christophe putzel, thank you so much. the distress that christophe has described is medical concerns. one west virginia doctor says she is treating symptoms that may be related to the effects of the contaminated water after the water ban was lifted in their particular areas. joining us is dr. elizabeth brown an internal medicine specialist. appreciate you being with us doctor. can you explain to us on the first days thursday, friday did you see patients come in and can you describe what they were experiencing? >> honestly, thursday and friday, i think people were so panicked about getting water, and what they were going to do, that i didn't ski a ton of people come in on those days. now starting yesterday which was monday after people had had time to organize themselves and the flushing process began people started to try to use the water again. so i started seeing people in the afternoon who came in with skin rashes after trying to wash their hands, rashes all over their body after showering, irritated eyes, some nausea a

christophe putzel thanks very much for being here. >>> coming up. putting words in his mouth. the president, his writers and the work it takes to make a formal speech sound spontaneous. security. we're talking with those affected most. understanding where we are, taking a critical look where we're going. >> there is much progress to report. >> immediately after stay with us as we get your reactions live from around the country and across the globe. don't miss special state of the union coverage as only al jazeera america can deliver. right here on al jazeera america. >> the lights will be on late tonight down pennsylvania avenue, in the white house in washington, when the last minute preparations are made on the state of the union. those are the speech writers, ron glass knows all of this. he helped write two of president obama's speeches. how great is this for a writer? >> it's a big deal for the country and the president. state of the union is where the president determines what his agenda for the year is going to be. >> leading up to the speech is there a lot of last-minute

christophe putzel, being charleston west virginia. >>> 2009, another explosion killed 29 coal miners at west virginia's upper big branch mine, also that year a new york times investigation found pollution violations, in hundreds of workplaces throughout the state. are today's troubles in west virginia echos from the recent past? jennifer sass, national resources defense council is with us tonight. jennifer can you talk to me about the recent history of west virginia when it comes to violations and the epa? >> yes, i mean west virginia doesn't actually stand out from a lot of other states, where you have very poor oversight and very poor enforcement of rules and regulations that are made to protect workers, made to protect communities, and made to protect the environment. there's a lot of loopholes and gaps in those laws and even worse, when the few laws that are there aren't followed properly. >> what you're saying is what going on in -- what's going on in west virginia ask consistent in other parts of the country? >> what's going on in west virginia is consistent with other parts of

our correspondent christophe putzel will follow up on his story that's coming up on "america tonight". >> being eight, the lives of eight-year-olds. tonight the unique view of third graders in new orleans. they are too young to remember hurricane katrina but still is learning good lessons. >> what city were you born? >> troy lawson teaches third great in new orleans. >> spell it the best way you know how. >> many students are eight years old and were born the year that hurricane katrina changed the big easy. >> some of them weren't born, some of them are a couple years old. they still have a story. >> real strong winds and lots of water. >> i think you see mostly damage everything. >> like water was -- like the water was strong, too strong and in places like homes over and stuff. >> every child has their own learned version of the storm. >> 10,000 -- >> evacuees. >> evacuees had taken shelter. >> being eight is who you are and where you came from, learning about the world at large that time takes shape. >> a lot of them were born right after katrina or they were in their mommy's tummi

christof putz christof putz christof putzel -- chris christopher tracks consumer segment.hris we haven't gotten the official numbers from january, but retailers are telling us they are having problems. >> i think they started having troubles in december. and in january they have probably a little excess inventory so they are going to try to get rid of that, and that is going to hurt their margins again. >> what do you think the issue is? could be weather, the move to op line, what -- what's behind this? >> first of all, the move online is happening. in the third quarter of last year, 5.9% of retail trade was-commerce retail sales, and the clicks are clearly outwaysing the bricks, and we expect it to be around 7% in 2015. now that sort of hurts many of the brick and mortars. now on the other front you have a lot of pent-up demand being released on autos. and any time you have a good auto month discretionary spending takes a hit. >> we have been talking about because of new [ technical difficulties ] >> people do splurge a bit. >> so people are moving away from buying one pr