coming up on r t going for the gold another day at the sochi winter games is wrapping up so who is bringing home the medals we'll give you the latest from sochi . and u.s. senator rand paul souza these surveillance state the senator files a class action lawsuit against president obama and top security officials more on the fight to protect american civil liberties coming up. and a florida case over the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager draws to a close both sides delivered closing arguments in the trial of the man accused of firing several shots into a car over loud music in update on that trial later in the show.

as of wednesday feb twelfth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our team america the two thousand and fourteen olympic games are in full swing in sochi it's the fifth day of competitions here is a round up of today's winners germany is currently in the lead with six gold medal wins but only has a grand total of eight medals canada is in second place with ten medals and norway is in third with twelve now their limbs is in fourth place followed by the u.s. switzerland russia and australia are to correspondent paul scott is in sochi with the latest on the games. well the big winner on day five certainly

from the home fans point of view was russia in the figure skating they continued their dominance over that event with a gold and silver medal in the pads event now the gold medal went to the world in european champions tatyana and maxing time cough now they have the lead at the halfway stage after they put in a walled record performance in the short program on tuesday evening and they followed that up on wednesday with another remarkable and fullest display in the free program to secure the gold medal and they were clearly visibly overcome by the emotion of it all at the end of their performance which raised the roof inside the iceberg skating palace meanwhile their teammates could send you still by the federal claim of came in second so it was almost a clean sweep for russia germany got the bronze but these medals that i did to the gold that russia have already won in the figure skating they secured gold in the team event of the course of the weekend and with this gold and silver it very much seems that in terms of figure skating russia very much the nation to couch. well

elsewhere there was baited disappointment for american athletes on day five and one of the biggest stars of these games one of the biggest attractions for fans is twenty seven year old snowboarder shaun white but the two time defending champion lost his crown in the snowboard halfpipe he didn't even claim a medal coming in in fourth place he pulled out of the slope style to concentrate on this event so afterwards he said the moment wouldn't be a career defining the gold medal in that went to europe production of cough also it was a pretty disappointing day for another american star in shani davis and he was going to try and make history in the one thousand meters speed skating event in the outlet arena how'd he won the gold medal then he'd be the first time that anyone has won three consecutive gold medals in the same event at three consecutive olympic games however he was well off the pace. in the end coming in in eighth place so really

a disappointing day for many american athletes but the excitement is building ahead of the men's hockey competition of course there's going to be an expectant home crowd russia playing on home ice and is going to be many many nations experts are saying there are many nations who could win the olympic gold medal this time around from sweden to russia to canada and of course the usa now the. men's hockey competition has actually started on wednesday with some preliminary matches but russia's first game comes against slovakia tomorrow on thursday and there's an interesting discussion of course because the n.h.l. is currently on a break to allow the players who play in the n.h.l. to come here to sochi and participate in the winter olympics but there's a tool that that might not happen and in four years time the n.h.l. motw no allow their players to go on a break so that's something that's up for discussion but in terms of the action russia and america their first match begins on thursday that was artie's paul scott

reporting from sochi. now to a fight against the n.s.a. kentucky senator rand paul today filed a lawsuit against president obama and top security officials over the agency's surveillance program paul believes a program that includes gathering citizens' phone metadata infringes on our fourth amendment rights are to correspondent mayor dave it has more. on behalf of myself freedom works and everyone in america that has a phone we are filing suit against the president of the united states in defense of the fourth amendment today senator rand paul finally did what he had been threatening to do for months senator paul officially filed a class action lawsuit against the obama administration the national security agency and a host of others regarding a u.s. surveillance program that collects information on millions of u.s. citizens at a press conference here today paula spoke about the magnitude of this case this we

believe will be a historic lawsuit we think it may well be the largest class action lawsuit ever filed on behalf of the bill of rights we've had three hundred eighty six thousand and twenty six people show an interest in having their records for tech to for the last few months potential class action signatories have been volunteering to be a part of the lawsuit signing up through websites like the political action committee web site rand pac and through another web site called defend the fourth dot com another group that has been trying to push support for the suit is a libertarian organization called freedom works now matt kidd be the president of freedom works is also a plaintiff in this lawsuit along with sen rand paul now it's important to note that this case will be focusing only on the n.s.a.'s surveillance of phone metadata not e-mail communications and the court will not be looking at whether section two

fifteen of the patriot act is constitutional rather it will be focusing on whether the n.s.a.'s controversial program falls in line with the fourth amendment we will ask the question in court whether a single warrant can apply to the records of every american phone user all of the job without limits without individualisation. ken cuccinelli virginia's former attorney general is serving as the lead counsel for the case he says this trial will be different from the federal case late last year in which a judge ruled that the n.s.a.'s mass collection of phone data is constitutional here's what he had to say most times this question has been addressed overwhelmingly it has been on what's called an ex parte basis that means there was no one to argue the other side there was no one there to defend the constitution vigorously cuccinelli went on to say that this would be one of the rare occasions

when we have a debate in front of a judge who will then be able to make that ultimate decision both cuccinelli and senator rand paul said they were very optimistic this case would go to the supreme court but that it could take several years before it reaches that level in washington david. meanwhile states are doing their part to fight against n.s.a. surveillance and maryland the home of the n.s.a. a group of state congressmen introduced a bill that would literally pull the plug on government spying they would do this by cutting off water electricity and other support to the federal agency it's called the fourth amendment protection act and supporters say it's the bill is aimed at blocking the n.s.a. from monitoring and tracking citizens and the state hears the bill that prohibits state offices and employees from engaging in certain activities relating to the collection of certain electronic data or metadata of

a person and it doesn't stop there doesn't stop in maryland there's legislation just like this in the works in other states like washington utah and missouri more in the states fight i'm joined by shah had a target of director of the bill of rights defense committee welcome shot thanks for having me this bill would make life pretty tough for the n.s.a. to operate in maryland tell us more about what it would do if it were to become law because i understand that you've been involved in drafting this legislation or similar legislation in maryland and utah in particular it would have a special force because the bill essentially denies state resources to the n.s.a. and in the states where the n.s.a. has data centers like maryland like utah that would include pulling the plug on public utilities like the water that they say uses to cool the servers amounting to two million gallons per day in the utah bluffdale utah data center as well as the

electricity that they used to power the servers so even while congress decides what to do in the courts decide what to do with the president continues to step closer you know one hopes towards the positions he espouses as a campaign candidate back in two thousand and eight the states can take matters into their own hands and that's exactly what we're seeing in maryland you saw at a dozen other states around the country and. as you had mentioned maryland is a big hub for the n.s.a. they are based at the headquarters that already it that's right so what is the particular significance of this bill happening in maryland where the n.s.a. primarily operates i mean we've seen various states take adopt similar legislation are or think about enacting this kind of legislation and it's got to have even more of a larger effect in maryland to describe it in metaphor if domestic surveillance is a dragon and the effort to fight it in cities is one scale at a time and congress is chopping off its head going after the n.s.a. data centers in maryland and utah is like taking a swipe at the juggler and we could quite easily i think to the extent those states

see fit to step forward stop this sordid enterprise whether or not the washington institutions wake up and remember what the fourth amendment means and go in for the juggler as you put it a bill like this now was vetoed it as i understand in california so it's hard to get laws like this pass it is a more of a symbolic move or what do you think i don't think it's symbolic at all what it actually will cue up to my knowledge there hasn't been a veto of this bill anywhere in the country it might have been a similar bill in a different era but the particular challenge the bills like this will face are lawsuits alleging federal supremacies with respect to foreign policy they'll say that the n.s.a. is a foreign policy instruments that states don't have the authority to make their own foreign policy and that's certainly true but whether or not states have the authority to direct their own public utilities is a pretty settled question and there's no actual legitimate argument that would suggest that the federal government has the right to commandeer those state resources so it actually pits like most constitutional law to very compelling

interest against each other the state's plenary authority over its resources against federal supremacies with respect to matters left by the constitution and federal and left out of that equation and what i think will resolve those issues ultimately is the forgotten relevance of the fourth amendment which quite simply makes this government enterprise illegal in the first instance and so the states taking action. to advance constitutional principles will be interpreted very differently by a court than a state taking action to restrict. its these are very concerned fourth amendment concerns that these states are are trying to bring to the forefront here meanwhile a panel of privacy expert that reviewed the n.s.a. surveillance program testified before a senate committee here in washington not too long ago it's a panel of members of the privacy and civil liberties oversight board they took questions from senators about their findings want to take a less a listen to a member of this group rachel brad and. this

program has been operating for years that's been the subject of numerous judicial opinions that will the legality of it will ultimately be resolved in cases that are currently pending in the courts it just struck me as gratuitous an unnecessary to also say the program is illegal because it has a very demoralizing and negative effect on the intelligence community you know you want your intelligence agencies to aggressively protect the national security within the bounds of the law you don't want them to be timid and be scared of the rug being pulled out from under them. and this is an argument that we heard from senators today saying that this board while they should provide some oversight might have gone too far and it's not really they're really not to discuss or or find our rule on the legality of it what do you think every think those senators and there's a brand should probably read the nine eleven commission report that recommended the creation of this board to do exactly that i think they're making this argument because they're uncomfortable with what the board has decided and what the board has decided is the same thing that the founders of our country decided two hundred

fifty years ago which was mass surveillance is not american it's that simple actually it's not a particularly complicated question and the p.c.l. will be was well within its ambit of its institutional authority and reaching a conclusion about the legality of these programs and correctly deciding that they can't possibly comply with the fourth of the interesting mr retire great to have you on that wish i had the atar the executive director of the bill of rights defense committee. well outrage over the n.s.a. surveillance program not just here and the u.s. it's happening throughout europe the european parliament called for increased protection of citizens private data members are also calling for more protection for whistleblowers and journalists artie's polly boyko has more. well this is a pretty thorough document that's looking into the scale of mass surveillance in europe in fact this is the first ever parliamentary inquiry into the n.s.a. scandal but there's been a major bone of contention and that's to what extent edward snowden should figure

in it there's been wrangling over whether the whistleblower should testify to the committee that's responsible for the report considering he leaked this information in the first place it would make sense but conservatives in the european parliament are against it while edward snowden's lawyer is say that he's willing to testify via video link then there's the issue of wording m.e.p. he's rejected a proposed amendment that would call on e.u. governments to assure snowden of his safety if he were to come to europe there was also reportedly a line calling on the u.s. not to prosecute edward snowden which also didn't make the cut instead the report will call for international protection for whistleblowers but it won't mention snowden by name at all well the german green politician who was gunning for the snowden amendments to stay has said that it's ridiculous that he's been left in the lurch considering that edward snowden is the reason that the world knows about global surveillance in the first place. that was our tease.

now to west virginia where there is more trouble for residents drinking water state officials are scrambling to contain a coal slurry spill into a creek it's the same area where hundreds of thousands of people were told just a couple weeks ago not to drink or touch their tap water after a toxic chemical leak meghan lopez reports cleanup crews are working day and night in the aftermath of a major chemical spill in west virginia but i am not talking about the thousands of gallons of four meant the psycho hexane methanol that spilled into the river last month a completely different leak is now the top concern of west virginia officials instead of freedom industries this one came from patriot coal just eighteen miles away it happened early tuesday morning at the company's cannot eagle prep plant near winifred west virginia when

a valve rupture one hundred thousand gallons of coal story flooded into feels a creek during a three hour time period blackening six miles of the creek as well as half a mile of the canal river near the town of chesapeake the canal river is a big body of water that runs through charleston and connects to the ohio river which continues on to indiana and kentucky and beyond also connected to the canal river is the elk river which is where the m.c.h. spill happened on january ninth coal slurry is a mixture of coal dust rock and chemicals luckily the company discontinued its use of in its supply just last month as a result of the freedom industry spill and very little of it was in this batch of slurry otherwise the amount of him c.h.m. would have been ten times higher than the leak that contaminated the water of three hundred thousand charleston residents but the chemicals that are in this lorry include highly toxic metals like ours. sinek lead cadmium charmian iron mag news

aluminum and nickel that's according to the environmental group the flood safety project the west virginia coal association spoke with r.t. today and said that the spill of coal slurry is not a danger to west virginia's residents since there aren't any public water intakes immediately downstream from that plant that is the spokesman went on to say that the association will work with the department of environmental protection once the cleanup is complete to discuss how this spill happened and its environmental impact and that impacts could be significant according to the d e p they warned that the leak could affect the surrounding area and might contaminate the groundwater now for its part patriot cole says it is fully cooperating with investigators as it looks into the cause of the spill in a statement to r.t. the company said quote containment activity began immediately after the site and is continuing in fields creek and is our top priority cleanup activities are underway

and will continue until the state regulatory officials determine the spill is remediated the e.p.a. says the leak could have been confined much more quickly but the plant's still alarm failed as for west virginia residents this latest information is just a nother item to add to a growing list of environmental and public health concerns in washington meghan lopez r.t. . unfortunately it's not the first time residents drinking water has been contaminated in the u.s. not many people know about it but it happened and camp a military base in jacksonville north carolina it's a site of what is thought to be one of the largest water contamination sites in american history between one nine hundred fifty seven and one nine hundred eighty seven hundreds of thousands of marine corps members and their family members were exposed to tap water containing toxic chemicals during that time people living at the base drink and bathed in that water it's believed the chemicals leaked from

underground storage tanks gerri and something or a career marine who raised his family at camp lejeune tells our t. about the death of his nine year old daughter while living at that base. the contamination began at the largest and worst contaminated drinking water system on the base which was the point or put through marines called root for do it is main one thousand nine hundred fifty three that's verified by. the agency for toxic substances and disease registry their water model confirms that date. and some anger is in the capital this week meeting with lawmakers to spread awareness about the problem and get compensation for the victims. the new developments of the so-called loud music case in florida the prosecution rested its case in the trial against michael dunn the man accused of shooting seventeen year old jordan davis to

death inside an s.u.v. dunn is accused of murdering the teen over loud music the suspect has testified that it was all in self-defense dunn's lawyer told the jury today that deadly force is justifiable if you believe he was acting to protect himself and the laws in the state of florida. is it you who reasonably believe that. you have to find michael dunn not guilty of every cow in the dike the every lesser included you don't even start your discussion if they met their burden of beyond a reasonable doubt. but the prosecution argues that there was no reason for done to think that his life was in danger when this defendant shot and killed jordan davis there was no gun in that arena there was no that there was no bat

there was no loud cry. there was no guile. for more on this controversial murder trial r t is nicholas o'donovan joins us from miami with more hi there nicholas so tell us. tell us what happened today in that courtroom well it was day nine day of closing arguments in the markel dunn trial we heard prosecutors say that for dunn the shooting was just simply a target practice prosecutor erin wolfson was in charge of deliver in the state's closing argument when she said that when michael dunn pull up to the s.u.v. with jordan davis and his friends were as you said listening to music his blood literally started to boil obviously the state is trying to depict a picture of michael dunn where he was some way triggered by some sort of irrational hate towards a certain kind of person or that there was some sort of premeditation in his

actions on the other hand dunn's lawyers depictions the forty seven year old as a love in caring father that was literally scared to death and acted in self-defense therefore very different stories that we heard today in jacksonville let's talk about the evidence that we've heard throughout this case as it comes to a close nicholas because as we had mentioned dunn maintains that he opened fire because he felt that his life was threatened that the evidence to back that up. well actually that is the essential question here and in self-defense cases the line is extremely thin how can we know if he really saw something that looked like a gun and feared for his life we would never know that although we have to say that the medical evidence presented in court suggest that jordan davis died in the car in a defensive position the truth is that when done himself testified he told the court that he thought he saw

a gun in the vehicle where jordan and his friends were all the asleep we now know the police never found the gun in or near the vehicle although it is true that that vehicle left off lead the seed right after the shooting and basically dunn's version is that you know he asked the teens to turn down their rap music and it all escalated from there literally michael dunn said the jury in this. exchange with jordan it was always jordan davis who kept escalating the situation to the point where he had no choice and this is very important no choice but to defend himself and it was basically a life or death situation and convict ed what sentence is done a thing. well if the racially diverse jury formed by ten women in six men finally find michael dunn guilty of first degree murder will he obviously faces up to life in prison dunn also faces three counts of attempted

first degree murder related to the other three teenagers that were with jordan davis but survived the shooting one of them was severely injured so as i say he's facing life in prison right and this is the same state where the very controversial trayvon martin trial took place and we saw a strong reaction from the community there really come together in protest nicholas what reaction are you seeing on the ground there to the death of jordan davis. well there very two similar cases we are starting to see protests outside the courthouse in jacksonville remember well the coverage in the reactions after that trayvon martin very ticked and i can tell you there was an outrage when george zimmerman was acquitted the truth is that it's inevitable to link both cases both in florida both involve a seven year old african-american kids apparently are noms been shot by middle aged

men the feeling is well that there is a problem down here in florida the question now is is it a social problem is a racial one is a legal problem stand your ground law has been linked to almost twenty six deaths of minors since it passed down here in the state of florida many opposed the law we also heard attorney general eric holder say after the trayvon martin case that the stand your ground law is basically a dangerous expansion of the concept of self-defense others like seeing a stevie wonder said he will not perform in the state of florida until the stand your ground law comes to an end and certainly it's hard not to draw those parallels between these two cases nicholas appreciate you staying on top of this that was artie's nicholas o'donovan. now to a man that discovery in seattle washington construction workers got a prehistoric surprise in the modern developed area of south lake union they

uncovered tusks of the woolly mammoth they gigantic mammal died when or last roamed the earth about ten thousand years ago hasn't been seen since scientists with the university of washington plan to move the ancient tusks to the burke museum of natural history and culture in the coming weeks. well boom bust is next here on our tear in a joints now for a quick preview higher ed was coming up on boom bust we're covering all things banking in today's show and i'll be speaking with a knot in maadi author of the bankers new clothes live via our new york city studio you won't want to miss it then edward harrison and i discuss the j.p. morgan the better markets doubt might jamie dimon actually have to do something other than open his checkbook to find out all that and more to look forward to thanks erin that a little thing to do for now for more of the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash our team america and our web site r t dot com

slash you say stay tuned boom bust is next. this is obviously more for the latest because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rape they really needed to buy guns environ how to use them. this is the one that i'm going to go with for once again it's the fear of friends when the definitely the target of the gun lobby you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody would you would piss with her. i'm noticing more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to tell him guns to protect their family and young girls shoot out here too so we do have a pink or. more kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if

being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth were clearly not the safest. slipped under will come up in a lot of these communities they face. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure.

know they're i'm marinated this is them boston these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. coming up we're talking banking and accountability both pre and post crisis what has changed what hasn't and what probably never will and who better to weigh in on the subject than i'm not a model professor of finance an econ at stanford business school and all four of the bankers new clothes what's wrong with banking and what to do about it then in today's big deal ed harris and i are talking about the nonprofit organization that's proving to be a place of the morning the side of jamie diamond well coming up it all starts right now.