>> reporter: the witnesses bleffed. >> with a little help. >> mistaken identity and miscarriage of justice. crime and punishment - how often eyewitnesss to crime are flat-out wrong on what they think they have seen. ahead of the scenes. ahead of the world cup. what the police hope to sweep off the streets. we go to the favellas. >> we come across store after store selling t-shirts. next to it is an open sewer, which is a reminder that there is still a lot of work to do in areas like this. squoo good evening, thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. we begin by looking at what spawns a violent blood bath, a rage that led to death. this time at a high school outside portland oregon, where a teen opened fire, killing a student, injuring a student and terrifying student at reynolds high. >> i heard gunshots. i thought it was a joke, fire crackers. then they yelled for us to get down. we got serious and went to lockdown. >> pretty scary over there, yes. >> reporter: tell me about it a little bit. what did you experience? >> we saw people running, screaming. we didn't know who was going on. we went to the back of the classroom. we were all scared. >> reporter: how is your mum? when you saw her, what was that like. >> it felt good. good experience to see her. we don't know what motivated this assault, this 74th school shooting since the massacre at sandy hook elementary 2.5 years ago. we are learning more about what investigators learnt following a bizarre and violent attack in las vegas. the husband and wife shooters broadcasting their hate red for government before going on a rampage killing two police officers and a wal-mart shopper and then turning the wepon on themselves. how investigators fear it may shadow more from other hate red groups. here is more from lori jane gliha. >> my fellow americans, i'm the joker and i'm running for president and i'm running for president because year after year i watched you americans, my fellow citizens vote for tier jpy. it's the lesser of the two evils. >> whether he's wearing paint on his face or a bandana on his head. jarrod miller wanted his feelings about government, rules and guns to be as public as possible. >> you may ask yourself and see criminals do not rob, rape and murder police. why? because they have guns. and they are legally allowed to use lethal force. now, if every citizen was allowed to own guns and use lethal force if people raped, murdered or robbed them, crime would not commence. there are ignorant people out there that would dispute this. yes, you are so very ignorant. >> under the name u.s. a patriot he posted 22 rants, some detailing encounters with cops, and others showing him complaining about marijuana laws. >> it was absurd to tell someone they can't drink alcohol or motorbiking pot. >> reporter: there's -- smoke pot. >> reporter: there's video of his wife amanda, a woman that would help him carry out murders of two police officers and a third man, before ending their own life. >> there's a tendency in the aftermath of 9/11 to concentrate or foreign jihadists. certainly while those people are a serious threat, none of us can forget, the reality is that since 9/11, more americans have been killed by the domestic radical right set by jihadists of any stripe. that is worth remembering. >> mark tracks anti-government extremists and hate group, saying organizations like these are becoming empowered. >> the shootings stem from the clyde and bundy standoff in mid -- cliven bundy standoff. both jarrod and his wife was at the standoff. it was seen by the militia movement, the patriot movement as a successful battle with the federal government. >> i'm not afraid of death, i'm afraid of being a slave, living under tyranny. >> at the end of the day the federal government backed off. put its guns down, walked away essentially with its tail between its also. >> in the last several days there has been acts of violence against government authority here and across the border. in canada a man is accused of killing three police officers, and in atlanta a gunman armed with depren aid, who identified with the sovereign -- grenades, who identified with the sovereign citizen movement opened fire at a courthouse, killing a security guard before he was shot and kill. >> this is the latest in what has been four or five years of accelerating terrorism. largely in response to obama election to the very poor economy over the last several years, and to major social changes like the acceptance of same-sex marriage going on in our society. >> reporter: politics play a factor. the southern poverty law sector say extreme groups and hate organizations pop up when a democrat takes office. >> well, the patriot movement in part is a response to the way the federal government is viewed. typically the groups rise up when they see what they think is a liberal democratic administration. almost immediately after barack obama was elected as our first black president and a relatively liberal democrat once again, we saw the groups taking off. >> reporter: he has hope for the domestic terrorism task for newly created by attorney general eric holder. it disappeared after 9/11. but beyond that minister must be vim lant and rely on -- vij lag and role on each other to speak up "america tonight"'s demrooe join us. is there -- lori jane gliha joins us. is there a feel that this couple is the leader of a ring or group, and is there thought of violence inspired by them? >> there is a concern of more violence. whether these people were part of a group is not the big concern. they feel there are different groups of people that are more empowered, after there was a standoff at the cliven bundy ranch in april with the government. he does foresee that there'll be more violence, nothing that is necessarily organised in a big sense of the word. as far as the country continues to become diverse and the demographic changes, that's the thing that agitates the extreme views. let's talk about the notion of a new task force. what can that do? >> hopefully we'll learn about that in the coming days. this has recently been announced. one thing that the southern poverty law center said, there's not a lot we can do. people need to be vigilant. you can't follow someone around all day. you can't send a police officer to walk around. if you become aware of something happening, you know there there's plotting occurring in the apartment next to you, you need to, as a citizens, come forward and make sure you say something, be vig lant and hopefully we'll learn about what the task force will do. demrooe , thank you -- demrooe , thank you -- lori jane gliha, thank you very much. next, a case built on mistaken identity. >> everyone thought they had the right man - police department, prosecutor's office, most of the people thought they had their man they were wrong. it nearly cost him his life. in our look at crime and punishment - how often eyewitness testimony turns out to be mistaken. later, f.i.f.a. and the favelas. ahead of the world cup brazil aims to sweep crime from its meanest streets. we go to the favellas - in the backlash against the crackdown. our criminal justice system depends on ordinary citizens coming forward when they see wrongdoing and helping investigators catch the culprit. it's not always as easy as it sounds. studies going back to the 1930s finds witness misidentification is to blame for most. as many as three out of four wrongful convictions. juries almost always convict if there is convincing eyewitness testimony, even when there's a lack of evidence or the suspect has a solid alibi. proof that they couldn't have done it. >> when the verdict came back and it was guilty on all counts, the courtroom erupted with applause. give him the gas, kill his areas. >> reporter: that's what they said. >> yes, i heard them sniggering and laughing. everyone thought they had the right man - police department, prosecutor's offices - most of the people thought they had their manned. >> reporter: before prison changed everything. this story was simply. this man raised on maryland shore fishing and crabbing like his father and his father's father. he left home to join the marines and was honorably discharged and had never been in trouble with the law in the 9 august 1934. he was 22 years old, souped asleep in his -- sound asleep had his cows since house. >> boom -- cousin's house. >> boom, box, box. i remember looking at the clock. flashlight in my faus. pistols drawn. step outside, you are under arrest for murder. >> reporter: 9-year-old dawn hamilton had been raped and murdered two weeks earlier, her body found near this pond in a wooded area. >> stuck my head in a police car, that's the last time i saw cambridge maryland for eight years, 10 months and 18 days. >> reporter: the time you were in prison. >> yes. two years on death row for something i didn't do. >> reporter: baltimore county police put out a sketch based on a description who saw two boys who walked into the woods with a man who offered to help dawn. an array of noses, mouths and eyes helped the children to describe the base. >> reporter: sound like mr potato head. >> t a random box of eyes, ears, noses, faces. they start out with a face out line, the hair, eyebrows and a nose. >> reporter: using the crude identikit tools, the kids identified an image they didn't thing looked exactly like the suspect. they asked the kids what the moustache looked like. the lis never added -- police never added to the description. >> reporter: a woman saw the image on tv and called the cops. >> she said it looked like me. >> reporter: his picture was blasted over the news, played in a loop. by the time witnesses saw him in a line-up, anyone that watched tv news baltimore knew what kurt looked like. >> everyone in court said they watched me in television the entire weekend before i was in the line-up. >> reporter: do you remember the line-up? >> i do. the two little boys never identified me. two weeks later they called the police and said "look, it's number 6. they are parents. that's the position i stood in. there were three other witnesses who picked him out. >> the witnesses were half-heart and just mistaken. i never tried to say that everywhere was lining. they made a mistake. you were picked out. a photo array. >> reporter: these witnesses believed. >> i think they believed with a little help. they had a little help there. >> reporter: not a shred of physical evidence linked him to the crime. five defense witnesses identified he couldn't have been there. but testimony identified that he was the man that took dawn into the woods. that was enough to convict him. he spent nine years in prison, two on death row. >> from the time i was arrested until the time i was released i told everyone and anyone that i was an innocent man. i signed my correspondence that way. respectively submitted, kurt nobel bludsworth, a. i. m. - an innocent man. >> reporter: every letter. >> every single letter. >> reporter: he became a reader and came across a crime story about a prisoner exonerated by a novel approach. science saved you. >> it was. in the end it was d.n.a. >> reporter: bludsworth was the first person in the united states exonerated by d.n.a. testing finding that despite what the witnesses said, kurt did not kill dawn hamilton. >> i was sitting in my cell, coming out of the yard. it was end of april. a guard stuck a post it note in my cell and it said urgent, call your attorney, urgent. he said, "kurt, you're innocent, man, you're innocent." >> i know that, when are you going to get me out of here. >> reporter:. d.n.a. evidence proofed that bludsworth didn't do it, but another prisoner was the killer. kimberley more closely resembled the description. kurt's case is one the baltimore city and county police decline to talk about, 21 years after he was exonerated. his name is a reminder to other maryland police and prosecutors about what can go wrong. >> i will tell you there's no police officers, no prosecutors, no judge who wants to punish the wrong person. >> reporter: a former prosecutor leads the internal affairs unit of maryland's third-largest police department. how good are people as witnesses? >> not as good as they think. it pressed the department to change investigations, beginning with procedures that started kurt down the road to prison. in late april of this year prince george's county become one of the first to do away with a 6-pack photo array. the kind used in kurt's case. in favour of a sequential photo line-up in which the witness considers each suspect one at a time. >> now we give it to them as six individual photos. we asked them to flip through, look at all of them and make a decision of each one as they go through the photographs and take their time. >> reporter: the homicide detective says it makes sure they pick the right suspect not the one that looks right. he said that officers can unintentionally influence a witness. >> even if they are honest and unscrupulous, they know the right answer. they may give off an unconscious coup. they may be examples. >> reporter: he implemented a double blind process where neither the detective nor the witness knows if there's a subject in the photo array. >> if you give that to a detective and witness that doesn't know if the person is in the photo array. we'll get a better result. >> reporter: do you believe what happened to you couldn't happen today? >> no. i don't believe that. depends on the jurisdiction. you can send a person to death row. >> reporter: kurt doesn't get back to the water any more. ooes an activist. he was instrumental in getting maryland to repeal the death penalty. >> witness identification is a large reason why wrongful convictions happen in the united states. >> he wants counties to become more widespread. >> i tell people if you are arrested, don't say anything, shut your mouth, cover your face. you see that on tv. there's a reason they do that. and, you know... . >> reporter: why? >> because somebody could misidentify them, and it's happened so many times. we are not infallible. we make mistakes. if this could happen to me, it could happen to anybody. >> "the system" with joe berlinger follows up with more witness misidentifications. after the break - away from the demriter of the world cup. the cold truth of life in the host country. >> 50,000 give or take are killed every year. 38,000 by gunshot injuries. brazil is the world champion in homicides as well as football. a bid to clean up the favellas. why residents say it's not enough later, exhausted but on the road. how a deadly new jersey highway crash may be a driving force in a push for more rest for american truckers. now a snapshot of stories making headlines - a big blow for californian teacher unions as tarp tenure -- teacher tenure is unconstitutional. it made it hard to get rid of bad students. it may lead to an overhaul on our educators are hired and fired. special forces and an afghan soldier killed in a 13-year long war in afghanistan. troops died after a jet called in for air support, mistakenly bombing them. anger and pain in a south korean court as 15 crew members of the disaster went on trial. more than 300, most students on a field trip decide. the ferry sank and they followed order to wait. breaking news - a political upset in virginia. eric cantor defeated by an underdog in the state's republican primary. cantor, the second-most powerful member seen as a successor to a house speaker. lost to a tea party candidate. cantor was the highest ranking jewish member in congress in history. less than 48 hours until kick off of the world cup in brazil. a pacification programme aimed at making communities safe is stealing the spotlight. the government calls it a clean up, residents a crackdown. allegations of wrongful evctions, brutality and murder. our correspondent reports from the favellas in brazil. >> reporter: these are the images brazil did not want the world to see in the lead up to the world cup, heavily armed police changing fire with residents weeks ahead of the kick-off. >> 58,000 people are killed every year, 38,000 by gunshot. brazil is not just a world champion in football, it's the world champion in whom suds. >> reporter: getting ready for the world cup is complicated and costly. hundreds of millions spent on crackdowns in the favelas, the slums. the raids appear to working driving out drug dealers and crime. observers say they came at a price. >> the military police at rio de janeiro are some of the violent police. for every 37 arrests that the military police undertake, someone dies in the course of that arrest. >> reporter: among the latest 26-year-old douglas perera, a dancer and tv personality, shot during a police raid in april. >> translation: he was a happy boy, smiling through everything. he taught things in the neighbourhood choreography and music. >> reporter: his body found steps away from the copa cabana beach. news of his death spread like wildfire, sparking protests. >> the police here are killers. police would kill, who lie. thugs are the ones in the uniform. >> reporter: rio de janeiro is home to 600 favelas. tightly packed communities with views of the city and a better life below. we travelled here to the favela, to get a sense of how the world cup and police effort changed the landscape of the hillsides. here the government's effort, pacific kags has reduced homicides in the area. known as a violent drug haven, it's a haven for the poor. beyond the plight and overcrowding there's business savvy. this woman lived her her whole life. with billions of tourist dollars about to hour in, the games helped her to start a new career. >> before the pacification, i was a business woman. >> she started leaning towards the good, the bad and the bizarre. she says the idea was inspired by a government initiative. >> translation: three years ago the residents were offered incentives to work with tourism, entrepreneurship. i work here near my family. >> reporter: as we walk through the favela, we come across store after store selling t-shirts to tourists. next to it is an open sewer which is a reminder that there's a lot of work to do in areas like this. >> translation: obviously it has the pros and cons. it's been five years. >> reporter: robert is a security expert based here for a decade. a few years ago the business wouldn't have been possible. >> this is one of the oldest favelas in the city. it had a significant amount of violence taking place in it. had you been here 10 years ago, as i had been, and attended a party, you would be ducking, dodging, avoiding windows. >> enter the police pacification unit, upp, an elite group of officers whose military-style aids became the known. >> a programme started in 2009 to bring a new face to the military police of rio de janeiro. they were launched really as a rehabilitation to a previous mode of policing, which was highly protective and muscular. the pacification project was intended to change the model and dock train of policing. at the heart of the model the police go into a community, moving in. today marked five years that i haven't lost a friend to drug trafficking. today, thank god, i don't have to bury any friends. >> reporter: donna is a showcase. in the favela there are divided opinions. many are skeptical about the timing of the raids, saying that the government cares more about profiting from the world cup, than the welfare of ordinary citizens. victor is a life-long resident and die-hard soccer fan. he said the raid and funny spent on the tournament soured his love for the game. >> i lived here all my life. and my family for five generations. the upp arrived five years ago. we have not received investment in services. >> victor's family lived in a part of the favela slated for eviction. police evict local families, a tag on the house with letters to alert the city authority. what am i looking at? . >> translation: this is what's, they mark the houses without authorisation or communication. i'm not trash to be thrown aside, marked and removed and ex-parliament housed from the area. we are human being. >> reporter: about an hour outside of rio, we found the victims of a recent eviction. they say they have nowhere else to go. >> translation: they came while we were sleeping, making us leave by force. none of us have houses or income. we lost everything. the world cup stadiums are getting renovated. hector's stadium is one of 3,000 families. with the olympics approaching in 2006, observers say that number would increase. teresa williamson runs a nonprofit monitoring the programme for years. she said the government encountered more resistance as it expanded the programme. >> communities are larger, they spread into each other. it's harder to control, for a lot of different regions, and incidents of torture in the communities have been tremendous. as a result there has been a backlash by residents in the community, young people protesting. people stopped calling it pacification and call it occupation. >> reporter: this policeman is in charge of security in this favela. there was talk that when the police moved in they were using unnecessary force. can you comment on that? >> initially when we came in with tanks and guns and helicopters. yes, it was very violent. but over time, with 24 hour a day preps, our mission is -- presence, our mission is about protecting people and keeping them safe in their daily lives. >> reporter: others say it's hard for favela residents to trust the police force. >> we have a 200-year-old police force that has never been reformed. the upp is a first attempt. you have to look at the history and realise that police were created in the time to do briefings, protect the monarchy, property, and take them back. and to repress rebellion. it's what the police are still doing. >> reporter: for thousands of fans, the favelas may be an attraction. but for the people who live here, there are winners and losers. many wonder what will happen when the games are over and the eyes of the world are no longer looking towards brazil. two days after his death, douglas's mother found a note. in it the final words of a young son and member of a beloved community. >> translation: in the favela many discriminate against us. there's prejudice. the people tolerate it. we are sons of the same father, creator of the earth, in the hearts of all the people. joining us to talk about the exact of the world cup on brazilians, sports editor for "the nation", author of the book "brazil's dance with the devil - the world cup, the olympics and the fight for democracy", dave, when we hear these things - you have written about the intersection between politics and sport - this is not what the world cup was supposed to be for brazil. it was supposed to be a coming out for a country that loves football. >> exactly. it was about propelling brazil into the top tear of nations. it was a promise made by the president at the time. of securing the world cup and the 2016 olympics. lula is obsessed with a quote about a french politician who said "brazil is the country of the future and always will be", he said they'll prove them wrong, brazil is the country of the present and the future. the problem is they thought they'd be able to pull this off because the economy was growing at an 8% clip during the 2000s, if f.i.f.a. doesn't care if the economy slowed, the international olympic committee doesn't care, they want to see the stadiums, infrastructure and the favelas classified. occupied as was said pacification is one of those ooufennisms, and this is not just brazil, we have seen it in other countries when there's super megasporting events. >> absolutely. i have been to other world cups. you see the mill tarisation of public space, displacement of the pore and debt that spiral out of control. what is different about brazil and it's historic, is that you see protests happen in advance. games. i called the book brazil's dance with the devil because of a line from the movie, the usual suspects, where they said the greatest trip pulled was convincing that they didn't exist. they go into countries, cause disruption and leave. they are held to act in advance of the world cup. i received a note from a friend in sao paulo who said the word f.i.f.a. in brazil is as popular as fema in new orleans after hurricane katrina. >> really you say held to account. at the end of the day f.i.f.a. goes away, and brazil is left with the impoverished brazilians, those displaced or relocated. what is going to be the result two years down the line? >> the struggle will continue because of the 2016 olympics. a lot of these discussions will not just go away once the confetti is cleared and everyone goes home. there'll be another conflict to come in rio in particular. but it will be of a national dimension. elections are coming up and all the discussion will be about was brazil taken for a ride by f.i.f.a. and its corporate sponsors. >> thank you for being here. appreciate your being here. >> thank you. on the frup the country that -- run from the country that measures it's worth in cross national happiness. this week, what is behind an exodus of refugees. >> when you hear a suicide, what is your rehabilitation? >> we have to work and invest more. we have to go into their background. if we have that knowledge, we could save lives. >> michael oku meets a refugee groups and works out why anyone would want to leave a life built on happy innocence for a life as a refugee here. that's next week. next up - trucking in a road-weary haze. a celebrity wreck, and why it's sparking new debate in taking tired truckers off the road. maybe you know the feeling, that late-night drowsiness - risky for any driver or passenger, more terrifying when the driver is behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, over the weekend an accident leaving tracy morgan in intensive care and another dead. in the last five years the department of transportation saw a 20% increase in large truck accidents. when big rigs are likely to involve fatalities than any other types of crashes. >> this is a terrible accident. the car demriped, it's on its side. >> do you know if anybody is injured. >> yes, two vehicles and a wal-mart truck. twisted steel, broken glass, clothes ripped from people littered the new jersey turn pike. six vehicles collided. two semis. traumatised survive juniors consoled one another, others helped the injured. a passer-by posted to tnz realised how bad it was. >> oh, my glad. >> one of the most seriously injured popular actor and opinion tracy morgan. he was riding in a limo have been with friends. he is still in critical condition. fellow comedian james mcnair was killed, their limo crushed by a wal-mart struck that slammed into the rear of the vehicle. >> all i know, i saw traffic, i stopped. i was upside down in the seek. >> the driver of the truck, 35-year-old kevin roper has been charged with vehicular homicide and assault. investigators say he'd been awake for more than 24 hours before the crash, underscoring a leading threat on the roadways - driver fatigue, a leading cause of big rig crashes. >> they can work up to 80 hours a week. this is unsafe on the american highways. most people harmed in these crashes are people in cars. >> ed-slattery knows the danger, a wreck with a semikilled his wife and critically injured his sons. >> my wife was returning from family in cleveland with two boys. she was in a construction zone, going 5 miles an hour. a tripple tractor trailer driver fell asleep and rear-ended her at 55 miles per hour, pushing her car under the semi-in front of her, killing her significantly, and seriously injuring both of our boys. one permanently. we are not even three years post crash yet, and i still spend a lot of time taking care of our disabled son. the most recent federal survey reports 100,000 people injured and 4,000 killed in wrecks with big rigs. at the wheel, in 13% of the crashes, were tired truck drivers. >> fatigue is a big concern of hours, for the basic reason that commercial transportation is 24/7 and human are not. >> recognising that the maximum work week was reduced by 12 hours, from 82 hours a week to 70. along the i95 quarter, some truckers say limits are needed. >> in terms of safety of the vehicle, they are on top of that. what happens is little companies and big companies push it. they push it with equipment and having to get there. my little device says i can only drive 11 hours. my customer wants me there. what am i going to do. >> others say it keeps them on the road. >> back years ago when you were tired you could pull to the side of the road and sleep a couple of hours, and go back and drive. they changed that. you could run into friends that you met on the road at a truck stop and take an hour or two. now you can't. because they have it set up from the time you start you're only allowed to be around 14 hours, i think. >> one worry for the industry is the 70 hour rule puts truckers on the road during rush hours, slowing deliveries and adds half a billion to delivery costs. drivers say someone needs to put the brakes on hours truckers work to keep them moonlighting on other jobs, and putting them on the road exhausted. >> my opinion is - i haven't heard the end of it - but probably he's moonlighting. we don't make as much as people think we do. we met ed-slattery and hear the story. with real echos, what happened to your wife and children had real echos of what happened in this accident with tracy morgan. >> truckers are expected to drive 70 hours a week. they are invariably tired. they have a big problem with sleep apnoea and are paid by the mile. their incentive is to get as many miles under the belt in the 11 hours that they are allowed to drive each day. they are allowed to work 14 hours a day, three of which they may be detained at a depot to peck up or drop off loads. the real problem here is that they are over worked. they are piecemeal workers. we do not allow piecemeal work in the textile industries any more. there's no such thing as a sweatshop allowed in the united states, except on wheels. when you heard about the wreck with tracy morgan, it's almost an echo of what happened with your wife and children. >> i can't tell you how many emails i got from friends and family saying "this is just like your crash", i have too many friends losing family members in similar crashes. 4,000 people die in crashes with commercial motor vehicles. 700 truckers die in single vehicle crashes every year. what we at mothers against tired truckers and the truck safety coalition and other organizations are asking is for the professional truckers to be treated as the professionals they are. i would not want my heart surgeon to have worked 70, 80 hours in a week. i do not want truckers driving on the road having worked 70 hours a week. >> is it possible - you talk about the incentive for them to work more hours, to work harder, go fatter, longer - is -- governmenter, longer - is it possible to limit that: is it possible it say we'll limit the driving, but can you police that. >> technologies are getting to the point where you can police that. hopefully we'll have recorders in the future so we'll know what the truck is doing. it tells us how long the truck has been moving, how - whether they have swerved an inordinate number of times, how fast they've been going. yes, we are getting to the point where we can know what the truckers are doing. the problem right now - i mean, the immediate concern that we have is there are members of congress and in the senate who are trying to reduce the required sleep time which would increase the work week from 70 to 82 hours. and we think that that is insane. the other thing they are trying to do is increase truck length. and weight. which is equally insane. would there be a way to monitor them in a way for example that pilots the monitor, and restricts numbers of hours worked since their last consumption of alcohol. is there a way to monitor truckers like that. >> once we have on board recorders - many companies have them voluntarily. we need to have them in the trucks as a mandatory basis. a lot of what the truckers do, has to be on their honour. when they go to sleep, they need to be asleep. they need to be honest about that. i want to say that most truckers are. as in most cases the problem is not the majority, the problem is the minority who behaves badly and disingenuously. and i want to say from all of us in the truck safety community, we are heart broken for tracy morgan and the rest of his entourage who were killed and maimed. >> and injured badly. ed lattery, thank you for being with us, from parents of tired truckers now detroit's extraordinary art collection. there's more to it. the bid to save the works from the auction block. detroit's big three automakers joined up to make a $26 million pledge for the detroit institute of arts. >> this money is intended to help preserve the cultural identity and the cultural heritage that is on display here at the detroit institute of arts. it is also intended to preserve the tensions of many of the hardworking men and women that serve the city of detroit for many years, and, importantly, the contribution is intended to help get the motor city back on its feet again. a multi-million partnership adds to the goal of raising $800 million to emerge from bankruptcy by this fall. ahead in our final thoughts - get this - the power of man against nature. imagine this - rowing from california to hawaii. could you do it? could you even think about it? the great pacific race is next. the night's events, a smarter start to your day. mornings on al jazeera america finally from us - mann power in motion. a superhuman display of determination. these are athletes on a 2400 mile journey across the pacific ocean in row boats, going from monter ain california to -- monterey to hawaii. we report on the great pacific race. >> reporter: they are off on what may be one of the greatest depruling events. it's the great pacific race, with competitors rowing from california to hawaii, a distance of 3,500km. you heard that right. they are rowing - the whole way. no sails, no motors, just muscles. this is the canadian crew practicing before the race began. >> the great pacific race is the first ever human powered race across the pacific. we have 13 tom c representing 10 crews representing 13 country, it's tough, hard but brilliant. >> reporter: there are no big corporate sponsors ready to spin athletic sweat to gold. some of the racers but up their own money. matt is a part-time actor and self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie. >> i have spent twice what i thought i could get away with, and three times what i had in the bank. i'm flat broke. >> reporter: as british competitor sucha points out, there's no prize money. what is it? honour and administratory. >> reporter: race organizers say safety is the top priority. each vessel has satellite phones to call for help. >> reporter: at a time when ports are multibillion spectacles of mass entertainment, the great race reminds us some athlete adventurers compete not for money or fame, but to prove themselves, and out of love for their sport. >> in addition, the rowers are fundraising for charities ranging from autism research to fighting pollution. of all the daptioners that lay a -- dangers that lay ahead from storms to sharks to mental exhaustion, matt worries about what is behind him. >> the thing i fear the most is butt pain, i'm concerned how it will fare. >> reporter: there won't be midocean coverage, but viewers can track coverage online. wait, no prize money, and pain in the - seat. you can track the competitors at greatpacificris.com. we'll follow. that's it for "america tonight". next, a country that measures its worth in national happiness, and what is behind an exodus of refugees from buton. one of america's fastest growing ref gee group and wants to know why anyone would leave a county built on happiness for life, to be a refugee here. for now, that's it for us. see you n time. -- see you next time. >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america is iraq on the brink of civil war? militants seize the second biggest city, a city americans fought hard and died to control. major upset - eric cantor loses his seat. is the tea party seeing a resurgence. autism gets a boost from google. we talk to the cofounder. diving into history,