well coming up on our t.v. with the case against bradley manning somewhat veiled in secrecy a question comes to mind what exactly makes someone a whistleblower and what really are the protections in place to help them fully explore the cases of those who wouldn't remain silent just to have. an a debate continues on the merits of forceful vaccinations know a recent court decision in oregon has decided that doctors have the right to make medical decisions for children without parents consent is this a case of protecting the child or wrongfully overstepping coronal rights. and in ohio if you can't pay those bills you may just get the book thrown at you people in the state are being in prison for not paying fines and tickets without even a hearing is this a possible violation of the constitution we'll take

a look at ohio's debtor prisons later on in the show. well it's wednesday may eighth five pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret held you're watching our t.v. . starting off this hour with the blowers earlier today the pretrial hearings continued in the case involving private bradley manning now manning stands accused of leaking more than seven hundred thousand classified files and diplomatic cables to transparency organization wiki leaks now since his arrest manning has spent more than a thousand days in military prison much of which has been spent in solitary confinement without a trial now today's pretrial hearing was closed to the public and to the media and unprecedented move made all in the name of national security now manning's treatment since his arrest in part has been called somewhat the war of

whistleblowers which is punished government workers who speak out against waste fraud and abuse now under the obama administration seven people so far have been prosecuted under this espionage act more than any other presidency in history combined so just what makes a whistleblower and what are the rights and provisions in place to protect those who come forward well artie's political commentator sam sacks brings us more today's so-called whistleblowers took center stage in the house government oversight committee three state department officials who oversight chairman darrell issa has deemed as whistleblowers are testifying on the events that happened in benghazi on september eleventh of last year there is a round up of various news outlets reporting on it today from c.b.s. news benghazi whistleblowers head to house committee from fox news republicans look to show cover ups as whistleblowers give benghazi testimony and from usa today

benghazi whistleblowers to testify state defends its actions so you get the picture at the hearing the chairman i said made it clear that he expects whistleblowers to be protected. these brave whistleblowers are in fact what makes this committee's work work. we are the committee that oversees and that lead for new whistleblower protection signed by this president the public has a right to hear their accounts and we more than any other committee in the congress must respect whistleblowers and work on a bipartisan basis always to protect them. well anyone who's been paying attention to what's going on the last four years and has seen the ruthless crackdown on whistleblowers by our government must think that what's going on here is rather odd the white house has gone after more whistleblowers and use the espionage act to do it than all other presidential administrations in history combined and how many of

those whistleblowers were given a platform and chairman chairman ice's government oversight committee how many were heralded in the media and given protection from retaliation and prosecution none. no such credit was given a whistleblower thomas drake who exposed a massive illegal surveillance program on american citizens run out of the n.s.a. after nine eleven he was charged under the espionage act and faced thirty five years in prison before he eventually was let go with a means to me misdemeanor chairman eissa didn't run to the defense of drake nor do you run to the defense of former cia agent john kiriakou who blew the whistle on torture within the agency for exposing this crime kiriakou was also charged under the espionage act he's now in prison serving thirty months and nothing for bradley manning either one of you exposed to the american people quote what happens and why it happens in our wars abroad he blew the whistle on this particularly disturbing video from baghdad where

a dozen people including two reuters journalists were killed by an american apache attack helicopter manning is facing another secret pretrial today and has been in detention for more than one thousand days the number of hearings held in chairman ice has oversight committee on manning's detention zero so what is going on here what's behind these stark differences in how whistleblowers are treated. well for one we have to question whether or not today's benghazi hearing witnesses are actually whistleblowers there's a difference between on one hand exposing crime in wrongdoing and on the other hand second guessing decisions that were made or questioning political motivations that seems to be what's happening here also these so-called whistleblowers hold information that could be politically embarrassing to the obama administration and in particularly embarrassing to former secretary of state hillary clinton who might run for president a few years unfortunately thomas drake john kiriakou and bradley manning they have information that embarrassed both republicans and democrats who have been complicit

in illegal surveillance and war crimes these men couldn't be exploited by one political party or the other that's why they are where they are now and not sitting in front of chairman ice's oversight committee instead so if you want to be a whistleblower if you want to expose moral wrongdoings in criminal activity well go for it unfortunately you just have to make sure there's a political agenda to hang your whistle on in washington same sex are to. well it's hard to see your child in pain but for many parents keeping up to date on back the nations is considered by some a necessary step to keeping their children healthy now all of that means a lot of shots and on average american children now receive twenty six vaccinations by the age of two that is unless parents exercise that decision to opt out the organelle leaves the country and the number of parents who can choose to exempt their kindergartners from school required vaccinations and for most of the us

parents don't have that right to make that decision for their children for religious or medical reasons last month the oregon state court of appeals ruled that the state would be better equipped to make medical decisions then the parrot's of eight marion county children the court ruled that the parents lost custody of their children a year prior due to unspecified reasons did not have the legal right to exempt their children from required immunizations for religious reasons now vaccine refusers are seen by some as threatening to public health but just what rights to parents have who may be opposed to vaccines due there are no risks when it comes to making medical decisions for their children and when should the state step in well to discuss this in depth i was doing earlier by dr sujata reddy from atlanta i started by asking her just what the line is for parents who decide on medical care for their children. well i think you know the parents obviously have the last say in virtually everything but when we look at vaccines that are known to save lives i

think here it's pretty much a no brainer that vaccines are helpful if you ever have met anyone or know someone in a third world country who saw someone die or get very ill from a preventable disease they will tell you how important and lucky we are to be able to get vaccines universally in the u.s. well that's certainly an excellent point what does the law have to say you know about parents who want to opt out is there is there any legal anything on the books while in some states there are some laws that allow parents to opt out but you will see we actually have seen in medicine trends of you know children dying of things like whooping cough or pertussis in states where parents have opted out and i can only imagine if you're the parents of that child how bad the mosquito if you if you not vaccinate your child and they can contract in cough and die from it how terrible that must feel but there are some states from parents can do that but what

we're starting to see is when you don't vaccinate you see you lack herd immunity and so we're going to start seeing children you know who even though they got vaccinate are going to be exposed to things and may get ill because these other children are vaccinated and that's very concerning do you think that parents just are informed on the benefits of vaccines or or are these parents who are refusing to immunize i mean do they have a legitimate fear that it can threaten their child's health. well i have to think that anyone that doesn't vaccine their child is is thinking they're doing the best thing for their child but i have to think that that's not based on fact you know there was some concern about side effects of vaccines and things like autism but all of that has been really disproven over and over and over again and you know medically there is no question that the benefit of vaccines you know outweigh the small risks ok talk to me about the public health concerns when it comes to parents who don't vaccinate. well it's congress and before that whole concept of herd

immunity and we've almost a radical a lot of childhood diseases in the u.s. because we have such a high penetration or a high percentage of people who get vaccinated and if you if you start losing that we're going to start seeing out breaks like we've seen in california preventable diseases so not that naming can become a big public health problem so it is a concern do you think that diseases that have have been eradicated they may make their way back into mainstream if this trend picks up any more than it already has without a doubt you know there's some parts of the world where you know terrorist groups are preventing vaccination because they feel it's the western influence and we're starting to see things like smallpox smallpox outbreaks so absolutely this could become a problem ok dr reddy talk to me about those parents who they have a fear that there is going to be an impact cognitively on their child perhaps a link to autism for vaccination what would you say to them you know if they if

they're coming to you with these concerns what options do they have parents to come to get those concerns and i think you have to have a good discussion with your health care provider whom i hope they would trust if you can't trust your physician you need to get a new physician but i think you have a discussion with them and you know all of us in medicine are pretty much going to say the benefits outweigh the risk and there really has been no proven link between vaccination and autism ok well can a doctor dr reddy can a doctor refused to treat a patient who opts out of bax amazing. we can say we are not going to treat someone are you going to limit their visits because if they're not if they're going to bring a disease to your office you're going to be worried about your other patients so if you have enough valid reason you actually can say you know i think this is not going to work for me i'll take care of you until you find another physician and we call it dismissing the patient but that is possible ok well dr reddy we have to leave it there thank you so much for speaking with me that was dr sujatha reddy

from atlanta thank you. well there's a new trend that's hitting small pharmacies across america with a significant punch the health insurance companies and big change rug stores are cutting special deals now what does this mean for the mom and pop pharmacy left out of the big drug click well r t is an associate brings us the story. of. pharmaceuticals in the u.s. a major moneymaker huge drug store chains are popping up on every street corner with multiple locations and list services when reed is right aid whichever the big ones not that i prefer them but it's just that they're the only option from new jersey so we go to c.v.s. . one in new york doing read but mostly c.v.s. competition for mom and pop shops and steeper than ever in places like the big apple where rent alone is sky high and neighborhood pharmacies are all but it

stands for the city overflowing the joint chains like this one the town drugstore symbolically was always at the center of american culture and american life it now has the big chains move in and only the prices tend to go up but they squeeze the little guys out the pharmacists however small pharmacies have more issues than just the increase of big box shops health insurance companies have been merging with drug stores taking away americans choice of where they can get their medicine if they fell at my location they would have to pass a fifty percent of the cost of their medication if they feel that c.v.s. they would only pay thirty percent of the cost of the medication sara fronto has had her shop in a small community and off the state new york for about six months offering personal attention and a more intimate approach she's built a good reputation with the locals fast right now. but the pharmacist says an increasing number of her patients have been learning they have no choice but to do

business elsewhere at a giant pharmacy across the street what they do is we just had one this week a woman came in who wanted to sell her prescriptions at our pharmacy she was sick of c.b.s. the long waits the lines the rude you know employees and we can't talk of prescriptions her insurance card bill that told her insurance found out she could not sell anywhere besides c.b.s. measured hosey and runs a pharmacy new jersey and is faced with the same obstacles he says he has lost a fifth of his patients because of these deals the big stores are able to make they negotiate their own contracts with insurance companies so they get they get paid more than what we do and then. they when they purchase their medications they purchase them at a lower rate than what we purchased them that. even though there have been pushes from small pharmacy lobbying groups to get in the way of the tricks used by big chains huge corporations simply have more money to lobby their interests even if

sued they paid a fine and move on meanwhile the small businesses fight on to stay afloat allow us to compete freely with each other as businesses and we go out of our way to give the best customer service and as friendly as we can this point the pleas an obvious economic benefits of money sitting in a community instead of corporate giants bank account that started a general end of the middle class story which sadly has been the macroeconomic story of the last really forty years here in the united states great think back to the angela friendly neighborhood shops that used to be what made the american dream possible could soon be a thing of the past and if this is your going to party new york. well some groups just aren't liking facebook right now and the company finds itself in hot water as several progressive groups are planning on boycotting facebook by yanking their paid advertisements for at least two weeks now the reason being a series of ads funded by a political lobbying group for facebook forward u.s.

backing to senators in part due to their support over the expanded drilling in alaska and the contentious keystone pipeline now one and celebrates republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina for criticizing the president's position on the keystone pipeline now the other and puts the spotlight on alaskan democrat mark value which highlighting his support for additional drilling in the arctic national wildlife reserve and the launch last month forward us has so far focused on immigration so what does this have to do with drilling will critics of these ads say that there are possible strategic move on behalf of immigration reform benefiting two senators that may face some political blowback if they vote yes on immigration now progressive groups just are finding it the host of these groups include move on dot org democracy for america progressives united crito action well they've all come together denouncing these ads we're going to keep you updated on this story as it progresses. well starting next week new york students personal

information including their race economic background disciplinary records personal and russ's even their social security numbers will all be stored in an online database created by a nonprofit organization called him blue now schools across the country are using the technology to help track students' academic progress and aggregate students and teachers data now the technology was hit at the latest south by southwest conference and it's largely funded with money from the bill and melinda gates foundation the parents and privacy advocates across the country have come up against the use of this technology out of the concern that students data could be at risk now louisiana state superintendent john white recently decided to withdraw the state's student data over privacy concerns now in bloom on the other hand says that its top priority is students' privacy protection and it remains in compliance

with those privacy laws so far to the in bloom website states and districts using in bloom retain ownership and control of their data and how the data is collected were tain and made available to the right users and applications. so should the parent be concerned or is this just another technological advance well joining me to discuss the issue with kate crocker director of the technology and liberty program with the a.c.l.u. of massachusetts hi there kate so i understand that you were involved in a case against this technology in massachusetts what went down well we're still involved actually a coalition of groups the a.c.l.u. of massachusetts the campaign for marshall for a child the massachusetts parent teacher association and citizens for public schools here in massachusetts are organizing to oppose what. you have just talked about which is that you know the state of massachusetts joining in with now six

other states used to be eight other states but two have now dropped out both georgia and louisiana have pulled out of this pilot program we're organizing to ask the massachusetts department of education to withdraw from this right now here in massachusetts only one school district in everett mass is signed up as a part of this pilot program but before we started raising this concern in the press and with the government the plan was to roll it out statewide ok so schools have always stored in use this information including the disciplinary record of students why is this a concern now i mean haven't we always done this. well the concern is that extremely private and. very confidential information about every single public school student in massachusetts and these other states and

potentially in the entire country of this pilot program is a success would be shared with private corporations and you know as it stands right now some limited student data is shared with private companies that run for example standardized test programs but those data are very minimal this program is based on the notion that all kinds of hundreds actually of different kinds of data points about students and teachers actually would be shared with a wide variety of private companies ranging from amazon to dell including many many others you can actually go to in bloom's website and see a list of all those corporations so the issue here really fundamentally comes down to parents not being given a choice about whether or not they want their student their child very private you know you listed some of these data points rates disciplinary records special

education status even things like whether a student is pregnant pregnant or a refugee status or immigration status you know there is very little reason why this information needs to be shared with companies like school lastic but that is in fact a part of this plan ok kate so you've essentially answered one of my questions i have for a year you know the schools are saying that they need this information for official business so to speak but is there that risk and they may be selling it as consumer data why do they want it well in fact you know it's not so much that the schools would be filling it right in fact the schools would ultimately pay for access to the do the educational products that are. and to be sold to them that have been developed and use student data that the department of education has given over to in bloom for free so essentially what's happening is that in bloom is going to be

making money it's a nonprofit organization but it will be paid for the licensing fees to manage this data and and essentially give it or maybe even sell it to private companies that will then charge the school districts for access to these learning tools so really you know there are a number of ways in which the school districts themselves can lose out not just the students and then you know another way is that in bloom has said that you know they protect the data that it's also cure and in fact if you read in bloom's privacy policy it explicitly states that they won't be held liable for any breaches of that information so you know the their plan is to store this information on a cloud service on amazon and some of those services are hacked or there's information abuse that one of the corporations in bloom has said that they're not going to be liable which ultimately means that school districts could end up bearing the brunt of lawsuits that result from any breaches of this information so and in many different ways not only just students but also potentially taxpayers

will you know could potentially lose out in a big way ok that's that's definitely interesting that emblem says that they will not be held liable hold. ok what rights taking this back to the rights that they average person has what rights do they have if you know in terms of protecting the information that's collected about them do they have the right to opt out of the system or in some cases are they even told that they're in the system. well you know the way the pilot program is stablished does not allow for parents to opt out you know ideally i think that if any system like this is to ever move forward whereby schools are sharing extremely private personal confidential information of students with private corporations sort of invest yourself this should be an opt in program ultimately because as we all know living in the world there you know

parents have varying degrees of involvement with their students' educations you know some students' parents don't read the materials that their schools send home with them every day and so even if there is an opportunity for parents to opt out students may lose out simply because they're k. i hate to cut you off we have to leave it there a lot of valuable information you certainly brought to the table now with kate crockford director of the technology for liberty program at the a.c.l.u. of massachusetts thank you now into ohio those county jails in the state are imprisoning people for not paying fines and tickets according to the a.c.l.u. now many of those behind bars simply can't afford those fines and they didn't receive hearings beforehand to determine if they're able to pay so the practice of jailing people for debts has been previously ruled as unconstitutional so now that the ohio state supreme court has got involved well this should be settled once and for all will artie's marie important she has more. a midwestern u.s.

state. internationally recognized for being the battleground we're on there because next president is decided let's talk about the importance of ohio and in the battle for ohio state's eighteen electoral votes mean so much elbows paid a lot of attention ohio ohio. you're probably going to decide the next president of united states for the past thirty six years no candidate has entered the white house without winning this swing state while ohio undoubtedly wields an enormous influence in the arena of u.s. presidential politics the state is currently garnering headlines for its prisons specifically the medieval type punishments being imposed on countless citizens who are drowning in debt according to a report released by the a.c.l.u. of ohio thousands of citizens are being locked behind bars because they are too poor to pay their debt and we saw some really troubling numbers one case that we

looked at out of mansfield ohio there was a gentleman and his crime against the community was he let his dog walk in his mobile home park without a leash he was fined thirty dollars and he ended up being found in contempt of court and was sent to jail for not paying for a thirty dollars fine fifty five year old jackdaw all he was incarcerated three times for failing to pay nine hundred dollars in fines every ninety days you had a jail date. and if you were working well you're going to jail debt prisons violate the u.s. and ohio constitutions according to the a.c.l.u. most of the defendants weren't given hearings before being jailed for outstanding fines if the court had taken any time to ask whether or not they could afford to pay that they would see that these were people who just simply cannot pay they were individuals who are homeless many have and were. for months if not years people who

are disabled people who are taking care of disabled family members these are people who are working and just don't feel like spending the money these are people who literally have no money people like dante stiles who is unemployed and says he often has to choose between feeding his two children or paying his fines. back and forth back and forth in court back before a concert here fifteen days here and while the cash strapped citizens are incarcerated in debtors prisons. there are fines keep growing like credit card interest it's described as a vicious circle it was seven hundred thirty thirty seven dollars ok at the eleven days when i went back to court at the core course and paranoid the public defended it went up actually two hundred dollars more than one point eight million ohioans reportedly live in poverty i want to get it behind me dolly lost his job last year

after missing work for a ten day sentence in debtors prison i had just started the job i was probably there not quite a month. i was expecting a paycheck so i'd gone in early to get a paycheck so i could go in and pay on lifeline my release i was terminated from my job dollie has received a fifty dollars credit for each of the sixteen days he was illegally in prison but most like styles have not and the state revered for predicting america's presidents has garnered a new reputation for how it punishes the poor. archie ohio. well you ever been sitting at a concert and really craved a cold beer who wants to leave a concert just to stand in a long line while thirsty beer drinkers we've got some news for you the abhi copy musical festival in south africa is planning on offering concert goers the option of are mostly ordering brews and the beer will be delivered thanks to a drone so how is this going to. work exactly will asking here bere equipped drones

would swoop down and deliver the gear be a parachute to the order and customer now these beer drones are hand guided for mail but will operate on a g.p.s. grid in the near future so it looks like drones can drop everything mail from beer to bombs very versatile piece of equipment there but will the service really fly you have to wonder if the right customer is going to get the beer that they just paid for and you want to open a beer that's just fallen from the sky one of the cup itself spills so many questions now that's just one this is not the first time somebody has thought that drone delivery would be beneficial at a concert last year a san francisco based research lab developed a burrito dropping drone but these bare drones find the group with concert grosser is a flop only time will tell but if it cuts down on waiting times in the beer line i'm all for it that's going to do it for nail for more of the stories we've covered go

to youtube dot com slash our team america c back at eight. you leave me with. a low and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle is this the beginning of the end before the end of the beginning because israel's massive attack near damascus days ago widened series raging civil war what are the chances of iran and hezbollah could be directly drawn into this conflict then there's the issue of chemical weapons should western support of assad's enemies be withdrawn if it is proven the rebels are using them against their own people.