Designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios of Lincoln Center in new york, hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan good evening, and thanks for joining us. There is a mix of anger and acceptance in colorado after a jury declined to sentence james holmes to death for his mass shooting inside a Movie Theater three years ago. Because the jury could not come to a unanimous decision to impose the death penalty, holmes will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Holmes shot and killed 12 people and wounded 70 others during a midnight premiere of the batman movie the Dark Knight Rises in the denver suburb of aurora. One anonymous juror told reporters outside court the panel voted 93 for death, and the defendants Mental Illness played into their decision more than anything else. At the point where we knew that one was an absolute holdout, we ended the deliberations because that person was solidly in favor of the life sentence. Sreenivasan some victims families say they are relieved the threeandahalf month trial is over. Others are disappointed by the sentence. We have said from the beginning that we didnt care what the verdict was at the end, whether he got life or death, and that still remains true. But im really glad we went through this process. The gaping wound that we have with the loss of our granddaughter has been replaced with a new abscess of him living. Sreenivasan holmes could end up in protective custody or even be moved out of state. His parents, who had testified to spare his life, said through a spokeswoman they are so sorry the victims and families have suffered such tremendous loss. The Mass Shootings in aurora, tucson, newtown and other cities have not led to stricter national gun laws or even tougher background checks, but a new proposal may change that. Texas republican senator john cornyn is sponsoring a bill to help states better report people known to be mentally ill to the f. B. I. Database of individuals prohibited from buying guns. Joining me now for more on this development is Washington Post reporter mike debonis. So, i remember after in 2013 sort of gun control legislation, after the newtown massacre didnt go very far. Whats so different about this . Sure, thanks, hari. Its pretty simple. Whats different about this is that this bill has, at least at this point, the backing of the National Rifle association, which is pretty much a prerequisite for getting anything related to guns or background checks or anything related to firemans through this republican congress. So, you know, the fact that this is being sponsored by an aplus rated n. R. A. Member, and the fact that, you know, you have a whole different coalition involving Mental Health advocates and Law Enforcement who are also backing this bill, gives it means that this is somewhat different from what we saw after newtown. Sreenivasan now theres a provision in here where a judge can impose treatment on someone without having them committed. I mean, thats a distinction thats pretty important. Right. What senator cornyns bill would do is expand whats currently done in a number of states, whereby family members or outside parties could petition a court to provide voluntary treatment for an individual rather than go as far as to have an involuntary commitment. The catch is that under this bill, the fact that somebody entered a voluntary Mental HealthTreatment Program that would not keep them from being able to go and buy a gun. The fact remains you would have to be involuntary committed to be barred from buying a gun. Currently to get your right to buy a gun back, you have to go before a judge and prove that youre capable and able to have a fireman. Under this bill, what would happen would be as soon as the order, the commitment order expired, you would automobilely be able to go and purchase a gun again. Sreenivasan speaking of purchasing a gun, gun control advocates point out this doesnt close what they call the gun show loophole. Right. Thats absolutely true. The gun show loophole is what was at issue in the legislation that was proposed after newtown in 2013. Thats legislation that the n. R. A. Initially indicated they might be able to support, but they withdrew that support, and only i believe, 54 senators were able to support that in the senate. Nothing gets done unless you get 60 senators. And since then, the senate has gotten even more conservative. So theres really its pretty well known that theres no chance for the gun show background check bill similar to what we saw in 2013 to succeed in this congress displawr whats the likelihood of this piece of legislation making it to the floor . Well, it has a lot going for it. Number one, the fact that the n. R. A. Isnt opposing it. It, in fact, appears to be endorsing it. Number, two its being sponsored by john cornyn, who is the number two reasoning republican in g. O. P. Leadership in the senate. Hes the majority whip. Hes a Senior Member of the Judiciary Committee which would have to handle this bill. They think those are both things that would indicate that this would have a pretty, you know, high chance of likelihood that it could move successfully through the senate. But keep in mind, were, you know, approaching an election year. Were already very much in the middle of an election debate, and the closer you get to the election, the more that, you know, even anything on any sort of controversial matter can get caught up in any sort of side issue and get side tracked. Sreenivasan Washington Post reporter mike debonis, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, hari. Sreenivasan the u. S. Led coalition is carrying out more air strikes on the Islamic State, or isis, positions in syria and iraq. 19 strikes were carried out on friday, according to command joint task force. In the central syrian city of qaryatain in homs province, isis is said to be holding more than 200 residents captive. Most of the civilians are believed to be from christian families, including dozens of women and children. The British Human Rights Group syrian observatory for human rights says isis seized the city of 40,000 people after three separate suicide attacks on checkpoints guarded by army forces loyal to syrian president bashar assad. New york times reporter ben hubbard joins me now via skype from gaziantep, turkey, with the latest on the conflict and the kidnappings. We have a couple of hundred people that are essentially missing right now. Any word on whats happening to the women or children . Isis has patterns of taking these people in the past. Well, the picture is still very unclear. The town is very far away and weve had everybody watching this and just said the communications are completely gone with the towns. Its very hard to get good information. You have had a lot of people fleeing from the towns to other areas. There has been fighting in other communities that are somewhat nearby. But what we know is that there are somewhere around 200, 230 people that are just out of contact so this has raised a lot of worries with the Syrian Orthodox church and other conflict monitors. This is one of a town that has a substantial christian population. And nobody really knows whats happening with them. There were reports yesterday that some had been actually arrestd and detained and others were put under a form of house arrest where the jihadists were making them stay in their homes. This wiewz because there was some kind of resistance in the town when they were coming in and the Islamic State is trying to find out who are the fighters and who are the civilians or it could be in other times they captured large nks of people use used them for negotiations. In syria, at least, isis has not carried out mass killings of christians. I mean, they certainly will kill many shiites or people from the alawite sect and other sects. We dont have large cases of a lot of times theyll keep these people and try to use them in prisoner swaps, theyll try to use them to put pressure on the government. So far we have no information very Little Information about the fate of these people and what they intend to do with them. Sreenivasan but why is this town gegraphicly significant . Well, it is kind of a crossroads town. Its a small town but it just pits isis one step closer to key places under control of the syrian government. This puts them closer to the city of homs, which was a big battle zone between the opposition, that the government actually won. And so this puts isis now one step closer to that. It puts isis one step closer to some key horizon as well that connect homs to damascus and connects to other parts the of the country. So the town itself isnt, i wouldnt say, that strategic but it puts them one step closer torg place wheres they may be able to cause more trouble. Sreenivasan all right, ben hubbard from the new york times, joining us live from gaziantep, turkey. Thanks so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan the u. S. Navy is planning to post armed guards at some reserve centers. The guards will be posted only at the 70 reserve centers with public access, but the navy will not post armed guards at recruiting centers. The move follows the Fatal Shooting of five unarmed servicemen at a chattanooga, tennessee, reserve center last month. The new guards are expected to be in place by midoctober. The navy is the first branch of the u. S. Military to announce that it will guard its offbase facilities. The e. P. A. Is cleaning up and apologizing for an ongoing toxic spill in a colorado river. The animas river, in the southwestern part of the state, has filled with a soupy, orange colored fluid. The problem began wednesday when an e. P. A. Crew cleaning up an inactive gold mine accidentally caused a million gallons of wastewater to flow into a creek that connects to the river. Today, the mine was still discharging water contaminated with arsenic, lead, aluminum and copper. The e. P. A. Is warning people and pets to stay away from the river as the spill heads downstream toward new mexico and utah. Officials have released clean water from a nearby dam to dilute the metals in the river, and they are building a retention pond to redirect polluted water. American swimmer Katie Ledecky has won her fourth individual gold medal at the World Championships in russia. The 18yearold maryland native took the 800meter freestyle today in world record time. The victory adds to her wins this week in the 200, 400 and 1,500 meter races. Ledecky is the first woman to sweep f . jee ] qup golds at the World Championships. She also led the american womens team to gold in the 4 x 200meter freestyle relay. Sreenivasan our signature segment tonight looks at the movement to encourage people to think and talk more about death long before the inevitable happens. The idea is to encourage families to plan their end of life decisions, and it begins with a conversation with your loved ones and with your family doctor. Newshour special correspondent lynn sherr has this updated report, which originally aired this spring. Whats the matter, mama . Im dying, forrest. Reporter its been a hollywood staple for decades the deathbed scene. Here, Forrest Gumps mom sally field reminding her son, played by tom hanks, that death is a natural part of life. But when endoflife conversations with doctors were encouraged by the Government Back in 2009 during the obamacare debate, opponents called them death panels, and the idea became toxic. Some called it pulling the plug on grandma. That was then. It is exactly the opposite. It is about grandma controlling the plug. Reporter dr. Lachlan forrow, a specialist in ethics and Palliative Care at bostons beth israel deaconess medical center, is at the forefront of a new National Movement to make talking about death public policy. He chaired the Expert Medical Panel that helped lead to new massachusetts regulations, the first in the nation which took effect in december, mandating that Health Facilities from hospitals to assisted Living Communities tell terminally ill patients their endoflife options. The full range of the choices, from keep me alive, no matter what, as long as medicine can do that, to i just want to be home with my family, with hospice, to anything in between or any sequence. We are just starting to emerge, so that politicians and others realize this is not the third rail of politics. Reporter since this story first aired, a major development. Last month, six years after the original obamacare endoflife proposal was abandoned, medicare announced plans to reimburse doctors for having those conversations with patients. Supporters call it a major victory and hope the decision will spur more private insurers to pay for the talks, too. Among the critical first steps signing an advance directive and a Health Care Proxy so someone you trust can legally make decisions if youre incapacitated. The medicare plan will likely take effect in january, but holding such private conversations in the public arena may require a new approach, as advocates in massachusetts have learned. Sometimes people think you talk about dying and you let it into the room. laughs reporter pulitzerprize winning journalist Ellen Goodman is on a mission to make death part of popular conversation. For more than 35 years, she chronicled American Social change in her widely syndicated columns for the boston globe. She wrote about the values instilled in her as a child by her father, who helped run john f. Kennedys first senate campaign, and her homemaker mother, edith. But goodman only realized the consequences of leaving certain things unsaid about a dozen years ago, when her Mothers Health started to fail. I think we all have this fantasy that were going to live to 90 and then, kaboom, you know . But, in fact, the reality is that many of us will face a long period of being frail and declining. And i would say that my mother began to decline somewhere in her 80s, really. Reporter after her mother moved to a longterm care facility a few miles away, goodman found herself making medical decisions she hadnt dreamed of, especially because edith began to suffer from dementia. My mother could really no longer decide what she wanted for lunch, let alone what she wanted for health care decisions. So, i was faced with a kind of cascading number of decisions for which i was unprepared. In fact, blindsided. And i remember particularly one day when i got a call on the phone and i was on deadline. And the doctor said to me, your mother has another bout of pneumonia. Do you want her to have antibiotics . And i remember my hands being poised over the keyboard, saying, what is he asking me . Is he asking me, do i want her to live or die . You know, can i call you back . Could i have a minute . And so, it was quite shocking to me that those decisions fell to me. Id just never thought about it before. Reporter what youre saying is, you never talked to her about these things ahead of time . Well, we didnt talk in a way that was useful. From time to time, if we were together, my mother would say, i never want to be like that, pull the plug, you know. A lot of people say that. Well, theres generally no plug to pull. Reporter edith holtz died at 92 in 2006. Four years later, goodman co founded the conversation project, a nonprofit to urge people to express their endof life desires, to have the conversation with those close to them early on before its too late. Advised by a group of Healthcare Professionals including dr. Forrow, its web site has attracted almost a quarter million visitors; more than half have downloaded the starter kit, a kind of security blanket to jump start the process. When you download the kit, youll find plenty of useful and practical advice on how to get an otherwise uncomfortable discussion going. For openers, you are asked to complete the following sentence what matters to me at the end of life is . And there are even suggestions of actual words you can use to break the ice. For instance, i need to think about the future, will you help me . We talked about Nursing Homes and, you know, living at home. We talked about pain management. We talked about all kinds of issues that we wouldnt otherwise have ever talked about until the time was upon us. Reporter husband and wife chuck koplik and sue tafler of lexington, massachusetts, recently had the conversation with their only child, sarah yukich. Inspired by a workshop on the conversation project at their synagogue, chuck and sue in their 60s and in good Health Except for recent surgery on sues foot sat down here in their living room. They were most concerned about the effect on sarah. I could just tell i was unsettling her. And that was very difficult. Im 32. I have a twoyearold. Im an adult. And i know that, but, at the same time interacting with my parents, im their child. Im not their caretaker. And trying to think about that eventual role reversal is very scary. Reporter so, when they suggested having the conversation, your first reaction was . I was happy that they were suggesting it because its something that i have wanted to talk to them about, but i didnt really have any idea of how to bring it up. Reporter sarah says she was especially relieved when they said that moving them to maryland, where she lives, for longterm care would be acceptable. Was this about gaining control over the end of your life . Yeah, im very much a planner and manager. I think in some ways it kind of gives me a little bit of a sense of control. Yeah, my biggest fears would be that, you know, that id be in pain, or maybe i wasnt so clearheaded and the doctors would be making decisions on what my treatment would be. Reporter individuals, not medical staff, should determine those issues, says the conversation project. According to a survey the group conducted, more than 90 of people agree, saying they should have the conversation. But only 30 have done so, which is why theyre expanding their Public Engagement campaign. Goodman herself, who used to cover social change and its influence on our institutions, now makes it happen. Let me show you statistics. 70 of americans say they want to die at home, and 70 of americans are dying in hospitals and institutions. Reporter theyre co sponsoring death over dinner parties, social gatherings to approach the subject in a cozy setting so people can break bread while breaking the taboo. Theyve also had some luck convincing tv writers to include family conversations about death in their scripts. It was a decision we made together. Reporter its all about making the subject safe, bringing it home, because, the conversation project says, nothing will change until people Start Talking about it. You have kids, you have grandkids, you have a husband. Have you had the conversation . Oh, yes, ive had it. My daughters a comedian, and her First Response when i said, lets have this conversation, was, cant we have lunch . laughs but we did get through it. We did talk about it. And i have talked about it with my husband and with most of the people in my family. People, when they have these conversations with each other, describe them as some of the richest personal moments theyve had with people they love. Sreenivasan learn how to talk about death and dying with your loved ones. Read advice from the conversation project online at www. Pbs. Org newshour. Finally tonight, ferguson, missouri, is marking one year since a white Police Officer shot and killed michael brown, an unarmed 18yearold black man. The death highlighted extra judicial killings of black men by police. Officer Darren Wilson quit his job but faced no criminal charges for shooting brown. Browns father said today the family is still in mourning. Im still trying to get through, you know. But like i say, a loss is a loss. At the end of the day, it dont matter about no money, winning no case or none of that. You still lost your kid, your child. Sreenivasan well have more from ferguson on tomorrows program. Thats it for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. Im hari sreenivasan. Thanks for watching. Captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org pbs newshour weekend is made possible by Corporate Funding is provided by mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Announcer explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Peter marshall; hi, welcome to my music im peter marshall. Nick clooney and im nick clooney. And were here to celebrate the wonderful era of popular music from the 1930s and 40s and early 50s with big bands, great singers, and sentimental songs. Peter taking us back to the days of the jitterbug, the foxtrot, bringing joy and escape at a time when the world went to war and americans banded together. Nick return with us now to the starlight ballroom, right here on pbs. [in the mood playing] peter music from the starlight ballroom is back. Here i go again