Transcripts For KQEH PBS NewsHour 20121130

Were at a point on the fiscal issues where we have to reach an agreement and perhaps as we do so that will start the stage for the other areas as well. Brown fred de sam lazaro has the story of a minnesota non profit that celebrates diversity and the power of dance. Theyre one of the few companies that within their own work spans so many kinds of different style, from classical ballet to modern dance to contemporary performance to urban dance. Suarez and we look at College Sports teams, moving from conference to conference, playing a game of Musical Chairs where the end goal is more money from lucrative tv contracts. Brown thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown the battle for control of syria reached ever closer to the capital today. Heavy fighting flared near the damascus airport, and Online Access was cut, as the pressure intensified on president bashar alassad. We have a report narrated by Jonathan Rugman of independent television news. Reporter it could be the wests Worst Nightmare. Jubilant jihadist fighters near damascus. This group has captured a helicopter and these islamists are now in the vanguard of syrias rebel army. Syrian warplanes and helicopters were filmed attacking the fringes of the capital today. And to the road to the International Airport has been closed by fighting. And as that fighting intensifies much of syrias Internet Network has been cut. The government and opposition are blaming each other for the shutdown. Whatever the truth, syrias regime is battling these men for its very survival. President assads helicopters are being shot down. And even a mig jet was filmed tumbling from the sky. This rebel boasting that hes downed both a helicopter and a mig within 24 hours. These surface to air missiles have been looted from captured military bases. What do we first with it a voice can be heard asking. Not Everybody Knows how this newfound firepower works. Yet this islamist brigade near damascus now has one. While near aleppo an entirm air Defense System seems to have fallen to the socalled daoud battalion which is affiliated however loosely with al qaeda. These are assads missiles, say the cameraman and we have taken them. London and washington may have refused to arm these rebels. But armed they are like never before. Suarez and Margaret Warner takes the story from there. Warner for more on todays developments and what they mean for syrias president bashar al assad, im joined by andrew tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for near east policy. He was in rebelheld Syrian Border regions in midnovember. Andrew, welcome back. Thank you. Warner first of all, how critical is the rebel seizure of some of these surfacetoair missile from the captured army bases . Theyre answer cloutly vital. For months the syrian army has harassed rebel held territories and theyve bombed them into submission. With these shoulderfired missiles theyre able to down syrian aircraft of all types and it allows the Syrian Opposition to have the possibility of actually saying they have a pure liberated territory which is completely outside of the regimes control and that sets the stage for a possible benghazilike pocket that could push president assad south and west war war so step back from all todays news, what do you make of todays developments. The internet, the airport . Is the conflict entering a new phase . Its definitely entering a new phase. The siege on the airport and the airport road and so on actually mimics a lot of other attacks on airfields throughout the country where rebels approach it with missiles, machine guns and make sure planes cant take off and that way they take care of the air force that way. In terms of the internet, were not sure. It could be intentional or the result of the power cuts or where the mobile system went out as well or part of the plan. And in damascus people are panicking, they think that something is going on that the regime is about ready to lash out and were waiting to see what that might entail. Warner so you mean people, civilians on the ground, are panicing . Absolutely. Warner so be go back to the airport. There is this big battle for the access road into the airport and you had the two Major Airlines shutting down their service today. How crucial is maintaining control of the airport and a functioning airport to the assad regimes hold on power . Well, its more of a sovereignty issue to capture the capitals airport which is east of damascus, an area where the rebels are active. Its a major blow but its a psychological and political blow. They have other airfields they can fly out of but its a big loss for assad, a big embarrassment and another sign that president assads hold over geographic syria is tipping. Warner isnt assad believed to be restocking weapons and aircraft through the air . Sure. And theyre being resupplied. They have large stocks of weapons. Theyre being helped out by the iranians with the transformation of the that dia warner that being the thugs. Alawite forces. The russians also are backing them in one way shape or form. Who hasnt backed them is the United States and the west in terms of rebel forces and syrians, especially opposition, are quite angry about that. Warner if the Internet Service stays down, how much does that hamper the rebels ability to operate . It dawes because theyre unable to coordinate. You beal surprised what happens over mobile phones and through the internet and using smart phones. And texting. But they still have twoway radios and sat phones. But it makes it harder for them, not impossible. But its a sign that the assad regime hasnt done this until now and its a sign were entering a new phase. Warner do you think the assad forces need the same infrastructure or do they have their own . I think they need it and do they have their own closed network . If its a result of a power failure to the communications system, thats one thing. Hezbollah has its own Communication System in lebanon, if its Something Like that were looking at a the regime lashing out possibly and communicating in that way. Warner in the video we just saw that damascus rebel outfit was described as jihadist. How prevalent and prominent are jihadists within the larger rebel forces at this point . Theyre a minority but salafists are a main part of it. Also islamists in general and very recently weve seen and uptick in the number of jihadist salafists within syria. Weve also seen more and more shoulderfired missiles getting into their hands. So the issue of arming or not arming opposition, it might have gotten away from the west. It seems like the weapons that we feared were going to get into the wrong peoples hands has without us doing anything and thats a major problem in a security issue for the Obama Administration. Warner you were telling me before we came on that youd seen another video that also suggests that. Tell us about that. Thats right. There was a video released a few days ago in which in the video it was an organization fly a black flag, clearly something jihadist saying to europeans and americans we dont need you, we have these weapons, well do it on our own. So our Worst Nightmare through neglect seems to be coming true in syria. Warner quickly, how close is the u. S. To changing its policy at all from what youve been able to discern . I think it is on terms of recognizing the government in exile which we was formed in doha. In terms of arming the opposition, im not sure. It might be something thats been debated to death. Theres no action out of the Obama Administration. We were hoping it was going to happen earlier, it didnt happen and it seems now that the people the jihadists and salafists have the arms now including shoulderfired antiaircraft systems and the Secular Forces that came out of the mainstream that we could deal with dont seem to have those weapons and the question is what is the Obama Administration going to do now . Warner tough decision. Patrick tabler, thank you. My pleasure. Suarez still to come on the newshour political turmoil in egypt; arizonas new senator; a broad range of steps for a Minnesota Dance Company and the College Conference switches. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan democrats and republicans accused each other today of refusing to talk specifics about how to avoid the fiscal cliff. The two sides traded charges of bad faith as yearend tax hikes and spending cuts moved another day closer. On the face of it there seemed to be Little Movement today. No substantive progress has been made in the talks between the white house and the house over the last two weeks. Sreenivasan treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and legislative chief rob nabors arrived at the capitol this morning, for meetings with congressional leaders. House Speaker John Boehner also spoke to president obama on the phone last night. He said he wanted to know where the administration would rein in spending, but that he had heard nothing new. I was hopeful wed see a specific plan for cutting spending. We sought to find out today what the president is really willing to do. Listen, i remain hopeful that productive conversations in the days ahead can be had but the white house has to get serious. Sreenivasan Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell echoed that complaint. In a statement, he said, today, they took a step backward and significantly closer to the cliff. Conversely, white house spokesman jay carney charged republicans failed to provide any details on what they could tolerate in the way of tax increases. The president has always engaged in this with real numbers. When you talk about flexibility on revenue, all weve heard so far and its welcomed, dont get me wrong, but weve heard that yes, revenue on the table but we need more than that. Sreenivasan away from the microphones, there were reports of possible movement. An account in the journal politico said the contours of a deal are emerging. The report cited unnamed sources who said the deal could include 1. 2 trillion in tax increases over ten years. It also said entitlement programs, mainly medicare, will be cut by no less than 400 billion. And on the sidelines, the president hosted his defeated rival, mitt romney, at a private lunch today. Mr. Obama travels to suburban philadelphia tomorrow, pressing to raise taxes on top earners, but keep tax cuts for everyone else. Wall street initially fell after House Speaker boehner said thered been no progress on a fiscal cliff deal. But stocks rose later, on news that the economy grew at an annual rate of 2. 7 in the third quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained more than 36 points to close well above 13,021. The nasdaq rose 20 points to close at 3,012. The United Nations General Assembly voted today to recognize palestine as a non member observer state. The tally was 138 to nine, with 41 abstentions. The u. S. Voted no. It came after palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas appealed to the world body to issue the birth certificate of palestine. We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is israel. Rather, we came to affirm the legitimacy of a state that must now achieve its independence, and this is palestine. Sreenivasan palestinians said the vote would strengthen their hand in future peace talks with israel. But the israeli ambassador to the u. N. , ron prosor, warned that the palestinians are turning their backs on peace. For as long as president abbas prefers symbolism over reality, as long as he prefers to travel to new york for u. N. Resolutions rather than travel to jerusalem for genuine dialogue, any hope of peace will be out of reach. Sreenivasan meanwhile, a Bipartisan Group of u. S. Senators said today they will push to cut off u. S. Aid, if the palestinians use their new status to bring israel before the International Criminal court. In iraq, a wave of attacks today killed at least 43 people. Most of the victims were in the city of hillah, south of baghdad. Backtoback explosions targeted shiite pilgrims and emergency responders. The force of the blasts left twisted wreckage of cars outside shops in a busy commercial area. A third bombing killed six people near a shrine in the city of karbala. A yearlong inquiry into british media practices ended today with a call for new regulation. Lord Justice Brian leveson led the investigation. It was triggered by a scandal over a tabloid newspaper owned by the murdoch conglomerate that hacked voicemails of hundreds of people. We have a report from gary gibbon of independent television news. Reporter they say the body that regulars the newspapers cant be run by newspapers alone anymore. It needs to be more independent and overseen by a government watchdog. This is not and cannot reasonably or fairly be characterized as statutory regulation of the press. I am proposeing inspect regulation of the press organized by the press. Reporter but David Cameron said the judge had got it wrong. Laws controlling newspapers could mushroom into censorship. He said he wanted changes the way newspapers regulate themselves but not new laws. The issue of principle is that for the first time we would have crossed the rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land. We should, i believe, be wary of any legislation that has the potential to infringe free speech and a free suppress. Hear hear reporter describes the phone hacking and other intrusions suffered by innocent victims like millie dougher will, Justice Leveson depicted a press out of control, those reckless regard for accuracy would resist and dismiss complainants almost a matter of course and showed a recklessness in prioritizing sensational stories almost irrespective of the harm caused, heedless of the public interest. Good morning. Any thoughts today . Rupert murdoch in new york today, the judge also said there was no evidence to support allegations that there was a grand bargain between the tory leadership and the murdochs, exchanging newspaper support for policies ahead of the last election. Lord Justice Leveson said he was now passing the ball on to the politicians. They are far from agreed what they want to do with it. Sreenivasan nasa had a major announcement of its own today. The planet closest to the sun mercury has ice at its poles. The findings came from messenger the first spacecraft to orbit mercury. The ice was found in the permanently shadowed region of the north pole. Scientists said they believe theres ice at the planets south pole as well. And in washington, one of those scientists, david lawrence, said its no small amount. If you add it all up you have 100 billion to one trillion metric tons of ice. Now of course, those numbers are big its hard to know what to do with them. So we can bring it down to earth, in fact here in this town, if you take the amount of ice we consider to be at mercury right now, stack up the entire area of washington d. C. By about two to two and a half miles of ice, that is what is current presently at mercurys poles. Sreenivasan the Messenger Team said the ice likely came from comets and asteroids that crashed into mercury. Those impacts may also account for dark material that could be the remnants of organic matter. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to jeff. Brown and we turn to egypt, where an embattled president tried again to explain his sweeping actions, and an islamist led assembly raced to complete passage of a new constitution. All across egypt this evening, people watched as president Mohamed Morsi spoke to state television interviewers addressed the nation. He defended his decision to grant himself powers free from judicial review. translated my responsibility is to protect this nation from any conspiracy or from any attempt to go backwards. As the countrys president my responsibility, is to achieve justice and respect the laws and to lay down many rules in the absence of parliament until they convene and are able to vote on behalf of the people. Brown the islamist president also criticized the outpouring of protests against his actions. On tuesday, at least 200,000 people filled Cairos Tahrir square, accusing morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood of hijacking last years revolution. Liberal and secular groups also condemned a move to fasttrack a final vote on a new constitution. translated we want a constitution that represents all egyptian people, not one that represent a certain faction of egyptians. translated the Constitutional Panel tasked to brown the constitution is being drafted by an assembly dominated by islamists. That body moved up the vote to this week, because the countrys Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to issue a ruling on sunday that could dissolve the assembly. In washington today, state Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland also raised concerns about the new constitution. Weve been very clear all we want to see this constitution meet International Human rights standards, protections for all groups in egypt and to have a judicial set of guarantees that also meets International Judicial standards. But again we havent seen the specific draft thats being reviewed. Reporter but the president still has strong support in egypt. Last night, thousands marched through the streets of alexandria, in favor of morsi and an early vote on the constitution. translated the constitutional declaration is not against the revolution, but it complies with what they were asking for during the revolution brown another mass rally supporting morsi has been called for saturday. The opposition plans its own large protest tomorrow, after friday prayers. Brown a short time ago i spoke to David Kirkpatrick, cairo bureau chief of the New York Times. David, thanks for joining us. So this Constitutional Assembly thats moving very quickly on a constitution, tell us, explain whats going on there. Well, the assembly has been meeting for several weeks and trying to work faster and faster to finish a new constitution, the first constitution for egypt since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. They said recently that they would like a little more time. They were hoping to bring together a consensus of the islamist majority and some of the secular minority in the assembly but at the last minute they decided to jump the gun, to really rush things and wrap it up today. They are afraid that on sunday the Constitutional Court here, the Supreme Constitutional Court will rule against their assembly and try and dissolve it. So theyre trying to wrap up their work before that can happen. Unfortunately, fear of that looming deadline has led to quite a bit of gridlock in the assembly as the islamists who are running the show have moved faster and faster and tried to close off debit, a lot of the secular folks inside the assembly have boycotted it, walked away protesting the pressure theyre under to try to close things up before theres enough debate. So whats happened today is basically almost all the secular representatives are gone and the islamists alone are forcing through a constitution which will then go to a referendum. Brown so whats at stake with this constitution . I mean, how farreaching is it supposed to be . How much is it intended to rule egypts politics and society Going Forward . Well, this is it. This is the whole thing. This is the road map for egypts future. And i think the heady first days of the revolution, many people imagine quite a sweeping overhaul of egypts institutions. Thats not going to happen. After a rather convoluted transition process and around pretty tight deadline the drafters have decided to start with egypts former constitution and tinker with that. They didnt look around the world and find the best possible models and start from scratch and put something together. Theyve been sort of twisting and turning the old constitution to try to tweak it to work better and they have done some things that everyone here wanted. Theyre ending the old imperial presidency that Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors used to rule over egypt. Theyre barring torture, ending detention without trial. On a lot of other areas its a little bit of a muddle. There are protections for individual rights but also rather expansive guarantees against insults of individuals or fro fetes or other icons that could clash with freedom of expression and theres some areas where i think most independent analysts would say its just not quite fully baked. That the document could use a little more time. Brown so were seeing these dueling demonstrations but as of the moment it doesnt look as though president morsi is backing down from what he said last week about taking more mower . What does it look to you about how much thats galvanized opposition . The opposition has certainly been galvanized by his moves. Theres opposition unity really for the First Time Since he came to power or before then. The secular Political Forces here have had a hard time coming together against the islamists until now. But his power grab last week that set all this in motion was really just an attempt to put his own decrees above the reach of the courts just until the constitution was finished. So one thing the assembly is now trying to do is to moot that conflict a little bit. He can now say and the assembly can say were done, its all over. His argument was that he needed to have the extra powers to protect the assembly from the courts, from the courts of mubarak and justices. That he and some of the islamists feel are forces of counterrevolution. Now thats no longer so necessary. He can begin to move very briskly, i think, toward the National Referendum and the constitution will be able to stand on its own two feet. Thats not going to satisfy the opposition. They are convinced that this constitution in addition to being hasty is actually a blueprint for a kind of creeping islamist takeover. Its true that the ultraconservatives who wanted to have Something Like a council of religious scholars ruling on legislation or what who want to impose religious law quite explicitly, theyve been shut down. None of that worked. But there are some ambiguous maybe not quite fully defined phrases about society charged with enforcing moral codes that liberals fear could be a kind of trojan horse that over time under an islamist government will become a more and more roe best way to impose moral codes on the less religious. Brown David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times in cairo. Thanks so much. Suarez and now we continue our conversations with newly elected senators. Jeff flake is currently finishing his sixth term representing arizona in congress. Prior to being elected to office, the 49yearold flake worked as the executive director of the goldwater institue, an association that promotes less government. Earlier this month he won the seat left open by retiring republican jon kyl, taking 50 percent of the vote. And senatorelect flake joins me from capitol hill. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having me on, ray. Suarez today Speaker Boehner accused the democrats of not offering any serious proposals to avoid going over the fiscal cliff and shortly after the white house and the democrats answered that the republicans had not offered any of their own plans. Is this something thats going to be able to be taken care of while youre still a representative or is it going to land in your lap when you move to the other chamber . You know, i hope we get it done, obviously. We want to avoid the cliff. It is a little troubling that we dont have any real plans or offers on the spending side. I think on the revenue side its pretty clear by knew republicans are willing to give up more revenue, but weve got to see a balance. Theres got to be spending cuts and if those have been offered, im not sure what they are. Suarez are you one of those members whos staked out a position on whether it has to be rates or effective revenue and not rates . Well, i think it can be effective revenue. Obviously it depends on where you put the level of deductions that can be taken. So id rather not raise rates at all. I think it can be done without that. But certainly additional revenue is going to be required. Suarez the man who will be leading the senate in the next congress, harry reid, says hes taking a serious look at filibuster reform, bemoaning the fact that getting 60 votes for anything is becoming increasingly difficult. Is it worth a look . Its worth a look and its worth rejecting. I think it was looked at a couple years ago by republicans, the Nuclear Option was almost employed and i was very glad to see cooler heads prevail at that time and then back away from it. I hope they do the same today. You know, weve already got the house where you have a rules committee controlled by the majority, where the majority can put whatever it wants on the floor or reject whatever it wants. We dont need that in the senate thantds essentially what would happen if you get rid of a 60vote threshold on a motion to proceed. Suarez but no matter who has the majority, hasnt it become increasingly difficult to get votes out from cloture and on to the floor for an up or down vote . It has and i think that that calls for an agreement between members but not a changing of the rules and i hope that we can do that by mutual agreement. I dont think that any party is blameless here. We obviously want a functioning senate. We havent had that. We want to go through regular order. Weve got to do that. But i just dont think that we ought to start by changing the rules. Suarez youll be moving from the Majority Party in the house to the Minority Party in the senate. What changes for you as a legislator . Well, the senate has typically been where minority can still exercise considerable power and i hope that thats still the case. Thats one thing thats troubling. You work hard to get to the senate and the rules change and youre back in the house in terms of the rules. So i hope that we can have the same rules package and i can tell you, my record in the house has certainly been to work across the aisle. That is more required in the senate. Im certainly prepared to do that. And obviously be able to work on a range of issues that perhaps i wasnt able to in the house. Suarez one issue where you have worked across the aisle is Immigration Reform and the compromise bills you worked on with members of the Democratic Party you havent really got an full hearing or airing across the country you might have wanted, they are an example of an issue thats coming back up again. Do you think Immigration Reform has a chance in the coming congress . I do. I think its a better chance than ever. I think obviously weve been without it. Its a problem that gets bigger and worse, particularly for a border state like arizona and this is one thats going to require working across the aisle where both parties take the plunge on certain items. I hope we can do that. Certainly after this election republicans realized that not just for substantive but policy reasons, political reasons as well it behooves us to move ahead. Thats a good thing. Suarez the man whose place youll be taking in the senate, jon kyl, is the cosponsor with senator hutchison of the achieve act which would give legal residence to people who came illegally as children. He wont in the next senate. Will you take over that spot . Well, im glad theyve introduced it. That gives us a point of departure, where to start from, and there will be reaction to that as we go into the new year and we can either introduce that same thing or Something Like it. What we have right now with president obamas action is a temporary measure. We need something permanent and this is always this has always been an issue that we needed to deal with in a humane rational way and if f this bill represents the place to start, thats great. Suarez well ear about to make a career move, a move for the people of your state. One thing voters said consistent through twelve was that they didnt get a sense that congress was getting much done. Do you have optimism that the next congress is going to be different from this last one . I do. Mostly because we have to. Were at a point on the fiscal issues where we actually have to reach an agreement and perhaps if we do so in this lame duck session or early the session then maybe than will set the stage for other areas as well. Weve got to on the regulatory front deal with these issues in a partisan way as well. Im anxious to get started there and hopefully we can. Suarez arizonas senator elect jeff flake, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on. Brown and you can watch our earlier interviews with senatorselect angus king and tim kaine on our website. Next, a story of the arts and community. Its about a group in minnesota that aims to take dance to new places. Its name is tu dance. Special correspondent fred de sam lazaro tells its story. Reporter tu dances location a rusty but recovering urban neighborhood fits with its founders goal to bring dance to new places, to reach new people. For uri sands and toni pierce sands, its been an unusual journey to get here. Each rose to prominence in the 90s, seeming to reach the pinnacle of storybook careers with new yorks alvin ailey Dance Company. Uri sands grew up poor in miami who got accepted into a fine Arts Public School and studied ballet. Toni pierce, the daughter of teachers, was hired by ailey, left it to tour europe but returned to new york and the company, where the pair met. I remember seeing toni and uri both as dancers and they are two of the nations best dancers. Reporter ben johnson, director of northrup dance center at the university of minnesota remembers seeing toni pierce sands in a piece called cry by alvin ailey, one of the 20th centurys giants of modern dance. He created the piece to celebrate all mothers and women around the world and only an elite few dancers are allowed to perform this particular solo and thats the piece i first saw tony pierce perform. And uri in the same way, hes considered one of the most exquisite movers and one of the most beautiful dancers. Reporter that happened in 1999. My family was helping to take care of my son at the time. So i came back to minnesota with all intentions you know to rebound with my family and then go back to new york where uri then shows up at the door and says, lets stay in minnesota. Reporter it may have seemed counterintuitive at first but the twin cities, known for a thriving arts scene and enjoying a renaissance in dance, offered new opportunities to carve out a niche. There had been a lot of work already done in the dance world, as well as room and space to welcome in new ideas and new visions for dance here in the twin cities. Reporter a few years after exploring Career Options and teaching, they began tu dance in 2004, named after toni and uris first initials. The company has regularly sold out larger and larger venues with a repertoire that reflects uri sands diverse background. What i notice in the last five years is the evolution in the range of their work. Theyre one of the few companies that within their own work span so many different kinds of styles, from classical ballet to modern dance to contemporary performance to urban dance. There are companies that produce the diversity of work, but its really toni and uri that are doing what i think is the most significant broad ranged work. Reporter uri sands choreographs most of the companys works. One thats attracted notice was senseability, his first eveninglong piece, an exploration of all five senses and the elements. He described a composition called senseability to pbs station tpt. For instance, theres air and touch, theres water taste, fire sight. For instance, toni and marciano are doing a duet and thats air and touch. We have these fans throughout reporter one of their goals reporter for members of their company, like david rue and eva mohn, working here is a departure in both style and mindset. They say dance here is a cultural practice, not a competitive endeavor, not necessarily geared to glorious performance for me, performance is such a small part of why i dance and actually probably the least significant. Yeah and i wouldnt have said that a few years ago. I love the process of creating and rehearsing work. The process of taking class and then the performance is just another part of that process instead of this Mount Olympus were all climbing to. Reporter a priority for tu dances founders want to bring such opportunities to a wider Cross Section of the next generation my sister and i danced with minnesota dance theater, and at that point we were kind of the only two young dancers of color. And after leaving and coming back, i so much had grown here in the twin cities and in st. Paul in terms of dance and the community and the dancers, but there was something that did not change which was dancers of color. Reporter tu dance works closely with local schools to create opportunities for young dancers of color. High schoolers who are invited like 17yearold dominick dates face a mixture of grueling practice and tolerance, technical proficiency and individuality. They teach you what they want you to do but you do it how you want to do it. You can make whatever they teach you yours. Yeah, your own flavor. Reporter students like mimi ive only been dancing for two years and people here have i come to tu and im like, oh wow, she has curves like me. Somebody in the company, she has a curve, i have a curve and their skin is like mine. And i really understand if they can make it, theres no excuse for me. The idea is that as performers, as artists, as students that we are representing our audience, our community, the people, the watchers, and my gosh, its deep but its so, its kind of simple for us you know . Reporter less simple is managing a Dance Company and school, especially raising scholarship funds needed by many young students. Tu dances annual budget is just 450,000. Still, toni pierce sands at 50 and uri sands at 38, say they are looking forward to the legacy phase of their careers, sharing and giving back to an art form that transformed their lives. Suarez freds reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at st. Marys university in minnesota. Well be back shortly with a look at the moneydriven moves by College Sports teams. But first, this is pledge week on pbs. This break allows your Public Television station to ask for your support. And that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. Brown for those stations not taking a pledge break, we take a second look at a story about pediatricians with a new prescription books. Some doctors are testing reading skills as part of their regular examinations. The newshours special correspondent for education, john merrow, has the story. Hi, how are you. Tell me shadmans birthday. Reporter today, twoyearold Shadman Uddin is here for his routine check up. His pediatrician, dr. Cindy osman, checks his eyes, ears and heart, but thats not all. So tell me what kinds of things he says these days . Juice, water. Great. Does he ever put words together . Give me some examples of times he puts words together. Mommy and umara do this. Okay, so hes doing great with his language. My role is to help parents parent more effectively. How to connect with their kids more effectively, what kinds of activities they can do that will better stimulate their Cognitive Development and get them better prepared for doing better in school. Reporter shes a new breed of pediatrician. Part doctor, part teacher. You can see a lot in how they handle a book. You can check out their fine motor skills. So im both checking their development and im getting a sense of how frequently theyre read to. Reporter dr. Osman works in the pediatric Primary Care Clinic at Bellevue Hospital in new york city. Its part of a National Literacy program called reach out and read. Books are given to children six months to five years old and parents are encouraged to read them aloud. He tried to started to read. To say a little things. Reporter why the Doctors Office . Because thats the one place where all children, including those most at risk, go regularly before they enter school. Without some School Experience before first grade, most low income children are almost guaranteed to begin school behind everyone else. And we are talking about a lot of children here 5. 1 million American Children under the age of five are growing up in poverty. So what are states doing to get these kids ready for first grade . See for yourself. Only ten states and the District Of Columbia tell schools they must provide full day kindergarten. 34 states require half day programs, and six states do not require any kindergarten at all. Preschool programs like head start reach about one third of three and four year olds. And, in spite of their proven success, Early Education programs are now being cut. Zebra, zebra, what do you see . Reporter that leaves it to programs like reach out and read to pick up the slack. About 11,000 children a year come through the clinic at bellevue. All are from low income homes and for most, english is their second language. Most of the families that we serve are immigrants. And a lot of them did not were not able to finish school. Some of them were not even sent to school ever. Reporter here in the waiting room, the flat screen televisions are turned off, and the books are open. Volunteers like esther akinwunmi read stories to the children. My goal and my approach is to let them have fun while theyre reading so that they dont. They dont feel like, ugh, im reading a book, or im hearing a boring story, something that is interesting to them so that it encourages them to read. Reporter volunteer elizabeth kasowitz, is a former new York City School principal. Im always looking up to see whether the parents are engaged, and very often, i see them with an ear kind of tilted towards what im reading. I think sometimes parents may not know how to engage their children in reading. So my hope is how i present a book to a child, a parent would be able to emulate that and do the same for them when theyre at home. Reporter the reach out and read program can be found in 5,000 medical Centers Across the country. It touches almost four million mostly low income children, at a cost of 10 per child, per year. Bellevues program is one of the largest. So here it tells you the skills that he should be developing and how you can help develop those skills by playing with him. Reporter program director, claudia aristy often talks with families while they wait. One of the ideas that i share with her is that she can be reading a book aloud to her 11 monthold while hes walking in the room, just putting language out there for him. We want to just bombard those brains with a lot of words. So we tell the parents just describe everything you see. Reporter families are likely to Pay Attention to advice given at the Doctors Office, especially when it comes from their pediatrician. We help them through difficult times, whether its, you know, a kid with temper tantrums or a kid whos up all night and is having trouble sleeping. We have an opportunity to. To bond with families and make some suggestions that hopefully work. Families do turn to pediatricians for more than just prescriptions. Thats for sure. Reporter in this program a child will have ten regular checkups between the ages of six months and five years. Thats just ten books, just ten opportunities for the doctor to stress the importance of reading. Is it enough . Theres Solid Research that shows that just that intervention of handing a family a book, giving them a couple of ageappropriate pieces of advice about how to read with their kid and just encouraging reading, they those kids will do better in school. Reporter the research she refers to showed that children served by reach out and read had a six month developmental edge over their peers in the preschool years. With the introduction of the common core, a new set of standards being adopted in most schools nationwide, children entering first grade will be expected to be able to read and comprehend simple text. For those who havent gone to kindergarten or who arent being raised in homes filled with books, school will be even tougher. Suarez you can find more and the reach out and read program lost thousands of books after Hurricane Sandy last month. Brown finally tonight, the College Football season is reaching a climax of rivalries and conference championship games and its basketball season is now underway. But much of the action in College Sports these days is away from the field or the court, as schools change affiliations and leagues. In the last 18 months some 30 colleges have made moves. Among the most prominent, the university of louisvilles departure from the big east to join the Atlantic Coast conference or a. C. C. And two eastern schools headed to the big ten, traditionally a midwestbased conference the university of maryland is leaving the a. C. C. And rutgers is departing from the big east. Whats going on . Sportswriter and author John Feinstein joins me now. John, first of all, for the uninitiated, explain the role of these conferences traditionally. How do they work and how do they divide up the College World . Well, jeff, conferences were designed initially to take schools that were together geographically and allow them to compete against one another and also schools that were similar academicly and played supports at a similar level so the games would be competitive. The Atlantic Coast conference consisted of teams on the Atlantic Coast ranging from the state of maryland down to the state of south carolina. When the big east was formed in 1979 it went from boston in the east to syracuse, new york, as its western most outlet. The big 10, as you said, was midwestern schools. The pack 8, which is now the pack 12, was surprisingly enough four schools in california, two in oregon and two in washington. So geography was important, academics were important and competitive levels were important. Now the landscape has changed completely. Geography has been thrown out completely. Academics have been thrown out completely and, to some degree, competitive levels have been thrown out completely because its all about what schools can make you the most t. V. Dollars and a conference and what conferences can make schools the most t. V. Dollars. Thats the Unifying Force now. Brown so its dollars and television. Particularly in football, right . Exactly. A all of those thing changes that have happened over a period of ten years now, because it began when the a. C. C. Raided the big east for virginia tech, miami and Boston College to improve itself as a Football Conference to get more t. V. Dollars for football. It is about football because basketball actually5 h2y at most schools nets more dollars because the cost is less. But the potential in football because of television dollars is far greater so all of these moves are based on what can make the most dollars in football on television. Thats why rutgers and maryland are going to the big ten, because getting into the new york market with rutgers, even though its in new jersey, and into the washington, d. C. Market with maryland the amount of money the big ten gets from its t. V. Contracts goes up. Just because theyre in those markets. It has nothing to do with the quality of the teams at rutgers and maryland. Brown again, helping the nonsports fans here, this goes well beyond sports, right . The dollars involved for these colleges, what are the stakes . How important is it . Well, for example at both maryland and rutgers they have had to eliminate so called nonrevenue sports. Revenue sports are basketball and football. The nonrevenue sports are sports like swimming and baseball and field hockey and soccer. They just dont make money. You try to break even if youre lucky. Six years ago rutgers had to eliminate six of those programs. Last year maryland had to eliminate seven because they werent making enough money in football. So they believe that by making tens of millions more dollars in the next ten, 15, 20 years in football they will allow themselves to fund other programs and also to build bigger stadiums and have more licensing money and, of course, the t. V. Dollars. Brown so just in our last minute, john, what is it, a continuing arms race or a sort of pick your metaphor but you expect this kind of thing to continue and were certainly seeing some odd geographic couplings and pairings, huh . Well, all you need to know that boise state in idaho and sapgd state in california are now in whats call called the big east conference. Yes, jeff, its Musical Chairs and serve afraid theyll be the last one left standing so everybodys trying to grab, metaphorically, every chair that it can, whether its the a. C. C. Grabbing louisville or the big ten grabbing rutgers and maryland and dominos continue to fall. There will be more of this. Jeff boise is now in the east, huh . Boise is in the east, san diego is in the east and south florida and Central Florida are also up in the east. Yes. It makes no sense at all. And, by the way, the big ten has 14 teams now. Jeff laughs i was going to say map makers have to get to work but so do mathematicians. John feinstein, thank you so much. Thank you, jeff. Suarez again, the major developments of the day internet and Cell Phone Service was down in syria, and there was fighting near the airport in damascus, as rebels battled government forces. Democrats and republicans accused each other of refusing to talk specifics about how to avoid the fiscal cliff. House Speaker John Boehner said theres been no progress in the last two weeks. And the u. N. General assembly voted to recognize palestine as a nonmember observer state. The u. S. Was one of only nine states voting no. And, youve heard the term glacial pace . Not exactly, says one director whos scaled enough ice, to know better. Hari sreenivasan has more. Sreenivasan filmmaker james balog spent years documenting dramatic changes in arctic glaciers. I talked with him about his documentary chasing ice. Thats our science thursday feature. On art beat, digital touchups and tricks are common in photography today. We talk to a curator at the metropolitan museum of art about an exhibit that explores the history of photo manipulation before photoshop. Plus, on making sense, economics correspondent paul solman ponders government versus private spending. All that and more is on our website newshour. Pbs. Org. Ray . Brown and again, to our suarez and thats the newshour for tonight. Im ray suarez. Brown and im jeffrey brown. Well see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. Thank you and good night. 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