coming up on our team for the fifth straight day thousands of residents in west virginia are banned from drinking the water and state officials are still testing for water toxicity while the investigation into the spill eats up we'll have a report from west virginia straight ahead. and what's for dinner a virus is killing pigs across the country so is pork safe for your dinner table find out coming up. and is it the and broadcast t.v. networks aereo an internet startup is airing the signals of the biggest broadcasters for free online the networks are turning to the supreme court to try and stop the so is free broadcast t.v. about to fade to black find out later in the show.

it's monday january thirteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t. we begin today and last virginia where hundreds of thousands of people are living without water water is trickling back for some residents but most are still going without it water restrictions went into effect thursday and nine counties in west virginia when it was discovered seventy five hundred gallons of toxic chemical leaked out of a storage tank and into the elk river fourteen people have been hospitalized of the three hundred thousand residents living under the water ban about ten thousand were given the go ahead today to turn the tap back on the rest are told not to drink bathe or cook without the water at this point there are many unknowns it's unclear home. i harmed when it exactly happened and when the water will be safe once again

are the corresponding meghan lopez has more of a public health disaster from charleston. hope hope hope what always be a. very you know i was just walking my dog over there and i saw they got more water like as i was walking by so kind of rushed there this is not how ben cook was planning to spend his day so how even on a couple days it seems i go to like kroger and other stuff and every time i get there i just miss it but then the along with three hundred thousand residents of charleston west virginia is no scrambling to get his hands on one of the most basic elements of life a chemical spill from a local company forced governor earl ray tomblin to make an unprecedented decision to not use any of the water with the exception of using and it took less sugar or fire protection. now local authorities are teaming up with thema the department of homeland security and the national guard to

get this crisis under control. pallets of water are coming in by the truckload. fire garages normally used to house the station's trucks have turned into distribution drive through the day. outside a line of cars as far as the eye can see i don't have a bar of the first day and i got meant that the advance those who can't drive walk to the station everyone just trying to get their hands on a case of water it's not stopping every time we bring a truckie and it's pretty much gone just as quick as we can get carts are here and they're still coming within minutes of arriving i mean you've got to know oh yeah you're right for your wife that's the last one hundred were out there for. the water has completely vanished fire station two closes its garage door and waits for the next ship. went to iran we got here maybe about twenty minutes ago kind of

cut in as was coming out of the parking lot right here because i think they're backed up all the way down washington street i mean it's to score angry residents want to know how this happened there's nothing nothing no plans no preparation whatsoever to deal with this type of an emergency except for people to come begging for water. hopefully keeping their family alive the culprit that stopped the water flow in nine counties is a company few residents have ever heard of before i am at ground zero of the chemical spill here in charleston west virginia right in front of freedom industries now freedom in this story as it is a company that produces chemical material for the cement steel and mining industries what you see behind me are massive storage tanks each of them can hold thirty five thousand gallons of the chemical that they are producing here right beyond those storage tanks is the elk river or one of those stores tanks leaf

chemicals into the river that was taken downstream to a local water treatment facility freedom industries didn't report the leak until thursday morning when residents complained of a strong licorice smell in the air that odor was seventy five hundred gallons of a chemical known as for meth the psycho hexane methanol or m. c h m for short it's a foaming agent used to clean coal before it goes to the market before the spill little was known about the effects of him c.h.m. and there was no way to test for it in the air or water nor its effects on humans now investigators are continually testing the water waiting for the m.c.h. in levels to get down below the e.p.a.'s recommended one part per million before they flush the system and give residents the all clear at this point there are more questions than answers like who decided to build a chemical plant upstream from a water treatment facility and would never have thought this not in this day in age

not in this day and age especially with all modern technology. but for now residents of the sleepy southern city are still hunting for water and hoping that this crisis will be a result soon i think everybody is angry. i'm tired in charleston west virginia meghan lopez r t. well some signs of hope for the crisis in syria u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in paris meeting with his russian counterpart sergey lavrov the diplomatic leaders discuss the possibility of negotiating a cease fire in the three year long syrian civil war are to correspondent igor pissed off reports. well one of the first things that we've heard from u.s. secretary of state is that russia the u.s. and the un are completely on the same page that the only solution of the conflict in syria is a diplomatic one mr kerry also said that both the soon enough and to the opposition

are equally responsible for the atrocities committed there now we've also seen a slight shift on iran since a lot of barbara he needs your own special envoy on syria and syria lauber off the ball for saying that they want to see iran taken part in the geneva two conference this is a key player in the region this was something that the u.s. has previously against but now according to u.s. secretary of state washington wouldn't mind seeing tehran there at geneva two if it supports the agreements reached earlier at the one now mr also said that the authorities in syria have now confirmed that they are going to take part in the conference although one of the sticking points right now is that it's really unknown whether or not the opposition is planning to do the same although we are possibly witnessing now a positive tendency somewhat of a positive tendency when it comes to the relationship between the opportunities there and the rebel since we've heard today about possible exchanges of prisoners

and allowing humanitarian aid to get in but according to sergei lavrov right now regarding humanitarian aid the rebels are the key obstacles that's why moscow doesn't want to see the terror threat among the key issues to be discussed to be on the table there. to now today we've heard nothing about calls for president assad having to step down which is different from sunday since yesterday the french prime minister when he met with the syrian opposition he did make these calls for the syrian president to step down which shows that right now even though the key players now working on organizing this conference they are completely on the same page one. comes to lots of key issues some countries in the west are sending mixed signals which could theoretically undermine the success of the conference. that was artie's igor cannot. but it's been months and a hunger strike at guantanamo bay officially ended the strike led to

a renewed call for the us government to shut the base down this past weekend marked twelve years since the first detainee set foot and a controversial detention center to mark the anniversary dozens of protesters staged demonstrations in front of the white house on saturday some of them wearing orange jumpsuits and holding signs bringing attention to the plight of guantanamo bay detainees there are also protests on the west coast guard to correspond or among the lindo takes inside one of them in california. where. it's now been twelve years since the first detainees were sent to the notorious one ton of a prison in cuba thousands of miles away from the prison here in southern california demonstrators are demanding that one tunnel be shut down the cost of operating the prison have climbed into the billions and president obama says that he's committed to closing it now rageous that these people are being tortured and

that people are still not aware of a lot of people still believe that it's important because it's still there and it still going whether there's all this talk about closing it and more people being released. it still isn't. on. a hunger strike involving inmates increase the push to shut down guantanamo prison obama says that the prison serves as a recruitment tool for extremists and russian opponents claim that guantanamo is key to fighting terror or some of those voices may be losing their influence until about the last year or two. two congress members were hearing from constituents that guantanamo should not be closed and the last year or two they're hearing more from constituents who say want tama should be closed and so i think this is very encouraging that the constituents who do speak up that do witness that do keep this

issue alive are happening and that people. were arrested who were detained and the u.s. government. and they were never charged with a growing. one hundred fifty five men remaining. dozens of them have already been cleared for transfer human rights activists about to keep fighting until the final prisoner is released in santa monica california. r.t. . the united states has a government of the people by the people for the people but for which people in the richer new research shows that for the first time in history a majority of federal lawmakers are millionaires this congress also has the honor of being the least productive on record and the lowest approval approval ratings ever artie's a mere dave has more. well it's no secret that members of congress are on average

wealthier than the rest of the country their average congressional salary alone weighs in at about one hundred seventy four thousand dollars but of course wealth is not just about a monthly check rather it's about how much you're worth and as we're finding out it's the net worth of lawmakers that really merits the most attention every year since one thousand nine hundred c.q. roll call has examined the financial disclosures of all five hundred thirty five lawmakers to determine the fifty richest members of congress this year's report is based off of the numbers from the two thousand and twelve calendar year so without further ado let's take a look at which lawmakers are topping the list starting with number five west virginia senator jay rockefeller his last name says it all jay rockefeller is the great grandson of oil tycoon john d. rockefeller and he's clearly reaping the benefits of that oil rich ancestry the senator is estimated to be worth at least eighty three point seven million dollars

his lofty assets include three separate trusts j.p. morgan wells fargo and united national bank in charleston all worth at least eighty million dollars so even though the senator has said he won't seek reelection this year it's likely he will be quite comfortable and retirement and that takes me to number four connecticut senator richard blumenthal when elected in two thousand and ten blumenthal stood as the wealthiest incoming member of congress and since then his net worth has skyrocketed now standing at eighty five point three million most of his wealth comes from the family of his wife who happens to be the daughter of real estate mogul peter malkin together their assets include a real estate company in sao paulo brazil and multiple manhattan properties including the entities that lease and operate the empire state building now moving on to number three virginia senator mark warner warner has been steadily moving up the money ladder over the years this year his net worth stands at ninety six point three million dollars and that's about. sixty six percent of that were held in

trusts but warner most notably made his money early on as the co-founder of the cellular company that would later become nextel now to the number two spot texas representative michael mccaul mccall is taking a step back this year slipping from the number one spot to number two but at one hundred fourteen million dollars a net worth mccall is still fairing pretty well the majority of his assets are connected to his wife who happens to be the daughter of laurie mays the founder of clear channel communications and keep in mind clear channel is the umbrella company that likely owns the radio station you listen to the company operates over one thousand stations now finally to the number one spot this year is richest congressman california. two thousand and twelve was a very very kind to representative eissa was on his walls grow over one hundred million dollars thanks to that year alone the congressman's net worth has now surged well beyond every sitting congressman to three hundred fifty five point

three million dollars before being elected to congress ice and made the bulk of his fortune after founding directed electronics a company that manufactures car alarms but outside of that most of his money seems to yield from investments in the stock market so there you have it the top five richest congressman according to c.q. roll call strong financial markets are credited with making most members of congress even wealthier and fact the median net worth of the fifty richest raise more than seventeen percent this year now the numbers aren't so cut and dry there is room for interpretation of the disclosure forms that lawmakers must fill out but there is one number that's indisputable for the first time in history the majority of congress is now comprised of millionaires so as long as the markets continue to grow so will congress as a millionaire's club and washington i mean david r t. well for all you bacon lovers this should make you think twice before. for picking out

a virus that kills baby pegasus is spreading throughout the country the u.s. department of agriculture says california and wyoming are the latest states to report having pigs infected with the porcelain epidemic diarrhea that brings the total to twenty two states where pig farms have the virus the first case in the u.s. was reported back in april and since then thousands of piglets have died sometimes in six winds include diarrhea vomiting and severe hydration like it for humans the virus does not make people sick only baby pigs but the bug is causing pork prices to soar and is sparking fears of a pork shortage for more on the deadly pig virus dr michael greger director of the public health and animal agriculture at the humane society joins us now welcome dr gregor thank you so to be clear there's a virus is not dangerous to humans although the virus is found in pig feces and there is widespread fecal contamination of the u.s. ports

a plate is not known to cause sickness in animals but the same factory farming practices that led to the emergence and spread of this dangerous virus for pigs is also the same risky practices that have led to passage junes that can kill people thousands of people like swine flu right now we're neck deep in flu season and the virus that's killing and infecting most americans know the flu virus is still h one n one this one to barson emerged in two thousand and nine killed over ten thousand americans infected sixty million americans and that virus definitively timed to factory farming practices the same practices that have now led to this diarrhea by ok can you talk more about these risky practices how the virus and it's transmitted and why in this case only baby pigs are affected the reason that these so-called factory farms are really breeding grounds for diseases because of the sheer numbers of animals the overcrowding the stress of confinement the lack of adequate ventilation the fresh air sunlight put all these factors together you really have kind of a perfect. environment for the emergence and spread of new bacteria and viruses and

that's why the american public health association has called for a moratorium on these factory farming practices because of the public health implications of how we now raise pigs i have never seen anything like this quite like this before we have not this particular virus it's new to the u.s. as of last year but there have been a number of other similar viruses that are spread and if you imagine if you have you know overcrowded tens of thousands of pigs in these filthy football field size sheds to lie snout to snout atop their own ways you can see how it's just kind of a viral incubator for these kind of diseases if you put a thousand people in elevator someone sneezes you know a lot of people are going to get sick and that's the problem with packing so many animals together and so we really need to heed the public health communities call to get rid of these kind of risk for piggies there what is the what do you expect this just to keep spreading we see it in twenty two states now like you spreading i mean you know boy these pigs are you know born in north carolina fat in the fields

of i often slaughtered in california we you know our meat can travel thousand miles on the horse before rides that are placed they trade these pigs like trading cards all across the country you cannot stop this virus once it spread and it really just highlights how poor the biosecurity is in these kind of facilities that you can't keep this virus out and unfortunately concern is you're not going to be able to keep viruses out that have human health implications as well now i want to switch gears a little bit to the economic implications of what is this doing to the hog industry and how is it affecting meat prices food prices there's certainly concern that there's going to be an increase in pork prices but you know in some ways that could be a signal to the industry of all the industry cares about is the bottom line i mean if the implications for people in terms of food safety are going to do it well then maybe you know the hit in the pocketbook is going to have the industry to rethink some of these practices and really move we have good data showing that this person epidemic diarrhea virus much. higher risk in these industrial large factory farms

compared to smaller farms actually lived big move around and allowed outside and so maybe you know it's now the economic cultural list for these the reason that they pack a mall in is because you know. price per pig when you pack them in like kind of parked cars you can reduce the per pound cost of production but when there's these other costs that can't be externalized on to society then maybe the industry will think about changing their practices all right well now that we know it is and we know this what can we as consumers do to help we can really exercise our consumer purchasing power and demand for example. create freeport there's been a big movement large supermarket chains restaurants demanding that the pork industry at least not keep these mother pigs crammed in these little medicaid just barely larger than the body of a can even turn around their whole lives and that kind of stress can lead to the impairment of their immune system that can increase the risk of diseases that can

have human health implications well a good time to be a vegetarian and there appreciate you coming on the show that was dr michael gregor public health at animal agriculture at the humane society. now to a supreme court case that could decide the future of television the nation's biggest broadcasters are suing new york based tech company aereo the company develop tiny antennas that allows anyone with an internet connection to watch live television here's the company's advertisement of their product anyone can watch live broadcast t.v. for free off the air with an antenna aerial is taken when it's needed unbelievably small small enough that hundreds of thousands can see it in a single you can access them from the internet and watch the live broadcast. you can choose the t.v. you want. you can even record that my t.v. . like a d.v.r. and on the box well companies like c.b.s. and n.b.c.

say this product enables healing because using aerial does not pay we distribute faves ariel on the other hand says it's a consumer's right to watch with their own antenna on their own device now it's up to the nation's highest court to decide for more on what this means for the media industry christopher chambers joins us now he's a journalism professor at georgetown university welcome chris. so if this tech company when so what does it mean for the future of television well. we're talking about a tsunami here because. very interesting only the legal issue is very very defined and simple it's an interpretation of section one of six of the copyright act which has been around in one form or another for two hundred years the ability to you know demand fees or permission to basically re play your content.

area was saying is like look we're not stealing anything we're releasing basically antennas so people can get the stuff and play it we're not stealing it we're not appropriating it but what you've done is when you cut out these re transfer retransmission fees we're talking about billions of dollars that the networks get from say the cable companies and this allows the networks of course to extort money from the n.f.l. or major league baseball or the n.b.a. to get the super bowl and all kinds of cool things so we're talking about an ecosystem that is going to basically go into meltdown if this is allowed to continue because you know for aereo you know they might survive they might not but when you kill these redistribution fees by putting a mark of approval on this business model you will fundamentally change the broadcast. ecosystem and that is going to upset a lot of people to the point where you know you've already had the chairman of fox and c.b.s. say well we'll just we'll just become

a cable network yeah you know to avoid that kind of stuff speaking of fox and c.b.s. want to read part of the statement from c.b.s. who as we can expect is not happy about this technology they say quote we believe the areas of business model and similar offerings that operate on the same principle are built on feeling creative content. so chris what do you think is it time for these companies to kind of accept that this is the change changing face of how consumers absorb the news of the media content and adapt or what do you think i think they need to add that because clearly their old business model is working for everybody no you know you had the problem with time warner cable and c.b.s. but time warner had to back down but you know their market the market power of these broadcast networks and hollywood generally to some extent you see to become eaten away with the with the you know the problems in the controversy over sopa and

cisplatin even the old digital millennium copyright act you have these tech giants like google and apple that are getting into the content production business you have netflix what you have stuart we have streaming capabilities and they're streaming is based on cloud based technology which is something that aereo the aereo case does implicate because what the networks are saying is we have the right to even kill off this cloud based form of content that you can draw upon privately you know to your own device so there are implications for this are very very clear the networks are going to lose power now they've been losing it for years they still have it because even though most people that watch network t.v. are old people like me. you know will die. off eventual in the young people who are streaming house of cards on netflix or watching apple t.v. or going to be the you know they're going to inherit the earth and i don't think

the networks have a business model that contemplates that and this is pretty much forcing them to contemplate that certainly now it's being contemplated in the supreme court so i want to read it from an area statement here and response to this case in the supreme court they say quote we look forward to presenting our case to the summary supreme court and we have every confidence that the court will validate and preserve a consumer's rights so where is that what it's about press consumers rights it's about money but but they have a point i mean the point is that the consumer basically leases their equipment they're not stealing anything they're basically an intermediary for the broadcast content and the u.s. court of appeals for the second circuit agreed with them. people need to think about that the intermediate appeals court has agreed with aereo and it goes is supreme court you've got eight justices hearing it because justice the justice

alito recused himself so if there's a four four tie there might be area wins so this is their way of basically putting a thumb in the of the broadcast networks and i don't think the broadcast networks are going to become cable networks where they just put all their content on cable i think that just an idle threat but i think it's an idle threat of somebody who's used to having a lot of power and then it's almost like a bully who gets bullied back and then they just act crazy and say whatever comes to comes to mind because their shareholders certainly have not located this and so there is a lot of trepidation that so people are going to make comments off the cuff like that like a threat we're just going to shut down well that's not that's what they're saying but f.l. one thing that this points out is people do not want to pay for their media if they can get a free if they can somehow exactly where they're going to shut that that television . chris great to have you in the studio pleasure as always that was christopher chambers a journalism professor at georgetown university and that's going to do it for now

for more on the stories we covered head to our you tube channel you tube dot com forward slash our to america and our web site r t dot com slash usa and you can follow me on twitter stay tuned and boom bust is next back here and i thought. i would read that as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question for. millions

around the globe struggle with hunger. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge. they can the very strong position against g.m.o. and we think that's. the genetic anymore the right products are priest. there is no. evidence that there is any problem with genetic engineering when you make a deal. or is free cheese always in the most trash i don't believe that's destroyed. and the free. enterprise is profit. for social justice golden rice barkeep.

polo and happy monday i marinated this is boom bust and here are the stories we're tracking for you today first up both cullen roche and gonzalo there are join me on today's show to talk hyperinflation or lack there of pending here you ask and then a comment out consequences from the n.s.a. spying program pay for it to be pretty different to costly for some american tech companies will tell you which ones coming on up and whatever happened to the c.e.o.'s at the helm of the bank that went bust during the financial collapse of two thousand and eight and harrison and i will tell you where they are now and what they're doing today it's all in today's big deal coming up and it all starts now.