Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20160331

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And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff its five days until the wisconsin primary, and rivals in both parties are turning up the heat on donald trump. After a rough 24 hours, the republican frontrunner stayed mostly out of the public eye today. One meeting was with Donald Trumps Foreign Policy team, a day after he refused to rule out a Nuclear Strike against Islamic State militants. Can you tell the middle east were not using a Nuclear Weapon . Can you tell the middle east were not using a Nuclear Weapon on anybody . I would never say that. I would never take any of my cards off the table. How about europe . We wont use it in europe . I im not going to take it aughter ht use it in europe . No, i dont think so. Woodruff in fact, u. S. President s by tradition do not rule out the use of Nuclear Weapons on any front, in order in that same televised town hall, trump also said women who have abortions should be punished, if theyre ever made illegal. Later, in a new statement, he said the physician, not the woman, should face penalties. Today, republican rival john kasich pounced, as he campaigned on trumps home turf new york city. He comes unmoored. And then has to spend a lot of time, trying to figure out how to correct all the mistakes that he made. I have to tell you, as commanderinchief, and leader of the free world, you dont get doovers. Woodruff in purchase, new york, the democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton zeroed in on the abortion comments. You know one of my favorite americans, maya angelou, said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them. Donald trump is showing us exactly who he is, and we should believe him. Woodruff clintons rival Bernie Sanders took on trumps comments indirectly, in pittsburgh. All of you are aware of republicans running all over the country talking about family values, how much they love families, what i want you to know exactly what they mean. What they mean is no woman in this huge room, in this state, in this country, should have the right to control her own body. I disagree. Woodruff for all of the candidates, the next big day of reckoning looms tuesday, in primaries in wisconsin. Well talk to one of Donald Trumps main Foreign Policy advisors, after the news summary. Parts of the south kept watch today for heavy thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Heavy rainfall triggered flood watches in georgia and louisiana, and tornado alerts in parts of mississippi, alabama, tennessee and kentucky. Last night, a tornado touched down several times in northeastern oklahoma. It damaged homes and businesses and injured at least seven people. At least 21 people died in india today when an overpass that was under construction, collapsed. It happened in a busy commercial district in kolkata. More than 70 people were injured, with an undetermined number still to be rescued. Jonathan miller of independent Television News has our report. Reporter a frantic, terrifying chaos followed the kolkata collapse as people tore with their bare hands at twisted reinforcing steel and crumbled concrete to free those trapped and still alive. A freshlyconcreted 300foot long section of the flyover had given way, crushing cars and trucks and autorickshaws, pinning pedestrians and vehicle occupants under tons of mangled metal and cement. Cctv footage caught the moment. Two yellow ambassador taxis among the vehicles crawling along burrabazar, then this. Someone said it sounded like a bomb exploding. You can see how many must have been entombed in this small area alone. There were loads of people standing underneath, this man says. Rickshaws, taxis, everything was buried. Local residents as furious as they were horrified. I cant tell you exactly why it collapsed, this man says, but it happened because they were trying to finish its construction in a rush. This is the state of our engineering, she says. There is corruption everywhere. Tonight the search and rescue efforts have continued under spotlights, the army and specialist teams deployed now; all as recriminations build in advance of next months state elections. There are likely to be political victims of this tragedy as well. Woodruff the cause of the incident is now under investigation. In syria, theres word of one of the deadliest attacks since a ceasefire took effect a month ago. Opposition activists say at least 23 people died in Government Air strikes that hit near a school and hospital, just east of damascus. That area is divided among various factions. Embattled South African president jacob zuma is facing more legal trouble. The countrys highest court ruled today he failed to uphold the constitution by using more than 20 million in state money to upgrade his private home. Its the latest in a string of claims zuma has abused his power. Back in this country, the north Korean Nuclear threat dominated a meeting between president obama and his counterparts from japan and south korea. It was the first time theyd met since the norths latest nuclear and missile tests. Afterward, the leaders warned their countries could take new action to counter any threats from the north. We recognize that our security is linked that we have to Work Together to meet this challenge, and we also recognize that it is important to the International Community to vigilantly enforce the strong un security measures that were passed in light of some of the Ballistic Missile and Nuclear Activity that pyongyang has been engaging in. Woodruff mr. Obama also met with chinese president xi jinping. Well take a closer look at the challenges xi faces at home, after the news summary. Woodruff in california, propose state raise the minimum wage to 15. And wall street was mostly down. Wall street was mostly down today. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 31 points to close at 17,685. The nasdaq rose a fraction, and the sandp 500 slipped four. And, famed architect zaha hadid died today, in miami, after a heart attack. She was known for bold, futuristic designs, and was the first woman to win architectures pritzker prize. Hadids work includes the glittering opera house in guangzhou, china, the curved Heydar Aliyev center in baku, azerbaijan, and the London Aquatics Center used for the 2012 olympics. Zaha hadid was 65 years old. Still to come on the newshour Donald Trumps Foreign Policy advisor on the g. O. P. Frontrunners world view. Why several president ial hopefuls are having trouble winning over women voters. Chinas president in washington amid unsual public criticism, and much more. Woodruff we return now to politics, and a look at where the candidates stand on Foreign Policy. Tonight, we focus on republican frontrunner donald trump. He met with his Foreign Policy team earlier today. And we are joined now by one of the advisors in that meeting, walid phares. He was an advisor to mitt romney in the 2012 campaign. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much. Woodruff you just told me the meeting went on two hours. Theres been a lot of criticism mr. Trump is not well informed whin it comes to international affairs. How well informed is he . In this meeting we felt he was informed about many actors and players in the world. Of course, he has to be informed by his advisors and hopefully by f he wins by the actual agency. So he is collecting the information, the assessment and focusing on the most important priorities for him. Woodruff hes gotten some headlines lately for comments hes made about the use of Nuclear Weapons about in the asian theater and in in your opinion toward i. S. I. S. Would u. S. Policy about the use of Nuclear Weapons in any way change under a President Trump, do you think . Lets Pay Attention to his work. He said, i wont rule it out. It wont be off the table, but there would be an exception. And the exception would be if the terrorists would obtain nukes, maybe his advisor would tell him we would need that. But it wont change our posture with the chinese and the russians and others as well. Woodruff is that because he doesnt want to take them office table . In his doctrine and approach to all issues, he doesnt want to let go of any options. Does not mean hes going to use that option. His new doctrine of National Security is going to be wider, how to build and how to react to these scenarios. Woodruff hes made comments about n. A. T. O. Thinking n. A. T. O. Should pick up more of the cost of its own defense, is that because he thinks n. A. T. O. Is not under serious threat from russia . Actually, thats another example of how the perception of what he said is different than what he meant, thats why these important meetings are helpful. What he meant by a n. A. T. O. Review is n. A. T. O. Was created under a cold war and the posture changed. Most of the crises are in the levant and norfolk and other places. He wants to restructure the n. A. T. O. Alliance and the posture toward russia as well. Woodruff is that because he thinks russia is not a serious threat . We and russia have Serious Problems and tensions and he recognizes them in ukraine, crimea, but he also knows russia is threatened by the jihadists and i. S. I. S. And even more than us so he thinks it can be an area we collaborate with the russians against the jihadists and maintain our partnership with europe. Woodruff speaking of jihadists, you were telling us one of the things discussed was a new approach toward i. S. I. S. What could that look like . Number one, having to do with a collaboration not just with russia, but with china, india, maybe other african countries. Egibbet. So increase coalition. The other hand, may be a serious Arab Coalition that would do the job on the ground but we need to be helpful with them. Woodruff as you know this administration has tried to put together an Arab Coalition, tried to get countries in the region to Work Together toward i. S. I. S. How would mr. Trump be able to ma it happen . Because maybe for the reason it didnt happen is the iran deal, in the sense that the administration was very nervous about not endangering the iran deal and, therefore, the Arab Coalition was very nervous about the iran deal. Now it has been signed. So a new era could be opened with the arab leaders. Woodruff i want to ask you about a comment made by chinese leader xi jinping where hes saying words to the effect hes not going to allow other nations to violate chinas sovereignty in the south china sea. Hes referring to the dispute over the islands there. Would a President Trump address china under these circumstances . Were in a primary thats very early and even if he clinches the nomination, it will still be early. For these kind of strategic decisions, he would definitely need the Information Available at the agencies, within the government and defense agent ags and other allies, but the posture is going to be National Security of the United States comes first. Woodruff walid phares, who was an advisor to donald trump, we thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Woodruff woodruff another issue in the spotlight this week women voters. In 2012, they made up 53 of the electorate in the president ial race. To check in on that crucial voting bloc and what is driving the thinking of women voters this year, we are joined by Rebecca Traister, journalist and author of all the Single Ladies unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation. Kelly dittmar, a scholar at the center for american women and politics at rutgers university, and pollster ann selzer, president of selzer and company. We welcome all three of you to the program. Let me start with you, Kelly Dittmar. Remind us, how did american women vote in the last few president ial elections . Sure. So theres a persistent gender gap in terms of womens support and president ial vote choice. Where we see women more likely to vote for the democratic candidate than their male counterpart. If you look at 2012, for example, you see women were supporting barack obama at about 55 compared to men at about 45 , so we call that a 10point gender gap. If you break that down, you see Even Stronger support among women of color for barack obama at 96 , for example, among black women. Woodruff an ann selzer, what do we see so far this year in how the womens vote is break down based ton exit polls in the primaries so far . Lets start with the republicans. Well, were just starting to see things coalesce here. In terms of the primaries with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, she is leading with women. Shes not necessarily leading with younger women. So that really remains her challenge as she thinks about heading into a general election. In terms of the republican side of this, what you have is a stronger showing by cruz among women and a stronger showing for trump among men. He pretty much dominates the male vote. Its a twopoint race between trump and cruz in terms of the primary vote. Woodruff has that been consistent through the primaries or shifting, ann . Well, what we have been seeing is the favabilit3 shifting quite a bit in terms of trump, in particular. In that he has started out from a negative position in terms of overall favorability and only gotten more negligent nigh terms of how negative in terms of how women are rating him. Women are the people thats the constituency that elects president s, as we just heard from the numbers of romney versus obama, and for donald trump to have an unfavorable number of 60 among women, makes it hard tore him to think about winning an election. Woodruff Rebecca Traister, you have been looking at whats driving the womens vote. You wrote a book about unmarried women, but across the board, what do you see women what is it that motivates women when they go to the polls . Well, as you said, you know, i have been looking specifically at unmarried women who make up a huge part of the electorate. In 2012, unmarried women comprised 23 of the electorate and they seemed to vote very far left. They voted for barack obama in 2012. Almost a quarter of the electorate voted for barack obama 67 to 31 . One of the things that i think were seeing reflected on the democratic platform, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, are putting forth all kinds of policies increasingly making sense in a world in which women are living more independently from marriage than before and include the increase in minimum wage. Twothirds of minimumwage workers are women, half unmarried women. Things like paid leave, bert subsidized Early Childhood education and daycare. Both candidates are talking about reducing college costs. Of course, you know, women are very interested, often especially those who lean left are very interested in protecting reproductive rights which are obviously part of the democratic those are strong democratic priorities. So i think this election in particular, youre seeing a a lt of people, a lot of women voting democratic and talking about their economic concerns and wanting to see new social and economic programs that are going to stabilize their economic life. Woodruff let me turn to Kelly Dittmar about women voting in the republican primaries. Seems theyre not necessarily motivated by the same things that are motivating women who turn out to vote democratic. Yeah, i think one interesting thing we have been seeing in some of the polling on the republican side is that there is been a strong kurt push. We talked in past elections about security moms as a certain subset of voter, but actually more so in this election than some elections in the past, ive seen some gender gaps in the prioritization of securityrelated issues, things like concern about terrorism in light of recent attacks or someones ability tonr be commanderinchief and that seems more important among republican women voters than among Democratic Women voters. Woodruff ann selzer, how would you add to the difference about whats motivating women on the democratic and republican side and how theyre making the decisions . Well, one of the things i think is the obvious womens issues, we dont really talk about them as womens issues anymore. We dont talk about the pay gap as much as were talking about income inequality. There are ways in the part of womens issues is sort of fading, but it doesnt mean that thats not important to women anymore. Its more of kind to have the hushed side of it its more kind of the hushed side of it that are the feminism womens issues. The Bloomberg National politics poll did a package on trade and took a look at how people are feeling in the environment where republicans are talking about more restrictions, tightening imhats happening with free trade and women are more protectionists, republicans and democrats, than men. So there are ways in which women are responding to issues very differently, and this is shaping up to be such a different election for us all as we look at the way the tea leaves are falling. Woodruff what about that, Rebecca Traister . I mean, could this year turn upside down some of the assumption about women, whether married or unmarried, as they think about a whom to support . Well, i think the election is already sort of offering a whole set of new choices. I dont think weve ever had a candidate like donald trump, for instance. I dont know whether hell wind up the republican nominee or not, but in terms of his style of speaking his approach doesnt match previous models, and, of course, when it comes to either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, youre looking at candidates unlike anything weve ever seen before, and i think that, in fact, not only in that she is a woman and he is a jewish, selfdescribed socialist, i think youre also looking at a democratic platform that is much further to the left in general in terms of a whole suite of issues than weve seen in recent memory. So i think a lot of expectations are very much up in the air i think very few people could have predictorred going in and very few did predict Donald Trumps success or the strength of Bernie Sanders campaign. Its hard to use old models to predict next six months. Woodruff Kelly Dittmar, quickly, as we look to the primaries that are remaining in the general election, is there something these candidates need to keep in mind if they hope to appeal to women across the board . Well, i think one thing is to recognize, as everyone said tonight, that women voters are not a monolithic bloc. When youre trying to appeal to women voters, you have to specify which women youre trying to appeal to. So primary lect rats electorates will be different than the general. You need to resonate with republican versus democrat women, or black women versus white women, or married versus unmarried women will be different and candidates do a disservice when they try to target women as a bloc and do things that end up appearing either patronizing or essentialist. So i think candidates need to be looking at th the diversity amog women voters and thats going to get them to the finish line whether in the primary or the general election. Woodruff a good reminor as we wrap this up and well continue to stay focused on the woment and w< mens vote throut the election. Thank you all three, ann selzer, Rebecca Traister and Kelly Dittmar. Thank you. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour the rise of socalled micro scholarships. Whats behind the rapid decline of venezuelas economy. And top female soccer players take action against unequal pay. But first, as Tensions Mount between the United States and china over a number of issues, tensions within china are also rising. Hari screenivasan has the story. Sreenivasan for the chinese leader, its a moment on the world stage, on issues ranging from the growing tensions over chinas military activity in the south china sea, to beijings ability to rein in north Koreas Nuclear efforts. translated especially we want to enhance communication and coordination on the Korea Nuclear issue and other regional and global issues, and to consolidate and expand our shared interests. Sreenivasan but xis biggest challenge may be back home, where there are signs of growing discontent. Partly, its economic a stock crash, sliding currency values and the weakest Economic Growth in a quarter century. Outwardly, at least, xis government has remained upbeat. translated we are fully confident of chinas long term Economic Growth. And open up, chinas economy will not suffer a hard landing. Sreenivasan but xi has also raised hackles with his crackdown on dissent. Last month, he visited state media organizations, warning that asolute loyalty to the party is their highest priority. That drew criticism from real estate magnate ren zhiqiang, among others, and his social media accounts were suspended. This month, a governmentrun website posted a letter calling for xis resignation. It was signed loyal communist party members. Soon after, a number of people, including wellknown columnist jia jia, went missing, apparently as part of an investigation into the letters origin. Protesters in hong kong demanded to know his whereabouts. I think xi jinping stressed that china should be and will be ruled by law, but what happened in china after he is in power, he threatened, he arrests, kidnapped all kinds of activists from different part of civic society. Journalists, lawyer, social worker are all his target. Sreenivasan columnist jia has since been released. We explore the internal divisions within china with christopher johnson. He had a two decade career at the c. I. A. Where he focused on china. Hes now at the center for strategic and international studies. And Andrew Nathan is a professor at columbia university. Hes the author and editor of many books including the tiananmen papers. Andrew, i want to start with you. How significant are these public letters, these internal dissents . I think they are very meaningful because i think the key is that xi is losing the support of the high levels of the Chinese Communist party. Theyre not willing to rally around him the way that they did in the mao period. Its a more critical time. Theyre more independent. Hes demanding absolute loyalty, and people are no longer willing to offer that. Sreenivasan christopher johnson, do you see this as a significant threat to the leadership of president xi. I dont and i would actually strongly disagree with dr. Nathans characterlation of support for xi jinping. Number one to focus on are the letters. Weve done forensic work to figure out where they came from. Our sense is they originated from outside china so the notion there is a core group of elite members of the communist party pushing back on xi jinping and asking him to step down doesnt seem to be the case. I think the other thing to emphasize is historically when weve looked at issues when there is elite fighting the faction that leaks to the outside first especially the western media is usually the one losing the fight and ends up losing the fight. Sreenivasan does it matter if it was a homegrown letter versus one sent from outside activists . Well, there are a number of different documents but certainly it does matter if theyre just outside activists hacking these things o on on thb with sites in china its clever but doesnt signal a split in the leadership. Whats very dangerous for the leadership is if there is a split and comes out into the open, that sends a signal to lots of people in china that are dissatisfied. There are many people unhappy because the economy is slowing down and because people are losing jobs. Xi jinping is attacking the Stateowned Enterprises to try to force them to be more efficient. He wants to reorganize the military. He has this big anticorruption campaign. So we know there are a lot of people who are dissatisfied but theyre afraid to do anything. But if they see a split in the leadership, which is what people saw back in 1989, when they view that split in the leadership, there is axd real risk of social disorder in china. So it does matter a great deal whether these documents reflect a real split in the top leadership. Im not talking about just ordinary party members. Sreenivasan christopher johnson, what about the idea, the centralizing of power the president has been engaged in over the past several months is something of concern to people who have had that power taken away from them . Is there increased pressure on him to give some of that power back . Absolutely. I mean, what we see with president xi is a rapid centralization of power. He claims or you know the body language is that hes doing so because there are difficult changes in what happened during his predecessors ten your that he was overconsensus and they couldnt get anything done and the Stateowned Enterprises of debt and degradation piled up. Xi jinping tried to centralize the power but is that a means to an end that we may all live with in terms of Economic Reforms or an end that he is a power mad megalomaniac like mao zedong, which i doubt. Sreenivasan what about the the idea even if the power is centralized, this is a person the United States or others can deal with, do you see these kind of internal struggles actually creating a threat for him to lose power . Potentially, it does. I agree with chris that xi was brought into power by the previous leadership because they needed a strong leader to confront all these issues that i mentioned before, and he has been a strong leader, but the trouble is hes responsible for the results, and a lot of the results have displeased people including the slowdown of the economy. I think other chinese top leaders do not accept the idea that the economy slowdown is natural, necessary. Necessary. Xi said our economy will do great, with you had a clip from the premier saying that and its not done well. There is bushback against his Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia and hes responsible for the results and i think he has a hard job and its not easy to produce results that satisfy other people. So thats where i think the criticism is coming from. Especially from his demand that nobody can criticize him. Thats what this dustup is about. His saying that others in the party, they have to shut up and take what i give them. Thats where i think people are no longer willing to put up with it the way they did with mao. Sreenivasan christopher johnson, is this par for the course . My own sense is that what we have to watch here is there is going to be a major transition in the pullet bureau next fall and xi jinping has a clear agenda as to what he wants to do that, the key indicators of how powerful he will be is will he follow the socalled rules that have been followed in the past with regard to age and will he signal the succession, things like this, this will tell us how significant the pushback is as dr. Nathan suggested. Sreenivasan christopher johnson, Andrew Nathan, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Woodruff its hard to overstate just how Expensive College can be more than 40,000 a year for a private school, over 34,000 for an out ofstate public school. Many students do qualify for greater financial aid, but a startup has come up with a way to let High School Students earn money for college much earlier. Economics correspondent paul solman has the story, part of his making sense series, which airs thursdays on the newshour. Reporter at the engineering classroom of a top Public Magnet School in miami, terra high school, Sebastian Rodriguez and his teams entry in a National Robot competition. You had to pick up a lot of wiffle balls and stack them into this canister here and then be able to propel them upwards into sixfoottall tubes. Reporter turns out this whole school is as competitive as the robotniks; you need high grades and test scores just to get in. You dont get any extra money for having built a really cool robot, do you . No, not at all. Just the fun of having to build a robot. Reporter and why ask about money . Because here, kids get paid for achievements through a College Scholarship app called raise. Me. Senior barbara groh. They call them micro scholarships and its all based on your portfolio, your profile. So, for different aspects of my profile, i can get different amounts of money from different schools. So these are all my ap classes. Reporter are these your grades . Yes. For getting an a, you can get 25 1,000, depending on the school. Reporter more than 140 colleges and universities already, from Florida State to oberlin, penn state to notre dame, use their own formulas to offer money in the form of an eventual merit scholarship for high school achievements, starting in 9th grade and guaranteed, though only if the student applies and is actually admitted. Raise. Me, a private Company Funded by Venture Capital and several foundations, charges the schools annual fees to participate. The scholarships are provided by the schools themselves. Take an honors or advanced course. Participating in an extracurricular activity. Taking the p. S. A. T. s, s. A. T. s. And also for getting good scores, you can get even more money. Reporter more moy for immediate achievements, says raise. Mes founder preston silverman. Instead of waiting for four years to find out if youre gonna receive any scholarship, students are getting a short feedback loop, each semester, each grade they get. Its a huge pool of money that colleges and universities are giving out to kids after theyve applied, after theyve gotten in, now goes to kids starting as early as ninth grade. Reporter yes, it only goes to them as a promise, contingent on acceptance, says raise. Me Vice President aneesh ramen, but no matter where they go. It motivates them to do better in high school and it prepares them better for college so when they go they actually finish, get a diploma, find a job, live the american dream. Thats the idea. Reporter senior Sabrina Rosell is one of terras typically high achievers. But, like almost all the students here 40 of whom qualify for Federal School lunch aid rosell needs help to attend the college of her choice, nearby florida international. Its relatively inexpensive. But then, she has four siblings. It may look like my family doesnt qualify for financial aid, but it doesnt mean that i could just dish out this 6,000 for tuition every single year. Reporter the 8,000 shes earned on raise. Me thus far represents a fair chunk of that tuition. Its almost like a gift in exchange for all of our hard work. Reporter rosells fellow students agree. I finally found something that i can get from working hard besides just the good feeling from working hard, you know . Reporter but if the students at terra dont need the motivational nudge of financial incentives, even if most need the money, students elsewhere seriously need both, says raise. Me founder silverman. We spend almost all of our time reaching out to schools and School Districts that are serving lower income populations and schools that serve a large percentage of First Generation College students, because those are the students that were most passionate about supporting. How many of you want to go to college . Reporter okay, so next morning we joined a raise. Me reachout rally at a distinctly nonmagnet school, carol city high. Lets take some guesses on what you can earn for Different Things on raise. Everyone who answers right ill give you a prize. How much do you guys think you can get for getting an a or a b in class . 1,000 reporter carol city is just a few miles away from terra, but in terms of academic motivation, a world apart. So will financial incentives work here . Yes, i do think people would try harder if they knew, like, the benefits of getting money to go to college and be successful in life. Reporter christina derby, carol city highs valedictorian, doesnt need the extra incentive. But she too thinks raise. Me will instill and reinforce good habits. I think as the money accumulates over time then kids will be like i shouldnt fall down and get behind in my work, i should actually work harder and do more things because in the end it will pay off. reporter but kristin clop fenstine, who studies the economics of education, worries that for many kids, raise. Me will simply fall flat. A lot of times kids, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, dont understand the path from here to there. And so just saying, oh, well reward you if you pass this test, the kids might get all excited about the incentive, but then they have no idea about how to go about actually achieving that goal. Reporter especially with so many other distractions. Another incident of violence hitting too close to a miami dade school. Reporter just hours after we left carol city, there was a driveby shooting out front. A bunch of kids just started running because i heard like shots like pop, pop. Security, everybody just told us to get inside. I think those kids face an entirely different situation. Where when youre in an advantaged background, from an advantaged background, your time horizon can be much longer, you can be looking forward and planning for two, four years down the road. This is the college i want to go to, this is what i want to be when i grow up. If you talk to kids who are in neighborhoods and schools like youre talking about, what do you want to be when you grow up . , sometimes the kids will scratch their heads and, you know, i dont think that far away; i may not grow up. reporter but klopfenstine does have an alternative. Rewards for intermediate actions that lead to positive outcomes. So for reading books or doing positive study skills and behaviors that will lead to higher grades, ill give you two dollars for every book you read. That has a tremendous impact on reading comprehension. Reporter at nearby florida international, however, an urban Public University with 55,000 students, 60 of them hispanic, director of admissions Jody Glassman says raise. Me had already had a positive impact it has raised hopes for those who might not have otherwise applied. Theres been so much hype is the cost of a College Education worth it . Are you going to be gainfully employed when you graduate . Are you going to graduate with all of this debt . raise. Me really helps us portray to students that college is affordable. Reporter and even to the highachieving students at the magnet school, it turns out, raise. Me has had real value its ratcheted up even further the drive that already spurs them. Were just always competing with each other so if one of them said, hey, i have eighty grand to, to this school on raise. Me the other one will say, well i have eightytwo and well just keep going at it and trying to see what we can add to it. Reporter for the pbs newshour, economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from miami. Woodruff now, to venezuela. The oilrich south american nation is the throes of a deep economic crisis, as its version of socialism faces the crash in global oil prices, and political turmoil. Jeffrey brown has our look. Brown a symbolic burning of the judas, something of an easter tradition in some catholic countries. Effigies of unpopular figures are set ablaze. This year in venezuela those figures were politicians, including president Nicholas Maduro and a local mayor. But president obama wasnt spared the torch, either, the u. S. Has long been a favorite target of venezuelan anger, and venezuelans have much to enrage them the global price of oil, venezuelas main commodity, has fallen dramatically, crushing the governments bottom line. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Central Bank began printing money at record levels. The result massive inflation in the socialist country. The cost of consumer goods increased 275 last year, according to the International Monetary fund. And that number is expected to double in 2016 long lines and empty shelves have come to define life for many, as well as anger at the maduro government. In elections last year, the Opposition Party won a majority of seats in the national parliament. Earlier this month, after weeks without water, protests erupted in this San Cristobal neighborhood. Meanwhile, in caracas, nurses protested a lack of medicines and equipment, while across town, demonstrators called for the president s resignation. And for a look at the crisis facing venezuela, we welcome scott tong of public radios marketplace. He recently returned from a reporting trip there and scott, i should say was formerly a colleague of ours here at the newshour. So first, welcome to you, scott. Thanks, jeff. Brown alright so venezuela, we hear about the impact of low oil prices in certain countries out there. You saw it up close. You describe a country in economic freefall, what does that look like . Oil is everything there. 96 of their export revenue comes from oil. They hardly do anything else there and thats one level of the problem there. Since they got oil 100 years ago, the gusher came and it pushed out a lot of other sectors so they dont make much domestically, so everything has to be imported now. And so now the price of oil has fallen. Two years ago, it was over 110, its around 40 now. And so they dont have dollars to import the things. When you fly there and you get there you, you just see lines, everybodys in line. Brown everybodys in line for everything. For everything. So i traveled to the western city of maracaibo, which is the original oil city in venezuela, and there i got there around 8 30 into a line, and i ran into two sisters. It was 8 30 in the morning and theyre already in back. They said well, if you want to get in front, youre probably there at 1 00 in the morning, sleeping in line. So what they told me, they make minimum wage and they sell empanadas in the street and make 10,000 bolivars, which is ten us dollars right now per month. And they didnt have anything for lunch, they had to try to find whatever they could at the store. There was no guarantee there was going to be anything on the shelves when they got there but they were just going to see. So i went and i bought a hot dog on the streets of caracas. Its called a pepito. Its this big gastronomic, coronary event with all these things on top of it. The first time i went, it was 900 bolivars and i said, i want to go back and get another one. Three days later, it was a 1,050. So the prices just go up like that. And i talked the seller and he said well, the input prices are going up like crazy. Either he has to stand in line like everyone else does to buy the ketchup and the other things or he goes to the black market, brown thats where i want to go next, because in many countries when you have these shortages that means the black market flourishes. Youve been writing, ive been reading your blog posts about that experience. In city maracaibo, its an actual physical place. Its a physical black market, you go behind the plantains and the other produce and you see the illegal things kind of sitting on these little tables. People are a little careful to sell them but its everything that you and i find in aisle three of the safeway. Toilet paper, pampers, kilo sack of rice, corn flour for breakfast. Its the most basic things. So we did a little math, my translator and i, and we found the average markup was 17 times the government set price. So going back to the people in line who are making minimum wage to buy a big can of milk . Thats a week of your salary. Brown so what kind of response is there from the government at this point . What are they able to do . What are they doing . Well the government is split right now. The presidencythe socialist party is the ruling part, it controls the presidency. The opposition won the parliament, won the congress. So the opposition wants to get rid of maduro thats what they keep talking about now. When i was there president maduro gave a speech, a five hour speech, where he said okay were going to solve some of our problems by increasing the price of gasoline, which is almost free. Brown it is truly, it is probably the cheapest in the world. It is. Heres the math, under the new more expensive gasoline price i did the math with my translator two tanks of gasoline is one bottle of water. Its free. So these reforms, to most people, are meaningless. Because inflation by one estimate, the official estimate is 180 , it could be 400. The i. M. F. Says it could be 700 this year. Your money just isnt worth anything there. Brown how much were you able to tell the impact of whats happening economically on the politics there. Will the president , how much pressure is he under, will he survive . So the people i asked this to there are two Big Questions for 2016. Can the country pay off its debt . And if it does, then it will have hardly any money left to import food and medicine, thats question one. The other question is what happens to president maduro. His predecessor hugo chavez was beloved, he was charismatic. The people in the barrios, the slums, tears come to their eyes sometimes when they talk about him. He was truly a beloved figure. Nicolas maduro is charismaless, he doesnt speak well, and now the economy has just collapsed. The question is can the opposition push through the mechanisms in congress and get the signatures to force him from power, but that seems to be their number one priority now. Brown scott tung of marketplace, thanks so much. Thanks jeff. Woodruff when the u. S. Womens soccer team won the world cup last year, there were celebrations and acclaim for their achievement. But five members of that team have now filed a complaint with the equal Employment Opportunity commission and say u. S. Soccer is practicing wage discrimination. The filing says even though the womens team generated 20 million more in revenue than the mens team, the women earned four times less. The top women on the team earn a salary of 72,000 dollars, plus bonuses. But the women say the gaps in bonuses and other pay is huge. Women, for example, can earn 99,000 dollars if they win at least 20 exhibitions a year. Men could earn 263,000 for doing the same thing. The women, including hope solo, carli lloyd and alex morgan, appeared on the today show. I have been on this team a decade and a half and i have been through numerous negotiations and, honestly, not much has changed. We continue to be told we should be grateful just to have the opportunity to play professional soccer and get paid for doing it. In this day and age, you know, its about equality. Its about equal rights. Its about equal pay. Woodruff in a statement, u. S. Soccer said it was disappointed. Woodruff in a statement, u. S. Soccer said it was disappointed. It also said later we are committed to and engaged in negotiating a new collective Bargaining Agreement that addresses compensation. We look at this dispute with a former goalie for the u. S. Womens team whos played in three world cups including the Championship Team in 1999. Brianna scurry has long spoken out on these issues and joins me now. Welcome back to the program. Thank you for having me. Great to be here. Woodruff whats the basis for this . You said this goes back a while. How far . This goes back decades. Back when i first started being on the team in the late 90s, we had this discussions with the u. S. Soccer federation. At that time it was about massage therapists and other things like that and also getting paid at all in general, back then was the issue. But now it seems, obviously, that they want equal pay to the men, but the problem is that u. S. Soccer states oftentimes their thing is, hey, we sponsor the women, we support the women better than any other federation in the world, they have been pushed to do that and that is why they do that because we have often had to come to the table and do Different Things and try to get them to move the bar higher like the women have done today. Woodruff i was struck about some of the things women spoke about today about playing on artificial turf when they say youre prior prone to injury in that situation. Yes. Woodruff what are some of the factors of life on the soccer circuit, if you will, for women . One of the issues you mentioned just now was artificial turf. The women werent allowed to have their lawsuit go through about being on the turf. They werent allowed to give their opinion, even though they found companies willing to replace artificial turf with actual natural grass, they werent allowed to do that. So thats one of the issues they have had over the years. You know, Different Things like hotel standards, the hotels arent as nice as the men play at, and now is equal pay, which is the biggest disparity now. Woodruff how long have the women players known their pay is that different from what the men are earning . I think theyve probably known for a while, but i feel like its not until recently that they really got to see the numbers. In the past, the issue has always been, well, we dont need to pay you the same as we pay the men because you dont make enough revenue in order to sustain that pay. Obviously, now, that is no longer the issue. That is not the case anymore. That is no longer the argument they can give, so, now, i feel they should be allowed to ask and get equal pay. Woodruff why do you think or why are they resorting to going to the federal equal Employment Opportunity commission . Why not try to resolve this through the league, through u. S. Soccer, through their own union . I am pretty much certain that they have tried. They have probably exhausted every other avenue they could with the exception of filing a lawsuit or a complaint with the federation. I mean, im sure theyve gone through several rounds of negotiations and trying to get the u. S. Soccer federation to move in the right direction of equal pay for equal play. And theyre not moving there. To be honest, they probably had their last opportunity and chance to make this happen and this was it. Woodruff again, i was struck by u. S. Soccers statement. They went on to say we are proud of the commitment weve made to building the womens game in the United States over the past 30 years. So as we said, they made a litter statement where they commented on compensation. But what do you make of their reaction . Its the standard reaction theyve always had. Its unfortunate because the bar is so low for every other federation in the world that they can easily claim, yeah, were the leading company, were the leading standard in that. But the problem is is that over the last several decades, weve had we meaning myself when i played we had to push them to a higher standard, and thats because we were winning olympics, we were winning world cups. So they had to have some sort of equality for the womens team, they really couldnt ignore that. So they had to have a higher standard than every other country out there for the womens teams, and thats not necessarily a feather in their cap. Its more so as something that they were obligated to do. Woodruff how do you think this will be resolved . I really hope its resolved after this lawsuits been filed. I really hope it doesnt come down to the womens team feeling they have to strike in order to get equal pay for equal play. I really hope they can come to the table again hopefully soon and get this all resolved because im telling you now none of the players that signed the petition and play on the team want to be dealing with any of this now. Theyre in the process of training for Olympic Games and thats what they should be focusing on. Woodruff brianna scurry, former goalie for the womens winning u. S. Soccer team. Thank you very much. Thank you. Woodruff on the newshour online, springtime in washington is unmistakably pink, thanks to the citys famous cherry blossoms. We visited the iconic tidal basin recently, where the trees were in peak bloom. And we filmed a 360 degree view. You can watch as the sun rises over the jefferson memorial, and view the magnificent scenery from all sides. Find that interactive video on our home page, pbs. Org newshour. And thats the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. 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. The lemelson foundation. Committed to improving lives through invention. In the u. S. And developing countries. On the web at lemelson. 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. Tell me sweet little want to know hong kongs most romantic spots . Ill show you. I love heading to repulse bay for an evening stroll. Its a perfect, stunning backdrop for making romantic moments utterly