coming up on r.t. over the weekend thousands demonstrated in washington demanding action on climate change they hope president obama will take action while they were marching he was playing golf with oil executives so what does this mean for climate change policy. and animal rights groups say conditions inside slaughterhouses and farms here in the u.s. are horrible and insiders who spend time working on a farm joins us to share his story. and what a way south florida university of private prison corporation in football have in common ahead it involves money and naming rights we'll look into the connection coming up. it's a blend very february twentieth five pm here in washington d.c.

i'm liz wall and you're watching. begin today taking a look at why environmentalists are outraged over president obama's recent poll trip as tens of thousands of americans descended upon washington d.c. to protest the keystone x.l. pipeline we find out days later president obama was goal thing out of florida result with tiger woods and oil bigwigs among his golf buddies jim crane and milton carroll both prominent figures in the texas oil industry crane happens to own the exclusive golf club where they were playing he was also a big donor to the obama campaign and carroll is the chairman of the houston based center point energy both men are directors of western gas holdings one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world so what does this imply about america's energy future earlier i was joined by john wunderlich policy director of the sunlight foundation here in d.c. and chris williams an environmental activist in new york and i start off by asking if it was

a slap in the face to environmentalists to see the president playing golf with the oil tycoons. very much so it shows that he is full of fine words but it's very skimpy on actual action. when he was talking about his all of the above energy strategy during a state of the union. and boasting about how many more pipelines he's intending to lay out has laid during during his previous administration i think that is really his focus and his emphasis clearly because he spends his afternoons with his oil buddies rather than listening to fifty thousand people outside his house which is where i was on sunday so you think it's all actions speak louder than words i think you would agree with. john i want to ask you we already know that big business leaders have had more access to the president and government officials then you know the average american but does this face time and does it actually influence policy absolutely if you if you. have more time to represent your position and your

issue in front of people with more power than of course you're their decisions are going to reflect your priorities and at the same time as the president was golfing with executives over the weekend we were in the accountability community dealing with the announcement of his new cd for his new group that can receive large on limited campaign contributions and really grappling with what that means for the accountability of the decisions that the president's going to be making all right now you know in the u.s. are we pride ourselves on being a democracy every vote counts what is this essentially do to that notion well we wonder how much the merit of decisionmaking gets undermined when people can write a five hundred thousand dollars check to the president or work to the president's organization and that's the reason that we don't that we have limits and disclosure requirements for campaign finance and what the president has really done is built a new system outside the campaign finance laws to receive corporate unlimited

donations and we think that that's really threatening to the way that we make important decisions as a democracy. as a country like these environmental decisions. on the environmental front i want to ask you what is the environmental impact of drilling for natural gas. because we saw people are saying that this is historic that this is one of the biggest environmental protests that we've seen. in our history so can you talk more about what your concerns are are as a as an environmentalist the impact that this could have on the environment. well if they actually build this pipeline and bring hundred thousand. barrels of oil from toss a day to texas for refining as james hansen the director of the nasa goto the center said it's game over for climate so this would be an absolutely devastating

blow not just to indigenous rights and people in canada but the devastation of canadian. ecosystems but also burning all of the oil every single day will mean it's impossible to make any any real advancement with the question of climate change and doing something meaningful and it means you're building more and more infrastructure based on oil and gas burning for the future when we should be moving in a completely different direction i mean the twenty first century should be the century when we start really moving drastically away from fossil fuels towards alternative energy conservation and the obama administration is all about ramping up oil and gas production to virtually unprecedented levels and making the us compete with saudi arabia in terms of its output for oil fossil fuels now president obama he has talked about this transition to clean energy he has talked talked

about getting off of this dependence on fossil fuels do you think that there's a recent gulf extravaganza as proof that that's not going to happen. i think it's absolutely indicative of the fact that he's not serious when it comes to making a transition in the near term and i think if we're going to get anywhere the movement has to be independent of the democratic party because they are all allies and the people themselves have to do it we have to do it we have the people we need to be old and i used forty five americans think the government should do more about to address climate change and they're absolutely right we need to get organized and we need more protests is fantastically inspiring that there were fifty thousand people in the freezing cold so eager for more. i do want to bring up one more thing john hillery clay n. no longer the secretary of state but she is still making the news she. is reportedly going to make a lot of cash as

a speaker charging one hundred thousand dollars somewhere in that ballpark to speak so are what are the implications of this what does it say about the revolving door of money and influence in washington where we have to worry about officials that are leaving top positions in the way that they use their position to cash in whether it's to influence or just to sell the reputation and name that they have and then also officials to coming into government and i think with this situation we have both concerns whether hillary is going to be selling access to the decisions and people that she was in charge of as secretary of state and then also whether people that pay her hundred thousand dollars speaker fees are actually buying a better position for a potential future future political political career that hillary may have a lot more questions of very interesting gentlemen appreciate you both weighing in on this that was john wunderlich policy director at the sunlight foundation and chris williams and environmental activist. well by now you probably have heard

about the horsemeat scandal that made people throughout europe sick to their stomachs people were outraged after they found out that horsemeat was in their food when they thought it was all beef and it sparked a discussion about how much we really know about what we're eating and while horsemeat seems to be taboo what happens on farms here in the u.s. may make your stomach even more on easy disturbing images like the one the ones you see on your screens of animals being abused in infamy and working in dick conditions they've been brought to light by undercover journalists and whistleblowers but in some states it may be difficult or impossible to expose these conditions illinois is the latest state to pass these so-called or to introduce these so-called ag gag bills which outlaws making such images public for more on this someone who has been who has seen it all firsthand these atrocities that go on behind closed doors at some of the last farms cody carlson a former investigator for the humane society joined me earlier with his insight you

know go in and it's almost generous to refer to places like these as farms that are more of a factory or of industrial assembly line almost like a scene from the matrix. are confined in a pig farms in individual pens so small they can barely move chickens eglington ladies are confined in cages seven to ten small wire cage about the size of a microwave as the eye can see so these are industrial facilities where animals basically get no human interaction. as seen at the matrix a troubling portrait of a place for we get our food cody after seeing all of this firsthand how has it how has it affected you. well it's certainly changed my eating habits for sure i've been pretty strict vegan ever since being in these facilities and it's also made me consider this a very important issue that i think the public deserves to know about and why do

you think it's important for people to know about what happens behind closed doors what really happens on some of these farms. well i think that the public has to write a right to know how their food is being produced especially if it's being produced in a way that is unsanitary and safe or inhumane or illegal. and certainly the industry is going to very far lengths to keep people from knowing these conditions which i think just goes to show how important is that they do it and i also want to ask you who typically works at these places is it mostly immigrants. labor is sort of divided there's a lot of immigrants there largely undocumented there's also just. people in small rural communities where there's not a lot of options of other places to work so there's a pretty even ok i also want to ask you when it comes to these animals these instances of being abused or some of these atrocious conditions would you say that

this is the norm a lot of us farms or or is it rare how prevalent do you think this is. well sadly the everyday standard conditions at most these factory farms is egregiously inhumane on top of that you know the media often likes to focus on these rogue workers that will sit distinctly abuse their animals and that's certainly a major problem that goes on these facilities but i think the biggest problem here is that every day conditions it's animals being confined in tiny cages where they can never move being mutilated or castrated without anesthesia being overbred or that medically neglected that i think is the worst part of what's going on and that often gets overlooked in the sensational aspect of these abuse of workers now we had mentioned earlier this piece of legislation. one that kind of strict making these images public where people can be punished for going in taking these photos

and snapping these these images because it hurts business says. when you hear about some of these kinds of laws are being implemented to protect these farms well what are you thinking. honestly i think it's criminal you know these these. and i whistle blower bills are being disguised as our fraud bills but the real fraud that's going on here is is being perpetrated by these companies that are trying to deceive consumers into buying something other than what they think that they're buying i think most consumers knew about the conditions on these farms they won't want to thing to do with them. and so i think that this is a sort of last ditch attempt a desperate attempt by the industry to keep people from knowing the truth now i understand that you are now working on getting a lot agree how do you hope to take action and be a force for change. well i mean i certainly think that we need stronger enforcement of the laws that we do have for animals right now unfortunately most states now

have what are called common farming exemptions which means that any common farm practice is not illegal and that it happened in most states in the ninety's and now it's very difficult to get criminal prosecutions of these farms although we certainly get them a lot just last december in wyoming the workers at a hog farm that supplies to tyson that were charged with animal cruelty in august workers were convicted of felony animal cruelty had a butterball turkey facility but i think really at the same time we need to be pursuing stronger legislation several states have begun to set minimum standards for certain farm animals and these ag gag laws represent a strong pushback against that tread. that was quoted carlson former investigator for the humane society. well now to the booming private prison industry in the u.s. which has teamed up with a florida university campus up until recently florida atlantic university has been

scrambling to find a sponsor to buy the rights to naming their new seventy million dollar football stadium well they now have a taker boca raton based geo group a private prison company florida atlantic has accepted six million dollars by the private prison giant so in a matter of time this stadium will be called geo group stadium well earlier i spoke to michael brooks he is producer of the majority report and i asked him if you thought this was a strange partnership. yeah stuff only a strange kind of partnership i think what it shows us though is kind of disturbing convergence between. privatizing certain things like prisons like detention centers which. is a questionable area for the markets to be involved in aggressively and the really starving public investment for things like universities and education systems so

you're seeing a convergence of two pretty problematic things in this way that is you know kind of funny and kind of odd but it points to. problematic underlying patterns yeah i want to bring up some numbers michael when it comes to geo group this company that paid the six million dollars to get their name on the stadium this company own more than one hundred properties that's over seventy three thousand beds across the u.s. u.k. south africa and australia and they bought they brought in it one point seven billion dollars in revenue and two thousand and twelve so can you tell us more about this prison corporation and your group what kind of share do they have in the private prison industry. well they have a significant share in it and like you pointed out this is also a global corporation kind of following global best practices in this industry which is questionable you know

a questionable industry in of itself that has about i think just under three billion dollars in assets and the not only is that operate prisons it also operates detention centers for undocumented migrants and immigrants which i think is another area that's really problematic it's been fined and investigated for not only mistreatment of inmates but also mistreatment of its own employees so there's a lot of problems here and it is a very big player in this market meanwhile florida atlantic officials they say that they see nothing wrong with this in their sponsorship and they hailed your group as being a successful local business should they be more concerned about your group's name being on their stadium. well i mean we could answer that in two ways of course they should be would be the most obvious and direct answer i think what's happening

though is that the the school wasn't able to find another sponsor for the stadium. had a group came forward where i think is an alumni of the same university and now they're playing you know kind of classic p.r. strategy the best defense is a good office and that's what they're pushing and they're saying there's nothing wrong with this this is a great local business but again i think intrinsically and there's definitely a problem there because of all the things we've talked about now michel we don't have too much time but this proliferation of private prisons has been dubbed the prison industrial complex now that one of the big players in this so-called complex is becoming part of this great american pastime in the state of florida i mean is this a sign of how the present the private prison industry has become prominent and powerful part of the system. well it is a problem of the powerful part of politics and of you know election funding and

it's the it's a significant interest group i think what's different here is you're talking about like you say going into a kind of prime american pastime and we've mostly thought of that as you know. companies involved in this should be relatively innocuous or kind of broadly agreed upon even if they're not totally innocuous like maybe all these fast food companies that aren't so great for you but we don't think that there's anything kind of intrinsically problematic about them necessarily so but i think so i think that it's a big cultural stuff i don't know if it's a big departure from the type of special interest power they've had in the political process before but it's a pretty significant cultural step to have them kind of step out of the shadows like this now i just want to bring up one last point we've reported on private prison and this is booming industry before and how there is an incentive there too i mean it's a business to keep these places filled up right yeah oh absolutely and i think you

know i mean i remember that there was a local story about a judge in pennsylvania i think a couple years ago who took bribes from a private prison and was putting juveniles in jail for i mean. i believe some mistakes personally as a teenager but you know like drinking a beer that i should have drunk or something like that i would have gotten you know put in this detention center under this judge and you know it's a really example of it and i think you know more broadly every dollar we're not investing in things like education is a dollar that it's not going to something like the michael prize or a pleasure as always that was michael brooks he is the producer of the majority report thank you. and now to the developing story of the death of a three year old by the name mack shadow as the investigation continues questions have begun to surface regarding his treatment and possible abuse suffered by the boy at the hands of his adoptive parents artie's on

a saucer churkin is on the ground in texas with the latest. twenty russian children in the last seventeen years died in their adoptive american families most recently here in texas much known to locals as max shadow just what i heard on the news. just the kid had some scratches. that's all i know three year old mark sam and his younger brother keel lived in this house with their adoptive parents in a rather secluded neighborhood it was from here that on the afternoon of january twenty first the boy was taken away by an ambulance never to come back the boy had severe bruises on his legs head and internal organs can get into that because it would be speculative. that's what waiting for the results to come back russian authorities didn't hear about the case for almost a month. even unfortunately it's usually months after a russian child who's dying to know us that the american side informs us about it in one case it was five years after

a boy died motion officials say it was the boy's mother who beat him as well as continually fed the child drugs intended to treat schizophrenia and adults meanwhile at the u.s. state department we obviously take very seriously the welfare of children particularly children who've been adopted from other countries according to moscow little corp has been shown until it was demanded. with two dozen deaths caused by abuse and even manslaughter russia in a move often criticized recently imposed a ban on american adoption of its kids i have always believed that russia should stop these adoptions and i hope that they maintain this ban and don't yield to pressure weeks after my death tax and officials have little to say while they wait for autopsy results the results of the investigation with russia heavily involved and asking for punishment of those responsible could take weeks to be announced no

arrests have yet been made while the investigation of flow paced on the alleged information on the little boy's life and death extremely scarce one of the questions that demand an answer is why should it take a rigid push from abroad for the us to pay attention to yet another tragic destiny of a hopeless child to whom it promised a better life on its soil with r.t. after county texas. well here's some food for thought we have heard the many reasons why obesity is bad for your help but it turns out it could also be bad for the economy american obesity rates are at unprecedented levels and getting worse experts estimate that forty two percent of americans will be considered obese by twenty thirty and the long term costs of this issue could affect the financial future of the u.s. our to correspondent megan lopez takes a look at the weights of the nation. obesity is one of the most prevalent and important health problems in america if you are what you eat there are far more

people now who are classified in the obesity range than there are who are classified in the normal weight range than the average american is a greasy two pound cheeseburger topped with bacon insert with the side of french fries obesity is associated with more than sixty different diseases including diabetes and heart disease and numerous others however this phenomenon is bloating more than our waistlines it's also weighing down our economy so let's take a look at the numbers according to the center for disease control the u.s. spend some one hundred forty seven billion dollars each year on obesity related medical expenses like type two diabetes and heart attacks obese men rack up an extra one thousand one hundred dollars in medical expenses each year meanwhile obese women account for thirty six hundred dollars in medical expenses per year and that number is expected to swell over the next decade but it's not just the health care system that's affected given the average change and we among people states

that actually leads to a change in the way which airplanes fly that requires more fuel and you can actually calculate that out fuel is one of the growing costs for airline industries and heavier passengers contribute to that so with obesity can affect something like ticket prices what else can it affect obese men take six more sick days if you're in the workplace and obese women take nine additional days and it turns out that being present at work can be just as detrimental it can also lead to more present to you which is a concept that economists have been measuring for the past decade or so it's that idea that you can be in the workplace which are not fully productive on a given day the average estimated cost of lost productivity due to obesity communally seventeen thousand dollars per employee per year all of the money spent on obese americans has to end up somewhere. the food industry benefits but it certainly isn't alone certainly there are people who have had to develop new sizes

of furniture and there's an industry there people who have developed new size for a whole variety of things also running big bucks farms because government subsidies often go to farms that provide the grains and used in junk food it might be a national benefit to reduce some of the subsidies that exist and to let farmers who produce any type of product basically play on a level playing field and let the market decide which food should be emphasized or not emphasize based on consumer demands and the cost of production meaning that of junk food wasn't as cheap people would likely choose healthier options perhaps the only problem that's bigger than the obesity epidemic in the u.s. is trying to find a solution that doesn't infringe on americans rights to pick what's on their plate it's a delicate balance but the fact is that the financial stability of this country could come down to the tip of the scale in washington meghan lopez r.t. . fundamentalist family famously go to great heights great lengths for

a good story but this next one went to great heights and to another level of consciousness and his journey into the stratosphere australian weatherman graeme den your bring his viewers the weather while his live viewers got more than that they saw an interesting drawback to quickly changing altitude stake a look. well dan you're certainly got a look at the weather from his view but he couldn't stay awake to share it with the crowd on the ground zero is a brain it wasn't too cloudy once he returned to earth and o'hara kind of leave it off there but for on the story as a cover checker you too can all youtube dot com slash artsy america and check out our website artsy. and follow me on twitter outlaws while.

the same story doesn't make it news new song no puff pieces some new tough questions if you. potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit starting in a few hours from new york to maybe we have team coverage of the storm. but we're watching news the fury of heavy snow moving into boston properly or today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more. and there's still a lot of snow in place for snow. d.c. it is going to be pretty incredible day there and record snowfall throughout much of it might. be submerged.

say. let me let me i want to know we're going to let me ask you a point. here on this network because we're having a debate we have our knives out if. we disagree with you if i were just a bad thing never get married if the way things were being i don't agree to talk about theory when me.

here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a dollar. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot of money he's sorry. you know what that is my son but no one he wishes to feature a sufi on the lip of the christhood. secure to listen to the. you know the superheated distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're a profit driven industry that sells a sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm not me martin and we're going to break that.