we will go to yemen to speak with save the children. plus, we will go to the streets of new york where thousands took part in sunday's puerto rican day parade on the same day puerto rico held a controversial referendum on statehood. >> they're are being deeply impacted by migration, congressional inaction, and deathsally by all of the . lester, half a million people migrated inland. grading infrastructure. amy: and looking at to real estate investors advising president trump's residence described them as slumlords. two new exposes show how trump's son-in-law jared kushner and his close friend thomas barrack have profited mightily off the backs of low-income renters. all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in yemen, a civilian is dying nearly every hour from an cholera outbreak, as the ongoing u.s.-backed saudi-led bombing campaign and naval blockade has devastated yemen's health, sanitation, and water systems. the world health organization says cholera has killed at least 859 people and that more than 100,000 are infected. this is the health ministry spokesperson abdel hakim al kahlani. announcenistry had to the state of emergency. the ministry announced it is powerless in facing this epidemic on its own and that we need international support and international organizations to aid in combating this epidemic. amy: last month, president donald trump signed a series of arms deals with saudi arabia totaling a record $110 billion during a visit to riyadh. united nations monitors have warned saudi-led attacks on yemen could constitute crimes against humanity. over 10,000 people have died since the u.s. backed saudi led bombing campaign began in we'll 2015. go to yemen for more on the cholera epidemic after headlines. in syria, u.s.-backed troops fighting isis in raqqa have been accused of deploying munitions loaded with white phosphorus, an incendiary weapon whose use in populated civilian areas is banned under international law. photos and video published by the local journalist group raqqa is being slaughtered silently show what appears to be white phosphorous filling the air over raqqa on thursday night, amid the u.s.-backed offensive to retake the city from isis. white phosphorus munitions can burn human flesh down to the bone, and wounds contaminated by the chemical can reignite up to days later, poisoning victims and leading to organ failure or death. an unnamed u.s. official told "the new york times" that the u.s.-backed forces fighting in raqqa have access to white phosphorus munitions. the apparent use of white phosphorous came the same night as a u.s.-backed coalition airstrike reportedly hit an internet cafe, killing as many as 14 civilians. the syrian observatory for human rights says one of the civilians killed was an activist who was in the middle of sending a report to the monitoring group when the airstrike destroyed the al-hason net internet cafe. in afghanistan, u.s. troops are accused of killing a civilian and his two children outside his home this morning in nangarhar province. a local afghan official says the u.s. troops opened fire, killing the three civilians after the soldiers car was hit by roadside bomb. meanwhile, three u.s. soldiers were killed on saturday, also in nangarhar province, when an afghan army commando turned on the u.s. troops. the u.s. and afghan army were in the middle of a joint military operation in achin district when the killings took place. six u.s. soldiers have died in afghanistan so far this year. in iraq, at least 21 people were killed in a suicide attack on a market south of baghdad. the attack friday morning came as families were shopping for ramadan. the u.s. war on terror continues to expand under president trump. on sunday, the u.s. military said it had carried out a drone strike in southern somalia against the militant group al shabab. it's the first known strike of its kind since president trump relaxed the rules governing u.s. military operations in somalia. the pentagon says the strike killed at least eight militants when an armed reaper drone, launched from a u.s.-military base in djibouti, dropped a series of hellfire missiles on the al-shabab camp. meanwhile, the pentagon has also confirmed that u.s. special operations troops are supporting philippines troops fighting militants in marawi city. an unnamed u.s. official told reuters the u.s. support includes training, aerial surveillance, and electronic eavesdropping. the u.s. has 300-500 troops in the philippines, although they are reportedly not engaged in direct fighting. the militants linked to isis seized control of marawi city on may 23. in the united states, the attorneys general of maryland and washington, d.c., are suing president trump, accusing him of violating the emoluments clause of the constitution by accepting millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments to his companies while serving as u.s. president. the lawsuit centers on the trump international hotel and washington, d.c., which is to the white house. representatives of saudi arabia, turkey, and kuwait have all stayed at the hotel since trump's the net ration. -- inauguration. the lawsuit is the first of its kind, and comes as trump is also facing multiple investigations over his ties to russia. meanwhile, new york state attorney general eric schneiderman says he's investigating the eric trump foundation following a forbes investigation that revealed trump's son's foundation took $100,000 of donations that were supposed to go to children with cancer and instead funneled the money to the for-profit company of the trump organization. california senator dianne feinstein is calling on the senate judiciary committee to investigate trump for possible obstruction of justice in the events leading up to trump's firing of former fbi director james comey. on friday, the day after comey testified to the senate intelligence committee, president trump took to twitter to attack him, tweeting -- "despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication. and wow, comey is a leaker!" comey testified that trump has lied about him and the fbi. comey also said trump pressured him to drop the investigation into former national security advisor general michael flynn during a private meeting that comey said was inappropriate. former u.s. attorney preet bharara now says president trump also made him feel uncomfortable during a series of phone calls. bharara says he reported one of the calls to attorney general jeff sessions' chief of staff because it made him uneasy. bharara was fired less than 24 hours after refusing to take a call from president trump. testifyingns will be tuesday, although, it is not yet known whether the testimony will be open to the public. meanwhile, california senator dianne feinstein is separately calling for congress to look into comey's statements during his senate intelligence committee testimony that former attorney general loretta lynch asked him to downplay his investigation into hillary clinton's emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. formerly imprisoned army whistleblower chelsea manning has given her first television interview after being released from prison last month. all of this information. death, destruction, mayhem. eventually -- i stopped thing just statistics and information and i started sing people. >> there are those who say you may have been motivated to get the information into the public sphere, but may have given it to our enemies also. >> but i have a responsibility to the public commit is not just about -- we all have responsibility. amy: that was formerly imprisoned army whistleblower chelsea manning, speaking with abc's juju chang. puerto rico held a controversial referendum on statehood 97% of sunday. those who cast ballots supported puerto rico becoming the 51st state. however, only 23% of eligible voters took part. many puerto rican opposition parties boycotted the vote. this is raul torres, explaining why he didn't vote in sunday's referendum. i did not go to vote today. i have always voted in every election that i saw as legitimate, but i don't think today's election is valid at all because the united states congress is not going to validate this referendum. and it is just something they are doing their, the party in power, to get a little closer to statehood. stay who is a form of government that i don't like, first of all, and second, this is just a waste of money. sunday's referendum came the same day tens of thousands turned out sunday for the national puerto rican day parade here in new york city. marchers at the new york parade included puerto rican independence activist oscar lopez rivera, who was imprisoned 35 years. we will hear voices from the march later in the broadcast. president trump may cancel his planned state visit to britain britain admitted fears of mass protests. nearly 2 million people in britain have signed a petition saying trump should not be invited to make an official state visit because it would cause embarrassment to her majesty the queen." london mayor sadiq khan has also called for trump's state visit to britain to be canceled after trump misquoted and then berated the mayor following the attack in london earlier this month. crowds of demonstrators shouted down islamaphobic protesters in more than a dozen cities on saturday. the rallies were held by the anti-hague group act for america. counter protesters greatly outnumbered those who turned out for the islamaphobic rallies. protesters were arrested in seattle, new york city, and st. paul, minnesota. in california, a group of undocumented central american and mexican asylum seekers are launching a hunger strike inside the for-profit adelanto detention center this morning. most of the hunger strikers were part of a caravan of refugees who spent april and may crossing through mexico to reach the united states border to ask for asylum. they have been incarcerated in the geo group-owned adelanto is -- since reaching the u.s. border. this is hunger striker isaac lopez castillo. >> the reasons for our hunger strike are, one, bales set at impossibly high levels. two, the denial of the right to political asylum. three, humiliation and discrimination toward the detained. four, facilitation of the paperwork and processing of the detained. five, bad food. six, incompetence of medical staff. seven, paperwork in english. amy: uber's board of directors has forced out a top executive and is considering a leave of absence for the ceo travis kalanick, amid a slew of scandals at the wall street-backed ride hailing company. kalanick has faced widespread criticism after bloomberg news published a dashcam video of him arguing with and insulting an uber driver in an expletive-filled tirade earlier this spring. a number of women workers at uber have also reported widespread sexual harassment within the company. uber fired 20 workers over sexual harassment. tens of thousands of people took to the streets for pride marches on saturday and sunday in cities across the united states. in multiple cities, lgbt activists, led by queer women of color, staged disruptions of the pride marches themselves in order to protest the increasing corporatization of pride. the d.c. capital pride parade was the site of major disruptions on saturday, as actists with the group no justice no pride blocked the street with a sign reading, "war profiteers have no place in our community." the group is demanding pride scale back the police presence at the march and cut ties with its corporate sponsors that profit off war and fossil fuel extraction, including the companies wells fargo, lockheed martin, bae systems, northrop grumman. in orlando, florida of people , hundreds gathered sunday night for a vigil to honor the 49 people who were killed at the pulse nightclub massacre one year ago. the shooting at the lgbt club was the deadliest mass shooting in recent u.s. history. the majority of those killed were young lgbt people of color. during sunday night's vigil, 49 people dressed as angels and carried candles as they surrounded the club, which is being converted into a memorial to honor the massacre victims. last night the tony awards. , among those who gave political speeches were cynthia nixon, who won best featured actress for her role as an abused woman in lillian hellman's play "the little foxes." >> it is a privilege to appear atlillian hellman's play this specific moment in history. 80 years ago, she wrote "there are people who eat the earth and eat all of the people on it, and other people who just stand around and watch them do it. i love, my gratitude, and my undying respect a lot to all of the people in 2017 who are refusing to just stand and watch them do it. amy: and former u.n. general assembly president father miguel d'escoto has died in nicaragua at 84. the maryknoll priest was a longtime critic of the united states and the wars in iraq and afghanistan. this is father miguel d'escoto talking about the united nations in an interview with democracy now! in 2010. >> is a fraud. amy: what you mean they have veto power? who is they? >> the security council. amy: in the countries in particular? >> there are five countries. doubt, the most influential country in the united nations is the united states. it is really amazing. the most warmongering country in the history of mankind is put there in charge to make sure there is peace. in: died at the age of 84 nicaragua. we do that interview in bolivia. to see the whole interview, you can go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. in yemen, medical groups are warning an outbreak of cholera has in fact it more than 116,000 people. the world health organization says the water-borne illness has claimed the lives of at least 859 and oxfam estimates cholera is claiming one life every hour in yemen. children under the age of 15 account for 46% of the cases. the who says the number of cases could reach 300,000 as the outbreak has now spread to 20 of yemen's 22 provinces. yemen's health care system is also on the verge of collapse as many hospitals have shut down because of the ongoing u.s.-backed saudi war. only5% of yem's hospitals are still operational. this is dr. hussein el haddad, the director of one of the few hospitals in sanaa that is still functioning. >> the situation is very bad. the children that are sufring from cholera are countless and there are not enough heads. the technical know-how in the hospital is insufficient to deal with the situation we are facing. amy:he clera epidemic comes am a u.s.-backed saudi-led bombing campaign and naval blockade tt's left the count's sanitation, water, and health infrastructure in shambles. the united nations warns some 19 million of yemen's 28 million people need some form of aid, with many of them at risk of famine. this is u.n. emergency relief coordinator stephen o'brien addressing the united nations security council late last month. yemen now has the ignominy of thing the world largest food security crisis, with more than 17 million people who are food insecure. 6.8 million of whom are one step away from famine. crisis is not coming. it is not even looming. it is here today. ordinary people are paying the price. it is important to bear in mind portage richmond cholera are interconnected. weakened and hungry people are more likely to contract cholera and less able to survive it. according to estimates, 150,000 cases are projected for the next six months. in addition, to the broadly 60,000 current suspected cases since last april with 500 associated deaths. the scare of the latest outbreak is, as well is being depressingly protectable, a direct consequence of the conflict. and had the parties to the conflict care of, the outbreak was avoidable. juan: that was u.n. emergency relief coordinator stephen o'brien addressing the united nations security council late last month. last month, president donald trump signed a series of arms deals with saudi arabia totaling a record $110 billion during a visit to the saudi capital. the arms deal includes tanks, artillery, ships, helicopters, missile-defense systems, and cybersecurity technology. united nations monitors have warned previous saudi-led attacks on yemen could constitute crimes against humanity. over 10,000 people have died since the saudi bombing campaign began in 2015. amy: from more, we go to yemen our gueste joined by from the capital. welcome to democracy now! thank you for joining us. tell us the scopef th probm. massive.lem is very it is like we are facing a very critical situation here. a lot of people are suffering from cholera. i just received estimates from one friend in the village just before this interview and he is telling me the cholera is spreading and people are struggling to get medication. you can imagine every day the numbers are increasing. the upsurge is very scary. we have to deal with all of these cases as yemenis and humanitarian organizations are struggling to respond to the needs of those people with very short funding. yemen is facing hard economic situations. the health system is collapsing. we have a lot of social services that are not available. i can give you examples. for example, just a month or more than a month ago, garbage collectors were on strike because they were not paid their salaries. it was raining. this is one of the reasons that led to the cholera outbreak -- contributed to the cholera outbreak, which is the second outbreak. it is three times more horrific than the previous one. juan: and how are people able to function given the continuing air war of saudi arabia as well as the armed conflicts within the country? cities where armed conflict is now ongoing are suffering the most because they don't have hospitals to go to. there are no medical staff. generally, people in yemen are suffering because salaries have not been paid to the public servants for about nine months. this gives doctors, nurses, everybody a hard time because they cannot go to hospitals. they cannot afford anything. i think you examples. for example, children in yemen, 8.1 million children cannot afford health care services, and cannot afford water to drink or sanitation services. this number is very, very large. if we're talking about the health system and the water in the country -- every time i go to a hospital, i hear doctors complaining because they have not received their salaries to come to the hospital. you can imagine a doctor can barely afford transportation to go to a hospital to save lives. recently when i was in the hospital, i saw a lot of people lying on the ground because the outbreak happened suddenly. people went to a hospital and they were lying on the ground. they were staying in tents in an isolation unit. it was a horrific situation. everybody was expecting cholera in their houses. i'm always suspicious after i come back from the hospital like maybe i will need something that will affect by body with cholera and i will need to deal with it just like everybody else. it is a whole package of hardships that we are facing in yemen. amy: anas shahari, we just reached one of your colleagues, dr. mariam aldogani with save the children in yemen. she is joining us in the field from hodeidah in yemen where she is treating cholera patients. the phone connection is not very good. folks, listen carefully. , thank you for joining us. explain what you're seeing where you are. >> i am in one of the areas suffering from cholera. amy: what do you see? you are treating people with cholera now? we treat a lot of kids. [indiscernible] even the fuel is very expensive. there is not electricity. very harsh situations. we try to do the best. [indiscernible] the situation is very bad. [indiscernible] more than 1700 cases reported. juan: we're trying to go back to anas shahari. what do you think the world needs to do or what are you calling for in terms of assistance to the people of yemen at this time? >> save the children and the wider humanitarian community are urgently requiring more funds to expand the response and to prevent this outbreak. we need the international community also to contribute to this crisis, which is considered the biggest crisis in the world, and increase the funding here. we also have a message to the u.n. and the conflicting parties to facilitate and resume the public-sector salaries to put pressure on whoever is concerned and just to resume the public of people can go back to work in the hospitals and other governmental institutions. we also ask all caps lifting parties to facilitate our access to the areas where we need to go and save lives. amy: earlier this month, iran's supreme leader ayatollah khamenei accused president trump hisouble standards saying administration turned a blind eye to saudi arabia's bombing of yemen while coming to promote human rights around the world. honest 2.5 years since the saudi seven bombing yemen, not military installations, but streets and markets, mosques, hospitals, and celine houses, killing innocent people. women, children, adults. their killing everyone. the u.s. president goes to them, saudi arabia, and stands by their side and they chat with each other, dance with each other and speak of human rights and then they play sanctions against the establishment of a ran because of human rights. amy: anas shahari, can you talk about the connection between war and cholera? >> the war has most of thel -- infrastructure we have here in the country. we don't have any sanitation system. the water network is destroyed. we don't have electricity. people who need to boil water before trekking do not have the cooking gas -- before drinking it do not have the cooking gas. the economy of the country is collapsed, has already collapsed. the health system has collapsed. the war has destroyed everything in this country. as a yemeni person, what i'm looking for here is to stop this war. defined useful solutions between the parties before the children who are paying the heaviest price to continue their lives and to see brighter futures. juan: in terms of the refugees, people fleeing yemen to escape the violence in the bombing and the collapse, basically come of the total infrastructure of the country, our people continuing to flee the country? >> in the beginning, large numbers of people were fleeing. about 3 million people fled their houses. but now this number has decreased. but people are moving from place to place because the conflict sometimes arises in some areas. in one area there was a conflict that erupted and people had to leave their homes. this is also leading to other problems like children dropping classes, not knowing to school anymore. and now we are left with children that are abandoned and they don't know what their future holds. amy: last month, thousands of yemenis rallied in the capital to protest u.s. arms deal with saudi arabia and president trump's visit to reality. this is yemeni journalist nasser al-rabeey. say nore here today to for terrorism, no two of american terrorism. to say youhere today kill yemenis with saudi hands. you support isis by supporting saudi regime. amy: can you respond as we wrap up? >> well, i'm a yemeni person. i can tell you what we need in this country. we need, number one, peace. number two, we need increasing funds to respond to the humanitarian needs. we don't need any more weapons to come to this country. we don't need any more war. we need to live in peace. we need to respond to the needs of those outside who are starving, who are dying because of cholera, who do not find the most basic services and needs in life. amy: anas shahari, thank you for being with us, media officer for save the children, yemen. we wish you the very best yourself as well and for your protection. when we come back, the puerto rican day parade here in new york and the plebiscite on the island of puerto rico. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: a shout out to the students visiting democracy now! today. the cuny school of journalism and the new york youth leadership council. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. tens of thousands turned out sunday for the national puerto rican day parade here in new york. the parade came on the same day when puerto rico held a controversial referendum on political status. 97% of those who cast ballots voted in favor of puerto rico becoming the 51st state, but just 23% of eligible voters took part. many puerto rican opposition groups boycotted the vote. juan, you have followed this extremely closely. the governor has called this a great victory for statehood. juan: it is probably the poorest showing the pro-statehood party has had in about 50 years. so few people voted. you have to understand come in puerto rico, it is normal for 78% to 80% of the people to vote in a normal election or plebiscite. the statehood got a little over 500,000 votes. back in 2012 during the last plebiscite, statehood got 834 thousand votes. they got 300,000 fewer votes than they did in the 2012 plebiscite. the reality is, with the economic crisis that puerto rico is facing right now, the last thing on the minds of the people of puerto rico is a vote over statehood that they know congress cannot or will not grant. so what the governor has said is he is going to now, based on the study 7% vote in favor of twoehood, will now collect united states senators and five congressman and send them to congress and demand admission as a state. this is a tactic that tennessee used in the 19th century to pressure congress to admit tennessee as a state. they're going to go through an election of two senators and five commerce meant -- which will be boycotted by the other party. the reality is, the economic crisis of puerto rico at this point cannot be resolved just threw a statehood process. it has to be a process of real self-determined nation for the island of puerto rico that has not happened yet. to turn to sun's puerto rican day parade in new york. marchers at the parade included puerto rican independence activist oscar lopez rivera, who was imprisoned for about 35 years. this year's organizers chose to organize lopez rivera as the -- to honor lopez rivera as the parade's first "national freedom hero." but after a boycott campaign was organized by a right-wing conservative group funded by donors close to both president trump and to breitbart news, oscar lopez rivera announced he would march not as an official honorary, but gosh honoree, but as a humble puerto rican and a grandfather. juan come you are at the parade on sunday. here getting ready for the start of the annual puerto rican day parade. thousands of people are here to celebrate the culture and the history of puerto rico. there are others also protesting. i work with the new york immigration coalition. our brothers and sisters in puerto rico are in crisis. a are being deeply impacted by migration, congressional inaction, and essentially by all of the debt of people are now responsible for that is due to no fault of their own. ast year -- [chanting] juan: this is especially controversial parade because of the companies that have boycotted the parade at the last moment and some of the public officials because the parade has decided to honor oscar lopez rivera, the puerto rican activist and former leader of freed fromo was prison after 35 years in prison commutation by president obama. so many of these companies have boycotted the parade. but in the latino and puerto rican community, many folks are saying the corporate america does not get to determine who are the freedom fighters in the heroes within the community. all, of the organizations of the puerto rican community who annually participate in the parade have continued to participate with the exception of a few. all of the others have agreed to participate as they always do in the parade to stand up for the history, the culture, the contributions of the puerto rican community to american life. [singing] my name is giovanni. working for black in his spandex. today, oscar lopez rivera going to be marching in the parade. i am with the hispanic society of new york city transit. we're here to celebrate puerto rican pride. we try to not get political. we're so interested in expressing the puerto rican presence. in transit, about 6000 hispanics in total. as first puerto ricans are concerned, it is probably about 50%. juan: there's a referendum being conducted by the pro-statehood governance -- government of puerto rico. greetedcite itself has much controversy because all of the other major political parties on the island have boycotted it and have insisted now is not the time to have a beauty contest, in essence, on puerto rico's status given the norm is economic crisis that is confronting the island of puerto rico, close to 200 schools about to be closed this coming school year. massive austerity cuts come increases in electricity rates, massive poverty continues to cover the island. they say the political leadership should be dealing with this, not having across the referendum for only one party is participating. >> i'm here with united federation of teachers here to support puerto rico. got to keep the schools open. kids are the future. >> i'm a current political science student. we had an ongoing strike that lasted 62 days. we were defending puerto ricans right to accessible public education, which right now is undergoing $450 million in cuts planned by the fiscal control board. become frto rico could and run ownee destiny. >> i'm here for the independent movement of puerto rico. puerto rico is a colony of the united states and we have to fight for our freedom post of puerto rico becomes a state, it would be suicide of puerto rican nationality. juan: this is juan and zealous for democracy now! here at the porter gimp rate of 2017. indigo tens of thousands of people came out to the parade. your final comment i want to place, both here in new york and on the island of puerto rico? juan: it was important that nunnally the contingent marching with oscar lopez rivera, many of the other groups in the parade, the hispanic carpenters had pictures of oscar lopez rivera a were tearing as well. several of the other groups -- the participation in the parade was significantly lower, even on the side from previous years. i think part of the problem is the puerto rican community is smaller in new york city than it used to be. many of the other latino communities around the country have their own parades and the controversy did scare some people away. it it was still you're showing and sense of unity -- it was still an extraordinary showing and sense of unity. the parade committee chooses who the heroes are, not corporate america. i think that is key. amy: we will continue to cover what is happening in puerto rico, the bankruptcy. just tune in here to democracynow.org. when we come back, a fascinating two-part discussion from baltimore to renters around the country. what is their connection to the president of the united states? stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: the beleaguered tenants of kushnerville. that is the headline of a recent piece in per-pupil cut out the dealings of trump's son-in-law and white house senior advisor jared kushner. the piece looks at how kushner's former company has acted as "neglectful relative to this landlord of -- the to just of income. a barrage of lawsuits and eviction notices, and late fees even when the tenants were in the right. tenants also described terrible maintenance practices, which grated nearly unlivable conditions for some families. alec macgillis, welcome to democracy now! tell us what you found. just way found was beyond what i was even expecting when i first started looking into these complexes. gerry christensen has 15 jared kushner's family has about 15 of these complexes. intoi found when i looked the court systems, to check to see bad any cases in the core system, was an incredible profusion of cases that the company have brought against tenants and former tenants. hundreds and hundreds of cases, more than the core system could display at one time. basically, what the company has been doing since have bought these complexes is going after just about any tenant they possibly could to squeeze more money out of them for back rent or having allegedly broken a lease, even in cases where the tenant was in the right. juan: many of these tendons or what is called section eight tenants in that they were getting housing vouchers from the federal government to pay their rent. jared kushner has said he would not weigh in on any policy having to do with section eight. do you still see any potential hisconflicts given how much family's company was invested in using these section eight certificates -- which are now probably the biggest public housing expenditure of the federal government? >> there is definitely concern around this. the white house has said he would abstain from any policy debates around section eight funding, but you can never be sure what this white house if that were to hold true. the fact is, in the current budget, the trump administration budget, the cuts to section eight funding while large are not nearly as large as the cuts to actual public housing funding for actual public housing authorities. with this white house, one can't help but wonder if there's some connection back to the fact the kushner company does rely so much on section eight funding for these complexes. amy: the company is called jk2 westminster llc. explain jared kushner's relationship to it and then tell ant.he story of a ten thehat is the name of entity to which they were bringing a lot of these cases. jared kushner -- one can only stands for jared kushner, although the company would not confirm that. jared kushner had a pivotal role in buying these complexes. anwas in the process of hearing this company from his fath and this was one of his big moves to make these purchases. lucrativem as a wise, and prudent financial investment to buy all of these complexes. one of the people that i came across, especially just very upsetting story, a young woman, a single mother of three who moved out of one of the complexes because the elderly woman next door was becoming incredibly hard to deal with, banging on the door at night, waking up her baby, just acting very strange. she got permission, this young woman, to move out. she got written permission to move out and gave the proper notice and all of that. she moves out. a couple of years later, she starts getting court notices in the mail saying this company was suing her in court for several thousand dollars for having left her lease early. she did not have a copy anymore of that written permission she had received. the court ruled against her. with the late fees and interest in all of that, it came to $5,000. she could not afford that. she's a home health aide working minimum wage. her wages were being garnished, her bank account was garnished. cleanedcompletely out. she did find a copy of the form and that did not help her in court. the court remained unmoved against her. againsta court lien her. her credit has been ruined by this whole thing. this was a very typical of the kind of thing that the kushner companies is doing with former tenants. juan: what was the strategy behind these acquisitions? equate the kushners with high-end. was this to milk the existing tenant base without doing much improvements of the complexes? >> more of the latter. these complexes were seen as a way to generate cash flow for the company. the company is better known for its very high end holdings in manhattan. those holdings tend to be highly leveraged. lots of debt. these complexes, in as in some a provided balance to the company. a steady cash flow. think about it. apartmentsn these are not high by my -- manhattan standards. you multiply it by 8000 units just here in baltimore, and you add on this extra revenue coming in from this very aggressive legal pursuit of tenants and it starts to add a post of the jared kushner company and how has he changed his relationship llc sinceestminster he became chief advisor to his father-in-law president trump? >> jared kushner did step back from the company back in december or january. he stepped down from his role as the ceo of kushner companies. his father, charles kushner, is back in that title. but jared has retained virtually his entire stake in these real estate holdings, whether these downscale permit complexes are the higher end stuff, he is obtained the vast majority of those stakes, the stake in the company's estimated as being as much a $600 million. as far as the company's response to my questions, it was very blunt. they said we are going after these tenants because these are contracts they sign, these leases, and we're simply upholding the contracts. they did not have specific responses to some of the specific cases are brought to the monthly case of the young woman i just described. the also said what they were doing was in line with industry behavior. however, i spoke to a lot of people in the industry who described to me -- well, characterized this behavior as being on the outer edge of what is considered normal in the world of downscale apartment complexes. , thank youacgillis for being with us. alec macgillis is a reporter for propublica. his recent article published in collaboration with "new york times" is "jared kushner's other real estate empire." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we end today's show looking at the real estate dealings of two of donald trump' his closest associates thomas barrack. last week the reporter aaron glantz of the investigative news site reveal exposed how barrack profited off the housing crisis by buying 31,000 single family homes -- mostly foreclosures -- then bumped up the rents and in many cases allowed the properties to fall into disrepair. glantz reported that barrack's actions as head of colony starwood homes made him tantamount to a modern-day slumlord. amy: on friday, one day after glantz's piece was published, tom barrack sold all of his stock in colony starwood homes and resigned his position as co-chairman of its board of trustees. to talk more about his piece, aaron glantz joins us now from san francisco. he is a senior reporter at reveal. isyour piece looks like certainly had a major effect, but explain what you found. barrett is one of donald trump's oldest and closest friends. he introduced trainee trump at the republican national convention. hislanned from inauguration, if you watched donald trump take the oath of office, he he is standing right behind the trump family as trump was sworn in. "the new york times" said he is one of the few people that donald trump trusts. started to look into this guy's real estate business. he is one of these real estate businessman who has made his career on profiting off of other people's pain. and his big play after the big upession was to start buying foreclosed homes all over the country -- which used to be owned by families -- and turn them into rentals. the company he founded eventually became known as .olony starwood homes i started to get especially interested in this company after the federal reserve bank of atlanta found that in one county in the alanna area, fulton county, this company had filed eviction notices against one third of it tenants. amy: tells the story of one woman who was holding her infant in bed when an air conditioner fell out of the ceiling onto them. >> it was a ceiling fan. it is representative and a number of ways of the stories i heard going door-to-door in atlanta where this company owns 6000 homes and also in los angeles were they control about 4000 homes. these were foreclosures. they were not in the best of shape to begin with. the families who owned them before could not necessarily take care of them as well as they would like. then we looked at the filings of this company, colony starwood homes, we found they spent on average just $800 a year per home on maintenance. so this family moves in last august. they live without heat. they have a roof that leaks. they keep calling and calling a one 800 number for the trade name this copy operates under. then one day she is lying in bed with her newborn baby and the ceiling, which has been leaking, the ceiling fan just falls on their bed. the other important thing about this family and listening to alec talk about the fees charged by christian's family, fees became a very important revenue source for this family as well. their sec filings show they had $26 million in fees and tenant clawbacks last year. when you look into wyatt is or that they were able -- that they filed 70 election notices against tenants or spoke to tenants who got eviction notices and six straight months, they end up in the cycle of eviction notices and late feels. they were late on their rent the very first month they moved in and suddenly they have a $95 late fee. there asked to pay the landlord's court costs and lawyers fees. there are even asked to pay the process server who served them with the eviction notice. almost $200 on top of their rent. they pay that, they're allowed to stay. but now they are late on the next months rent. now they have another $200 in late fees and other charges. this goes on for six months, even if they're living in these really uninhabitable conditions. juan: there have been other investor groups like blackstone that after the great recession started buying up foreclosed homes. do you discern anything different about how this company was dealing with the homeowners? are they trying to get everybody out to then sell the homes once the housing market recovers? >> what i thought was interesting about this company colony and also blackstone and some of the other investors is that they found a way to flip their investment in these properties without actually flipping the homes. they created a brand-new type of mortgage backed security. you remember the mortgage backed securities that helped tank our economy before the housing bust where lots of bad loans were bundled together. then when property values started to slip, the whole economy collapsed. this is a different kind of mortgage-backed security. it is brand-new since the bust. tom barrack helped invent this mortgage-backed security. all of these homes they bought with cash outright all around the country and bundled them together into huge mortgage backed securities, which was basically like taking gigantic home equity line of credit out of all of these houses. so this one house i am talking owned byatlanta, it is a mortgage-backed security. another house in los angeles that i spent a lot of time reporting on where a tenant got an addiction notice over a $49 sent latete -- $49 33 fee is also owned by mortgage backed securities. more than 3000 homes -- amy: time there step down after yorkies will stop >> that is right. ran oniday, our piece thursday morning and late friday, he sold all of his stock in this company that we are talking about and resigned from its board of trustees. so he is moving on to other pastures. he made a lot of money off of selling his stock. these 31,000ts in homes are left to wonder what is next now that the creator of this, the friend of the president, is moving on? amy: aaron glantz, thank you for being with us senior reporter at , reveal. a thank you to nicole salazar who produced our puerto -today on "america's test kitchen," julia and bridget share the secrets to foolproof oatmeal cookies. adam reviews prep bowls with bridget. lisa reviews the best pie carriers, and elle makes julia outstanding ultra-nutty pecan bars. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." 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