>> the main theory new hampshire researches are pursuing is that the massive moose die-off is caused primarily by a devastating par sight, the winter tick. >> woodruff: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i've 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 they're 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. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and 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. >> woodruff: hopes of finding that missing malaysian airliner were cautiously on the rise today. that followed a flurry of reports that searchers may have picked up signals from the plane's black boxes. lucy watson of independent television news reports from beijing, where the search is being closely watched because most of those on board were chinese. >> reporter: an australian crew lower the key american device that could end uncertainty surrounding flight 370. it's been trawling the ocean for underwater sounds like those emitted from flight data recorders and on board they my have detected but not located them. >> clearly this is a most promising lead. and probably in the search so far, its the, it's probably the best information that we've had. we haven't found the aircraft yet, we need further confirmation. >> reporter: the latest signals, or pings ,were heard here, by an australian vessel. 370 miles from where a chinese ship picked up brief sounds on saturday. the ocean shield has been circling the area and towing a pinger locator. and detections were heard on two separate occasions. the first time for two hours and 20 minutes and later another, received for around 13 minutes. if the ship picks up more pings, an underwater drone will then be sent to investigate the sea bed, some three miles down. and deep beneath that surface, it is hostile, with mountainous terrain, so any recovery will be testing. but like every other lead over the last month, it's met with expectant attention. >> despite all this, we are cautiously hopeful that there will be a positive development in the next few days if not hours. >> we'd like to tell the families we've found the location, but until we can re- confirm, you know, we should not be too optimistic. we should be very measured. because the worst thing we want to do is put the families through the emotional turmoil of possible but maybe false detections. >> reporter: so they are treading carefully. but whether its through effort, skill, or sheer good fortune, they could soon unravel this mystery. >> woodruff: the death toll in the washington state mudslide rose again today, to 33. the snohomish county medical examiner's office confirmed three more victims, including a 30-year-old naval officer. the number of missing dropped to ten. in rwanda, wails of grief punctuated a ceremony marking the genocide that ravaged the african nation 20 years ago. it's estimated more than a million people died as ethnic hutus slaughtered minority tutsis. some in the crowd today were so overcome, they had to be carried out. rwandan president paul kagame told the crowd that colonial rule set the stage for the violence. >> the people who planned and carried out the genocide were rwandans but the history and root causes go beyond this beautiful country. this is why rwandans continue to seek the most complete explanation possible. >> woodruff: kagame has accused france of directly taking part in the killing. paris was allied with the rwandan government that ruled before the genocide, but it denies training hutu militias to carry out the attacks. the first phase of the world's' largest democratic election has begun in india. lines were long but orderly, with turnout today estimated at 74%. in all, 814 million indians are eligible to vote over the next five weeks for the lower house of parliament. the opposition hindu nationalist party is expected to win big on a promise to rejuvenate the economy, but it may still fall short of a majority. the double-amputee olympian oscar pistorius took the stand in his murder trial in south africa today. he's accused of murdering his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, but he says he thought she was an intruder. before taking the stand, pistorius wept and covered his ears as he listened to forensic evidence. then, out of view of the cameras, he apologized to the steenkamp family. >> i wake up every morning and you're the first people i think of, the first people i pray for. i can't imagine the pain and the sorrow and the emptiness that i have caused you and your family. i was simply trying to protect reeva. i can promise you that when she went to bed that night, she felt loved. >> woodruff: later, the judge adjourned the proceedings, saying pistorius looked exhausted. he returns to the stand tomorrow. the u.s. senate moved this evening to approve a bill that restores jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. it would cost $9.6 billion dollars and be paid for by offsetting spending cuts elsewhere. the bill is given little chance of passing the house, but supporters said they're willing to consider changes. as many as 2.7 million people have lost jobless benefits since december. ford is the latest auto-maker to announce a major recall campaign. the company said today it's calling back nearly 435,000 vehicles. most are ford escapes from the model years 2001 through 2004. they could develop rust that interferes with the steering. wall street had another losing day, as financial firms and tech stocks slumped. the dow jones industrial average fell nearly 167 points to close below 16,246. the nasdaq was down almost 48 points to close at 4,079. and the s-and-p 500 gave up 20 to finish at 1,845. still to come on the newshour: pro-russian protesters call for another region of ukraine to break away; what's next for afghanistan, after a calm weekend of voting; re-thinking the way governments handle welfare; the alarming decline of the wild moose in parts of north america; plus, we look back at the nearly 90-year career of mickey rooney; and remember literary giant, peter matthiessen. >> woodruff: ukraine is back in the spotlight again as pro- russian activists have taken over government buildings in at least three cities in the country's east. the prime minister claims moscow is behind this latest unrest. >> woodruff: they chanted the russian president's name in the ukrainian city of donetsk today, where protesters proclaimed independence, and called for a referendum to join russia. >> ( translated ): we are addressing you, vladimir putin, as our last hope for our future and for the future of our children. only in russia do we see the last remaining defender of our culture of the russian world. without the support of russia, we will find it difficult alone. >> woodruff: the protesters stormed the regional government offices in donetsk yesterday, pushing their way through a police cordon and into the building, and cutting down the ukrainian flag. in the hours that followed, crowds also stormed ukrainian government buildings in the cities of kharkiv and luhansk. later today, the russian news agency interfax reported the protesters in kharkiv also declared an independent republic. the action took place in mainly russian-speaking parts of eastern ukraine-- where support for ousted, pro-russian president viktor yanukovich had been strongest. it recalled events in crimea, several weeks ago, when russian- speaking men occupied military and government sites. the region held a quick referendum and was promptly annexed by moscow. now, there are signs that more of the country may be about to slip away. this has prompted ukrainian prime minister arseny yatseniuk to warn this new trouble is nothing less than a russian attempt at the destruction of ukraine. >> ( translated ): it is absolutely clear that an anti- ukrainian, anti-donetsk, anti- luhansk and anti-kharkiv plan is being realized. that is a plan to destabilize the situation, a plan for foreign troops to cross the borders and seize the territory of the country which we will not allow to happen. i am sure that citizens of luhansk, donetsk and kharkiv want to live in a united country. >> woodruff: indeed, yatsenyuk said, as many as 10,000 russian forces are massed just across the border, no more than 20 miles away. in washington, the white house said any russian moves overtly or covertly into eastern ukraine would be a very serious escalation and likely trigger new sanctions. the kremlin rejected allegations that it's fomenting the unrest in eastern ukraine. but secretary of state john kerry spoke with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov in a phone call. spokesman jen psaki: >> he called on russia to publicly disavow the activities of separatists, saboteurs and provocateurs, calling for de- escalation and dialogue, and called on all parties to refrain from agitation in ukraine. he made clear that any further russian effort to destabilize ukraine will incur further costs for russia. >> woodruff: the department also announced kerry plans to meet with top diplomats from russia, ukraine and the european union in the next ten days. >> woodruff: david herszenhorn is covering this story for the new york times from moscow. i spoke to him a short time ago. david hertz enhorn, thank you for talking-- herszenhorn, thank you for talk with us what is the latest you are hearing from eastern ukraine. >> we know now the government there kiev faces a critical choice to make, whether to try to move in on these protestors who have occupied government buildings throughout eastern ukraine or take more of a wait-and-see position and not risk provoking the russian authorities. >> woodruff: how much is known about who these people are who have taken over the buildings and who are participating in these protests? >> well, not a lot is known. there is a lot of controversy an discussion. we know in past protest like this there's been evidence of demonstrators being bused in across the russian border. there is some indication that we are seeing a repeat of that where some of these folks are from out of town. they're not necessarily locals. on the other hand we do know there is some genuine pro russian sentiment throughout eastern ukraine so we imagine it's a combination of those two elements. >> and how is it known that some are not ukrainian? i mean are people on the ground there been talking to them? >> well there have been some reports today, again, unconfirmed by us at the "new york times", but that there were some demonstrators who wrongly stormed an operahouse thinking it was the city hall that would be a clear sign that the folks aren't local going into the opera and demanding to speak to the mayor there. we have seen in the past evidence of buses bringing in people, cases where the crowds were quite smaller for several days and all of a sudden magically become large are. this really begun unfolding on sunday evening. s this's not uncommon where the weekends bring out a little bit of a, laer crowd, give more of an opportunity to bring people out to the streets. and so what he with saw were what appeared to be coordinated efforts in at least 3 cities, done etqs where people were storming government buildings, making clear that in many cases they would like to follow in the footsteps of crimea, kre creed there ukraine and join-- cecede from ukraine and join russia. >> i saw one report where people were being allegedly offered money to join prot test. >> there are always rumors and reports of these things throughout the former soviet space. sometimes it is conspiracy theory, estimates it is legitimate it is hard to know. what we suspect is this is a combination of folks who have a genuine sentiment in favor of russia tlechl very apprehensive about the provisional government in kiev and folks who are supporting what is clearly an of the being supported if not orchestrated by the kremlin to stir up unrest to keep the pressure on as su sur-- the foreign minister tries to negotiate with john kerry about the future of ukraine what the government will look like going forward. >> woodruff: we know the rush arne government officially is denying this. they're saying they're not responsible. what are you hearing, though, in moscow? what are you picking up? >> well, what we heard from the foreign ministry tow was a very clear reiteration of their position. they would like to see ukraine federallized. essentially the central government weaken substantially, the regons empowered in a way that makes them almost autonomous what this suggests is the kremlin realizes it doesn't have a pro russia candidate that can win in the may 25th presidential elections in ukraine. right now there was a strong pro european sentiment coming off more than three months of civic unrest in kiev, in the ousting of former president yanukovych so, the kremlin which has many serious interests in ukraine has always looked to have a strong hand of influence over the country. a they are seeing it doesn't have a candidate it can count on as an ally that can win. so the next step seems to be a strategy by which essentially the government in kiev without become very weak. the region was become much stronger. we also know that by an exing crimea one of the side effects was that russia lost a million and a half or more pro russia voters from any national election in ukraine. >> woodruff: you have been mentioning the sentiment of, pro russian sentiment in eastern ukraine. is it known how deep that was, how wide spread it is? i mean are there surveys? is there any kind of an authoritative sense in that. >> no, there really isn't. we understand that there are quite a large number of people who identify themselves as ethnic russians, russians that predominant language in the east of ukraine. at the same time ukrainians are proud of their country. and we find that there are many people as we interview them on the streets who would prefer to see ukraine as an independent country. we know they are a powerful businessman, business interests including the richest machine in ukraine, who said that ukraine should remain a strong and independent country that this is important. his base of operations in the east of ukraine. so there really is a division of opinion, much different than the situation on the crimean peninsula where public opinion was overwhelmingly in support of russia, in support of becoming a part of the russian federation. here we think it would be a much different situation on the ground if they were to hold the kind of public referendum that some of these demonstrators are demanding. it's not clear it would be the absolute overwhelming support in favor of moving away from ukraine toward russia that we saw in crimea. >> finally, david, what is known about how many russian troops are massed on the border there of ukraine? >> well, this is an interesting question. the pentagon has put out numbers in the tens of thousands. intelligence reports showing that maybe 30 to 40,000 troops have amassed on the border. reporters who have been on the ground there including my colleagues haven't seen that big a presence. they have seen some equipment. they have seen helicopters, there is no question that russia can move a large number of troops quite quickly into the western region of russia across-the-board or into ukraine if 2 choose to do that. one thing we learned is this is a new russian military, especially the special forces, the more elite units have been upgraded substantially. they've got new equip, new training, they're positioned to do quite a rapid mobilization if necessary. what we think the west is most concerned about is if would be a dramatic invasion, mobilization of tanks rolling into the east of ukraine, really making a demonstration of russian force there. and while there have been some reports of a pullback, some of the troops that president putin said were engaged in military exercises, that they have left the region, we do believe there is enough of a presence there that if they wanted to move forward they could do that rather quickly and the white house has certainly been warning about that. >> and that certainly would change the picture dramatically if they did. david, herszenhorn in moscow, thank you very much. >> woodruff: to afghanistan now, where, in a blow to the taliban, a majority of eligible voters came out publicly over the weekend to cast ballots in an historic election. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner reports. >> warner: ballots by the truckload were brought to kabul from the far reaches of afghanistan, as the painstaking process of tabulating the saturday vote totals began in earnest. >> ( translated ): the sensitive and non-sensitive material including the results from districts of almost 15 provinces has been delivered to the center of the provinces according the schedule. >> warner: nearly 60% of the 12 million eligible voters headed to the polls amid tight security. long lines formed on a raw, rainy day in kabul. outgoing president hamid karza spoke after filling out his own ballot. >> ( translated ): i cast my vote today as a citizen of this country and i am so glad and proud that i have voted today. i am certain that today's event and our people's participation will take afghanistan towards stability and better lives for the people. >> warner: the pace of deadly taliban strikes had escalated leading up to the balloting. but saturday saw no major attacks, and the high turnout was its own message, said prominent lawmaker shukria barakzai. >> that was a fantastic slap on the face of enemy of afghanistan and exactly a big punch on the face of those whom believed afghanistan is not ready for democracy. >> warner: there were three frontrunners all bidding to replace president karzai, who was term-limited after 12 years. his favorite candidate is thought to be zalmay rassoul, a 70-year-old former foreign minister. ashraf ghani, a former world bank official and finance minister, got just 3% of the vote in 2009 against karzai. he said this election presented a choice for the taliban, too: >> they are going to deal with a genuinely elected government that is keen to establish its links with the public, that represents the will of the public and they need to make a choice; are they afghans or agents of foreigners? >> warner: the third leading candidate is one-time karzai ally dr. abdullah abdullah; he served as foreign minister after the ouster of the taliban. >> ( translated ): today's event can be the beginning of the democratic process in the history of afghanistan and one step ahead toward a better future. >> warner: abdullah got nearly 30% against karzai in 2009 in an election marred by fraud, ballot-box stuffing and official corruption; by some accounts, more than a million of the 4.5 million votes cast were deemed fraudulent. at a dramatic gathering of his supporters in november that year, abdullah withdrew from the run-off against karzai, saying the fix was in. now some early unofficial estimates from this election show abdullah with a lead. others show ghani ahead. so far, there aren't reports of the sort-of brazen fraud that marred 2009's vote, though all three leading campaigns have leveled some charges of improprieties. in washington today, white house spokesman jay carney insisted the u.s. doesn't have a favorite. >> we don't have a preferred candidate because the future of afghanistan is up to the afghans to decide. we look forward to a productive relationship with president karzai's successor, whomever that may be. >> warner: the obama administration's relations with karzai, rocky at best, took another dive over his refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement. it would let some american and international troops remain in afghanistan beyond the end of this year, to pursue al-qaeda and train afghan forces. all three of karzai's potential succesors have said they would sign the deal. now, all sides must wait. preliminary results are due in three weeks, and a final official count on may 14. if no one gets 50%, there's a runoff scheduled for late may. >> woodruff: before leaving on assignment, gwen sat down with margaret earlier today for more on the election. >> margaret, looking at the lines of people lined up to vote it's amazing the turnout. why, is why so many people. >> well, a couple of theories about this one is that the afghan national security forces actually did a very good job, 350,000 strong, much better than they did in 2009. and though the u.s. helped with logistics and intelligence, they were standing by to come in in emergencies. really the tlb didn't mount any major tacks. the other reason i've heard from people who know afghanistan well is that this time voters felt it actually mattered. i covered the o 9ee election, even though karzai thought the u.s. was out to kill him and get him out of office, most afghans thought the fix was in for karzai, that the u.s. had already annointed him. and so there wasn't the same, what was apparently really a kind of enthusiasm for getting out there and voting and think a vote mat ared. >> we know there were lots of allegations of wide spread fraud last time. it's never too soon to say but has there been any indications of that so far. >> it is early to say and u.s. officials are actually really cautious about this, they say. vote went well, turnout was great. even though, you know, heavier in the cities than some rural taliban controlled areas. but this fraud process of the complaints and the investigations are very dicey period. so far there haven't been complaints of like blanket fraud, the kind of thing are abdullah abdullah said last time, this whole thing is illegal, i remember him saying to me. and that is why he wasn't going to run off. but every candidate says they've got cell phone videos of policeman stuffing ballot boxes or telling people who to vote for. and so that process, really, the complaint started today and there's quite a time for that to be investigated. so you have to take the total vote which 17 million people turning out, how many of those will get thrown out. >> ifill: there are so many questions or there have been in the last couple of years about hamid karzai and our fractured, fractious relationship with him. are either of these two likely runoff candidates, are they likely to have a different relationship with the u.s.? >> well, the united states certainly hopes so. at least less mercurial, and just sort of a more stable relationship. but i have to say that even people in the administration who don't care for hamid karzai and can hardly wade to have him gone do give limb credit for apparently not meddling heavily in this election. de have a favorite candidate, as we said. but he did not-- if there wasn't massive, massive fraud it's because karzai didn't feel the need to do it last time he thought dic holbrook who was running policy and the u.s. were out to get him this time he is comfortable with the three front-runners, i'm told. so he didn't have a huge incentive to do it and he has told a lot of people, and again we don't know whether to believe this, that he sees it as part of his legacy his first peaceful ever transition of power. so i think that yes, the u.s. is looking forward to karzai's success, also pleasantly surprised that there has been -- >> and the other thing karzai has done is repeatedly refused to sign the security agreement which everybody is kind of waiting for. and u.s. officials said should have been done before this election so now there has been a election, do you assume there is going to be a new leader, what are the prospects for the bilateral security agreement? >> well, every single one of the 12 or 13 candidates indicated they would sign it they thought it was essential for afghan security to have this sort of residual u.s. force. and also, frankly, for a lot of the economic aid which if you don't have any western forces there, a lot of organizations and a lot of money will be pulled out of civilian projects. so they take all these candidates, particularly the top three, the apparent top three finishers that said they have learned the hard way that in afghanistan nothing is ever sure until it's done. and sometimes not even then. >> now does this restore or-- the u.s. faith in the afghan transition or does the u.s. step farther and farther back as these elections play out? >> well, the u.s. this time instead of looking like they were favouring anyone really just kept saying let's have the process be fair. because the u.s. interest is that this is credible by the afghan people. and you know, it's a very fractious society, that all these different ethnic groups there is a lot of sectarianism and distrust of one ethnic group wanting to dominate over another. so that's where the u.s. effort has been concentrated. if you get to a situation where there are, say, two top finishers and it's very, very close, and then there is a question do you want to do a runoff or do two leaders want to do a deal, i think the united states and the international community may be of assistance in that situation in terms of helping them significant out how to resolve it so they have a whole process to do it and they can go to a runoff. and karzai may also play a role. that is so speculative now, it really depends, you know, if it's really close you can imagine neither ghani nor abdullah you become president, i'll be prime minister, you know, so it's like politics here. >> yeah, exactly. >> it is their incentive to do a deal or not. >> ifill: is there any sense of when we have a vote count complete? >>. >> warner: sure, there is a preliminary vote count which as i said at the enof the piece is april 24th. but that's before you discount all the fraud and allegation investigation. then you get a later vote count, that's not until something like may 14th or 15th. so there is a lot of time here, a lot of potential instability, and even then there might not be a resolution because you might have to have a runoff, all that time taliban is active and karzai is president. >> ifill: afghanistan the story that never quite ends. >> warner: never quite ends. >> ifill: margaret warner, thanks so much. >> pleasure, gwen. >> woodruff: republicans and democrats are likely to spend much of this midterm election year debating the virtues of the federal government, particularly when it comes to addressing income inequality but it turns out that one big idea for changing how the government provides financial assistance may have appeal to some on the left and the right. it's a minimum level of government payments known as guaranteed basic income. and while it's not exactly in the mainstream yet, the idea is gaining traction, as our economics correspondent paul solman found out. part of his ongoing reporting: "making sense of financial news." >> reporter: in switzerland last fall, activists dumped eight million coins outside parliament, one for each swiss citizen. their cause? a guarantee that every citizen get a yearly income of 30,000 swiss francs, about $34,000, whether they work or not, says movement leader enno schmidt. >> it's a civil right that your existence is not negotiable by the market. >> reporter: so this is for everybody? >> it's for everybody. rich people, poor people. >> reporter: schmidt and friends gathered 126,000 signatures, more than enough to trigger a referendum which, if adopted, would become part of the swiss constitution. radical, you say? well, it turns out the idea has supporters here in the united states as well, both left and right. it was a long-ago favorite of conservative guru milton friedman and remains appealing to libertarian charles murray, who proposed a minimum income in a book called "in our hands": say, $12,000 per person per year in today's dollars, tax free up to a total of about $30,000 >> you have a system whereby every month, a check goes into an electronic bank account for everybody over the age of 21, that they can use as they see fit. they can get together with other people and then combine their resources. but they live their own lives. we put their lives back in their hands. >> reporter: and, enthuses veronique de rugy of george mason university's conservative mercatus center, we get their lives out of the hands of government bureaucrats. >> the current system is not serving poor people well. the appeal of the guaranteed minimum income is it doesn't dictate that people who gets this money how to spend it, and it assumes that they, better than anyone else in washington, know what they need. >> reporter: on the left, anthropologist and activist david graeber, a key cog in the occupy movement, is similarly disenchanted with social welfare bureaucrats. >> i think this is a perfect left critique of bureaucracy, we employ thousands of people to make us feel bad about ourselves, just get rid of those people, just give everybody some money and i think everyone will be much better off. >> reporter: now to be clear, folks on the right believe a guaranteed minimum income only works if it wholly replaces current programs. >> there's no more food stamps, there's no more medicaid, you just go down the whole list. none of that's left. we're going to go to a system whereby that bureaucracy downtown is cutting a check, but the human needs in the community have to be dealt with. those who are in the best position to do it are not bureaucrats but people who know the person that experiences those human needs. >> reporter: suprisingly, perhaps, the left's graeber points to evidence in support of the right's murray. >> in namibia, they did an experiment where they used to give aid, and instead they just gave everybody a flat sum of money, and the first thing people did was they got together, took half the money, put it in a common pool, and that created a democratic system, and they decided what they really needed was a post office, i think, which is something no aid group would ever have thought of. these people actually do know their communal needs better than somebody from outside. so it would at least give us the opportunity to get together, and create common projects in a way that we haven't been able to do before. >> reporter: but while david graeber disdains government bureaucracies, he's against wiping out all welfare programs. >> the amounts of money that they're now talking about giving people aren't enough to take care of things like healthcare, housing, but i think if you guarantee those sort of basic needs, you could get rid of almost all the programs on top of that. >> reporter: right-wing economist deirdre mccloskey, who calls herself a "bleeding-heart libertarian," has also supported a guaranteed minimum income for years. >> reporter: but would you accept a minimum income with some of the social welfare programs continuing to be in place? >> yes, because i think the other ones then would atrophy. i think they would go away. >> reporter: mccloskey is famous for her work, as don mccloskey, on the rhetoric and history of economics. she wrote several critiques of the discipline from a feminist perspective, after she herself changed genders. you went through a major life transformation almost 20 years ago. >> i did. >> reporter: has it changed your point of view with regard to any of this? >> i sometimes say that i'm a motherly libertarian, and that wouldn't work too well if i was still a guy. >> reporter: now we shouldn't forget a last key argument from the left: a minimum income as a way to combat rising income inequality. that's an issue even in relatively equal switzerland, says the harvard business school's felix oberholzergee, a swiss native who can vote in the upcoming referendum. >> europeans are not used to the kinds of inequalities that the modern global economy tends to produce. they respond more harshly against even small changes in trends, because you grow up in a society where everybody is more equal than we would be used to in the american context. >> reporter: okay, there's sympathy in switzerland for a guaranteed income, and in the us from both the right and the left. what's not to like? well for one thing, says liberal economist barbara bergmann, at any plausible minimum income. >> you're still going to have a lot of people who are in trouble, because they have special needs. >> reporter: yes, says conservative blogger megan mccardle: handouts instead of programs may be okay, but the same for everyone? >> i'm not sure that i would support, say, taking someone who is severely disabled and telling them, "well, here's $10,000 a year, just like that healthy 20 year old down the street, and you get the same as he does." >> reporter: bergmann would prefer we beef up current welfare programs that target specific needs. >> if you give out fairly decent sums to people, some of them are going to misspend. the swedes have worked this out very well and people don't feel need there. because the needs, the most important needs, are taken care of directly. >> reporter: more generally, points out conservative mccardle, sending checks to every american would cost trillions. but most problematic of all, perhaps: a guaranteed income, she says, would discourage effort. >> having half of the population, or any significant fraction of the population say that my job is just to take, and other people go out and make that money, i think that is morally problematic. if you can live without working, some people will choose to. >> reporter: to the left's david graeber, however, this is nonsense. >> we have this idea that people are just lazy, and if they're given, you know, a certain amount of minimal income they just won't do anything. probably there's a few people like that, but the vast majority, it will free them to do the kind of work that they think is meaningful. i always talk about prisons. it's a great example. you know, you have people who are fed, they're clothed, they've got shelter, they could just sit around all day, but actually they use work as a way of rewarding them. you know, if you don't behave yourself, we won't let you work in the prison laundry. i mean, people want to work. nobody just wants to sit around, it's boring. >> reporter: in fact, a guaranteed income could drive up wages for those at the bottom. harvard business school's oberholzergee. >> the people who now find it very difficult to get the spoils from a market economy will be in a much better negotiation position, because they can walk away. they can walk away without thinking: what am i going to eat tonight? >> reporter: what's going to happen in switzerland? is some version of a minimum income going to be adopted, do you think? >> i will be very surprised if that was the case. but the debate is what really matters. >> reporter: and that's just how the idea's swiss champion, enno schmidt, feels. >> one hundred twenty thousand people say, yes, we want to discuss, and this is the initiative. they don't say yes we are for an unconditional basic income, but that's an interesting idea, let's discuss it. >> reporter: a discussion only just getting started in the alps and closer to home. >> woodruff: you can learn more about the guaranteed basic income, a variation on that idea, and why the concept is catching on in switzerland on our making sense page. >> woodruff: in northern new england, researchers are increasingly worried about what's happening to one of it's iconic animals, the moose. their numbers are significantly declining, and investigators are trying to find out whether warmer winters in recent years may be a big part of the problem. hari sreenivasan reports from new hampshire. a warning, the story contains some graphic images. >> well, we get to the tower, we got to check on those two calfs, we're getting funny signals on. >> srennivasan: scientists are bundling up and prowling the forest in pursuit of the wildest large animal in new hampshire, the moose. they're not woods exploration by both foot and air is part of a massive research effort to understand why america's iconic wild moose are dying at alarming rates. the first week's after a long winner are a critical time for moose. and here in new hampshire, wildlife biologists from the state fish and game department want to find out why in the last three years moose populations are down as much as 40% in some regions. >> christine ryans of the moose project of the new hampshire games and fish department. >> april is the month when most of these animals seem to just, they are completely depleted and they just start dying. >> according to eric orf, new hampshire feel biologist for the wildlife federation, the deaths have been dramatic all along north america's southern moose range. >> when you look at a precipitous decline in the last decade, you know, the needle is headed in the wrong direction, you know, all across, from nova scotia, new brunswick, minnesota, michigan, all across the southern fringe of their range moose numbers are in a significant decline. >> to better understand what's behind the decline, new hampshire and maine have hired capture teams whose job it is to track down the moose and collar them with a radio transmitter. >> we need the radio frequency. that's 150, 37 -- >> pete peekins professor of wildlife ecology at the university of new hampshire is overseeing the project. >> the helicopter basically finds the animal, zooms down on that animal, a net is put over the gun, we call it net gung and the animal trips up in the net. and what are called muggers jump out of the helicopter at low heights. and they wrestle the moose to the ground. and the people actually have been professional rodeo cowboys. >> the goal is to collar and release 200 moose between this winter and next. >> these people know how to handle animals, most importantly is how to humanely handle an animal. >> the professor's team tracks the collared animals from a fire tower in northern new hampshire. each day devices are eck chd for signs of life. >> of the 40 moose out there, how many have we successfully monitored here today? >> we picked up 37 of the 40. this morning there is one, if you want to check that one, nick. >> when monitors signal a moose death, researchers are quick to get to the animal before vital information is diluted by weather and time. >> what we're going try and do is get to them much sooner so that we have better information on exactly why they're dying. >> the main theory new hampshire researchers are pursuing is that the massive moose dieoff is caused primarily by a devastating par sight, the winter tick-- parasite, the winter ticks, on the day we visited they collected a dead calf completely covered with winter ticks. >> literally this is the walking dead. the animal is totally he mace yated. and there is-- emaciated. there is no way it can survive. >> here is the engorged adult tick. >> it is suspected they latch on in fall and live off the animal's blood for months. >> they are literally being sucked dry of blood. they can't consume protein to replace the blood loss, their only choice is to catabilize their own tissues and that is going to be their muscles. the behind legs on a moose are some the most powerful legs in north america. and that an ma doesn't have in and that is because it chewed up its own body to survive as long as it. >> and you see that that is quite a bit of blood. >> the winter tick parasite is not new but its explosive population growth is. reaching an animal like this calf soon after death allows scientists to document just how many ticks there were before they drop off in pursuit of a live host. scientists suspect that warmer winter temperatures are leading to the increased number of parasites. >> shorter winters both on the spring and fall end play to the advantage of the tick. >> srennivasan: the national wildlife federation eric, of is not affiliated with the state's research team. while this winter was cold, he worried the longer term warming trend and the rise in tick populations are part of a larger problem. climate change. >> the new hampshire winners are warmed some 4 degrees since 1970. so the warming of the winter means less snow, means more ticks, means fewer moose. >> when you don't have snow in april, you don't have snow in november. >> the population explodes. >> srennivasan: it's easy to see why the moose is so important in new england. viewing moose has become an $11 million tourist industry here. >> if you came to new hampshire this summer the most common question would be where i can see a moose. and literally every tourist wants to see a moose. and new hampshire has a great reputation for that. the aesthetic value of this animal to the state is-- it just can't be measured. >> as we know our moose numbers are down some 40%. >> srennivasan: eric orf is take the question of new hampshire's warming winters to the political arena asking businesses and new hampshire's outdoor industry to sign a letter in support of the environmental protection agency's proposal to reduce carbon emissions. emissions he believes play a role in climate change. >> in my lifetime as a biologist i witnessed the disappearance of winter here in new hampshire so we really need to curb carbon, get off the car b's, the world over, and we need to put this earth on a diet of car b's, carbon and bring back winter. >> srennivasan: for their part state researchers are not yet pointing the finger solely at climate change. instead they say the die-off is complex. their plan is to keep their focus squarely on the biology of the moose. and the best ways to sustain a healthy population. >> woodruff: finally tonight, remembering the work of two men in the world of arts and literature who died this weekend. one, a hollywood star known to millions. the other, one of the most noted writers of his generation. jeffrey brown has our remembrance. >> mooky rooney was born joel yule in 1920 to vaudeville performing parents an began his own career while still a toddler. >> brown: by his teens he was the top box office star in the world, playing the all-american boy andy hardy in a series of films, including "a family affair" >> if you think you're going to make a plow jockey out of me, you got another coming! >> brown: and a troublemaker reformed by spencer tracy in the 1938 film "boys town." >> brown: he sang and danced alongside judy garland in their "let's put on a show" musicals, including the 1941, "babes on broadway." >> i am a yankee doodle dandy. and appeared with elizabeth taylor in "national velvet." >> you'll be disqualified at the end if they find out you're a girl. >> brown: after serving in the army during world war two, his life became one of professional and personal ups and downs, he married eight times and lost his fortune to gambling, lavish spending and bad business decisions. but the irrepressible performer kept popping up in one comeback after another. he showed his comedic talents in the 1963 hit "it's a mad, mad, mad, mad world." >> hello down on the ground this is us up in the air. and listen we're in this fellow's plane, see. and he knocked himself out because he drank a whole case of bourbon and he fell down and he hit his head. and what do we do? >> the switch! let go of the switch! >> if you can give us your position. who's flying the plane? >> what do you mean, who's flying the plane? nobody's flying the plane! >> brown: for his supporting role as a retired horse jockey in 1979's "the black stallion," rooney received his fourth oscar nomination. >> when a horse starts out of that gate you've got to remember this. and remember it! you don't want him to outbreak you. you know what that means? that horse starts to settle they open that gate wham! like that, and someone just scat whap! well you cant do that so you grab a handful of hair just before he says go so that he don't out break you. you know what i mean because they open that gate and you'd just be sitting there in the mid air. you understand? >> brown: and that same year he received a tony nod for "sugar babies." in 1983 he won an emmy for his role as a mentally challenged man in the t.v. movie "bill." and continued to find work in television and movies, like the 2006 hit, "a night at the museum." >> where is he? i'll beat him with a stick. >> gus, this is larry the kid who wants to be the new night guard. >> oh ah, night guard? no no the lady at the agency said this was a museum position. >> most important position in the museum larry. >> he looks like a weirdy. >> brown: through it all rooney maintained a sense of humor, and of wonderment, for his trade. >> people in our business are the luckiest people in the world. we're grown up children playing make believe, still saying, hey, you be the bad guy, i'll be the good guy. >> brown: rooney died sunday in california. he was 93 years old. >> brown: writer, naturalist, activist and much more, peter matthiessen lived a full life that through both fiction and non fiction, took readers to far flung locales in search of stories and adventure. born into wealth in 1927 in new york, matthiessen served in the navy, graduated from yale and then helped found the influential literary journal, "the paris review." it emerged later that he also worked for the c.i.a. during his time in europe. he went on to write more than 30 books, becoming the only person to win the national book award in both fiction and non-fiction. his 1978 work, "the snow leopard," told of a spiritual journey into the himalayan mountains. in 2008, he won the award for "shadow country," a fictionalized account of the real-life murder of a man named edward watson by his neighbors in the everglades of southwest florida. we talked on the newshour that year, and i asked what had drawn him to that character. >> well, i was probably about 17. i was traveling up the southwest coast of florida with my dad. and he loved fishing. he had a boat. and he showed me on the marine chart chatham river coming down from the everglades on the southwest coast there. and he said, "up that river, there's a house. it's the only house in the everglades. and the man who owned it, i think his name was watson. he was killed by his neighbors." >> brown: and that stayed with you? >> that stayed with me. he didn't know much else about it. and i, unfortunately, didn't get around to writing about it for about 50 years. >> brown: but what's interesting to me is you write in the author's note, and as we've just said, the plot is essentially, we know the end of the story, right? he's killed. so the question becomes, "why?" >> that's what interested me. the fact that he was killed is not particularly interesting. how did it happen? fishermen and farmers, puma hunters, or people, why would they kill a neighbor? that's what struck me. and then the more i looked into it, i discovered he'd not only been killed, but very violently by his neighbors, 33 bullets worth. so they meant business, and yet they liked him. and his wives liked him. and his children liked him. he was apparently a fascinating person. he was a great story-teller. >> brown: well, he clearly fascinated you. >> well, of course, he grew in my own mind, too. and i gave him, to make it easier, i think i gave him a pretty good sense of humor, of a kind of a dark kind, nonetheless, because he was. how did this happen? why was a man like this killed who was so able and so charismatic, you know? >> brown: you know, you were first and maybe for a long time best known for your journalism and non-fiction and travel writing. and i read that, at the award ceremony for the national book award, you said, "i had a hard time persuading people that fiction is my natural thing, not non-fiction. i was quite surprised and taken by that. this was something you had to overcome? >> well, i did. i wrote in particular a book called "the snow leopard," which won the national book award in the non-fiction category. and "the snow leopard" kind of tended to push my fiction aside. and i had a novel that was nominated years ago, "at play in the fields of the lord." that was nominated, but it wasn't the winner. and somehow i just wanted to set that right. i just felt fiction really is what i want to do and what i always wanted to do. but i am a journalist, too. and i write about the environment. i write about social problems. i worked with cesar chavez. i've worked a lot with the american indian people. and that fascinates me, and i want to do that, but my heart is really in the fiction. >> brown: peter matthiessen succumbed to leukemia on saturday, at a hospital near his home on long island. he was 86 years old. his new, and last, novel, "in paradise," will be released tomorrow. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. the u.s. warned russia against any moves into eastern ukraine as pro-russian activists proclaimed independence in two ukrainian cities. the hope of finding a malaysian airliner rose slightly after an australian ship picked up possible signals from the plane's flight recorders. and stocks took another beating. the dow jones industrials fell almost 170 points. and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we continue our series on long term care. as more americans are released from hospitals quicker, and sicker, that places new demands on their family members. i'm judy woodruff, we'll see you on-line. and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh >> this is "bbc world news." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, charles schwab, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions in capital to help meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news."

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