to take in 8,000 migrants, but with millions fleeing is the u.s. doing enough? this is al jazeera america, live from new york city. i'm steph. today, family and friends and the television station where they worked are remembering two virginia journalists killed on lye television. >> i want to share with you once again what made these two so special. please join us now in a moment of silence. >> reporter allison parker and cameraman adam ward were gunned down by a former colleague. police say the shooter vester flanagan later killed himself. he recorded the entire incident then posted it on to social media. al jazeera is choosing not to show those images but we're learning more about what drove flanagan to violence. john, police say the gunman left behind a manifesto, what did it say? >> reporter: yeah, some call it a suicide note, some call it a manifesto. it arrived by fax at the headquarters of abc news two hours after the shootings. he talks about himself being a human powder keg, angry about all sorts of things like the racially motivated church shootings in june. he said he was motivated to put down a deposit on a gun two days after that. and he was inspired by columbine in 1999, colorado, and the virginia tech shooting in 2007, which is odd, because the young camera man who died yesterday adam ward attended virginia tack before working for the tv station. and vester lee flanagan goes on to talk about a life of being bullied and discriminated against both sexually and racially, stephanie. >> we have -- also heard from parker's family and her fiance. >> reporter: her fiance is the evening anchor here. he says their love for each other was white hot and although she has gone, the love will not die. allison parker's father has been speaking today. he said he never thought he would do the media round the day after this happened, but then he said, well, allison would have wanted it. he is saying he will now devote his life to trying to reform the gun laws in this country so that people who have mental issues cannot get a hold of them so easily. >> you mark my words, my mission in life, and i talked to the governor today, he called me -- and i told him, i said i'm going to do something -- whatever it takes to get gun legislation to shame people -- to shame legislators into doing something about closing loopholes and background checks and making sure crazy people don't get guns. and he said you go, i'm right there with you. >> reporter: and we remember allison parker and adam ward today, but we must not forget stephanie, victory gardner, the representative from the chamber of commerce who was being interviewed yesterday. we have an update on her health. she is still in hospital. she was operated on. she is doing good, we are told. stephanie. >> john terrett, thank you. closing arguments are now underway in the sexual assault trial of a new hampshire prep school graduate. the jury is expected to start deliberating this afternoon. on wednesday owen labrie took the stand in his own defense. he is accused of raping a 15-year-old classmate as part of a so-called senior salute. >> reporter: when he took the witness standing wednesday, he continued to say what he has maintained to investigators all along; that he did not have sex with his accuser, and that whatever intimate contact they did share was mutual. >> she seems to be reciprocating towards you? >> yes. >> did she recoil in any way at this point or drawback? >> no. >> reporter: labrie told his defense attorney he liked his accuser, and she liked him. >> make it a point to say hi or like -- like a wink or like a nod or just something silly. >> how would you describe her personality? >> i thought she was great. she was a really, really nice girl. really easy to talk to. which makes it a lot of fun. >> reporter: but on cross examination, the prosecution grilled labrie. >> you wanted to have sex with her, correct? >> i -- i don't know what you mean. >> you don't know what i mean when i say you wanted to have sex with her? >> when? >> your word. you were interested and you wanted to slay her, correct? >> um . . . yeah, i -- i was fond of her. >> labrie's accuser left the courtroom in tears wednesday, she has maintained that labrie violated her after she told him no, twice. and responding to testimony from friends that labrie bragged to them about having sex with the young woman, labrie says he lied to his friends. he says all his friends did know was that he and his accuser shared affection. >> like all of my friends new, all of her friends sort of like new as well. >> reporter: forensic witnesses testified that labries dna was found on one of the girl's under garments. but he insists he is innocent. a new report from the u.n.'s nuclear watchdog says iran may have expanded one of its military sites while nuclear negotiations were underway. the report says the agency has observed probable construction on a major military complex outside of tehran. earlier i spoke with congressman alan grayson who is spectacle that the u.s. can trust iran. >> i don't think the deal will bring about the peace that we were hoping to see. it does nothing to address terrorism support by iran for militant groups around the area, involvement in iran in what amounts to the shia sunni civil war -- >> but this deal was supposed to constrain iran's ability to get a nuclear weapon. do you believe it does that? are you leaning one way or another on that. >> well, that's the problem. i have been saying for years we needed a broader peace. and it moth balls the situation. grayson who is a democrat says he has not yet decided whether he'll support or oppose the deal with iran when congress votes on it in september. at many as 50 refugees were found dead in a truck today on the road in austria. leaders are meeting in vienna right now, as thousands of migrants try to make their way to the e.u. more than four million syrian refugees have fled. turkey has the lion's share. more than a million have john to lebanon. jordan has more than 600,000. a quarter million are in iraq, and another 130,000 are in egypt. vice president joe biden considers a run for the top job. what he told fellow democrats about his prospects. and anned a campaign us causing outrage in a suburb. the fliers that many are calling racist. >> in order to save my children, i had to try to save everyone else's. >> chicago mothers, fed up and fighting back. >> what we've essentially done is created an outdoor community center. >> changing the city one block at a time. >> i'm out here to encourage them, to tell them there's a better way. we just showed you those numbers, millions of syrian refugees have now fled to neighboring countries. we want to talk more about this with the spokesperson for the u.n. refugee agency, brian good morning, and thank you for your time. just start by addressing the scale of this crisis at this point. when was the last time we saw four million people flee a single country? >> i know. it's basically -- to put it into a context, it's the worst crisis since the end of the second word war globally. we have more than 60 million people being forced to flee their homes, driven primarily by the syrian crisis which is now into its fifth year. over four million people, that's more than the entire population of los angeles have simply fled their home, fled their country because of war and conflict, fled their lives. most of them ending up in turkey, in tiny lebanon, a country less than a third of the size of the state of maryland has around 1.2 million. >> and you have to wonder about the strain, especially on the smaller countries. obviously because proximity, europe is also bearing t the -- brunt of the flow of refugees. should the u.s. be taking more? >> well, we are grateful for the u.s. commitment. and putting it into context. the u.s. is the largest humanitarian donor over $4 billion. but in terms of resettlement, resettlement of syrians is only a small part of the operation. because -- i mean the hope for a solution is that syrians would eventually return to their homes, but unfortunately the syrian conflict now into its fifth year there is no end in site. so we're very grateful for the u.s.'s commitment. it has an open-ended commitment. the u.s., in fact is the largest country -- resettles more refugees than any other country. so certainly the u.s. is extremely generous, other countries are extremely generous, but yes, we see the numbers increasing in the years ahead. >> what is the process of syrian refugees, specifically trying to come to the u.s.? >> the u.s. like any other country performs you know -- has the right as a nation state -- performs extensive background checks. the state department is involved, the department of homeland security, and any syrian, we put forward the most vulnerable, unaccompanied children, single mothers, single parents with children, and victims of torture and abuse, but the u.s. puts up very extensive background checks. so from the date that we put forward these -- as i say the most vulnerable of the vulnerable cases, it can take as long as 12, 18 months or longer for them to arrive in the u.s. >> i want to broaden this, because it's not just syrians that have been fleeing en masse. there have been african migrants, and some have said that syrian refugees in some cases are better off. they are far less likely to be discriminated against than other migrants. aren't there some 60 million around the world fleeing conflict and crisis? >> yes, as -- as i mentioned earlier. war, conflict and persecution have now caused around 60 million people, as you mentioned, to flee their countries. they approximately the population of the entire united kingdom. this is the largest number fleeing since world war ii. it's a global crisis, and certainly it is driven by syria, syria is the major factor. but also inside syria. we have over 7.6 million displaced within the country itself. so it's unfortunately, we are first responders, but the ultimate solution must be a political one. >> so many women and children in those numbers. brian thank you for your incites on this morning. the hunt is on for whoever is putting up racist fliers in a detroit suburb. one pamphlet calls on residents to vote out black city leaders and vote in white candidates instead. >> reporter: the headline is bold, let's get the blacks out of southfield in november. with the message, let's take back our city printed at the bottom. on one the images of two white deputy police chiefs and three other white men running in the upcoming election. the fliers began surfacing over the weekend. on another flier is a photo of traore, with the words captioned zimmerman was right. martin was 17 years old when he was shot and killed by george zimmerman in florida in 2012. southfield is predominantly black, and some residents are outraged. >> i was born in the 50s, came up through the civil rights stuff and all of that, and when i see stuff like that, it's kind of sickening. >> i'm appalled, but more so, because clearly this is race baiting. >> reporter: ken cofounded the city's task force that is a grassroots organization that communicates the importance of celebrating the national holiday. he is also a candidate for southfield mayor. his photo and name appear on the flier. he feels he is being targeted. what is your response? >> my response is to tell them i'm not behind this, and that i believe this is season that is either trying to incite racial tension in our city, which we -- we lack, and/or it's dirty campaign trick. >> no matter what the motivation is, this is absolutely despicable, and we will not tolerate it in our community. >> reporter: pat hanie is president of the mlk, jr. task force, he is questions notetive behind the fliers. >> it may very well be that this was not done by a right racist individual or organization, but in fact done in order to incite people of color to come out to the polls and vote directly opposite of what the flier purports. >> reporter: many who live here suspect the person behind the fliers isn't southfield resident. bisi onile-ere, al jazeera, southfield, michigan. tropical storm erika could do hit florida as a hurricane by herbal next week. >> we have the latest information. take a look at this satellite image. i want to show your right here this is the island of damica, and massive flooding is going on across the island right now. and there are reports that power outages are going on, as well as we have a lot of destruction in terms of homes. take a look at that video, you can see what the flash flooding is doing to the island. the infrastructure across this island is not as strong as maybe some of the other islands and we'll keep you informed as we go. this is the storm system as it is push going the caribbean right now. we will get the latest advisory at the top of the hour. this track is from 5:00 a.m. at 11:00 am we will get a new track. but the track has dropped just to the south, so it will be very interesting to find out how that effects the rest of the tract as we go towards the weekend. >> thank you. president obama heads to new orleans today to mark ten years since hurricane katrina hit the gulf coast. one neighborhood was devastated when the levies broke flooding 80% of new orleans. new orleans photographer eric waters is known for capturing the heart of the city on film. after a katrina he found himself in atlanta, and ten years later he is still trying to get back to new orleans. robert ray explains. >> reporter: imagine living in a neighborhood in new orleans like this one, and all of a sudden 6.5 feet of water engulfed the entire area, because the levees broke. that's what happened to this photographer. that is his house. he is now trying to move back. commuting from atlanta to materials for the past ten years. but he doesn't have enough money to recreate what was his childhood home. he put a hundred thousand dollars into the home, but a contractor ripped him off, and now he is trying to get back to the city he loves so much while he continues to document the soul of new orleans, which he says not what it used to be. >> you can see the full report tonight at 8:00 eastern. the pressure to make it to the big leagues an alarming number of young athletes developing adult injuries. welcome back to al jazeera america. it is 10:45 eastern. the economy had a bigger rebound during the spring than previously thought. the commerce department reports gdp was up more than 3%. the revised numbers are one of many things pushing stocks up this morning, taking a live look at the big board. the dow jones up 1.5% right now. a kentucky clerk again refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, kim davis says handing out the licenses is against her religious belief, so she is defying a supreme court decision. and los angeles cut its water usage by 21% in july. that's better than the 16% the state requested. they are very adult injuries now affecting kids, an intense sports culture leading to young people getting hurt on the field. ashar qureshi reports. >> reporter: this 17-year-old high school senior has always thrown the ball hard. but last year while pitching in a tournament, he felt something pop. >> i felt a sharp pain on a pitch, and then, you know, didn't have any velocity on it, and it was ten feet in the dirt, and a couple of weeks later i had an mri and it showed i had a partial tear. >> reporter: months later, surgery became necessary to save his virgining baseball career. you rested it, you rehabbed it, and then it got to the point where you needed surgery. >> he said there was probably a lot of scar tissue in there that wouldn't hold up or heal. so the only option to keep playing baseball at least was to have surgery. >> reporter: it is treated with what is known as tommy john's surgery. it is now common among big league players. >> you see all of the young people having surgeries, college at looets, pro athletes having surgery. it is a symptom of the culture of our sports, and i would say definitely shut your child down for a period of several months, don't let him play all year-round. >> make sure you stay back, up, down, out, let the legs work. >> reporter: researchers say this is part of an alarming trend. this doctor recently cowrote a study that found a dramatic increte in tommy john's surgery among teen athletes. >> kids between the ages of 13 and 19 make up almost 60% of all of the tommy john's surgery. it is really our high school kids who are getting this operation the most. >> reporter: with the athletes increasingly playing all year-round, little say there's little time for the arm to recover. >> those kids that play year round and play for two teams or more have a much higher incidence of having this surgery. and we have recommended that kids take about three months off per year to let them recover. >> reporter: last fall this high school soccer player spent most of her senior year on the sideline. >> probably the most painful thing i had ever been through. the defender hit me on the side of the knee with her knee. >> reporter: she tore her acl. that's an injury physical therapist says is greater risk in girls than boys. >> they have a wider pelvis and that actually causes them to collapse their knee in when they land and cut, and so that's a big contributor. >> reporter: any problem with the arm? >> not at all. >> reporter: this high school coach says he is seeing injuries become more prevalent in a culture of overusing the best players. >> when you are hurting a kids future by doing that. you need to monitor each guy and make sure if he did throw three innings, he shouldn't throw the next day. >> reporter: nearly six months later, he is back in training. but he is pragmatic about not overusing his arm. >> i'll do a lot more working out to keep my body healthy and minimize stress. >> reporter: because the best plan say doctors is to take measures to try to prevent injuries in the first place. ashar qureshi, al jazeera, chicago. usain bolt is again ruling the track and field competitions. he won the 200-meter sprint today again beating his rival justin g justin gatlin. thanks for watching. i'm stephanie sy. the news continues next live from doha. have a great morning. ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello welcome to another news hour from al jazeera in doha. i'm adrian finighan. as many as 50 refugees have been found dead inside of a truck in austria. the u.n. hears an impassioned plea for syria. and nigeria marks a grim anniversary. i have the

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