Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20160817

Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by some say its a calling. Some say they lost someone they loved. Lo many say its to save lives, as many and as often as possible. Theres 100 reasons why someone becomes a doctor, but at m. D. Anderson, its because theres nothing and we mean nothingn we wont do in making cancer history. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. N and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan the toll from days of historic flooding in louisiana kept on climbing today. Local officials raised the number of fatalities to 10. Early estimates indicate at least 40,000 homes have beenve impacted. The water did start to slowly recede in areas near baton rouge. T meanwhile some residents managed to return to their homes toed assess the damage. Governor John Bel Edwards acknowledged Recovery Efforts have been tough. This is a very difficult situation to get assistance out to where we need to. We still have about 34,000 meters without electricity thats customers, so thats homes or businesses. We understand that there is still a lot of people suffering. Sreenivasan the governor also reported about 8,000 people remain in shelters, a number het expects will rise. Woodruff in california, crews have gained ground on a Massive Wildfire north ofou san francisco. Its charred nearly seven square miles, and destroyed 175 homes and other buildings. But local officials said the fire is now about 20 contained. The progress came as authorities arrested a man they believe set the fire. He was charged with 17 counts oi arson, and is suspected of starting several other fires in the area. Sreenivasan the nationsas Third Largest Health Insurer, aetna, has announced plans to leave most of the healthcare exchanges set up under presidenh obamas Affordable Care act. It will sharply cut its participation from 15 states to just four next year, citing heavy financial losses. Aetna is the third major Health Insurer to pull out of the a. C. A. In recent months, joinin. United health and humana. Woodruff russia widened its Bombing Campaign in syria today, this time, launching air strikes from iran. The warplanes took off from a base near hamedan, about 175 miles southwest of tehran. They targeted Islamic State fighters and other militants. Its the first time russia has used another countrys territory for attacks in syria. An American Military official said the u. S. Was warned in advance. They informed us they were coming through, and we ensured safety of flight as those bombers passed through the area and toward their target and then when they passed out again. They did not Impact Coalition operations in either iraq or syria during the time. We knew in time. Its not a lot of time, but its enough and it was enough time to make sure that we could ensure safety of flight. Woodruff its believed to b the first time tehran has allowed a foreign country to use one of its bases for military operations since the 1979 islamic revolution. Sreenivasan one of britains most wellknown radical muslim preachers has been convicted of rallying support for the Islamic State. Anjem choudary was found guilty in a london court last month. That was unreportable until now due to legal restrictions. His followers have been linked to a number of highprofile attacks, including last years beheading of a british soldierye in london. Choudary could face up to 10ac years in prison. Woodruff here in the u. S. , regulators today unveiled new fuel efficiency rules for large trucks and other heavyduty vehicles. The caps will cut Greenhouse Gas emissions by over one billion tons, and save over 170 billion in fuel costs. By 2027, heavyduty trucks will be 25 more fuel efficient than those sold in 2018. 2 heavyduty vehicles account for more than 20 of transportation related pollution. Sreenivasan stocks slipped on wall street today, due in part to a lag in phone and Utility Company shares. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 84 points to close at 18,552. The nasdaq fell nearly 35 points, and the s p 500 dropped 12. Woodruff a passing to note renowned tv host John Mclaughlin has died. He was the creator, executive producer and host of the a mclaughlin group, a long running Weekly Public Affairs a show. Mclaughlin was too ill to host this past sunday, the first time hes missed a taping in 34ti years. He was also an international journalist, and served as a speechwriter for president snaee nixon and ford. John mclaughlin was 89 years old. D sreenivasan and now some highlights from todays summerm games in rio. The u. S. Women gymnasts ended an exhilarating olympic run where they began it atop the winners podium. Po simone biles won her fourth gold of the games in the floor exercise. Her teammate, aly raisman, was at her side, taking the silver. And in the mens finals, american gymnast danell leyva grabbed silvers on both the parallel bars and the high bar. Woodruff still to come on the newshour, the largest guantanamo detainee transfer under president obama. How donald trump and Hillary Clinton plan to defeat isis. Allegations against fox news roger ailes spark a larger discussion on workplace harassment, and much more. Woodruff when president Obama Took Office there were 242 detainees being held at theg Guantanamo Bay prison. He stated his priority was to close the facility in cuba. But finding places for the inmates to go, even after they had been legally cleared, haste proven difficult. Yesterday, the pentagon announced the latest transfer out 15 prisoners to go to the united arab emirates, meaning the number left is down to 61. William brangham has the story. Brangham on his first day in office, president obama promises to close guantanamo. Hes called it expensive, unnecessary and a recruitment brochure for our enemies. While congress has blocked the transfer of highrisk detainees to u. S. Prisons, the administration has focused on moving those who are cleared fon release to other nations. But mondays announcement, which was the single biggest transfer for this administration, has been criticized by republicans who say these 15 men are dangerous and should never havem been let go. Im joined now by Charlie Savage of the new york times. He hes covered gitmo and the war on terror for many years. Charlie, help us understand, who are these 15 men who were recently released. Hi. Thanks for having me on. Ure so these men, these 15, 12 of them are from yemen and 3 of them are from afghanistan. They were approved for transfer to a stable country that could provide various security assurances some time ago in many cases, either by a task force in 2009 or later by a parolelike review panel, in both cases made up of six security agencies, Central Intelligence agency, the defense department, the statest department, the Justice Department and sode on. These are career officials, not political appointee, and they unanimously agreed these men no longer posed such a threat to the United States that it wast necessary to keep holding them in indefinite detention without trial, but because they came from, especially in the case of the yemenis, countries that werw not stable, in fact chaotic and had a weak central government, they were stranded until some other country that could meet these security assurances wasty willing to take them in. And in this very sizeable transfer, the u. A. E. Solved that problem for the United States and brought them to its country and is now putting them through a rehabilitation program. They have not been released onon to the streets. They are still in custody but with an eye to eventually moving them out toward Halfway House and then life in relativea freedom in that country under monitoring. Brangham severalng republicans have pointed out,t they argue that these 15 men are very dangerous and they pointoi out in a prior classification, these men were ruled as being very high risk. So what has changed in their status as far as the u. S. Governments view of these men . Right. Well, there are two things toto understand about that. One is that it has become a politically potent sort of partisan fodder to say that any transfer release from guantanamo is endangering National Security as a way of attacking the Obama Administration. And it polls well. No matter who is released under what circumstances, this is a recurring theme. So it has to be understood as part of this policy debate. Now, as to your question specifically, what theyre t referring to is there was a group of reports or dossiersrs prepared by the military about everyone at guantanamo in thein first few years that they were there under the bush administration. But later they became public when they released by private through wikileaks. And they raised the threat level of the detainees and describeedb who the military at that point thought they were. Almost everyone who was theree was rated its ear medium or a high risk. Most of the men in this group were also rated a high risk that. Is a snapshot in time based on the militarys understanding in the year 2004, 2005, 2006. So what happens later, as years continue to pass is that then the Obama Administration came in and appointed that task force i mentioned earlier. And then later since 2013 thata parole life review board with these six agencies. So they come back and they take another look at these men. How have they behaved in custody. What kind of trouble have they gotten into or do they comply with the rules . What have they said over the years . What are their family members saying about them . What kind of situation would they go into . And now things are different in that we have this very welldeveloped system, some of it imposed by congress over the Obama Administrationsti objection, that requires detainees to go to a place where there are Adequate Security assurances of monitoring and other steps to reduce the chance of recidivism, whereas in 2004, 2005, 2006, if someone was released, they really were just simply let go. So what could be a threat, what could be perceived as a threat at the time of those reports may or may not still be the case ten 12, years later, but that is the basis of the attacks that youre hearing in the political sphere. Brangham we have 61 men who are still at guantanamo now. Whats likely to happen with those men . So 20 more of them have also been recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met b in the receiving countries. And the Obama Administration is clearly trying very hard to get that list down to zero or as close to zero as they can get it before president obama leaves office. And a few more names may be add to it over time by that parolelike review board. But there are still going to be dozens of men, currently 41, who are not recommended for transfer, either because theyre facing charges before a military condition, or more likely because by numbers they are simply deemed too dangerous to be released but untriable. They will have to be housed somewhere. President obamas plan to close gitmo was not to let them go but to bring them to a different prison on domestic soil. Congress has forbidden him from doing that. So most likely come january 20th, when the next president takes office, those men at least will still be there. Brangham all right, Charlie Savage of the new york times, thank you very much. Thank you. Sreenivasan one of the most contentious issues during the current president ial election is how to confront isis and who wao responsible for the rise of the extremist group. Ou Margaret Warner reports. Warner this was the scene recently in a village not far from mosul, in northern iraq. Newly uploaded video purports to show Islamic State fighters doing battle with Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces. Despite battlefield setbacks in iraq and syria, the militant Group Remains lethal. How to fight isis has become agr central theme in the 2016 u. S. President ial race. Isis is honoring president obama. He is the founder of isis. I would say the cofounder would be crooked Hillary Clinton. That was last week. Yesterday republican nomineest donald trump delivered a fuller antiisis message in youngstown, ohio. My administration will aggressively pursue joint and Coalition Military operations tn crush and destroy isis. International cooperation to cut off their funding, expanded intelligence sharing, and cyber warfare to disrupt and disable a their propaganda and recruiting. Warner he also proclaimede that he would end what he called an era of nationbuilding, and would take harsh steps to stop isis from penetrating the u. S. H the time is overdue to develop a new Screening Test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. I call it extreme vetting. Warner it would screen outut those who sympathize with terror groups, and those who have, in his words any hostile attitude towards our country or its principles. Ny those who do not believe in our constitution, or who support warner in a web video released last night, democrat Hillary Clintons campaign tried to turn trumps own words against him, saying he wouldp fail the test hed set for immigrants. Last november, clinton said she would defeat isis by massing more u. S. Ground troops against the group, though with limits. And we should be honest aboun the fact that to be successful, air strikes will have to be combined with ground forcesou actually taking back more territory from isis. Like president obama, i do not believe that we should againho have 100,000 american troops in combat in the middle east. Warner that fits with the picture of clinton in a joint Washington Post pro publicai report today about the early e Obama Administration debate over whether to fulfill his Campaign Pledge to pull out of iraq altogether. It notes that clinton was one of the most vocal advocates for a muscular u. S. Presence in iraq after the withdrawal deadline at the end of 2011. Clinton lost that argument, and all u. S. Fighting forces left. Its also been widely reportedpo that in 2013, clinton and then c. I. A. Director David Petraeus proposed arming and training so called moderate rebels in neighboring syria, but the president rejected it. Je those u. S. Backed rebels are still doing battle against syrian president , Bashar Al Assad, but with mixed results. In the brutal fiveyear old civil war that continues to this day. For the pbs newshour, im Margaret Warner. Sreenivasan so what are the differences between how donaldtw trump and Hillary Clinton would combat isis . For that, we turn to walidto phares, a Foreign Policy advisor to donald trump. P. And Wendy Sherman was under secretary of state for Political Affairs while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. Shes now an outside advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Walid phares, whats the key strategic difference that donald trump wants to make in the fight against isis that the Obama Administration has not . First of all, very important to know that between now and 2017, many things will change on the ground, and they will change for either mrs. Clinton or mr. Trump. So anything were projecting right now has to do with the moment. There are major differses. First, in looking at iraq, syria and of course libya has to be dealt with. Level number one, what forces are going to be engaging isis o the ground . Is it Kurdish Forces . The iraqi army . Or others in syria . Why do you ask this question . Because we dont want to end up with a sect controlling another sect on the ground, which will sound the next war. Second, there is also who will take over after liberation from isis. Should it be the locals, national, the governments or a coalition of Regional Forces that will help them . And thirdly, of course, what is the future of civil wars such as in syria. Who will stay . Who will go . I think we have tremendous differences in how to go in, how the manage and, of course, the negotiations for the future. Sreenivasan one thing donald trump has said is hes open to 20,000 to 30,000 u. S. Troops being on the ground is. I that necessary . Is that the right course . T mr. Trump made that statement. He may make other statements. These are decisions that only when mr. Trump is the president hopefully with his National Security cabinet, they will decide upon the time. President obama did not want too send forces to the region after his withdrawal from iraq. He had engaged in a warfare situation. These are National Security decisions that would be decided once there is an evaluation of the situation on the ground. The American Public has no an title for sending tens of thousands, but each situation has a condition. Sreenivasan ms. Sherman, president clinton has also called for Ground Troops in a limited capacity. What do you see the differences between what mr. Trump is proposing and what mrs. Clinton would carry out . Well, first of all, all of the things that walid just outlined were not discussed in mr. Trumps speech at all yesterday. In fact, the strategy that mr. Trump put on the table, other than the extreme vetting, is exactly what president obama and secretary clinton have worked toward, that is an International Coalition with local troops on the ground, having a very aggressive strategy in the cyber world to stop the financial flows. All of these are part of a multivector strategy that has been under way under president obama for quite some time now and is actually having success. Just today secretary of defensee carter said that Syrian Democracy forces had indeed taken back a very key transit point and now opens the way to ultimately getting to raqqa, which isil has said is its centerpiece for a caliphate, which is disappearing on theg ground in syria. There is a very complex environment in the middle east. In that walid is correct. Ec but it cant come without some knowledge and some background, and every day we get a different message from mr. Trump. Id like to know, does he still support torture, which is not the american way and does not bring results . Lt does he still believe that we ought to be killing innocent civilians if there is a family of terrorists that have nothingi to do with the terror . Is he someone who Still Believes in, as you pointed out, harry, sending thousands and thousandsn of troops . Mr. Trump has been on all sideso of that issue over the history of the least several years. So its very difficult to know whether mr. Trump stands and whether he has an understanding of the complexity of the situation and the progress thats being made but the progress that is still absolutely needed to protect our homeland and to make sure that americans feel safe and secure. Sreenivasan one of the things she said about extreme vetting, what does that mean . Weve heard there might be an ideological questionnaire, but if im the terrorist, wouldnt i just lie . Ju the final goal of this is to intercept jihadists from comingm to the United States. Everything else could bebe reconstructed. He needs to have the input of the National Security agency. One of the problems with our National Security agency over the last eight years have been encountering is that the ideological discourse that the jihadists have among themselvese has been removed from the analysts. Very difficult to be preemptive in the sense to understand when there is radicalization. This is something our liberal democratic allies in france, in britain and also in other countries and also in the arab world have not done. We have retreated from the ideological element. Its in the that we are against one or the other ideology, but we need some indicators thata these people are jihadists so we can vet them. Extreme vetting is not a physical extreme vetting. Its an intellectual exercise that would bring us back to where we should have been, understanding better the ideas i that radicalizes these jihadists. Sreenivasan one thing mr. Trump also said yesterday is the similarity that existed between orlando and san bernardino, the attacks, is they were carried out by children and grandchildren. Is there a particular generation that is patriotic enough that they would not fall under the spell of isis . We also have immigrants and sons and daughters of immigrants from the arab and muslim war who fought in our armed forces and who died for america. What he meant by that is despite the fact of integration, the french are telling us the same thing, the germans are tellingin us the same thing, the integration is not the answer. Its basically deradicalization. So we want to make sure that this ideology does not go to a third generation. It would be the same case for a neonazi or an antisemite. Its not about a social problem. Its about an intellectual, ideological problem. Ca sreenivasan Wendy Sherman, one distinction that exists between Hillary Clinton and president obama is the institution of a nofly zone over syria. Ov president obama even as recentle as the g20 said that would be counterproductive. What would a president clinton do in that case to make it work . First of all, hari, in answer to your question about what extreme vetting is, quite frankly, i didnt understand walids answer. This is not an intellectual exercise. This is about our immigration policies, and they are very strict and the vetting is very tough. And our authorities are always looking at ways to make sure that we are as clear as we possibly can be, as walid himself knows, hes not a muslim, but he came here himself in 1990 when he no longer felt personally safe in lebanon because of his own history, which we could discuss at another time. So i dont quite understand yet what extreme vetting means, other than a nice sound bite on television. To your point about a nofly zone, secretary clinton has said that she wants to explore whatever alternative may deal with the really tragic humanitarian disaster, which has played out in syria. You know that there are literally millions of people who are now refugees. There are millions of people who are internally displaced. The leader of syria, Bashar Al Assad has used starvation as a a weapon of war, has used chemical weapons against his own people, has used chlorine gas probably against his own people. And so the question is, in fact, how do we create some humanitarian safety for all of these millions of people who are really in a desperate situation. We have put enormous pressure on turkey, on jordan, on iraq. And now on europe as migrants and refugees pour out of syriay looking for safety. So i applaud secretary clinton in wanting to explore every alternative, even knowing some of these are quite tough to do and she will look very carefully to see what is doable, but we cant not try to see if there is an answer to this humanitarian tragedy. Sreenivasan all right, Wendy Sherman, walid phares,wa thank you both. Yo thank you. Thank you. Woodruff stay with us, coming up on the newshour. Child care workers struggle to make ends meet on nearminimum wage. A new book explores the history of poor white americans. And inside the extraordinary nose of a search and rescue dog. But first, an update on the fallout at fox news, over allegations that its cofounder, roger ailes, sexually harassed women employees for years. Ailes resigned in late july with a reported 40 million severance package. E. That, after a lawsuit by former fox anchor Gretchen Carlson alleged that her show was cancelled because shed rebuffee sexual advances from ailes. In the following weeks, a growing number of women, including prime time anchor megyn kelly, reportedly came forward with similar stories of impropriety. Ailes has called ms. Carlsons accusations false, and an internal investigation by foxs Parent Company is still underway. For a closer look, not only at this case, but at the wider matter of Sexual Harassment in the workplace, we turn to sarah ellison, a contributing editor at vanity fair who recently reported on the ailes allegations, and shelley ross, a former Network Television news executive, best known for her 17year tenure at abc news. She recently wrote about her own professional experiences with roger ailes, and the News Business at large, in the daily beast. And we welcome both of you to the program. An we should note at the outset, roger ailes back in the news today because of a new yorkth times report that hes now advising donald trumpsal campaign. And we should say the campaign denies that. But sarah ellison, i want to turn to you first. What is the state of what is known about roger ailes alleged harassment of women at fox news . Well, we know. Largely whaa we know is what weve learned from our reporting, which isic that the internal investigation that is ongoing that you referred to earlier has identified at least women in the doubledigits who have come forward and spoken to the internal investigation, and wega know that it was something that implicated ailes certainly. There are people who have come out and told their stories, but there are people who have not yet come forward, and i think well see even more women come forward in the coming days. Woodruff we should say hes denied any wrongdoing. Thats right. Woodruff he did reportedly receive this 40 millionli settlement when he left fox. Does that mean hes legally free and clear, whatever is discovered . Well, no, i dont know that any kind of a contractual arrangement could put someone legally free and clear from any kind of behavior. One of the things that we know and that i reported last week was that there are in the course of these discussions that have been going on with the internal investigation and also with the women who initially brought a lawsuit against roger ailes,r Gretchen Carlson, is there have been some settlement discussions that have begun. At issue in the settlement discussions are tapes that multiple women, including Gretchen Carlson, have made of their interactions with roger ailes. And the fact that those are now circulating, at least among then people who are discussing this possible settlement, just makes every bit of this a bit more explicit. Woodruff sarah ellison, is there the potential for more legal action against rogerin ailes . Well, what we have seen in the press, again, he denies any kind of wrongdoing, but there are beyond Sexual Harassmente charges, there are sort of intimidation and bullying and leaking stories about people. Its not clear to me if he was using the Company Money to settle multiple lawsuits against multiple women and not disclosing that. I dont know at what point that reaches the level that Corporate Governance experts or fec people would be interested in or at what point any of this becomes criminal. Woodruff which is a w question we cant know the answer to at this point. Shelley ross, you did write that youve known roger ailes sinceer the beginning of your career practically. You wrote of meeting him over lunch. He proposed what you described as a Sexual Alliance as you were going to work for him. Your lawyer contacted his lawyers. He then apologized. You did work with him. You have since stayed in touch with him over the years. But you go on to say in this article you wrote in the daily beast, you said Sexual Harassment in Network Television is pervasive. How pervasive is it . Its everywhere. Its everywhere i worked and it has many levels, many facesc being thrown into a Swimming Pool on a Company Picnic iss Sexual Harassment. Its an act of hostility. I was the one at abc, i was the producer doing this very first stories on Sexual Harassment around the time of anita hills testimony against clarence thomas, and my boss presented me with a birthday cake with a phallic on it. Its a hostile environment. I know executive producers who w turn to their young girls on their staff, i havent had my morning hug. I was once. As i was leaving abc, i had a correspondent grabr me and grab my behind and said to me, i can do this now that youre no longer my boss. I stepped back and said, no, you cant. Its pretty ugly. Its the reason i wrote this piece in the daily beast isea that weve got to stop, weve got the end harassment now. Woodruff shelley ross, let me just ask you, do you think its worse in the News Businesss than it is across the board for women . No, i dont think its any different. Its just you think since we report on it that our colleagues should know better, that theyhe should be a little more elevated, and theyre not. Woodruff go ahead. What were you going to say . Its men and women. Ive had a lot of men and former male colleagues reach out to me since i wrote the daily beastl article to tell me things have happened to them years ago, and they sound as scarred as women in the workplace. Woodruff and you do go on, shelley ross, to write about what you think needs to be done, that there just needs to be more candor. Explain what youre talking about. Well, i think even at fox, fox has the opportunity, now that bill shine, who was roger ailes number two, has become president , i think everybodyer thinks hes a really good guy and hes very popular, but he has an opportunity to become a hero. He could say, i want fox news to become the safest place in the world for men and women. I think there has to be public airings. What usually happens, which happened at fox for 20 years, is a woman is sexually harassed. Where do they go . They go to human resources. Human resources is working for the corporation. They dont want a lawsuit. So there is a settlement. Nt theres hush money paid. And theres a nondisclosure. So everything is swept under the carpet, and it goes on and on and on, and i say we need something akin to the truth in reconciliation hearings after apartheid in 1974. Woodruff in south africa . Yes. Nelson mandela had a great idea to say, come forward, clear the air, without any retribution, and we can all move forward safely. Woodruff well, let me turn to sarah ellison, having written as much as you have about what happened at fox. Whether its something exactly like shelley ross describes or something akin to that, what do you see as a real potential solution here, or is there one . Well, i mean, i can tell you what is happening at fox news with the internal investigationn that is ongoing, and this iss that someone very close to that said to me this is not a therapy session for the women involved. This is a law firm that has been hired to give legal advice to 21st century fox. I think what shelly is proposing is quite interesting and thereng has been some lip service paidid to the notion that they want to create a very safe place to work, but when you look at how pervasive this is in Something Like television, where people are invited to comment in the newsroom on how someone looks on air, and people are constantly talking about appearance ande weight and hair and makeup. I think its a very difficultcu environment. I can tell you only what im seeing unfold so far, and its not that promising. Woodruff well, its a subject thats much, much bigger than what we have time for tonight. We thank both of you for certainly giving us something ti think about. Shelley ross and sarah ellison,l thank you. Thank you. Sreenivasan now a look at how prek teachers and early child care workers struggle to make ends meet, earning little better than subsistence wages, even as parents, and the Obama Administration, say they increasingly value what they do. Its part of our weekly education Series Making the grade, produced this week in collaboration with thewe hechinger report. What color is this . Sreenivasan chanee wilson teaches at the salvation armys Child Development center in oakland, california. T this year, the center received a top quality rating from the state. Our teachers are doing a really good job. Theyre not just babysitting, theyre actually teaching. Sreenivasan but Program Director Cheryl Murray says despite the high rating, she is not able to pay her teachers a livable wage. Were unable. If we pay them more, then wehe would not be able to serve theer families, and the families really need the service. Unfortunately, i wish i coulu hit the lottery and pay more for them. Sreenivasan the Center Serves lowincome families and gets 80 of its funding fromfu state subsidies. Families pay on a sliding scale based on their income and teachers are paid minimum wage or slightly higher. One issue is staffing. Because they have younger children, childcare classes require more teachers than kindergarten. Il chanee wilson lives in section i eight subsidized housing with her two children and receives a small amount of money in food stamps. Ve she makes 13. 25 an hour. Its a struggle every month, paycheck to paycheck. You have kids and you have bills. We more focus on the needs like providing the roof over their heads, the clothes, the food, and things like that. Sreenivasan her problem is a common one. Iv labor experts say child care workers all over the country fail to earn a livable wage. Early childhood jobs are amongst the lowest jobs across j any occupation. Sreenivasan Marcy Whitebook is the director of the center for the study of child care employment at the university of california, berkeley. 46 of childcare workers are relying on some type of federal income support. The wages are so low that somebody working full time isnt making a living wage, and what that means is that in order to meet the needs of their families, they need to get assistance. Sreenivasan wilson has her Associates Degree in Early Childhood education and isio attending weekend and night classes to earn a bachelorsan degree. But even with a bachelors degree, her salary will still hover around the minimum wage. Like lead teacher le rhonda rainey, who makes 12. 55 anle hour. To make ends meet, rainey, who has a bachelors degree, works as a Security Guard at night. I think most of our teachers here really teach from theur heart. Because if their heart is not in it, they wouldnt be here because of the wages. College graduates who majoreu in Early Childhood have the distinction of having the lowest lifetime earnings compared tome any other degree. Thats hardly a recruitment and retention strategy. Sreenivasan in fact,an whitebooks says the situation has led to less and lessle colleges are offering Early Education degrees because students dont see their worth. At blue skies for children, another highquality preschool in oakland, codirector claireal bainer cant find the skilled teachers the program strives to recruit. Its very difficult. This year especially with the economy up, people can get jobs, even with our high minimum wage, flipping burgers, and working the parking lot attendants and things like that pay the same, and much easier work. Sreenivasan teachers here are paid more, but bainer says on top of a bachelors degree, she wants them to have extensive training in Early Education, and be good critical thinkers. Children are learning to talk and learning to negotiate. So its very important to have an articulate, smart teacher who knows how to help the children develop those skills. Sreenivasan as a result, the school, which operates on parent fees and fundraising, will increase their tuition this fall. Si we cant hire anybody at the amount that were paying the teachers, so we have to do a fee increase. That only translates to parents paying more. Poor parents, its terrible, its a lot of money. Sreenivasan a recent study by the Economic Policy institute reported infant care in 33 states costs more than instate College Tuition and care for four year olds exceeds collegeor tuition in 24 states. At the same time, early educators say preschool is increasingly valued, and point to new science about critical Brain Development occurring weln before kindergarten. The care and education of young children, before kindergarten, is just as complex as teaching children who areea older. But we havent restructured our system, and invested the public dollars that it will take. Sreenivasan for her part, Program Director Cheryl Murray wants her staff to be compensated equal to what k12 teachers earn. I believe they should be paid as well as secondary teachers. Sreenivasan even some conservative think tanks are exploring the idea of expandings public funds for Early Education. F Katharine Stevens heads the American Enterprise newly launched earlychildhood program. If we approach this in a smart, efficient way, what we would be able to accomplish is getting the neediest kids off to a good start. If kids are arriving in kindergarten that are better prepared, ultimately our k12 system will cost less, we will be reducing special ed costs, we will be reducing grade retention costs. However, throwing money at the problem is not going to assure us of that kind of results. Sreenivasan stevens cautions that new prek programs should not repeat the mistakes of schooling for older children. It would be a really big mistake to scale up huge public spending programs without any idea about whether or not those are going to be effective,in because its going to be veryo difficult to roll that back. Sreenivasan recently, the Obama Administration proposed investing 82 billion to expand childcare to working families and help providers hire, train,o and retain a highly qualified workforce. For the pbs newshour, im hari sreenivasan. Woodruff now, a look at the history of poor, white americans. Thats the focus of the latest addition to the newshour bookshelf, and to jeffrey browno brown this book tells many stories. Arguably the mostor important is the one we as a people have trouble embracing pe the pervasiveness of a class hierarchy in the United States. That line comes from a new book with the provocative title k white trash, which makes awh provocative argument that, from the nations earliest history tn now, ideals such as opportunity and upward mobility haventwa characterized the lives of manyh americans. Author Nancy Isenberg is a professor of history at Louisiana State university. Welcome to you. Thanks for having me. Brown i think what hit me most is the idea that the poor have nothaha only been acceptedt expected, that its a part of our national d. N. A. Thats the argument youre making . Well, i think one of the things we forget is that for half of our history we were an agrarian nation. So white trash really comesme out of notions of world poverty, and it goes all the way back to british ideas, because in the colonial period and well throughout the 19th century, the mark of being a successful american was being a property owner. And what weve forgotten is that large numbers of americans did not own property. For example, in Thomas Jeffersons virginia at the time ofvi the revolution, 40 of whie men were landless. Brown so when you refer to white trash, and i want to be clear, the term is literally used with terms like waste, who do you mean . Yes, the words white trash, at least as far as weve been able to discover, first appeared in newspaper print in the 1820s. But it has a much older meaning, because if we go back to some of the leading promotors of british colonization, when they imagined what were they going to do with the new world, the new worldor first of all was manninged imagined as a wilderness, a wasteland. It was the Perfect Place for literally dumping the idle poor. And these were referred to as waste people. Brown so those are the beginnings, but your argument is that that has pervaded to our own time, that we have a National Myth of opportunity and social mobility. Are you saying those dont exist for everyone or they dont exist for one subset of people . New york i think there is clearly you can find examples of people who have been able to rise up and improve themselves. The problem is that we exaggerate the idea that at the time of the revolution we abandoned the class system, we created an Exceptional Society where we celebrated upward mobility. But, in fact, what the founders like franklin and jefferson really believed in is similar to what the british had in mind, that the poor would be allowed to move into the frontier, what was known as the southern backcountry and the old northwest, and what they were really promising was horizon mobility, not upward mobility. Brown land then was the key factor, not education, not energy or earning, but whatha about now . I would say land is still extremely important. Class has a geography. If we think about the way most americans live and the other measure of class that i highlight is home ownership. If youre poor, the same way they have different names for the poor, they have different names for what they live in, a shack, a shebang or if we talk about trailer trash, what we live in today, we live in classzoned neighborhoods. We have taken into account the importance of racial segregation, and we know that history, but we also live in neighborhoods that are divided by class. If you live in a better neighborhood, you have better amenity, better infrastructure, better schools. So geography still plays a very important part, and owning a house is a very important measure of being a member of the middle class. C brown i know you wrote the book before we got into the politics of the currentt campaign, but how do you see class driving Politics Today . To i dont see donald trump and the issues brought up by Bernie Sanders as that surprising because at crucial moments when politicians are involved, they do use class language. They do heighten and emphasize class distinctions. So that gets pulled as we get pulled in two directions therect too. Sometimes politicians say we are all in the middle class or were all capable of being in the middle class. Thats when they want to draw from a more positive stripghtd. R but at other times i talk about politicians who use class as a way to mobilize political divisions or to accentuate political divisions in our country. Brown let me ask you briefly. Does anything at all that youve studied through history give you any hope that we can lessen these kind of Class Divisions in the country . Our history forces us to confront things that at time we dont want to deal with. We would prefer to have the myth. But i actually think its healthy if we can get to the point where we can talk about class not just use it as a slogan, not just use it as political rhetoric, but to actually think about it more deeply and to think about how it affects who we are. I often like to refer to the use of my fair lady. We judge people by the way they dress, by the way they talk, by the unwritten code of class behavior. Brown the book is white trash the 400year untold history of class in america. Nancyisaac mizrahi an unruly Nancy Isenberg, thank you very much. Y thank you. U. Sreenivasan Everybody Knows that a dog can detect smells fas better than humans can, but do you know why . Ec our science producer nsikan akpan has the answer in the latest edition of science scope. Meet stinker the rescue dog. Dogs are relentless smellers. Their noses can catch a vent from a mile away, five times further than we are. These dogs can follow a smell for hundreds of miles, which allows them to save lost people. There are millions of reasons why the canine sense of smell is better than ours. Well tackle all of them in the next three minutes. Ready, set, sniff. Lets start by hopping inside a dogs nose. Weeee one key to a canine super snout is its long and intricate nasal cavity. Its like a Little Cathedral inside your nose full of these bones. Allow me to introduce a neuroscientist at the university of california,t berkeley. And shes obsessed with how dogs noses work. All these plates control how air moves through the nose. They create a labyrinth of corridors that filter odors toward a different part of a dogs nose. Tbone steak lands here. A catalans there. At the same time, a dog gets to smell in stereo. So they can tell whether or not your gym socks are to the left or right. This leads to funky behavior, like circling. They circle when they have the scent but they dont know is it going off in a different direction. In our last episode of science scope, we showed you how an o. Isnt a uniform cloud. Its shape is straggly and its portions are stretched like taffy. Sitting inside this odor plume doesnt tell you much, but traveling along the edge of the odor gives you context and direction, thats why dogs circle. Theyre looking for the edge. So what they do is they do a circle to pick up where the scent is. Then they start exploring in that direction. Remember those millions of reasons i promised . A dog has 300 million smell receptors, also known as olfactory receptors. Humans only have five million. Many think dogs are great sniffers because of all of those smell censors, but jacobs disagrees. She says the animals sense of hell decides with the size of its head. Smell information is sent deepe into the brain. He in carnivores like woferls and coyotes and foxes and if you look at the size of their home range, the olfactory goes with the side of their home range. They rely on smells for short distances, which may explain why human olfactory systems are smaller. Sm can you mel smell that. Cookies in the break room. Ill be right back. Oh, man. Oh, where were we . Jacobs believes deep down all animals react to mel the same way. Her lab is testing this theory. Dogs, human, hermit crabs, two types of cockroaches and the leopard. They all move in the same way. They all track odors in the same way. We think there has to be a common algorithm theyre all using. Jacobs is part of a nationwide team trying to code those smell also rhythms. Im nsikan akpan and this is science scope from the pbs newshour. I didnt know there was a smell algorithm. You can watch our sreenivasan you can watch our first sciencscope episode online at pbs. Org tag sciencscope. Woodruff also on the newshour online right now, whats it like to swim next to Michael Phelps . Gh one columnist remembers theer recordsmashing olympian as a 12yearold athlete, still year away from fame but already showing signof greatness. All that and more is on our webh site, pbs. Org newshour. Sreenivasan and a correction before we go tonight. Earlier in the news summary we said followers of anjem choudary, one of britains most highprofile radical muslim r preachers, were linked to last years beheading of a british soldier. That incident actually happened back in 2013. We apologize for the error. And thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, miles obrien takes us to the edge of the most studied volcano in the world. Im hari sreenivasan. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Enru join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbsr newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. E woide. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. Coovat, nt and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. Su this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. M o captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Orgne this is nightly business with Tyler Mathisen and sue herera. Questionable prognosis. Aetna plans to leave most of the Public Health exchanges it operates in, joining several other big in question now, is o in trouble . Steering the future of how ford plans to get a selfdriving car on the road in just five years. And blowing in the win. The answer, my friend, is that the nations first offshore wind farm is taking shape off the coast of rhode island, ushering in a new era in alternative energy. Those stories and more tonight on nightly Business Report for tuesday, august 16th. Good evening, everyone. And welcome. Aetna is pulling back. The nations