robert ray joins us live from atlanta. what in the world is going on robert?> yeah, richelle, good afternoon. if you listen to retail analysts, they will tell you it's a perfect storm of weather and a surge of online sales. of course that is true, but let's do a little rewind back to november 1st of this year. online sales are up nearly 10% since november 1st to december 15th. now you put in bad weather last week, and ups and fedex trying to move their thousands and millions of packages ash the country, and create amazon.com the online giant with a surge of sales in the past week. one of the particular things they did was they created amazon prime, which allows a special group of people who register, they get two-day -- guaranteed two-day shipping for free. last week they had over a million people subscribe? -- in the course of a few days and last week the company decided they needed to cease and desist because they didn't want to overwhelm the shippers, but they were a little bit too late. the ups store behind us said their business is down because their onli

let's get to you robert ray, we'll get to robert ray in just a moment. there he is. robert ray is in. are you in kenesole? >> yes, this is the only place in the united states that has a mandatory firearm law on the books, so to speak. every resident here is supposed to have a firearm in their possession, head of household. if you have a mental disability or physical disability or if your religion says that you don't believe in guns, then they're okay with you not having that. in cobb county, they patrol the schools with armed officers, and law enforcementi . >> there was a potential shooting. they talked the short down. talk about situations like that. were you ready to spring into action? >> well, situations especially are always volatile in changing quick, we would respond quickly, and we have a variety of ways to respond. fortunately in this case it never got to the point where it became a violent situation as far as anybody getting hurt. one thing we do caution when civilians try to intervene, tragically i think today is an example that sometimes it doesn't turn

robert ray joins us from atlanta.he bills proposed here involve forcing the fed to defiant groue here to the state capitol in atlanta, and made initial points that were noteworthy. they said they don't want to fix obamacare, they want it out of the state of georgia. it is cannibalistic, they are proposing house bill 707 which will aim to ban the state to do with anything that has to do with obamacare, state university, medicaid, you name it, they want nothing to do with it. here is what one of the state senators had to say in the capitol. >> to test someone for simply being alive is peyton american, anticonstitution and 18th common sense. true health care reform would drive market control, individual, thought individual marketplace cannot receive. georgia's families cannot afford to mandates nor can they afford to lose their coverage. as representatives of the citizens of georgia, it is our duty a fight on our hands it looks like. >> yes yes, is that on the heels of similar legislation, a bill in south carolina, and m

robert ray is at the historic site. >> we have a special privilege, al jazeera america does to be athe king site at downtown atlanta where martin luther king and his wife are buried behind me. june 27th, 1990, nelson mandela at the tail end of his american tour stopped here in atlanta. some of the first things he said when he got off the plane is it reminded him because of his home town of south africa, because of the landscape and warmth. it was a hot day. it was a whirl wind tour around the state of georgia, as he was escorted in a bulletproof limousine and brought out at three locations, morehouse college being one, where he was made an honorary morehouse man. after that, as you can see, the cameraman can zoom in, he was brought to this site where martin luther king is buried. nelson mandela lay a wreath. he was with his wife. he was put back into his limousine, stepped into the camera and brought to georgia tech's football stadium where 50,000 plus were in the stands waiting for him. one of our producers was there as a civilian, describing it being louder than anyone could imagin

robert ray is in atlanta where many packages are in transit. >> a busy holiday stephen and huge shipping problems across america as ups and fed ex struggled to get out on time deliveries. we spoke to ups and they gave us this statement: >> ups - one of their largest clients is amazon.com and they saw a surge in online ecommerce orders this season. last week they had to stop a membership program which allows people to get guaranteed 2-day free it deliver, because they were afraid that the shipping companies like fed ex and ups would be overwhelmed and, indeed, that seems to be the case. holiday sales online have surged as well. listen to this. here is some numbers. holiday season to date, up 10%. thanksgiving day 21%. black friday up 15%. cyber monday 18%. green monday 10%. so as people await their packages that were supposed to be here before the christmas holiday. retailers like amazon are offering gift cards or refund for people that have not received the packages. also ups saying they will refund anyone set to package via domestic air or international air if the package does not get t

robert ray has more. [ music ] >> reporter: look in any direction on any corner there is a singer, songwriterand melody maker. nashville. where local drummer andy has been playing clubs for nearly 30 years, living gig to gig with little or sometimes no health insurance. >> it's expensive. if you had any pre-existing conditions you were out of it. the nature of being a musician is a roller coaster ride. >> despite all the money that musicians bring in, over 76% of them have no axxess to group healthcare benefits. >> you would be surprised at the amount of people we've talked to in the last two to three months that probably make less than $12,000 a year. >> reporter: that's one of the reasons a new non-profit organization working on a bear bones budget to music health alliance based in nashville has councilbeen counseling musician. >> we help them before hey get on the radio, before hey meet their heyday. >> if you have someone there sitting with you, and you're trying to navigate through the system and you keep getting kicked off, and getting back on the system, it's difficult. >> former recor

al jazeera robert ray, and u.p.s., thank you so much we appreciate it. >> next up a bipartisan surf rendnerhe fight over the death, the late nest the congressional budget deal, the stability it will bring, and the very real impact on the u.s. economy. >> and hang on to your sony walkman, this tape is still rolling, yes, audio cassette tapes are not dead yet. that story is more, as real money continues. los angeles, you are going to be seeing some beautiful weather all the way to sunday even into the low 70 did or high 60s, partly cloudy conditions, overnight, about 44 degrees. texas also dry for you as well. we saw rain showers and a mix of precip just a little bit up here towards the north. temperatures for dallas at about 42. san antonio at 55. for houston, well, you are going to be seeing rain by the time we end the week. 59 degrees there. that will will last one day. your weekend should look better with a high of 63. over here towards the southeast, some rain showers pushing through orlando right now. atlanta is going to be about 56. an american auto maker making history. the newer grou

robert ray thank you so much. >> well, some americans wait for their packages others are off to stores to return unwanted gifts. and of course, to look for great deals. today is the day you go use those gift carts you got yesterday, right, jim? >> you are definitely right. you have interrupting my shopping right now, i got my gift card right here. from j.c. penny, trying to get out here and spend it as soon as we get done. yeah, a lot of people returning but a lot of those gift cards given out you can imagine, these are probably burning holes in people's pockets right now ready to get out, there and into the spending mode oneself again. and there are all kinds of deals knows these gift carts are out here. over the past couple of weeks sales spiking up 2.3%. that compares to .7 last year. those numbers from mastercard. gym, people are in the spending mode, despite that the economy may not be the best. world number have sales of 30, 40,%. a lot of people getting ready to take advantage of these deals. ann taylor, banana republic returning things and shopping. >> over hereby, there's a ji

robert ray, hang on to that winning ticket, in atlanta, georgia. >>> the u.n. refugee agency said 210,000 people have been displaced in the capitol of central africa republic. france has sent soldiers, but for many in the country they say help has not arrived fast enough. >> reporter: mapping out security in a city that is paralyzed by fear. the french army patrols give some reassurance. but for now the only way of reducing the violence is by trying to keep christians and muslims apart. this is the mus muslim settlemet beside a school. even with a big security presence no one will consider going home again, and nobody feels straight. here is the center abandoned, it's a no man's land for sectarian divide that never existed in this country before the political turmoil of the past year. the christians in a majority live in a sprawl besides the catholic church, 36,000 in all. and like the muslims on the other side of the city, no one knows what will happen next. there is some consent that disarming the attackers on both sides is the answer. after an unknown number

robert ray joins us now live, robert, good evening tell us what happened? >> good evening, it's -- this is a story about volume, sheer volume. e commerce up nearly 10% this season. it seemed like everybody was going to be prepared for this, they should have known the retailers and the shippers had meetings back in the early summer preparing for this potentially uptick, but yet, the bottom has fallen out and lots of people have not received their packages this christmas. we asked for a statement from sups and here is what we got. sups apologizes to those customers whose packages were delayed our drivers are out making deliveries and bigups and we expect nearly all of the packages will be delivered today. we had additional operations at world port, which is the u.p.s. international air hub in louisville kentucky, on christmas, and we are making every effort to get all those packages delivered. so, u.p.s. responds we asked them how many packages are still out there in the system that have not been delivered the answer, i don't know. fed ex having very similar

robert ray asked one officer about that program. >> we sent a proposal, we asked to keep rifles inside the schools. it makes no sense for an officer to leigh the threat, to go to their vehicle, to grab their rifle, and then engage that threat again. >> is this a military style rifle? >> it would be described as a military style rifle. it is commonly used by the military, as well as lawful. >> the weapons are expected in schools in a few weeks and school district officials say the guns will be stored in safes only accessful by fingerprint recognition. be child protective services we heard from someone that has been trying to fix the system for years. paul has that part of the story. >> there's no doubt that the system is terribly flawed. you can use any cliche. nobody within the agency thought to question it. somebody would have said maybe we aren't allowed to do this, let's find out if we are. the way they went about it is unbelievable. >> just last month is what finally brought these cases to light. the memo itself scalled the practice dangerous and unlawful, and goes on to call eight

. >> robert ray for us. appreciate it. >>> amazon has 9,000 full time employees working in germany. it is home to the company's second largest market after the united states. it did $8.7 billion in sales. the nine plants handled 4 million orders, and just as the country enters its busie moselem there.ometimes it's very hot in the summer months. >> we have the same conditions in germany. the last year or two, the management has been trying to alleviate some of these conditions. when you're working in summer and you have temperatures of 35, 40°, sell celsius, peeping are t literally dropping like -- people are dropping like flies because of heat exhaustion. >> amazon says work he pay is online with other worker ofs. i did speak with some of them who were walk through campus who say they sympathize with those workers.ent on worker pay and conditions. >> tanya moseley in seattle, thank you. with only nine days between now and christmas the shipping rush is on. the u.s. postal service expects today to be the biggest mailing day of the year. 600 million pieces of mail, it has been a year

. >> okay, robert ray reporting to us, thank you. >> well, the day after christmas has become a big dayor retailers not just because of the returns but also their last big chance before the new year to move merchandise. jim cooley spent the day at the cherry creek shopping center. you know, this is not a crazy mall. but i can tell you, over the last hour or so we have seen the crowds increase more and more. one store was open bright and early, masseys opened at 6:00 a.m., also in the area, we have had target stores jc penny opening up at 7:00 a.m. these after christmas 30, how% deals. let me show you one thing, this is a kids store, you can see the family right there, the mom with a couple of kids they are standing in front of that sign, you can see it up to 70% off. a lot of people coming here today, log looking for those deals they are shopping and also exchanges. >> yeah, i know about that. a lot of people don't they also head to the mall to use all the gift carts that are given out? oh my gosh, yeah, i have one in my back pocket i am dieing to use, and the gift cards have an incredi

. >> robert ray is at the martin luther king grave site where nelson mandela laid a wreath during a visit to that city. what can you tell us. >> yes, john, it's an honour to be at the king center in downtown atlanta. over my shoulder is the crypt where martin luther king is buried next to core eta scott king, his wife. >> the first stop on nelson mandela's world win tour when he landed in georgia was here at the king center, going to the crypt where martin luther king was buried. he and his wife went across the pond to the burial site and placed a wreath at the base. briefly after that he met with martin luther king's wife for about half an hour. he was escorted into a limousine and carted around the city where he became an honorary man at morehouse men's college and ended the day at georgia tech football stadium where 50,000 plus people waited for him to come in, he was an hour late. he couldn't speak for 15 minutes. during that speech he made references to king and talked about how he wanted freedom for everyone, south africans. basically the reason for him coming here he wanted to pay

robert ray joins us tonight at the largest automated package facility in the world. so robert, how is ups gearing up for next week's busiest shopping period? >> well, john,ky tell you one thing, they are not gearing up with drones or anything like that, they have real people in this facility, thousands of them, and they have hired 55,000 workers seasonal workers around the word, jumbo jets are coming in and out of here, and we spent a few hours here this week, looking at some of the sites and sounds. millions of packages, hundreds of airplanes. thousands of workers in a facility is size of 90 fields and a shorter shipping season this year. >> right now these folks are taking the containers out. >> this is the big time, if you will, tons of packages, and they are counting on us. >> this is the ups world port in louisville kentucky. where nearly 200 cargo jets will land, load up, and fly around the world each day until christmas. >> with a fully automated facility, where 155 miles of conveyer belts move along packages sorting stacking and loading them. >> it is the cro

robert ray has that story. [ ♪ music ] >> look in any direction, on any corner, and there is a singers a song writer and mel oddy maker. nashville. where local drummer andy has been playing clubs for 30 years. living gig to gig, with little and sometimes no health insurance. >> they were hard to qualify for, if you had pre-existing conditions, you were out of it. the nature of being a musician is like a roller-coaster ride. >> the music industry has a major economic impact. it's most visible here in nashville. despite the money that the musicians bring in, 76% have no access to group health care benefits. >> you would be surprised at the amount of people we have talked to in the last 2-3 months that make less than 12,000 a year. >> that's a reason a new nonprofit organization working on a bare bones budget, the music health alliance in nashville has counselled members about health services soon to be available. >> we are helping the people before they get on the radio and after they've hit their heyday. >> it's clients are artists like drummer andy peak who received help dealing with

. >> robert ray breaks down what some states do with the money. >> tis the season for hope. belief in mythical figures. over half a billion. the odds are 1:285 million to one. >> not all the money goes to the winners. >> i'm assuming most of this goes to the funding for children's care and medicade and things like that. >> not exactly. here is a breakdown of 43 states selling the ticket. 60% of the proceeds go to the prize winners, 15% to the rely tailers, and the final 25" to the states, of which 27 of them ear marked revenue for education. lottery is a voluntary source of revenue for the states. the argument is that it's regressive. more lower income people play the lottery. >> the lottery protected much revenue it from the state's germ fund keeping it for a college scholarship program. the state of georgia looked at it as funding for a sector of the any. >> for students with a b average, there's the hope scholarship helping middle class families. there had been shore falls. the lottery funned the program well 900 million. a 20% distrop on revenue suggested for the program