well time for tonight's tool time award citizens united the group that helped dismantle campaign finance rules earlier this year with the help of the supreme court is back with a new cause the conservative group has decided to scare everybody over congress and obama's decision to repeal don't ask don't tell take a look at this new ad. can you believe that the draft is coming back because gays will be allowed to serve openly in the military now did you notice of the guy who handed the member of the

crowd listening to lady gaga on the draft notice had gloves on will be afraid it would catch hey here's a tip citizens united a you can't catch it and sorry guys but your little ad is too late because don't ask don't tell will become law tomorrow so maybe you should release the sat a few weeks ago when congress returns to leave that session to debate the issue now they seem to be insinuating here that ones don't ask don't tell is repealed thousands upon thousands of military personnel will flee the ranks and the u.s. will need a draft this ridiculous assertion flies right in the face of pentagon study filed earlier this year which finn found out that seventy percent of troops surveyed didn't think gays in the military would be an issue so citizens united why don't you stop scaring everyone the draft is not coming back because gays are allowed to serve openly in the military no stretch of logic could come to that conclusion and that is why citizens united is tonight's told time where. a new study from an environmental group is. showing some very nasty chemicals popping up in your

drinking water the environmental working group has released a study today showing that the chemical had several inch chromium a probable carcinogen shows up in the drinking water of more than thirty major cities that's the same chemical that was made famous in the movie erin brockovich. it's a real and very harmful so it kills people. these people don't dream about being rich they dream about being able to watch their kids swimming pool without worrying that they'll have to have a hysterectomy age of twenty. now hexavalent chromium is a commonly used industrial chemical and up until the ninety's it was a staple for most industrial development scientists have determined that runoff from industrial corporations have led to the chemical appearing in tap water and it's long been known to cause lung cancer when inhaled but tests where laboratory animals have consumed the chemical show serious concerns it's now been linked to leukemia stomach cancer and kidney damage amongst other things now since this

development is new there are no current restrictions on the chemical in drinking water but this is happening in thirty major cities across the u.s. the state of california is working for change last year the state took the first steps in limiting his surveillant chromium in water and they proposed a public health goal of point zero six parts per million so let's put that on perspective if the goal is point zero six but then in washington currently have about point one nine parts per million and the highest levels were found in norman oklahoma where the chemical is around twelve parts per billion that's two hundred times california's health goal and that is just scratching the surface of these findings so now that we've laid it all out for you a bit more concerned of course opposition is already crying foul over the environmental groups findings the american chemistry council says that california's goal is simply unrealistic and the e.p.a. is merely considering incorporating this study into its entirety. yearly assessment

sorry so you're saying that a carcinogen in public drinking water and thirty major cities isn't a real concern a toxic chemical or the laundry list of health risks isn't a real concern i think it's time to rethink that approach and work on making our drinking water clean again. washington d.c. to place that demonstrates both ends of the economic spectrum you've got politicians who work only half as much as the rest of the country and yet they make more money than most you have a lobbyist who make their living off of those politicians but you also have people who are working hard day and night in the exact same study but who are barely able to keep food on the table christine has the story. it is a tale of two cities although it's just one city. washington d.c. or lobbyist fat cats keep getting fatter working to get laws passed to fill their own pockets i think extending all of the current tax rates and making them foam and

it will reduce the uncertainty in america. that's on the menu today. macaroni and cheese care was a strange thing while homeless shelters like central union mission are busier than ever keith allen spends his days in the kitchen cooking food but spends much of the last few years looking for food often against tough competition rats will be looking for food. so you're struggling like this right be out there looking for food you look for food to throw first come first you know first or if it's a rough twenty seven me a powerful place. but it's not just those living on the street who are hungry as you'll see we'll have our boat show maya holloway works for the capital area food bank and says the recession has also changed the face of the hungry to many part time visitor many middle class was in a sea of never been through a full bank we've actually had former donor donate come to us for food assistance

she says only five percent of those who get assistance are homeless the other ninety five percent for whatever reason have had to make big cuts in their budgets and are often left with no food on the shelves here. we thought go to school work hard get your education you'll be able to live the american dream but people dumb that we have more work than that which i would feel can't afford food here's some food for thought while fourteen percent of the population relies on food stamps nationwide that number rises to twenty one and a half percent here in washington d.c. higher than any of the fifty states and followed closely by tennessee and mississippi personal many people this is the happiest time of the year parties are planned the presents are rounds and many people are spending to their heart's content that is after all the holiday season but here inside a place called the d.c. central kitchen which prepares meals for some of the city's poorest people they

don't even call it winter here it's called hypothermia season this is where they cook meals not just for the hungry to save people's lives oh there's no good when your stomach is empty and when you have. a simple way of putting what for so many is their only reality in a city divided by those whose influence shapes the world and those with no influence even over their own survival in washington christine freezone r t. according to meredith whitney a prominent market research analyst a new disaster is looming she's warn that as many as one hundred u.s. cities face default on their municipal bonds now issuing bonds have been a regular practice of state local governments when they want to spend more money than they're collecting in revenues but despite the recession state and local governments have continued irresponsible spending they're now borrowing to cover their basic operational expenses making bond debt soar from one point five to two

point eight trillion in the last ten years so are we about to see the next bubble burst we had discussed with me as anthony rand as a director of economic research for the reason foundation and the thanks so much for being here. this sounds kind of scary it to me and you were just saying that you wrote about this four months ago so this is really the next crisis there's a looming and that's coming it is it is a looming debt bomb is actually what stephen long city journal coined in the article long article this summer sort of look comprehensive looking at this is something that people have been actually seeing for a while but it is interesting to see somebody that is from wall street's sort of an analyst now putting sort of the fear out there because really there are there is real risk that we could have a city go under in the next year now whether or not it's one hundred cities as she predicts that may not be the case but this is a very real problem when you compare this to the housing bubble which are well what's what you have is you have the years in years and years of build up of toxic

debt and housing which blew up so now we have years and years and years of build up of debt with cities and there's and there's a couple reasons for it one of the big ones is that cities have been spending out of their model cities and states have been spending out of their minds for the past decade if you look at spending between two thousand and two and two thousand and seven it quadruples quadrupled in spending over those years and that was at the height of the bubble so you had all these states and cities and counties getting all these tax revenues because the economy was going gangbusters and the like we can spend on whatever we want we can issue because we'll be able to put this back and be great now the economy falls apart you're not bringing in your tax revenues and you've overspent on a bunch of projects that haven't worked so you have this combination of spending when times are good and not really paying attention to what it is and then also what people have been spending on that it's not been generating any revenue and you have all these cities and states looking at this massive debt this two point eight trillion dollars of debt how are we going to pay this back at the end of the i mean

who is it the really get screwed here because i know that states as a whole can't file for bankruptcy but local you know cities cadmus in reality as can so i mean is that what some investors are are hoping here that these cities just get bailed out by the government then they don't really have to worry about all of the states and and cities. and these have been bailed out for the past two years so the reason why we're dealing with this problem or time it's a problem now in two thousand and ten is because at the end of two thousand tennis because the stimulus package passed at the beginning of two thousand and nine included hundreds of billions of dollars for states to sort of carry over their budgets so they didn't have to make the cuts then and it also included build america bonds which were cheap for cities and counties and states to be beginning tomorrow government and this is what the federal government's been encouraging but what that has done is it's kept cities states and counties from actually making the cuts they needed and they have continued to issue all this bad debt so who does it hurt well if the city goes bankrupt that's it would be incredibly big news really it's only been one major example of that in the past forty or so years and that's

cleveland in the seventy's and that was bad then so that hurts that orange county what i will in terms of cities is clean when you go orange county is count absolutely. that that would be bad for the investors but it's going to be bad for the people in that city because that means that you don't you're going to be forced into making cuts sort of with these really broad strokes like greece is which is going to hurt the services that are delivered to those to those citizens now you can make big cuts now if you start now we're already seeing some of that you are seeing in cities like detroit you know we've seen in oakland and san jose there's starting to get off the fire department the police force is really laid off now and that's and that's really the way the way to go to about it is not be forced into it because you go bankrupt because now you can sort of think more critically about where those cuts need to be but they are going to be painful i mean google fire department budget cuts or police department budget cuts it's happening all over the country and it and it's really bad and it's really upsetting particularly in a city like detroit where i'm originally from to see it well my gosh we're having

to cut the police department but you can't necessarily be mad at the fact that there's cuts you need to be mad the people who've been managing these budgets so what happens if this about if this bubble really does burst if we have another crisis that we're going to need another i don't know a huge bailout the recession goodbye you know. how bad is this crisis going to make our current crisis well first i don't think that we're necessarily in a real recovery right now so you could definitely significantly hurt or push us into like a longer term recession what this could do if a lot of cities go bankrupt is hurt the banks citi group is massively exposed to a lot of this stuff but it would take a little arge number of cities going bankrupt to cripple one of the banks and so in if you a citi group which owns the most of the stuff they're partially owned by the treasury department treasury is going to step in there and bail out bill them out so i don't think that a massive debt and one hundred cities going bankrupt would spill over into the economy the same way the subprime would but we would feel the effects almost the same in that you're going to have all these services cut off you're going to have

wall street with credit tightening up and so anything that is starting to trickle out to small businesses that's going to tighten up so it could it could feel very some one thousand so lovely i just can't believe it. thank you so much for joining us are you coming up tonight. takes us to millinocket name it's a town that's been hard by china's overwhelming labor force by globalization of the superintendent of schools has found a way to flip it and now he has china to their advantage joins us with more after the break.

wealthy british style. is no time to. go. market why not. why don't what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars report on r g. as the year comes to a close merriam webster has announced the most a looked up word of the year and according to the company the word austerity has left most people a little confused thanks in part of the we're being thrown around a new stories especially stories talking about the e.u. and their debt crisis so in case you're one of those people who didn't know what

austerity means let us in light of new austerity means and forced or extreme economy which explains why the word was used nonstop when talking about the world's economic woes and the need to cut down and according to merriam webster the word was starting to become popular back in may when the greek government was working to fight it a massive debt crisis news outlets have now been using the word austerity constantly to describe how european countries are combat ing economic problems meanwhile most of the public doesn't even know what it means and that's not too difficult to understand why americans people are clueless about the word because they haven't experienced it while ireland england spain and greece all passed forms of austerity measures the u.s. couldn't even vote a plan out of the bipartisan debt commission so much for debt with dealing with our debt now just in case you're wondering two other words making merriam webster's list this year socialism i wonder why so many people are really curious about that one republican brainwashing that work that's why and although i do have to say that is somewhat comforting the people are at least looking for it up and another

frequently looked upward bigot i think we all know why everyone's curious about that one no explanation needed. well today we'll tell you about a millinocket maine that's an area that's been deeply affected by globalization china's large and cheap labor force leaving this small industrial town filled with the harsh realities of unemployment a one of the local schools has found a way to combat this issue by now looking to china for help despite the fact that they feel that country is to blame for their problems artie's preassure there has the story. millinocket maine once a booming mill town now. almost a ghost town. the paper mill once a symbol of pride and prosperity in the region now a reminder of a time that has come and gone and international trade is what basically took the people industry of the united states down it's not just here in the in the town of

millinocket it's worldwide the chinese there are more clever than we are. you know and we when we do a deal with them we usually. get the sour end of it. today millinocket is a small town of five thousand and the closest mall or movie theater is an hour's drive away many of the once bustling businesses in town now stand empty and abandoned it's been very depressing for a lot of people they've had their hopes and hopes that they would something would come along that would change everything but it hasn't. dr kind of smith is the superintendent of millinocket public schools after watching his town fall apart around him he decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. myths idea is to boost the school's population by charging chinese students twenty seven thousand dollars to attend his high school for one year they have some skills that we don't have that we'd love to instill in some of us to this desire to learn and get ahead

by getting good education it's a bold idea in a town where most few china as the reason they're mill went bankrupt but smith argues that the competition the might have hurt the town's past can also help to reshape its future but we can't possibly compete with the labor market. and if you know one point four billion people i think the competition is good for us and we have to learn jobs with economy work right now there are two hundred students that attend this high school even though it was built for eight hundred sixty percent of the students here qualify for a state run free lunch because their parents' income is at the poverty level school administrators say that bringing in students from china will not only save the school it will save the town and bring it back to the days when the mill was booming. but not everyone in this almost exclusively white

town is excited about the idea that their school might eventually have just. as many chinese kids as kids from maine some people will have an issue with that they're going to be like oh my gosh they're not from here make them go away most students in this high school have never traveled abroad what they know about china they say they've seen on t.v. i think the chinese are going to be total shock i think of a taxi way more advanced than us that ten times more money and like in a better society and then you look at us in real life poor and nothing and those struggling to survive in town are angry that the country they believe took their jobs from them is now the one they're looking to for help jimmy and linda martin have been living in millinocket mean most of their lives jimmy worked in the paper mill for almost forty years and saw the mill crumble before his eyes they're critical of people working here. no. not

normal with over thirty dollars you know. they're been you're pretty well with the couple doesn't have insurance and are barely able to make ends meet then these people. made but they come here from other countries we have nothing. we don't have no shorts. we have to struggle that a couple of them because they lost the mill. they have free housing free clothing free food free medical we have nothing misconceptions about immigrants burdening the system have divided the community on the planet but to smith millinocket has no choice but to join the globalized economy and the chinese might just be their way to get there we need to learn the things they do well and learn from things we do well to him it's all about looking forward not back preassure either our t. millinocket mean. a pretty joins me now in the studio with more on this story i

can't help but notice the irony here right i mean these people feel like they're in this destitute situation because all their jobs were shipped off to china and now they're asking chinese students to come to their school to help fuel their economy it's sad and ironic yes it's really interesting and what's happening in millinocket maine is the same story that's happening in so many towns across the country you know we talk all the time about where these manufacturing jobs going and these kind of very labor intensive jobs going and most of them are going abroad because the labor pool there is obviously willing to work for less money so what the superintendent the superintendent has decided to do is obviously a very progressive idea and many people in town aren't too happy about it because they still view china as the enemy and they view these kind of countries as the enemy because that's you know they saw their town sort of crumble before their own eyes are they just unhappy about how they've taken a real aggressive stance when have they had protests or anything and who are they just not in the position to do so not yet you know it's really interesting because

this plan kind of was unveiled until fairly recently so a lot of the residents in town don't have too much information about it and you know as you saw the story i got a chance to talk to some locals at a bar and i actually lived in maine for five years so i'm very kind of familiar with the culture up there and it's not a very diverse place most people don't have a passport they've never traveled abroad they don't have too much interaction with people. of other cultures so their perception of what immigrants are are people who are going to come in and shop the system and take things that belong to americans and they already saw their jobs get shipped overseas so the idea that now foreigners could perhaps come on to their turf and maybe take what little that's left there is really really scary to them i can't help but wonder when twenty seven thousand dollars a year for high school that is that is a lot of money and that's more than some colleges cost so i'm just wondering how good is this school here in millinocket maine why would anyone want to pay that much money to go to school there while one of the things about this school is that

you know as i kind of mentioned in the story it's only a quarter of its capacity so they have so much space and resources a lot of small and you know alone i have reported from india before i've been to china before both of these places that you know are kind of viewed as the enemy in some ways are also very cutthroat countries you know they have extremely big populations as the superintendent pointed out in the story they have a very strong work ethic and education as a very top priority so. coming up broad to the united states is seen as prestigious is seen as something that might be able to make them stand out on a college resume and a lot of students in china and india want to come over eventually and attend those ivy league schools here in the united states so this is seen as maybe an avenue to do that and make them stand out from all the other kids in china that they're competing against not to mention it could help them improve their english and kind of so they can navigate in the united states very quickly how many chinese students

already signed up for this one is the program start they're hoping to start next year they're going to start with about twenty five students but they're hoping to build it up to two hundred which would make the ratio of mainer kids to chinese kids one to one so would be a very interesting looking school for sure especially in one of the whitest states in america definitely it'll be interesting to see how all that develops is there any other state coming up with a similar. idea that you know not that i know of but dr smith did say that he's been receiving phone calls from superintendents across the country so will be interesting to see how this idea of progress isn't developed in the future do you have free i think so much well for we go it's time for our tweet of the day the new census figures are out today and texas is the big winner i mean the state gets four new congressional seats so we're wondering what would d.c. tweet about the new exit the new texans arriving in town and we thought they'd say great more rednecks trucks and cowboy hats are ruining our elite city that's unfortunate show thanks for tuning in to make sure you come back tomorrow we'll have an experience from the young turks on the show and we in time for you to

become a fan of the a lot of show on facebook and follow us on twitter and if you missed any of tonight's show or any other nights you can always catch it all the you tube dot com slash we want to show where we post the interview as well as the show in its entirety coming up next is the news of the latest headlines from the u.s. and around the world. into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition the language. fifty. feet could be. culture. the dems are still unaware of what's going on and there are still asking. like.

the great.

end of top start of action the u.s. senate wraps up today on the nuclear cuts treaty with russia tearing away for a final vote expected to take place as soon as this wednesday. a new spying round russia and the u.k. expel a diplomat each other's embassies over suspicions of espionage. and the sound of silence looks at how deaf people in russia strive to make their needs heard and their language officially recognized.

watching r t we're live from moscow welcome to the program the final vote on the nuclear arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington is expected in the u.s. senate on wednesday brings to an end months of debate on capitol hill where the deal faced strong opposition from republicans he's going to church again has more from washington. the chairman of the foreign relations committee john kerry said they would vote as early as in the afternoon on wednesday he also said he is sure the democrats have the sixty seven votes of approval needed to get the trade ratified. this would not have happened without bipartisanship and i'm very grateful to a number of senators i'll talk about the middle more tomorrow on the other side of the aisle who. decided the this was the moment to act for the national security interests of our country that this issue did not belong in our paul.