>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> 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: a raft of consumer, business and government spending pushed u.s. economic growth into better-than-expected territory. gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 3.7% from april to june, according to the commerce department. that's more than a percentage point higher than initial estimates. for comparison, japan's economy shrank and germany and the u.k. grew by less than a percent for the same time period. >> ifill: stocks in china rebounded today and shook off a six-day slump triggered by concerns over the health of the chinese economy. the two major chinese indices surged by more than 5%, snapping a losing streak that had rippled around the financial world. other asian and european markets followed suit. >> woodruff: the asian rally extended to wall street, helped along by the encouraging u.s. economic numbers. the dow jones industrial average gained 369 points to close above 16,600. the nasdaq rose 115 points, and the s&p 500 added 47 points. for oil it was also a good day, the biggest one-day rally in nearly seven years. u.s. oil rose by nearly $4 a barrel, more than 10%, to $42.56. >> ifill: in iraq today, an islamic state militant killed two generals and three soldiers in a suicide bombing. a vehicle filled with explosives hit the troops as they advanced towards the isis-controlled city of ramadi, in anbar province. a funeral procession for the generals passed through baghdad this afternoon. iraqi prime minister al-abadi walked behind the coffins and vowed to defeat isis. the islamic state claimed the attack was revenge for the recent killing of a senior militant fighter. >> woodruff: police in austria today discovered the decomposed bodies of as many as 50 refugees piled inside a truck on a highway from budapest to vienna. it came as a summit on europe's migrant crisis began today in vienna. lindsey hilsum of independent television news has this report from the scene of the discovery. >> reporter: we were on our way to the balkans summit in vienna, where leaders were to discuss migration, when we saw police around a truck at the side of the road. the stench of death blew in through our car window, the consequence of european governments' failure to deal with the tide of refugees and migrants was right here at the side of the motorway. the police first noticed the vehicle around 11:00 am. >> they thought it was a breakdown and looked and they found no driver and they saw blood comes out of the car and the smell was like, yah. then they call alarm. >> reporter: forensic teams worked on the outside. it's believed the people inside may have been dead for several days. the lorry had the logo of a slovakian chicken meat company but the license plates were hungarian and the vehicle was reportedly bought by a romanian last year. police are investigating the network of people smugglers that brings refugees and migrants into austria. the families who climbed into that truck must have thought they were heading away from death, not towards it. this then is what it's come to: people suffocating to death at the side of a motorway in one of the richest countries in the world. today's summit was overshadowed by the tragedy. only germany is responding to the crisis, accepting 800,000 syrian refugees this year. >> ( translated ): and we are, of course, all shaken by the appalling news that up to 50 people lost their lives because they got into a situation where these traffickers didn't look after them, even though these people were on the way to look for more safety and protection. and then had to die such a tragic death. this reminds us that we must tackle quickly the issue of immigration and in a european >> reporter: the e.u. leadership knows it's failing. >> we understand very well that we cannot continue like this, with a minute of silence every time that we see people dying. yet rich e.u. downtries, -- country, including britain, are refusing to accept refugees. it's everyone and no one's problem. >> woodruff: just yesterday, authorities in nearby hungary detained more than 3,200 refugees at its southern border with serbia. that's the highest number so far this year. >> ifill: authorities in china have detained 11 people for their role in the massive warehouse explosion that killed at least 145 people. they're accused of negligence and abuse of power in the country's worst industrial disaster in recent years. the august 12 explosion at a chemical site devastated the port city of tianjin and left 115 police and firefighters among the dead and missing. >> woodruff: a cloud of smoky air hung over much of the northwestern u.s. today from about 50 large wildfires that are now burning. the national weather service imposed air quality alerts for parts of washington, oregon, idaho and montana. a fire in okanogan, washington has now grown to almost 438 square miles, making it the largest fire ever recorded in the state. fire officials are working hard to contain it. >> containment remains at 17% and we have nearly 1,800 people from 33 states here supporting the firefighting efforts on the ground. our priorities have not changed in terms of our objectives. the safety of the public and our firefighters remains our number one concern. >> woodruff: a contingent of firefighters from australia and new zealand were deployed today to help battle the washington wildfire. >> ifill: new data released today shows that although the vast majority of american children are vaccinated, those who are not still pose a big threat to public health. a centers for disease control and prevention study found that less than two percent of parents nationwide asked for vaccination exemptions last school year. but in certain states the number is much higher, as high as 6.5% percent in idaho. the report follows a measles outbreak in california that sickened more than 100 people earlier this year. still to come on the newshour: how video of a disturbing crime spread. wall street rallies after the federal reserve hints hesitation on raising interest rates. extending minimum wage laws for more workers in seattle. and much more. >> ifill: for a second day, a shocking, televised murder is raising a wide array of questions about the perpetrator, and about how quickly horrific images can infect the national bloodstream online. we'll have our own conversation about some of this in a moment. but first, more of this day's reactions to the virginia shootings. >> please join us now for a moment of silence. >> ifill: wdbj in roanoke, virginia paused this morning to remember cameraman adam ward and reporter alison parker at the exact moment the two were shot and killed yesterday during an on-air interview. their killer, 41-year-old vester lee flanagan, was a former reporter for the station. he was known on-air as bryce williams and was fired from the station in 2013. >> he was an angry man. we didn't know that when we hired him. >> ifill: wbdj president jeff marks: >> when something was amiss in his performance, he would deflect it onto others and blamed other people for all of his issues. and then he blamed back by making these wild accusations about racial insensitivity and all of that and it's just not true. >> ifill: in the hours that followed the attack, flanagan faxed a 23-page document to abc news. in it, he said his actions were triggered by the apparent racism of dylann roof, a white man who has been charged with the murder of nine black worshippers during bible study at a charleston church this june. flanagan also claimed he had been subjected to racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work. using his on-air moniker, lanagan posted footage he filmed of the shooting to facebook and twitter. both accounts were later taken down. after fleeing the scene, police said flanagan committed suicide yesterday afternoon on a virginia highway. today, alison parker's father, andy, pledged to work for stricter gun control. >> i'm going to do everything i can now to make sure her life has meaning. that people remember her and that we don't have another newtown, we don't have another movie theatre shooting, that we don't have another charleston. the politicians have got to stand up to the nra and close some of these loopholes so that crazy people don't get guns. >> ifill: at one point flanagan was sent to an employee counseling program because of performance and behavioral issues. even as he spoke, a makeshift memorial continued to flow nearby as friends, viewers and coworkers paid tribute to the murdered journalist. we look at what made this latest shooting sadly familiar and shockingly different with lance ulanoff, chief correspondent & editor-at-large at mashable, the digital media website, barry rosenfeld is a professor of psychology and director of clinical training at fordham universtity, and deborah potter is the founder of newslab, a non-profit journalism resource center. she is also a former television news correspondent and anchor. lance ulanoff, was it only a matter of time before someone live tweeted something so horrific? >> yeah, unfortunately, i think that's true. we are never without our technology. it's around us. it permeates our lives. we have powerful computers in our pocket, and we have been, you know, we are training our children from the youngest age the use social media, so it's something that comes very naturally to us, and what i noticed as part of this, this horrifying crime, is that the use of social media seemed to be kind of a natural act happening as i was doing these things. i did not feel that part of it didn't feel particularly premeditated. >> ifill: well, not only his act but that people instinctively shared what he put up online. >> it is, but it's funny, because i look at this guy, flanagan, and i think to myself, this is a person who committed a heinous crime, who was not in his right mind, and used social media in a way thatter the -- that terrifies me. the people who reshared what they saw, i understand the impulse because you see something, it's newsworthy, that is what we do in this modern age, but i am surprised that they didn't stop for a moment and realize and think about what they were doing. and that's kind of where i think we probably have to take a closer look. >> ifill: deborah potter, let's pick up on that. given what we know about technology and the ease with which we can disseminate this kind of information, what is the responsibility for coverage? >> the point has been made that journalists are not the only one sharing information anymore. so for news organizations, there were very detailed conversations yesterday. should we air this video? what should we do with it? >> ifill: it was in our news rooming. >> but it doesn't really matter because people are going to be able to find it in their own twitter stream, on their own facebook page. other people are sharing it. i think for news organizations, we're having the same conversation we've always had. what's the responsible thing to do. but that horse is already out of the barn. >> ifill: the difference this time is we have to adjust to karnage that seems to happen in real time. how do you even anticipate something like that? >> you can't. that's the problem. this crew could in no way have anticipated they were going to be in danger. there was a lot of talk today about should we have armed guards go out with correspondents and cameras when they're going to go live somewhere. that's not going to happen. should we have fewer live shots? yes, i think we should. i think that would be a really good outcome if we didn't do so many empty live shots. but at the same time, this is how we present the news. and that's what television does. it goes to places where things are happening. should newsrooms talk more about the safety of their people and make sure people are aware of the dangers that they face even when you don't think it could possibly be dangerous? absolutely. >> ifill: it's one thing to go out and cover a riot and expecting something to happen, another when you're talking the a chamber of commerce leader. barry rosenfeld, i feel like we ask this question every time, but what are the signs we should be on the lookout for in these kinds of cases? were there signals? everything we know so far about vester flanagan that should have tipped somebody off? >> well, you know, this is the hardest question there is. because it is easy to see signals with hindsight. so there are posts apparently on twitter about him being a powder keg. he's had this history of animosity and paranoia toward people he worked with. is it surprising that this is a workplace related shooting given what we know about him? no, i don't think so. but of the countless people out there who have a beef with their workplace, who feel like they've been mistreated, who feel like there's racial ininjustice, can we identify the sliver that they'll potentially become violent, not without a much more detailed approach, not without really taking things seriously when someone is brought to our attention, and i don't think anyone brought him to our attention. i don't think any clinician. i don't think any mental health person saw him with the question of should we be concerned about him. >> ifill: in general, are targeted workplace shootings like this different in in the ae should assess them than random movie theater shootings, random mass shootings? >> well, there's a different profile of who that person might be. so the movie theater shooting, that's a much more sort of psychotic-like offense. and the workplace shooting is usually somebody who has been or feels like they've been pushed to the breaking point, somebody who is... their ego, their self-esteem has been squelched by problems in the workplace. they see other people as the source of their problems. so it's a different profile. but, you know, i don't want to use that from file to imply that we can go out there and find these people, because again, it's that need until a haystack problem. >> ifill: lance ulanoff, i want to circle back to the tech part of this, because i wonder whose responsibility it should be when the technology has outpaced our ability to stop awful things from happening, if we were ever capable of it. is it the responsibility of the twitter and the facebooks of the world to not make that possible, or is it the responsibility of the disseminators or the consumers of the information? >> i try and explain the people, technology is super smart and also completely dumb. it doesn't know what you're putting on there. it works almost in an automated fashion. the idea of twitter and facebook is that you put something in, you press a buttahon and it goes to the people you have already set it up to share with. facebook has over a billion users. twitter has well over 300 million users. this was a remarkably savvy psychopath to be quite honest, because as hi was driving, he was sharing this thing to his social network. what happens on the other side is people who were either already following him or as many in the media at that moment were doing, including me, who were looking for him to find traces of who this person is and what they're all about, basically stumbled on his live blog of his... of these murders. and he put them up there so quickly while he was on the road, using his smartphone, and as soon as facebook and twitter were aware of what was happening, they pulled them down. it was approximately seven minutes, but as your other guests said, cat's out of the bag. it was already out there and it was being shared all around, people had pulled the video down. it is not... i don't think it's the responsibility of them. but there is one caveat here, one very important caveat, something new that was added fairly recently to twitter and also exists on facebook and it's auto play, meaning that the videos play the moment they have the focal point on your screen. and i think that's a place where you suddenly can't get away from it. the video is playing, and i saw this video, and you cannot look away, and you don't even realize exactly what you're seeing until it happens. >> ifill: that happened to me as well. i figured out how to stop that from happening. let me ask deborah potter about that, which is what is our responsibility as news gatherers not only to protect ourselves but also to protect the people who read and view what we watch. >> i think the point lance is making with new technology, the whole question of ought to play. that can be disabled at the producer's end and should be disabled as soon as possible. and also i think it's important for newsrooms to talk to their audience about what it is they're doing and why. so if smbs, as they did, decided to show the video that was shot by the perpetrator from his perspective and stop it at the point where you see him pointing the gun, they need to explain why they did that. why is it so important for us to show that to the public? and if we're not showing it, why are we not showing it? >> ifill: barry rosenfeld, i started this by saying it was sadly familiar but shockingly different. do you agree with that? was this very different from everything we've seen before? >> well, it's... i guess i wouldn't say it's very different. it's not what the last couple of mass shootings have been, but it's a workplace violence incident. what makes it different is the twitter feed, the live broadcasting of it. i think that is just a sign of the times, that people are savvy with technology and had this technology been around 15 years ago, the columbine would have been on youtube just as quickly. if i could just go back the a comment that your last guest made, you know, the other place where i guess i would hope people would maybe feel some responsibility is when a post is put on facebook or on twitter that i'm a powder keg, maybe that's a place where friends or family could jump in or could say, what's this about? have you talked to somebody about this? i think there are other avenues other than the media necessarily or the government surveying our post. but there are some opportunities here for people to notice that he is at his with's end basically. >> ifill: we've probably just scratched the surface on, this but i thank you all for helping us. deborah potter and lance ulanoff and barry rosenfeld, thank you all very much. >> thank you, gwen. >> woodruff: the good economic news out today adds yet another layer of complexity to a crucial decision that could affect millions of american households. will the fed finally raise interest rates next month? it's a much debated question, one that's taken on new urgency given the market turmoil of late, worries over china and more. it's also the subject of much attention at the fed's annual retreat now underway in jackson hole, wyoming. greg ip follows this all closely as the chief economics commentator for the "wall street journal." great to have you back, greg. >> great to be here. >> woodruff: there are all these arguments every day, raise rates, don't raise rates. yesterday william dudley, an influential man, said new there is a less-compelling argument. what is he talking about? >> well, it really is a crucial decision moment for the fed. they've had interest rates at zero for basically seven years now in an effort to try to get a badly beaten up economy growing normally again. when you look at things like the unemployment rate, they succeeded. it's down to 5.3%. that looks normal. you have these abnormally low interest rates. so almost all the officials on the fed have felt all year that the time would be right by the fall to start raising interest rates up from zero. what changed in the last few weeks? well, one of the things that's not normal is the inflation rate. it's still too low for the fed's taste. what we've seen, we know a couple things. the price of oil has fallen. the dollar has gotten stronger and some things will get cheaper and inflation will go even lower. so it looks like a tender time in the financial markets. those two factors suggest it's too soon to start moving interest rates higher. >> woodruff: you do have the argument, i saw this just today, the kansas city fed president esther george said because the u.s. economy is fundamentally strong the fed shouldn't hesitate to go ahead and raise rates. you had those new g.d.p. numbers we cited earlier in the prac, strong growth earlier this year. >> absolutely. if you're just looking at the situation of the u.s. economy alone, this would be a no-brainer. we had very good g.d.p. numbers for the second quarter, 3.7% annualized growth. we've seen data for the month of july and we know factory activity was quite good. moment was very strong. you've even seen housing sales. all these tells us that the economy is doing just fine. what's going on in the market is market event. so if they can somehow put that aside, then really they shouldn't feel that nervous about starting that process. >> woodruff: how do you see the fed dividing on this. obviously they're not talking openly about this, greg, but what kind of conversation are they going to be having? >> you can divide fed officials, 17 or 18 now, into three groups. the hawks always think they should raise rates. george could be considered one of those. you have doves who think the fed should always be slow to raise interest rates. and there is a group in the middle that is always looking carefully at every last data point and they're in the sure.xd that group of people led by janet yellen is undecided. if you look at where the markets are, they believe that the odds of a rate increase at their meeting next month have gone from well over 50% to now around 25%. i think they're betting that when janet yellen looks at the troubles in the market out there, the likelihood that inflation will go lower rather than higher, she's going to say, maybe not now, maybe we'll think about this in december instead. >> woodruff: she's not attending this fed conference at jackson hole. her vice chairman, stanley fisher, is there. there was a story today that he was walking past some of these protesters. there's a liberal group called the center for popular democracy that's holding protests all weekend out there. is that something that can influence these fed governors as ... or do they just look the other way? >> they've heard arguments both from groups on the liberal side who have felt strongly the fed needs to do more to get the economy growing faster, unemployment lower. this would be good for people's wages. we've even heard larry summers, who isn't exactly a bleeding-heart liberal making that case in the op-ed pages that this is the wrong time the raise interest rates. but people on the other side of the argument, in fact, some of those people will be out there at jackson hole offsetting the cries the stay at zero saying, no, no, no, now is the time to move rates up, you're doing more damage than you're helping. so they have pressure on beth sides. >> woodruff: we have a few weeks to go before they meet the make this decision, but it's never too soon to start talking about it. >> absolutely not. what else do we have to talk about? >> woodruff: greg ip with the "wall street journal," we thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: the actor wendell pierce moves to help rebuild his native new orleans. and, innovation and inventions from a rising class of entrepreneurs in rwanda. >> woodruff: but first, we continue our weeklong series on how the gulf coast is faring after katrina. we start with president obama's visit to the area today. 10 years after the costliest natural disaster in american history, president obama today declared new orleans is moving forward. he spoke at a newly opened community center in the lower 9th ward, one of the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods. >> you are an example of what is possible when, in the face of tragedy and in the face of hardship, good people come together to lend a hand and brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, you build a better future. and that more than any other reason is why i have come back here today. >> woodruff: mr. obama was in his first year as a u.s. senator when katrina struck louisiana in august 2005. it devastated the gulf coast, from texas to florida, while breaching the levee system built to protect new orleans from flooding. more than 1,800 people died and a million were displaced. damages reached $150 billion. aside from praising the city's resilience, the president also acknowledged the failure of government to "look out" for residents of new orleans. >> what that storm revealed was another tragedy, one that had been brewing for decades. new orleans had long been plagued by structural inequality that left too many people, especially poor people of color, without good jobs or affordable health care or decent housing. >> woodruff: as a candidate in 2008, mr. obama sharply criticized president george w. bush for his administration's handling of the storm's aftermath. and today, a cheering crowd greeted the president as he toured treme, one of the country's oldest black neighborhoods. it was badly flooded in the deluge that swamped new orleans. after meeting with residents, mr. obama emphasized that much work remains. >> just because the houses are nice doesn't mean our job's done. this is a community obviously that still has a lot of poverty. this is an area where young people still too often are taking the wrong path before they graduate high school. this is a community that still needs resources, still needs help. >> woodruff: the city as a whole has seen positives, like a near return to its pre-storm population. but new orleans is still plagued by severe income inequality and a rising crime rate. >> ifill: now we look at one historic neighborhood, before and after katrina. it's the home of actor wendell pierce, who tells his story in the forthcoming memoir, "the wind in the reeds." jeffrey brown recently spent a day with pierce in the neighborhood he grew up in, ponchatrain park, in the gentilly district of new orleans. >> i played on this golf course every day. >> brown: you played-- >> football, tag. ( laughs ) everything but golf and my game shows that. >> brown: a place for a child to play. for neighbors to enjoy green space and a sense of community. can a golf course embody so much? yes, says actor wendell pierce. that and much more. >> this is our anchor. this was the only place that black golfers could play. this was the epitome of what the civil rights movement was all about. this is hallowed ground. >> brown: the golf course is in the heart of ponchartrain park. in an enclave built in the 1950s as a "separate but equal", suburban-style development for middle class blacks. pierce, who trained at juilliard, is best known as detective bunk moreland from the hbo series "the wire". and then as a down-and-out musician in post-katrina new orleans in the tv series "treme". >> these are our first 2 model homes. >> brown: but perhaps the role he relishes the most these days is that of a community builder, or re-builder, trying to bring back the neighborhood where he got his start. pierce's parents -- amos, a janitor and althea, a school teacher -- moved here in 1955 to provide a better life for their three sons. >> listen, that is the heart and soul of the american dream. home ownership, the idea of being able to buy a house and start to build your family. >> brown: it was a secure and happy home for the pierces. until, with katrina, it wasn't. as floodwaters rushed into ponchartrain park, the family escaped in time. and 3 months later, pierce returned with his elderly parents and took this home video. >> my bedroom. what used to be my gorgeous bedroom. >> brown: debris. mud. a life overturned. 90-year old amos pierce told us of that moment. >> i started crying. my wife started crying. the water line was a half foot from the ceiling. >> i saw not this elderly couple. i saw a young couple with all their hopes and dreams in 1955, buying a house and seeing all their dreams destroyed. >> brown: wendell pierce made a vow to rebuild so his parents could return. >> he fought so long and hard, my mother too, to make sure we had a decent place to grow up and a decent life. i wanted to make sure they got back here no matter what. >> brown: and they did. 16 months after the storm. althea pierce lived there until her death in 2012. in the aftermath of katrina, pierce also felt called to respond through his art. >> it was on this road that i saw the lights of the cars. i thought, "is it possible that they're coming to see the play?" >> brown: the play was "waiting for godot", the absurdist classic written by an irishman, samuel beckett, in 1949. >> this was the corner. this was the corner where we did the play. >> brown: but that somehow took on a powerful new resonance when staged in 2007 in the neighborhood hardest hit by katrina, the lower ninth ward. >> i knew it would be special because the play spoke to what we were going through so perfectly. >> brown: is that why you wanted to be a part of it? >> absolutely. i knew that it was going to be the best display of power and the role that art plays. >> recognize this place? recognize? what is there to recognize? two characters waiting in desolation in a void on a road waiting for something outside of themselves to save them or to give meaning to what they're going through and they can't remember what their purpose in life is. >> what are we doing here? that is the question. >> brown: in the middle of the performance, pierce says, he felt a new call to action. >> i turned to the audience and, almost breaking character, i said "let us do something while we have the chance." at this moment, at this place, this hallowed ground where so many people died, we owe it to them. let's do something while we have the chance." >> brown: pierce formed the ponchartrain park community development association, a non- profit group that builds affordable homes on abandoned properties. so far he's built 40, including one for himself, with plans for another 85. he's also opened four convenience stores around the city. but an attempt to start a full- sized market in an area considered a food desert failed. >> the margin is very thin in the grocery store business. i think it was a difficult location, but we haven't given up on it. i'm going to keep going you know. >> brown: you're an actor who's learning to be a business man, huh? >> yeah. >> brown: with the success and sometimes failure that comes with that. >> absolutely. listen, when you succeed, it is sweeter when you know you have failed. >> brown: the learning goes on. and pierce cites continuing battles with what he sees as the bureaucracy, inefficiency, and even corruption of various government entities. still, ten years after katrina, his old home, pontchartrain park, has seen a resurgence. >> what was great about this neighborhood is back. which is families, churches, homes filled with homeowners. schools. all the stuff that makes for a wonderful life and gives people a shot to build not only finances, but love and family and a sense of community. >> brown: a community that has survived. and even thrived. from ponchartrain park, new orleans, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: now, raising the today the national labor relations board ruled a large company could be held responsible for labor decision held by a contractor it hires, even if it doesn't directly supervise the employee. that could mean unions may be able to negotiate directly with mcdonald's corporation, for example, instead of just its franchises. that win comes after another recent victory over a wage hike at washington's seattle tacoma international airport. the state's supreme court ruled last week that employers must pay workers $15 an hour. airport businesses had challenged a 2013 referendum. our economics correspondent paul solman has updated his report. here's a reprieve of his emmy-nominated story. it's part of our weekly story, making sense, which airs every thursday on the news hour. >> reporter: a lot was at stake last november in seatac, washington, home of the seattle- tacoma international airport, as local citizens decided the fate of a proposition to jack up the minimum wage there to $15 an hour. for thousands of workers, the promise of a huge pay hike, 63% if they were making the state minimum of $9.19 an hour, plus paid sick leave, which promised to be a benefit for the flying public as well. >> every employee that i work with comes to work sick because they have to put food on the table. >> imagine you're flying on an airplane. the worker who clean up the airplane before you fly, he was sick and he's cleaning the airplane. imagine you eating on that table, you know? >> reporter: but higher costs would boomerang against low- income workers, business spokesman maxford nelsen insisted. >> the workers who retain their jobs might be better off, but an increased number of other workers lose their jobs entirely. >> reporter: a bitter, costly campaign ensued, a recount, and, in the end, the ayes had it by 77 votes. but, on decision day, alaska airlines, the main opponent of the $15 minimum wage proposition, filed a lawsuit in county court, arguing that a city can't set ordinances for an airport operating within its borders. >> unfortunately, a county judge agreed with alaska airlines and took away the benefits for about 4,700 workers at seatac airport. >> reporter: heather weiner is spokesperson for the pro-$15 minimum wage side. >> i'm being a little cheeky when i say this, but it's like a mini-bangladesh over there right now. you know, we have got high-end products and airfare, and people with high income flying in and out of seatac, 30 million people a year. and yet the people who are moving the bags, pushing the wheelchairs, serving the food, selling the magazines aren't able to support their families. it's really a tragedy. >> reporter: just outside the airport, at seatac's larger hotels and parking lots, some 1,600 workers did get their raises. but for the 5,000 or so workers on airport property, the court decision, which was being appealed, was a body blow. >> hearing this, my heart just sunk. i feel that now i can never get ahead. >> reporter: jenay zimmerman, who manages taxis at the airport, still made just $11.90 an hour. baggage handler joshua vina of menzies aviation, which services several airlines here, including alaska, still earned a mere $9.50 an hour. >> it was actually going to help me pay a lot of things off. it was going to help me have a lot more things to give to my wife and my son. and i'm barely supporting them right now with this. >> reporter: a decade ago, alaska airlines' ramp workers had a union contract paying over $20 an hour, plus benefits, if you had worked there a few years. but when we visited, we saw some current workers on a free food line at church. heather weiner was eager to tell us why. >> in 2005, alaska airlines fired 500 people. they just laid them off without any kind of notice, and replaced those people with low-wage jobs at menzies aviation. menzies aviation is now the corporation that handles more than half of the bags and other services for alaska and at seatac airport. and, meanwhile, alaska airlines' profits are way up. they reported $500 million in profits in 2013, and the way they did that was in part by making sure that the people who work for them don't make any more than minimum wage. >> reporter: the connection between wages and profits is pretty obvious, says seattle venture capitalist nick hanauer, an outspoken advocate for the $15 minimum wage. >> clearly, the c.e.o. and senior managers of alaska airlines, and their board of directors, and their shareholders would prefer that most of the value created by that enterprise goes to them, and almost none of the value created by that enterprise goes to their workers. >> reporter: alaska airlines declined our interview request, but sent a written statement: "alaska is profitable now, but the past decade has been the most challenging in the history of airlines. in order to survive, we turned to airport-based contractors that work for multiple airlines and provide economies of scale. while we can't dictate the labor relations practices of our business partners, we do strive to work closely with them on pay rates that reflect the job market". we tried to reach alaska's business partners, and other seatac airport contractors, 21 companies in all, none of which agreed to an interview. >> i appreciate the call, but we're going to pass. >> reporter: even the off- airport employers complying with the law took a pass, though some lamented it to local reporters. >> the cedarbrook lodge said that they were going to have to lay off employees, and instead they're doubling their room capacity and hiring. >> reporter: union leader david rolf was a prime mover behind proposition one. >> i think there was a lot of rhetoric designed to scare people leading up to that election, and so far all of the doom and gloom has not proven correct. >> reporter: meanwhile, as both sides awaited the state supreme court's ruling on appeal, some seatac airport workers weren't waiting around for judicial relief. workers like hani osman, a driver at seatac airport's avis budget rent a car, which the teamsters recently succeeded in organizing with the help of this somali refugee. >> we don't get vacation. we don't get sick call. we don't get nothing, and that's why we fought for the union. >> reporter: we met osman at the seatac teamsters hall, where she and others were voting on their first union contract, which would guarantee health care, retirement, vacation, sick leave, a grievance procedure, and $15 an hour if the lower court decision were overturned. are you really excited about the fact that you have now gotten a union? >> we're so happy about it. everybody's so happy about it. and now we're getting some results. >> reporter: what kind of results? >> for example, if we hit a car, we used to get suspended. you move like 100 cars a day. and if you scratch a little car, you get suspended for two weeks without pay. >> reporter: really? >> yes. and now we don't have to see that again. >> reporter: which brings us to one final note: the company that directly employs hani osman and colleagues isn't avis budget. it's the g.c.a. services group. >> g.c.a. is a contractor that has 30,000 employees around the country. they are owned by blackstone, which is a major wall street investment group, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. >> reporter: that prompted a last question for multimillionaire investor nick hanauer about his fellow one- hundredth of the one percenters. how do you personally feel when you hear that a company like blackstone has taken workers who used to work for avis and budget back to minimum wage, subcontracted? >> on the one hand, i feel like it's a moral abomination. but the truth is that they may have felt that they needed to do that because their competitor had already done it and they wouldn't be able to compete on price if they hadn't. >> reporter: the seemingly inexorable pressure of competition, in other words, which is why the workers of seatac had organized, they explained, to counter with pressure of their own. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting for the pbs newshour from seatac, washington. >> ifill: twenty years after its genocide, which saw the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, rwanda has by many accounts seen a remarkable recovery. tonight, we take a look at the new generation leading the charge, using new technology to help the east african nation move beyond its scars. the newshour's p.j. tobia has our story, produced in collaboration with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting. a warning: the story contains some graphic images. >> reporter: bringing milk the market in rwanda, harder than it sounds. farmers milk their cows and hand it off to middlemen. next stop, the local collection center, usually on the back of a bicycle. from there it's off to factories, processors and other wholesale buyers. at least that's how it is supposed to work.ñi >> sometimes they deliver the milk to the transporter, the transporter may not take all the milk he collected from the farmer to the collection center. >> reporter: this man runs a milk cooperative in northwest rwanda near the boarder with uganda. sometimes middlemen fudge the numbers, while other times a portion of the milk may get lost in transit. >> we have the ask who took the milk, where is the milk? where did he put it? >> reporter: back in the capital kigali, walter citizen in k lab, one of rwanda's first technology hubs, with a solution. armed with an i.t. degree from one of rwanda's top university, the 26-year-old runs a software development company. >> my grandfather was from a farm family. >> reporter: last year the government asked for tech solutions. he heard the call. to help make milk collection more efficient, he created a text message-based system that allows farmers to keep better tabs on their product. when their milk arrives safely at the collection center, the farmer gets a text. farmers can also use the platform to order feed or check disease alerts all from their phone. >> reporter: our system is helping the whole chain get information. if they can get information when needed. >> reporter: he works with about 2,000 farmers. he dreams of reaching millions more across africa and turning a profit along the way. he charges for each text message sent and every gallon of milk registered. >> we are looking at expanding and we hope within two months we will start making enough money for supporting our overhead costs. >> reporter: sarah leadham directs the business ing baiter in kigali. she works with dozens of young rwandan entrepreneurs, from pig farmers to developers. >> no place strongly equates entrepreneurship with patriotism and nation building. the first thing out of almost any young person's mouth is i want to contribute to the growth of rwanda. >> reporter: the 1994 genocide devastated rwanda. for 100 days ethnic hutu militias brutally targeted the tutsi minority. an estimated one million people died in total. >> the 1994 genocide still affects many people. >> reporter: today downtown kigali is home to high-rise buildings and high-speed internet, but young people are entering the workforce much faster than rwanda's economy can absorb them. >> today we can only employ 4%. >> reporter: john st. claire is a minister of youth and technology. the rise in entrepreneurship was planned. by 2009 classes were mandatory. 2 government also promotes entrepreneurialism. >> entrepreneurship, a mindset and a entrepreneurial environment is not present ever by anyone that decided to make it available. >> we'll find a way the translate that idea into a business. >> reporter: a fifth point, it'sen clear how many people are actually benefiting. the average rwanda home still lives on less than $2 a day and only about 20% of homes have electricity. in short, the entrepreneurship pipeline in rwanda is full of kinks. back at k lab, walter plugs away. the cooperative recently agreed to adopt his system, and he's got a group of new farmers to train. this woman owns three cows and is excited about the milk tracking system. reliable data might even help her get a bank loan. >> ( translated ): we're going to know how the cows are doing, the quality of the milk and do some sort of account with how much money we're making. >> reporter: it's the type of impact he hoped for. >> when someone tells me thank you, i see they're more motivated, that's the best reward you can expect when you're a entrepreneur. >> reporter: well, that and a healthy return on investment. for the pbs news hour, i'm p.j. tobia. >> woodruff: now to our weekly feature: "brief but >> ifill: coverage of hurricane katrina continues later tonight on pbs with the documentary "katrina 10 years after: a second life, a second chance." produced by louisiana public broadcasting and narrated by wendell pierce, the film takes a looks at the recovery of new orleans, by focusing on grassroots efforts by residents who are trying to rebuild their neighborhoods. ♪ >> i came here many, many years ago to visit. the minute i set foot here, i knew i was home. the culture, the people, the food, there's no other place like it really. >> i just remember back in '05 when katrina happened, my family had some real hardship, and it was devastating. i mean, it was terrible. but now coming back, it's like the city is rebuilt. it's rebirthed. it's a whole brand-new city. it's amazing. >> in many ways the people of new orleans have achieved what seemed almost unimaginable a decade ago. the resurrection of one of america's most beloved cities. in 2014, tourists spent 6.8 billion dollars in new orleans, more than any other year before or after hurricane katrina. but new orleans isn't just place to visit. for the people who live here, ten years is not very long and the so-called road home to new orleans has been rougher for some than for others. >> i just went everywhere trying the get help. it seemed like there was no help anywhere. >> many of katrina's survivors will never return to new orleans, but others, both long-time and new arrivals, have come here together, determined to rebuild their city. it may be better than before, if they can, because it's home. >> it was really necessary for us to rebuild our lives to do the things that would make it home again. well, basically everything after katrina is a second life. it's not about what we went through in ten years, it's about the fact that i'm here ten years after and i can still celebrate and i can still be happy. >> ifill: love the music. you can tune in to watch the full documentary later on pbs. that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again right here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs "newshour," thank you and good night. ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and mufg. >> build a solid foundation and you can connect communities and commerce for centuries. that is the strength behind good banking relationships, too. which is why, at mufg, we believe financial partnerships should endure the test of time.

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