this is the utah data center in bluffdale, a 92,000 square meter complex completed last september, at a cost of $1.5 billion. writer james banford has studied the nsa for decades. >> it's designed to hold a tremendous amount of nsa's intercepted information. the phone calls, the e-mail, the metadata, everything it collects it needs a place to store it and that's what bluffdale is for. you could sort of think of it as nsa's external hard drive. >> reporter: the nsa declined a request for an interview but in bluffdale, population about 8,000, most people don't have any qualms about their neighbor, the spy agency. >> it's an important mission. they get information from around the world. and my understanding, that they study it here. >> if you can't trust your government to do the proper thing, what can you trust? >> reporter: but in the wake of former nsa contractor edward snowden's revelations, a nationwide movement is building to rein in the nsa, using constitutional powers vested in the states. connor boyak is president of the laveris institute, a think tank. >> states and communities

this is the utah data center in bluffdale, a 92,000 square meter complex completed last september at cost of 1 and a ha$1 and a billion dollars. writer james banford has studied the nsa for decades? >> it's designed to hold a tremendous amount of nsa's intercepted information, phone calls, e-mail, meta data, everything it collects. it needs a place to store it. the nsa declined a request for an interview. but may bluffdale, most people don't have any qualms about their neighbor, the spy agency. >> it's an important mission. they get information from around the world, and my understanding is that they study it here. >> if you can't trust your government to do the proper thing, what can you trust? >> in the wake of former nsa contractor edward snowden's revelation, a nationwood movement is building to rain in the nsa using constitutional powers vested in the states. conner boyack is president of the utah legal thing tank. >> states and cities are not at all required to help the federal government fulfill various programs and mandates so if we wa wanted to, we could office what the nsa

robert reynolds, al jazeera, bluffdale, utah. >> could another mini ice age be on the way? the sun has reached its solar mamaximum. instead of spewing out flares, the sun is strangely quiet. scientists say it hasn't done that in over a century. there was a similar silent period in the 17th industry which coincided with bitterly cold winters. explaining all of this is aastronomer seth sostack, with seti. >> there were very few sun spots. this is as you say the sun's peak of activity, and it's like a restaurant downtown on a saturday night. you expect activity and if you don't get it something's wrong. well, the sun is quiet but it might, yes, it might result in very strict winters in europe. because europe's weather is dependent on the gulf stream. and that's you know, that's a high altitude jetstream of air. up in the stratosphere that heads over the atlantic and influences the wealth in europe. the reduced activity on the sun results in a reaction of the ultimate sproilultraviolate lig. causing arctic air to plunge down, and skate on the canals and rivers, which happened i

s massive new spy center under construction in bluffdale utah once completed it will serve as a gigantic repository for all that data the n.s.a. is collecting data collection that you may have heard about in recent news reports over the last six months this is a result of edward snowden's leaks we know that the n.s.a. is collecting enormous amounts of data there's the phone metadata virtually every american there's five hundred million data connections in germany every month collected and there's two hundred fifty million online address books collected every single year plus there's a lot more of the n.s.a. is just scooping up a ton of stuff and these enormous collection numbers millions and billions of communications are made possible by the new way we all talk to each other online digitally the records of our conversations are not on paper logs or recording tapes they're all just bits of information that can be stored in computers and that's made it possible for the n.s.a. to basically collect it all whereas the spy chief say create the haystack to find the needle just collect everythi

that's what bluffdale is for.of think of it as nsa's external hard drive. >> the nsa declined a request for an interview, but in bluffdale, population about 8,000, most people don't have any qualms about their neighbor, the spy agency. >> it's an important mission. they get information from around the world, and my understanding that they study it here. >> if you can't trust your government to do the proper thing, what can you trust? >> but in the wake of former nsa contractor edward snowden's revelations with, a nationwide movement is building to reign in the nsa, using constitutional powers visited in the states. connor is president of a utah legal think tank. >> states and cities are not at all required to help the federal government fulfill its various programs and mandates, so if we wanted to, we could oppose what the nsa is doing. >> here, the nsa foes found its ultimate weakness. opponents have come up with a perfectly legal plan to cripple the data center. they want the state of utah to turn off the tap on

by the way, could be stored fairly easily, they wouldn't need to store all that digital data in bluffdale in the new storage facility they're building as russell tise has pointed out a former nsa whistle blower has been saying for years now that the has been lying and is lying now when they say they collect only metadata as obtrusive as it is. they are collecting content not of everyone, that's too hard to store. but you'd awd audio of persons, congress persons, even supreme court justices, tise himself was involved in such collection and he knows that it's going on right now. what has yet to come out are a, the fact that they are in fact taking a lot of content not all of it of our audio. it was revealed yesterday that they are taking in hundreds of millions of text that's not all data. >> from foreign sources. >> and what we haven't found is the kind of abuses that that sort of collection is certain to give rise to and i feel it already has given rise to. >> the text messages supposedly are only from foreign sources not from u.s. sources and again there is no confirmation that they are

that's why they need the bluffdale storage site for. though it on targeted groups, not just individuals, journalists, congress persons, even supreme court justices. activists groups of all kind, ties himself was involved directly in such collection. and he knows from insiders that it's going on right now. so i think what yet has to come out are the "a," the fact that they are in fact taking a lot of content, not all of it, of our audio, it was just revealed yesterday that they are taking in hundreds of millions of text messages a day, that's all content. that's not meta data the president ignored that. >> but from nor e foreign sourc. >> that kind of collection is certain to give rise to and i feel it has already given rise to abuses. >> the text messages are supposedly not from foreign sources and not u.s. sources and there is no confirmation that they are gathering that content. if it is only meta data which is the only information confirmed at this point. why should americans care if you yourself are saying it's available, it's avail