and gas companies to actually access it now earlier i spoke with tyson slocum the director of public citizen the energy program and he taught us more about why a water well contamination can actually be caused by this hydraulic fracturing i first asked him if the a few investigation is the most point close one so far when it comes to the environmental impact caused by fracking. so far yes and what this study shows is that there's huge discrepancies between what kind of procedures each individual state takes in addressing these concerns about water and other environmental contamination from the hydraulic fracturing process what this investigation shows is that basically most of these states are just operating hotlines where people can call and we're port these concerns that they're having but we're not seeing a systemic follow up to to determine exactly what if any contamination has occurred and in fact what we've seen at public citizen is that once the oil or natural gas companies confront landowners they typically require them to sign what's known known as nondisclosure agreements which for

the trade deal and the process of fast tracking more i'm joined by lori wallach director at public citizen's global trade watch well i think for joining my pleasure so here is the bill that was introduced yesterday it's pretty expansive it's one hundred seven pages and section two is the first thirty five pages you can see it's a long section is titled objective trade negotiated negotiation objectives and it clearly outlines what their objectives are such as strengthening the system of international trade to foster economic growth and to ensure that trade agreements afforded small businesses equal access to international markets all great objectives but that's just it they're just objectives they're not directives so if this bill was passed in its entirety how can we be assured that these objectives will be fulfilled well first of all a bunch of the objectives i things that aren't so great extensions of medicine patents i would increase prices special for an investor rules that promote. job offshoring from the us now law are a laws to be attacked in international tribunals with the requireme

tangible benefits to done earlier i spoke with craig homan a government affairs lobbyist for public citizenfor more on this case i first asked him if mcdonald was being singled out or if this was just the way politics works. this is how virginia politics works quite frankly virginia has had very lax ethics standards they've had no limits on gifts that lobbyists or other special interests can provide to public officials including the governor and when you don't have limits and you don't have adequate disclosure this is the type of scandal that happens this began as an ethics scandal last march and as you've noted it's now turned into a full blown fourteen counts of criminal charge in the mcdonnell's both by the way bob mcdonnell and his wife i have been charged with with essentially bribery and they're going to be arraigned in court on friday right she's been charged as well and i shape clearly from that long list we'll we read off their benefit in one way or another got at some fancy things there governor mcdonnell doubts he says that nearly every elected official would be charged for getti

down from or in this case i'm joined now by craig homeland a government affairs lobbyist for public citizenwelcome there. so i mean what do you think craig is he being singled out or is this just the way politics works this is how virginia politics works quite frankly virginia has had very lax ethics standards they've had no limits on give lobbyists or other special interests can provide to public officials including the governor and when you don't have limits to me don't have adequate disclosure this is the type of scandal that happens this began as an ethics scandal last march and as you've noted it's now turned into a full blown fourteen count criminal charge the mcdonnell's both by the way bob mcdonnell and his wife i have been charged with with this sensual bribery and they are going to be arraigned in court on friday right she's been charged as well and clearly from that long list we we read off their benefit in one way or another got at some fancy things there governor mcdonnell though he says that nearly every elected official would be charge for getting benefits from donors does he

to any reforms appreciate your time that was scrapped homan a government affairs lobbyist for public citizenthe world's rich and powerful are joining forces in the picturesque alpine resort of davos to discuss a slew of issues one of them ironically is the issue of severe poverty it's something most attendees probably haven't dealt with themselves but they may be forced to pay attention to it now it was brought to the leader's attention that the biggest threat to the global economy over the next decade is a wealth inequality are teasy katie pilbeam has more. so far here in davos it's all been about the essential the which is the reshaping of the well the consequences for society politics and business now we know that after day one that they intend to go out the window and people talk about what they want to talk about and this year it's been all about income inequality and the consequences of that and really here everyone appreciates that it's the biggest risk to the global economy but no one quite knows how to deal with that and it coincides with youth unemployment as well as a social rest

because as adam smith pointed out the wealth of nations is in large part what they manufacture public citizens global trade watch us. mates that nafta alone as lead to a net loss of around one million jobs here in the u.s. many of them the kind of good manufacturing jobs that helped americans rise into the middle class throughout the twentieth century the trans-pacific partnership would be even worse a treaty has been negotiated entirely in secret with the help of about six hundred so-called corporate advisors we do know little about it thanks to organizations like wiki leaks wiki leaks has been releasing a steady stream of p.p. documents over the past few months and those documents paint a pretty scary picture of the tepee would be a big pharmaceutical companies virtual monopoly patent lawyers like corporations sue countries in international courts or regulations that those corporations don't like and got environmental and financial these leaks prove that many way prove what many critics of been saying for some time that the treaty is less about actual trade and more about empowering massive

in washington, d.c., lori wallach is to rector public citizen's global trade watch.'ve written a report called "nafta at 20 or go talk about nafta 20 years ago. >> welcome not only haven't the promises made by its proponents come true, but in most instances, the actual opposite occurred. for instance, listing to president clinton made my blood boil because in no year of nafta were 200,000 jobs created. rather, 20 years out, one million net u.s. jobs have been lost to the growing trade deficit with mexico and canada under nafta, and there is a list canada,cit 400,000 with 845,000 total jobs lost to nafta . specific workers certified, under one euro program called trade adjustment assistance for it is very hard to qualify for. on that and, if you want to see the actual effect on or of nafta in your community, you can go to our website and look at the trade data center and put in your zip code. it will pop up the list of companies. a lot of them were companies that explicitly said during the nafta debate, congress, if you pass nafta, we're going to create x number of jo

tyler slocum is director of the energy program at public citizen. chris faulkner.what's wrong with if we have much more energy now than we can use, what's wrong with exporting it? >> first of all, we are using it, just it's a question of discrete areas in the united states where we've got some surplus of oil, and so that surplus helps drive down the price for refiners and that leads to slightly lower gasoline prices. if we're taking that raw crude oil and instead of having a surplus for u.s. refiners, forcing u.s. refiners to compete with chinese refiners, that's going to push the price up, and it's going to raise prices for gasoline. this is business 101, and the issue is should the united states export a raw product like crude oil or should we be utilizing our manufacturing base and allowing our refiners and our chemical processors to turn that petroleum into the finished product and then export that finished product rather than the raw crude oil. >> what we do right now. chris, is the real issue here the shortage of refining capacity in this country? >> there's

nobuhiko suto, we have lori wallach, director of public citizen's global trade watch. for joining us. can you talk about why you are so concerned about the transpacific partnership that would expand from tokyo, japan, all the way to chile? >> the agreement is having some interesting times in the senate today because there is a hearing, a first hearing on fast track, the authority that president obama is seeking to railroad the tpp through congress. tpp has such potentially damaging elements that the president decides he needs this dreadfully extreme, nixon-era process that basically takes away all of congress normal blocks to legislation, and it has barely been used, but it was pushed to push nafta through objections. last week submitted to implement fast track again. butas not been in effect for five years in the last 20, and now obama is trying to get it back to be able to get tpp enacted and the hearing is in the senate finance committee. >> and the significance, lori wallach, of the wikileaks release of the draft document? >> explosive. i will be a big heart of the

lori wallach is the director of the public citizens global watch, a trade group.what are the chances at this late hour of stopping this? your thoughts. >> i actually think that congress right now does not have a stomach for giving away its constitutional authority to do another nafta on steroids job killing agreement. that said, there is a lot of pressure, starting from the president and now for months from the big corporations to get them to cave in. so basically, it's a house of representatives fight. i would say it's very close. the people can win. we can make sure congress actually holds on to its constitutional authority to make sure we don't get tpp. it's doable, but it's going to be a big fight. >> how intense is the lobbying? i've heard that it is as intense as anything that has ever been on the hill. that true? would you characterize it that way? >> it's starting to smell a little bit like nafta. and in fact, i was around during nafta. it's not quite hand-to-hand combat yet, in part because most of the house democrats came out early. and they said we are

public. through our citizen advisory committee for this process as well as the public input that we conducted throughout physical therapy process of developing the plan, and we also include the development of the strategy, but to help to make the best use of these investments and what we presented or unveiled in the spring was a draft investment stragtgy and a draft vision investment strategy, that would propose the best way to invest, resources beyond what we expect to have or anticipate having. and further throughout the summer. and presented a revised scenario and two investment scenarios. and the policy recommendations early they are fall and also, along with the involvement strategy and the policy recommendations and the revenue strategy, finally the final piece is we are coordinating this sftp development with the preparation of the next five years of prop k and so the five year organization program for prop k and you can consider the early action program for the sftp is starting to implement what the recommendations are over the next five years. and so, we expect to have 75 billion bet

campaign, public citizen holding that on capitol hill today. let's get to phone calls. map chester, connecticut, independent caller, you're up first. >> caller: good morning, i love the show. melanie, how are you? researchers have recently discovered that the third tower of 9/11 wasn't hit by a plane and if had properly included these elements, the explanation for the building's fall would be impossible. now that an attorney has written to the department of congress, would you be willing to read his letter and consider having an organization review this issue? >> guest: well, you can, please, feel free to send us the letter at info@citizens for action.org, and we'll certainly take a look. >> host: is that something you guys look into, or is it mostly money in politics? >> guest: we use the freedom of information act a incident amount from the government to obtain information it might not want to share. >> host: tom, republican caller. >> caller: yes. your guest is such a far left-wing guest, it's unbelievable. you should once in a while have a

"the huffington post" has this -- people for the american way, public citizens, hold a lobbying campaign first.are researchers have discovered that -- probably -- properly included as data in --s report, would you be willing to read his letter and consider having an --anization the echo organization the feel free to send us a letter at info and we'll certainly take a look. host: is that something you look and or is it mostly money politics? guest: we do, that but we also use the freedom of information to obtain the information from the government that it share.ot want to host: tom in wisconsin, republican caller. yes.r: your guest -- a while havece in a guest to balance what she's saying. tom, we'retuned, going to get the other side. three yesterday you had liberals on in a row. any rate this is a it'seft wing prop, unbelievable. and everything she says is probably very questionable she supports the union, she supports obama. that's all she cares about, she care about any wants the or she .epublican groups supporteryou an obama and -- nonpartisanis a organization and we've taken on both

public order. xu is the founder of the new citizen's movement which started last year. it encourages people to get involved in politics. many people in the movement have been detained for taking part in demonstrations. they have demanded the disclosure of assets held by senior communist party officials. >> translator: the proceedings don't meet the minimum requirements for a fair trial. they lack legitimacy. >> xu's supporters waved banners outside the court and shouted that he is innocent. they called for freedom of speech. police stopped the protests, and could be seen hauling some people away. >>> a u.s. military official says the chinese navy plans to take part in a u.s.-led multinational drill this summer. this will be the first time for china to participate in the biennial military drill conducted off hawaii. the official told nhk that china has notified the u.s. it will send three or four vessels to the rim of the pacific exercise or rimpac. the vessels include a hospital ship. more than 20 countries took part last time, including japan. the u.s. official says th

this is an appointment to the geary bus rapid transit and the citizen's advisory committee and the geary, project seeks to implement the public travel time and pedestrian improvement on the geary corridor and it is in the environmental review phase and it has a citizen committee and this is dedicated and peats on a bi monthly basis to provide the input and the structure was shown in the memo and also an astatutement to the memo and neighborhood based and plus a number of at large seats and 13 members of the cac, and there are currently 2 vacantcies and both are for the japan town western addition, fillmore area and we have done the notification to the residents, transit riders and the community groups in the area for applications. we have received applications for five candidates, and from a member or a sitting member whose term is expired and we have encouraged these applicants to appear today to say a few words about the candidacy, and we are seeking to appoint two members and they are both for the japan town area and so i will just conclude my remarks and ask any tenant who are present to say a few words. >> and when i wou

end by acknowledging a type of public service, which is a partnership of our city public service and our private citizens and i wanted to thank -- please come up. thank you supervisor mar for bringing this issue to us last year and this is bicycle theft. bike theft is up by 70 percent since 2006 with 1817 reported thefts since 2012 and it actually rises to 4000 in one year. district six which includes the tenderloin had the highest number of thefts at 285 followed by the mission district at 157. last july officer matthew decided to raise awareness of the this issue and started a twitter handle to allow the public to directly communicate with afpd. he had 2350 followers and created a faq post that goes over best practices for protecting your bikes. i don't think anything like this had been done before which allowed citizens to communicate with sfpd. since then, sfpd has had several high profile arrests which brings us to the other critical component in this operation, our private citizens. we depend on them to set up sting operations and yes, it is as exciting as it sounds so we're hoping more people will

public good. you know, the reason citizens give elected officials power is so that they can act on behalf of the citizensove the public good. this clearly was petty partisanship of one sort or another, or perhaps, as you say following the money, something corrupt. but whatever it was, it was not acting in the public interest. and what we have to really guard against is that people will say, look, that's just politics. that's just the way it's done. it always happens. we can't stand for this always happening. but under this administration, this does appear to have been the rule. so, you know, i have to commend -- you mentioned senator loretta weinberg. i would also add assemblyman chair john wisniewski. they have kept after this for several months, even as the press and everybody else was saying, oh, get off it. you know, this is a small matter. in fact, now with the e-mails coming out and probably more coming to light, it appears that this was a serious abuse of power. >> but there's no evidence, and correct me if i am wrong, i haven't seen any direct evidence linking christie directly to that decision t

the department of public works requests presenting to the committee today despite the citizen advisory deferal action, they have confirmed that these are the highest use of funds from this category and confirmed that these vehicles charging stations while they may be used by other city departments for other vehicles, electric, units procured by using prop k, will require a charging unit to re, power, over night. >> they anticipate that it will be completed by june of 2015. and i should also note that these vehicles the procurement of them is consistent with the city's action plan. >> finally, we will request that you consider last month, the sfmta has interested 3.7 million for the construction to upgrade, 17 escalators in the subway, and in the november plans and committee, this committee again was briefed on this item, and the committee decided to defer the action pending additional information from the sfmta regarding the over all escalator plan and policies regarding outdoor canopies. and we have included new information in the topics and you can also review additional information

. >> what they have done is set up a public development authority, a citizens-run agency running the store and dispersing profits. there's a little buffer that way between city politics and money made. >> two retailers will be licensed. they don't know if they'll get a licence and fhe business. >> now to the vatican. how is this for a pope mobile. it is pope francises custom maid harley davidson super glide bicycle. it was given as a gift. it will go to the highest bidder. the pope will auction the harley off next month, with the proceeds going to charity. >> the price tag for the bike is 20,000. the pope put his signature on the bike tank. >> coming up - almost extinct and now a rare lily may be lost forever. plus, to jackie. the condolence letters after the death of president kennedy. 50 years later they are being released. >> in indonesia more than 25,000 fled their homes following a series of violent volcano eruptions. mount sinabung has been dormant but is now at the highest level of alert. indonesia lies with 130 active volcanos. a rare plant may be closer to extinction. a mini

there it has always been a consensus that judicial opinions are in the public domain because of work of judges bines every citizen. should remain free for publication says they have been continuously upheld the state or federal law is in the public domain. section 105 in the copyright act reflects this view specifically denying copyright protection to statutes and regulations to touch on one of the ideals for justice this right is fundamental to the rule of law particularly when the concept of ignorance is no excuse and pervades our process. it is also central to upholding a our system of checks and balances to hold congress responsible for what it fails to pass as we review copyright protection through the next great copyright act excuse me we must protect americans' access to laws and justice by protecting access to public materials in the public domain. mr. malamud thank you for your work to make public what accessible and unknown. it is easy to take for granted how important public databases are in our increasingly digital democracy. less public documents are digitized but often out of reach of many. in your

we have held that public sidewalks are natural and public place for citizens to exchange information at public sidewalks hold a special place in first amendment analysis. this law makes it a crime to enter into public sidewalks, even for the purpose of peaceful conversation or leafleting. the law applies to abortion clinics throughout the state regardless of the circumstances. massachusetts asked this court to uphold that statute under the time place and manner test, but the law fails each aspect of that test. the law is not narrowly tailored to those interests for three reasons. first, it applies regardless of whether there is any threat of obstruction for congestion at all. even when the sidewalks are empty and open. mrs. mccullen does her counseling on tuesdays and wednesdays. she testified she is sometimes alone when she does the counseling. nancy clark testified that 90% of the time, she is alone. the statue that makes it illegal for them to engage in peaceful and consensual conversation on a public sidewalk for fear of obstruction and congestion is not narrowly tailored. >> ther

if a citizen brings a charge of corruption against a public official in the state of florida and can't evidence, the citizen, informants has to pay the attorneys fees for the official. >> everyone, very quickly, ten seconds. one-line pitch for your state. >> we have a boardwalk empire. hbo series devoted to new jersey corruption and nuky thompson. >> tracie? >> i can't top back waxing. >> we have more corrupt public officials in florida than alligators. >> my headline for illinois, four of seven of the governors previous to this one in the slammer. i'm going to declare tonight's tournament too close to call. darryl, from newjersey.com. alan grayson of florida. tracie washington. thank you very much. i learned a tremendous amount in that segment. thank you so much. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now and you're going to watch it. >> thank you, chris. i'm going to say you -- a little bit on the whole too close to call thing. the litany in scandals in all those states was -- >> i was waiting for someone to offer me a bribe to take the win. >> exactly. yo

the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side. with its elegant rotunda, the reflecting waters of the sub rounding lagoon and fraying rant eucalyptus trees, special dates and memorable proposals. it is the perfect picnic spot to relax with that special someone by listening to water and fountain in the lagoon and gazing as the swans go gracefully by. beautiful to view from many locations along the lagoon and inside the columns is an ideal place to walk around with your loved one. the palace of fine arts is the most popular location in the city arts system. reservations for weddings and reservations for weddings and other events ok, well, remember last week when you hit vinny in the head with a shovel? [chuckling] i do not recall that. of course not. well,

on this, this speech struck me as an attempt to reassure the american public, reassure foreign leaders and reassure foreign citizens that there is reason to have faith in the american government and what they are doing in regards with the nsa. this was not a rejection of the surveillance programs. it was an attempt to largely defend why the surveillance programs are necessary and yes, we understand you're not happy so here are a few things we'll do to make it more transparent or make it sort of -- change it in some way but we're not going to fundamentally alter what president obama frankly still thinks judging from his record is the right thing to be doing. >> now, in total switching gears, i wanted to touch base as we go into this busy weekend about chris christie and the trip to florida and chuck todd, fund raising, trying to reassure the base and sort of find out just how much damage has been done as subpoenas are flying. >> this is -- there are so many things he's going to learn on this trip. he's going to have meet and greet with donors, home depot ken langone and meet and greet and find out a firsthand look h

but it isn't just public officials. citizens have an enormous influence and citizen associations of various sorts. and often they're very narrowly focused. they're focused on housing, or they're focused on transportation or they're focused on health. but they don't come together and say let's see how this all fits together and if we can do it better working together. >> okay. well, let's hear what commissioner kate baker has to say about what it will take to change how communities are improved. to focus on people, not just structures. >> we think about health care, and we budget for that separately from how we think about community development and housing, from how we think about food assistance and heating assistance. those programs are run separately, and they're budgeted separately, and that guarantees a lack of coordination in a way that doesn't benefit the people who need the help the most. if we could remove some of the barriers to coordination across this programs -- these programs, if we let people spend resources more c

s reach had extended to major companies world leaders and american citizens and his first public comments about the leaks this is what obama had to say by sifting through this so-called mehta data they may identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorist. this does not apply to u.s. citizens and it does not apply to people living in the united states the president's defense of these programs even as they've come under fire in the court system and within the white house's own review panel have alienated privacy and civil liberties advocates so let's move on to the syrian disaster for the past two years the crisis in syria has worsened but most americans could agree on one thing that a u.s. led war in syria would not be the answer and fact according to a reuters it's this poll from august of two thousand and thirteen only nine percent of respondents were in favor of intervening militarily in the country but despite the overwhelming public opinion president obama remains steadfast in his september speech to americans that it's harder to strike be the next course o

and necessary and needed change for san francisco drawing all of our attention to public safety ety and all of our citizens safety. my name is is tracy and i'm a mother and small business owner in the san francisco district in a police distract. i'm in the city of heights and last year i became cochair of an advisory board and at the time my cochair now commander, sharon. so when we started our meeting last january, we wanted to start the meeting by addressing public safety and mention this idea of a well known program in northern california called street smarts. so we began to investigate street smarts and look at -- would it be feasible to bring street smarts to san francisco. i'm happy to share with you tonight, we're ready to kick start san francisco street smart this spring. many of the areas of of concentration that i've heard tonight are indeed of what street smart is about. my hope is as we get this project under way in the richmond police district, again the spring is that it strengthens and helps to compliment all these other efforts that's happening. everything is important, so -- excuse me. i h

public and private sector. we also represent workers that are citizens, workers that have their green card, we represent workers that are undocumented and their usual motto is there's no such thing assen an illegal worker or human being. we know that president obama is going to say some wonderful things today about immigration reform and we know that sometime or another, whether or not it's this session or the next, there will be some type of a change in our immigration policy that there will be a path to citizenship. we don't know when that is, but i'm going to end with a metaphor as i urge everybody to vote for this piece of legislation, to say we are against deportations. quite often -- wars between nations when the generals are sitting on some fancy caboose on the border and getting their fancy pens out to sign the end of the treaty or whatever end the war, the generals in the field don't know that stuff. even though there is some ink on the paper and the war is going to be over, there's a position where people are still going to die. people will still get shot -- there's a history of this in the horrible w