Tell where you the Interest Rates are headed. In this matter ali velshi and this is real money. This is real money. You are the most important part of the show. Tell me what is on your mind by emailing me. At grand jury convened today in the racially charged shooting death of Michael Brown a week ago. That incident sparked nightly protests that descended into riots and looting. A small group of protesters gathered outside of the grand jury location and demanded that the local prosecutor, bob mccoa mccullough recuse himself from the case some say his close family connections to the st. Louis police keep him from being unbiased towards the case. Previous nights of looting has taken a toll on area businesses. Many sustained broken windows and other types of property damage. They have been forced to send workers home and reduce numbers on payroll and they say the upheaval has been nervewracking for business and residents. Fergusons economy has been falling on harder times according to the Census Bureau numbers. The citys Unemployment Rate rose from 5 in the 2000 and moved up to 13 . And poverty rates are at or above 20 . There are still plenty of middle class families struggling to get by in ferguson, but the negative effects of concentrated poverty start to have an affect on the entire community. People in ferguson have been hoping that the city was about to turn a corner. The effects of businesses from the latest unrest make that a little less likely for more on the situation on the ground lets go to robert ray. This is the calmest ive seen when i visit with you this time of day. Good evening, everything is quiet on the front here today. Not a lot of protesters on the main drag which is a quarter mile down from me. Were expecting more protesters to gather outside of the county Prosecutors Office in about 30 minutes from now. After they do their demonstration theyre expected to come to the main street and protest again. But if the elders and the religious clergymen are out tonight talking with the young people who are out there, it will likely stay fairly calm. Unfortunately, like you said, last night some of those people left around midnight, and then some of themviolence erupted in the crowd. Thankfully no tear gas was deployed and no shots fired but there were nearly 50 people shot. Businessebusinesses are hurting here. This is not a booming economy in the first place and kids are not in school. The problem is a lot of these parents who would normally go to a job, theyre having to stay home to watch their kids. We talked to taxi drivers who say people are staying away from the metro area, which is where we are at. The main drag over there, all the boarded up stores, the gas stations , the thrift shops, shops to get a soda and fast foods, nobody is liking the fact that this continues on day number 12. Robert, well continue to stay on top of this story. 12 days in, and its still a big story. Robert ray in ferguson, missouri. I was going to go to mike viqueira, our man at the white house to talk about developments in washington as it reflights fergusonrelates to ferguson, but another big story were following, the developments in iraq and syria. Youve got breaking news on this. Reporter well, thats right. We heard from the pentagon and white house in the last few minutes, and its been startling news. The white house, the pentagon announcing that a rescue mission had been launched by the American Military on a date they had not announced to try to rescue a number, an unspecified number, ali of american hostages inside syria. The pentagon spokesman said they were when they got there the hostages were not. Then we heard from that the hostages were in increasing danger each passing day. The officer arranged the commandos. They had what they felt was sufficient intelligence but when they got there the hostages were not there. And theyre adding that theyre not going to be providing operational details because they want to protect operational security. Al i this comes on the same day of the president speaking with the parents of james foley and after they had verified the gruesome video, a visibly angry president obama appeared before cameras at Marthas Vineyard calling isil all kinds of names, murderers, rapists, and lit into them and said they were going to go any length possible to bring these people to justice. Its an incredible group. Were going to do more in the show about how theyre funding. They can operate a bit like a state. I want to get clarity from you. Is the white house, the pentagon saying there were journalists who were they were trying to rescue in this attempt . Theyre not specifying that. I think given the timing a lot of people will make that assumption, and its probably not without justification given everything that has happened over the last 24 hours with the president and the white house confirming its authenticity. I think a lot of people were coming to the conclusion given the fact that it happened in rapid sequence, but theyre not telling us where this happened other than it was inside syria. Theyre not telling us exactly who it was other than they use the plural hostages and not one individual hostage being held by cant fo captor network of the Islamic State group. Your mind works fast ill switch it, this is interestingly political. This is not a sense of lets wait to see what happened. There is a real sense even in his language about justice being done for the family of this man who was shot. You know, we talk about politics in a disparaging way, but there is something to be said in this particular. Yes, eric holder made it clear as he made the rounds as he talk to a full range of stake holders, he talked to the police chief, the officer there, the state trooper johnson who is in charge of crowds control. He talked to a number of people including, ali, meeting with the parents of the slain Michael Brown as well. The message has been we have our top investigators to investigate the civil rights part of this, remember, that is the area of purview for the federal government at this point. The grand jury investigation, they have the lead on the local Murder Investigation but eric holder telling everyone there will be change, and those who fear for Public Safety in ferguson that things are going to get better. Mike viqueira covering a lot of ground for us. Thank you very much. Unrest in the streets means little rest for people who run Small Businesses in ferguson. Well talk to one shop manager who has been sleeping inside his store coming up. And then settlement from big banks after the housing crash. Well tell you mo more when this continues. Keep it here. Wrap the leader of the nations Largest Teachers Union Lily Eskelsen garcia people really do still believe in their teachers defending tenure. Taking on standardized tests and fixing education in america put authority and power in the hands of the people in that school every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera Americave now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. Get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. A global perspective wherever you are. The major headlines in context. Mashable says. Youll never miss the latest news they will continue looking for survivors. The potential for Energy Production is huge. No noise, no clutter, just real reporting. The new Al Jazeera America mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. Download it now many businesses have been hit hard by the rioting and looting in ferguson. As they calculate the cost of the damage theyre trying it figure out what is next for them. Natasha reports. Reporter Charles Davis is the most cheerful Business Owner weve encountered. On the commercial strip that is repeatedly turned into a battlefield once the sunset. Im loving business. Reporter Ferguson Burger bar and more opened the day Michael Brown was shot and killed. Then the protesters, activists and journalists descended on this town of 21,000, and they flocked to this restaurant to grab a burger or some other fried comfort food. Davis said his wife grew up with browns mother. He is a ferguson resident. But hes also been a businessman for 26 years. He knows this kind of publish police the alone is priceless. From a business perspective, it has been great, but i wish it was under different circumstances. Its up and down. Hairstylist and single mom said that back t back to School Business has coster 700. She said at times she has avoided coming to work due to the chaos. One of the things to emerge from the protests is that africanamerican Business Owners are a minority. One business posted a sign saying black owned. He said looting cost him 25,000 in damage. I love the people of ferguson, so why would i go . He said that his business was born out of grit and following his fathers advice. He told me, son, as an africanamerican we dont have the luxury to sit down and plan. We just have to do. He hopes the protests stops. But the people keep coming. That was natasha reporting. Some businesses did manage to dodge damage. A beauty salon was not hit but the threeyearold Family Business said its taking extra precautions because of the insecurity in the area. It has prompted him and his family to stay overnight at the store to protect it from looters. The folks who are looting, the people of ferguson are going out of their way to say that some of these people with from out of town. Theyre behaving on their own. How do you protect the store if people decide to start looting it . As you just mentioned there are people from out of town. We are not happy about what happened. We just hope that it ends as soon as business. It has effected business, it has effected everyone around here. Everybody is really angry about it. And what we do is we just protect our business. We know the police cannot bring protect everything at the sometime so we have to do what we have to do to protect our business. What do you do exactly . Do you stay there with the lights off at night and sleep from . Do you stay with the house that sits . Call the police if you see something . Whats going on at night . We reallyit was the business hour. We stay here. We keep the lights on. It was a few people each time and thats how we take temperatures and we happy to get enough sleep over the past week. Youre discouraging people from coming to the store at that point. There is a group of you there. If people feel like looting, theyll go to a store where no one is around. We have to call the police. And the police do come through the night a few times. They drive by and they know were staying here. And we tell them well give them a call. People are frustrated. Theyre frustrated at whatever the tensions are that led to the shooting. Increasinglier i think people want to peacefully protest, but they are worried that there are inter lopers, people who are causing the serious trouble that were seeing on tv. Absolutely. I dont know where these people come from. I dont know if theyre from outside, i dont know, but what happened with the incident, thats only a legal matter for the police yo and law enforcement. Afterwards we dont know what is happening. We dont know what theyre doing. People i spoke to, they dont want that. Peaceful demonstration people will support. Demonstrate peacefully and get the point you want to get to, but there is no need for this. There is no need for looters and burning down stores. Shop owners, the store owners, who have been looted and burned down, theyre innocent and they have had nothing to do with it. Are you getting fewer people coming to the shop . Is this a subject of conversation for any of the people who come to your shop . You know, it varies. They really want to talk about it, and others want to keep it to themselves. But others who speak about it, theyre frustrated whether theyre africanamerican or not, they dont want to see the violence. Nobody supports violence from anybody that i come across. Remarkable. Frank, i hope you get to get some sleep, you and your family over the next few days, frank alwir is the manager of how old beauty supplies. There is word of another settlement from the mortgage melteddown and well show you how the Islamic State fighters have raked in the billions of dollars it takes to fund their operations. Saturday on tech know. I cannot imagine being trapped in ruble like this. A miraculous new invention. This if finder. Its a victim detection radar. That could save your life. As long as your heart is beating, we can detect you. Tech know. Every saturday, go where science meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive ever done. Even though i cant see tech know. Were here in the vortex. Saturday, 7 30 eastern. Only on Al Jazeera America. Bank of america is expected to pay 17 billion in agreement with the United States department of justice. Several reports say the settlement could be announced tomorrow. Now once americas biggest bank by assets bank of america was accused of packaging shoddy mortgages into securities and selling them to investors ahead of the 2008 financial crisis. 10billion of the settlement will be paid out in cash to federal and state agencies. The other 7. Billion dollars will go for consumer aid in the form of modified mortgages. Dan fried is a consumer writer and said that they should be doing that regardless, and dan has been covering wall street for 15 years. He joins me. Weve interrupted him on his time off to get him here by skype because dan youve been following this so closely, i want to get your take on this whole thing. 17billion, this makes this the biggest settlement so far. Thats right. Ali, as you say, the numbers are very deceptive. I think the Justice Department wants to put up a big number so it looks like its being tough on the banks. But as you say 10 billion according to reports is going to be cash. The rest is going to be credit, which the banks getwe discussed this on your show a few weeks ago, and an increasingly im hearing from analysts that these credits are kind of a joke. This is stuff the banks have done already. And if they havent done already its stuff in their interest to do. One of the things that ive reported on at the street, which i think no one is paying attention to, is that the hardest hit states, florida, nevada, arizona, theyre getting no cash. Zero. New york, on the other hand, and these are states that are still trying to recover from the mortgage crisis. You know, theyve still got 30 plus declines in housing prices from the peak. On the other hand, new york, where, you know, home prices have fully recovered from their peaks is getting over 1 billion in cash from not only the jp morganbank of america settlement, but one struck in november with jp morgan. One reach last month with citigroup, and there will be 11 more of these with goldman sachs, with morgan stanley, with wells fargo, and only just a few states, new york and california, illinois in particular have been very aggressive about getting some of the cash even though theyre not necessarily the statei mean california obviously has been hard hit, but again, florida and nevada, arizona, theyre getting no cash from these deals. You wrote a piece yesterday indicating that former president clintons idea of how to utilize these bank fines might get some support. No, i dont think it will get some support. I thinki found some support for it on my own, you know. I talked to Bank Analysts who liked the idea. I spoke to others who liked the idea but no one has paid attention to clinton since he made that suggestion in november. Theres another john delaney congressman from maryland. He likes the idea. Hes been a big proponent of infrastructure investment. But you know, i dont think unfortunately. Its an interesting idea. Bank of america swallow up countrywide, the largest subprime Mortgage Lender in the country. There are reports that countrywides cofounder may face a civil lawsuit from the government. As a country were still looking to publish the people most responsible for this crisis from which the country is still trying to recover. And angelo moselo with his super tan is if not public enemy number one, he might get competition from lehmanns dick fold. But definitely one of the people that people would like to see go to jail. I think its the los angeles, i dont know, its not the district attorney, but elected official in los angeles, an attorney is going after m ozelo in a civil suit, but were not talking about jail time. Were talking about more fines for a guy who earned more than 500 million in years leading up to the crash. Dan, thank you for your knowledge. Thank you for interrupting your time off to talk about this. I look forward to seeing more of this when youre back in new york. Macys has agreed allegations that it racially profiled shoppers at its Flagship Store in new york. It called for the Department Store chain to pay a 650,000 fine for surveilling minority shoppers and wrongfully detai detaining some that it suspected of shoplifting. It has greed to boost employee training and keep better records records. In february of last year it received complaints from minority customers, 18 of them said they were unfairly targeted and wrongfully detained by macy security as part of aggressive moves to prevent theft at the store. It has was a logical move. United airlines is teeming up with uber offering the Transportation Service to its flyers through the app. It will connect riders and drivers through its mobile app. Once customer select a ride theyll have to sign up for an uber account. There is an incentive. Experts wh those who sign up through united will receive a miles reward. Ive got the early word on where Interest Rates could be headed if youre borrowing money in the coming months. Stay with us. Al Jazeera America presents edge of eighteen this envelope is my life right now ahh. This is nerve racking at the crossroads of now and the future. Im ready to get out man. Im ready to get out of high school you find kids making adult decisions im gonna do whatever needs to be done. Affecting the rest of their lives oh my god. I have to get packing this is it. We gave 15 kids cameras. I would like to introduce myself im more than, just the kid with the tall hair. Yeah. Im different they took us inside their hopes ya boy is breaking off and becoming a millionaire. And disappointments. You cant just get over something, that sort of scarred you so much their dreams. If you dont go to college you gone be stuck here. I dont wanna be stuck here. And realities. I feel so utterly alone take a real look at education and the issues facing our children today. Friday. My homie got shot five times just because youre pregnant dont mean your lifes ended. I dont even want to be gay anymore. Just please take this curse off of me. Are you ready . I dont know if its gonna work out Al Jazeera America presents Academy Award winner alex gibneys edge of eighteen im passionate< and i need you guys to understand it im so proud of you. Oh my god i feel like theres no way out you need to get your life together. Cause you 18 now. Edge of eighteen only on Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America presents borderlands dramatic conclusion no ones prepared for this journey. Our teams experience the heart breaking desperation were all following stories of people that have died in the desert. And the importance. Experiencing it, has changed me completely. Of the lives that were lost in the desert this is the most dangerous part of your trip. An emotional finale you cant miss. We got be here to tell the story. The final journey borderland continues. Only on Al Jazeera America im joie chen, im the host of america tonight, were revolutionary because were going back to doing best of storytelling. We have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we havent heard before. I think Al Jazeera America is a watershed moment for american journalism the intense fighting in Northern Iraq is just the latest head wind reshaping the middle east. With the help of american airstrikes this week combined with forces from the Iraqi Government and kurdish autonomous region, they would retake its main dam in mosul. It would take it from the Islamic State. You might know them as isles. The retaking of the dam effectively stalls the groups thrust into iraqs kurdish region and created a set whack for a Resurgence Group that places a lot of importance on border crossings, oil fields to help fund its operations. In a sign that dozen of u. S. Strikes may have played a decisive role pushing back the Islamic State onslaught the group said it executed an american journalist james foley and threatens to do the same to one more stephen sotloff. They have said to have amassed a 2 million war chest and makes 8 million in extortion. And 2. 5 million a month from ransoms from kidnapping foreign reporters and aid workers and rakes in 1. 7 million from oil sales to syria and turkish oil brokers. Now it uses all the money it generates to pay its fighters, purchase weapons and buy the loyalty of people in the areas that it has seized. Its also spending more money to restore basic services and repair damaged infrastructure. In short the group is actually try to build its socalled state into an economically viable entity on the ground it has seized. Our next guest says that they have been so successful in generating revenues from its conquests that its practically selfsufficient to fund its expansion in the region. Correcter of the Iraq Energy Institute based in britain. He joins us via london. This leads me to believe that the pronouncements that weve seen from officials of what were going to do to isil or the Islamic State are misguided. This is about money. Well, ali, money is just one part of it. Its basically, as you rightly say the objective is building a state, a selfsufficient state, and the oil revenue plays a significant part into the building of this socalled islamic caliphate. Just six weeks ago reports emerged from iraq confirming that the isil at that time, before the califphate, they used to generate 1 million per day from oil sales and basically gathered sales of 20,000 barrels a day from captured fields. Now six weeks down the line, these numbers and oil fields have doubled to 30,000barrels, and some suggested 40,000barrels fetching around 2 million a day based on 25 to 60 a barrel, it depends on the networks handling the smuggling itself. This is contributing significantly to the war economy of the i. S. Operation and other splinters. How is it theyre able to sell oil. There is a middle man involved, brokers involved, and there is probably some discount involved in buying oil from a terrorist organization. Who buys the oil and who sells it . Were talking about a regional black market extending from syria to iraq to the south part of turkey. Networks do exchange these quantities also crossing over to jordan as well as crossing into iran within the kurdistan region itself. Were not talking about actual transaction trading. Were talking about illicit, illegal trading that happens through basically sub groups that theyve been trained to do that for many years. Let me ask you this, from what you described to me they have built a functioning economy, illicit as it is, it is functioning. Is this stoppable by the outside world . It is stoppable, but it would be a very serious measure. The is group and other splinters are now becoming more a global epidemic that need to be stopped. They are now engaging in with other sympathizers, and what we need to have now, synergies from all regional and International Players to share intelligence efforts. We need necessary efforts for those misguided groups and sub groups to stop the cash influx. We also need to have some sort of measures to enforce embargo on oil trading and smuggling from the various groups crossing into other countries. And regional nations especially i really need to put their political differences aside, and unite against this on this war on terror. Thank you for joining us the director of the Iraq Energy Institute. Thank you for having me. If youre planning on buying a house or car in the coming months, i have a hint of where the Interest Rates are headed. Ill share it with you coming up. Its a chilling and draconian sentence. It simply cannot stand. This trial was a sham. They are truth seekers. All they really wanna do is find out whats happening, so they can tell people. Governments around the world all united to condemn this. As you can see, its still a very much volatile situation. The government is prepared to carry out mass array. If you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live. K at n. Interest rates hikes could n. Come sooner than expected. Thats the message we got from the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting today. The improvements from the labor market are greater than anticipated but there is plenty of evidence that jobs in the nation are still shaky. We go to the senior economist at deutsche bank. Thank you for saying it. I ignore it. I tell people every day, there are so many numbers, so much data out there to get excited about, and we get excited about the one that in isolation doesnt tell you as much. Do we ever. Lets go to the one prodly we should be talking about. The number of jobs added each month. This is the net number. All the jobs created minus the jobs lost. Weve been above 200,000. Not bad. I mean, we sort of thought thats where we want to be. Some say we would like 250 thousands a month, but that part of the story isnt bad. Sure, sure, weve been on a hot streak. We cooled down in july. That comment from the fed today from the mints of their meeting, that was at the july meeting. They made that decision before they saw this. Exactly. They saw a labor market that was close to boiling over. 200,000 sort of is the neutral sweet spot for the labor market. You can see throughout the Second Quarter we had sturdy jobs. Thats why they said maybe we have to raise rates sooner than were telegraphing. Then we got this slowdown in july. Its not extreme rates. Its perfect. Not only did that happen in the jobs data. We saw a cool retail sales report. Up place was softer in july. Everything is simmering down in july. Maybe those minutes are a bit outdated. We just started getting more data. We have easternings from retailers and it feels like some of it is coming back. There are some indications that something might have been wrong in july and consumers are feeling better right now. You can see lumpiness in the date it. And the weekly chain sales, they looked good as well. I think the Third Quarter were going to see continued improvement. I want to change this over to the u. S. Employment. Before we talk about this, this business of the fed moving business rates. The fed has not moved on Interest Rates in years. When they talk about that, for my viewers who are concerned about the mortgaged, thats a different thing. In the last year it has gone from three and a half percent to the high force. Were basically at a sixmonth low for conventional mortgage rate. There are two ways to impact this. By doing nothing you could see Interest Rates increase because people will say the feds are not doing their job. If the feds move on the rate, it could knowledge the rate. But if the feds hit it in the sweet spat where its raising rates in a way that people think they have a grasp on the situation, we may not see a rise in Interest Rates at all. This is an interesting pace. If you gotten past the Unemployment Rate. Gotten past the jobs growth every month, the percentage of people who could be working, meaning theyre of working age, theyre not incarcerated, they can actually work, who work. 62. 9 . This is a low range of people who could be working. Its not quite the low we were at a low earlier this summer. But its just notched up. We have not been at this level of Labor Participation since the 1970 h 1970s. Were in the 67 range . Well, we were up in those levels five to ten years ago. Just so people know, 62 unemployment does not mean that 93 of the people are working. Right, exactly. What this means if people cant find are a job, theyre unemployed. They throw in the towel. Maybe they go back to school. Maybe they sit on the couch. Minute maybe they collect unemployment benefits. If you have a job or youre actively with a job. It could mean that youre rich. It could mean that youre rich, but what this means, weve been in a week economy for many years gnaw. The economy is only growing at half its usual pace. Wage inflation is not really there, there is not a lot of energy to entice people to come back to the labor market. Once you get past all this stuff its not just the sheer number of jobs. Its the kind of jobs we always enjoy having you here. Well, the Oil Train Explosion that killed 47 people in quebec was caused by a, quote, weak safety culture. Thats a new finding. The board faulted the real way for cutting corners on safety, training and equipment and failure to properly over see trains carrying highly explosive gallons of crud. And it is, in fact, more flammable and more explosive than oil. Oil has skyrocketed in the United States and canada to. There have been three oil explosions. Thankfully no one was killed in those incidents. Mcdonalds may be in the crosshairs of the sanctions war between russia and the west. Russia ordered the temporary closure of four Mcdonalds Restaurant in moscow for alleged sanitation violation mis. Watchdogs accused mcdonalds of posting false nutrition information. It was the First American fast food outlet in russia. Behind the violence and racial tension engulfing the city of ferguson, missouri, lies economic tension that has been there for years. Well have more on that coming up. Wrap these young people deserve justice anatomy of a protest. The police look like theyre getting ready to come down the street with militarized Police Departments forces their message. Theyre actually firing canisters of gas. A fractured Community Demands answers what do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now faul lines, Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. There blocking the door. Ground breaking. Truth seeking. We have to get out of here. Award winning investigative documentary series. Special episode Ferguson City under siege only on Al Jazeera America the. Unrest in ferguson is focusing on race in americas suburban communities. Ferguson, missouri, used to be known as a white enclave, but it the population of poor residents living in the burbs is growing. Those living in the suburbs outnumber those who live in the city by over 3 million. Its a gap that continues though grow. We take a look at another community which like ferguson is facing its own paradigm shift. Th the idyllic suburbs hide a stark reality years in the making poverty. The greatest types of things that would surprise People Living in suburbia, if they were to drive a few blocks over they would see a different view of the world. Those living under the poverty line has grown a taggering 159 over the last decade with 88 of the metro areas poor population now living outside of the city limits. Hidden away in pockets of run down houses and mobile home communities. And more and more people coming out for the first time. People who have never experienced poverty, who dont know what to do. In ca ye crest cagle work at must ministries one of the shirts that serve the poor in the area. The thing that is so important for people to realize, theyre people who look like each of us. Between 2000 and 2012 nearly every metropolitan area between the sun belt to the rust belt from seattle to francisco saw major increases in their suburban poor, more than twice the pace of growth in cities. In the working class suburb in ferguson, families see 10,000 less. Elizabeth kneebone with the metropolitan policy people. Much of what drew people to suburbs in the first place, Affordable Homes and plentiful factory jobs became driving factors of poverty in th poverty. And theyre facing shifts in the job market. Lower paying occupations are growing at a faster pace. Nearly half of the ferguson homeowners owe more on their houses than theyre currently worth. And fewer than 9 of the citys employed hold manufacturing jobs. Just over a quarter work in education services, healthcare and social assistance while 14 work in retail, a lowpaying sector. Were seeing a living wage for a family of two at 17 an hour. There are not a lot of jobs that pay 17 an hour. Back in cobb county she helps residents find new jobs. She aid most of her clientele are older workers. He faced one of the major challenges effecting the poor living outside of major cities. The difficulty of navigating suburban sprawl using limited transportation system. I would go to work. Fortunately for fluellen, he got his car back after lapping a fuel time job at a cocacola plant. Hes still living paycheck to paycheck but hopes to return to a middle class life style sometime soon. I think i got a good chance of moving up. Reporter mary snow, al jazeera. Unlike long established networks of support Services Helping the urban bore in cities the relatively suburban safety net already stretchy and thin reaching a breaking point. Reporting funding cuts with further tightening expected. One in five had to reduce Services Available since the start of the recession. The unrest in ferguson, missouri, reflect the demographic change. Why cant the poor get ahead in a middle class haven. Todd joining us from st. Louis. Todd, st. Louis was a beneficiary of the great migration. Workers coming from the south came to work in the cities because of the dynamic labor markets. If a factory closes there is another one somewhere else. Some just dont have the same dynamic job markets. Thats right. The loss of these industrial jobs have been devastating especially to the africanamerican community. It used to be if you were willing to work hard, have a strong back you can earn a decent wage. Now you have to qualify for these technical, require more professional background, and its much more difficult to make it. The up shot of all this is that in many ways its more difficult being poor in a suburb like ferguson than being poor in a city like st. Louis. We should remind everyone, st. Louis, the city, which is conditions to reinvent itself over its history, is not part of the st. Louis county. Thats a bit of the problem. There isnt the tax base there to help it be as dynamic as it could be. Why have the suburbs become magnates . People or is it they have just slowed down and its just worse off, as you say . Well, theres been a constant migration from north st. Louis into st. Louis county. Now a migration further out. People have left the city. Many lowincome families, singleparent families in search of better schools. Of course, when they get out to the county they end up in School Districts that are in some cases in worse condition than the city of st. Louis. A couple of districts have lost accreditation in st. Louis county. So the tax base just not there in a place like ferguson. Fergusons assessed value, that is the property taxes per capita in ferguson are onethird of the average for st. Louis county. So the city of ferguson just doesnt have the resources to deliver the centers. But todd, part of this for foes looking for a better life. Part of this is specific to areas and there are areas like this, like st. Louis county, which is very fragmented. There are all sorts of mancheste where they can consolidate some of these things and have a more flexible tax base. There are st. Louis county outside of the city, and so you have this fragmented institutional structure. The city of ferguson is by no means the smallest one. There are suburbs below a thousand there. You can imagine in a suburb of 21,000 you dont have the tax base. You dont have the economy of scales to perform services and provide the professional training that you would have in a larger city. Mergers make sense but its very difficult to do. Most of these politicians would rather be a big fish in a little pond than a big pitch i little fish in a big pond. Thank you for joining us. A remarkable topic. From the university of missouri, st. Louis. Focusing our attention on race and Economic Opportunity that still dog communities across america. Its important that we take these opportunities to have these important and larger conversations. Faul utilitily the anger in ferguson is about a 18yearold boy whose life was cut short by police. We should not assume that events will repeat itself, but we need to acknowledge that fergusons problems are familiar ones that Many Americans face. Thats our show for now. Thank you for joining us,. Hallenge announcer this is al jazeera. Hello, welcome to the newshour from doha. Our top stories israeli air strikes kill three hamas military commanders in rafah as rocket fire targets the ben gurian airport. Stories of a massacre human Rights Groups investigate mass killings from the Islamic State. A tense time for
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