Transcripts For KQED PBS 20240703

Mccarthy faces a revolt from farright republicans after making a deal to avoid a government shutdown. Amna the United Nations Security Council votes to send armed forces to haiti to combat the violent gangs that have largely overrun the capital city. Geoff and, the Supreme Court begins a new term with major cases on the docket and growing concern over court ethics. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. And friends of the newshour. The william and flora hewitt foundation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and institutions to promote a better world. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Amna welcome to the newshour. Former President Donald Trump was in court today in new york for a civil fraud trial over his real estate dealings. Geoff the judge already ruled on one of the major arguments from prosecutors last week, saying trump and his executives fraudulently inflated the value of real estate holdings. The judge still has to weigh in on other claims in the suit. Before heading into the courtroom this morning, the former president accused prosecutors of interfering in the upcoming president ial election. Its a scam. Its a sham. This trial could have been brought years ago, but they waited until i was right in the middle of my campaign. Geoff joining us now is russ buettner, who has been covering the former president s business dealings for the new york times. Thank you for being with us. Russ thanks for having me. Geoff as we mentioned, a judge has already found donald trump and his codefendants liable for business fraud. This trial is aimed at determining the amount of damages. What is at stake, what are prosecutors seeking . Russ prosecutors are seeking a fine they estimate to be about 250 million. They are also seeking essentially to have a receiver, someone else put in charge of running his company. To make sure enough cash will be available on hand to pay whatever fine is ultimately determined last week, the judge granted the receivership, meaning someone else will be in charge. There will be a long process to prove these remaining six counts to see what sort of damages should be assessed in relation to all this. Geoff we should say donald trump did not have to show up to court today but he chose to, and the anger and frustration was fairly palpable. With the judge finding last week that donald trump and the other defendants have committed persistent and repeated fraud, a direct quote, when at this point is the Trump Defense . Russ so far, the defense in some way revisits the prior defenses theyve issued which have already been shot down by this judge and the appellate court. They are saying, one, reasonable minds can disagree when you are talking about property valuations. Two, that some of these were based on professionally done products that should result in something that has a real value attached to it. And also, that if i could check my notes quickly also that no one really relied on this. That is not a great defense. They are saying, yes, we assign values to these things and submitted them to banks and Insurance Companies to get more favorable rates, but they will do what they all do anyway so it does not really matter what we put on these documents. Geoff in essence, the team is saying this is a victimless crime, that no one was harmed by any of this. Russ thats right. And that these loans were actually repaid. The judge has made clear that is not a component of the particular law under which this case was brought. Whether or not the loans failed, whether or not the fraud resulted in damages to the other parties is not important. In this case, there is some element of that still because the banks and Insurance Companies gave mr. Trump much lower rates than they would have if he it would have submitted truthful documents. Geoff if the new York Attorney general gets what she wants in this civil case, what would it mean for the future of the Trump Organizations 250 million in damages . Russ that is the big question that is hanging. I dont want to say at least because that is what their estimate is, but they are still calculating how much money. It will all be appealed. This probably take more than a year to be resolved after this case is brought to a conclusion, i would expect. If the final judgment is in the neighborhood of 250 million and there is a receiver put in charge of this thing to figure out whether something has to be sold to do that, and at the end of the day, donald trump has a much diminished empire and has lost all of his licenses to conduct business in the city of new york, that is an existential threat to the Trump Organization and the familys enterprise. Really, more poorly, maybe to him more importantly, maybe to him, his personal identity, everything he has said about himself since he was a young man. That itself is not true either, but it is important for him to hang onto that and it is the argument he makes over and over again to his supporters in the political realm as to why he has the sort of expertise and experience to be president. Geoff we have been looking at courts catchings of the hearing today. The hearing is expected to last three months. There are some 200 names on the witness list. What are you watching for . Russ right now, starting today, the accountant who filled out all of Donald Trumps tax were returns for the last 20 years ago we obtained all of his tax returns going back 20 years ago, 500 returns filed for each entity and this accountant is named on every one of those. I just put on those returns the information i was given is what he will testify. They didnt tell me they had an appraisal saying it was worth something else. He will also help them sort of backstop whatever things the Trump Organization cites as a part of that. I think the big thing will be the gap between what the Trump Organization new to be true because they had an appraisal, or the property had a restriction on it, and what they told the bank to seek their loans. When they had an appraisal of 200 million, they would put the property was worth 600 million. There were times where properties they could not build on much but they created a value for the purpose of getting these loans and suggested they could put whatever they wanted on it. That is the gap where the fraud lies and where the damages will rest, when they try to compute what were the gains that came out of this. Geoff russ buettner, thank you for sharing your reporting with us this evening. Russ thanks for having me. Amna in the days other headlines, European Union leaders gathered in ukraines capital and insisted theyre still united over supporting ukraines war effort. The meeting in kyiv came a day after the u. S. Congress removed aid for ukraine from a bill to avert a government shutdown. But in washington, the white house said the consensus on ukraine is still strong. Theres a bipartisan support as we have seen from day one. And look, lets not forget what the purpose of this is for. This is for the continuation of the brave people of ukraine to fight for their freedom, fight for their democracy. Amna meantime, the Associated Press reported the pentagon has told congress that its already low on money to replace weapons for ukraine. Another worry came in slovakia, which borders ukraine to the west. Today, the slovak president asked the prorussian robert fico to form a government after winning sundays elections. He has two weeks to fashion a coalition. The last of some 100,000 people from nagornokarabakh crossed into armenia today. That ended a weeklong exodus after azerbaijan recaptured the region. Refugees have been waiting on streets in southern armenia for buses to bring their belongings. In all, more than 80 of nagornokarabakhs population has fled. This years nobel prize for medicine goes to two scientists whose discoveries paved the way for vaccines against covid19. The pair are american drew weissman and hungarianamerican katalin kariko, both of them professors at the university of pennsylvania. In philadelphia today, they recalled their pioneering work with genetic material, known as rna, to fight infections. We would sit together in 1997 and afterwards, and talk about all the things that we thought rna could do. All of the vaccines and therapeutics and gene therapies, and just realizing how important it had the potential to be and thats why we never gave up. We just kept perservering and kept working at it and here we are today. Amna that research led to covid vaccines based on messengerrna that targets proteins in a virus. The approach may eventually help to immunize people against some cancers. The cdc is moving to endorse a common antibiotic for preventing sexuallytransmitted diseases in gay and bisexual men. The proposal released today involves doxycycline. Recent studies show it can stop some stds from developing if taken within 72 hours of exposure. The guideline is subject to 45 days of Public Comment before it becomes final. On wall street, continued worries about Interest Rates mostly held stocks in check. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 74 points to close at 33,433. The nasdaq rose 88 points. But, the s p 500 barely budged. And, a chicago woman may now be the oldest skydiver ever at 104 years old. Dorothy hoffner made a jump from 13,500 feet on sunday, attached to an instructor. She called it wonderful and officials asked Guinness World records to certify her feat. Hoffman began jumping when she turned 100. Shell be 105 in december. Still to come on the newshour, Child Care Centers scramble to adapt after pandemicera assistance expires. A former Army Reservist exposed to toxic burn pits wins a precedentsetting lawsuit. A novel medical program focuses on keeping singers, dancers, and musicians healthy. Plus, much more. This is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. Amna the government is open today after House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy sidestepped the hardright flank of his party and pushed through a temporary spending bill with the help of democrats. But this week, he may need to broker another crossaisle bargain to keep his job. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins on capitol hill is here to help make sense of it all. It is good to see you. I will ask you to questions i have been asking a lot. Help us understand what just happened and what does it mean . Lisa even by the tornadic standards of this modern congress, this was a wild weekend. Lets explain how we got to this no shutdown result. First of all, as our viewers may remember, Kevin Mccarthy have the major choice to make. He had to choose between either a shutdown essentially or between working with democrats in order to avoid that. In the end, he did work with democrats in the past of the 45 day funding bill easily after republicans could agree on a solution themselves. That bill includes 16 billion in disaster relief, but no money for ukraine. Not at this point. That would have slowed things down too much. In the end, 90 House Republicans did vote against it. Those 90 were willing to have a shutdown, but in the end, across the country, relief from farmers whos loans can keep going and some that are using wic. In ohio, the northwest corner of ohio in williams county, they posted this today, a program called doughnuts and diapers. That is something to get more people enrolled in wic. It may not have been able to happen if there was a shutdown because there would not have been new enrollments. It was a wild weekend. Among the oddities was a member of congress, a democrat jamaal bowman, pulling a fire alarm. That will be under investigation. The ukraine money is something we will watch very closely. Congress has 45 days and ukraine says it may run out of money in that time. It is a heavy task to try to figure out from both sides of congress what to do. Could we be back here again in 45 days . Yes, very much so. Amna what about Speaker Mccarthy, this is still a precarious moment for him. Do we expect someone to oust him . Lisa Congress Matt gaetz says he will try to oust him this week. It could be as soon as tonight. If that fails, gaetz says he will try again and again. The motion to vacate is something we will talk about more in days ahead but Speaker Mccarthy is saying bring it on. Hes daring congressman gaetz to have enough tes. The question will be democrats. The margins are so close that if democrats want to, they could cause some problems on the house floor and have no speaker, or do they vote present and allow Speaker Mccarthy to keep his job. Amna thank you. Good to see you. Geoff lets dig deeper into the developments on capitol hill with our politics monday team, tamera keith of npr and Andrew Desiderio of punchbowl news. Amy walter is away. Another monday, and other torrent of news. It is great to have you both here. Andrew, as we heard lisa say, congressman matt gaetz is threatening to use this procedural tool called a motion to vacate to strip Kevin Mccarthy of his speakership, a speakership that took 50 ballots 15 ballots on the floor. Can he defend against this effort . Andrew he can but ironically, his fate lies with House Democrats and they know that and they might try to exact some concessions from him. We dont know what that will look like. Maybe not quite a powersharing ability agreement but the ability to do things the minority does not usually get to do. That is on the Kevin Mccarthy will have to weigh. Matt gaetz has said he will continue to do this every time mccarthy meets needs democrats to pass something. He will need democrats to pass ukraine funding, the defense bill, the farm bill, the ag bill, all that stuff later this year. The question is will the house be paralyzed by this sort of chaos for months to come when they have actual must pass work to do . Geoff what is the Decision Matrix for democrats as they determine whether to bailout Kevin Mccarthy . Andrew mentioned concessions. End the impeachment inquiry, we give you the votes . Tamera they could say that but i am not sure that is a deal Kevin Mccarthy would necessarily make. Hes a very weak speaker because of all the concessions he already made. He seems to be sort of at a point where hes like, all right, bring it. And i dont know how much more hes going to be willing to give up. So, for democrats, there is also this calculation of the devil you know and the devil you dont know. They know Kevin Mccarthy. They know in the end when pressed, he did actually choose to govern over choosing to shut the government down, choosing to take the far right position. So, that is something that weighs some what in his favor. It is not likthey like him. From the white house side of things, they do not want to touch this with a 10 foot pole. Geoff why not . Tamera this is one of those things that they are happy to be handsoff. Geoff there is this question of who is waiting in the wings . Congressman gaetz spoke to reporters today and he mentioned the House Majority leader steve scalise, who one imagines has other considerations given he has Health Issues. Is there another republican that could lead this super fractured conference . Andrew the short answer is no and that is part of the problem. There is no alternative. You press gaetz, it is someone who says publicly that they want mccarthy to stay in the position. There is no one picking up the mantle. That is why when you see democrats and the white house, you see their posture on this, i think a lot of them think if it is not Kevin Mccarthy, it could be someone worse in their eyes. As tam said, the devil you know versus the devil you dont know. They would be much more comfortable if mccarthy remained. Geoff lets keep our focus trained on the hill and talk about another story with California Governor Gavin Newsom choosing lafond butler, filling the seat of the late senator dianne feinstein. She will be the third black woman to ever serve in the senate, as well as the first openly lgbtq person to represent california. She says in a statement for women and girls, for workers and unions, for struggling parents waiting for our leaders to bring opportunity back to their homes, for all of california, im ready to serve. Andrew, there is nothing in the statement that suggests shes looking at this as being a caretaker. Andrew yeah, it sounds like she might run for your reelection for reelection in 2024. That will throw a major ranch in the ongoing primary in california. Youve got adam schiff, barbara lee, and katie porter running for that seat. They are all current House Democrats. Schiff is viewed as the front runner. The Congressional Black Caucus was pushing for barbara lee to be named as the repressive as the replacement. Whoever is the incumbent has the advantage, which means you have the Democratic Partys Campaign Apparatus behind you with everything you do. If senator designate butler decides to run for reelection, shes automatically the front runner and will likely have the support of the Senate Democratic campaign arm. Schiff, porter and lee are left wondering what the political future is. Geoff a couple minutes left, i want to talk about 2024 because President Biden gave an interview that published yesterday where he was asked about the democratic handwringing of President Bidens age. Here is how he responded. Im not the only democrat that can protect it. I just happen to be the democrat who i think is best positioned to see to it that the guy i was worried about taking on democracy is not president. Geoff the specific question was why are you the only democrat that can protect democracy next year . We can expect to hear more on this theme from President Biden . Tamera in terms of talk about defending democracy against donald trump, that will be one of the pillars of his campaign. The speech he gave last week is just the beginning of what will be a lot of that messaging. In terms of bidens point, that hes not the only democrat but the best democrat, back to the power of incumbency. Hes the incumbent president. He has all the power of incumbency. Additionally, he has consolidated the democratic establishment behind him, in part with the idea if there were to be a robust primary challenge, and there isnt one, but if there were to be, that would put the Democratic Party at a disadvantage heading into 2024. You just look back to history and the one term president who had robust primary challenges. Geoff what is the word on the hill about that . Andrew there is not as serious challenge to President Biden within the Democratic Party, but over the weekend, you saw congressman dean phillips, a congressman from minnesota, stepped down from his post in the House Democratic caucus because he has been openly skeptical about the idea of President Biden being the partys standardbearer in 2024. He has not suggested he would be the one to challenge him, but suggested that maybe democrats would be better off with someone else. If you open up this to a primary process and someone else emerges, that hurts the party as they try to take on geoff talk about the power of incumbency. Thanks so much. Amna today, the United Nations Security Council approved sending an International Police force led by kenya to haiti. The u. S. Drafted resolution was approved with abstentions from china and russia, and aims to combat rising Gang Violence in the caribbean nation. In haitis capital, desperation and anger as residents take to the streets as the city is held hostage by gangs. Controlling about 80 of the capital. According to u. N. Estimates, killing more than 2000 people since january. After the president was assassinated in july of 2021, haitis caretaker government led by the Prime Minister failed to keep peace leading him to request the same Foreign Police force approved today by the u. N. The new resolution authorizes a yearlong Foreign Police mission to provide Operational Support to haitis police. So far, kenyas government proposed to 1000 officers and the u. S. Pledged 100 million and logistical support, including transport and communications. Amna u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Linda thomasgreenfield has been a central figure in the push to send a peacekeeping Multinational Force to haiti and she joins me now. Welcome back to the newshour. Thank you for being here. Delighted to be with you. Amna this is a kenyan led force. The u. S. And brazil are the two largest nations in the americas that have previously sent forces to haiti in years past. Why arent either offering right now . Amb. Thomasgreenfield this was an initiative that was taken by the haitian government with the support of the secretarygeneral asking for this Multinational Mission to step in and help haiti deal with the Gang Violence. The u. S. Has been a strong supporter of this. Kenya stepped up to the plate and offered to be of assistance, and we are backing them with over 100 million in assistance, as well as additional logistical support. We think that kenya as an african country doing this sends a very strong message to the world that kenya is playing on the international stage. That kenya, an african country, has taken the lead in supporting this effort. Amna we know these International Forces are meant to support and empower the haitian police. An awardwinning journalist with the haitian times told us the police force itself is compromised. Heres what he said. About 40 of the force are either sympathizers with the gangs or members. If we attempt eradicating the gang strongholds, they have been met with failure because the gangs know what is going on. Amna we know those Police Forces are severely outgunned. How can this kenyan led force combat that . Amb. Thomasgreenfield they are going to work with the Haitian National police. He said 20 , but we got 80 of the police who are committed to addressing this issue. Amna i apologize, he actually said 40 . I just wanted to make sure we got that right. Amb. Thomasgreenfield even with that, 60 are committed to working with the force and that 60 will get the support and the backing of the canyons, as kenyans, as well as other forces that were will participate to work with the capacity and communities to address this issue of violence. I think the vast majority of haitians have been clear that they want security, they want stability. They want the ability to be able to carry out their day to day lives without the threat of these gangs. This will be an opportunity to do that. Amna there have already been some who raised concerns about accusations of abuse by kenyan forces elsewhere. Previous International Interventions in haiti have led to a cholera outbreak and horrific sexual abuse by the peacekeepers. Whos in charge of moderating that and making sure the haitian people are not victimized again . Amb. Thomasgreenfield this resolution has very Strong Language on vetting, accountability, and monitoring what will be happening on the ground. The kenyans have participated in International Peacekeeping forces before. They come with a lot of experience, but they also know that we will takehe vetting responsibilities very seriously and that the monitoring and accountability will be seriously looked at, as we work to put this force on the ground. We have learned from the mistakes of the past and this is an opportunity to address a strong call from the haitian people this time around for the International Communitys support. Amna i have to ask, we know these gangs on the ground are heavily armed. What are the rules of engagement for these peacekeeping troops . Can they use lethal force on the ground . Amb. Thomasgreenfield the kenyans, after they did their assessment on the ground, they realized that a static force would not be engaged. The secretarygeneral asked for a robust force. So, the rules of engagement will be developed as the mission gets prepared to get on the ground, but the force will be robust. They will be backing the Haitian National police as the Police Worked to engage these gangs. I think the story here is that the International Community has responded and they are ready to bring peace and the ability to the people of haiti. Amna linda thomasgreenfield, thank you so much for joining us. Amb. Thomasgreenfield thank you. Geoff a new term for the u. S. Supreme court kicks off this week. On the docket are consequential cases that could determine the future of key issues like gun ownership and redistricting. Looming large over this term are also calls for greater ethics guidelines for the justices. Our Supreme Court analyst marcia coyle joins us to preview all thats to come. It is always great to see you. Marcia good to see you. Geoff this new term, only a few cases are scheduled so far. What are the big ones you are watching . Marcia i think this could be a huge term for social media. The owners of social media platforms, as well as the users. I am watching four cases under that broad heading. Two involve loss from florida and texas that put restrictions on how social Media Companies can manage their content. Those seem to arise from suspicions that social Media Companies are censoring conservative comments. The two other cases under that umbrella, it involves Public Officials who use their personal social media accounts to communicate with their constituents. Can they lock their critics block their critics and not violate the First Amendment . It is social media and First Amendment. Besides that, guns are back. There is a provision in our federal crimes code that prohibits firearm ownership by anyone who is under a Domestic Violence prevention protection order. A lower federal court struck that provision down, said it violated the Second Amendment because it could not pass the test that the Supreme Courts 63 conservative majority implemented two terms ago. That has caused a lot of frustration among judges because it is based on history. They are not historians. They dont feel like they have the tools whether these restrictions played 100, 200 years ago. Also, i am looking at Voting Rights challenge. I think we will see a lot of these coming to the court. This one is from South Carolina. A three judge panel said the South Carolina legislature created a racial gerrymander when it moved roughly 30,000 black voters out of the district into another district. South carolina says, no, race was not the motive. We were trying to shore up a solid republican district. And finally, a longterm goal of conservative businesses and legal organizations has been to rein what they call the regulatory state or the administrative state. Federal agencies that regulate and enforce federal laws. There are three cases, tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in one of the three. It involves the Consumer Financial protection bureau, which has been under legal attack since its inception. This time, the payday lender industry has brought a challenge, claiming that the bureaus unique funding mechanism violates the appropriations clause of the constitution. Those are the four i am keeping an eye on. Geoff hanging over this term are a host of ethical questions. Justice elena kagan was speaking last week and had this to say about that. What we could do is just adapt the code of conduct that the other Court Systems have in order to reflect those slight or certain differences. I think it would be a good thing for the court to do that. It would help in our own compliance with the rules. And it would, i think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct. Geoff Justice Kagan is making clear where she stands on this issue. Just today, Justice Clarence thomas accused himself from a case involving the january 6 attack. Why . Do we know yet whether the court has adopted for itself a code of ethics . Marcia i think if they had, we would definitely know about it. I think there wont be until there is a unanimous agreement on the court about what a code of ethics would entail for the Supreme Court. Justice thomas recusal was without comment, we dont know why. It involved john eastman, a former clerk of his. It could be because of that relationship. It also because his wife was very much involved in try to undo the results of the president ial election. I will note that two justices have started to explain why they recused from cases and that is a huge step for the court. Justices kagan and jackson today. Kagan recused from a case because of her prior governmental service. She was really solicitor general. Jackson recused, stating it was because of her prior judicial service. So, i think that was a big step, but its only two of nine so we will have to wait and see what they do. Adopting an ethics code for the Supreme Court, Justice Kagan made it sound quite easy. It took a long time for the lower federal courts to adopt their own code of ethics, but still, i think shes absolutely right about what impact it could have on the courts image and support within the American Public if they got it done. Geoff Supreme Court analyst marcia coyle, always a pleasure. Marcia take care. Amna some key funding for Child Care Centers dating back to the pandemic ended on saturday. Stephanie sy looks at what this could mean for child care and families. Stephanie more than 220,000 Child Care Centers in the u. S. Received these grants to help pay the bills and raise wages for staff during the pandemic. The temporary aid amounted to 24 billion. With the loss of funding, one progressive think tank projects that as many as 70,000 facilities could be forced to close in the long run, affecting more than 3. 2 million children. In the nearterm, parents may see higher Childcare Costs and fewer classrooms. To help us understand the ramifications, im joined by julie kashen, senior fellow and director for womens Economic Justice at the Century Foundation, which published that estimate. Thank you for joining the newshour. You put out that survey in june that estimated that tens of thousands of these facilities might close. Which operations are the most vulnerable to closure . Julie the childcare programs that are in states that have put additional funding in are definitely at risk. Family child care homes, these are homebased childcare that do , generally serve fewer kids but more conveniently in the communities, those are programs that are often more at risk because what childcare providers who run those end up doing is their first option is to stop paying themselves a salary, to go into personal debt. Not great options. So, they are likely to be more at risk than other programs. Although, the reality is childcare providers do this work because they love children, because they want to serve parents in their community. Most of them will do everything they can to keep their doors open. As you said, they will first raise the rates. They will then serve fewer kids. And then, closures will be a last resort. This may take some time. Weve already gone over the cliff. The deadline has passed, but the impacts of that will be felt over a long period of time for months to come. Stephanie apparently, some of the impacts are being felt. The Labor Department reported recently that the average National Price of daycare and preschool Services Rose 6 in july from a year earlier. How much of that would you attribute to daycares preparing for the loss in these federal grants . Anne howell parents manage . And how will parents manage . Julie childcare providers are accounting for that by raising prices. Any parent who has paid for child care knows it is expensive. Childcare can cost 10,000, 20,000 a year depending on the age of your child and what community you live in, what type of childcare you choose. It is already really expensive. Parents are already paying at the top of their budget for child care so these price increases are really going to be problematic. Stephanie i am curious how you see these rising costs affecting working parents, especially working mothers. Whether we will see, for example, impacts on the labor force. Women having two stayathome because they cannot afford the rising costs of childcare. Julie we do expect parents will be impacted and the majority of the impact will be on moms. That means they will have to shift their hours around, cut their hours, or ultimately have to leave the workforce. And that has impact on their families, on their own future earnings, and on whole communities. The Century Foundation report found about 9 billion a year could be lost in parents earnings as a result of the tough choices they will have to make. Stephanie some are saying that the notion this is a Childcare Cliff is somewhat hyperbole because as you point out, a lot of states have put solutions in place to address the loss of this federal assistance. Can you give us a sense of how many states have that plan and how many states have done nothing . Julie about 15 states have put in dollars that will really make a difference in terms of the stabilization. None of it is enough to kind of really stabilize the sector the same way, but it will help in those states in a significant way. And a lot of states havent also. We have already seen in wisconsin, 42 providers have shut down and others have raised the rate. We will see it really depends on the state. One of the things to know is the sector was precarious before anyone ever heard of covid19. This is an area that treasury secretary janet yellen has called a broken market, a textbook example of a broken market. It does not work. Parents are asked to pay at the top of their budget. Providers are having to pay early educators Poverty Level wages because theres not enough money. We dont ask parents to pay the full freight for a fourth grade class, but we asked them to do that for infants and toddlers. This stabilization money showed what it would look like if we parted with governments and families to make it work. Stephanie julie kashen, thank you for joining the newshour with your insights. Julie thank you. Geoff our thanks to stephanie sy. A jury has ruled in favor of an army veteran who sued the state of texas over workplace accomodations. As William Brangham reports, the verdict is being seen as a major victory for veterans who have long pushed to raise awareness over their exposure to toxic chemicals. William texas state trooper leroy torres was also an Army Reservist when he was called to active duty in 2007 and deployed to iraq. While there, torres says he was constantly exposed to the smoke from what are called burn pits, where the army burns its trash in open fires. Following that exposure, he was diagnosed with a severe lung disease, and once back home in texas, had to live with a steady supply of concentrated oxygen. Its a mental battle. But here lately, its been the best thing that i can do to help me. William torres asked for an accomodation at his old job, to take a different position within the Texas Department of public safety, but torres says they told him to resign instead. So he tried to sue the state, but texas argued it couldnt be sued because of whats known as sovereign immunity. Torres challenged that position all the way up to the u. S. Supreme court, where he prevailed, granting him permission to sue texas. Torres suit, which just finished last week, was decided in his favor. The jury awarded him a financial settlement to cover lost wages, benefits, and retirement. For more on this landmark case, we turn to leroys wife, rosie torres. Together, they created the organization burn pits 360, which advocates on behalf of veterans exposed to toxic environments. So good to have you on the program again. I wonder this remarkable legal victory that you have just achieved, how is that sitting with the two of you on this side of that victory . Rosie it feels surreal. It has been such a long journey of heartache and injustice that its still making its way to settle in our minds, and primarily in our hearts because we have suffered along with so many other families the injustice of life after war. Just all the battles we have faced. William when you and your husband spoke with my colleagues a year ago in texas, you both shared some very difficult times that your husband had been through emotionally. I wonder how is he doing now, how is everything with him . Rosie it is very emotional. We have shared very publicly about the night that he had a suicide attempt. To me as his wife, what i saw was a man who had served his nation and his state honorably, and he was stripped of his integrity and dignity and his childhood dream from the state. So, to see him now with a sense of peace and the mending of his heart is heart wrenching, but i am so grateful to god for what he has given leroy. As his wife, his friend, his advocate, i am so honored to be standing by him. William that is fantastic to hear. I know that originally, the whole genesis of this case was his desire to get a different job with the force back in texas. I understand that was not part of the legal settlement of this most recent regulars in recent resolution. Is there anything else you still want from the force . Rosie i have to say that most Police Officers who serve in a capacity of law enforcement, that usually when they retire, they are able to sit in their patrol car one last time and properly sign off. And i would love to see them honor leroy in this way, where they would allow him to sit in his patrol car one last time. He went to war and served his nation and thats all he did. If they would just give him that, it would be amazing because it would be closure. William do you have any sense as to whether that might happen or not . Rosie i dont. I have no idea. You know, it is the right thing to do, but have they done the right thing all along . No. It is what he deserved. He went to serve his nation and came back to this, so it should have never happened. William regarding this other ongoing struggle you have with the department of veterans affairs, passage of what was called the pact act was supposed to clear the way and smooth a lot of veterans getting disability benefits through the v. A. I understand there is still an issue with the v. A. Recognizing the very particular illness that leroy has. Can you tell us what the issue is with that . Where does that stand . Rosie the issue with the illness is the v. A. Has not established a code to properly compensate veterans on that disease. There is not a process in place to also properly screen the function of the lung. That results in veterans like leroy being not only sometimes misdiagnosed, but not compensated properly for the damage that has been done to their lungs. William so it seems like you have this one tremendous legal victory, and yet, the ongoing struggle does not seem to end. Rosie thats correct. Two decades ago, dr. Miller presented the issue of constrictive bronchiolitis, which is over 90 of people selfreport they are suffering from the issue of not being able to breathe. The fact we are still one year postpact act and still having these conversations with leadership is a huge issue. People are still dying and they are still sick, so it is unfortunate. William rosie torres, wife of leroy torres and cofounder of burn pits 360, thanks for being here. Rosie thank you. Amna its an unusual partnership, a worldclass hospital and worldclass performing arts organizations. A model in the growing field that brings together health and the arts. Jeffrey brown reports from houston for our ongoing series, canvas. We will get a look at your throat and vocal cords. Jeffrey were up close and personal with 25yearold opera singer Emily Treigle and her vocal cords. This is her instrument, requiring Constant Care and attention. [singing] and its not like, you know, im playing the trumpet or piano. Like if something goes wrong, you can see it. You know, its all in here. So, you need the professional to be able to go in and make sure that everythings going well. Jeffrey in july, after multiple tonsil infections, treigle, a mezzo soprano, had a tonsillectomy. All went well, and this day, she was getting a checkup ahead of the houston grand operas new season. For someone in your position, whats the thing you have to deal with or worry about most with your voice . The short answer is everything. The long answer is its incredibly challenging to be in a career that there are so many variables attached to. And so, our task as singers is to have such a good, solid Technical Foundation that we can defy whatever odds are thrown at us and just continue to be able to produce a really beautiful sound and do a really great performance regardless of whats going on in the world around us and in our own bodies. When its something thats outside of our control, our technical realm, thats when we end up back here and say, you know, somethings not working. Can we do a checkup and make sure that everything is where its supposed to be . We really encourage our singers as, again, as vocal athletes. Jeffrey working with treigle, dr. Yin yiu, a laryngologist at the Texas Voice Center at the houston methodist hospital. As she puts it, shes the t in the ent. She doesnt sing herself, though some of her colleagues do, but she loves the challenge of caring for singers. We think about athletes, right . And they have like this whole team of people that take care of them. And we dont really think about performers. So, singers, actors, people who do like, use their voice in that capacity, we dont think about them in that same way. But, they can also have injuries, right . So, they can be performing and have Different Things happening. The vocal cords can get swollen. They can have vocal cord hemorrhage or bleed whenever theyre singing. These are all things that can happen and we get to be that team for them. Jeffrey the Texas Voice Center is part of the hospitals highlyunusual program, the center for performing arts medicine. Founded by dr. Richard stasney in 1992, it all began with a focus on singers, but then something unexpected happened. Todd frazier has led the center since 2012. We started to get preachers, newscasters, classroom teachers, anyone that would associate their voice to what they do professionally. And thats when the hospital realized that, yes, there really is Something Special and unique here, and thats unique to houston as well. Jeffrey the center then grew to support performing artists of all kinds from houstons thriving Arts Community, as well as from all over the country. Crucially, it also developed official relationships with several of houstons leading Performance Art groups. There are a lot of unique Health Issues that show up in the Arts Community that deserve a home and deserve a place to be cared for. Jeffrey are you surprised that this is a thing now between the hospital and arts organizations . Im not surprised that its successful because i am from the Arts Community and i really knew that the artists were yearning for a home and a sympathetic place that they would be understood. But, i have to be surprised that, you know, a Major Hospital would sort of take this on in a way thats sort of unprecedented. They felt it fit with their values to be supporting the arts and culture within the community of houston, which all the hospitals are in houston. And the physicians really enjoyed being able to help these talented people making their lives and homes here in houston. Jeffrey one major partner, the houston ballet, which now has an onsite clinic, giving dancers like Kellen Hornbuckle daily access to athletic trainers and physical therapists. The types of injuries that ballet dancers get are very unique. Its a very unique population. And while they are performing artists, they are incredible athletes. Jeffrey kevin varner is the chairman of orthopedic surgery at houston methodist orthopedic sports medicine. Its interesting to look at and how things evolved over the last 15 or 20 years in terms of dancer health. And remember, its a big team approach, right . So, you really need a system, a hospital that wants to be a partner because you need not just orthopedic surgery, you need nutrition, you need cardiology. And when you do these screening physicals, you need primary care, sports medicine. So, people that take care of the dancer as a whole. And i think when you do that, it really does improve dancer health. Jeffrey in this session, hornbuckle received dry needling, cupping, massaging, and other treatments to alleviate pain in her legs and prevent serious injury. The big idea, according to houston ballet executive director james nelson, change from reactive to proactive care. When i was dancing, we never had any onsite care. It was always, wait until youre broken, then go to the doctor, then get it fixed. At the end of the day, its a very short career. And so, to be able to give an artist a year, two years, five years more of th precious time is such a gift. And i attribute a lot of that to to this partnership with methodist. Jeffrey back at the hospital, frazier sees this kind of focus on the performing arts only growing in the future. Many universities are starting arts and health certificates, Music Therapy degrees. And even medical schools are looking at internships in Artists Health or how artists might be cared for to develop those skills. And it is growing. Jeffrey meanwhile, singer Emily Treigle is ready to go. Meanwhile, singer Emily Treigle will perform in the verdi opera falstaff at the houston grand opera in october. Ok, your throat looks great. I mean, i saw it. Thank you so much. Jeffrey i mean, as far as i can tell. So, yeah, im very excited about this coming season and seeing how how things change now that i dont have this obstacle. Jeffrey treigle performs with the houston grand opera later this month in the verdi opera falstaff. For the pbs newshour, im Jeffrey Brown in houston, texas. Geoff and thats the newshour for tonight. Im geoff bennett. Amna and im amna nawaz. 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