Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20160307

Anything that slips through. Sreenivasan all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan the president ial hopefuls are pointing to a new round of voting tomorrow, with the leaders hoping to pad their leads, and rivals hoping to close the gap. With that in mind, all of the candidates were on the road today. Who is going to win North Carolina . applause sreenivasan donald trump spent his day down south, where hes won eight states and the bulk of his 384 delegates so far. Along with big crowds, the republican frontrunner again faced protesters. Go home to mommy. Go home to mommy. cheering tell her to tuck you in bed. Sreenivasan and, he still has to contend with ted cruz as well. The texas senator is now within 100 delegates of trump, after scoring weekend wins in kansas. And in maine. There is only one who has repeatedly beaten donald trump. Sreenivasan marco rubio managed sreenivasan marco rubio managed to win puerto rico yesterday, but his real hopes now rest on his home state of florida next week. Sreenivasan ditto john kasich, the Ohio Governor who hopes to fare better in neighboring michigan, one of four States Holding republican contests tomorrow. Meanwhile, democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders held their testiest debate yet last night. They faced off in flint, michigan, the town where lead poisoned the drinking water, and both of them laid into republican governor rick snyder. He should resign. I agree, the governor should resign, or be recalled. Sreenivasan after that, the pair agreed on little else. Sanders hit clinton on trade secretary clinton supported virtually every one of the disastrous trade agreements written by corporate america. Sreenivasan in turn, clinton played up her support for president obamas auto rescue plan. Well well, ill tell you Something Else that senator sanders was against. He was against the auto bailout. I voted to save the auto industry. He voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry. I think that is a pretty big difference. Well, i if you are talking about the wall street bailout, where some of your friends destroyed this economy. You know. Through excuse me, im talking. Let him. If youre gonna talk, tell the whole story, senator sanders. Let me tell my story. You tell yours. I will. Sreenivasan the two also sparred on gun control and wall street. Today, sanders charged clinton misstated his position on the auto bailout. Sreenivasan clinton also stayed in michigan, appearing to strike a conciliatory stance in grand rapids. I would hope to be able to enlist bernie in helping me to reach out to his supporters if i am so fortunate to be the nominee. Sreenivasan clinton won one state to sanders three over the weekend, but shes still well ahead in delegates, with 1130 nearly half of whats needed. Democrats hold contests tomorrow in michigan and mississippi. He told the New York Times he fears a threeway race would guarantee Donald Trumps election. In the days other news, tributes poured in today for former first lady nancy reagan, after her death sunday in los angeles. President obama ordered flags flown at halfstaff, and at a meeting, he took a moment to offer praise. As somebody who has been lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life as well, i know how much she meant not just to president reagan but to the country as a whole. He was lucky to have her. And im sure hed be the first to acknowledge that. So she will be missed. Sreenivasan mrs. Reagan will lie in repose on wednesday, at the reagan president ial library in simi valley, california. The funeral will be friday. Well have more on nancy reagan, in her own words, later in the program. The news of mrs. Reagans death came as former president jimmy carter announced he no longer needs treatment for cancer. He said his latest m. R. I. Showed no signs of melanoma that had spread to his brain at one point. The former president is 91. Hes been on a newly approved drug that helps the body target cancer cells. The pentagon now says a u. S. Drone strike killed more than 150 islamist militants in somalia. Saturdays attack hit a Training Camp for alshabab fighters, about 120 miles north of mogadishu. A u. S. Military Spokesman Says they were getting ready to launch a largescale operation. Heavy fighting broke out today along tunisias frontier with libya, when dozens of gunmen stormed a border town. Authorities reported 53 dead in ben guerdane, near beach towns popular with tourists. Battles raged into the night before the army regained control. Tunisias president said it was the work of Islamic State extremists out of libya. translated this is an unprecedented attack, planned and organized, and whose goal was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate. Sreenivasan extremist attacks in tunisia killed dozens of tourists last year. And in pakistan, another suicide bomber killed 11 people and wounded 15 in the northwest town of shabqadar. The bomber blew himself up after guards stopped him from entering a court. A Pakistani Taliban group said it was revenge for the execution of a man who killed a provincial governor. European leaders convened in brussels today, searching for a way to shut off the flow of migrants. As they did, hundreds more kept arriving in greece, but theyre now blocked from advancing any farther. James mates of independent news reports from brussels reporter they came to europe in search of safety and a better life. What they found is a tent city on a bheek hillside bleak hillside, with hostility and razorwire fences springing up across a continent they believed was the promised land. As they shiver on greeces northern border. The continents leaders are meeting 1500 miles away in tern threatening and haggling on how to keep more from coming. I want to respond to how we can reduce migrants from not only a few but all countries, including greece. It cant just be about closing something. We need to find a sustainable solution together with turkey as well as putting an end to illegal immigration and improving the Living Conditions of the refugees. Reporter there is this man who appears to now hold the keys to europe. The Prime Minister of turkey who can stop migrants coming or can agree to take them back but at a price. 6 billion euros and a promise his country can soon join the e. U. And turkey is ready to work with the e. U. Turkey is ready to be a member of the e. U. As well. Today, i hope this summit which well not focus on regular migration but turkeys accession process. Reporter these were the scenes this weekend in istanbul after an opposition newspaper was shot down by an increasingly authoritarian government. Without the bargaining chip of refugees, turkey would be nowhere near e. U. Membership. But today theyre seated around the e. U. s top table,touchish flag on the wall and a growing list of demands knowing that as long as the refugees keep coming, they hold the whip hand. Sreenivasan sreenivasan late today, hungary said it will veto any plan to resettle Asylum Seekers directly from turkey. Back in this country, the average bonus on wall street fell nine percent last year, to just over 146,000. The new York Comptrollers Office says its because profits in the securities industry were down sharply, and bonuses are tied to those profits. Overall compensation for wall street workers, including salary, actually rose 14 . Its now nearly 405,000, a record. On wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 67 points to close at 17,074. The nasdaq fell eight points, and the s p 500 added a little less than two points. Still to come on the newshour our politics monday duo on the increasingly controversial race for the white house. Remembrances of a first lady. The legacy of the latenancy reagan. European leaders seeking a new solution to the migrant crisis, and much more. Sreenivasan from a tough democratic debate in flint, and strong showing by ted cruz in weekend voting, its a perfect time for politics monday, with tamara keith of npr and amy walter of the cook political report. I happened to do a Little Program on the weekend. There was politics and news. Lets start with the debate last night. This is the first time ive seen Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton go at each other as directly. It was an intense debate. They came armed and ready. Bernie sanders has a lot at stake. There is a primary in michigan tuesday, and if he cant win and win big, hes going to have a tough time. So he came ready to hit Hillary Clinton hard on trade. He believes thats a really strong area for him because she supported trade deals when her husband was president and those trade deals, he said, led to the loss of jobs. Well, she was ready, too, and she came ready to hit him on the auto bailout. She had sort of a narrow argument but basically said he voted against the bailout bills that included a bailout for the auto industry. Bernie sanders takes issue with it. But it led to some fireworks and it led to sanders during the debate clinton interrupted him and he said, wait, no, ive got to finish. That happened a couple of times, and twitter blew up over it. Sreenivasan also, amy, besides trying to score points on social media and correct each other on what actually happened on social media, theyre trying to court bluecollar workers in places like the rust belt and also trying to go after africanamerican votes. Are they effective about this . Its funny, compared to the republican debates which you have no idea whats going to happen anytime you tune in, the democratic debates have become predictable. We know the lines used. Hillary clinton will go after Bernie Sanders on guns. A little different she went after him on the auto bailout. Bernie sanders will attack her from wall street and those issues. The results are predictable, too, Bernie Sanders doingwell among white and independent voters, not as well as mong africanamericans, not as well as mong democrats and were seeing that the latest poll out of michigan shows the same lines being drawn. I would be surprised if Bernie Sanders did well in michigan, and if he loses, it will be for the same reasons that hes been unsuccessful in states going pretty much every state except for new hampshire. Sreenivasan lets take a little lets talk a little bit about this notion that ted cruz has made a surge over this last weekend. He picked up two states. Donald trump had two states. No all states are created equal. Not all voting processes are the same, but is this the republican establishment pushing back against donald trump in any sort of concerted manner and there is also a question on is ted cruz the counterweight for those republicans on the sideline now . You would be hard pressed to say that the republican establishment is rooting for ted cruz. Ted cruz is not a friend of the republican establishment. But what does appear to have maybe happened, and well know more after more voting has happened, is that Donald Trumps momentum, Donald Trumps like, there is no way anybody will be able to stop him kind of momentum has possibly slowed. But we need more data points and especially with donald trump, the land scrip is littered with people who have made predictions about donald trump slowing down. Including some people sitting here. laughter so i will take that. Weve had a lot of thes theories about this race. The marco rubio theory that he was the one to be able to stop donald trump and he had a terrible weekend. Actually it started as the ted cruz theory in the beginning because to have the way the calendar was situated, the Southern States were supposed to help ted cruz, South Carolina was supposed to be his launching pad, that didnt work. Weve had a lot of theories that havent come through. Hi shy going to be important for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and also if trump can stop someone in a state like that. The establishment, rom rom barely won michigan. Rick santorum running as a populist that year. So well see a very being challenge going forward. Look, donald trump has momentum now, he doesnt have all the delegates he feeds, but the stronger he looks, the harder it is to beat him. Sreenivasan there is also the tension of the parties versus the people and its on both sides and kind of inverted. On the democratic side you see supporters of Bernie Sanders saying whats all this business with super delegates . We have this popular candidate and he should be the one in the lead now, not hillary. On the other side, youve got talk of the possibility of the Republican Party maybe adjusting the rules a bit that could increase the chances for a rival of donald trump. So there is this idea from both sides that maybe the parties dont represent us in the process. And lets just say that if the Republican Party were to step in and sm somehow magically make an establishment candidate come out or if superdelegates decided the race on the democratic side, people would go nuts. The election is all about the antiestablishment. Its all about telling party elites that they havent been listening. So it would not be pretty for either party if that happened. On the superdelegates with Bernie Sanders, we have to note that he is also trailing in pledged delegates. The super delegates hes way behind, but if you throw out the super delegates and look at the pledge delegates, hes down by almost 200 delegates. Delegates are awarded proportionately on the democrat side which means you get roughly a percentage based on the percentage you get in the polls. As a result of that, it will be very hard for him to make that up. Yeah, no, hes done very well in caucus states and states that are more homogenous. Breaking out of that mold will be very important for him and, thus far, we havent seen it. On the republican side, this is frustrating to many in the Republican Party, the idea that donald trump could be their nominee. But to thwart the process by changing rules and trying to come at the last minute during the convention with literally a change in the rules that says you dont need to get x number of states in order to get the nomination i think would cause way too much havoc. Look, there is enough stress now among republicans that if they do disassociate or distance themselves from trump that his supporters, his voters are going to go away, they will lose that energy and enthusiasm. Balancing those things, people who dislike trump immessagely immessagely from those who are turning out for him, this is a Tipping Point for the Republican Party, what their standard bear is going to look like, who will line up behind donald trump and who will oppose him, it will be messing for a long time and i dont think the nomination fight will make it easier. Sreenivasan amy walter, cook political report, tamera keith, n. P. R. , thanks very much. Youre welcome. Sreenivasan now, we remember a first lady who kept a high profile, and was an influential force. Reporter nancy reagan long said her sole mission was to back her ronnie, and strengthen his presidency. In one of her last interviews, she spoke to Judy Woodruff for a 2011 pbs documentary. She discussed her role balancing out her husband. Well i think i was a little bit more realistic about people than, than he was. And that was my contribution. It was, just being aware of people and what they were doing. Do you think that you were more intuitive that you could read People Better than your husband could. Sometimes yes. gunfire reporter just three months into the presidency, the assassination attempt on president reagan shook the fiercely protective first lady. My secret service guy said theres been a shooting but dont worry the president is all right. Well im starting for the elevator and they said but hes all right. He hasnt been hit. And im and i say to them you either find me or a car or ill walk. They didnt know at first he had been hit and even when they knew he had been hit they didnt realize, they didnt know, they couldnt find the bullet. Yeah they couldnt the bullet had lodged finally lodged so close to his heart it was just a miracle that it didnt go into his heart. I remember one nurse came to me and said, we may just have to leave it in there. Well that didnt sound like a very good idea to me. They finally got it but it was the whole thing was a miracle. After the assassination, you commented a number of times that that had a huge effect on you. It changed you in some ways. Yes, yes of course it did. Every time he went out the door i dont think i took a deep breath until he got back. Reporter nancy reagan also served as a political partner. She influenced and supported her husbands policy towards the soviet union, including some of his most famous words. When he gave the speech, tear down this wall, there were many, many people in the administration who didnt think that he should say that. It must have been impossible for you to just kind of you know sit back and watch all that happen. Well i didnt just sit back. You know. I was talking to people. Because you felt that this was something that was going to be part of your husbands legacy as president. Well he believed in it strongly. Reporter years later, president reagan developed alzheimers, and the first lady became his primary caregiver, until his death in 2004. Did you feel you had the chance to say good bye . Yes as a matter of fact he gave me a wonderful gift at that time. He was in bed, obviously. And suddenly he turned his hand and opened his eyes and looked at me. But he looked at me and he closed his eyes. And went. That was a wonderful gift. Sreenivasan we take a closer look at the remarkable life of nancy reagan with james rosebush jame who served in a vy of roles at the white house including chief of staff to the first lady and michael beschloss. James, you saw the first lady in a way most of us could never imagine, starting at 7 00 a. M. You said before shes done more work than 7 00 a. M. Than you expected anyone to. Thats right, by the time i got to the office and went to the seen quor staff meeting, shed read all the morning papers, seen all the morning shows, had advanced copies of the news week lis and knew exactly what she thought. So she was a highly intelligent woman. I think that was lost on a lot of people. They didnt recognize that. She was engaged not only in her own program and schedule but very observant of what the president was doing. She was a person who, therefore, was easy to work for because she knew what she wanted and she communicated it well, and it was obviously an extraordinary honor to work for her, to work for both of them. Sreenivasan michael, what hes describing is almost what you would expect from a chief of staff new york city necessarily a first lady. Thats what i thought. You miffed Hillary Clinton who at the the beginning of her Husbands Administration was given this healthcare project, but nancy reagan without any title other than first lady really was sort of an alternative chief of staff because she roamed the whole lot and also particularly kept an guy on who in the entourage was helping her husband and who was not, and it worked well in the first term when james bake was chief of staff. He saw that as an asset to be able to tap her skills and expertise and, you know, what she could tell him about what the president wanted and didnt want. Didnt work so well second term when there was a chief of staff named don reagan who had an exalted idea of his place in the universe and finally hung up on the first lady after they had words. She did most last for long. Sreenivasan james, paint us a picture of what sort of power or influence she held. She made sure she stayed out of policy decisions, but when it came to personnel, she, ultimately, is the last word that influences the president s ear. I also want to quickly add, she was acutely aware of the fact she was not elected, she was not an employee of the federal government and she did not enjoy the recognition of an official position in the federal government. So there were times, for example, when i was lobbied to have nancy reagan come up to capitol hill and to testify on issues related to her programs, from particular trying to arrest in particular, trying to arrest the advance of drug abuse and the ravages that causes in lives. And they were genuine requests, come up and tell us what we should be doing on capitol hill. I was all for that. She was against it, which shows you what i knew. She did not want to appear in any way to be influencing policy or Government Spending in any way. So in terms of her impact on what her husbands policies were, i would say she was observant, but she wasnt a participant, she was an she wast parts. And always when she was first lady and afterwards wanted this idea that she did not want people to think she was important. In later years, she said, it was all ronny, dont Pay Attention to me. I did not have a large role in that administration. I knew that wasnt true and as time goes on i think well find her role was very large. When you think of her historical contact and the two or three previous first ladies prior to her and the tone it set for the country, it was different. Its, although Rosalind Carter attended cabinet meetings and got flack for that, nancy reagan would not have dreamt of that. When you think of it, hari, in the 80s, nancy reagan was criticized in many circles for being overly adoring and uncritical of her husband and also for acting as his political partner especially on key occasions. Nowadays, i think things have changed enough that we would celebrate her for doing most those things and it was amazing to look back and think those were two of the things she caught the most flack for. Sreenivasan james, when you worked for her, what did you think her legacy would be versus now decades later knowing what shes accomplished. The whole concept of legacy is interesting, ill comment on that, but to pick up on something michael brought up, i think one thing thats lost on the public is people go through these extreme situations, these rightwattage leadership positions, particularly in american politics, they evolve over time, they change and develop and hopefully deepen as a result of the experiences they go through and nancy reagan wasnt immune to that. I saw her grow as a person, and develop additional skills. I remember among the things she did as a first among first ladies was to speak at the General Assembly of the United Nations on drugs and when she went to new york to do that, she was to talk about this issue and was she really having an impact on policy and she said do you expect me to sit at home sorting out my husbands sock drawer . That drew a lot of laughter, but she grew in her broal role. I think she grew in her role, in her confidence, understanding the issues. She was well educated and a very bright person and i think at that point she came into her own with a higher degree of confidence that, yes she did have something to say. She has a dual legacy and she gets a lot of credit and sympathy particularly in the later years of taking care of her husband, which she did throughout their marriage but, in an official capacity, and then during the ten years of his disability, but i would like to think that she will also get credit for being an intelligent, independent leader who was devoted to her country and worked hard to promote the american ideal as best she could on her own as well. Sreenivasan michael, a legacy for her . I think she made it possible for Ronald Reagan to become president and to become a major president. He had many qualities, one of them was not an ability to see through people who might do him harm or not serve him well. Nancy reagan did that so well. The other thing is she was an ideological. Maybe the biggest thing she did during that presidency was in the middle 1980s, she went to her husband and said too many people think yourin youring yo interject in pursuing the cold war, shows them youre a peacemaker. He began with symbolism and worked with gorbachev to do a lot toned the cold war. That began with her. Her buzz goal was how can i help my husband, not how can i pursue an ideological agenda. Sreenivasan thank you, james rosebush and michael beschloss. Pleasure, hari. Sreenivasan stay with us, coming up on the newshour the true story of a modernday romeo and juliette set in rural afghanistan. But first, as we reported earlier, european leaders met today on the refugee crisis. One major ongoing issue how to screen such a huge volume of people for a small number of possible terrorists. As special correspodent Malcolm Brabant tells us now, its not an easy job. Baby dont worry about a thing here is a genuinely innocent and uplifting scene from europes refugees crisis every little thing jerome from congo is providing relief for children stranded in greece after the trail was sealed. What worries intelligence and Police Agencies are large numbers of fit young men entering e. U. Many threw away their documents on instructions of smugglers and authorities have no idea who they are. N. A. T. O. s Supreme Commander in Europe Phillip breedlove told the senate Armament Committee about his nears. Europe faces mass migration spurred by state instability and collapse and masking the movements of criminals, terrorists and foreign fighters. Within this mix i. S. I. L or daish is spreading like cancer threatening nations with terrorist attacks. Hundreds of refugees conjugate in this square every day as they realized preferred destinations in Northern Europe are no longer attainable. Human rights activists worry europes humanitarian response sen dangered by what they regard as scaremongering. George of Amnesty International is afraid terrorist threats are asking con conflated. Theyre fleeing terror. Theyre leaving behind war and destruction, and this is the lens we should apply and not put the blame to a whole group of people simply looking for safety and a better life. Seen your e. U. Officials believe the remarks are exaggerated. But the intrerkt r intrerkt of europol believes there are at least 5,000 jihadistest running free in europe with the idea of causing casualties. He doesnt think there is concrete evidence that terrorist are using migration flow as a cover to infill flat europe. One of greeces leading terrorist experts believes european officials are downplaying the potential threat from i. S. This comes from the number of 30,000 foreign fighters into the i. S. I. S. These foreign fighters come from europe and russia. They come from western countries and russia. And all over the place. So number of fighters who are entering or who travel up and forth from detention areas to western countries is much greater than the number that are given to us. I think they are giving us a smaller number in order to keep the threat level lower. Patrolling greeces maritime with turkey are a flotilla of response vessels from various e. U. Countries. Theyre attached to the Border Agency frontex, reinforcing greece. Its financial crisis hobbled its ability to protect europes eastern flank. Boats are rescuing thousands and migrants. Information is fled biback to the information room in polish capital war shaw. The green dots we are seeing represent boats with migrants and refugees coming from turkey towards greece since the beginning of this year. The white ones we see here on different islands, we can see three are ongoing search and rescue. Critics accuse the agency of being little more than a taxi service. But the Deputy Director insist the new improved screening of migrants is providing curable information for euro cpol. This is a core issues we are devoting attention to but only one part we are trying to investigate whoever is apprehend, whoever is brought to the offices, check them through databases, perform the necessary security checks in order to prevent anything slips through. Reporter go do you think general breedlove is direct when he says its spreading like a cancer . We have made detections that are forwarded to the poarper authorities for decision taking. We have strengthened capabilities in antiterrorism measures, so for the time being, whatever we could detect was done, the sharing of intelligence and to the cooperation has been greatly enhanced. Reporter this used to be athens main airport. Now disused and almost derelict is providing the most basic shelter for migrants thwarted by new travel restrictions. Greek states and agencies are nowhere to be seen. Residents relying on the kindness of ordinary citizens. Among those stuck here is this man who shows his certificate of employment as an administrator for n. A. T. O. In afghanistan. We met him three weeks ago in lesbos after he have brought ashore by greek coast guards. He was turned back by the macedonian authorities despite being a taliban target because of his relationship with n. A. T. O. Underscored by this photograph with general david petraeus. Noorn 90, 80 of the people that are traveling with small child and wives and mothers and families, so a terrorist is not going to travel with their family or small child. If theyre terrorist, they should come alone and i dont know how its possible for a terrorist to come and stay in the compounds. singing the mission jerome has a message i think its in our best interest to be together, to live with everyone and anybody because we are all human beings and we all have rights, we all are gods children. Reporter that sentiment is enshrined in european treaties, the reality is the following edict is being delivered, stay away. Im Malcolm Brabant in athens. Sreenivasan cody, nebraska, has a population of 156 people, normally not enough to sustain a grocery store. But thanks to a unique educational opportunity, residents of the town dont have to drive 30 minutes to buy food. Mike tobias from our pbs partners at net news and harvest public media has the story. Reporter sitting atop a sparsely populated county the size of connecticut, cody is not a prime location for any retail business. So hows the circle c market been able to survive and thrive here for almost three years . Because its mostly run by the students of codykilgore school. We have adults that are involved but essentially we try and get the kids to do pretty much everything. Tell me what youre doing. Im just ordering for next week. Im entering all the daily work in quickbooks. Im doing the produce order. Im the produce coordinator. Reporter heres how it works. A Community Board oversees the nonprofit operation. During the school day, students take on tasks here as part of different classes, with a paid adult employee on hand to help train and supervise. The rest of the time students are paid to work at circle c. Almost all of codykilgores 165 k12 students are involved. From Elementary School students creating decorations, to High Schoolers deciding to stock a new cereal. We could also do one to replace the crisp rice, because reporter the store does enough business to run in the black. But not by much, chessmore says, and primarily because of how its run. Without the school being this is intimately involved, i dont think it could be done. It cannot generate enough funds and still be competitive to stay open. Reporter what doesnt show up on the circle c ledger is how the village and its people benefit from not having a one hour round trip to get to the next closest grocery store. But also how students benefit from having a place to market products theyve created, a place to earn a little money, and maybe most importantly, a place to gain realworld experience. If i ever want to run a business, i know what to put on the shelves, how to put it on the shelves. How to finance. How to get grants and marketing and advertising. Reporter for harvest public media, im mike tobias. Sreenivasan well be back with an addition to our newshour bookshelf the story of the romeo and juliet of afghanistan. But first, take this moment to hear from your local pbs station. Its a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. Sreenivasan for those stations still with us, we take another look at an Innovative Solution to bridging the Digital Divide for students a unique project thats providing free home access to the internet in one of the nations poorest districts. Much of the footage for this story was shot by teenagers who are part of our student reporting labs network, in collaboration with pbs socal in southern california. The correspondent is david nazar. Reporter 30 minutes west of the wealthy suburbs of palm springs is a desert oasis best known for annual Coachella Valley music and arts festival. But beyond stretch as vast and isolated landscape home to the second poorest School District in the country where most families live below the poverty line and struggle just to pay the rent. We have some of the poorest of the poor in our country, economically challenged and most student on free or reduced lunch. Some living in trailer parks, some condemned, some in abandoned railroad cars. Its unbelievable. Reporter Coachella Valley superintendent Darrell Adams believes the right use of technology is critical for the families in this area, like norma and her daughter anissa perez. I do see students sometime struggling and right now some of the kids struggling to get school, and i just wouldnt want my daughter to go through that, to be a drop out. Reporter when adams took the job in 2011, the Graduation Rate was 70 , according to the district. One of his key initiatives was to get every student an ipad and wifi service but he knew it would be challenge. We have 1250 square miles to cover, larger than rhode island. When we found spots where students werent connected, we said how can we get them connected . We said lets put wifi routers on the buses and park them where they need it. Reporter finding the funding for the fleet of buses was no easy tasks. Nevertheless, in 2012, the Community Voted for and passed measure x, a nearly 45 Million School bond to fund the mobile learning initiative over ten years. They called the program wifi on wheels. In the bus, its kind of cool that we have internet because when the project is due the next day, we can actually spend time to do it. Reporter completing assignments was difficult for anise before getting her wifi service. We would have to travel to get to the library, get the books she needed to look up the information and go home. Brown adams is doing whatever he can to make sure the 20,000 students in his schools, 98 hispanic and about 10 undocumented, develop the skills they need to graduate. Installing solar panels on tops of the school buses to establish the routers was proposed by adams. I was a music teacher from l. A. Unified when i started out 30 years ago. As a musician, youre always creating and thinking of different ways to do things or play things or hear things, so i brought that to my career and education. Ive had difficulty in the past because some people werent ready for adams crazy ideas. But this district was and just about anything we do thats maybe different and is good for kids, with we go with it. Reporter the director of Technical Services provides the Technical Support for the entire district. We run power through the conduit already existing on the bus and goes through the front of the bus where the router is located. We have antennas pointed in Different Directions that will cover a 150foot radius. Reporter the School Districts allow the buses to park in different places throughout night. We want to make sure the students have 247 access the internet because learning does not stop at the end of the school day. What should we do at the Elementary School level . Reporter megan smith is the chief Technology Officer of the united states. Its her job to advise the president on technology and innovation that will improve the future. Coachella is incredibly creative. There is a lot of work to do in the rural areas. Reporter there are federal programs in place to provide wifi to rural district like the fccs Erate Program which provides about 1. 5 billion each year to schools. However, census data shows there are still 5 million households with schoolage children not effectively connected to the internet. Smith says that has to change. There is a lot of creativity that American People have and, so, whether its going to come from a School District, the municipal leader or a national player, we need everybody in this game working on it. Its a very, very important fundamental resource for all of our people. It drives our economy. It drives our community and our interconnections. Reporter with adams at the wheel, the Graduation Rate jumped from 70 to 80 . Now the superintendent has aspirations beyond students getting their homework done. He wants to connect everyone in the east valley. Because we found we had a problem with some of the thirdparty Internet Service Provider Companies not willing to go into some of the areas we serve. So, in the long run, we would like to become our own time warner or cost communication and provide this for our students. Its too crucial for them to have this access for us not to go down this path. Reporter anisa recognizes this wifi is providing a role in her education. I wanted to do this for my mom because my mom didnt get to finish school so thats what motivates me to finish work and get a good job. I would want her to have a better life and do really, really good in school so she can get all of these ideas that she wants, nice restaurants, Different Things like that. Thats one thing she always wants to do, travel, and thats what shes hoping to go for. Reporter for the pbs newshour, im david nazar in Coachella Valley, california. Sreenivasan finally tonight, love and tragedy in afghanistan. Jeffrey brown has the latest edition to the newshour bookshelf. Brown zakia and ali first came to the worlds attention in the pages of the New York Times in 2014. Later, the paper would capture their story on video. They had grown up on adjacent potato farms in afghanistans remote Mountain Province of bamiyan, playing together as children, and as teenagers, falling in love. translated at first i wasnt aware of my feelings, because i didnt know him. I was very young and didnt understand these things. When i was out in the farm fields, he wrote his cell phone number and gave it to me. Then we talked on the phone and said i love you, and we got to know each other and started to love each other. translated it looked to me that it was not possible for us to get together. Brown indeed it was prohibited because of the afghan custom of arranged marriages, and by islamic law. The two were separated by religion and ethnicity she a sunni and tajik. He a shiite and hazara. When their love became known, the couple, especially zakia, faced condemnation, beatings and, later, the threat of death from her family. Her family were not wealthy, but they were big and they were numerous, and on their side, in their quest to kill her, they had a very powerful weapon, and that was the knowledge that nobody has ever been successfully prosecuted for an honor killing in afghanistan. Brown a new book tells the story its called the lovers afghanistans romeo and juliet, by New York Times kabul bureau chief rod nordland, tells the story. Nordland wrote the original article and a number of followups. We met recently at the sackler gallery in washington, d. C. As a new exhibition on afghanistan art, Turquoise Mountain was being installed. Nordland told me hed been looking for a way to report on socalled honor killings, the murder of young women by their own families for causing them shame. We hear about honor killings from time to time, but thered be a real paucity of information about them, because nobody would talk about them. And we knew there were many more honor killings than anybody ever hears of. Brown in zakia and ali you found two young people who in some ways seem very normal to their time and place, but clearly in other ways were not, they were willing to do something that went well beyond the bounds of their culture. Did you ever figure out what it was in them that made them that way . Its hard to say, but i think if i had to identify one thing it would be zakia has a real spark of independence. And a real strength of character. She decided that she wanted to do this and she was going to do it. Falling in love is not an unusual thing in afghanistan, like it isnt in any country, any place. Its just forbidden, and its frowned upon by mullahs. Its actually preached against. Brown zakia first went to a womens shelter. Then, upping the stakes dramatically, the two eloped. Sought by police and her family, they went into hiding in rural caves and in kabul. It didnt occur to me even that she would have the courage to run on her own, 18yearold girl, never been outside her own village. I was the first man she had ever sat in the same room with that wasnt a brother or father or ali. Many times, even the first interview i had with them, they said that they would be happy if they were just together for a day. And if the other person were killed, they would gladly kill themselves. Brown nordland, working with a video crew, was able to follow zakia and ali periodically over the next year, as they had a daughter named rukia. But his stories, picked up by afghan media, also made it harder for them to hide. And nordland himself became part of the story, at one point providing the couple a getaway car and some money. I stepped over the line between being a journalist and being a participant. And i admit i did that, and probably by the precepts of my profession, that was the wrong thing to do. Rules are only rules sometimes need to be broken in the interest of doing whats right. There are times as a journalist, i mean, you know, if you come across a car crash, do you take the picture first or help the victim inside the car. You obviously help the victim inside the car, most of us would. And it was a little bit like that in a way. Brown the largest context here of course is the status of women in afghanistan, and after 2001 you write about this so much hope there was. But according to this story, the story you tell, not much has changed. When it comes to a lot of these abusive customary practices, thats right. Theyre still as prevalent as they once were. Honor killing, child brides, the practice of when a little girl is sold to pay a family debt, often a debt for some moral crime that a male relative has carried out. It would be unfair to say there hasnt been improvement, because millions of girls are in schools that didnt exist during the taliban time, thats true. Still when you look at the metrics, afghanistan still remains the worst place in the world to be born a woman, in life expectancy, maternal mortality, anything. And you look at it, and thats pretty shocking considering the investment that weve tried to make in bettering womens lives there. Brown nordland remains in touch with zakia and ali, who are still in hiding. In the video he made of their life today with their daughter, they said this. translated if i were killed and not here with her, i hope that our daughter will grow up to learn where to go and where not to go, and will be educated. translated my advice to someone who falls in love is that he should do something to win her love and they should have a happy life. Brown the couple decided against fleeing for europe, at least for now, but hope to find asylum somewhere. Im Jeffrey Brown for the pbs newshour. Sreenivasan on the newshour online long before they made luxury cars and s. U. V. s, bmw made airplane engines that helped power germanys fleet of fighter planes during world war one. The automaker celebrates its centennial today. You can read more about its beginnings, on our home page. All that and more is on our web site, pbs. Org newshour. And thats the newshour for tonight. Im hari sreenivasan. Join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc 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, newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs, and hong kong tourism board. Want to know hong kongs most romantic spots . I will show you. I love heading to repulse bay for an evening stroll. Its a perfect, stunning backdrop for making romantic moments utterly unforgettable