the f.a.a. modernization reform act of 2012. according to the federal aviation administration, the f.a.a., the united states aviation industry currently accounts for nearly 11 million jobs and contributes $1.3 trillion to the nation's gross domestic product. regrettably since september 30, 2007, the f.a.a. has operated under a series of short-term stopgap extensions. in fact, there have been 23 extensions of the f.a.a. program since the last multiyear re-authorization was signed into law eight years ago. i'm relieved we have finally stopped playing politics and with the safety of our airline passengers and appear to be on the verge of passing a necessary, meaningful, and long-term f.a.a. re-authorization. the f.a.a. conference report provides responsible funding for f.a.a. safety programs, air traffic control funding for also the modernization efforts known as next again and operations through 2015. it holds spending to the fiscal year 2011 levels while providing $13.4 billion in projects that w

should do tell us about them so the f.a.a. ought to do two things first of all the f.a.a. with it is currently licensing drones to law enforcement agencies it will license drones to commercial entities and other government agencies on a more widespread basis within the next few years as you had said so for the process for the licensing process it ought to one require all applicants for a drone license to submit a privacy statement that includes the surveillance capabilities of the drone and how they intend to use that information to the f.a.a. should make all the drone licenses and the accompanying privacy statement publicly available on law and that way it would prohibit secret drone use so we can understand why they are not but those are good ideas let me interrupt you just for one second what do you think the chances are that we might actually see that happen right because currently i mean you have the fact that filed a lawsuit to just try to get the information to the permits that have already been granted once this becomes more widespread you know are they just don't

technology but it also requires the f.a.a. to open up access to unmanned aerial vehicles within four years so that means that by september thirtieth two thousand and fifteen drones will be flying in the same airspace as airliners cargo planes business jets and private aircraft as the associated press described it now you can bet the law enforcement agencies are all eagerly awaiting the opportunity but are we ready for drones to be surveilling our skies and what are the new legal questions it'll be brought up concerning our privacy or to discuss this with me is hardly giger policy counsel at the center for democracy and technology hi thanks so much for joining us tonight thanks for having me now ok as i mentioned this really was a broader f.a.a. bill in order to monitor modernize the way that we control our air traffic control system but of course this little bit about opening up the skies to drones is in it too and so it passed with bipartisan support but you know it was there anybody out there was there any civil libertarians

now, the f.a.a.reauthorization has historically been a bipartisan bill that is essential to the operation of our aviation system. as a pilot myself, i have been all my life, i can see why this bill was needed, believe me. the current bill not only extends a wide variety of provisions impacting aviation, it helps create tens of thousands of jobs and to bring our aviation system into the 21st century. this important legislation has absolutely nothing to do with the national mediation board whose sole job is to oversee labor relations. the last year, house republicans tried to turn this f.a.a. reauthorization bill into a vehicle to attack workers' rights. they added a provision to their bill repealing the national mediation board's election rule, the rule which said that if you don't vote, it's not counted. it's not counted as a no vote or yes vote. it's just not counted. a commonsense rule. well, then when the house and senate bills were in conference, last year, they refused to pass a clean extension

to take into account all things that i think that we need to orce you know the government and the f.a.a. to actually publicly debates and you know is show us they're going to try to safeguard but you know i guess that gets it's kind of scary it's exciting and scary with all these new developments and technology that we have but i want to make sure i guess that we don't rush into them here thanks so much for joining us tonight thank you for having me. org and take our last break of the evening that was from back bill o'reilly things that we should go easy on rick santorum for his insane comments and articles i honor and i'm happy hour california is the most disliked fate of the union jealousy anybody and scientists are working on a bill that could erase the most traumatic memories. of people calling what you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the lead story as you can hear behind me loud explosions that lead. me to be. at least. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you lived something else here's some other

the last month a couple months ago they shut down the f.a.a. because they wouldn't let go of this particular provision and for temporary minors there is provision that says there's a lot of people needed right and so typically if you held an election and say. fifty people showed up to vote and twenty six of them said yes and twenty four said no the majority of people who voted i mean this is how we do it national exam but you got one hundred million registered voters fifty million show up and twenty six million decide the election so twenty six twenty six people but under these rules the fifty people who didn't show up would all be counted as no vote right so even though my door in georgia the people who voted voted yes it would be twenty six to seventy four rather than twenty six to twenty four right and has this ever happened anywhere in any elections anywhere in the united states or anywhere else in the world i mean this is nowhere else in the are no where else in the world nowhere else in the united states except for the airline and transpo

well you know there's this bill the f.a.a. authorization bill which is kind of like a catchall bill that funds the f.a.a. t.s.a. and some other similar already but you know hidden inside this bill were lots of new regulations and so the part that we're focusing on today is this rule that basically opens up domestic airspace to drones somebody drones are kind of benign like you know drones that filmmakers might want to use to film their movies but a big part of this will be law enforcement and other commercial uses like corporations that want to gather more information from the skies you know for things that they want to sell to people or for other marketing reasons and who's behind this what is their argument for more drones well. a lot of military contractors are behind this because right now most rounds that are created are made for the military you know the predator drone that is ubiquitous in the war on terror and afghanistan is made by general tom x. lockheed martin northrop grumman they make drones and there are a lot of

important things to take into account all things that i think that we need to force the government f.a.a. to actually publicly debate and you know show us they're going to try to safeguard but you know i guess it gets it's kind of scary it's exciting and scary with all these new developments in technology that we have going to make sure i guess that we don't rush into then peter thanks so much for joining us tonight thank you for having me. or go take our last break of the evening welcome back to bill o'reilly things but we should go easy on rick santorum for his insane comments and are told that i'm happy hour california is the most disliked state of the union and jealousy anybody and scientists are working on a pill that could erase the most traumatic memory. is it is. he. much brighter. from. silence to the question is so. please stop top team don't come. clean. ok guys it's time for tonight's full time award and tonight it goes to fox news host bill o'reilly say last night bill stopped by the tonight show with jay leno and they delved into the topic of republicans getting their hands

already flown the drone twice and is right i got it and got into a little bit of trouble with the f.a.a. but surely when it becomes legal for them to do so than shore they'll fly a drone strike a point so now when it comes to our privacy one of the dangers because you're right about this too if you actually if you look at what the supreme court has ruled in the past that you have an expectation of privacy if you're in a public space so how much does you know does anything really change if it's a drone doing at first but like i said a helicopter or some other type of so you're right that these are green court has said that about privacy in a public place that being said drones offer a type of surveillance that we really haven't seen from helicopters that are certainly very different from human observation drones can fly for hours and hours in hours without the need to refuel they can survey an entire town all at once they can be outfitted with facial recognition cameras license plate scanners all sorts of thermal imaging cameras high definition cameras you name it why if i sniffers so it

as people on the ground but it has no real it doesn't address in any way the privacy issues and the f.a.a. has a mandate in a sense to protect people in the air and on the ground and they've taken that is primarily a safety protection but i believe you can interpret the law and the a.c.l.u. has been arguing that you can interpret the law to cover the protection of privacy of individuals who are on the ground insofar as people have a certain expectation of privacy based on you know the architecture of our homes our yards and fences and things that we don't expect people to be you know looking at us from above or flying over our fence and looking in our windows and that we should have certain kinds of protections in that regard and then there's a question of you know who's collecting this data and on what basis and and how are they able to collect track that keeps who owns that data whether it's the government or the police who are collecting information about suspects in criminal investigations or whether it's private companies who are collecting data about the movement in locations of ind

and you know a and they've developed a very rigorous and massive really lobbying strategy to get the f.a.a. bill and related loss passed it to look just at their lobbying strategy and it's pretty dramatic i mean we came this point. oh ok going up you know if you go are you ten this power point yes this this power point basically shows that over the past year they've developed a pretty sophisticated plan to push through this massive expansion of domestic drones and we're going to have some estimate safe thirty thousand domestic drones flying over sized next week ok so here's the question what's what is what is not benign about this i mean we we had you know helicopters the o.j. simpson slow no trial you know and time is a big crime you've got the local t.v.

and republicans basically said that if democrats don't agree to it then they'll shut down the f.a.a. again just like they did last year yesterday despite nineteen labor organizations writing a letter to democrats calling on them to oppose the bill. democrats kate and a majority of senate democrats helped pass the bill and new anti-union laws for transportation workers by a seventy five to twenty vote and this is just the latest in a nationwide war led by republicans against working people from washington to ohio to new jersey to now minnesota and arizona the war continues but it was when governor jan brewer in arizona picked up the fight against working people last week that tom had to know and gave this rant about how important unions are to our american democracy take a look last week the number one priority for governor jan brewer was boosting her own book sales that's why she met president obama on the tarmac at the phoenix airport last wednesday start a fight with a man wag your finger in his face for the perfect photo op to publicize your book and by the way it worked the book

airspace with regional airplanes and orders the f.a.a. to come up with an integration plan to open up access to drones more broadly by two thousand and fifteen but some groups will be flying them much much earlier groups like law enforcement and emergency responders will be allowed to fly on manned aerial vehicles within the next few months on the name of public safety of course now eventually the integration plan will extend to private sectors too so that t.v. stations other private companies all get their hands on their very own u.a. the isn't it comforting to know that eventually corporations all over the us will have many spying machines at their disposal because like all you need is a little cash to make it happen now so let's just say that this bill should have set off alarms for obama and those in congress if they cared at all about our civil liberties as we've been saying for months there are quite a few concerns raised by fast tracking domestic drone use here in the u.s. and it's hardly giger of the policy counsel at the center f

well let's just talk first of all about air traffic so the principal concern of the f.a.a. is reducing the number of vehicles flying in the skies to keep traffic down for safety concerns thirty thousand of these vehicles flying around presents a nightmare just in tracking and monitoring and even though they'll be a lower altitudes there are all sorts of potentials there for collision that we're technologically challenged and keeping up with beyond that these drones will crash they have crashed wherever we've deployed them rock somalia afghanistan pakistan they are prone to crash with regularity they can come down in populated areas and we have the question of use of lethal weaponry of course they're used overseas by the united states for for surveillance purposes but they're also used as a preferred means of assassination for targeted killings and so i think we have a big question about how they're going to be equipped and use of these are you know . sorry to interrupt you there or unfortunately out of time thank you for weighing in on that was scott horton contributing edi

crashed they got fined two point two million dollars by the f.a.a. so the u.s. can compete on quality but it's going to do those things and by letting so much of this we're we've aircraft which is highly skilled we're losing the best guarantee of quality work which is the human capital the knowledge that workers have and so. you have to keep the jobs here and you have to keep the jobs something that people high paying jobs people will invest their careers in the future when it's interesting because with so many of the issues on exports and manufacturing you've seen the factories and actual manufacturing leave but with them i read that you're talking about the are indeed the logistics and a lot of those other issues real quickly before we go is there anything in obama's manufacturing plant that leads you to believe that this is going to be dissolution to u.s. jobs and a return to american manufacturing in the near future i don't know he's trying to promote some in-sourcing and i think some companies are seeing that it's cheaper to make clothes that while the leve

i appreciate the fact we will now move to the f.a.a. bill which will be completed in the form of a conference report. very hard to do, people worked extremely hard on this, these -- isate perfect piece of legislation, no, it isn't but we have not had an f.a.a. bill since 2003. we've had 23 temporary extensions during this period of time the federal aviation administration has basically shut down because we couldn't agree on what should move forward. i repeat, this bill is not perfect. but it's something that is extremely important for job creation and for making our airports more safe. so there will be a roll call vote at 5:30 p.m. on adoption of that conference report i just referred to. if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that we adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on monday, february 6, 2012. >> afghanistan and reaction to the decision to compel religious hospitals to provide insurance that includes contraceptive coverage for women for among

the f.a.a. drones into the nation's airspace but critics that i have is really nothing in this new legislation that actually addresses the privacy issue, shepard. >> shepard: catherine herridge live in washington with 30,000 force multipliers. fascinating. what does the word unlimited mean to you? apparently for the wireless giant at&t, it depends an where you are and really how much of unlimited you use. the company is now throttles or severely slowing the data speeds of most active customers even if those customers are under contract for unlimited data at a set price. contract. at&t stopped offering that plan but many of its customers are grandfathered in. so how do you know if you are getting too close to your limit? well then at&t will send you a message like the one i got today which read, in part, your data use this month places you in the top a% of users. used wi-fi to help avoid reduced speeds. o really reduced speeds. funny you didn't mention that before when you told me to use all i wa

i refer specifically to the foreign intelligence surveillance act or f.a.a., which is set to expire at end of 2012. title 7 of fisa allows the intelligence community to collect vital information about international terrorists and other important targets overseas. it this law authorizes surveillance of non-u.s. persons located overseas of foreign intelligence importance, meaning they have a connection to or information about threats like terrorism or proliferation. it provides for comprehensive oversight by all three branches of government to protect the prif see and civil liberties of u.s. persons. the department of justice and my office conduct extensive oversight reviews of these activities and report to congress on implementation and compliance twice a year. intelligence collection under fisa produces crucial intelligence vital to protect the nation against international terrorism and other threats. we're always considering whether there are changes made to improve the law, but our first priority is re-authorization of these authorities in their current form. we look forward to the

to be in the sky thirty thousand a sixty three billion dollars funding system half of it in the new f.a.a. bill to fund this god bless you alex and alex thank you we'll talk more about this another time thank you. well as the conflict in syria intensifies various numbers are being reported on the death toll and casualties but amid the chaos it's difficult to get a clear picture of what's really going on there which begs the question just how accurate are these numbers the british based syrian observatory of human rights is one of the most widely quoted sources of the figures but the group is now experiencing an ownership row which has left media outlets wondering how reliable this source is are to use either bennett reports. the syrian observatory for human rights it's one of the most widely quoted sources of syrian casualty figures but it's not always telling the truth and ownership the syrian observatory for human rights is left several media outlets quoting false information as to rivals fight for the same name the original group was hijacked by opposition activists who are posting mil

the ilona show coming up in just happen hour as a valentine's day gift from president obama the new f.a.a. and the bill was just signed into law yesterday not everyone loves a bill that's because talk of deep into the writing is language about the use of drones to spy on you and on american citizens right here in the u.s. alone is going to tell you why you should keep your eyes on the skies. and that does it for now for more on the stories that we've covered is what our t. dot com slash usa our youtube page of you tube dot com slash artier america and as always please feel free to follow me on twitter i want to see what you have to say about the segment you've seen today that addresses at lucy catherine of one hundred . the lead mission and free accreditation free zones for charges free. range once the free is free. to tide free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free medio dog tom you. will see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you

keep sixteen thousand employees there anyway and we knew it was coming a bill that would require the f.a.a. to open up airspace for the domestic use of surveillance drones is now headed to the president's desk to sign so what are the pros and cons including the effects on your civil liberties and your privacy we'll have all that morphy tonight including into us of happy hour but first take a look at the mainstream media has decided to miss. the years since nine eleven we've seen drastic changes in this country many of them justified by lawmakers pundits defense and intelligence officials and analysts all peddling constant fear and one specific area that we've been warned about incessantly over the last few years is a threat of homegrown terrorism and it's not just a line that was repeated by officials or put into reports you know we saw the government act on it we've now seen extensive documentation of local police departments specifically the n.y.p.d. spying on muslim communities we've seen one sting operation after another and how could we forget there are those hearings on muslim radica

the use of domestic drones their investment paid off quite nicely because for valentine's day the f.a.a. bill was signed by president obama so that's it now it's law obama completely overlooked all the concerns and he followed in congress's footsteps so once again seems like at the end of the day it really does all come down to money and it's clear that defense contractors like northrop grumman lockheed martin and others who are all part of this association for unmanned vehicle systems seems like they know how to keep washington in their pockets i mean while i guess that you should just start keeping an eye on the skies because this bill means that somebody is going to be keeping an eye on you for a price. now according to data from the department of veterans affairs ten thousand combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder flooded into v.a. hospitals every three months in two thousand and eleven overall that pushed the number of patients afflicted through above two hundred thousand and that data came out at the end of november that was before the last troops left iraq was before

. >> the f.a.a. and the ntsb and the sacramento sheriff's department and the contra costa sheriff's department are all involved in this investigation to find out exactly how this midair collision could have happened. thomas roman, abc7 news. >> thank you, thomas. >>> tons of steel left dangling above san francisco, and this crane was hanging off the side of the former bank of america building around 1:00 today. the crane broke down leaving a box with six tons of steel dangling above traffic. police quickly cleared out the onlookers. they had to use a manual crank to finish lifting the box to the roof of the building. no one was hurt. >>> the suspect in berkeley's second murder of the year will be arraigned on wednesday. police say they got a call last night describing a suspicious person trespassing near shasta road and grizzly pete boulevard. 5* homeowner confronted the suspect examine told him to leave. moments later the homeowner went outside and was attacked. officers arrested the man nearby who

then they wanted to barricade the f.a.a. building. they wanted to barricade it permanently.gree with you on the screening issue. you want to make more efficient screening, profile. >> what kind of information gathering do you do on white water rafting trips? >> have you ever been on the white water rafting? >> well, i am busy trying to stay balanced and not drowned. >> what they are probably trying to do is get somebody alongside somebody who was a reasonable suspect. >> the other point is in terms of the other journalistic qualitied, they zeroed in on the muslim people. who else are they monitoring for no good reason? >> i hope it is the brown knees. >> exactly, that's my point. >> you have to go where the risk is. here is the thing. these are police officers in fill traiting the student groups. doesn't this smell like 21 jump street. and shouldn't we be saluting it because that was a great show? they were infiltrating high school to fight drug addicts. why isn't this any worse than that, my friend? >> well, it is in between the mod squad and "21 jump street." when a guy sh

we had inspectors at the f.a.a.urity and they knew what they were doing and they have been shoved out and we now have, really, retreads running the t.s.a. at the top and good people in the middle but we have to start again and start right from scratch because it is not a security organization. it is a giant bloated bureaucracy. >>shepard: when you have half the people saying they fear they will be discriminated against and a quarter saying they have been retaliated against you would think they could figure they need a new handle on this matter. >>guest: there is no question. the whole lead in story i thought, is this 1956? or is this 2012? it is nonsense. but no one gets fired. no one. no one. >>shepard: always good to see you. thank you for being here. @=h [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal max

>>reporter: the f.a.a.ed because the agency has refused to say who holds 300 experimental certificates for drones, and asked if homeland security was expanding their use of drones beyond the border, this is the response we got. >> i don't know the report dozen which you refer but right now we are using them along the border. >> homeland security spokesman did total elaborate on the comments but we found these documents from the homeland security procurement office seeking industry input for "wide area aerial surveillance system," used over urban centers. >>shepard: thank you from washington, dc. and former prosecutor is back along with defense attorney. did you hear what the judge said before he left? do you know how big the drones are? the newest drones? they are this size, and they fly around like hummingbirds. and if they want to, to watch you get out of the car, go to work, go to your mistresses house, maybe have a cocktail before you head home and see the kiddies? it is all available. exciting developm