members to perform tasks once limited to health care professionals. >> what i learned was by watching the nurses. i was never instructed how to do anything, they never did demonstrations, had me try anything. we kind of learned by trial and error. >> 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: >> 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. >> 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. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better 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. >> woodruff: search crews in the indian ocean failed today to pick up more underwater pings from a malaysian jetliner, one month after it disappeared. officials acknowledged time is short, since locator beacons on the two black box recorders were designed to transmit just a month, before their batteries die. in perth, australia, defense minister david johnston said it's a herculean task. >> this is day 32. a lot are concerned that we have at least several days of intense action ahead of us. the weather out there today is reasonable, and, so, you can be assured that we are throwing everything at this difficult, complex task in at least these next several days while we believe the pingers aretill active. >> woodruff: an australian ship towing a u.s. navy deepwater sound detector picked up pings on saturday and sunday. they were consistent with the sort the black boxes would emit. crews digging through the mudslide in washington state have found a 34th body. officials also said about a dozen people are still listed as missing. and the white house announced that president obama will visit the site on april 22nd, and meet with victims' families, survivors and recovery workers. u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel got an earful in china today, over territorial disputes with japan and the philippines. the chinese defense minister warned his government is ready to use force, if needed, to defend islands it claims. hagel took part in an honor cordon with his chinese counterpart, and held a two-hour long meeting. afterward, he said the u.s. will protect it's allies, and he warned against miscalculations. >> every nation has a right to establish air defense zones, but not a right to do it unilaterally with no collaboration, no consultation. that adds to tensions, misunderstandings and could eventually add to and eventually get to dangerous conflict. >> woodruff: hagel was in japan earlier this week, where he reassured it's leaders of on- going u.s. support. in vienna, talks on curbing iran's nuclear program resumed today, with the focus turning to concrete steps iran would have to take. the u.s. and five other world powers are offering to remove economic sanctions if a long-term deal can be reached. july is the informal deadline for an agreement. on wall street, stocks broke a three-day losing streak. the dow jones industrial average gained ten points to close at 16,256. the nasdaq rose 33 points to close just shy of 4,113. and the s-and-p 500 added nearly seven, and finished near 1,852. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: kiev clamps down on the unrest in eastern ukraine; president obama's push to ensure women get equal pay in the workplace; western africa grapples with a deadly ebola outbreak; the challenge of providing long-term care to loved ones; and, college sports at a crossroads. >> woodruff: there was more unrest in ukraine today as the government pushed back at pro-russian supporters in the country's east. but as chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner reports, the demonstrators still hold control of government buildings in two key cities. >> warner: riot police surrounded the regional government headquarters in kharkiv today after ukrainian security forces late last night ousted scores of pro-russian separatists. the protesters, who declared the that eastern region's independence yesterday, were taken into custody. ukraine's interior minister was in charge. >> ( translated ): around 70 people were detained, weapons were taken and fire was extinguished. right now the city administration building is under control. >> warner: but armed separatists remain entrenched at the regional government building in donetsk, also in the east. where the governor told us on our visit three weeks ago that he thought he had the situation in hand. >> ( translated ): when i arrived, this building was blocked and the russian flag was flying on the roof. today the situation is quite different. >> warner: but last weekend, pro-russian protesters stormed the building, barricaded it with tires and barbed wire, and vowed to stay until a vote is held on separating from ukraine to joiia, just as crimea did a month ago. >> ( translated ): we are here for the sake of our families, for our salaries, for our health, for all those people who have already shed their blood. we will not leave this place until we will make the referendum happen. >> russia! russia! >> warner: a similar weekend scene played out at the state security building in luhansk. authorities said protesters wired the building with explosives and are holding some 60 hostages, a claim the demonstrators denied. the unrest in the east also stoked tensions at ukraine's parliament. a fistfight broke out after the head of the communist party blamed ukrainian nationalists for provoking russia. at a senate hearing in washington today, secretary of state john kerry laid the blame for the unrest squarely on moscow. >> russia's clear and unmistakable involvement in destabilizing and engaging in separatist activities in the east of ukraine is more than deeply disturbing. no one should be fooled-- and believe me, no one is fooled by what could potentially be a contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in crimea. it is clear that russian special forces and agents have been the catalysts behind the chaos of the last 24 hours. >> warner: in moscow, russian foreign minister sergei lavrov flatly rejected the allegation. >> ( translated ): our american partners are probably trying to analyze the situation, attaching their own habits to others. we are deeply convinced, and nobody has so far challenged this conviction, that the situation cannot be calmed down and changed into national dialogue if the ukrainian authorities go on ignoring the interests of the southeastern regions of the country. >> warner: meanwhile, tens of thousands of russian troops remain massed just across ukraine's eastern border. that brought a new warning from n.a.t.o. secretary-general anders fogh rasmussen, against further russian incursion into ukraine. >> it would be an historic mistake. it would have grave consequences for our relationship with russia and it would further isolate russia internationally. >> warner: there are plans underway for diplomats from russia, ukraine, the u.s., and the european union to hold talks on the crisis, but no date has been set. >> woodruff: and margaret joins me now. how much of an escalation is this on the part of these pro-russian elements? >> a pretty serious one. right after crimea, you had a flurry of lookalikes taking over parliament in the eastern regions. but they were quickly beaten back, new governors appointed and brought in forces. they left peacefully, no blood was shed. demonstrations in the plazas. this weekend was different. gangs came in, stormed the buildings, there are suspicions that the police kind of let them do it. and then at least in donetsk, i talked to a couple of chief aides of the governor today said now armed people are control in the very building where he and i had spoken and said they've trashed the building, steal computers, trashed comparts, steel personal effects. in one building they're holding people hostage. so it is a quality that's more violent, and they are armed. this one fellow said, ukraine doesn't have any armed countries so they must be getting these guns from criminal gangs or across the border, and the theory is that putin has been somewhat stymied at the border in terms of moving troops in so he's creating a pretext from within that would allow him to come in as secretary kerry said and say, well, i'm here to save the russian speakers of eastern ukraine. >> woodruff: we see the ukrainian governor took back the administrative building in kharkiv, but how is the government handling this? >> the governors are letting kiev do it. before where they didn't give a lot of assistance, this time they deployed forces, their secret service into eastern ukraine, and the throw stop security officials, the minister in my piece and two other top ones, each one went to one of these regions and they are running the operations. the game plan is, one, to identify the units they think they can trust because, remember, the donetsk region is where yanukovich, the former president who fled, despite that he has deep tentacles, a multibillionaire oligarch in all the security services, so they feel they need kiev's help to do this and i think you will try to see them take back each one of these buildings. but it is very delicate because if they do it with any bloodshed that, too, creates a pretext. >> woodruff: this comes while the ukrainian government trying to get the country back on track economically and other ways, this has to be damaging. >> definitely. they say it isn't damaging, the governor wasn't in the building at the time, he's now in another building controlled by kiev and doing his work. however, the most telling anecdote i heard -- you know, as you know, the government in kiev, as you said, trying to get the i.n.s. in place, get an infusion of foreign, western capital to do infrastructure projects and a lot of things this region in particular needs. so the governor was hosting, this weekend, a major polish official and south korean official to talk about investments they can make, a plan in donetsk. then this erupts. so it definitely doesn't send the right message and makes it harder for them to stay on that track, not to mention to geto the elections may 25 which is another important political milestone. >> woodruff: whose turn is it to move next and what do people expect? >> i think it is the security forces turn to make further moves. what they will try to do is they're offering negotiations, they're going to try to things like turn off the water and electricity to a couple of buildings, try to persuade them to leave but looking for opportunities to do in these other two places what they did in kharkiv. the fear is that one person said, you know, we may be facing terrorism. i said, what do you mean? he said, you remember putin stained a terrorist attack in russia as a pretext for starting the second chechen war, and now that there's more violence and weapons, we are very worried something like that could erupt. >> woodruff: very quickly, margaret, what about the international response? what are other countries and organizations saying? >> secretary kerry pushed back at the hearing today when senator mccain said you should be arming the ukraine military and the u.s. is putting money on helping kiev make an economic transition. ukrainians feel their future lies with the west. there is logistical and some intelligence help being given. but the ukrainian military forces are to a great degree on their own. the big hope is to have at least this meeting which i referred to at the end of the piece where finally the russians would sit down with the ukrainians which they won't admit is a legit government. i got an email three minutes ago saying that actually is going to happen next week. >> woodruff: you were just there and now things are moving very fast. >> very fast. >> woodruff: yet again. margaret, thank you. >> woodruff: president obama and congressional democrats launched a coordinated effort today to draw attention to women's wages. republicans on capitol hill said the push had little to do with policy and everything to do with politics. >> woodruff: women in the workforce, and how much they earn, were the focus at the white house on this equal pay day. >> it's nice to have a day, but it's even better to have equal pay. >> woodruff: the president was joined by advocates, including lilly ledbetter, famous for her lawsuit that led to pay-equity legislation, the first bill mr. obama signed after taking office. today, he took two executive actions, aimed at federal contractors. one bars companies from retaliating against workers who discuss their pay with each other. the other requires compensation data broken down by race and gender. census data shows women make 77% of what men make, and equal pay day marks the date when the average woman's earnings finally equal a man's total earnings for the previous year. the president challenged republicans to support a senate bill that would make it easier for workers to sue over pay discrimination. >> if republicans in congress want to prove me wrong, if they want to show that they in fact do care about women being paid the same as men, then show me. >> warner: in the senate, democrats, led by maryland's barbara mikulski, joined in trying to ratchet up the pressure. >> we want the same pay for the same job. and we want it in our lawbooks and we want it in our checkbooks. >> warner: republicans accused the president and democrats of using the pay issue purely for political gain. cathy mcmorris rodgers represents a district in washington state. >> on this equal pay day, let's stop politicizing women and focus on the policies that are going to empower women and create a higher paycheck, more opportunities, and that opportunity for a better life. >> warner: house majority leader eric cantor, said both sides should take a look at existing laws. >> it's probably better for us to sit down and see that the law is being properly implemented, rather than play politics. >> warner: the political volleys underscore the key role of women voters in elections. mr. obama won women by double digits in the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. as did democrats in the 2006 mid-terms, when they captured majorities in both the house and senate. but republicans narrowly won women in 2010 when they took back control of the house. now, democrats are hoping equal pay will turn out women in their favor, and help fend off a republican bid to win the senate. the paycheck fairness bill faces a procedural vote in the senate tomorrow. >> woodruff: we explore the broader issues raised by this political fight with: genevieve wood, a senior contributor to the foundry, a news and commentary site affiliated with the heritage foundation. and ariane hegewisch, the study director at the institute for women's policy research. we welcome you both to the "newshour". ariane hegewisch, do you first, how serious is the gap in wages between men and women today in this country? >> it's pretty serious. w omen who work full time, year-round, the most committed workers only make 77 cents on average for every dollar made by a man, so if you accumulate that over a year, over a lifetime, it makes for a lot of less money and less money to pay for pensions and to buy cars and to invest in your family, so it's a big issue. >> woodruff: genevieve, do you agree it's a serious gap? >> well, i think the problem is the way people calculate the numbers, judy. look, if you compare apples to apples, a woman and a man in the same job, they bring similar experience to the table, they bring similar skills and education background to the table, when you look at it that way, the wage gap all but disappears. as a matter of fact, that's even according to the department of labor who did a study on this. where you get the larger discrepancy is when you combine all jobs. so a high school teach who are, let's say, is a woman with many members of congress who happen to be men who make more money, when you look at it that way, looks like men are making more. but the you compare a female member of congress to a male member of congress, they're making the same amount of money, and i think it's really important to look at that because i'm a woman, i think women should make equal to what men should make if we're doing the same job and bringing the same to the table, but i think it's very discouraging and a disservice to young women who are entering to the workforce now to say to them, you need to be nervous about this. you need not have confidence to walk in to a new job and ask for a raise if you think you deserve one and i think that's what this political rhetoric does, a disservice to young women as to posed to telling them, we've made great strides, go for it, you can make the same. >> woodruff: what about this point, ariane hegewisch, what about this point, men and women are earning the same thing doing the same job, it's just that women happen to occupy lower-paying job. >> in congress, male and female representatives do make the same money. we just analyzed the 20 most common occupations, and in none of them do women make the same as men. you know, there's a pay gap in each of them. and if you take something like financial advisors, women have the same training, same qualifications, but they make less because there is discrimination in who gets access to the best jobs. >> woodruff: discrimination. it's discrimination. >> woodruff: genevieve, what about that? >> you have to look at the labor department study on. this they did that very thing. they looked at men and women in the same professions with similar years in the workforce, similar backgrounds, and said the wage gap basically disappears anywhere from 96 cents to a man making a dollar up to 98 cents. so there's 2 cents we need to make up. but men and women make different choices. georgetown did an interesting study, they looked at what majors guys choose when they go to college and what majors women choose. men tend to outnumber women in the top ten wage earners, ending up making the most when they get out of college. women outnumber men in the bottom set. if you want to make a lot of money, be a petroleum engineer. those who major in visual arts make less. that's a choice people make. >> ariane hegewisch, is it all about the choices women are making? they're not choosing to go into the more lucrative jobs? >> i think it's an issue of women being more likely to work in lower-paid occupations. the question is whether this is choice or whether it's the way jobs are. we need teachers, and to say a teacher ought to be paid -- you know, all teachers have to become engineers or i.t. professionals would be rue ton our economy because we need teachers and teachers need to be well paid. the second issue is how much -- we just did a study on women working blue-collar jobs, and a lot of those are electricians, you know, carpenters, they pay very well, and you don't have to pay for your education because it's apprenticeship. not one of the women we interviewed had been told about this prospect by counselors in schools, you know, it was all happenstance, and then a lot of them face discrimination. and there are some cases of petroleum engineers, and you don't want to look at what happened to the women who do that. it's not quite as easy. >> i was going to say maybe we should pay teachers what we pay congressmen and reverse it out. but one thing we should look at is if you look at young women today in metropolitan cities, single, childless, they are actually making 8% more than their male counterparts in those places. so i think there's a lot of good news, and i think we should talk about that, and we should not distort the numbers, which i think the white house is doing and, judy, i think your piece set it up. it's a political year. they want women to think there's a war going on against them. the fact is women are doing pretty well. >> woodruff: sounds like there's going to be a disagreement about how serious the gap is, but just in the little bit of time we have left, ariane hegewisch, what needs to be done? contractors say they need to disclose how much they're paying whether, women are earning the same as men in government contracts, and you're saying there needs to be an even playing field. >> exactly. if there's transparency and social science research to show it, if there's transparency, the gender wage gap disappears. there might be some women who are better than men and some men better than women but they get paid more but you need objective criteria. >> woodruff: genevieve, what about the notion of disclosing how much everyone is paid, whether a government contractor or someone else which would require congressional legislation? >> well, i don't think we ought to be forcing private industry to do such a thing, but the fact is, with all these things, good intentions of what sounds good, you've got to look at the repercussions of this, and i think we should be very concerned that if we have washington, the government telling employers, here's what you've got to pay people. people need different jobs, the same amount. what you're going to do is actually end up having employers say, you know what? if i've got to pay everyone the same wages to come down, performance pay and bonuses go out the window, that's bad for women and men. >> well, employers have had to do this for a long time. they have to monitor their pay and they're not allowed to discriminate, and performance-related pay hasn't disappeared more pay deferences disappeared, you just want the discrimination to disappear. there's one more point, it's not a war on women. women are really angry about discrimination. it's an issue that women bring to the government and they're trying to do something about it. >> woodruff: we are going to leave it there. we thank you both for being with us, genevieve wood and ariane hegewisch. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: several countries in west africa are now coping with the worst outbreak of the ebola virus in years. the world health organization describes it as one of the most challenging episodes of the disease it's ever faced. more than 100 people have died so far. ebola, which is spread by a virus initially transmitted from wild animals, has a high fatality rate. jeffrey brown has more on the struggle to contain it. >> brown: one of the concerns is that ebola has crossed borders. guinea is where the outbreak began and was first made public in march. more than 100 deaths and 150 cases have been reported there. another troubling aspect: the disease has turned up in a wide area. from tropical forests to the capital of conarky to the liberian border. in liberia, investigators believe there are at least 10 deaths. health officials are now investigating possible cases in both in mali and ghana. more than 60% of infected people have died. laurie garrett of the council of foreign relations has tracked outbreaks in the past as a journalist and author of several books on global health and disease. she joins us now. lori, welcome back to the program. first, remind us a bit about what ebola is and exactly how it's transmitted. >> thank you. yeah, ebola is an rna virus, a very small virus that attacks the endothelial linings that maintain the blood veins, capillaries. first, a microscopic holes through which blood and fluids leak until they're larger and larger holes till the individual hemorrhages internally, and hemorrhaging blood through tears, the mouth, the nose, all over the body so they become quite frightening to see, and individuals will get a high fever. they may get blood in the brain which will lead to even more insane behavior, a kind of deranged look in their eyes, all of which contributes to a great deal of fear. on top of it all, the fluids contain virus, so they're highly, highly contagious to the touch. >> brown: so in the current situation, we're seeing it spreading into several countries. that's unusual, right? >> we've never seen this before. and as nsf put it correctly, this is unprecedented. we've had outbreaks before but they've always stayed within a country and even within a pretty confined part of the country. the outbreak, i was in zaire in 1995, it only got to a few peripheral villages, a large distance but walking distance. there were no ways to get around other than walking and land rovers. no streets, no roads, no real airports, and so on. this is different because this is a real city with a real airport, senegal is next door, has one of the biggest airports in all of west africa. it has crossed borders, involved multiple governments, multiple sets of policies. it's in all different kinds of religious communities, cultural communities, different languages, all of which makes conquering it much more difficult because your number one obstacle with ebola is fear and how the public responds. >> brown: but at the same time, health officials have said, they're reporting they've traced the sources of transmission for everyone who's sick. now, that sounds like a good sign for trying to contain this. >> could be. could be. but there are some fundamental mysteries here. something's going on in the rain forest because what these countries share is a special ecology, a special rain forest region in which the bats that normally carry the virus to the bat population but with pass it to other primates which can be eaten by humans or to people, hunters who may be in the rain forests. it's possible we're getting multiple introductions, or at least more than one, across the region. so if something's out in the rain forest which is why the bats are stressed and passing the virus, then we'll see multiple rounds of reintroduction. but the bottom line is to extract individuals from their homes, put them in quarantine, give them safe and, you know, humane care, and make sure that all the caregivers have proper protective gear. >> brown: and all that hasn't really changed all that much since ebola was first found in 1976, right? i mean, in terms of what can be done once an outbreak begins? >> we understand it a little better, but we don't have any different technology today than we've had all along since we've known of the ebola virus in 1976. it's all and hand washing, latex gloves, protective gear, masks and a kind of infection control. >> brown: on the one hand the w.h.o. is saying we're getting a handle on this but they're also saying it may take months to deal with. what does that tell you? >> well, it tells me that we have a real problem because it's so dispersed. it's across a broad, broad territory. multiple different ecologies, different cultures and, let's not forget, this is a region that has recently been through civil wars -- liberia, mahli, ongoing conflict. there are a lot of nerves, people are raw, there's suspicious and countersuspicious in populations for or against government, so trying to conquer a problem like this means overcoming a lot of larger political issues that have been in the region a long time. >> brown: lowe lori garrett, ths so much. >> woodruff: next, americans are being released from hospitals quicker, and sicker. that's put new demands on the family members who care for them. special correspondent kathleen mccleery reports from oklahoma as part of our "taking care" series. >> make sure we get all of the air out. >> reporter: cheryl mitchem never imagined retirement would look like this. when she and her husband alphus stopped working, they planned travel and other adventures. then, a year ago, a severe headache and a diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor upended the family's dreams. >> glioblastoma, which is a form of malignant brain cancer, but it stretches all over the whole brain, its not confined to one area. >> reporter: their 37 year old daughter kristin left her job as a pastry chef in north carolina to come home to oklahoma city to help. >> you want me to get you something to eat? >> you spend your whole life kind of in the care of your parents, and now that role has changed, where im kind of, you know, providing care, making sure that he has everything he needs. >> reporter: cheryl and kristin are among the 42 million americans caring for loved ones at home. and the tasks they perform have become increasingly complex. cleaning a feeding tube, for instance, capping a catheter line, checking blood sugar, administering an injection, and managing multiple prescriptions. >> when we have to flush his picc line, or clean his peg tube, or take his blood glucose, or his blood pressure, you know, none of us went to school for that, i mean were not educated that way. what i learned was by watching the nurses. i was never instructed how to do anything, they never did demonstrations, had me try anything. i don't feel like i had enough training at all for this. we kind of learned by trial and error. >> reporter: family members do 90% of care-giving and nearly half perform chores once limited to trained nurses. that's according to an a.a.r.p. sampling of more than 1,600 caregivers nationwide. >> hey, mom. did you take your medicine? >> reporter: that trend has prompted the organization to focus attention on caregivers and push state legislators to pass what they call the care act. >> reporter: oklahoma state director sean voskuhl is urging members to support it. >> so a.a.r.p. has been taking a hard look and making this a priority, but we also thought it was important to take a public policy approach, and giving a legal designation of a family caregiver in that process, because we find so many folks that are burdened, overwhelmed, and they want to know what do i do, where do i go for help? >> reporter: the bill would require the hospitals to list the caregiver on the patients chart to notify him or her before the patient is discharged, and to mandate training for the skills they'll need when the patient comes home. in oklahoma, its sponsor, state senator brian crain, understands the toll care-giving can take. >> my mother, the last five years of her life, suffered from alzheimers, and i know firsthand, as well as the rest of my family, the long goodbye that is alzheimers. my father, though, served as her caregiver. >> reporter: the care act passed the state senate in february and is being considered in the house. >> we recognize, as a state, that everyone needs to have a caregiver if they want one, and that caregiver needs to have some understanding of when you're going to be released from the hospital, and what it is that the hospital thinks needs to be done, so that you are not re-admitted unnecessarily. >> reporter: oklahoma lawmakers aren't alone in their quest to support family caregivers. hawaii, illinois and new jersey are all considering their own versions. here and elsewhere, the opposition comes mainly from those who will have to abide by new rules. >> we just do not feel like this is a necessary piece of legislation >> reporter: lawanna halstead is a vice president for the oklahoma hospital association. she's also a registered nurse. and she argues hospitals already follow strict guidelines, including medicare regulations, that require a smooth transition when patients are released. >> there is a multi-page chapter about discharge planning. if you are going to participate with medicare, meaning you're going to receive medicare funding for taking care of patients, then you have to follow these conditions. hospitals put in place multiple things, such as calling the patients twenty four hours, and forty eight hours after their discharged to ask them if they have any further questions, did you in fact get your prescriptions filled, do you remember that you have this physician visit, do you remember what your physical activity is, and what your diet is? >> reporter: a sampling of 400 likely voters in january showed strong support in oklahoma for caregivers and the new legislation. for pollster bill shapard, the issue hit home just before his data came in. >> my father fell and had a severe concussion, and i think what was impactful for me was that i got to see beyond just what i'm asking oklahoma voters to consider through polling, i got to live it. >> reporter: his mother, veda shapard, faced a flurry of confusing information when her husband was ready to come home. >> leaving the hospital was a bit of a challenge. i like to think of myself as somebody that's detail oriented, but the nurse came in and had all of the discharge papers, there was 22 pages of information for me. so, it was so pretty intense moments there for a while because you didn't know what to do. >> and its a little overwhelming. >> reporter: at st. anthony hospital, dr. robert rader coordinates a patients stay from admission to discharge. he says his staff does a good job instructing caregivers, but he worries about the possible impact of new regulations. >> hospitals are getting more and more crunched for resources and so i'm afraid that patient care might suffer as we begin to fragment things, trying to check boxes on another form that we have to check, i really think we need to not be distracted from the care that's being taken to the patient. >> reporter: not getting the right care is one reason some patients return to the hospital. 58% of oklahoma hospitals were penalized by medicare and medicaid for excessive re- admissions, that's about average nationally. the bills backers hope training caregivers will help reduce those multiple stays. the mitchems say they've already made serious mistakes that landed alphus back in the hospital. >> there have been some instances with one of the medications that we gave him, there were certain side effects that we needed to be looking out for, and we weren't told that we needed to look for those things, and so he had like, a reaction to one of those medications, and i felt really bad because the morning that we took him back to the emergency room, it was my morning to give that medication, and i did. >> reporter: but representative doug cox, an emergency room doctor himself, has reservations about whether legislation will make a difference. >> i'm not sure that we need to put another mandate on the hospitals when they're kind of moving in that direction, anyway. as you know, medicare and now even private insurance companies are holding hospitals liable for patients that are re-admitted within a close time of discharge, and so hospitals are being even more diligent about teaching home care at time of dismissal, to try to prevent those re-admissions. >> reporter: family caregivers don't get paid but the congressional budget office put a price tag on all those contributions, worth $234 billion to the u.s. economy in 2011. those jobs may have to be done by paid workers in the decades ahead. as the baby boomers age, they'll move from providing care to needing it. and because the next generation is smaller, the demand for, and on, family caregivers is sure to increase. >> woodruff: how many hours a week does the typical long-term caregiver donate to a sick parent or spouse? we have a by-the-numbers breakdown on what kind of impact this can have on their finances. that's on our homepage. >> woodruff: more than 21 million viewers tuned into last night's n.c.a.a. men's championship basketball game. a heady moment for university of connecticut fans. but also coming at a point when schools are facing new pressures about how they balance competing interests among athletics, academics and money. jeff is back with that story. >> brown: march madness, spilling over into april, a time when millions enjoy the thrills of college sports. last night, confetti filled the air of a.t.&.t. stadium, in arlington, texas, after the university of connecticut beat kentucky for the men's basketball championship. tonight, the u-conn women have their turn at a title tonight against notre dame, in a first- ever battle of un-beatens. but amid the on-court battles, a national debate grows over the big-time college sports, and the status and role of what are called student-athletes. one potentially ground-shifting decision came last month, when a regional director of the national labor relations board ruled that northwestern football players have the right to unionize. the team's former quarterback kain colter led the push. he told the aspen institute last week that most college athletes, who don't go pro, need protection. >> i mean, what this all boils down to is, you know, setting up these, you know, talented young men and women up for success down the road and the public should want that. >> reporter: the n.c.a.a., which governs college athletics, strongly disagrees. on sunday, it's president, mark emmert, called the concept of a players union grossly inappropriate. >> to convert to a unionized employee model is essentially to throw away the entire collegiate model for athletics. you can't split that one in two. you're either a student at a university playing your sports or you're an employee of that university. >> brown: the n.c.a.a. also faces a class action lawsuit, started by former u.c.l.a. basketball player ed o'bannon. he's asking a federal court to strike down the prohibition on student athletes gaining financially when their names and likenesses are used commercially. and kentucky's basketball success has further underscored the whole question of whether players are in fact students or athletes. the wildcats started five freshmen, and have become known for "one and done" players who play one year, and turn pro. coach john calipari says it's up to them. >> they sacrificed, they surrendered to each other now-- for our team, and for our program, and our school. season's over. now it's about them. i kind of stay out of the decision making. >> brown: in the coming weeks, several of calipari's freshmen stars are expected to announce they'll join the n.b.a. draft. >> brown: we get a pair of perspectives on some of these bigger issues that are being debated. patrick harker is president of the university of delaware and a member of the board of directors of the n.c.a.a. division one. and kevin blackistone, he is a panelist for e.s.p.n. and teaches sports journalism at the university of maryland kevin blackistone, let me start with you. put aside for the moment specific cases or solutions. what's the overall problem you see in college sports? >> inequity. inequity in money. it's inequity in power. it's inequity in resources. the resources are what this unionization of northwestern football players is all about. it's really not about compensation, but it's about things like health care, workers' compensation, protection for scholarships should they be injured and no longer able to play. most people in this country don't realize that scholarships are one-year renewable contracts with the university stamped by the athletic department. so if a player is hurt and he or she can no longer play, they can lose their scholarship. so it's really basic things like that, and it's really not very much about compensation in terms of hard dollars. >> brown: let me ask patrick harker, generally, first, is the word "crisis," do you accept that? what is the situation for college sports today? >> i think it's a crisis in losing sight of the fact that the most important part of the phrase "student athlete" is "student." i say that not just as a university president but a former student athlete. i'm here today because athletics opened doors for me. i'm worried starting middle school through college, we've lost sight of the fact that students need an education to be successful, even if they have a pro career. they're not going to do that forever, and after their career is over, they need another career, they need to be successful in something else, and they need an education. >> brown: pat harker, is the very term "student athlete" one we should use or discard, do you agree? >> yeah, because if you think about the university of delaware and most members of ncaa division 1, we use money on athletics, substantial sums of money. but you have to think of it as a subsidy. we're subsidizing an opportunity for students just like in theater and music. in this case, through athletics, to learn things they can't in the classroom and to provide in community the sense of competition, camaraderie and pride. but if you lose sight of that fact, then i think there is a problem. i mean, we lose money on lots of things. we lose money on every student that comes to the university if they're subsidized but we do it because there's a greater purpose, a great educational experience. >> brown: what do you think about the term "student athlete"? >> it should be discarded and it is a cover. as cover. it was invented by walter byers. he invented it back in the '60s to provide the ncaa cover from having exactly what is happening today happen then, and that was to have student athletes looked at as employees. the member institutions and ncaa had face add number of very serious lawsuits from players who had been critically injured on the field and they wanted their member institutions to take care of them as if they were what they are and that is employees of the university and walter byers explains in his confession in the mid '90s called unsportsmanlike conduct how he came up with the terms and what he meant by it. so the phrase student athlete in the media which we regurgitated has given cover to member institutions and courts when people try to challenge the notion. >> brown: president harker, when you say you think the student part of that is still the key, you argue against, for example, the idea of unions for college athletes. explain why you think that would be a bad idea. >> well, look, we lose money on every sport we offer at the university of delaware and every school at our level. so if we're required to spend more money and we're required to take our eye off the ball, giving these students a real education, then everybody loses, and we don't want to do that. again, personally, as a former student athlete, where doors opened for me because of that experience, i want to make sure this next generation has the same opportunities. >> brown: about what paying them, compensating them in any form? is that possible? >> well, we pay them through their scholarship today, but only half of our students are on scholarship. many, again -- we often think about men's basketball and football, but there are many student athletes on campus to take advantage of this opportunity. some are scholarships, but they're doing it for sport and what they learn. >> brown: kevin blackistone, he's making an important point we sometimes forget. we focus on these bigtime programs and bigtime sports and forget about everything else. >> well, right now there's an erosion going on in college athletics and has been for some time. the university of delaware is one of the schools that is suffering the erosion and, sooner or later, there is going to be, if there isn't, already, a core of 50, maybe 60 schools, at least half of which do make profit off their athletics who are going to be controlling the sport. so i think, sooner or later, as we've seen through the formation of the b.c.s. over the years, which -- and a new football contract playoff which they were still opposed to a few years ago have decided to do it for $5.6 billion from espn, i think you will see those schools start to circle around the pile of money that they are able to generate and keep that for themselves. >> brown: what harm do you see in that system? >> well, if that system continues, i think the harm is going to be to the schools that cannot participate in it, and we know that there has been an arms race, an athletics race over the years. every year, there's another very small school which plurchtion down a few million dollars to start up a football program. why? just because it brings marketing and public relations to your university and also from the idea that maybe somehow you can make a buck off of this. i think that that's the problem here. so a union, once again, really what these kids are talking about really is not the compensation, but resources and power and a seat at the table with the ncaa so they can bargain for their own rights. >> brown: so pat harker, you can respond to that in the last minute. what would you like to see happen? >> first, remember the conferences kevin is talking about are the exception, not the rule. we -- universities like the university of delaware are the majority of division one. what i worry about is, in this conversation, we're letting five conferences potentially through the media drive the debate. for colleges at our level, i'd like to see, as i said earlier, a renewed focus on the student athlete, and that means not only the success on the field but their success in the classroom to make sure that they can get the major of choice. sometimes we've set this up where it's a little difficult to do. we have geographically dispersed conferences whether on trains or planes, i think we need to concentrate on geographic consolidation so students are away from campus so they can get a degree that involves a lab or a research project. that's what i did when i was a student athlete and led me to the career i have today. >> brown: patrick harker, president of the university of delaware, kevin blackistone. thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. government forces in ukraine regained control of a regional headquarters in one eastern city. pro-russian separatists were holding out in two other cities. search crews in the indian ocean failed to pick up more underwater pings from a malaysian jetliner, one month after it disappeared. and president obama took execution actions to press the cause of equal pay for women. on the newshour online right now, we have a follow-up to our story on the fight within the air force over the retiring of the a-10 warthog. what do the men who call in air strikes think about the decision? we have their reaction on our world page. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, a look at what has and hasn't changed for bangladesh's garment industry, one year after a factory collapsed, killing more than 1,000 workers. 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. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> 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 access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report," with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. failure to comply, general motors safina ed fined by its safety regular later for not answering all the questions on the safety recall. what it all means for the automaker. and they're off, alcoa out of the gate with a mixed bag of earnings, but the season is not expected to be strong and too cou that could lead to a bumpy road. and tax deadline, one week to go, if you have not filed your taxes yet. we have a few strategies you can still use to all of your advantages, all this and more for tuesday april 8th. good evening everybody.