Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by at bae systems, our pride and ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill ukraines prorussian president has announced a truce after a latenight meeting with the proeuropean opposition. That follows tuesdays allout battles and bloodshed in kiev that left at least 26 dead and hundreds wounded. We have a report from matt frei of independent television news. Reporter Independence Square is a busy place today humming with the solemn industry of an ant hill. Last night the trade Union Building which served as the headquarters of the revolution was burnt down. Today the wreck and its con at any times were already being recycled, as Building Materials for the new set of barricades. Everything and anything will do, even a hairdressers chair. Mean meanwhile a poet with a keen eye on a Career Opportunity mounts the barricades to recite his latest ballad. But if all this looks like epic set for a revolutionary nostalgia film, dont be fooled. On the other side of wall of smoke the riot police dont much care for poetry. Kiev has been mainly quiet today, licking its wounds but the unrest is spreading across the nation. This was in western ukraine, demonstrators venting their rage on a government building. Suddenly theres automatic gunfire. A protester is shot, apparently in the head. We have no idea if the woman survived or who was shooting but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the unrest is getting more chaotic and that violence is being used by both sides and that includes live ammunition for first time in this crisis. Last night in kiev the police finally used Armored Vehicles to ram the barricades. The riot police emerged singed from the burnt out wreckage. They too have suffered casualties but not nearly as many as the protesters. In western ukraine, always a hotbed of antirussian and Anti Government sentiment, protesters have gone one step further and even declared their independence. With his country and his authority disintegrating around him, president yanyukovich went on prime Time Television to denounce the protesters as terrorists and to accuse the Opposition Leaders of attempting to stage a coup. The front line on Independence Square right in the center of kiev has never looked this chaotic and messy. And the real question especially after all the deaths last night is whether this could now actually become a civil war. So much in this country is divided and that includes the orthodox church. The bells of st. Michaels cathedral, one of ukraines most beautiful and important, are frantic in support of revolution. The church itself has been transformed. St. Michaels in kiev now a Field Hospital for the revolution. Think Church Turned e. R. The floor has become one giant hospital bed. Reporter outside Independence Square burns once again. The stakes never higher, the outcome never clearer. The world more worried that what happens in kiev will not stay in kiev. Ifill the violence drew widespread condemnation from world leaders, and threats of sanctions. President obama spoke in toluca, mexico, at a summit with the president s of mexico and canada. We expect the ukranian government to show restraint, to not resort to violence in dealing with Peaceful Protesters. Weve said that we also expect Peaceful Protesters to remain peaceful. And well be monitoring very carefully the situation recognizing that along with our European Partners and the International Community there will be consequences if people step over the line. Ifill russian president Vladimir Putin spoke by phone overnight with yanukovych. The kremlin said both men view yesterdays events as an attempted coup. In venezuela, Opposition LeaderLeopoldo Lopez faced a first appearance in court on charges of inciting violence. Lopez has become the face of demonstrations calling for the ouster of socialist president nicolas maduro. He was taken into custody yesterday. Well have a full report on the situation in venezuela, later in the program. A court in thailand has ordered the government there to stop using force against the opposition. That follows clashes between riot police and protesters that killed five people yesterday. Thousands of demonstrators rallied today outside the temporary office of embattled Prime Minister yingluck shinawatra. They waved flags and shouted slogans demanding her resignation. At the winter olympics, a protest against russian president putin drew a violent response today in sochi. Cossack militiamen with horsewhips beat and manhandled members of the punk group pussy riot as they tried to perform. At least one person was bloodied, but police made no arrests. Later, the performance artists did manage to stage a performance, and insisted they wont be silenced. In the countries of europe and the United States theres no real understanding of what is going on here in our country. Theres no security for those who expressed the civil polit call position. These people might be beaten, some are raped at police stations, killed or put into jail regularly. Our goal is to tell the truth about that as loud as we can. Ifill as for the days results, if you plan to watch todays competition later, you might want to tune out for a moment. American skier ted ligety took the mens giant slalom. The First American male to win two olympic golds in alpine skiing. American teams also won two medals, the silver and bronze, in womens bobsledding. And in mens hockey, the u. S. Beat the Czech Republic to advance to the semifinals friday, against canada. Russia was knocked out of medal contention with a loss to finland. A new warning has gone out to airlines, over possible bombs in shoes. The department of Homeland Security issued the alert, but declined today to give details of the threat. Its unclear if this is related to earlier warnings about explosives hidden in toothpaste or liquids on flights to russia. The Keystone Oil Pipeline has run into new trouble. A state judge in nebraska today rejected a law that lets the governor condemn and claim land for the pipeline. Instead, a state agency will have to decide on a route. The pipeline still needs federal approval as well. Its meant to carry oil from canada to refineries in texas. The federal Communications Commission will draw up new rules for an open internet. A federal Appeals Court struck down a previous version. The rules were designed to ensure that broadband providers dont discriminate or block content on the web. Today, the f. C. C. Opted to try again, instead of appealing the court decision. A major Tech Acquisition is in the works. Facebook has announced it will buy the mobile messaging Service Whatsapp for up to 19 billion in cash and stock. And on wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly 90 points to close at 16,040. The nasdaq fell almost 35 points to close just below 4,238. Still to come on the newshour new ammunition in the fight over boosting the minimum wage; political turmoil in venezuela; the backlog in getting visas to afghans assisting u. S. Forces; how an oil boom is affecting the air over texas; plus, whatever became of the arab spring . Woodruff the Congressional Budget Office, by definition, is considered a nonpartisan agency. But the report it released yesterday about the effects of raising the minimum wage was seized upon by both sides of the debate. Among its findings if the minimum wage were raised to 10. 10 an hour, it could eliminate half a million jobs. But, it would also lift 900,000 families out of poverty and raise incomes for more than 16 Million People. The report noted there could be significant variation in the numbers. We join the debate with thea lee, the deputy chief of staff at the a. F. L. C. I. O. And david neumark, an economist at the university of california, irvine, whos done extensive work on this subject. And we welcome you both to the program. Thea lee, to you first, what is your main take away here, on the one hand the Congressional Budget Office is saying yes, it lifts people out of poverty it will raise income but it has the potential to eliminate half a million jobs. There were some good findings out of the cbo study. As you said 16. 5 million getting a pay increase which is long overdue. And about 900,000 coming out of poverty. The most controversial finding the cbo study was up to half a Million People could lose their jobs because of hike in the men mum wage, if you look carefully at the cbo study they havent actually done new research and it was biased in the sense that they gave a lot more weight to studies that might have a negative employment impact. And less weight to a vast consensus among economists right now that, in fact, raising the men mum wage will have little or no adverse job impact. And i think those studies have been more of the newer studies, more careful studies that have been done and that is where a lot of the economics profession is right now. Professor neumark, what is your take away on what the cbo said and how do you respond to what thea lee said that they really didnt take into account consensus of economists. She said that there wont be this affect on jobs. Well, let me take the first question in let me take the question in reverse order. Its simply a misstatement of the Research Evidence to say that most studies point to no effects of minimum wages on unemployment to. Say there is a consensus among economists now, i dont know where that comes from. There is, you know, there is survey, i did an Extensive Survey of minimum wage studies back in 2007 with coauthor william washer at the Federal Reserve board. We found that while there is definitely a dispute here nest of the evidence and a higher percentage of the studies we think are better, point to neglect any negative minimum wage effects there are a few recent studies that find the opposite that is not new there have always been a few that find it the contrary. There has been a conservative effort by the authors of those studies and people in favor of raising the minimum wage to make it seem as if thats what we know now and that is the consensus but thats simply not the weight of the evidence. I really welcome the cbo study because i think what it does is puts the discussion back where it should be. There are costs to raise the minimum wage there are some benefits to raise the minimum wage. We should be having an informed policy discussion about what those costs and benefits are and how we trade them off against each other. The discussion arguing pass if there is no cost, no effects on the minimum wage, obviously there is no korx its all benefits, you might as well keep doing and higher and higher. I think the cbo study puts us back where we need to be saying there is some job loss. And lets think about that cost relative to the benefits. Woodruff thea lee works pitting studies against studies, how do you respond to the point that the professor just made that it is important to acknowledge that yes, there may be some benefits, but there are also some tradeoffs. Well, even in the cbo study, even if you take the cbo study at face value, it talks about a 31 billion increase in income for lowwage workers. And these are folks who have been working hard, people who are playing by the rules, who are productive who are going to work every day an cant lift their families out of poverty. So i think this study goes to something very important. This is the hot topic right now. The minimum wage, raising the minimum wage is incredibly popular. It would be good for the economy. And in fact its good for a lot of businesses. And were starting to see that even businesses, the gap Just Announced today it is going to voluntarily raise wages for its workers. Have found that some so of the benefits of a higher minimum wage that there is higher productivity. There is lower turnover, lower add senteeism, workers are healthier, happier, they stay in the job longer. Those are allological important offsetting impacts that need to be taken into account. Thats why i think the new Economic Research which isnt about theories, its not about drawing a supply and demand kufb on a blackboard, but it is about looking at historical, real life situations where you have two states or two counties that are next door to each other. One raises the minimum wage and one doesnt. And in those carefully controlled studies, dow not find that there is a negative job impact from raising the minimum wage. David neumark, you can respond to that. But even setting that aside, what about the positive that the cbo found, that poverty would be reduced, that millions of people would end up with higher income. The point that ms. Lee just made that people would have more disposable income. Right, so very briefly, the studies i was referring to are not theory, they are studies of imperial empirical evidence. So we can talk about the research and what is good and bad but lets not mischaracterize the research record. Why are we having this defwhat first place. Were having this debate in the first place because inequality has widened a lot and many people feel and i rank myself among them, that in a country as rich as ours the minimally expanded, should probably be higher than it is. So thats the goal. How do we raise incomes of low income families. The question is what is the best way to do it. The minimum wage is generally viewed as not a very good way to achieve that goal for one simple reason. Minimum wages dont target poor and low income families very well. Many, many families that are pore have no workers, okay. So the minimum wage does little or nothing for them. An many minimum wage workers are nonpoor families. We have an earned income tax credit. Perhaps it should be more generous than it is. The earned income tax credit essentially adds on to your labor market earnings if you are in a low income family. And it adds on more if you have children to give those families more help. Now some people dont like that for reasons we dont have time to get into here. But i dont think anyone disagrees. People on both sides of the debate, that that is a much better and more effective and efficient way to put money in the hands of low income families. So when the cbo says i was going to say i want we only have a little bit of time left, thea lee, what about this, the point hes making which has been made elsewhere, that there are better ways to get money into the hands of those who most need it. I dont think we need to choose between the earned income tax credit which is a good program and raising the minimum wage. The truth is that if you are working for a living you should not be in poverty. I think what we need to do is give not just lowwage workers, poor workers but middle income workers a raise as well. Because the key factor in our Economy Today is that millions and millions of workers have been working harder, theyre more productive, educated than they have ever been and they havent had a raise in dekids. I think raising the minimum wage is one important way of lifting up the floor for all of those worker. And i think it should be a top priority for the congress and the country. Professor, just a brief response. Well, i think that is, you know, thats a sentiment. We wish low income people would earn more. But its not as simple as that. If we could wave our wand and they would earn higher wages i would say that sounds like a great policy there are tradeoffs. And this study put its us back to seriously considering those tradeoffs. Professor david neumark, we thank boughth both it say tough debate. Well continue to look at it thank you. Thank you. Ifill a month of protests reached a boiling point this week in economically strapped venezuela. At the center of the uproar is a charismatic leader seeking to oust the current government. Ifill demonstrators burned trash, chanted and made noise any way they could, outside a Caracas Court where a top Opposition Leader faced criminal charges. Ifill Leopoldo Lopez is accused of fomenting protest over a tumultuous three weeks in venezuela. The harvardtrained economist surrendered to police yesterday, after imploring supporters to keep up the pressure on socialist president nicholas maduro. translated every venezuelan who wants change, gather ourselves, organize ourselves and hold nonviolent protests. I swear to you we will overcome and very soon we will have a free and democratic venezuela. Ifill the protesters have denounced maduros stewardship of the oilrich venezuelan economy. Also at issue rampant crime, controls on media, and food shortages. Five people have died in the last week as protests turned violent,