Transcripts For WETA PBS NewsHour 20130104

Suspects in a new delhi gang rape were officially charged with murder, rape, and kidnapping today. Brown the crisis beneath the streets. Miles obrien reports on a growing threat to the countrys infrastructure aging sewer systems. In detroit, there are 3,500 miles of sewer lines, some of them dating back to the mid 19th century, the crumbling pipes offer a glimpse at a Huge National engineering challenge that is largely unseen and unappreciated. Woodruff and ray suarez examines the changing face of Cable Television as al jezeera, the pan arab news giant, buys current tv, a Television Channel founded by al gore. 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. Woodruff on this third day of the new year, the u. S. Congress officially reconvened for the 113th time. Bringing a new set of faces, to join those already in place; and a familiar set of issues. With the prospect of more battles over taxes, spending and deficits. If the senators to be sworn will now present themselves at the desk. Woodruff high noon was swearingin time in the senate today. Vice president joe biden, who serves as Senate President , administered the oath of office to the freshmen and reelected members. Do you so solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Woodruff the ceremony came just hours after the old Congress Worked down to the wire, passing the fiscal cliff legislation. And, president obama, on vacation in hawaii, signed the bill into law on wednesday. On the senate floor today, republican minority leader mitch mcconnell, took note of the weeks events. Id like to welcome everybody back after what i realize was a somewhat abbreviated recess. Woodruff mcconnells minority will be smaller still in the new senate. Democrats now have 53 seats to 45 republicans and two independents will caucus with the democrats. In all, there are 12 newly elected senators eight democrats, three republicans and one independent, angus king of maine. And five women won seats, bringing the total to 20 the most ever. Some other notables Tammy Baldwin of wisconsin, the first openly gay person elected to the senate. And mazie hirono of hawaii, the first Asian American woman. Both are democrats. On the republican side, ted cruz of texas becomes just the third senator of hispanic heritage. And tim scott of South Carolina appointed to fill the seat vacated by jim demint is the senates only black member, and the first black republican senator since 1979. Freshmen on both sides will now join, in earnest, the fight over spending and taxes, as majority leader reid made clear today. As we adncvathe debate over the best way to strengthen our economy and reduce our deficit during the 113th congress, democrats will continue to stand strong for the principle of balance. Woodruff on the house side, republicans are still in control, albeit with fewer members 233 to the democratsc 200. There will be 82 freshmen 47 democrats and 35 republicans. As in the senate, the house now has a Record Number of women, 81 in all. Minority leader nancy pelosi held a photo op today with the women of her Democratic Caucus this morning. But the spotlight today was primarily on House Speaker john boehner. Hes coming off bruising battles over the fiscal cliff bill, within his own caucus, and criticism for delaying a vote on Hurricane Sandy funding. Boehner grew emotional as he addressed the chamber today. If you have come here humbled by the opportunity to serve; if you have come here to be the determined voice of the people; if you have come here to carry the standard of leadership demanded not just by our constituents but by the times, then you have come to the right place. Woodruff today, he won another twoyear term as speaker with 220 votes. A dozen republicans either voted against him, voted present, or abstained. With the voting over, the speaker swore in the new house. Congratulations, you are now members of the 113th congress woodruff one of the first orders of business will come tomorrow, a vote on the first installment of sandy aid. Then, theres a full plate of challenges left by the last congress. Within the next two months, the lawmakers will again face the prospect of automatic spending cuts and the need to raise the nations debt ceiling. Brown still to come on the newshour tonight weighing the fiscal cliff deal; charges in the india gang rape case; the countrys crumbling sewage system and an expanding american reach for al jazeera. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan for another member of congress, today marked an especially momentous return to work. Republican senator mark kirk of illinois suffered a stroke 10 months ago, and had to learn how to walk again. Today, he climbed the 45 steps of the capitol, with Vice President biden and West Virginia senator joe manchin on hand for support. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton will return to work at the state department sometime next week. Clinton was discharged yesterday from a new york hospital, where she had been treated for a blood clot in her head. A state Department Spokeswoman said clinton is now resting at her home in new york, but wants to get back to washington. Some of the senior staff who spoke to her half an hour ago said that shes sounding some of the senior staff who spoke to her half an hour ago said that shes sounding terrific, upbeat, raring to go. Shes looking forward to getting back to the office. She is very much planning to do so next week and well have further precise details about that as she continues to make progress. Sreenivasan clinton is stepping down soon. Senator john kerry has been nominated to be the next secretary of state. Classes resumed today for the connecticut children whose school was the scene of a december massacre. 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in newtown, nearly three weeks ago. Scene, so today, more than 400 students were welcomed back to a freshly refurbished school in the nearby town of monroe. They arrived amid heightened security, as Police Lieutenant keith white looked on. Watching them get off the bus, most of the kids were excited. They had seen friends they hadnt seen in awhile. They were anxious to get into the hallways and meet up with you could see the teachers had the same response. They were quite excited to see the students all together. Sree ivan san a bid to ease any tensions, classrooms were ese t amdn th rese blon sandy hook. And, parents were allowed t sit their children throughout the day. Fighting raged in syria today around key areas that have seen repeated attacks and counter attacks. In the northwest, rebels made a new attempt to storm a Strategic Air base in idlib province. Staterun media said Government Troops forced them to retreat. And in damascus, opposition activists reported new Government Air strikes and shelling in the southern suburbs. The military has been trying to recapture the neighborhoods for weeks. The federal trade commission has decided theres not enough evidence to charge google with antitrust violations. Todays announcement capped a 19month investigation. Competitors charged google unfairly highlights its own services in Online Search results and buries links to competing sites. Google defended its practices, but it did agree to charge lower licensing fees for its Android Phone system patents. U. S. Auto sales ended 2012 on a strong note. Chrysler had the best year among detroits car makers, with sales jumping 21 . G. M rose 3. 7 , and ford edged up 5 . Toyotas 2012 sales rose a whopping 27 , and volkswagen dominated the european carmakers with a gain of 35 . Wall streets new year rally didnt last long. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 21 points to close at 13,391. The nasdaq fell 11 points to close at 3100. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to jeff. Brown from one cliff to the next where do we go from here . To look at the economic consquences of the deal reached this week, were joined by Maya Macguineas, president of the committee for a responsible federal budget at the new america foundation. She serves on the campaign to fix the debt, a Group Pushing congress to reach a broad deficit deal. Doug holtzeakin served on the council of economic advisers under george w. Bush and as adviser to john mccains president ial campaign. Hes now president of the American Action forum, a policy think tank. And robert reich served as bill clintons secretary of labor. Hes now professor of Public Policy at the university of california, berkeley. Maya, i saw that the fix the debt web site blog today said the good, the bad and the ugly of the deal. Explain what you saw. Well, the good news is that we didnt go over the fiscal cliff. I truly believe that would have been so damaging for the country and the economy and likely put us back in recession. What we also didnt do is fix the problem of the deficits and debt in this country. Brown the problem. That were borrowing much too much and our debt is growing faster than our economy. We didnt take this opportunity to replace the cliff with a big comprehensive plan that would deal with all the broken parts of the budget and gradually, not abruptly, but graduately put the debt on a downward path. And in this deal that we had, the revenues probably not enough to fix the problems and notably absent were any changes to the nations Entitlement Programs and once again we waited until the 11th hour to do this deal and the result was partisanship and toxic nature in washington has grown worse. We have problems to deal with and im worried ant how well move forward and get the changes done. Brown thats a lot on the table. Robert reich, let me turn to you. Give us a brief overview of what you saw was and was not accomplished. Well, i share many of mayas concerns president net revenues coming in from this deal are relatively small certainly in proportion to the very, very large looming budget deficits we see in the out years. That means most americans will either have to in the future bear higher taxes, middleclass americans or most people will see their services. Safety nets, Public Investments and everything from sewers and infrastructure over all the education all of that will be cut and may be cut quite dramatically. The other thing that worries me, jeffrey, is that there was no agreement on the debt kreiling which means that were likely to see a continuation of this trench warfare weve had in washington at least since the summer of 2011 with almost no hesitation i think that the republicans in the 113th congress will use the threat of not going along with a rise in the debt ceiling as a way of extracting more concessions with regard to spending cuts. Some of the spending cuts, as i said, particularly with regard to infrastructure and safety net programs, programs for the poor, are very critical for the future. Brown doug holtzeakin, i guess theres consensus theres more to come, right . No question, we got a mixed bag. It got us past the cliff and the biggest thing is addition by subtraction. We have a recession, thats the best news. For 98 of the taxpayers it gave them a permanent current tax law and took uncertainty out. But from another perspective it wasnt very brave. In the end we taxed rich people to spend on the current programs and we kicked down the road cutting any new ones so it really wasnt a solution to the debt and it was not a great solution to avoiding a recession. Pelley so you start us looking picking up on looking forward where robert reich started already and so did maya. But the debt issues, the debt limit issue, thats the next thing to come. The next thick to come isnt dealing with the debt. The debt limit is a symptom of that and we have to see both sides come forward with entitlement reforms. Thats the height of this problem. Its been noted for ten years by the c. B. O. Among others that we cant grow or tax our way out of this. Its an entitlement spending problem that has to be brought under control. And we will never solve debt limits unless we solve the debt so the way to get ahead of this is for the president to take some lead herbship and put on the table what he thinks are the right ways to deal with the Entitlement Program and then to have this go through congress, have the house deal it with, the senate deal with it, and stop the 11th hour approach to. This lets solve problems using the legislative process. Brown maya, have you seen any signs that that is likely or possible given what weve just been through . I think everybodys catching their breath and recovering for what was a very difficult negotiation. Weve started with talk about putting in place the bigger changes that have to get done both entitlement reform and tax reform and as we negotiate it down, the deal got smaller and things got more toxic, as i said. People need to sort of regroup and think about how well move forward. We did do one things which the sequester, the acrosstheboard spending cuts that were going to hit, were extended for only two months. That means theres another action in two months and we have to get real. We have to have a real conversation about what were going to do to deal with entitlements, spending and revenues, tax reform, all of these issues, we have too talk about them a less partisan way, a less finger pointing way because theyll be hard and if we continue to delay well have no economic stability which is what we lack right now. Well have real risk that were going to have an economic down turn because of concerns or some kind of fiscal crisis and that debt ceiling is sitting out about how were going to resolve this. Brown let me ask you about the tax issue, robert reich. The president said he wanted to raise more in revenues. The liberals are now suggesting he didnt get enough and im just wondering is there still the possibility of getting more or that a done deal and we turn to the spending issues . Well, hopefully there is the possibility of getting more, particularly from the wealthiest members of our society. Those bush tax cuts are now pretty much permanent. They are now built into law, they are no longer temporary. It will be very difficult to revisit them but not impossible. I think the president could and should go back and see if its possible for the wealthy in this country, who have not been nearly this wealthy ever before, taking home a larger percentage of total income than they have in 60 years to contribute a little bit more to deficit reduction. The other point i want to make in response to both douglas and mias points about entitlement reform is that the real longterm problem is not entitlements per se. The longterm problem is Health Care Costs that continue to go up for this nation coupled with baby boomers who were going to require more and more health care. Those Health Care Costs are now 18 of total gross domestic product, the total economy. And those are we what we have to deal with and we have to get control over them. Medicare is not the problem. Medicare costs are going up because Health Care Costs are going up. Brown doug, do you buy that . That thats where the emphasis should be instead of the as opposed to entitlements . Well, i think there are three important points here. First, Health Care Reform means medicare reform. Medicare drives the practice of medicine in america. Its a system that rewards quantity over qualiton its a system thats fragmented, we pay doctors one way, hospitals another, Insurance Companies another, Drug Companies a fourth way. It needs to be overhauled so that it rewards quality and provides coordination so medicare reform is Health Care Reform. The second is sort of how do we get there . I think its important to recognize that this country often has the situation we have mixed government thats more and more an exception and when we do debt ceiling ceiling increases it is the norm. 11 out of the 14 previous debt ceiling increases have legislation to affect the greater deficit with them. So we should recognize thats how its going to end up. The president should put the legislation he wants on the table and we should go from there. We shouldnt have this silliness that somehow were going to raise the debt ceiling and ignore the debt. Brown but im wondering now, you all three watched the economics of our political system and we saw judys piece looking at a new congress. A lot of people are talking about a broken political system, looking at what just happened. It feels broken right now. It feels like we should have a political system that is not up to making difficult choices and solving hard problems. And compromising when its so much easier to just pull back and start sort of playing the blame game. But this is too important. When were talking about Health Care Costs or the aging of society these are issues we know are there and were going to disagree about the way to address them but you cant pretend we dont have to fix them. We do have to fix them. And compromise and being willing to come out of your boxes and Work Together will be key to doing in particular these difficult choices. So i worry about the political system to step up but its too important to not keep trying. Reporter robert reich, you got the most distance of the group here, at least on the west coast. How does it look . Well, theres obviously more kind of paralysis in washington than anybody has seen in living memory and we do have a huge debt and receive dit problem but dont forget the way the public understands the key issue in front of us is the way our representatives respond. And the key issue, at least in the foreseeable future, the next few years, is not deficit or debt, its jobs, wages. We have an unemployment report but we have 23 million americans who are underemployed or unemployed and their median wage continues to drop. Thats the issue. Thats the issue we ought to be tackling. Brown robert reich, Maya Macguineas and douglas holtzeakin, thank you very much. Woodruff five men accused of the brutal gang rape of a University Student for hours on a bus in india were charged today. The incident has sparked massive protests. We begin with this report by geraint vincendeofin pendent television news. Reporter the judicial process has begun in delhi but even for the professionals, not moving quickly enough. While lawyers here call for the courts to better protect indias women, the father of one murdered woman whose anonymity must still be protected called for her killers to be put to death. translated laws are made by the government but all i ask is that the laws be as tough as they can be. The Death Penalty is compulsory for a crime so great, the silence must be hanged. The courts must give these men the Death Penalty. Reporter in a country of more than a billion people, there are dozens of news channels delivering constant coverage of case of a gang of men who lured a young couple onto a bus with the promise that they would take them home. According to charges filed today the men beat them both then subjected the 23yearold woman to a sex attack so brutal she dies of her injuries 2 weeks later. The assault lasted for about an hour and it took place behind the closed curtains of the bus as it made its way around the streets of south delhi. When the gang finished, they dumped the couple by the side of this road. And Police Reports say they tried to finish the woman off here by running her over. But her boyfriend managed to pull her out of the way. His testimony will now form the basis of the prosecution case, together with what his girlfriend managed to pass on before she died. Elsewhere on the streets of the capital shock has awakened old resentments. One group of protesters told me they had been brought up to regard Sexual Harassment as something that had to be endured. They dont want the same for their daughters. Nothing has changed. People keep on telling that mindsets should be changed. It will take another 100 years to change the mindset. The women of india cannot allow men to keep on raping until the mindset is changed. That is one issue. But i think it should be a capital punishment. Nothing less than they should be hanged. Reporter horror at what happened on these roads has stretched across india. The legacy of the woman that was raped and beaten and thrown from the bus may yet be just as great. Woodruff earlier today Margaret Warner talked to New York Times reporter Heather Timmons in new delhi. Warner Heather Timmons, thank you for joining us. What can you tell us about the suspects in this case . Right now theres not a whole lot of Information Available about the suspects. There are two brothers, they were six friends that hung out together, at least four of them lived in the same neighborhood. One of them is from be haar. One is being tried as a juvenile although that is a matter of some debate. I believe he is going to be his actual bone density is going to be tested to see whether hes 17 or 18 and can be tried as an adult. One was a fruit seller and one of them was a cleaner. I mean, they were all i believe they were all from outside of delhi doing maybe not odd jobs but not fulltime career professional jobs around the city. Warner whats emerged about the polices theory of the case. For example, on whether this was an opportunistic crime or prepland . Well, if you look at the charges that were filed, they are being accused of basically ineplplplni the crime. The charge includes something called conspiracy. So according to the police earlier, what the men did is went on the bus, road around on what the Police Called a joyride picked up someone else at one point who they beat up and threw off and then picked up this couple afterwards. So its being considered a premeditated crime. Warner whats known about what kind of evidence the police have amassed. The police have filed a charge sheet with the court which is not made public yet and none of us have seen it yet. It is expected to run into the hundreds of pages. Right now the only information we have about specific evidence in there is that they have d. N. A. Evidence against all of the gentlemen who have been charged with the crime. Warner now, the victims name isnt being made public, but her family is talking . The womans name has been withheld which is not always the case, actually, in rape cases in india. But her family has come forward. Her uncle shes from a small village in utter pradesh. Her uncle was quoted talking about how her family paid for her education and her brothers her parents had not much money and her brother worked at the airport, working double shifts so she could pursue an education. Warner has anything concrete come out of all the outrage and protest this is case has generated . A couple concrete things have emerged. The Supreme Court sorry, the Judicial Community has set up a threemember committee to sort of review how crimes against women are treated in general. Theyre going to come out with a report in about a month. The best a court was set up in delhi where this trial is being held to deal with crimes like this. And there was a hotline set up for women in delhi. And the delhi police have pledged to set up a public registry of offenders, people in are convicted sexual offenders which will include their photos and names and addresses. Also seen around the rest of the country in other states some of them making some of the same moves. Talking about setting up records and registries. Warner what sort of public discussion has it sparked about whats at the root of the high rate of sexual assaults in general in india . It has really sparked a huge amount of many are calling it soul searching. It seems to be an incidence in crime which is involve packs of men attacking women. There are a lot of theories being thrown around about why those are happening. One of them involves the extra men, as theyre called, because india has had a long history of female fetuside. There are more men than women. Some people say these extra men clump together in packs when theyre unmarried and go out and commit crimes, Violent Crime is on the rise significantly. So thats one theory. In more than india theres also a lot of discussion just about how men are taught to treat women. Are they raised to respect them . Are women considered property . Are they considered someone thats at the same level as you or not . And so those are the kind of discussions happening here. Warner what happens next . What happened today it was police filed charges to the court. The court will review them and then there will be an actual court trial that will start and this will be a were under the impression the judge may be a woman who has been pretty active before on crimes against women so that might make a very interesting situation. Warner Heather Timmons of the New York Times in new delhi, thank you. Thank you so much. Brown now, the smelly depths of our aging infrastructure. Our intrepid newshour science correspondent miles obrien takes a deep dive into some very murky waters. Reporter this is the entire map of the sewer system . Reporter i am suiting up for a stomach turning trek beneath the streets of detroit. Rappelling into a repelling place a huge sewer line called the Detroit River interceptor. In short order, i am knee deep in that which rhymes with it. You sure wouldnt want to drop anything valuable in here. Woah glasses. Bye bye bifocals, right . Watch what my visionary hero does barehanded. In detroit, there are 3,500 miles of sewer lines, some of them dating back to the mid 19th century, like the brick lined pipe beneath this sink hole downtown. The crumbling pipes offer a glimpse at a Huge National engineering challenge that is largely unseen and unappreciated, unless you are the business of keeping the water flowing. Sue mccormick, director of the detroit water and sewerage department, describes her profession as silent service. Reporter what does that mean . The public took for granted but if they turn the water tap on, the water came and if they flush the toilet, it went away. Reporter is there a sense in the community of people of your peers across the nation that there is a crisis looming beneath the streets . Absolutely. Reporter what kind of crisis . I wont say a crisis of epic proportions, but a crisis that is based on the belief that we have deferred replacement in the public systems. And that ultimately were going to see potential significant rises and failures. Reporter unfortunately, it usually takes a big failure to get the people to pay attention. Politicians dont win elections by promising new sewers and the 800 billion in federal stimulus money doled out starting back in 2009 offered lots of money for bridges and roads, but only five billion or one half of one percent went to the pipes that lie beneath. Its enough to prompt the silent service to start making some noise. The American Society of Civil Engineers, which issued that dismal infrastructure report card in 2009. Greg diloreto is president of the American Society of civil what does a dminus mean . Well, in this particular case, a dminus would mean that were short 84 billion over the next eight years to bring it to a Good Condition over what were currently spending. Reporter detroit is home to the largest Wastewater Treatment plant in the country. It handles as much as 700 million gallons a day. Everything that detroiters and their neighbors flush down the drain ends up here. Everything. Reporter like what kinds of things . We get a lot of condoms, super hero action figures, cheetoh bags, you name it, a lot of rags. Reporter it all ends up here . All ends up here. Reporter Civil Engineer sam smalley is the man in charge here. Here it is a round the clock struggle to screen out the debris, separate the solids, let the sludge settle and treat the water before it is dumped in the river. The sludge is dried out and then either incinerated or trucked to landfills. Smalley must keep a creaky old plant running while adhering to a federal Court Mandate to meet standards set by the clean water act and managing 600 million in improvements. It kind of puts you in squeeze doesnt it . I mean youre trying to do two things at once arent you . What were trying to do is several things at once. The regulations only get tighter or more stringent and so thats a challenge. Where we can comfortably maintain compliance and we are maintaining compliance today. Two years ago, we couldnt say the same thing. Reporter thats where the baby creek plant comes in. It is designed to stop a huge source of Water Pollution combined sewage overflows. Years ago, sewer systems were built to carry runoff during a rainstorm in addition to waste water. But when rainfall exceeds the capacity of the system it overflows reporter 15 years ago, detroit discharged 20 billion gallons of combined sewage overflow into the river each year. This and eight other plants have captured 94 of that dirty water at a cost of a billion dollars. But a plan to eliminate the last 6 by building a big holding tunnel would cost 800 million. And in detroit, where poverty is endemic and the population is declining they are desperately trying alternatives replacing from sewer lines and encouraging industry to plant socalled green roofs. Thats whats affordable for us i think in the short term and i think its the best to use a Public Investment in the long term. Reporter as opposed to the 800 million tunnel idea . Correct. Reporter detroit is looking to save money by outsourcing work to crews that line crumbling old pipes with a polymer sleeve that hardens soon after a resin is applied. Theyre using a small camera to find problems early. Joseph via real is the foreman. I cant help but think about doctors doing heart surgery, you know . Pretty much. Its like opening up your arteries, right . Exactly, if i could describe a sewer main to anyone its cholesterol and arteries and grease inside a sewer main is cholesterol in arteries. Reporter but san antonio is trying to prevent the surgery in the first place. Theyre learning conservation can help solve the dilemma in no small part thanks to a blind salamander. 20 years ago, concern about the fate of the endangered species prompted a federal court ruling that limited how much san antonio could siphon from an underground aquaer if. Necessity became the mother of invention. Robert puente is president and c. E. O. Of the san antonio water service. We have found that in the last 25 years, san antonio is using the same amount of water as they did back then. Reporter with the population growth of what . 67 more customers. Reporter youre doing something right . Were doing something right and thats water conservation. Reporter puente has pushed individual conservation giving away efficient toilets and encourage xeriscaping. Earl smith started out not wanting to mow a lawn anymore and now has the zeal of an so, do you think collectively we can solve all of our water woes by planting like this . I dont know about all. Im not a big over or none person, but i think we could make a tremendous impact on taking water out of the discussion as a threatened resource. Reporter that philosophy is imbued into the way they treat their dirty water here. In fact, hey call their largest Wastewater Treatment plant a recycling center. This is the only plant in the country that recycles or reuses all of the processed residuals that come out of this plant. Reporter scientist and Senior Analyst Gregg Eckhardt gave me a tour. Were recycling this water. Were recycling the solids and the gas, no other places doing that. Weve got the solar farm out here. Reporter just for good measure. Between all those things, theres no other place in texas thats any greener than this plant. Reporter eckhardt walked me through the Water Treatment process clarifying, a scrubbing with bacteria and microorganisms fed by oxygen and then clarifying again. After this, we also do a filtration process. We can meet all the standards without that, but we do that just to polish the water, to give it that extra shine. Reporter polish the water, thats what you call it . Yeah, polish the water. Reporter 30 of that polished water goes into the san antonio river, the remaining 70 is captured and reused. The polished, yet non potable water, in the purple pipes supplies manufacturers and irrigates golf courses and even keeps the famous riverwalk from becoming a dry riverbedwalk. The water that you dont use, you dont have to treat. So theres also savings in our Wastewater Treatment plants. So much so that we close one of our plants instead of expanding, although during this growth, we actually closed one of our four plants. Reporter really . Yes. Reporter the city is growing and you can shutdown plants. Tremendous amount of savings. Reporter so maybe the best way our aging Water Systems can avoid flunking the grade is by finding ways use need them less. For starters, we shouldnt take for granted the Unsung Heroes that keep the stuff flowing. Woodruff miles blogs about his plunge into detroits sewer te m. Sys read about it on our science page. Brown finally tonight why al jazeera news is willing to spend a reported half billion dollars on a littlewatched Cable Network in the u. S. Ray suarez reports. Suarez the panarab news channel al jazeera has long wanted to boost its reach in the u. S. Beyond a few large metropolitan areas. With its purchase of current, al jazeera has expanded its potential audience nearly ninefold to about 40 million homes. Current was cofounded in 2005 by former Vice President al gore. The channel confirmed the sale in a statement yesterday, saying al jazeera shares current tvs mission to al jazeera, plans to transform current into a new network called al jazeera america. It will add between five and 10 new bureaus in the u. S. Beyond the five it currently operates. Al jazeera has struggled to increased u. S. Viewership from its earliest days. Cable and Satellite Companies have been reluctant to carry al jazeera. The english and arabiclanguage networks are owned by the government of the small persian gulf emirate of qatar. It signed on from the capital, doha, in 1996. Al jazeeras Arabic Network gained worldwide attention after american and allied troops invaded afghanistan, when it was the only channel to cover the war live. Al jazeera english launched in 2006. It has a different staff and budget from the Arabic Network. But both are overseen by a member of qatars royal family. And both actively covered the arab spring which helped the English Channel win a prestigious peabody award to add to a number of other high profile journalistic laurels it was awarded last year. There are already signs of trouble for the new american channel. Yesterday, the nations second largest cable tv operator, time warner, dropped current as soon as the currental jazeera deal was confirmed. For its part, current tv tried to make its mark promoting User Generated Content from the public. But its recently evolved into a more conventional talk format with a liberal leaning. Its ratings have been very small. According to the nielsen ratings company, 42,000 people watched current programming on a typical night in 2012. The network is expected to post 114 million in revenue this year. Suarez Robert Wheelock is the executive producer of news gathering for al jazeera in the americas and he joins us now. Conservatively, estimated north of 500 million, thats a lot of money for a channel watched by very few people. What did current have that al jazeera needed . Access. Access across this country, across the United States, somethat that we tried in various forms to gain and this availability and this opportunity came and i must say the Editorial Board and the management of the company have very aggressively pursued this but not without knowledge that theres risk. Suarez can you be sure that youre going to keep that access if Cable Operators can now reexamine their agreements and say, well, its not current anymore, maybe we dont want to run it anymore. We think so. Look, obviously people have done market research, people have just said some things. We know, for instance, that we have a very large traffic on the web and 40 of that is driven from the United States. Theres an appetite, theres interest. We dont buy i dont buy into the edict that americans arent interested in International News. Americans dont have enough International News available to them. They watch whats available. We offer an alternative. Its a broader coverage of news. Its a broader spectrum into countries that arent traditionally covered and will increase accordingly also our coverage of American News and in latin america which were quite proud of. Suarez its interesting you say that. This is a time when people are watching less news on television. They are looking to television less often. This is educated adults to get a picture of whats going on in the world and here you are entering an already crowded marketplace. Again, maybe theyre watching less because what they see is the same. Channel after channel after channel, people have 800 channels to choose from. We do offer something thats different. We offer what we believe is editorially correct content, not politically correct. We offer, as i said, coverage in countries that other networks are not invested in, we have 71 bureaus around the world. Were proud of that. Were proud that were in timbuktu, were in peru, we cover stories that you wont see everywhere else. Is all the world going to tune in and watch al jazeera on any one night . No. But can we get a good hunk of that . We think we can and we think our content speaks for itself and weve got a reputation now as a good news provider. Suarez when cctv signed on there were questions about editorial independence because its in property of the chinese government. Can we ask the same questions about al jazeera since it is owned by a foreign entity with a direct managerial pipeline for the royal family . You can and you are and its been asked repeatedly. Again, i think the content speaks for itself. Weve won a number of awards, last year the rts Royal Television society gave us Cable Network television of the year. That was big for us. The bbc was based in england, does that mean they were driven by english coverage. Cnn started in atlanta, did they have a bias towards the south . No. That happens to be where were headquartered. It happens to be where the impetus this for this came from. But this is a long time plan for global expansion. We have a balkans network, we have a swahili network, a turkish network. We have childrens programming and sports. This is a key and very much needed part for that expansion. But youre best known or cobest known, if thats a word, for the Arabic Language Service and people who watch this very closely, whove made academic study of it say there are two kettles of fish, al jazeera in arabic and al jazeera in english. How are they different and how would you explain that to an american who has heard a lot of things that havent been complementary about the Arabic Language Service. The difference is whos your audience. To be honest its targeted towards an audience and the coverage we rely on arabic for some material, too, they rely on us, we share some facilities. Editorially we have different takes on these. Were doing things for the americans, theyre doing things for more than middle east. Its the the allegations that were corrupted in our views, everybody i always hear this from people never directly but its also sort of referred but never referred to by people who say heres an example. They havent watched it. Ive always said and it sounds corny if you watch us youre going to like us. Youll find it interesting. Now well have an opportunity for more people to watch it. Thats been when what were offering. Pelley Robert Wheelock of al jazeera, thank you for joining us. Thank you, i appreciate it. Woodruff finally, an encore look at a story we aired last june, about the Health Impacts of soda and junk food in el salvador. Producer roberto daza and correspondent carl nazeman are graduates of the Journalism School at the university of california berkeley. They produced this report for the newshour. Reporter this is santa ana, el salvador, where the american Shopping Mall and diet have arrived. Its el salvadors second largest city. But the food and the waistlines are straight out of the United States. Companies like pepsi, coca cola, and mcdonalds have become part of the local diet. Junk food here is cheap and its everywhere, from the mall to the most remote villages. In cities like santa ana, junk food is leading to a very american problem obesity. But in the countryside, its causing something different. Were headed into the mountains about two hours north of san salvador. Out here, theres still plenty of junk food for sale, but theres little or no access to proper dental care. This mobile clinic is one of the few places to see a dentist. Its run by a local nonprofit called asaprosar, which provides Free Health Services in rural areas. Dentists like jorge aniello treat children with mouths full of painful, rotting teeth. translated theres many cavities, there are many signs of tooth decay. There are some that are rotten down to the roots. Reporter dentists here say theyre seeing an epidemic of tooth decay across the countryside. More than half of the smiles at todays clinic look just like this. They blame the sugar and starch from junk food, and a lack of education about dental care. translated its sad to see that the child could have been better, if the parent had known that the only way to prevent a cavity is with a tooth brush. And that is a sad part of the story. Reporter Silvia Canales is one of the nearly 100 mothers at todays clinic. She says her daughters mouth pain made it difficult to eat. translated she told me that it hurt. It hurt and the tooth was inflamed and swelled up here. Reporter most parents here cant afford to take their children to a dentist. But even with a high level of poverty, Health Experts say kids teeth used to be better. One of the first to notice a decline in dental health was karen sokalgutierrez, a pediatrician and professor at u. C. Berkeley. She showed us pictures from 30 years ago, when kids had healthy teeth. But just one generation later, the photos look different. This is a child who has all of the teeth on the bottom rotten and all of the teeth on the top. Years later, when id go into a village and the kids would come flock around us and hug us and smile and thats when i saw, oh, my god. Their teeth are all black and rotten. Id never seen this before. What happened . So, you want to treat your patient. Reporter professor gutierrez and her team of volunteers work on the ground in el salvador, Training Health workers and donating supplies. She estimates that 85 of kids in rural areas of el salvador have tooth decay and nearly half experience mouth pain, leading to serious problems, like jaw infections, tooth loss, and malnutrition. She puts much of the blame on snack food imported from the United States. With sales peaking at home, American Companies are searching for new markets. In 2009, 25 of coca colas operating profits came from latin america. And last year, nearly half of pepsis sales were from outside the u. S. What im concerned about is that the marketing of junk food, candy, chips, soda at very low price really takes advantage of the poorest people. Theyre trying to show this image that if you drink soda or eat the junk food, youll be healthy, happy, modern. Reporter but coke and pepsi insist their products shod not be silefod t e our thrise in tooth decay. In a statement for the newshour, pepsico officials said r cocacola officials said in a statement but in el salvador its not just imported soda and chips. Local companies also churn out cheap, unhealthy food. The local brand of cola costs less than a quarter. And soda here is super sized these three liter bottles are bigger than most youd find in the United States. I have three liters of orange soda and pepsi. Reporter just down the road from the dental clinic, we find kids buying soda and chips from a store next to the local school. Pedro lemus is the owner. translated what the kids ask for the most are these, chips. Reporter he sells more than 100 bags of chips each day. translated at about 10 00 in the morning, i know that they need something in their stomach, juice, soda, pastries a treat. I know junk food isnt healthy, but they want it and i have to take advantage of what they want. Reporter in the countryside, tortillas are still made the Old Fashioned way. But local Health Officials say the change in diet is a matter of economics. translated we ate real food. Food, fruit, carts would go by selling chilled fruit and real food. But now, junk food is cheaper this shouldnt be. How is it possible that a tortilla chip is cheaper than a tortilla . Reporter the salvadoran association for rural health, or asaprosar, is doing what it can to stem the damage, with free dental clinics and health classes. The lessons include what not to put in the baby bottle. translated when mothers dont know better, when they dont have milk to put their kid to sleep, the put soda, coffee, lemonade, or sugar water in the baby bottle. Both pepsi and cocacola have pledged to stop marketing directly to kids. But their products and other snack foods are as popular as ever. translated whenever i got shopping, she says mommy, bring me sweets, bring me candy, and she starts to cry if i dont bring it. I tell her, theyre not good for you. But, i always give her candy always. Reporter for parents here, prevention is a big part of dealing with the american diet. But like moms everywhere know, it can be hard to say no to your kids. Woodruff again, the major developments of the day the 113th congress was sworn in facing the prospect of major new fights over fiscal policy. And the state department announced that secretary of state Hillary Clinton will return to work next week. Shes recovering from a blood clot in her head. Get to know more about the new faces of capitol hill. We have some facts and figures about the freshman class. Hari sreenivasan has more. Sreenivasan meet the newest members of the house and senate, making up the most divee congress ever. Read some of their stories on our politics page. All that and more is on our web site. Brown and thats the newshour for tonight. Im jeffrey brown. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Well see you online and again here tomorrow with mark shields and david brooks among others. Thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org medic