a perceived or real impact on your property value, we don't address that. - in 2001, gas wells were drilled using the fracking technique a mere 500 feet from the amos home. underground, the drilling breached their water well, causing their drinking water to fill with gray sediment and fizz like soda pop. the colorado oil and gas conservation commission tested the water well and found methane

but said it was safe. but they warned the amoses to keep a window open so the methane gas wouldn't build up and cause an explosion in their home. the amoses stopped drinking the water but continued to bathe in it. - a young woman called me from garfield county and said that she had developed a rare adrenal tumor, that s had hadhihis indent with her well. that was the beginning. i mean, when she called, it just sent chills up and down my spine. she had been breast-feeding her daughter through the period when ty y weresingng t waterer that they re told s safe. she was thing r baby in theater itheir ho. they were breathing this stuff that was coming into their house. - she later found out that a chemical that had been used in the 2001 fracking has been linked to adrenal gland tumors. when she went to encana, they denied using it on that well or any other.

months later, the oil and gas commission admitted that it had been used after all. - laura was told her water was safe, but we found out later, they neverer tesd itit f 2-be.. ey waiteuntil fo years aftethe incint to go backo see ifosossibl they c cld find me. that was long nene. okshe spe tothther pplee her neighborhoo she begato see if anydy else wahaving t kind of health proems shhad, d then oths begatelling abt peop they heard abou ani was ju amazed at t n numbe of peop that were iololved. and thouough "ththiss maybyb a serious prlem. wh is gog on ovethere?" - ter yes of mountg medil bills, delued propey, and minishing tions, laura aged to a metary selement wi encancorporatn, e company sponsibl for her oblems. the ttlement stiputed

e stop tling her ory publly, which ishy she wasot inteiewed for is film. many filies'tories ke hers wi never be ld becae of cpany setements thatequireilence. and as iat there a looked out window in my backrd, all l could think was, ''gettttininvolvedn thisis the's noay i n stay o of this and i'm sisittg here withth a of the ght rereurces. these ople need lp. - let's goverr ononhe trampoline. - s spitef ththe ll explosion and fire, dee homemeiste has s ayed in her house, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. - this kind h helpse. itivives m a ttle me steaeaness

until cacan gr somometng. you kn, , theyere e dog okayay as lg g as t rigigs d thatat weren't there and it was jtt ththe rking g ll, and you stl l got iffsfs ofofmells anthat, and i ju c coul't outsisi. it wa't inhehe hou. but then they brghght in e tempmpary rig, becausththey we ving p pblems with one oththe hos, i i tnk, and then the slllls alstarted againin beuse they were dogg ththe ackingng and itll blows righover h he. we had oneacack the bebehi us. we h t two othe e si heree that we all working, you know, flaring thth gas and i got mu m more l ter ththfire. atateveras t the just t rned and came rig a at me yoknknow, wasas le somemedy hajust dumped chemicals on me. finally, i coul't std d it anymor anmomondayy huhusbd tookoke tohehe emeencycy rm the hospital. and he sai " "wellwe''re goioi to do some bloodorork, and enen we'llll dsome x xays and cat scan and i idid, "y know,w,his is cmical.

esese archememics." said, "i don't t thinyou'u're ing to find anything." and heamame ba, heheaid, "all the tests arincoconcsive." and i said, knonow. my body full ofhemicals, and th''whwhy i'm m ck." - there is no waa physicnn n trtrultreatt what he's seng.. theyave not enen giv the e st of tsese checalsls at are being used. when seoeone mes totohem with-- some oththese ok l lik clinical, ordinary disdeders, they need d do a ttle q qstioning. because itouould vy wewelle that it is a chemical that ty y werexpososedo, anand ere mamabe a way to. but eyey ca't ve prprer treatment if they're n awawaref whatat . - cayoyou gedownwn? i veve 21 andkdkid d one great. - whoa! - oh. [laughing] yeah, ththey' been prty s sic

they'veve had coldsds, asthma - the girls veve allad ng infnftions, sinus fefectio. liam's asma''s reallyad. he's on four didierent memedicine - basilly we fnd th i if yowerere ttake all of the chemica atat aresedd in a aarticular state, alysys whe youou s the highest percentage ofofossible health effec,, itit's alalwa skin n ritation, eye riritaon, blbltering, nunuses,sthmhma,oughinin and then this fefect lled s sensitizing, itchy skin, burny skin. yoyou kn, itit's yoyo health, but it's evythihing it's hoyou u li. urur quaty o of fe is just gone. [laus] yeah. but i pepe i i d't ha to momo away.

dedee stl lilive on dryryollow roro. orortly ter r th intererew, dee's soand d dahter-i-ilaw anththeir ur c chiren moved t of the state. when they veved, thr r respatorory oblemsms disappeared. inin 200 thehe bh/chenen administratio's

environmental protection agency asserted that fracturing does not threaten drinking water. this was challenged by a 30-year epa environmental engineer, weston wilson, acting under protected whistle-blower status. - the former chairman and ceo of halliburton, dick cheney, within aew monthof comin intoto offe asas ve president, he wasressurin the admistrator epa, chriie todd-itman, exemphydraulic acking om the se drinkingater act regution. fromy own pot of vie as a thnician, i just thohtht it ry a alaing that epa technalally hahad scribebe how ticic the mataterls arere xic at the pointf f injeion,n,

and stl l comeut withth summary that ss s theyon''t needed to be reported or gulated. that led me, inin t fall l o'04, to object on technical grounds. then the inspector general of epa began an investigation of my complaints. and seraral mohs i intthat,, congssss toothe e rert om epa sayinghahat frkingng did nonopresent a risk, along wi oththernforormaon, and exemptedydydraul frackin fr regululion under e sa d drinkg wawateact. that leaves you and i as the american public in this position: we cannot know what the industry injects in ouranand. it is emempt fr beingngeported. - there are dederal la thatrotect our eironment like the can air a,, thclean n ter act, thsasafe dnkining ter acac anand iturnsns o that t e oil and gas induryry is emptpt fromom vy impopoant provisions.

me of the exememions date back for cades. it ha't been partisanhing. the haveeen offials from difrent pties at have suppord d exemions fofor thoil l angas ininstry. wh happens is, politicians omom stas s wher there's a lae energyndustry often suort meases that e benefici to the dustry. - down the colorado river about 9 miles to the west of silt is the town of rifle.

- [speaks indiininctly - thiss s whene lilived in g glenwoo this is fofore athining,any prp, before we ved in rlele. this is 19. we've been maied, ke, 10years. aughter] i'm 54, and shs . e's anged. she'changed so much. there's a traditional chris picture. here's a traditional steve picture. - in 1993, chris and steve mobaldi decided to leave california to move to colorado. - we both got laid off from our work cacause bototh lunteeeed to be laid off becauswewe wand to g g out of california, move to colorado where it was beautiful and clean air and clean water. - they found themselves in garfield county looking for a new home.

- there's chris. - hi! - hi! - in 1995, they bought their dream house, a fixer-upper in a rural neighborhohood outsidede rif. it was shortly after chris and steve moved in that drilling rigs began to appear on some of their neighbors' land and in the surrounding hills. - and then everything changed. chris would get in the shower, and heher skin turned brigight . i think k it was in '96.. and it hurt. her skin, it was burning, on fire. she would swell. - steve began to develop symptoms as wel - i'fefeel dzy.. i'd get bloody noses. - why would anyone think that something happening cocoupleileses dn the e ad could ssssiblye cacausg this h hlth change in the b body? u u see ood d dirders,s,

at is caed idiopath hemoraging. so you g bloody es, bloody nes, and also blood in the urine. d d a nuer o of ople who called me id they had thisondition - i was afra s she w gonnbleeeed death. s'd wakep in theorning, and she uld be covered inlood. r nose wld be bleeng ju like cry, and the llow s covered th blood the shee we covered wh bloo - wellround 50% of thehemicals cae e suchhingngs asidney y mage, cardvavascul problbls. and thenhehe nex and d very troubublesome are the neurological effects. - chris' health began to deteriorate rapidly. e began long her sig, d severe hdaches,

anhad pain in her han and fee there were two sururgeries to remove e a pituitary tumor, and she developed a rare neurological speech impairment. it bece e incrsingngly difficult for r r to sak c clely. -'vead s seval patatnts who have been viving sptomoms since the time th t they we e expos toil and gas exploration nearheirir hes. these are all l people in a small cluster around rifle. - last year, epa got several citizen's requests from garfield county, and the citizens were saying, "gosh, my drinking water might be contaminated "by this practice, "or the air we breathe might be affected. epa, can you look into it?" epa should have. mylf and another sff perso hadad ppared d e letters, and we were ready w write to the coloro o oiland gacocon

that we felt that th p practe caed emimint subanantialisisk to plic drinking water sourc and that epaasas gon ke over the investigatio however, as soons wewe gothatt to our politil appoinee susupervors,s, they canceeded ththatnvestitition. so epa did notnvnvestite the e gitimate complaints from citizens gararfid counun. - whenhey wererilling, could feeit grindg unrneath t groun you kno der our use. and th we'd el thesexplososns, and itouould ske d diss and rattle pictures, d it dried for the ngest ti. and the pit was even closer, and they'd burn it. they would just flare it off. the wind blew right to our house. - if you lived in a rural, residential area and you wewere in a low-lylying area,, yourououse w a low-lng arere thatouould aumululat ese gases when they me o off thtank b,

you may be breathing those for 12 hours a day. - those chemicals again, neurotoxicants. people complained when they stepped out of their automobiles or out of their homes that they got a whiff of some air, they collapsed. they shook. they seemed to have loss of memory, dizziness. - in 1997, as chris' symptoms were getting worse, a water well near the mobaldi's was blown out and contaminated by drilling. accocording to state records, on september 15, 1997, barrett resources lost well control while drilling the bernklau gas well. - then the gas companies came out and told everybody not to drink the water, and they actually started delivering water to us. then they came back and told us that, "your water's safe to drink." so we started drinking the water again. - when the exposure is through a water pathway, people aresusuallyivenen a alteteate drinking water suppl

you don't think of it, but there are a lot of sources of water vapor in the house: your dishwasher, every time you flush the toilet. and you breathe it in, anyoyou abrb i it rough . urur dosof e volalale organic compounds fr the shor waterwille seve you would have gotten from the drinking water. - after we started thinking, "hmm, something's not right," put a glass of water out and left it sit overnight, and there was, like, a little oil slick on top. and then-- [laughing] it burned. and this is the water that they said was safe to drink. - she had a high thirst, and it makes h expxpose que didiffent anan herusbaband's.s. not ly w washe at t e house a much larger actition of the time-- heouould goff f toork---

t t she d a a mu higheheuse t the wl wawate that w w further exposure for r. - in desperation, chris and steve moved to grand junction, colorado, abandoning their home and a place that had been their dream. - we just up and left, you know, the place, and it was valued at $440,000, and we just walked away from it. - and she reported that she was somewhat better, by no mes s good bu oh, perpsps 30% oror 4 improrod being aw from th h home. and if s would go back toetririevsome belgingss or go to vis n neighrs that they'd d had that t evious home, she wod d feelickk ananfairly qckly. - ththink mostst a of ouou neighbs s haveoved awa and all the people that occupy the houses now are all people that work for the wells.

crow no oil! no gas! oil! - y're not a aut compepeate people for full lulue ofosss of t tir propey. - and anodody this s om at thihis-- - the's growowinresiststce on the part ofeoeople whlilive ithe e pa of drilling. - they' l lyi to us! - i i obct to o y companan who ll come in and drive people ouout ofhe h hom that wbubuilt th oururwn hands anhohomethat w whave every right to expec to le e out oudadays i [cerers anapplplau] - i have tsasay th lilivi with h is development has fected o lives nearly ery way aginable with nother recose, someme ldownerss have b. my well s blown t july 18th of 2006. - last summer, while you folks probably had air conditioners going on,

i had to stay in my house with a respirator on. - well, i was offered a motel for myself, you know, and some food. it doesn''t help the situation. we all can't just move into a motel. there's a lot of us. - it's clear that those who do the mineral extraction know the risks of mineral extraction. they don't know the specific health effects, but they know that this is an activity which impacts both the environment and humanity. they've known it for many, many years. - it's unbelievable that someone says "toxic." i mean, the federal government-- the federal government and the state government will tell you, thatat stuff in the pit is not hazardous and n not toxi. - well, that's not true. - a lot of the chemicals used are proprietary. we don't know. isn't that the case? - no, what is in that pit? what is in that pit is s sand, wood chips, drill bits, water, and gel that came out of the hole.

- and not any of the fracking chemicals? - well, the fracking chemicals go in here. the fracking chemicals are in there and when the fracking-- - much of that waste isn't dredged right back up and put in the pits? - it's put in the pit, and it's not hazardous by definition of the federal or state government. - our goal is zero incidents and zero impac thehe eironmeme, anwe' not the, obviously. we do veve injies.s. we do have slls. but we t a and pventnt tm, ananwe do the best tt t we c.. - it's noany y mo dangerous thanalalkingcrososs e roadada. i i an, you know, it's not-- , , it's not y momoreangeroro. thisiss natural gas. we''re notalking oil or oil slls. 'naturagagas. nono, 's not any more dgegerous pppplaus - house llll 134may y bene of the most significant inings that waccomplied this leslative seion. it reoanized t coloradoil angas consvationommissio and b belie it t brgs a better balance to the coisission

so that i's t dodomited by a a one intnterest grououp. but we'rere gon be e reonsiblbl as w we mo fororwa. we're gna b be ndful ofofhe impacact as the number of drilling applications climb and as the number of impact complaints climb as well. [crowd mururmuring] [applause] he h how a youou dng? i'okokay. yes, i underand.d. - lf of the state c coloro moree sitsbove aas-beari zone, and so ts is an sue that wl bebe wh us

for r ny, many years to come, and ththdecisions that wmamake today are gog g to dinee hohothis will all transpire ovov the nex20 years. - am i too mhh onouou? ohoh, no i coululcarry you. - nowewe're f fin here comststairschriris. ststeps. [s[sobbi] - doouou neehelplp toto get your legs in, or c y you g thehem by yourself? - [waiai] - w.

- williams is going to have to respectfully decline to participate in your project. we struggled with this decision, but we feel like-- - i need to let you know that we transfer all video

and radio media contacts over to-- - well, i think at this point, no, i'm not interested, and at this particular point, i don't think there is a story. - we do wish you the best in your endeavors, and thank you for your consideration. [soothing instrumental music]] ♪ - ♪ seems like a good time ♪ to stand up ♪ for love in other forms

♪ we would do fine ♪ to be still ♪ in the quiet of our hearts ♪ we would do great ♪ to come together ♪ and listen for the smallest voice ♪ ♪ and welcome her home ♪ with us ♪ to safe haven ♪ ♪ we can be all this and more ♪ ♪ we can be what we have always dreamed of ♪ ♪ we can be all this and more ♪ ♪ we can be what we have always dreamed of ♪ ♪ yes, we can ♪