my name is michael whelan, and do juvenile defense work. have been doing so 35 years in three different states. we need to refund log cabin ranch or an alternative asap. it's a very important alternative for kids that are in a certain category but can't go home or go out of state. some of the providers that told you they were unfunded, they need to be funded. they're fabulous providers, in this juvenile justice program. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. next speaker. >> i want to say the politicians have to listen to the youth. and i know you've heard this, i've heard this for 50 years, but we must listen to the youth one minute. and i understand the crowd and all the logistics, but i'm just saying if you want to get involved for real, you've got to listen to these young people. up here, i think we're just moving it along, going through the procedure, but we must listen to the young, we must listen to those who have been there, and we need mental health, and we need log cabin ranch. thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. next spea

he said whelan does not speak russian well, and he has asked for a roommate who speaks english, and a toothbrush. former deputy c.i.a. director michaelorell, cbs news national security contributor, said whelan had been unwittingly swept up in the spy wars. >> i have high confidence that paul whelan is not an intelligence officer. the united states does not send intelligence officers to russia without diplomatic protection, so i'm pretty confident he's not. >> reporter: what's most likely is, whelan is a pawn in russia's play to get back one of its spies, maria butina, now in prison in the u.s. for espionage. >> the russians want her back, and they need to create a situation where they can offer a swap, and mr. whelan is that person, it seems to me. >> reporter: the state department said today, it is not commenting out of respect for whelan and his family. and michael morell told us his arrest should be a warning to any american who is thinking about a trip to moscow. you do not want to go to russia right now, jeff. >> glor: interesting that morrell says they're trying to create this swap. all right, jan, thank you very much. pope fra

who is interested in russia and its culture, not in its secrets one man told me "if paul whelan is a spy, i am michael." here who do have military, connectiot those men say whelan never asked anything suspicious. hisid twin brother aul whelan showed wedding guests around the kremlin on the day of his arrest. >> it is hard to understand how anyone would consider paul to be someone who would be a longer, and take those sorts of risks -- lawbreaker, and take those sorts of risks whparticularly in countriee they are less flexible about lawbreaking. sarah: he is in solitary confinement in this former kgb prison. there is still no official word xactly he is accused of. instead, there is speculation this could be part of a bigger political game, one that now involves briin as well as russia and america. might vladimir putin himself be involved? last month he condemned the detention of a russian woman, maria butina, in the united states. she is accused of building back channels to republicans ahead of the u.s. elections. might russia be banking on a prisoner swap? either way, this crisis threaten relations wi

ministry says it's too early to discuss such an arrangement, claiming that whelan has not been formally charged. joining my michaelcfall, nbc international analyst, and jill wineback, and msnbc contributor. when you look at the characterization of whelan here, there were those who would say he doesn't necessarily not fit that which he has been accused of. then again, we have an american who's being held abroad right now in russia. >> well, he's not only an american, he holds four passports. all of them are allies, canada, ireland and england, he's citizens of all four countries and so that makes it unique in that russia has now taken on four strong countries who will defend their citizen, and that makes it unique. his bad conduct charge also makes it more unlikely that he is actually an official representative in any way of the american government. they would be very unlikely to choose a bad conduct discharged marine as a spy. that just doesn't seem right, so it's a very unique situation, and it also doesn't make that much sense that he would want to be exchanged or that russia would want to exchange him for maria

whelan could face 20 years in prison. michael?l right, thank you so much, martha.> and now to the urgent manhunt for a gunman who opened fire at a mall outside of chicago killing a teenager. abc's alex perez is there with the latest. good morning to you, alex. >> reporter: hey, good morning, michael. authorities have been hunting for that gunman since this all started. now, this happened at a busy time, the mall packed with people milling around. now, take a look at some of these surveillance images. you can see people scrambling to get to safety seconds after hearing gunshots near the food court here inside the mall. police say officers from across the area responded here to this scene. frantic employees hiding in back rooms as they tried to figure out what was happening. the shooting victim staggered near a clothing store where he collapsed. he was taken to a hospital where later died. investigators have been working this case through the night trying to catch up with that suspect, authorities say they believe this was an isolat

michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia and msnbc international affairs analyst. thank you so much for joining us. happy new year to you. i want to start with the news that whelan has been granted consular access. what does that mean for him? >> that means that somebody from the embassy can go in and see him and talk to him, see how he's doing. that's a good sign. that's standard operating procedure, but everything else is not standard operating procedure here. this is a very strange case, and it's strange mostly to me because they haven't revealed any of the facts of this allegation. normally, when these kinds of incidents have happened, including when i was ambassador, the russians were very proud of the facts that they allegedly had for these espionage investigations. this one is very mysterious, which leads many people to believe that it's not true, including me. it sounds like it has been conco concocted, a story to hold him perhaps as a hostage in return for the russian marina butina who we are holding right now. >> so do you think that this was -- let's go with that story line for a second, if in fact this was concocted for butina, for maria butina, do y