convenient as possible to use, get people trying it. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major fundine for the pbs hour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. orting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the ntvancement ofnational peace and security. at carnegie.org. go >> and with the g support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made le by the corporation fo public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. f: >> woodrhe tally of death and destruction keeps growing, in the northern california wildfires. officials now confirm 56 dead, 300 missing, and 8,800 homes destroyed in paradise. cat wise reports from nearby chico, where survivors have taken refuge. >> reporter: a wal-mart parking lot in chico, now home to hundreds of wildfire evacuees. donated clothes and shoes have piled up in what is now a "tent city," with daytime temperatures in the 40's. matthew flanagan is one of many who fled fm nearby paradise last week when the camp fire destroyed the town of 27,000 people. >> there are more evacuees, more people running out of money for hotels. and families, they're staying with peo can't stay there forever. and you know we tried to get back up to see our hous yesterday, and they say it's going to be four months. so paradise is gone. >> everything i've ever known is gone. all my family and friends their homes are ne. all their businesses. >> reporter: jennifer fitzgerald is her seven-year-old-brooklyn. fitzgerald worked as a house cleaner inaradise, but her home burned and she did not have renters' insurance. do you have any thoughts about the days ahead, what's going to happen to you? >> no. i have no clue, no. working i can't really do-- there's nothing do. i mean, all the jobs are closed right now in paradise so i don't know what to do. it's hard. >> reporter: last ni the two slept in a car borrowed from a friend. >> i'm just kind of bouncing around right now.in stayinhis car with my friends, at friends house, family's house, it just depends where i'm at that day. >> reporter: and you have your daughter with you, brooklyn, who's seven. how is she doing? >> she's okay. i don't' think she knows what's going on yet. >> reporter: another woman, loretta goodwin, is her grandson. she has nothing left, and is pers ag on donated dia stuffed animals. >> we really thought we were. going to go ba should have got this, we should have got that. but yeah it was heartbreaking. >> reporter: it will take years to rebuild this area. like manothers, suzanne ksonen worries how she'll afford a hotel or other temporary housing, in the meantime. >> i just want to go home. i don't even care if there's no home. i just want to go back to my dirt, you know, and put a trailer up and clean it up and get going. sooner the better. i don't want to wait six months. >> reporter: this makeshift shelter has so far been supplied and stfed by volunteers only. but winter weather will only worsen the conditions here. ni>> it's going to start r shortly, and this is unsustainable if it's raining. >> the mental and physical eealth of vawkeys are von >> reporter: thental and physical health of evacuees are a growing concern as well. a layer of thick smoke still hangs over paradise. crficials say the ash and mix of toxic chemicals heated hazardous air quality conditions for the survivors. meanwhile, fire crews are making progress. they've now contained 40% of the camp fire. and, recovery teamcontinue searching the charred debris for bodies, with scores of people still missing. in southern california, more than half of the fast-moving woolsey fire that burned througi is now within containment lines. but just 35 miles northwest of malibu, still another fire broke out this morning in nethe hills saticoy. >> president trump will visit california on saturday t meet with people displaced by the wifires. judy. >> woodruff: cat, we see you're still at that walmart rking lot. you talked to so many people today. we heard from some of them just now. but re some of the other people saying that you've talked to?re whathey facing? >> reporter: that's right, judy. we're still here at the walma parking lot. and, frankly, the people we were meeting with today, many of them did not have much before the wildfires, and they're really struggling now. we met with one olde who told us he was a vietnam vet and has c.o.p.d. he's really having a tough time of it now with the smoky air. for the most part, this camp has been run byol vteers. it is a bustling place at this point. but we're told by one of thosvoe nteers, who has, frankly, been here for almost a week, that they'rat frustrated that there hasn't been more of a government presence here. we learned a shorwhile ago that they're actually going to be closing down this camp on easunday, and part of then for that is they're very concerned about weather that's expected next week. it's expected to raihen, ande tents behind me are actually in an area, i'm told, that floods after rain events. so they're going to be trying to shift people into red cross shelters around the area. >> woodruff: is iturprising that there isn't government help, that this is all volunteer at this because i would think these people are in need of so many things. >> reporter: that's righ judy. i mean, that's the case at this particul location. we just spoke a short while ago with a butte county spokeswoman who told us there have been plenty of donation-- in fact, they're overwhelmed in many locations with donations. but at this point they really need financial contributions and they steered to us three organizations on theutte county website: of course, judy, what's really needed now is shelter for these information, and before the wildfires, there was a less than 2% vacancy rate in butte county. so where all of these folks will be headed i the days and weeks ahead, that's still very much up in the air at this point.f: >> woodrell, we can certainly hope at the very least when people hear of these organizations, some, many will reach out and make a contribution. cat wise reporting for us from chico, california, near where those terrible fires were. thank y, cat. >> reporter: thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a pre-winter storm spread across the eastern u.s., leaving ussix people dead and g mass power outages. st. louis got as much as eight inches of snow, with two to six inches falling from washington e way north into n england. the storm had already triggered car wrecks across the deep south on wednesday, especially in mississippi and arkansas. all but one of florida's 67 counties finished machine recounts today for the senate and governor's races. palm beach county missed the deadline, citing equipment republican rick scott had a razor-thin lead over democratic incumbent bill nelson, virally ensuring a further recount, by hand. meanwhile, democrats picked up a u.s. house seat in maine. they have now gained 36 seats, with a handful of races still outstanding. house minority leader nancy pelosi insisted today she has the votes to become speaker, come january. she dismissed claims that t sgruntled democrats mihave the votes to block her. pelosi initially served as speaker from 2007 to 2011. she said she is confident of returning to the post. >> i have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the house, and certainly we have many. many people in our ucus who could serve in this capacity. i happen to think at this point, i'm the best person to do that. >> woodruff: pelosi is 78. opponents say it's time to give younger democrats a chance to rise. in saudi arabia, the kingdom's top prosecutor announced he will seek the death penalty for five men charged r in the mur jamal khashoggi. the writer was killed at t saudi consulate in istanbul, turkey last month. he had been critical of crown r ince mohammed bin sulman. but, foreign minisel jubeir said today it is clear that the prince .s not involv >> this was a rogue operion, we have a better sense of what happened, this was individua exceeding their authority and going beyond their mandate and these indiduals made a tremendous mistake and for this mistake they will pay a price. >> woodruff: also today, the u.s. treasury imposed sanctions on 17 sais linked to khashoggi's murder. taliban ghters in afghanistan killed 30 policemen overnight, the last in a string of attacks. this time, the target was a police outpost in farah province, ne iar tnian border. unofficial tallies show at least 45 afghan soldiers and police are being killed or wounded daily. british prime minister theresa may defied calls today to step down, over her brexit deal. that came as two cabinet nisters quit, along with several junior ministers. they charged the deal leav britain too closely tied to the european union. carl dinnen iependent telivision news has our report. >> serving in high office is an honor and privilege. it is also a heavy responsibility. >> reporter: but theresa may is notng if not resilient and says hers is a brexit deal thato protects themy. >> i believe that this is a deal which does delihir that, is in the national interest, and am i going to see this through? yes. >> reporter: she's not going anywhere yet. this morning, dominic raab came the second secretary to exit theabinet sayinghe deal has terrible flaws. >> the first one is the predatory terms bein proposed by the e.u., which i feel would threaten the integrity of the united kingdom. basically what that would do is anentlyely if not pe lock us into a regime which i believe would be damaging to the economy and devastating to the public trust in our economy. >> reporter: soon after, the work and pension secretary esesther mcvey didn writing, "i cannot defend this. i cannot vote for this deal." but mrs. may still warned m.p.s to back her, or risk brexit. >> we can choose to leave with we can risk no brexit at all. or we can choe-- ( shouting ) >> reporter: yet, there were hostile voices all around the commons. >> the government must now withdraw this half-baked deal, which is clear does not have t backing of the cabinet, this pae iament, or untry as a whole. op at this stage we should be back to the , present them with the options, rather than us just stumble onegardless. >> reporter: and within minutes of the datending, mrs. may position had become more tenuous yet as the leader of prot -brenservatives called for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. >>his is about not having confidence in the current leader and believing that the deal simply does not work. >> reporter: yet other brexiters remain in the cabinet. michael gove, penny morton seen entering number 10 for talks. >> thank you. >> reporter: mrs. may hasd weathehe storm today but the outlook for her and for her brexit deal is deeply unsettled. >> woodruff: that report from carl dinnen of independent television news. refugee officials in bangladesh have scrapped plans to start mongya y'deision came as refugees protested against the efrt. some 700,000 rohingya live in bangladesh after fleeing army- led violence in myanmar. the european court of human rights ruled today that russia's arrests of opposition leader alexei navalolny areically motivated. the court ordered moscow to pay $71,000 in damages. the decision is legally binding, but moscow has delayed complying with previous rulings. back in this country, a tech rebound helped wall street bre its losing streak. the dow jones industrial average gained 208 points to close at 25,289. the nasdaq rose 122 points, and the s&p 500 added 28. and, longtime country music star roy clark died today at his home in tulsa, oklahoma. starting in 1969, he hosted thes tv varietyhow "hee haw" for nearly a quarter of a century.o he was aa grammy winner who excelled at a wide range of instruments.w roy clark as 85 years old. still to come on the newshour: the f.d.a. proposes new restrictions on electronic- cigarees. recounts continue in florida's narrowly contested governor and senate elections. the director of the world food programme warns of imminent i famiyemen due to the ongoing civil war, and much more. >> woodruff: the u.s. food and drug administration is taking new steps to try curbing the rise in unde vaping.oking and the agency announced new guidelines for retailers selling flavored e-cigarettes, stopping short of an outright ban. but as amna nawaz reports, t agency did move to ban sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, something tobacco companies haveong opposed. >> nawaz: the move to ban menthol cigarettes ithe biggest tobacco measure taken by the f.d.a. in nearly a decade, although it may take more than a year before it can be fully imple ented. w rules on many flavored e-cigarettes kick in much sooner, just three months from now. the f.d.a. will limit sae s at convenieores and elsewhere to age-restricted areas that are supposed to kids under the age of 18. e-cigs and vaping have grown by huge numbers more than one out of five high schoolers in the u.s. used an e- cigarette during the past year, more than three million in all. doctor scott f.d.a. commissioner and he joins me now. dr. gottlieb, thank you for making the time. i want to ask you about the new rules today. a lot of people expected an outright ban when it comes to thflavored e-cigarettes. you stopped short of that. why. >> i don't think theolicy woo now say was different from what people expected. weere was some reporting last week about whaight do, and that reporting was consistent with what we ultimately announced today. what we're doing is putting in place significantly enhanced age-verification requirements in retail establishments for retail o outlets that wantll the fruity-flavored e-cigarette products because we know those b are being usey a lot of kids and we have to address this really sharply increased rate of youth use we're seeing in the marketplace. a lot of those products will be sold in adult-only vape stores s and adult-only establishments. if a convenience store still wants to sell those products, they will have to put in place measures like having a separate room where they can effectively restrict access to the room, card people before they go in the room. so there's that opportunity. but i think what you're going to see happen is most of the sales of the product will migrate toha establishmentsalready do put in place age-verification requirements as a result of ther me that we're intending to take. >> nawaz: on the verificationfr t that will stop who is able to purchase the products, but nosnecessarilyho uses them, right? and we know a lot of younger kids get the product from people who are legallyin purchthem over the age of 18. so how do you enforce something like that? >> well, that's right. there's no-- there's no magic bullet here. there's no one solution that's going to affect thista. we'rng a range of steps to try to put downward pressure on the rate of the youth use. and we really need to see these trends reverse. it's not enough to just slow the trajectory of the iewgh of the u we think the measures we took today are robust. they will have an impact on the market. if we don't start to see the youth rates come down and come down sharply, we're going to be backg here tak additional stems. we now have in place monitoring. we have in place enforcent activities. we're going to be going into these retail establishments to see if the proctsre still being sold to kids at the same pasts we have seen in the we don't see a change in the miles per hour, we're going to have to take additional steps. >> you mentioned there will be a change in the miles per hour. we will probably see a big one when it comeso the menthol ban. you said something early or a media call you hosted briefing people about the of today, clinical experiences working in africanit american comms and we know there is disproportionate use of menthol cigarettes in these communities. what did you see was the effect? and what do you hope will be the effect of this l ban? k, i took care of hospitalized patients. i worked in an in-patient setting in urban environments, and a lot of disease they took care of was the consequence ofa smoking-red illness, a lot of disease and death i saw. i'm a cancer survivorself. so i know how grueling a cancer diagnosis can be. and thayo has know, impacted how i think about this issue. but i also have a mandate add a public health official and a ve a legal mandate under the law to try to effect the the menthol in particular does disproportionately affect certain communities. seven out of 10 african american kids who useti traal cigarettes use a menalatecid rette. and for kids 20 age of 12 and 17 overall, all kids, 54% use mentholated cigarettes. we know the flavors in the cigarett, menthol in particular other is something that attracts kids to cigarettes smoke.es it easier to the menthol actually masks some of the distasteful effects of smoking. >> nawaz: i have to ask you about another concern that was raised. it was raised during your confirmation process as well. you were fincially invested in a chain of vaping lounges. soon after your confirmation, you gave the e-cigs industry five more years to come into compliance. a t of people thought there would be an outright ban on one of the products you stopped shor of. a question is, is any of that, your financial investment in that industry, is tha influencing your decision? are you taking it easy on the industry? >> i don't think we everthaid e was going to be an n e-cigarettes. what we said all along was we felt the e-cigarettes offered an opportunity for the adults and we wanted to takeeasures to restrict access to the kids. we took pretty robust measures today. tdon't know where you go statement from that there would be an outright ban, and the agency ver said that. would know because i speak on behalf of the agency. i gave them time to come into the agency to demonstrate what they need to demonstrate to remain on the market because e do recognize that there may be an opportunity f adults for these you produ ts. at same time we sa sought to regulate nicotine, to render them minally or nonaddictive. we're trying to make the cigarettes lacess atve to adult smokers. for those who still want to get access to nicotine through an inhaled route, perhaps through an e-cigarette, whichi think most people recognize represents the potential for a modified sk alternative to traditional smoking, to traditional cigarettes. so thrais potential publico health otunity here. that's request i've been interested in e-cigarettes for a long time as a potential public health opportunity. but i'veaid all along, and i said at my confirmation hearing, that opportunity ca the expense of addicting a generation of kids on these products. and that's what we'reg right now. we're seeing a generation of kids become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes and we're going to step in and stop it. nawaz: just to clarify, are you still investing in the vaping lounges in the industry? >> of course, not. i was divsted before came on board the f.d.a. >> nawaz: there will be additional regulations. how quickly do you think you'll be able to tell if they're working or not? >> i think fairly quickly. the ditional enforcement is in place right now. we have considerable resources behind looking at tail establishments to see if the sales are still going on. we have our own surveys in the marketplace right now. i think we're going to get a snapshot of what's happening pretty quickly. things aren't going to change overnight. these trends t under way over the course of a long period of time, so it's going to take some time toeverse these trends. but i think we'll get a pretty quick snapshot whether or not we're having the impact we intend to. nawaz: f.d.a. commissioner dr. got, thank you for your time. >> woodruff: all but one florida county completed a machine recount in three statewide races before today's afternoon in the senate race, incumbent democrat bill nelsic trails repu challenger rick scott by about 13,000 votes. that is still.2 within th that triggera manual recount. newshour's digital politics editor dan bush has been tching the recount in south florida. hello to you, dan. first of all, as we said earlier, it was just palm beach county that seemed to have missed the deadline, but now we hear it may have been broward unty as well. what do we know about that? >> that's right, jude i. we're just hearing reportsthow broward county missed the reporting deadline to finish the machine recount, which was 3:00 p.m. today, by about two minutes. it still means that 65 of florida's 67 counties finished theacne recount on time. >> woodruff: so let's talk about the senate wace. just said, it looks like the separation between bill nelson and rick scott is within that .25% margin, which triggers a hand rechant. sohappens now? >> that's right, jude i. so the recount resulted in a-- in an outcome that wasnder that .25 margin that you noded, a law put in place in the state after the 2000 election. that triggers the hand recount. that's starting tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. sharp d election officials told me in broward county a little while ago edthat it's suppo start right on time, more or less, and the deadline for that is8. november so just a couple of days for them to go through a universe of found of votes, 42,000 everywhere in florida, and an additional set from broward county of undervotes and overvotes. those are votes where ballots where voters either voted for multiple candidates in a scegle r left it blank. those are the votes that officials arofficials are goingg through hand by hand. >> woodruff: there has been a lawsuit filed over provisional and tell us where that stands. >> so, democraticncumbent senator bill nelson and the florida democratic party filed a lawsuit in federal government challenging a state law that requires signatures onal provisionalts and mail-in ballots to match the signatures in state voter registratio records, saying that it was equalstitutional, violate protection rights, and makes it harder for voters toote. and a judge just this morning issued a narrow ruling, allowing the state to go back and review about 4,000 of these ballots to see whether or not they should be recounted. but daps had hoped for a broader ruling, potentially somethind g that wourike down the existing state law or even require the state to automatically look at, you know, all of these votes. that did not happen. so we'll have to see where it goes from here. and as soon as the ruling came out, republican governor rick scott, running for the senate at in florida, appealed the ruling. that's now going to the 11th circuit court of appeals. we'll see where it goes from there. >> woodruff: now i want you to focus for just a moment on thvee or's race, republican ron desantis, democrat andrew gillum. recount there as well. where does that one stand? >> yeah, so, on the governor's side, desantis is still leading gillum by ,about 000 votes, which is a .41 margin. so he didn't-- gillum wasn't able to close the gap enough to trigger a hand recount. we saw desantis just a little while ago saying that the results were clear. we're still waiting to hear from gillum, but it appearrathat that is where it is, and that desantis will be certified as inner, perhaps as early as next week. >> woodruff: dan, we know yo have been spending time there around the broward county election supervisor's office. tell us what's goingn there. there have been protests outside. what is the scene there? >> reporter: so, inside, youe have a couf dozen election workers who in the last several days have been working around the clock to do this machineo recount,eed the ballots into the machines and let that process play out. meanwhile, outside there have been republican protests, democratic protests around this process. a lot of republicans, judy, that i spoke to, said a lot-- l a of voters, said they don't trust these results. they feel there is suspicious activity. they said that their view of the election is shapeby president donald trump, who has focused o, flornd disparaged the recount process, called for it to be over before all of the votes were received. on the other side,ou have democrats saying that they don't believe these allegations of fraud, that the twant all of votes to be counted, and that the rules on the as they stand now, make it harder for people to vote. so you have two wildly different views of this election and & whether o rnot theults should be trusted. >> woodruff: well, political overlay a tays whense recounts happen. and-- but a spotlight right there as they count these votes. dan bush reporting for us from florida. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: how the u.s. forest service is working to combat sexual harassment within its ranks. cities work to handle the dramatic increase of shareable scooter technology. and three female veterans give their brief but spectacular take on recovering from p.t.s.d as we reported earlier, saudi arabia's chief prosecutor accused 11 people in the murder of writer jamal khashoggi, and the u.s. quickly followed suitow with itsanctions. as nick schifrin reports, there are ongoing questions about the saudi response, and about saudi foreign policy in the region. >> schifrin: at the top of the list of saudis sanctioned by the u.s. government is saud al- qathani, one of the chief advisors to crown prince mohammad bin salman. critics of "m.b.s.," as he's own, call qathani a fall-guy for the crown prince's decisions to aggressively target his opponent when it comes to foreign policy, m.b.s. has been most aggressive over saudi arabia's southern border, by waging war in yemen. over the last three and a half years, the u.n. estimates 10,00a been killed, and they stopped counting years ago. today, the saudi-led coalition halted its offensive against the key city and port of hodaida. ions are suffering from an acute hunger crisis. and the u.n. warns yemen is on the brink of famine. one of the people leading the response is david beasly, exective director of the world food programme, and he joins me from the u.n.th ks so much for being on the newshour. let me start with the day's t news. this hn fighting in houdadya, some 7 of imports in yemen, go through houdaya. could this improve possibly the humanitarian situation? >> there's no doubt that will have a positive impact. i'll tell you, i was there just the day before yesterday in the houdaya area. it is a militarizedwe zone. ere distributed food. people were literally coming to us, oming out oftheir homes, quickly as they could, to our distribution points where we would give them enough food for one month so they don't have to be in the streets. because it is a combat, militarize zone. in f'tt, you c believe how many people came up to me begging me to stay, believing s that ang as i was there, as long as our team was there, there would be no military combat. in fact, military combat started one hour after we left. so cease-fire will give us tremendous opportunity to address the humanitarian catastrophe that we're facing right now. >> schifrin: it is a catastrophe. and let's perze this a little bit. talk to us about the conditions that you saw, a there's someone you met. eight-month-old mohammed hashan. >> well, i was in the hospital, seeing the children literally dying right before my very own eyes. little mohammed, who waas litey just months old, just the situation with diarrhea, lack of food, lackoo ofd water, and it waski heartbr. and wasn't just mohammed. i tald tone little child, his little teeny feet were sticking out of the blanket and i tickled the little feet thinking i would get a littleil it was like tickling a ghost. it's heartbreaking. and it's all across the nation. this war must end. i was there a year ago, and it was bad then. but now we're assisting about eight million people that are literally on the brink of starvation out of a nation of 29 million people. and we are out in the field now doing newen asses. we believe that number may jump from eight million to 12 or 14 llion that are on the brink of starvation. it is a desperate situation. we need help, but mosthe importantly,ar needs to end so that we can do what we can do and hopully stimulate the economy. all these things are extremely important right now to a population that is not on the brink of atr cathe. it is a can catastrophe. >> schifrin: you talk about the need to e this war. that's a political question, of course. that leads to talks, u.n.-sponsored talks. on one side the cosaudi ition, and on the other the houthis. is there political aill onll the sides to actually bring this war to a close? >> well, you know, if not political will to end this war, i can't imagine a greater natastrophe in my lifetime. children are dg literally every single day from starvation. people are dying. people have lost t there is no job. there is no money in the economy. know where they're going to go if we don't end this war. it must end. people must understand. these aren't just numbres. these little girls and little boys with names like mohammed and amed. they would be like oulittle children. they need our standing up for them right now. >> schifrin: for the americans listening to this, hearing what ey nee saying, that t help, what can normal americans do, if anything? >> i think the average american, first and foremost,ray for the children and the families in yemen. number two, call your political aders and say let's bring this war to an end. ihink that's critical. but at the same time, until that war does end, please, make certain that we, like the world food programme, have the finanal support we need to scale up and ramp up. let me give you an example, we are spending right now, feeding over eight million peutle, a $100 million per month. we are gog have to ramp up to $150 million per monthf in fact when we see the new numbers in that shows that the numbers have gone from eight million to 12 million to 14 million people on the brink n.of starvat if the american people would speak out and say support the people that are starving to death in yemen because of this war, i think, hopefully, that will wake up the political leadership to do us good, to do us right, first and foremost, support the humanitarian needs. and tn, number two, and i think that's the most important thing, bring this war to an> e. >schifrin: david beasly of the world food rogramme, just back from yemen, thank you very much. >> woodruff: earlier this ye, we aired a story about sexual harassment and assault within the u.s. forest service. after speaking with dozens of women, our reporting team revealed a culture of abuse and retaliation within the service. women who spoke up about their mireatment were then punished for doing so. the forest service has vowed to changeam, and william brangh is here with an update.f you did parte original reporting on all this. today, congress held an oversight hearing. the new head of the forest service was there to talk aout how maybe some clings happening. what did you hear? >> this was vick christensen's her new-- her first hearing as the new chief. rememr, she took over this job, because the prior chief, a man named tony took, spped down just days after we reported that he, too, was also under investigation for sexual impropriety in the workplace. he steps down, vicki christensen takes over amidst all of these allegations of a terrible sort of cultuof buse within the forest service. she vowed today, t to the house members that were present, to make some changes. here's what she said: >> we must do more. like you, we want-- i want-- lasting results. progress will take longer than any of us wants, but i'm determined to lead permanent change in the foresrvt e. we will not rest until this agency proves the se, respectful workplace our employees deserve. >> so she acknowledges that there are problems. she acknowledges that thisis a culture-wide change that needs to occur. they said they've instituted some substantive changes, that they have changed how harassment claims get reported, how those claims get investigated. they now use private investigators, rather than people in the forest service themse. they've instituted forest-service-wide ment training, lots of individual changes they're making. but as we've seen, it's already still a work in progress. >> woodruff: and what is your sense from your reporting of how all this is being receivedy the exprairchg file who work at the forest service? >>on some level,eople are very, very happy. we set up a tip line, if you member, after our fir series, tipline @newshour.org. many wrote in saying we are so glad this is finally being talked about. at the same time, there are people who believe the changes don't go far enough, that they're simply rico over-- "band-aid" is a term we heard mentio wd. 60 differeen signed an open letter-- these are current and former service employees, sent this letter to the chief saying the culture still exists, the problems have not been addressed. one witnessed econed the. her name is shannon reid, a forest service employee from new mexico, anshe was fired recently, and she alleged a whole pattern of mistreatment towards her. here's a little bit of what she had to say. and i should just warn our viewers some very graphic language here, but thiss what she said in an open house hearing today. >> one coworker threatened to bend me over and spank me. another told me inrder to go to a fire assignment, i had to suck his (blp). other coworker told me they would have to wear knee pads at a conference becau i would be sucking so much (bleep). gl. >> obviously, shornnon reid's is just awful. the reforms that took place have started to happ while she was still there. requiredone of those her to tell the story of her abuse in a room where her alleged abuser was actually present. she was also someone whoe aid as sexually harassed by tony took, the former chief, while he was still in office. she was fired, she says, when she complained about that. so needless to say, her testimonn especially i comparison to the reforms that vicki christensen said were under way, really sets some members of congress off. >> how in theell could you have the perpetrator in the room with the victim? how does that happen? and what sps can be taken to make sure that doesn't happen? >> i just think you're going too slow. you really feel the people in that agency don't realize this behavior is wildly wrong? >> in addition to the hostile work environment that has been occurring there for decades, the g lture of lying and misrepresentt only to members of congress, but to your employees andrk cos and other dement dements is also iny troubling and ongoing. >> clearly there's still a great deal of anger out there, and a great deal of questions as to whether the forest service, and hock q they can actually change what they admit is this very troublingulture. >> woodruff: such a gab gap between what we heard in that testimony anwhathe head, the new head of the forest service is saying. >> that's right. >> woodruff: well air, lot of questions, and i know you are going to continue to report on this. thank you, william >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: in dozens of cities, the electric scooter has taken off. a popular novelty, for sure. and for many, an environmentally-friendly and econom alternative to driving. last week, ford motor company got ito the act, buying its own scooter startup. but there's a big backlash building as well over their impact. special correspondent and "washington post" rlumnist cathine rampell has the story for our weekly segment, "making sense." >> reporter: sunny santa mica, california. home to the fitness enthusiasts of muscle beach, the high-tech startups of silicon beach, and for the past year, righteous fury about an invasive species. >> what's next? when domino's has their pizza bot robot tooling down the sidewalks?he when mythical amazon drones want to park somepla where are these things going to reside on our public right of way? orter: martin resnick is mad about dockless electric scooters. they're essentially skateboards with handles that can be picked up and dropped off anywhere with the help of an app. they've been rolled out in scores of cities around the countrocy, where officials have struggled to cope. >> there's been cities that have just sd anything goes. >> reporter: transportation expert juan matute. >> then there are cities who have said nothing goes, milwauenkee. and there are cities like santa monica. >> reporter: ...where the whole craze began. it started last fall with just 10 scooters from one company, but soon sidewalks and streets were flooded with thousands of them. we visited to see, a year later, how the ride has been. assistant city manager anuj gupta admits that at times it's been bumpy. >> itca suddenly an unexpectedly emotional issue. >> reporter: now, many of the emotions are positive. tourists here seem to love them. what made you decide to try the scooters? >> it just looked so, i don't know, easy and reliable and fun. >> yeah lots of fun. absolu great way to see the sights. >> reporter: some locals are also enamored. >> i get a little rush out of it. likelidrenane. it makes me feel good that i lcomplished somethiike, like, like, that's almost lupossible. >> reportes, they're a green aralternative to c at least for short dist>>ces. t's a great idea to be able to get to and from work when you need to or just to go, like i am right now, to the third street promene,oing to go hit a v.i.p. event, so it's taking me there. >> reporter: and they've created a network ofig-economy jobs. sean besser works for one of the companies, lime, as a so-called juicer-- scooping up dead scniters at for recharging.s hein less than an hour a da four or five days a week, and says he earns about a thousand dollars a month. >> it's real money. i feel like i'm doing a scavenger hunt where i'm actually getting paid as part of the scavenger hunt. >> reporter: but as the initial nod,lty faderoblems have emergethd, asanta monica city council heard at a seven- hour meeting in june. >> on february 15, 2018 i was struck by a bird scooter rider who ran into methrom behind on sidewalk. i contacted bird three times asking for help in tracking the suspect. nrey have beenponsive and unhelpful. >> i've been hit twice.ve got two herniated discs in my neck. >> i stepped out and one slammed right intme. >> basically pedestrians have become b theling pins of santa monica. >> reporter: pedestrians aren't the only ones getting injured. >> i wasn't even going fast. i was just- i had a distraction. >> reporter: william kairala says he'd dropped his bicycle off for repair and decided to ride a scooter. th this is one oc.t. scans.e >> reporter:ke up hours later in an emergency room. >> i hit the pavement with my head. i didn't have a helmet. and i had a crack behind the ear, ay nd it went all the to here. i broke my head over herea in the forehis like a throbbing pain. >> reporter: kairala is thinking about joining a class-tion suit filed recently against the scooter companies. others have sought vigilante justice, documented on an instagm account called "bird graveyard," bird is another scooter firm. it shows angry people giving new meaning to the term "bird droppings." they're running them over with cars, setting them on fire, and siccing dogs on them, in more ways than one. aaron rovala runs his own scootealr rentompany, the sit- down kind. >> it just blows my mind how these young people are just, they just leave them everywhere. >> reporter: kids these days! >> oh ah >> reporter: you seem too young to be making this complaint! >> no, i'm not necessarily making complaint, i'm just saying approach it a different way. >> repovorter: some people them, some people hate them. clearly they're not going away. t they're spreading cities all over the country. santa monica had to figure out how to fit this new technology into its city without either squelching a brand new industry or letting it scoot roughshod over the town.on not sog ago, uber and lyft fought similar battles with local officials. they moved aggressively into new markets, asking forgivs rather than permission. some scooter companies, like bird, whose founder had worked at both uber and lyft, took a page from th book. >> i know how they play the game because i'm, i'm an entrepreneur myself. y break the rules and they, they apologize later. >> reporter: juan matute says bird didn't have a choice. >> they wouldn't have been abl to get a license because there wasn't a category for what they were doing. they wanted to demonstrate something, show that it worked and then attract additional roun of financing. >> reporter: they did attract financin $2 billion.w valued at but in the proatss, they also acted a criminal complaint for operating without a license. >> tha rt ultimateulted in a plea agreement in which bird committed to a significant amount omoney for public fety spending and a public safety awareness campaign. >> reporter: mtenwhile, lime ed santa monica lawfully, with ae permit, but to smay of many, lime too released over a thousand scooters. >> the incentive is to saturate the market with as many as possible and make it as convenient as possible to use, get people trying it. >> reporter: santa monica decided to put the brakes on the expansion. officials developed a pilot project to tighten regulations and cathe number of scooters. other cities did the same, sometinnmes g specific companies altogether. andrew l savage ise v.p. we're in your headquarters io. san francisc >> yeah. >> reporter: but you are notwe currently alto operate in san francisco, right? >> yeah, so we were disappointed not to receive a permit. wee actually currently appealing that decision. >> reporter: scooter companies have lrned they need to take a more conciliatory approach with government officials. that's true even for lyft, which ots recently entered the s business, including here i santa monica. lyft's david fairbank. it seems like your strategy is fferent from how lyft rolled out its ride sharing business. why is that? >> whaght in this in this context is to is to work closely with the cities, get permits and launch once we have, once we have permission. >> reporter: they're also working hard to sell local governments on what benefits they bring to the community. >> we know that ridsharing compies have increased congestion in our cities around the country. congestion is a huge, huge challenge at cities face. a cost implication in the hundreds of billions of dollars. >> reporter: and they're pitching cities on how scooters can reduce their local carbon footprint, which many committed to aft the trump administration pulled out of the paris climate accord. >> so that's 350 cities that are cash strappealready that are making climate commitments that often me with costs. d so what we're able to do is comeo cities and say we can offer this program for free and we can help reduce the carbon impact of your transportation system.e >> rorter: the assumption is that scooter rides will replace car rides. de what problem is it that these scooters are intto solve? >> mobility in cities. >> reporter: i got feet, you know. there are bikes. >> yeah. and it seen what types of trips the scooters are displacing. >> reporte that's what santa monica's pilot aims to find out, orcause city officials want to make more room freener transportation. santa monica mobility manager francie stefan. >> we t splot of time designing our streets for cars. mostities are 20 to 25% street space and that is space that w can give back to people to move around safely in our city. it doesn't happen overnight just like we didn't create the freeway system overnight. but it's important we start doing it now if we're aing to reallyress climate change seriously. >> reporter: but meanwhile, some companies haven't quite abandoned that aggressive streak. just as news was breaking of scooter-related deaths elsewhere in the country, bie convinced thate of california to repeal a law requiring helmets for adults. not that everyone, or even most ople we saw scooting through santa monica, had been abiding by the letter of that law. scooters may be conveniently available everywhere, but helmets are not. >> woodruff: one of the most streful jobs in the milita belongs to members of the explosive ordance disposal unit, or e.o.d. in this week's becef but cular episode in honor of veterans day, three female former e.o.d. members talk about recovery at the boulder crest natreat in arizoa facility that specializes in post- traumatic growth. >> i was diagnosed with p.hes.d. in 2004,gave me the pills and said, "vaya con dios." >> that'what they keep telling us is that we have p.t.s.d. and it's nndot curablehey can just help us manage it. >> i just didn't have the courage to tell anybody that i was struggling until it just got to a point that i just couldn't hold it in anymore and i would just-- i was crying every day and i don't even know what i was crying about. i went in and wanted to be a medic, actually. and they have no medics slots open. so, i was like, "well, let's see what you have." one ofhe first things that popped up was e.o.d. and i asked them, "what's e.o.d.?" and he explained that we work with robots, we work with exploss ives; he s's pretty much like the bomb squad for the military. and i was like, "so, i can do thateven if i'm a girl?" and he's like, "yeah." >> what they try to impress upon you is that one little mistake, even though it doesn't seem very large, could cost you your life. >> when i was an e.o.d. tech, they didn't have bomb suits or robots. you-did you just had to walk up and engage. at the time i joed the marine corps, it was 2% female, no but they didn't want any of us, we were congressional nuisance and consistently had to be proving yourself. >> thee male to femtio in the military is already pretty imbalanced, um, and then in e.o.d., even more so. >> boys will be boys. sometimes, the things that entertain them are-- i can't say that on camera. >> i did 20 years in the marine corps and so it-- after 20 years we're kind of institutionalized. so then i had to transition in"" what i'm i going do next?" >> it suwa a strange transition for me, from living a life that s so structured and you kneaow, i didn'ty have to think about much. it wasur just, do ob, go home, wash, rinse, repeat, and do it again. and then all of a sudden, i step out into the civilian world and i'm back to just being jaime. >> i had three spine surgeries after i got back from my deployment. that was really hard for me and so i got very depressed. it kind of spiraled. >> just waking up in the morning and mustering the strength to just g work, that's all i was capable of doing. >> when you ve more time and u're more solitude and you think to youelf, then all this stuff starts coming up and i realized, i said realizing, "i need help." >> the path program was actually the first place they told us that, "there's nothing wrong with us." that any sort of traumatic experience you had could be used as an opportunity to grow. >> thehave a slogan here, it's" it's not you, it's just what happened." >> when i first got here, and i don't ngcry about an, but i haven't seen an e.o.d. woman since 1981. i literally crd because i was like, "they're really here." they do exist. hese other e.o.d. women that have struggles and issues. >> while we've been here in arizona, in the path program, we got to do equine therapy, and we got told on how horsesill reflect your emotions. >> i'mp ere and i'm jane wayne, but then when i was able to calm down, "i'm like, yeah," the big horse is not a bomb, it's not gonna hurt you, you cab juste-- go up and be gentle and the whole ideinof not everytin life is going to hurt you. >> fore was just forgiving people who have done me wrong. and forgivg myself for allowing myself to just get to this point of just absolute hatred of who i am. and that's what i'm working on. >> my name is judy ellis. >> my .name is >> my name is jaime mcreary, and this is my brief but spectacular take... >> on po-traumatic growth. >> woodruff: very tough to watch. and you can find additional "brief but spectacular" episodes on our website. pbs.org/newshour/brief. d that's the newshour fo tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening where david brooks and ruth marcus will be here to analyze the weeks' news. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kev. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoing support of the institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. caedtioning sponsy newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is america. >> he reshaped the americandi and politics. fox news founder roger ailes. i'll speak with the director of a new documentary and an anchor that worked closely with him. plus theoe pfor a generation, a musical shape shifter. up close and psonal with paul simon. >> i had to let go of the god i waen to find the god that i needed. >neikneeling at the alter of th american dream only to see that the gods were dead. he spoke about his amazing

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