as possible and make it as convenient as possible to use, get people tryin >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the alfred p. sloan teundation. supporting sciencenology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new iork. supporting innov in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and w of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corpor bion for publadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. a woodruff: the tally of th and destruction keeps growing, in the northern california wildfires. officials now confirm 56 dead,0 ssing, 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 iwhat is now a "tent city," with daytime temperatures in the 40's. matthew flanagan is one of many who fled from nearby paradise last week when the yemp fire destthe town of 27,000 people. >> there are more evacuees, more people running out of money for hotels. and families, they're staying with people but you know they can't stay forever. and you know we tried to get back up to see our houses 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 anfriends their homes are gone. all their businesses. >> reporter: jennifer fitzgerald is here with her daughter, seven-year-old-brooklyn. fitzgerald worked as a house cleaner in paradise, but her home burned and she did not have renters' insurance. do you have any thoughutts a the days ahead, what's going to happen to you? >> no. i have no ue, none.ca working t really do-- there's nothing to do. i mean, all the jobs are closed right w in paradise so i don't know what to do. it's hard. >> reporter: slept in a car borrowed from a friend. >> i'm just kind of bouncing around right now. staying in this car with my friends, at friends house, family's house, it just dependst where i'hat day. >> reporter: and you have your daughter with you, brooklyn, who's se how is she doing? >> she's okay. i don't' think she knows what's going on yet. >> reporter: another woman, loretta goodwin, is caring for her grandson. she hanothing left, and is relying on donated diapers and stuffed animals. >> we really thought we were going to got this, we should have got that. but yeah it was heartbreaking. >> reporter: it will take years to rebuild this area. oike many others, suzanne kaksonen worriesshe'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 ck to my dirt, you know, and put a trailer up and clean it up and get gog. sooner the better. i don't want to wait six months. >> reporter: this makeshift shelter has so far been supplied and staffed by volunteers only. but winter weather will only worsen the conditions he. >> it's going toortart raining y, and this is unsustainable if it's raining. >> the mental and physical health of vawkeys are von >> reporalr: the mend physical health of evacuees are a growing concern as well. a layer of thick smoke still hangs over paradise. officials say the ash and mix of toxic chemils has created hazardous air quality conditions for the survivors. f meanwhile crews are making progress. they've now contained 40% of the camp fire. and, recovy teams continue searching the charred debris for bodies, with scores of people still missing. in southern californ, more than half of the fast-moving colsey fire that burned through malibu is now withtainment lines. but just 35 mis northwest of malibu, still another fire broke out this morning in the hills near saticoy. >> president trump will visit california on saturday to meet with people displaced by the wildfires. judy. >> woodruff: cat, we see you're still at that walmart parking lot.o you talked many people today. we heard from some of them just now. but what are some of ther people saying that you've talked to? what are they facing? >> reporter: that's right, judy. we're still here at the walmartt parking and, frankly, the people we were meeting with today, manyf them did not have much before the wildfires, and they're really struggling now. we met with one older gentsman who told he was a vietnam vet and has che.p.d. really having a tough time of it now with the smoky air. for the most part, this camp has been run by volunteers. it is a bustling place at this point. but told by one of those volunteers, who has, frankly, been here for almost a week, that they're afr bitrated that there hasn't been more of a government presence here. we learned a short while ago that they're actually going to be closing down this camp on sunday, and partf the reason for that is they're very koncerned about weather that's expected next w. it's expected to rain, and these 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 cnto rss shelters around the area. >> woodruff: is it surprising that there isn't government help, that this is all volunteer at this point? becausei would think these people are in need of so many things. >> reporter: that's right, judy.s i mean, that' the case at this particular 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 witonhions. but at this point they really need financial contributions and they steered to us three organizations on the butte 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 in the days and weeks ahead, that's still very much up in the air at this point. woodruff: well, we can certainly hope at the very least when people hear of these organization some, or many will reach out and make a contribution. cat wise reporting for us from chico, california, near where those terrible fires were. thank you, cat. >> reporter: thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a pre-winter storm spread across the eastern u.s., leaving six people dead d causing mass power outages. st. louis got as much as eight inches of snow, with two to six inches falling from washington all the way north into new 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. pa beach county missed thead ne, citing equipment republican rick scott had a razor-thin lead over democratic incumbent bill nelson, virtually ensuring a further rount, by hand. aianwhile, democrats picked up a u.s. house seat in. they have now gained 36th seats, handful of races still outstanding. house minority leader nancy pelosi insisted todateshe has the to become speaker, come january. she dismissed claims that disgruntled democrats might have 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 caucus who could serve in this capacity. i happen to think athis 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 inmahe murder of khashoggi. the writer was killed at the saudconsulate in istanbul, turkey last month. he had been prince mohammed bin sulman. but, foreign minister adel tojubeir said y it is clear that the prince was not involved. >> this was a rogue operation,av wea better sense of what happened, this was individuals exceing their authority and going beyond their mandate and the individuals made a tremendous mistake and for this mistake they will pay a price. >> woodruff: also today, the u.s. treasury imposed sanctions on 17 saudis linked to khashoggi's murder. taliban fighters in afghanistan killed 30 policemen overnight, the latest in string of attacks. this time, the target was a police outpost in farah province, near the iranian rder. unofficial tallies show at least 45 afghan soldiers and police are being killed or wounded daily. british prime minister theresa may defied alls today to step down, over her brexit deal. that came as two cabinet ministers quit, along with several junior ministers. they charged the deal leaves britain too closely tied to the european union. carl dinnen of independent telivision news has our report. >> serving in high office is an honor an privilege. it is also a heavy resp rsibility. orter: but theresa may is nothing if not resilient and says hers is arexit deal that protects the economy. >> i believe that this is a deal which does deliver that, which in the national interest, and am i going to see this through? yes. >> reporter: she's not going anywhere yet. this morning, dinic raab became the second secretary to exit the cabinet sing the deal has terrible flaws. >> the first one is the predatory terms being proposed by the e.u., which i feel would threaten the integrity of the united kingdom. basically what that would do is definitely if not permanentlsy lock into a regime which iev e would be damaging to the economy ande devastating to th public trust in our economy. >> reporter: soon after, the work and pension secretary esther mcvey did resign writing, "i cannot defend this. i cannot vote for this deal." but mrs. may sti warned m.p.s to back her, or risk brexit. >> we can choose to leave with no dea. we can risk no brexit at all. or we can choose-- shouting ) >> reporter: yet, there were hostile voices all around the mmons. >> the government must now withdraw this half-baked dea ich is clear does not have the backing of the cabinet, this parliament, or the country as a whole. >> at this stage we should be back to eme people, present with the options, rather th us just stumble on >> reporter: and within minutes of the debate ending, mrs. may's position more tenuous yet as the leader -brexit conservatives called for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. >> this isno abt having confidence in t current leader and believing that the deal simply does not work. >>eporter: yet other brexiters remain in the cabinet. michael gove, penny morton seen entering number 10 for talks. >> thank you. reporter: mrs. may has weathered the 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 sending rohingya muslims back to mostly-buddhist myanma today's decision came as refugees protested against the effort. me0 rohingya live in bangladesh alefterng army- led violence in myanmar. mathe european court of rights ruled today that russia's arsts of opposition leader alexei navalny are politically motivated. the court ordered moscow to pay $71,000 in damages. the decision is legally binding, but mosc has delayed complying with previous rulings. back in this country, a ch rebound heed wall street break its losing streak. the dow jones industrial average ined 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 dioded at his home in tulsa, oklahoma. starting in 1969, he hosted the tv variety show "hee haw" foer nearly a quaf a century. he was also a grammy winner who excelled at a wide range of instruments. roclark was 85 years old. still to come on the newshour: the f.d.a. proposes new restrictions on electronic- cigarettes. recounts continue in florida's narrowly contested governor and senate elections. the director of the world foodwa programmns of imminent famine in yemen due to the ongoing civil war, and much more. >> woodrndf: the u.s. food drug adminisation is taking w steps to try curbing the rise in underage smoking and vaping. the agency aounced new guidelines for retailers selling flavored e-cigarets, stopping short of an outright ban. but as amna nawaz reports, the agency did move to ban sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, something tobacco companies have long opposed. >> nawaz: the move to ban menthol cigarettes is the biggest tobaurcco metaken by the f.d.a. in nearly a decade,ma although it take more than a year before it can be fully implemented. the new rules on many flavored e-cigarettes kick in much sooner, just three months from now. the f.d.a. will limit sales at convenience stores and elsewhere to age-restricted areas that are supposed to be closed off to kids under the age of 18. e-cigs and vapg 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. ctor scott gottlieb is the 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 the flavoredig earettes. you stopped short of that. why. >> i don't think e policy w now say was different from what people expected. there was some reporting last week abo what we might d and that reporting was consistent with what we ultimately announced today.d what we'reng is putting in race significantly enhanced age-verificatiuirements in retail establishments for retail outlets that want to sell the fruity-flavored e-cigarette products because we know those are bng used by a lot of kids and we have to address this really sharply increased re of youth use we're seeing in theet maace. 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 w thl have to put in place measures like having a separate room where they c effectively restrict access to the room, card people before they go in the room. so there's th. opportuni but i think what you're going to see happen is most of the sales of the product will migrate to establishments that already do put in place age-verification requirements as a result of the measures that we'rending to take. to nawaz: on the verification front that will who is able to purchase the products, but nosnecessarily who uses th, right? and we know a lot of younger kids get the product from people who are legally purchasing them er 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 this. we're taking 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 tnoughjust slow the trajectory of the iewgh of the h we think the measures we took today are robust. they will have an impact on the market. if we don't start to see these youth rates come down and come down srerply, w going to be back here taking additional stems. we now have in place monitoring. we have in place enforcement activities. we're going to be going into these retail establishments to see if the products are still being sold to kids at the same levels we have seen in the 'tpa. we dee a change in the miles per hour, we're going to have to take additional steps. >> you mentioned there will be a yhange in the miles per hour. we will probaee a big one when it comes to the menthol ban. you said something early or a media call you hosted briefing people about the of today, clinical experiences working in african ameri we know there isd disproportionate use of menthol cigarettes in these communities. what did you see was the effect? and what do y hope will be the effect of this ban? >> look, i took care of hospitalized patient i worked in an in-patient setting in urban environments, and a lot of disease they took care of was the consequence of sming-related illness, a lot of disease and death i saw. i'm a cancer survivor so i know how grueling a cancer diagnosis can be. and that has, you know, impacted how i think about this issue. but i also have a mandate add public health official and a have a legal mandate under the law to try to effect these. the menthol in particular doeste disproportio affect certain communities. seven out of 10 african american kids who use traditional cigarettes use a menalated cigarette. and for kids 20 age of 12 and 17 overall, all kids, 54% use mentholated cigarettes. we know the flavors in the cigarettes, menthol in particular other is something that attracts kids to cigarettes and makes it easier to smoke 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 financially investedn a chain of vaping lounges. soon after your confirmation, you gave the e-cigs industry five more years toto come compliance. a lot of people thought there would be an outright ban on one of the products you stopped short o a question is, is any of that, your financial investment in that industryis that influencing your decision? are you taking it easy on the industry? b i don't think we ever said there was going an outright ban on e-cigarette ss. what d all along was we felt the e-cigarettes offered an oppounity for the adults and we wanted to take measures to restrict access to the kids. we tookst pretty ro measures today. i don't know where you got the statement from that there would be an outright ban, and the agency never said that. i would know because i speak on behalf of the agency. i gave them time to come int the agency to demonstrate what they need to demonstrate to remain on the market because we do recognize that there may be an opportunity for adults for saese you products. at the same time sought to regulate nicotine, to render them minimally or nonaddictive. we're trying to make the cigarettes less attractive to adult smokers. for those who still want to get accessino nic through an inhaled route, perhaps through an e-cigarette, which i think st people recognize represents the potential for a modified t risk alternati traditional smoking, to traditional cigarettes. so thrais potential public alth opportunity here. that's request i've been interested in e-cigarettes for a long time as aal potenublic health opportunity. but i've said all along, and i said at myn confirmat hearing, that opportunity can't come at the expense of addicting a generation of kids on these products. and that's wha we're seeing right now. we're seeing a generation of kids become addictedo nicotine through e-cigarettes and we're going to step in and stop it.o >> nawaz: just clarify, are you still investing in the vaping lounges in the industry? >> of course, not. i was divested before i came on board the >> 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 additionals enforcementn place right now. we have considerable resources behind looking at retail 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 got under way over the course of a long period of time, so it's going to take some me to reverse these trends. but i think we'll get a prettyic k 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, int democrat bill nelson trails republican challenger rick scott by about 13,000 votes. that is still within the .25% that triggernts a manual rec newshour's digital politics editor dan bush has beenco watching the t in south florida. hello to you, dan. first of all, as we said w earlier, just palm beach county that seemed to have missed the deadline, but now we hear it may have been broward county as well. what do we know about that? >> that's right, je i. we're just hearing reports now that broward county missed the reporting deadline to finish the chine recount, which was 3:00 p.m. today, by about two minutes it still means that 65 of florida's 67 counties finished theou machine r on time. >> woodruff: so let's talk about the senate race. as we just said, it looks like the separation between bill nelson and rick scott is within that .25% margin, whtricgers a hand recount. so what happens now? >> that's right, jude i. so the recount resulted in a-- in an outcome that was under that .25 margin that you noded, a law put in place in the state afterhe 2000 election. that triggers the hand recount. that's starting tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. sharp. and election officials told me in broward counta little while ago that it's supposed to start right on time, more or less, and the deadline for that is vember 18. so just a couple of days for them to go through auniverse 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 forlt le candidates in a single race or 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 mail-in balls. tell us where that stands. >> so, democratic incumbent senator bill nelson and the florida democratic party filed a lauit in federal government challenging a state law that requiresignatures on provisional ballots and mail-in ballths to match signatures in state voter registration records, saying that it was unconstitutional, violated equan protecights, and makes it harder for voters to vote. and a judge just this morning issued a narrow rin 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 broad ruling, potentially something that would strike down the existing state law or even require the state toca automay 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 cam out, republican governor rick scott, running for the senate seat 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 wu to focus for just a moment on the governor's race, republican ron desantis, democrat anew gillum. recount there as well. where does that one stand? >> yeah, so, othe governor's side, desantis is still leading gillum by about 34,000 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 illum, but it appears that that race is whet is, and that desantis will be certified as the winner, perhaps as early as nextee >> woodruff: dan, we know you have been spending time there around the broward tiunty el supervisor's office. tell us what's going on there. there have been protests tside. what is the scene there? >> reporter: so, inside, you haveel couple of dozetion workers who in the last several days have been working around the clock to do this machine count, to feed the ballots into the machines and let that process play out. meanwhile, outside there have been republican proatsts, demo protests around this process. slot of republicans, judy, that i spoke to,d a lot-- a lot of voters, said they don't trust these results. they feel there is suspicious activity. they said that their view of the election is shaped by preside w donald trump has focused on florida, and dispara the recount process, called for it to be over before all of the votes were received. on the other side, you have democrats saying that they don't beeve these allegations of fraud, that they want all of the votes to be counted, and that on the books as the stand now, make it harder for people to vote. so you have two wildly different views of this election and & resultsor not the should be trusted. >> woodruff: well, political overlay always when these recounts happen. and-- but a spotlight right there as they count these votes. dan bush reporting for us froflm ida. thank you. >> thank you. druff: stay with u coming up on the newshour: how the u.s. forest service is working to combat sexual harassment within its ranks. citiesto worandle the dramatic increase of shareable scooter technology. and thmaree veterans give their brief but specteular take onovering 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 suit ith its own sanctions. 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 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 known, call qathani a fa-guy for the crown prince's decisions to aggrgressively his opponents. 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 te he last thd a half years, the u.n. estimates 10,000 have been killed, and they gostopped counting years today, the saudi-led coalition halted its offensive against the key city and port of hodaida. but millions are sufferingunrom an acuter crisis. and the u.n. warns yemen is on the brink of fame. one of the people leading the response is david beasly, executive director of the world food programme, and he joins me bom the u.n. thanks so much fng on the newshour. let me start with the day's news. ghthis halt in ng in houdadya, some 70% of imports in yemen, go through houdaya.s could t improve possibly the humanitarian situation? >> there's no doubt that will phave aitive impact. i'll tell you, i was there just the day before yesterday in the houdaya area. it is a militarized zone. we were distributed food. people were literally coming to us, coming out of their homes, quickly as they could, to our distribution points where we would give fhem enoughd for one month so they don't have to be in the streets. becausit is a combat, militarize ze. in fact, you can't believe how many people came up to me begging me to stay, believing that aers long as i was as long as our team was there, there would be no military combat. in fact, military combat started one hour after we left.e so cease-fll give us tremendous opportunity to address the humanitaria catastrophe that we're facing right now. >> schifrin: it is a catastrophe. and let's personalize this a little bit. talk to us about t condition that you saw, and there's someone you met. eight-month-old mohammed hashan. >> well, i was in the hospital, seeing the children literally t ing righfore my very own eyes. little mohammed, who was literally just month old, just the situation with diarrhea, dk of food, lack of goo ter, and it was heartbreaking. and wasn't just mohammed. i talked totl one l child, his little teeny feet were sticking out of the blankeand i tickled the little feet winking i would get a little smile. 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'r weassisting 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 newwe assessments. elieve that number may jump from eight million to 12 or 14 million that a on e brink of starvation. it is a desperate situation. we need help, but most impoantly, the war needs to end so that we can do what we can do and hopefully stimula the economy. all these things are extremely important right now to a pulation that is t on the brink of a catastrophe. it is a can catastrophe. >> schifrin: you talk about the nd to end this war. that's a political question, of course. that leads to talks, u.n.-s on one side the saudi coalition, and on the other the houthis. is there political will on all the sides to actually bring this close a >> well, you know, if there's not political will to end thisr, i can't imagine a greater catastrophe in my lifetime. childreare dying literally eversingle day from starvation. people are dying. people have lost their jobs. there is no job. there is no money in the economy. i don't know where they'f going to go don't end this war. it must end. rsople must unnd. these aren't just numbers. these are little girls and little boy with names like mohammed and amed. they would be like our little children. they need our standing up for them right >> schifrin: for the americans listening to this, hearing what you're saying, that they need help what can normal americans do, if anything? >> i think the averageca ame, first and foremost, pray for the nuildren and the families in yemen. er two, call your political leaders and say let's bring this war to an end. i think 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 financial support we nd to scale up and ramp up. let me give you an example, we are spending right now, over eight million people, about $100 million per month. we are gogave to ramp up to se50 million per month if in fact when w the new numbers in that shows that the numbers have gone from eigilhton to 12 million to 14 million people on the brink oftarvation. ifhe american people would speak out and say support the people that are starving to death inc yemen se of this war, i think, hopefully, that will wake up the politicalsh leade to do us good, to do us right, first and foremost supphe humanitarian needs. and then, number two, and i think that's the most important thing, bring this war to an end. >> schifrin: david beasly of the world food programme, just back from yemen, thank you very much. >> woodruff: earlier this year, weedir story about sexual harassment and assault within the u.s. forest service. after ngspeaith dozens of women, our reporting team revealed a culture of abuse and retali tation with service. women who spoke up about their mistreatment were then punished for doing so. the forest service has vowed to change, and william brangham is here with an update. you reporting on all this. today, congress held an oversight hearing. the new head offo thst service was there to talk about how maybe some clings happening. what did you hear? >> this was vicki christensen's her new-- her first hearing as the new chief. remember, she took ove this b, because the prior chief, a man named tony took, stepped wn 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 culture of abuse within the forest service. she vowed today, t t 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 o us wants, but i'm determined to lead permanent change in the forest service. we will not rest until this agency provides the safe, respectful workplace our emplsy deserve. >> so she acknowledges that there are problems. she acknowledges that this is a culture-wide change that needs to occur. they said they've institut some substantive changes, that they have changed how harassment claims g reported, how those claims get investigated. they now use private investigators, rather than people in the forest service themsethlves. 've instituted forest-service-wide antiharassment training, lduts f indiv changes they're making. but as we've seen, it's already stila work in progress. >> woodruff: and what is your sense from your reporting of how all this i being received by the exprairchg file who work at the forest service? >> on some level, people are very, very happy. we set up a tip line, if you remember, after o first series, tipline @newshour.org many wrote ying we are so glad this is finally being talked abo . at tsame time, there are people who believe the changes don't go far enough, that they're simply covering over-- "band-aid" is a term weeard mentioned. 60 different women signed an open letter-- these are current and former service, employe sent this letter to the chief saying the culture still exists, the problems have not been addressed. one witnessed echoed the pont. r name is shannon reid, a forest service employee from new mexico, and she was fired recently, and she alleged a whole pattern of mistreatment towards he here's a little bit of what she had to say. and i should just warn our ewers some very graphic language here, but this is what she said in an open house hearing today. >> one coworker threatened to bend me over and spank me. another told me in order to go a fire assignment, i had to suck his (bleep). anothecoworker told me they would have to wear knee pads at a conference because i would be sucking so much (bleep). gl. >> obviously, shannon reid's story is just awful. the reflams that took have started to happen while she was still there. she said one of those requiredto herell the story of her abuse in a room where her leged abuser was actually present. she was also someone who said she was 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 h say,er testimony, especially in comparison to the reforms that vicki christensen said were under way really sets some members of congress off. >> howdn the hell coyou have the perpetrator in the room with the victim? how does that happen? and what steps can beaken 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? >> inio addto the hostile work environment that has been occurring there for decades, the culture of lying and misrepresenting not only to members of congress, but to your employees and other dement dements is also iny troubling and ongoihe. >> clearly's still a great deal of anger out there, and a great deal of questions as to whether the forest service, and how quickly they can actually change what they admit is this culture.bli >> woodruff: such a gab gap between what we heard in that testimony and whatea the the new head of the forest service is saying. >> that's right.o >> wouff: well air, lot of questions, and i know you are going to continue to report on this. thank you,u'illiam. >> welcome. >> woodruff: in dozens of cities, the electric scooter has taken off. a popular novelty, for sure. and foma, an environmentally-friendly and economical alternative to driving. last week, ford motor company got into the act, buying its own scootep.r star but there's a big backlash building as well over their impact. special correshindent and "wngton post" columnist catherine rampell has the story for ouegr weeklynt, "making sense." >> reporter: sunny santa monica, california. home tthfitness enthusiasts of muscle beach, the high-tech startups of silicon beach, and for thige past year,eous fury about an invasive species. >> what's next? when domino's has their pizza bot robot tooling down the sidewalks? when the mythical amazon drones want to park someplace? where are these things going to reside on our public right of way? >> reporter: martin reick is mad about dockless electric scooters. they're essentially skateboards with handles that can be picedd up and droff anywhere with the help of an app. they've been rolled out in scores of cities around the country, where local officials have struggled to cope. >> there's been cities that have just ss.aid anything g >> reporter: transportation expert juan matute. >> thethere are cities who have said nothing goes, milwaukee. s and then there are citke santa monica. >> reporter: ...where the whole craze began. it start last fall with just 10 scooters from one company, but soalon sidewks 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. >> it sdenly became an expectedly emotional issue. >> reporter: now, many of the emotions are positive. tourishets here seem to love 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. absolutely. great way to see the sights. >> reporter: some locals are also enamored. >> i get a little rush out of it. like adre naline. it makes me feel good that i accomplishedkeomething like, , like, that's almost impossible. >> reporter: plus, they're a green alternate to cars, at ast for short distances. >> it'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 promen aade, going to go h v.i.p. event, so it's taking me there. >> repter: and they've created a network of gig-economy jobs. sean besser works for one of the companies, lime, as a so-called juicer-- scooping up dead scooters at night for recharging. hohe puts in less than aur a day, 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. >>eporter: but as the initial noveltfaded, problems have emerged, as the santa monica city council heard at a seven- hour meetingn june. >> on sfebruary 15, 2018 i struck by a bird scooter rider who ran into me from behind on the sidewalk. i contacted bird three times asking for help in tracking the suspect. e been unresponsive and unhelpful. >> i've been hit twice. i've got two herniated discs in my neck. >> i stepped out and one slammed right into me. >> basically pedestrians have becometa the bowling pins of san monica. >> reporter:edestrians aren't the only ones getting injured. >> i wasn't even going fast. i was d just- i distra ction. >> reporter: wsaliam kairala ys he'd dropped his bicycle r repair and decided t ride a scooter. >> this is one of the c.t. scans. >> reporter: he woke 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, and it went hl the way up re. i broke my head over here. in t throbbing pain.ke a >> reporter: kairala is thinking about joining a class-action sutl filed recagainst the scooter companies. others have sought vigilante justice, documented on an instagedram account cal"bird graveyard," bird is another scooter firm. it shongws angry people giview 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 scooter rental company, the sit- down kind. >> it just blows my mind how like all these young peoeye are just, ust leave them everywhere. >> reporter: kids these days! >> oh ryeah. orter: you seem too young to be making this complaint! >> no, i'm not necessarily making complaint, i'm just saying approach it a different y. >> reporter: some people love them, some people hate them. clearliny they're not away. in fact they're spreading to 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. not so long ago, uber and lyft fought similar battlesith local officials. they moved aggressively into new markets, asking forgiveness rather than permission. some scooter companies, like bird, whose founder had worked at both uber and lyft, took a page from that book. >> i know how they play the game because i'm, i'm an entrepreneur myself. so they break the rus and they, they apologize later. >> reporter: juan matute says bird de.idn't have a cho >> they wouldn't have been able to get a license because there wasn't a category for what they were doing. they wanted to demonstrate sometheding, show that it wo and then attract additional rounds of financing. >> reporter: they did attract financing; bird is now valued at $2 billion. but in the process, they also attracted a criminal complaint for operating without a license. >> that plea agreement in which bird committed to a significant amount of money for public safety spending and a public safety awareness campaign. >> reporter: meanwhile, lime entered santa monica lawfully, with a permit,ut to the dismay many, lime too released over a thousand scooters. >> their 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 ansccap the number oters. other cities did the same, someti companies altogether. andrew sage is a lime v.p. we're in your headquarters in san francisco. >> yeah. >> reporter: but you are not curretly allowed to operate i san francisco, right? so we were disappointed not to receive a permit. we're actually currently appealing that decision. >> reporter: scooter companies have learned they need to take a more conciliatory approach with government officials. that's true even for lyft, which has recently entered the scooter business, including here in santa monica. lyft'san david fairb it seems like your strategy is different from how lyft rolled esout its ride sharing bus. why is that? >> what's right in this in this context to is to work closely with the cities, get permits and launch once we have, once we have perssion. >> reporter: they're also working hard to sell local governs me what benefits they bring to the community. >> we know that ride sharing companies have increased congestion in our cities around the country.ng stion is a huge, huge iallenge that cities face. a costlication in the hundreds of billions of dollars. >> reporter: and they're pitching cities on how scooters can reduce their local carbon footpint, which many committed to after the trumpst adminition pulled out of the paris climate accord. >> so 3that cities that are cash strapped already that are makingmi climate cents that often come with costs. and so what we're able to do is come to cities and say we can offer this program for free and we can help impact of your transportation system. >> reporter: the assumption is that scooter res will replace car rides. so what problem is it that these scootersre intended to solve? >> mobility in cities. >> reporter: i got feet, you know. there are bikes. >> yeah. and it kind of remains tbe seen what types of trips the scooters are displacing. >> reporter: that's what santa monicad 's pilot aims to fint, because city officials want to make more om for greener ansportation. santa monica mobility manager francie stefan. spent a lot of time designing our streets for cars. most cities are 20 to 25% street space and that is space that we can give back to people to move around safely in our city. 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 going to anally address climate ch seriously. >> reporter: but meanwhile, some companies haven't quite abandoned that aggressive streak. just as news was breaking of scooter-related deaths in the country, bird convinced the state of california to repeal a law requiring helmets for adults. not that everyone, or even most people we saw scooting through santa moca, had been abiding by the letter of that law. scooters may be conveniently available everywhere, but helmets are not. >> woodruff: one of the most stressful jobs in thmilitary belongs to members of the explosive ordance disposal unit, or e..d. in this week's brief but spectalar episode in honor of veterans day, three female former e.o.d. members talk about recovery at the boulder crest retreat in arizona, a facility that specializes in post- traumatic growth. >> i was diagnosed with p.t.s.d. ll 2004, they gave me the and said, "vaya con dios." >> tha tt's what they keling us is that we have p.t.s.d. and it's not just help us manage it. >> i just didn't have the courage to tell anyby 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.an they have no medics slots open. so, i was like, "well, let's see what you have." one of the 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 explosiv; he says it's pretty much like the bomb squad for the military. and i was like, "so, i can do that, ev if i'm a girl?" and he's like, "yeah." >> what they try to impress upon you is that one little miske, even though it doesn't seem very e.rge, could cost you your life. >> when i was ad. tech, they didn't have bomb suits or robots. you-did you just had to walk up and engage. at the time i joined the marine corps, it wa2% female, no but they didn't want any of us, we were congressional nuisance and consistently had to be proving yourself. >> the malto female ratio in the military is already pretty imbalancedum, and then in o.d., even more so. >> boys will bboys. 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?" >> iwas such a strange transition for me, from living a life that was so structured and you know, didn't really have to think about much. it was jt, do your job, 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 thr 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 get out of bed to'so to work, thll i was capable of doing. >> when you have more time andli you're more de and you think to yourself, then all th stuff starts coming up and i realized, i said realizing, "i need heelp." >> t path program was actually the first place they told us "there's nothing wron with us." that any sort of traumatic experience you had could be used as an opportunity to grow. >> they have a slogan here, it"" its not you, it's just wha happened." >> when i first got heredoand i t cry about anything, but i haven't seen an e.o.d. woman since 1981. i literally cried because i was like," "they're really he" they do exist. these 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 wo told on how horses will reflect your emotions. >> i'm up there 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 can just be-- go up and be gentle and the whole idea of not ngeverything in life is go hurt you. >> foriv me it was just fog people who have done me wrong. iving myself for allowing myself to just get to this point of just absolute hatred owho i am. and that's what i'm working on. >> my name is judy ellis. >> my y me is ty. >>me is jaime mcreary, and this is my brief but spectacular take... >> on wtpost-traumatic go >>druff: very tough to watch. and you can find additional "brief but spectacular" episodes on our website. pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newt.our for toni i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening where dav brooks and ruth marcus will be here to analyze the weeks' news. for all of us at the pbs neyohour, thank you and se soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. ibd by conions 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 of our nation's most treasured recipes from coast to coast. join me in my kitchen as i teach you the best 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