u.s. seems to be faced with a growing domestic drone industry but now numerous state lawmakers are pushing legislation to try to protect the privacy of their citizens we'll tell you what states are which states are saying no to drones next and occupy strike has done plenty of work at cancelling out the debt of the common man now they released a report on how our current health care system helps those who are sick but leaves them with a mountain of bills we'll tell you how medical debt has become a weapon against the masses. here's a bus that won't be rolling through your neighborhood this bus had a six thousand bullet holes in it it's a part of a demonstration here in the d.c. area so is this art or political speech. well it's wednesday april tenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how old you're watching r t. and starting this hour the eye in the sky is not welcome in illinois illinois is saying not so fast when it comes to drones

flying over their state state legislators are putting on the table legislation that aims at limiting drone surveilling their citizens as new light a shot on how privacy is compromised during drone activity turns out they're not the only state considering curtailing the use of drones over their skies. illinois among thirty other states saying no thank you to drones flying over montana california and oregon among others have submitted legislation designed to set up guidelines for drone use. now for more i'm joined by matthew feeney assistant editor reason twenty four seven matthew hello and i said what i would wake up to with us legislation what's going on but i think some of the illinois state legislature is rightly want to make sure that when drones are used by law enforcement but you know the privacy is secure certainly so do you think that this expectation of privacy that people have made in fact be a thing of the past here i certainly hope not i think you know american citizens

really should feel that if they have a right to privacy and that it should be protected by the legislature as unfortunately it looks like you know a lot of people in government and law enforcement seem a little too keen to disregard citizens privacy in light of new technology certainly so this bill would essentially require state agencies to obtain a search warrant before drones can collect any information do you have any thoughts on mt well i think that is reasonable you know americans have the right to be secure in their property and and their homes until they also expect of a crime in which case i think it's perfectly reasonable that a warrant should be so certainly so we're seeing a surgeon into an activity certainly in states or attempting to regulate domestic drone activity many of them are aimed at requiring that warrant in order to justify their use how does this benefit americans like why should we care we should care because we don't want a lot of drones buzzing around that are being used by the law enforcement with feeble and sometimes weak excuses i think is totally reasonable that as american

citizens we expect that there are good reasons for privacy to be violated and you know i think it is right but a lot of states have put forward this sort of legislation proposals that were put forward in rhode island required that drones not be weaponized and bad and that any new sort of model used by the law enforcement was approved by an elected body like the town or city council or the gulf and i think that's good stuff in the right direction so what are some of the excuses that we're seeing come out for their own use well i think some point. keep in mind out there are instances where drones could potentially be used so in the case of. catching criminals who on the run or off the natural disasters but the important thing to remember is that all these things can be made more excusable if there are laws that require the data returned data not be retained and i think that you know a lot of states are rightly arguing for that sort of measure certainly so we're seeing certainly a lot of campaigns come out against her in activity in states we just saw this in

virginia you know with with one town in particular if you if illinois is successful in getting this legislation passed and saying we don't want drones or we're going to limit or in a sense to restrict their activity how successful i mean are we going to see this across the border or is this just going to you know what what type of trickle in effect do you think this is going to hand i mean on the fortune teller conto tell you for certain but i think that we shouldn't be surprised if these sort of proposals become more and more common it's not just law enforcement we have to keep in mind the drones are probably going to become increasingly used for people as hobbies and part of professional things so people might start using them for hunting for example when you know farmers and other people working our culture might want to use them so we'll have to probably tackle this with if you use it as well i see so going back to privacy issues which are a main concern in the drone debate certainly the fourth amendment guarantees the right of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure you know talk to me about how these drones in effect are violating that fourth amendment right that we have that

expectation number one that the expectation of privacy number two that we have the right to be protected from this unreasonable searching which many of us are aware of. well i think it's sort of quite clear isn't it i think if you are you know not doing anything wrong that you should have the expectation that you are not going to be spied upon by law enforcement it's one thing so do you think that domestic drones in their present state are a violation of the fourth amendment. it depends where and when that being used i can't speak of every jurisdiction in the country and i'm not in pop you know any notice of the cases that you can possibly bring to life for us where where the where they have said where they have certainly been used in violating it reasonable search and seizure or and privacy cases i can't name a specific instance because i'm not. an expert in every single jurisdiction in the country but there are also only cases out there where the galaxy is being seriously

question certainly so you know we've seen the federal government use these drones and patrolling borders you know in mexico and canada we're placing essentially border agents on the ground we see now so use drones you know tracking storms and such do you can you offer us any alternative that the state could possibly be using other than these drones which have serious privacy concerns attached to them or you know kind of keeping the safety issue that we expect from the federal government in play without violating privacy are there or i guess my question is are there other alternatives where you could i suppose one way to do it would be put more boots on the ground on the borders to keep them secure but i don't think that's actually absolutely necessary you could use drones to patrol borders if there's very strong legal framework that makes sure that there isn't any data being retained or that weapons on being used so i think the way to address this is that we perhaps will inevitably have to be using this sort of technologies but only with the right legal framework in place certainly so can you give me an example of any legal framework

that's currently in play well a legal framework saw it difficult at the moment because it's a new technology and there are universal. frameworks in place at the moment of some . you know it's going to have to evolve over time certainly so do you anticipate a surge you mentioned earlier that people would start using drones for hunting do you anticipate a surge in drone activity yeah the f.a.a. predicts that there will be thousands of you know civilian and drones in the skies in the coming years and you know be used for many many different things and yet it is something that we should come to expect in matthew thank you so much for the information that was matthew feeney assistant editor reason twenty four seven well still ahead here on r t you all so many americans are still rattled looked at one group is working hard to cancel it out now occupy strike debt has released a new report on medical debt that hurts so many of us while insurance and pharmaceutical companies prosper a look at this report when we return. the

same story doesn't make good news no softball interviews no puff pieces some tough questions. let me let me i want to know we're going to let me ask you a point. here. is what we're having the debate we have our night show. with you this time it was about staying there figuring that the race would be and i didn't really talk about the me me let

. so is it life or debt well the state of things now private health care seems to benefit a few and leave out many those without the ability to pay their debts may find themselves at the end of catastrophic consequences at the heart of it medical debt is up for sale now a new strike to report share some info about who's making bank off the debts. in the report quote private health care and riches a few insurance companies private equity firms pharmaceutical companies debt collectors and global investors and at the expense of everyone else the medical debt is a weapon of a class war because when patients can't afford to pay medical care they are forced

into debt often with far ranging and catastrophic consequences the self-proclaimed organization that is a bailout by the people for the people is rolling jubilee and it raises money to wipe out people's medical debt who can't pay with me to discuss this. in my studio debt liberator and larson from strike that camp strike that campaign high there and high in my city here thank you so rolling jubilee is buying up medical debt and for giving it i understand even to the point of canceling out over a million eleven million dollars in debt can you explain to me what you guys are doing over there sure absolutely will rolling jubilee is a project of strike debt and what we do is we purchase debt for pennies on the dollar just like a debt collector would on the secondary market but instead of collecting on that debt we just erase it and say so you know we've covered this issue here on our team before and it's estimated that seventy million americans you know they find themselves in a situation of some form of medical data here or there what are their rights

concerning this debt. well all first thing to understand is that medical debt is a huge and growing problem it affects tens of millions of americans sixty two percent of personal bankruptcies are linked to medical debt so people going into bankruptcy people losing their homes people's lives are being destroyed by medical debt and this is a problem that is virtually unheard of in other countries around the world you know when the republicans in congress a few years ago were talking about death panels they weren't talking about are for profit health care industry but they actually should have been this is a this is a corrupt market based system that is really ruining people's lives and we don't we don't need to live like this we can pay for medical care for every one of them is a great point that you brought up but other countries you know this is unique to the united states can you tell me why that is. we have a profit based health care system it's as simple as that you know about

a third of all the costs that we spend on health care are for marketing and for public relations things like advertising i mean we just spend way we spend much much more than other countries do and we get less there are there's a lot of research out there that shows americans are sicker and they die younger than people in other wealthy countries around the world so really we're paying more and we're getting less it makes no sense when i see so how many people exactly have the strike dead campaign help so far well our recent medical debt purchased we bought a million dollar portfolio of medical debt all medical debt from the midwest kentucky and indiana and so that million dollars of debt cost us about twenty one thousand dollars so you can see that medical debt is sold very cheaply on the secondary market and so instead of collecting on that debt we just abolished it and it was the debt the medical debt for a little over a thousand people so those people will no longer have to pay that debt so what we're doing is really helping people number one but the second thing is

a really it's really a public education campaign we're trying to let people know that this debt is for sale that these these banks these lenders are profiting in human misery and sickness so it's about helping people but it's also about public education so just building off can you tell me about any particular cases of people that this movement may have helped specifically. we send out letters to all the debtors whose debt we abolish we send a certified letter letting them know what's happened and we invite them to contact us voluntarily we give them our information the letters for the thousand debtors whose debt we just abolish are going out this week so we haven't heard from any of those folks yet but we hope to are keeping our fingers crossed fingers crossed and when we hear from them you'll be the first to know and say so you know seventy million americans are dealing with this issue how do you pick and choose which people to help which people do not to help. right right medical debt all debt is sold in anonymous bundles so we don't know whose debt we're buying before we buy it which is another part of the industry and that's the secondary debt market is

trafficking in people so security numbers their addresses all your personal information is being bought and sold on the secondary market after we purchased the debt then we know who the debtors are and we can contact them and see so i want to talk to you briefly about the legal aspects of medical debt and if there are any laws in place to protect patients from that unavoidable mess that could happen to them you know if they're not able to pay these medical bills i.e. other than bankruptcy or anything the any type of laws on the books that protect these people you know we're really not optimistic there have been a few attempts to limit for example the the impact that medical debt can have on your credit score and things like that but what what what they're focusing on is paid medical debt so if you pay your debt then maybe there'll be a law that's passed to protect your credit score but many many millions of people can't afford to pay their medical debt so they really nobody is looking out for them there are there is no law currently in discussion in congress that would help

most medical debtors say so do you feel like this is mostly a states issue you know are we seeing this tackled at all do you find that to be the case that states are dealing with this individually. well i've certainly you see states like massachusetts you know massachusetts kind of pioneered the model of the mandated health insurance purchase that now the obamacare program is trying to nationalize but you know what's actually true if you look at the data is that in massachusetts the implementation of this program did not reduce the rates of medical debt or bankruptcies linked to medical debt so we really feel like expanding a market based system like is being attempted in places like massachusetts really isn't the solution some of the doctors and health care practitioners that we've been working with on this project from physicians for a national health program there really believe that a single payer system like they have in europe and other countries around the world where health care is nationalized is really the best at least the short term solution really to get everybody the coverage that they need so that people do not

go into debt because they get sick and it seems so you know a lot certainly that strike debt is dealing with do you have specific distract and have specific goals you know maybe. legislatively or even specific goals moving forward this year and how you can accomplish them if you have any. well i mean i think we're going to support our allies for example i mentioned ph d.'s working on and health care for the ninety nine percent occupy group that's working on passing legislation to get single payer but i think what straight out is also interested in is like for is furthering the conversation and trying to ask what are the options is a state run health system or a private run system are those the only two options are there other better ideas that we can come up with really we feel like this is a failure of imagination we need to be thinking collectively as a nation how do we want to fund health care how do we want to make sure that everybody can go to the doctor when they get sick what are the best options and we really want to help people who want to have a public education want to start a public education campaign but you also want to be able to spark imagination

a bill to think differently about this problem and see will certainly and a lot of valuable information there that was done from strike campaign thanks and thank thank you all also in new york the city is opening up its wallet and losing a legal battle with activist group occupy wall street but the charges that that's the city violated the act of a civil rights when it clear the groups and camp at zuccotti park back in two thousand and eleven. well the settlement orders the work to pay the group over two hundred thirty thousand dollars in damages and legal fees and that includes a forty seven thousand in physical damages including an area known as the people's library and this is a fifty five hundred book collection that was taken down and largely destroyed when law enforcement rated that park but the city initially denied destroying these books charging that it was in fact brookfield properties who owns the park however the court did not agree they stated defendants acknowledge and believe it's

unfortunate that during the course of clearing zuccotti park on november fifteenth twenty eleven books were damaged so as to render them unusable and additional books are unaccounted for now for their part members of the occupy movement were pleased with the outcome expressing more interest in the legal precedent set by the ruling then the money that was awarded itself the occupy wall street still has several other lawsuits pending against the city. and now the mayflower arkansas where the community is still trying to recover from the oil spill on march twenty ninth up to twenty one households were forced to evacuate their homes as exxon mobile mobile's pegasus pipeline burst spilling countless gallons of oil extracted from canada when we last reported on the story here at r.t. exxon mobil so the spill amounted to only a few thousand barrels however exxon mobil spokesperson kim jordan said that they have actually had to clean up nineteen thousand barrels of oil from little rock the little rock suburb now that was last week's estimate which was twelve thousand

barrels. exxon mobil and local authorities claim that the spill has not affected the town's drinking water and a state of the wildlife affected has been cleaned and they have plans of returning the various animals to the neighborhood but also state wildlife park ever these claims that been hard to verify as the access to the site has been live in it several journalists have reported being blocked out and even brought in with the rest when attempting to enter the spill site also the f.-f. that the f.a.a. has turned the sky above the affected site into restricted air space. now we're going to keep you posted on the story as it continues to develop well still ahead here on our art see a picture is worth a thousand words but how about six thousand bullets here in the d.c. area a bus riddled with bullets that's on display but is an art or a form of political speech that story next. a low potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in

a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston properly or today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more cattery down to the low and there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. d.c. it is going to be pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout much of it might still be slightly driving listening burgeon see here except. the same story good news. tom clancy thank you.

so say. let me let me are going to let me ask you a point. here on this network because we're having a debate we have our knives out. do you think you know this right off the bat and staying there again hearing this story we're being i don't want you to talk about the arraignment for me. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that many americans

call i don't know. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares enough about what you saw. you know what that is my son doesn't want to listen to feature isn't the only poll that kristen. stewart at least some of the snow the super committee of the structure is from what you and i should care about because they're 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. so.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard luck and is a big picture. well as lawmakers today take on gun control this issue has fired off a debate in this country over guns and one college campus not too far from the nation's capital a school bus riddled with bullets brought the gun control debate on campus still r t correspondent was wall has more. theory just what. both can do thousands of bullets were sprayed at this school bus decimating it

inside and out i saw this bus it looked like it was in the middle east like it was a pakistan school bus they got shot up and some sort of attack or something but this school bus did not come from a war zone it's a work of art or most artists use pencils or paint brushes but to make this piece the artists tools were guns and six thousand rounds of ammunition canadian artist victor made it created this piece entitled incident he finished it months before the mass school shooting in newtown connecticut jump started a new debate on gun control students at george mason university where the bus is being displayed took notice of the timing i thought it was a great timing after hearing everything that's on the news i was just like this is perfect i mean we think about maybe like yeah gun violence and war and how. people really aren't safe because look all that for some it's personal my mom is also a bus driver so when i was staring into the driver's seat i could see my mom but

for others it's offensive. reading upon its being art and maybe like a creative expression i then felt it was insensitive i think it's a little insensitive a little rude. why should people who have guns have to change the way they do live michael campbell is on george mason shooting team and takes pride in being national champs he believes the exhibit sends the wrong message stuff like this you know it's not good for us you know we're just trying to do a hobby and we have people there trying to shut us down he's among those on campus that don't see the piece as art but an eyesore you see it as a work of art you can symbolize something so i guess in that sense is work of art in terms of artistic skill being made needed to make it you know whether or not you consider this art as the gun control debate rages in the country the piece is stirring plenty of curiosity and controversy on this college campus in fairfax

virginia liz wahl r.t. . all dressed up and nowhere to go you might want to consider a get most party one of the most notoriously glamorous events in hollywood the coachella festival actually planning a guantanamo bay party theme yes the place where the u.s. sends enemy combatants deemed on trial in american courtrooms yes the same facility where a major hunger strike is currently underway by prisoners they ignored by mainstream media so here's an actual invite to this most foray and as you can see the mockery of the detention facility is in plain view the party plan to offer pleasurable torture and mostly naked models clad in machine guns and ammo now this scandalous invite didn't stand for too long a sponsors of the of it backed out and the organizer of the event magazine decided to change the name of the party so it could cellist still cool or just plain out of touch. i guess you be the judge. what's going to do it for now for more on these

stories we've covered go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america the latest and greatest information coming out from around the world check out our website at r.t. duck com slash usa our digital producers are always working hard to connect you with the news stories so check it out and don't forget to leave us your feedback you can also follow me on twitter at m underscore j underscore how will that will be back five. continental between story doesn't make it news. no. thank you. how.

about international and world in the very heart of moscow. they called him the face of business and government. he was a gambler so money came second heading the russian mafia inside the kremlin it was enough for boris just raises eyebrows to make gangsters appear. he was the great cardinal of russian politics he was a big time political adventurer some even called him a lot today rest putin the embodiment of evil in boris yeltsin's presidential court am i supposed to put on a grieving face and talk about people across the country mourning his demise on the

contrary the moderates that his death has attracted so much attention. but is better a landmark figure in russian business exemplified nine hundred ninety s. russia he made millions while his country stuffed he was the subject of several books and the basis for many crime movie villains and i picked bore out some qualities of people i knew personally or was influenced by by knowing them. it's quite difficult to create an entirely new persona you always come up with a character with some warped. reminding you of someone and yes it was part of that image that i've created but he certainly wasn't the only one i probably borrowed some of using biographical details and some of us personality traits there is also he wanted to be a living legend in his lifetime inverter.