League considers a 2 billion deal to put the team in the hands of a former microsoft c. E. O. Plus, opera legend Jessye Norman, lauded as one of the greatest singers of her generation, discusses her decades on stage, and how she learned to stand up straight and sing. What is so wonderful, is that everybodys voice is different because youre different on the inside. And thats what changes your voice. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. United healthcare online at uhc. Com. And with the ongoing support of these institutions 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 president obama had more than one major personnel announcement today. In addition to the changes at the Veterans Affairs department, hes getting a new white house spokesman. Jay carney will be stepping down after three and a half years. You know these jobs put a certain amount of strain on everybodys, everybodys family. Mine have been, my kids and my wife have been, extraordinarily patient and i just feel blessed to have been able to do this for as long as i have. Woodruff carney is being replaced by 38yearold josh earnest, who is now the Principal Deputy press secretary. Woodruff a friend of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers was charged today with obstructing the investigation. The 23yearold man from kyrgyzstan, now living in quincy, massachusetts, is accused of lying about his friendship with tamerlan and dzhokhar tsarnaev. Federal prosecutors say they do not believe he knew in advance about the attacks. Russia has called again for ukraine to stop its military offensive against prorussian rebels. President Vladimir Putin made the appeal in a phone call with the president of france. But in kiev, the Ukrainian Defense minister insisted the campaign will continue, despite losses. He spoke a day after an Army Helicopter was shot down near the city of slovyansk, killing 14 servicemen. In syria, theres word that thousands of people are fleeing governmentheld cities ahead of next weeks president ial election. Opposition activists say insurgents ordered civilians to leave before they launch attacks to disrupt the vote. President Bashar Alassad is expected to win a third term, despite demands by the u. S. And others that he give up power. Officials in northern india fired two policemen today in the face of outrage over the gang rape and killing of two girls, ages 14 and 15. It happened wednesday, in a tiny village in Uttar Pradesh state, indias most populous region. Lindsey hilsum of independent Television News filed this report. A warning, some of the images may be disturbing. Woodruff the chief minister reporter the girls hanging from a mango tree. Horrified villagers gathered to protest that the police had refused to investigate because the families were caught. My sister went out around 8 30, was kidnapped by four men who did something bad to her, one an accused police constable. Under indian law, we cant name the family or victims. The father said, when he reported the crime, instead of apprehending the culprits, the police threatened to put him in prison. Look at this, the accused have got the protection of the police, and here i am, a victim left in the lurch. Is this justice . shouting reporter today, a few demonstrators came. All indian women are vulnerable to sexual violence, they say, but lower caste women are the most at risk. In Uttar Pradesh where police, politicians and accuser are all from the same high caste, they dont stand a chance. They have been raped and exhibited, shown to everybody, to reinforce the caste structure. In december 2012, tens of thousands participated after a young woman protested after a young woman was gang raped and murdered on a bus in delhi. Four were condemned to death. A campaign shown hindu goddess scarred by Domestic Violence encourages women to report such crimes. But today, it was reported not much had changed. Woodruff the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state ridiculed reporters today for focusing on the attack. He dismissed their questions, and instead, asked them why are you worried . Whats it to you . Back in this country, the house voted early today to block the federal prosecutions of medical marijuana use, in states where its legal. Republicans and democrats joined in passing the measure, in a rare bipartisan moment. Currently 22 states and the District Of Columbia allow medical marijuana use. Medicare will no longer automatically deny coverage of sexchange surgery. An appeals board in the department of health and Human Services threw out the 30year old policy today. Activists said it could prompt private insurers to follow suit. Medicare covers 49 million Senior Citizens and those with disabilities. Its not clear how many might be affected by the ruling. On wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 18 points to close at 16,717, a new record high. The nasdaq fell five points to close at 4,242. And the sandp 500 added three, to finish at 1,923, also a record high. For the week, the dow gained a fraction of a percent. The nasdaq and the sandp rose more than 1 . Two boys, one from texas, one from new york state, reveled in the glory today of being co champions in the Scripps National spelling bee. It was the first tie in 52 years, and it came about last night after 14yearold Sriram Hathwar and 13yearold ansun sujoe used up the entire list of words. Ansun, if you spell this word correctly, we will declare you and sriram cochampions. Feuilleton. Now, no more questions. Feuillwhatever. Feuilleton . Correct. Woodruff each winner gets a trophy and more than 33,000 in cash and prizes. Woodruff still to come on the pbs newshour secretary shinseki resigns as head of the embattled Veterans Affairs department; we get perspective from mark shields and david brooks, on that and the rest of the weeks news; plus, the 2 billion bid to buy Donald Sterlings l. A. Clippers; and how opera legend Jessye Norman learned to stand up straight and sing. Woodruff the storm surrounding the embattled Veterans Administration reached a crescendo today. Heeding a steady drumbeat of criticism and calls for his ouster, Eric Shinseki, the 71 yearold retired general who had been the president s first and only secretary of the v. A. , offered his resignation this morning at the white house. Our Jeffrey Brown has the story. A few minutes ago, secretary shinseki offered me his own resignation. With considerable regret, i accept it. Brown the announcement came just after shinseki left his private meeting in the oval office, ending his fiveyear stint in the Veterans Affairs post. President obama said the secretary decided he could not effectively deal with the scandal in the v. A. Health care system amid growing cries for his ouster. He does not want to be a distraction, because his priority is to fix the problem and make sure our vets are getting the care that they need. That was rics judgment on behalf of his fellow veterans. And i agree. We dont have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem. Brown more than 100 members of congress, of both parties, had demanded the secretary step down or be fired. In accepting his resignation, he heaped praise on the retired fourstar general. Rics commitment to our veterans is unquestioned. His service to our country is exemplary. I am grateful for his service, as are many veterans across the country. He has worked hard to investigate and identify the problems with access to care, but as he told me this morning, the v. A. Needs new leadership to address them. Brown the storm over shinseki intensified wednesday after his own Inspector General released a scathing report on the v. A. Medical center in phoenix, arizona. It found veterans there were waiting an average 115 days to be seen, and 1,700 veterans were kept off any official waiting list. Even more damning, the review said v. A. Staffers in phoenix cooked the books to make delays appear closer to the goal of 14 days. Today, shinseki gave the president an internal audit that found similar problems are widespread in the v. A. Health care system. Given the facts i now know, i apologize as the Senior Leader of Veterans Affairs. Brown before going to the white house, shinseki offered his own public mea culpa, addressing the National Coalition for homeless veterans. I said, when this situation began weeks to months ago, that i thought the problem was limited and isolated because i believed that. I no longer believe it. It is systemic. I was too trusting of some and i accept it as accurate reports that are now known to have been misleading with regard to patient wait times. Brown he announced the removal of senior v. A. Leaders in phoenix and he suspended bonuses for meeting waittime targets. Its been alleged that policy proved an incentive to falsify data. Business as usual cannot continue. Brown in congress, reaction to the resignation poured in from both sides of the aisle. New york democrat steve israel was one of many who said it was the right move. It is unfortunate that secretary shinseki had to resign, although i support that decision, but this does not put a period at the end of the sentence. We owe it to our veterans to get to the root of this problem. Brown republicans, led by House Speaker john boehner, voiced similar sentiments, but in tougher terms. Until the president outlines a vision and an effective plan for addressing the broad dysfunction at the v. A. , todays announcement really changes nothing. One personnel change cannot be used as an excuse to paper over a systemic problem. Brown major veterans groups also supported the resignation, and called for a closer look at the overall v. A. System. One of the largest, the veterans of foreign wars, said in a statement the president today said hell leave it to the justice department, whether the scandal warrants a criminal investigation, as many in congress are demanding. In the meantime, hes appointed sloan gibson, the v. A. s number two, as acting secretary. Brown we explore the problem, the resignation and whats next, with paul rieckhoff, an iraq war veteran and founder and executive director of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. Joseph violante is a vietnam war veteran. Hes now National Legislative director of disabled american veterans. And dr. Stephen xenakis is a retired Army Brigader general who had a 28year career as an army psychiatrist. Hes the founder of the center for translational medicine, a Nonprofit Organization providing Mental HealthCare Services to veterans. Welcome, all of you. Paul rieckhoff, let me start with you. Your reaction to the resignation of Eric Shinseki. Was it the right thing to do . Is it best for the v. A. . It was and it needed to happen. Our members across the country have lost confidence in secretary shinseki, the country had lost confidence in him and many of the v. A. Employees as well. This was a dam that burst. This has been building for years. I. G. Reports have been coming out going back to 2007 noting the wait times. There have been congressional testimonies, groups like ours have raised these issues for years. Veterans have had it, enough is enough. We know there are much bigger institutional and bureaucratic changes that must take place. This will not solve everything but a change in tone and at the top is necessary. Brown joseph, your group had not called for the resignation, right . Did you want him to stay on . Thats correct. We supported secretary shinseki in the session he brought a lot of change to the v. A. We had confidence in his ability to bring change to this once it came to light so we did not ask for his resignation for those reasons. Brown why do you think he decided to do it . Good question. I think it was because he was becoming a political lightning rod for criticism and may have felt it was bad for the v. A. Brown the question is how much does his resignation start to fix the problem or whats the connection between the resignation and the larger problem, stephen xenakis . It could destabilize the program. It could for a while because theres not going to be clear leadership here and people will be spenting so much time spending so much time figuring out who should be the successor and discussing the problems that it could delay there being fixes that he may have already had in place and recognized that he needed to make. Brown what is the problem . How would you define it . Starting years ago, the v. A. Did not prepare for now what was going to be 2. 5 million men and women who served in iraq and afghanistan. The fact that the population of soldiers and the veterans from the vietnam war were aging and hitting a point in time where theyll need a lot more medical care, and they didnt map out what was going to be the load, the burden, the demand for services that were going to be required. They also were an organization that did not Welcome Change and did not allow themselves, didnt have flexibility in figuring out what they needed to do to meet the mission. Brown joseph violante, Eric Shinseki seemed to go further and the i. G. s report talking about a systemic total lack of integrity. Yes. Id like to say one thing. This problem started well before these wars. Back in 2001, president bush established a task force to look at the delivery of healthcare for veterans. This was prior to the attack on our nation. Two years later in may of 2003, the war in afghanistan was still young. We were just going into iraq. This Task Force Found that, at that time, there were 26,000 veterans on a wait list waiting six months or more for care. They also found it was a mismatch between funding and demand. If that mismatch wasnt addressed, the situation would with impact access. Here we are 11 years later and thats the problem. We have not addressed those problems then. When that report came out, congress and the administration shelled it. Even though the veterans organizations wanted those recommendations to be looked at. Brown paul rieckhoff, come in on this. Those problems having been there, youre saying, for a long time, but this goes further. This is about falsifying reports and the lack of integrity was the word used. Right. Its a total system failure and it started with the revelations in phoenix four weeks ago and the secretary was slow to respond and the president was slow to respond. Now the i. Dpment is investigating over 40 different facilities. So its a systemwide failure, people are cooking the books, and we want to see criminal investigations. If veterans died waiting for care, then people need to go to jail. Its got to be boiled down into human terms. We have veterans who served overseas, multiple tours, coming home, seeking help. Brave ristepping forward, and getting help, and the v. A. Is stalling them. Its been kicked down the road president after president , year after year. Its time for the president to step up and make it a president ial authority. He has to integrate the other agencies around the v. A. And communicate the v. A. Cant do it alone. Nonprofits, veterans groups are overwhelmed trying to fill the gap because only 55 of iraq and afghanistan veterans are even using the system, so if they come forward, the system will be stretched that much more. Thats what we expect to happen in the years to come. Brown is it a funding or congressional oversight problem . Both. We asked an independent study, for 7. Billion more than congress has provided for medical care alone for the last ten years in construction thats 9 billion over the last ten years that v. A. s been short changed. So, yes, it is and there needs to be oversight to ensure the v. A. Is spending this money properly. If they arent using it properly to care for veterans, Congress Needs to step in. Brown do you think its a funding issue . Not primarily. I think its an issue of the culture. You talked about integrity and i think its people understanding from the front line doctors and nurses to the management of what their responsibility is to the veterans and what they need to do in terms of accomplishing their objectives. I think its organizational. I think its how theyre set up, who has what authority to run, execute programs and develop programs, and i think there are problems with the support systems. The Information Systems are old and clumsy and clunky, so i think its those problems. I would first look at fixing those, bring in the right leadership, and then, because there has been pretty good funding up to now, then think about what the funding needs are going to be. Brown paul rieckhoff, speaking of leadership, not exactly who, but what kind of person should the president look to now . Well, we need someone whos aggressive, someone who can be a veterans advocate, not adversary, someone who can tear through bureaucracy