Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170905

Where elders are trying to preserve their culture and the dying language heard from the mountaintops. Whistling was used widely used until the day the telephone arrived. That was in 1965. Around the same time most young people left the village to study or find work. Woodruff all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff its been widely expected, and now its confirmed President Trump is demolishing a pillar of the obama administrations immigration policy. Todays announcement confirmed the end of a program shielding many young immigrants from deportation. John yang begins our coverage. Yang attorney general Jeff Sessions said the decision to cancel the program was all about the rule of law. The compassionate thing is to end the lawlessness, enforce our laws and, if congress chooses to make changes in those laws, to do so through the process set forth by our founders. Yang across the country, young undocumented immigrants who benefit from the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, or daca, protested. To them, it was personal. We dont know what that means for our future. But i do know that we are here right now because we are outraged. And that even without daca, we wont go back into the shadows. Yang in a written statement, President Trump had sympathy for both sides my highest duty is to defend the constitution of the United States of america. At the same time, i do not favor punishing children for the actions of their parents. Daca recipients are not enforcement priorities unless they are criminals, are involved in criminal activity or are members of a gang. I have a love for these people and now hopefully congress will be able to help them and do it properly. Daca protects about 790,000 people aged 15 to 36 who illegally entered the United States as children. It allows them to remain in the country and to get work permits. It will be phased out, so most beneficiaries wont lose their status for six months. Expiring work permits can be renewed for an additional two years. The looming deadline puts pressure on congress to act on an issue that has frustrated lawmakers for years. Supporters of the policy say they will need the direct involvement of the president. My challenge is to the president is that you talk so glowingly about these kids help us. Help us in the house. Help us in the senate. Youre a good man. Get involved personally. Work the phones. Try to find a consensus here. Yang president barack obama established the policy in 2012 through executive action after congressional attempts to pass it failed. Today, mr. Obama called the president s decision contrary to our spirit, and to common sense. During the campaign, candidate donald trump vowed to overturn daca and another Obama Program that protected undocumented immigrants whose children were u. S. Citizens or permanent residents. We will immediately terminate president obamas two illegal executive amnesties, in which he defied federal law and the constitution to give amnity to approximately five million illegal immigrants. Yang once in the white house, President Trumps stance softened. Listen to this exchange with the newshours Lisa Desjardins on the daca program for immigration what is your plan . Do you plan to continue that program, or to end it . Were gonna show great heart. Daca is a very, very difficult subject to me, i will tell you. Yang in june, mr. Trump rescinded the Program Covering parents, already blocked by a deadlocked supreme court, but let daca remain while he studied the issue. His answer, it seems, is that its up to congress to fix this problem. For the pbs newshour, im john yang. Woodruff well dig deeper into the daca program after the news summary. In the days other major story Hurricane Irma is now the most powerful storm ever recorded in the open atlantic. It has winds of 185 miles an hour, and its closing in on the northeast caribbean. That has one forecaster warning that the Leeward Islands are going to get destroyed. Ed rappaport is the acting director of the National Hurricane center. And he joins me from miami. Ed rappaport, the strongest storm ever in the atlantic. What is known about irma right now . The winds are at what we would put as a category five level. Thats as high as it goes. The concern is we dont expect there to be a lot of change in intensity over the next several days as the hurricane moves to the west. And heres the forecast from the National Hurricane center, and we have the forecast to move across the northeast Lesser Antilles and very near the north coast of puerto rico, hispaniola and then cuba as a category four or perhaps still category five hurricane. Woodruff why are you saying you dont expect much change in the storm . Well, for one, this is as strong as weve ever seen in that area, so the conditions have come together in such a way as to produce this, but its not clear how we could see something Even Stronger than that. We this see fluctuations at times with storms that are this intense. It may go up a little or it may come down, but regardless, when it approaches the islands and essentially makes landfall on some of the islands further to the west, it will be category four, category five, maybe category three, but the differences will be inconsequential, a potentially devastating hurricane with severe impact from wind, storm surge, and possibly also rainfall. Woodruff and ed, we know, right now its in the caribbean and the islands, but what about in the United States, what are concerns . What should they be now . The next 24 hours will be a concern for the u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico. Down stream from that well see the hurricane move along the north coast of cuba and likely turn to the north. We dont know quite yet where that turn is going to occur relative to floridas east coast, west coast, over the state. So at this stage what were looking for is impacts on south florida most likely over the weekend, perhaps beginning on saturday with the worst of it to be on sunday. Woodruff ed rappaport with another big storm youre watching. Thank you very much. In the days other news, houstons mayor lifted most of an overnight curfew imposed during Hurricane Harvey. Meanwhile, a major pipeline carrying oil from houston to the east coast returned to nearfull operations. Still, whole communities remain underwater, and the governor of texas warned it could be many days before the flooding ends. From russias president Vladimir Putin today, a new warning to washington he says moscow could force additional cuts in the number of u. S. Diplomats working in russia. He also threatens to sue the u. S. For seizing russian diplomatic property. Putin spoke about the titfortat during a summit in china. He was asked about his feelings now toward President Trump translated as for being disappointed or not disappointed your question sounds very naive. He is not my bride, and i am not his bride or groom. We both are working for the state. Every country has its own interests. Trump is guided in his activities by the National Interests of his country, and i am guided by those of mine. Woodruff putin also warned the u. S. Against supplying ukraine with heavier weapons. He said it would only fuel the existing conflict there with prorussian separatists. The army of the government of syria says its broken a siege of a key eastern city after three years of isis control. Thousands of soldiers and civilians had been encircled in deir elzour since 2014. But Government Forces fought their way in today. Islamic state forces still hold much of the surrounding province. International aid groups warned today theyre being overwhelmed by the wave of Rohingya Muslims pouring out myanmar. The United Nations Refugee Agency said at least 123,000 have fled to neighboring bangladesh in the past 11 days. They tell of brutality at the hands of myanmars army. Some reported that their family members were burnt, or shot or slashed to death. During their flight, many fled into the jungles or mountains, and some of them also told us that theyve been walking for three days, and they didnt have anything to eat, other than the rain water or the water on grounds. Woodruff Army Officials in mostly buddhist myanmar say theyre responding to attacks by rohingya insurgents. In kenya, Opposition Leader raila odinga threatened today to boycott a new president ial election, set for october 17. He demanded changes in the electoral process. President Uhuru Kenyatta won the original election, in august, but the Kenyan Supreme Court voided the results, citing irregularities. Wall street opened today for the First Time Since north Koreas Nuclear test on sunday, and stocks reacted badly. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 234 points to close at 21,753. The nasdaq fell 59 points, and the s p 500 slipped 18. And, in deep space today, an anniversary, its been 40 years since the launch of voyager one. The robot explorer blasted off from cape canaveral, florida in 1977, and did lybys of jupiter and saturn. In 2012, it became the only spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Voyager two also launched in 1977 and went on to explore uranus and neptune. Both spacecraft are still communicating with earth, from their respective distances of almost 13 billion, and 10 and a half billion, miles away. Still to come on the newshour the fate of 800,000 dreamers now in the hands of congress. A view from seoul, the south Korean Response to north Koreas Nuclear threat, and much more. Woodruff we now take a closer look at the president s decision to rescind daca, first with alejandro mayorkas. He led the u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013 where he oversaw the implementation of thenpresident obamas daca program. He later served as deputy secretary for the department of homeland security. Alejandro mayorkas, thank you very much for joining us. Your reaction to the Trump Administrations move today to rescind the daca program. I think its a devastating setback, judy, for the youth in our country, many of whom are dreamers. And i use the word setback advisably because i dont think its over. Of course we all hope that congress will act, but more significantly have tremendous faith in this community of people and the American Public to really push forward their opportunity to realized the american dream. Woodruff weve been hearing a lot in the last few days about the dreamers whom are these young people . Where do they live, their ages, what are they doing . They live across the country. They came here as children. They must have arrived before their 16th birthday. They are graduates of high school, of colleges, of universities. They provide relief as First Responders in Hurricane Harvey. They have served in our military. Theyre part of the tapestry of american life. Woodruff and the government, the federal government now has Vital Information about each and every one of them, is that right, knows how to find them . It does. Woodruff and there was a lot of discussion at the time the program was enacted in 2012 about whether they were taking a risk when they gave this information to the government. Were they . They were indeed. There were two things that we did to manage that risk. Number one, we communicated publicly the confidentiality that we would ascribe to the information they provided to us and also we would deliver success to them, we would provide the deferred action as quickly as possible so they would have the documentation guaranteeing their lawful presence in the United States as quickly as possible. Woodruff so now were told that the Trump Administration plans to exercise care in how that information is shared, but what risks do they face today . What. How will their lives change do you believe as a result of the rescinding of this program . Of course, we dont know what congress is going to do. It could enact. It could move in a number of directions, but what is your sense right now . When a recipient of daca suffers the expiration of the daca, that individual is no longer lawfully present in the United States. They are subject to removal, and very importantly to so many of these young people, they will no longer have the opportunity to work lawfully in the United States. Many of them provide for their families and for loved ones and others upon whom they serve. Woodruff so thats if the program is done away with altogether. What were hearing from congress is that there is a sense that there will be certainly some tightening of the program, but in general there is a sentiment to let some version of it continue. Well, according to the president s announcement through his attorney general, it will be incumbent upon the legislature to actually pass laws, and in the absence of any law being passed, the program will end entirely. Woodruff and im going to be talking to our next guest about, this but whats your expectation on what congress will do . Im an optimist by nature, and so i hope they do the right thing and pass some legislation, but that has been the hope for quite a number of years. Woodruff what to you, alejandro mayorkas, would be the ideal solution for them . The ideal solution would, in fact, be the passage of legislation along the lines of the dream act that has been pending over and over again throughout the years that would give them a more permanent solution to their presence here in the United States. Woodruff would it look very much like what is existing now under president obamas memorandum . Would it simply be to codify that . That would be a start, although i quite frankly hope it would be even more expansive than that. Woodruff what else would you look for . Perhaps a greater population of individuals who would qualify in terms of their age. So one of the limitations on daca was one had to be under the age of 31 at the time of application. Even though one might have been breakthrough to the United States as a twoyearold decades ago. So really the determining factor should be how old was one when one came to the United States as opposed to how old one is now. Woodruff but you could see it being. Youd like to see it expanded . I would. Woodruff well leave it there. Alejandro mayorkas, thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Woodruff woodruff for a different perspective, Jessica Vaughan joins me now. Shes director of policy studies at the center for immigration studies, a Research Group that favors reducing immigration into the u. S. Jessica vaughan, thank you for being with us. Your reaction to the Trump Administrations move today. I think it was the responsible thing to do. What President Trump has done is thrown a life line to the people who have daca now, because this was a program that was facing almost certain sudden death. So what hes done is enabled people who have it now to keep it and have some assurance of that, people who have applied for it who are in the pineline will have their applications adjudicated, and hes Given Congress time and space to work out a more lasting solution for these individuals. So this is the start of most likely something they can. That gives them a little more certainty if congress chooses to do it. Woodruff what do you think should be done. I just asked mr. Mayorkas this question, what do you think should be done for these people . How should they be treated by the law . I think americans want to see an immigration system that has limits and does not encourage ilLegal Immigration. I think the best solution would be to offer an amnesty to most of the people who now have daca and also with that amnesty some provisions to help mitigate the fiscal costs and also the chain migration implications for the future. So that would mean cuts in certain Legal Immigration programs to go along with daca amnesty. I think it would also be a good idea to pass some improvements to enforcement, as well, but the key is the balance an Amnesty Program with cuts in Legal Immigration that address the fiscal costs and the chain migration implications, which would increase if congress were to pass an amnesty. Woodruff when you use the term chain migration, youre talking about large number of family members coming in together, is that it . Well, immigrants tend to sponsor more than three additional immigrants who have family members of them. And they come in categories for siblings of naturalized u. S. Citizens, adult sons and daughters of u. S. Citizens and parents of u. S. Citizens. So those. Thats how immigration has become so expansive under our current system, which is mostly based on family ties rather than skills. So thats another thing that congress could take up if it has the opportunity to do so now, and theres legislation already on the table sponsored by senators cotton and perdue to do that. And that would make sense to put that together with an amnesty for most of the people who now have daca. Woodruff i know you talk to many of the republican members of congress, do you have a sense at this point if there is a consensus or how they may deal with this, what sort of new law they might write to cover these young people . Well, its hard to tell because there is a spectrum of opinion among republicans, as well. You have some republicans who would rather not see any kind of amnesty or Legalization Program at all, and you have others that want to have an even bigger Amnesty Program passed. So it will be interesting to watch the debate. I think that theyre going to come together on this because they now have a deadline, an impetus to act, and weve seen in the past that thats usually when congress does act is when it has to. So now they have got that challenge, and there are some bills, as ive said, that have been introduced on various aspects of the immigration system that they can take up, but i think they need to keep it fairly simple. We dont want this to morph into a huge comprehensive bill because those bills have always failed in the past, because its too hard to get consensus. They need to keep it narrowly focused. Woodruff but is there an inherent contradiction here in that you and others argue what president obama did was unconstitutional yet you still would like the see these young people taken care of . I think the reasons for taking care of them are political primarily. I think most people do have sympathy for the fact that these are individuals who did not themselves make the choice to come here illegally, and in manycations they have lived here much of their lives and grown up here, and, you know, this is the most sympathetic group of illegal immigrants, and that is why i think people think of them in different terms than a newly arrived illegal immigrant, for example. Woodruff so Jessica Vaughan, what should the message be tonight to Daca Recipients who are watching and listening . How worried should they be about their own future . Well, i dont think there should be panic because its clear that there is. Even if the program ends, the people who have the work permits and the benefit still have that and are not going to become targets of deportation unless they do Something Else to bring themselves to the attention of immigration authorities, such as committing a crime or if its discovered they should never have gotten daca to begin with, because the rules were really fairly lenient and the program was implemented without a lot of controls or verification of peoples claims. So there may be the occasional person who had daca who becomes subject to removal, but most of them now have their current status assured for at least six months and some of them for as long as two years. Woodruff Jessica Vaughan with the center for immigration studies, thank you. Thank you. Woodruff daca now becomes an issue for congress to decide, adding yet another item in a growing todo list for lawmakers as they return from their august recess. John yang has more. Yang thanks, judy. Congress is back, and with the highstakes task of funding the government, raising the debt ceiling, passing Hurricane Harvey aid and more. Here for more on the deadlines looming on capitol hill is erica werner, Congressional Correspondent for the associated press. Erica, thanks for join us. The president added to this list today, he said he wants congress to act to protect the dreamers. He says he wants congress to help them and do it properly. Now, one of the reasons were in this situation is because congress has failed the pass the dream act. What are the chances that theyre going to be able to do it now . Well, that is such a telling observation that you just made, john, and thank you for having me. The reason that were in this position is because of congresss failure over many months and really years in 2013 under the Obama Presidency to come up with a comprehensive soonti on immigration. There was a bill that passed the senate, and it just could never go anywhere in the house and kind of died a slow death. So the idea that immigration, this issue that is really quite toxic politically at this point is being thrown on to congresss agenda, which is already so stacked, is really very surprise ing, and whether congress will be able to get anything done in the next six months, the deadline there T Administration has set, will remain to be seen, but i think theres not a huge level of optimism at this point. Well, lets go to some of the other issues. Tomorrow the house is going the take up aid for Harvey Relief. What are the prospects for that overall, and are they going to be able to passes it without conservatives pushing for offsets . I would say, and this is one of the reasons that immigration action becomes so unlikely is there is not room for another issue on the front burner, but to your question on the harvey aid, theres the 8 billion, which will pass the house tomorrow, and this is going to be the first kind of traunch oar or first down payment of aid to that region, but its going to be many, many millions many. There are many dollar figures floating around the hill as to what that ultimate package will look like. But the vote tomorrow in the house is likely to be overwhelming to send that to the senate. At this point there are not a lot of people pushing for offsets. It should pass easily. Then what happens in the senate will be another question, because as you know, theres a desire among leadership there and the administration to use that Harvey Relief package as the vehicle to raids the debt ceiling, something that they need to do by monos end and thats a very unpalatable vote for a lot of members, so adding it to the harvey bill could sweeten the pot for some members, but conservatives are already raising a lot of complaints about that prospect. Yang and in the less than a minute we have left, whats the game plan for funding the government after the current fiscal year ends . Congress needs to act to fund the government by september 30th or the lights go out and National Parks close, et cetera. So given all of the other issues they have to deal with, the plan for that one is to kick the can down the road into december, pass a stopgap, whats known as a continuing resolution that continues funding levels at their existing levels through some point in early to middecember, at which point they revisit the issue and have a fight over the border wall potentially at that juncture. Yang erica werner on the busy month ahead for her and everybody else on capitol hill. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour the mayor of houston on the long road of recovery after Hurricane Harvey. Rethinking college with online masters degrees. And the worlds most endangered language that does not use spoken words. But first, two days after north koreas sixth nuclear test, the war of words, and the war games, continued today. But President Trumps recent statements targeting south korea have led to growing concerns there. William brangham reports. Brangham south korean warships conducted livefire drills off the Korean Peninsula today, the latest show of military force to try and deter north korea. The north answered with more defiance. Its envoy called its weekend nuclear test a gift package to the u. S. From his country, known officially as the democratic peoples republic of korea or d. P. R. K. The u. S. Will receive more gift packages from my country as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the dprk. Pressure or sanctions will never work on my country. The d. P. R. K. Will never under any circumstance put its Nuclear Deterrence on the negotiating table. Brangham russian president Vladimir Putin, at a conference in china, also warned against pushing the North Koreans too hard. He said military action could set off a global catastrophe, and new sanctions wont help either. translated the use of all types of sanctions in this particular case is useless and inefficient. As ive told one of my colleagues yesterday, they will rather eat grass, than abandon this program if they do not feel safe. Brangham later, Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said moscow will consider a u. S. Resolution in the u. N. Security council, provided it focuses on a diplomatic solution. Meanwhile, President Trump is also putting pressure on south korea. Hes again threatened to pull out of a fiveyearold trade deal with the south, something that a Bipartisan Group of u. S. Lawmakers today urged against. And over the weekend, the president also pushed them to get tougher, tweeting south korea is finding. That their talk of appeasement with north korea will not work. But that message may be driving a wedge between the two allies. South koreans were very preoccupied by the fact that it took 34 hours for president moon jaein and President Donald Trump to even have a phone conversation after that nuclear test. Brangham jean lee ran the aps bureau in north korea and is now a fellow at the wilson center. Koreans were incredibly offended by that and as i the comments hes making to the is taking seem incredibly outdated and offensive so that is some of the reaction that im getting from younger South Koreans here in seoul. Brangham at the white house, though, officials today defended the gettough approach. Now is not the time for us to spend a lot of time focused on talking with north korea, but putting all measures of pressure that we can, and were going to continue through that process. Brangham meanwhile, theres talk in south korea of building up its own arsenal. Brangham in a new tweet today, President Trump confirmed hes letting south korea and japan buy sophisticated u. S. Weapons. For the pbs newshour, im william brangham. Woodruff in houston today, the cleanup from harvey continued. A number of large employers and universities began reopening, but many residents are just beginning to deal with damaged homes, the debris from flooding and applying for assistance. Special correspondent marcia biggs caught up with the citys mayor, sylvester turner, as he was touring through one of those neighborhoods earlier today. Reporter mr. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. Very nice. Reporter my first question is were 11 days out now. You drive down these streets and its lawn after lawn after lawn of debris. Whats the scope of harveys damage today . Almost every home in every community was impacted. And literally. This wasnt just a small rainfall. This was an historic, unprecedented rainfall where homes didnt just get one were to inches. They got feet of water in their homes. So literally people are emptying out their homes, okay. For every big truck that were sending out, we can only probably get the debris from one particular house. One truck, one house. Probably in terms of units that were impacted, it could have been well over 100,000 units. In some cases youre going to be dealing with homes that simply cannot be rehabbed, so to speak, they may have to be rebuilt. Reporter what about the longer road to recovery . We still see areas completely underwater. Are we talking months . Are we talking years . In the city of houston there are two areas still dealing with floodwaters. One is northeast houston, the kingwood area, and there t waters there are receding. The other area is in west houston, and thats because of the release of water from the reservoir by the corps of engineers. And theyre starting to rower those releases, the level of releases there. But those are two areas. With respect to the other parts of the city of houston, about 95 of the city of houston is dry. Now separate that from the region. Okay, because there are still major, major problems in the region, but in terms of the city of houston, 95 dry, electricity grid, probably about 12,000 homes without power, the wastewater system is fine. Reporter how long do you plan the continue the controlled releases, and what do you say to the families who feel their neighborhoods were sacrificed for the greater good of the city. The reality is those plans were put in place decades ago in order to protect everything on the lower send to to speak. This was an unprecedented amount of waterfall. So what the corps of engineers are saying to us is they have to build capacity on the west side of the dam, and in order to build that capacity, theyre having these gradual releases over a period of time. And what their concern is, if there is another storm or hurricane coming and they dont build that capacity on the west side of the dam, then it could be catastrophic. So thats. Its a balancing, but those decisions are made not by the mayor, not by city council. Those decisions are made by the corps of engineers. Reporter so something on the minds of a lot of people weve spoken to is the level of toxicity in the floodwater. What can you tell us about that . Any time you have flooding of this magnitude and the water is running all over the place, youll get con am the nabts coming from all over. I think thats just a part of when you have flooding and a lot of that water is stagnant. Its not constantly running off, but stagnant, staying still. Thats why, you know, i certainly discourage anybody from walking in or playing in this water. It is not safe. It is full of con am contaminant. You dont know what youre walking inch and on top of that you dont know where youre walking. There could be Manhole Covers that are no longer there. You have to be very, very careful. There are critters in this water. Its kind of swampy. Its just not safe at all for anybody to be walking in the water. Its not even safe for our First Responders. Reporter what is your message to congress about funding . Well, you know, to congress i would say, this is not a time for party politics. This is a time to vote and vote yes. The initial request has been asked by the president , approximately 8 billion. Thats just the first trunch. A lot more is needed. The people in the affected regions need a quick vote. Hopefully that vote will take place this week. Reporter how long do you plan on keeping the Convention Center open, and whats going to happen to those people, some of whom were homeless before this happened . Were working on a housing plan for them. The Convention Center will probably stay open toward the end of this coming week, no later than the 14th. Were putting together a housing plan. The number was at its max 1,000. Its now right around, the last number i saw this morning was 1,600. Its the hardest population to place. But were working on a housing plan for them. For those who were homeless prior, you know, well look for shelters and other areas. Buthe goal is not to increase the population of people who are homeless on our streets than existed prior to the storm. So were not going to be pushing people out of the Convention Center and putting them back on the streets. Our goal is to place people in housing with a roof over their head instead of being on the streets like in the dirt. We dont want that, and so were putting together a plan. I simply hope everybody will work with us so we can transition them to a better place and in many cases a better place than what they had prior to the storm. Reporter theres been a lot of discussion of development occurring without any nod to flood concerns. What is your feeling Going Forward . Are you going to tear dunn some of those neighborhoods, and how are houstonians holding up . Let me answer that. Houstonians have a strong attitude. Its a cando city. Its growing and very dynamic. At the same time, lets take advantage of technology and innovation. Be creative. Minimize flooding. You cant stop mother nature, but we certainly can take definitive steps to mitigate against flooding. Well be cognizant of what has happened from this storm and previous storms to try to mitigate future costs down the road. Reporter mr. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Woodruff among the many victims of Hurricane Harvey are farmers and ranchers, who live outside the houston metropolitan area, but were equally affected by the hurricane. Tomkea weatherspoon of Houston Public Media went to one ranch to learn about the damage, and the recovery efforts. Reporter thousands of acres drown in a lake of floodwater. Its worse than we ever could have imagined. Reporter these shots are from last week in wharton county, texas, just southwest of houston, where somewhere around 60,000 cattle are usually roaming ash. But after weathering recordbreaking rainfall and Tropical Storm harvey, ranchers like john locke emerged from the storm and were devastated when they couldnt find their cattle. That was my entire livelihood out there, that was our entire herd of cattle. So we went tobethat night thinking there was a good possibility that we had least everything. Reporter but they didnt. A desperate search by helicopter and they found the missing cattle, hundreds of them stuck in rainwater and massive spillover from the colorado river. We didnt account for the resilient si of these animals and how smart they are. We found them in places where we dont know how they got there, but basically they swam the Higher Ground. Reporter rancher coleman lock, johns father, says hes never seen anything like this flood. Where were walking right now, the water would have been about thigh deep on me, probably at least two feet deep here. You can see where the water ran across the road and cut grooves in the gravel. This was all totally underwater. Reporter now it does flood in this area from time to time, but between the rain and the river, this time around it completely disrupted the ranchers way of life. My son has been out there in the water for two days waist deep working trying to either move cows to Higher Ground or get hay to them and see theyre okay. A big priority right now is just getting to the cattle. The animals dont starve. First the ranchers used airboats , but now a middle point btween flooded and dry, theyre working in hard dirt, pools of dirty water and deep mud. Were on a larger area, were dealing with ground that doesnt support equipment and doesnt support horses some were going to try to get this hey out there. I have about three different ideas, if this doesnt work, well do, this and if this doesnt work, do this. Reporter all of this ranch should dry fast in the texas heat, making the task much easier. But even the cattle are through with this whole ordeal, it will be weeks before things are back to normal. This flooded twice last year. Id say on a scale of one to ten, a normal flood is a two. This time we prepared for a six, and what we saw was about a 12. But every day we go it gets wetter, and every time the sun comes up things get a little bit better. Were moving in the right direction. We just have to keep holding on. Reporter for the pbs newshour weekend, im tomkea weatherspoon in egypt, texas. Woodruff now, we continue our special series on rethinking college with a look at graduate students who pay little or even nothing for a top ten masters degree program. Hari sreenivasan has our report, part of our weekly segment, making the grade. Sreenivasan its Graduation Day and these two students are earning their Computer Science masters degree from a top 10 program in the country. But its the first time theyve ever visited campus. This whole experience is sort of surreal. This is my first on campus being here, but i definitely feel part sreenivasan students Vanessa Anderson and Miguel Morales did all of their coursework for Georgia Institute of technology online. Neither live in georgia. Im going to be working in Autonomous Systems and its a dream job. Sreenivasan . And a job which pays. The average starting salary for georgia techs master degree graduates is 150,000. This spring, 64 students earned their Computer Science masters degree on campus, but 212 earned them online. The degree is the same on the transcript, its the same on the diploma, theres no distinction whatsoever. Sreenivasan charles isbell, a senior associate dean for georgia techs college of computing, helped design the online masters program. Its about accessibility. We see that we can get many more people who dont look like the traditional folks that we have coming on campus. Sreenivasan in fact, Online Students are typically older and have full time jobs. Online there are nearly twice as many of students of color than on campus. And while isbell insists the quality of learning is equal for the two programs, he points out one key difference cost. Theres a huge difference in price. So, for our on campus degree, its somewhere north of 42,000 a year, for the online its 6,600 for the entire degree. Sreenivasan so if the experience is the same, how can you deliver a product at 6,600 that youre delivering at 42,000 . Well, we dont have to pay for buildings, we dont have to build new classrooms, but the really big difference is scale. So we have about 4,500 students in the program, compared to the 400 or so that we have on campus. Sreenivasan a recent harvard study of georgias online masters concluded that the combination of a Top Ten Program offering a traditional degree at significant cost savings has created a whole new Consumer Market in higher education. For some students, tuition is actually free. Thats because Many Companies offer their fulltime employees tuition reimbursement. Student Nica Montford is a data integrator for General Motors Innovation Center in roswell, georgia. Every gm employee gets 8,500 to spend in higher education, every year, and so it falls well within the 8,500 that we get. Sreenivasan after two and a half years studying online, montford plans to graduate this december. Im focusing on the social computing aspect, social media, and the social landscape, im really interested to see where i can take it, as it expands, and as it grows, and be on the leading edge. Sreenivasan masters student eboni bell, a Product Software engineer for at t, is also taking advantage of tuition reimbursement. I knew i wanted to get my masters, and i also knew that i wanted to have a company that paid for it, because i did not want to get into even more student loan debt. Sreenivasan bell would like to start her own Company Using technology to help solve societal problems, like obesity, and diabetes. Im interested in interactive intelligence how can we leverage Artificial Intelligence, leverage data itself, to change the world. Sreenivasan but does learning suffer when the Human Connection found in physical classrooms is missing . Isbell says no. If youre in the fourth row, the fifth row, the 27th row, youre about as close to me as someone who is online, right . Youre not really getting the face to face interaction. Sreenivasan eboni bell agrees. In fact, she says, the way our culture thinks about a classroom should be reconsidered. Evolving technology, she says, allows her to keep in Constant Contact with classmates. We communicate daily, we communicate through chat, we communicate through google hangout, through video conferencing, we email each other back and forth. Sreenivasan however, bell says answers from teaching assistants are not as immediate. I have to go to this online discussion, type my question, and then wait for a response, and usually the response is no more than a day, but even the fact that i have to wait for a day, whereas if im in the classroom i raise my hand, and i get immediate feedback. Sreenivasan thats where georgia tech professor ashok goel comes in. A professor of computer and cognitive science, goel created an Artificial Intelligence tool to help answer questions for the 4,500 online master degree students. And this is jill watson, what does jill do . Jill is an Artificial Intelligence t. A. So as students ask questions, jill gives answers to those questions. Sreenivasan why is there a need for an artificial intelligent t. A. . Thats a very good question. So what happens is, is students who are highly motivated, ghly engaged, they ask thousands of questions. Some of this can be delegated to an artificial intelligent t. A. , thereby relieving the professor to answer more creative questions, more openended questions. Sreenivasan so let the Artificial Intelligence deal with the easy ones, and let the humans deal with the tough ones . Thats right. We dont really notice who is answering our questions, as long as theyre giving us the best answer. It doesnt need to be a human. Sreenivasan but she still sees an Important Role for professors. We need professors, we need people that are going to help motivate us in the class, and help us understand why were even taking the class. Sreenivasan not all courses can go online like this. Why not . Sreenivasan there have to be things that a Campus Experience provides, otherwise why would we have campuses at all . Well, we have campuses because we didnt have Online Education 150 years ago, right . Students have to feel theyre a part of that community, they have to feel engaged. Thats what you get being on a campus, you get to meet people, you get to build friendships, you still get to do that online, if you provide the support for the students. Sreenivasan in atlanta, for the pbs newshour, im hari sreenivasan. Woodruff finally, practitioners of the worlds most endangered language are appealing for Financial Assistance to save it from extinction. Its mainly used by an aging population in a Mountain Village on the greek island of evia, and the language is dying with them. As special correspondent Malcolm Brabant discovered, this ancient language has something in common with that emblem of modern, digital patois twitter. Reporter you almost have to go to the edge of europe to find the whistling village of antio. Take a ferry from the mainland to the island of evia. Pass giant wind farms and a hidden waterfall, then you whistling encounter the unique voice of kyriaki giannakari, trilling as clear as a bird, chatting to her distant neighbors. whistling translated its essential we preserve this language. We have to keep it. This is the way weve grown up. This is our heritage. whistling reporter and this is how they invite their friends to lunch. Using a technique that distinctly transmits the message for miles between hill tops. Eperts believe the language dates back to ancient greek times. One theory is that it was created by persians 2,500 years ago after they were defeated in the great naval battle of salamis. Survivors washed up on the shores of evia whistled to each other to avoid detection from vengeful ancient greeks. Panagiotis tzanavaris is leading the battle to save what unesco considers to be the worlds most endangered language. translated whistling was used widely used until the day the telephone arrived. That was in 1965. Around the same time most young people left the village to study or find work. So it meant there was no one around to pass the language on to the next generation. Reporter its time for the villagers to wet their whistles. And glasses of a fiery local liquor called tsipouro arrive. whistling translated if you drink too much tsipouro you get a hell of a headache. We had a festival at the church yesterday. I had far too much tsiporou and ive got a major hangover. So im just having a small one now to get back on an even keel. Reporter the villagers are at pains to stress that this is a language, not a code. If you can speak it, you can whistle it. translated alpha, vita, gamma, delta, epsilon, zita, whistling reporter today there are only 18 people left who are proficient in this language. Panagiotis bournousouzis is the youngest exponent. His friend Yannis Apostolou acknowledges the difficulty in sustaining it. whistling translated for someone who doesnt use the language on an every day basis he will find that after a while his mouth and jaw are becoming numb. For someone who uses the language regularly, it becomes easier the more you use it. Its like exercise. Reporter given that most conversation takes place in short bursts using just a handful of characters, what were listening to here is effectively the earliest known form of twitter. So what do they think of the worlds most famous twitter user . Panagiotis bornousouzis. whistling translated i like President Trump. I think hes a Stable Influence and i think he will take america forward. Reporter farmer yannis tsipas. whistling translated i think trump is very good for his own country. I just wish he would help greece a bit. I dont have a very high opinion of greeces Prime Minister because instead of getting us out of this financial mess, hes getting us deeper into it. Trump could assist us economically if he would pay a portion of greeces debt. Reporter Yannis Apostolou. whistling translated what id really like to see President Trump do is to put an end to all the wars that are going on at the moment across the world, and then to try to get people back into a normal type of rhythm and develop the rest of the world. Trump is outside the political system. Because hes an outsider and a technocrat, and i think hell find a way to resolve the situation with north korea. Reporter panagiotis tzanavaris. whistling translated its a bit early to tell, but its my opinion that trump will cause fewer wars than obama, who came to greece and started praising democracy. Reporter the villagers acknowledge that the language is fading as fast as an evia sunset, and they are trying to find a benefactor to fund lessons for young greeks interested in perpetuating this unique sound of the mountains. Panagiotis tzanavaris is painfully aware that financially strapped greece has other priorities. translated weve got a society a state which shows no interest whatsoever in preserving this piece of our so important cultural heritage. whistling reporter what he said was, for the pbs newshour, im Malcolm Brabant in evia. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, a look at some hi tech Traffic Solutions in pittsburgh. Im judy woodruff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh rose welcome to the program. It is the end of summer and, as we prepare for the next season, we bring you some of our favorite conversations here on charlie rose. Tonight, all about sports. We talk to golfer sergio garcia, tennis player maria sharapova, olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and basketball coach mike kryzewski. So hes in competition, right . Okay. When youre on a court, like, you feel things. So im saying, like, youre in a race, how do you know where other people are . Rose yeah. Eally. Do yall swim . Do you know whos swimming next to you . Rose do you know if youre winning . You can feel it. Obviously, when youre in a pool the middle lane is the fastest lane so you have the next fastest people next to you. So you ha