stronger than the old guard look at the global financial headlines tune in to the report. coming up on r.t.e. in geneva diplomatic talks between john kerry and sergey lavrov continue over the fate in syria the world waits to see if a deal is made to avoid u.s. military intervention the latest on talks up ahead. in new york a judge has ruled in favor of strippers against rick's cabaret the manhattan nightclub was sued for denying workers a minimum wage pay more on this victory for workers' rights coming up. and a lawsuit to remove in god we trust from the u.s. money was dismissed they thius groups behind the lawsuit claim that having the phrase on the u.s. cash violates the separation of church and state we'll tell you more about the case of god and green later in the show.

it's friday september thirteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you're watching our t.v. we begin tonight with continuing diplomatic negotiations over the syrian crisis the head of the united nations chemical weapons inspection team announced today that the report on syria was complete and will be sent to u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon this weekend the report will determine whether or not chemical weapons were used in syria on august twenty first but it will not determine who may be responsible for their use meanwhile the international envoy for syria locked arbor he meet today held a three way meeting with u.s. secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov as key talks in geneva and for the second day artie's polly boyko is in geneva and has more. a lot of people holding their breath in geneva and indeed around the world at

the moment while russia is on the u.s.a.'s top diplomats meet to try to come to a diplomatic solution for a way of disarming syria of its chemical weapons a u.s. military strike against syria is currently own course while john kerry and sergey lavrov meet in trying to rush out of the viable diplomatic solution to the crisis now some progress has already been made we've received confirmation that you're going to make united nations but they've already received various treaty papers so why not just use the u.n. chemical weapons convention this morning for a meeting between john kerry said a labral of and the international envoy to syria lakhdar brahimi where the leaders all expressed cautious optimism about the prospects of coming to a viable resolution a diplomatic solution to the crisis let's take a listen now that the assad government. joined the chemical weapons convention we have to engage over professionals that the guy that was the chemical weapons for

submission i've been his agent is very great with the united nations. to design a road which would make sure that this issue is resolved quickly professionally as soon as practical countries our presidents are deeply concerned about the death toll and destruction. the actual on both sides all sides and we are committed to try to work together beginning with this initiative on the chemical weapons in hopes that those efforts could pay off despite talk of working towards a diplomatic solution seems that there are a number of differing points that remain between all the sides now one major issue could be the question of timing in his latest interview bashar al assad. has said that damascus will start to provide information on its chemical weapons stockpiles

thirty days after signing up to the un chemical weapons convention this is something that john kerry has already rejected he's rejected this thirty day timeframe he says that he said last week that bashar al assad should be able to give up all of his chemical weapons within a week and he doesn't think that that's very viable that damascus will be able to do that and it's already led a number of international observers to question how constructive such a strict timeframe from the usa is whether or not it's even viable considering that the process of chemical disarmament is extremely tricky and to be dangerous now the u.s. military remains for a cat and forty to strike syria if a deal is not come up with here in geneva that is what is it to take care of negotiations and russia has already said that this very strict condition is unacceptable that they are not going to be able to come to

a diplomatic solution if the usa is threatening to use force against syria this is something that was echoed by bashar al assad in this latest t.v. and he was well. this won't be about serious warning of protocol and delivering it with no positive feedback has to be a meat to process and above all the united states has to give up its policy of threatening to syria the other third was once we see the united states truly want to billets in the middle east and once we see real rain from threatening us and pursuing intervention once we see them supplying weapons to terrorist groups then we'll consider this process is truly acceptable with syria and will finalize it as you want it russia should play a major role in the disarmament process but we don't trust washington and don't talk to them moscow is the only party that can fulfill this role now. so many tough . sions and sticking points that need to be reconciled here in geneva before the

end of the day and many now say that it felt rushed here in this role is not to help to come up with a realistic plan for reaching syria of its chemical weapons and then implementing it as well so we're expecting a press conference at the end of the day where we are going to see if all these major differences have been ironed out and if the two sides have been able to come together and issue a realistic plan and ultimately narrowly avoid a u.s. military strike on syria that was artie's polly boyko. is the foreign intelligence surveillance court starting a new trend of transparency well it might be too early to tell but according to an opinion issued today by a u.s. spy court judge dennis saylor disclosures are now justified to explain his opinion the judge referenced the unauthorized disclosures in june by former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden and said that it quote engendered considerable public

interest and debate about section two fifteen now section two fifteen is a provision of the patriot act that vastly expanded the government's power to spying on ordinary people through what was called a sensitive collection program this news comes just three days after the n.s.a. declassified eighteen hundred pages of documents that shed light on its bulk collection of american phone records that release was a result of a request from the a.c.l.u. and the electronic frontier foundation but now judge sailor says that any opinions not already subject to litigation under the freedom of information act should be reviewed for declassification it's under de undetermined however when that information will be released. well a succession fever seems to be sweeping the nation in fact we're seeing the largest wave in these kinds of movements since the south tried to break apart from the union right now the state of texas is seeking to become its own country not to

mention that parts of california and colorado are trying to break off into separate states and the latest movement just launched in maryland where five counties are fed up with the liberal majority and say they want a quote amicable divorce artie's liz wahl went to what some activists are hoping it will become the fifty first state and brings us this report. carolyn is mostly known for its city of baltimore ritzy d.c. suburbs and high end coastal areas it's where the bulk of the state's population lives a population. made up of mostly democrats. but take a drive out west and you'll find a different side of maryland well it's a different way of life and western maryland the counties around here remain rural farming and agriculture remain a major part of the day to day life we are a very small community and. i feel like sometimes we can we overlook.

that out here past places like liberty town vast cornfield in farmhouses you're clearly in red territory and carroll county folks find little in common with the rest of maryland so different in fact that many people no longer want to be part of the state we no longer wish to give our consent we like we think our differences are irreconcilable and we would like an amicable divorce scottsdale zach is heading the western maryland initiative a new push to make five western maryland counties break off and form a new state the biggest issue for me is the gerrymandered districts the state delegates senate and congressional districts are so gerrymandered in such a way to ensure single party dominance in this state and i don't feel that we can be properly represented that way struggles excess he has a lot of support in the few weeks since he launched a facebook fan page it's garnered more than thirty six hundred likes they say

they're tired of being ignored by political leaders until tax season comes around but just how many western marylanders really want to be left on their own not everyone here wants to be the fifty first star on the flag we don't need two separate like saying the eastern shore should be their own in the western shore should be there and it's stupid what revenue do we really bring in does the board ourselves you know even as marilyn as always from very proud to be in all of the state struggles excess he won't move forward with the initiative unless the people really want it and if that happens there's a number of steps that need to occur before a new state is born we have to then go to the maryland legislature get their approval and then it's going to congress and get their approval so maybe a long shot for western maryland to secede but one resident has an idea for the time being and i just feel you know if we could come together as a state so. and how we could really benefit each other you know send some business

down here into you know rural nowhere take a trip separate state or not at least some people here in western maryland feel like for once they're being heard in carroll county maryland liz wahl r.t. while authorities are now investigating a new suspected case of crop contamination this after a washington state farmer said that his alfalfa shipments had been rejected for export and initial sampling showed the crops tested positive for genetic modification providing further evidence of the difficulties of containing g.m. crops artie's megan lopez has a full breakdown on the story. well it's not the first time g.m. crop contamination has been reported here in the u.s. but this time it could cost us billions of dollars earlier this month a local farmer reported to the washington state department of agriculture that his hay was rejected for export because it tested positive for

a genetically modified trait that was not supposed to be in his crop now authorities are trying to figure out whether these claims are in fact true and if so how g.m. materials got into that crop at this point we don't know if the seeds the farmer bought were mislabeled or if g.m. material was carried into the crops by wind or if it was something else entirely or guard list this is not the first time west coast farmers have dealt with g.m. contamination scares in may scientists confirmed the presence of a banned g.m. wheat growing in a field in oregon it was from an experimental we project that monsanto ended back in two thousand and five in the middle of field trials that we strain was never approved for markets alfalfa is america's fourth largest crop and is the main feeding stock for the entire dairy industry it's also the third most valuable crop americans grow so a discovery like this could have massive financial implications for the farmer for

washington state and for the entire country and here is why while g.m. hay might have been approved for commercial production here in the u.s. many foreign buyers will not accept it a c.x. pacific which is a major exporter of alfalfa to countries like japan and south korea china and the middle east that will that company will not accept any g.m.o. crops and that those countries are our biggest buyers of hay in fact just the fear of g.m. contamination caused both japan and south korea to temporarily halt buying u.s. wheat this summer now in two thousand and twelve alone alfalfa for. the auction was valued at ten point four billion dollars exports of the crop had a record high that year according to the u.s.d.a. foreign agriculture service it was grown on seventeen million acres of land across the u.s. in two thousand and twelve and washington state is one of the largest producers if

a discovery like this proves to be true it could have far reaching consequences for the organic dairy industry as well which by the way is a twenty six billion dollar a year business because cows eat alfalfa nonetheless biotech giant monsanto doesn't seem to be a two part the latest allegations spokesman thomas said in an e-mail to the guardian quote variety of purity standards followed by the alfalfa seed industry allow for a low level presence of impurities including g.m. traits in conventional alfalfa seed the potential presence of impurities is clearly stated on the label if a grower is growing alfalfa for sensitive markets and once specialized free alfalfa they can purchase detect alfalfa see varieties which is available from alfalfa seed suppliers so it's not a big deal at least according to monsanto anyway it should be pointed out however

that these allegations come at a very interesting time in washington state that's because voters are currently weighing a ballot initiative that would require mandatory at labeling of genetically modified foods will have to wait and see if these new claims have any effect on how the public votes final test results from the washington state department of agriculture could come out as early as today to tell us if that farmer's crop was in fact contaminated in washington meghan lopez r t. well exotic dancers are now getting the rights that they were once stripped of this week a judge ruled that rick's cabaret and adult entertainment business in new york city had been wrongly denying minimum wage to nearly two thousand strippers the manhattanite club had argued that the dances were independent contractors not in-house employees and therefore they didn't merit a standard hourly wage but after a three year lawsuit debating the issue

a federal court judge determined the dancers were indeed employees citing a number of written club guidelines that the female dancers were expected to adhere to as employees would to discuss the outcome of this lawsuit and the implications this will have on the adult entertainment industry i was joined earlier by r t financial producer bob english since the nightclub tried to argue that these women are independent contractors and thus not employees i first asked bob what made it clear that they were being treated as employees. i want to preface this by saying i'm not an attorney so anything i say should not be taken as legal advice but one of the factors is micromanagement in other words is the club micromanaging these employees if they are well they're actually employees not these independent contractors they have a number of factors like there's no chewing must used body glitter performance fees in other words the girls must hit dollar targets dancers must work eight hour

shifts at least three days a week and they must have four inch stilettos not three inches not five inches but four inches denser first on with your dress on and the second with your dress off so it certainly seems by this list at least that there's a lot micromanagement going on absolutely and interestingly the lawsuit also claimed that the night club had been requiring the girls to pay a variety of fees for every shift that they worked and for breaking the rules you talk about that a little bit more and you think it's possible that these women were actually not even making money but losing money according to reports or a number of kickbacks in this industry so if a girl makes maybe one hundred dollars on a dance or whatever she might have to kick back thirty dollars or fifty dollars and your question can she actually lose money i would say it's probably unlikely why would she go lesser of the specter of future money to be made there but a lot of these clubs overstuff on purpose and that means when this law comes into effect when this ruling which has now come into effect assuming that it's not

successively appealed what's going to happen is these girls are going to be let go so we're going to have simply fewer girls in the club fewer opportunities for them it's just one of those unintended consequences absolutely and bob this was a class action suit where two thousand women were involved but does the verdict on this case have any bearing on any other women that are in the same circumstances right now or do each of these have to be fought sort of on a case by case basis sure well this was actually filed in federal court had it been filed in state court a. another matter state court decisions don't necessarily carry from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but theoretically if this verdict stands and it has to go through like i said through an appeals process it could actually be used in other cases that are pending as case law thanks to the very structure of our court system now what could happen here is it could be actually appealed all the way up to the supreme court which would be the you know the court law of the land and then it would have an even more effective ruling how likely do you think that it's very

unlikely very unlikely will it does seem like these adult entertainment cases are springing up all around the country i mean do you think it's possible at some point that will have some sort of sweeping legislation. is congress going to go to bat for strippers i don't think directly out of their issues excuse me i think what's going to happen is there are a lot of similarities between this case and some other cases that are happening in the hospitality industry and that would involve restaurant workers you know other people that depend on tips and so if there is a national hue and cry to support these under other industries i wouldn't put it past congress to slip something in for the exotic entertainment industry as well do you think a lot of employers there will take it on you know. on themselves to you know self employment this last of the waiting but action suits you have to understand a lot of these especially the smaller clubs they operate on the fringe of the law just like any other cash business some of them are used for money laundering and

i'm certainly not trying to impute that they all are to some of the bigger clubs might try to get ahead of those but if you think about it is actually gaining a lot of publicity how many people have heard of rick's before this how many people have heard of it now so maybe you know all p.r. is good for business and really all these back wages that they're going to have to pay we don't know how much they're going to be it could be trivial in respect to the amount of p.r. that they're getting you make a really good point but i did want to ask you something we only have a minute left and you know a lot of dancers have said that this is a really good thing but a lot of other dancers have actually expressed concern over the same basically. this kind of employee treatment you know having them have the status of employee will mean that they're going to be have higher tax revenues you know and i mean to be taxed more so in the end do you think that this could possibly hurt some of these women well again i'm not a tax attorney but i will say is if they go on the books they're going to have to have their wages withheld some of these girls are in thousands of dollars a night and one of rick's arguments was well why should we have to pay seven or eight dollars minimum wage somebody who is already making thousands of dollars in

addition this could raise the specter of the iris with all the public attention on this i would be surprised to see some of these businesses some of these girls get audited by the i.r.s. no unfortunately sure why you coming on love hearing your insight. thank you so much a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit demanding the removal of the words in god we trust from all u.s. currency a lawsuit was brought against the treasury department by the freedom from religion foundation in the initial complaint filed back in february the group along with a dozen more plaintiffs argued that having a phrase like in god we trust on currency is quote proselytizing discriminatory and a per se establishment of monotheism the group argued that the use of the motto does not exhibit a separation of church and state however the judge presiding over the case was not persuaded by these arguments and in the court order he wrote that the phrase was not a violation because the supreme court has quote repeatedly assumed the motto secular

purpose and effect i was joined earlier by michael newdow who identifies as an atheist and was the lead counsel in the case i first asked him why he thinks having the phrase in god we trust is problematic. well i don't see how anyone could think it's anything but he says in god we trust it's a religious statement and it doesn't reflect the views of all americans and governments not supposed to be making religious statements. well the plaintiffs on the case have argued that this violates the constitution but technically the constitution doesn't mandate that church and state be separate that wording comes from a thomas jefferson letter so how does this violate the right to practice your religion well i mean that argument that the constitution doesn't say separation of church and state the constitution doesn't say a lot of things we use phrases all the time doesn't say separation of powers but we certainly live or heard tripartite government with the separation of powers we have

all sorts of things people you shorthand phrases the idea is that well i can the exact wording is congress shall make no law respecting which means having anything to do with an establishment of religion and if you look at what the framers were talking about they were talking about exactly things like this where the government takes a view and advocates for that view and excludes other people. and of course the motto in god we trust is not just on currency it's also written prominently in the chambers of the house of representatives so why focus just on currency here. well i mean you need standing to bring a case we don't have standing to challenge the what what congress doesn't constitutionally unless it personally affects us personally affects us to be carrying around money that says something completely contrary to our religious views and you know what we get with the people the christians in our nation do if we said you know you know we trust in god we don't trust or would you say in jesus we trust you know what would catholics say if in protestant christianity we trust

which was what our nation was founded on all those people were protestant christians you know everybody would be upset at that and i can understand why people don't recognize that this is the exact same thing homemade excludes fewer people and on popular people and their unpopular largely because the government keeps saying they should be unpopular in god we trust well it seems like we have a culture in the united states of using religious phrasing even if we're not necessarily religious i know that many people often say thank god or for heaven's sake so how do you begin to address how you know language has permeated our culture is there anything that you and people who are are working to do the same work that turn doing it i mean is there anything you're doing to tackle this well i mean there's nothing wrong with it you're missing the key point here which is that we have nothing against people individuals groups in you know people who are not the government doing what they choose in terms of religion if they want to worship god

they have every right and i would sit there and protect that right what were you against is them using the government the government of us all to do their religious bidding that's what's been permissible and so when government speaks in term of terms of religion if government said there's no god which is what we believe that would be just as wrong government should stay out of this business is very simple. and michael what other battles are are you and other atheists organizations fighting at this at this point to to separate church and state i just want to get an idea of what other types of initiatives that you have. well it's just any time the government is getting involved there's a case right now in massachusetts where they tried to get out of the pledge of allegiance i mean you know we take the little children so they put your hand over your heart and say there's a god you know that's a pure religious statement and when the government does that that's impermissible again remember it's the government not individuals and the rituals can do that all they want if kids want to meet before school and pledge allegiance to jesus christ get on their knees they have every right to do that and they're protected from doing that you just can't get the government to do it so there's that one we have

our port passport it's also with god stuff we have if you want to be a naturalized citizen you have to say so help me god we have this permeating our society it's unnecessary and it's wrong and it's unconstitutional that was michael newdow a lead counsel in the case. in the twentieth century when someone mentioned weapons of mass destruction and usually referred to the use of nuclear weapon during the bush years the meaning of w m d's expanded and began to include chemical and biological weapons and while diplomatic talks continue over syria's chemical weapons it doesn't hurt to remember that the us has its own chemical stockpile for more on that here's the resident laurie harf a dentist. the

world has been focusing on chemical weapons in syria trying to figure out who is used them against whom and who is stockpiles at them but you know definitely has stockpiles of them the united states we have six chemical weapons sites that remain open where our stockpiles of chemical weapons are being disposed and according to officials they leak. chemical weapons have been an international no no for a long time at the eight hundred ninety nine hague convention signers agreed to not use a stick seeding or deleterious gap is and in one thousand nine hundred seven that chemical weapons convention treaty went into effect bans the creation of any use of chemical weapons and mandate their destruction syria didn't sign that treaty but the u.s. did and yet we still have twenty seven one hundred tons of chemical weapons in two

of our storage facilities there's one enrichment kentucky and one employee of low colorado and according to a on the roni director of the united states air force counter-proliferation center in alabama both of those sites have leakers and they're stored chemical weapon. crews at the pueblo chemical depot in colorado were recently alerted to a mustard gas leak inside of a storage structure that holds projectiles three nations were leaking the chemical weapon which is funny because on the c.d.c.'s website they say the mustard munition was destroyed in january of two thousand and twelve. at the storage depot in richmond kentucky officials have acknowledged that nerve gas leak monitors weren't working for years meanwhile there are still chemical weapons stored at the facility . mr moroney said the last chemical weapon site in the u.s. isn't even set to start just posable until twenty twenty eight he goes on to say

that disposing of chemical weapons lowly and faithfully is extremely expensive and difficult the us is one of the few countries in the world who have any experience with it because they are one of the few countries in the world who defied the hague convention and created chemical weapons in the first place. so the question to ask our government now is if we know chemical weapons are so awful why the hell are we one of the only countries who have them. maybe it's because we're also the only country that drops atomic bombs tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the resident. well that does it for now for more on the stories we've covered today go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america or check out our website at r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on

twitter adam you're a david and don't forget to tune in at nine pm tonight for larry king now tonight's guest is famous actor and comedian bill hader have a good night. six point two billion swiss francs to fifteen billion swiss francs and never it grows of ten percent. food and beverage amounts and so fast or so one hundred.