Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240714

Arts allows us to do that. All that and more on tonights pbs wshour. Major funding forurhe pbs newshoas been provided by advice for life. Life wellplanned. Learn more at raymondjames. Com. Text night and day. Catch it on replay. Burning some fat. Ng shahe 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 sss made le by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff President Trump is claiming widespread support from black americans, and declaring himself, the least racist person in the world. That came today, as he defended his attacks on elijah cummings, the baltimore congressman leading investigations of mr. Trump. The president befo an event in virginia that black lawmakers boycotted. As his helopter roared, he sisted its voters that count. They are hay as hell. So you may have a couple of politicians boycott but its all a fix. Its all a fix. Anthe fact is african amer people love the job im doing cause im working for them, imo 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 ameri in 1619. The first african slaves arrived that same year. For their part, black Virginia State legislators gathered in richmond, where a slave jail once stood. One tearfully urged spectators to reclaim the nations soul. The number of central americangr ts crossing mexico to the u. S. Border has dropped nearlye 40 siy. The Mexican Government announced today the nuer fell to 87,000 in july. Ud, the American Civil Liberties union sa. Officials have separated mrae than 900 m children from their families since a federal judge curtailed ye practice lar. Well get details, later in the program. Se tle woman had her initial Court Appearance today in a huge data breach at capital one financial. Paige thompson allegacked credit card applications from more than 100 million people. The data included credit scores, Bank Balances and soci security numbers. Capital one says it is unlikely fthe data was actually us 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, unidentifieds projectito the sea, early on wednesday. North Koreas Kim Jong un agreed last month to revive talks on scrapping his nuclear program. Prodemocracy protesters in hong 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 to disperse the crowd. Earlier, demonstrators blocked subway train doors, disrg ting the mornsh hour. Still, some of the commuters supported the effort. translated this is what the movement is trying t achieve. The government is not addressing thproblems in our society, such as political issues, Police Violence and suspected triad gangs. That is why now hongkongers have no choice but use different creative approaches to remind people what is happening here. W druff the protesters have demanded an independent investigation of Police Actions but vernment in Mainland China blamed the west again today for stoking the protests. In afghanistan, a United Nations report finds that afnd nato forces have killed more civilians this year than the taliban has. More than 700 people have died 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 the ection. The two countries resumed trade ta shanghai today. California will mandate that lepresident ial candidates e their tax returns to qualify for the states primary ballot. No democratic govgavin newsom signed the new law today. It is aimed at presirumps refusal to rease his returns. Newsom said states have a legal and moral duty to ensure that the nations wouldbe leaders meet minimal standards. D, on wall street today the Dow Jones Industrial average lost 23 points to ose at 27,198. The nasdaq fell 19 points,nd the s p 500 slipped seven. Still to ce 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 stem. And much more. Woodruff the confirmation hearing for general john hyten, who is the far 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 and lying to the Senate Immediately outside the hearing. William brangham has the story. We just had a fourstar general get front of the American People and in open testimony in front of the Senate Armed Services committee, and enmake false official stat, under oath. He lied about sexually assaulting me. Brangham an unprecedented accusation. Ti duty army colonel Kathryn Spletstoser alleged general john hyten, the air force general tapped by president ump to be the pentagons second in llmmand, lied to the senate today about sexuay assaulting her in 2017. She spoke to reporters immediately after hytens confirmation hearing, where he again categorically denied her allegations. Spletstoser alleged that during a 2017 conference in california, hyten came to her hotel room, kissed, touched, aai pressed up t her until he ejaculated. She says he was infatuated with her and uched her inappropriately several times before. The air force investigated the allegati 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 allethtions emerged, Senate Armed Services Committee Conducted its own investigation. The truth 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 anranking member reed for conducting a very thorough, and a very fair inquiry. The fact this has been such an exhaustive, extensive, professional investigationes speaks vol brangham there was also bipartisan agreement that hyten was innocent of thcharges. 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 could sena to sexual t survivors, who havent seen all the information w the case that i have. The process i junessed was strong, fair, and investigators turned over every rock to seek justice. S brangham notably, two of the democratic senatwhove been itical of how this investigation unfolded, Kristin Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren, were both absent because of their democratic president ial debate. Throughout the heang, 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 American People in the strongest possible terms that these allegations are false. Brangham but spletstoser, who was in the 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 theyed ot bother to report. They wont be taken seriously. Despite having a flawless record, they will always be quesoned, theyll be the one investigated, they wont see justice. And hey, in the end, Senior Officers are allowed to sexually assault people, and well just give them a promion instead. Brangham the Armed Services committee does not intmad to public its report on their findings on the allegations. Theyre poised to approve 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. Retired colonel Don Christensen had a 23year career as a lawyer in the air force and has prosecuted many Sexual Assault cases. Hes now president of protect our defeers, an Advocacy Organization that defends Sexual Assault victims in the military. And retired lt. Col. Rachel vanlandingham haa 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 with you frst. You represent an Advocacy Organization that looks out for people in the services that ve been assaulted or harassed. What do you make of these allegations and what u make of the investigation that was done into these alegations . Well, the allegations are extremely troubng. Colonel saspletstosereen consist. She has made herself available to the senate, osi, the m it was incredible that she talked to the media right afterward. There are no inconsies in what she has said. The investigation itself seemed to be rushed, but the thing to remember about a sex assiglt inveion in Something Like this, and we heard the senate say there is no corroboration, she never said anybody else was in t room. As wih most Sexual Assaults, there is no one else in the room. I dont know what they wanfor corroboration. Do they think general hyten was stupid enough to send an email and say, hey, sorry i sexually assaulted you. Yang braorngham profewhat do you make of this in. Well, neither of us have scene or read the investigation. We have only seen what has been released in the meddia an has been articulated by the senators from the Senate Armed Services committee, but investigations are contention actual, so it would only be rushed if there had been quite a bit of evidence to uncover, anit does noseem to be the case in this situation. There was, in fact, what this case and wt this situation thlls me is that no one is above the law. Even a fourstar general in the United States air force when serious credible allegations of Sexual Assault are lodged agnst 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 should be, both the air force office of snecialestigation, and then as we just heard on that clip, the senatArmed Services Committee Conducted their own investigation. So i have been able to ascertain from the news reports that there were over 50 winesses interviewed, and thousands of pages of documents. So im not rely quite sue what hasnt been done here. I dont know what else can actually be done torroborate an accusation in which there is simply no other evidence to suort it. Brangham Don Christensen, lets pick up on this. Professor vanlandingham believes this was sufficient and there was an appropriatest ination. I know some questions have been raised as to whether its appropriate to have a fourstar general, which is general hytens rank, be investigated officers who are inferior to him, not diectly under hi rank, but who are clearly below rank. Do you think thats appropriate . Well, theres definitely a perception problem in this case. I believe general hyten was the second or third mo senior general in the entire United States air force at the time of tithe investi. And there are only about 13 fourstar generals in the r force. If there was going to be anr investigation rception issues, it would have been much better off if one of the other servicto criminal investi had looked at this. But the thing to remember about investigations from the o. S. I. , contrary to wha the air for and the department of defense keep spinning this with, the investigators do not reach a conclusion whether or not these allegations are true. All they do is uncover facts and get ints and track down evidence. They do not make a suggestion. They dont reach a conclusion. So it would be muh 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 profe vanlandingham, what do you make of this . This wasnt a true exoneration. This was sily then ting to gather the facts, and we still dont necessarily knowhat all at evidence is saying . Well, we do have professional the air force doesave professional investigators and fact finders, and don is absolutely correct th they reach factual conclusion, not legal conclusions. Ose leg conclusions, however, where i disagree with don is thf conclusions whether or not a crime was committed or whether any kid adverse administrative action was warranted by the actuala evidence made by a senior officer in the United States air force, senior to general hyten, as well as was made by the Senate Armed Services committee indi so the investigators themselves werent reaching those conclusions, and they shouldnin be reathose conclusions. If there was any doubt regarding ther the comprehensiveness of the investigation or appeseara of partiality, the Senate Armed Services committee could have easily had the lead investigator come speak with them, and to the best of my knowledge, they did not. Instead they have the victim, the colonel herself, they spoket with heo assess hered cribility to ensure they were didoing their dueigence. Rangham Don Christensen, colonel splesstoser says if th general gets this promotion, this will mean other survivors wont come forward. I absolutely agree with that. Approximately 75 to 80 of people are who are sexually wntulted in the militar come forward and report it because they fear ret ialiati the military. What has happened to her today is a classic of example of blaming the victim, smearing the victim. It sent a terribly negative messageto the force that evn when credible evidence is brought forward that a gentle officer will still be promoted after sexually assaulting someone. Brangham professor vanlandingham, same qu to you. If hyten is confirmed, does this cae a Chilling Effect . This does not cause a Chilling Effect. In fact, it sends a message that all allegations of Sexual Assault will be taken seriously, even if you are a four star or a major or even if youre a staff sergeant. In fact, tha individual who accuses someone of Sexual Assault is invited to cgress and gets to sit down with senators to discuss their complaint. Thats not if thats not something being taken seriously, i dont know what is brangham professor rache vanlandingham and Don Christensen, 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 has our report. Nawaz judy, lee gelernt is the lead attorney for the American Civil Liberties uon, representing the separated families, and can tell us moou todays court filing. Welcome back to ths news hour. Leart with that number. The exact number is 911 children. You have identified in this court filing as having been separated from their families 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 would have no way of doing that. Those are numbers the Court Ordered the government to give us, and the lattes numbers we got from the government are1 91. We have an excel spreadsheet that shows the separations. They have been going up monthly. The shocking thing about this is the government is clg this theyre doing this for the childrens benefit because the parents have a criminal history. What we expected to see from the government are very serious abuses against the cildren 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 and for such minor crime, and what we have also found out that the children are younger than even first time last summer, ttle babies an toddlers are being separated on the pretexthat the parents are a danger to them. N nawaz i to dig into those more, lee, but lets start with the acting secretary of Homeland Security has said. He has testified that uparations do continuet only in extraordinarily rare circumstances and only as you mentioned when it is in the best interests of the chi c. When tild is in some way at risk. We know there are cases outer i have seen them myself, well documented cases of child smuggling or abuse nreglect. How many of those 911 cases fall under that category . Theres a lot in there. Let me pull it apart. I think thathe administration is really being misleading in those statements. To begin with, you canok at a percentagewise or you can look at how many children are bei separated. We now know over 900 since the junction and these are little chilonen, evee impermissible separation would be too much. Ill let the public judge for themselves whether 900 little children being separated after the courtsnjction is too much. The second thing i want to point out is its apples and ons to talk about trafficking here. These are cases where the gornment admits its the parents, but says we still need to separate because of danger. Yet when we look at the governments reason, we are seeing things like traffic offense, mismeanor, theft, Disorderly Conduct. And the last point i want the rtress is that we told the cou from day one, if the child is a genuinely endanger, if there ise ive reason to believe the child is in danger, we, of course, wantou to separate the parent and child. Thats not whats going on. Weve had independent experts slook at these caes and say, at most theres a handful of casats ight warrant further investigation, thatmi overwhelngly these are cases that should never have been consideredr separation. Parent and child for because the parent has a Disorderly Conduct offense in the past. Imagine how many americanul parents lose their children if those are the kind of offenses that would warrant you losing your child. Matt but i want to pick upa what youid. About a handful of cases based on the experts who reviewed them think those could have been in the best interest of the child. Overall for some coontext, tse 911 separations happened at the same time that over 430,000 people crossed the southern border. Thats just for some context. Tell me, though, what we know about those children . How many of them are still in u. S. Government custody . How many of them have been reunited with famils . Do you know . We dont know. Thats one of he troubling things. I think thats one of the parts of this story that needs to be told is thawe are not getting the information. The Service Providers for the children are not getting the information, in many cases the childrens facilities are not getting the information. So we dont know how many have been reunified. We know that many have not, most have not, anre some pas have even been deported without their children. So what we are going to be asking the court for is toar y the standard by which you can separate a child and also that there be more information flow, because we need to know when these eseparation os cur where parent is. Often the child will be dump entered a facility and the Service Providers wont even be told the parent is in the 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 placed nawaz lee, thank you. Thank you for having me. Woodruff when donald trump won michigan by fewer than 11,000 vot the first win in three decades by a republican president ialat cand 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 this week on a mission. 10 candidates tonight, and 10 more, tomorrow night all wanting a boost t of this second set of democratic president ial debates. Two progressive stalwarts are Standing Center ste 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 klobuchaohio congressman tim ryan, plus former colorado governor john ryhickenlooper and former nd coressman john delaney. And at each end author marianne williamsonnd montana governor steve bullock, another moderate who missed out othe previous debates. While those 10 hopefuls are on stage, some of the oth candidates are looking to catch attention on other fronts. A superpac backing 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. Wdruff meanwhile, a Political Group founded by billionaire philanthropist tom steyer, who did not qualify for the debate stage, is out with an ad whose focus is special counsel robert mueller, President Trump, and impeachment. You believe tt you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office . Yes. F woodruff that ad is part a push by candidates to highlight specific issues ahead of this weeks debates. California 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 a part of our plan if they play by the rules. S but le clear about the rules. Theyre not going to be able to do business as usual. Woodruff but some of her rivals pounced immedia. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, whos tonights debate, told cnn this, in a phone interview i like kamala. Shes a friend of mine. But her plan is not medicare for l. Woodruff a Campaign Spokeswoman for former vicepr ident joe biden also criticized the harris approach, saying it pushes the extremely challenging implementation of this plan n 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 fr i tnk we need to shift the whole focus om what were doing in terms of incarceration to rehabilitation. Woodruff but bidens announcement drew criticism from oother rival hell debaten wednesday, new jersey senator cory booker, whos targeted bidens history on these issues woodrf the new trade proposals from massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren arehe among the policy ideas unveiled by the 2020 candidates over the past weekandahalf. At of the other ds tonight, klobuchar and orourke rolled out plans on houucng and k12 ion, respectively. Delaney wants to build a program around mandatory year of service for young americans. And williams proposes a cabinetlevel agency to focus on policies affectinghildren. New york senator kirsten gillibrand, who debates tomorrow, has released her own sweeping plan to combat Climate Change. For many of these democrats, this weeks debates may truly be makeorbreak. They have to reach a higher threshold, in 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. John yang has that story as part of our occasional series chasing the dream, on poverty and opportunity in america. Yang its a friday night in Downtown Dallas and cafe i momentumbuzzing. In the dining room, waitersay thread theiretween tables. In the kitchen, workers churn t dishes. Watching over it aecutive chef and founder chad houser. Av say, you know, well a table for you in about 15 minus, if youd like to wait yang but cafe montum is far from an ordinary restaurant. All the waiters, and a lot of the kitchen staff, have recently been released from juvenile detention in dallas county. Theyre here on yearlong paid internships. You guys come in, you guys helping us. We feed you guys, you guyso home happy. Yang 18yearold demonica, deo 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, the are more people out he in the world that wants us to have another chance. T 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 is set for them. Yang across town, another program with a similar mission, but a very different approach. This is Creative Solutions, a grvenweek summer arts pro for dallas juveniles on probation. Byron sanders is the president and c. E. O. Of big thought, the nonprofit that runs creativeon solu w workforce skills, job skills, academics. Gt you cant do that if you havent been able through and deal with the hurt. Deal with the pain. Deal with the lack of trust. Th deal with things that have been barriers to empathy. Deal with own selfworth. Arts allows us to do that. Yang in texas, more than 60 of juvenile offenders end up inerouble again within thre 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 are rethinking the system. Since reforms in 2007, the number of Young Offenders sent d. Big state run Detention Centers has plumme the focus has shifted to local programs closer to home. University of texas at dallas criminologist alex piquero. People were really concerned at the beginning of that because, oh, crimes going to yrocket. People we know, all these kids are going to be on the street. Ow, youre letting out all these kids who should be locked up forever. And we didnt see that. In fact, just the opposid. At i think is what we call the texas miracle. Yang Darryl Beatty directs the dallas countdejuvenile rtment. We, as, as a department, you know, we have our funds that we can dot hings with. s really the community, and community programs, that are vital to provide the Necessary Services that sometimes we as a department cant. Yang hours before fe momentum opens, interns sit down for family dinner, a staple in restaurants. Here, though, they usually begin with an activity led by a staff member. Today, its a game of telephone, to show the importance of communication. An 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 differee 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 series of popup dinners and then, in 2015, opened cafe momentum. H the program has worked wre an 750 kids each, houser says, with their oique 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. Ias just, remember starin at the ceiling, just thinking, like, do you want to live like this for the rest of your life . And, nah. I was like, nah, man. To get it together. So when i got released, i made a promise to myself, like, you 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 2007, Southern Methodist university has hosted the summer program, where participants choose between creating art for an exhibit or performing indiront of an auce. Sasha davis is Creative Solutions theater director. Theyll come in oftentimes as a brick wall, not ready 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 and writed t all down, en 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. In my mind, theyre like o youre just here to get paycheck. And yeah, i dont care. But overime, im like, dang, like, they do care. I learned to open up, and then theyre like, here, just try this, do this dance movetry to write this, perform, and little by little, it, like, to help me open up. Yang zuniga who now works at big thought recently got his associat wants to be a nurse or a physical therapist. Th while ig thoughts sanders and cafe momentums houser are focusing on getting juvenile offeers back on track, they 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 furtherhat we as a, as a whole country are talking about these injustices that we are forcing on a population of children. I think about at every day. We had one of our alumni ask a really strong queson, which is actually guiding a lot of our work. Moving forward, he said, why atd i have to go to jail before i got something ould change my life . Thats the question uld all be asking ourselves. And then we need to act. Yang action that may start with a work of art, or a good meal. For the pbs newshour, im john yang in dallas. Woodruff now, Jeffrey Brown has a conversation with theou author ojuly 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. Largeristories unfold in a row. L of both comedy and sor the house of broken angels was our july balk club pick. Arthur luis urrea is here to answer some of our readers questions. Thanks for joining us. H tks for having me. Brown im going to go ght to our first question. It goes to the title and what you were after. The title fits sowell with the concept of this book. Did you have the title in mind before you began writing . Or did it fall into place afer finishing the book . Good question. I didnt know that it was a book honestly. Know, myr big bother died of hncer, and, you know, the family had givm a farewell birthday party, and my family attended. They had never seen anything like it. I talink my wife re had the idea that i should write a book about it. He had pased away very soon after this party. And oddly enrgh, jim harison, the great. Brown writer and pet. Had been a hero of mine for a long time. We had an opportunit to have mpper one night. He asked me, te about your brothers death. When i told him, he saitid, sos god hands you a novel. You better write it. I thought, between jim and my wife, i better do it. So thats where itme from. Brown okay. Eets go to our second question. It continues that 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 then a little is the brother who is somewhat estranged. For th purposes of the novel, if youre going to have a rupture that in some ways maybe represents the border, my immigration, immig, to have one brother who is from a different mom who happens to be american, who doesnt quite know how to penetrate that incredibln wellworld of the primary family. Brown but this is you, product of a mexican father and a white ameran mother, university professor. Thats me. Brown thats you. And author. So, yeah, i mean, it gave me a palette that i could paint that character wiecause i could understand everything i think that he felt or any doubts he may have had whereas i think in some of the other characters who may have been based on real life, i had to guess a little bit and hope for the best. Brown you were telling me before you started you had to go to your family, some of them, and say, okay, its based on yoon but heres what fics. Fiction is not the truth. Right. After my brother died, nt to tle family, threw a lit dinner and n san diego, and his widow, and i went, and we were all talking, and she just kept staring at me across the table like this. And i said, what . D, she sao you have something to tell me, luis . I said, nah. Whats there to tell . She said, you have something you need to tell me. I thought, oh my god. Brown word was out i had been outed by my niece. I said, okay, yeah, i have based this novel on what happened to us and what happened to you, but its fiction. Its fiction. Its a lie. I made it up,w,ou knom making things up, and im making 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. She saidi just want know, are you, you know, paying spects . 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. One of my favorite passages in this book is when big angel remembers his father saying to him, tis second jut became the past. As soon as you noticed it, it was already gone. Hhe concept of time comes up again and again ins book, and i was wondering if you could talk about that. Time. Brown love that question, because time is an essence of the book, also making fun 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, becae he was punctual. In fact, he was early to everything. So that bled over. And that line that big angels father has said to him was something my father said to me. Toe ticking clock in this is that we know hes going to edie. He knowsgoing to die, and in only has so much time to try to rectify anythat he may have done wrong or any problems in the family, which i think any f us who are parents, you know, who were once iour 20s ana no longer there, you know, we all think about these things as time passes, what cawe dhow can we negotiate our time. Rown okay. Next question. The house of broken angels has showed me that every moment of life is fresh. When you set out to write thisu book, did intend for this to be a central message . Yes, iid, actually. I intended that. You know, i may not have known it until i started crying. brorying to yourself while you were writing . There were a few passages thaty wife cindy had the type because i couldnt deal with them. I ju walked around crying saying them, an she typed them in for me. So the ralization i think of time passing and ev eryou love leaving some day, its been a lot of loss in our family, but that was that became a kind of an obsession to me. Brown you cant read this book now without thinking of the times were in, the situation at e border, you know, the conflict over immigration. You sprinkle ill resolutions in and out occasionally you sprinkle illusions in and outhe whatsule of fiction . If you are writing sort of social realism to pay atention to what is going on. But also, you know to,er unlize the story. And i cannot help but think if i ve you this family that maybe quite different fr your family, after a while youll realize theyre not that differen you know . Theres love. Theres regret. Theres life. Theres death. Theres sexuality. Theres religious faith. I the entire bo a parable i think for grace. Brown were going to continue this discussion online. For now, luis urrea, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Brown and bere we go, were going the try something did for august. Mny of us love nothing more than to turn to aloved older book for a summer rereading. So we decided to as one of todays top writers to selected a personal favorite, a become that continues to inspire and entertain her. Celeste ing is author of the bestselling novel little fires everywhere. Her pick for us to read the woman warrior, the acclaimed memoir by maxine hok kingston. Celeste will sit down witus next month. Join us on oura fcebook page for the now read this book club in partnership with the new york t woodruff with the new school year fast approaching, john yang is back to report on a controversial practice some districts use that puts children in the middle when schools go after money owed by their parents. Its part of our weekly education series, makg the grade. Yang every school day, millio of children across the county sit down to lunch in their cafeterias whether it includes a scoop of tar tots or a tray of fruits and vegetables. About 20 Million Students those whose Household Income i at or below 185 of the povertya line eligible for free or reducedprice meals, subsidized by the federal government. T en 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 the 201school year, some running as high as 865,000. Some schoo pressure students, in order to compel their parents to settle up, a pracce known as school lunch shaming. A federal report said that, in 2014, nearly half of all schl districts had policies that singled out students for Unpaid School lunch balances. In may, the warwick, rhodesc island publiol district announced on its Facebook Page that any student with an unpaid balance would be served a sun sandwich instead of the. Schools regular hot lun that sparked National Outrage anan outpouring of donatio 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 c. E. O. Of the chobani yogurt company. We need everywhere, everywhere around the country to eliminate this for all, forever. Yang and earlier this month, the Wyoming Valley west School District in northeastern pennsylvania sent letters to about 40 families telling them their children could be sent to foster care if they didnt pay up. Yang the Pennsylvania School heboard has apologized for tone of the letter and accepted a local businessmans donation to wipe out the 22,000 debt. The board president had inially rejected the offer saying it was the parents s sponsibility. Crystal fitzsimonsrector of school and outofschooltime programs at the food and Research Action center, an Advocacy Group that targets hunger and undernutrition. Crystal, thanks so much for joing us. Yanhanks for having me. Yang we heard a couple of reactionicfrom school dis in that piece. Give us some idea of the range ou policies that School Districts have the country to deal with School Lunch Debt . Right. There are a group of kids whool get free sceals. They get free breakfast and 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 fes. Kids who are eligible for reduced price can be charged 30 cnts for breakfast, 40 cents r lunch. The other kids are charged the majority of the cost of the meal. When families dont pay those school meal fee, the School District has to figure out how to come up with that money,ca e otherwise it is actually charged to the School Districts general account. Al it is a re issue for schools. Yang what do they do . What is the range of things that schools do to deal with tha debt . Well, i would say the vast majority of schools are not school lunch shming. There are schools that 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 soh when theld goes through the cafeteria line at the end of the line, beuse they have debt or they dont have cash to pay for the meal, they will take the lunch awh and throw it ine trash because the food cannot be reserved. In fact, the first time iever really heard about Unpaid School meal debt was when we had a grandparent who caed and her granddaughter had just started kindergarten in michigan. Th had taken her lunch away because the School District had not processed her School Meal 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 schoolsif family is falling behind in Unpaid School meal debt, its really important for schools to take a will be at whether or n the family is actually eligible for free school meals. Yang your goo the food and research center, frac, as you call it, is backi 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 ath scool introduced by representative omar and senator smith. And that would actuay this a number of things to improve the situation. First, it would make sure that there was no shaming or embarrassing activities happening in the school. And second, we think that all the communications around hool 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 all kis. And then for the kids who are eligible but somehow were missed in being certified for free meals, if the School District r has ach out and let families know that they can apply, and if the child becomes eligible, the bills wo provide retroactive reimbursement for school lunch and breakfast. Th that way schools would be made whole. The kids would no longer haveeb that and then kids who need school meals would actually be able to tap into them. Yang one thing the tegislation wont do, as i understand it, iont address alternative meals. The School Districts, if there isnt enough, they dont have enough money to pay for that lunch that day, give them anrn alive meal, not the regular hot meal. Why is that not in the legislation . Well, so because the federal govement doesnt payor all the meals served in school, which i think this whole issue l does shineght on the fact that that is a problem, that we do want kids to ben i classrooms healthy and well nourished and providing frealmeals to kids is a wonderful way the make sure that happens, but thern federal gont does not pay the cost ucedhe meals for the re price or the paid, so they cant tell schools that they have to provide a meal to those children. And so you know, ifhool district that is really struggling with dealt, i would say that itsly probetter to make sure that the child has some food, and i would al sn that there are ways to provide an alternative meal that are less embarrassing, you know, if the cheese sandwich or the su butter sandwich is part of the regular school lunch and any child can take it, then its not embarrassing for a child to hav it. But when its done in a way that is public that is humiliating, we really need to make sure thats not hapning in School Cafeterias across the country. Yang crystal fitzsimons of the food and resrch 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 new ways to cook a slice. Reporter the new york pizza slice as the world knows it has been around since the 1930s. Thats when frank mastro, an italian immigrant and salesman, invented the gas deck ov. This simple innovation turned f new york pizrom a laborious item that could only be made in bedroomsized coal ovens into the easybake, grabandgo food that you find on street corners worldwide. But, just as new yorkers rarely sistill, the pizza oven continues to evolve. Uptown at columbia university, a lab is crafting ways to improve nutrition byd printing pizza and cooking it with ser beams. Thats right, laser beams. Its very easfor 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. On reporter han blutinger is a grad student in hod lipsons Creative Machines Lab ere this tech was invented. So the printer has an arrayca of fooridges, where in each one of these cartridges, you can have a different material. So, dough, sauce and cheese, for example, as three different ingredn nts. And thenis cartridge, our machine can pick up one ingredient, extrude it onto a platform, thats moving around in a 2d way and then they can pick up another ingredient and doerhe same and follow this and over again. Nc reporter oe 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 precision. Thats good for printed food because the ingredients are packed close together, and their final pizza is millimeters thin. So the pizza youre going to see, yes, it is very small. It will naturally sc as we kind of improve the printing process, and we get more efficient with it. With the cooking pcess 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 oven. Much like mastros invention, 3dprinting could make pizza even more personal. The biggest value is the fact that you can customize nutritioo someone. A big space where this be a great value, is in hospital settings where people maybe have certain nutritional deficiencies and need to supplement that either with medicine or with a rtain vitamin additives. Reporter nashas invested in 3d printing pizza for deep space missions, but blutinger sees stellar prospects for this tech closer to the ground. He thinks ditizing food can help people stay healthy. Imagine printer and an app that learns your eating habits. It cou preparation of your meals and improve your diet. O in five years. We think this could be a clear possibility. The technologys there is just a matter of time and marketing itt in the r way for people. Reporter for the pbsi newshournsikan akpan noshing on some za. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Ein us online and again h tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. T major funding fhe 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. Io working with vries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Carnegie corprkation of new supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Oron and with thing 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 acss group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org youre watching pbs. I narrt you mighbe looking at the tastiest breakfast in the whole world. A meal at la cocina de dona esthela is an exe rience in purtisfaction. Burritos, machaca, pancakes, carnitas dona esthelas recipes became so popular that she had to turn her house into a restaurant to accommodate all hehungry customers. This is a must stop on the ou incredible baja food jrney. Dona esthela ooh, ooh in my kitchen, a baja inspired breakfast for my boys. We love breakfast so much here at hom hearty border pintos with bacon, planos and chorizo. We love breakfast so much here at hom sweet dulce de leche caramel and ricotta pancakes,