Transcripts For WMPT PBS NewsHour 20131008

There was word today that power surges have repeatedly damaged a massive new data Storage Facility for the National Security agency. The wall street journal reported ten meltdowns over 13 months destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars of hardware at the utah site. The power problems have delayed the facilitys opening. The u. S. Commando raid that seized a top alqaeda suspect in libya is still making waves. Libyan jihadists vowed today to kidnap americans in retaliation for the capture of abu anas al liby. And the u. S. Military said its moving some 200 marines to a base in italy, just in case. In washington, president obama said the libya raid and another in somalia does not mean hes expanding the war on terror. Theres a difference between us going after terrorists who are plotting directly to do damage to the United States and us being involved in wars. But where youve got active plot and active networks, were going to go after them. Woodruff the president did not directly address a question on whether the seizure of al liby complied with international law. More on all this, later. In egypt, the army chief charged the Muslim Brotherhood with having threatened violence in a bid to forestall any move against former islamist president mohammed morsi. General abdelfattah elsissi led the ouster of morsi last july. He said today morsi should have resigned in the face of sweeping protests against his rule. Meanwhile, the death toll from sunday clashes between the army and morsi supporters rose to 57. The turkish government today lifted a ban on women in state institutions wearing islamic head scarves. The restriction dates back almost 90 years and has kept many women out of government jobs. The new rules will not apply to the courts or the military. The president of argentina is recovering from skull surgery in buenos aires. Cristina fernandez had the operation today to remove a blood clot and relieve pressure on her brain after an unspecified head injury. Supporters kept vigil outside her hospital and brought signs wishing the 60yearold leader well. translated im worried. She is someone whos very intelligent and having to have an operation, regardless of howo risk. Im very worried there wont be someone able to replace her adequately. Woodruff a spokesman for president fernandez emerged later to say, the operation went well. The surgery can require several months of recovery time. A nobel prize will go to two men who made a discovery that underpins all of modern physics. We have a report on todays announcement from Lawrence Mcginty of independent television news. Reporter its taken almost 50 years but today the nobel prize for physics finally went to one of sciences most original thinkers. ni professor peter higgs, united kingdom. It was 1964 when he discovered a subatomic particle now called the higgs boson. But only in julyco last year did scientists manage to make the socalled god particle and so prove it existed. The vindication of his theory 50 years ago brought a tear to his eye. Days after that, he was asked if he might win the nobel prize. I dont know. I dont have Close Friends on the nobel committee. laughter reporter hed be the first to give credit to the scientists at the worlds biggest at tom smasher at certain near geneva whose experiments found the particle he predicted all those years ago. Peter higgs and fran Waugh Englert will be receiving the medal in about two months time. But its a big strange that the thousands of scientists at cerne who proved that theco particle they predicted actually existed will get no recognition of at all from the nobel committee. Thats because this medal can only go to individual individuals. After all the publicity last year, today he was shy of the cameras. Hes always been rather modest and actually looks to give other people credit where appropriate. Reporter a modest man with a big idea that is now the bedrock of modern physics woodruff the revamped, more colorful american 100 bill went into circulation today. New security features include a blue threedimensional ribbon to the left of the image of Benjamin Franklins face. Theres also a coppercolored inkwell. The hundreddollar bill is the most frequently counterfeited u. S. Currency overseas. Here at home, the 20 dollar bill is the counterfeiters choice. Still ahead on the newshour, the Supreme Court weighs limits to individuals political donations; the shutdowns impact on a colorado town already reeling from devastating floods; a white house counterterrorism adviser on the recent raids in africa; teaching todays kids to be tomorrows tech titans; and pro footballs struggle with head injuries. Woodruff the Supreme Court kicked off its new term by hearing arguments in what could be the most important case of the judicial year. At issue whether to lift the cap on total donations one individual can make to politicians during an election cycle. Here to walk us through the arguments is marcia coyle of the national law journal. She was in the courtroom today. nrnrconi its good to have you with us. Good to be back, judy. Woodruff another term under way. Another big case. Woodruff so before we talk about this case, marcia, its important to have you define what define what limits were talking about. There are different kinds of limits when it comes to political contributions. Well, our federal law contains two types of limits on contributions by individuals to candidates, political parties, and political committees. There are base limit which is restrict the amount that an individual can give in an in a single Election Year and then there are what we calling a a gatt limits which restrict the amount, the total amount, that an individual can give in a twoyear election cycle. Now, right now, that aggregate limit is about 123,000. The Supreme Court has upheld base limits and aggregate limits. They did it in 1976. They acknowledged at that time that this was a burden on speech and Association Rights but that burden was outweighed by the governmeovs substantial interest in combating corruption quid pro quo corruption and the appearance of corruption. And the court has not eroded those limits in the intervening 40 years. Woodruff so the main case before the court today is thisni alabama businessman who says we need to do away with the total limit. Yes. The alabama businessman and the Republican National committee and also participating in arguments today was a lawyer for senator mitchxd mccome who has been a long time foe of campaigo finance. Woodruff the Senate Republican leader. Right. And their main argument is since 1976 there are many more regulations on the books to prevent what was the main justification by congress for the aggregate limitnrs. The congressmen posed them, it said, in order to prevent circumvention end runs around the base limits. Woodruff and that was the argument and what kinds of questions were you hearing from the justices . Well, it was interesting, judy, because you could see on the court almost the same type of divide that we saw on the court in 2010 with the Citizens United decision. You had primarily justices on the conservative side of the Court Justices scalia and alito really skeptical of whether lifting the aggregate limits would prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption. On the other side, of course, the government was arguing these limits are still needed to combat corruption and the appearance of corruption but on the other side of the bench, the more liberal justices, they gave many hypotheticals testing that and appeared to be indicating that they did believe it was possible that without the aggregate limits you could have an individual writing a check for approximately 3 million, giving it to a candidate and of course youre going to have a seat at the table if you do Something Like that. Woodruff and so what and how were the attorneys who were representing each side . How were they answering this . Well, they stuck to their argument that, one, theres no need to worry about circumvention of the base limits anymore. That we w the aggregate limits youre basically youre burdening much more speech than is necessary and that violates the first amendment. And the government said but if you lift these limits youre going to have roughly maybe 500 of the healthiest americans controlling the elections in this country. Woodruff and how much were the justices concerned about that . I think there was concern primarily on the liberal side. Although it was very interesting. Chief Justice Roberts, he hasnt been as aggressive as other justices when it comes to limiting money in campaigns even though he did vote in Citizens United to lift the limits on spending. But he voiced concern about what these aggregate limits do to the smaller donornr who under curret limit cans basically give to9inl of the law if he or she gives to ten candidates. So he saw this as severe restriction on small donations. But Justice Ginsburg actually thought that the aggregate limits encourage more speech because they require candidates and parties to cast a broader net to bring in more donors in order to get the money they need to run the election. Woodruff so just quickly, a sense today from what the justices were saying . My sense is the aggregate limits are in a lot of trouble with the court and chief Justice Roberts was looking for a narrower way to decide it but he didnt get much help from either sides lawyers. Woodruff marcia coyle, thank you very much. My pleasure, judy. Woodruff to debate the issue, i spoke a short time ago with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. The r. N. C. Brought the case to the court. And u. S. Representative david price, democrat of north carolina, who filed a brief with the court in support of Current Campaign finance donation limits. nr Reince Priebus and representative david price, welcome to the newshour. Mr. Priebus, let me start with you. Why does the Republican National Committee Want to make it possible for people make unlimited contributions to the candidates and the parties of their choice . Were not challenging the idea that people still have individual limits to congressmen and parties across the country. All were challenging is the aggregate limit that a person can give in total to all candidatestor all political parties. And part of the problem is this and i think what we saw today, no matter where you were no matter where you were sitting i think there was agreement today that the current state of the law, the way that things are going as far as money and politics is not a sustainable model. Weve been trying to advocate that parties at least from our standpoint should have more ability to raise money because we are disclosing everything and all of our donor information on a monthly basis to the federalni election commission. Whats happened is the money has gone outside of the candidates and outside of the Party Committees and theyve gone to other independent pacs or super pacs as people call them and theynr have unlimited access to money but they disclose nothing to anybody. So whats happened in the law is the total opposite of what i think most people intended. So thats what were really talking about today. Woodruff and congressman price, why is it a bad idea to do what the republicans are saying . To put, in other words, no limits on the total amount that can be given. Well, if im the one whos supposed to defend super pacs, think again. I think its a terrible decision, the Citizens United decision. But the notion that the cure to that is to open up a whole new category of superdonors i think is likely to compound the problem. It would even further dilute the voice of small donors and of small contributors and also it would override that distinction that the court has maintained for a long, long time. That the danger of corruption and the appearance of corruption is much greater when were talking about contributions. Of course, i agree contributions are going to add up to huge amounts of money and compound that perception of corruption. Woodruff Reince Priebus, why isnt itni a concern that allowg these large contributions than you would be as congressman price said potentially overriding the voice of small donors, people who cannot afford to give very much to a politician . No, i dont think thats the case at all because each individual candidate is still going to have a limit as to how many what the individual limit of the contribution is. So if today under the law i can give to 18 particular candidates at a full maximum level the question is why is giving to 19 supposed toco be illegal under e law . Heres the point im trying to put more disclosed money into the system, not more money. The moneys going to be there. I mean, guys, were living in a different universe if we dont think that theres boat lottsnif money in politics. Woodruff let me ask congressman price. The disclosure point hes making and that its a matter of not raising how much you can give to one candidate but you can give to more candidates. Well, im delighted to hear the chairmans commitment to disclosure. I hope hes in good touch with senator mcconnell because weve been proposing in the disclose act for full disclosure. Whatever you think of the Supreme Courts decision in Citizens United. Surely we can agree as we did for many more years until senator mcconnell changed his position surely we can agree thatnini disclosure is desirabl. That we need to have a full accounting of whos giving to these super pacs. I think congressmans the congressman is sort of missing the point here. The point is whether or not is by keeping the base limits in place and allowing people to donate to many candidates as they want to its that is that creating corruption within a system that already allows a person to write a 10 million check to a super pac . The point is itni doesnt and thats the question before the court. If question before the court isnt how to just make everyone feel and boy isnt that too much none . Thats not the question before the court. The question before the court is is keeping the base limits in place but allowing people to contribute to as many candidates as they want, do husband that encourage sdplupgs and the answer is no woodruff let me give congressman price a chance to answer that. If youre worried about parties and candidates not have a piece of the action even with the new rules in place in 2012, they gave over 5 billion, 83 of their contribution. So as bad as these super pacs are and as unaccountable as they are they still account for 17 of the contributions. So the parties and candidates are doing just that but the exciting thing ive heard in this interview is the commitment to disclosure. We could level that Playing Field with regard to disclosure. So lets have at it. Lets make sure the super pacs and the socalled social issue groups disclose whos financing them. Woodruff and congressman price quickly. Your point about being able to contribute to more candidates. co mr. Mccutcheon who brought this case, hes not been hamstrung just because he could not give to an aggregate of 17 candidates. The guy gave 300,000. He has a super pac himself. Im not worried about mr. Mccutcheons free speech rights or his ability to support as many candidates as he wants. Woodruff quick final word, Reince Priebus. Heres theni issue ifnr a pn wants to give to the democratic senatorial committees, the republican congressional committees and the Republican National committee, under the law, the law says they couldnt do that. And i dont understand how by giving to two andni 10,000 to a third actually prevents corruption. I mean, i thats the issue before the court. And were getting into a conversation about issues that are not before the court and the freedom of speech should ensure that a person under the individual limits should be able to give to whomever they want to give to. Woodruff do you have a final comment congressman price about that corruption . Well, all i can say is that for four decades the court has saidnr that theres a particular problem with direct contributions in terms of corruption and the perception of corruption. Now, i ini think theres the same problem with respect to expenditures but the court has not thought so. The court has thought that contributions were warranted special regulations andco thats what our republican friends are saying should be overturned. Its a major unleashing of a whole new class of superdonors. Woodruff we are going to have to leave it there, gentlemen. Well be watching the court. Congressman david price, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National committee. Woodruff next, how the Government Shutdown is affecting one colorado community, still recovering from last months devastating floods. The newshours mary jo brooks has our report. Reporter the floodwaters that swept through estes park a month ago damaged hundreds of buildings and destroyed two main roads that led into town. The sewage system was so broke than a third of the residents still must use portapottys that have been set up throughout the neighborhoods. In spite of all that, folks here have been working round the clock to get their town backco n shape for throngs of tourists who come every year to view the spectacular fall colors. Estes is the gateway toutse Rocky Mountain National Park, which draws more thanni three million visitors a year. The town of 6,000 people depends on the park for its livelihood and residents were hopeful that a strong october tourist season could help with their financial recovery. They managed to get 90 of their shops and restaurants back open and then came the Government Shutdown. The double whammy with the park beingni closed. Reporter Frank Lancaster is the towns administrator. He says the closure of Rocky Mountain National Park is devastating. 65 cof our revenue comes fror tourism dollars and about 45 of the jobs here in town are based on tourism dollars. Were already seeing some businesses having to lay some folks off because of that and its a combination of the flood, the roads being closed and the park being closed. Its tough. Its kind of a trifecta of disasters here. Reporter Trisha Jacobs considers herself one of the lucky ones. She andco her husband manage kirks flyni fishing shop. The store suffered only minor damage but news of the flood caused many fishing trips to be canceled andni some employees to be laid off. The closure of the park has meant even more cancellations. A lot of us here like we weri down as was and then Somebody Just kicked us while we were down. They took everything away from us by closing the park. Last week we hadni fewer people, but there were still people in town. This weekni its just way different. I mean, hardly anybody. Reporter jacobs says those who do come are confused especially tourists from abroad. The europeans dont understand why with the disagreement in washington why they would shut down the parks. And i have to say that even the americans dont understand it because those parks are for us. Reporter julie peeper is one of those whos been vexed by the closure. She and her husband own two restaurants in estes that were heavily flood damaged. They arenr racing to reopen onen the next few days to take advantage of the fall season. She says the closure of the park has been more than just a financial setback for Small Businesses and for 200 park employees who have been furloughed, it has been an emotional blow. The day the park closed down i think everybody had a little mini meltdown because that was the place we could all go to gei away from debris and the reality of mold and wet carpet and you could get outside and blow off a little steam and we cant do that now. And thats been hard. Reporter the one thing that hasnt yet been affected by the Government Shutdown is emergency disaster aid from federal agencies. Fema still has more than a thousand workers on the ground in colorado. The and 150 Colorado National guardsmen who were to be furloughed were kept onni the jb last week when governor John Hicken Looper announce head would use state money to pay for them. Its likely to cost more than 60,000 a day. The guardsmen are working with the States Department of transportation to repair the numerous roads and highways that were damaged in the flood. Administrator lancaster says hes grateful that help is continuing but says its hard to move forward with longterm planning when federal agencies like the term corps ofco engines and the Forest Service are shut down. 5, the fema folks are here, we have coast guard people here helping with us Hazardous Waste problems but when it comes down to the ongoing recovery and getting back on our feet, the folks that we need to help arent working. Theyve been furloughed. Reporter governor hicken looper hopes to help with that process. Hes aplayed for waivero allow state workers to carry out some ofni the duties of furlougd federal workers until the shutdown has been resolved. So far, the governor has received no answer. Woodruff now back to the weekend military actions in libya and somalia. President obama is vowing that suspected al qaeda leader abu anas alliby captured in libya on saturday and now being held on a u. S. Warship will be brought to justice. Jeffrey brown has our newsmaker interview. ni brown ni we discuss the playd in the libya and its aftermath with president obamas chief counterterrorism advisor lisa monaco. Welcome to you. In his press Conference Today the president said where weve got active plots and active networks were going to go after them. Was there an active, imminent threat the case of allibi . Well, i think, jeff, what you saw here was a demonstration of the incredible professionalism of the men and women in the armed forces and conducting the raid that occurred over the weekend. And an ays in a allibini did pe a threat to the United States, he was a senior al qaeda member and somebody who is also charged in an indictment for his role as part of the al qaeda worldwide conspiracy. One of the questions that aridess in a case like these, is there a clear standard in determining when the u. S. Goes into another country . The standard is one to go after those who would seek to do us harm. And what you saw in the case of the allibico raid was,ni frank, the unrelenting focus to go after them no platter how long it takes. Brown was it more for what he had done in the past that he was indicted for or sors kind of imminent threat he was involved in. Well, i think with the case of allibi he certainly poses a threat and did pose a threat. Hes now in the custody of the United States m but he did pose a threat as a Senior Member of al qaeda. But he also as has been said and has been demonstrated is a charged al qaeda member. Hes being held on the ship. Today you had libyas Prime Minister said that he should be tried in libya. Youve had republicans say he should be sent to guantanamo. Weve seen civil libertarian groups say he should be read his miranda rights and treated as a criminal under u. S. Criminal law. What exactly is his status . His status that hes being held by the United States military consistent with the authorization for the use of military force. What this raid demonstrated and what this operation demonstrated is our top priority is to go avenue those who do pose a threat and whonr do seek to do s harm. But also to always first if we can capture and obtain intelligence from those individuals. Brown do you expect him to be brought to trial in the United States . Im not going to get ahead of that process but what i will say is that our first prior city to get intelligence testimony from from him. And as weve seen in other operations of this kind as with war sammy who you may remember who was also captured by our own forces in a very professional raid there as well that our goal is to get intelligence and then ultimately to prosecute the individual. I ask because obviously theres a question about whether theres a legal limbo to keep him on a ship in International Waters avoiding guantanamo on the one hand, avoiding u. S. Courts on the other. Is this a set strategy of the u. S. Government fvu well, i think what it shows is a very Clear Strategy by the u. S. Government to use all the tools, frankly, in our tool box to disrupt threats, to go after consistent with the rule of law, individuals who pose a threat, to get intelligence and then ultimately to make a decision about what the best disposition is forni that individual and to prosecute and hold people accountable no matter how long it takes. Brown one of the lingering questions in this case is did the u. S. Have the cooperation, support, and or backing of the Libyan Government in the raid . Well, jeff we always consult with nations with whom we have strategic relationships as we do with the government ofni libya. ÷ i think what you saw today is the Prime Minister made a statement that he values the relationship with the United States and that the United States is a supporter of the libyan people as we are and we will continue to be so to help them build their capacity to address security challenges. Brown im not sure how to read that, though. Before the raid was there the o. K. Or the support from the libyans . Jeff, i think im not going to get intoni our consultations that happened in all over thecuorld with partners and with other governments. Brown whats the situation now . There have been threats on social media from libya and north africa about reprisals. Well, its always a concern and i think youve seen the president has talked about this, about the diffuse threats that we face and its one that we will continue to go after and we will not stop from that. But its also one that we have to face with a multitude of tools, whether its direct action and capture operations, like you saw over the weekend, whether its with the use of lethal force when no other tool is capable to be used or when its working in partnership with other governments and building capacity. Were going to use all those tools. Brown i do want to ask you about the raid in somalia which did not get the target. Is there any more information about whether he was involved in the nairobi mall killings . He was not involved in that and there was not that information in this we have no information that he was involved in that attack and this raid was not conducted based on the West Gate Mall attack. There again thats an example of the incredible precision and professionalism of our armed forces and the restraint that they showed as the department of defense has talked about with tremendous care for not inflicting civilian casualties. Brown is that, in fact, what happened . They ran into more than expected civilians and pulled back . I think as the department of defense has said they undertook this operation to go after anco alshabaab commander and ultimately they made the decision to disengage and it was a decision made and an operation that was undertake within tremendous presis and care. Brown let me just ask you finally, briefly, how should americans understand the terrorism threat now in north africa and Subsaharan Africa . Do these groups have the capability of acting beyond their region . Including reaching to the u. S. . Jeff, thats something were always going to be concerned about. I think what we have seen and the president talked about it today is groups that may have original focus but we have to be concerned, ultimately always, about their ability to go after our interests and our personnel and our facilitiesnr in that pat of the world but also their ability to project a threatn against the United States and we will continue to go after that threat. The. Brown lisa monaco, white house counterterrorism advisor, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Woodruff now, preparing students for the digital economy. A new report out today finds younger americans fall behind their peers in other industrialized countries when it comes to the math and Technical Skills needed for the modern workplace. Special correspondent john tulenko of learning matters looks at a program that tries to address that problem. What do you actually think you need to have to be an entrepreneur . You have to have drive and the willingness to go out there and do what has to be done to achieve your goal. Reporter these 45 Public High School students in new york city are taking big strides toward achieving their dreams. I want to make the new facebook, and thats what im going to do. Reporter theyre learning how to succeed as hightech entrepreneurs in a free summer long program called gentech nyc. Competing in teams, theyll work to create fully functional, original cellphone apps, with Business Plans to support them. The program caters to students whose schools or circumstances cannot provide this kind of opportunity. We feel its incredibly important to be giving these students access. Reporter jordan runge directs the program, a partnership between the new York City Economic Development corporation and the network for teaching entrepreneurship. We look at gentech as being their first step into this kind of larger tech world. Reporter its a big step at that, especially for a High School Student to make. We have a bunch of stuff, and you can see some of it over there. Reporter their journey began with a very lowtech challenge. They gave us playdoh, plates, construction paper, scissors, and a glue stick that didnt work. I thought we were going to work with the tech stuff at first to start with, so when they gave us all the paper bags and everything, im like, am i in the right program . Reporter their assignment was to create a new product to educate or entertain children ages 8 to 12. It was really hard, because there are just too many things out already. Its hard to come up with an idea. A lot of them were kind of taken back. Wait you want us to go make something now . I dont understand. Because thats just not what theyre used to. But thats what this is all about. Its about creating something you thinking of it, dreaming it up, and putting it out there for the world to consume. All right, ladies and gentleman, if we could have your attention. Reporter the bigger test of their creativity came the next day, when jordan runge announced the programs central challenge. You will be tasked with creating a mobile app that improves the quality of education or city life for new york city students. Reporter a 5,000 prize would go to the best app. In terms of expectations. Reporter and just like a real startup, there were urgent deadlines to meet. Students had just 48 hours to come up with their big idea. Before i went to bed, i would, like, put my clipboard next to my bed in case any inspiration came to me in the middle of the night. Reporter from the getgo, gentech pushed its students to test their ideas. Instead of guesswork, they conducted surveys and crunched the data to determine which of their evolving apps had the most traction. Would like to be able to talk with your peers and interact with them . Reporter they were also required to share their ideas. We had an entrepreneur kind of speed dating round where they had to get some feedback about their ideas. If you were to make a study guide, would you follow it . Some people say, well, i dont want folks to steal my ideas, so i cant talk about it. Well, no, you should talk about it, because thats how you figure out if its a good idea or not. And one, thats what you do. But second of all, thats how you get people on board with you. If you want to build a team around an idea, youve got to talk to people to get them onboard. Reporter time was also devoted to learning to code and to something often overlooked by teens. The way you present yourself is extremely important, and, of course, were going to start off with your dress. Look behind me on this smartboard. When he first pulled up that first slide, im, like, oh, lord, were going to have to be macgyver and make our own suits today. You have to make sure you look the part, because, sadly, were going to judge you. So i managed to survive three grueling rounds of venture financing. This is super, super hard. Reporter dress codes were not enforced upon startup c. E. O. s who came in each day to share their success stories. Most of them look like theyve just come back from the beach. Its something we tell kids. Well go to a tech company, and theyll go, well, theyre all in jeans and a tshirt. I say, thats great, because they earned their spot to be there in jeans and tshirt. Youre a High School Student. To show people youre serious, you cant look like High School Students. Dress in business casual. So today is the culmination of this first week and all the work youve been doing. Reporter all this while students had been working on their big idea for an app, for which they prepared a 90second pitch. My app is called the fast plan. Reporter for the next hour, students would put it all on the line. applause we have now heard everybodys pitches. So now is the fun part. Now youre going to be forming into teams. Reporter students scrambled to either build a team around their own idea or join someone elses. What happened in your case . Well, its more like people wanted to join me, but i didnt realize that they wanted to do their idea. It was just a pitch fight all over again. Reporter when all the dust had settled, there were nine teams competing for the 5,000 prize. Rajeshs team served up mealr, which offers teens healthy recipes and rewards smart food choices with digital badges. Competitors reaction . Im a teen. I dont have to worry about my diet. Reporter brandons team, nyc loop, aims to be the goto place for teens in search of things to do in new york. I wouldnt really download it, because for groups like that, i usually just use facebook to create an event. Reporter and emilys team will offer up empire bash, dazzlingly Multiplayer Games that teach new york city history. The overarching thought on all of the students apps is that theyre all going to have to narrow down whatever it is that they have even further to one core component. Reporter to take the apps to the next level, gentech brought the students to the pros. Volunteer mentors from the tech sector were paired with each team. Theyd meet twice a week for six weeks at Companies Like appnexus, microsoft, and google. At empire bash, the minigame app, mentor kristin bond was eager to get started. I like working with kids, and i thought this was such a cool program that theyre getting the opportunity to learn to code at this age. But then the object of the game is to. Reporter but bond got a surprise when she asked her team about the features they wanted to build. How do you unlock a force field . The robots. They have keys to unlock the force field. Thats a thought. When they told me what they wanted to do, my first reaction was, whoa. Its robots. Its in the future. It seemed really ambitious to me not an app that we can build. The problem with the whole recipe thing. Reporter across the room, mealr, the Healthy Eating app, was getting grilled. We have five mentors. Each and every one of them attacked us. Its like one by one. Reporter it was a different story at nyc loop, the teen events calendar. Our mentors were pretty supportive of the idea. They just told the realness of what was going to actually happen. Reporter what do you hear about empire bash . They changed their idea, like, seven times, right . I think theyre just scrambling for things to do at this point. Were like adding robots and aliens and force fields. There were too many mixed ideas. I dont want to stifle their creativity. I dont want to tell them their ideas arent going to work, because thats not what this program is about. What do you think . So were trying to just ask questions to let them really think about what would be a good idea and what would be feasible. Reporter it took three weeks, but emilys team finally landed on an achievable idea, inspyru, a scaleddown mystery game for teaching math. Were finally all on the same page. We cant change the idea now. Im serious reporter but in all this time, her competitors had raced ahead. Everything is sliding perfectly. So were just going to keep on going until its competition time. The first finalist to present tonight is mealr. Please welcome mealr to the stage. Reporter judging took place in september. Only one team would walk away with the 5,000 prize. And the winner is sprouted. Reporter our teams were the runnersup, a comefrombehind second, third place, and fourth. Reporter they didnt win the 5,000, but they were still rewarded. I hope that when they look back on this summer theyll say to themselves, wow, i did something i didnt think that i could do. And im very excited to see what happens after this as they continue to learn. Reporter for these young men and women, the journey has just begun. Woodruff finally tonight, a close up look at the nfls response to players concussions and brain injuries. Thats the subject of a special twohour frontline on pbs tonight, called league of denial. It begins with the story of mike webster, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 70s and 80s. He died in 2002 after showing symptoms of brain trauma. Heres an excerpt. Websters sunday afternoons were spent on the line of scrimmage, brutal territory known as the pit. He had the violence in him. He could explode into the player. Every play was a fight. Websters favorite weapon was his head. Well, web biwould hit you with his head first and with that head itd pop you and then hed lift your shoulders, hed get it up in the air, oncenr you hit full speed youre moving backwards and he hits you, youre gone. When he would fire off the ball, hes coming to block me and if imni not ready for him hes going to pancake me. Hes going to hurt me. Reporter hall of fame linebacker for the new york giants harry carson went to war with mike webster. And so i have to meet force withco force. Allni of my power is coming from my big rear end and my big thighs into my forearms and i hit him in the face, i have to stun him, get my hands on him, throw him off when i see where the ball is going. And when i hit him in the face, his head is going back, hes Going Forward but all of a sudden his head is going back and his brain is hitting up against the inside of his skull. In football, one has to expect that almost every play of every game, every practice theyre going to be hitting their heads against each otherco thats the nature of the game. Those things seem to happen around a thousand to 1500 times a year. Each time that happens its around 20g orni more. Thats the equivalent of driving a car 35 Miles Per Hour into a brick wall. Woodruff ray suarez has more about the frontline information. Suarez mark fainaruwada of espn is one of the principal investigative reporters with the documentary, and hes the co author of the accompanying book by the same name. Mark, welcome back to the program. We just saw mike webster lining up at scrimmage and crashing into other big men over and over again. What happened after his playing days were over . Well, ray, essentially mike webster went mad after his career had ended. You know, he had a life that really he was a very articulate, smart guy. People thought he would become a broadcaster or a coach and in fact what happened to him was his life sort of fell apart. We detail this extensively in the book and in the film about how he ended up at such a place in which he just you know, he lost memory issues, he was writing thousands of letters that were basically incoherent in many cases. His finances fell apart. And ultimately he just didnt take care of himself in any physical way, his body fell apart and he died at theni age f 50 of a heart attack and on the death certificate it also listed postconcussion syndrome was a contributing factor to his death. Suarez does he become, in effect, patient 0 . The guy whoco kicks off the worries into repetitive brain trauma in the n. F. L. . He is patient 0 inni many wa. I mean, his case you know, he ends up at the Allegheny County Coroners Office on the slab and the doctor at the time, the pathologist was a junior neuropathologist who is a fascinating character in the book and the film, a nigerian doctor who knows nothing about football but has been studying neuropathology, has learned about mike websters passing and his descent into madness, if you will, and he decides to study websters brain andni its this decision back in 2002 after webster dies that really sets off the n. F. L. s concussion crisis because what he discovers in websters brain is thatni hes been suffering from a neurodegenerative disease that comes to be known as c. T. E. , a disease known in boxers but never identified in a footballc suarez well, there have been many cases since mark webster. Has it been medically established beyond a doubt that playing profootball exposes the body to injury that ends in neurological damage and often death . Its a very good question and one that the scientists continue to debate, althougui i think, yu know, its fairly well established at this point that you have a number of independent scientists separate from n. F. L. Doctors who have been saying for years that there are connections between repetitive brain trauma, repetitive trauma from football and get it is the possibility of getting longterm brain damage and for two decades this is what we lay out in the book and the film. The n. F. L. Seemed to blanch at that science and fight back against it and attack those neuroscientists who were telling them that this was an issue they needed to be dealing with. Brown . Suarez you ask yourself in the documentary what did the n. F. L. Know and when did it know it . How do you answer that . Well, i think as i was saying you know, it becomes clear that over a period of Time Beginning in the mid90s and prudent person until 2009 you have a heavy layer league begins to hear from at least a dozen, as many as a dozen neuroscientist us there surveys, through the study of brains throughni commentary this idea that repetitive trauma is connected to longterm brain damage in Football Players and what the league hears this and it has a twoprong attack. It attacks the scientists who suggest this is a growing problem, it tries to discourage them effectively or rip into them in various wayss and at thd same time they create their own Research Body which mutts out a series of papers in a neurosurgery journal ed ted by a consultant to the new york giants and that those papers basically send a message that concussions are not a problem in the n. F. L. And that almost n. F. L. Players are impervious to these kind of issues. Suarez in the years since, the n. F. L. Has made a massive payment to a class of injured players, changed the rules in practice, taken a look at the equipment and says its trying to dealle with this problem. Has it done enough . Well, i think thats the lingering question, clearly. I mean, one of the things that the experts at Boston University who are the leading scientists in this are saying is that the issue with football is not necessarily these big hit wes see all the time shown on highlight bus rather the repetitive nature of playing the game. The blows that has been, the subconcussive blows that happen everyday at the line of scrimmage and whether you can mitigate those out of the game remains to be seen and whether you want to frankly remains to be seen. Its a brutal, violent sport but very popular, obviously. I love it, my brother who coauthored thenr book with me, with we both love the sport and millions of people love it. The question is how informed people are in being able to make the decisions moving forward about what they want football to be. If. Suarez league of denial. Mark fainaruwadan wad, thanks for joining us. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Woodruff frontlines league of denial airs tonight on most pbs stations. Again, the major developments of the day. President obama declared hes willing to negotiate on changes in the Health Care Law and federal spending after republicans agree to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner shot back that the president is demanding unconditional surrender. And the Supreme Court took up a major case on how much individuals may give to political campaigns. Online, theyre under threat by war, the environment, and economic development, 67 sites on the 2014 world monument watch, just released today. Jeffrey brown spoke to bonnie burnham, president of the world monuments fund, the nonprofit that issues the annual list. Watch that interview on our homepage. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. And thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, ray suarez reports on recent setbacks to immigration reform. Im judy woodruff. Well see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by my customers can shop around; see who does good work and compare costs. It can also work that way with healthcare. With united healthcare, i get information on quality ratings of doctors, Treatment Options and estimates for how much ill pay. That helps me and my guys make informed decisions. I dont like guesses with my business and definitely not with our health. Thats health in numbers. United healthcare. Bnsf railway. 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. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org. This is nightly Business Report with Tyler Mathisen and zmg zj broug susie gharib brought to you by. Thestreet. Com, multi media tools for an ever changing financial world. The dividend stock advisor guides and generates income during a period of low interest rates. We are thestreet. Com. Stocks pounded as the great divide in washington escalates, investors are paying the price. The s p and nasdaq hit the worst day in six weeks. The dow off 900 points from the record september high. Earnings underway, two big s p 500 Companies Reported profits late today but how much did the results and outlooks matter to the market when washington is such a huge concern . And hitten debt storm, there is a developing crisis larger than detroit, this time puerto rico and if you think it doesnt affect you, look at your mutual fund. You may puerto rico funds and not know it. We have that and more on nightly Business Report for tuesday, october 8th. Good evening everyone and welcome. The war of words heated up and stocks and bonds cooled off again today with todays losses driven by the freezeup in washington over the debt limit and Government Shutdown, the dow shed all of septembers gains. Its down a staggering 900 points from the alltime closing high hit just three weeks ago. Thats nearly 6 and today was the worst day in six weeks for the s p 500 and nasdaq. That market fell 2 and volatility spiked to its highest level since june because there is seemingly no movement and no discussion between president obama and House Speaker boehner over the reopening of the government and averting a federal default in nine days time. Here is how the president characterized the stakes in the press room this afternoon. A decision to actually go through with it, to actually permit default, according to many ceos and economists would be insane, catastrophic, chaos, these are some of the more polite words. Warren buffett compared to the a nuclear bomb, a weapon too horrible to use. It would undermine the confidence at the bedrock of the global economy. Later house Speaker John Boehner had this to say in response. There is going to be a negotiation here. We cant raise the debt ceiling without doing something about what is driving us to borrow more money and to live beyond our means. The idea that we should continue to spend money that we dont have and give the bill to our kids and grandkids would be wrong. On wall street some of the biggest gainers so far this year, technology, biotech stocks became the biggest losers today as traders cashed out and took what profits they could. Here are the numbers, the dow tumbling nearly 160 points, the nasdaq down 75 making for the 2 drop and s p fell. Bond prices fell, too, and an auction of shortterm treasury bills produced the highest yield since 2008. The partial Government Shutdown is bad enough but a u. S. Default, if that happens, would have catastrophic consequences on the global economy. So says the chief economist of the International Monetary fund. Although he called the default unlikely, the imf says failure to pay would be felt right away leading to disruptions in the United States and abroad end quote. The u. S. s second largest creditor also weighing in on washington use budget and debt limit in pass. Japans leaders is pushing to resolve the deadlock and it would reek havoc on japans vie nices because of investments in u. S. Treasury bonds. Late today, we received reports that treasury secretary lu held a Conference Call with the Financial Stability oversight counsel about what would happen if the debt limit is not raised, the chairpersons of the scc discussed the impact of the lapse in funding in their ability to monitor and respond to potential market events. Deil