russia launches a criminal investigation into the attempted murder of a us creep all the daughter of the former double agent who was also poisoned in the u.k. . u.k. some foreign secretary boris johnson claims it is overwhelmingly likely vladimir putin was responsible for the attempted murder of the former russian spy an allegation the kremlin calls shocking and unforgivable. more than fifteen thousand civilians managed to flee syria's eastern guta as fighting rages between government forces and the rebels in the stricken region. u.s. command says it has no idea how resources allocated to the saudi led coalition are actually being used in the war yet. you can head over to our to dot com for the more on the latest headlines but coming up is an all new

episode of the big picture stay with us for. this week in pennsylvania. november preview. i'm hala cook in washington this is the big picture on our team america. this weekend southwestern pennsylvania district drawn to be a republican safe seat which donald trump won by nearly twenty points and stumped in twice democrat connor lamb want to special election to fill the house seat vacated by disgraced republican congressman tim murphy lab one by only hundreds of votes and opponent rick's a cone who has yet to concede. is already considering

a november run in a different district pennsylvania fourteen in a wall street journal op ed former george w. bush chief political strategist karl rove wrote the only certainty about the twenty eight team house elections is that republicans will lose seats historically the party of a first term president tends to in midterm elections democrats took a sixty three seat hit in two thousand and ten barack obama's first midterm two years into bill clinton's presidency his party lost fifty four seats and house control back in ninety nine eighty two one thousand nine hundred eighty two two years into the reagan administration the g.o.p. lost twenty six seats all it would take to flip the house this time twenty four and forty eight house republicans are retiring or seeking other office and what about the united states senate let's ask our t.

america's edge schultz and on the right conservative radio and t.v. pundit steve malzberg and on the left former florida democratic party chairman mitch caesar welcome thank you all for being here. very severe heya during the campaign the washington examiner wrote the young charming democratic candidate conor lamb is running like a republican on matters from guns to getting rid of nancy pelosi and sly as a fox lamb is not taking any firm stances on any other issues when your message is simply i am for new leadership and cleaning up washington and you look like you just walked out of an orifice catalog you're going to connect with voters on both sides of the aisle and lamb was careful not to slam donald trump ed mitch and steve in that order on a one to ten scale ten meaning this race tells us a lot about what to expect in november and one meaning all politics is local don't

read too much into it how much does that pennsylvania a special election tell us about november ed well you know hala is going to be with you i think it is something that can be filed away and referenced later on for every democratic district in the country where they have to come up with someone to run i wrote a book back in two thousand and four straight talk from the heartland and i think that this guy must've read that book the theme of it was i'm a gun toting meat eating lefty i mean there are people out there in the middle of the country that think the way this guy thinks but i'm not sure chuck schumer and they see pelosi think the way he thinks and if the democrats are going to prove that they can have a broader tent like they say they do maybe this guy gives them the road map that's how i view the outcome of this is that you can win trump country but you're going to have to be a different kind of democrat but it's also a voice that i think the democrats have not been listening to the democrats are

going to have to prove they're more than new york and more than california and maybe this guy gave them a road map steve how about it. well i think ed's absolutely right and i give kudos to you holland for at the beginning putting this in perspective because there's no worse fake news than fake news by omission and that's what the networks practice in this country you talked about how obama lost sixty four house seats in his first midterm the most since one nine hundred forty eight you talked about bill clinton of course also and obama last night senate seats in the second midterm that was the most in midterm history so if trump loses a significant amount of seats in the house and senate which i don't think he'll lose much of the senate at all it's to be expected now as far as as mr lamb goes he did run on some things he ran on being against right to work state he was for the tariffs that trump put in and he had to support the massive support of eighty thousand union workers in that district many of them trump supporters but they don't like the rat right to work rhetoric and he stuck up for them in that respect

so that was big and i don't think you could be a schizo phrenic party and succeed i mean imagine if you had republicans running who said i doubt paul ryan's got to go and you know we're not this where borsch and then they say this guy's nuts now all of a sudden the democrat does it and he's like oh a genius and i said i don't have a craps have to do i don't get it but i'm not so sure paul ryan's got to go wouldn't play what do you think this is going to open up again in november anyway but what conversations are they having in various campaigns around the country now as a result of what happened this week. first let me say that on a one to ten scale i think the relevance towards november is about a seven if i had to say one lead if i have to say one lesson that's been learned very specifically that the democrats have learned is that they realize to win they don't necessarily need a lion they just need a lamp right and let me and let me be and let me be specific you know he was

a good fit for the district this is something the democrats have not been good at before and let me also comment on some that was just mention about union members you're right a lot of them voted for trump and guess what this time a lot of them voted for the democrat he specifically talked about bread and butter issues economic issues and things that affected people's daily lives that's what democrats have to do not only in the future but forever and very specifically what we have to think about is i would look at that race and if i'm an incumbent republican in the district that maybe trump won by five points i'd be very very concerned they have a they have a they have a they have a real problem and frankly he was very smart he said i'm not in favor of palosi he was immune from that attack he didn't allow them to nationalize the race by talking about that we're bringing in washington which all sides hate sure we had a very smart campaign and the key here is it's providing momentum which were more

money and better recruitment for appropriate candidate and then i'll politicians you know how how and let me jump in here on this island you mentioned the senate at the top of the lead here you know this this guy gave a blueprint no question about it as far as house members are concerned but the senate you know joe manchin is behind in trump country joe donnelly is behind in the anna hided heidi heitkamp it behind in north dakota i mean the democrats are going to have to figure out who they are what they stand for and just drive home to . to get those independent voters because that's what swings every election those independent voters went to donald trump in the election they're going to the democrats are going to have to make sure they find a way to get him back and hollered guys are great about come out a lot camilla harris. you know they should being touted as a presidential hopeful for the democrats in two thousand and twenty she came out in

favor of what the oakland mayor did in warning the illegal aliens that ice was coming so again who are the democrats if the economy is good in november voters are going to have to ask themselves the question who am i mad at in. the economy if it's role in the way it is in the stock market and if unemployment continues to stay in that four percent area and if the republicans wisely do not go after medicare medicaid social security i think a lot of those independent voters are going to ask him themselves ok who am i mad at kind of like the way things are going and i think that's going to play big for republicans unlike other midterm elections played out well as for the senate which it brought up the dems could flip it with a net gain of three seats easiest path would be to win all twenty five they're defending ten of which are in states trump one in two thousand and sixteen and pick up three and here's three now though in utah orrin hatch retires mitt romney is

likely to keep that seat. republican in arizona where polls say toss up could a growing hispanic population flip that seat blue there's been some buzz about bob corker reconsidering retirement thad cochran leaving for health reasons opens up a couple of seats in mississippi match your sense of the senate. well i think the senate's going to be much more of a difficult climb than the house you know if you want to talk about coattails specifically i can tell you in the seven special elections we've had since last year seventy six are in heavy red states and democrats have over performed by an average of sixteen points i don't think the president could have coattails unless there negative it's certainly not worked out but i think that because of what ed said the democrats are more vulnerable because we're the seats are physically geographically for us to hold on to them so i think that's

a problem but again i think there's going to be a democratic surge but there's a big difference between if it's this high or much much higher and that's undetermined i think what's happening is a lot of democrats as we see are in the special election the other day and it's a microcosm for a senate seat. they're kind of tired of all the antics almost like you know playing the the board game who's going to be fired today civically i think a lot has to come the senate's a heavier lifting i think there is a chance in the house actually a pretty good chance which i probably would have said a couple of months ago the new generic congressional a match up is now up to ten points for democrats fifty years ago today march sixteenth one nine hundred sixty eight was a monday and this was on our black and white t.v. then. i didn't get the candidate. and attention in the united states. i did not run for the presidency merely.

fifteen days later a sitting democratic president announced he would not seek another term ed who are republicans afraid of who could energize the race for the democrats the way our f.-k. did back then. well you know back in the days of bobby kennedy it was not anywhere near as toxic politically as it is today so i do think it's a little bit tough to make a comparison but i do think a good example can be set that policies do matter and i think we saw that with bernie sanders he didn't get the nomination but he came out strong for education for everybody for medicare for everybody and he came out with a didn't totally different plan from what the democrats had been talking about the corporate democrats for years and years he came out after after wall street

ironically we're talking about this twelve democrats voted to get rid of dodd frank those aren't bernie kratz and so what steve is talking about a schizophrenia party there is an identity crisis that has developed on the left in this country are you going to be a corporate democrat like the kid who won in pennsylvania or are you going to be a bernie crack right and were you going to line up and so i don't think come out harris would play in the middle of the country bernie sanders played in the middle of the country and won a lot of those states in the primary because he talked to workers yes because he talked to the middle class because he talked to a younger generation that should be the first hip to anybody and that's exactly really what bobby kennedy did bobby kennedy talked about the future bobby kennedy talked about civil rights going to two point zero he talked about fairness and this generation understands two things the environment and ferret out who's going to pick up the torch thank you ed schultz steve malzberg and mitch caesar.

coming up got kids are they hypnotized by the vices not good that's next this is the big picture on our team america. in the heart of the swiss alps this is a place probably more secretive than the pentagon more mysterious than the cia and better guarded than for knox swiss customs are here permanently all the site is controlled by them and they impose the opening time so it will come up with it the possibilities for missile plus the procedures in place of the strictest in all

europe must to pieces by artists like picasso and modigliani i can't boards and sold inside this warehouse that's where the report comes in that it covers up deals which are naturally discreet commercially discreet step but also discreet because they concern fraud. some of those paintings are linked to dark secrets nobody knows how many of these secrets a kept inside the geneva freeport says reflection that you'll never obtain an inventory of all the works in the freeport who knows how many there are three hundred three thousand three hundred thousand is it a matter of confidentiality only is it the world's black box of the art business. the c.d.c. in good. moods. this is. the church secret indeed catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children can get

away with it quite literally i like to call this the do a graphic solution so what the bishop needs to do then he finds out that the priest is is a perpetrator is simply moves him to a different spot were the previous standards not the highest ranks of the catholic church help conceal the accused priests from the police and justice system to that end of that's known as the i intend. to use this out in. this. case both. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see them.

children today are digital natives growing up tethered to devices technology has put all the information in the world at their fingertips and with this immersion come on the intended consequences concerns include physical inactivity sleep deprivation cyber bullying insufficient human interaction and privacy risks like exposure to predators and sexting no not all screen time is scary those dog eared text books we lug around have been replaced by a tablet computer that is the ultimate library and a content creation device that can really take a young imagination out for a spin and when we say screen time don't just think digital devices for generations

television has been a default babysitter common sense media is an independent nonprofit organization whose stated mission is helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology and they caution against background t.v. constantly running t.v. can interfere with parent child interactions which kids need for healthy development. bedroom t.v. a kid with a t.v. in the bedroom watches a lot more t.v. and is exposed to more age inappropriate content than a child who doesn't have a t.v. in his or her bedroom parents who watch a lot of t.v. kids pick up their parents' habits and up watching more adult shows commercials kids under seven can't distinguish between make believe and reality which makes them especially vulnerable to advertising and age inappropriate content

over exposure to images of violence sex and alcohol and harsh language not only can influence kids' behavior it can also have long lasting emotional impact so all screens considered how much screen time is too much green time let's ask dr lisa palmer co-founder of the renewed center of florida lisa thank you for joining us tonight and actually they only found. thanks for having me they are any of these aforementioned concerns over stated you know they're absolutely concerns you know kids have very different brains than adult brains because they're not in their early developed their pathways aren't developed so they really require more real life interaction and if they don't get it then their development is stunted as i understand it if parents are thinking pre-teen they're too late the american academy of p.g.

pediatrics recommends those eighteen months and younger shouldn't have any screen time besides video chatting and the toddlers eighteen to twenty four months can cove view high quality content and two to five year olds can watch an hour a day by themselves does this sound right to you. it does because like i said their brains aren't fully developed so anytime you're watching t.v. you're activating certain parts of your brain and you're really teaching a child or a person how to think and when the child's brain isn't fully developed their structures are going to form a certain way so even background t.v. noise can be harmful even tech icons like bill gates made a point to limit his own kids screen time as did the late steve jobs yet these visionaries contributive a lot to the world of early education so all screens considered what would you consider

a positive screen time. well definitely educational screen time age appropriate screen time like sesame street for instance but there's there's definitely an issue with watching too much screen time having it in the background how it affects you cognitively how it effects your emotionally there actually have been studies that have shown that when you watch too much television it can put you at risk later on for developing issues like type two diabetes or depression i'm it can also cause issues with visual issues which can be problematic with learning as well i'm curious you say diabetes what is that stem from a sedentary lifestyle. perhaps a sedentary lifestyle emotional that can cause you to me eat more and develop certain type of habits that could be problematic and lead to

a type two diabetes who a comfort food. a d h d seems like an epidemic among today's young i am a baby boomer and i don't remember this phenomenon when i was a kid was it invented after i grew up war of digital media maybe contributed to the problem. well like i was saying digital media affects the way your brain is formed in those neural pathways so absolutely it can affect your attention span we have to understand that there's a lot of instant gratification that's happening when you're watching television or you know you're looking at a device because it's actually doing the thinking for you and this is one of the problems is that we're not using our creative imagination to really think about things in to imagine and to hear all of that feedback is coming to us already there

so it's creating problems of instant gratification it's also creating a lack of empathy in people because they're not really learning how to relate so it's definitely all interconnected holland wow good point about the instant gratification because when we were munchkins in elementary school they were just drilling those multiplication tables in to us and now with the calculator for instance is something lost in terms of us taking the brain out for a spin sufficiently well there's something to be said about the human connection and. spending quality time with your kids and telling stories and playing with and having you know touching them and being with them and sharing their dreams sharing your aspirations playing in the sand these are things that a lot of kids are not getting exposed to nowadays because essentially parents are

using televisions as babysitters and so they're not getting the full amount of creativity that is necessary to be able to think properly and to actually . be healthy kids our kids get the cold shoulder from the dog when they're spending too much time on their devices we don't go play with a dog that's actually good for him isn't it. who doesn't like playing with their dog. we are guests in her home i assure you. two part question about digital heaven and hell health first this week we lost dr stephen hawking who warned about the ultimate threat of artificial intelligence that the machines could take over what if it's too late and there's nothing we can do to curtail digital exposure how would our children suffer oh man that's

such a good question because it is happening and we're creating robots to replace people and this is this is just an issue because we're not learning how to connect as human beings anymore and where this is a problem because we are humans so it's creating a lot of problems with people emotionally mentally anxiety and depression and there's really nothing that can take the place of the actual human interaction so we have to get back to basics because that's who we are we're not computers we're humans and we have to get in touch with that and get in touch with our essence and conversely i know of families who have no t.v. or computers in the home deliberately to shield those children how do those youngsters suffer from no digital stuff. it's almost

impossible to not be exposed in some way to digital information whether it be on the phone or by what you hear from other people or places that you know you go to a restaurant and there's a t.v. on it's almost impossible to be completely shielded off but i definitely think that and i know in my house i try not to have a t.v. on i like to have it silent even though i'm on t.v. but i like to have a silent more meditative background because i do find that that's healthy so. the only other problem with being exposed to so much television is that postsecondary trauma that you can experience from having that exposure and seeing all of the bad news and hearing it and just over and over again and it's all very very negative so there's a lot of negativity that calms through the television and limiting the amount of

exposure that you have to television or certainly. choosing wisely the kinds of programs that you're going to watch and be exposed to and trying to keep it more in the positive is definitely going to help you whether or not you're a child or you're an adult but certainly if you're a child you have to be aware that. children are not developed to be able to put information together the way that we can into really understand understand it so probably no t.v. is going to be better than anything i regard the phrase busy parent is redundant but with all the mom has on her plate it still is on the parent to be the child's ultimate information editor correct. absolutely because it all goes back to that role modeling and interaction and nothing can replace that the essence

of who we are as human beings which is to to be loved and to be creative and to be able to express ourselves and to think and to know how to think and so when we're exposed to television and too much screen time earlier on where essentially creating a way of thinking that's going to be very very different than how we're supposed to be thinking as as humans to interact with other people again to feel empathy and to really be able to communicate and to connect so definitely in limiting screen time and engaging with your kids in activities that are going to bond you with them is very important well thank you dr lisa palmer founder of the redo center of florida her website is the renu center dot com have

a great weekend. thanks for having me and that is the big picture if you watch us live on friday night somewhere else you can also find r t america on direct t.v. channel three two one or dish two eighty and if you missed any part of this week's show or if you want to share it you can or you'll find all our shows at youtube dot com slash the big picture our t.v. watch any show anywhere any time on any device also on our you tube channel your tweets every week our big picture etc webcast features your take on whatever so join the show i am at holland cook on twitter and if you follow me i'll follow you good night from washington happy st patrick's day so lancia we're back here next weekend to question more.

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