Tensions were evident everywhere today from an american officer in kabul yelling at troops who had mistakenly shot to death two civilians to wardeck province where the afghans had ordered all special u. S. Forces to leave by yesterday. There an afghan policeman gunned down two american soldiers and two other Police Officers before being killed himself. All of this, as newly confirmed secretary of defense chuck hagel concluded his first trip to afghanistan. The visit was difficult from the start, a suicide bombing outside the Afghan Defense ministry on saturday as he met with nato commanders nearby. I wasnt sure what it was. I was in a briefing. But were in a war zone. Ive been in war. You know, shouldnt be surprised when a bomb goes off. Woodruff then on sunday a verbal broadside from afghan President Hamid karzai charging the u. S. Had a role in the attack. The bombs which exploded yesterday were not taliban strength to america. It was at the service of america. At the service of america. They are trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners were not in afghanistan we would be facing these sorts of incidents. Woodruff all outside combat forces are to leave afghanistan at the end of 2014. But karzai claimed that, in fact, the u. S. Is hunting for an excuse to stay longer. Hagel met later with the afghan leader and rejected accusations of fomenting violence or of dealing with the taliban behind his back. I told the president it was not true, that the United States was unilaterally working with the taliban in trying to negotiate anything. The fact is any prospect for peace or political settlements, that has to be led by the afghans. Woodruff further complicating matters is bagram prison which was to be turned over to afghan control on saturday. U. S. Authorities delayed the transfer again, citing problems with the transfer agreement. President karzai has made regaining control of the prison a key issue as he seeks to assert greater afghan authority. For more on this im joined by for more on this, im joined by ambassador james dobbins, a career diplomat serving in a number of conflict zones, including afghanistan. Hes now the director of rands International Security and defense policy center. And said jawad, afghanistans ambassador to washington from 2003 to 2010. Before that, he was president karzais chief of staff. He is now president of the Non Profit Foundation for afghanistan. Gentlemen, we welcome you both to the newshour again. Said jawad, let me begin with you. Why is president karzai making these charges . President karzai is facing a transition, a political transition in afghanistan. He would like to remain relevant for the process of the transition. Many of the things that he has said publicly are not new to the americans he privately said these things. The issue of the prison, for instance, he has promised certain afghan constituency that as soon as the inmates are transferred to the afghans he will release them. This is something that the u. S. Officials are concerned about. Woodruff but when you say hes trying to remain relevant, hes worried that hes not going to be relevant . Well, his term is ending soon. They have an election scheduled for april of next year. He feels that he will be a lame duck president. Therefore, also his calculations personally are that the United States has larger plans and would like to stay in afghanistan and the region. He would like to be seen as the man who is pushing america out or defending the afghan interests. Woodruff ambassador james dobbins, this idea that the u. S. Would be wanting to stay longer in afghanistan, is there any truth to that . There is some truth but i think karzai exaggerates the degree to which the United States is committed and wants to stay in afghanistan. I mean clearly if we had no role in afghanistan, we would have no way of coping with al qaeda either in pakistan or afghanistan. All of the attacks on al qaeda in pakistan a today are conducted from afghanistan. So we have an interest in retaining some role. We see a very modest, small role for the United States. Karzai, i think, has an exaggerated sense of how important this is and how large a role we have. But theres a kernel of truth there. Woodruff and how do you see what hes doing . Why do you believe hes making these. There are two very significant transitions coming up more or less in parallel. One is the fact that the u. S. Is drawing down from a major role to a very minor role and our influence will diminish as the result. The second is afghanistan is going through or toward what may be the first peaceful transition of power in its entire national history. This is unprecedented. Afghans have never experienced a peaceful transition from one leader to another. And karzai as the ambassador indicated wants to play a role, wants to remain relevant, probably wants to have a role in picking his successor. And hes positioning himself to continue to be influential in the country even when his term is over. Woodruff how do you see this question of whether theres any truth to what he thinks because some of it sounds far fetched to people who are trying to understand whats going on. Well, the question is does president karzai believe in this or does he pretend . Unfortunately there are large audiences for conspiracy theories in all parts of the world. So sometimes when the truths are twisted a little bit or presented to the people in a dramatized way, people do believe in this. As i mentioned, the biggest problem for president karzai is the personal transition of his role in 2014. So many of the things that he says has been agreed upon. For instance when he asked for the transition of certain provinces or the transition of the inmates its just the way hes saying it that is causing a lot of trouble for him and for afghanistan. Woodruff what about the timing of it . Doing it while chuck hagel is making his first trip to afghanistan as secretary of defense . I dont know how much significance to attach to that. I dont think there are any bad vibrations between the two. Hes met hagel before. He visited afghanistan as a senator. But i dont think hagel has said or done anything that would create an antagonism so it may be that this was largely coincidental. A couple of things came together. Maybe the hagel visit was an opportunity to make some statements. Woodruff hagel. Secretary hagel seemed to shrug it off in many words. How do you think Something Like this affects the relationship . I think its a serious irritant, but i think well see more of it. As i said, we are ratcheting down. Hes facing historic transition. The country is is facing an historic transition. And they are entering an electoral period. Under those conditions domestic opinion, their domestic opinion is going to be whatnot only karzai but most afghan politicians are looking toward where our role is diminishing and therefore concerns about our sensitivities are also diminishing. Woodruff do you see this continuing too . Yes. Hagel was blunt and direct on his talk with president karzai at the meeting. Woodruff in the private talks. And a meeting was a very tense meeting. But i think when he came out, he was graceful and cautious. One could understand because of the sensitivity of the transition i think the United States is more interested in the process of the transition and would like to see this process to be good through or be completed. They would like to get some space to president karzai and understand that he has a domestic audience to cater to. I think this is a wise approach, but at the same time we as afghans, we appreciate what the United States is doing. We understand that some of these statements it makes it even more difficult to sustain support for the mission in afghanistan. We hope that the relation of the two nations will be stronger than the political position of certain leaders because of the political situations of afghanistan that may make some statements that are not necessarily representative of the feeling of the Afghan People. Woodruff do you believe whats happened today and this kind of statement coming from president karzai represents a serious problem for the relationship Going Forward or something that the u. S. Can just deal with, shrug off and move on . The Afghan People is spoken through their national and local counsel that they do want longterm relations with the United States. I think the United States is making a distinction between the relations of the two nations and the statements of the leader. I think these statements do affect the sentiment of the u. S. Congress which is key to continue to maintain the support for afghanistan. But those were deeply involved in afghan issues, they will have more tolerance. They will be more composed and patient. What should americans look for in the months to come . Every reason to believe the troop timetable, withdraw timetable will stick as it is. I think it is. I mean were cutting the troops in half this year. Well probably take another 80 of them out next year. Well leave a relatively small number. Theyre talking about maybe 8,000, 9,000 american troops left after 2014. And those numbers will probably come down in 2016. Woodruff in the meantime between now and then, we can expect more of what we saw today in the last few days. I think well see fewer casualties. There were casualties today as we know but the numbers have been coming down both because we have less troops but also because were in longer in the lead in combat operations. Were playing a supportive role. Its the afghans dying and getting killed in greater numbers than our troops now. So were going to see that continue. I think we will continue to see political tensions and flareups of the kind we saw over the weekend. Theres a lot of transitional issues that still need to be worked out. Frankly, we are hopeful that there can be a negotiated peace with the taliban. We see the importance of that being led by the afghans and karzai is very frustrated while the taliban are willing to talk to us, theyre not willing to talk to him or his government. Thats a source of deep frustration that the future of afghanistan might be hammered out between parties that dont include the government and kabul. Now, i dont think the u. S. Administration intends to do that. But the taliban would like to exacerbate tensions between us and karzai and feed his suspicions that there are secret deals being done that hes not party to. Woodruff well, its a story that we must continue to watch. We will. Ambassador james dobbins, ambassador said jawad, we thank you both. Thank you. Ifill still to come on the ifill still to come on the newshour, kenyas clouded president ial election; life, death, and inheritance online; and a japanese town two years after the tsunami. But first, with the other news of the day, heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan the vatican made ready today for the conclave of cardinals that will elect the next pope. It begins tomorrow. We have a report from Jonathan Rugman of independent television news. Reporter this morning, the princes of the Catholic Church gathered for the last time before their most important task, voting in the 266th pope. Anglo skola the archbishop of mill and is the most talked about for the role. Though the Italian Press claims his main rival from soo paul owe in brazil. This is a race between the old world and the new. Skolas italy traditionally dominates the papacy but the one from brazil is now the biggest catholic country in the world. The cardinals will vote beneath michelangelos frescoes. Gas upwards and there will be no shortage of inspiration. The voters are sleeping in the same Vatican Hotel where all forms of media along with telephones are banned until the new head of the worlds Biggest Church is revealed. The last six popes he appeared on this famous balcony. This week should be no exception. When one vatican watcher was asked to describe ma the cardinals are looking for in a pope, this is how he summed it. Theyre looking for jesus christ, he said, but with a degree in business studies. I think theyre looking for three things in the next pope. A great evangelizers. Somebody who can make the message credible particularly in the west. Theyre looking for somebody with a global vision, somebody who will speak to the global picture of the church now. And theyre looking also for a governor, somebody who can get a grip on some of the scandals, some of the dysfunctions that have come out in recent months from the vatican. Its an almost impossible combination. Reporter the chimney has been installed atop the sistine chapel. Hundreds of cameras are already practicing, lining up their lenses on it for news. And inside, the stones where the ball locality papers of 115 cardinals will be burned after voting up to four times a day. Only white smoke through the chimney signifies a new pontiff. Sreenivasan the new pontiff will succeed benedict vxi, who resigned last month, the first pope in 600 years to do so. New york citys move to cut sugary drinks down to size will not take Effect Tomorrow after all. A state judge today rejected the regulation, saying the loopholes in it defeat the purpose. The measure limits highcalorie sodas and other drinks to no more than 16 ounces, unless theyre sold at supermarkets and convenience stores. City officials said they will appeal the judges decision. Former detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted today on 24 counts of racketeering and other federal corruption charges. Witnesses in the fivemonth trial said kilpatrick steered city contracts toward a friend for a share of the spoils. He also used political donations and a Nonprofit Fund for personal spending. Kilpatrick could get 20 years in prison. He already served 14 months in an unrelated obstruction of justice case. One of six men accused in the gang rape and murder of a new delhi woman died in prison today. Police said ram singh hanged himself in a jail cell that he shared with three other inmates. But singhs lawyer vehemently denied that he would have killed himself. This is not suicide. There has been foul play one way or the other because this boy was not someone who would commit suicide. Everything was going in his favor. He was getting a fair trial. Family members were coming to meet him. His children were visiting him. He was happy. Whenever we met him he was always in a happy mood. Sreenivasan the case has gained worldwide attention, and sparked protests across india. Four other men are still on trial and could face the death penalty. An additional suspect is being tried separately, as a juvenile. An Islamist Group in nigeria posted an online video today, apparently showing the bodies of seven foreign hostages. The victims were from lebanon, britain, italy, and greece. Gunmen from the ansaru Extremist Group abducted them last month from a construction site in the northern part of the country. The kidnappers said the captives were killed to prevent a possible british rescue mission. State media say north korea has made good on a vow to cancel the 60year armistice that ended the korean war. The announcement today followed last weeks u. N. Security council vote to impose new sanctions on the north, over its latest nuclear test. North korea also shut down a red cross hotline with south korea. It is used to facilitate aid shipments and reunions of separated families. Japan today marked the second anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 people. The most powerful quake ever recorded in japan launched mountainous waves that devastated the northeastern coast and sent radiation spewing from a damaged nuclear plant. More than 300,000 people had to flee, half of them from the radiation zone. Today hundreds sued for compensation. In tokyo, Prime Minister shinzo abe pledged to speed up the recovery and the cleanup. Reconstruction is a battle against time. I would like to reprioritize the recovery to one where the people on the ground can actually feel the recovery rather than following what is considered standard operating procedure. Sreenivasan following the disaster, japans 50 Nuclear Reactors were shut down for inspections and testing. Only two have restarted. Well have more on japan after the tsunami, later in the program. Wall street managed modest gains today. The Dow Jones Industrial average added 50 points to close at 14,447. The nasdaq rose eight points to close near 3253. And the lundberg survey reported gas prices have fallen six cents in the last two weeks, the first drop since late december. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to gwen. Ifill and we turn to the east african nation of kenya, a longtime u. S. Ally, where a candidate accused of crimes against humanity is now preparing to lead the country. Supporters cheered as ken i cants president elect Uhuru Kenyatta arrived at nairobis Election Center over the weekend. A delayed final tally made it official. Kenyatta won a razorthin victory over Prime Minister raila odinga, enough to diffuse the widespread fear of post election violence. We dutifully send out. We voted in peace. We upheld order. And respect for the rule of law. We maintained the fabric of our society. Ifill kenyatta is kenyas richest man and the son of the young nations first president. But his election comes under a cloud. In 2011 he was indicted by the International Criminal court in the hague on charges that he helped orchestrate a post election blood bath in 2007. The violence between rival tribal groups left more than 1,000 people dead. Kenyatta and his running mate william faced trial in july and odinga has promised to challenge the election results. These elections have serious weaknesses within our election system. Weaknesses which we thought we had dealt with in the past. Ifill odingas lieutenant said today the Election Commission is now hindering efforts to file an appeal. But they still asked for calm. Our petition is not intended to detract from the normal activities of a country. To the contrary it is intended to create a precedent as to how elections ought to be done or ought not to be done. Ifill kenya has been a key u. S. Ally against terrorism in east africa. Assistant secretary state of Johnny Carson warned in advance of the voting that choices have consequences. Western nations have been muted in their response to kenyattas win. Secretary of state john kerry congratulated the people of kenya for voting peacefully. But he did not mention the victor by name. In washington today, state Department Spokeswoman victoria newland played down that omission. I wouldnt read too much into the statement, but clearly the post electoral process continues through the courts and thats appropriate. Ifill meanwhile prosecutors at the International Criminal court dropped all charges today against one of kenyattas codefendants, francis muthar a top kenyan civil servant. The case against kenyatta will move forward according to court officials. Joining me to talk about the local and the global fallout from the joining me now to talk about the local and global fallout from the kenyan election is jendayi frazer, a former u. S. Assistant secretary of state for african affairs. Shes now a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. Ifill first off, why is the outcome of the president ial election in kenya important in the u. S. . Well, kenya is a Strategic Partner to the United States as was stated earlier, it is a key ally in our fight against terrorism in the region. Many will remember that our embassies were bombed in 1998 by terrorists come it out of somalia. Kenyan forces are in somalia fighting against those very same terrorist organizations. It also is a economic hub in east africa so Many American businesses like ford and others are based there. General electric. And so its key to the region as a whole and the neighboring countries like south sudan which weve played such an Important Role diplomatically in trying to bring peace there rely on kenya and its ports. Ifill you know something of Uhuru Kenyatta. What do we know about him other than hes the son of a very famous leader of the country, a very wealthy man and now under this cloud. Hes also very much a person who respects the west. He was educated in the United States. Hes been pro western in his outlook. Hes been the minister of finance before and the deputy Prime Minister. Hes always had strong relations with the United States. Now the case against him is problematic. As it was stated its falling apart. The coconspiracies of all that were charged with him are charged with attending a particular meeting at state house. In that meeting planning reprisals against the violence that was being meted out. But the key eyewitness said he lied and hes been changing his testimony and even said that hes taken bribes. So the case is falling apart. Ifill yet the u. S. , britain, canada, the e. U. , all very muted, all very nervous about endorsing his election. Well, theyre a little bit in a bad situation because prior to the election, they all essentially threatened the kenyan population, the kenyan electorate by saying if you elect Uhuru Kenyatta, then there will be consequences, we may put trade sanctions, which was extraordinary frankly. And it was a bit of meddling into the Domestic Affairs of another country because the case against kenyatta isnt proven so hes innocent until proven guilty. Ifill how is this case, for instance, different from what we have seen when another african leader in sudan has been called before the. Very different. That person is bashir of sudan. Hes not cooperating with the court whereas Uhuru Kenyatta is cooperating. Theres no arrest warrant against Uhuru Kenyatta. There is an International Arrest warrant against omar bashir of sudan. The cases are extremely different. In the case of uhuru, hes cooperated with the court. The case is unproven so hes innocent until proven guilty. Thats a fundamental right. Ifill after all the violence in 2007 and 2008 after the last president ial election we were all bracing to see if the same thing would happen this time. So far it has not. Why do you think that is . I think the kenyans learned lessons from 2007. And the Civil Society very much was guarding their country and guarding against future violence. They also had this election under entirely new institutions. Theres a brand new constitution and a deevolution of power from the center from the presidency to governors of 47 counties. Theres county assemblies. So i think the diffusion of power, the expectations about their new institutions and the Lessons Learned from 2007 account for the lack of violence this time. Ifill is it possible also that person nations do not have the influence in these kinds of elections and these kinds of outcomes as maybe they once had . Certainly. Thats the strategic environment has changed entirely and particularly china. When you go to nairobi and ive been there twice this year, you see all of this infrastructure development. No roads. You know, the refurbishment of the port that theyre going to bid on, im sure. The chinese have changed the playing field. If the u. S. And the u. K. And the europeans dont want to deal with Uhuru Kenyatta, he has another option. The chinese unvoi was very much at kenyattas home today welcoming his election as did the Chinese Foreign ministry and named him, you know, as president elect Uhuru Kenyatta. So the United States is playing a dangerous game and putting itself in a very small diplomatic box. Ifill have all the tribal rivalries that sparked some of this violence in 2007 and 2008, have they simply gone away . Raila odinga and kenyatta never the twain shall meet . The tribal competition is still very much there. This election was very much based on communities voting for their boys, as they would call them. So the one tribal group feels very grieved by this election and out of power because they havent won. One of the fault lines of the 2007 violence was between two people in the rift valley. Uhuru kenyatta and his runnate mate william rufo are from thes would tribes. The need for healing and reconciliation is still there in ken i cant. Ifill there will be a swearingin march 25 barring anything. Yes. Ifill thank you. Thank you very much. A pleasure. Woodruff next, what happens to what you might call a persons digital estate the postings, photos, and memories shared online. Virginia is the latest among a handful of states trying to navigate a legal and ethical thicket. And its a growing concern in the digital age. Jeffrey brown has the story. Brown millions of people around the world now live part of their lives online. Sharing photographs, information on relationships and careers, tweets and more. But what happens when physical lives end and life in cyberspace goes on . Of the one billion people who use the social network site facebook, for example, an estimated three die every minute. And that can lead to some painful problems. For one thing, theres no one method or law on the books for how beneficiaries gain access to a deceased persons digital records. Virginia dairy farmer ricky rash ran into that problem after his 15yearold son eric committed suicide in 2011. It was a complete shock. As any suicide is. But we had absolutely no warning. Eric kissed his mom good night the night before. He did his homework. He put seats in the olds mobile that was his. He did everything under the sun to show us it was a normal night. So with no answers from home, no answers from school, we were just hoping that there may be something that would give us some insight as to why he chose to make the decision he did. And facebook was literally the last frontier that we had to investigate. Brown but getting that insight was harder than rash thought it would be. The laws have just not kept up with technology. What really frustrated us was when we learned that as a minor child his parents do not have access to his online accounts. Once he gets an electronic account thats password protected, hes entitled to free speech. He is entered into a legal and binding contract with the social media sites. They told me theres case law to show each of those. I said, please share with me the information. Share with me in the code of the United States or the state code of virginia where it says a minor can enter into a legal and binding contract because i dont believe it. As a parent. Brown rash isnt alone. On the other side of the country in oregon Karen Williams fought facebook to gain access to her 22yearolds son account after he died in a motorcycle accident in 2005. Her fight spurred a push for legislation in oregon that was ultimately unsuccessful. Facebook does allow a profile to be memorialized. Certain information is removed and privacy is restricted. Current u. S. Law is murky at best. A 1986 federal law prohibits companies from sharing a persons information, even if it is stipulated in their last will and testament. Simply handing overpass words in a will violates most social Networks Terms of service. Five states have now acted to put in place some some form of Digital Assets laws idaho, oklahoma, indiana, rhode island and connecticut. But congress has no current plans to take up new federal legislation. We get more about all this from two we get more information about all of this from two experts. Naomi cahn is with the George WashingtonUniversity School of law. Evan carroll is cofounder of the blog and web site, the digital beyond. Hes also the coauthor of your digital afterlife. For the Record Facebook and the Industry Trade group did not respond to our requests for an interview. Evan carroll, lets start broadly to help people understand a bit more about what we mean by Digital Assets. What does that mean . How do you think about it . As we said in the tape earlier, we have shifted towards living much of our lives online. Theres all sorts of information that both we create and is created about us that is stored in digital form. So some simple examples are your email accounts or the photos you have. The digital photos you have. The visual videos you have, things you may have stored on sites like twitter and facebook. All those things that together really form data that we are referring to as visual assets. Brown youre coming at this from trusts and estates. How big a problem is this becoming for people who are dealing with wills or who are not dealing with wills and what they own . I think its becoming a huge problem as the number of Digital Assets grows and it grows exponentially each year as we come up with new kinds of products on the internet. The real problem is that although we know what to do with the bank account when you go to a bank and you open a bank account in person we know exactly what to do if you die. But we dont know what to do if you open up a Bank Account Online and everything is done online. There are few laws that have stepped in to address this. Brown we dont know because the law is lagging behind in this digital space. Exactly. The law is just beginning to catch up. We could say that we deal with everything online in the same way was we deal with everything thats not online. That would probably be the easiest thing to do. But were not even sure about that. Brown i was mentioning wills. I mean, my understanding is very few americans even have wills for all the normal things we call assets never mind Digital Assets, right . Thats entirely true. Most people dont like to think that they might die. So they dont have a will. Them dont think they need a will. And they just havent gotten around to doing anything. Thats even more true when it comes to Digital Assets. People have no idea how much value they have in their online accounts. Brown evan carroll, all of this is tied up in privacy law, something we talked a lot on this program over the last few years. On the one hand theres great concerns about the privacy of all of our information online. On the other hand, when someone dies, you want to know. You want someone perhaps to be able to get access to it. Sure. Namely compare this to how we look at our physical assets and we compare that to our digital ones. Lets think about mail. So our physical mail, our hares would very easily access our mailbox on our desk. However, with our email they might not be able to access that as easily. Theres a key difference. Instead of just having the ability to receive new mail and a few items that have showed up in the last week or months, we have a full archive of everything that was sent and everything that was received provided that its not yet been deleted. So it would be very easy for us to say, well, of course the executor should have access to that because they would in a tangible world. But unfortunately because theres so much of that information there, it really causes a privacy concern. You can learn things about a person that perhaps it wasnt intended for you to learn. Brown we mentioned some states are starting to look at this. What kinds of things are they doing . Five states in addition to what we heard about at the beginning of the segment, virginia, five other states have passed laws that try to give a person managing someone elses estate, try to give that person some authority to access either email accounts or more generally other kinds of Digital Assets. But those laws are just beginning to be used by people managing estates. We dont yet really know how theyre going to work out. The virginia bill that we heard about that mr. Rash was instrumental in helping to enact has still not yet gone into effect. So we have no idea what will happen. Brown and evan carroll, i mean, there has been pushback by companies. Theres been some states where this hasnt gone through. Whats the argument against states taking action . Is it that they need more of a federal overview on this . What is it . Each and every service. Lets use facebook or gmail, for example. When someone signs up for it they enter a terms of service. Thats the document that many of us probably dont read as were checking the boxes trying to set up our account. Then there are many things specified. Sometimes it does even specify what happens to the account once someone is gone. These Service Providers they want to make sure that theyre honoring the contract theyve entered into with the account holder. If they said the account would be private as in the case of yahoos terms they want to honor that promise. Also theres a certain cost to dealing with each and everyone of these situations. I would imagine that many of these firms wouldnt be interested in occurring without an automated way after someone has passed away. Unfortunately there is no reliable electronic record of deaths in the u. S. And certainly not the world at the present time. Brown naomi kahn, what in the meantime do you advise people to do as we await to watch what happens with state, federal ledge laitle and the evolving nature of what companies. Just because theres uncertainty in the law doesnt mean that you still shouldnt plan for what to do with all of your online accounts, so the first thing to do and everybody should do this is to make a list of all of your accounts. The average person has 20 to 25 digital accounts, and. Brown 2025. 2025. Brown scary to think about it. Many of us have more if we actually sit down to account. Each of those accounts has a password. Well, so the first thing to do is to list the account and to list the passwords and figure out how you want to keep track of all of that information. If you put it in a will, a will becomes a public document. So you certainly dont want all of those assets listed in the will along with your password. Then anybody can access that. First of all, keep track. Make a list. Figure out. Give access to that list to somebody else. Next thing to do is to write down what you want to have happen. You cant be certain that if you write something down that the courts will enforce it. But its the best way to make sure Everybody Knows what you want. And then hope that whatever you want to have happen will, in fact, happen. Brown well leave it with hope. Naomi cahn and evan carroll, thank you both very much. Thank you very much. Brown read more about ricky rashs story online. While youre there, we want to know, what do you think should happen to your Digital Assets after you die . Join the conversation, which you can find on our home page. Woodruff well be back shortly with the story of a japanese town, two years after the tsunami. But first, this is pledge week on pbs. This break allows your Public Television station to ask for your support. And that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. Ifill for those stations not taking a pledge break, we take a second look at a Louisiana Middle School trying a unique approach to boost test scores and achievement. Ray suarez reports for our american graduate project. Suarez at broadmore middle school in baton rouge, louisiana, early mornings have the feel of a pep rally. All 525 students are greeted every school day by a team of young adults from the National ServiceOrganization City year. The nonprofit works like an urban peace corps. It requires recruits, many of whom are recent college graduates, who work for ten months in some of the nations highest need Public Schools in an effort to reduce the dropout rate. Todays cheering and upbeat attitudes is in contrast to how the school was when principal denise carbonneau arrived in 2009. The first year i came, i almost turned and walked out the door. The discipline was a real issue here. We had over 50 suspension rate. Suarez on top of behavior issues, charbonneau also inherited a school where one in four of the students were failing, and the district was seeing a spike in homelessness. Broadmore mid school is made up mostly of minority students. 95 of them are eligible for free or reduced priced lunch meaning the kids come from lowincome families that qualify for federal assistance. But despite these challenges charbonneau says her school has largely been able to turn things around in the last three years. We have lowered our suspension rate from 50 to 15 which is below the national average. We have lowered the failure rate to 7 . And improved attendance in each and every grade level. Suarez its an unlikely Success Story charbonneau said began when a program called diplomas now came to broadmore. Diplomas now identifies atrisk students long before they could ever drop out of high school and then provides a set of intervention and support guidelines to raise achievement. The idea came from one of the nations leading experts on dropout prevention. Robert ballfast of johns hop dins university. He spent years developing a datadriven model that flags Early Warning indicators to target students who show signs of falling behind in subjects like math and english. Our focal point is always starting with 6th and 9th grade because the data shows if you can make the transition to middle school and the transition to high school and really get from 6th to 10th grade on time and on track your odds of graduating go from maybe one in four to three in four. Thats a really big shift. Suarez at the heart of the approach is an abc method for turning around failing schools. It focuses on attendance, behavior and course performance. The first goal being simply to get students to show up on time for class every day. Surprisingly kids that dont attend get in trouble and fail the courses drop out. We found that kids were signaling early and often but schools werent designed to Pay Attention to it. If they did Pay Attention them didnt have the resources to respond. Suarez many of the schools in his model needed Additional Resources as quickly as possible. And his research showed it was critical for students to have relationships with adults inside the school that shifted constantly from nagging to nurturing. He says that cityyear, which already had a national presence, was a natural partner for diplomas now. By having this core member who has Just Graduated College knows your music but is seen as being tapped into the whole classroom getting attention from that person is like, wow, im getting attention from the cool person. You now seek it out. That flips the dynamic that getting the extra attention is good not bad. Reporter that dynamic is on display with a 7th grader at broadmore. Teachers say he had behavior problems last year but hes making Great Strides in part because of his relationship with sarah ross who keithrick describes as being his older sister at school. She helped me with my school work. She helped me with school problems. If i get put out of class shell walk me around the school. Well sit down and well talk. Shell bring me back to class and ill good do my work. Were here to make things better and tutor kids. Were here to make sure that they stay on track. Were here to make sure they graduate. They want to prepare them for high school. Suarez but sometimes serious personnel issues outside the classroom can derail student achievement. And require more expertise than School Officials or cityyear can provide. The things that might be affecting their physical or Mental Health such as the loss of a parent or a loved one, incarceration of a parent. Mental health diagnosis, physical health diagnosis. All those things. Suarez an onsite social worker at broadmore from communities in schools, a nonprofit that is yet another diplomas now partner. He says he sees more than 50 students at broadmore who are having problems that could keep them out of class. Has that information been shared with all his other teachers. Suarez he takes part in the regular required meetings involving all of the partners. Each student showing warnings signs in attendance, behavior or course performance is discussed at length. The reason why his grades are low is because hes not putting forth the effort. Suarez a plan has been agreed upon for the best course of action. Charbonneau says that the model was immediately embraced by the school because it didnt call for a fullscale turnaround. Johns hopkins came and what i really really liked about them is that they didnt come in and try to say that we needed to do everything differently. They came to say, what can we do to enhance what youre doing here . By and large people are really trying to do a good job. Theyre just overwhelmed and overmatched. Reporter he says hes aiming to implement diplomas now in 20 Additional Schools over the course of the next two years. Woodruff a footnote principal Denise Woodruff principal Denise Charbonnet has left Broadmoor Middle School since we were there for a job in norfolk, virginia. American graduate is a public Media Initiative funded by the corporation for public broadcasting. Ifill finally tonight, a japanese town aims for a comeback, two years after the earthquake, the tsunami, and the Nuclear Meltdown at the fukushima reactor. Our story comes from special correspondent emily taguchi, a graduate of the school of journalism at the university of california berkeley, one of our reporting partners. Reporter its been two years since the meltdowns at the Dai Ichi Nuclear power plant. The city of minamisoma is celebrating the nomaoi festival, showcasing their heritage as horsemen and warriors. About a third of the city is still uninhabitable. But on this day, residents who fled the city return, Standing Shoulder to shoulder with former neighbors to honor their history. Im mayor Katsunobu Sakurai of minamisoma. This years nomaoi festival, in the hopes of recovery for our residents affected by the nuclear crisis, is being held per the custom. Reporter at 20 miles north of the daiichi plant, minami soma was cut off from the rest of the world two years ago by radioactive plumes. Not even aid trucks would come near. Mayor sakurai uploaded a plea for help on youtube. The banks are closed. The people are literally drying up as if theyre under starvation tactics. Reporter eiju hangai, a tokyobased businessman born and raised in minamisoma, felt a particular responsibility to help. Hed spent 32 years working for tepco, the utility that operated the stricken Nuclear Power plant. Hed wanted to work at the utility since he was a little boy. My grandfather took me to the construction site of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor one. This was where japans energy was going to be made with Nuclear Power for the first time. That left a powerful impression on me. Reporter but now the crying need of his home town was also leaving a powerful impression. So he arranged for supplies to go to a bakery that this woman kept open after the earthquake, people needed the traditional funeral cakes to give proper burials to their loved ones. Giving out supplies to people whod come to buy the sweets was the fastest way to get them to people in need. But then mrs. Ishida said, were thankful for the supplies, but were going to need many, many years to rebuild. We have to do something for the kids who have their futures ahead of them. Hangaisan, please think of something for the kids. Reporter the bakers mandate became a personal mission for hangai. His faith in nuclear indeed the whole regions had been shattered by the disaster. He listened when the mayor announced an initiative to buy coastal land from former residents and lease it to Renewable Energy companies to transform the region to solar. Whether its nuclear, thermal, or hydro, electricity is electricity. Once its produced, people have no choice but to use it in our lives today. So selling electricity is a means to revive the industry we lost. Reporter to bring together solar and the bakers plea to help the kids, hangai worked to set up a partnership between toshiba, which makes solar panels, and kidzania, the operator of a theme park where kids experience reallife jobs. The result would be a Solar Power Company in the city that not only generates electricity, but lets kids experiment with working in a Renewable Energy plant. We would prepare a solar Power Generation system for kids. Theyd have to figure out the best angle, direction, and how to place the panels to generate the most electricity. So for me to answer mrs. Ishidas homework, i thought, okay, couldnt we give the kids the experience of working in minami soma to support their growth . Reporter hangais Solar Company became one of the first to sign on to the mayors plan. Radiation levels here have dropped sharply. They are now lower than average background levels in the u. S. , and the company is gearing up to open for business this month. For hangai, its just the beginning of repaying for all those years he spent at tepco. The fact that those words of mrs. Ishida echoed so heavily for me is because i had a sense of guilt and the need to make amends for the reconstruction of my hometown which will take many years from now and for the children, who will shoulder that burden. This, in some sense, is my lifes work. Reporter mayor sakurai tries to imagine a Better Future mayor sakurai in our long history, its only a moment in time that we had Nuclear Power. 40 years. But it can destroy history itself. But as long as we dont lose our dreams, i think this town will come back in some form. Reporter its a big dream. The city of minamisoma set a goal to produce all of the electricity it needs using only renewable sources by 2030. Woodruff again, the major developments of the day. Two american soldiers were gunned down by an afghan policeman, one day after afghan president karzai accused u. S. Forces of working with the taliban to stage suicide bombings. Roman catholic cardinals made ready to open their conclave tomorrow at the vatican to elect a new pope. And a judge in new york city struck down the citys partial ban on large sugary drinks, one day before it was supposed to take effect. Ifill on our web site today, find strategies for getting the most out of social security. Hari sreenivasan has more. Sreenivasan our resident guru of ask larry fame explains his unique startstop start method for married couples nearing retirement age. See how they can maximize benefits, on our making sense page. And on art beat, jeff spoke with Glenn Frankel about his new book, the searchers the making of an american legend, about the men and the myths involved in the classic western tale of the hunt for a kidnapped little girl. And be a part of our coverage we are collecting stories about the Voting Rights act of 1965. Share yours. Go to our web site or call 703 5946pbs for details. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. Gwe . Ifill; and thats the newshour for tonight. On tuesday, well look at women juggling work, family and leadership roles. Im gwen ifill. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Well see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. Thank you, and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway. Macarthur foundation. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. 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 Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org this is bbc world news america. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the Freeman Foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newmans own foundation, union bank and if i dealt fidelity investment. This is what a personal economy looks like. And as life changes, fidelity can help you readjust your investments along the way. And revisit your plan as retirement gets closer, wherever you are today, fidelitys guidance can help finetune your personal economy. Fidelity investments, turn here