Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240714

Arts allows us to do that. All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by advice for life. Life wellplanne learn more at raymondjames. Com. Text night and day. Catch it on replay. Burning some fat. Ha ng the latest viral cat you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. With talk, text and data. Consumer cellular. Learn more at consumercellular. Tv babbel. A Language Program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. An by contributions to your pbsn statom viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff President Trump is claiming widespread support from black himself, the least racist person in the e rld. That cday, as he defended his attacks on elijah cummings, the baltimore congressman leading investigations of mr. Trump. The president before an event in srginia that black lawmak boycotted. As his helicopter roared, he insisted its voters that count. They are happy as hell. So you may have a couple ofbo politicianott but its all a fix. Its all a fix. The fact is African American people love the job im doing cause im working for them, im not working for the politicians. Woodruff in fact, a recent gallup poll found only 8 of African Americans support mr. Trump. Meanwhile, he was briefly heckled in jamestown today, at the event marking the start of selfgovernment in america in 1619 the first african slaves arrived that same year. For their part, black virgia state legislators gathered in richmond, where a slave jail once stood. One tearfully urged spectators to reclaim the nations soul. The number of Central American migrants crossing mexico to the u. S. Border has dropped nearly 40 since may. The Mexican Government announced today the number fell to 87,000 in july. And, the American Civil Liberties union said u. S. Officials have separated more than 900 Migrant Children from their families since a federal judge curtailed the practice last year. Ta well get s, later in the program. A seattle woman had her initial court ap data breach at capital one financial. Paige thompson allegedly hacked credit card applications from more than 100 million people. The datancluded credit scores, Bank Balances and Social Security numbers. Capital one says it is unlikely the data was actually used for fraud. It appears north korea has carried out new missile launches, for the second time in less than a week. South korea reports the north fired multiple, uniden projectiles into the sea, early wednesday. North Koreas Kim Jong un agreed last mon to revive talks on scrapping his nuclear program. Prodemocracy protesters ihong kong have clashed with police again tonight after 44 people were charged with rioting on sunday. Hundreds swarmed a Police Station where the accused were being held, and police in riot gear fired pepper spray to try toisperse the crowd. Earlier, demonstrators blocked subway train doors, rnsrupting the g rush hour. Still, some of the commuters supported the effort. translated this is what the movement is tryi achieve. The government is not addressing y,the problems in our soci such as political issues, Police Violence and suspected triad gangs. That is why now hongkongers have no choice but to use different creative approaches to remind people what is happening here. Woodruff the protesters have demanded an independent investigation of Police Actions e government in Mainland China blamed the west again today for stoking the protests. Af afghanistan, a United Nations report finds thaan and nato forces have killed more civilians this year than the taliban has. More than 700 people hed in afghan and Coalition Military operations including air strikes and night raids on militant hideouts. Taliban attacks have killed 531 civilians. The u. S. And the taliban are currently holding talks on a peace settlement. Back in this country, President Trump warned china not to delay a trade deal, waiting to see if he will be reelected next year. He said he will be much tougher after t election. The two countries resumed tradea s in shanghai today. California will mandate that president ial candidalease their tax returns to qualify for the states primary ballot. Ov democraticnor gavin newsom signed the new law today. It is aimed at President Trumps refusal to release his returns. Newsom said states have a legal and moral duty to ensure that the nations wouldbe leaders meet minimal standards. And, on wall street the Dow Jones Industrial average lost 23 poin to close at 27,198. The nasdaq fell 19 points, and the s p 500 slipped seven. Still come on the newshour how Sexual Assault allegations aimed at the top of u. S. Military command raise questions on how they are investigated. Whats on the line for the democratic president ial candidates squaring off in tonights debate. Second chances for young adults caught up in the juvenile Justice System. And much more. Woodruff the confirmation hearing for general john hyten, who is the four star general nominated to be one of the highest positions in the u. S. Military, was upended today when an active duty colonel again accused general hyten of Sexual Assault ing to the Senate Immediately outside the hearing. William brangham has the story. H we ju a fourstar general get in front of the American People and in opennt testimony in ff the Senate Armed Services committee, and make false official ents, under oath. Xu he lied about ly assaulting me. Brangham an unprecedented accusation. Tive duty army colonel Kathryn Spletstoser alleged general john hyten, the air force general tapped by presidt trump to be the pentagons second in command, lied to the senate today about sexually assaulting. Her in 201 she spoke to reporters immediately after hytens h confirmatiring, where he again categorically denied her allegions. Spletstoser alleged that during a 2017 conference in california, hyten came to her hotel room, kissed, touched,nd pressed up ainst her until he ejaculated. She says he was infatuated with her and had touched her inappropriately several times before. The air force investigated the allegation for several months, and found insufficient evidence to support any finding of misconduct against general hyten. Spletstoser said there was sufficient evidence to charge hyten. Since the allegations emerged, the Senate Armed Services Committee Conducted its own investigatrun. The is that general hyten is innocent of these charges. Brangham both republicans and democrats today praised the committees handling of the probe. Thank you to chairman inhofe and Ranking Member reed for conducting a very thorough, andi a veryinquiry. The fact this has been such an exhaustive, extensive, professional investigationol speakses. Brangham there was also bipartisan agreement that hyten was innocent othe charges. Perhaps most notably, from arizonas republican senator martha mcsally. Shes an air force veteran, and revealed this year she was raped by a superior officer years ago. I didnt take coming to this conclusion lightly. I knew the message it cod send to Sexual Assault survivors, who havent seen all the informati on the case that i have. Ju the process witnessed was strong, fair, and investigators turned over every rock to seek justice. Brangham notably, two of thn democratic sors whove been critical of how this investigation unfolded, Kristin Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren, were both absent because of their democratic president ial debate. Throughout t hearing, as he has since the allegations emerged, general hyten denied the charges. It has been a painful time for me and my family, but i want to state to you and to the people in the strongest possible terms that these allegations are false. Brangham but spletstoser, t who was room for his hearings, said hyten was lying, and his confirmation will deter assault victims from coming forward. This moving forwards tells everybody, every Sexual Assault survivor, victim, whatever you want to call them, that they need not bother to report. They wont be taken seriously. Despite having a flawless record, they will always be questioned, theyll be the ones investigated, they wont see justice. And hey, in the end, Senior Officers are allowed to sexually assault people, and well just give them promotion instead. Brangham the Armed Services committee does n make public its report on their findings on the allegations. Theyre poised to approv hytens nomination. Brangham for more on todays hearing and what it says about the way the military investigates Sexual Assault in the ranks, we get two views. L retired colon christensen had a 23year career as a lawyer in the air force and has prosecuted many Sexual Assault cases. Hes now president of protect oudefenders, an Advocacy Organization that defends Sexual Assault victims in the military. And retired lt. Col. Rachel vanlandingm had a 20year career in the air force as a lawyer and has also prosecuted Sexual Assault cases. Shes now a professor of law at southwestern law school. Thank you both for being here. Don christensen,d love to start withou first. You represent an Advocacy Organization that looks out for people in the services that have been assaulted or harassed. Ahat do you make of these allegations and do you make of the investigation that was done into thelselegations . Well, the allegations are extremy troubling. Colonel spletstoser has been consist. She has made herself available to the senate, osi, the media. It was incredible that she talked to the media right afterward. Co there are no iistencies in what she has said. The investigation itself seemed to be rushed, but thehing to remember about a sex assault investigation in Something Like this, and we heard the senate say there is no corroboration, she never said anybody else was win the room. Th most sexual assaus, there is no one else in the room. I dont know what they wat for corroboration. Do they think general hyten was stupid enugh to send an email and say, hey, sorry i sexually assaulted you. Yang broangham pssor, wht do you make of this in. Well, neither of usav scene or read the investigation. We have only seen what has been released in the meandid has been articulated by the senators from the Senate Armed Services committee, but investigations are contention actual, so it buld only be rushed if there had been quite t of evidence to uncover, and it does not seem to be the case in this situation. There was, in fact, what this case and what this situation tells me is that no one is above that even a fourstar general in the United States air force when serious credible allegations of Sexual Assault are lodged against him or her is going to be investigated and is going to be investigated quite thoroughly. There have, in fact, been two investigation, as well there shoulde, both the air foce office of special investigation, and then as we just heard on that clip, the Senate Armed Services Committee Conducted their own investigation. So i have been abe to ascertain from the news reports that there were over 50 wtnesses interviewed, and thousands of pages of documents. So im nosu really quitre what hasnt been done here. I dont know what else can actually be done to corroborate an accusation in which there is simply no other evidence to support it. Brangham don christensen, lets pick up on this. Professor vanlandingham bethlies was sufficient and there was an appropriate investigation. I know some questions have been raised as to whether its appropriate to have a fourst general, which is general hytens rank, be investigated by officers whfe are inor to him, not directly under his rank, but who are clear below rank. Do you think thats appropriate . Well, theres definitely a perception problem in this case. Believe general hyten was the second or third most senior general in the entire United States air force athe time of the investigation. And there are only about 13 fourstar generals in the air force. If there was going to be an investigation for perception issues, it would have been muchf better offone of the other services criminal investigators had looked at this. But the thing reember about investigations from the o. S. I. , contrary to what the air force and the deptment of defen keep spinning this with, the investigators do not reach a concsion whether or not these allegations are true. All they do is uncover facts and get interviews and track down evidence. They do not make a suggestion. They dont reach a conclusion. So it would be much better to go off to somebody else, but lets remember, he was not cleared by an investigation. He was cleared by a fellow general officer. Brangham prossor vanlandingham, what do you make of this . This wasnt a true exoneration. This wens simply thrying to gather the facts, and we still dont necessaril that evidence is saying . Well, we do hav professional the air force does have professional ders,tigators and fact fin and don is absolutely correct that they reach factual conclusion, not legal conclusions. Those legal conclusions, however, where i disagree with don io the concl of whether or not a crime was committed or whether any knd of adverse administrative action was warranted by the actualen ev was made by a senior officer in the United States air force, senioto generalyten, as well as was made by the Senate Armed Services coittee individuals today. So the investigators themselves werent reaching those conclusions, and they shauldnt be ching those conclusions. If there was any doubt regarding either the comprehensiveness of the investigation or appeances of partiality, the Senate Armed Services committee could have easily hadthe lead investigator come speak with them, and to the best of my d knowledge, thid not. Instead they have the vitim, the colonel herself, they spoke with her to assess her credibility to ensure they were doing their due diligence. Brangham don christensen, colonel splesstoser says if the general gets this promotion, vivorsill mean other sur wont come forward. I absolutely agree with that. Approximately 75 to 80 of people are who are sexually assaulted in the miitary wnt come forward and report it because they fear retiaon in the military. What has happened to her today m, a classic of example of blaming the vicmearing the victim it sent a terribly negative message to the force that even when credible evidence is brought forward that a gentle officer will still be promoted after sexually assaulting someone. Brangham professor vanlandingham, same question to you. If hyten is confirmed, does this cause a this does not cause a chilling effect. In fact, it sends a message at all allegations of Sexual Assault will be taken seriously, even ifou are a four sar or a major or even if youre a staff sergeant. In fact, that individual who accuses someone of Sexual Assault is invited to congress and gets to sit downith senators to discuss their complaint. Thats not if thats not something being taken seriously i dont know what is . Brangham proacfessorl vanlandingham and don stensen, thank you very much. Have a yet day. Woodruff as we reported earlier, the American Civil Liberties union says the Trump Administration has continued to separate Migrant Children from their parents at the southwest border, amna nawaz hasur report. Nawaz judy, lee gelernt is the lead attorney for the American Civil Liberties union, representing the sep families, and can tell us more about todays court filing. Welcome backo the news hour. Ts start with that number. The exact number is 911 children. You have identified in this court filing as having been separated from their famies bejune 28th of last year and june 29th of this year. Start with that. How did you arrive at that number . Whats that based on . Thats right. Thats not a number that we discovered on our own. We wouldfave no wayoing that. Those are numbers the Court Ordered the government to give us, and the latt numbers we got from the government are11. We have an excel spreadsheet uat shows the separations. They have been goip monthly. The shocking thing about this i the governmentaiming this theyre doing this for the childrens benefitreecause the s have a criminal history. What we expected to see from tha governme very serious abuses against the children themselves, but it turns out theyre separating children for things as minor as the parents old traffic offense. In one case a misdemeanor offense for 5 or Disorderly Conduct or d. U. I. Its shocking theyre doing this anrfor such minorime, and what we have also found out is that the children are younger than even first time last summer, little babies and toddlers are being separed on the pretext that the parents are a danger to them. nawwant to dig into those more, lee, but lets start with the acting secretary of Homeland Security has said. He has testified that separations do co but only in extraordinarily rare circumstances and only as you me ioned when it is in thst interests of the child. When the child is in some way at risk. We know there are cases out there. I have seen them myself, well documented cases of child smuggling or ause or neglect. How many of those 911 cases fall under thatategory . Re. Theres a lot in the let me pull it apart. I think that the administration is really being misleading in those statements. To begin with, you can look at r percentagewisou can look at how many children are being separated. We now know ove0r 90 since the junction and these are little children, even one impermissiblb separation woutoo much. Ill let the public judge for themselves whether 900 little atildren being sep after the courts injunction is too much. The second thing i wat to point out is its apples and ons to talk about trafficking here. These are cases where the government admits its the parents, but says we still need to separate because of danger. Yewhen we look at the governments reason, we are seeing things like traffic offense, misdemeanor, theft, disorderly condut. And the laint i want the stress is that we told the court from day one, if the child is a genuinely endanger, if there is objective reason to believe the child is in daenger, w, of course, want you to separate the parent and child. Thats not whats ging on. Weve had independent experts look at these cases and say, ate most t a handful of cases that might warrant further investigation, thatov whelmingly these are cases that should never have been considered for separation. Parent and child for because the parent has a Disorderly Conduct offense in the past. Imagine how many amerintn pawould lose their children if those are the kind of offenses that would warrant iyou losing your chld. Matt but i want to pick up what you said. About a handful of casebase on the experts who reviewed them think those could have been in the best interest of the child. Overall for some cot,nthose 911 separations happened at the same time that over 430,000 people crossed the southern border. Thats just for some context. Tell me, thoaugh, wht we know about those children . How many of them are still in u. S. Government custody . How many of them have been reunited with families . Do you know . We dont know. Thats one of the troubling things. I think thats one of the partst of thiy that needs to be told is that we are not getting the information. Rvice providers for the children are not getting the information, in many cases thedr chs facilities are not getting the information. So we dont know how many have been reunified. We know at many have not, most have not, and some parents have even been deported witut their children. So what we are going to be asking the court for is to clarify the standard by which you can separate a childnd also that there be more information flow, because we need to know when these separation os cur where the parent is. Duoften the child will bep entered a facility and the Service Providers wont even be toldhe parent is inthe u. S. Much less the reason for the separation or where the child was placed. Nawaz a lot of questions still to be answered then. Or where the parent was aced. Nawaz lee, thank you. Thngnk you for hame. Woodruff when donald trump won michigan by fewer than votes in 2016, it marke the first win in three decades by a republican president ialca idate. The state is among democrats top targets in 2020, and the Democratic National committees choice for the next round of candidate debates. They have come to detroit is week on a mission. 10 candidates tonight, and 10 more, tomorrow night all wanting a ost out of this second set of democratic president ial debat. Two progressive stalwarts are Standing Center stage tonight vermont senator Bernie Sanders and massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. On either side of them are two of the fields youngest candidates mayor Pete Buttigieg of south bend, indiana and former texas congressman beto orourke. Farther out on the wings are many of the fields more moderate candidates minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and ohio congressman tim ryan, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and former maryland congressman john delan and at each end author marianne willmson and montana governo steve bullock, another moderate who missed out on the previous debas. While those 10 hopefuls are on stage, some of the otherid caes are looking to catch attention on other fronts. Ck a superpac ing washington governor jay inslee, whos debating wednesday, bought airtime for a tv ad criticizing the five candidates topping National Opinion polls. But democrats arent making Climate Change the numberone issue. Woodruff meanwhile, a Political Group founded by billionaire philanthroom steyer, who did not qualify for the debate stage, is out withn ad whose focus is special counsel robert mueller, President Trump, and impeachment. You belie that you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office . Yes. Woodruff that ad is part of a push by candidates to highlight specific iss s ahead of this weeks debates. Ia cali senator Kamala Harris was in detroit yesterday defending the Health Care Plan she rolled out ahead of her wednesday debate. My medicareforall plan will allow private insurers to be ar part of an if they play by the rules. But lets be clear about the rules. Theyre not going to be able to do business as usual. Ed woodruff but some of her rivals pounced iiately. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, whos in tonights debate, told cnn this, in a phone interview i like kamala. Shes a friend of mine. But her plan is not medicare for all. Woodruff a Campaign Spokeswoman for former Vice President joe biden also criticized the harris approach, saying it pushes the extremely challenging implementation of this plan ten years into the future. Biden and harris will meet again at wednesdays debate. He has made his own contribution to the current rush of policy rollouts a criminal justice plan he announced last week i think we need to shiftfo the whole s from what were doing in terms of incarceration to rehabilitation. Woodruff but bidens announcement drew criticism from another rival hell debate on wednesday, new jersey senator cory booker, whos tar bidens history on these issues woodruff the new trade proposals from massachusettsse tor Elizabeth Warren are among the other policy ideased unvey the 2020 candidates over the past weekandahalf. Of the other debaters tonight, klobuchar and orourke rolled out plans on housing and k12 education, respectively. Delaney wants to build a program around a mandatory year of service for young americans. And williamson proposes a cabinetlevel agency to focus on policies affecting children. New york senator kirsten gillibrand, who bates tomorrow, has released her own sweeping plan to combat clime change. For many of these democrats, this weeks debates may truly be makeorbreak. They have to reach a higher i threshold,public polling and donations, to qualify for the debates this fall. We turn now to dallas, where two programs are trying to shift the conversation around juvenile justice. One is bringing young people into the kitchen, the other aims to address trauma through art. At john yang has tory as part of our occasional series chasing the dream, on povert and opportunity in america. Yang its a friday night in Downtown Dallas and cafent mome is buzzing. In the dining room, waitersir thread tay between tables. In the kitchen, workers churn out dishes. A watching over executive chef and founder chad houser. Say, you know, well have a table for you in about 15 minutes, if youd like to wait. Yang butafe momentum is far from an ordinary restaurant. All the waiters, and a lot of the kitchen staff, have recently been releasefrom juvenile detention in Dallas County. Theyre here on yearlong paid internships. S you gme in, you guys helping us. We feed you guys, you guys go me happy. Yang 18yearold demonica dean, who goes by dee, first got in trouble in 2014 for stealing her sisters car. At cafe momentum, she does a bit of everything. It gives me another chance. Its shown me that, you know, there are more people out here in the world that wants us to have another chance. The most important thing that we do in this physical restaurant is prove to our kids and to the community that these young men and young women can and will rise to whatever level of expectation iset for them. Yang across town, another program with a similar mission, but a very different approach. This is creative solutio, a sevenweek Summer Arts Program for dallas juveniles on probation. Byron sanders is the preside and c. E. O. Of big thought, the nonprofit that runs creativeso tions. Whats needed is, yes workforce skills, job skills, academics. But you cant do that if youbl havent beento go through and deal with the hurt. Deal wit wthe pain. Deh the lack of trust. Deal with the things that have en barriers to empathy. Deal with own selfworth. Arts allows us to do that. Yang in texas, more than 60 of juvenile offenders end up thin trouble again within e years of probation or release. For Creative Solutions, that number is just 13 . For cafe momentum, 15 . Here in dallas and across texas, juvenile justice officials areki reth the system. Since reforms in 2007, the number of Young Offenders sent to big state run Detention Centers has plummeted. The focus has shifted to local programs closer to hom university of texas at dallas criminologisalex piquero. People were really concerned at the beginning of that because, oh, crimes going to skyrocket. People we know, all these kids are going to be on the street. You know, youre letting out all these kids who should be locked up forever. And we didnt see that. In fact, just the opsite. D that i think is what we call the texas miracle. Yang Darryl Beatty directs the Dallas County juvenile department. We, as, as a departyou know, we have our funds that we can do things with. But its really the community, and community programs, that are vital to provide the Necessary Services that sometimes we as a department cant. Yang hours before cafe momentum opens, interns sit down for family dinnest a staple in rants. Here, though, they usually begin with an activity led by a staff member. Today, its a game of telephone, to show the importance of communation. Yang the seeds of cafe momentum were planted more than a decade ago, when houser taught eight kids in the dallas juvenile Justice System how to make ice cream. That experience was very humbling for me. I learned that the difrence between their lives and my life at their age was literally the difference in choices that were made for them and made for me before any of us were ever born. Yang he launched a serieof popup dinners and then, in 2015, opened cafe momentum. The program has workh more than 750 kids each, houser o says, with the unique starting line. Welcome to cafe momentum. laughs yang server martwan darden, now 20, first got caught shoplifting when he was just 13. The last time he was locked up, he came to a realization. I was just, remember staring at the ceiling, just thinking,u like, do nt to live like this for the rest of your life . And, nah. I was like, nah, man. Ive got to get it together. So when i got released, i made a promise to know, im going to value my freedom. Yang Creative Solutions has worked with some 14,000 dallas youth over almost a quarter century, and since 200 Southern Methodist university has hosted the summer program, where participants choose between creating art for an exhibit or performing in front of an audience. Sasha davis is Creative Solutions theater director. Theyll come in oftentimes as a brick wall, not rey to quite say or experience whatever that thing is in their past or whatever led them to this moment, and then theyll take a poetry class andwnrite it all and then something clicks. Yang Frankie Zuniga had been incarcerated for more than a year when he entered Creative Solutions very reluctantly. At first, he didnt trust the instructors. He in my mind,re like oh, youre just here to get a paycheck. And yeah, i dont care. But over time, im like, dang, like, they do care. I learned to open up, and then theyre like, here, just try this, do this dance move, try to write this, perform, and little byeittle, it, like, to help open up. Yang zuniga who now works at big thought recently got ates degree, and wants to be a nurse or a physical therapist. While both big thoughts sanders and cafe momentums houser are focusing on getting juvenile ofynders back on track, the say their ultimate goal is keeping young people out of trouble in the first place. Ive got to continue to push as hard as i can, to push that conversation further, so that we as a, as a whole country are talking about these injustices enat we are forcing on a population of chil i think out that every day. We had one of our alumni ask a really stronquestion, which is actually guiding a lot of our work. Moving forward, he s did i have to go to jail before i got something that would change my life . Thats the question we should all be asking ourselves. And then we need to act. Yang action that may start with a work of art, or a good meal. S. R the pbs newshour, im john yang in dal woodruff now, Jeffrey Brown has a conversation with the o auour july pick for now read this, the newshours book club in collaboration with the new york times. This report is part of canvas, our ongoing coverage of arts and culture. Brown its the final day of miguel de la cruz, big angel the dying patriarch of a mexican. American family. Larger histories unfold in a novel of boty h comd sorrow. The house of broken angels wal our july balkub pick. Arthur luis urrea is here to answer some of our reders questions. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having. Brown im going to go right to our first question. It goes to the title and at you were after. The title fits so well with the concept of this book. D you have the title in mind before you began writing . Or did it fall into place ater finishing the book . Good question. I didnt know that it was a book honestly. Know, my big brother died of cancer, and, you know, thev family had him a farewell birthday party, and my family attended. They had never seen anything like it. Think my wife really had the idea that i should write a book about it. He hadpassed away very soon after this party. And oddly enough, jim harriso the great. Brown writer and poet. Had been aero of m for a long time. We had an opportunit to have supper one night. E he asked me, me about your brothers death. When i told him, he saisod, times god hands you a novel. Bu better write it. I thought,etween jim and my wife, i better do it. So thats where it came from. Brown okay. Ts go to our second question. It continues that very theme. I was wondering if the character little angel is based upon the author himself . Reporter so there is big angel, who is dying, and thett agele is the brother who is somewhat estranged. For e purposes of the novel, if youre going to have a rupture that in some ways maybe represents the border, my immigration, immigration, to have one brother who is from a different mom who happens to be american, who doesnt ite kno how to penetrate that incrediblw ween world of the primary family. Brown but this is you, product of a mexican father and a White American mother, university professor. Thats me. Rown thats you. And author. So, yeah, i mean, it gave me a palette that i could paint that characth, because i could understand everything i think that he felt or any doubts he may have had whenreas i think some of the other characters who may have been based on real gfe, i had touess a little bit and hope for the best. Ng brown you were tele before you started you had to go to your family, some of them, and say, okay, its based on you, but heres whattion is. Fiction is not the truth. Right. After my brother died,i went to the family, threw littl dinner and n san diego, and his widow, and i went, and we wer all talking, and she just kept staring at me across thtable like this. And i said, what . She said, do you have something ito tell me, lus . I said, nah. Whats there to tell . She said, you have something you need to tell me. I thought,oh, my god. Brown word wasout. I had been outed by my niece. I said, okay, yeah, i have baed this novel on what happened to us and what happened to you, bu its fiction. Its fiction. Its a lie. I made it up, you know, im making things up, and imakg a movie, and sometimes you have to act in my mind so i can write. And she just stared at me like that. She put her finger up. Shansaid, i just to know, are you, you know, paying respects . Are you honoring my husband . And i said, well, of course i am, yeah. Thats all i need to know. Brown okay. Lets go to our next question. Ovne of my faorite passages in this book is when big angel remembers his father saying to him, tjuhis seconst became the past. As soon as you noiced it, it was already gone. The concept of time comes upn again and ag this book, and i was wondering if you could talk about that. Time. Brown i love that question, because time is an essence of the book, also making fun of mexican time. Right. Big angel is obsessed with time. And that comes directly from my own father. People used to call my father the german,ecause he wa punctual. In fact, he was early to r. Erything. So that bled ove and that line that big angels father has said toim was something my father said to me. To me the ticking clock in thish is that we kns going to die. He knows hes going to die, and he only has so much time to tryn to rectifything that he may have done wrong or any problems inhe family, which i think any of us who are parents, you knowe who were n our 20s ana no longer there, you know, we t all think aboese things as time passes, what can we do, how can we negotiate our time. Brown okay. Next question. The house of broken angels has showed me that every moment of life is fresh. When you set out to write thdiis bookyou intend for this to be a central message . Yes, i did, actually. O intended that. You know, i mayt have known it until i staed crying. Brown crying to yourself while you were writing . There were a few passages ithat my wife cndy had the type because i couldnt deal with them. Yi just walked around cing saying them, an she typed them r for me. So theealization i think of time passing and everne you love leaving some day, its been a lot o loss in or family, but that was that became a kind of an osession to me. Brown you cant read this book now without thinking of the times were in, the situation at the border, you know, the conflict over immigration. Ilu sprinklresolutions in and out occasionally y sprinkle illusions in and out. Whats the rule of fiction . If you areg writort of social realism to Pay Attention to what is going on. But also, you know to, universalize the story. I annnot help but think if i give you this familyat maybe quite different from your family, after a while youll realize theyre not that different. You know . Theres love theres regret. Theres life. Theres death. Theresexuality. Theres religious faith. The entire book is a parable i think for grace. Brown were going continue this discussion online. For now, luis urrea, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Brown and before we go, were going the try somethingr did gust. Mny of us love nothing more than to return to a beloved older book for asummer rereading. So we decided to ask one of todays top writers to slected a personal favorite, a become that continues to inspire and entertain her. Celeste ing is author of the bestselling novel little fir everywhere. Her pick for us to read the woman warrior, the acclaimed memoir by maxine honk kingston. Celeste will sit down with us next month. Join us on our Facebook Page for the now read this book club in Partnership Th the new york t f woodrith the new school year fast approaching, john yang is back to report on a controversial stactice some cts use that puts children in the middle when schools go after money owed by parents. Its part of our weekly education seriesmaking the grade. Yang every school day, s llions of children acrose county sit down to lunch in their cafeterias whether it includes a scoop of tater tots or a tray of fruits and vegetables. About 20 Million Students those whose household inme is at or below 185 of the povertyi are eligible for free or reducedprice meals, subsidizedf by theeral government. But when other students show up without enough money to pay for lunch, School Districts end up picking up the tab. Some 75 of School Districts reported carrying meal debt at the end of the017 school year, some running as high as 865,000. Some schools pressure students, in order to compel their parents to settle upa practice known as school lunch shaming. A federal report said that, in 2014, nearly half of allchool districts had policies that singled out students for unpaid scol lunch balances. In may, the warwick, Rhode Island Public School district f announced on iebook page that any student with an unpaid balance would be served a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich instead of the schools regular hot lunch. That sparked National Outrage and an outpouring of dns to help cover the districts 78,000 School Lunch Debt, including 40,000 from the cbs show, the talk. No kid should ever have to feel shame. Yang and nearly 50,000 from the founder and e. O. Of the chobani yogurt company. We need everywhere, everywhere around the cotry to eliminate this for a, forever. Yang and earlier this month, the Wyoming Valley west School District in northeastern pennsylvania sent letters to about 40 families telling themdr their ch could be sent to foster care if they didnt pay up. F yang the Pennsylvania School board has apologiz the tone of the letter and accepted a local businessmans donation to wipe out the 22,000 debt. The board president had initially rejected the, saying it was the parents responsibity. Crystal fitzsimons is director of school and outofschooltime programs at the od and Research Action center, an Advocacy Group that targets hunger and undernutrition. Crystal, thanks so much for yjoining us. G thanks for having me. Yang we heard a couple of retions from School Districts in that piece. Give us some idea of the range of policies that schoolv districts around the country to deal with School Lunch Debt . Right. There are a group of kids who get free school meals. They get free breakfast a lunch. But other kids dont qualify for free school meals. So School Districts really do have to figure out how to cover those costs. So they set fees. Kids who are eligiblfor reduced price can be carged 30 cnts for breakfast, 40 cents for lunch. The other kids are charged thee majority of st of the meal. Ehen families dont pay those school meal fee, the School District has to figure out how to come up with that money, cause otherwise it is actually charged to the School Districts general account. So it is a real issue for schools. Yang what do they do . What is the range of things that schools do to deal with that debt . Well, i would say the vast majority of schools are not school lunch shaming. There are schools tat do practices around, you know, stamping or stickering, saying owe school lunch money. There are School Districts where they say, were not going to provide any meals to kids who have School Meal Debt, and sohe whenhild goes through the cafeteria line at the end of the linerbecause they have debt o they dont have cash to pay for the meal, they will take the lunch away and throw it in the trash because the food cannot be reserved. In fact, the first time i ever really heard about unaid School Meal Debt was when we had a grandparent who alled and her granddaughter had just started kindergarten in michigan. They had taken her lunch away because the School District had not processed her schoomeal application yet. So there are lots of kids who fall through the cracks within the School Nutrition program, and we rally think that its important for schools, if a family is falling behind inc unpaidhool meal debt, its really important for schools to take a will be at whether not the family is actually eligible for free school meals. Yang yourood, the food and research center, frac, as you call it, is bkic legislation in congress right now that would address this issue. What would the legislation do . Right. So were very excited about a bill called no shame at school introd omar and senator smith. And that would actually this a number of things to impre the situation. First, it would make sure that there was no sharming embarrassing activities happening in the school. And second, we think that all the communications arod School Meal Debt should actually go to the parents or the guardian as opposed to the child. We think the cafeteria really should be a positive experience for alkids. And then for the kids who are eligible but somehow were missed in being certified for free meals, if the School District has to reach out and let families know hat they can apply, and if the child becomes eligible, the bills wou provide retroactive reimbursement for school lunch and breakfast. Ay thatthe schools would be made whole. The kids would no longer haveth debt. And then kids who need school meals would actually be able to tap into them. Yang one thing the legislation wont do, as i understand it, it wont address alternative meals. The School Districts, if there esnt enough, they dont hav enough money to pay for that lunch that day, give them an ternative meal, not the regular hot meal. Why is that not in the legislation . Well,o because the federal government doesnt pay for all the meals serv in school, which i think this whole issue does shine a light on the fact that that is a problem, that we do want kids to ben classrooms healthy and well nourished and providing fre meals toall kids is a wonderful way the make sure that happens, but the federal vernment does not pay the cost of the meals for the reded price or the paid, so they cant tell schools that they have to provide a meal to those children. And so you know, if a School District that is reangy struggith dealt, i would say that its probably better to make sure that the child has some food, and i wou also sny that there are ways to provide an alternative meal that are less embarrassing, you know, if the cheese sandwich or the sn butter sandwich is part of the regular school lunch and any child can take it, then its not embarrassing for a child to have it. But when its done in a way that is public that is humweiliating, eally need to make sure thats not happening in School Cafeterias across the country. Yang crystal tzsimons of the food and Research Action center, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Woodruff finally, new york city is known for pizza, but youve never seen a pie prepared like this one. Our science producer nsikan akpan visits columbia university, where engineers are lighting up neways to cook a slice. Reporter the new york pizza he world knows it has been around since the 1930s. Thats when frank mastro, an italian immigrant and salesman, invented the gas decoven. This simple innovation turnediz new yorkza from a laborious item that could only be made in bedroomsial ovens into the easybake, grabandgo food that you find on street corners worldwide. But, just as new yorkers rarely sit still, the pizza o continues to evolve. Up awn at columbia universit lab is crafting ways to improve nutritn by 3d printing pizza and cooking it with laser beams. Thats right, laser beams. Its very easy for a machine to kind of layer in different types of nutritious elements into your food without you even knowing it and without the taste changing too much. Reporter Jonathan Blutinger is a grad student in hod lipsons Creative Machines Lab where this tech was invented. So the printer has an array f d cartridges, where in each one of these cartridges, you can have a different material. So, dough, sauce and cheese, for example, as three different thgredients. An on this cartridge, our machine can pick up one o ingredient, extrude it o platform, thats moving around in a 2way and then they can pick up another ingredient and do the same and follow this over and over again. Reporter once the cheese and tomato sauce are spread or should i say squeezed onto the dough, everything gets tossed into their mini oven. There, lasers shine at two mirrors, which are angled in certain directions by commands given through custom built software. This selectively cooks parts of the food with much greater precisio thats good for inted food because the ingredients are packed close together, and their final pizza is millimeters thin. So the pizza youre going to e, yes, it is very small it will naturally scale up as we kind of improve the printing process, and we get morewi efficien it. With the cooking process with reporter the end result is delizioso. In truth, it tastes much more like a crunchy pizza bagel. But in many ways, their approach mimics the thinking behind that original pizza on. Much like mastros invention, 3dprinting could make pizza even more personal. The biggest value is the fact that you can customize nutrition thr someone. A big space wher could be a great value, is in hospital settings where people maybe have certainutritional deficiencies and nepplement that either with medicine or with certain vitamin additives. N reporter asa has invested in 3d printing pizza for deep space missions, but blutinger sees stellar prospects for this tech closer to the ground. He thinks digitizing food can help people stay healthy. Imagine a printer and an app that learns your eating habits. It could schedule the preparation of your meals and improve yo diet. In five to 10 years. We think this could be a cleary. Possibil the technologys there is just a matter of time and marketing itr inight way for people. Reporter for the pbs newshour, im nsikan akpan noshing on some za. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. Uf im judy woo join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at t pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by babbel. A Language Program that teaches spanish, french, italian, german, and more. Consumer cellular. Financial Services Firm raymond james. The ford foundation. V working wiionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Carnegie rporation of new rk. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. Th and witongoing 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 access. Wgbh. Org youre watching pbs. Hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour company. Heres whats coming up. If i had a 2 chance of losing the election, i think china would probably say, lets wait. Lets wait. Maybe trump will lose and we can deal with another dope. Another round of u. S. china trade talks as washington hands out billions to help its farmers. Whats the game plan . A rare conversation with Senior Advisor peter navarro. Plus Police Detain more than 1,000 protestors inoscow and in afghanistan is the taliban smelling blood . Is the u. S. Too eager to akthdraw . I s with top Foreign Policy expertsbout theweekends worrying developments. And who has