i think. a. big fuss. over like. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution since by that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck all books. will. never go on i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on will we go beyond identifying to try to fix rational debate a real discussion critical issues facing america about them or ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture.

back to the big picture i'm tom arbonne coming up in this fast hour it's been just over a month since a chemical spill in west virginia tainted drinking water for over three hundred thousand people what's the status of that water now and is anyone being held accountable for the millions of gallons of chemicals that spilled into the elk river and it's day four of competition at the winter olympics in sochi russia we'll get an update from socially and talk about how that city is handling the pressure that comes with hosting the olympic games. in tonight's green reporter right now millions of people across the globe are tuning into the winter olympics in sochi russia they're watching skiers slide down the slopes snowboard or borders fly through the air but as climate change continues

to progress and global temperatures continue to rise this could skiers be traversing the rugged snow covered ski slopes in the years to come so she has struggled to maintain snow cover due to warmer than average temperatures and was forced to store millions of cubic feet of snow under insulated blankets last year to make sure that there would be enough snow cover for the olympics and last winter officials had to cancel so she olympics as to events because temperatures were hovering above sixty degrees fahrenheit so if climate change continues to rear its ugly head could we be looking at the death of winter sports out of the winter olympics as we know them joining me now for more on that is puerto fox writer and editor with power magazine and author of the new powder magazine sydney and author of the new ski book deep the story of skiing in the future of snow porter welcome. thanks for having me thanks for joining us on t.v. we see these pictures of snow covered mountains and gleaming white ski slopes at

socially how much work does it take to keep that city that way. quite a bit of work tom it they have sixteen million cubic feet. of snow even more reported recently stored from last season to use this season just in case it was too warm and there wasn't enough snow for these events. they did use that and have over four hundred snow making guns going pretty much all the time to keep it white and make sure there's enough snow for the outdoor skiing in. pick events this season tell you a climatologist daniels god in his conclusions about the winter olympics cities that host of them. daniel works at a facility in ottawa a university of waterloo they've been studying the direct effect of climate change specifically on the ski industry of since the early one nine hundred eighty s.

he authored a study. recently that predicts half the ski resorts in the u.s. northeast will likely close in the next thirty years due to warmer temperatures and snow pack and this most recent study was of the one thousand cities that have hosted the winter olympics. in the future by mid century or so only ten of those will still be cold enough to successfully be able to host the games even with snowmaking by the end of the century that number drops to six in this is all projected stuff in real time and right this minute are we seeing the ski resorts in the united states and in the european alps and in the caucasus mountains or other places other parts of the world that just are no longer economically viable because they don't have a long enough winter season or they don't have enough snow. yet it's already happening several resorts in the alps of closed many resorts in the u.s.

northeast have closed over the last thirty years due to warmer temperatures. california even this season just a week ago they were at twelve percent of their average snowpack now and this was laying off workers it's happening around the world and it's happening at the ski resorts in the states this year colorado is doing very well the last two years they didn't these are the step changes that we see in climate change but overall the planet is getting warmer snow is melting and ski industries are are paying the price and so are all the communities downstream that rely on that snowpack for their water supply particularly in the northern hemisphere his fear and just south of the equator you know the for example the mountainous regions of northern south america dandies. my understanding is that

because it's a little bit warmer there's more moisture in the air and arctic is actually getting more snow than it was before and i don't i don't know the geography of the southern tip of south america but is it possible that we could see the winter games going to patagonia air or southern chile tierra del thwaite go next year. it's certainly possible it won't be for four more years but it's possible that the regional effects of climate change climatologists are still getting their head around and trying to figure out how that plays out especially in terms of snow fall overall though the big picture is it's very clear what's happening and with ninety five to one hundred percent certainty we're making the planet warmer and we're losing snow to host the winter games it takes more than just snow there needs to be

infrastructure for athletes for media it's a huge operation as you can see in sochi so that factors in into scott's equation quick. quick question porter we just have like fifteen seconds left but could we see something like astroturf come along like you know football or place grass with plastic will we could they replace snow when they already have it in the u.k. it's it's very popular called drive slope skiing but that's not the kind of skiing that that i want to do i understand and i'm with the puerto fox thanks so much for being with us tonight. thank you. coming. in the best of the rest of the news it was a busy day in sochi yesterday canadian freestyle skier alex bilodeau became the first olympic freestyle skier in history to win multiple gold medals and he took

home a second straight moguls title also on the slopes germany's maria hopeful rush of germany captured the gold in the women's super combined with america's giulia man cusco coming in fourth and women's hockey medal favorites canada and the usa both won yesterday with canada scratching out a victory against finland and the u.s. dominated switzerland by lee in speed skating the dutch swept the men's five hundred meters while russia's older graf took home the bronze in the women's three thousand meter so after all of yesterday's action what should we be looking forward to over the next week to come in sochi and how is that city handling the intense pressure that comes with hosting and olympics joining me now for more on all those live from sochi is our t.v. reporter paul scott paul it's great to meet you on camera in the lead up to the games the american media spend a lot of time discussing potential security concerns but most of all that has dropped off the media radar and seems like so so so far but it's going smoothly what's your assessment of the security situation there in sochi.

well things are going smoothly at the moment in touch with things continue to go smoothly i think this will cain from day one for the security in sochi to be reassuring and not overbearing that's the message from organizers and i think that they've got the balance right at the moment there is a reach a reassuring presence of police on the streets on every corner but it certainly isn't overbearing and it's i mean isn't distracting in taking away from the fun at the moment of course this this sort of cool during of steel around the sochi region . the moment in which the these forty thousand police and security offices that are in place keeping checks on everything and as i say i think they've got the balance right between reassuring and overbearing for example the security checks they're extremely thorough to get into the media center where i am for example in sochi it's like going into any international airport you know. and that sort of thing so the security here is tight and of course it made the headlines after the the twin

suicide attacks in volgograd between christmas and new year that's what really put the focus of the attention on security but at the moment touch wood as you say things are going smoothly last week a number of twitter users and others posted pictures supposedly showing poor condition additions in the a sochi hotels most all these of turned out to be phony pictures from other times and places but still so she's a newly constructed place i was in atlanta for the olympics in ninety six we had all kinds of problems with construction controversy over displaced people are these issues been resolved now and and so she was this a non-issue all along. well it depends who you talk to whether it was a non-issue i think mainly it was journalists arriving sort of a week or so before the official start of the games they were complaining about things that some may say a trivial lack of a shallow door knobs falling off that sort of thing but i do think it's fair to say that maybe in the week before they were made that there was some parts of sochi that would not would not quite show ready shall we say ready to welcome the

sporting world but thomas but the president of the international olympic committee he said on the wednesday before the games that ninety seven percent of all of the hotels in the accommodation was ready and as you say that the most of those issues have died away since the games have started so i would say that it's a little bit rough around the edges but i don't think that the problems that people are reporting are in any way going to detract from let's be honest the main reason way which is the sport and let's get to that. what's your favorite part of the game so far what do you think are the big events we should be looking at over the next few weeks and in particular if i wanted to set a d.v.r. you know for a i don't know that what would you recommend. that the highlight of the first weekend for me has been that the figure skating i'm not a huge figure skating. it's not a big sports in in my native great britain it's the huge in russia but there was

the emergence of a new style fifteen year old yulia lipnitskaya she put into absolutely peerless and foolish performances in the team event to help russia to go to the opera arena which is sort of the show that the ice cube skating center where that's taking place the roof was absolutely lifted when she put in those performances she's the real new star of the game so that was my highlights of the first weekend what is that to look forward to all coming up in the course of the next week we have the men's ice hockey competition fate has put the united states of america against russia in the group stages and what should you set your video full it has to be the ice hockey men's final it doesn't matter who's in it is it going to be canada russia the usa or so we did it doesn't matter it's going to be a spectacle it's extraordinary paul thanks so much for being with us tonight. coming up on tanna and oregon have told corporations that they can't have their cake and eat it too is the time the rest of the country followed suit and made sure that multi-billion dollar corporations are paying their fair share in taxes to support our country more on that in tonight's daily take.

i marinate joining me. for an impartial and financial reporting commentary for news and much much. only on bombast and.

in screwed news it's been just over a month since a chemical storage plant near charleston west virginia spilled thousands and gallons of toxic chemicals in the river all bans on using water in the area been lifted pregnant women are still being advised not to drink the water and area residents are remaining skeptical about the condition and safety of the water and they certainly have a right to be there still little known about one of the chemicals that spilled into the elk river and very few tests have been conducted on the tainted water itself so what's the latest coming out of west virginia and what will residents there have access to safe chemical free water joining me now for more on that is karl gibson journalist with the nation of change carl welcome. thanks tom thanks very much on the program and just a quick correction the original story was on occupied ok great thanks for that

before we get to have what happened last month understand there's another chemical spill out of a coal processing facility that leaked into a tributary of the qana kanawati river am i saying that right that yeah that's pronounced cannot and yet it happened this morning that was from a slurry containment facility coal slurry is a really harmful kind of waste i was talking to a vivian stockman from the ohio valley environmental coalition she took some but as i said to you guys and maybe they can you know website later she was saying that the water was running all the way from the stream down to the cannot river and that they were actually packing in pieces of hay with wire to damp a river and dumping in big fish sized chunks of limes to build a dam to try to stop the black water from getting into the drinking water. that's amazing i had you know we have a fair number of viewers and listeners to my radio program and presumably is t.v.

program as well. the both. direct you know there's a lot of rural folks watching those networks. in west virginia who called in we when we first when this first happened i had caller after caller after caller talking about how we always used to be able to you know pump we had a spring out back or we had a well out back and over there was cool you know i mean for generations for centuries and then they started this mountaintop mining back twenty thirty years ago and then the water went bad and so a for profit company came in a surplus of water out of the river and transporting it thirty fifty seventy ninety miles to my house and charge me for water that i used to have for free and you know that seemed like an insult but now even that water is bad and i can't go back to the pump water in the spring water because that's been contaminated by the by the coal companies for for decades now is that an accurate characterization of what's going on in a lot of west of west virginia or was that just

a few of my more militant activist freaked out viewers who live in those those. actually. the governor earl ray tomblin he actually openly said that it's up to the people who you know make their own individual decisions aren't where they feel the drinking water see even though it's been said that children and pregnant women should not drink water because of the nobody that i talked to west virginia and he's in rural community than in charleston nobody just of the water where the government when they said you know everybody could drink it except for children and pregnant now the water itself has come back from virginia where it's well water bill done by wanted to fence and you could buy the full report on the web site it wanted to print but they found you know aluminum chromium magnesium nickel any and all these heavy metals in the water along with these chemicals a lot of people are allergic to this chemical and the metals i mean people that really don't know how to listen or not the things that would be associated with

a chemical spill those are the things that are associated with coal slurry. well i don't see this is one of the big chested in jane jane reach well hamilton are at the hampton inn in charleston and they said this is the water that was emanating the licorice like smell that this is you know with. which they still ten thousand gallons. so whether or not that's a result of you know other chemicals that may have gotten in the water they say people shouldn't drink of water until the thoroughly tested all of their fixtures all of their os and all the shower heads and i think it'll be really interesting to us to have some water tested from six months before the spill and see if all those heavy metals were right because you know the heavy metals are associated with coal lots that's how mercury gets in our rivers as coal fired power plants you know vaporize the mercury and then it precipitates out with rain for example so any a well at that well will keep on it and carl thanks for the great reporting will will get we'll get back with you again and absolutely is going to be a follow up article on occupy dot com that's right ok i will look for it carl

gibson thanks so much for being with us thank you. it's the good the bad in the very very fast so mentally ugly the good chris kluwe in an interview with huffington post yesterday the former n.f.l. punter an outspoken l g b t rights advocate called out anonymous and f l executives who say that the league isn't ready for a distraction like an openly gay player michael sam he said one thing i thought was really interesting was the very word just strach it seems of this word distraction is code for i don't really like the idea of a gay player on my team but i know i can't say that so i use the abstract stick couldn't agree more well said it's the bat james toronto the wall street journal

columnist has been heavily criticized the. for a piece he wrote about sexual assault on college campuses according to toronto what is called the problem of sexual assault on campus is in large part a problem of reckless alcohol consumption by men and women alike when two drunken college students collide the male one is almost always presumed to be at fault or as james taranto thinks it's time for society start blaming the victims of sexual assault as if it didn't happen that way too far too often already the wall street journal should be ashamed of itself for publishing this kind of massaging this to it's and a very very ugly theory jane the oklahoma restaurant owners embroiled in controversy today over accusations that his business discriminates about. pretty much everyone he didn't do himself any favors with some comments he made about his policies to a local t.v. station check it out. gary caro's a rash john and barney name been open for more than four decades and carries quite

the reputation of being in business for four years i think i can spot a freak or i really don't want to gauge your right i don't deal with these people these people walk them and the street with no jobs will flee or if i reached over and slapped me should be offended she got a reason so much call me a bigot i'm a watchable i really don't want gays around any ma'am and any man that would compromise his body would compromise anything. very. corporations can't have their cake and eat it too right now corporations are making billions of dollars off of you and me and are hiding those billions in offshore

bank accounts to avoid paying taxes to our government what if we close the tax loopholes that allow corporations to skip get out on paying taxes and bought the brought those trillions of dollars back home some states are already doing that they've seen some pretty amazing results back in two thousand and three the montana state legislature closed that state's tax loophole the so-called water's edge loophole that allowed companies to avoid state taxes by hiding their profits in offshore bank accounts in the decade since montana has brought in over forty million dollars in tax revenue which is a lot considering that the state only spends one point eight billion every year last summer oregon jumped on the bandwagon and closed a similar tax loophole that state now expects to bring in an additional seventeen million dollars in tax revenue from corporations this year alone and a new report by the u.s. public interest research group found that if twenty one other states and the district of columbia had closed their offshore corporate tax of eighteen loopholes

and were brought in over one billion dollars in additional tax revenue in two thousand and twelve. just imagine what would happen if the federal government took similar actions and close corporate tax loopholes that allowed giant transactional corporations like apple to hide billions in profits overseas according to apple the giant tech company paid around six billion dollars in taxes in two thousand and twelve and probably pay around seven in two thousand and thirteen. as multiple tax experts and lawmakers have said apple should be paying a lot more in taxes to our government after all its one of america's most profitable companies in two thousand and thirteen and took home thirty seven billion dollars in profits on one hundred seventy one billion dollars in revenue so how is apple macon so much it's a pain so little in taxes to support our nation the way they do it is simple they hide a lot of money offshore apple has a whole bunch of subsidiaries for example in ireland or that company has

a maximum tax rate of just two percent compared to the thirty eight thirty five percent maximum tax rate for corporations here in the united states they funnel follow money through those subsidiaries so it never touches u.s. shores and therefore can't be taxed according to reports between two thousand and nine and two thousand and twelve apple hit at least seventy four billion dollars in profits from u.s. taxes by using those iras subsidiaries and as c.n.n. money points out apple keeps its profits offshore for as long as possible because companies oh us tax on profits when they bring them back from overseas the moment that money comes back to the united states apple would have to pay the us corporate tax on it minus any foreign taxes already paid right now apple has around one hundred two billion dollars in offshore bank accounts and the company said no plans to bring that money back to the u.s. any time soon as senator carl levin put it apple sought the holy grail of top tax

avoidance it has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be a tax resident nowhere course apple isn't the only giant corporation hiding billions of dollars overseas hundreds of corporations are exploiting these same corporate tax loopholes to avoid paying taxes to our own government report from citizens for tax justice found that thirty corporations on the fortune five hundred list each paid zero income taxes between. two thousand and eight two thousand and ten even though they made over one hundred and eighty billion dollars collectively . what if we close those loopholes shut down the offshore banking operations and forced corporations to pay taxes on all of their profits that they earn here in this country according to stop tax haven abuse act proposed last september by senators carl levin mark baggage sheldon whitehouse and jeanne shaheen closing offshore corporate tax loopholes would provide nearly two hundred and twenty

billion dollars in additional tax revenues over the next decade. back in one nine hundred fifty s. one nine hundred sixty s. when american businesses were doing just fine thank you very much corporate tax revenue was about six percent of g.d.p. today it's just over one percent. it's time to return to corporate tax policies that work for both businesses and for america if multi-billion dollar corporations like apple want to make money off we the people and they should be paying taxes to the united states they can't have it both ways they can't get rich off us and then screw us working class americans shouldn't have to face the burden of corporate tax loopholes that are letting corporations off the hook let's bring those offshore trillions back home and start rebuilding the american economy. and that's the way it is tonight tuesday feb eleventh two thousand and fourteen and don't forget democracy begins with you get active tag you're it.

got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. if they wait substory. let's get this guy like me or about guys instead of working for the people both missions the major media are working for each other right on stage and. they did rather well. we're. going to run your whole show on mom in a lot of these thank you ali face i think sometimes people.

pleasure to have you with us here on our t.v. today i roll researcher. and. i would rather 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. coming

up on r t the sochi winter olympics as teams from around the world compete already a few select teams stand at the top with medal wins but it's far from final the latest on the olympic games just ahead and french president francois alon get the warm welcome from president obama and the first lady this amid swirling reports of a long i have a love affair with a closer look ahead. and for executives u.s. marines and their families were supposed to toxic water at their military base in studio two survivors share their stories with r.t. america.