rich and powerful, and not so much for everybody else >> ifill: those are just 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 e. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. >> when i was pregnant, i got more advice than i knew what to do with. what i needed was information i could trust, on how to take care of me and my baby. united healthcare has a simple program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get care and guidance they can use before and after the baby is born. simple is what i need right now. >> that's health in numbers, united healthcare. >> 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. >> ifill: european banking giant "credit suisse a.g." admitted today it illegally helped wealthy americans dodge taxes. the bank entered a federal plea deal and agreed to pay $2.6 billion in penalties. it's part of a crackdown on foreign banks allegedly hiding u.s. taxpayer assets offshore. a.t.&.t. pledged today to "redefine the video entertainment industry" if it's allowed to buy satellite t.v. provider directv. the deal, valued at $48.5 billion, would create the nation's second largest pay t.v. operator. comcast and time warner cable would be the largest, under a merger proposed in february. both deals are subject to federal approval. british drug maker astrazeneca has rejected a final $119 billion takeover offer from american rival, pfizer. the move ends pfizer's long battle to form the world's largest drug company. astrazeneca says the bid did not reflect its true value. the balkans struggled today with the worst flooding in more than a century. at least 35 people were dead, and thousands more were forced to flee. across serbia, the raging sava river submerged entire towns, prompting mass evacuations. crews built a wall of sandbags around the country's main power plant to protect it. meanwhile, in sarajevo, bosnia's foreign minister said the damage there is immense. >> the country is destroyed as a country. we have literally tens of thousands and thousands of people who actually have no business, who lost everything. the country is devastated. 2,000 landslides in a country like this. >> ifill: the bosnian foreign minister said the flood has destroyed about 100,000 homes. in turkey, authorities formally arrested two more people in last week's mining disaster that killed 301 people. that makes five executives and supervisors of the mining firm, now charged with negligent death. others are still being questioned. also today, turkish news reports said mine officials ignored high levels of toxic gas, days before the incident. the death toll in syria's three- year-old civil war has now exceeded 160,000 people. the "syrian observatory for human rights" in london issued the figure today. the united nations stopped attempting its own count last july, at 100,000. libya faced growing turmoil today after a violent weekend in tripoli. on sunday, forces loyal to a renegade general stormed the parliament building, leaving windows smashed. later, the soldiers withdrew. today, the commander of libya's special forces joined forces with the general against islamist militants. but, the overall army chief ordered those militias to defend the capital. that left many appealing for peace. >> what happened should never have happened. we libyans should have reconciliation between us. i want to say to all the libyan people that we should stand by the government and support the legitimate authorities of the country. >> ifill: libya's central government has struggled to assert control since long-time dictator muammar gadhafi was overthrown three years ago. iraq's ruling coalition is the big winner in last month's parliamentary elections. results released today show prime minister nouri al-maliki and his shiite supporters won 92 seats out of 328. al-maliki will need the support of other groups to build a new governing majority. back in this country, a mississippi man was sentenced today to 25 years inedal prison for sending letters laced with ricin to president obama. james everett dutschke pleaded guilty last week to mailing the letters to the president and to a mississippi senator and a judge. prosecutors said it was all a plot to frame another man. former "new york times" editor jill abramson spoke out today for the first time since being fired last week. she addressed graduates at wake forest university in north carolina, and said it hurt to lose a job she loved. but, she recalled her father saying when bad things happen, you must "show what you are made of." >> and now i'm talking to anyone who's been dumped, you bet, not gotten the job you really wanted or received those horrible rejection letters from grad school, you know the sting of losing or not getting something you badly want. when that happens, show what you are made of. >> ifill: the times publisher denies abramson's gender had anything to do with her dismissal. instead, he cites management problems ranging from arbitrary decisions to public abuse of colleagues. the supreme court agreed today to allow a copyright lawsuit over m.g.m.'s oscar-winning movie, "raging bull." the 1980 film told the story of boxer jake lamotta. in 2009, a woman whose screenwriter-father collaborated with lamotta, sued for royalties. today, the court rejected m.g.m.'s argument that she'd waited too long to sue. this was a relatively quiet monday on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 20 points to close near 16,512. the nasdaq rose 35 points to close near 4,126. and the s-and-p added seven to finish at 1,885. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: the u.s. accuses chinese military officials of cyber-espionage; margaret warner reports on simmering tensions in ukraine; getting hydrogen-powered cars ready for the road; democratic senator elizabeth warren on the future of the middle class; a preview of tomorrow's congressional primaries; plus, one man's mission to bring free social services to myanmar. >> ifill: the obama administration went on the offensive today against chinese cyber-hacking of u.s. businesses. attorney general eric holder announced the unprecedented indictments this morning. >> when a foreign nation uses military or intelligence resources and tools against an american executive or corporation to obtain trade secrets or sensitive business information for the benefit of its state-owned companies, we must say enough is enough. >> ifill: enough, in this case, means publicly accusing five chinese military officials of stealing trade secrets. the five reportedly work in the people's liberation army "unit 61398". based in this building in shanghai. according to the u.s. private security firm mandiant, that's where the all-out hacking occurred. the new indictments say the five hackers targeted six american firms in the nuclear, metals and solar products industries. specifically: alcoa, allegheny technologies incorporated, united states steel, the united steelworkers union, solarworld, and westinghouse electric. >> all nations are engaged in intelligence gathering. what i think distinguishes this case is that we have a state- sponsored entity, state- sponsored individuals using intelligence tools to gain commercial advantage. >> ifill: the indictments mark the latest stage in a growing u.s.- china struggle over cyber- espionage. in october 2012, the house intelligence committee took aim at two major chinese telecom companies, huawei corporation and z.t.e. technologies, for their ties to the chinese government. it warned u.s. companies against doing business with them. then, in his 2013 state of the union address, president obama called for strengthening cyber defenses. we cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing to deal with real threats to our economy. >> ifill: but china has complained the u.s. government is doing the same thing to other countries, as revealed by the n.s.a. leaker edward snowden, now in asylum in russia. the suspects accused today are believed to be in china, and it's not clear they would ever be handed over. still, holder argued it's in beijing's interest to cooperate. to the extent that we do not have that cooperation, we will use all the means that are available to use to ultimately have these people appear in a states >> ifill: china gave no sign it plans to extradite any of the suspects. and it's foreign ministry released a statement rejecting the charges as fabricated facts. the move comes at a particularly tense time between washington and beijing, as u.s. allies seek american support in their confrontations with china in the south china sea. >> ifill: joining me now to discuss the indictments, chinese cyber-hacking, and how today's action affects the u.s. - china relationship. laura galante, manager of threat intelligence at fireye, which acquired the security firm mandiant earlier this year. and susan shirk, former deputy assistant secretary of state for china policy in the clinton administration. she's now a professor of china and pacific relations at the university of california san diego. get us to the root of these charges, what are they about? >> yes n reading the indictment this morning, what really stood out were the aspect os profiled there so what we saw based on this indictment were that steel companies, and the other companies mentioned were the targets of data facts that focused on their corporate proprietary information. it also included information regarding contracts an acquisitions they were involved in. >> susan shirk what is the significance in this case of naming names. actually seeing faces with these accusations? >> well, i think it's an expression of resolve on the part of the u.s. government and u.s. companies that this pervasive commercial as mean age is against u.s. law and that we won't stand for it. >> well, let me stick with you for a moment. what's the point of tightening screws now as we just reported, we've been talk about this for a while. >> well, the indictment was handed down, i believe, may 1st. it appears that maybe we waited until the chief of the people's liberation army general staff had left town. he paid a recent visit to washington in order to launch this shot across the bow. so i think the timing is not really linked to anything other than the procedures that the justice department and the grand jury had followed. >> ifill: is that your understanding well laura galante? >> i think that what we're seeing here is an escalation on the part of the administration to really call out the specifics around what they're seeing as a large scale data theft operation towards u.s. businesses. and like we profiled in the series, the different steps that were taken in 2013, with mandiant releasing its report discussing hacking and then later the bilateral relations between china and u.s. taking cybersecurity at their center, we're now seeing the third iteration of data theft being at the centre of what's coming out about what the chinese are actively pursuing. >> the obvious question, one raised by the edward snowden revelation an one which came up repeatedly today with the attorney general is aren't we doing the same thing? >> the distinction here is that this is economic espionage that is supported by a state. in the other cases we're seeing state on state espionage and that is really what the attorney general seems to be drawing out here as the key differentiator. >> you mean because china is investigate private u.s. industry, not the government, that is when the problem begins. >> yes. >> ifill: okay, that's good. i just needed to be clear about that. >> sure. >> ifill: with you susan shirk r other outstanding issues including these tensions in the south china sea, how much does taking this action now have any effect on that relationship? >> well, although there is no direct linkage, i think it is a sign that the united states isn't just going to whine about things it doesn't like but when we have steps that we can take, legal actions or in some cases, exercises or military basing in the area, we're going to take those actions. in other words, there's some suggestion that the folks in beijing are testing the resolve of the united states through a number of assertive actions, both on the maritime territorial disputes, things like cybersecurity, as well as a lot of economic disputes that we have with china right now. and that they somehow have gotten the idea that the u.s. is on the decline, that it's not going to stand up for its own interests. and so i think actions like today demonstrate that that is not really the case. now of course what are we going to do to enforce these indictments that, you know, you could argue that it's a bit of an empty action because there won't be any real penalties unless these individuals travel outside of china. >> are you taking-- you are taking the questions right out of my mouth. do you have any idea what that is or is it just enough to send that signal? >> well, i think it's important to take the actions. and there may be some things that can follow. of course on the chinese side, what we have to wait and see what the chinese response is. and whether or not they try to retaliate with in some form or another. right now today they, of course, said it's all a bunch of lies. chinese government spokesman said that. and they did cancel our cyberdialogue that is supposed to enable us to come up with shared understanding of the rules of the game. but the problem is we don't have a shared understanding of the rules of the game. >> ifill: laura galante, the kinds of companies which were allegedly targeted in this, steel companies, steelworkers union, alcoa, westinghouse, what are the significance of those companies? >> it wasn't surprising to us to see that these manufacturing companies, particularly in advanced manufacturing were those that were targeted and discussed in the indictment. what we've seen is data facts closely aligned to the types of emerging industries that we see china discuss as the core pieces driving their economy. so what we'll see is where china discusses biotechnology as a core initiative, we'll see many companies come from that sector whether it be pharmaceuticals as a subsector there, or also aerospace and defense, of course a common target. >> when you hear as susan shirk was just saying, when you hear the united states say we're going threaten you, they have been saying this for a while. has there been any evidence that these threats have begun, that there has been a pullback on the part of china? >> here's what we saw behind the scenes on the network side. after we released the report last year detailing this type of activity, we saw a long pause in operations from these different groups based in china. when those groups did come back to their activity level last fall, we saw them change the infrastructure that they were using to stage these different intrusions. so while the public version was a denial of the acquisitions that were being discussed, behind the scenes it was a very different story. >> final word, susan shirk, briefly s this a necessary fight for the u.s. to pick? >> well, i am afraid that it is. because our companies have really suffered very intense cyberattacks from china in recent years. they are afraid, frankly, of raising these issues directly with the chinese government and they look to the u.s. government to defend their interests and to defend this norm. that cyberattacks shouldn't be used for commercial advantage. but the problem is that chinese system is very different. for them the advantages of their own state-owned enterprises are all part of national security. >> okay. we'll be waiting to see if more shoes drop. susan shirk now at uc san diego, laura ga lant of mandiant and fireye. thank you very much. >> thanks a lot. >> ifill: with ukraine's national elections less than a week away, russian president vladimir putin today made a major but unsubstantiated announcement about his troops in the area. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner is in donetsk and reports that uncertainty has become the new normal in eastern ukraine. >> warner: for months, 40,000 russian troops, backed by tanks and heavy armored vehicles, have been patrolling near the border with ukraine. but the kremlin said today that president vladimir putin has ordered them back to their home bases. so far, though, n.a.t.o. secretary general anders fogh rasmussen said he sees no sign of movement. >> i think it's the third putin statement on withdrawal of russian troops, but so far we haven't seen any withdrawal at all. i strongly regret that, because a withdrawal of russian troops would be a first important contribution to de-escalating the crisis. >> warner: here in donestsk, the capital of the eastern ukrainian province of the same name, reaction in central lenin square was mixed to this latest putin pronouncement. >> i don't trust putin. no one trusts him, because he lies. he once told the same thing but he didn't take away forces. >> warner: but uriy pasechnikov said the troops he worried about were ukrainian. who have come into this restive eastern region. >> troops from kiev we see and can trace what is happening in slavyansk, kramatorsk, mariupol and odessa. we perfectly see it. and we don't see putin. >> warner: just up the street, outside the regional government building now occupied by pro- russian separatists, we met young yevgeniy. the former ukrainian soldier wouldn't give us his last name or let his face be fully shown. but he told us he joined the barricades because he believes donestk would have a brighter economic future if joined with russia. >> we are waiting for the russians to help us. >> warner: if reports are right, if russia pulled forces back from the border, will that weaken your position? >> ( translated ): no. we are so pressured by economic instability that we are determined to change our situation. >> warner: and despite lunchtime scenes of seeming urban tranquility, tensions remain raw here. just 100 yards from the front of the occupied government building, heavily-armed masked men in unmarked uniforms stopped two vehicles and hauled out several young men in desert fatigues, searched them and took them away. it was unclear whether this was a training exercise or, as some bystanders speculated, it was an operation apprehending ukrainian nationalists from western ukraine. local security authorities are still performing normal police duties, but seem overwhelmed in the face of the separatists' challenge. this morning, general konstantin nikolaevich, commander of all police in the donetsk region, admitted as much. he conceded what he called terrorist separatist elements had taken control of two smaller cities, slavyansk and kramatorsk, north of donetsk so they're in charge? >> ( translated ): yes, they are wholly controlling the situation there. they took over the police departments in slovyansk and kramatorsk and at the moment are present there. >> warner: why can't you take them back? >> i think it's military responsibility now and not the police. functions of the police is securing the public order and crime investigation. there are armed man. this should be solved by the antiterrorist center. >> warner: we asked why his own men can't at least reclaim the occupied donetsk regional government building nearby. >> ( translated ): the problem is not how to clear the building but how to hold it after that. we lack the interior military forces to prevent the destructive elements from retaking it. >> warner: so you're saying the local forces cannot handle this situation on their own? >> ( translated ): i can control the overall situation but not to free the administration buildings. we have enough weapons but for 23 years we didn't have to use building-clearing skills. >> warner: later, at a late afternoon, police shift change, the challenge facing nikolaevich's local forces was apparent. his men were mostly-armed with mace and night sticks. only two carried any true weapons at all. >> ifill: i spoke with margaret a short time ago. margaret, it's good to see you, you were in eastern ukraine just eight weeks ago how have things changed? >> warner: definitely changed, gwen. i mean there are a lot of rumors today, for instance at one point we were told that the railway station was seized by separatists. when we got there, they hadn't been but the administration building has. so that showed the separatists can pretty much move at will. number two, when we got to that occupied government building that's just where we had interviewed this wealthy olygarch governor appointed by key eve. he boasted how they had taken back the building. now completely filled by russian occupiers or local russian sympathizing occupiers. and on the top floor there were definitely guys with guns speaking in true russian accents. number 3 and was ominously one of the last remaining electoral commission offices preparing for the sunday election, declared today it was shutting down after having guys come in, threaten them, steal their computers. and have a-- having had a nearby office shutdown. so none of this is great and feels a little menacing as it comes to next sunday's election. >> ifill: let's talk about next sunday's election, how do they are are they taking any steps to insurance that it will be seen as legitimate? >> well, what they tried to do, was to go ahead and conduct an election normally here as ukraine has done every four years or so. so they know how to do it. but the chances i think look dimmer by the day. you not only have the blunt comments from the electoral commission head today but one of the people most intimately involved with this european lead negotiation that's going on, toll me by phone today he's been here in donetsk yesterday, an he had been told and had seen that one of the offices where they're going to actually count votes, all the computers have been smashed. so he said even if people do vote he said their votes really won't be able to be counted. finally today what was clear from talking to people was that how you vote is going to be determined completely by where your sympathies are. so for instance people in the occupied government building, president pro russian people said oh, they voted in last sunday's referendum, the one that was eight days ago for independence. they weren't going to show up sunday. then all the people we talked to without said they wanted to vote for a united ukraine didn't participate last sunday. they are going to participate this sunday. so one man in the park said to us, you know, you in the west, i think you read this press and think everyone here is pro russian. we're actually a lot of us want to be part of the united ukraine and a pew research poll found that 70% of the people here are of that mind. but 9 danger it seems to me now is that the vote next sunday, whatever does occur here could be seen just as il legitimate or at least characterized at il legitimate as last sundays. an that's to the great for this government that is hoping that this vote will restore a sense of legitimate-- legitimacy and union in the country. >> are the people you talk to in the street engaged in this whole process or is this left for the politician and the elite? >> both, gwen. on the one hand a lot of people are not terribly political but their life has clearly been elected. when we were hear before the demonstrations were kind of real actual -- ritualistic, and would come for the weekend and go home. other people would be out and about shopping, last night when we arrived it was a baumy night. people would be in restaurant its, instead they're not. a woman who was on the plane with us from kiev said i'm landing at 8:30 p.m., it's going to be dark. i'm going straight home and staying inside all night. i never go out at night because i'm afraid. and again that is all a very disheartening, discouraging sign for the u.s., the europeans and the government in kiev, that hopes to find some resolution to this conflict. >> ifill: margaret, we're looking for your report, so stay safe. >> warner: will do gwen. thanks. >> ifill: after more than a decade of experimenting, car makers are planning to release a new generation of hydrogen- powered vehicles in california. the state has made a major commitment to alternative energy sources. but the new cars face an uncertain future. our partners at k.q.e.d. san francisco filed this report, narrated by scott shafer and produced by sheraz sadiq. >> reporter: like most people, bill holloway commutes to work, driving 75 miles from his home in alameda, california. but then again, most people don't make their commute in a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. >> i drive a very rare car. there's only a handful on lease here in northern california. >> reporter: this rare car uses hydrogen instead of gasoline and emits only water vapor instead of harmful pollution. >> the economy in this mercedes is great. i average 58 miles per kilogram of hydrogen which is the same as 58 miles per gallon of gas. i picked a hydrogen car because i was able to drive one of the early experimental models and i'm kind of a geek. >> reporter: car makers have spent more than a decade and invested billions of dollars to develop the technology. catherine dunwoody, executive director of the california fuel cell partnership, thinks that investment is about to pay off. >> having been involved in this now for 15 years and seeing the evolution of the technology, you know, these guys are serious. they really see the fuel cell vehicle as the future of automotive technology. >> reporter: in 2014, hyundai will release a new fuel cell s.u.v. in california, followed by new models from toyota and honda in 2015. but even with the rollout of these new hydrogen cars, drivers may hit a roadblock when it's time to refuel. >> my biggest complaint about this fuel cell car and fuel cell cars in general, is there's nowhere to fill them up. >> reporter: for now, there's just one place holloway can go to refuel his car in northern california, at this station in emeryville, owned and operated by ac transit. twelve of it's public buses run on hydrogen. at the hydrogen pump, filling up is remarkably similar to filling up at a regular gas station. >> it only takes four or five minutes to fill, the same as filling up a regular gasoline car, so i had to make no adjustments at all. >> reporter: on a per-mile basis, hydrogen costs about as much as gasoline. and like gasoline, hydrogen is flammable. but it disperses quickly if it leaks because it is lighter than air. >> i never worried about the safety of the hydrogen. the hydrogen tanks are buried in the middle, in the safest place in the car. >> reporter: the tanks also store hydrogen at high pressure, a recent innovation that has doubled the driving range of fuel cell cars, says tim lipman, co-director of u.c. berkeley's transportation sustainability research center. >> so what's very different now than several years ago, is that we're able to store a lot more hydrogen onboard the vehicle, giving us a driving range of 250 or even 300 miles. >> reporter: most battery electric cars can only travel 80 or so miles before needing to be recharged for several hours. a fuel cell car also needs electricity to power its electric motor but here, the electricity is made on-board, from hydrogen, inside a fuel cell stack. >> here is a fuel cell stack that is very similar to what you'd see in a fuel cell powered car. each cell has a special membrane material in the middle, that splits the hydrogen molecules into protons and electrons. the protons are now charged particles called ions, that can go through this membrane material. but the electrons cannot. >> reporter: so the electrons go around the membrane and generate electricity. oxygen from the air also flows in and binds with the electrons and ions to produce water and heat, the only tailpipe emissions. but like electric cars, fuel cell cars still need a fuel source, which can produce emissions. >> hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can be zero emission vehicles. but the only way you can do that is to use a renewable source for the hydrogen, and that could be solar power or wind power. >> reporter: still, most hydrogen generated in the u.s. is made with methane, a natural gas. >> even though there's some c02 produced from that process, it's still about 50% less than burning gasoline in a combustion engine. >> reporter: in october 2013, california, oregon, new york and five other states pledged to put more than three million zero- emission vehicles on their roads by 2025. with the nation's largest car market and its tough air quality standards, california is critical to the success of fuel cell cars and the infrastructure the cars require to take off. >> i can't go on a long trip. if they had more fueling stations, they would have more cars they could sell. if there were more cars, they would have more fueling stations. we have a chicken and egg problem. >> reporter: so in 2013, governor jerry brown signed a new law that provides $20 million a year to build at least 100 hydrogen refueling stations in california by 2024. nineteen new stations are already in development. >> the state funding helps offset the risk to these small and medium-sized businesses to make this investment, to move forward with hydrogen fuel technology. >> reporter: but james sweeney, a stanford university expert on energy policy, questions the use of public dollars to help build hydrogen stations. >> the state wants to build hydrogen fueling infrastructure with no knowledge as to whether there's going to be a significant number of vehicles that will use those. it's a recipe for risking taxpayer funds. for what may be a total waste. >> reporter: and this isn't the first time california has tried to promote a vision of a hydrogen highway. >> thank you. thank you very much. all across our highway system, hundreds of hydrogen fueling stations will be built and be used by thousands of cars and trucks and buses. >> reporter: arnold schwarzenegger's plan relied on private investors to help build up to 100 hydrogen stations by 2010. but the plan failed. >> i think the original plan timing was ambitious, and i think that the cars really have come so far since the 2004 plan was established. >> reporter: even so, will drivers choose hydrogen when electric cars and other clean vehicles are already on the road? >> when people get to test drive these cars, they'll be very impressed by the performance, by how similar they are to conventional vehicles. >> reporter: while driving these cars may be easy, both fuel cell advocates and auto makers know that their success depends on building more refueling stations soon. >> ifill: now, a conversation with the senior senator from massachusetts about her new book, "a fighting chance." judy woodruff recorded this interview last week. >> woodruff: a professor of bankruptcy law at harvard university, a consumer protection advocate, the chair of the congressional panel created to oversea the troubled asset relief program after the 2008 financial implosion. and then after 20 years in and out of washington, a successful turn to electoral politics. and now elizabeth warren has just published her memoir a fighting chance. senator elizabeth warren, welcome to the program. >> thank you, it's good to be here. >> so we're used to seeing politicians write a book when they want to get elected to office. but you just pretty recently have been elected to the senate. you say you're not running for president. >> i'm not running for president. >> woodruff: why so write the book? >> i spent my whole career studying what's happening it america's middle class. and later in those areas trying to fight back. america's middle class is just getting hammered. the legs are being taken out from underneath telephone. and part of the reason for that is that there is a real tilt in washington. policies that work for the rich and powerful and not so much for everybody else. i knew about what it meant to grow newspaper a america that was investing in our kids, that was investing in the future. i feel like we've lost our way from that. and the reason i say that is i tell this as the eye witness account of what happened when i went to washington and what i saw and what i fought against. >> woodruff: what is an example of one of the ways you think the working class, the middle class in this country has it worse today than they used to. >> oh, i will give you an example right off the top. so my daughter-- would have had a heart attack when i was little, i was 12, my brothers from in the military. when a long period of time with no income coming in, the bills piled up, we lost the family station wagon, we were right on the edge of losing our home. my mother was 50 years old, a stay at home mom when she pulled her best dress out of the closet, put on her high heels and walked over to the sears and got a minimum wage job. in the 1960s, a minimum wage job would keep a family of three afloat. and that's what it did for us and it saved our home. today a minimum wage job will not keep a mother and one baby out of poverty. that is a shift. we've lost that protection even for those working right at the bottom. >> woodruff: and right now today you have people arguing against the minimum wage saying if you raise the minimum wage 10.10 which is what the president has asked for, that you will cost jobs because employers will end up laying people off. >> i have two responses to that. the first is the data about whether it will cost a few jobs or not cost a few jobs is really, it's very mixed on the numbers. but what we do know is that if we raise the minimum wage to 10.10 an hour, that 14 million children would see their economic fortunes improve because mom or dad would be making a little more money and have a better shot at getting that family some economic security. >> woodruff: you write a fair amount in the book, senator warren, about how the blame, much of the blame lies with the big banks. you talk about the need to break up these bank, the power they have. you write about washington politicians who protect the big banks. what would you do about all of this? >> well, there are a lot of pieces that we could work on. for example i have a bill pending right now in the united states senate with senator john mccain for glass-steagall. and that's the carry-over from the bill that came out of the great depression that said look, you want to be a bank, then be borg. do checking accounts, savings accounts. that's what banks are. and if you want to do high-risk investment, go to wall street, be what is called an investment bank. do something different. create that separation. it makes banks safer and less likely that we're going to have to bail them out. >> woodruff: but do you think there is a realistic chance that something like that is going to happen in this environment? >> i got to tell you, we still have a lot of risk in the system. you know, you talked about during the financial crisis, we were told these banks are too big to fail. today the five largest financial institutions are 38% bigger than they were back in 2008 when they were too big to fail. we are still taking on right now there is still a lot of risk in the financial system. some of these biggest financial institutions are out there trading in commodities. they're buying oil tankers. this is not a financial system that has calmed down and is there to serve the american people. let me just ask you one of the reviewers i read who complimented many of the things you wrote in the book said even though if you were to do a number of the things you recommend, you still among other things wouldn't raise median family income in this country. who does washington work for? >> right now washington works for those who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers. they make sure that every rule, every regulation is there to promote and protect the biggest corporations and the richest individuals. does washington work for everybody else? the answer is not some of. let me give you one quick example of that. look at student loans today. young people who are trying to go to college, right, the federal government charges them an interest rate that not only covers the cost of the bad debts, the administrative cost, they double it then triple it in some case and some case goes even higher to produce tens of billions of dollars in profits off the backs of our kids. so we have a bill pending right now, just introduced it last week, that says it will bring down that interest rate on student loans and we're going to pay for it by saying, we're going to close some of those tax loopholes that help billionaires pay less than taxes than their secretaries pay. i use that as one example. because i want to-- i take this personally. there is no money for me to go to college. i ended up going to a college, a community college that cost $50 a semester. i borrowed money on an loan that was subsidized by the united states government. i grew up in an america that said we think first about opportunities for our kids, about building a strong and robust middle class. that will create opportunities. opportunities for the poor, opportunities so that our children and grandchildren can do so much more than we did. today we have a washington that says we're going to put an extra tax on kids who are trying to get an education. so that we can keep the budget going and keep the loopholes open for billionaires with fortune 500 companies that pay nothing in taxes. this is really where our country is headed. and we have got to fight back. it's why i wrote this book. it's why i call this book a fighting chance. i got a fighting chance. i want every kid to get the same thing. >> woodruff: a passionate senator elizabeth warren. and as she said, the kbook is a fighting chance. we thank you for being with us. >> thank you >> ifill: we turn to politics now, with a preview of tomorrow's closely-watched primaries. the results could set the stage for some of the most consequential races this fall. voters will be heading to the polls in six states: arkansas, georgia, idaho, kentucky, oregon and pennsylvania. joining us to look at what we're watching in some of the key contests is newshour political editor domenico montanaro. welcome again, some nicco, of the six states which are you woching. >> i am watching kentucky and georgia on the democratic side, they are really two states where democrats have any target whatsoever to try to take over republican held seats but on the other side oregon and arkansas are two states to really watch closely, especially this republican primary in oregon because republicans feel like a woman who they have running there, monica wehby can really give them the best chance to possibly take on jeff merkley for that seat. she pro-abortion rights and maybe gives them a decent chance if this was a long, you know, a big wave that this would give them a chance there out west. >> ifill: interesting how many of these key contests we have women at the heart of it. >> well, the first thing is women, we know, make up 51% of the population a 53% of the electorate. but in congress, severely underrepresented. we know as you can see on your screen, 20% of the senate, 20 women in the senate in congress, four out of five of those are democrats. in the house, just 79 out of 435 members of the house are women. that's about 18%. we know that there are several reasons for this. top of the list incumbency seems to be something that makes it very difficult for anybody who wants to try to get in. when you have 90 something percent incumbency rates t makes it very hard for almost anyone to try to get into some of these races. >> ifill: let's look at a couple races tomorrow where women candidates we're watching closely. georgia number one. >> well, georgia, number one, because you have got potentially two women without could face-off against each other. the in the republican primary you have kief candidates and one of them karen handle, former republican secretary of state in georgia dense david perdue, businessman and three members of congress, jack kington, paul broun and gingrey. they are squaring off to be one of the top two to make it into the runoff. republicans feel if it is perdue or handle they can make a good case, even with king tons-- kingston they feel he is an establishment candidate. but with handle at least she would offset the democratic message on women. >> and the key, thes are person she would be running against is most likely michelle nunn. >> former-- she is a democrat and the daughter of the former senator sam nunn. so you could potentially have two women squaring off against each other in that race. >> let's go to kentucky. >> so in kentucky alison grimes is witting in the wings against each mitchman con el or matt bevin. mccon sell expected to breeze past bev nin this race. of course mccon sell trying to become the majority leader, now he is minority leader. and alison grimes tied in most polls here. and she could be the first woman senator from ken you mentioned oregon. i want to skip ahead to the endangered democratic incumbents. in this case we're talking about women. north carolina, louisiana and new hampshire. >> that say big reason why democrats are so needing to push a lot of the issues related to women in particular because they have im-- women are really ree-- key here whether it is michelle nunn or alison grimes trying to win to take over a republican seat n new hampshire jean shaheen against scott brown. in north carolina with senator kay hagan against tom tillist, the republican in that race. and in of course in louisiana mary landrieu who has got great political dynasty of the landrieus in that state shows really how much women are so important to democrats in these races. >> ifill: of course we are getting ahead because these aren't all being voted on tomorrow but it still tells us what the senate could look like. for instance, it would take all of these women to win to actually gain a number, we have 20 women in the senate. >> if all the women lose you could see a reduction of two women. you would have 18. but if all of them win you would have about 26. and that's not a whole heck of a lot of progress to be honest but when you look at this year versus 2012, for example, a record number of women ran in 2012, 298 women this time around only 235 women so far. and that's not going to come close probably to the record number set then. >> ifill: it should be said there are strong republican prospects too. west virginia ya, iowa and michigan and we'll be watching them all. >> absolutely. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> ifill: finally tonight, one man's story of transformation. it comes from myanmar, the country formerly known as burma, where until recently a military government denied political freedoms, and kept it closed from the outside world. jeffrey brown traveled there recently. here's the last of his reports. >> brown: it's a simple act: driving a hearse through a poor neighborhood in the city of yangon. but it's part of a larger effort with great significance for the country, and the driver. in the 1980's and 90's, kyaw thu was one of myanmar's leading film stars. appearing in more than 200 movies, directing six others, and winning two burmese academy awards. he was so popular, the military government used him to star in several propaganda films. in one, he played a government soldier fighting rebels in the ethnic region of karen. >> ( translated ): we had to carry guns with bullets in them to assure our safety during the filming. the karen rebels had ordered me dead, they had a price on my head, because i was making these propaganda films. >> brown: at a certain point, though, kyaw thu realized that his sympathies were more with the protesters and rebels. so when the government asked him to do another propaganda film, he made a career-ending decision. >> ( translated ): it was a film about students taking up arms and fighting against the military government. i didn't want to do it, so i refused." >> brown: in 2001 he turned from acting to activism, founding the "free funeral service society," which provides funeral arrangements for people who can't afford them. he says he still remembers the first time he went to pick up a body. >> it was a young girl who died of a snake bite. the father initially didn't think he could afford the hospital costs so he didn't send her at first. by the time he decided he must, it was too late and she died on the way. >> brown: from that humble beginning, his organization has now helped nearly 140,000 families, often dozens a day. so these are all the calls that came in today about bodies? >> yes, with a listing of the hospital and the address. >> brown: so 24 calls already today and it's just after 1:00. >> ( translated ): yes. >> brown: this is no small matter in this overwhelmingly buddhist country, where funeral services are steeped in tradition, and also can be quite costly. the free funeral service helps with transportation of the body, the service, including flowers, and cremation or burial, everything. myanmar is one of the poorest countries in asia. the world bank estimates that a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. a third of all children under five are malnourished. so the government here can't provide what we would call a safety net? >> ( translated ): no, there isn't any government support. the government says they are helping with the education sector and the medical sector but they don't spend any money. the government is always saying things but they don't follow up. and the people end up suffering for it. >> brown: and so, kyaw thu's work has expanded to include education and medical services both in yangon and around the country. more than 400 young children attend this school, housed in a brand new building. young adults attend computer and business classes. and this medical clinic, one of five such centers, provides everything from basic check-ups to dental services and even high-tech eye operations. the money is raised through private donations. taken altogether, kyaw thu says he's found his true calling. >> ( translated ): the happiness you have as an actor when you watch your film on the silver screen or the happiness you feel when you win an academy award, doesn't compare to the happiness you feel when you help someone with a funeral or when you help someone with their education or a health problem. helping people like that is true contentment. >> brown: last fall, kyaw thu wrote a book called, "if i were president." it was both a critique of the current government and a proposed action-plan for building up social structures in myanmar. could you ever imagine running for president yourself? >> ( translated ): no. i was just pointing out what the government should be supporting and what the communities need. i have no desire to run for the presidency. i am not interested in party politics. i'm working for the people. i'm working for my country. >> brown: no longer an actor, but once again, as word of his work has spread, a star in his country. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. a federal grand jury indicted five chinese military ols on charges of hacking u.s. companies to steal trade secrets. thailand's army declared martial law after six months of political instability and anti- government demonstrations. and european banking giant "credit suisse" pleaded guilty to helping americans evade taxes, and agreed to pay $2.6 billion in penalties. on the newshour online right now, navigating the new health insurance marketplaces was hard enough. now, data shows a lot of families didn't secure pediatric dental coverage for their kids, even though it's considered one of the law's essential benefits. our reporting partner kaiser health news explains why, on the rundown. that's on our website, newshour.pbs.org. and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at a college writing program that emphasizes poetry as community service. i'm gwen ifill. 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. >> united healthcare, online at uhc.com. >> support also comes from carnegie corporation of new york. a foundation created to do what andrew carnegie called "real and permanent good." celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie.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. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org  this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathieson and brought to you in part by the street.com featureb herb greenberg who reminds investors dreams are real, reality check, researching stocks in terms of risks. can you learn more at the street.com/reality check. >> for the deal, as as tra zenica rejects the offer leaving many wondering what pfizer would do next. from no deal to a done deal. at&t requires direct tv in a merger that could redefine the industry and the shape of the future of television. and charged with cyber spying. for the first time ever, the u.s. has accused chine

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