for the. coming up on r t u.s. attorney general eric holder played a larger role in media investigations that he first let on now house republicans are calling for his resignation as holder tries to mend time with journalists the latest developments ahead. calling a truce the two largest gangs in on duras apologize for the violence that they've caused are these just words or will we see a reduction of crime in the murder capital of the world that story coming your way . wal-mart has pled guilty to years of dumping hazardous waste in california is this just the cost of doing business or will the corporation change its ways to look at the issue later in tonight's show.

it's wednesday may twenty ninth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm megan lopez and you are watching our t.v. we begin this hour with a critical look at the freedom of the press in the u.s. just this week we discovered that attorney general eric holder not only knew about a probe of a fox news reporter but that he's the one that signed off on it the justice department subpoena telephone an e-mail records from fox news reporter james rosen over unauthorized leaks regarding north korea but during a capitol hill hearing on the matter two weeks ago holder mentions of nothing of the sort now top republicans are calling for his resignation meanwhile president obama has renewed his first term commitment to create a media shield law it would hold journalist protect the identities of their sources but the obama administration has arguably spent years weakening media rights or to correspondent liz wahl takes a look at what this law really means for reporter rights. scrutiny over government snooping on the media like never before to take it this far really is unprecedented

first the justice department came under fire for secretly tracking phone calls of associated press reporters now it appears a department has taken their media monitoring a step further tracking in obtaining e-mails of fox news reporter james rosen they didn't just want to see who he was calling but they wanted to read all the e-mail and to do that more easily they decided to treat him like a coconspirator someone who is engaged in the conspiracy to violate the espionage statute greg leslie represents the reporters committee for freedom of the press with the backing of dozens of journalists the organization sent a letter to the justice department demanding answers and expressing quote displeasure with how this incident was handled and demand that any similar actions in the future be handled with greater consideration of the news media's first amendment rights and it's not just the media that wants answers now members of congress are questioning remarks attorney general eric holder made where he denies

having any knowledge of prosecuting journalists with regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material that is not something that . i've ever been involved in heard of or would think would be a wise policy it turns out holder personally signed off on a search warrant that labels fox's rosen as a coconspirator in a national security leak now some lawmakers say the new revelations contradict what he said before congress under oath in a letter to holder congressman james sensenbrenner says quote the media reports and statements issued by the department regarding the search warrants for mr rosen's e-mail appear to be at odds with the earth testimony before the committee and today holder announced he will meet with some washington bureau chiefs to talk about the d.o.j. as guidelines. regarding the media ironically the meeting will be off the record amid the scandals there's renewed interest in an acting media shield laws these are

laws designed to protect the press congress tends to focus on an emergency in front of it or something that's really politically and politically sensitive so they haven't been willing to focus on a shield law lately now that two incidents like this occurred it really does force them to focus on it the obama administration has voiced support for passing media shield laws to the extent this case has prompted renewed interest about how do we strike that balance properly and i think. now is the time for us to go ahead and revisit the legislation but even media shield laws have exceptions when it comes to national security investigations and the justice department maintains that both cases raise questions of national security this leaves critics doubtful that such laws would have protected reporters or their sources in either of these cases and washington liz wahl they are saying. well have you heard the news there have been

a lot of rumors circling around arts here america as of late so it's time to set the record straight take a look at these headlines larry king to host a new political talk to the show and others about the new addition to our t.v. that's right folks artie is proud to announce that starting in june award winning journalist larry king will join our political team here's a sneak peek at what viewers can expect. i would read that as a place that people. instead of speak on their behalf and that's why you can't play like bill larry king no right here on our t.v. . more.

as an extension to his show larry king now in a place on or a t.v. mr king is creating a new or original show exclusively for our team america called politics with larry king both shows will be recorded in our studios either in washington d.c. or in los angeles and they will be broadcast in our to america they will be aired during our evening prime time mr king's journalism career has spanned fifty six years he's conducted more than fifty thousand interviews and he's ready for more but don't expect the show to be like anything that you've ever seen in the past larry king will profit journalistic boundaries to bring the political news that you need to know we are very excited to have this new addition to the team so let me be the first to say larry welcome. on now to on the air is where local residents might be seeing light at the end of the tunnel for years the country has been known

as the murder capital of the world but this week the country's two rival gangs issued separate statements calling for a truce representatives from the. maurice all of a gang spoke within the. prison we're now seeing their violent ways i was joined earlier by adrian pyne assistant professor at american university and author of working hard drinking hard she fills us in on the latest information pertaining to gang violence and the truce and what it would mean for the country. well it remains to be seen what the truth will mean for the country because it's really the government's response that will that will that will determine that the truce between the two gangs is certainly important but above and beyond the gangs violence aimed at each other the real determinant of violence on a broad scale has been state violence against gang members and many other sectors of the population that have been identified as resistant to the say one way or the

other so there's been resists violence against teachers teachers unions there's been violence against campus ina peasants indigenous peoples all of whom have been in one way or another struggling against the violent policies of the state and there are also been state sponsored death squads that have been really targeting gang members and so what the gang members are asking the state to do they're coming together is the two different major gangs in the country and they're saying that the state needs to provide training so that they can get gainful employment in honduras and that of course requires there for there to be jobs available but it's also asking the state to end its desk what activities and to stop targeting and harassing gang members for for for death and for other forms of violence and we know that president honduran president profanity a local actually came out and supported this this truce bill let's talk about how

realistic this truce really is i mean the people who are making these choices the ones that are coming out and saying it's going to be there are the ones that are in prison not the ones that are out on the street right now so how likely is it that the ones that are outside on the street still want conducting their gang activity will listen and hear to the things that the spokespeople represented as within the present system are saying there's a lot of fluidity between this the street as we might call it and and the prisons in honduras there's daily hourly. communication between gang members who are out there on the streets and gang members inside prisons and a lot of the you know the gang hierarchy if you can call it that is within prisons and so certainly you know this is the way it was negotiated in the salvador and it's been very successful but of course hundreds and el salvador are different contexts and that needs to be kept in mind and there's also they're also dealing with very different governments a government that is on the left somewhat on the left in el salvador and that has

you know a revolutionary history and a base where is there's a very right wing government that was put into power by a military coup that was supported by the u.s. government in honduras and so the way that the government's response will also impact whether or not these truce is carried out within prisons will be able to be effective in neighborhoods around the country and speaking of el salvador let's take a look at some of the numbers that compare the three different major countries in latin america this is a look at how many there has actually been in terms of murder rates and under arrest el salvador and guatemala and you can see on the el salvador took a major dip after two thousand and eleven that is when the gangs call that truce although it's very murky to say that that that is the exact cause of that or that those numbers are accurate official say that they are but the u.n. tends to disagree now if we can reveal to the next slide i'll show you something else this is the number of murders in the murder capital of the world that being on

the arrest eighty five to ninety one killings for one hundred thousand people twenty people dying violently every single day in that country and found pedro sula that's one hundred sixty nine people per one hundred thousand people so the crime rate in that city in particular are very high so adrian does al salvator offer a ray of hope you were just speaking about it but does it offer a ray of hope that the hondurans need in this case absolutely you know i think hundreds can take any hope that they can get. one of the important things to note on that chart that you saw just showed was that the increase the. steepest increase in killings in the death rate homicide rate in honduras happened after the us supported military coup in that it was carried out on june twenty eighth two thousand and nine and and a large number of those killings have to do with the state of impunity that exists for the very members of the military in the police force who are acting as death

squad leaders and that's what operatives in honduras and so you know the violence is goes much beyond gangs in honduras and has to do with the total usurpation of democracy whereas in el salvador it's a different story so it certainly is a ray of hope and it's definitely a good sign that gang members are taking this responsibility but also that they are taking political action and calling on the government to stop being violent against its own citizens because that will be good for everyone in honduras now as a german pine assistant professor at american university and author of working hard drinking hard. well last week during his highly anticipated foreign policy speech president obama laid out his strategy for dealing with national security issues well as abroad as well as right here in the u.s. part of that hour long speech dealt with a two thousand and one law known as the authorization for use of military force the

president defended this law as it is currently being used for drone strikes but president obama made it clear that his ultimate goal is to update the law and then to repeal it all together and fight terrorism without keeping the country on a quote perpetual perpetual wartime footing are to correspondent mara how will take a look at that a u m f in its current form and how it has revolutionized the way the u.s. fights wars. the authorization of the use of military force to act or the a mass for short has come into the limelight recently signed by then president george w. bush or only after nine eleven this joint resolution grants the executive broad powers for preventing future terrorist attacks saying quote that the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations organizations or persons he to determines planned authorized committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on september eleventh two thousand and one or

harbored such organizations or persons in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the united states by such nations organizations organizations or persons well twelve years later president obama announced that his intention is to readdress the a you a math in congress last week unless we discipline our thinking our definitions our actions we may be drawn into more wars we don't need to fight. or continue to grant president's powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states so i look forward to engaging congress and the american people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal they mandate. i will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. so what exactly does the a u m f make possible anyway well here are a few things that might not surprise you number one the bush administration used the a u a math as

a legal framework for torture and legal documents drafted under attorney general alberto gonzales the mouth was cited as a justification for the use of force on individuals with specific foreign policy knowledge number two the e.u. a math keeps get moment jed's while the doesn't explicitly give the president detention authority the resolution was interpreted to allow the bush administration to open guantanamo bay that detention facility for suspected foreign terrorist in two thousand and two and eleven years later it remains open while the length of time a detainee can be held is not specified holding enemy combatants for the duration of hostilities is just part of the necessary and appropriate force congress granted the president under the a u a math now with over one hundred detainees on hunger strike there to protest their extended detention president obama has said he wants to close gitmo yet still this administration continues to rely on the a u m f as the legal basis for keeping it open number three the a you

a math makes it legal to spy on you warrantless surveillance and wiretaps have recently come to light again all in the name of national security interests but most recently it's been used by the supreme court and the government in response to challenge the amendment both bush and obama have relied on the us to authorize everything from warrantless electronic surveillance of u.s. citizens and wiretaps the a math acts as a shield giving some of our government's actions protective status which means you may not even know about them now whether or not the existing version of the a math is still suited to the nature of the threats we face isn't clear what is clear though we'll be hearing a lot more about this in washington. margaret how r.t. and while we are on the topic of the ala math and president obama's national security speech one topic that dominated that discussion was the use of drones against america's enemies he described these attacks as

a difficult decision but ultimately a necessary evil in the context of war for me and those in my chain of command those deaths will haunt us as long as we live just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred throughout conventional fighting in afghanistan and iraq but as commander in chief i must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternatives to do nothing in the face of terrorist networks. would invite for more civilian casualties well today the u.s. launched its first drone strike in pakistan since president obama made that speech last thursday and happened in the early morning in the northern waziristan tribal region killing seven people and wounding another four here's the target who was reportedly killed in this attack while the arrest run is a pakistani taliban member he is the number two commander the u.s.

already had a five million dollars bounty out for a month he was accused of helping coordinate the two thousand and nine suicide bombing on a u.s. base in afghanistan that killed seven americans as well as hundreds of bombings and shootings across pakistan has not yet been confirmed dead however if this is the case it would be a huge blow for the pakistani taliban during that national security speech on may twenty ninth president obama did promise to reduce the number of drone strikes he also pave the way for the consolidation of you avi's into the sole control of the pentagon and laid out his rules to govern these attacks according to the new america foundation there have been thirteen drone attacks on pakistan soil this year alone resulting in seventy five. still ahead here on r t wal-mart plead guilty to dumping hazardous waste but should we really expect this mega corporation to change its ways that's after the break.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't run time part is a big. wal-mart is famous for rolling back its prices to provide consumers with quality products that competitive prices but it turns out that while the company was protecting its customers our pocketbooks was not doing the same for the environment the company

has pled guilty to criminal charges of dumping hazardous waste in sixteen counties across california wal-mart will now pay more than eighty one million dollars in fines for negligently disposing of this waste the illegal dumping of fertilizers and other hazardous material occurred between two thousand and three and two thousand and five but it took nearly a decade twenty prosecutors as well as thirty two environmental groups for wal-mart to plead guilty in a san francisco court state investigators caught wind of the dumping when one of them witnessed a wal-mart employee pouring bleach down the drain wal-mart said those employees were in properly trained to handle the hazardous material but this is not the first time that the company has been accused of such crimes earlier today i was joined by bob inglis she's a producer for prime interest as well as our team news producer rachel courteous and she began by discussing wal-mart's illegal activities. all merged employees essentially were getting rid of hazardous materials things like fertilizer bleach

nail polish remover things that are proven to have a bad effect on the environment and they were disposing of them by as you said before either pouring down there on the drain putting them into trash bins or otherwise just putting them directly into the sewer system so these goods were generally damaged goods products determined to have bad packaging things of that nature that were that they were unavailable that they were unable to sell so instead they were just disposing of them in a way that the government deemed reckless and actually in a way that the government deemed violated six counts of the clean air and water act in california in the sixteen california counties as well as in missouri one count of violating the federal insecticide fungus side and dentist side act all the very big words that bob what wal-mart's first quarter revenue for twenty thousand teen was one hundred eighty four fourteen point two billion dollars what does eighty one million dollars realistically mean to a company that makes this much money doesn't mean anything and does the crime fit the punishment here well of course the eighty one million dollars is just pennies

in the bucket for wal-mart they have a ton of cash like you said one hundred fourteen point two billion dollars in revenue but their long term problems are being actually solved by this when you have these legal settlement settlements and we're seeing this in the banking industry to these banks are getting rid of their reps and warranties prior problems these settlements are a boon because they allow this eight year process to come to a close and in the bigger picture i would ask why is it possible for a corporation to be filed criminal charges against it i mean corporations are not people are they i would say that the supreme court would say that they are this is just my personal opinion and i'm going on a philosophical rant here but corporations are made of people people violated the law why are why are these court wires the government not going after the people who did the on the other lead the government is going after the corporation that did not have the leadership you know the lead. a ship that allowed people to not be trained to properly get rid of these hazardous materials that they knew they were selling and in addition the leaders are people sure the leaders are people that

they work is part of a larger a larger institution and certainly i could understand where you're saying you know this if you would million dollars is ultimately coming out of shareholder money right there isn't actually any money coming from from the people who are making these decisions they don't really agree with you know jail time but one thing that is significant about this settlement versus a lot of the other financial settlements that we've seen is that wal-mart did plead guilty when we look at what a lot of the financial institutions have done they've been able to settle for you know a certain amount of money millions even sometimes billions of dollars but they've never had to admit wrongdoing they've never which means that none of their crimes have really been investigated or put on the public record in a meaningful way meaning you're just setting it up to happen again in this case the fact that wal-mart did say that they were that they were guilty means that they've acknowledged that this is that this is a problem and that if it happens again they'll be even more intense punishment for them but this is not the first time that this has happened and now bob obviously wal-mart as rachel said has pled guilty and agreed to that settlement of eighty one million dollars is this an example of government regulation at work i don't think

the government regulation is working in the environmental protection agency is another revolving door bureaucracy we see the same people heading in and out of all these agencies and it's really a failure of the public trust that we give these entities that are supposed to actually protect people they oftentimes do the opposite they just give cover for large corporations to go about their business as usual usual i mean what we saw with the b.p. oil spill the deepwater horizon in the goal of was there was a seventy million dollars artificial cap on live below the now what about encourage b.p. to do take on excessive risk now let's play devil's advocate here for wal-mart there was no specific environmental impact that was found in order to be related to these types of dumping that happened in sixteen counties so should there have been a crime at all should they have admitted to a crime if there was a. no evidence well there was certainly evidence that they were that they were dealing with hazardous materials and that they were actually causing harm with the

crime that they committed was unnecessary or that they cause harm it was that they violated the clean air and water act to that they violated the insecticide fungicide and dentist side act meaning that they improperly hand of all these hazardous materials allowing for the potential of there being an environmental impact so it was that kind of risky behavior that. breaking the law and that they acknowledged listen we plead guilty to this but to go back to your point about the way what's really fascinating is that the way that wal-mart has decided to handle this in terms of you know this new training that they're having to make sure that employees are dealing with hazardous waste is if they actually now have a part of their company that's filled with former e.p.a. employees which surprises yet it speaks to that revolving door so these former e.p.a. employees are helping determine exactly what wal-mart's policy should be moving forward and to get them out of a germ perhaps. correspond emirates producer rachel carson yes and prime interest producer bob english and you guys for joining me glad to be here. well when you

drop your children off a school each day you expect them to gain the knowledge that they need to survive in society and live up to their civic duties but that's what we pay teachers for after all isn't it well one the illinois high school instructor is actually being disciplined for teaching students about their constitutional rights the residence or harshness takes us back to school. high school teacher john dryden if facing discipline from his school board in illinois for daring to teach kids about their fifth amendment rights can you believe the audacity here's what happened dryden went to his mailbox at the school

to find a stack of survey forms for his kids he wasn't told whether or not the survey with mandatory the form had a student's name already on them which picked a centrist so he decided to preview the thirty four questions on the third day of which according to the school districts were intended to measure how students meet the social emotional learning standards set by the state that's when dr noticed that the surveys included questions about emotions and drug alcohol and tobacco huge driving says he recalls thinking that somebody should tell the kids that they have the constitutional right to not incriminate themselves thanks to the fifth amendment so we made a judgment call and he told the kids the top of the first three periods that they were going to be given a survey at some point that day and that they had the right to not answer some of the questions if they felt like they would be incriminating themselves. as

a result teachers later in the day had trouble getting the kids to take the survey school administrators found out and they were not happy now driving faces having something called a letter of remedy placed in his employment file these basically inform teachers that they acted improperly and could have consequences including getting fired according to state law accidents and parents of all rallied in support of dryden starting a petition for him on line to help make sure he faces still negative consequences. the results of the survey were to be reviewed by school officials including social workers counsellors and psychologists the survey was meant to health officials figure out which students might need specific help according to the school yet because nothing else the kid out more than being labeled by the system as someone who illegally uses drugs or alcohol i'm sure the surveys would only be used in the

student's best interests sure. so i guess the real lesson here is that teaching kids about their rights is one thing letting them exercise them is another entirely at least at this school in illinois tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the resident. all right well let's move do it for me for some but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america or for the latest and greatest news coming out from around your world check out our website r c dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez now i want to know what you want to see right here on our team so tweet me your comments and your story suggestions i always read them and more times than not i will get back to you for now have a great night and i'll see you right back here tomorrow with more news and in-depth

interviews. let me let me one will let me ask you a question. here on this network it's we're right in the bay we have our night so. many different views this time to spend staying there together here in the situation will be an itinerary to talk about the surveillant me. that afternoon and welcome the prime interest i'm parian boring here and washington d.c. gets our headlines. so how much is a botched i feel worth nowadays ten million dollars if you're facebook and.